Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Chocolate Coconut burfis
Recipe:12 medium sized Coconut burfis
1 chocolate bar of your choice.
Break the chocolate bar into big chunks.
Take them in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave, stirring in-between. Usually it takes one to two minutes for the chocolate to become shiny liquid.
Line a plate with parchment paper or wax paper.
To chocolate coat: Dip the coconut burfi into the melted chocolate with your fingers or with a fork. Completely submerge and cover. Lift, and run a knife underside and to the sides, to remove excess chocolate. Place the burfi on a wax or parchment covered plate. Quickly coat all the pieces in same way. Place the tray in a cool place, or refrigerate. Once the coating firms-up, gently remove them from plate and store them by placing a wax paper in-between.
Coconut burfi coated with chocolate tastes superb and for choco-cocoholics, this is a simple and easy way to indulge in chocolate-coconut cravings.
Chestnut Kosambari
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Doi maach or Yoghurt fish curry
Recipe which feeds 4
2 large pieces of skate, halved
2 large onions
1 inch fresh ginger
Half tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
2 bay leaves
2 green chillies
1 tbsp raisins
Half tsp garam masala (optional)
1 tsp sugar
350 gm thick natural yogurt (Greek or full fat version)
1 tsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp mustard oil
2 tbsp sunflower oil
Salt to taste
Wash the fish well and marinate with the turmeric and chilli powder, some salt and leave to sit in a mixing bowl.
Slice one onion finely and puree the other with the ginger. Then bring the sunflower oil to heat over a high flame in a heavy bottomed and preferably non-stick frying pan.
When the oil starts sizzling, fry the fish pieces gently on either side until pale brown and well sealed. Now remove them onto to a plate.
Next, add the mustard oil to the pan and bring it to heat over a high flame. When it starts sizzling, add the bay leaf and almost immediately the sliced onions.
Fry this, stirring regularly until the onions yellow from the turmeric fish marinade starts going golden brown on the edges.
At this stage, mix in the pureed onion and ginger. Stir like a maniac on a high flame, helping the whole lot turn a pale golden colour. You will need to keep adding two tablespoons of water at a time to prevent the masalas from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
This takes a good 20 minutes and don’t give up too early or the dish will taste raw at the end. While the onion masala cooks, beat the yogurt with an equal amount of warm water, the sugar and flour. This will prevent it from splitting.
When the onion stops smelling raw and pungent and takes on a brown colour, lower the flame to low for two minutes. Stir in the yogurt and the green chillies and simmer until the curry has an even pale, golden colour.
Add this stage, lower the fish into the curry, sprinkle the garam masala and raisins and leave to simmer until oil reappears through little pores on top of the curry.
Serve with rice cooked with a tablespoon of ghee for an authentic touch.
Plum Fruit Chaat
Recipe : Use your favorite fruits in this recipe.
5 plums - peel the skin. Halve. Remove the seed. Slice to small
1 apple - peel, core and slice to bite-sized pieces.
Ruby orange - cut and squeeze the juice
¼ teaspoon each - salt, black pepper and amchur powder
Take salt, black pepper and amchur in a mortar. With a pestle gently mix them together. This is chaat masala, my version. You could also add cumin to the mix.
Take the fruits in a bowl. Pour over the ruby orange juice. Sprinkle the chaat masala. Add honey or sugar if you like. Toss. Spoon the chaat into cups. Enjoy. Makes two to four servings.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thotakoora (Chauli) Vepudu - Amaranth leaves stir fry
Prep & Cooking: 30 mts
Serves: 3-4
Cuisine: Andhra
Ingredients:
4 big bunches fresh amaranth leaves (picked, use tender stalks) chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
big pinch turmeric pwd
salt to taste
2-3 tsps oil
Make a coarse paste:
2 tbsp coriander leaves
2 green chillis
1 tbsp coconut (optional)
For popu/tadka/seasoning:
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp split gram dal
1 dry red chillis de-seeded
1 sprig curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida/hing
Another option is to soak 1 tbsp yellow moong dal for a few mts and drain and grind it along with green chillis and coriander leaves.
Info on Amaranth greens - very good source of vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin, folate, dietary minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese. More info on the nutritional values of amaranth leaves - cooked, boiled and drained.
Peanuts with Pudina Pachadi
1 bunch fresh pudina (spearmint)
1 onion and 4 green chillies
Marble-sized tamarind
1 tablespoon peanut oil
¼ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
Heat oil in a cast-iron skillet to a smoking point. Add and toast cumin for few seconds. Add the onion and chillies. Saute to pale brown. Remove to a plate. Then in the same skillet, add the pudina and saute until leaves collapse. Remove to a plate. Wait for the contents to reach room temperature.
Take peanuts in a Sumeet style mixer or blender. Pulse for few minutes. Then add the roasted onion, chilli, cumin and mint leaves. Also salt and the tamarind along with the water it soaked in. Puree to smooth paste. Add water if necessary, about another half cup for easy blending.
Pudina pachadi is best eaten the day it is made.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Bengali cheesecake for the soul
Feeds 6:
500 gm low fat natural yoghurt
400 gm condensed milk
4 green cardamoms
About 10-12 saffron strands
2 tbsp milk
Preheat the oven to 190 Degrees Centigrade. Put the cardamoms in a large shallow baking tray in the oven for about five minutes. Heat the milk with the saffron strands in the microwave fr 10 seconds and leave until later.
In the meantime, mix the yogurt and condensed milk together until smooth. Crush the cardamoms and stir them into the cheesecake mix.
Fill six little ramekins or a pyrex baking dish with the doi or yoghurt. Place in the large, shallow baking tray. Fill this tray with enough hot water to come half way up to the ramekins/dish. Then carefully place the whole lot in the oven for 10 minutes.
After this time, spoon a couple of saffron strands and a little bit of the golden milk on top of the yoghurt. Keep cooking for another five minutes until the cheesecake has set. A fork inserted should come out clean.
Leave to sit for 10 minutes and then refridgerate for later. This is a delicious low fat desert after a full meal - only 6 grams of fat per serving.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Homemade naan
http://www.quickindiancooking.com/2008/03/06/homemade-naan-a-sticky-decision/
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Paneer Tikka
Cottage cheese and capsicum marinated in tandoori spices. This is a complete microwave dish.
Ingredients
2 cups panir, diced(cottage cheese)
1/2 cup red capsicums, chopped
1/2 cup thick curds
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves(kasuri methi)
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
1 teaspoon chat masala
1 tablespoon oil
salt
Directions
Combine the curds,ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, kasuri methi, garam masala, coriander, oil and salt and mix well to prepare a marinade.
Add the paneer and capsicum and keep aside for 15-25 minutes.
Arrange the marinated paneer and capsicum pieces in a shallow glass dish and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.
Serve hot,sprinkled with chaat masala.
Basic sweet lassi
This is a basic sweet lassi recipe that is slightly lower in fat and sugar than the type found in restaurants. It can be doubled, tripled, etc. If all of your ingredients are cold you can skip the ice cubes (my preference).
Ingredients
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons Splenda sugar substitute
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon rose water
Directions
Blend all ingredients together.
Pour into a cup.
If desired, garnish with an ice cube, some ground cardamom, or a tiny sprinkle of crushed almonds or pistachios (all optional).
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Super Easy Chicken Biryani
Super Easy Chicken Biryani
I know easy is a relative term. Making Biryani is never that easy, it is normally a multi step process - prepare the meat and the gravy, fry the rice, cook the rice, mix the rice with the gravy and bake for a while… give or take and mix and match some steps here and there, it is a slightly complicated process! So when I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks where the process is made much simpler, really just a two step process, I was a little skeptical, but wanted to give it a try anyway.
This recipe is adapted from Mrs.B.F. Varughese’s Recipes for All Occasions Part 2. What makes this an easy recipe is, there is no frying rice beforehand, or baking afterwards. Prepare the chicken gravy, add some coconut milk and water to get the desired quantity of liquid to cook the rice, add the soaked rice and leave it on the stove on low heat till you are ready to eat! Isn’t that simple? There is no oven or pressure cooker involved in this process. All you need is a Dutch oven or any deep pan with a heavy base and a tight lid.
Ingredients (for 4 servings)
2 cups Basmati rice
1.5 lb chicken with bones (I used two whole legs)
1.5 tbsp ground ginger
1.5 tbsp ground garlic
1.5 tbsp ground shallots
1.5 tbsp coriander powder
1 cup yogurt
2 cups water
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 cups coconut milk
3 cups thin onion slices
10 whole black peppercorns
1 star anise
8 cloves
8 cardamoms
1″ piece of cinnamon
4 green chilies sliced thin (I used the Serrano chilies, if using a smaller variety, add more according to desired spiciness).
1 cup diced tomato pieces
1/2 cup minced mint leaves
1/2 cup minced coriander leaves
Salt to taste
cashew nuts and fried onions for garnish
5 tbsp ghee (I use oil, doesn’t really make a big difference in taste to me)
Wash and soak the rice in water for about an hour.
Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces. I cut each leg into three pieces.
Mix the ground ginger, garlic and shallots with the coriander powder to make a paste.
Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a pan large enough to cook the chicken pieces. Add the ground paste and saute for about 2 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and fry till the pieces start to brown. Add the yogurt and 2 cups of water and cook till chicken pieces are about half cooked and more than half the gravy is gone. Mix the lemon juice and remove from fire, there will be about 1 cup of gravy remaining at this point. Make sure you don’t overcook the chicken.
Heat the remaining oil in the Dutch oven. Add the star anise, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and saute for a minute. Add the sliced green chilies and saute for another minute. Add the onion slices and fry till they start to brown. Drain the prepared chicken pieces from the gravy and add to the onions along with the tomato pieces and saute till the juice dries up.
In the mean time measure the remaining gravy from the chicken, add the coconut milk and enough water to make the total amount of liquid into 4 1/2 cups. Add the liquid into the Dutch oven and bring it to a boil. Add the mint and coriander leaves and stir well. Add salt to taste.
Now drain and add the soaked rice to the Dutch oven. Bring the liquid again to a boil on high heat. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat all the way to the lowest setting and cover with a tight fitting lid.
Leave this on the stove for about an hour or more, till you are ready to eat. Do not by any means remove the lid in the mean time. I know, you will be tempted to open and check if the rice is getting ready. But the rice is being cooked by the steam and you don’t want to waste away any of the steam do you? Just trust me and trust the steam to do its job.
After an hour (or more if you have the time), open the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Garnish with fried nuts and fried onions and serve with a side of plain raitha.
This biryani was delicious! Siv even commented that this is the best chicken biryani he’s ever had, which doesn’t really mean anything, but he did polish off a lot of it.
The best thing I like about this recipe is the process. The recipe and the ingredients are very versatile. You can stick with your normal biryani ingredients, make the gravy and just follow this process, you won’t make out that the rice is not fried and baked. This involves a slightly longer cooking time than the regular biryani, but the majority of the time is spent on the stove without you having to do anything with it. So you can concentrate on more important activities like blogging during that time.
Source : http://blog.sigsiv.com/2007/04/easy-breezy-chicken-biryani.html.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BALUSHAHI
BALUSHAHI
SERVINGS MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Ingredients refined flour (maida) 1½ ,cupssoda bicarbonate ¼, teaspoonolive oil + to deep fry 2/3 cup, yogurt beaten 8 tablespoons , sugar 2 cups , milk 2 tablespoons ,pistachios finely chopped 4-5
METHOD
1. Sift refined flour and soda bicarbonate together into a bowl.
2. Rub in two-thirds cup of olive oil into the flour mixture till it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add beaten yogurt and knead into soft dough. Cover and allow it to rest for forty-five minutes.
4. Divide into twelve equal portions and shape into smooth balls. Take care not to overwork the dough.
5. Make a slight dent in the center of the ball with your thumb. Keep the balls covered.
6. Heat sufficient oilin a kadai and when it is medium hot, add the prepared dough balls and deep fry on very low heat. If necessary you may place a tawa below the kadai so that the oil does not get too hot.
7. Gradually the balushahis will start floating to the top. Turn gently and fry on the other side till golden. The entire process may take around half an hour to forty-five minutes.
8. Drain and allow to cool to room temperature. This can be an overnight process.
9. Heat together sugar and one cup of water till it reaches a two-string consistency. Midway through add milk to the cooking syrup so that the scum rises to the surface. Carefully remove this scum and discard.
10. Remove the syrup from heat and soak the fried balushahis in it for thirty minutes.
11. Gently remove the balushahis from the sugar syrup and place on a serving plate. Garnish with pistachios. Serve when the sugar has hardened.
Mention of balushahi takes me back to my childhood days in Delhi. Especially during Diwali it was a must. Flaky but not hard, with a sprinkling of pistachios this round doughnut like mithai is what sweet dreams are made of.
Badam (Almond) Katlee
Badam (Almond) Katlee
250 gms. almonds (soaked overnight)
1. Drain and change water from almonds.
Indian cuisine has been around for at least 2500-3000 years and it has changed much over the years. The use of many different herbs and spices make each dish quite unique. Each different region in India is known for it's wide selection of different recipes and Indian cooking styles and tastes. Though about one third of the population is strictly vegetarian, there are many different dishes that include chicken, lamb and goat meat. In India though the cow is thought of as a sacred animal therefore you will not find many recipes including beef. Food is such an important part of Indian culture as in most cultures, and plays an important role in the family life and in festival celebrations. Most families in India still sit down together to enjoy their meals with one another. There are a couple of main courses and they are usually served along with different pickles, chutneys and of course different types of Indian bread, which is called "roti". There is also usually a dessert served as well.
Indian cooking has many different styles throughtout all of India. For that matter, there is really not one accepted style of Indian cuisine but rather many different styles. So if you travel to India you will find that the food prepared by the people and restaurants in that area will be different in each area. Of course there will be some similarities but it will also be very different from place to place.
