Monday 28 June 2010

Kahwa and The Kashmir Saga

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Hi Friends.
I am back after the well deserved break. Enjoyed my holiday in the pristine state of Kashmir. Today I share my experience of rejuvenation and the famous drink that is served there.
I read an interesting line “I am in Kashmir, Heaven can wait”. True to these words the place is beautiful and the immaculate beauty is surely welcoming. One can just sit and watch the place for hours together without getting bored, the serenity makes you believe that one is in paradise.
Our journey started with some hiccups as our aircraft had a problem so were grounded in Jammu for a day, so utilized that and visited the famous Raghunath Mandir and stayed there overnight. The next day we were off to Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K. We enjoyed the view of snow capped mountains during our 35min fly from Jammu-Srinagar. The International airport is beautiful and is under high security. Once you enter the city one can see the army people posted at regular intervals, that’s a common scene through out the state.
The first two days we stayed in a house boat in Dal lake and enjoyed the new experience, felt like living in Venice. The houseboat is made with the deodar tree and the interiors done with walnut tree. There are about 1290 houseboats in Dal lake. The Boulevard road which runs along the lake has a huge number of shops and restaurants. One can do a Shikara ride in the lake and enjoy the floating market, garden as well as water sports.
One can stay in Srinagar and travel to Sonmarg and Gulmarg. Gulmarg has the highest Gandola ride in the world and is called the meadow of flowers. There are two levels of the Gandola, Section I is from Gulmarg to Kongdori and then section II from Kongdori to Apherwat which is about 13,780 ft high. The first section carries about 1500 people/hour and the second section 600 people/hour.
Sonmarg did not have much snow this time and one can trek for about 6kms to reach the glacier.
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Sunday 20 June 2010

Gheeya Makhanwala ( bottlegurd in creamy gravy)



I am in a packing mode as I am off for a holiday to Nepal with 'S' . It's a well deserved break for both of us. I am looking forward to all the fun , excitement and spending lots of time with him. Basically its time to rejuvenate and unwind myself. So my next post will be by the month end.

The last few days have been clearing up whatever was left in the refrigerator . Today I was left with a small bottle gourd , a few tomatoes in the refrigerator. Now 'S' is not very fond of this vegetable, so I had a challenge of making him eat this vegetable, without he fussing about it.

I had read a 'Veg Makhanwala' somewhere and had a faint memory of the process....not remembering it correctly I concocted my own version. This is a mild recipe with a delectable taste, a good way to camouflage veggies like bottlegourd. Must say it was really finger licking. Got a full thumbs up from 'S'.

Ingredients
1 large onion chopped
2-3 Chinese Garlic pods
a small piece Ginger
3 tomatoes
1/2 tsp freshly crushed pepper
1 tsp red chilli pwd
1 tsp kashmiri red chilli pwd
a pinch of turmeric pwd
1 tbsp coriander pwd
2 tbsp chopped coriander
ghee for cooking about 2 tbsp
2-3 tbsp fresh cream ( I used low fat )
1 small spoon cumin seeds
1 small bottle gourd(Gheeya, Lauki)
Spices
2-3 cloves
2 green cardamom
a small piece of cinnamon
a bayleaf

Method

  • Peel the bottle gourd and chop it into large pieces.

  • In a pressure cooker keep bottle gourd in a container, in another container keep onion,ginger and garlic. Pressure cook till 2 whistles.

  • Make tomato concasse .

  • Grind the onion mix and bottle gourd separately.

  • Heat ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds. After they splutter add the spices.Then add boiled onion and tomato concasse.

  • Saute for a minute and add red chilli pwds, corriander pwd, salt , pepper pwd and turmeric. Let the ghee separate, add bottle gourd paste and mix.

  • Add chopped coriander , mix and cover. Cook for about 5 mins or till the curry thickens and ghee separates, on low flame.

  • Add 2 tbsp cream mix and switch off flame.






Wednesday 16 June 2010

Minty Taro Kebabs…and a small break

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Hi Friends!
Last few days have been busy as we celebrated my son’s 10 birthday and we also had my parents visiting us. Now that my parents are off to London to spend time with their brand new  grandson I got busy to pack for our family vacation. Yes, I will be off from blogging for a while as we spend time in the now lush green mountains of Himalayas, in the extreme North of India, considered the paradise or swarg on earth.. Yes, you guys guessed it right I am going to Kashmir for a week.
I have been trying to finish things in the refrigerator and we had a huge batch of mangoes to finish. Mangoes, we are eating them religiously post lunch and dinner. S, kindly offered to cook complete meals while I completed other chores, so he made dosa for breakfast and  a bengali style cauliflower subzi for lunch. I was left with some paneer and colocasia to finish, with paneer I  made low oil parathas and with Colocasia/Taro I made the Kebabs….
I had never made kebabs with this earlier and it was quite an impromptu plan…but glad I made it because they are extremely delicious and made us feel that we had a royal treat. I also had some mint and cilantro to finish so they also went into the kebabs and gave an amazing flavour. I also used carom seeds which enhanced the flavour of the kebabs further. I would personally recommend that if you are trying these kebabs, do not ignore these seeds.
The kebabs have a nice crunch on the crust and are extremely succulent inside. Taro being sticky one has to be careful while making these as one tends to put more binders to reduce the stickiness but the real art of the making good kebabs is to have less binders, this helps in maintaining the succulence. This is how I have made it…

Monday 14 June 2010

Sprouted Moong and Barley Pesarattu


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Hi Friends!
As it’s said “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I look forward to make easy, filling and healthier options for the same. Body needs a good dose of balanced diet in the morning after staying without food for about 8-10 hours. I surely try to concoct various pancakes or crepes as they are filling, nutritious and less time consuming.
Pesarattu is a crepe quite similar to dosa made from green gram without using the rice, it is quite a popular dish from Andhra Pradesh. It is either made with the husked or dehusked lentil and based on the type of lentil used it has a green or yellow colour.
This time when I made this I modified it to a large extent, instead of using the lentils I used the whole green gram (sabut moong) and  sprouted them to make it a more nutritive option, to increase the protein content added split black gram flour (urad dal), to further it added the whole barley flour and to keep it crisp used rice flour too.
Sprouting the legumes increases the protein content which is very important for the growth and development of cells. Barley is a very good diuretic and aids in healthy functioning of the kidneys. So this pesarattu is full of health benefits.
Ingredients
about 4 cups of sprouted green gram
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup barley flour
1/2 cup urad dal flour
5-6 green chilies
a handful of cilantro
1 tsp chili pwd
2 tsp cumin pwd
3 tsp coriander pwd
a tsp of cumin seeds
salt to taste
water to make the batter
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Method
Make a coarse paste with sprouted moong, cumin, cilantro, ginger and green chilies.
Mix all the flours.
Add salt to taste, cumin pwd, red chili pwd, coriander pwd and add water to make a dosa like batter.
Smear some oil on a non stick pan and spread the batter in concentric circles. This is thicker than the normal dosa.
Cook it from one side till you get a golden hue and then flip and cook on the other side.
Serve it with roasted peanut and coriander chutney.
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Friday 11 June 2010

Bread Rolls with Instant Potato Flakes

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Hi.
Let me start by asking all my friends, how are you? As of for me I was getting grilled and baked in the extreme heat with temperature hitting 47C. Cooking and eating is an unavoidable affair but it’s quite torturous these days. The kitchen steams and blows me away.LOL.
I had been wanting to bake a bread but my regular readers would know my yeast fear (I call it the yeast ghost) so have been conveniently avoiding or rather postponing it. My brother’s gift to me (A Peter Reinhart book) also could not push or persuade me to attempt  one. Though I did attempt a pretzel during my initial days of blogging and it turned good but I still could not overcome my yeast fear. I guess the heat has hit me really hard that’s why I tried to overcome my fear  and attempted these rolls which I had bookmarked from Katy’s blog who herself had tried it from melskitchencafe.
Last few days there has been some respite with the temperature dropping by a few degrees because of the cloud cover and  cool morning breeze surely left me motivated because I started the entire   procedure around the afternoon, yup I am a little weirdo.Tongue out
I had all the ingredients  that I required , the only  worry was the yeast, whether it was still active? I had bought it a long time back and was hidden behind my stocks, without taking any chances I first proofed the yeast and the minute I saw the froth coming up I was all set to make the rolls. I did not play around with the ingredients and strictly followed the measurements and instructions, was in no mood to fool myself, so really played safe.
At the end of the baking I was surely happy that I tried these as I just enjoyed making them as I did not find them that tricky. They had the perfect bite and were soft to eatthumbs_up. It is one recipe which has surely motivated me enough to work more with the yeast, I guess, should keep trying such simple recipes to win over the yeast ghost.
Ingredients
3 cups APF
1/2 cup instant potato flakes
1-1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp EVOO
2-1/4 tsp instant yeast
1-1/4 tsp salt
some extra APF
1 egg or some milk
Method
Combine well the APF, potato flakes and salt in a bowl.
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Warm the water and add the sugar and EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) to it. Add the yeast and using a whisk mix it thoroughly.
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Add the water to the flour mix gradually and knead. If the dough feels sticky add in a little flour (I needed to add more) and knead for about 5-6 minutes. The final dough should be smooth, non sticky and should easily come off from the sides of the bowl.
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Grease the dough and cover it with a cling film and leave it to rise for 1-1/2 hours or till it doubles in volume.
Punch the dough and divide it into 12 equal parts and shape them into balls.
Put the balls on a baking sheet and leave them for an hour to rise again.
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Apply an egg wash or milk wash and bake them at 200 C for 15 mins or till golden in colour.
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The rolls turned out to be perfect and as rightly mentioned toothsome. Sending this to Nupur’s BB4- What’s Lurking in The Kitchen and also to Bread Mania hosted by Chaitra at Aathidhyam.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

A Plate Filled With Health – Succulent Jackfruit & Soya Burger

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Hi Friends!
Let me start with a funny incident, about a decade back I guess McDonald’s was very new in this country and visiting it was an important job and considered very happening if one is visiting the metro cities. The first time I visited McDonald’s I was at a complete loss as I did not understand how to order a decent meal at a low price. Anyhow, my cousin helped me in understanding the various options and combos (how dumbo I was) and I ordered a Veggie burger combo. Now eating a burger is an arduous task, yes I realised that the minute I had my first bite and I pushed the stuff backwards towards my palm. I must confess with great difficulty I finished eating that and my mouth and hand was completely messed up by the time I finished it.LOL. Today I laugh at myself remembering this but over the period I have learnt the art of eating a burger…
DH has been quite busy in his office these days and during his meetings they normally would invariably eat Pizza from Pizza Hut or a Burger from McDonald’s. Over a period he has developed a hatred for Mc burgers and was after me that he wants to eat homemade Indianised Burgers. Now the caring and obedient wife I am, how could I ignore his demandWink . Jokes apart I truly love pampering him at times and so decided to innovate a new Patty for the burger.
What Goes In a Burger
A classical burger basically comprises of a bun cut into halves, a patty which could be veg or non veg, Mayonnaise, cut vegetables. It can be served with or without cheese.
To make the burger really tasty and inviting the key ingredient that should be really good is the patty. I always tend to make a healthy and tasty patty and that’s the reason my family loves homemade burgers as the flavours are not repetitive.
As I mentioned in the Jackfruit & Red Lobia Salan that Jackfruit is available abundantly these days and I am right now on a Jackfruit spree…the real truth is I was left with some jackfruit after making the curry so wanted to use it in an innovative waysmile_wink . Honestly speaking I was overwhelmed with the result. The burger turned out very tasty and undoubtedly extremely nutritious and healthy to eat. Kids and S loved it and I was all collars up.Open-mouthed
Ingredients for 8 Patties
3 cups cooked jackfruit
1 cup soya chunks soaked in water
4 boiled and peeled potatoes
8-10 garlic pods
2 inch ginger
1 large onion finely chopped
1/2 cup milk
4 tsp oil
6-7 green chilies
salt to taste
oil for shallow frying
Slices of onion and tomato
cheese slices
lettuce/cabbage leaves
Burger Buns
Mayonnaise
Spices
1-2 tsp red chili pwd
3 tbsp coriander pwd
2 tbsp cumin pwd
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp amchoor pwd
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Method
To Make The Patty
Squeeze out the excess water from the soya chunks.
In the food processor put the soya, cooked jackfruit, garlic, ginger and green chilies and blend to mix.
The jackfruit being fibrous needs a binding agent, that  role is played by the  boiled potatoes, mash them and mix. Mix the chopped onion, all spices, salt to taste, oil and milk.
Adding oil and milk in the patty dough makes it more soft and succulent (if one likes a very firm patty do avoid these).
Take a tennis ball size portion of jackfruit mix in one palm and shape it like a patty using the other hand.
Shallow fry the patty from both the sides. Take due precaution while flipping.
image
Assembling the Burger
Cut the burger into equal halves and lightly toast them on a griddle using oil or butter ( I used oil).
Spread mayonnaise(I used eggless, low fat) on the lower half and place the patty over it.
Place the sliced onions and tomatoes (one can use cucumber, beetroot too) over the patty.
Cut the cheese slice and place over the sliced veggies.
Now put the lettuce leaf ( I did not have that so use cabbage leaves) and finally put the other half of the burger and close it.
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Warm it at 60% microwave for 30 seconds before serving.
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Press it gently from the top, serve it with tomato and mustard sauce. This can be a very filling meal too.
Sending this to Bread Mania hosted by Chaitra at Aathidhyam.

and also to Sara and  Sunita’s- Think Spice Think Garam Masala.
Sending the burger to my event ‘Only’ Sandwiches, burgers & Panini, guest hosted by Savi-Ruchi.
Ongoing Event !!!

Monday 7 June 2010

Mixed Veggies In a Very Low calorie Makhani Gravy…but no compromise on taste!!!! | मिलीजुली सब्जियाँ लो क॓लरी मक्खनी ग्रेवी में

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Hi friends! My regular readers would know that these days I am trying to cook and post curries which are low in fat. I  am trying to make curries without compromising on the flavour but surely the calories.
As foodies we all know that a Makhani gravy as the name describes is made in butter (makkhan) and cooked in a cream. I have posted two of these variants earlier Daal Makhani and Cauliflower Butter Masala, which also happens to be a very popular recipe from my site.
In the Makhani gravy the main base is tomato flavoured with whole spices. It’s easy to work with tomato and whole spices as they do not add to the fats, the real work goes in replacing cream and the butter as they are the fattening agents and add to the overdose of calories.
One can surely use a low fat butter and a low fat cream but that reduces calories to some extent but if one wants to indulge in an extremely low calorie affair then there comes the real challenge. I have surely not used any cream or butter here, so then what did I do? I found a very interesting ingredient which provides a creamy texture and still does not add much to the calories, this does not let one miss that creamy texture added by the cream…it’s the skimmed milk powder. It just conveniently replaces the cream in the makhani and one just does not miss it!!
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Ingredients
a large handful of peas (I used frozen)
2 potatoes cubed
8-10 french beans chopped
1 small cauliflower cut into small pieces
1 carrot cubed
one onion boiled and pureed
2 tbsp ginger & garlic  paste
3/4 pack of tomato puree
6-7 tbsp milk powder
whole spices (bay leaves-3, cinnamon stick-1, black cardamom-2, green cardamom-4, cloves-4)
a pinch of nutmeg
1 tbsp kasoori methi
1 tsp sugar
2-3 tsp kashmiri chili pwd
2 tbsp coriander pwd
a pinch of turmeric
a pinch of garam masala
oil for cooking about 1 tbsp+ 1 tbsp ghee
salt to taste
Method
Boil  and cook all the vegetables in water.
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Heat the oil and ghee mix and add the whole spices and let them crackle.
Now add the kasoori methi and saute for few seconds without letting it burn.
Add the g-g paste and add the kashmiri chili pwd.
Put the boiled onion paste and cook for a minute, now add the tomato puree and sugar.
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Add the coriander pwd, turmeric and mix. Remove from fire and add the milk powder mixed in water, this prevents curdling of the milk. Saute for a few more minutes.
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Now add the veggies, salt and garam masala and cook for a few more mins. Just before removing from the fire add the nutmeg and mix.
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This curry goes well with Jeera rice, Whole wheat Naan, Paratha or Roti.
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Just show off with some cream on top.
Tips-
One needs to be careful using the milk powder as it curdles easily. That’s the reason salt is added at the finishing stage plus when the milk powder is added as a slurry, remove the pan from fire.
I have used the skimmed milk powder, one is free to use any.
Sending this to Sara and  Sunita’s- Think Spice Think Garam Masala.
Ongoing Event !!!

Saturday 5 June 2010

काकडीचे थालीपीठ | Kakadiche Thalipeeth ..Maharashtrian Style Cucumber Pancakes | Step Wise | Breakfast Recipe | Lunch Combo-2

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Hi Friends!
It is always challenging to make an interesting and healthy breakfast everyday. The items that frequent my kitchen during breakfast are Indori Kanda Poha, Avarekalu Uppittu, Upma, Shavage Upma, UkadpendiIdli, Dosa…etc. I would love to hear, in which way you make your breakfast interesting, do let me know if you have interesting recipes to share.

Summer invites more cucumbers into our diet as it’s a good hydrating agent and  I do keep a good stock of them in my refrigerator all the times. Mostly I eat them raw with some salt, lime and red chilli powder on it, it’s simply superb. Because of the heat, I have lost the interest of indulging into elaborate cooking.

One of these days when I was trying to fix a decent breakfast and searching for ideas, I realized that I had not made Thalipeeth (pancakes) in  a long time. The name thalipeeth made me go down the memory lane making me realize further, that I had never fed my family Cucumber Thalipeeth, which happened to be my ‘childhood favourite’.  I was left shocked with the self realization and was pushed  deep in thoughts. I was wondering, how could that be possible!!! How could I completely forget making such an amazing preparation for so long especially when they have been my personal favourites… Sad smile. I gave a deep sigh and did not waste a single minute after that. I collected all the ingredients fast and geared up to make these extremely flavourful, spicy and savoury pancakes which are called Thalipeeth in Maharashtra.

Thursday 3 June 2010

Raw Jackfruit & Red Lobia Salan

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Hi Friends!
It’s summer time and Jackfruits are in season and are available abundantly now. I have already mentioned the health benefits of this fruit in my post Raw Jackfruit Curry earlier.
Today while I was watching a cookery show, I saw a curry made using the jackfruit and lobia (black eyed peas) and I loved the combination. She had made it using coconut and many spices but I decided on making a low spice and low calorie curry.
I have a Muslim friend S who once mentioned to me that she does not use any tomatoes or curds in their Salan (Curry) and their gravy only comprises of onion-ginger-garlic and the only spices that she puts is turmeric, red chili and coriander powder. She explained that the entire stress is on how well the masala is roasted(bhuno) and to that I completely agree. A connoisseur of food can surely make out the difference between a well roasted  and a poorly  roasted masala so I was all set to try her method and was curious to know how would a curry taste without any tanginess.
I’m glad I made this curry because my apprehension of not using any sour flavour in the curry has now vanished from my head. The combination tastes good and the curry was extremely tasty. Personally I loved eating it with rice. I had used very less oil to make this curry and had sauted the masala ingredients prior to grinding them, so in this way I needed very less oil to roast the masala later.
Ingredients
3 cups raw jackfruit cut into pieces
a large handful of red lobia soaked in water
3 large onions
8-10 garlic pods
an inch piece of ginger
a tsp of cumin seeds
3 tbsp coriander pwd
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp red chili pwd
2 whole kashmiri red chilies
oil about 3-4 tsp
Method
Pressure cook the lobia and jackfruit.
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Meanwhile in a non stick pan saute the onions, ginger and garlic along with some cumin seeds, red chilies and coriander powder.
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Cool this and grind it together.
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Heat a non stick pan and take about 2 tsp of oil and roast the masala on low flame till a nice aroma generates.
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Add salt, turmeric and red chili pwd and roast for a few more minutes.
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Now add the cooked lobia and jackfruit and mix thoroughly.
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Gradually add water to get gravy like consistency.
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Simmer and cook on low flame till all the ingredients imbibe the flavours.
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This curry proves completely that low oil curries can be very tasty, it’s time that I indulge more into it.

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