Chickpea and Cabbage dry Sabji

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Cabbage is regular vegetable prepared in my house. I use cabbage to make parathas, Thali peeth, fritters, rice, salad,  Cabbage dry curry mixed with toor dal, chana dal or yellow moong dal.

But I have never tried it with Chickpeas.  When I was browsing the recipes for cabbage, I came through THIS  recipe from  My Diverse Kitchen. Suddenly I remembered the ongoing event by Srivalli and Nithu.

That was it. I decided to make it the same day.

We all enjoyed this new taste.

As I am sending this to Nithu's event also, I would like to give the recipe details. (And I reduced the quantity also)

Ingredients :

Chickpeas - 1 cup. cooked(firm)

Shredded cabbage - 1cup

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1tsp

Urad dal - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Asafetida Powder - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Green Chillies - 2 slit lengthwise

Salt to taste

Cook the cabbage in Microwave on HIGH for 8 to 10 minutes.

Heat the oil, add mustard seeds. When splutter add urad dal and wait till it is brown. Add the curry leaves, asafetida powder and chillies. 

Mix well, add the cabbage, chickpeas, turmeric powder and salt. 

Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. 

Serve it with hot chapati or side dish for the rice.

Sending this to two events,

Srivalli's Announcing Tried & Tasted Event!

Linking it  back to Aparna's post and T&T event and Lakshmi's post. 

AND

Nithu's 

  CWF-LB : Chickpeas - Event Announcement

and linking it to 

Kiran's Future Guest Hosts Page also

                                                                   

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,

Naan without using Yeast and Tandoor!!(Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita 

Hi All,

Again one more dish from other blog!! I am sure that Blog world is a boon to  every food lover and the person who loves to cook. You get wonderful ideas, tips, unknown recipes around the world and beautiful people who loves to share the secrets of their kitchen without any hesitation. I have met many people who never give up their secrets of their special recipe. Its really funny!!! I would like to invite those people to our blogworld and see US!!! and our love towards the food world. 

Hey!! What am I writing??? Getting more and more involved with blogging!!! I always say "LETS GROW TOGETHER, THREE CHEERS TO BLOG WORLD" and I still do. Here, I have learnt more and more about many things, about kitchen, about food, about life.... list goes on.

Thanks to all the bloggers who shares their ideas about everything. 

Coming to the recipe,

Whenever we go out to restaurants for food, my daughter always orders for Naan or Tandoor roti. She just loves it with Chicken curry. All these days I tried my way to make Naan but never got them right till I got this recipe from Sailu of  Sailu's Kitchen  (click here for the recipe). 

One more blog I came through was Archana's recipe click here for the recipe. Archana has given the detailed photos about how to make Naan at home with the normal Cooker. It is really useful for newbies! I tried in cooker also, but I think one needs little practice to prepare in the cooker. Enjoy the photos in her blog!

But, I tried Sailu's version and followed her way of making Naan. 

Here is the recipe I followed from Sailu :
(I have tried to write down the same way she has written)

Maida or All purpose flour - 2 cups 

Warm milk - 1/2 cup

Fresh curd or yogurt  - 1/2 cup

Baking powder - 3/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Baking soda - a pinch

Kalonji or Sesame seeds - 1/4 tsp on each naan to spread

Butter or ghee - 1/2 tsp on each naan to spread

• Sieve Maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt on a wide and big plate. 
• Make a big well in the middle. 
• Add Sugar, milk, curd.
• Mix slowly and gently to make it into soft dough.
• Keep it covered with damp cloth for 2 hours. 
• After two hours, take the dough and divide in to big lemon size balls. Dust the rolling board with maida.
• Roll into oval shape rotis. You can press with hands also. 
• Sprinkle Kalonji or sesame seeds and press gently.
• Keep the tawa to heat. When it is very hot, brush one side of Naan with water and place the Naan with waterside down on tawa. Cover it with lid on high flame for 30 seconds. Open the lid and see the bubbles coming up. Take the Naan from Tawa using tong and cook the other side of the Naan directly on the flame.
• Spread little butter and serve hot with your choice of curry. 

I prepared Egg curry with it!! The taste was just like the Naan which you get in any restaurant!!

I want to try this with Wheat flour. I will let you know, if I make and if it tastes good.

I want to thank Sailu for such a wonderful recipe. I am a regular follower of her recipes and I have tried many recipes from her blog. 

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, 

Microwave Mango Halwa (Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

All of you know that I have a sweet tooth (sets of sweet teeth!!! ). And Mango is my favorite fruit(who does not like mango??????   ). 
When I was going through Srivalli's   Mango Mela ...   I got this recipe from Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes, I could not wait to make it. Immediately I tried it!!! (Thanks Valli for holding such wonderful events that one can access to many blogs with variety of food from one place)

And!!! I got it right!! It tasted divine!! It tasted like Mango flavored  Sohan Halwa (which we get in Market or sweet shops). I finished it within half a day, (gave little to mom, and my kids do not like sweet). 

Click Mango Halwa for the recipe.I am also giving the details.

Mango pulp - 1 cup (Sweet mango is better)

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 1 tbsp to 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp 

Finely chopped almonds - 1 tbsp

Transfer the Mango pulp and sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Keep it on HIGH for 10 minutes, keep stirring in between. Add ghee and cook in microwave for another 2 minutes. Now add half of chopped almonds, cardamom powder and cook for one more minute.

Spread remaining chopped almonds in a bowl. Add the halwa in that bowl, press it nicely, and turn upside down on a serving plate.

The Halwa is ready to eat!!
THIS CAN BE PREPARED ON THE GAS STOVE ALSO.COOK IT IN A THICK BOTTOMED PAN. COOKING IT THE SAME WAY WE DID IN MICROWAVE, BUT KEEP ON STIRRING ALL THE TIME AS IT MAY GET BURNT. IT GIVES THE SAME TASTE.

Thanks Priya for so wonderful recipe.

Keep Smiling,

Tawa Pulao (Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Last week was tried and tasted recipes by others! I tried few dishes from other blogs. All came out good!! no! delicious! Me and my daughter enjoyed the feast very much.

As the schools are open, I need to pack the lunch box for my elder one, and she prefers rice as it is easy to finish fast. Thats why I am again in search of different ways of rice preparations.

This time, I tried this Tawa Pulao(Tawa Pulao) from Chef In You.

It came out very tasty. I almost finished the rice before it went into my daughter's lunch box!!! I could not resist eating it!  And as I have commented in her blog :

"Hi,It is just awesome!! it is the best instant spicy tasty rice!!!!! 

I omitted peas and added carrot instead. Skipped capsicum as I was  preparing it for my daughter. But the taste was very very good. My daughter took it for lunch to the school and came back crying!! WHY??? Her friends took her lunch box and finished everything, but she was happy too as they told her that her mother is the best cook!!!!  Thanks for the recipe."

Just giving the details about how I made this one, as I omitted few veggies from her list and added other.

So here goes my ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups

butter - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp

Garlic and ginger crushed - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pav bhaji masala -1 tbsp (I used MTR Pav bhaji masala)

Carrot - 1 medium, washed and diced

Onion - 1 small, sliced

Tomato - 1 big, diced

Green chilly - 1 slit

Salt to taste (very little as I felt there is less salt in ready masala)

Fresh coriander to garnish

I omitted capsicum, as I thought it will be spicy for my daughter. And I did not had peas at home, so used carrot.

I cooked fresh rice, as it was to be packed for lunch box. But keep the rice to cool in a big plate at least 15 to 20 minutes before you make pulao.

Keep the kadai on heat. Put butter when it melts add oil. Add the seeds, onion, chilly and carrot. Fry it for few minutes. Add tomato, fry till it is soft. Now add salt  and pav bhaji masala and little water. Let it cook for some time. Now is the time for the rice to go in. Mix it properly. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve it hot. We had it just like that without any side dish!!

Keep Smiling,

Capsicum & Paneer Stir fry(Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

(It is so easy to prepare food, when some one is guiding you!! That's why I enjoy very much when ever I follow other blog and cook any dish. And I post it in 'Food Remake' label, as, it is very common in Indian film industry to remake the movies from one language to the other. So even my food here is the remake one!!!)

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know that I love Paneer in any form. I keep on trying paneer dishes, from many blogs and from the world of recipes.

This time, when I saw  Sushma Mallya's (http://authenticfooddelights.blogspot.com/) this recipe, (Authentic Food Delights: Capsicum & Paneer Stir Fry), Visit her blog for the details.(I am not able to copy the link of her blog and the recipe also, thats why  I have typed only the blog name and the recipe name!!)

I could not wait to try it. I tried it the very next day she posted it in her blog, but I took so much time to post it. Sorry!!

I liked it very much, that I have already repeated it 2 to3 times. And, I am sure, you all also will like it.

Keep Smiling,

Egg roast (Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

(It is so easy to prepare food, when some one is guiding you!! That's why I enjoy very much when ever I follow other blog and cook any dish. And I post it in 'Food Remake' label, as, it is very common in Indian film industry to remake the movies from one language to the other. So even my food here is the remake one!!!) 

This time it is from  Raaga who owns the blog The Singing Chef. She has a huge collection of tasty and unique recipes. I enjoyed reading all her posts. And soon will be trying her most of the recipes. She has a collection of recipes (almost 70) in which there is no onion and garlic!!! 

Divya of Dil Se.. has got the right choice for her event.

As a first step, I have followed Raaga's  Egg roast. It is very easy and quick to make but tastes great. The cumin flavor wins everyone's tongue(!!!) 

Click Egg Roast for the recipe. 

I followed exactly the steps as she has given. 

Sending this to Divya's event  Tried and Tasted - March 2010 Edition, event started by Zlamushka...

(I want to thank Ksenia (Tales of a Spoon) of  who has designed the logo for this event.)

Keep Smiling,