Fennel Seeds for digestion

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Indian dishes are full of spices, chillies, oil and ghee. One needs something to digest all these wonderful food. 

It is a must in many houses for regular after food intake. It has many medicinal values. It is good for digestion but it is a good appetizer too. There are many dishes where this gives great taste. But I am giving a recipe where this Saunf of Fennel seed  is the main ingredient. 

Saunf Masala is very easy to make at home and store. Avoid betel nuts if you are giving to children.

To Fry :

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Fennel seeds - 1/2 cup, cleaned

Betel nuts (powdered) -  1/8 cup(optional)

Poppy seeds - 2 tbsp

Dry coconut - 2 tbsp, thinly sliced

Cloves - 2, powdered

Cardamom - 3, powdered

To mix

Salt a pinch

Sugar - 1 tbsp(if you are not adding small sugar stones)

or

sugar - 1 tsp(if you are adding small sugar stones)

Colored jeera seeds(available in the market) - 2 tbsp(optional, but kids will love it)

Small sugar stones (Kallu sakkare, available in the market) - 2 tbsp(again optional but good for health)

Take a thick bottomed kadai. Add ghee. When it melts, keep on low flame, fry all the ingredients adding one by one the way I have written. Add salt and mix well.

When cool, add colored Jeera or Cumin seeds. Store it in a airtight box. You can store it for a month.

After every meals,

enjoy it just like that or with betel leaves or paan and lime paste(choona).

Sending this to Priya's ongoing event  

Announcing Cooking With Seeds-Fennel Seeds

Keep Smiling,

Cheesy Oats Paratha from Priya

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Now a days, Oats and Cheese have become regular members of my kitchen. They help me to give good food to my kids. Two days back, I was wondering what to make for dinner(universal and very common question) and was browsing for Indian flat breads. Then I got this one where my both the new members were involved!!

I made these for dinner and we all were happy for having a tasty and healthy dinner.

Thank you so much Priya of (Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes)for sharing this yummy  Cheesy Oats Paratha recipe. Visit her blog for the recipe, as I have followed it 100%, with only rolling it into square other than round shape.

My kids did not allow me to take more photos. I wanted to open it half and show the cheese!! 

But I am sure the kids will love to have it.

Sending this to the event BB5 Round-up, A Bonus Sandwich, and on to BB6 hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove

Keep Smiling,

Cheese Stuffed Potato Cutlets or Tikki and Sandwich

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

When I got married to a Sindhi, I got few Sindhi cooking books from my friends and my brother. . 

I took the book by Anita Raheja and I have tried most of the recipes from her book. And I can manage to cook many Sindhi dishes with her cooking book.

Last week was the Sindhi Food week for me, I prepared Sai bhaji, Sindhi Curry, Bhooga chavar, Seyal Dabal and yesterday I made Aloo tikki.

Still Independence month is going on :-)

But I thought to do some variation in this. Now a days, I am using more dairy products for my kids, as my younger daughter does not drink milk everyday. I keep Cheese in my fridge, whenever it is available. Today I had Mozzarella cheese. I thought of stuffing it in the tikki and try. And for sure, tikkis came out very well. I enjoyed it with green chutney, my younger daughter had mini tikkis and the elder one had it as a sandwich filler.


Now, some information about the nutrition values of Potatoes and Cheese.
The potato is the best source of Carbohydrate. And contains vitamins and minerals. And potato is very good food for kids if given every alternative day in any form such as curry, paratha, fry or baked potatoes.
And now about cheese : Cheese is valued for its portability, long life, and high content of fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus.(Cheese) And Cheese is a very good source of calcium which is a good option for a mother of those kids who does not like to have milk.

Here goes the recipe,

Potato - 6 medium

Shelled Peas - 1/4 cup(optional)

Bread - 2 pieces

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tsp

For stuffing,

Mozzarella Cheese - 1/2 cup, grated for stuffing

White pepper powder - 1 tsp

Salt a pinch

Mix the three ingredients slowly and keep it in a fridge till you prepare the tikki dough.

To make paste :

Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp

Green chilly - 2 or more if you like it spicy

Cumin Seeds - 1tsp

Salt to taste 

Make fine paste with above ingredients. 

Oil to fry the Tikkis

1. Boil the potatoes. Peel and smash it or grate it.

2. Boil the peas and smash it.

3. Soak the bread pieces in water for a minute. Drain the water.

4. Take the grated potatoes, peas, chilly paste, corn flour, mashed bread and oil in a big bowl or plate. 

5. Mix well to make a soft dough. 

                                

6. Divide the dough into equal portions.

7. Take one portion, press in the middle and put 1 tsp cheese. 

8. Carefully close it and give a ball shape, taking care of not pressing hard. 

9. Flatten it to make round tikki.

10. Repeat with other dough.

                                        

11. Heat oil in a kadai.

12. Deep fry in hot oil till golden color.

13. Serve hot with  GREEN CHUTNEY or ketchup.

My elder daughter's sandwich with these tikkis

                                         

                                                       

My younger daughter's mini tikkis as she did not like the big ones. 

                                                       

Linking it to
http://sindhirasoi.com/link/potato/
Sending this to

Neha's (of Home Made Food) 

Kids Menu Event

Keep Smiling,

Recipe for "COOK AND CLICK" : MIXED VEGETABLE SAMBALS

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

Here is my second recipe for the event   "Cook and Click" . This is for August 21st to August 31st.

I think my first recipe was not so good for you all to try it. So trying to give you all a simple but healthy and tasty recipe to prepare and click the photo to send it to my event.

Read the rules in above link for participating in this event.

Event round up for August 10 till August 20 will be posted in 2 days.

I am going to share the recipe for Sambals.

SAMBALS are amongst the many accompaniments you will find with an Asian meal. It is a very common dish in most of the Asian countries.

A sambal is a chili based sauce which is normally used as a condiment. Sambals are popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as in the Netherlands and in Suriname through Indonesian influence. It is typically made from a variety of peppers, although chili peppers are the most common. Read  here for more.

This is also from the same book "INDIAN COOKERY" by "Bay books gallery collections"
Giving you two recipes for Sambal :


SAMBAL DRESSING :

Oil - 2 tbsp

Onion - 1 large, finely chopped

Garlic - 1 clove, chopped

Green chillies - 2, finely chopped and seeds removed

Ground ginger - 1/2 tsp

Ground Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Ground turmeric - 1 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 pinch

1. Heat oil in a frying pan, sauté onion until tender.

2. Add remaining ingredients, stir over low heat for 2 minutes.

Sambal Dressing is ready.

Serves 2

Now, the second one,

MIXED VEGETABLE SAMBALS:

Carrot - 1, finely diced

Shelled Peas - 1/4 cup

Green beans - 30 gm, cut into 1 cm length

Potato - 1, finely diced

Green chilly - 1 finely chopped

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Desiccated coconut - 2 tbsp

1. Cook vegetables in boiling water until tender, drain.

2. Add chilly, lemon juice and oil, stir until combined

3. Serve sprinkled with desiccated coconut.

Serves 2

 Prepare any one or both, as you can use the Sambal dressing for the second recipe instead of fresh chilly, lemon juice and oil.

The last date for submitting this recipe is 31st August,

Hoping to get more clicks from your cameras!

Send the following details to nivedita.mt@gmail.com with subject "COOK AND CLICK" :

your name, 

blog name, 

url of the link  and 

the photo attached.

Non bloggers can send the details to my mail.
NO need to retype the recipe. Just link back this one in your post.
Please share your experience about this dish.

If you already got this recipe in your archive, share the experience.

Any suggestions, new ideas are welcome. 
(If you have any special recipe which you want cook with others here, you can send it to me. I will add it in the event with your details, whenever possible)

Keep Smiling,

Spinach : Green and white for rolls

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Spinach is one green veg. which is not a favorite option to choose. It has more nutritional value but because of its taste, most of the people and especially kids don't like to have it.

Thats the reason I will be finding the ways to use the spinach in my regular menu, and I get the ways too.

Where there is a will, there is a way!!

Here are two options to use spinach in the menu. And these are best for chapati rolls for kids. My daughters enjoyed these rolls.

Here are the recipes :

The first one is

Green Garlic and Tomato Spinach:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 big bunch, cleaned, washed and finely chopped

Onion - 1 small, chopped

Garlic - 8 to 10 flakes, crushed(medium what you get in India, but if you are using big flakes, use 4 to 6)

Tomato - 1 big, cleaned and chopped

Salt to taste

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Oil - 1 tsp

Lime juice - 1 tsp

Heat oil in a kadai. Add chopped onion and garlic. Fry till the color changes. Add tomato, salt, turmeric powder and red chilly powder. Fry for two minutes. Now add chopped spinach and mix it well. Keep on stirring. Add 1 tbsp of water. Cover and cook on slow heat for few minutes. Open, add lime juice. Mix well. Remove from the heat. Its ready to serve. You can roll into chapati or can have it as a side dish with rice.

The second one is,

Creamy Green dip:

I took this recipe from LG book given to me while buying my microwave oven. I have changed the ingredients as  per my taste. And  instead of using as a dip, I used it for chapati rolls.

Ingredients :

Spinach - 1 small bunch, cleaned, washed and finely chopped

Coriander or Parsley - 1/2 cup, cleaned, washed and finely chopped

(I used coriander)

Water - 1/4 cup

Green chilly - 1 finely chopped

Onion - 1 small, finely cubed

Garlic - 1 tbsp chopped

All purpose flour - 1 tbsp

Butter - 1 tsp

Milk - 1/2 cup

Sour Cream - 1 cup

OR

One day old hung curd - 1cup(for healthier version and it is easily available at home)

(I used normal(not hung) curds, I just kept it in a muslin cloth for half an hour as there was not enough time to make hung curd)

Salt to taste

White pepper powder to taste

In a microwave safe bowl and chopped spinach, onion and garlic in 1/4 cup of water and microwave for 3-4 minutes at 100% power.

Drain out  the excess water if any. Keep it aside and allow to cool.

In a blender or with hands, mix curds(or cream), salt, pepper, red chilli and keep it aside.

In another microwave safe bowl microwave butter at 100% power for 30 secs. Add flour and microwave for 2 mins. Stir in between.

Add milk slowly stirring it till thick at 100% power for 2 to 3 min to make a thick sauce. 

I did this on gas stove.

When cool combine everything and store it in a refrigerator for some time before serving.

This can be done totally outside, on the gas stove too.

Actually this can be used as a dip with chips, French fries or French bread.

But my chapati rolls were hit and rolled into my kids stomach in no time.

Here are the rolls :

Sending these rolls to 

Pari's 'Only' Kids Delight

Keep Smiling,

Apple and Onion Bake

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Here is my preparation for my event " "Cook and Click".

Click APPLE AND ONION BAKE here for the recipe.

I took half the quantity of given recipe as I felt if I take the given quantity, it will be too much for my family. 

The taste was good, but I felt that we should add less water than told. I had it as a side dish with my normal food.

Before it went into the oven, 

After the baking,

In to my plate,

Sending this to Akila's event Event: Dish Name Starts With: A

                                 

Keep Smiling,

Award time

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Award time again, and this time it is from Veena of veg junction

Its very sweet of her to share the award wtih me. 

As the award comes with 2 rules. I enjoy the rule 1. Who does not like to talk about themselves??

But rule 2 is difficult for me as I have to choose only 15 friends :-(

Coming to rule 1, I need to write 7(only?) things about me

1. I do believe in LETS GROW TOGETHER

2. I am a an Woodpecker when it comes to reading.

3. I am a confused person who can not take decision without eating someone's head. (Its the truth)

4. I love music, dance and maths.

5. I love exercise, jogging, yoga and meditation and.

6. I hate gossiping.

7. I do not like to talk more!!! 

and my main motto of living is known to you all :-)

Now comes the tough time, to choose my 15 friends! I thought of selecting new members who joined me recently:

1.  Neetz 

2.  Kiran 

3.  Sanyukta Gour(Bayes) 

4.  shifa firoz

5.  niveditha 

6.   Babli 

7.  Satya

8.  Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal

9.  Khaugiri 

10.  kitchen queen

11. srividhya Ravikumar 

12. Hamaree Rasoi 

13.  Kamalika 

14.  Akila

15.Guna's kitchen

Keep Smiling,