Lemonade Concentrate

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Summer Vacation Recipes

Dish: Lemonade Concentrate

Whenever my son thinks he needs money to buy something from school, he asks if he can open a lemonade stand. My answer is always is 'go ahead, but don't ask me to make the lemonade'. He doesn't really get the concept that he has to spend money first to earn later.

But I wanted to make him lemonade anyway because my husband bought 2 huge bags of limes and lemons and as they say when life gives you lemons (and limes), make lemonade. Which is exactly what I did :-)

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Chitrannam and Sihi Bella

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 9: Karnataka -- Chitranna and Vella Avalaki

I have savory and sweet dishes from Karnataka today. It was my daughter's birthday few days back and I wanted to make something special for her. Lemon rice, tamarind rice are usually made for birthdays, festivals and special occasions. So I made Karnataka style Lemon rice and Sihi Bella.

I had this lemon rice aka Chitranna from Indira's blog bookmarked for a long time. Both my kids love peanuts along with potatoes, so this lemon rice with both their favorite ingredients was just perfect. I add enough of them so that they get at least one peanut and a piece of potato in each and every bite.

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Jicama-Avocado Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

I love trying new vegetables and the latest one I tried is Jicama (spelled as hi-ka-mma). Actually I bought it couple of times before, but I was hesitant to use them right away and by the time I was ready, they rotted :-( So this time, I made sure I had a recipe ready and I made it right away.
Jicama also known as Mexican yam or Mexican turnip is an edible tuberous root of a native Mexican vine. I was surprised that it is from a bean family because it almost looks like it belongs to the potato family. Another interesting thing is that the remainder of the jicama plant (except for the root) is poisonous.

Out side of a jicama is yellow and papery and needs to be peeled. Inside is crispy and resembles raw potato or pear. It tastes a little like apple but is not not sweet -- like a bland apple. It is usually eaten raw in salads and sometimes cooked in soups and stir-fried dishes.

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Thai Green Papaya Salad (Vegan Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Cuisine -- Thai Green Papaya Salad
My theme for this week's blogging marathon is pick 1 cuisine and cook 3 dishes. Valli gave us 4 countries to choose from and I went back and forth between Arabian and Thai cuisines, but finally ended up picking Thai. So for the next 3 days I will be posting 3 different courses of Thai dishes.

Today is a very famous Thai salad made with Green Papaya. My husband used to travel to Thailand quite frequently and he had nothing but praise for this Green Papaya salad. He tasted them at many street vendors and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. We were at a party in a Thai restaurant recently where they served Green Papaya salad, it looked amazing but had dried shrimp and fish sauce in it, so we couldn't taste it. But it definitely inspired me to make the salad right away at home.

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Limeade with Brown Cane Sugar (Agua de Papelon)

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Agua de Papelon (Limeade with Panela/ Jaggery)

For the final day of 'Lemon/ Lime recipes', I was thinking of making something sweet. But I'm not a big fan of lemon flavored desserts -- I prefer vanilla or chocolate flavors. As I was looking through 'Viva Vegan' cookbook, I found the recipe for a Limeade with Panela or South American unprocessed cane sugar.

I bought a slab of panela a while back but totally forgot about it until I found this recipe. Papelon or Panela (as it's called in Venezuela and Colombia) is produced by cooking the juice of freshly squeezed sugar cane down to a solid, crystallized mass. I wasn't sure how it would taste because it was really dark in color, I thought it will have a molasses-ish taste but I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted just like jaggery (our own unprocessed cane sugar from India).

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Lemon Oats (Oats Nimmakaya Pulihora)

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Lemon Oats/ Oats Nimmakaya Pulihora

For the 'Lemon/ Lime recipes' theme, I have a very simple and healthy dish with oats today. My husband is not a big fan of oats or may be I should he doesn't like oats cooked in any way. But I like oats, both in savory & sweet preparations like this breakfast oats or this vegetable oats. I usually make these dishes for myself when my husband is traveling :-)

Today's recipe is a healthier alternate to Lemon rice/ Nimmakaya Pulihora. I can eat these lemon flavored oats any time of the day -- filling breakfast or light lunch/ dinner. My peanut loving 2 year old loved it too.

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Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Cilantro-Lime Quinoa

We are starting another week of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Lemon/ Lime recipes'. Adding lemon juice to any dish brings out the flavor and makes it taste refreshing.
I wanted to make Cilantro-Lime rice for today, but used quinoa instead of rice and made this cilantro-lime quinoa. This is a light and fresh tasting dish that is a great alternate to plain quinoa. Lime and fresh herbs make this dish a perfect complement to heavier stews and fried foods, and it's super simple to put together, too, a great plus when there are other dishes cooking on the stovetop.

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Strawberry Mango Gazpacho

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Pick 2 Ingredients & Cook from a Book
Ingredients/ Book: Strawberry & Mango/ Vegetarian Times
Dish: Strawberry Mango Gazpacho

I didn't have to look hard for today's recipe. As I was browsing through this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a very vibrant picture of this Strawberry Gazpacho and I really wanted to make it because the picture was so appealing and I had all the ingredients in hand. This was even before Valli announced this month's BM themes. So I knew right away that one of my combos was going to be Strawberry & mango.

I made this dish twice already and it is so refreshing that I can't stop myself from eating the while bowl all by myself. This is a no-cook recipe and all the ingredients go right into the blender. Lime cilantro cream topping is completely optional, gazpacho tastes great without it as well.

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Quinoa Lemon Pulihora (Revisiting an Old Post)

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Revisiting Old Posts with New Pictures
Dish: Quinoa Pulihora (from December 2009)

This quinoa pulihora is one of the top 10 posts on my blog and it desperately needed a face lift. Quinoa is one of the whole grains that I use quite frequently. Its nutty and I love how it swells up with that lovely saturn ring around it after cooking. 

Quinoa can be used in place of rice in many Indian recipes and this lemon flavored quinoa is one of the quickest and easiest dishes that I make.

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Lime Cookies (Eggless)

Finally after 18 days of waiting we have our kitchen counter and sink fixed. Yay!!! It almost felt like the ordeal was never going to end, but thankfully the Granite guys were really professional and they scheduled the installation as soon as they were fully functional. It feels great to be in my (almost) new kitchen. 

Both the Katlis and the mixture were made when the kitchen was half functioning. I made these cookies after the kitchen got back to normal. 

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Broccoli Pulihora (Lemon Rice with Broccoli)

Peanuts are one of my son's favorite and he loves Lemon rice (pulihora) with lots of peanuts. So to make traditional pulihora a little more nutritious, I added some cooked broccoli. My son seemed to like it with some extra crunch from veggie straws.

Being from South India where rice is the staple food, rice features in almost all of the meals. Growing up, we used to have left over rice made into pulihora (lemon rice) or daddojanam (curd rice) or aloo bhath (potato rice) and the list goes on and on. 

This is my last dish under "Breakfast" theme for blogging marathon #16. As usual it was fun running the marathon and looking forward to the next one that is coming up in June in a new format. Big thanks to Valli for organizing these marathons and coming up with interesting and challenging themes.

 

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Lemon Posset-A Quick & Easy Summer dessert

This has to be the most decadent and the easiest dessert that I’ve ever made. With only 3 ingredients and about 10 minutes of hands-on time, it’s hard to believe the end result could be this tasty AND the technique is almost fool-proof.

When I saw this recipe on the stone soup blog with mouth watering pictures, I know I was going to make it very very soon. And the minute I saw I had some heavy cream leftover after making mango ice cream (recipe following soon), I made it and was not disappointed at all.

Recipe adapted from the Stone Soup blog:
Ingredients:
Heavy Cream – 2 cups
Sugar – 2/3 cups
Lemon juice – 5tbsp
Ground Cardamom (Elaichi) – 1tsp

Method:

• Whisk cream and sugar together and bring to a boil on medium heat.
• Simmer for 3 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and stir in lemon juice and elaichi. Cool for 10 minutes.
• Pour into individual ramekins or bowls. Chill for at least 6-8 hours or overnight.

Here's a Pictorial for making Lemon Posset.

Enjoy this refreshing, lemony dessert anytime of the day and any season of the year. I think this

will be perfect dessert for summer bbq parties.

This goes to Aipi's Bookmarked Recipe Every Tuesday event - 36th edition.

Caribbean Coconut Rice

Vegan Mofo Day 18:

This recipe from Vegetarian Times has been on my list "to-make" for a very long time and last night I made it. It is very simple to make, but is packed with flavor. I wanted to add some Caribbean flavored tofu I had on hand to the rice, but the flavors were too bold and I didn't think my 3 year old would like it much. So I made just the rice (which by the way, the kiddo loved) and tofu separately (I sautéed tofu with some green onions & spinach and seasoned it with coconut milk powder, salt & pepper). Yummy dinner I should say and perfect for a weeknight meal.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times.

Ingredients:

Rice - 2cups, preferably Jasmine rice (I used Blue Ribbon brand long grain rice)

Light Coconut milk - 1½ cups

Ginger - 1" piece, grated

Garlic - 2 cloves, finely minced

Cinnamon stick - 1" piece

Lemon zest - 2tsp, grated

Salt - to taste

White Pepper - ½tsp (or more to taste)

Sugar - 1tsp

Toasted Unsweetened Coconut - 2tbsp (optional)

Method:

• Rinse and drain the rice. Keep aside.
• In a medium sauce pan, heat 2tsp butter (I used Earth Balance butter). Add ginger, garlic & cinnamon stick. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until it starts smell fragrant.
• Add rice and sauté for 2 minutes or until rice turns opaque.
• Add coconut milk, 2½ cups of water, sugar, pepper and salt. Bring to a simmer on medium heat.
• Reduce the heat to low; cover and cook for 15 minutes (no peeking please). Let the rice rest for 5 minutes.
• Fluff with a fork garnish with toasted unsweetened coconut (if using) and serve with any Asian or Caribbean side dish.

This is the first time ever in my life, the rice turned out perfect when cooked in a pot. I'm so used to cooking in the pressure cooker that whenever I try to cook separately in the pot, it either turns out to be mushy or undercooked. Do try this rice and the addition of lemon zest brings a new dimension to the taste. Enjoy!!

Quinoa Pulihora (Lemon Quinoa)

After seeing a huge number of Indianized recipes made with Quinoa by the talented chefs at A2Zvegetariancuisine. I thought of making this nimmakaya pulihora or lemon quinoa. I’m extremely happy to say that the end result was awesome. I enjoyed it thoroughly for lunch, it’s a very filling and yummy dish.

Pic updated March 2013.

Ingredients:
Quinoa – 1 cup
Roasted peanuts – 2tbsp
Chana dal – 1tsp
Urad dal – 1tsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Hing – ¼tsp
Curry leaves – 6-8
Dry Red Chilies – 2
Green chilies – 2, slit vertically
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Lemon/ Lime juice – 2tbsp or more to taste
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Cook quinoa according to package directions; 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water. Add turmeric, 1tsp oil & salt to cooked quinoa, gently toss and set aside to cool.
• In a small saucepan, heat 2tsp oil and add the tempering ingredients: chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds, red chilies, hing and curry leaves. Once the seeds start to splutter add the roasted peanuts and green chilies, sauté for a minute and add this to cooked quinoa.
• Squeeze the lemon juice and gently mix to combine all the ingredients, make sure not to make quinoa mushy. Enjoy with a dollop of yogurt.