khana Pina

Coconot Ladoo

2011-09-22T15:29:00.000-04:00

Plz forgive the picture quality

Its been ages since my last post. I decided to start over on a sweet note. I had some fresh coconut on had so I decided on coconut Ladoo. They are my favourite ladoos ever.

Growing up we had a few coconut trees so coconuts were abundant in our house. So whenever there was large quantities of extra milk sweet treats with Coconut were a common thing. My mom would either make Laddoo or burfi. I loved the Ladoos more, not sure why though.

This is the easiest Laddoo recipe ever and so its a keeper.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh coconut

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1 t spn Cardamom powder

2 Tbl spn ghee

Method:

Heat a heavy bottomed pan, add the ghee. Add the coconut to the pan. just cook for 5 minutes. Add milk and sugar. Keep stirring. You will see lot of moisture in the pan. keep stirring, the heat should be on medium at this point. Add the cardamom powder. When the mixture is almost dry. Turn off the heat.

When the mixture is lukewarm, pick up a fistful of the mixture and roll into a ball.

You could add a Raisin/sultana/cashew for garnish on top.

Cool it completely , store in air tight jars.

Pesto with home grown Basil

2011-06-19T18:36:00.000-04:00

There is nothing more enticing than cooking with freshest of ingredients grown by the you. Especially the home grown herbs. This year we have participated in the community gardening practised here. we were all allotted small plots about 5 X 6. I have planted lettuce, cilantro, spear mint, Methi, spring onions, basil, tomotoes, carrots. cabbage. I know i have over crowded the vegetables. But methi, carrots will be harvested shortly so i figured there will be room for other veggies to grow peacefully.
I bought sweet basil from Lowe's and planted it. I also bought a small packets of seeds from there. The seeds have germinated now, i am hoping for a good basil harvest throughout the summer. the plant is doing fine i guess. I read on many of the blogs that pinching the basil plant encourages it to grow like a bush. so harvested the leaves today for a small amount of pesto.

This is my first harvest of basil leaves. Fresh from the garden. This was clicked even before i washed the leaves.

The pesto recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil leaves
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 cup cashew nuts
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
salt to taste

Method:
Put it in the food processor and grind till it is a smooth paste.

I will post the fotos of my gardening plot very soon. You come back to check it out.

Danish Braid

2011-06-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

I saw this recipe about 2+ years back. I had bookmarked it then, but somehow i never got around to making it. Finally about two weeks back i made it. I followed the exact same recipe listed on Shilpa's aayisrecipes. The only change that i have made is that i halved the recipe since lot of bloggers said that you get two big braids. Since i was doing this on experimental basis I thought of trying a single braid for the first time.

I used homemade plum jam as the filling in the braid. I had farm fresh plums on hand and the jam was just yummm. I still have a small jar of jam on hand. This recipe has to be followed to a T if you are trying it for the first time ( atleast I did). second time around i will change it a little bit. This recipe need a lot of patience for first timers. however when the braid is finally in the oven you can relax and enjoy the delicious aroma that will fill up your house. Its irresistible, you have to try it to believe it.
The recipe looks very complex and intimidating but unless you try it you will not believe that it is actually simpler than it looks. When i made this, i did not have a stand mixer, so i did all the whisking by hand. Also I did not have vanilla bean , I just didnt add it.

Recipe ( as is from aayis recipes)

Technique: Making and working with yeasted laminated dough
Recipe: “Danish Braid” from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking

Terminology:

• Laminated dough – is layered dough created by sandwiching butter between layers of dough
• Detrempe – ball of dough
• Beurrage – butter block
• Turn – each “fold & roll” of the dough produces a single turn in a 3-step process where the dough is folded exactly like a business letter in 3 columns. Each single turn creates 3 layers with this method.

For Your Consideration:
• This recipe calls for a standing mixer with fitted attachments, but it can easily be made without one. Ben says, “Do not fear if you don’t own a standing mixer. I have been making puff pastry by hand for many years and the technique for Danish pastry is very similar and not too difficult.” Look for the alternate directions in the recipe as appropriate.
• Use well-chilled ingredients. This includes flour if your kitchen temperature is above 70 degrees F (~ 21 degrees C).
• It is recommended that long, continuous strokes be used to roll the dough rather than short, jerky strokes to make sure the butter block is evenly distributed.
• The 30-minute rest/cooling period for the dough between turns is crucial to re-chill the butter and allow the gluten in the dough to relax.
• Excess flour accumulated on the surface of the dough after turns should be brushed off as pockets of flour can interfere with the rise.

Proofing Temperature For Fresh Dough
(room temp) For Refrigerated Dough
Degrees F Degrees C

70 ~ 21 1-1/2 to 2 hrs. 2-1/2 to 3 hrs.
75 ~ 24 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hrs. 2 to 2-1/2 hrs.
80 ~ 27 1 to 1-1/4 hrs. 1-1/2 to 2 hrs.
85 ~ 29 45 min. to 1 hr. 1 to 1-1/2 hrs.
90 ~ 32 45 min. 1 hr.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DANISH DOUGH
Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

DANISH BRAID
Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash
Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid
Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Chicken Fry

2011-04-04T12:36:00.002-04:00

I am not a very red meat person, but recently i had the best Mutton (lamb) Fry. It was sooooo good i had more than I can and should eat. I wanted to try it the very next day but I could not get mutton that day.
And with this crazy weather here i didn't want to drive to the halal shop, so i decided to try it with Chicken. Well the result is yummm. Now you try it and let me know how its turns out.

Ingredient
1Lb Chicken
1 large Onion chopped finely
1 tbl spn Cumin seeds
1 t spn Cumin powder
1 t spn Coriander powder
1 t spn chili powder
1 tbl spn Butter
1 t spn turmeric powder
4 pepper corn
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 black cardamom
1" Cinnamon stick
curry leaves
salt
little bit of water

Method:
Heat a pot. Add oil and cumin, Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, pepper, bay leaves. Saute for 1/2 a min. Add onion. Saute till onion is nice and fragrant. Add chicken and a little bit of water. cover and cook till chicken is done. Then leave the pot open so that all the water has evaporated.
In a mortar and pestle, coarsely grind garlic + pepper Corns + Cumin seeds. Heat a pan add butter. Add the coarsely ground paste. Saute for 1/2 min. Add chilies and curry leaves. Add chili powder , cumin powder, coriander powder + turmeric powder. Now add the chicken and let it cook for 5 mins. Sprinkle with coriander seeds. Serve hot.

It is a perfect side dish with Biryani. I will make this the next time with mutton.

You try it now and let me know how it turns out.

Gudi Padwa Special - Shrikhanda

2011-04-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

I am still on a high after India won the world Cup. It was crazy on the streets of India. In India, patriotism and cricket run in the same vein. With a 3 thousand year old history, 500 different languages, and every conceivable religion on the face of the planet - cricket unites a billion and a half of us. Its euphoric.
Gudi Padwa is a new year as per the lunar calendar. Since we are starting new year on such a high note , I though of making Shrikhanda from scratch ( Not that I have any other choice since chakka is not available here).
Preparation is fairly simple but the prep time is a lot. This dish cannot be whipped up at the last minute unless you have ready made "chakka". The prep efforts are not much , its only time that you need. Chakka is basically strained or hung curd. We'll be eating this with Puris and some Masale Bhat. we'll post those recipes shortly.

Ingredients
1 tub Yogurt ( I used trader Joe's Organic full fat variety)
1 cup sugar
1 t spn cardamom powder
1 t spn nutmeg powder
a few strands of saffron:

Method:
Use a cotton cloth or cheese cloth to hang the curd. we hung the curd at night and in the morning we got a nice solid ball of chakka. This is how it looked.

Just mix well and add sugar. Mix well till sugar is nicely incorporated in the curd. Add nutmeg powder and cardamom powder. Soak saffron in 2 tbl spoon warm milk. Add the milk to the mixture, mix well.
I did not have saffron on hand so I skipped that part.
Serve this with puris.

I hope this new year is full of happiness, excitement and your wishes coming true. Have a great year ahead.

Congratulations - India

2011-04-02T23:12:00.002-04:00

Congratulations Men in Blue and India...One and all.

All I can say is " Anhoni ko honi karde , honi ko anhoni , ek jagah jab jama ho teeno - Rajni Gajni aur dhoni".

We are going out to celebrate. Lets just soak in this Indian victory.

To express my feeling for the victory I have changed the title to Blue ( temporarily) ...We did Bleed Blue !!

Hip Hip ...Hooray x 3 !!!

Monday Blues

2011-03-28T13:53:00.000-04:00

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

Chicken Tikka Salad

2011-03-09T19:44:00.001-05:00

This recipe is something I wanted to try for longgg time. This is v easy and versatile recipe. This recipes need some pre planning, it cannot be panned out at the last minute and even if it is , then the results will never be the same.
Traditionally a clay oven "tandoor" is used to cook the chicken but you can barbecue it or you can use a oven to cook it or if you do not have a grill, oven or tandoor you can actually cook it on your stove top. You can even get the smoky taste when you cook it on the stove in a pan. I have a small trick that works to get this taste.

For Tikka:
Ingredients:
Chicken , whole800 grams
Red Chili powder
Lemon Juice
Hung curd ****( about 3 tabl spoon)
2 tbl spn garlic paste
2 tbl spn ginger paste
1 tbl spn jeera (cumin) powder
1 t spn garam masala powder
1 t spn chat masala
4 tbl spn Tandoori masala

**** For hung curd. add about 4-5 tbl spn of curd in a cheese cloth and hang it till most of the water has dripped away. You will get a very nice creamy mixture with very less moisture.

Mix all ingredients except chicken. marinate chicken with the marinade. coat it well and refrigerate for about 4 - 6 hours .
Remove from the refrigerator. Either cook it on grill or on pan. If cooking on a pan. apply oil to pan and place on the flame. when the pan is hot, add chicken and cover. cook for 2 minutes. there will be juices released and chicken will cook in its own juice. flip over and cook for some more time. when the chicken is cooked, remove the lid and let it roast . the outer part will be golden and crisp.
Now for the smoky trick, light a smallest charcoal piece. when it is red hot. put it in a small bowl and add a drop or two of either butter or ghee and place it in the chicken bowl and cover for 5 mins. Do not keep it covered for a long time coz the smokiness will overpower the chicken.

For salad we need the following ingredients:

Lettuce 1 head
1 tomato
1 Persian cucumber
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 onion
1 tbl spoon lemon juice
1 tbl spoon cilantro/ coriander leaves
Salt as per taste
1 t spn chat masala ( optional )

Method:
Mix everything together. Add the chicken pieces. Add some olive oil.

Now sit back and relax.

If you have some chicken left from this, I have another recipe coming up for using up the remaining chicken.
Have a great weekend.

~Khanapina

Layered Choclate cake

2011-03-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

Its been realllllllllllly long time since i have had like real food posts here. So finally i am wide awake to start posting regularly. Since its been really long time since my last post i wanted to post something sweet. Weather wise its still cold in PA, so baking was a good option that way its warmer in the kitchen :-). The original recipe is from Shilpa's black forest recipe but i have made a few changes.

This is a simple layered cake recipe.

Ingredients :
1 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 tea spn baking soda
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 tea spn salt
1 and 1/2 cups milk
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Method :
Preheat the oven at 350F for 10mins.
Sieve together flour, baking soda.
In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar. When they are well mixed, add eggs. Beat. Add milk, salt and mix.
Add the flour mixture little by little mixing it all the time. Now once the mixture is nice, half the mixture. We need half in white and half in brown. So in the first half mix all the cocoa powder. In the baking dish alternately mix first cocoa then white layers.

Pour the mix in a greased oven dish. Bake at 350F for about 40mins, before removing insert a skewer, it should come out clean.

I do not have step by step fotos to show the layers but i will update this post with photos sometime later.

Another Year has gone by......

2010-12-30T02:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't been active this year on this space. It is such a shame actually that I started out with lotsa energy in Jan this year but somehow didn't keep it up all year round.

This year was good, I hope coming year is better , fun filled and Happier.

I will definitely be more active in 2011. I hope i can keep this resolution :P.

Have a great New Years Eve.

Happy Republic

2010-01-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Rebulic Day !!

Today is republic day of India. It’s been 60 years since we have been Republic. It’s a holiday here so I wanted to cook a special meal today. I looked through all the recipes books that I have & I finally settled for a very special menu. Chicken kolhapuri & vade. Famously called kombi vade. I didn’t serve the vade With conventional chicken recipe. We both are very fond of Kolhapuri cuisine. So this was just perfect. I had it all planned that we would eat breakfast in front of TV watching R-Day parade & sipping garam chai. Then move on to lunch preparation. However thing didn’t go as planned ( as usual). Was glad though that i could watch the R-Day parade though. It was so nice watching the defense personnel get the awards etc.
Anyways, finally I Got started & ended up with lotsa work in very little time.
This recipe calls for well marinated chicken. You have to marinate it atleast for 1.5 hrs. If can marinate & leave in refrigerator overnight; you will get immensely flavorful chicken. The flavors will linger over your taste buds for a long long time. Popular belief is generally that Kolhapuri food id very Spicy, hot & pungent in taste but friends authentic kolhapuri is far from this. It is full of various wonderful spices but it isn’t the hot chili like taste Which you cannot savor & enjoy. I have this friend from work, she always says kolhapuri food is not cooked authentically hence people cannot enjoy it thinking is spicy & hot. She made me realize this when I had gone to her house in Kolhapur. The food was extremely tasty & wonderfully flavored but not very
hot. It was just the right amount. So when I started this I remembered that & avoided using extra chili powder. The key to this is marinated chicken & "kolhapuri Kanda Lasun" masala. I got a readymade masala. Soon I will be trying to make it at home also. For now its the chicken recipe.

Ingredients

1 Lb chicken
1 bunch cilantro
1 " ginger
2 tbl spn kanda lasun masala
1 t spn khas khas / poppy seeds
1 t spn til / sesame seeds
3 green chilies
3 tbl spn dry coconut
4 tbl spn fresh coconut
4 large onions finely chopped
1 t spn turmeric powder
4 tbl spn refined oil.
1 cup hot water
1 t spn garam masala.
salt was per taste
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 cup coriander leaves

Method

paste 1 : Grind together cilantro + green chilies + ginger. Apply this to cleanly washed chicken.

Paste 2 : Dry roast Til + khas khas. Grind to paste. Keep aside.

Paste 3 : Heat oil, add dry coconut. 1 cut onion. Fry till it is nice golden brown. Blend together to a fine paste.

Paste 4: Fry fresh coconut till dark brown. keep aside. Fry onion ( 3 onions) till brown. blend this together along with kanda lasun masala.

Heat oil. Add turmeric powder + onions. Fry till done. Add chicken & water till almost done. Add garam masala. Add Paste 2. cook for 2 mines. Add paste 3 + paste 4. Add salt. Add water depending on the consistency of the gravy. If you like thick then add less water, add 1/2 of finely chopped cilantro leaves.
Cook till chicken is done.
Serve with hot vade.

Verdict:
Finger licking food.

Try this & let me know if you like it. If you have your variations then I will be happy to try those.

Stay tuned for Vade recipe...Its coming up next.

Mint Pulao / Pudina Rice

2010-01-19T06:17:00.002-05:00

How do you finish off a hugeee bunch of Pudina after you have made chutneys, Biryanis? Welll with the cold weather here, it tried my hand at Pudina Rice/ Mint Pulao. love the fresh mint(y) aroma whenever I buy a bunch of Pudina leaves. After you careful pluck every leaf from its stem your hand have turned balckish green but they smell strongly of Pudina. Well I dont like that inda smeel but a subtle yet refreshing aroma in the house is what I prefer.

I wanted to make something warm & easy to make. Mint Pulao was the perfect hoice since i had all the kitchen staples on hand along with a bunch of Mint. I generally make Pudina Rice with whole spices for that wonderful aroma which is woven along with Pudina for a full of Spice Rice. Thsi time however I tried my hand at a simpler version. This takes 30 mins start to finish ( excluding the time to pluck mint leaves from the stems).

I will post the other variation soon since i still have a few more mint leaves at home.

Heres the recipe...

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati rice
2 Tbl spoon Ghee/ clarified butter
1 finaly chopped onion
2 chillies
2 fistful Pudina/Mint Leaves
1 tbl spn corinader POwder
1 t spn jeera/Cumin powder
1/4 cup peas
1/4 cup soaked chanadal( I used this since i had on hand)
any vegetables ( optional)
2 garlic cloves ( paste)
1/2 t spn ginger finely grated
1/2 t spn Jeera seeds
a pich of asafoedita
2 cups hot water

Methd:
Grind the Mint leaves & chillies togather. Keep aside. Heat the ghee, add cumin seeds. When they splutter add hing & immediatly add onions. fry till are golder brown. Add ginger, garlic. fry for about a minute. Add the washed rice. Fry till its aromatic. add the Mint paste, peas, chana dal, Vegetables. Add the jeera powder, corinader powder. Fry for 2 minutes. Add the water, salt as per taste.
Keep the pot on high blame till you can see tiny water bubbles. now simmer & cook covered for 20 minutes. Serving with pipping hot Kadhi or chilled raita & papad at the side.

Verdict: Easy to cook & Yummy !! Chana dal added the extra crunch which i really loved. I will try this variation to other Pulaos now on. I hope you have liked this recipe.

See you soon.

Shilpa's Jeera Bread

2010-01-06T01:40:00.001-05:00

Keeping up my promise to self , I posting the recipe on the last day of the year. I have been thinking about home made bread from a really really long time. Finally I mustered the courage to do so.
I followed Shilpas Recipe to the T.
The bread came out exceptionally soft & yummy.

Few things to remember in future
The US ovens are really huge as compared to my Kitchen top . So the time taken for baking is much less. I have to make sure i turn down the temperatures about 30 C so that bread is golden brown and not black brown.
Anyways the taste was splendid. I will update this post after I have figured the exact time i need to bake the bread to get a golden brown bread& also when i have a decent foto.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T04:37:00.002-05:00

I would like to Wish all my readers a very happy New year !! May this year be filled with happiness.

New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain

I am Back !!

2009-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

I am back after a really really long hiatus. I have been out of action for a long time But as part of New Years resolution i have decide to post at least 1 recipe per week( if not more).Keep watching this space for some finger licking recipes !

Prawns Cake or Sungtache Daangar & a BIG Thank You

2008-06-11T22:15:00.000-04:00

I have known numerous people through blogging, I have made a few good friends too. One such kind friend has sent me a packet full of goodies and a note. It is Meera of "Enjoy Indian Food". She has been so kind and generous that she has sent me "Goda Masala", Kolhapuri Masala and Malvani masala. Also a bigg bar of Hershey's Almond chocolate ( This is one of my favorite chocolate). Thanks You Meera for these masala. I cant wait to cook these masalas, I am off to grocery shop to buy the ingredients. Btw Meera todays recipe is especially for you, a very yummy and very goan recipe.

I have meaning to post this recipe from the day I started blogging but somehow I never posted it. Like many regional favourites which go on to become everyones fav, this is one such recipe. Sungata are prawns in kokani. They are integral part of goan food, every household has a dish cooked with prawns in it atleast once a week. be it curry, Tava fry or sukke. Our food basically includes a lot of side dishes to go with rice and fish curries. This is one such dish.
Prawns cake or daangar are very easy to cook. They taste the best when you use smallest sized prawns. Actually we get really really tiny prawns which by the way take a lot of time in cleaning but taste sooo good that you wouldn't mind the hard work. These are mixed with onions and chillies, masala etc and shallow fried. The outer coating is really crisp since these are rolled in bread crumbs or rawa. If you have read my blog posts earlier, I hardly ever deep fry that is because goans NEVER deep fry fish, prawns etc. we feel the overpowering it with oil ruins the taste. If you have never tried a shallow fried non-veg cutlet then try it once, I am sure you will be hooked on to the taste. These savoury cakes are flavourful since onions, ginger, garlic and chillies lend it fresh flavours. Like all our food this too has a generous amount of coconut in it. If you aren't a coconut fan then you can skip and still enjoy daangar.

Ingredients
1 cup small prawns cleaned, de-veined ( if you cannot find small sized prawns then just chop the bigger ones in very small pieces)
1 fistful fresh shredded coconut
3/4 cup onion
1-2 tbl spn chopped tomato ( optional)
1 tbl spn paste ginger-garlic and green chillies
1/2 t spn turmeric powder
1 t spn red chilli powder
1/2 cup besan
3 tbl spn rava
1/2 tbl spn garam masala
chopped coriander leaves
salt as per taste
2 tbl spn oil for frying

Method:
Add about 2 tbl spn of salt to cleaned prawns and keep aside for about 5-10 mins. In the mean time Mix all the ingredients except oil & rava. Add prawns and mix well. Now heat Tava and add about 1 tbl spn of oil and move the tava so that it coats the entire tava. Take the prepared mixture in hand and shape it like a cutlet. roll it in rava & fry it on hot tava till done.

Serve as a side dish with steamed rice, fish/ prawns curry.

you may be interested in:
Prawns sukka Masala
Prawns Pulao Prawns
Sungtache Hooman - Goan Prawn or Shrimp Curry

Chivda, when hunger pangs

2008-06-04T09:55:00.001-04:00

Chivda is crunchy, crispy snacks made out of pressed rice flakes. Back home this was one of the most commonly home-made snacks we ate. This is an easy to make snack. I never tried making chivda till I came to US, I wouldn’t have dared to if I had found some tasty and a li'll fresher snack pack. Once I found this really horrible, smelly stinky pack of chivda and chakali ( Murrukku) and I swore I would never buy these from now onwards and make these at home. I haven’t tried my hand at chakali since I don’t have a chakali maker, But I have made chivda Numerous times now.
Chivda is made from Poha/ pressed rice. These are easily available in any of the Indian grocery stores. These are available in two forms, Thick and Thin/Nylon Poha. This poha is seasoned with cumin seeds, curry leaves, chilies and turmeric. A dash of sugar adds the li'll sweet-ish after taste. To get the crunchy , nutty taste addition of peanuts, cashew if you like and some roasted dal adds the required flavor. This snack can also be made with thick Poha, but it has to be deep fried. Its not healthy and its mess to make it too that is why I stay with thin/nylon poha.
Let’s check the recipe.

Chivda/ Chivdo ( in konkani)

Ingredients:
4 cups Thin Poha
1.5 Tbl spn jeera
1 cup mixed nuts
1/2 cup daalia or phutaNe
1.5 t spn turmeric powder
7-10 chilies ( adjust as per your taste)
a few curry leaves
2 tbl spn sugar
salt as per taste
7 tbl spns of oil

Method:
Heat oil in a Kadhai. Add the poha and stir it in for about 4 mins, keep aside. In the same kadhai add a tbl spn of oil and fry peanuts and cashews. Keep along with the toasted poha. Add the remaining oil in the kadhai, when it is hot add cumin seeds, asafoedita, curry leaves, chilies and turmeric. Now add the fried nuts, and stir well. Add in the poha and stir till poha is well coated with the tempering. Add salt and sugar and stir but NOT very hard or vigorously.
Let this cool, then store it in a Jar.

Tip:

When served with finely chopped onions, tomatoes, cilantro leaves and lemon juice tastes the best.

For variation you could add about 2 spoons of saunf /fennel seeds ( just before adding poha). This lends an excellent flavour.

Some more tea time snacks

Mathari

Corn Puff

Ghee

2008-05-30T14:22:00.002-04:00

This post is long awaited. I have been out of the blogging circle for a couple of months, too many things were happening. Many of you dropped by to ask if I was okay. That was really nice, thoughtful and touching. Meera of Enjoy Indian Food dropped by more than once to ask if I was doing okay. Meera, I really am touched with this gesture. Thanks :).
I have recently discovered how to make ghee at home. Back home ghee is made at home from the scratch. The milk available in India is whole cream milk. In every household early morning milk is boiled. After it cools down , topmost creamy layer is collected and refrigerated. When there is enough of cream, a culture is put to get very thick and creamy yogurt. Butter is churned from this yogurt. And this butter is clarified to get ghee. This is stored in an air tight bottle.
The milk available is not whole cream, so the only way to make ghee is buying unsalted butter. Heat this in a thick bottomed vessel.

Let it simmer for 5-8 mins on medium High flame.

Once the butter slightly clears out, drop a clove. Back home , mom uses seeds/ flowers of holy basil or a turmeric leaf instead of clove. But clove is good enough too. Some people even add a pinch of salt, I haven't used any. When the particles start settling down, put off the gas let the liquid cool off.

Pour this in a glass bottle and store it.

Keep visiting this space for more recipes.

HoLi re HoLi, Puranachi PoLi

2008-03-20T12:53:00.001-04:00

Puran Poli is a flat bread served on auspicious occasions. This is especially cooked on Holi. This melt in mouth Poli is yummy but its procedure is very elaborate. This is one of my favourite maharashtrian food. I love to savour this food with Katachi amati ( tempered Lentil stock ).

Holi is a festival of colours, bhang and Puran Poli.

Its a delicate bread which is made with chana dal, jaggery and cardamom powder. Many people use maida for the outer crust but I use wheat flour but I almost soak it in oil for 5-10 minutes. This is basically done so that dough can be rolled over the stuffing very easily and with minimum pressure. This flat bread should be cooked on a heavy bottomed griddle. This is served either with Ghee or milk and some people prefer both. Its best eaten directly off the griddle. Tear a bite sized piece soaked in ghee and eat it. we also make katachi aamati to be served with this.

Now I cant wait to write about it.

Ingredients

for Puran
1 cup Channa dal
1 cup Jaggery
1 tsp Cardamom powder
½ tsp Nutmeg powder

for Poli
2 cups Wheat flour
1- 1/2 tsp Oil
1 cup luke warm Water or milk for a richer taste.
3-4 tbl spn rice flour for rolling the dough.
Salt to taste
Ghee for serving

Method:
Pressure cook dal with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook upto 3-4whistles.
While the dal cools down , knead the dough. Keep this in a bowl and put about 5-6 spoons of oil . Drain all the water and let the dal cool a little. Pass this through a Puran Yantra or food processor with NO water. This should give you a thick consistency ball of mashed dal. Cook this with grated jaggery, cardamom and nutmeg powder till all the water has evaporated. It should be very thick and dry mixture.
Take a small ball of dough. Take the dal mixture which is a little larger than dough. Now roll this is rice flour and very delicately roll each poli.
Cook on medium flame till golden on each side.

Serve hot with desi ghee and/or milk.

Condiments special

2008-03-11T16:42:00.003-04:00

This post is long awaited. I have been wanting to write about all the condiments , homemade at that. Indian cuisine is full of flavourful condiments. These range from spicy, full of heat chutney to very sweet chutneys. Flavourful , spicy pickles, tangy-hot-sweet sauces and Sunbathed papads.
A traditional Indian Thali is full of condiments for every taste. I guess this is derived from the six basic tastes mentioned in Ayurveda. sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Many of the ingredients in pickles are considered to have all of these tastes. Like Amla or Goose berry pickle. Amla has five of the 6 tastes i.e. except for salty hence when pickled this provided all the 6 tastes.
These condiments not just are healthy but very tasty too. These are a must-include items in any household. I will feature a few chutneys in this post and will have this edition every now and then focusing on other aspects on indian food.
I have four different chutneys today. Lets kick off with Mint chutney.
This chutney has the flavorful mint along with other fresh goodies which makes the taste so heavenly.

Ingredients
1 bunch mint leaves, washed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small piece ginger, sliced
4-5 green chillies, chopped
1 tsp coconut(optional), shredded
2-3 tsp lemon juice
1 t spn sugar or jaggery
Salt to taste

** You can replace lemon juice with raw mango.

Method
Blend to a smooth paste using a little water.

Next we have Cilantro chutney. I learnt this from a friend F of mine. I asked her to make this for me and very thoughtful F worked in her kitchen for abot 10-20 mins so that I could get a big jar full of this chutney. This goes really well with dhoklas for making sandwiches.

Ingredients
1 big bunch cilantro leaves
a fistful of peanuts
2-4 small green chilies
1" Ginger grated
1 small clove of garlic
1/2 small lemon juice
1 t spn jeera powder
salt to taste
1 t spn sugar

Method
Blend everything togather with as little water as possible. Adjust salt, sugar and lemon as per taste.

Next I have My personal favourite Coconut chutney. This is a weekend affair in my maternal house. Goes excellently with Idlis, Dosa ( poLe) etc.

Ingredients
1 cup shredded coconut
2-6 chilies
1 small ball of tamarind soaked in water
1/2" Ginger
salt
salt to taste

Method
Blend everything togather with as little water as possible. Adjust salt, sugar and lemon as per taste.

Keep watching this space for more recipes. Till then ciao !

Shahi Pulao

2008-03-06T12:15:00.004-05:00

I saw Jodha Akbar last weekend. I loved the way royal family was shown. That day i wanted a royal feast but decided against it since we packed our food from a takeout place..a total anti climax. The next day we got up really really late since we were awake almost whole night playing Monopoly with some of our friends. I still had some royal food on my mind so i went ahead with shahi Pulao which is very delicious and easy to cook too.I do not claim this to be the most authentic shahi Pulao, But I really really loved the taste and plan to make it often
especially when we have some guests over. Shahi means royal and Pulao is savoury rice dish with a medley of fresh vegetables.
My version of shahi Pulao is very simple and easy to make. Rice when cooked in ghee / clarified butter tastes heavenly, infact amongst maharashtrians rice is always served with a scoop of home made ghee. So i was sure i would treat me like her highness and indulge in some high calorie food. I had almost all the vegetables required for the pulao. I excluded the nuts in this dish because I am not fond of nuts in pulao, biryani etc. I also excluded cherries and / or pineapple since i wanted a no-sweet pulao. I used whole spices in this pulao to lend it the flavour but not feel it in the throat. This pulao takes about 30-35 minutes from start to end. Shai pulao is basically rice cooked with cumin, Cinnamon, whole black pepper etc along with ghee and a few strands of saffron. When rice is boiled with these aromatic dried spices , the flavour is so nice and scrumptious that you can feel it on your taste buds. Ghee adds the much required dash, and increases the flavour. To enhance the flavour further I also made place for ginger-garlic paste. Rice with fresh aromatic goodies and whole spices was so good that We have decided to indulge in this delicacy more often from now. One more important advantage of cooking this is its a one-meal dish. serve it with some raita.

Shahi Pulao
Recipe

1 cup Basmati Rice

1/2 cup spring onion

1/4 cup bell pepper

1/4 cup carrots Juliend

1 tbl spn ginger garlic paste

1 t spn cumin seeds

1" Cinnamon stick

10-12 whole Black pepper kernels

2-4 bay leaves

6-8 Cloves

2 tbl spns Oil

salt as per taste

4-5 strands of saffron soaked it in 2-3 tbl spns warm milk

2.5 cups boiling water

Method

Heat ghee in a pot. When it is hot add cumin seeds and all the other whole spices. close the lid of the pot. Add the white sliced bulb of the spring onions. cook till done, Add ginger garlic paste. Add the vegetables. Cook till half done. Now add rice fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add the boiling water. Now add saffron soaked milk. Add salt and cover the lid. Cook on very low flame for 20-25 minutes.I served this with Boondi -mint Raita. You could serve this with raita of your choice.
Next time I try this I will try to add a little bit of green chili paste. I will post that as soon as i try it.

Verdict

Basmatic rice + Ghee+ spices + saffron+ veggies + ginger+garlic= Mouth watering- One Pot meal dish.

Rated E - Thanks Meera

2008-03-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

I have been given this award by the gorgeous and very thoughtful Meera of Enjoy Indian cooking. My blog is Rated E - Excellent. I am so happy and excited about this that I have no words to describe it. I would like to thanks all my readers for their support, comment and feedback.

I would like to pass this onto

Mehek of Mehek's Kitchen

Asha of Aromas Hope

Ragga of The singing chef

Thalipeeth - Mutigrain Breakfast food

2008-02-29T13:03:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking of participating in all the blog events but so far i haven’t been able to that. When Suganya Announced her Healthy Eats event I was very sure I will participate in this event. A month has passed by and so far I haven’t cooked Anything that would qualify for the event. Recently I made Thalipeeth and bam..it struck me What better than a healthy breakfast made with many different whole grain flours.
Thalipeeth is a savory roti-like but with different flours. You could make Thalipeeth with any flours of your choice. BhajaNiche Thalipeeth is very common amongst Maharashtrians. In goa we make Thalipeeth with only rice flour. Both have very unique taste. I love BhajaNi Thalipeeth for its more nutritious and easy to make. BhajaNi is basically medley of Rice, Jowar, Chana Dal And wheat Flour. This is spiced using cumin & coriander. Typically all these are toasted indiviaully and ground in a mill. Then these are stored in air tight containers to last a long time. Whenever you feel the craving for a thalipeeth you just scoop out a little add all the fresh goodies, herbs and toast on a hot skillet with oil drizzled. Serve this with a generous amount of soft, fluffy, cloud like looking home made butter and hot pickle. This aromatic roti is best eaten when served directly off the skillet. The Indian grocery store near my house didn’t have any bhajani and I do not have a mill to grind the grains at home. So I decided on making a simpler version and trust me this is soooo good.

Thalipeeth Recipe

Ingredients

For Bhajani
1 cup Wheat Flour
1 cup Besan
1 cup Jowar Flour
1 cup Rice Flour
1 Tbl spn Cumin POwder
1 Coriander POwder

Method: Toast all the flours indiviaully in the microwave for 20-30 secs. Then Everything and microwave for another 15-20
sec. ** The flour should be warm, make sure to adjust the time on your microwave accordingly.

For the dough
2 cups BhajaNi
1 small Onion, Finely chopped
2 t Spn coriander leaves
2 t spn Red Chili powder
1/2 t spn turmeric powder
2 chilies, finely chopped
Warm water to knead flour

3-4 t spn Oil for cooking

Method:
Knead the flour with all the other ingredients till the dough is soft enough. This dough is a not like regular roti dough, it tends to be very sticky. The dough is shaped into roti with your hands directly on tava. Back home we use two tavas to cook these. You make a Thalipeeth and keep on the flame and in the mean time get the other tava ready. When the first Thalipeeth is cooked, the second skillet is pladced on the flame. So when the second is cooked the first tava is cooled, so now you pat a Thalipeeth on this ...( did i sound v confusing ?).
Back home in Goa, we use a Plastic sheet to roll out thalipeeths so i used the same technique. This way use need just 1 skillet. Amongst the other things will be a bowl of water.

Lay the Plastic and with your hand light smear some water over the plastic. Now take a ball of dough and start patting it with your hand. Start by wetting your hand and patting and also finish-off with water. This way it will not stick to your hand when you try to put it over the skillet.
After you are done rolling the thalipeeths, make sure you have drilled a couple of holes to drip a few drops of oil. Cook this on medium high-high flame till done. It will b brownish and crisp.

Serve this with Butter/ LoNi and pickle.

I send this off to Suganya for her WBB-Healthy Eats event.

Grand Finale Cake - Wilton Cake Decoration Corse I

2008-02-25T19:57:00.001-05:00

I have finally completed the "Wilton Cake decoration course I". Yayy !! Now I am a wilton certified cake Decorator ( hee hee). I have discovered this course through blogsphere and I adore these people.
I enjoyed every minute of this course. Learnt a lot and discovered that this Art of decoration is very njoyable.This is the cake I made as my course finale cake. A bouquet of pink roses with a delicate bow in light voilet color and a few ruffled leaves. I also learnt making sweet peas. They were so easy to make and delicate to look at. I am so happy to have completed this course. I will try and persue some other hobbies now.

I'll see you with a lovely recipe after this post.

VaraN-PhaL aka Dal Dhokali

2008-02-20T21:36:00.003-05:00

This is also known as Dal Dhokhali in gujrathi cuisine. This is basically a very warm one meal dish. Very flavorful, very comforting and easy to make too. It’s my savior on days I don’t feel like making rotis but not in a mood to eat rice or noodles. A perfect meal after a long day at work.
Varan-phala literally means varan - cooked dal/ lentils, phal - fruit which here refers to the little wheat diamonds. This is actually boiled dal with flavor wheat flour pieces boiled till they are cooked. Dal is cooked with spices, garlic and onions. Adding a spoonful of ghee/ clarified butter gives it the fragrant aroma which will envelope your kitchen by the time you finish cooking. It will linger around you nose as you plate some ladle full of varanphal. The garlic is like the flavorful goodie which enhance the flavor but has no over powering garlicky smell or taste. It’s added to add flavor but not take over. The cooked phala taste sooo good that with every bite you feel so comforted. This is a very tasty meal with the regular ingredients. Phala is made with wheat flour, spices, and carom seeds. This dal is basically flavored with Goda Masala/ Kala Masala. This is for me a very desi version of pasta. This is a perfect stew you want to sip/eat and bit into during bone chilling winter of Connecticut. This is hot-sweet sauce with flavored wheat dumplings is perfect!

Recipe
Ingredients:
For Dal/Varan
1 cup Toor dal
1 medium sized onion
1 tbl spn Kala / Goda Masala
1 medium sized garlic clove
2 tbl spn grated jaggery
2 t spn turmeeric powder
1 t spn Chili powder
2 pinches hing
1/2 t spn mustard seeds
2 tbl spn oil
2-4 tbl spn ghee
salt as per taste

For Varan/Dhokali
2 cups Whole Wheat flour
2 tbl spn carrom seeds
1 tbl spn chili powder
salt as per taste
water

How to make dhokali/phala:
Mix all the ingredients except water. Add water as required and kned the flor till soft. Keep aside for 5 minutes covered with a damp cloth. Roll into roti but a little thicker. With a pizza cutter or a simple knife, Cut into small diamond shaped pices or any other shape you like. keep this ready before you start making dal.

Method:
1. Cook Dal with 1 t spn of turmeric powder. Cook this in a pressure cooker upto 3 whistels. Once the pressure is off, mash dal till smooth.
2. Heat Oil in a kadai/ heavy bottomed pot, Add the mustard seeds, a pinch hing. Add the onions, fry till they are pink. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add turmeric powder, goda masala , chili powder. Cook till the masala is fragrant.
3. Add dal and 4 cups of water. Add the jaggery & salt. Let the dal come a full boil.
4. Now add the dhokali/Phala. Let this boil on medium/low flame for about 20 minutes or til the wheat dumplings are comepletely cooked.
5. Now add the ghee/calrified butter

Its been a long time since i participated in any of the blog events so with this I participate
Mythili of Vindhu for RCI - Gujrathi Cuisine

Join me this weekend for the Grand finale Cake of my Wilton Cake Decoration course I. Till then keep blogging.

My Second cake - Wilton Cake Course I

2008-02-17T17:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I made the second cake for Wilton Cake decoration class. I baked a cake well in advance so that I had enough of time to let it cool and Ice it. We were to make a clown cake today. I really enjoyed decorating this cake. My instructor Emy said, I had iced it much better than the last time. This time I had no crumbs while icing it. Here are a few pictures of my cake.

Pita Pizza

2008-02-14T18:16:00.003-05:00

First of all Happy Valentines day !

Pita Pizza, you may wrinkle your nose and say, WHAT? I have tried many types of pizza before but with this one I just struck gold. Thin crust pizza, chicken in the crust pizza, Herbs crust, cheesy-thick crust etc to name a few. Infact I have tried pizza where the pizza base was made at home, tried with frozen base etc. I have never been disappointed and with every try I was happy. But when I tasted this at a friends place I was amazed. First of all it’s great, especially with paneer, veggies, kebbab-styled chicken etc and secondly it is so easy to make (that is because I never make Pita at home).
When Pita is baked with all the goodies the crust is very crispy. The tomato sauce helps maintain some moisture hence making this crust very flavorful and yum. The layer of veggies and/or chicken and or herbs makes it immensely favlourful.You could either combine all of the above toppings or a combination from above or anything else that you like. If you like the pizza with chili flakes or jalapenos than add it. I personally like jalapenos. The top most layer is cheese which becomes gooey and yummy. With every bite the goodness of cheese-herbs, slight heat from jalapenos and veggies make it a fun experiment in the mouth. This pizza takes 20 -25 minutes in all, this includes making the sauce, chopping the vegetables and baking it. This is just perfect on a weekday when you don’t feel like spending too much time in the kitchen. Making sauce is as simple as buying Pita from the store.

Lets make the sauce then
Ingredients
1 t spn Olive oil
1 Onion, finely juliened
1 tomato ( pulsed in the vegetable chopper or grated by hand)
a pinch of dried herbs
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
salt as per taste

Method
Heat oil in a vessel. Add garlic. When it is aromatic, add the onions. Fry till they are pinkish in color. Add tomato, herbs and salt. Cook till the oil starts leaving the sides of the vessel.

While the the sauce is cooking, Chop all the vegetables that you would like on you pizza. Also Preheat the oven at 300 F.
When the sauce is cooked, you can go about assembling the pizza.

Ingredients
1/2 cup shredded mozorella
1 cup chopped veggies
**I had spring onions, capsicum, sweet corn kernels, pearl onions, mushrooms**
1/2 veggies
1 tbl spn Jalapenos
a few chili flakes
a pinch of Chat masala ( optional)
1 t spn dried herbs

Assembling the pizza Take the Pita Bread. Lightly brush with butter using a pantry brush (this is optional step). Now smear the sauce on the Pita bread. Add chicken, veggies etc of your choice. Add a few chopped Jalapenos, sprinkle a few chilly flakes. Now cover this with shredded mozzarella cheese. If you would like Add a few parsley or cilantro leaves. bake in the over at 300 F for 10 -12 minutes.You are ready to eat a hearty meal.

Tips
Incase you are adding Kebab styled chicken, drizzle it with chat masala for a desi pizza hut flavor.
If you do not want butter brushed on the bread then add about a tbl spn extra sauce.

Join me over the weekend for my next cake.

My First Cake

2008-02-09T14:01:00.000-05:00

I am so excited and cannot wait to tell you that I have finally joined the Wilton cake decoration course I. Its been while since i was thinking of joining this course and finally i made it there. I have always been fond of decorating, doing embroidery etc basically crafts & arts. It has been my hobby ever since i was a child. Wilton Cake decoration classes have been so much fun, I am embarassed to say this but these classes (are some of few classes ) should never get over.
I am back from my second class and it was soooo good. We did our first cake today. We learnt the star fill-in technique. I made a cute looking Hello kitty and some lettering. My writing is not so good ( When you see the cake, you might recommend going to a calliphraphy class) but overall I was preetty happy with the result. The color used to fill-in Hello kitty is a little mis match, I was thinking of doing a simple balllon but than last minute I changed my mind Since my instructor Emy showed this Hello kitty picture.
I am so thrilled I cannot wait to share the pictures.

This is when I was back from class and cake was half Done.

This is my first cake.

Closer look

Super Bowl with Falafel Sandwich

2008-02-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

It’s the 3rd of February and everyone is talking about Super Bowl 2008. Today the Ny giants take on New England Patriots. I was told that TV surfing is banned from 5:30 till 10 o'clock tonight. Since I had to kill time I decided on making something special to eat and bam, It was golden globes aka Falafel. Falafel sandwich is nice, yummy and perfect for a game day. Yeah!! My third consecutive post on deep fried food is about Falafel. With a sandwich and pitcher of iced tea we are all set to hoot for Patriots, yeah we are from New England. Falafel is a very popular Mid-eastern fast food. Apparently it’s sold on every corner in Cairo and is also the most popular fast food there. It’s mainly served in pita bread with lettuce and tahini sauce. Falafel is basically a ball made up of chick peas, fava beans along with herbs and deer fried till they look like golden globes. For the sandwich they are wrapped in pita pockets along with fresh salad, a dollop of hummus and Tahani sauce. I didn’t make tahini completely authentic just a change here and there but the result was stunningly good. Falafels are so crispy and crunchy that you can never get enough of them. The herbs just add the much required kick and Tahini is like "Sone pe Suhaga".I was first introduced to these when I was visiting big apple. I instantly liked this blissful food and now every trip to big apple ends with at least one meal of falafel sandwich. It’s so good that you buy a sandwich and eat it while walking or in the subway. It’s good for a quick and filling bite. We don’t visit the city that often nowadays due to the chilly weather and No time on hand. I was so longing to eat a falafel sandwich that I couldn’t resist but make one at home. In fact it’s been many many days since I went to try cooking mideastern food in my kitchen. I am not sure why I didn’t do it long ago. The first thing I did was hunting for a book on mideastern cuisine. I found the perfect book with really mouthwatering pictures. This is the link to the book. Read it once I am sure you will love it. I had most of the things in my pantry so I started right away. Making falafel requires a little bit of planning since chick peas and fava beans have to be soaked overnight or for at least 8 hours. This sandwich uses Tahini as a condiment. Tahini is basically toasted sesame paste with some flavorful herbs and a few drops of oil. I also tried making tahini at home but did not make a very authentic Tahini. But I really liked this when I used it as a condiment in my falafel sandwich.

Tahini
Ingredients
1 cup sesame seeds
2 Olive oil
salt
4 tbl spn fresh Parsley (optional)

Method: Toast sesame seeds and keep aside till cool down. Blend this in a food processor till it is smooth. Adding parsley is not a part of authentic tahini but I had lots of it on hand and I always clove the taste of fresh herbs. But you would like the really authentic Tahini then skip this.

Falafel
Ingredients 1 cup dried chickpeas
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin seeds ( toasted)
Salt
1/2 tbl spn black Pepper
Oil for frying

Method:
Soak the chickpeas overnight. Boil in a pressure cooker uptil 4-5 whistles. Drain the water. Combine all the ingredients and blend in a Food processor. Do not add water for blending or else you will end up with runny consistency. Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a TT ball. Slightly flatten. Fry till golden brown. Serve Hot.

Hummus
INGREDIENTS
1 cups dry chick pea’s
1 tablespoons tahini
lemons juice from 2 lemons
4 cloves garlic
1 cup water
1 pinch red chili powder

Method: Soak the beans in water overnight. Cook uptil 4-5 whistles in the pressure cooker. When they have cooled, pulse well through a food processor.

Assembling the Sandwich: You will need finely julienne lettuce thinly sliced red onion few cucumber slices a few slices tomatoes Hummus Tahini Falafel Pita Bread Method Take the pita bread, place falafel either whole or break them into a few pieces. Smear some tahini. Add all the fresh veggies, a dollop of hummus. Additionally you can drizzle a little bit of tahini over this. Wrap it in an aluminum foil and you are done!
Super Bowl comes to a nail biting finish with Ny giants emerge victoriously in last 2 minutes But Patriots played very well too.

Hara Bhara Kabab

2008-01-29T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is my next post in the fried snack/ food series. I am back with another mouth watering delicacy and a favourite appetizer for the veggies. Yeah we are talking about Hara Bhara kebabs. I will also post a healtheir version for the all those who prefer non-deep-fried food ( Actually, I am one of them). Hara bhara kebab as the name suggests is green in color. This is one of the favourite appetizers with veggies in India. In fact everyone loves it irrespective of whether you are a veggie or a non-veggie. Hara bhara kebab is a cutlet made with spinach, green peas, potatoes and some hot chillies. A dash of fresh cilantro, ginger-garlic taste gives it the extra flavour. In the winter season In india i.e. Nov-Feb is the time when vegetable market is flooded with the best of vegetables. Every vendor has dozens of cane baskets full of fresh produce which looks so fresh that you want to open a pea pod and chew a few right there. All the leafy vegetables are so green, fresh and look as though they have been cut just minutes before you bought them. Hara bhara kebab looks nice and rich green because of the spinach lends it that. Infact a nice green color without any artificial coloring. Peas cooked and mashed with spinach only help enhancing this green hue. Adding potatoes makes it the perfect looking green color But for deep greener hue the quantity of spinach has to be good enough. Adding herbs like cilantro enhances the fresh flavour of this gorgeous cutlet. Its very simple to make and tasty especially with green chutney as the condiment. This green spicy hot chutney makes you want this cutlet again and again. Every time you bite into this crispy crust cutlet you get a divine taste. The softer inside just feels so nice that you cannot resist but take another bite of this gorgeous food. This golden discs just make your mouth water and does their job pretty well for appetizer. I am not a deep-fried food fan in fact i completely love shallow fried food. I am not sure why i do not like deep fried food is it the taste of the deep fried food or is the phobia of hot boiling oil or the nightmares of finishing of the oil from the Kadai. Many a times I have just thrown off the oil because its not healthy to reuse the oil. I guess its a combination of all this that I am not so much into deep fried foods. People claim that this kebab taste best when deep fried but i disagree I prefer the shallow-fried version. I cannot wait to give you the recipe, Moving on to the recipe.

Ingredients
1 medium sized potato

1 cup green peas ( fresh)

2 cups spinach

1 tbl spn green chili paste

1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste

1/2 t spn chat masala

1/4 cup Rava/Semolina

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:Blanch Spinach and squeeze out excess water.
** Blanch Spinach Boil water, Add spinach and a pinch of salt. Boil for 5 mins. Drain the spinach.
Boil Potatoes and peas. Mash them till the mixture is homogeneous. If possible try to chop the spinach and add to this mixture. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Roll them into small balls and press between you your hands. Heat oil and deep fry them til they are golden on the outside.
Alternatively you can shallow fry them on a griddle or tava. This taste just so perfect that i am drooling just writing about this.

Join me on my next post on fried food post.

Medu wada

2008-01-24T19:22:00.000-05:00

Hi gals I am back with lot of sunshine and a little bit of tan. I feel nice and energetic after soaking myself in some sunshine there. So here i am blogging at the first chance i got. Also i would like to say sorry for not answering your comments or moderating them the same day. I had promised myself that i will not touch the laptop on the vacation & i had managed to stay away from the machine for four whole days. quiet an achievement for a addict like me.

Today we are talking about Medu wada. Vada is the indian answer to the western doughnut but with an big difference that doughnut is sweet and latter is a savoury snack. It is nice and crispy on the outside and soft inside. Its also an essence of Mallu cuisine ( Keralites fondly known to Indians across the country). This savoury delight is so full of flavour that condiments it is served with enhances the taste of soaked, ground and friend lentils. It can be prepared in a variety of ways. The simplest way is soaking the lentils overnight and grinding them and deep frying the doughnuts. It can have herbs or chillies or both. Coconut pieces can be added to further enhance the flavours and especially if you like a small bite to chew on. It is extremely popular in north and south India but there is a stark difference in the way it is served. Basically the condiments differ and which in turn makes a huge difference in the taste. In south India this is served with coconut chutney while in north India this same wada is served with chilled yogurt, topped with tamarind and a dash of hot green chutney. Well will check the later soon on this blog.
Coming back to medu wada, if you like a dash of heat in these wada you could chop them really fine and add it to the ground lentils. Infact a dash of finely chopped chillies, coconut, ginger and curry leaves and cilantro or in any combo that you like. I prefer adding all of the above things. The procedure is real simple but you need some time to soak the lentils at least 6-8 hours so its best that they are soaked overnight. Second crucial thing is making sure you grind this with minimum water in fact no water at all is the best bet. Indian blenders are heavy duty blenders and hence waterless grinding is very easy. After the batter is ready just deep fry the doughnuts in hot oil. Fry 'em till they are nice and golden on the outside. Serve hot with piping hot sambhar and curry leaves seasoned chutney.

This is my contribution to RCI Kerala hosted by jyothsana of Currybazaar. I have just been able to catch the wagon on time.

Moving on to the recipe, lets check the recipe. I have already blogged about the condiments in an earlier blog so i will not repost them.

Medu Vada

Ingredients
1 cups Urad dal/ skinless Black lentils
1 tbl spn finely chopped chilli
1 tbl spn corinader leaves
1 tbl spn finely diced ginger root
1 tbl finely diced cocnut pieces
1 few curry leaves
1 tbl spn Poha / pressed rice
Salt as per taste

Method:

Soak the lentils overnight in water. They have to be soaked for about 8 hours. Next day grind these without water or with minimum water. Add Poha will grinding. The batter will be thick , very thick. Add the remaining ingredients except oil. Mix well. heat oil in a kadai. When the oil is nice and hot, add about 2 tbl spns of hot oil in the batter. This makes the vadas nice and crisp on the outside. now shape the vadas as doghnuts and put them in hot oil. Fry till are golden brown on the outside. Serve hot with coconut chutney seasoned with curry leaves and Sambhar.

Sambhar

1 cup toovar dal
1 tomato , finely diced
1 onion, chopped
1 drumstick, cut into 2" pieces
1 potato, peeled & diced
1 tablespoon tamarind pulp
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida
2 tablespoons oil

Method
Wash and pressure cook the dal, tomato, onion, brinjals, drumstick and potato with 2 cups of water. Add the tamarind pulp, sambhar masala, salt and about 2-4 cups of water ( as per the consistency of choice) and boil.Heat oil and add the mustard seeds, When they splutter add the curry leaves . Add this to the sambhar and simmer for 12-15 minutes.

** Vegetables in sambhar are by choice. ** Trying adding pearl Onions for tasty variations

You can find cocnut chutney here.

** I will create two separate posts for these soon.

I will post a few more deep frying recipes in coming days. Actually thinking of a deep fried food trilogy. keep watching and visiting me for more lip smacking recipes. Ciao !

Penne in Chili pot

2008-01-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

January is the coldest month of the year & in Connecticut the temperatures are below zero most of the times. These are the days when i want to wrapped in warm blanket and sleep to glory, get up & have a large mug of hot chocolate and stay in bed the whole day. But life isnt this simple, hunger pangs, dirty dishes ( yeah !! i have a dish washer but loading it also is gigantic task when the temp is -18 F). In fact now even 32F sounds very warm, can survive without a heater at such an temperature. Actually I have loved the weather cycle here (except the extreme cold in Jan). I mean, look, on the positive side there is spring to look forward to where the flowers bloom, grass is lush green, cherry blossom. You see people working in their front yards with all the gardening tools, numerous pots of gorgeous looking tulips & lilies, There are daffodils nodding to you with a smiley face. The days aren't very hot neither are they very cold.
After spring its time for summer. Time to pack you coats, gloves, caps and not see them for the next few months. Time to wear skimpy skirts , hot pants and halters, time to buy sunscreen, flip flops and swim wear. Its time to enjoy a glass of chilled ice tea or sangria while you sit back and njoy in your patio. At this time you will start looking forward to fall.
Its Fall time and everything looks nice and red. The trees look so beautiful that you want to keep string at them. Its time to go around the town and check the colors. From golden yellow to mango yellow, from brick red to brown, from trees in full foliage to trees with very few leaves. The colors look so beautiful that i just cant take my eyes of them. Its time for Halloween and pumpkin pies.
Next is winter, I am sooo not a winter person. But on second thoughts its good too. I mean , i can go skiing, ice skating, make a snowman. And when the snowman is complete , hands would be numb. To get them to life, come home drink some hot chocolate or a bowl of hot pipping soup. Recently we had lots of snow here about 6-12". It was looking very pretty. the snow just crumbles in your hands and its easier to make a snowman on the first day. so me , my friend & her son set out on the task of making a snowman. After about 2 hours of hard work and frozen hands the result was amazingly good. We were overjoyed to look over the snowman from our patio, so to treat ourselves i made a simple chilli pot and added pasta as a filler. I wanted to make it filling and yummy. chili was new to my friend she loved it completely. It was nice and warm for perfect winter days. I make it often nowadays. Fed up with my rant ?
yeah I'll spare you now.

**In the picture above, penne is overpowering but the dish is actually beans centric, i had taken a few more photographs with beans-centeric but my hand wasnt steady, so the pictures were hazy. This was the best i could get.**

Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup Kidney beans
1 cup Pinto beans
1 cup penne
1/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped zucchini
1/4 cup tomatoes
1/4 cup onions
1/3 cup sweet corn kernels ( i used frozen)
1 t spn garlic paste
1 t spn jalapenos paste
1 t spn cumin seeds
1 T spn olive oil
salt to taste
a pinch of cayenne
1 t spn fresh parsley ( optional)

Method:
Soak the beans for about 6 hours. Cook beans in a pressure cooker up to 3 whistles. Keep aside.
cook penne as per the instructions on the box.
Heat oil in a pot, add cumin seeds. after the splutter add garlic, jalapenos paste. fry for a couple of minutes. Add onions, zucchini, carrots. cook till almost tender. Now add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Now add the beans , penne, cayenne and about 3 cups of water. cook on high flame till the water reduces to 2 cups. garnish with parley and serve hot.

I am looking forward to this long weekend since i am off to the sunshine state to soak myself in some sunny rays. till then ciao!

Utterly Buttery delicious!!! ...slurp slurp

2008-01-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

My last post had resolutions I had made for this year but I have genuine reasons this time that I couldn’t blog for the entire week. I want to start this year with a traditional Indian recipe which also is popular world-wide. In UK Indian cuisine is known for Murg tandoori, Samosa, Butter chicken & Paneer Makhani. Well I am not a super-blogger so I will write about a single dish but with an alternative for vegetarians too. yeah I am talking about Paneer Makhani & Butter Chicken or Murg Makhani.

It’s a very flavorful curry as well as packed with calories but mind you very "healthy” calories. But many people are put off by its taste in some restaurants. Infact I prefer this from some specific restaurants only. Paneer or farmers cheese is something every vegetarian orders in Punjabi restaurants. Although the taste varies from restaurant to restaurant its best when eaten at home. Here the paneer is so hard & chewy that sometimes I prefer adding tofu over paneer. It’s healthier too. Paneer is either fried or adding directly to the gravy and cooked. I personally do not like fried paneer so I add it to the curry. Murgh Makhani requires a little bit of preparation though this can be prepared at the last minute as well. If you have time marinade chicken for a longer time. The longer you marinate, the better it will taste. Marinate it for at least a 2-3 hrs. I prefer to marinate it overnight. This way the spices & fresh flavors seep into chicken as well as tenderize it. Thick yogurt when mixed with ginger, garlic and cilantro is so flavorful that chicken which is drenched in this has to be bursting with flavor in every bite. Paneer or marinated chicken along with garam masala and blanched-pureed tomatoes has a divine taste. This is not all, it also has cashew paste and fresh cream to make it creamier. And as the name suggests is cooked in butter. You can also cook it in oil but butter lends it a great flavor. I prefer apna desi Amul butter & homemade butter gives THE best taste. Butter also gives a glossy feel to it. The procedure is exactly the same for paneer makhani & murg Makhani. But the quantity varies a little bit in both the cases. Lets move on to the recipe now. Paneer Makhani.

Ingredients
1 cup cubed paneer
2 medium sized blanched* tomatoes
1 big onions, finely chopped
1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste
2 tbl spn cashew nuts without skin
1 t spn turmeric powder
1 tbl spn garam masala powder ( I use MDH brand)
4-5 tbl spn cream
1 tbl spn dried fenugreek leaves ( kasuri Methi)
3 tbl spn butter
salt as per taste

*Blanched: Boil water till you see bubbles. Now put the tomatoes and cover. Cook for 4-5 minutes. u will see the skin is wrinkled. Discard the water. peel the skin of these tomatoes.

Method:
Discard the seeds from tomatoes and puree the tomatoes. Soak cashew in water for 15-20 mins. Make a paste and keep aside. Heat butter, add onions. Fry till are translucent in color. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 3 mins. Now add dried fenugreek leaves. cook for 1 min. Add pureed tomatoes and simmer for 5 mins. Add cashew paste, salt and paneer. cook till done ( about 7-8 mins) on low flame. Now add cream and cook for 3-4 mins. garnish with fresh cream ( optional).

Murg Makhani
1 lb chicken
3-4 medium sized blanched* tomatoes
2 big onions, finely chopped
2 tbl spn ginger-garlic-coriander paste
3 tbl spn cashew nuts without skin
2 t spn turmeric powder
2 tbl spn garam masala powder ( I use MDH brand)
4-5 tbl spn cream
1 tbl spn dried fenugreek leaves ( kasuri Methi)
4 tbl spn butter
1 cup thick yogurt
salt as per taste

*Blanched: Boil water till you see bubbles. Now put the tomatoes and cover. Cook for 4-5 minutes. u will see the skin is wrinkled. Discard the water. peel the skin of these tomatoes. Marinade for chicken Mix yogurt, ginger-garlic-coriander leaves paste & 1 t spn turmeric powder.

Method: Discard the seeds from tomatoes and puree the tomatoes. Soak cashew in water for 15-20 mins. Make a paste and keep aside. Heat butter, add onions. Fry till are translucent in color. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 3 mins. Add chicken till almost done. Now add dried fenugreek leaves. cook for 1 min. Add pureed tomatoes and simmer for 5 mins. Add cashew paste, salt and paneer. cook till done (about 7-8 mins) on low flame. Now add cream and cook for 3-4 mins. Garnish with fresh cream (optional).

I served this with store bought naan. I will try & make naan at home next time. This gravy is a great accompaniment to jeera rice along with salad.

Happy New Year Instant Savoury Dosa - Dhirde

2007-12-31T07:05:00.000-05:00

This is my last post for this year. Like every year i have made a few resolutions. I will list a few here
1 ) Blog regularly and be a good blogger.
2 ) Try to improve on my photographic skills.
3) Read more books ( My favourite thing in the world..just after or before( not sure) blogging.
4) Visit the gym regularly.
5) Cook healthy & nutritious food.
6) Be nice ..That sums everything else i guess.

I wish all my readers a very happy new year. Thanks for being nice to me , appreciating me & encouraging me. I hope you have a fun & prosperous year ahead.

I am not a maharashtrian by birth but have spent 5 years there and there are no maharashtrian delicacies on my blog. I thought of a very easy-to-make, tasty and savoury dish - Dhirde. Its basically an instant dosa with coriander leaves, garlic and chillies. Dhirade is also a common savoury is my kitchen. I love the idea of one meal dish and dhirade being versatile can be eaten with pickle, raita , chutney or even sauce. On days when i am lazy to even lift a extra spoon i just eat it with sauce or pickle but when i am completely "into" cooking mode i even make some chutney as well raita.
Dhirade is basically made from rice flour. It is seasoned with cilantro leaves, garlic and chillies. rice flour is a staple in my kitchen. the soft, gooey texture of this flour goes very well with the slight heat of the chillies. garlic & cilantro add the much required taste of fresh ingredients. since the flour becomes gooey after adding water , adding c couple of drops of oil makes easy to pour it onto the griddle and make dosas. dhirade is not very thick like pancake but it isn't paper thin as dosa either. once the griddle is hot, dhirde will take less than 3-4 minutes to completely cook.
Dhirade is like dosa but the texture is very different. Its very soft and luscious. When you bite into hot a piece of this, it just melts in your mouth. I totally relish dosas. regular dosa and coconut chutney is my favourite Sunday breakfast and sometimes brunch. Dosa being blend needs some condiment where as dhirde can be savoured with homemade butter/makkhan/loNi.
I am so dying to eat mine. Lets go to the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Rice flour
1 tbl spn garlic paste
2 tbl spn cilantro leaves
1 t spn turmeric powder
1 tbl spn finely chopped chilies
1/2 t spn Red chili powder
salt as per taste
warm water
2 tbl spn oil ( for batter)
Oil for frying

Method:
Mix all the ingredients togatehr and keep aside for 5 mins. Heat griddle, smear some oil and pour the batter. Cook till it starts leaving sides & its a little brownish on both the sides.

**** The batter will have all the flour settled at the bottom of the vessel so before pouring it on the griddle just mix everything to gather.

Vegetable Manchow soup : Indo-Chinese cuisine

2007-12-27T23:04:00.000-05:00

A few days back i had posted some Chinese dishes, i thought of adding a new entry there. All those who have eaten Chinese rather Indian Chinese back home cannot forget the hot, steamy taste of the food. This is my humble try to create that taste but in a healthier and low-calorie way.
This soup is famous for its hot taste. In fact its like a MUST have when you have cold, stuffy nose and watery eyes. Well the soup works wonders and you feel nice after a couple of bowls of this soup. This is not very chinese-chinese soup infact its a very desi-chinese soup which is served at fancy restaurants or road side dhabas. Its in fact one of the favourites on my list. Its very simple to prepare, filling and nutritious. This soup had generous amounts of vegetables, garlic, ginger, chilies ( depending on your taste). This is generally served with fried noodles on top. They lend the crunchy , bland taste to match with the heat of the soup. As i have mentioned i prefer low calorie food and hence i boil noodles instead of frying them and add less heat. This soup can be prepared in less than 5 minutes once the vegetables & noodles have boiled.
Imagine on days when the work is hectic, its cold outside and you are bl**dy sick of the take outs and yet tired to cook a lavish dinner. Days when you need a hug & warm food but you have to cookby yourself , what do you do..well you make this soup to cheer you up , fill your tummy and relax. Manchow soup is made with vegetable ( of your choice), veg stock, soy sauce, corn flour & wheat noodles ( you could use white noodles as well), sprinkled with spring onions.

Lets check the recipe..shall we ?

Ingredients:
1 cup cauliflower florets
2 carrots
1 cup finely julienned Cabbage
1 bunch scallions
1/2 cup finely chopped Mushroom
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste ( use fresh for best results)
3 tbl spns soy sauce
1/2 tbl spn chili paste ( Its best to use chilies instead of chili paste)
1 tbl spn corn flour paste

2 pinches black pepper powder
4 cups of vegetable Stock *****
1 t spn oil
salt as per taste

***** To make vegetable stock, boil all the vegetables in water with a pod of garlic( can be skipped). Do NOT discard this water, this water is vegetable stock.

Method:
Finely chop all the boiled vegetables and keep aside. Also chop scallions and keep aside.
Heat oil , add ginger -garlic paste. Add chopped cilantro leaves. Fry till the leaves turn brownish in color. Add chili paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Fry scallions ( keep about a tbl spn spoon aside). Add soy sauce, mix everything and stir. Add chopped vegetables. Mix well. Add the vegetable stock, black pepper powder. Boil for about five minutes. Now add corn flour paste and boil till the soup thickens. garnish with chopped cilantro, scallions and noodles.

And for your daily dose of proteins, you could add a egg with the stock. add a beaten egg along with the vegetable stock and stir continuously. till its small bits/ lumps. For all the non-veggies keep watching this space since Chicken Manchow Soup will be coming up soon. I hope you like it just as much as I do /did.

For more chines recipes

Gobi Manchurian & Hakka Noodles

Stayed Tuned for more in Indian Chinese series.

Festive parathas

2007-12-23T09:12:00.001-05:00

Festivities are in the air. The holiday spirit is at the highest level. Goodies & gifts adorn every aisle in the supermarkets. Reindeers are seen in front of almost every house. the lights, trees and decorations are so charming that one falls in love with them instantly.The Color red is so charming that you fall in love with it instantly. Red color is associated with festivities, happiness, love etc. Every culture globally has some specific goodness associated with the color red. In US red marks festivities, holidays and its also one of the colors in their Nation Flag.

Meaning of RED color around the globe
Red represents beauty in many languages and cultures.In Chinese culture, Red is associated with fire, south, and summer. They have associated primary elements with a specific color.And also with good luck and fortune. Chinese New Year is celebrated by wearing red clothing and decorating the house with red. Red envelopes with "luck money" are given to unmarried children to bring good fortune to them for the rest of the year.

Most Japanese think that the sun is red. Japanese flag has Red colored circle which signifies "sun's Circle". Since "Nihon (Japan)" basically means, "Land of the rising sun," the red circle represents the sun.

In Greece, Easter eggs are dyed red and the Greek expression "piase kokkino" ("touch red") is said when two people say the same thing at the same time. It is believed that such an occurrence is an omen that the two will have an argument in the future, which can only be broken when the two touch the closest thing that is red.

In India, a red marks good luck, prosperity etc. It also symbolizes joy, life, energy, and creativity. Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese brides traditionally wear red.
In Aztec culture, red was connected with blood.

In Singapore, the color red traditionally symbolizes joy.

[I googled the info & significance of red color, I cannot remeber the site from where i got this info :( ]

There are many more beliefs associated with color red. But One thing which is globally associated with Holidays & Red is Santa Claus. I too wanted to make something special for Christmas but i have been eating too many cookies, chocolates etc and I am sure Santa also might be more than a little bored eating cookies & milk in every house on this planet. I made every cell in my brain work overtime to come up with something festive, easy ( on tummy), something with Desi touch ( was optional). My brain doesn't work as fast as google so i spent more than a hour thinking finally I got the answer. It was Paratha...Yeah yeah its a little off- beat since its BEET paratha. It was delicious, easy to make & festive looking.
Lets chk the recipe.

Beet Paratha

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat Flour

1 beet

1 Potato ( small)

1 t spn ginger paste

1 t spn garlic paste

2 t spn cilantro leaves

Little bit of oil to drizzle over the parathas

salt to taste.

Method:

Cook beet and potatoes in pressure cooker till done ( upto 3 whistles is sufficient). Alternatively you can cook them in the microwave. Do not discard the water in which beet was cooked, This has nice red color which will enhance the color of the dough. Peel the outer skin from both, beet & potatos. Mash potatoes and beet together. In case the beet isn't as soft as potatoes, just grate it and mix. Mix all the other ingredients in cooked mixture and knead it till soft. Use the red water for kneading. Roll these like chapatis but a little thicker and cook on the griddle. Serve with chutney, pickles, sabzis, raita etc or anything else of your choice. They are so versatile that they taste nice with everything.

Merry Christmas !

Feliz Novidad !

joyeux Noel !

Chicken Tikka : does it tickle you taste buds ?

2007-12-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

Chicken Tikka is basically chicken pieces mixed with spices & yoghurt which is cooked in Traditionally Indian clay oven. Well this is not the only way to cook it; it can be grilled / barbecued, cooked in oven as well. Yeah yeah , You can cook it in your very own oven. I was just so thrilled when a friend told me this. Infact I went straight to the grocery store and bought some chicken to make tikka right away. Actually this is one of my favorite starters but I was missing them so much since we moved here. A couple of years back eating out was a part of weekend rituals when I was single & working in pune. Me N my roomies would go out for dinners on Saturdays. Saturday suited us more since then the maid could in late since no dish washing and because of this we could sleep till late. Our favorite appetizer was Chicken Tikka, I am so glad I can continue hogging these again. I so glad my friend shared the recipe with me.

The first time I tried, they were good but the second time I broiled them and the results were exceptionally good. The kebabs have to be pre planned since you have to marinade them at least for 6-8 hours. Yeah this is the only sad part since you cannot make the them when you just feel like having them. Please be very careful that chicken has cooked thoroughly well.

Chicken Tikka

Ingredients
1 lb chicken (2” cubed pieces )
2 tbl spn oil / butter/ ghee

For Marinade
8 tbl spn thick dahi
1 tbl spn cumin powder
1 tbl spn coriander powder
½ tbl spn garam masala
½ tbl spn tandoori masala
1 tbl spn Ginger garlic paste
¼ tbl spn green chili paste
½ tbl spn Red chili powder
Sat as per taste

Recipe ** For Marinade
Tie dahi in a muslin cloth and place some heavy weight over this to remove all the water. After about 10 min, remove dahi and mix it with all the other ingredients. Make sure this paste is every thick. It should NOT be runny.
Coat chicken pieces with this paste and refrigerate overnight. Make sure you have used an airtight container or else you refrigerator will have a garlicky stink.

** For Tikka.
Pre heat over at 350 F. Lightly brush the pieces with oil / ghee/ butter, I used oil. Thread the chicken pieces in the skewers. Now cover these with aluminum foil. Place this tray in the oven and cook for 20-30 min. Check the chicken if it is cooked.

Now start the broiler and broil this for about 6-10 min. Broiling lends a crispy-on-the-outside texture. Remove this and serve with sautéed onions and bell pepper.
** If you are using skewers then make sure you soak them in water for about 30 mins. This way they do not burn while the chicken is cooking.

More Chicken recipes:

Chicken Roast also called as ghee roast

Chicken Kathi Kabab

Chicken Sukka

Perfect Snack for wintery evenings

2007-12-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

Winter is here now. The fluffy blanket spread over the earth looks stunningly beautiful. Fresh snow looks so tempting that you want to roll into into it but only if it wasn't so cold. On a day when the weather is gloomy and cloudy, the snow is falling continuously, there is no other entertainment then Idiot box what do you do with yourself ?Well have a cuppa garama-garam ( piping Hot) chai and some Mathi or mathari.

Mathi/mathari is originally a rajsthani snack
served generally with pickle. Mathi is a disc shaped, cookie like looking snack that is very crispy and every bite just melts in the mouth. Its so adorable that you can not get enough. The texture is just like cookie and the black pepper gives a feel of cocoa powder. Well the smell is divine and once you see it you want to grab one and bite into it. For all the calorie conscious this isn't for you firstly it is deep fried and secondly a dash ( a li'll more than dash ) is added to the dough while kneading it but its holiday season so a little indulgence is perfectly okay( at least this is how i pacify myself).
Lets check the recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour/ Maida
1/4 cup wheat flour ( Optional) [ I prefer wheat flour so i add this though the original recipe does not call for this]
3 tbl spn ghee [ I have used oil and the taste is perfectly nice]
1 tbl spn Ajwain/carom seeds
1 tbl spn black pepper powder
5-10 tbl spn lukewarm water
salt as per taste
oil for frying
Method:Mix both the flours together. add pepper powder and carom seeds and mix well. Heat 3 tbl spns of oil and add it to the flour. DO NOT touch the mixture with hands since the oil might burn your hands. Use a fork and mix it. Now add water one spn at a time and Knead well till the dough is soft enough to roll. roll small discs which are as thick as cookies. deep fry on medium
flame till they are golden in color.

Watch out this space for my snowman , Xmas tree & holiday goodies.

Gobi manchurian & Hakka Noodles : Sizzling Hot dinner for cold december Nights

2007-12-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

“Chinese Food” in India is liked by almost everyone. It’s a combination of Chinese recipes with Indian flavors. In cities like Mumbai , Pune etc you will find a small eatery serving this food. This cuisine is basically derived from very well blended Indian-Chinese cuisines. Chinese-Chinese is very different from what we Indians call Chinese. Indo-Chinese uses Indian spices, herbs as well as Chinese sauces like soy, garlic-chili etc. The techniques are also indo – Chinese. Scallions and soy sauce add the much required Chinese touch to these dishes.
This cuisine is embraced by Indians whole heartedly that chefs have come up with a Chinese influenced chat item It is called “ Chinese Bhel” ( will be posted shortly here). Its made from noodles, and just like regular Bhel.
Today I am posting hakka Noodles and Gobi Manchurian.

Hakka Noodles
Ingredients

2 cups boiled noodles
3 dried red chilies
1 small bunch spring onion
½ cup finely chopped carrots
1 small capsicum thinly sliced
2 tsp garlic finely chopped
2 tbl spn soy sauce
1 t spn chilli paste ( ** can be substituted with Chilli sauce)
2 tbl spn oil
1 t spn Red wine vinegar
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a wok. When the oil is smoking add the vegetables. Simmer and fry them till almost done. Add soy sauce, vinegar and salt. Now add noodles and mix very well. Serve Immediately.

Gobi Manchurian

Ingredients :
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 Tbl Spn Corn flour
1 Tbl Spn all purpose flour
1/2 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste
salt as per taste
water

Method: Mix all the above ingredients into a thick paste. All the broccoli florets. Cover them all over with the batter and deep fry them.

For the sauce:
1 tbl Spn soy Sauce
1 tbl Spn tomato ketchup
1/4 tbl spn chili sauce
a little vinegar
Method: Mix all the above ingredients. The sauce is ready.

You will also need a spoonful of corn flour mixed into a very smooth, thin paste. ( this is used to thicken the gravy).

Method:
Heat a wok. Add a few drops of oil, add chopped onions. Add chopped capsicum. sauté for a few more minutes. Add sauce, broccoli and water. let it boil for 5 mins. Simmer and add corn-flour paste. This thickens the gravy. Add salt as per taste.

I had posted the recipe of broccoli Manchurian a few days back , click here for the recipe.

Malvani Chicken / Kombdi Vade

2007-11-17T23:04:00.000-05:00

This is my post to welcome winter as well as for all those who want some spicy entree for this thanks-giving weekend. I present to you the famous, spicy malvani styled chicken called "kombdi vade". Literally translates to chicken and puri. I know the combo sounds a little weird but it isnt our regular poori. Its a mixed flour puri and tastes awesome.
Malavan is a place located in konkan region of maharashtra. Its a coastal area and its food has a strong influence of all the coastal staples including coconut and sea food. I am totally in love with malvani food. i love the taste of masala infused and blended really well with coconut. They do not use as much coconut as we(goans) do in our cooking. Malvani food is basically coconut+ onion curries with Malavani masala. this masala has a distinct flavour which is not very very spicy but at the same time its not very mild. Masala is made with red chilies, coriander seeds and other whole garam masalas. Malvani cuisine is mainly non-vegetarian but their vegetarian entrees are tasty too. Many people think that Malvani cuisine is same as goan cuisine but it is NOT the same. Its similar in the way that we use coconut a lot ( in every form: dry, fresh , ground
etc) but other than that its different since the masala used is very different.
kombdi vade is chicken curry + puris. In malvan all the pooris made from flour other than maida/all purpose flour are called vade. Yeah its does sound strange but even in goa, pooris are made from maida and vade from other flours which could even be a combination of flours. Vade ( as KV) is made with dal flours and deep fried till golden and served hot.
I Will post Goan chicken xacuti next but for now lets just check Kombadi vade.
I got this recipe from sanjeev kapoors book. I have posted almost word to word recipe from his book.

Kombdi Vade
For chicken curry
1 Lb Chicken
1/4 medium bunch Fresh coriander leaves (chopped)
1" piece Ginger
6 cloves Garlic
2-3 Green chillies (chopped)
1/2 Dry coconut (grated) * I used fresh coconut *
6 Red chillies whole
4 tbsps Oil
5 medium sized Onions (finely chopped)
1½ cups fresh Coconut
2½ tsps Malvani garam masala
Salt to taste

For malvani masala
12 red chillies,
whole 2 tsp coriander seeds
4-5 cloves
½ tsp peppercorns
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp shahi jeera seeds
4-5 green cardamoms
2-3 black cardamoms
½ cup dry coconut, grated
1 tsp poppy seeds (khuskhus)

Method:
To make chicken curry, reserve one tablespoon chopped coriander leaves for garnish. Grind remaining coriander leaves to a paste along with ginger, garlic and green chillies and marinate the chicken in this paste. Dry roast grated dry coconut with whole red chillies in a thick-bottomed kadai, remove, cool and grind into a fine paste with half a cup of water. Heat one-tablespoon oil in a pan, add three fourth quantity of chopped onion, stir-fry till golden. Add fresh coconut; continue to cook on medium heat, stirring continuously till coconut also changes its colour to light brown. Cool and grind to a fine paste with half a cup of water. Heat remaining oil in a handi, add remaining chopped onion and stir-fry till golden brown. Add the green paste marinated chicken pieces and two cups of water and bring it to a boil. Stir in dry coconut and red chilli paste and Malvani garam masala. Continue to cook for three to four minutes on medium heat. Add the fresh coconut and onion paste and cook further on medium heat for three to four minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for three to four minutes. Add salt and mix thoroughly. Garnish with chopped coriander. Serve hot with vade.

For vade
2 cups Vade flour
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Red chilli powder
Oil

To make the vade flour
1 kg Rice
250 gms Bengal gram split (chana dal)
100 gms Black gram split (urad dal)
25 gms Coriander seeds
15 gms Cumin seeds (to fry)

Ingredients:vade flour in a bowl. Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and mix well. Make a well in the centre and pour two tablespoons of oil into it. Slowly mix in the flour. Add enough warm water and knead into a firm dough. Make marble sized balls. Take a piece of banana leaf and lightly grease it. Place the dough ball over it and lightly press and spread with the fingertips to a puri. If you do not have a banana leaf, grease your palms generously and spread the dough on your palms to form a puri. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry the vade on medium heat till golden. Drain and serve hot with chicken curry. make the vade flour y roast all the ingredients separately. Cool and grind into a powder. This should be stored in airtight tins. It remains for quite a while.

I did not make vade since i did not have urad dal flour but will make them soon and post a picture here.See you on wednesday for a flavourful recipe.

Corn Puff or corn pattice

2007-11-07T11:20:00.000-05:00

Every bakery in India has some savour staple but puffs are common across length and breadth of India. There are lot of variation in the stuffing used. Puffs are made using dough which is called puff dough. This is basically rolled flour layered using butter. This is a very time consuming task. This dough is made with flour, water, oil and loads of butter. When baked this is very crisp and flaky. Pastry sheets have very high fat content.British introduced these rectangular baked, savour, crispy & yummy food In India. From then on this has been worked - reworked by Indians to suit their taste. The main stuffing used is potato based but it varies from peas to corn to chicken kheema etc.Its a tedious and time consuming affair to make the pastry dough or pastry paste since every single layer has to be rolled out individually. And covered with butter before the next layer is stacked. Maintaining uniformity and at the same time making it thin but supportive enough is very difficult & time consuming. But folks there is a simple way to make these without putting efforts and spending time making the puff sheets since Pepperridge farm is come to our rescue. In any ( almost any) grocery store these sheets are available in the frozen section. Just pick up a packet and you are all set to make savoury or sweet puff pastries at home. I love corn pattice & peas & potatoes &.......the first time i tried i made them with potato filling but they were so good that they got over within minutes so i could not take a picture. But the second time i made it, i was very careful to take the pictures before they were gulped down. Heres the recipe to make crispy, flaky, tasty and easy-to-make puffs.
Recipe

Ingredients
1 Pack puff pastry sheets
1 spn ghee/ clarified butter

For stuffing
1 cup corn, steamed
1 onion
2 tbl spn hot and sweet chilli sauce
1/2 tbl spn soy sauce
1 tbl spn chopped cilantro leaves
salt
1 tbl spn oil

Method:Thaw the pastry sheets at room temp for about 45 mins or put it in the refrigerator for about 6 hours.
In the meantime make the stuffing. Heres how:

Heat oil in a pan. Add onions fry till golden brown. Add the sauces and corn and Cook for about 2 minutes. Add salt and cook for another 5 minutes till all the water evaporates. Add cilantro after turning the stove off.

Preheat the oven at 400 F. Now for stuffing. Cut the sheets in 3" square pieces. Roll out these sheets very lightly till the size is a little bigger( this is optional). Now place the stuffing these squares and fold them as rectangles. Grease a baking tray with ghee and bake these for about 20-25 minutes till they are golden brown in color.
Serve hot with tomato ketchup or sauce of your choice.

caution: These are addictive, easy to make and always a winner at potlucks & parties. Host will be bombarded with a lot of compliments so please be careful :).

Batata Vada / Vada Pav

2007-10-29T10:35:00.001-04:00

One of India’s most popular snacks is Batata vada. It’s a simple deep fried food served at every nook and corner across India. Whether you are in a big city or a rural village, this snack will be available. This is popularly called as vada pav in Maharashtra and very very popular in Mumbai. This is served as breakfast or snack in almost all eateries across Maharashtra. Infact "karjats Diwadkar vada pav " is extremely popular in Mumbai. Vada pav is Mumbai’s answer to the burger. Infact many varieties of these humble patties are available now. Cheese vada pav which is serve with cheese , jain vada pav which has no onion or garlic, sandwich vada pav where the bread is coved with butter and green chutney and vada is sandwiched between the bread.

Vada pav is basically potato based deep fried patties served with pav or bread. the patty is made out of boiled, mashed potato mixed with onion, ginger, garlic chilies and herbs like cilantro. The out coating is gram-flour which is seasoned with chili powder. In Maharashtra vada is a flattened patties whereas in other states like goa, Karnataka etc it’s a spherical. VP is a very popular breakfast item across Maharashtra it is served at every eatery there. Another interesting side dish served with vada pav is deep fried green chilies. Many people cannot eat vada pav without this condiment. If you do not like it with pav or do not have some on hand then just serve it with some condiments like chutney, ketchup etc.
Although this is a very tasty and taste bud tickling food it has high levels of trans-fats. You are a regular at eatery to savor this please be cautious since they use the same oil again and again which have very high levels of trans-fats. But there is no harm in indulging in this tremendously popular snack once in a while. It’s best to eat it at home since we do not use the same oil again and again. Let’s move onto the recipe now.
I am generally not very fond of deep fried food like French fries, potato chips etc. People say I am insane not to like these things. I prefer shallow fried food over deep fried food. Another thing I hate about deep fried food is the oil cannot or rather should not be used for re used for frying so finishing off oil is also a big headache. I am also scared of frying just looking at the hot oil in the wok. But once in while I like indulging in deep fried foods like vada pav, medu wada etc. Now let’s check the recipe.

Ingredients
2 big potatoes, boiled
1 chopped onion
1" ginger
2 cloves of garlic
4 chilies
1 tbl spn chopped cilantro
salt to taste

For tempering
1 tbl spn oil
1 t spn Mustard seeds
4-5 curry laves
a pinch asafetida

For the outer coating
1 cup besan
water
1 t spn red chili powder
salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:
Mash boiled potatoes with a potato masher. Add chopped onions. Make a paste out of chilies, ginger & garlic without adding water. My blender does not grind without water so a finely grated these with a cheese grater. Add salt, cilantro. In a tadka-pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add hing, curry leaves and turmeric powder. Pour this over the potato mixture. After 5 mins mix everything thoroughly. Make balls out of these and flatten them.

For the Outer coating
Mix besan, chill powder, salt and add water ( little at a time). Whisk together so it does not become lumpy.

For Frying:
Heat oil in a Kadai/wok. After the oil has heated as required, dip the potato in besan batter till it covers the patties uniformly. Now slowly and carefully add this to the hot oil. Do not add many vadas at a time in the kadai.
Fry these till golden brown and serve with pav or some condiments.

p.s. For Jain vada pav Use a plantain and do not add onions, garlic and ginger.
For variation try this with bread coated with mayo. Tastes absolutely fab.

I am back

2007-10-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

I have been missing from the Blogoshpere for quite sometime now. My laptop is on deathbed and hence i could not log on. I am so grateful to all those who stopped by to enquire about me. I promise to be regular with my posts again. I will post a fab recipe soon, drop in to find out what is cooking at khanapina.

Classic breakfast to start a perfect day

2007-10-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

As promised I am back today with a wonderful , classic, yummy breakfast recipe. Its a never-can-say-no-to-this entrée. My breakfast is Bangalore styled masala Dosa with coconut chutney and sambar. It’s a classic south Indian dish tastes especially good on a lazy day.

DOSA crispy pancake which is prepared by fermenting lentils-rice batter. Masala literally means Spice. Masala dosa is a spicy stuffing in a lentil pancake. This is a very delicious and easy to make breakfast but it requires some pre-planning since soaking and fermenting is a time consuming affair. This has high carbohydrates & proteins ratio.
Dosa by itself is a non spicy, crispy pancake so it generally is served with other condiments but it is so humble that it embraces the flavors so well that you want to lick your finger at the end of the meal. Another interesting thing about dosa is that it tastes different with every condiment. It can be served with dry & wet chutneys, sambar (spicy, tangy and vegetable loaded lentil broth), potato sabji , Ghee ( clarified butter), non vegetarian curries etc etc. It tastes the best when served with some gravy with coconut in it.
You enter any Indian restaurant , Masala dosa is always present and served almost through out the day. Dosa is served differently in every south Indian region. I particularly like the Bangalore version. Bangalore version has a small addition to your regular masala dosa. This dosa in particular is lined with spicy red curry powder before stuffing the potato filling in it. Then it is folder carefully over the skillet and served with steaming hot sambar and tempered chutney. I always thought pouring the batter and getting uniform thickness is an art but trust me it is much easier than it looks. My mom uses an onion to apply oil over the skillet. I asked her in particular why onions ? According to her it imparts a very nice flavor to dosa, covers the pan uniformly and this fried/ semi fried onion can be used in cooking later on this onion will increase the flavor of curry / sabji .
Sambar and chutney are an integral part of serving dosa in our house since I like chutney and K like sambar. So I make both now-a-days. Let’s check the recipes

Potato bhaji/ Dosa bhaji
1 potato, boiled
1/4 cup tomatoes
1 onion , finely sliced
1 tbl spn urad dal
½ t spn mustard seeds
½ t spn turmeric powder
4-5 green chilli paste
4-5 curry leaves
1 t spn finely chopped coriander leaves
Salt to taste

Method Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add curry leaves, chilli paste, turmeric powder, Urad dal. Fry this till dal has tanned. Add onions fry till translucent. Add potatoes and cook for 5 mins. Add cilantro.

Coconut Chutney
1 cup grated fresh coconut
3-4 green chilies
2 tbl spn cilantro leaves
1 t spn tamarind extract or tamarind soaked in water ( you can even use raw mango).
Salt as per taste
¼ t spn Sugar

For tempering
Oil
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Dry chili

Method: Grind together all the ingredients to fine paste.
Heat oil, Add mustard seeds , dry chilli, curry leaves. Pour this over chutney.

I cooked sambar as per Indiras recipe. For recipe click

here.

Dosa :
1 cup rice
1/3 cup urad dal ( black lentils)
Fist full of poha
Salt as per taste
Oil for frying
Water to grind it to a paste

Method:
Soak rice and dal for 8 hours. Grind it to a fine paste along with poha. Let this batter stand for 10 hours so that it ferments properly. Once it has fermented it will increase in volume and smell sourish. Now add salt.
Heat skillet, add a few drops of oil. Use an onion with a fork at the back so that you don’t feel the steam on your hand. And uniformly coat the skillet.

Use a laden to spoon out batter on skillet and immediately move in circular outward direction to coat the skillet with batter.

Apply red curry powder over this i use readymade powder ( its dosa / idli chutney). Cover for 2 mins and let it cook. Turn it over and cook for 2 mins. Dosa is cooked, now we have to add the stuffing.

scoop a spoonful of potato bhaji and place in the centre of the dosa. Now fold into a roll or you could just fold it neway you like it.
Serve with chutney and steaming hot sambar.

Join me on the weekend again !

Kathi kebab

2007-10-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

If you are a vegetarian then click here for Paneer version.

A few days back I had a posted a recipe for kheema and had mentioned about a yummy dish with the leftovers. Here I am with that dish. This is an excellent way to finish of kheema or any other boneless chicken dish. I am very particular about not wasting a grain of food. So generally I recycle it and try to make something fancy (whenever possible). Sometimes I make extra kheema so that I can make kathi kebabs the next day.
Kathi Kabab owes its origin to the North Eastern province of India. It started as a cuisine of the princely states of the province and found its way to the common man's stomach as a quick wholesome bite. This is a wholesome dish for it includes a roti wrap from outside having an inner covering of eggs, with some spicy chicken filling topped with salad for the extra crunch; mint chutney adds the much required herbaceous flavor, and drizzle of lemon juice. This is a no-fuss-meal since just carrying a wrap is easier.
This dish is popularly known as nizams kathi kebab. These were originally served at roadside kiosks but they made their entry to clubs, restaurants and gourmet food. This is the Indian entry to Frankie’s and such other wraps.
If you visit a roadside kiosk, that bhaiya will very meticouly makes this roll right in front of you. First he’ll start with heating the food on red hot tava. Once this phase is complete its time for show time. Generally they keep half cooked romali rotis or rotis at hand. He’ll break an egg on the rim of the tava with one hand and pour it on one side of the roti. Then this is cooked till done. Now our cooking phase is complete. Its time to assemble the dish. Pour the chicken; add sliced onions (generously). Add mint chutney and drizzle with lemon juice. Wrap this and Yo you are done. The traditional recipe calls for chicken to be cooked as kebabs on skewers and grilled till done. But kheema works excellently.
One of the best NKK served in pune are at Kapila kathi kebab on Dhole Patil road. The guy is always surrounded by a big mop ready to grab a bit right from the griddle. This place was inexpensive for they served a whole kebab with double filling for just Rs 15-20 but after about 3 yrs the prices have been more than doubled. But the price is worth every bite. Just a small disadvantage there is no place to sit and eat but heck it’s a wrapped kebab so grab it and walk away.
You can change the recipe to suit your palette. This works best for me. So let’s go ahead and check the recipe.

Ingredients

{In Clock wise order, Dough for roti and lemon for drizzle just before wrapping; sliced onions, leftover kheema, eggs, mint chutney}

1 cup chicken kheema
2 rotis (almost cooked).
1 egg
1 cup finely sliced onion
2 tbl spn mint chutney
Oil for frying.

Method
Heat the griddle. Pour the chicken on the griddle and warm it up and keep aside. Beat the egg and apply half the quantity to one side of the roti.
Drizzle some oil over the griddle. And cook this paratha.
Place in a plate and assemble the wrap. Pour kheema uniformly in the centre of the roti. Add onions over it. Top it with some spicy mint chutney and drizzle the lemon juice.
Wrap it in paper and you are all set.

We’ll meet again over the weekend for breakfast.

Preserving it for the rainy day

2007-09-27T00:11:00.000-04:00

The mango season in India is much awaited one. As warm April spring heralds the summer months, fruit stalls begin selling lump, juicy, sweet mangoes. This fruit is called the king of fruits and is very highly valued. There are hundreds and thousands of varieties of mangoes grown in India but Hapus or Alphanso is the most loved. This fruit is very dear to everyone across the length and breadth of country and I personally know only person who isn’t fond of mangoes & that one person is my kid sister. This fruit is very versatile since it has many many culinary uses in Indian cuisine.
The sour taste of the green mangoes is used to add the much required tang in any delicacy while the ripened variety is generally part of some dessert. Adding raw mangoes to chutneys and curries is done almost throughout India, especially konkan, goa and kerala. While North Indians prefer adding amchur to their food for the much required tang.
This fruit is seasonal hence has to be preserved in some way or the other. Indians pickle it for consumption throughout the year. Mango is dried and powdered and used in almost all of the north Indian savoury pastries and snacks. Another interesting way to preserve raw mangoes is pickling them with salt, masalas/spices, oil so that you can have this fruit when you crave for some raw mango. Infact We even sun dry it, to be used in curries throughout the year. we call it ambe-solla ( Ambe is Mango , solla basically means slice in konkani). This doesnot actually give you a feel of eating mangoes but when cooked in curries it comes preety close to the actual raw mangoes.
There is one more very interesting way of preserving this wonderful fruit at raw stage. I am not sure if many people do it but it’s a very common thing in every Konkani household. It does not have any oil, artificial preservatives, spices but tastes very very good. In fact I have eaten this with rice, solkadi, potato phodi….yumm. In olden days when refrigerators were unseen & unheard this was teh only effective way to store it in all its glory. But the taste is so good that this is a continued tradition in all the konkani houses.
I know I am a little late to post this since mango season is coming to an end here but then better late then never. I thought of posting it sooner so that those of you who want to try it can try this before supermarkets have raw mangoes on the shelf.
Getting to business, lets check the recipe. This is very simple, easy, non messy recipe. In konkani we call it KhaLatali tora (Tora is raw mangoes and khaL is the salty, pungent water)

Ingredients
1 cup mango diced in bit size pieces
½ cup chilies
¼ cup salt
1 tbl spn hing
4-5 spoons of water

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together except water, mix well. Let this stand for 3-4 hours. Transfer this to air tight bottle and add water. Shake well and keep the bottle in cool dry place. Open after a week you will be sweetly surprised to see that mangoes have pickled.
Its like pickle but you can actually feel the tang, zest, fiery taste in every bite. There are no over powering masalas or oil acting as preservative. You can even add this to curries but than you have to be very very careful with salt added to curries since this will contain a lot of salt.

If this is new to you then you must try it because I am sure you will fall in love with this instantly. This is a completely traditional recipe and followed as almost a ritual in every goan household.

We'll be back on the weekend with some more interesting recipes. have fun and pickle raw mangoes konkani styl etill then.

Weekend talk with Chicken Kheema

2007-09-23T11:18:00.000-04:00

Its weekend again …yayyyyyyyyyyy!! This is the most awaited part of the week. I am looking forward to Saturdays right from Mondays. I am sure many of you share this same sentiment. All of us have different reasons for looking forward. For some it’s about staying in bed till afternoon, for some it’s the getaway from the hectic work life. For many home makers it’s about having someone to talk to all day long. I have still not been able to find out what is so intriguing part of the weekend for me.
I have various reasons. Infact the reasons have changed a lot over the years. In school ( it was only Sunday then) during doordarshan days I liked weekend for all the TV programs like He-man, jungle book and also the movie shown the previous day, remember the Saturday night movies?. Later in college, it was for the home cooked food since I would travel home from hostel over the weekend. After a few when I started staying by myself it was going out for movies, shopping sprees and hangout with roomies. BTW getting the laundry done was also a very important thing in my life then.
Coming back to present, I look forward to weekends so that I can stay in bed till late & I don’t have to make the first cup of tea ( this is more of a reason then the first one) and sometimes if I am lucky I get breakfast too without having to lift the spoon. I like weekend since we play cards till wee hours in the morning. Its so much of fun ( I will dedicate an entire post to that later). I look forward to weekend for the siesta, for some long drives. I look forward to weekends since K occasionally tries his hand at cooking ( generally breakfast and soups). When I am not making special break fast then it’s special for lunch or dinner and I love this part as well.
Last weekend was one such weekend when I made our favorite, chicken kheema.
It’s a very simple dish but mind you its very filling. It can be eaten with any of the Indian flat bread or toasted butter smudged, bread.
I prefer to eat it with garlic naan or butter toasted bread.

Ingredients
1 pound Ground chicken
2 medium sized Onions, finely chopped
4 small Roma Tomatoes, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Ginger -Garlic paste
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
2 to 3 whole Cloves
1 to 3 Cardamom pods
1 Bay leaf
2 teaspoons Cumin powder
2 teaspoons Garam masala
1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Red chili powder
4 tablespoons Oil
Salt

For garnish

Finely chopped Cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons Lemon juice

For marinade
Fistful cilantro leaves
1 tbl spn Ginger-garlic paste
1 tbl spn curd
** Blend the above ingredients together.

Method:
Marinate the chicken for 2 hours.
Heat the oil add the bay leaves , cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds and sauté on medium high for a minute. Add the ginger and garlic paste and sauté till light brown. Add the onions till they are translucent. Now add tomatoes till the oil starts to separate. Add the all the powdered spices. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add the ground chicken and mix well. This requires little bit of energy. Cook for 5 minutes on high heat. Add salt, simmer and cook till done.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with a lemon wedge for the tangy taste.

I have got inspiration from kanchana about knowing your story so tell me what is it about weekend that you enjoy the most.

p.s. I will get back soon on what-To-Do with left over kheema. Keep watching this space for that mouth wtering recipe.

Plantain Cutlets for JFI-Bananas

2007-09-19T09:06:00.000-04:00

This is my first time at a JFI event. I always wanted to participate but the JFI-wagon would always move on to the next JFI station and i would miss it. This time i didnt want to reach huffing and puffing and still miss it. Here is my entry for JFI-Bananas. This is hosted by Mandira of Ahaar.

Plantain are a type of bananas used for cooking rather than consumed like sweet banana. Plantains are used in cooking right from its flowers, leaves, Raw fruits as well as ripened fruits. In south India, banana leaves are used to serve food especially as a part of holy offering/ neivaidyam to god. In goa womenfolk sell hand woven flowers use the thread made out of the banana stem. trust me its very tight and does not tear away that easily. In fact Japanese make use of this stem to get fibers for clothing. The flowers are made into a very delicious sabzi and eaten. Every Plant flowers just once. A few bunches actually do not flower and once the tip is dark brownish-black the flower is cut and cooked. Banana is one of the few fruits whose sabzi taste as good as the ripe banana (personal choice).
As mentioned in my earlier posts my mom is an avid gardener. She works hard to grow bananas, jackfruits, mangoes, chikoo etc etc n the list is endless. She tries her hand at growing seasonal vegetables every year but so far we have never had loads of vegetables in our garden except for tendali. Their growth is scary since she would make us eat it every alternate day. We have also had the chance to eat home grown papayas, pineapples, guavas, cashews and drumsticks. Mom also grows chillies at home which according to her taste "far better" than the ones sold in the market. We just accept it coz we know that its number of years and her gardening that is taking a toll on her taste buds; Infact sometime I feel its my sis's cooking that is taking the toll on her taste buds. Anyways, growing with a backyard full of home grown vegetables and fruits I have eaten all types of fruits in raw and ripened stage. Banana & plantain trees for us meant a thick bush( read jungle) that we could directly see while sitting on the dining table. So the first site of flowering for these plants meant over-dose of that fruit or vegetable. Inspite of this we were never put off by the vegetable. I think this fruit/vegetable is very adorable since it derives the flavor of the spices it is cooked in very fast. I have just recentlt been enlightened that amongst the jains plantain/bananas replace potato in their cooking. So right from pav bhaji to vada pav to chips its Banana all the way. Coming back to my moms gardening-harvesting-cooking, she is a very intelligent woman who would always come up with something innovative, delicious and the most intelligent way to finish off all her garden-harvest.
I generally preferred the vegetable harvest since the quantity would be lesser but then i totally drool over fruits ( other than cashews) from our garden so they were always gulped down faster. Mom’s plantain harvest would be celebrated in many houses since this gigantic bunch could only get over after distributing to our close friends, relatives and neighbors. This harvest was also most feared for two reasons. One being storage space in the refrigerator and secondly this veggie would be cooked, recooked and served for weeks to come. Mom would generally come up with bhaji, fritters, chips, bharta, curry etc etc etc but my favorite were plantain cutlets. They are excellent as snack, could be used as Pattie in a vegetarian burger.
This is also good as picnic food.

Ingredients
1 plantain
1 onion
2 pods garlic
1/2" ginger
1 tbl spn green chillies paste
1/2 t spn jeera powder
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbl spn finely chopped cilantro
peas, corn (optional)
4 tbl spns semolina/rawa ( for rolling, bread crumbs can also be used)

oil for frying.

Method:
Cook Plantain in a pressure cooker unto 3 whistles. After it’s cooled, peel and discard the outer skin. Mash the banana and all the other ingredients. In a plate keep the semolina/bread crumbs. Knead the mixture till it mixes well. take a ping-pong sized ball mixture and flatten it like a Pattie. Roll this in semolina and shallow fry with little oil.
Serve with chutney or ketchup.

We had a toddler visiting us hence the decoration to suit him. have a great week ahead.

Mallu styled sukka chicken

2007-09-16T11:20:00.000-04:00

Weekend for us is used to be a lavish affair. We would till sleep late, munch on any fast food or leftover over from the previous day. One fine day we decided to fine tune our behavior and followed the old wives mantra of “early to bed early to ride makes you healthy, wealthy and wise”. I am still looking for the wealth and wisdom but health has definitely improved with a healthy living style. We have become regular at the gym, still trying to shed the extra pounds, eating healthy food. Occasionally we indulge in some non healthy, greasy food but on a whole I think we have improved. I guess it’s the summer sun shine that was doing wonders. I hope we continue this always but lazy me is already feeling the seasonal change and crawling out of the comforter is getting difficult everyday. I am really trying hard.
According to one of my friends, it’s a sin to brush your teeth before 11 Am on weekends, I like to sleep late too but late for me is 8:30 AM max. She could sleep through the whole day and even at night. Once I decided that I will not get up before her. But she won since I got up at 9 and she got up at 1. C’mmon you don’t blame me for trying hard to win this challenge …do you?
Apart from her sleeping skills she was a great cook. She made the most delicious sukka chicken with some curry leaves seasoning. She also makes excellent parathas but you have to ignore the shape, they are everything but round or oval.
Talking abut weekends, I made this dry chicken for our lavish Sunday lunch ( which we will still have but we rise n shine early now) some days back and it was super delicious.
I think this will also be excellent for Tiffin lunch, since cooking time is very less.

Ingredients
½ pound skinless chicken
1 cup julienne onions
2 tbl spn Red chili powder
1 tbl spn turmeric powder
1 tbl spn garam masala powder
1 tbl spn yogurt
1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste
3-6 green chillies ( I used green chilli paste)
10-14 curry leaves
Oil for frying
Cilantro for garnish
Cashews ( optional) {I didn’t use any since I do not like cashews}

Method:
Wash and clean chicken. Marinate chicken with yoghurt, 1 tbl spn red chili powder, and ½ tbl spn turmeric powder. Let it stand for 2-4 hours. For best results let it stay in refrigerator overnight.
Heat oil. Incase you want to add cashews then fry them now. Keep fried cashews aside. Add chillies, let it splutter than add chicken let it cook till brown on all side. Keep this aside. In the same vessel, add onions. Fry till done. Add ginger-garlic paste, sauté for 3 minutes. Add all the powders. Cook for 2 minutes. Now add the chicken and salt. Cook till done. This process should not take more than 7 minutes.
In a separate pan heat oil. Add curry leaves. Turn the stove off & pour this over the chicken. Mix thoroughly. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro. Serve with a lemon wedge.

When I go back in time after such a wonderful lunch , it was time for Her highness’s siesta time & I had tried really hard to join her but I had failed miserable …boo hoo..:((. I have stopped trying now and now I really do not want to compete with her. Shez the best at this game. SJN....do u get the drift ?

Khaman Dhokla with chai

2007-09-12T09:41:00.000-04:00

Khaman dhokla is a steamed savory cake with mild spices. The basic ingredient is chickpeas flour. These steamed cakes are so fluffy that they almost melt in your mouth. This was gujju staple but is now famous and savored across India. They are the most common site in almost all the sweetmeat/halwai shops in India.Traditionally this was a time consuming affair for it involved soaking pulses in right proportion for More than 6 hours. Then grinding this to a fine paste and fermenting it. The entire process was Lengthy and time consuming. Well there are other methods to make dhokla which does not involve Soaking, grinding but only requires fermentation. You have to take besan/chick peas flour ( there is a special besan called dhokla besan or heera besan) and mix it with buttermilk & ferment it overnight. Add spices, soda bicarb+ citric acid or eno fruit salt and steam it. In today’s fast paced life sometimes you do not get time, well Now you have an option of ready to cook off teh shelf products. Many companies like Gits, swad etc have come up with a range of products that have made our lives simpler. These ready to cook products are very good since all that you need to do is mix the ingredients and cook for the mentioned time. these are a boon especially for working women who have unexpected guests. These are also a boon for non-working women when they have unannounced guests knocking their doors.

I had some guests/friends coming over for a chai but still decide to go ahead and make khaman dhokla ; Since I knew of their arrival ahead of time I made dhokla from scratch. Everyone really appreciated the efforts and I loved the way KD came out. This was excellent with ginger chai.

Ingredients
1 cup rice ( I used basmati rice)

3/4 cup channa dal-skinless (Bengal Gram)

3/4 cup yoghurt or dahi ( I used dannon non fat yogurt)

1 tbs. fresh coriander leaves chopped ( for garnish)

1 tbl spn green chillies paste

1 tbs. sugar

For Tempering/tadka:

1 tbs spn oil

1 tsp spn mustard seeds

pinch of asafoetida

curry leaves

1 tbs spn desiccated coconut

Method:

Clean, wash & soak lentils and rice overnight. Grind coarsely with a very little water to a batter consistency(Almost like Idli batter).Now mix in the yoghurt, whisk very lightly. Leave it for fermentation for about 6-8 hours. ( People add Eno fruit salt and skip the fermentation process but I wanted to take the longer route so I fermented it the natural way). Next morning add green chillis , salt and sugar to this. Mix very slowly. Lightly grease the vessel in which dhokla will be cooked. Pour the batter in the vessel. Steam for 20 mins. I used my pressure cook withour the pressure for steaming.

After about 15 mins check if KD is cooked. open the vessel and insert a knife, remove it; if its clean KD is ready. If not let it steam for some more time. Remove the vessel of heat and let it cool.Cut Kd in small pieces; Lets garnish it with our tempering.
In a sauté pan Heat oil, add mustard seeds. Add asafoedita+ curry leaves. Remove off the heat and pour this over the dhokla.garnish with chopped coriander leaves, desiccated coconut.
Serve this with tamarind chutney, tastes excellent.
KD were very fluffy and soft. I was pleased with this recipe and the outcome. I hope you are too.See you over the weekend for something delicious.

Plate full of Samosas for a rainy evening

2007-09-09T09:03:00.000-04:00

Whats Your Favorite Snack?

Ans: Samosa

Its monsoons in India at this time. You actually feel the monsoon season if you are a resident in a coastal place like Mumbai, kerala, Goa etc. In monsoons, the tiny pearls of pure water ( combined with many chemicals if you are a resident of a big city) touch your skin giving way to cool weather after the harsh summers. The mighty fall as though from a far away galaxy onto a tree, then branch of a tree and finally on mother earth makes you want to dance. The smell from earth is enchanting, you have to experience it to feel the smell. I have very fond memories of monsoon and some very scary memories.
Fond memories include eating fresh field grown mushrooms, black fresh water crabs ( yumm), getting wet in rains on the way home from school; Scary or not so fond memories include not eating fresh fish for days together, damp clothes hanging in almost every corner of house ( since it pours n pours n pours ...non stop in goa). Gosh !! I have memories of eating only :(...I am totally addicted to food ( on contrary to popular belief that I eat only a bite or two). AS a child our evenings in the monsoons were spent indoors cause outdoors used to be soaked in rains. We spent these evenings sipping ginger chai or lemongrass chai with some piping hot fried food. Most of the times it was onion bhajji. When mom wasn’t busy she would make samosas, batata wade or medu wade. I thought my mom made the best samosas in the world till I ate them at my friend n neighbor AHK's place. They were super easy to make with very less pre-preparation time. The stuffing for change wasn’t potato filling. I just loved these and asked AHK to gimme the recipe. One evening she called me home for tea and showed me the detailed procedure. That angel also packed a plate full of samosas for K. We just love her for her kindness. This post is basically as a "Thank you" note to AHK. Love u ...muah !!

Ingredients:

For Stuffing
1 cup boiled green peas
1" ginger
4 green chilies ( I used chili paste)
2 fistful of coriander leaves
t t spn sugar
1 t spn jeera
1 tbl spn oil
a pinch of amachoor ( optional)
salt as per taste

For Outer covering
2 big scoops of Maida
1 tbl spn oil
salt as per taste

Oil for frying

Method:
We'll make knead the dough first.
Heat oil and add to Maida. Now add salt and water and knead it till soft. Apply a drop of oil to your hands and rub it on the outside of the dough. Let it rest in that time we'll prepare the stuffing.

For the stuffing:
Boil the peas ( incase you are using fresh peas). Press the peas hard with the hand masher to get the mashed feel. Do not mash into a paste.
Grind together ginger, coriander leaves, chilies ( without adding water). My blender does not grind without water so I finely grated ginger, chopped coriander leaves very finely, . Heat oil, add jeera. When the cumin seeds splutter, Add the paste or finely grated ingredients. fry till it is aromatic. Now add the peas, sugar and salt. cook this till all the water has evaporated. Do not leave any water.
Let this mixture cool.

Start rolling the dough into small chapattis. cut into half with a knife. fold into a triangular samosa. Put the filling, fold it.
we generally fry on high flame but this is to be fried on very low flame till golden brown.

Serve with ketchup or meethi chutney or mint chutney.
Hope this makes your monsoon evening cozy and fun.

This is my entry to Whats Your Favorite Snack? event hosted by Hima of snackorama

Chole Bhature - Classic weekend brunch

2007-09-04T14:06:00.000-04:00

It’s been quite sometime since my last post. I was on a vacation so could not post anything new. I wanted to post something that is my personal favorite. I tried to think real hard on what I like the most (this is really hard since I love tons of things). Finally I came up with goan prawns curry, Fried fish, Xacuti, caramel custard , chole Bhature; I stopped listing more dishes, I got the answer for "Whats new on khanaPina". I am always ready to have chana masala. Everyone at home knows that this is my favorite Punjabi food. I am not a very big fan of tomato gravy based dishes but this one always makes me drool for more.
I love the taste of chick peas drowning in spicy tomato curry. Chole can either be in thick tomato gravy or dry. Needless say I love both the versions equally. Chole is also perfectly goes with all types of Indian flat bread but its best when served it with puris or bhature. This is generally a very good dish if you have guests for lunch /dinner since it’s easy to cook and everyone just LOVES it. …yum !!!
For Chole, Chick peas are cooked with flavorful onions, tangy tomatoes in conjunction with the species give the aroma of heavenly food and it tastes equally good. Just before serving it’s given a citrus drizzle to increase the flavor.
Bhatura is deep fried bread which goes extremely well with chole. These are made of all purpose flour as opposed to puris which are made of whole wheat flour. These taste best when served hot, direct out of the kadai. They tend to get chewy, stretchy when they are not warm. My MIL makes bhatura with addition of some boiled, grated potatoes. This is basically to get a good texture, taste and importantly so that bhature don’t get chewy. Potatoes add a slight flavor while saving the day for you if you want to carry them in Tiffin or for a picnic.
If you order a bhatura in any Indian restaurant than you will be amazed to see the size of bhatura. It is at least 8 inches in diameter. At home I make bhature same size as puris.
This is a perfect dish for weekend Brunch.
Now for the recipe. We will check Chole first followed by bhature.

Chole

Ingredients:
1 cup Chick peas ( soaked overnight)
1 large onion
1 large tomato
1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste
1 1/2 tbl spn jeera/cumin seeds
1 t spn kasuri methi
3 tbl spn oil
2 tbl spn MDH chana masala powder
½ tbl spn turmeric powder
¼ tbl spn chili powder
1 tbl spn cilantro
½ tbl spn green chili paste
A pinch of asafoedita
Salt to taste

Method:
Boil chick peas with water, salt and 1/2 tbl spn jeera. If you are very fond of onions then add a tbl spn of chopped onions. Cook for upto 4 whistles. Drain the chick peas but DO NOT discard the water. this flovourful water will be used later.
Heat oil in a wok, Add 1 tbl spn jeera/cumin seeds. Chop onions finely and add it to the wok. Fry till they turn translucent. To this add ginger-garlic paste, chili paste. Fry for about 2-3 minutes till its aromatic. Now add chana masala powder, turmeric powder , chili powder and kasuri Methi. Fry for 2 more minutes. Add chopped tomatoes & salt . Cover the lid and let it simmer for 5 minutes. With the ladle press the chopped tomatoes to get consistent gravy. Now add boiled chick peas and drained water. Cook this on very low flame till done.
Serve with Bhature, a slice of lemon, minced cilantro and raw onions.

Bhature

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour/Maida
2 tbl spn yogurt
1 tsp salt
1 tsps ghee
1 tsps sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Oil for frying

Method
Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Heat ghee and add to the flour. Add the yogurt , sugar and warm water. Knead the dough till soft. Cover it with a wet cloth and keep aside for 30 minutes. Heat oil in a frying pan. In the mean time make small balls out of the dough and roll them, fry in hot oil until golden brown. while frying, press the side of the puris so that it puffs up. The size of my bhature is the same as puris.
Serve hot with chole, raita, finely cut raw onions.

p.s. Bhatura can turn out very chewy, hard etc if oil doesn’t heat up. Do not add rolled puris till oil is very hot. to check if oil is heated enough, drop a small puri ( as small as the nail of the smallest toe). This puri should puff up immediately.

This is the prefect Khana for an early afternoon you want to sit at home on the couch and watch loads of movies, well I did that. As for pina, make some "Mango Lassi".
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i loved eating it.

Bisi Bele Bhath - Rice, lentils and vegetable medley

2007-08-27T15:24:00.000-04:00

I was very excited when Sharmi of Neivedyam’s announced JFI-Rice . i excerisced all my grey cells to think of some wholesome rice dish. Finally after a lot of thought i finalised on BBB. BBB was my selection one for its a wholesome rice dish with tangy, spicy taste. Its excellent as one meal dish especially one days when you are lazy to cook but still crave for some nice piping hot home cooked food.
Its home is Karnataka and in kannada it literally means hot rice cooked with lentils. Traditionally its is served with papad , pachadi and/or pickle.

BBB is extremely rich in flovours. Fresh veggies give it the extra zing which adds to the wett-ish rice-dal-spices combo. I love this medley of rice, lentils and vegetables. Its a highly aromatic, flavorful dish which is very fulfilling on days I am low and need a hug. I am not sure why I didn’t post it earlier. My ex-roomies mom makes the worlds best BBB. V if u are reading this please pass this message to your mom (I know she already knows this :-)). Authentic kanadigas use sona masuri rice for BBB. Sonamasuri is quality rice which is low on starch, highly aromatic, easy to digest. I have been eating Sona masuri rice since a child, basmati rice was always reserved for Festivals and other such occasions. SM rice is largely grown in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. I did not have SM rice so I have used basmati rice. Now for the Bele-Lentils. I have used a mixture of polished moong dal and toor dal.
Another thing I like about BBB is its versatility, you can add any vegetable you like and subtract anything you don’t, and in spite of this its embraces the additions/deletions and give the rich flavorful taste like always. BBB masala is the only preparation that you will need before hand.
Lets start with preparation of BBB masala.

For BBB Masala

Coriander seeds-2tbsp
Methi seeds-1 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Cinnamon-1 stick
Cloves-1
Red chillies-5
Grated Dry coconut-1/2 cup
Oil- 1/2 tbl spn

Method:
Heat Oil, add all the ingredients except dry coconut powder. Cool them . Add dry coconut and grind to a fine powder. Store it in an air-tight container.
You could even use store bought BBB masala. They are also very good and flavourful. I have tried MTR - BBB masala and its good. But I still prefer the taste of homemade masala.

Now for the actual dish

Bisi Bele bhath
Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
Moong Dal- 1/4 cup
Vegetables- 1 1/2 cup
{ I have used Potatoes, carrots, peas, capsicum}
Onion -2
Tamarind extract - 1 tsp

For tempering
Ghee -2 tbl spns
Mustard seeds - 1 tbl spn
Asafoedita- a pinch
curry leaves- 4-5

{Simuteneously keep 7 cups of water for boiling. }

Method

Wash rice, dal separately and keep aside.
Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add mustard seeds, asafoedita. Now add vegetables and fry for a minute. To this add rice and fry for 1 more min. Add dals to this and pre-prepared BBB masala, tamarind extract and salt. Add boiling water. cover this vessel with the lid, cook this on low flame till done. It takes approximately 40 mins on gas stove not sure about the electric stove.
When all the water evaporated your rice-lentils-veggie medley is all ready to be savored.

This is my entry to Sharmi of Neivedyam’s JFI-Rice & This is my entry to RCI-Karnataka hosted by gorgeous Asha of Foodies Hope.

Happy Independence Day ---Vande Mataram

2007-08-14T20:27:00.000-04:00

Indian Independence Day is on the 15th August, well everyone is aware of that. Our motherland has seen it all in this period. Its been a roller coaster ride for her, and she is still going strong. On the day of Independence day our then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said "To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."
In these 60 years, Bharatmata ( Motherland) has seen peace & war, love and hatred, life and death. Now it is in our hands to make this a better place to live for our next generations to come. We have emerged victorious in wars along the borderlines. Time and again we have prove that we are proud to be Indians. Today we are working towards building a more secular , more powerful and economically strong India. We say we have achieved it all, But honestly have we ?
I am proud to be a citizen of shining India, But i would like to also get your attention to the non-shining India. Even today there are millions of people living below the poverty line. Illiteracy is a huge problem. government thinks that an end to child labour will take of this problem but this doesn't seem to work. With boom in Indian economy , India is progressing at a rapid rate but the framers suicide problem is also the same side of the coin. On One hand we claim to be a secular country and on the other hand we make reservations in all the educational institutions based on caste. This is just so unfair.
We claim to be a big democratic nation but common men's rights are not protected ( do i have to be explicit here ?) . Corruption is a huge issue in India. Almost every government employee takes bribes, from halwadar to DCP, ACP etc. Do you really believe these people Will take care of you when need be ? Alls not lost still....Justice prevails like in Jessica Lal murder case but the percentage is really small. We have the future in our hands. Our freedom fighters gave up their lives for this country, is this the way we payback?
We fight back for equality of gender but in rural India female foeticide is found in backyard. In rural parts people still want a male child. When we talk about Indian infrastructure we are only shown pictures of Mumbai, Chandigarh, etc. Try driving on Pune roads. they suck . Every monsoon hundreds of people die because of road accidents in Pune; still no one is ready to even talk about it let alone work towards making them better.
I do not want to sound pessimistic, but these are the facts that send a chill down my spine. We are a potential super-power ( as claimed by govt) but is this how citizens of a powerful country should be treated ? Don;t we deserve better?
I do not want to play the blame game, If we vote for a government that takes interest in our rights-privileges, basic needs, a clean non-corrupt government than trust me India will be "THE" place to live in.
I am proud to be an indian, Vande Mataram.
I would also like to add a small note ( this is for post Independence day i.e. 16th aug): people buy flags for the I day and do not take enough efforts to keep it respectfully. In case you see any flag on the road please pick it up carry with you or just place it somewhere high so that it doesn't come under your feet. Indian flag deserves much more respect. In case you are buying for your self or your kids please take enough care that it does not come under your feet.
Thanks .

Now for the recipe, Caramel Custard . After all this bitter truth I wanted a sweet aftertaste in my mouth so i decided on caramel Custard. This is one dessert that's real close to my heart and its one of the first dishes i ever made in my life. Its a very simple recipe which tastes awesome all the time. I don't have a sweet tooth but when it comes to CC i have a sweet jaw. Generally people make it in an oven but i make it like my mom in a pressure cooker...yeah sounds weird to some people but trust me the tastes just awesome.

Caramel Custard

Ingredients

2 cups whole Milk

3 Eggs

2 slices of brown ( or white ) bread

1/2 t spn Vanilla essence

1 cup sugar

2 tbl spn for caramel

Method:

As the name suggest we will make caramel first and than the dessert. First boil the milk and let it cool off. In a mean time prep the other things. Whisk together eggs, bread, sugar. Fold in the shredded pieces of bread. After the milk is cold, fold it in the mixture. Whisk together till a nice uniformity in texture is obtained.

Put the sugar ( 2 tbl spn ) in d vessel and sprinkle some water ( abt 2 tbl spn) on it. Heat this on a low flame till sugar melts and you see a nice bright golden color. Use tongs and cover the entire bottom of the vessel is coated with caramel.

Pour in the mixture, Put it in the pressure cooker and cook up to 3 whistles. Chill this for a minimum of 5 hrs. Serve chilled.

Hope you had a very fun Independence Day. Vande Mataram.

Chitranna for Summer Express Cooking Event

2007-08-10T14:06:00.000-04:00

This is my entry for Mallugirl's Summer Express Cooking Event. Its about cooking a complete meal in 30 minutes.

Cooking something in less than 30 mins I do very often. In the mornings i am so lazy to crawl out of the bed that I get up just before its time to make lunch to be packed. I am a total rice freak But i also get bored of cooking the same thing again and again. Rice & dal is very common in our house, rice and fish curry is another staple. But my better half prefers some variety other than Pulao and fried rice. I love lemon rice and is easy to cook. After a lot of thought i decide on chitraanna. We make it quite often since its tasty, easy to cook and also very fats.There is not right or wrong way of making chitraanna. You could use vegetables, this is purely optional. I try and add some vegetables when the refrigerator is loaded and i am desperately trying to finish it off. Its a very healthy meal because dals are used in this, so your daily protein intake is taken care of. For non-vegetarians protein intake is not an issue bit veggies have to make sure that proteins are included in day-to-day meals. I am married into a pakka vegetarian household though K eats everything except men. At home we add dals in almost all the leafy vegetables, one for its protein intake and secondly it gives nice color , texture and taste to the dish. Coming back to my post "chitraanna" , Its a khichadi type of dish without adding any masala. Tempering with medley of dals give it a flavour taste. You could use any lentils in this dish but most popular combination is chana-dal, moong dal and urad dal.

Chitraanna

Ingredients:

1 Cup Rice

1/4 cup Chana dal

1/4 cup Moong Dal

2 tbl spn Urad Dal

1/4 spn Mustard seeds

5 chilies

a pinch Hing asafoedita

1/2 tbl spn turmeric powder

5 tbl spns Oil

1/2 tbl spn clarified butter ( ghee is optional but this adds to the aroma and taste)

3 cups of boiling water

7-8 curry leaves

salt as per taste

Method : Soak Chana-moon dal in hot water for 10 minutes. Heat 4 tbl spns of oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. fry the dals till they look crispy. Remove and keep aside. to this oil add the rest of the oil and ghee. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter ass hing, curry leaves, urad dal, chopped chillies and turmeric powder ( in this order to make it more flavourful). Now add washed rice. Fry for 2 mins. Add boiling water, salt. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover the lid and start timer for 20 mins. In the mean time make raita. I served it with carrot raita.Rice takes just 20 minutes to cook. If you try to stir in between, grains will break and rice will become mushy. After 20 mins Rice is ready. Serve this with hot-n-sweet pickle and a dollop of any raita.

carrot raita:

Ingredients:

1 cup grated carrots

4 tbl spn Yogurt

1 pinch chat masala

salt as taste

1/2 t spn sugar

1/2 t spn chillies

1 tbl spn chopped cilantro leaves

Method: Mix all the ingredients together and serve chilled.

Chicken Biryani

2007-07-30T14:51:00.000-04:00

Whats cooking today ??

Biryani.

{Drooling already ??}

This post was long waiting. My friend M is tired of asking me to post this. Finally lazy moi has decide to post it.

Biryani, is something you have to taste to now what a combination can flavors do to your taste buds. Hyderabad is famous for its char Minar, Pearls, Cyber city being the latest and the good old Hyderabadi Biryani. If you have ever been to Hyderabad than there is nothing like eating authentic Hyderabadi Biryani with some heavenly kebabs. That is the best food for a non-vegetarian in H'bad.Biryani is also a delicacy that is prepared on the Eid. One of our family friends are very generous , so every eid we get a big dabba with Biryani and kheer. Both, me n My sis dig into it till the last grain of rice is over. I missed that biryani since i have come to US. Me and my sister tried making biryani but could not reproduce that gorgeous taste. I have made endless efforts before and finally i almost gave up making biryani at home. Miraculously, A friend of mine came to my rescue; she made biryani and taste i have developed was replicated. I was so thrilled that i made her give me her secret recipe.
Biryani, is a combination of rice, special condiments, Spices. Generally all the whole spices are used for preparation. Biryani is a very aromatic delicacy. Its savoured first by nostrils, then eyes and finally taste buds. There are 2 styles of preparing this variety. The Katchi Biryani is prepared with the Katchi Yakhni method (with raw gravy). The raw meat is marinated in curd and cooked only by the dum, or the baking process, which is done with rice. This is a challenging process as it requires meticulously measured time and heat to avoid overcooking or undercooking the meat. In Pakki Biryani, where the meat is cooked with all the accompanying spices and then the rice is simmered with the resultant gravy redolent of mace, ittar and kewra in a sealed vessel with saffron and cardamom. It is accompanied by side dishes like Mirchi ka Salan, Dhansak and Bagara Baingan.{This info is cutesy WIKI}
Biryani is generally cooked in a handi on a low flame for a long time. Most important thing while making Biryani is to remember that it must be cooked on low flame with lot of patience, ONLY basmati rice should be used, generous use of ghee ( clarified butter) and oil. Please do not think of calories if you want to make delicious biryani.

Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

3 cups rice
orange color -- 2 strands of saffron soaked in 2 Tbsp milk
3 tsp ghee
4 Tbsp oil
4 cardamoms
few cloves
1” Cinnamon
1 tsp whole pepper
3-4 bay leaves
chopped coriander
½ kg chicken
2-3 jumbo onions
2 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste
20 green chilies
½ bunch coriander leaves
½ bunch mint leaves
2 tsp coriander pwdr
2 tsp poppy seeds
2” stick Cinnamon stick (powdered)
10 cloves(powdered)
1 tsp turmeric pdr
2-3 tomatoes
½ cup oil
2 tsp ghee

Method:
Prepare the rice 3-4 hours in advance:
Clean, wash, drain the rice and keep aside. Boil water, add 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp oil.Add rice and boil for 5 minutes.Drain and allow to cool in large plates. After cooling, to 1/3rd of the rice add orange color

For the chicken gravy:
Cut chicken into big pieces, wash and keep aside.
Cut and grind 7 onions. Keep aside.
Make a paste of green chilies, coriander and mint.
Slice one onion, fry till transparent and keep aside to drain.
Heat ½ cup oil and 2 tsp ghee, Add onion paste and roast till golden brown.
Add ginger-garlic paste and roast for 5 min. Add the green paste and roast for 5 min; Add coriander Pwdr, cloves Pwdr, Cinnamon pwdr , poppy seeds and haldi powder, Fry for 2 mins. Add chopped tomatoes. Stir well till tomatoes are cooked
Put the chicken in the above paste, add 2 glasses of water and cook till a thick gravy is obtained.

Finally, the biryani:
In a thick bottomed vessel, heat 2-3 tsp ghee and 4 Tbsp oil
Add 4 cardamoms, few cloves , a 1” piece of Cinnamon, 1 tsp whole pepper, 3-4 bay leaves. Let this start spluttering
Switch off the gas. (now remove the spices if you find them unpleasant)
Add the white rice. Pour the chicken gravy over it such that the pieces are evenly distributed.
Put the colored rice over the gravy and close the lid.
Keep on a low flame for 15-20 minutes moving the vessel occasionally for even browning.
Garnish with fried onion and chopped coriander
Serve hot.

Paneer Paratha - Farmers cheese stuffed Paratha

2007-07-23T09:44:00.000-04:00

Paneer is one of the few types of cheese indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and is widely used in Punjabi cuisine. Unlike most cheeses in the world, Paneer does not melt. Paneer / Farmer's cheese , reminds me of all the delicious dishes, Butter paneer masala, Palak Paneer, Matar Paneer. paneer can be prepared at home. I have never made it myself but i had seen my roomie make it. It was a lot of hard work so i never even thought of maing it ( Lazy me). I buy it from Indian stores. I was not sure what i would blog about for punjabi cuisine till my eyes feel on a slab of paneer lying in my fridge. After the Main ingredient was decided i took a lot of time on deciding what should be the dish. Finally i settled on flat bread made with paneer stuffing. I generally do not cook paneer since K isn't very fond of paneer. But he likes parathas, paneer paratha was new to him.

Paratha: is a flat bread made out of whole-wheat flour. Its cooked on a flat griddle called tava. Paratha could either be plain paratha ( with generous amounts of oil/ghee) or with some stuffing. I prefer stuffed parathas, since every bite is full of a flavourful ingredients. Another thing about parathas that i like is , they can cooked to finish of veggies which are lying in the fridge for a long time.

Paneer paratha isn't the most difficult thing but it definitely is a lot of work if you intend to make paneer at home. Its a filling bread which goes very well with raita and butter, tastes best with home made butter. Milk that is available here isn't whole cream milk so making butter at home isn't possible but it can be replaced by salted butter or margarine.

While make parathas generally people crumble paneer with hands. But i grated it since it was cold and would take lesser time.

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 t spn salt

water for kneading

For stuffing

1 Cup grated Paneer

1 T spn chili powder

1 t spn Cumin pwd

1 t spn coriander pwd

a pinch Garam Masala pwd

1 t chat masala

a few coriander leaves

salt as per taste

Method:
Knead the dough till it is soft. Let it rest for 30 mins. ( this makes very soft parathas).

Mix together all the ingredients to be used for stuffing.

Make a ball out of kneaded flour . Roll it till it expands and fits on your palm. Roll some stuffing into a ball and place them on this roti. ( stuffing should be smaller than the roti). Now fold the corners.

Dust the rolling board with flour, press the stuffed fliur ball lightly. Now roll this stuffed ball into flat bread.

Heat griddle, fry bread till it turns golden-brownish and you get the delicious aroma.

Serve hot with raita, Dahi,pickle, sabzi or anything you like but do not forget to add a dollop of butter while serving.

This is my entry for RCI-Punjabi hosted by Richa of As dear as Salt.

Tamrind Sauce/ khatti mithi chutney

2007-07-20T12:40:00.000-04:00

"WTSIMS", I pondered all evening thinking what I can come up with for this event. sauces stocked at home all store bought except for one. when i started cooking it for the first time I wasnt sure whether I could pull it off. After all the hardwork, the results were astonishing.This is my entry for "WTSIMS".

In my ancestral place ( in India) we have lots of tamarind trees around our house. My mom has never bought tamarind from the market. My aunt is her supplier. Every spring-summer my aunt collects all the ripened tamarind pods, de-shells it cleans it and dry its in the sun. Then they are carefully rolled in balls and some salt is applied to them for longer lasting ( sometimes they last up to 2 yrs, salt prevents fungal growth ). These air tight jars they ddorn the kitchen shelves for the entire year.
Any of Indian street food is incomplete with khati-mithi chutney or tamarind sauce. We are both total street food fans. I try to make bhel at least once in two weeks. I have recently realized Ragda pattice is also simple to make since I replace patties with hash browns. This sauce/chutney is multi purpose. Since we add a dash of jaggery in our dal/Aamti I sometimes replace jaggery+ kokum with this sauce. Its very useful as condiment hen serving Dhokla etc. It tastes the best when served chilled. A jar about 16oz will last for months. I will post the recipe of this today and follow it up with ragada patties soon.

Ingredients
1 cup cleaned, de-seeded tamarind
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups water
3/4 cup jaggery
1 tsp. salt ( optional)

Method:
Soak the tamarind in 1 cup ( keep 1 cup aside) warm water for 10 mins. Heat the remaining water. When the water is hot , add the tamarind( along with water), jaggery, sugar, dates. Boil this for about 10 minutes till dates, tamarind is soft and sugar and jaggery have dissolved. Cool to room temperature. Blend till smooth. Pass it through a sieve. Now heat this strained mixture. Boil till it thickens. Store in clean airtight containers and refrigerate.

p.s. You Will have to dilute this when serving with any chat, dhokla etc. You could also adjust the sweet-tangy taste depending on the tartness of the tamarinds.

"X' - Mushroom Xacuti

2007-07-17T18:31:00.000-04:00

This is my entry to Nupur's( One hot stove) A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Xacuti ( pronounced as Sha-guti) in Konkani or chacuti in portueguese is a curry prepared in Goa with coconut, chillies, etc. Its something that is close to every goans heart. I could not think of any other dish with X other than Xacuti and I hadn’t blogged this because I was waiting for X in Nupurs A-Z of Indian vegetables. Generally Xacuti is associated with chicken but mushroom xacuti also tastes equally good.
In goa mushrooms are generally readily available in July-August. These are field mushrooms., trust me they taste by far better than button mushrooms available in stores. But those are extremely difficult to clean, Um rather it’s a tedious task but its worth the effort. I do not have any picture of these mushrooms but whnever I get one I will upload them here.
My people add vinegar to this , specially in hotels and it RUINS the taste. This dish also has very strong garam masala flavour. Fresh white flakes of coconut , roasted till aromatic and brown gives this dish a dark brown color. This color is also enhanced by addition of garam masala.. Since cocnut tends to be sweet in taste, try and add a little extra masala. Farm fresh mushrooms cooked in cocnut gravy…..I can smell xacuti..oops its coming from my kitchen.
This curry goes perefectly well with Bread, any Indian flat bread, Rice.

Ingredients
2 cups chopped mushrooms
½ cup coconut
1 Onion
3 tbl spn Garam Masala
1 tbl spm Chili powder
1/2 tbl Turmeric Powder
1-2 kokum peels
1 inch Ginger
3-4garlic pods
Salt

Method:

In case you can find field mushrooms use these for a extremely flavorful curry. But Just incase you cannot get your hands on these, You could use Oyster Mushrooms. These taste also like field mushrooms. Genrally you will find these in Chinese stores. I was very lazy to go the chines store so I just picked up farm fresh button Mushrooms.

Wash these thoroughly, and chop them. Do not cut into very small pieces.

Heat a pan, dry roast coconut, onions, ginger and garlic together. Incase You are using whole masla instead of ground masla They add that also. In case you are using gropund masala DO NOT roast it. In our ancestral house my grandmom would roast the onion in the chula directly. My mom tries to roast it on papad tava. But lazy that I am , I just roast it in the pan. When the cocnut turns brown ( as seen in d picture), and the miture is aromatic, turn the gass off. Cool this and grind it to a fine paste with evry little water.
In a Wok, add chopped mushrooms, very little water water ( ¼ cup or lesser ), turmeric powder and pich of chili powder.

After the mushrooms are half cooked, add the ground paste, kokum, garam masala and salt.

Boil for for 5-10 minutes, till mushrooms are cooked.

Good food , good book and lazy afternoon, What more can you ask for.

Prawns sukka Masala – Without gravy

2007-07-12T12:47:00.000-04:00

Eating fish they say isn’t very easy, especially for people who start it late in their life. I have been eating fish since I was a child; I never faced this problem much. But K has difficulty sometimes eating fish if there are lots of bones in it. Which is why he prefers shell fish or the bigger fishes which are easy to eat. I love almost all fish except mackerels, sardines etc.
We visit the Chinese store here twice a month and fill up our freezer after each of our visits. I wanted to make something with prawns but a bhaji which can be eaten with chapatti. Thought of making some gravy wala dish but gave up on that idea. Finally I thought of making one my favorite prawns dish without gravy. This is a quick recipe and will take not mre than 15 mins from start to end.

This was the first time that i made this and K absolutely loved it.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb prawns
1 onion
1 potato
1 tomato/ few pieces (4-5) raw mango/ 2-3 kokum

1 cup fresh coconut
1 tbl Spn garam masala
1 tbl spn chili powder
½ tbl spn halide powder
Salt as per taste
1 tbl spn oil

Method
Pre-preparation: Clean prawns and de-vein them. Rub a pinch of chili powder and turmeric powder and keep aside for 15 mins
Heat oil in a wok. Add onions. And sauté for 5 mins. Add potatoes, tomatoes ( raw mangoes). Sauté for 2-3 mins. Add prawns and Sauté for 2 minutes. The aroma will fill the room. Add turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala. Add ½ cup water and cook till all the water has evaporated and potatoes have been cooked. Garnish with cilantro. Serve this chapatti or as side dish with fish-curry rice.

p.s. Do not add tomatoes if you are adding raw mango/ kokum. Add just one of these for that sour taste.

Happy Indepence day with Prawns Pulao

2007-07-04T23:11:00.000-04:00

Its Independence Day here. On July 4, 1776, US claimed its independence from Britain and Democracy was born. I know i am celebrating it even though i ain't a part of this land but since I am staying here I think this is a return gift from me to her. This country has been nice, warm and welcoming. I have made a few friends here and I owe it to US. Its a holiday through out the length and breadth of this country. Everyone is enjoying it with either a trip, barbecue or picnic. We were suppose to visit a place close by in the afternoon with some Friends.

I was happy that its a holiday and just relaxing at home is a luxury. I wanted to eat something good but at the same time it should not take up too much time cooking. I had prawns in the fridge so i decided on cooking Prawns Pulao, good ol' comfort food.

Prawns Pulao

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmati Rice

1 finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped Tomato

1 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

1 tbl Spn Garam Masala

1/2 tbl spoon turmeric Powder

1 tbl spn Red chili powder

1/2 " Cinnamon Stick

8 cloves

2 tbl spn Oil

Salt to taste

2 cups Hot water

Method:

Apply salt to prawns and keep aside for 5 min. In a wok heat oil. Add Peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for 2 min. Wash prawns and add these to the contents in the wok. Wash rice and keep aside. Now add tomatoes, fry till they are soft. Now add

turmeric powder,Garam masala, red chili powder. Cook till the masala starts leaving the sides. Add Rice and fry for 5 mins. Add hot water, salt. cover with a lid and cook on v low flame for 20-25 mins. ( Any amount of rice can be prepared in 20 mins ).

You are ready to serve some lip smacking, finger licking pulao.

We loved it for the simplicity of cooking it as well as for the delicious and flavourful taste.

Happy Independence Day America. I hope you had fun.

Broccoli Manchurian

2007-06-25T18:40:00.000-04:00

Chinese food made the Desi way has its own taste and charm. It leaves you fulfilled, happy and makes you come for more. In India small Chinese thelas is a very common site. They serve yummy food and very light on the pocket. Ask any single staying in pune/mumbai/banglore who end up eating at least once a week at these small stalls. This is a great Indo-chinese fusion cuisine. Its not gourmet food but defineetly some lip-smacking food.

I wasn't a big fan of Chinese food till i arrived in Pune and started staying on my own. With mom not around to cook some good food i would rely on the Chinese bhaiya for food. I remember packing food for me n my roomies from Chaturshringi, SB road Pune. They serve great schezwan Rice. I also like Chicken Manchow soup, Hakka Noodles and Gobi Manchurian. I also like Chinese bhel. This will be featured very soon here.

I have made Gobi Manchurian many many times and it never gets boring. I can eat it every week; It can be eaten as dry appetizer or with gravy. It was raining very heavily so i Thought of making Gobi manchurian with Schezwan noodles. when i opened by fridge i was disappointed to see that there wasn't any cauliflower. But then i saw broccoli and in an instant i knew what i would do. I would make Broccoli Manchurian. Manchurian is basically meat or vegetable balls deep fried with corn - all purpose flour. These crunchy balls are covered with sauce made of soy-tomato-chillies. the out come id ...............yummmy!! If you want some gravy than just add lots of water and some corn flour. I followed the same recipe like gobi Manchurian except for Gobi( cauliflower) was replaced with broccoli.

We will first make deep-fried broccoli. Cut broccoli in small florets. Make a thick paste as follows.

1 Tbl Spn Corn flour

1 Tbl Spn all purpose flour

1/2 tbl spn ginger-garlic paste

salt as per tstae

water

Method. Mix all the above ingredients into a thick paste. All the broccoli florets. Cover them all over with the batter and deep fry them.

For the sauce:

1 tbl Spn soy Sauce

1 tbl Spn tomato ketchup

1/4 tbl spn chili sauce

a litlle vinegar

Method: Mix all the above ingredients. The sauce is ready.

For the Gravy you need a spoonful of corn flour mixed into a very smooth, thin paste.

Now comes the finale of this dish.

Heat a wok. Add a few drops of oil, add chopped onions. Its best if you add spring onions. I didn't have any so i have used white onions. Julienne and saute them. Add chopped capsicum. saute for a few more minutes. Add sauce, broccoli and water. let it boil for 5 mins. Simmer and add corn-flour paste. This thickens the gravy. Add salt as per taste.

Broccoli is much more crunchier and doesn't get soggy as fast as cauliflower. I loved this broccoli manchurian. i hope you like it too.

Misal Pav

2007-06-18T09:21:00.000-04:00

Maharashtra is not my Janmabhoomi but my karmabhoomi. I have stepped on this holy land since 2003. From then on this place and people have accepted me with open arms. I was not very fond of Maharashtiran cuisine till I hit soils of Pune. This is when i was introduced to all the delicacies of this wonderful land. I love aluchi vadi, Masale Bhat, Purnachi Poli, Misal pav, Upasachi Misal etc etc. I owe a lot to this wonderland including my better half. He is a pakka maharashtrian. So i cooked this since he is missing Misal of "Bedekar Misal Pune" fame.

This is my entry to Nupur's RCI-Maharashtrian

Misal is a feast to your taste buds. Its fiery taste sweeps you off. Misal-Pav is a great one meal food. I was introduced to this in Kolhapur, I was visiting my friend R and her parents and that is when i ate it for the first time and from then on hooked to it. Kolhapuri Misal is much more hot, spicy, fiery than Puneri misal. One major difference between these two misal is that in Kolhapuri version they do not add Pohe. Misal as the name suggests is a mixture of pulses , spicy gravy, Poha, , spoonful of dahi and garnish of onions, tomatoes, cilatro, farsan, chivada etc. These things are arranged in multiple tier fashion and served. Pav/bread is also served along with misal. If your tastebuds are on fire biting into the bread will halp you out.
Lets walk through each and every layer of Misal. I have tried this dish as per Kolhapuri rassa but have toned it down a little to adjust the pungent taste.
When you serve misal the first thing that you will serve is Matki/Moth beans Usal. Usal is basically sprouted beans cooked in with tomatoes and onions. Its an dry dish without any gravy. You need to plan misal ahead of time since you need sprouted pulses. In India sprouted pulses are available in stores in packets but here you do not have that luxury :(. You will have to soak the beans overnight and then put these pulses in a damp cloth wait for 1-2 days . you could either cook this with diced potatoes or you could use these potatoes with rassa/gravy.
Pohe is the next layer over misal. Its very simple , cook pressed rice with minimum chillies in it. If you are lazy like me than substitute this with chivda. Though with Chivda your misal tends to be a little more oily.
Rassa/Gravy is basically made of tomatoes, dry coconut, onions etc. I prefer adding potatoes to this gravy instaed of plain rassa. Its this gravy that makes the misal fiery, hot and spicy. It should not be very thick, infact it should be thin enough. I loved the misal that was prepared by my friends mom so i made her share their recipe with me. I love it since this recipe has always helped me.
Now Lets start cooking Misal with One dish at a time.

Usal

Ingredients
1 Cup sprouted Matki/Moth Beans
1 onion
1 tomatoe
1 tbl spn Turmeric powder
1 tbl spn Garam Masala
1/2 tbl spn Red chilli powder
1 tbl spn Ginger-garlic Paste
2 tbl spn oil
Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil in a wok. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for 2 mins. Add finely chopped onions, fry them till translucent. Add tuermeric , chili, garam masala Powder. Fry for just a minute. Now add tomatoes . Fry on low flame for a couple of minutes. Now put in boiled sprouted pulses. Cook for about 5 minutes till it is aromatic and dry.
p.s. You could add some water if required.

Rassa/Gravy
Ingredients
1 cup boiled and dices potatoes
2 onions ( 1 for grinding and other one is chopped)
1 tbl spn cumin seeds,
1 tbl spn coriander seeds
1 tbl spn sesame,
1/4 cup dried coconut,
5-6 cloves
1.5" cinnaman stick
2 tbl spns Red chili powder
1 tbl spn ginger garlic paste
few cilantro leaves
2 green chillies
salt to taste
Oil for cooking
( traditinally in R's house they use a lot of oil, almost 1/2 cup but have reduced it)

Method.
Dry roast Coconut, sesame,coriander seeeds, cumin seeds, cloves and cinammon. keep aside. in the mean time grind onion, ginger-garlic, chillies, cilantro to a fine paste. Keep aside. By this time the roasted contents will cool down. Grind these to a fine paste. Now heat oil, add onions and fry till translucent. Now add cocnut paste and fry for 4 minutes. Add in the other paste ( onion paste). dd red chilli powder, plenty of water and cook for 8-10 mins. Add salt to taste.

Pohe
1 cup Pohe
1/2 spn Turmeric powder
1/2 Mustard seeds
1/4 spn Hing
Oil for cooking
Salt to taste

Method:
wash pohe and keep aside. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds. After they start spluttering add hing. Now add Pohe and salt. cook till done.We have prepared all the ingredients for Misal. It is time to arrange it in tiered manner. lets start with Matki Usal. this will form the lowest layer of Misal.

Now add Pohe

Pour in the rassa generaously.
Garnish with farsan/Mixture, onions, tomatoes,cilatro. Serve with a lemon wedge and Pav.

Njoy your Misal with taste buds on fire and water through your nose. R says that is the way to njoy misal in their house. R I tried it and it does make misal experience a anjoyable one.

Mumbai Pav bhaji a Nostagia

2007-06-07T21:55:00.000-04:00

As a part of our weekly dinners outside or as i love calling it "Gastronomical Pilgrimage" we would often go to "Sheetal" in Kothrud Pune. They serve one of the best Mumbai Pav Bhaji(MPB). The Other places being Shiv Sagar, Anand juice Bar @ nal Stop. I have never met a single person who does not like MPB. I really dont want to meet that person since i believe no one can dislike this.

Its a easy to cook, delicious, street food taste and a very yummy way to finish off all the veggies lying in the fridge. It can be prepared ahead of time. Its a very filling meal but some people prefer to call it snack. In indian restraunts and fast food places its cooked on a giagantic griddle(tava) and a masher. All the steamed vegetables are kept around him \. The stove is always on low and its prepared in "amul" butter. For the pav he will use butter generousoly and then toast bread on this same tava so that pav also get similar flavour. I know we also order Sada Pav Bhaji but its cooked in butter just the addition of top dollop of butter is avoided. Have you ever tried making it on a tava at home ? well i have tried and I can tell the diffrence of cooking on a tava and in pan with a lid. Tava wala tastes far better, especially on a very low flame. There are various diffrent variations of this splendid s=dish the very common one being Khada pav bhaji, cheese Pav Bhaji, special pav bhaji etc. A word of caution never ever try Special Pav bhaji at sheetal. Its sucks since they serve you equal amounts of bhaji and dry fruits all mixed up. The best bet always is Amul Pav Bhaji with amul being synonymous with butter in india. I have also tried home-made butter or Loni or makkhan wali pav bhaji but amul butter ki pav bhaji ki baat hi alag hai.

Pav bhaji has that peculiar smell which is due to its masala. I always use Everest Pav Bhaji Masala. It gives a great flavour, can be found in almost all of the indian grocery stores. This masala is combination of following spices : Anistar, Black Cardamom, Black Pepper, Cassia, Cassia Leaf, Chilli, Clove, Common Salt, Coriander, Cumin, Dry Ginger, Dry Mango, Fennel, Turmeric. I know that no one makes at home but i was very curious to find the ingredients of this masala so checked up on the Everest Masala site. I recently tasted Jain Pav Bhaji and it tastes preeety good too though the best ingredients ( onions, potatoes, ginger, garlic, carrots) are missing. I recently thought of making pav Bhaji with the intention of cleaning up my fridge. As always K loved it and so did I. whenever you have some friends coming over for a dinner and movie make this and get tonns of compliemnts. It has always worked for me.

Shiv Sagar, Aundh Pune was preety close to my office. Me n my gal freinds have dropped in there for lunch many times. In fact me n K have had dined there umpteen number of times before we got married. My mom loves that place too. We have various differnt reasons for liking that place though mom n K i guess have similar reasons to like it. I have liked that place for good food, meeting friends, waiting endlessly for friends who r late comers ( grrrrrrrrr..i hate tht). VP liked thi place a lot since they make good MPB n its her fav dish. Infact i had dinner at Shiv Sagar in Mumbai just before my flight frm CS Airport. I have tonns of things happened over a plate of MPB and luckily all are fond memories. I recollected many of those over this plate when i made it last week. Njoy MPB, it ROCKS !!

Mumbai Pav Bhaji

Ingredients:

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup peas

1 cup carrot

11/2 cup tomatoes

2 cup potatoes

1 cup Red bell peppers/ capsicum

1/2 cup onions

2 tbl son ginger-garlic paste

1/2 cup butter

1 tbl spn Pav Bhaji Masala

1 tbl spn Red chilli powder

1/2 tbl spn turmeric powder

salt to taste

Method: Boil cauliflower, carrots, peas, potatoes, bell peppers. In a shallow pan / lar griddle heat half the butter. saute ginger garlic paste. After 2 mins add onions and saute till they turn pinkish in color. Add very finely cut or pureed tomatoes( i like the chopped ones since mashing becomes easier and pureed are diffcult to manage on a tava). Add Pav bhaji masala, chilli powder, turmeric powder. Cook for 2 minutes.

Tips:

1. Do you wonder why MPV from hotels is nice and fiery red in color? We presume they add food coloring. If you would like to get nice color than add tinned tomatoes/tomato puree. Without adding artificial color your pav bhaji will have a deep red color.

2. If you have beetroot at home than add just a spoon full of finely grated beetroot.

3. Incase you do not have tinned tomatoes than you could use Kashmiri Chilli powder. Its not very pungent but gives a fiery red color.

Tava Fried mushrooms

2007-06-07T13:20:00.000-04:00

This is my entry to Nupur's( One hot stove) A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Tava Fried Mushroom

Its rainy season in India now and monsoons have already hit the tiny state of Goa. I have very fond memories of Goa monsoons. Its nice and lush green everywhere, the temperatures aren't too high. Just nice and pleasant. It pours cats and dogs there so a cup of piping hot tea/coffee and plate full of bhajjis is never a no-no. Earlier In my ancestral place near our house we grow lot of fresh vegetables. They would be specially planted for ganesh chaturthi. Loads of okra, alu/cola cassia leaves, cucumbers, breadfruit, bananas, chilies, chibud. these were grown every year. Mom and my aunts would then make some festive delicacies out of this. Every year we would also get a lot of mushrooms ( edible variety). These are available in the month of "shravan" ( fifth month as per the lunar calendar) . If you have stayed in Goa than you would agree that the freshly cut, naturally grown mushrooms are the BEST. They would grow in such large quantities that we would eat them at least twice a week. The two mot popular dishes mom and grand mom would make are Tava fried mushrooms and Mushroom xacuti ( pronounced as sha-gu-ti).

Mushrooms are basically fungi that grow on soil or food. Many varieties are not edible and are poisonous too. Store bought mushrooms are button mushrooms and the one in Goa are field mushrooms. Mushrooms are called aLambi in konkani. you have stayed in Goa through out the monsoon than i am sure you have tried it. In goa these mushrooms are grown naturally so they have to be scrubbed thoroughly before eating them. They have a thick layer of mud above them. You have clean them for about an hour. I know this sounds like lotsa work but the results are worth the amount of work. In the rains when there is scarcity of fish we would fry mushrooms as an substitute for it. This is a very simple recipe and tastes damn good. You could serve it as starter too.

Tava fried mushrooms

Ingredients

Mushrooms cut vertically into halves

1 tbl spn chili powder

1/4 tbl spn garam masala

salt to taste

a fistful rava/semolina

Method:

Clean the mushrooms thoroughly. Cut them into halves vertically. Apply salt and keep aside for 5 mins. Now make a paste of chili powder, garam masala and dash of water. Coat the mushrooms slightly in this paste and roll into the semolina. Heat a greased pan and cook on medium flame till done.

They have lot of water content so cook till they are done. You are ready to win all the hearts with this yummy recipe.

p.s.: You could deep fry these if u like. But shallow fried are nice and crispy, a personal fav.

How to make perfect RICE

2007-05-25T17:43:00.001-04:00

By now i have made it clear that i am a hard core GOAN. I mention it in almost every post :-). being a goan, steamed rice is an integral part of our life. We eat it everyday and cannot resist it. Many people say that eating rice makes you chubbier but if cooked properly ( discarded starchy water) than there is no food like rice and fish curry. When i was living with my school friend P in pune we would make rice everyday for dinner. We would make sabzi only if our other roomie "PG" was tired of eating rice. We have crazy times in pune staying together. Our Sunday lunch was simple, fish curry-rice and fish fry. Everyday P would buy fish on her way back home from her french class. Than we would clean it and cook it and than siesta. We had very clear rules that i would always cook and P would always wash the utensils. and it worked perfectly for us. we have had crazy times with my college friends who used to stay just behind our building. We would cook fish for them also ( once in a while ) and invite them for kheer whenever our estimation was way too bad and we would end up with gallons of kheer :-). My roomie P had really bad culinary skills. I am sure she is a great cook but in spite of that she requested for a "Perfect Rice" post. So this post is for P so that she stays leaner and yet can relish rice everyday.
Rice can be cooked in pressure cooker, electric cooker or any vessel. First two options make it really simple. Just add the perfect proportion and you can sit and relax. But if you are cooking it over a stove than you could cook it in two ways. first one where you put exact amount of water and cook. But if you want to get rid of the starch than you will have to check it once in a while.

Now a days people are very conscious of what they eat so following is the method to cook starch free rice. I have tried to illustrate with pictures.

All You need is

1 cup Rice

4 cups Water

The method is really simple.

You boil take rice, wash it and keep aside.

Now take water it should be 4 or more times of the rice. Keep this on the stove and till it boils.

when water starts boiling add the washed rice. Cover the lid and put it on low flame for exactly 22-25 minutes. Any amount of rice when cooked this way does not take more than 25 minutes for cooking. After 25 minutes, just check the rice by pressing with your fingers whether it is soft enough.

If it is than drain it. Discard the water.

I use a sieve to drain the water but in my house my grand-mom would use a cloth that was tightly tied to the vessel before draining the water. And it was kept inverted for water to flow out and kept that way for about 10 minutes. and than immediately the lid was closed. But i use a sieve to save the efforts of washing the cloth everyday. You can save the starchy water and use to starch the cotton sarees , dupattas etc. Its just excellent.

In case you want to save the trouble of draining the water and feel its extra effort than You need to take Rice : water in following proportion 1: 2.5. This water should be warm water. Combine Rice and water and cook on low flame for 25 minutes. When you open the lid of the vessel you will find nice, long, bright white, fluffy grains of rice. Now sit back and enjoy this with some nice spicy curry.

Hey P.S. I am sure u'll be able to make that perfect rice now :-). Do let me know.

Harbhare Usal/Tondak

2007-05-23T16:31:00.000-04:00

Harbhare or green chick peas are grown widely in India. They are also called as Hare Channe or green legumes in India. In goa they were basically introduced by people from either Karnataka & Maharashtra. They are not part of the local vegetable cultivation. Though my Mom had tried growing a few bushes sometime back. They grow upto 2 feet tall. Every pod has a single pea. I know you are thinking about the trouble when cleaning the pods. I had found peas which were pre-cleaned but in India you have to clean it yourself. But its really worth the trouble, they taste are delicious when fresh.
Now the nutritional content, Chickpeas are a good source of zinc[5], folate and protein.[6] They are also very high in dietary fiber and thus are a healthy food source, especially as a source of carbohydrates for persons with insulin sensitivity or diabetes. They are low in fat, and most of the fat content is monounsaturated. Check the details here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickpea.

In goa, coconut is of prime importance. We use it in any and every curry. Its finger licking curry when cooked with garam masala, onions and potatoes ( optional). Garam masala cooked in coconut based curries is called Tondank ( to-Na-k). My fried D from office absolutely loved it. Although he has high cholesterol problem he could not resist it and ate a couple of spoons extra.

So lets check the recipe.

Green Chick Peas curry ( Channa curry /Tondak)

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh green chick peas
1 cup freshly grated coconut
1 small onion
2 tbl spn garam masala
1 tbl spn red chili powder
2 green chillies
coriander/cilantro leaves
1/4 tbl spn Oil
salt as per taste

Method:
Boil peas in cooker upto 3 whistles, add a spoon of onion to make it more flavourful. If you like
potatoes than cook them also.
Grind together coconut, garam masala, red chili powder. Heat oil add chillies, onion. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add the ground coconut masala. Cook for 5 mins. Now add the cooked peas and potatoes. Cook for 10 mins on low flame. your entire room will be filled with great aroma.
Serve this with rice Bhakri, phulka.
p.s. I did not add potatoes to this curry.

Quencher ur thirst with Panha

2007-05-18T11:32:00.000-04:00

Its now warm, sunny and bright here. Sometimes its very hot as well. On a sunny day you would want sit in your Patio on a comfortable chair with an interesting book and a cool drink in your hand. The choice of the drink will vary from person to person but everyone will unanimously agree that "panha"/ raw Mango squash is an excellent choice. So my today post is to quencher your thirst with Panha. This is my entry to Nupur's (of One Hot Stove ) A-Z of Indian vegetables. For me Q is Quencher. This is also quick and quencher.
As a child I had seen the huge mango trees in our orchard bloom with thousands of mangoes. These mangoes would been Savoured everyday. For goans "Amras " is not a delicacy at all. I first tasted amaras only after i got married. I am not fond of it. I prefer to eat it as freshly cut fruit. I love raw mango pickle. In every goan ( grrrrr....do not call us goanese) household stuffed pickle is a yearly affair. You would cut raw mangoes ( they have to be tender mangoes without the hardened seed) remove the seed and stuff it with a special pickle masala. Ligthly tie a small thin thread. Now pour oil and this can be eaten through out the year. Its simply delicious. Every year my mom makes abt 200 - 500 of the these to be distributed to her Friends, daughter etc.
My Introduction to Panha is also after i came to Pune and from then I am hooked on to this drink. There is a small shop "Joshi's" in aundh who sells one of the best Panha. In the summers I would drop there everyday to buy it.
After coming here i didnt have choice but make it. I had my friend making it and thought i would try it. When I got the mangoes, they were raw but yellowish from inside so the final product looks more like Ripe Mango squash.
Some people make it with jaggery, Some add equal quantities of Sugar and jaggery but i have made it with Sugar only.

Kairi Panha

Ingredients
2 large raw mangoes
4 cups sugar
1/2 tea spoon cardamom powder
a pinch of saffron

Method
Cook Mangoes in the cooker upto 4 whistles (they have to be totally soggy). Since they are soft and soggy the out skin cane peeled easily. gather the pulp together, discard the outer skin and the hard seeds. Blend this in a mixture so that the pulp is of water consistency. Now add all the sugar, cardamom powder. Blend for 2 mins. Remove in a big vessel and dilute this with cold water. Taste and check how thick you would like it. Before Storing in bottles pass it through a sieve.
Incase you prefer to dilute just before serving , just pass through a sieve and store it. Add the saffron strands and store in the fridge.
My friend "A" loved it very much.

Roast Chicken

2007-05-10T09:54:00.001-04:00

It’s been quite some time since my last post. I have not had many non vegetarian recipes here, so I thought I will go ahead with some chicken recipe. I wanted to try some new dish which we have not eaten so far. Then I remebred my “Roast Chicken”. Its filling dish with fiery, juicy taste. As the name suggests it’s a dry chicken dish and not soaked in gravy. Its excellent when served with Vegetable Biryani.
For us Saturday is the day for big lunch since we can both sit down together for lunch. I love coconut based gravies but my gastronome better half is not very fond of it so I constantly try to cook things which have no coconut flavor. So I thought of making Roast chicken, My friend R's speciality.
It gets its taste from the fiery red whole chilies and other spicies. This one does not require too much of actual cooking time and even preparation time is not much although marinating takes abt 2 hrs. This recipe I think will appeal to one n all.

ROAST CHICKEN

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken
A fistful of Red chilies (preferably beedgi chilies)
6 flakes garlic
1 tsp jeera powder
½ tsp coriander powder
2 whole cloves
1 inch stick cinnamon
8 cashewnuts
1 tbl spn vinegar ( I use Red wine vinegar)
1 tbl spn butter
Salt

Soak the red chilies in rot water for 30 min and cashews for 10 minutes.
Grind everything (except for butter, salt, and chicken) together to a paste.
Marinate chicken for 5 minutes with only salt and then add the paste.
Marinate for 2-3 hours. Melt butter in a pan, add the marinated chicken and cover for 5 minutes. Open the lid and let the chicken cook in its own juices.
Roast on a high flame, stirring continuously, till dry.
Optional: season with fried onions.

You could serve this with some vegetable Pulao, Noodles but my personal favourite is when served with Vegetable Biryani.
“Its just delicious” was what I Heard.

Paneer kathi Kabab

2007-05-02T16:41:00.000-04:00

Eating out in Pune is like weekend ritual for everyone. You have to go early so that you can have dinner on time. You will see all the hotels/cafes/restaurants are jam packed. There is no place to even stand. To believe what I am saying you go to "Vaishali" or "Vadeshwar" on FC road. Well most of the hotels rather all of them are pure veg hotels. I being a non veggie wasn’t really fond of these places. I preferred going to camp/Dhole Patil road for a simple reason that I could eat good non veg food. In camp I would like marz-o-rin a lot. They serve great chicken/chutney s/w, thick shakes were a huge hit there. Even chat , pastries served immediately below marz-o-rin were yummy. I particularly
like "coconut Macrons". You bite into them and they would simply melt in your mouth.
Have been to the end of street, you get the best "pani puri" there. And for Biryani charcoal pit is the place. It’s amazing. People say "George" serves the best biryani but I havent had the chance to taste it. Though I love "Blue Nile Kababs " N their biryani is like out of the world. I was introduced to DP road by two of my friends (P &K). This road is full of eateries. You get Chinese, sizzlers, parathas, pastries, kababs etc etc. Speaking of kababs it’s a taste bud tickling experience. As you come to DP road after sohrab hall, you see a small kiosk (Kapila Kathi kabab) on your left hand side. That’s the place serving the best kababs in the world. You cannot miss it since the smell coming from there makes you turn that side. It’s a wonderful experience to sit behind on the steps of an old building and eat kathi kabab with some aerated water that these people sell. You get chicken and Paneer kathi kababs with single or double filling here.

Every month me n K would try and eat there. I had introduced him to these and since then he is hooked to these. After we came here in US we have been craving to eat these kababs. I though I will surprise him and cook some kathi kababs for him, but to my disappointment I didn’t have the most crucial frozen entree in the refrigerator, minced chicken/kheema. But I had some paneer lying so I thought I will make paneer kathi kababs.
So I started my culinary experiment. I wanted to make it more nutritious so instead of Maida I used Whole wheat flour.

Paneer kathi Kabab

For the Stuffing:
1 cup Paneer mashed
1/4 cup finely chopped tomatoes
1 tbl spn Garam masala
1 tbl spn Pav bhaji Masala
½ tbl spn Ginger-garlic paste
Turmeric Powder
Salt as per taste
1 tbl spn Oil

Method:
Heat oil, Fry Ginger-garlic paste for 2 Minutes. Now add onions and fry till they are translucent. Now add turmeric powder. Fry oil a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes. Cover the lid , let it stand on low flame for 2-3 mins. Now add all the masalas, add paneer. Stir continuously till all the paneer has been coated with masala. Add salt and cook till done.

For Second layer of kathi kababs you will need Pudina chutney.

Pudina Chutney:
1 bunch of mint/pudina leaves
3-4 green chillies
¼ cup coconut
A few drops of lemon
A little Sugar
Salt as per taste

Method: Blend together all the ingredients.

You will also need eggs to coat the Roti from inside before stuffing the paneer. Just crack an egg. Add salt and beat it. Keep aside.

For the Roti/Tortilla:
1 cup Wheat /All purpose/ Maida Flour
Little salt to taste
Water

Method:
Mix salt in flour. Now add water n little by little to the flour till dough is soft. Knead it and let it rest for an hour at least. Make sure you cover it else the dough will be hard from the outside. Roll Out rotis and cook them. We need soft rotis so always wait till tava is v hot and always cook on high flame.

Take one roti and brush it beaten egg on one side ( do not give it a thick coating but a light coat ). Heat a pan , add a few drops of oil. Cook the side of the roti with egg till done. Now this roti is ready for stuffing. Take it off the griddle. Apple a layer of chutney on top of the egg that cooked . Now add the cooked Paneer. Finally add the finely julienne onions, coriander leaves. Squeeze some lemon drop onto it and roll it out. And wrap butter paper/ kitchen towel around it so that the stuffing does not fall out from the end.

You are all set for a relishing journey. These were almost the same as Kapila kathi was what K said. I was extremely happy with the outcome but I still miss kapila kathi since Just baked was our place for desserts. I guess I will have learn to bake cakes next for the sake of my sweet (cake) tooth (or jaw should I say ?)

This is my entry to Nupur's

Upasachi Misal ( उप‌‌‍ासाची मिसळ)

2007-04-27T12:43:00.001-04:00

Fasting, When i say this word the first thing that would come to your kind is hunger. Trust me i think overeating is what i can think of. I love the food that is cooked on these days. In our house fasting is confined only to my MOM. Me n my siblings are not into it. But I like the food my mom would make that day. Sabudana wada, sukki potato bhaji etc and tender coconut, coffee amongst the beverages. I am married into a maharashtrian household and the fasting delicacies are very different here. The food habits also differ in both the regions. I was introduced to a lot of different dishes here. Every month on chaturthi we would cook some fasting delicacy for lunch and a wholesome dinner in the night. I had eaten sabudana khichadi, Upasachi potato bhaji, Khamang kakadi etc. I also had eaten Misal pav in pune. But i didnt know that there is some delicious Upasachi misal existing. I love the "Upasacha Faral", its yummy. I like upasachi misal in particular, its my new found love since last year. Misal Literally means mixture or mixing various different dishes assembled in n tier manner. Even if these dishes are eaten individually they are toothsome. Upasachi Misal basically is mixture of "upasacha faral". Its a combination of Sabudana Khichadi, Upasachi Potato Bhaji, Khamang Kakadi, batata rassa, Potato chivada. Here in the Indian store I could not find Potato chivada so instead i used Potato vegetable chips from Natures promise. they are very close to potato chivda except for the seasoning. Since the chivda is a little spicy you could combine a few crushed Jalapeño Pringles to make it a li'll spicy. Since you need to soak sabudana for 5-6 hrs , you cannot prepare this on fly. I had seen instant sabudana in some stores but I have never tried it.

Lets begin with one dish at a time and finally we will combine them all as misal. We need about 1/2 Potatao bhaji for rassa so you will have to increase the proportions according for the Potato Bhaji.
{I forgot to click pictures of indivisual dishes, so i have put them while combini them}

Upasachi Batata(potato) Bhaji

Ingredients:
1 cup boiled Potato
1/2 cup peanuts
3 tbl Ghee / clarified butter
1/2 tbl spn jeera /cumin seeds
*** You add a few finely chopped chilies to make it a little spicy

Method:
Dry roast peanuts. Blend it in a mixture without water. Keep aside. Heat Ghee/clarified butter in a wok, Add jeera seeds, chilies (if any), let it splutter. Add potatoes and peanut powder. Add salt. Keep stirring till the peanut powder is well coated to the potatoes.
**As mentioned above you need to keep 1/2 bhaji aside for the rassa.

Khamang Kakadi

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
1/2 tbl spn jeera
2 finely chopped chilies
Salt as per taste
coriander leaves
2 tbls spn powdered roasted peanuts

Method:
Peel the outer skin and finely chop the cucumber. Drain all the juice. slightly squeeze all the juice out of them. ##Preserve this to make the rassa##. Dry roast jeera seeds. blend it with chilies and mix this with the cucumber. Add Coriander leaves.

Sabudana Khichadi:

Ingredients
1 cup Sabudana/sago/pearl of tapioca
1/2 cup Peanuts
2-3 curry leaves
2 chilies
Salt as per taste
4 tbl spn Ghee/clarified butter

Method:
Soak sabudana in water for 10 mins. Drain out water keep aside for 5-6 hrs. You will see that soft bright white , happy looking sabudana. In the mean time dry roast peanuts. Let it cool then blend them dry with the skin. Heat Ghee, add jeera seeds, curry leaves & chilies. Let it splutter. Add sabudana, powdered peanuts. Keep stirring till it mixes evenly. Add salt and let it cook for 5 mins with lid covered.

Potato rassa
** We already have the bhaji for rassa. In addition to that we will need the following ingredients.

1/2 tbl spn Jeera seeds
1/4 t spn ghee
##cucmber juice that’s kept aside
2 cups water
2 tbl spns peanut powder

Method: Heat Ghee, add jeera Seeds, Now add peanut powder. Add potato bhaji. Mix it togather. Add water and let it boil for 5-6 mins.

Now we have all the dishes for the Misal. Arrange one above the other it in a plate. Starting with Potato Bhaji, Above this add Khichadi Then Khamang Kakadi, Potato chivada and finally Potato rassa. Serve immediately else the chivda becomes soft and soggy.

This is a very heavy dish and i generally cannot eat more than 1/2 plate. Its a real treat to your taste buds. Its a great dish for brunch. hey PP this is as per your request you can surprise your mom now.

Spinach Swirl Paratha

2007-04-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

Spinach, the Popeye food is amongst the popular greens relished all over the world. As a child i was under the impression that it can be only relished by "cartoon characters". I was not fond of green brigade till i started staying in the hostel. The food there was edible enough but i being very fussy didn't like it.

Paratha, a staple with most north indian platters is relished across length and breadth of India. people are generally fond of aloo, gobi, muli. I was tried of eating same food and decided on trying something new all by myself. So far my culinary skills haven't been life threatening so i decided to go ahead with my new dish. I am very creative ( not being a snob or not trying to brag abt me ) i like things which look good and appealing. I know its very unappetising to see some bad , burned food. I have a lot of experience in this since One of my roomie always managed to it. So today we prepare parathas those are treat to our taste buds as well to our eyes. we create a simple paratha but with a swirl design to make it look pretty. So i chose Spinach swirl Paratha. This paratha is not only simple to make but also very healthy and lean. This flat bread is a wheat tortilla with spinach added to it.
This is easy to make and can be cooked ahead of time to be served with the main dish ( gravy/sabzi,dal). You can even serve this with pickle, cucumber raita, mint chutney or anything else of your choice.

Spinach Swirl Paratha ( Spinach swirl Tortilla)

Ingredients:
2 cups Chopped Spinach
2 Cups wheat flour1 tbl Spn oil
Salt as per taste
1/2 tbl Spn cumin ( jeera) seeds powder
1 tbl spn ginger garlic paste
1/2 tbl spn chillies

Method:

Boil Palak upto 2 whistels. Blend this (with minimum water) along with chillies, ginger garlic paste and some salt. Keep aside. Divide the wheat flour into two parts. Take the first part add some salt, 1/2 tbl spn oil and water to make dough. Knead till soft. cover it & keep aside. In the second part of wheat flour mix spinach chutney, salt, 12 tbl spn oil and make it into a dough. Knead it well. keep aside. Let this stand25-20 mins.Now Divide white & green dough in to parts each. Roll each of it, try and make them into similar sizes after rolling it. Stack these in alternate colors. Now roll all this to make a stiff roti.
Roll this like a Frankie/ spring roll( without any stuffing0. Cut it into smaller parts around 2" or whatever size you prefer. Roll these cut pieces into paratha/roti/tortilla. You will see a swirl effect on the paratha. It
looks simply amazing. I was lazy so i made only 2 rotis/tortillas of each color, you could try with more. I am sure the result will be marvellous.
If you want to make palak puris than do not add ginger-garlic to the spinach chutney. They are super delicious.
I was so happy making these, i know its a little more effort but then its rewarding. Try this recipe and let me know the results.

Rainbow Colors- Red

2007-04-25T11:59:00.000-04:00

We have finally come to the last color in the spectrum...RED. Red is color of POWER. Red is the color of planet Mars, passion, blood, fierceness, lust. Its internally preferred color for many things; in china it’s a lucky color, in Russia red means beautiful, Egyptians believed that their race was RED so they painted their faces red. In South Africa red is the color of mourning. But it’s an international color of LOVE.
Color Red is for Santa Claus and Christmas. It’s a festive color. Most important thing for a human in red color is hemoglobin; which is vital for his existence.
Red being a bright and intense color is used for EXIT signs in US, STOP signals. Red being a primary color does not have any effect or streak of some other color. Red being my favorite color I have dozens of clothes and accessories in this color. As per my friend V from my previous company red lingerie is a must have for a happy married life. I remeber she was so disappointed with T when T didnt buy anything in red. It also reminds me of V for she would blush at the slightest reason or no reason sometimes. So V this is your color.

There are abundant fruits and vegetables in red. Tomato an international vegetable, found and eaten all over the world. It’s liked by almost everyone. You can eat it raw or cooked. Tomato sauce or ketchup is seen in all households all over the world.
Cherries, Strawberries, raspberries are all in red color. They are juicy, sweet and fleshy. They can be eaten when dried as well as fresh. Cherry lemonade, cherry pies, cherry cakes are some of the most delicious edible recipes that I know of.
Who can forget the sinful apple which even Eve could not resist it. They say “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away “ this is very true. This magic fruit in red does wonders to your health. Apple is eaten as fresh fruit as well as cooked. Apples are fleshy, honey sweet and tangy tart all at the same time which makes it delicious. I remember the day when I saw apple tree & apple orchard for the first time. It was in the year 2000. Till than I had seen apples only in the market and in the fridge.
Pomegranates, pale pinkish to Rich red in the inside and leathery cover on the outside. They are not only delicious and beautiful, they’re also one of the most nutritious fruits you can eat. They are rich in vitamin C, potassium, high fiber content and low calories. So all you calorie conscious people you can much on these anytime. They are excellent for garnishing. Using pomegranate in the form of Anardana in Indian cuisine very common.
Strawberry is an accessory fruit. It’s delicious, fleshy, sweet, sour, and juicy all at the same time. It is deep red to pinkish in color. One look at the box of strawberries and they are irrestible. Strawberry orchards are treat to eyes. When you see delicate red buds on lush green trees and extend this to trees cultivated on acres of land…wow. Does that remind you of Mahabaleshwar ? Speaking of mahabaleshwar, strawberries as fresh fruit, as canned jam, crush, slush, smoothie, strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries with fresh cream wow it’s a total treat to your taste buds. Folk lore states that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with the opposite sex, you’ll soon fall in love. This is a wonder fruit with tons of vitamin C packed in it. I have decied to present you my latest recipe for this spring/summer which is strawberry Lassi.

Beetroot which is deep red in color in the inside, is juicy, fleshy, tender and sweet in taste. Beetroot is good for blood & beneficial in cases of low hemoglobin. The leafy greens of beetroots are very nutritious. Incase you want a deep red color for your pav-bhaji try adding abt 2 spoon of finely grated beetroot. You wont need to add color to pav-bhaji.

Tomato soup liked by one and all is my first dish in the R world.

Tomato soup:
Ingredients:
Tomatoes 2
Water 1 cup
Black pepper powder
¼ tbl spn Cumin seed Powder
Cream for garnishing
A few roast pieces
Salt as per taste

Method:
Cook tomatoes in cooker upto 2 whistles. Now the tomatoes are tender, peel the outer skin. Cut the tomatoes and deseed them. Blend the remaining mass of tomatoes tell smooth. Add remaining ingredients except toast and cream. Boil for 5-10 mins.
Garnish with toast pieces & cream. Serve Hot.

Apple Raita is a dish I learned from K’s Grand Mom. She makes this when we get bored with normal salads and raitas.

Apple Raita

Ingredients
1 cup chopped apples
½ cup yogurt
Fistful of fresh pomegranate seeds
Salt as per taste
¼ spoon sugar

Method:
Mix to gather all the ingredients. Serve chilled

Strawberry lassi was something I tried by myself but liked by everyone.

Strawberry Lassi
Ingredients
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 cup yogurt
2 tbl spn Sugar
A pinch cardamamom Powder ( vanilla essence can also be used)

Method:
Blend together all the ingredients till smooth. Serve chilled .

Here we come to the end of our colorful journey. We started with first color of rainbow and have come to the last color of rainbow. Have we found our pot of gold ??

I will continuing posting recipes local delicacies of Goa as well some other dishes sometime before I start my next series. I have not decided what I will write on.

Rainbow Colors -Orange

2007-04-20T12:32:00.001-04:00

It’s a vibrant color with tangy freshness, warm , energetic and sunny. It reminds me of autumn leaves, Halloween, romantic sunset on Palolem beach in Goa. It’s a combination of red and yellow. Both very energetic and passionate colors, hence orange brings with it warmth & cheer of yellow as well as love of red. All the pastel shades of orange are so soothing to the eyes.
Orange is a holy color in Hinduism. It’s the color of flags on the temples; it’s the color that adorns the throne of all the Hindu gods n goddesses. It’s the color of the fire/Agni, which is divine and pure.
Food in orange colors is delicious too. It has a very appetizing effect. When I think of “O” Color there a few things that come to my mind immediately and they are all fresh fruits and vegetables; oranges, saffron (as spice), pumpkins, peaches, carrots, papayas, Pineapples, apricots. We have a big list here. And I like them all.

Oranges or tangerines are nice to munch on fresh fruits or drink as fruit juice. Have you eaten haldirams Orange burfi ? If not them try them at least once. They are so good you will eat at least 2-3 pieces.
Pumpkins are not a favorite with many people but I like a few things made from pumpkins. Pumpkin raita , Lal bhoplyache gharge ( fried sweet pumpkin ) are awesome.
Carrots are a staple in our house. I love carrots in fresh salad, in Pulav, in Soup and gajar ka halwa is my favorite sweet dish. As a child I remember having a very bad eye infection which could have made me blind in one eye. Thankfully the doc was nice and my vision was restored back. And the treatment I remember my Ophthalmologist telling me to eat at least 1 carrot per day for good vision. And I followed that practice for almost a year. Now my vision is absolutely clear in fact I don’t even have specs.
Papaya equally good since it has attendant minerals in it. Raw Papaya bhaji also tastes good..Haven’t you heard of it ? Well I will post a recipe of it today. I haven’t been able to find raw papaya here in US, so I will not be able to put a picture of it. But I will upload it at the first chance that I get.
Saffron or keshar , a coloring spice that is very common in Asian cooking hold a special place in our household. It’s very popular in Indian cooking whether it is vegetarian or non vegetarian, Sweet dish or rice. It’s a spice that makes the food look more appetizing and its flavor is yummy. Imagine what will rasmalai look like if it’s missing that saffron color. Or it’s made in some other color like green or pink, the thought is so scary. It’s like kesari bhat ( a maharashtiran dessert rice) without keshar or biryani with spices.
Pineapple, explodes its sweet, juicy taste the moment you chew into it. Pineapples are grown through out the world and is liked by one and all. It has a special place everywhere. It’s an absolute favorite with people world wide for Pinacolada , pineapple juice or pineapple mousse and soufflés, Pineapple raita. In the month of shravan which is a sacred month as per the lunar calendar, pineapple curry was made atleast 4-5 times a month in our house. My mom would grow dozens of pineapples in our backyard and distribute them to our relatives and friends. Pineapple plants do not need much attention, and once it starts producing fruits it will load your house with dozens more in next couple of years. I love pineapple sheera. I first ate it at a friends place and absolutely loved it.
So lets check a few recipes in saffron color; Pumpkin raita, pineapple sheera, papaya bhaji

Pumpkin Raita ( Pumpkin with yogurt)

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin.
½ cup yogurt
A few coriander leaves
Salt as per taste
¼ t spoon sugar
¼ tbl spn finely chopped chilies (optional)
For tempering:
Ghee
Jeera /cumin seeds
Turmeric

Method:
Boil Pumpkin and grate it. Mix in yogurt, salt, chilies, sugar and coriander leaves.
Heat ghee, add cumin seeds, turmeric powder. Now add this mixture to the yoghurt contents. Mix well. Serve chilled.

Pineapple sheera

Ingredients
1 cup semolina/rava/sooji
1 cups sugar
1 cups ghee/clarified butter
1 cups milk
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Few raisins, cashew nuts , almonds soaked in water for 2 hours.( optional)
1/2 cup pineapple chopped

Method:
Heat ghee, just before adding semolina add cashew nuts and now add semolina. Roast it on low flame rava till its ceramic in color. DO NOT Burn it. Keep aside. In the same pan heat milk, add roasted semolina, pineapple, sugar, cardamom powder. Mix well. Add raisins. Serve hot.

P.s.If you are using canned pineapple than do not discard the syrup, you can use it instead of the sugar in sheera.

Papaya bhaji.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped papaya without the outer skin and seeds
2 tbl spns water
Turmeric a pinch
1 tbl spn chilies
¼ tbl spn mustard seeds
A pinch asafoedita
Salt as per taste
½ tbl spn oil

Method:
Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When they splutter add asafoedita, tumeric,chillies. Now add chopped papaya, water, salt. Cover the utensil with a lid and cook on low flame till done.

Orange also reminds me of many more things like passion fruit which would grow in our garden like weeds and we would make juice out of them. Its yummy, the fragrance is so strong that you cannot resist but take a sip.
Cashews are also found in orange color. I am not a very great fan of cashew fruits but I love fresh cashew juice.
I can keep on writing lots of things with orange but I will stop here.

Join me tomorrow on the last color of spectrum that is “RED”.