Kanda(Onion) Pohe,Cherry And Cashew Cup Cakes

Kanda(Onion) Pohe

Lot of friends had been asking for easy breakfast recipies.. I mean some simple yet tasty day today breakfast recipies. So here I am posting recipe for simple yet delicious maharashtrian breakfast/snacks.. This item is so common that whenever people get unexpected guest or there is "Ladaki Dikhana" program at ones place this is must :)

Ingredients

2 Cup Pohe

1/2 Cup Muttor

1 Onion

A pinch of Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Mustard

1/4 Spoon Jeera

4 Green Chillies

4 Spoon Grated fresh Coconut

4 Spoon Corriander leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Wash the pohes and drain out excess water. Keep aside.
• Heat oil and let mustard and jeera splutter in it
• Add chopped green chillies and fry for a minute
• Add onions and cook them till they are translucent
• Add turmeric powder and cook for a minute
• Add washed poha and muttor in it adn mix well.
• Cover it and cook for couple of minute
• Open the lid, mix well, add salt to taste and again cover and cook covered for 3-4 minutes on low flame.
• Garnish with grated coconut and finely chopped corriander leaves and serve

Notes
Washing pohes and keep aside at first is important. It gives enough time for pohas to soak in the washed water to become soft. If you find your pohas are not enough soft just sprinkly little water before covering and cooking. But I never needed this if I washed them at first place. Dont forget to remove excess water. Washed water is just enough for them to be perfect soft.
Instead of muttor you can add groundnuts in the oil before adding pohas and fry them well. These are also tastier and ajoy's favourite. But authentic pohas are with muttor :) and I love them that way.
You can also add 1/2 cup potato cubes in oil and cook them before adding Pohas to it to get Kanda(Onion) Batata(Potato) Pohe :)

Cherry And Cashew Cup Cakes

I had been thinking of preparing cup cakes since I prepared muffins. But its only today I actually materialised the thoughts into the action :) :) So here is cherry - cashew cup cake recipy for you all.


Ingredients
2 Cup Canned Cherries
1 Cup Canned Cherry Syroup
1 Cup Castor Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Butter
2 Cup Maida
2.25 Spoon Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Cashews

Method

• Blend butter, castor sugar and eggs well.
• Sieve Maida and Baking Powder together
• Add it to the sugar-egg-butter mixture and blend it till it just folds in
• Remove the seeds from the cherries
• Add deseeded cherries, cherry syroup and milk to the mixture and blend till mixture folds in well and cherries are half crushed
• Add Cashew pieces
• Prehead Oven at 200C
• Grease the Cup Cake Pans
• Fill in the cups with batter about 2/3rd
• Bake it at 200C for about 20 minutes

Notes
Cherry Syroup and Blended Cherry gives it amazing Taste of fresh cherries :) You can add Almonds or Walnuts as well apart from cashews. I wanted to add them but didnt have them available that time hence added just cashews
Also I used Salted butter hence didnt mix salt with the maida, if you are using unsalted butter, add salt to taste to the maida while sieving

Tofu Burger and Masala Daal

Tofu Burger

I was very inclined to prepare the burger at home but didnt want to try any meat burger. So thought of preparing paneer one. But then the indian grocerry store was little far from my place so thought to try it on tofu. The burger turned out quite well and the mildness of tofu vanished in the spcies and other things that I added.

Ingredients

4 Burger Buns

100g Tofu

2 Onions

1 Tomato

1 Fresh Red Chilli

4 Cheese Slices

1/2 Cup Lettuce

Ranch Dressing

Salt and Pepper

Oil

Method

• Cut the Tofu into cubes
• Heat oil and keep the flame on low.
• Add tofu pieces and cook till light brown in colour.
• Add onion slices, red chilli into it and cook till onions are slight brown in colour
• Add salt and pepper and stir well. Divide the mixture into 4 portions
• On each bun keep the cheese slice and add the portion of the cooked tofu mixture.
• Spread the lettuce, tomato Slice, couple of drops of tomato ketchup and one circle of the ranch dressing.
• Close with the upper portion of the bun and serve.

Notes
I cooked tofu on very light heat which helped me keep it soft. The Spicy Chilli, ranch dressing helped in supressing the mildness of Tofu.

Masala Daal
This Spicy daal was something I just experimented out when I was in pune. It turned out great. Actually mom dad loved it and then when I came here even ajoy liked it :) So thought of posting the recipe


Ingredients
3 Cup Tur Daal
1 Onion
1 Tomato
6-7 Garlic cloves
1/4 Spoon Mustard
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
Corriander Leaves for Garnishing
Butter cubes
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method

• Cook tur daal with 1 cup water in the cooker.
• Heat the oil and let the mustard and jeera splutter in it
• Add finely chopped onions, garlic pieces and fry till onions turn translucent.
• Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and garam masala and mix well.
• Add tomato and cook till tomato is completely done.
• Add in cooked tur daal, salt and mix well. Cook for couple of minutes with constant stirring
• Add enough water for getting desired consistency to the daal and bring it to the boil.
• Garnish with corriander leaves.
• While serving serve with little butter cubes on top.

Notes
While cooking daal I dont mix too much of water, that way the cooked daal when added to masala completely soaks the taste and aroma.

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 :)

Mangana And Paneer Biryaani

 Mangana

One of my favorite sweet dish, so much so that every Saturday mom use to make this for lunch and i always looked forward to it. Finally I decided to make it on my own, off course with the recipe help from mom. I modified it a little bit though.

Ingredients

1 Cup Harbara Daal

3/4 Cup Jaggery

1/2 Cup Cashews

1/2 Cup Raisins

3 Cup Milk

A pinch of Cardamom Powder

Salt to taste

Method

• Pressure cook the harbara daal by adding 1.5 cup water over 4-5 whistles.
• Add jaggery, cashews, raisins, cardamom powder and salt and cook over medium flame for 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool down
• Add milk to the cooled mixture and serve

Notes

Isnt it simplest sweet dish ever :) The taste is amazing esp because of jaggery, daal and dry fruits.

You can use coconut milk instead of normal milk but since mom uses milk I used same.

Paneer Biryaani

Last week I made this but didn't get time to post it. Long time ago Anuja had asked me about preparing the biryaani with something veg. I remember she mentioned that she doesn't want it with paneer but I just couldn't help but make it with paneer. So sorry for fulfilling your wish only half way through but this recipe is just for you. Hope you get to try it and like it :) It turned out a simple affair and yet very delicious. This one is inspired by Spicy Biryaani recipe but I modified it little bit so as to take Paneer taste into account.

Ingredients

3 Cup Rice

400g Paneer

4 Tomatoes

3 Onions

2 Potatoes

1 Cup Cashews

1/2 Cup Almonds

8 Cinnamon

15 Cloves

15 Cardamons

1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper

1 Spoon Jeera

1/2 Spoon Saunf

1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste

1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste

1/4 Cup Curd

1/2 Cup Milk

2 Pinch Saffron

8 Spoon ghee

4 Spoon Butter

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into cubic pieces
• In a bowl, mix turmeric powder, red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, curd and salt to taste.
• Add cubed paneer pieces in it and mix well so that the marrination is completely covering the pieces. Keep it in dry, cool place for around couple of hours.
• Soak rice in warm water and keep aside
• In a pan add butter and shallow fry the paneer pieces to light brown tinge over medium heat. Keep them aside
• In same pan, in same butter, add 4 cinamon, 5 cloves, black pepper, poppy seeds, jeera, sauf, corriander powder, almonds and 1/2 cup cashews and roast it over low-medium flame till light aroma feels the air. The masalas would be light brown by now.
• Add one diced onion and cook till onion turns light brown. Let the mixture cool down.
• In a mixie grind 3 tomatoes and keep aside.
• Grind the above cooked masala with remaining tomato to form fine paste.
• In a pan, add 2 spoon of ghee and this masala and roast for a while.
• Add tomato puree and salt to taste in it and cook till the gravy thickens
• Add paneer pieces and cook till the gravy dries completely. Keep aside.
• Pressure cook potatoes, cut them into slices after removing their cover and keep aside.
• Warm Milk, add saffron and keep aside.
• In a pan, boil water and add the soaked rice. Cook till almost done.
• Drain remaining water and run it through cold water.
• In a small pan, heat 4 spoon of ghee and add 4 cinamons, 10 cloves, 15 cardmom and salt to taste. Roast for couple of minutes and add it to the rice. Mix well and keep aside.
• Cut the remaining 2 onions into thin slices.
• In a Pan, add little oil and fry the onions onto medium-high flame till they are light brown in color. Keep aside.
• In same oil, fry the remaining 1/2 cup cashews and keep aside.
• Grease the cooker with 2 spoon of ghee and layer biryaani. Spread the potato slices to cover the cooker bottom first. Spread 1/3 of rice, then spread a layer of half of paneer masala, sprinkle some cashews, and browned onions.
• Do the same layering again (Rice, masala, cashews and onions) and then cover it with remaining 1/3 portion of rice.
• Sprinkle Some more cashews and onions, keeping aside a few for decoration.
• Make few through and through holes through the layered biryaani with the back of spatula.
• Spread the saffron milk in them.
• Cover with the lid and pressure cook over low heat for 25- 30 minutes.
• Garnish with left cashews and onions and serve.

Notes

I used 1 layer of rice 1/2 paneer and then again another layer of rice with rice from just 2 cups of raw rice. Also used half quantity of cashews, onions and garnishing spices. Stored the remaining half portion of paneer masala for later use this week. I just had to do the rice and onion portion again and could quickly make the dinner. Helped on the hectic day a lot. :) And it tasted even much better as well because of storing masala for few days :)

I always use the potato layering to cover up cooker so that the biryaani doesnt get burnt while pressure cooking it. I am speechless for that idea, helps a lot.

Also stored the marrinated paneer in fridge since it was quite hot here. But i think even in other time thats a better way so that it dries even further and the marrination sticks to paneer.

Veggie Pizza And Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Veggie Pizza

I had been meaning to make this pizza for a while now. Veggie is something that I don't prefer outside in pizza hut or any other pizza place but I wanted to make this at home so that I can use Indian veggies and make it to my taste. I completely took liberty here with veggies that I used and the outcome was really interesting.

Ingredients

4 Cup Wheat Flour

2 Cup Maida

2 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 Spoon Sugar

2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast

3 Tomatoes

2 Spoon Garlic Paste

2 Spoon Basil Leaves

1/2 Spoon Black pepper powder

2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

3 Spoon Ketchup

1 Cup Parmesan Cheese

2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

1 cup of Small Paneer Pieces

1.5 cup Eggplant Pieces

8 Ladiesfinger

1 Cup Sweet Corn

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix sugar and active yeast with a cup of luke warm water. Keep covered by clinging film for 10 minutes to bubble up the water which means yeast is activated
• In a plate, mix wheat flour, maida, salt, olive oil and melted butter.
• Add in activated yeast mixture and milk and knead a soft dough. Keep aside in a big bowl covered by the clinging film for around 2 hours to double it up.
• Heat oil and add garlic paste in it. Roast it till it spreads nice aroma
• Add in basil leaves, pepper powder, red chilli powder and salt. Cook for couple of minutes
• Puree tomatoes and add them along with the ketchup to the above mixture. Cook till the water that separates out is evaporated and mixture is in single consistency paste. Keep aside.
• In oil fry ladies finger(whole), paneer pieces, eggplant pieces each for a minute. Remove the head of the ladies finger and cut it into half. Sprinkle salt and keep aside
• When the dough doubles up, divide it into two portions and spread it on two Pizza Pans
• Spread in tomato gravy made above equally on each one of the pizza.
• Spread in Parmesan Cheese, fried veggies(paneer, ladies finger, eggplant) and sweet corn.
• Cover it up with the mozzarella cheese.
• Heat the oven to 400F/200C
• Cook the pizza in the oven at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes

While frying ladies finger(bhendi) i fried it whole and then cut it into half instead of other way round so as to avoid its seeds being flowing out of it.

All veggies I just browned them a bit so as to give it a richer taste. I didnt cook them completely by any means otherwise it might burn out or melt away while in the oven.

Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Happy New Year to everyone :) Mine was quiet one as I was/am jetlaged a way lot to stay awake even till 9pm :) Guess this recipe would be special because I started working on this last year and the final dish was ready this year ;-) This was kind of impromptu one on demand of special breakfast by Ajoy

Ingredients

14-16 Bread Slices

400g Cleaned Prawns

1/2 Cup pickled cucumber

4 Spoon Curd

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder

1/4 Spoon Chaat Masala

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Cup Butter

Salt to taste

Method

• Mix curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder, black pepper powder, jeera powder, garam masala, chaat masala and salt
• Slice the prawns into smaller pieces and add them into above curd mixure, mix well and store them in fridge for 4-6 hours.
• Heat a flat pan and add 1/4 cup butter and marinated prawns
• Cook on high flame with constant stirring till the masala turns dark brown in color and dry out. Keep aside.
• Make sandwitches by spreading pickled cucumber and prawns cooked earlier between two slices of breads
• Grill them with remaining butter and serve hot

Notes

Chopping prawns into smaller pieces would help in avoiding it being pulled in a single bite :)

Ginger Corn Flower And Plums Cake

Ginger Corn Flower

Ajoy loves cauliflower so we end up eating it every week at least once. So I keep trying variety of preparations instead of sticking to the usual one. So today I decided to make a gingery flower. To reduce the spiciness and pungent taste of the ginger I decided to use sweet corn. The recipe came out pretty well and here it is.

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower

2 Cup Corn

1 Spoon Grated Ginger

2 Tomatoes

1 Onion

3/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder

Salt

Oil

Method

• Heat oil to high and fry the medium sized flower florets in it till light brown. Keep aside
• In a pan heat spoon full of oil and add onion. Fry till translucent.
• Add grated ginger and fry for another minute
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for a minute or two.
• Add mashed tomato in it. Cook for couple of minutes.
• Add sweet corn, salt to taste and cook for 5-6 minutes till mixture dries up a little.
• Add fried flower florets and mix up gently so that masala coats the flower
• Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve.

Notes
Dont wait for the florets to be dark in color, after taking out from the oil they darken up a little.

Ajoy loves cauliflower so we end up eating it every week at least once. So I keep trying variety of preparations instead of sticking to the usual one. So today I decided to make a gingery flower. To reduce the spiciness and pungent taste of the ginger I decided to use sweet corn. The recipe came out pretty well and here it is.

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower

2 Cup Corn

1 Spoon Grated Ginger

2 Tomatoes

1 Onion

3/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder

Salt

Oil

Method

• Heat oil to high and fry the medium sized flower florets in it till light brown. Keep aside
• In a pan heat spoon full of oil and add onion. Fry till translucent.
• Add grated ginger and fry for another minute
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for a minute or two.
• Add mashed tomato in it. Cook for couple of minutes.
• Add sweet corn, salt to taste and cook for 5-6 minutes till mixture dries up a little.
• Add fried flower florets and mix up gently so that masala coats the flower
• Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve.

Notes
Dont wait for the florets to be dark in color, after taking out from the oil they darken up a little.

Plums Cake
We had got lot of plums from Costco but they weren't ripe ones. So I had been thinking of making a cake using them for quite a few days. Finally today I got some time to experiment with it thought the plums were ripe now. I made it in heart shape in honor of today's Valentines day.


Ingredients
1 Cup Butter
1.5 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Maida
1 Cup Hazelnuts
1 Cup Walnuts
1 Cup Groundnuts
3 Eggs
1/2 Spoon Baking Powder
6 Plums
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
4 Spoon Powdered Sugar
2 Spoon Almonds

Method

• Grind hazelnuts to powder
• In a bowl, beat in sugar and butter till light and fluffy.
• Add a egg to the butter and beat well
• Then add in 1/3rd of hazelnut powder and beat well.
• Continue adding remaining eggs one at a time alternating with hazelnut powder and beat well
• Add in walnuts and peanuts and mix well.
• Sieve maida and baking powder together and add in to the above mixture. Mix well.
• Grease a pan and add in the batter
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Bake the cake at 350F/180C for 45 minutes
• Take out the cake out of oven and arrange in halved plums(without seeds) over the top
• Bake again at 350F/180C for 10 minutes. Take out and let it cool down
• In a small pan mix lemon juice with powdered sugar and let it simmer till thickened
• Pour it over the cake, garnish with finely chopped almonds.

Notes
Alternately you can use marmalade jam if you have. I wanted to use that for the glazing but since I didn't have it I made lemon, sugar mixture.

Rava Dosa And Dates and Chocochips Pan Cakes

Rava Dosa

Rava dosa made into my favorite list the day I ate it opposite my college back in pune. The crispiness of the dosa along with the cashews spread on it made it so much more enjoyable. So when I saw my mom preparing it when I was in India in December and learnt that its so quick and simple, I had been meaning to make it like a long time. Today on Sunday I thought it would be a perfect way to make a tasty brunch that requires minimal efforts.

Ingredients

1 Cup Rava

1 Cup Rice Powder

1/4 Cup Maida

1/2 Spoon Jeera

1/4 Spoon Asafoetida

Finely chopped Roasted Cashews

2 Green Chillies

Salt to taste

Ghee

Method

• Mix rava, rice powder, maida, finely chopped green chillies, jeera, asafoetida with salt.
• Add in lots of water to make a thin batter.
• Keep aside for 20 minutes
• Add in more water so that it is thin consistency
• Heat tawa on medium flame
• Grease tawa with Ghee and pour the 1/2 cup batter at a time spreading it over the tawa.
• Let it cook till the dosa gets light brown color.
• Sprinkle couple of drops of ghee and flip the dosa and let the other side be cooked
• Sprinkle some cashews and fold on either side and serve.

Notes

When I tried making it I didnt let the batter sit for those 20 minutes, because of which the batter kept on thickening - blaming it to the Rava. It made first two dosas thick and soggy. So I strongly suggest letting the batter sit for 20-30 minutes.

To spread the batter on the tawa I dropped the batter on tawa from a bit of distance and slowly over areas that didnt have batter, letting it form the mesh and yet avoiding forming layers, hence keeping it thin.

Chocochips Pan Cakes

I had been making pan cakes for quite some time. One of the easiest and tasty breakfast. I had made it with cranberries, mangoes, blue berries earlier. Today I didn't have any of the fruits that would go in it. So I decided to make it with what I had plenty - Dates and Chocochips. The pan cakes came out really nice and we had hearty breakfast on such a lovely bright day.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Dates

1/4 Cup Choco Chips

1/2 Cup Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup Maida

3/4 Cup Curd

1 Egg

3/4 Spoon Sugar

1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essense

1/4 Spoon Baking Powder

1/4 Spoon Baking Soda

2.5 Spoon Melted Butter

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Deseed the Dates and chop them into small pieces. Keep aside.
• Sieve together wheat flour and maida
• Add Sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix well
• Add egg, curd, melted butter and vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Add 1/2 cup warm water and mix well to flowing consistency.
• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame.
• Pour the pan cake batter 1/2 cup at a time on the non stick pan and top it with some choco-chips and dates
• Over medium-low heat, cook the pan cakes till golden brown in color and bubbles up the top side. Flip and golden the other side too. Serve with honey and or maple syrup

Notes

The batter is so non sticky that I didnt have to grease the pan at all.

Ajoy felt that the sweetness from Dates was little too much, I guess using Dark choco chips might be good idea to balance the sweetness. I didnt have dark choco chips sot used semi sweet chips.