Masala vada

Masala vadas are a healthy twist to the regular vadas we make. This is my moms recipe and I make them for any special occasions and festivals. You can serve them with some tea or even as a side snack item with sambar or rasam. I remember falling in love with these vadas in tirupati, as they are street food there. I used to trouble mom to make them as big as they make. Do try them, they are simple and easy to make!

Ingredients

Channa dal 1 cup
Rice flour 1 tsp
Onion  1
Green chillies 5
Fennel   1 tsp
Coriander leaves chopped 1tsp
Mint leaves,chopped 1tsp
Curry leaves   1 sprig
Ginger 1 inch piece
Garlic  5 to 6 cloves
Oil for frying

Method

Soak channa dal for 3-4 hours, drain them and keep aside. Now grind ginger, garlic, chillies, curry leaves, mint leaves, coriander leaves and fennel coarsely.

Now add dal in two batches and grind coarsely. Do not add water.Mix finely chopped onion, salt, rice flour in the dal. 

Wet your hands with water and make equal sized balls first for uniform sized vadas. Meanwhile heat oil in kadai. Shape each ball to flat patties and deep fry in hot oil until golden in colour,flipping once in between. Always cook in medium flame to ensure even cooking and golden colour. 

Serve them with tea or coffee and enjoy!  

Recipe Credits- Baisakhi Saha

 

Home made Indian Cheese Cake

Guest Blog by Baisakhi

I am back with guest blog for February!! My dear friend, newly married bride has shared her home made cheese cake recipe with us. This crowd pleasing summer treat will have your family and friends swoon in delight. It is one of those desserts which is quite simple to make but looks as if you have toiled for hours. I also feel this is the best way to welcome sunny summer!!

I am big fan of cheese cakes and always end up going to these fancy places and pay lot of bucks to enjoy a slice of cake. Surprisingly we can make a decent cheese cake at home with all Indian ingredients as well.  Thanks again baisakhi for taking time and clicking these beautiful pics and sharing this yumm recipe for all of us!

Ingredients

Amul cheese- 1 cup 
Digestive biscuits 5-6
Set curd- 1/2 cup
Amul cream- 1 Packet
Gelatine or lemon grass- 1 tsp 
(Suggestion- use only vegetarian gelatine. Please check the ingredients before buying and avoid the ones with animal extract)
Castor sugar 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Britania sponge cake 1
Butter 3 tsp

Method:

Grind the biscuits and mix the melted butter with it. Line the base of the serving dish evenly and smoothly with the biscuit mixture. Spread and press well with hand. Put in the freezer for 20 min or so to set.

Now in a blender add curd, cream,vanilla essence, castor sugar and melted gelatine and whip it nicely.

 Remove the set crust from the freezer and pour this mixture onto the set biscuit base and add some more crushed cake for texture on top.

Cover and put in the fridge to set for few hours. Garnish with sliced strawberries or blueberries and serve cold!!  

Classic French Toast

French Toast is an easy breakfast option, perfect for Sunday mornings. Its a great comfort food and doesn't take more than 10 minutes to make! I know some people like to eat their toast as a savoury, but I prefer this one with sugar. I use brown bread most of the time at home, you may actually use any bread of your choice. There are lot of variations to this toast, so get in the kitchen and start making these easy and quick french toasts!

Ingredients

Eggs- 3
Brown bread- 4 slices
Milk- 180 ml
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Cinamon powder- 1/2 tsp (Optional)
Sugar 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- pinch
Butter 

Method:

In a shallow bowl, beat eggs; add milk, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon powder and pinch of salt and make a smooth consistent batter without any lumps.

Soak bread for 30 seconds on each side in the custard.

 On a non stick pan add butter and fry the bread on medium flame until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. 

Serve with honey/maple syrup and some fresh juice! 

 

Aloo Fry

(No Onion No Garlic)

This super basic and easy potato fry is my family's favorite recipe! Its perfect for a lazy day in your kitchen. Also aloo is the most loved veggie and its easily available in our kitchens always. So try this is quick side dish! Serve along with any rasam or sambar and enjoy!

Ingredients

Aloo finely chopped 2
Chilli powder 1/2 tsp
Salt as per taste
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Urad dal 1/2 tsp
Green chillies 2
Curry leaves few
Coriander leaves few
Pinch of garam masala/aamchur powder (Optional)
Oil to fry


Method:-

Make a coarse paste of chillies, curry leaves and coriander together.

In a non stick pan, add oil, cumin & mustard seeds and urad dal. Once they start to splutter add the paste, chilli powder, turmeric powder and fry them for a minute.

Now add the aloo, salt and mix them all together so that the masalas are well coated. Cover the pan and cook them on medium flame for 10 minutes.

Then take off the lid and let them cook for another 10minutes. Do not cook them on high flame as they change colour but may not get cooked properly.

Sprinkle a pinch of garam masala or aamchur powder on top and serve with hot ghee rice and rasam! 

Egg Rava Dosa

Semolina Crepes with Egg

This is one of the quickest breakfast  you could ever imagine.  An instant dosa that can be mixed using eggs and rava and needs no fermentation. My family is fond of dosas and we make them pretty often. We make this egg dosa those days when we have craving for dosas and no time to prepare batter and ferment! You have to try them to believe how easy and yumm they are!! 


Ingredients:-

Eggs -3
Rava/Suji- 2 cups
Onion-1 finely chopped
Chillies- 2 finely chopped
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp 
Coriander leaves- few
Salt- 1 tsp
Water- 3 to 4 cups 
Pepper to taste
Oil- for pan frying


Method:- 


In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients mentioned above except eggs and mix them well. Beat eggs in a separate bowl with coriander leaves and add this to the rava mix. Whisk everything together with water and make a smooth running batter. Remember the batter has to be of watery consistency to get crisp dosas. Also allow some soaking time for rava or suji/semolina, so that they soften.I usually mix everything and keep the batter for rest at least 10 minutes.

Heat a tawa and grease it lightly with oil and take one large ladleful of batter and pour in a circle over the hot griddle making sure you fill the gaps. Smear a little oil on the sides, cook till both sides are golden brown in colour and fold over to make a semi-circle.

Now be patient! Because of the large amount of water in the batter, rava dosa will take longer to cook than regular dosas. 

To make the rava dosa crispy, maintain flame low and let the dosa cook longer, taking your time to flip it. 

Enjoy crispy egg rava dosa with any chutney or just like that!! 

Paneer Matar Makhni

Paneer & Peas Curry

Every time I buy paneer, I end up making simple paneer bhurji as its quick and tastes great with phulkas. Today I wanted to give extra attention to paneer and make something rich and creamy!! To make it healthy I am adding fresh green peas to the curry. Perfect gravy recipe to please vegetarian guests!! 

Ingredients: 

Paneer 200gms
Green Peas 100 gms
Onions 2
Tomatoes 1 
Green Chillies 2 
Cloves/Cardamon 2 each
Tomato puree 1cup
Shahi Jeera 1tsp
Ginger chopped 1 tsp
Garlic chopped 1 tsp 
Kassori Methi fistful
Chilli powder 1tsp
Garam masala 1/2 tsp
Butter 50 gms
Oil 1 tsp
Pepper powder 1/2tsp
Salt as per taste.
Fresh cream for garnishing

Method:

Boil onions, ginger,garlic,tomato,clove, cardamon in 1 cup of water. Once they are cooked, cool them and make a paste in blender.

In a nonstick pan saute paneer cubes for few minutes and keep aside. Blanch green peas for 5 mins and keep aside.

Now in a kadai add butter with some oil, fry shahi jeera until they change colour and then add chilli powder. Add the peas and fry them for 5 minutes. Put the blended masala paste and tomato puree to this with green chillies and cook for few minutes.

Add the sauteed paneer cubes in the kadai and mix them all together. For seasoning add salt, pepper, garam masala. Crush kasoori methi with your hand and add to the gravy. Cook this for 10minutes. Feel free to add your own touch with lime juice! 

Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves and garnish with fresh cream. Serve hot with phulkas or jeera rice!

Recipe Credits- Meena Sharma

Picture Credits- Abhinav Shukla

Daal Baati

Guest Blog by Meena Sharma

Daal Baati is a popular dish of Rajasthan. This rich and flavourful dish is commonly served at all festivities, what started as a picnic food has become a distinctive cuisine of Rajasthan. My colleague, lovely Meena was willing to share this delicious recipe with all of us. Thanks again so much for giving us this rich and yumm delicacy!!
 
The Baatis are traditionally roasted in an open coal fire, you can always buy baati cooker if you intend to make them often, its easily available in stores.

If not you can also cook them under a grill or in your oven. But one thing common for baatis, irrespective of their cooking technique is that they are always served dipped in ghee accompanied with thick Daal which is traditionally made with a number of different types of lentils, you can use as many as you have at the moment! 

This dal is cooked with ghee, the masalas in the dal are fried in ghee and more ghee is mixed into the dal before serving. Often a large batch of baatis is made and part of the dough is left unsalted. This unsalted dough then shaped into rounds and deep fried in ghee!!

Ingredients for Baati:-

Wheat Flour- 4 cups
Sooji/ Rawa-2 cups
Carrom seeds/Ajwayin- 1/2tsp
Ghee-4 tbs
Salt-to taste
Baking soda- 1/2 tsp

Method:- 

Mix flour, sooji, salt, ghee, little water and make a firm dough. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. Cover it with wet cloth and keep it aside. Divide dough into 10 equal portions and roll each into a ball, flatten each ball into a thick disc and press in the centre to make an indent and put in the daal baati cooker. Cook on each side for about 5 minutes, until they turn into golden colour! 

Alternate way of making these baatis if you dont have the baati cooker is baking them in the oven. Boil water in a deep pan, add the baatis and cook on high flame for 15 minutes.
Remove from water and arrange on a baking tray. Preheat oven to 200C and bake until the baatis are golden. brush them with ghee and serve hot with dal! 

Ingredients for Daal:- 

Channa Daal-1/2 cup
Toor Daal-1/2 cup
Moong Daal-1/2 cup
Masoor Daal-1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds-1 tsp
Mustard Seeds
Green Chillies-3-4
Asafoetida/ Hing-a generous pinch
Tomatoes- 2 finely chopped
Garlic- 5
Ghee-3 tbs
Chilli powder- 1/2tsp
Coriander powder- 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2tsp
Salt-to taste

Method:-

Wash all the dals and add turmeric powder, salt and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. In a pan, add oil and add cumin & mustard seeds, hing and once they start to splutter add tomatoes, chillies, garlic, chilli powder, dhaniya powder and saute for another 5 minutes. Now add the cooked dal and mix everything thoroughly, check the seasoning and add salt if required. 

How to Serve:-

Arrange the baatis on a serving plate, break each baati, press lightly and soak in a bowl of ghee, then drain and serve with hot dal!

 

Chettinad Egg masala curry

I loooooooove eggs, big fan of them! Its my go to curry when I am bored with veggies. This is one of my favorite egg curry recipe, as I love intense spicy curries!! It goes well with steamed rice, jeera rice or even with roti/paratha.If you wish you can simplify the recipe and give a miss to the spices to make it mild if spicy food is not your forte!!

Ingredients

Eggs - 4
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Onions - 2 large
Tomato - 2 medium size pureed
Green chilli - 2 slit
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

To roast & grind
 
Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
Whole Pepper - 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilli - 4
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel Seeds  - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 small stick

Method:

Boil eggs, peel them and set aside.

To make the masala heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai. Add all the spices mentioned above and roast them on low heat till they change colour. Take them in a blender, add some water and make a smooth paste.

Now add more oil in the pan and add curry leaves, onions, gg paste, salt and chillies and fry this for 2 mins until onions turn into golden colour, add tomato puree and cover the pan with a lid and cook for 5 mins. Add the blended masala and cook for another 5 minutes. You can add some water according to the consistency you want. 

Make lot of slashes on the boiled eggs and add them to the gravy and let them cook for 10 mins till the oil floats on top.

Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve hot with garam garam rotis or steamed rice!! 

Onion Uthapam

Happy new year everyone, hope you all had a great vacation and spent quality time with family on holidays! 

So I am back into kitchen, making quick and easy dishes for my loved ones. One question that bothers every women while sleeping is what to cook for breakfast tomorrow!! Especially if you are working and you have to rush to office in the morning.

On weekdays, I usually prefer quick breakfasts like oats, cornflakes, fruits....but my south indian instincts hit me sometimes and I crave for idlis and dosas so I make dosa/idli batter and store in refrigerator and use it for a week. To make them interesting, I add some twist to the routine recipe.

One such recipe is uthapam. You can make them in so many ways, with ingredients readily available at home. So here's a simple, delicious, spicy and nutritional recipe for those busy mornings!!

Ingredients:-

Idli batter
1 cup finely chopped tomato
1 cup finely chopped onion 
1 green chili finely chopped
Ginger finely chopped (Optional)
Few coriander leaves 
Chilli powder/Gun powder
Salt per taste
Oil

Method:-

Take a non stick pan, when it gets hot put a ladle full of batter and spread it evenly on the pan. Remember to not make it too thin lik a dosa, uthapams taste better when they are thick like pan cakes.

Now, spread onions, tomatoes, chillies on the uthapam generously, sprinkle some chilli powder/gun powder, salt and finely chopped coriander leaves. Press the toppings with help of a spatula and oil on the sides and cover with a lid.

Let it cook on low flame for 5 minutes, then flip it over and cook for another 5 minutes.

Ta da...hot and spicy uthappam is ready, serve it with any chutney! 

Variations:

• You can add any veggies like green peppers, ginger, corn. 
• You can avoid using oil completely and make it as a steamed uthapam
•  If serving for kids add some ketchup on top, they will enjoy eating it like a pizza!

 

Garlic & Pepper Rasam

Rasam is one comfort food we enjoy in all seasons. I always prefer pepper rasam on a cold rainy day with hot piping steamed rice and some side dish like potato fry, or bhindi fry. In 365 days of a year, sadly I have cold for 300 days, so I end up making rasam pretty often to feel better!!

 
Ingredients

Pepper- 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds- 1/2 tsp
Garlic pods- 5 
Red Chillies- 2
Toor Dal- 2 tsp
Tamarind lemon sized ball

Tampering 
Ghee- 1 tsp
Oil- 1tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves
Red chillies 2

Method:

Soak tamarind for 30 mins in 1 cup of warm water, remove the thick pulp out of it and keep it aside.

Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned above into a fine powder. 

Boil the tamarind juice in a bowl with 1 cup of water with salt as required. Add the powdered masala and let it cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile heat ghee, oil and add all the ingredients under tampering. Add the tadka to the rasam and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with hot steamed rice and any side veggie fry!

Palak Pakoda

(Spinach Fritters)

Foggy mornings!! It has been so cold this season, temperatures are going low every where. Getting out of the bed is so difficult! All I want to do is have garam garam chai with some spicy pakodas, cuddle in a warm blanket and watch some feel good movie!! Pakodas are great company for this weather. If you are bored with regular onion pakodas, make these healthy palak pakodas. Kids who are usually not found of palak will also love these pakodas surely!!

Ingredients:-
Palak leaves- 1 cup
Onion- 1 cup
Coriander leaves- 2 tsp
Besan- 1 cup
Rice flour- 1/2 cup
Ginger garlic paste -1 tsp
Chilli powder- 1 tsp
Salt as needed
Oil for deep frying

Method:-

Wash spinach leaves, drain the water and chop them finely. 

In a bowl, mix together chopped onions, chopped palak leaves, coriander leaves, gg paste besan, red chilli powder, salt, rice flour and some oil and mix with your hands.

The onions will ooze out some water so use few drops of water only to mix everything. Heat oil in a kadai. Reduce the heat to medium and drop roughly shaped balls directly into the oil. 

Remember to fry them on medium flame only, this helps the palak to cook well. Fry until golden brown. Remove pakodas from the oil and drain them on a paper towel and enjoy this awesome weather with hot and crispy palak pakodas!! 

Sarva pindi a savory pan cake is an authentic telangana dish. The origin of the name for this dish is interesting, here “Sarva” means a deep vessel and “pindi” means dough. So you are basically cooking dough/batter in a vessel! My mom used to make it on rainy days and we would enjoy them with hot cup of tea.

Sarva Pindi

(Spicy Rice Flour Pancakes)

Sarva pindi a savory pan cake is an authentic telangana dish. The origin of the name for this dish is interesting, here “Sarva” means a deep vessel and “pindi” means dough.  So you are basically cooking dough/batter in a vessel! My mom used to make it on rainy days and we would enjoy them with hot cup of tea. 

The recipe is very similar to the chekkalu recipe I posted last month. The only difference is this one needs a lot of patience as we cook this on low flame.   

Ingredients:-

Rice flour - 1 cup

Channa Dal/Urad dal Fistful

Green Chilli paste 1 tsp

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Curry & Coriander leaves - Few finely chopped

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Ginger garlic paste 1 tsp

Warm Water as needed

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:

Soak channa dal for 30 mins. Drain it and put it in a mixing bowl along with chilli powder, onion , green chilli paste, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves, coriander and salt and mix everything thoroughly. Add flour and make dough using very little water (Remember not to add too much water, few drops would be enough. The more water you add the dough becomes gooey and it gets difficult to work with)

 

Grease a non stick pan and place the dough in the center and press gently on the pan with your hand into round shape. 

Make small holes all over and add oil on top of it. Cover with a lid and cook on slow flame for 15 minutes till it is golden brown colour and look crispy. 

Flip over and cook for another 5 minutes without the lid. Serve hot sarva pindi with any pickle and some masala chai!