Garlicky Masala Peanuts

You don't realize how time gets away from you when there is a super active, and attention seeking 11 month old at home. I hardly get time to do anything once I'm home from work. I meant to post this recipe two weeks ago, but better late than never.

Our friends had invited us over for a Superbowl party. The host, despite suggesting to have a potluck, had graciously agreed to do all the cooking. Husband suggested taking some snack along. I didn't have much time to make anything fancy. We had just hosted our neighbors for an Indian brunch the day before, and my kitchen was somewhat of a mess. I browsed through the pantry for an idea, and decided to make Masala Peanuts - spicy peanut fritters. Masala peanuts are great to munch on while sipping on a cold beer. This is a popular 'chakana' (the vernacular term to describe all the snacks that go well with alcohol) item in India. Peanuts are coated in a spicy chickpea flour batter and deep fried until golden brown. They are spicy, crunchy, zesty, and just typing this makes me want to have some! I added a touch of garlic powder to the batter - why not? Garlic goes great with peanuts. The only problem was that the besan/chickpea flour I used was the coarse type. I would've preferred fine besan as it stick to peanuts better. Despite that, husband loved the preparation, and so did all the guests at the party.

Garlicky Masala Peanuts

Ingredients:
1 Cup whole unroasted peanuts (with or without skin)
1/2 Cup besan/ chickpea flour
3 Tablespoons rice flour
2 Teaspoons red chili powder (adjust to your liking)
2 Teaspoons cumin-coriander powder
1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 Teaspoon amchur/ dried mango powder
2/3 Teaspoon garlic powder
Salt to taste
1/2 Cup water (or as needed)
Oil for frying

• Mix besan, rice flour, and all the spices. Add water little by little to make a thick batter. 
• Add in peanuts and mix until all of them are evenly coated. 
• Heat oil in a frying pan. Add ~1 tablespoon hot oil to the battered peanuts. This hot oil added to the batter before frying is called 'mohan' and helps make the fritters light. 
• Fry battered peanuts on medium heat until golden brown. If you add a bunch of peanuts together, they'll end up sticking together. Take some in your hand, and drop them from the side of the frying pan while separating them with your fingers. This will ensure they don't stick. Be careful with hot oil.
• Take them out of the frying pan and keep on a paper towel to absorb excess oil. 
• The peanuts will be soft right out of the frying pan, but let them cool a bit and they'll be crunchy. 

Serve with a cold beverage!

Guilt Ridden And Snacking Guilt Free

I believed sleep deprivation, zillion diaper changes, and back crushing feedings would be some of the challenges of motherhood. What proved it wrong was leaving my entirely dependent little one with a complete stranger, to go back to work. I joined work three weeks back, and it's been an emotional challenge. The baby girl is adjusting to her nanny slowly but surely, yet my heart breaks into a million pieces every day when I see the longing in her eyes. Sure, I can quit my job, some would say. But some things are easier said than done. I just hope my daughter forgives me one day when she has a similar battle of her own, or just not remember this at all!

The only consolation in this situation is that we've found a fantastic nanny. She's a loving person with two grandchildren of her own, and treats Shreya just like she would one of them. She came with a whole bunch of cute clothes for Shreya last week for no particular reason. Isn't that incredibly sweet of her? Despite all, I am comforted that my daughter is in good hands. Aunty, as we respectfully call her, hails from Gujarat, and is an enthusiastic cook like most Gujjus. I for one am a huge fan of Gujarati food. So it's a bonus that she brings us lots of freshly prepared Gujarati delicacies almost every day. She brought me a popular sweet called Sukhdi the other day. Sukhdi is a simple wheat flour 'cake' made with ghee, jaggery, and decorated with dry fruits.It tasted like wheat flour laddus, just repackaged. I enjoyed snacking on this energy packed sweet between meals. This nursing business makes me very hungry, and I always need nutritious, guilt-free snacks at hand. FYI - a healthy dose of ghee is good for your, especially postpartum. I tweaked anuty's recipe so I could add some more elements of 'healthy' and made sukhdi with ragi/nachani/finger millet flour. I also added dry grated coconut to the list of dry fruits. Ragi flour is light and toasty, and tasted even better than wheat flour. Husband admitted that this was one of my best creations; but then again, he says that a lot ;).

Ragi Sukhdi/Nachanichi Vadi

Ingredients:
1 Heaping cup raagi/nachani flour
3/4 Cup grated jaggery (or adjust per your liking)
6-8 Tablespoons warm ghee
Handful of dry fruits, coarsely ground. I used almonds and cashews
1 Heaping tablespoon grated dry coconut

• Heat a kadhai/pan on low flame and roast ragi flour in 6 tablespoons of ghee until the flour is fragrant and doesn't taste raw. 
• Add grated jaggery, ground dry fruits, and grated coconut. Roast for 5 more minutes. Make sure there aren't any pieces of jaggery left.
• Once the mixture is cool to touch, mix by hand to make it consistent. Try pressing some mixture between your palms and it should form a lump and stick together. If not, add more ghee as needed. 
• Grease a steel plate with ghee and pat the mixture tightly on it, forming a ~1/2 inch cake. Cut into diamond shaped vadi using a sharp knife. 

Alternatively, you can form laddus of the mixture.

Butternut Squash Gharge

The grocery scene in my house has been quite exciting lately. Husband I have been going to the Saturday Farmer's Market like a ritual (I know, everyone experiencing horrific winter this year will be jealous - I sympathize with you all). It makes my weekend to come home with bags full of fresh produce. We also just signed up for CSA last week. Oh, I can't wait to share the details next week when I get my second box of goodies! Anyway, trying to consume all the fresh fruits and veggies, I forgot all about a small butternut squash bought from the grocery store a few weeks back. Good thing it doesn't go bad very fast, but it was about time the squash was put to use. San Diego weather hasn't exactly been calling for soup, so I used the squash in lieu of pumpkin in two of my favorite Indian dishes - one sweet (Gharge) and one spicy/savory (Parathas). I'll share the recipe I'm partial towards - the sweet, of course :).

Gharge are traditional Maharashtrian sweet puris made with pumpkin. The puris are not cloyingly sweet or dessert like - so they can be snacked on (like I did in one go on half the batch I prepared...shhh). The recipe calls for very few simple ingredients. And these puris don't require rolling out dough with a rolling pin, which makes them easy to prepare. My mom used to make gharge for after school snacks. They store well even at room temperature, so we could enjoy them all week long. Butternut squash is a close relative of pumpkin in terms of taste and texture, so I thought why not? And the gharge turned out just fantastic! With the sweetness from jaggery and the aroma of cardamom, you couldn't tell the switch between pumpkin and butternut squash. This recipe can use any similar squash, I suppose.

Butternut Squash Gharge

Ingredients:
2 Cups grated butternut squash
1 Cup grated jaggery
2 Tablespoons ghee
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
1/2 Teaspoon cardamom powder
Pinch of salt
Vegetable oil or ghee for frying

• Combine ghee, jaggery, and butternut squash in a kadhai/work and cook on medium heat. The moisture from squash will be enough to cook it thoroughly. Cook the water down until you are left with a soft, moist mixture.
• Stir in cardamom powder and a pinch of salt.
• Once the mixture cools to touch, start incorporating wheat flour until you have a pliable, non-sticky dough. I used about 1 1/4 cups flour. You can add more if you need to. I liked the sweetness achieved with this much amount of flour.
• Let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes.
• Make small lime size dough balls. With 1 1/4 cups flour, you'll get ~20 medium size puris.
• To make the puris, grease a thick plastic bag with a little bit of ghee. I use ziplock which works perfectly. Apply some ghee on your finger tips as well, and pat each dough ball evenly into a not too thin puri. You can lay raw puris on a plate before getting ready to fry them. They won't stick.
• Fry them on medium heat in vegetable oil until golden brown. Take them out on a paper towel to wick away excess oil. A more decadent version of these puris would be fried in ghee. I wanted to save my precious home-made ghee for other things :). 

Gharge won't puff up like the regular puris, but they are wonderfully flaky. They will be soft straight out of the fryer, but the crust will get crispy once slightly cooled, and the inside will be soft and moist. Yum!
You can enjoy gharge right away, or store them in an air tight container for about a week.

Indianising Bread - Breadchi Bhaji

Ever since husband and I made the switch to whole grain bread, something as basic as white bread has become a rarity in my house. To tell you the truth, I haven't really found decent white bread in the US. Certain tastes linger on for years. Nothing comes quite close to the freshly baked bread, wrapped in a thin waxy blue paper, from the local bakery in my home town Kolhapur. It used to be luscious, soft and fluffy, and never clumped up. We ate bread very occasionally. But when we did, it was picked up from the bakery still hot and fragrant, and used up right away for 'Bombay' sandwiches or Misal. A day old bread was considered stale - makes me wonder about our choices of storing stuff in the fridge for days. Not fresh enough to eat by itself, mom would turn the stale bread into pakodas, egg toast, or simple Bhaji (bhaaji). 

Breadchi Bhaji, also called Upma or Chura, is a simple savory dish made by tempering slightly dry stale bread pieces. Although 'bhaji' in Marathi refers to any vegetable preparation, the name of this dish must be derived from the usual tempering used in its preparation. Turning stale bread into bhaji a great way to use up leftovers, or make something out of plain bread when there's nothing else to go with it. I had bought white bread to make English tea sandwiches last week. And the leftovers turned into this childhood favorite of mine. Even better - I had it with a cup of hot tea!

**This recipe requires you to use oil generously, since bread soaks it right up. 

Breadchi Bhaji/Bread Upma (Leftover Bread Snack)

Ingredients:
6 Slices white bread
1 Small or 1/2 Large onion - Chopped
3-4 Green chilies - Chopped
1 Sprig curry leaves
Handful of skin on peanuts (~ 2 tablespoons or per your liking)

2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 Teaspoon mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida
1/4 Teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 Teaspoon red chili powder for color (optional)
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro and lemon/lime for garnishing

• Slice bread in approximately 3/4 inch cubes.
• Heat oil in a kadhai/wok and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add asafoetida, curry leaves, chopped chilies, and turmeric at the end so it doesn't burn.
• Once the curry leaves are slightly fried, add peanuts, chopped green chilies, and chopped onion, and saute for a minute until the onion is translucent.
• Add salt before adding bread so it mixes evenly. I also add some red chili powder for color and extra kick. Toss in bread and turn it all the way around so the pieces get coated evenly. Use a spatula and turn gently so the bread pieces don't clump up. Let the bread get nice and toasty on medium heat, stirring in between.
• Serve hot with chopped cilantro and a wedge of lemon/lime. 

Laddu Love

I find it challenging to plan for late afternoon-early evening snacks, especially when I'm ready to chomp down anything after getting home from work. But then, I don't like to kill my appetite for dinner either. It's not too much work to whip up guacamole or make veg cutlets or something else. Still, it would be nice not having to think about it every day. For quick energy boost between meals, I liked all sorts of khau (snack/treat) grandma used to keep ready - bhadang or healthy chivda to eat with yogurt, or one of her wholesome laddus made with moong, haliv (aserio) or whole wheat. How easy life used to be when mom or grandma had to worry about such things...*sigh*!

Now that I'm working up an appetite with the cooling Fall weather (and in preparation for the holiday season ;), I wanted to have something ready in the house for the occasional hunger pangs. Kanakeche Ladu (Whole Wheat Laddus) seemed to suit my mood, and the lack of enthusiasm for making anything elaborate, the other day. These laddus are quite nutritious, with golden roasted whole wheat flour, dry fruits, and a good dose of ghee. They are made with my favorite sweetener jaggery - always happy to forgo refined sugar. Most importantly, unlike besan or rava laddus, there's very little that can go wrong in the preparation. And you don't have to fret if you can't roll laddus, because the churma, or the coarse mixture, tastes fantastic by itself. Just don't tell anyone you attempted to make laddus :D.

Ladies, these laddus will be great to break your Karwa Chauth fast. Sweet, and energy packed when you are ready to faint after a long day of fasting =).

**The recipe below makes approximately 12 laddus.

Kanakeche Ladu/Whole Wheat Laddu

Ingredients:
2 Cups whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup ghee
3/4 Cup grated jaggery
Chopped dry fruits per your liking - almonds, cashews, raisins
1/2 Teaspoon cardamom powder

• Heat 3 tablespoons of ghee in a kadhai on low flame. Add whole wheat flour and roast until golden and aromatic (~10 mins). Keep the stove on low and stir the flour so it doesn't burn. Once done, keep aside.
• Add the remaining ghee and grated jaggery to the kadhai and heat just until the jaggery melts completely. Don't overcook. Be very careful -jaggery can really burn once hot!
• Pour this ghee-jaggery mixture in roasted whole wheat flour. Add chopped dry fruits and cardamom powder. Mix everything well with a spatula.
• Once the mixture cools enough to touch, break all the lumps with your hands and make golf-ball size laddus. If you find it difficult to roll laddus, add a little bit of ghee (although 1/2 cup should enough really).

If the laddus harden (because ghee can solidify in cold weather), just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds and they'll be as good as fresh. 

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. 

Diwali Wishes!

Wishing everyone a very happy Diwali!!! May the glow of the Diwali diyas brighten our lives and remove darkness and evil. Hope you all are enjoying the festivities with your near and dear ones, and stuffing yourselves with Diwali sweets and snacks! Let's remember the less fortunate ones this Diwali and help in any way we can.

There are lots of firsts for us this Diwali - our first time celebrating it together (since I left hubs by himself last year while I was celebrating with my family back in India), our first Diwali in the new house, my first Diwali in San Diego! Although I miss my family and friends staying far from me, I'm super excited about being 'home' with hubby this year. Yesterday, we cleaned and decorated the house together, got a bigger and better home for our pet betta fish and ended the day by making some delicious 'faraal' with friends (sweets and snacks prepared specially on Diwali are called faraal in Maharashtra). A perfect Saturday before Diwali!

Rangoli at the doorfront

Back in India, all the ladies (with enthusiastic kids like me tagged along) would go to each other's house to help out with faraal making. The faraal was made in large quantities as it was to be shared with a big number of family members, friends and neighbors. Over here, the faraal hardly gets consumed. Honestly, I was wondering if I should even bother making anything this year. But once my friend told me how she and her husband were craving faraal, I immediately asked her to come over so we could have a 'faraal making party' :D. So last night, we gorged on fresh Shankarpali, Karanji and Garlic Shev/Sev along with a dinner of daal-rice and amrakhand (talk about gluttony). I had a moment of 'oh, I love faraal no matter how averse I'm to fried foods' and realized it isn't Diwali until the waft of ghee fills up your house!

I'm sharing the recipe for Garlic Sev/Lasanachi Shev. My mom passed on this recipe from the recipe book every Marathi woman swears by - Kamalabai Ogale's Ruchira! I absolutely love this preparation. It's great to change your palate in between all the sweets. Sadly, I don't have a Sev patra (the press that you make sev with), so I shaped these like kadbole by hand. I only made a small quantity so it won't be lying around for days.

Garlic Sev/Lasanachi Shev

Ingredients:
1 Cup Besan (chickpea flour)
3 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
6-7 Large garlic cloves
1 1/2 Teaspoons red chili powder (adjust per your liking)
1 Teaspoon cumin-coriander powder
1/2 Teaspoon ajwain/ova seeds
2-3 Pinches baking soda
Salt to taste
Water as needed
Oil for frying

• Grind garlic cloves using morta-pestle or a small grinder. Add a little bit of water to it and strain it through a fine strainer. Squeeze all the water out of the garlic. You now have a garlic concentrate! You will use this concentrate to flavor the sev so that you don't end up biting into bits of garlic! Isn't that clever? 
• Mix both the flours, red chili powder and cumin-coriander powder together. 
• Bruise the ajwain lightly - just take it in your palm and rub it with your thumb. This brings out the oils. 
• Mix the ajwain, garlic concentrate, baking soda and add salt to taste (add a little extra salt than usual - frying tones down the flavors). 
• Add water little by little to form a soft, stiff dough. If you don't have a Sev press, make the dough stiff enough so you can shape it by hand.  
• Heat oil in a kadhai. Once the oil is hot, drop sev in it through the press and fry until yellowish-brown. Keep the flame on low-medium heat. This way, the sev will cook from inside. Otherwise it ends up burning on the outside and the center remains uncooked. 
• Without a press, you can make small bow-like shapes by rolling out the dough thinly between your palms and pressing two ends together like shown in the picture. 

Enjoy the sinful, fried foods today, for tomorrow we may diet ;). 

Kojagiri Cutlets!

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed lots of Halloween candy and baked some sweet treats. I had been looking forward to this Halloween for days - mostly because it was our chance to finally meet the neighbors, which I'm happy we did. The whole parade of kids dressed up as princesses, ninjas, ghosts, transformers and what have you, was quite a lot of fun. Hubs and I put our beach chairs in front of the house and enjoyed giving out candy to happy kids (derived mostly through their gesture since I couldn't really see many of their faces) and talking to parents who worried whether their li'l ones said "thank you"! Our first holiday season in the new neighborhood as begun on a sweet Halloween candy note!



Anyway, to cut to the chase - cutlets! I made these fun snacks three days back for Kojagiri pournima (full moon night). I was hoping to post the recipe right away and get to my 100th post(!). Anyway...The story goes that Goddess Lakshmi roams the earth on this full moon night and asks "Ka: Jagarati" meaning "Who's awake" and  blesses those who observe night vigil with wealth and prosperity. People gather at night and enjoy flavored milk (masala doodh) and poha (flattened rice) after offering it to the beautiful full moon. In honor of this day, I made some tasty cutlets of poha. I remember my mom making these out of left-over Maharashtrian style kande-pohe (seasoned flattened rice). Poha is unusual to use in cutlets, but it works really well. It turns into almost rice-flour essentially, which helps in binding the cutlets and absorbing any flavors you add.  If you are making them out of kande-pohe, you already have the ginger, green chili, onion, cilantro etc. I mimicked the same flavors and made these out of plain poha. A fun snack you could make as starters for all the diwali parties you'll have lined up! These are great after-school snacks for kids as well. Of course, tone down the spiciness for them.

Poha Cutlets

Ingredients:

1 Large potato

1 1/2 Cups washed thick poha 

1/4 Medium onion - finely chopped

A few springs of cilantro - finely chopped

1 Inch ginger

2 Small green chilies

1 Teaspoon cumin-coriander powder

Salt to taste

Rava (semolina) for coating

Oil as needed. 

• Soak thick poha (don't use the thin variety) in some water and drain right away. Let it sit for 15 minutes. 
• Boil the potato until fork tender and peel. 
• Grind gingner, green chilies and cumin-coriander powder together. 
• Mix the soaked poha, potato, onion, cilantro, the space paste you made and salt and bind well until the potato and poha are mashed. Sprinkle some water if the mixture is too dry. 
• Make small flat patties and roll them in rava, pressing lightly. This will create a nice crunchy crust on the cutlets. 
• Heat a pan on medium-high flame and drizzle some oil. Pan fry the cutlets on each side until brown. 

The cutlets taste yummy with ketchup! 

Chana With A South Indian Twist

We always associate Chana/Chickpeas with the North Indian style preparation of chhole/chana masala. Chhole can be quite luxurious and sinful - especially served with fried bhature. Not that I don't love chhole, but it's a dish for rare occasions in my house. The other day, I tasted chana prepared in a very different manner using the South Indian essentials - curry leaves and coconut! This dish was served at the temple as prasad on one of the Navratri days. Being offered as naivedyam it had to be satvik and devoid of onoin-garlic. Give me anything infused with aromatic curry leaves and I'm instantly in love. The change of taste and the use of minimal ingredients were quite welcoming. Hubs and I couldn't stop praising the preparation. I wish I could thank and ask for the recipe to whoever brought the prasad. But it was a no brainer given the few and distinct ingredients. I wasted no time in recreating the dish in my kitchen. For the lack of a better title, I'll call this Jhatpat Chana for the ease of making it compared to Chhole! 

Jhatpat Chana

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups soaked Chana (chickpeas)
1-2 Teaspoons Ghee
2 Green chilies - chopped
1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 Teaspoon mustard seeds
Couple of pinches asafoetida
2 Springs curry leaves
1 Tablespoon grated coconut
1 Teaspoon tamarind  pulp/1 Tablespoon grated green mango
Salt to taste
Water as needed

• Heat ghee in a kadhai, add cumin and mustard seeds and let them splutter.
• Add asafoetida, green chilies and curry leaves. Fry for 30-40 secs.
• Add chickpeas. Make sure the chickpeas are soaked for at least 5-6 hours for easy cooking. You can use the canned pre-soaked ones also.
• Sprinkle grated coconut, tamarind pulp/green mango and mix well. Put a lid on and let the chickpeas cook, adding minimal water and stirring occasionally. The chickpeas should cook thoroughly without getting mushy so there's a bite to them. 

Serve as a side dish with roti/rice or enjoy as a snack!

Pudachi Wadi

Hi everyone! Wish you all a very happy Navratri. Hope you have your garba shoes on and are dancing the nights away :). I have a fun snack recipe for you to munch on after all that dancing. 

I wanted to make something different this festival season. Not the typical sweets and faral - I'll be making plenty of that for diwali. My mom as always came to my rescue with this tasty snack recipe - Pudachi Wadi. Pudachi wadi is somewhere between Bakarwadi and Kothimbir wadi. It has a lot of common ingredients with kothimbir wadi and is shaped like bakarwadi. Can't go wrong with that. I guess the name comes from the way you shape these - rolling the roti into a pudi (a small packet). I was so excited about the recipe that I started going through my pantry for the ingredients before mom was done talking to me. 

This wadi has a savory coconut-cilantro filling with toasty sesame seeds and poppy seeds. For additional flavor and taste, I added some fennel seeds. The sweet bite they provide balances the spicy-savoriness perfectly. Besan in the covering makes it very crispy and light. The original recipe calls for frying but I went with shallow-pan frying using minimal oil. I don't think there was any compromise on taste. You should just make sure that the filling is roasted well since it won't cook as much while shallow frying as in deep frying. You can deep fry the rolls before cutting if you want the real thing. I didn't try baking them, but I think they'd turn out okay that way too. The recipe will make about 20-25 pieces after cutting.  

Pudachi Wadi

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
1 Teaspoon poppy seeds
1 Teaspoon fennel seeds
2 Teaspoons oil
1 Teaspoon garlic paste
1 Teaspoon ginger paste
1 Green chili - finely chopped
1/2 Cup packed grated coconut
1 1/2 Cup loosely filled chopped cilantro
1 Teaspoon dhana-jeera powder
1 Teaspoon goda masala/garam masala
1/4 Teaspoon red chili powder for color (optional)
Salt to taste

Cover:
1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1/4 Cup besan/chickpea flour
1/2 Teaspoon dhana-jeera powder
1/2 Teaspoon red chili powder
Salt to taste
Water as needed

• First, knead the dough by combining all the ingredients for the cover. Add just enough water to form a stiff dough you can roll out. 
• For the filling, roast the sesame and poppy seeds until slightly darker and aromatic and keep aside. 
• Heat oil in a kadhai and add ginger, garlic, green chili and roast for about a minute. Then add rest of the ingredients except the cilantro and roast, stirring constantly. 
• Add cilantro once the coconut is roasted well and let it all come together for another minute or so. 
• I pulsed this filling through the grinder quickly just to mix everything well. But you don't have to do that. 

To make the wadi:

• Divide the dough as well as the filling in 4 equal parts. 
• Roll each dough ball into a roti - not too thick. Then fill the center with the filling. Fold the small sides in so the filling doesn't come out and roll the roti into a tight roll. 
• Heat a pan and drizzle some oil. Pan-fry the wadi rolls turning on each side until the cover is crispy. 
• Once completely cooled, cut the rolls into small pieces and serve with some tamarind chutney. 

First Zucchini!

Finally, after fighting last year's luck and some persistent slugs, my zucchini plant has yielded its first fruit. As I mentioned earlier, I knew exactly what I was going to make with the first zucchini. Hubs and I have become huge fans of this simple recipe to make zucchini fries/chips. The original inspiration was a recipe by Veggie by Season. I had tried it in my egg-aversion days and had replaced egg with some yogurt to help the breadcrumbs stick. Sadly, I ended up with a product far from being crunchy. The yogurt made it a soggy mess. Ever since, I have resorted to the good ol', comparatively healthy technique of shallow frying. I also switched to panko bread crumbs instead of the regular ones since they provide a lot more crunch. Some tweaking to the original seasoning of simple salt and pepper makes this version quite flavorful. Today we enjoyed the chips as appetizers for dinner. One zucchini was just enough to get us started on the rest of the courses. 

The picture came out sad, only because I was too hungry to spent time on photography!

Zucchini Fries/Chips

Ingredients:
1 Zucchini
1/2 Cup yogurt - whisked
3/4 Cup panko  bread crumbs
Paprika to taste
Dash of garlic powder
Salt to taste
Oil spray/oil

• Cut zucchini in about 1/8 inch thick disks. Don't make it too thin. 
• Whisk some yogurt (with a few drops of water if needed) so that it's smooth. Season it with paprika, salt and a dash of garlic powder. 
• Take the bread crumbs in a plate and season them with paprika, salt and garlic powder as well. Seasoning yogurt as well as the bread crumbs will make these chips flavorful throughout. 
• Dip the zucchini in yogurt, then press into the bread crumbs on both sides and fry in a pan using oil spray. If you don't have oil spray, simply spread some oil on the pan. Fry on both sides until golden brown. 

You can enjoy these chips with some ranch or another creamy dip, but they taste just perfect by themselves. 

Bookmark Thursday

Thursdays are usually 'throw something together and rush out the door' kinda dinner nights for us. I have a dance class every Thursday evening (pursuing a long time dream of learning Kathak :) and I don't get much time to cook anything. Hubby helps himself to some leftovers (if he's really hungry) or waits for me to come back and put anything that's available in the fridge in between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich. After almost 5 months, I was home this Thursday. Bonus time! It was a perfect opportunity to go down some of the bookmarked recipes and try 'em out. 

I had been eyeing these glorious Masala Buns posted by one of my favorite bloggers, US Masala. For a while, it seemed like every other blogger was making buns of some sort and I was the only one missing out. A few days back I came across Sangeetha's blog through her HITS event and saw another recipe for stuffed buns. The recipe looked too tempting not to give it a shot.

Masala buns are simple buns stuffed with some kind of curried vegetable filling. They looked very intimidating to me at first, but except for the fact that you have to wait, the recipe turned out to be quite simple. The fun part is, you stuff the buns before they bake. So as you pull a morsel of a fluffy, soft bun, there's a tasty treat inside! Sangeetha had stuffed the buns with spicy cauliflower, which I'm sure would've tasted great. But I went with a more predictable filling - veggies cooked with Paav-bhaji masala. To make the buns a little 'Indian', should I say, I added toasted cumin seeds to the dough. Aromatic, pillowy buns stuffed with paav-bhaji like bhaji. Tell me you won't like that!

Masala Bun 

Ingredients:
Buns:

1 1/2 Cups All purpose flour

1/4 Cup warm water

1/4 oz. Dry active yeast packet

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1/2 Teaspoon toasted cumin seeds

3 tbspn EVOO + as needed

Stuffing:

1 Tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 Large / 2 medium boiled potatoes

1 Small tomato

1/2 Medium onioin
1/2 Cup mixed veggies - I used peas and bell peppers only

2 Garlic cloves - minced
1/2 Inch ginger - minced

1 1/2 Teaspoons paav-bhaji masala

1 Teaspoon Red chili powder

Salt to taste

Dough for the buns:

• Mix yeast, sugar and warm water and let it stand until the mixture gets foamy (~10 mins). Sangeetha mixed the yeast with the flour itself, but I figured getting the yeast acting would be faster and better. 
• Add flour, salt, EVOO. Bruise the cumin seeds on your palm using the thumb slightly to get all the fragrant oils out and add them to the dough. Knead well using a little bit of water as need to form a stiff but soft dough. The original recipe used milk instead of water, I just took the easy way. 
• Cover the dough with a damp towel and keep in a warm place for ~45mins to an hour so to rise. While you are waiting, start working on your stuffing. 
• Once the dough almost doubles in size, punch it gently and knead again for a few mins. 
• Divide the dough in 6 parts and shape them round. Keep on a greased aluminum foil on baking sheet. Let them stand for another 10 mins or so. The dough will rise again slightly.

Stuffing:

• Chop all the veggies finely. Mash the potatoes. 
• Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add ginger-garlic, onions and tomatoes and saute until the onions are translucent. 
• Add spices, rest of the veggies, salt and cook for 10 mins or until the mixture comes together well. If it becomes too dry, add a little bit of water. Adjust the spices according to your liking. 

Put it together:

• Make a dent in each of the dough balls to form a cup-like shape. Stuff them with a golf-ball size vegetable filling and pinch the dough together to close the dough balls. 
• Brush them with some OO and let them stand for another 10 mins. 
• Bake for 15-18 mins on 375F or until the buns turn golden brown. 
• To serve, brush the buns with a little bit of garlic butter or OO. 

If you have some stuffing leftover - make a sandwich :D.

Puff of Magic

Long before I was introduced to the wide array of pastries, I drooled over Veg Puffs at the Corner Bakery by our house. Puff pastry sheets were completely unknown to me at the time, not available at any grocery stores. It amazed me endlessly how someone managed to get SO many paper-thin layers on the crust. The only logical explanation I had come up with was, someone rolled the dough into ridiculously thin sheets and layered them. Well, I was naive and ignorant. Veg Puff was one of those things I believed only bakeries could magically produce. Something home cooks couldn't fathom recreating. Of course, it dawned upon me later that making a delicious puff pastry was as easy as 1-2-3. 1: Buy pastry sheets 2: Bake with your favorite filling 3: Gobble, gobble, gobble! One could make the pastry dough at home, but sometimes I go for convenience.

Veg Puff is a popular pastry pocket with a flaky, golden brown crust that everyone loves. Tucked inside is a mashed vegetables filling seasoned with all the aromatic spices we Indians love. And of course, what's not to love about that combination! The fluffy, slightly sweet buttery crust tones down all the spices and the crunch from it provides a great contrast to the mashed vegetables. You sink your teeth into it and without fail give out that 'ohh, this is so comforting' sigh. The filling has all sorts of vegetables and they are so wonderfully masked that any picky eater will love them. It has mashed potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, peas and onion. You can add bell peppers, beets or I imagine cabbage too! You can change up the quantities of vegetables per your liking. Veg puffs were one of my favorite (yes, B+I) after school snacks. Recreating childhood 'magic' in my very own kitchen was simply marvelous! The list of ingredient looks long, but trust me, it's a very simple recipe. 

Veg Puff 

Crust:
Frozen puff pastry sheets. Thaw for 8-10 minutes or until they are soft and pliable. Cut them into 5'x5' or 6'x6' squares. Alternatively, you can buy the pre-cut square sheets.

Filling:
2 Medium white/yellow potatoes - boiled and mashed
1/2 Small onion - finely chopped
Handful of green peas
1/2 Cup finely chopped vegetables - I used cauliflower and carrot
1 Teaspoon ginger-garlic paste (optional)
Finely chopped cilantro
1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 - 1 Teaspoon red chili powder - adjust according to taste
1/2 Teaspoon cumin-coriander powder
1/2 Teaspoon Garam masala
1/4 Teaspoon Chaat masala/Aamchur powder
Pinch of asafoetida
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
2 Teaspoons oil

• Preheat oven at 350F
• Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and let them splutter. 
• Add asafoetida, turmeric, ginger-garlic paste and onion and saute for a couple of minutes until the onion is golden brown. 
• Add all the vegetables except mashed potatoes, all the spices and salt and let the vegetables cook for 2-3 minutes. 
• Then add mashed potatoes, a splash of water if the mixture is too dry, mix and let everything cook together for 3-4 minutes. The cooking will make all the spices and vegetables come together. 
• Sprinkle some finely chopped cilantro on the filling. 

• Place about two tablespoons of the filling at the center of the puff pastry sheet, fold it in center to form a rectangle and close the ends by pressing together. You can make triangles alternatively, or any creative shape you can come up with. 
• Bake the pastry in the oven until golden brown. You may have to turn it once (carefully) to make sure the bottom of the pastry is baked also. 

Enjoy the warm, flaky pastry with some ketchup! Yes, that's the 'sauce' of choice for most Indian snacks.

Quick Corn Usal

Today, I'm going to leave you with a quick and easy recipe for a great snack. That's it. No blabber. And I will more than make-up for the void of stories very soon, I promise.

Usal is a generic name for spicy curried or sauteed beans or sprouts. Corn comes under the grain category, but I guess this dish is called Usal because of the other common ingredients used in the preparation. It's a popular Maharashtrian dish prepared especially in early winter when corn is bountiful. The cooking process enhances the sweetness of corn, and is wonderfully balanced by the touch of spiciness. A dish of warm savory corn usal is very comforting on balmy fall evenings.

Corn Usal/Kanasachi Usal

2 Large sweet corn cobs/ 1 packet frozen corn
1/2 Small onion - finely chopped
1 Serrano chili
2-3 Garlic cloves
1/2 Inch fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon grated coconut
1/3 Teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 Teaspoon turmeric
A pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro for garnishing
Lemon juice

• Husk and clean the corn. Hold the stem in your hand, rest the other end on the cutting board and cut off the kernels with a sharp knife. Or, just open a bag of thawed frozen corn :D.  
• Run your knife through the kernels to give them a rough chop. The starchy juice that comes out helps it cook well, bring the dish together and give it that wonderful caramelization. You can also give the kernels a quick pulse in the food processor. 
• Grind chili, garlic and ginger to a paste.
• Heat a couple of teaspoons of oil in a wok/kadhai. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Then add asafoetida, turmeric, onion and chili-ginger-garlic paste and saute for a a couple of minutes.
• Add corn, grated coconut and salt and mix everything well. If the corn is dry, you can add a splash of water. 
• Cover and cook, checking and stirring occasionally, on medium heat. 
• The dish is done when the corn is cooked completely, most of the water content will evaporate(8-10 minutes). Don't worry if the corn gets slightly brown and caramelized. This is the tastiest part of the dish! 
• Garnish with lots of chopped cilantro, some lemon juice and more grated coconut if you like. 

Tea Time

Fall has finally made its first appearance. Even in my ever warm city, every sign says the long bright days we take for granted are not here to stay for long. The days have begun to start with dense, dreamy fogs and the cool night breezes have forced us to pull out those dusty jackets. And more than anything else, my body has warned me about the change in season already. I've got flue - hmph! But there are two things that console me even when I've got burning eyes, sore throat and body ache:

1. Fall sets the mood for a multitude of festivals.
2. I'm all ready to tackle the cold season with a few heartwarming baking recipes under my belt!

This kind of weather (and a sore throat) makes me crave a super soothing cup of Indian tea with lots of ginger and some cardamom. But what's some tea without a few crispy cookies biscuits to dunk in it? Of course, my already scarce supply of Good-Day had vanished last week and I was left with an unsatisfied craving for some tea-biscuits. Well, what do you know - I pulled my baker's hat and made a batch of nutty, crispy, crumbly Nankatai biscuits to go with my tea!

Nankatai is a simple Indian sugar cookie, except it's toastier and crispier and doesn't have eggs. I remember our local bakery in India carrying home-made nankati neatly stacked in a tight jar, sitting right in one corner of the counter. Every time we ordered the cookies by the grams, the owner would remove them with utmost care, not breaking any, and pack them in a brown bag for us. You could smell the wonderful buttery aroma infused with cardamom powder and toasty nuts all the way to the house. They came with a variety of nuts, such as pistachios, cashews or almonds, or sometimes a few golden orange saffron strands. Then my mom would make us some tea, which none of us really cared to drink otherwise, and we would most usually finish the cookies with one cup of tea.

My mom never cared to bake, but I remember my aunt baking nankatai at home. I would hardly call it Baking, because they are so ridiculously simple to make! The overall preparation + baking time is hardly 15-20 minutes. The cookies crack open to let out that buttery whiff of steam as they bake. You can add a little more butter to make them softer, but they can break easily. I like the crispy ones with my tea much better. This recipe makes about 10-12 cookies.

This recipe is going to the Friday Potluck hosted by Vatsala of Show and Tell.

Nankatai - Indian Sugar Cookie

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup All purpose flour and whole wheat flour (half and half)
1 1/2 Teaspoon semolina
1/3 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup sugar - or a little less based on how sweet you would want them
1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
2-3 Pinches cardamom powder
Couple of teaspoons chopped nuts - I used cashew + few for garnishing

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Beat butter and sugar together until soft and creamy. 
• Sift the flour and baking soda and all the ingredients to the butter+sugar mixture. Mix well until the dough comes together.
• Make round balls of the dough and flatten a little and keep them on a baking sheet. Press a piece of cashew on top for garnish and sprinkle a little bit of sugar. 
• Bake for 12 minutes or so or until the cookies turn golden. They may still feel a little soft in the center. Take them out and let them cool for a few minutes. The cookies will harden perfectly while cooling. 

The whole wheat flour makes nankatai very toasty, what I would call 'khuskhushit' in Marathi. That touch of semolina provides a wonderful bite. These are perfect with a cup of tea or warm milk!

Dabeli

I've never met an Indian who doesn't like street food. There's got to be something ridiculously good about those spicy-savory-sour-sweet dishes for a country of billions to be crazy about! Street food is a different class of cuisine altogether and call me crazy, but I'll pick that over a 5-star restaurant any day! You can pretty much get anything from sandwiches to noodles on a little streetside cart in India, but what gets me really drooling is the broad category of Chaats. Yum! Bhel, shev-puri, paani-puri, ragada chaat and all those tasty concoctions of tangy tamarind and hot chili-cilantro chutneys, crunchy-thin chickpea flour noodles called Sev, finely diced onion and tomatoes over potatoes or white peas, puffed rice or crispy puris.  

I remember my mom or sister taking me a few lanes down from our house to the park, where a dozen or so vendors with their fully equipped carts used to crowd the corner. We were not allowed to eat there too often for 'questionable' cleanliness to put it in mild words. But it was one of those guilty pleasures that felt better than going to the candy store! The chaat-wallah used every inch of the space creatively. A flat pan of ragda boiling away over a kerosene stove in one corner, every shelf stacked with enough ingredients for the week, containers of chutneys and spices, plates and drinking(?) water, all in one crammed cart. All this left a small cutting-board sized space where he would dice the veggies at the speed of light.

It wasn't until I visited Mumbai, then Bombay, though that I experienced the culture of street food! Mumbai is the Mecca for street food lovers. It's a potpourri of cultures and people from all around the country have contributed to the numerous food carts that have become the lifeline of students, workers, rishkshaw or taxi drivers and every other person who stops by for a quick snack. My cousin, who I used to visit during the holidays, had her favorite designated cart for every item. She was the one who first introduced me to the awesomeness called 'Dabeli'! Ahh - how I fell in love with this delicious 'burger' that was too small for my liking. The Kacchi Gujarati community has made Dabeli a popular item on street carts in Mumbai. And like all other Gujarati dishes, they have managed to bring a sweet element into this yummy chaat item.

Spicy Roasted Peanuts

'Dabeli' literally means pressed in Gajarati. It is a delicious burger with spiced mashed potatoes, spicy roasted peanuts, pomegranate seeds, sev and tamarind-date chutney all sandwiched between a bun, graciously lathered with Amul butter! The butter is applied in such generous amounts that the bread literally melts in your mouth. Dabeli has been one of my favorite street foods all these years. I make sure to visit my cousin's favorite Dabeli-wallah at the time during my busy trips to India. 

Utterly  Butterly Delicious!

I love making Dabeli for dinner once in a while for a change of taste. I have made it from scratch many times before, but this time I took advantage of having all the components available at the grocery store. It's a quick fix meal on a week night. The Dabeli Masala I brought from India was a time saver as well, although it's a simple combination of coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red chili, cloves and cinnamon roasted and ground to a fine powder. 

Everything you need for the best bite ever!

Ready to be 'dabeli' - pressed.

 

Kacchi Dabeli

Ingredients:

2 Potatoes

2 Teaspoons Dabeli Masala

1/4 Teaspoon cumin seeds

1/4 Cup peanuts

1/2 Teaspoon cumin-coriander powder

1/2 - 1 Teaspoon red chili powder

Salt to taste

2 Tablespoons oil

Burger buns

1 Small onion finely chopped

1 Pomegranate seeds

Bareek sev (fine sev) for garnishing

Tamarind-date chutney

Butter

Potato stuffing:

Boil potatoes, peel and mash. Add dabeli masala and salt to taste to the potatoes and mix well.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and let them splutter, add in the mashed potatoes and cook everything for a couple of minutes. You can add a little bit of water if the potatoes become too dry.

Roasted peanuts:

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a sautee pan, add peanuts, sprinkle cumin-coriander, red chili powder and salt to taste and let them roast, stirring occasionally.

To assemble:

Toast bread with a generous application of butter.

Make a small patty of the mashed potato and put it on the slice of bread. Top it with some tamarind-date chutney, then onions, peanuts, pomegrante seeds and lastly sev.

Press the other slice of bread on top. You can toast the burger on a pan again or just enjoy it!

Spicy potatoes, crunchy peanuts and sev, tangy-sour chutney and sweet pomegranate to balance it all create the most perrrfect bite ever!!!

Dabeli is a great snack for entertaining too. You can make a little assembly of all the ingredients and let your guests make their own. Or you can make a 'cake' with layers of mashed potatoes and all the other ingredients and let your guest cut a piece for their burger.

Grapes cut in half make a great substitute for pomegranates, providing the same sweetness, crunch and juicy pop in the mouth.

Setting New Trends..Breaking Some Old

Brace yourself for a long 50th post!

Boy, what an exciting week it's been! New creations, new acts of bravery and some new friends - all packed in one fraction of a month.
The week started off with the same old Monday blues with a bit of a drama at work...never hurts to have some spice in life, eh? I thought it would be just an ordinary week, only to find myself going routes I would have either avoided or not expected myself to be.

1. The (not-so) big purchase of a measuring cup: Yes! I now own an actual measuring cup that's not a 'katori' (small bowl) or a ramekin used to eyeball ingredients. It was a big commitment for a person like me who swears by 'a pinchful of this and a palmful of that'. But I was quick to realize what a whole new world of opportunities it has opned for me. All that baking I steered away from, well..not anymore! Of course, I want to stay true to myself and enjoy what I do. Nevertheless, with all the inspiration from my fellow bloggers and a little bit of rethinking, I've realized what I'll love making and eating.

To begin with - Whole Wheat Banana Loaf! I had two bananas too ripe for my taste. I thought of making Kelyachi Puri (Indian Fried Banana Flat Bread) but frying is always at the bottom of my cooking techniques list. Last year I made a whole wheat banana bread/cake/loaf/whatever using barely any oil and no eggs. It turned out yummy but this was a good opportunity to make it the right way. I stumbled upon this recipe through Elise's blog. I followed the recipe exactly except replacing nuts with chopped dates. So rustic and earthy with the whole wheat, dates and honey! This is breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner all in one. Two thumbs up!

The loaf..and a slice with a drizzle of honey that wasn't supposed to get soaked up :D

2. Food Bloggers Round Table 1: I feel so lucky to have met some of the best food bloggers from San Diego through the Bake Sale. Our ever-so-gracious host Marie along with Amanda initiated the San Diego Food Bloggers Round Table meetings starting this weekend. This will be a platform for some veteran bloggers and small time bloggers like me to get together and discuss various blogging related topics. The topic for our first meeting was Social Media - how to leverage the various social networking sites to our advantage. It pushed me to be a little tech savvy, the result of which was my blog's Facebook Page! Yay! Thanks to Kathy and the rest of the group for their valuable input. We met up over a potluck brunch. You can only imagine how delicious the food was!

I wanted to bring a taste of India to the table without serving something completely foreign. And you'll all agree there's nothing more popular than Samosas! To make it extra special, the filling was made of Paneer. It was my random experiment that went right thankfully. Here's the recipe:

Cilantro-Mint chutney

Baked Samosa

Paneer Samosa

Ingredients:
1 Cup All purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Ghee/clarified butter
12 Oz. Paneer - grated
1 Medium potato - boiled and mashed
1/2 Cup green peas - coarsely ground
1/2 Small Onion - finely chopped
3 Cloves garlic
1 Inch Ginger
3-4 Mint leaves
1 Small green chili
1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds
Garam Masala
Chaat Masala
Cumin-coriander powder
Red chili powder - if needed
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

• Mix a cup of all purpose flour, a pinch of salt and warm ghee and add water little by little to form a firm, thick dough. Cover and keep aside.
• Grind ginger, garlic, green chili and mint to a paste.
• Heat about a couple of teaspoons of oil in a saute pan and add cumin seeds to it. Once the seeds roast, add onions and let them sweat just for a couple of minutes. I didn't want to add raw onion hence I added this step. 
• Take it off the heat, add grated paneer, mashed potato, peas, salt to taste, some garam masala and chaat masala and some red chili powder if needed. I was doing a trial and error with the spices since my Indian taste buds are biased and I wanted it to appeal any palete. This is the stuffing.
• To make the samosa, take a small ball of the dough (smaller than a golf ball) and roll it out thinly. Cut it in the center forming two half moons. Form a cone from each half, add the stuffing and close the open side with a little bit of water to help the dough stick together.

I fried one batch for the meeting and baked one for us at home (350F ~15-20 minutes turning every 5 minutes). As always, I loved the baked version a lot better - much less oil and the crust was much crispier. The fried one tasted good no doubt - but my vote always goes for baking. I must thank my lovely husband for helping me fry the samosa as I waited to make them at the last minute so they'd be fresh.

To accompany the samosa, I made a quick green chutney with 2 bunches of cilantro, some mint, a couple of small cloves of garlic, green chili and cumin seeds and salt ground finely.

3. Into the ocean: Now for the most exciting, somewhat scary, adrenaline rushing experience of the week - Kayaking!! This may sound like a regular activity to any San Diegan - not to me. I am not scared of water..hell no...I'm TERRIFIED! Ocean especially freaks me out, for that matter any body of water where I can not touch the ground (which ain't too deep) or hold onto something. This was the bravest thing I've done in a long time. Hubby gave me all the support and kept me calm throughout and brought me back to the shore safe. Although every nerve and muscle in my body was cringing with fear, I managed to stay afloat for a little more than an hour and landed back without tipping over. Am I a superwoman or what?! Go ahead - laugh at me. I have no shame though. Floating over big waves in the ocean may not be my idea of fun, but I can finally check this off my list!

On the way to La Jolla Cove

With that and hoping everyone had a very happy father's day...I bid you adieu till the next time.