Gujarati Recipe Series - Handvo, Savoury Cake

This post marks the first in my series of Gujarati recipes! This is something I've been meaning to start for a long time and I have been encouraged by many of my twitter followers to do so too. I think it is pretty fitting to start off with a cake, but this time a savoury, spicy vegetable cake.

Handvo, or Andvo, is made from chickpea and semolina flour with carrots, peas, onion and sweetcorn, chili and ginger inside with a crispy top with mustard seeds on top. We always used to eat this on Saturday nights, with other snacky food like samosas - although it is a pretty filling meal in its own right.

Handvo
Makes one 18 x 6 cm dish (though will work in slightly bigger or smaller dishes)
You need to start this the day before you want to eat it. 
My cups are American cups, teacups also work well.

Part 1 - the day before
Ingredients
1 cup of coarse semolina flour
1 cup of chickpea (gram) flour
1 tsp of grated fresh ginger
1 - 2 green chillies (to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup of natural yoghurt (my Mum said the cheaper the better as you want a nice tangy yoghurt!)
2 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil
warm water - about 1/2 - 1 cup

Mix together all the ingredients except the water, add the water gradually to loosen the mixture til it is the texture of cake batter. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours) when you want to use it remove from the fridge and bring to room temperature.

Part 2 - the next day
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp of frozen peas
2 tbsp of frozen or fresh sweetcorn
1 medium carrot, finely diced

Add all of the vegetables to the 'cake' mixture plus the baking powder, stir briefly (don't overwork the mix) to combine. Preheat your oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Grease and line your dish and pour in the mixture.

Mustard Topping
1 tsp of black mustard seeds (the yellow ones don't really work as well, try your local asian grocer or health food shop for black mustard seeds)
3 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil

With your mixture ready in your dish and your oven heated up. Heat the oil in a high sided saucepan on a med/high hob. Put in the mustard seeds and quickly cover the saucepan with a lid. Allow the mustard seeds to pop for about 30 seconds. Turn off and remove from the heat and allow it to cool for about 1 minute. Then pour the oil and mustard seed mixture over the cake mixture in the dish.

Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour in your preheated oven. You want the top to be quite brown, possibly looking a little overdone (I erred on the side of caution here so mine is a bit paler than it should be). 

Handvo is supposed to be served hot so slice up as soon as it comes out of the oven, it is best served with a dollop of good old tomato ketchup! It is also great cold the next day

Am hoping to return soon with more Gujarati recipes, I've got lots of things I'd like to make next. I hope you might make this, its a great recipe to try if you like baking cakes.

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Sort of Sea Spiced Aubergine

Whilst it might seem a cliche, since Mr. Giraffe became vegetarian we've been eating a lot more aubergine, a lot of people describe it as being meaty - although I don't really see that - but it is very substantial which means it is easy to make it the centre of a meal.
This is my 'sort of' sea spiced aubergine, it is probably not very authentic but it has all the right mix of flavours - deep savoury, chilli burn and a little sweetness. This always takes me longer to make than I think, due to the fact that aubergines take SO LONG to roast. After they are roasted the dish comes together pretty quickly though.

Sea Spiced Aubergine - serves 2

2 medium sized aubergines
olive oil
2 fresh chillies

For the sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons of  Tamari (or just add in another tablespoon of dark soy sauce)
2 teaspoons of chili bean paste (or any good chilli sauce, or sambal oelek)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
2 teaspoons of honey
juice of 1/2 a lime

Heat the oven to 180 degrees c / gas mark 4.
Line a baking dish with foil and wrap your aubergines and chillies up in the foil, drizzle with sunflower or a mild olive oil before you seal. Roast in the oven for about an hour to an hour and a half, about half way through remove the chilis and turn the aubergines. Slice the chillies in to small pieces. If you don't want too much heat you can use 1 chilli, or leave the seeds out.

For the sauce mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with the roasted chillies.

When the aubergines are ready, remove from the dish and let them cool so they aren't going to burn your hands off when you slice them. They should be very very soft and collapsed slightly.
Cut your aubergine into rough chunks, about 2 inches.
Heat up a large frying pan or a wok, add in some sunflower oil and then your aubergines. Fry for a minute and then pour in your sauce, followed by a little hot water if it is a bit dry. Simmer for 5-10 minutes on a medium to low heat.

Serve with egg fried rice or fine egg noodles.

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Food Blog Discoveries - More Blogs!

A few more food blogs that have been added to my reader recently, hope you find some inspiration like I have :)

 image from Desserts for Breakfast

Desserts for Breakfast - I only followed this food blog because it had an awesome name (and matches my philosophy in life, clearly), but it is also a really lovely blog with gorgeous photographs.

Une-deux Senses - food but also fashion and music, beautiful photos! she has just been to New York too so some great recommendations if you are visiting soon.

Kitchen 22 - Cambridge food blogger, restaurant blogger. Yummy recipe for Oxtail Ragu.

Anne's Food - blogger based in Sweden, some really interesting recipes here, and if you like Swedish cookbooks then you'll find it very useful ;)

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Catch up blog!

Somehow I totally forgot to blog last week, where did last week go?
Lots happened, I had my blog in the Etsy Storque, a feature in Etsy Finds, a press feature and an Etsy front page. Phew!

No wonder I forgot to blog :)

The press feature was in Look magazine which was ace! I sent my earrings off a while ago and was so pleased that they decided to feature me, I was the only handmade person on there too. yay!

We are also still having great fun with Flossie the kitten, her and Jess cat are getting on really well (playing and washing each other!), she is due for her first vaccinations on Tuesday so we shall expect a slightly down in the dumps kitty for a while.

Last week I was also featured on this lovely blog - My Day is Friday. It is run by lovely european crafter Helis, a beautiful photo blog of peoples days - mixing their crafty life with family and work life.

This week I shall hopefully be more productive on the blog front, I have two new recipes, probably more kitten pics and some new jewellery!

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Pattypan Pasta and the Etsy Blog

This week has been so lovely on the food blog front, I have guest blogged for Walden Local Food and today my blog for the Etsy Storque is up, check out the UK Edition for a yummy recipe for Rhubarb and Blueberry Cobbler. Thanks so much to Amity from Etsy for suggesting I guest on there!

After all this excitement I am popping in with a quick and lovely recipe for a summer squash pasta dish.
I picked up these really cute squashes (yes I bought them because they are cute) at the market last Saturday. I have been trying to get my hands on pattypan squash for a while, they are one of the best squashes to eat - sweet and tender.

If you work quickly it will all come together in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

I started by topping and tailing three squashes and slicing them very finely.
I fried them off with a glove of garlic in some butter til they were a little bit browned and soft. Then I added oregano, seasoning, chili flakes and a tablespoon of creme fraiche, and stirred to combine.
Once the pasta was ready, I drained it, added it back to the pan with the squash, some water reserved from the spaghetti and some parma ham cut into ribbons (4 slices was good enough for 2 of us).
Served with some freshly grated parmesan and lots of black pepper.

This pasta was so perfect for summer (we'll ignore the fact that it was raining a lot outside) - very light and with lots of fresh flavour. I'll definitely make it again!

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Elderflower Fritters

Happily I located an elder next to my office the other day, off the road and with lots and lots of flower heads to pick. So I made fritters!

The finished fritters were lovely, not the most attractive I hasten to add, but crispy and doughnut soft in the middle. I sprinkled them with sugar and served with some softly whipped cream. The flowery scent is gorgeous here, not to overpowering and it is so lovely eating basically free food!

I think I need to make my batter a bit lighter next time, for some reason it was very thick.

Head over to Colour It Green's blog for a fabulous recipe and a better picture of finished fritters - she is an elderflower connoisseur!

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Lake District Craft Weekend and the Etsy Blog!

I recently went away to the Lake District with 8 of my friends from the handmade/artists/crafters community. We had a fab weekend surrounded by beautiful countryside, plenty of foodie goodies and lots of crafting.


We were featured in the Etsy storque blog yesterday too! yay!
Check us out here - http://www.etsy.com/storque/handmade-life/uk-edition-9-get-crafty-in-the-lakes-7514/

I learn some knitting, bear making, how to make PMC jewellery and needlefelting. And saw the amazingness of a gocco machine in use. I love learning new crafts and also learning a bit more about jewellery from other jewellers. I've got so many ideas still, even 3 weeks after the trip.

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Foodie

I've been meaning to blog about my favourite food blogs for a while, I love food blogs - the best ones are always 200 times better than anything you would find in a magazine. I also like the tried and tested factor of it because I like to know recipes work, there is nothing worse than something you make going wrong because of a duff recipe (obviously I am a fantastic cook so its not my fault ;))

I have been following my two favourite blogs for quite a while now and they are always filled with great recipes.

First is Gastronomy Domine, which I also love for the restaurant reviews - alas I haven't been to some of the fantastic places Liz has blogged about but I have drooled at the pictures. I am going to try and track down a pork hock this weekend on her recommendation, I can't wait to try her latest recipe. You should also definitely try the recipe for Char Sui pork, although its not the weather for it now, its really great cooked on the barbecue.

photo by smitten kitchen

Second is Smitten Kitchen, which is full of what American food really should be about which is great. You should also try some of the cookie recipes, the homemade oreo recipe is the best. One of our household favourites is also the quesadilla with acorn squash recipe (you can use all sorts of different veg, I like courgettes or butternut squash) which is really easy to make. I love the photography too, I can happily flick through the photos and waste a lot of time dreaming of what to make next.

xx

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Blog love

I love a good food blog, and yesterday I found this one, Simply Breakfast. The clue is in the name! A blog about breakfast, I love it. Great for a bit of foodie inspiration, not what you would normally find but I just love how simple the idea is. Plus it has given me a bit of inspiration to change my usual cereal or toast! I feel a bit shameful for having coco pops this morning now ;)

xx

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