Ven pongal ( savory pongal)

Pongal is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu where I’m from . It is also the name of the food that is made on that day from the newly harvested rice ! The type of savory pongal made on the day is a little different that this dish. On pongal we just boil rice with salt and milk in a pot and use it as a base to eat with other accompaniments. We make a sweet pongal and a few other dishes on that day as well

Growing up we looked forward to pongal since we went to our grandparents house and hung out with all our cousins. My grandparents were farmers ( rice, coconut) so it was a particularly festive occasion! 

Ingredients 

Rice - 1 cup 

Moong dal ( dehusked split green gram )- 1/2 cup

Ginger - small piece peeled and cut into pieces 

Black peppercorn - 1.5 tsp

Cumin seed - 1.5 tsp

Salt- to taste

Ghee ( clarified butter, you can use regular butter too) 3-5 tbsp 

Cashews- 10

Curry leaf - 5

Instructions 

1. Wash the rice with water until the water is clear. Drain and set aside.

2. Dry roast the moong dal for 1-2 minutes until raw smell is gone . Don’t let it burn 

3. You can cook the rice and dal on a pot on the stove, in a pressure cooker or the easiest would be to cook it in an instant pot

4. Place the rice and dal in the instant pot container. Add 5 cups of water and pressure cook it in the instant pot for 30 minutes 

5. Once the rice and dal are cooked, use a spoon to mix it together.

6. Now take a large heavy bottomed pot and place on medium heat on the stove 

7. Add a tablespoon of ghee and roast the cashews until golden brown and set aside.

8.Add 2 more tablespoons of ghee and sauté the ginger, peppercorns, cumin , and curry leaves. ( I typically grind the peppercorns and cumin into a coarse powder and then use that mixture instead of whole spices)

9. Now add the dal and rice mixture to the pot and mix in well with the spices

10. Add salt to taste and add the roasted cashews. 

11. Add a few more tablespoons of ghee ( optional)

12. Pongal is now ready to serve 

13. You can serve it with  coconut Chutney and as an added bonus with  Madhu vada

Tik tok pasta with baked goat and boursin cheese, asparagus, tomatoes and olives

I only recently learned about this tiktok pasta craze ! It was made popular by a Finnish blogger in 2019 and called uunifetapasta .  I am quite late to the game :) My sister told me she had made variations of it with Boursin cheese and Trader Joe’s spinach artichoke dip as a base for the sauce. 

I decided to give it a try since I had recently bought some goat cheese and new type of pasta I wanted to try. It was called Ronzoni and was made with rice/corn/quinoa. 

Ingredients:

Ronzoni rotini - cooked according to the directions on the box ( cooked for 14-15 min) - al dente - 2 cups 

A block of plain goat cheese - 8 oz

Herbed Boursin cheese - 1/2 package 

Asparagus - 15 spears - cut into three pieces ( discard the bottom third and use the top 2 pieces )

Tomato- 1 box cherry tomatoes- since I didn’t have these I used half a large tomato and cut it into cubes 

Olives - small 1.2 oz cup sliced into halves 

Olive oil- 1/4-1/3 cup 

Garlic cloves - 2 chopped into small pieces 

Fresh basil (or dried italian seasoning)- a bunch 

Salt

Pepper 

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box. Drain it and save 1 cup of the pasta water ( to use later) 

2. Preheat oven to 400 F

3. Take a large oven safe dish and drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil.Place the asparagus, olives, tomatoes, garlic cloves in the periphery of the dish and drizzle olive oil on top and heat it in the oven for 15 min.

4. Place the cheese in the middle of the dish. 

5. Cook the cheese and the vegetables in the oven for 20 more minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

6. Take the dish out of the oven. Add the pasta little by little into the dish and mix the vegetables, cheese and pasta together. Add a little pasta water to make the pasta creamy. 

7. Add salt, pepper and herbs. 

8. Pasta is ready to serve !!

Spinach paneer muffins

We wanted to make a higher fiber breakfast with spinach for baby and we found this recipe and modified it substituting chicken with paneer and adding a few more things. It was a hit ! Baby ate the muffins and loved the paneer in it. Eventhough we made this for baby , we loved these muffins too!! 

Ingredients:

Frozen spinach ( thawed)- 5 oz ( get an 8 oz package)

Can of creamed corn- 1

Eggs- 5

Butter (melted) - 1/2 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Oatmeal ( grind into a powder) - 1 cup

Thawed paneer cubes - 1 package ( 8 oz)- cut into small pieces 

Small onion - 1/2-  cut into small pieces - Sautéed until translucent 

Shredded cheddar cheese - 2 cups

Ground flax - 3 tbsp

Ground Chia seeds- 2 tbsp

Baking powder - 1.5 tsp

Salt- 1 tsp

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Grease the muffin pans ( we used a silicone pan) and set aside 

3. In a large bowl add 1/4 can of the creamed corn, butter, eggs, paneer, sautéed onions, and 1.5 cups of shredded cheese and mix

4. Place the rest of the corn and thawed spinach in a blender and blend until it is a smooth mixture 

5. In another large bowl combine the dry ingredients: the flour, oatmeal powder, baking powder, flax, chia  and salt

6. Now take the wet ingredient from steps 4 and 5 and mix it in with the dry ingredients to make a smooth mixture 

7. Fill the muffin pan with the mixture and top it with some shredded cheddar cheese.

8. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 F ( bake until golden brown on top)

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