A trip to Switzerland... and Rösti with Papaya Salad!

We just got back from a trip to Switzerland - spending a whole week in the Swiss alps. I feel totally rejuvenated and happy. The beautiful mountains, the lakes, the greenery... oh it was simply awesome!

We enjoyed the nature, took lots of long treks and of course, freaked out on the food - lots of fresh vegetables and fruits and cheese. And not to forget the amazing swiss chocolate, especially the delicious and heavenly chocolate truffle (well, just one day of indulgence in an otherwise very healthy trip!)... my mouth waters as I write this.

Well, today's recipe is not that chocolate pastry but another very typical swiss speciality, Rösti, a Swiss potato dish that can be combined with a number of toppings (or just eaten plain). Of course, this is my take on the Rösti, and a little different from the ones you would find in a typical Swiss restaurant...

Ingredients


For the Rösti


4 -  medium size potatoes, peeled and grated
1 - onion medium size, finely chopped
1/4 cup - bread crumbs (more or less)
2 inch piece - ginger, grated
1/4 tsp -pepper powder (more or less)
salt to taste
olive oil to pan fry


For the Papaya Salad 


2 cups - raw papaya,peeled and grated
2 - green chilli, slit through the middle, seeds removed
1/2 of a medium size red chilli, cut into rounds
1 tsp - sunflower oil
1/4 tsp - mustard seeds
1/4 tsp - turmeric powder (haldi)
salt to taste


Method

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, when they begin to splutter, add the chillies and turmeric powder. Add the grated papaya and salt and cook for a couple of minutes and keep it aside.
2. Squeeze out the excess water from the grated potatoes. 
3. Place the grated potatoes, onions, bread crumbs, ginger, pepper powder and salt in a bowl and mix well.
4. Take a little portion of the potato mixture, make a ball and gently flatten it.
5. Sprinkle a few drops of oil on a non stick pan and pan fry the rösti on a low flame till both the sides are evenly golden. 
6. Place the rosti on a serving dish, top it with the papya salad, garnish it with the chillies and serve. 

The chillies turned out to be too hot for me, so my hubby had my portion of chillies too! :-)

Sending this to Pari's "ONLY" Kids Delight

Enjoy!

Guilt-free Crunchy Chocolate Truffles!

My love for chocolates is no more a secret and I am always up for chocolates. I can have chocolates at any time of the day or night for that matter :-) I have these sudden urges and cravings for chocolate and I have to have some chocolate then and there.

I noticed that I had not posted any chocolate recipes lately. So here is something i cooked up rather spontaneously...  

I did lick away quite a bit of this chocolaty goodness while preparing the recipe, so it could be that the number of truffles you get would be a little more than what I got ;-)

A quick, crunchy and mainly chocolaty satisfaction! Perfect for the taste buds and not too bad for the waistline. The only disadvantage is, you can't store it in the fridge because it will become stone hard but that is a theoretical case anyway - only if you have any left!

Ingredients

100 grams - chocolate 60%, melted
4 - ladyfinger biscuits , crushed to the consistency of semolina
1 tbsp - honey 
unsweetened cocoa powder for rolling the truffles


Method

1. In a bowl, place the honey, finely crushed ladyfinger biscuits and the melted chocolate and mix well.
2. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.
3. Shape into small balls by rolling between the plams of your hands. Roll the truffles in cocoa powder until well coated. Serve.

Makes- 10 truffles

Enjoy!

For you my Sis- Baked Cheesy Veggi Rice

There is not a single day when I don't talk to my little sis. Talking to her is like a daily routine. Even though she is almost 6 years younger, we are closely bonded and share our life experiences, laughter, madness, dreams, philosophy, gossip and so on. And, there are times, when we have these nonsensical conversations which do not make any sense at all, but which are, in my opinion, the best of them all - we forget all the worries and just laugh out loud about something arbitrary. That laughter, that fun makes my day pass in a jiffy.

There was a time when we hardly cared about each other, we were both so busy in our own worlds that we never knew the importance of each other. After my marriage, after shifting to Munich, the bond started growing, guess the distance was the reason...

While we were talking on the phone this weekend, we did discuss food and then she came up with this wonderful recipe (with a little bit of improvisation from my side!)

Ingredients

1 cup - brown rice, boiled with a cube of Maggi vegetable stock
1/3 cup - babycorn, boiled and chopped
1/3 cup - onion, chopped
1/2 cup - yellow and red pepper, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 inch piece - ginger, chopped
6 - low fat cheese slice
salt to taste
red chilli powder (optional)
1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp - olive oil

To be ground together in a coarse paste

2 - tomato medium size
1 - green chilli (adjust according to your taste)

Method

1. Saute the onions, peppers, babycorn, garlic and ginger in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Keep aside.
2. In another pan, saute the paste in 1/2 tsp of oil for 5-6 minutes.
3. Add the cooked vegetables to the paste and cook further for a couple of minutes. Add the salt and cook again for a minute.
4. Add the boiled rice to the paste and mix well.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C.
6. In a baking dish, add the rice and top it with a cheese slice. Repeat twice with cheese slice on the top. 
7. Place the dish in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cheese is slightly brown. 
8. Serve hot.

We loved this cheesy vegetable rice and had it with some salad and strawberry juice, which made a complete satisfying meal.

Enjoy!

Instant Semolina/Rava Idli with Sambar

Dear friends, am back to the blogging world after a longish break...and with a healthy recipe.

Unfortunately, the summer is turning out to be, in spite of all global warming claims to the contrary, a damp and cold one in Germany. Rains, floods and temperatures hovering around 12 degrees C on bad days are not really the stuff summer is made of. Today was an exception in that the sun shone for a major part of the day and the mercury levels went up....but tomorrow the rains are forecasted to come again.

So heres something warm and spicy to heat things up a bit...This one is especially for my brother, who loves Idlis. He celebrated his birthday last week - I wanted to post this recipe last week, but was unfortunately away. 

Semolina/Rava Idli 

Ingredients

1 cup - semolina (rava)

1 tbsp - gram flour (besan)

1/4 tsp - salt

3/4 tsp -  eno fruit salt

1 cup - buttermilk (more or less)

oil to grease the idli moulds

Method

1. In a bowl, mix together the semolina, gram flour, salt and buttermilk. Add the fruit salt and mix vigourously for a minute. (The consistency of the batter should be a little thick)
2. Pour spoonful of batter into the greased moulds and place them in the steamer. Steam for about 7-8 minutes (the time may vary depending upon the idli maker)

Makes 8 idlis

Sambar

Ingredients

3/4 cup - split pigeon pea (toor daal) 

to be pressure cooked (upto 4 whistles) with 1 1/2 cup of water, a pinch of turmeric powder, a generous pinch of red chilli powder and a few drops of ghee (clarified butter) 

1 - onion, medium size, chopped

1/4 cup - yellow pepper, chopped

1/4 cup - cucumber, chopped

1 - tomato, chopped

1 - green chilli, chopped

1 tbsp - tamarind pulp (more or less)

1 1/4 tbsp - sambar masala

1/2 tsp - sugar

1 tbsp - dessicated coconut

1/4 tsp - turmeric powder

1/2 cup - water (more or less)

salt to taste

coriander leaves to garnish

For the tempering

1 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil

1/4 tsp - cumin seeds

1/4 tsp - mustard seeds

1/8 tsp - fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp - asafoetida (hing)

6-8 - curry leaves

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida and fry until the seeds start to splutter.
2. Add the chopped green chillies, onions and yellow pepper and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes and cook again for a couple of minutes. 
3. Add the turmeric powder, sambar powder and dessicated coconut and cook for a minute. Add the tamarind pulp and salt and cook again for a minute.
4. Add the boiled daal and water and simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionaly. Add the sugar and stir for a minute.
5. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve hot. 

You can have the idlis as a starter or a snack or a whole meal. We usually eat it as a wholemeal.


Enjoy!