Easy Quinoa Patties

This is really a free for all recipe. Whatever you have in your pantry that you think will complement the flavors, add it in! I do and it usually works out really well here.

Some basic ingredients you need to have are –

Quinoa – 2 cups cooked.  I used Red Quinoa because the flavor fits right in to this dish. Yellow Quinoa should work just as well.

Onion- 1 small, chopped

Garlic cloves – 4 or 5, minced

Green Chilies – 4 or 5, chopped. I like it hot, use fewer for less heat.

3 Eggs, ideally. Since I don’t use eggs, I substituted with 3 tbsp finely ground flaxseeds mixed in 9 tbsps water.

Spinach- 1 cup chopped, optional

Cilantro or Parsley- handful or more, chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and Pepper - to taste.

I also add these ingredients because I like the flavors:

Red chili powder- 1 tsp
Chaat masala – 1 to 2 tsp
Pomegranate molasses- ½ tsp, because I had it in my pantry

What to do:

It’s very simple, really. Since the quinoa is already cooked, just combine everything listed above in one large bowl, in no particular order. Mix well.

Then grind one cup of oats, and heap on to a flat plate. Season with salt and pepper if you wish.

Turn on the stove. Let the griddle heat up. Add a tablespoon of any high heat tolerant oil – Coconut or Avocado oil is my preferred choice.

Wet your hands. Take a big scoop of the quinoa mixture, roll into a patty shape, dust it lavishly on all sides with the ground oats. Shake off the extra coating and place onto the hot griddle. Cook on medium flame until adequately browned on both sides.

Since we use little oil, patience is key here.

I like to serve it hot, with side of hot sauce and yogurt sprinkled with paprika, for the good looks and extra kick J 

Enjoy!

P.S: If anyone is wondering why we wet our hands before shaping the patty- it helps the mixture to not stick to our hands. Even though it gets annoying, it works to do this each time you roll the patty. 

Mango thokku (Grated mango pickle)

After 3 long years, I am finally reblogging. This time around, I am just going to go straight to the recipes..So here's my spicy pickle recipe to kick start the blog once again!!


Ingredients:

1) Fenugreek seeds - 2 tbsp
2) Raw mango - 2
3) Sesame oil - 1/4 cup to start with :)
4) Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5) Dry red chilli powder - 2 - 3 tsp (dependeing on how hot your chilli powder is)
6) Asafoetida - 2 pinches or 1/8th tsp
7) Mustard seeds
8) Curry leaves (optional)
9) Powdered jaggery (optional)
10) Salt to taste. (start with 1 tsp).

Steps:

1)Dry roast the fenugreek seeds.Cool and make it into fine powder. (you just need 1/4 tsp or a pinch..so save the rest of the powder for other pickles :) )

2) Peel the skin of the mangoes and grate it.

3) Heat Sesame oil in a pan and add Asafoetida, mustard seeds & curry leaves.

4) When it crackles add the grated mango and turmeric. cook till mango becomes very soft.

5) Add chilli powder and salt. Mix well and cook till the oil separates.

6) Finally add fenugreek powder, jaggery and mix well. Switch off and let this cool.

Note:

1) Pickle should be room temp before it is transferred to the bottle, or the steam will condense on the sides and spoil the pickle.
2) Once you transfer to bottle, on top of the pickle add 1 to 2 tsp of sesame oil to  ensure freshness. (optional step)
3) Most imp, any  tam-brahmin mom will swear by this..always use sesame oil for the tamil style pickles (or the world will stop spinning...and I am too afraid to go against this theory :D )
4) Skip the jaggery if you do not like the taste of it. I add it whenever I go overboard with the chilli powder.

A short recap and Thanksgiving

This blog remained inactive for over a year due to a combination of "life events" for many of the contributors, and on a larger scale, due to what is simply called as 'laziness'. Things have been going on..as they always will. There have been the ideas, recipes, and nudges back and forth to get past what started feeling like "re-starting troubles",I should say.

So, to shake off the dust and plunge right to it- in today's post I'll take you to the setting of the recent 'food' related event we had- Thanksgiving. No recipes here, but if you like the look of something, let us know and we'll put it down.

Despite having never been a part of it a traditional celebration, Thanksgiving as a tradition is something that I can connect to easily. A day with family and friends, to give thanks and be grateful for the blessings in our lives is a beautiful thing. And no matter which the land or the people, we always celebrate with food- lots of it, in the most heartiest spread we can offer, right?

Which is what we attempted this year. Three couples and a little girl, and about 16 dishes. It's grossly over the top, I'm sure, which is why we'll call it a feast- an extravagant spread that we're not meant to finish at one time.

 The menu was 'skype'-stormed and finalized by the three girl-chefs. The task was set to unfold as a surprise challenge to the other three guy-chefs. (The girl-chefs were thoughtful enough to plan for four dishes to be made the night before.. if the surprise ended up on the wrong side)

The day dawned cloudy and cold. After enough goof ups and memory lapses, and a breakfast of crackers with pepper jelly and cheese to fire up cold bellies, we started off at 12pm.

The surprise was sprung - a cook off between the guy and girl chefs- 12 dishes split by lots to two teams. And thus it began. The ultimate cook off ;)

I have to say this again..that it was much thanks to the active and enthusiastic participation of the amateur guy-chefs that we ended up with a fun day and much more than the four backup dishes.

Let me give a shout out for the guys Hari, Deepak and Srini for making this feast possible, for the girls Nandita, Anita and Indu for their planning and optimism, for Nandita again whose idea this was, for little Hrishita who was a great and somewhat mystified helper, for Anita and Indu for getting it on camera, and then of course for Indu (myself ;)) for patient video editing.

Check us out!