Besan (Chickpea flour) crackers

Besan (chickpea flour) is the main ingredient in many Indian deep fried snacks. Like tempura batter, besan batter consists of  besan, water, baking soda, salt. Some flavoring spices, little bit of onion and green chilies can also be added to the batter. Then vegetables, chicken or fish are dipped into the batter and the mixture is deep fried. 

Though chickpea flour is very healthy by itself, the deep frying makes it  anything but healthy. The deep fried snacks are yummy though! So I always have besan in hand for those cool rainy days when you crave something hot.

Since I am moving to London in a couple of months, I am trying to use all my flour, grains and lentils before we make the move. So the other day it was the besan's turn and the challenge was to make something healthy and tasty out of it. I decided to make besan crackers with ajwain (carom seed). Ajwain has a strong bitter taste with a hint of freshness. It tastes somewhat similar to thyme and looks like celery seed.

To make the crackers, along with besan I used little semolina to give it some texture. I loved the crispiness of the crackers and the freshness from the ajwain. But it was a little heavy, one can't eat lot of them in one serving. It makes you feel very full after eating ten of them which might be a good thing. Snacks portions shouldn't be like full meals! But if you want to make it little lighter, instead of using besan flour only, you can do 3/4th besan and 1/4th all purpose flour.

Chick Pea Crackers Recipe

1 cup besan (chickpea) flour

1/4 cup semolina

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp backing powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dry parsley

2 tsp ajwain

1 tsp cayenne

black pepper

1 TBS of olive oil

water

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add oil to the mixture and mix it well to give it a sand texture. Add a small amount of water to it and knead it like dough. Don't put too much water, but put enough to make a soft dough out of it.   Then let the dough sit on the kitchen counter for 5 minutes. Cover the dough with a wet paper towel. It will keep the dough from drying out.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Then put some besan flour on the surface and roll out the dough into a 1/8th inch thick circle. Then with a fork gently mark the circle which will give a nice look to the crackers. Then using a knife draw lines which are 1/2 inch apart from each other, from top to bottom and from left to right. It will result in small square crackers.

Then bake the crackers in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or till they get a little brown.

My Comfort Food - Chicken Curry

We may explore and experiment in our kitchen with food from different regions, but sometimes we crave for the comfort food that we ate while growing up and the food that our mom made for us for years. What spaghetti with tomato sauce is to an Italian, what a juicy burger is to an American, chicken curry is to me - its the ultimate Indian comfort food. But my version of chicken curry is a simpler version of what my mom used to make. Instead of making ginger/garlic paste I put chopped ginger-garlic. I don't even bother to caramelize onion before adding ginger-garlic paste. Caramelizing a big onion just takes too much time.

This chicken curry calls for a lot of ground spices. But all these spices are very common in Indian cooking. Once you have these ready, you can pull off almost any curry you want. All these spices are available off the shelf in Indian groceries and now a days in many super markets. But just in case you want to make them from scratch, you can easily do so by buying the seeds and using that magic tool - the coffee grinder. If you have leftover seeds then don't despair you can always use them directly in Indian curries.

Turmeric powder - its difficult to buy whole turmeric so you are better of buying this from a store.
Cumin powder - dry roast the cumin seeds and make the powder using a coffee grinder. If you are not scared of chili, you can roast a couple of red chilis with the cumin seed. Red chili adds little spiciness to the smoked cumin powder.
Coriander powder - dry roast the coriander seeds and let them cool for a while. Then grind them using coffee grinder.
Garam masala -  this is a combination of cardamom, cinnamon, clove. Dry roast all of them and grind them to make a coarse powder.

Indian Chicken Curry Recipe

1 TBS oil  (I use olive oil)

1/4 tsp sugar

1 bay leaf

Whole garam masala (cardamoms, cinnamon stick, cloves)

1 TBS finely chopped ginger and garlic

1 medium size onion

1 lb of boneless chicken thigh

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 cup chopped tomato

1 cup red or green bell pepper

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp pepper powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp maggi tomato chili sauce (available in Indian stores, or you can substitute it with chili garlic paste)

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 cup of water

Salt

1/2 cup chopped cilanto

In a heavy bottom pan, add oil. When oil gets a little hot, add sugar. Wait till the sugar gets caramelized. Be careful at this point, don't let the sugar burn. Otherwise, it will give a bitter taste to the curry. The caramelized sugar gives a nice color to the curry. You can omit this step if you want. Then add the bay leaf and whole garam masala to the pan. Then add onion, chopped ginger garlic and chicken and salt to the pan. Cover the pan with a lid. Salt will bring out water from the chicken and onion. Covering the pan with a lid will help the chicken to cook and get tender.

When the chicken gets a little tender or after 10 minutes remove the lid and cook it for another 10-15 minutes by stirring it once in couple of minutes till the onion and ginger-garlic get cooked and have a thick curry consistency. All the water that came out of the chicken should have been evaporated at this point.

Then add tomatoes, bell pepper, all the remaining spices and sauces to the chicken. Cook it for 5 minutes till the raw smells of the spices are gone and the vegetable becomes tender. Then add a cup of water and cook it on a medium flame for another 5-10 minutes. Cooking time varies depending on how thick/thin you want your curry. Stir it a couple of times so that the thick sauce won't stick to the pan. After the curry is done, stir in 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro. If you don't like cilantro, you can substitute cilantro with parsley.

Sunday Brunch

Last week, I had a class on eggs in my cooking school. I made tonnes of 'proper' french omelets (Omelette roulee); which is french for rolled omelet. The entire class was very informative and also enjoyable. I found many of the Spanish omelets to be very similar to the omelets I used to eat growing up in India.

Omelette Basquaise is basically a thick omelet made with a mixture of eggs, onion, green pepper and tomato. It starts on the stove top, then moves to the oven and gets finished on the stove top. While my mom made similar omelets with mixed vegetables, those were cooked entirely on the stove top. To achieve the thickness of the omelet she used to cover the pan with a lid and cook the omelet on low heat.

After this exciting class on egg, I decided to make my version of individual baked omelet for Sunday brunch. I also made a brie and pear sandwich to go with the eggs

Oven Baked Omelet Recipe

1 portabella mushroom

1 egg

10 milliliter (splash of milk)

40 milligram onion chopped

40 milligram green pepper chopped

Half of a plum tomato (chopped and seed removed)

Salt, Black pepper

1 tsp parsley

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Clean the portabella mushroom with a clean damp cloth. In a heavy bottom pan add oil. When oil gets hot, add the mushroom cap, top side down. Wait for the mushroom to get a nice brown color on the top side. Then flip the mushroom. Wait till the mushroom gets slightly cooked. The rest of the cooking continues in the oven.

Mix rest of the ingredients. Brush the ramekin with olive oil. Put the portabella mushroom in the ramekin and pour the egg mixture into the ramekin. In the preheated 350F oven, bake it for 20 minutes. You can add a little cheese after removing the ramekin from the oven. The cheese will melt from the residual heat in the egg and ramekin. I didn't add cheese though.

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Pear and Brie Sandwich

2 slices of whole grain bread (I bought mine from a local Italian store, It was really flavorful and nutty)

2 oz of brie

1/4 of a pear sliced

1 tsp of honey

1 tsp butter

Butter one side of each slice. Then keep the buttered side of the bread slice on a medium hot pan. Add cheese slices, pear and honey on top of the bread. Add the other slice of bread on top of the fruit and cheese, keeping the buttered side to the top. Let it stay for one minute and then flip it and wait for another couple of minutes or till the cheese starts melting. But keep an eye on the heat as the bread can get burnt very quickly.

I should have cut the sandwich in the picture to show the inside, But I was very hungry...just managed to take the picture of my plate.

Broccoli and Egg Salad

Today, I was thinking about making a salad for lunch. But there were no salad greens in the fridge. It was raining and I was in no mood for shopping. Luckily I found a broccoli head and made this crunchy broccoli and hard boiled egg salad. And I added chewiness to the salad by adding a leftover baguette piece that was hanging around in the freezer.

Broccoli and Egg Salad Recipe

2 cups broccoli florets

2 eggs

1 cup baguette cubes

1 garlic clove finely chopped

2 tsp of olive oil

salt, pepper, cayenne

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

Toss the broccoli florets and baguette cubes in salt, pepper, minced garlic and olive oil and bake it in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or till the rawness of the broccoli is gone.

To achieve the perfect hard boiled egg, in a pot take cold water and egg. Bring the water gently to a boil over medium heat. Then switch off the stove and cover the pot with a lid. Let it sit for 12 minutes and then put the eggs in ice bath/cold tap water. Let the eggs cool down a little. Then peel them under cold running water.

In a salad bowl, put the broccoli, baguette cubes and top them with the hard boiled sliced eggs . Sprinkle little cayenne and black pepper on the top.

Lemon Pudding

The most deliciously decadent dessert I have ever made. I didn't post the recipe because it was not mine. But I can provide the recipe on request.

Linguine with Acorn squash

Here is one more recipe with roasted acorn squash.

Ingredients
1 cup linguine
8 medium sized shrimp
1/2 cup roasted acorn squash
4 cloves of chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 medium leek
1 teaspoon capers
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

2 TBS olive oil
Salt and crushed black pepper
Red pepper flakes

In a large pot, boil 6 cups of water over high heat and salt the water generously. Then add pasta and cook the pasta, stirring occasionally for about 8-9 minutes or according to the package direction.  Then drain the pasta.

Leek is a member of onion family and the taste is sweet and subtle. Only white and pale green are used in cooking and dark green part is good for soup.  Cut off the dark green part, leaving the white and pale green part. Then cut the leek lengthwise into half. Then clean it under running water by removing sand that might be in-between the leaves. Then slice both halves of the leek like you slice onion. In a pan saute the leek with little olive oil and butter till it gets soft. Set aside.

Add 1TBS of olive oil to the pan. Add red pepper flakes to the oil. When oil gets medium hot, add onion and salt and saute till it gets translucent. Add garlic and the roasted acorn squash. Then add the shrimp. Shrimp will take 5-6 minutes to get cooked. Then add the cooked pasta and sauteed leek . Adjust the seasoning, add capers, lemon juice, lemon zest and crushed black pepper.  Garnish with copped parsley.

Chana Dal with Acorn Squash

Couple of days back, I had roasted acorn squash for the first time in my life. It was so delicious - the sweet, earthy flavor just melted in my mouth. People generally eat the fleshy part and discard the skin. But the roasted skin is as delicious as the flesh. I ended up eating the skin, flesh everything. I was so impressed by the vegetable, it has topped my produce list for this week.

Based on requests from some of my vegetarian friends, I was trying to post a couple of vegetarian recipes for this week.  So I thought of combining acorn squash and lentil. This recipe is also a spin off of my mom's mixed vegetable curry with chana dal.

Chana dal is a variety of yellow dal. It is basically, split skinned off black chickpea. You can find this in any Indian grocery store or you can use the yellow lentil found in any regular grocery store. Chana dal holds the shape better than the regular yellow dal even after cooking. But you can always substitute with yellow dal.

Ingredients

1 cup chana dal (yellow lentil)
3 cups water
1/2 acorn squash
1 inch ginger minced
1/2 yellow spanish onion chopped
1 plum tomato
1 TBS cup sweet peas 
Cilantro
Juice of half a lemon

1 TBS of oil ( I used olive oil)
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4 clove
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pod
Salt

In large pot put chana dal, tomato, whole spices (clove, cinnamon stick, cardamom) and water. Bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 45 minutes or till the dal gets tender with no resistance. If you are using a pressure cooker it will take 10 minutes. I don't have a pressure cooker, so I used a large pot. After the dal is done fish out the whole spices.

Add oil in a pan. When oil gets hot, temper the oil with cumin seed. Then add ginger and cook it till it gets fragrant. Then add the onion, little salt and saute the onion till it gets light brown.  The salt helps to bring out all the moisture from the onion and helps the cooking process. Then add roasted acorn squash (recipe follows) and saute for a 2/3 minutes till the squash gets little color.

Take the tomato out of the boiled dal mixture and put in the pan and mash it with spoon. Then cook till tomato gets cooked and all the vegetables get nicely coated with it. It will take 3/4 minutes.  Then add all the dal and water to the pan. Cook it for a couple of minutes and mix the dal well with the rest of the vegetable on the pan. Season it with salt. Then finish it by adding the cumin powder, lemon juice and chopped cilantro.

Serve it with steamed rice or whole wheat tortilla or Indian roti.


Roasted Acorn squash
Cut the acorn squash into half. Then brush the inside with olive oil. Roast the squash in a 400 degree F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Time saving tip - you can boil the dal and squash at the same time and you don't even have to be in the kitchen. After boiling and roasting is done, you can come back and finish the dish, which all together takes 10-15 minutes.