Wild Rice Kale Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Salads

Dish: Wild Rice Kale Salad

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Salads' and Valli gave us free rein on choosing the type of salad. So for the next 3 days I have some delicious salad recipes coming your way.

First up is this Wild Rice & Kale Salad. I watched Chef Bobby Flay make it on Food network during Thanksgiving time and I have made it 2~3 times since then. Wild rice is my latest favorite, I love its chewy & earthy flavor. I buy wild rice from Trader Joe's and it is well worth the money spent.

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Warm Millet Salad with Brussels Sprouts, dried Cranberries and Walnuts

I am trying to incorporate more whole grains these days and have been looking for some interesting recipes in my cookbooks and magazines. Found this hearty and delicious Millet and Brussels sprouts salad in Vegetarian Times magazine.

Brussels Sprouts have become my latest favorite and I have been buying them almost weekly these days. Brussels sprouts look like mini cabbage and they have been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and have originated and gained their name there. They are excellent source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K.

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Toasted Millet & Oats Granola

Bake-a-thon 2015: Day 3

Bake of the Day: Toasted Millet & Oats Granola

Today I have a simple and easy to make granola recipe with millet, rolled oats, coconut and pistachios. Recipe is from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart. This recipe has been on my to-make list for a while now and I'm glad I can finally strike it off from the list.

This granola is crunchy with the toasted millet and chewy with the coconut flakes and dried cranberries. I like to eat it over some Greek yogurt for breakfast. Soaking it in almond milk makes it a little soft and easier to eat.

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Cranberry Pachadi (Cranberry Chutney)

Cranberries are in season during the holidays and are used to make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. All the stores carry cranberries and I over-zealously bought a big bag for myself. I wanted to make some cranberry sauce for my Thanksgiving series and even found a recipe that I liked. But cranberry sauce is usually served with turkey and I was not sure which vegetarian dish goes well with cranberry sauce. So decided against making it.
Now I had the whole bag staring at me from the fridge. So I froze half of the cranberries for later use (at least they won't stare at me until I open the freezer, which is not as much as the fridge -- clever, isn't it??) Anyway I used some to make this warm cranberry cider and the rest to make this tangy cranberry chutney.

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Spiced Cranberry Pear Cider

It has been a busy weekend with a holiday brunch at home, lot of baking and cooking. With the weather being very cloudy and gloomy, I couldn't get a chance to take photos of the food or even the cookies. I saved a few, hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow and I can take come decent photos.

Today's Cranberry-Pear cider recipe is from Vegetarian times magazine and I made it for the brunch yesterday. It is spiced with ginger & cinnamon and is served warm which is perfect for the chilly weather and also for the sniffles and coughs.

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Warm Farro Pilaf with Dried Cranberries & Kale

It's November and the beginning of holiday season. I can't believe that the stores here started selling Christmas trees from early October. From my experience, it is better to buy them when you see them in the stores even if it is ridiculously early in the season because by the time you are mentally ready for the holidays, all the stores will be out of holiday stuff and you will have nothing to decorate the house (true story -- from about 2 years ago). So now-a-days I go shopping with an open mind, hopefully I'll find a great deal on summer patio set in the middle of winter -- you never know ;-)

Holiday season also means lots of parties and food. I pulled out my old magazines and bookmarked quite a few recipes for this time of the year -- some festive and some seasonal -- all perfect to entertain for the holidays. So my self imposed theme for 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge' for November & December will be holiday/ seasonal specials.

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Iranian Jeweled Rice (Vegan recipe)

For this month's International Cooking Challenge, our host Savitha Ramesh @ Savitha's Kitchen has taken us on a culinary tour of Persia/ Iran. Iranian cuisine or Persian cuisine refers to the traditional and modern styles of cooking related to Iran. Situated in the Middle East, the Iranian culinary style is unique to Iran, but it has been influenced by Iran's neighbouring regions at various stages throughout its history.
Many foods famously associated with Middle Eastern, and indeed World cuisine have their origins in Iran, such as kebab and ice cream. Fresh green herbs are frequently used along with fruits such as plums, pomegranates, quince, prunes, apricots, and raisins. Typical Persian main dishes are combination of rice with meat, lamb, chicken, or fish and some onion, vegetables, nuts, and herbs. To achieve a balanced taste, characteristic Persian flavorings such as saffron, dried limes, cinnamon, and parsley are mixed delicately and used in some special dishes.

I made this very flavorful and colorful Iranian Jeweled Rice. It is sweet, nutty and very aromatic. I'm lucky to live in an area that is close to good Turkish/ middle eastern groceries and I have access to good quality ingredients. I bought orange blossom water on one of my so-called 'window' shopping days, which was put to good use in this recipe.

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Cranberry Pulihora

Blogging Marathon# 36: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Online Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Cranberry Pulihora

For the final week of blogging marathon, I chose to do 'Online Bookmarked Recipes'. I thought this will be a great way to try and make some of the dishes from my ever-growing bookmarked recipes. It was quite a task to decide on the 3 dishes for this week. Finally based on the ingredients in the fridge and pantry I made 3 delicious dishes.
First up is this colorful Cranberry Pulihora that I bookmarked from Usha's blog. Using cranberries to give the required tartness/ sourness to pulihora sounded absolutely delicious and I wanted to try it right away.

Usha boiled the cranberries to make a gojju/ paste, but mentioned that they can be sauteed as well. Being the lazy bum that I am, I took the easy way and cooked the cranberries along with the other tempering and the cranberries cooked to perfection in just about 5~7 minutes. So this is a dish that can be made in less than 30 minutes and does not need any prior preparations.

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Fruit & Nut Cookies (Pistachio-Cranberry Shortbread Cookies)

Blogging Marathon# 36: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Cookies
Dish: Fruit & Nut Cookies (Pistachio-Cranberry Cookies)

Here's Wishing everyone a very Happy, healthy & prosperous New Year 2014.
Our blogging marathon group is back again in the new year with BM# 36. To start the new year on a sweet note, I'm making some cookies for the first week of the marathon. I wanted to post a savory cookie too, but posted this baked mathri last week/ year itself.

I made 3 types of cookies and this eggless fruit cake to give as edible gifts this Christmas season. Last few years the cookies I made for Christmas had eggs in them and it didn't bother me. But this year I was baking for family who don't eat eggs and I had to find eggless cookie recipes or at least recipes that had only 1~2 eggs, so I can easily replace them egg replacer.

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Almond-Cranberry Biscotti (Eggless Recipe)

For this month's Home Baker's Challenge, Priya Suresh @ Priya's Versatile Recipes wanted us to bake some crispy & crunchy Biscottis. She gave us options to bake either savory or sweet biscottis. Since I have a housefull of sweet toothed people, I made the sweet biscotti. 

I have been planning to bake biscotti for a while now, but didn't get a chance to try them. I was excited when I saw Priya's picks for this month and I wanted to bake both sweet and savory biscottis, but couldn't find time to make the savory one. I'm glad that I was able to make the sweet version that was liked by all at home. Hopefully I'll make the savory ones too some time soon.

The biscotti I made is a variation to the American Style Vanilla Biscotti that Priya wanted us to bake. Biscottis are Italian cookies that are twice baked. Italian biscottis are hard, but these American style biscottis are light and crunchy.

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Lentil Salad with Cranberries & Walnuts

After hogging on these yummy cookies, I think it's time for something healthy, yet festive and delicious. This brown lentil salad is very easy to make and will make a great item for a holiday menu or even for potlucks. You can adapt the recipe and add nuts or cheese (feta would be excellent) to make it even more holiday worthy.

The recipe is slightly sweet and tart with the agave & dried cranberries and crunchy with the toasted walnuts. Dish can be served at room temperature or chilled, which is perfect for a make ahead menu.

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Cranberry Pachadi

This pickle is very quick and easy to prepare. Great way to use up those last berries lying in the fridge.

Ingredients:
Cranberries - 1 cup
Red chili powder - 3 tbsp (preferably use pickle grade chili powder)
Mustard powder - 2 tbsp

Salt - 3 tbsp (or as per taste/ but be aware that salt acts as a preservative, so if enough salt is not added, pickle might spoil quickly)

Gingelly oil - 1/4 cup

For tadka:
Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - 1/4 tsp

Method:

• Rinse the berries couple times under running water. Drain and dry them thoroughly.
• Cut large berries in half or use whole berries if small.
• In a clean bowl, mix chili powder, salt and mustard powder. Add the berries and oil. Mix well.
• For the tadka, heat oil, add mustard seeds and hing and when the seeds sputter add to the pickle.
• Let the pickle sit overnight so that the cranberries have a chance to soak up all the flavors.

Serve with rice, idli or dosa.

Festive Cranberry Dal

My cousin S gave me the recipe for this dal. Cranberries are everywhere this time of the year and this dal is a good way of using some of them.

Ingredients:
Toor dal or Masoor dal - 1 cup
Cranberries - 1/2 cup, rinsed and chopped in half
Green chilies - 5-6, chopped

For tadka:
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chilies - 2
Hing - pinch
Curry leaves - 6

Method:

• Pressure cook dal and cranberries separately for 2-3 whistles. I add a pinch of turmeric and salt to the cranberries.
• Heat 1tsp sesame oil on medium flame, add the tadka ingredients and once the seeds start spluttering add the cooked dal and cranberries. Season with salt and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with rice or even roti.