Pineapple and Paneer :-) what an experiment

Monday was cleanup day- clean everything that's getting stale in the fridge/ freezer. So this is what I had at hand for lunch-
1 cup pineapple (left over from my upside down cake)
100 gms paneer / cottage cheese

Niket was working from home (He always complains that whenever he is working FROM home, he actually works AT home LOL) and he loves my experiments with food. The veggie was a delight with rotis. Here is the recipe formula-

Ingredients-

1 cup pineapple
100 gms paneer / cottage cheese
1/2 a cup shredded carrots
1 large boiled and cubed potato
1 onion, 1 tomato chopped
oil for cooking
1 tsp jeera / cumin for tempering
1 tsp turmeric , coriander and garam masala / all spice each
Salt to taste
3/4 cup water

Directions-

Heat oil, add jeera. Add onions and fry till translucent. Add tomatoes and cook till the raw smell is gone. Add cubed paneer and potato, fry for a couple of mins. Now add carrots and pineapple (you can even use the core here, it gets cooked well). Fry a bit. Add the spices, salt and fry again. Add water and cook covered for a couple of mins / till done.

(The pic is weird since you really can't separate the pineapples from the potatoes LOL)

Babycorn veggie

Ingredients-
2 cups baby corn boiled and diced

1 large potato boiled and cubed
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
oil for cooking
1/2 tsp cumin
1 chopped tomato

1 chopped onion

1 tsp each turmeric, coriander and all spice powder
salt to taste

water 1/2 cup

Coriander/cilantro to garnish

(Can add- green peas and carrots, and use some yogurt to get a creamy gravy!)

Directions-
Heat the oil in a wok, add the cumin seeds and let them pop. Add onions, fry a bit. Then add the tomato and cook for about 2-3 mins or till the raw flavour disappears. Add in the boiled babycorn and potato (or other veggies if using any) and ginger garlic paste, salt, spices and fry a bit. Add water, cook for 5-6 mins. Check for doneness. Add yogurt and coriander if using them, bring to a boil and turn off flame. Serve with rotis or pulav.

Orange peel! marmalade

Don't throw it away..save it to make bitter orange marmalade!
The peel is used in Karnataka for making curry. It has several other uses too, you can use it in your homemade face packs, use it to clean your teeth, remove the odors from your sink..but try this recipe if you like bittersweet :-)

1 cup peel chopped
1 cup water 

Boil together for 15 mins or so on simmered gas. Strain. Don't throw away the strained liquid, you can use it as a conditioner for final rinse on your hair!

Add half cup sugar or 3/4 cup honey
2 cloves full or powdered
1 tbsp water

Boil, simmer till sugar or honey caramelizes. Remove from heat. Let cool and serve with rusk/toast. We enjoyed this with parathas.


This is also going to Food palette series-brown

posted from Bloggeroid

Pudina Brown Rice

We love pudina rice :) Niket enjoys it. I have this recipe from my friend and colleague, Lakshmi. I followed my old recipe, I just used brown rice instead of white.

Ingredients-
2 cups brown / white rice- cooked
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 Chopped onion
1/2 cup fresh pudina =mint (ground or cut, I used cut leaves)
2 Chopped Tomatoes and green chillies as per taste
Salt, haldi, oil or ghee

Directions

Heat oil and add mustard seeds, wait till they splutter.

Fry the chopped onions till golden. Add green chillies and tomatoes and cook till raw smell of tomatoes disappears. Add haldi and salt and cook for a minute. Add pudina / pudina (mint)  paste and cook for another minute. Don't overcook or the flavor of fresh mint will disappear. Add cooked rice and mix well. Add a teaspoon of ghee for flavor. Serve hot. 

This is also going to Herbs and Flowers in my Platter

My first upside down cake - Pineapple!!

I was thinking what could I make for the Cooking with Fruits event. I always make banana muffins, strawberry muffins etc and I wanted to use a different fruit this time. We went to Namdhari's and got pineapple. I asked Niket what did he want me to make, was it strawberry muffins or this, and he immediately said upside down cake! And so here it is-
I have taken the recipe from here- Allrecipes
But I altered it quite a bit. This is what I did-

Ingredients-

1/2 cup refined oil / butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 fresh pineapple sliced

Melt the butter in a baking dish after greasing it. Press sugar on top and decorate with the sliced pineapples. Keep aside.




1 cup flour (I used half Navadarshan WW flour and half AP)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sift these and keep aside.

1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon refined oil
1 teaspoon almond meal
1 egg
1/2 cup milk

Cream the egg, sugar, oil . Add sifted flour and almond meal. Mix the milk and mix enough to fold in the flour. Pour and spread evenly over the pineapples.
Bake at 180 deg for 30 mins. Check for doneness. Let it cool, scrape sides and turn on a serving plate. You can leave the dish over the plate to let the sugar drip on top of the pineapples. (I was scared of too much sugar, and I removed it)

This cake is heavenly! I feel the cake is a tad toooooo sweet for my liking (and I am saying this inspite of loving sweets so much!) but the taste is really good, whether right out of the oven or otherwise.

And I am really happy to have experimented with Pineapple, it is in the spirit of my blog (isn't ambrosia a dish with coconut and pineapple?)

Barley Kheer

I read about the event Celebrating Bloggers and Blogging and since I mostly pick my recipes online, thought of sending my submissions to the event. I had some barley left over and wanted to use them for breakfast. I looked up on the internet and found barley kheer!

 The idea of the recipe is derived from Sizzling Indian Recipes. I made some alterations to it.
I don't like cardamom so I totally skipped it. This is my version-

Barley kheer

Ingredients:
1 cup barley
Wash and soak in 1.5 cup water for an hour.
Cook along with the water and an additional half cup water in a pressure cooker for a whistle, simmer for 2 mins. keep aside.

1 litre milk
Boil and add the cooked barley. simmer and keep stirring till it thickens.

Handful of raisins, cashews
1 tsp ghee
jaggery or sugar to taste.

Fry in ghee and add to barley kheer. add jaggery. Serve cool.

I tried another variation where I used 1/2 cup cooked barley and 1/2 cup cooked brown rice and followed other steps just the same. Both results were good :)
I served it for breakfast as an accompaniment with poha / toast.

For the CBB event, I left a comment on Usha's blog and asked her to visit my post here. This is what she has to say- (posting from her comment)

Richa, you got very nice unique blog name. Thanks for taking my barley kheer recipe as inspiration. I liked your variation of adding milk also in your second attempt you made combination of brown rice and barley, that is more healthy twist. Barley is very versatile grain and perfectly pairs with sweet and savory dishes.Wonderful work. Thanks for the honor and visit to my blog.

Your blog got some unique recipes..I would love to come back and check them.

Brown rice palak khichdi

I have always made palak khichdi with white rice. I saw this page a few days back, about an event with brown rice, Brown Rice for Dinner.
Event details can be viewed here as well.
I have recently discovered Navadarshanam products available at all Namdhari stores in Bangalore. Check them out! Their brown rice is especially good. I started using it for all my kheer/ payasams. Then I thought I could even use it for Paalak Khichdi. I have followed the same recipe as I have posted before but with brown rice.

This is my recipe-
Ingredients-
1 cut onion
1 chopped tomato
ginger garlic paste as per taste
boiled and pureed spinach - 1.5 cups for 1 cup brown rice (I didnt puree it, just mashed it with a potato masher)
1 cup brown rice soaked for an hour and cooked with 2 cups water)
ghee as per taste
1 cup water / milk
oil for cooking



Directions-
Heat oil in  a pan. Sauté onions till translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute. Add tomatoes and cook till done. Add spinach puree and salt as per taste. Add the boiled brown rice and milk/water (I prefer water, can't imagine making khichdi with milk, yuck). Cook covered and stir in between for 3-5 mins. Take off from stove and add ghee if desired. Serve hot :) Accompaniment- curd and dal / curd rice- slurp! (I am a Bihari transformed into South Indian!)

I boiled 2 cups brown rice, saved some to mix with barley and made barley kheer, and saved some to make curd rice.

Curd rice with brown rice is also good. Once the cooked rice is cool, add curd and a bit of water (I like it a bit runny). Let it soak for half an hour or so. Heat 1 tsp oil, add mustard seeds and cut curry leaves, let the seeds splutter and add to curd rice mix. Add salt to taste and serve.

Ebony and Ivory- Bitter chocolate American Walnut Brownies!

Our nephew and niece love anything that has chocolate and anything that has icecream! Who doesn't! My younger bro, who is not a kid anymore, was here last week and he wanted me to bake brownies.
This is my entry to the Kid's delight Restaurant recipe. Check the event details here.

I made Walnut brownies. I always follow the recipe from a the Savvy Cookbook March 2007 issue. This time I altered it a bit. My version-

Ingredients-
190 gm butter
1 egg
310 gms sugar powdered
190 gm flour (I used 150 gms AP flour, and the rest wheat flour)
30 gm cocoa
280 gm bitter chocolate
7 gm baking powder
100 gm walnuts chopped

Directions-
Melt the chocolate in a bowl on top of hot water (This is something I didnt do this time, which gave the brownie a bitter and burnt taste)
Beat butter and sugar, add the egg (The original recipe calls for 3 eggs).  Mix the chocolate and the walnuts. Sieve the dry ingredients together. Fold this into the batter. Pour and scrape this mix into the glass dish and bake at 180 deg for 30 mins. Cool, cut and store. Using the wheat flour makes it firmer than using AP flour. When serving, heat a bit in the micro and serve with vanilla icecream.

Sabudana Khichdi

For the three or so years that I was in Mumbai, Sabudana Khichdi was our breakfast in our college complex (@ Nirlon Complex) and later at home too. The Maharashtrians like it dry and crispy. When we started making it, we would make it flowy with lot of curd and top it with Haldiram's bhujia. This is dedicated to my 3 years in Mumbai, to the maximum city, to the fun life at college and a good friend, Rahul- for all the times we would go together to Goregaon station :)



Sabudana Khichdi- my submission to the Flavors of Maharashtra

Ingredients-
1 cup sabudana
1.5 cup curd
1/2 cup water
 salt to taste
Mix these together and soak overnight / an hour. Soaking it overnight gives it a yum sour (khatta) taste- awesome!!

You can make this for breakfast. This is what you need-

handful of peanuts
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup shredded carrots
2 potatoes cubed
1 small onion and tomato- chopped
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
oil for cooking

Directions-

Heat oil in the kadhai. Being a pucca Bihari I always use mustard oil. Add peanuts. When the peanuts are done, add cumin and chopped onion, cook till translucent. Add potatoes and tomato. Cook covered for a bit till tomatoes are done. Add turmeric and salt (adjust salt because you would have added some in the sabudana mixture already). Add veggies, ginger garlic paste (the carrots and the peas give it a good color, you can make it with just potatoes too. That is how it is eaten for fast- vrat). Cook covered. Once the peas are done, add the sabudana mixture and cook till the sabudana becomes transparent. This khichdi will be a bit flowy and it will thicken up if left to cool. Serve hot and top with Haldiram's bhujia.

Almond halwa

I got an idea of making almond halva/ barfi after I saw a stock of almonds in my fridge. And then I read this and I was so tempted!

Ingredients-
1 cup almond meal
1/4 cup sugar (can increase upto 1 cup)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
3 tsps / more ghee

Directions-
 Make a paste of the almond meal, sugar, water and milk. Keep it aside for 20-30 minutes. Heat a kadhai and add the almond paste to it. Keep stirring so that it does not stick to the bottom. Add spoonfuls of ghee at regular intervals. Keep stirring, and you will see the paste leaving the sides.
You can add cardomom powder if you so wish, I don't like it too much. Turn off the gas and let it cool.

This can be spread out on aplate and cut into burfis if kept int he fridge for sometime. Else can be had with spoons or made into laddoos (shaped round)

I made this in the micro and it was ready in ten mins.  I followed the same process, and instead of doing it on the gas, I put the paste in a microsafe dish and put it on 75% power for 12 mins, stirring every 2-3 mins and adding ghee in spoonfuls.

We finished quite a bit immediately, without even letting it cool! But whatever bit of it was left, tasted better after 3 days or so of keeping in the fridge!!Chandan, if you are reading this, I finished it :)

Bitter chocolate brownie

this is made especially for chandan and my friends, shu n rahul :)
Recipe soon!

posted from Bloggeroid

preparations for chandan's homecoming!

Made some makhana ready mix for kheer, which we had yesterday.
Some almond meal for almond halva (decided to make halva instead of burfi)
Posto (poppy seed) powder- haven't made anything yet.. wondering if we should try aloo posto today?

Stuffed Idli

This is my entry for CBB.
I have this recipe idea from My experiments with food. 
I did not follow the recipe exactly, cos with a 5 mo baby at home, it is difficult to make stuffing separately.
Biharis make a recipe in rice flour with some stuffing (like dal etc) and call it baghiya. The taste of this is close to it, though I think this is tastier, with a slightly fermented taste cos of the sour curd.

Stuffed Idli, Bihari version-idlis stuffed with sattu (roasted gram flour)

Ingredients:
For filling-
1/2 cup sattu
1 tsp chopped coriander
1 tsp lemon juice
1 small piece mango pickle
1 small onion chopped
salt to taste
Mix all these and keep aside.

Idli batter-
2 tbsps rice flour
1 tbsp roasted rava/ semolina
1 cup sour curd
1 cup water

Mix all these and set aside for an hour (I skipped the soda, which makes the idlis softer. But this tasted good, it wasn't hard at all)

Directions:
To make stuffed idlis, grease the idli stand. Pour one spoonful of the batter, add one spoonful of filling and then cover the filling with another spoonful of batter. Steam till idlis are done. I make my idlis in the micro, and one stand full is enough for the two of us and does not take more than 5 mins!!Serve hot with sambar or veg stew.
I served with hot sambar and Niket totally loved it!And through this, we brought together two extremely diff cusines of the north (esp Bihar and UP) and the south!

24th Feb
I shared this post with the original author,  Jayashree of My experiments with food , She feels that the pickle in the stuffing is a good idea!

Peas and carrot Kurma

I chanced upon this event, Decided to give it a try. I use my microwave quite a bit to make pulavs, carrot halwa etc, but haven't made curries in it too much. This is what I tried-

Peas and carrot Kurma

Ingredients:
1 cup peas
1 cup shredded carrot
1 potato cubed
1 cup paneer small cubes
1 onion and 1 tomato chopped
oil for cooking, 1 tsp tempering, 1 tsp each of turmeric,coriander and garam masala or allspice, ginger garlic paste
1 cup milk
1 tsp cashew almond paste

Directions:
In a microsafe dish, add oil, chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Heat for a couple of mins. Now add tomatoes and heat again for another couple of minutes. Mash the tomatoes with your spatula to get a curry like texture. Now add all the veggies and heat for 5 mins. stir in between. Add the dry spices and continue for 3 more mins. Now add milk and paneer and the paste. Keep coooking for 5 more mins. Turn off micro and allow to stand for 5 mins. serve with rotis.

posted from Bloggeroid

Homemade white butter

Ingredients:
fresh cream stored over a week to ten days and kept in the freezer or fridge
some curd
Mix the curd with the cream and let it set overnight outside the fridge.

wooden spatula to beat the cream

Directions:

After the cream has set into curd, pour it out into a long vessel and beat it for sometime. You will see it transforming into smooth cream and then in about fifteen mins or so, the butter will collect on top. The mixture will separate into whey and butter. Add some water at this stage and keep it in the fridge. This will help the butter to freeze and set on top. You can now strain the whey and separate the butter. Don't throw away the whey, it can be used in curries and is very healthy. It can also be used as buttermilk in recipes.

Orange ginger marmalade

Ingredients:
3 oranges, peeled and seeds removed. let the skins be there
1 tsp crushed ginger
4 tbsps honey

Directions:
Blend together the orange and ginger. simmer on gas for aboout 10 mins. Add honey and let simmer some more till mixture thickens. let cool, store and enjoy with toast.

I used some of these to make eggless orange ginger cookies. The taste of oranges was diluted though I used rind zest :( I think next time should use some orange juice.. But they tasted good anyhow!

Cumin carom cookies

I wanted to bake some stuff as Chandan was coming tonight. Plus it was V day! I baked cumin carom cookies with lots of pepper and I used orange rind to make orange cookies. The orange cookies need some icing, but the cumin carom cookies turned out good. They were inspired from here.
I altered it a bit, here is my version-

Ingredients:
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp carom
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup sour cream
one bit of soda
2 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Mix all the above ingredients. Shape into flat cookies or pat in a baking sheet and bake at 180 deg for 25 mins. Cut and savour/store!

Bread rolls- not deep fried but baked!

Bread rolls remind me of my childhood days when it would be a celebration. Mumm would be working in the kitchen since the evening to make them. She would carefully chop all veggies and make the filling and then fill the bread slices first. We would be watching, salivating at the thought of hot deep fried rolls!

We had a packet of whole wheat bread in the kitchen nearing expiry and decided to give it a try. This is also for my friend, Shuchita, who loves potatoes!!

this pic has potato rolls as well as bread rolls!

Baked bread rolls

Ingredients:
1 large onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 capsicum chopped
1 cup peas
1 cup grated carrot
3 large potatoes boiled and mashed
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp each of turmeric, coriander and garam masala
peanuts, raisins, cashews- a handful, roasted or fried
1 full pack whole wheat bread
oil for frying veggies and brushing bread before baking

Directions:
Heat oil in a wok. Add onions, cook till they turn pink. Add tomatoes and ginger garlic paste, fry for a few minutes. Add all veggies, salt and the powdered spices. Cook covered till done. Add mashed potatoes and fried peanuts. mix well. Keep separately to cool.

Take the whole wheat bread. You can cut the ends if you like, I didn't. Wet with a little water, fill a spoonful of the filling and roll the edges, making them stick and making the bread appear like a roll. Keep in a greased dish or a baking sheet. Do this for all slices, or as many rolls you need. You can also save these in the fridge for baking later too.

To bake, set oven to 180 deg. Grease rolls on both sides with oil, bake for 30 mins and turn in between to make the rolls crisp on both sides. These were best hot right out of the oven.

I couldn't click a pic. We were watching date trap on UTV Bindaas, this week's trap was good with Sahil the rapper! By the time we were done, no rolls were left!

Makhana kheer

I dont know what makhana is in english, fellow bloggers please help! It is quite popular in the darbhanga and muzaffarpur belt in bihar. My husband is a huge fan of makhana kheer and you can make him do anything if you give him this. We usually make a low cal version. The original has makhanas fried in ghee and then simmered in milk till milk volume is halved, then fried cashews and lots of sugar is added!

Our (my MIL taught me this) version-
Roast makhanas for a few minutes. The makhanas will become harder and make hollow sounds while roasting. This shows they are done. Let it cool.
Pulse them for a few mins in the food processor.
To make kheer-
Put milk for boiling. Separate one bowl while its lukewarm. Take the makhana powder and mix in the lukewarm milk. Add this to the boiled milk. Roughly, 1 cup powder for 1 litre milk. Let it simmer for a few minutes. It will be flowy but thickens when it cools down.
Add sugar (jaggery doesnt taste good with this) and broken cashews and raisins. Serve cold only!

posted from Bloggeroid

Fresh n homemade almond meal

I am so excited abt chandan coming.. thought of getting some sweets home. Then remembered the almonds in my freezer and thought of making barfi at home.
First step is the almond meal. I made it with the almond peels because they contain antioxodants.

How-
I took a cup of almonds and pulsed them in my food processor. You should be careful not to pulse too much else they start leaving oils. You can sift it if u think its unevenly done. The uneven ones can be pulsed again to get finer meal. The almond barfi made with this is said to be more chewy. We will see on monday the 14th now. It is now going in the freezer. I added a spoonful to my veggie tonight!

posted from Bloggeroid

Ajwain cookies!

Niket is not such a big fan of sweet things. He was delighted when he came back home that day. The aroma of ajwain cookies baking in the oven  filled the living room too! He was so happy to see them baking! And we finished half of them with tea immediately.

Ajwain or carom seed cookies

Ingredients:
2 tsps ajwain or carom seeds
1 cup whole wheat flour (Navadarshan aata!!)
1/4 cup oats
4 tbsps oil
1 tsp rock salt
1 tsp or more ground pepper
1 small pinch of baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Mix all the above ingredients. Shape into round balls, I got 12 of these. spread on baking sheet and flatten with fingers. bake at 180 deg for 25 mins, flip in between to brown on both sides. Savour hot or store for the next couple of days.
Can also make with black or white sesame seeds and roasted cumin seeds. Will post as and when I make them.

Also check recipes here-

Bong Mom's cookies
Madhuram's eggless baking

Khajur me atke :(

On my birthday, Niket bought me a sony vaio E series. We got it with a licensed Windows 7. Niket is an open source enthusiast and loves to experiment with different OS. Now Vaio turned out to be his laboratory! The wifi card was not compatible with our Linksys router. The connection would drop every second, and it became so annoying that I would surf the net on my phone and stay away from the laptop. This same problem was there even when i worked on windows 7.
Finally, after experimenting with several OS, now my vaio has Gentoo and looks to be working fine! Niket is still configuring it since it hangs a bit when I play videos for Yashi. He tried Ubuntu, Mac OSX and FreeBSD/PCBSD, Chakra and yet to try-Archlinux.
There are 2 worlds. BSD world and the Linux World. The wifi chip AR9285 has very poor support in the Linux world. It is very unstable but offers great Intel HD graphics support. In the BSD world,there is great AR9285 support (better than the speed you would get on Windows 7), but sucky support for graphics. The worst part is the BSD guys are snobbish, they think they are better than Linux and on Forums they are sort of looking down upon Intel graphics card and do not wish to solve the problem. The good thing about Linux guys is that they are trying to solve the wifi chip AR9285 problem. Now let us see what my Sony Vaio finally gets!

posted from Bloggeroid

CornY meal!

Today we had cornbread and eggs and mushroom bake for dinner. Something missing was soup I think. I have to try a few different combis before we can finalise this as a menu.
I did not have cornmeal, which most cornbreads will call for. I used Navadarshan aata, whole wheat flour, which is stone ground and grainy. Else you can use makai ka aata, which is the same as cornmeal. I also used a bit of cornstarch.
I have used less oil. I also did not use sugar or honey because I wanted it more like a salted bread than sweet or cake like in texture.

Eggless corn bread with whole wheat flour

Ingredients:
1 cup boiled corn
1/2 cup oil or cream
1 cup buttermilk
Mix together and keep aside

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 large tbsps soya flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Sift all the dry ingredients together. Mix with the wet mixture. pour in a greased glass dish. microwave for 12 mins and bake for another ten mins. brush top with butter and serve with soup. I served it with homemade white butter. (That reminds me I have to post that recipe too!)

Also check out Foodista corn bread recipes!





17th Feb
For dinner we had coornbread and veggie stew. I used almost the same recipe, though I had some cornmeal. Egg version of cornbread-
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup boiled fresh corn
salt to taste
1/2 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1 egg beaten
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk

Mix all the above with hand after sifting the dry ingredients together. Pour in a glass dish. Micro at full pwer for ten mins and bake at 180 deg for another 12. This cornbread was moist and better than the eggless version.

Eggless strawberry muffins

We got some strawberries at Big Bazaar at amazingly cheap prices. They were not so sweet and Niket didn't like them raw, so decided to make muffins. 

I have made them eggless so that I can use this recipe later when my ILs come home !

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh strawberries chopped
1 tsp cornstarch
mix the above ingredients and add-
1 mashed banana

Keep aside.

1 cup quaker oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 cup buttermilk
1.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp baking soda
2 large tbsps soya powder
1/2cup honey (can increase upto 3/4 or 1) I always use less because Niket prefers it that way.

Directions:
Sift the dry ingredients together. mix with buttermilk, honey and fruits. mix with hand. if the mix feels wrong in consistency, add some milk or buttermilk.

Pour in a greased glass dish. microwave for 10 mins and bake at 180 deg for another 10. cool, slice, store and / or enjoy with tea or custard. They tasted best right out of the oven! 

Corner house!

Niket surprised me by yielding to my requests of having chocolatey stuff at cornerhouse and whats more he ate more than half of it! We didn't want ice cream cos it might affect Yashi. They gave us cake fudge with hot chocolate sauce! Not as good as Death by chocolate, but still good! We didn't get it packed home cos Yashi was asleep. So we sat at a table and finished it in 2 mins flat! Reminded me of the time Bhaiya was here and we went there after dinner.
I got this book- a thousand splendid suns by hosseini but it doesn,t have the spark that kite runner did :( I always wanted to read it but my friends warned me against it. I couldn't stop myself though when I spotted the book in the library. The book gives you an insight into the lives of Afghan women who have suffered and endured since the times of the Taliban.

posted from Bloggeroid

Being a mom is so tough

My baby is now 4.5 mths old and i am breatsfeeding her. It feels like my whole day passes from doing one chore to another. And i am so sick of the routine now. She was extra cranky today and that made me cranky as well.
I tried making lauki kheer today and i hated it. Niket liked it, i think that is so because he didnt realise there was lauki in it.
For dinner we had mixed dal, methi rotis, white homemade butter, tori ki sabzi with badi and curd rice.
I have started liking curd rice for its plainness and simplicity. Will post some recipes tomorrow.

Plan to experiment with the following-
Mushroom and eggs
Strawberries (yes again!)

osted from Bloggeroid

Papa john's pizza!

If it is pizza, it has to be Papa John's!
I didn't know about them, we were introduced to them through Niket's colleague, Aishwarya. We tried it once and after that one time, we became huge fans!
Their garlic Parmesan bread sticks are to die for. They also serve baked chicken strips for starters, which are really tasty. They serve the garlic sauce separately, but if you don't keep a watch, you can end up eating a lot of it! Their thin crusts pizzas are awesome. They always have some offers for their regular customers. If for some reason, you don't like the food they deliver at your place (we once had a case of burnt pizza), they are very prompt in giving you a replacement.
Their 4th Block outlet has good service and they are highly recommended!

posted from Bloggeroid

Sattu paratha, makuni :) or litti- bihari cuisine

In the ad for glucose perk, the lady reads sattu from her list! If you are a true blue bihari then you surely enjoy sattu in all forms, be it the drink or with curd or stuffed in litti or paratha. Due to lack of experience and unavailability of a gas tandoor, i always make rotis n serve with ghee. I remember rajiv bhai once tried making littis in the barbecue n he said thry turned out good..

My recipe for sattu roti-to make 10 rotis
2 cups sattu
1 grated onion
Juice of one large lemon
Achaar ka masala from any pickle
1 tbsp Chopped dhaniya
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp ajwain, mangrela
Salt to taste

Mix all this together with hand. Check for salt and it should taste lemony. This is your filling.I remember how mummy used to give each of us one small round ball to taste!

2.5 cups aata

Make dough. Fill in, like you would stuff aloo. Roll out and cook as chapatis. It can also be greased with oil or ghee and made as parathas.

Serve with gravy veggie and ghee. I served it with kadeema sabzi. In bihar it is served with aloo chokha, desi version of mashed potatoes. Mummy also made baingan and tamatar bharta with this.

Another variation to the filling is adding mooli, which tastes good and makes the filling moist and easy to fill.

My MIL fills them as littis, shaping them as round balls, them boiling them in water. The littis rise up as they cook. Then she fries them. This way it uses up very little oil and you can have them without ghee too.

In my village, the littis are cooked in chulha, and they taste better than anything else on earth to me!

Sometime back, i baked them in yeasty dough, but that's a recipe for another day! Here is the pic.








Edit- Aug 2012
A better pic - boiled and then fried

posted from Bloggeroid

Restaurant review- Veekes and Thomas , JP Nagar

Veekes and Thomas , JP Nagar

I read about this place on Shruti Vishwanathan's blog ( She also writes reviews for Deccan Herald)
She mentions that this place is not uch of a restaurant and warns not to visit this place in groups of more than 4. She also mentioned that they deliver in places upto 2 kms from JP nagar and they are very ecofriendly in their packaging. The food had rave reviews and I decided to place an order with
them when our cook ditched us.
When I read their menu online and called them, (Check them up here) I was almost drooling into the phone and hoping with crossed fingers that they would deliver in Jayanagar 8 Block! I was so glad they did :)
Their food is fingerlicking good if you dare eat Italian with hands! I have tried the following from their menu (and I am waiting to try some more)..

Entres-
Chicken salami and oyster mushroom crostini (a bit bland )
Mince meat crostini (I am not much of a meat fan but this was definitely yummy!)

Pasta-
Broken Mustard pasta (and as they claim it to be, with the pungency of mustard definitely Bengali in taste)
Cilantro chicken in white sauce (Did you know that cilantro is nothing but green dhania? The chicken is spicy and sets off very well with the cheesy white sauce of the penne pasta)

Bakes-
Shepherd pie (Mince chicken topped with cheesy mashed potatoes. Mouth watering)
Chicken Lasagna ( nothing compared to shepherd pie but worth a try)

Courses-
Chicken Stroganoff (Too many herbs in this one I think)
Chicken Piccatta (Chicken breast cooked in wine sauce. Beauty, You have my word for this one)

Love Food Hate Waste

Every year in the UK we throw away £12 billion worth of food which could have been eaten. The Love Food Hate Waste programme from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and has lots tasty recipes and top tips to help us make the most of the food we buy.

Custard powder cookies

I tumbled on this recipe quite a few days back and was itching to try. But I got busy with baking with leftover fresh fruits. The original  recipe is here- Food Fun and Farm Life
I changed quite a few things in the recipe, this is what I did-

Ingredients-
300 gms whole wheat flour (I used Navadarshanam aata again, the results are very good always!)
100 gms custard powder
100 gms refined oil
2 large tbsp fresh cream (malai)
1 tsp baking powder
150 gms butterscotch ice cream (i had this from sometime and wanted to use it up, you can use milk)
100 gms honey or sugar
tutty fruity

Method-
Mix together the flour, custard powder, baking powder. Sifting makes for easy mixing. To this, add oil, cream, milk, honey. Mix well with hand. It is a relatively thick mix. Spread it with hands on a greased baking dish and pat to level it. I couldn't do this cos Yashi was crying aloud by this time! As suggested in the original recipe, you can also shape as cookies and bake. Will try next time.

Microwave for 8 mins (it is done by this time) and bake for 10 mins at 180 degs. The baking helps in browning and makes cookies crispier.Mine browned more than I wanted to because I was tending to Yashi.

Once cool, slice immediately else they will harden up. We finished half already!

posted from Bloggeroid

Rajdhani at Central, JP Nagar vs Rajdhani at Value Mall, Whitefield

I have been a big fan of Rajdhani and all such Gujarati thalis from my days in Mumbai. I first heard of Rajdhani through Manoj who stays in Marathalli. We decided to go since all of us have a big appetite. It is not worth going to such places if you don't. We prepare for this since morning, eat a light breakfast and lots of water!
We were delighted when we heard it is opening up at Central too, which is a stone's throw from where we live currently. But we were in for a disappointment :(
Rajdhani @ VM scores for being nicely lit and lots of space, excellent service (There is not a second lost when you ask for something and the guy turning up next to your table!, yummy food (the menu is diferent every week in all Rajdhanis, but this scores over Rajdhani @ Central because they always serve pooris, food quality I felt is also better)
Rajdhani @Central JP Nagar has an excellent location and lots of people come to this place too. But the 2-3 times that I have gone there, I have felt it loses out on a couple of things. First is space- it looks really cramped, there are too many tables and not enough space to move. Light isn't enough too. For a restaurant where people come with families and kids, their ambience needs to get better.  There have been times when they have not served pooris for lunch (Why else would I go to Rajdhani, I can have rotis at home too) :(
With my experiences at both these places, we have decided to stick to visiting their VM outlet only.
We visited them on 1st Feb with Yashi and totally enjoyed the food. They served chikkoo halva for dessert :) Yummy!

posted from Bloggeroid

Bread dahi vada

We had some leftover brown bread. Decided to experiment with it a bit, and chanced upon this recipe while making shukto. Bong mom's blog

Ingredients-
4 slices bread
Water
Turmeric
Salt

Mix these to make a dough. Water should be just enough.

Oil for deep frying

Shape dough into vadas, will make about 10. Deep fry till dark brown on both sides.

1 cup dahi
Jeera powder
Imli ki chutney

Whip the curd, add the cooled bread vada. Sprinkle with jeera powder and chutney.

It doesnt look so good cos my curd split :( i am thinking of making them as dumplings in gravy next time!

posted from Bloggeroid

Mixed fruit cobbler

For Crust-

This is grape season. And we found strawberries in Big Bazaar for 25 rupees packet! Some of it were left in the fridge and I decided to bake something since it was my birthday eve.
The cobbler turned ut very brown and crispy and tasted good even the next day!

I used a recipe similar to the one used here- Plum and grape cobbler
I changed a few things and made it healthier. My recipe-

I used Navadarshan aata.

My pic looks really bad I know, but Yashi started crying and I spent the least time in perfecting this. But it tasted really good :)

Ingredients-

For cobbler filling-
2 cups red and green grapes
1 large apple
1/2 cup strawberries
1 tsp wheat flour
1 tbsp honey

1 cup wheat flour
1 tsp sugar / honey
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp refined oil
1/4 cup milk (I used 1 tbsp cream)
I don't like the cream on top of milk and I reserve it for baking sometimes

Method-
Pulse all fruits in the food processor so that they are chopped, not totally mashed. Mix rest of the ingredients of the filling. Pour in a greased baking dish.


In the food processor, attach the dough mixing hook. Add all ingredients of the crust and mix till it forms a ball. On a floured pan, pat into a similar shape as your baking dish andplace the dough on top of the filling mix.

Microwave for 8 mins and bake at 180 degrees for another 10, or till top browns.