Sriracha Honey Almonds

Letter # 3


Dear Blog,

Today I want to write about buttons. No, not about the "small disk or knob sewn onto a garment, either to fasten it by being pushed through a slit made for the purpose, or for decoration", but about "a knob on a piece of electrical or electronic equipment that is pressed to operate it" that makes our life easy and saves our time. When I was growing up, we watched a black and white TV with shutter. It had exactly two knobs. One for the volume and one for the channel. And there were only two channels. I don't remember much but I remember that we were happy with whatever came on TV. I have such wonderful memories of that TV. When it would get too hot, the picture would shrink. Me and my sister would go fan the back side of the TV trying to cool it down, especially if there was a cricket game airing live. That TV gave up pretty soon and we welcomed a brand new color TV. With more buttons. Buttons to change the brightness, the contrast and the color of the picture. But, no remote. So, a change of volume every time would mean some one to take a long 5 feet walk from the sofa or the bed to the TV and change it manually. Whew, so much work! So, we got tired of walking that 5 feet soon enough and wanted a TV with remote. But, the TV was working great and buying a new TV just for a remote wasn't a good reason then. So, we designed our own remote. It was tricky. See, you have to choose a tree first, then an appropriate branch which must be straight and sturdy, yet not too thick. Our very own guava tree in our garden did a perfect job. Over the next few months, our thin tree branch (remote) changed in length from 3 feet to 5 feet. But, with increase in length came a problem. Lack of precision. Sitting 5 ft away from the TV, as you try to change the channel using a small little button at the bottom of the TV, most of the time we didn't hit the right button. Instead of walking 5 feet, we would still try to sit there and fix the other end of the twig to the desired button. Ha Ha. Remembering those moments is making me smile now. I am actually laughing out loud. Here, I am now sitting in front of a smart TV with two remote controls (TV and cable) and millions of channels to choose from and no visible buttons. Where does the sounds even come from this TV? Old TVs used to have ears from where the sound came. Good old TV with buttons - I will never forget you.

Missing old style TV,
Smita

Snacking on these as I write this and loving it.

Sriracha Honey Almonds

4 cups ( 1 lb ) Raw whole almonds
¼ cup sriracha sauce
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
3 tablespoon olive oil
½ + ½ teaspoon salt

This is how I made these wonderful snacks:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the nuts, sriracha sauce, honey or maple syrup, oil and half teaspoon salt properly in a bowl. Spread them in an even layer on a foil lined baking sheet.

Bake them for 10 min. Take it out, stir the almonds around and bake for another 10 min.

Cool the almonds completely. Sprinkle half teaspoon of sea salt on the almonds. If by any chance they are not crunchy put them back in to the oven for another 5 min. But 20 min should be fine.

Enjoy snacking :)

Red Lentil Fritters

The clock turns three in the afternoon and I think- snacks!


I am not sure if its me or the bengali in me that thinks snacks = deep fried savory goodies to be had with a nice cup of hot tea or coffee in the afternoon. However, the adult in me knows that its not good to have deep fried food everyday. But, I am too young to give up that, aren't I? Hmm.


How about lentil fritters? They are loaded with protein, doesn't that make them good? Well, I can bake them instead of frying. But doesn't frying make everything taste way better than baked? Don't answer that....


The winter is in no hurry to leave. So, pull that blanket a little closer and snuggle your toes into your socks as you bite into these crispy lentil fritters!

It is quite the Indian custom to beat the cold or the rain with hot tea, fried food, good company and good humor. Unfortunately, San Diego (where I live) neither gets much rain nor gets much cold. Gosh, does that prevent me from savoring these from time to time. NO!

Dunk these in some ketchup or your favorite tomato sauce or cilantro chutney. No need to bite into these 'cause one little one is one perfect morsel. (too many "one"s in one sentence)


There is nothing in this recipe that you won't have in your pantry which qualifies this for an any day recipe. These fritters are quite multi-talented I would say. You can enjoy them as snacks or as appetizers or use them in a curry (will post recipe sometime). These can be very good party food too!

Here come's the recipe:

You need:

¾ cup red lentils

½ cup diced yellow onion

2 green chilies, minced (add more or less according to your tolerance of heat- may substitute with chili powder)

½ teaspoon nigella seeds/kalonji/kalo jeera

salt to taste

pinch of turmeric

pinch of baking soda

½ cup chopped cilantro

Vegetable/Canola oil for frying

Let's cook:

Soak the lentils for 3-4 hours. Grind them to a smooth paste. If using dry lentils (didn't get a chance to soak them-which happens to me all the time) grind them with the help of water to bring it to smooth consistency.

Add all the other ingredients (except oil) and whisk well. [Something I do every time I use baking soda in fried food is that I whisk the batter for a few minutes- I think it helps the fritters to be airy and crispy.]

Put a shallow pan with half an inch of vegetable/canola oil on medium heat.

Add a teaspoon of the batter to the hot oil. Fry on one side for a few minutes and then fry the other side for another few minutes till they are reddish in color.

Soak the excess oil on a paper towel and serve warm with ketchup or chutney.

Use the leftovers (if any) in delicious curry- these fritters become soft pillows soaked in curry- Lentil Dumplings Curry

You may like: Lentil Dumplings Curry

Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Croissants

Lately I have become a little obsessed with "faking baking" with puff pastry.

This time it's Crispy crunchy chocolate croissants. I got inspired to make this from two things:

1. I LOVE chocolate. Who doesn't?

and

2. I had to bring something sweet to the lab's holiday party (which was in the middle of the week, so had to be easy and quick)

If I can just pick up a puff pastry on my way home and bake delicious croissants in an hour on a weeknight, I would prefer that than make puff pastry from scratch. But, not everyone wants to "fake bake" like me, so if you are into baking and would love to learn how to make croissants from scratch, here is Farrukh's wonderful post to help you through each and every step.

I have used puff pastry here (Am I saying puff pastry over and over again? Now you know I am obsessed!) but you can do this same recipe with Pillbury crescent rolls. The difference between the two is yeast. Puff pastry has no yeast. If you use crescent rolls for this recipe, it will turn out great too. It will be soft and flaky compared to crispy and crunchy with puff pastry.

There is actually not much of a recipe here. But here it goes:

You need:

1 sheet of pepperidge farm puff pastry, thawed at room temperature for 40 min. [If by any chance, you have thawed it for a longer time and the sheet is too soft and sticky to work with, pop it back into the freezer for 5-10 min and chill it. Source of information- My mistakes]

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips [Use dark or milk chocolate whichever you like]

1 egg

1 tbsp water

¼ cup All purpose flour

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Spread the All purpose flour on your workspace. Place you puff pastry sheet on it and roll it to a 16 by 14 inches rectangle. [It is very important to have flour below your puff pastry or it will be difficult to roll the croissants later.]

Cut the sheet in half lengthwise and then make 8 rectangles. Cut along the diagonals to make 16 triangles as shown in picture. 

Put about half tablespoon of chocolate chips in each triangle. 

With the wider side of the triangle towards yourself, start rolling the pastry. [If you find it difficult to keep the chocolate chips inside, don't worry. In some of my pictures, you will find some chips peeking out through the folds of the pastry, and I think I like them that way. Then you know there chocolatey goodness inside!]

Whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush each croissant with the egg wash. 

Put it in the oven for 30 mins.

Enjoy warm croissants, crispy and crunchy outside with gooey melted chocolate inside!

Spicy latkes with creamy yogurt dip

Or should I call these aloo tikkis (potato patties) with a twist?

Latkes can be very simple recipies with few ingredients while aloo tikkis (potato patties) can call for many ingredients. Picking the best from both gives spicy latkes complemented with creamy cilantro and lime yogurt dip.

Potato patties or aloo tikkis as commonly known among indians are made with boiled potato. Latkes are made with grated potato. Grated potato give a nice texture which I like. So, along with grated potato, I added onion and carrot. This part is like a latke but adding some spices to it brings in the tikki taste.

Grating a potato, an onion and a carrot may sound like a lot of work but it isn't. Use the big holes side of your box grater. It will not take much time. You can choose to finely chop your onion instead of grating it. 

The most important thing is to drain all vegetable juice. The mix will not be soupy! Also, add salt at the end to prevent the juices from running again.

Bake or fry? I have fried them as you can see here. But, if you want to opt for less oil version, you can definitely bake them. Mix 1 and half tablespoon of softened butter to your mixture and bake. They will turn out equally yummy!

These latkes get crispy on the outside with soft creamy inside with a hint of spice. I decided to pair these fried spicy goodness with creamy cilantro and lime dip. This dip helps to cool your tongue and to never stop consuming these. Doesn't these look totally to die for?

Ingredients:

For Latkes:

1 large russet potato

1 medium onion

1 small carrot

1 jumbo egg/ 2 eggs

1 tbsp fresh ginger paste

2 tsp cumin powder

1tsp coriander powder

2 green chilies [Modify according to your tolerance of heat]

⅓ cup chopped cilantro

Juice of ½ lime

1 cup bread crumbs [Bread crumbs will soak any excess water. You can substitute with flour if you don't have crumbs]

Salt for seasoning

For dip:

3 tbsp plain greek yogurt

1 tsp of lime juice

⅓ cup chopped cilantro

½ tsp roasted cumin powder [Dry roast some cumin seeds on a pan on medium heat. When the aroma of roasted cumin fills your nose, take them off the heat. Be careful not to burn them- keep tossing them around on the pan. Once they are cool, add it to your grinder and make a powder. I usually roast at least 3-4 tbsp of whole cumin seeds and store my powder for later use.]

a pinch of salt

Method:

For latkes:

Grate potato, onion and carrot in a bowl lined with a kitchen towel. Wring out juices as much as you can.

Transfer it to a bowl. Add all other ingredients except salt and mix well. 

Start heating a shallow pan with vegetable/canola oil on medium heat.

When the oil is hot, add salt to the mixture.

Add about half to 1 tbsp of the mixture and flatten with your spoon. Do not crowd your latkes or they will not get crispy outside.

When it has browned on one side (approx 4-5min), turn and fry the other side.

The latkes will be nice golden brown in color. Put them on a double paper towel lined plate to drain excess oil. Serve hot with yogurt dip.

For yogurt dip:

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Add water to bring it to the consistency you like.

Bacon wrapped Brussels sprouts

I love my veggies but I love meat too and the combination of two is great, for instance, bacon wrapped Brussels sprouts. Roasted Brussels sprouts are delicious, but wrap them in bacon and they become heavenly good as the fat from the bacon seeps into the layers of the sprouts. Pop one of these into your mouth and the sprouts melt away perfectly complemented with the crispy bacon.

This is a no-fail, simplest recipe ever. You need Brussel sprouts, of course! Remove the outer leaves and halve them.

Next is bacon. I used thick cut. Cut each slice of bacon into two.

Now start wrapping one half of Brussels sprout in one half slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Arrange them nicely on a foil wrapped baking tray and sprinkle ground black pepper on them. Put them in a preheated oven at 375° for 30 min.

And Voila!! You have no idea how difficult it was for me to wait to take these pics before I could start devouring them.

This can be made so easily and so quickly for guests at home or bring them to a potluck.

Ingredients:

1 lb pack of thick cut bacon

1 lb Brussels sprouts. [I had lined the extra sprouts with a little salt and pepper along with the wrapped ones on my tray and they got soaked in bacon fat too and turned out yummy!]

1 tb ground black pepper.

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cut each Brussels sprouts in halves.

Cut each slice of bacon in half.

Wrap each piece of sprout with bacon and secure ends of bacon with toothpick.

Sprinkle the black pepper on the wrapped sprouts.

Arrange them nicely (without crowding) on a foil wrapped tray.

Put them in the oven for 30 min.

Drain excess fat by lining them on paper towel.

Enjoy hot but be careful!!