Grilled Arbi

Tags

arbi, Friday Feast, grill, grilled, healthy, indian cooking, indian main course, main course, recipe

I love arbi but used to stay away from it because

1. its full of carbs

2. its good when its made with lots of oil 😦

3. I cant just peeled it without having to itch my hands for the whole day afterwards

But all this atleast the last 2 parts were till sometime back when I discovered that we can grill this vegetable beautifully…. I used to boil it and then grill but then I read at some blog about steaming and grilling which seemed like an even healthier option

So now I have a much healthier version of arbi which satisfies health freak as well as the taste buds…. Iya the fellow arbi fan and Goofy as u had asked for it… this post is for both of u…. enjoy the arbi

Ingredients

• Arbi(Colocasia) 500gms
• Onion 1 medium sliced
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp corrainder powder
• 1 tsp tava fry masala
• 1 tsp aamchor powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder (or to taste as fiery as u want)
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp oil + oil to grease the baking tray

Method

• Wash and roughly scrub the arbi (I have kept a scrotch brite seperately in the house for scrubbing potatoes and arbi etc)
• Steam for about 6-8 minutes till a tender.  I have this microwave steamer at home which is so handy and convienent to steam stuff, its my all time fav cookware. U can use any steaming method u like
• Let it cool and peel of the thick skin using a knife (surprinsgly doesnt itch so much after steaming)
• Chop the bigger ones into 2 pieces and leave the smaller ones as it is.
• Mix all the dry masalas,onions with arbi
• Grease a tray and put the masalsa arbi in it
• Grill at 200C for about 10 minutes or so, stirring once inbetween
• In a small pan take 1 tsp of oil and add mustard seeds and fry till they start spluttering.
• Pour over grilled arbi and mix well.
• Garnish with chopped corainder leaves and serve with hot paranthas or phulkas…

Comfort Food – Post 25

Tags

channa dal, fengureek, Friday Feast, indian, indian main course, main course, methi, NaBloPoMo, palak, pulses, recipe, spinach

Everyone has a comfort food isnt it… The food you crave when u have nothing else to do, when u wee bit down… when may be your mood is not uptight or may be the health is not the best… For N its rasam-rice…. and for me its dal-roti… seriously when nothing works Dal-Roti does…

And hence I love experimenting with dal, mixing various dal’s together, adding some veggies to it… the variations give dal a face lift and make it an all new dish which is yummy and healthy too…

So when after marriage I first eat this dal which is the favorite of my mil too, I fell in love with it… a dal which has all my fav elements – dal, methi and palak… But unfortunately toor dal doesn’t suit me too much these days… gives me terrible gas so I came up with my own version of this dal which now everyone in the house enjoys totally………

Ingredients

• A cup channa dal (use toor dal if u want to)
• 2 bunches of fresh methi (fengureek)
• 3 bunches of fresh palak (spinach)
• 8-10 shallots or baby onions (I love their flavour and the crunch in the mouth they leave, however mil uses normal onions so feel free to use them if u don’t have baby onions)
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp channa dal
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp jeera seeds
• 2-3 green chillies
• 2-3 dry red chillies
• 1 medium sized tamarind ball
• 7-8 curry leaves
• 1 tsp sambhar powder (optional)
• 1 tsp corriander powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp turmeric

Method

• Wash and chop methi and palak leaves finely.
• Boil together with dal, chopped tomato, slit green chillies, salt and turmeric in a pressure cooker
• Let the steam escape.
• Soak tamarind in warm water
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard jeera seeds to it
• After they turn brown and start spluttering add the urad dal, channa dal, curry leaves and dry red chillies.
• Fry for 2-3 minutes till the dal browns a little
• Add onions to the same and fry them till golden brown
• Add all dry masalas, fry for another minute
• Add the dal, mash a bit along with the tamarind water.
• Let it simmer for about 5 minutes or so
• Serve hot with rotis or rice

Sluuurp

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

Bread Kofta Biryani and more

Tags

baking, biryani, bread, curd, fahsion show, Friday Feast, indian, indian main course, main course, plus size, ramp, recipe, rice, soya, veggies

I love biryanis and I often claim that veg biryani is a term meant to make vegetarians happy and there is no such thing like that, its just a modified form of pulao but then once in a while a recipe like this comes and proves me wrong 😉

When I first saw this sometime ago in Tarala Dala’s book it excited me because I love both koftas and biryanis and a combination of that excellent isnt it 😉

As usual I tweaked the recipe a little to suit what I want and here is how I made it..

Ingredients

For the bread koftas

• 4 bread slices (I took the 5 grain bread)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped onions
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• 2 tsp curds
• 1/2 carrot grated
• 1 tbsp soya flour
• salt to taste
• some oil

For the rice

• 1 cup long grained rice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamom
• 2 cloves
• salt to taste

For the gravy

• 2 cloves
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup sliced onions
• 1 tsp chilli poweder
• 2 tsp coriander-cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup tomatoes sliced
• 1/2 cup curds
• 1/4 cup green peas
• 1/4 cup carrot grated
• 1/4 cup cabbage grated
• 2 tsp pil
• salt to taste

To be mixed together for curd mixture

• 4 tbsp curds
• 2 tbsp chopped mint
• 2 tbsp chopped corrainder
• 2 tbsp water

Method

For the bread koftas

• Combine all the ingredients except oil with some water and mix well
• Shape the mixture into 15-20 even sized rounds.
• Now u can deep fry the koftas or bake them at 180C for about 15 mins or till brown or fry them with a drop of oil in my fav paniyaram pan 😀

For the rice

• Clean, wash and soak rice for approx 15 mins
• Boil 2 cups of water, add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and salt and then add the rice
• Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook till the rice is done
• Seperate each grain of rice with a fork. Keep aside

For the gravy

• Heat oil in a pan and add the cloves and cinnamon
• Add the onions and saute till golden brown
• Add all the dry masalas and saute for 1 min
• Add the tomatoes and cook for 5-7 minutes till oil seperates
• Add the curds, mix well and simmer for further 5 minutes
• Add all the veggies and mix well. Keep aside

For the final assembly

• Spoon out the gravy at the bottom of a baking dish
• Top with bread koftas and cover with cooked rice
• Top with curds mixture
• Cover with a lid or aluminium foil and bake in a pre heated over at 200C for 15-20 mins. Serve hot

The changes I made to the recipe were basically that I added some veggies and soya flour to the koftas and lots of veggies to the gravy… makes it more healthier… and yes didnt deep fry the koftas as suggested and also used much less than what was suggested by the recipe.

What I absolutely loved about this recipe was the fact that this is a true one pot meal not even curd needs to be served along as the top layer is just that

Wanna have a bite with all the layers?

Apart from this so nice of u guys this time to ask where have I been missing since a week… life has been very busy, in the baking class, coming home and practising… It was also N’s birthday last week and we planned a party for him and another friend who had her birthday last saturday and did lots of rain dance 😉 and I baked two cakes for the same… they were yumm and were totally polished off 😀 😀

Mocha Black Forest

Chocolate Sacher Cake

Both the cakes were yummy and were polished off by a gang of 10 people….

What fun that party was and then for the day his actual birthday falls on I planned a surprise family dinner for him with his sister, cousin a few close friends… the higlight of that party was the cake too but this I didnt bake it… I ordered it and u have to see it to understand what I mean

A picture cake with a family collage

Apart from that I have been very busy in one more thing and that is the fashion show that I took part in…  About a month or so back a friend called me saying her friend who is a final year student in JD Institute of Tech is doing a collection for plus size women and will I be interested in walking the ramp for her…. I didn’t think of it much and said yes why not… a sweetheart of a girl came and took my measurements of the dress, showed me a couple of designs and I choose one and then all was forgotten about it till a week or so back when she called saying that we have to come for rehearsals and Rahul Dev Shetty is the one who is choreographing it and there are the likes of Jacky Shetty and Pashmina Barker along with a whole of lot of other models walking for the other segments that I started getting shivers…. 😉 The last time I had walked the ramp was when I was 15 yrs younger and 1/4 the current size…

But Rahul and others did everything to make us all (the plus size models who were all regular women) comfortable and confident and we did walk the ramp after all… It was so much fun… I totally enjoyed myself…

And these are the details for all of those have been asking after seeing the pic on FB, I hope I didnt disappoint those who were asking the designer name 😉

So how has life been with u?

Kheema Gobhi

Tags

cauliflower, Friday Feast, gobhi, indian, indian main course, recipe

Its winter time and the time we get yummy, fresh and tender cauliflower… the flowers that begged to be picked up and get quickly made, so I have been making a lot of gobhi a lot of ways and one of my all time favorites is “Kheema Gobhi… This is a recipe which I fondly remember as a major winter comfort food and that too a comfort food which is healthy too… isn’t that rare?

So here I share one of my all time favorite gobhi recipe

Ingredients

• one medium size cauliflower
• 2 onion grated
• 3 large tomatoes pureed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2-3 cloves
• 4-5 peppercons
• 1 big black cardamom
• 1 1inch piece of cinnamom
• 1 tbsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• salt and chilli powder to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

Method

• Grate gobhi with the use of a large crater or cut in very finely like this

• Heat oil in a non stick pan and add cumin and roast till they turn golden brown in color
• Add all the sabut masalas and fry for 2 minutes
• Add onions and fry till golden brown
• Add tomatoes for 4-5 minutes till done
• Add turmeric, dhaniya powder, salt and chilli powder
• Add the gobhi, sprinkle a little water and cook for about 10 mins till the gobhi is done
• Garnish with corrainder leaves and serve with roti

PS: Guys please bear with me running very busy… will reply to all ur comments very very soon… I promise

Achari Broccoli

Tags

broccoli, Friday Feast, indian main course, NaBloPoMo, recipe, vegies

I love broccoli (infact I love all winter veggies) and some time back, I went o Russell market with a goof friend D 🙂 and picked up a real nice one.. fresh and green… crisp and tender. And then began the quest to what to make with it. I normally make broccoli in stir fry veggies or baked but this time I want to try something totally different and hence started browsing the many many cooking books that I own (did I tell you thats my latest obsession BTW) and I decided on a nice looking Achari Broccoli recipe in Nita Mehta’s Diet Recipes.

And it turned out very very very yummy…

Ingredients

• 250 gm lauki (the recipe asked for kadu and I replaced it with lauki as no one eats kadu aka pumpkin in my house)
• 150 gm basically a medium sized broccoli cut into florets
• 1 firm tomato chopped (the recipe asked to remove pulp but I used it didn’t do any harm to the recipe or so do I think 😉 )
• 1 tsp oil (the recipe asked for 2 tbsp oil gosh tell me how does it become diet recipe with so much oil haan)
• 2 large onions chopped
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp aamchoor powder
• salt and chilli powder to taste (the recipe also had a 1/2 tsp of sugar which I gave a complete miss)

For the Achaari Tempering

• 3/4 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
• 3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 3/4 tsp fennel (saunf)
• 2 red chillies broken

Method

• Boil 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 tsp of salt. Add Broccoli and cook for about 2-3 minutes till crisp tender. Remove from water and keep aside (my tip : dont throw the water away lets use it, it has a lot of nutrients)
• Collect all the achari ingredients for tempering. Heat the oil in kadhai and add all of them together.
• After a minute, add the onions and cool till light brown.
• Add salt, turmeric, dhaniya powder & chilli powder
• Stir for a few seconds and add the lauki to it .
• Stir fry for about 2 minutes and add 1/2 cup of water (my tip : use the same water in which u boiled the broccoli there will still be little left and you can use it for making dal, atta… yeah I am mad this way in saving the nutrients from the vegies.. I think a little something we can do to make sure we are getting good stuff in)
• Cover and cook for about 10 minutes till the lauki is cooked but still holds its shape
• Sprinkle dry mango powder.
• Add the broccoli and tomatoes
• Mix well and cook for about 3-4 minutes
• Serve hot with phulkas and dal tadka… a yummy and a very healthy meal

PS: I think it would turn out very good with our good old cauliflower too, so if u dont have broccoli handy try it with gobhi 🙂