Varada's Kitchen and Garden

Soba Noodles made with 100% buckwheat are one of the healthier noodles available in the grocery store. They are very flavorful and need very few additives to turn them into a flavorful dish. Today I have a very simple dish with a handful of ingredients. You could add stir fry vegetables if you wanted a more substantial meal. You will need 8 oz. packet soba noodles (100% buckwheat) 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar 1 tbsp. soy sauce (if you like the taste of soy you could add upto another tablespoon) 1 tbsp. sesame oil 2 tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste For the topping 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds 2 tbsp. cilantro, diced 2 springs spring onions, chopped (optional) Cook the soba noodles as per packet instructions. Drain and wash with cold water. Keep aside. In a bowl combine all the other ingredients. Mix in the cooked soba noodles and the topping. Serve immediately.

The simplest of all stuffed poli is batatyachi poli. Cilantro and spices are added to boiled, mashed potato and used as the filling. You will need For the dough for 12 2 1/2 cups wheat flour For the filling 2 medium potatoes, pressure cooked or boiled handful cilantro, chopped 1 Serrano pepper, deseeded and minced 2 tbsp. onion, chopped (onion) 1 tsp. turmeric powder 1 tsp. cumin powder 1 tsp. paprika 1 tbsp. lemon juice salt to taste Pressure cook the potatoes for 10 minutes or boil them until well done. Meanwhile using water for a dough with the wheat flour. Pour a few drops of oil on the palm of your hand and knead the dough well. Keep aside. Mash the potatoes and all the other ingredients. Mix until just combined and keep aside. Do not over do it or the potatoes will become slimy and sticky. Divide into 12 portions and keep aside. Heat a griddle pan. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Take one portion and roll it into a ball. Flatten it on the pa

Red Lentil Soup is the Turkish version of the stone soup. It is made up of ingredients typically found in the pantry of a Turkish home. I had most of the ingredients except bulgur in my pantry. This delicious soup is flavored with red pepper paste and tomato paste. To make the red pepper paste I used red bell pepper as I could not find red banana pepper. The authentic recipe calls for the pepper to be cooked in water, peeled, de-seeded and then the pulp cooked to a paste. I roasted the pepper and covered it in aluminum foil for 15 minutes. The skin peeled right off the pepper. I then removed the seeds, cut it into pieces and ran it through the blender. As for tomato paste I had a can of organic tomato paste but it smelled of citric acid so I pureed a handful of cherry tomatoes. Recipe adapted from  here You will need 1/2 onion, diced 1 clove garlic, minced 2 tbsp. olive oil 1/2 cup red lentils 2 tbsp. rice 8 cups water 2 tbsp. red pepper paste 2 tbsp. tomato paste 1

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge took us on a trip to beautiful Brazil! Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! taught us how to make Pao De Queijo, tasty cheese buns that make the perfect snack or treat, and that will make your taste buds samba! I had never heard of this treat prior to the challenge. I had seen tapioca powder in Whole Foods before but had never bought it. The only other pure starch recipe I had tried is dudali a dessert made with arrowroot powder. Pao de Queijo is a tea time snack popular in Brazil. It is light and fluffy light a cheese puff and a lot more flavorful. One is never enough! I bought barely two cups of the tapioca powder. I decided to cut the recipe in half. Normally I copy the ingredient list, cut each one by half and then follow this new list. Since there were only a handful of ingredients I did not do this. Unfortunately, I forgot to cut the milk by half and added a whole cup. I realized what I had done only when I had added i

I have heard a lot about foolproof dhokla recipes. I have one such such recipe. It uses baking soda. Then I heard that using Eno, an antacid, gives better results. Since then dhokla with Eno was on my wishlist. I do not have step by step pictures for this one. I tweaked the recipe a little. You will need For the dough 1 cup channa dal 1/2 cup mung/moong dal 3 tbsp. sour yogurt (I used sour cream as I ran out of yogurt) 1 tsp. ginger paste 1 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. turmeric powder 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. Eno salt to taste For the tempering 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 tsp. mustard seeds 1 tsp. white sesame seeds a pinch turmeric powder 4-5 curry leaves 1 green chili pepper (optional) For the garnish 2 tsp. sugar dissolved in 3 tbsp. of water 2-3 tbsp. fresh grated coconut (I used frozen) 2-3 tbsp. cilantro, chopped 1 tbsp. olive oil Soak the channa dal and moong dal separately for about 3 hours. In a blender add the ginger paste and yogurt. Drain the water f

I had never heard of papad parathas until last month. PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds posted this recipe and I knew I had to try them. My family enjoys parathas and I am always trying new ones. These parathas did not disappoint. I tweaked the recipe a little based on what I had on hand. When it comes to papad we all enjoy the flavor of garlic papad and when I go grocery shopping I make it a point to buy garlic papad. For some reason when my husband goes shopping for papad he can never find the garlic flavor. He usually brings plain and he usually brings at least a couple of packets. Nobody likes them. I am glad I found this recipe so I can use them all up. Since the original recipe called for masala papad I added cumin coriander powder and paprika to make up for the taste. Next time I will add black pepper or crushed peppercorns. You will need For the dough 2 cups whole wheat chapati flour water as needed For the filling 4 papads (I used 1 garlic and 3 plain) 1/2 onion, diced

Tangy and spicy tomato chutney can be used as an accompaniment to a lot of different dishes. There are so many variations of this chutney. I have already posted two variations a basic tomato chutney and a tomato chutney with peanuts . But I could not resist the temptation of trying this Chettinad Tomato Chutney after I saw it last month on Usha's blog My Spicy Kitchen. This chutney uses tamarind and chilies and is fairly easy to put together. You will need 1/2 onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, shelled and minced 1 tbsp. channa dal 2 tbsp. oil 3 Roma tomatoes or 2 salad tomatoes, chopped 2 tsp. paprika salt to taste 1 tsp. tamarind paste For the tempering 3 tbsp. oil 1 dry red chili pepper 1 tsp. mustard seeds 1/4 tsp. asafoetida 3-4 curry leaves Heat oil in a pan and saute the onions, garlic and channa dal until soft and slightly brown. Add the tomatoes, paprika and salt to taste. Cook until the tomatoes are mushy. In a blender combine the cooked tomat

This month for the group We Knead to Bake we baked this petit pain au lait. The recipe provided used commercial yeast but I wanted to use my wild yeast starter. So I converted the recipe to accommodate the starter. Look here for help converting your recipe. The slow fermentation allowed the flavors to develop. The end result was a lovely flavorful bread, light and delicious. The first thing I did was to find the weight measure equivalent of the provided recipe. Luckily for me the link provided in the recipe had the link to the original recipe that used weight measure. Once I had that I used basic rules to do the conversion. The proportion of starter I added was 40% of the total flour. Based on the total grams of starter I then calculated the grams of flour and water in the stater. I subtracted these amounts from the flour and liquid (in this case milk) amounts in the recipe. This resulted in a dough with texture that was similar to that expected from the original recipe. Wide

You found a recipe you want to try but it calls for commercial yeast. You want to use your carefully maintained sourdough starter. Read on for instructions on how to convert from one to the other. Pain au lait (picture below) was the first bread I baked after using this conversion process. Some instructions ask to replace 1/2 cup of flour with the starter. This is not very accurate and will lead to problems if you are a novice baker. The hydration level of the starter could wreak havoc with the recipe. A high hydration starter could lead to a very wet dough and a low hydration starter could lead to a dry one. A newly fed starter will work very differently from an unfed one. To avoid these problems stick to weights. Conversion process You need to know % of hydration of your starter - given a quantity how much water and flour the starter contains. Find the total amount of flour by weight used in your recipe. Calculate 40% of this amount (multiple by 0.4). That is be the amount

Makki roti or Corn roti is a classic Punjabi winter roti or flatbread. It tastes a lot like corn tortilla. Makki roti with sarso ka saag (mustard green curry) is a very popular combination. I have always wanted to try makki di roti but I was worried about ensuring it is cooked through. As it turned out that was not a problem. Keeping the dough moist enough to make the flat bread was an issue. You will need 2 cups corn flour (use Masa or Bob Miller) 1/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp.salt Mix all the ingredients and using warm water knead into a soft dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Heat a pan griddle. Knead the dough again and divide into lemon sized balls. Using a little water on your hand knead one ball of dough until it is soft. Flatten it on the palm of your hand as far as it will go. Place it on a plastic sheet and continue flattening it with your palm until you have a relatively thin roti. Place the roti on the hot griddle and let it cook for a couple m