Pineapple Muramba And Aalu Gobi

Pineapple Muramba 

Almost a month back I got the big pineapple from costco. I just remembered mom's pineapple muramba and thought of giving it a shot. Called up mom and asked for recipe.. And it turned out that it was quite easy to make it and hence prepared that night immediately :)

Ingredients

5 Cups Fresh cut Pineapple

3 Cup Water

1.5 Cup Sugar

Method

• Mix pineapple pieces with water such that it barely submerges pineapple
• Cook the mixture over medium flame keeping a lid till pineapple are cooked.
• Strain the mixture and separate out pineapple and water
• In same water mix the sugar and bring to boil
• With constant stirring keep heating water over medium flame till it becomes 1 string consistency syrup
• Now add pineapple pieces and boil once again
• Let it cool down and refrigerate in the fridge

Notes

The muramba needs to be stored in fridge and it would stay for few months.

Good side dish to eat with chappati/paratha

I dont like too much of sugar syrup and hence the above recipe gives very less sugar syrup mixed pineapple muramba.. If you like you can add another cup of water + 1/2 cup of sugar to get traditional version which has more liquid

Aalu Gobi

Ajoy loves gobi so we always have it at home. This time I thought of trying something different that the usual preparations and end up preparing this dish

Ingredients

2 Potatoes

1 Gobi

1/2 Spoon Mustard

1 Spoon Jeera

1 Spoon Jeera Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/4 Spoon Powdered Sugar

Corriander Leaves for garnishing

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Peel the potatoes and cut them in cubic shapes
• Separate out the florets of medium size from the gobi
• Heat oil in a pan and let the mustard and Jeera splutter in the oil.
• Add potato pieces and gobi florets in the oil and cook on medium flame with constant stirring.
• After 5 minutes add turmeric powder and keep cooking
• When the potato and gobi is almost done, add corriander powder, jeera powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, powdered sugar and salt. Mix well and cook till completely done
• Garnish with finely chopped corriander leaves

Notes

This simple dish gives different flavour than the tomato gravy kind of gobi preparation. The vegetable is quite dry and goes well with phulkas or parathas.

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.

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.

Set Dosa And Khatkhate

Set Dosa

My love for set dosa started the very first day i ate it in bangalore. I just love this fluffy thick dosa served in set of three medium sized ones. Finally I did some research for recipe. Most of them were using soda which i didnt want to use. Also found out that they use poha in it. So adapted those ingredients to the my dosa recipe. Outcome was awesome :) Infact I made it like 2 weeks back and before I could click photos, they were over :) And already been asked for repeat. So this week I prepared it again and first thing I did was click the snap :)

Ingredients

2 Cup Rice

1 Cup Idly Rawa

3/4 Cup Udid Daal

1 Cup Poha

1 Spoon Methi Seeds

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak Rice, Idly rawa, udid daal and methi seeds seperately in the morning.
• In the evening soak poha for an hour
• Grind the rice to fine paste.
• Mix udid daal and Methi seeds and grind it to fine paste.
• Grind the idly rawa to form fine paste
• Grind Poha as well to the paste.
• Mix all these pastes really well and keep in warm place overnight
• Next day morning, add salt and water enough to make free flowing consistency. Mix well.
• Heat tawa on low-medium flame.
• Sprinkle few drops of oil and pour a cup of batter.
• When the one side is one, sprinkle couple of drops on top of the dosa and flip it to cook the other side.
• When the other side too turns light brown, take it out and serve.

Notes
This dosa is normally served with mixed vegetable, but i dont like it at all so instead i served it with peanut-curd chutney without using optional items. It went well.

Khatkhate
I loved this dish a lot since my childhood. Probably then I didn't realise it was the healthiest dish that I loved :D Just like the name says it uses almost everything that's in your fridge :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Beans
1/2 Cup Mutter
2 Drum Sticks
2 Corn Cobs
1 Potato
1 Sweet Potato
1 Raw Banana
1.5 Spoon Tamarind
1/4 Cup Jaggery
1/2 Cup Coconut
1/4 Spoon Corriander Seeds
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
A pinch of Asafoetida
2 Spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• In a half cup of water add the tamarind and keep aside.
• In a pan, add beans and 4 cups of water and cook over high flame for 5 minutes
• Cut each corn cob into 3 pieces and add the corn cob pieces and another 2 cups of water, Cook for another 5 minutes
• Add drum sticks - cut into pieces, potato cubes, raw banana pieces, pieces of sweet potato and another 2 cups of water. Cook till they are almost done
• Mean time grate coconut, tamarind (with its water that was it soaked in) and corriander seeds adding half cup of water.
• Add it and mutters to the almost done vegetables.
• Add turmeric powder, jaggery, red chilli powder and salt and simmer it.
• In another small pan, add ghee and let the mustard splutter in it.
• Add asafoetida and mix the tadaka with the vegetable.

Notes
You can optionally add 1 cup of pumpkin pieces too, but I couldn't as it wasn't available in the store here.

Dates Peacan Chocolaty Brownies And Whole Spices Veggie Pulav

 Dates Peacan Chocolaty Brownies

Just few weeks back I had got lots of choco-chips and Peacans from the costco. Thinking I could bake some cakes, muffins. So today when payesh that I made last week was getting over, I thought it would be nice to make these brownies for dessert hoping they would last for week.. But frankly, they have turned out so well, I wonder if they are going to last even till monday :) We already have had 2 pieces each :)

Ingredients

80g Dark Chocolate bar

1.5 Cup semi sweet choco-chips

3 Cup Powdered Sugar

1.5 Cup Maida

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Dates

1 Cup Peacans

3 Eggs

1 Spoon Vanilla Essence

Salt to taste

Method

• In a glass bowl, add dark chocolate, 1/2 cup semi sweet choco-chips and butter and microwave for 1 minute. Stir well.
• Microwave for 30 more seconds and stir well. Keep aside.
• Sieve maida couple of times and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 375F/190C
• In a big bowl add eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla essence. Beat for 5 minutes.
• Add in above made chocolate paste, maida and salt to taste. Mix lightly, just enough to make it consistent paste.
• Add in remaining 1 cup of chocochips, dates and peacans chopped. Again mix it lightly.
• Grease a pan and pour in batter into it. Bake the brownies at 375F/190C for 35 minutes.
• Serve with ice-cream, topped with chocolate sauce and some nuts chopped finely.

Notes
I normally microwave chocolate to melt it - works wonders :D, but if you don't have microwave, you can boil water in a pan and keep a bigger bowl on top of it with chocolate and melt it over low heat. Be careful not to over heat the chocolate or it would spoil the taste and feel of the chocolate.

Whole Spices Veggie Pulav
I like black pepper a lot. Not powdered one but whole ones or the crunchy ones, like in papad. Since we moved here, I have been having only garlic papad instead of the spicy one that I normally like. Blame it to Ajoy ;-) for he likes that one or on me that I am bored to serve two different varieties to both of us. But then yesterday I said - that's about it. I have to have those black pepper by hook and crook and that's how this recipe came up :) It was huge hit and I am going to make it again sometime soon.


Ingredients
2.5 Cup Rice
2 Cup Cauliflower florets
2 Raw Bananas
1 Medium sized Eggplant
1 Potato
1 Cup Mutter
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Jeera
4-5 Cloves
4-5 Cardamom
A pinch of Saffron
Salt to taste
Oil
Ghee

Method

• In a pan bring water to boil and add rice. Cook the rice over high flame, with constant stirring till its done.
• Strain remaining water from the rice and keep the rice aside.
• In another pan, heat oil and fry cauliflower florets, egg plant pieces and raw banana slices. Keep aside.
• Fry mutter for a second and keep them aside too.
• Grate potato and fry them making in chunks to get crispy hash brown like chunks. Keep them aside too.
• In another pan, heat ghee, add cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, jeera and let them splutter.
• Add rice, fried cauliflower, eggplant and banana slices. Stir it and let is cook for couple of minutes.
• Heat a spoon and add saffron crushing it a bit. After it starts sending nice aroma, mix in rice lightly.
• Add in salt and stir for another minute. Serve by garnishing it with fried muttor and crispy potatoes.

NotesI wanted rice to be white and yet give that saffron filled rich aroma and hence I didnt put it while making rice but added it at last minute. I used black pepper in abundance as you already know the reason about it too :) but i didnt use much of cardmom or cloves, because I do add it to some of the vegetables or chicken/mutton dishes and also because I dont like them as much as black pepper :) So adjust spices according to your taste. The above portions worked wonders for me and right now enjoying even during lunch while writing this. yummy.

Muttor Kachori

One of the most refreshing and healthy drink that my mom makes. I had been making this for a while but today got chance to click some snaps and hence posting the recipe.


Ingredients
10-12 Kokam
3 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
Salt to taste

Method

• Soak kokam in 1/2 cup of water for an hour
• Add it to the mixie. Add 3.5 cups of water, sugar, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt to taste.
• Pulse the mixture till kokams are very fine.
• Strain through and serve.

Notes
You can serve it on ice, but then use 1/2 cup less water so that the taste of the sarbat itsn't diluted.

Ma's specialty and one thing we always demand when we go to Pune. :) Its been a while since I took this recipe from her, infact I had made it earlier too but it hadn't come out as nice as she makes. This time it was quite close and I thought it would be perfect time to post it.


Ingredients
2 Cup Maida
1 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Potato
3 Cup Muttor
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt to taste and 1/2 cup oil.
• Add in water and make dough. Keep aside.
• Cook potato in the pressure cooker and keep it to cook.
• Cook muttor with some water for 2 minutes in microwave.
• Drain the water from the muttor and grind it in mixie
• Once the potato cools down, grate it.
• In a pan heat 1 spoon of oil and add jeera. Let it splutter
• Add in grated potato, muttor paste, red chilli powder and salt to taste.
• Cook till the paste dries up and becomes a dry ball. Let it cool down
• Take a lemon sized ball of the dough made and press it to make a cup shape. Add in the half sized muttor-potato ball and seal it.
• Roll it just like puris and fry in hot oil. Serve with pickle.

Notes
The trick is to make the dough of right consitency - not too hard not too soft and the perfect to seal it after the feeling.
Also roll the balls to the puri's thickness - just a bit thicker to get the best results.

Dabeli Style Aalu Paratha

The day I got dabeli masala from India, i had been meaning to try something like this.. I thought it might be nice change to normal aalu paratha or aalu sabji. Finally today when i had no other vegetable at home i decided to try this one.. Came out really well.

Ingredients

10 Spoon Wheat Flour

1 Potato

1/2 Spoon Kachhi Dabeli Masala

1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Tamarind

1 Spoon Peanut Powder

1/2 Spoon Raisins

Handful of Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix in wheat flour, salt and a spoon of oil.
• Mix water and knead dough for paratha. Keep aside
• Pressure cook the potato and let it cool down
• Soak tamarind in 2 spoon of water.
• Grate the potato and mix it with dabeli masala, red chilli powder, peanut powder, tamarind water and salt to taste
• Add in chopped corriander leaves and raisins.
• Make 5 balls out of wheat dough and 5 balls from the potato mixture.
• Make a cup shape from wheat ball and stuff in potato ball. Close the wheat cover completely.
• Roll the parathas and cook on tawa til well done on both sides.

Notes

Make sure to cook potatoes really well so that they are soft and can be mashed to the paste.

Paneer Pattice

Today morning Ajoy demanded something fancy and new for breakfast. After thinking for a while I came up with this :) It was tasty and we had it as brunch instead :)

Ingredients

4 Cup Finely diced Paneer

4 Potatoes

3 Spoon Corn Flour

1 Spoon Ginger

3 Green Chillies

5 Garlic Cloves

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Cook the potatoes in pressure cooker.
• In a mixie grind ginger, garlic and green chillies with 1/4 cup of water to fine paste.
• Heat oil in a pan and turmeric powder and the paste in it and saute for couple of minutes
• Add the diced paneer and salt it in it and cook till paneer is done well. Keep aside
• Peel off the potatoes and mash them to fine paste.
• Add in corn flour and salt to taste and knead to nice dough
• Make lemon sized balls and press down to make cups.
• Fill these cups with spoonful of paneer we made earlier and add close and flatten it
• Heat oil really well and fry till brown on all sides. Serve hot with ketchup

Notes

While frying the pattice, the oil should be really hot otherwise the potato coating will stick to the bottom.

Veg Biryaani

I had been making this for a while now, but its only yesterday that I actually managed to click the photos. So here I am posting this recipe, esp for all my vegetarian friends who are craving for Biryaani.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
350g Bhendi
250g Small Eggplants
250g Carrots
2 Raw Bananas
4 Potatoes
4 Onion
3 Tomato
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
10 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Grated Ginger
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Almonds
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Dried Red Chillies
1/4 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
3/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Milk
A Pinch Of Saffron
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook 2 potatoes
• Soak rice in warm water for half an hour.
• Soak poppy seeds and keep aside
• Fry the whole egg plants, bhendi, peeled and diced bananas, 2 potatoes, and carrots and keep aside.
• Boil a pot full of water and add in the soaked rice. Cook till almost done Let the extra water drain completely through sieve.
• Heat a spoon of ghee and add in cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Add it to the rice and keep it aside.
• Heat oil and add in finely chopped 2 onions. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In same pan heat another spoon of oil and add in jeera, red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, saunf, dried coconut, cinnamon, 1/4 cup cashews and almonds.
• Add in garam masala, red chili powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and earlier fried onions. Cook till spices start spreading aroma.
• Let the mixture cool down and then adding the chopped tomatoes grind it to fine paste.
• Heat the ghee and add in the ground mixture. Fry till oil separates
• Add in all fried vegetables and salt to taste and cook for couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Warm the milk with safron and keep aside.
• Deep fry the thin sliced onions and cashews till they are crisp and light brown in color. Keep aside
• In a greased cooker layer the sliced boiled potatoes, then 1/3rd of rice, 1/2 of vegetable, again 1/3rd portion of rice, remaining half of the vegetable and remaining portion of the rice.
• With big spatula make through and through wholes in the layer and sprinkle the safron milk.
• Let the cooker sit on low heat till the pressure builds up. Garnish with the earlier fried crisp onions and cashews. Serve hot with raita.

Notes
Instead of cooking vegetables in gravy i added fried vegetables to the gravy. The taste was awesome and i could make sure that none of the vegetables are underdone or overdone.
I also wished I had those baby potatoes instead and could use them whole deep fried instead of diced ones.

French Fries

Ajoy likes to eat french fries once in a while. We get those frozen ones and fry them as and when needed all the time. But i had been thinking of making them at home given that they are so simple. Always read about freezing them and keeping them cool before actually frying adding to the preparation time which off course i never had, given a sudden demand of french fries :) So last Saturday i decided to try them without refrigeration and all and worked out fine. So here is the quickest french fries recipe.

Ingredients

2 Potatoes

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Peel of the potatoes and cut them in small rectangular pieces.
• Keep them under running water and wash them thoroughly till the water is clear.
• Keep them in cold water for 5-10 minutes.
• Take it out of water and spread them on kitchen towel so that they are dry.
• Heat oil and fry them till light golden in color. Spread on kitchen towel
• Just before eating, fry the fries again till golden brown in color.
• Spread on kitchen towel, sprinkle salt and serve.

Notes

If you are making them for party, you could fry the fries for the first time and then store them in refrigerator. Fry them second time just before serving.

Two times frying is necessary as it helps in taking out moisture, cooking the potato and then making it crisp.

Cabbage Pattice

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. With parents around, then our vacation, in last few months, I had to hardly anytime make breakfast. So given the long break from cooking breakfast and Jetlag which makes me wake up really early in the morning, i was set to try out something different for breakfast. So here comes the new entry.

Ingredients

2 Cup Cabbage

2 Potatoes

2 Spoon Corn Flour

1/4 Cup Rava

1/2 Spoon Jeera

2-3 Garlic Cloves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Pressure cook potatoes and keep aside till they are cold enough to handle
• Heat a pan and add few drops of oil.
• Let the Jeera splutter in it.
• Add in finely chopped garlic and cabbage and cook till cabbage is brown.
• Grate the potato and add the corn flour, salt to paste
• Knead it well, put couple of drops of oil and finish the kneading.
• Make lemon sized potato balls and press them to make a cup shape.
• Add in half spoon of mixture in each cup and close them. Press each ball lightly to make Pattice
• Roll each Pattice in the rava and cook them on tawa sprinkling drops of oil couple of times.

Notes

I didn't want to make the cabbage very spicy instead i wanted to give it flavor of garlic and Jeera hence i didn't use any other spices in this at all. Its really upto you to decide the spices you want and can vary the flavor each time you make this.

Harabhara Kabab

I made these kebabs on Saturday and I felt they were so much better than earlier version. Everyone was asking for recipe so here it is. (Note I had this in my drafts for 2 months and finally getting around to put it on the blog :))


Ingredients
6 Cup Muttor
2 Big Potatoes
1.5 Cup Paneer
3 Handful Spinach Leaves
2 Handful Coriander Leaves
1 Handful Pudina Leaves
3 Green Chillies
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1 Spoon Aamchur Powder
1/4 Cup Breadcrumbs
1 Cup Cashews
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook potatoes and let them cool off. Peel off cover and mash them into big bowl.
• Microwave 4 cups of muttor for 3 minutes.
• Add the muttor and spinach leaves to mixie and grind to fine paste.
• Add in coriander leaves, green chillies, garlic cloves and salt. Grind again to fine paste. Pour the paste into the bowl with potatoes
• Add grated paneer, chaat masala, aamchur powder and breadcrumbs and mix well.
• Microwave remaining 2 cup muttor for 2 minutes and add it to the bowl and mix well.
• Make small balls, flatten them, press in a cashew and shallow fry the kebabs on medium heated tawa till dark brown on both sides

Notes
The mixture was little sticky when I used it immediately. But I had remaining paste stored in fridge and when I used it directly out of fridge it was easier to fry them without disturbing its shapes.
Also note that unlike other recipes where it yields product for around 4 people, I made this for party of around 12 people as starter.
I used fresh paneer. Boiled 1 liter of 2% reduced fat milk and adding one lemon's juice in it. Drained the mixture after milk curdled on a cloth and used it by crushing it into fine powder by hand.