Sweet Semolina with a Touch of Saffron (Food Fit for the Gods)

Sweet Semolina with a Touch of Saffron, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Its amazing how sometimes the most obvious choice of food is right in front of you and you are racking your brains to come up with a good idea. This happened to me when I read about the Festive Food Fair hosted by the lovely Anna of Morsels and Musings. When I first read the word Festive it conjured up in my mind all the food that we Indians make at Diwali, but then I thought " Oh! but everyone has already blogged about it very recently. So it won't be anything new" In the last few days while cooking at home my thoughts often strayed to what I would make for the Festive Food Fair but kept drawing a blank. Another small problem was that there is no upcoming special occasion or festival that my family and I celebrate atleast till coming January.

But the solution came to me through a very cute request made by my 4 yr old son. He has a major sweet-tooth and makes such requests now and then which I sometimes fulfil and sometimes ignore . He asked me to make this Sweet Semolina preparation which we call Sheera. Its one of his favourites. (Actually its one of my favourites too). Thats when I realised that this was the perfect entry as this is what we make as an offering to the Gods on all religious occasions. Its quite simple to make and tastes delicious. When it is made as an offering at a Pooja we make it richer than normal, flavouring it with bananas, almonds and.. saffron and just ignore the calories.But thats because it is eaten in very small quantities. The recipe below is for a less richer version.

Food fit for the Gods, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Ingredients:

1 cup fine semolina,

1 cup granulated sugar,

3 tblspns clarified butter (ghee),

1 banana mashed,

2 cups whole milk

1 cup water,

1/2 tspn cardammom powder,

1 generous pinch saffron strands,

1 tiny pinch salt,

roasted almond slivers to decorate (optional)

Procedure:

• In a heavy bottom wok or flat pan , heat the ghee and add to that the semolina. Mix the two and roast the semolina on a very gentle heat to a golden colour. Mash the banana and add it to the semolina The aroma of the roasted semolina with ghee and banana is very tantalising.
• While you are roasting the semolina, gently bring the milk and water together to a boil in a saucepan. Switch off the gas once it comes to a boil.
• After the semolina is nice and golden add the hot mixture of milk and water very gradually into it. Be careful as hot steam rises as soon as you pour the milk into the semolina. Mix it all very well and cover the pan with a heat proof (steel) plate for a few mins so the semolina ccoks by the steam . (Note the heat should be gentle at all times as it is very easy to burn the semolina.)
• Remove the plate and next add the sugar. Mix again. As the sugar dissolves the entire mixture will change in consistency and become very loose. But it comes back to normal as soon as all the sugar is dissolved. Again cover with a plate and let cook for a few mins.
• Now remove the plate again ,switch off the gas and add the cardammom powder and the saffron strands. Stir these in gently. Your Sheera is ready to eat.
• This is a great snack for everybody as well as a good sweet dish to accompany the rest of a festive meal.

For all my readers who wanted to know how I moulded the semolina. Its is this mould that I used. It is easily available in India.

Two Cultures and Two Kinds of Dumplings (Mix Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia)

Mix Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

I must admit this was a dish cooked totally on the spur of the moment. It was Sunday, a day when everyone at home wants to eat something different than everyday cooking but also a day when I experience some kind of inertia which makes me feel extrenely lazy. Come to think of it I would happily live on Toast and Coffee on Sundays , but the husband loves to eat all kinds of tasty food. Poor guy has to eat a packed lunch everyday at work, so obviously he prefers a nice leisurely lunch on Sunday with at least one unique item on the menu. So it was this wish of his 2 Sundays back that motivated me to make this. Its a very simple recipe which looks as if it has taken a ling time to make. But no. I am not one to toil over the stove for hours together to produce one dish. So here's how you go about it:

For the Muthia:

I followed the recipe for the Muthia word to word from Tarla Dalal's Book "Roti-Subzi " which my dear friend Tanuja gave me.I have always been a great Tarla Dalal fan.

• You need: 2 cups fresh Methi chopped or 1 cup kasoori methi
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour,
• A pinch Asafoetida,
• 1 tspn sugar,
• 1 tspn red chilli powder,
• 1tspn ginger paste,
• 2 tblspns hot oil,
• oil to fry

Mix all the ingredients adding water just enough to form a firm dough. Roll out into small balls and fry these in hot oil on a gentle heat. Keep aside. Your Muthias are ready.

For the Tawa Fry:

• 2 cups mixed vegetables chopped but not finely:(Potatoes, carrots, beans, capsicum, baby corn, peas, asparagus tips and even mushrooms if you like them)
• 1 large onion,
• 3 tblspns thick tomato puree,(I used the store-bought)
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed,
• 1 inch piece ginger ground into a paste,(or better still use ready made ginger-garlic paste)
• 1 small stick cinnamon,
• 2 to 4 cloves,
• 2 tspn red chilly powder,
• 1 tspn turmeric,
• 1 tspn garam masala,
• 1/2 cup milk or 2 tblspns cream,
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 tblspns oil for cooking
• salt to taste
• chopped spring onions or coriander for garnishing

Heat the oil in a pan. First add the bay leaf, cloves, and cinnamom. Let these fry a bit. To this add the garlic and ginger pastes. Fry these for a few secs. Then add the chopped onion. Fry till golden. Now add the tomato puree and some water so that the puree does not burn. Cook this mixture for few mins. Then add the garam masala, red chilly powder, turmeric, salt and mix well. Keep adding small amounts of water to the mixture. When this is nicely cooked add some more water. You now need to blend this masala mixture with a hand blender. Before blending remove the bay leaf . Now blend the masala well to a smooth paste. Return the blended paste to its original pan and add the milk and more water to thin it out a bit . The milk brings a creamy flavour to an otherwise spicy dish and kids eat it well. Simmer this masala and add the mixed vegetables. Simmer till all the veggies are tender. Check seasoning and adjust as per your taste. Just before serving add the muthias into this curry and decorate with coriander or finely chopped spring onions as I have. Goes very well with plain parathas.

After cooking this dish inertia struck me again and we had this curry with frozen stuffed parathas which I just microwaved . I always have those in my freezer. You should too

Two Cultures and Two Kinds of Dumplings

Veg Chinese Manchurian

Veg Manchurian, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Now before I give the recipe there is one thing that I would like to tell you all. This Manchurian is a total indianised version of the real Chinese dish. I am sure no one in China has ever eaten this unless they have come to one of the indian metropoles and visited a road-side chinese stall . These chinese stalls (at least the ones I have seen in Pune) have really fantastic names like Kung Fu Chinese , Wild Dragon Chinese or something like Great China Darbar. Now why a chinese eatery has to be called a Darbar is beyond me. To add to the authentic feel of the eatery the owner of the joint hires all chinky eyed waiters who resemble the chinese but are probably from Assam or Mizoram come to the big cities in search of work. But the fact remains that most of these joints serve great tasting food. It is spicy and can be ordered with as much chilly as you like.

And hereI have tried to capture all those flavours. I made this for a lunch get- together which 7 of us have once every week . Its a pot-luck affair where all of us decide the kind of food we would like to eat and each of us brings along one dish.This week the favoured food was Desi Chinese. So I made this Veg Manchurian

Ingredients: For the Dumplings: 1cup shredded cabbage, 1 cup grated carrots, 1 large onion, 4 to 5 mushrooms finely chopped, 2 tspn salt, 2 cloves of garlic crushed, Cornflour as per requirement.Oil for frying.

For the Sauce: 3 cups water , 1 tblspn brown vinegar, 1tblspn Soysauce, 2 tblspn tomato Sauce, 4 green chillies cut into very small pieces, 1 inch ginger chopped, 3 to 4 cloves garlic chopped, 2 tblspns Cornflour to thicken the sauce, half a green pepper cut into long strips, 1 tspn sugar and salt to taste 2 to 3 spring onions finely chopped for garnishing.

Procedure:

For the Dumplings:

Mix the carrots, cabbage , mushrooms and onions in a bowl. Add to this the salt, mix well and leave this mixture for 1/2 an hour. After about half an hour drain out the water that is formed due to the salt. Add cornflour to this moist mixture just so that you can shape the mixture into ball with your hand.Have hot oil ready in a wok and fry these balls on a medium heat . These can be made one day in advance and stored in a tight container in the fridge.

For the Sauce: In a little oil saute the chillies and he grenn pepper for a feww mins. Then add the ginger and garlic and saute further for a few mins. Add to this the sauces, vinegar, sugar and salt. Immediately add the water and bring to a boil. when the water begins to boil lower the heat to a simmer and add cornflour mixed in a little amount of water. The sauce will thicken a little. Do not thicken the sauce too much when it is hot as it thickens even more once it begins to cool . Taste the sause and add more sauces or vinegar if needed.Before serving add the cumplings to the hot sauce and garnish with chopped spring onions. Serve with Chinese Fried Rice or Noodles

Now after typing so much I think I'll do the next recipe tomorrow. Blogging takes more time and energy than actual cooking.

Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia

Mix Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Will share both the recipes very soon.

A Dieters Delight (Veg Clear Soup)

A Dieters Delight, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Between me and my husband it is I who should be counting calories and checking my weight every few days. But that is not how it is. It is my husband who is calorie conscious and somewhat of a fitness freak. Every few days he has a guilt trip if he has eaten more than he should at a meal or has had even as much as one glass too much of coke.When he is on one such guilt trip he calls me from the office and asks me to make him a very light supper.
So last week when I was away at a birthday party and he was going to be alone for supper I made him this soup. (Btw I had Pav Bhaji , birthday cake, and coke at the party)Its light but very wholesome and yummy. Even my 4 yr old will happily slurp on it.(Btw I had Pav Bhaji , birthday cake, and coke at the party)

What goes in it:
1/2 cup each of the following veggies diced:
carrots, peas, spring onions, cauliflower, cabbage sweetcorn or baby corn, french beans.
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tblspns oil
2 tspn soy sauce,
5 cups vegetable stock,
1 tblspn cornflour
salt to taste

What you do:
Heat the oil in a saucepan
Saute the garlic first and then all the veggies
Add soy sauce and salt
Add the stock and boil the soup.
When it comes to boil add the cornflour mixed in a small amount of water.
Simmer the soup till the veggies are tender but stiil firm.
Add some pepper to taste and serve hot.

How do you prepare veg stock:
Stock can be prepared either from vegetables or from those parts of vegetables that we normally discard. For eg: carrot peels, cauliflower stalks,outer shells of green peas etc.So don't throw these away.(I give Vaishali full credit for this idea)
Alternatively take two cups of mixed veggies (potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, cauliflower, cabbage) all cut into big pieces. Add to this 5/6 cups of water and cook in a pressure cooker. When cooked pass the stock through a sieve. This liquid is your veg stock. This can be poured into ice trays and frozen and used as and when required.

I'll now hop over to Tami's Super Souper Challenge with my Soup. Hope she likes it too

Oh! and yes with this post my blog is 50 posts old today.

Rice Dhokla (A Delicious Light Snack)

Rice Dhokla, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Hi everyone!! This Dhokla is the lightest dhokla (light in texture and light to digest) I have eaten till date. I have followed the recipe partly from the Marathi Cookbook :Swayampaak by Sindhutai Sathe and partly from a recipe that my mom follows. This is one book I use the most and it has seen me through those early years after my marriage when I was a total trial and error cook.

What you need:

1 cup Rice (uncooked), 1/4 cup Urad Dal (split black lentils), 1cup sour curd, 1 tspn salt, 1/2 tspn sugar, 1/2 tspn corasely ground pepper.

For the tempering:

3 tblspn oil, 2 tspn mustard seeds, 7 to 8 fresh curry leaves, a small pinch tumeric powder

Procedure:

Soak the rice and dal together for atleast 4 hrs. After 4 hrs grind the rice and dal to a fine paste. Leave this mixture for another 4 hrs in a warm place. It does not need to ferment like the idli batter. After 4 hrs add the curds, salt, sugar and pepper to the batter, and mix well. Add just enough water to get a smooth batter .Oil a thali or dhokla stand . Add a tspn of Eno Fruit salt to the batter . Mix well and immediately pour the batter into the Thali or Dhokla Mold. Steam for 8 to 10 mins.

Prepare a tempering by adding mustard seeds and curry leaves to hot oil and spoon this over each piece of dhokla .

This dish is excellent at breakfast , at tea time or also as a side accompaniment at lunch or dinner. The author of the cookbook says it is great for people recovering from any illness and also for the elderly.

A small request to all my anonymous visitors to also leave your footprints behind so that I know you have been.

Baked Potato Paneer Tikki

Baked Potato Paneer Tikki, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

This was just an experimental trial I had where I baked these Tikkis (Cutlets) instead of frying them and I must say they did come out much better than I had anticipitated. The whole recipe was not just these tikkis but it was Paneer Tikki Chaat which I followed from Tarla Dalal's Book "Chaat". But I could not take any pics of the entire dish put together as I was busy playing hostess when my friends were gorging on it. But fortunately I had some unfried tikkis left which I baked the next day instead of frying them. So I thought I would post these at least.You can find the entire recipe for Paneer Tikki Chaat on Tarla Dalal's site. I'll just share with you the way I made the tikkis which are a little different than her's .

Ingredients for around 12 tikkis:

4 large potatoes

100 gms paneer grated or crumbled (indian cottage cheese)

1/2 cup green peas boiled and coarsely mashed

3 tblspns cornflour

2 slices of bread (soaked in water ,squeezed and then crumbled)

1/2 cup fresh coriander finely chopped,

5 cloves garlic crushed,

2 to 3 tspns red chiily powder,

juice of one lemon,

2 tspn sugar ,

salt to taste.

To coat the cutlets you need:

1 cup semolina.

3tspn dry celery/mint/coriander (if easily available)

1 tspn salt

What you do:

• Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker.
• While the potatoes and cooking, collect all the other ingredients and keep them ready.
• As soon as the potatoes are done, peel them while they are still hot and mash them.
• Mix all the other ingredients in the potato mash while it is still hot . (This is important because once the potatoes cool down they will get awfuly sticky and it gets very difficult to make the cutlets. I can tell you because I have been through it)
• What you have now is a nice non-sticky and easy to handle mixture of potato and all the other ingredients.
• You can now shape them into cutlets
• Coat each cutlet in the semolina and celery mixture.

To bake them: Lay a sheet of aluminium foil onto your baking sheet and lightly brush it with oil. Arrange all the cutlets on to the sheet. Spray the cutlets with oil. In case you do not have a spray. Spoon 1/2 a tspn of oil over each cutlet and bake at 200 deg c until golden. Turn them over once . Use more oil only if required. Your Tikkis(cutlets) are ready.

Eat them according to the Chaat recipe or simply with a sauce and chutney of your choice. They are great when sandwiched between 2 slices of bread too.

Spicy Lemon Rice: Meals from Leftovers:2

Lemon Rice, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Hallo people! The rice you see in the pic is made from leftover rice and the easiest and tastiest thing to russle up for a quick and filling breakfast. The recipe below is for 2 cups of leftover rice. All you need is:

2 cups leftover rice, 1 onion finely chopped, 6/7 curry leaves, 1tspn mustard seeds, 1/2 tspn cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida(hing), 1tblspn urad dal(split black lentils), 2tspn peanuts, 2 tblspn green peas(optional), 2 green chillies slit lengthwise, 1/4 tspn turmeric, 2 to 3 tblspns lemon juice, 3 tblspn oil, coriander to decorate.

Procedure:

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds begin to pop add the hing, cumin seeds , curry leaves,green chilies, urad dal , peanuts ,green peas ,turmeric powder and the onions and saute for a few minutes until the onions are soft.

Next add the rice and the lemon juice and stir everything well. Add salt to taste. Decorate with chopped coriander. Serve hot

Masoor Palak Medley spiced with Garlic (A very light Veggie and Lentil Combo)

Masoor Palak Medley, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

This weekend was one devoted to hogging everything in sight. It started on Friday evening itself when I had friends and their kids over for a high tea. I made Paneer Tikki with Chole,(It was all eaten up before I could take any snaps), Banana Muffins and Yummy Biscuit Rolls. Everyone loved all the goodies.

We had the leftovers as Saturday Brunch. On saturday a friend invited us over for a sleepover and made a very delicious continental meal of Oat Cakes topped with grilled Chicken and drizzled with garlic sauce from the Schwartz range. This was accompanied by sauted Vegetables and mashed potato. Yum Yum Yum!!!. I even had 2 glasses of wine.

Then dawned Sunday, a beautiful sunny and cold crispy day. We all went for a nice drive and ended up at a cute little pub called The Bell Inn. So lunch there was Smoked Haddock and Mozarella Fish Cakes drizzled with Sweet Chilli Sauce. I even managed to polish off some Brownie and Vanilla ice Cream which my son could not finish. So after stuffing myself for 4 consecutive meals Sunday night had to be something light.I know I know you all are probably thinking that this woman should be fasting for the next whole week after all that hogging but I had to make something for the family, didn't I? Can't have them starve . So after all those English meals I turned Desi again and we had a light supper of Dal Palak which I have very stylishly named Masoor Palak Medley.(Nice name though isn't it?) accompanied by plain Jeera Rice and a Salad.

I am sure you guys are thinking that this female has eaten all that delicious sounding food and and what does she put up on the blog, some plain old dal palak. But its really delicious and very wholesome and the simplest thing in the world to make.

What you need:

1 cup Masoor dal (Split red lentils), 2 cups tender spinach leaves blanched, 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tspn Cumin seeds , 1/2 tspn sugar, 1 tblspn lemon juice , 1/4 tspn turmeric powder, chilly powder to taste, Salt to taste.

• Cover the masoor dal with boiling water and continue cooking until the dal turns mushy. It will turn yellow on cooking.
• In a pan heat the oil and add the jeera and hing and then the chilli, and turmeric powders. After a few mins add the blanched Spinach and the masoor dal and mix the two gently together. Add the lemon juice, sugar and salt.
• Prepare a tempering of hot oil and chopped garlic and pour this over the daland palak mixture. For a hotter version add a few dried red chillies to the tempering.
  Serve with hot rice, or parathas.
  

Ooh i just love this Guessing Game!!! These are Honey Roasted Apple Slices

All of you got the caramelized part correct but no one guessed the fruit correctly. Well there are apple slices. I simply peeled and cored the apples ,so the slices look like pineapple slices. I saw these being made by Gary Rhodes on UKTV Food. It was part of the Celebrating Harvest Time episode in which he demonstrated some easy and simple recipes using local produce. And as apples are the most widely grown fruit in the UK , Apples it was. In fact according to Gary Rhodes there are 3000 varieties of apples grown in the UK alone. Amazing isn't it?

Well my son was watching the show with me and insisted that I make these as soon as the show came to an end. They are the simplest thing to make and very delicious indeed. Caramelised apples are good to eat on their own or great with Vanilla Icecream, or Cool Custard, or simply Whipped Cream.

What you need:
For 6 slices:
2 sweet apples peeled cored and sliced thickly into rings
1tblspn butter
2 tblspn Honey

Honey Roasted Apples, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

What you to with these:

Heat the butter in a frying pan and saute the apples to a golden brown on both sides.

Then place the sauted slices on a baking tray and drizzle with honey. Place under a hot grill at around 200 deg C for barely 5 to 6 mins just until the honey caramalises and begins to sizzle. Thats it. They are ready.