Recipes for your taste buds.

I had been making pan cakes for quite some time. One of the easiest and tasty breakfast. I had made it with cranberries, mangoes, blue berries earlier. Today I didn't have any of the fruits that would go in it. So I decided to make it with what I had plenty - Dates and Chocochips. The pan cakes came out really nice and we had hearty breakfast on such a lovely bright day.


Ingredients
1/2 Cup Dates
1/4 Cup Choco Chips
1/2 Cup Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Maida
3/4 Cup Curd
1 Egg
3/4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essense
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Soda
2.5 Spoon Melted Butter
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Deseed the Dates and chop them into small pieces. Keep aside.
• Sieve together wheat flour and maida
• Add Sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix well
• Add egg, curd, melted butter and vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Add 1/2 cup warm water and mix well to flowing consistency.
• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame.
• Pour the pan cake batter 1/2 cup at a time on the non stick pan and top it with some choco-chips and dates
• Over medium-low heat, cook the pan cakes till golden brown in color and bubbles up the top side. Flip and golden the other side too. Serve with honey and or maple syrup

Notes
The batter is so non sticky that I didnt have to grease the pan at all.
Ajoy felt that the sweetness from Dates was little too much, I guess using Dark choco chips might be good idea to balance the sweetness. I didnt have dark choco chips sot used semi sweet chips.

Chipotle is Ajoy's favorite joint and he does keep insisting on going to it once in a while. We like the chicken burrito bowl there. So after seeing them prepare the bowl for few times, I decided to try this out at home. Since I had prawns at home and didn't have boneless chicken, I made it with prawns. Turns out it was quite nice.


Ingredients
400g Cleaned Prawns
1.5 Cup Rice
5 Tomatoes
1 Lemon
3 Cup Sweetcorn
3 Spoon Curd
3 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Oregano
1/2 Spoon Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/2 Cup Grated Cheese
1/4 Cup Ranch Dressing
1/2 Cup Corriander Leaves
4 Spoon Butter
Lettuce
Salt to taste
Olive Oil

Method

• Mix in curd, 1 spoon of red chilli powder, corriander powder, garam masala and salt.
• Add in prawns and mix well. Keep aside.
• In a pressure cooker cook the rice with 2.5 cups of water and keep aside.
• Heat 1/4 spoon of oil and add the corriander leaves to lightly cook them.
• Add the oil-corriander leaves mixture, lemon juice and salt to the rice and mix well. Keep aside
• In a pan, add a spoon of oil and heat it.
• Add in 3 mashed tomato, remaining 2 spoons of red chilli powder, pepper powder, oregano and salt. Mix well.
• Cook till mixture thickens. Keep aside to cool down
• In another pan heat butter and fry in the marinated prawns till they are done and dark brown in color.
• Now in three big bowls make the burritos by adding a layer of rice dividing equally in them.
• Add prawns, finely chopped remaining 2 tomatoes, grated cheese.
• Microwave sweet corn for 3 minutes and add it to the burrito bowl.
• Add the tomato-chilli sauce, ranch dressing and lettuce. Serve it immediately.

Notes
I microwaved the corn for quick cooking. You can alternately boil them in water and drain out the excess water.
The tomato-chilli sauce would turn quite spicy. I had used another spoon and it was little extra spicy hence while writing this recipe I have suggested 1 spoon less compared to what I used.
Used ranch dressing because I didn't want to buy or make sour cream just for this.
Since I had jumbo prawns I cut it into 2-3 pieces after frying them in butter.

Ajoy loves cauliflower so we end up eating it every week at least once. So I keep trying variety of preparations instead of sticking to the usual one. So today I decided to make a gingery flower. To reduce the spiciness and pungent taste of the ginger I decided to use sweet corn. The recipe came out pretty well and here it is.


Ingredients
1 Cauliflower
2 Cup Corn
1 Spoon Grated Ginger
2 Tomatoes
1 Onion
3/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
Salt
Oil

Method

• Heat oil to high and fry the medium sized flower florets in it till light brown. Keep aside
• In a pan heat spoon full of oil and add onion. Fry till translucent.
• Add grated ginger and fry for another minute
• Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for a minute or two.
• Add mashed tomato in it. Cook for couple of minutes.
• Add sweet corn, salt to taste and cook for 5-6 minutes till mixture dries up a little.
• Add fried flower florets and mix up gently so that masala coats the flower
• Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve.

Notes
Dont wait for the florets to be dark in color, after taking out from the oil they darken up a little.

When we were in Bangalore, KFC was our favorite joint. We also have couple of stories that took place in the KFC :) So quite a lot of memories. But since we came here, we haven't been to KFC once, though MacD is regular joint instead. But the fried chicken is something that went missing from our meal since then. So today I knew what I wanted to cook. I was earlier thinking of frying boiled chicken but then decided against it after a second thought. Bing just confirmed my thoughts :)


Ingredients
5 Chicken Leg Pieces
1 Egg
3/4 Cup Maida
5 Spoon Bread Crumbs
1 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Oregano
1/4 Spoon Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• With a sharp knife, give slits to the chicken pieces
• In a warm bowl of water, add 1/2 spoon red chili powder, oregano and pepper powder with salt.
• Add the chicken pieces and soak them in it for an hour.
• In a bowl, beat egg with garlic paste, remaining half spoon red chili powder, coriander powder and salt.
• In another plate mix maida with bread crumbs and salt.
• Take out the chicken pieces out of water and drain the water.
• Dip each leg piece in egg mixture to coat it completely and then in maida mixture to cover it with maida coating.
• Heat oil to medium high.
• Add each leg piece and fry till golden brown in color.

Notes
Soaking the chicken in water, tenderizes it a bit adding to the taste. I used mild spices to soak them in instead of dipping it in plain water.
I fried chicken on medium high heat instead of very high or very low. That helped me get the chicken that wasn't too dark in color and yet it was completely cooked.
I made extra bread crumbs while making Paneerbhara Kabab and stored them in air tight container. You can refer to it for how to make bread crumbs.

We had got lot of plums from Costco but they weren't ripe ones. So I had been thinking of making a cake using them for quite a few days. Finally today I got some time to experiment with it thought the plums were ripe now. I made it in heart shape in honor of today's Valentines day.


Ingredients
1 Cup Butter
1.5 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Maida
1 Cup Hazelnuts
1 Cup Walnuts
1 Cup Groundnuts
3 Eggs
1/2 Spoon Baking Powder
6 Plums
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
4 Spoon Powdered Sugar
2 Spoon Almonds

Method

• Grind hazelnuts to powder
• In a bowl, beat in sugar and butter till light and fluffy.
• Add a egg to the butter and beat well
• Then add in 1/3rd of hazelnut powder and beat well.
• Continue adding remaining eggs one at a time alternating with hazelnut powder and beat well
• Add in walnuts and peanuts and mix well.
• Sieve maida and baking powder together and add in to the above mixture. Mix well.
• Grease a pan and add in the batter
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Bake the cake at 350F/180C for 45 minutes
• Take out the cake out of oven and arrange in halved plums(without seeds) over the top
• Bake again at 350F/180C for 10 minutes. Take out and let it cool down
• In a small pan mix lemon juice with powdered sugar and let it simmer till thickened
• Pour it over the cake, garnish with finely chopped almonds.

Notes
Alternately you can use marmalade jam if you have. I wanted to use that for the glazing but since I didn't have it I made lemon, sugar mixture.

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)


Ingredients
3 Cup Bottle Gourd
1 Cup Carrot
1.5 Cup Besan
3 Spoon Corn Flour
2 Onion
2 Tomato
2 Cup Curd
4 Spoon Sugar
1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Green Chilli
1/4 Cup Cashews
1/4 Cup Raisins
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes
Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

Today when I opened fridge, found that I have around 2 liters of milk and it is getting expired tomorrow. Gave a lot of thought on what I should be using it before I loose it. Last few times I had been making sweets but this time I wanted to make something spicy and that is when I came up this.


Ingredients
2 Liter Milk
5 Spoon Vinegar
1 Cup Corriander Leaves
2 Spoon Pudina Leaves
5-6 Green Chillies
2 Bread Slices
1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala
Salt
Oil

Method

• Boil Milk in a thick pan
• Mix a cup of water with vinegar and add it to the milk to separate whey from it.
• Strain it and wash it with cold water.
• Hang it in a dry cloth for around half an hour to remove as much as water as possible
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Bake bread slices for 5 minutes at 350F/180C, Flip the sides and bake for another 5 minutes
• In a mixie, grind the bread to breadcrums. Save aside
• Grind corriander leaves, pudina leaves and green chillies to fine paste without using water.
• In a plate mix the paneer that was hanging, the above green paste and salt
• Make small lemon sized balls and roll them in bread crums
• Heat oil and fry the balls in it over medium-high heat.
• Sprinkle chaat masala and serve with ketchup

Notes
If you want you can make it with grated paneer instead, but it tasted awesome with this fresh made paneer and the softness inside the crispy covering was delicious.
For the corriander-pudina-green chillies paste I didnt use any water. The water that was on leaves after washing them was good enough.

I had been having lots of vegetables in the freeze for quite some time. So today when we planned for quick lunch before heading out to cycling, how to quick something nice and yet something quick. Indo-chinese being my favorite cuisine I came up with this.


Ingredients
Handful of Ladies Fingers
Handful of Eggplant pieces
Handful of Cabbage
1 Cup Beans
1 Onion
1 Pepper
2 Spring-onions
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Lemon
5 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt
Oil

Method

• Fry Ladies fingers in the oil and keep aside
• In a pan heat oil and add onions. Fry them till translucent
• Add in garlic cloves, chopped to fine pieces, eggplant pieces, beans, Pepper chopped, cabbage and cook them with constant stirring till the vegetables are cooked well.
• Add in fried ladies fingers, garlic and ginger paste and Lemon juice and stir again
• Add ketchup and soya sauce and stir for couple of minutes
• Mix corn flour with 6 cup of water and add in the vegetables. Cook till gravy thickens
• Add in salt and spring onions and stir for a minute. Serve with rice or noodles

Notes
To give it a little tangy taste, I used lemon but if you are not big on tangerines then you can just skip it. You cna also substitute lemon by a spoonful of Vinegar if you don't have lemon in stock.
I also wished I had some baby-corns and brocollies to add the taste, but never mind, there is always next time :)

I got 'gulkand' from pune this time, thinking that it might help me cool down a bit when needed. Today wasnt that high temperature day, yet seeing the ice-cream box in the freezer and the gulkand sitting on the shelf, I decided to make this one. What a wonderful friday evening sipping in rose milkshake.


Ingredients
6 Cup Milk
2 Cup Vanilla Ice-cream
1/3 Cup Cashews
1/3 Cup Almonds
1/3 Cup Pistachios
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Spoon Gulkand
A Pinch of Red Color

Method

• Add Cashews, Almonds, pistachios in the mixer and grind to rough powder
• Add in gulkand, ice-cream and grind again.
• Add milk, sugar and red color and mix till smooth consistency

Notes
I kept few dry fruits half ground into pieces so that we could get them in mouth while having the milkshake. I think that gave the milkshake amazing taste and feel.
For more decoration, I mixed a pinch of red color with couple of drops of water and dipping the back of spoon in it decorated the top of the milkshake with some simple designs, current ones based on valentine theme :)

After a long time, I thought of trying out something from my so called 'bible' - a cookery book gifted to me during wedding :) This recipe though not exactly similar but is inspired from there. It is easy to digest yet spicy enough to enjoy, making it a good breakfast.


Ingredients
1 Cup Mung Daal
2 Spoon Besan
6 Garlic Cloves
1 Inch Ginger
2 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
A Pinch of Eating Soda
Salt
Oil

Method

• Soak Mung Daal in water for 5-6 hours
• After the mung daal is soaked, add garlic cloves, ginger, green chilies and jeera to the mixer with couple spoon of water and grind to rough paste
• Add mung daal without water in it and grind the paste
• To this paste add in besan, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and eating soda and mix well
• Heat oil in pan and fry small quantites of the paste we preapred earlier to get crispy wadas

Notes
Recipe had some more items like coconut, onions, curry leaves etc to be added but I think I liked this way better. It went really well with the coconut chutney

I remember around a year back I had received a mail from a colleague here about tasting the check box cake. She had described a lot about its procedure so when I was looking for something similar yet something where I wont need those card boards etc to make those check box texture. Then I came across the very famous concept of zebra cake. So today I gave it a shot and result was very impressive :)

Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
2 Cup Sugar
4 Eggs
2 Cup Milk
2 cup Oil
1 Spoon Vanilla Essence
8 Spoon Coca Powder
4 Spoon Baking Powder

Method

• In a bowl add eggs and sugar and blend them together till the mixture is fluffy.
• Add in Milk and Oil keeping two spoons of each aside. Blend well
• Sieve in maida gradually in the mixture. Blend well for a smooth batter
• Blend in vanilla essence and baking powder.
• Separate 4.5 cup of batter into other bowl and add in sieved coca powder in the separated batter. Blend well
• In the coca batter, add the remaining milk and oil (2 spoons each) into the batter and blend again
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the baking pan
• Add 1/4 cup of white batter in the center alternating with half cup of coca batter. Keep adding till the pan fills in half in quantity. Repeat same for other pan. The batter would spread on its own in layers
• Bake the cakes in oven at 350F/180C for 40 minutes

Notes
If you are going to make the cake in single big baking pan, then instead of adding 1/4 cup of mixture, add in 1/2 cup to make the correct sized strips. I noticed that if the layers are too thin then after baking they wouldn't be too clear to mark out the layering clearly.

A must have dip for Chicken Satay, I had to make this. Especially for Ajoy as he is such a fan of this sauce that he sometimes asks for it in Chinese restaurant too :) forgetting that he is in Chinese restaurant instead of Thai :)

Ingredients
1 Cup Peanuts
2 Spoon Brown Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
2 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Oil
1 Garlic Clove
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
Salt to taste

Method

• Dry roast the peanuts and let them cool
• Add peanuts, brown sugar, red chilli powder, soya sauce, oil, garlic clove, lemon juice and salt in a mixie and grind to sticky powder
• Add half cup of water and grind again till smooth paste

Notes
I had used double quantity of red chilli powder but it had become little extra hot so I have suggested only 1/4 spoon for red chilli. If you feel it is too mild for you try adding some more chilli while grinding

Chicken Satay is one of our favorite stater in Thai cuisine. So this time when we got the chicken from costco, I decided to give this a try. I had made this earlier but it was over even before I could click photo :) So now this time I made sure we click photos before making the strike.

Ingredients
400g Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 Spoon Brown Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
2 Spoon Oil
2 Spoon Soya Sauce
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Milk
Salt to taste

Method

• Make thin and rectangular slices of the chicken
• Add brown sugar, garlic cloves, corriander powder, jeera powder, turmeric powder, black pepper powder, oil, soya sauce, lemon juice and salt and mix well. Keep aside in refrigerator for 4 hours
• After 4 years, attach the strips of chicken on to scewer sticks, 2 pieces on one stick.
• Bast the chicken with the milk.
• Heat a non stick pan and cook the chicken with scewers on medium flame by flipping them over continuously every 2-3 minutes till done.

Notes
I read in lot many recipes to add fish sauce to the marination, but I investigated a bit and found that it is some what salty liquid and usually used instead of salt. Hence instead of going to asian shop for fish sauce I used normal table salt instead.

I was looking to make something quick yet something different from the normal preparation (Prawns Masala) and then I came up with this.

Ingredients
300g Cleaned Prawns
1 Spoon Garlic Paste
1 Onion
4 Green Chillies
4 Spoon Dark Soya Sauce
2 Spoon Tomato Ketchup
2 Spoon Corn Flour
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Marinate the prawns with garlic paste and salt.
• Deep fry them in oil few at a time for a minute
• In same oil, add halved green chillies, onion and cook them with constant stirring
• Add soya sauce, ketchup and again cook for couple of minute
• Add prawns and stir for another minute
• Mix corn flour in two cups of water and add it to the cooking prawns
• Cook for 3-4 minutes till gravy thickens and prawns become tender

Notes
Well I didn't have spring onions to garnish otherwise I might have added it a bit for garnishing.

On the eve of upcoming Saraswati puja I decided to give this a try especially with gur because Ajoy loves that version.. It came out really well and the best part was it was not the tedious process unlike Kalakand which he keeps demanding. So now if he asks for sweet and I am tired I have something quick yet brownie point winner for my help :)

Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3/4 Cup Jaggery
2 Spoon Vinegar
1/4 Spoon Pistachio Powder

Method

• In a thick pan boil the milk
• Mix vinegar with 2 spoon of water and add it slowly to the boiling milk
• When the milk cudles completely, take it off the heat and strain it out
• Wash it under running cold water
• Put it in the muslin cloth and drain the water. Keep it aside for 5 minutes so that it drains out water completely
• In a plate knead the chena formed till its is soft and consistent in the texture.
• Mix in grated jaggery and transfer it to the thick pan
• Cook the mixture over medium heat till it leaves the sides and is able to hold together.
• Make the small balls and press them against the chenar moulds, and if you dont have them just shape them into balls
• Sprinkle the pistachio powder for garnishing

Notes
I used the Patali Gur since I had got it from Kolkatta when I had been there last month. But you can also try it with the normal Jaggery. I also feel that Patali Gur is more of the Date + Jaggery taste. So if I try with jaggery version I am going to try adding paste of Date or something like that. Will update when I try that though.
While separating whey from the milk make sure to remove it off it immediately when you see the clear green water separated from the chena. Extra cooking can make the mixture stiff.