Pav Bhaji

S is usually not a fan of north Indian food (I am). However, pav bhaji (pav is the bread and bhaji refers to the veggie side dish) is an exception. Both of us enjoy it. I picked up a lovely recipe from here. The prep time is on the higher side since there is so much chopping to do. But the delicious end result and the high veggie quotient of the dish makes it worthwhile.

Here is my slightly adapted version of the recipe.

Pav Bhaji 

Pav Bhaji

Ingredients (enough for 5-6 people):
1 medium capsicum, minced
4 medium tomatoes, boiled, peel discarded, and pureed in a mixer
1 medium cauliflower, roughly chopped into florets
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes.
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into cubes
15 green beans, stringed and chpped into small pieces
1/2 cup green peas, (cooked for 5 mins if raw, or just defrost if frozen)
1.5 tbsp pav bhaji masala
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1.5 tbsp butter (add more if you are up to it - the end result will taste even better)
1 long green chili, slit and chopped into six pieces
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Pressure cook the cauliflower, potatoes, carrot and green beans with turmeric and just enough water to cover. Once the pressure comes down, mash the veggies using a dal masher (or the back of a wide serving spoon).
2. In a wide pan, add enough oil to coat. Add in the green chili pieces and the ginger garlic paste. Stir fry till the ginger-garlic paste starts losing its raw smell.
3. Add in the capsicum pieces, salt and continue to stir fry till the capsicum is cooked through. You can use a dal-masher to mash the pieces if you would like the bhaji's consistency to be very smooth smooth
4. Add the peas and mix well.
5. Add in the pav bhaji masala, red chili powder and garam masala and stir fry for a few seconds.
6. Add in the tomato puree and butter, mix well. Close the dish and let it cook for 5 minutes till the raw smell of tomatoes is gone.
7. Now add in the mashed veggies from step one and mix well. Add a little water if necessary (the bhaji should not be runny so take care)
8. Cover and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Adjust for salt and serve hot with toasted pav.

Notes:
1. Cauliflower,capsicums and potatoes are the only "must have" vegetables. You can omit the rest if you don't have them.
2. To toast pav, heat butter (or olive oil or butter substitute - basically, some kind of fat, else the pav bhaji Gods will curse you :-P) on a skillet, place the pav so that it is coated with butter and toast.
3. Before serving the bhaji, you can add chopped onions as a garnish. A lemon wedge can also be served on the side.
4. The bhaji reheats very well. So feel free to cook it beforehand. It also survives overnight in the fridge and tastes great the next day.
5. If you like the bhaji to be spicier increase the amount of pav bhaji masala you use.

Ginger apple cucumber salad

This recipe is adapted from here. Though the picture below does not look all that appealing, the salad was pretty tasty (and yeah, my usual refrain, healthy too). The lightly fried onion forms a wonderful contrast with the raw ingredients and the flavors come together nicely in your mouth.

Ginger apple cucumber salad

Ingredients (enough for two as a starter, or for one as the entree at lunch)

2 medium sized cucumbers, peeled
1 medium apple, peeled
1" ginger piece, grated
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2/3 tbsp vinegar diluted with 1/3 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted without oil
1.5 tsp sunflower oil (or any other flavorless oil)
Salt to taste

Method
1. Vertically cut the cucumbers into four pieces each. Deseed them and slice into thin pieces using a mandolin slicer or a knife. Do the same for the apple. Mix both and set aside in a bowl.
2. Add the grated ginger, honey and salt to the vinegar and mix well.
3. Add the above dressing to the cucumber and apple. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to serve the salad, add the oil to a pan. add the onion and saute well till the onion starts to look cooked..
5. Now add in the turmeric and a little salt and continue sauteing the onion till the tips begin to change color. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
6. Remove the cucumber-apple mixture from the refrigerator and drain any accumulated liquid.
7. Mix the onion with the rest of the salad ingredients. Adjust for salt.
8. Top with the toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Notes
1. You can substitute toasted sesame seeds with sliced almonds.
2. Raisins added in should also be good.

Carrot soup with peas

This recipe comes from mom who in turn got it from some magazine a long time ago. This carrot soup is perhaps my favorite vegetable soup. It only adds to its likeability factor that it takes only minimal time and effort to make.

Ingredients (2 big bowls of soup or about 4 cups of soup):
3-4 medium carrots, cut into rounds
1/2 cup peas
1 onion, chopped fine
1.5 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp butter
Milk 2 cups (skimmed is okay)
Water
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Add enough water to carrots in a dish to just cover them. Pressure cook for 7 minutes. Cool and grind into a fine puree with sufficient water.
2. If using fresh peas, add enough water to cover peas, then cook in microwave on high for about 7 minutes. If using frozen, just defrost peas.
3. On a stove, place a soup pan, add the butter and when it starts to melt, add in the onions. Add salt and fry onions till they begin to change color. Onions should be cooked but not to a crisp. Add pepper and stir.
4. Add corn flour to the onions and stir so that the flour mixture is well distributed.
5. Add in the milk a little at a time and stir so no lumps are formed. Bring milk to a boil once you have finished adding both the cups of milk.
6. Lower heat, add the carrot puree, mix well. Add sufficient water till the soup is at a consistency you like.
7. Add in the peas.
8. Bring the entire mixture to a boil, then let simmer for about 10 minutes.
9. Adjust for salt and pepper.

Serve hot with a side of toast. Or you can top with croutons. Use a dollop of butter on top for a buttery flavor.

Notes:
1. You can use 1/2 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp butter for the initial stir frying of carrots or substitute butter with olive oil completely.
2. You can add a boiled potato and grind it along with the carrot puree for a slightly different taste.

Paneer Kathi Rolls

I have liked most versions of kathi rolls and have been wanting to try them out at home. I found this recipe and then found reference to another recipe in the comments section of the first recipe. So I came up with a kathi rolls recipe which was a combo of the two. The end result was quite tasty while being high on the health quotient. Here it is:

Paneer Kathi Rolls

Ingredients (makes 4 kathi rolls with generous stuffing):


Marinate
1/4 cup low fat curds, beaten
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/4 tsp garlic  paste
1/4 tsp besan
1/2 tsp chaat masala
1/2 tsp kasuri methi
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste

Mix the above ingredients well. To this add:
1 cup medium-small cubed paneer
1/2 cup finely chopped deseeded tomato


Mix well and keep aside for at least 10 minutes.

Vegetables
1 Medium capsicum chopped into medium sized cubes
1 medium onion peeled and chopped into medium sized cubes
 
Salad
1 medium onion cut into thin slices
1 long green chilli, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small carrot shredded into large shreds (use the big-holed side of the grater)
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp vinegar
Sea salt to taste

Mix together the onion, green chilis and vinegar. Keep aside for at least 10 minutes. Just before using, pour out any remaining liquid vinegar, pick out and toss the green chili pieces. Add in the carrot, cilantro and salt, mix well and use.

For the roll
4 ready-made whole-wheat chapathis

Other ingredients
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat a non-stick pan on high and pour in enough oil to coat the  base of the pan. Add in onions, capsicum, a little bit of salt (remember the marinade has salt so don't go overboard) and stir fry till they start changing color along the edges.
2. Add in the paneer-tomato marinade and stir fry on high-heat for 2-3 minutes.
3. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking till the raw smell of the spices has disappeared and the paneer starts getting a nice brown crust on it. This can take about 10-15 minutes. You just need to stir it from time to time. Lower heat further if you think the dish is beginning to burn. Check for salt and keep aside.
3. Time to assemble! Heat both sides of the chapathi on a tawa. Place it on a plate.  Place the paneer filling across the diameter of the chapathi. Top it with the salad.
4. Roll the kathi roll and serve hot with tomato ketchup on the side.

Notes:
1. For efficient time utilization, follow this order of cooking: marinate the paneer and tomato first and keep aside. Then chop the onion and capsicum and start cooking them. By the time they are cooked, the paneer mix will be ready to add in. While the entire mixture is cooking, chop the onions for the salad and marinate it in vinegar. Finally work on the carrots and cilantro for the salad. By the time the salad is done, the paneer mix will be ready as well and hey presto, everything required for assembly is ready!
2. The filling can be made before hand. Just reheat it before assembly. Do not make the salad too much in advance else it will lose its freshness.
3. Instead of whole-wheat chapathis, you can use maida parathas to get a more professional taste (of course, you lose the benefits of whole-wheat flour then).

Chili chicken

This recipe for chili chicken must be the easiest ever. And it tastes great too. No wonder I always use this as my default chili chicken recipe!

http://mydhaba.blogspot.com/2005/12/chilly-chicken.html

Super easy and tasty chicken fry

You can also call this chicken dish SM chicken in honor of my cousin S's MIL who came up with this ultra easy recipe to make super yummy (but non-oily) chicken fry.

Below is the recipe in its original form. I have made notes regarding minor variations at the end. Please note that a non-stick pan is a must if you don't want to be hunched over your chicken while it is cooking and/or don't want to use copious amounts of oil.

Ingredients
Chicken 1/2 kg - cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces
Red chili powder 1.5 - 2 tsp (as per your spice tolerance level)
Dhania powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
Juice of 1/2 a medium-sized lemon
1" piece cinnamon stick
5 large pearls of garlic (or 7-8 small cloves)
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Take a wide non-stick pan and add enough oil to coat base of pan. Place on medium heat.
2. Add the cinnamon stick. Crush the garlic using a mortar-pestle (or the wide edge of a knife) and add.
3. When the garlic has cooked a bit and gives off a nice aroma, add the chicken pieces, chili powder, dhania powder and turmeric powder. Mix well so all the chicken pieces are coated with the spices.
4. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat to low.At this point, you can leave the chicken undisturbed and simply let it cook for 15-20 minutes. No necessity to add any water.
5. Check the chicken to see if it is done. If not, continue to cover and cook.
6. Else, add necessary salt, the yoghurt and lime juice. Mix well and cook without the lid till all the liquid from the yoghurt has evaporated and the chicken is mostly dry and has a nice coating to it.
7. Turn off heat and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Notes:
1. You can use 2-3 sprigs of curry leaves as seasoning along with the cinnamon and garlic to get a nice flavor.
2. There is no necessity to marinate the chicken beforehand. However, if you are so inclined, you can marinate the chicken with all the turmeric and about 1/2 of the chili powder you are planning to use and a little bit of salt. Adjust the ingredients accordingly while cooking.
3. The original recipe tastes great as is. Really, no tweaking is necessary.

Ragada Patties

Ragada patties is a quintessential Indian street food. It is usually available in places serving chaat. What first drew me to the recipe was that the alu patties (also called alu tikki) seemed so easy to make. Of course, to go with the tikkis, I decided to make the ragada as well. What a filling, tasty dish!

My final dish was a hybrid of these two recipes:

The alu tikki (or alu patties) from here:
http://www.hawkinscookers.com/8.1.receipe.aspx?rcp_cd=112

1. I skipped mint leaves as I did not have them.
2. I used only two slices of bread (I used brown) as opposed to 4.

The ragada from here:
http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2005/11/street-food-ragda-patties.html

1. I skipped the jaggery - I usually do not like sweetness in what I think of as "spicy" food.
2. I added more chili powder than specified (about 1.5-2 tsp). I love spicy!


To serve, I topped the tikkis with the ragada mixture and some freshly chopped onions and cilantro. Yummy! I would probably stop thinking healthy and make it even more yum with sev topping when serving guests!

Egg roll

For me, egg rolls are the stars of Calcutta street food. When we lived in Calcutta, we used to buy egg rolls on Saturday nights as a weekend as a treat. I have never managed to get quite the same taste at home (obviously). Still, the egg roll recipe below makes a very satisfying and tasty dish with very little effort.

Using maida malabar parottas will take the taste of this dish to an entire new level. However, using wheat rotis is a not-too-bad healthy compromise.

Egg roll

Egg Roll

Ingredients (for one roll):
1 cooked wheat chapathi
1 egg
1/2 small onion, chopped
Lime juice, about 1 tsp
Tomato sauce
Green chilli sauce
Soy sauce
Pepper
Salt

All the ingredients

Method
1. Add the lime juice to the chopped onions and set aside.
2. Spray cooking oil on a tawa and place on medium heat.
3. Place chapathi on heated tawa. Break egg over the chapathi. Spread egg as much as you can over the surface of the chapathi.
4. Sprinkle pepper and salt on the egg (remember soy sauce is salty, so do not go over board with the salt).
5. Carefully flip the chapathi so that the egg side is facing down.
6. Continue cooking on medium heat. When the chapathi rises a bit, it means the eggs are cooked and are fluffing up.
7. Remove the egg coated chapathi from the tawa and place non-egg side down on a plate.
8. Sprinkle the onions in a vertical line across a diameter line of the chapathi.
9. Sprinkle all three sauces over the onions. The quantities of the sauces you use depends on your taste but in general, adding equal amounts of each (around 1-2 tsp each) tastes best.
10. Roll up the chapathi carefully so that the filling does not spill out.
11. If you want the roll to look professional, you can wrap a piece of wax paper or napkin paper around the lower half of the roll so that the filling does not fall out.

Serve hot!

Notes:
1. You can mince about 1/4-1/2 a green chilli and add it to the chopped onion/lime juice mixture. It enhances taste but could turn out to be very spicy if the chillis are fiery!

Chicken liver pepper fry

My husband is a liver-lover. I don't care much for it though.I had to be forced to eat it during childhood - liver was considered to be very nutritious and thus was one of the foods I had to eat compulsorily.

This recipe from Solai's kitchen made such delicious liver fry that I voluntarily ate a few spoonfuls. My husband polished off the entire dish. Try it out!

Chicken liver pepper fry

 I made the dish with chicken liver and halved the ingredients as eye-balling told me that I probably had closer to 100g of liver rather than 200g.

Tomato Salad

Tomatoes were on sale at the local grocery store and I wound up with quite a lot of them. The next step was to make a colorful tomato salad.

Tomato Salad

Ingredients (makes enough for 2-3):
Tomatoes - 4 large
Green capsicum - 1
Onion - 1 medium
Sea salt to taste

Dressing:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 3 cloves, grated
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp, freshly ground
Fresh lemon juice - 1 tsp

Mix all the dressing ingredients together and keep aside.

Method:
1. De-seed the tomatoes and chop into fairly big pieces. Place the cut pieces on a colander and sprinkle with sea salt. Keep aside for 15 minutes and discard any drained juice.
2. Chop the capsicum into medium-small pieces. Chop the onions into medium-small pieces as well and make sure the onion layers are separate.
3. Toss the chopped veggies together.
4. Add the dressing and toss again. Adjust salt and pepper as per taste.
5. Serve after letting the salad rest for at least 15 minutes.

Notes
1. You could refrigerate the salad before serving.
2. You could add a peeled and chopped cucumber to the salad as a variation.

How to fry fish with minimal oil

Craving fried fish but not craving the extra calories? Here's how to fry the fish with minimal oil as learnt from my mom and aunts. This takes longer than simply dunking the fish in hot oil but the extra time is worth it.

Tawa fish fry

 You'll need:
Marinated fish pieces
A tawa
A lid to cover the entire tawa
Oil

Method:
1. Coat the entire tawa with a thin film of oil.
2. Place it on a stove at medium-high heat and heat it.
3. Place the fish slices without overlap on the tawa.
4. Cover the tawa with the lid and cook till the fish starts changing color (meaning it has gotten cooked). This will take 3-4 minutes. Medium high heat should not be burning the fish, but if it is, reduce the heat to medium. If the fish seems too dry, add a few drops of oil around the sides.
5. Flip the fish over and repeat step 4.
6. Now reduce the heat further to simmer and flip the fish again. This time cook without the lid for about 2-3 minutes.
7. Flip the fish and repeat step 6.

At this point, fish will be done. Serve hot!

Remember to heat up the tawa on medium-high heat and coat it with a thin film of oil before frying every batch of fish.

Fish Marinade:
Can be any combo of the following
Red chilli powder
Dhania seeds
Turmeric powder
Cumin seeds
Saunf seeds
Fenugreek seeds (only a little, say 5-7, too much will add a bitter taste)
A few fresh garlic cloves
A little tamarind

Grind all of the above with enough salt for the quantity of fish you have got and a little water to make a fine paste. Apply on all sides of the fish and marinate for a couple of hours outside or overnight in the refrigerator. Bring down to room temperature before cooking if you had placed the fish in the fridge.

No quantities are mentioned for the ingredients above on purpose. It varies depending on the quantity of fish and your palate.  In general, the chilli powder and dhania would form the base for the marinade while the rest of the ingredients act as accents.

Beetroot Cabbage Soup

I could eat different kinds of bread everyday for the rest of my life and still die happy (provided you feed me chicken biryani from time to time). I love bread! As a side effect, I like eating salads, sandwiches and soup too - since bread makes an awesome accompaniment to these dishes.

Today is one of those "I don't feel like cooking for lunch" days. While just eating bread would have been okay with me, with my new resolution to eat more healthy, I decided I should include some veggies for lunch. The quick and easy option was to concoct a soup using ingredients in the pantry. Thus was born this healthy cabbage-beetroot soup.

Ingredients (makes enough for two as a starter or for one as a whole meal):
1 medium beetroot, chopped
1/4 of a small cabbage, chopped
5 shallots or 1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 torn bay leaf
1 tsp dried rosemary (or any herb seasoning of your choice)
5 pepper corns
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Add all the ingredients to a pan and fill with water up to about one inch above the veggies.
2. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about an hour or until a beetroot piece can be mashed with a spoon.
3. Drain the excess water from the boiled mixture and reserve.
4. Fish out and toss the bay leaves from the boiled mixture and then cool the mixture. Grind to a fine paste (make sure the mixture is completely cooled before grinding. Otherwise you will wind up with a very clean kitchen. Because you would have wiped off the splattered mess from the walls, the ceiling, the counter-tops, the various kitchen apparatus and the floor. Trust me on this).
5. Add water from step 3 to the ground veggie mix to dilute the soup to the consistency you like.
6. Heat the soup through on the stove top or with a microwave.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can add a dollop of butter before serving, if you wish to.

Serve hot with toasted bread on the side.

A variation would be the "sweat" the vegetables before boiling them. Sweating refers to the process of adding butter/oil to a pan to coat, adding the veggies, stirring it a bit and then covering and cooking them on a low flame for about 5 minutes. This will get rid of the raw smell of the veggies. This is the tastier, albeit slightly less healthy variation of making the soup.

Sooji (rava/semolina) dhokla with Coriander/Cilantro (green) chutney

This recipe is easy to make, tastes good and the ingredients can be put together at short notice.

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/04/01/dhokla-suji-semolina/

Sooji Dhokla

Notes:
1. I used baking soda instead of Eno salt as I did not want to add yet another jar of stuff to the pantry just to make one dish. The end recipe was still spongy and soft.
2. If using baking soda, make sure it is fresh - old baking soda will not do its job and will also add a weird taste to the end result (trust me, I know).
3. Resting the batter for about 15 minutes or so itself gives good results.
4. A pressure cooker without weight can be used to steam. Steam for about 15 minutes after the steam first appears.
5. I added curry leaves to the end seasoning and also reduced the amount of oil used to about 1 tbsp.
6. The amount of yogurt in the recipe must exactly match the amount of sooji. Do not try substituting water for any portion of the yogurt unless you want to end up with an inedible, liquid mess (sadly, experience speaks here).

This recipe for coriander (green) chutney went along well with the dhokla:

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/02/04/cilantro-chutney/

Mummy's yummy salad

I have often eaten this delicious salad at my parents' place but have just been too lazy to try it out on my own. Today was finally the day. After a quick phone call to mum, I set about making the salad:


Ingredients (makes enough salad for two):

1 medium sized onion, peeled
1 small carrot, peeled
1/2 of a large cucumber, peeled
1 apple (any red variety), peeled
12 almond
6 dates (de-seeded)
12 raisins
Juice of half a lemon
3/4 tablespoon honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Slice/chop into fairly-small pieces all the ingredients up to and including the dates. I used a mandolin slicer for slicing the onion, cucumber and apple and a knife for the rest.
2. In a bowl big enough to hold all of above, add and mix all ingredients.

Ta da, that's all! Healthy and tasty salad is ready to eat. Serve immediately.

All the ingredient quantities can be varied as per taste. Sliced mandarin oranges would make a great addition. I think jicama slices instead of apple would work too - but since I haven't spotted jicama in Chennai yet, I will have to wait to try that out.

Fat free okra (ladies finger) fries

Given that I am always on the lookout for tasty but healthy snacks, this recipe was a God-send or rather, Google-send:

http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/03/25/fat-free-okra-fries/#axzz16AMMwfTm

The delicious taste of okra pakoda, without all the oil? So hard to resist! The only problem with this recipe is that the okra fries disappear into tummies as fast as they are made - so you will have to cut quite a lot of okras to get a decent sized portion.

Be very careful when turning the Okra slices on the plate - it tends to get really hot. And keep a sharp watch during the last stages of cooking to avoid burnt fries (and tossing the burnt stuff will be an even bigger wrench than usual considering the amount of effort that goes into cutting the okra).

Tandoori chicken / Mint sauce

This is a super-tasty, guilt-free chicken recipe. There is hardly any oil involved:

http://saffronapron.blogspot.com/2009/07/oven-baked-tandoori-chicken.html

Though I have tried the recipe exactly as written above (including making the tandoori masala powder from scratch) you can also used store-bought tandoori powder and follow the box directions for marination. The end result is delicious either way.

Where the above recipe totally shines is the baking part - cook exactly as per the direction given and you will be looking at juicy, professional looking and tasting tandoori chicken in the end.

The following mint sauce recipe makes a great dip for the tandoori chicken:

 http://www.tarladalal.com/Mint--Yogurt-Dip-16369r

I followed the directions exactly - only added a wee bit more garlic (I like garlic) and half a green chilly.