Super Moist Banana Nut Loaf

Let's start with a little note before we preheat our oven for this one - Where in the world have I been all this while? Well, to cut things short, I had been to you-seriously-cannot-be-this-lazy kind of a town. Yeah, so let me be brutally honest and agree with you if you think I've become so hopelessly tardy with my food blog. But, I still am trying to revive it and in that attempt I do hope to keep you entertained, engaged and satisfied with whatever little I share every now and then.

Now jumping into the Super Moist Banana Nut Loaf here...

Let me give you some time to jump in.

Done jumping?

This was my first baking adventure after a really, really long break of almost two and half years. And, then I took really, really long to post it, too. Good heavens, I made this sometime in summer and am posting it here in winter. But, well at least I am posting it, after all!

So yes, I made this one day to satisfy my sweet tooth and to serve up to a couple of relatives who dropped by for tea one evening. Ripe bananas come together in the oven with toasted nuts into a delicious, aromatic experience you too can feel, just after one bite into this loaf!

Roasted Chicken Sausage Pasta with Pomegranate Garden Salad

The July sun's scorching up the East Coast, not to mention, late sunsets and long, humid days. The kids love it, however. I mean, who won't like to stay out playing till nine in the night, carelessly chasing fire flies and never wanting to accept that it's almost beyond dinnertime!

The hardest thing for me is to have my little boy stocked up with energy for his summer evening playtime. Summer vacation in a new neighborhood brought with it new friends for him and new challenges for me to keep him up and running. I would have to ensure he's eaten a healthy lunch before he steps out.

I always stash up on boxes of pasta and tons of veggies to make this easy lunch for him. He loves pasta. Yes, most kids do! But, more often than not we all end up cooking pasta along with store-bought sauces. In my case however, my son is not fond of ready sauces, which certainly increases my efforts, but gives me more opportunity to explore new flavors that enhance pasta. So, most often I end up making pasta in other ways.

So, here's a dish that can perk up your protein and satiate your taste buds!

Sabakki Sandige | Sabunada Papad | Tapioca Fritters

If you know anything about making papads, appalams or any type of sandige then you must be wondering how in the world I managed to make them when Bangalore just faced the wrath of Cyclone Nilam (Those of you in Chennai and surrounding areas, I hope you are fine after the havoc). 

Now, back to the crunchy side dish that will perk up every meal. One of my mother-in-law's friend was nice enough to lend us her expertise to make these for us. All we did was follow her instructions.

We made this  way back in Summer. I just did not find the time to post it. But hey, you have enough time to read and memorize this recipe until next summer. And, try it!! Just make sure you're up early in the morning so you're not working on your roof-top in the hot mid-day heat of Summer.

These fritters are more than just a side dish. They stay fresh in an air-tight container forever! All you need is to cook up a good South Indian meal (Think drumstick sambar, rice and a dry vegetable on the side) and deep fry these babies to perfection. Yum-O!

Ingredients

1.5 kg Sabudana/Sabakki/Tapioca pearls, soaked for about 6 hours
12-15 Green chillies, very very finely chopped (add more if you desire)
3-4 tbsp Jeera/Cumin seeds
2 small Onions, finely chopped (Optional)
A large sheet of plastic to dry the papads
And, some salt to taste!

Method

This is probably my first step-wise pictorial recipe description. So just go with the flow and drop me a line if you think I've missed something out.

Making this is no rocket science. Just needs a LOT of patience and an equal amount of sunshine!!

STEP 1 - Soak the sabudana for about 6 hours

STEP 2 - Place the soaked sabudana on a stove, over medium flame, continuously stirring, allowing the little pearls to cook.

STEP 3 - Add the chopped green chillies, jeera, onions and salt to the hot sabudana mix and stir to mix. Add more water if you find the mixture becoming too thick. Sabudana has a tendency to absorb water and thicken. Transfer it into a dish with a handle. Yup, we used a bucket!

STEP 4 - Haul your dish to your roof-top terrace. Don't forget a spoon. Lay a mat/bedspread on the floor. Place a large plastic sheet of paper over this and fastened on the ends with something heavy. The sabudana mixture has to be hot while you're at this step. DO NOT DELAY!

STEP 5 - Spoon little circles of the sabudana mixture onto the plastic sheet. Now, the waiting game begins! Allow the sun to do his job and let the papads-in-the-making get bone dry.

STEP 6 - As the papads dry, they tend to peel of become transparent, bubbly and fragile to touch. When they peel off easily from the plastic sheet (takes a whole day), pick up a cut of tea and a air-tight container and hit your terrace again.Sip tea as you peel away the papads and store them into your air-tight container.
Ensure that they are completely dry. If they're not, you might want to lay them out in the sun again the next day.

Once completely dry, the papads are ready to be deep-fried. Make that scrumptious meal and get chomping away. Now! 

Indo-Chinese Style Chicken Lollypop

As much as you're stuck up with the notion that India still fancies those little cart-style joints that churned out the most delicious Indo-Chinese food - Think again. They've moved on. The food scene in India has changed. So much so that I was left dumbfounded when I saw pasta at a popular Pizza chain. Oh yes, I was fully stumped when the waiter offered me a choice of Fusilli or Penne with my alfredo sauce, since I did not want fettucine. Now, why am I discussing Italian cuisine when we're here to deal with Indo-Chinese? Oh well... End of the day... Food is food is food! And, in truth, this post is to update all you people who were ignorant (until now), like me, in estimating India's culinary growth. Be enlightened!

Coming to the availability of world cuisine. All you got to do is ask for it. There's probably some place in some corner of every city that imports, makes or grows the ingredient or food you're looking for. My joy knew no bounds when I discovered I can get the freshest of cold cuts from a store cum deli very close to my office. Oh yes, that's another thing that's kept me off the blog. I landed myself a job a couple weeks ago. Just getting into the groove of work-life after a sabbatical of six years, really. So now. Back to the topic. The office is so beautifully located, I seem to find restaurants serving just about all cuisines in the world. I've downed Italian and Mexican and I can say, the taste is very authentic (or at least as authentic as these cuisines are in America).

All the while that I was at home before I took up the job here in India, I tried to put in efforts to prepare different types of dishes. It is certainly nice to see everyone enjoy something off the monotony. On one such Sunday, I dished out these uber-succulent indo-chinese style spicy chicken lollypops to go with fried rice. Yum-o!

If I've given you enough reasons to go beyond Indian cooking, then you should probably try out this currently-in-vogue-everywhere dish. Perfectly trimmed chicken wings, appropriately cut and formed into little pops, marinated in a spicy sauce, dipped in batter, deep-fried to golden crunchiness and then bathed in a seasoning of soy sauce, onions and chillies.

Oh my gosh. Someone please either make this for me NOW or buy it from somewhere. I am DROOOLING!!