Cooking For Kids – Event Announcement

Some one once told me that, once you have kids your whole world revolves around them. The time that you get up in the morning, what & when you eat, where and how you go out, what time you sleep! Practically everything.

This fact is more than evident in the kitchen when you have to think of new dishes to entice your child into eating what you want them to eat. The challenge of course is to make ordinary things look & taste interesting enough for them to have it. At the same time you have to make sure that they are getting the essential nutrition so that they have the energy to do all that running around that they do.

While I dont have to think too much about little S’s lunch & dinner since she does like the vegetables, I am stumped for breakfast ideas. It has to be quick for the weekdays, filling & nutritious plus she has to like what she is eating too. So here I am, asking all of you to come up with your own tried & tested Breakfast dishes for this month’s Cooking For Kids event.

This was originally started by Sharmi of Neivedyam and will be hosted on taste Buds for the month of March.



The rules are as below:

1. Cook anything vegetarian (eggs are allowed) that fits the theme which is ‘Filling Breakfast’ and post it on your blog on or before 3rd April 2010.
Update (1st April): The deadline has been extended to 24th April 2010


2. Include a link to this post and to Sharmi’s CFK page in  your post.

3. Email me at bhagya03[at]gmail[dot]com with ‘CFK’ in the subject line and include your name, your blog’s name, the name of the dish, permalink of your post and a picture of the dish, 250 pixels wide.

4. Old posts can be sent if you update or repost them with the above mentioned links.

5. The deadline for sending in the entries is 3rd April 2010.

6. If you are a non blogger and wish to participate, just send in your entries along with a picture, if possible, on the above mentioned email id.

So bring out all your tried recipes or come up with new ones!

Anyone interested in hosting future editions of Cooking for Kids, please drop in a line to Sharmi at sharmikomal[at]gmail[dot]com.

PS: The round up for Think Spice:Think Amchoor will be put up by Monday (8th March).

Masala Chawli (Black eyed beans)

First of all thank you everyone for the lovely entries for Think Spice:Think Amchoor. As I will be able to compile the round up only during the weekend, I am accepting entries that reach me before Friday. So you can say that the deadline has been pushed to 5th March!

I have just finished reading Jeffrey Archer’s ‘The Paths of Glory’ and was reminded why  I love his books so much. He takes a totally different subject this time and manages to weave a great story around it while putting forth a lot of information about the chosen subject at the same time. A must-read for all the Jeffrey Archer fans and great-read even otherwise. I would have liked the end to be a little different though. Isn't that always the case? Someone or the other will always disagree with the ending that any author chooses.

By the way, remember the Bajra Aloo Roti? This flavourful Masala Chawli (black eyed beans) was made to accompany that. The recipe is from the same Rajasthani Cookbook by Tarla Dalal. I have already said that the book is a good collection of authentic Rajasthani recipe but does lose out on the genuineness some times. I would like to add here that some more pictures would have been great. And this has nothing to do with the fact that I love ogling at those delicious looking food pictures in the cook books, in fact thats the first thing I do when I get hold of a new book! But really, there are some dishes in the book, that some of us have not even heard of. It would have helped if each recipe was accompanied by the respective picture and more importantly on the same page. Actually I have seen this in a lot of books. Why are the pictures put in randomly on any of the pages and then they have to give a key where the name of the dish is followed by the page No on which the recipe appears.

Masala Chawli

Serves 2-3
Ingredients

1/3 Cup Black eyed beans (Chawli/Lobhia)
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, pureed
1/4 tsp Kasuri Methi
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder (Haldi)
1 tblsp Oil
Salt

To be ground into a paste
1/2 cup Mint leaves
1 tsp Grated Ginger
2-3 Green Chillies
1/2 tsp Lime Juice

Method:
Soak the Chawli beans for about 2 hrs and then pressure cook them until they are cooked but allow them to go mushy.

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onions and sauté till they start browning.

Add the tomato puree, kasuri methi, Turmeric powder and salt and cook till the oil separates.

Add the cooked Chawli and some water (about 1/2 cup, depending upon how dry/gravy like you want it to be), mix well and let this cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add the ground Masala paste, mix and cook for 5 more minutes.

Serve Hot with Roti. I served it with the Bajra Aloo Roti and it was a great combination.

My Notes: This was a very pleasant change from the normal Chawli that we make at home (will post that too). I felt that the mint was a little overpowering but maybe it will help if I reduce the amount next time. Also feel free to add more lime juice when serving, if required.