Quick Pan Handvo (Gujarati Instant Handvo)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 17: Q for Quick Pan Handvo

Q was one of the tough letters to find a dish in Gujarati cuisine (I guess it's difficult in many cuisines). I was almost tempted to make 'Qesar Shrikhand' but it seemed a little odd, so I finally ended up making Quick Pan Handvo instead.

Handvo is a popular Gujarati snack. It is a baked spicy lentil cake made with a fermented batter of rice, lentils and spices. It is crispy on the outside and soft inside. It has been on my to-make list for quite a long time. I was hoping to try the traditional version for this mega marathon, but Oondhiyu dictated the letter selection, so Handvo has to wait for now.

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Baghrir (Moroccan Semolina Pancakes)

Buffet on Table: Breakfasts across Countries

Day 19: Moroccan Baghrir with Honey-Butter Sauce

Today we are going to Morocco for breakfast with these semolina pancakes called Baghrir. They are soft and spongy yeasted pancakes that just melt-in-your-mouth.

The yeast in the batter causes hundreds of bubbles to form and break on the surface of the pancakes as it cooks. This gives baghrir it's unique texture and appearance. Correct consistency of the batter is very critical for the bubbles to form, if the batter is too thick or thin, bubbles can't form.

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Semolina Wholewheat Bread

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Semolina Bread from Sandhya's My Cooking Journey
My theme for the final week of this month's marathon is 'bookmarked recipes'.  It is almost impossible to pick just 3 dishes from my ever growing list of bookmarks, so I narrowed my search to just breads. After the month long mega baking marathon from April, I have many breads and other baked goodies bookmarked -- I thought this will be the beginning of many I tried from those.
First up is Sandhya's 'Semolina Bread'. Her pictures really won me over and I immediately bookmarked it to try soon. I actually made the bread twice since she posted.

Semolina bread has been on my to-try list for a very long time. But most of the recipes I saw, needed a covered cloche or a special baking utensil. Also most of them looked very crusty and chewy. Since my family prefers soft, sandwich bread I never got around to try any of the recipes.

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Pizza Dough with Semolina

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 5
Bake of the day: Pizza Dough with Semolina

I have tried quite a few pizza crust recipes in the past and I think I found couple of recipes that I really like and work very well -- like this whole wheat crust and this regular pizza dough. But when I saw this pizza dough with semolina recipe in one of the King Arthur catalogs, I really wanted to try it out.

I have never used semolina in baking before and I remember one of my friend telling me that fine sooji is a good substitute. I had to ask my blog buddies to find out if they ever used sooji in baking and they confirmed that they were able to successfully bake with sooji. So I went ahead and made the pizza dough with sooji.

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Oman -- Khabeesa (Cream of Wheat Pudding)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days

Country: O for Oman

Dish: Khabeesa (Cream of Wheat Pudding)
We are moving on to Oman today. This is the only country that I know of that starts with an O, so I'm pretty sure what most of my fellow BMers have picked today :-)
Oman is an Arab state in Southwest Asia. Oman is an absolute monarchy in which the Sultan of Oman exercises ultimate authority, but its parliament has some legislative and oversight powers.
Omani cuisine is very similar to most of the Middle eastern cuisines. Dishes are based around chicken, fish, lamb as well as the staple of rice. Most Omani dishes contain a rich mixture of spices, herbs and marinades.

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Cheela (Vegan Omelette) & Vegetable Upma

It is Spring break time for my son this week and making interesting meals for him has been a challenge for me. So I referred to the cookbook 'India: The Cookbook' by Pushpesh Pant and found this quick and easy Cheelas. I've always wanted to make these vegan omelettes, but never got around to make them. My son really liked them and gobbled up a couple with some ketchup. They taste the best when served hot out of the pan.

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Karnataka -- Pathir Pheni with Almond milk

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 13
State: Karnataka
Dish: Pathir Pheni with Almond milk

After exploring the states from the North, we are travelling to southwest India today to Karnataka. It was created in 1956 and was originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed as Karnataka in 1973. Karnataka shares a border with my home state Andhra Pradesh and the language spoken, Kannada, has some similarities to our language, Telugu. Kannada script is also similar to that of Telugu. So I can probably say that I understand and read about 5% of Kannada.
When I was about 12 years old, my dad took us on a vacation to places in Southern India. We visited some famous touristy places in all 4 southern states. I still remember the beautiful Mysore Brindavan gardens, especially the light show at night. Hampi, Bellur, Halebeedu, Shravanabelogola are some of the places I still remember. My mom still has the pictures from our trip.

Cuisine: Kannadigas (people from Karnataka) make a wide array of snacks, main dishes and desserts. The variety of dishes they make with just rice and flattened rice is mind boggling. Karnataka's cuisine includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes that have influences from the neighboring regions and communities. South Karnataka is famous for its typical dishes like Bisi bele bhath, Jolada Rotti, ragi rotti etc., Famous Masala dosa traces its origin to Udupi cuisine. Coastal Karnataka is famous for its tasty seafood specialties and pork curries. Coorg, the hilly district in Kodagu has its unique cuisine that includes spicy meat dishes.
Staple Food: Rice, Ragi, Sorghum etc.,
Specialties: Jolada Rotti, Ragi mudde, Uppittu, Maddur Vada, Dharwad peda, bisibele bhath, Vangi bhath, Kesari bhath, Chiroti, Chitranna, Avalakki, Mandakki.

Today's Dish: During our Kaaja making session, I was chitchatting with my mom and was telling her about the mega marathon and the dishes I had planned to make for each state. For Karnataka, I told her I had planned to make Chiroti, but they sounded so much similar to kaaja that I was planning to change it to something else. My mom said she tasted chirotis long time back at a kannadiga friend's wedding and she said there is no comparison between kaaja & chiroti and both of them belong to different category altogether.

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Rava Dosa with Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Instant Idlis/ Dosas
Dish: Instant Rava Dosa with Brown Rice flour

For Day 2 of BM# 34, I have instant Rava dosa. I love Rava dosa and order it once in a while when we are at an Indian restaurant. There is a fast food place here in New Jersey that serves amazing rava dosa. But  I don't usually make them at home because of all the refined flour/ rawa used. 

So today to make our beloved rava dosa (just a tiny little bit) healthier (and not feel too much guilty), I added brown rice flour in place of white flour. There is no discernible difference in either the taste or the texture of the dosas, so I'm happy to report that rava dosas will be made with brown rice flour here on out in my house.

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Oats Rava Idli (Instant Oats Idli)

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Instant Idlis/ Dosas
Dish: Oats Rava Idli

Today we are starting 2ndvweek of BM# 34 and my theme for this week is 'Instant Idlis/ Dosas'. I'm one those lazy people who always forgets to soak dal and rice for idlis and dosas, but dreams of fluffy idlis and crispy dosas. I wake up one morning craving for a good homemade South Indian style breakfast, but alas somebody forgot make the batter(!!!!!) So most of the time I'm making these instant idlis and dosas to satisfy my cravings.

I mostly make adai (mixed lentil dosas) or pesarattu (moong dal dosas) which require minimum soaking time and no fermentation time. But for the next 3 days, I'm going to post recipes that require no soaking time to up to a maximum of 30minutes soaking time. They are great for mid-week or even mid-day idli/ dosa cravings.

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Carrot Ravva Laddu

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

I reached out to my cousins and friends to contribute to Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 Ingredient fix event that I'm hosting here this month. I'm so happy that they took time from their busy schedules to make some of their kids favorite dishes and send them over to the event. 

First recipe comes from my friend Jyothy, who lives in Portland, Oregon and has a most lovable little daughter, Raaga. Though I haven't seen Jyothy in over 12 years, I've been in virtual contact with her on Facebook. Thanks to the world wide web and to Facebook for connecting people together and making the world much smaller (virtually). Here's the recipe for Ravva Laddoo from Jyothy that she made healthier with the addition of grated carrot. She says these are Raaga's favorite and she enjoys them for breakfast and dinner.

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Carrot Kheer

As I was thinking of dishes to make with carrots, I realized that carrots are probably one of the very few vegetables that I eat in a dessert. I've seen a number of other vegetables being made into desserts like halwas with bottle gourd, green peas, etc, but I've never made them myself. May I should give them a try in the near future.

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ICC June - Pati Shapta

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC), Valli chose a Bengali dessert usually made during the Sankranthi season. I have missed quite a few ICC challenges but when I saw this scrumptious dessert, I knew I had to make them.

I thought Pati Shapta were Indian version of French crepes that are filled with delicious coconut-khoya filling and drizzled with sweet syrup. They were easier to make than the French crepes and the filling was to die for. We thoroughly enjoyed these and the reheated leftovers taste just as good.

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Mixed Vegetable Upma

For Day 3 of BM# 16 under "breakfast" theme, I made a super simple and comforting upma. Growing up, I was not a big upma fan. But now that I'm older and wiser, I realized how quick and easy making upma is and the dish can be dressed up or down as per the occasion.

As I was looking for breakfast recipes in Mallika Bhadrinath's "100 Tiffin Varieties", I found this vegetable upma variation. I thought the addition of tamarind with mixed vegetables was interesting and decided to give it a try. This upma is slightly spicy and tangy and a great variation to regular plain upma. Definitely worth a try!!

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Karachi Dosa (Savory Indian Crepes)

Vegan Mofo Day 24:

Hope all of you (in this part of the world) are gearing up for Thanksgiving. It's going to be just the three of us this year and I'm planning to make a All-Vegan feast tomorrow. I'm still working on the menu (or rather checking the pantry to see what I can make). Will keep you guys posted in tomorrow post.

I made these dosas (crepes??) for dinner tonight. Recipe is from a Telugu newspaper, Eenadu and they called them Karachi dosas, I'm not sure why and how Karachi got involved with this dosa, but it doesn't matter, the resulting dosas were quite yummy.

Ingredients:

Sooji (Semolina) - 1 cup

Maida (All purpose Flour) - 1 cup

Rice flour - 1 cup

Onion - 1 small, finely chopped

Green chilies - 3, finely chopped

Ginger - 1tsp, grated

Mustard seeds - 1½ tsp

Cumin seeds - 1tsp

Fresh Coriander - 2tsp, finely chopped

Yogurt - 2tbsp (I used soy yogurt)

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Whisk semolina, AP flour & rice flour in a medium bowl. Add water and whisk into a smooth batter with no lumps. I ended up adding about 3 cups of water.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a small sauce pan and add mustard and cumin seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the oil to the batter.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Cover and rest for at least 1 hour.
• Heat a non-stick or cast-iron griddle on medium-high flame and once ready, pour the batter one ladle at a time to make a round dosa/ crepe. Here's a pictorial on how to make rawa dosas. Thanks Sailu.
• Once done, serve hot with your favorite chutney. I served with Sreelu's no-cook, no chop Chutney & green pepper Sambar.

Grilled Pizza

So after having Burgers with home-made buns for our first veggie bbq, the next logical dish to make seemed to be Grilled pizzas. I found an awesome recipe for perfect grilled pizza on King Arthur’s site. This is my go-to website for all things baking, they have so many different recipes, some of which are guaranteed by KAF and I absolutely love their blog as they have step-by-step recipes of some very yummy bakes. If you don’t know about KAF, do check them out here.

Coming to the recipe, I made this recipe twice already and it’s been a big hit both times. Recipe is very easy to put together and the dough is very easy to handle as well. We made both thin & thick crust pizzas with the dough and both of them were excellent. My only addition is 2tbsp Extra virgin Olive oil to the dough.

Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients:
All purpose Flour – 2½ cups
Semolina flour – ¼ cup (I used fine Sooji from Indian store)
Whole-wheat flour – ¼ cup
Yeast – 1tbsp Salt – ¾tsp
Water – 1cup, luke warm @ 110ºF
EVOO – 2tbsp
Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Stir in the salt, EVOO, semolina & whole wheat flour.
  
• Gradually add in all-purpose flour until it forms a ball.
  
• Remove from the bowl and knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth, for about 10 minutes.
  
• Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
• Degas the dough after 2 hours and let rise again for another 40 minutes. Now, punch it down and divide into smaller pieces and roll into pizzas: We made 6 individual thin crust pizzas the first time and for our second attempt, we made 5 individual thick crust pizzas.
  
• Heat the grill to medium hot; gently drape the rolled dough on the grill grate (either directly on the grill or you can buy a pizza grill topper) and grill for 1-2 minutes. This should be long enough to make it stiffer; brush EVOO on the grilled side and top with your favorite toppings. Grill for another 4-5 minutes until the toppings are hot and cheese is melted. Enjoy right away.
  

I think grilled pizzas are quick and easy to EAT and have an awesome smoky taste. My choice of toppings (pick all for a supreme loaded pizza or pick 1 or 2 toppings): Caramelized onions, Sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, grilled veggies (like eggplant, red onion, peppers etc), tandoori paneer (paneer marinated in tandoor spices and grilled) and lots of cheese (of course). Enjoy!!