Shahi tukra

‘Shahi’ hmmm… the dish had to be rich!

But I had made up my mind to make it and well the calories could very well go for a toss.

I took half a litre milk and 200 gms tin of Nestle Milkmaid. I mixed the two and kept the pan on the gas. I boiled the milk and milkmaid mixture till it was thick and had reduced to half its quantity. I added some powdered cardamom (elaichi) for flavour.

After two hours I kept the thickened milk in the fridge. I would need it only in the evening when I had planned to prepare the dessert…

In the evening around 5 pm…

I took 6 bread slices and after cutting the crusts, I cut the slices diagonally. So I had 12 triangular halves. I took a small kadai and added some ghee to it. (Well, I did warn you that it is a rich shahi dish)

I fried the bread slices crisp and pressed them on tissue paper. (most of the ghee was absorbed by the tissues) I took a flat dish and kept one slice of fried bread in the centre. On this I poured the thickened milk which I had taken out from the fridge. I kept another slice of bread on it. Again I poured the milk. And then the third piece of bread on which I poured the milk and decorated it with blanched sliced almonds.

(soak almonds overnight. Morning peel the skins and slice )

 

As I had 12 pieces I made four servings in four separate dishes. Chilled it in the fridge for 2 hours and served it for dessert after dinner. Just look at the picture…Isn’t it divine?

While the rest of my family members attacked the shahi tukra and exclaimed ummmm….yummy….yummilicous…. etc I just patiently waited while I clicked a couple of pictures and then I too got into the attack mode.

And truly so…Shahi Tukra turned out to be pretty rich but unbelievable delicious… Just look it…

So when are you making shahi tukra? Very soon I am sure…Tempting…Isn’t it?

 

 

Quick chana masala

“Mummy its been a long long time since you made cholay. Please make it now na…”

That was my daughter. “I don’t have canned chana and I have not soaked chana so I cannot make cholay right now. But for dinner I will make chana puri. Okay?”

“Ye Ye yeee!” she screamed with joy. Kids love cholay bature, chana masala with roti/puri…

I am not exactly a great fan of chana masala but I soaked the chana in sufficient water. I could not go back on my words.

So well in the evening when the chana had soaked well and had turned nice and big I started making the chana.

The regular method is to fry chopped onions, garlic etc and somehow it all seems too tedious. My dear sister had given me an easy recipe which I had been waiting to try. And today was the day I guess!

I took the soaked chana in a pressure cooker. (approx 200 gms )

I kept the gas on medium flame after adding a glass of water to it.

While it took its time to boil, I added two sticks of dalchini (cinammon)

I then roughly chopped  onions and added it to the chana on the gas.

next I added some chopped garlic- 10-15 small cloves will do

I added 1″ piece of ginger (finely chopped or grated) and a couple of slit green chillies.

I washed 4 medium sized tomatoes and grated them ( you can chop them finely). That went into the cooker too.

A pinch of turmeric and I closed the cooker. Well the chana was done. I mean chana had to cook, but my chore was done. I set about making the puri.

After the first whistle I reduced the flame and allowed the chana to cook for approx 20- 30 minutes.

After the cooker cooled down, I opened it and switched on the gas. I added salt to taste.

I mixed the chana properly.

Now all I had to do was add the spices.

I took 2 tablespoons of oil in a small kadai. I kept the kadai on sim gas. To that I added 1 teaspoon of dhaniya powder ( coriander seeds powder), 1 teaspoon of red chilly powder ( you can add more if you want the chana spicy), and 1 1/2 teaspoons of Everest chana masala powder. ( Do not allow the masalas to change colour. Just mix for a second or so)

The above masala I added to the chana which was boiling now. The colour changed into nice reddish brown. Hmmm…

I switched off the gas after 10 minutes. I garnished the chana with chopped coriander leaves (kotmir)

Well that was pretty quick.

I will tell you where we saved time…

Chopping onions, garlic, ginger finely and frying them in oil till they change colour takes some time.

We added all this directly to the chana in the cooker.

So the quick chana was a great hit and I have to thank my sister for giving me the recipe…

 

Avrekal palya (gravy)

“Avrekal, avrekal…” Shouted the vendor moving the heavy cart loaded and almost overflowing with avrekal.

The season had started. Yeah, the avrekalu season in Bengaluru. You must be wondering what avrekal is. It looks like beans or papdi ( surti papdi, vaal).

In Bengaluru from mid August onwards until February you will find avrekalu in all vegetable markets.

People buy it in kilos and after opening the outer covering (just like we do for green peas) store the beans away. It can be stored for months together in the freezer. Some even make curries out of thehichkid bele ( the avrekal is soaked in water for a few hours and then the outer skin is squeezed out and the inner soft avrekal is left) But it is better to keep the outer skin as the nutrition is retained.

It has a peculiar taste and I would say not many enjoy its taste. But the locals just love it and the regularly used tuvar dal is stacked away during the avrekal season. Dals, saar, sambar, subzi, gravies, rotti (thalipeeth) and many other dishes are made from this humble bean!

So well, I too got around to buying a kilo of avrekal from the vendor who was pushing the cart on the road right outside my house. After having spent some time on opening the covers and collecting the avrekal in a bowl I decided to try my hand at avrekal gravy.

I did not want to make saar or sambar as both would mean too much liquid and very little avrekal floating here and there. I like the taste of avrekal and I did not want to dip into too much gravy and find just a couple of avrekal on my spoon.

So I decided to make a nice gravy not too thick and not too thin.

This recipe could be used to make vaal, papdi and any other beans for that matter. But avrekal is avrekal!

Here goes the recipe:

Take one cup avrekal and boil it in a pressure cooker with some water for two whistles.

Meanwhile take 1 piece of dalchini (cinnamon), 2 lavang (cloves), 1 spoon jeera (cumin), 2 teaspoons dhaniya and roast it in a pan.

To this add 6 cloves of garlic, 1” piece ginger, 3 green chillies, 1 large cup grated coconut, 2 small tomatoes, 1 small piece of tamarind and roast for a while. Don’t brown it.

Towards the end just add 1 small cup of coriander leaves and roast for a minute.

Grind all the above into a fine paste using some water.

Next take a big kadai and add 1 tablespoon oil to it. Add rai, curry leaves and 1 chopped onion.

When the onion is translucent add the ground paste. Mix well and add the cooked avrekal and some salt to taste.

Boil this covered for 10 minutes on slow gas.

Well the avrekal gravy is ready to be served with steaming hot rice, chapattis or even bread!

Avrekal is just like vaal (prepared by Maharashtrians) and you need to eat it a few times to like it.

Acquired taste! But its really tasty once you acquire the taste…

 

Crispy cutlets

My son said, “Mom, please make something taaassssty…”

“What tasty tasty…all the time you want something tasty. From where am I going to bring all the recipes for these tasty dishes that you crave for?” I admonished.

He sulked for a while and I got busy with my dinner preparations.

Next morning after he went to school, I was reminded of his demand for something tasty. I decided to make some deliciously crispy cutlets and give him a ‘tasty surprise’…guess that was too much of tasty in the last few lines!

I boiled 5 medium sized potatoes in the pressure cooker, peeled and mashed them.

Next I grated 1 carrot and 1 half of a small beetroot, fine chopped 4 french beans.

Now I boiled the grated carrot, beetroot, chopped beans and ½ cup green peas with little water till cooked. ( you can use frozen mixed vegetables to save time)

I added this to the mashed potatoes.

I took 3 slices of bread and soaked it in water for a second, wrung it between my palms and added it to the potato mix.

½ spoon chaat masala (or amchur powder) and ½ spoon Everest garam masala and some salt took care of the seasoning.

To make it even more colourful I added ½ cup chopped coriander leaves.

And for the spice I added 1 teaspoon of ginger and green chilly paste.

I mixed it well. Shaped the mixture into triangles and dipped it in bread crumbs.

I had time so I made fresh bread crumbs.

For the bread crumbs I took 8 slices of bread and kept them in the microwave for 3 minutes. (The bread dries up in the oven).

I put the hard dried crisp pieces of bread in the mixer grinder and well the bread crumbs were ready!

Hardly took me five minutes and the left over bread crumbs could be stored in an airtight container.

I roasted the cutlets on the frying pan (tava) with some ghee! ( oil would do normally, but today I was in a great mood and cutlets taste truly great when roasted with ghee)

I served the cutlets with mint (pudina) and coriander chutney.

For the chutney:

Grind together 1 cup mint (pudina) leaves and 2 cups of coriander (kotmir) leaves along with 3-4 green chillies, juice of one lemon, salt and 2 teaspoons of grated coconut.

The grated coconut and the lemon juice give the chutney a distinct green colour and texture.

Well the cutlets were truly tasty and my son gave me the thumbs up sign munching away the cutlets dipped in mint chutney and ketchup saying, “Mom! Sooooo taasssttyyy…”

Well, the effort paid off! My son was no longer sulking…he was smiling!

[ You will find a recipe for vegetable cutlets on the blog. There is a small difference in the both the recipes. This one turns out even better. The bread crumbs and fresh vegetables add to the taste!]

 

Dum Alu

I bought these small baby potatoes at the supermarket and decided to try my hand at dum alu. There were too many recipes on the internet and the cookbooks. But I decided to try something slightly different. This is how I made it:

Ingredients:

12-15  baby potatoes boiled, peeled and pricked with a fork

1 teaspoon ghee

1 teaspoon jeera powder (cumin)

1 teaspoon chilly flakes

½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves

2 large onions finely chopped

10-12 small sized garlic cloves chopped finely

6 medium tomatoes pureed in a chopper ( you can also grate it)

1 ½ teaspoons kashmiri chilly powder

1 teaspoon Everest garam masala (you can use any garam masala/subzi masala that you have)

2 teaspoons oil

Salt to taste

I took an open pan and added 1 teaspoon ghee to it. I sautéed the boiled baby potatoes and to it I added 1 teaspoon jeera powder, salt to taste, coriander leaves and the chilly flakes. When the potatoes were coated well and were slightly brown, I switched off the gas and kept the potato mix aside.

For the gravy I took a kadai (pan) and kept it on the gas. I put 2 teaspoon oil and added the chopped onions and the garlic. I sautéed this till the onions were pinkish and then added the red chilly powder and the garam masala. After a minute of mixing, I added the tomato puree and mixed it well. The gravy looked yummy! I added some salt to taste and 250 ml water. I allowed the gravy to boil and then put the gas on sim. I allowed it to simmer for a while till the tomatoes were cooked and then added the potato mix to it.

I covered the kadai and allowed the potatoes to absorb the gravy. After around 10 minutes or so I switched off the gas and the delicious dum alu was ready to eat.

You can serve it with roti/naan/toasted bread…

Well it is so tasty you can eat it just like that. It goes well with steamed rice and vegetable pulav too.

So just pick up that fork and spoon and dig into the delicious dum alu..

 

Methi makai malai

                                                                  corn methi malai

Though cleaning the green leafy vegetables is a tiresome chore we all are ready to do it because of its positive health benefits. And methi (fenugreek) though slightly bitter is very tasty.

I bought a big bunch of fenugreek leaves, cleaned it and washed it well. I planned to make methi mutter malai. It was only when I opened the freezer that I realised that there were no frozen green peas. And only methi malai somehow didn’t seem very appealing. So I picked up the frozen sweet corn packet. Well today I was going to make methi corn malai. Keeping my fingers crossed that the recipe would turn out good, I set out with the cooking. Obviously I couldn’t keep my fingers crossed while cooking!!!

Well here goes the Ingredients:

1 bunch methi leaves washed, drained and chopped.

1 large onion finely chopped

6-8 small garlic cloves chopped

3 green chillies slit

½ teaspoon Everest garam masala

2 teaspoons oil

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

1 small cup fresh cream (you get fresh cream at supermarkets in tetrapacks. You can collect fresh cream from the milk you boil and store it in the freezer. It tastes equally good)

Sweet corn- Boiled till tender  – 1 cup (you can use frozen or you can buy corn on the cob and scrape away the corn with a knife)

Method:

I took a pan and added 2 teaspoons of oil to it.

I then added the chopped garlic and onions. Stir fried for a few minutes till the onions were translucent.

In went the green chillies and the chopped methi leaves. I covered the pan and allowed the methi to cook well.

After around ten minutes or so I added salt to taste and 1 teaspoon sugar.

I added the cooked corn and mixed it well. Finally I added the cream and just when it started boiling I switched off the gas.

Ufff… Now I had to taste it. Ummm…very tasty. In fact it tasted better than corn mutter malai. The sweet taste of corn blended well with the slightly bitter taste of methi leaves. And it looked pretty colourful too. Green with yellow and the overall creamy look…

Except for the cleaning of the methi leaves the recipe takes hardly any time to cook.

So, I guess you have already decided to buy methi the next time you go to the market. And don’t forget to buy the corn. If you don’t get fresh makai you can always buy frozen corn from the supermarket. I prefer Al Kabeer brand as it is soft and sweet.

Happy cooking!

 

Bansi Rava Upma

BANSI RAVA UPMA

“Upma?” I asked. “No, thanks,” I said. But my aunt forced me to take some on my plate. And reluctantly I gathered the upma which did look quite good onto the spoon and tucked it into  my mouth. Hmmm… It was tasty.

“Aunty which upma is this?” It was a ridiculous question. Upma is upma and always made with rava/suji.

“The rava is different. I made the upma from Bansi rava” she replied.

“Bansi rava! Which rava is that?” I had heard of rava called suji and barik rava, lapsi rava…. but Bansi rava??

“It is available at all supermarkets. It is written on the packet. You check” my aunt said.

Now that I was going to do for sure, ‘coz the upma was truly tasty.

I went to the supermarket on my way back and purchased a packet of bansi rava.

Now I had three types of rava at home. I took three bowls of each type of rava.

THREE TYPES OF RAVA

 

NORMAL RAVA

LAPSI RAVA

BANSI RAVA

Obviously I made the upma from bansi rava. It is no different from the other upma we make. Yet, this is how I made it:

I dry roasted one big glass of bansi rava on sim gas for 10 minutes.

I then took a big kadai and added two tablespoons of oil. To that I added rai, three green chillies cut into halves, a pinch of hing, few curry leaves.

When all this had spluttered sufficiently I added some mixed chopped vegetables  like potato, onion, beans, carrot, green peas, corn etc. (You can use any mix of vegetables )

I then added some salt to taste and covered the pan to allow the vegetables to cook.

I then kept three glasses of water to boil.

When the vegetables were cooked I added the boiling water to it. Next went the roasted bansi rava which I mixed evenly.

I kept the gas on sim. I covered the kadai and allowed the rava to cook properly in the water.

After five minutes I switched off the gas and garnished the upma with coriander leaves.

(You can add coconut scrapings too)

Well, the bansi rava upma is more nutritious and tasty.

I had never heard of this rava when I stayed in Mumbai or Dubai. First time I heard of this bansi rava in Bengaluru. So, I am not sure that it is available everywhere. Probably it is…

Do check out at the supermarket next time! And let me know in case you find it…

( Rava is made out of wheat. It is wholesome and nutritious. Rava, except idli rava are made out wheat.)

Idli rava is made of rice and used for making idlis. For one glass of soaked udad dal, 2 glasses of idli rava can be soaked. After grinding the udad dal, you can either add the soaked idli rava to the batter and keep for 6 to 8 hours to ferment or you can grind the soaked idli rava for just a few minutes and mix it with the udad dal batter. The difference is you get coarse rava idli or smooth idly.

Using idly rava saves time as grinding soaked rice takes longer. The taste is good too…

 

Tomato rice (Bhaath)/biryani

After posting the quick tomato rice I decided to make the slightly lengthy version of Tomato rice or bhaath as it is called here in Bengaluru.

One of my neighbours had given me this recipe some eight years ago and as it takes slightly longer to prepare I shifted to the easier version of tomato rice. But the true taste and the originality of this recipe is in the long method.

One fine morning after having purchased a big bunch of mint leaves and coriander leaves I decided to make this special tomato bhaath.

 

Here goes the recipe in detail:

1 bunch mint leaves (washed and chopped into pieces)

1 bunch coriander leaves (washed and chopped)

15-20 curry leaves (washed and torn into pieces)

3 pepper corns, 3 cloves (laung), 2 tejpatta and 2 medium sized pieces of dalchini (cinnamom)

10-12 medium sized nice red tomatoes chopped into pieces

1 large onion chopped finely

15-20 small garlic cloves crushed

1 inch piece ginger crushed

1 ½ teaspoons chilly powder ( I prefer kashmiri as it gives good colour and is not spicy)

1 ½ cups rice (preferably basmati)

2 tablespoons oil

2 ½ cups water

Salt to taste.

 

 

 

IT IS BETTER TO KEEP EVERYTHING READY. PREPARATION TIME IS LONGER THAN COOKING TIME. IF ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE READY THE RICE TAKES VERY LITTLE TIME TO COOK…

THIS IS HOW I MADE IT:

I took a huge heavy bottomed kadai (pan) and added the oil to it.

I put in all the whole spices (laung, kala miri, dalchini & tejpatta)

I then added the finely chopped onions, crushed garlic and ginger.

I sautéed this for a while till the onion changed colour.

I then added the chopped greens (mint, coriander and curry leaves)

Sautéed the same for 2  minutes.

I added the chilly powder and the chopped tomatoes.

I allowed the tomatoes to cook for 10 minutes.

I then added the rice (soak rice half an hour before making the dish) and salt to taste.

I mixed it well and added approx 2 ½ cups water and covered the pan and allowed the rice to cook.

Checked after 10 minutes and mixed it well.

In another 10 minutes or so the rice was cooked properly and the tomato bhaath was giving out an extraordinary aroma.

The combination of mint and coriander leaves with tomatoes and garlic is a unique combination.

The recipe takes longer to make as compared to the quick tomato rice as cleaning, washing and chopping the greens takes some time.

Though the recipe takes some time it is worth the effort. The taste is simply out of this world.

 

 

 

Moong dal kheer

People in Bengaluru just love the hesarubele paysa (moong dal kheer). And well, I love it too! Only issue was I didn’t know how to make it!!!

So in conversation with my dear maid Rajeshwari, I popped the question “Do you know how to make hesarubele paysa?” to which she said she knew it. Thank heavens! I decided to strike when the iron was hot. Thankfully I had all the required ingredients. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal (regular tea cup)

250 gms jaggery (gur)

4 cardamom ground finely (elaichi)

2 cups warm milk

2 tablespoons khuskhus (approx 25 gms)

Coconut scrapings 1 cup (approx ½ a coconut)

2 tablespoon ghee

Cashewnut pieces and raisins (draksh) fried in ghee for garnishing

 

I took a pressure cooker and added 1 tablespoon ghee to it. I roasted the moong dal and then added 2 cups water and closed the cooker. I allowed it to cook for 5 whistles (15-20 minutes).

Next I took a pan and dry roasted the khus khus. I then ground the khus khus and coconut into a fine paste. I had to add some water to it.

I then scraped the jaggery (you can cut it into big pieces also) and added this to the cooked moong dal in the cooker. It started boiling. I added the khus khus and coconut paste to it.

Till it all came to a boil I ground the cardamom finely and added it to the above.

When it started boiling, I put the gas on sim and allowed the payasa (kheer) to simmer for 10 minutes till the jaggery was melted and all the ingredients had blended well.

I then added two cups milk and as soon as it came to a boil, I switched off the gas. I then added another tablespoon of ghee to it. (alternatively you can roast some cashew nuts and raisins and add to the kheer)

The hesarubele payasam was ready to eat. It looked and tasted simply delicious.

Moong dal, jaggery, khus khus are all good for health.

I would say this is more of a health recipe than a sweet dish…

What I loved about this recipe is that it took hardly any time to prepare.

In Karnataka this recipe is called hesarubele ghasghase payasa…

 

Pav bhaji- Jhatpat

 

The kids were screaming in chorus “Pav bhaji, Pav bhaji, Pav bhaji….”

And soon hubby dearest joined in too! I was slightly exasperated. Sunday afternoon, nearing lunch time when I had made plans to eat outside, my troop had decided they wanted to eat homemade pav bhaji. And hubby was all ready to go and get the pav from the nearby store.  I was trapped.

Well, I surrendered to their demand wondering how I was going to make pav bhaji in half an hour!

We all were hungry and okay no point in going into all that. I had to accumulate all the vegetables I had.

I opened the fridge and found 8 to 10 boiled potatoes. Well that was a relief.

In the freezer there was a packet of green peas. One large bowl would be sufficient. I put it in the microwave for 8 minutes. So the green peas were ready.

Meanwhile, I took four large onions and chopped them finely. (The chopper saved my chopping time)

I then chopped two capsicums finely. (Not in the chopper).

I had peeled garlic which I had purchased from the supermarket. I quickly added 20 cloves of garlic (small ones) into the chopper.

I washed 12 medium sized tomatoes and kept it aside for chopping.

I took a large pan and added 4 tablespoons of oil. I added a pinch of hing and haldi. The finely chopped garlic and onions went into it. While they took their time in turning light pink,  I decided to chop the tomatoes.

Thanks to the chopper, tomatoes were finely ground in less than five minutes. (You can grate the tomatoes if you do not have a chopper)

I added the chopped capsicum to the onions. After around five minutes, I added the tomatoes.

Next I added 4 teaspoons of pav bhaji masala (I prefer to use Everest Pav Bhaji Masala) and 2 teaspoons of less spicy chilly powder and salt to taste. ( I use the red colour kashmiri chilly powder as it gives excellent colour to the pav bhaji and is less spicy)

The aroma of pav bhaji filtered into the room and my children took out the plates to eat. I told them that the bhaji was not ready and I still had to add green peas and boiled potatoes to which they made a long face and sat in front of the TV watching some cartoon.

I peeled the potatoes, mashed them and added it to the mixture on the gas. I had to add 1 cup of water for the potato to blend well.

Next I added the already cooked green peas, juice of one lemon, chopped coriander leaves and mixed it well.

The bhaji looked delicious and I served it with buttered pav (bread).

Special tips:

While serving pav bhaji serve it in an open dish and add a teaspoon of butter and chopped coriander leaves for garnish.

I was able to make the bhaji quickly because I had boiled potatoes ready to use. I usually store boiled unpeeled potatoes in the fridge as it comes handy to make a quick subzi, for using in a sandwich, to make raita (curds, boiled cubed potaotes, chopped tomatoes, 1 green chilly and salt), to mix in cutlets and many other dishes.

I did not add chopped beans, carrots and cauliflower to the bhaji which is generally added to the traditional recipe.

Using the chopper to chop garlic, onions and tomatoes saves lot of time.

If garlic is peeled in advance, it saves a lot of time. Peeled garlic is available in most supermarkets or you could peel a couple of pods and store it in the fridge.

The jhatpat pav bhaji was actually very easy to make and tasty too! I think all of you must try this out…