Moong Dal with Palak

The only way I used to eat spinach as a child was with moong dal. I was happy to have the tangy and hot dal with rice or even parathas and the spinach blended into the taste of the dal. This can be had just as soup as well on a cold winter day. I have not made it that often myself as I find that you need a half bunch of spinach as the most when making the dal for 2 people. This means that either half a bunch kind of wilted away for the lack of inspiration or I would have to make twice the amount of dal and freeze half to be had later. Unfortunately I have found a couple of such frozen moong and palak dal containers in my freezer as I have not remembered to use it up.

Ingredients

200 gm of moong dal without the husk

½ - 1/3 bunch of spinach chopped

A medium onion finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 inch of ginger finely chopped

Green chillies finely chopped (have deliberately not written how many as you need to put according to how hot you can take, I generally put really hot green long chillies about 2 -3)

Tomatoes (2 medium fresh tomatoes or half a tin of tomatoes)

Spices:

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder 1 teaspoon

Cumin powder 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder 3 teaspoons

Turmeric powder 1 teaspoon

Handful of chopped fresh coriander

For tempering:

Teaspoon of whole cumin

A couple of small dried red chillies

4 cloves

A small piece of cinnamon stick

Quarter teaspoon of hing / asafoetida

3 teaspoon olive oil or any vegetable oil

Method

• Wash the moong dal in cold water. Place in a large pan and covers with water. The water should be 2 inches above the lentils. Bring it to boil and then simmer until the lentils begin to soften.
• Make the temper / tadka – Add the oil and whole cumin to a pan and heat. As the cumin starts turning brown add the dried red chillies, cloves and cinnamon stick to it.
• Once that heats up add the finely chopped onion, garlic, ginger and green chillies. Cook till onions begin to lightly brown.
• Then add the tomatoes and the rest of the powdered spices. Cook till you can see the oil rise back out of the masala (paste) you have made.
• Then add this masala to the cooked lentils. Slowly simmer the lentils to completely get the taste of the spices into the lentils.
• At this point you also add the chopped spinach into the lentils as it does not take very long to wilt. Adjust the amount of water based to get the right thickness for the dal - for it has to be more liquid when you have with rice than with parathas.
• Just before serving you can add the fresh chopped coriander.

Have a go at making this dal and it is especially good on a cold evening. I find that most of my cooking I do is on estimate that comes from practice of many years and so you do need to think of the amounts in terms of your tastes and the amount of lentils to be comparable with what measure you normally use for lentils for your family. Enjoy!

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.

Palak / Spinach Parathas

A few weeks back I saw a website that came up in my Facebook news feed about making different types of parathas. Since I know a few different recipes myself, I was intrigued to see what kinds were in this recipe link. Scrolling down the list palak parathas caught my eye. Now I do feel I should have more spinach in my diet but always find it difficult to think what I can make besides the moong dal and palak. Just realised, that I have not penned that one and will do so after this one. I am not very fond of palak paneer as the palak is gets cooked to a pulp.

The palak paratha recipe was to my mind very lengthy and it involved blitzing the spinach in a mixer and using the pulp instead for water to knead the dough. Of course various condiments and spices were to be added to this dough. This would provide nice green parathas. I did not want to do the additional blitzing of spinach which meant I would not be sure of how much dough I would eventually make and additional washing up. So I adapted the recipe and made these wonderful tasting parathas.

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of spinach finely chopped

2 cm piece of ginger finely chopped

1 medium sized green chilli also finely chopped

300 gm of plain wheat flour / chapatti flour

A teaspoon of salt

Water about 225 ml

5 table spoons of Olive oil.

Preparing the Dough

• Place the finely chopped spinach, ginger, chilli and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour and 1 table spoon of olive oil next and mix them together.
• Then start adding water a little at a time while bringing the dough together.
• Once all the dough is brought together knead it for a few minutes.
• Finally take a teaspoon of olive oil in your hand and knead the dough to make it smooth.

Normally I set aside the dough of parathas and chapattis to rest but with this one I try not to keep it resting for more than 10 minutes as the palak can make the dough too soft.

Preparing the Paratha

• Put a flat griddle or tawa on the hob to get it heating. Have a small bowl of oil and teaspoon to brush the paratha with oil as it is cooking. It is useful to get a foil ready to cover your parathas and keep them warm.  Take a dough ball big enough to fill your palm. You should be able to make about 7 balls / portions from that dough.
• Flatten it a little and cover it with flour before rolling it out. This use of flour as you are rolling out keeps the dough from sticking on to the rolling pin (Gujarati word is velan) or the surface you are rolling it on. Some people can use the work surface tops or wooden or marble patlo (a Gujarati word for the surface you roll out your chapattis on).
• Roll out the dough to as about 2 mm thickness.
• Put on the hot griddle and wait for it to warm up and start to get cooked. Turn it over once and brush with oil. Then turn over again and brush the other side with oil. The cooked paratha will have some blistering and darkening patches.

I would recommend having these palak parathas with raita or moong dal or even just mango pickle.

Blueberry Yogurt Cake

When we go to Fairfield there are 2 places to visit. One is the chemist warehouse to increase my stash of drugs and other is the fruit and veg shop. They have a huge variety of fruit and veg that is also cheaper in comparison to the supermarkets. This shop also does tinned produce and bit of deli, breads and biscuits and so on. One day I saw a blueberry cake and since I love blueberries we decided to buy it. It was delicious but the next visit of course there was no cake. Why is it that once you like something it always gets discontinued?

So I asked my husband if he could concoct one. He loves to bake and tries his hand at all sorts of desserts and cakes. So he found a recipe and made a blueberry cake. That one tasted fine but the blue had bled across the cake and the texture was more moist than required. The next time he made a chocolate cake and added blueberries into it. Now that one was also yummy but not quite the same. Yesterday he tried a different recipe and that one has come closest to the taste of that shop bought one but knowing what is in the cake I can say it is definitely a healthier version.

Ingredients:

125g of softened butter

1 cup (225 gm) of caster sugar

2 medium eggs

1 cup (225 gm) self-rising flour

3/4 cup (175 ml) plain yogurt

250 gm of frozen blueberries

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C or 160C for a fan-oven. Grease a 20cm (base) round cake tin. Line base and side with Greece proof paper.
• Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. It is certainly easier and faster to use an electric mixer.
• Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating till it combines with the mixture. Sift half the flour over mixture. Stir to combine. Add half the yoghurt and stir again to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and yoghurt.
• Spread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle with blueberries. Press blueberries lightly into mixture. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (cover cake loosely with foil if over-browning during baking).
• Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with yoghurt if desired.

Tips:

You can use 225ml of olive oil instead of eggs. Again the oil amount can be reduced by substituting it with a little more yogurt.

I hope you enjoy the cake as much as I do.

Chickpea and Dukkah Salad

I came across dukkah during one of the cookery shows with recipes from northern Africa. It seemed to be a combination of spices that is used as a dip with bread or fresh vegetables in a starter. I had to look up this spice mix to see what it contained - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/dukkah. The word ‘dukkah’ is derived from the Arabic for "to pound". The mixture of spices and nuts are pounded together after being dry roasted to a texture that is neither powdered nor paste-like. The composition of the spice mix can vary from family to family, vendor to vendor with sesame, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper as common ingredients. You can buy readymade dukkah too if you wish to take a short cut.

I saw this recipe which was very basic and essentially to be eaten with drinks like you would peanuts. The ingredients were I tin of chickpeas, a table spoon of olive oil and 2 table spoons of dukkah. Mix all the ingredients and place on a tray in a hot oven about 220C for 10 mins. It appeared to be a nice quick recipe but I wanted it for a salad so needed to think about how I can adapt this simple recipe and make it mine. Maybe a warm salad with onion and garlic; and cucumber and tomatoes could be also added. Here is what I came up with and had it in combination with roasted potatoes (small chunks) and grilled haloumi.

Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons dukkah

Salt to taste (if using it in combination with salty cheese like feta or haloumi is it not necessary to add salt)

1 heaped teaspoon of chilli flakes

3 inch piece of cucumber

1 medium tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes

1 teaspoon chopped parsley and coriander (optional)

Lemon juice – to taste

Method

Drain and wash the tin of chickpeas.

Finely dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Add a pinch of salt and set aside.

Thinly slice the onion and garlic.

Heat the olive oil in the pan and add the onions and garlic to it.

Cook onion on medium heat till it is translucent and just beginning to change colour.

Add the chickpeas to the onions.

As the chickpeas begin to warm add the dukkah and chilli flakes to the mix.

When the onion, chickpeas and spices are hot and well mixed take off the heat.

Place in a serving bowl, add lemon juice and stir. Sprinkle parsley and coriander.

When serving on a plate sprinkle the chopped tomatoes and cucumber to add that fresh clean flavour to the salad.

Well I must say that it is best to have it warm and reheat only in the same pan. I went for what was in the original recipe and spread it on a tray (since I was already doing the potatoes) to warm up in the oven and found the chickpeas dried a little. I will of course not be doing that again. If I was not using the grilled haloumi as part of the dish, I might try a sprinkle of feta. Another variation could be adding some capers to it.  I really liked this simple salad and will definitely be trying out various versions.