Vegetarian avocado recipe - a simple sandwich spread

I'm really excited. Today's the first time I made something with avacado (butter fruit) at home. It took me five minutes to make, that's the best part of it...

And what a day to make it. It is Varamahalakshmi pooja today. We don't do an elaborate pooja, so I had time on my hands. But this is the fastest thing to make.

A colleague had given me a ripe avacado from her friend's garden. So I couldn't keep it a day longer -- it was RIPE.

I've eaten avacados at restaurants and at friend's places, but never made it myself.

Didn't know it was this simple.

Here's what I did:

1. Halve the avacado

2. Discard the seed and the brown skin around it if it's stuck to the pulp

3. Scoop out the fruit/pulp with a sharp steel spoon

4. I mashed it with the spoon once -- it was easy and smooth

5. Add salt to taste, a pinch of sugar, some fresh ground pepper, finely chopped fresh coriander (kothambri), squeeze in a dash of lime (all this to take away it's slightly bitter after-taste).

You can add mashed green chillies for fire. I didn't because I was hoping to con Sonny Boy into eating it. You can also add in some mashed garlic pods and finely chopped raw onion for crunch (these two elements were a no-no today, it being a festival)

6. I also added some fresh cream (it was around in the fridge), and grated in some cheese - just for effect :-)

7. Spread this on a slice of bread, top it with finely chopped capsicum/green bell pepper and finely chopped ripe tomatoes. You can use any other vegetable/greens of your choice. This is just what I quickly did. I think boiled potato will work well.

8. I sprinkled some more salt

9. I closed it with one more slice of bread, also spread with the avacado mix on the inside

10. Toast it in one of those plug-in electric toasters/sandwich grills

I LOVED THE RESULT. Had a yummy breakfast...with tomato ketchup

I guess you can use your imagination and add anything to the avacado mash -- garam masala, dhania/jeera powder and turmeric, maybe chopped spinach, olives, ajwain....i don't know -- i'm going to try other combos soon

Avacados apparently consist of "good fat", multi-vitamins, specially Vitamin K and folate. It's high calorie, yes, but worth its weight in nutrition too, so it's fine i guess.

Posted a fairly quick breakfast recipe here: for protein freaks

 

Posted this at my other blog.....

My attempt to lose weight and get healthy

A recipe for capsicum barda palya

Ok I have a recipe after a long time.
I'm sure many people must be making this, or variations of it.

But i'm so thrilled mine turned out great today and I must put it down for myself. I used to make it earlier but in the past three years, for some unfathomable reason, I had stopped.

Including a dal in a subji/palya is a great way for me to mask the taste of a vegetable you don't like (i would love to try this with cabbage which i hate in the cooked form). It also adds volume when you're short of any vegetable. And most importantly it easily adds protein to your day's requirements.

What you need:
Capsicum - 4, chopped medium
Onion - 2, chopped
Kadle bele/Channa dal - a small cup
Green chilli -one (more if you like your food spicy)
Curry leaves
Coriander
Ginger
Jeera
Red chilli powder
Turmeric
Lime or amchoor powder
For seasoning -- mustard, jeera, oma/ajwain, uddin bele/urad dal
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Soak the channa dal for two hours. Drain excess water.
2. Pop it into the mixer along with the chillie, some chunks of ginger, some jeera,  salt and sugar to taste, turmeric, a dash of red chilli powder, curry leaves and coriander (chopped)
3. Grind it (DON'T ADD WATER), but just enough to make it a grainy grainy  mixture -- don't let it become a paste. It should be chunky...it's ok if you see some unground pieces of dal in it as well.
4. Heat oil in a pan/kadai/bandle, splutter the seasoning (you can vary it and add all you want).
5. Fry the onions light brown.
6. Add the dal mixture and cook it well too (it cooks pretty fast). Cover and let it cook, but keep stirring or dal may stick.
7. Add the capsicum.
8. Taste and check to adjust salt /spice levels. You can sprinkle on some red chilli powder if it sin't giving you a kick ;-)
9. Sprinkle on some drops of lime or add some amchoor powder to add the tang. Cover for a short while and it's done.

Festival = food, festival = nostalgia

I swear I wait for festivals to come around mostly for the food it brings with it.

I'm so outright lazy I'll never really cook any of it on my own. But honestly, I don't see the need to, because there are so many generous people around me, piling on the gorgeous fried and sweet food, while I pile on the kilos.

And the first generous person who'll pamper me is mom. Who always invites us over for every festival in her own bastion. Again, I'm not complaining, because I get to enjoy so much food. And don't have to slog in the kitchen for it.

What i do miss, though, sometimes, is the nostagia attached to the process of making it. I still remember learning from my grandmother how to "seal" a kadubu or a modaka for Ganesha. Roll out the little ball of wheat-flour dough, pat on a bit of hoorna somewhat towards offcentre, carefully lift up one edge and pull one half of the dough over to the other edge. Seal the edge with a few dabs of water and then the tricky bit -- what my grandma called "murige haakodu" or literally pleating the edges. The dough had to be gently pinched and twists, and patted down and the whole process repeated all over the moon-shaped kadubu, each pleat folding into the next. It's quite crucial because if it's not sealed right, it breaks open and the hoorna remains uncooked. Over the years, i dare say i became an expert of this process. Provided my mom made the hoorna!! (Ya, ya laugh in my face.)

We usually steam it and not fry (the more popular variety). I used to take great pride in being given the responsibility to make these two dishes for the naivedya for Ganesha. I just don't know why, but this year, we didn't make it. It never struck me till last night and I haven't yet asked my mum "why?"

While I myself don't really cook festive specials, I still feel terrible when I don't get the homemade staples. It's rather rude and demanding of me, yes, but that's what they've made me used to ;-)

Another dish I miss at festivals now is the bhajji. On most festive occasions, we would fry bhajjis -- either potato, or heerekai (ridge gourd). We slowly stopped that saying fried food is not good for health; it's too tedious; there's so much other food anyway. Then slowly, after granny died we started outsourcing other festive food too. We would place orders and have them door delivered to save my mum the trouble.

I still have cousins who'll do the entire retinue of dishes for each festival without fail, and  feel terrible that i never got around to learning them. Still, I'm not exactly motivated to learn either. So i admire all those women/girls/moms who handle all other responsibilities and this too with aplomb.

Ganesha Chaturthi is also when i remember my dear neighbour who used to walk with her head bent the whole evening because then she would surely see the moon. It's a time to stop and wonder why no group of young kids come to "see" the Ganesha in your house, count them, say they are going to see at least 101, take prasada and go. This year, no one came to collect donation for putting up a Ganesha in any neighbouring street either. It's sad. This year, I didn't go to any of my relatives places either to see their Ganesha. I'm as much a part of the changing tide as the others are.

Recipe for peanut curd/yoghurt...a vegan special

I didn't know this...that one can make peanut curd! I mean, peanut butter is a part of my life, so is peanut chutney and the famous masala peanuts etc. But this was like ....WOW. For me it was a fantastic prospect, and a "first". (Maybe vegans already know this...I haven't Googled it yet).

I'm just back from a very dramatic experience at a holistic retreat where I was on a completely no-oil diet (yes, it's possible to cook traditional Indian food completely without oil) and a vegan one at that (no dairy products whatsoever).



The Wise Woman taught me how to make it and I want to put it down for myself (and anyone else who wants to try) before I forget.

1. Soak raw peanuts overnight (try a small quanitty to figure out if it turns out right the first time).

2. Churn it in a mixie/blender with a little water (if the peanuts have soaked up all the water).

3. Strain it in a thin muslin cloth to get the peanut "milk ".

4. Heat the milk and when it's lukewarm (like how you set regular milk-curd), drop in a small piece of muslin in which is tied some cooked tamarind (setting agent). If you like you can add a spoon of regular dairy curd to set it (instead of tamarind), but it would defeat the point of the yoghurt being dairy-free then.



Psst: And it's supposed to set much faster than curd. I'm gonna try it some weekend. :-)



And i didn't know you can made tadka/oggarne/seasoning without oil. Just splutter the mustard/jeera directy in a heated pan. Season your pan well for a few days and you can make dosa/chila/pancakes without any oil.



But I must admit it was a very difficult transition to make and a phenomenal change to accept -- even if it was for a day or two. Our tastebuds so eaily absorb the joy of all things oily that I was mentally craving fat!!!!!