Pumpkin pie with spinach crust

Pumpkin pie with spinach crust

Ingredients

Pie Crust: 

½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes 

1⅓ cups all purpose flour 

½ teaspoon salt 

12-15 leaves of spinach 

1 tbsp water 

Pie Filling: 

1½ cups pumpkin puree 

2 eggs, beaten 

1 tsp corn starch 

½ cup whole milk

3 tbsp milk powder 

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger 

¼ tsp ground clove 

¼ tsp ground black pepper 

¼ tsp salt 

¾ cup brown sugar 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C 

2. In a saucepan, heat the spinach leaves with 1 tbsp water until they are completely cooked. Using a sieve, strain the spinach leaves, pushing down on them to extract all the liquid. You should have about 3 tablespoons of the spinach water. Refrigerate it for 5-10 minutes. 

3. In a bowl, mix flour, butter and salt. Use your hands to work the cold butter. Add the cold spinach water, 1 tbsp at a time until the dough is just combined. 

4. Take the dough and roll it slightly in your hands so it is round in shape. Then flatten the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin, about ⅛ inch thickness. Carefully lift the flattened dough and lay it into an 8-9 inch pie tin and trim the edges. If you have leftover pie dough, you can use it to make cookie decorations for the pie. 

5. Lay out parchment paper in the pie tin over the crust and fill with baking beans. If you don't have them, you can also use rice or pulses. Fill it to the top, and blind bake the pie crust for about 10 minutes. 

6. Take the pie tin out of the oven and carefully remove the paper with the beans and set it aside. 

7. Combine the milk and milk powder in a cup. You can also use evaporated milk instead of this combination. 

8. In a bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, spices, salt, sugar, corn starch, beaten eggs, and the milk mixture. The pie filling will be runny. 

9. Pour the pie filling into the blind baked crust and bake for about 30-40 minutes. You can also lightly shake the pie tin in the oven to check if it is done. If it slightly wobbles in the centre and the outer edges are cooked, it is done.

10. Take it out of the oven and cool it for about half an hour. You can decorate the pie with mint leaves cookie decorations from the leftover dough (if any). Do not cut into the pie immediately after baking as the filling will not be set. 

Enjoy!

Notes 

*For the cookie decorations, roll out the dough to ⅛ inch thickness and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. You can also use an egg wash to make them brown more.

Picture courtesy and recipe written by Arundhathi, my daughter who is an enthusiastic cook and Wildlife Photographer. 

Brinjal gravy

Baby brinjal gravy 

Ingredients 

Small dark purple brinjal - 12

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon 

Salt as required 

Medium onion - 1

Tomato - 1

Ginger one inch

Green chilies - 2

Garlic - 2 pods

Curry leaves - a few

For dry roasting 

Peanuts - 1/2 cup

White til - 2 tablespoon

Red dry chilies - 2

Coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon 

Jeera - 1/2 teaspoon 

Hing a small piece 

Tamarind a small gooseberry size 

For shallow frying 

Peanut oil - 2 tablespoon 

Method 

1. Dry roast ingredients and make a coarse powder. I have roasted tamarind also and powdered all of them together to a coarse powder. 

2. Cut onion, garlic, tomato and ginger, grind to a smooth paste. Keep aside. 

3. Wash, slit into four and immerse baby brinjals in water for 10 minutes, remove from water, dry. 

4. In a Kadai pour oil add the  slit brinjal, turmeric and salt, close lid cook for about 5 minutes, gently toss it and cook til tender. Remove and keep aside. 

5. In a heated kadai pour a little oil, add tomato gravy and cook til oil separate. 

6. Now add the peanut powder, add 1 1/2  cup of water and cook for about 10 minutes, The gravy will start thickening so please remember to keep stirring or it may get stuck at the bottom and burn. 

7. If the gravy is too thick add little more water and add roasted egg plants, adjust salt and cook further.  You will notice the aroma of peanut and til and the tender brinjal completely cooked in the gravy. 

8. Garnish with curry leaves and serve. 

Jowar roti loaded with veggies

I like to do experiments with different flours, be it jowar, ragi, amaranth or besan. We these days try to reduce rice and wheat rotis and add more vegetables, legumes and raw salads in our meals.

So today I tried with jowar flour, grated a few vegetables, greens, onion and green chillies to the flour. 

The recipe is bit time consuming, if you are fasting make it ready before you break your fast. 

Ingredients 

Grated radish 1

Carrot 1

Onion 1 medium, chopped

Chopped greens 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves 2 teaspoon chopped

Green chilies 2

Grated ginger 1/2 teaspoon 

Jowar flour 1 cup

Salt as required 

Turmeric 1/2 teaspoon 

Coriander powder 1/2 teaspoon 

Jeera 1/2 teaspoon 

Ajwain a little 

Hing powder a pinch

Method

1. Add all the ingredients and knead to a soft dough,( if needed add a little water.) keep it for 20 minutes. 

2. Place the roti tawa and when it's medium hot, take a large lemon sized dough and gently pat into a small disk, place it in the tawa further press it to a small even sized roti. 

3. Cook in medium flame, add a little oil if you prefer, flip and cook both sides til golden brown. 

4. Serve hot with pickle, yogurt, or salad. 

5. I made a choka with roasted brinjal, tomato, onion, green chilies and lemon juice. 

Sweet corn chaat and coriander lemon soup

We all love chaat don't we? But to make a delicious chaat with available vegetables with less masala and less oil is not an easy task, especially when all you want is a bowl of steaming hot soup!

But then yesterday I ended up chopping a lot of vegetables and added garlic and ginger to it, started to cook it in the pan, while cooking the aroma of just tender vegetables and sweet corn was something which Aru and I loved, so we have decided not to add water to the veggies, instead tried crushed pepper to the cooked vegetables. And we had it as a chaat!

Sweet corn chaat 

Ingredients 

1 sweet corn, cut and remove kernels 

1 carrot

1 zucchini 

7 to 8 french beans

1 onion

6 to 7 garlic pods

1/2 inch ginger peeled and crushed 

1 green chilli chopped 

Olive oil /peanut oil 2 tablespoon 

Method 

*Wash, peel and chop all vegetables into small cubes, remove corn kernels from the cob. Keep aside. 

*In a pan or pressure cooker, pour oil, saute ginger, garlic, green chilli and rest of the vegetables, add salt and cook in medium to low flame, it takes about 10 minutes for all the vegetables to cook, add crushed pepper and serve as a chaat in bowls. 

*You can add lemon extract if you like towards the end or just before serving. 

*I have added basil and oregano and few homegrown tomatoes. It's yum. Do try! 

Coriander lemon soup

For the soup which we were craving, we had coriander, ginger, lemon grass and just one green chilli, boiled and strained the clear soup, added 1 tablespoon if lemon extract just before serving, it was flavourful. 

When we realize how we can incorporate a few ingredients and create a dish which provides all the flavours and textures perfect for an evening snack, chaats are such life savers. 

Kosmali (moong dal salad)

An easy salad made with few ingredients for feast in Karnataka, it's called Kosmali

Ingredients 

3 tablespoon soaked moong dal

2 small raddish(grated)

1 carrot grated

1 cucumber grated

1 lemon extract

1 green chilli chopped 

1 tablespoon grated coconut 

1 tablespoon coriander chopped

Salt as required 

Method 

* wash and soak moong dal for about 30 minutes, drain excess water keep aside.

* In a mixing bowl add all grated vegetables, coconut, chilli,  salt add soaked moong dal, give a toss, finally and lemon extract, serve as a side dish.

I have it as mid evening salad.

Watermelon mojito

A refreshing glass of mojito is the best thing in the morning post workout.

I have blended a few interesting ingredients and it's just the perfect blend 

Ingredients 

A few slices of watermelon 

A cup of chopped muskmelon 

Few pudina leaves

1 lemon extract

1/2 inch ginger

1 green chilli 

1 cup  water you can add soda but I prefer plain water

Method 

Add all the ingredients except lemon juice and blend, once done add lemon juice and mix with a spoon, you can add chat masala, salt or sugar if you wish, I drink it plain as I love the natural flavors of ginger, chilli and mint, serve in glass. 

Ragi porridge (Finger millet)

Ragi or finger millet, is quite an interesting grain, I used to make ragi for my kids when they were very young.

I sometimes make it with whole ragi soaked overnight, grind and cook it with a little salt or jaggery.  It's filling and delicious. Post workout or walking it's done in a jiffy. So what I generally do is make the porridge and leave to cool. After my workout and walking it's a treat! 

Ingredients 

1 cup whole ragi(pre soaked for 12 hours) 

2 cups water

A little salt 

One small piece jaggery 

Method 

*In a bowl take a cup of whole ragi add water, wash three to four times. Pour just enough water and soak it overnight or 12 hours. 

* Strain the water, in a mixer add ragi little water and grind to a smooth paste. 

* In a large bowl, add ragi, two cups of water, salt and mix well, cook it on stove top, reduce the flame into medium to low, cook it till it's done. 

* Now pour a teaspoon of ghee and blend it. Allow the porridge to reach room temperature or just warm. 

*Serve  with buttermilk and sliced onions. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.healthifyme.com/blog/why-ragi-should-be-a-part-of-your-diet/amp/