Myriad Musings

Nothing reflects the rising cost of fresh fruits and vegetables better than greens in Chennai, especially the slightly more North Indian ones like Methi and Palak.  Methi which had never exceeded 15 Rs now sells for a shocking 30 Rs on the streets of Besantnagar, on the rare occasions you actually find it!. I normally buy vegetables and fruits from the road side hawkers - even if the cost is a 10 - 20% higher, it is a question of survival of small businesses and hopefully the produce is a little more fresh and a lot more local.  I visit big stores for exotic produce mostly, this time I found Methi in Pazhamuthir Cholai at a lovely 10Rs a bunch!  I bought 2 and we have had methi everything this week - Methi Sambhar, Methi leaves in Paniyaram and finally yesterday Methi Thepla a.k.a Methi Paratha in my house. Gau has exams this week, he spends 2 hours in school writing the paper, then comes home and mopes around the house hardly studying and grabbing every second he can ...

There is a distinct confusion about which keerai is ponnankanni - the fully green one or the red and green one. The blog world leans towards the mild green one while I lean towards the other; it's English name is dwarf copper leaf, need some red in the leaves to warrant such a name right?  Both my images are from Kamala's Corner                                                                        OR    Mufalatti apparently means Badly Made in Italian.  Since this rather rustic dish lacks the elegance of Gnocchi, the quick thinking cook preempts nasty comments by lowering expectations.  Smart!  One ...

Apple Beet and Chocolate. Sounds Sacrilegious right? Chocolate Yes.  And Apple? And BEETROOT?  Blech! I had been thinking about baking with beets and suddenly I was bombarded with recipes - David Lebovitz, Fine Cooking..  I make beets poriyal every week and stuff it down my kids throat forcibly.  Despite gasps of horror, I finally decided to plunge into baking sweet muffins with it. And it worked!  Surprisingly.  Shockingly.  It worked.  Gau Feasted on it and we finished the entire batch of 24 Muffins in 1 Day! We shared just 3 with our neighbours.  Gau, S, I and Ash finished the remaining 21.  In exponential order :) I decided to get fancy and beat my beat my whites to soft peaks and yolks until lemony instead of simply folding the eggs with a beater.  It helped my muffins rise beautifully despite the lower levels of flour to fruit/veggie ratio, 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta) 1 cup pottukadalai (popped chana daa...

My mother would make Moar Kuzhambu (spiced buttermilk soup if you must) when she had yogurt that had gone too sour for eating.  I make paneer (Indian Soft Cheese).  Boil milk, after 5 minutes, stir in the yogurt and a tsp of lemon juice or vinegar.  Turn the heat on to a low and stir milk occasionally until the whey looks fairly clear and all the solids separate.  Drain onto a cheesecloth and use.  You can save the whey also to mix chapathi dough, cook daal or even rice.  I use this paneer in Paneer Butter Masala or veg burgers. I had Burger Buns, Barely sprouted Moong beans, Potatoes, Cucumber and the usual fixings for a veggie burger.  I had to make my son his fortnightly  Burger Lunch. Mung beans tend to be a tad soggy despite using little water for cooking.  Adding Pottukadalai powder helped dry up the patty.  A much healthier options than using bread crumbs for this purpose. I made the first batch of patties at 6.30 am and the ...

This is going to be my mornings from now on.  Gau will eat a muffin before school.  I will bake muffins once or twice a week, in the morning.  Weekday morning at that.  My prep work should cover any chopping, grating, slicing, buying, gathering necessary for the muffin.   Morning work will be limited to mix pour and bake, between making breakfast and lunch for all of us. Muffins are not breakfast per se, they are more of a pre-breakfast snack for both the kids and the hubby.  The older one has breakfast at school, the younger one around 10 at home. My last veggie shopping trip, the little one demanded grapes.  This being off season for grapes the one I tasted made my mouth pucker.  I compromised and got him Indian Plums.  His crush on plums lasted until we got home and he bit into it. He quickly switched allegiance to the apples in the bag. This is a riff of a BBC Recipe .  I don't like plums myself - skin a tad bitter, flesh...

Remember the story of t he Stone soup, weary Traveler(s) tricking the villagers into contributing ingredients to make a nourishing pot of soup ?  Every morning is a stone soup in reverse for me, I have to trick my son into eating something before he leaves for school.  The days where I could threaten him with dire health consequences are long gone past, now I have to tempt him with a little chocolate first. Then I can add, fruits, grains, proteins, milk/ yogurt, eggs.... All baked together in single serve sizes, it is basically a Muffin!  Not a cupcake with its high butter to other ingredients ratio, but a Muffin.  Preferably with a light crumb, but a dense one will be tolerated if the chocolate ratio is sufficiently high. I have made many many varieties of muffins with varying success ;  Changing the basic grains used - whole wheat, gluten free, sattu maavu, oats; Adding fruits/vegetables - carrot, apple, banana, mango, pear, banana; Adding yogurt/milk;...