Crunchy garbanzo beans!!!

Some time back I posted toasty edemame. Since then I wanted to try garbanzo beans the same way.  When I googled for the same, I found a whole lot of results for my search.

I decided to go by my own instead.

This post is an entry to one of my favorite blog events My legume love affair.

This time the event my legume love affair-twelfth helping is hosted by Annarasa. Here is the lovely badge created by Susan for MLLA-12th helping. This is the second time I am participating in the event.

Making this simple yet crunchy snack is very easy. There is hardly any recipe to follow. All you need to take care about is the temperature of the oven and how long you keep the beans inside the oven.

I started with soaking garbanzo beans in water overnight.

The next morning I pressure cooked the beans with 3 whistles. Added a little bit of oil while cooking the beans to prevent the vent from becoming clogged.

Alternatively these beans can be cooked in a pan, with beans and water as 1:3. When the water comes to bubble, lower the heat and simmer partially covered for half an hour.

You can take a look at the detailed precedure here.

After cooking the beans, I drained them over the colander and dried them with the paper towel.

In a bowl I added following spices for seasoning.

• Salt
• Chili powder
• Cumin powder
• Olive oil.

I used everything above as per taste.

In a bowl, toss all the above spices with the garbanzo beans. Mix well and spread them on the baking sheet covered with aluminium foil in a single layer.

You can use any mixture of spices like curry powder, garlic salt, pepper powder, chili flakes, or any dried herbs you like. Adding the salt and olive oil while baking  with freshly squeezed lemon juice and a pinch of chaat masala, will do wonders.

If you have used any other combination of spices for the same recipe, I would love to hear from you. Please leave your creative inputs as comments in this post.

Preheat the oven to 425F. In about 25 minutes, crunchy toasty garbanzo beans will be ready for snacking. Just give them a toss after 15 minutes in oven. If you want them to be really crunchy keep them in for a longer time, and if you wish you like them to be chewy, keep them for 20-25 minutes. You can always taste and decide.

This is a very healthy snack for anytime in a day.  Store them in a air-tight container. Garbanzo beans are the good source of fibre, Iron. For the nutritional information please visit www.whfoods.com

Enjoy these little babies with a wedge of lemon!!

Thanks people for all the concerns!!!

It's been more than a month and a half since I have posted anything on my blog. It was a tough time for me to stay away from this part of the my world. Now I am back and I will promise to myself that I will keep my blog updated again.

During this time, many of you e-mailed me, left comments on the entries asking whether I am doing ok, and why not posting anything for such a long. Thank you very much to all the readers and all the concerns you all had for me.

I really thank all of you from bottom of my heart, your concerns made me come back sooner than I probably would have.

Thanks once again.

Coconut Delights!!

Some times I just love coconut!! As a child I was not in to sweets at all. All I could think of was something spicy and savory. I think coming to US changed my taste a little bit.

Thinking of sweets, coconut burfi/vadi or khobryachi vadi as we say in Marathi is a very popular Indian dessert. These are small square shaped or diamond shaped, which just melts in your mouth if done to the perfection.

Here is what you will need-:

1 cup of frozen thawed coconut.

3/4 cup of Sugar.

1/4 cup of Milk, whole/2% you can also use cream if you want.

cardamom powder 1 pinch,

Step 1:-

Grind the coconut in to the blender along with the sugar , don't make it like a paste. Just blend it once or twice.

Step2:-

Heat a pan, add the paste to the pan , on low heat add the mixture and mix it well. The mixture will be kind of liquid like consistency  at this time.

keep on a low to medium flame and keep stirring constantly.

Step 3:-

After 3-4 minutes add milk to the mixture. 

Heads up:- Keep stirring constantly. Do not stop.

Step 4:-

Add a pinch of cardamom powder.

The mixture will start getting thicker and thicker. When it reaches to a consistency where a spoon you are working with could stand in the mixture on it's own, (See the picture below) you can switch off the heat.

Before you start the first step, Keep ready a pan coated with butter/ ghee. The pan should be something like a baking pan which will give the area for the mixture to spread evenly and about 1/2 inch in thickness.

Immediately after you take the mixture off the heat, spread it on the coated pan. Try to spread it evenly and press the mixture so that it will be packed tightly, and there will be no gaps.

Allow to cool for about 20 minutes, cover it and keep it in the refrigerator for about an hour. Remove from the refrigerator and cut in to the squares/ diamonds as per your choice.

Sweet corn soup!!

A really healthy and delicious version of corn soup.

This is my mothers recipe, very simple to make.

All you will need is-:

1. Frozen Corn kernels-( thawed )
2. Vegetable stock/ you can use just plain water. I have used water this time.
3. Milk 1/4 cup - any milk is fine, half and half/2%/or whole.
4. Pepper powder 1/2 tbsp or you can just eyeball it...add less or more as per your taste.
5. Green onion chopped.
6. Salt to taste.

Sometimes I add some vegetables in my soup, like green beans, carrots, green onions. each of the vegetable has it's unique flavour. I love them all. This time I am going to add green onion.

Step 1:

Drop thawed corn kernels in to the grinder and make a paste out of it.

Step 2:

Heat a pan, add the paste to the heated pan, NO OIL/GHEE NEEDED.

Keep stirring the paste continuously.

Note: If you want to add the vegetables, cut them nice and thin add them at this point so that they will cook throughout the end. I actually like a little crunch to my vegetables in my soup, The crunch acts as croutons for me, but if you like to eat cooked veggies, you should cut them in big chunks and cook them first in boiling water and then add them at a later stage.

Step 3:

Now add the water to the paste, and let it be on a medium to high flame.

Step 4:

Add Salt and freshly ground black pepper and add green onion.

Serve with soy sauce, green chili sauce, as per your taste.

Enjoy!!!

Potato Curry

I like variation in the preparation of everyday vegetable. At times, I like to eat a dry preparation with chapati/poli, this is especially on weekdays, for lunch or a vegetable prepared with a gravy with all different Indian spices at others. I like to eat gravy on weekends when I am relaxed at home, gives me a feeling of comfort food.

One of such recipe is potato curry. Easy to prepare, not much of a hassle.

Here is what you will need- :

Boiled ,peeled potatoes- 2

Yogurt- 4 tbsp.

All purpose flour- 2 tsp.

A pinch of asafoetida

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp.

Coriander powder- 1 tbsp.

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp.

Paprika- 1/2 tsp

Chopped ginger- 1/2 tsp.

Green chillies -2 chopped

Canola Oil- 2 tbsp.

Bay leaf- 1

Chopped Cilantro- a handful.

Salt to taste

Chop the potatoes in to cubes. Keep aside.

In a bowl, mix yogurt, turmeric, paprika,coriander powder, chopped ginger and green chillies chopped. Mix everything together. Keep aside.

Over the stove, on a medium heat, add canola oil, in a minute, when the oil is hot add cumin seeds, let them splutter.Add asafoetida,  then add all purpose flour. Wait until the flour slightly changes the color. It will take about 1 minute. After it changes the color, add the yogurt paste you kept aside.

Keep stirring medium heat until the mixture starts to leave oil. Add some water after about 4-5 minutes.

Heads up: Keep stirring after you add yogurt mixture. Since you are heating up yogurt, if you stop stirring it might curdle on you.

Keep stirring after adding water for about 2-3 minutes. now it's time to add potatoes.  Heat for 2 more minutes. Add water and change the consistency of the gravy if you want.Now add cilantro. The last thing you want to add is salt. Keep the lid on it, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Potatoes  are already boiled so it won't take much time. 

Get ready to eat with rice or with chapati/roti. It goes really well with bread as well.

My apologies for not been able to provide you step by step shots for this recipe. So here is the only one I got.

Courtesy: Potato curry with yogurt gravy by Manjula.

I hope you will like this one...:)

A sample to try from FoodBuzz!!

I was happy to receive my mail last week. Since we moved in to our new place,this was the first time I was checking my mail box. I was expecting a parcel from foodbuzz. I waited for almost a week, and then there it was!!! Yeeeeyeeeeeeeeee!!!!

A sample of 5 Quaker True Delights from foodbuzz. I was so thrilled to see those little snack bars!!

I am a huge fan of snack bars. They are perfect for munching, perfect to eat anywhere- in the office, at home, anywhere,  and everywhere, I would just grab and go!! Perfect for travelling as well!!

They were of 3 kinds:

• Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut
  

• Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond

• Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry.

I liked all three. Perfect granola bars made up with whole grains. It had a right amount of chewiness and a slight crunch, that makes you crave for more....:)

Thank you foodbuzz, for giving us, the chance to taste these wonderful products before they hit the market.

Chicken malai kabobs

Courtesy: Vah chef

I love kabobs. it's a finger food, they are just delicious. I have tried preparing many different versions, and to my knowledge, this is the best so far...!!

So here is what you will need-:

1lbs Chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)

1 tbsp cream cheese/sour cream

2 tbsp cream

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp corn flour

1 green chili

1 pinch of cardamom powder

3 tbsp mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp meat tenderizer

1 tbsp canola oil/olive oil

1 pinch pepper powder

salt to taste.

Chopped cilantro (Coriander)

I marinated this chicken a couple of times.

First marinade-:

Cut the chicken cubes in to 2 inches cubes. Set aside. In a bowl add black pepper powder, meat tenderizer, cardamom powder. Now before adding the ginger garlic paste, squeeze out all the liquid from it and then add it to the bowl. Mix in the chicken pieces. Mix everything really good. When you mix everything well, add some salt and mix again. Marinate the chicken pieces very well.

Keep this chicken marinated for 30 minutes in to the refrigerator.

After it gets marinated for 30 minutes, now it's time to marinate this chicken pieces with the second marinade.

Second marinade:-

In a bowl,  take some grated mozzarella cheese, add sour cream or cream cheese and then the cream. Add salt as per taste.

Make a paste out of chopped green chillies and chopped coriander and add it to the bowl.

Mix everything well. Add corn flour to it. Keep mixing and add the chicken pieces that we kept in the refrigerator 30 minutes back. Make sure that it gets marinated very well.

Add oil when the chicken gets marinated well and then mix well again. Keep in the refrigerator for one more hour.

After an hour arrange the chicken pieces on the skewers so that there will be 3 pieces on one skewer or may be two in some cases, if the pieces are large.

Preheat your oven to 500°/550° F whichever is higher in your oven.  Slide in the kabobs once the oven is preheated for about 20 minutes on a broil mode. 

Pull them out of the oven after 20 minutes then turn them and again let them cook in the oven for another 15 minutes. You can switch off the broil mode this time if you want. I like my kabobs to have a nice smoky taste and smell to it.

Take out the kabobs from the skewers and squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top of it. Serve as per your taste.

Toasty Edamame!!!

Snacking is my favourite past time. I am always looking for something to munch on-- Pita chips with any kind of hummus, tostitos with salsa or simply a bag of potato chips or corn chips.......ummmmmm yummmmmmmm!!!!

Well who doesn't like all this options, packed and ready just waiting for you in the grocery store!!

If not for the health reasons, I would have never went out of the box and considered the little shelled edamame to be a part of my snacking ritual....:)

For those who don't know what the edamame and it's benefits are, ...well here they are...:)

Edamame-

It's basically known as a Soybean. One of the part that attracts me more is it's low sodium, fibre rich food. Besides having high protein content edamame also help:

• Reduce risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women
• Decrease the risk of osteoporosis.
• Promote prostate health
• Protect cells with their antioxidant properties.

WOW!!! who knew?? right??

It's interesting how much we underestimate (or simply forget?) about these wonderful products when we cross the aisle and stop to grab a pack of Ice cream instead.....,.........,...

Anyways...So Soybean or edamame for that matter is a legume and so this entry goes to an event My Legume Love Affair Seventh Helping hosted by Srivalli.

and here is the link to Susan's event page.

Just when I was browsing through the blogs, I came across the recipe of roasted chickpeas. I wanted to try the same, that's when I remembered I have half a bag of cute little edamame in my freezer that I bought a week or two back to toss with my salad. My colleague in my previous company used to add this healthy kids in to her salad, and that's the reason I wanted to try those. Although I must admit I didn't really liked the raw and kind of bitter taste of edamame in to my salad.

With a due respect to it's nutritional value, I then decided to turn them in to a snack, just by roasting them in the oven with the spices of my choice.

Only 3 ingredients (excluding edamame) makes this a yummy fulfilling snack and a great substitute for unhealthy, guilty inducing potato chips.

• I used Half a bag of frozen edamame;
  
• Salt to taste;
  
• Chili powder to taste.
  
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil

Wash the edamame under running cold water, and it will have the same effect as the defrostation. Take away the moisture from the edamame by spreading them on a paper towel.

In a bowl, mix edamame, salt, chili powder and the olive oil. Mix them well.

Line the cookie sheet with an aluminium foil and spread the edamame's on the sheet.

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Let the edamame's roast for 20 minutes.

It will have a crunch on cooling. Use it as an afternoon snack or simply toss with your salad as a great substitute for croutons.

Enjoy....:)

New year's feast- Biryani......:)

My first post for the year 2009.

A very happy new year to all the readers and bloggers out there!!!

Let me start my first recipe for the year 2009 by sharing my all time favourite, yummy....Biryani!!! 

I always need a reason to prepare biryani, just because it's a really time consuming preparation. I guess it's better to invite a few friends over and enjoy with them. I invited few of our friends over,( G and A, and V and K)  and shared a nice lunch with them. I made Vegetable Biryani, Potato and spinach parathas, raita and blueberry smoothie as a dessert.

This was my second attempt...and pretty much successful!!

Here is what you will need....The list is really long...don't quit...:)) It's worth all the pain, so stick around....:)

• 2 cups of basmati rice
  
• Canola oil- 2 tablespoons
• Whole garam masala
• Shahi Jeera (Caraway seeds)
• Ginger garlic paste
• vegetables (Cauliflower, carrots, Potatoes) Cut in to big chunks.
• Mint leaves
• Coriander leaves
• Green chillies, chopped in to big pieces
• Store bought biryani masala- whole packet.( saves your efforts....big time...:)  )
• Yogurt- 1 cup or more if you feel.
• Cashews, almonds/nuts (of your choice)
• Paneer- store bought, cubed
• Half red onion - sliced
• A pinch of saffron soaked in water.

Follow the steps, and keep your stomach empty to give your recipe a justice!!!

Before you go further, take a pinch of saffron and mix in  some water, mix well and keep aside. We will be using this later in layering.

Step 1:

Frying the onion and the cashews, almonds/nuts (of your choice) and the paneer cubes

This will give the royal touch to the biryani.

Slice half red onion thinly, take 1 tbs of canola oil in to a pan. while the oil is hot add the sliced onion and fry until they are slightly shy to brown. Keep aside and cool. They will have a nice crunch on cooling.

Add cashews to the pan and shallow fry them as well. Remove when they turn brown. Keep aside to cool.

Also shallow fry the paneer cubes and keep aside.

Note: I keep saying that you shallow fry them, that's just to cut down calories. If you want, you can go ahead and deep fry them. After all it's a royal new year's special.

Step 2:

Soaking the rice-:

Soak 2 cups of rice in water for half an hour.

Step 3:

Prepare your veggies-:

Add 2 tablespoons of canola oil in a pan. Add whole garam masala (includes 2 sticks of cinnamon, 3-4 cardamoms,  2/3 cloves, 2-3 black pepper whole, a bay leaf) Saute for a minute and add shahi jeera. Wait until that splutters. Add ginger garlic paste (made up of 2 big /4 small garlic cloves and an inch of ginger)

Step 4:

Finish your veggies-:

Add cut vegetables. Saute the vegetables until they get nice brown coating on them. Add a little salt while sauteing them. Our goal at this step is to cook the vegetables until they are about 70% done. 

Add mint leaves and coriander leaves. 

Do not chop the leaves finely, just give them a rough chop before adding.

Then add chopped green chillies. Add biryani masala at this point.

Make sure that you mix all the vegetables with all the masala, and coat the vegetables completely.

Step-5: 

Coat your veggies-:

Add half a cup of yogurt to the coated vegetables. Add paneer cubes and mix everything well, to coat all the vegetables and paneer with yogurt and vegetables.

Heads up- In step 4 and step 5, your vegetables should be 70% done. You can check on them by inserting a knife in to a piece of vegetable. You should feel some tension while inserting the knife, it should not be the straight and easy cut.

Step 6:

Cook the rice-:

Bring a pot of water to boil and add the soaked rice to it. The goal is to cook the rice up to 70%.

If you soak the rice for half an hour, it will be cooked to 70% in about 7-8 minutes. If you soak it for an hour, it just takes 3-4 minutes. Add some salt black pepper whole, a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf in the boiling water for flavour. Drain the rice.

Note: when you boil the rice in to the water, make sure to add enough salt, as this will be the only way add any  flavour to your rice.

Now that your rice and your vegetables are 70% done. Here comes the fun part of layering.

Step 6-:

Layering.

Layer 1:

Divide the vegetables in to half. In an oven proof pot, spread the vegetables. Add remaining of the yogurt to the the vegetables, and mix well. Add the cashews/nuts.  

Layer 2:

Spread half of the rice on top of the first layer of vegetables. Now here is the time to use the saffron water that you kept aside. Sprinkle 1/2 tbs of that water on to the layer of rice. This will give your rice a nice saffron color and aroma.

Layer 3:

Spread all the remaining vegetables on top of rice layer. Spread the fried onion on the top of vegetables.

Layer 4:

Spread the remaining rice on to the top. 

Sprinkle the fried onions and the fried nuts on top.

Sprinkle some mint and coriander leaves on top.( I forgot to do that..but you should not....:P).

Last but not the least sprinkle the remaining saffron color.

oooooofffffffffffffff....and we are done!!!

Cover your pot twice with aluminium foil and put a lid on to it. And now it's time to go in to the oven.

Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Let it be in the oven for about 40 minutes. 

Get ready to taste your efforts, I am sure it will be worth it.

Courtesy ::  Vah chef

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GridojtCXDE