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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Chholey


Ingredients:
Chickpeas - 1 ½ cup
Onion - 3 medium sized, chopped
Purée of 3 ripe tomatoes
Green chillies - 4, slit
Chana masala - 1 ½ tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Chat masala - ½ tsp
Kasuri methi - ½ tsp
Sugar - a pinch
Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Teabag - 1

Method:
Soak the chickpeas in water for overnight. Drain the water and place it in cooker with 5 cups of water. Drop in the teabag along with the chickpeas. Cook under pressure for 6 to 7 whistles or until chickpeas are nicely cooked and soft.

Drain the chickpeas, retain the water separately and discard the tea bag. In a pan, heat oil and sauté onion and green chillies. Cook till the onions are lightly brown. Add chana masala, coriander powder, chilly powder to the onion and sauté for 2 minutes. To this, add tomato purée and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add the boiled chickpeas and salt and nicely mix till the chickpeas gets coated with the tomato-onion masala, cook for 5-6 minutes. Add may be around ½ cup of the retained water to the chickpeas, cook for 3 more minutes. Add chat masala, kasuri methi (crush and powder kasuri methi on your palm) and sugar, cook for a minute.

Garnish chholey with some chopped onions (onion in chholey gives out a fantastic flavour...mouth watering mmmm), drizzle lemon juice lightly and enjoy with hot bhatura.

Khandvi - Gujarati Snack

For quite sometime I have been thinking of trying Gujarati snacks Dhokla and Khandvi. Here I present you with the very popular and traditional snack, Khandvi. Tasty and takes very less time to make.

Ingredients:
Gram flour (besan) - ½ cup
Green chilly - 2
Ginger - ½ inch
Turmeric - ½ tsp
Curd - ½ cup
Water - 1 ½ cup
Salt to taste

For the tempering:
Asafoetida - a pinch
Curry leaves - 1 stalk
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup
Grated coconut - ¼ cup

Method:
Thoroughly blend curd and water together with a whisk. To this add turmeric and salt. Grind ginger and chilly into a nice paste. In a bowl take gram flour add the the curd-water-turmeric mixture and ginger-chilly paste.
Grease back of Mix thoroughly, use a whisk if you would like, make sure there are no lumps formed. Heat a pan, pour the mixture into it, cook on a medium flame. Keep stirring continuously. While it cooks, lightly grease back of 2-3 plates with oil. When the gram flour thickens (still creamy, make sure its not hard, say about 7 mins of cooking).
Quickly with the help of a flat spoon, spread the hot mixture on the greased plates, covering the entire back, make the layer as thin as possible (back of the plate should not be visible). Spread rest of the plates as well before the mixture cools. Let the layer cool down for some time.
With the help of a knife cut the layer length wise in strips of around 1 inch width. Gently lift one edge of the the cut strip with the knife and then roll the entire strip to form a 1 inch wide cylinder (refer the photograph above).
For tempering, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add asafoetida, curry leaves. Arrange the khandvi on a plate, pour the tempered oil over the khandvi. Garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Kalmi Kabab

Well, here I go with another recipe before the year ends. I guess the pre-new year resolution thing is working. This is a very simple and easy to make kabab. Follow the recipe and you should do just fine.


Ingredients:
Chicken thigh - 4
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Green Cardamom - 4
Nutmeg - of whole nutmeg
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Pepper corn - 5 to 6
Chilly Powder - 1½ tsp
Lemon - ½ of medium sized lemon
Hung Curd - ½ cup (Make sure you drain as much water as possible)
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Butter

Method:
Dry grind cinnamon and cardamom together. Powder the pepper corns and nutmeg separately. I prefer to grind these spices separately so that their aroma don't mess with each other. Also so that these spice tastes distinctly in the marinade.  Mix all the ingredients (except butter) together in a bowl.
With a knife, make one or two very light cuts on the thighs (helps the flavours to penetrate through), prick the chicken thighs with a fork and then nicely massage the marinade on the thighs and into the slits one by one in the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.
Cook the chicken in an oven (preheat oven to 200º C) @ 200º C for about 30 mins. Around 4 mins before the cooking ends, brush the chicken with some butter and continue cooking.
Serve with onion rings with lightly drizzled lemon juice. Kalmi kabab just melts in your mouth...Enjoy!!!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Honey Wheat Bread

I didn't want this year to end without posting any recipe on this blog and bring bad luck. Before the new year begins and I go back to making new year resolutions like all the previous years (which by the way don't even last a week) I have decided to do a Pre-New Year resolution - to be more active with the blog and post more and more of my delicious encounters in the culinary world.

Here's a simple and healthy wheat bread recipe that I enjoyed making. Its quite easy and needs no special skills.


Ingredients:
Wheat (Atta) - 3 ½ cup
Active Yeast - 1 ½ tsp
Honey - ¼ cup
Milk - cup
Salt - 1 ¼ tsp
Oil - ¼ cup
Water (luke warm) - 1 cup

Method:
Take a large mixing bowl. Add water and the yeast, mix thoroughly. To this, add honey, mix again and leave it for around 15-20 mins. Now add, oil, milk and salt, mix thoroughly with a whisk. Add atta to the mixture and knead it well to form a dough. Dust a flat surface with atta and then knead the dough thoroughly on the surface to incorporate some air into the dough. Do this for around 10 minutes. Leave the dough in a bowl, cover it with a wet cloth for 3 - 4 hours (depending on the weather; yeast requires warm and humid environment to do its thing and rise the dough). Your dough would have now doubled (or even more) in size. Roll the dough with your hands, form a cylinder roughly the lenght of your bread tray. Lightly grease the tray before putting the dough. Cover the tray with cling wrap and leave it to further rise for around 2 hours. The dough would have nicely risen by now.

Bake the bread in the oven (pre heated to 180º C) @ 180º C for 40 mins (After the first 20 mins of cooking, loosely cover the tray with aluminium foil and cook for the rest 20 mins). Once done, take it out of the oven, lightly brush the top of the bread with oil to avoid hard crust top. Allow the bread to cool.

Enjoy your home made honey wheat bread. Please try the recipe. Do leave your comments  and tell me how it turned out for you.

Also some inspiration for me to continue blogging :)