Al Yakhni

Being married into a Kashmiri family does have its perks - the cuisine is famous the world over though somehow, I find myself appreciating only a handful of dishes. Sadly for me, I don't like the glorious roganjosh and I definitely don't like eating rice every day but I still cook Kashmiri food for my husband occasionally.

Traditional Kashmiri Pandit food does not use onions, tomatoes, or garlic but outside the valley, most families have incorporated these basics. The meals get their flavor from Kashmiri red chilli powder, saunf (fennel) powder, saunth (dry ginger) powder and whole spices like green cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.

Al Yakhni - 'Al' meaning ghiya (calabash/bottle gourd) and 'Yakhni' meaning a yogurt based gravy- is comfort food at its best, a very simple dish served with rice. It does not have ANY chilli so if you find it too bland for your taste, feel free to combine it with any dal or sabzi.

Al Yakhni - serves two


1 medium sized ghiya (calabash/bottle gourd)
3-4 tbsp smooth yogurt
1 black cardamom
2 cloves
2 split green cardamoms
1/2 cup water
2 tsp saunf/fennel powder
1/2 tsp saunth/dry ginger powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3 tbsp mustard oil
Salt to taste

Peel and cut the ghiya in roundels. In a deep pan or a kadhai, heat the mustard oil (on high flame) to smoking point. Shallow fry the ghiya in oil till it turns slightly brown. Remove and soak excess oil with a kitchen towel.

In the remaining oil, add all the whole spices, powdered spices. Add water after a minute. Add the fried ghiya once the water starts boiling. Let boil on high flame for about five minutes before adding yogurt.

Mix well, reduce flame to medium low and let boil till the gravy reduces to half. Serve hot with rice.

NOTES:

1. Ensure that you remove excess oil with a kitchen towel because the ghiya will absorb most of the oil.

2. Fennel powder is readily available in most stores. If you want to make your own, keep about half cup fennel seeds (saunf) to dry in the sun for two days, grind and store in an airtight container. Adding fennel powder aids digestion and is a key element for thickening gravy in Kashmiri food.

3. Traditional Kashmiri cooking involves the use of a lot of mustard oil although I prefer using a lesser amount. It is also served in steel thalis.

Breakfast | Five minute Idli With Peanut Chutney

After getting totally bored with muesli and oats, I decided to scour the World Wide Web for some healthy breakfast recipes, something that doesn't make me feel lazy or sleepy. Nope, this recipe is not from the web, its something my mom makes from time to time - she uses a pressure cooker, I used the microwave because I am impatient and I don't like to work too hard for my food.

Because microwave cooking tends to dry out food, I was concerned about the texture but these came out perfect, they were soft, moist and had ZERO oil!

Rava  Idli - makes about 10

1 cup semolina (toasted in a pan till slightly brown)

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup water

5 - 10 curry leaves

1 finely chopped carrot

1 finely chopped green bell pepper

1/4 cup boiled corn kernels

about 3-4 finely chopped french beans

1 tsp baking soda or Eno (antacid powder)

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

salt to taste.

Add all the ingredients except baking soda/Eno to a large mixing bowl. Combine and add the baking soda. Grease a microwave safe idli stand. Add about 2 tbsp mixture to each compartment. 

Microwave on HI for three minutes. Give standing time of at least two minutes. Insert a toothpick to see if idlies are cooked. If not, microwave for another minute or so.

Peanut Chutney - makes about half cup

1/2 cup toasted peanuts

1 tsp tamarind pulp

1 green chilly

5 - 10 curry leaves

1/4 inch ginger

1/8 cup water

salt to taste

Add all the ingredients in your food processor and pulse till it resembles a thick paste. At this point, you can increase the amount of water if you prefer a more watery chutney. Serve with hot idlis or anything South Indian!

NOTES:

1. You can add any vegetable you like to the mixture. When adding onions, saute them in a pan first.

2. Add fresh coconut to the peanut chutney for a truly awesome South Indian version.

3. If you do not have a microwave safe idli maker, you can make these in small glass bowls.

Coffee And White Chocolate Cookies

I was finally able to make perfect cookies! They were a bit chewy, soft and absolutely amazing. You can't go wrong with coffee and chocolate right?

Don't they look great? At least from whatever you can make out from this crappy photo.

Coffee and White Chocolate Cookies (makes about 14 extra large cookies)


-- minimally adapted from Joy the Baker


2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chopped white chocolate chunks
1 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 medium sized eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tbsp instant coffee powder like Nescafe or Bru

Mix all the dry ingredients except white chocolate and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugars and butter till light and fluffy. Add the eggs & vanilla and beat for about 2 minutes taking care not to overwork the butter.

Add the dry ingredients and mix till a sticky dough forms. Fold in the white chocolate chunks with a spatula.

Plop the cookie dough by the tablespoon or randomly shape them up onto your baking tray. Freeze for about an hour and bake at 140C for about 20 minutes or till golden brown.

NOTES:

1. I used a hand blender to cream butter and sugar. It will take you a longer time when mixing by hand.
2. Cookies come out slightly underdone but cook up when you leave them out to cool.
3. Freezing the dough does not let them spread, saving space on your baking tray.

OMG Brownies

These aren't really called OMG brownies but one bite and you'll want to eat the whole bar in one go - they are THAT good! Personally, its the best thing I have made in the last one year. I was expecting them to be more like cake however, they came out perfect, absolutely decadent - squidgy in the middle with a crusty, crackled top. This is sinful people and it doesn't help my weight loss goals. Who cares though! Make them and have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ohmygod brownies (makes enough for one glutton to get sick on)
-- recipe from 500 Classic Chocolate Recipes, Felicity Forster, bought at 60% discount!


150g dark chocolate (I used Morde which isn't really the best, gonna try with Lindt 70% dark next time)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C and prepare a loaf tin (grease and flour it). Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe dish and mix well till no lumps remain, add the oil once the chocolate is well dissolved. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add to the melted chocolate, stirring constantly with a whisk or a spatula. The mixture will begin to thicken at this stage.

Whisking lightly, fold in the flour and sugar. Mix in the vanilla and baking powder just before putting in the oven. The original recipe indicated a baking time of 15 minutes though mine took well about 35 minutes to bake. I prefer a more cake like texture than a chewy brownie so if chewy is your thing, reduce the baking time by 10 minutes.

NOTES:

1. You can add nuts or berries after you have incorporated the flour and sugar.

2. I know the cardinal rule of baking is to mix all the dry ingredients together but I chose to add the baking powder at the last stage because it tends to lose its potency when given wait time so just shove the pan in the preheated oven once you've added the baking powder.

3. The batter is relatively thicker than cake batter.

4. Absolutely DO NOT use regular chocolate like Cadbury for this. Please, please use cooking chocolate. Delhi folks can find Morde cooking chocolate at Le Marche and Modern Bazaar. If you have friends coming from the states, ask them to get you Ghirardelli or Valrhona.