Tamatar ki Chat, Sangeeta Ji kya baat kya baat

I follow this wonderful blog of Sangeeta.
. I came across this recipe and could not resist the temptation to make it. Since I don't like raw onions much, I didn't put them. But other than that I followed this recipe. The chat is delicious, totally different than what I have tasted so far. One word of caution, it does make a big difference if you make it in Iron skillet. Don't use your non-stick pan for this. Stick to traditional iron skillet. Here is the original recipe . And here is the yummy chat :)

Quick Baby Malpua

I call them baby malpuas because I make them often for my baby. Yes, my son likes them very much. First time I made with elaborated process such as frying them and preparing sugar syrup and putting in sugar syrup. But later I found my own quick version which my son liked a lot too. So here is my version of these quick malpuas.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour or all purpose flour (1/4 cup)
Milk powder 1/4th cup
Sugar to taste
Milk (1/4th cup or as needed)
2 tbsp oil for shallow frying on tawa

Unfortunately I cannot give you the exact measure of sugar since I used to make them for my son and was trying to keep it little less sweet than I myself would prefer !!! I think you can put 2 tbsp sugar and then taste the batter and put more if required.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix milk powder with 1 tbsp water. Mix well and and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Now add flour and sugar in this. Pour some milk and mix well. Adjust the milk as per requirement. You need to get the consistency of pancake batter. Heat tawa on medium and put oil. When oil is hot, put 1 tbsp of batter and shallow fry carefully on both sides. I bet children will love these.

Fruit Chat

Healthy delicious quick snack!!! This reminds me of my M.Sc. days at AMU. Every Ramazan, my roommies used to fast and then in the evening, they used to break their fast with dates and fruit chat. Since then I came to like this quick fruity snack.

Ingredients:
2 cups of fruits cut in bite size pieces
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp anardana
1/2 tsp chat masala
juice of half lime

Mix all of it and eat it!

Aloo-palak ke pakode (Spinach-potatoes pakodas)

These mild pakodas are favorite of everybody.... you don't make it very spicy...just mild spicing and let the flavor of fresh spinach, potatoes and gram flour take over.

Ingredients:
1 bunch fresh spinach washed and chopped finely
2 medium potatoes peeled and cut in small cubes (1/4")
1/2 cup besan or gram flour
a pinch turmeric powder
a pinch red chili powder
salt to taste
oil to fry

Mix turmeric powder, chili, salt in besan and mix well. Now add chopped spinach and potatoes and then mix it well with hands. Add little water at a time keep mixing till it binds well. Now heat oil in a kadai. When oil is hot, drop a spoonful of mixture in the kadai until kadai is having 4-5 pakodas and then fry it till pakodas turn golden brown. Serve hot with chutney.

Almod butter and caramalized banana sandwich

This is perfect for lunch to office. I took it to office today and it was so yummy. Its very quick to make too.

Ingredients:

2 bread slices of your choice
1-2 tbsp almond butter (depending upon how thick layer do you like, I use 2 tbsp :))
1/2 tsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 ripe banana, peeled and cut into medium thin slices
In a pan, heat the butter and add sugar and sit for few seconds. As soon as sugar starts to turn brown, put banana pieces. Bananas will nicely get coated in caramalized sugar. Switch off the heat.
In a slice of bread, spread almond butter and then put a layer of caramalized banana. Cover with another layer of bread and cut diagonally. If you are in very much hurry skip the caramalization phase and simply dip the banana pieces in 1 tsp honey and then layer with this on your almond butter sandwich.

beans ki crispy sabji

This is my Mom's recipe. We never liked beans in our childhood but when she used to make it like this, we would eat any amount!!!

Ingredients:

1 lb beans washed and cut in 1" pieces
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic
1/2" ginger
1 tbsp rice soaked in little water for 15 minutes
2-3 green chilies
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp mustard oil
A pinch cumin seeds

Grind onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies and soaked rice together in a blender. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan and when oil is hot, put cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add the grinded paste.
Keep stirring and when oil leaves the sides, add turmeric powder, red chili, salt, coriander powder and stir for a minute. Add beans and cook covered on low heat. When beans are 3/4th done, open the lid and cook on medium.  Keep stirring every once in a while.  In about 10-15 minutes, switch off the flame. The grinded rice in the masala will make it very crisp.  It taste best when eaten hot with chapatis.

Mango Salad

If there is one thing India should be absolutely proud of, that is Malihbad ke Dussheri aam!!! O! They are heavenly. People who have not tasted it will not know what I am talking about but people who have tasted it will never like any other kind of mango. The other day I was telling my DH that one of the reason people must be going back to India from abroad is mangoes :) But this salad is not made using Indian mangoes. We don't get them in Canada. I have used Mexican mango for this. Not like real Indian mango, but pretty good for a salad.

Ingredients:
For salad:
1 mango peeled and cut in 3/4" cubes.
5-6 grape tomatoes cut in half
5-6 mint leaves chopped finely.

For dressing:
2 tbsp mango juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chunky chat masala (or any masala)
1/4 tsp anardana (dry grinded pomegranate)
1/2 tsp sugar
few pinches salt
pinch crushed pepper
1/2 tsp lime juice

Mix all the dressing ingredients well in a small bowl. In a salad bowl toss mangoes, tomatoes and mint leaves. Now pour the dressing and mix well. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes and serve chilled.