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(coconut and jaggery filled in wheat dough)

My mom prepared this on Ganesh Chaturti, Sept 3rd. It is Lord Ganesha's birthday and we celebrate by bringing a Ganesh idol home, preparing bhog (traditional festive food) and sweets and culminate the evening pooja with arati (devotional song). In my place here, we don't bring the idol home (my tauji in Bombay does it). Mom prepared modaks, Lord Ganesha's favourtite sweet. Here's the recipe:

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Ingredients:
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
2 tbsp jaggery
Wheat dough
Oil, to fry

Method:
1. Mix the grated coconut and powdered jaggery well. Fry it until the jaggery blends with the coconut and turns light brown in colour. Set aside.

This recipe is courtesy my mother-in-law (hugs and love to her) who in turn, got it from chef Sanjeev Kapoor. Now, ever bored of plain dosas? Ever though how to bring a zing to it? Here's how:

I've skipped the part of preparing the dosa batter. This shows what makes dosa yummier.

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Ingredients:
Dosa batter
7-8 carrots, peeled and grated
2 bowls of mozarella cheese, grated
2 bowls of sweet corn
1 cup finel chopped coriander
3 parts tomato sauce and 1 part chilli sauce, mixed together in a bowl.
Method:
1. Heat the non-stick tawa. Add 1-2 drop of oil and spread it.
2. Spread the dosa on the tawa in a circular motion.
3. Let it cook for 2 min.
4. Once you see that the batter on top has almost dried, spread the sauce evenly.



5. Sprinkle some grated cheese, corn, carrots and coriander leaves.





6. Cover it with an aluminium or steel lid.
7. Remove the lid after 2-3 mins, and lo! Turn it and see how yummy!



Now roll-it frankie style and serve! Or eat! :D

Repeat for other dosas.

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It was one of those weekends when the cook didn't turn up. I thank God on such days, cuz it gives me the freehand to cook whatever I want, at the pace I want. As I pondered *ahem* on what to cook, my eyes fell on the Exciting Vegetarian Cooking by Tarla Dalal. I bought this book soon after I got married, when I was all gung-ho about cooking and experimenting. I chose one of the dishes that looked lovely, and made some changes/additions of my own to it. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
5-6 medium sized potatoes
2 medium onions
3-4 cashew nuts, pounded into pieces
2-3 cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 red chilli
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teacup curd (yoghurt)
3/4 teacup finely chopped coriander leaves (cilantro leaves)
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
salt, to taste

Method:
1. Wash the potatoes, and boil them in cooker.
2. Once done, peel the skin, and cut them into big chunky pieces (but not too big, just that don't mash them)
3. Cut the onions in quarters, and boil them. Use water enough to soak the onions.
4. When done, drain the water. Transfer them into the mixer along with chashewnut pieces, and grind them into a paste.
5. In a pan, heat ghee. Fry cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf for half a min.
6. Now add the onions+cashew paste and fry for sometime.
7. Add green chillies and fry some more.
8. Pound the red chilli and add it to the above along with coriander powder. Fry for a while.
9. Turn it to sim, and add the beaten curd and salt. Cook on low flame.
10. Add half of coriander and cook for a min.
11. Add the potato cubes and cook for few more mins. Mix well.

Garnish with remaining coriander leaves.

As usual, a small introduction before I give the recipe. I *love* this dish. I'm a fan of this dish; hell, I'm an air-conditioner of this! I tasted it when mom made it, and have always wanted to try it out. My first attempt was shown the bin; it tasted like egg! I got another recipe this time, and since I try until I succeed (lol), I gave it my best shot (LOL). Here's the recipe: (Courtesy - a dear friend :) )

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Ingredients:

I asked a Bengali friend of mine, "yaar Poshto kab khilaogi?" She said, "Is mein khilaana kya hai?!" She enlightened me that poshto, is bengali for "poppy seeds"! Whoda thunk?! So I pestered her to give me some poshto recipe, that Bengali food is so famous for. Here's what she gave me - Aloo Poshto. Very yummy, and easy to make.

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Ingredients:

5 medium sized potatoes
3 table spoon Posto/Khus khus/Poppy seeds (Daata tere kaee naam!)
1 pinch fennel powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder (jeera powder)
a pinch of turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1-2 bay leaves (tej patta)
1/2 teacup Coconut milk (she'd asked to use 1 teacup grated cococut, but I had coconut milk at home, so used it. You'll see why that was just as good)
Salt to taste
2 tablespoon Mustard oil (any cooking oil will do; but for authenticity, I'd say use mustard oil)
1 tea spoon desi ghee (clarified butter)

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes in pressure cooker (7 minutes or 3 whistles). Peel and cut them in big dice-like sizes.

Do the following while the potatoes are boiling:

2. Soak poshto for 15-20 mins then grind into a paste. If you have fresh grated coconut, add it while grinding.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of mustard oil a pan, add fennel powder and bay leaves to it. Saute for a minute.
4. Add the posto paste, cummin, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Fry. I also added coconut milk here since I hadn't used grated coconut whilst grinding.
5. Once the masala starts to separate from the oil add the potato chunks (assuming that potatoes are done and cut at this point) and mix well.
6. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and let it simmer for 2-3 mins.
7. Add the garam masala and ghee for flavour.

Its ready!

Serving suggestion: Serve with hot rotis or rice.

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Easy isn't it? Folks at home loved it, lemme know how it worked out for ya :)

We Indians are known for our festivals, and the food thats prepared during festivals. Actually, our everyday food in itself is celebration! Who else puts dollops of desi ghee on aloo de parathe for breakfast?! And our sweets.... aaye haaye haaye haayeee! Masha allah! Though I don't have a lot of sweet tooth teeth myself, I enjoy like... half a rasmalai once in a while. But this dish is a hit with a lot of Indians, and I think even if you're not, you'd still enjoy making it and/or eating it, as much as I did! Here's the recipe, courtesy this:

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Ingredients:

1 liter milk
1 cup cream
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons sugar
3 cups water
1 tablespoon cardamom powder
5-6 almonds, diced very thinly
6-7 saffron strands

Method:

1. Boil the milk, turn the gas to sim, and squeeze fresh lemon juice. Keep sitrrig for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the gas.
2. Strain the water and put solids (curds/risotto cheese/paneer/whatever you want to call it) in a thin cotton (or muslin) cloth and tie it very tightly. Hang it onto something so that excess water drips away.
3. After 1/2 hour, untie the cloth and knead the paneer.
4. Make small balls, and flatten them. Set aside.

To make the sugar syrup:
5. In a sauce pan boil 3 cups of water and sugar together.
6. When it starts to boil, drop in the flattened paneer balls.
7. Transfer them into a flat bowl type vessel (intended for use in a pressure cooker), cover it and place it in the cooker. Close it with whistle on and keep it on sim for 15 minutes.
8. In another pan boil the cream, 2 cups of milk and saffron strands. Add 5 tablespoon of sugar.
9. Keep stirring on sim for 15 minutes until the milk becomes thick.
10. Now take out the paneer balls from the sugar syrup and add them in the pan. Simmer for another 15 minutes on low heat.
11. Place the milk rasmalai in a bowl, sprinkle cardamom powder and almond flakes and refrigerate.
12. Serve cold.

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This made 10 rasmalais, which is enough for 3-4 people. Waise to yeh Diwali pe khaaskar banti hai, but we don't really need a reason to eat sweets do we? :) Enjoy!

I scouted recipe books and the Internet for a recipe of Apple Pie, but most of them needed an oven. I don't have the hi-fi oven where I can set the temperature and timer etc. Yours truly has an extremely saadaa oven, in which yours truly can only heat something ( :-) ). But I badly wanted to try some dessert. My earlier failed attempt at caramel custard and cake** not withstanding, I decided to try vanilla pudding. And I stumbled upon this very interesting webpage, where Mr. Wayne Schmidt has dabbled a couple of times before coming up with the "world's best vanilla pudding recipe" - in his own words! And thanks to him, it came out beautifully :-) Here's the recipe for ya'll...

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Ingredients:
2-cups of whole milk
1/3-cup of sugar
3 egg yolks
2-tablespoons of cornflour
1/8-teaspoon of salt
2-tablespoons of cooking butter
1-teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
1. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. We will use the yolks and not whites. Whisk them thoroughly.
2. Add 1/4 cup milk to this and whisk some more.
3. Mix this into the remaining milk in a sauce pan and add sugar, cornflour and salt.
4. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until it gets a custard like thick consistency. Simmer the gas.
5. Whisk in the butter and vanilla just until the butter is completely incorporated, about 30-seconds.
6. Pour immediately into a bowl and cover with a plastic wrap.
7. Cool in a refrigerator until it's chilled.

Serving suggestion: Serve, with love :-)

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Kyu, hai na simple? Of course, credit goes to Mr. Wayne Schmidt, thanks Mr Wayne! Here's the page for vanilla pudding :-)

** In my defense, the microwave oven sucked! I made it soft and yummy in the electric oven didn't I?!

Fried Vermicelli

2. Boil the water in a saucepan. Add the fried vermicelli to the pan and cook till half the water is gone. Idea is to make the fried vermicelli soft :)

3. To above, add the milk, condensed milk and sugar and stir to combine.

4. Simmer on medium low till the vermicelli blends well with all the ingredients.

5. Garnish with cardamom, badams, cashwes and raisins.

Wah wah!

Serving suggestion: You can serve this hot or cold. I enjoy it cold. So I refridgerated it and then relished. Mmmmm yummy!

Note: Do not discard the cardamom skin. I pop them into tea powder (chai patti), to give it a slight cardamom smell :)

I was craving for some spicy, tasty dal. I asked to cook to not make any dal, and said I'll make it myself later. At around 8 PM, I decided I'd think of the recipe myself. Not too fancy, nothing that takes too much time - something thats tasty and makes you love the green leafy veg called Palak (Spinach). I thought about this, and then called up my mom to be sure I wasn't doing anything that was un-dal-making. Here's the dal palak :-)

The Dal:

1/2 cup Tur dal
1/2 cup Moong dal

For the tadka:
1 tbsp ghee (or oil)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

For the taste:

I like decorating the ingredients in a plate like this. One of the things I enjoy about cooking, is putting together the ingredients and ... well looking at it before I start! Mujhe bahut achha lagta hai sab kuch thaali mein sajaake, phir use karna :D

1 tbsp- garlic, 1/2 tsp ginger - both mashed thoroughly
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
3 green chillies finely chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
Salt

The essential:

Yummy!

Ready!

7. Serve hot with rotis or steamed rice.

Suggested garnishing: Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.


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Simple, and tasty :) The taste was very spicy and lasun-y (garlic-y)!

I'd tried this receipe long time back, and wrote about it here as well. But sans pictures. So the next time I made it, I clicked some pics and here they are, along with the recipe again! This time, however, I have not used onions. (Honestly, I prefer this without onions)

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Ingredients:
400 gm Okra (bhindi)

For the filling:
1 teaspoon jeera powder
1 teaspoon amchoor powder
1 teaspoon dhania powder (coriander powder)
1/2 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon fennel powder (saunf powder)
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

For garnishing:
Ginger pieces, peeled, crushed, and soaked in water
Fresh coriander, finely chopped.

Method:

1. Wash and cut the ends of okra.
2. Slit it along it length and remove all the seeds. Keep aside.

What?! Over already?!!!!! :D

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