Palak (Spinach) Pakoda and Egg Roll

Palak (Spinach) Pakoda

It been more than a month since I prepared this but due to all sort of logistic issues in moving out of hyderabad I got little busy and couldnt post the recipe even though I had clicked the photos. So today I am going to post all 5 recipes that were pending. New ones will come as and when I try them :)

Ingredients

1 Bunch of Palak

1/2 Cup Bason

1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

A Pinch of Jeera Powder

1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Wash Palak leaves and keep aside.
• Mix bason, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt to taste with water to form a paste
• Heat oil in a pan
• When its slightly warm, add a spoon of oil into the bason paste.
• When oil is hot, dip the two palak leaves at a time in the bason paste and add it into the pan and fry the pakoda on the golden colour
• Repeat for remaining leaves

Notes

I used smalled leaves of palak and the pakodas turned out amazing. Especially the palak was crisp and tasty because of its freshness and tenderness.

Also I dipped two palak leaves at a time so that the pakoda has its taste and still not too much of spinach which wont get crisp.

Egg Roll

I never imagined that egg roll can mean so much to bengalis :) Recently when I went to Puja Pandals, I saw most people at roll stand than in pandals :) Earlier ajoy use to ask me for egg roll and I use to thing he would love parathas more than egg roll. Probably you can say I didnt understand the roll importance :) But after attending puja this year, the first thing I had made my mind to surprise some day with rolls. So today for breakfast when I had almost nothing left at home I prepared this and he indeed was pleasantly surprised :)

Ingredients

3 Spoon Heaps of Maida

1 Spoon Heaps of Wheat Flour

3 Eggs

1 Onion

2 Green Chillies

Hot and sweet Tomato Ketchup

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix maida and wheat flour with salt to taste and little oil and knead the dough. Keep aside for atleast half an hour
• In a small pan, add little oil around half spoon or little less and heat it.
• Add sliced onions and green chillies to it and cook them till onions lose their rawness and look light brown. Keep aside
• Make 3 balls out of the dough and roll them thin one by one.
• Heat tawa and transfer the rolled roti on to the tawa. Put little oil from sides
• When one side is almost done flip the roti and let the other side cook for a while.
• Break the egg directly onto the cooking roti and spread it all over the roti and let it cook for a minute or so.
• Flip it, add oil from sides and cook from the egged side till egg is cooked completely.
• On a plate keep a kitchen towel such that it covers the 2/3rd of the plate.
• Transfer the cooked egg roti on to this plate. Egg side on top.
• Spread the 1/3rd mixture of cooked onion and chilli in the middle as one line. Add single ketchup line to taste.
• Now roll the egg roti into the egg roll with the kitchen towel and close the napkin from the bottom.
• Repeat same process for remaining two rolls.

Notes

I didnt use complete wheat flour for roti as otherwise you tend to get wheat flour taste in the roll which I dont like in the roll. I didnt use complete maida because otherwise after cooking the rotis tend to get too hard. Hence this combination.

While rolling the roti, the best way to get perfect roll is to first put one side over the other such that mixture is covered and is tightly filled in from one side. and then roll it into the roll from same side.

Chutney For Medu Wada And Medu Wada

Chutney For Medu Wada

I read about this special chutney for the medu wada in the cookery book that I have and tried this. It tastes amazing with the wada obviously not as nice as sambar (wada sambar being my favourite). But I was in kind of wrapping up mode that time and hence didnt want to prepare sambar so this chutney made nice alternative.

Ingredients

1/2 Coconut

1/4 Cup Chana Daal

6 Green Chillies

1 Bunch Corriander

1/2 Cup Curd

1/2 Spoon Mustard

1/2 Spoon Udid Daal

A pinch of Asafoetida

1 Spoon of Oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Grate coconut and grind it in mixie with green chillies, corriander leaves, chana daal(one used in chivadas) and salt.
• In this mixture mix curd
• In a small pan heat the oil and let mustard and udid daal splutter in it. Also add Asafoetida.
• Mix this oil into the chutney and serve.

Notes

I used coconut water itself while grinding coconut so that it tastes nice and i dont need to add sugar.

You can also add Red Chillies into the oil for even better taste but i didnt have it so had to skip that.

Medu Wada

Medu wada is my all time favourite and if you know that guests are coming in the evening even by afternoon this is something you can try. This time I really managed to get real crisp and nice medu wada with little help from the book.

Ingredients

2 Cup Udid Daal

2 Green Chillies

4 Spoon Coconut Pieces

1 Onion

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Wash and soak the udid daal for around 5-6 hours.
• Once daal is soaked enough, remove the excess water and grind to fine paste.
• Add Salt, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped onion and coconut pieces and mix well.
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the wadas on low flame.

Notes

Fry the wadas immediately after grinding the daal so that wadas are not oily.

When you put the wada in the hot oil it should float instantly, otherwise add little water to the mixture and loosen the mixture and mix really well.

One can also add little ginger but i prefer non gingery flavour for the wadas.

Khima Egg Masala And Green Salad

Khima Egg Masala

When we were about to leave from temporary housing, we had so many stuff remaining and we didnt want to carry too many items from there to permanant one. So thats what is the inspiration behind this experiment. Quite tasty and unique :)

Ingredients

450g Khima

4 Tomatoes

2 Onions

3 Eggs

1 Spoon Garam Masala

1.5 Spoon Red chilli Powder

1 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Black Pepper

2-3 Cinnamon

1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste

1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste

1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder

A pinch of Jeera Powder

Corriander Leaves for Garnishing

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Hard boil eggs and keep them aside.
• In a pan heat oil and add washed and drained Khima to it.
• Cook till it turns brown in color and oil separates out. Keep aside.
• In same oil add black pepper, cinnamon and let it turn light brown in color.
• Add finely chopped onion, garlic paste, ginger paste to this
• When onion is completely cooked, add 1/2 spoon turmeric, 1 spoon red chilli powder, garam masala, corriander powder and jeera powder
• Mix well and cook for couple of minutes
• Let it cool down and grind the mixture in mixie.
• In same pan in a spoonful of oil add this grinded mixture and grated tomatoes and cook till tomato is half done.
• Mix 1/4 cup of water in it, Salt to taste and the fried keema to it. Cook till completely done and almost dry. Keep aside
• Grate the eggs, add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt to taste to it and keep aside.
• While serving, add small portion of keema masala into the bowl, top it with grated egg mixture and garnish with corriander leaves.

Notes

One can actually add, cheese or paneer as well instead of egg but I thought egg would be the best one to go along this recipe flavour.

Green Salad

When I came to US there were so many new ingredients that were easily available that I decided to try something different than I have always tried :) So here was my experiment with the first salad. I would name it Green Salad for I used Green Leaf Lettuce :)

Ingredients

10 leaves of Green Leaf Lettuce

1/2 Cup Grape Tomatoes

1/2 Pineapple

1/4 Cup Corn

10 Cucumber Pickels

5 Jalapenos

1/2 Spoon Oregano

2.5 Spoon Ranch Dressing

Salt to taste

Method

• Cook the corn in boiling water or microwave in a cup of water for 5 min. Drain the water and keep aside.
• Cut the green leaf lettuce into medium sized pieces
• Halve the grape tomatoes and add them to leaf lettuce.
• Add Pineapple after chopping it to small pieces
• Halve cucumber pickle and add to it
• Add chooped jalapenos and corn that was set aside.
• Add Ranch Dressing, Oregano and Salt. Mix well and serve.

Notes

This was something quick, healthy and yet tasty. The ranch dressing and oregano went well together :) Need to try some other fruits, vegetables and dressings. :)

Garden Salad and Idli

Garden Salad

This was salad that I did impromptu with all the ingredients I had at home. The result tasted good and lettuce too this time was quite good.

 

Ingredients

1 Cup chopped Lettuce

1/2 Cup Pineapple

1/2 Cup Mango

1 Boiled Potato

1 Tomato

1 Fresh Red Chilli

1/2 Spoon Oregano

1/4 Cup Pickled Cucumber

2 Spoon Vinegar

Salt to taste

Method

• Add chopped lettuce to the bowl
• Add chopped pineapple and mango in it.
• Add finely chopped tomato in it.
• Remove the cover from boiled potato and add the small cubes in the bowl
• Add finely sliced red chilli in it
• Cut the pickled cucumber into small pieces and add in it.
• Add Salt to taste, oregano and vinegar
• Mix well and serve.

Notes

I had cut all the stuff and added to the bowl and then around half an hour before dinner I mixed in oregano and stuff well. I thought otherwise all the flavors might get mixed in each other and wont taste as good as I would like :) and that proved right because the next day in lunch box it didn't taste as good as it was for dinner :)

 Idli

I have seen quite a few people buy the readymade dosa or idli batter. But I guess I dont like the taste. There is nothing as good as compared to home made stuff. And Idli is something very very easy to prepare. You just need to plan a day ahead thats all it takes. Rest is easy.

Ingredients

1 Cup Udid Daal

2 Cup Idli Rawa

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak Udid Daal and Idli Rawa for atleast 8 hours.
• Strain the water from the Udid Daal and grind it in the mixie to fine paste.
• Strain water from the idli rawa and grind it to fine paste too.
• Mix rawa paste and udid daal paste well and keep aside for atleast 8 hours
• In the morning, mix in salt really well
• Heat the water in a cooker - without lid
• Grease the idli pan and add the idli mixture in there.
• When the water in the cooker starts to boil put the idli stand into the cooker and cook for around 10-12 minutes on high flame with lid closed but no whistle.
• Open the cooker and let the idlis cool down a little. Separate idlis from the pan and serve with chutney/sambar

Notes

Here since everything is AC and we maintain low temperature, I did keep the mixture on top of hot water container at night. That works perfectly well.

Dont forget to remove the cooker lid immeidately after idli is done so that the vapour doesnt cool down inside the idli making it moist

Very Berry CakeCorn Sikh Kabab

Very Berry Cake

Right now we get so many variety of berries out here that I thought it would be a good idea to try out this cake.

Ingredients

3 Cups Maida

4 Spoon Baking Powder

2 Eggs

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Sugar

3/4 Cup Milk

2 Cup Rasberry

2 Cup Blue Berry

3/4 Cup Black Berry

6-8 Strawberries

Salt to taste

Method

• Mix the butter and sugar with the handheld mixer.
• Add Egg and mix again till thick and smooth paste
• Sieve the maida, baking powder and salt together.
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Add the maida-baking powder mixture in to the egg-butter-sugar mixture with constant mixing using handheld mixer
• When the complete maida and baking powder mixture is mixed it would be quite thick. Add milk and mix well
• Add all the berries (used whole berries except for stawberries which i chopped in to four pieces as they were big ones) and mix with a spatula
• Grease the baking pan and pour in the mixture.
• Bake for 35 minutes at 350F/180C

Notes

I used powdered sugar so that it can dissolve in quickly.

Also I used the fresh fruits directly from fridge so that they dont over cook.

You can also use frozen berries available in the market. I might try freezing the fresh berries and using them unthawed next time.

Also I used salted butter and added salt to so it tasted little extra salt. So if you are using salted butter dont use salt or vice-a-versa.

Corn Sikh Kabab

We get lots of corn out here and I think its good source of fiber and roughage :) So we eat in abundance. But its normally after roasting it and sprinkling salt and lemon. This time I decided to try something different with it and here is the recipe I came up with.

Ingredients

4 Cobs with the corn

2 Potatoes

4 Spoon Corn Flour

6 Cloves of Garlic

2 Green Chillies

1 Onion

1/4 Cup Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Butter or Ghee

Method

• Add water to corn and cook over medium flame for around 25 minutes or till the corn is cooked. Keep aside to cool down
• Pressure cook potato in the cooker and keep aside to cool down
• In a mixie grind garlic, green chillie and onion to smooth paste
• Grate the corns, Mash the potatoes and mix them
• Add the grinded mixture, finely chopped corriander leaves, corn flour and salt to taste.
• Make the elongated kababs from this mixture.
• Preheat oven to 400F/200C
• Grease the baking tray with butter/ghee and spread the kababs
• Bake at 400F/200C for 15 minutes
• Flip the sides of the kabab and bake for another 15 minutes. Server with tomato ketchup

Notes

While making the mixture I tried to use less spicess as possible so that i can retain the taste of the corn and it worked well with hint of onion-garlic-chilli paste. But if you like you can add other masalas as well.

Just for completeness, the given quantity of corn flour worked best for my kabab mixture to be firm. You can add more or use less according to the consitency of the mixture.

You can also cook the kababs over tawa on medium to low heat but oven cooking worked best as i could manage other work while it was getting cooked :)

Pumpkin Almond Cup Cakes and Carrot Paratha

Pumpkin Almond Cup Cakes

Few days back I made 'Khatakhata' - a special mixed vegetable dish from konkani cuisine. It needs pumpkin and I looked for it through all grocery stores, super markets, indian stores but every one said its out of season. But Wholes food had canned pumpkin and I thought of giving it a try. But when I opened the can I found that it was mashed one and not cubed ones. So I couldnt use that in the khatkhata. (Yes recipe will come for it when I cook it next time as this time I forgot to take pics). Then I was looking for all pumpkin recipes that can use puree of Pumpkin and found that cupcakes use them. So finally after reading lot I came up with this my version. Once it started baking it spread so much of aroma that I just couldnt wait for them to get ready. What a nice way to eat Pumpkin :)

Ingredients

2 cup Pumpkin Puree

3 Cup Maida

1 Cup Butter

1.5 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Castor Sugar

2 Spoon Baking Powder

1/2 Spoon Baking Soda

1/2 Cup Milk

1/2 Spoon Cinnamon Powder

1/2 Spoon Cloves Powder

1/2 Spoon Nutmeg Powder

1/4 Cup Almond Sliced

1/2 Spoon Pistachio Essence

2 Eggs

Method

• Sieve through Maida, baking powder, baking soda few times.
• Mix Nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and cloves powder. Keep aside
• In a bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and castor sugar together untill mixture is fluffy and sugar is completely mixed
• Add in each egg at a time and beat them into the mixture.
• Now add the sieved maida-bakingpowder mixture little at a time till completely accomodated. Stir with a spatula and dont use blender here.
• Add milk and mix well. Mixture will thin down a little
• Add pumkin puree and pistacheo essence and mix gently using the spatula
• Mix in the almonds except few to decorate in the batter.
• Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the cup cake trays and fill in the mixture upto 3/4th level in each cup
• Garnish with remaining almonds
• Bake in the oven on 350F/180C for 20 minutes. Knife inserted should come out clean.

Notes
If you are using fresh pumkin, just steam the pumkin and then mash it in mixie. I guess that should work too.
Made around 16 medium sized cup cakes

Carrot Paratha

I was thinking about something new yet simple for dinner yesterday. I thought of parathas as ajoy loves it.. But then I didnt want to cook something that we always eat.. So came up with this idea. Turned quite nice.


Ingredients
1.5 Potato
2 Cup Grated Carrots
2.5 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
3/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Carom Seeds
1/2 Lemon
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• Mix wheat flour, salt to taste and 2 spoons of oil.
• Add water to it and make the dough. It shouldnt be too loose or too tight.
• Add another couple of spoon of oil and knead well and keep aside for half an hour atleast.
• Cook potatoes in the pressure cooker and let them cool
• Mash the potatoes and mix with carrots
• Add red chilli powder, salt, corriander powder, carom seeds and lemon juice. Mix well.
• Prepare the balls of small lemon size out of this mixture
• Make same size balls from the dough and prepare the cup shape.
• Stuff the carrot ball in the cup shape dough and close the ball. Roll the paratha
• On medium flame, heat the tawa and cook the paratha from both sides till brown. Spread few drops of oil while its cooking.
• When completely done apply few drops of ghee and serve with pickle and/or curd

Notes
I prefer to use only few drops of ghee at the end of cooking of paratha but if you like you can fry them in ghee itself.

Tawa Paneer And Brinjal Paratha

Tawa Paneer 

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been so bored eating same type of gravies and all I thought that I have to try something different with paneer this time. Would have loved to make palak paneer but then I didnt have spinach and i was too tired with cycling and too engrossed in DMG - Abhi - Nikki Scenes that I decided to make my own tawa paneer recipe. Well I didnt even look on net for recipes nor did i check in some of the books I have. Just went through adding whatever I felt like. Result was awesome :) So here I am sharing with you my own Tawa Paneer

Ingredients

200g Paneer Block

1 Onion

2 Tomato

4-5 Sweet Peppers

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Aamchur Powder

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into squared pieces, onions and tomatoes into the medium sized pieces
• Slice the sweet peppers
• On a tawa add some oil and shallow fry paneer pieces on high heat but till light brown in colour. Keep aside
• In same oil add chopped onion and cook till light brown in colour. Separate from oil and keep aside
• Cook sweet peppers in same oil and keep aside
• In same oil, add tomato pieces and cook till almost done.
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and Aamchur Powder and saute for 2-3 minutes
• Add paneer pieces, onion, sweet peppers and salt to taste.
• Mix well and cook for another 4-5 minutes and serve warm

Notes

I didnt want to add any fancy items in there nor i wanted to add more spices etc to make sure it is not too spicy. Well I loved the taste as it was it had perfect combination of mild spices with the soft paneer.

I used nonstick tawa with sides to it - that helped me in managing it while mixing well :)

Brinjal Paratha

These days I end up making parathas too often. Simple reason being, then you dont need to cook other 3-4 items and also ajoy loves parathas. So its good for me too and for him too.. especially on busy weekdays. So here is something I came up with Brinjal. I had tried this lot of times but I think yesterday was the best one with perfect combinations :) Hence its finally making its way out here :)

Ingredients

1 Medium Sized Brinjal

2 Cup Wheat Flour

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder

2-3 Spoon Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Broil the brinjal in the oven at 500F for 25minutes. Let it cool down
• Remove the cover and smash the brinjal.
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder, finely chopped corriander leaves and salt to taste.
• Add wheat flour and make the dough out of it.
• Apply a spoon of oil and knead well and keep aside for 20-30 minutes.
• Make lemon sized balls and roll the 3 fold parathas and cook them on the tawa.
• Serve hot with curd and pickle

Notes

You can roast the brinjal the way we do it for Bharata on the stove. Or you can bake them in the oven but I found that broiling functionality in ovens here is much better than baking when you need the item to be cooked without it oozing out its juices. The last few times I baked the brinjal it oozed lot of juice and then I had to add too much of wheat flour and the parathas lacked the brinjal taste in them.