Khana Khazana with Malini

Jalebi - Indian Cooking Challenge for August 2011

2011-09-15T19:23:00.022+05:30

Jalebi was selected as the recipe for Indian Cooking Challenge for August 2011. Jalebi is a popular sweet not only in India but in other countries as well.

No celebration is complete without a sweet dish. In Iran, it is known as Zlebia and traditionally given to the poor during Ramadan. In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia this sweet is known as Zlebia / Zlabia. Popular belief is that, Jalebi originated in South West Asia and it arrived in the Indian subcontinent during Muslim rule. Jalebi is also known as Jilawii in Hindi, Zoolbia in Persia and Zalabiyah in Arabic.
This sweet is called "jeri" in Nepal, a word derived from jangiri. Here in Bengal, it is known as Jilipi and it is generally served with Samosa to guests. It is prepared by deep-frying batter in circular shapes, which are soaked in syrup and served warm or cold.

A similar sweet is Imarti, which is red-orange in color and sweeter in taste, made in North Indian states including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. A variant is Chhena Jalebi (Chhanar Jilip), prepared with chhena (cottage cheese). It is popular in Rajasthan, Bengal and Orissa.

As far as I remember, making of jalebis was a pretty mysterious procedure for me during the childhood. I used to accompany my mother during the Rath Yatra Melas, held near our house. The man, responsible for making this mouth watering sweet, used to take some amount of batter in a polished cocunut shell (halved), prick the bottom of the shell swiftly and start making circles in the hot oil with a steady hand. It was a fascinating sight, the perfect small circles filling the whole kadhai in just few seconds. The person will immediately turn the jalebis, take them out and release them in sugar syrup. The jalebis were served in shaal leaves, folded in a cone. We used to rush back home with the dripping jalebis to be relished with papads and tea.

Another memory of this jalebi is from my maternal grandparent's place in Bihar. We used to visit them during Durga Pujas and the house was very close to the station. As we unboarded the train, we used see that the order being placed to the Halwai for special jalebis. The jalebis there were very thin and deeply fried to have a typical brown colour with a crunchy taste.

I have prepared Jalebi before but with a ready made pack and had no idea of the recipe proportions. The recipe calls for simple ingredients like flour, yougurt and cornstarch. The trick is to ferment the batter overnight and have the right consistency while preparing the jalebis.

I followed the recipe but added a little bit of saunf (fennel seeds) and a little crushed black pepper (gol morich in Bengali) in the Jalebi batter and green cardamom (chhoti elaichi) in the sugar syrup.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour / Maida: 100 gms
Curd / Yogurt: 1 cup
Cornstarch: 30 gms
Lime Juice: 1 tsp
Fennel Seeds / Saunf: 1 tbsp
Black pepper, crushed: ½ tsp
Hot oil: 1 tbsp
Green Cardamom / Chhoti Elaichi, split: 1-2
Saffron color: a pinch
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: ½ cup
Ghee / White Oil for deep frying
Kewra Water / Rose Water (optional): 1 tbsp

Method:

To make the Batter:

In a bowl, take all the ingredients (flour, curd, cornstarch, lime juice, fennel seeds, crushed black pepper, saffron color and 1 tbsp hot oil) and whisk together to make a thick and smooth batter.
Set aside to ferment overnight. Whisk thoroughly before use.

To make the Sugar Syrup:

Take a deep bottomed pan, combine sugar with water and heat till all the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil till the syrup reaches one thread consistency (To check consistency, carefully dip the tip of your index finger into the syrup, touch your finger and thumb together and genly try to release apart. If one thread is formed between your finger and thumb the syrup is done).
Just before the syrup is ready, add green cardamom and kewra / rose water. Keep warm.

To press out the jalebi:

Heat the oil in a deep kadhai and reduce flame to medium. To test for the right temperature, drop a small amount of batter into the oil. If it sizzles and rises to the top of the oil, the oil is ready.
Pour batter into a piping bag / zip-top bag with one corner snipped off or a ketchup bottle.
Pipe batter into the hot oil in clockwise direction in a steady stream to make a circle.
Deep fry them until they are pale golden and crisp all over (be careful not to fry too much or else they will turn brown). Make a few at a time.
Drain jalebis from the kadhai and immerse them in the warm sugar syrup. Leave them for 4-5 mins so that they soak the syrup.
Remove with a slotted spoon and serve warm with malai or ice-cream or relish as it is.

Godhumai Halwa - Indian Cooking Challenge - July 2011

2011-08-16T23:58:00.007+05:30

Godhumai Halwa was chosen as the dish for Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC) for the month of July 2011.

Godhumai Halwa / Wheat Halwa (godhuma means wheat) is a typical south Indian sweet. Irutukadai Halwa is very popular in Tirunelveli district of TamilNadu. The process of making this traditional halwa is elaborate where the wheat grains have to be soaked and hand grinded to extract the milk for three to four times. The collected wheat milk has to stand for a few hours and then only it is cooked to prepare the halwa. It can take almost an hour to get a glossy look to the halwa.

Srivalli gave us 3 options for cooking this halwa, where only difference is in the measurement and final presentation, one in the form of pieces and the other one in soft and scoopable style.
Basically the halwa has 3 main ingredients, wheat, sugar and ghee garnished with almonds, cashews. The ratio of wheat: sugar : ghee can be taken as 1 cup (level):3 cups (heaped): 1& ½ cups (changed as per wheat used or sweetness preferred).

The halwa is usually prepared with Samba wheat, though one can use any white whole wheat, if Samba wheat is not available.

Shalini's Wheat halwa
Sowmya's Wheat Halwa
Lataji's Wheat Halwa

After going through the recipes, I selected soumya’s wheat halwa recipe. I like the fact that she used ground cardamom instead of cardamom powder and the final halwa was not in pieces. I also used a handful of raisins with almonds and cashews and the whole halwa just disappeared within a few minutes.

Ingredients:

Wheat berries: 2 cups (200 gms)
Sugar: 4- 5 cups (500 gms)
Ghee: 2& ½ cups (300gms)
Water: 4 cups (To grind and extract wheat milk)
Water: 4-5 cups (for sugar syrup)
Green cardamom, crushed and grounded: 2 tsp
Edible food colour, a pinch: yellow (you can use red, orange food colour also)
Raisins: ½ cup
Almonds and Cashews, chopped- ½ cup

Method:

Wash the wheat grain thoroughly to get rid of the dirt. Soak the wheat grains for 36-48 hours. Drain water and grind the soaked grains with a cup of water in a blender.
Put the blended wheat grains on a sieve, squeeze with hand and filer out the milk in a container. Repeat the extraction process thrice by blending the wheat grains by adding more water. Discard the ground berries (it will form a brown mass) after extracting the milk.
Leave the milk to stand for another 24 hours. The thicker portion of the milk will settle down. Discard the thin liquid on the top of the wheat milk.
Lightly sauté the raisins and chopped nuts and keep aside.
Prepare the sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan. Keep stirring in medium flame until the sugar is dissolved and a thick and sticky syrup (one string consistency) is obtained (this will take around 15-20 mins).(To check consistency, touch the sugar syrup between your thumb and index finger. If a thread is formed while moving out the fingers, the syrup it's ready, but take care as the syrup will be hot)
Remove the scum (impurities) which accumulates on the syrup, add the wheat milk and stir to avoid lumps as the halwa will start to thicken.
Add the crushed cardamom powder, food colour and sauted raisins and nuts (keep a little aside for garnishing).
Add a cup of hot water to the halwa to delay the thickening process and enable more cooking. Keep stirring until the raw smell of the wheat milk goes off completely.
Melt ghee and gradually add the ghee to the halwa. Keep stirring the halwa on low flame for around 45-50 mins until all the ghee is absorbed and the halwa do not stick to the pan.
Cool the halwa a little and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle a little crushed cardamom powder and garnish with cashews and almonds. Serve hot and cold.

Punjabi Mango Pickle - Indian Cooking Challenge, June 2011

2011-08-14T17:34:00.017+05:30

Srivalli chose authentic mango pickle recipe from Punjab for Indian Cooking Challenge for June. Simran shared her mother's recipe with us. This typical mango pickle is most popular in Punjab, where raw mangoes are soaked in oil with fennel seeds, nigella seeds, mustard and other spices.

Two types of measurements were provided, one for 5 kgs of mangoes and the other one for 1/2 kg of mangoes. Here is the recipe with 500 gms of mangoes.

I followed the recipe as per measurement, only I added whole red chiilies to enhance the flavour and also coz I like my pickle spicy.

Ingredients:

Mangoes: 500 gms
Mustard Oil: 50 ml

Spices:

Salt: 70 gms
Fenugreek seeds: 10 gms
Nigella seeds: 5 gms
Fennel Seeds: 10 gms
Black pepper corns, whole: 5 gms
Turmeric powder: 10 gms
Red chilli, whole: 6-8
Sugar: 1/2 tsp

Method:

Wash the mangoes, wipe dry and cut them in slightly large cubes. Spread them on a flat surface and dry in the sun for 2 - 3 hours.
Select a ceramic jar / glass jar to store the pickle. Clean the jar and wipe dry. In a large pot mix oil with all the spices.
Add the mangoes, toss well to coat them with the oil and mixed spices.
You can add more oil if the mangoes are not coated well (Keep the level of oil slightly above the mango pieces as the oil preserves the mangoes).
Transfer the coated mangoes to the pickle jar. Leave the jar in sunlight for one day.
For the first fortnight, shake the lidded jar to toss the mangoes and blend the flavours. The pickle will be ready by the end of 15 days. The pickle stays well over a year, if handled properly. 1 tsp of Sodium Benzoate can also be added as a preservative.

Note: All the spices are to be added as whole. Kalonji and Fenugreek seeds are critical to the pickle to have that typical flavour.

Vatteppam / Vattayappam - Indian Cooking Challenge, March 2011

2011-04-25T10:41:00.022+05:30

Srivalli chose Vattepam / Vattayappam as the Indian Cooking Challenge recipe for Mar 2011. Vattepam / Vattayappam is a delicious and traditional recipe from Kerala.

It is basically a steamed rice cake, made from raw rice flour, grated coconut, cooked rice, sweetened and garnished with nuts and raisins. It is a popular delicacy served for breakfast / tea time snack during Christmas time in Kerala. The recipe is adapted from Shn of Mishmash.

Ingredients: To Grind:

Raw rice: 1 cup
Coconut, freshly grated: ¾ cup
Cooked rice: 2 tbsp
Water: ½ cup water to grind and make batter

To proof yeast:

Active dry yeast: ½ tsp
Water: 1/3 cup
Sugar: 2 tsp

To make Rice Porridge / Thari Kurukku:

Coarse ground paste: 1½-2 tbsp
Water: 1/3-1/2 cup

To sweeten and flavor Vatteppam:

Sugar: ½ cup or more (to taste)
Green Cardamom, crushed / powdered: 10-12
Cashew nuts: 8-10
Raisins: 8-10
Ghee: 1½ tbsp

Method:

Soak raw rice for 6-8 hours, drain and grind rice in a blender, adding very little water to a coarse texture; remove 2 tbsp of the coarse mixture for making Rice Porridge / Thari Kurukku and keep aside.
Add freshly grated coconut to the remaining ground rice and grind thoroughly to a fine past. Add cooked rice & little water and blend again to make a batter (Batter should be thick as idli batter).
Proof yeast by dissolving yeast and sugar in luke warm water. Set aside for 15-20 minutes in a warm place till it foams.
Prepare Rice porridge / Thari Kurukku by heating a pan and add the requisite coarse ground rice, kept aside earlier and water. Bring it to a boil and keep stirring in low-medium flame until it is fully cooked and reaches the consistency of porridge. Turn off the heat and keep the porridge aside, till it cools completely.
Heat ghee, lightly roast cashews until golden brown and raisins till plump and keep aside.
Once the rice porridge is cooled completely, add 4 tbsp of the porridge it to the ground rice & coconut batter and blend it thoroughly. Add yeast mixture and blend once more to a smooth batter.
Pour the prepared batter to a large steel / glass bowl (The bowl should be big enough to hold double the quantity of batter as during the fermentation process, the batter rises well). Let it ferment in a warm place overnight (6-8 hours). When batter is doubled and fermented, add sugar let it ferment for another 2 hours.
Just before steaming Vatteppam, add powdered / crushed green cardamom to the batter. For steaming, grease a round bowl / cake tin with oil. Pour the batter and fill till half of the bowl / cake tin. Place a flat plate with holes in the pressure cooker, place the batter filled bowl and close the cooker with lid. Steam the Vatteppam without the weight/whistle for 20-30 mins in medium heat. Open the pressure cooker, after about 10 -15 mins of steaming, drop the roasted raisins and cashew nuts on the batter and close the lid once again.
After 20-30 mins, check by inserting a tooth pick. If the tooth pick comes out clean or with very less crumbs, Vatteppam is done, or else steam for another 10-15 mins / till done and cooked well.
Remove the pan / cake tin from the pressure cooker, allow the dish to cool completely.
Run a knife by the edges of the pan to separate the steamed cake / Vatteppam/Vattayappam. Slowly lift the cake into a serving plate and service with tea / coffee.

Suruttai Poli - Indian Cooking Challenge, Feb 2011

2011-03-16T00:40:00.010+05:30

Suruttai poli, a traditional sweet preparation of South India, was chosen by Srivalli as the recipe for Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of February, 2011. This recipe is suggested by Nithya of 4th sense cooking, who stated her mother’s traditional, tried & tested recipe.

I had never heard about this dish so it was a real challenge to attempt. When I searched the net for pictures, I came across Pavithra's recipe on how the final dish will look.

Suruttai means rolled up and poli, generally refers to the sweet poli. It somehow resembled patisapta (a traditional sweet / savoury preparation in Bengali), stuffed with fillings of khoya & kheer / grated coconut, mixed with jaggery and rolled tightly.

Here the outer covering should be thin, like a papad. It came out nicely and everyone enjoyed this delicious sweet treat. The only addition I made, I added some raisins in the filling mixture….

Ingredients:

For filling:

Roasted gram: 1 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Cashews, chopped: 3-4 tbsp
Raisins: 3-4 tbsp
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Coconut, grated: 2 tbsp
Ghee: 1 tsp

For dough:

All purpose flour: 1 cup
Salt, a pinch
Water, to knead dough
Oil, for frying polis

For garnishing:

Sugar, powdered: ½ cup
Cashews, chopped: 5-6
Raisins: 10-12

Preparations:

Method for filling:

Dry roast the gram and powder the roasted gram and sugar together in a mixer.
Heat ghee and roast the chopped cashew, add grated coconut and sauté them till golden brown. mix well.
Add the powdered gram & sugar mixture, mix thoroughly by stirring continuously and switch off flame. Pour the mixture in a bowl and keep aside.

Method to prepare dough for Polis:

Sift flour and salt in a bowl, add a little water and knead to prepare a soft dough (like chaapati consistency). Ccover and set it aside for 10-15 mins.
Powder sugar, sprinkle on a plate and keep aside.
Make small balls from the dough, flour the rolling surface and roll the dough into very thin circles. (like papad consistency) (You can prick the rolled dough with fork on the surface to prevent them from puffing while frying). After rolling, keep aside for 10 mins.
Heat oil in a kadhai. Gently release the rolled dough in the oil. Turn and lightly fry on both sides and ensure that it do not change colour (It should be flexible and should not turn brown or crispy).
Drain oil and place the fried poli on the plate, coated with the powdered sugar. Carefully and immediately add 2-3 spoon fulls of filling on one side and roll tightly to form suruttai poli.
Keep aside face down in a flat surface. (The polis should be soft when hot but once they cool down they will become crispy).
Repeat with all the dough balls and prepare a whole batch of suruttai poli.

For serving, arrange the polis on a serving plate. Sprinkle some powdered sugar, garnish with cashews and raisins and serve.

Mojito and an Award

2011-02-27T11:54:00.014+05:30

A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink, containing spirits, mixers (soda / fruit juice), sugar, water and bitters, enhanced with ice, honey, milk, cream and various herbs.

Wanted to post a cocktail recipe since I started blogging, 2 years ago...Here’s celebrating 2 years of blogging and an award from Chandrani of Cuisine Delights. Sharing the award with all my fellow bloggers.

Pl collect the award from my blog and let's start the party with Mojito......

Mojito (pronounced: Mohito) is a traditional Cuban highball, traditionally made up of 5 ingredients, namely white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, sparkling water and mint.

When preparing a Mojito, lime juice is added to sugar (or syrup) and mint leaves. The mixture is then gently mashed with a muddler in the bottom of a glass to release their flavor. Then rum is added and the mixture is stirred to dissolve the sugar. Finally, the drink is topped with ice cubes & sparkling water and served in a Collins glass. Mint leaves and lime wedges are used to garnish the glass.

Ingredients: (1 Serve)

White Rum (Bacardi): 1.25 oz / 35 ml
Lime: 1 / Fresh lime juice: 0.5 oz / 15 ml
Mint Sprig: 1 / Mint leaves: 12
Sugar: 1 tbsp
Soda water: 2 oz / 55 ml
Ice, crushed

Procedure:

Cut the limes into quarters and pick the mint leaves off of the stems.
Place mint leaves in the bottom of a tall glass and add sugar & about three lime wedges. Muddle sugar, mint leaves and the lime wedges.
Fill the glass with white rum and crushed ice (the glass should appear about 3/4th full). Shake / stir the mixture until fully blended.
Transfer the shaken cocktail to another glass (As the muddled lime and mint often stick to the bottom of the glass). Fill the remainder of glass with soda water.
Garnish with a lime wedge & mint sprig and serve with a straw.

Khandvi, Indian Cooking Challenge, Dec 2010

2011-01-19T11:55:00.012+05:30

Gujarati cuisine mainly consists of vegetarian recipe and have unique culinary traditions of India. Gujarati cuisine is also distinctive in its wide variety of Farsans or side dishes served with the main meal. Some Farsan are eaten as snacks / light meals.

Gujarati food mainly comprise of 4 major regions, North Gujarat, Kathiawad, Kachchh and South Gujarat. North Gujarat is popular for its traditional Gujarati thali consisting of rice, dal, curry, vegetables, sprouted beans, farsan, pickles, chutney and raita. Some of the popular farsans, popular for their tastes are Pathara, Khaman Dhokla and Khandvi.

Khandvi is a delicious savoury made with gram flour (beasn) and curd, tempered with sesame seeds and mustard seeds and served with fresh grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves.

Srivalli chose Khandvi as the recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of December. Preparing Khandvi is an art by itself and requires lot of practice to perfect the dish. I have never prepared Khandvi before and had to try 2-3 times, before I got a perfect rolled Khandvi.

Srivalli provided two recipes for khandvi, I followed Lataji’s recipe, only difference is that, I used only mustard seeds for tempering…

Ingredients:

Gram flour / Besan: 1/3 cup (heaped)
Sour Curd / Yogurt: 1/3 cup
Water: 1 cup
Ginger & Green Chilli paste: 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida: 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Cooking Oil: 3 tbsp

For tempering:

Cooking Oil: 2 tsps
Mustard seed: 1 tsp

For Garnishing:

Grated Coconut: 2 tbsp
Fresh Coriander Leaves, chopped: 2 tbsp

Method:

Grease a flat plate and keep it ready before proceeding to cook Khandvi.
Beat curd and keep aside. In a bowl, add gram flour, salt, ginger-chilli paste, beaten curd, turmeric powder, asafoetisa and water and mix well to form a smooth batter (Ensure that the batter is thin and free of lumps).
Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadhai and add batter. Stir the batter continuously till well cooked. (You will know that the batter is ready, when the batter take a light brown tinge & glaze from the oil and do not stick to the walls of the kadhai).
The batter should still be in a semi liquid state, tipping more towards solid state (Over cooking will result in a solidified mass which will not spread evenly).
Transfer the cooked batter onto the greased plate and spread uniformly into a thin sheet over the flat surface with a ladle. (Do this quickly or else the batter will thicken as it cools and become difficult to spread.)
Using a knife, make strip marks on the sheet. Carefully roll each strip into spirals and place the khandvi rolls on a serving platter.
Heat the rest of the oil in another kadhai, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Pour the tempering over the rolled khandvis.
Garnish the Khandvis with grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Tutti Frutti Cake

2010-12-28T11:31:00.022+05:30

This festive season is never complete without a slice of Tutti Fruitti cake or a rich Fruit cake.

Tutti frutti is basically an Italian confection made with sliced fruit which has been candied or dried to preserve it. In Italian, “tutti frutti” means “all fruit, where a varied fruits like pineapple, papaya, mango, apricot, and grapefruit are used.
All of the fruits are diced fairly small and often brightly colored with various dyes to make it more visually appealing.

As far as I can remember, in my childhood days, there were some great bakeries in New Market like The Jewish confectioner "Nahoum's" and Imperial Cake shop.

Though curently there are several cake & bake shops in Kolkata, I still reminisce the drooling fruit cake, plum cake and rum balls of Nahoum's and it was a must to have them during the Christmas and New Year's time.

Here is the recipe of preparing a simple and easy Tutti Frutti Cake at home.

Ingredients:

Refined Flour / Maida: 250 gms
Eggs: 5
Baking powder: 2 ½ tsp
Sugar, powdered: 250 gms
White butter: 250 gms
Tutti frutti, Raisins and Cashew Nuts (chopped): 1 cup
Vanilla essence: 2 tsp

Method:

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 8" round baking cake tin with butter and dust it evenly with a little flour.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, sieve thrice and keep aside.
In a bowl, add butter and powdered sugar and cream them together till light and fluffy.
Add one egg at a time and beat till well combined. Add vanilla essence.
Add the flour gradually and fold to form a smooth cake mixture. (Do not over beat and combine the flour in one direction only).
Sprinkle some flour over the tutti frutti to coat them, add them to the batter and fold gently into the batter. (Keep a little tutti frutti, raisins and chopped cashew aside to sprinkle on top).
Spread batter evenly in the greased baking tin and sprinkle the remaining tutti frutti on the top.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 390 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 30-45 minutes or until done. (Test by pricking the cake with a tooth pick and if it comes out clean then the cake is done).
Place on a wire rack to cool for 15 mins.
Slice and treat yourself or your guests with tea / coffee.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo, Indian Cooking Challenge, Nov 2010

2010-12-15T17:51:00.018+05:30

Traditional Kashmiri cuisine is characterized by the use of curds in the gravies, which gives the dishes a creamy consistency.

In Kashmir, potato is called 'Oluv' (Singular), and potatoes are called 'Olav' (Plural). 'Dama Oluv' is a poular North Indian cusine, having its origin in Kashmir.

Better known as Kashmiri Dum Aloo, it is an all time favourite and mouth watering potato based curry recipe, prepared with whole / diced baby potatoes simmered in a rich and creamy gravy.

The credit for the mouth watering and unique taste goes to the use of exquisite spices and ingredients. Dum means anything cooked under pressure. Here the aloo / potatoes are cooked under pressure in their own juices.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo recipe is generally flavored with Kashmiri chillies and it uses typical Kashmiri spices like fennel / aniseed and ginger powder. Kashmiri Dum Aloo is particularly served with naan or roomali roti.

Srivalli choose this dish as the recipe for Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of November. She choose the recipe of Kashmiri Aloo Dum from Indian food.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes / small potatoes - 1 kg (round and uniform size)

Cumin seeds, roasted and powdered: 1 tsp

Kashmiri red chillies, roasted and powdered: 3-4

Curd / yogurt: 2 1/2 cups (must not be sour)

Ginger powder: 1 tsp

Fennel / aniseed powder: 1 tbsp

Cloves, roasted and powdered: 6

Mustard oil: 4 tbsp

Garam Masala: 1 tsp

Mixed powders (Black cardamom, Cinnamon and Black Pepper): 1 tsp

Asafoetida: a pinch

White oil to deep fry potatoes

Salt to taste

Firm dough made from wheat flour and water Chopped coriander leaves: 1 tbsp

Method to prepare:

Wash the potatoes well, peel, and prick the potatoes all over with a fork. Then soak in salted water for 15-20 mins.

Heat white oil in a kadhai and fry the potatoes on medium flame on all sides till golden brown. Drain excess oil and keep aside.

Make a paste of curd / yogurt, chilli powder, ginger powder and fennel powder. Add the potatoes and marinate for about an hour.

Heat mustard oil in another kadhai, add the clove powder and asafoetida and mix well. Add a half cup of hot water with a little salt and bring to a boil.

Slowly add the marinated potatoes and the yogurt mix and thoroughly stir to mix the spices.

Cover with a lid, seal the edges with the dough for the ‘dum’ so that steam do not escape. Cook in a low flame for 10-15 mins.

When the gravy thickens and the oil begins to separate, turn off the flame.

Add garam masala, roasted cumin seeds powder and the mixture of cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper powders. Turn gently with a spatula so that all the spices are mixed well.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with Naan / Roomali Rotis / Chapatis.

Varo (Indian Praline with Mixed Nuts), Indian Cooking Challenge, Oct 2010

2010-11-20T09:39:00.009+05:30

Praline is a family of confections made from nuts and sugar syrup. Originally inspired in France at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the cook of the 17th-century sugar industrialist, Marshal du Plessis-Praslin (1598–1675), early pralines were prepared with whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar, as against dark nougat, where a sheet of caramelized sugar covers many nuts.

Pralines have a creamy consistency, similar to fudge. They are usually prepared by combining sugar, butter and cream / buttermilk on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, till most of the water evaporates and they reach a thick texture with a brown color. They are then dropped by spoonfuls on a greased flat surface and left to cool to solidify into a crispy candy.

Alka suggested Sri for choosing Varo to be the recipe of Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC) for the month of October.

Varo is a kind of Indian praline with mixed nuts. Varo is a part of Sindhi cuisine, where Sindhi people make this as a Diwali special treat.

In West Bengal, we are used to Badam Chakti (Peanut Chikki / Brittle), which is a sweet preparation made from broken peanuts and jaggery. In Varo, sugar syrup is used instead of jaggery.

Sri chose two recipes for Varo, one is from Simply Sindhi Recipes and the second one is from Madhvi's Foolproof Recipes.

This was a new preparation for me. I tried the recipe from Simply sindhi recipes.

Ingredients:

Mixed Nuts (Almonds, Pistachios, Cashew nuts), sliced: 1 cup
Dry Coconut slices: 2 tbsp
Poppy Seeds / Khus Khus: 2 tsp
Black Cardamoms, crushed: 4 -5
Sugar: 1 cup
Clarified Butter: 1 tbsp

Method:

In a heavy bottomed pan, add butter and sugar and cook in a low flame till the sugar melts.
When the sugar is caramelized to a light brown color, add the sliced mixed nuts, poppy seeds and crushed cardamoms. Stir and mix well till all the nuts are coated with the caramelized sugar evenly.
Pour this mixture onto the back of a greased plate / rolling board.
Flatten the mixture by using a rolling pin very quickly or else the mixture will harden as soon as it removed from heat.
Score lines before the mixture begins to set, as this will make it easier to break and get uniform pieces of Varo.
Leave the Varo to set for some time. Break into pieces and store in air tight containers.

Punjabi Kadi with Pakora (Dahi Besan Kadi)

2010-11-15T08:38:00.007+05:30

For the month of September, Srivalli announced a delicious dish, Punjabi Kadhi for the Indian Cooking Challenge. Thanks to Srivalli for choosing this yummy Punjabi kadi and Simran for the awesome recipe.

Kadhi / karhi is an Indian dish, specially a part of Gujarati and Punjabi cuisine, basically made up of vegetable fritters (pakodas) simmered in a spicy yogurt-based gravy containing chickpea flour (besan / gram flour) with tempering of black mustard seeds, cumin, asafoetida, dried chili peppers, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves in oil / ghee and eaten with steamed rice and roti / phulkas.

Pakoda is a common Indian snack like onion pakoda, potato pakoda, eggplant, cauliflower or chopped spinach or chilies, prepared by dipping the ingredients in batter and fried into crunchy pakodas.
Punjabi kadhi is a typical North Indian recipe made up of pakodas simmered in a thick yogurt gravy.

Ingredients:
For Pakodas:

Gram flour: ¾ cup
Onions, sliced: 2 medium
Red Chilli Powder: ½ tsp (as per taste)
Baking Powder: ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Water, for batter
White oil, for deep frying pakodas

For Kadi

Curd / Yogurt: 1 cup
Chickpea flour / Besan: ½ cup
Onion, chopped: 1 large
Mustard Seeds / Sorse: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds / Jeera: 1 tsp
Carom seeds / Ajwain: ½ tsp
Fenugreek seeds / Methi: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 5-6
Dry red chillies: 2 whole
Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
Red Chili powder: ½ tsp
Garam Masala powder - ½ tsp
Asafetida / Hing: a pinch
Oil: 2 tbsp
Salt, to taste

Preparation
Pakora:

Take slice onions in a bowl, crush them a little to separate the slices.
Add besan and all the other ingredients except water and oil to the bowl. Mix well. Slowly add water and make a batter of semi thick consistency.
Heat oil in a deep bottomed kadhai. Add a little oil in the batter and mix again.
Take small amount of batter coated onions, form a round shape and slowly release the balls in the hot oil.
Deep fry the pakodas, turn and cook both sides until crispy and golden brown.
Drain oil and take out the pakodas, put on a paper towel to soak the extra oil. Keep aside.

Kadhi:

Blend yogurt, besan and water with a pinch of turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder to make a thin batter / buttermilk (lassi) mixture consistency. Keep it aside for half an hour before starting to make kadi.
Heat oil in a kadhai, add the dry spices (mustard seeds, cumin seeds, carom seeds and fenugreek seeds) and let them splutter. Add curry leaves and dry red chilli to tadka (frying mixture).
Add chopped onions and sauté them until light brown. Add the turmeric powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, salt and sauté a little more.
Add the yogurt / besan (kadhi mixture) to the tadka. Keep stirring the gravy, as it may stick to the bottom. First keep it on a medium flame, bring it to a boil, reduce flame and simmer on low flame for 20-30 mins.
Keep stirring occasionally, check if the gravy is thick enough (add little water if required) and release the pakodas in the kadhi.
Boil for 2-3 mins more and turn off gas. Garnish with chopped coriander, serve hot with steamed rice or chapati.

Plagiarism of another kind

2010-08-30T15:14:00.022+05:30

These days plagiarism is so common, that if you come across any site with your pictures and copied recipes, you feel angry. You may even write to the website / blog author for disciplinary actions but on second thought you feel, are those sites really worth of a second look and we seem to only add to their blog traffic.

When I started my blog, I did not know much about plagiarism and related actions to be taken. But as time went by, I came across several sites where my pictures and posts are copied verbatim without giving due credit to my blog.

Initially I did not know what to do, and wrote to those sites, some have removed the copied posts and pictures and some sites still carry them. It seems these people do not have enough decency to acknowledge your hard work and Plagiarism has become a daily affair to them, what we call in Bengali "Jol Bhaat" (meaning a simple case like water and rice).

So these days, if I see my pictures in some other blogs & website, I really do not care anymore.

But imagine, if you see your picture being published in a leading newspaper (that too a leading Bengali Newspaper, Ananda Bazar Patrika) without your consent and giving due credit, I bet you will get flustered and angry.

original picture

Last Saturday’s 28-Aug-2010 edition of “Utsav” (A supplement of ABP), carried an article on “Posto”, titled “Emon Gotimoi Ghorsoyar rannaghore aar dwitwiyoti nei” by Goutam Chakraborty. My picture of Aloo Jhinge Posto was published in that article as a "Posto" dish.

The picture has been modified in such a way that the recipe name and my blog’s name was removed from the picture to look like an altogether different picture.

I have already written to the Editor of the leading Daily and awaiting clarification from their end.

So my fellow bloggers, besides keeping a tab on blogs and websites, start keeping a track on your local newspaper, maybe you'll find yourself in my position in coming days....

You can check the following links too...

Plagiarism - Once Again

Caught in the Act

Plagiarism - Be Aware!!!

Kara Sev - Indian Cooking Challenge, June 2010

2010-07-15T22:23:00.011+05:30

Kara Sev was chosen by Srivalli as the Indian Cooking Challenge recipe for June. It's one of my favourite snack. There was a bhujiya shop near my school, where they used to sell varieties of bhujiya, ganthiya, chanachur, etc. While waiting for the bus, I used to watch the karigaar preparing these sev.

It was intriguing, as the person used a deft hand in pressing down the thick besan mixture on a big ladle with holes directly over oil, frying the sev in hot oil and immediately taking them out.

Thanks to Srivalli, finally I had the chance of preparing these savoury and crunchy sev. If the ladle (with holes) is not available, one can use the murukku press. Kara sev is quite easy and require very less time to prepare. I chose the first recipe as stated by Srivalli.

Ingredients:

Gram flour (Besan): 2 1/2 cup
Rice Flour (Chalguri): 1 cup
Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Coarsely ground black pepper: 1 tsp
Crushed garlic (optional): 2 pods
Ghee: 2 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda: a small pinch
Salt to taste
Oil, to fry

Procedure:

Take a bowl, sieve gram flour and rice flour together, mix well and make a pit (hole in the middle).
Add chilli powder, pepper powder, salt, crushed garlic, ghee and cooking soda and mix thoroughly with hands (It should resemble bread crumbs).
Divide the dough into 4 portions. Take one portion of this mixture, sprinkle water, knead like puri dough.
Heat oil in a kadai, use a ladle with lot of holes (Kara Sevai ladle / sev maker). Put some dough on the ladle and rub directly into oil (It will look like split string).
Deep fry in oil till the sev are well cooked and golden brown on all sides.
Drain excess oil, cool and store in an airtight container.

Peyaji

2010-06-28T15:29:00.010+05:30

Peyaji is an all time favourite snack. Peyaji / Onion fritters are usually served as an evening snack, perfect accompaniment with tea / coffee in a rainy afternoon, generally served with “muri” (puffed rice) and kancha lonka (green chilli).

This post was long due, here is the recipe for Peyaji. Enjoy these crispy fritters as the weather is just perfect.

Ingredients

Onion (Peyaj): 2
Besan (Bengal gram flour): 1 cup
Plain Flour (Maida): 1 cup
Green Chillies, chopped: 2
Red chilli powder: a pinch
Baking Soda: a pinch
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Peel, halve and finely slice the onions and chop green chillies.
Take a mixing bowl, take the sliced onions, chopped chillies & salt and mix thoroughly.
Add a pinch of baking soda, red chilli powder, maida & besan and mix well.
Add a little water and mix thoroughly so that the onions are coated with the besan and stick to each other (add more water if required but avoid excess water).
Heat oil in a deep bottomed kadhai; add few drops of heated oil in the besan mixture and again mix well.
Scoop some of the onion-besan mixture and release in the oil (be careful not to crowd the pan or else the pakodas will stick to one another and will remain uncooked inside).
Fry the onion fritters in medium heat, turn and cook till crisp and golden brown on both sides.
Drain out excess oil. Repeat until all the batter is used up.
Place the onion fritters in a serving plate with ketchup and serve hot with tea /coffee.

Gol Gappe - Indian Cooking Challenge, May' 2010

2010-06-15T09:45:00.016+05:30

Gol Gappe, a popular street snack / chaat is known by different names in different regions, the most popular ones being Panipuri (Western India), Gupchup (Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar) and Phuchka (West Bengal). It generally comprises of a round & fried crisp puri, filled with a mixture of potato, onion & chickpeas dipped in tamarind water

The name Gol gappe (as known in Northern India) refers to the fact that crisp sphere (Gol) is placed in the mouth and eaten (Gappa) at one time, without biting. Pani means water in Hindi and Puri is the name of a type of Indian bread, prepared by frying dough in oil.

Gol gappes are served in varied ways across different locations. They are dipped in various types of flavoured water, like imli ka pani (tamarind in water), nimbu ka pani (lemon juice in water), pudine ka pani (mint in water) and even khajur ka pani (dates mixed in water) and served by folding a saal leaf in triangular cup sized plate made from dry saal leaves or pre-made small bowl of saal leaves.

Here in Kolkata, Gol gappe it is better known as “Phuchka” and you are sure to have your favourite Phuchkawala in every para / locality.

Phuchka, the very mention of which makes me reminisce my childhood years. I still relish those memories, customers holding the small plate and standing around the phuchkawala’s cart. He starts making one golgappa at a time and serving one to each individual.

He even remembered each customer's preferences & choice like choice of fillings, tamarind water’s consistency, etc. Even now, I don’t know how the phuchkawala kept the count of how many phuchkas were served even during serving an entire crowd.

I still remember, on my way back home from school, how I used to order my Phuchka Kaku to prepare that special filling of boiled potato, sprouts & masalas with extra red chili powder; the crisp phuchkas dipped in an earthern pot of spicy tamarind water (tentul-er jol) and served in a small plate made of saal leaves and finishing in a gulp, heavenly…Even as I am writing, my mouth is drooling with those thoughts…

Moreover it was fun when we were in a group and would compete amongst ourselves who will eat the most number of phuchkas.

Over the years, gol gappe / pani puri / phuchka which was a roadside treat, have found a place in the menu of restaurants, malls and even wedding ceremonies. These days there are several innovative ways of serving them, like in plates and the tamarind water in cups. They are even served with curd, chopped onions with sev sprinkled on top.

Thanks to Srivalli for choosing Golgappa as the Indian Cooking Challenge recipe for May’ 2010.
A little effort of preparing Golgappa myself at home was a wonderful and fun experience.

Here is the recipe of Pani Puri / Gol Gappe

For making Gol Gappe

Sooji / Semolina: 1/2 cup
Maida / Plain Refined Flour: 1/2 tbsp
Cooking Soda: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

For Spicy Pani / Spicy Water

Chopped Mint Leaves: 1 1/2 cups
Chopped Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp
Tamarind: 1/3 cup
Ginger: 1"
Green Chillies: 4 - 5
Ground Cumin Seed (roasted): 1 tsp
Kala Namak/ Black Salt: 1 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

For Filling

Potato Filling
Boiled Potato, finely chopped /mashed and mixed with salt and red chilli.

Lentil Filling

Cooked Kabuli Channa / Peas: 1 cup
Salt to taste
Chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
Garam masala powder: 1/4 tsp

Cook the channa or peas till tender. Then drain and cook with the masala till aroma comes out.

For Red Tamarind Chutney

Tamarind: 1 cup
Jaggery: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Dry Roasted cumin powder: 1 tsp
Kali Mirch / Black pepper powder: 1/4 tsp.
Cloves: 2
Warm water: 2 cups
Oil: 1 tsp
Salt to tast

Method to prepare:

For Gol Gappe / Puri:

In a bowl, take semolina, plain flour & cooking soda; add salt and 2 tbsp of oil; mix and knead well to make a stiff dough (A bit stiffer than normal) .
Cover it with a wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 15 mins.
Pinch out very small balls and roll them into small circles and put the rolled out circles back under the muslin cloth for some time before frying.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan / kadhai, release the rolled out dough, press the puffed puri a little with the back of a slotted spoon and deep fry the puris till golden brown (If rolled evenly, the puris will puff up as soon as they are released in the oil).
Drain oil and take the puris out from the pan / kadhai and put them on kitchen paper towel to get rid of the extra oil.

Notes: Allow the puris to cool properly before storing them in an airtight container or else they will become soggy.

Spicy Tamarind water / Pani

Extract pulp from the tamarind. Add mint leaves, coriander, ginger, chillies and dry roasted cumin seed to the tamarind pulp. Add little water and blend to a smooth paste.
Add salt and black rock salt to taste. Add water as required. Put it in the fridge to cool down.

Red Tamarind Chutney

In a pan, dry roast the cumin seeds and cloves and pound them into a coarse powder.
Extract the pulp from tamarind. To the tamarind pulp, add jaggery, sugar, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, roasted powder of cumin & cloves and salt.
Put the mixture in a pan and heat for 5 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat and let it cool down.
Add warm water and adjust consistency, if the chutney becomes too thick.
Once the chutney cools thoroughly, blend in a blender to form a smooth paste.

Assembling & serving the Golgappe / Pani Puri / Phuchka

Poke a small hole in the center of the Gole Gappe and add a little portion of the filling (Remember not to stuff too much, or else the puri may break).
Add a little of the red tamarind chutney, dip the golgappa in the spicy water and gulp it down.

Notes: Alternatively you can mix small quantity of tamarind chutney & spicy water and pour over the stuffed puris and gulp down.

I like to experiment with the fillings. The whole idea of preparing this kind of chaat at home is that, you can mix your choice of ingredients or add anything which suits you best.

I used a filling of boiled potatoes & kabuli chana, mixed with chopped coriander leaves, grated coconut and masalas.

I added some home made dhokla, sprinkled chopped onions & sev on top and served with home made curd, spicy tamarind water and red tamarind chutney so that everybody can take their pick.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!

Rasmalai - Indian Cooking Challenge (Apr 2010)

2010-05-15T23:50:00.005+05:30

Srivalli selected Rasmalai as our next challenge for the month of April 2010 in Indian Cooking Challenge.

Rasmalai is a delicious dessert consisting of sugary balls of cottage cheese (chhana in Bengali) soaked in sweetened and thickened milk, flavored with cardamom, saffron and garnished with dry fruits. It tastes best, when served chilled.

The original recipe was provided by Lavi. As always, I followed the recipe as stated by Srivalli and the Rasmalai turned out perfect.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

Milk: 3 litres (2 ltr for making paneer and 1 ltr for making rasa / milk syrup)
Maida (plain flour): 1 tsp
Vinegar: 3 tbsp
Water: 5 cups
Sugar: 16 tbsp (8 for sugar syrup and 8 for rasa / milk syrup)
Saffron: 3-4 strands
Pista: 10 finely chopped
Cardamon, crushed: 2 -3

Method:

Boil 2 litres of milk and let it cool thoroughly and rfrigerate the milk for 12 hours. Remove the thick layer of skin formed over the milk the next day (after 12 hours).
Boil the milk, when the milk starts to boil, add vinegar. The milk will curdle and paneer will start floating on top and the whey water will stay on the bottom of the vessel. Place a muslin / cotton cloth over a bowl, filter the paneer.
Pour 2 cups of water (to remove the sourness of vinegar), tie it well and let it hang for one hour until the paneer is completely drained of whey water.
Remove the paneer from the muslin, knead well for 5-10 minutes. Add maida to the paneer and make small balls.
In a pressure cooker, add 3 cups of water and sugar, bring it boil, add the paneer balls one by one and close the lid, simmer and let it cook for 15 minutes (until the balls become double in size). Press the paneer balls gently to drain the excess sugar syrup.
Prepare the thick and creamy milk syrup by boiling the milk and reducing to half of the original quantity. Add sugar, saffron strands and crushed cardamom to the milk and mix thoroughly.
Slowly release the paneer balls to the milk syrup. Pour the rasmalai in a serving bowl, cool and refrigerate. Garnish with pistas and serve chilled.

Sagu Biyyam Murukku / Sago Murukku - ICC for Mar' 2010

2010-04-23T10:19:00.024+05:30

Sago /Sabudhana Murukku (a tasty savory snack prepared with sago, rice flour, besan flour and fried gram flour) was chosen by Srivalli for Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of March.

As Sri already challenged us to prepare murukku before, this was a little easy, though I have never prepared murukku with sago before. Stated below is the recipe by Srivalli.

Ingredients

Rice flour: 2 cups
Besan flour: 1/2 cup
Fried gram flour: 1/2 cup
Sago: 1/2 cup
Oil: 50 gms
Salt to taste
Curd: 50 gms (half of half cup)
Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp or as per taste
Oil for frying murukku

Special Utensil: Muruku Achu

Method

Soak sago in buttermilk for 3 hrs (please ensure that you soak the sago well or else sago may burst while frying the murukkus).
Mix all the flour together, add salt and chilli powder. Heat 50 gms oil and mix to the flour.
Gradually add the buttermilk soaked sago and knead to a chapati dough consistency.
Heat oil in a kadhai for deep frying. Add the dough in the muruku achu. When the oil is hot, press down the dough directly in the oil as murukus.
Cook the murukkus on medium flame. Drain oil and store the murukkus in airtight container.

A few points to remember: Ensure that the sago soaked in buttermilk is soft or else it will burst while frying the murukus and also to cook on medium flame to ensure even cooking.

I didn’t make the usual round shape. The murukkus turned out real crispy, a perfect accompaniment for evening tea / coffee.

A little late in posting due to machine problem....Better late than never...

Plagiarism - Once Again

2010-04-10T13:16:00.018+05:30

Another case of plagiarism. As these days, I am not very regular in posting and also cannot check the site regularly. But surely this is not the post I intended to write about. Just today, I happen to update some posts, found a comment left by an anonymous visitor that my post on Calcutta Chicken Roll has been copied in a Pakistani recipe site, pakistanifoodrecipes.com launched on Monday, June 22, 2009.

My post on Calcutta Chicken Roll (post on Mar 8 2009), has been copied verbatim in the site with the post name as Calcutta Kati Roll – Kolkata Chicken Roll

Even the picture has been copied. Though they have carefully erased the mark on the picture, one can still understand that it’s my picture. My site name has been written but no credit / linking has been provided.

After some more browsing, I found 2 more of my posts have been copied:

The picture of Stuffed Dahi Was even shows my site name. Though in the post, my site name is mentioned but no linking is provided.

I happen to check some more pictures and came across posts copied from Srivalli's site, Cooking 4 all Seasons and another site, Tasty Indian Food.

Srivalli's Stuffed Aloo Parathas as Aallo ka Parantha
Kesar Rasgulla from tastyindianfood.com as Zafrani Rasgulla

I have left a message at the site. I have asked them to either credit with my site link or remove these posts altogether.

Some days back Ivy’s work was copied, check her post on Plagiarism.

Fellow bloggers, pl check if any of your posts have been copied in this site.
Hope these people stop copying our work once and for all.

Khasta Kachori, ICC for Jan' 2010

2010-02-15T18:21:00.021+05:30

The Indian Cooking Challenge for Jan 2010 is Khasta Kachori, an all time favouroite savoury snack. Srivalli came up with this snack after discussing with Medhaa who suggested to prepare tasty Kachoris and provided authentic recipe combining that of her aunt and Tarla Dalal.

Kachoris are a speciality in Northern and Western India (including Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh), but even then they occupy heart of every Indian. Kachoris are often served with a chutney, made from tamarind, mint / coriander and sometimes accompanied with a curry made of spicy potatoes and chickpeas (chana / chhole)....

Sri stated three different fillings: Moong Dal Filling, Peas Filling and Onion Filling. I prepared kachori with all the filling and all of them were perfect. The dough is same for all the fillings.

You can catch the step by step procedures below. I could manage to take the photos with the green peas filling only...

Recipe:
Resting time for the dough: 1/2 hour - 1 hour approx
Frying time for the Kachoris: 20 mins for each batch approx
Soaking time for the filling: 1 hour approx
Cooking time for the filling: 15 minutes approx
Yields - 15

For the Dough
Ingredients:

All purpose flour / Maida: 2 cups
White Oil / Ghee: 1/4 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Water for kneading

Method:

Mix the flour and salt, add oil / ghee and mix till you get a bread crumbs texture.
Slowly add water and knead thoroughly to make a soft and smooth dough. Knead well for about 8 minutes.
Cover with a moist cloth and keep aside to rest for atleast half hour (or else it will dry up and not puff up when frying)

Fillings:

Khasta Kachori - Moong Dal Kachori
Ingredients:

Split Moong Dal (yellow): 1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds / Jeera: 1 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida: a pinch
Curry Leaves, finely chopped: 2 tsp
Green Chilli & Ginger paste: 1 tsp
Sauf / Fennel seeds powder: 1 tsp
Garam Masala: 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Mango powder / Amchur: 1 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and Soak dal in water for 1 - 4 hours. Drain water and grind the dal to a coarsely mixture.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the hing and cumin seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the curry leaves and then add the dal.
Lower the heat and keep stirring for 5 minutes till the dal stops sticking to the pan.
Cook for another 10 minutes on low till the dal turns slightly brown. Add all the masalas.
Cook for few minutes till the aroma of the spices hit you. Add Salt.
Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

Special Tips / Notes for the filling:

The fillings have to be really dry if not when rolling they will ooze out when rolling.
Adjust the masalas as per your taste.
If you try to press out using a rolling pin, the filling may come out and make holes in the kachori. So it will have to be just pressed out using your palm.
Fry the kachoris on medium low to get a crisp outer layer.

Mattar Ki Kachori from Tarla Dalal:
Green Peas filling - Ingredients:

Green peas, shelled: 2 cups
Green chillies, chopped: 1 tsp
Ginger, grated: 1 tsp
Nigella seeds / Kalonji: 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds / Saunf: 2 tsp Bay Leaves: 2
Red Chilli powder: 1 gtsp
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
Coriander leaves finely chopped: 4 tbsp
Oil: 2
Salt to taste

Method:

Coarsely grind the green peas,green chillies and ginger in a blender without using any water. Keep aside.
Heat the oil in a pan,add the nigella seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaves and ground green pea mixture and saute over a very slow flame for 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the chilli powder, garam masala, coriander and salt and saute for 2 more minutes.
Remove the bay leaves and discard. Divide into 12 equal portions.

Pyaz ki Kachori
Onion filling - Ingredients:

2 cups onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon nigella seeds (kalonji)
2 teaspoons fennel seeds (saunf)
2 bay leaves
1½ teaspoons green chillies, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Bengal gram flour (besan)
2 teaspoons coriander (dhania) powder
2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the nigella seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaves, green chillies and onions and sauté till the onions turn light brown in colour.
Add the gram flour, coriander powder, chilli powder, garam masala and salt and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the chopped coriander and mix well. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Allow the mixture to cool completely. Divide into 12 equal portions and keep aside.

Method to make Kachoris:

Make a small ball from the dough. Roll out into a 2 inch diameter circle or flatten the ball using your fingers having the center thick and sides little thin. Place about 1.5 tsp of the filling in the center of the rolled dough.
Cover the filling with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling. Seal the ends and remove excess dough. Repeat with all the balls and keep aside for 5 -7 mins.
Flatten the balls by lightly pressing it with your palm. Cover and keep aside. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Heat oil for deep frying. (The oil should not become smoking hot. Test to see if the temperature is right by dropping a tiny ball of dough and see if it is rising slowly to the top).
Drop the kachoris in batches of 3-4 gently into the oil. It should rise up slowly. After they rise up, turn them over. Cook till the side down gets a golden brown color.
Turn again and cook the other side till the kachoris are golden brown in color. (The whole process requires 18-20 mins atleast). Remove from fire and soak the excess oil in a tissue paper. Cool and store in an airtight container.
Serve with coriander chutney and tamarind chutney. Enjoy!!!!

Penne Pasta with Chicken and Red Pesto Sauce

2010-01-26T17:25:00.022+05:30

As I mentioned earlier, my kid loves pasta and I try to search new recipes besides cooking pasta with white sauce and tomato & garlic sauce including pasta salad.

I came across the recipe for pesto and decided to try it out. I combined tomatoes with fresh basil leaves to prepare red pesto sauce.

This is an easy pasta recipe with penne pasta, shredded chicken & red pesto sauce and can be served in the main course with a tossed salad. You can also serve pesto on the pasta of your choice, use it as a dip and you can even serve it over fresh boiled vegetables.

Pesto (a paste of basil, garlic, pine nuts and cheese) is prepared in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. Fresh basil leaves are washed, dried, placed in the mortar with garlic and coarse salt, and crushed to a creamy consistency. The pine nuts are added and crushed together with grated cheese and olive oil.

This sauce can be kep in a tight jar / air-tight plastic container for later use.

Click here to get the recipe of Penne Pasta with Chicken and Red Pesto Sauce.....

Moong Dal Halwa, ICC Challenge for Dec' 2009

2010-01-15T09:08:00.015+05:30

Moong dal ka halwa / Moong daal ka seera is a traditional Rajasthani (Marwari) / North Indian delicacy, made from split yellow lentils (moong dal). It is relished during the winter months and special occasions (Holi and Diwali) including wedding & other celebrations.

I first had this delicious halwa in the afternoon buffets in Angeethi, a terrace restaurant in the style of an authentic North Indian dhaba in Museum Road, off church Street, Bangalore.

As I never had this halwa before, I was curious to know the recipe. After coming back home, I searched my recipe books and found one. I prepared moong dal halwa for the first time and it was simply great though a little calorie laden. (By the time I finished preparing the sweet dish, my right hand was aching from stirring the halwa).

So when Srivalli decided this recipe for ICC – December challenge, I had the opportunity to prepare this halwa once again. She stated 2 recipes, I chose her second recipe (moong dal with milk), though I first sauted / dry roasted the dal (I used a 200 gms cup measure and other ingredients accordingly) & soaked overnight and also used crushed black cardamom while serving.

Both the recipes are stated below:

Moong Dal Halwa
Soaking Time : Overnight
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 30 - 45 mins

Recipe with moong dal and milk

Ingredients:

Split Moong dal (yellow lentils): 1 cup / 200 gms
Ghee: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 3/4 cups to 1 cup (as required) / 150-200 gms
Milk: 1/2 cup
Cashews / raisins (roasted in ghee) for garnishing

Method:

Soak moong dal overnight. Next morning, grind to a paste.
Heat a heavy / deep bottomed kadai, take only 1/2 of the ghee and heat it.
Add the dal and stir continuously (ensure that no lumps are formed as the dal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee).
Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dal becomes thick.
Add the rest of the ghee intermittently, cook the dal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.
Meanwhile mix the sugar with water/ milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dal.
Keep the fire low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding the sugar and water / milk mix.
Cook until the ghee surfaces. Garnish with cashews and raisins.

Recipe with moong dal and khoya

Ingredients:

Split (Yellow) Moong dal: 1 cup
Sugar: 3/4 cup - 1 cup (as required)
Clarified Butter / Ghee: 1/2 cup
Khoya: 1/2 cup
Cashew nuts and raisins for garnishing

You can make any quantity with this as long as you keep this ratio constant : equal amounts of dal and sugar, half the ghee and khoya.

Method:

Lightly roast the 1 cup of moong dal, wash, soak overnight and be ground to a fine paste adding very little water.
Take a thick bottom pan, heat 1/2 cup ghee and fry the moong dal paste till it turns brownish and releases the ghee. Add sugar and khoya.
Stir fry until both the sugar and khoya are well absorbed. Turn off the heat, then mix in cashew nuts and raisins.

Also special thank you wish to Lathaji and Simran’s Mom for the recipe inputs.

Notes :

Use a thick bottom pan /nonstick pan.
Don't leave the halwa unattended. The dal can stick to the pan and get burnt, keep stirring continuously to prevent dhal from sticking irrespective of the ghee added. (The halwa will thicken as it cools).
Cook until ghee surfaces on the sides and the halwa attains a very nice shine.
Initially, it may appear that all the ghee is being used up. But as the dal cooks the ghee separates. So the ghee measure is sufficient.
In both recipes depending on how you got the moong dal paste, you may require slightly more ghee to get the texture.

Chegodilu-Chekodi - ICC (November) Challenge

2009-12-15T13:41:00.035+05:30

Chegodilu / Chekodi is one of the popular snacks in Andhra. Another new recipe from Srivalli for the Indian Cooking Challenge for November’ 09. I was unaware of this recipe and also didn’t know how the final dish will look like as no pictures were specified. I was confused at first, so I decided to search the net and came across some clicks for chegodis / chegodilo and only then understood why Sri was calling them “ring murukku”. From the clicks, the chegodis looked crisp and yummy and so I started to prepare this tasty snack.

I prepared using the second of the two recipes as stated by Srivalli. The chegodis / chegodilu came out perfect and crisp. Here is the recipe, which I followed

Ingredients:

Rice flour (chalguri) : 3/4 cup Maida / All purpose flour: 1/4 cup
Ajwain: 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder: 1/4 tsp (I used 1/2 tsp)
Turmeric powder: a pinch
Ghee: 2 tbsp
Water: 1 cup
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

How to proceed:

Boil the water in a deep pan and add salt. When the water starts boiling, remove the pan from the fire.
Add ajwain, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and rice flour & maida. Stir well with a ladle to ensure that all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
Pour ghee, cover with a lid and leave aside for a few minutes. Once it cools, knead to form a smooth dough.
Take small portions of the dough and roll them like threads between your palms, bring the ends together and seal them to form small rings. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Heat oil in a deep frying pan, slide the prepared chegodis into it. Reduce heat and deep fry until well done. Remove from the oil and drain on absorbent tissues.
Allow to cool and store in airtight containers. Repeat with the rest of the chegodis.

Another way to prepare Chegodi / Chegodilu

Ingredients:

Rice flour 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Split yellow dhal (moong dhal) 2 table spoons
Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
Sesame seeds 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder 1 teaspoon
Ghee/ oil 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

How to proceed:

For the dough:

Soak moong dal in water for half an hour.Drain after soaking, just before adding to the water.
In a deep bottom pan, boil water. Add the salt, ghee and the drained moong dhal.
Bring to a boil, allow to simmer and stir in the rice flour gradually. Keep stirring to achieve lump- free dough.
When the dough looks cooked (as in outer dough for kozhukkattais), switch the stove off.
Mix well and cover. Keep this aside until the dough cools down, say for about 15- 20 minutes.
Add to the dough the chilli powder, sesame seeds and cumin seeds. Mix them well.

Frying the chegodis:

Make small balls of the dough and roll them in ropes of about an inch and a half. Bring together the two ends of the rope and seal well.
Heat oil in a pan and once the oil is of optimum temperature, slide the prepared rope-rings into very hot oil. Fry only very few at a time.
Reduce the heat to low and fry the chegodis on both side until the sizzling of the oil subsides. Remove from the oil with slotted ladle and place them on absorbent tissues. Allow to cool and store in airtight containers.

Tips:

While moulding the chegodis, keep the rest of the dough covered. Let the dough not dry in the air. Take out just as much of the dough to prepare enough number of chegodis that will fry in the oil.
Keep oil on high heat when you are sliding the rings in and reduce the heat to low as soon as the chegodis bounce back to the surface of the oil. They have to be fried really well or you might end up with oily, soggy chegodis. Proceed with the entire dough.

All the fried chegodis came out crisp, a perfect snack to enjoy with a cup of tea / coffee.

The Bloggeraid Cookbook - A cookbook to change the face of famine

2009-12-07T22:53:00.007+05:30

Bloggers across the world coming together for a wonderful cause "Changing face of famine" and inspring others to make things happen to eradicate famine.

What is Bloggeraid?

Well, it all started towards the beginning of this year. Two wonderful food bloggers, Val of More Than Burnt Toast and Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen, who co-founded Bloggeraid-Changing the Face of Famine (Online social network of food bloggers) and also came up with the brilliant idea of a unique cook book, where the recipes will be contributed by food bloggers across the globe.

All the members of Bloggeraid (A non-profit community of hundreds of members from diverse cultural backgrounds across the globe) contributed traditional and original recipes from individual regions.

We as the members of BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine, delivered our best to make the world a better place for us and everybody else. The chosen recipes are put together in "The Bloggeraid Cook Book", which is finally published and is now for sale. You can know more or purchase it by clicking here.

Bloggeraid is supporting a wonderful cause, The World Food Programme (WFP). WFP will receive the funds generated by the cookbook, where 100% of the proceeds target children and education through the United Nation's World Food Program called School Meals, which benefits an average of 22 million hungry children each year.

img source

"WFP's school meal programmes work towards achieving several Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The programmes directly address the goals of reducing hunger by half and achieving universal primary education by 2015"

I am proud to be a part of this wonderful cause. Aam Panna, a traditional mango beverage is my contribution to the cook book.

You can find the recipe along with over hundred recipes ranging from Starters, Breakfast & Brunch, Soups & Salads, Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Beverages and Desserts in the cook book.

I hope that we can all spread the word about the cookbook. You too can help in this endeavour by buying the book and spreading the word about it.

You can buy the Bloggeraid Changing the face of famine cookbook from the Create Space estore (the estore is a connection of Amazon) or click the book cover above to purchase a book; Price is $30+s/h.
Write about the book and the cause in your blog.
Recommend it as a corporate gift to the company you work for or any other organization that does large scale gift-giving.
Put the cook book picture and link in the sidebar of your blog, which will directly take you to the order page.
Tweet it up on twitter including other social media networks.
Join Facebook Fan Page

Paav Bhaji

2009-12-05T16:39:00.037+05:30

A popular and much loved food all over India, Paav Bhaaji is a speciality of Western India. This is a spicy blend of vegetables in tomato gravy & spices, served with pav that is toasted with butter. Paav means "a small bun", while Bhaaji means "vegetable".

Ingredients:

8 paavs (small squares of white bread, about 4" x 5" size)
Butter: 4 tbsp

For Bhaji:

Mixed vegetables: beans, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, etc.), finely chopped 3-4 cups
Potatoes, boiled & mashed: 1 & 1/2 cups
Carrots, finely chopped: 1/2 cup
Green Beans, finely chopped: 1/2 cup
Cauliflower, finely chopped: 1 cup
Capsicum, finely chopped: 1/2 cup
Peas, shelled: 1/2 cup
Onions, finely chopped: 1 cup
Tomatoes, finely chopped: 2 cups
Ginger & garlic paste: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 - 1 tsp
Paav bhaji masala: 2 tbsp
Buter: 4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Juice of 1 lemon (to taste)

To Garnish:

Onion, finely chopped: 1 large
Coriander, finely chopped: 1 - 2 tbsp
Lemon wedges

Method:

Boil water in a pressure cooker, add the mixed vegetables and a little salt and pressure cook the mixed vegetables (except capsicum, onions & tomatoes) till tender and soft. Drain out water and keep aside.
Heat a large & heavy-bottomed pan and melt butter on medium flame. Add chopped onions, saute a little, add capsicums and saute for 2 more mins.
Add add ginger-garlice paste and fry till onion is translucent. Add the chopped tomatoes, mix and cook till oil separates.
Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, paav bhaji masala & salt, mix well and cook for 2-3 mins. Add the boiled vegetables, 1/2 cup water, mix with the masala and bring to a boil.
Simmer till gravy is thick, continuously stir and mash thoroughly to a course texture using a potato masher / slotted spoon.
Add a table spoon of butter, mix and cook for a 2-3 more mins, Turn off the fire, add lemon juice, stir and mix well. Garnish with chopped onions, coriander, lemon wedges and a block of butter.
To serve, slit the paavs / buns half horizontally (leaving one edge attached) and apply butter. Place the buns open & face down on the heated tawa / griddle till the surface is golden and crisp. Flip and repeat on other side.
Serve the paavs with the hot & sizzing bhaji, garnished with finely chopped onion and lemon wedges.

Paav Bhaji is a wholesome meal with a combination of vegetables and bread. Paav Bhaaji is also a hot favorite Indian street food and you will find scores of vendors in streets all over Mumbai stirring up the dish on huge sizzling pans.

Sending this to RCI-Mumbai guest hosted by Lakshmi and event by Lakshmi Krishnan and
Radhika and Sudeshna's event, Foods for 7 Stages of Life-Kids Special

Chilli Soya

2009-12-01T17:53:00.020+05:30

One of my favourite Chinese vegetarian recipe is Chilli Paneer. I also make new recipes by substituting paneer with other ingredients like tofu, assorted vegetables and even soya chunks.

I prepare Chilli Soya (I used Nutrella soya chunks), following the same preparation method as Chilli Paneer and it tasted the same. Well you can also replace the main ingredient and use tofu, vegetables of your choice to have new tasty recipes.

Soya nuggets /chunks are commonly referred to as vegetarian meat and generally used as meat substitutes in several dishes. Soys nuggets are prepared from defatted (DOC) soya flour by the process of extrusion cooking.

Ingredients:

Soya chunks / nuggets: 100 gms / 1 cup
Cornflour: 50 gms / ½ cup
Onion, cubed & layers are separated: 3
Capsicum, diced / cubed: 1 large
Green chiilies, chopped: 3-4
Garlic & Ginger, chopped: 1 tsp
Soya sauce: 2-3 tbsp
Tomato sauce / ketchup: 1 tbsp (optional)
Vinegar: 1 tsp
White oil: 3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Spring onions, chopped: 1 bunch

Method:

Boil water in a pan, add a little salt, soak the soya chunks. Cover the pan and let the soya chunks soak for 15-20 mins. Press and squeeze out excess water and keep aside.
Take a bowl, combine 1 tbsp of cornflour in a little cold water, soya sauce & vinegar and mix well. Keep aside.
Mix the rest of the corn flour with a little water in a bowl to make a smooth batter. Heat oil in a kadhai, lightly coat the soya chunks in the batter and saute them. Drain and keep aside.
Heat oil once again (add extra oil, if required). Add the cubed onion & capsicum pieces and saute for 3 - 4 mins till the onion and capsicums are tender.
Stir the cornflour and soya sauce mixture, add to the kadhai and keep on stirring. Add soya chunks, chopped green chillies, garlic & salt, mix well so that all the soya chunks get coated with the gravy. Add tomato sauce (optional) and mix well.
Adjust water (as per your requirement of gravy), cook for 5 - 6 mins till the gray become thick. Remove from fire, transfer in a serving dish.
Garnish with grated ginger, chopped spring onions and serve hot with noodles / chowmein or fried rice.

Tip: Some people do not like the smell of soya chunks. To remove the 'smell / stink' in soya chunks, here is a helpful trick. Add finely chopped garlic in the boiling water, release the soya chunks and boil for 5-10 mins. Press and thoroughly squeeze out water and use in the recipe.

This recipe is also nutritious as soya chunks are a rich source of protein and contribute a maximum level of 50% vegetable protein. They are also free from cholesterol.

I am sending this delicious Chilli Soya recipe to Vaishali's IAVW-Chinese event and to Radhika's and Sudeshna's Foods for 7 Stages of Life-Kids Special event....

Gobi Parantha - T&T from TongueTicklers

2009-11-30T18:04:00.021+05:30

I cooked this delicious Gobi ke parathe from Sunshinemom's Tongue Ticklers. I first tasted this parantha while at my aunty's place in Delhi and also learnt the recipe from her. She used to grate the cauliflower, mix it with some spices and directly used it as the filling.

When I first prepared this recpe, I had the problem with the moisture coming out from the cauliflowers, then I sauted the grated cauliflower to remove the excess moisture. While searching through the blog, I came across this recipe for Gobi ke parathe, which is almost the same as I like to prepare.

Only I like to add chopped coriander leaves and a little red chilli powder to the filling.

Gobi Parantha (Find the original recipe here)

Ingredients:

Dough:

Plain flour (maida): 2 cups
Water (as required)
White oil (for kneading dough): 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Filling

Cauliflower: 250 gms
Carom seeds: 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
White Oil: 1/4 tsp
Garam masala: 1/2 tsp
Green chilli, finely chopped: 1-2
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves, finely chopped: 2 bunch
Ginger, grated: 1/2"

Method:

Dough: Take the flour in a bowl and add white oil and salt. Slowly add water and knead to form a smooth dough. Cover and keep aside.
Filing: Discard the stalks and grate cauliflower florets.
Heat the oil in a pan. When hot sizzle the carom seeds, add the chillies and ginger followed by cauliflower gratings, salt and garam masala. Saute for 1-2 mins till the moisture dries up a little. Remove and keep aside.
Rolling the paranthas: Take a small portion of the dough, make a pocket, put a small portion of the filling, gather and close the dough. Roll out the dough carefully and saute and toast with white oil. Serve hot with raita, pickles and any other gravy side dish.

Sending this Gobi Parantha to T&T-TongueTicklers, event started by Zlamushka and guest hosted by The Singing Chef

Aloo Paneer Masala

2009-11-30T16:46:00.009+05:30

A delicious and easy to prepare Aloo Paneer Masala / Curry recipe, perfect side dish to have with chapati, parantha and even with rice dishes.

Ingredients:

Paneer, cubed: 250 gms
Potatoes, cubed: 200 gms / 3-4 large potatoes
Tomatoes, roughly chopped: 2 small
Onions: 3 (grated)
Garlic paste: 1 tsp
Ginger paste: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 3 tsp
Cumin Powder: 1 tsp
Chilli powder: 1 tsp
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
White oil / mustard oil: 2 tbsp
Fresh cream: 1/4 cup (optional)
Coriander leaves, chopped (to garnish)

Method:

Boil water in a bowl and release the paneer cubes. Switch off gas and keep the bowl covered for 10 mins. Drain the paneer cubes and keep aside. (You can also lightly saute the paneer cubes if desired).
Heat oil in a kadhai, add sugar and saute the grated onions, add the ginger & garlic paste, mix well. Add the chopped tomatoes and combine with the masala.
Add the cubed potatoes, turmeric, cumin and jeera powder, salt and garam masala and mix well so that the masala coats the potatoes.
Add 1/2 cup water and cook covered till potatoes are tender.
Add the paneer cubes, mix carefully and adjust water to get a gravy of desired consistency and cook for 5 minutes.
Garnish with fresh cream, chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Sending this paneer dish to the following events, JFI-Paneer guest hosted by Cardamom; Radhika's and Sudeshna's Foods For 7 Stages Of Life-Kids Special and to Think Spice-Think Turmeric guest hosted by Sudeshna, event started by Sunita..

Chaaler Payesh (Rice Kheer)

2009-11-30T08:51:00.018+05:30

Chaaler Payesh (Rice Kheer) is one of the most typical authentic Bengali sweets / dessert preparation, loved and cherished by all Bengalis, specially prepared in auspicious occasions like birthdays, pujas and festive times. It always a treat for our birthdays, specially prepared by my mother.

The traditional way to prepare this kheer / payesh is to boil the milk on low heat for and then the rice is added. Boiling is continued till rice is tender. Sugar, raisins and cashew nuts are added to the milk & rice and cooked for some more time till the milk becomes slightly dense or as per your desired consistency. Cardamom powder is sprinkled. This can be served warm or chilled.

A special type of rice called "gobindo bhog rice" is used in this recipe. I prepared this dish with basmati rice in microwave.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 1/4 cup (50 gms)
Milk: 500 ml
Sugar: 100-125 gms
Black Cardamom Powder: 1/2 tsp
Dry Fruits: Raisins, Cashew Nuts, Almonds and Pistachios

Method:

Wash and soak the rice for 15-20 mins. Drain the water and keep aside.
In a deep microwave safe bowl, mix milk, rice and boil at 100% for 6-7 mins. (Stir after 3 mins).
Add sugar & cardamom powder and microwave at 60% power for 10-12 mins and again at 40% for 5 more mins. Allow to stand for 5 mins.
Garnish with chopped dry fruits of your choice. Serve warm or chilled.

Sending this delicious rice kheer to EC's WYF - Speciality Food event and MEC-Sweets N Savouries guest hosted by Paru of Brindavan, event started by Srivalli and Radhika's & Sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life: Kid's Special event.

Jeera Rice

2009-11-29T21:30:00.020+05:30

Jeera Rice (Cumin flavored rice), is a simple and tasty variation on plain boiled rice made with cumin seeds. Jeera rice can be prepared in 2 ways, one by total absorption of water by the rice and other by draining the water from the rice, where the starch is discarded.

Generally cumin seeds are lightly sauted in ghee / white oil and then the soaked basmati rice is cooked with sufficient water till soft or the parboiled rice is tossed with the sauted cumin seeds to bring out the flavour. Jeera rice is generally served with any veg or non-veg gravy / curry side dishes. This is recipe for Jeera Rice, made in a microwave.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 1 cup (200 gms)
Water: 1& 1/2 cups
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Cloves: 4
Cinnamon sticks: 2
Bay leaves: 2
Green cardamom: 2-3
Ghee: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves, chopped: 2 bunch (optional)

Method:

Wash and soak the rice for 30 mins. Drain and keep aside.
In a microwave safe bowl, add the ghee, bay leaves, cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks & green cardamom and microwave for 1 min.
Add the soaked rice, water and salt, mix well and boil covered at 100% power for 9-10mins and then at 60% power for 6-8 mins. (Stir in between every 5 mins). Allow to stand, covered for 5 mins.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves are serve hot with any side dish of your choice along with raita and green salad.

I am sending this rice dish to Srilekha's EFM-Variety Rice event...

I am also sending some rice recipes from my archives, Paneer Peas Pulao, Jeera Peas Rice, Kiribath and Mishti Bhaat

Paneer Peas Pulao

2009-11-10T17:10:00.020+05:30

Paneer Peas Pulao is a delicious North Indian dish. Though pulao is generally cooked by boiling rice in a handi / big bowl, I prepared this pulao in a pressure cooker. The raisins and cashew nuts added to the pulao, bring out the authentic taste in this Paneer (cottage cheese) Peas Pulao.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice: 2 cups (200 gms)
Paneer (cottage cheese), cubed: 150 gms
Peas, shelled: 1 cup (100 gms)
Cashew nuts, halved: 50 gms
Raisins: 50 gms
Bay leaf: 2
Cinnamon stick: 1"
Cloves: 4-5
Green Cardamoms: 2-3
Vegetable oil: 3-4 tbsp
Sugar: 2 tsp (optional)
Salt to taste
Water: 3&1/2 cups

Procedure:

Wash rice thoroughly, let it soak in a bowl for 30 mins, drain and keep aside.
Boil water in a bowl, put the paneer cubes, simmer and soak for 2-3 mins. Drain and keep aside.
Heat oil in a frying pan, release the cashew nuts and saute till light golden. Remove and set aside. Similarly lightly saute the raisins, drain oil and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add whole spices. Stir and saute for 1-2 mins. Add rice, peas, paneer cubes and half the portion of fried cashew nuts & raisins. Lightly saute until all the ingredients are well coated with oil.
Add water, sugar and salt. Stir a little, cover the cooker with the lid and bring the water to a boil. When the water starts boiling (steam comes out of the nozzle), put the whistle cap on the lid and cook till 2-3 whistles.
Let the cooker cool down, gently transfer the pulao to a serving dish. Garnish with rest of the fried cashew nuts & raisins. Serve hot.

Sending this pulao recipe to Sara's Say Cheese event...

I am also sending the following recipes to the event....

Paneer Parantha

Creamy Cheesy Pasta

and some of my favourites from the archives

Classic Cheese Pizza

Navratan Korma

Hariyali Paneer Tikka

Paneer Parantha

2009-11-02T09:49:00.027+05:30

Paneer (Cottage Cheese) is the most common type of cheese available, popular in India and a rich source of protein. Generally paneer parantha is prepared by putting a stuffing of paneer & spices inside a dough, sometimes stuffing is placed in between two rolled out doughs, pressed together, again rolled out and cooked in oil. Here is the recipe for Paneer Parantha, prepared in a slighty different way...

Ingredients:

Paneer, grated: 1-1/2 cup
Wheat Flour (Atta): 2 cups
White Flour (Maida): 1 cup
Roasted Cumin (Jeera) seed powder: 2-3 tsp (to taste)
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
White oil, frying

Method:

Sieve Atta & Maida together, add salt and mix well. Take a little amount of the mixed flours, add the grated paneer and combine well. Add a little white oil.
Knead slowly, gradually add the rest of the flour to form a smooth dough (Add water if required, but do not add too much water, it may appear sticky at first, coat your hand in flour so that it's easy to knead). Make 10-12 equal balls.
Take a ball, carefully roll out to form a circle (Apply flour to your hand to prevent sticking).
Heat a non-stick frying pan, place the rolled dough and toast on both sides. Apply a little oil around the edges and turn on the other sise.
Flip again and cook on both sides till golden brown. Serve hot with raita / chutney.

Sending this delicious Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Paranthas to CFK - Wheat, hosted by Sireesha, event started by Sharmi and to Sara's Say Cheese event...

Creamy Cheesy Pasta

2009-10-31T23:06:00.014+05:30

My kid started having pasta after 1 and half years. I used to prepare my own pasta sauce, the kid loved penne pasta with white sauce. Here is the recipe for creamy cheesy pasta.

Ingredients:

Pasta: 200 gms / 2 cups (penne, fusille, spaghetti, fettucine)
Cheese (Mozzarella / Parmesan), grated: 1 cup
Milk: 1 cup (as required)
Garlic, finely chopped: 2-3 flakes
Butter: 1 tbsp
Olive oil / white oil: 1 tbsp
Oregano: 1 tsp (optional)
Salt to taste

Method:

To prepare White Sauce, blend ½ the cheese & milk together in a blender to form a creamy cheesy mixture. Keep aside.
Melt butter in a non-stick pan. Add chopped garlic and sauté for a minute.
Gradually add a flour (a little at a time), mix with the butter, stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed.
Slowly add milk & chesse mixture to the butter & flour mixture, while stirring continuously. Add a little pinch of oregano and mix well.
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta. Cook al dente (soft but not not too soggy) following the timing instructions on the package.
Drain the pasta, toss immediately with the cottage cheese mixture, and serve hot.

Sending this delightful and light pasta dish to Foods For Stages Of Life-Cooking For Infants & Toddlers event by Radhika & Sudeshna, EC's WYF-Light Meal and Sara's Say Cheese event...

Gulab Jamun - ICC (October Challenge)

2009-10-31T21:31:00.012+05:30

Gulab Jamun is a delectable sweet famous among Indian people, specially prepared during festive seasons like Deepawali and happy occasions. I have already posted a recipe on Gulab Jamun, you can catch it here.

Srivalli proposed 3 different ways of preparing gulab jamuns, she choosed from the yum blog, Indo and Alka's blog. I followed the recipe as stated in the Yum Blog, sending this tempting & delicious Indian sweet to Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of October.

Ingredients:

Khoya – 1&1/2 cups
Maida – 1 cup
Sugar – 3 cups (if you want excess syrup, increase by a cup)
Water – 1 cup (increase if you’re increasing sugar)
Cooking Soda – 3 pinches
Cardamom – 4 pods
Saffron leaves – a few
Oil – 1 cup (for deep frying)

Method

Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cardamom powder and saffron leaves and remove from fire.
Knead khoya, maida and soda and quickly shape into balls. (Apply a little ghee to have a smooth texture).
Heat oil on a medium flame. Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low to medium flame, keeping oil temperature uniform.
Drain the jamuns and soak in the warm sugar syrup. Serve the jamuns after half an hour

Akuri (Parsi Scrambled Eggs)

2009-10-29T16:56:00.029+05:30

I have prepared scrambled eggs before with various chopped vegetables (tomatoes, capsicums, boiled beans & carrots) and spices. While searching for more Parsi dishes, I came across Akuri, a spicy scrambled eggs recipe, a popular Parsi breakfast dish prepared with spices including cumin seeds, black pepper and chopped onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic. It is served with pav / double roti.

Ingredients:

Eggs: 6
Milk: 1/4 cup
Onions, finely chopped: 4 medium
Tomatoes, finely chopped: 2 medium
Capsicum, finely chopped: 1 medium
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Garlic cloves, finely chopped: 2
Ginger, finely chopped: 1/2"
Green chillies, finely chopped: 2
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves, finely chopped: 1-2 bunch
White oil: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder: 1/2 tsp

Method:

Beat eggs in a bowl, add salt and milk and whisk well.
Heat oil in a frying pan, add chopped onions, saute a little till onions becomes tender and light golden brown.
Add cumin seeds, chopped ginger & garlic, saute a little, add chopped tomatoes & coriander leaves and fry for 2-3 more mins.
Add the beaten eggs, mix well and stir continuously over medium heat till eggs are well cooked and resembles scrambled eggs.
Garnish with sliced capsicum rings, serve hot with buttered bread / rotis.

The dish is somewhat liquid in texture, I dried a bit and it tasted superb with roti. Altough the recipe didn't mention capsicum, I prepared with chopped capsicum. Sending this scrambled eggs to RCI-Parsi Cuisine, guest hosted by Meera of Enjoy Indian Food, event started by Lakshmi.

Masoor Daal (Red Lentil Soup)

2009-10-27T20:29:00.026+05:30

In the early stages of life, babies feed primarily on breast milk, which provides all the essential nutrients required by the infants; satisfies their appetite and also protects from susceptible dangers of several diseases. Once babies start growing, their nutritional requirements enhances so the diet has to be rich, providing complete nutrition.

It's important to watch out for iron deficiency after kids reaches 1 year of age as it can affect their physical, mental and behavioral development, sometimes leading to anemia. So once the baby turns a year old, you can gradually reduce the amount of milk (A one-year-old does not need more than half a litre of milk a day) and increase iron-rich foods / solids in your child's diet.

Milk should be given in the morning and afternoon only, and lunch and dinner should consist mainly of the household food, like mashed vegetables with a chappati / little rice and light lentil soup / daal.

Masoor dal is a type of lentil (part of the legume family). Lentils have a very high percentage of proteins, and also essential amino acids (isoleucine & lysine). Masoor daal is also an important source of nutrition as it contains high quantities of iron, adviced for pregnant ladies, adolescents or those who suffers from iron deficiency.

When the infants start to take rice, make a paste with light masoor daal for easy intake of food. Though Masoor Daal can be prepared in several ways using spices like garlic, cumin seed. I used Split Red Lentils and prepared this daal / soup in a very simple way, perfect for your infant and also to have with a sandwich at dinner time.

Ingredients:

Masoor dal (Red lentil): 1 cup
Onion, finely chopped: 1 small
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Mustard oil: 1 tsp
Water: 2 - 3 cups
Sugar: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash the Masoor Daal, drain well and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add the chopped onions and saute a little till light golden brown (do not fry too much or else they may turn blackish).
Add masoor daal, turmeric powder, water and salt, mix properly and bring to a boil.
As soon as the water starts boiling, put the lid and cook the daal until 2-3 whistles.
Check whether the cooked daal is complety soft or not (or else cook till 1-2 whsitles more).
Check the salt & sugar and water consistency when the pressure cooker cools, pour the Masoor Daal in a bowl and serve hot.

Sending this healthy and nutritous Masoor Daal / Red Lentil Soup to Radhika's & Sudeshna's Foods For Stages Of Life-Cooking for infants & Toddlers & to EC's WYF-Light Meal...

Parsi Pora (Parsi Omlette)

2009-10-27T14:06:00.010+05:30

Parsi Pora is a popular Parsi Omlette, prepared with lot of spices to give an authentic taste. It tastes best, served between two pieces of toasted & buttered bread (white / whole wheat) along with tomato / mango chutney.

Ingredients:

Eggs: 5-6
Onion, finely chopped: 3 medium
Tomatoes, finely chopped: 1 large
Green chilies, chopped: 2-3
Coriander leaves, finely chopped: 1 cup
Dhana jiru powder (fresh coriander seeds & cumin seeds ground to form powder): ½ tsp
Ginger & Garlic paste: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Black pepper, freshly grounded: 1/2 tsp
Red Chili powder: 1/2 tsp (to taste)
Turmeric (optional): 1/2 tsp
Ghee / white oil: 2 tbsp

Method:

In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs well to combine egg whites & yolks. Add the chopped ingredients, dhana jiru powder, ginger & garlic paste and salt and mix well.
Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add 1-2 drops of ghee / oil and coat on al sides. Pour a ladleful of the egg mixture in the centre. Carefully tilt and rotate the pan so that the egg mixture forms a perfect circle. Cover and let it cook for 2-3 mins.
As soon as the lower side is cooked and turns light brown, gently turn / flip the omlette and let it cook the other side.
Repeat with the remaining mixture. Serve with hot bread / toast.

Traditional parsi way to cook poras is to shallow fry one at a time in oil without folding to form a rich dark brown pora. Different types of Poras can be prepared by adding raw / ripe mangoes, boiled potatoes (cubed) with a little gram flour.

This is my second entry to RCI - Parsi Cuisine, hosted by Meera, event started by Lakshmi.

Khara Papeta

2009-10-27T10:12:00.022+05:30

The Zoroastrian Parsi community is a prosperous, peace and fun-loving community. Their cooking combines techniques and ingredients from across the globe, specially known for the unique blend of spices & flavours that makes the food very appetizing, nutritious and wholesome.

At present, Parsi cuisine or Parsi Bhonu (feast fit for a king) is a delicious blend of western and eastern influences. Parsi community in India adopted foods and recipe cooking processes, procedures and ingredients from the Persians, British, French, Germans, Portuguese, Irish, Italian including several others.

They settled in India, first at Sanjan, Udvada, Navsari and Surat in Gujarat and later spread to Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and other places and adopted the regional cooking techniques. Parsis are known to prefer non-vegetarian (Iranian cuisine) dishes like fish, meat and chicken. They also have a large selection of delectable vegetarian (Gujarati - Indian cuisine) recipes.

The basic feature of a Parsi lunch is rice, eaten with lentils / curry. Dinner would include a meat dish, often accompanied by potatoes / other vegetable curry. Onion-cucumber salad, known as Kachubar is a must for most meals in Parsi household.

Here is the recipe for Khara Papeta, a popular Parsi recipe, made of papeta (potatoes) and tomatoes.

Ingredients:

Potatoes, peeled and diced: 4-5 medium sized
Onions, finely sliced: 2 large (sliced)
Tomato, roughly chopped: 1 large (chopped)
Cumin seeds: ½ tsp
Garlic, finely chopped: 4 flakes
Ginger, finely chopped: 1” size
Green Chiili, finely chopped: 1-2 (as per taste)
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp (optional)
White Oil: 2-3 tbsp
Salt (to taste)
Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped: 2-3 bunches
Chopped coriander leaves & tomatoes and a little grated ginger, for garnishing

Method:

Heat oil and fry the onions until translucent / golden brown in colour.
Add cumin seeds, chopped ginger & garlic and saute for 1-2 minute.
Add potatoes and salt and saute for 2 minutes (I didn't use turmeric, if you want, you can use a pinch for a yellowish tinge).
Add a little water, lower flame and cook until potatoes are tender. Try to dry the water. (Basically this is a dry curry / sabji, but if you want a little gravy, adjust the water accordingly).
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from fire, garnish with chopped coriander leaves & tomatoes. Sprinkle some grated ginger on top and serve hot.

Sending this recipe to RCI - Parsi Cuisine, hosted by Meera, event started by Lakshmi.

Capsicum Rings

2009-10-27T08:55:00.007+05:30

Capsicum rings, a light and crunchy dish, perfect for a hot cup of tea / coffee. The mint leaves provide unique flavour to the dish.

Ingredients:

Capsicums, firm: 3 medium sized
Paneer (cottage cheese), grated / crumbled: 1 cup
Raw Potatoes (boiled, peeled and mashed): 1/2 cup
Mint (pudina), finely chopped: 4 tbsp
Green chillies, finely chopped: 1-2
Cornflour: 1-1/2 tbsp (as required)
Salt to taste
Cornflour (for coating capsicum rings)
Oil (for deep frying)

Method:

Wash the capsicums, cut the stems and deseed them. Cut the capsicums into medium sized thick rings and keep aside.
Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Hold one capsicum ring in between the palms, carefully stuff the mixture and press tightly.
Coat the capsicum ring with cornflour form all sides and deep fry in hot oil till they are golden brown. Repeat with the remaining capsicum pieces.
Serve hot sprinkled with the chaat masala.

Chire Bhaja (Fried Pressed Rice)

2009-10-26T09:15:00.010+05:30

Chire Bhaja (Fried Presse Rice / Avalakki) is a light snack, perfect for a rainy evening accompanied with a steaming cup of tea / coffee.
Chire (pressed rice) can be either dry roasted (to give a crispy taste) or fried in white oil to give a crunchier taste.

One thing to remember while frying, that you have to get the correct temperature, or else if the oil is too hot, the chire will get burnt (turn deep brown in colour) or it will be sort of soggy with oil (if the oil is not heated properly). As the chire / pressed rice tends to soak oil, always fry each batch with little oil.

The fried chire can be served as it is or you can add ingredients as per your choice to make a perfect crunchy and savoury dish like fried peanuts & papads, mixed with sliced onions, chopped green chillies.

Ingredients:

Chire (pressed rice): 100 gms
Peanuts: 2 tbsp
Plain / Masala Papad: 2-3
Onions, sliced: 2
Green chillies, chopped / whole: 2 (as per taste)
White oil: 3-4 tbsp (as required)
Mustard oil: 2-3 drops
Salt (to taste)
Black pepper, freshly ground (optional)
Bhujia / chanachur (to garnish)
Coconut slices (optional) (to garnish)

Method:

Heat white oil in a deep bottomed frying pan. Make sure that the oil is of right temperature (fry a little pressed rice to see whether it puffs up in the oil). Fry the remaining chire (add oil as required), drain quickly remove from fire. Keep aside.
Lightly fry / saute the peanuts and papads in a little oil and keep aside.
In a large bowl, combine fried pressed rice, peanuts and papads. Add sliced onions, chopped green chillies, bhujia, salt and a few drops of mustard oil (be careful, otherwise everything will be soaked in oil) and mix thoroughly.
Garnish with a some more bhujia and coconut slices and consume immediately to retain the crispiness.

Methi Aloo Parantha

2009-10-25T20:09:00.006+05:30

Fenugreek is used both as a herb (leaves) and spice (seeds). The plant is mainly consumed and cooked as a vegetable, “Methi Saag”. Fenugreek leaves and seeds are rich in minerals like potassium, calcium and iron. The leaves have ample amount of vitamins, specially Vitamin C and Vitamin K.

Fenugreek leaves add flavor to the cooking and it can be added to a variety of coking like dal, vegetable, rice or wheat flour (atta). Here I prepared this parantha as more of a chapati / roti and toasted with a little oil, so it's healthy as less oil is consumed.

Ingredients

For dough:

wheat flour (atta): 1 cup
salt: ½ tsp
oil: 1 tsp
water (as required)

Stuffing:

Fenugreek (Methi saag) leaves, finely chopped: 1 cup
Potatoes (Aloo), boiled & mashed: 1 cup
Cumin seeds: ½ tsp
Ginger paste: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
White oil: 1-1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:

For the dough:

Combine the ingredients, knead into a soft dough with enough water. Cover and keep aside.

For the stuffing:

Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the fenugreek leaves and saute for 2-3 mins.
Add the ginger paste, spices and salt and mix well.
Add the potatoes and saute for another 2-3 mins. Cool completely and keep aside.

For rolling paranthas:

Divide the dough and the stuffing into equal portions (5-6).
Roll out one portion of the dough into a circle. Place one portion of the methi stuffing in the centre of the rolled out circle.
Gather together all the sides in the centre and seal tightly.
Roll out again into a circle (use wheat flour to prevent sticking).
Place the rolled dough on a non-stick hot tawa / griddle, lower heat and slowly cook till brown spots appear on the sides.
Use a little oil on the sides, flip the parantha to coat evenly and fry till golden brown.
Repeat with the remaining dough and stuffing and serve hot.

As I prepared the parantha with whole wheat flour and coriander powder, sending this delicious and nutritious recipe to CFK - Wheat, hosted by Sireesha of Kidz Delight and Think Spice-Think Coriander seeds guest hosted by Priya, event started by Sunita.

Tangy Rajma Curry

2009-10-21T14:53:00.004+05:30

Rajma curry is a typical North Indian recipe, usually served with rice as it's famously known as "Rajma Chawal" It can also be served with Paranthas / Chapatis. While cooking rajma one day, I happened to see that the tomato was not available in sufficient amount, so I added a little tomato sauce to give a tangy flavour to the dish. I also do not use turmeric and I like the reddish colour of the dish. So now, I substitute the requisite amount of tomato with half the amount of tomato and the other other half by adding tomato sauce. Here is the recipe for Tangy Rajma Curry.

Ingredients:

Red kidney beans: 2 cups (soaked overnight, preferably 12 hours)
Baking soda: ½ tsp
Bay Leaf: 1
Cumin powder: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp (to taste)
Garam Masala powder: 1/2 tsp
Oil: 2 tbsp
Water (as per gravy)
Tomato sauce: 1 - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Chopped tomato, coriander leaves, onion rings (for garnishing)

Ingredients to grind:

Onion, medium sized, chopped: 2
Tomato, medium sized chopped: 1
Ginger, crushed: 1 tsp
Garlic, crushed: 1 tsp
Cinnamon: a small stick
Green cardamoms: 2
Cloves: 2

Method:

Soak the rajma for overnight, drain and keep aside. Add enough water in a pressure cooker, add a little salt and baking soda and pressure-cook the soaked rajma.
Cook it on high heat level, lower to sim after 2-3 whistles and further cook for 15 mins or until the rajma is soft and tender.
Grind the above mentioned ingredients in a mixie to form a paste (do not grind too much, keep a little coarse). Keep aside.
Heat oil in a kadhai / frying pan. Add bay leaf and the onion-ginger & garlic paste. Saute till oil separates from the sides of the kadhai.
Add the soaked rajma and mix thoroughly with the paste.
Add the remaining dry spices and mix well. Check the salt (be careful in adding salt, as the rajma is already pressure cooked using salt).
If you want more gravy, add water as per your requirement. Add the tomato sauce, mix well. Finally add garam masala, mix well and remove from fire.
You can either keep the dish a litle dry or make gravy as per your liking (only check the amount of tomato sauce you are adding or else the whole dish will be too tangy).
Garnish the rajma curry with finely chopped tomatoes and onion rings. Serve hot with rice, parantha / naan.

Sending this Rajma dish to JFI - Rajma, hosted by Divya Vikram, started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Murukku - ICC September

2009-09-30T23:56:00.003+05:30

Murukku is an all time favourite crunchy snack for every Indians. It can be prepared in various ways and it is generally prepared on special festive occasions. Srivalli stated the Murukku recipe using rice flour and roasted urad dal flour.......

Jantikalu or Murukku

Preparation Time : 20 - 30 mins
Cooking Time : 20 - 30 mins
Makes : app 250 kg of Muruku
Cuisine: Andhra & Tamil Nadu

Utensils needed:
Muruku /Chakli Press
Kadai

Ingredients Needed:

Raw Rice - 4 cups
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Water - app 1/2 cup or more

For Seasoning

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Asafetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 75 gms

Method to prepare:

Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr. Dry roast the Urad dal to light brown. Allow it to cool (If you are using more quantity, you can get it ground in rice mil, else use your mixie to grind both Rice and Urad dal).
First grind rice into a fine flour, keep it aside. then grind the urad dal to fine powder.
In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.
Whether you use Asafetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.
Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter. Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture. Now slowly add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.
Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.
Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls. Fill the Muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flames or press over a paper and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.
Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour. You will know by seeing the colour that its cooked.
Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

I pressed the dough over a paper and then released the murukkus in the oil.

Thanks to Srivalli for choosing this savoury snacks as the ICC Challenge for September......I prepared exactly as she stated and got the perfect crunchy Murukku....

Durga Pujo Celebrations

2009-09-26T19:21:00.022+05:30

Durga Puja also referred to as “Durgotsab”, is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates worship of Hindu Goddess Durga.

Durga Puja is widely celebrated in the eastern part of India, specially in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura. Apart from Eastern part of India, Durga Puja is also celebrated in Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala. Durga Puja is also celebrated as a major festival in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Goddess Durga is the widely worshiped deity of Sakti including various forms corresponding to her two aspects benevolence and fierceness. She is the personification of tender love, wealth, power, beauty and all virtues. She is also known as Parvati, Uma, Gauri, Ambika, Jagatmata, Bhairavi, Chandi and Kali in different avatars.

During Durga Puja, God in the form of the Divine Mother is worshiped in Her various forms as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati together. Though the Goddess is one, She is represented and worshiped in three different aspects.

On the first three nights of the festival, Durga is worshiped. Lakshmi is worshiped on the following three nights and then Saraswati is worshiped on the last three nights. The following tenth day is called Vijaya Dashami.

The complete image of Goddess Durga represent destruction of evil and protection of good. Goddess Durga arrives in all her finery astride a lion, with her 4 children, Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth), Saraswati (Goddess of knowledge), Kartikeya (God of beauty as well as warfare) and Ganesha (Siddhidata / the starter of everything in good sense).

She is usually depicted as having ten arms, 8 arms carrying a separate weapon in them (Sword, Conch, Discus, Rosary, Bell, Winecup, Shielf, Bow, Arrow, and Spear) and the rest two holds the spear which has been struck into the chest of the demon, Mahishasura.

The dates of Durga Puja celebrations are set according to traditional Hindu calendar and the fortnight corresponding the festival is called Debi Pokkho. Durga Puja spans over a period of 10 days starting from Mahalaya till Bijoya Dashami.

Mahalaya ushers in the aura of Durga Puja and heralds the advent of Devi Durga, the goddess of supreme power. The midnight chants of various hymns of 'Mahishasura Mardini' reminds one of the beginning of Durga Puja. Thousands offer prayers to their ancestors at the city's river banks, a ritual called Tarpan. The inauguration of the deity Goddess idol starts on Mahashasthi. The main puja is for three days - Mahasaptami, Mahaastami, Mahanavami.

Maha Shasthi
On this day Goddess Durga arrives from her heavenly abode, accompanied by her children. She is welcomed amidst the beats of dhak. The main ritual is unveiling the face of the idol. Kalaparambho, the ritual performed before the commencement of the puja precedes Bodhon, Amontron and Adibas.

Maha Saptami
Saptami is the first day of Durga puja. Kola Bou (Nabapatrika) is given a pre-dawn bath. This is an ancient ritual of worshiping nine types of plants. They are together worshiped as a symbol of the goddess. The main Saptami Puja follows Kalparambho and Mahasnan.

Maha Ashtami
The day began with a recital of Sanskrit hymns. Thousands of devotees offer anjali to the goddess. Kumari Puja (worship of little girls) as the Mother Goddess is a special part of the rituals observed in several traditional pujas. Sandhi Puja is an important aspect, which links Maha Ashtami and Maha Navami.

Maha Navami
The concluding day of Durga Puja. The main Navami puja begins after the end of Sandhi Puja. The Navami Bhog is offered to the Goddess, which is later taken as the prasad by the devotees.

Vijaya Dashami
Dashami (the last day), a tearful farewell is offered to the Goddess. Most of the community pujas postpone the farewell as long as possible and arrange a grand send-off. The images are carried in processions around the locality and finally is immersed in a nearby river or lake. Vijaya Dashami is an event celebrated all over the country.

Different Forms of Durga

Durga Shailputri (Daughter of Mountain): She is Parvati – Hemvati, daughter of Himalaya and first among nine Durgas. In previous birth she was Sati - Bhavani, the daughter of Daksha and the wife of Lord Shiva.

Brahmacharini: The second Durga Shakti is Brahamcharini / Uma. Brahma (One who observes penance). The idol of this Goddess is very gorgeous. There is rosary in her right hand and Kamandal in left hand.

Chandraghanta: The name of third Shakti is Chandraghanta. There is a half-circular moon in her forehead. She is golden coloured goddess, charmful and bright, astride on a lion. She has three eyes and ten hands holding ten types of weapons.

Kushmanda: The name of fourth Durga is Kushmanda. She has eight hands and rides a lion. Seven types of weapons are shining in her seven hands and she helds Rosary in her right hand. She resides in solar systems, shines brightly in all the ten directions like Sun.

Skanda Mata: Fifth name of Durga is "Skanda Mata". The daughter of Himalaya, after observing penance got married with Shiva. She had a son named Skanda (Leader of the army of Gods). Skanda Mata is a deity of fire, she has three eyes & four hands and is seated on a lotus.

Katyayani: Sixth Durga is Katyayani. Rishi Katyayan had observed penance with a desire to get paramba as his daughter. As a result she took birth as a daughter of Katyayan. Therefore her name is "Katyayani". She has three eyes & eight hands and is seated on a lion.

Kalratri: Seventh Durga is Kalratri. She is black like night. She has three eyes and she rides on Shava (dead body). There is sharp sword in her right hand. Her lower hand is in blessing mood. The burning torch (mashal) is in her left hand and her lower left hand is in fearless style, by which she makes her devotees fearless. Being auspicious she is called "Shubhamkari."

Maha Gauri: The Eighth Durga is "Maha Gauri." She is as white as a conch, moon and Jasmine. She is of 8 years old. Her clothes and ornaments are white and clean. She has three eyes. She rides on bull She has four hands. The above left hand is in "Fearless - Mudra" and lower left hand holds "Trishul." The above right hand has tambourine and lower right hand is in blessing style. She is calm and peaceful and exists in peaceful style.

Siddhidatri: Ninth Durga is known as Siddhidatri. There are eight Siddhis, they are - Anima, Mahima, Garima, Laghima, Prapti, Prakamya, Iishitva & Vashitva. Maha Shakti gives all these Siddhis. The Goddess drives on Lion. She has four hands and looks pleased.

Rui Machher Kalia (Rohu Fish Curry)

2009-08-31T23:27:00.011+05:30

An all time favourite recipe for fish loving Bengalis...It is prepared with onion paste, sometimes yogurt is also added. Here is the recipe for typical Bengali Rui (Pona) Machher Kalia (Rui Fish Curry).....

Ingredients:

rohu fish: 250-300 gms / 6-8 pieces
bay leaves: 2
ginger paste: 1 tsp
garlic paste: 1 tsp
onion paste: 2 tbsp
tomato: 1 (finely chopped)
green chilli: 1-2 pieces (slit)
salt to taste
turmeric: 1-2 tsp
garam masala: 1/2 tsp
mustard oil for cooking
sugar: 1 tsp
water: as required for gravy

Procedure:

Wash the fish pieces, apply salt and turmeric and coat well. Heat oil in non stick kadai and shallow fry the fish. Keep aside the fried fish pieces.
Heat oil (add a little more oil, if required) again and add sugar. Reduce flame when the sugar starts to caramelize, add the bay leaves, green chilli.
Add the onion paste, saute a little, add the ginger and garlic paste, mix well and saute a little more. Add chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder and salt and mix all the spices.
Add a little water, after the oil comes out from the masala. Add the fried fish pieces into the curry / gravy, let it come to a boil. Check the sugar and salt and adjust accordingly.
Reduce the flame, simmer for 2-3 mins and remove from fire.
Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Sending this to Spotlight:Fish event conducted by Indrani of Appyayan

Also sending these 2 recipes from my Archives.....

Bengali Fish Curry (Microwave)

Sorse Rui

Microwave Chicken Soup

2009-08-31T22:37:00.013+05:30

A nutritious and filling Chicken Soup prepared in microwave.....a perfect dish to savour on a cold day...

Ingredients:

chopped chicken: 1/2 cup
water: 3 cups
cornflour: 1 tbsp (mixed with 1/2 cup cold water)
butter: 1 tbsp
milk: 1/2 cup
garam masala: 1/4 tsp
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
cream: 1 tbsp (whipped / beaten)

Procedure:

Place butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 100% power for 30 secs.
Add chicken pieces, water, salt & garam masala and microwave at 80% power for 4-5 mins. Allow to stand in the oven for 5 mins.
Take out the bowl, remove the the chicken pieces from the stock and shred to small pieces.
Add the shredded chicken pieces, milk, cornflour mixture to the stock and microwave at 100% power for 3-4 mins. Allow to stand for 5 more mins.
Remove from oven and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with cream and freshly ground black pepper and serve hot.

Sending this soup to MEC-Potluck Party, hosted by Sri of Cooking 4 all Seasons.

Ganesh Chathurthi Specials - ICC August Challenge

2009-08-31T17:53:00.018+05:30

Ganesh Chathurthi special dishes (Festive Cooking) from various regions across India were finalized as Indian Cooking Challenge for the month of August' 2009.

Each member was supposed to try out apart from dishes famous in their homestate atleast one more from another state.

Well! all the recipes were new to me and I tried the following recipes...

Panchakhadya (from Maharashtra)
Boorelu (Sweet filling dipped in savory batter from Andhra)
Kudaalu (from Andhra)

Panchakhadya

Ingredients:

Grated Dry Coconut / Copra - 1 cup
Sugar - 4-5 tbsp powdered
Poppy seeds - 2 tbsp
Dried Dates - 4-5
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tbsp
Mixed Nuts (almonds,cashews, pistachios) - 4-5 tbsp coarsely powdered
pinch of nutmeg powder (optional)

Method to prepare :

Heat a thick bottom pan/ Kadai and dry roast the grated coconut on low flame till it starts turning golden. This takes about 4 -5 mins, once done set it aside.
Dry roast poppy seeds and grind them coarsely after cooling them for 5 minutes.
Pit the dried dates and grind them coarsely as well.
Mix all these ingredients including nuts powder, cardamom, nutmeg, powdered sugar together and offer Panchakhadya to Ganesha as prasad.

Boorelu:

Ingredients

For the outer layer: Black gram dal/ Urad dal - 50 gms

For the Filling:

bengal gram / channa dal - 1 cup
grated Jaggery - 1 cup
fresh grated coconut - 1/4 cup (opt)
cardamom powder - 3/4 tsp
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method to prepare:

Wash and soak Urad dal for 4-5 hrs. Place in a big vessel as it will expand after soaking.
Then drain water from the Urad dal and grind to fine paste adding very little water. Infact just about a teaspoon of water should be enough. The batter is almost like the thick dosa batter before you make dosas. Add salt and leave it aside covered.
For the filling, pressure cook the channa dal with just enough water to cover it. Even if excess water is there, you can always use the water for chaaru. But less water is better.
Cook the jaggary to remove any scum. Then once the dal is well cooked, drain and cook it along with the jaggary. It should become very soft enough for you to mash well.
You can either grind it to a smooth paste or mash it with the lentil masher. If you find the purnam is very loose, you can cook this in sim to get a thick paste.
Add Cardamom powder and grated coconut. You will know its done when the dal starts to leave the sides. Remove and cool. Divide them into equal balls.
Heat a thick bottom kadai for frying. Once the oil is hot, turn to sim. Then dip each ball in the Urad dal batter. ensure its coated on all sides.
Then gently drop them into the hot oil. Turn and cook on all sides. Once couple of batches are done, strain the oil to remove the scum. It hardly takes more than 2-3 mins to get cooked. Drain them on to a kitchen towel.

Kudaalu:

Ingredients:

For filling: Same as Booleru
For outer layer, use a stiff dough made with maida as you make for puri.

Method to prepare:

Knead a stiff dough using maida, salt and water. Divide into small balls of equal size.
Roll them out and place the sweet filling in middle and cover as shown in the Kajjikayalu.
Deep fry in oil. Drain and store.

Sending these entries to Srivalli's ICC

Some more copied works at Samayal Blog

2009-08-20T17:17:00.015+05:30

Some people just don't learn from their mistakes....

Well Sarmila of Samayal Blog copied my Eggs in Milk recipe and wrote as Egg curry with Milk.
After my notification, she changed the recipe with a new one, which I stated in my earlier post.

Still not satisfied, I happened to browse further and came across this site, Indian Cooking by Sagari. She wrote about Egg Korma with coconut milk and to my surprise the new recipe at Samayal Blog is none other than the recipe of Sagari (I found out her copied work through spelling mistake of turmeric). I have notified Sagari also on this....

You can find Sagari's recipe out here:
1) Egg Korma with coconut milk
2) Same recipe at Sify by Sagari, Egg Korma

And moreover, lots of other recipes are copied from various food sites as mentioned below:

Fabulous Fruit Salad
Fabulous Fruit Salad at Samayal Blog, copied from here Summer Fruit Salad
Dal Biryani
Dal Biryani at Samayal Blog, copied from Hungryzone (she even attached the same picture)...
Fried Banana
Fried Banana at Samayal Blog copied from Bonbini
Finger Fish
Finger Fish at Samayal Blog, copied from Indiaexpress
Easy Mushroom Gravy
Easy Mushroom Gravy at Samaya Blog, copied from Mushroom Masala Curry

It seems all her articles and posts are copied from some blogs or sites with no credits for the original writer.

My request, pl check the site and see if any of your recipes are copied there.

Caught in the Act

2009-08-20T11:58:00.043+05:30

Well folks, I didn't think my post on plagiarism will have such a quick effort on Sarmila, the writer of Samayal Blog.

Just now, she changed the whole recipe of Egg Curry with Milk, my word-word copied version of Eggs in Milk, replaced milk with coconut milk (how convenient and so very original!!!!).

But maybe she do not know that the name of the post is still the same "http://www.samayalblog.com/index.php/egg/egg-curry-with-milk", coz even if you edit / modify your post & post title, the original post title (code) remains the same.

I notified the writer by posting a comment on the original post, she smartly deleted my comment and modified my recipe as stated below:

Ingredients:

100 gms / 4 eggs
2 cups water (to boil eggs)
1 cup / 250 ml milk
4 tbsp onion paste (2-3 large onions, made into a paste)
2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsp garlic paste
1 green chilli
2 tbsp white oil
1 ½ tsp salt (to taste)
1 bunch fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

Method:

Add water and pressure-cook the eggs till 3 whistles. Drain water and de-shell the boiled eggs. Make 4 small slits with a knife on the outer edge of the eggs. Keep aside.
Chop the onions, put in a blender with a green chilli. Add 1 tbsp of water and blend to form a smooth paste.
Heat oil in non-stick deep bottomed pan / kadhai. Reduce flame and add the onion – chilli paste. Saute a little (make sure that the paste do not turn brown).
Add the ginger & garlic paste and stir well.
Gradually add the milk and keep stirring continuously. Add salt to taste and mix well.
Release the eggs in the gravy. Increase the flame and let the gravy thicken a bit. (You can add ½ cup water, if required).
Remove from flame and transfer the eggs in the serving bowl. Pour the gravy on top.
Garnish with the chopped fresh coriander leaves. Serve with stuffed paranthas & green salads

with the following:

Ingredients:

eggs (boiled)
2 cloves
2 cinnamon
2 cardamom
1 cup chopped bell peppers
1 onion sliced
1 tbs ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmuric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
2 cups coconut milk
salt
4 to 5 green chillis (slit)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 tbs oil

Method:

Heat oil in a pan add cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves
Add sliced onion, sprinkle salt and sautee until golden in colour
Now add slit green chillis, cilantro and ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 min.
Add chopped bell peppers, coriander powder, garam masala, turmuric powder, mix everything and add boiled eggs.
Add coconut milk and simmer for 10 min
Adjust salt
Ready to serve

The recipe name only suggested that the dish is to be white in colour, Eggs is Milk (or as Sarmila called it Egg Curry with Milk).

Suddenly the whole recipe is changed to something else altogether.....and the new ingredients are just not justifying the name.....adding coconut milk, turmeric, coriander powder etc. .....

Hey all!! Pl check if this new recipe matches with some of your recipes or not.

Plagiarism - Be Aware!!!

2009-08-20T10:59:00.021+05:30

Friends, these days I am not getting enough time for blogging but always following the nice recipes of you fellow bloggers.

Just the other day, while checking Sanghi's blog, Sanghi's Food Delights!, I came across a note on Plagiarism and her writing on one person hosting a food blog named 'Samayal Blog'.

Her Classic Chicken photo was copied and put as Bachelor chicken and the writer Sarmila has even sent it to an event First Cooked Food Event, hosted by Shama.

As a victim of plagiarism, we all have every right to let others know that our posts (recipes) were stolen and reproduced as someone's own work! These days, I think everyone knows how much time and effort goes into writing a post. I always thought, whren I started blogging, if this were to happen to me, I’d be upset, hurt and didn't have any idea of what to do.

Well just out of curiosity, I happened to browse through the other posts of this Samayal Blog, and came across this post on Eggs, a post called "Egg Curry with Milk"on 30th June, I am shocked to see that it is an exact copy of my post on "Eggs in Milk", a unique dish which I learnt from my mother-in-law.

She has left out my introduction to the dish, but has copied the ingredients measurements and procedure word to word to the last details.

I have put a word to the person, let's see if it's removed.

I do feel for Sanghi...and would suggest all my fellow bloggers, to check this site, Samayal Blog, and notify the person, if any of your recipes / photos are copied there....

This Eggs in Milk recipe is after my heart, as it was one of my chosen recipes for School Meals, a programme of The World Food Programme (WFP), which I sent to Bloggeraid.

So let's join in fighting plagiarism and put a stop to this never ending theft of our posts...

Classic Cheese Pizza and my first set of Awards

2009-08-08T07:44:00.021+05:30

The great thing about pizzas are that you can add whatever you want to them and they still taste good (in the course, you invent unique pizza of your own). All you have to do is to prepare the dough correctly. My son likes to have pizza with lots of cheese as toppings. So here is the recipe for classic cheese pizza.

Pizza Dough

warm water (110-120 degrees F): 1 1/4 cups
active dry yeast: 1 packet
sugar: 1 ¼ tbsp
flour (sifted) 3 ¼ cups
salt: ½ tsp
olive oil / butter flavoured oil: 2 tbsp

Toppings:

Tomato sauce: 4-6 tbsp
Mozzarella cheese (shredded / grated): 6 tbsp
Parmesan cheese (grated): 1 tbsp
Olive oil: 2 tbsp
Dried Oregano seasoning (crumbled) (to taste)
Freshly crushed black pepper (to taste)
Red chili flakes (to taste)

Procedure:

To make the dough:

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Allow to sit for 8-10 minutes (builds a good froth, so make sure this is in a 2 cup or larger container, glass is best as it holds the heat nicely).
In a bowl, mix the sifted flour and salt. Slowly add the yeast water with a olive oil / butter flavoured oil.
Mix thoroughly (add flour / olive oil if required) and knead thoroughly for about 6-8 minutes to make a smooth, springy dough (Remember that the dough should be slightly sticky to the firm touch).
Remove dough from bowl and place in an airtight bag. Do not seal bag, but leave open in a nearly closed drape (enough to allow gasses from yeast to escape). Set in a warm place for at lest for 1 hour & 15-20 minutes. (This is very crucial & essential otherwise the dough will not rise properly and will result in a tough, unpleasant dough).

Rolling out the dough:

Take the dough on to a flat surface, dust it with little flour, roll it flat (size measurement: you can rollout to cover a 14 inch pan for thicker crust / 16 inch pan for thinner crust).
Permeate crust with fork over the entire dough base (sp that the pizza crust do not bubble).
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise an additional 15-20 minutes. Repeat permeation with fork only slightly.

Toppings & baking:

Grease a baking sheet and lay the rolled dough.
Pour tomato sauce on the pizza base and spread it evenly with the back of a spoon.
Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan. cheese. Very carefully rribble olive oil over the pizza and bake it on the lowest shelf or the floor of the oven.
Cook pizza at 475 for 5 mins. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F after 5 minutes and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the crust is golden brown (lightly browned) and the cheese is bubbling.

Serve:

Sprinkle oregano and some freshly crushed black pepper / red chili flakes (as per taste).
Serve hot and enjoy!!!

Hey all!!! Sunanda of Sunanda’s Kitchen, passed me these 3 lovely awards: “One Lovely Blog Award”, “Kreativ Blogger Award”, “I love your Blog Award” and a tag.

I am overwhelmed and excited to recieve these awards as they are my very first set of awards in this blogging world.

Thank you very much, Sunanda for the awards. I would also like to thank all the great foodies, dear friends and my readers for encouraging me to pursue my passion for cooking and sharing recipes despite having a tight job schedule.

Some basic information about me:

1. What is your current obsession?
Technical writing and blogging (ofcourse)
2. What are you wearing today?
Something comfortable
3. What’s for dinner?
My homemade biryani and cucumber & mint raita
4. What’s the last thing you bought?
Birthday Celebration Gifts (busy these days planning for my son’s b’day)
5. What are you listening to right now?
Latest hindi movie dance tracks
6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Wonderful person…
7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
Paris
8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
Cotton wear, sun shades and deos.
9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Paris
10. Which language do you want to learn?
French
11. Who do you want to meet right now?
My best friend
12. What is your favourite colour?
Maroon
13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?
Jeans and top
14. What is your dream job?
Love to be an entrepreneur; own company on customer service; publishing cookery books
15. What’s your favourite magazine?
Nothing special, anything that catches my fancy.
16. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
DSLR camera with full set of lenses
17. What is your favourite pastime?
Reading a mushy romantic novel
18. Who are your style icons?
Greta Garbo
19. Describe your personal style?
Depends on the occasion: Elegant & Classic / simple and gorgeous
20. What are you going to do after this?
Lot of things to do….
21. What are your favourite movies?
It’s a long list, from old English classics to action & thrills, cartoons, romance etc…
22. What inspires you?
Client compliments and appreciation from near & dear ones.
23. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:
Simple, confident and present myself as I am…
24. Coffee or tea?
Cuppuccino (specially the lip smacking ones with whipped cream / dollops of ice-cream on top)
25. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
Listen to music / read books
26. Which month is your birthday?
July
27. Which other blogs you love visiting?
All good food and recipe blogs, the list is too long……..
28. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
Frozen desserts
29. Favorite Season?
Spring
30.One thing you love about yourself
My loving and caring nature (my friends tell me so)
31 What is your favourite line?
You have only one life; enjoy it to the fullest…
32. What is the meaning of your name?
Malini is a female gardener (specially tending to flower gardening)

The rules are:
Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people.

I am glad to share these awards along with the tag with following blogger friends…

Congratulations to all…

Khaman Dhokla (Indian Cooking Challenge)

2009-07-31T15:44:00.037+05:30

Dhokla is a popular & delicious Gujrati delicacy, known for its irresistible taste and flavour. Generally prepared from chickpea flour / besan, which is soaked and fermented. The fermented batter is then steamed, cut into pieces, tempered with mustard seeds, coconut and curry leaves and garnished with fresh coriander leaves. I used a little bit of plain bhujiya for that crunchy effect.

Previously used to try the instant dhokla mix and steamed in pressure cooker, as I never quite had the fool-proof recipe. I have blogged regarding Besan Dhokla in microwave. So again tried the authentic Gujarati recipe as stated in Indian Cooking Challenge, hosted by Srivalli.

It's really easy, once you keep ready all the ingredients and follow the steps as stated to have that fluffy, spongy Khaman Dhokla, a perfect snack served with green chutney (recipe stated below) to relish with tea / coffee.

Ingredients: (Makes 20 medium sized pieces)

For batter:

Bengal Gram flour / Besan: 250 gms (1 & 1/2 cup)
Curd / Dahi: 1/2 cup (not very sour)
Water: 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda: 1/2 tsp

For seasoning to be mixed to the batter (to be added just before cooking):

Oil: 1 tbsp
Turmeric a pinch
Green Chili paste: 1 - 2 long chilli (as per taste)
Sugar: 1 tsp
Citric acid: 1/4 tsp
Eno: 1 packet (green colour fruit lime) + sprinkle or dust few bits on the plate

For tempering:

Sesame seeds
Mustard Seeds
Curry leaves
Grated coconut
Coriander leaves, chopped
Little water + Oil to be topped on dhoklas

Procedure:

Take a bowl, mix 1/2 cup curd with 1/2 part water. Add besan and mix well to get a lump less batter (the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency).
Slowly add more water if needed else, add the soda. Keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.
If you are using a pressure cooker, fill the pan with water, place a plate / bowl, which you will have to use for steaming the dhoklas. Thali plate can be used for steaming.
To the batter, mix the citric acid, oil, salt, sugar, green chili paste and turmeric powder. Mix well. This has to be done just before pouring to the plate / bowl.
Meanwhile have the cooker on stove, and let the water start boiling. When the water reaches the rolling stage, you can mix the eno to the batter (Save little of eno for dusting on the plate), mix gently, you will see bubbles coming out.
Dust or sprinkle the plate with eno. Then immediately pour the batter to the plate / bowl. Place the plate carefully inside the pressure cooker and cover with lid. You need not use the whistle.
After covering you will find steam coming out of the outlet, simmer and don't disturb for almost 5 -7 minutes.
After 5 -7 minutes, remove the lid and check it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and do not have any batter sticking, then its done.
Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it for 5 minutes.
In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil. Remove the plate / bowl from the pressure cooker, pour the water & oil mix over the top of the steamed dhokla.
For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla.

Ingredients for green chutney:

Green chili: 4 - 5
Coconut: 4 - 5 pieces
Coriander leaves- a bunch
few mint leaves
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Lime: 1 big
Salt to taste

Method: Take all the ingredients except coriander in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste. Then add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

Notes to remember:

The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. After adding eno the batter should not rest. Amount of sugar can be increased on preference
If you want perfect shaped ones and not the crumbling, cut and handle gently.
Dhokla can also be steamed in kadai filled with water and a plated titled over it.
Citric Acid can be replaced with lime juice.
You may used soda bi carb instead of Eno.

Rava Laddoo for the Indian Cooking Challenge

2009-06-30T08:51:00.020+05:30

Rava Laddoo (Suji Ladoo) is a tempting sweet in Indian cuisine and this one is going to the monthly event (challenge for the month of June) called Indian Cooking Challenge, hosted by Srivalli...She has already provided with the recipe...just wanted to mention that, I used the specified volumes, black cardamom powder and broken cashews (in place of whole cashewnuts)....

Ingredients: (Makes 10 laddoos of normal size)

Rava / Semolina / Suji - 1 cup (150 gms)
Sugar - 1 cup (125 gms)
Ghee - 25 gms
Milk - 25 ml
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashew nuts - 10 whole nuts
Raisins - 10 nos
Grated fresh coconut - 25 gms

Method to prepare:

Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a kadai. Once the ghee is hot enough, simmer the flame and roast cashew nuts and raisins.
Once the raisins balloon up, remove.
Then roast the grated coconut. Remove once done. Keep all these aside.
Add the remaining ghee and roast the Rava till its well roasted and aroma starts coming out.
In a bowl, take all the roasted Rava, Nuts, Coconut and add the Cardamom powder. Then add the sugar. Mix well.
Then slowly add the warm milk into the bowl. Check if you are able to gather as balls.
When you find that milk added is enough to get you laddos, transfer it back to the kadai and cook in sim for 2 mins. Mix well and then cover it and let it rest for 2 mins.
Then immediately make balls or laddoos.

I kept a little roasted rava aside, after forming the laddoos, I rolled them on the roasted rava to form a coating on the laddoos (to have a crunchy feeling). Enjoy!!!

Moving...

2009-06-01T17:29:00.004+05:30

Hi All!

Khana Khazana is moving to Global Cuisines....

I am still in the process of updating the blog...

Thanks for all your support and wishes. Hope to see you all in my new blog...
Till then...Happy Blogging....

Crunchy Salad

2009-05-25T23:06:00.006+05:30

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange or purple, red, white, and yellow in colour, with a crisp texture when fresh.

Carrots can be eaten in a variety of ways. The simplest way of eating is raw carrots, as carrots are perfectly digestible without cooking. They may be even chopped & boiled, fried or steamed, and cooked in soups and stews. A well known dish is carrots julienne (carrot cut into long thin strips).

Well here is the recipe for Crunchy Salad, using carrot juliennes.

Ingredients:

2 carrot, cut into juliennes
1 cucumber, cut into juliennes
1 capsicum, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup boiled corn
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice

Procedure:

Combine the vegetables & corn in a bowl. Add salt, pepper & lemon juice. Toss and mix well.
Arrange on a serving bowl. Enjoy your crunchy salad..

Making my son eat vegetables is a daunting task, moreover if he thinks bunny is only supposd to eat carrots...My mission was accomplished when he showed interested in having this salad with carrots & corn....

This is going to FIL - April - Carrot event, hosted by Sanghi of Sanghi's Food Delights.

Mithai Mela

2009-05-20T17:18:00.021+05:30

The following sweets are going to the Mithai Mela, hosted by Srivalli of Cooking for all seasons...

Steamed Chocolate Pudding

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Cream of Mushroom Soup

2009-05-20T08:48:00.015+05:30

Delicious creamy mushroom soup accompanied with buttered garlic bread, a heavenly treat for a chilly winter's day / night...Adding cream makes this a filling dish....Here's how to make....

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh button mushrooms, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp butter
3 cups water
1/2-1 cup cream, whipped
salt (to taste)
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
1 bunch fresh corinader leaves, chopped

Procedure:

Mix cornflour in 1/2 cup cold water (ensure that there are no lumps) and keep aside.
In a microwave safe bowl, microwave butter at 100% power for 30 secs.
Add chopped onion & garlic. Microwave for 2-3 mins at 100% power.
Add chopped mushrooms, salt and pepper and water. Microwave at 100% power for 6 mins. Stir in between (after an interval of 2 mins).
Add the cornflour mixture and microwave at 100% power for 2 more mins.
Add whipped cream and garnish with a spoonful of butter and chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with buttered garlic toast.

Sending this to the 15 mins cooking, event hosted by Mahimaa of Indian Vegetarian Kitchen...
Also sending the following recipes to the event...

Besan Chillah

2009-05-19T18:25:00.022+05:30

According to "ayurveda" all foods are divided into 3 categories "rajasik", "tamasik" and "saatvik". It is believed that the food we eat, decides the quality of our minds and even health of our bodies. Saatvik food consists of lightly cooked vegetables with bare minimum spices, fruits, nuts, honey, milk and milk products. Jain cuisine follows saatvik cooking and certain foods like potatoes, ginger, onions & garlic are strictly prohibited.

Chillah is basically a Rajasthani recipe. I have modified my mother's recipe of soru chakli, a type of pancake prepared with wheat (atta). and she used to call it "gola roti", meaning wheat flour (atta) batter made with water. I changed the dish by adding flour (maida) & besan sometimes adding chopped vegetables.

Here is the recipe for Besan Chillah, good & nutritious and also helps in reducing body fat...Instead of plain roti / chappati, one can take Besan Chillah during lunch / dinner time.

Ingredients:

1 cups gram flour (besan)
1/2 cup plain flour (maida)
1/2 cup wheat flour (atta)
2 cups grated paneer
1 large capsicum, finely chopped
2 bunch cilantro / coriander leaves, finely chopped
2 tsp caraway seeds (shahi jeera)
1 tsp turmeric (haldi)
1- ½ tsp salt (to taste)
a pinch of red chilli powder
white oil, for frying
water (as per requirement)

Procedure:

Sieve besan, flour & atta. Add turmeric, caraway seeds, salt and red chili powder. Mix well.
Slowly add water and blend to form a smooth batter or until you get the right consistency (ensure there is no lumps, you can even strain the whole mixture once).
Take a non-stick frying pan and heat 2-3 drops of white oil. Spread & coat all over the base with a wooden spatula including the side of the pan. When the oil is hot, reduce heat and pour a ladle full of batter in the middle.
Spread the batter in a circular motion by tilting the pan or by spreading with the back of a wooden spatula to form the chillah.
Sprinkle a little chopped capsicum & coriander leaves and grated paneer on the pancake.
Let it set (you will know when the bottom is set by seeing the colour change).
Flip the chillah to the other side. Add a little oil and toast till done. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Serve hot.

Besan Chillah is going to the following events:

A simple dish, going to RCI-Jain Cuisine, guest hosted by PJ, event started by Lakshmi...
I love the pleasant & warm yellow colour of the Besan Chillahs, this is also going to FIC-Favourite, guest hosted by Sweath, event started by Sunshinemom.
The Besan Chillah with caraway seeds is also going to Think Spice - Think Caraway Seeds, guest hosted by Sathya of Appetite Treats...
My Favourite Things-Cheese, guest hosted by Poornima of Tasty Treats, event started by Bhindiya..

Mango Milkshake

2009-05-19T17:22:00.025+05:30

Mango Milkshake, another delectable & refreshing summer drink. As I found out while doing this, there is no fixed measurement and I added the ingredients based on the sweetness of the mangoes and the thickness of the drink....You can also modify as per your wish...Here is the recipe....

Ingredients:

2-3 mangoes / 2 cups cubed mangoes
500 ml / 2 cups chilled milk
4 tbsp sugar (to taste and as per sweetness of mangoes)
crushed ice cubes / ice cubes
few cubed mangoes, for garnishing

Procedure:

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until mango pieces get crushed to a smooth puree.
Pour in serving glasses. Add ice cubes / crushed ice and chopped mangoes. Serve chilled. Enjoy!!

Tips:

While serving pour a little chilled milk on top. Do not stir. I particularly like the way the milk forms a pattern. You can also add a stirrer while serving.

You can even add whipped cream / vanila ice-cream to have a more creamier milkshake.

Sending this to 15 mins cooking, event hosted by Mahimaa of Indian Vegetarian Kitchen...

Mango Milkshake is also going to the Festive Food: Summer Treat, event hosted by Priti of Indian Khana...

Also sending the following cool drinks to the Festive Food: Sumnmer Treat event...

Hariyali Paneer Tikka

2009-05-18T21:35:00.012+05:30

One of my favourite vegetarian items is any paneer dish. I just love to gorge on paneer tikkas, palak paneer, kadhai paneer, matar paneer, paneer pakora, paneer butter masala, yummmm, the list in endless.

Paneer is a basic source of protein for the vegetarians other than lentils. Here is the recipe for Hariyali Paneer Tikka, a vegetarian’s delight & tempting appetizer / snack, prepared with paneer (fresh cottage cheese) and marinated in yogurt.

Ingredients:

500 gms paneer, cubed / diced
1 big capsicum, de-seeded & diced
2 red & firm tomatoes, de-seeded & diced

Marinade:

1 cup hung curd / yogurt
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
4-6 green chilies, paste
2 tbsp onion paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
2 tbsp ginger paste
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp roasted caraway seeds powder (shahi jeera)
1 tsp chat masala powder
salt to taste
2 tbsp white oil
juice of 1 lemon

Procedure:

Beat the curd and combine the other ingredients of the marinade. Take the paneer and chopped capsicum & tomato pieces, add the marinade and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 mins.
Place the marinated paneer and vegetables on the high rack on a microwave safe flat dish and grill 15-20 mins till light golden brown on all sides.
Reposition the paneer and the vegetables frequently (after a gap for 3-4 mins) and brush with oil.
Sprinkle a little chat masala and roasted shahi jeera powder; garnish with coriander leaves and serve with salads / chutneys.

Yellow is the color of sunshine and associated with joy, happiness, intellect and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity and is often associated with food. I love the particular colour of this dish.

Sending this to FIC-Favourite guest hosted by Sweath, event started by Sunshinemom...This paneer dish is also going to to My Favourite Things-Cheese and Think Spice-Think Caraway Seeds guest hosted by Sathya of Appetite Treats

Pol Sambol

2009-05-15T17:02:00.014+05:30

The dehydrated shredded flesh of coconut, known as desiccated coconut is often used as a substitute to grated coconut in food preparations like curries, cakes, sweets and chutneys. Desiccated coconut powder can be obtained by drying ground / shredded coconut kernel after the removal of brown testa.

Sri Lankans love their food to be hot & spicy. Pol (coconut) Sambol is another favourite dish prepared from desiccated / grated coconuts mixed with chillies.

I wrote about SriLankan traditional rice recipe (Kiribath) in my earlier post, which I served with Pol Sambol. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

2 cups desiccated coconut / grated fresh coconut
2-3 tbsp hot milk
1 tsp salt
1 medium lime / 2 tsp lemon juice (to taste)

To grind:

2 small onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic
1 small green chillies, finely sliced
2 tsp dried shrimp powder
1-2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp black pepper powder

Procedure:

Grind all ingredients as mentioned in “to grind” to form a coarse mixture.
Take the desiccated coconut in a bowl, add the milk and mix well. Add the blended spices on top. Mix well with hand so that the coconut is evenly coated with the spices.
Add salt and lemon juice. Mix well.
Transfer into a serving bowl. Garnish with chopped chillies & coriander leaves and serve with rice & curries.

This is my second entry to AWED-Srilanka event, guest hosted by Siri of Siri's Corner, event started by DK...Check out my first entry for the event, click here.

Kiribath

2009-05-15T16:51:00.007+05:30

SriLankan cuisine mainly consists of boiled / steamed rice served with curry. A popular rice dish in every SriLankan household is Kiribath. Kiribath (milk rice), is a traditional Sri Lankan dish prepared by cooking rice with coconut milk. In the Sinhala language, kiri means "milk" and bath means "rice".

More on Kiribath: Kiribath is an essential dish for any auspicious moment. It is very commonly served for breakfast on the first day of each month and is a very important aspect for the Sinhalese in celebrating the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Kiribath is cooked and served as the first meal after the dawn of the new year.

The recipe for Kiribath is very simple. After the rice is cooked in boiling water for about 10-15 mins, the coconut milk is added and cooked again until the liquid is absorbed. Often other ingredients like sesame seeds / cashew are added. Kiribath is usually served with Lunumiris (a mixture of red onions and spices). It is also consumed with jaggery and bananas. On the Sinhala and Tamil New Year or other special occasions, it is served alongside traditional sweets like 'Kevum', 'Kokis' and 'Athirasa'.
The common & standard method of serving Kiribath is placing it on a flat plate and leveling the top and sides. Then it is cut into diamond shaped pieces (Source: Wikipedia)

Ingredients:

2 cups short grain white rice
3 cups water
2-1/2 cups coconut milk
2 tsp salt (to taste)
1" stick cinnamon

Procedure:

Soak and wash rice. Put rice and water into a pan / handi and bring to the boil. When the water starts to boil, reduce flame, cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
Add coconut milk, salt and cinnamon, stir well with a wooden ladle.
Cover pan and simmer on low heat for further 10-15 minutes, when all the coconut milk should be absorbed.
Remove cinnamon, slightly cool the rice and transfer to a flat plate.
Mark off in diamond shapes (with a knife / wooden ladle) and serve with coconut sambol (I'll state the recipe in the next post).

Sending this traditional SriLankan rice recipe to AWED-Srilanka guest hosted by Siri of Siri's Corner, event started by DK...

Doi Boda / Dahi Vada

2009-05-14T21:25:00.009+05:30

Dahi vada (also known as thayir vada in Tamil and perugu gari in Telugu, mosaru vade in Kannada and Doi Boda in Bengali) is an Indian chaat, prepared by soaking vadas in thick yogurt (dahi / doi).
It is a great starter or can be served as a cold appetizer, prepared from lentil (black gram / urad dal) based fried balls soaked in yogurt mixture and sprinkled with spices like chilli powder, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala, rock salt (kala namak), grated coconut, chopped coriander leaves and often served with tamarind chutney.
The hot deep fried vadas are first put in water and then transferred to thick beaten yogurt. For best results, soak the vadas for at least a couple of hours before serving.

Here is my version of preparing Doi Boda...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups black Urad Daal without skin (black lentils)
3 cups curd / dahi / yoghurt (ensure that curd is not too sour)
water (to make curd mixture)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2" piece of ginger grated
2-3 green chillies (to taste), finely chopped
salt to taste
1-2 tsp red chilli powder (to taste)
1 tbsp chaat masala (to taste)
2 tbsp roasted cumin seeds powder
white oil, for deep frying the vadas
chopped coriander leaves to garnish
tamarind chutney
green (dhania-pudina chutney)

Procedure:

Soak the urad daal in a bowl with enough water for 12 hours (preferably overnight). Drain water and combine the soaked lentil with grated ginger, green chillies and a pinch of salt and grind it into a course paste (add a little water, but ensure not to add too much of water).
Beat the ground lentil batter well for quite sometime to a thick lentil batter.
Combine curd / yogurt, water, salt, sugar and a pinch of red chili powder, chaat masala, roasted cumin seeds powder and mix well to form a smooth yogurt mixture. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a deep-bottomed kadhai,
Grease your palms with a little oil and put a ladle of lentil batter and form a round shape.
Carefully make an impression in the middle by inserting your fingers to form a vada in the shape of doughnut.
Slide each vada into the hot oil, deep fry on medium flame till light golden.
Remove these deep fried bodas (vadas), drain excess oil and transfer them into a bowl of luke warm water and place them in it for 5-10 mins. Remove and gently press between your palms to squeeze out the excess water. Keep aside.
Finish making vadas with the rest of the remaining batter in the above mentioned process (repeat from step 5-8).
Arrange the soaked vadas in a serving platter, pour the curd / yogurt mixture evenly over them to cover the vadas completely. Chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours before serving.
To serve, put 1 or 2 Dahi Vadas in a plate, sprinkle chaat masala and garnish with bhujiya / sev, chopped coriander leaves and tamarind chutney and green chutney.

Tips: It’s best to serve with the spices and chutneys separately so that one can help himself as per taste and preference.

Sending this to the Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Food event, hosted by Pallavi of All Things Yummy!

Egg Foo Young

2009-05-12T09:37:00.030+05:30

An omelette / Omelet is a preparation of beaten egg often served folded with fillings like cheese, vegetables, meat or some combination of the above.

To obtain a fluffy texture, whole eggs or egg whites are usually beaten with a small amount of milk / cream, or even water (the bubbles of water are what make the omelette light and fluffy). Traditionally, omelettes are partially cooked on the top side and not flipped prior to folding.

Egg foo young / egg fooyung is an omelette dish found in American Chinese cuisine. The name comes from the Cantonese language, and may be related to the Fu Yong flower, Hibiscus mutabilis.
Generally this dish is prepared with beaten eggs, chopped vegetables and minced meat (pork, shrimp & chicken). The classic Egg Foo Young recipe stated using cooked ham, I modified the recipe by adding milk and more vegetables like capsicum & tomatoes and using shredded chicken (I had some leftover chicken pieces) instead of ham.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup cooked chicken, shredded
¼ cup bean sprouts1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small tomato, finely chopped
1 small capsicum, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 spring (green) onions / scallions, finely chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp soya sauce
salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper powder / crushed pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
tomato sauce (to serve)

Procedure:

Beat the eggs with a little salt and milk to ensure that there are no lumps. Keep aside.
Rinse bean sprouts in cold water.
To stir fry the main ingredients, heat oil in a non-sick pan; add the bean sprouts and chopped vegetables (spring onions, onion, capsicum, tomatoes). Saute and stir fry in medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender.
Add the minced garlic and stir fry (ensure not to burn the garlic). Add cornstarch, soya sauce, shredded chicken, salt & pepper. Mix well. Remove from flame, transfer to a dish and keep aside. Allow to cool.
Cook the eggs in batches to get a layering effect. In a pan, heat a little oil and put ½ portion of the beaten egg mixture. Spread to coat the pan evenly. Add ½ portion of the stir-fried ingredients on the top.
Let it set for a while. Add the rest portion of the beaten eggs mixture and top with the final set of the fried ingredients.
Cover and let it set for a while. Carefully flip over to the other side and fry until light golden brown on both sides (do not fry too much or else the colour will be deep brown).
Transfer on a plate, fold in half and serve hot with tomato sauce / ketchup

This is going to the Blog your Omelet event, hosted by Nuria...

Also sending another one from my archive, Pizza Omelette (a modification on Spanish omelette, a favouite of my son as it looks like a pizza) to the event..

Caramel Pudding

2009-05-09T16:53:00.016+05:30

Caramel pudding is a continental dessert and also a much loved dish all over India, specially in the Western India....It can be steamed in a pressure cooker or baked in the oven.

Stating the recipe (serves 4) as done in a pressure cooker. Though I had to prepare quite a number of times before serving a perfect & set caramel pudding......

Ingredients:

500 ml full cream milk
5 tbsp sugar (ratio is 500 ml milk : 5 tbsp sugar : 3 eggs)
2 tbsp cornflour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt (optional)
chocolate shavings, whipped cream (for garnishing)

Caramel coating

2 tsp sugar
2-3 tsp water

Procedure:

Take a bowl, add cornflour and 2 tbsp cold milk. Mix well to remove lumps.
Boiling milk: Put a pan, add milk and sugar. Bring to a boil by stirring continuously until all the sugar is dissolved.
Just when the milk starts to boil, simmer and add the cornflour-milk mixture, immediately stir and mix well.
Now alternatively increase the flame and simmer for few more mins, until the milk is thickened. Keep aside to cool.
Making the caramel coating: Heat sugar and water in the pudding mould till the sugar melts & caramelized to golden brown. Swirl to coat the sides of the mould. Keep aside to cool.
Eggs & milk mixture: Break the eggs separately, put in a blender, add vanilla essence and a pinch of salt and blend to form a smooth & frothy mixture. Check and ensure whether the milk is properly cooled (otherwise the whole mixture may curdle) and then add to the blender. Blend once again to a smooth milk and egg mixture.
Putting in the mould: Pour this mixture into the caramelized pudding mould (fill upto ¾ of the mould)
Steaming: Take a pressure cooker, place a pressure cooker ring and pour water very carefully into the pressure cooker to ensure water is about 2" below the rim of the mould.
Place the pudding mould on the ring and cover the mould (so that water do not enter into the pudding mould).
Cover the cooker and let the steam escape. When the steam starts to escape, check watch and steam for 15-20 mins. Check whether the pudding is ready or not (insert a fork / toothpick inside the pudding, if it comes out clean, pudding is done or else steam for another 10 mins)
After the requisite time, switch of gas, carefully remove the pudding mould so as not to disturb the pudding. Keep aside to cool and then chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
Serve: To serve, carefully run the edge of a knife around the border of the mould. Place a plate over the pudding mould, hold firmly in place and turn over gently.
The pudding will turn over onto the plate, caramel side up. Serve with caramel sauce, chocolate shavings or whipped cream.

I learnt this recipe from my mother-in-law who happens not only to be great cook but also and an encouraing person always in search of new recipes and experimenting on dishes to turn them to a new recipe.

This is going to Mom's Most Favourite Recipe Event by Shama of Easy2cook Recipes.

Also going to Celebrating Mother's Day, event hosted by Ivy of Kopiaste.. to Greek Hospitality.

Sending another pudding, steamed chocolate pudding to both the events.

Papdi Chaat

2009-05-09T14:07:00.018+05:30

Chaat is a type of mouth watering and popular roadside snack all over India, sold by street hawker in food cartss. These days there are specialized ‘chaat’ shops… The word chaat means to taste (to lick) as the Chaat dishes make you lick your plates clean, hence the name…They are so yummy that just by thinking about them makes my mouth water!

Traditionally, chaats are served which may vary from region-to-region and also vary as per taste of the people (us of course!!!)…But if you are making them at home, you can let your imagination turn wild and prepare a chaat recipe as per your liking with as many ingredients available at hand…

If you do not have time to make Papdi, you can always buy ready made packets of Papdi (papri) from the Bhujiwala (Mithai Shops).

Papdi Chaat, is made of crispy wafers garnished with a delicious combination of potatoes, tomatoes, chickpeas, yogurt and flavored with spices and red & green chutneys.

Ingredients:

Papdi: (Use a pack of 250 gms ready made papdi if are unable to prepare papdi at home)

1-½ cup all purpose flour (maida or plain flour)
½ tsp thymol (ajwain) seeds
A pinch of baking powder
1 tbsp oil (to knead dough)
½ tsp salt
½ cup lukewarm water (as required)
white oil, for deep frying

Other Ingredients:

2 medium sized potato, boiled & cut into small pieces
2 small tomatoes, finely chopped
½ cup chickpeas, boiled
2 besan dhokla, crumbled
2-3 cups sour curd / yogurt (whipped)
1 tsp rock salt (to taste)
1-2 tsp roasted cumin seed powder
1 tsp red chili powder (to taste)
green chillies (optional)
bhujiya (as per taste)
dhania (cilantro / fresh coriander leaves) chutney
tamarind (imli / tentul) chutney

Procedure:

Papdi:

In a bowl mix flour, ajwain, baking powder, salt and oil. Add the water a little at a time while kneading until it forms a firm dough
Cover the dough and set aside for approx 30 mins. Divide the dough into balls. Add a little oil on the rolling board and roll out a big circle. Prick with a fork / toothpick all over (to emnsure papdi do not puff while frying). Make impression with a glass or any circular cutter (cover of jam bottles). You will get about 4-5 circular papdi at one go.
Take out the rolled out dough carefully and place on a plate. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat. (It should not be too hot or else papdi will not be crisp, to check whether the oil is ready or not, put a small piece of dough in the oil. The dough should sizzle and come up to the surface slowly. If the dough rises immediately, lower the flame, let the oil cool slightly and try again).
Release the papdis in small bathches and fry slowly, flip and turn continuously to both sides are a light golden-brown.
Remove fried papdi with a perforated ladle, transfer to a plate and soak the excess oil in a tissue paper. Continue cooking the remaining papdi in batches.
After the papdi cool to room temperature they should be crisp. (You can store the papdis in airtight containers for about 1 month and use as required).

Garnish:

Beat the yogurt with a little salt (Add a little water, if required). Keep aside.
Arrange the papdi on a large plate. Now add the rest of the ingredients one by one on the papdis.
Apply the beaten curd / yogurt and cover the papdis. Add dhania and tamarind chutney. Add bhuiya, chopped coriander leaves.
Sprinkle roasted cumin powder, red chili powder and little rock salt as per your taste.
Serve immediately to taste the crisp papdi chaat.

Tips:

It will be quite nice, if you serve all the ingredients separately in small bowls, for the people to help themselves according to their taste and liking…
You can even name the chaat as per your choice with mix and match of the ingredients like dahi papdi (adding more of dahi to the papdis), channa tikki chaat (adding more of roasted channa / chickpeas)…..

Sending this to the Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Food event, hosted by Pallavi of All Things Yummy!

Chocolate Ice-cream Milk Shake

2009-05-08T11:42:00.019+05:30

A Milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream / iced milk and sweet flavorings like fruit syrup / chocolate sauce and sometimes served with whipped cream for a richer taste. Milkshakes are usually served in a tall glass. 3 popular milkshake flavors being vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

Here is a simple version of chocolate & ice-cream milkshake, with ready & available ingredients at home. Believe me, you will just wait and watch your kids finish this delectable drink during the summer time and even asking for more…

Ingredients:

3 - 4 tsp chocolate syrup
4 scoops vanilla ice cream
2 cups chilled milk
crushed ice / Ice cubes

Proedure:

Place ingredients into a blender, cover and blend the ingredients on high until ice cream is dissolved and you have reached the desired consistency (Add three parts ice cream for every one part milk for a thick shake).
Pour into tall serving glasses and serve with crushed ice / ice cubes, whipped cream or shavings of chocolate on the froth. Enjoy!

Tips:

If you do not have access to an electric blender, you can combine the ingredients by hand and whisk quickly to combine and create froth or use a shaker, put the ingredients, close the cover and shake hard to form the delightful froth on top.
Decide how thick you want your shake to be. More milk will yield thinner shake.
Use melted chocolate for a delish rich chocolate milkshake.

Sending this to the "Summer activities and ideas event" @Bloggermoms. Join me in sending your recipes & ideas. Click here for details...

Here are some of the other beverages for the event....

Watermelon Cooler

Honey, Lime and Mint Iced Tea

Pina Colada Smoothie

Aam Pora Shorbot

Chocolate Ice-cream Milk Shake is also going to 15 mins cooking, event by Mahimaa....

Sooji Halwa

2009-05-07T21:38:00.019+05:30

Sooji (Semolina) halwa is a sweet dish, usually made with wheat semolina, sugar / honey and ghee / vegetable oil. Raisins (kishmish), dates (khajur), or other dried fruits (cashewnuts, pistachios & almonds) are often added to the halva.
The classic proportions of semolina halwa are 1:2:3:4, i.e. 1 part fat (ghee / vegetable oil), 2 parts semolina, 3 parts sweetening agent (sugar / honey) and 4 parts of water.

Though you can always modify as per your taste, like increasing the sugar a little, if you like your halwa extra sweet.
In Bengali Cuisine, there is another version of sooji halwa known as mohan bhog (i.e. prasad offered to lord krishna), where milk is used instead of water. I prepare this halwa by mixing both recipes for a delicious texture & taste.

Well some informaion on Semolina and Halwa....

Semolina is the purified middlings of Durum wheat, used for breakfast cereals and puddings.Semolina, is known as Suji in North India, Sooji in Eastern India and Rava / Ravey in South India. Semolina is known as İrmik and Sameed in Arabic.

Halwa (Halawa / halva / ħelwa / halvah) refers to many types of sweet confection, across the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, the Balkans and the Jewish World. Halwa based on semolina is popular in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Somalia, India, and Afghanistan. Another common type of halwa is based on tahini (sesame paste), is popular in the eastern Mediterranean and Balkan regions.

Ingredients:

1 cup (100 gms) semolina / sooji
1-½ cups (150 gms) powdered sugar
½ cup (50 ml) milk
2 tsp green cardamom powder
2-3 tbsp raisins / kishmish (soaked in water)
2-3 tbsp cashewnuts / kaju, halved
1 bay leaf
4 tbsp white oil
2 tbsp ghee
3-½ cups (350 ml) water

Procedure:

Sieve the semolina and keep aside. Heat white oil & 2 tbsp of ghee in a non-stick kadhai.
Add bay leaf and the semolina. Fry the semolina on low flame, stirring continuously until the semolina starts changing colour to light golden brown.
Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Fry till the semolina starts to take a darker shade than golden brown (keep stirring continuously). (frying will take about 15 mins).
Add half a portion of raisins & cashew nuts. Add milk and immediately stir (or else the mixture will solidify and stick to the kadhai).
Add water and mix well. Bring to a boil and reduce the flame. Simmer and cook for 10 mins or until the water is absorbed and the halwa is thickened.
Add 1 tsp of green cardamom and rest of the ghee, stir and mix well. Switch off the gas.
Keep the halwa in the kadhai for 5 mins. Transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with the rest of the dry fruits and sprinkle green cardamom powder on the top of the halwa.
Serve hot or cold.

Tips:

Dry Fruits can be added or removed according to your own choice
You can either use water or milk or milk-water mixture as per your preference.

The whole world will be celebrating Mother's Day on 10th of May. Sharing this dish with everyone on the occassion of mother's day coz this is one of my mother's best dishes and as she had a tremendous liking for sweet dish / desserts. I learnt this recipe from her but in due course modified a little and she even likes this version of sooji halwa.

My mother is a loveable person and a great cook. I learnt a lot of authentic Bengali dishes including some recipes from Bihar as she is born & brought up in Katrasgarh, Bihar (now Jharkhand). She lent a silent support to me & my brother in everything we did in my life and still continuing in doing so....Love you Maa, proud to be the person I am today against all odds....

This special dish is goint to Celebrating Mother's Day, a wonderful event hosted by Ivy of Kopiaste.. to Greek Hospitality.

This is also going to Mom's Most Favourite Recipe Event by Shama of Easy2cook Recipes.

Also going to the Mithai Mela, hosted by Srivalli of Cooking for all seasons...

Motichur ke Ladoo

2009-05-06T20:37:00.022+05:30

Motichoor laddu / Boondi laddu is a sweet Indian delicacy made from grilled gram flour flakes (boondis) which are sweetened, mixed with dried fruits, pressed into balls and fried in ghee. Motichur Laddos are generally used in auspiciuous / traditional occassions like weddings, engagements, births etc.
It gets the name Motichoor Laddoo (Moti means bead / pearl in Hindi) / Boondi Laddu (drops / droplets are known as Boond in Hindi)

Ingredients:

500 gms besan (gram flour)
1/3 cup (60 ml) milk
500 gms sugar
500 ml water
1 tbsp pistachios (pesta), finely chopped
1 tbsp cashewnuts (kaju), finely chopped
1 tbsp raisins (kishmish)
2 tsp green cardamom (chhoti elaichi) powder
2-3 drops of orange-yellow food colour
ghee for frying

Procedure:

Sieve besan. Add 2 tbsp of ghee, food colour, milk and just enough water to form a smooth batter (ensure that there are no lumps).
Make a thick batter (check consistency by dropping batter to a bowl, if its poring easily, add little besan and if its taking more time, add a little water).
Heat ghee on a medium flame in a kadhai. Reduce the flame and hold a fine sieve (perforated ladle) over the kadhai and pour a ladle of batter on the sieve.
Gently press the all the batter through the sieve into the hot ghee (this should look like tiny boondis).
Fry the boondis till light golden brown. Drain, remove and keep aside (do not overfry or else boondis will be too crispy).
Prepare sugar syrup by boiling the sugar in water till all the sugar gets dissolved and the syrup is thick (one-thread consistency). Remove the scum from the sugar syrup.
Immediately add the boondis into sugar syrup. Add cardamom powder, raisins and chopped pistachios & cashewnuts and mix well. Keep for 10 mins.
Slightly allow the mixture to cool. Grease your palms with ghee, shape the syrup soaked boondis into round motichur laddoos by pressing gently but firmly.
Allow to cool to room temperature and serve.

This is going to the Mithai Mela, hosted by Srivalli of Cooking for all seasons...Congratulations Srivalli for completing 2 years of blogging......

Also sending the following sweet dishes to the event

Dhania ki Chutney

2009-05-04T21:37:00.009+05:30

Cilantro is a herb with wide delicate lacy green leaves and a pungent flavor. The seed of the cilantro plant is known as coriander. Although cilantro and coriander come from the same plant, their flavors are different and cannot be substituted for each other. (Some countries refer to the cilantro as coriander, so whenever any references to "fresh coriander" or "coriander leaves" are made, it is referred to as cilantro)

Fresh coriander leaves (dhania patta / cilantro) is one of the most commonly and widely used herb in Indian Kitchen. An all time favourite for garnishing and enhance the visual appeal of a dish. They are used as seasoning in curries, salads & soups and also a must have accompaniment for snacks including chappatis / paranthas.

My mother used to make this green chutney and serve with snacks…She used to add roasted peanuts / bhujiya / ganthia and make this chutney in sil – nora (grinding stone to grind spices to have that authentic taste). I make this chutney in a blender these days....

Ingredients:

2-3 bunch fresh coriander leaves / cilantro
2 green chillies
2 flakes of garlic
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp lemon juice (to taste)
2-3 tbsp ganthia / chanachur
a little water

Procedure:

Wash and clean fresh coriander leaves. Put all the ingredients (except lemon juice) in a blnder and blend to form a puree.
Strain and add lemon juice. Mix well. Adjust salt and sugar as per your taste.

This is going to JFI-Cilantro event hosted by Cilantro, JFI started by Indira of Mahanandi

Aam Daal

2009-05-04T20:04:00.013+05:30

Aam Daal (Lentil cooked with raw mango) a perfect dish to relish in summer time....Raw mango is cooked along with daal, which gives the dish a unique tangy taste. A simple dish with a few ingredients........

While browsing I came found varieties of aam daal, but found this recipe (as posted by Sandeepa) very similar to the one I make at home...

Ingredients:

½ cup (100 gms) masoor daal (split orange / red lentils)
1 raw mango (kancha aam), peeled & finely chopped
1-2 cups water (as required)
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp sugar (as required)
salt to taste
1 tbsp mustard oil

Procedure:

Wash and soak the masoor daal for 10-15 mins. Pressure cook daal with turmeric, a pinch of salt and enough water till 2-3 whistles. Remove from fire, let the cooker come down to normal temp. Pour daal in a bowl and keep aside.
Heat oil in a kadhai. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
Add the chopped mango slices, saute a little. Add the boiled masoor daal and mix well. Cover and cook for some time till the mangoes become tender.
Bring to a boil and adjust sugar and salt. (Add a little water, if required)
Remove from fire, transfer to a serving bowl and serve with steamed rice.

This is going to MBP: Mango Masti event hosted by Neha and started by Coffee of Spice Cafe ....

Also sending Aam Pora Shorbot to the event. I liked the way Rinku of Cooking in Westchester prepared her Smoky Summer Cooler.

My new blog

2009-05-04T15:37:00.007+05:30

Hi all! Been busy for the last couple of days designing and re-designing my new blog....click the link to browse.....

It's still under process....keep yourself updated...

French Vanilla Ice-cream Sundae

2009-04-30T17:24:00.012+05:30

Here is the next one which I prepared with the homemade French vanilla ice-cream.....Well there is no fixed name of this recipe, you can call it Malini's special ice-cream sundae.....or you can even transform this into your own special dish as per your choice of toppings...........

Ingredients:

4 chocolate bars / chocolate coated ice-cream wafers
2-4 scoops French vanilla ice-cream
chocolate chip and cashew cookies
chocolate syrup

Procedure:

Just place 2-4 scoops of ice-cream in a serving plate. Place the chocolate bars / wafers.
Add chocolate syrup. Crumble cookies over the ice-cream and serve immediately.

This is going to the following events:

My Favourite Things - Frozen Desserts guest hosted by Aqua of Served With Love, event by Bindiya....

RCI - Pondicherry event, hosted by Lavi of Home Cook's Recipes, event started by Lakshmi