Instant Rabdi with Malpua (Rajasthani Rabri Malpua)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 
Day 9: I for Instant Rabri with Rajasthani Mawa Malpua
We are starting a new week in a new state today. After all the yummy Bengali dishes from last week I am going on a culinary journey through the desert state of Rajasthan. Again I have a sweet dish to start the week -- Instant Rabdi (Rabri) with Mawa Malpua.

Letter 'I' seemed a little difficult to find recipes for and after looking around the internet, I decided to make 'Imarti', a cousin of jalebi aka jhangri (in the Southern states). It is quite commonly made all over the country and technically cannot be associated with Rajasthan, but I took the plunge and finalized it for 'I'. I watched a few videos and I was confident that I had it all figured out. I set out an afternoon making the Imarti, but unfortunately (sob.. sob..) my imarti were epic failure. They were not juicy and sweet -- instead they were rubbery and sugar crusted :-(

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Chocolate Banana Pancakes

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Chocolate

Dish: Chocolate-Banana Pancakes

Today's dish combines 2 of my kids favorites -- chocolate and pancakes. I've made pancakes with chocolate chips before but never entirely with chocolate. Eating these feels like eating dessert for breakfast which I must admit was thoroughly enjoyed by all (including me).

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Pancakes with Multigrain Flour and buttermilk

Today I have a healthy and nutritious multigrain pancakes. I recently borrowed this 'Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole grain flours' cookbook from the library. I was hoping to find a bread recipe for this month's Breadbakers 'Breads with Ancient grains' theme. Unfortunately most of the recipes in this book had whole wheat flour in them.

But I did find a few recipes that looked very good and these pancakes made with Multigrain flour is one of them. There is a master recipe for multigrain flour mix that can be made in large quantity and kept in the pantry along with your other flours. It can be used in place of or along with other flours in any of your baking recipes.

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Russian Blinis (Buckwheat Pancakes)

Buffet on Table: Breakfasts across Countries

Day 22: Russian - Blinis

We move to Russia for Buckwheat Blini breakfast. Blini are Russian pancakes made with buckwheat flour leavened with yeast and lightened with beaten egg.

I found a ton of recipes for these pancakes, some with just buckwheat flour, some with a combination of wholewheat and buckwheat flours. I followed this recipe that used both flours, but I replaced the all purpose flour with wholewheat pastry flour.

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Strawberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Fruits in any form

Dish: Strawberry-Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

For the second day under Kid's Delight -- fruits in any form theme, I made strawberry pancakes and served them with strawberry maple syrup. My kids love pancakes and waffles for breakfast, but I rarely make them. After a lot of nagging from them, I finally treat them with some pancakes.

Last month, we went strawberry picking and seeing all the beautiful strawberries we got too excited and picked way too much than we can really handle. Strawberries are quite fragile and need to be treated very gently. I sorted them out and put them in a single layer on paper towel lined baking sheets in the fridge.

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Mofo gasy or Madagascar Yeasted Pancakes for #Food of the World

We are visiting Madagascar this month for #Food of the World event. Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The Malagasy cuisine is influenced by Southeast Asian, Indian, Chinese and European migrants who have settled on the island. Rice is the staple food and is eaten at almost all of the meals.

It was quite a challenge to find authentic vegetarian recipes from this Island country. There were quite a few versions of coconut rice that I could have tried but didn't feel like making just rice :-)

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Vietnam -- Crispy Rice & Mung bean Pancakes (Bánh Xèo)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: V for Vietnam

Dish: Crispy Rice & Mung bean Pancakes (Bánh Xèo)
We are visiting Vietnam today. Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia and is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to southwest.
Vietnamese cuisine features a combination of 5 fundamental taste elements/ senses: spicy, sour, bitter, salty and sweet which sounds much like Indian tastes as well. Traditional Vietnamese cooking uses lot of fresh ingredients, minimum use of oil and relies on herbs and vegetables. Vietnamese food is considered as one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide.

Last month's Vegetarian times magazine had a whole spread of Vietnamese dishes and I knew right away that it is going to be Vietnam for V. These rice and mung bean pancakes sounded very similar to Andhra Pesarattu and the stuffing with mushrooms and bean sprouts sounded really interesting to me.

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Raggmunk -- Swedish Potato Pancakes

Swedish version of potato pancakes are very easy to make. All you need is pancake batter and grated potatoes and voila, you have delicious potato pancakes in no time. Traditionally they are served with lingonberry jam, but I totally went savory way and served with topped with some green onions and dunked them in the broccoli soup.

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Potato Latkes (Eggless vegan recipe) with Chunky Applesauce

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: One Dish, Different Countries
Dish: Iranian/ Jewish -- Potato Latkes

When I signed up for this theme I actually wanted to make dumplings from 3 different countries. I even narrowed my dishes to Chinese dumplings, Italian gnocchi and Indian samosas. But with the impending month long mega marathon these dishes seemed too much work and had to change my choice.

Then one day my son came back home and asked me if I had ever made latkes. He said they read a book in school that mentioned about latkes and he wanted me to make them for him. Then I realized I could make pancakes for this week's marathon -- 2 birds at 1 shot.

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Malaysian Apam Balik (Crispy Malaysian Pancakes) -- Eggless Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: One Dish, Different Countries
Dish: Malaysia -- Apam Balik

Day 2 of BM# 38 and today I've Malaysian sweet pancakes for you. Apam Balik is a crispy thin pancake that is usually filled with sweetened peanuts. These are usually sold at specialist roadside stalls throughout Malaysia.
Watch this video to see how expertly the guy makes apam balik. I especially like the technique he uses to take them off the pan.

Traditionally these pancakes are made in brass molds since brass distributes heat evenly and the metal itself is thick and heavy, so food does not scald that easily. This post has clear pictures of the brass molds used to make Apam Balik. I don't own brass pans and have no plans of buying them, so I used a nonstick pan to do the job. After looking all those gorgeous looking pancakes, mine didn't turn out as golden and crispy in the pictures, but they tasted great.

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Kimchi Pancakes (Kimchijeon) -- Vegan recipe

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: One Dish, Different Countries
Dish: Korea -- Kimchi Pancakes

Being a food blogger, I am always looking for new dishes to make. I rarely repeat or make the same dish again unless it is an everyday dish that the family is used to. My husband was saying the other day I cook for the blog and not for them. Mmmmm, I think I'm guilty of doing that, but I don't usually comment when he says that because I need my taste-testers happy and not grumpy.

Talking about new dishes, when I made this Kimchi -- I wasn't actually sure what to use it in. Then I found Kimchi fried rice recipe which I really liked. But as I said before, repeating dishes is something that happens very rarely, I looked for something else to make with kimchi and I found these Kimchi pancakes on the Kitchn and they seemed simple and easy to make with just a few ingredients.

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Whole Grain Pancake Mix

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains 
Dish: Breakfast -- Whole Grain Pancake Mix

We are starting 3rd week of blogging marathon# 35 today and my theme for this week is 'Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains'. This edition of Kid's Delight event is being hosted by Sandhya @ My Cooking Journey. She is looking for kid approved dishes that are made with 'Whole Grains'.

When I signed up for this theme I had a lot of ideas of what I want to make for this week. But then I started thinking if any of those dishes will be approved by my super picky 6 year old son. Then I decided to incorporate whole grains into dishes that he loves and I'm glad that he enjoyed the dishes I made for him. 

For the first day, I referred to the 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking' cookbook and found this whole grain pancake mix recipe. My son loves pancakes for breakfast on weekends and I make them almost every other weekend. This pancake mix is very convenient to have in the fridge/ freezer and pancakes can be made in no time now.

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Unniyappam/ Unni appam (Kerala Style Banana Pancakes)

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Regional Dishes - Course Specific
Dish: Snack --- Unniyappam/ Unni Appam

For Day 3 of BM# 35, I wanted to try any authentic breakfast dish from Kerala. After looking through the google search results for Kerala Breakfast recipes, Appam looked very traditional and authentic. But after seeing a couple of you tube videos, I decided it's not time for me to make appam. We are currently experiencing bitter cold temperatures and I'm sure the appam batter is not going to ferment to make soft & fluffy appams. So I went back looking for other options to make.
Then I came across these Unniyappams/ Unni appams. Saw a youtube video and the recipe looked simple enough to make. I already have a few bananas riping away, so thought this is a good use for those too.

Unniyapam is a traditional Kerala sweet that is offered as prasad in temples and is also served as snack. These can be made by soaking and grinding raw rice, but lazy that I am I found a recipe that uses rice flour instead. I also used much less oil than showed in the you tube video. I skipped the traditionally used coconut bits because my son is not a fan of coconut.

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Scallion Pancakes

This is the second dish that I made for the International Food Challenge. Scallion pancakes have been on my to-make list for a long time and when I saw them on the list of Cantonese dishes to try, I knew I had to make these. I found a recipe using whole wheat pastry flour in Whole Grains Baking by King Arthur flour and made them. They turned out great.

The dough for these pancakes is very sticky and that is how it is supposed to be to get nice and chewy pancakes. Recipe also requires quite a bit of oil, so don't attempt this recipe if you are on a low-fat diet or watching your calorie intake. But you need the oil to make the pancakes less sticky and easy to work with. 

I halved the recipe and made 3 pancakes. They are so addictive, that me and my husband ate them all in one sitting. The best part of the whole recipe is the dipping sauce; salty, sour, spicy and sweet.

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Corn & Scallion Pancakes

Blogging Marathon # 26: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Pick 1 ingredient and Cook from 3 books - Breakfast Combo
Dish: Corn & Scallion Pancakes

When I started looking for breakfast dishes with corn, most of the recipes used cornmeal instead of whole corn. I found this savory corn pancakes recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalog. These can be served for breakfast or even brunch with black bean salsa and a dollop of sour cream.

Recipe uses Sourdough starter and since I'm always looking for ways to use my starter I made these pancakes right away. I made a few changes to the original recipe to make it eggless and add some fiber. Pancakes turned out great - they looked and tasted like cheelas (chickpea dosas/ crepes).

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Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes

I've been thinking on what to make for Kid's Delight-Deceptively Delicious event going on in my blog. My 4 year old used to be very flexible and would eat everything that I gave him, but nowadays he's become a little picky and unpredictable which is why I try to add healthy ingredients to foods that he enjoys and wouldn't notice the "other" stuff that's in it.

He loves pancakes for breakfast, so I sneaked in some sweet potato puree into the yeasted pancake batter that i was making this weekend to boost their nutrition and they turned out delicious too. I used vegan butter and egg replacement powder to make these vegan, but feel free to substitute with butter & egg for a non-vegan version. 

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Soyflour-Chocolate Chip Pancakes for Maitri

All of you foodie bloggers in the US, have you signed up for Maitri yet?? Maitri is foodie friendship chain where you get a box of secret ingredient from a like minded foodie. This is the Videsi version of Arusuvai chain in India. Priya and Reshmi are the organizers for the event and don't forget to check out their blogs for details about Maitri and sign up to get your own secret ingredient.

I got matched with Rashmy who blogs at Amma & baby and I received my mystery ingredient along with a small hint last weekend. She said it's a high protein flour and my first instinct said that it is soy flour and Rashmy confirmed that it is.

Soy flour is gluten free and can be substituted for some of the all-purpose flour in baking which gives the baked goods a protein boost. It also keeps baked goods from going stale. It also adds rich color, fine texture, moistness and tenderness to baked goods.

Today, I used soy flour to make chocolate chip pancakes. I modified the vegan pancakes recipe that I usually use to incorporate the soy flour and added some mini chocolate chips to make them a little fancy since today is yours truly's birthday. Here's how I made them:

Recipe adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - ¾ cup
Soy flour - ¼ cup
Whole wheat pastry flour - ¼cup
Baking powder - 2tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1tsp
Almond milk - 1 - 1¼ cup (Soy milk or rice milk can also be used)
Canola oil - 2tbsp
Agave nectar - 2tbsp
Vanilla Essence - ½tsp
Chocolate Chips - ½ cup

Method:

• Sift flours, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• In a measuring cup, add milk, oil, agave, vanilla essence, whisk until combined.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Some lumps in the batter are OK.
• Heat a skillet on medium flame until nice and hot. Spray with cooking spray and pour ¼ cup of batter for each pancake. Let cook for 2-3minutes or until bubbles are formed to the top. Gently flip and cook on the other side for an additional 1 minute.
• Remove and serve warm with maple syrup and favorite fruits.

Here's a mini Pictorial:

Spelt Pancakes

We are still living in cold and have to endure this for another day as the heating repair guys are "scheduled" to come in tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

For breakfast this morning, I made Spelt pancakes and served them with maple syrup. Recipe is from "Whole Grains Baking by King Arthur Flour". It is an egg-less recipe that is very easy to veganize. I use soy milk and earth balance butter instead of regular milk & butter. The batter needs to rest for 15 minutes which allows the grains to absorb liquid, making the batter fluffier and the baked pancakes smoother to eat. This time-out also lets the leavener a head start, giving a cakier pancake.

Recipe adapted from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour.

Ingredients:

Whole grain Spelt - 2 cups

Sugar - 2tbsp

Baking Powder - 1tbsp

Salt - ¾tsp

SoyMilk - 1¾ cups

Butter - 2tbsp, melted

Vanilla extract - 2tsp (optional)

Method:

• In a medium size bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
• In a another small bowl, mix all the wet ingredients.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.
• Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Heat a griddle, brush lightly with oil and once the surface is hot enough, add ¼ cup full of batter onto the hot surface.
• Let the pancake cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the edges of the cakes, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Flip and cook for another 1 minute until they are golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot with maple syrup and/ or fruit of your choice.

Buckwheat Pancakes

I bought a bag of Buckwheat a while back, after using it once, it got safely stacked away in the back of the refrigerator. With the new house and the moving it took me quite sometime to find it again. So finally it got to see the light of day (not the whole bag, but at least some portion of it) in these pancakes.

Recipe is from Wholegrains Baking by King Arthur flour. Pancakes turned out soft and delicious; addition of molasses made them look darker and burnt but they were just perfect. I froze the leftover pancakes wrapping 2-3 per pack in foil and placed in a freezer safe zip-lock bag; microwaved for a minute or toasted until thawed would make them perfect for a weekday breakfast.

Ingredients:
Buckwheat flour – 1 cup
All Purpose flour – ¾ cup
Baking powder – 2tsp
Baking soda - 1tsp
Egg – 1, large
Buttermilk – 2 cups
Molasses – 2tbsp
Butter – 1tbsp, melted
Salt – ½ tsp

Method:

• In a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking soda & salt.
• In a measuring cup, add buttermilk and melted butter.
  
• Whisk egg with molasses in a small bowl.
  
• Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add all the wet ingredients. Stir the batter swiftly with a few strokes, just until the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened.
  
• Heat a non-stick or cast iron griddle on medium heat. Add 1tsp oil and wipe the griddle with a paper towel so that the whole griddle is nicely greased. Pour about ¼ cup of batter and cook until bubbles form, about 2-3 minutes. Gently flip over and cook the other side for another 1 minute.
  
• Serve with maple syrup or any fruit compote.

These pancakes are quite filling and make a great weekend breakfast. Want to make them for your Dad tomorrow for Father's Day?? Happy Father's day to all Dads. Have fun & Enjoy!!!

Whole-wheat Pancakes

I have always used regular whole wheat flour and I was wondering why my pancakes and other baked goodies were a little dense and tasted too healthy. Until I bought this white whole-wheat flour, which planet was I on all these days?? I guess I was spending too much time in the baby food aisle that I completely missed the baking aisle. But as they say, it is better late than never and I’m so happy that I ran out of my old ww flour.

This recipe is from Vegetarian Bible by Sarah Brown.

Ingredients:

Whole-wheat Pastry flour – 1¼ cups

Whole-wheat flour – ½ cup (Skip WW pastry flour and use 1¾ cups ww-flour)

Wheat Germ – 2tbsp

Baking powder – 1tsp

Baking Soda – 2tsp

Salt – ½tsp

Eggs – 2, well beaten

Butter – 2tbsp, melted

Buttermilk – 1¼ cups

Vanilla extract – 2tsp

Method:

• Whisk all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
• Whisk all the wet ingredients in a small bowl.
• Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until everything is well incorporated. Do not overmix.
• Heat a nonstick skillet on medium flame; add 1 tbsp oil and wipe of with a paper towel. Pour about ¼ cup batter and cook till bubbles form on the top; about 1-2 minutes. Flip and cook for another 1 minute.
  
• Serve warm with maple syrup and fruit.

This is my entry to Mansi's Bread Baking Day: Quick Breads event. BBD is the brainchild of Zorra @ Kochtopf.