Week #9 of 52 weeks-A Tamil-Scandinavian connection :)

There are 2 people who guessed it this week. Sowmya Narayanan and Bhuvana Eshwari guessed buttermilk panacakes, its as close as it gets. So, here's to you ladies for playing good sport and guessing it!! Do feel free to share the blog with your friends!!

The dish of this week is Aebelskiver- its Danish pancake balls. I first ate it in Copehnagen airport on my way to Sweden to play a satellite tournament. It was light and fluffy and was quite delicious with lingonberry jam!
The most amazing thing is that in Tamil Nadu, where I come from, we have 2 similar dishes called Panniyaram and Sweet Appam. Though it looks to be identical, the ingredients that go into that are completely different. Firstly, Panniyaram is made of rice and urad flour. Secondly, its savory and never made sweet and lastly, it does not contain eggs. Sweet Appam is made of jaggery and wheat flour. But Aebelskiver is made of all purpose flour,eggs, and though u can make it with milk, I was intrigued by the addition of buttermilk instead of milk. I recall quite distinctly the Swedish coaches I used to train with and the Swedish family I stayed with in Luxembourg used a lot of buttermilk in their recipes. In fact, my coach even used to add buttermilk to his morning cereal instead of milk!!I like the idea of using buttermilk instead of milk. And it goes fairly well with eggs which is quite surprising.


Ingredients:

Buttermilk- 3/4 cup
All purpose flour- 1 cup
1 egg-yolk and whites separated
baking powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Butter melted- 1 tablespoon and some for brushing the pan
Apple or rasberries or strawberries - optional cut into small pieces- 2 tablespoons
Pancake syrup or chocolate syrup
Sugar- 2-3 tablespoons
Pan for making Danish pancake balls

Preparation:
Beat egg yolk an sugar and then add buttermilk, flour, butter and baking powder. Make sure to beat after every addition. Whip egg whites till they form stiff peaks. Fold it into the flour mixture. If using fruits, you can add them now. The batter should be fairly thick Preheat the pan with butter brushed all around the holes. Keep pan on medium flame.Pour spoonfuls of batter in each of the compartments. Turn it after 2 minutes with the help of a fork or a knife. Leave it for another 2 minutes and take them off. Drizzle syrup over them and enjoy!!This makes about 15 pancake balls.

Week #9 of 52 weeks of 52 recipes- Guess the dish!

The apple can be subsitituted with other fruits....

Week #8 A Vietnamese answer to Tom Yum

I played a tournament in Ho Chin Minh City, Vietnam in 2001. I remember this tournament because this is the tournament where I won the doubles title partnering Manisha Malhotra and in singles, had a match point against Li Na( who later became no.2 in the world) Oh well...
Enough tennis talk... but I was finding it quite tough to find vegetarian food in Vietnam. Most of the times, they didnt understand me. I think if I went now, it would be completely different as there is a huge Vietnamese population that have turned vegetarian.
Looking back, I think it would have been a lot simpler and probably better for me if I had chosen to eat chicken or some meat when I was on tour. Vietnam was one of the places where I would have surely been better off had I turned non-veg. When I landed there and ordered a simple Veggie chowmein, there were certain things in there that I was pretty sure werent vegetarian. The worst part is you dont even know what seafood is in your food, whether its an eel or sea urchins or squids. Not that they are bad, but for a vegetarian like me, it wasnt something I wanted to find in my food!
So, the next day I decided to order something with chicken in it,and then remove it before eating. This way, I at least knew what was in my food.
Now in the comfort of my kitchen, I am recreating a Sour Vietnamese Soup which is a bit like its neighbor, the Thai Tom Yum. Usually Vietnamese soups are quite clear and has no color. Since I used Vegetable broth, the soup is a bit reddish in color, but the broth adds so much flavor that I wouldnt skip it.
I have added some of my favorite ingredients which are Baby Bok Choy and the Chicken-Less strips. They pack so much protein and are so good for you. Generally, in most Asian food, you need to get that one paste that will make that particular dish EPIC. My paste for this dish is the Instant Vietnamese Sour paste which is basically a mixture of Garlic,onions,chilli,tomoatoes, paprika and lemongrass.If you dont get this paste, you can combine most fo the above ingredients and get a similar outcome.
The most common Vietnamese soup- PHO is usually cooked for hours and hours. My soup here takes 20 minutes !! One key thing in Asian soups is to make sure we dont overcook the vegetables. The vegetables should be crunchy and the soup should be served as soon as its made.

Ingredients :
1 bunch Baby Bok Choy or Bok Choy
2 tablespoons Vietnamese Sour paste
1/2-1 cup of chicken less strips (firm sliced tofu can be used too)or real cooked chicken
1/2 cup broccoli florets,green peppers,mushrooms and carrots
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup cooked rice noodles
3 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
For garnish :1/4 cup bean sprouts, mint leaves,cilantro leaves, jalapaeno slices, lime wedges

Method: Combine broth and water and bring to a boil. Add bok choy and sour paste and boil for a minute. Then add the noodles, make sure to spread them apart, so they dont cling together. Adjust seasonings as needed. Then add the chicken strips, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Now add all the veggies and cook for 2 minutes on high heat. Remove pot from stove. Place soup with veggies, noodles and chicken strips ina bowl. Add bean sprots,jalapeno slices and mint and cilantro leaves. Squeeze lime on the soup and Enjoy!! Let me know what you think!

Week #7 of 52 weeks of 52 recipes!!

Hello everyone,
I am making all in one 10 minute meals this week again. Those who guessed, great guesses, in fact I am going to try to make all of your suggestions...Thay all sound pretty yummy.But bear in mind, I add carbohydrates, protein and the vegetable in one dish. While breadcrumbs can be considered carbohydrate, for everyone to be able to eat this dish, I would go with something more substantial and mainstream. So, the secret ingredient in this is Pasta!!!
This week's dedication is my other aunt, Lalitha Periamma. I was lucky enough to have been able to taste her food very often when I was growing up. She is surely a legend in the kitchen and I still make her ginger chutney many times. Long back when pasta was barely heard of in Coimbatore, she used to make this Macaroni with eggs that was completely delicious. Hopefully, I will post her Ginger chutney recipe here soon!!!So, here's to you, Lalitha Periamma !!!

The following recipe is quite a bit of an adaptation from one of my fav Italian dishes- the very simple and easy Spaghetti Olio,Oglio,Pepperoncino( translates into Olive oil,Garlic and red pepper flakes). But with my recipe, I decided to add more protein by adding crushed almonds, zuchhini for the vegetable and the herbed breadcrumbs make it so nutty and totally vegan if you dont want to add some parmesan cheese in the end. You can subsititute Bottle gourd for Zucchini or even grated broccoli. Angel hair pasta is the thin spaghetti which cooks in 4-5 minutes.

Angel Hair with Almonds, Zucchini and Breadcrumbs:

Ingredients:
Zucchini- 1 grated
Garlic- 2 cloves- minced
Angel hair pasta- 1 packet
Breadcrumbs- 1/2 cup
Toasted almonds- 1/2 cup
Dried Oregano- 1 tablespoon
Dried parsley- 1 tablespoon
Red pepper flakes- 1 tabelspoon( as needed)
Salt
Olive oil- 2 tablespoons
Parmesan cheese- 2 tabelspoons
Water for boiling pasta.

Method:
Bring water to boil in a large pot, salt it very generously. When it is boiling, break pasta and put it in the pot and stir well. Ina blender, blend the toasted almonds to a powder. Add half oregano and parsley and the breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. Now in a skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add minced garlic to it. Then add the grated zucchini. Leave it for a minute and spread the zucchini apart, so they can roast a bit. Add red pepper flakes and the almond-breadcrumbs mixture. toss it around and keep the heat on low. Drain pasta when its Al Dente( just abt done) and rinse in cold water. Add some olive oil to toss and mix in with the zucchini and almonds and breadcrumbs. Add parmesan in the end if needed. This turned out to be quite simple yet flavorful due to the herbs.


Cook this and tell me how it turned out!!!

Week #7 Ingredients for guessing

The 3rd one pot, 10 minute, all in one, gourmet meal!! Here are the ingredients .Bread crumbs :) Almonds and zucchini... any guesses???...

Week #6 of 52 weeks of 52 recipes

Looks like nobody even took a chance to guess. Come on, everyone, you gotta try, no???
Alright, since, there are no dedications this week from any guesses, I'd like to throw the spotlight on my mom who is just a phenomenal cook. She can detect if something needs salt just by its smell. She takes pride in her cooking and while she mainly specializes in South Indian cooking, she does it to perfection. So, here's to you Amma....

Week #6 which is still in theme with the 10 minute, all-in, lunch box meal is the Tofu-Flax-carrot Parathas- which are just Indian style bread, but fairly easy to make without any baking needed. In the US, we get ground flax seed (meal). It's got so much of Omega 3s and is deemed as a super seed. The silken(liquid) tofu is such an easy way to add protein to this bread as it doesnt even have much taste. I dont know if you get it in India, but here in US, its so easily available. Lastly, you could add any grated vegetable you want, I liked the color that carrot added to this dish... Prepare it and let me know what you all think!!!

Tofu Flax Carrot Parathas(Bread)

Ingredients :

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flax meal ( you could decrease this and add whole wheat flour instead)
1/4 cup silken tofu
2 tablespoons grated carrot
1 teaspoon salt and pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon oil

Method:
Mix all the above ingredients except the water and flour. Knead all the ingredients for 1 min. If it needs some water to form a ball, use the tablespoonof water. It should be smooth and come together like this.

Cover it and leave it for about 3-4 minutes. Heat a griddle.Spray surface and hands with flour and form small round balls. Flatten them out with a rolling pin. It doesnt need to be too thin. Cook the rolled out bread for 1 min on each side and add drops of oil when cooking in high heat.

Wrap them in Aluminium foil and Voila, they are ready to be packed for school. They can be eaten as is or with some plain yoghurt. Enjoy!!