Lemon Pickle

There are many ways to pickle fruits and vegetables. However, the base ingredients remain the same; more or less. The Indian Pickle has plenty of oil, salt, and chilli powder, no matter the recipe (unless the pickle happens to be sweet). 

Here is another version of pickling lemons. I wrote about an earlier version which involves marinating the limes/lemons for a week. This method is a little simpler. The lemons are cooked before being pickled with the spices. 

Ingredients:

1. 6 juicy lemons (whole lemons)
2. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3. 1.5 - 2 tablespoons salt
4. 2 tablespoons (or more) chilli powder
5. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
6. 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
7. 1/2 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
8. 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Preparation:

1. In a pot, boil around 4 cups of water (enough water to immerse the lemons in)
2. When the water is hot, add the whole lemons. Cover the pot with a tight lid and allow the lemons to cook for 10 minutes in the boiling water.
3. After 10 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, keep the lid closed and let the lemons continue to cook for another 10 minutes in the residual heat. Then, drain the water and allow the lemons to cool. 
4. When cool, cut the lemons into bite-sized pieces. Add the cut lemons (with their juices and all) into a bowl and coat them with salt and turmeric. Sprinkle the salted lemons with the chilli powder. 
5. Heat 1/4 cup sesame oil and splutter a teaspoon of mustard seeds in it. Pour the hot oil and mustard seeds on top of the chilli powder and mix everything well. 
6. Dry roast a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds along with Hing until the fenugreek begins turning dark brownish red and releases its aroma. 
7. Grind the roasted seeds and hing to a fine powder. Mix this powder into the spiced lemons.
8. Let the pickled lemons cool. Then, transfer to a clean, air-tight jar. Pour a tablespoon of sesame oil on top of the pickle, close the jar and refrigerate. 

It will take a couple of days for the flavors to completely meld into the cooked lemons. 

Paal Peda (Milk Fudge)

I came across this nice instructional video for preparing Paal Peda in the microwave. It looked easy to prepare and a little low on fat and sugar (well, relatively). So, I tried it out yesterday and it turned out pretty decent. 

Originally, full fat milk is slowly heated with sugar and some butter until the fat thickens and comes  together. It is then rolled or shaped into fudge like pieces. My grandmother used to make awesome theratti paal (another name for this in the South). And it used to be my favorite sweet when I was growing up. I think of her every time I catch a whiff of its smell or name. 

Anyway, due to lack of sufficient time, I resorted to the microwave version. For a 5 minute version, it is actually pretty good, but it lacks the slightly caramelized milk flavor that comes from hours of patiently heating/stirring milk. One of these days, I will surely try the authentic version of this sweet. 

Several of my aunts are known for their microwave Paal Peda. They usually use just one ingredient - a few cans of sweetened condensed milk. The condensed milk is repeatedly heated in the microwave (heat-stir-heat-stir---loop) until the condensed milk can be rolled. In this recipe, 1/2 stick of butter and 2 cups of milk powder are used along with a can of condensed milk to follow a similar procedure. Only three ingredients and 5 minutes of your time - it can't get easier than that!

Tiramisu Cake

The husband's birthday cake this year was a Tiramisu cake. I followed the recipe from Deb from Smitten Kitchen, and it turned out great. It's a great way to get all the flavors of Tiramisu through a traditional looking cake. The recipe is fool-proof if you follow every single step. Two layers of soft sponge cakes are soaked in coffee-syrup, and then frosted with mascarpone-coffee-cream icing.  A minor addition of mine wad to add a teaspoon of almond extract in addition to vanilla extract, and other coffee fixings to the frosting.  A dusting of cocoa on top rounds the Tiramisu flavor nicely. The frosting can be eaten as is :)

Rasam powder

I have been taking my stash of spice-mixes for granted. And then, one fine day, when I was scraping at the bottom of the rasam-powder-bottle, I nonchalantly walked over to the fridge and opened the freezer to retrieve a nicely packed  bag of home-made rasam-powder. Except this time, my hands groped at nothing... no more bags labeled "rasam powder" showed itself. Horror of horrors! I had actually run out of home-made rasam powder! But before I let myself panic, I just called my resourceful mother-in-law and noted down the recipe to make some rasam-powder at home. 

And here is the actual recipe!

Ingredients:

1. Coriander seeds / Dhania - 250 grams
2. Dried red chillies -  100 grams
3. Cumin seeds / jeera - 50 grams
4. Black pepper corns - 50 grams
5. Bengal gram dhal / Kadala paruppu - 50 grams
6. Turmeric - 50 grams

Dry roast each spice separately until they roast a little and emit their essential oils and flavors. Grind, mix, and store in an airtight container!

This makes a big bottle of rasam-powder. Just to approximate, I equated 50 grams to 1/4 cup.

Some families don't really use separate spice-mixes for sambar and rasam. One versatile powder is used for sambar, rasam, and other dishes that take curry powder. But, I think the addition of cumin and pepper in rasam powder makes a delicious difference in the way your rasam turns out. 

Rhubarb Chocolate Brownie

It's that time of the year when we start receiving and (hopefully harvesting) some local produce. Anand's colleague faithfully gives us some fresh rhubarbs from his garden. And every year, I wonder what to do with them. Rhubarbs are quite sour, so they are mostly used in sweet preparations. Rhubarbs and strawberries are a favorite combination. It is cooked down with strawberries and sugar to make compote (sort of like jam), baked with strawberries in a pie crust to make awesome pie, or made into crunchy, delicious crumbles/crisps. But I chanced across this recipe which uses rhubarb compote to make chocolate brownies! I was sold!

I did make some changes to the recipe. For one, the brownies were not Mexican, they turned Indian, of course. Instead of Mexican chilli powder, I added 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder. Secondly, I had two cups worth of cut rhubarbs, so I used all of the resulting compote in the brownie batter (instead of just 1 cup worth) - and it arguable made the batter & brownies more moist and fudge-like (my rhubarb compote was prepared by cooking 2 cups of peeled and chopped rhubarb in 1/2 cup of water and 4 tablespoons of sugar until soft and mushy. I then add pureed the cooked rhubarbs). Finally, instead of melting 4 ounces worth of chocolate bars, I used 1 cup of Ghirardelli's unsweetened cocoa powder. Due to these changes and additions, the brownies took 80 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes) to bake at 350 F. Even then, the center of the brownies remained a tad fudgey, so my cake tester never came out clean.

So, my version is more of a fudge-brownie. Vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, and chocolate baked with the sour rhubarb compote has conjured up a uniquely tasting moist brownie! I am hoping this would be a good sweet to welcome a newly-married-chocolate-loving friend and his wife!