Myriad Musings

Yet another weekday morning and I had no baked goods for my son's breakfast. I did however have 3 organic lemons, 1 avocado languishing in my fridge from the previous week's organic market and this months eggless baking challenge still pending- lemon coconut bread.   I had no coconut however and no time to buy 1, break and scrape at 7 in the morning with the day's work still ahead of me. I decided to make a healthier muffin with the same core ingredient lemon. I made a egged version soon after, so I offer recipe for both versions Ingredient list  1 cup pottukadalai finely powdered (successfully used previously) 3/4 cup whole wheat flower 1 tsp baking powder zest from 3 lemons 3 lemons juiced and juice divided 1 cup sugar (I didn't try brown sugar, worried it would overpower the lemon taste) 1/2 cup butter (recipe called for softened butter, I was in a hurry so I simply melted my butter; no harm done) 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk Or 1 cup y...

Navarathri started yesterday.  In culinary terms, it means 9 sundals (beans/channa/moong salad basically) for the 9 days of navarathri, Sweets on the first day, friday, saraswathi puja day and Vijayadasami day.  Onions, Garlic are not allowed on festive days; Traditional sundals are all about a tadka of mustard, jeera,  hing and freshly grated coconut on cooked, salted beans/chana/moong/lentil.  My challenge is to come up with variations on the traditional sundal while maintaining the satvic nature of the food. First Day :  Sweet Stewed karamani sprouts inspired by Just Bento . 1 cup karamani (cranberry bean variety, not the back eyed pea variety) 1/4 cup jaggery/brown sugar 1/4 tspoon dried ginger (or to taste) 1/2 medium coconut grated 1/4 tspoon salt I soaked the karamani overnight,  then let it sprout in a collander all day. Pressure cooked with just enough water to cover the karamani - otherwise it gets mushy Add the jaggery, dry ginger sal...