Pages

Friday, August 1, 2014

Bhaat(Rice) na Muthiya

We used to make this muthiya at my mom's house with leftover rice. I haven't had this since I got married and moved to Settle. I had never made this before, but I had some leftover rice at home, and instantly remembered this muthiya. I made it this morning to take to work for my lunch. This is how I made it.

Ingredients: (Serves 1)
1/2 Cup Leftover Rice (We use short grain brown rice at home, so that is what I used for this muthiya)
4 Tablespoon Besan (Gram Flour),
Salt, To Taste,
1 Teaspoon Red Chili Powder,
1/4 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1 Teaspoon Kasuri Methi, Coarsely Crushed

Tempering:
1 Tablespoon Oil,
1/2 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1/2 Teaspoon Cumin Sees
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Seeds
1 Pinch Asafoetida

Method:
Loosen, and break the rice with the help of a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Divide the mixture into 2 and make oblong shaped muthiya out of that.

Heat water in a steamer. Grease the steamer tray, and put the muthiya in the tray. Cover and steam on high flame for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted to the center of the muthiya comes out clean. Take off of the stove. Take out the steamer tray and let it cool completely. When the muthiyas have cooled down cut them into 1.5 to 2 inch thick pieces.

Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds stop to splutter, add the sesame seeds and cumin seeds. Wait for 10 seconds, then add the asafoetida. Immediately add the cut muthiya. Stir to coat the muthiyas with the tempering. Cook on medium flame for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Take off of the stove. Serve with chutney or ketchup.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would love to hear from you. I appreciate your time to leave feedback and help me improve this blog.

Blueberry Muffins

Its summer time here, that means time for all the fun activities. This week I took my daughter to a farm for picking Blueberries. She loves to pick the berries from the plants. A lot of berry farmers here let you pick the crop on your own. This way, they save on the labor, and in return, you get to keep the fruits you pick at a very minimal price. Sometimes at 1/4th of the price you would get them at store. We reached the farm about 40 minutes before its closing time, so we couldn't pick a lot. We picked about a pint and paid 95 cents for the organic berries. I would have paid about $2.50 at the store for the same berries.

Since we had freshly picked organic blueberries, we had to use them up soon. I made Blueberry Orange muffins with them. I saved some for making pancakes later this week. My daughter loves to help me out when I bake. She likes to mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir them:). She will wait eagerly near the oven and ask me every five minutes if the food we put in the oven is done.  So, she was very excited about making the muffins. Since I was making this mainly for my daughter, I didn't want to make it solely with all purpose flour, so I used half all purpose flour, and half whole wheat flour.

Here is the recipe (Makes 10 Mini Muffins)
Ingredients:
3/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Heaping Cup Fresh/Frozen Blueberries (I used fresh)
1 Cup Orange Juice (You can use 1 cup milk with you don't want orange flavor)
2 Tablespoon Cold butter
3/4 Cup Sugar,
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar (Optional, for Garnishing)
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Method:
Heat the oven to 360 degrees F. In a bowl, combine the flours and sugar. Grate the cold butter with the help of a grater, and add to the flour mixture. Mix well. Now add the blueberries, orange juice, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir to combine everything well. The batter should be thick.

Srishti Sprinkling Sugar
Grease a muffin pan with nonstick spray, or line them with cupcake liners (I used mini cupcake liners). With the help of an ice cream scoop, scoop out 1 heaping scoop of the batter to each liner. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on top of the unbaked muffins. Transfer the muffin tin to the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted to the center of the muffin comes out clean. It took 25 minutes to be fully cooked in my oven.

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool completely before taking out of the pan.

It was very hard to keep my 3.5 years away from the tin while it was cooling down. She forced me to take out a muffin as soon as it was warm enough for her to handle and eat:).

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would love to hear from you. I appreciate your time to leave feedback and help me improve this blog.