Homemade Bordeaux Cookies

Bordeaux cookies are crispy and best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk. These cookies taste very similar to Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux Cookies.

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble” of the 18th century. Bordeaux is also an upscale place- a city for luxury shopping, drinking, and eating. (Info from http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/france-travel-tips/bordeaux/). 

Adapted from: Grandma Bees Recipes

Yields - 20

Ingredients:
1. Flour - 1 cup (I used whole wheat white flour, but you can use all-purpose flour)
2. Unsalted butter - 1 stick/8 tablespoon, softened
3. Brown sugar - 2/3 cup or white sugar - 1/2 cup
4. Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Whole milk - 2 tablespoon

Method:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter until smooth.

2. Add milk and baking powder and mix well.

3. Slowly add flour and combine together to form a dough.

4. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

6. Meanwhile roll the dough into 1/4 inches thick and cut into desired shape using a cookie cutter.

7. Place the cookies in parchment lined baking tray with at least 3 inch distance between each cookie. The cookies are going to spread while baking.

8. Bake for 7-9 minutes until the top of the cookie turns golden brown. These cookies are soft just after baking but they harden once they cool down. Store in an airtight container.

Submitting this recipe to "International Food Challenge", an event by Saraswathi of Sara's Yummy Bites.

Spinach Rice | Palak Pulao

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Long grain rice - 1 cup
2. Spinach -2 cups packed
3. Onion - 1 medium
4. Cilantro - a handful
5. Mint leaves/Pudina -  a handful
6. Green chillies - 2
7. Cloves - 2-3
8. Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
9. Cardamom - 1
10. Oil - 2 tablespoon
11. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Make a fine paste of spinach, cilantro, mint leaves and green chillies and keep it aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a pan and add cloves, cinnamon and cardamom and fry for few seconds.

3. Add thinly sliced onions and saute until they turn translucent.

4. Add spinach paste and salt to taste and cook for 5 minutes.

5. Add washed rice and 2 cups of water.

6. If you wish to cook rice in rice cooker, transfer it at this stage or you can continue to cook in a open vessel on low-medium flame.

Tomato Dal

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
2. Onion - 1 medium finely chopped
3. Tomato - 2 medium finely chopped
4. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
5. Green chilli slit - 2
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
7. Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
8. Asafoetida/Hing - 2 pinch
9. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
10. Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
11. Oil - 2 tablespoon
12. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash and pressure cook toor dal for 4-5 whistles.

2. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a saucepan and splutter mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

3. Add asafoetida and ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute.

4. Add finely chopped onions and slit green chillies and saute until onions turn light brown in color.

5. Add turmeric powder and red chilli powder followed by finely chopped tomatoes. Fry for 2-3 minutes and add cooked dal.

6. Add enough water to get the desired consistency and salt to taste.

7. Boil for around 5 minutes and turn off the heat.

Carrot Chapathi

Yields: 5-6

Ingredients:
1. Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
2. Carrots peeled and grated - 2 medium
3. Oil - 1 tablespoon
4. Salt to taste
5. Ghee - for greasing chapathi

Method:
1. Take wheat flour, grated carrots, 1 tablespoon oil and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well and knead into a dough by adding water little by little.

2. Rest the dough for at least 15 minutes.

3. Heat a skillet on medium-high flame. Take a lemon sized piece of dough and roll into flat disc.

4. Cook them on both sides by applying little ghee.

Serve with any curry of your choice. 

Beetroot Thoran

Serving: 2

Ingredients:
1. Beetroot - 2 medium sized
2. Shallots - 2 nos.
3. Coconut grated - 2-3 tablespoon
4. Green chilli - 1
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Oil - 1 tablespoon
8. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Grate the beetroot and keep it aside.

2. Coarsely grind shallots, grated coconut and green chilli and keep it aside.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds.

4. Add curry leaves and coarsely ground mixture. Saute for a minute and add grated beetroot and salt to taste.

5. Cook on medium flame for around 5 minutes and turn off the flame.

This can be served as a side dish for rice. Instead of adding grated beetroot, you can add finely chopped ones, in which case you need to pressure cook the beetroot first and then add to the ground mixture.

Carrot Thoran

Serving: 2

Ingredients:
1. Carrot - 4 medium sized
2. Shallots - 2 nos.
3. Coconut grated - 2-3 tablespoon
4. Green chilli - 1
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Oil - 1 tablespoon
8. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash and cut carrots into small pieces and keep it aside.

2. Coarsely grind shallots, grated coconut and green chilli and keep it aside.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds.

4. Add curry leaves and coarsely ground mixture. Saute for a minute and add carrots and salt to taste.

5. Add around 1/2 cup water and cook on medium flame until carrots are tender and all the water evaporates.

Chocolate Oatmeal

Chocolate oatmeal is healthy and delicious breakfast dish. I found this is one of the best ways to make rolled oats.

Serving: 1

Ingredients:
1. Old fashioned rolled oats - 1/2 cup
2. Milk - 1/2 cup
3. Water - 1 cup
4. Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Sugar - 2 teaspoon or as per taste
6. Almond slices - 1 tablespoon for garnishing

Method:
1. Cook the rolled oats as per the package directions. I usually boil it with 1/2 cup milk and 1 cup water and cook them until they are soft.

2. Add cocoa powder and sugar to taste.

3. Garnish with almond slices and serve.

Fried Rice with Boiled Eggs

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Basmati Rice/Long grained rice - 1 cup
2. Hard boiled eggs - 3
3. Onion - 1 medium
4. Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
5. Green chillies - 1 or 2
6. Oil - 2 tablespoon
7. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash and cook rice with 2 cups of water. Let is cool completely before you start making the fried rice.

2. Grate the hard boiled eggs and keep it aside.

3. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add finely sliced onion. Saute until onions turn translucent.

4. Add ginger-garlic paste, slit green chillies and salt to taste. Saute for a minute.

5. Add grated boiled eggs and cooked rice. Mix well and add more salt if required.

6. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes on medium flame.

Garnish with spring onions and serve hot.

Homemade Granola

This granola recipe is easy to make and much healthier than the store bought granola. I have added peanuts and almonds in this but you can customize with the nuts and dried fruits of your choice. You can add dried cranberries, dried cherries, walnuts, pecans or even choco chips. 

Ingredients:

1. Old fashioned rolled oats - 2 cups

2. Roasted peanuts and almonds - 1/3 cup

3. Olive oil - 1 tablespoon

4. Honey - 4 tablespoon

5. Brown sugar - 4 tablespoon

6. Salt - 1/8 teaspoon

Method:

1. Dry roast oats for 10 minutes on medium flame with continuous stirring.

2. Once done, remove from the pan and keep it aside.

3. In the same pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil, honey, brown sugar and salt. When the sugar melts and starts to thicken, add the roasted oats, roasted peanuts and almonds. Mix well to coat the oats with honey-sugar syrup. Turn off the heat and transfer into a greased plate or a plate lined with parchment paper.

4. Allow it to cool completely before storing in a air tight container.

Khara Boondi

Ingredients:

1. Gram flour/Besan/Kadala podi - 1 cup

2. Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon

3. Salt to taste

4. Oil for deep frying

5. Oil - 1 tablespoon - to add to batter

Method:

1. Take gram flour in a mixing bowl and add around 1/4 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of oil. Mix well to remove all lumps and make a smooth paste.

2. Gradually add more water and make a thick batter(like idli batter).

3. Heat oil for deep frying.

4. To check if the batter is of right consistency, dip the tip of a spoon in batter and drop the batter in hot oil. If it forms a round ball, then your batter is of right consistency. Otherwise adjust by adding little water or gram flour.

5. Use a boondi maker or perforated ladle or a colander to drop the batter into hot oil. Flame should be kept on medium. Turn the boondi to cook on all sides evenly. Boondis are ready to take out from the oil when the bubbling of oil stops. 

6. Drain excess oil in a tissue. Once the whole batch is done, add salt to taste and red chilli powder and give it a good mix.

Enjoy these crispy khara boondi with a cup hot of tea. 

Perforated Ladle

Sprouted Moong Dosa | Sprouted Green Gram Dosa

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1. Moong/Green gram - 1 cup

2. Rice  - 1/2 cup

3. Salt to taste

4. Oil for greasing dosa

Method:

1. Wash and soak green gram in water for 4-5 hours. 

2. For sprouting the green gram, hang them in a muslin cloth for at least 8 hours.

3. Soak rice for 2 hours.

4. Grind together rice and sprouted green gram into a fine paste.

5. Add salt to taste and dosa can be made immediately without any fermentation.

Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar. 

Ragi Roti with Radish Greens

Serving: Makes 4 rotti

Ingredients:
1.  Ragi powder/Finger Millet powder - 1 cup
2. Radish greens/radish leaves - chopped - 1/2 cup tightly packed
3. Onion - 1 medium
4. Coriander leaves/Cilantro chopped - 2 tablespoon'
5. Green chili - 1 (optional)
6. Oil - for greasing rotti
7. Salt to taste

Method:
1. In a mixing bowl, take ragi powder, finely chopped radish greens, finely chopped onion, chopped cilantro, chili and salt to taste.

2. Sprinkle water little by little and mix well to form a dough.

3. Heat the skillet on medium flame. Take a piece of parchment paper and apply little oil on it.

4. Take a large lemon sized piece of dough and flatten into thin disc on greased parchment paper by pressing it with your palm.

5. Take the rotti along with parchment paper and place on hot skillet with the rotti side facing down. Carefully remove the parchment paper.

6. Apply little oil on rotti. Cover and cook each side for 4-5 minutes on low-medium flame.

Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Note:
1. For pressing the dough, you can use banana leaf instead of parchment paper.

2. To easily separate the parchment paper from rotti, grease the parchment paper before pressing the rotti.

Submitting this recipe to Priya's "Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge". For this month's challenge I paired with Padmajha who gave me millet and greens as my secret ingredients.

Palmiers | Little Heart Cookies

Palmier is a French pastry made from puff pastry sheets. These cookies are also known as Elephant ear cookies or butterfly cookies. 

Ingredients:

1. Puff pastry sheet - 1 sheet

2. Sugar fine granulated - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Thaw the puff pastry sheet.

2. Sprinkle little sugar on a clean working counter and place the pastry sheet on it. Use a rolling pin and roll the pastry sheet until it is 1/8 inch thick.

3. Sprinkle sugar on the surface of pastry sheet. Start rolling from two opposite sides of the pastry sheet until they meet in the center.

4. Press gently and cover this cylinder with a plastic wrap. Keep it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400 degree F. Grease the baking tray with butter or line it with a parchment paper.

6. After 15 minutes, take the rolled dough from the freezer and cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Place these on a baking tray. Make sure to give some space between each cookies as they are going to expand while baking.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 7 minutes. Flip the cookies and bake for another 7 minutes until both sides turn golden brown.

8. Cool them in wire rack before serving.

Note: For flavouring, you can mix cinnamon powder/vanilla powder/cardamom powder along with sugar.

Whole wheat Banana Chocolate Muffins

Serving: Makes 8 medium sized muffins

Ingredients:
Set 1:
1. Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
2. Unsweetened cocoa powder- 1 tablespoon
3. Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
4. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Set 2:
1. Ripe banana - 1 large
2. Sugar - 4 tablespoon
3. Oil - 2 tablespoon
4. Milk - 1/2 cup

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F(180 deg C). Line the muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Sift together the dry ingredients in set 1.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add peeled banana and mash it with a fork. Then add sugar, oil and milk and mix well.

4. Then add dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour the batter in muffin tray and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.