Chinese Menu in my kitchen

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

What ever happens is always for the good, the most famous lines from Geeta. And I believe in it very much.

It happens with me always. Thats the reason many times I don't get panic if something goes wrong. The same thing happened with me last week. One of my best friend came to meet me. It was first time she was coming to our Hubli house. Our friendship is almost 18 yrs old. We were meeting after 4 years. It was natural for me to get excited and was planning for some special menu. When I asked her in the phone What she wants to have, she preferred our North Karnataka food but her daughter wanted Chinese when I gave her the option. Thats why I planned for Chinese menu for my friend and her daughter. Now to plan a menu was not difficult. I thought of making Chinese fried rice, Schezwan noodles and Chilli Paneer.

Thought of bringing fresh paneer(was lazy to make paneer).

   And morning I went to the near by store (MORE) and the store was closed for stock checking :-(((

I had the ready masala packet for chilli paneer, so thought of making veg balls instead of Paneer.

This is what I served to my friend and her daughter :

So here goes the recipe For Veg Chilly:

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 1 cup, cleaned and shredded

Carrot - 1 medium, cleaned and grated

Cornflour - 3 to 4 tbsp

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Ginger and garlic paste - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Oil to fry the balls.

for Gravy

Oil - 1 tsp

Onion  - 1, sliced

Cabbage - handful, shredded

Capsicum - 1 small, sliced(optional as the Schezwan powder is very spicy)

Ginger and garlic -1 tbsp  finely cubed,

Spring onion - handful, finely chopped( I did not had)

Ching's Chilli Paneer Miracle Powder - 10 gm

Salt to taste.

Water - 2 cups

OR

JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN ON THE PACKET.

Method:
To make Veg. Balls,

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, except the oil to fry.

Keep oil in a frying pat on stove.

Till the oil becomes hot,

Divide the mix into equal small lime size balls.

Fry in a batch till golden brown.

Keep it aside.

For gravy:

Heat oil in a kadai. When its very hot, add ginger and garlic, saute for few seconds. 

Add onion and fry till the color is changed. Add Cabbage and capsicum. Fry for a minute more.

Add the water and bring to boil. 

Adjust the seasoning. Add the veg. balls and spring onions. 

Cook for 2 minutes,

Serve hot with Rice or Noodles.

My Chinese recipes from my kitchen :(These are not actually for the event, as the rule of the event says NO archived or reposted recipes, its just for people who wants to get all the three Chinese recipes from my blog, I hope this will not violate the event rules)

Chinese Fried Rice(Restaurant STyle)                        Hakka Veg. Noodles with Ching's SECRET

Sending the Veg Chilli to Radhika's event

CBB Series #4 ~ Chinese Cuisine

Keep Smiling,

Plain Toor dal(ಖಾರ್ ಬ್ಯಾಳಿ), reposting

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

A very easy, quick and tastiest dal for a dinner, reposting it for the event..

Click here  for the recipe.

Sending it to Suma's ongoing  event

Cooking with whole foods-LB-Toor Dal
which is a brain child of Kiran of Cooking with Whole Foods 

Keep Smiling,

Spinach and Garlic Pickled Rice.

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Those were the years  when I was scared to try anything new in rice dishes. Every time I was a failure when ever I tried some pulao, biryani, or something like that.

But now....... I am very happy that I am confident and can cook more than 30 types of  rice varieties. Thanks to many bloggers. I am again happy to enter the blog world..

Last week, when I saw Palak Tulsi Chawal - पालक तुलसी चावल (Spinach and Basil Rice) in Priya Mitharwal's blog, I wanted to make this. 

Two days back, when I saw palak in the fridge, thought of making her rice. But as usual I was out of the ingredients and this time it was tulsi ;-), I wanted to pluck some leaves from the temple, but the ajjiri at home did not allow me to do saying that one should not pluck the tulsi leaves in the night. I did not wanted to hurt her feelings,

So thought of cooking plain spinach rice which is very common in my kitchen. This time I thought of adding more garlic.

Here is my version of Spinach rice in which I gave a last minute TWIST by adding GARLIC PICKLE to get that extra Garlic flavor. 

The rice was just superb and was over within no time (And I came to know later that Rajul kept a bowl of rice in the fridge to eat the next day:-))

Ingredients: (for 4 people)

Rice - 2 cups(normal, or basmati, but make sure the rice should come out dry not soft)

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 small, chopped into slices

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

Garlic - 10- 12 cloves

Tomato - 1 big, chopped finely

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Fresh cream - 1 tbsp(optional)

Salt to taste(little less, as there will be salt in the pickle also)

Sugar - 1 tsp

Water to cook the rice(warm water will be fine, I keep a mug of water in a micro wave to get quick warm water)

Garlic pickle(Readymade, I used MTR brand) - 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash the rice and soak it for 10 minutes. Drain and keep it to dry.

Heat oil in a cooker.

Add cumin seeds.

Add onion and fry till the color changes.

Add the garlic and fry for a minute.

Add the palak and tomato. Fry till the tomato becomes soft.

Add all the dry masala powders and PICKLE.

Mix well and add the rice. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, till the masala get mixed with the rice.

Add the fresh cream and fry again for few seconds.

Add the water just to cover the rice. 

Cover the cooker and give one whistle. 

Allow to cool.

Serve hot with some more garlic pickle.... Or

The best food to take  for a lunch. When I was working I used to make the masala fry ready in the night only and used to keep in the fridge. So in the morning it was just to add water and give one whistle. And my lunch box would have been ready to take :-)

Keep Smiling,