Palak/Spinach Paratha

Both my kids love this as a snack with yogurt.Very healthy and easy recipe.



Ingredients

Spinach - 1 cup (chopped)
Wheat flour - 3 cup
Jeera/cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Garlic - 1 clove(minced)
Pepper powder - 1/tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2tbsp
Warm Water - as needed

Method

In a pan,heat oil and fry jeera and finely minced garlic.Careful not to burn the garlic.Once they are fried add the spinach,salt and pepper.Saute till spinach is fully cooked.Add this to the wheat flour and knead into a dough using warm water.Cover the dough with wet paper towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.After 30 minutes,make it into parathas.I made small parathas and served it with homemade yogurt as a snack.

Kothu Parotta/paratta for MBP, Roti mela and Chicken - MF.

This yummy recipe and super easy recipe is one of my forite recipe by Paati of En veetu samyal.It was so delicious and the whole family l.I had tried making kothu parotta in india on my last vacation.That time i used the hotel salna and using that maked thcipe super tasty.I got the same taste (without the salna) in this recipe.I used ground chicken instead of meat and frozen parotta instead of tortillas.Do check out paati other delicious recipes.
This is my entry for the following events.

1.MBP - Streetfood hosted by Sia of Monsoon spice, originated by Coffee of Spicecafe.

2.Roti Mela by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons

And last but not least

3.Chicken - My favorite by Vandana Rajesh of Cookingup something nice

Hope you all enjoy this dish as much as we did.Enjoy Father's day and have a happy weekend.




I made kheema rice with some leftover rice and leftover masala of kothu parotta.




Finally a big THANKS to Paati of En veetu samyal for sharing this recipe.

Bread Pakoda

Bread pakodas, just like thool pakodas are made with stale bread.I found this recipe in a mallika badrinath cookbook a long back.Since then i have been making this delicious crispy pakodas.One of the many uses of stale bread.This is my entry to this month's Monthly Mingle - Appetizers & Hors'Doeuvres Hosted by Mansi of Fun and Food.


Ingredients

White Bread sliices - 10
Red onion - 1 (chopped fine)
Green chillies - 5 (chopped fine)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Kadala maavu/Channa flour/Besan - 2tbsp
Yougurt - 1tbsp (well beaten)
Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp (chopped fine)
Oil - for deep frying
Salt - as needed

Method

Cut out the brown edges of the bread slices.Tear off the white part into small pieces.In a vessel slightly mix the bread slices with yougurt.Don't mush them.Let it rest for another 15 minutes.To this mixture add onion,green chillies,turmeric,channa flour,coriander leaves and salt.Slighlty mix so that everything comes together.With a fork and spoon, drop the mixture in to the hot oil for deep frying.Fry till they are golden brown.Drain the pakodas in a paper towel.Serve them with ketup or chutney.

Bread upma

Recipe adapted from my cousin sis V.Thanks V we enjoyed this one a lot.


Ingredients

Bread - 10 slices (toasted and cut)
Onion- 1 medium size (chopped)
Ginger garlic - 1tbsp
Green chillies - 3
Red chilli powder - 1tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4tsp
Coriander - cumin powder - 1/2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Tomato - 1
Tomoto paste - 1 6 oz can
kasuri methi - 1/2tsp
coriander leaves - for garnish

Method

Toast the bread pieces if they are little soft.Cut them into small squares.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds.Now add greenchillies,onion,gingergarlic and fry well.Now add all the powders and salt.After the raw smell goes add chopped tomato and tomato paste.Fry well till it thickens.Lower the heat and add bread slices.Do not mix it hard, just slightly mix it with a spatula until all the gravy is absorbed by bread.Garnish it with kasuri methi and coriander leaves.

Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

Grounded chicken - 1 lb
Onion - 1/2 (large sized, chopped)
Potatoes - 2 (boiled and mashed)
Green chillies - 3 (chopped)
Ginger garlic paste - 1tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Garam masala - 1/2tsp
Egg - 1 (separated)
Bread crumbs - as needed
Oil - As needed

Method

Wash grounded chicken by placing it the running water.Drain the water.In pan , saute this grounded chicken with little salt and turmeric powder.Saute well till the chiken is cooked through.In the mean time, boil and mash the poatatoes well.In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and fry onions, green chillies until onions are soft.Add gg paste to this and saute till raw smell goes.Add mashed potatoes to this and add garam masala,salt and chicken.Switch off the heat when the raw smell is gone.Mix everything very well and add egg yolk to it.Let the mixture cool a bit.After cooling down, shape it into hearts using a cookie cutter.Take each cutlet and roll it in the beated egg white and then roll it in the bread crumbs.Shallow fry these in hot oil.You can also bake them in the oven at 450 degrees for about 10-12 min.s or until golden brown.






Zucchini Thepla

This is my entry for Coffee's MBP - Let's roll.I tried this delicious and little spicy thepla's from Trupti's The Spice who loved me.Came out very good and a big thanks to Trupti's for sharing this.I served these thepla's with spicy mango pickle.

Methi - Paneer Chappathi with Egg bhurji

I made these chappathis with home made paneer which i made for the first time.Followed the step by step procedure by Indira.I got such a satisfaction after making these but don't know whether i will make paneer at home again as i recently found out that 2 of our local grocery stores have fresh paneer.Yeap..freshly mad paneer in American grocery stores..so why go for such lengthy process..huh?

Ingredients

Methi leaves - 2 cups
Paneer - 1/2 cup (shredded)
Red chilli powder - 1/2tsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Wheat flour - 3 cups
Oil - 1tsp
Salt - as needed

Method

In a pan heat oil and fry jeera,methi leaves and red chilli powder.Mix wheat flour,salt,paneer and fried methi mixture using warm water.Mix it well into a soft dough and keep it aside for about 30 mts.Divide the dough into equal sized balls and roll each ball into chappathis.Cook each chappathi in a hot tawa.I served this chappathi with boiled egg bhurji and onion relish.

Boiled egg bhurji recipe source here.




Tips : While using store brout paneer, just freeze the remaining paneer for withholding the freshness.

Madras chicken with Avocado parathas

While i was pregnant, we used get this madras chicken masala paste from the local indian store and make madras chicken.I was hooked onto it thru' out the pregnancy.That paste made my H's life lot easier 'coz there was not much to do in the kitchen.Just fry onion, chciken and add this paste.Tasted delicious.Few days ago, when i was going my cookbook, found a recipe called "Madras chicken" and was wondering whether it was the same.Well, it tasted exactly the same.So here is that recipe from the scratch.


Ingredients

Cornish hen - 1 (cut into medium sized pieces)
Onion - 1 (chopped fine)
Tomatoes - 2
Gingergarlic paste - 2tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Coconut milk powder - 2tbsp
Salt - as needed
Coriander leaves - as needed
Oil- as needed

Powder the following

Cinnamon - 2 (1/2 inch stick)
Cardamom - 2
Cloves - 2
Peppercorns - 1/2tsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Red chillies - 6


Method

Marinate chicken pieces with salt and turmeric powder for about 1 hour.In a pan heat oil and fry these chicken pieces till golden brown.In a pan,take 3tbsp of oil from the oil used for frying.Fry chopped onion, ginger garlic paste,tomatoes one by one till everything comes together.Add powdered masala and fried chicken pieces.Mix very well and then add coconut milk powder.If needed add little water.Close the lid and cook for about 5 minutes.Now add chopped corinader leaves and open and cook till only little gravy is left.Serve it with rice/roti.I served this with Spice is Right's Avacado parathas.



Tips: You can subsitute coconut milk powder with powdered cashews also.If adding water to chicken gravy like this always add hot water.

Beet chappathi n' more

I usually add different flavours to plain chappthis just to make my lil one eat it.This is one of them.He likes this because of the color.

Ingredients

Atta/Wheat flour - 1 and 1/2 cups
Beet root - 2tbsp(grated)
Jeera - 1 and 1/2tsp
Garlic - 1 pod(optional)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2tsp
Warm water - as needed.

Method

In pan, heat oil and fry jeera,chopped garlic.Then add grated beet root and saute for 2 min.s.Add chilli and garam masala powder and fry till it's cooked.In a bowl, add this beet mixture,wheat flour,salt and warm water and mix well into a chappathi dough.Let it rest for about 30 min.s and make equal sized balls out of this dough.Rooll each into chappathis and cook them in a hot tawa.I served this colorful beet chappathi with Gobi subzi.





Few days ago, i had tried Seema of Recipe junction's Palak paneer.It was a huge hit with family n' friends.My son was licking his fingers for the last drop of palak.(he rarely does that :))).The only change i made to her recipe was, i grinded the sauted spinach for the smooth texture.I stongly recommend her delicious recipe to all of you to try.Thanks Seema for sharing.






Below is the picture of french toast made out of Challah.





Tips: Using warm water for making chappthi dough makes chappthi softer.Again letting the dough rest for 30 minutes or so helps also.

Challah

It's been long since i baked something good.So decided to bake and started looking into my fav.Cook book "America's test kitchen".Whatever i tried from this book, came out very well.So finally made my mind on this eggy braided bread from Jewish cuisine.Got attracted to this bread just because of the braids.The end product was so good didn't feel like eating it.After started eating it, couldn't stop ..:))These make sensational french toast also.





Ingredients

All Purpose flour - 3 and 1/2 cups
Water (warm) - 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp
Butter - 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Eggs - 2 (large)
Egg yolk - 1 (large)
Egg yolk - 1 (large)
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Instant or rapid rise yeast - 1 envelope ( 2 1/4 tsp)
Salt - 1 1/4tsp
Sesame seeds or poppy seeds - 1tsp (optional)


Method

You can mix the dough either with hand, or stand mixer or even processor.I am posting the food processer method here.Whisk 1/2 cup of the water,butter,eggs, and egg yolk together in a liquid measuring cup.Pulse 3 cups of the flour,sugar,yeast and salt in a food processor(fitted with a dough blade if possible) to combine.With the processor running,pour the egg mixture through the feed tube and process until a rough ball forms, 30 to 40 sec.s.Let the dough rest for 2 min.s, then process for 30 sec.s longer.Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, about 5 minutes, adding the remaining 1/ cup flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter.Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 and 1 1/2 hours.

Whisk the egg white and the remaining 1 tbsp water together to make egg wash.Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter.Divide the dough into two, one twice as large as the other.Divide each dough into 3 pieces and roll each piece out into 16 - inch ropes( three ropes will be much thicker).Braid two loaves,(just like braiding our hair),one large and one small.Transfer the large braid to a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash, and secure the smaller braid on top.cover with greased plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it has nearly doubled in size and springs back slowly when intended with a finger, 30 to 60 minutes.( i had a small amount of dough left over after braiding, so just made a smaller braid and attached it to the top end)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.Brush the loaf with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.Bake until golden, 30 to 40 minutes.Transfer the bread to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature before slicing, about 2 hours.( again i couldn't wait till that time :))





Tips : For easier dough rising, especially on these winter days, heat the oven to 200 degress and then switch it off.After 10 minutes or so, place the dough inside the oven.I use the same method sometimes for dosa batter fermentation.In not so wintery days, just switch on the oven light and place the dough inside.

Paneer chappathi

As most of you might know about Nidhi of Cooking made easy won the Emeril Scratch contest and made us all proud.Paneer was her winning recipe.So i decided to make this paneer chappathi as of way of congratulating her.Congrats Nidhi...


Paneer chappathi


Ingredients

Paneer - 1/4 lb (cut into small pieces)
Atta - 2 and 1/2 cups
Salt - as needed
Butter - 2tbsp (softned)
Jeera - 2tsp


Method

In a food processor, put atta,paneer,salt,jeera,butter and mix it into a soft dough using water.Be careful while adding water, not too much.If you don't have a food processor, shred paneer fine using a shredder and mix everything with hand as you do for chappathi dough.Thanks to Saffron of Saffron hut for this method of using food processor for mixing paneer well with the dough.This makes mixing very easy.Let the dough rest for 30-40 mts.Dough will be very soft because of paneer and butter.Make about 20 balls out of the dough and roll into chappathis.In a hot tawa, cook each chappathi till golden brown on both sides.There is no need to add any oil while cooking it.There you have it nice and soft paneer chappathis.I served it with Aloo sabji.

Parotta/porotta

Parottas..one of my fav. indian bread and my latest successful culinary experiment.I learned the procedure from my dear friend S abt 6 monthes ago.Ever since,whenever i make these, i was overwhelmed by the results.My mom didn't believe first, so i had send her the snaps :)).As we were planning for this vacation, my cousin sis first request was to teach her how to make these parottas.As i got my finger cut while making the side dish for the parottas, her hands posed for these snaps.Thanks to sweet brother-in-law and my DH for being patient and taking photos and shooting
videos and helped me post those here.A big special thanks to my sweet cousin sis.


Ingredients

Maida - 8 cups
Eggs - 2
Sugar -2tsp
Salt - as needed
Water - as needed

Method

Sieve maida and mix it with egg,sugar and salt.Knead it into soft dough using water.It took about 15-20 minutes of punching the dough with my fists.Divide the dough into equal sized balls and dip them in oil(half of the ball should be covered in oil and just pour some oil on top of the balls.(i know what u r thinking..this much oil..not to worry..the dough won't absorb the oil.The oil is just to keep the balls moist.You can very well reuse this oil for later cooking.Another option is, just rub the each ball very well with oil and keep it in a airtight vessel).Set this aside for 4-5 hrs.After 4-5 hrs, take one ball at a time.Roll that into a small chappathi.As shown below,keep one hand under and another over the chappathi and start beating it on the counter top.Keep going around the chappathi doing this until, the chappathi is very thin.Now try streching the chappathi with your hand to max level.Sometimes the chappathi breaks, that's just fine. Now pick the chappathi up by one end.Hold it vertically and try streching a little, careful not to break it.
Now keep rolling this in spirals and tuck the end into the center.just spread little oil on the sprial ball.After done making all the spiral balls, now get ready for the last step.Take one spiral ball at a time, roll it into small thick chappathi.Cook this in a hot griddle till it's golden brown on both the sides.(if you want u can add little oil while cooking).When 4-5 parottas are cooked, take and stack it up.Now try pushing them with both the hands from all the sides.This is just to separate the layers.Yeah...it's done serve is hot with mutton/chicken curry.We served these with Mutton salna, just like u get in the road side tattukada.(will post that recipe soon).

This is little time consuming one, but i bet u will never regret it..




Two eggs,flour,salt,sugar..getting ready to knead...




kneaded dough




dipped in oil




rolling into chappathi




Beating starts



Making it thinner






Streching to the max...



Streching vertically alil' bit





rolling spirally







Fully rolled one



Making thick chappathi out of spiral balls



Parottas cooking




Finished product..delicious..

Methi chappathi

Ingredients

Methi levaes - 1cup
Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cup
Chilli powder - 1tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - as needed
Ghee- as needed


Method

In some oil, saute methi leaves till cooked.In a bowl, mix wheat flour, salt and sauted methi leaves.Make it into a chappathi dough using hot water.Cover the dough with wet paper towel and keep it aside for 1/2 hr.After 1/2 hr, roll into chappathi.Now heat tawa and cook chappathi using ghee.Serve hot with raita/pickle/dal.

Egg curry with latccha

Egg curry with almonds served with latccha.Latccha is made with wheat flour and it is a layered chappathi.I found the latccha recipe on aval vikatan.There not much to explain about this lovely combination..you will know abt the dish once you taste it..:))

Egg curry

Ingredients for paste

Tomato - 1 (medium sized)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic- 3-4 cloves
Plain yogurt - 1tbsp
Garam masala - 1tsp
Almonds - 8 (blanched)

Ingredients

Eggs - 5 (hard boiled)
Onion - 1 sliced
Red chilly powder -1tsp
Dania powder- 1tsp
Jeera powder- 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder-1/2tsp

Adjust the spices according to your palatte

For garnishing

Coriander leaves and curry leaves


Method

Grind all the ingredients listed under "ingredients for paste" into fine paste using yogurt and little water.Hard boil the eggs and cut them into half.Heat oil in a pan and fry onions till they are golden brown and then add the ground paste.Fry till the raw smell goes away.Now add the red chilly, dania,jeera powders and salt and fry for another 2-3 min.s. Finally add the eggs.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves.Serve it with rice/chappathi/laccha.





Latccha

Ingredients

Atta flour - 2 cup
Salt- as needed
Oil/ghee mixture - as needed

Method

Mix atta,salt and water to make chappathi dough.Take a small ball of dough and roll out into a big chappathi.Now brush the oil-ghee mixture all over the chappathi and fold it into half.Now roll out the folded chappathi again and keep folding and rolling out until it reaches your desired size.Keep brushing oil-ghee mixture in between the folds.I folded 4 times.These folds make a layered latccha.I had cut these into a rectangle shape ( say..just for the photo purpose).

Weekend Baking #3 Ginger Bread

As taking baby steps towards baking, i tried Betty Crocker's Ginger Bread(mix).Well succeeded.The bread came out really well and given me the strength to bake again next weekend...

Gobi Manchurain and naan

Had prepared Gobi manchurian and naan for dinner.I came across lots of different recipes for gobi manchurian, but was not satisfied enough to try one.('coz of the past experiences trying to make Gobi manchurian ...:)).finally selected some good ones and made a mixed version of it.Making it with little extra gravy than the usual one and extra spicy.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized cauliflower broken into florets
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 onion( finely chopped)
1 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp green chili, finely chopped
½ tbsp corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp of water
(I used some corn starch, 'coz i didn't find any corn flour on the pantry :))
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce (You can use the regualr light one also.The color of the dish will be slightly different)
1 tbsp Tomato sauce (I used Maggi)
1 tbsp Red Chilli sauce
1 tbsp pepper powder
3/4 cup of water (Add water according to the amount of gravy you need)
Some green onion, finely chopped for garnish .
(You can cut them using kitchen scissors which seems to be fairly easy and need.)

For batter:
All purpose flour-1/2 cup
Corn flour-1/4 cup(Again 'coz i was short of corn flour, i used some rice flour instead)
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt- as needed
Red food color- a pinch(optional)

Method:

Make a batter using all purpose,corn flour,red chilli powder,red food color and salt using some water.The batter should be thick.(slightly thicker than the batter used for bajji).Dip each gobi florets into the batter and deep fry them until golden brown.Place the fried florets into a paper towel for draining oil.

Now heat oil (i used olive oil), fry sesame seeds,onion,ginger,garlic and green chillies.Fry for abt 2-3 min.s till the aroma comes.Now add all the sauces, pepper powder and salt.Fry for another 2 min.s and add the corn flour -water mixture.Add water and cook till the sauce is thick enough for you and finally add the deep fried florets.Garnish with Green onions and some roasted sesame seeds.

P.S: You can add a pinch of ajinomotto if you want, but there are concerns abt whether it's good for health..so i usuall avoid it.The dish tastes very good even if you don't add ajinomotto.
I served this with Spicyana's Naan...yummy..

My son couldn't wait......