Eating Health - bagelwich. EASY! EASY! EASY!

Eating healthy is on everybody's mind. No one wants to eat unhealthy, but at the same time ... we don't want to eat food that the pallet does not approve. When we think about healthy, we usually think of sad food... I love colorful food and try to put as much color on my plate. Healthy food is actually happy food.

This is an easy recipe  meal...way to easy, fresh produce, cream cheese (store bought). the only thing I made was beet-cranberry relish for vegan lovers.

Beet-Cranberry Relish

1 cup granted beet
1 cup cranberry
2 green chilies
2 tbsp finely cut ginger
3 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste.

Heat oil, add all the ingredients and let it cook till cranberry is nice and soft, add salt. After it has cooled, store in airtight container. Stays good for a month.

Masala Burgers - The Indian Way

I have a confession to make, I am really not kidding, seriously. Remember the short story I was writing... (if you don't know about it...you did not miss much, you can skip this part) I'm literally loosing sleep over the story. I have no idea what happens next and seriously, I am NO writer...I think that is my waterloo. Can we just pretend that I never wrote that story. I have not posted in the last two weeks and the reason is not because I have not curated content for the blog, I have had a writer's block, not now ....but ever since I have learnt to write. I should have never ever tried to write.... Phew ! I said it and it feels so much better. So, can we just move on, till I get a bright idea and continue with the story. For now, it's causing me stress :(

Well my dear husband told me or rather warned me, but I love to rebel...

 

Social Media was buzzing with posts on woman's day (yesterday). Do we have to really prove how strong we are... What really is the point of woman's day ?

Veggie Masala Burgers

Picnic season is here, perfect mini masala burgers ….they are tiny, delicious and easy to put together. Vegetable cutlet layered with spiced up paneer and a vegan option too ….yumminess !

Picnics… eating outdoors..  warm summer afternoons or preferably…starry summer nights. Gazing into the sky….walking bearfoot on dewy grass…picking flowers… !! I could live that life everyday of the year. And yes the ice cream trucks…. !! Ohhhh it's just a perfect picture of a perfect day. Come to think of it,  real pleasures of life don't need  much...it's often the small things that do not cost much, that gives us the most pleasure. To experience a sunset in silence, to wake up to birds chirruping…

I read a beautiful quote that a friend sent me.... I love to walk, but this is a different kind of walking.

Walking is great for you ....

walk away from arguments that lead nowhere but anger,
walk away from people who put you down,
walk away from anything that reduces your worth,
walk away from fears that stiffle your dreams,
walk away from people who don't mean well.

Take a step towards happiness.

I have put this on my vision board.... We don't realize how vulerable we are to negativity, till we walk away.  As adults we feel we are insulated to deal with a lot, not really. Life is too short to deal with drama. Except if you are chasing the dramatic light with your camera ...

It's strange once you walk away from negativity,  your door opens and floods with positivity. I think the strength lies in the self, we just don't see it, till we make room for it.

Veggie Masala Burgers (recipe) 

If only I can style a burger like professional stylists…I just don't have the patience. Burger styling is an art I don't posses lol!  But imagine…bitting into that juicy thing… !! 

Avocado Paratha with tomato-prune chutney

Avocado Flat breads

This is going to be a picture heavy post. I have not blogged a recipe in the last two weeks so my hands were really itching to create something, on set with camera and in the kitchen.

It was cold today (sigh!!!) and I was yearning to eat something warm and hearty - I had seen this recipe in the book - Pure vegetarian By Lakshmi. The book itself is absolutely spectacular, both images and recipes.  I will definitely be blogging about the book, but in a different post. The images using working hands are inspired from classical chiaroscuro painters, who have used rich textures and vibrant colors with deep contrasts, dating back to the time of Jusepe de Ribera, Gerrit Dou, Bigot and of course the master artist Rembrandt and many others. This kind of photography is popularly know as moody. A lot of photographers use actions shots with this concept. Thanks to all the artist who constantly inspire me. My Pinterest board has a lot of these moody action shots, that have inspired me to try this style with my own  creative flavor. Thanks to all the inspiring artist and Nik from A Brown Table. 

The flat bread or paratha is the softest paratha I have ever had and stays soft for 4-5 hours. It can definitely be made ahead of time.

I love to eat my parathas with chutneys and this one is my favorite. With home grown tomatoes, this was a real treat - yum !! Don’t my tomatoes look amazing.  ( home grown pride)

Two weeks away from blogging and I am struggling to write…I wanted to share so much with you guys and now am short of words. ..Well luckily am really not short of images and I kind of over did that. I had a hard time picking images for this post .



You will love the recipe!

Pesto Braided Bread

Yum

Spicy pesto bread - soft bread with delicious flavors. It’s vegan too. 

I am not an avid baker to say the least - most times I get a bit intimidated by the recipe. There are a lot of things left to fate when you are baking bread :) When I saw this recipe on Pinterest I was super excited with the simplicity of it. But…. I messed up. The yeast in the recipe was ‘active dry yeast’ and it is supposed to be activated in warm water with a tsp of sugar. Well, I do not know what I did …but the dough was flat. One hour…nothing happens, two…nothing,  it took me a little more than two hours to realize it’s not going anywhere.  I did mention I was a bread dummy. My Fb friends passed a verdict that I had killed the yeast, as the water was too hot. Yikes! Teen recommended that I chuck the ‘active dry yeast’ and use ‘platinum yeast’ (it does not need activation) instead and she was not willing to give me any guarantee. All she said was it has worked for me every time. She bakes a lot more than I do. So I took her word for it. I starred over, It did work life a breeze, thanks to teen.

As far as pesto was concerned, I was going with mint and garlic. I wanted Indian masala flavors and the pesto in the bread did not disappoint me. Rachel has used a basil pesto in the original recipe. So if you guys prefer that - here is the link to the recipe. I have used the recipe from her blog with a different pesto sauce. 

Between the bread dough disaster and my AC getting serviced, I had to go drop teen. So with everything going on, am surprised, I managed to take a few pictures. Minimum styling, I was really looking forward to a nicely styled shot. It gives me reason enough to bake another bread and style it with what I had in mind. 

Rava dosa from broken wheat.

Crunchy, crisp and flavorful, it melts in your mouth. Savory crepes or dosa made from broken wheat and rice. 

Pour some oil, heat the griddle and sprinkle some water on the hot griddle - perfect surface for dosas. 

Soaking in the sun is probably my recipe for nourishment of my soul ....
As a child, youth and now an adult, warming my ever so cold feet to the warmth of the sun is soul filling. It’s so strange, loft philosophy, esoteric art, poetry,  … does not touch my soul like the light from the sun, playing hide and seek in the forest, glittering streams of water…deep blue skies, the smell of freshly cut grass and buzzing of the bees. I am so ready to welcome spring with my arms wide open. 

This has been a good year so far in terms of the blog and photography. I am digging the creative journey.  I am not pushing myself, I am not sure if this is a good thing but it’s making me creatively more aware. I spend a lot of time wandering around trails and waiting for spring to sprout. I watch the rain pour down on my window and enjoy the water drops slipping on the glass and trickling down. The dark rainy April evenings followed by bright blue skies the next day…it’s all so beautiful. Sometimes, I consciously make an effort not to cary my camera, so I can soak the moment. Hopefully to carry that energy back to my kitchen to create something on my gas stove or with my camera and if I am lucky both.

I shared ‘A life of Spice’ with Andrew Scrivani (you guys know I am a HUGE fan of his work) and here is what he had to say. I am absolutely ecstatic and literally dancing …


It is clear that Simi's influences, both cultural and artistic shine though her photographs. The richness of color, the dynamic range of light to dark and the recognition of the beauty and simplicity of her subject matter speak to her artistry. Her work embodies the less is more mantra. 

-Andrew Scrivani 

Kimberly - The Hungry Goddess and Sara  invited me over for a podcast. It’s an informal chat about food photography, and we girls had a blast, if you want to listen to the recording click here. I share few tips on food photography. We are planning to do another podcast on spices - stay tuned. Thank you so much Kimberly and Sara for having me over.

This is a picture heavy post, I really got carried away…

Homemade pita bread with spicy panner

I just cannot believe that it has more than a week since I blogged. Time seems to be slipping through my fingers like sand. Last week was rather hectic with back to back photography assignments. It was fun, but when you are cooking, styling and photography all in one, it becomes rather taxing. I really love the process, but I tend to overdo it by obsessing about the smallest details. And let’s not even start talking about the clean up….there was a time when, I would clean while cooking, so clean up was not a stressful chore. I remember all my spices and daals, well almost all the ingredients in my kitchen were labeled and neatly stacked. If you see me working now, seriously, it is not the same person, you will see stuff on every inch of the counter space and strangely I am more productive than I ever was. It started as a one off thing and over the months it has become a habit. Its something I need to address this year. Will see how that goes ;)

It has been a while since teen has been asking me to bake pita at home. I sincerely thought it was a long drawn process and was keeping the baking  for a relaxed weekend. This bread is so easy that I feel rather stupid waiting for a weekend to bake this. This is THE quickest bread I have ever made and I just love the soft fluffy texture. I can eat this without filling, just with hummus. If you are looking for a hummus recipe, click here.

Homemade pizza crust

This week has been exceptionally cold, if you are following me on Facebook  I am sure you have heard me rant about the brutal cold. I did accomplish a lot this week and am surprised at myself, finally I cleaned up all my folders and millions of photographers that I keep taking. It was a mammoth task and at the end of it I look like a raccoon, staring at the computer screen for so long. I feel like a zombie! Am so glad my teen baked a pizza and I took a break from all the filing work to go and take a few pictures. I was so relieved to go and do something creative.

The pizza break was even better, loved the pizza bread and all that cheesy goodness. It was the best homemade pizza ever the pizza bread is to die for. Teen wanted to bake this during her winter break but then we were to loaded with food and gave ourselves a break. Am glad she had an extended break and we got to eat this.

Cheesy Garlicky Pull Apart Bread

I can’t believe it is going to be Christmas even tomorrow. I have be working on getting the house in order and baking some cookies while sipping some mulled wine. With all that work and prep, we wanted to have something light for dinner so I decided to make some soup with some ready bread and olive oil, trying to save some extra calories to munch and overload the next few days. Teen wanted to bake some cheesy garlic bread that she had pinned  for a while, every time she wanted to bake this, I said next time. I wonder why we did not bake this earlier, ( am sure teen is going to say, I told you so) this is sinful, absolutely sinful, loved every cheesy garlicky bite. So much for a low cal dinner :) well it is that time of the year. Am glad teen baked it, loved the flavors and can’t wait to try different variations.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Am looking forward to a wonderful 2015 and wish you guys the same.

Indian Flat Bread - Kulcha

The smell of fresh flour roasting in ghee on a cast-iron hot griddle is a childhood memory. I remember my mother sitting by the tele, kneading the dough and dad asking her what was the sabji/curry to go with the bread. These memories stir a strange kind of emotion in me. A part of me thankful to be born in a household where fresh food was the norm. On the other side my heart becomes nostalgic from memories of my childhood. Those were some of the most beautiful days of my life, went by too quickly.  My mother always made fresh flat bread every day and it was quite the norm when we were growing up. It still is in many Indian homes , I am glad as there is nothing better than fresh kulcha, parathas, naans or rotis from the griddle. I wish I had a count of how many I have eaten in my life time: am sure then run into hundreds. In Indian culture we never count when we eat, and now that I think of it, we do not have obesity as a burning issue in India.  Counting calories and watching what you eat, does it really help or is it more about fresh, pure, seasonal and home made? Something to think about. Am no expert, but somewhere I do believe it is not the amount or the calories, cook with love, sit together with family and enjoy what you eat, it truly fills you up in every aspect. After all life is just once and if you live it well once is enough.

 Oh! how I digress, from memories to calories to enjoying food at the table…

 Sophia, Ilva and me got together and thought about doing a post on ‘breads’ , something close to our heart.  I am the last to post, thanks to time zone. Here is Sophia’s daily bread and Ilva’s childhood story about bread.  I just loved the stories these girls have narrated and loved the photography even more.


It might get confusing with all the talk about Indian flat bread, so here is a little description of each kind.

Roti : A flat bread made of wheat flour and no stuffing. It is the everyday Indian bread. It could be made in a tandoor ( clay oven) or the gas stove.

Pulka : A softer and thinner version of the roti, it is rolled much thinner and is almost always made on stove top. Indian everyday flat bread.

Paratha : It is a stuffed roti. Stuffed with potatoes, paneer, nuts, beets, greens, peas, a lot of varieties. It is roasted in ghee.

Naan : is made from refined wheat flour : all purpose and is originally made in the tandoor,  you can also make it on the gas stove.

Kulcha : Is a stuffed nan, again it is made in a tandoor but can be also made on the gas stove like above.

Rumali rotti : Is a huge extremely think roti and is v v v soft and folds like a handkerchief, rumal in hindi means a handkerchief.

Puri : is made from whole wheat flour and is smaller than roti and a good puri is always fluffy. Could be flavored or plain

Kachori : is a stuffed puri

Bhature: is made from all purpose flour and is deep fried, it is almost always served with choley.

Christmas Roundup

It’s just that time of the year, where I can’t help but look back. What a year it’s been! There is so many different things I have tried this year, I surprise myself. I’ve made so many new contacts that have blossomed into friendship. I feel that I’m very lucky to be surrounded by such talented and helpful people. There is so much to learn and people are willing to hand-hold and teach you — it’s an amazing world we live in.  I am part of a few groups (photography and blogging), I also moderate a few of them, so if you guys are interested just message me on Facebook (my personal account or the blog page) or on google plus, and I will be more than happy to add you. It’s a great learning experience to be attached to these communities.  

What are your plans for the holidays — what’s on your menu?   Growing up we did celebrate Xmas but there was never a traditional meal. My mother would always bake a fruit and nut cake and there would be marvelous food that would vary every year. In some ways I have followed the same tradition, it is always something special, but not anything predetermined. I remember biking on cold and foggy December mornings, just before Christmas, visiting one of my teachers, just to eat her rum cake. The doors of her home would always be open, kids would pour in with flowers, cookies ’n cake and in turn she would give us  a generous helping of the most delicious rum cake. The taste still lingers, mingling with the faint smell of a bonfire, and feeling of the wind against me as I rode my bike through the curvy roads of Dehradun. Now it all seems like a distant dream. 

Alright, so I’m snapping out of this nostalgia. Phew! Back into the present with coffee, and that usually helps. Back into the sweet world of desserts. Even though I’ve never confessed it, I do have a sweet tooth and while planning the menu, I often plan the dessert first :) So here is my line up of a few of my favorites; I hope I have inspired you to bake one of these for the holidays. Do let me know if you did!  Merry Christmas to all of you. 

P.S. I still need grammar lessons, so if any one of you is willing to hand-hold me on that, I assure you some good food and we can start from there :) 

Ginger caramel tiramisu 

You can top it two ways, cinnamon and caramel with  candied ginger bits inside or just candied ginger and caramel. No baking, just assembly! Can it get easier than this :) Here is the link.

Orange spice cake with candied oranges 

If you are someone who enjoys fruit in their desserts you may want to click here.

Ginger Bread 

The gingerbread from my previous post is a classic. But if you want something dramatic and still stick with the ginger cake, David Lebovitz’s ginger cake is the right one for you.

Ginger cake

One of my favorites and a stunning piece of work is the Battenburg. It’s worth all the time you spend in the kitchen. I shall say no more. Click here. 

Battenburg cake 

If cake is not your thing and you prefer you have some more options here…

Coffee Panna Cotta 

Creamy rich coffee panna cotta,  with a wiped cream topping and some home made sugar art, can be made ahead of time and looks like you spend the whole day in the kitchen ;)

Pots de Crème is my all time favorite, I remember the first time we made it, we were licking the bowl ( actually every time)

Cookie exchange ? Here is my line up …

Hope you guys have a fantabulous holiday! Hugs!!

Old Fashioned Gingerbread

Super easy and packed with flavor is written all over this bread. Actually it’s more like a cake. It is not like the conventional bread, it’s a bread disguised as a cake. Not every dessert lives up to this reputation.  I still remember my last year’s soufflé  that fell apart. My nephew was visiting and he has quite a sweet tooth to say the least and you know ‘finally teen’ can live on dessert and honey, that might have been reason enough to try a new dessert, but it was also the holidays, so there was more than one reason to indulge. We were excited anticipating a French delicacy. I don’t know what went wrong, we had such terrible soufflé, it was probably, not probably but surely the worse thing I have ever made. So much so that even the name soufflé evokes very strong emotions lol! But fear not am not going to be baking an exotic delicacy, am going to stick to SIMPLE. This old fashioned gingerbread is easy and most of the ingredients are already in your pantry…almost as good as mix and bake. If you are going to go and buy the boxed ready version of this am going to personally come over and make you bake this… ! With a cup of coffee or mulled wine it is d e v i n e.  I did not just tell you that I made a meal out of this (sheepishly) 

James Beard's Persimmon Bread

A recipe by James Beard, on David Labovitz blog is something! No joke! A decade ago, I did not know what a persimmon was, I almost mistook it for an exotic tomato. (don't judge me people I was born in a tropical country) Thanks to finally teen's piano teacher, who introduced me to the world of persimmon. I was certainly missing something, it is one of my favorite fruits now.

Last week I got a lot of persimmon home, if am not mistaken I think it is the Fuyu and unlike the Hachiya, it can be eaten when firm.  I wanted to bake a dessert with persimmon and after going back and forth with cake, pudding, bars and bread, I found this recipe. As most of you will know I am a big fan of David, and it's a James Beard recipe. Duh! There was really nothing to think…I had all the ingredients, the outcome was amazing. we had it with coffee, we had it with mulled wine and we had it with maple syrup and crushed cloves. I did not change anything in the recipe. The amazing part of the recipe is that James Beard does not mention the exact amount of sugar for this recipe. David's suggestion, "Although I recommend using the higher amount of sugar, feel free to use whichever quantity you’d like…after all, you have permission from the granddaddy of all cooks, James Beard himself." I did not want to risk messing up with this recipe so I took exactly the same amount as David Lebovitz. 

I really need to thank all of you for an amazing year, I think this has been the best year of blogging so far. Thank you for reading what I write and thank you for all the love and encouragement. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! 

Kale and fruit juice blend

We are back to a Monday! Is it me or the pace of time just got faster.  I really wish I could hold on to time, I am impatient to do so much and am always behind. A lot of last week was spent on a liberating exercise of rejuvenating my creative energy. I absolutely enjoyed reading an e-book Sharp Shooter by Martin Bailey, am amazing photographer. I must confess that at one time I did coil myself into a mess of numbers. The science behind razor sharp images. Thanks to my better half, I did uncoil myself to some extent. Am, not really done with the book and have a couple of pages left, and may have to re-read portions. I like books that challenge me and this one certainly did.  I am compiling a list of my favorite bloggers/photographers, so a lot of time was spent, going around blogs and photography sites. If you guys have any recommendations, that would be awesome. There is so much talent and inspiration out there, it is just an amazing world. I feel so energized, you can see the halo of creativity around me. LOL! Some of these artist are just amazing and absolutely mind blowing work.Do you guys want me to share the list ? Should I do it in a post or just the side-bar of TNS.

These photographs are from my archives, but. The morning sun was so beautiful and I was having my kale and fruit juice blend, I was itching to use the camera and I did :). I love the play of light in the photograph, if I may say so myself. Had to share it today and not have it sit in the archives. Am also going to work on a dessert after I am done posting this. Can't wait to create it and then style it, have so many ideas, either am going to overwhelm myself and mess it up or its going to be a liberating exercise. Let's see how that goes :))

Thank you for all the great comments on last week's post . Am so glad that you guys actually read what I write and encourage me to prattle more ;-).

Spelt Flour and Lentil Paratha/Flat Bread

Spicy, savory, aromatic and soul filling. You cannot complain if it is healthy too. Flat bread or rotis and parathas are my all time favorite. Am not really a rice eater, I prefer bread/ roti/naan/ paratha to rice, any day. Coming from a person who is from the south of India, this is unusual. Brought up in the north of the country, my palette is heavily influenced by the northern cuisine. But, I cannot give up my dosa, similarly, I cannot give up on parathas or rotis.  A dollop of ghee, is a perfect accompaniment.  I keep trying out different recipes of parathas and have never been really disappointed. Among all the wild and not so wild experiments in my kitchen, this one is a favorite. Here to stay, repeated many times in the Jois household and each time getting better. It has the goodness of grains n lentils. A meal in itself, when served with some raita or daal. Simple, easy and great for week nights. 

I shared this recipe with a very good friend of mine and she asked me "what is spelt flour ?" I am sure most of you are aware of this wonder flour.  If not... Well, I really did not know that it is older than wheat and I do believe it is a distant cousin to wheat. Easier to digest, and lesser gluten, so can still be substituted for wheat in baking, it needs a little more kneading for the gluten to get working than wheat. Also, a better nutritional profile.  Am not a nutritionist, this is just from my reading. Forget about the nutritional profile, am telling the taste profile is awesome, I could tell it is a bit nuttier than wheat, needs less water to kneed into a dough and is absolutely great tasting. So am not complaining !