Khandvi rolls

Ingredients
Gram flour:  1/2 cup
Butter milk: 1 cup
Salt: to taste
Turmeric powder:  1/4rth tsp

Garnish:
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Sesame seeds or sil: 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds or jeera: 1/2 tsp
Corriander leaves: 1 tsp chopped
Curry leaves: 2 strandgreen chilly: 2 chopped
Coconut: 4 tblsp scrapped
Oil: 2 tblsp

Procedure
Seive the gram flour. Mix it with the rest of the main ingredients. Heat the mixture in a kadai on medium flame through continuous stiring till about the mixture becomes thick, paste like. On a steel place, spread oil and put in a spoonful of the mixture. With the back of the spoon spread it all over and try making an even coat. Keep aside for it to cool for a good 5 minutes. With the help of a cake knife or any delicate knife cut strips. Then delicately roll each strip and place on the serving plate.
In a vessel, heat oil. Put mustard seeds, sesame seeds and jeera. Wait for it to pop. When done add gren chilly and then xurry leaves.
Garnish the kandvi rolls with coconut shreds and corriander leaves. Top it with the mustard sesame garnish. Serve!.

Gajar Halwa

Ingredients:

Indian red carrots: 1 kg
Sugar 1 to 2 bowls
Khova/mava: 100g
Elaichi: 6 to 7
Ghee: 4 to 5 tblspoons

Preperation:
Grate carrots to thin shreds. in a deep vessel, preferably a large pressure cooker as you need lots of room to stir, pour in ghee and stir fry the grated carrots till the raw smell of the carrots are gone. Then add in crushed khova and sugar with crushed elaichi seeds. Mix in very well till it reaches its thick consistency. It will take around half an hour for the halwa to reach its desired consistency. You can garnish it with sliced almonds and pistachios if desired. Serve hot. 

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.

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!

Kadai paneer

Ingredients:

Ginger: 1 inch

Garlic pods: 6

Onion: 1 big

Tomato: 1 medium

Capsicum: 1 meduim

Paneer or cottage cheese: 7 to 8 cubes.

kasuri methi or dried fenugreek leaves: 1 pinch

Coriander leaves: 1 pinch

Suagar: a pinch

Salt: to taste

Preperation:

In a vessel heat oil sauté ginger garlic chopped, after a minute add onion and capsicum, sauté till cooked. Then add tomato and cook till soft. Keep aside. Grind this mixture. In another vessel add paneer and fry them till golden. keep aside, in the same oil pour the onion paste and cook for a minute. Add the paneer and let it boil. Add salt,sugar, kasuri methi, coriander leaves and cook for a minute. Garnish with cheese or cream. Serve!

Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

Palak or spinach: a small bunch

Ginger: 1 inch

Garlic pods: 6

Onion: 1 big

Tomato: 1 medium

Paneer or cottage cheese: 7 to 8 cubes.

kasuri methi or dried fenugreek leaves: 1 pinch

Coriander leaves: 1 pinch

Preperation:

Boil spinach for a few minutes drain and keep aside. In a vessel heat oil sauté ginger garlic chopped, after a minute add onion and sauté till cooked. Then add tomato and cook till soft. Keep aside. Grind this mixture and separately grind the spinach too. In another vessel add paneer and fry them till golden. keep aside, in the same oil pour the onion paste and cook for a minute. Add the paneer and spinach paste and let it boil. Add salt, kasuri methi, coriander leaves and cook for a minute. Garnish with cheese or cream. Serve!

Home made Paneer or cottage cheese

Ingredients:

Milk

Lemon juice : 1 lemon

Preparation:
Boil milk. Add lemon juice to it and lower the flame and keep stirring till the whole milk bundles into small lumps. Drain the lumps off the milky water and put the lumps in a thin cloth, tie a tight knot to it so that the lumps do not fall out. Place a heavy object over it for at least 5 to 6 hours. Remove the heavy object and cut the paneer in the desired shape and size.

Chole

Ingredients

White chana(soaked overnight): 2 cups
Onion: 2 big
Tomatoe: 3 big
Garlic: 7 pods
Ginger: 1 inch
Chole masala: 1 tblsp
Oil: as req.
Salt: to tast
Corriander leaves: a pinch

Preperation

Preassure cook the white channa( 1 whistle on high flame and 5 whistles on sim). While doing so, In a mixture, make a paste of onion, tomatoe, ginger and garlic. Then in a vessel, pref. a kadai, heat oil and cook this paste till its colour chages to a bit more darker red. Then put in the chana masala and saute for around 3 minutes. Add the cooked chana with salt and let it boil till right consistency is attained. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves and serve.

Mixed veggy Upma

Indredients

Semolina(rawa): 1 cup
Onion: 1 small
Tomato: 1 small
Capsicum:1/2 medium
Corn: 10g
green peas: 5g
Oil: as req.
mustard: 1 tsp
cumin seeds: tsp
Curry Leaves: 1 stem
Corriander seeds: 1 pinch

Preperation:

Roast semolina till it becomes a little yellow. Then move to a plate. In a vessel. heat oil. pop in mustard and cummin seeds. After it is done popping, put in curry leaves. Then Add chopped onion, capsicum, corn and green peas. When everything becomes soft add tomatoe and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add corriander leaves. Saute. Add 2 cups water and req. salt. When water boils, reduce flame to sim and add semolina. Cover the vessel and wait till it is cooked. Then off the flame and keep the upma covered for a minute. Put the ready mixture on a bowl and upturn it on to a plate. Serve.

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.

Srikhand

Ingredients

Youghut: 400ml
Sugar(powdered):1/2 cup
Badam milk powder: 2 pinch

Preperation

Take a vessel, place a cloth over the vessel. Push it in the hollow part so that the youghut can be put in it. Por in the youghut into the cloth and carefully hang the cloth making sure the youghut doesn't spil... Let the exess water in the youghut drip off for say 2 hours. After which... Place the tight hung youghut/curd in a vessel.add in sugar and badam milk powder( you can substitute this with cardomom powder, kesar and crushed nuts). Mix well. Refrigerate. And serve. I used 1/th pinch yellow colour for appearence.

Matter paneer

Ingredients:

Green peas: 1 cup

Paneer: 100 g

Onion: 2 medium

Ginger: 1 inch

Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp

Red chilly powder:1 tsp

Corriander powder:1 tsp

Garam masala:1 tsp

Water: 1 cup

Salt:to taste

Oil: 1 tblsp

Preperation:

Chop onion and ginger. Fry Paneer into golden brown. In a vessel heat oil. Add in ginger. After say a minute add onion. Saute till it becomes really soft.Then add in turmeric powder, corrianger powder, red chilly powderand saute for a minute. Then add green peas with a cup of water.Put the lid on and let this cook for a minute, till the peas becomes tender. Add paneer and garam masala. Saute and cook for 5 minutes. Serve.

Veg Kuruma

Ingredients:

Carrot: 1
Raw banana: 1
Potatoe: 2 medium
Green peas: 1 small cup
Onion: 2 medium
Tomatoe: 2 medium
Garlic: 7 pods
Ginger: 1 inch
Coconut milk: 1/2 cup
Oil: to cook
Salt: to taste
Red chilly powder: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Cumin seed powder: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1 tsp
Curry Leaves: 1 stem


Preperation:
Cut potatoe, raw banana, carrot into small cubes and pressure cook it till soft. In a vessel take some oil and when it heats add some curry leaves. Then add chopped ginger garlic and saute for a minute. Add diced onion into it and saute till its colour changes. Then add diced tomatoe to it and some salt and saute till tomatoes are 1/2 done. Then add the masalas which would be red chilly powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Saute till the masala's are cooked ( can understand by sensing its aroma... if you feel to sneeze, your masala's are cooked) then add the cooked veggies along with the exess water it was cooked in, by doing so the richness of the veggies are maintaained. Then allow the curry to simmer on a low flame. When the curry is almost done add the coconut milk and cumin seed powder and allow it to simmer for as minute. You can then garnish with corriander leaves. and seve.

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.