Cilantro chutney - Forgive me for making your Valentine's day green :-)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! May your life be filled with love of every possible flavor and color. May you always share love with the World!

As I walked around my favorite market on Friday, it was bustling with people trying to get ready for the Valentine's day. The weather was a balmy 62F, sun shine spread all around like a warm blanket, colors of spring all over in fruits and vegetables and there was a general geity in the air. One of the flower vendors even had a poster board that said, "All you last minute Romeos, stop here, we have the perfect gift for your valentine" :-)". I simply walked around soaking in the fresh air, breathing in the warmth, picking up a fresh fruit or 2 as they caught my eyes. No valentine specific purchase was made.

I am not Grinch and definitely not here to prick the enthusiasm of Valentine's day celebration. Each to his/her own and I respect all individual expressions. But as they ask in my all time favorite Sound Of Music movie, "How do you hold the Moonbean in your hand?", I ask, "how do you contain the celebration of love for one day of the year?". It is an emotion that we are fortunate to have every minute of every day of our lives and I want to keep it that way.

When I see a typical Valentine's celebration where,

Roses rule the day

sweets are made with lots of love

Chocolates - cannot do without 'em

Pink puts it all together :-)

I just step back a little and think about all the other beautiful shapes love takes in life and feel thankful to be loved in so many different ways by so many different people - as a daughter to 2 sets of parents, a wife and friend to a man I adore, a loving mom (annoying at times) to a doting daughter, sister (sometimes bossy, sometimes totally dependent) to my siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends I have made in all these years. I feel blessed. Happy Valentine's day to all of you.

Chutneys are my first love, pachadis are his. When we fell in love many years ago, it was just a matter of time before the chutneys and pachadis started to fuse together. I learnt to make varieties of pachadis as he learnt to enjoy the deliciousness of chutneys. We have reached a stage in life now where we use those to terms interchangeably. The years of togetherness has also brought the spark of recognition that 'love' is not single dimensioned as it gets marketed on Valentine's day but is infact multi-faceted, colorful and always grows in abundance as you share it.

Feb celebrations take on a different tone at home since this particular week is full of personal celebrations too. Sister kicks off the celebrations with her birthday on the 9th, followed by a sis-in-law & niece who share their special days ont he 13th, it is the wedding anniversary of parents-in-law on the 14th and BH rounds it up by turning a year older on the 17th. So calling, emailing, facebooking starts earlier in the week as we share the joy. My inlaws reached here from India this evening :-), they were supposed to be here yesterday in time to celebrate their wedding day with us but courtesy of delayed start and missed connections, they arrived a day later :-(. They seem to be doing ok, though tired. Just finished dinner and everyone has already hit the bed. Looking forward to having them here for the next few months.

Since the Valentine's day/wedding anniversary celebrations didn't work out the way we had planned, I ended up making a regular weekend brunch earlier today. Our weekends typically start off with a heavy brunch, late for a breakfast but early for lunch and is one of those 'look forward' to times of the week when all 3 of us sit together to enjoy the meal. Week days are so rushed, we don't get to sit down together in physical proximity until evening. So, I try to make an event of weekend brunches where each of us have something we love to eat :-). Fortunately, tastes are not very far apart and I really don't have to cook a spread to please the family. Since there was the anticipation of all the goodies coming in from India later this evening, I made the lunch simple but added a spicy twist that BH & I love. DD had her sweet potato fries and tender, grilled Asparagus. All in all it was a great lunch with family.

Here is my green love from Valentine's day lunch we had earlier today. I make this every time I get fresh, flavorful cilantro which is quite often :-). You can make this in a large quantity and store it in fridge for a week, somehow it never lasts that long in my home :-). Hope you all like it as much as we do.

What do you need to make Cilantro chutney?
2 bunches of fresh cilantro leaves - should make 3 loosely packed cups when picked and cleaned
1 Tbsp urad dal
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tsp chana dal
5-6 dry red chilies
1 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 Tsp coriander seeds
key lime sized tamarind
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery
1/2 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
pinch of asafoetida

How do you make cilantro chutney?

• Pick cilantro leaves and the tender stalks from the bunch. 
• Wash them thoroughly under running water to rid of any dirt.
• Let water drain off in a colander, chop them roughly
• Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a pan. 
• Add urad, chana dals, red chilies, cumin, fenugreek, coriander and mustard seeds. 
• Roast on medium heat until dals turn bright pink.

• Add asafoetida and take it out onto a plate
• Put the pan back on the stove, add the remaining oil, and add the chopped cilantro - leaves and stalks
• Fry for about 4-5 minutes until the leaves become a mush and stalks turn soft. 
• Add salt, switch off and let it cool. 

• Take the roasted dal & spices to the grinder and make it into a rough powder.

• Add jaggery and grind once more. 
• Now add the cilantro and pulse grind until they are all combined and cilantro is crushed well. 

• Enjoy the spicy, tangy, sweetish chutney bursting with cilantro flavor. 
• Our Valentine's day lunch was complete with hot rice mixed with cilantro chutney and a side of home made plantain chips, Yummy!!

Notes: 

• I used my mortar & pestle to make the chutney :-), I don't need to add water at all in this. If you are grinding using a blender, pulse it so the ingredients come together and avoid adding water. 
• This is a chutney used to mix with rice but you can enjoy it as a spread on a piece of toast or with idli/dosa or even just to lick it off of your finger. 
• This is typically strong with all flavors competing with each other, adjust sweet, spice & tang to your taste. 

Linzer Cookies - celebrate Valentine's day with some reduced butter cookies :-)

Some of you atleast know my perspective of the valentine's day, it is not to be celebrated for a day if you are generally not expressing the emotion throughout the year or conversely, make every day a celebration. Granted there are days where you pull your hair out and yell at your valentine but that is part of the grand scheme of life. So, personally I do not subscribe to do anything special on the Valentine's day :-). Now, before you write me off as the middle aged (which I may be), unromantic person(not a chance) there ever was/is alive, let me tell you I am much in love and look forward to stay that way for years to come. And despite all my personal opinions on the matter, I seem to be making something special for this day as part of my obligations in this virtual world :-).

I was out shopping yesterday (nothing exotic, just the boring groceries) and every store I went to from a departmental store to a pharmacy had people crowded around either the flower bouquets and chocolates or the greeting cards. And also, the majority of people in these aisles were male. For laughing out loud (no LOL for me, I really am showing my age today in more ways than one), I don't know what to make of this gender bias in the stores ..

After that contradictory opening, here I am with some delicious, sweet cookies to appease you all today. I know the post is coming a day after the Valentine's day, but like I say always, every day is special if you want to bake something for your loved one(s), so go ahead and enjoy these precious bites albeit with a little restraint since they have much butter than I normally use in my cooking :-).

Today being the 15th, this post is part of my monthly Baking Partner's challenge that is conceptualized and hosted by Swathi. She gave us a choice of 2 types of cookies for the challenge and let us pick one. Infact, I made both of the cookies but missed taking pictures of the first one. And without pictures, what is a blog post?? I thought of making them again for the sake of pictures but decided to instead try the other choice and here I am with some delicious Linzer cookies. I am not a cookie person myself but these crunchy bites with some apricot jam sandwiched in between made for a delicious bite. Linzer cookies are of European origin and are 2 cookies sandwiched with a layer of jam or marmalade (choose any fruit flavor that you love). These cookies are flavored with both citrus and spices to wake you up. I would recommend experimenting and finding out the combination you like best. I added some tangerine and meyer lemon zest, you can easily replace them with orange or lime or regular lemon zest if that is what you have/like. I also added some cinnamon and cloves. Since you add all these flavors, the cookie dough is kept aside for a few hours (I refrigerated mine overnight for about 30 hours) so they seep into the dough and give you a burst of flavors on biting into a cookie. The original recipe says it can be refrigerated upto 3 months but I don't see the point of it, it is not like you are making a fruit cake :-). So.. I will leave the determination of resting period to you intelligent souls.

Now there was another reason I didn't refrigerate it too long, yes, Valentine's day was around the corner and I had to bake it quickly :-) but I also made mine a reduced fat cookie by slashing the amount of butter to half and wanted to see how my substitute ingredient worked. Sure, I hear the collective gasping of all you cookie connoisseurs hating me for bringing shame to the world of cookie making and also proudly bragging & blogging about it. Hear me out a little bit, will you? I have done this trick before while making some of my other cookies and haven't found my cookies lacking anything at all. I know it sounds hard to believe but it is definitely not a story of denial. Butter in cookies are over rated according to me, if you can make paneer butter masala without the butter or Dal Makhni without the makhan then why not cookies with reduced butter? Beginning to sound reasonable? I know I can convince (most of you atleast) with this argument, so read on..

I shy away from making traditional cookies for the amount of fat they seem to claim as needed. Once during a girl scouts bake sale, we made dozens and dozens of cookies and my hands I am sure got the best moisturizing like never before or after as I was handling the dough. A few years back, when DD was in elementary school, I used to meet another mom in her Taekwondo class. This super sweet lady and I became friends and she invited me to a cookie exchange during the Holiday season. In those days, I was very hesitant to bake anything, let alone experiment with traditional, butter laden cookies. I called her ahead and explained my predicament and she sweetly suggested I could bring in something else if I was not comfortable making cookies. I ended up taking some fruit punch to that gathering but the point of Christmas cookie exchange is to literally exchange your best, favorite and handed down the family cookie recipes with each other and I got a bunch of index cards with cookie recipes on them and every one of them spelt butter in substantial amounts and so I just kept them aside. If cookies have to be baked, I look for options that I like - added nuts, spices, fruits to bring out the flavor.

Back to the reduced fat cookie, I already told you that I slashed the amount of butter by half but that eliminates the moisture content in the recipe, so how did I make up for it? I added 1.5 Tbsp (for the quantity of ingredients I am giving below) of milk and made the dough. If someone doesn't tell you about this or if you haven't grown up rolling in Paula Deen's recipes all your life, you will not notice the reduction and there is nothing in the taste that tells you otherwise. The surrounding flavors make you forget about the lack of full on butter and lets you enjoy the cookies feeling a little better :-). So go ahead and try these delicacies at half the guilt or indulge yourself in the original version itself.

What do you need to make Linzer cookies? 
Makes about 1.5 dozen sandwiches
1  cup + 2 tablespoon All purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds and/or hazelnuts
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 Tsp salt
1 Tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 Tsp ground cloves
4 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature, original recipe says 8 Tbsp butter)

1.5-2 Tbsp milk
1/8 Tsp almond extract
1 Tsp grated lemon zest
1 Tsp grated orange zest
2 Tbsp jam/jelly/fruit preserves (I used apricot jam)
1 Tsp + extra Powdered sugar for dusting

How do you make Linzer cookies?

• Soak almonds in warm water for about 45 minutes to an hours, remove the outer peel and pat them dry.
• Make a powder of almonds along with 1 Tsp of powdered sugar in to a fine consistency.
• Prepare cinnamon and cloves powder and keep ready. 
• Wash, pat dry and grate the rinds of lemon and oranges to get the required amount of zest. 
• Bring all ingredients together (except butter and milk) in a wide bowl and working with your fingers mix them well for a couple of minutes.
• Cut the butter into small pieces, add them to the bowl and mix them well. As you knead, the natural oil from the almonds also helps as a source of moisture.
• The dough starts to come together within 3-4 minutes, if it is very crumbly and falling apart, slowly add milk (room temperature) and knead it in. I used only 1.5Tbsp of it, so go by what your fingers are feeling in the dough bowl and adjust the milk.
• Once you have a firm ball of dough in hand, pat it into a slab (dimensions doesn't matter really), wrap completely with a cling wrap and refrigerate it (3 - 24 hours).

• When you are ready to bake the cookies, prepare 2 cookie sheets by laying out parchment sheets on them.
• Spread another parchment sheet on the working surface, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit out for 10 minutes.
• Mean while, preheat the oven to 325F and set the racks to 1/3 distance from the top and bottom. 
• Remove the plastic wrap and place the slab on the parchment paper, Lay another parchment sheet on top (this avoids the dough and excess butter sticking to your hands and the rolling pin) and start to roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick. 

• Remove the top sheet, use the cookie cutters to cut different shapes. You get Linzer cookie cutters in the store which makes cutting the center piece easy but if you do not have them, just use different shapes to cut an outer shape and a smaller inner shape. 
• You will make equal number of solid halves (without center cut) and center cut halfs to finally assemble the sandwiches. I hope the pictures tell the story better than I am able to do :-). 

• Lay out the cut shapes with 1/2 inch distance between the two and bake them for a total of 14-15 minutes, open the oven once midway through, rotate the cookie sheets and also by interchanging the top and bottom cookie sheets - this insures even baking without burning. 
• Watch the cookies towards the end of baking time and take them out once the edges start to brown slightly.
• Let them stand for a few minutes to become firm before you assemble the sandwiches.

Assembling Linzer cookies (Do this when you are ready to serve, else the preserve layer tends to soften the cookies):

• Take a solid half, spread a thin layer of jam or preserve, top it with the other half with the cutout.
• Take a Tsp of powdered sugar in a thin sieve and sift it over the top.

Notes:

• Time saver tip - You can use store bought almond meal instead of soaking, peeling and grinding the almonds.
• As you cut out the cookies, bring the scraps and the center cuts back into a ball and repeat the process. You can also bake the center cutouts separately but they cook faster because of their size.
• You can serve these cookies without making them into sandwiches if the cutouts pose a problem. Slather some jam on top and bite in :-)

Cookies with a secret - Celebrate Valentine's day with a kiss

Happy Valentine's day everyone! I know the post is kinda last minute but my excuse is that I am on the west coast and the day has not yet begun for me. For all others that are ahead of me, hope your valnetine's day turned out well and is going well.

I think about why some food items become a hit while some do not though they both taste very good. As in any other visual media, presentation is what clinches the final score. I believe presenting a food right is as important as the love of labor that goes into the creation of the food itself.  So while I am working on taking the pictures in the right light, settings and with props, I borrowed a simple recipe from Taste of Home recipe collections which has both the looks & the taste to touch your heart :-). I have modified the original recipe a little (reduced the butter & confectioner sugar from the original). Talk about magazine clippings all over the house.

Personally, we don't make a big deal of Valentine's day or go out on the celebration, it passes like any other ordinary day but keeping in the spirit of Valentine day celebrations going on around me (both in the physical & virtual world), here I am with a cookie wrapped around a kiss (I mean the Hershey's kind).

What do you need to make the Valentine cookies? 
1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups All purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (go ahead & use almonds or cashews if you feel like)
18 kisses chocolates
1/2 cup of confectioner sugar (use powdered sugar alternatively)
1 Tblsp cocoa (I used unsweetened)
1 Tsp vanilla extract

How do you make the Valentine cookies?

• Cream the butter, sugar & vanilla extract until light and fluffy. 
• Fold in the chopped nuts and mix. 
• Add the flour and mix well.

• Knead the dough for a minute. 
• Cover the dough with a plastic cling and refrigerate for about 45 mins to an hour or until it is firm.

• Pinch a small ball of the dough and flatten it on your palm, put a chocolate kiss in the center and shape the dough around the kiss.
• Repeat until you finish all the dough. 

• Place the wrapped balls in a baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 10 - 12 minutes, take them out before they turn brown. 

• Sift the confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder together in a wide plate.

• Roll the warm cookies in the mixture and set it to cool completely. 

We liked the crumbly texture of the cookie with crunchy walnuts and the hidden kiss inside, I am sure kids will enjoy this for any of their parties.

Fair warning: One of these cookies is sufficient to tip the balance of the scale to the wrong side, so go easy on them..

A Very Happy Wedding Anniversary to my Amma & Nanandi who tied the knot many years ago on the Valentine's day and have kept it strong.