Canned Tuna and Coconut stir fry

Trying to incorporate healthy foods in our family of three is a challenge I always have fun with. I have been weary to try canned grocery as they are notorious for their sodium content as well as other additives. Some of them though have been a staple in my kitchen after I tried them after much scrutinisation.

I am not a purist when it comes to cooking.I am all for easy to make, semi homemade, quickie cooking too as long as it doesnt make me compromise too much on the taste, nutrition value, and ofcourse the price :-)

After a chat with one of my friends who suggested that I need to have a section on "Bachelor cooking", I decided this is the perfect dish to start this section. I will be posting such dishes from time to time.

Canned Tuna was something I loathed when my better half bought it the first time years ago. As I told you in a previous post, he has this habit of picking up something new whenever he does the grocery shopping.

I was so fascinated reading the label on it where it tells about the omega 3 goodness in the canned tuna. Not to mention, the additional good things that I found after a thorough google search.Apparently canned tuna are one of the best foods that can be stocked during an emergency. But all in vain once I opened the can....since the whiff made me trash the entire can.

Fast forward to present..... I am eager to incorporate seafood into my munchkin's diet, since it's good in terms of nutrition value. I am not good at filleting fish or have the time to clean and cook seafood from scratch. Hence I decided to put the canned tuna to test. I added flavor enhancers and maskers to not make it taste like it came out of a can and I have to say it's now a hit with my boy and his dad :-)

So here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

2 canned tunas (the one in water is best as it has less sodium)

1 medium shallot sliced

2 tablespoons thinly sliced ginger (this gives the flavor boost according to me)

Grated coconut (fresh or thawed): 1/2 cup

Salt

Oil : 2 tablespoons

Spices:

Garam masala: 2 teaspoons divided

Coriander powder: 1 tspn

Cumin powder: 1/2 tspn

Red Chilli powder (according to your tolerance)

Hing (asafoetida) powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder: 1/4 teaspoon

How to make:

Drain the water from the tuna can like this as shown in photo below. It's the most effective way.

Then transfer the tuna into a bowl. Add all the spices and a pinch of salt (not the amount to actually season, just a pinch for the flavors to mix), and grated coconut and mix well with a fork.

In a frying pan or saute pan on medium heat, heat oil, a pinch of salt and hing (i like to flavor my oil with salt before hand since i feel it adds flavor) add shallot, and ginger. Saute until they brown lightly. Then lower heat to medium low, add 1 teaspoon garam masala, stir well say for a minute, then add the tuna mixture. Saute while breaking the mixture so as to mix everything well with the shallot and ginger. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon garam masala, and stir well, check for salt at this point. Keepimg heat at medium low, cover pan and let it cook for a minute.Lower the heat open the cover, stir for 15 seconds. Do a taste test if you are like me (while my boy says "meetth na" meaning not enough salt, even before he tastes anything these days, as he sees me taste testing :-P ). Switch off.

This goes well with a rice and dal combo since it makes a great stir fry with immense flavor of the ginger, tuna, and spices.

Did you like this post? Let me know :-)

Happy Easter !
MK

Adzuki Beans (Red Chori) dumpling

Hello dear reader :-)
How was your weekend? We had awesome weather here, especially yesterday. Got bub's haircut done two days back. Now he looks all ready for spring :-) ...on a side note: I can't stop kissing his chubby hands :-)

So coming to this recipe, it's something I made up along the way while trying innovative ways to finish a plethora of legumes lying around in my pantry just begging me to pick them up, each time I scavenge there to pick something quicker to cook, such as a can of coconut milk for eg.

So in an effort to do something about it, I soaked these Adzuki beans, as the first step in any legumes cooking, which needs soaking. I was confident I could come up with something as my Mung Bean pancakes were a success.

The next day, I drained and saved the water in which the beans were soaked. Then I grinded coconut first , added the beans next, and ground everything to a smooth batter with not too much water, as the beans itself gives out water while grinding and it does not get clumpy unlike ground rice.

Then I let the batter sit for a while, after which I added some shredded cabbage and spinach for crunch and taste. Mixed until everything got incorporated. Checked for salt. And made dumplings using the Idli steamer. It was a hit with my dears at home who were after me to make more "illi" (as bub calls it )

Ingredients

Adzuki beans (red chori) : 1 cup
Water to soak beans
Shredded Coconut : 2/3 cup
Cumin seeds: 1 tablespoon
Dry red chilli/chilli powder : as pet your taste
Hing : two teaspoons
Salt

Shredded cabbage/Spinach or both : optional

How I made:

Soak the beans overnight, or until all beans are well soaked. Drain water and reserve.

First grind the coconut, chilli, and cumin along with a few tablespoons of water sufficient enough for the motor to run and grind it to a smooth paste, it's ok if a tiny bit of chunky piece is left, but not too much

Note: It's critical to grind the coconut alone first (not along with beans) to get the soft chewy texture of the dumpling.

Then add the beans and grind well, you may even do it in batches. Just make sure the beans is really ground well, (it's important that the beans are well soaked just for this purpose to get a good ground batter, else be prepared to bite into unsavory stone like bits of not-so-well-soaked beans)

Now add hing, check for salt. Let the batter sit for say just 30 minutes (for getting soft chewy dumplings).

Then add cabbage and spinach.Check for salt. Drop tablespoons full into Idli moulds and steam for 20 minutes. Now, when you open the lid, you might feel the batter is still not cooked, but if the top feels just ever so lightly hard, it's indication to the doneness. This is because, as it cools outside the steamer, it hardens, but not that hard, it gets chewy but still soft and did I forget to say "yummmm" :-)

Have a wonderful week ! :-)
MK

Shrikhand

I don't know why I never tried making this "sweet"y ;-) before ? Oh I remember now,...a wrong (read "nothing like what it's supposed to taste") one at the right time made me biased against this immensely flavorful , yet open to various modifications to make it a healthy treat without losing it's charm, dessert. The saying "first impression matters" was all true when it came to my view of shrikhand. With an intriguing name, that I came across a magazine during high school, I always wanted to taste it. The only not so appeasing thing to me about it during that time was the main ingredient in it - yogurt that is, you see I am not a big fan of dairy if it does not have any masking flavors, it's the smell and taste that is a turn off, ....my mom had a hard time making me eat ghee/butter/milk during childhood, and the fact that my tastebuds were advanced (probably in today's percentile crazy world, I probably would have measured the 90 th percentile for tastebuds , if there is such a thing as tastebud percentile :-P )....and the above mentioned "wrong thing at right time" scenario didn't do any good. Fast forward to present, when I tasted it just few months back. I was hooked ;-) lol....Thanks to hub's sweet tooth ! To sweeten the deal, bub too loved it :-)


Hence I decided to try it to make it healthier than their sugar rich store bought counterpart. However I did notice that if you skimp too much on the sugar part, it ends up tasting like just plain yogurt, which was not my goal. So I added sugar according to my taste. It might differ from yours, so I am not mentioning the measurement here. In fact I didn't measure anything, and I didn't need to. It's that easy, and versatile, after the initial yogurt processing step.



How I made it:

Shrikhand is a dessert made with hung yogurt. As you can see from the picture, it's the creamy , spreadable yogurt that's left after all water is strained from yogurt.
- I used a cheesecloth, dumped the entire container of yoghurt in the cheesecloth that was positioned carefully atop another vessel so as to avoid any messes.

-Then I carefully gathered up the edges of the cheesecloth and tied one of it's edges around the gathered cloth
- Then I hung it from the tap to put it under pressure just like making paneer.
- I let it strain overnight, but no more as then it will cause the yogurt to turn sour.

It looks like paneer (cottage cheese), but nothing like that otherwise in terms of texture or taste. So once this hung yogurt is obtained, the next step is to whip it well with everything that goes into it...
-I whipped it with some powdered sugar and a bit of granulated sugar, a teaspoon of sour cream if desired, nuts, fresh or canned fruits like mango, pineapple, cherry, saffron, cardamom powder. I also added a generous tablespoon of pure vanilla extract :-) ....like I said you can add your own twist to it.

But don't by any chance ruin this by whipping with a blender or any machine. Your hands would serve the purpose here if you catch my drift.



- Once everything is whipped, refrigerate atleast two hours.

This last step alone, in my opinion, is what causes magic and transforms yogurt to Shrikhand :-) ,....you ask me why? Coz otherwise it tastes like plain flavored yogurt. I was initially disappointed that all my anticipation and efforts went in vain before I refrigerated it. So that's why I am telling you again, "Refrigerate it" :-)

One thing I learned which would better equip me next time : Make more of it ! :-) seriously readers I tell you , this one is a keeper in my make once a week recipe. I can't tell you how glad I was to see my bub having it without spitting out the nuts I added in it. He licked the spoon clean, and to think all those active cultures in the yogurt went inside his tummy made me giddy happy :-)



So did I inspire you enough to give it a try?

Well here is another one ;-) ....



Have a great weekend :-)
MK

Green Mung Bean Pancake

It feels like I have been sick almost every month this winter. And because my little one just doesn't understand the meaning of "let me take a breather" yet (though he is slowly getting aware that it's not much fun when I am not well), it feels like a drag to do everyday chores. Why , oh, why does the cold virus have to be this adamant and nasty !! ? It's come to a point where no amount of chinese take outs , soups are making the mark they should when one falls sick (you know what I mean, don't you?)...

The thing about Parenting I learnt through this experiencd is, you can't just take a decision like " I am not feeling upto it today, so I won't do it. I am going to sleep to oblivion today " , and neither will this kinda thought, cut it : " Maybe I will just order from out just until I feel better ", no....coz, (1) There is a pair of little hands and feet all excited about playing peekaboo (2) take outs works for max two afternoons, then it's just "blah" for little tastebuds :-P .....hmm

So with these thoughts, I decided to go the middle way, do something easy as well as healthy . These whole green Moong Bean pancakes are super easy because the batter does not need fermentation, and it's tasty and loaded with fiber and nutrients (did I get your attention now ? ;-) , well then read on.....

I had posted the recipe of lentil pancakes a very long time back. This one is different though, since it has Mung Bean as the main ingredient than several lentils. Infact it's a cup of mung beans, and a little less than1/4 cup of rice ground with onion and ginger for the awesome flavor. You can sprout the Mung Bean if you like before grinding it (though it will take few says), or buy sprouted ones (according to me, not worth buying as it's every bit expensive, when you can as easily sprout at home).

I made these Pancakes today and topped it with sliced onion before flipping it to cook both sides. It was very well enjoyed by me and bub.

Here goes the recipe:

To soak together:

1 cup Green Mung Bean
White rice : 2 tablespoons

To grind with the above soaked ingredients:

1/2 cup sliced onion
1 tablespoon ginger minced
Salt
Leftover Cooked rice : 1 cup (optional, but I believe, helps crisp the pancake)

Water: just enough to run your grinder or blender.

How to make the batter:

Make sure the beans and rice are soaked atleast until the beans look well hydrated. I soaked overnight to make things easier. Grind everything to a smooth batter.

How to make pancakes:

The batter will be thick, bit spreadable. I will share a tip that works everytime for me when I make "dosa" or Indian Pancakes. I hope it works for you too.
Make sure your (nonstick) pan is fairly hot, not very very hot (else the batter will disintegrate while spreading), but  medium high hot. Then reduce the burner to low, just before dropping the batter and spreading. Once you finish spreading in concentric circles starting from center, again increase the heat back to medium high.

Arrange few thin slices of onion when the batter is still raw so that the onion sticks. Apply few drops of oil along sides and few drops on top. Cover for few seconds (10-15), uncover, if the edges start looking a little more than light brown , flip over to cook the other side. Reduce heat. Then fold it and stack it on a plate. Don't forget to again crank up the heat before making the rest of the pancakes the same way.

These go well with Ginger chutney, Coconut chutney or Sambar. But we enjoyed it as it is for breakfast. Bub enjoyed it with his cup of "Meekkh" (as in milk ;-) and I enjoyed it with my Ginger - Lemongrass chai :-)

Hope you liked this post as much as I loved sharing it with you :-)

Stay warm this remaining winter dear readers :-) ..... Spring is not far far ahead !

Cheers
MK :-)