Saturday, October 25, 2008

Paneer paratha


1 cup crumbled Paneer
1 finely chopped Onion
Coriander leaves finely chopped
Small piece of Ginger (grated)
2 finely chopped green Chilies
1/2 tsp garam masala
Salt


Butter / Oil for frying

Make dough out of whole wheat flour (atta), as you would do for any paratha/roti.
In a bowl mix all the stuffing ingredients.
Make a medium sized chapati, spoon the filling in the centre of the chapati and cover it and make it into a ball again. Now roll it to the rquired thickness.
Cook on a pre-heated Tawa
Turn it , smear a little butter.
shallow fry over low heat.Cook on a low heat till golden brown.

Sungat pannaupkari


















This is a recipe from a friend SG, who is a great enthusiast when it comes to food.
I copied and pasted it here for a quick ref...... I'm just lazy to write the entire recipe.
I plan on loading a pic...just of the dish, when I make it the next time since I was too busy savouring the dish.
G's Note: I made this extra dry since I wanted it that way but typically it has a little bit of yummilicious gravy to go with the shrimp.

The pic here shows my favourite dinner........... Rice with dalithoy and sungat pannaupkari.

1. 1 lb Shrimp cleaned and deveined.
2. 1 large onion finely chopped
3. 15 red chilly (BYADGI only) - this chillies give the richness and control the amount of spice
4. 1 tbsp coconut
5. 2 tbsp tamarind pulp
6. 1 tbsp cooking oil
salt to taste

make a paste of the red chillies and the coconut by adding as little water as possible. Heat oil in a kadai and fry onions till golden brown. when the onions are fried add the red chilly masala and tamarind. add the shrimp and see them turn pick. Add salt to taste and cook till the water evaporates.

A couple of lessons learnt
1. use only byadgi chillies else you may have to call the fireman!!
2. use as lil water for the paste..the shrimp does leave some retained water.
3. alter the ratio of chilly paste and tamarind to make the curry sour or hot.

Things I would do differently
1. to add more coconut to thicken the gravy.
2.use smallest shrimp available to achieve the taste like Indian prawns.
3. use 50/50 of byadgi and house blend or guntur chillies since byadgi gave a nice color but I felt that it missed the the rich flavour.

Batata Poha


2 cups poha
2 tbsps cooking oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 curry leaves
2 green chillies
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 large potato ,cubed
Handful of unsalted peanuts (skins removed)
Pinch of turmeric powder
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander to garnish


Put the poha in a sieve and wash under running water. Transfer to a bowl and fill with enough water to just cover the poha. Keep aside for 5 mins. Drai and set aside while u do all the chopping for tadka.
Heat the oil in a pan on a medium flame and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds,curry leaves and green chillies. Fry till the spluttering stops and then add the onion. Fry till soft and translucent. Add the turmeric powder and salt. Add the peanuts and potatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the poha ans mix well.
Pour lime juice over the poha and mix well.
Garnish with chopped coriander.

Pancakes



2 eggs,
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c milk
2 tbsp buttermilk pwd



Instructions
Combine egg and sugar. Beat the egg/sugar mixture.Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk and buttermilk pwd. Fry on griddle until golden brown and center cooked.

Malai Kofta

For The Kofta:
3 potatoes, boiled, roughly mashed
1 cup crumbled paneer,
finely chopped cilantro
8 cashewnuts chopped.
1 tbsp raisins.
4 finely chopped green chillies.
1 tsp coriander powder.
1 tsp cumin powder.
1 tsp red-chilli powder
3tbsp bread crumbs

Salt To Taste.
3 tbsp cooking oil for gravy
Oil for frying the koftas.

For the gravy:
10 cashew nuts, soaked in water for half hr
2 medium onions, boiled in a pressure cooker and made into paste with cashew nuts
2 tbs ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tsp red-chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 cup milk powder
2 tbsp heavy cream

Method Of Preparation :
Mix the ingredients for the kofta. shape into ovals. Deep fry each kofta till golden brown. Drain and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadai Add boiled onion cashew nut paste and cook for few mins till most of the liquid evaporates. Addginger-garlic paste, coriander powder,turmeric and salt. fry for a a couple mins and add tomato puree and red chilli powder and cook on medium heat for about 10 mins. Add garam masala powder.

Dissolve milk powder in 1 cup of water and add to the gravy, bring it to a boil and simmer for 5 mins on low heat. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and finish with swirls of fresh cream. Dunk hot kofta's just before serving.

Note:
Since I usually prepare this dish when I am entertaining friends, I keep koftas in a preheated oven to keep it warm. After the dish has been heated up, put in the koftas.

Dalithoy

















Ingredients
1 cup tuvar dal
2 cup water
1/2" ginger, finely chopped
4 green chillies
salt
2 tsp oil
2 red chillies, broken in pieces
1/2 tsp mustard
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp hing

Wash and rinse tuvar dal. Cook in the pressure cooker till soft. Transfer to the sauce pan, add slit green chillies, finely chopped ginger and salt,bring it to a boil, then simmer on low flame for 10mins.
For the seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add red chillies, hing and curry leaves. Pour it over the dal.

Chettinad Chicken


2 lbs chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces
1 large onions, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd
1 sprig curry leaves
1 can coconut milk
fresh coriander leaves for garnish
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Make a paste:
2 green chillis
8 garlic flakes
1″ ginger
1 tsp poppy seeds, soak in warm water for 15 minutes

Roast and make a powder:
1/2 tsp pepper corns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 1/2 tbsps coriander seeds
6-8 dry red chillies
2 cardamoms
1″ cinnamon
6-7 curry leaves
1/2 tsp oil

1.Heat a little oil and roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, red chillis, cardamoms, cinnamon and curry leaves on medium heat . Cool and dry grind.
2 Make a paste of the ginger, garlic, green chillies and poppy seeds. Keep aside.
3 Heat oil in a khadai, add onions and curry leaves and saute till transparent.
4 Add the ground paste and cook for a minute before adding the chicken and cook on high heat for approx 4 mts and do stir the chicken once in a while.
5 Reduce to medium heat, add salt, turmeric pwd and tomatoes and combine well. Let the chicken cook in this for 4-5 mts, uncovered.
6 Now add the coconut milk and transfer the contents to a pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 4 mts or until one whistle. Open lid and combine well.
7 Finally add the ground spice pwd and cook for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat and garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Batat Upkari

Mayank loves Dosa,idli,poha and surnoli the best when it comes to Amchi breakfast eats. With a lot of thought had to come up with one dish that he actually will eat without having to ask twice.Like all kids his age, will turn his nose at most food at the table. Sometimes also will give me a raised eyebrow if the food is Indian at every meal.......lol.


Batat upkari

So here's an upkari just for my babe's chatpata tastebuds.

4 medium sized potatoes, cut to look like fries
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp haldi
1/4 tsp red chillie powder
1/4 tsp jeera pwd
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Heat oil in a kadhai, season with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add all the spice powder followed by potatoes and salt. Keep sauteing till edges of the potatoes are brown and completely cooked.

Mayank loves this bhaji with rice and dalithoy

Shrimp Curry


Shrimp curry
1/2 lb large shrimps
1 red onion,finely cubed
1/2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 a can coconut milk
1/4 tsp tamarind pulp
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
cilantro,optional


Heat oil in a kadhai and fry onion till slightly browned.
Add spices, saute till spices are aromatic, add shrimp and stir to coat it . When the shrimp turns pink, add coconut milk and salt and let the dish simmer for a few minutes to cook the shrimp.
Be careful to not cook the shrimp for longer than necessary which can toughen the shrimp.

When I made this dish a few days back, my baby....Miheer loved this dish with chapathi and went for seconds and demanded rice too... That is an awesome review itself.........also said " yummy Randai mommy"..........which translates to happy kid=happy mommy.

This is why I created this blogspot

These recipes are all fav's ....some remind me of my childhood, some I couldn't stand back then but would give anything to relish these now...........
My childhood was surrounded with my loving brothers, a few of my cousins and  my late grandmom. There always was typical amchi food cooked by my grandmom who we all called her as MAUMA.  As a little girl, I loved to watch her cook whenever I could and would demand to help her out with anything related to cooking. To not disappoint me, she would hand me a wooden mortar (golmbi, is that even a real amchi word?)  that was as big as a mixing bowl and a smooth large rock as a pestle to crush garlic for lasun pann or coconut and spices for a snack delicacy that we Amchi's call phov. I'm sure I took my own  sweet time and made enough mess to add to her work but this little time in the kitchen with Mauma was very special for me and made me feel like I really helped her in the kitchen ( especially since the boys didnt care to have me in their game).  Most of the time, she cooked while me and my siblings were at school and never realised how much thought and effort she had to put in making all the delicacies with ease and taste to die for. Reminds me how ungrateful a child can be at times!
 

Mom's cooking came many years after mauma passed away. At this stage, I didnt want any part in the kitchen as I'd rather spend my days with friends than home.  I can't picture how carefree my days were, back in the day!

 It was  years later that I had my own kitchen that I  HAD to cook which made me realise that cooking is not inbuilt  :( ......and following a recipe does not help much too. When I followed a recipe to the T, I expected the outcome to taste somewhat little like what Mauma or Mom made. Unfortunately, it was nowhere close...poor Vinu, *wink!
Many many experiments later did my cooking turn out a little bit edible and of course, I have to mention that I have a  good food critic by my side. Yes, Vinayak is great when it comes to finding out where things went wrong and the steps that could have been avoided so we could be a little successful each time we repeat  the dish. It isn't a easy task to follow instruction while I have a on the knife....kidding, of course!  :) As irritating as it was back then, I think that he really helped bringing a better cook in me. Yes, my secret's out. I couldn't even boil an egg just right ...without overcooking the yolk or make  perfect fluffy rice. I said it out aloud.....now leave this alone & lets get cooking!
Here are the  few of the dishes most preferred by my Hubby and my two brats....