Tofu Jalfrezi

Jalfrezi is another spiced curry made with onions and bell-peppers sauteed with pan-fried paneer. I substituted paneer with tofu this time ; not for health reasons, but purely out of availability and convenience. But the entire process and taste remain the same. Jalfrezi is supposed to be mildly sweet in a way that complements the spices. At least, that is what I understand and remember from my friend's dish.

Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons olive oil / vegetable oil
2. 2 teaspoons cumin seeds / jeera
3. 2 medium-sized onions, finely diced
4. 4 cloves of garlic crushed/ground with a 2-inch block of ginger
5. 1.5 teaspoons garam masala
6. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
7. 1 teaspoon coriander powder
8. 1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional; I don't usually add)
9. 1 teaspoon salt
10.  3 bell-peppers, cubed or cut into strips (I use red, orange, and yellow peppers as they are mildly sweet and caramelize upon sauteing. Their flavors go well with the jalfrazi theme)
11. 2 tomatoes, finely diced
12. 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup (the slightly spicier version is recommended; if using, go easy on the chilli powder)
13. 14 ounces / 397 grams Extra-firm Tofu - cubed
14. 3/4 teaspoon sugar
15. Juice of half a lemon
16. 1/4 cup chopped cilantro / coriander leaves

Preparation:

1. Pan fry the tofu cubes with a tablespoon of oil, until they turn golden-brown. Transfer the fried tofu on a paper towel to drain excess oil
2. In the meanwhile, in another skillet, heat the remaining oil with jeera. When the jeera begins to sizzle, add the chopped onions and saute on medium-heat until they turn translucent.
3. Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute with the onions for a minute or two. 
4. Add the spices - the turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala, chilli powder, and salt. Stir and fry the spices with the onions and ginger-garlic, for a minute or two. Be careful not to burn the spices.
5. Add the cubed bell-peppers and saute with the rest. Let the bell-peppers almost cook - about 7-10 minutes. If the bell-peppers slightly char and fry, they taste even better - especially since the sweeter ones caramelize.
6. Next, add the tomatoes and tomato ketchup and stir well. Wait for the tomatoes to soften and cook. Takes about 5 minutes or so.
7. Finally, add the fried tofu. Reduce the heat to low. Stir the tofu into the curry and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
8. Remove from heat. Sprinkle some sugar and stir well to incorporate it into the curry. Squeeze some lemon juice to bring out the flavors, and garnish with cilantro. 

It's excellent served with roti / bread. We have recently become a fan of most things sweet and spicy, so we loved this. Paneer with anything can't go wrong much, anyway!

Lemon Yogurt Cake

My family knows how hard I've been trying to find a perfect (or near-perfect) recipe to replicate the wonderfully soft and lemony Starbucks lemon cake. I have had several failed attempts over the years as I made woefully naive baking mistakes - ingredients not at room temperature, over-beating the batter with zealous enthusiasm, not knowing which ingredients to overlook and which ones to not, etc. 

 

Anyway, without further rambling, I am pleased to say that I have finally found the magic recipe. It is none other than Ina Garten's, of course. Her lemon yogurt cake is the winner! It has simple ingredients, the right amount of lemon flavor, and is mildly sweet. And, I followed her recipe to the letter. All ingredients were at room temperature, and if she said whisk, I whisked, if she said stir, I stirred, and if she said fold, I folded. The only minor difference was that my cake took 60 minutes to bake, instead of the predicted 50 minutes. The cake is also not as buttery or rich as expected. It has 1/2 cup vegetable oil instead of butter, less sugar than most other cakes, and other simple ingredients found in the pantry. I might decide to add some more lemon zest in the future, though. Also, in the past I've underestimated the importance of soaking the cake with lemon-sugar syrup. Most of the lemon flavor and zing come from this. So, don't overlook it. The syrup also keeps the cake moist.

I tried several attempts of making an egg-less lemon cake (adding flax seeds or apple sauce or extra buttermilk, yogurt, etc), but I am sorry to say that none worked. The consistency was way off and the cake turned out to be tough with a curious texture. Only eggs seem to do the trick. Or maybe I still need to experiment with the measurements. But for now, Ina's recipe with eggs brings home the lovely lemon cake!

Kadappa

Kadappa is the Tamil Brahmin version of Kurma - a spicy gravy with vegetables. This dish has its origins in Kumbakkonam, a town in Tamil Nadu. The recipe comes from my mother-in-law and from her in-law's kitchen :)

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup - uncooked moong dhal / payatham paruppu
2. 3-4 medium sized peeled and boiled potatoes - cubed
3. 2 tomatoes - diced
4. 1 medium-sized/large onion - finely diced
5. 4 teaspoons pottu kadalai / Split roasted gram dhal
6. 2 teaspoons white poppy seeds / kasa kasa
7. 1.5 teaspoons worth minced/grated ginger
8. 2 green chillies
9. 2 tablespoons grated coconut
10. 5 cloves
11. 6 cardamom pods (with the seeds)
12. 1 cinnamon stick
13. 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
14. 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
15. Juice of half a lemon (optional)
16. 1/4 cup cilantro / coriander leaves - cut

Preparation:

1. Cook the moong dhal with about 2 cups of water till it is mashable
2. Heat a saucepan with oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom and let them sizzle in the oil for a minute.
3. Add the diced onion and saute (on medium heat) until the onion turns translucent
4. Next add the tomatoes and salt and saute till the tomatoes soften.
5. Add the boiled/cooked moong dhal and 1.5 cups of water. Stir everything together and let the dhal seep into all the flavors. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
6. In the meanwhile, prepare a flavorful paste to thicken the gravy. Grind together the pottu-kadalai, poppy seeds, ginger, green chillies, and coconut with about 1/4 cup of water till everything is a smooth paste. 
7. Add this paste to the bubbling dhal and stir well. Allow the mixture to cook for another 5 minutes. The paste will thicken the gravy. If you would like, add more water to dilute the gravy to your liking.
8. Finally, add the boiled, cubed potatoes and stir well. Heat for another 2 minutes. Then remove from heat. 
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and the juice of half a lemon to bring out all the flavors.

That's it. It's an aromatic and mildly spicy variation of Kurma that goes very well as a side-dish. I absolutely love this dish!

Paanagam and Neer Mor

Today happens to be Lord Rama's birthday, or rather the day when his birth star has risen. My maternal grandfather's family happens to be ardent Rama devotees. They usually celebrate this day with a lot of pomp and fervor. Almost all of my maternal uncles' and cousins' names end with "Rama" or have some portion of their name attributed to the characters from the Ramayana. Such used to be the fervor. Of course, the devotion has lost its passion since some of its ardent devotees are  no more to carry on the tradition. But I have heard lovely stories of the grand manner in which the occasion used to be celebrated - beautiful flower arrangements, a zillion types of flowers handpicked to make garlands, a variety of delicacies to feast on, week-long prayers, bhajans, etc. Rama Navami is therefore seriously honored by my maternal family. 

Since I have no means to celebrate the occasion in a grand manner, I just prepared two simple drinks (one sweet and one savory, of course) to honor the day. These two drinks are specifically prepared on this day and are considered to be good offerings to Rama and his loyal aide, Hanuman. They are also wonderful to have on a hot summer's day. 

The sweet drink is called Paanagam. It is water sweetened with jaggery and spiced with some cardamom. That's it. But it's so delicious and soothing. Here's how I made it - I added 5-6 tablespoons of jaggery to 5-6 cups of water and let it dissolve at room temperature. It takes a few hours for the jaggery to completely dissolve and infuse the water with its flavor. Then, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder. If the jaggery has any grains/silt in it, filter the paanagam before drinking it. It's best when served chilled.

The savory drink is called Neer Mor (diluted buttermilk, literally). This is a great preparation to aid in digestion. Take 1 cup of buttermilk and add 1 cup of water (or 1/2 cup depending on how diluted the buttermilk is) and whisk well. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon hing/asafoetida, a crushed or minced green chilly, 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, some torn curry leaves and mix well. Serve chilled. A word of caution, remove the chilly if you are sensitive to heat.

They are simple to prepare, delicious to drink, and are great for the tummy. They are refreshing summer drinks that bring a lot of good memories.

Savory Karadai

Following the previous post on Nombu and Karadais, this is the savory version of Karadai known as Uppu Adai. Not surprisingly, I prefer this savory version to the sweet version.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup rice flour
2. 2 cups water
3. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
4. 1.5 teaspoons split urad dhal / ullutham paruppu
5. 1 teaspoon minced ginger
6. 2-3 finely cut green chillies
7. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
8. 2 teaspoons or 1/4 cup black-eyed beans (cooked)
9. 2 tablespoons + 1 tablespoon sesame oil 
10. 2 tablespoons grated coconut
11. 3/4 - 1 teaspoon salt
12. a few torn curry leaves

Preparation:

1.  If using uncooked, un-canned black-eyed beans, roast the beans slightly and cook them until almost done.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a saucepan. Splutter mustard seeds. Then add the urad dhal, minced ginger and green chillies, hing, and curry leaves. Saute for a couple of minutes on medium heat. 
3. Add water to the above. Then, add salt and coconut gratings and stir well. Bring the water to a boil. 
4. To the boiling water, add the cooked (and drained) black-eyed beans. 
5. Next, add the rice-flour while stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
6. Continue stirring on medium-heat until the flour mixture comes together as a thickened mass of dough. Remove from heat. Let it cool to the touch. 
7. Similar to the sweet adai preparation, grease idli plates or a steamer with sesame oil. Make small balls of the prepared dough, flatten them slightly and make a hole in the middle. Grease your fingers/palm with some oil to handle the dough.
8. Cook / steam them for 12-15 minutes or until the adais are done.

Serve with butter!