Aloo matar ki kachodi

Sorry for my looooooong silence from this blog. I have been away from it for past one year.
In this one year I had a lovely baby daughter. She is 5 months old now. All my time just went into
taking care of two kids :)

So here I am back with aloo matar kachodi recipe.

Ingredients:
2 large boiled potatoes
one cup frozen mater
1 tbsp kasoori methi
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste
2 cup flour

oil to fry

Need the flour with lukewarm water and get a consistency softer than you normal chapatis.
In a fry pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and put cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, put green peas and fry them a little. Add peeled and boiled and hand pressed potatoes. Saute for 5 minutes and add black pepper powder and salt and kasoori methi. Saute for another 3-4 minutes. Now using your potato masher, mash the mixer (see picture below) and let this mixture cool.
Now heat oil in a wok to fry on medium high. Take tennis ball size dough and flatten it and fill with 1 tbsp of mloo matar mixer. Roll it and deep fry it. Make all kachoris like this. Black pepper gives a very nice taste to this kachori. Please don't eat these kachoris with pickle. You will spoil the original heavenly taste of kachoris. They taste great.

Tamatar ki Chat, Sangeeta Ji kya baat kya baat

I follow this wonderful blog of Sangeeta.
. I came across this recipe and could not resist the temptation to make it. Since I don't like raw onions much, I didn't put them. But other than that I followed this recipe. The chat is delicious, totally different than what I have tasted so far. One word of caution, it does make a big difference if you make it in Iron skillet. Don't use your non-stick pan for this. Stick to traditional iron skillet. Here is the original recipe . And here is the yummy chat :)

Quick Baby Malpua

I call them baby malpuas because I make them often for my baby. Yes, my son likes them very much. First time I made with elaborated process such as frying them and preparing sugar syrup and putting in sugar syrup. But later I found my own quick version which my son liked a lot too. So here is my version of these quick malpuas.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour or all purpose flour (1/4 cup)
Milk powder 1/4th cup
Sugar to taste
Milk (1/4th cup or as needed)
2 tbsp oil for shallow frying on tawa

Unfortunately I cannot give you the exact measure of sugar since I used to make them for my son and was trying to keep it little less sweet than I myself would prefer !!! I think you can put 2 tbsp sugar and then taste the batter and put more if required.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix milk powder with 1 tbsp water. Mix well and and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Now add flour and sugar in this. Pour some milk and mix well. Adjust the milk as per requirement. You need to get the consistency of pancake batter. Heat tawa on medium and put oil. When oil is hot, put 1 tbsp of batter and shallow fry carefully on both sides. I bet children will love these.

Fruit Chat

Healthy delicious quick snack!!! This reminds me of my M.Sc. days at AMU. Every Ramazan, my roommies used to fast and then in the evening, they used to break their fast with dates and fruit chat. Since then I came to like this quick fruity snack.

Ingredients:
2 cups of fruits cut in bite size pieces
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp anardana
1/2 tsp chat masala
juice of half lime

Mix all of it and eat it!

Aloo-palak ke pakode (Spinach-potatoes pakodas)

These mild pakodas are favorite of everybody.... you don't make it very spicy...just mild spicing and let the flavor of fresh spinach, potatoes and gram flour take over.

Ingredients:
1 bunch fresh spinach washed and chopped finely
2 medium potatoes peeled and cut in small cubes (1/4")
1/2 cup besan or gram flour
a pinch turmeric powder
a pinch red chili powder
salt to taste
oil to fry

Mix turmeric powder, chili, salt in besan and mix well. Now add chopped spinach and potatoes and then mix it well with hands. Add little water at a time keep mixing till it binds well. Now heat oil in a kadai. When oil is hot, drop a spoonful of mixture in the kadai until kadai is having 4-5 pakodas and then fry it till pakodas turn golden brown. Serve hot with chutney.

Almod butter and caramalized banana sandwich

This is perfect for lunch to office. I took it to office today and it was so yummy. Its very quick to make too.

Ingredients:

2 bread slices of your choice
1-2 tbsp almond butter (depending upon how thick layer do you like, I use 2 tbsp :))
1/2 tsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 ripe banana, peeled and cut into medium thin slices
In a pan, heat the butter and add sugar and sit for few seconds. As soon as sugar starts to turn brown, put banana pieces. Bananas will nicely get coated in caramalized sugar. Switch off the heat.
In a slice of bread, spread almond butter and then put a layer of caramalized banana. Cover with another layer of bread and cut diagonally. If you are in very much hurry skip the caramalization phase and simply dip the banana pieces in 1 tsp honey and then layer with this on your almond butter sandwich.

beans ki crispy sabji

This is my Mom's recipe. We never liked beans in our childhood but when she used to make it like this, we would eat any amount!!!

Ingredients:

1 lb beans washed and cut in 1" pieces
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic
1/2" ginger
1 tbsp rice soaked in little water for 15 minutes
2-3 green chilies
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp mustard oil
A pinch cumin seeds

Grind onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies and soaked rice together in a blender. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan and when oil is hot, put cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add the grinded paste.
Keep stirring and when oil leaves the sides, add turmeric powder, red chili, salt, coriander powder and stir for a minute. Add beans and cook covered on low heat. When beans are 3/4th done, open the lid and cook on medium.  Keep stirring every once in a while.  In about 10-15 minutes, switch off the flame. The grinded rice in the masala will make it very crisp.  It taste best when eaten hot with chapatis.

Mango Salad

If there is one thing India should be absolutely proud of, that is Malihbad ke Dussheri aam!!! O! They are heavenly. People who have not tasted it will not know what I am talking about but people who have tasted it will never like any other kind of mango. The other day I was telling my DH that one of the reason people must be going back to India from abroad is mangoes :) But this salad is not made using Indian mangoes. We don't get them in Canada. I have used Mexican mango for this. Not like real Indian mango, but pretty good for a salad.

Ingredients:
For salad:
1 mango peeled and cut in 3/4" cubes.
5-6 grape tomatoes cut in half
5-6 mint leaves chopped finely.

For dressing:
2 tbsp mango juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chunky chat masala (or any masala)
1/4 tsp anardana (dry grinded pomegranate)
1/2 tsp sugar
few pinches salt
pinch crushed pepper
1/2 tsp lime juice

Mix all the dressing ingredients well in a small bowl. In a salad bowl toss mangoes, tomatoes and mint leaves. Now pour the dressing and mix well. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes and serve chilled.

Burnt onion pasta soup

This is one of the most delicious pasta soup. Burnt onion gives divine taste to the soup. So without any delay here is the recipe of this simple few ingredients soup.

Ingredients:
1 cup pasta (any kind of your liking)
2 big tomatoes chopped
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 clove garlic chopped finely
Salt to taste
crushed black pepper (optional if you want hotness in your soup)
water 2 cups.

In a big pan, boil 5 cup water with 1 tsp salt and when water starts boiling, put the paste in. Let it cook until pasta is tender, around 10-12 minutes. In a separate pan, heat oil and put garlic. When garlic turns brown, add onion. Saute onion until they become brown (or little bit burnt). Now add tomatoes and salt and let it cook until tomatoes are mushy. Add water and when water comes to boil, add pasta. Let it cook for few minutes and then add crushed pepper. Serve hot. You could add bell peppers in it if you wish. If you want more spicy, fry some green chilies with the onion. I usually cook it for lunch on weekends.

Misal pao

This spicy preparation is one of the famous breakfasts in Maharashtra. Misal is served with pao and crunchy bhujia or mixture preferably with peanuts is used to garnish misal.

Ingredients:
Sprouted moong daal 1 cup
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste
paste of 1 medium onion and one tomato

Pao
Bhujiya or mixture (I used this haldiram mixture)

To sprout moong soak sabut moong daal in water for 15-20 minutes and then put the daal in wet cheese cloth and hang for 24 hours. Keep sprinkling water every now and then on the cloth. Sprouted moong daal will look like this.

Now make paste of onion and tomato in a blender and keep aside. Heat oil in a kadai and when oil is hot, put red chili powder. Stir once and immediately add the onion tomato paste and salt. Fry till side leaves oil. Add garam masala, sprouted daal and 3-4 cups water and cook it on simmer until daal is cooked. Garnish with mixture and serve hot with pao and onions and a slice on onion on the side.

Besan ke laddoo

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE!!!!!!!!

These mouth watering laddoos are actually very easy to make. But let me warn you, if you are counting calories, stay away from them!!!!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup ghee
1/2 cup besan
1/3 cup sugar
pistachios to garnish

In a kadai heat ghee and fry besan on medium until it becomes aromatic. Now add sugar, mix well and switch off the stove. When the mixture cools, give them shape of laddoos. Some people like to add cardamom powder in the mixture. I don't because I like besan aroma a lot. If you wish you could put a pinch of cardamom powder as well. Now garnish with pistachios and serve.

Herbed Veggies

These are very healthy, super delicious quick dish and is very satisfying. You need some veggies with different textures. I used broccoli and Zucchini. This will be ready in 5-10 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 lb veggies, say broccoli and zucchini, cut in big pieces
1 medium tomato diced
handful of dill (or basil or chives)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic salt (or to your taste)
A pinch crushed black pepper

Heat olive oil in a pan and add tomatoes. When tomatoes are soft, add veggies and garlic salt. When veggies are half done, add dill. Switch off the stove when veggies are just done. You don't want to overcook. Add black pepper if you want little spicy.

Gobhi 65

Gobhi 65 is the vegetarian cousin of Chicken 65 and is one of the most popular starters in all Indian restaurants. The secret of great Gobhi 65 is good marination. Here is the step by step recipe of Gobhi machurian.

Ingredients:
1/2 cauliflower washed and separated in florets
1/2 onion chopped in 1" pieces
1 bell pepper chopped in 1" pieces (any color)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
oil to fry
1/2 tsp lime juice (optional)

In  a big vessel put all purpose flour, all spices, salt, soy sauce and little bit water. Marinate cauliflower florets in this mix for 3-4 hours.

Now fry them crisp.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and saute onion and green pepper for few minutes. Add fried cauliflower florets and mix it well. Switch off the stove in 2 minutes. Serve hot and add little bit lime juice while serving.

Chatpate aloo in microwave

This is super-easy to make and serve as an excellent snack for evening snacks, especially with tea.
Here is the recipe for these delicious aloos.

Ingredients:
12-15 baby potatoes (washed, no need to peel)
1 tbsp fresh cream
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1 tsp kasoori methi
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder

In microwave, cook potatoes for 6-8 minutes of until they are soft. Put a small glass filled with water in microwave at the time of cooking potatoes. This is stop potatoes from shrinking. Now in a
microwavable bowl, put oil and all other ingredients other than cream and cook on high for a minute.
Add fresh cream and potatoes and mix well. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with tea.

Chettanid Pepper Chicken

Sorry for being away from blog for such a long time. We have been vacationing in India for many weeks and then hang over of such a wonderful trip!!! Finally I am back with a recipe, which is not my
original recipe but turned out great so sharing it.

DH wanted to have chicken and a different kind of preparation!!! Lo Jee, kar lo baat. Ek tou vegetarian biwi se chicken ki demand and wo bhi different style ke!!! I decided to cook Chettinad Pepper Chicken.
My preparation is inspired by this recipe . However, DH likes little bit curry with chicken so I modified it a bit and also added little less chili than the original recipe.

Ingrdients:
1 lb chicken (I used chicken thigh part)
2 large Onion chopped finely
2 Tomatoes chopped)
Ginger garlic paste  2 tsp
Chili powder 1.5 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp
Coriander powder : 1 tbsp
Whole Pepper corns (crushed) : 1 tbsp
Cinnamon : 2 sticks
2 green Cardamom
1 black cardamom
2 Cloves
2 Bay leaf
Fennel seeds  1 tsp
Curry leaf  few
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste
Lemon Juice : 1/2 tsp (optional)

Marinate chicken in 1 tsp ginger garlic paste chili powder turmeric and salt for 1-2 hours.

Heat oil in a pan and put all sabut masalas such as bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon and clove. Now add fennel seeds. When they sputter, add curry leaf. Now put onion and saute until translucent. Add remaining ginger garlic paste. Finally add chopped tomato and let it become mushy. Add coriander powder and marinated chicken. Add little water. Cook until chicken pieces are tender and then add the crushed pepper. Serve hot with rice. If you want, add some lemon juice to chicken.

Urad daal kachori

There are two kinds of urad daal kachoris. In both kinds, the first step is to soak urad daal over night and the second step is to grind it. However, from here on the procedure differs. In the one with stuffed ural daal kachori, the grinded daal is fried in ghee and masalas and stuffing is made. In the non-stuffed version, the one I am giving the recipe, the daal is actually kneaded with the wheat flour with some masalas. Little suji is also added to make the kachori crisp. Both taste great and are good combination with raita or some light sabji.
Here is my recipe:
1 cup urad daal soaked overnight and grinded
2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup suji
2 tbsp yogurt plain
salt to taste
black pepper powder crushed (1 tsp or as per taste)
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds crushed in mortar and pastal)
kasoori methi crushed 1 tbsp
1 tbsp oil
oil for frying

Mix salt, pepper, kasoori methi and suji in the wheat flour and add 1 tbsp oil. Rub this mixture. Now add the grinded daal. Mix it well. Now slowly add the yogurt and and make the dough. Adjust the quantity of yogurt to get the dough of desired consistency. It should be softer than the poori dough but harder than the roti dough. Now make table-tennis ball size roughs and roll into 2.5-3 inches kachoris. Heat oil in a pan and fry them one by one. Serve hot.

Moong daal halwa

This is no water halwa which makes is halwa with long shelf life. I made it because I wanted to keep some sweet in my office and this one lasted for about a week at room temperature. I was eating one spoon halwa everyday but on 7th day I could not control myself and finished it all. Well, it could have lasted more, had I not eaten all of it on the 7th day! Again the ratio here is 1:2:1 and you could adjust sugar as per your taste. However, this halwa takes little bit planning in advance as you need to soak moong daal for 4-5 hours.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup ghee
2/3rd cup moong daal halwa soaked for 5-6 hours
1/3rd cup sugar

Grind the soaked halwa with as little water as you can manage. Heat ghee in a pan and put grinded daal paste. Keep stirring until all the water is dried up, and moong daal is nicely fried and strats giving the great aroma. At this point add the sugar and immediately switch off the stove. Cover the pan with a lid and let sugar seep in the halwa. This will also make it little crumbly. Serve hot or at room temperature. It does not taste good when chilled.

Besan ka halwa

Warning!! If you are calorie conscious and feel guilty for any extra calorie after the 1200 count, then this halwa is not for you. But if you are calorie conscious but once in a while sit relaxed, close your eyes and let your body enjoy some divine taste, then go for this one!!! Besan halwa is extremely easy to make. I follow the simple 1:2:1:1 rule, i.e. 1 portion clarified ghee, 2 portion besan, 1 portion water and 1 portion sugar. You could certainly adjust the sugar as per your taste. This proportion was perfect for my DH but I like my halwa to be little sweeter (typical north Indian!), I added couple of spoons of extra sugar. I don't like to use any cardamom or nuts because I love the besan aroma. The pistachio here is put just to make the picture more attractive.
As I said ingredients:
1/3rd cup ghee
2/3rd cup besan
1/3rd cup water
1/3rd cup sugar

Heat ghee in a pan/wok. Add besan and keep stirring continuously. When the divine fried besan aroma starts coming and the besan changes its color, add the water. In couple of minutes add sugar and keep stirring until you reach the desired consistency. Eat small portion and hide the rest because you won't be able to control yourself ;)

Cream of Cauliflower soup

I had this half cauliflower lying in my refrigerator for many days, waiting for its fate! And then I caught a bad cold. I wanted to eat something hot and delicious and soup, obviously, was my choice. This turned out to be a great soup and my cold was gone in no time (I am not saying there was any connection ;))
Anyway, here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 cauliflower broken in florets
1 big onion chopped
1/3 bell pepper chopped (optional)
2 green chillies chopped (if you want hot soup)
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp+1tsp clarified ghee or butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
3 cup milk
3 tbsp whipping cream or fresh cream (optional for richer soup)
salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

In a big pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee. Once ghee is hot add cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add garlic and green chillies. When garlic turns golden brown, add onion and little bit salt. Saute for a minute and then add bell pepper and cauliflower. Let it cook on medium with pan covered until the cauliflower florets are semi-soft. Turn off the stove and let this mixture cool a bit. Now grind this mixture in a grinder. In another pan on medium heat, add 1 tsp clarified ghee. When ghee is hot, add all purpose flour. Saute it and very quickly add milk and grinded paste of cauliflower. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the cream. Let it cook until the desired consistency of the soup is reached. Adjust salt and pepper and serve hot. You can serve with a thin stripe of bell pepper or a dash of cream.

Fish with maximum chilli you can handle, Thanks Ushnish!

I am a vegetarian but usually cook fish and chicken for my husband and many times taste the curry part of the final product too!!! The other day DH asked me to make a different style of hot fish and I stumbled upon Ushnish's blog which I found is the best for non-vegetarian spicy recipes. I immediately chose one of the easy looking fish recipe and it turned out to be one of the most delicious fish I have ever made (thats what DH said :)). Look at my pretty pictures of the final product and please follow the this link for the original recipe. Just one word of caution - take many napkins with you while eating even if you claim you can handle the most spicy food!!!! Even though I used 1 tsp less chilli powder than suggested in Ushnish's recipe, when I tasted the curry it was the fire blast in my mouth!!! I did not have the fish Ushnish suggested so I used 2 big pieces of Salmon fish.

Here is the fish pieces after frying them.

The final product in the pan:

And then served to DH..He wanted me to leave little gravy and he ate it with rotis...

Vada-Pav with fried green chili and garlic chutney

Just the title of this post sends me back in Maharastra, my train journeys between Mumbai and Pune and eating vada-pavs all through the journey.... Somehow vada pao tastes best to me when I am traveling. Well, I cannot re-create that here in Canada but could certainly eat vada-pavs and remember those good old days....and to make it like the thela-walas, I made friend chili and garlic chutney too.

For fried chilies:
5-6 green chilies
salt
oil for frying

Just slit the green chilies and deep fry them and then sprinkle some salt on them. Keep them aside.

For garlic chutney:
8-10 garlic cloves peeled
7-8 dry whole red chilies
salt 1 tsp (or to taste)
1 tsp oil

Heat oil in a pan. Put garlic and fry until brown. Remove them. Put red chilies in the same oil and immediately switch off the stove. Grind the red chilies, garlic and salt together. Chutney is ready. This chutney has long shelf life.

Pav:
I have made pavs in the past and them came out real nice. However this time I just bought them from the grocery store :) I actually bought hamburger buns and roasted them a bit on a tava (a flat pan). When I make pav next time, I will take pictures and post the recipe!!

Vada:
Ingredients:
For the filling:
4 medium sized potatos, boiled and peeled
6 cloves of garlic
4 green chilies
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

For the batter: 
3 tsp gram flour
some water
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala

Oil to fry

There are various versions of making filling for vadas. Some recipes call for many many spices to be put with potato, such as coriander powder, garam masala, amchur, turmeric etc. Some fillings are made by actually frying the masalas and mashed potatoes in a pan. However, I like my vadas to be dominated by garlic and I don't like multiple masalas to confuse the garlic flavor (and when I make aloo paratha, I put all possible masalas availbale on earth!!! Will put recipe sometime soon). So I just put garlic, green chili and lemon juice. Lemon actually enhances garlic flavor and at the same time gives some tangy taste. I can just say that try my recipe and you will not regret :)
Anyway, mash the potatoes. Its okay to have few lumps here and there.  Take garlic and red chilies and grind them with hand in a mortar-and-pestle. The texture which comes from not-so-fine grinding in a mortar-and-pestle actually tastes great when you are biting on vadas. Mix the crushed garlic-chilie in the mashed potatoes. Add lemon juice and salt and mix well. Make 2 inch diameter tikkies  and keep them aside. Now put your deep frying pan on stove and let oil get heated. Now for the batter, mix salt, chili powder, garam masala in gram flour. Pour water such that pancake consistency batter is prepared. I actually like my batter to be a bit on the thicker side so that potatoes are nicely coated. Some like to add baking powder in the batter. I don't add it. If you want, add 1/2 tsp baking powder. Now coat potato tikkies in this batter and deep fry.

And finally cut the pavs in two pieces and assemble the vadas in between pavs and relish with fried chili and garlic chutney. If you wish you could also add coriander chutney . I did not have coriander leaves at home so skipped this part.