Hot Chili Peppers

Hot chili peppers are one of those gifts of nature that you either love of cannot handle. They are fruits of the capsicum family and come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Not all chili peppers are spicy and they are ranked on the Scoville scale for heat. They reaction on individuals is based on chemistry.

In general however eating chilies result in pain followed by an endorphin high. Well, I like hot green chilies and the red cherry peppers (the later for appearance as much as taste), and, in general I think of finger food when I think spicy.

I will talk about making pakoras, that are these simple but irresistable chickpea flour fritters. In my house making pakoras is like making homemade pizza, every has their preference, my brother likes cauliflower, my husband likes tomato, I like chicken, so you get the picture, anyhow, here are two variations.

The first one is with brocolli and make with large florettes tempura style.

Brocolli Pakoras

Makes 20 pieces

Ingredients

1 cup chick pea flour (besan)

1.5 tsp chat masala

1 tsp salt

3 tsp finely chopped green chilies

2 tsp finely chopped cilantro

3/4 cup water

Oil for frying

20 large brocolli florettes

Method of Preparation

1. Mix the besan, chat masala, salt, chillies, and cilantro in a bowl.

2. Add in the water to form a smooth batter.

3. Heat the oil and test with a drop of the batter, it should spread and rise to the top.

4. Lower the heat (this is important) and gently coat each piece of brocolli in the batter and fry in batches and drain on paper towels and serve with ketchup and ginger tea.

Shrimp and Tomato Pakoras

Makes about 20

Ingredients

1 cup small shrimp shelled and deviened

1 lime

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1 tbsp grated ginger and garlic

1 cup besan

1 onion finely chopped 1 tsp whole cumin seeds

2 tsp chopped cilantro

4 chillies finely chopped

20 grape tomatoes halved

1 tsp black salt

2/3 cup water

Oil for frying

Method of Preparation

1. Squeeze the lime over the shrimp and mix with the salt and chili powder and set aside for 20 minutes.

2. Mix all the remaining ingredients except the oil into a thick paste.

3. Drain the shrimp on paper towels and add to the batter.

4. Heat the oil and test as for the brocolli pakoras and reduce to medium high.

5. Add tablespoons of the mixture and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side. Serve hot.

This is being sent to the Chocolate Lady who is hosting this week's weekend herb blogging. That is quite an iteresting blog that she maintains.

Got a postcard

I had been fussing since I had to help my 3.75 yr old daughter write out 18 valentines for her Pre-K class, until this adorable valentine arrived from Barb2B
for me. It is one of those adorable handmade cards, now How cute is that, now my husband really has to come up with something interesting.
Thanks Meeta!
for organizing this fun event.

Gajar Halwa - Simple but takes so .......Long!

Relationships like everything else in life are full of surprises. My husband takes this day pretty seriously, well I do not necessarily get 101 roses, but I do feel appreciated and special and he does do something nice ( last year he gave me a collection of movies by my favorite director, which took some time to find, things like that). The reason I find this surprising is not because he is generally not appreciative, but he generally is not especially a fan of what we call Hallmark pressure.

Anyhow, I am the dessert person in this house and unfortunately it shows. My husband does have a couple of favorites - good gulab jamuns and gajar halwa. He likes the former the way my MIL makes it but the later my way. I do this with a few basic ingredients and other than the time, it is fairly simple.

Gajar Halwa - Carrot Fudge

Makes 35 servings

Ingredients

4 lbs carrots
3/4 gallon whole milk
4 green cardamoms
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped nuts

Method of Preparation

1. Peel the carrots and process them in a food processor or grate them.
2. In a heavy bottom pot, bring the milk to a boil and add the carrots cardamoms.
3. Turn the heat to very low and keep cooking stirring occasionally till fairly dry, this process takes 3-4 hours.
4. Add in the sugar and let the mixture turn fairly dry and shiny orange.
5. This takes about 40 minutes and it needs to be stirred frequently at this point.
6. Add in the ghee and raisins and nuts and cook stirring well for 10 minutes.
7. Cool slightly and serve warm. I like this with ice-cream.

Meeta is keeping us dishing out suggary treats with the sweet love theme.

Postcard Event

OK, so now, obviously I am not too good with the directions, but it is a fun event.
We get to sent and recieve and send postcards from some blog buddies. Now, I clearly skipped this part of the process, so I do not have a picture of my card. I will be updating this with the pictures since the recipient has actually recieved my card. Sorry Meeta.

Lime or Nimbu - On everything

Brocolli and Black Beans with Lime

Given that most of my posts are pretty much everyday fare, what I have started doing with the WHB, event is featuring some of the staples of my kitchen.

Lime (not lemon) is one of these. I know we use them interchageably, but there is a slight difference in the flavor. I find a lemon more fragrant, but the lime tarter. These are both Vitamin C rich fruits. I squeeze limejuice practically on everything.

The other thing that I do not like is cold salads in winter, instead I like to do this warm variation, like the following brocolli-black bean stir-dry.

Brocolli-Black bean with lime

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 tsp oil

1/2 cup sliced onions

1 cup brocolli floretts

1/2 cup broth or water

1/2 cup cooked black beans

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chat masala

2 tsp chopped cilantro or mint

1/2 cup halved grape tomatoes

1 large lime

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the onions and brocolli and cook for 3 minutes.

2. Add the broth or water with the brocolli and black beans and cook covered for 5 minutes.

3. Add in the remaining ingredients except the lime and cook till dry and well mixed.

4. Remove from the heat. Cool slightly and sever with the lime juice squeezed on it, healthy, nutrititious and tasty.

The WHB is being hosted by Ulrike at http://ostwestwind.twoday.net/, I have been bumping into this blog twice this week.

Pea and Mixed Vegetable Pulao - picking out the peas

My children love peas, and adding them to a rice dish makes the food

go much quicker. The deal, is that each spoonful should have at least one pea and it is a great source of excitement if they get more. Well, this is a very typical combination, I love the flavor that the bay leaves add to the rice.

Pea and Mixed vegetable Pulao

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 teaspoons oil (I use a non-stick pot or you will need more oil)

1 onion chopped finely

A few cloves

2 - 3 dried bay leaves crumbled

1.5 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 cup fresh peas

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1/2 chopped potato

1 parsnip peeled and chopped

11/4 cup basmati rice soaked for at least half an hour (I do this while I am preparing the remaining items)

1 tomato quatered

2 cups of water

2 tsp butter (optional)

Method of preparation

1. Heat the oil and saute the onion till turning brown.

2. Add in the seasonings and the chopped vegetables and stir for 5 minutes.

3. Mix in the rice and stir till turning light brown

4. Mix in the water and add the tomato (I like to leave this in chunks).

5. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook on low for 18 minutes.

5. Leave covered for 5 minutes.

6. Stir lightly and add in the butter if using.

Tomato Watercress Soup with Ginger

I love soups this time of the year and actually all the year round. There is a quiet simplicity about them, yes, we can make them fussy but overall a few little flavors, a good base and you have a comforting bowlful.

I have been intrigued by all the beautiful tomato soups at Saffron Trail, that blog is such a testimony to good and healthy food. Lately, I have also been thinking of watercress eversince it featured on the Top ten detox foods, I thought of combining the two items - the tomato and watercress and thus emerged this soup.

Tomato Watercress Soup with Ginger

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic

2 green chillies

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp cumin-coriander powder

3-4 cloves

1 large stick cinnamon

8 tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

2 tsp salt

2 cups lowfat buttermilk

1 large bunch chopped watercress

1 tbsp butter

2 inch piece ginger very thinly julienned

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Chop the onion, garlic and chillies in the the food processor

2. Heat the oil in a large pot and cook the onion mixture for 5 minutes.

3. Mix in the spices.

4. Puree the tomatoes and tomato paste with 1 cup water.

5. Add to the onion mixture and simmer for 20 minutes.

6. Mix in the butter milk and watercress and cook for another 10 minutes.

7. Heat the butter and cook the ginger on low for 10 minutes till well browned.

8. Stir into the soup and garnish with the cilantro.

Here are some benefits of eating a tomato, in case we needed more reasons to have this beautiful, bright fruit we like to call a vegetable.

I am sending this off to Ed from Tomato, for this week's WHB.