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Im going to take a few days off for my birthday, so please pardon any delays in answering emails or comments. Now that Im old, I have to pace myself. ;) Thank you!

These are very delicate and tasty cream puffs that will make those that you serve them to  feel extra special...

Serves (8)
Prep: 20 mins. |
Cook: 40 minutes
--(+ standing time of 30 mins.)

Posted by Sandra

INGREDIENTS:

---Puffs
-1 cup water
-½ cup unsalted butter
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-4 eggs

---Filling
(This is quick and easy – or feel free to make your own custard.)
-1 package (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
-1 cup milk
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 cups whipping cream (un-whipped)

-Confectioners sugar, for dusting

METHOD

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In medium saucepan, heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour; reduce heat to low. Stir vigorously over low heat with a wooden spoon about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball; remove from heat. Beat in eggs, all at once; continue beating until smooth.

On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart while dough is still warm (its supposed to be sticky and paste-like). Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from draft, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling. In large bowl, beat pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract with an electric hand-mixer on low speed until well blended. Add whipping cream; beat on high speed for about 2 minutes.

Once puffs are cooled, gently cut off the top third of each puff, and then carefully pull out any obvious strands of soft dough (but do not to take out too much or youll expose the bottom). Fill bottom of puffs with filling; replace tops. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve immediately. ~ Enjoy!


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I have never tried this soup, so I am not taking any responsibility if you make it and hate it!

1 liter strong whey
4-5 tbs sugar
1 cinnamon stick

50 g potato flour or cornstarch
100 ml cold water


Cook the whey with the cinnamon and sugar for 5-10 minutes. Make a paste from the starch and cold water and stir into the soup to thicken. Pour into a bowl, sprinkle with sugar and cool. Red food colouring or crowberry (or redcurrant or cranberry) concentrate can be used to give the soup some colour.

For the next few days - we are going to be having traditional Tambram food for lunch. When its just me, I usually make one-pot meals which have a fair balance of carbs, proteins and loads of vegetables. Now that I have company for the next couple of weeks, proper lunch it is!

Im just doing this for fun to chronicle how many such traditional (read non-fusion) recipes I can cook :) Anyway it is also a great way to share authentic (almost) recipes from my heritage with anyone who may be interested.

All items are accompanied by rice / broken wheat and with lots of yogurt to end the meal and serve 3-4 people

Day One - Sunday

Menu

• Vengaya Sambar
• Potato Roast
• Vendakai Curry
• Special add on: Fried vadam

Recipe for Vengaya Sambar (Onion sambar)



Ingredients
3/4 cup tur dal (pressure cooked with pinch of hing and mashed)
5 medium sized onions, peeled & quartered
2 tsp oil
fat pinch asafoetida
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 dried red chilli broken
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp ready tamarind paste or 1 large lemon sized ball soaked in water and extracted
3 tsp sambar powder
1 tsp salt or to taste

Directions

1. In a heavy pan, heat the oil. Temper with asafoetida, fenugreek, mustard, curry leaves, dried chilli and saute for a few seconds.
2. Add the quartered onions, turmeric, pinch of salt, saute on medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add a glass of water, cover and cook till onions are soft.
4. In a bowl, make a slurry with sambar powder, tamarind paste and 1/2 cup water.
5. Add this slurry to the softened onions, bring to a simmer.
6. Next add the mashed dal, salt, bring to a simmer.
7. Check for salt and sourness, adjust and bring to a simmer again.

Remove from flame and keep covered until ready to serve with rice.

Notes
This tastes better after 1-2 hours of making it, as the flavours improve with time.
You can use chinna vengayam (Madras onions / Shallots) instead of regular onions.
I will share with you the recipe for homemade sambar powder in a later post, you can use MTR sambar powder instead.


Recipe for Potato Roast




Ingredients
5 medium potoes, boiled, skinned and cubed
2 tbsp oil

For the dry marinade:
1 tbsp fine rice flour
1/4-1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder

Tempering ingredients:
fat pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Bengal gram dal (chana dal)
1 tsp udad dal
2 sprigs curry leaves

1 tbsp finely chopped coriander for garnish

Directions

1. Sprinkle the ingredients for the dry marinade on the boiled potato cubes, coat using light hands and keep aside for 15 min - half hour.
2. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add all the tempering ingredients, stir around till the dals turn golden.
3. Add the spiced potato cubes, toss well to coat with whole spices. Let the potato brown on a low flame. For this it is necessary that you dont keep tossing them around, keep them on a low flame and turn around after 10 minutes, to brown the other sides.
4. Once ready, garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Notes
The udad dal, bengal gram, fennel seeds and curry leaves are not added in a typical Iyer style roast, I have incorporated some Chettinad flavours in this. So you can avoid them to make a simpler roast.


Recipe for Vendakkai Curry (Dry okra / ladys finger / bhindi saute)

A curry in Tamil Brahmin cuisine is a dry sauteed preparation, not involving any gravy. Most curries are prepared in the similar manner using a variety of vegetables.



Ingredients

2 cups thickly sliced okra
(Preparation: Wash okra well, wipe completely dry, top, tail and slice with a dry knife)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 broken dried red chillies
1 tsp udad dal
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt

Directions
In a wok, heat oil. Splutter the mustard seeds, fry the red chillies and saute the udad dal till golden. Add in the sliced okra, tumeric and salt and saute on medium flame off and on for 7-8 minutes till okra is cooked yet lightly crunchy.
Do not cover while cooking.

Serve with rice and rasam / sambar / mor kozhambu.

It would be a bad job if I couldnt come up with a dish for my own blog challenge!  However, its not too much of a hardship to make one of Nigel Slaters recipes for Dish of the Month.  The April chapter of the Kitchen Diaries II is full of lovely recipes including quite a lot of prose from Nigel too.
He waxes lyrical about olives and states that it is rare to find an olive he does not like, only those tossed in garlic, stuffed with anchovy or red pepper or marinated with chilli get spat out!  Well, I have to say, my favourite olives are the ones stuffed with anchovies but I wouldnt put them in this dish.

This is a very simple dish to make, starting by making a paste of spices, salt, oil and garlic.  I realised as I started that I still didnt have any turmeric, so that got left out.

Nigel uses chicken thighs for this recipe (are you listening Dom?) but I find it more economical to buy a whole free range chicken and joint it myself, then cover it with the paste and leave to marinade.

After a couple of hours, or overnight if you are well organised, fry off the chicken in olive oil and add to the casserole with lemons and onions and water.

The dish is finished with a handful of olives and a bunch of torn coriander.  I served it with couscous to soak up the delicious juices.

If you would like to join us for Dish of the Month, here is what you need to do:

• Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
• Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
•  Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
• If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or @Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers. 

Rules:

• If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
• If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe.  Likewise recipes on the Guardian Lifestyle website.
• One entry per blog.
• Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.

);

Nanny didnt get to really experience my cooking, its sad since she inspired me a lot. Unfortunately as she got older her taste buds changed immensely. Foods that she used to love she wouldnt even look at anymore. She would still eat pasta though, it was the one thing she never gave up on. I can remember experimenting with different veggies and she would lean over the stove and look into the pan and ask what I was making. I didnt really know but she would say "Oh, its giambotta" and she would nod in approval. I didnt realize what that meant at the time. Now that Ive learned so much more about food, I understand that Giambotta is just a combination of different veggies or meats and veggies just kind of thrown together. I guess its what I would call a one pot pantry meal. Meals like this really taste amazing and remind me most of my grandmother. I guess thats why when years ago I saw Lidia Bastianich make a recipe like the one Im going to share with you today, I never stopped thinking about it. When I went through all my Lidia cookbooks I found the recipe and guess what she called it....Seared Filet Mignon with Braised Chunky Vegetables...Filetto di Bue con GIAMBOTTA de Verdure. So I guess my grandmother would approve!

This recipe is loosely based off of what I remembered Lidia make that day. I didnt follow all her ingredients or measurements but I was absolutely inspired by her and by of course, Nanny.  My recipe is a little rough because I was just winging it and Im a little nervous about posting Lidias recipe since its not available online at all.  If you want Lidias recipe just email me through the link at the top of the page and I will send it to you. 


Filet Mignon Giambotta

Inspired by Lidia Bastianich (recipe is not available online but can be found in her cookbook Lidias Italian American Kitchen)

Ingredients:

About 1 pound of filet mignon steaks, sliced into 1/4 inch slices (or cut into chunks)
Approx 1/2 pound (a little over) of baby potatoes (I used a mixed bag from trader joes)
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
6 cloves garlic, smashed with side of a knife
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 handful of sliced frozen peppers or 1 red bell pepper cut into large pieces
1/2 pound string beans
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
worcestershire sauce
Teriyaki sauce
extra virgin olive oil and canola oil

Directions:

1.  Trim string beans and slice potatoes in half (or the larger once in thirds) so they are all approximately the same size.  Par boil potatoes and string beans together until potatoes are just tender.  Do not over cook them because they will continue to cook them in the pan (but you dont want the outside to cook faster than the inside so do not skip this step). Drain well.  Seperate string beans from potatoes.

2.  Add sliced beef to a bowl and add a little balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce and chopped garlic.  Just enough to marinate the meat but not enough to cover.  Toss to coat all of the beef and let it rest in the marinade on the counter.  (You should never put cold meat in a hot pan or it will be tough.)

3.  Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, with a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and canola oil (the EVOO gives flavor but will smoke faster than canola oil so mixing the oil prevents that from happening) just enough to lightly coat the bottom of the pan.  Add potatoes and 3 cloves of cracked garlic to the pan.  Make sure the potatoes are cut side down so they get nice and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Once the potatoes have a nice brown color turn the potatoes and let them cook for a few minutes add half of the onion.  Stir the potatoes and onion (or just shake the pan) to make sure each side of the potatoes get a chance to touch the bottom of the pan. Season the other side with salt and pepper.  Once onions are beginning to soften and potatoes are fully cooked, transfer to a bowl and set aside.


3.  In the same pan add the rest of the onion, 2 cloves of the cracked garlic, string beans and peppers.  If the pan is dry add a little more oil.  Toss everything together until onions start to soften but not mushy. Everything  should soften but still have a crunch to it (think chinese vegetables). Season with salt and pepper. Add olives.  When veggies are cooked add them to the bowl with the potatoes. 

4.  Remove the meat from the marinade and add them to the same pan youve been using.  Sear for just a couple of minutes per side (depending on how thick or think your pieces are) until browned on the outside and still pink in the middle.  Once meat is cooked add all the veggies back to the pan with the meat and toss together.  Add a splash of  balsamic vinegar, toss again to coat with vinegar.  (You shouldnt need to add any salt to the meat because the marinade has plenty of salt.)


Printable Recipe for Filet Mignon Giambotta

But before we could go fishing, we had to catch some bait-- shad. Thats Mike, Jims friend. We didnt have much luck at this one area.

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