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

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.

25 Random Things About Me And Kalakand

25 Random Things About Me

I was tagged by Amruth and Naveen for writing the 25 random things about me. Well I gave it a thought and slept over it :) *remembers a dialog from last episode of Grey's Anatomy* And here is my list:

1.     I am in absolute love with Abhi-Niki from Dill Mill Gayye so much so that I make video mixes, write fictional scenes on these characters. I am loving this creative side of mine :)

2.     I like doing something creative after office may it be cooking something new, painting a glass or pot or knitting. Though I end up picking first option most of the time because it is like one arrow 2 birds :)

3.     I am a Lost fan and cant wait for the finale season and the topping to it is I would be watching it live in HD :)

4.     I love hiking and when it comes to hiking I can never find it enough :) Dil always maange more.

5.     Discovered love for cycling after coming to Redmond. Absolutely love coming back from work by cycle (Again 1 arrow 2 birds:)) or cycling on weekends on Sammamish River Trail

6.     I prefer having lunch by desk while browsing some cooking recipes, reading blogs, long mails and fiction updates. I finish lunch quickly and yet feel rejuvenated for post lunch work :)

7.     When it comes to following rules I would want to do it with absolute precision esp driving rules. I hate when people speed, drive rash and make mistakes. Well once in a while I too make a mistake and I cant forget that mistake easily :)

8.     I miss Hussain Sagar Drive very badly especially after late night movie.

9.     I am a music freak but then I can tolerate only certain type of songs which includes old hindi and few new ones which have some meaningful lyrics and soft music.

10. When I am listening to music, I start of singing along without even realizing. So its absolute torture for people around me when I am listening to songs

11. I love playing antakshari and the best ones have to be with Milind during our Niagara-NY and Florida drives in 2002.

12. I hate playing dumbsheras and I am bad at it. :)

13. I am afraid of dogs (well is that an understatement)

14. I believe Indian railways should award me for being their loyal customer for years. I have record of traveling Hyderabad -> Pune -> Hyderabad over every weekend for almost 3-4 months continuously.

15. I never tried English music as a teen and now I adore my music collection so much so that I don't feel like giving it a chance.

16. I can eat chaat items or anything chat pat items at any time of the day. :) Everyday stuff including rice-chapati-bhaji kind of takes low priority over the chatpat items

17. The best paani puri I have had till now is from a person who use to sit next to then newly opened MK Ahmad on CMH Road, Bangalore.

18. I am scared of dentists and nurses who give injections. Probably thats one reason I am totally for homeopathy.

19. I dont know since when but as long as I can remember I hate hot Tea and cant drink even a sip. But was introduced to Ice Tea by Kushal and you can say as much as I hate hot tea I love the Ice Tea.

20. Ever since I started watching english dramas I cant watch hindi ones without fast forwarding through them :) The current favourites are Castle, Grey's Anatomy and Flashforward. Also planning to give a chance to V which premiers tonight.

21. I am FRIENDS fan. Each character was unique and they maintained the traits, behaviors and habits for them throughout 10 seasons. The fun with friends was never been so close to real. Have already watched it twice in order. The random episodes if are airing I can watch any number of times. Wish they could create same magic again.

22. I have started playing Farmville on Facebook or you can say I started using Facebook for playing Farmville :) I liked that game so much so that I play on Ajoy's behalf too :)

23. I love rains and the drizzling rain is the topmost favorite. I like hiking, cycling or just taking a walk in drizzling rain :) Foggy weather is another favorite one and it gives heavenly feel to this otherwise earthy world.

24. I love playing fussball.. I havent played it much but I really enjoy it a lot. Our own fuss ball table is on its way and cant wait to play late night cames on fridays

25. I am more of listening person than talking one :) I can listen to absolutely anyone anytime than talk and when it comes to stage talk or group talking I am the worst case of shy attitude. Though I can be little better with close friends and family. So don't be surprised if I prefer write/mails/blogs over phone calls or social meetings :)

The rules for the above tagging buisness is:

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. If I tagged you, its because I want to know more about you.

So even though I do not have so many people to tag but I would tag:

Kalakand

Today morning when I was just thinking about making some sweet, suddenly thought of Kalakand I had when Mehul had taken us to temple for his new car's puja. I searched a little bit for the recipe and found that its very easy one. Oh but when I actually made it, I knew though the recipe is simple, it does take a long time to get to the final product. Especially boiling the milk to half and then drying it completely.

Ingredients

2 Liter Milk

1 Cup Sugar

3 Spoon Vinegar

1 Spoon Pistachio

A drop of Kewada Essence

A Silver Leaf

Method

• Boil half of the milk.
• Mix Vinegar with 3 spoon water and add it to the boiling milk.
• When the whey separates completely remove it from the stove and strain it
• Wash it through running cold water
• Put it in the muslin cloth and drain the water. Keep it aside under the heavy pan
• Boil remaining milk till half in quantity
• Add in the curdled milk stored aside in it and cook over medium flame till the mixture thickens
• Add in sugar and kewada essence. Cook till the mixture thickens completely.
• Spread the mixture on the plate, apply the silver leaf and garnish with chopped pistachios
• Let the mixture cool. Cut it into cubes and serve

Notes

I tried using non stick pan to boil the milk to half but it didn't work well. So I transferred it to the aluminum pan. It works best for making the sweet.

While boiling down the milk, you need to stir it constantly and vigourously so that it doesnt stick to bottom or sides of the pan.

05Nov: I tried using 2 galons of milk instead of 2 litre today which is approximately 8 liter and I had terrible time boiling down the milk to half and even after adding paneer. I totally missed the fact that since its boiling of the milk the time taken would be increasing and wont be a marginal increase. So be aware if you are making it in bulk. Its too much of work. And it made approximately 16 pieces of sweets with 2 liter and we finished it so fast that I had to make it again :) and thats how I thought of making it in bulk so that we can give it to few others too :)

Stuffed Spinach Paratha And Cold Coffee

Stuffed Spinach Paratha

Yet another attempt to make Ajoy eat Spinach without making faces ;-) Well to be honest though he doesn't like it he doesn't make faces, its me who does that :) :) Here I tried to combine his well known affinity towards paratha yet trying to be different by making it as stuffing.

Ingredients

3 Cups Wheat Flour

6 Cup Spinach Leaves

2 Potatoes

1/2 Spoon Jeera

1/4 Spoon Mustard Seeds

A Pinch of Asafoetida

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Garam Masala

Salt to taste

Oil

Ghee

Method

• In a plate, mix wheat flour, a spoonful of oil and salt.
• Add water and knead a soft dough. Keep aside for 30-40 minutes
• Pressure cook the potatoes and keep them aside
• In a pan heat a spoonful of oil and let jeera and mustard splutter in it.
• Add Asafoetida and then spinach
• Keep stirring and after it leaves water from it add red chilli powder, garam masala and salt to taste
• Cook with constant stirring till water evaporates. Keep aside for cooling
• In a mixie, grind the spinach and then mix it with the grated potatoes.
• 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 spinach 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 didnt want to use lots of masalas or corriander(my another trick to make ajoy like the disk;-)) so that I can still retain a bit of spinach taste. Instead I used potatoes that helped in reducing the intensity of the spinach taste :)

Cold Coffee

I first started making this using the instant powder and I remember how it was such a hit with my sister. She loved it to the core. So since then cold coffee always reminds me of my sister - Seema, her affinity and some memorable stories around them (I am sure me and my family can immediately recollect them with just name of cold coffee :D) When we moved to redmond, we made ourselves familiar to the well known starbuck's cold coffee bottles. Costco's membership and deal coupons once in a while meant we consumed them a lot. But as days passed I started missing that fresh cold coffee, thick froth and here I came up with this recipe. I wanted to make this in India for Seema but then flu, cough, cold prevented me from that. Here I am going to share my recipe hoping she would try it sometime and remember those golden days when we consumed cold coffee like freak.

Ingredients

4 cup Milk

2 cup Vanilla Icecream

1.5 Spoon Coffee Powder

5 Spoon Sugar

Method

• Boil a cup of water mixing sugar in it
• Add coffee and dissolve it. Keep aside for cooling.
• In a mixie, add ice cream, coffee, and milk.
• Blend well till the icecream is completely blended.

Notes

Normally I dont keep coffee in freeze after blending it. Its at perfect temparature after the blend.

Chilli Prawns And Gurer Sandesh

Chilli Prawns

I was looking to make something quick yet something different from the normal preparation (Prawns Masala) and then I came up with this.

Ingredients

300g Cleaned Prawns

1 Spoon Garlic Paste

1 Onion

4 Green Chillies

4 Spoon Dark Soya Sauce

2 Spoon Tomato Ketchup

2 Spoon Corn Flour

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Marinate the prawns with garlic paste and salt.
• Deep fry them in oil few at a time for a minute
• In same oil, add halved green chillies, onion and cook them with constant stirring
• Add soya sauce, ketchup and again cook for couple of minute
• Add prawns and stir for another minute
• Mix corn flour in two cups of water and add it to the cooking prawns
• Cook for 3-4 minutes till gravy thickens and prawns become tender

Notes

Well I didn't have spring onions to garnish otherwise I might have added it a bit for garnishing.

Gurer Sandesh

On the eve of upcoming Saraswati puja I decided to give this a try especially with gur because Ajoy loves that version.. It came out really well and the best part was it was not the tedious process unlike Kalakand which he keeps demanding. So now if he asks for sweet and I am tired I have something quick yet brownie point winner for my help :)

Ingredients

1 Liter Milk

3/4 Cup Jaggery

2 Spoon Vinegar

1/4 Spoon Pistachio Powder

Method

• In a thick pan boil the milk
• Mix vinegar with 2 spoon of water and add it slowly to the boiling milk
• When the milk cudles completely, take it off the heat and strain it out
• Wash it under running cold water
• Put it in the muslin cloth and drain the water. Keep it aside for 5 minutes so that it drains out water completely
• In a plate knead the chena formed till its is soft and consistent in the texture.
• Mix in grated jaggery and transfer it to the thick pan
• Cook the mixture over medium heat till it leaves the sides and is able to hold together.
• Make the small balls and press them against the chenar moulds, and if you dont have them just shape them into balls
• Sprinkle the pistachio powder for garnishing

Notes

I used the Patali Gur since I had got it from Kolkatta when I had been there last month. But you can also try it with the normal Jaggery. I also feel that Patali Gur is more of the Date + Jaggery taste. So if I try with jaggery version I am going to try adding paste of Date or something like that. Will update when I try that though.

While separating whey from the milk make sure to remove it off it immediately when you see the clear green water separated from the chena. Extra cooking can make the mixture stiff.

Key to shaping the sandesh is that you shape them while its hot. As it starts cooling down it becomes difficult to shape them up. I warmed the mixture after it came to room temperature so that I can shape the remaining ones.

Peanut Sauce And Chicken Satay

Peanut Sauce

A must have dip for Chicken Satay, I had to make this. Especially for Ajoy as he is such a fan of this sauce that he sometimes asks for it in Chinese restaurant too :) forgetting that he is in Chinese restaurant instead of Thai :)

Ingredients

1 Cup Peanuts

2 Spoon Brown Sugar

1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

2 Spoon Soya Sauce

1 Spoon Oil

1 Garlic Clove

2 Spoon Lemon Juice

Salt to taste

Method

• Dry roast the peanuts and let them cool
• Add peanuts, brown sugar, red chilli powder, soya sauce, oil, garlic clove, lemon juice and salt in a mixie and grind to sticky powder
• Add half cup of water and grind again till smooth paste

Notes

I had used double quantity of red chilli powder but it had become little extra hot so I have suggested only 1/4 spoon for red chilli. If you feel it is too mild for you try adding some more chilli while grinding

Chicken Satay

Chicken Satay is one of our favorite stater in Thai cuisine. So this time when we got the chicken from costco, I decided to give this a try. I had made this earlier but it was over even before I could click photo :) So now this time I made sure we click photos before making the strike.

Ingredients

400g Boneless Chicken Breasts

1 Spoon Brown Sugar

2 Garlic Cloves

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1 Spoon Black Pepper Powder

2 Spoon Oil

2 Spoon Soya Sauce

2 Spoon Lemon Juice

1/2 Cup Milk

Salt to taste

Method

• Make thin and rectangular slices of the chicken
• Add brown sugar, garlic cloves, corriander powder, jeera powder, turmeric powder, black pepper powder, oil, soya sauce, lemon juice and salt and mix well. Keep aside in refrigerator for 4 hours
• After 4 hours, attach the strips of chicken on to scewer sticks, 2 pieces on one stick.
• Bast the chicken with the milk.
• Heat a non stick pan and cook the chicken with scewers on medium flame by flipping them over continuously every 2-3 minutes till done.

Notes

I read in lot many recipes to add fish sauce to the marination, but I investigated a bit and found that it is some what salty liquid and usually used instead of salt. Hence instead of going to asian shop for fish sauce I used normal table salt instead.

Mung Daal Wada And Zebra Cake

Mung Daal

After a long time, I thought of trying out something from my so called 'bible' - a cookery book gifted to me during wedding :) This recipe though not exactly similar but is inspired from there. It is easy to digest yet spicy enough to enjoy, making it a good breakfast.

Ingredients

1 Cup Mung Daal

2 Spoon Besan

6 Garlic Cloves

1 Inch Ginger

2 Green Chillies

1 Spoon Jeera

1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

A Pinch of Eating Soda

Salt

Oil

Method

• Soak Mung Daal in water for 5-6 hours
• After the mung daal is soaked, add garlic cloves, ginger, green chilies and jeera to the mixer with couple spoon of water and grind to rough paste
• Add mung daal without water in it and grind the paste
• To this paste add in besan, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and eating soda and mix well
• Heat oil in pan and fry small quantites of the paste we preapred earlier to get crispy wadas

Notes
Recipe had some more items like coconut, onions, curry leaves etc to be added but I think I liked this way better. It went really well with the coconut chutney

Zebra Cake

I remember around a year back I had received a mail from a colleague here about tasting the check box cake. She had described a lot about its procedure so when I was looking for something similar yet something where I wont need those card boards etc to make those check box texture. Then I came across the very famous concept of zebra cake. So today I gave it a shot and result was very impressive :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Cup Milk
2 cup Oil
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
8 Spoon Coca Powder
4 Spoon Baking Powder

Method

• In a bowl add eggs and sugar and blend them together till the mixture is fluffy.
• Add in Milk and Oil keeping two spoons of each aside. Blend well
• Sieve in maida gradually in the mixture. Blend well for a smooth batter
• Blend in vanilla essence and baking powder.
• Separate 4.5 cup of batter into other bowl and add in sieved coca powder in the separated batter. Blend well
• In the coca batter, add the remaining milk and oil (2 spoons each) into the batter and blend again
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the baking pan
• Add 1/4 cup of white batter in the center alternating with half cup of coca batter. Keep adding till the pan fills in half in quantity. Repeat same for other pan. The batter would spread on its own in layers
• Bake the cakes in oven at 350F/180C for 40 minutes

Notes
If you are going to make the cake in single big baking pan, then instead of adding 1/4 cup of mixture, add in 1/2 cup to make the correct sized strips. I noticed that if the layers are too thin then after baking they wouldn't be too clear to mark out the layering clearly.

Vegetables Stir Fry And Dry Fruits And Rose Milk Shake

Vegetables Stir Fry

I had been having lots of vegetables in the freeze for quite some time. So today when we planned for quick lunch before heading out to cycling, how to quick something nice and yet something quick. Indo-chinese being my favorite cuisine I came up with this.

Ingredients

Handful of Ladies Fingers

Handful of Eggplant pieces

Handful of Cabbage

1 Cup Beans

1 Onion

1 Pepper

2 Spring-onions

6 Garlic Cloves

1 Spoon Garlic Paste

1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste

1/2 Lemon

5 Spoon Soya Sauce

1 Spoon Ketchup

2 Spoon Corn Flour

Salt

Oil

Method

• Fry Ladies fingers in the oil and keep aside
• In a pan heat oil and add onions. Fry them till translucent
• Add in garlic cloves, chopped to fine pieces, eggplant pieces, beans, Pepper chopped, cabbage and cook them with constant stirring till the vegetables are cooked well.
• Add in fried ladies fingers, garlic and ginger paste and Lemon juice and stir again
• Add ketchup and soya sauce and stir for couple of minutes
• Mix corn flour with 6 cup of water and add in the vegetables. Cook till gravy thickens
• Add in salt and spring onions and stir for a minute. Serve with rice or noodles

Notes

To give it a little tangy taste, I used lemon but if you are not big on tangerines then you can just skip it. You cna also substitute lemon by a spoonful of Vinegar if you don't have lemon in stock.

I also wished I had some baby-corns and brocollies to add the taste, but never mind, there is always next time :)

Dry Fruits And Rose Milk Shake

I got 'gulkand' from pune this time, thinking that it might help me cool down a bit when needed. Today wasnt that high temperature day, yet seeing the ice-cream box in the freezer and the gulkand sitting on the shelf, I decided to make this one. What a wonderful friday evening sipping in rose milkshake.

Ingredients

6 Cup Milk

2 Cup Vanilla Ice-cream

1/3 Cup Cashews

1/3 Cup Almonds

1/3 Cup Pistachios

1/2 Cup Sugar

2 Spoon Gulkand

A Pinch of Red Color

Method

• Add Cashews, Almonds, pistachios in the mixer and grind to rough powder
• Add in gulkand, ice-cream and grind again.
• Add milk, sugar and red color and mix till smooth consistency

Notes

I kept few dry fruits half ground into pieces so that we could get them in mouth while having the milkshake. I think that gave the milkshake amazing taste and feel.

For more decoration, I mixed a pinch of red color with couple of drops of water and dipping the back of spoon in it decorated the top of the milkshake with some simple designs, current ones based on valentine theme :)

Lauki Kofta And Paneerbhara Kabab

Lauki Kofta

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)

Ingredients

3 Cup Bottle Gourd

1 Cup Carrot

1.5 Cup Besan

3 Spoon Corn Flour

2 Onion

2 Tomato

2 Cup Curd

4 Spoon Sugar

1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala

1/2 Spoon Jeera

1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1 Spoon Jeera Powder

1 Green Chilli

1/4 Cup Cashews

1/4 Cup Raisins

Oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes

Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

Paneerbhara Kabab

Today when I opened fridge, found that I have around 2 liters of milk and it is getting expired tomorrow. Gave a lot of thought on what I should be using it before I loose it. Last few times I had been making sweets but this time I wanted to make something spicy and that is when I came up this.

Ingredients

2 Liter Milk

5 Spoon Vinegar

1 Cup Corriander Leaves

2 Spoon Pudina Leaves

5-6 Green Chillies

2 Bread Slices

1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala

Salt

Oil

Method

• Boil Milk in a thick pan
• Mix a cup of water with vinegar and add it to the milk to separate whey from it.
• Strain it and wash it with cold water.
• Hang it in a dry cloth for around half an hour to remove as much as water as possible
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Bake bread slices for 5 minutes at 350F/180C, Flip the sides and bake for another 5 minutes
• In a mixie, grind the bread to breadcrums. Save aside
• Grind corriander leaves, pudina leaves and green chillies to fine paste without using water.
• In a plate mix the paneer that was hanging, the above green paste and salt
• Make small lemon sized balls and roll them in bread crums
• Heat oil and fry the balls in it over medium-high heat.
• Sprinkle chaat masala and serve with ketchup

Notes

If you want you can make it with grated paneer instead, but it tasted awesome with this fresh made paneer and the softness inside the crispy covering was delicious.

For the corriander-pudina-green chillies paste I didnt use any water. The water that was on leaves after washing them was good enough.