Aloo ki kachori

If you have to go out and carry some filling Indian snack, nothing better than Aloo ki Kachori. In Indian trains, you would find half the people carrying Aloo ki kachori.
Last weekend we had to go to Cincinati. We first had to drive for 3 hours and then take a flight. So the menu on the way was "Aloo ki kachori" :)

Ingredients:
Filling is prepared in the same as in Royal bread pakoda .

Wheat flour 2 cups
a pinch of salt
water to make dough
Oil for frying

Heat oil in a pan.
Mix salt in wheat flour. Using wheat flour and water, make dough. The consistency of the dough should be little more loose than the chapati dough. Now make ping pong size balls. Rub little oil on your palms. Take a ball, spread it with your hands and fill it with 1 tbsp filling. Cover it well and slowly spread the ball to approximately 3 inches in diameter. Make more of this. When oil is hot, fry it to golden brown in color. They are great with tea.

Indian Style Chow-mein

Chow-mein brings me back to my hostel days in 11th and 12th class. It was then I got introduced to chow-mein. When we wanted to treat ourselves, we would either have Maggi or chaow-mein depending on the money. If our money has just come from home, we would request Shaukat bhai to bring us chow-mein. If we were low on money, Shaukat bhai would get us Maggi and we would lit fire with "waste" papers and cook Maggi there!!!!! Those were the days!!!!

Anyway, here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
Half packet chow-mein noodles (I buy it from Asian store here)
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 tbsp vinegar
1 cup chopped veggies (I used Asian style frozen veggies)
2-3 green chillies chopped
salt to taste
1-2 tsp chilli sauce
1 onion, cut in pieces

In a pan bring water to boil. Put noodles in it. Let it boil until noodles are tender.
Once done, drain water.
In a wok, heat oil. When oil is smoking, put veggies, onion and chillies. Saute them for 3-4 minutes. Add salt. Add noodles and stir well. Serve hot with Gobhi Manchurian.

Gobhi Manchurian

This is one of those Indo-chinese dishes whose even thoughts makes you go to dream land. I think now even thela-walas keep them in India. I have made it many many times at home now. It goes best with Hakka-noodles or Indian style Chow-mein.

Ingredients:
1/2-3/4th cauliflower
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2-3 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
Oil to fry

2 tbsp oil
minced garlic 1.5 tbsp
1 onion cut in small pieces
3-4 green chillies cut in pieces
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
salt to taste
1 tsp chilli sauce
2 tbsp tomato-chilli ketch up
1 tbsp corn starch mixed in 3 tbsp water

Heat oil in a pan. Cut cauliflower in small florets. Mix all purpose flour, corn starch, salt pepper in water to a kind of thick consistency. Dip cauliflower florets
in this mixture and fry. After frying keep them in oven at 300 F so that they don't loose their crispiness. Corn starch is what brings the crispiness.

In a pan, put 2 tbsp oil. Add minced garlic, chilli and onion. Saute them for 2 minutes. Add ketch up, soya sauce, vinegar and chilli sauce. Add corn starch mix in it.
Add salt and put fried florets just taken out from oven. Stir it well. Let it cook for 1-2 more minutes and serve with chow-mein.

Mangalore Buns

Around 10 days back my brother-in-law requested that I make Mangalore buns for his bro.
Till then I hadn't heard the name of Mangalore buns. I searched internet and found many recipes for it. Finally I liked Ramya's recipe . I am just reproducing her recipe here.

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1 cup all purpose flour
3-4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp cumin seeds.
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mash banana well and add all the ingredients. Mix well and make dough. Add water if you need to. Keep it overnight.
Now heat oil in a pan. Take a tennis ball size dough in hand and press with your palm. Fry it in oil. My dough became very loose so my buns are not perfect circle but they tasted good. I served them with peanut chutney which I quickly made. For peanut chutney, I just put some roasted peanuts, coconut flakes, tamarind extract, green chilli and salt in a blender and made chutney. I loved this heavenly dish and immediately fell in love with its sweet and salty taste.

Nariyal (Coconut) Laddu

These is the easiest recipe yes laddoos are delicious. I discovered this recipe out
of desperation. I wanted to eat something sweet and all I had was a can of condensed milk at home. I quickly made coconut laddoos and in 10 minutes I had a delicious dessert!!

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1.5 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut.

In a pan, put unsweetened coconut and roast for 2 minutes. Add condensed milk.
Keep stirring for 7-8 minutes. Let it cool until slightly warmer than room temperature. Make laddoos. Dip the laddoos in sweetened shredded coconut.
Laddoos are ready.

Royal Bread Pakoda

This has a special place in my life as this is the first "exotic" dish I made at my in-laws place after my wedding. It was superhit. Everybody liked it so much that I made it at least 3 times during my 15 days stay. I call it royal because there are many other ways to make bread pakoda.

Ingredients:

1 white bread
Oil for frying

Filling:
4 boiled potatoes peeled and mashed
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 small onion finely chopped
2-3 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste

Mix everything and keep aside

Batter:
1/2 cup besan (gram flour)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chilli
1/3 tsp garam masala
a pinch turmeric powder

Mix everything. Pour water and make a medium thick consistency batter.

Heat oil in a pan. Remove edges of the bread slices. Cut the bread slices into 4.
Take two pieces, sprinkle some water on the bread pieces. Put 1 tbsp filling in between the two slices. Press and close with your hand. Make many such pieces.
Dip each piece in batter and fry in oil. When golden brown, take out.
Serve hot with chutney or ketch up.

Long lasting moon daal 'stretched samose'

You must be thinking, why this long title!!!!
Well, this recipe is created by me and I could not come up with any better title :)
Just a few days back one of my Indian friend came to visit me and Tanay and I did not have anything Indian to serve her. I realized that I should make some indian snacks in advance. This inspired me to make these 'stretched samosas' :) You must have had those tiny tiny moong daal samosas in India. My recipe is inspired by that. To make it fast, I again used tortillas, each tortilla in 4 pieces and thats what give it this stretched look!!!

Ingredients:
8 small tortialls, each cut in 4 pieces.
1 tsp all purpose flower (make a paste of it using little water).
Oil for frying

For filling:
1 cup moong daal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 inch ginger cut in small pieces
a pinch asafoetida
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 green chillies cut in small pieces
1 tsp amchur powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp fennel powder
1 tbsp kasoori methi
salt to taste
Oil for frying

Soak moong daal in plenty of water and baking powder over night. Grind it coarsely in food processor. Now take 2 tbsp oil in a pan. When oil is hot, add asafoetida, cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add ginger and green chillies. Now add amchur powder, salt, garam masala and fennel powder. Add kasoori methi. Quickly add the grinded moong daal. Fry at medium for long time. Make sure no moisture is left and daal is crispy. Cool this mixture.

Make samosa shapes of tortilla pieces by using all purpose flour paste at edges. Fill a tbsp mixture and close the open end. Make many such samosas and then fry in medium heat. Serve hot with chutney.




These lasts for many days but Nitin and I finished it all in 1 day :)

Falooda Kulfi

Kulfi recipe is inpired by my friends Soni and Reshma. Falooda recipe is inspired by internet and my own creativity. And you won't miss India with this delicious falooda Kulfi which you can make at home. Earlier I used to make Kulfi by putting in a airtight container and freezing for 6-7 hours. Still there were always some ice-crystal formation. Recently we bought small Ice cream maker from Walmart for $29 and it made awesome smooth mouth watering Kulfi.

I read that falooda sev are made with corn starch in a sev maker. I did not have the sev maker. One day I searched for a corn starch noodles in Asian store and used that to make falooda and it worked great.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz heavy whipping cream
1 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 15 oz evaporated milk
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp pista cut in pieces
rose water
corn starch noodles
Rooh Afza (you will find rooh afza in every household in India)
Ice cubes
cold water

Mix whipping cream, evaporated cream, condensed milk, pista and sugar and 2-3 drops rose water and chill it in a refrigerator for 5-6 hours. Add this mixture in Ice cream maker for 40 minutes. Transfer it in a air tight container and put it in freezer.

For falooda sev, boil water and add corn starch noodles. In 10-15 minutes, the noodles should be soft. In a big container put cold water, ice cubes and 5-6 drops of rose water. Switch off stove and drain away boiling water from noodles and immediately put the noodles in the big container having ice cubes cold water and rose water. Refrigerate it.

When you have to serve Kulfi falooda, in a plate put few scoops of Kulfi, add handful of falooda sev and put few drops of rooh afza. Serve immediately.

Creme Brulee

I had Creme Brulee first time in Olivia restaurant and loved this heavenly dessert. I had to learn this...I did lot of search on internet and tried many recipes and finally reached the perfect creme brulee recipe. In fact, when I went to Paris in May 2009, I tried the most authentic creme brulee there and was happy to know that my recipe was not very different than this. When I didn't have blow torch I used to caramalize the sugar layer by putting oven on broil and then putting ramekins on the top most section for 3 minutes. Still the creme part was getting little warm. Now I bought blow torch and get the perfect chilled creme with hot caramalized sugar. Try this and you will love it...

Ingredients:
300 ml heavy whipping cream
Egg yolks of 4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (better if you have vanilla beans but I manage well with the essence)
90-100 gram sugar

Set oven for temperature 290 F. In a pan, add vanilla essence and whipping cream and heat the whipping cream and when it is just about to boil, switch off the stove. In a vessel, whisk egg yolk and sugar. Now very slowly add the whipping cream into it and keep whisking the mixture. Now put this mixture in 4 ramekins. In a big vessel boil water. Put ramekins in a big baking pan and put this in the oven. Add boiling water in the pan. This should be baked in about 35 minutes. Take out ramekins out of oven and chill in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours. When you want to eat it, just spread a very thin layer of sugar and burn it with a blow torch. Serve immediately.

Bisi Bele Bhat

Once my friend Jo's Mom and Dad visited her in TIFR. She used to make dinner for all of us. One day she cooked Bisi Bele Bhat and I literally got hooked to it. It was so mouth watering. However, until recently I never dared to cook it. Few days back I was reading Pooja's blog and saw this recipe . Inspired by this I made bisi bele bhat and it was great. DH just loved it.

I am mostly reproducing Pooja's recipe here.

Ingredients:
Fenugreek seeds 1-1/2 tsp (breastfeeding Moms, be generous in adding fenugreek seeds as this increases milk supply :))
2 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
pinch of heeng
4-5 whole red chillies
1/2 cup grated dry coconut
2 tbsp coriander powder

1 cup rice
1/2 cup toor daal
1/4 cup moong daal
1-1/2 cup cut potatos, carrots, capsicum, peas
2 onions
1 tbsp tamarind extract
2 tbsp Ghee -2
1 tsp Mustard seeds
a pinch Asafoedita
curry leaves- 4-5
7 cup water.

In a pan dry roast fenugreek seeds, cloves, cinnamon, red chilli and heeng. When smelling nice, add coconut and coriander seeds. Switch off stove after 2 minutes. Let the mixture cool and grind it in coffee grinder.

Boil 7 cup water. Wash rice and daal separately.
In a pan heat ghee. Put a pinch asafoedita, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add veggies and fry for 2 minutes. Now add rice and fry for 2 more minutes. Add daal and masala and tamarind extract. Now add boiling water. Cover this vessel with the lid, cook this on low flame for around 40 minutes. Serve hot.

Easy Samosa

Samosas are everyone's favorite but they require long preparation, especially the cover part. In India you can buy samosas anytime you have craving. But with this easy recipe, you can make samosas anytime you want, sitting anywhere in the world and they taste most authentic. This recipe is inspired by my good friend Preeti and dedicated to Tanay's "Abhay Chachu"! Abhay, your samosas are still due :)

Ingredients:
For the cover:
Small size tortilla (yes thats what I am talking about)
1 tsp all purpose flour
1 tsp water

For filling:
4 potatos
2-3 green chillis
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
salt per taste
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/2 tsp amchur powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp cashews cut in small pieces
1 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp ghee
Oil to fry

Poke potatos at many place and put it in microwave for 8 minutes. In 8 minutes, they should be boiled. Peel and cut in small pieces.

Heat ghee in a pan. Add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add ginger paste and cut green chillies. Add cumin powder, garam masala, amchur, cumin powder and salt. Add peas and let it cook for 2 minutes. Now add potatoes, raisins and cashews. Fry at medium for 10-15 minutes. Cool this mixture.

In a bowl mix all purpose flour and water and make thick paste. Cut tortillas in half.
Put little paste on the edges and give it shape of samosa. Fill this with 1 tbsp mixture. Close it using paste. Fill more samosas. Heat oil in a kadai and fry samosas.
Yummy samosas are ready. Serve them hot with khatti mithi chutney and dhaniya ki chutney .

khatti-meethi tamarind chutney

This delicious chutney takes one hour to prepare but can be refrigerated for months.

Ingredients:
1 lb jaggery
1 lt water
2.5 tbsp tamarindd extract
salt to taste
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
Handful of raisins and cut almonds (optional)

In a big pan boil water and add jaggery. When jaggery is dissolved in water, add tamarind extract. When the mixture boils add salt, garam masala, chiili powder and cumin powder. Put stove on simmer and cook uncovered until 40 minutes. Add raisins and almonds and cook for another 10 minutes. The chutney thickens when cools. Refrigerate it.

Dhaniya ki tikhi chutney

Coriander chutney is one chutney which goes with many things, khichdee, samosa, chat, matthi, dhokla etc etc. The recipe is very easy.

Ingredients:
1 bunch coriander leaves
6-7 cloves of garlic
5-6 green chilli
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 inch ginger
salt per taste

Put everything in a blender and grind it. Chutney is ready.

Kale chane ki sabji

Chana is special. You can eat it in thousands of ways. You can never imagine that kale chane ki sabji can be soooo yummy.....so without wasting anytime, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup kala chana
1 potato, boiled and grated
1 big onion, finely cut
3-4 green chillies, finely cut
1/2 inch ginger, grated
2 tomatos, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
salt as per taste
2 tbsp oil
1 cup water.

Soak black chana in water overnight. Boil it in a pressure cooker with one cup water and 1 tsp salt. Boil one potato. In a pan heat oil and add cumin seeds. Now add grated ginger and green chillies. Add finely cut onion and fry until brown. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli and garam masala. Add chopped tomatos and cook for 5 minutes with lid on. Now add grated boiled potato (this thickens the curry and bring a very good texture to the gravy of the sabji). Now add boiled chana along with the water. Put little more salt if required. Cook for 10 minutes in slow heat. The sabji is ready.