Fish Kabab

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Last Sunday when looking for making something to go along with evening tea/coffee time, I made these. They came out really good and we ate them even next day.


Ingredients
2 Fish Fillets (180g boneless)
1 Onion
4-5 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Ginger
1/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1 Green Chili
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Cinnamon Powder
1/4 Spoon Cloves Powder
1/2 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Cup Cilantro
4-5 Small Sweet Bell Peppers
1/2 Lemon
Salt
Oil

Method

• Smash the fish fillets and add in black pepper powder, red chili powder, cinnamon powder, cloves power, coriander powder, garam masala and salt.
• Add in finely chopped onion, green chilies, bell peppers and cilantro.
• Squeeze lemon juice in the mixture.
• Mix well and prepare kabab rolls.
• Heat tawa and add in oil, and shallow fry the kababs over medium heat from all sides till they are brown.

Notes
I thawed the frozen fish in microwave with auto defrost for the fish this time and it works wonders. I didn't have to wait long time for fish to thaw and could easily make this as a tea time snack when we both were so hungry.
You could serve these as snacks, starters, side dish or even stuffing it in the pav.

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Fish Tawa Fry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Since the time we started bringing Tilapia fillets, I have always grilled them. I am fish lover and its been a while since i had fish curry. Since i am trying to not eat too much coconut, I didnt want to make our traditional fish curry so I came up with this one. Turned out awesome. Reminded me of my favourite fish curry from Nandini restaurant in Bangalore that i use to have frequently around 10 years back.


Ingredients
500gm Fish
1 Big Onion
2 Tomatoes
1 Spoon Tamarind
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
4-5 Garlic cloves
1 Spoon Ginger
Coriander Leaves

Method

• Marinate the fish with 1/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder, Coriander Powder and Salt.
• In mixie, add tamarind, onion and black pepper leaving 6-7 aside. Grind to fine paste. Keep aside.
• Heat oil in tawa and add in fish pieces. Let them cook for a minute.
• Flip the fishes and cook for another minute. Take out of the tawa and keep aside.
• In same oil add in onion paste and saute it till the raw smell from it goes away and you can only smell pepper in it.
• In mean time grind tomatoes, garlic, ginger in mixer and make paste.
• Add tomato paste, jeera powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, remaining black pepper and salt to onion and cook for 5 minutes with constant stirring.
• Add in fish and lightly mix everything together. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Sprinkle finely chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Notes
I used cleaned boneless Tilapia fillets each cut into four pieces but you can use any fish in any form but boneless has its own fun :)

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Banana Kofta

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This recipe is mere inspiration from all the food network shows I watch.. When I was sitting watching TV i thought why not make something different with bananas that we had in fridge. So i think about koftas.. Then for gravy i was literally smelling and adding spices as per the aroma.. Felt wonderful to create a dish based on my intuition and mood.


Ingredients
3 Raw Bananas
1 Cup Cashews
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Spoon Ginger
1/2 Spoon Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Stick of Cinnamon
2 Cup Milk
1/4 Onion
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Grate bananas and add finely chopped garlic, grated ginger, black pepper powder, 1/4 spoon saunf and salt to it. Knead well.
• Make small round balls and fry them in oil over high flame till golden brown in colour. Keep aside.
• In a mixie, add cashews, black pepper, remaining 1/4 spoon saunf, cinnamon and grind it to fine powder
• Add in onion and grind again.
• Add a cup of milk and make smooth paste.
• Heat a spoonful of oil and add in grinded paste, 1 cup water and remaining 1 cup milk. Cook over medium heat till mixture starts thickening.
• Add in salt, sugar and koftas and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.

Notes
Bananas were such a good choice for koftas, they get crispy quickly and they dont soak oil unlike potato or eggplant.
I tried to give two distinct flavors to kofta and gravy. They both gel well as well as can be tasted distinctly.

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Paneer Burger

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

It was one of those days when I wanted to make something different with Paneer. I had decided to make Pizza but then we decided to go out. So I gave up on idea of paneer and instead decided to make burger.


Ingredients
8 Burger Buns
8 Cheese slices
400g Paneer
1 Cup Maida
2 Potatoes
1 Spoon Ginger
3-4 Garlic Cloves
3-4 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Black Pepper
Handful of Coriander leaves
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1 Cup Lettuce
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Make cubes of Paneer and shallow fry them till golden in color. Keep aside.
• Cook the potatoes in cooker till completely done.
• In mixer make fine paste of garlic, ginger and green chillies.
• Mix the ginger-garlic-chilli paste, smashed potatoes, black pepper, finely chopped coriander and salt to taste.
• Add in Paneer cubes and make the patties out of these mixture.
• Mix maida with water to form thin paste. Dip the Patti in the mixture and fry it in oil over medium heat till brown on both sides.
• On each burger bun, put onion, tomato and cheese slice. Stack up Patti and lettuce and close the bun and serve with ketchup.

Notes
I didn't use mayo or anything in the burger itself, instead served it on side to dip it in. The main goal of this was Indian-spicy taste and yet burgerish feel.

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Mung Daal with peel Aappe

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Mom had made these yummy aappe few times and we all liked it a lot. So this time i told her to show me the recipe. The aappe are easy to make and really healthy and tasty.


Ingredients
1.5 Cup Mung Daal with peel
2-3 Green Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
1/4 Spoon Ginger piece
1/4 Onion
Two pinch Garam Masala
Handful Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Soak mung daal in water overnight.


• In the morning take out all the water from the daal and add it in the mixer.


• Add in green chillies, garlic and ginger. Grind to fine paste


• Add in finely chopped coriander leaves and onion


• Add in salt and garam masala and mix well.


• Heat Aappe Pan and grease it well. Add in spoonful of mixture in each, sprinkle drop of oil on each aappe and cook covered for 2 minutes on medium flame till the sides separate from the pan.


• Flip the aappes and cook without cover for another 2-3 minutes till the other side is done too. Serve while warm.

Notes
The daal can be soaked for couple of hours as well, so if making it for evening snack you need not have to soak it in the morning itself and these can be made on few hours notice.

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Pachadi

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Now that mom is here, she made this awesome pachadi two days back. I loved it so much that I asked her to show me how to make it the very next day when we were actually going to eat Paani Puri for the dinner :) Nevertheless we had this pachadi after eating paani puri with excuse that something healthy after something chatpata :)


Ingredients
2 Cup Cabbage
1 Cup Carrot
1 Tomato
3/4 Cup Onion
1 Spoon Groundnut Powder
1 Spoon Sugar
1 Green Chilli
Handful of Coriander Leaves
1 Lemon
1/4 Spoon Mustard Seeds
A pinch of Asafoetida
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Finely chop cabbage and add it to the bowl


• Add finely chopped tomato


• Add finely chopped onion


• Add in finely chopped coriander leaves and green chilli


• Add in grated carrots


• Add in groundnut powder, sugar and salt to taste


• Squeez lemon juice in it and mix well.


• Heat a spoon of oil in the small pan and add in mustard seeds and Asafoetida and let the mustard splutter.


• Add it to the mixture and mix well.

Notes
If you are going to serve it to guests, you could finely chop all the veggies and then at the last moment just before serving, mix in sugar, salt and add in heated oil-mustard. It would be much more fresh and would taste better than the complete procedure done in advance.

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Eggplant Bhaji

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Pakoda - Bhaji is quite famous in Maharashtra. All weddings must have these, when guests are invited, you have to have this item. Its been quite long time since we had bhaji so i decided to make them on Monday but decided to give it a twist. Given that eggplant is so easily available here i thought why not use it. The experiment was quite successful so here is the recipe.


Ingredients
2 Cup diced Eggplant
1 Onion
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Cup Besan
Handful Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix in diced eggplant, diced onion, chilli powder, besan, turmeric powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, finely chopped coriander leaves and salt to taste. Add in some water to make the paste.
• Heat oil. Add couple of spoon of oil to the paste and mix well.
• Take a small lemon sized ball from the paste and flatten it a bit
• Fry on medium heat till done on both sides. Serve immediately

Notes
Normally i would wait around 5 minutes after mixing all ingredients but before adding water. The salt with all the veggies secrets water so if you wait your paste doesn't end up loosing consistency later on while you are in the middle of frying.

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Veg Biryaani

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been making this for a while now, but its only yesterday that I actually managed to click the photos. So here I am posting this recipe, esp for all my vegetarian friends who are craving for Biryaani.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
350g Bhendi
250g Small Eggplants
250g Carrots
2 Raw Bananas
4 Potatoes
4 Onion
3 Tomato
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
10 Garlic Cloves
2 Spoon Grated Ginger
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Almonds
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Dried Red Chillies
1/4 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
3/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Cardamom
2 Cloves
3 Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Milk
A Pinch Of Saffron
Salt to taste
Ghee
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook 2 potatoes
• Soak rice in warm water for half an hour.
• Soak poppy seeds and keep aside
• Fry the whole egg plants, bhendi, peeled and diced bananas, 2 potatoes, and carrots and keep aside.
• Boil a pot full of water and add in the soaked rice. Cook till almost done Let the extra water drain completely through sieve.
• Heat a spoon of ghee and add in cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, cloves and salt. Add it to the rice and keep it aside.
• Heat oil and add in finely chopped 2 onions. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In same pan heat another spoon of oil and add in jeera, red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, saunf, dried coconut, cinnamon, 1/4 cup cashews and almonds.
• Add in garam masala, red chili powder, poppy seeds, pudina leaves and earlier fried onions. Cook till spices start spreading aroma.
• Let the mixture cool down and then adding the chopped tomatoes grind it to fine paste.
• Heat the ghee and add in the ground mixture. Fry till oil separates
• Add in all fried vegetables and salt to taste and cook for couple of minutes. Keep aside.
• Warm the milk with safron and keep aside.
• Deep fry the thin sliced onions and cashews till they are crisp and light brown in color. Keep aside
• In a greased cooker layer the sliced boiled potatoes, then 1/3rd of rice, 1/2 of vegetable, again 1/3rd portion of rice, remaining half of the vegetable and remaining portion of the rice.
• With big spatula make through and through wholes in the layer and sprinkle the safron milk.
• Let the cooker sit on low heat till the pressure builds up. Garnish with the earlier fried crisp onions and cashews. Serve hot with raita.

Notes
Instead of cooking vegetables in gravy i added fried vegetables to the gravy. The taste was awesome and i could make sure that none of the vegetables are underdone or overdone.
I also wished I had those baby potatoes instead and could use them whole deep fried instead of diced ones.

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Chicken Rolls

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Its been a while since I made any chicken dish.. It was always Ajoy who ended up cooking chicken or mutton which obviously is exactly of one type. Gravy remains same and chicken or mutton changes :) So today I thought probably i can make some chicken dish to surprise him. What would have been better than his favorite roll.


Ingredients
500g Boneless Chicken
2 Cup Maida
1/2 Cup Wheat Flour
1 Big Onion
1 Cup Broccoli
1 Cup finely diced Tomato
1/2 Cup Tomato Ketchup
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Grated Ginger
8 Garlic Cloves
Salt
Oil

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt and couple of spoon of oil and add in water and knead the dough well. Keep aside.
• Dice the chicken into small cubes.
• Heat oil in a pan and add in the chicken cubes. Cook stirring it occasionally
• When chicken turns white in color, add in grated ginger, turmeric powder, red chili powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook till masalas start to leave aroma
• Add in tomato ketch up and cook further for 5 more minutes.
• Add in diced tomatoes and salt and cook till chicken is done completely stirring occasionally. Keep aside
• Heat a shallow pan with a spoonfull of oil and add in sliced onions, diced garlic and brocoli and cook till they are completely done. Add in salt and a pinch of pepper powder and stir well. Keep aside
• Beat the egg and put it in wide pan.
• Make a small lemon sized balls of the dough and roll thin roti
• Dunk the roti into the egg only on one side and then put it on the hot tawa with the non egg washed side down
• Sprinkle few drops of oil on to top of the roti and flip it and cook till both the sides are done. Put it on a plate
• Spread couple spoon of chicken we made earlier in the middle as one line. Add in half spoon of onion-brocolli mixture on it.
• Fold the roti from the bottom and then folding the left side on top of the mixture and roll tightly to cover the mixture completely. Serve hot with ketchup or just like that.

Notes
I wanted to keep the rotis light so instead of putting a complete egg on top of each roti i chose to egg wash one side and that worked well. rotis were light and the taste of chicken came out really well.

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Okra Fry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

The Inchin bamboo garden here serves this dish and its Ajoy's favorite. Of course it was Milind who introduced us to this dish given his liking for Okra. I wanted to try this out when he was staying with us but somehow it just remained a wish. Today finally I try this and I am glad I did. The dish turned out very nice. Worth making it multiple times.


Ingredients
5 Cups Okra
4 Spoon Maida
4 Spoon Corn Flour
1 Onion
1 Green Chili
3 Dried Red Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
2.5 Spoon Soy Sauce
1/2 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix in Maida, corn flour, red chili powder, garlic paste and salt to taste toegether.
• Add in water and make a running consistency batter for pakodas.
• Add in handful of okras in the batter and take them out into hot oil.
Fry them in oil on medium - high heat till the okras are golden in color. Keep aside on tissues to drain the oil. Fry all of the okra pieces similarly.
• Heat couple spoon of oil and add thinly sliced onion, green chili and garlic cloves. Saute till it turns light brown in color
• Add in dried red chillies crushing them by hand, soya sauce and saute.
• Add in fried okras and stir. Serve immediately

Notes
If you are going to serve this to guests, it would be good idea to keep fried okra ready but saute them in the sauce only just before serving that would help in keeping the crunchy, crispiness of the okra.

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Prawns in Garlic Butter Salad

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I have started to enjoy salads so much that every week i almost crave for one if i dont eat one. So here is a simple butter garlic garden salad with prawns that i made that tasted awesome.


Ingredients
8 Large Prawns
2 Cup Broccoli
2 Cup Green Beans
1 Cup Sweet Corn
1 Avocado
3 Cup Iceburg Lettuce
1 Onion
1 Cup Sweet Bell Pepper Sliced
1/4 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
6 Garlic Cloves
1/4 Spoon Oregano
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powdered
1 Lemon
Mozzarella Cheese for garnishing
Salt to taste
Butter

Method

• Heat pan and add in broccoli and green beans with some butter. Cook till they are smoky in color. Mix in salt to taste and keep aside.
• In same pan add in sweet bell pepper and some more butter and cook it for a while.
• When pepper seems almost done add in sliced onion, salt to taste and cook till onions turn light brown.
• Mix it with green beans and broccoli and keep aside.
• In same pan add in prawns and garlic diced coarsely and some butter and cook them turning often on low-medium heat till prawns are done. Mix in salt and keep aside
• Microwave sweet corn for two minutes and keep aside
• Divide the lettuce into two bowls.
• Add in half mixture of green beans, brocolli, pepper and onions in each bowl.
• Add in diced avocado half in each bowl.
• Add in prawns and garlic dividing half in each
• Add in cherry tomatoes and corn half in each bowl.
• Sprinkle lemon juice, black pepper powder and oregano half in quantity on each bowls contents evenly.
• Garnish it with shredded mozzarella cheese

Notes
I used Lemon as the dressing instead of ranch or anything else. If you like you can add ranch or other dressing that you like. But i thought the salad tasted awesome just with natural flavours from lemon.
Except prawns i cooked everything else on high flame giving it a crunchy texture. For prawns i added them on high heat and then reduced the heat so that i could give them smoky taste and color yet cook them nicely.

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Guacamole

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

The first time i ate guacamole at Chipotle, i fell in love with it.. Then i searched for recipes and came up with this perfect one. Tasted awesome and finished in few minutes :)


Ingredients
3 Avocados
2 Spoon finely chopped Onion
1 Spoon finely chopped Tomato
1/4 Spoon finely chopped Green Chili
1 Garlic Clove
Handful of Coriander Leaves
1 big Lemon
Salt to taste

Method

• Scoop out avocado and dice them in the bowl.
• Add in onion, tomato, green chili
• Add in finely chopped garlic clove and coriander leaves.
• Add in Lemon juice and salt to taste.
• Mix well, smashing it a bit and serve

Notes
I didn't smash the avocados completely so that i could get pieces of it while eating.
Consume quickly as otherwise avocados would turn brown as they are high in iron contents.

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Hariyali Mango Paneer

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Today we were to meet Kapil and Shrinkhla for dinner but by the time we reached home everybody was almost full. So we decided to eat something at home instead. Thats when my mind started working on what I should make. I had a mango (raw) from mayuri that i had got last week. I cut it and saw that it was too sour so thought of making salad from it and started making hariyali paneer side by side. But as time progressed on the spot i changed my mind and made hariyali mango paneer instead. Turned out very nice.


Ingredients
3 Cup Coriander Leaves
1/2 Cup Pudina Leaves
1 Raw Mango
1 Onion
2 Cup Paneer Pieces
1 Green Chili
1 Spoon Garlic Cloves
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Add a cup of water to coriander leaves, pudina leaves and green chili and grind in mixie.
• In hot oil, fry paneer pieces to light brown edges and keep aside
• In same oil, add chopped onion pieces, garlic and fry till light brown
• Add in mango pieces and ground coriander-pudina-green chillies mixture and cook till the water evaporates and gravy thickens.
• Add in turmeric powder, garam masala, red chili powder, jeera powder and coriander powder and stir.
• Add in fried paneer pieces and salt to taste and cook for couple of more minutes.

Notes
The mango that I used wasn't too raw not too ripe. So it worked perfectly giving the light sourness. If using raw sour mango make sure to reduce the quantity of mango pieces accordingly.

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Pineapple Fried Rice

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

These days Thai is one of my preferred cuisines when eating out. Fried rice is must and if it has pineapple then its like sone pe suhaaga :) But its been while i cooked thai at home, so today I decided to make this rice instead of normal pulav.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
3 Cup Broccoli
2 Cup Pineapple
1 Cup Carrot
1 Cup Celery
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
1/4 Cup Soya Sauce
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Soak rice in water for half an hour
• Bring water to boil and add rice to it. Cook till its almost done. Strain and keep aside
• Heat a pan and add onions, green chillies, carrots, celery, broccoli, bell pepper. Stir well and cook till the raw smell of vegetables go away and they seem to be half cooked.
• Add in pineapple, soya sauce and salt to taste. Stir for a minute.
• Add the cooked rice and stir well. Fry for 2-3 minutes and rice is ready

Notes
Soya Sauce does give the salty taste to the rice, so while adding salt be careful to consider that.

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Ginger Corn Flower

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy loves cauliflower so we end up eating it every week at least once. So I keep trying variety of preparations instead of sticking to the usual one. So today I decided to make a gingery flower. To reduce the spiciness and pungent taste of the ginger I decided to use sweet corn. The recipe came out pretty well and here it is.


Ingredients
1 Cauliflower
2 Cup Corn
1 Spoon Grated Ginger
2 Tomatoes
1 Onion
3/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
Salt
Oil

Method

• Heat oil to high and fry the medium sized flower florets in it till light brown. Keep aside
• In a pan heat spoon full of oil and add onion. Fry till translucent.
• Add grated ginger and fry for another minute
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for a minute or two.
• Add mashed tomato in it. Cook for couple of minutes.
• Add sweet corn, salt to taste and cook for 5-6 minutes till mixture dries up a little.
• Add fried flower florets and mix up gently so that masala coats the flower
• Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve.

Notes
Dont wait for the florets to be dark in color, after taking out from the oil they darken up a little.

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Lauki Kofta

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Bottle Gourd
1 Cup Carrot
1.5 Cup Besan
3 Spoon Corn Flour
2 Onion
2 Tomato
2 Cup Curd
4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Green Chilli
1/4 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Raisins
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes
Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

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Vegetables Stir Fry

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had been having lots of vegetables in the freeze for quite some time. So today when we planned for quick lunch before heading out to cycling, how to quick something nice and yet something quick. Indo-chinese being my favorite cuisine I came up with this.


Ingredients
Handful of Ladies Fingers
Handful of Eggplant pieces
Handful of Cabbage
1 Cup Beans
1 Onion
1 Pepper
2 Spring-onions
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Lemon
5 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt
Oil

Method

• Fry Ladies fingers in the oil and keep aside
• In a pan heat oil and add onions. Fry them till translucent
• Add in garlic cloves, chopped to fine pieces, eggplant pieces, beans, Pepper chopped, cabbage and cook them with constant stirring till the vegetables are cooked well.
• Add in fried ladies fingers, garlic and ginger paste and Lemon juice and stir again
• Add ketchup and soya sauce and stir for couple of minutes
• Mix corn flour with 6 cup of water and add in the vegetables. Cook till gravy thickens
• Add in salt and spring onions and stir for a minute. Serve with rice or noodles

Notes
To give it a little tangy taste, I used lemon but if you are not big on tangerines then you can just skip it. You cna also substitute lemon by a spoonful of Vinegar if you don't have lemon in stock.
I also wished I had some baby-corns and brocollies to add the taste, but never mind, there is always next time :)

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Chilli Prawns

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I was looking to make something quick yet something different from the normal preparation (Prawns Masala) and then I came up with this.


Ingredients
300g Cleaned Prawns
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1 Onion
4 Green Chillies
4 Spoon Dark Soya Sauce
2 Spoon Tomato Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Marinate the prawns with garlic paste and salt.
• Deep fry them in oil few at a time for a minute
• In same oil, add halved green chillies, onion and cook them with constant stirring
• Add soya sauce, ketchup and again cook for couple of minute
• Add prawns and stir for another minute
• Mix corn flour in two cups of water and add it to the cooking prawns
• Cook for 3-4 minutes till gravy thickens and prawns become tender

Notes
Well I didn't have spring onions to garnish otherwise I might have added it a bit for garnishing.

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Paneer Biryaani

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Last week I made this but didn't get time to post it. Long time ago Anuja had asked me about preparing the biryaani with something veg. I remember she mentioned that she doesn't want it with paneer but I just couldn't help but make it with paneer. So sorry for fulfilling your wish only half way through but this recipe is just for you. Hope you get to try it and like it :) It turned out a simple affair and yet very delicious. This one is inspired by Spicy Biryaani recipe but I modified it little bit so as to take Paneer taste into account.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
400g Paneer
4 Tomatoes
3 Onions
2 Potatoes
1 Cup Cashews
1/2 Cup Almonds
8 Cinnamon
15 Cloves
15 Cardamons
1/2 Spoon Poppy Seeds
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper
1 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Saunf
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Cup Curd
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Pinch Saffron
8 Spoon ghee
4 Spoon Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Cut the paneer into cubic pieces
• In a bowl, mix turmeric powder, red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, curd and salt to taste.
• Add cubed paneer pieces in it and mix well so that the marrination is completely covering the pieces. Keep it in dry, cool place for around couple of hours.
• Soak rice in warm water and keep aside
• In a pan add butter and shallow fry the paneer pieces to light brown tinge over medium heat. Keep them aside
• In same pan, in same butter, add 4 cinamon, 5 cloves, black pepper, poppy seeds, jeera, sauf, corriander powder, almonds and 1/2 cup cashews and roast it over low-medium flame till light aroma feels the air. The masalas would be light brown by now.
• Add one diced onion and cook till onion turns light brown. Let the mixture cool down.
• In a mixie grind 3 tomatoes and keep aside.
• Grind the above cooked masala with remaining tomato to form fine paste.
• In a pan, add 2 spoon of ghee and this masala and roast for a while.
• Add tomato puree and salt to taste in it and cook till the gravy thickens
• Add paneer pieces and cook till the gravy dries completely. Keep aside.
• Pressure cook potatoes, cut them into slices after removing their cover and keep aside.
• Warm Milk, add saffron and keep aside.
• In a pan, boil water and add the soaked rice. Cook till almost done.
• Drain remaining water and run it through cold water.
• In a small pan, heat 4 spoon of ghee and add 4 cinamons, 10 cloves, 15 cardmom and salt to taste. Roast for couple of minutes and add it to the rice. Mix well and keep aside.
• Cut the remaining 2 onions into thin slices.
• In a Pan, add little oil and fry the onions onto medium-high flame till they are light brown in color. Keep aside.
• In same oil, fry the remaining 1/2 cup cashews and keep aside.
• Grease the cooker with 2 spoon of ghee and layer biryaani. Spread the potato slices to cover the cooker bottom first. Spread 1/3 of rice, then spread a layer of half of paneer masala, sprinkle some cashews, and browned onions.
• Do the same layering again (Rice, masala, cashews and onions) and then cover it with remaining 1/3 portion of rice.
• Sprinkle Some more cashews and onions, keeping aside a few for decoration.
• Make few through and through holes through the layered biryaani with the back of spatula.
• Spread the saffron milk in them.
• Cover with the lid and pressure cook over low heat for 25- 30 minutes.
• Garnish with left cashews and onions and serve.

Notes
I used 1 layer of rice 1/2 paneer and then again another layer of rice with rice from just 2 cups of raw rice. Also used half quantity of cashews, onions and garnishing spices. Stored the remaining half portion of paneer masala for later use this week. I just had to do the rice and onion portion again and could quickly make the dinner. Helped on the hectic day a lot. :) And it tasted even much better as well because of storing masala for few days :)
I always use the potato layering to cover up cooker so that the biryaani doesnt get burnt while pressure cooking it. I am speechless for that idea, helps a lot.
Also stored the marrinated paneer in fridge since it was quite hot here. But i think even in other time thats a better way so that it dries even further and the marrination sticks to paneer.

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Tandoori Paneer Pizza

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

My favorite dish :) esp paneer flavor.. and I so miss it here. Well there is a food chain which has paneer pizza available here but then I really didn't like the flavor. So i had been meaning to prepare this since ages and finally made it yesterday. It turned out quite nice. I also did little r&d and found out how to do wheat base rather than all maida base - little healthier version :)


Ingredients
4 Cup Wheat Flour
2 Cup Maida
400g Paneer
2.5 Cup Mozarella Cheese
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1.5 Cup Milk
5 Spoon Curd
2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Onion
1/4 Cup Dried Tomatoes
4 Sweet Bell peppers
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
2 Spoon Butter
1/2 Spoon Sugar
2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Spoon Tandoori Masala
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste
1 Spoon Basil Leaves
Salt to taste

Method

• Warm a cup of water, add sugar and active dry yeast. Still well, wrap up with the clinging film and keep aside for 10 minutes to let yeast activate
• In a plate mix wheat flour, maida, olive oil, melted butter, activated yeast and salt to taste
• Add milk and knead the soft dough. Keep it in a large bowl covered with clinging film for around 2 hours to double in size.
• In a bowl, mix curd, garlic paste, ginger paste, jeera powder, corriander powder, garam masala, tandoori masala and salt to taste.
• Marrinate the cubed paneer with this curd mixture and refrigerate it till the time pizza dough is doubling up
• When the dough is doubled up, divide it into two portions and spread it on pizza pans
• Spread parmesan cheese, grated mozarella cheese on top of the pizza base
• Spread the cubed paneer pieces, bell pepper slices, onion slices and dried tomato evenly on top of it
• Sprinkle basil leaves
• Preheat oven to 400F/200C
• Bake the pizza at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes
While activating yeast, the water should be luke warm - just warm to touch otherwise if too hot the yeast would burn up. To know if yeast is activated you need to see if foam is present in the yeast-water-sugar mixture.
When I baked pizza i found that one of the pizza was really risen well and other one was also rised but not as much as the other one. So I binged ;-) a bit and found that the while baking pizza we should be baking only on upper shelve the middle shelf doesnt have enough heat and hence the pizza doesnt rise well in that section. Well tip for me for next time.

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