Aloo Gobi Made Easy

It has been a while since I checked on blogs or blogged. Been busy packing up boxes to move. There are some recipes that I had intended on posting last month but somehow it has been pushed to this month. One evening I wanted to cook something very fast to go with roti and I set out to prepare aloo gobi. This is a little different from the traditional method. I broiled the potatoes and cauliflower which came out very crunchy. I saved a lot of time by cooking the masala separate and the veggies separate. Not kidding the whole thing was done in less than 20 minutes.

Gadgets:

Heavy Wok
Spatula
Baking Trays
Cutting Board
Knife
Peeler


Ingredients:

Red Potato - 4
Cauliflower heads - 2 cups
Green Chilli - 1
Red Onion - 1
Tomato- 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Kasthuri Methi - 1 tbsp crushed
Cilantro - 1 tbsp chopped
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Salt
Pepper
Oil - 3 tbsp



Preparation:

1. Peal the potato and cut into big cubes. Mix the cauliflower, oil, salt and pepper and broil in the oven for 15 minutes making sure to toss them in between.

2. Heat the wok and add oil to it.When that heats up at cumin seeds and allow it to pop and add green chilli's.

3. Add onions, garlic, ginger, salt and cook. When that is well cooked add tomato and cook it well with the onions.

4. Add the powders and cook until the tomato and onions are well mixed.

5. When the potatoes are well cooked add them to the mix in the wok and coat it well. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of water to allow the flavours to get absorbed.

6. Garnish with kasthuri methi and cilantro and serve it hot with roti or rice.

A Break Through With Medhu Vadai

One of the best snacks to prepare is vadai. Its so common to south Indian cuisine and is often served for celebrations, offerings and snacks. To most people it is very simple to make vadai's but for me it has been a big struggle. For years I have tried many recipes and instead of making mini doughnut shaped vadais I would often make mini balls out of them. Apart from the shape the texture and taste was another thing I struggled with. The reason being,I wanted to recreate a particular taste and texture. My appa used to buy us some out of the world vadai's, bonda's and baji's from the guy who sold it next to Cross cut road Canadra Bank in Coimbatore. Its easily the best medhu vadai's I have ever tasted.

Gadgets:

Food Processor
Wok
Spatula
Measuring Spoons and Cups
Platter
Paper Towel


Ingredients:

Udad Dhal (I used the broken one) - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 1 - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - a few shakes
Salt
Pepper - Crushed
Green chillis - 2 sliced
Red Onions - 1/3 cup
Water for soaking and grinding - 5 cups
Cilantro - a bunch



Preparation:

1. Soak the udad dhal in water for over 2 - 3 hours.

2. Place the udad dhal in the food processor and blend it adding maybe 1tbsp water at a time. The dough has to be thick and not watery so that is why the food processor helps. Allow the dough to fluff up and double.

3. Add sliced green chillis, onions, asafoetida, cilantro salt, powdered pepper and rice flour to the dough and mix well. Mix the dough with your hands well for about 25 times to allow air to move well through the dough.

4. As per grandma's tip drop a small ball of dough into water and see if it floats. If it does them you can start making vadai's.

5. Coat your hands with water and take half a golf ball size dough in your hands. Pat it with your tumb and make a hole in the center. Slide the dough into oil that has been heated for frying.

6. Fry on both sides until golden brown.Transfer into a paper towel and serve hot.

Healthy Bhel Salad

This bhel is some thing that I wanted to recreate from memory. My uncle used to treat my sister and me to the healthy version of bhel from street vendor. The way he had the ingredients arranged in his cart is something that I still remember. It contained veggies, puffed rice, some magic powder ( mixed spices) ,sauces, crunchy stuff like chips and nuts. He would mix all these ingredients skillfully in his steel bowl and parcel it off into paper cones. What a delight I used to experience when I took a mouthful of the bhel. After big discussion with my sister we decided on the possible ingredients he would have used. Too bad he no longer sells this in my neighbourhood to verify. But I made it 3 days in a row and in the end got it close to the vendor. My entry to Red and Green FIC Event hosted by Tasty Recipes and 15 Minutes Easy Cooking Event hosted by Indian Vegetarian Kitchen.

Gadgets:

My chopper
Cutting Board
Knife
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Steel Bowl
Spatula
Wok


Ingredients:

Puffed Rice - 2 cups
Tomato - 3 roma
Cucumber - 2
Red Onion - 1/4 cup
Spring Onion - 2
Pepper - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Chat Masala - 1 tsp
Sweet Sauce - 3 tbsp
Green Chilli Sauce - 3 Tbsp
Salt
Cilantro - 1/4 cup
Chips - 1/2 cup
Roasted Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Any other crunchy snack like mixture.


Preparation:




1. Cut the veggies into smaller pieces and place it in the chopper to make it into even pieces.







2. Heat the wok and roast the puffed rice if it has a smell to it or if you want to make it crunchy.






3. In the steel bowl add the puffed rice, the crunchy mixture and 1/2 the powders.








4. Add the chopped veggies and remaining powders to it.








5. Mix the veggies and puffed rice when you are ready to serve.







6. Add the sauces and crunched peanuts, chips and cilantro and serve.

T & T from Lisa's Blog

Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen is one of my favorite blogs to visit. She has a wide variety of food that she has either created or tried from other cook books. There are some recipes that I have tried from her blog. Some of the recipes that I tried are Paneer Tikka's that I converted into another dish, Baked Strawberry Pancakes and Goat cheese dill muffins. Paneer and the muffins turned out perfect. As for the strawberry pancakes, the berries I used were not very sweet and so I think I messed up the pancakes. I however liked the photos of this breakfast food. My entry to My Diverse Kitchen's Event of T&T: Lisa's Kitchen. This event was started by Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen.

White Chocolate Mini Cakes Using Candied Orange Syrup

As promised here is the post with the left over orange peel syrup. I had an option of using the orange syrup as a topping for pancakes or waffles. Instead I decided to bake a cake. Before I write down my recipe I have to tell you all that I might have baked many cakes in the past but none turned out like this one. The texture is what I am talking about. It was very soft and moist and melted in my mouth. I am wondering as what caused this. Was it the use of kitchen aid mixer or the sugar syrup. If anyone can give me an explanation I would understand maybe the science behind the formation of this cake.

Gadgets:

Measuring cups and spoons
Oven
Muffin pans
Muffin pan liners
Electrical mixer

Ingredients:

APF - 3/4 cup
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour- 1/4 cup
Baking Powder- 1 tsp
White Chocolate - 4 ounces
Sour Cream - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Orange peel melted syrup - whatever is filtered
(please refer to point 4 in Candied Orange Peel )


Preparation:

1. Add the sugar, butter and sour cream to a bowl and mix well with an electrical mixer.

2. Add eggs one at a time and incorporate well.

3. Melt chocolate in the microwave with 1 tbsp of butter, cool and add to mixture.

4. Add dry ingredients in 2 batches. Pour the batter into prepared muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

5. Garnish with candied orange peel and serve.

Orange Candied Peel

A few weeks ago my sister gave me a bag of home grown oranges from her backyard. It has been sitting on my counter for weeks now and so I decided to make some orange juice with it. That afternoon I saw something interesting in a magazine. Cooking Light had a recipe to prepare candied orange peel. It was so easy to make candied peels with oranges or lemons. I made optimum use of the fruit by making candied orange peel and orange juice. The orange peel is wonderful to use as a garnish or as an ingredient in desserts. On this Earth Day I thought it would be appropriate to post something that is used to the best way possible. The remains of the orange after extracting the juice was put into the sink disposal to clean and to help remove bad odor and create freshness.

Gadgets:

Heavy Bottom pan
Spatula
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Sieve
Peeler
Cutting Board
Knife


Ingredients:

Oranges - 2
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 tbsp


Preparation:





1. Using a Peeler peel only the zest of the orange carefully and cut into think strips.







2. Heat 1/4 cup of sugar and water and allow the sugar to dissolve completely.

3. Add the orange zest to the sugar liquid and allow it to cook for a few minutes.

4. Pass this mixture through a sieve and drain the zest.

Note: Do not throw the syrup away. Please wait for my next post to see what I created with it.




5. Spread the candied zest on to a parchment paper taking care to see that each zest is separated and allowed to air dry for some time ( took me over night to dry them, it all depends on the weather).










6. Toss the dried zests with 1/4 cup of sugar and store in air tight container and use it for desserts.

Cilantro Paneer

Cilantro paneer is the perfect side dish for someone who likes the taste of cilantro. I have been pondering over how to incorporate cilantro into preparing something interesting. I had a purpose to make this for lunch instead of any other paneer dish.The reason being that Cilantro is hosting JFI event with Cilantro as the theme ingredient. I must say it came out better than I expected. Personally, I would have enjoyed it without toasting the paneer but everyone other than me liked it toasted. My entry to WYF side dish event hosted by Simple Indian Food.

Gadgets:

Heavy bottom pan
Blender
Bowl
Spatula
Cutting Board
Knife
Colander

Ingredients:

Paneer - 350 gms
Cilantro - 3 bunches ( only the leaves)
Onion - 1
Garlic - 4 pods
Tomato paste - 2 tsp
Tomato - 3 chopped
Ginger - 1 inch
Green Chilli - 1
Salt
Kasthuri Methi- 1tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Cumin Powder - 2 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cup

Preparation:






1. Heat the heavy bottom pan with 2 tbsp of oil and toast the paneer cubes. Transfer into a bowl.





2. In a blender add onion, garlic, cilantro, ginger and water and blend into a fine paste.


3. Heat the pan again with 1 tbsp of oil add chillis and roast them a bit and then add the paste. Allow it to cook for 15 minutes covered.

4. Check to see if the raw smell of onion and garlic disappeared. Then add the powders, tomato paste and tomato and cook for 5 minutes.





5. Add milk and sugar and cook for 5 minutes.


6. Add roasted paneer and cook for 4 minutes. Garnish with kasthuri methi and serve it hot with roti or naan.






7. Voila! Cilantro Paneer

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake

It has been my intention to send in a post to Madhuram's Eggless Cooking event. The challenge was to substitute yogurt in the place of egg. I decided to make this chocolate cake on Saturday. I used an old recipe that was in my recipe book. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour in part instead of APF. When I tasted the cake batter it tasted of the flour and I kept adding more chocolate and vanilla essence. In the end I mushed some banana in to remove the smell. I baked the cake for 50 minutes and was surprised at the texture. It was soft but I still could taste the flour smell. With not much demand for the cake that night I decided to put it away. I was not enthusiastic about posting the recipe. On top of it my battery was drained from my camera and I had to let it all be.The next day I offered it to my husband and daughter and they said it tasted better. Today, my sister tasted it and said she liked it a lot which made me want to send in the entry. I set out to take the photos and send it to Madhuram's event only to find the round up already posted. But I still felt like sharing this recipe and photos.

Gadgets:

Loaf baking pan
Electric egg beater
Measuring cups and spoons
Spatula
Parchment paper
Bowls



Ingredients:

APF- 1 cup
Whole wheat pastry flour- 1/2 cup
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa Powder - 5 tbsp
Banana - 1 mushed
Oil - 1/4 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp
Yogurt - 1 cup
Vinegar - 1 tsp


Preparation:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Mix together all the wet ingredients.

3. Mix dry to wet ingredients and pour into a prepared loaf.

4. Bake for 350 degrees for 50 minutes.