Banana Blueberry Muffins

Agian this is a late entry for Ahaar
But Better Late than Never!!

My Children love muffins, and I prefer homemade from scratch ( no mixes) than store bought..
so here is a recipe which i took from here and changed it a bit.....It came out quite well

Banana BlueBerry Muffins

Blueberries ( I used Frozen) 1 Cup
Bananas 2
All purpose flour 2 and 1/4 cups
Butter 3 tbsp
Canola Oil 3 Tbsp
Cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp
Brown Sugar 2/3 cup packed
White Sugar 1/4 cup packed
Salt 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder 2 tsp.
Eggs 2

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Mix in everything and spoon it in your molds or wax paper muffin cups about 2/3rds full and bake for about 14 mins.

What I changed:
I used egg replacer instead of eggs. ( I bought this in Whole Foods, costs about 7 dollars for a pound, it is actually a soy product)
I used part Canola oil part butter instead of using 6 tsbsp butter ....
And I mixed in the topping sugar in the mix (made a mistake) but went ahead and baked it, and it came out fine and it bakes in 14 to 15 mins.
I used the wax muffin paper cups so it will be easy to clean up....


ENJOY!!!!

Vazhaikai (Raw Banana) Podimaas

I made this for Ahaar...... but this is a late entry...... did not realise that I had to post it in september in my blog....




To make this I generally use the green bananas, not the plaintain variety which you would use in India. When my mom used to visit me in the US, she always used this instead of the plaintain. She would say that the the plaintains you get here are very dry. So here goes....









You need, About 6 Raw green Bananas

1 handful of coconut grated
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds

a pinch of asafoetida

2 Whole red chillies

3 green chillies chopped
1/2 inch piece of ginger chopped
some curry leaves

some coriander

1 to 2 tsp salt

and oil about 2 to 3 tsps


Take a pan and add water to it. You are going to add all the bananas (cut in half) to this, so make sure it will hold al of them. Let the water boil, then add the bananas, with both top and bottom cut off and cut in half, and let it be in the boiling water for about 10 mins.

You have to make sure the bananas are raw otherwise they may get mushy and don't taste as food.


After this process, drain all water and peel the skin, and grate the bananas


In a pan, add oil, and mustard, and once mustard starts sputtering, add the urad dal, asafoetida, red chillies and green chillies, ginger and saute it, while keeping the fire at a low flame. once the urad dal starts to get red in color, add the cocnut and then the grated bananas and add salt as needed.

and garnish with curry leaves and corainder.



This goes really well with Vatha Kuzhambu or Mor Kuzhambu or even Sambar......


Variations... You may use, boiled and mashed potatoes if you wish and call it Potato Podimass...

Tacos and Beans

Wednesday (Sep 19th 07) , I made refried beans, and got some crisp taco shells from the grocery store and assembled a dinner for us.

For the refried beans, I prefer to use homemade rather than store bought. All it needs is some planning and patience (of course!!), because of the soaking process. If you don't have time, you can go ahead and buy it premade, but look for the one which is vegetarian since most of the refried beans are made with lard or animal fat.

Here is the recipe for the refried beans

1 cup pinto beans ---- soaked for 8 hours (overnight)
Drain all water from beans before cooking.
3 cloves garlic-- chopped
1/2 of white onion--chopped
oil- 2 tsp
salt- as needed
vinegar-2 tsp
Equipment needed--- hand blender or any food processor

(Tomatoes/Shredded Lettuce/Refried Beans/Tacos/Cheese/Onions)
(When I soak the beans i soak it in the same vessel I am going to pressure cook it in.)

In a pressure cookable vessel, put the beans and fill water until beans are fully soaked. Add 1/2 tsp salt and pressure cook it until about 3 long whistles. After it cools down, keep it aside.

In a pan, add oil and once it gets hot, add the garlic and onions and then once it gets a bit sauteed, add the beans and salt and vinegar,
Turn stove off when it all starts boiling together, take the hand blender if you have it and puree the mixture.
If you don't have a hand blender, just transfer contents to a food processor ( you may want to wait a little bit so it cools down :) )and blend it.

Then assemble all your stuff and eat. My kids don't like sour cream and they wanted cheese instead, but you may add
sour cream/ salsa/ guacamole etc
try different variations.

If you just wait for the beans to cool down , it thickens and is easy to put on a dry crisp taco.

If you don't get crisp tacos, you may also use corn tortillas or whole wheat tortillas and make a soft taco.

Vathakuzhambu

I would like to start off with one of my favorite recipes, Vengaya (onion)Vathakuzhambu.

My mom would make this pretty often because it was everybody's favorite. Although my dad's version of this tasted better. This was our usual meal on Sundays--- Vengaya Vathakuzhambu, Urulakizhangu(potato) Curry, Rasam and Rice hmmmm, those were the days..........

Vathakuzhambu is basically a thicker version of sambar with no dal.... You can make this when you run out of dal.You can put onion , Chow Chow (Chayote), Okra, Brinjal ---- in the vathakuzhambu, or put some Vatrals in it like "manathakkali" or "Kothavarangai" or " sundakai" or kuzhambu karuvadam also. the list is endless!

For Vengaya Vathakuzhambu, use Shallots if available otherwise pearl onions are okay. If you have big onions only, then chop them finely.

Now the Recipe:

Shallots ---- About 20

Tamarind ---- Small Lemon sized

Oil ----- 2 to 3 tbsp

Fenugreek - 1/2 teaspoon

Sambar Powder---- 2 to 3 Spoons

Curry Leaves ---- 1 Strands

Salt---- 1 and 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida--- a pinch

Turmeric--- a pinch

Mustard---- 1/2 tsp

Red Chillies ---- 2 or 3

Method:

Soak the tamarind in a cup of water and extract all the juice out of it.

Peel the shallots and cut them in two if desired or keep it whole. --------->

Place kadai on stove, and put some oil in it. Keep the flame on medium, and add the fenugreek to this and fry them for some time and then add shallots,

and saute the shallots till they kind of get brown and wilty. --------->

Keep the onions on the side. I have used another vessel to make the vathakuzhambu, you may use the same kadai in which you fried the shallots. Reduce flame first, then add about 2 to 3 tsp

(depending on the amount of spice you can take)of sambar powder,

Turmeric Powder, Asafoetida and add salt. Then pour the tamarind

juice in it and bring to a boil. ----------------------------------->

Once the sauce is thick,take some oil in a small pan, add mustard and

once it starts jumping around add dry red chillies and add it to the kuzhambu and serve it with rice!!

Plain urad papad toasted on stove or mircrowave goes well with this.

Try mixing it with hot rice and a hint of ghee-----yummy

P.S. Sambar powder* is generally made ahead of time and stored. It stores well outside, dry but I have seen people storing it in their freezer. But either way it has the most flavor for one year after it is made. Mine comes form India, made by my aunt. Here is the recipe for it

Dry Red Chillies --- One Cup

Dhania ------ One Cup

Chana Dal------- One Cup

Fenugreek----- One Tbsp

Turmeric Powder--- One Tbsp

Dry roast everything seperately except the turmeric powder, let cool and make a fine powder in your dry grinder and then as a last step add the turmeric powder and mix well.

About Me

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I am ardent fan of cooking.
Love to cook vegetarian recipes from all over the world.
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