Coffee Break - Black and White Wednesday # 94

Cannot thrive without one, a cup of coffee I mean.

I modified this photo and this is my contribution for this week's Black and White Wednesday, a weekly event hosted this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu. For participation details, please visit Cindystar blog.

Tea Party from Lil Chef's Kitchen - Black and White Wednesday # 93

Lil A always makes tea for herself and me in this cute tea set. She even imitates my "Ahhhh" after a hearty sip.

As I am settling down slowly, I am coming across all these wonderful blogs and I am thrilled in participating in these various events. 

The above picture is my contribution for this week Black and White Wednesday, hosted by Satsuki of Stregatto Cuciniero . Black and White Wednesday has wonderful collection of anything culinary related photos. If you want to participate, you can find the details in Cindystar blog.

Split Bengal Gram aka Chholar Dal or Chana Dal for MLLA (My Legume Love Affair)-61

 Let me admit it. A well cooked dal makes me happy.

Since childhood I loved to eat daal, be it simple day to day thin, watery yet tasty masoor dal, or the delicious bhaja moonger dal with machher matha (fish head) or the more glamorous chholar dal, that tastes heavenly both with luchi and warm plain rice. Chholar dal was usually cooked on sundays, the day  when you take all your time to relish your meal. Unlike childhood, these days in my kitchen, food is cooked in complete random manner- my kid perhaps will not be able to relate a particular dish to a specific day!

I came across this wonderful blog, My Diverse Kitchen, just in time for the MLLA announcement last week. And at once thought of taking part in it. Since I moved to a new city only a month and half back, have a new job and a toddler, I hardly cook any blog worthy food these days. Even if the dish turns out to be good, there are no pictures taken.

I hardly have anything fancy in my pantry right now, only the bare minimums and I really miss my kitchen in US (sob, sob). So, when I thought to participate in this love affair the first thing I thought was what I have in my pantry! The only legumes in my kitchen right now are the three common dals that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. So, I decided to go with the chholar dal. Maa used to do two /three types of this dal, with or without pieces of coconuts but I always liked this one the best. This can be eaten with sada bhaat at lunch or even with puri/paratha for an evening snack or dinner.

Ingredients:

Chholar Daal- 1 cup (washed and soaked for 2 hours; if you forget, never mind)

Red Chilli- 1 or 2

Cinnamon sticks- 1 inch

Cardamom- 5/6

Cloves -  3/4

Whole cumin seeds-1/2 teaspoon

Red Onion (Medium)- 1 chopped

Tomato (Medium)- 1 chopped

Ginger paste - 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder -1/2 teaspoon

Cumin powder- 1 teaspoon

Raisins- 8-10 (soaked)

Canola oil- 1 tablespoon

Ghee- 1 + 1 teaspoon

Wash and soak one cup of chholar dal for 2 hours or so.

In a pressure cooker or a thick bottomed pan heat the oil and one teaspoon of ghee. Temper the oil with red chilli, and whole garam masala (Cinnamon, cardamom and cloves). As soon as the aroma of garam masala comes out, add the cumin seeds. Wait till it becomes light brown.

Add the chopped onions and fry till it becomes pink and translucent.

Add a pinch of sugar and add the tomatoes. Cook in a low flame, till it becomes mushy.

Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2-3 minutes.

 

Now add the pre-soaked dal to it and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add cumin and turmeric powder and stir well so that the spice is well mixed with the dal.

 

Add 1 and 1/2 cup of water and let it boil in low flame. You can also pressure cook it for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the raisins at this point.

I cooked it in a kadhai with lids on for about twenty five minutes. Check the consistency of the dal, it should not be too watery. At the end, add the remaining one teaspoon of ghee and give it a stir.

It totally uplifts my spirit when I have it with warm plain rice on a Sunday afternoon. I am sending this to MLLA 61, hosted by My Diverse Kitchen. MLLA was initiated by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and is now carried on by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen.

Settling Down Slowly

Sorry friends for the delayed post.

After the huge move across the continent with a toddler, I was extremely tired and exhausted. That was enhanced by the super hot and humid weather that Kolkata had for me. I came from a temperature of -2C to 35C. Even my mom got annoyed by the 1000th times that I mentioned, " uff, ki gorom" and said lucky you, this year its not even that bad now.

Well, I am settling slowly but steadily now. I have a new apartment (well, new for me) and a new kitchen to start cooking. Last one month I almost did not cook and was fed by my Maa and Maa-in-law. I am slowly starting to cook now and even it is only one month I almost feel like a newcomer.

I like my new kitchen actually. I will try to post some photos in my next posts. For today, I will like to share with you this one photograph.

I am falling in love with this piece of green outside my kitchen window. This window faces east and every morning I open the window this green is bathed in warm sunshine and this makes me happy.

As I said, I am not much into cooking these days and this is a simple pasta dish I made for my lilA today. I am sure all of you make this dish for your kids, or even maybe for your own lunch box.

I just sautéed some onions, green peppers, carrots and tomatoes in 1 teaspoon of oil and added scrambled eggs to it. I then added the boiled pasta to it and sauteed it for couple of minutes more. That's it. I served this with a piece of cheese and my lil one loved it.

Have a nice weekend ahead friends.

Wednesday Blah Blah

This post was originally named as " monday blah...". But with all the things that need to be done at a single time, it became "wednesday bl.....".

We are moving across the mighty Atlantic, from one continent to the other. In less than a week. And with an almost 2 year old. Yeah, you heard it right.

This move is sort of "ghorer meye ghore phera".

With the move comes all the stress and mess. Suitcases piled up.

Boxes packed to ship.

Papers shredded and many, many (read "many" as many times possible) more to shred.

LilA unaware of the move is having a gala time admists of the messes, giving the mother a very hard time.

Tired and grumpy husband. (No photo for this, though).

But among all these mess, there was relief. Tiny flowers popping out. Its Spring after all dear friends.

More daylight and some beautiful sunsets.

Sunset from my balcony.

More wonderful and relaxing evening strolls with lilA.

Wonderful food. Last weekend, friends gathered to celebrate baby shower of a friend and you guessed it right, no celebration is complete without yummy foods. And deserts.

And among all these stuffs now that time to leave is near, I am having a very deep sad feeling to leave the place I called home for a long time, almost as long as half of the time of "banabas". A place where I became "mother". A place where my lilA first school, aka daycare is.

.....

Sorry for the blah, blah. Go ahead, have fun my friends. After all its Spring.

Simple-Raspberry Cake

You know you are blessed when you can share the love for food with your colleagues-loving not only to eat food but also to cook. You can spend endless time everyday chatting about the food you love and food you cook. So, when one of my coworker baked and brought this simply delicious bread/cake, I can not stop myself from bugging her to get the recipe. And she was kind enough to give me the recipe which was originally from a magazine. It is easy to make and goes so well with a cup of tea or coffee.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4th cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt-  1/2 tsp
1 egg
1 cup milk (original recipe said coconut milk)
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup raspberry jam, melted

Preheat oven to 350F and grease and flour a8 inch loaf pan.

Stir together first 4 ingredients. Beat the egg with milk (cold, otherwise the egg will get scrambled) and butter in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the flour mix.

Stir the mix until well mixed and moistened.

Spoon half the mix into the greased pan and layer it up with the raspberry jam. 

 

Add the remaining batter on top of it. Using a knife swirl the jam through the batter. 

Bake it for 50 minutes or till the fork when inserted comes out clean. Cool it down completely before slicing.

Enjoy the warm yummy cake with a cup of tea. If you get time to read a book along, it becomes heavenly.

Quesadilla for Breakfast-How about it?

As a kid I barely had the option to choose my breakfast and that too from a list that consisted only of three to four different items.  Usually it was always "dudh-muri", puffed rice in milk. I remember many days when I did not want to eat it and my mom would say, "lokkhi meyer moton kheye nao", eat like a good girl without any fuss. And on sundays it was invariably luchi, sada aloor tarkari and jilipi. On few occasions my mother would have made chowmein with lots of vegetables for me (specially in winter). But living in a global village as we do, I try to make different types of easy and healthy breakfast from around the world. While browsing the net for simple yet healthy recipe of something that my lilA could eat, I came across this simple quesadilla recipe. Its made only with 3 ingredients and is super fast to make. Quesa in Spanish means cheese, but quesadilla can have any fillings of your choice, from beans as in Mexican style to keema curry as in desi style. 

Preparation time: 2 minutes

Cooking time: 8 minutes

Ingredients

2 store bought flour tortillas

1 cup of shredded cheese mix (I used a mix of jack, cheddar and asedaro)

3 eggs

2 tablespoon milk (optional)

Beat the eggs with milk and salt and pepper to taste. Heat oil in a pan. (It is best to use a pan of almost same size of the tortilla). Pour the egg mix. Top it up with half cheese mix.

Cook for 2 minutes and place a tortilla on top of it. Cook for another 1 minute. 

 

Flip the tortilla carefully upside down. And add the remaining cheese mix on top of it. 

Place the second tortilla on top it. Press with the spatula. It will be very fluffy. Cook for minute or so and then flip it again. Cook for another minute. Be careful not to burn the tortillas. Cut the tortilla into 8 pie pieces with a pizza cutter or a knife, if you don't have one (like me!).

Your quesadilla is ready to enjoy. And it tasted so good!