Creamy Butter Beans and Green Peas

Let me start by wishing you all a very Happy Independence Day! Today India celebrates her 63rd Independence Day. As children this day is always remembered as a holiday from school, buying national flags and showing them off on your cars, singing national anthem, watching the flag hosting and eating sweets. I have some really special memories attached with this day, back home our residential complex celebrates independence day every year in our building garden. Every year on this day national anthem and other patriotic songs are played from morning 7 am. I remember waking up hearing them :) Light snacks and a packet of Frooti is distributed later on to all the children. Small small children sing patriotic songs and give speeches on indian history. Later on we watch the flag hosting ceremony on the national DD channel, my dad never misses this parade and always insist we too watch along with him. Childrens and students from overall states of india perform in the parade by dancing, singing, sports etc. If you havent watched this parade as yet, i request you to please watch it next time as the efforts taken by the students is worth while and i salute them for their talent! The co-ordination and consistency between the performers is remarkable!

Now coming on to today's recipe, i had seen this recipe at Meeta's blog and immediately bookmarked it. In gujarati butter beans are also known as "Vaal" and usually cooked with usual masalas in a curry style. I loved the idea of making them with cream and I am so glad it came out delicious. I have made few changes to the recipe and used green peas instead of leaks. Its simple and creamy dish and you can enjoy it as a side dish with roti or rice or even have it all by itself.

Sending this to Viki's event Side Dishes for Chapathi and to MLLA 14 hosted by Susan this month.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter beans (lima beans) soaked in water overnight

1 medium onion minced

1/2 cup frozen green peas

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

2 tbsp cream

Salt & Pepper to taste

fresh coriander or parsley for garnishing

1 cup water as required

Procedure:

• Heat oil and butter in a pan, add in minced onions and saute for 2 mins.
• Now add in butter beans, salt, pepper and enough water to cover the beans.
• Cover the cook on medium-slow heat for 15 to 20 mins.
• Beans will be halfway cooked, now throw in green peas and fresh cream.
• Again cover and cook for 5 to 6 mins , until butter beans are soft and creamy.
• Garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley.

Once again wishing you all a very Happy 63rd Independence Day!

Luv,

Creamy Eggplant and Bell Pepper Stew with few rants

Dear Foodies,

I cant tell you how much i have missed blogging in last two weeks. I felt as if an important part of me was missing. I thought all my blogger friends will forget me :((( thats seriously a scary thought and gave me nightmares! Blogging started with a hobby and now has become a passion for me. This blog gave me lots of new things, a new identity, people from all over the world visit my blog and appreciate my efforts, its such a great feeling and thats what every blogger is craving for, right? I got so many new and extremely talented friends, whom i respect and love for their talent of creating marvellous dishes, this blog is also a place where i can share my views and of course my recipes and experiments!

Shifting to a new place has some serious disadvantages. I have misplaced so many things which i am not able to find, either they are taken away by JADOO (remember KMG?) or i have a ghost in my house! Every morning there is a treasure hunt going on, the only difference being there is no actual treasure to be won but only to find my misplaced things back. Boxes and bags are lying around and with working 12 to 16 hours a day I hardly find time to sleep forget cooking and unpacking. Seriously gals if you are living alone dont ever shift apartments, its bad idea. My new kitchen is quite smaller as compared to the older one, it finishes the moment i step in :( At first i thought its ok as this is only a temporary place and as i will be moving back to india in another 2 months but now it has actually started to bother me, which in turn is worrying me .....ah ....sigh....

Now in such a scenario i require something comforting to my taste buds. No traditional khichdis or rasams and rice but today i present you extremely delicious and easy "Stew". Stewing is a method of cooking meat or vegetables using small quantity of liquid at a moderate heat for a long time. This way of cooking helps in enhancing the flavors in the dish and also helps in absorbing the spices in the meats and veggies. More information on Stews here. Do read it, quite interesting! I have adapted the below recipe from Pooja's traditional Ishtu. Thanks Pooja for this wonderful recipe, its one of my favorites now :)

EC, Rekha, Sanghi Indrani and Muneeba all have passed the below wards to me, once again thank you gals, this drives me to deliver more....oooohh talking like an IT professional now, arnt i? Thank you for having faith in me. The tag i have answered in my previous post here.

Ingredients: 1 big eggplant chopped 1 bell pepper chopped (i used an orange one) 1 spring onion chopped 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1 can coconut milk (400 ml) 2 green chillies slit 1 tsp black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil 3 elaichi (cardamon seeds) 1 cinnamon stick 3 cloves 1 bay leaf 1 tsp ginger paste Salt to taste 1/2 cup of water Procedure:

• Heat olive oil in a pan, add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamon seeds , cloves, ginger paste and green chillies.
• Temper for a min, now add in sliced onions and spring onion, keep some greens aside for garnishing.
• Cook them until soft, now add in eggplant and bell peppers chopped.
• Saute for another 2 mins and then add the coconut milk, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on slow to medium heat for 15 to 20 mins, until eggplants have absorbed the flavors and are cooked.
• Garnish with some srping onion greens.
• Serve the stew warm accompanied with a bread or enjoy it with steaming rice.

Eggless Whole Wheat Spring Onion Scones and Awards!!!

Dear All, First of all I am very sorry for this unannounced break, frankly i never was on a real break but with all the work pressure and shifting to a new apartment, left me tired and exhausted at the end of the day with no energy to blog. I must say this was my first experience in shifting to a new home and its extremely tiring and painful. Most of the past days i have either taken a take away or had rice for lunch and dinner, didnt find much time to cook. Finally yesterday i got some time to make something which i have been planning to make since a long time now....Scones. This is the first time i have made scones at home and they came out quite well. They taste delicious when served them warm with a dollop of butter, perfect for tea time. Googling i found two wonderful recipes Savory cheese & Scallion scones and 5 herb eggless scones, which i have adapted to make these. Sashi, Suparna, Ann, Faiza Ali and Sushma have passed the below awards to me along with a tag! I would like to thank you all for your support and appreciation. It really means a lot to me. Answers to the tag : 1.what is your current obsession? Blogging! 2. What are you wearing today? Capri and a Tee 3. What’s for dinner? Biryani with Raita 4. What’s the last thing you bought? Groceries 5. What are you listening to right now? Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden 6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Suparna is a sweet heart, have known her for a while and we share a grt rapport , her comments always cheer me up , thanks dear! Her recipes are simple and delicious! Sashi i came to know recently, she has some wonderful collection of recipes on her blog, do check out! Ann has a fantastic blog, i have always admired her healthy way of cooking! Faiza is very creative in her cooking and has some yummy dishes on her blog Sushma's blog is a food paradise, i love her passion and creativity in cooking. Once again thank you all! 7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Definately Switzerland! 8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? Capris, Tee's, cotton clothes 9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Paris or Italy 10. Which language do you want to learn? German and French 11. Who do you want to meet right now? My mom 12. What is your favorite colour? Sky Blue 13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet? An embroidered blue, pink and white churidar 14. What is your dream job? Would love to be a cake decorator, would like to work for old age homes and for children's orphange. 15. What’s your favourite magazine? I dont read magazines 16. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? Chocolates! 17. What do you consider a fashion faux pas? Heavy makeup and unappropriate clothes 18. Who are your style icons? None. 19. Describe your personal style? Simple, elegant and classy! 21. What are your favourite movies? Lots! Jab We Met, HAHK, DDLJ, Ice Age 1,2 &3, Hum Tum etc 22. Give us three styling tips that always work for you: Simple hair style, decent comfortable clothes and confidence. 23. Coffee or tea? Sometimes coffee 24. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed? Eat chocolates, go for shopping, bake a cake, read a novel, basically try to divert my mind. 25. What is the meaning of your name? Angel :) 26. Which other blogs you love visiting? Lots, infact all the blogs which i have been following 27. Favorite Dessert/Sweet? Rasmalai and chocolate cake 28. Favorite Season? Rainy 29.Which is your dream destination? I am living currently in :) Switzerland... 30: Which is your favorite international cuisine ? Italian My Question: Your favorite kitchen tool? The rules are: Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people. I want to pass the awards and tags to the below friends. Please accept these awards and pass on! Priya Nithya Anshika Mandira and Lakshmi of BakingBuddies Shubha Padma Srilakshmi Ushanandini Pratibha Pari

Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (normal roti atta is fine too) 2 spring onions or scallions finely chopped along with their greens and whites 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cold butter 1/3 cup milk (or as required) 2 green chillies chopped finely 2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander Salt to taste (about a tsp) Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C
• Mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda
• Add in butter and mix together to resemble crumbles.
• Now add in the chopped spring onions, coriander, and salt to taste.
• Slowly add in milk as required and make a soft dough.
• Roll the dough to about 1 inch thickness and cut with a sharp knife into pieces, similar to cutting a pizza.
• Bake these for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown.
• Serve them warm with a dollop of butter.