Maatavaadi Palya

Hi!

Last few days were not very healthy for me, was not keeping well and my spirits were generally low. I did not feel like reading blogs as my eyes would hurt on trying that. The only thing I opened was my mails and my blog to moderate comments and then shut down my laptop. I would order out food for everyone and generally spend time taking rest and teaching the younger one Mathematics  and Science as he has to appear for his National Olympiads. But prior to falling sick I had bought my first batch of fenugreek greens of this winter and I was surely looking forward to cooking it. I had sorted and washed the leaves then dried and stored in the refrigerator to use them. As I did not cook for a few days so the day I started cooking I wanted to use the leaves before they got spoilt.

This particular version of fenugreek is a big hit in my family and is S’s favorite. We normally eat this with soft rice and saaru/rasam as a combination. It is quick to make, extremely tasty and takes no time to get over. It is a dry curry and should be  cooked with more oil else it tastes very dry. Oil provides it the softness that it can be mixed with plain rice and be eaten.

Ingredients

3 cups of finely chopped fenugreek leaves

5-6 green chilies finely chopped

1 tbsp of urad-chana dal mix

1 tsp mustard seeds

3-4 tbsp oil

5-6 tbsp of gram flour/ besan

salt to taste

Method

Heat oil and mustard followed by urad-chana dal mix.

Once the dals turn golden brown in color add the green chilies and saute for a few seconds.

Add the chopped greens and salt to taste, mix.

Cover and cook till half done. Sprinkle the gram flour and mix completely.

Cover and cook on low flame till cooked completely.

This tastes good either way hot or cold.

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Eggless Sponge Cake Made with Home Made Cream

Hi!

My first memory of a home made cake takes me back to my childhood when my Mom used to make a simple vanilla cake at home in the pressure cooker using sand as we did not have an oven and then frost it with home made beaten cream and sugar and decorate with silver balls and coloured sugar coated fennel seeds as these were the only things available to decorate. She always made a cake with eggs, later on we stopped eating eggs too at my Mom’s place and the concept of eggless was introduced to us.

The first eggless cake we had was made by mom’s friend aunt K who is a Punjabi bramhin and does not even eat onion and garlic. She used to make an eggless cake using malai  or the milk cream. We could not make out any difference as the cake was amazingly soft. I eagerly asked her for the recipe and she gladly gave it and I scribbled down in my recipe diary, yes, I remember telling you all that I started noting down recipes as early as in 8th-9th std.

A few days back I saw someone making an eggless cake with malai/ milk cream on a TV show, that reminded me of the cake aunt K made and I craved for it. I had all the ingredients in my pantry so decided to give it a try and was surprisingly happy with the end result. This cake is very quick to make, is amazingly soft and just melts in mouth. It’s a perfect treat for vegetarians and also for people who avoid eggs.

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups APF/ maida

3/4 cup malai/ fresh milk cream

1 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp baking pwd

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp strawberry/pineapple essence (optional)

7” tin for baking

Method

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Sift together the APF, baking pwd and soda, 3-4 times.

Beat the malai and sugar together. Add the essence.

Gradually add the APF and mix. Add milk enough to get a pouring consistency.

Grease a tin and then sprinkle APF evenly.

 

Pour the cake mix into a greased tin and even the surface.

Bake for 40—45 mins or till the knife/needle/ skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack  for an hour.

Cut the cake into slices and serve.

 

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An Utterly Delicious Peas and Walnuts Seekh Kebab

Hi All!

I am all fresh after the small break I took and visited Jaipur during the Diwali.Simply enjoyed watching the beautifully lit city for the festival and also thoroughly enjoyed eating at places like Sheesha and Spice Court. I tasted the traditional Rajasthani delicacies and just loved being out of the kitchen, relaxing and eating. I bought some typical Rajasthani ingredients and will surely share the preparations in due course. At the same time I was also wondering what all my friends might be doing for the festival, so do share what you did with me.

I must confess I am a glutton when it comes to Kababs and recently I have developed a penchant for making those, especially the seekh. The delicateness and the outburst of flavors in the mouth makes them very inviting. I have posted many Vegetarian kababs here in my space, even Seekh Kabab too and in future I will be posting many more as and when I experiment.

As a foodie, I am sure every one would love to watch cookery shows and I am no different, I watch them regularly and realize that there are so many people out there who keep innovating and concocting so many preparations and there’s so much to learn from them. This particular preparation I had seen in a cookery show and had jotted down a rough sketch of the recipe in my diary. With the onset of winter comes the arrival of fresh peas in the market and I still have a huge chunk of the frozen peas I had made at home, so decided to make good use of them. When I had watched this preparation made on TV, I had developed an instant  liking for it and after I made it today I was in LOVE. I know when I have to treat people and show the best of my culinary skills I will definitely make this. The seekhs not only look attractive but can charm anyone.

Ingredients

a cup and a half of coarsely ground frozen peas ( else blanch them and use)

3/4 cup grated boiled potato

1 onion’s slices fried

4-5 green chilies finely chopped

a piece of ginger grated

5 green cardamoms powdered

a tbsp butter

a small handful of mint leaves

salt to taste

oil for cooking

2-3tbsp roasted chana dal/ chutney dal  powdered or besan roasted

a handful walnuts finely chopped

Method

Soak the wooden seekhs in water for half an hour.

Grind together the peas and mint leaves to get a coarse paste.

Mix all the other ingredients except the oil for cooking and make a dough of soft consistency. Be careful it should not be too soft else it would not stay on the seekh. If required add more of chana dal powder. The cardamom adds an excellent flavor to this kebab and even the fried onions too, so do miss out on them.

Take a small portion of the mix and spread it on the seekh. Roll the seekh on chopped walnuts and then gently press them. The walnuts add a nice crunch to the kabab.

Heat a griddle or grill pan and roast the seekh with few drops of oil. Roll the seekh and roast from all the sides. The smoky flavor of the grill pan enhances the flavor.

Serve hot with a coriander-yogurt dip.

Sending it to Priya Mitharwal’s

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Potato and Peanuts Chaat in Bread Cups

 

Hi!

The festive occasion of Diwali has begun with people celebrating Dhanateras all over the country today. I can see and read so many recipes across the blogosphere celebrating this festive moment.So many traditional and innovative recipes are shared by my friends in the last few days and I am enjoying peeping into them, though I must confess there are so many posts I am yet to check, but I will surely find time to have a look at all of them gradually and learn from them.

As you all know that there are no celebrations at my place so I have not made any festive sweets and savories but I do treat my family with palatable stuff. I am always on a look out to try snacks for kids as treating them with good stuff is surely what I enjoy and at the same time find it challenging too. The younger one has holidays and is hungry all the time, so Mommy dear has to keep providing him with something or other. Did I tell you that he is a big fan of Chaats and enjoys eating Paani Poori? Now, paani poori was surely not what I was aiming to make but  I surely  thought of concocting an interesting chaat for him which he did relish finally.

The kid likes potatoes as well as peanuts so I mixed both of them and inserted it in baked bread baskets and some toppings on top,and the chaat was ready. This is a perfect delight for an evening snack or a party and I can  bet ‘no one can eat just one’. I tried making the cups in two ways, a bite size and the other large one. The bite size are perfect as a party starter but is not very filling, the large one is what one should make for the family. Let’s read how….

Ingredients

For Bread Cups

Whole Wheat bread slices

muffin cups

butter

For Coriander-Yogurt Chutney

2 tbsp yogurt

a handful of coriander

one garlic pod

1 tbsp onion

salt to taste

3 green chilies

a tsp lemon juice

For Potato-Peanut Filling

3 boiled potatoes cubed

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

a tbsp chaat masala

1 tsp red chili pwd

salt to taste

2 tsp lemon’s juice

To garnish

Finely chopped onion and tomato

Method

 For Bread Cup Large One

Cut the edges of the bread and roll it flat using a rolling pin.

 

Apply butter and shape it like a cup inside a greased muffin cup.

For Small Cup

Repeat the first two steps like the large cups.

Using a cutter cut a circle and prick it. Apply butter and then place it in a muffin cup.

Bake the large cups in a 180C preheated oven for 20 mins and small for 15 mins. Remove, cool and use.

 

 For Chutney

Grind together all the ingredients under the heading with a little water.

Potato-Peanut Filling

Heat a tsp oil and add the potatoes, followed by chaat masala and red chili pwd. Mix in the peanuts and salt to taste. Cool and add lemon juice and mix.

Assembling

The bread cups put the potato-peanut filling followed by the chutney. Garnish with the chopped onions and tomatoes. If you like sweet taste do put some tamarind-dates chutney too. We prefer our chaat a bit spicy so avoided that.

Serve immediately once assembled.

 

Sending this chaat to my event ‘Only’- Chaat hosted here by me.

Also sending

Corn Chaat in Baked Corn Cups

Black Chana Chaat

WISHING ALL MY FRIENDS AND READERS A VERY HAPPY DIWALI.

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Sarson-Aloo ka Saag

Hi.

With the onset of winter one can see the market getting flooded with greens, though this year because of floods there’s no overflow of greens yet but one can see some sight of greens surely. So when my regular veggie vendor asked  me for mustard greens, I nodded happily and picked up a small bunch.

Sarson ka Saag and Makke di roti is one of the most popular searched items  from my space and I can assure you that the recipe is a winner and I have tried to explain the entire procedureit in great detail.  I will surely post another version of the saag later, but today, I post a simple combination of these flavorful greens with potato. This tastes best  again with  makke ki roti but also with plain steamed rice. I normally do  not add tomatoes to these leaves but for a change I used them and was extremely happy with the result, but of course I would not add them to my sarson ka saag. 

Ingredients

a bunch of mustard greens

2 potatoes cubed

1/2 tomato

2 onions chopped

4-5 garlic pods

4-5 green chilies

a piece of ginger

1 tbsp tomato paste

ghee for cooking

some cumin seeds

red chilies for tempering

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp coriander pwd

a large pinch garam masala (optional)

a pinch of asafetida

Method

Wash the greens and chop finely. Mix 3-4 garlic pods, green chilies and ginger and pressure cook with a cup of water. I was in a hurry so used the pressure cooker method. Best is to blanch the greens and then grind it to keep the green color intact, check out the sarson da saag post for that.

Cool and grind to a paste.

Heat a tbsp of ghee and add the onions and brown them.

Add the chopped tomato and potato. Add salt to taste.

Add the tomato paste and mix.

Add the turmeric and coriander pwd and saute for a few seconds. Cover and cook till potatoes are done.

Once the potatoes are done, mix the mustard greens paste. Add half a cup of water and some garam masala (optional).

Heat another tablespoon of ghee/oil and add cumin seeds, once they crackle add one finely chopped garlic, asafetida and 2 red chilies. Pour this tempering on the curry.

Mix and serve immediately.

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And the CSN Giveaway Winner Of October Is…

Thank you friends for participating in ‘Only’-Festive Food. Very shortly Preeti will post the round up at Khaugiri and also the winner to the giveaway by http://www.tarladalal.com/ . As you all know that I am supposed to announce the winner of $60/£60 giveaway. I was quite disappointed to see that only a few bloggers left their links for the CSN giveaway so I crosschecked with Preeti whether only a few participants from US and UK had sent their entries. I realized that many have sent entries but did not leave their links in the CSN giveaway post but as the rule of the event clearly mentions that the link was to be left, I am picking a winner from the bloggers who left their links. There are 11 links from comment no. 15-27. The duplicate links I had to delete to be fair to everyone. I used random.org to generate the winner. And the winner no. is 25 which is of Simply.food.

Nayna, please contact me to pick up your win and shop from the CSN’s UK site.

I would request again all my blogger friends  who would participate in November’s ‘Only’-Chaat event to please leave their links once they mail the entry to me, in the giveaway page in case they want to enter the CSN giveaway.

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Cottage Cheese and Sesame Coins

 

 

Hi Again!

I must tell my friends that I am a winter girl and the onset of winter here is keeping me chirpy. My energy level and spirits are high, surely this makes me indulge more in the kitchen. That gentle nip in the air which is so comforting and soothing after the scary monsoon. I love to go out and shop, explore the new and I also love to stand in the balcony to feel the gentle breeze which sometimes sends a wave through my spine. This climate also gives me a good opportunity to sit close to DH with the excuse that I am feeling cold. LOL. I would surely like to know how many of my friends enjoy winter?

I have been cooking and experimenting a lot and this month will surely see some of the most exciting and interesting recipes here as I host two events through the month ‘Only’- Chaat and Flavours Of Punjab, so you also rush in your entries.

I had some cottage cheese to finish and I normally keep some boiled potatoes ready in the fridge which I could use for lunch boxes or in emergency. One of these chirpy days I wanted to have a quick snack but made differently, something I had not attempted earlier. I keep making cottage cheese cutlets quite frequently in one form or another. This time I did not want to have  any overpowering spices into it and also wanted a  crunchy bite to it, so thought of using sesame. Initial few pieces I applied sesame on both the sides but realized that it’s flavor is overpowering so made the latter only with one side of sesame. The result was very satisfying and I gobbled up quite a few while making them. These coins have the bite of sesame but otherwise they just melt in the mouth.

I thought they can make perfect party starter, an evening snack or are good for school Tiffin box too. The procedure is quite simple, the only precaution one needs to take is while flipping the coins as they are extremely delicate and soft.

Ingredients

2 cups crumbled cottage cheese/Paneer

2 large potatoes boiled, peeled and grated

an onion finely chopped

5 green chilies

4 garlic pods

2-3 bread slices

an inch ginger piece

a handful of coriander

1 tsp white pepper pwd

3-4 tbsp cornstarch

6-7 tbsp white sesame

salt to taste

oil for low oil roasting

Method

In  a shallow pan heat a tsp oil and saute the onions. Cool.

Grind together the ginger, garlic, green chilies and coriander.

Mix the Cottage Cheese, Potato, onion and the ginger-garlic paste.

Soak the bread slices in water, sqeeze and mix in the cottage cheese mix.

Add salt to taste and combine all ingredients properly.

Mix cornstarch and water to form a thin paste.

Take small portion of the mix and make flat coins, dip them in cornstarch paste and then shallow fry using very less oil. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Roast on a medium flame on either side and serve hot with tomato ketch up or green chutney.

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