Pain de Sarrasin- aka Kuttu ke Paranthe!

Talk about it being a small world.

When I wrote recently about buckwheat crepes I had no idea that buckwheat flour , called sarrasin in French or ble noir, is the good old kuttu ka atta that is used all over India to make things like cheelas, paranthas and pakoras for people who are fasting for religious reasons and therefore not allowed to eat grains. But then I have never actually eaten anything made with this flour in India, nor indeed have I seen it, since in our home my Aryasamaji mother and dadi never observed any fasts for any festival or occasion. So, being only very vaguely aware of this flour,  I had never given any thought to it or to what it might be.

My good friend Priti wrote to tell me about it, after reading about the crepes here.

So when I made paranthas today, for the girls’ lunch, with the flour I originally bought to make the very French galette, it felt like I had taken the long way home, in a manner of speaking 🙂

Kuttu ke Paranthe

I made the dough as I would for any other paranthas – with water but also with some crushed rock salt in this case –  then rolled out and cooked the paranthas in the same way too. I noticed that the flour had a tendency to get sticky so I added water very carefully, only a little bit at a time.

The girls, as they sat down to eat, sniffed at their plates and said, “hey but these smell like those crepes !”

I did tell them eventually why. And though they were evidently not too excited about this new culinary experiment, they did eat them, good girls that they are, without further comment, with some aloo ki subzi , a little pickle and yoghurt.

I have no idea how far from the original these are in taste or look, but they are good enough to eat that I would definitely make them again.

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Le Futted Ballon

There is a balloon story now about each of the girls and they will always make me laugh.

A few days ago while the girls ate their gouter, Noor was describing to me how her teacher tried to inflate a balloon, and how a little boy in her class came and poked it at so hard that, she said,  ” Mama and then the balloon burped !!”

Indira and I looked at each other and grinned, because we both understood that she got that word mixed up with burst. Noor thought, I suppose, that we’d found the story very amusing so hoping to make us laugh some more she said again with a dramatic fling of her hands, “and the balloon burped!! ”

The story about this balloon reminded me about another one that burst some years ago, this time at Indira’s hands.

She was only four then, and more prone than she is now to mix up her English, Hindi and French.

When her balloon burst at Pizza Hut one day, she ran to me saying anxiously, “Maman, le ballon is futted!!”

That will always be one of my fondest memories of Indira’s childhood 🙂

Galettes des Sarrasin-or Buckwheat Crepes

I made buckwheat crepes for dinner last night, finally, and though Noor said quite frankly that she did not like them too much( I am hoping that she might take to them gradually, especially as yesterday she was quite full from her gouter and not inclined to enjoy her dinner anyway), Shri really liked them, and Indira said “I completely love them !” . In fact, after she tasted the first one as it came off the crepe pan, she declared it exactly the same in taste as the ones we ate in Valberg recently, bless her heart.

They turned out quite nice, except that the ones I have eaten in restaurants here are sometimes crisper. So I need to figure that one out still.

Once again, a really simple, quick dish to make. We had these with soup and potato-feta cheese pancakes.

These savory crepes are called galettes in France to distinguish them from the sort of crepes that are eaten with sweet fillings. And sarassin, or ble noir, is  buckwheat flour. Buckwheat, as I wrote here is not actually any kind of cereal. It is a broadleaf plant that is a very good source of protein and iron. It is also used to make the variety of noodles called soba in Japan.

Galettes des Sarrasin, or Buckwheat Crepes

250 gms of buckwheat flour, with 1 tsp of salt mixed in (this quantity should be enough for at least 6 people)

250 ml of milk ( either whole cream or half-fat)

500 ml of water

1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine the water and the milk. In a mixing bowl, stir in half the milk and water, and the egg, in to the flour till the batter is quite smooth. Add the rest of the milk and water, and mix till well combined.

Ideally, leave the batter to rest for 60 minutes.

Heat a medium-sized crepe pan till it is very hot. Put a little knob of butter on the pan, and quickly spread it over the surface of the pan with a kitchen towel. Now lift the pan off the heat, pour about 1/2 a small cup  of batter on to the pan, and quickly bend and turn the pan every which way till the batter covers the entire surface of the pan. Put the pan back on the hob, and cook till the top of the crepe dries and the edges start to go quite brown/crispy and start to lift a little off the pan’s surface. Flip the crepe over with a spatula, and cook the other side for 1/2 a minute or so, lifting every few seconds towards the end to check if it is done.

Repeat the process for the rest of the crepes. Any extra batter will keep in the fridge.

Spread a little beurre de bretagne (or any other salted butter) on the crepe, then fold it over twice to form a triangle. You could also eat these crepes/galettes with any savory filling such as ratatouille, diced/slices of smoked chicken or ham, sliced tomato and cheese (grated emmenthal or slices of mozarella) etc.

Eat them while they are still quite hot, if you can. They taste best that way, IMO.

First among equals -Potato and Peas Poha

I should probably create a special category for  the recipes of the things that the girls like  most and are happy to eat as often as I’ll make them, such as varan, upma, grilled salmon with pesto, any fish baked with a provencal marinade (made of oil, sun-dried tomatoes and herbs) etc.

And poha surely would be the first among those equals.

This is another dish that I learned to cook from my mother-in-law.

Indira, especially, loves it like she does nothing else. So today, when I wanted to persuade Indira to come home for lunch (Noor was going to eat with me anyway, because she has a bad cold and I wanted her to stay at home after lunch to have a nap) because I was worried she would not eat well in the school cantine due to an aching tooth and a mouth ulcer, I suggested that I could make poha. She was quick to agree after that !

With a very few modifications – such as the addition of ginger – the recipe that follows is faithful to Ma’s.

It is food that soothes the soul 🙂

Potato and Peas Poha

3 big handfuls of poha, washed under cold running water and left to drain in a colander for about 15-25 minutes

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced very fine (alternatively, you could use potatoes that have been boiled till soft)

2 medium sized onions, chopped very fine

1/2 to 3/4 cup of shelled, frozen peas

a handful of fresh green coriander, chopped fine

1/2 or 1 tsp of grated ginger

salt to taste

3/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp of mustard seeds

5-6 curry leaves

In a large frying pan, heat 4-5 tablespoons of oil, then add the mustard seeds. When these start to crackle, add the curry leaves and fry these for a few seconds. Now add the potatoes, reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook the potatoes till they are a little more than half done.

Add the onions, and fry with the potatoes till they are very soft and translucent. Now add the grated ginger and peas, and cook for some more time till the peas appear cooked. Add the poha (after sprinkling a little water on it, and salt) and stir everything together. Cover the pan and leave to cook till the poha is quite soft, uncovering the pan periodically (you will need to do this 3-5 times before the poha is soft enough) to sprinkle a little water over the poha and turning it over well so that it cooks evenly.

Stir in the coriander, and eat it while it is still hot.

This is a basic poha, and tastes wonderful with some plain yoghurt and pickle. Different cooks make it and serve it in many other ways, such as adding other vegetables, serving it with a little sev,  lime juice and/or sugar, etc.

And we are finally making Crepes!

Indira and Noor have always enjoyed crepes. They like both the sweet sort, filled with Nutella or some confiture, as well as the savory kind (usually made with buckwheat) that we ate last month in Valberg, when we went up to the mountains to do some snow sledding on Noor’s birthday. That day Shri had just the plain – but awesome – buckwheat crepes that come with a generous dollop of beurre de bretagne, and the girls and I had them with a really satisfying topping of ham and some cheese.

Ever since, I have thought that I must try and make crepes at home, since we all enjoy them so much, though so far I have only ever bought the packaged, sweet variety from supermarkets for the girls’ gouter.

First, a little background on crepes. They are very think pancakes, made of a variety of flours, and can be both sweet or savory. Crepes are native to the region of Brittany, in northwestern France, where they are traditionally made with  buckwheat flour and served with cider. The interesting thing about buckwheat is that it is not a variety of wheat; in fact it is not a cereal at all. It is classified as a “pseudocereal” – it is a broadleaf plant and not a grass (true cereals are grasses). Buckwheat – called sarrasin in French – is gluten-free and a rich source of proteins and iron.

And as it has turned out, crepes are just wonderfully easy and quick to make. What’s more, the substitution of whole wheat  for plain flour doesn’t make a discernible difference to the taste. I was quite relieved to see that the girls ate the ones I made today with whole wheat flour with as much enthusiasm as they did the one I made last week with white flour.

Noor and I shared one today with a filling of a little bit of a salmon spread that we both like, instead of Nutella, and that was very nice too. So I am now planning to go the whole hog and make the savory kind one day for dinner, with sarrasin flour.

This recipe, based on the one in Linda Doeser’s “Les 100 Meilleures Recettes – Cuisine Vegetarienne” is, to borrow a phrase from Indira and her friends, easy peasy lemon squeezy 🙂

Whole wheat Crepes

115-120 gms of whole wheat flour, with 1/4 tsp of salt added in (if you have time, sift these two together)

300 ml of milk ( either whole cream or half-fat)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon of sunflower oil

In a mixing bowl, stir in half the milk and the egg in to the flour till the batter is quite smooth. Add the rest of the milk, and the oil, and mix till well combined.

Ideally, leave the batter to rest for 30-60 minutes.

Heat a medium-sized crepe pan till it is very hot. Put a little knob of butter on the pan, and quickly spread it over the surface of the pan with a kitchen towel. Now lift the pan off the heat, pour 1/3 a small cup of batter on to the pan, and quickly bend and turn the pan every which way till the batter covers the entire surface of the pan. Put the pan back on the hob, turn the heat down just a little, and cook till the top of the crepe appears to be dry. Flip it over with a spatula, and cook the other side for 1/2 a minute or so, lifting every few seconds towards the end to check if it is done.

Repeat the process with the rest of the batter. Try not to keep the crepes one on top of the other as they can get difficult to separate.

(Crepes can be cooked in an oven too; more about that another time)

Keep each prepared crepe on a large surface and when it is a little cool, spread any sweet or savory filling over one half, then fold the crepe over twice to form a triangle.

Et voila ! That is all it takes to create a  great snack, or with some salad on the side, a very nice meal.

Read all about crepes here http://www.epicurean.com/articles/crepes.html and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%AApe

Moong Sprouts Chaat

Our lunch today started as a little holiday experiment.

The girls have done some planting in school on more than one occasion, but it isn’t something I have done with them at home.

But there is this book Indira has which she likes to read with me, called “Flowers and Trees” which discusses things like “Do plants eat?”, “Why do we pull out weeds?” , the basics of pollination and so on. So one night a few days ago while we  were reading that book again I suggested that we could try and sprout mung beans, to see how things grow.

The girls literally jumped at the idea, since this offered an opportunity to get out of bed and delay lights-off time.

So we soaked 1 cup of whole, green moong that night in a lot of water. The next morning I drained the water, put the beans in a large, thin tea towel, tied it up in to a bundle, and put it inside the oven, since the idea, I thought, is to keep the beans in a dark place.

[The process I followed this time is the one I remember my father-in-law used to sprout moong once when I was visiting. But then I came across this site today-http://www.sproutpeople.com/grow/sprouting.html – which recommends that seeds need to be allowed to breathe; so I am going to try making sprouts again by leaving the beans in an open but cool area. Another site I also found today which offers a simple guide to sprouting is http://www.wisebread.com/scrumptious-sprouting-for-your-meals ]

It was Monday night when we soaked the beans. And today, Thursday, is  when we finally had chaat, for lunch, that we made with the sprouted beans, using the recipe I got on the phone this morning from my mother. The girls have quite enjoyed opening the bundle every night these past 3 days, to check if the beans were sprouting as expected, helping me sprinkle water on the cloth and then retying the bundle before putting it back in to the oven.

The chaat itself has been a reasonable success. Noor says she likes it; Indira says she loves it.  But I suspect that might be more because she feels this is their project, so to say. She hung around with me in the kitchen this morning, watching with great interest while I prepared the other ingredients for the chaat, and kept a keen eye on things in general (she pointed out that the beans might start sticking to the bottom of the pan soon, when she saw me forgetting to stir them as they cooked because I was talking to a friend on the phone at the same time).

Either way, I am glad they have taken to something that is so nutritious and low-fat.

Moong Sprouts Chaat

Sprouted beans (grown with 1 cup of dry mung beans)

2 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and diced in to small pieces

a 3 or 4 inch long chunk of cucumber, peeled and chopped fine

2 firm, small tomatoes, diced in to small pieces

1 large onion or 2 small onions, peeled and chopped fine

salt, chaat masala powder, red chilli powder (I use the Kashmiri kind, in deference to the girls’ taste buds) and lime juice to taste

2 green chillies (optional), chopped fine

2 tbsp of sunflower oil

1 tsp of cumin seeds

1 tsp of grated ginger

some green coriander, chopped fine

In a frying pan, heat the oil and fry the jeera seeds for a few seconds till their aroma is released. Add the ginger and saute for a few seconds. Then put the beans in and fry them in the oil for  for a few minutes without covering the pan. Then add some  water (about 1 cup or a little more ), cover the pan and cook the beans on low heat till they are quite soft ( they could be cooked in a pressure-cooker too, using a lot less water).

In a large mixing or salad bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, then add the cooked beans after they have cooled and toss everything together well.

This was a great change from the usual salad/pasta/parantha-subzi kind of lunch. The girls really enjoyed it with plain yoghurt and some buttered toast on the side. I guess one could use the chaat to make a kind of roll or wrap, with phulkas or tortillas, too.

I believe there are endless variations to this basic chaat theme ; one could mix different chutneys, yoghurt, and add other ingredients and spices to the sprouts,  and the sprouts themselves could be of any of a variety of beans.

And I seem to remember a delicious  dahi-puri I have eaten in restaurants in Mumbai which involves filling a mung sprouts-based mix in to golgappas.

I am looking forward to trying my hand at that one in particular !

An enduring tradition

Yesterday, Indira’s classmate Nicky spent the day with us.

In the afternoon, the girls seemed to be getting a little bored so I asked if they’d like to help me bake something for their gouter.

They agreed happily and we made a carrot cake together.

The unexpected pleasure for me  was that after I had finished pouring the cake mix in to the baking pan, Nicky asked for two spoons so she and Indira could scrape off what was left in the mixing bowl. Indira and Noor always love a little lick – sometimes more than one – of the batter too but they have never asked for the bowl !

As they sat on the sofa, licking the remnants off their spoons as they watched some television, it reminded me of the time Dada -my father-in-law – did the same with what was left in a pot which I had used to make kheer, after the kheer itself has been taken out in to a serving bowl; Shri does the same with the masala and crispy or slightly burnt bits of subzi left sticking to the sides of a karahi in which the subzi has been cooked.

In an era of Nintendo DSs, it is good and reassuring to see that some things stay the same 🙂

Tej Patta (Malabathrum or Malabar leaf, NOT Bay Leaf)

I made peas pulav for lunch today, and when I added  tej patta (usually – and erroneously, it turns out – refered to as bay leaves by most Indian cooks) to the oil, I found myself wondering yet again how closely related it might be to feuille de laurier ( laurel leaves), a popular herb  in Mediterranean and other western cuisines.

I had always imagined that the two might be related, since they look quite similar. But it turns out that they are very different.

Tej Patta (tamalpatra in Sanskrit and Marathi and often called bay leaf or Indian bay leaf in English) is a tough, three veined, very aromatic leaf that is much used in north Indian cuisine . It does in fact come from a tree – the malabathrum -which belongs to the Laurel or Lauraceae family, as do the true bay/laurel trees (such as the Laurus Nobilis tree grown in the Mediterranean region or other laurel/bay trees like the California Laurel, Turkish Laurel etc.) whose  leaves – true claimants to the term “bay leaf “- are used in western cuisines.

The cinnamomum tamala (malabathrum) tree – grown in both the Himalayas and southern India – is, however, a different genus from that of bay trees, so it is inaccurate to term the leaves of the former as bay leaves.

The malabathrum tree is closely related to the cinnamon tree – they belong to the same genus – and the aroma and the fragrance of tej patta is in fact somewhat reminiscent of cinnamon. This is another way to distinguish between tej patta and bay/laurel leaves – the latter have a fragrance more like pine and lemon. Also, bay – or laurel- leaves are longer and slimmer than tej patta.

Apart from being an important flavoring agent in biryanis and many other meat-based dishes, tej patta is also used in the preparation of a Bhutanese herbal tea called Tsheringma. You can read more about its recipe, and the benefits, here http://www.itmonline.org/arts/bhutan.htm

and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsheringma

I was interested to see that apart from tej patta, Tsheringma’s other ingredient are petals of the safflower plant. Since this plant is also the source of a cooking oil known to be heart-healthy, I am inclined to think that there has to be a sound basis to the benefits this tea is said to offer, according to  Bhutanese tradition.

The essential oils from the leaf were used in ancient times in India as well as other parts of the worlds for perfumes as well as for medicinal purposes. First century Greek texts mention these leaves as being a major export of southern Indian kingdoms.

Some research has found the oils to have an antifungal property.  Significantly, this property is not adversely affected by temperature or storage, so the use of tej patta in cooking would not diminish this effect, I guess.

Tej patta leaves are also used as a treatment for colic and diarrhoea.

Different parts of the plant are used in many Ayurvedic preparations.

Here’s where I learnt more about tejpatta –

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Cinn_tam.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_leaf

http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/bay.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/56673/bay-leaf

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Bay_Leaf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malabathrum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum

http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea/Products/AFDbases/AF/asp/SpeciesInfo.asp?SpID=18024