Burnt onion pasta soup

This is one of the most delicious pasta soup. Burnt onion gives divine taste to the soup. So without any delay here is the recipe of this simple few ingredients soup.

Ingredients:
1 cup pasta (any kind of your liking)
2 big tomatoes chopped
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 clove garlic chopped finely
Salt to taste
crushed black pepper (optional if you want hotness in your soup)
water 2 cups.

In a big pan, boil 5 cup water with 1 tsp salt and when water starts boiling, put the paste in. Let it cook until pasta is tender, around 10-12 minutes. In a separate pan, heat oil and put garlic. When garlic turns brown, add onion. Saute onion until they become brown (or little bit burnt). Now add tomatoes and salt and let it cook until tomatoes are mushy. Add water and when water comes to boil, add pasta. Let it cook for few minutes and then add crushed pepper. Serve hot. You could add bell peppers in it if you wish. If you want more spicy, fry some green chilies with the onion. I usually cook it for lunch on weekends.

Misal pao

This spicy preparation is one of the famous breakfasts in Maharashtra. Misal is served with pao and crunchy bhujia or mixture preferably with peanuts is used to garnish misal.

Ingredients:
Sprouted moong daal 1 cup
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste
paste of 1 medium onion and one tomato

Pao
Bhujiya or mixture (I used this haldiram mixture)

To sprout moong soak sabut moong daal in water for 15-20 minutes and then put the daal in wet cheese cloth and hang for 24 hours. Keep sprinkling water every now and then on the cloth. Sprouted moong daal will look like this.

Now make paste of onion and tomato in a blender and keep aside. Heat oil in a kadai and when oil is hot, put red chili powder. Stir once and immediately add the onion tomato paste and salt. Fry till side leaves oil. Add garam masala, sprouted daal and 3-4 cups water and cook it on simmer until daal is cooked. Garnish with mixture and serve hot with pao and onions and a slice on onion on the side.

Besan ke laddoo

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE!!!!!!!!

These mouth watering laddoos are actually very easy to make. But let me warn you, if you are counting calories, stay away from them!!!!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup ghee
1/2 cup besan
1/3 cup sugar
pistachios to garnish

In a kadai heat ghee and fry besan on medium until it becomes aromatic. Now add sugar, mix well and switch off the stove. When the mixture cools, give them shape of laddoos. Some people like to add cardamom powder in the mixture. I don't because I like besan aroma a lot. If you wish you could put a pinch of cardamom powder as well. Now garnish with pistachios and serve.

Herbed Veggies

These are very healthy, super delicious quick dish and is very satisfying. You need some veggies with different textures. I used broccoli and Zucchini. This will be ready in 5-10 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 lb veggies, say broccoli and zucchini, cut in big pieces
1 medium tomato diced
handful of dill (or basil or chives)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic salt (or to your taste)
A pinch crushed black pepper

Heat olive oil in a pan and add tomatoes. When tomatoes are soft, add veggies and garlic salt. When veggies are half done, add dill. Switch off the stove when veggies are just done. You don't want to overcook. Add black pepper if you want little spicy.

Gobhi 65

Gobhi 65 is the vegetarian cousin of Chicken 65 and is one of the most popular starters in all Indian restaurants. The secret of great Gobhi 65 is good marination. Here is the step by step recipe of Gobhi machurian.

Ingredients:
1/2 cauliflower washed and separated in florets
1/2 onion chopped in 1" pieces
1 bell pepper chopped in 1" pieces (any color)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
oil to fry
1/2 tsp lime juice (optional)

In  a big vessel put all purpose flour, all spices, salt, soy sauce and little bit water. Marinate cauliflower florets in this mix for 3-4 hours.

Now fry them crisp.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and saute onion and green pepper for few minutes. Add fried cauliflower florets and mix it well. Switch off the stove in 2 minutes. Serve hot and add little bit lime juice while serving.

Chatpate aloo in microwave

This is super-easy to make and serve as an excellent snack for evening snacks, especially with tea.
Here is the recipe for these delicious aloos.

Ingredients:
12-15 baby potatoes (washed, no need to peel)
1 tbsp fresh cream
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1 tsp kasoori methi
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder

In microwave, cook potatoes for 6-8 minutes of until they are soft. Put a small glass filled with water in microwave at the time of cooking potatoes. This is stop potatoes from shrinking. Now in a
microwavable bowl, put oil and all other ingredients other than cream and cook on high for a minute.
Add fresh cream and potatoes and mix well. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with tea.

Chettanid Pepper Chicken

Sorry for being away from blog for such a long time. We have been vacationing in India for many weeks and then hang over of such a wonderful trip!!! Finally I am back with a recipe, which is not my
original recipe but turned out great so sharing it.

DH wanted to have chicken and a different kind of preparation!!! Lo Jee, kar lo baat. Ek tou vegetarian biwi se chicken ki demand and wo bhi different style ke!!! I decided to cook Chettinad Pepper Chicken.
My preparation is inspired by this recipe . However, DH likes little bit curry with chicken so I modified it a bit and also added little less chili than the original recipe.

Ingrdients:
1 lb chicken (I used chicken thigh part)
2 large Onion chopped finely
2 Tomatoes chopped)
Ginger garlic paste  2 tsp
Chili powder 1.5 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp
Coriander powder : 1 tbsp
Whole Pepper corns (crushed) : 1 tbsp
Cinnamon : 2 sticks
2 green Cardamom
1 black cardamom
2 Cloves
2 Bay leaf
Fennel seeds  1 tsp
Curry leaf  few
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste
Lemon Juice : 1/2 tsp (optional)

Marinate chicken in 1 tsp ginger garlic paste chili powder turmeric and salt for 1-2 hours.

Heat oil in a pan and put all sabut masalas such as bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon and clove. Now add fennel seeds. When they sputter, add curry leaf. Now put onion and saute until translucent. Add remaining ginger garlic paste. Finally add chopped tomato and let it become mushy. Add coriander powder and marinated chicken. Add little water. Cook until chicken pieces are tender and then add the crushed pepper. Serve hot with rice. If you want, add some lemon juice to chicken.

Urad daal kachori

There are two kinds of urad daal kachoris. In both kinds, the first step is to soak urad daal over night and the second step is to grind it. However, from here on the procedure differs. In the one with stuffed ural daal kachori, the grinded daal is fried in ghee and masalas and stuffing is made. In the non-stuffed version, the one I am giving the recipe, the daal is actually kneaded with the wheat flour with some masalas. Little suji is also added to make the kachori crisp. Both taste great and are good combination with raita or some light sabji.
Here is my recipe:
1 cup urad daal soaked overnight and grinded
2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup suji
2 tbsp yogurt plain
salt to taste
black pepper powder crushed (1 tsp or as per taste)
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds crushed in mortar and pastal)
kasoori methi crushed 1 tbsp
1 tbsp oil
oil for frying

Mix salt, pepper, kasoori methi and suji in the wheat flour and add 1 tbsp oil. Rub this mixture. Now add the grinded daal. Mix it well. Now slowly add the yogurt and and make the dough. Adjust the quantity of yogurt to get the dough of desired consistency. It should be softer than the poori dough but harder than the roti dough. Now make table-tennis ball size roughs and roll into 2.5-3 inches kachoris. Heat oil in a pan and fry them one by one. Serve hot.

Moong daal halwa

This is no water halwa which makes is halwa with long shelf life. I made it because I wanted to keep some sweet in my office and this one lasted for about a week at room temperature. I was eating one spoon halwa everyday but on 7th day I could not control myself and finished it all. Well, it could have lasted more, had I not eaten all of it on the 7th day! Again the ratio here is 1:2:1 and you could adjust sugar as per your taste. However, this halwa takes little bit planning in advance as you need to soak moong daal for 4-5 hours.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup ghee
2/3rd cup moong daal halwa soaked for 5-6 hours
1/3rd cup sugar

Grind the soaked halwa with as little water as you can manage. Heat ghee in a pan and put grinded daal paste. Keep stirring until all the water is dried up, and moong daal is nicely fried and strats giving the great aroma. At this point add the sugar and immediately switch off the stove. Cover the pan with a lid and let sugar seep in the halwa. This will also make it little crumbly. Serve hot or at room temperature. It does not taste good when chilled.

Besan ka halwa

Warning!! If you are calorie conscious and feel guilty for any extra calorie after the 1200 count, then this halwa is not for you. But if you are calorie conscious but once in a while sit relaxed, close your eyes and let your body enjoy some divine taste, then go for this one!!! Besan halwa is extremely easy to make. I follow the simple 1:2:1:1 rule, i.e. 1 portion clarified ghee, 2 portion besan, 1 portion water and 1 portion sugar. You could certainly adjust the sugar as per your taste. This proportion was perfect for my DH but I like my halwa to be little sweeter (typical north Indian!), I added couple of spoons of extra sugar. I don't like to use any cardamom or nuts because I love the besan aroma. The pistachio here is put just to make the picture more attractive.
As I said ingredients:
1/3rd cup ghee
2/3rd cup besan
1/3rd cup water
1/3rd cup sugar

Heat ghee in a pan/wok. Add besan and keep stirring continuously. When the divine fried besan aroma starts coming and the besan changes its color, add the water. In couple of minutes add sugar and keep stirring until you reach the desired consistency. Eat small portion and hide the rest because you won't be able to control yourself ;)

Cream of Cauliflower soup

I had this half cauliflower lying in my refrigerator for many days, waiting for its fate! And then I caught a bad cold. I wanted to eat something hot and delicious and soup, obviously, was my choice. This turned out to be a great soup and my cold was gone in no time (I am not saying there was any connection ;))
Anyway, here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 cauliflower broken in florets
1 big onion chopped
1/3 bell pepper chopped (optional)
2 green chillies chopped (if you want hot soup)
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp+1tsp clarified ghee or butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
3 cup milk
3 tbsp whipping cream or fresh cream (optional for richer soup)
salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

In a big pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee. Once ghee is hot add cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add garlic and green chillies. When garlic turns golden brown, add onion and little bit salt. Saute for a minute and then add bell pepper and cauliflower. Let it cook on medium with pan covered until the cauliflower florets are semi-soft. Turn off the stove and let this mixture cool a bit. Now grind this mixture in a grinder. In another pan on medium heat, add 1 tsp clarified ghee. When ghee is hot, add all purpose flour. Saute it and very quickly add milk and grinded paste of cauliflower. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the cream. Let it cook until the desired consistency of the soup is reached. Adjust salt and pepper and serve hot. You can serve with a thin stripe of bell pepper or a dash of cream.

Fish with maximum chilli you can handle, Thanks Ushnish!

I am a vegetarian but usually cook fish and chicken for my husband and many times taste the curry part of the final product too!!! The other day DH asked me to make a different style of hot fish and I stumbled upon Ushnish's blog which I found is the best for non-vegetarian spicy recipes. I immediately chose one of the easy looking fish recipe and it turned out to be one of the most delicious fish I have ever made (thats what DH said :)). Look at my pretty pictures of the final product and please follow the this link for the original recipe. Just one word of caution - take many napkins with you while eating even if you claim you can handle the most spicy food!!!! Even though I used 1 tsp less chilli powder than suggested in Ushnish's recipe, when I tasted the curry it was the fire blast in my mouth!!! I did not have the fish Ushnish suggested so I used 2 big pieces of Salmon fish.

Here is the fish pieces after frying them.

The final product in the pan:

And then served to DH..He wanted me to leave little gravy and he ate it with rotis...

Vada-Pav with fried green chili and garlic chutney

Just the title of this post sends me back in Maharastra, my train journeys between Mumbai and Pune and eating vada-pavs all through the journey.... Somehow vada pao tastes best to me when I am traveling. Well, I cannot re-create that here in Canada but could certainly eat vada-pavs and remember those good old days....and to make it like the thela-walas, I made friend chili and garlic chutney too.

For fried chilies:
5-6 green chilies
salt
oil for frying

Just slit the green chilies and deep fry them and then sprinkle some salt on them. Keep them aside.

For garlic chutney:
8-10 garlic cloves peeled
7-8 dry whole red chilies
salt 1 tsp (or to taste)
1 tsp oil

Heat oil in a pan. Put garlic and fry until brown. Remove them. Put red chilies in the same oil and immediately switch off the stove. Grind the red chilies, garlic and salt together. Chutney is ready. This chutney has long shelf life.

Pav:
I have made pavs in the past and them came out real nice. However this time I just bought them from the grocery store :) I actually bought hamburger buns and roasted them a bit on a tava (a flat pan). When I make pav next time, I will take pictures and post the recipe!!

Vada:
Ingredients:
For the filling:
4 medium sized potatos, boiled and peeled
6 cloves of garlic
4 green chilies
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

For the batter: 
3 tsp gram flour
some water
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala

Oil to fry

There are various versions of making filling for vadas. Some recipes call for many many spices to be put with potato, such as coriander powder, garam masala, amchur, turmeric etc. Some fillings are made by actually frying the masalas and mashed potatoes in a pan. However, I like my vadas to be dominated by garlic and I don't like multiple masalas to confuse the garlic flavor (and when I make aloo paratha, I put all possible masalas availbale on earth!!! Will put recipe sometime soon). So I just put garlic, green chili and lemon juice. Lemon actually enhances garlic flavor and at the same time gives some tangy taste. I can just say that try my recipe and you will not regret :)
Anyway, mash the potatoes. Its okay to have few lumps here and there.  Take garlic and red chilies and grind them with hand in a mortar-and-pestle. The texture which comes from not-so-fine grinding in a mortar-and-pestle actually tastes great when you are biting on vadas. Mix the crushed garlic-chilie in the mashed potatoes. Add lemon juice and salt and mix well. Make 2 inch diameter tikkies  and keep them aside. Now put your deep frying pan on stove and let oil get heated. Now for the batter, mix salt, chili powder, garam masala in gram flour. Pour water such that pancake consistency batter is prepared. I actually like my batter to be a bit on the thicker side so that potatoes are nicely coated. Some like to add baking powder in the batter. I don't add it. If you want, add 1/2 tsp baking powder. Now coat potato tikkies in this batter and deep fry.

And finally cut the pavs in two pieces and assemble the vadas in between pavs and relish with fried chili and garlic chutney. If you wish you could also add coriander chutney . I did not have coriander leaves at home so skipped this part.

Red Lentil Soup

This recipe is inspired by DSM's food blog .  This caught my eye because the main ingredient here is red lentils. I have few kilograms of red lentil at home and it is never used as none of us like daal of red lentil. I tried to make pakodas in the same way as we make chana daal pakoda or urad daal pakoda but DH didn't like saying it is missing "that" crunchy feeling! I tried tomato-onion-red lentil dry vegetable and had some success (in terms of DH liking) but not to the extent that he wants to eat it again and again. When I came across this Rustic lentil soup by DSM, I decided to give it a try and it was a super-dupar success and I have already made it twice in past 1 month. First time DH liked it so much that it got over even before the remaining dinner was ready. Second time I had to hide it from him. I make some modifications in this recipe as we like this soup little more spicy, more garlicky and thick. So here is my version of the same soup. The original recipe is here .

Ingredients:
1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup whole red lentils
2 green chillies, chopped
1 onion chopped
5-6cloves of garlic, chopped
 2 medium tomatoes chopped
 10 baby carrots, chopped lengthwise
 1/2 cup of white mushrooms
10-12 spinach leaves chopped fine
1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
4 cup water (you could replace it with stock..I didn't have it so used water)
Salt to taste
Crushed black pepper to taste (1 used 1 tsp)
1 tbsp olive oil

Wash the daals. Heal oil in a pan and put garlic and green chillies. When garlic turns brownish, add onions and carrots and add some salt. When onions turns translucent, add corns and mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook covered for 5 minutes or until tomatoes become mushy. Now add lentils and spinach. Saute for a minute and add 4 cups of water. At this point taste the salt and add as per your taste. If you want a spicier soup, add some crushed black pepper too. Once a boil comes, cook covered at medium-low until the lentils are well cooked. Serve hot. If you wish, you could top it up with a tsp of sour cream.

This time I took more pictures.

Some veggies in the pan....

Soup being cooked...

And the yummy final product :)

Bread ki kheer (Bread pudding)

Necessity is the mother of creativity!!!! Yes, I wanted to make some dessert for my 1 year old LO and I made this bread pudding and finally ended up eating most of it. But yes, my LO liked it and that was great. Initially I was planning to use bread crumbs for this but since I wanted to make it for my little boy, I used fresh bread crumbs by throwing some breads slices in the food processor. Also while making the pudding, you could add some cardamom powder. I did not add any because I was not sure if my LO will like the strong cardamom smell. Most importantly, I am not a big fan of using cardamom in my cooking as I feel that cardamom smell and flavor is so dominating that the food looses its own shuttle smell and flavor.  So here is the recipe of the bread pudding my LO liked very much.

Ingredients:
2-3 slices of white bread (you could use wheat too...its just that I didn't have any wheat bread at that time and also wheat bread may make the pudding little brownish in color)
3 cups homogenized milk
1/4th cup condensed milk
2 tbsp sugar
If you wish you could add 2-3 drops of rose water or kevda water for the flavor and fragrance.

Throw the bread slices in the food processor and make fresh bread crumbs. Before this remove the bread crust from the sides. Now in a thick-bottom pan heat milk. When milk comes to a boil, add condensed milk and stir for 30 seconds. Finally add the bread crumbs and stir constantly for 10-15 minutes. Now add the sugar and mix well. At this stage, you could add some nuts such as pistachio, cashews, almonds etc. I did not add any since I didn't want to give nuts to my LO at this age (the pistachios in the picture were put just to take a pretty picture!!).  Anyway, your bread pudding is ready and it tastes best when served chill.

Paneer Pasanda

Agar aap apne pati ko bahut pyar karte hein tou unhe Paneer Pasanda bana ke khilaiye :)
With this motto I made Paneer Pasanda for DH when he was coming home after a hectic tour...and I baked  garlic naan at home....let me let you..paneer pasanda and garlic naan are deadly combination!

Ingredient:
1 lb paneer cut in big triangles of same size

For the filling:
1 tbsp crumbled paneer
2 tbsp khoya
1 tsp rasins
1 tsp almond powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
a pinch salt
few mint leaves cut in very very small strips

1 tbsp all purpose flour
oil to fry

For the gravy,
1.5 tbsp almond powder
3 tbsp whipping cream (or malai)
1 tsp crushed black pepper
1" cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom
4-5 cloves
1 bay leaf
salt
1 cup milk

For the filling, mix everything and keep aside. Take all purpose flour and mix in water to make a paste of pouring consistency. Now take paneer triangles and slit them so that the one end of the triangle is still attached. Fill the filling carefully inside the paneer and dip in all purpose flour paste and deep fry them. Take them out in a tissue paper to soak extra oil.

For the curry, there are tons of ways...some make spicy tomato based gravy, some make while gravy with cauliflower paste and some make while gravy with cream. My favorite one is white creamy gravy with almond flavor. Take all the masalas (cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon, black pepper) and grind them well. Mix it in the whipping cream and heat it in a pan. When one boil comes, put almond powder and milk. Boil it for 4-5 more minutes. Add salt to taste. Adjust milk as per the consistency of gravy you require. Finally add fried paneer triangles and serve hot with garlic naan.

How to make Tandoori masala?

My good friend Surabhi asked this question. Surabhi, there are two ways to make Tandoori masala. Easier way: buy it from the market and use it :)
Difficult way--
Ingredients:
2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek
1 3" cinnamon stick
1 tsp dry garlic powder
1 tsp dry ginger powder
10-12 cloves
1 tsp black pepper
2 black cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg (Jaifal)
1 tsp mace(Javitri)
5-6 dry red chillies
1 tsp red or orange food color
Salt (you can add it now or later when you are actually using the masala for marination)

Grind all the above ingredients to a fine powder, sieve it and store in an airtight container. 

Grilled Paneer tikka

When this post had to follow the tandoori chicken post since I made this for myself when I grilled chicken for DH. I used the same marination as in the tandoori chicken .

Ingredients:
250 gram paneer cut in 1.5 inch cubes
1 cup colorful bell peppers cut in 1.5 inch squares
1 cup onions cut in 1.5 inch squares.
Few skewers

Put oven on broil. Marinate paneer and bell peppers overnight. For marination, see tandoori chicken . Put paneer, bell peppers and onions in skewers. Grill these in the top most rack for 8-10 minutes. Turn and grill for another 3-4 minutes. You want the edges to become black. Eat hot with green chutney.

Tandoori Chicken

I rarely cook non-veg at home. Being vegetarian myself, its not very motivating to cook for my DH and not able to eat myself! However, I have already cooked this recipe few times at home. My friend Preeti once made it and posted its pics in her blog. DH went crazy seeing the pics and I decided to give it a try and it was a great success. Recently DH came back from Germany trip so I made it again for him and made some tandoori paneer for myself in the same marination (recipe coming soon). So here I am basically reproducing Preeti's recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken legs (no skin)
salt
lemon
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 cup yogurt
handful of coriander leaves
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Tandoori masala
2-3 green chillies


Wash and pat dry chicken pieces. Make some slips in the pieces. Put some salt and lemon and let chicken pieces soak salt and lemon for 30 minutes. In the meantime mix all the ingredients in a grinder and marinate chicken in this paste for 5-6 hours or overnight. Now you can grill it. But we are not allowed to use grill in our apartment building so I have to use oven. Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Grease a tray and put chicken pieces in the tray and put it in oven for 45 minutes. If you want more spicy tandoori chicken, you can rub some chicken masala on marinated chicken pieces and then put them in oven. After 45 minutes turn the pieces and bake for another 10 minutes. Now to get the burn effect at places, put the oven on broiler and put chicken pieces in the top most shelf just for 4-5 minutes and remove them. Serve with green chutney, lemon and onions soaked in vinegar.

The best Chocolate Lava Cake

Am I exaggerating when I am saying that I made the best Chocolate lava cake?? Not at all. You have to taste it to believe me. And I got it right in the third attempt. I cannot wait to show the pictures so here are the pictures. This is how my lava cake looks..

Here is the closer look at the outer crust...soft yet crispy..

And best part...look at the lava of chocolate oozing from inside...isn't it perfect!!!! It was heavenly...really...

So here is the story behind the lava cake. I happened to see this ad for Domino's choco lava cake on you tube and wanted to eat right away. Sent my DH to few Domino stores here in Kingston and got to know that these lava cakes haven't been introduced in Canada as of yet. But I had to eat it so tried making and failed in first two attempts. I was not getting as gooey center as in the ad. Finally I made ganache and inserted inside every ramekin while baking the cake and...viola! Got the perfect lava cake. So here is the recipe for making 4 medium sized chocolate lava cakes.

Ingredients:
For cake:
200 gram dark chocolate
1 stick (or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
5 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4th cup sugar
A small pinch salt

For ganache:
2 ounce chocolate
2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
a pinch sugar
1 tsp butter


We need to make ganache well ahead of time. For ganache, melt chocolate in microwave and mix well with the whipping cream, butter and pinch sugar. Refrigerate it for couple of hours so that it becomes hard. Now make 4 rounds of this and keep it in freezer so that it does not melt.

For the cake:
Put chocolate in double boiler over hot water and melt it. Add butter and stir until smooth. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and sugar for 8-10 minutes. Add flour and salt and mix well. Now put this mixture in melted chocolate and butter and fold in until mix. Generously butter the ramekins. Pour this mixture in 4 ramekins. Keep these ramekins in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Now heat oven at 375 F. Take the ramekins out of refrigerator and and ganache from freezer. Insert one ball in the center of each ramekin. Bake for 15 minutes. Let the ramekins cool for 15 minutes. Now run knife on the sides of ramekins and gently remove the cake. Best way is to put the serving plate on top of a ramekin (after you have run the knife on the edges). Now bring it upside down and pat the back of ramekin and gently remove the ramekin. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Serve hot.

Lauki (Bottle gourd) ka kofta

Again thanks to Madhuri for bringing such fresh lauki. I had many dishes in mind with lauki but finally I settled for Lauki ke kofte. The trick is to make plain lauki kofta in a spicy gravy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

For koftas
1 medium size lauki
1/4 cup besan (gram flour)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
a pinch salt
Oil for frying

For gravy:
1 onion
6-7 garlic cloves
2 tomatoes
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or as per your taste)
Few coriander leaves to garnish

Grate lauki and add a pinch salt and keep aside for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, sqeeze grated lauki to remove  water. Now add besan bit by bit until the lauki starts binding. Add some chili powder and mix well. Make big lemon size rounds and fry them. Now keep them on a tissue paper to absorb extra oil. Your koftas will look like this:

Now grind onion and garlic together and keep aside. Grind tomatoes and keep aside. Heat oil in a wok/pan/kadai. When oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add onion garlic paste. Add some salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chili powder and fry until the paste leaves oil. Now add grind tomatoes for another 6-7 minutes. Now add garam masala and saute for 2 more minutes. Add water and let it come to a boil. Add koftas carefully so that they do not break. Cook i ton sim for 5 minutes and garnish with coriander leaves. It goes best with rice or roti.