Nibbles 1 - Masala Papad

Masala Papad - quick and Easy

Finely chop 1 onion ,seeded tomato and green chilli. Mix red chilli powder, salt, panipuri masala and handful chopped coriander to the chopped veggies.

Deep fry papad . Squeeze the veggie mixture to remove excess water and spread over the fried papad

Sprinkle haldiram boondi masala on top. Followed by handful of plain boondi and aloo bhujiya. Sprinkle some more boondi masala and serve immediately

Paneer and Aloo cutlets

Quick easy and very filling morning breakfast ! I prepare this when i am short of vegetables and have plenty of paneer cubes at home :-)

Good for a rainy day as well. Can be served with tomato ketchup or a green chutney

You need

2 par boiled grated potato

Amul paneer cubes : 15-16

Bread crumbs  1 cup

Salt , pepper , garam masala  as per taste

Green chili chopped as per taste

What you need to do:

grate par boiled se thoda jyada boiled potato, add bread crumbs; i churned paneer and crumbs together . Add salt black pepper and garamasala; green chili. I spoon of oil tiny small. Mix all. Roll tikkis and deep fry on medium flame

Enjoy 

Cheddar Cheese and Dhaniya Jeera kachoris

For those who are from north India just cannot live without  Kachoris. Daal Kachori Aloo kachori matar kachori ...list goes on and on....

I love these babies too. We came back from our native after the great Indian festival called diwali..so I had enough of all the types..but being the northy that I am..i was craving for some deep fried snack like kachori but with a different twist....

Here is my innovative take on kachori...Cheddar Cheese and Dhaniya Jeera Kachoris

For filling you need:

grated Cheddar Cheese - 1 cup

finely chopped green chili - as per taste 

Chopped coriander - 2 tablespoons

Roasted Jeera Powder: 1.5 teaspoons

Salt - few pinches (optional)

None of the limited spices we are using should over power cheese. You can moderate all quantities according to your taste.

For Dough:

caraway seeds - 1 tsp

all purpose flour or Maida - 1.5 cup

Oil - 1.5 tablespoons

salt to taste.

Knead the dough like as one would for pooris not very soft. Keep it away for 15 mins.

Now make small balls similar to what one makes for pooris. make a hole in the middle and stuff the cheese filling. Close the ball properly. and roll out in small round shape with a light hand.

Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Make sure the oil is not too hot otherwise kachoris will be chewy from inside and wont be crisp or cooked evenly 

Cheese and tomato ketchup always work..so serve with tomato sauce. Enjoy piping hot.

Quick, easy and moist OREO cake

I am a very impulsive eater and while most times I would invest time on stiff egg white peaks for a perfect cake ,there are time when i just want a very quick fix which has chocolate is moist and is a cake which I can eat with a lot of  chocolate sauce to satiate the chocolate craving.I use to swear by the chocolate cake in a cup but I have found a new favorite and sharing the same here.

The Super Easy Quick Moist Oreo cake.

What do I need?..... Well nothing much...a packet of oreo biscuits, a cup of milk and the eno fruit salt one t - spoon full


Grind the biscuits together with cream intact to a fine powder. Take this out in a container and milk and stir into a coating consistency batter. Something similar to how dhokla batter looks before we add soda or eno.

To this batter add eno and stir again. Thats it. Preparation is done.


Now microwave this for 5-6 mins. Take this out of microwave and allow it to cool before you de - mould otherwise it might just crumble..its that soft.


Enjoy with chocolate sauce.

Mushroom Pepper Masala

Quickfix for instant gratification of taste buds.What you need is

Onions /bell pepper squared as below and a split green chilli.

Take some maida. mix in red chilli powder and salt. now coat Quarter button mushrooms in this dry mixture and remove the excess. deep fry and keep aside . It should look as below.

Heat oil in a pan add the split green chili.Add onions and stir for a min or 2 . Add in capcicum
saute for another 2 min and finally add mushroom along with salt,cracked black pepper. Saute for another min.
add 1 table spoon mix of light soy and chili sauce.Serve immediately.

Kadahi Paneer - in a Jiffy

Well this time the cook didn’t turn-up and I wanted to make something very special looking without making a lot of effort for our lunch.

And I cooked up Kadahi Paneer My version..  With phulkas to go


For Dry grind you need

Coriander seeds - 3 tablespoon
Black peppercorns - 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds - 2 teaspoons
Dry Red Chilies - 2 or 3

Dry Roast all Spices and Grind them. Keep Aside


This will give quantity enough for 3 to 4 batches serving 2 people.


Vegetables:
Green Capsicum deseeded and cut in cubes - 1 cup
Onions - 1 roughly chopped
Tomatoes - 1 roughly chopped
Cubed Paneer - 1 cup
Dry Grind Masala - 1 tablespoon
Kashmiri lal mirch and Salt to taste.



Heat Oil in a pan. Add few cumin seeds and let it splutter.
Add onion and sauté till golden brown.

Add tomatoes and sauté for 1 min

Add the dry grind Masala
Add Kashmiri Red chili powder, Salt and turmeric. Now sauté the gravy till oil separates.
Stir in Capsicum and Cook for 1 min with lid

Add Paneer and stir very lightly. Put the lid on.

Remove the lid and add enough water so that everything comes together.


Remove off the gas. Serve with Steamed rice or simple phulkas

Instant Green Chilli Pickle

What does one do when one has to eat bland aloo /Bhindi and routine arhar dal.

Well Saturdays are meant to be Spicy.....
Hmmm...good old pickle is one option, but oil in the old pickle bottle just put me off.

I had these green chilies cut and kept in the refrigerator, one look at them and Instant Chili pickle was what I wanted to make with less oil of course

Here we are. I took all spices in proportion I thought I wanted in the pickle. Since this is an instant pickle I could experiment with that.

Mustard seeds powder - 2 tablespoons
Fennel Powder - 4 tablespoon
Mustard daal - 11/2 tablespoons
Dry Mango powder - 2 teaspoons
Lemon juice - 4 table spoons
Mustard oil - 3 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Fennel seeds – 1 ½ teaspoons
Fenugreek seeds – 1 ½ teaspoons
Asafetida – 4 pinches
Green chilies - 100 grams cut into chunky pieces

Here is what I did:
Add salt to green chilies and keep aside.

Mix all dry spices and roast till a light aroma comes

Take off flame and keep aside for 5-7 minutes
Add this spice mix to chilies and salt mixture.

Heat Mustard oil in a pan and add fenugreek and fennel seeds, allow spluttering. Add asafetida
Take off the flame
Add some Kashmiri Red Chili Powder. (This is only for color)

Put this tadka on the chilies mixed with spices

Finally add Lemon juice.

Leave this for a day. I had it with hot rotis immediately
Pickle Ready to serve.