Balekai (Plantain) Palya

Ingredients

• bananas – 3
• mustard – 3 tsp
• chilli powder – 2 tsp
• coconut – 4 tsp
• jaggery – 2 pieces
• tamarind – 3/4 tsp

Preparation

1. Grind coconut, mustard and red chilly powder, with little water into a smooth paste.
2. Boil jaggery and tamarind with water. Once  the water evaporates, add the ground paste.
3. Add the boiled plantain. Ccook until all the water evaporates.

Banana Gulliappa

Banana Gulliappa

This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I found at this blog. [http://recipejunction.blogspot.com/2007/09/balehannu-appa.html]

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice, soaked in warm water for 1 hour
• 1 cup powdered jaggery
• 1/2  cup coconut milk
• 4 pods cardamom, powdered
• 2 ripe bananaas
• 2 tsp oil

Preparation

• Grind rice into a smooth paste, adding as little water as possible.
• Add jaggery, coconut mik, cardamom and banana and grind till mixed well.
• Add oil to gulliappa maker, fill each mould with the mixture and cook.
• Note : I ground the rice into a paste and stored it in the refrigerator for a day before grinding the remaining ingredients in with it.

Curry Leaf Chutney

Ingredients

• 10 curry leaves
• 2 sprigs coriander leaves
• 4 green chillies
• 1 tbsp grated coconut
• 1 tsp hurgadle
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Roast all ingredients in 1 tsp oil, add coconut last to the roast mix.
2. Grind with water.
3. Add salt.

Onion Sambar

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup moong dal
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 chopped tomato
• 1/2 tsp tamarind paste (add it to a tsp of water and microwave for 10 secs)
• 1 tsp jaggery
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 2-3 sprigs of coriander
• 3 tsp sambar powder
• 2 1/4 tsp of oil
• pinch of hing
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp jeera seeds
• pinch of turmeric

1. Add a pinch of turmeric, 1/4 sp oil and 1 1/2 cups (approx.) water to the moong dal and pressure cook. Pressure cooker settings : high pressure, 10 mins, quick pressure release.
2. Heat 2 tsp of oil, add mustard seeds and jeera seeds to it when hot and let it splutter for a minute.
3. Add the onion and fry until translucent.
4. To the fried onion, add the cooked dal, tomato, tamarind, jaggery, sambar powder, hing, curry leaves, coriander leaves and 1 1/2 – 2 cups water. Bring the sambar to a boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Potato Peas Curry

4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup peas
1 tomato diced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 pods garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 cup coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp jeera powder
3 tsp oil
1 tsp jeera seeds
1 tsp kalonji seeds
1 cup water

• Heat the oil. Add jeera and kalonji seeds.
• Fry the onion, garlic and ginger.
• Add the tomatoes and fry until the tomato is mashed.
• Add the chilli powder and jeera powder and stir.
• Stir in the coriander leaves.
• Add potatoes, peas and water. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes or until well cooked.

Sunday Tea

Yesterday, we decided to call a couple of friends over and serve ‘high tea’, given, that we do make tea one of the more important meals over the weekend. This was our tea menu.

• Mini toasts with a fig and hazelnut spread.
• Gouda cheese with quince paste.
• Mint chutney and cucumber sandwhich.
• Pineapple, almond and cream cheese sandwhich.
• Potato and acorn squash pizza.
• Banana walnut cake.
• A pot of Earl Grey Tea.
• A pot of Spring Oolong Tea.

To add this, our guests got us a box of yummy brownies.

While most of the work revolved around assembly, I’ve posted the ingredients or the recipe for some of the snacks.

Mint Chutney and Cucumber Sandwich

Mint Chutney

• 1 bunch of mint leaves
• 1/4 bunch of coriander leaves
• 4 green chillies
• salt to taste
• lime to taste

Grind the above ingredients together, adding 2 table spoons of water.

Mix in salt and lime.

Potato and Acorn Squash Pizza

This recipe is a slight modification of this recipe from Food Network.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_78783,00.html

• Yukon Gold potatoes, thinly sliced
• Rosemary
• Acorn Squash
• Red Chilli Flakes
• Maple syrup
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Drizzle olive oil over the potato slices and toss some sprigs of rosemary. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Cut the acorn squash into half, remove the seeds and core. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Toss with olive oil, red chilli flakes and a dash of maple syrup.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow it to cool and then peel off the outer skin.

Top the pizza base with potatoes and acorn squash, drizzle with olive oil and bake as per the instructions for the pizza base.

Banana Walnut Cake

I used this recipe from the Food Network site, the cake was moist and tasty.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_4050,00.html

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 very ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
<1 cup chopped walnuts>

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and powder, salt.

In a large bowl cream together eggs and sugar.

Stir in mashed bananas, vanilla, oil and cinnamon.

Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time, until just combined.

<I added a cup of walnuts, folded it into the batter before baking>

Divide batter into two 9×5 loaf pans. (I baked it in a greased sqaure dish 8 1/2 inches wide and 3 inches deep)

Bake for an 1 hour.

Spinach Apple Salad with Fennel

Ingredients

• 1/2 a packet of baby spinach
• 1 apple, sliced
• 1 grapefruit, cubed
• 1 cup toasted walnuts
• 1/2 a fennel bulb
• 1 tbsp gouda cheese, cubed

Dressing

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

• Prepare dressing by lightly whisking the lemon juice with olive oil.
• Toss salad with the dressing.

Our meal consisted of this salad with a boiled cob of corn.

Ganesh Chaturthi Menu

1. Khara Kadabu
2. Hirekai Chutney
3. Kosumbari
4. Hoornad Saru
5. Cucumber Majjige Huli
6. Sweet Kadabu

1. Khara Kadabu

For the rice dough:
1 cup water
1 tsp oil
A pinch of salt
1 cup rice flour

• Boil water with oil and salt.
• When the water boils, add the rice flour, stir to make a dough and turn off the heat.
• Allow to cool.
• Shape the dough into little balls and roll it out into a circle.

Stuffing

There are several options for the stuffing, here is one that we tried.

1 cup channa dal
4 green chilles, chopped
half a bunch of coriander leaves
1/2 onion, finely chopped

• Soak the channa dal in water for 3 hours.
• Drain the water from the channa dal entirely.
• Grind the channa dal with the green chillies and coriander without adding any water. The consistency of the ground channa dal should be coarse.
• Mix the onions and add salt to taste.

Assembling and cooking the kadabu.

• Roll out the dough into a little circle.
• Place the stuffing in the centre , fold over and seal. Use a dash of water to seal the kadabu if needed.
• Wrap the kadabu in parchment paper or banana leaf.
• Steam. We used the following pressure cooker settings for an electric cooker. High pressure for 10 minutes and used quick release of pressure.

2. Hirekai Chutney

Peel of 1 ridge gourd
1 onion sliced (optional, we didn’t use it)
1 tbsp channa dal
1 tbsp urad dal
4-5 dry red chillies
1/8 tsp tamcon paste
few curry leaves

• Pressure cook the ridge gourd peels.
• Roast channa dal, urad dal and red chillies
• Fry onion.
• Grind roasted dals, red chillies, onion, ridge gourd, curry leaves, tamcon paste together.
• Season with mustard seeds

3. Kosumbari

1 cup moong dal
2 tbsp coconut
1/2 cup grated carrot
seasoning
4-5 green chillies
mustard seeds

• Soak the dal in water for an hour. Then, drain the water completely.
• Mix grated carrot.
• To prepare the seasoning, heat oil, add mustard, green chillies and curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the dal and carrot mixture.
• Add grated coconut to the mixture.
• Squeeze lime over the kosumbari.

4. Hoornad Saru

To prepare the hoorna:

1 cup kadale bele (channa dal)
1 cup powdered jaggery
2 tablespoon grated coconut

• Wash the kadale bele and cook in pressure cooker.
• Melt jaggery, until it appears frothy.
• Add coconut, dal, cardamom and clove to the jaggery. Stir and continue heating until a thick consistency is reached. (i.e. until the water has evaporated from the dal mixture)

For the rasam:

2 teaspoon rasam powder
1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste

• To the above hoorna mixture, add 4 cups water, rasam powder, salt, curry leaves and tamarind paste.
• Let the mixture boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

5. Cucumber Majjige Huli

1 cup sour curds
1 cup cucumber (the round variety)
1/4 cup channa dal
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons jeera
6 peppercorns
a pinch of turmeric
1/4 cup grated coconut
4 green chillies
small piece of onion (approximately an eighth of an onion)
2 pods garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
4 curry leaves

• Grind  channa dal, coriander, jeera, peppercorns, turmeric, grated coconut, green chillies, onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves together to a fine paste.
• Boil the cucumber.
• Cook the vegetables with the ground paste.
• Add sour curds and seasoning. To prepare seasoning, heat oil, add mustard and curry leaves.

6. Sweet Kadabu

Stuffing

1 cup grated coconut
1 cup jaggery powder
4 cardamoms

• Heat the jaggery and melt it.
• Add the cocounut to the melted jaggery, constantly stirring until them mixture thickens.
• Mix in the cardamom

For assembly and cooking, follow the same procedure as the khara kadabu.

Gujarati Dal

We got this recipe from my mother who in turn got it from a friend. Thanks to Manju aunty for this delicious and flavourful dal.

1 cup toor dal (soak for 15 mins)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
pinch of turmeric (optional)

for the masala:
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp grated ginger
1 green chilly
3 tsp jaggery

for seasoning:
2 , 1 inch sticks cinnamon
2 cloves
1 tsp methi seeds
1 tsp mustmustard
1 tsp jeera
good helping of hing (optional)
1 red chilly
6-7 curry leaves
put them in this order

• Add seasoning to heated oil and continue heating until it splutters.
  
• Add the seasoning to the soaked dal, tomatoes, turmeric, water and pressure cook till done. (8 min, high pressure, quick release)
  
• Whisk dal well.
• Add the masala to the dal and boil.

Ragi Dosa

1 cup ragi flour
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 onion, finely chopped
3 green chillies, finely chopped
11/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 cups warm water

• Mix all the ingredients with warm water.
• Cook on both sides on a lightly oiled pan.