Almond/badam halwa

Ingredients:

Almonds (soaked over night & peeled) 1 cup

Sugar 1 to 1 1/2 cups (Adjust to suit your taste)

Ghee - 1/4 cup(You may add more if you want it richer)

Milk - 1 cup

Yellow color - a pinch(optional)

Saffron to decorate

Method:

1. Grind the almonds with milk (after removing the skin) into a smooth paste. Mix the yellow color.

2. Take two tablespoons ghee and cook the paste with the remaining milk in a tawa and add the sugar.

3. Keep stirring until the sugar blends. Add the saffron at the end when everything starts to blend. Remember this starts to burn if you are not continuously stirring.

4. When the paste becomes thick and leaves the side of the vessel without sticking to the bottom, halwa is ready. It ideally looks like sheera (a rava/sooji sweet). The halwa will not stick to the pan. It usually takes around 30 minutes.

Merry Christmas!

Santa comes to say Merry Christmas! :) Have a lovely time folks!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Mixed vegetable upma

I tried this from this site.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava (Sooji)

1 Onion, chopped

1 Tomato, chopped

1 cup Mixed vegetables, chopped and cooked (I used carrots, beans and peas)

2 tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 Red Chilli, broken into pieces

1 tsp Green Chilli paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

Salt to taste

1 tsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to brown a little, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red chilli, curry leaves, onions, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato and fry for a minute more. Add the mixed vegetables and the rava and fry the entire mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling hot water and salt to this. Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.

When done, take it off the heat and pour the ghee on top. Mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy it with coconut chutney.

Banana bread cake

I tried the banana bread cake out from Nag's site. It came out so yummy. Having it for breakfast today!

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar, I may add slightly less next time
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour/maida
1/2-3/4 cup nuts of your choice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt ( I didn't use this)

Method:

Mash the banana well and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and the sugar has blended well. Add the eggs and beat more until well combined.
Add the mashed banana and mix well. Then add the vanilla extract and mix again.
Next, add the flour and a pinch of salt. Combine without beating, to form the dough without any lumps.
Transfer to a greased loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the loaf comes out clean.
Cool completely before cutting into slices.

Methi chicken

I tried out the methi chicken recipe from Shilpa's site. It came out quite nice :) I just added a bit of curds for a creamy touch. Here is the same recipe

Ingredients:
0.6 lb (0.27kgs) chicken
1 tea spn ginger-garlic paste
1 and 1/2 cups chopped tomato
1 cup roughly chopped onion + 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbl spn finely chopped fresh/frozen methi(fenugreek) leaves
1 tea spn chilli powder
Oil
Salt
Spices -
4 cloves
1″ cinnamon
1/2 tea spn poppy seeds(khus khus)
1/4 tea spn methi seeds
1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds

Method:
Apply ginger-garlic paste to chicken pieces and keep them aside.
Heat oil and all the spices. Take care not to burn any of them.
Add 1 cup roughly chopped onion and fry till they turn brownish. Now add tomatoes, salt, chilli powder. Cook till tomatoes are tender. Grind to a smooth paste.
Heat oil and add finely chopped onion. Add chicken pieces and methi leaves. Fry for about 2 mins.
Now add the ground paste. Cook till completely done. If required, add water to bring to required consistency.

Carrot cake

I tried out this carrot cake and it was really tasty. My cake sunk in the middle and I'm not sure why :) Actually I'm baking from scratch after a long gap of around 5 years so I'm happy that the cake tasted well! Here is the recipe from Bindiya's site for my reference

Ingredients

Clarified butter-3 tbsp (60 gms)
Sugar (powdered)-1 cup
All purpose flour-1 cup
Baking powder-2 tsp
Carrots (grated with the big holes side of grater)-1 and 1/2 cups
Raisins- a handful
Walnuts (if desired)- a handful
Eggs-2
Vanilla extract-1 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon-1/4 tsp

Method

Beat softened clarified butter and sugar together till creamy, add the eggs and vanilla extract, tip in the carrots and mix well.Combine flour and baking powder, and add to the egg mixture, next add the raisins, nuts and cinnamon.Pour into prepared cake tin, bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 45 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Rava roti

Oh yesterday morning I had the most delicious rava rotis in a long time. We tried it from Mane Adige site and it came out so well. Here is the same recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup Rava/Semolina

1/4 cup Curds

1/2 Onion, chopped thinly

2-3 tbsp Grated Coconut, fresh/frozen (optional)

2-3 tbsp Grated Carrots (optional)

2-3 strands Cilantro

1.5 tsp Jeera

1-2 Green chillies,chopped

Salt as per taste

1-2 tsp Oil

Method

• Mix all the ingredients except oil in a mixing bowl. The batter should be thicker than the usual dosa batter. I have put a picture up.
• Take a non-stick tava and grease it with a few drops of oil.
• Pour a handful of the batter on the pan and spread it into a circle with the help of your hands. ( I use a plastic bag, oil it on one side and put a ball of batter in it and try to smooth it out on it, rather than doing it right on the pan)
• Cook on stove with medium heat. Cook on both sides.
• Remove from tava and serve hot with coconut chutney or any other side dish of your choice.

Pumpkin carving :)

I was going through Google Reader and came across a very interesting post by "Chef in You". DK showcased step by step method to carve pumpkins. I was so excited that the following weekend I had to do it. I didn't have a kit like her but used an ordinary knife to carve it :)

Here is the picture with and without the candle within it. Thank you DK for a wonderful, fun-filled activity!

Egg curry

This was a new way that I learnt from Shilpa's site. I really liked the taste of the curry. It was delicious.

Ingredients

4 boiled eggs
2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut
1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds
A pinch turmeric
4-5 red chilies
Ghee/oil
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup onion
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup tomato(optional)
4-5 curry leaves(optional)
1/2 tea spn chopped garlic
Salt

Method

Heat oil and fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chilies, turmeric, garlic and 1/2 cup onion. When onion turns translucent, add 1/4 cup tomato and fry for few minutes. Grind to a paste along with coconut.

Cook the ground paste with remaining 1/4 cup tomatoes. When it starts boiling, slip in the halved boiled eggs and salt. Cook for about 5 mins. Take off the heat.

In a pan, heat ghee and fry remaining 1/4 cup onions and curry leaves. When the onions turn brownish, add this to the cooked gravy. Close the lid.
Serve hot with rice.

Mutton biriyani

I was searching for a good mutton biriyani online and came across this one. I followed it exactly and it tasted so yummy.

I just pasted it for future reference :)

Ingredients

• Marinade
  • 2 lbs Goat meat cut into pieces
  • ¾ – 1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
  • 2 tsp Chili Powder
  • 14 small Chilies split into two (adjust to your taste)
  • 1 cup chopped Mint Leaves
  • 1 cup chopped Cilantro
  • Salt to Taste (sufficient for the meat)
  • Garam Masala Powder
    • 10 Pepper Corns
    • 10 Coves
    • ½ tsp Cardamom Seeds
    • ½ tsp Sahajeera or Black Cumin
    • 1” Cinnamon Stick
• 1 Large Onion sliced
• 1 Lime
• 1 cup Oil (can use half oil and half ghee)
• ½ tsp of saffron strands
• ½ cup milk
• 4 cups Basmati Rice soaked for 30 minutes (rice cooker measuring cup)
• Spices for boiling rice
  • 6 Cardamoms
  • 3 Cloves
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 1 Bay Flower or Biryani Flower
  • 1 tsp Sahajeera
  • ½ tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
  • 1 tbsp of Oil
  • First Full of Salt

Method

• Clean and cut the goat meat.
• Grind all the ingredients listed under garam masala to a fine powder.
• Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and marinate for at least 2 hour , preferably overnight in the fridge.
• Cook the meat with ½ the oil in a pressure cooker. Don’t add any water when cooking. In my cooker it takes 6-7 whistles and 5 minutes on low flame to cook. Once the pressure in the cooker goes away, open it and cook it until all the water evaporates. OR
• Can cook the meat on the stove top until tender. This will take about an hour. I prefer the pressure cooker to avoid all the cooking odor when cooking on stove top.
• Squeeze the lime juice on the meat and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil and fry the onions until light golden brown.
• Soak saffron in hot milk.
• In a big pot bring water to a boil, add all the spices required for boiling rice and mix well.
• Add rice and continue to cook until the rice is almost done. It takes about 7-8 minutes on my stove. Drain the rice and keep aside.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Now its time to arrange rice and meat in layers. Grease large baking tray with oil, layer half the rice at the bottom. Sprinkle some oil, fried onions and ½ the saffron milk. Layer the rice with meat followed by a layer of remaining rice. We should have 2 layers of rice and one layer of meat. Top it off the remaining oil, fried onions and saffron milk. Cover the tray with aluminum foil.
• Bake the biryani for 10 minutes on 400 degrees F and 20 minutes on 350 degrees F.

Note: I didnt have saffron at home. So, skipped that step. But the biriyani was still yummy. Although it was a bit oily, I need to remember to use less next time.

Chiroti

I saw this recipe on Shilpa's site. She is an amazing lady who constantly updates her blogs with lovely recipes. And the effort she takes in explaining the process is really amazing. If not for her, novices like me would be lost in cooking :)

The chiroti came out amazing. I finished it in two sittings :( Was sad to see it go so fast.

I'm just pasting her recipe here. Her blog post has the pictures of how to make it step by step.

Ingredients

Maida or all purpose flour 1 cup

Rice flour 2 tea spns

Vanaspati(Dalda) 2 tea spns

Salt a pinch

Sugar powder 3/4 cup

Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn

Vanaspati(dalda) for deep frying -

Ghee 1 tea spn

Do not use normal oil for deep frying, it spoils the taste.

Shilpa used Crisco shortening instead of vanaspati (Vanaspati is hydrogenated vegetable oil) and ghee. (I used ghee for frying :P since I didnt have dalda)

Also I used plain sugar and no cardamom and it was still yummy.

Method

Mix flours, salt and vanaspathi. Add sufficient water to make a dough like puri dough. Keep aside the dough for almost 1 hr.

Mix sugar and cardamom. Keep it aside.

Make 7 small balls (chapathi ball size) from the dough. Roll out into thin chapathis.

Keep one chapathi on a flat board. Apply a bit of ghee on the chapathi, sprinkle 1/4 tea spn of maida(or all purpose flour) on it. Keep the next chapathi on the first one (keep the second chapathi slightly down, it should not cover the full chapathi). Repeat the procedure to stack up all 7.

Roll the chapathis into a tight roll(do not apply pressure).

Cut the roll into around 2 and 1/2 inches pieces.

Take one piece, with the help of rolling pin, roll it into small circles. Take extra care at this stage. It should NOT be rolled like normal puri. Roll from center to the side, from all sides. All the layers should be clearly visible.

Heat vanaspathi in a pan. Deep fry the chirotis on a medium flame. While frying, slightly press the chirotis on the layers so as to make the layers separate a bit (do not apply pressure). Take out on a clean kitchen towel.

Spread sugar mixture on the fried chiroti.

Store it in a dry, airtight container. This remains good atleast for 15days(if stored in a dry place).

Salmon fish curry

I made this salmon fish curry using guidance from Lena. I made few changes and hence the recipe below for my reference :)

Ingredients

Salmon fish : 1kg
Onion : 2, sliced
Ginger : 1/2 inch piece, chopped
Garlic : 3 cloves, chopped
Green Chilli : 1, chopped
Curry leaves : 2 springs
Turmeric Powder :1/2tsp
Chilli Powder : 2tsp
Tamarind - Small lump soaked in water for 15 mins
Onion : 1/2, chopped
Coconut Oil : 2tsp
Coconut milk :1cup thick + 1 cup medium
Salt

Method

1. Using a mixer grind onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies, curry leaves. Dont make a fine paste.

2. In a clay pot, combine coconut milk along with the above ingredients. (step 1)

3. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt to the clay pot.

4. Combine well and heat in medium flame.

5. When it boils add fish and tamarind.

6. When fish is cooked, add the thick coconut milk and curry leaves and cook for another 5 minutes maximum.

7. In another pan heat coconut oil and add chopped half chopped onion. Saute well till it becomes shallow fried.

9. Like we add thadka to curries add this shallow fried onion to hot fish curry.

Egg puffs

I got this recipe and modified it a bit :) But it was yummy!


Ingredients

1 Puff Pastry sheet, thawed for atleast 30 minutes - Pilsbury is good
4 hard boiled Eggs, cut into halves, lengthwise

For Onion Masala

1 tbsp Oil
1 medium Onion, cut into thin slices
Salt to taste
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1/8 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Red Chilli powder
fresh Cilantro leaves

Method

1. To prepare Onion Masala, heat oil in a pan, toss cumin seeds and onion, saute until golden brown. Then add salt, turmeric, garam masala and red chilli powder. Mix well and finally add the cilantro leaves. Keep aside.

2. Cut the thawed puff pastry into 6 squares each approximately about 3.5 inches wide by 5 inches long.

3. Place a spoonful of onion masala in the middle and then an halved egg, cut side down.

4. Fold the two ends of the strip, so that it encloses the egg (as shown in the pic). Seal the edges by applying very little water or pressing with a fork.

5. Preheat oven for 400 deg and Bake these for about 30 minutes. Serve hot with ketchup!

Mangalore buns

One fine evening I was suddenly thinking of a snack very specific to Mangalore i.e. Mangalore buns. I went to the net and searched for a recipe and got it from Mane Adige. It turned out so good :) Yummy!



I'll just post it for my reference.

Ingredients

1 cup Maida/All purpose flour

1 ripe Banana, medium sized

1-2 tbsp Curd/Yogurt

4-5 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Jeera seeds

1/2 - 3/4 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Salt

Oil for deep frying

Method

Mash the banana completely with your hands; Add the rest of the ingredients, except oil, and make a dough; The dough should be of the chapati dough consistency. Note: Be very careful while adding yogurt; Yogurt gives out some water and tends to make the dough watery. So, start with very little quantity and then add more, as required.

Cover and set aside for 4-5 hours.

Heat oil in a frying pan on low-medium heat; A tiny ball of dough dropped into the oil should rise immediately - That's when the oil is ready.

Pull out ping pong sized balls of dough and pat them in between your palms to make pooris out of the dough; You could also use rolling pin to make the pooris. Note: If you are using your hands for making pooris, greasing them with a few drops of cooking oil would help.

Drop the pooris in oil and deep fry on both sides until they turn brown; Note: While deep frying, press and keep them inside the oil for a few seconds, just like how you would do for ordinary pooris - This helps them fluff up!

Remove from oil and drain on paper towels; Serve hot with coconut chutney/Sambhar and enjoy.

Sai bhaji

I got this recipe from one of my dearest friends P who is a Sindhi. Lovely recipe with palak. I usually hate this leafy veggie but this recipe brought me closer to it :) Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

Palak - 1 packet
Chana dal - 4 fistfuls
Onions - 2
Tomatoes - 4
Gr. chilly
Ginger
Turmeric powder/haldi
Coriander/dhaniya powder
Garlic
Red chilly

Method

First soak 4 fistfuls of chana dal in water.

Start cutting the vegetables - palak, onions, tomatoes.

Put in this order in the cooker.

Onion
Palak
Chana Dal
Tomato
Gr. chilly
Ginger
Namak, haldi, dhaniya powder, amchur
Little water - you can use the water with which you soaked the dal

2-3 whistles - Turn it around to make some kind of paste.

Heat on slow fire on 10 - 15 minutes.

Take oil separately and tadka with garlic and red chilly.

Add it to the vessel.