Homely Food

Masala bhaat

2014-10-06T13:07:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! Today I have come with a rice dish called masala bhaat. It is mostly a maharashtrian dish but it has its own varieties. Bhaat means rice and masala means mix of vegetables and spices. So lets begin cooking this.

Ingredients:

250gms rice
100ml ghee or oil
1tbsp jeera/cumin seeds
2 bay leaves/tejpatta
3-4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 peppercorn
1/4 cup chopped onions
1tsp ginger garlic paste
2 green chillies
1tsp turmeric powder
1tbsp red chilly powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 brinjal
1 tomato
2-3 tbsp peas
salt to taste
coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Wash and soak rice. Heat ghee or oil and add whole spices. Then add chopped onion. Saute it till it turns translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and again saute for a min. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder and coriander powder. Mix well. Chop tomato and brinjal into small cubes and add it to the mixture along with peas. Now add salt and mix again. Add rice and water enough for rice and vegetables to cook.

Your masala bhaat is done. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot with raita of your choice.

The version of masala bhaat as I said varies and it is supposed to be spicy but for our taste I have still reduced the quantity of masalas.

Spicy bread rolls

2014-09-28T10:10:00.003+05:30

My today's recipe is a guest post by my good friend Deepa Sewani. She makes amazing dishes and she has won first prize in inside the Sindhi kitchen in first competition. I'll soon post her winner recipe. Today she is sharing one of the best and easiest and tastiest recipe called spicy bread rolls. Try it and I am sure all would love it.

Ingredients:

2 Big Potatoes (boiled and mashed)
8-9 Bread Slices
1 tbsp Roasted split peanuts
Coriander leaves finely chopped
2 Green chillies (chopped)
1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp Kasuri methi
1 tsp kitchen king masala
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 tbsp butter
1 grated onion
Salt to taste
1/4th tsp Garam Masala powder
Oil for frying

Method:
Add salt, chilli powder, garam masala, green chillies and coriander leaves to the mashed potatoes and add all ingredients mentioned above and mix well. Take some water in a bowl and dip a bread slice for few seconds. Squeeze the water from the bread by pressing between palms gently. Place a tbsp potato mixture over the damp bread and roll and seal the edges of the bread in such a way that the filling does not come out from any part of the bread. Repeat the same process for making more rolls. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry on medium flame till golden brown. Serve bread rolls hot with green chutney or tomato sauce.

Well I am trying this soon. I am sure kids would love this roll a lot.

Pizza pasta combo

2014-09-26T11:55:00.002+05:30

Hello friends! I am sure looking at the title you must be wondering what is that? Well, its a simple quick easy dish to make. We have pizza and we have pasta but I am combining both the things here and for kids and adults its a hit. I have used bread here but you can try with pizza base too. So lets see what we need here to make this yummy pizza pasta combo.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup spaghetti
8-10 bread slices
2-3 tbsp pizza sauce
grated cheese as needed
1 tbsp mix herbs or oregano
1tbsp black pepper powder
salt to taste
1-2 tbsp oil
butter as needed
1 capsicum
1 onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp chilli flakes (optional)

Method:
Break long spaghetti into bit small pieces and boil it with little salt. Keep it tender and not mushy. Drain excess water and put 1 tbsp oil so it does not stick.
Chop onions, capsicum and garlic into small pieces.
In a pan heat oil, add onions and saute till translucent. Add garlic pieces and stir for a minute then add capsicum. Add salt but remember spaghetti already has salt. Keep stirring till capsicum is nearly done. Now add the boiled spaghetti and add pizza sauce, black pepper powder and mixed herbs or oregano. Mix well but gently so all the spices and sauce is mixed with spaghetti and capsicum. If needed add chilli flakes too. Keep it aside
Spread butter on bread and lightly toast it in pan or you can grill it as per your requirement.
Now comes the fun part.. Spread the cooked pasta on the buttered part of the bread and then put grated cheese on top. Sprinkle oregano and pepper powder and chilli flakes on top.
I didn't bake it again in oven as it looked good this way only.

Your delicious pizza pasta is ready. Have it in breakfast or evening snack time. Serve it as you like..

Let me know your views on this... till then enjoy..

Note: I have used long spaghetti here but you can try with any other pasta.

Eggless chocochip muffins with nutella topping

2014-09-22T15:08:00.000+05:30

Hi friends! Today is my another baking dish which is chocochip muffins. Muffins are cute looking cupcakes and easy to prepare. I have tried this few times and I believe this time I got a better result compared to previous occasions. Basic recipe is same which you can use for your normal vanilla cake. Let us see what ingredients are needed here.

Ingredients:

2 cups APF/Maida
1 cup sugar
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2cup oil
1/2cup yoghurt
1tsp vanilla essence
Milk if needed
chocochips, sprinklers and nutella as needed

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Oven settings vary but for me I actually this time used 160C. Line your cupcake tray. I have a simple tray so I brushed them with bit of butter and flour. Seive together dry ingredients like sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix them well in a bowl.

Take another bowl and mix oil, yoghurt and vanilla essence and mix them well. Now slowly add wet ingredients to flour mix and fold it gently and if needed add milk and see no lumps are formed. Make it into creamy batter.

Fill your muffin try with this batter but only 2/3rd full as batter would need space to rise. Bake in oven for 20mins or until a toothpick inserted inside the cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let the muffins cool on wire rack.

After cooling, spread nutella on top and decorate with either sprinkles or chocochips or any other decorations.

After many attempts this time my muffins came out very good and my little one helped me with spreading nutella and choco chips. The spread has not come out good but the taste was too good.

Above quantity would make aprox, 12 muffins.

Try it and enjoy and you can use the frosting of your choice.

Masoor dal tadka

2014-09-08T15:16:00.001+05:30

Hello friends! My today's dish is very simple easy to make masoor dal tadka. We have many varieties of dal and many ways of making it. This dal is so easy to make that even a novice can cook it nicely. Masoor dal is nothing but split red lentils and the taste of this dal even making it plain is yummy. Try it and you would love to make again and again.

Ingredients:

1 cup masoor dal
2 tbsp ghee
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
2-3 green chillies
1 small piece of ginger
2-3 cloves garlic (optional)
1 small onion (optional)
few sprigs of curry patta
1 tsp turmeric powder/haldi powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 whole dry red chilli
salt to taste
juice of one lemon
coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Soak and boil the masoor dal and gently mash it.
Finely chop onion and garlic pieces. Also chop green chillies.
In a big pan, heat ghee, add jeera, curry patta and let it splutter. Add onion, garlic and saute it till onion turns bit pinkish. Add green chillies,whole red chilli and stir it one time. Now add the boiled and mashed dal, Mix gently and add water accordingly to the consistency preferred. Add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Bring to boil. Keep stirring or dal would stick to the vessel. Now dal is done. Remove from gas and put in the serving bowl. Add lemon juice to taste and ginger chopped finely and mix it one time.

If you did not add garlic onion in the beginning, use this step.
In one small pan heat 1tbsp ghee, add jeera, curry patta and the whole red chilli. Once it splutters nicely add direct to the ready dal.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice, chapati or roti.

For variety, add chopped spinach once the dal is fully ready and let it boil just once.

Hope you liked this dish.

Chana palak/ chick peas with spinach gravy

2014-09-01T09:26:00.000+05:30

Hello all! Today's dish comprises of protein plus iron with chickpeas and spinach. Both rich in nutrients and this dish is made many ways. I chose to use spinach gravy for this. Years back when I was still a new bride and yet learning basics of cooking, I saw a programme on tv which showed how to cook chickpeas with spinach and I copied the whole thing by looking at the recipe but being a novice I doubled the quantity of masalas/spices making it too spicy to eat but still it was yummy. I did not attempt it again till yesterday when I recalled this dish. This time I kept the spice level in control and result was wow. It is so easy that even bachelors and novices can also cook this dish in jiffy.
Ingredients:

200gms chickpeas/chana
1 cup spinach
1 onion
1 tomato
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 small piece of ginger
3-4 green chillies
a small pinch of asafoetida/hing
1 small piece of cinnamon stick/dalchini
2-3 cloves/laung
1 small tejpatta
1tbsp red chilli powder
1tbsp coriander powder
1tbsp garam masala powder
1tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tsp cumin seeds
2tbsp oil or ghee

Method:
Soak chickpeas overnight. Drain and boil them with little bit of salt. Keep aside. Chop the spinach, blanch and make puree out of it. To get more taste I grated onion, tomato, garlic and ginger separately. In a pan heat oil, add cumin seeds, once it splutters add chopped green chillies. Add cloves, cinnamon stick, tej patta and saute it. Add hing and then add grated onions. Saute the onions but do not let them brown too much. Add grated ginger and garlic and saute till raw smell goes. Just be careful not to burn them. Finally add grated tomato and stir. Once oil separates, add boiled chana and little water. Cook for few minutes and then add spinach puree. Stir and add the remaining masalas. Adjust the consistency of gravy. Watch out for salt as chana already had some salt. Once the gravy is cooked, serve it with garnish of your choice. I added onion rings on top. Chana palak can go very well with rice, chapati or pooris.

Hope you liked this dish.

Note: In place of spinach puree you can add chopped spinach and let it cook till it softens.

Fresh Grocery Delivered to Your Place - Everyday

2014-08-27T10:30:00.000+05:30

I always have been a regular customer of the website BigBasket.com for online grocery for the last few months. Since the frequency of my purchases has been quite high, I thought of sharing my experiences. Since I am very busy with work, it is very difficult for me to go to grocery shopping every other day and it consumes a lot of time. Primarily, I couldn’t bear the fuel charges required for travelling anymore. Moreover, a lot of time required to step out and buy groceries, vegetables or fruits from the nearby shops made me look for an alternative like BigBasket.com. I came across BigBasket on my Facebook timeline as a suggestion by my friend’s news post. Then I went ahead and tried to do my grocery shopping with it. After I started my transactions with it, I didn’t get a chance to look back.

After using BigBasket, I have realized that shopping for groceries is highly convenient through this website. I just can't be happier about the time that it saves me. Another feature that I like about BigBasket is the cash on delivery: the payment method that I prefer for products that I like - vegetables and fruits where the product quality may be guaranteed. They also have a friendly return policy where no questions are asked at all! I have returned vegetables and dairy products a number of times when I was not happy about the quality of the products – although, such instances have been very few in number. They also have a delivery guarantee which means that when I fix a time slot, they deliver the order promptly. And they have never failed to do so which is pretty commendable. The fruits and vegetables that they have in their store are usually very fresh. Also the bread and the milk products are also always brought on the same day.

Now let us talk about the website. The website is very simple to use, it has no clutter and absolutely has no irritating advertisements. The catalogues of products are very well organized. The breadcrumb display that has been used in the website has made it much easier to go back and forth from the navigation page to the product description page. The notification system is also really useful. The moment an order is placed they send a SMS as well as an email which further helps to confirm that the order has been placed. Another message as well as email notification is also sent out on the day that the order is to be delivered. That way one can be aware that the order would come on that day and ensure that someone is at home to receive the order. Also if you are an early customer, you get grab a flat ten per cent discount on the total order value. That in itself is a great savings!

Please note that currently they serve only three cities for delivering grocery: Bangalore, Hyderabad & Mumbai.

Easy salad

2014-08-25T13:52:00.001+05:30

Hello friends! Today I am starting with very simple dish which is quick to make.

Ingredients:
1 carrot peeled & grated
1 cucumber peeled & grated
1 radish peeled & grated
1 onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
salt and black pepper powder to taste
some coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
Simply mix all the above vegetables. Add salt and pepper as per taste and serve cold garnished with coriander leaves.

I have just added what I like in my salad but the choice of vegetables is individual.
Salads are easy to digest and cooling Try it and you would love it. You can give to kids making it more colorful with many other various vegetables and perhaps add sprouts and nuts to enhance it more.

Almond halwa-badam halwa

2014-08-23T13:55:00.001+05:30

Hello friends! It has been a year now since I last posted on this space and today I am resuming my food blog with a great sweet badam halwa or almond halwa. Co incidentally my last post was also a sweet and beginning of new post again a sweet by Sandhya who happens to be the host of last of the challenges of SNC event started by Divya of You too can cook.

They were monthly challenges since two years where north and south teams exchanged their recipes. A long journey but sadly due to personal reasons and time restraints could not continue my food blog and snc challenges. Since I am part of north team I have to cook this delicious almond halwa and timing could not be better here. The version Sandhya has used is slightly different than what I had made previously known as Almond Fudge. The way I made was using almonds dry but here lets follow Sandhya's recipe for badam halwa now. For step by step instructions check Sandhya's space.

Ingredients:
1 cup almonds ( soaked over night)
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp saffron
1/4 cup milk
a pinch of cardamom powder ( optional)

Method:
Dry almond method given above my almond fudge has almost same ingredient but way is different. You can check out the previous dry version. I have used the same measurements given here by Sandhya but with less quantity.
Soak the almonds over night and peel of the skin next morning. Grind the peeled almonds using milk little by little to make a smooth paste.
Make one string consistency of sugar syrup by boiling sugar in enough water to get the right consistency. This part has always stumped me and always I need help to get right consistency. In the same pan, mix the almond paste and cook over the medium heat while stirring continuously. Keep stirring the halwa till it thickens and leaves side. Add ghee and saffron and cardamom powder and stir it. Once halwa starts to change color slightly, switch off the gas. Let it cool down and serve at room temperature. Make sure halwa is bit wet and do not let it thicken too much or it would not have the soft texture. The delicious badam halwa is ready.

I would be resuming my food blog with more delicious recipes and much more, so stay tuned and support my space as all of you have always done.

Moong dal kheer/ Paasi Paruppu Payasam

2013-08-12T13:55:00.000+05:30

Moong dal kheer or this payasam when I heard first time and saw the pic I felt it resembles moong dal halwa but when I made this i could see the difference in it. Every month we bloggers have South vs North challenge hosted by Divya Pramil of YOUTOOCANCOOK and it means every month one member from one team challenges the opposite team to try out traditional dish which they make and this month challenge is hosted by the host herself. Divya gave us this easy challenge and I felt it was too good and very easy.

Being part of north group I had to make this lovely yummy payasam.

Ingredients:

100gms yellow moong dal
2-3 tbsps raw rice
100gms jaggery/sugar
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
2tbsp grated coconut
1cup milk
1tbsp ghee
10-12 cashewnuts/almonds

Method:
Wash dal and rice and keep aside.
I had used sugar here instead of jaggery but if you are using jaggery crush the pieces roughly and grind it into fine powder.
In a pressure cooker boil dal and rice together for 2 whistles. Once cooled remove the lid and mash the dal rice mixture. Pour the milk and mix well so no lumps are formed. Stir it well and consistency should be bit thinner and if its thick add more milk or water. Add sugar or jaggery powder and the cardamom powder well. Check for sweetness and add more sugar or jaggery if needed. Add the grated coconut and mix well.

Payasam is ready. In a pan add one tbsp ghee and add cashews or almonds. I skipped this process and instead used blanched almonds for garnish.

Savoury cookies

2013-07-30T15:03:00.000+05:30

Hello! My today"s recipe is great tea time snack plus a great hit with kids. It can be given in kids tiffin boxes too. Similar to my other recipe nan khatai except its not sweet. Let me show you how I made this.

Ingredients:

1 cup maida
3-4 tbsp rava or sooji
3-4 tbsp gram flour
Salt to taste
2tbsp ajwain/carom seeds
2 tbsp crushed black pepper or pepper powder
2tbsp ghee or oil
1tsp baking powder
water as needed

Method:

Sieve maida, rawa and gram flour together. In a bowl mix all the flours and add salt, ajwain, black pepper powder and mix well. Add oil or ghee and baking powder too. Mix and add water to make stiff dough. Keep aside for some time.

In the mean time pre heat the oven to 150c ( oven settings would vary) Dust and line a baking tray. From the dough roll out medium sized balls and cut in desired shape using cookie cutter. Put on tray and bake it for 10-12 minutes. Let it cool and transfer to airtight container.

The above measurements were enough for my family and yielded aprox. 20-25 pieced and depends on shape too.

Enjoy them.

Sending to cooking with sapna

Tri color veg sandwich

2013-07-24T14:04:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! Lately I have been posting a lot of simple easy to make dishes which are great hit with kids specially but I know most adults also love kids stuff. So here we go.

Ingredients:
For one sandwich only ( adjust the measurements accordingly)

3 slices of bread ( brown or white)
1 cube grated cheese or paneer
1tsp green chutney
1tbsp grated carrot
1tbsp or as needed butter
2tbsp mayonnaise
salt and black pepper powder to taste

Method:
Butter all the bread slices. Mix grated carrot with mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to this mixture. On one slice of buttered bread spread green chutney and on top grated cheese.Cover with another buttered bread. Spread mayonnaise mixture on top of this slice and cover it with third buttered bread.

Cut diagonally and enjoy the tri color sandwich.

We can also use tomato sauce and choice of vegetables is upto us. This was the simplest form and can be used for kids lunch box as well.

Sending this to Cooking with sapana's event

Left over pulao paratha

2013-07-19T09:32:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My today's dish is again very simple and easy to make and we make good use of left over rice. Earlier I had made left over rice chilla. Click on the name to see the recipe. This time I am making paratha or roti using left over pulao.
Pulao has lots of vegetables as per our choice and here I had bit of boondi raita also left and so I got thinking what to do with it and hence this idea came. Kids and adults all liked this in my home.

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup left over pulao
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1tsp dry mango powder
1tbsp coriander powder
salt to taste
1tbsp ghee+ more for cooking
1tbsp chopped coriander leaves
water as required.

Method:
Mix all things mentioned above and add water gradually to make tight dough. Be careful with salt and spices as pulao already has enough of them. I had some boondi raita left so i had added that too in the dough.

Heat tawa. Make medium size balls of the dough and roll the chapathi thick. Cook on tawa as we normally do with chapatis on both sides. Drizzle required ghee or oil for uniform cooking.

Remove and serve it hot with curd, tomato sauce or chutneys.

Hope you enjoy this quick dish.

Sending this to COOKING WITH SAPNA

Cucumber cooler

2013-07-17T14:47:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone! Today I bring you very easy summer drink. It has all the ingredients to cool down ourselves. All the ingredients used for this is always available in pantry. Let us begin.

RECIPE SOURCE: SANJEEV KAPOOR

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers
1/2 cup curd
salt to taste
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp roasted cumin seeds
1 small pieces of ginger (optional)
few icecubes
2 tbsp coriander leaves
2 tbsp mint leaves

Method:
Wash,peel and cube the cucumbers. In a mixer jar, add cucumber pieces, salt, cumin seeds, pepper powder, ginger piece, coriander and mint leaves. Blend all this into smooth paste. Put two tbsp of curd and blend again. Once its all blended mix the rest of curd and icecubes and blend again to get lassi type consistency.
Pour in glass and garnish as required
Serve chilled.

Note: I had added half green chilli to this cooler and it was spicy but still yummy. Adding ginger and chilli is optional.

Gulab Jamun

2013-07-16T13:50:00.002+05:30

Hello everyone! My today's dish is the one which everyone loves but for me it gets bit difficult because of sugar syrup. I love sweets but making them was a tough task for me and it still is but I am trying to perfect it. Gulab jamun is a simple sweet but we have to take care of correct measurements and the sugar syrup consistency. i have seen various versions of it but I could never get it right. This measurement I got from my sister-in-law and hence managed it but not too perfect.

These measurements would give approximately 10 gulab jamuns

Ingredients:

4 tbsp milk powder
1tbsp plain flour or maida
a pinch of baking soda
1/4cup or less milk or water
1tbsp ghee
extra ghee for frying jamuns

For sugar syrup:

1cup sugar
1 1/4 cup water
a pinch of cardamom powder
few strands of saffron

Method:
To make sugar syrup, mix sugar with water in a vessel and boil it till you get one string consistency. This is where I always got confused and I made it to see if its thin enough and still cooked proper. Add saffron and cardamom powder and mix well.

For jamuns, In a bowl, mix maida, milk powder, ghee and soda well. Knead this mixture with milk or water and taking care not to add to much. Make a smooth dough. Divide the dough in equal small balls size and keep aside.

Take a big pan and heat the ghee for frying on slow flame. When hot fry the balls, few at a time. When they turn golden brown, remove and keep aside for few mins. Later put the fried balls slowly in sugar syrup. Repeat the process till all the gulab jamuns are done.

Gulab jamuns can be served hot or at room temperature. Enjoy this lovely yet simple dish.

Give away at cooking with sapana

2013-07-13T13:30:00.003+05:30

Sapana Behl, a wonderful blogger with variety of recipes is holding a wonderful give away on completion of her 6months of blogging. Its a great event where we have to link the dishes which are cooked fast/

Hop over to Sapana's space to know more.

Chapati roll/ frankie

2013-07-12T13:07:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My today's recipe has many names as I have discovered in the blogging world. Some call it chapati roll, some say its frankie and some says kathi roll., Well its a roll anyways and we can stuff it with filling of our choice. I made simple stuffing and its enjoyed by kids and grown ups alike.

Ingredients:

chapatis as needed
1 cup boiled potatoes diced
1 grated carrot
1 onion finely sliced
1-2 green chilli sliced or chopped fine
salt to taste
1tbsp coriander powder
1tsp red chilli powder
1tsp dry mango powder
1tbsp chopped coriander leaves.
tomato sauce as required
oil as needed

Method:
I made potato sabzi here with given ingredients but the filling is entirely to personal preferences. I have kept spice level mild here for kids. Use 1bsp oil and saute the onions till translucent. Add green chillies and stir fry for a minute. Add diced potatoes, grated carrot and all dry masalas except tomato ketchup. Mix well and keep aside to cool.

Make chapatis as required. Take one chapati add little filling top it with tomato sauce and roll it. Make all chapati same way.
Wrap in foil and serve it or can pack it in kids tiffin boxes

We can use any vegetables as per our choice.

Hope you enjoy this.

Sending this to Sapana's event Fast!Fresh!Simple

Spring onion paratha

2013-07-08T14:34:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My today's dish is again a simple dish which requires very little time and can be made in jiffy. Just collect make and cook and ready to eat.
Everyone loves parathas and so I made a little twist when I had spring onions and wanted to use them in different way. It is great tiffin dish for kids as well.

Ingredients:

1 small bunch of spring onions
1 cup wheat flour
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp dry mango powder
1tsp red chili powder
1tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
2tbsp oil + more for cooking
2 green chillies chopped

Method:
Chop the greens of spring onion as well as the bulbs. Take wheat flour in bowl and mix spring onion leaves and bulbs along with all masalas. Add 2 tbsp oil and mix well. Add water and make smooth dough.
Heat a flat pan. Make small balls of equal size from the dough. Roll out in thick paratha and cook on both sides on flat pan. Sprinkle some oil to cook properly.

Spring onion paratha is ready and it can be used for tiffin service as well as side dish. Serve it with tomato sauce or curd or any dish.

Enjoy the parathas.

Sending this to:

Malai kofta

2013-07-02T10:30:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! Due to some personal reasons have been quite inactive and slow in updating my space here. Hope to put more dishes soon. My today's recipe is the one I have always had in restaurants and wondered how to make this. The blogging world has taught me how to make different kind of gravies for different dishes and thanks to this I have been able to make new dishes in my kitchen making my family happy as they love the gravy dishes.

My today's recipe is inspired by a lot of people on whose space I saw this and I just modified slightly according to my taste. The taste truly was like restaurant style Malai kofta.

Ingredients for koftas:

1/2 cup grated paneer
1/2 cup boiled and grated potatoes
1tsp black pepper powder
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp corn flour
few raisins

Method for koftas:
Combine all the ingredients for kofta and give the desired shape. Deep fry in oil, drain on kitchen paper and keep aside. Try with one kofta and if it breaks add more cornflour. I had stuffed raisins in the paneer potato mixture.

Ingredients for gravy:

4 tomatoes
2 onions
2 cloves
1 small stick cinnamon stick
5-6 pieces of cashew or almonds
2tbsp ginger garlic paste
2-3 green chillies
2tbsp butter
1tsp red chilli powder
1tsp garam masala powder
1tbsp oil
salt to taste

To garnish:
fresh cream and some coriander leaves

Method:
Blend the tomatoes to get puree. Blend the onions with little water to make smooth paste. Heat the butter along with oil in a pan. Add the onion paste and saute it for few mins. Add in cloves, garlic and chopped green chillies. Now put ginger garlic paste and saute again. Add tomato puree and cook for two mins and then add water as required. Boil for few mins till the required consistency comes. Add salt and masalas.

To serve:
Pour gravy in the serving bowl. Add the koftas slowly and garnish with fresh cream and coriander leaves.

Hope you like this dish.

Sending this to Mughlai event by SHRUTI and JULIE

Shaam savera -- palak paneer kofta in tomato gravy

2013-06-18T10:00:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My today's recipe is not a new one but I am sure a lot of people who have seen Chef Sanjeev Kapoor would know this dish.Shaam Savera was the very first dish I saw on tv and I wanted to try but those days I never liked paneer so I had to rule it out. Over the years my love for paneer developed and recently I saw this dish again on tv and thought to myself. why not I try now. It may not be perfect as I modified it to suit my taste but it turned out awesome.

Ingredients for Kofta:

2 Bunch spinach leaves
100 gms paneer
salt to taste
2 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp cumin seed
1tbsp garlic chopped
3-4 green chillies chopped
3-4 tbsp gram flour
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 cup corn flour
oil for frying +2tbsp

Method:
Blanch the spinach leaves. Squeeze out all the water. Let it cool and chop the leaves fine. Keep it aside. In another bowl, mash the paneer with little salt and black pepper. Here I added 2tbsp of corn flour to it. Mix and make small balls and keep aside. In a pan, heat 2tbsp oil, add cumin seeds, chopped garlic and green chillies. Saute it well. Add gram flour and saute it more. Add turmeric powder, chopped spinach and salt and mix well. Stir continously till the mixture is dry. Set it aside to cool. Once cooled and dry enough take a portion of spinach and flatten it in your palm. Put the paneer balls in the center, bring the edges together and close and make it like spinach ball. If spinach is still soft add some corn flour to it. Make all the balls this way and roll in the corn flour and shake off the excess flour. Heat oil in pan and deep fry them for 2-3mins. Remove and put on kitchen paper to drain off excess oil.
Try one ball first and if it breaks add more corn flour to spinach.

Ingredients for gravy:

8-10 tomatoes
1tbsp oil
2tbsp chopped garlic
3-4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp red chilli powder
2-3 tsp garam masala powder
salt to taste
1tsp turmeric powder
1tsp kasoori methi (optional)
fresh cream to garnish

Method:
Blanch and puree the tomatoes and keep aside. Heat oil in pan. Add chopped garlic to saute it lightly. Add tomato puree and salt and mix well. Now add turmeric powder and red chilli powder to it. Mix and add slight water and cook for few minutes till the puree is cooked. Now add butter and garam masala and mix well. The gravy is ready.

For serving, pour the gravy in bowl. Half the spinach koftas and arrange on the gravy. Garnish with kasoori methi and fresh cream.

Note: Add koftas just before serving. Enjoy the delicious and yummy shaam savera with roti, chapati or even rice.

Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu

2013-06-12T10:00:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! As you all know, we have monthly event called SNC meaning south vs north challenges. Each month a challenger from each zone challenges other team to try out the region's authentic dish and the brainchild of this event is Divya Pramil from you too can cook. For details click on Divya's site if you want to join.This month challenge is by Priya Suresh from Priya's Versatile recipes and its traditional Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu.

Looking at the recipe my first thought was that it resembles vada curry we made earlier but going through recipe thoroughly I realised its bit different. I and family really enjoyed this dish and though its supposed to be spicy I had to cut down a bit as we do not eat too spicy food.

Ingredients for pakoda:

1/2 cup chana dal/Bengal gram dal
2-3 dry red chillies
1 tsp fennel seeds
salt to taste
oil for frying

Method for pakodas:

Soak chana dal for 2-3hours and grind it to coarse paste with dry red chillies, salt and fennel seeds. Heat oil and take small paste and deep fry in oil like pakodas. Fry all the pakodas till golden brown. Remove on paper to drain off excess oil.

Ingredients for gravy:

2 onions
2 tomatoes
6-8 garlic pods
2-3 green chillies
1tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
2tbsp oil
coriander leaves for garnishing

For seasoning:

1inch Cinnamon stick
2 Cloves
2 Green cardamoms
2 Bay leaves
1tsp Fennel seeds
Few curry leaves

To grind:

1tsp Poppy seeds
4tbsp Grated coconut
6 Cashew nuts
1tbsp Roasted chana dal

Method:

To make paste, grind the ingredients given in the grind list with required amount of water. Heat oil in pan and fry the ingredients mentioned under seasoning. Chop onions and tomatoes and add it to the pan. Add garlic and green chillies and saute the vegetables. Add the paste we made before to this gravy. Mix well and cook for two mins. Add some more water and add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Mix well and reduce the heat. Let the vegetables cook and gravy should remain bit thinner. Once gravy is cooked add the pakodas and gently mix and switch off the gas.

Pakodas tend to soak the gravy so make sure to put them in the end. I added them just a little before serving.

Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves. We enjoyed this with chapati though this can be served with rice too.

Thanks priya for the yummy dish and I would love to make this again.

Watermelon popsicles

2013-06-10T14:08:00.001+05:30

Hello friends! My today's dish is impromptu dish and you can say a sort of just clicked to make this. Usually, we have watermelon as fruit only in my home but I never did try to get innovative with use of watermelon. Seeing people make halwa and so many things I thought, its time I should try to do something else with it. Thats when this idea hit me. It was a big hit in my home and my neice totally loved it calling it as ice ka gola.

Watermelon has huge water content and is very good to have in summer and though now monsoon is about to start but nothing stops us from enjoying this lovely fruit. So here we go and its very easy with no cooking needed. Just assemble and you are ready.

Ingredients:

Half a watermelon
sugar to taste
some icecream sticks

Method:
Peel and de seed the watermelon pieces. Blend the piece to make watermelon juice. As the watermelon was already sweet I did not add any sugar but if needed adjust it. The juice can be served chilled. Take Popsicle mould or kulfi mould. Pour the juice in it and put in freezer to set for one hour. My mould was stick less so I removed them after one hour and added sticks and let it freeze for close to 10 hrs. Remove from mould and serve chilled.

Enjoy the iced watermelon gola as my neice calls this one. Gola is very famous street side popsicle in Mumbai and its crushed ice flavoured with various syrups. I think this one was more healthy here what I made.

Eggless No bake Mango cheese cake

2013-06-07T10:00:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My today's dish's first inspiration came from American Tv serial FRIENDS. There was an episode where rachael and chandler end up eating cheese cake meant for someone else. I kept wondering about this cheese cake and was longing to taste it. Some months back at a bakery near my place had strawberry cheese cake and i bought one small piece. It was soft cheesy, creamy and yet too yummy. I wanted to try since then and had seen many versions of cheese cake while blog hopping. Time had come for me to try this out so right now this version is mix and match of what I had seen across the blogging world. Feel free to try out any version but this by far was the easiest one.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup crushed digestive biscuits
2 tbsp butter
1 cup mango puree
1/2 cup paneer
3-4 tbsp agar agar or gelatine or chinagrass
1/2 cup fresh cream
sugar to taste
8-10tbsp of warm water

Method:
I have used the glasses here to set my cheese cake and other versions are using spring form cake pan.
Mix soft butter with crushed biscuits and set it in base of glass or pan. Keep it in fridge to set for 10-15mins. In another bowl crumble paneer and mix cream with it. Blend it till it looks creamy. Keep it in fridge. Heat the water and add chinagrass pieces to it till they dissolve completely. Add the dissolved pieces in mango puree and mix it well. Take out the creamy paneer from fridge and add half the mango puree to this mixture. Mix gently and pour the cream mixture on top of the crushed biscuit layer. Do this very gently. Keep in fridge for at least 1 hour till this mixture sets. Once its set, add the remaining mango puree on top of the creamy layer. This third layer would be little thinner.
Since I made it very first time my third layer did not set properly but the look and taste was great. Keep it in fridge for 6-8hrs or you can have it next day as it sets very well by then.

Enjoy the lovely cheese cake.

Note: From what I read all over sites about cheese cake, some people use hung curd with cream cheese. I tried paneer with fresh cream to get creamy cheesy texture.

Teedali poath-- three lentil curry (Bhatia speciality)

2013-06-04T10:43:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! Today I bring you a dish which is my mom's favorite and is very regular in Thathai Bhatia household. In most Bhatia households, use of onion and garlic is prohibited but now a days there is always a mix and match with younger generations preferring onion and garlic in lots of dishes. This one is minus that. Teedali means three dals and this curry is made with three dals Let me show you how we make this.

Ingredients:

1 cup toor dal/pigeon pea
1/2 cup Moong dal
1/4 cup chana dal
1/2tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 green chillies
2-3 dry red chillies
3-4 dried mango pieces or raw mango slices
a pinch of asafoetida
few curry leaves
one small piece of ginger chipped
salt to taste
2tbsp ghee
water as required
coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
The ratio of dals is roughly 3:2:1 and that is how I have put the measurements here.
Soak all the dals together for 1 hour. Wash and boil the dals either direct on stove top with stirring to avoid burning at bottom or use pressure cooker to boil till two whistles.

Once pressure cooker cools, remove the dal utensil and roughly mash dal without turning into puree. Add water to get dal consistency and let it boil. Add turmeric powder, salt and green chillies chopped. After few mins add raw mango pieces and stir it nicely. Let the dal cook now for 5 mins. Keep an eye so the bottom does not burn.

In a small pan, prepare the tempering. Heat 2 tbsp ghee. Add curry leaves, ginger pieces, cumin seeds, dry red chillies and asafoetida one by one. Pour this tempering on dal. Garnish with coriander leaves.
This dal can be served with jeera, kishmish rice or the sweet kesariya rice.

Click on KESARIYA RICE to see the recipe.

For jeera rice:

Make plain rice. Add 1tbsp ghee in a pan add jeera and kishmish/raisins. Pour the tempering over the rice and mix gently.

For my mother...

2013-05-29T10:25:00.000+05:30

Hello friends! My dear friend Minnie from Thelady8home is having a wonderful cash give away. Its mother's day event and first anniversary of her site. I have known Minnie for years and through food blogging we connected again. Its a small world indeed. When I saw the event post at her place and my first thought went for my dear mom. It is said mothers are the most loving people who care a lot for her kids and everyone around and to quote - Howard Johnson

M-O-T-H-E-R
"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

My mother is old now and at this age she feels lot helpless, but I care for her a lot to see she is happy and not tensed. My mother was very active in her younger age and made lots of yummy dishes for us. Being a mother, myself, I can understand her a lot better than anyone else. I only wish God give my mother strength and best of health always. My mother loves jalebis a lot and the last time I made jalebis I sent to her and the twinkle in her eyes just seeing them was enough for me to be happy and satisfied that I could share those jalebis with her.

Click on JALEBI to see the recipe.

Minnie has amazing collection of both veg and non veg recipes and amongst all her recipes I have bookmarked Peas pulao recipe. I liked this recipe best as its easy and plus pulao is loved both by me and mom though when I make it I would modify it to suit our taste.

Here is the pic I took from Minnie's space.

Linking this to Minnie's event
Click on the logo to see event at her place.