Where we twist a little

Tags

breakfast, Friday Feast, idly, indian, oats, recipe, sandwich, snacks, uthapam

recipes that is 🙂 I love to experiment in my kitchen and regular readers know it by mostly… So when I read this post by Roop, which says that she finds desi cooking boring. This is what she has to say

No matter what cookbook I read, it’s the same recipe one after another. A combination of various spices to be tempered, onions to be browned, garlic/ginger to be added if liked, and the rest. True, you can add in new flavors, play with ingredients – example, adding chickpeas to your standard fare of baingan ka bhartha – but really, the base of all cooking remains similar. How much can one ignore the mundane?

Well I for one couldnt disagree more 🙂 I started to type a looooooong comment to her and than thoought of giving a couple of recipes to prove otherwise 😀 😀 roop I hope these are good enough to make it intersting for u 😛

Uttapam Sandwich

Yes you heard it right, I had first read about it long long ago in a magazine somewhere and since than I have been making it at home regularly and I can’t tell you what a hit it is at home… I make it with various stuffings and turns out well with every one of them… this one is my favourite though, something about combining the chinese and the indian flavours

What I used

• Dosa batter
• Mix vegetables I used yellow and red peppers, onions and carrots
• Soya sauce – 2 tsp
• Vinegar – 1 tsp
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive Oil for stir frying

How I made it

• Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry till pink
• Add the cut and grated veggies and stir fry on high flame till just about tender
• Add salt, pepper and sauces fry for another 1 minute
• Keep it away to cool down

• Now heat the dosa tawa/pan and spread the batter on it a little thick to make a utthapam
• Flip when cooked and cook the other side
• Cut from the center and spread the veggies on one half

• Cover with second half and grill it, I use the sandwich maker and griller that I have at home

And gulp them down 🙂

Oats Idly

There is no limit to what can we done with the humble idly, the variations that I make with idlies are so many that when I wanted to choose one for here I was totally confused, I make pumpkin idly, cucumber idly, spinach and cheese idly and ofcourse the good old rava idly… What is my favorite here is the oats idly… I have said that on the blog before that I love oats and a cereal but unfortunately no one in my house eats it… hence I keep discovering recipes that contains oats in forms other than porridge and that is when I chanced upon oats idlies and trust me they are worth the try… totally nutritous and give the regular idly such a nice facelift

What I used

• Oats – 1 1/2 cups
• Semolina/Rawa – 1/2cup
• Mix veggies – 1 cup (I used grated carrots, capsicum, chopped onions and boiled peas)
• Sour Curds – 2 cup
• Green chilli – 2 chopped
• Corainder leaves – a handful
• Curry leaves – 6-7
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Chana dal – 1 tsp
• Urad dal – 1 tsp
• Oil – 1 tsp
• Eno Fruit Salt – 1 tsp

How I made it

• Mix oats, rawa and curds and keep aside for 30 minutes
• Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds
• when they crack add curry leaves, channa dal and urad dal
• fry till it turns light brown in color
• Add the tempering to the oats mixture.
• Add the veggies and salt to taste and mix well
• Grease the idly mould and keep them ready
• Add the eno fruit salt and pour in moulds immediately
• Steam for about 15 minutes and your idlies and ready to be demolished

Dunk in a bowl of sambhar and relish

or if u like my little one who just wants to touch sambhar and eat, ur loss 😉

So roop does this excite u enough 🙂

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Power ingredients in a parantha

Tags

besan, breads, breakfast, fengureek, Friday Feast, gram flour, indian, methi, palak, ragi, recipe, soya, soya flour, spinach, whole wheat

I absolutely heart one pot or rather one dish meals… yes I love cooking and there are times when I have made a 5-course meal for many people but there are times when I dont want to do anything and make one item which will be a complete balance meal… pulaos, khichdis, pastas are the usual that come to mind when we talk about one dish meal but what about paranthas? There are so many things we can do to a parantha and come up with a yummy and fully balanced meal in itself.

Couple of weeks back in such a frame of mind… I made this…. it tasted absolutely divine and with a bowl of curd and some salad.. a meal in itself couldnt have been healthier

What I used

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup ragi flour
• 1/2 soya flour
• 1/2 gram flour
• 1 bunch methi leaves pureed
• 1 bunch spinach leaves chopped finely
• 1 small onion chopped finely
• 1 tsp oil for kneading
• 1/2 tsp ajwain
• 1/2 cup curd (sigh how i missed it when i typed it first)
• salt and chilli powder (u can also use green chillies, I avoided because of ojas)

How I made

• Mix together all ingredients and knead to make a soft chapati dough
• Take a ball to make paranthas… roll into a chapathi size and then spread oil on top and roll in it a spiral
• Roll again and u will get enough lachas in the parantha 🙂 u can ofcourse make paranthas as u choose 🙂 and enjoy a power packed meal

Wheat and ragi provide the cereals, gram flour and soya the pulses and hence the protien… methi and spinach the veggies and that too green veggies… some curd added to the doufh and then a little curd to eat along for dairy products and its as balanced as it can get.

Ok swaram promise this is the last one and then in the weekend I will be quiet no posts 😉

Chole Bhature : Post 18

Tags

bhatura, breakfast, chole, chole-bhature, food, Friday Feast, indian, indian main course, NaBloPoMo, punjabi, recipe, sinful food

chole bhature is my second most favorite food in the whole world… ofcourse nothing can beat kadhi-chawal, but I like this one too a lot but everything about this one qualifies as sinful… fully sinful so its made very very rarely at our household… The chole is made pretty often and I have been thinking of posting them for a long time but somehow chole without the bhature seemed incomplete, so last sunday the sin was done when guests were over, so this post had to be this Friday… it couldn’t wait any longer 😉

Now that you have drooled at the above picture, here is the recipe

Ingredients

For the chole

• 1 1/2 chick peas soaked overnight
• 5-6 dry gooseberries (dry black amla)
• 1 medium onion grated
• 1 large tomato pureed
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 3-4 cloves
• 4-5 peppercons
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 big black cardamom
• 2 green chillies
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp dry mango powder
• 2-4 tsp channa masala (depending on how spicy and masaledar u like ur channa)
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp oil

for garnishing chole

• 2 onions cut in thin rings
• 1 tomato cut in thin rings
• a handful of coriander

For the side aalo

• 3 large potatoes
• 3 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp dry mango powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp channa masala
• 1 tsp tava fry masala (this is optional skip if u dont have)
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

for the side mirchi

• 5-6 green chillies slit
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp dry mango powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder

for the bhatura

• 2 cups maida
• 1 cup curd
• 1/2 tsp ajwain
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• salt to taste
• water to knead

Method

the chole

• Boil the soaked cholas with some salt, dry gooseberries and a pinch of turmeric in pressure cooker. After one whistle lower the flame and let it cook for about 15 minutes
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add cumin seeds to it
• After they turn brown add all the sabut masala (bay leaves, cloves, crushed black cardamom, cinnamon, peppercons). Fry for 2 minutes
• Add the green chillies and fry for 1 min
• Add grated onion and fry till golden brown
• Add the tomato puree and fry for about 5 minutes
• Add all the dry masalas and fry for another minute or so
• Take out some of the boiled channas and mash them well and roast for about 2 minutes or so
• Add the rest of the boiled channas (don’t add the water yet) and mash very little and roast for another 5 mins.
• Now add water and cook for another 5 mins
• Garnish with cut onion and tomato rings and top with some fresh corrainder

the aalu

• Boil the potatoes in pressure cooker
• Peel and cut them in cubes
• Heat oil in pan, add all dry masalas.Roast for 1 min
• Add potatoes and mix well
• Fry for 5 minutes or so

the chillies

• Slit the green chillies from the center, dont remove the stalk, If u dont like it very spicy remove the seeds else leave them.
• Mix all the dry masalas together and roll the green chillies in that
• Deep fry to 2 minutes in hot oil

bhature

• Mix all the ingredients together and using water and knead to form a soft dough.
• Cover with a damp cloth and leave aside for atleast 1 hour or so
• Make round balls and roll like chapatis and deep fry in hot oil

And now put them all together in a plate, add some green chutney and attack 😀

Also now that I have your full attention please read this too… Apu of the brilliant blog Apu’s World started a online magazine and online community called womensweb sometime back which I am sure you all are aware of. She is having this lovely contest out there on Mommy Guilt something which I am sure all of us mom’s relate to and those who are not mom’s and those lovely fathers that read my blog yet have seen their mom’s and spouse’s guilt…. have u got a story to share? some motivation or words for others dealing with mommy guilt… please go ahead and do the post… U might end up winning Rs 500/- gift voucher of another lovely site Flipkart.

So what are you waiting for? Go write your entry now… details here

Cheese Croissants – Post 11

Tags

baking, bread, breakfast, cheese, croissants, Friday Feast, main course, NaBloPoMo, recipe, recipes

I was going to do this recipe a little later but than lot of people have asked for it since I put the pic on FB… specially Deeps…So deeps this one is for u 🙂

Actually these are just cheese dinner rolls shaped as croissants but they taste pretty yumm and go very well with any continental kind side dish for dinner, with eggs for breakfast and even with tea if u make their mini versions

Ingredients

• Maida 250gms
• Salt 4gms (1 little less than 1 tsp however u can go upto 1 tsp)
• Sugar 10gms
• Yeast 12gm
• Water 150ml
• Fat 14gm (we can use butter/margarine or oil)
• Milk 10ml
• Pepper Powder 1 tsp
• Cheese 75gm
• Mustard Powder ¼ tsp

Method

• Mix yeast, water and sugar together and let it activate for about 5 mins.
• Sieve flour and make a well in the center. Add the yeast solution, milk and make soft and smooth dough by kneading. We have to knead it really well atleast for 25 mins or so till it passes the gluten membrane test. Basically when u take a piece in your hand and stretch it should not break

• Mix the fat now and smoothen it.
• Add the grated cheese, pepper powder, mustard powder and knead again for like 4-5 mins. (U can also add any herbs at this point, I think I added oregano to mine)
• Rest the dough covered for about 20-40 mins (depends on the weather hot weather it will work sooner) till it becomes double
• Knockback the dough and rest again for 5 mins
• Roll the dough in a smooth circle. Cut into 8 triangle pieces using pizza cutter.
• Take one part, make the slit at the bottom of about ½ – 1 inch and roll upwards to give it a Croissant like shape till u reach the tip. Put a drop of water to seal.

• Place in the greased baking tray
• Leave it for proofing for about 10-15 mins till it doubles in size and when u touch it kind of bounces back. At this stage u can also brush them with a little mixture of egg and for the shine and color
• Bake at about 200C for 10-15 mins
• The above recipe will yield 8 of them.

Tomato and Olive Upma

Tags

breakfast, Friday Feast, olives, recipe, semolina, sooji, upma, wheat

What a way to do fusion I say…. I love olives and I love upma so when I saw this at Sanjeev kapoor’s I knew I had to try it 🙂

and it was yummy and very healthy.. Everyone at home enjoyed it quite a lot

Ingredients

• Semolina (rawa/suji) – 1 cup
• Tomatoes, chopped – 2 medium
• Black olives, sliced (i used green) – 12
• Yogurt – 1/2 cup
• Olive oil – 1 tbsp (the recipe asked for 3 I made it 1)
• Split black gram skinless (dhuli urad dal) – 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves – 5-6
• Onion , chopped – 1 large
• Carrot, grated – 1 large (my own addition)
• Green chillies, slit – 2
• Fresh coriander leaves, chopped – 3 tbspn

Method

• Whisk yogurt with salt and two and half cups of water to make very thin buttermilk. Set aside.
• .Heat olive oil in a kadai (wok), add split black gram and mustard seeds and fry for a minute
• When the mustard seeds begin to splutter add curry leaves, onion, tomatoes, carrots and green chillies and sauté for a minute
• Add rawa and continue to sauté on medium heat for four to five minutes till it is lightly coloured and fragrant.
• Add buttermilk, bring to a boil, reduce heat and continue to cook uncovered, stirring continuously, till all the liquid is absorbed
• Adjust seasoning, cover and cook further for two minutes on very low heat. Add olives and coriander leaves. Stir and cook for a minute. Serve hot.

And in a seperate news did I tell you I am most excited… I have signed up for a 6-week baking course 😀 😀 😀 from Institute of baking and caking art Bangalore… I am so excited that I all I can think of is when will Monday come… Its after a really long time I am going to take a class for learning something new wish me luck

Give your Day a kickstart

Tags

besan, breakfast, dhokla, Friday Feast, gramflour, methi, oats, peas, recipe, spinach, sprouts

I personally think (and its proven as well) that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A good healthy and nutritious breakfast, half the problems are solved 🙂 So this Friday let me focus on some yummy and nutritious breakfasts… yeah yeah u got it right, I am posting multiple recipes here. There are so many recipes I want to post and so little Fridays 😉

Sprouts Dhokla

Sprouts is a food whose goodness has been emphasized on this blog too often 😉 I love sprouts in any form and the fact that they are yummilicous too adds to it. Also sprouts have a distinct flavor that suddenly gives any dish a pep up. I saw this sprouts dhokla recipe in one of the magazines (I think Food lovers) long long back and since then I have been making this at home quite often. Easy, yummy, healthy and low cal…. Can we ask for anything else ?

Ingredients

• 100 gm gram flour
• 200 gm sprouted bean sprouts, pureed
• 1 cup curd blended
• 1 tsp green chilli paste
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp eno fruit salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• for the tempering
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp oil
  • 3-4 green chillies slit vertically
  • coriander and curry leaves for garnish

Method

• In a bowl mix gram flour, curd, pureed sprouts and water to form a smooth batter of thick consistency. Add salt, mix and set aside for 4 hours covered with a lid (I left it overnight)
• Add the green chilli paste (the original recipe also asks for ginger paste which I skipped I really dont know why), turmeric to the batter and mix well
• Keep the steamer or cooker ready on the burner and grease ur steaming dish (I have a lovely dhokla maker at home… basically its a stack of three steel plates which go in the cooker, just like idly plates… so helpful)
• Mix eno, oil and lemon juice. Add the mixture to the batter and mix well
• Pour in the steaming dish and steam for about 10-12 mins or till done. Cool completely before taking out and cut in big cubes
• For the tempering, heat the oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add the curry leaves and green chillies.
• Fry for a minute and pour over the dhokla, garnish with coriander and serve with green chutney

Green Oat Cakes

or in simple language pan fried oat cutlets 😉

Oats is such a healthy grain. I simply love it (atleast in my mind I think I should love it 😉 ) but none in my house even touches the oats porridge however tasty I make it by adding fruits, dry fruits, anything… everyone refuses to touch it. 😦 So I am on the constant lookout of Oats recipes… and when I stumbled upon this one yes yes Nita Mehta’s book again (gosh I have fallen in love with her… her recipes always always work) I was delighted… and when I made it the MNO household was delighted too… the servings for 4 was polished off by 2.5 of us in 10 minutes 😀

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats – roasted in a kadhai for 5 minutes on low heat till golden
• 1/2 cup boiled peas
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 green chilli – chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp lemon juic
• 1 tsp oil

Method

• Wash spinach and put in a kadhai. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes
• Add 1 green chilli and chopped corainder. Add the roasted oats and mix well
• Put in a grinder and grind to a rough paste. Add all the other ingredients.
• Add 4-4 tbsp of water to make the mixture bind together.
• Add lemon juice to taste.
• Divide into 8-10 balls depending on what size u want. Flatten them a little. Pan fry in a non-stick pan in 1 tsp oil till golden brown. Serve hot with ketchup and salad.

And while we are at oats one of my favorite breakfasts.. oats dosa or crepe whatever u want to call it 😉

Oats Dosa

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 semolina (sooji)
• 1/4 cup wheat flour (atta)
• 1/2 cup curd
• 2 cups water
• 1 green chilli chopped (or alternatively put a little red chilli powder)
• 1 bunch methi leaves chopped ( u can use any other vegie also if u like)
• handful of chopped coriander
• salt to taste
• oil/ghee/butter for making dosa

Method

• Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for half an hour
• Spread on the tava to make like dosa’s using oil, ghee, butter or if the non stick tava is nice than it will come with anything too
• cook both sides till golden brown and serve with chutney’s of ur choice

So what tell me what are your favorite breakfast recipes?

And on a side note one item has been ticked in my wishlist… I got a Canon SX 200IS yesterday and I have been supremely happy till now… hopefully u guys will get better food pics now, from such a long time the only camera I had was my cellphone one….