Spicy, crunchy and tangy

Simple and unassuming

It is just hard to say no to anything crispy, fried and especially if it comes with this spicy-sour twist. Gosh! I'm drooling already. On earlier occasions I've waxed eloquent about my missing sweet tooth but hold on, life isn't fair (whoever said it was?) and so to compensate for this, I've been gifted with this unique ability to drool, reach out and munch on anything crispy within about 10 seconds of me laying my eyes on it. I'm serious. But thank God! It's just the texture that matters so I'm always tricking myself by munching on things like slices of crisp apple or carrot sticks with a sour dip. The things we women have to do to control the ever-expanding hips. Sigh!

Anyway, so this one (typically) lazy Sunday when the lunch menu changed about a dozen times in a couple of hours, we were left with a spicy, fragrant vaangi bhath, the extremely pink and refreshing solkadi. Somehow it felt incomplete to me so I thought of roasting some of my favourite red chilli papads and making a quick onion raita. But just my luck, the papads were all in pieces! I looked at them aghast, giving them the look hoping that it would possibly magically will them to join together. Alas, I'm no magician. Instead I suddenly remembered reading about this dish pappada kosambari (literally translated as a salad/kosambari  made with papads) in the book The Konkani Saraswat Cookbook, I knew I had all the ingredients and since this would use up the papads and the onions, we were sorted.

One of the biggest plus points about this dish is that it takes hardly any time to make and it's also a good way of using up leftover papads (if you have any, that is!). We've eaten this as a snack too and it's served the purpose. As a salad it didn't outshine the rest of the dishes on the dining table but gave the meal the right amount of kick it needed to become a special Sunday lunch.

Pappada Kosambari 
6-7 red chilli papads, deep fried, drained and allowed to cool down
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
A handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Some grated coconut - to garnish
Salt to taste

Crush the papads and mix the onions into them. Add salt and coriander leaves, sprinkle the lime juice and mix well. Now sprinkle the grated coconut to garnish. Check seasoning and serve.

Ready in minutes

* If you don't have red chilli papads, use any other variety. If you're using the plain one then you can add some chopped green chilli to the recipe or even add some red chilli powder.
* Serve this salad the minute it is prepared because otherwise it will become soggy.
* Make sure the papads have cooled down before you begin this salad, otherwise they will react with the onions and you'll have a really unsavoury dish at hand.

I'm sending this to Exhibit Every Bite at Jiya's Delicacy, Guest Quest at Amina's Creations and also to my first event Salad Splendour

Event: Salad Splendour

The heat wave continues even though we know monsoons are just around the corner. Btu whatever the weather, salads are one thing that anyone will find hard to say no to. You can serve them as an accompaniment to a main, a hearty salad is also good enough to eat for a meal by itself and for the weight-watchers this is the best bet when it comes to satisfying hunger pangs.

Join me for the first event on my blog and I'm beginning this with salads!


Here are the rules for the event:

1. There's no limit to the number of entries, any number is fine. The more, the merrier :)
2. All posts linked to this event must and usage of logo is mandatory.
3. Archived links are okay too but you need to re-post them with the logo and a link to this post.
4. Use the linky tool to link your entries for the event and I'd prefer it if you leave a comment on this page so that I don't miss seeing your entry. 
5. The best part: Posts with any kind of ingredients are welcome! Non-veg, eggs, seafood.... bring it on!

Update: I'll also be giving out awards for the most innovative recipe, the most enthusiastic participant and some more. To qualify for these you will have to:

• Like my page on Facebook. There's a button on the right hand side which will direct you to the Pinch of salt page on FB. 
• You will also, obviously, have to be a follower of the blog publicly. Come on bloggers, show me the love! 
• And you will also have to subscribe to my posts by e-mail.

Yes, its that simple :D

In case you have any trouble linking up, send me your entries to renuka.10@gmail.com and mention 'Salad splendours' in the subject. Send these along with a picture (of good resolution, of course), the recipe, your blog link and URL.

Boun appetito! 

Add your links here:

Dark secrets about homemade ice creams

Tall, dark and handsome: Who wants a bite?

I’ve never been the one for ice creams. I don’t have a sweet tooth either and I find that most ice creams are milky and way too sweet for my liking. Give me a nice, fresh fruit sorbet any day and I’m a happy girl. Since I’ve got a sensitive throat and this talent for picking up a cold even if someone 20km away sneezes, every time I have ice cream I go into this paranoia that my throat is getting itchy or I’m beginning to get the sniffles. (Did I mention I could also be a drama queen sometimes?) Just like I’m feeling now after lapping up a Ferrero Rocher gelato to douse the fire on my tongue after a particularly spicy meal. I know it’s all in the head but since it means that I can stay away from this cold, sweet temptation I don’t bother doing anything about it.

When we were kids we loved visiting my grandmum’s brother’s house. It was a nice, warm bungalow bang in the middle of a bustling neighbourhood but had its peace and quiet at the same time. I loved going there because the granduncle had a huuuuge library and used to subscribe to the international editions of several magazines. There was another reason too. This is one place where the freezer would always be stocked with ice cream. *big grin*

Today if you open my freezer, you will find half a box of chickoo ice cream and a small container of mango ice cream. It’s quite surprising that a non-ice cream eater like me boasts of this stock. Why, my mum looked at me as if I was looney (I get that look a lot) when she saw the freezer. And the best part? It’s all homemade and I don’t own an ice cream maker! 

There isn’t a great story of transformation behind this, it’s just simple – these days its way to hot to beat, whip, fold and bake so I’ve been looking for other things to do. One of the things that was on the top of my list was to make homemade ice cream, without the ice cream maker. I Googled and Binged for recipes, in fact I’ve a folder-full in my Gmail inbox, until I found this beauty by David Lebovitz. Since I’ve got this thing for the chocolate-banana combo currently it was just perfect. Yes, it is chocolate and banana again and no, I’m not looney. Honest. Please don’t roll your eyes!  The recipe looked so easy-peasy that I’d to pinch myself, to tell you the truth I was actually suspicious that the end product would even taste like ice cream – you just have to mix, you’ll have most of the ingredients at home and the clincher (for impatient me), you don’t even have to take it out of the freezer and churn. It was even titled, ‘The easiest chocolate ice cream… Ever’.  But.Oh.My.God. I-think-I’m-becoming-an-ice cream-convert-now! This one scooped so easily, tasted like a dream and all I’d to do is just close my eyes and take a bite – I was in paradise. Really, the person who said ‘why fall in love when you can drown in chocolate’ must’ve been eating dark chocolate then. I swear!

Dark chocolate, banana & rum ice cream

Adapted from this recipe by David Lebovitz

2 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks

100gms of dark chocolate, chopped

10 tbsp of low fat milk

3tbsp of Apricot liqueur

2 tbsp of rum

Mix the dark chocolate and milk together and heat it over a double boiler until it melts and forms a smooth paste. You can also do this in the microwave. Keep this aside to cool down a little

Put the banana chunks, rum and liqueur in the blender and blend until it forms a smooth paste. Add the chocolate mixture to this and give it another blitz in the mixie until it has all come together.

Pour this mixture into an airtight container and freezer for about 5-6 hours, preferably overnight, to allow it to set. 

If you want the consistency of a soft serve ice cream, then place the container in the fridge for 10 minutes just before serving. This ice cream is best served plain, at best with a cherry to garnish or some chopped nuts. Like Donna Hay says, “Remember, less is more.”

The end. Yumm. Enuf said.

• The alcohol is added to prevent crystallization, it doesn’t freeze so that helps. You don’t have to stick to rum, it has a rather over-powering flavour (especially if you use Old Monk like me), vodka is a good bet because it doesn’t have a flavour of its own per se and blends well with other ingredients. Same with the liqueur, I used apricot ‘cuz I had it but I think Bailey’s Irish Cream, which is mentioned in the original recipe will be good too, as will Kahlua.
• The darker the chocolate, the better it is and I’m not saying this because I love dark chocolate. Truth of the matter is that the higher content of cocoa solids make the ice cream smoother and easier to scoop.
• Impatience got the better of me and I noticed that this ice cream set within 3 hours and approx 45 minutes, so the next time I need ice cream real quick I’m turning to this recipe. For sure!

Note: The consistency of this ice cream is not like the regular chocolate ice creams that you get. It’s a little lighter, since there’s no cream, and more like a gelato. 

I'm sending this to Showcase Desserts at Divya's Culinary Journery, Bon Vivant fruits at Sumee's Culinary bites, Lets Cook #15 with fruits at Tickling Palates and also to Only cooking with chocolate at Foodelicious

Going bananas over this challenge!

Who wants one?

It’s amazing how something so unassuming like the banana can turn into an object of gorgeousness within minutes. I’ve never been a fan of banana, the fruit but banana walnut bread, banoffee pie or even banana ice cream and you’ve got me singing a different song. After chocolate cake, banana bread was one of the other things that I tried my hand and oh-my-gosh it was so, so good. What seals the deal for me is the amazing aroma that this cake emanates while baking. Such a high, I tell you!

That’s the reason why when Gayathri of Gayathri’s Cookspot picked banana muffins as the eggless baking group challenge for this month, I was more than just thrilled. I’ve made another version of this earlier with oats and whole wheat flour and since I make this quite often I decided to do something different. Since I currently have the hots for the banana-chocolate combo (not very wise if you’re calorie conscious!), I was debating between doing a chocolate filling for the muffins or just sprinkling the batter with some out-of-the-world yummy dark chocolate chips that a friend got me from Singapore. The heat is a killer these days and I didn’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, also I thought filling the muffins with chocolate would just rob the taste so the latter option won.

I usually incorporate a little bit of yogurt (curd) into the batter when I make banana bread but since I was in the mood to experiment I went with buttermilk this time. The texture was lovely – fluffy and light! Since I used demerara sugar, that combined with the bananas gave the muffins a beautiful warm brown shade. And do I even have to mention how awesome the chocolate chips were in this muffin?

Banana chocolate chip muffins

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

¾ cup of demerara sugar (feel free to add more but I like the sweetness that comes from the fruit, so I don’t overdo the sugar)

2 overripe bananas, peeled and mashed

½ tsp of baking powder

¾ tsp of baking soda

100 ml of buttermilk (100ml – 1 tbsp of fresh milk mixed with 1 tbsp of white vinegar kept aside for 10 minutes)

½ cup of vegetable oil

1 tsp of vanilla essence

¼ cup of dark chocolate chips

Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda and powder into a bowl and keep it aside.

In another bowl, mash the bananas with the back of a spoon and add the oil, sugar and vanilla essence. Mix well until all the sugar has dissolved. Now add the flour mixture to this and fold, following this add the buttermilk to the batter very slowly while stirring gently all the time. Be careful not to overbeat the batter. When you get a smooth, lump-free mixture add the chocolate chips to this and give it one final stir.

Pour the batter into a greased, lined muffin tray and bake for 20-25 minutes in a pre-heated oven or until the muffins are done. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

The most difficult part comes now, you’ll have to keep your hands off these beauties while they’re cooling or else you’ll be risking a burnt tongue! Patience, patience people. *big grin*

Beautiful, brown and gorgeous

 

• A friend of mine has tried banana muffins with white chocolate chips and swears by the combo. I wouldn’t ever try it even for I can’t stand the thought of biting into white chocolate. If it’s chocolate, it’s gotta be dark. Enough said. But we’ll save this for another day, okay?
• If you’re not comfortable with the chocolate chips, leave that out and go in for good ol’ walnuts which make an awesome combo with banana. Almonds and raisins also go well with this fruit.
• Add a pinch of cinnamon powder or even a dash of grated nutmeg just to up the flavours, one thing I can guarantee with this: your house will smell incredibly delicious! 

I'm sending this off to Guest Quest at Amina's Creations and Let's bake cupcakes and muffins at Nayna's space .

Also, since there's chocolate in this recipe I'm sending it off to Only cooking with chocolate at Foodelicious

There's fruit in this recipe too so I'm sending it to Bon Vivant Fruits at Sumee's Culinary Bites and also to Let's cook #15 with fruits at Tickling Palates

The dare this month: Challah!

Beautiful, light and yummy

The Daring Bakers Challenge for May took me by surprise and a little bit of relief – we had to bake the Jewish bread Challah this month – surprise because I really wasn’t expecting bread and relief because I’d just cracked the code to baking amazing bread at home. But it was a challenge nonetheless; as I read the recipe given to us by Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood I realized that the original recipe for a Challah calls for eggs. My heart sank a little. I quickly grabbed my notebook and pen and scribbled some of the substitutes I could use – I’m not a fan of egg replacer that you get in the supermarkets so I prefer using something else. While going through the Internet for a few recipes of eggless challah, I came across one that used flaxseed powder, the author said that this gave the bread a light, delicious crumb. The pictures looked good too and that’s when I decided that it was good ol’ flaxseed to the rescue.

I’ll admit that even though my confidence levels, when it comes to baking bread, have steadily risen I was still a little nervous while making this braided bread. So I decided to keep things simple and go in for a 3-strand braid for the Challah. Along with the flazseed powder I also added some sunflower seeds to the batter. I was wondering if I should use chocolate chips too but then I decided to let the nutty flavours shine so I topped the bread with a dusting of sesame seeds, watermelon seeds and some raisins, just to enhance the flavours a little I brushed the bread with some honey. 

The Challah, sideways

The result? A moist but light crumb with wonderfully nutty flavours. The only thing I was a bit disappointed in was that the bread didn’t brown as much I’d have liked it to but I’m guessing that’s because I didn’t use milk/melted butter to glaze the bread, like I normally do.

Honey and raisin Challah 

Adapted from this recipe on Holy Cow Vegan

2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

2 ¼ tsp of active dry yeast

½ cup of warm water

3 tbsp + 1 tsp of sugar

3 tbsp of raisins

2 tbsp of milk

1 tbsp each of sunflower seeds and watermelon seeds

2 tbsp of flaxseed + 6tbsp of water, ground into a paste

3 tbsp of vegetable oil + extra for greasing

2 tbsp of honey + extra for brushing

Salt to taste

Dissolve the 1tsp of sugar in the warm water, add the yeast to this and stir well until it has dissolved somewhat. Cover and keep it aside for 10 minutes. The yeast should turn frothy, which proves that it is alive, if not you need to discard this and start again.

In a mixing bowl put the all-purpose flour and salt together and combine well. Now make a well in the center and add the yeast, milk, sugar, flax seed paste and sunflower seeds. Knead the dough well for about 10 minutes until it begins to come together. Cover with a damp cloth and keep it aside for about 2 hours until it has doubled in size. 

Remove the dough from the bowl, place it on a floured surface and punch it down. Add the honey, some of the raisins and continue to knead for a while. Now divide the dough into three equal portions and roll out each of them into long ropes. Use these ropes and form a braid. 

Braiding the bread

Dot some more raisins, seeds and brush some honey on this loaf. Place the loaf on a greased baking tray, cover with a damp cloth and keep in corner and allow it to rise again for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Flecks of brown and white: The honey and the sesame

After this is done, place the loaf in a pre-heated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until it is done, you will know this when you tap the center of the loaf and it sounds hollow. 

Side profile of the baked Challah

Let the loaf cool down completely before cutting into slices. Serve plain with just some warm butter.

Size wise!

• The flax seed makes the loaf very light, its quite unbelievable because I’ve seen this texture only in breads with eggs before.
• You can stuff the Challah with any savoury mixture too, spicy potatoes is always a good idea. But go easy on the honey if you’re planning to go savoury.
• Instead of making a straight loaf, you can join the ends of the braid to form a roll or a wreath. 

Close-up of the baked gorgeousness

Because of all the flax seed in this bread I'm sending this off to Show me your hits: Iron rich food at Julie's space