"Handvo" - a savory protein rich lentil cake.

Handvo

"Handvo", this is a typical "Gujarati" (west-India) cuisine. It is fast and easy. Well it is if you live in that part of India.

Living in Europe has its own perks and being able to make this item easy and fast might not be one of them.

In India we get ready-made flour for this and then it is just a matter of preparing the batter, letting it fremanate over night and adding spices before cooking it.

When we moved here, i didn't see flour in Indian stores and that is when and how i learnt to make it from scratch. However i can see this flour now in some of the Indian stores, mainly those which are a big bigger and keep many products imported from UK. On the side note whenever i visit England, it is like being back to home. Considering big Gujarati population in England, there is hardly anything you cannot find in there....so no missing food there, but still missing family and friends!

Anyway that is not what we were talking about! So here goes my recipe for "Handvo" from a scratch. 

I normally prepare a lot and have the same in breakfast next morning. Somehow i love when it more next morning when it is cold and all flavours are absorbed but that is just me!

My sister visited us this weekend and when asked if she wanted to have something specific this is what she could think of, so thanks to her i managed to take some more pictures of cooking process to post here ! ;-) Yes, that college from different stages of cooking preparation is the one i managed then, the second time.

Let's collect ingredients:

2 cup Rice

1 cup Tuvar Dal

1/4 cup Urad Dal

1/4 cup Green Mung Dal (Split Mung)

1/4 cup Split Bengal Gram (Chana Dal)

1 cup Sour Curd/Yogurt

1 Bottle gourd (Lauki), grated

1 tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Soda-bi-carb

2 tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Chili Powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

3 tbsp Green Chili - Ginger Paste

3 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

For tempering:

4 tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Asafoetida (hing) - optional

2 tsp Mustard seeds (rai)

2 tsp Carom seeds (ajwain)

2-3 tsp Sesame seeds (til) - i put more as we love crispy sesame cover.

1" Cinnamon stick

3-4 Cloves (Laung / lavang)

Let's start making Handvo:

1. Wash and soak the rice and all dals together for overnight. I do it overnight because it is easier for me just to put it together before going to bed but 4-5 hours are enough.

2. Drain them and grind to paste.

3. Add Sour curd / yogurt and allow fermenting overnight. 

Here in Europe sometimes it is not warm enough for it to ferment well, so i warm oven switch it off and then leave it overnight in oven. I like a bit sour taste in Handvo so sometimes i let it ferment more.

4. When you are ready to cook, add rest of the ingredients to batter. (Grated bottle gourd, lemon juice, soda-bi-carb, sugar, chili powder, turmeric powder, green chili-ginger paste, oil, salt) 

Now you can either put this on gas in special handvo cooker, or in a non-stick pan which can be covered or can bake it in oven.

5. Pour this batter in a greased tin or baking dish.

6. Four the tempering, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and fry until they crackle. Add the sesame seeds, ajwain and asafoetida and continue to fry. When the sesame seeds are golden in colour, pour this over the batter.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degree C (400 degree F) for 30 to 35 minutes till the crust is golden brown. 

  

Step from left to right 1. batter making, 2. fermanating, 3. in non-stick pan, 4. seasoning, 5. turning-over and ready to eat !

Most of the time I end up cooking half of the batter in a nonstick pan because of our love for crispy base. 

For that just pour batter in pan (not too thick, not too thin ) and cover on medium flame for 30-45 mins depending on how you prefer it, i also cook for a while turning it up-side down and i have over-all crispy cover which hubby dear loves. That is not possible in Oven. 

Handvo in a non-stick pan after turning-over.

I still end up doing a part in oven because i like the softness of baked handvo, and somehow it just looks and feels healthier to me! Ya i know, now that's something, you must be thinking considering so many different pulses in one item, how much healthier can you go! But that is me and my absurd ideas!

Handvo, baked in an oven.

So your Handvo is ready. You can eat it the way you like it.... with yogurt, ketch up, chutney.... or just on its own! 

Enjoy!

Handvo (Baked version)

Use the spices sparingly and it is a nutritious dish that kids can enjoy, my lil Bun had a few bites of it and he seemed to like it ! ( considering your kid is not allergic to all those lentils)  

Broccoli Almond Soup

Broccoli isn't very frequent at our home, but it started making more appearances after arrival of our Lil Bun. He eats it happily ( touch-wood and prayers for it to stay the same). 

Hubby dear isn't much a fan of broccoli so i was surprised when i saw him devouring on Broccoli Almond soup during our recent visit to India. 

After all the fat accumulation on the waist at the end of the trip, it was a high time for us to go a bit healthy. So while trying to include more salads and soups in our meals i have been looking for and trying new alternatives. And one fine day looking at Broccoli in the fridge, it clicked me why not to try this soup. It is simple, easy and nutritious. And what's more to it is Lil Bun and his dad both liked and devoured it. Success. 

It also got almonds, which we love. They are not only protein filled but also considered good for brain. I ate lots of almonds while i was pregnant and so whenever lil Bun does anything smart leaving us all surprised, we go something like "There goes all the almonds i ate!" hehe 

We use the roasted ones in the recipe to bring out complete flavour. 

I followed recipe from Tarla Dalal with a little bit of twist to accommodate our taste preferences.

So here we go. 

Let's collect Ingredients:

2 cups chopped broccoli (incl. stalks and florets)

1/2 cup chopped Onions

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp chopped celery

1/2 tsp garlic salt (optional)

1/2 tsp cornflour dissolved in 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp almond paste ( i left almonds in warm water for a few mins till it was a bit soft and then crushed it in blender)

1 tbsp roasted almond slivers

Salt to taste

For Garnish:

Few Cilantro leaves or a few almond slivers. 

Let's start making some soup: 

1. Heat 2 cups water in a deep pan, Add Broccoli stalks to it and cook on a medium flame for 5 mins.

2. Add Broccoli florets, onions, Garlic, Celery and salt (a bit less than final quantity if like us you like a bit garlicky taste and are going to include garlic salt). Mix well and cook for 3-4 mins, while stirring continuously.

3. Remove it from the flame and allow it to cool a little. 

4. Blend it with a hand blender till smooth.

5. Add the cornflour-milk mixture, garlic salt (optional), almond paste. Cook on a medium flame for 2-3 mins, while stirring continuously.

6. Add ground pepper, roasted almond slivers. Mix well and cook on a medium flame for another minute. 

7. Serve hot, garnished with almond slivers.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Pasta

Pasta is kind of staple food in our house. When we can't think of anything to cook, we make pasta.

I basically love different pasta sauce but DH is not that eager on them. His favourite has been pesto pasta. So at times i make half with pesto and half with arrabbiata sauce.

Recently we tried pasta without any sauce at a pasta joint, not that it was for the first time but this one sure did taste a bit different and more to our liking. So i took a detailed look at ingredients list.

First time i tried to make it at home, it still tasted a bit different. Yesterday i gave it a try again, adamant to copy that taste we had, and success!

You can take whole wheat brown pasta and can do it even healthier !

Here is a recipe. Quick and Easy.

Let's collect Ingredients:

2 cup - Pasta, boiled with a little olive oil and salt

1 small bunch Parsley - cut finely

5-6 Small Red Chilies, cut. (Or as many depending on heat that you can bear)

5-6 cloves Garlic - cut. (We like our pasta extra garlicky)

Black Pepper to taste

Salt to taste

2-3 tsp olive oil

1 tsp - garlic oil - optional

3 tsp Pine nuts - optional

Pasta Cheese for garnishing - optional

Let's make Pasta:

1. Follow the boiling instructions of pasta as on the packaging. Once done, drain it and keep aside.

2. Heat Olive oil in a pan. Add cut red chilies and garlic. Sauté for a minute.

3. Add Pine nuts and garlic oil if you prefer.

4. Add boiled pasta to that. Mix well.

5. Sprinkle finely cut parsley, black pepper and sea salt. Mix well.

Your quick and easy pasta is ready to eat. Serve hot garnishing with cheese.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This one has been on my list for some time, baked it on our anniversary and then again got lasy with posting it over here. 

But here we are, better to be late than never !

DH loved it, actually he loves everything that has to do with pineapple ! :o)

By the way on the side note I found this article handy for the conversion, whenever i get confused following a recipe with different measurements :-)

http://allrecipes.com/howto/cup-to-gram-conversions/

Ok so... 

Let's collect Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

6 Tbsp cake flour

6 Tbsp of ground almonds (Optional)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups of sugar

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

4 large eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup sour cream

Let's start Baking:

Caramel topping:

1. Take brown sugar and butter. Combine them and melt in a saucepan on medium heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture looks bubbly. (After sugar melts, don't stir) 

2. Pour mixture into stick-free cake pan. 

3.Arrange pineapple slices in a single layer ontop of the caramel mixture.

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F / 170 C. 

2. Whisk the flours, almonds, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. 

3. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until light. 

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. 

5. Add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream in 2 additions each, beating well after each addition. 

6. Pour cake batter over caramel and pineapple in pan.

7. Bake cake until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. 

8. Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy !!!

Muhammara Dip

Muhammara - Spicy Red Pepper Dip

This recipe is in the draft since my last post.

I used this Dip with Vegetarian Berber Pizza - Medfouna, it went together fantastic !

Muhammara is a slightly spicy red pepper dip. It is easy to make and can be served with toasted pita bread or fresh veggies.

Original recipe calls for more Olive oil, but i just can't bring myself to use too much oil in any recipe whether it's olive oil or normal cooking oil / butter !

Let's collect ingredients:

2 Red Capsicum / Bell Peppers

1 Yellow Onion

3 tbsp Olive Oil

4 tbsp breadcrumbs

3/4 cup walnuts, crushed

1 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp cumin

Let's make Muhammara Dip: 

1. Preheat the oven at 175 degree C. Place whole red peppers on greased baking sheet, roast then for about 10-12 minutes turning approx every 4 mins.

2. Mix breadcrumbs in food processor with 2-3 tbsp cold water and blend them to make a puree. 

3. In a small pan, saute onion until lightly browned and add this sauted onions and olive oil to food processor with puree.

4. Remove capsicum from oven and peel off skin. Cut them into pieces, removing the seeds. Add them to breadcrumb mixture in food processor.

5. Blend the mixture to a dip consistency.

6. Add remaining ingredients and blend, adding olive oil as needed.

Serve as a dip with Pita bread wedges, kebabs or veggies ! 

Enjoy !!

Vegetarian Berber Pizza - Medfouna

I am back with my "let’s try something different in dinner" bug. With a new kid, I hardly get time for an elaborate dinner anymore but this one day he decided to just sleep and sleep. Surprisingly he slept from evening 5:30 and didn’t wake up his normal one hour later (I had to wake him up at 10:00 pm to feed and then he decided to sleep back till next morning.  So I got a chance and time to dig up my notes and look for something new to try.

I had already planned couscous with vegetables in dinner, but ofcourse needed some other things to go along with. While going through some Middle East / Moroccan recipes, this is what i came through “Vegetarian Berber Pizza - Medfouna". ( Medfouna means 'buried', so it is basically stuffed bread!)

And Ofcourse as one can imagine with me being me, i had to customize it. I adjusted the ingredient and their measurements to suit our taste more. I thought that original recipe called for too much of onions (we love onions but not with its cooked texture and on its own) so i decided to replace a portion with other vegetables. Original recipe doesn't call for any dip or sauce to put on, but i had a feeling what if only with sauté vegetables it feels a bit dry! 

I became a bit innovative and decided to add a dash of Middle Eastern dip Muhammara as a very subtle thin layer. (Decided against normal pizza sauce to trying to maintain Middle Eastern flavor, if there was left any!)

Here is the recipe what i ended up with, and by the way it tasted amazing! It received a “Thumbs up” from my “hard-to-please-when-it-comes-to-food” hubby, and that is all I need to give a recipe "success" rating.

So here we go…

Let’s collect ingredients:

For the Dough

4 cups flour (i mixed all purpose flour with wheat flour 50-50%)

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon yeast

1 1/4 cups warm water

For the Filling

2 onions, chopped

1 bell pepper (any color), chopped (I mixed green and yellow)

1/2 cup sweet corn (i used tin ones)

1/2 cup tofu cut in squares (just as i wanted to get rid of it from my fridge!)

1/4 cup carrots, cut in squares

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup pitted green olives, sliced

2 handfuls of fresh parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh (or 2 teaspoons dry) za’atar or thyme (i used dry thyme)

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (or to taste)

salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Other (Optional)

----------------------------------------

Muhammara dip (optional) 

Olive oil, salt, herbs for garnish (optional)

Let’s start preparing Vegetarian Berber Pizza:

Make the Dough

Mix warm water, sugar and yeast together and leave aside for 5 minutes till it looks a little frothy. That's when the yeast has been activated and is ready to use.

Mix the flour, salt and half of oil in a bowl. Make a large well in the center of the flour mixture, and add yeast mixture.

Mix everything and knead lightly till everything comes together as dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and begin kneading the dough. If necessary, add flour or water in very small amounts to make the dough soft and pliable, but not too sticky. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Divide the dough into two portions and shape each into a smooth circular mound. Lightly oil the dough with olive oil, cover with a towel, and leave to rise for about 40-45 minutes.

Make the Filling:

In a large skillet, sauté the onions and bell pepper in the olive oil about 2 minutes, add all other vegetables (i had added sweet corn, carrots, tofu). Keep it on flame until vegetables look crisp-tender and slightly reduced in volume.

Remove it from the heat. Stir in the olives, herbs and spices. Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, adding the sugar if the onions are slightly bitter. Set the filling aside.

Stuff the Berber Pizza:

Preheat an oven to 435°F (225°C).

Roll out a portion of the risen dough into a large circle about 14" in diameter. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled baking sheet or pizza pan. (i used pie plate, shhhh).

I spread a very thin layer of Muhammara spread on that. (Optional)

Spread the prepared filling in the center, leaving at least 1/2" of dough exposed all around. Brush the exposed edge of dough with a little water.

Roll out the remaining portion of dough into another circle. Place it over the filling, and press the edges of the dough together to seal.

Gently turn under the edges all around to complete the seal and give a nice look to the edge.

If desired, brush a little olive oil on the dough and sprinkle with dried herbs (i sprinkled dried thyme + basil) and a little coarse salt. 

Bake in the preheated oven until well colored, about 20-25 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.

Ringan no Oro / Oloh ( Smoked Eggplant with spices )

This is one of the all time favorite dish whenever we think about comfort food, however it wasn't when i was a kid. After we moved to Netherlands and i started cooking everyday, then started the search for different and new items to cook everyday. And when no new ideas came to mind then it went back to old traditional Indian food, our own desi food.  

Good thing about it is Ashu loves it too, with rotlo, lasan (garlic) chutney and piece of jaggery... yumm. Typical of the province he comes from, so his childhood comfort food i think :)

Let’s collect Ingredients:

2 large Eggplants
1 small bunch Spring Onions, finely cut
1 large Tomato, finely cut
1 Large clove of Garlic, grated
1 tsp Ginger- green chili paste (to taste)
1 tsp Cumin seeds
A pinch Asafetida (hing)
¼ tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Coriander- cumin powder
1 tsp Chili Powder
Salt (to taste)
A pinch of sugar (to taste)

Let’s Cook Ringan no Ohroh:

1. Wash the eggplant, coat it with a thin layer of oil. 

2. Place in the oven at 200 C for around 35-40 minutes or until soft.

3. Peel the skin off and then mash it. Preferably do it manually, that will give the Eggplants a smoky traditional flavor. Me being a lazy person, I do use blender at times, but be very careful to keep it a bit course and not to blend it like a paste! Keep it aside.

4. In a pan, heat oil. Add the asafetida and the turmeric.  

5. When it sizzles, add cumin seeds and spring onions. Sauté for a minute and then add ginger-chili paste. 

6. Add finely cut tomatoes and cook until the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan.

7. Add mashed eggplants now and mix well.

8. Add grated garlic and rest of the seasonings and Cook on low heat for another 10-12 minutes.

Serve hot with Rotlo. (Recipe, will post soon if i manage not being lazy with internet)