Matar Kachori

The Koraishutir Kochuri or The Matar kachori is basically a Bengali preparation.

It is the sweetness of the green peas paste and of the fried maida that makes such a tasty combined flavour. Yes, it has to be maida.

Of course you can deviate by using wheat flour but trust me it tastes better with maida covering.

So read on :-

For Covering

Refined flour (maida) 1  cup

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp.

Salt to taste

Oil 1 tbsp.+Oil to deep fry

Stuffing

Desi ghee  tablespoons

Fennel seeds (saunf) 1/2 teaspoon

Green chillies, finely chopped 2

Green peas, blanched & crushed 1 cup

Asafoetida a pinch

Salt to taste

Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped a few sprigs

1. Knead into a smooth dough of maida using cumin, salt, a tbsp. of oil and sufficient water.

2. Cover with a moist cloth and set aside for half an hour.

3. Heat oil in a pan, temper with  fennel seeds, chopped green chillies, asafoetida and  sauté for half a minute,

4. Now add crushed green peas and salt. Mix well. Remove from heat and cool.Add chopped coriander leaves and divide into twelve to sixteen equal sized portions.

5. Divide dough into equal sized balls.

6. Flatten a ball just the way we do it for stuffed parathas and place a portion of the stuffing.

7. Cover, seal edges and flatten.

8. Roll out lightly with a rolling pin. Repeat with the remaining dough.

9. Heat sufficient oil and deep fry kachoris on medium heat till brown and crisp. Drain and serve hot.

Papdi Pizza

This is my 2nd entry for lovely event called Kids Delight hosted by Pari.

The popular pizza in its new avatar – the papdi base adds a unique crunch.

It  is something one can have as a great appetizer during parties.A super fast way of enjoying bite size crispy pizzas without doing all the work of a real pizza.I am definite you all will like it. It was little tedious for me coz I had to make papdis at home; but that's ok.

for this you will need:-

Crisp puris (papdi) 10

Onion 1 medium

Pizza sauce 1/2 cup

Potato boiled and sliced 1 medium

Processed cheese, grated 200 grams

Red, yellow,Green Bell Pepper seeded , sliced horizontally 1 cup

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut onion into thick roundels and separate the rings. 
2. Grease a baking tray and arrange the papdis on it. Spread pizza sauce on the papdis. Place potato slices on some and onion rings on the rest. Heap grated cheese and place red, yellow, green bell pepper slices on some of them. Put a little pizza sauce on top of some of the pizzas. You can make your own combination in this as well. 

3. Bake in the preheated oven till the cheese melts. Serve hot.

ohh and don't forget to grab some ....

Stir Fried Noodles with Vegetables and Sprouts

Hi guys, i am re-posting this as this goes for lovely event called Kids Delight hosted by Pari.

 

The noodles were sitting in the cupboard for quite a long time.I can't make the whole pack just for myself as my husband is not very fond of noodles. But today,I had to prepare Manchow Soup for him. So I got a good reason to make use of the noodles. Vegetable Manchow Soup(garnished with fried noodles) and Stir Fried Noodles with Vegetables and Sprouts was prepared for Lunch….yes…for Lunch.This is a great way to include more and more vegetables in our diet and one more thing, the bean sprouts that you get here; I just love them. I had noodles with bean sprouts for the first time in Germany only. Back home in India I have not seen noodles with bean sprouts till date.  
One big advantage of chinese food is, we can prepare it in a short span of time. Just in half an hour to 45 mins…..but it takes hell lot of time to chop veggies…anyway…read on for the recipe….

you will need:-

Noodles 200 grams

Carrot, cut into thin strips 1/2 cup

Green capsicum, seeded, thin strips 1/2 cup (I had Yellow, Green and Red Bell pepper; so I used all 3 of them)

Cabbage, shredded 1/2 cup

Salt to taste
Black Pepper Powder as reqd.

Oil 1 tbsp

Onion , sliced 1 medium
Garlic 2 cloves finely sliced ( I like the garlic flavour but you can omit)

Light soy sauce 1 1/2 tablespoons

Spring onion greens, sliced diagonally 1/2 cup
and

1.Boil noodles in six to eight cups of salted water to which one tablespoon of oil has been added and cook till almost done. 

2. Drain, refresh in cold water and drain again. Spread on a large plate to cool and apply little oil so that they do not stick to each other. 
3. Heat oil in a wok. Add onion and stir-fry for one minute. Add carrot, green-yellow-red capsicum, cabbage and half the bean sprouts and stir-fry for two to three minutes. 
4. Add salt,black pepper powder, soya sauce and noodles and mix lightly. Toss so that everything gets mixed well. Add remaining bean sprouts and spring onion greens and toss. Serve hot. 

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Indo-Chinese cuisine is every foodie’s favorite. Infact all Indians love this fusion food. You are bound to come across many small Indo-chinese restaurants and food stalls at every corner in Pune.

I for one like this finger food called spring rolls immensely. They are so delectable and have a unique taste. Very simple to rustle up and are full of flavours and colors too. so read on for the recipe:-

For this you will need:-

Spring roll wrappers - readily available in market (if not then)

( Read the instructions written on the packet carefully)

The recipe for making spring roll sheets:-

Cornflour/ corn starch 1 cup

Refined flour (maida) 1/4 cup

Salt to taste


To make spring roll wrappers:-
1. Mix cornflour, refined flour and salt to taste in a mixing bowl. Add two cups of water and whisk thoroughly.
2. Strain the batter and set aside for fifteen minutes. Adjust the consistency of the batter by adding a little water if required.
3. Heat a pan and brush it with a little oil. Now pour a ladle-full of batter into it. Swirl to coat the bottom of the pan and pour the excess batter back into the bowl.
4. Cook over moderate heat till the edges start curling. Peel off or remove in one swift motion. Cool and sprinkle a little cornflour so that the wrappers don't stick to each other. Repeat the process to make remaining wrappers.

For Filling:-

Oil 1 tbsp.+ to deep fry

Onion , thinly sliced 1 medium

Carrots, grated 1big

Green capsicum, cut into thin strips 1 medium

Cabbage, finely shredded 1/2 small

Light soy sauce 1 tbsp

pepper powder 1/4 tsp.

Spring onions with greens, sliced thinly -handful of them  
 

1. For the filling, heat a tablespoons of oil and add onion and carrots and stir-fry for half a minute. Add green capsicum and cabbage and continue to stir-fry for one minute. 
2. Add soy sauce, pepper powder and salt. Add bean sprouts(optional) and spring onions with the greens and stir-fry for about half a minute. Remove and cool the filling to room temperature.  ( Sorry I do not have the picture of this particular stuffing)
3. Mix one tbsp.of cornflour and two tbsp. of water to make a paste. 
4. Divide filling into eight to ten equal portions or according to the number of wrappers. 
5. Place a portion of filling at one end of each wrapper and roll tightly, folding the sides in while you roll. 

6. Seal the ends with the cornflour paste (step 3). The below picture will help you in understanding this process better.

Pictorial tutorial to help you wrap up a Spring roll

7. Heat sufficient oil, deep-fry two or three spring rolls at a time turning frequently, till crisp and golden brown. 8. Drain and place on an absorbent paper and serve hot with Schezwan Sauce (Sichuan sauce). 

Award winning Moments

I have received a bunch of Awards from Jay from Tasty Appetite. A very big thanks to her for sharing these wonderful awards with me and her fellow bloggers. She has a nice blog and a great collection of simple yet yummy recipes. Do visit her blog to enjoy her recipes…!
I am very extremely happy to receive them. Thanks once again…!!!

These are the awards I received from Jay:-

I would love to pass these awards  to my fellow blogger- friends. Thanks for your support and encouragement. All of you please accept the awards...!

1. Rach from Indian Food

2. Satya from Super yummy recipes

3. Sanjeeta from Lite Bite

4. Ramya from Veg Delicacies

5. Malar from Kitchen Tantra

6. Jayashree from Desi Food Bytes

7. Sushma from Authentic Food Delights

8. Khaugiri

9. Shanthi from Shanthi Krishnakumar's cook book and

10. Aparna from Apy Cooking!

Trendy Home-made Ice-Cream

The reason why I am re-posting this because that's  my second entry to the lovely event Cold Desserts hosted by Akheela of Torviewtoronto.

From time to time, I buy a melon………Honeydew. Delicious, cool, pale green honeydew. When I get home from the grocery store, I halve, quarter, slice, peel, and cube the melon and then put it in a Tupperware in the fridge so that I can pluck out chilly cubes for the next few days whenever I fancy a bite of something sweet.

This particular week honeydew sat in the fridge a little too long and lost its bite. Instead of tossing it, I thought I'd use the mushy melon to make some frozen dessert. I don't have an ice cream maker, and the whole process of making ice creams and sorbets has long intimidated me. But quick, before I could psych myself out of it, I dumped the melon and its juices, some powder sugar, and a bit of lime juice into the blender. The result was a divine honeydew smoothie; blended it with Milkmaid and cream. I made ice cream! And not just ice cream, but genuine snooty, unusually flavored, trendy ice cream.

for this you will need:-

1 full very ripe honeydew melon, cut into chunks

1/2 cup powder sugar

1 Tbsp. Lime Juice

100 ml. of Milkmaid (if you are not using milkmaid then increase the quantity of Sugar and Milk/Cream)

300 ml of  Fresh Cream

½ cup Boiled and cooled Milk

that make about 1 liter of Ice-cream….

1. Now Pour in ½ cup Sugar, lime juice and put in the melon chunks into the blender

and churn them into a smoothie. 

2. Pour it in a bowl and mix it with the cream, milk and milkmaid. Blend the whole thing again in batches (according to the size of the blender) again.

3. Pour into a Tupperware and freeze.

4. After say 3-4 hours; take out the whole thing and churn it again and Re-freeze it. Follow this process atleast 2 times. I found that the texture of the ice cream was improved by  two re-blendings.

5. Freeze it again after 2 blending for 4-5 hours and you Ice-cream will be ready.

Note:- You can use this recipe to make this Ice-cream with our regular water melon (Kalingad) and Cantaloupe (Kharbuja). Try it out once...... 

Makai Dhaniya Shorba

Hi friends, I am re-posting this as,this Soup goes to the lovely event Vegetable/Fruit A Month - Corn hosted by Akheela of Torviewtoronto and started by Priya.

Hi to all my dear Bloggo-buddies. The recipe I am sharing with you today is one of my favourite winter recipes. Its easy to make and a meal on its own or is great with a couple of pieces of warm crusty toast . It warms the heart and is a healthy and great comfort food.

For this you need:-                                       

1 cup Sweet Corn 

1/4 Carrot roughly chopped

1 onion roughly chopped

2 cloves Garlic chopped

Coriander Leaves Finely chopped

¼ tsp Cumin

1 tbsp Coriander Seeds, crushed

¼ tsp Turmeric Powder

3-4 Peppercorns

1 Cinnamon Stick(Dalchini)

2-3 Clove (Laung)

1 Bay Leaf

1 cup Milk

2 tsp Oil / Butter

1 cup Water

Salt to taste

For Garnishing:-

Few Corn Kernels, roasted

Few Coriander Leaves, chopped

1. In a non stick pan, heat oil. Add bay leaf, peppercorn, cumin seeds, cinnamon stick and cloves to the heated oil. Sauté the mixture for a while.

2. Add chopped onions and garlic and sauté till the onions become pink.

3. Now, add carrots, turmeric powder and crushed coriander seeds.

4. Add sweet corns, salt, handful of chopped coriander and water. Cook over medium flame for 15 to 20 minutes. 

5. When the corns are properly cooked, remove from the flame and keep it aside to cool.

6. Once cool, put the cooked corn mixture in a blender. Blend to make a fine puree.

7. Strain it properly. Transfer the puree back into the pan and add milk to it to adjust the consistency. Adjust salt and add pepper powder if required.  Simmer it for some time.

8. Garnish with roasted corn kernels, chopped coriander. The luscious Makai Dhaniya shorba is ready to be gorged upon!!