Ujwala's Delicacies

Indian inspired all natural kitchen.

Chicken butter masala

Chicken Butter Masala is definitely the most known and popular North Indian dish in the world. Most probably you will have come across this dish abroad and if you are in India then of course you couldn’t have missed it. Make your own Chicken Butter Masala — way better than you can get in an Indian restaurant with your own organic ingredients. Mild and buttery with a hint of chili, gravy is warm and rich and traditionally simmered with chicken.

This rich, buttery, creamy chicken needs no introduction. Most probably the best known of all Indian dishes, it has already claimed the fame that it deserves.

Chicken Butter Masala is made with pureed juicy tomatoes, cashews and spices cooked in butter, and finished off with fresh cream. Aroma of the dish unfolds with the addition of the kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves. The trick is to cook the chicken in a tandoor/traditional clay oven, where the temperature reaches way higher than any regular oven; the marinated chicken is cooked in few minutes, tender and succulent.

4 ingredient homemade whole-grain cake

A classic cake with all pantry ingredients. Skip store-bought pre cake mix. Go with your own organic ingredients or ingredients as stone milled whole grain flour, organic raw sugar or palm sugar. Know what you eat without missing the feel and flavor of cake.

No matter how many recipes you may see for “healthy” cakes, cakes aren’t healthy. However, some cakes are less unhealthy than others, and if you bake your own cakes, you can make substitutions to improve their nutritional profile. Choosing a homemade cake, substituting flour with whole-grain, white with brown or raw sugar for example, allows you to have a slice of cake without consuming the very high amounts of calories, fat, sugar and sodium found in many frosted cakes. Replace baking soda with Eno (fruit salt). Eno is available in Asian grocery stores. Eno is composed of 50% sodium bicarbonate, 15% sodium bitartrate and 35% free tartaric acid. It’s basic purpose is to get relief from acidity. Another way to use is in cooking as it causes the flours to rise and can be handy. Though it is marketed Eno as Ayurvedic fruit salt and healthy, it is not made out of fruit. Real health benefits are unknown. It contains 2.1g of sucrose per 5ml which makes not suitable for diabetics and low sodium diets.

While no cake is really healthy, you can make substitutions when baking to make the end result a little less unhealthy. If you aren’t making a white cake, use at least half whole-wheat flour, preferably whole-wheat pastry flour or white whole-wheat flour, to increase the fiber and micronutrients in the cake. Decrease the sugar by up to one-third, adding cinnamon or vanilla to bring out the sweetness of the cake while limiting the sugar it contains. Replace up to half of the fat in the cake with fruit or vegetable purees, like applesauce, pureed prunes, pureed beans or pumpkin puree. These will lower the amount of fat while increasing the fiber, vitamins and minerals in your cake. Choose a cake that doesn’t require frosting and top it with a sprinkle of chopped nuts, cocoa powder, powdered sugar or coconut for decoration.

Whole-grain pasta in pumpkin, tomato sauce

Did you know?

… a pumpkin is really a squash?
It is! It’s a member of the Cucurbita family which includes squash and cucumbers.

… that the Irish brought this tradition of pumpkin carving to America?
The tradition originally started with the carving of turnips. When the Irish immigrated to the U.S., they found pumpkins to be plentiful and they were much easier to carve for their ancient holiday.

… that pumpkins are grown all over the world?
Six of the seven continents can grow pumpkins, including Alaska. Antarctica is the only continent that they won’t grow in.

Butternut squash sambar

Butternut squash is one of the most popular winter-squash vegetables. Squash combined with lentils makes it a nutrient rich dish packed with protein, fiber, vitamins etc. Sambar is south Indian lentil soup. Staple food that is usually eaten with rice, idly or vada. It can be consumed as soup as well. Being a winter-squash member, butternuts can be readily available in the USA markets from September until the middle of December. However, since many fruits arrive into USA from South American continent, they can be easily found all around the season.

Being a member of pumpkin family, butternut squash has a pleasant nutty flavor and mildly sweet taste. Fresh raw butternut cubes may add special tang to vegetable salads. It is found favorite in both savory as well as a sweet dishes. It can be used in variety of delicious recipes as baked, stuffed, or stew-fried; however, eaten best by steam cooking to get most nutrients.

In Mexico, butternut squash bisque (soup) with added fruits, herbs or seafood is a favorite appetizer. Roasted and tossed butternut squash seeds can be used as snacks.

Jackfruit, Quinoa Biryani

Jackfruit is my favorite vegetable and fruit. The jackfruit is a gigantic, spined, oval fruit that have been first cultivated in Indian rainforests. It is mostly grown in tropical or close to tropical climates. It mostly found in many parts of India, as well as in most of Southeast Asia. In certain parts of India, huge jackfruit is sliced up and sold raw. It has such a unique texture and flavor, you will either love it or hate it.

The seeds can be boiled or roasted and taste like chestnuts. Jackfruit is, commonly available in most Asian markets. It is very straightforward with a good, not quite crispy surface, and the gentle taste of pineapple and a slightly characteristic musky in taste.

Huge and thorny on the outside, Jackfruit is the “porcupine” of the vegetable world. Once a jackfruit is cracked open, what you will find inside are pods or “bulb”. Regularly referred to as seeds, these bulbs are actually, kinds of fleshy covering over the true seeds or pits, which are round and dark like chesnuts. The fleshy part can be eaten, or cut up and cooked. When immature, it is amazingly similar in grain to chicken, making jackfruit is an excellent vegetarian substitute for meat. In fact, jackfruit is sometimes referred to as “vegetable meat”.

The interior of jackfruit is golden and creamy looking, with each pod or bulbs dotted with large black seeds. The pods or bulbs, which are actually coverings for the dark seeds, can be eaten fresh, roasted, or used as a cooking ingredient. Unripe or “green” jackfruit (unripe it is still beige, white, or golden) is often called “vegetable meat” for its chewy texture and mild flavor. Jackfruit seeds can be roasted or boiled, like chestnuts. Some people leave the seeds inside the bulbs and cook the two together.