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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Rice Bhajiyas/pakodas/fritters

Hello everyone!  Today I am bringing you a dish which my late aunt loved  a lot. Very simple to make and tastes yummy.  Over the years I made bit of variations to it and it still tastes good. Hope you all like it.

This recipe consists of left over rice and it can be plain rice, biryani ,pulao or any cooked rice. We would make rice pakodas now.

Ingredients:

Left over rice( depends on whatever quantity you have got)

½ cup plain yoghurt or dahi

1 cup besan (gram flour)

2green chillies cut in small pieces (increase according to quantity or taste)

Some coriander leaves cut

1/2tsp coriander seeds

1inch ginger cut in small pieces

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Method:

Take rice in bowl and mix dahi (yoghurt) with it.  Keep it aside for some time till dahi almost soaks rice. Water is not needed here at all. Put besan , salt, chillies, coriander seeds, coriander leaves and ginger pieces and mix them all together with dahi and rice. The consistency should be bit thick to make pakodas.

Heat oil in pan and slowly take one spoonful of rice dahi mix and  drop in hot oil. Do the  same with the whole batter.  Deep fry pakodas till they turn bit golden. 

Take them off the pan and put on paper to soak excess oil.

Take them on plate and serve hot with chutney or sauce of your choice.

They are best as tea time snacks and plus your rice is also used up in this. 

Hope you enjoy this dish. Any comments or feedback is always welcome.

P.s I think most would be confused and I would suggest just go slow and add the dahi and besan and try out. if the besan is more it would become too hard and if its less rice would come out in oil. These pakodas are bit on softer side and with dahi you get bit of sour.khatta taste. The measurement is for indication purpose only.

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Dudhi halwa

Hello my lovely friends! My today’s recipe is quite easy but this was the first time I attempted it. I am sure most of you already had made this and know about it. My mom used to make this but somehow I felt the taste weird always so never did like it. This time my mom and dad were with me for few days so I said I would make dudhi halwa for you and you tell me how its made. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was very easy to make and doesn’t take time at all and it tasted awesome.

Lets begin making our delicious healthy  dudhi halwa and co incidentally this is my 50^th post which in my early days I felt I  may not reach hehe. So kuch meetha ho jaaye………..!!!!

Ingredients:

1 bottlegourd/dudhi/giya 

 3tbsp milk 

¼ cup sugar or to taste

1tbsp ghee

Pinch of  cardamom powder 

To garnish khus khus. Cut almonds, few strands of kesar (saffron)

Method:

Grate the dudhi and squeeze out all the water. In a pan heat ghee and add dudhi. Stir for just few mins and don’t let dudhi get brown. Add milk here and as dudhi leaves lot of water so milk shud be less. Alternatively you can use condensed milk. Stir it again till dudhi and milk are mixed. Add sugar to taste and stir again. Sugar would leave out more water so let it cook for few mins till it leaves sides.  Add kesar, and almonds here and  garnish with my favourite khus khus. The color of halwa would remain bit greenish.

Serve it hot.

Let me know what is your views on this.

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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.

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Mix vegetables in dal

Hello everyone! My today’s recipe is inspired by Aarthi’s blogpost and I thought I would give it a try. I have made few variations from what she made.I had made this about 2months back when I saw at her blog but just kept it pending to post.

Recipe source: Aarthi ..@ Yummy Tummy

We all make  dal in different ways and at times plain dal becomes boring so lets do mummy ka magic here.

Ingredients:

1cup tur dal  , washed and soaked for  30mins

1tsp haldi (turmeric powder,

1tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

1tsp rai  (mustard seeds)

1tsp urad dal 

Pinch of hing (asaephotida)

1tsp red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp coriander powder

1tsp amchur powder

Salt to taste.

Few curry leaves,

3 green chillies, cut in small pieces

2 dry red chillies  broken in pieces

1onion sliced

2cloves of garlic crushed

2tbsp oil

1 cup of mix vegetables of your choice.

Here I have used tomatoes, carrots, brinjal, okra, gwar, yam (sooran) and cauliflower cut and mix them all  in one cup.

Method:

In pressure cooker boil  dal in usual way. In a pan put oil, sauté onions, then put jeera, rai and green chillies, stir them and then add  urad dal, curry leaves, dry red chillies,garlic and hing. Stir for a min then add all the vegetables. Stir and and put some water so they cook nicely.

Add salt and all spices and keep it aside after they have been cooked. Take dal out of  pressure cooker and mash it a bit. Add water and add salt and turmeric powder. Be careful with salt here as we had added it in the vegetables.  Mix the cooked vegetables in dal and stir it. Let it come to one or two boils.

Voila your dal with vegetables is ready.

Serve it hot and garnish with coriander leaves and a dash of butter. You can leave out butter but I just simple love the look of butter on top.

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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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Vegetable Keema

Hello all!  My today’s recipe came as result of experiments and inspiration from my blogger friend Radhika and her amazing blog TicklingPalates. I was not sure how it would turn out as I had read her recipe only once but was determined to try out. But when I planned to make my computer was busy so couldn’t  check how she made it. 

Call it what ever you want to but my son calls it gobhi bhurji.  Hope you like this as I made variations from what Radhika made.

Ingredients:

1  large cauliflower or 2 medium sized

1/2cup  peas ( I used frozen peas here)

1  onion grated

2  tomatoes chopped into small pieces

2 garlic cloves crushed 

2tsp  red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp turmeric  powder

1tsp coriander/cumin powder

Salt to taste

2tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

3tbsp oil for shallow frying

1tbsp oil to sauté

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Wash and clean the cauliflower and grate it. In a pan put 3tbsp oil,heat it and shallow fry the grated cauliflower and keep stirring it to prevent it from burning. Let cauliflower become little brown.  Once done remove in plate and keep it aside.

Use same pan and add 1tbsp oil, add onions and sauté it for a min or two till it turns translucent, add crushed garlic and sauté it too. Add tomatoes and all masalas above except kasuri methi.  Stir it and add peas to it. Put some water and keep on slow flame to cook.

After few mins the tomatoes would resemble gravy then add shallow fried grated cauliflower to it.  Add more water for required consistency and let it cook some time on slow flame.

Once cauliflower is also done add kasuri methi and stir and switch off the gas.   Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with puri, roti, paratha or naan.

I had some  of this delightful dish left over so next day stuffed my sandwich with it and the taste was still awesome.

Enjoy this dish and once again special thanks to Radhika  for this recipe. I had changed few things from her original dish.

The end verdict at my home was YUMMY. So what's your verdict!!!

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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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Tomato soup pulao...

Hello everyone! How have you all been. My today’s recipe is very simple and easy to make plus everyone loves it. Pulao is eaten a lot and lovingly in my home and I am sure everyone  enjoys it. There are many variations all the mommies come up with and I am no exception. I made this pulao using tomato soup powder and well end result was it was finished off with happy satisfied feeling in tummy.

So lets begin our pulao.  Again the measurements I give here are just for indication and you can adjust it your way.

Ingredients:

1cup rice washed and soaked

½ cup tomato soup ( I use the knorr ready soup)

½ cup mix vegetables of your choice ( I have used here peas, cauliflower, carrots and potatoes)

1 onion sliced

1 dalchini/cinnamon stick cut in small pieces               

 2-3 cloves

1 cardamom broken                               

Salt to taste

1tsp garam masala powder

 2tsp  red chilli powder

2 tbsp ghee

1tsp jeera/cumin seeds

Water as required

Method:

Take a pan, add 1tbsp ghee. Let it heat then add jeera. Once it splutters add onions and sauté till they turn bit pink. Add dalchini, cloves and cardamom and stir them. Add mix vegetables, stir them for a min and add salt. Be careful with salt as it would be used later also. Put little water and cook them. Add other masalas and cook for a min more and it should be dry, not watery. Keep it aside.

In another pan heat the remaining ghee and add rice. Stir the rice nicely and softly for a minute. Add the tomato soup and if needed some water and add salt. Don’t put too much water or your rice would get too soggy.  Cook the rice for few minutes. Once rice is done take it off the gas.  Add your cooked vegetables to rice and stir it slowly till rice and vegetables are mixed. Your tomato soup pulao is ready.

Serve it hot with any raita. I have used boondi raita here.

P. S. Tomato soup should not be cooked if its in powder form. just mix water and add this soupy water to rice to cook.

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Let's Cook # 1 ~ "Pulao"

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