H for Hummus

Hummus, for me, conjures up visions of exotic pita pockets either filled with crisp veggies or baked to a crisp, served with creamy hummus....

Once i realised how easy it is to make hummus, it's become an often made dish...and i've experimented with adding mint leaves, basil, oregano and pretty much anything that i fancy at the moment.

I've read loads of recipes and a lot of them call for tahini and for the skin to be removed from the channa...for my version, simple sesame seeds and channa with skin work...so here's d recipe for my plain, simple, not so-classic hummus.

Ingredients:

4 handfuls of dried kabuli channa (chickpeas), soaked overnight and cooked till soft

2 teaspoons olive oil (i used extra virgin olive oil) 

1 teaspoon sunflower oil (or any other neutral oil)

1 handful of til (sesame seeds), dry roasted till slightly brown

4-5 cloves garlic

reserve liquid from cooking the channa/water

salt, to taste,

chilli powder, to sprinkle on top

Method:

Lightly crush the cloves of garlic and roast in a pan. Add the sesame, garlic, salt and the sunflower oil to the blender and whizz till the sesame gets coarsely crushed. Once that's done, add the chickpeas and olive oil and process till the whole thing forms a smooth paste.

If required, add a little reserve liquid to adjust the consistency.

Turn it out into a bowl, flatten with a fork and run the prongs of d fork on the surface to form ridges. Sprinkle the chilli powder on top and serve!!

You can also add extra olive oil on top, specially if you want to keep it for a few days.

Spicy Roast Baby Potatoes

As far as i can remember, i've always loved cooking with potatoes (considering there's very little that can go wrong!!). Add a lil bit of salt, a bit of spice, some oil and ur dish is done!
You can make this dish with chopped potatoes but the potatoes' lil cousin, the baby potato, is a lil sweeter in taste.
And it makes for a perfect morsel to pop into your mouth without having to nibble!

This recipe calls for a tingling of your tastebuds (courtesy the chilli and dry mango powder) and is absolutely yummy to eat with chapathis, as a side dish or just as is!

Ingredients:

8-10 baby potatoes - par boiled and peeled,
2 tablespoons of hung yoghurt,
1 teaspoon of oil,
a teaspoon each of red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and dry mango powder(amchur)
1/2 teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste
salt, to taste

Method:

Prick the potatoes with a fork to allow the flavours to seep in.
Mix the yoghurt, all the powders, salt, ginger-garlic paste and oil in a bowl.
Add the potatoes to this mixture and mix such that each potato is coated with the yoghurt mixture.
Let this marinate for an hour or so in the fridge. Once that's done, you can either grill the potatoes or heat some oil in a pan and roast on a low flame.

Once the potatoes have blackened in bits and pieces, serve them with a final sprinkling of lime juice.

Apple Upside Down Cake

Inspired by the yummy pineapple upside down cake, i set about trying to make an apple upside down cake simply b'cos i was b-o-r-e-d..... not to mention i'd run out of cocoa powder or anything chocolaty!

This is a simple recipe and can be made in a jiffy, the longest time required is to peel and chop the apples.

I actually sat and thought how eaxctly i need to make this considering i use a microwave and the apples wouldn't get cooked and glazed in a microwave....finally settled on this method and it came out quite well...

Ingredients:

For the apples:

1 medium sized apple
1/2 teaspoon butter (i used Amul Nutrilite)
a pinch of nutmeg powder
a pinch of cinnamon powder
a teaspoon of honey

For the cake:

1 cup (traditional Indian katori) maida
3/4 cup sugar + 3 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil like sunflower oil (you can use butter but i find using oil easier)
1 tea spoon baking powder
2 pinches baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a teeny pinch of salt
a teeny pinch of yellow food colour
1 drop of vinegar (this reacts with the baking soda/powder and makes the cake light n spongy)

Method:

Apples:

Peel and chop the apples into whatever shape you desire, just keep in mind that the slices/pieces need to be a little thin and even.
Heat butter and cook the apples in it (with the nutmeg and cinnamon), over low heat, till the apples are soft (approx 5 minutes). Drizzle the honey and cook for another minute.

Let this cool to room temperature and spread over the bottom of the dish you are using to bake the cake.

Now for the cake:

Mix all the wet ingredients together and beat with a fork for 3-4 minutes. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Now add the dry to wet (yep, always dry to wet although i don't really know why!) and mix thoroughly taking care that no lumps are formed. Pour the batter over the apples.

Bake in a microwave at 650-700 deg C for 2-3 minutes. Then turn down the temperature to 400 and bake for another 2-3 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, you're good to go. Else, bake in bacthes of 30 seconds till the toothpick comes out clean.