5-minute Microwave Brownies - Low fat & Whole wheat

Wishing everyone who is reading this a very Happy & Healthy New Year 2009.

I started blogging towards the latter part of this year, and this feels wonderful! I have made a lot of new friends, and a lot of new, healthy recipes that I am proud of.
Along the way, I have learnt a lot of things about cooking and eating healthy which I would have been clueless about a few years back. Thanks to all the encouragement from my family and friends.

There is this tradition that I believe in (so do a lot of people) that making and eating something sweet today, will make the whole year sweet and enjoyable.
Chocolate says festive, joy and sweetness to me. And a brownie is an excellent way to put all there is in a chocolate to play. This is my healthy take on this recipe from George Duran of Food Network.
This recipe was requested by one of my friends from school... she wanted them,
low-fat, relatively healthy, sugar free and one that can be made in a microwave quickly.

I have covered almost all of them except for the sugar part. I used regular granulated sugar but it may be substituted with Splenda if you are making it for a diabetic person. You could also use Agave as a slightly better alternative for regular sugar.

Whole wheat pastry flour is one of the healthiest forms of flour out there, and is suitable for baking and making pastries. If you don't get this where you live, then you may use All purpose flour.

Points to note:

Use a 8" or 9" pan for baking this, and it should be at least 2"-3" tall. The batter tends to expand a lot while cooking.

I baked the brownies for 5 minutes in my microwave. And learnt that 4 minutes (or lesser) in mine would have been ideal since it is quite a powerful microwave.
It tasted great when served immediately, but mine dried out a little as time went by.

So while making this, adjust the cooking time according to your microwave.
For a normal microwave: 4 1/2 - 5 minutes (exactly) to make this.
For a powerful microwave: Not more than 4 minutes.

Do not bake in the microwave for more than 5 minutes even if it looks undone. It tends to cook a little during the 3 minute resting period.

Go ahead, impress your friends and family with this quick dessert this New Year.



5-minute Microwave Brownies - Low fat & Whole wheat

Ingredients:

Whole wheat pastry flour - 1/2 c (minus 1 tbsp)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (add more if you like them sweeter)
Unsalted butter - 4 tbsp
Unsweetened chocolate - 3 oz.
Vanilla - 1 tbsp
Chopped Walnuts - 1/4 cup
Chocolate chips - 1/4 cup (To sprinkle on top)

Method:

Spray a 9" microwave safe dish and keep aside.

Sift whole wheat pastry flour and baking powder and set aside.

Beat eggs and sugar and keep aside. Do not use a hand mixer for this. A simple large whisk/large fork would do the trick.

In a microwave safe bowl, add the butter and the unsweetened chocolate and microwave it for 1-2 minutes till completely melted. Take it out and whisk till shiny and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Mix in the vanilla, eggs and sugar mixture to this and whisk quickly. Make sure the chocolate is not too hot, or it will scramble the eggs.

Add the flour until completely incorporated. Fold in the nuts.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. No need to cover entirely. It should look like this.



Microwave for 4-5 minutes.

Let it rest for 3 minutes.

Spread the chocolate chips (that has now melted) on top into a smooth layer.

Cut and serve with cold ice cream, or enjoy them as it is! How quick was that?
For a few minutes of work, this is way better than the oven baked ones.

Makeshift Burrito with Red Chard rice, Tempeh and Veggies

With the holiday season around, there must have been a lot of sweet stuff going around in the form of cookies and cakes at your home... here is a nice change.
You could put this burrito together with stuff you have on hand.

This is just another way to eat burritos. Veggie burritos are pretty bland from where I get them. So only way to have them like I want them was to make my own.
Stuffed them with home-made rice flavored with red chard (getting my greens that way)
And this was my first time using tempeh, I would have preferred baked tofu though.
Use any veggies you have on hand, a dollop of sour cream or avocado would finish it off nicely.

Makeshift Burrito with Red Chard rice, Tempeh and Veggies

Ingredients:

Whole grain tortillas - 1 or 2 per person
Cooked brown rice - 3 cups
Red Chard - A bunch
Tempeh - A small packet (Cooked according to package instructions)
Cabbage, Carrots & Zucchini - As much as you want, roasted
Jalapenos - A few sliced
Salt - To taste
Pepper - To season
Olive oil - To roast veggies and for making rice



Method:

Clean and cut red chard. In a pan add oil on medium heat, add the greens along with stems (cut). Add salt and pepper and saute. No more flavors are needed, but you may
add mexican spice seasoning if you prefer, to the rice.



In a griddle, cook tortillas on both sides with a little oil.



To assemble, stack veggies, cooked tempeh, and the rice in the tortilla and roll as you would a burrito.
Wrap in paper/ foil and serve.
You are all set! There goes an easy way to get nutritious food into your tummy.

Breakfast Lentil crepes - Traditional Adai made easy

This recipe was requested by a co-blogger. And here it is!

Adai as we traditionally call it, is basically a mix of lentils and rice ground together to form a batter. And then formed into crepes on a griddle and cooked on both sides.

And what makes my method easier? Here is why...
Originally, rice is soaked along with the lentils and ground together, there are specific grinders that are used for this purpose.
Since I don't have the heavy duty grinder, I use the normal blender.
Now, here is the problem with using normal blenders... it might be too much stress on the machine to grind soaked rice, and also if you are using a very powerful blender, it produces heat (you can feel the contents warming up) which eventually cooks the batter even while it is grinding. Not good!

To avoid the problem, I used "Idli Rava" - Cream of Rice instead of the actual rice.
There is no need to grind this. The only grinding you will be doing is for the soaked lentils (which is relatively easy on the blender)
Also remember to add enough water, so the blender does not heat up.
(Detailed instructions below in the recipe)

I have used four different types of lentils for this recipe. All of them can be found in an Indian grocery store. Mung and Split chick peas (Channa dal) can be found in the bulk section of your regular grocery store (if it has one).
You may use whole or split Mung beans for this recipe. Both give a different taste and are both great. I personally like the whole green mung dal for this.

There is no need to ferment the final batter, you may proceed making crepes as it gets done. And not having to grind the rice saves on a lot of time and energy.

Breakfast Lentil crepes - Traditional Adai made easy

Ingredients:

Idli Rava - 2 cups
Mung Dal - 1/4 cup
Urad Dal - 1/4 cup
Thur Dal - 1/4 cup
Channa Dal - 1/4 cup
Dried Red chillies - 4 (you may add more if you like)
Curry Leaves - 8-10
Hing/Asafoetida - A couple of pinches
Salt - To taste
Water - 4 cups (To mix with Idli Rava)

Method:

Wash and soak all the four varieties of dal with red chillies and curry leaves for at least 4-6 hours. I soak them overnight.

Next day, just before grinding the lentils together, mix the Idli Rava with 4 cups of water to form a batter (it will absorb the water when you let it sit while you grind the dals, and that is okay). There is no need to add more water.

Grind the lentils, chillies and curry leaves in a blender in batches. Add enough water to get the machine running. Grind till smooth.

Add it to the Idli rava that has already been mixed with water. Mix well.

Add Hing/Asafoetida and again mix thoroughly.

Cover with a lid and let it sit for a couple of hours. Or you can prepare crepes immediately if you are in a rush. Does not alter the taste very much, and both ways are great. The batter would look like this. Add water before preparing crepes just enough so that it resembles a pancake batter.



To prepare crepes... Check out this step-wise pictorial. The picture below is from my earlier post which I made for regular dosais, but "Adai" follows the same method.



You will need a smooth non-stick griddle on medium heat.
Step 1: Pour a small ladle of batter in the center, and spread out in circular motion till you get a thin layer. Drizzle oil.
Step 2: Flip over when the bottom side starts browning, and cook on other side.
Step 3: You may leave it on the griddle for a little longer to get crispier crepes, or take it off the heat as soon as it starts browning to get a softer crepe.
Step 4: For this particular dish, I would suggest softer crepes, as that is how it is traditionally prepared.

Variations include:
Grinding garlic and ginger along with the batter.
Adding cilantro and or onions just before making the crepes.

Enjoy with Chutney or Molagai podi (which is basically a mixture of chillies and lentils ground together, mixed with oil and dipped into)

Pumpkin and Carrot Fudge - Ouch, my fingers hurt!

My hands are wet and hurting as I type this, reason? Playing in and with snow without gloves on, nope! Not a good idea... but really couldn't resist! :)

Here goes one more of my own recipes, oh! the pleasure it gives me to create something new...
Why and how I came up with this is pretty simple, the pureed pumpkin and carrot (when cooked) share a similar flavor, slightly sweet and yet it has a earthy feel to it. And I thought why not marry those two together and make something sweet!
Carrots are widely used in Indian cooking especially in desserts, so I was pretty sure about how this was going to taste... Good!

I did write vaguely about the sugar measurement in this recipe, as the carrots in itself are pretty sweet, so I added little less than half a cup for this recipe. But I leave it completely up to your discretion to add more or less.
Normally I would have let the sugar melt and let it come to a soft candy stage and then go about adding the other ingredients, but since the amount of sugar used is pretty low, I had to follow a different method.
Anyway, who cares how I got there, it tastes good, and that is all what matters.



Pumpkin and Carrot Fudge

Ingredients:

Pumpkin puree (no sugar added) - 2 cups
Carrot - 2 cups (finely grated)
Non fat milk powder - 3-4 cups
Melted butter/Ghee - 2 tbsp
Sugar - To taste
Cardamom - 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg - Two pinches (grated)
Slivered Almonds - A little to garnish

Method:

In a heavy bottomed pan, or a good non stick pan, mix the pumpkin puree, sugar and carrot on medium heat. Cover and cook for about 30 min. Stir a couple of times in between.

Once all the water has evaporated and the carrot is cooked, start adding the milk powder.
Add milk powder a little at a time and keep stirring on low-medium heat. Add the melted butter.
Let it cook for about 45 min. Sirring every now and then is important. Add nutmeg and cardamom and mix.

Turn off heat and transfer onto a greased pan (which is couple of inches high) and spread evenly and press down with the back of a spoon.
Garnish with some slivered almonds on top, and again press them slightly down, or they will fall off the fudge.

Let it cook completely. Cut into desired shapes, bar, squares or diamonds and serve.
It is a fudge, so expect it to be semi-soft.