Wheat Halwa

This is a typical Diwali treat at my place and my mom- in- law's signature dish. Just tried this out today. I like this home made version better than store bought ones. Its incredibly tasty and a melt in your mouth treat. It requires a bit of work but worth the effort. So do check out the recipe.

Ingredients

Samba Wheat grains -1 glass( 250 gms approximately)

Sugar-2 1/4 cup ( u can increase if you want it sweeter)

Cardamom pods -10 which were powdered

Cashews-A handful broken

Ghee-10 tablespoons(150 ml approximately)

Soak wheat grains overnight. I added 3 glasses of water to immerse the wheat grains.

Put the wheat grains in a mixer and grind . To extract the milk grind the wheat with one glass of water and extract the milk. The first extract will be thick, the last extract will be watery. I did this procedure thrice. Discard the glutinous mass of wheat. Use a sieve to filter the milk.

The filtered wheat milk will look like this.  If you keep this aside, the milk will remain at the bottom and the water will remain on top. I did not discard the water because the wheat milk will coagulate fast and might get charred if not careful.

Now prepare the sugar syrup. Take sugar in a pan add 3/4 cup of water to the sugar. Start stirring it. Take a little bit of milk and add it to the sugar syrup to remove the scum. You can see the scum in the picture above.

Stir this mixture till it attains a single string consistency. You can check the consistency with your finger.

 The wheat milk has been added to the sugar syrup. Stir this well till it forms a mass. 

Take a little bit of color and add this to the mixture. After this you will have to add cardamom and cashew nuts. You have to keep stirring the mixture well and cannot leave it unattended. You have to keep adding ghee, as you are stirring in stages as it forms a mass.

You can see the I have added the cardamom powder,cashew nuts and ghee and the mixture is forming into mass. The main difficulty in making this sweet is stirring. I had to stir this for 45 minutes.Its better to stir this on a low flame to prevent it from getting charred. This is important if you want to make pieces.

Please check this consistency,  the whole mixture has formed a ball.

Grease a plate with ghee. Put the whole mixture on to a plate. Let it cool. Cut into desired shapes.

Cut into desired shapes. I cut them up into a diamond shape. This was not cloyingly sweet but just right. If you like it sweeter please add more sugar. I got 40 pieces for one glass of wheat.

Sending this to Diwali Special Sweets & Savories 

&

Global Food Festival by Kalyani

Jamun Raita

There is a legend associated with Jamun fruit and it begins with these lines , "Sutta Pazham Vendumaa Sudaatha Pazham Vendumaa". These are the immortal lines uttered by Skanda disguised as a child to Avaiyyar an ascetic and a poetess of the Sangam period. She was such a realized soul and yet she thought she was hitting a plateau in her learning curve and was thinking of retirement. Lord Muruga seized this opportune moment and let her know that learning is a lifelong process and ego is an obstruction to it, through these innocent words. I have explained the same below. 

Avvaiyar a travelling minstrel got tired one day and decided to take rest under the shadow of a Jamun tree. She was hugry and thirsty. Skanda disguised as a shepherd on the tree,  asked Avvai whether she wanted roasted fruit or unroasted fruit . Avvai answered that she wanted roasted fruit without thinking too much. Lord Muruga scattered some Jamun fruit to the ground. Avvaiyar started picking up the fruit and blowing the sand that was stuck to it. The fruit had become warm because of the hot sand. At that time the little boy asked her whether the fruits were warm. Being a highly evolved person she understood that this was divine play because it is not possible to have roasted fruit from the tree and yet there she was blowing on the fruit as if to cool. She was amazed by this analogy and was curious to find out the identity of the boy. Upon enquiry she found out that the little boy was none other than Lord Muruga. This legend is associated with a place called Pazhamudircholai in Madurai. This is the story behind the simple Jamun fruit and now I'm heading to the recipe.

I have made a raita out of this fruit. This is also known as Java plum. 

Ingredients

Jamun fruit-1 cup

Curd-1 cup

Salt to taste

To temper

Oil-1 tsp

Mustard-1 tsp

Urad dal-1 tsp

Asafoetida-a pinch

Red chili- 1 or 2

Curry leaves-a sprig

                

Method- This is incredibly easy to make. Take a cup add add the cut pulp of the Jamun fruit, salt and curd and mix well. Add the tempered ingredients. And your done! This tastes awesome sweet and slightly tart. I made this pachadi as a side dish to bisi bele bath. The seeds of this fruit is dried and powdered and is used to treat diabetes.  I loved every mouthful of this raita, leaving behind its unique taste and stories of a bygone era.

Green coconut chutney

I always land up making tomato chutney. And this coconut chutney with coriander and curry leaves truly tastes refreshing. Idlis and dosas taste so much better with this chutney. This is the procedure that I followed to make this chutney. 

Ingredients

Grated coconut-I used half of the coconut

Fried gram-2 fistfuls

Coriander leaves-2 fistfuls

Curry leaves-2 fistfuls

Green chillies-2

Salt to taste

For tempering

Oil-1/2 teaspoon

Mustard-1 teaspoon

Asafoetida-a pinch

Method: Grate coconut and keep aside. Take a mixer add coriander and curry leaves and blend well with a little water. Now add the grated coconut ,fried gram,green chillies and salt to taste. Blend well till done. Now temper with the ingredients provided above. It was a welcome break to savor this chutney after a long time.  

Under the Tuscan Sun

When you walk into Tuscana Pizzeria, you get the vibe, a warm unpretentious vibe, a place bustling with good food, people and cheerful banter. Created by Vipin Sachdev and Chef Willi, this is clearly one of the best places to eat authentic Italian fare.  

Just Outside the Pizzeria

On a Friday afternoon I visited this place with a friend. We ordered my favorite soup, the Minestrone col Pesto. It is almost become a ritual for me to order this soup. While we were waiting, we were served some crunchy crudites and dip made of olive oil and basil. 



Finger Food:The bread sticks and the dip made a lovely combo.


 

Minestone Soup

Coming to the soup, this is a traditional vegetable soup with pistachio pesto and olive oil. I really loved that the soup had generous amounts of Italian vegetables like zucchini, carrots, French beans, sweet peppers and white beans. It was incredibly light on my palate with just the right amount of tomatoes and olive oil. A perfect eat and slurp soup which is a meal by itself. Every time I took a sip I was reminded of Ratatouille the animation film and the simple pleasures of home cooked meal. Double muah's to the soup.

For the main course I ordered a foldable pizza, the Calzone Ripieno.

   A folded pizza with mozzarella and ricotta cheese, tomato sauce, spinach and mushrooms served straight from the oven.

First up, it is heartening to know that there are two options to choose from, for the base, the whole meal option and the classic base. The tomato sauce has no onion or garlic. This is a great feature for people who would like to skip the same. I ordered the classic 9" pizza. The pizza was cooked to perfection thanks to the traditional wood fired oven used at Tuscana. The pizza was served hot and I cut up a chunk to check out the emerald spinach and mushrooms inside. Every bite was bursting with "Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oyl" goodness! This was incredibly filling leaving no room for more food but dessert! I sprinkled some oregano flakes to enhance the flavor. Personally, I would prefer to have a thin crust pizza next time.

"Are you a pizza liberal or a pizza conservative? A comprehensive American survey found that while liberals prefer thin crust pizza with a little wine, conservatives take to the deep-dish variety served with coke and French fries."

This was an interesting tidbit I read in the Times of India

For dessert I was craving coffee, but I settled for their famous Panna Cotta.

                Chocolate Panna Cotta layered cake with compote of fresh oranges

The dessert was rich and gratifying. The soft moist chocolate cake played the perfect foil to the tang of orange compote. The monotony of chocolate was broken by the fresh citrus burst; the able sidekick was the cream. Spoon a slice of the cake and eat it along with the orange compote and the next time dunk in the cream. What a life!

                 Tiramisu:Mascarpone,cream,coffee and lady finger biscuits

I just had a spoonful of Tiramisu from my friend's plate and my coffee craving was fixed. The creamy decadence of mascarpone cheese and the spongy ladyfingers with a light hint of coffee was heaven indeed. You can finish this in minutes and still want for more.What a lovely way to end a meal, satisfaction guaranteed.

With food so good, it is not surprising that Tuscana has won many awards to its credit.

Times of India Award 2010 - Best Italian Restaurant

the Miele Guide 2009/2010 - Asia's Finest Restaurant

Burrp.com - Best Wood Fired Pizza 2010

I also make it a point to be seated in a cozy nook close to my favorite picture the wasp shaped Vespa. 

An array of pictures adorning the walls of the Pizzeria.

On the whole it was a delightful experience. I enjoyed the food and will go back for the minestrone soup. This was pièce de résistance for me. This is an ideal place to hang out with friends and family, thanks to its informal setting. So do head out there in droves. Coming to price it is a tad expensive, but these days even the American pizzas are equally expensive. The prices were commensurate with the quality of ingredients used. The service was good. The staff was very helpful and did not rush us Life is beautiful indeed with Tuscana just around the corner!

Many thanks to Chef Willi and Chennai Food Guide for making this happen. A new and spacious Tuscana on Chamiers has opened its doors recently to all lovers of good food. Do make a visit. 

Sending this to the Paisley Passions Party. , Little Brick Ranch, and Food on Fridays

Greens Mash

This post went missing after blogger maintenance.Re-posting it.

This mash of greens and lentils tasted awesome.One of the main reasons being it was grown at home in the pot with out any pesticide.The greens were so fresh, it went straight from the pot to the pan with only cutting time to be accounted for!If you get a hold of this keerai,do grow it at home.Its worth the effort.I have used Indian Spinach and Dwarf Copper leaf.Check out the colour of the leaves bursting with good health.Indian Spinach is a good source of iron and calcium and the Dwarf Copper Leaf is a good source of anti oxidants.It also has the ability to scavenge free radicals.Do get your fix of antioxidants with this mash.While eating greens it is advisable to drink lemon juice to aid the absorption of iron from greens.

Ingredients

Indian spinach(pasalai keerai)-1 cup

Dwarf Copperleaf foreign species-1/2 cup(Semmai Ponnanganni)

Toor Dal -half cup

Small Onion-5-6 finely chopped

Green chilly-1

Red chilly-2

Mustard-1/4 tsp

Jeera-3/4 tsp

Asafoetida-2 pinches

Tomato-1

Turmeric-2 pinches

Oil for tempering-1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method-First wash and clean the greens,changing the water several times.Cut the greens into bits.Take a vessel add the greens with little bit of water.To this add green chilly ,tomato, finely chopped onions turmeric,asafoetida and salt.Cook till well done.Mash the greens with a spatula.Now add the cooked dal and mash well.Temper with mustard,jeera and red chilly.You can add a little bit of ghee to rice to enhance the flavour.This is going to Priya's Veggie/Fruit of May 2011 is SPINACH ,guest hosted by Reshmi of Rasoi