Carrot n Coconut Date Squares

It has been too long. Way too long. I don't know where the last three months went by (apart from five weddings and a vacation)  but I'm hoping to keep a tab on the coming months. Thankfully I have no more excuses left to update recipes now, so I hope to do this more often.

I don't ever remember having Date Squares before I made this one. It intrigued me even more when I was planning to make it for a cook along because it sounded so healthy and because I knew I could make it even healthier. I used this recipe from Joy Of Baking as my base and played around with it to make it vegan and healthy. I eliminated wheat from the recipe (though I know sometimes oats can be contaminated with wheat) and also used organic jaggery instead of sugar. The addition of coconut to the base gives it a nice nutty flavour and the carrots are just for added bursts of orange.

I was not so convinced about this recipe until I tried it and I think you should too.

You need:

For the base and crumble:

3 cups Oats powdered

¼ tsp Salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp Cinnamon

½ cup Desiccated Coconut

1 medium carrot grated

½ cup jaggery melted

½ tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp oil

For the filling:

400gms pitted dates

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp orange peel

Preheat your oven to 180

Mix all the dry ingredients for the crumble and then add the wet ingredients. Make it into a thick firm dough.

Boil the dates with ½ cup water for 15 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Once it cools, blend it into a smooth paste and add more water if required. Add the vanilla and orange peel.

In a square or rectangular baking dish lined with parchment paper, put 2/3rds of the oat mixture and spread evenly. Spread the date mixture on top of it. Crumble the rest of the oat mixture on top of it.

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

It should be a lovely golden brown on top.

In other news, I am on my way to improving my "make a cake look pretty" skills. This is something I made for an order as an engagement cake at The Green Stove. The bottom tier is a Vanilla Sponge with Vegan White chocolate Frosting and the top is all Dark Chocolate. What do you think?

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Basic Tomato Gravy for Indian Curries

This one is kind of a rushed post. I wanted to do a vegetable chutney two ways but the sun has set in this part of the world and I won't be able to click pictures of it.So I thought I would instead let you in on my never-fail recipe for Indian gravys. I usually use this for curries that are made with pulses and lentils like Chana Masala/ Chole, sprouted mung beans or any other sprouted pulses, or even if I want a wet curry using only one or a mix of vegetables like potatoes, carrots, beans, cauliflower, peas and the like

Before that, today's find of the day on my Vegan MoFo journey is Life Up North. Fanny from Sweden has a neat blog and is writing about very interesting Swedish cuisine. I love the look of the lingonberry jam! Do not forget to check out her virtual fish tank at the bottom of the page and feed some fish!

I'm not so much an onion person specially if it is raw. I would rather eat a raw chilli than a raw onion. I have spoken about why so many Indians like Jains and some South Indians do not eat onions and garlic in my post about Chana Masala or Chole. So this particular recipe is what I usually make at home on a regular basis.

There are two ways to do this, with raw tomatoes or blanched and peeled tomatoes. Both give very different results. The raw tomatoes are less watery and will, for obvious reasons, take longer to reach the deep red colour. Sometimes I am lazy to blanch tomatoes (yes I have taken laziness to another level) so I just blend them up raw. But ever since I bought an immersion blender, blanching and pureeing has become a little easier.

This recipe is oil free too!

For a curry enough for about 4 people you need

6 tomatoes (or 4 if using onions)
1 Big Onion (totally optional, I usually avoid this)
1-2 cloves or garlic (again something I avoid most of the time)
1 Green Chilli (if you like it spicy)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger
1 tsp Cumin seeds or Cumin powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp of raw mango powder (Amchoor in hindi)
1/2 tsp of Black Salt (Kala Namak in hindi)
2 Bay leaves or Indian Bay leaves (optional)
2 cloves
2 tsp Garam Masala or Chole Masala (I have a big jar of Chole Masala which I use for everything!)
Salt

If you plan to add onions and garlic, cook them with a little water and then blend them with the tomatoes.

If you plan on cooking the tomatoes, blanch and peel them. Then follow the directions below.

Blend the tomatoes, green chilli and ginger to a smooth paste. Put the Cumin seeds in a hot heavy bottomed vessel. When they begin to splutter put the tomato purée. Be careful because the purée will jump all over the kitchen. Now add the rest of the dry powders, spices and salt. Let it cook away for 15 minutes till it becomes thick, dark and spews bubbles all over the place.

This one was made by blending raw tomatoes

This is how dark it should look

Add your pre-cooked/steamed vegetables or pulses. Let it come together for another 10 minutes or so.

Chana Masala anyone? 

Garnish with fresh coriander and add a dash of lime or lemon after it's cooked. The addition of fresh coriander makes a lot of difference. So if you can get your hands on some, do it.

Enjoy your gravy!

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Tomato & Sage the saviour Chutney

I love Sage.

I was just doing some reading about it and found out that Sage is also called S. salvatrix (sage the saviour) because it was used in a herbal-vinegar remedy to ward off plague. Plague or no plague, I think Sage deserves some popularity. The leaf is extremely strong in flavour. It has an almost peppermint bitterness to it when you bite into it. I personally prefer using the powder because I don't have to bite into the leaf. I love putting it in everything. I even put it into Indian curries when I am cooking onions or tomatoes. It goes into all my Italian experiments too.

But before I ramble on, today's find of the day: Vegan Fling by Melissa. I love the look of some of her recipes specially the Strawberry and Poppy Seed Salad and the Alfredo Pasta.

This chutney recipe makes a great dip too. You can put it in a wrap or have it with some pita. It will also make a great gazpacho or you could mix it with some vegan mayo.

I did not use any chilli in it, but you could add some red chilli powder or paprika.

You need:

4 tomatoes
3/4 tsp powdered sage
1/2 tsp powdered pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Blend everything together.

If you would like it as a Gazpacho, add a little water and more salt.

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Three Chutney recipes for the three days I missed!

I am back after a three day break from the big bad world of the WWW. I just needed to switch off the laptop, give my eyes a rest and find other ways to cool off the sunny October days. It was a welcome break because I'm refreshed and raring to go forward.

Because I have missed three days of Vegan MoFo where my theme this month is 'chutneys', I'm going to write about three easy peasy chutney recipes to make up for my absence.


Mixed Peel & Seed Chutney
This one my mom made with mixed peels and seeds of Beetroot and White Pumpkin and also the insides of a Snake Gourd. I have made a chutney with only pumpkin seed -Skeed Chutney. You can use any left over peels, seeds and fiber for this chutney.

Mixed Peel & Seed Chutney
1 cup mixed peels, skin and fiber
1 cup coconut
1/2 lime sized piece of tamarind
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1-2 Red Chillies
2 tsp oil (optional)
Salt

Heat the oil if using and cook the skin, peels and fiber. Remove it and add it to the blender jar. Heat more oil and temper the mustard seeds, urad dal. Add the asafoetida and red chilli. Remove only the red chilli and add it along with Coconut, salt and tamarind to the blender jar. Blend till smooth. Add the tempered mustard seed and dal. Store in the refrigerator.

Horse gram Chutney
This is a not so common chutney made with a not so common dal. I haven't seen many people use Horse Gram. Wikipedia says it is common as cattle feed. Doesn't stop me from eating it! This chutney was made by my granny and is actually a very typically South Indian chutney.

Horse gram Chutney

1/2 cup horse gram
2-3 Red Chillis
1 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt

Roast the horse gram till it splutters. Roast the red chilli, urad, hing. Powder the horse gram and them add the rest of the ingredients. Add little water and then grind to a smooth paste.


Cumin & Green Tomato Chutney
Green Tomatoes make great salads but they also make great chutneys. I love the flavour of green tomatoes in a chutney and I didn't do much to this one wanting to preserve the great flavour they give. Cumin was a perfect spice for this one because it cuts through the sourness and give a nice finish to the chutney.

Cumin & Green Tomato Chutney

4 green tomatoes
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 mild green chilli
Salt
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Water

Cook the green tomatoes with a tablespoon of water and salt for about ten minutes till they are soft. Blend in till smooth.

Roast and powder the cumin seeds. I powdered them using a mortar and pestle.

Add the cumin seeds and mix well.

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Raw Elephant's Foot Chutney

Did I scare you yet? This really is a chutney made with a quarter kilo of Elephant's Foot but it's a type of Yam not a poor elephant's foot. C'mon!

It's already day 12 of Vegan Mofo. We're almost halfway there. It takes a lot of planning to put up posts every single day I cannot imagine how much work it must be to put this event together for the whole month of October.

Today's find of the day is Veganise This!: Mel from Australia is going around the world in 20 days of Vegan Mofo this year with themed dinners from different countries every day. She's already covered so many countries. What a great theme and what a great way to learn new cuisines!

This week I have tried as much as possible to put up recipes of mostly raw chutneys. I am going to keep going with the raw flow but today is a little different. It's still a chutney and still is mostly raw. But today the main ingredient is something most people would not eat raw. This yam is a very commonly used tuber in India and is available throughout the year. But eating a tuber raw is not very common apart from a few exceptions like ginger, carrot and daikon. Not too many people eat this raw unless they make it into a chutney like this.

It has an almost cooling feeling in your mouth and takes on the flavour of the condiments added to it. I had it with some Dosa for breakfast and it also was a side for lunch. Chutneys are very versatile so they can be paired with lots of things.

Raw Elephant's Foot / Yam Chutney

250gm/ 2 cups Yam - Washed, peeled and diced
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1 or 2 red chillis
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 lime sized ball of tamarind
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt
1/2 tsp Oil (optional)

Temper the mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and red chillis in oil. Put the diced yam, red chillis, tamarind and salt in a blender and blend till smooth. Add the tempered mustard seeds, urad dal and asafoetida to this. Add in the lime juice. Mix well.

Store it in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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