The story of Puff

The power of memories never fails to amaze me. We store in our memories a lifetime of experiences. I have no idea how they might be catalogued, but they return to us at odd times triggered by current experiences which start the wheels turning, and a stored memory pops into the mind’s DVD.

Most of these memories are triggered by one of the five senses. I realize that most of these sense-related memories for me are all due to one sense and one sense only - TASTE!

Every time I eat a cake from one of my favorite bakeries in Florida, I am reminded of a very kind gesture by my friend Ukachi. The particular cake that I like is sort of doused with rum. Of course, it's not enough to get you tipsy, but it certainly adds to the taste. This is what I craved when I was pregant with my son. Not a good choice when you carrying precious cargo in your belly! So, my dear friend, ordered this cake (special-order minus the rum) and brought it to the hospital day after I delivered the precious cargo. I always think about this happy little memory when I eat this particular cake.

I have countless such memories. One other that always pops up in my head is the story of Puff! It happened when I was about 8 or 9 years old. We were in India at the time. My parents had some really nice friends in the neighborhood. It was like a little family. We lived in the suburbs. One of my dad's friends worked in the city. One time he mentioned of a new invention in food - the puff! My parents got real excited and asked him to bring some for us. I still remember the way it smelled, oh and the taste! It was heavenly! Flaky pastry wrapped around gooey filling of potato and peas. The flavors burst open in your mouth with every bite. In India, it's not easy finding "raw" pastry dough to work with, so we always asked the uncle to bring them for us. Imagine my mother's delight when she found the puff pastry sheets in the U.S.! My family's love affair with the puff continues. It's still our favorite and the love has been passed on to the next generation. Here is the recipe:

Veggie Puffs

3 medium potatoes - cooked, peeled and coarsely mashed
1/2 cup peas - frozen or fresh
2 cloves garlic - minced
1" piece of ginger - minced
Serrano chillies (optional) - chopped
Spices - Turmeric (1/2 tsp), garam masala (1 tsp), red chilli powder (to taste), cumin-coriander powder (1 tsp
Salt to taste
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp oil of choice
1 tsp whole cumin
1 box of frozen puff pastry sheets - thawed for about an hour

1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add the cumin.
2. When the cumin pops, add the chillies (if using), garlic and ginger. Saute for a minute.
3. Add peas and mix. Add the potato, spices, salt, lime juice and coriander
4. Mix well and let the mixture cool.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 350.
6. The Pepperdige Farms sheets that I buy are folded in three layers. Cut the sheets at the fold and cut each fold into 3. The whole box makes about 9 little squares. Put two tablespoon of filling in the center of each square and fold into a triangle. Press the edges tightly with your fingers.
7. Arrange on a baking sheet and cook the prepared puffs in the oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. If you feel the bottoms are getting too brown, you can turn the puffs halfway during cooking.
8. Cool slightly and serve with a condiment of your choice. We usually eat them with either ketchup, coriander chutney or tamarind chutney.

Verdict:
I usually get to see the happy dance from my family when I make this. It's the combination of the flaky pastry with the spicy filling that creates such a joyous reaction in almost everyone I know. You can play around with different sorts of filling for this recipe. I've tried spinach/paneer (feta) and it was received with just as much fanfare. With a box of puff pastry sheets, the possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Separation and Spring-rolls

Life is so ironic or maybe it’s that we are never satisfied with what we have. I am always complaining about the chores at home – cooking, cleaning and a gazillion other things. Then, it’s that I never have time for myself. It’s divided into chores and kids and when I am working, work. The only time I have for myself is at night when everything and everyone is sleeping. By this time, I’m usually too tired to do anything. So, in this hectic world of mine, I always dream of some “me” time that never seemed to come. Until now!

This week I’m away from home for work. This has never happened. I am away for more than one night for the first time since my daughter was born (almost 5 yrs)! This is something I wanted to try for a while. Just to get some “me” time to recharge. But, now that I am here, I want to go home! I did say it was ironic. To say I miss my babies is the understatement of the century! They are on my mind at all times, especially the time I am away from work. At least day time is occupied by work. In the evening, I want to run home and see the smiles on their faces and be showered by hugs and kisses. They are handling their time away from mommy amazingly well. And here I was last week mulling over how they will be without me, when I should’ve been worrying about how I am going to be! Kids are so much more resilient than we (I) give them credit for.

In my preparation to be away from home, I cooked and froze some things for the rest of the family to eat. I made spring rolls and samosas to freeze. Below is my recipe for spring rolls:

Ingredients:

½ a head of green cabbage – shredded or cut into julienne
2 medium carrots – peeled and shredded
2 cloves of garlic – chopped
½ inch piece of ginger – peeled and chopped fine
½ tsp oil
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of sambal oelek (optional)
2 tsp chopped cilantro
1 package of spring roll wrappers (I used the Kawan brand)

1. Heat oil on high heat.
2. Add the garlic and ginger. Saute lightly – make sure to not burn.
3. Add the cabbage and carrots. Mix well.
4. Add soy sauce and sambal oelek if using.
5. Mix until the cabbage is cooked – not fully cooked, should still have a bite.
6. Mix in cilantro. Turn off heat and keep aside to cool

Take a wrapper and put a tbsp or so of filling at the bottom corner of the wrapper:



Fold the bottom corner over the filling and fold once more.
Bring in the two sides and roll-up tightly.



You can either seal the edges water or just put it seam side down until ready to fry.
Deep fry when all spring rolls are wrapped.
Serve with either a sambal oelek or duck sauce. You can also make a sauce by mixing soy sauce, duck sauce and sambal oelek.



Verdict: Spring rolls are a favorite appetizer, or even a quick lunch. My kids love eating them wrapped in lettuce leaves – just like my brother does. You can make small ones by cutting the wrapper in half diagonally, then fill and roll as above. Enjoy!

What's for snack mommmmm?!

Most kids I know are very picky eaters in their toddler-preschool years. I know both of mine were/are. Having picky eaters can drive a mother insane. It's frustrating to see them starve themselves. I remember when my son was going through that stage. I would search for kid-friendly recipes and actually spend a lot of time preparing them. Then, spend countless hours trying to get some food into him. I used to worry sick. I read every single article on the web about picky eaters and how to get them to eat but nothing helped. Most advice offered usually says, they are not going to starve themselves. They will eat when hungry, but as a mother, it's just something you cannot accept. Another popular bit of advice is that they'll grow out of it. At that time, it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, I'm happy to report, my boy has totally grown out of this stage. In fact, I have to stop him from eating at times. He is always hungry! It helps that he turned out to be a foodie like me and loves to eat and try different types of foods. He'll try any food at least once. While it's great to not have to worry about him starving himself, another challenge comes along. To make sure they always have healthy foods to eat. I find myself reading the labels for fat and caloric contents of the foods I buy. I limit my purchases of pre-packaged and processed foods, but the dairy products I buy, I make sure to get the reduced-fat kind.

I admit having pre-packaged snacks is a huge convenience. So, to have healthy AND filling snacks on hand is very important when a hungry 8 year old comes from school. The first thing that comes out of his mouth is "What's for snack today mom?". On most days, I serve a filling snack, with fruits and milk. Eggs are great for a healthy and filling snack. I prepare them scrambled, wrapped, hard-boiled - whatever they are in the mood for. The following recipe is one I tried recently and it was a big success in my house:

Edamame and Potatoes:

1 tsp of olive oil
1/4 tsp of cumin seeds
1 clove of garlic, minced or 1/4 tsp of dried garlic powder
1 cup of frozen Edamame
1 medium potato - boiled, skinned and cut into cubes
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of fresh lime juice

- Heat oil and add cumin seeds.
- When they crackle, add the garlic.
- Add Edamame and mix.
- After they are soft, add the cubed potatoes, salt, lime juice.
- Let the flavors mingle for two minutes on medium heat.
- Serve with fruit of choice and milk.



As you may know, edamame is a fancy name of shelled, boiled soybeans. We all know the nutrition of soy. Just half a cup of edamame punches up the fiber, protein and vitamin/mineral content in your diet. Below are some nutrition facts for edamame:

* 120 calories
* 9 grams fiber
* 2.5 grams fat
* 1.5 grams polyunsaturated fat (0.3 grams plant omega-3 fatty acids)
* 0.5 gram monounsaturated fat
* 11 grams protein
* 13 grams carbohydrate
* 15 mg sodium
* 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin C
* 10% Daily Value for iron
* 8% Daily Value for vitamin A
* 4% Daily Value for calcium


As you can see, it offers 9 grams of fiber, about the same amount you'll find in 4 slices of whole-wheat bread or 4 cups of steamed zucchini. It has almost as much protein as it does carbohydrate. And for a plant food, it's quite high in iron - a perfect after-school snack if you ask me.

Verdict: The first time I made it, my little boy thought they were lima beans. He still tried it and loved it. He cleaned out the plate and so did my still-picky 5-yr old. Not only did they not complain, but this held them up till dinner time.

Green is in!

Everyone is talking about "going green" these days! It's everywhere, even in the Economic Stimulus package being pushed by our newly elected president. Billions of dollars are to be allocated to research and implementation of green energy. Finally, a government that makes it a priority to spend some money on much needed research in this subject. Whether or not it belongs in the stimulus package, is a whole another topic of discussion. So, back to the real topic.

The average eco footprint of a person living in the US is 9.7 hectares. The eco footprint measures the area of oceans and land required to support your lifestyle. You can measure your footprint at http://www.myfootprint.org.

My shameful result stated that if everyone lived like me, we would need 3.2 planets!! Now, I consider myself to be pretty conservative when it comes to consumption of food and energy. There are some things, though, that are hard to give up or nearly impossible. Below are a few things that I try to incorporate in my life.

Reduce, reuse and recycle:

We are just so used to certain things that they become second nature to us and we hardly give it a thought. Take grocery bags for example. Plastic grocery bags are the most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Every year, Americans throw away about a 100 billion plastic bags after they've been used. Since these bags are made from petroleum and natural gases, that's equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil! So, invest (a few dollars at most) in reusable totes. Supermarkets sell these for about a buck - not much compared to the price of a barrel of oil these days. I find them to be more user friendly than the plastic bags.

Another example of such waste is paper products. We are so used to reaching for that roll of paper towel to clean up that we don't stop and think how they will end up in a landfill somewhere. Tissue paper manufacturers like Kimberly-Clark, use only 19% of recycled materials to make toilet tissues, paper napkins, towels. Due to this, about half a million acres of forests are destroyed every year in Canada alone. This action has a lot of other consequences attached to it, such as destruction of animal habitat. Consider using re-usable rags to clean up that spill before reaching for a paper towel. Micro-fiber cloths are great for cleaning around the house. They can be used with just water. This will eliminate extra chemicals from household cleaners as well! I like the Scotch-Brite cloths. I have one for cleaning glass as well. Does an excellent job with just water or a mixture of 50-50 water-vinegar solution.
These cloths can be used to replace those Swiffer cloths too. Use either dry or with a spray solution of vinegar-water to clean hard-wood floors.

Go Vegetarian:

I must admit that I was quite surprised when I came across this as a step to go green. Believe it or not, the farm animals raised for food consumption, contribute about 18% of the greenhouse gases. A cow can produce hundreds of liters of methane each day. Now I'm not going to spell it out and say how exactly that happens. Use your imagination! Methane is 23 times as powerful a global warming gas as carbon dioxide. A vegetarian lifestyle has other purposes as well as religious ones. If you can't go vegetarian, reduce the consumption of meat.

Also, the following little things help in a big way:

- Turn off that faucet. Water consumption is fast becoming an issue as big as carbon. Also, replacing leak faucets, installing low-flow shower-heads helps. Low-flow faucets reduce water consumption and the cost of heating water by as much as 50 percent; using a low-flow toilet can save Americans 2.1 trillion gallons of water and $11.3 million nationwide every day.
- Turn down the thermostat by just one degree.
- Unplug small appliances when not in use. Even when turned off, items like your television, computer, and cellphone charger still sip power.
- Install compact fluorescent bulbs in all your home light fixtures, but remember, compact fluorescents contain mercury, so look for low-mercury models and be sure to dispose of old bulbs safely through your local hazardous waste program.
- Dry your clothes outside when possible. I also have a line in my basement to dry clothes.

There are a lot of things out there, some too radical for my taste, to live a greener life. The things I listed above are the everyday things that I go through and try to consciously follow. I hope these tips help you go green!

Minestrone Soup

I have been back in NJ for 2.5 years now and I am still not used to checking the weather in winter! Every time a snowfall is in the forecast, the nice school-bus driver informs me. He tells me this afternoon to check the weather tomorrow and call the school to make sure it's in session! After I learned this little tidbit, suddenly the air felt chillier. I noticed the sky to be a bit more gray than normal and I mentally prepared myself for the snow that is about to start falling. 6 to 9 inches I was informed!

Soup and snow go hand-in-hand. The comfort of piping hot soup in the bitter cold is unsurpassed by anything else. I tend to make more soups - different varieties- in the winter months. This Minestrone soup though is by far the most favorite in my house. Served with either a hearty grilled cheese sandwich or the "flatbread" pizza I made today, it is a meal in itself. It's filled with the goodness of as many vegetables as you choose to use, along with the protein-punch of kidney beans. So, without much rambling, here is the recipe for my (vegetarian) Minestrone soup!


Ingredients:

6 cups cleaned/chopped vegetables (I use broccoli, yellow and green squash, corn, spinach, carrots, green beans)
1 14 oz. can of drained and washed kidney beans
1 28 oz. can of petite diced tomato
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 medium chopped onion
2-3 cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp. olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
Shaved parmesan or mozzarella cheese to serve

1. Heat olive oil and saute onions and garlic until transluscent.
2. Add the seasoning and mix.
3. Add all the chopped veggies and mix.
4. Add the diced tomato and tomato paste.
5. Add 28 oz can of water.
   
6. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Let this mixture come to a boil. Cover and simmer on low until the veggies are cooked.
8. Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with the preferred cheese and serve.

Here is what mine looked like:

Verdict: Kids ask, "what's for dinner, mom?" I say, "soup"! Their response, "YAAAAAAY"!!!! Need I say more??!! This time, I served this delicious and hearty soup with a "flatbread" pizza. I made the pizza with the store-bought naan. Top it with spaghetti sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. I only added fresh basil leaves. Put these in the oven for about 8 minutes at 425 degrees. Cut and serve!

NOTE: Instead of the water, you can use vegetable stock. When home-made vegetable stock is used, the flavor is unbelievable! If I don't have home-made, I skip and just use water to avoid the gazillion milligrams of sodium in the canned varieties.

Matar Paneer (Green peas and paneer)

So, a few days ago, I learned that my little boy loves this little concoction of beautiful green peas and one of his favorite ingredients - paneer! You can imagine my delight since he usually is not a big fan of peas.

Matar paneer is one of the most popular dishes in India. It is known to be of Punjabi origin, where paneer has been used predominantly. Paneer is basically connected to the Punjab region of India. Many loved recipes originate from here - malai kofta, palak (spinach) paneer, paneer makhanwala, paneer tikka masala and the list is endless. Most Indian restaurants in the US serve these dishes along with the Indian flatbread, naan. There are other flatbreads this is served with - rotis, puris, etc.

In my house, paneer is very popular. My OH (other half) LOVES paneer in any form and he has passed on this love to my children as well. Due to fat content of paneer, I try to limit the use of it to maybe once a month. However, when it's paneer time, it's also a dinner time celebration.

The restaurant versions of many of these dishes is laden with cream, ghee (clarified butter) and who knows what else. My home-cooked versions of the same dishes are minus the extra calories, but not minus the flavor. In fact, when made with the freshest ingredients, these dishes bring out all the flavors and colors of the beautiful vegetables and spices used. Instead of the heavy cream used in traditional matar paneer, I used low-fat yogurt. Also, in the traditional recipe, there are no red peppers. I added them for some extra color and turned out they added a whole lotta flavor as well. So, if my recipe for a low-fat, "restaurant-style" matar paneer sound like an oxymoron, I am pretty sure you'll be convinced if you ever try this recipe... So please try it and do let me know!

On to the recipe.... Low-fat, "restaurant-style" matar paneer

1 tsp oil
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
2 cloves garlic
1'' piece of peeled ginger
1 clove
1 pod of cardamom
A tiny piece of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of peas - frozen or fresh
1/4 cup small diced red peppers
1/4 cup paneer pieces - unfried
1/8 tsp hing (asafoetida)
1 tsp red chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin-coriander powder
1 tsp yogurt
1 tsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp chopped coriander

1. Puree onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. Puree the tomato separately.
   
2. Heat oil.
3. Add the hing (asafoetida). Then add the onion mixture. Cook until the raw smell of onion is gone and you can smell the spices.
4. Add the tomato puree and all the spices - red chili powder, turmeric, garam masala, cumin-coriander powder.
5. Let this mixture cook on slow flame until the water from the tomato evaporates.
6. Mix in the peas and the red peppers.
7. Add salt and adjust spice level, if necessary.
8. Add 1/2 cup of water.
9. Let the mixture cook, covered, on a slow flame until the vegetables are tender.
10. Add more water if necessary (depending on the consistency you prefer for the gravy).
    
11. Mix in paneer, yogurt and the kasoori methi.
12. Let cook for two more minutes.
13. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice and any flatbread of your choice.

Here is what mine looked like:


The Verdict: My OH called me on his way back from work. To ask what was for dinner! He was starving and the mention of matar paneer made him drool. His first comment after he saw the dish - "Did you use a ready-made gravy to make this?" Huh? He saved it by telling me that it looked like it came from a restaurant. That just about made it worth my time and effort - not that it was much but he doesn't have to know :) My little boy wiped his plate clean too.... Hope your family enjoys it too!

Happy eating!

Welcome!

Please allow me to introduce myself! My name is Avni. I was born in India and immigrated to the USA with my parents in my early teens. I call New Jersey, USA my home. I am a working mother of two. Life is hectic to say the least. After a long day at work and homework, we all look forward to sitting down to a hearty meal.

So why a cooking blog you ask?! Well, cooking has always been my passion. My mother is an excellent cook! I grew up tasting the wonderful food she lovingly prepares. So because of her, I've always had a love affair with food. So, somewhere along the way, I also got obsessed with cooking. I enjoy the looks on loved ones' faces when they bite into something I prepared. It's the look of total satisfaction - as if they were waiting to eat it forever! That's what got me hooked to cooking.

This blog is an expression of my passion for all things food. I will share my passion with you all, as well as my experiments with food. I hope you enjoy it!