Knock knock:)

Dear readers !

Hope you all had a fun Gokulashtami :) We, definitely had especially since this was out first one with our lil bundle of joy.....!! Yes you read that right :) , ...me and V are proud parents of our 4 month old baby boy. He is a sweetheart ! And I am enjoying every minute of being a ful time mom to him. He was born on April 20th this year. And that's the reason I mentioned in my last post that I would be taking a break the rest of the year :) ....Though it's been 4 moths , am still learning new things about motherhood everyday. In terms of cooking I am beginning or at least trying to learn how to cook (or for that matter do anything and everything) with one hand , LOL ! G is very interested in knowing everything I do when he is in my arm, he doesn't want to miss a thing ! :)) hence I have now slowly developed this habit of talking to him about whatever I am doing when 'we' do the chores. Even while shopping I do that, thankfully he keenly listens :)

My mother had come few months back and I enjoyed every minute of it (as usual I was in tears when she was leaving , and so did she as G is her first grandchild and he used to be all cozy in her lap when she used to make him sleep)...... no price for guessing what I enjoyed the best when she was here.....my mom's cooking !! Mmmmmm.... the memories of amma's handmade comfort food is still fresh in my mind.... I learned so many things about cooking while she was here... And I plan to share those here as time permits, ....for now my hands are full :) but soon I plan to click an share some nutritious and healthy recipes from my mom :) Till then
hope you would not forget this space :)

take care
luv
Roopa and G ( yeah he is right here on my lap doing zzzzz) and Iam typing this from my iPod touch) ;)

Whole Wheat Nankhatai (Eggless whole wheat cookies) and some miscellaneous photos

Hello dear readers :) (I hope I have few left at least ??? .....) I have been so inconsistent with my postings and I owe you readers an apology for that, ....that being said, I would be doing yet another post after this and then planning to take a break the rest of the year due to personal reasons. I would resume blogging starting 2012. Since this blog has been nothing less than a 'baby' to me :) , I will never stop blogging for sure :) though at present things are a bit unsettled until next year.

Coming back to this post, I have been trying my hand at 'Nankhatai' after a long time after my last attempt to make these. Though last time gave results, it wasn't something I would brag about as it didn't actually get the desired shape I wanted  (I can be a perfectionist sometimes, especially when it comes to cooking ;-)) ....hence keeping the 'shape' factor of the nankhatai's in mind I decided to try my hand again, but this time using a recipe from 'Showmethecurry'' , a website whose recipes have never failed in my kitchen whenever I tried. I made a slight modification though, as I used Whole Wheat Flour (Golden Temple Durum Whole wheat flour brand) instead of All purpose flour (or maida) as they have mentioned. The results was so delightfully surprising, that I could not believe I too could bake a cookie which would not fall flat. They had the most perfect dome shape among the cooking I ever baked in my kitchen (I used to fret and feel disappointed whenever my cookies used to fall flat, in fact I had given up on ever baking a cookie that would hold its shape). So you can imagine how excited I was /is while typing this.

Here is the recipe:

• Whole Wheat Flour (I used Golden Temple brand Durum Whole Wheat Flour) – 1 cup

• Unsalted Butter – 1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 oz) at room temperature (I used salted butter, hence I skipped the additional salt which is asked for in the recipe)
• Powdered Sugar – 1/2 cup (Use only powdered sugar that you get from stores (also known as Icing sugar/Confectioners sugar) as it has some cornstarch in it which affects the texture of the nankhatai (tip given at the above website))(*Do not manually powder the sugar you have at home and use instead of this)
• Nutmeg Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Cardamom Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Baking Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – 1/8 tsp (If using salted butter, skip the salt )

Here is how I made it:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C. Sift the Whole Wheat flour along with Baking powder in a bowl.
• In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar in small quantities along with butter until it is smooth, light, and creamy
• Then add Nutmeg and Cardamom powder, followed by the sifted flour little by little until a smooth dough is formed
• Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and let it rest for 15-20 minutes
• Knead dough once again and divide into 12 equal parts 
• Roll each portion into smooth balls taking care there is no crack at all and place these in a baking sheet lined with wax/parchment paper which has been lightly floured and greased
• Leave space between cookies to allow room to expand (all cookies expand a little at least)
• Bake on middle rack for 22-25 minutes while keeping an eye on the color of the cookies as they should brown just a tad on the bottom corners.
• Remove the cookies from oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before transferring them to cooling rack
• Let the cookies cool completely before you eat them as they might seem soft when they are still warm.
• Store in an air tight container at room temperature

Here are some photos I took recently when I made one  of the most loved Konkani delicacy about which I have previously posted on this blog, but just didn't have good pictures, yes friends its none other than 'Pathrodo' and this time I have the pictures where I made the Pathrodo with the traditional Pathra leaves (Colocasia leaves) and not the Collard green leaves which I usually use when I don't have Pathra leaves. Enjoy this photo filled post :)

 Pathra leaves from my garden and also from a dear friend/neighbour . The pic on the right shows two leaves, one with veins intact and the other with veins  removed from the lighter color side of the leaf (the wrong side of the leaf). The veins from all the leaves must be removed at this point.

 The leaves are soaked in water mixed with turmeric and tamarind solution to take away the itchiness which the leaves are notoriously famous for.
The pic on the right is the batter for coating the leaves. Its a ground batter of White Rice (Idli rice) + Coconut + Tamarind pulp + Turmeric + Salt + Asafoetida (Hing) + Jeera +Red Chilly

 I used a cut grocery plastic cover to cover my working area while I spread the batter on the leaves as this process would otherwise make the working area messy and this trick avoids a mess and is eas to clean up ;-)

 How the leaves are arranged: two leaves arranged as shown with removed vein side up overlapping a bit on the edges.

 The batter is spread generously on this side. Then a single leaf is kept on the joint of these two leaves. The batter is spread on this leaf (the pic of applying batter is not shown)

pathrodo) I didn't have that many....hence had to satisfy with the leaves I had.

 After all leaves are stacked and battered , fold the edges lengthwise as shown on the right pic.

 Batter the folded edges.

 Keeping the battered edges intact fold the stack from bottom just like you  would fold a burrito. And apply the batter to all the non-battered areas you see while the folding takes place.Requires some patience to get a good looking loaf of leaves :))

 The battered loaf of leaves looks like this : pic on right and below.

Apply batter on the bottom and edges of the loaf at the end too so that no area is left without a generous coating of the batter. The batter is important taste wise as well as to prevent any itchiness after the Pathrodo is cooked.

 Boil water in a steamer.

 Place the loaf in the steamer.

 Cook for 45 minutes. By then the whole house was having the aroma of Pathrodo :)

 Cooked Pathrodo

 Check whether the insides are properly cooked or whether the batter is still uncooked? Cook further if necessary.

 Slice and serve with coconut oil for best taste.

 mmmmm, yummmm :) cant wait to make again....that is when I have the leaves during summer :-)

Luv,

Roopa