So coming back to the fried rice noodles, I saw this recipe on Rasa Malaysia and it was a guest post by Nate and Annie of House of Annie. Both these blogs are on the list of the ones I read very regularly and absolutely enjoy doing so and this is the first time that I actually made something from here. I omitted the prawns and the pork as I was making this for both of us. I do not remember how exactly I made this but I know for sure I made a few changes here and there, so I am just going to give you guys the recipe as it is from Rasa Malaysia. You can see the original recipe from Rasa Malaysia to see how to make this with the prawns and the pork. Read more…
It has been a while since a restaurant review has been posted here at Mirch Masala. I have been pretty busy lately and have been mostly concentrating on making and photographing something blog worthy and somehow managing to post at least one recipe a week. Going at that rate I don’t think I will write a full-fledged restaurant review for a long time. Also, after reading Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food I have been very skeptical about writing any reviews at all. The amount of trips made to a particular restaurant, the kind of observations made – most of the time I don’t even do half of that.But I want to put it out somewhere – the new places we try out, whether I recommend it or not, what I like and not like about it etc. So, consider these as just pure personal recommendations from a friend who has dined at a restaurant and sharing her experiences / views with you.
Because of these various reasons, I have decided to start writing mini reviews – just including what we ate, whether we liked it or not, whether we will go back there or not etc ad of course some pictures. That way it will be a quick list for someone wanting to know where to dine in Seattle and surrounding areas.
Looks like summer has finally decided to grace us folks here in Seattle. The temperatures have been in the 80s for the last two days and is forecasted to increase or stay the same for some time to come. We have a camping trip planned for the weekend and hope this awesome weather stays so till then. Now I can start making all those summer dishes that I have been waiting to make. I bought an icecream maker last weekend and have the perfect icecream recipe for this weather. I just need to make some space in my tiny freezer. So, till then I leave you with this easy steamed dumpling recipe.
Ingredients:
| 12-15 dumpling / gyoza wrappers 1/2 cup chopped napa cabbage 1/4 cup carrots cut match-stick size / grated 2 stalks scallions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp grated ginger 1 egg,beaten 1 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp hot sauce (Sri Racha) 1 tsp hoisin sauce 2 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped salt, if needed freshly ground black pepper water to seal the wrapper |
Mix together all the ingredients except the wrappers and water in a medium bowl for the filling. Take one wrapper and slowly smear some water around the edges with your finger. Spoon enough of the filling on the wrapper in the center – avoid the water smeared edges. Now fold the wrapper with the filling intact inside but do not make the two sides meet. Make the sides meet on just one end. Keeping one of sides as it is, fold the other side and keep pressing it on to the intact side, till you reach the other end of the wrapper. I know the step sounds confusing as I write it. I tried to take some step by step pictures but I am not sure they came out all that well for you to understand clearly.
If it is still confusing, here is a great video from which I learnt how to fold the dumplings.
Once one dumping is done keep it covered so that it does not dry out and repeat with the others till the wrappers or the filling is over.
Steam it in a bamboo steamer or any other steamer of your choice till the wrapper becomes a little transparent which tells that it is done. If you are using a bamboo steamer like I did, line it with parchment or wax paper ir else the dumplings will stick to it.
Variations : You can easily make a meat dumping by adding some ground meat or chicken to it.
One can easily make this any day in Seattle and more than 50% of the time can’t go wrong with it – cos its always pakoda season here in the Emerald City. These pakodas are probable the only thing that I cooked during the weekend. This saturday AJ and I ran/walked our first half marathon – Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon (I walked and AJ ran).
My timings were not great but im glad I managed to walk 13.1 miles within the time frame allotted, with no traffic chasing me ( yes, I came to know that there is actually a time limit till which the traffic is stopped on some of the main roads and then they are allowed normally – imagine trying to walk.run with cars honking behind you!!) with little – almost no training at all. We kept blaming the rain for a lousy day to go out for a run and then suddenly realized that we had only 3 more weeks to go! Still managed to do only two decent walk/runs and a few small ones thrown in here and there. Towards the end the aim was to complete without any major bodily injury. We had three more of our friends who had signed up for this and it is purely because of the company that I managed to finish this. Thanks everyone who encouraged and supported us in this! So because of this I was totally wiped out and we mostly ate out or managed with leftovers during the weekend except for these pakodas which I made for tea on Sunday. It was a perfect end to our lazy weekend except for the marathon of course.
Pakodas are fritters that can be made with onions, eggplant, spinach, mixed vegetables, pretty much anything and are generally savory. Umm actually I don’t think I know of any non-savory pakodas.
Mixed Vegetable Pakodas – The Recipe
| Cauliflower florets , really small florets to make sure they cook while deep fried – 1/2 cup Onions, sliced thinly – 1/2 cup Green bell peppers, cut into thin strips – 1/2 cup Besan / Chickpea flour / gram flour – 1 cup All purpose flour – 1/4 cup Fennel seeds or Ajwain (carom seeds), use any one – 1 tsp Red chilli powder / Cayenne – 3 tsp ( I used Kashmiri Chili powder for the bright color – use more of that as it is less hot that regular cayenne) Asafoetida – a pinch salt – to taste Canola or Vegetable Oil – to deep fry |
Mix all the ingredients together with just a little water to bind them together. Do not add too much water or else it won’t crisp up. Heat oil to deep fry. Once hot enough, add the mix to it a little by little using a teaspoon. Deep fry till crisp. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with ketchup / chutneys and a hot cup of tea / coffee. Here I have served it with some chilli-garlic sauce by Maggi.
It was a sunny Tuesday last week and any guesses what I would have done? yes, of course I baked! I had bookmarked this Raspberry Buttermilk Cake – Smitten Kitchen for a while now and recently saw a Raspberry Almond Bread in Snacksgiving and I had to make a raspberry- something-baked-something! I decided to go with Deb’s (Smitten Kitchen) recipe as I was more in the mood for a tea cake than a bread like goodie. So the basic recipe for this one is the one from Smitten Kitchen and I just added some almonds and almond extract to it. It turned out to be one yummy and moist cake!
Raspberry Almond Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
| 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 stick butter, softened 2/3 cup sugar + 2 tbsp more 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp almond extract 1 egg, beaten 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 cup frozen/fresh raspberries 1/4 cup blanched almond slivers |
Preheat the oven to 400F and place a rack in the middle. Grease a round 8 or 9” cake pan and keep aside. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with a hand mixer till its all fluffy. Add the egg, beat it in and then the vanilla and almond extract and beat just once more. Now mix in the buttermilk and the flour mix alternately to this, starting and ending with the flour mix. Mix with a spatula until just about combined. Add the almond slivers as well and mix once more.
Now spoon the batter to the greased pan and spread it evenly. Layer the batter evenly with the raspberries and sprinkle the sugar on top. Bake for 25 mins or so until a knife when inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a few minutes and invert on to a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy with your tea!
Raspberry Almond Buttermilk Cake
I waited and waited and waited for summer…still waiting, in fact but it looks like summer doesn’t have Seattle in its plans for the year and we may directly move to fall and then winter. We hardly had a few days of 70+ temperatures and bright sunshine. I had plans of buying an ice-cream maker this summer and making tons of ice-cream and popsicles (i finally got the molds a couple of months ago), along with some nice refreshing summer drinks. Well, I think I just have to settle for a strawberry lassi that I made for dessert. That’s pretty much any refreshment that one can have in this weather – like I said, it is still very chai-pakoda kinda weather here.
I have always associated lassi with Punjabi food – as in butter topped parathas to be finished off with a lassi. Only here in the US, I have seen lassi been served in any Indian restaurant and it is always mango lassi. I wonder why no one makes lassi with other fruits, just for a change. The idea of strawberry in lassi looked very enticing to me and here it is. I also used a little honey flavored Greek yogurt as well for that extra creaminess and a hint of sweetness. This is also an easy weeknight dessert!
Strawberry Lassi – the recipe
| Thick yogurt – 1 cup Honey flavored Greek Yogurt – 1/2 cup Strawberries – hulled and halved – 6-7 Sugar – 2 tbsp (optional) |
Pulse the strawberries in the blender to make a puree. Add the yogurts and sugar and pulse a few more times till combined. Enjoy chilled as just a drink or as a dessert!
Chocolate is something that I can get a craving for instantly – by seeing a picture of a chocolate something, reading a chocolate something recipe, sometimes even after I have just finished eating one of the giant chocolate muffins I get at deli at work. I came up with this recipe last day work after one such post chocolate muffin craving. I used my basic cake recipe – added some cocoa and changed the ratio a little to accommodate for more sugar. I was to bake this last week sometime but I was a little extra lazy after a super busy week before this and so this became my weekend baking. I did not add any icing to this cake as this is a everyday kind of cake. If you are making this for an occasion, I would suggest icing the cake and also making it a two layer cake with some icing between the layers as well, so its more moist.
Everyday Chocolate Cake – The Recipe
| 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 stick butter 1/2 cup oil (canola) 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup cocoa powder 3 eggs 1/4 cup cream – milk will also do 1 couple of handfuls of chocolate chips 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp espresso powder |
If you want to follow the easy way like I did, just add all the ingredients together, mix well, pour into a greased pan and bake well.
Or else you can mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together, add the dry mix to the wet, fold well and bake. The oven needs to be preheated to 350F and baking time is about 40-45 mins. Check for doneness by inserting a knife and it should come out clean. Let it cool in the pan and turn it out. To sugar or not to sugar is your choice. Enjoy warm!!
The next time I try this I wanna add some raspberries or strawberries in it. Berries and chocolate is such a wonderful combination. Orange is something else that I would like trying in this cake recipe. You may have noticed that I added a little coffee – it enhances the flavor of chocolate. It is completely optional. What other flavors do you think will go well with this chocolate cake –either to add to the cake or to have on the side?
…and finally, I am checking something off my wish list. You may have noticed the not so small wish list of things I would like to make once at least. I made that list quite some time back but have never got around to making anything from it. The coconut macaroons have been on my mind for a while now. I kept shuffling between the idea of making macaroons or nanaimo bars. The macaroons ultimately won purely because they took a lot less time to make. This recipe is a mix of various recipes I found online. Adjust for consistency depending on the moisture in the coconut and whether you use fresh frozen shredded coconut or the drier version or the sweetened one. If you are using the sweetened one, then you don’t need to add sugar.
Coconut Cornflakes Macaroons – The Recipe
| 1 egg white 2 cups cornflakes 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded coconut 1/4 cup sugar 3/4 to 1 cup sweetened condensed milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp salt |
Preheat the oven to 325F. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer till soft white peaks form. Mix in the rest of the ingredients together. Drop a little of the mixture, icecream scoop size on baking sheet with parchment paper on it. Bake for 18-20 mins till the sides become golden brown. Remove the macaroons with a spatula and let it cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with your evening tea!
Its been years and years since I have tasted this. It never was one of my favorites and I used to like it just because it was a change from the regular sambar or pulisseri or pitla. But some dishes like this just bring back good old memories and you want to have them just for that. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about what all amma used to make on a daily basis and on special occasions and happened to mention Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu to her. That is when I realized that I have never made that by myself and worse, I did not even know the recipe for it. Made it a point to ask amma the next time I spoke to her – got the recipe from amma – made it – photographed it – ate it – loved it and now blogging about it! Paruppu is dal/lentils, urundai means balls (more specifically something spherical) and kuzhambu is a generic term for any gravy based dish and here is amma’s recipe for this delicious tangy lentil gravy.
Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu – The Recipe
| To Soak in water; Kadala Paruppu / Bengal Gram Dal – 1 cup Curry Leaves – 4 to 5 Dried Red Chillies – 2 to 3 Salt – 1 tsp Asafoetida – a pinch A lime sized ball of tamarind – soaked in warm water and the pulp squeezed out For tempering : |
Wash the lentils well and soak them in water with the curry leaves and red chillies for 1/2 hour to 1 hour. Grind to a coarse paste (just pulse one or two times) with the salt and asafoetida. Take out almost all of it leaving behind maybe 1/4 of it in the food processor. Grind it to a very smooth paste and keep aside. Make small key lime sized balls of the coarse mixture and keep aside.
Squeeze out the pulp from the tamarind and keep adding more water and squeezing the pulp from the tamarind till when you add water next its almost pale. Repeat this for maybe about 4-5 times.
Keep a pot over medium heat and pour the tamarind pulp in it. Add a little water if it is too thick. Bring it to a boil and add the smooth lentil paste to this. Add salt and the sambar powder too. Let it boil for a while and add the lentil balls to it very slowly. Make sure they dont break. Let it cook for about 15-20 mins without stirring.
Heat the oil for tempering and add the rest of the ingredients. Once the mustard seeds splutter and the curry leaves and red chillies have toasted a little, add them to the gravy and mix well. Enjoy with some rice, a side of vegetables and maybe some yogurt too 🙂 
Mirch Masala 