Channa Daal Curry and Thoughts Worth Thinking. . .

Ramadan is the muslim month of fasting and creating anew ones' intimacy with God. According to Quranic teaching, God is always as close to us as our jugular vein, and His compassion and blessings are especially prevalent throughout the month of Ramadan.

So, the onset of Ramadan is a joyful celebration; a chance to reflect over the past year and renew our pledge to improve ourselves in the year to come. And realizing, in that final moment of hunger and weakness before breaking fast at sunset, that all sustenance belongs to God and it is by His Grace alone that we are able to eat our sunset meal at all.

This year, however, the mood around my Ramadan table is somber. As we break our fast, the thought of suffering in Pakistan (a crisis much bigger than the Tsunami) is not far from our minds. At present one-fifth of the country is submerged under water, the lives of over 14 million people have been affected because entire villages have been wiped out leaving over 250, 000 homeless, an estimated $1 billion worth of crops have been destroyed... To further compound the situation, water-borne disease has broken out. It's all the more painful that this should happen in Ramadan - the holiest month of the year.

It's no wonder I don't have much of an appetite, despite a 14.5 hour fast. Ramadan is a time of charity, but here I am - unable to do anything. To really do anything to help anyone. The realization that I have so much for be thankful for is a hollow one when faced with the other realization that while my family and I enjoy a cozy meal each evening, there are millions who have no access to clean water or nutritious food and that they long for a place called home. .*(please read post note)

Praise be to God who blessed us with food to eat, water to drink, homes to live in and our families surrounding us. . may He have mercy on all the suffering souls and may He accept our fasting, all our prayers and good intentions this blessed month. Ramadan Kareem, everyone.

And now I bring you Channa Daal Curry: a simple, satisfying, every-day curry. I made it today with zucchini although it's traditionally made with either pumpkin or bottle gourd. 

Channa Daal and Zucchini Curry

1 cup channa daal, washed and pre-soaked for 1-2 hours
2 cups water
1 cup zucchini, diced (about 3-4 small)
1 large onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced into small cubes
2 tsp minced ginger
2-3 green whole chillies, stalks removed (I used birds-eye because I like the extra heat)
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
1 heaped teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (I actually used only 1/4 because I was using birds eye green chillies)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder2 tbsp fresh, chopped coriander
2-3 tbsp cooking oil

Heat cooking oil in a pan and add sliced onions. Fry around 15 minutes on medium heat, or until golden-brown.

Add all the dry spices, along with a small splash of water (so that the spices don't burn) and stir fry for a minute or so. Add the diced tomato as well as the whole green chillies and cook until the tomatoes are mushy and the oil separates (around 5 minutes).

Now add the zucchini, stirring it well to make sure it is coated with the tomato mixture. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add in the daal, water and salt. Mix well, cover and let cook on medium-low heat for approx. 20 minutes. Test to make sure that the daal is fully cooked before removing from heat.

Stir in the lemon or lime juice as well as the chopped coriander and serve right away. For me, this daal is delicious all on its' own & I eat it with a spoon. But it is served with either Roti (flat bread) or rice.

(Post-note: after publishing this post, I came across a link to a blog listing one of many non-governmental organizations that are helping the relief effort in Pakistan. If you would like to lend a hand, visit the blog here and this organization here, here or here . And here's another very comprehensive list of ways you can help)

Wordless Wednesday

How To Eat a Mango - Part 2

 
There is no civilized way to enjoy a mango. The sweet, juicy flesh and inedible skin make it a difficult fruit to eat without making a huge mess. And some would argue that getting all sophisticated about consuming mangoes takes away the fun of eating them altogether. And I agree.

But this post isn't really about how to slice and eat mangoes. It's about a cherished memory from an otherwise mostly forgotten part of my life: while I was growing up, it was an unspoken tradition that I would spend some time during the summer each year with my best friend and her family. One morning, during one of my visits at their home, Uncle A. (my best friends' father) asked me if I'd like to have Mangoes, Parathas (flat bread) and Lassi (yogurt drink) for breakfast. I couldn't wrap my mind around the combination of breakfast items - in fact, it was plain bizarre to me. But I was too curious to turn it down.

So we all sat around the breakfast table while Uncle A. showed me how to eat mango with parathas: take a bite of mango, followed by a bite from the paratha... Or scoop some mango flesh into a piece of paratha. Wash it down with a sip of sweet, frothy Lassi. It was strangely delightful. Eating mangoes all by themselves is delicious enough, making a meal out of them was an indulgent treat; the memory of which is heart-warming.

And so, this morning, I treated myself to a healthy dose of mangoes and remembrance of times past. I'm only sorry I didn't have my best friends, R & H to share it with this time around.

 Sweet Lassi 

1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ice cubes
3 teaspoons sugar
a pinch of salt

Blend all the ingredients on high speed until the ice is crushed and the mixture is frothy. Pour into glasses and drink right away.

Mango-Almond Kulfi

I know what you're thinking, 'Mangoes again?'

I realize I sound mildly obsessed, working mangoes into every recipe possible. But it's August now, almost the end of mango season. And I'm reluctant to let go.

Since it's too warm to bake, I decided instead to experiment with making Kulfi. Traditionally Kulfi is made by cooking milk till it is reduced, but this 'cheats version' is ridiculously simple and very close to the real thing. Since the possibilities for playing around are endless, I worked crushed almonds and mangoes into this version. The result: fantastic, of course.

Give it a whirl!

Mango-Almond Kulfi

Add the following to a blender:

1 can (14-oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14-oz) sweetened condensed milk
enough whipping cream/half-and-half to make 1 liter
1 slice of bread, crusts removed
1/4 - 1/2 cup sweet mango
a handful of chopped almonds
1 heaped tsp cardamom, powdered  (or seeds from 8 - 10 cardamom pods, crushed)

Whiz everything together until blended. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for 6 hours or overnight.

I sprayed my molds very slightly with cooking spray and dusted with ground almonds (used my coffee grinder for this) before pouring the Kulfi mixture in.

If you'd like to make a plain version, omit the mango and/or almonds. Personally I like it best the traditional way: with just chopped pistachios and cardamom.

Baking With Dorie: Mango Crumb Cake

I'm back. The hiatus is over. And I've discovered yet another delicious way to incorporate mangoes into a BWD challenge. This week Tina of My Domestic Bliss chose the Blueberry Crumb Cake and I had no choice but to play around with the recipe.

I have to admit that I didn't plan this one. It happened quite simply because I'm back home after days, had no time for grocery shopping and mangoes and pecans were what I had on hand. I love mangoes. I love streusel toppings. And I love pecans. It couldn't go wrong.

And I was right. This cake is light and super-moist; the buttery, sugary, streusel adds a nice crunch. The flavors from the mango in the cake and the cinnamon in the crust came together to form a complex flavor instead of overpowering each other. For me - the streusel is the super star in this recipe. There is nothing I didn't love about this bake!

Thank you for choosing this recipe, Tina! You can find the recipe on Tina's blog, My Domestic Bliss, or on Pages 192-3 of Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Please check out the blogroll here to check out the other BWD bakers. Our next challenge will be posted on August 16, and it is the Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, chosen by Chaya of Chaya's Comfy Cook Blog. If you'd like to join us, please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us!

Baking With Dorie: Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie

I'm speechless. Really. 'Sublime' doesn't quite cut it. 

This cheek-puckering, silky lime cream with its' hint of ginger surpasses the velvety deliciousness of the lemon cream we made for the Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart.

One of my favorite things about baking is the element of surprise - nothing really matches the fun of trying out a new recipe and then being bowled over by how much you love it. And so I have to admit that the lime cream was a delicious surprise. Combined with Dorie's sweet & flaky pie crust and the cloudy meringue, that does nothing to fight the zingy flavors at play, this pie is awesome. Awe-some. I played around with Dorie's suggestions (but you already knew I would) and added a layer of ginger and lime-infused mango cubes underneath the lime cream, but the flavor from the mango was barely discernible. I didn't mind. Didn't I already explain how the lime cream makes this a sublime pie?

A *huge* thanks to Elizabeth of Gluten-Free Baking 101 for picking the recipe this week. For gluten-free versions of this pie, please head over to Gluten-Free Baking 101. And please take a look at the BWD blogroll to check out everyone else's scrumptious pies. 

Our challenge for 2nd August is the Blueberry Crumb Cake and has been picked by Tina of My Domestic Bliss. If  you'd like to join us, please email me at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us!

You can find the recipe for the Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie on pages 337-339 of Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or right here after the jump: 

Blogging Break

You know you're in trouble when your 2.5 year old draws a person for the very first time - and it's you, but you're wearing a frown.

So, that's it - I'm taking a break. I have actually been very efficient  (even though I've been blogging sporadically) and have quite a few future posts that I drafted & took photos for in advance. I was going to publish them over the course of this month, but I've changed my mind. Apart from the BWD challenge that's coming up next Monday, I will not be doing any posts for the rest of July.

I'll spend this time chilling out with the kiddos, before my son goes back to school in a couple of weeks, and hopefully won't have to hear him whine, 'but I hate it when you're always so busy, Mama!' 

See you when the hiatus is over! 

Meanwhile, here's an excerpt from something I received in a forward some time back, as well as a very old song that I really love & used to sing to my baby sister as a lullaby many, many moons ago . . :

To my child:

(...)Just for this morning, I am going to step

over the laundry and pick you up and take you to the park to play

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put

that puzzle of yours together

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug

the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you

in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell

once not even a tiny grumble when you scream and

whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one

if he comes by

(...) Just for this afternoon I will let you

help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you

trying to fix them

Just for this afternoon, I will take us

to McDonalds and buy us both a happy meal so you can

have both toys . . 

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms

and tell you a story about how you were 

born and how much I love you.

Just for this evening, I will let you

splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you

stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars

Just for this evening, I will snuggle

beside you for hours, and miss my favorite tv shows

Just for this evening I will run my

fingers through your hair as you pray, I will simply be

grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given. 

Versatile Blogger Award

I was recently presented the Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Sage Trifle . Thank you so much Sage Trifle! I'm so very flattered!

The guidelines for accepting this award are : 

Thank the person who gave it to you

Tell 7 things about yourself

Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whom you have recently discovered, and think are fantastic. 

First things first - 7 random things about me:

• I love making lists. They make me feel calm & in-control. My day can be pretty chaotic at times so it helps me to sit down, shut out all the noise of daily existence, and focus on making that list!
• I don't really like sea-food very much, but I'll try everything at least once.
• I think the first ever thing I made in the kitchen, at the age of 10, was a crisps-and-ketchup sandwich: a generous layer of crinkly potato crisps crushed between two slices of bread smeared with tomato ketchup. I don't know what I was thinking.
• There is nothing I enjoy better than sitting in a quiet place and reading a book.
• I think snowfalls are one of the most magical sights in the world.
• If I won a million dollars, I'd buy an apartment in one of the Islands surrounding Istanbul. And one in Paris, of course ;-) 
• I love people who make me laugh (I wouldn't have married my husband otherwise)

I follow a lot of blogs and I don't always have time to read them all, but I always enjoy posts by the following bloggers when I do eventually manage to make the time to do so. Here's a list of fantastic food blogs I have discovered in the past two months or less, I hope that you'll enjoy them as much as I do:

1. 80 Breakfasts 
2. Allotment 2 Kitchen
3. Chaya's Comfy Cook Blog
4. Cook & Be Merry
5. Cream Puffs in Venice
6. Delicious Delicious Delicious
7. Dinner with Julie
8. Eat, Run, Read
9. Food Loves Writing
10. Gourmet Worrier
11. i am baker
12. Lost Past Remembered
13. My French Cuisine
14.  Taste of Beirut
15. The Purple Foodie

Baking With Dorie: Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

It is impossible to look through Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan and not stop to drool over the photos of this cake. A brownie base with salted peanuts and sticky, gooey, dripping caramel . . . it had my name all over it & so I was very happy to be able to pick the recipe for this weeks' Baking With Dorie challenge. 

It takes hardly any time to make the cake and it came out looking perfect, but it was cakier than the  super-moist, fudgy brownie I had been envisioning all along. It caved in while cooling, but Dorie already tells us to expect that it will. So, no surprises or panic attacks there.

Next up was the tricky part: making the Caramel. Needless to say, I've never made it from scratch before. Since I made this cake in a frightful hurry, at the eleventh hour, I completely forgot that I could have referred to David Lebovitz's post on how to make Caramel. And Elizabeth of Gluten-Free Baking 101 has added a wonderful step-by-step tutorial within her post this week - just in case you want to get some great visual tips on how to get it right.

Otherwise, Dorie's directions are very clear and guide you right through the process. The only thing was, my caramel took longer to cook than the 10 minutes she said it would. But that has mostly to do with the size of saucepan I used and how much heat I gave it. I really didn't want to burn the caramel since I had very little time to start from scratch all over again, so I watched it like a hawk for maybe 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I had fun doing the 'white plate test' every couple of minutes:

The fun part came next - mixing in the nuts and then pouring everything over the cake. Dorie recommends waiting till the caramel is completely cool before releasing the sides of the springform pan. But I just couldn't wait, because: 

a) I'm highly impatient

b) my kids were hovering around me like flies, wanting to poke their fingers into the cake that they just couldn't wait to eat (now I wonder where they get that from?)

c) I'm highly impatient. 

And this is what happens to impatient people who not only remove their cake from the pan but also slice it right away: 

Yup. Caramel Explosion. Never mind that it looks mouthwatering. 

Next time I'm going to have to listen to the wiser, saner Dorie and let things be. The wisdom in that would have been that the caramel would have set up a little, and some of it would have soaked through and made the cake very moist - almost fudgy. The next morning, this tasted somewhat like a chocolate-peanut version of a sticky-toffee pudding. Do I really need to say it was scrumptious!

One tip: Dorie suggests we don't dump the entire quantity of caramel over the cake and that we should be left with a lot more than we actually need. As usual she's spot on, so, don't be tempted. Less is definitely more as it will make your cake exceedingly sweet.

To check out what the other bakers did with this weeks' recipe, please check the blogroll here and here. Our next challenge, coming up on July 19, is the Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, chosen by Elizabeth of Gluten-Free Baking 101. If you'd like to join the challenge, please drop me an email. We'd love to have you bake along with us!

You can find the recipe for this cake on pages 264-5 of Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Or you can find it right here after the jump:

Nutella-Cherry Sandwich

Were you beginning to think I forgot that I have a food blog? I did get a bit carried away there with the travel photos, didn't I? Sigh... I might go back there... but right now it's time to present you with a serious sugar rush in the form of this sandwich. This isn't really a recipe, but just inspiration to play around with that jar of Nutella you have sitting on your kitchen counter.

Remember that cherry frozen yogurt I made? Remember I strained the cooked cherries? Well, I didn't throw them away. Here's what I did with them: 

I spread two slices of whole-wheat bread with Nutella. Spooned the cherries over one half.

Spread the outsides lightly with margarine, sprayed a non-stick frying pan with cooking spray & grilled lightly on both sides (around 3 mins each).

Nutella has a way of making everything dreamy, doesn't it?