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.