Breakfast Ideas

Kadala curry

| Rekha Vengalil


You need –

  • Black/brown chickpeas – 3/4 cup
  • shallots – sliced, 1/2 cup
  • Tomato – 1 large
  • Mince garlic – 2 teaspoons
  • Minced ginger – 2 teaspoons
  • Green chili – 1 slit
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Chili powder – 1 teaspoon
  • Meat masala – 2 teaspoons
  • Turmeric powder –1/4 teaspoon
  • Garam masala – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Dried red chili – 2
  • Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Coconut milk – 2 tablespoon
  • Whole spices
    • Star anise –1
    • Green cardamom – 2
  • For dry roasting –
    • Freshly grated coconut – 1/3 cup (packed)
    • Whole black pepper –1 teaspoon
    • Coriander seeds – 1.5 tablespoons

How to–

Wash the chickpeas in several changes of water and then soak overnight or for at least 8 hours. Pressure cook the peas with enough water till done. Set aside.
 
Heat a frying pan and dry roast all the ingredients under “For dry roasting” till brown but do not burn them. In a blender, blend the roasted coconut with just enough water to make a fine paste. Set aside.

 

 
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the mustard seeds, red chili, curry leaves and whole spices. once the seeds have crackled and the spices are fragrant; add the onion, ginger, garlic, green chili and fry till the onions are translucent and the raw smell of ginger garlic is gone.
 
Now add the Chili powder, Meat masala, Turmeric powder and cook till the oil start to separate. Add the tomatoes, salt and cook till mushy.  Add the coconut paste and cook briefly.
 
 
Add the cooked peas along with 1.5 cups of chickpeas stock or water. Cook till the gravy has reduced to the constancy as required.
 
Add the coconut milk, garam masala and stir well. Turn off the heat and serve hot with Puttu, Roti or steamed rice.
 
 

 

Cranberry, raisin and walnut loaf

| Rekha Vengalil
Hope you had a wonderful Diwali with lots of fun and great food. Yes! We did too. 
 
Ah! Now it’s time for thanksgiving and Christmas. My little one is so excited and has already made her Christmas shopping list. This Christmas I have promised her that we will do lots of baking together. The two of us are so looking forward to it.  
I have started off with my baking for the season. And if it’s Christmas it must be cranberries. This soft loaf with the crunchy walnuts, tangy bits of cranberries, the sweetness of raisins is scrumptious and so ideal to get baking for the season.



Recipe source – Simply recipes

You need  –

  • All purpose flour -2 cups
  • Caster sugar – 3/4 cup 
  • baking powder – 1.5 teaspoons 
  • baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon 
  • salt 1/2 teaspoon 
  • walnuts – 3/4 cup, coarsely chopped 
  • dried cranberries – 3/4 cup, roughly chopped
  • Raisins – 1/4 cup
  • orange juice – 3/4 cup 
  • butter – 1/4 cup, melted
  • Egg – 1, beaten

How to –

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan.
 
In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the walnuts, cranberries, raisins to flour mixture and mix well to coat. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, Add the melted butter, egg and orange juice. Beat will till well combined. Now slowly add the flour-cranberry mixtures to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon till everything is just blend.
 
 
Spoon the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the loaf.
 
Cool the loaf for 10 minutes in pan and then on a wire rack. 
 

Storing – Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator once cooled completely.



Nectarine & Apple Jam – A guest post

| Rekha Vengalil

 

I have been quiet about inviting my blogger friends and co-bloggers for guest posting. Now, after a long gap I have a guest over to share a lovely recipe with us. 

She was the first one who dropped a comment on my blog and my first blogger friend.  Though I met her here in the blog world, it feels like we have known each other for ages. A friend I dot on for every little thing be it about blogging, photography or where to download new fronts from. She has been always there to help. 

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Meena from elephants and the coconut trees, a blog featuring some mouth watering recipes with very crispy & creative photography. I truly admire her style and the way she plates her dishes. Her food stories that are woven around her childhood/growing up years sure takes you through the memory lanes. 
 
All her recipes get me drooling, yet here’s a few of my favorites from her blog that came quickly to my mind. Do Visit her blog for great recipes.

 

Meena, I can’t thank you enough for doing the guest post and so excited about sharing this wonderful recipe and so so beautiful pictures with my dear readers.
 
Now, over to Meena…
 
Hello lovely people,
 
This is Meena, the hand behind the blog  elephants and the coconut trees . I am from Kerala, India currently living in California with my techie husband and tween. I am a big time foodie and  enjoy most cuisines barring a few meats. 
 
My cooking is the reminiscent of the comfort food I grew up eating and some that are newly acquired .The blog  becomes my food memoir in the making where like minded people come , we laugh and we literally converse which I think is the best part of having a blog. Never thought I would make so many friends virtually.
 
 Love spending time photographing food , a learning process and a challenge I happily take up. I click until I am pleased .Sometimes a  post can  wait for months to get the right set of pictures .I am self taught and not an expert in food photography but I judge my work I should say very harshly.If it is not appealing to me then the  blog does not see it. I think that pushes me a lot. I am very passionate about the blog and love to write what is in my heart and not go by dates,deadlines or keep up with Joneses:).Perhaps that is the reason so many of us are having a blog, nothing dictates right!
 
 
Coming to the recipe, I have never made jam till this year nor did it ever strike me to make at home until my daughter repeated asked for a bottled one every time we were in store I was reluctant as I knew jam would be the main meal and bread would be name sake  :)).. So just decided to make some without preservatives,dyes or additives. This is my third attempt of jam making u see here :). I totally understand why women in the West brag about the homemade jams and preserves I mean it tastes awesome when compared to store bought ones.
 
My ancestral home in India has big backyards and large farm lands so every year summer vacation was spent eating  jack fruits, mangoes and tamarind. Can you imagine the state of the stomach !:))) Tamarind pods would leave the mouth so sore that finally even water burns :)). It was beyond our capacity to finish all this  in raw state so only those went for preserves and pickles.We were also sent a large chunk of those in every form possible :))
 
 At home mango,guava,banana, rose apple, mulberry etc were eaten only fresh.There was no excess… come on! what are friends for, to share the produce right !! More over my folks never approved of bread and jam as a satisfying breakfast. Bakery bread used to be served only with stews.Indians by large go for a savory breakfast, their preference of  fiery spice could be the reason behind the wide variety of pickles available there than jams.

 
 
How about some bread, butter and homemade jam!! Ya !there is a glass of milk in the background but you will need a torch to see that lol..
 
 
Apple is used here to get the jelly like end product as it contains high amounts of pectin..Use just ripe fruits for best results.
 
Ingredients:
White nectarine-5
Apple -1(any kind)
Sugar- 3/4 – 1 cup
Lime juice- 1/2 of 1
 
Method
  1. Wash and wipe the fruits . Discard seed need not remove the peel as it becomes soft and not visible in the jam.Slice nectarines into bigger pieces and chop the apples as nectarines cook faster than apple.
  2. In a heavy bottom pan combine all the ingredients and cook on a low to medium flame till the juices from the fruits come out then reduce flame and allow it to thicken by stirring often.If u stir for too long then the jam will lose its thickness and become watery. See all the water!all that came from the fruit!So don’t be tempted to add even a drop of water.

 

 
 
 
   3. Do not mash the fruit too much as the elasticity of pectin is lost and tends to become        watery.
   4. A good rule of thumb is when you separate the jam with the spatula it should part in          the middle and form a path (see bottom pic)then the jam is ready.
  5. Pour the jam into a clean dry jar while it is still hot and let it cool then put the lid and       enjoy for breakfast or like my daughter does scoop whenever  she wants some 🙂
 
 
Note:
  • Any fruit that you like could be used to make jam.
  • As the jam cools down it will thicken a bit more.
  • It tastes best when made in small quantities.
  • Since no sealing and canning is done store the jam in the fridge after 2 days for up to 3 weeks.
  • Make the jam on slow flame only .Don’t hurry up:)
 
Thank you Meena for a wonderful recipe and I can’t wait to make this 🙂 Here’s wishing you all the very best and stay blessed always.
 
Dear friends/readers, hope you liked the post and recipe what Meena has shared. We are looking forward to hearing from you and thank you for your time. 
 
See you soon with a new recipe.Till then…

Take care

Oats and walnut muffins

| Rekha Vengalil
 
I have to say, I am not an oats fan (oh yes I like them in my breakfast smoothies); but when I baked my Apples slices with crumbled topping, I quite liked it. And so here’s another oats recipe.
 
These light and fluffy muffins are so easy and quick to whip up.  They are so perfect for your breakfast. Serve freshly baked while still warm and yes don’t forget to butter them.
 

You need –

  • Almond Milk – 1 cup (You can use fresh milk too)
  • Instant cooking oats – 1 cup
  • All-purpose flour – 1 cup
  • Caster Sugar – 1/4 cup
  • baking soda – 1 teaspoon
  • Egg – 1
  • Vegetable oil -1/4 cup 
  • Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Ground cinnamon – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Chopped walnuts – 1/3 cup
 How to –

Preheat oven to 220°c. Grease the muffin tins or line 12 paper muffin liners . Sift the flour, cinnamon, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a bowl, combine milk and oats. Let it soak for 10 minutes.

In a another bowl, beat together egg, vanilla essence and oil for a minute or till well combined. Add the oat-milk mixture and mix well. 

Stir flour mixture and chopped walnuts into wet ingredients and mix till everything is well combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.

 

Peanut chutney

| Rekha Vengalil
 
It’s always a pleasure meeting people and then many leading into a beautiful friendship. Well blogging has just been that for me. I have had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and many have gone to be my good friends today. Yes one of them is Jehanne, the owner of the beautiful blog – “The Cooking Doctor”.  After all our comments on each others blog, chats, calls and finally we met up (yes we did plan to meet up before but somehow we had to postpone).  Many of you know her by now and I don’t think I have to add more but yes she is such pleasant and wonderful person to talk too. Undeniably I treasure such moments and friendships.
 
Over to the recipe; this condiment is for all the peanut lovers out there and comes from my mom’s kitchen. It’s perfect to go with your idili or dosa. I even love it with my rice.
 

You need –

  • Peanuts – 1/2 cup (skin removed)
  • Fresh grated coconut – 1/3 cup
  • green chili- 1
  • Small piece ginger
  • Tamarind – 1/2 teaspoon
  • salt to taste
  • Dried chili – 1 or as per taste
  • Curry leaves – 5-6

For tempering

  • Oil – 2 teaspoon (I use coconut oil)
  • Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
  • dried chili – 2
  • curry leaves – 5-6
 

How to –

In a pan dry roast the peanuts till slightly golden. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add the grated coconut, 5 curry leaves, dried chili, tamarind and fry till the coconut start to just brown. Turn off the heat; put the peanuts, coconut into the blender and with just enough water blend till a smooth paste.
 
Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add the mustard seeds. Once they start to pop add the dried chili and curry leaves.Turn off the heat and add this to the chutney and stir well.
 
 
Serve immediately with dosa or idili.