Thin crust plain pizza

Ingredients:

 

Pizza bread

Maida: 1 cup

yeast: 1 tablespoon'

Olive oil ; 1 table spoon

Water 1/2 cup or as much required.

sugar: 1 tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Pizza sauce

Tomato : 2

Onion: 1 (chopped)

garlic: 1tsp (copped)

Oregano+thyme+parsley: 1 table spoon

\Chilli flakes : 1 tsp

salt: as taste

sugar: 1 tsp

Pizza toppings

Cheese : 1/2 cup ( grated)

Preparation

Pizza sauce,

1. Blanche 2 big tomato, puree them

2. In a pan pour in olive oil.

3. Put onion and garlic and stir till soft.

4. Pour in the tomato puree and let it boil till the raw smell goes.

5.Put the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir till thick and keep aside for cooling.

Pizza base/bread:

1. In a 3 tablespoons of Luke warm water put the yeast and mix well

2. in another bowl mix the dry ingredients.

3. add yeast to this mixture and add Luke warm water to knead into a dough.

4. Knead well till the dough is all fluffy and soft..

5. Butter the pizza pan and layer it with thin layer of flour and line the soft dough across it for the pizza base, spread olive oil over it.

6. keep aside for an hour for the dough to rise.

Pizza

1.Once done, spread the pizza sauce and proffered toppings( not the cheese) over the dough

2. preheat the oven.

3. Set the pizza timer to 25 min at 250 degree C (450 F)

4 Cook the pizza for 15 min and then take it out to spread cheese.This step is to avoid the cheese from getting burnt.

5. cook for the remaining time 

TADA! Yummy pizza done! 

Chatpata fruit salad

Ingredients
Kiwi: 2
Pomegrenate: 1
Plantain banana:1
Small banana:2
Papaya:1/2
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Chat masala:1 tblsp
Pepper: 1/4th tsp

Preperation
Cut all fruits into small cubes. Take out all pomegranate seeds all into a big bowl. Powder the sugar and all it, chat masala and pepper into the fruits. Mix well and serve.

KAPPA or tapicoca

Ingredients:
Tapioca: 1 kg
garlic pods: 5 pods
turmeric powder: 1/4rth tsp
salt: to taste
coconut: 1/2 bowl
mustard seeds; 1 tsp
curry leaves: 1 stem
oil: 1 tblsp
Procedure:
De-skin, Cut and clean tapioca. In a pressure cooker add tapioca, turmeric powder, garlic and salt with required amount of water. Pressure cook till 3 whistles. Wait for the pressure to go. When done. drain the water into a cup and keep aside. Mash the tapioca. Add the drained water, bit by bit to make sure the tapioca is moist. It is fine if the tapioca seems water at this stage. Add in coconut . Meanwhile in a small vessel heat oil. add mustard and curry leaves. add it to the tapioca. Mix well and serve. It is a typical Kerala dish. KAPPA!

Bitter guard crisps

Ingredients:
2 bitter guards: cut into circles 
red chilly powder: 1 tsp
turmeric powder:1 tsp
garam masala: 1 tsp
salt: to taste
corn flour/rice flour: 3 tablespoon ( pref. corn flour)
oil : to deep fry
Proceedures:
Wash the cut bitter guard rings. Add in the red chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt . Mix well. After which only, add corn flour or rice flour to coat each rings dryly.it should seem dry coated. deep fry each rings in smoking hot oil and yummy bitter guard crisps are ready. It's yum as a  side dish with rice. 

Murukku

Ingredients
Rice flour: 1 cup
Gram flour (Besan): 1/2 cup
Split black gram powder ( urud powder)=  1/4th cup
cumin seeds (Jeera): a pinch
Sesame seeds (Til): a pinch
water: as required
salt: to taste
Oil: to fry
Proceedure:
Sieve all 3 flours together. Dry roast them till the flour is cooked. it may take a while. Keppt the mixture aside for cooling. When cold, mix in the rest of the ingredients in which the water should be added enough to make the mixture into a tight dough. Put the dough into the mould and press in into the hot smoking oil. cook for at least 2 minutes for the murukku to be crispy. 
Yum murukku ready. 

Parippu Vada or Lentil snack or Dala vada

Lentils are very healthy ingredients in any diet. It could be called small powerhouses of nutrition because of it high protein and phosphorous contents along with minimal fat and other mineral presence as calcium, iron etc. Even though i am not a fan of deep fried food, occasional frying is of course acceptable. Parippu vada is a typical Kerala snack any malayalee relish on drooling, especially on rainy days. i wouldn't call this an authentic recipe as i have added little twists i and my family enjoy. So here goes:



Ingredients:
Tuvar dal or pigeon lentil or sambar parippu: 2 cup ( soaked overnight or min 2 to 3 hours)
Curry leaves: 2 stems
Onion: 1 chopped
Ginger: 1/2 tsp
Garlic: 3 to 4 cloves( this avoids the gastric problem that can occur due to the lentils)
Green chilies: 2 long, chopped
Asafoetida powder( kayam) : a pinch
Red chili powder: 1 tsp
SAlt: as required
Oil : for deep frying

Procedure: 
Drain the soaked dal and pat them dry. If water presence are there then the vadas are to break. So to be on the safer side drain the dal and keep in the draining position for say 1/2 an hour so even the little droplets will drip off. 
Make a paste of gralic (garlic bits would ruin the taste).Now put in all the ingredients (except for oil of course) in a grinder and coarsely grind the mixture.If you love coriander leaves you can add a bit of them too. Its easy to do so as the dals are soaked. Take in the paste in a vessel and heat the oil. wet your palm to avoid the paste sticking on to the hands.Take small portions and make a small puffed disk shape of it and dip them in the hot oil. Be careful to see if you dont burn them. Serve them with chutney or ketchup! 

Dal Namkeen or Crispy Fried pulses

Pulses are a very important part of Indian diet. It does have a lot of nutrition values to it too. 'Namkeen' which literally means salty snacks are some fried salty or rather tangy, tasty snacks found in almost every Indian household. Here, I have used split Chick pea to make this dal namkeen. It is crispy, tangy, spicy and absolutely yum! Another positive thing about this dish is that, you can keep it for a few days without a problem. Make a huger quantity of it and you can munch on it later on for a few days or even weeks. 

Ingredients:

Split Chick pea or channa dal: 3 cups (soaked over night) 

Oil: to fry

Seasoning:

Salt: to taste

Asafoetida powder: a pinch

Sugar: 1 table spoon

Pepper powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Coriander powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Red chilly powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Citrus crystals: a few 

Garam masala powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Jal jeera powder (optional):1/4rth Tsp

Chat masala: 1 tsp

Procedure:

In a grinder, put all the seasoning ingredients and run it for say a minute. Heat the oil for deep frying and slowly put in the soaked, drained split chick peas or chana dal for frying. Please be very careful as it is going to violently splat at the beginning. After a while you would notice all the dal floating on the oil, indicating it to be fried, remove it over to a cloth to absorb the excess oil. When done, place it into a deep vessel and pour in the powdered seasoning. Mix well and store it in a dry container. Serve when necessary. 

N.B-> You can substitute the split chick pea or channa dal with any other pulses as Tuvar dal (split pigeon pea), Moong dal( split Green gram), Bengal gram, Black gram, green gram (Moong ) etc.

Idli and chutney

Idli basically belongs to Tamil Nadu. But The whole of South India has adopted this dish with their own twists.
Idlis are basically steamed food made of raw rice or Semolina( rava or sooji).
As a whole, Idli is a very healthy dish as it is made of healthy ingredients and is steamed. 
To make it more healthy i have added a bit of vegetables to my version of Idli.


Ingredients:

Idli:

Raw rice: 1 cup

Urud dal (deskinned and split black gram): 1/2 cup

salt: to taste
chopped Vegetables: 1/4rth cup( optional)

Chutney:

Coconut: 1/2 cup (scraped)

Green chilly: 1

salt: to taste

Mustard seeds: 1/4rth tsp

Curry leaves: 1 stem

Dry red chilly 1 or 2 de stemmed

Oil: to garnish

Preparation:

Idli:

Soak raw rice and urud dal for at least 4 hours. Grind them into a paste using adequate amount of water. Please make sure the paste is thick. Keep it for fermentation overnight. While about to prepare, you can add vegetables of your choice to the mixture, but make sure they are chopped well and it doesn't rule the taste of the idli. In a deep vessel boil water for steaming. Pour portions of the paste into the desired moulds (preferably idly moulds) and cover the lid for steaming. Steam for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the mould. check if the idlis are done by pricking it with a tooth pick. if it comes out clean, then idlis are done!

Please do not de mould the idlis immediately after taking out the steamer as it needs to be cooled before separating it from the moulds. use a butter knife or a spoon for the de moulding purpose and serve with chutney.

note-> you can add vegetables of your choice into the idli paste if you desire.

Chutney:

Grind scraped coconut, salt, green chilly and a little water in the mixer-grinder till a smooth paste of the ingredients are made. Pour it on to the serving bowl. Heat a little oil, preferably, coconut oil, splutter a few mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry chillies and pour over the chutney, serve with hot idlis...

YUM!

Uthappam chat style!

Uthappam is a typical South Indian dish. Traditionally, made of fermented white rice and urud dal ( split black gram) paste. The taste of uthappam would be that of a dosa but with crunchy steamed veggies over it.

Dont know about others, but for me, uthappa is always a way to utilize the left over dosa bacter. After preparing dosa for a day it so happens the bacter to be left for the next day but, with variety lovers as my family, dosa the next day would be a total no-no.

Besides this, i faced another problem that my family doesn't like uthappam much unlike me. SO, i thought about a twist to mix what they love to something they don't like. And i mixed chat flavour(Indian sweet sour street food) to uthappam and THERE! they loved it!

Ingredients:

Fermented raw rice and urud dal( split black gram) bacter: 2 cups

Onion: 1, chopped.

coconut: 1/2 bowl.

coriander leaves: a handful, chopped.

Jeera (cumin seeds): 1/2 t-spoon

Mustard seeds: 1/4rth t-spoon

chat masala: 1 t-spoon

salt: to taste

Oil: a little

Preparation:

Heat oil and splutter mustard and jeera. Add onion and a bit of salt for onion to cook fast. Then add coconut, chopped coriander leaves and sauté for a minute add salt and chat masala and the topping is ready.

In a nonstick pan pour a deep spoon full of bacter( as making pancakes) and spread the bacter over the pan by rotating the pan and not with the help of a spoon. Then immediately spread a spoon full of topping over this cooking pancake and put the lid over for it to cook. when done make sure to over turn it so that the topping be a part of the uthappam. Serve!

Note: you can add tomatoes, capsicum, corn(chopped), and other veggies and flavours of your choice. But i made sure of adding coconut to maintain the "South indian Touch. The filling is totally upto your taste.

Besan ladoo in a healthier avatar.

Besan ladoo is a typical North Indian Desert. It is easy to make and rich in flavours. The main ingredient of a Besan Ladoo is 'chick Pea flour'. Even though, it is listed as one among the favourite deserts of Indians, I wouldn't possibly tag it as healthy. The reason is the amount of Ghee (clarified butter) used in a typical Besan Ladoo.

So, I thought about making this recipe a bit more healthy. And VIOLA! It was better than the original. This version of the Besan Ladoo i made was much less oily, it didn't make me feel bloated, and the dusty texture was excellent! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Besan (chick pea flour) : 1 cup

Ghee( clarified butter) : to the max 5 t-spoons

Sugar : 1/2 cup

Powdered cardamom: 1/4rth tsp (optional)

Preparation:

Sieve the besan to separate small lumps from the rest of the powder. Heat a pan and roast (without any kind of oil or ghee) the besan till it turn medium brown. Please make sure the flame is low and you have to keep stirring, as the powder has a chance of getting burnt quickly. Besides the colour, a perfectly roasted besan powder emits a cooked and a pleasant smell indicating its done. When done, keep aside for cooling and then sieve again to make sure you get the fine besan powder at the end. Meanwhile powder the sugar with the cardamom powder. When done mix the roasted fine besan and the powder sugar. with you hand mix well.

Now is the tricky part. Keep adding the ghee t-spoon wise till you can make small balls of this dry mixture. you need to press hard with your hand to make the balls so make sure to keep trying every moment you mix a t-spoon of ghee. Make small balls of the mixture and your besan ladoo is done.. but if the ladoo is glossy means that the proportion of ghee used is more than needed.

It took me 3 tries to reach the perfection. But all for good!YUM!

Momos / Dumplings

Ingredients:

(for the dumplings)
Maida(plain flour): 1 cup
Salt : to taste

(Filling)
PS-> the filling can be of your choice. A typical Chinese filling like the one i mentioned in "Spring Dosa". But if this is the first time you are trying make the filling as simple as possible. I made a sweet momos here.
Sugar: 1/4th cup
Coconut: 1/4th cup
Cardamom: 2 crushed( optional for flavouring)
Can also opt 1 or 2 drops of vanilla essence instead.

Decoration:
Red colour

Preparation:

Make a smooth dough of the flour and salt. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Mix coconut and sugar, if other filling, make it ready. Please make sure the filling is cooked and are ready to eat.Roll small balls of the dough with a rolling pin into small chappathis. place a little of the filling in the middle and start making pleats of the sides as done in a sari. When the other end is met, slightly press in the middle to form a pouch. Make the steamer ready. If don't have a steamer. Place a huge vessel with water and in it a small vessel without water. Dip the "mouth of the momos in red colour and place for steaming.. Let it be for 15 minutes and your momos are ready to be served.

Poha vada

Ingredients:

Poha: 1 cup

Besan/ chick pea flour: 1 tblsp

rice flour: 1 tblsp

Salt: to taste

Onion:1

hing/ asafoetida: 1 pinch

Corriander leaves" 1 tsp

Curry leaves; a few

Jeera: 1/2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp

oil; to fry

Preparation:

Wash poha and keep aside for at least 10 minutes. mix the rest of the ingredients into it and wish a few drops of water, make a dough. Make small discs off it and deep fry. Serve.

Bread stuffs

Ingredients:

Potato: 2 medium

Onion:1

Tomato:2

Garlic:3 pods

Ginger: 1 inch

Red chilli powder: 1 pinch

Turmeric powder: 1 pinch

SAlt: to taste

Oil: to fry

Bread: as req.

vermicelli: for coating

Preparation:

Pressure cook potatoes and mash it. In a pan, heat oil, a tblsp. Put in chopped ginger garlic and stir till the raw smell goes. Put in onion and a pinch of salt and saute till softened. Add tomato and stir till softened. then add powders and coriander leaves if available. Mix this mixture with the potatoes away from the flame. In a small plate, pour a bit of water. Take the bread, cut its side and place them over this water, on both sides, press it with hand to ooze out excess water. Place it away. Take a ball of potato mix and place it in the middle of this squeezed bread and with the hand roll it into a ball. Its ok if a small mixture comes out and rolls with the bread. Then wet this ball again and roll over the roasted vermicelli and dip fry. Do the same with the rest and serve!

Chappathi pizza

Ingredients:

Onion:1

Tomato:1

Capsicum:1

Oregano

Cheese: 2 slices

chappathi: 1/2 cooked

Ketchup: 1 tsp

Preparation:

Separately cook onion, tomato and capsicum. In a pan. place the half cooked chappathi, spread ketchup and spread onion, tomato, capsicum over it. Sprinkle salt, oregano, chilly flakes and pepper. Place cheese over it too. Cover the pan and heat for around a minute. serve.

Fried dumplings

Ingredients:

Potato: 2 medium

Onion: 1

tomato:1

Garlic: 3 pods

Ginger: 1/2 inch

Curry leaves

Mustard seeds

cumin seeds

red chilly powder

turmeric powder

gram masala powder

maida: 1 cup

water: as req.

salt: as req.

Preparation:

Boil potato and mash it.

In a vessel heat oil. Pop all seeds and then add ginger garlic chopped. after a minute, add onion and salt. when onion becomes soft add tomato and cook till tomato is done. When done add all the masala powders. Cook for a minute and off the flames, add potato and mix very well.. make sure to add enough salt.

In a vessel mix maida, salt and water to form a soft ball. Take small rounds chappathis, fill the filling and just hold the ends to a dumpling shape as a sack. Press the ends and pierce 2 pepper cons on two sides to seal. Do everything as such and deep fry.

Serve with ketchup!

Pizza look alike ( non baked)

Ingredients
Maida: 1/2 cup
Egg:1
Milk: 3 tablespoon
salt: to taste

Topping:
Egg: 1
Tomatoe: 1 finely chopped
Onion: diced
Dryred chilly: chopped
Orefano: 1 tsp
Cheese slices: 1
salt: as req.
Oil: as req.

Preperation: Take a little deep pan. Heat req. oil in it ( if non stick very less req. else lots req.) While doing so, mix 1 egg maida and milk and salt. Make a smooth paste. Pour it on the pan and cover it till he top seems not liquid any more. in another vessel, mix egg, salt, tomatoe, onion( diced and softened)please make sure tomatoe doesn't release much of the water. POur this mixture on the maida base. Sim the flame and cover the lid till the egg is done... overturn the whole thing (this is very tricky). When the other side is done, over turn again.... While the flame is sim, cut a cheese slice to small squares and randomely place cheese squares on the pizza. COver the lid for a minute till the cheese melts. SPrinkle oregano onver it and place it on a plate. Cut into 4 peices and enjoy it with a movie or a match.

Khaman Dokhla

Ingredients

Besan(chick pea flour): 1 cup
Rawa(Semolina):1/2 cup
Curd: 1 tblsp
Turmeric: 1/4th tsp or less
Red chilly powder: 1/2 tsp or less
Hing(Asafoetida): 1 pinch
Lemon juice: 1 tblsp
Salt: to taste
Eno: 1 satchet

Garnishing:
Coconut shreded: 3 tblsp
green chilly: 2 (if small, else 1)
Dry red chilly: 1
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Oil: as required

Preperation:

In a bowl, mix in chick pea flour, samolina, curd, turmeric powder, lemon juice, red chilly powder, asafoetida and salt. Add in required amount of water to make it a thick paste. In a deep vessel ( i prefered presure cooker), pour in some water and place a small vessel stand in it. and let the water boil. While the water boils, add eno to the chick pea mixture and mix thoroughly for say a min or 2. Then lower the flames to sim. Take another vessel. Spread in oil as in a baking tray. Pour the chick pea mixture to it and place the vessel in the deep vessel on the stand. Close the lid. If you are using preassure cooker, please remember to remove the gaskit and the whistle. Let it cook on sim for 15 minutes. Then Remove the dokla on to a plate.

Garnishing:
HEat oil, Pop mustard seeds and cumin seeds together. Put Curry leaves. After a second, put in green chilly and red chilly chopped. Let it fry for a minute.. add coconut and fry for 5 minutes...


Cut the dokhla into small cubes and put the garnish over. Serve hot.

Chatpatta Peanut Pakoda

Ingredients:

Peanuts: 1 Cup

Besan (Chickpea flour): 1/2 cup

Hing ( Asafoitida): 1 pinch

Salt: to taske

Oil: to fry

Chat masala: 1 tsp

Red chilly powder: 1 pinch

Preperation:

Mix besan, salt, hing together with some water to make a thinck paste. When mixed in well, put in peanuts to it. keep the bacter aside for 5 minutes. Heat oil (put in some salt to make the fried items crispier and if you dont want the fried items to absorbe much of the oil pour in half lemon while adding the oil and stand back while heating as the oil would pop hard ) then deep fry the marinated peanuts. When fried. In a vessel put in red chilly powder and chat masala. Mix well. Put in the prepared peanut pakoda and mix so well as to equal distribution of masala's on pakodas. Serve.