Ghiya/Lauki with Chana Daal post a Thailand Trip

A true blue comfort food after eight fabulous days at Thailand. 🙂

Oh I went to Thailand to ring in my 30th Birthday which was on 17 Sept. It is such a beautiful, clean and gorgeous place to be. I didn’t want to come back 😦 Here are few pics from the trip.

Le Meridin, Phuket

Off to La bangla, Phuket

Snorkeling at Phi Phi Island

Phi Phi Island

Ao nang, Krabi

Ao Nang, Krabi

Krabi

Phew… I promise I will write a detailed post about the trip super soon. 🙂

Here is what you shall need for the Ghiya-Chana dal:

1 tsp… oil

1/8th tsp… hing/asafoetida

1 tsp… Jeera/cumin seeds and mustard seeds

1/2 cup… Chana dal (Soaked in water for about an hour)

1-1.5 cup…. Ghiya/lauki

1 tsp… ginger garlic paste

1 … chopped medium size onion

1… chopped medium size tomato

Juice of 1 lemon (or as per taste)

Water

Salt and red chilly powder (to taste)

2… green chillies (chopped)

coriander (optional)

Method:

• In a cooker, heat oil. Add the hing and cumin-mustard seeds.
• Now add the green chillies and onions and let them sweat.
• Once the onions are translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and tomatoes
• Cook it for about 1 min.
• Now add the salt, red chilly powder and ghiya and stir.
• Add the soaked dal and about half a cup pf water. (Remember ghiya leaves a lot of water)
• Put the lid on and let the first whistle be on full flame.
• Once it comes, reduce the flame to medium and let it cook for 10 min.
• Turn off the gas and let the pressure fall on it own.
• Open the cooker lid, add lemon juice and coriander.
• Reduce the liquid as much as you wish and serve with love.

Cheers,

Eggless Coca Cola Cake

Has the 1/3rd coca cola in the bottle ever bothered you? I am stuck with a few of them each time we order pizza. I dont drink fizzy drinks so the husband has to fend for himself, not that he minds it 🙂

I got such a lovely response from people for this cake that I had to post the recipe as soon as I could. Thank you generous people 🙂

So here it goes. You shall need (Makes one 7″-8″ cake)

1 cup… All purpose Flour/Maida

3/4 cup… Castor sugar (Fine grain white sugar will also do)

3 tbsp… Good quality cocoa

1 tsp… Baking soda

1 tsp… Baking powder

1/2 tsp… Salt

1/3 cup… Oil

1/3 cup… Unsalted butter (If you use salted butte then skip the salt mentioned in the recipe)

1/3 cup… Butter milk (In 1/3 cup milk, add 4-5 drops  of vinegar and let it stand for 5 min)

1 cup.. coca cola (Which is roughly about 1/3 of the 300 ml bottle)

To assemble:

Filling of your choice {I used the pillsbury white butter cream icing and tuti frutti}

Nutella

Decorations

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 180C and line the cake mould with butter paper.
• Sift all the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and all purpose flour.
• Add sugar and whisk it in.
• In a small pan,heat the oil and butter until the butter is melted. Cool it down for 5-7 min.
• Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the oil-butter mix and butter milk.
• At this point we only want to mix it slightly and dont want to make a dough.
• Now add the coca cola and stir it all until well incorporated.
• The batter shall be thin but that is what we are looking for.
• Do not over mix and pour in the lined container.
• Bake for 20-25 min or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• The cake would have risen beautifully but shall sink a bit when it s cooling down.
• The cake is extremely soft and moist so handle it carefully.
• I layered the cake but then after doing that found it to be not such a good idea given that the cake is so soft.
• You can put in a filling of your choice or just top it off with nutella and share with love.

Cheers,

 

Yam Chips with Tomato Chutney

For July Secret Cooking challenge I was paired with Lakshmi who blog here. Thank you to the gorgeous blogger Priya who has brought together this crazy mix of bloggers with love to experiment with ingredients.
So basically this is an ingredient swap. Every month the interested people are paired and we exchange ingredients (only virtually)

For the last month i got, Yam and tomatoes. I had never cooked with yam before except in undhiyo and there it is no brainer actually. I wanted to try something different. All google gave me was curry, roast, soup etc. However the sweet potato chips caught my fancy and I wanted to try this with my favorite flavors.

I ordered sliced yam from Bigbasket.com and it was all a breeze then.

You shall need:

For the chips-

200 gms… Yam (Peeled, washed and cut in thin strips)

1 tsp… Salt

1 tbsp.. Black Sesame seeds

2 tsp… Thyme (dried)

1 tbsp… lemon juice

1 tbsp… olive oil

For the chutney-

1/2 tsp… oil

1/2 tbsp… panch poran (Mix of five spices- fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed)

4-5… Tomatoes (Blanched, peeled and cubed)

2.. dried red chillies (cut in small pieces)

1 tsp… Sugar

1/2 tsp… red chilly powder

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 180C.
• In a bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, sesame seeds and thyme.
• Toss the thin strips of the yam in the mix and let it sit for a few min.
• In a tray, lay a parchment paper/butter paper and arrange the yam strips one by one.
• Bake it for 25-30 min rotating the side of the yam once in the middle.
• We need crisp strips, so bake it as long as it takes to draw all the moisture out.
• For the chutney, in a pan, heat oil and add panch phoran and red chillies.
• Once the oil is smokey, add the tomatoes, salt and red chilly powder.
• When the water of the tomatoes is almost dried up, add the sugar and let it cook.
• Taste and adjust the spices to make it a sweet and sour chutney.
• Serve with love.

Cheers,

Quick pasta for Dinner

I am fan of easy to put together ingredients. They save the time and effort on the workdays without using too much brain.

All you shall need as an extra for this is Sun-dried tomatoes (I made mine at home, recipe to follow soon)

You shall need:

One cup… Boiled Al dente pasta of your choice (I have used the bambino  shell shape pasta)

5-6 tbsp…. water in which the pasta was boiled.

1/2 tbsp… Oil

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp… tomato paste (Really thick tomato puree, I use a fine mesh to strain the water of the puree and then use the thick portion)

1 tbsp…. cream/malai

Herbs of your choice, I added oregano.

Few sprigs of coriander

Cheese (If you please)

Method:

• In a pan, heat oil and add the tomato puree.
• Cook it for a few min.
• Now add the Pasta and the water.
• Season it well, to taste.
• Add the herbs.
• Finish off with the cream.
• Mix it well to incorporate it all.
• Towards the wee end of the cooking process, add the sundried tomotoes (Cut in smaller pieces if they are too big) and coriander.
• You can also put some garlic bread on the side.
• Serve with love.

Cheers,

 

Vegetable Layer Rice

Oh I am so proud of what I churned out today for lunch 🙂 We are having a pot luck and I offered to make the main.

This “layer rice” is also notoriously called Vegetable Biryani. However I would like to keep it the way it is 😉 Layer Rice.

You shall need: (Serves 4)

For the rice-

600 gms… Basmati Rice (Soak for 30min)

3… Bay leaves

2 tsp… shahi jeera

4…. Green cardamoms

5… peppercorns

Boiling water

2 tbsp… ghee

For the vegetables-

1 cup… cauliflower florets

3 tbsp… Oil

3-4… cubed potatoes

1/2 cup… peas

1/2 cup… cubed carrots (I didn’t add, as I didn’t have any)

1 tbsp… Kasuri Methi

3-4.. green chillies

1 tbsp… dried mint or 2 sprigs fresh mint leaves

2 tsp… Shahi jeera

3-4… green cardamoms

2-3… black cardamoms

2… bay leaves

For the Marinade-

1.5 cup… Curd (a little sour is good)

2 tbsp… Almond-Khus Khus seeds paste (Make it with a few tbsp of curd)

2 tbsp… kasuri methi

2 tsp… garam masala

Salt

Red chilly powder

1 tsp… Turmeric powder

For Assembling-

Browned Onion slices (fried)

2 tbsp… Ghee

10-12 strands of Saffron soaked in warm water

Method:

• To the boiling water, add the bay leaves, pepper corns, shahi jeera, ghee and cardamoms.
• Add the rice and salt. Let it cook for 15-17 min or until they are a little short of being fully cooked.
• Drain it in a colander and keep aside.
• In a wok, heat the oil. Add jeera, cardamoms and bay leaves.
• Add the vegetables and methi with little water.
• Cover and cook the veggies until they still have a bite. We dont want them to be over done.
• In the curd, mix the spices, some fried onion and the almond khus khus paste.
• Mix the curd with the veggies that are still warm.
• Let it sit for about 10-12 min.
• In a microwave safe bowl, add a layer of half the rice and put a sprinkle of garam masala, saffron, ghee and some brown onions.
• Layer the veggies on top of this.
• Now cover them with the remaining rice and add the ghee, saffron, garam masala and onions.
• Before serving, put it in the lowest temperature setting of the microwave to heat everything through.
• Serve with raita and salan.

Cheers

Pearl Onion Brown Rice Burrito #BM38

Oh Burritos save the dinners for me most of the time. They are my oh-My-God-what-do-I-made-today savers. Best part about them is that its one hand meal which makes flipping channels/clicking pictures easy 😛

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 38

You shall need:

4-5… Big chapatis

1 cup… Hung curd

2 tsp… oil

3/4 cup… cooked brown rice

1/4 cup… chopped pearl onions

2 tsp… chilly flakes

Salt to taste

1/2 cup… grated carrot

1 tsp… lemon juice

2 tsp… milk

Cheese spread (optional)

Method:

• In a pan, heat oil.
• Add the pearl onions and a little salt.
• Cook until they are soft.
• Now add the chilly flakes and rice.
• Mix well and cook until everything is combined.
• Bring it out of the pan and let it cool.
• In the hung curd bowl, add the carrots, salt and lemon.
• Add milk if needed, we need the consistency of a spread.
• Lay the chapati on a flat surface, add cheese spread (if you like)
• Now add a generous helping of rice and the hung curd dip.
• Fold it and serve it with your favorite tv channel 🙂

Cheers,

Tuver Seeng ni Kachori #BM38

I have spoken about tuver sing here and here. 🙂 It is a fabulous vegetable and is very close to gujju hearts.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 38

You shall need:

For the outer cover:

2 cup… Wheat flour
4 tbsp… oil
2 tsp… salt
Water

For the filling:

1.5 cup…. Shelled tuver sing
2 tbsp… oil3-4… green chillies
1 tbsp… Jeera/cumin seeds
2 tbsp… Sugar
2 tsp… Mustard seeds
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method:

• Knead the dough using the wheat flour.
• It needs to be tight enough like we make for pooris.
• Keep it in an air tight container until further use.
• In a mixie jar, add the green chillies and make it into a paste.
• Now add the tuver sing, little at a time and grind it into a coarse paste.
• In a wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and add the cumin and mustard seeds.
• Add the tuver sing and green chilly mix.
• Let it cook for 5 min on a low-med heat.
• Now add sugar and let it mix well.
• Once the mix starts to turn to a darker shade of green, turn off the gas and let it cool to room temp.
• Put the oil in another wok for deep frying.
• Now make about 25-30 balls out of the dough.
• Roll them out little and add about 1-1.5 tsp of the mixture.
• Close the ends and secure properly.
• Fry about 5-6 at a time and let me get nice and golden from all sides.
• Serve for breakfast, snack, lunch, supper with love. 🙂

Cheers,

Awamat #BM38

These delish sweet treats from Lebanon come in handy for all occasions. These treats are fried until golden brown and immersed in simple sugar syrup.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 38

You shall need:

1 cup… flour
1 tsp…. sugar
3/4  cup…  water
3/4 tsp… dry yeast
1/4 tsp… salt
oil for frying

For Syrup:
3/4 cup… Water1 cup… Sugar
1 tsp… Lemon Juice

Method:

• In a small bowl, add 2 tbsp warm water and 1 tsp sugar. Add yeast in it and let it stand for 10 min.
• In another bowl, mix flour, salt and the yeast.
• Add water little at a time and knead into a dough.
• Let it stand for 1 hour or until the dough doubles.
• Punch it down, make a long log out of it and cut small pieces.
• Fry in hot oil on a medium-high heat until they are evenly golden.
• In a pan, boil the sugar, water and lemon juice until all the sugar is dissolved.
• Add lemon juice and let the syrup cool a bit.
• Strain the syrup through a mesh.
• Once the syrup is at room temp, tip in all the fried dough.
• It shall soak the syrup quickly.
• Serve as a snack or a sweet treat.

Cheers,

 

Beignet #BM38

I have been fascinated by Bignet’s ever since I laid my eyes on them on a TLC show. These pillows of fried dough with loads of sugar on top are as delicious as well. Love love love them.

For the BM#38 series for the week, I have chosen fried dough as the theme.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 38

You shall need:

1/4 cup …butter (melted)
1/4 cup… water
1/4 teaspoon… salt
1 cup …all-purpose flour
1/2 cup…. yogurt
1/2 tsp… Baking soda
2 tbsp… castor sugar
oil for deep frying
icing sugar

Method:

• In a bowl, mix slat, baking soda, castor sugar and all purpose flour.
• Now add butter and mix it in the flour.
• Add the yogurt next.
• We need to make a soft dough.
• Now add water as need be.
• The dough will be little sticky, but we need to knead it until it all comes together properly.
• Let it rest on the table counter in a oiled pan, covered with cling film, for about 2 hours.
• It shall be fermented till then, roll it out and cut shapes that you desire.
• Fry them in the hot oil  (on a medium high heat) until they get an even color.
• Take them out on a paper towel.
• Serve with a generous amount of dusting of icing sugar on top.

Cheers,

 

Panch Phoran Naan

My most favorite spice mix is Panch phoran. It is Bengali spice mix and makes for the most flavorful tadka. It contains 5 spices, namely:  fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed in equal parts. I use it in a lot of dishes so why not naan too. 🙂

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 38

You shall need: (Makes about 5)

1 cup… All purpose flour

5 tbsp… Curd

1 tsp… Baking soda

1/2 tsp… Salt

1/2 tsp… Sugar

1 tbsp… Panch Phoran (dry roast in a pan for 2-3 min)

2 tsp… oil

1 tbsp… Butter (room temp)

1 tsp… Cumin

1 tsp… Paprika

Method:

• In a small bowl, mix butter , cumin and paprika and keep aside.
• In a bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar, spices and knead with the curd.
• Once the dough is nice and soft, put it in a oiled bowl, cover with tea towel and place on the counter for about an hour.
• Pre heat oven to 190C, on a buttered tray, place a rolled dough ball.
• Using a brush, apply a little of the spiced butter and bake for 5-7 min.
• Take it out and apply the butter once more and return to baking it for about 7-8 min.
• Serve hot with a dollop of the butter.
• Serve with love.

Cheers,