Last year, just as we were gearing up for the new year celebrations and I was cooking for the recipe marathon, Oraphan had a cookbook contest. I participated in it and though I did not win the Deborah Madison cookbook, I won a prize, a cute box of kitchen sticky notes.

I got the gift this week from Oraphan. They are really useful and handy. Thanks Oraphan. Now you know I will think of you atleast once a day

Garden Update:

Yes, even in this weather. This time I am showing off cauliflowers. They are so cute like a button and as white and firm as they can be. I am thinking of making Aloo Gobi with it. Any other ideas?

If you are wondering why is there a bottle beneath the plant, they are my simple aqua globes. I thought why spend so much to buy something similar to a water bottle, instead I made a hole in a used water bottle and use it to feed my little babies when I am not in town (apart from the sprinklers). We were expecting snow this week in Texas but luckily it did not snow. I am waiting for spring to plant Okras, we almost harvested it every other day last year. That’s all for today, I am already having a wrist pain by constantly checking out blogs and before I lose the eye sight, I think I should call it a day.

Updated Info:

My family had a farm back home in India, from rice to cereals to fresh milk from cows to veggies, I had the best organic food one can get. So, naturally I love growing vegetables and I don’t even bother buying a book to read about it, to be honest, I dont even read the instructions on the back of a seed pack. Before I plant the seeds, I make sure to pump up the land by adding some kitchen wastes (skins of vegetables, rotten veggies) and mix it well. Then I just plant the seeds and within a week-10 days they come out to day Hi

Now if you live in Texas the weather will be so hot during summer and the more you water the more the grass dries up and water bill just triples. At first when we got the house, we did not install a sprinkler system. So to water my plants when I am away, I checked out options and I saw an ad for aqua globes. They look like a crooked jar with a wide base and a small mouth which allows the water to escape by drops.

If inserted near the plant, when the soil dries out, it creates a suction and the water moves from the gadget to the soil. It is as simple as that, and I took the principle and applied with water bottles. Just make a small hole in the lid, fill up the bottle with water, fit the lid, dig a place closer to the roots of the plant and in one quick move, insert the bottle vertically and support it with soil. It will look like a inverted tower (They actually look cute like a bottle with a baby). It works well for a week, and so many times I have found the bottle to be 3/4th empty when I come back with the plants looking fresh as always.

A dozen birds in one stone: save water, feed the plants, no worry about water bill, and use the plastic bottles for something good.

United Kingdom…. A place I want to call home(after India of course). Some of the best years of my life were in the UK, got my first job there, secured a flat and experimented with lots of cuisines, but the best part was making so many friends. We would eagerly wait for Wednesdays in the uni cafeteria as the menu would feature orange cheesecake. My friends and I used to sit and enjoy till the last crumb of the cake is finished, helping ourselves to pots and pots of coffee.

After marrying N my cooking improved as he was a total foodie and most of his friends were almost like chef’s in their own field- most of them are master’s of the grill. I have already written about PM, who taught me the trick of tasty salads. One of our friends, C and I are absolute dessert lovers. Whenever we all meet to eat out, I try to catch his eye after dinner to make sure that I will have some company for dessert.

It goes without saying that cheesecake is my favorite. I have tried making cheesecake lots of times(failure is the tasty step to success here) and finally got it almost like a cheesecake. I followed some recipes by friends and also from food network(Giada- but I have to trust this skinny chef for cheesecakes). The official and unpaid photographer of this blog (N) is traveling and I hope the clicks I took are OK.

Ingredients:
For the base:
Crakcers/Cookies – 10 numbers
Sugar- 2 tsp
Butter- 2 tbsp

For the cake:
Cream Cheese- 1 cup ( 8 ounce can)
Whole milk Mascarpone Cheese- 3/4 cup (you can also use Ricotta cheese)
Eggs-3
Sugar 3/4 cup
Vanilla Essence/ Almond essence- 1 tsp
Lemon zest/ orange zest- 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

The best way to make cheesecake is to keep all the ingredients at room temperature. That way the cheeses softens on its own instead of beating it with a hand blender. Let the eggs and cheese stay at room temperature for two hours before baking.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a blender, add the crakers(or cookies), sugar and powder well. Melt the butter in a pan slightly and add it to the blender with the crackers. Pulse once or twice so that it forms like a dough.

I prefer a deep (dish)baking pan than a broad cake pan as the cake gets the height from the pan we choose. Select a baking vessel accordingly and sprinkle some butter on the bottom of the pan and press down the cracker dough(to act as a base).

Use a tin foil and cover the sides of the pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or till the cracker base turns golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and cool. Do not remove the base from the pan, just the pan from the oven.

In a mixing bowl add softened cream cheese and mascarpone cheese. Just use a hand mixer and go around the bowl twice or thrice, do not over mix the cheeses.

Add one egg at a time and incorporate the eggs into the mix. Add sugar and essence and mix well again. Add orange zest for color and flavor(if you are adding the zest) and slightly mix.

Heat water in a kettle till it reaches a boiling stage.

Pour the cheesecake mix into the pan which has the cake base( the cooled cracker base). Do not remove the tin foil used to cover the sides and base of the pan.

In a cake pan, pour the hot water till half the level and slowly place the cheesecake pan into the water bath.

Slowly place the water bath into the oven. Bake at 350 for one hour and ten minutes.

To check if the cake is done, slightly shake the cheesecake pan. The cake has to be firm. If there is some liquid at the centre and it moves slightly, that is fine and it will settle after cooling.

Remove the cake from the water bath and cool at room temperature for an hour or two hours. Cover and place the cheesecake in the fridge for 8-10 hours before serving.

Notes:
Baking the cheesecake in water bath gives the texture for the cake and also the softness. You can add any topping for the cake or even mix it with the cheese batter. Options are strawberry jam, sauce, chocolate sauce, fruits, powdered sugar etc etc.. I just did not want to make the cheese cake heavy by adding a topping

Venthayam(Methi in Hindi and Fenugreek in English) is a regular herb used in South Indian cooking, atleast once a week. Most of the spice powders will have the addition of roasted fenugreek, and it is also common in pickles to act as a stabilizer.

Both the leaves and seeds are used for cooking and flavoring, though they taste slightly bitter. Besides cooking, Fenugreek has a lot of medicinal uses:

- Fenugreek seeds help to lower cholesterol levels.

- The seeds are used as a cure(to control) diabetes (Check with the doctor first before using, as there can be some side effects)

- For women, fenugreek seeds are a good cure for Menopause and PMS. Regular use of fenugreek will increase lactation for nursing mothers. But if taken during pregnancy, the fenugreek infused water can induce labor, because of this use, it is also given during labor to help in the process of child birth. Fenugreek seeds with rice or Urad Dal(black lentil gram) is made into a soft pudding and that also helps to strengthen the uterus.

- Soaking a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds in half a cup of yogurt and taking it in the morning will reduce body heat.

- Fenugreek seeds with yogurt is a good cure for uncomfortable tummy (Diarrhea).

- When used with yogurt or vinegar as a conditioner, fenugreek seed paste can help in hair growth.

How to use fenugreek in cooking:

I like using fenugreek seeds for a spicy tamarind sauce and the leaves for a comforting rice dish(Khichdi).

Methi Khichdi: (Vegetables, rice and lentils with Fenugreek leaves)

Ingredients: serves-2

Rice- 1 cup
Lentils(yellow or green moong beans)- 1/2 cup
Salt- to taste
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala powder- 2 tsp
Green chilies-2
Chopped Ginger and Garlic- 1 tsp each
Red onions- Chopped-1/4 cup
Fenugreek leaves- 1 cup
Mixed vegetables (carrot, peas,cauliflower, potato, beans)- all together- 1 cup
Olive oil- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Cinnamon sticks- 1″ piece
Bay leaf-1
Cilantro leaves- to garnish

Method:

This dish can be prepared as a one pot dish, in a slow cooker, in a pressure cooker or a rice cooker. With mild spices and vegetables, it is the comfort food for a weekend brunch or a weekday dinner. It is very simple to prepare this khichdi and you can throw in all the veggies you want if you want to clear out the fridge. Whichever way you cook, add lot of water to cook the rice.

Stove top: Wash the lentils and rice, keep aside.Heat olive oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, bay leaf and cinnamon sticks. Fry well for a minute, add onions, green chilies, ginger and garlic and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the fenugreek leaves, chopped vegetables, salt, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and stir fry well for another 2-3 minutes. Add about 6 cups of water, cover and let it simmer. Once the water is boiling, add the lentils and rice and simmer for 25 minutes or till the rice is cooked. Once in a while, mix the veggies and rice well and mash it as you cook. The more you mash them all together, the more tasty it till be. Once all of the veggies and rice is well mashed and is cooked through, garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with spiced yogurt(Kadhi).

Pressure cooker: Follow almost the same method but instead of waiting till the veggies are cooked, add rice and lentils and pressure cook for 2 whistles.

Rice Cooker: Cook till stir frying the vegetables in a pan. In the rice cooker, add water, rice and lentils and transfer the stir fried vegetables to the rice cooker. Cover and let it cook like normal rice.

Slow cooker: Stir fry the vegetables in the pan, transfer the rice, lentils and the vegetables to the slow cooker. Add atleast 8 cups of water (slow cooker needs more water than a rice cooker), set it on high (3 hours) or low(8 hours) for the rice to cook.

Cooking with Fenugreek Seeds:

Appalam Vathakozhambu (Poppadams in spicy tamarind sauce)

Can you cook without any vegetable to make a sauce? That too with poppadams? Sure you can. The simplest of all sauces in South Indian cooking, a favorite for summer season to have with yogurt rice.

Ingredients: (Serves-2)

Poppadams (about 14 each)

Green chilies- 2 each

Red Chilies- 2 each

Curry Leaves- 5

Tamarind- 1 small lemon size

Red Chili Powder- 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder- 1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp

Chana dal- 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 2 pinches

Salt- to taste

Gingerly oil- 4 tbsp (You can also use light olive oil)

Rice flour- 1 tbsp

To be ground to a powder

Coriander seeds- 1.5 tsp

Red Chilies-4

Chana dal- 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 tsp

Method:

Soak the tamarind in about 200 ml of hot water. You can also substitute 1/4 tsp of tamarind paste for this. Squeeze out the juice from the tamarind, add another 100 ml of water, extract the juice again, filter and discard the pulp.

Roughly break the poppadams into two. Slit green chilies lengthwise.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel(kadai) and add hing and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add chana dhal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves ,red chilies and green chilies. Stir fry for a minute. Add the poppadams and salt and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder and stir fry till the raw smell of the red chili powder disappears.

Pour the 300 ml of tamarind water into the pan and simmer for 15-20minutes(tiill poppadams are tender). The tamarind water should have reduced to at least 1/2 of its original volume.

In the mean time, toast(dry fry) the coriander seeds,red chilies, chana dal, fenugreek seeds to a golden brown color. Cool and grind to a fine powder. This powder is my version of the vathakozhambu powders sold in stores. I grind it fresh, but you can also sprinkle some store bought vathakozhambu powder if you want.

In a bowl, mix about 3 tbsp of water and rice flour into a thick paste. Add the ground powder to this paste and add these to the boiling kozhambu. Stir well to avoid any lumps.

Let it simmer for another 4-5 minutes. Switch off. Serve hot with rice and spicy potato stir fry or stuffed  okras.

The Methi Khichdi is my entry for Yasmeen Health Nut’s Bitter- Better Health Event.

The appalam kozhambu is my entry for cooking with fenugreek seeds byDenufood an event started by Priya.

In India, food is considered as divine and is represented by Goddess Annapoorani. And any offering given at a temple is considered to have the blessing of the presiding deity. There are even some temples whose food is said to cure some eye diseases and problems of the stomach. I never thought I would find a place in Texas(!!) that still follows this tradition of simple home cooking, that comes with the blessings of a deity. When I was in Dallas last week, I was looking for a Indian place to try and I found Kalachandjis, a vegetarian restaurant.

Kalachandji’s Palace, Restaurant and Temple is a place where you can get food for the mind and for the stomach. Kalachandji’s is Dallas’s longest serving Vegetarian Restaurant, often voted as the # 1 choice for Vegetarians by Magazines. Started in the year 1982, for nearly 27 years Kalachandijis has been serving vegetarian, home made food, cooked according to ayurvedic traditions.

The name itself is quite unique for a Indian restaurant as most Indian restaurants have a similar name wherever you go,like a dosa corner or Dakshin. The name Kalachandiji is the name of the presiding deity of the Palace. Kala means black and Chand means moon, hence the name translates to that of the beautiful moon face of Lord Krishna. How the 500 year old deity came to Texas is another interesting fact. It is believed that during the foreign invasion of India, the statute of Lord Krishna was hidden to avoid stealing and after many years , Swami Prabhupada found the statue as a door stopper in a shop in Jaipur. Once obtaining the statue of Kalachandji, efforts were taken to construct a temple in Dallas and the Palace was created for his residence.

The restaurant is divided into the Palace-Temple, a magnificent Garden with fountains, Tulsivanam, the Restaurant and a shop for Indian goods. Once entering into the Palace, automatically one can sense the peace, the cool wind due to the garden and the sizzling sound of running waters. Ofcourse, there is the aroma of food that invites you into the restaurant.

We had a chance to meet the Chef and Palace Coordinator Manjulai Devi and she showed us around the palace and gave us a brief history of the place. The food for nearly 400 people a day is cooked by Chef Manjulai Devi and Chef Sweta and it is made according to ayurvedic traditions. It is believed that food can absorb the emotions of the person who cooks a meal and so every meal made at this restaurant is called as a Food Served with Love as the Chef’s cook it with positive thoughts. Another interesting fact is that none of the dishes offered here has any Garlic, Onions, Canned or Frozen food.

The range of food offered here is Indian-Fusion with less spicy Indian food and either a Pasta, Bread or BBQ Tofu for the International food lovers.

And the menu is changed everyday, you can check the menu here. You wont find a Steaming pot of Biryani but the mouthwatering array of dishes for the day we visited were Dal Soup, Vadas, Pooris, Home made cinnamon bread and raisin bread,Poppadams, Brown rice, Spanish Tomato Rice(with olives), Enchiladas, Curry with Paneer, Steamed spinach and steamed vegetables with Tahini Sauce along with a salad bar.

The dal soup is so flavorful that you won’t notice that it is missing onions and garlic. Once the tongue is all fiery from the soup, soothing effect of salad teases the palates.

The salad bar has mixed greens, steamed vegetables, cucumbers, olives, carrots and beets along with peppers. The best part is their home made salad dressing. The almond blend dressing is chunky- crowd favorite dressing and most of the guests were gulping it by the bowls instead of using it as a dressing. Other dressings like Green Goddess, Italian Basil or Lemon Tahini are also home made and as flavorful as the names suggest.

The best drink that goes with such a meal is- Tamarind Tea! I was surprised to hear the name at first and took a little sip just so, but the cold tea sure packs a punch. Made with turbinado sugar and tamarind, the tea is a real refresher. The taste is so addictive that for every plate refilled, you would want to refill the tea also. And even finishing off a couple of plates, there is no heavy feeling as there is no masala to make the tummy feel uncomfortable.

But we were not done yet, once we cleaned off our plates, we were served a classic pineapple coconut halvah(Farina with coconut,pineapples and nuts)and a sweet rice pudding.

Once the tummy was full, we decided to walk around the garden along with Chef Manjuali Devi. The garden-patio has a couple of seats near the fountains and were spread out through the garden. The chef shared that during the summer most people would come to the Palace with a nice book, have a filling meal and enjoy the rest of the evening reading the book in the Garden! Why not, with a couple of glasses of the tea to drink it sure would be a relaxing evening.

The last stop of our tour is the beginning of this post- Kalachandiji’s temple. Surrounded by Tulsi plants, with Radha on his side, Kalachandji was actually celebrating Valantine’s Day with his dear devotees. Heart shaped balloons and garlands decorated the place of worship.

Surrounding Kalachandiji were paintings that describe the life of krishna, starting from his birth to butter stealing days to rasa-leela. Each painting is supported by a beautifully hand crafted pillars made from India.

If you are interested in learning Indian cooking, what could be better than starting it at a Palace? The Palace Chef’s offer cooking classes for beginners every Thursday for two hours and more information on the cooking classes, you can click here. The class is not just a demonstration class but the entire set of students is fed a full course meal that is cooked by the Chef for the class.

And the cost of Dinner Buffet? It is just around $10 per person. Want a relaxing meal on a tiring weekend? Checkout Kalachanjis for a unique dining experience.