Smoked–Cottage Cheese Stuffed Okra

Hi Friends!

How are you all doing?

Days here are becoming hot and dull. Kitchen is steaming and working in the kitchen at times is a nightmare with temperature hitting 43C. I did envy Sanjeev Kapoor while watching Khana Khazana when he mentioned that his kitchen is air conditioned and I so desperately want to have an AC in my kitchen, though I must confess my all rooms are air conditioned which I feel is no more a luxury but a necessity,  but to have an AC in the kitchen is still a luxury and hopefully I will have that too sometime….

Workload is gradually becoming less and hopefully in a few days I will be chirping in all the blogs leaving my comments making everyone feel that I’m alive again till then bear with me…

Coming to today’s post, my regular readers would understand my penchant for the smoked flavour and one can read more of my posts on getting this flavour here and here. What I can promise is that you would never regret making these and they will be a BIG hit. I tried to incorporate the smoked flavour in the stuffed Okra and the resultant was a BIG hit in the family. Every one asked what did I do to make it so tasty and my MIL asked me questions too indicating that she loved what she ate.

Honestly speaking the only thing special about the stuffing was the smoked flavour which made it different and unusual. So do try it and get all the praises…

Ingredients

about 35-40 small sized tender okra

3-4 chopped onions

1” piece ginger grated

200gms Cottage Cheese grated

1tbsp coriander pwd.

1tbsp. Kitchen king masala

1tbsp. Chaat Masala

red chilli pwd as per taste

salt as per taste

For Smoking- 2-3 pieces Charcoal

Method

Wash the Okra and wipe it dry. Head it and cut a slit in the centre for the stuffing. Keep them aside.

In a pan heat 2-3tsp oil and sauté the onions. Add the rest of the ingredients one by one except the Okra to make the stuffing.

Take the stuffing in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Put a smaller bowl in the well and keep the hot charcoal in it, put a few drops of oil over it and close the bowl with the lid for 15-20 minutes.

Stuff the Okra with the smoked stuffing. Heat a few tablespoon of oil in a pan and slide the stuffed okra in it and mix properly. Cook till done.

Garnish with grated cottage cheese and serve.

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For My MOMS and Posting the 251st, Sambhar Vadai… a fried treat after a long time

 

Hi All!

Days are rolling by and the work pressure is manifesting and at times managing home and work seems a herculean task. There are times when I wake up with the thought of  quitting the job but by the end of the day I am still working and continuing to hate myself for being so tired and unorganised. I know, all the working Moms would empathise with me and so I dedicate this post to all the Moms and Moms to be who work so hard to keep the family running, to make the family feel special and love them endlessly….

WISH YOU A HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!

I had made this combo a while ago and my MIL who is here with us had simply loved eating it, so I thought of posting this for her and also for my Mom who is still recuperating after her major surgery. To  both my Moms, for just being there for me, when I needed you.

This recipe is very common in South Indian homes as the vadai keeps frequenting their kitchen but for us it was a treat as I do not indulge into frying that easily.

I had made this combo for a  Sunday brunch and for which I got up around five in the morning to grind the batter, make the sambhar, the chutney and before every body woke up,  I was done with my photography session too…

The vadai turned out light and crisp and the sambhar and chutney just blended well with it.

Ingredients For the Vadai

2 cups Urad dal soaked

7-8 green chillies

2 inch piece ginger

7-8 sprigs of curry leaves

2tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Method

Soak the urad dal for 4-5 hours and then grind it. Beat the paste with a beater.

The trick to making good vadai lies in grinding the lentil with minimum water to a paste and then beating the paste to double in volume. A thick and nicely beaten batter makes crisp and spongy vadai.

Grind together the green chillies, ginger and curry leaves coarsely and mix it with the beaten batter along with salt to taste and cumin seeds.

Wet your hands and take a small portion of the batter (a medium sized lemon) and  flatten it on the four fingers using your thumb and make a hole in the centre and slide the flattened batter into  medium hot oil and deep fry the vadai till golden brown in colour. Remove it on a kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil. One can fry 3-4 vadais at the same time.

I served the vadai with a Tamilian style sambhar that I had made using the Sambhar Masala S got for me from the famous Grand Sweets in Chennai and to go along with it I made the coconut chutney. I garnished the sambhar- Vadai in the Sarvana Bhavan style with some chopped onions.

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‘ONLY’ Event For May and Giveaways

Hi all!

As the days are becoming warmer and warmer and kitchen seems like a furnace, I am sure all my friends would agree that we are facing the scorching sun and want to beat the heat. Cold water and coolers are what we want to live on… so here I am providing you an opportunity to beat the heat with your innovations.

Announcing ‘ONLY’- Coolers and Mocktails through the month of May. The event will be guest hosted by Nayna of Simply Food and the details can be checked at her space.

May is a special as I would celebrate my 2nd blog anniversary this month, so to celebrate that http://www.tarladalal.com/ has kindly agreed to give 2 cookbooks as giveaway instead of one to the winners and the winners would get the book Party Drinks by the author.

This cookbook is only for participants in INDIA and they should be able to provide an address in India. The winners for this will be chosen by Nayana after her round up.

Do peep into http://www.tarladalal.com/ to check out there exciting and interesting offers on membership plans here which end by mid May.

Apart from these two giveaways I am giving another cookbook as a giveaway to the participants in India, this is a book I’m personally very fond of for it’s simple cooking and elegant presentation. It is a book by Vidhu Mittal and is called Pure and Simple.

To win the book by Vidhu Mittal, leave your links in this post after you have sent your entry to Nayana as the winner will chosen by me.

So don your cooks hat and innovate KOOOOL DRINKS.

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ENQUÊTE PUBLIQUE

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JOURNEE DE L'ARBRE

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The Winner of $60 CSN Giveaway of March for ‘Only’ Event

Hi Friends!

Accept my apologies in announcing the winner of the giveaway so late, my new job has and my slow internet connection were the culprits behind this. There were total about 29 entries for the giveaway and on the basis of the links left on the giveaway page, the winner is Ankita of Eat Hearty.

Congrats Ankita, please mail me details of your country and your email id at cookingoodfood@gmail.com, so that I can send you the voucher.

You have two days to approach me else I will pick up another winner.

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Smoked Plantain Kebab with Cream Cheese Stuffing…Awadh meets West

Hi All!

I am mighty surprised with myself, I had thought after I start working it would be very difficult to write a post, as a matter of fact even to cook regularly but as I said I surprised myself, though the days are extremely hectic and tiring I cook more regularly than before and I plan my dinner and morning breakfast in advance. Blog hopping has improved but definitely reduced as compared to earlier due to time constraint and at the end of the day I retire early and sleep like a log.

S had got some plantain and with the temperatures soaring day by day I was in a hurry to finish them. I had picked up some charcoal an year back and S had reminded me several times that I am yet to use them. The thought of using the charcoal made the plantain look very inviting and very vaguely I knew what and how I wanted to proceed with them.

The Awadhi cuisine is the highlight of Lucknow and is influence by the Mughal cooking. Kebabs are a speciality of Awadhi cuisine and I had been wanting to give a Awadhi touch to my kebabs.  The smoked flavour in kebabs is the speciality of Awadhi food and  it also makes use of roasted gram flour to provide binding.

I used the charcoal to give a smoked flavour to the plantain  and I must tell you the end result was just awesome, even my MIL who does not praise easily was all gaga about it. We felt that we had an exotic kebab in an expensive restaurant and I in my elated voice did mention to my family that since I served them a very expensive kebab they need to pay me for that.., LOL.

Sending this to my event ‘ONLY’- Fusion hosted by Priya at Now Serving.

Ingredients For

Outer Cover

7-8 raw plantains peeled and cubed

5-6 green chillies finely chopped

2 large spoons gram flour roasted

2tbsp fried onion

1tbsp roasted kasoori methi crushed

a large pinch clove pwd

a pinch of cardamom pwd

salt to taste

For the stuffing

2-3 green chillies finely chopped

3tbsp coriander chopped

1/4 cup cashewnuts chopped finely

1tsp grated ginger

2 cubes cream cheese

a pinch of salt

also

oil for frying

charcoal and

a spoon of ghee

Method

Cook the plantain with some salt in a vessel with sufficient water till almost done. Strain the water completely and cook the plantain and then mash it.

Add all the other ingredients mentioned under the heading outer cover to it and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the mix.

For the smoky flavour, heat the charcoal on fire and take them in small steel katori and keep it in the well made in the plantain mix and pour a spoon of ghee and immediately cover it with a lid. Leave it covered for about 15 minutes and then remove the charcoal and divide the mix into 12-14 equal parts.

Similarly mix all the ingredients under the heading stuffing and divide it into 12- 14 equal parts.

Flatten each part of plantain mix and keep one part of the stuffing on it, seal from all the sides, flatten it again and reshape.

Fry in oil or ghee on a medium flame till golden in colour.

Serve with onion rings and coriander- yogurt chutney.
For Coriander –Yogurt Chutney
Grind together 1 garlic pod, a small bunch of coriander, 1/2tsp rock salt, common salt to taste and 1/2 cup yogurt into a fine paste, add water if required.

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