Dhudhi (Lauki) Halwa!

Bottle gourd is one of the most neglected vegetable in my food habits. My mom had tough time with me whenever she cooked the bottle gourd. But when she cooked halwa with this vegetable, it will almost be a main course for me. To this halwa I added mawa/khoya to enhance the taste.

Ingredients:Bottle gourd Grated (I medium) – 1 ½ cups (without seeds)
Sugar – ¾ cup or according to your taste.
Mawa/khoya – 2 tablespoons
Ghee – 1 tablespoon
Cardamom powder – 2 pinches
Green food color – few drops (optional)
Silvered almonds for garnishing

Method:Peel the skin of the bottle gourd and grate it. No need to discard the water.
In a thick kadai, melt the ghee.
To the ghee, add the grated bottle gourd and sauté in medium heat.
When water is absorbed, add the sugar and mix well.
When the bottle gourd and sugar becomes thick, add the khoya and food color (optional).
Again mix well. Finally add the cardamom powder and mix.
When the halwa leaves the sides of the kadai (சுருண்டு வரும் போது) remove from heat.
Garnish with silvered almonds.
Serve chill.

I'm sending this to the Mithai Mela event.

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Salad 'n' Soup

Salad

Ingredients

Lettuce or mixed greens – 2 cups

Chickpeas- 1/4 cup (canned - rinsed and drained)

Olive oil – 1 teaspoon

Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon

Salt and pepper to taste.

Sprinkle of flaxseeds.

Preparation

Toss together mixed greens or lettuce and chickpeas.

Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and toss again.

Sprinkle with flaxseeds.
Source : The Internet

Creamy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
Ripe tomatoes – 2 lb

Olive oil to coat tomatoes.

White onion – 1 (chopped)

Carrot – 1 (chopped)

Small fennel bulb – 1 (chopped)

Unsalted butter – 3 tablespoons

Chicken or vegetable stock or water– 2 cups (I used water)

Fresh tarragon – 6 sprigs

Fresh parsley – 6 sprigs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heavy cream - ½ cup

Parsley Croûtons

Baguette – 12 thin sliced

Olive oil to coat both sides of each piece of baguette

Garlic - 2 gloves (cut into half)

Teleme cheese (or Parmesan) – I used parmesan

Fresh parsley – ¼ cup (chopped)

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Coat them with olive oil.
Place the tomatoes in the baking dish for 30 minutes in the oven.
In between turn the tomatoes every 10 minutes.
When the tomatoes' skin begins to darken and blister, remove the baking dish. Let it cool.
Remove the skin. Reserve the pulp and the juices.
Melt the butter in a thick saucepan and add the chopped fennel bulb, carrot, onion and saute.
When the veggies turn soft add the water, fresh tarragon, fresh parsley.
Simmer for 30 minutes.

During this time, let's cook croutons.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Coat olive oil on both sides of the sliced baguettes. Place it on a baking sheet.
Rub one side of baquette with garlic and add the teleme cheese or sprinkle parmesan cheese. Sprinkle the parsley and bake till brown.

After 30 minutes, remove the sprigs of tarragon and parsley.
Add the tomato pulp and juice to the soup.
Let it cool.
Blend the vegetables in batches.
Return the soup to the pan and add the heavy cream. Heat it till warm.
Season it with pepper and salt.
While serving, float the croutons on the bowl of soup.

Source: Noble Pig.

Salad sent off to the 15-Minute event.

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V(w)ada Pav

Life is not normal in Mumbai without vada pav. It is the most popular dish in Mumbai. It is a scrumptious snack sold everywhere ubiquitously in Maharashtra. Vada pav is the Mumbai’s burger. It is a combination of Batata vada and split pav (bun). Batata vada is boiled mashed potatoes with masalas dipped in besan batter and deep fried. This vada is stuffed in pav with chutneys and dry red chutney. Vada pav is also served with fried green chillies.

Method:

Vada:
Stuffing masala:
Potatoes – 4 (medium – boiled and mashed)
Green chillies – 3 (medium-crushed &minced)
Garlic – 1 cloved (minced)
Turmeric powder – 2 pinches
Cumin seeds – ¼ teaspoon
Garam masala – ¼ teaspoon
Lemon juice – ½ teaspoon
Asafoetida – 2 pinch
Coriander leaves – 2 teaspoon (chopped)
Salt as required
Oil

Batter:
Gram flour or besan – 1 cup
Red chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
Baking soda – 2 pinch
Salt as required

Method:
Combine the batter ingredients in a bowl and add water.
Merge till it becomes thick consistency. Keep the bowl aside.
In a pan heat the oil and add the cumin seeds. Then toss in the garlic and green chillies and sauté.
Throw in the mashed potatoes, turmeric powder, asafetida, salt, coriander leaves and mix well.
Sauté this mixture for 1 minute and finally pour the lemon juice. Remove from heat. Keep the mixture out of the way. Let it chill.
Deep frying the vada:
Heat the oil in a kadai for deep frying.
Segregate the potato masalas into equal portions and shape into balls.
Immerse this ball in the batter and drop it in the oil (repeat the same process for all the balls).
Fry on both sides and take out when it's golden color.

Chutneys:

Dry garlic chutney:
Garlic – 2 big cloves
Dry coconut Or Kopra (grated) – ¼ cup
Red chilli powder – 2 teaspoon
Oil – ½ teaspoon
Salt as required

Method:
Heat the oil in a small kadai.
Sauté the garlic and dry grated coconut in a low medium flame.
When the coconut changes into golden color, remove from the fire.
Add the garlic, grated coconut, red chilli powder and required salt and grind them.

Sweet and sour chutney:
Tamarind – 1 tablespoon
Dates – 8 (pitted)
Jaggery – 2 to 4 tablespoons
Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder – ½ teaspoon
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Black salt - 1 pinch (I didn’t use this ingredient)

Method:

Boil the tamarind, dates, jaggery and salt in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes.
Cool.
Add this to the blender and blend.
Strain this mixture.
Add red chilli powder, cumin powder, and black salt and mix them up well.

Green chutney:
Coriander leaves – 15 sprigs(or) few with tender stems
Mint leaves – 10 leaves
Tamarind pulp – 1 teaspoon
Green chillies – 2
Salt as required
Sugar – ¼ teaspoon

Method:
Toss all these in the blender and blend by adding little water!

Photos (for adding the chutneys).

Tamarind chutney is added.

Then Dry Garlic Chutney is added.

After that, the Green Chutney is added.

Then the vada is stuffed in the pav.

Finally, it's ready! And press the vada and serve!

Note: Adjust the red chilli powder ,garlic and green chilli according to your taste.

I'm sending this recipe to the Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods. Click on the picture for details.

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Stuffed paratha (aloo, tofu, and gajar)

Stuffed paratha (aloo, tofu, and gajar)
Ingredients:
For dough:
Whole wheat flour – 2 cups
Salt as required
Water for mixing

For stuffing:
Potatoes – 3 medium sized (boiled and grated)
Tofu – 2 tablespoons (crumbled or grated)
Carrot – 2 tablespoons (grated)

Ginger - 1/2 tea spoon - grated
Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder – ¼ teaspoon
Amchur powder – ¼ teaspoon
Chat masala – 2 pinches
Garam masala – ¼ teaspoon
Green chillies (finely chopped) – 2
Coriander leaves – 2 teaspoon (finely chopped no stems!)
Salt as required

Oil or butter for cooking paratha.

Method:
In a bowl, add wheat flour and salt. Mix well.
Add water, and form dough.
Cover and keep it aside.
Pat dry the tofu and crumble/grate.
In another bowl, add all the stuffing ingredients and mix well.
This stuffing mixture should be dry and soft.
Take lime sized dough and flatten it the diameter of 2 inches.

Stuff the required potato mix into the flat dough and wrap into a ball (whole stuffing should be dry).

Flatten again gently.

Fry on flat griddle. Apply oil or ghee on the both sides of the paratha.

Note: Squeeze out all the water from the tofu. Pat-dry and then crumble/grate.

Egg masala:
This recipe is referred to Malar Gandhi’s chicken tomato thokku. I made some changes in the ingredients according to our taste added egg, instead of chicken. We all loved the dish. Thanks Malar!

Heat the oil in a kadai.
To the oil, add saunf, 2 cloves and one cinnamon stick.
Then add, half cup of chopped onion piecesand fry till it becomes translucent.
Add a teaspoon of grated garlic and fry.
After 2 minutes, add tomato pieces, chopped from a big tomato.
Add salt.
Fry till the tomatoes become mushy.
Add a teaspoon of red chilli powder, ¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder and mix well.
Add ¼ cup of water and mix well.
After 3 minutes, add 4 boiled eggs, 2 pinch garam masala and few curry leaves, mix the egg with the masala and remove from fire.
Serve with chapathi.

Capsicum and tofu kurma.
This recipe is from Asha’s bell-pepper kurma. Made some changes by adding tofu and using the onions directly without grinding. I cooked this for dinner tonight. Shallow fry the tofu and add this to the masala. Thanks Asha! We loved this dish!

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Chicken Biryani

My mom cooks the best chicken biryani. She always dums her biryani with a moistened, thick cloth and some hot charcoal pieces. When there is family get together, she cooks it in big vessels. She made sure that the onions are sliced thinly; mint leaves are fresh from garden for the biryani. And the aromatic spices are used too… Even if I can’t cook the dish like her, I still remember the perfectness of the biryani.

Ingredient:
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Chicken (cut into biteful pieces) – 500 gm
Onion (finely chopped) – 1 cup
Garlic (minced) – 1 teaspoon
Ginger (finely minced) – 2 teaspoon
Tomatoes (without seeds) – ¾ cup
Green chilies (crushed) – 2
Mint leaves (finely chopped) – 10 leaves
Red chili powder – ½ teaspoon
Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Ghee – 2 teaspoon
Oil

For chicken marination:
Garlic (finely grated) - ½ teaspoon
Ginger (finely grated) – 1 teaspoon
Red chili powder – ½ teaspoon
Curd/plain yogurt – 1 ½ tablespoon
Salt

Spices to be ground:
Fennel seeds – 1 teaspoon
Cloves – 3
Cinnamon desi – 1
Cardamom – 3
Javanthri – 1
Star anise – 2 petals from a flower
Bay leaves – 2
Nut Meg powder – 2 pinches
Cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon
Pepper corn – 5

For color rice:
Basmati rice – a handful
Food color (red/orange) – ¼ teaspoon

Method:
Marinating:
In a bowl, add the chicken.
Then add the marinating ingredients in the chicken.
Cover and keep it in the fridge.
Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.
Grind all the spices (except bay leaves) into a coarse powder.

Cooking:
Heat the oil in a thick bottomed cooking vessel (whatever vessel you use for cooking biryani).
Add the ground spices and sauté for 30 seconds.
Then include the ginger and garlic and fry till the raw smell disappears.
Add the onions, and fry till it changes color.
Throw in the green chilies and mint leaves and fry for a minute.
Toss in the tomatoes and required salt and sauté till it gets mushy.
Add the red chili and coriander powder and mix well.
At this time, throw the chicken in and stir-fry.
Keep stir-frying till it dries up.
Pour the ghee and sauté for a minute.
Drain the rice from the water with a strainer and toss it in the mixture. Mix gently.
Pour 2 cups of water and again mix gently.
Cover the vessel and let it cook for 10-15 minutes in a low-medium flame.
Remove the lid and cover the vessel with a sheet of aluminum foil.
Then place the lid on the foil.
Change the heat to simmer mode.
Cook it for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, the rice and chicken must be well-cooked.
Note: Check it and if not properly cooked, take your time. To me, it takes 10 minutes.
Mix the rice with ghee (optional) and coriander leaves.

For color rice (optional):
Boil the water in a small pan.
Add the rice and food color and mix well.
IT SHOULDN’T BE STICKY!
After rice is cooked, get rid of the water!
Finally add this color rice to the biryani.
Garnish as you desire. Remove bay leaves while serving.
Serve with raita or kurma or chicken fry.

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Thayir Vadai

For vadai refer to my last year's post. It is not necessary to make donut shaped vadai.

For Curd:
Thick Curd - 2 ½ cups
Grated coconut – 3 tablespoons
Green chillies - 2
Ginger – ¼ inch
Salt

Tempering:
Mustard seeds – 2 pinch
Cumin seeds – 2 pinch
Whole dry chilli – 2
Curry leaves- 5
Oil
Garnishing:
Corainder leaves


Method:
Soak the vadais in hot water for 2 to 4 minutes.
Meanwhile grind the coconut,green chillies and ginger into thick paste.
Add this to the curd with salt and mix well.
Take the vadai from the hot water and press the vadai so that the water is squeezed out.
Place it in a bowl or plate. Pour the curd.
Temper the mustard seeds, cumin seeds , whole dry chilli,curry leaves.
Spread the tempering over thayir vadai.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Note: Tempering is your option. Cover the vadais and keep them in the fridge for 1-2 hours. Serve them chill.

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