Oatmeal Banana n Chocolate chip Pancakes with Strawberry compote !

A warm hello to all...how are you all doing my dear friends? Today I'm back with another really good , healthy and tasty tasty Pancake recipe. "Necessity is the mother of all Invention" said someone long ago, well though I din't invent this recipe, it was definitely made out of necessity. :-)
You may have already guessed what my necessity was! Yes, my basket full of 9 over-ripe bananas, that we weren't able to finish as everyone at home was down with the flu :-P
I still have 6 more to finish, but then lets get to this one shall we?

Two down with these pancakes ;-)

So last weekend after I had posted on my facebook page for suggestions as to how to use these beauties, many suggested to make 'banana pancakes'. Now, I had already made some gorgeous Buttermilk Pancakes the previous week and had no plans on making some again. But then remember my 'necessity' ? ;-)

I was so very glad when I found a unique and healthy recipe for Oatmeal Banana Pancakes topped with Chocolate chips, and its so easy to make, all you need is a blender or mixer grinder, and of course the ingredients :-) These pancakes require no flour, no sugar , Only 'Oats and Bananas' and is totally healthy , except for the guilty pleasure of some chocolate chips!!

Another thing that was occupying space in my fridge were 5-6 lovely large strawberries, and I decided instead of topping my pancakes with honey or other sugary syrups, I would make a yummy Strawberry sauce or compote and trust me, it was the best decision ever made...period!! It turned out to be the perfect pairing for these pancakes with all its fruity goodness!

This recipe yielded about 5-6 pancakes, quite enough for the 3 of us. Double the amount if you want more.

Oatmeal, Banana n Chocolate chip Pancakes Recipe 
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Recipe source : Adapted from Tasty Kitchen Blog
You'll need
Ripe Bananas - 2 medium (cut into chunks)
Milk - 3/4 cup ( I used skim milk , you can use as per preference)
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
Oats - 1 heaped cup (can use Old fashioned Oats or 1 minute cooking Oats)
Baking powder - 11/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Chocolate chips - 2 tblsp (optional)

Directions
1. In a mixer grinder or blender, add the banana , milk and vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
2. Add the oats, baking powder and salt and again blend until the oats is fully grinded and a smooth batter is obtained. Set aside for few minutes for batter to thicken.

3. Heat a non-stick tawa/pan on medium heat with lightly coated oil or butter (i use spray on canola oil) and pour about 1/4 cup measure of the batter and spread it lightly.
4. Place 4-5 chcolate chips on top of the pancake and cook until you see bubbles. Then flip over and cook until golden brown on the bottom (about 2 mins each side)

[ You may wipe the pan each time before making next set of pancakes , as the chocolate would have melted and may be present on the pan surface ]

Strawberry Compote / Strawberry Sauce Recipe
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Recipe : My own version
You'll need
Large ripe Strawberries - 5-6
Water - 2 tblsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Directions
1. Wash well and chop the strawberries into small chunks and add it to a saucepan along with water and sugar and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Keep stirring constantly.
2. Once the sauce starts bubbling and thickening slightly add the vanilla extract and again stir for a minute and take it off the heat.
3. Let it cool completely before using!

The Pancakes were really soft and the bananas added a lot of flavor and enough sweetness and the Oatmeal obviously added a lot of fiber and goodness. The chocolate chips obviously took them to a higher level...hehe! I made 2 pancakes without any chocolate chips and they tasted great too.

So shall we dig in...? Slice them up , like you would slice a cake :-) Look how the chocolate chips have melted so nicely...

 And pour some of that delicious Strawberry sauce over it...mmmmmm!!

Overall experience : Almost like having a Banana Split for breakfast!! Trust me, after all it is Bananas, Strawberries and Chocolate!!! It's a combination made in heaven...

I hope you enjoyed them and will try them out. Its so simple, with all staple pantry ingredients, you must try it...and do let me know how it came out :-)

Another recipe I made with one of the Banana was Banana Pongal, which was again super good. Now for the remaining 6 bananas I'm considering to make Banana bread...but with a fun twist, so stay tuned!

-Manju

Sarkara Pongal & Banana Pongal....Happy Pongal everyone!

Happy Pongal and Makar Sankranthi to all who celebrate (although it may be a belated wish now) :-)
In the south of India, Pongal/Makara Sankranti is a harvest festival. Some of the items made with the newly harvested rice is various kinds of Pongal. Know more about the festival Pongal from here.

The special recipe I tried today for Pongal is Sweet Pongal ;-) Infact all the other lovely blogs out there (who posted some yummy Pongal recipes) literally made me crave insanely to have some sweet Pongal today. So all day in office today, I waited to get back home and immediately jump into making some Sweet Pongal.

And the result was instant success, Appu and I couldn't stop licking our spoons. Manish came home late and was so happy to get some yummy Pongal waiting for him and he finished the whole thing :-)
I made a simple Sarkara Pongal (prepared with Jaggery) and divided it and added some mashed banana into one half and made Banana Pongal too :-) The banana pongal was an instant hit with Appu, who ate a full bowl happily!

My pics are not so great as I took it when it was really dark outside, but this recipe is for keeps for sure!! It was super duper easy and everything was prepared within half an hour.

Sarkara Pongal

Sarkara Pongal Recipe
Recipe Source: Rak's Kitchen

You'll need
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - 2-3 tblsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (I used 5 cubes)
Water - 2 & 1/2 cups
Ghee - 3 tblsp
Salt - a pinch
Whole Cardamom (Elaichi) - 4
Dry Ginger powder - 1/4 tsp
Cashews - About 5-8 (halved)
Raisins - 1-2 tblsp
Oil/Ghee - for frying the nuts

Directions
1. In a pressure cooker, add 1 tblsp Ghee and roast the moong dal until mild brown and fragrant.
2. Wash the rice, and add the rice with 21/2 cups water into the cooker, cover and cook for 5-6 whistles. Turn off the heat and let it stand until cooled down. Once cooled open the cooker and mash the rice well.
3. Powder the jaggery and add it to a saucepan with just enough water to cover the jaggery and heat it until all the jaggery melts.
4. Crush the whole Cardamom pods. Add the crushed Elaichi and Ginger powder to the melted jaggery. Heat it again until the spices gets mixed well.
5. Strain the melted jaggery and add it to the mashed rice. Mix well and cook again on medium flame for 2-3 minutes adding the remaining 2 tblsp ghee little at a time. (If the pongal starts becoming too dry add some water or milk)
6. Lastly fry the Raisins and Cashew Nuts in some ghee or oil and add it to the Sarkara Pongal. Enjoy sweet and delicious Pongal warm!

If you have been following me on Facebook, you might have known of my basket filled with 9 over-ripe banana's :-)

I had asked for suggestions to my lovely readers as to what I should do with them. I got several lovely ideas , even a hair care technique. Check out the suggestions here.
Last Sunday I used 2 of them to make Oatmeal Banana Pancakes (i'll post it soon). And today I used another one to make Banana Pongal with half of the Sarkara Pongal I prepared above....and it was so so good!

Banana Pongal

Banana Pongal Recipe
Prepare Sarkara Pongal as described above. Mash 1 large ripe Banana with a fork and add about 5-6 heaped tablespoons of Sarakara pongal to it and mix well. Garnish with nuts and raisins.

The Banana Pongal was so creamy and sweet and my little guy simply loved it. As you can see he gobbled down spoonfuls and asks for more ;-)

So I hope you all will enjoy some delicious pongal by trying this out! See you all soon...

-Manju

Buttermilk Pancakes

Who loves Pancakes, raise your hands? ;-) Well my family surely loves it and its an occasional treat we treat ourselves to when we get bored of the usual Idly n Dosa n Upama etc for breakfast. And I've never made pancakes from a box mix ever and I'm pretty proud of that. ;-)

Pancakes are really easy to make from scratch! I usually always make whole wheat pancakes, but as I was out of whole wheat flour I made these with all-purpose flour. I had some buttermilk in the fridge, and I thought I'd put it up to good use ;-)

Buttermilk pancakes are so flavorful, soft and spongy and totally melt in your mouth delish!
My favorite part of eating pancakes are the different toppings...It could be fruits, jam, honey, maple syrup, chocolate syrup...yumm!! Savory options are available too, but I haven't tried any yet, so more on that later.

We enjoyed these beauties with some banana slices, strawberries and Orange marmalade....of course I drizzled some honey too on top of mine...

My little guy happily had a whole pancake topped with honey!

This recipe yields about 8-10 pancakes of 4"diameter (approx).

Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe
Recipe source : AllRecipes.com
You'll need
All purpose flour - 1 ½ cups
Baking powder - 3 ½ tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tblsp
Buttermilk - 1 ¼ cups 
Butter - 3 tblsp (melted)
Egg - 1
Milk - 2 tblsp (optional)

Directions

1. In a bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, baking powder , sugar and salt.
2. Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk, melted butter and egg and mix well until the batter almost resembles cake batter. (If the batter is very thick, add 1 tblsp of milk at a time and loosen the batter)

3. Heat a non-stick pan/girdle on medium heat and lightly oil it.
4. Pour approx a ¼ cup of batter on to the pan and lightly tap it to spread it to around 4" diameter.
5. Brown slightly on both sides and serve hot with delicious toppings!!

I've tried this recipe several times and it has never failed me. Original recipe calls for Milk, I've substituted that with Buttermilk, still tastes great! So what are you gonna drizzle over your batch of pancakes? ;-)

Ahem...it was pretty difficult to get that above shot, balancing a huge honey jar on my left hand and heavy DSLR on my right, but I guess it came out ok...what do you think?  ;-)

-Manju

Red Radish Rasam...a healthy Hot n Sour soup Indian style !

Rasam is a very popular tangy-spicy soup like dish eaten with plain rice specially in sourthern parts of India. I know that at my husband's house, its a staple dish. I personally enjoy eating it with some rice and yogurt.

Very easy to prepare, with all healthy ingredients. You could just drink it as a simple soup. Its the best medicine when you have a sore throat , the tangy tamarind water and the heat from the corriander and peppercorns, really soothes your throat.

But inspite of saying all this, I've hardly ever made Rasam at home. No real reason why, I just never remember to :-)

These days the climate is obviously chilly and there's nothing better than something warm and spicy and tongue tickling right? There are so many different kinds of Rasam, like Tomato Rasam, Pineapple rasam, Moong dal rasam etc etc, its quite endless. I've just done a simple Tomato rasam the same way my MIL prepares but modified a little!

I included Red Radishes (something that I always have in my fridge). I love the mild peppery taste it provides and it becomes quite soft yet has a mild bite to it once cooked. Radishes are very healthy too and one of my favorite reason to eat them (raw or cooked)  are - they help in weight loss ;-) 

Here's some good info on health benefits of Radish.

This platter above was what we had for lunch the other day...it was hearty , healthy and filling! The rasam was very flavorful, tangy and mildly spicy and went really well with Kerala brown rice and some Turnip greens pachadi with some pickle and papad, lipsmacking good!! You might wanna stir the rasam before serving as all the peppery goodness will settle to the bottom :-)

Isn't it weird how some of my recipes turn up with these unique abbreviations like CCC for my Citrus Checkerboard Cake and now RRR for Red Radish Rasam...LOL! ;-) Now on to my recipe!

Red Radish Rasam Recipe
You'll need
Red Radishes - 5-6 (washed and thinly sliced)
Whole corriander seeds - 2 tblsp
Whole Peppercorns - 2 tblsp
Dry Red chillies  - 3-4
Garlic cloves - 3-4
Tomato - 2 medium (cut into small cubes)
Tumeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Rasam powder - 1 tsp (optional for taste)
Tamarind water - 1 cup (If using Tamarind pulp - add 2-3 tblsp pulp to 1 cup water)
Water - 1 or 2 cups (use as required)
Oil - 1 or 2 tblsp
Chopped Corriander leaves - for garnish
Salt - to taste

Directions:
1. Using a mortar pestle , grind the corriander seeds and peppercorns coarsely.

2. Again using the mortal pestle, crush the garlic cloves.
3. Heat oil in a kadai and add the ground corriander seeds, peppercorns, dry Red Chillies and garlic cloves and saute on medium heat for few minutes. (Another method is to dry roast the whole corriander seeds, peppercorns and Dry red Chillies and then grind them to a paste with some water and then add this paste in the oil and saute with garlic.)
4. Add the tomato and cover and cook until the tomato has softened, then mash the tomato into a pulp.

5. Add the sliced Turnips, Tamarind water Turmeric powder , Rasam powder (optional), Salt  and some extra water if you prefer and let it come to a boil

6. Finally turn off the heat, garnish with some Corriander leaves and serve Hot!

I always prefer to just drink the Rasam as a soup :-) So I just kept aside a glass all for myself. The warmth from the corriander, peppercorns and chilly and the mild tang from the tomato & tamarind wa, the lovely flavor from the Garlic...mmmm, there's nothing that you won't like about this soup :-). 

I'm sure many of you prepare Rasam at home, why don't you share your preparation styles? It would be great for me as well as others to know. Either leave a comment here or else at my facebook page. Let's talk Rasam :-) Thanks in advance :-)

-Manju

Mathanga Erisherry (Pumpkin cooked in Coconut Sauce)

On to my first recipe for the New Year, its my most favorite dish. Something that I grew up eating a lot and now prepare a lot at home. A very authentic Keralite dish , Mathanga Erisherry (Pumpkin cooked in Coconut Sauce). It is usually a must have dish on a Kerala sadhya menu be it for Onam, Vishu or weddings!

I don't really recollect if it was my fav dish as a child, but I knew that I created no fuss about eating it whenever my mom made it at home. After marriage this was the first dish I ever learnt to make successfully...and the success was so great that I prepared it ever too often!
Everytime my mother-in-law calls , I would tell her we had Pumpkin currry and beetroot thoran or Pumpkin curry and fish fry or pumpkin curry and blah blah...Hehe!! Even now, whenever we call home, my father-in-law would ask, "Manju innu mathanga onnum ondakiyille?" (Din't Manju prepare Pumpkin today?)
It became so popular at home that both my sis-in-laws have become quite fond of the dish themselves and almost always makes it when we visit them :-)

Another really funny incident that happened was, earlier Manish and I used to work in the same area in downtown Minneapolis, so we would often have lunch together. There are plenty of spots on the skyway where you can take a seat and have lunch. One such day, I had packed up some Rice with Pumpkin Erissery. And among the several people who were passing by with their store bought lunches, this one particular lady goes past us twice and later comes up to us and asks, "Where did you buy that lunch from?" I told her that it was homemade and instantly she became so Red (either she was blushing or she felt weird for asking us) and told us "Oh ok, Its smelt so delicious that it was making my mouth water. So I just had to ask!" and she literally rushed away.
Can you imagine Manish and my astonishment :-D I was on Cloud 9! My simple Mathanga Erisherry caused such an impact...I will never forget that incident , well would you? :-)

I usually buy Pumpkin from the Indian stores here, where its usually cut up into triangular wedges and plastic wrapped. For today's recipe I tried Butternut Squash and it tasted just the same.

Mathanga Erissery (Kerala style Pumpkin curry) Recipe
Recipe Source : My mom
You'll need
Pumpkin / ButternutSquash (Cubed) - about 2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp ( I add 1 tsp for more spice)
Salt - to taste
For coconut sauce:
Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup ( I use 1/2 cup dry coconut powder)
Shallots (small pearl onions) - 2-3
Garlic clove - 1
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
For tempering:
Oil - 2-3 tblsp
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Dry Red Chiilies - 2-3
Curry leaves - about 5-8 leaves
Grated Coconut - 2 tblsp (or use Roasted coconut powder)

Directions
1. Wash and take off the thick skin of the pumpkin/butternut squash and cut them into small cubes.

2. In a kadai/saucepan add the water, chopped Pumpkin, Turmeric and Red chilli powder and season with salt. Cover with a lid and let it cook until soft and tender.
3. Using a potato masher, mash the pumpkin. (leave chunks if you prefer)

4. Grind together all ingredients for the coconut sauce with 1/2 cup water.
5. Reduce the heat of the mashed pumpkin, and add the coconut sauce and stir until the curry bubbles and take off the heat. ( Add more water if the erissery is too thick)

6. In another frying pan, heat oil and crack the mustard seeds & cumin seeds, add the grated coconut and roast until brown and finally add Dry red chillies and Curry leaves.

7. Pour this over the pumpkin erissery and stir. Check for seasoning!

Its a sweet yet savory dish. Sweet from the pumpkin and savory due to the mild spices we've added in the dish. I used to initially prepare it without the Garlic, and it tasted just as good to me :-)

My MIL usually adds some cooked lentils (mostly the green or red moong) along with the pumpkin. That tastes great too. I will try to do a post on that when I make it..
My mom usually adds crushed raw mustard seeds too, but I skipped that step.
This recipe is my mom's version, from the very precious collection she hand wrote to me before my marriage, b'coz I knew nothing about cooking before then. Read about it in my 'About Cooking and Me!' page :-)

My favorite combo is to have Pumpkin Erissery with plain white rice, some spicy Indian Mango/Lemon pickle and some cool Yogurt , with papad for some crunch...Now wasn't that a mouthwatering combo!

I was quite surprised when I learnt that some of my non-Keralite friends had never cooked with Pumpkin before...so hopefully this post would be a good reason for you to try it out and I hope you'll all like it! :-)

-Manju

Best of 2012 ... in a 'snap'shot :-)

On behalf of MED and my family, I want to wish you all a very very Happy New Year !!! Hope you had a great start of the year and is awaiting a lovely year ahead. We had a lovely New Years eve party at a friends home and we ate and danced and had a gala time! :-)
You all have been so good to me last year, supporting and encouraging me during my first year as a blogger and I'm still having the same excitement as I had when I just started blogging. And I sincerely hope I can do justice to this blog this year as well and fill up MED with lots of lovely recipes and events from our life!

Before 2013 begins in full swing I wanted to take a moment to show you some of your favorite recipes and posts on MED. So instead of doing a regular recipe post today, I thought I'd share with you all 'The Best of 2012' (popular by readers choice). I've classified them as Savory , Desserts/Cakes and most popular Non-recipe post(s) . Enjoy :-)

Most popular Savory dishes on MED
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Spicy Tuna Fish Cutlets

Crispy Veggie Samosa               


PaalAppam          

Fish Biriyani

Chenda Kappa with Ulli-Mulakku Chammanthi

Shrimp Dry Roast

Most popular Desserts/Cakes on MED
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ChakkaKumbilappam (Jackfruit dumplings)

Yogurt Panacotta with Strawberry Jelly

Charlotte Royale

Baby Crib Cake

Red Velvet Graduation Cupcakes

Mocha Cake with Mocha cream

Most Popular Non-Recipe Posts on MED
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A Rainbow Birthday Party...Manav turns 1!!

Our Valentines Day Candle light Dinner

Hope you all enjoyed these dishes and posts as much as I enjoyed putting them together. Once again Happy New Year to one and all!!! And see you all again with more yummy recipes :-)

-Manju