Smarties Cookies

I am not at all trained in cooking. Till last year it was confined to chai n maggi ..(thanks to my hostel life) so from there to here is quite a journey ! I love food and that's why i love cooking, and cooking + love for books = cookery books. Tht's right, once i discovered my passion for cooking i started to read more n more cookery books n now a days cook books are always in my shopping list.

I love the GOODFOOD BBC Books.They have a range of books across all categories from salads to desserts.This recipie is from one such book. Now just because you have a book does not mean you are a good cook / baker.. right??

Ill explain why. This was my first attempt in baking cookies and it was a complete disaster! Something somewhere went wrong... :( But i did not lose hope, I tried it again and this time I got it right. I also learnt my lesson - Overconfidence in the very beginning is harmfull... :)

At the end of the day i was happy to see my cookies in good shape ( i neglected my kitchen mess though )

Ingredients:

• 350 gm Plain flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1tsp baking powder
• 250 gm unsalted softened butter
• 300 gm cater sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tubes/ packs of smarties / gems
• Pinch of salt

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius /fan
• Take a mixing bowl and to it add the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and a pinch of salt & set aside
• Beat/Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. TO this add beaten egg and vanilla extract
• To this add the sifted dry ingredients to from a stiff dough
• Roll the dough in balls and place them on baking sheets spaced apart
• Press smarties/ gems to each simultaneously flattening them
• Bake for 15 minutes until pale golden brown
• Leave for 3- 5 minutes to cool down.

Cookies ready! this recipie will make 10 - 12 cookies and will stay for 3 days in a air tight container

Enjoy!

Veg Upma with steamed banana

Anyone from Kerala or been to a temple there will be able to relate to this dish. Upma with steamed banana is one of the dishes on the breakfast menu that is served to the devotees after offering prayers. I always looked forward to have the temple prasadam on a banana leaf.It always had a different taste which has lasted with me forever.This is however a version which my mom makes.You can use any vegetables of your choice. I have used peas, carrot and sweet corn.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion - finely chopped
• 1 tsp - ginger finely chopped
• 2 green chilli finely chopped
• 1 tsp - mustard seeds
• 1 tsp chana dal
• 1tsp urad dal
• 1 strand curry leaves
• 2 whole red chilli ( dried )
• 1/2 cup grated coconut
• 1 cup semolina/ rava / sooji
• 1 cup water / coconut milk
• 1 tbsp oil
• Sat to taste

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan. When the oil heats up add mustard, when this splutters add chana dal, urad dal, ginger, curry leaves and red chilly.
• Keep on stirring this for 2- 3mins on medium flame. To this add finely chopped onion, green chilli and saute till onion softens up.
• Now at this stage add the veggies and stir well and cook for about 3 - 4 mins
• To this add the rava / semolina and stir well, till the raw smell of rava is gone.
• Now take another pan and heat 1 cup water approximately 250 ml.
• When this water boils add the semolina mixture and stir well .
• Keep on stirring till the water is absorbed by rava and till the veggies are cooked and tender - 5 minutes on small flame
• Garnish with coconut ( you can add coriander also if you want)

Steamed banana :

• I did not steam the banana in a steamer , instead i put it in microwave on high power for 2 minutes and it was done, no fuss! and tastes the same :)
• You need to slit the skin of banana before you microwave it as the banana tends to expand in a microwave. (See pic for reference)

That's it .. veg upma ready..

Enjoy!

Tandoori Chicken

This is certainly my family's favourite dish! They are hard core carnivores who love this dish. What more it’s easy to prepare, its ingredients are easily available and yes I have added a small twist to this!

You ask anything about history and you will get an answer from my husband. And i frankly don’t know how he knows all that stuff. Nonetheless, when I told him my plans to make tandoori chicken he told me a lot of itsby bitsy details or should I say the story which led to the discovery of this world renowned dish. We all know that tandoori is word derived from Tandoor which means's a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. Egyptians were the pioneers of the Tandoor technique which later on travelled to Middle East where marinating the meat and cooking in tandoor was discovered. From there it travelled to India, Punjab to be precise and there it was ta daaa.....Tandoori Chicken!

Now that we know the legacy behind the dish well go to the twist which i mentioned on earlier! Marination is the key to this dish and the ingredients i guess everyone knows it... but then i added kasuri methi to it.. dont think its weird.. it worked.. as rightly said by Chef Sanjay of http://www.vahrehvah.com/ I came across this vedio and thought to try it out and we certainly loved it!

Ingredients:

I used chicken quarter pieces (500 gms)

• 2 tbsp Chilli powder
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tbsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 cup curd
• 1 tbsp tandoori masala powder ( i used Eastend powder)
• Salt as per taste
• 2 tbsp Fenugreek leaves ( dried methi )
• juice of 1 lemon

Method:

• Take the chicken and make gashes / cuts into it like we do for fish.
• In a mixing bowl take all the ingredients given above ( you can add or minus as per individual taste) and mix well.
• Keep this for marination in the fridge ( as the masala settles in well ) for 3- 4 hours
• Now grill this for 45 minutes at 160 -180 degree celcius or according to individual grills

Tandoori Chicken Ready!

Enjoy!

Puran Poli

After making besan poli ( check my last post) i had picturised puran poli in my head and i so badlywanted to eat it. Now this is the not so good part of being married.... i miss my mom coz earlier whenever I wanted anything or before me telling mummy used to prepare it and now ... well i have to do it right from scratch!

Puran Poli is to some extent complicated and it is made in puran yantra , which translates into puran machine.. funny! But i am not so fortunate with this and replaced the yantra with another yantra – The mixer grinder! I was preparing this for the first time and I thought my husband would love the Sunday morning surprise breakfast, but it ended up being Sunday brunch!

So try this dish only if you have enough time coz it took me 2 hours to prepare. All said and done ... not so bad for a first attempt , right guys?? And i cracked it ..... im so happy and btw here goes my hubby’s comments

“ Your Puran poli’s are small in size but high in taste” It just made my day!

Ingredients:

For stuffing:

• 2 cups chana dal
• 3 tbsp Cardamom Powder
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 200 gms jaggery or sugar (as per your taste )
• 1 pinch salt

For the covering:

• 1 and 1/2 cups wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour / maida
• 1 pinch salt

Method:

• Pressure cook the chana dal (3 whistles) and drain the water and let it cool. If you want it to be cooled fast put it below a fan.. It works!
• Now take this chana dal in a mixer jar and grind well till its broken down into fine paste ( add water drop by drop in case it turns out hard to powder it .Also note too much water will spoil the consistency , so be careful while adding water)
• If you have a food processor then you can powder it in that also
• Heat a pan , to this add the chana dal paste, jaggery, ghee, salt and cardamom powder and stir well on a low flame.
• Now the jaggery will start to melt and the chana dal will start to absorb the water.It is very important to stir continuously i'm stressing again 'continuously'
• It took me 40 - 50 minutes of stirring on slow flame, it felt like doing exercise in the gym with dumbells. It hurts a lot! so switch between hands
• So this was the stuffing adjust the sweetness as per your taste.
• Now for the covering just knead atta like we do ti for chapatis.
• Now stuff into the atta , just like we do for paratha's and roll them without the stuffing coming out of the covering
• Put on hot pans and cook both sides for 3-4 minutes , A doolpo of ghee or oil can be added to both the side while cooking on pan

Puran Poli ready! Enjoy with aamti or just like that!

Besan Poli

I have a very sweet neighbour in India who prepares the most amazing Maharashtrian cuisine and I absolutely love it. Actually i love food be it any cuisine in part of the world and anything eatable i will try it!

Besan poli along with Puran poli was introduced by her to my mom. Besan Poli its a very simple dish which takes just 5 minutes to prepare and a good as an evening snack or may be even breakfast ... guess it works whenever you r hungry and don’t have time in hand. . hehehe :)

Speaking of Maharashtrian food.. then bakhri with chicken curry is undoubtedly the dish I miss the most.. oh ya n puran poli n thalipeeth n...the list goes on.. but for now I am satisfied with Besan poli.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Besan / Chick pea flour
• 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp chilli powder ( this is spicy , you can lessen it if you want a milder version )
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 3-4 tbsp Oil
• Salt as per taste
• Corainder leaves - a handfull
• Water

Method:

• Take a mixing bowl with besan , to this add chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, salt and coriander leaves and add 3/4 cup water and stir well till there are no lumps.
• Now heat a pan to this add 1 tbsp oil.
• To this pour the mixture like an omelette and cook both sides for 4 - 5 minutes on a medium flame.

Besasn Poli ready! serve with sauce

Curd Rice

Curd rice is the best comfort food i know, and it actually works! In my college i was the only fraud mallu girl in my group of which majority were Tamilians. Courtesy to my lovely friends i learnt a beautiful language -Tamil. Gradually i started watching Tamil movies and also conversing in Tamil with them , which i knew was a laughter session for them. Nonetheless, i also got introduced to a lot of mouth watering veg dishes like curd rice, podi n many more :)

We used to hardly eat in our hostel mess and by lunch time you would find us at a nearby hotel which was second home to us for food! To all those good times and to all my friends .. this recipe is for you guys and the lovely moments we had together!

Curd Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 green chillies
• handfull of coriander leaves
• 1 cup boiled rice
• 2 cup curd
• handfull pomegranate seeds

For tempering:

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 pinch hing / Asafoetida
• 1/2 tbsp mustard oil
• 1/2 cumins seeds
• 2 tbsp urad dal
• Curry leaves - handfull
• cashew nuts - 3 - 4

Method:

• Boil rice and cool it
• To this add curd , green chillies, salt and coriander leaves and mix well
• Now for tempering, take a pan heat oil and then add mustard seeds, when they splutter and hing, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• At this stage remove the pan from gas and add this tempering to the rice and curd mixture prepared earlier.
• Now add cashew nuts and pomegranate seeds and mix well
• Serve with pickle.

Enjoy!

Lemon Rice

Fancy a makeover for plain boring rice?? then this is the right recipe!!Another south Indian dish and one of my favorites! Back in my childhood when ever we go for any picnics where the kind of food available is uncertain mummy used to prepare this and carry it along for the journey ahead. It goes well with both veg and non veg side dishes.

Ingredients:

• Lemon juice
• 1 cup basmati rice - boiled
• 2 Green chillies
• 1 tbsp mustard seeeds
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp chana dal
• 3 tbsp urad dal
• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• handfull of nuts - peanuts or cashewnuts
• handfull of curry leaves
• 3 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Boil the rice and keep aside to cool
• Heat oil in a pan to this add mustard seeds and when they spultter add the chana dal, urad dal, green chilli , finely chopped ginger , curry leaves , nuts and saute well for 3-4 mins on medium flame
• To this add turmeric powder and salt required
• At this stage mix in the rice and lemon juice and stir gently, without breaking the rice
• Adjust the lemon flavour according to the tanginess you need.

Lemon rice ready !

Enjoy !

Gatte ki subji

Gatte ki subji is an authentic Rajasthani dish, which is nothing but gram flour dumplings in think gravy.The very first time i had this was at my friends home and this is her mom’s recepie. When aunty serves this with hot ghee rotis it just melts in my mouth. But the reason that i tried it out is something else.. I was out of vegetable stock so thought and came up with this idea.. :) called up my friend and prepared it.I am trying this dish after years now and my hubby who is a hard core carnivore loved it too :)

Ingredients:

• 2cups besan
• 2 tsp Coriander powder
• 2 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp haldi
• 1 onion - finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes - finely chopped
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tbsp Ajwain seeds
• 1/2 tbsp jeera
• 1 tbsp fenugreek leaves
• 4 tsp Oil
• 1 cup curd
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Add red chilli powder, salt to besan and mix well to form a stiff dough.Make rolls like sausages and put them into boling hot water and boil for around 5-10minutes.Once boiled cut them into bite size portions and keep aside
• For the gravy -Take a pan and add oil to this add the mustard and when it splutters add onion, jeera and ajwain
• When the onions become transluscent add the tomatoes and cook for another 2- 3 mins
• To this add red chilly powder , haldi , and coriander powder and cook well
• Now take curd and beat it well with no lumps and then add it to the gravy
• To this add the curd mixture and the besan pieces
• Cook it over medium flame for 5 minutes and garnish with coriander leaves.
• Gatte ki Sabzi is ready.

Enjoy with hot roti's !

Meen Polichathu

Meen polichathu

Meen polichathu as the name is a famous dish from kerala, and for all those who don’t understand malalyalam it means roasted fish in Plantain leaf (banana leaf) .You cook this dish such that all the flavours are locked in making it yummy!

Back in kerala at my home we get Fresh fish with all fresh local ingredients grown in our garden... a chef’s heaven ! and at my place no one can match this when my uncle prepares this dish. I still remember, as a kid during my vacations me and my cousins used to drool over his food, but there is a catch he used cook very rarely so we had to wait patiently! And to my good luck he prepared this delicacy during my last visit also :)

Fish is a staple food in mallu cuisine and this is undoubtedly one of the finest delicacies. When i made this i could not find banana leaf here in uk so i used foil.. I managed to prepare it well minus the banana leaf factor!

Like i mentioned earlier food brings people together and it surely did in our home and i miss all those good times we used to have..to all ma folks out there in different corners of the world... love you all....

Ingredients:

• 1 kg pomfret, or fish fillets

For the marinade

• 1 tsp pepper powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

For the masala paste and gravy

• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp pepper powder
• 1-2 green chillies
• 1 cup button onion (shallots)
• 1 strand curry leaves
• 3- 4 tsp oil
• 1 cup coconut milk ( i used maggi coconut powder -1/2 cup diluted in 1 cup water)

Method:

• Clean fish and make gashes/ slits on both sides.
• Rub the fish well with pepper powder, turmeric powder and salt and keep for marination for an hour.
• Meanwhile mix the coriander, chilli, turmeric and pepper powders with a little water to make masala paste.
• Now heat 2 tsp oil ( take a non stick pan coz you need very less oil for such pans) and saute button onions, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
• Fry the fish lightly in the same oil and keep aside.
• Take a pan and add 1 tbsp oil and add mustard seeds , when they splutter add the masala paste and saute for a 2-3 minutes.
• To this add the marinated fish and coconut milk. also add the
• sauted button onions, garlic, green chillies and curry leaves. Simmer on low heat until fish is coated with gravy.
• Wrap each fish in a piece of plantain leaf or greased foil and bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy !

Green moong Dal Curry

This recipe is a simple dish but there is a story behind this dish!

Before my marriage some things never used to matter at all. For example: what to cook for breakfast, lunch n dinner!! And trust me i am tired of this task of planning n planning .. Just to create a variation in food and our taste buds!

So when ever I’m tried of exercising my brains, which i don’t do often.. :) , my husband will enter the scene...This is one of his favourite dishes which is simple and also high in protein.

But i should mention this.. he is the reason why im writing this blog... becoz for a girl like me for whom the world of cooking was restricted to maggi n chai till i got married and my progress in the past few months along with my failures and some success (all of them which i will post here).. I owe all this to my hubby, for being my punching bag, for being my taster, my being my photographer, my being my true critic , for being my so many things!!

So here is the receipe..enjoy ppl.

Receipe:

Ingredients:

• Whole Green Moong dal : 1 cup(You can use sprouted Moong dal too)
• Onions : 1
• Tomato : 1
• Green chilies : 4
• Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
• Ginger and Garlic paste : 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves : 3 to 4
• Oil : 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp

Method:

• Pressure cook the moong dal for three whistle( you can also soak it overnight)
• Heat oil in a pan add cumin seeds when they splutter add the curry leaves and sauté on a low flame for a minute.
• Then Onion and green chilies fry them till it becomes golden brown .
• Add the ginger garlic paste and fry them till the raw smells goes.
• Add the tomato and sauté well
• Now add the cooked moong dal in to it with little turmeric powder and salt.
• Mix it well and add 1 1/2 cups of water and let it cook for a minute

Serve with chapattis n enjoy!