Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread with jaggery

October brings a plethora of pumpkins after the fall harvest. The 2 famous fall pumpkin recipes - pumpkin spice and pumpkin pies are not something I enjoy or look forward to, and one doesn't even have pumpkin in it. But pumpkin as a vegetable is versatile and it can be used in savory and sweet dishes. Pumpkin Indian flat breads are the softest and most tastiest.

To make these pumpkin muffins the pumpkin can be steamed or roasted but I prefer roasted in baked good and it doesn't take all that much time. Using good quality cooking pumpkins that don't have a stringy pulp is important. I recommend you find cooking pumpkins as opposed to the halloween pumpkins because they are not as tasty or worth the effort. Check this out for "How to roast a pumpkin".

We generally tend to eat pumpking bread or muffins for breakfast and I have reduced the amount of sugar. If you want it as a sweet bread increase the amount of sugar. Adding nuts and dotting some of them with chocolate chips gives it some more sweetness for those with a sweet tooth. These low sugar breads can be enjoyed with icecream as a sweet treat.

I used ramekins to bake them into smaller size to resemble slightly bigger muffins. Loaf pan works fine too. Using unrefined sugar or jaggery or any kind of natural unprocessed sugar.

Recipe in pictures,

Seive and whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Get the eggs ready.
Whisk the oil and jaggery. Add the eggs and whisk them altogether.
Add the pumpkin into the egg and oil mixture.
Start adding the flour into the pumpkin mixture and mix it gently till incorporated.
Fold in the nuts and now spoon the batter into the ramekins. Add chocolate chips on top in a few of them.
Bake at preheated 350F for 15-25 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Jaggery
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Cooking Time:40-50 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
2. 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin pulp (how to get pumpkin pulp)
3. 1/3 cup of jaggery
4. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
5. 1/2 tsp baking soda
6. a pinch of salt
7. 1/2 cups of roasted chopped pecans or walnuts (or a combination)
8. 2 eggs
9. 6 tbsp of butter + 1/2 cup of olive oil (or just 3/4 cup of just olive oil)
10. 1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease ramekins or the loaf pan in which you want to bake the bread.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder,salt and baking soda into a bowl.
3. In a mix bowl add the olive oil and jaggery. Add the eggs, and whisk it together.
4. Add the pumpkin pulp to the eggs and mix well.
5. Now gently fold the flour into the pumpkin mixture till all the flour is well incorporated.
6. Add the nuts.
7. Spoon in the batter into the ramekins and bake for 15 minutes, check and bake for 5-10 minutes more if required.
8. Add some chocolate on top on some of them if preferred.
9. Cool and save them in containers. They stay good outside for a couple of days and refrigerate the left overs. Warm a bit before eating.

Warm up the bread a bit and serve with some sweet cream or vanilla ice cream :). Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Food For The Gods - A Philippine Desert - Cookie Bar

Wishing you all a Very Happy Holiday Season and Merry Christmas!

The following situation has been going on for a long time. Every year for the past 10 years, I mean this has been going on for a long time. The week before Chritmmas, The Washington Post has a food supplement filled with recipes for cookies. I save it hoping one day I'd get to make at least one of the cookies listed there. In the hope that it is holiday time after all and there will obviously be time. December becomes January, followed by February and then March, you get the idea.

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Time passes by but the cookies never get baked. This happens year after year. Anyway cue in the dramatic music. This since DD was home she made these delicious cookies. For some reason any recipe that has dates, that is the first we turn to. The good thing is with dates you can reduce the sugar quantity and it still tastes good. Sometimes adding the sugar amount mentioned in the recipe, it gets too sweet.

Food For the Gods
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Baking Time:45 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans (walnuts as per original recipe)
2. 2 cups of white whole wheat flour
3. 1/2 tsp baking soda
4. 1/2 tsp baking powder
5. 1/4 tsp of kosher salt
6. 1 lb pound mejdool dates pitted and cut lenghtwise into 4 pieces
7. 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperatuer
8. 1 cup of brown sugar
9. 4 large eggs at room temperature
10. 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Bake the cookie in the middle rack. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Roast the pecans or walnuts for 8-10 minutes, shaking partway and then cool completely.
3. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and line the baking pan with parchment paper with generous overhang and set aside. Coat the sides and bottom of the pan over the parchament with nonstick spray.
4. In a smaller bowl mix about 1/3 cups of the flour with the dates and pecans till well coated.
5. In a mixing bowl whisk togethere flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt until fully incorporated.
6. In another bowl whisk together eggs, brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking to incorporate one eggs before adding the next one.
8. Whisk in the vanilla extract and then the flour in two batches till incorporated.
9. Add in the pecans and dates mixture also in two batches till fully incorporated.
10. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and even out the top.
11. Bake for 40-45 minutes rotating from front to back half way through. The edges and top should be browned with a golden crust. A skewer inserted should come out clean.
12. Remove using the overhanging parchment cool and cut them into bars.

Serve the warm bars with some ice cream. Heaven!! Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Duck Eggs Frittata with bok choy

These are confusing times and to have a leader who is utterly devoid of compassion, empathy or intelligence is downright depressing. We Americans are perhaps the most ill informed, misled and utterly clueless about what to do in this current situation. TV and newspaper news is full of what stunts the moron and his shrill voices are saying rather than information about how to handle the disease. I look to foreign news be it Indian or Japanese which are much clearer and consistent about what precautions people need to take and where to look for help. I am one of those ill informed with nary a clue about what to do. But I am armed with wrong statistics and what the blowhards on TV are saying. Add to that the misinformation that is being spread on social media, I am starting to wonder if this country and its leaders have what it takes?

But folks we don't control over the larger things but we have control of everyday things we can do. Keep a routine, eat right, exercise, think positive thoughts and don't watch too much news. I joined a virtual mountain climbing training group. It also helps these are folks who I went to college with, so it is double the fun. Getting connected after a really long time and motivating each other to get out of the sedentary life style. Hope we continue once this lockdown is over.

Now on to the food,

I have had chickens for the past 3 years. They lay eggs starting in early spring and stop by late Fall. Once you get used to eating eggs from he chickens you grow it is almost impossible to go back to the store bought eggs. The problem during the winter months is that we don't have any eggs, the chickens are on a break :) We decided to add a few ducks to our flock because I had read somewhere that unlike chickens the ducks lay throughout the year.

So now we have an abundance of duck eggs. No not complaining. We love them. They get used in a lot of dishes that traditionally use chicken eggs. They are more creamier and richer than the chicken eggs. So if you want to build volume in a cake, duck eggs are what you want to use.

Anybody who has extra eggs should want to make frittata. Quick and easy and so delicious. Perfect for brunch or breakfast. Use any vegetable that does not release too much water or make sure you sauté the vegetables well to remove any excess moisture. I had some freshly harvested bok choy and that is what went into this frittata. You could use spinach, kale, chard or any other greens you have on hand.

Saute the onions and jalapeno peppers followed by the bok choy.
Break the eggs into a bowl and add the pepper and salt.
Take the pepper jack cheese and grate.
Add the grated cheese to the eggs and whisk it in.
Add the cheese to the sautéed vegetables.
Bake for 10 minutes till the frittata is well set.
Cut into wedges and serve.

Serve with some ketchup.

Duck Eggs Frittata with bok choy
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes
Ingredients

1. 6 duck eggs or 12 chicken eggs
2. 1/2 cup of finely diced onions
3. 4 jalapenos seeded and diced fine
4. 2 garlic cloves finely minced (optional)
5. salt and pepper to taste
6. 5-6 heads of bok choy washed and roughly chopped (see note:*)
7. 2 tsp of oil
8. 1- 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese (I used pepper jack cheese)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a wide mouthed pan (I used a cast iron pan) that can go in the oven (see note:**), heat oil and sauté onions and jalapenos and let the onions get translucent.
3. Add the chopped bok choy and sauté till it is wilted.
4. Take the eggs in a bowl and add the pepper and salt. Whisk it till its smooth. Add the grated cheese and mix it in.
5. Add the eggs to the sautéed vegetables and gently mix. Let it cook for about 2 minutes.
6. Now move the pan to the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Remove it while it is slightly jiggly.

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Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate chips and Nuts

Even a news junky like myself cannot stand the news these days. The sound of Trump's nauseating voice just make me depressed and wondering... If there are any Trump fans out there don't worry I am an equal opportunity hater as far as politicians are concerned. Obama did not make me any less depressed! So there.

But one thing that got me very curious was this repeated use of the word 'deep state' by Trump himself, his cronies and everyone from the right wing talk world and I start to wonder to myself if it is not Trump and his myriad of corrupt cronies who could this word actually be referring to? Helpfully enough there was an article in the Washington Post by the person who popularized the word 'deep state' and about what this word actually means. It is not what Trump would like us to believe, that is there is a shadowy cabal of bureaucrats plotting his downfall. Instead this word means 'corporate power' and 'moneyed influencers'. There that actually makes sense. So in this confusion between truth and fiction Trump thrives.
The original essay - Anatomy of the Deep State.

Pumpkin had been a vegetable that I had always liked, the mildly sweet creamy vegetable was not on the menu often but when it made its appearance it was special. The pumpkins available in the grocery stores here in the US were not as sweet and texture was not creamy as I would have liked. So for the longest time butternut squash filled the void till I started growing pumpkins for myself. I am slowly realizing the versatility of pumpkins. Pumpkins - the icon of Fall is going to be my favorite vegetable for the next couple of months.

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and given a choice I will make the complete menu with just pumpkin :) I am not a big fan of pumpkin pies, so for this reason I had to find something else to replace the pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table. I could make this pumpkin halwa and with an Instant Pot an extremely easy dish to make if you have a sweet tooth. But my absolute favorite is the recipe that follows for Pumpkin Bread, the pumpkin makes this bread absolutely moist and delicious.

I steamed pumpkin cubes and mashed them. You could roast the pumpkin too if you wanted. Use unsweetened canned pumpkin puree if you do not have pumpkin. Get your family excited this Thanksgiving by making this pumpkin bread. I guarantee that no one would be disappointed. I followed the banana bread recipe by replacing the mashed bananas with mashed pumpkin.

I also have an Olive Oil Squash Bread if you want a slightly different version with nutmeg and ginger powder.

The Banana Bread recipe is here. Here is the recipe in pictures of the Pumpkin Bread. So if any of you out there wondering about replacing pumpkin pie with something else that is much to your liking you got to try this recipe.

Whish the eggs till frothy, add the butter and sugar and whisk till well mixed.
In a mixing bowl, take all the dry ingredients add the mashed pumpkin, mix it in and add the whisked egg-butter-sugar to the flour.
Add the milk so the batter comes together and pour into greased baking pans.
Bake for 45 minutes in a preheated 350F oven.
Cool on a wire rack for at least half hour before slicing.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips and Nuts
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Baking Time:45 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 cups of unbleached white whole wheat flour
2. 1 3/4 cups of Pumpkin Puree*
3. 2 tsp baking soda
4. 1/2 tsp baking piwder
5. 2 eggs
6. 1/4 cups of coarsely chopped roasted unsalted almonds
7. 1 cup of raw sugar
8. 6 tbsp of unsalted butter (bring to room temperature) + 1/4 tsp of salt, skip salt if using salted butter
9. 1 cup whole milk (use just enough to moisten the batter)
10. 1/2 - 3/4 cup of chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. *Cut pumpkin, remove seeds and pith, peel and cut into 2-3 inch cubes and in a steamer steam for about 8 minutes, let cool and mash with a back of a spatula. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
4. Using a egg beater or hand whisk, whisk the egg till it is nice and fluffy.
5. Add butter, sugar and run the beater a bit longer so they mix well.
6. Get a 9 x 5 inch rectangular loaf pan ready by greasing the pan with butter and dust with flour if needed (I did not).
7. Add the mashed pumpkin into the flour and gently mix it in.
8. Now add the whisked ingredients in batches to the flour and with a spatula mix. Add as much milk to moisten the batter. Use only as much as needed. I needed the full cup of milk. Do not over mix.
9. Add the chocolate chips and almonds and gently mix so they spread evenly.
10. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
11. Bake for 45 minutes till a skewer or tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Delicious warm or cold.

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