Falafel Sandwich (Indianised)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

After marriage, when I went to UAE, I tried the Falafel sandwich. And I did not like it at all!! After 6 months, while coming back from the office, one evening I was very hungry. My husband had come to pick me up and was having falafel sandwich. As I did not had any choice, I tried once again the sandwich and Voila!!!!! I loved it on the first byte. May be I was hungry or was already used to UAE life. And then all the years I stayed in UAE, Falafel Sandwich and Chicken Shawarma  were my favorite food. Almost every weekend I used to have either Falafel or Shawarma sandwich.

After I came back to India, I have always missed the UAE food.  I try to prepare few things but most of the times, it is not possible as I do not get many ingredients here. Two weeks back my elder daughter was feeling like having falafel sandwich. I thought of giving it a try!! With many ingredients unavailable, I was not sure how will I start!! Check it down to see my struggle to make it, and I succeeded at the end. My daughter enjoyed the sandwich.

The things I DID NOT HAD were,

1. Garlic paste

2. Olive oil

3. Tahina or sesame paste

4. Pita Bread

5. Salad leaves

6. and the ready vegetable pickles!!!!!

I am giving here my version:

WHAT I TRIED TO REPLACE FOR

1. GARLIC PASTE : I did not had garlic paste, and my daughter does not like Mayonnaise,  So I went for HUNG CURD. I took a teaspoon of Garlic Juice and mixed with hung curd. 

2. I used the NORMAL COOKING OIL

3. TAHINA : My husband had brought it from UAE, but the expiry date was done, I did not had any option. Then I thought of soaking the sesame seeds(2 tbsp) in hot water for half an hour and grind it into paste with one green chilly and little oil. My Tahina was ready.

4.PITA BREAD : I prepared normal Maida chapatis, you can use wheat chapati also.

    

5. SALAD LEAVES : We do not get salad leaves here. So I settled down with CABBAGE LEAVES, SHREDDED FINELY.

6. READY VEG. PICKLES : I CUT FEW CARROT, CUCUMBER AND RADISH IN TO THIN LONG STRIPS, SOAKED THESE IN SALT AND VINEGAR FOR FEW HOURS!!!

Now is the time for Falafel :

Boil the soaked chickpeas with a pinch of salt. Drain the water.

ADD

GREEN CHILLY - 2

CUMIN SEEDS - 1TSP

GINGER - 1"

SALT TO TASTE

FRESH CORIANDER - HANDFUL OR PARSLEY(I do not get Parsley here  )

OIL - 1 TSP

RED CHILLY FLAKES - 1 TSP (Optional)

PUT EVERYTHING IN A FOOD PROCESSOR OR MIXER AND TURN INTO FINE PASTE.

                      

Keep in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Take it out and make big lime size balls and press it. (if you are lucky to have falafel maker!! then its great) 

Keep all the the falafel ready.

Heat the OIL, fry in batches. 

I tried single falafel and it came out very good. Being a greedy person, I put 6 at a time and see what happened :

Then I fried 4 falafel at one time.

Now coming to the sandwich part, we need

Tomatoes

If you have peta bread, open half in the middle. 

Mix the hung curd and sesame seed paste and spread it on one side.

Wrap it with Kitchen tissue.

                                         

I know I have confused you with such a long post!! But recipe and the procedure is typed in blue color. Feel free to comment for any doubts or confusion!! or any suggestions!!

Keep Smiling,

Green Moong with Dill leaves

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Now a days I have made it compulsory to have green leafy vegetables for our dinner. And morning breakfast is replaced with Chapati and any veg. preparation or grains or pulses. 

And this Green Moong and Dill leaves serves both!! 

My kids do not like this leaves in any other form. So this is the best way to feed them. We make Thalipeeth, dosa, Paddh using these leaves. Mom makes yummy "Dill and Chana vada". I love the smell of Dill leaves. This is a common preparation in North Karnataka.

It has many health benefits too. It is benefited in Digestion, Dysentery and Diarrhea, bad breath, swelling, Menstrual disorders. Read more here for details. It is very useful article on this herb.

Coming to the recipe,

Dill leaves - 1 bunch, cleaned, washed  properly and chopped finely

Green moong - 1cup, soaked for  2 hours

Garlic - 1/2 bulb if it is small, cleaned and crushed

Green Chilly - 1 or 2 as per your taste, chopped

Oil - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Transfer every thing in to a cooker vessel or directly in to a small cooker. Give 3 whistles. When cold, mash it to mix properly. It is ready to serve with chapati or jowar rotti. I like to have it with curd rice or rice and milk!!!

Another way...

If you like, you can give tadka ,

Do not put the garlic in the cooker. 

for tempering :

Oil - 1 tsp

Crushed garlic 

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and garlic. Add it to  the cooked moong and Dill. Mix it properly.

Keep Smiling,

Egg Kurma

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

This one is a very easy and quick gravy which goes well with rice, chapati, any kind of bread or Indian bread.

I learnt this one from my aunt when I was in 9th standard. Whenever I made this, somehow I forgot to click the photo, so it is delayed in posting.

Last night I made it and was perfect for my cold!!

Eggs - 4

Oil - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 small, peeled and sliced 

Salt to taste

Red Chilly powder - 1 tbsp 

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Lime juice - 1 tsp

Fresh Coriander - to garnish

For Masala

Oil - 1 tsp

Onion - big, chopped

Garlic - 3 to 4 cloves

Ginger - 1/2 "

Fresh coconut - 2 tbsp

Clove -2

Cardamom - 1

Cinnamon - 1/2"

Tamarind - 1 tsp 

OR

Tomato - 1 big

Roast all the ingredients and grind into fine paste.

Heat oil in a shallow and wide kadai. When hot, add sliced onion and fry it till brown. Now add ready paste. Fry for a minute. Now add Salt, Red chilly powder, Coriander powder and  Turmeric powder. Fry till you get nice aroma. Add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil.

Take first egg and break carefully into a bowl taking care keeping the egg yolk intact. Slowly transfer it into the boiling gravy. Repeat with other three eggs. You can break the egg directly into the vessel but only because if the egg is spoiled, you have to throw the ready gravy into the dustbin.

The eggs should be covered. If you feel the water is less, add some more water.Do not try to mix it with spoon. Otherwise the eggs will break into pieces. Cover and cook it for two minutes. Remove the lid and turn the eggs. Adjust the seasoning. Again cover it and cook for few more minutes.

Add lime juice. Mix it carefully. Garnish with Fresh coriander. 

Serves for two!! If you share it!!

Keep Smiling,

Microwave Chocolate Cake and the saga continues!!!

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

One more cake from my Microwave. It has become a passion for me to try more cake recipes. And I can not wait till my new oven arrives. Now a days when ever I am in front of the computer I browse for Microwave cakes. And then I got this recipe from Jaishree  of  Ruchi  which she posted on June 9th. She also got the recipe from  here. But in this site, she has used Cake flour. And I think Cake flour is self raising flour. Being not sure about that, I decided to add baking powder. Some of the comments in the site also mentioned about the baking powder. So I came out with my recipe, and the out come was just delicious. If I had whipped cream and icing sugar with me, I would have made this into black forest cake!!! It was that tasty, fluffy and spongy!! Jaishree made egg less cake but I decided to go with the original recipe and used egg.

Thanks Jaishree for this wonderful recipe.

Lets go to the recipe,

Ingredients :

All Purpose flour or Maida - 4 tbsp

Sugar - 4 tbsp

Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp

Egg - 1

Milk - 3 tbsp

Oil - 3 tbsp (any edible oil is fine, I used the normal sunflower oil.)

Baking Powder - 1 pinch

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

To make syrrup

Sugar - 2 tsp

Warm Water or Milk - 1 tbsp

Sieve APF, Cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl. Mix egg, milk, oil, Essence and sugar in a bowl. Mix well with egg beater or with a fork.  Add the sieved flour and mix well till everything gets mixed and you will get one flow batter. It takes 2 to 3 minutes. If you use hand mixer, you need one minute. But I used egg beater.

Grease a mug or any Microwave safe bowl and dust it with APF. Pour the batter into it. You can use the normal big coffee mug. I did not had big one so I used the bowl which came free with Cornflakes! 

But again make sure, that the batter should fill only 3/4 th of your bowl, neither less nor more!!!

Bake it exactly for 2 minutes.

Here it is :

    

                          My camera plays with me!! So the cake looks different in photos!! 

The Cake is ready to eat with hot cup of coffee or tea!!! It tastes great with both. One of my favorite snack!!

Now to give it more taste :

Keep it to cool for half an hour or till it is cold.

Slice the cake in the middle.

Dissolve the sugar in  warm water or milk and make the syrup ready.

On one side slowly spread this syrup with a spoon to make the cake moist and soft. Take care not to put more otherwise cake will break into pieces and the syrup will start flowing out.

Then take chocolate syrup  and spread it the same way you did with sugar syrup. If you do not have syrup and have chocolate brick, melt it in a double boiler or microwave and use it. 

Keep the other side on it and close the cake. Keep it in the fridge for sometime. Take it out and cut into slices before serving. 

Again you can use some ice cream, or more chocolate syrup or caramel or Fresh cream or anything you wish to have!!!
And again, actually I thought our maid broke all my coffee mugs! But I got two mugs in my cupboard. My daughter was asking me to make the cake again and this time she wanted coffee cake. I thought of trying the coffee cake in the mug. Same ingredients except the cocoa powder. I used to 1 1/2 teaspoon Coffee powder and 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder. 
This too came out toooo good. Enjoy the photos :

  

  

Keep Smiling,

Microwave Egg Less Coffee Cake and the sequel .....

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

After I learnt baking the cake, I was wondering when will I start the baking as still I need to buy a oven that bakes the cake, bread and other stuff. 

Then I got this recipe from Divya, to bake the cake in Microwave.First, I did not believe that, one can bake the cake in Microwave!!! I could not wait to try this one!! and here it came the cake out of my Microwave.

It is a COFFEE CAKE! and I enjoyed the taste of coffee in each byte.

Here is the link : Coffee cake from Divya of  Dil Se..  Thank you Divya for such a wonderful recipe.

And the recipe in my blog :: First time, I followed exactly the way she has told with only adding more milk.

But Next time I tried adding 1 tsp coffee powder and one tsp cocoa powder and changed the way of mixing it and the baking time. Check out my version.

All Purpose flour or Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/4 cup 

(But when I made it second time, I felt I should put some more sugar, as the cake was not so sweet)

So I added 1 tsp more sugar 

Baking powder - 1 pinch

Coffee powder - 2 tsp

(I used Nescafe)

(or, coffee powder - 1 tsp and Cocoa powder - 1tsp)

Salt - 1 pinch

Milk - 7 tbsp

(Divya has used 5 tbsp)

Oil - 1 tsp

Sieve all the dry flour in a bowl.  Add sugar  into it. Add all other ingredients and mix well until it blends well and sugar dissolves fully. You can use egg beater or hand mixer. With egg beater it takes more time.

Grease the Microwave safe bowl and dust it with maida. 

Pour the mix from the middle of the bowl to get even spread. 

YOU CAN USE ANY SIZE, ONLY MAKE SURE THAT THE MIX SHOULD BE 3/4TH OF THE BOWL.

Microwave at full power for 2 minutes. It depends on your Microwave power. Just observe the cake after one minute. If you feel its come up, open and check it with fork or a needle. Or even you can check it with pressing very gently on the cake. If you palm comes out clean and you feel the cake gets its shape back when you remove the hand, then it is done. 

Enjoy the cake with your choice of  decoration or filling!!!

Wait for my next cake recipe!!

Here is the photo of my next cake.....

I hope you all will wait to grab a piece of cake from this photo!!! 

 

Sending this to the event announcing-tried-and-tasted-event

by versatilekitchen.blogspot.com which is the brain child of  Zlamushka.

Keep Smiling,