KUZHALAPPAM for ICC JUNE

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Fried food again!! I am not that fond of these oily things, I am not 100% health concious and I don't like diet. Still these fried foods are always at the last in my "to eat wish list". This month Valli announced the recipe for  Indian Cooking Challenge, and it is this. A delicious treat from the God's own country, Kerala. She has suggested 3 recipes and given us the choice to follow either one of those. I have followed KUZHZLAPPAM from Julie of www.erivumpuliyumm.com. 

This is a very simply dish but tasty and the interesting part is the shape. My kids loved these. I served these with spicy green tomato chutney. It was really delicious. 

Please visit Valli Kuzhalappam ~ Kerala Special or Julie(www.erivumpuliyumm.com)for the detailed recipe. 

I am happy that I finished my challenge and enjoyed it too. Waiting for more challenges and hoping that I will be part of it on regular basis.

Keep Smiling,

CHINESE SAMOSAS FOR PPCS

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Its Party time again ladies. I can not wait to see your entries. I am here with a starter this month. The best way to avoid making more quantity of main course!! Starters!! If starters are tasty, then the main course remains behind, Just joking :-)))))

Starters are the main attraction of any party in any season. We Indians are more attached with fried food for starters. Baked or steamed or raw food starters are still not popular in India. I prefer even any salad bar as a starter but I don't want my guests to scold me for giving a raw food. So I am here with a fried starter which is famous in India... Samosas. Who does not like Samosas?? I!! I really don't like those regular big and hard covered samosas. This one food is always last in my menu. But I love the Mini Samosas . And here today I am with Chinese Samosas. Wondering what is this Chinese? I have stuffed the samosas with Chinese style stir fried vegetables. 

Actually to confess, I started making spring rolls, but could not get proper rolls. I was upset, this was second time it went wrong while preparing for the party. Last time also I had prepared Veg Sheekh kabab but went wrong with the clicks. 

This time I thought I will make use of the same ingredients and make something special then got this idea of converting Spring rolls into Samosas 

:-) 

All is well that ends well... Here is my story of Spring rolls to Samosas. 

Ingredients:

For the Cover:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Corn flour - 1/8 cup

Salt to taste 

Warm water - required to make soft dough.

For the filling:

Cabbage - 1 small or 2 cups, finely chopped into very thin strips(very imp)

Carrot - 1 big, again finely chopped into thing strips

Beans - 12-15, finely cut in to cubes

Sprouted moong - 1/2 cup

Corn - 1/4 cup,(fresh or canned one)

Oil - 2 tbsp

Green Chilly or small bell pepper - 1 finely chopped

Garlic - 3 cloves, finely chopped

Ginger - 1/4", finely chopped

Soy sauce - 2 tbsp

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1 tsp(if not giving for kids, add some more)

Oil to fry.

Method:

Take all the ingredients for cover except warm water. Slowly add the water to make a very soft dough. (I used my darling Food Processor.) Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth for half an hour at least.

Till then,

Take oil in a pan, when its very hot, 

Add ginger and garlic, fry for few seconds, add beans and sprouts, cook for a minute. Add the carrot, corn and cabbage. Mix well and fry for 2 minutes on high flame. Turn in slow flame.

Add  all the other ingredients slowly one by one, mixing it well after each ingredient.Cook it for few more minutes till the vegetables are cooked but till little crispy.

Keep it aside.

I had kept both in the fridge for two hours(waiting for my kids and hubby to come home)

Take the dough, make small lemon size balls. Roll into small size puri 

(please follow this LINK to give the samosa shape) 

Fill the ready stuff with a small spoon.

Cover it nicely. Repeat with other stuff.

Keep the ready samosas in the fridge for 10 minutes before frying (optional)

Heat oil in a frying kadai.

Fry the samosas in batches. Serve hot with Ketchup. 

Green chutney won't go well with this as the stuffing is having Chinese flavor.

Its lovely and very different. Till you get a first bite in your mouth, your mind will be expecting the potato taste and you are fooled!! 

my spring rolls :-(

This is my entry to 

Jagruti's  event:

Potluck party, Cyber style! - Fun and the Challeng...

Keep Smiling, 

EGGLESS TUTTI FRUTTI SHORTBREAD(Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Its two years now, BAKING has become a passion for me. Before,it was a nightmare for me. My kids loved cakes, pastries, brownies, cookies, all the possible baked sweets! Only and Only because of them I pushed my self to baking. If you remember, my first baking was My first bake - Chocolate Cookies which was a success then I did not turned back from baking. I faced may failures, I have thrown the whole unbaked cake into dustbin, I burnt the cookies, I forgot to add sugar while mixing... I took an oath not to bake again... But my Baking Saga continued. Now every one in my family, my friend circle their kids love my brownies, biscuits and cookies. Every one tells me that I should start a home bakery :-) Thanks every one for supporting me and encouraging me.

There are few things which are MUST in  the kitchen. We women are attached emotionally with our utensils(some times, feel bad to throw the burnt vessel or even a broken glass) and we are more careful with many gadgets like FOOD PROCESSOR, BLENDER, MICROWAVE, MIXER, OTG.. For me I can not stay without FOOD PROCESSOR AND OTG. Those were the years where it was difficult to search for such KITCHEN APPLIANCES in the market. We did not had any option other  than getting the best available (which ever) in the local market.

Now the time is changed. Its an ELECTRONIC ERA, This is an age of ONLINE SHOPPING.  We get many things sitting at home with just few keys pressed on the computer. I have a good experience with ONLINE SHOPPING. I enjoy it as its easy to search, compare and get it. I have ordered books from FLIPKART, I have ordered shoes from JABONG. But I was not knowing about the website CupoNation till few days back.

This website is connected with most of the ONLINE STORES with the DISCOUNT COUPONS on every product. The categories include Fashion, Books,Movies and Music, Electronic Items, Home and Living Appliances, Restaurant coupons, Travel coupons. They are connected with JABONG, FLIPKART, MAKE MY TRIP, SNAP DEAL, MYNTRA AND SO ON.. THE LIST IS ENDLESS. YOU GET THE DISCOUNT COUPONS FOR EVERYTHING.  Isn't it great? Visit them to get the full details and take the maximum advantage. Its really good,Try this link http://www.cuponation.in/homeshop18-coupons and you will get many kitchen appliances with the description, rate and the discount code. I am planning to buy Magik Gola/Slush Maker soon, as my kids love gola :-) "

They are on Face Book also. Follow them to know their regular promotions.

Isn't it a big introduction before my recipe starts? Yes, but without having OTG how can you bake the short breads I sharing with you all? So visit the site or share with others about it to buy all magical things.

Coming to the recipe,

Its not my own recipe, I have followed it from Priya of Enveetu Kitchen and she followed from  Sharmi's Passions, The chain continues like this if someone follows my recipe here. There is little bit change in my method, only because of my carelessness. But the result was good. 
I got around 20 cookies

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Butter,unsalted - 1/3 cup, at room temperature

Sugar - 1/2 cup 

Milk - 2 tbsp

The easiest baking with tastiest results.

Method : 

In Actual recipe, you need to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. But because of my carelessness I skipped this step and directly added all the ingredients except milk. Then I realized my mistake but it was late to take the butter and sugar out from the flour. So without any option I mixed everything for more time and added the milk at the end(after 5 minutes) and turned it into soft dough. I divided the dough in to two small balls, rolled it into 1/4" thick circle. Covered it with plastic wrap(I used) or parchment paper).You can roll into log also(Priya has done this) Refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven at 170C.

Grease a Baking tray and line it with parchment or just grease the tray(I did it)

Remove and cut into cookie shape(if you have cookie cutter) or any other shape with a sharp knife.

If you have the dough log, slice them into thick circle.

Transfer these in to tray.

Bake them 10-12 minutes, depending on YOUR OTG or oven capacity. Keep an eye after 8 minutes. 

Once the edges are brown, they are done. They will be soft when hot and turn crispy once cold. 

Allow then to cool :-)

Enjoy these sweet short bread with a hot cup of tea or a glassful of milk or just like that. Perfect for kid's in the evening.

Sending this to  Amrita's 

Event Announcement-Bake Fest# 21 

she is a host of this month's Bake Fest

Keep Smiling, 

ALU BHATHURE (FOOD REMAKE FOR PPCS)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

This is food world, We all girls(??) are working in the kitchen from a very young age. And the blog world is getting bigger everyday with a newbie trying her/his food and posting it in the blog. Here where we cross each other with the same recipe. Though the name is same, preparation is same, sometimes, the ingredients and the method or presentation is different. This is what happened with us, Jagruti and me! She had brought Ajwain Paratha - Flakey Indian Pan Fried Flat Bread with Carom Seeds for the Potluck Party which even I like and make it often. And the recipe is already there in my blog.Ajwain flavored flat bread !!!

I checked with Jagruti to guide me for this, and she suggested me to try some other recipe from her blog. I thought of searching something similar to paratha, so I browsed her space in "Paratha and Roti" label. Ohh! there are so many! and again many of the recipes are in my blog also. I selected two recipes to try. One was "Raw banana and oats paratha" and "Bhathure" But I could make Bhathure as I was not getting time to go and get raw bananas. But it was good that I made her bhathures and they were simply amazing. My family loved it as an evening snack and already there is an order from my elder one to make it often :-)

Its easy to make, I loved the taste of stuffing, though its a normal potato masala, its different. I loved it :-)

Coming to the recipe,

I followed exact recipe from her blog but reduced the quantity to half. I got medium sized 10 Bhathure.

For the cover:

All purpose flour  - 1 cup

Semolina or fine sooji - 1/8 cup

Instant dry yeast - 1/2 tsp

warm milk -1/4 cup

For Potato masala:

Medium Potatoes  - 4 boiled, peeled and mashed 

Oil - 1/2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Green chilli - 1/2 tsp. paste

Ginger - 1/2 tsp, crushed(I used more)

Haldi - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Hing - a pinch of

Sugar - 1 tsp

Lime juice - as per taste, I used 1 tsp

I skipped Red chilly powder

Fresh chopped coriander - 2 tbsp

Oil to fry Bhathure - 1 to 1 1/2cup

Method:

Take all the ingredients under "for cover" Mix well to make soft dough. 

Cover it in a muslin cloth(it really helps) and keep it for 3 to 4 hours.

It allows the dough to ferment and you will get soft bhathures. 

Heat oil in a kadai.

Add mustard seeds when they splutter add hing, green chilly and ginger together. Saute for a minute. 

Add haldi and salt. Mix well. 

Add lime juice and sugar, mix well again and add the mashed potatoes. 

Mix well, adjust the seasoning.

Keep it aside to cool.

Divide the dough in to small balls. 

Keep oil in a kadai to heat. 

Divide the stuffing masala also into small balls 

Take one dough ball, roll into small circle. Keep one stuffing ball on it. Cover it with all the sides and close it to make a small ball again.

Slowly roll into small oval shape puri.

Repeat with other dough and the stuffing.

Fry the bhathures one by one in hot oil.

Serve hot with anything, curds, green chutney, sauce or eat it just like that.. :-)

Down is the link from Jagruti's blog:

Aloo Bhathure - Indian deep fried bread stuffed with potatoes

linking it to Potluck party, Cyber style! - Fun and the Challeng... 

What's in your mind for the next Potluck Party girls??? I am waiting :-)

Keep Smiling,

SPICY METHI LEAVES AND GRAM FLOUR CAKE

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

It was long time that I posted something from my place, North Karnataka recipes. This recipe is an extension of Gram flour vadi :-), Are you laughing at my word "extension". I have added methi leaves to the basic recipe. Gram flour vadi is very common food in North Karnataka and there are many versions of this and this is prepared even using green gram flour which is healthier than this one.

Coming to the recipe now,

Adding methi leaves definitely is an advantage for the mothers like me who wants their kid to have green monster(according to kids :-) ). Make these vadas or small cakes and serve it with chapati. I again crumbled it and spread it on the chapati to make it roll and gave it to my younger one.

Ingredients:

Gram flour - 1 cup

Fresh Methi leaves - 3 small bunches or 2 big one

Onion - 2 big

Green chilly - 2 or as per the taste

Salt to taste

Curry leaves - few

Oil - 2 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Haldi - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind paste - 2 tbsp

Method :

Clean and wash the methi leaves. Keep it in a colander to remove the water.

Finely chop the onion. (I used food processor)

Finely chop the methi leaves, green chilly and curry leaves(again I used food processor, its a boon for me )

Using food processor will help you to get the fine texture.

If you don't have the processor, chop it finely with a sharp knife.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai.

Add cumin seeds and onion together. Fry till it turns golden color. Add the gram flour and fry till the aroma comes. Don't leave in the middle. It may take 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the chopped methi and green chilly. Mix and fry till both the gram flour and methi leaves blends well. 

Cover with a lid and cook for few minutes. Open, add salt and haldi.

Mix well and keep frying for few minutes more. Add the tamarind paste, mix well, cover and cook it starts leaving the edge. 

Transfer it on a wide plate. Spread it on the plate to get the round or rectangular shape with little thickness. Allow it to cool. Cut into desired shape(square, rectangle, triangle or diamond). Usually its cut into diamond shape, but here I cut it into triangles. Anyways, the taste won't differ with shape :-)

As there is no water added to it, you can take it while travelling for a day or two. 

Enjoy it with hot chapati or Jowar roti. 

Keep Smiling,

DAPKA KHADI FOR ICC~MAY

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Weather is playing hide and seek with us :-) Everything served on the plate should be hot and spicy. So the butter milk has taken its seat back. But boiled butter milk or Hot butter milk?? Yes, its my favorite always. I wait for this weather to enjoy this Kadhi. 

Last month I prepared the same way but with Mangalore Cucumber (which is again my favorite) and I was lazy to post it in my blog.

When Valli announced the challenge for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, I was happy. One more reason to be happy was its my favorite cuisine, its from Gujarat :-)

Click Valli's Dapka Kadhi ~ Gujarati Special | How to Make Dapka Kadhi | Indian Cooking Challenge - May for the recipe.

I am here with my clicks:-

Can you see my Dapkas?

Moongdal paste

Buttermilk with Besan

Baked Moong dal dapkas

I faced a problem with dapkas. When I put those in the kadhi, they did not pop up but thanks for the tips Valli, I baked those in microwave for 3 minutes and then added in the kadhi.

Still they were hard, don't know the reason.

The taste was good

Ready to serve with Rotlas

I enjoyed it with hot rice :-) 

 Keep Smiling,

CORN AND CABBAGE SOUP

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

How are you all ladies? Are you ready for the party for this month. I am waiting for your entries and waiting to get my partner. :-) Thats the specialty of this event right??

This month I was in confusion about choosing the recipe and at last I am here with a very simple but very essential part of any great party. Yes, meal is not complete without soup.The original Indian food never had soup in its list. But, its long time that SOUP has become the integrated part of our cuisine.

My younger daughter loves soup. She has kept the name for all soups, like Palak soup is Green soup, Tomato soup is Red soup, cabbage soup is White soup...

I always make hot and sour soup at home, but never tried this Corn soup. The weather is also cold in the evenings now a days. So thought of making this one and bringing it to our party :-)

I have followed very basic and simple recipe:

\

Ingredients:

Fresh corn - 2 medium(or take frozen one or canned one, in that case 1 cup)

Cabbage - 1 cup grated

Butter - 2 tsp

Garlic - few cloves, chopped finely

Onion - 1 small or half, chopped finely

Green chilly - 1 chopped(avoid if serving it for kids)

Milk - 1 cup

Water - 1/2 cup(if needed)

Corainder - 1 tbsp shopped + 1 tsp to garnish

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Lemon to taste

Method:

Clean the corn and take out the corns, you can remove the corns with sharp knife or grate it (if using fresh one),

Finely chop the cabbage. 

Take both the cabbage and the corn in a cooker, add little water(just to cover)

Give 2 whistles.

Allow to cool. Once cool, grind into fine paste.

Heat butter in a sauce pan or kadai,

add chopped garlic and onion. Saute it till brown.

Add the corn and cabbage puree.

Stir well and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the milk and cook for a minute.

Add chopped chilly and coriander.

Add water if you feel the soup is thick.

Mix well and boil it few more minutes.

Remove from the heat and add salt, pepper and lime juice.

Serve hot garnished with some more chilly(if you like raw chilly taste) and pepper.

We all loved it. 

This is my entry to 

Jagruti's  event:

Potluck party, Cyber style! - Fun and the Challeng...

Keep Smiling,

SPICY BROWN RICE

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I just can't wait to share this recipe. I know its very simple and may be most of you might have tried it before. But there are few things which we keep on delaying to try for no reason. This week, I prepared few dishes which are easy to make and I liked to have also, still I never tried. Yesterday I made simple Banana milk shake, first  time!!! and today I prepared this lovely spicy brown rice. It was the healthiest dinner and we all liked it so much. I never thought brown rice can be so tasty.

Planning to have some good rice at least twice a week,  I thought of making brown rice which was lying in the kitchen since 6 months. 

I use brown rice while making  Dosa or Brown Rice Paddu(Gundpanglu)

I soaked it for an hour with lot of water and then cooked it in the cooker with little salt for 6 whistles. When it was cold I opened and checked the taste and I was very sure that no one will eat this bland rice(except me). I was loving it, but there are another three in the family!! There was so much water in it and I did not wanted to waste it.

Then I thought of giving it some weight :-), added fresh sambhar powder, jaggery, turmeric and some more salt. There was kokum syrup in the fridge (which I prepared day before yesterday). Thought of adding it.

Mixed all the ingredients in the same cooker and gave 2 more whistles!! :-)

Tempered with ghee, mustard seeds and curry leaves with red dry chillies.

Thats it... My super dinner was ready to be served. 

When everyone saw it on the dining table, there was big NO at first, but I told them to taste at least one spoon..... no one knew when that one spoon multiplied into many and the rice got over  :-)

Here is the recipe(I have already given above, but, down is the formal way)

Ingredients:

Brown rice - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Salt to taste

for Masala

Sambhar powder - 2 tbsp(Fresh home made or brought from store like MRT..)

I used my fresh sambhar powder

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Jaggery - 2 tsp

Kokum syrup - 1 tbsp or Tamarind pulp - 1 tbsp

Salt - if you feel its less in the cooked rice.

For tempering,

Ghee -1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Red dry chilly -2 to 3 broken into pieces.

Hing - a dash of

Clean, wash and soak the rice in water for an hour at least.

Cook it in the cooker for 5 whistles. (I had kept it directly in the small cooker)

Allow to cool.

Add all the ingredients under masala. 

Mix well and give two more whistles.

Allow to cool,

Heat ghee in a kadai,

add mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing and chilly.

Add this to the rice. 

boil for a minute and serve hottttttttt :-)

Keep Smiling,

MANGO PAYASAM(Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Living in a season where you are  breathing mango, I am here with one more recipe with mango. I brought it from OUR Potluck Party partner ,  Sini of Sini's Menu.....The Kitchenmagic......., MANGO PAYASAM. 

Should I say I am lucky to get this recipe? Yes, because its easy, its quick, its tasty and yummy, its available now and I would not have tried it if I was not in Potluck party.

It has gone into my favorite dessert list to prepare when more guests are in. The best thing is you can use canned mango when its out of season. 

Coming to my recipe,

if you check Sini's blog, her dish looks different, the payasam looks different color, may be because, we both used different variety of mango or may be the jaggery I used is darker and more red in color than her. And her paysam looks thick, again may be because of the thickness of the coconut milk. 

Whatever, my payasam was really very good, tasty and different. My family loved it and again, I got little to taste :-(.

Ingredients:

Mango - 3, ripe, (I used the small ones with fibre, though Sini has told to use without, but I did not had any option)

Jaggery,- I pureed the mango and checked the qty of the puree and took the jaggery 1/2 of it, because the mangoes were very sweet.

Water -little more than the qty of jaggery

Coconut milk - 3/4 cup, thick(see notes)

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup, thin (See notes)

Ghee - 1 tsp+1 tbsp

Salt a pinch

Cashew nuts - 1 tbsp,

Raisins - 1 tbsp

Dry ginger powder - a pinch

Dry coconut pieces - 1 tbsp 

Method:

Wash, peel and puree the mangoes.

check the quantity and take half of  the jaggery.

Melt the jaggery with water and cook till its dissolved . 

Strain it to remove the dirt and keep it aside.

Take a thick bottomed kadai, add mango puree and the jaggery syrup in it .Mix well and boil it for a minute.

Add 1 tsp ghee and keep on cooking on a low flame, stirring continuous.

Cook till thick consistency.

Add ginger powder and mix well. 

Add the thin coconut milk slowly and cook till it turns thick.

Now add the thick coconut milk and cardamom powder. Mix well and DO NOT allow to boil as it curdles the payasam.

Take it from the heat.

Heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry the nuts and coconut pieces separately.

Add these to the payasam.

Allow it to cool,

have it warm or chilled :-)

linking it to Potluck party, Cyber style! - Fun and the Challeng... 

Thanks Jagruti once again.

Keep Smiling,