Chana masala/chick peas with gravy...

Hello friends! My today's recipe is again a simple one without use of onion, garlic or tomato. Our daily food normally doesn't consist of onion or garlic. Feel free to add them if you so desire. Lets cook chana masala now.

Ingredients:

Chick peas (soaked overnight) – 2 cups

Potatoes (medium sized) – 2 .

Gram flour – 1 tbsp

Chilli powder – 1/2 tspn.

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tspn.

Coriander and cumin powder – 1/2 tspn.

Tamarind – 1 small piece.

Asafoetida – pinch

Green chillies - 3 – 4 .

Ginger – 1/2″ piece 

Oil – 2 tbsp.

Coriander leaves  (finely chopped) – 1/4 bunch

Salt - to taste

Method:

Soak the chick peas in water overnight in sufficient water as the chick peas grow in size after soaking them.

Make a small bag of loose tea powder or tea bag. 

Pressure cook the chick peas and the chopped potatoes with the bag of tea powder and some salt.  Cook to 2-3 whistles or till the  chick peas become tender. Keep the cooked chick peas  aside and retain the water in which it is cooked. Remove tea bag from chana.

Take a pan, add oil to it and place it on a slow flame. Then add asafoetida, keep on stirring it  while adding gram flour. Stir it till it changes color to become light brown. Then add chillies, ginger, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander and jeera powder.

Squash the tamarind soaked in water with your fingers so that the pulp gets dissolved in water. Strain this mixture and pour it in the above pan.

Now add the cooked chana with the retained water to the pan. Add little salt and mix it well. If required add a cup of water to it. Adjust the seasonings if required.

Let this mixture simmer for 15-20 minutes till the gravy becomes thick.

Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves and ginger strips and serve hot.

Chana  can be served with Poori, chapatti or rice.

Over to you for your views.

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Bajra atta puri

Hello friends! How are you all today? My today’s recipe is again a simple one but still yummy, if I say so myself……

I am making today bajra flour puri. Bajra flour is made from the small round grains of black millet, also called bajra.. When the bajra is ripe and ready to be harvested, the plants are cut and tied in bundles and allowed to dry. The bundles are threshed to separate the grains. The grains are dried and then processed into flour. When ground, the flour is greyish in colour and has a slightly nutty flavour. Since it is a heat-producing ingredient, it is commonly used in winters. (Source: tarla dalal).

Though it’s used in winters, my husband likes it any time of the year and hence I make it as per his wishes.  Ha ha ha.

I won’t write out the ingredients as there are just few of them so kindly adjust accordingly.

In a bowl, put bajra flour. Add salt, green chillies chopped finely, methi leaves, dhaniya leaves and 1tbsp oil.  Mix and knead to tight dough. Make lemon sized balls of this dough.

                                                                       Make atta like this

Heat oil in vessel. As it’s not easy to roll out pooris with this atta, there are two ways to do it. Some people find it easy to roll it in hand by placing one ball and rubbing slight oil in other and pat and roll. Other way is put a plastic sheet on rolling board, smear some oil on it and put one ball, press and cover with another plastic sheet. Using hands or rolling pin press lightly and make pooris, remove from plastic and fry in oil. 

Serve hot with any sabzi. I love it with rajma and baingan bharta. 

Hope you like this. Over to you for your views and opinions.

Note:  I am inviting all my blogger friends to be guest on my blog. As you can see in the

 Guest corner tab above I have had 3 guests so far. Hope you all would send me anything new which you want to share and which is not on your blog or site so far. If you are sending recipes, please send any vegetarian recipe as this blog covers only veg dishes. Please use contact form to send me message along with brief of what you would like to share and I would contact you directly. If I get good response I would start posting soon and  I am reserving one day a week for my guests as other days would be my days to post. Thank you and awaiting your mails.

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Mix vegetables with chana dal

Hello!  Today I would share with you one of our recipes which I myself like it and its again very easy to make.   I really need to say this because of all my blogging friends and who are all great cooks I was also inspired to write about my recipes or rather what  I cook at home and as I was told, cooking is bit of this and bit of that.  So here we go….

Today recipe is mix vegetables with chana dal and once again you are free to make variations as you find it fit. Please adjust all seasonings according to your taste. Let’s start our recipe…

Ingredients:

¼ cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal) washed and soaked for  1/2hr

2-3  small brinals

2 medium sized potatoes

½  dudhi or ghiya or bottle gourd.

2-3 tomatoes

One small piece of yam or sooran

2-3 green chillies

1 small piece of ginger

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp coriander powder

1/4tsp dry mango powder

1/4tsp red chilli powder

1tbsp oil

Salt to taste

A pinch of hing

Water as required

Coriander leaves to garnish.

Method:

Cut all vegetables in small cube sized pieces.   Take a heavy bottomed pan and put oil. Once it heats add green chillies cut in small pieces and add hing. Stir for a min then add all vegetables and soaked dal.  Stir it and add atleast 1 cup of water.  Add salt and stir it. Cover and cook for 15 mins or if you are using pressure cooker then cook till 2 whistles come as dal has to become soft.  Open pan and check if dal is cooked.  Using a mashing spoon roughly mash the entire mixture.  Do not make pulp out of it. Just mash the vegetables and dal roughly.  Add all the spices and cook for 2-3 minutes. Adjust water if the gravy is too dry. If its more watery cook bit more. Add chopped ginger here for added flavor.   Finally its done.  Garnish with coriander leaves  and serve it hot with rice, poori or chapatti.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think.

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Aam ras with puri/mango puree

Hello everyone! How have you all been? Well, the mango season is about to end. So I thought why not make aamras to ease my tummy and be at ease with this heat which is still here. Today I would  show you easy way to make aamras or in short mango puree which you can eat it as it is or with poori or as a topping on any dish. 

Its very easy and simple to make but taste wise yummy.

Ingredients for aamras:

2 Alphonso mangoes

Sugar if needed

Milk if needed

Method:

Peel the mangoes and take the pulp out. Make a smooth puree using mixer or handblender.  I used blender here.  Add sugar if you want more sweet and if the  puree is thick add slight milk.  Its done and your mango puree or aamras is ready.  Keep it in fridge to be chilled and serve it later with pooris. Pooris are standard and I am sure all know how to make it

Yummy yummy isn’t it?

So what are you waiting for! Have nice sweet aamras with poori.  

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Masoor dal tikki/cutlets

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having great time. My today’s recipe is result of another  brainstorming innovations.  As the title suggests it has to do with masoor dal, so what did I do with it? I had some boiled but not mashed masoor dal left over as it was too much to cook and make dal. I kept thinking I should try something new with it rather than plain dal fry.  As I racked my brains I recalled I had seen something like this on tv and now its time for me to try. I was not sure what the end result would be so first I took very little dal and tried to make this and result and taste was very good. I got bold and finally made it with bit of variations.

So lets begin our masoor dal kabab/tikki/cutlet.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiled masoor dal ( for me it was left over)

¼ cup sooji /rawa

1/4cup  rice flour         

1 onion chopped fine

Salt to taste

1/4tsp amchur powder/dry mango powder

1/4tsp dhaniya powder/coriander powder

¼ tsp cumin seeds

2green chillies cut in small pieces

1/4tsp red chilli powder

A pinch of garam masala powder

Coriander leaves cut

Cheese cut in cubes

Method:

Combine all the ingredients above except cheese  and as the dal is moist the flour would absorb all the moisture.  Since I had left over dal so I had kept in fridge and kept other ingredients ready before only that way less moisture was there. Grease your palm and make a tikki with your hands with dal mixture.  Put in each mixture one small cube of cheese and close it properly.  Deep fry in oil till its cooked on both sides. Take them off the heat and put on paper to soak excess oil.

Serve hot with tomato sauce or any chutney and perfect snack for rainy season.

You can cut out spices according to your needs if u feel its too hot.   I had made this first time and  I was given nice thumbs up for it.  Alternatively you can bake this in oven or shallow fry  them. 

So what do you think of this. 

Disclaimer:  The measurements in all the recipes given here are for representation  purpose only and all are advised to use it according to their need.


Linking this to Minnie's post WEEKEND DINNER EXTRAVAGANZA

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Almonds fudge/badam barfi

Hello all! It has been long time since I posted and I had taken a mini break also. I would put up my travel post soon but 9th June happens to be my blog’s first anniversary which few weeks back seemed a distant dream.  So thought why not share something sweet with you. My today’s recipe is badam barfi or almond fudge.  I would show you how its made in my household and I don’t claim to be expert at all and hence my recipes here are very simple everyday cooking. Enough of talking and hope you like this badam barfi.

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds

½ cup sugar

1tbsp ghee

2 tbsp milk

1tsp poppy seeds, (optional)

1tsp cardamom powder (optional)

Method:

Dry grind the almonds roughly to a slight powdery form.  Take a pan and heat 1 tbsp ghee, once it melts add almonds and stir it for 3-4 minutes till lovely aroma comes out. Make sure it doesn’t turn too brown.  Add sugar and stir it again till sugar is mixed in almonds.  Add milk now and stir it till it becomes bit lump and leaves the side of pan. The barfi should not be too brown and it should look bit light.  

Take a greased thali or plate and pour the barfi mixture on it.  Smoothen it with spoon and  sprinkle poppy seeds and cardamom powder if you wish.  Let it set at room temperature. Then cut it in desired shape and store in airtight container. It would remain good till 7 days but I am sure with this yummy almond barfi no one would wait till it finishes. I am sorry as I couldn't take pics of stirring almonds powder in pan and so skipped to next part of setting up the barfi in plate.

Hope you all do try it and  let me know what you think. Poppy seeds or khus khus is my favourite and hence I use it in almost all of my sweets. 

The above measurements are for representation purpose only. Kindly adjust accordingly.

 GRIND THE ALMONDS LIKE THIS

SET IN THALI LIKE THIS

A LITTLE CLOSER LOOK

 ALL SET

 CUT IN DESIRED SHAPE

 YUMMY

Over to you for your views.

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Sev tomato nu shaak/sev tomato gravy dish

Hello all! My today’s recipe is different but I think most of my friends would know this. It was totally new dish for me when I had it first time on my trip to Mount Abu, Rajasthan. You can read about my trip here.

Sev tomato is  I was told it is  a Gujarati dish but since I had it in Rajasthan I would connect it with that location.  This was the very first dish I had once I landed in the lovely hill station. I loved it so much that when  I came back to Mumbai I wanted to make this dish and since then have made it many times. Let me share with you this lovely sweet and spicy recipe and I am sure you would all love it.

EDIT:  When you run out of vegetables this serves its best purpose and sev is available in local stores or any sweet shop. Just  take the spicy thick one as thin one would get soggy too soon. 

Ingredients:

4-6 tomatoes

1onion

1tsp ginger garlic paste

1/4tsp  cumin seed

1/4tsp mustard seed

1tbsp oil

2green chilli

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp coriander powder

1/4tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

Coriander leaves to garnish

1/2cup spicy sev

1/2cup water

Method:

In a pan heat oil, add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Stir till they splutter, add green chilli chopped in small pieces.  Add onion chopped in fine pieces and sauté till it turns pink. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute till the raw smell goes.  Chop tomatoes in small cubes and add it in the pan. Stir and add water and let tomatoes cook for some time.  After few minutes when tomatoes are soft add all the spices except sev and mash the tomatoes slightly. 

Take off the pan and  while serving add sev and coriander leaves. If you add sev before it would get soggy.  Enjoy the sweet and spicy sev tomato sabzi.

Over to you for feedback :)

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Veggies Oats Upma--guest post

Hello all! Today I  have a guest post from a very good friend Hema. She  has a lovely blog  at
Hema's Adugemane.  Read on in her own words about her post.

*************************************************************************************

My friend, Meena Bhatia has asked me to guest post on Oats Upma sometime long back. I had brought Oats and I had stuffed my refrigerator with carrot, capsicum, and my kitchen rack had onion, tomato, potato. It immediately flashed me to go with this recipe. As Oats is new in our family for my hubby I prepared Vermicelli Upma and I went on with this.

Might be we all would be aware that Oats is very rich in fiber and it helps in reducing cholesterol. Upma is a South Indian Breakfast which is very easy to make and people say this is “lazy person’s easy breakfast”. All the varieties of upma might be same Vegetables or Onion + Tomato + Suji/Vermicelli/Oats. So, here is my version of Veggies Oats Upma.

Ingredients:

·         Oats – ½ cup

·         Water – 1 cup

·         Potato – 2

·         Capsicum – 1

·         Carrot – 1

·         Onion (big) – 1

·         Tomato – 1

·         Green Peas – few

·         Green chillies – few

·         Crystal Salt – 2 tsp

For Seasoning:

·         Urad Dhal – 1 tsp

·         Channa Dhal – 1 tsp

·         Groundnut seeds – 1 tbsp

·         Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

·         Cashewnuts – few

·         Curry leaves – few

For Garnishing:

·         Cilantro- few

Method:

·         Heat oil in a wok/kadai.

·         Roast cashewnuts and keep it aside.

·         Cut potato, capsicum, carrot and keep it in cooker along with green peas for 3 whistles.

·     In the same oil, add mustard seeds once it splutters, add curry leaves followed by dhals and groundnut seeds.

·         Then add chopped onion (into thin slices) and fry them till they become translucent.

·         Add green chillies and fry them well.

·         Then add chopped tomato and cooked vegetables.

·         Mix them all well and pour water now add crystal salt.

·         Blend the oats just for one round in a blender.

·         Once the water starts boiling add oats slowly by stirring.

·         Leave it for 2 to 3 minutes in medium flame.

·         Garnish cilantro and roasted cashewnuts.

·         Serve it with chutney.

         ***************************************************************          Thank you  Hema for wonderful Oats upma and hope all of you like this. 
                 
      If anyone would like to share something  at my blog, please do contact  me using the form here.

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Experience of cooking competition

Hello everyone! Today I would like to share with you one exciting news. When I had started blogging I had never ever thought I would be writing out recipes apart from general random stuff but encouraged by my friends and learning from them I had been putting up things I cook in my kitchen.  So last week I got one amazing chance and I took it up.

There is one newspaper cityplus  here in Mumbai which serves locality wise news and they had one ad which said send us your recipes which can be cooked in 30minutes for mother’s day contest. Seeing this I thought why not let me try here? Without much thought I sent in my dish and promptly forgot all about it till  I got a mail last week which said  my entry has been shortlisted.  I along with 6 more shortlisted contestants were invited to a nearby mall and cook our dish in front of well known judge Amit Puri, corporate chef,  Pan India foods 

Needless to say I was elated, surprised and hell lot nervous and  I was blank for few minutes after reading the mail. I thought this cant be true or can it be. Well, here was my chance to be in limelight, I guess, heheh.

I answered the mail back confirming my attendance and more than anything else I was keen to guess learn to control my nerves and get a wonderful experience and maybe learn a thing or two.

Well  this Sunday on May 13^th I along with my family went to the mall. We were told about  7 shortlisted contestants but three didn’t turn up due to some reasons. We had to carry our utensils and crockery plus ingredients ourselves and they provided induction burner. Seeing the burner I though o-oh! How  am I suppose to understand how this thing works and how would I control the temperature here, but luckily the burner techie guy was at help. First me and one other lady were called.  And the big blooper came from the burner itself. It just wont heat up our vessels and then they said this vessel wont work, so now, what to do? Solution was at hand and they gave us the vessel. It was easy after that. My burner heated up so fast that I had to make the guy switch it off fast. Hehe

So well I finished fast though in my nervousness I guessed I didn’t put the masalas correctly. While we were cooking judge came in front to ask what are you making and how would it come out etc. so well I did answer nicely but guess judge is judge, he saw through my nervousness. Hehe

Once done, Mr Puri  tasted it and he liked it. He asked how is this upma eaten or with what? I told him its anytime snack and even the left over bread is used up here. Afterwards I offered everyone there to taste and they all liked it.  After  our turn was over the other two contestants did their dish and finally result was announced, I along with another contestant were jointly tied in third place and then there was second winner and the winner. We all got food vouchers of some restaurants and participation certificate plus I think winner got a bigger hamper. 

All in all it was wonderful experience to be part of this  programme  and now knowing this I would try again and to improve further. Winning or losing was not the point here anyways.

And yes my dish was INSTANT BREAD UPMA. Click on the name to read the recipe.


My winning entry link  at cityjagranplus

And that's how I had  a great Mother's Day. thanks to cityplus.

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Mix vegetables in spinach gravy

Hello everyone! My today’s recipe is  mix vegetables in spinach gravy. Earlier I used to make plain spinach and  well not all liked it so had been experimenting. Two months back I made koftas/dumplings in spinach gravy and it was well received.  Last year  I had gone on a weekend break to Alibaug  and while returning from there we stopped at Khargar to have our lunch. My dad loves spinach and  since my parents  don’t  eat onion garlic they ordered spinach without  them.  The dish which came was really yummy with loads of vegetables and even without onion and garlic it still tasted awesome.  Since then I have made it a lot of times.  And as my son doesn’t like spinach this way he has it without any complaints. I have included onion and garlic though and you can skip it if you don’t like or don’t want to have them in your gravy.

Ingredients for gravy:

I made same type of gravy in kofta dish so just would copy it again here.

2 bunch of spinach washed and boiled (spinach reduces after boil)

1 onion cut in small pieces
1tbsp ginger garlic paste                                         

2 green chillies  cut in small pieces

1tomato cut in small pieces.

Salt to taste

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp amchur powder

1tbsp oil or ghee

Method:

Boil spinach in vessel, drain out water and make a puree of it.  Keep it aside. In another pan put ghee or oil to heat. Put ginger garlic paste to sauté for a min, and then add onions, sauté it again till raw smell of onion goes. Add green chillies and tomato. Stir it for a min and add little water for tomatoes to cook. Bring to boil and then add salt, garam masala powder and amchur powder. Switch off the gas and put all this mixture of onion tomatoes in mixer and make puree of it.  Mix this with spinach puree and keep it aside.

Mix vegetables:

I have used cauliflower,potato, peas,carrots,and tomato here.  You can add paneer also later.

Take one cup of these mix vegetables and boil them with little salt. Take them off the heat, drain water and add the vegetables in the spinach gravy.

Your  vegetables with spinach gravy is ready and since I love butter I topped a bit of it for garnishing. Do let me know what you think of this.

 submitting this to:

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Corn and potato paratha

Hello everyone! I guess you must be wondering whats cooking today! Well, as the title suggests I would be showing you my latest experiment with corn and potato. My blogging friend Kalyani at Sizzling Tastebuds is hosting event Magic Mingle which consists of two main ingredients. I  wanted to participate but after knowing combo of wheat and corn I gave up as I had absolutely no clue what to make. My friend Hema encouraged me to try something and while talking to her I thought ok why not try this. Believe me, this was my first attempt at this combo. And end result was my son who loves all types of food loved it too much. So without further ado lets begin.

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat flour

2 tbsp ghee or oil

salt to taste 

water to make dough.

Filling:

1/2 cup sweet corn

2-3 boiled potatoes

2 green chillies cut in small pieces

1/2tsp  amchur powder

1/2 tsp  coriander or dhaniya powder

1/2 tsp  red chilli powder

1/4tsp garam masala powder

salt to taste

few coriander leaves cut

Method:

Make  paratha dough in pot mixing flour salt oil and slowly adding water. Make it bit soft. Keep it aside.

For filling first boil corn, let it cook and mash it roughly. Add potatoes and other masalas with coriander leaves and mash them all properly. 

Make small balls of atta. Here its bit tricky so I suggest make small balls and make two chapatis out of each ball. On one chapati add the filling and cover it with other chapati sealing the edges. Slightly roll out a bit more. Make all parathas same way.  

On a tawa  roast paratha in usual way till both sides are done.

Enjoy corn potato paratha with dahi, chutney or sauce.  I added potatoes so the corn would stick and not fall off.

Let me know what you think of this or could I have bettered this even more?

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Moong sprouts Samosa

Hello everyone! This week Holi the colorful festival is coming. According to wiki, Holi , is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours.  The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, also Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing scented powder and perfume at each other. Bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). After doing holika dahan prayers are said and praise is offered. The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.

Lots of sweets and savouries are made this day and from me  I have come up with samosas.  We can do any filling of our choice but here  I have used moong sprouts plus potatoes.  Lets begin and let me know what you think. Happy Holi, everyone.

Ingredients for outer covering:

1cup wheat flour

 Salt to taste

 2tbsp oil

 1tsp jeera/cumin seeds( alternate you can use ajwain)

 Water to make dough.

Method:

Take flour in a pot, add salt,oil and jeera and mix well. Add water slowly and make medium chapati atta/dough. It should not be very hard. Cover and keep aside.

Ingredients for filling:

½ cup sprouted moong/green gram

2 potatoes boiled

2 green chillies cut in small pieces

Salt to taste

½ tbsp amchur powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ tbsp  coriander powder

1tsp garam masala powder.

Oil for deep frying.

Method:

Boil the sprouted moong and drain out excess water. You can use this water in some other dish. Keep moong dry. Add potatoes mashed and other ingredients for filling. Keep it aside. For chilli adjust according to your taste.

With dough make equal lemon sized balls. Roll out each to big round chapati shape.  Cut in middle so it resembles semi circle.  I forgot to take pics of the semicircle but I think all you cooks understand this.  Rub slight water on the outer edges of circle and fold and bring to middle and seal the middle part till it resembles triangle. From open end put the above filling and again seal with water and close it. Do this with all the balls. 

Heat oil in pan  and fry the samosas till they are golden brown. Take them out of oil, drain excess oil on kitchen paper and serve  hot with any chutney or tomato sauce or have them just as they are.

Hope you like these samosas. You can do same filling with chana dal with same masalas.  Choice is yours, and over to you for feedback.. cheers

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