Yogurt in Instant pot

I usually make my own yogurt at home. Some times I do buy it from the store and my favorite brands are Mountain High whole milk and the yogurt available in Indian stores. But, if you try to use these store brand yogurt as a live culture to start your yogurt, you end up in a slimy stringy mess. I always keep some my own home made yogurt as a starter.

The traditional method includes boiling or scalding milk, let it coll a little and then add the live cultures and wait for the yogurt to set. Many Indian house holds do not use any thermometer to measure temperature of the liquid. Most of his feel the vessel with hand and know by experience when to add the cultures.

Almost a year ago i learned about the cold start yogurt in Instant pot. I have made it several times, especially if I am making yogurt for a large party. It comes out so well all the time. I have wanted to share this recipe with all of you and now is the time.

The cold start method does not need boiling milk. One can use the ultra filtered milk which has been boiled before. The brand that is readily available in the US markets is called Fairlife milk. Since it is ultra filtered, it has less sugar and provides almost 13 gms of protein per serving and did  I say, so yummy too. They have a whole milk and 2% version available in most super markets here.

I tried 2 methods of making yogurt in the instant pot with fairlife milk.  I am sharing both results with you. The end product is a thick creamy yogurt with no sliminess in it , not one bit.

Method one :

• 250 ml Fairlife 2% milk ( right from the container, no boiling)
• 1 tbsp homemade yogurt starter

How I did it 

• In the instant pot insert, add the milk, started yogurt
• Mix well
• Turn on your instant pot, press Yogurt and set to 9 hrs
• Cover the IP with the sealing ring, and the weight towards sealing
• The timer will start counting up
• Open IP after 9 hrs, your yogurt is ready.
• If you want a little sourness to the yogurt, increase the time to 10 hrs.
• You can see the yogurt is set well as the spoon inserted in it stays upright.

Method 2

250 ml Fairlife 2% milk

1 tbsp Fage 2% plain greek yogurt

• In the instant pot insert  add 1 cup of water
• In another container, either mason jar, stainless steel or pyrex container add 250 ml milk
• Add the Fage yogurt to the milk, mix well
• Place the milk contained inside the water filled IP insert
• Turn on your instant pot, press Yogurt and set to 9 hrs
• Cover the IP with the sealing ring, and the weight towards sealing
• The timer will start counting up
• Open IP after 9 hrs, your yogurt is ready.
• If you want a little sourness to the yogurt, increase the time to 10 hrs.

Both methods gave me a very thick creamy yogurt.

If your IP is larger, you can keep several small containers inside the IP insert. I have a 3 qt and I used that.

Enjoy this fresh home made yogurt any time as is plain or with rice, rotis or in smoothies.

Try this and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Masala / Spicy Chex Mix

The holiday season is here and I am getting tired of eating sweet things wherever I go. One of my associates brought a pack of chex mix, nuts for all the staff to much on. I tried that and was not impressed as it lacked any flavor or taste. I searched Google and found recipes for chex mix. Many of them called for Worcestershire sauce which had anchovies in them. Suddenly, it occurred to me why not make a desi version of chex mix. After all, we all grew up eating mixture, chivda etc and tried this masala chex mix. There is no actual recipe or measurements. The original recipe for chex mix calls for rice, corn and wheat chex. When I went shopping, I completely forgot to buy wheat chex.

Other things to add include, cheezits, cheerios, bugles etc.

Let us get to the mix now.

Get Ready:

• 3 cups of rice chex
• 3 cups of corn chex
• 2 cups of pretzel sticks ( may use mini pretzel twists)
• 1 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts ( can use almonds, mixed nuts, pottukadalai/ dalia dal)
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp oil
• Handful of curry leaves
• Chili powder
• Idli molagapodi
• 1/4 tsp hing/ asafetida
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp sugar

Go:

• Take a big mixing bowl and add all the chex, pretzels, nuts
• In a pan, melt the butter, add the curry leaves
• Turn the heat off and add the spice powders except sugar
• Pour the butter mixture, sugar on the chex mix and toss well till all the butter and spices are well coated.
• Preheat over to 350 F
• In a baking dish add the chex mix and bake for 10-15 mins.

Shpeak only English Please!

Have you had your nails mani'ed or pedi'ed recently? Not me though! I dunno, I've never been regular in keeping my toe nails looking super cool! One thing that puts me off from going to the chinku nail place is not understanding what they talk.

Let me share what I felt !, Peelingsu!
The scene is me walking into a nail place!

Me: I want a pedicure!
Nail Girl ( NG): 10 mins wait please!
Me: Okay, flipping through all the magazines, got my fix of J lo's beach body and AJ's anorexic images

NG: come in!
 they start doing my pedicure. NG enages in a conversation with her chinku colleague!
Ng: anjong.. shankoung etc....
Me translating & thinking :  kaalai pardui! pedicure e paninadhillai pola irukku! eva kaalai pidikkanuma? tip tharuvanu ninaikkara..

 goes on and on till

NG: Ok All done $ 15 dhollars please!

It is natural for one to think that they are talking about you when you don't understand a word from their thiru vai!

I come out thinking " appada, all done1 i should look at some you tube videos and learn how to do pedicure!

Next day at work. My MA says , patient is ready in room 2! 2 yr old carlos has a fever.

I knock and enter the room. Carlos looks happy on mom's lap. Mom has had enough time to appify make up, lipstick etc, even though her son is very sick!  How come I never get time to do anything to keep myself pretty! Azhagu irundhadhane  enru think pannnuvadhu enakku theriyum!

Mom: Habla Espanol?
Me: No, let me get my MA

MA walks in. Ola, ola goes on!
I ask mom how long has Carlos has had the fever?

MA and Mom talk for atleast 2 mins in semma fast spanish.
MA looks at me tells fever for 1 day!
What the heck? yuo both were talking so long and you tell me 1 day

couple of semma long spanish conversations go on and i tell mom that Carlos has a cold and treat him with tylenol/ motrin etc.

Mom looks at me thinking is she " Loca"


Romba kodumaiappa, when you don't know what people are talking if you cannot understand!
so makkale, Sheak English please if you are in Us of A!

Freezing Indian Food- My experience and tips

Recently I had been away from home for 2 weeks leaving my son and husband. Hubby dear rarely steps inside the kitchen. My son gets upset stomach if he eats a lot outside! So I, decided to freeze some food that could help them for 2 weeks. All they have to do is cook rice or heat up a chapathi. Ofcourse they can have a treat outside once ot twice a week. Most of the frozen indian food available in the stores are way too spicy for my kiddo! Online research gave me some guidance and helped me freeze some grub!

I wanted to share my experience with all those busy mom/dad's.

Needs some planning and good ziploc freezer bags or freezer safe containers. I would recommend freezing individual portions, so you don't have to reheat over and over again if using a bigger container. Small freezer bags are perfect for upma or dry subzi's.

Just remember to cool the cooked contents thoroughly before freezing and thaw them at least 12 hr s ahead before reheating. Whenever i cooked a big batch, i labelled and froze them.

Coconut or any yogurt based curry does not taste well once reheated.Well, this is what I learnt and did not freeze anything with coconut.

Let me give a list of those items that froze well and just as fresh once reheated. The verdict was given by my family.

• Simple Dal tadka
• Plain cooked toor dal
• Sambar ( podi potta sambar)
• Ven Pongal
• Vegetable rawa upma
• Spinach kootu with toor dal ( no coocnut)
• Rasam varieties ( i froze lemon, regular jeera and garlic rasam)
• Carrot and peas stir fry/ carrot kari
• Cauliflower and potato stir fry/ cauliflower kari
• Tomato soup
• Turnip curry
• Idli/ dosa batter before fermenting freeze in a container ( these are good for dosa only)

I was busy cooking and packing that I forgot to take pictures of all the food.
I would appreciate if you all can share your experience in  freezing indian food or any home cooked food in that matter!

Enjoy your weekend!

Quinoa Burger

Sometimes health foods can really taste nasty! But one exception is Quinoa. It is so versatile that it can be adjusted to satisfy our palates with any spice combinations. One such dish is a hearty, healthy quinoa burger.
I used some red kidney beans, panko and some indian spices to make this yummy burger. It is filling, low calorie and a guilt free lunch / dinner idea.

 

 I used some greek yogurt with cucumebr and a dash of lemon to serve on top of the burger instead of mayo or ketchup.

 

Get ready

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 egg
• 1 -1/3 cup red kidney beans
• 1 carrot grated
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs ( any bread crumbs would do fine too)
• 2-3 green onions/ scallions
• 1 green chilli
• 1/4 inch ginger
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• salt to taste
• oil to shallow fry the patties

Go:

• Wash quinoa multiple times and cook with  double the measure of water till they on translucent. I cooked ina kadai once water came to a boil, lower the heat and cook covered. set aside
• In food processor, add the carrot, red kidney beans, chopped scallions, green chilli and ginger and pulse till everything is mixed well.
• Add this mixture to the cooked quinoa, 1 egg, panko, spices, salt and mix well. If it's little loose, don't worry, just shove them in the freezer or fridge for a little while.
• Make patties of desired size and shallow fry them on both sides till golden and crispy.
• Serve with any sauce or sides of your choice.

( I tried to bake 2 of them, did not come out well)

 

Greek yougurt sauce

add some finely chopped cucumber to couple of spoons of greek yougurt. add salt to taste and squirt some fresh lemon juice to taste.

There you go, an awesome sauce ready in no time!

 

 

 

A very tasty and filling burger ready in no time! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Montreal Trip

School is out and it's vacation time, right! Our trip was to Montreal, Canada and we had a  wonderful time. We flew from Virginia, as it is too far to drive. But if you in the northeast, the best way is to fly to Burlington, Vermont and drive from there.

Montreal, previously called Ville Marie or the town of Mary was found in the 1600's by french colonists. They sent missionaries to basically teach bible to the native Americans there. Montreal, is an island in  St. Lawrence River. It is the second largest city in the eastern part of Canada, next to Toronto. It is very cosmopolitan and everybody speaks English, unlike Quebec city! You have the feeling of being in Europe with cobble stoned streets in Old Montreal.

Montreal hosted the winter Olympics in 1976 and they still have the Olympic park.
We visited the Botanical gardens a huge place with spectacular flowers and my favorite the Herb garden!

These were some of the cool plants found there.

This really tasted like a mint and chocolate!

They had something called the curry plant, which is very different to our curry leaf plant. The leaves in no way were fragrant as a curry, but they named it so the leaves nice smell!

Notre Dame basilica is magnificent. I learned that basilica is a status given to a church in appreciation of its architecture, beauty, and religious activities. It was a great visit.

Notre Dame Basilica

You get a wonderful panoramic view of Montreal city from a 45 degree inclined observation deck, or from Mont Royal's lookout center.

45 Degree inclined observation deck

Biosphere is the largest spherical structure in North America.

Biosphere

 They have some cool exhibits like dresses made out of various materials (i.e. garbage bags, bullets, computer paper, snakeskin, pill bottles, asphalt, etc.)

                                                       This dress was made of bullets!

Montreal people take their food seriously. They have an excellent French and American influence in their cuisine. We enjoyed French crepes thoroughly. Not to mention the Nutella and whipped cream! Mind you, the portion sizes are small.

There is a Science Center in Montreal where the kids can have hands-on fun and learn about a lot of things. There is also a great IMAX movie there.

A view of the city skyline is spectacular from the cruise on the St. Lawrence river.

So, if you are planning a vacation for a long weekend or summer break, Montreal is definitely worth it!!!

Breaking News! I'm Going on Vacation!

Hi Folks!
I am going on a brief family vacation to Montreal, Canada and will be back. I am sorry if I cannot get to your new posts while I am gone, but I will be thinking about you all the time!

Canada, here i come!

Easy Vegeterian Chili

Chili con carne or chili with meat is a very famous stew dsih from Texas. The originial texan chili is made with red meat and no beans or vegetables. Vegeterian chili or chili sin carne has been famous for the last 30 - 40 years. One can use any type of beans, whatever vegetables ( squah, mushrooms, zucchini, potato) you have in hand and tomatoes.
 Using  a little tomato paste would give the dish a rich red color.
Chili's were originally served by the spanish settlers as per wiki. To give a meaty texture people use tofu, soy nuggets, brown rice and bulgur wheat. I had bulgur wheat in hand and I used that.

Chili , I would say is similar to our rajma curry with mixed beans. It's a great one pot meal that could be enjoyed as it is or served with rice or chapathis for left overs. It tastes wonderful the next day as all the flavors and spices are well blended.

Of course I have indianized it with some garam masala too :)). Texans, pardon me!

The list looks very long, but very easy to make.


Get ready: Serves 3-4

• 1 medium red onion chopped
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 green chilli slit
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper chopped ( I used green and red)
• 2 carrots diced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 can (15 0z) Pinto beans ( can use dry beans, soaked overnight and pressure cooked)
• 1 can ( 15 oz) red kidney beans
• 1 can ( 15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat ( optional)
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• salt to taste
• 2 cans (15 0z) water
• 2 tbsp oilve oil

To serve:
fat free sour cream
lots of choped cilantro
Tortilla chips/ tostitos

Go:

• In a large pot, add oil. once hot add the bay leaf and sayte the onions till translucent.
• Add the giner garlic paste, green chilli and fry till aromatic.
• Add the toamtoes and saute till mushy.
• add the canned beans, diced tomatoes, salt to taste, oregano, cumin, garam masala, water and let it come to a boil.
• Add the bulgur wheat.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for 45 mins to a hour. If the chilli is too thick add a little water.
• Serve with a dollop of sour cream, cilantro and tortilla chips.

Tastes even better the next day as the beans soak up all the flavor.

Milagu Vadai and lessons learnt

Milagu vadai is a special prasadham offered to Lord Hanuman. It is crispy, crunchy with a hint of pepper and jeera made with Urad dal. People offer this to Lord Anjaneya as a garland with belief that he will take care of everything. I used to do this often many years ago, as we jad a nice hanuman sannidhi, near our house in east London.

I was planning do something similar fora while and finally decided last weekend. It doesn't take much soaking and easy to prepare. My son and hubby had gone for basket ball practice and my daugher was napping.
I follow the  exact recipe of Mallika Badrinath and this is how it goes.

So, let's get to business

Get ready:

•  1 cup urad dal
• 1 tbsp rice
• 1 tsp black pepper corns
• salt to taste
• Oil to deep fry

  

Go:

• wash and soak the urad dal and rice for 20 mins.
• Powder the pepper
• drain water and grind coarsely with little water. Mixie/ blender is fine, just add little amount of water.
• Add salt to taste and pepper powder to the batter. add salt at the end.
• Heat oil in a pan to deep fry.
• Add 3 tbsp of hot oil to the batter and mix well.
• Make small balls with little water on your hands.
• Use a zip lock bag and  flatten the balls thin like a thattai and make a home in the center.
• Drop in the oil carefully after lefting them off the zip lock,
• Deep fry till golden and crispy.

If the batter is runny you can add a little rawa/ sooji.

I made 2 vadais and then My daughter was crying in her nap. I turned off my electric coil and went to attend her needs. I was trying to put her back to sleep as I had to finish frying the vadai's. Suddenlt I heard some beeping noise and wondered, " why is the smoke alarm going off?'.

I rushed downstairs and was shocked to see that my kadai with oil was on fire. The flames were so intense that my over therange microwave was on fire and the flames were slashing up to the ceiling. I had not turned off the heat properly, How stupid is that??

I was in total shock. I grabbed the pan with a " idukki". put it out on the deck and put the fire out with water.
There was black soot every where and  I was just shaking. It could have been worse!

I heard my daughter crying in panic as the smoke alarm was very loud. I quickly grabbed her, called 911 and got out of the house.

This is what was left....

 No more vadai's... No more microwave! Even though the insurance will cover, the inconveniences I have created are....!

The lessons I learnt ( hard way) were..

1. Make sure you turn off the stove before you go on to do something, especially if you have hot oil.

2. Never use water to put off a fire with grease. cover the pan with a lid and that will contain the fire.

3. Have a small fire extinguisher in the kitchen which can be reached immediately.

4. Don't multi task, as we woman always do!

Wishes for 2011!

I am sorry for my long absence ! My daughter had been sick for the past week. She had Pneumonia and was hospitalized, treated with oxygen antibiotics etc. I wanted to end this year with a sweet dish, but the last week has been very hard for my little girl and us. I treat lots of sick kids, but when it's your own it is totally different.

I am so thankful that she is better and we came home today. It is gonna take couple of days for her to recover and am sure she will bounce back well.

In the mean time, I managed to squeeze 5 mins to wish all my wonderful blog friends a wonderful and prosperous new year!

May 2011 bring you all joy, happiness, good health and prosperity!

See you next year!

Janmashtami

Today is Janmashtami or Sri krishna Jayanthi. This is an auspicious day where Lord krishna's birth is celebrated all over India. Mathura, the birth place of krishna has so much festivities going on this time.

Krishna is also known as "Makkan Chor" or butter thief! Mythology says that he loves butter, milk and poha or beaten rice flakes.

So the pooja offerings mainly includes all three plus a lots of snacks and savories. In the south "Cheedai" is very popular offering for Bhagwan. It is made both as a savory & sweet dish.

It's a belief that krishna as a baby is being born in each and every household. Following that belief, in the south we decorate the floor with kolams and draw baby feet from the front of the house to the pooja room.

Prayers and poojas are offered at dusk or night.

I had a day off today and with my parents help was able to do a small krishna pooja at our home.

I would like to share the recipe of Cheedai with you all!

Here is what you need:

2 cups Rice flour
1 tsp Urad dal flour
1 tsp daliya dal powder
1 tsp Channa dal
1 tsp Sesame seeds
1 tbsp butter
Salt to taste
1 cup water plus as needed
Oil to fry.

• Soak channa dal in a little bit of water for 10 mins.
• Roast the rice flour & urad dal flour till light pink or aromatic.
• Drain the channa dal.
• Add the channa dal, sesame seeds, butter, salt and mix into a dough by adding water little by little till it forms a dough similar to a cookie dough.
• Apply a little oil to your palm and take a pimch of the dough and roll in your palm lightly to form a small smooth ball.

• Finish rolling them and cover with a damp cloth.
• Heat oil in a pan and deep fry these balls till they are nice and golden.
• Be careful when you fry the first batch as some times they may pop and splash a little oil.

Baby food, Popeye pasta & few more thnigs...

My daughter is now 19 months old and it's such a fun to be around with her! Her favorite word now is "NO". She used to eat without much trouble until 16 months.
Now meal times are challenging!
When she was 6 months old i started her on gerber stage 1 food like any other mom. Stage 2 was ok, but when it came to stage 3 there were not many veggie options.

Lots of people may think home made food is better than container food for babies! But as a pediatrician I disagree with that and will say home made and jar  foods are equally nutritious! It's personal preference and what your baby likes that you can go for either one.

My daughter liked mainly peas, green beans, apple sauce, strawberry banana, mango, hawiian something fruit medley etc etc.

By 11 months to 1 year we all give rice, dal, kichdi etc. But my daughter had trouble eating lumpy food for some reason.
I wanted to share some other foods that I tried with my daughter that she loved. Unfortunately i don't have pictures for all these. Many recipies were adaptedf rom annabel karmel's website.

Avocado:

Peel and take the flesh of the avocado. add some cream cheese and mash it well or puree with some milk. season as you like.
Suitable for 9 months & above

Sweet potato:

Cut them into small pieces. Add butter, saute a little onions and few chopped tomatoes. add the sweet potato, some water, cover and cook till soft. season according to taste  and puree it.
suitable from 10 months onwards.

Sweet potatoes can be mashed and mixed with a little cinnamon and can be given from 1 yr too.

Spinach:

This was one of my favorite. Chop some spinach, sautee with onion and tomato. season and puree it with milk or cream  like for palak dishes. You can get mini star shaped pasta in all super markets. cook pasta according to instructions and toss with the spinach sauce. MAke some extra sauce and that was for my son's (10 yrs) spaghetti which we called pop eye pasta!

you can add some cheese in all these too.
suitable for 1 yr and above

I used to make a similar sauce with carrots, roast red bell peppers and mix it with star pasta.

These were easy to prepare and my daughter gobbled them up!
I would love to hear  your experiences in baby food and any other meal ideas for toddlers..

DIY- to do or not to!

DIY projects. It may pump your adrenaline or totally drain it out. I am in the middle and my

husband for sure is the drainer. We never had this issue before as we always lived in rented apartmetns. As a new home owner, having a bit of a DIY skill is very important.

I remember the days when we first got our build you own shoe rack kit from Argos. When we finally built it, it was a bit lopsided! There ended our DIY! My mission is to atleast try and install a closet maid shelf in our closet.

Hope we get there without killing each other!