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.

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 - ⅛ 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!!!

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 - ⅓ 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 :)

Spicy Ragi Dosa

I know a lot of people who rush to office with just bread-omelette for breakfast as they don't find time to make anything else. For those who want a change from their regular choice of breakfast, I would like to share my wife's recipe that is quick, delicious and healthy.

Ingredients:

Ragi - 2 Cups

Curd - 1/2 - 1 Cup - Preferably sour

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Onion - 1 Large - Finely chopped

Green Chilly - 4 medium spicy - Chopped

Ginger - 1" Finely Chopped

Curry Leaves - 2 springs - Finely Chopped

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Heat a small kadhai, add oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, onion, ginger and green chillies. Sauté till onion is translucent, switch off and allow to cool.

In a vessel, add ragi, curd, salt, mix thoroughly. Add water to attain slightly flowing consistency (thinner than regular dosa batter). Check salt and adjust if required. To this add onion mixture and mix thoroughly.

Heat dosa tava on high flame, pour the ragi dosa batter starting from the outer edge towards the center in a circular fashion (do not spread the batter like you do with regular dosa) to attain dosa shape (like in the picture above). Cook on reduced flame. Flip the dosa to cook on both sides. You may add a little oil to the dosa to make it crisp. Enjoy this quick, easy and healthy ragi dosa as is or with coconut chutney.

Dum Murgh Ki Kachchi Biryani

My wife has been trying various biryani recipes. Over time she has trialed (unfortunately on me) these to come up with the perfect recipe for biryani. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I love savouring this delicious and rich biryani. I have not used ghee in this recipe, this is purely optional. The flavors in this recipe arise from the fresh ingredients used and grease from chicken fat and curd. Moreover I prefer rice-bran oil over others in all my recipes'.

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1 Kg

Onions - 3 Large ones sliced (for frying)

Green Chillies - 3 to 4 Chopped

Coriander Leaves - ½ Bunch

Lemon - 1 Medium sized

Saffron - ½ tsp (Optional) soaked in 2-3 tbsp of warm milk

Oil - 2 to 3 tbsp

For the Marination

Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Curd - 2 cups

Salt to taste

Biryani Masala

Bay Leaf - 1

Cloves - 4

Cinnamon - 1" Long

Green Cardamom - 2

Black Cardamom - 1

Cumin Seeds - ½ tsp

Grind the above into powder.

For the Rice

Basmati Rice - ½ Kg

Green Cardamom - 1

Cinnamon Stick - ½"

Cloves - 2

Bay Leaf - 1

Whole Black Pepper - ½ tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Seal for Dum

Atta Dough to seal biriyani vessel

Method:
In a vessel add in all the ingredients for marination along with biryani masala and chicken. Mix thoroughly and leave it for 2 hours.

Soak basmati rice in water for 1/2 an hour and drain thereafter.

In a kadhai, take some oil and deep fry onions till crispy brown (Make sure you don't burn the onions). Add the fried onions to the marinated chicken. Mix thoroughly and leave it for another ½ an hour.

In a vessel take enough water (since we are going to par-boil the rice and drain excess water) to cook the rice. To this add bay leaf, cardamom, whole pepper, cloves and cinamon. Bring to a boil, add salt, add rice. Boil till the rice is half cooked (The rice is said to be half cooked when the grain breaks into tiny pieces when smashed between your fingers). Drain excess water with the help of a strainer.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadhai, add the marinated chicken mix thoroughly for 3 minutes on high flame (intention here is not to cook the chicken).

In a thick bottom vessel firstly layer the chicken, press slightly and pack it well. Now spread chopped corriander leaves, chopped green chillies, squeeze a lemon. On top of this spread the half boiled rice, evenly. Sprinkle the saffron on top of this. Seal the vessel tight with the atta dough.

Cook for 5 minutes on high flame, then 15 minutes on medium flame and finally 10 minutes on low flame. Switch off the flame. Let it stand for some time. Mix the biryani well while serving. Enjoy this delicious mouth-watering biryani with onion raita.

Note. If you do not have a thick bottom vessel, you can also cook the biriyani in a regular vessel over a thick tava. Optionally you can add, fried rasins and cashewnuts on top of the rice.

Aloo Paratha

I just love parathas, the good thing about making parathas is that, once you learn to make any kind of paratha, it becomes that much easier for you to choose your stuffing and make your own unique paratha. Here I would like to share one such recipe. Unlike my previous recipe postings, this one is much more simpler and requires the least amount of ingredients.

Ingredients:For Aloo stuffing -
Potato (Aloo) - 4 large
Green Chillies - 4 medium spicy

Coriander Leaves - small bunch

Cumin Seeds - ½ tsp
Salt to taste

For the dough -
Wheat Flour - 4 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - ½ tsp
Water

Method:
Sieve flour and salt together in a vessel, add oil and mix well. Slowly add water and knead it to soft yet firm dough. Leave the dough to stand for about half an hour.
Slice the potato into two halves, cook them in a pressure cooker with little salt, first on high flame until whistle and then simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and then de-skin & smash the potatoes (be careful not to make a paste out of it). To this, add cumin seeds, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped coriander leaves. Add salt to taste. Mix thoroughly with the help of a spoon and divide the mixture into balls as shown in the picture below.

Make balls out of the dough and then roll it into small circle around 8cms diameter, leaving the centre portion thicker than the edges. Now place the potato stuffing in it, bring together the cover from all the sides to the center, seal tightly and roll the parathas. You may use wheat flour to dust and keep the paratha from sticking. Cook on a hot tava, use a little oil or ghee, and cook until both sides are golden brown.
Serve these hot, mouth watering parathas with some curd and tomato/mango pickle.

Chicken Keema Paratha

Ok here I go, my very first blog. My wife has been behind me for weeks now to get the recipe published on this blog. I hope you enjoy the hot parathas as much as I enjoyed writing this blog.

Ingredients:
For Keema-
Chicken Breast - 400 gms
Onions - 2 No. chopped
Tomato - 2 No. chopped
Pepper Powder - ¾ tsp
Red Chilly Powder - ½ tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Roasted Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1 Inch - chopped
Garlic - 6 Medium sized cloves - minced
Green Chillies - 3-4 medium spicy
Coriander Leaves - small bunch
Lemon - 1
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt to taste

For the dough -
Wheat Flour - 4 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - ½ tsp
Water

Method:
Sieve flour and salt together in a vessel, add oil and mix well. Slowly add water and knead it to soft yet firm dough. Leave the dough to stand for about half an hour.
Cut chicken into small pieces. With the help of a meat-mincer, mince the chicken. You can also use a dry grinder. To the minced chicken, squeeze in half lemon and a little salt, mix well and keep it aside for half an hour.
In a flat pan, take some oil. Once the oil is hot, add chopped onion. At this time, you may want to sprinkle a dash of salt to the onion, to expedite the cooking process. Sauté till slightly brown. Add chopped garlic, ginger and sauté for a minute on low flame. Add chopped tomato, mix well and cook on medium flame till the tomato mixture turns to a nice pulp and starts leaving oil. Now add the chopped green chilly. Ok its now time to add dry masala (corriander powder, garam masala, chilly powder, cumin powder, pepper powder), mix well for a minute on low flame. Add minced chicken, and mix well on high flame for a minute, reduce the flame, add salt to taste, cover the pan and cook around 10 mins. Open and cook till all the water has been absorbed. Don't get frightened, if you see your cooked minced chicken turn into big chunks of mass. Use two flat wooden spoon, pound it on the chicken in quick succession. Pound it till it changes into the consistency as shown in the picture below. Switch the flame off. We are almost done, add chopped coriander and squeeze in a lemon, mix well and allow the mixture to cool.
Make balls out of the dough and then roll it into small circle around 8cms diameter, leaving the centre portion thicker than the edges. Now place 2 tbsps of keema in it (or, as much as you can), bring together the cover from all the sides to the center, seal tightly and roll the parathas. You may use wheat flour to dust and keep the paratha from sticking. Cook on a hot tava, use a little oil, and cook until both sides are golden brown.
I suggest having the hot and delicious parathas as it is, but if you like you can have them with some mango/tomato pickle.