a spicy curry with ridge gourd and lamb mince : seasonal vegetables are best to beat the heat...

Yes, even if you eat some meat, the gourd family of seasonal vegetables will keep the system cool and help cleansing as well. This ridge gourd and lamb mince curry scramble is our way to eat a good meal that tastes rich but is light on the system. We have not been eating meats much in this heat as you don't feel like eating anything heavy. Just some iced teas that I keep having on room temperature too, many yogurt based raw recipes and many sprouts based salads are taken as small meals through the day. We just can't have 2 or 3 large meals during Indian summers, the way I do in winters instinctively  just 2 large meals. It is so draining we need to keep having small refreshing meals throughout the day, even if it is a bowl of cucumber and carrot sticks on my work desk.

Ridge gourd is a good source of dietary fiber, both soluble and insoluble type, and is moderately rich in calcium and phosphorous, other minerals are very low. According to Ayurveda it is a cooling and cleansing type vegetable very good for summers.

To proceed with this vegetable you need to peel it diligently. The hard edges are peeled off first to remove the wiry veins on the vegetable, then the skin is peeled off using a potato peeler. I would suggest not peeling too deep if the gourd is tender, but if you get only mature gourds you have no option to remover the skin completely.

The process is easy once the ridge gourd is cleaned. slice lengthwise first and then cut in semi circles or cubes of required size.

ingredients...
(2-4 servings depending on side dishes served)
lamb mince or mutton mince 250 gm
ridge gourd peeled and sliced 6 cups (600 gm)
chopped green chilies 1 tbsp or to taste
chopped garlic 1 tbsp
chopped red onions 1/2 cup
black pepper powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
garam masala powder 1/2 tsp ( I use a strong special home made garam masala)
cumin seeds 1 tsp
mustard oil (or any oil of preference) 1 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure...

Heat oil in a pan, tip in the cumin seeds and wait till they splutter.

Add the chopped green chilies, garlic and red onions. Fry for just a minute and add the turmeric powder and chopped ridge gourd. Mix well and add salt too. Keep stirring on medium heat till the ridge gourd starts wilting.

Add the mince, and the remaining powdered spices , mix well and cook covered on low heat. Stir after every 5 minutes, adding a little water if required. I never required any water to be added in this curry, you might like it a little thinner, add water in that case. Takes about 25 minutes of simmering to be completely cooked.

Take off heat once cooked, adjust seasoning and serve hot with chapatis or plain boiled rice.

This one is made using lamb mince, the same recipe comes out well with mutton mince as well, you might want adjust the spicing for both.

This curry scramble is a nice way to break the monotony of cold summer meals or light khichdi type meals that people mostly prefer. It is spicy, it has meat, very nourishing and still light on the system. Just perfect for summers.

Celery, tomatoes, onion and paneer curried scramble...

Celery keeps me happy till it grows in the garden. I grow it from seeds and it takes ages to germinate but when it grows well, it grows really well. Mostly the stalks are thinner than those available in the market, but it is packed with flavor. I add it in egg scrambles, in lentil soups and in my smoothies but since this is not something I like as much as good old coriander greens, I probably wouldn't like a pesto or chutney made with it, if I want to consume this wonderful healthy herb in larger amounts.

I make tofu or paneer scramble with it, a scone with celery, paneer and crushed peppercorns is an old favorite and I keep repeating this combination for paneer scrambles and curries too. One day when the husband said if I have posted this recipe on the blog or not, as he had been taking this to his lunch box quite often these days and lining it, I had to check if I have. How simpler things get neglected for the more pretentious ones. No more I thought and here it is..

ingredients...
(serves 2, takes about 10 minutes to cook)
paneer 150 gm (home made is better)
finely chopped celery stalk and leaves (1 cup
diced onions 1/2 cup
chopped tomatoes 3/4 cup
crushed pepper corns 1 tbsp
paprika powder 1/2 tsp or to taste
ghee or butter 1 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure...

Heat the ghee in a a pan and tip in the chopped onions and celery together. Saute for 2 minutes and then add the tomatoes and salt and pepper.

Stir and cook till the tomatoes are mushy. Add paprika and crushed peppercorns and mix well.

Scramble the paneer by hands and add to the cooking mixture, stir and mix well and add a cup of water, simmer the curry for about 5 minutes.

This curried scramble tastes good hot or cold. It can be a one pot soup meal if made thinner with more added tomatoes but a curry for chapatis is also good this way. You might like to add some cooked pasta, boiled pearl barley or just some leftover cold rice to make it a wholesome meal.

You could use chicken mince if you like or mutton or lamb mince if you have some time to slow cook this curried scramble, you can't go wrong with such use of celery.

flour less cake with dark chocolate, fresh cherries, balsamic poached strawberries and loads of love...butter cream icing with hint of coffee | gluten free cake...

Flour less cakes are so easy to put together most new home bakers don't realise. Flour just provides body to the cake and the actual flavors are brought in by other ingredients. Yes the airy and porous character comes from white flour but if you have been away from white flour for as long as me you would love the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour and the rustic character provided by Ragi in the cakes. Nut meals are great substitute for cakes especially if you are baking a dark chocolate cake. I have been baking loaf style flour less cakes for the husband but I realised I haven't posted the recipe yet when some friends asked me for the recipe. I had baked this cake and iced it minimally with coffee flavored butter cream for a very dear friend of mine Varsha Tiwary who writes Wholsome Options.

The cake with dark chocolate and coffee was planned keeping in mind Varsha's favorite flavors but I was pleasantly surprised to see her kids Adi and Ana loving it, being excited for the cake while I 'iced' the cake in front of them on demand. They wanted to see it happening. We know how kids love cakes and beautiful looking cakes all the more. I had planned a beautiful cake with a chocolate lacy collar, but as the cake was taken to her place along with lace collar drawn on butter paper strips, it all melted in Delhi heat and couldn't stick to the sides. But who cares when there is so much excitement...

Talking about flour less cakes, they are easier when you aim for rich chocolate in the cake more than fluffiness. I make a lemon cake with almond meal as well and that turns out fairly fluffy. That recipe will be shared later sometime. I just wanted to communicate that flour less cakes are no scary monsters to handle.

Actually I was taken aback when a lady Chef of a five star establishment recently was asking a group of us bloggers and home bakers whether we bake flour less cakes. As if it was some rocket science and we didn't have an idea of rocket fuel. I was miffed at this question and was amused secretly when the flour less cake arrived at dessert time. The cake was so offensively eggy that no one had it after a couple of spoonfuls. But that is another story.

Look at this cake, the picture taken by my cellphone camera as I forgot to carry my camera to Varsha's place. Two excited kids around a casually dressed up cake makes you believe in real food being much much better than the artificial colour of cartoon faced or theme cakes.

Coming to the recipe, I have been baking this Torta Caprese many times with small variations and love the result every time I do it. Here is how I did it this time...

ingredients...

dark chocolate 500 gm (any brand you like, darker the better)
almonds and walnuts mixed 150 gm
sugar 100 gm
vanilla bean 1
(you could use vanilla powder or real vanilla extract too, but you need good vanilla, not essence)
butter 100 gm
cocoa powder 1/3 cup
eggs 5 large

procedure...

• Powder the sugar along with chopped or scissor cut vanilla bean. 
• Powder the nuts together in the same mixer. Keep aside.
• Chop the dark chocolate in small bits, I had kept the dark chocolate slab at room temperature for a day and it cut like pumpkin, Delhi summers I tell you.
• Line the baking tins with parchment paper, keeping a margin above the tin rim so you can pull out the cake easily. No need to grease it.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in double boiler. Whisk till smooth and shiny.

Break the eggs in a separate bowl, whisk lightly. Add the lightly whisked eggs one by one, add the powdered vanilla and sugar and whisk them all together. It will be a dark dark gooey mix.

Add the nut powder to the batter now. I normally sieve it into the bowl so any small bits are prevented form going into the batter. I personally don't like nut bits in a nut flour cake. Whisk together again, but not too much.

Pour into the lined baking tin, I baked a 7 inch diameter round cake and a small 5 inch thinner cake for the husband. You can use any convenient size of tin or bake several small cakes or cupcakes.

Bake at 170 degree C for 40 minutes on the middle rack, keep checking the cake after 30 minutes if your tin is large and height of the cake is lesser. The margins should look dried up and the center of the cake should rise and get firm. The skewer test doesn't work with this cake as the large amount of dark chocolate keeps it gooey even when the cake is cooked. You will see  a few cracks on the surface too.

Take the cake out and let it cool. The center will come to level and you can try loosening the edges by lifting the parchment edge. Invert the cake in a plate when cool and peel off the parchment very carefully.

Let it cool completely before applying the butter cream icing.

Ingredients for butter cream icing..

butter at room temperature100 gm (salted or unsalted white, whatever available, white butter is preferred when the cakes is fruity)
powdered sugar 3-4 tbsp or more if you feel
instant coffee powder 1.5 tsp dissolved in 2 tsp hot water

procedure...

Whisk the butter with a wire whisk until completely creamed and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and whip again to imbibe. Add the coffee and incorporate again by more whipping.

Cover the cake from all sides using this butter cream.

To decorate I used dark cherries. I knew kids would love it and it will still be an adult cake. I melted 1/3 cup of dark chocolate in  cup and coated the cherries in it before arranging them on the base margin. On the cake margin the cherries sit by themselves owing to the butter cream consistency. Though the butter cream started turning soft and melting owing to the higher room temperature...Delhi summers again.

I had poached some strawberries with balsamic vinegar to soak the cake with, butter cream icing was done after I realised the kids were expecting an iced cake :-)

So I just poured the poached balsamic strawberries around the center cherry. The kids swooned and I felt immense pleasure at seeing kids in today's environment swooning for something so simple, real and wholesome. Wholesome options for everyone I say.

I had also made a dark chocolate collar for the cake, but transportation and then the decoration in front of curious kids left the collar melting sticky. It couldn't transfer on the butter cream icing. You would see a small part or the cake's margin with smudged collar. No one cared.

The cake was cut lovingly...

Was enjoyed by all. Pictures were shared with more friends and then came the request to share the recipe. More than the recipe the togetherness, the pleasure and some great time spent giggling, yapping incessantly and then some shopping too....

The balsamic poached strawberries were a perfect foil to round off the dark chocolate flavors with mild sweetness. The icing was also very mild sweet, hint of coffee to just like a faint whiff.

The flavors rounded off well.

And this whole exercise was pure bliss, immense therapy for me. Trust me.

mixed millets pongal : a savory cereal breakfast recipe...

I have been on a roll with millets. There is so much good taste hidden in those small pearls and all these millets take on flavors so well. I have been experimenting with all kinds of millets available for a long time now, earlier it used to be only the recipes that were made at my parental home, but now I make cakes, quiches, pies and even dumplings with millet flours, sourdough breads, rolls and flat breads are common. I know how happy my grandmother would have been seeing me using all these millets and alternative grains. I miss her so much when I experiment with traditional foods. Always get reminded of how she used to enjoy cooking such things.

Talking of spreading love through cooking and sharing food, a reader who became a dear friend over the years I have been blogging started experimenting with millets seeing my various recipes here on this blog. And she would come back to me whenever she would try a new millet. It is a pleasure to see a family adopting the indigenous grains by reading this blog.

Some time ago she found a new organic brand that had a mixed millets pack and she thought of sending that to me. How generous of her, she even sent me a pack of sesame oil from Chennai. This pack had some 4-5 types of millets. Sama, kodo, ragi, amaranth I can recognize. This mix can be soaked and blended to make a fermented batter for dosa or idli, but after being in love with sama ke chawal, I was thinking more of a pongal.

I discussed pongal with her which somehow I like with the traditional mung and rice more but millet experiments were not as successful till now. I used to not like the dryness the millets brought to the pongal. See my first trial with yellow split mung and this mixed millet that feels dry, though the taste was as good. It had a lot of fried cashew but once the cashew is mixed into the pongal, it looses the crunch and nuttiness. I corrected that too later in my recipe.

She told me to make the pongal thinner so it is creamier and that's how my mixed millet pongal recipe became exactly the way we like. It never occurred to me that a thinner pongal would be great just like I love thinner khichdi. I did a few changes in the tempering from the traditional recipe as per my taste and requirements.

I cooked it in a pan so it took about 40 minutes total to cook, using pressure cooker will be good to save time but the pongal might become too mushy for your liking.

ingredients....

(for 4-6 breakfast servings or as many meal servings with side dishes)
split mung with skin 1 cup
ginger 1/2 inch piece or to taste
mixed millet or sama ke chawal 3/4 cup
broken cashew nuts 1/2 cup
ghee 2 tbsp
black pepper corns 2 tsp or to taste
curry leaves about 15 springs
broken dry red chilies 2-3 or to taste
salt to taste

procedure...

Boil the washed split mung with skin with 3 cups of water and salt to taste in a large deep pan. I cooked it in a traditional Indian deghchi. The lentil will boil and froth, keep stirring in between so it doesn't spill over.

Make a coarse paste of half of the curry leaves and ginger or just chop them finely and add to the boiling lentil mixture.

Add washed mixed millets (or sama if using) after 15 minutes and keep simmering the mixture for about 15 minutes more. Add water if required and cook till the grains get cooked the way you like. Turn off the heat and keep covered till you prepare for the tempering.

Heat ghee in a small deep pan and tip in the broken red chilies. Add  the broken cashew in to it and fry till they turn pink. Add the remaining curry leaves and the black pepper corns to the same pan and fry for about 30 seconds or till it gets fragrant. Pour half of this tempering over the cooked pongal.

Mix well, serve in individual bowls and pour a spoonful of the tempering in each bowl and serve immediately.

We licked our bowls clean this time. Literally.

The leftovers tasted great too. Just reheated in microwave and had for a quick meal with cucumber raita. I loved this millet mix and felt blessed for such a lovely thoughtful gift from N.

Gratitude for all the love I anmblessed with. Gratitude for all the love this blog gets from you readers. Many of you consider me like family and that is a very humbling feeling trust me.

Incidentally, pongal is a temple food and prasad in many temples in south India.
What better way would I get to express my gratitude than sharing a healthy a temple food?