Bhature

This recipe for bhature is so simple and never messes up:) Every time Ive made it me and my husband will have to eat less....otherwise it wont be enough for guests.

INGREDIENTS:
All purpose flour (maida): 2 cups
Semolina (Sooji): 1 cups
baking soda: 1 pinch
curd

METHOD:
Combine maida, sooji and baking soda with curd. Let the dough rest for 3-4 hours. This will make enough bhaturas for 4 people.

Methi parantha

There are lot of variations of methi parantha, I also make it differently every time :)

INGREDIENTS:
wheat flour: 3 cups
Methi: 1 cup (frozen or fresh cleaned, washed and chopped)
Besan (optional): 1 cup
Jeera(optional): 1/2 teaspoon
Ajwain (optional): 1/2 teaspoon
Dhania powder: 1.5 teaspoon.
Chili powder to taste
Salt to taste

METHOD:
Combine all the above ingredients and make soft dough. Roll out thin paranthas and cook them with little oil.

Spinach sabji

My friend Gayatri got this sabji for lunch to work. We also make it but had forgotten about it somehow. What I like most about it is the crispy texture spinach gets coz its cooked open.

INGREDIENTS:
Spinach: 1 Baby spinach box from Costco(You can use a lot of spinach, since it will shrink a lot).
Onion: 1 big onion.
Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Dhania powder: 1.5 teaspoon
Chilli powder to taste.
Salt to taste.

METHOD:
Take oil in a kadhai. Add the chopped onion once the oil is hot. Cook till onion is golden brown. Add dry masalas (turmeric, dhania, chilli powder). Immediately add chopped spinach and salt and cook it open over medium or lower flame till spinach is well cooked (15-20 min).

Bharwa Karela

INGREDIENTS:
Karele: 11 in number.
Onion: 3 large onions.
Garlic(optional): 14 cloves, fry and grind.
Saunf: 2 tablespoon.
Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon.
Dhania powder: 3 teaspoon.
Amchur powder: 4 teaspoons
Chiili powder: as per taste.
Salt as per taste.

METHOD:
Peel karelas, make a slit lenght wise and add little salt inside them. Keep in sun for 4-5 hrs or microwave for 2-3 min. Then boil them in pressure cooker for 1/2 whistle (As soon as the pressure is made switch off the gas). After cooling squeeze each one of them between your hands so that all the water is drained and take out the seeds from inside.
Grind all the masalas (Onion, Garlic, saunf, dhania powder, amchur powder, chilli powder) and fry it in little oil till golden brown (15-20 min).
When masala is cool, stuff it in karelas and tie them with thread. Fry them in little oil on sim flame till golden brown. When they are cool cut the thread out.
I know its too much of work, so I try to make it in bulk or I use same masala with chopped karela. But believe me the taste of bharwa karela is worth all the hard work :)

Bharwa Karele......... coming soon :)

Kathal (JackFruit) sabji

INGREDIENTS:
Oil: 3 teaspoon
Onion: 1 large onion
Kathal: 1 bag frozen (defrosted) or medium size (boiled for 1 whistle)
Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Dhania powder: 1.5 teaspoon
Amchur powder: 2-3 teaspoon
Chilli powder: 2 teaspoon
Salt to taste

METHOD:
Take oil in kadhai, add onion. When it becomes golden brown add all masalas except amchur powder, and immediately add kathal. Cover and cook till kathal is cooked. Add amchur powder in the end.

Gobi baingan aalo sukhi sabji

Ingredients:
Potato - 3 medium(cut into desired sizes)
Cauli - 10 florets
aubergine(baingan) - 8 small
tomatoes - 1.5 medium
tadka - mustardseeds,fennal(saunf),carromseeds(ajwain),
onion seeds(kalongi),fenugreekseeds(methi)
red chilli - 2 whole(as per taste)
bayleaf - 1
turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
salt to taste
corriander leaves chopped
Preparation:
Heat oil in kadai(wok),put 1 tea spoon of tadka,red chilli and bay leaf. put potatoes and stir it for 2-3 mins add cauli florets ,little turmeric and salt to it stir it for 3-4 mins and then add baingan.....when it is about to done add tomatoes and stir it untill the tomatoes mix to the veggie..finally add corriander leaves and serve with hot chapati or naan or sattu parantha

Thepla

Ingredients:
Wheat flour: 2 cups
Oil: 2 tea spoons
Curd: 1 cup
Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder: 1.5 teaspoon
Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Method:
Mix all the above ingredients into a dough. You can sprinkle some water if the curd is not enough. Not make thin rotis out of this dough and cook them with little oil on both sides like parantas.
They will come out very soft and do not go bad for longer time, so you can cook and store them.

Tip of the day :)

If an egg is boiled for 7 min, its yolk will get a bright yellow color(rather than pale yellow) and it will not be watery(like half boiled) at all....also it will be nutritionally healthy than a hard boiled egg.

Pineapple cake

This is a very beautiful and yummy cake. My husband's colleague got this cake to office for a potluck. He came home and described the cake so nicely that....that I got the recipe and tried it..I got this recipe from food network website, but i split the ingredients to half(that's why the measurements of ingredients sound weird), since the reviews said that it was too much batter for one cake.

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups All purpose flour
1.125 cups Sugar
1.5 cups butter, 1/4 cup melted butter.
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
0.125 teaspoon salt
0.625 cups buttermilk
0.75 cups brown sugar
1 can pineapple with juice (well drained)
Reserve 2 table spoons juice for frosting.
Chopped pecans for garnish.

Pineapple butter cream frosting:
1/2 cup butter softened.
2 table spoon pineapple juice reserved.
3.5 cups confectionery sugar.
Beat above ingredients in a large bowl till well combined.

METHOD:
Preheat oven at 350F.
Spray the pan with cooking spray and sprinkle some flour.
In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs at a time. Now add vanilla essence.
In a small bowl take flour+ baking powder+ salt
Add flour mix into egg mix, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and end with flour.
Now comes the fun part:) Spread brown sugar in the cake pan. Pour melted butter (1/4 cup) over the brown sugar evenly. Arrange pineapple slices over the brown sugar.
Pour batter on top of it and bake for 40-45 min.
After baking cool the cake for 10 min, and invert the cake onto a base.
Frost the side with Pineapple butter cream frosting and press chopped pecans on sides.

Mint Corrander Chutney

Ingridients:
Mint 1 bunch
corriander 1/4 bunch
yoghurt 1/2 cup
Garlic 1 clove (optional)
onion 1/4 mediun
green chillies as per taste
l ime 1 medium
Ginger 1/4" (optional)
salt to taste
no seasoning required
Preparation :
put all the ingridient in blender and do whatever u want blend it grind it or mix it or do anything to make it a smooth paste. And your delicious chutney is ready to serve it with anything you would like to eat.......

Tomato chutney......On demand ;)

INGREDIENTS:
Tomatoes-3: Wash and chop finely
Red chilli- 2-3
Garlic- 5 flakes
onion- half
tamarind- small amount- soak in warm water and take the waste off.
salt
oil
curry leaves- 7-9
Coriander leaves- 1/4 bunch (optional)

For tadka:
Mustard seeds
urd dhal- 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida- 2-3 pinches

METHOD:
Take oil in kadhai, add red chilli, garlic and then onion. fry till it becomes translucent. Add tomato and fry till they become soft and moisture evaporates. Switch off the flame and add tamarind and curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt. Let it cool and grind to coarse paste. Put tadka and mix in chutney.

Tips

I have three small tips for today.

1. Boiling potato in microwave: Take a potato wash it and make 5-6 cuts in it by poking a knife into it. Wrap the potato in a plastic food wrap or you can use a plastic bag also(This helps to keep the potato moist and not dry off). Keep the potato in microwave for 2 min(this time may vary depending on the power of microwave and size of the potato). Let it cool and peel.

2. Sometimes when you eat pineapple it irritates your mouth and throat. To avoid this after peeling the pineapple I rub some salt on it and wash it in running water. Doing this also makes it more tasty by giving it a slight salty flavour.

3. Whenever you are heating ghee for tadka, heat it on a high flame till it smokes and then reduce the flame to low for sometime and then add masalas to it. This process increases the flavour of ghee.

Delectable Patty Recipe

Have u guys ever think of enjoying patties at home...........Oh very easy,no effort......Ahhh the taste......so yummy.......here is how we prepare....buy PUFF PASTRY form any grocery store(i bought it from fredmeyer in the frozen section)........Thaw it for 40 minutes at room temp or follow the instruction given on that.........prepare your filling of either potato or paneer or anything you like....If you want to cut the fold it will come out more puffy or its fine to just fold without cut, anyhow patty is always patty it wont turn anything else.......Enjoy it at home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samosa

Ingridients:

Potatoes - 4 big

carrot - 1 big

Peas - 1/2 cup

cauliflower - 1/2 cup

peanuts -1/2 cup
Onion - 1/2 cup chopped

Ginger - 1 teaspoon

Ajwain - 1/2 tea spoon

kalonji(onion seeds)- 1/4 teaspoon

mustard seeds -1/2 tea spoon

cumin seeds -1/2 teaspoon
green chillies - according to taste

garam masala -1 teaspoon

corriander pdr -1/2 teaspoon

chat masala pdr - 1/2 teaspoon

corriander leaves

maida 1 cup

salt according to taste

oil for deep fry

Preparation of dough:

Take maida in bowl add salt,1 spoon oil, ajwain(carrom seeds) kalonji(onion seeds) and mix it well evenly.Add water and make soft dough, cover and put it aside.

Preparation of Masala(stuffing):

Heat oil in a pan add jeera mustard and ajwain together.Add green chillies, onoin and ginger fry them till brown.Add carrots cauliflowers and fry them till it become little tender then add peas and the garam masala corrander pdr,chat masala pdr and add partly mashed(crushed) potatoed add roasted peanuts and corriander leaves. keep it aside

Preparation Of Covering:

make a small balls of dough and roll it like chapaties with a rolling pin but it should not be a circle it has to roll little oval in shape. Cut it in diameter. we will use one half to make one samosa. Now fold the diameter part. Lift the one radius corner of diameter and lay over the another to make a nice cone,Press to seal. Hold the cone in hand and stuff the filling and seal the open part. press it nicely so that it wont be open in oil once put into for deep frying. serve hot with any chutney but dhaniya chutney will go nicely.

Home remedies for babies

Home remedies are especially significant for me coz here in US doctors give only Tylenol for everything and anything, which is kinda good but I used a lot of home remedies so that my son suffers a bit less.

For cold & cough:
1. Mix haldi and sugar in milk: This is my fav coz it literally does no0t let the cough build up.

2. Honey + warm water: Since we dint have any cough syrups for babies, this solution coats the throat and helps a lot in cough.

3. Honey + ginger juice: Works like honey and warm water

4. In case of fever make a paste of dry ginger (Saunth), apply on forehead and wash when dry.

For stomach issues:
1. Roast a teaspoon of jeera or ajwain and add 1 tumbler of water at the end. Boil this water till it becomes half.

What home remedies do you use when your child falls sick?

Modakam

I made modakam for first time for the Ganesha homam we did at our place. I thought they were really tough to make so I never tried....and I was correct;). But the mould I got from India came in as my life saver. I asked the recipe from one of our Tamil friend. To be frank they were very pretty to look at (coz of the mould) but taste wise little more jaggery would have been perfect. But overall not too bad for first time.


INGREDIENTS:
Rice flour: 2 cups
A pinch of salt

For filling:
Channa dhal: 1/2 cup
Jaggery
Elaichi: 3-4
Grated coconut: 1 table spoon

METHOD:
Filling: Pressure cook Channa dhal till it becomes soft and well smashed. Now melt the jaggery with very little water in microwave or stove and add Channa dhal + grounded elaichi + grated coconut. For me there was too much water in the boiled dhal, so the mixture came out to be very watery. So I kept the mix on medium flame on gas and kept stirring it till it became a very thick paste. The I made small balls out of this mixture.

Batter: Mix the rice flour and pinch of salt with water. The consistency is really important. Be care full even 3-4 drops of water makes it thin.

Now fill the mould with the rice flour batter and spread it inside the mould, so that all the walls are covered, now keep the filling ball in the center and seal it with little more rice flour batter. Then steam cook the mould in an idli cooker for 5min.

Matar ki kachauri

After so many days of packing, shifting and unpacking again in the new house, I made matar ki kachauri for dinner yesterday:)

INGREDIENTS:
Peas:2 cups
Onion: 1/2 medium
Garlic: 2-3 pods
Garam masala: 1/2 teaspoon
Dhania powder: 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder: As required
Salt

Wheat flour
Water to kneed the flour

METHOD:
Grind (onion+garlic) and peas seperatly. Now take oil in kadhai and fry onion + garlic till golden brown. Add peas paste + garam masala + dhania powder + red chilli powder and salt and cook open till the masala becomes dark green and dry.
Kneed the dough with water and little salt. Stuff the peas masala and deep fry them like poori on medium flame.

Palak paneer

There are many ways to prepare palak paneer. My mom used to say that garlic and palak go very well together...so every time I made palak paneer I added garlic to it. But this receipe of palak paneer does not have garlic (and onion) with palak and is yummy too:)

INGREDIENTS:
Spinach: I use baby spinach from costco, so I used full box
Paneer (cubed): 1/2 lb
Oil: 2-3 teaspoons
Jeera: 1 teaspoon
Green chillis: 4
turmeric: 1/2 teaspoon
Ginger: 1 teaspoon
Flour: 2 teaspoon
tomatoes (puree): 2
Cream or milk: 2-3 table spoon
Salt

METHOD:
Before starting I pureed the tomatoes in blender and also pureed spinach (after cooking it in microwave for 2 min).
Take oil, add jeera and chillis, when jeera is done add ginger (chopped into small pieces)and turmeric. Add tomato puree now and let it cook till little more than half is left. Add spinach and mix. Mix water and flour to make a paste (This paste will help the gravy to get a smooth consistency, otherwise water and spinach will get seperated) and add. Add cream or milk and salt. Keep the flame at medium and cook for 5-7 min. Add the panner. I like to keep the paneer in hot water for some time and then add to gravy, you can also fry it. Cook it again for some more time and it will be ready to serve :)

Introduction - Gurpreet

Hello Everyone

brief introduction of myself ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,name gurpreet born and bought up in delhi

There are many things i like to do , to see and to experience. I like to talk , i like to listen ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i love to eat and cooking good and simple food is my hobby

Injera misadventure

Finally I was able to keep the injera batter to ferment yesterday night. It was bubbling with life since morning :) And for the side dish I made Ethiopian style split Bengal gram (Channa dhal).
Unfortunately, the injera didn't come out good :( I tried the recipe without the self rising flour. So i just mixed teff flour, yeast and warm water and left it to ferment for 24 hrs. The injera came out to be very dark brown in color, had cracks and was taking long time to cook. So this ended up as an extreme cooking mishap!!

The side dish came out good.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup chana dhal soaked for 1 hour
1 medium sized Onion
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon jeera
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

Method:
Start with roasting the chopped onion with out oil, this will give the typical smokey flavour to dhal. You can sprinkle little water if it sticks too much. When it gets brown in color, make a hole and pour some oil in the center of the onion, add ginger garlic paste. After the paste becomes brown in color mix it with the onion. Add jeera and red chilli powder and stir. Now add the soaked dhal and water. Bring it to boil. Lower the flame now and cover and cook the dhal till it is soft and all the water is gone.

Joining the dots...

We went to fry's today and guess what....

Infront of me was the cookbook upon which the movie Julie and Julia was made!! I just flipped through it and noticed that it have very fine details too, like 'How to beat an egg'. For now I don't want to buy it coz im not too interested in french cooking, but have put it on hold in my library so that I can get the book for some time :)

Lauki Kofta

Finally, made kofta with kootu ka aata/singhare ka aata. The color of pakoras was different with kootu ka aata than when I made with besan. Also I didn't feel very drastic difference in taste. So here goes the recipe...

INGREDIENTS:
For pakoras-
Lauki: 1 medium sized
kootu ka aata/singhare ka aata: 1 cup
Salt

For gravy-
Onion: half medium sized
Ginger- garlic paste: 1teaspoon
Tomato: 2-3
Dhania powder: 1.5 teaspoon
Haldi: 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Milk: 1 cup
Water: 1 cup
Salt

METHOD:
For pakoras, peel and grate lauki. Squeeze the juice from it and add kootu ka aata and salt. Make pakoras out of this.

For gravy:
In a pan put oil + onion + ginger garlic paste : fry till golden brown
now add tomato cook till nicely cooked
add masala: dhania powder + haldi + chilli powder
add milk and water
add salt to taste
Cook for 10-15 min on medium flame or till you get the desired consistency.

Its friday today :)

.....so will make something special for dinner :)

Will make "lauki kofta" (planning since looooong time). I read somewhere that we can use koutu ka aata instead of besan to make pakoras for kofta. So will try it this time. I'll post full receipe and more details after finishing dinner today ;)

Hey

Myself Beena Torgal,basically from Karnataka but born and brought up in Ahmedabad,Gujarat.

So can share some of the receipes from both the states!!!

but dont be under the impression that bahut receipes milegi...:)

Ethopian cuisine

Hi
How are you all today? I love ethopian food..... may be coz its so close to Indian cuisine. They serve huge injera (which is like big plate size dosa) with variety of side dishes like dhal, okra etc. I already make the ethopian style okra which goes very well with roti.
Today I got the ingredients for injera: teff flour (its very rich in fiber and iron too) and yeast. I will try it asap and will post my experience :)

Dates & walnut cake

This simple cake receipe never goes wrong.....and it is sooooo yummy. Most of the work to be done is at a night before, and next day you will be left with only mixing. I got this receipe from my friend 'Annie'. Thanks Annie:)

Ingredients:

Butter- 2 sticks
Sugar - 1 cup
Sooji- 1 1/2 cups
Eggs - 4
Baking soda - 1 tsp
vanilla extract - 2 tsp
walnut/cashew - i cup
water - 3/4 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Maida - 2 tablespoon
dates- 1 1/2 cups

Method:

Roast sooji in a dry pan for 5-10 mins and soak in butter overnight. Chop
dates and add baking soda, soak in 3/4 cup water overnigt. The next
mrng..beat egg yolks and sugar with a lil milk. Add the sooji/butter mixture
slowly untill thoroughly mixed. then beat the egg whites seperately and add
to mixture..dont beat after adding egg white. Slowly mix in chopped nuts and
vanilla and maida flour..mixing lightly with a spoon..Finally add the baking
poder. Butter the cake pan and dust with maida flour. Pour the cake mixture
into the pan and bake at 350F for 45 mins (or till a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake). U can make 2 round cakes.
In case u dont like dates..u can leave it out and add extra 1/2 cup sugar.

Introduction- Sonum

Hello world, I am Sonum. One of the 5 authors of this blog. We all are from 5 different states of India. I am from Uttaranchal, former UP. We created this blog to share our joy of cooking (& eating ;)).
We were inspired to start this blog by the movie 'Julie and Julia'. In the movie julie creates a blog to log her journey through cooking 500 something receipes from the cookbook written by Julia.