Summer Squash, Carrot and Corn Pancakes

Day2 of BM7: Mom and dad stopped by last weekend to see how I was recovering from my sinus issues.Remember my sob story?? Having my folks under the same roof itself was a big blessing and I was feeling way better than I would have if they weren't around. So on Sunday evening when it was time to bid adieu, I asked mom if she was willing to taste a new "snack" that I was going to experiment on hubby and the kid..Naturally she was excited and helped me around in the kitchen. So I made these super simple and super yummy savory pancakes with all the summer bounty that was available in the super-market -- Green Summer Squash, Yellow Summer Squash, Corn. Sending this as an entry to DMBLGIT event help at Dishes from my Kitchen.

This recipe is an adapted version of savory pancakes from the book "In Nirmala's Kitchen:Everyday World Cuisine". The original recipes calls for an egg but since mom is a pure vegetarian,I substituted with a tbsp of milk and it turned out just fine.I served these with ketchup and a nice serving of Orange-Mango juice.Now mom has yet another recipe to try and show-off to her neighbors. Right, ma?

Ingredients(For 14, 3.5" Pancakes):

• 2 Green Summer Squash or Zucchini, shredded
• 2 Yellow Summer Squash, shredded
• 1 Red Onion, Grated
• 1 Large Carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/3 Cup Seasoned Italian Style Bread Crumbs
• 2 Large Cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 Fresh Corn, shucked and kernels removed from the cob
• 1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Tsp Corn Starch or Rice Flour
• 1/2 Tsp Baking powder
• 1/4 Tsp Salt + as needed
• 1/2 Tsp Cracked Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Milk or more (For binding) 
• 1/2 Cup Feta Cheese or Shredded Parmesan Cheese, Optional
• Corn Oil, for shallow frying

Procedure:

• Add the grated squash and onion in a colander along with some salt and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. 

• Ten minutes later, squeeze the excess moisture with hands or using a cheese cloth.

• Add the shredded Carrot, Corn and everything else except the oil to the above mixture and combine.

• Divide the mixture into 12-14 even balls. Heat a wide non-stick pan coated with little corn oil.Pat the balls into thin patties and cook it in batches, undisturbed for about 2 minutes or till its slightly browned.

• Flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so.

• Remove to a plate to cool for about 3-4 minutes prior to serving.Serve with tomato ketchup.

• Watch it vanish.

Enjoy!

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Banana Nut "Jumbo" (Heart-Shaped) Muffins

For BM7, I have chosen the theme "Cooking From Books". Like any other food blogger I am a cook-book hoarder. I have 100+ books that I have collected over a decade. Whenever I am upset I flip the pages of a cookbook. They are an instant moodlifter. How about you? ?

Coming to this recipe - Recipe adapted from "Gifts from the Kitchen(ISBN: 978-1-4075-7901-6)". When I used to work in NYC, I always used to grab big fat muffins from Guy and Gallard, Starbucks and other small cafes. I always felt they are more like my kinda muffins because of their size- they are very filling and it kept me going until lunch without any hunger pangs.

About a month ago when I went to Costco to pickup my usual stuff, I saw a guy loading up big trays of Jumbo muffins. I thought to myself, why don't I ever make those at home. Hmm, why is that? Could it be because I don't have a Jumbo Muffin Pan. Perhaps. The next logical thought in my mind was if ramekins would do double-duty as muffin makers.??!!??? The following day, I was putting my thought into action. Some 30-minutes later, Voila`: Moist,sweet and nutty Jumbo Muffins ready to savored.

Ingredients(For 9 "Standard" Muffins or 3 "Jumbo" Muffins):

• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Over-ripe Bananas, roughly smashed
• 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Toasted Chopped Walnuts
• 1 Egg, at room temperature
• 1/4 Cup Butter, melted or 1/4 Cup Yogurt ( I used Butter this time)
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Tool:

• 7 oz/0.21 liter capacity Heart-shaped Fluted Oven-safe Muffins

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Sift Flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl.

• Cream eggs, sugar, vanilla extract together in another wide bowl. 

• Add the melted butter and olive oil and combine with an electric mixer.Add the roughly smashed bananas to the wet ingredients.

• Transfer the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.Mix only till combined.

• Add the toasted walnuts and mix gently.

• Divide the batter evenly among the ramekins.

• Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees F. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F and bake for 5-7 minutes till the tops are browned.

• Cool the jumbo muffins for 10 minutes before enjoying it with a dollop of butter/jely and a steaming cup of Black Coffee/Tea.

Makes 3 "Jumbo" Muffins or 9 "standard" muffins.

Enjoy!

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Skillet "Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon" Fry

I am back. If you asked me what outlook I had on life this past dozen-days and if I was to sum up my feelings into one word, its "BITTER". As bitter as an uncooked Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon if you ask me. But not to worry, just like how a bitter melon transforms into a mouthwatering dish after a bit of TLC, I will too-From Bleak to Better, that is! My 10-day antibiotics course got over yesterday and I feel much much better already. I am eating plenty of Yogurt and Yogurt-based dishes to re-introduce the good bacteria that the anti-biotics "inadvertently" killed from my system. Working out has resumed and things are falling back into place.

The one thing I am not looking forward to is cleaning the house. Yes, 2 weeks of slacking has compounded my chores and I have plenty of cleaning up to do. My house is a mess and that is not how I intend it to be when my In-laws arrive next week.  The next few months are going to be fun-filled and interesting. You may look forward to more traditional recipes that I plan on learning from MIL. Happy Happy is me. :). And I plan on teaching her a few recipes I learnt since the last time she visited, like this one. I usually cook my Bitter Melon with a bit of Jaggery(raw sugar) but this dish tastes yummy even without that. Thanks to Suja of Kitchen Corner for posting this wonderful recipe.My hubby and I have grown extremely fond of this curry that we have with Sambhar(Lentil and Vegetable Stew) and rice almost on a weekly basis.The original recipe was so good that I didn't have to change anything at all except omitting the coconut chunks. Yum! Read about the health benefits of this Vegetable here.

Ingredients:

• 6 Small Bitter Melon/Gourd
• 1 Tbsp Corn Starch or Rice Flour
• 1 large Yellow Onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 6-7 Green Chili, vertically slit without halving
• 1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 Tsp Chili Powder or as needed
• 3-4 Tbsp Canola Oil
• Salt as needed
• A few grinds of Black Cracked Pepper

Procedure:

• Wash the Bitter melon thoroughly in cold water and pat dry.

• Thinly slice the bitter melon and take out the seeds.Add it to a bowl. Add the Corn starch, Chili Powder, Turmeric Powder to the chopped melon.

• Mix them all thoroughly and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

• Heat the oil in a pan and fry the melon with little salt for 5 minutes.

• Add the chopped onion and green chili and fry for an additional 5-6 minutes.

• Check for taste.Cracked pepper may be added if more heat is preferred.

• Serve this delicious curry with Sambhar or with White rice and Yogurt.

Note:

• True to its name this Vegetable is indeed "very very" bitter. So it really does need all the 4 Tbsp of oil, all the heat from the green chili, chili powder and cracked pepper plus the 10-12 minutes of frying to "offset" some of its bitterness. 
• Use a non-stick pan to really fry the melon. Frying it helps getting rid of some of the bitterness.

Enjoy!

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North Arcot "Eggplant Serva" -A guest post for Friendship Chain and a sob story

Pain ... has a structure. It has a floor plan. It has designs more intricate than a chambered nautilus(a marine creature), features more baroque than the most buttressed Gothic cathedral.... it is a poem.
   --DAN SIMMONS
If you are all wondering what the heck I am talking about, read on.. I have a story to tell..Sometimes pain makes people poets, for me its "story-teller" mode or whine mode,call it as you please. Oh where do I begin? It all started a few months ago when I decided to put my son in daycare.It was the fateful time when my son who was my brightest spot also became my "greyest" cloud. Yeah, since the time when he started going to daycare, the whole family's immune system has been through a rigorous beating. So amongst all the array of misfortunes, one was dubbed as the worst by me and hubby-It was a bad, bad, really bad cold virus that we named as "THE MUCUS MAKER". In all my life I have never had to deal with a mucus so green-yellow-grey and so sticky that it could be an excellent substitute for glue. It was persistent and lasted for many many days that Kleenex company was making a profit just by selling to our family.So it came and it went and it came again last week. I was busy focusing on getting certain things in order before my In-Laws arrival(YaY!!!) that I didn't take care of myself properly when this Mucus Maker hit me the second time(Awwww)!
         So this plethora of mucus didn't get properly drained from my system,it triggered another first for me-- Infection of the maxillary sinus - Ow Ow Owwwwwwwww. I thought I had tooth ache,then I thought I had an ear infection, then I thought my eyes were gonna pop-out due to some internal pressure.But it was all of the above rolled in the form of this "weird" condition.I have never experienced such a thing before. I couldn't sleep a wink in the night.I was howling and moaning like a sad puppy that got kicked by a naughty boy.  I wanted to go to the ER but then I thought, I wasn't going to die just yet. Besides my dad's voice in my head kept telling me to learn to experience pain with grace. Plus plenty other Blah Blah Blah were passing in my mind like "what doesn't kill one makes them stronger"..So I decided to wait till morning and call my doctor, begged his assistant for an appointment.I drive my SUV at a break-neck speed for the visit..never was I so eager to see anyone.
          The good doc tells me that this acute condition has a name and that is MAXILLARY SINUSITIS. He has put me on a powerful anti-biotics dosage for 10 days and I am to patiently wait till all the infection clears up all the while battling anti-biotic side-effects like upset stomach,nausea, sending my taste-buds on a vacation etc etc. The decongestant nasal spray is entirely another sob-story. Its stink rivals that of the skunk spray! Twice a day, everyday, for 10 consecutive days, I feel like a skunk came and sprayed right up my nostrils! Its at times like this one has to remember to eat healthy and stay healthy. And its all about keeping the freaking immune system rock solid, like the "Rock of Gibraltar". 
         So while I am on the road to recovery taking my own sweet time to heal and getting strong, I didn't want to completely abandon my blog baby..So here is something, a guest post I did for lovely blogger Priya, of Priya's Easy and Tasty for the "Friendship Chain -- Spread the Specialty" started by Anamika.  I wanted to do a special dish indigenous to the region where I grew up and its a tangy wicked eggplant dish that can be eaten with Biryani, Pulav/Pilaf and such. Its called "North-Arcot Eggplant Serva". With a lot of help from my memory, mommy and a little help from this site, I managed to make this authentic dish. Check out the step-by-step recipe here.  
Some pictures of the dish - 

So what are you waiting for? Blog Hop to Priya's and check out the recipe for this delectable North Arcot Eggplant Serva. The picture doesn't do enough justice to the taste.Its so tangy and divine.Also, this dish tastes better the following day when all the flavors has had a chance to hang-out together harmoniously for a few hours.

Note: This dish would taste fabulous with Minty Mutton Biryani, Minty Mixed Vegetable Pulav/Pilaf, Herbed Vegan Fried Rice.

Enjoy!

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Bombay Sandwich

Day 7 of Blogging marathon: The last day of Blogging marathon(6th edition) is all about getting paired randomly with one another participant and swapping recipes from each other's space. So I was paired with SriValli. I don't have to tell many of you who she is.For those of you who don't know, she is the blog author of the extremely popular Cooking for all seasons and Spicing You life. When it comes to blogging she is no new kid on the block. She is also the brain behind this wonderful Blogging Marathon that me and many other girls enthusiastically participate in. I was immensely happy that I got paired with SriValli. Her space has plenty of quick and easy recipe for the current theme that I am blogging about: Cheese. One recipe that caught my eye was the Bombay Sandwich and here is my adaptation of it. Instead of Butter I used "Swiss Cheese".

For those of you who are here for the first time, here are the recipes posted for BM#6:

• Day1: My gargantuan post-work breakfast with Cheesy Eggs on whole wheats Burger bun.
• Day2: Turkish "Spinach And Feta Cheese" Gozleme
• Day3: Spinach and Indian Cottage Cheese "Palak Paneer"
• Day4: Baked Radiattore With Veggies and Cheese
• Day5: Sloppy Joe Tortilla Pizza
• Day6: Berry Cream Cheese Muffins

Now onto the recipe-
Ingredients:
For the Mint-Cilantro Chutney(Makes ~ 1 Cup):

• 1 Cup packed Mint
• 1 Cup Packed Cilantro
• 3-4 Tbsp Red Lentils
• 1" Ginger
• Marble sized Tamarind, cleaned and soaked in 1/4 Cup warm water
• 2-3 Hot Green Chilies
• 1-2 Dry Red Chilies
• 2 Stalks Curry Leaves
• Salt as needed
• 3 Tsp Olive Oil

For the Bombay Sandwich(For 1 Large Serving/2 Small Servings):

• 3 Slices of Pumpernickel Bread
• 4-5 thin Slices of Cucumber
• 5-6 thin Slices Boiled Potato
• 4 thin Slices Tomato
• 2 thin Slices Red Onion
• 3 Wedges(~3-4 Tbsp) Swiss Cheese (I Used Laughing Cow)
• 1 Tsp Olive Oil

Procedure:

• In a pan, heat 1-1/2 Tsp oil and add the red lentils. When it starts turning light brown add both the read and green chilies followed by the ginger and curry leaves. Once the curry leaves start turning crisp, switch off the stove. Cool this and coarsely grind in a blender.

• In the same pan, add the 1-1/2 Tsp Oil and lightly wilt the mint leaves. Takes about a minute.

• Add the Cilantro leaves and switch off the stove. Mix both the leaves and cool.

• Add the leaves to the blender that has coarsely ground lentil mixture along with salt, soaked tamarind and the water it was soaked in.

• Grind it to a fine paste. This is the Mint-Cilantro Chutney.

• Collect the things that you need to assemble the sandwich.

• Spread swiss cheese on one side of all 3 slices. Assemble the sandwich in this order:Slice with cheese side up, 3 tsp of mint-cilantro chutney, 2 slices of cucumber, 3 slices of potato, 1 slice of onion and 2 slices of tomato. Repeat the same thing in the same order one more time.

• Top it with the third slice with the cheese side down.

• In a pan, drizzle 1 tsp of oil and place the sandwich and press it down with a burger press. This step is entirely optional. Let it crisp on one side for a minute. Do not flip.

• Move it to a cutting board. Halve and serve.

Enjoy!

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