Stuffed Padron Peppers...And Other Veggies :)

My colleagues and I were having a conversation about how to train kids not be picky eaters. To my mom's delight, I was a good eater from early on. But even when meals didn't include what I absolutely loved, mom enforced a simple rule - serve a very small portion on the plate and don't get off the table without finishing it. As tortuous as it may sound to some, it really can't kill you to eat a few bites of something you don't love. The good part was that my mother cooked delicious food. If we didn't like something, she made an effort to try different recipes to make it more palatable for us. And there was often that guilt trip - there are way too many kids out there who don't even get two meals a day, let alone choose what they eat. Be thankful that you get to try such variety of foods!

There was one vegetable for which I always made faces though -  bell peppers! The ubiquitous vegetable in the US, and something I've grown to love, was my enemy as a kid. The Indian bell peppers are much smaller, with thinner skin, and more robust flavor compared to what we get here. I thought they were too pungent. Mom cooked them many different ways - fire roasted bell pepper and yogurt raita, stir fry with crispy potatoes, or stuffed  potatoes or chickpea flour to mask their strong flavor. Her stuffed bell pepper preparation was my favorite.

I found beautiful Padron peppers at the Saturday farmer's market. They looked like smaller versions of Indian bell peppers with the same fragrance. Padron peppers originate from Spain and have a wonderful smoky flavor when charred. The seller at the market told me they are usually deep or shallow fried in olive oil and seasoned with sea salt. They don't have a lot of heat, so you can eat them whole. I asked her how they would taste stuffed with something, and she thought it was a great idea. I thought I would try the chickpea filling. The recipe is fairly simple. Chickpea flour is seasoned with garam masala and other spices and stuffed inside seeded peppers. The peppers are beautifully charred in oil on high heat. The slight heat and smoky flavor of the peppers is fabulous. The chickpea flour filling is slightly crunchy against the soft flesh of the peppers, and does a great job of taming some of the pungency. This dish can be served as an appetizer, or a side dish. It tastes great with roti, or rice and yogurt. If you don't find padron peppers, any low heat peppers such as small bell peppers, poblano, Anaheim would be great. I cooked the peppers on stovetop, but you could grill stuffed peppers in summer. It'll be a great side to all the cookouts.

 

Chickpea Flour Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
2 Dozen medium Padron peppers - destemmed and seeded
1 Cup chickpea flour
3 Tablespoons olive/vegetable oil + more for shallow frying
1/2 Cup chopped cilantro
1/2 Teaspoon mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida
1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons garam masala
1 Teaspoon red chili powder (adjust per liking)
Salt to taste

• Heat oil in a frying pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, turmeric powder and chickpea flour.
• To this, add chopped cilantro, garam masala, red chili powder, and salt to taste. Roast chickpea flour till fragrant and 'cooked'. If it looks too dry, you can sprinkle some water (use very little - you don't want clumps). Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.
• Once the chickpea flour filling is done, keep aside.
• Remove the stems of peppers and take out the seeds. Fill them with chickpea flour filling.
• Coat the frying pan with some more oil and lay all the peppers on the pan. Cover and let the peppers get charred. Covering the pan will keep the steam inside and help cook the chickpea flour further.
• Turn the peppers with a tong and char them on the other side. Once the peppers are cooked through, turn off the heat.

Enjoy!

---***---

Speaking of stuffed veggies, I made a set of stuffed felt veggies for my baby girl. I had seen a toy veggie basket at my friend's house; her son played with them. That set was a little more 3D than my version, which is somewhere in between 2D and 3D :D. I think it's a great toy - colorful, educational, and may encourage my daughter to eat all her veggies (or so I hope).One of my friends who has a girl just a little older than Shreya loved the idea of felt toys, and asked me to make some for her baby. I wanted to send the toys just in time for her 6-month birthday which didn't leave me time to make a new veggie set, so I gifted her the one I already had. I can always make more for my daughter. Here's my satisfied customer playing with her new toys :).

Along with veggies, my friend asked if I could make an owl as well. Owls are all the rage these days. I came up with the following pattern after going through several pics on the web. Whooo wouldn't like a pink owl?

Just hangin' out!

Until next time!

One Month and a Change of a Lifetime

I've been on a blogging sabbatical the last two months. It might not have made a dent in the blogosphere; but my life has taken a 180 degree in that time! We welcomed our precious little girl, baby Shreya, into this world one month back. The past month has been a blur of feedings, changing diapers, calming a crying baby, and trying to function without getting much sleep. But it's all worth that gummy smile she's just started to give us!

My mom, the cooking enthusiast that she is, informed me to that it's customary to make Ghavan-Ghatle on baby's one month birthday. The sweet cousin of my go-to savory meal choice. She immediately looked up the recipe in her favorite cook book Ruchira. I had planned to make a cake for the little one, but this recipe was far easier to make with a baby in tow. Ghavan is a simple rice flour crepe. Ghatle is a jaggery sweetened coconut concoction to dunk the ghavan. The crepes are soft and spongy and soak up all the sweet goodness of ghatle. I couldn't not love these - they are practically deconstructed Modak!

Ghavan Ghatle

Ghavan Ingredients: 

1 1/2 Cups rice flour

Water as needed

Couple of pinches salt

Ghee/clarified butter 

• Mix enough water with rice flour to make a runny, crepe-like batter (~2-2/12 cups). Add a little salt and mix. 
• Heat a pan on med-high heat. A non-stick pan will work the best. If you're not using a non-stick pan, grease the pan with a little bit of ghee. Make sure the pan is hot before you pour the batter in order to get a porous crepe. 
• Spread a ladleful of batter on the pan, and let it cook till golden brown. The crepe will separate from the pan once done. Turn and cook on the other side. 

Ghatle Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups water

3/4 Cup fresh/frozen grated coconut

1/4 Cup jaggery/per liking

1/2 Teaspoon cardamom powder

2 Teaspoons rice flour 

Couple of pinches salt

Heat water on low-med heat, and add jaggery and coconut. Let the jaggery melt. 

Mix rice flour with a little bit of water and add it to the coconut mixture. The rice flour will act as a thickener. 

Add in cardamom powder and salt. Turn off the heat when the mixture thickens slightly. 

Pour warm ghee on top of the ghavan and serve with warm ghatle!

***

I spent the last few months of my pregnancy making stuff for the baby. I couldn't wait to share pictures of some of my craft work - now seems like a good time to post them :). 

Hubby asked me to make a few colorful hats for baby pics. Here are two of my favorites:

A variation of this adorable bobble stitch hat: 

A ladybug hat for my li'l bug: 

I was looking for some ideas to make a crib mobile and stumbled upon this adorable pattern! Some inexpensive felt from recycled material (source - Michaels), cotton and scrap material to stuff, and an easy clip-on mobile crib hanger (source - Babies R Us, ~$10) was all I needed to make this mobile. I drew the patterns on paper first and traced them on felt.

I couldn't get over how cute and easy to make these little toys were and made a few furry friends as well. I used various sources for patterns, many of them pinned on my board. Aren't these guys fun? I still have lots of left-over felt which I plan to use - some day!

One of my dear friends was also due a few weeks after me. She had shared yummy home-cooked food with me in my ninth month. It was wonderful having home made meals without taking any effort on my part :). As a 'thank you', and since we never return empty containers, I stuffed one container with nutritious laddus for her and one with these fellas for her little one on the way. I looked up patterns for finger puppets on google and picked four that I liked the best. 

I hope to be able to blog as and when I can. Until next time!

Dabeli To Go & Summer Art Work

My neighbor's kids wake me up early these days with their gleeful squeals and loud splish-splash in the swimming pool. Am I complaining? Yes, but only because I can't join them...hmph! Wouldn't it be wonderful to become a kid again and enjoy carefree, summer-long vacations! Those days are never to return. Nonetheless, I made the most of my 4-day Independence Day holiday.

We decided to camp out at Coronado Island for the 4th of July fireworks. You have to reach there early and secure a spot to be able to see the fireworks. We packed a lot of munchies that my in-laws brought from India. For the 'main course', we had my favorite Dabelis. I had to find a way of transporting dabeli to the location - taking ready-made dabeli would've left them soggy, and carrying all the ingredients separately wasn't going to be efficient. I ended up making a filling 'cake' and carrying paav (bread) and sev separately. All this could fit in my bright orange beach tote - perfect for a day out.
The 'cake' was nothing but layers of everything that goes in between the paav. You can find the elaborate recipe here. I mashed potatoes with ready-made dabeli masala, and mixed in green and tamarind chutnies with the potatoes. This was the bottom layer. On top went a layer of spice-roasted peanuts, pomegranate seeds, and finely chopped onion. Chopped cilantro would've been perfect, but I had run out of it. When we were ready to eat, I dug a big scoop of this filling, taking some from each layer, and smeared it on paav, then topped it off with crunchy sev. The idea and the outcome was loved by everyone.

**Tip: Cut the onion in half and wash it in cold water before chopping it up. This will take away some of that pungency and odor.

Now that the days are getting hotter and hotter, I find it convenient to cook quick and simple meals, and use that extra time to get back to art work.

Husband had gifted me a Chinese brush painting set for Valentine's day. I finally got around to trying it. Here's my first try at it. (As you can tell, I get lazy with the pictures quite often).
There was some learning curve here, but I loved the free-style brush strokes and light color pigments. These would make great greeting cards.

I've been doing a lot of instant-gratification kind of crochet work lately.

Guess hoo? I saw these ridiculously adorable cell phone cases on Etsy. I wanted to keep mine simpler, but the eyes could've been bigger for sure. I plan to make more of these in different colors for gifts.

Husband always demands I make something for him. Whether he uses it or not is another question. I tried to make a 'man' version cell phone case for him with a football pattern. I can pretty much slap this pattern on anything and he'll love it.

I bought cotton yarn for the first time over the weekend. It was perfect to make this summery, two-colored dish towel. 

I gifted this purse to my sister, just for being the awesome self she is =). I am in love with the shell pattern I used for the flap. 

Yet another bright-colored pattern for our patio. I intended it to be a rug, but we've been using it as a patio chair throw and it looks pretty.