Raghda Pattice

So it has been a long long while that I am writing this post. I really have no excuse for being absent from this space. It’s just life happens at times and you tend to give importance to your regular day stuff than your hobby like this blog. I am still cooking (as it is the regular day stuff) and eating delicious food but just am not able to take pictures, store it, write about it, and then post it. I wish I can take breaks in my regular life for the regular stuff, just like I do for this hobby of mine J… complicated I know, but so is LIFE!

Enough of philosophy, let’s go to the recipe of this delicious snack that is healthy and loved by all you serve.

Ingredients:

1. Two cups dry vatanas (available at any Indian grocery store) – soaked overnight
2. Two medium sized potatoes
3. One medium sized tomato
4. Three tblsp cooking oil
5. One tsp cumin and mustard seeds
6. One tsp asafetida powder
7. 6-7 curry leaves
8. 4-5 green chilies
9. One tblsp lemon juice
10. Salt and turmeric powder, per taste
11. Tamarind chutney as desired (available at Indian grocery store)
12. For garnishing – chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped coriander leaves, aloo bhujiyas (available at Indian grocery store)

Process:

1. In a pressure cooker boil vatanas, one potato, and tomato for 6-7 whistles (or till you think that the vatanas are cooked, this step depends on the type of cooker you use).
2. In a separate bowl, boil the second potato till fully cooked.
3. Mash this potato and add salt and turmeric powder, mix well.
4. Shape the potato mixture into tikki style (like patties).
5. On a frying pan, heat one tblsp of oil and fry tikkis till golden brown on both sides.
6. Dish out on a paper napkin and keep aside.
7. Mash up the vatanas, potato and tomato that you boiled in step 1 above.
8. In a wok, heat oil add cumin and mustard seeds, let it splutter.
9.  Add curry leaves, green chilies, and asafetida powder.
10.  Add mashed vatanas, potato, and tomato from step 7 above.
11.  Mix well; add lemon juice, salt and turmeric powder.
12.  Turn off the stove and serve.
13. To serve: place the patties  in #6, place a dollop of raghda, garnish with chopped onions, tomatoes, and coriander leaves. Sprinkle aloo bhujiya and tamarind sauce and serve.
14. This tastes best when it is warm.

ENJOY!!!

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Cilantro Rice

I first tried this at Chipotle. My brother took us out for a mini celebration two years ago and that is when I had this rice for the very first time in a veg bowl. It was so great! I wanted to try this out for so long but I never made anything interesting to partner up this delicious rice with. Recently I made grilled salmon and served it over cilantro rice. It tasted so good! Hopefully soon enough I will try to replicate the veg bowl at Chipotle, I just need to get a good recipe for Mexican hot sauce.

Ingredients:

1. Two cups basmati rice - washed and boiled
2. Three cloves of garlic - finely chopped
3. A bunch of cilantro - finely chopped
4. Three drops of lime juice
5. Salt per taste
6. Two tblsp cooking oil

Process:

1. Heat oil in a wok, add garlic.
2. Once the garlic turns golden brown add boiled rice.
3. Add cilantro, lime juice, and salt.
4. Mix well.
5. Serve hot!!!

ENJOY!!!

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Grilled Salmon over Cilantro Rice

I have always been reluctant to making seafood in home. Firstly, I am not too fond of it and secondly, once you cook it is hard to get rid of the smell. Dear Hubby thinks its not that bad but I think I am paranoid when it comes to seafood. All of this changed after my marriage, dear Hubby is a full blown sea food fan, be it a fish, shrimp, lobsters, clams, etc etc and the list goes on. Before marriage, I would not even touch the shrimp and I won't eat anything on the days when my mom makes shrimps. However, now I clean it, marinate it and cook it without any issues... See what Love makes you do!!! :) :)

I don't have very many experience making grilled salmon at home, however, I have very many experience eating grilled salmon at various restaurants. So I kinda knew what to expect but wasn't sure, 'cause I wanted to make it a little bit more spicy and give it an Indian touch to it. Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

1. Four Salmon fillets - boneless and skinless
2. 15 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
3. A bunch of cilantro - finely chopped
4. Two-three green chilies - finely chopped
5. Spicy mustard sauce - two tblsp
6. Green and red chili sauce - two tblsp
7. Shan Fish Seasoning Masala - half packet (store bought)
8. One tblsp lime juice
9. Salt per taste
10. Mixture of crushed red pepper and crushed black pepper - per taste
11. In home Grill Pan
12. Cooking oil spray

Process:

1. Mix all the ingredients from #2 to #10 to make a marinading mixture.
2. Marinate salmon in the mixture created in #1 for atleast 30 minutes.
3. Heat grill pan, make sure it is well heated.
4. Spray some cooking oil and place two fillets at a time.
5. Grill well on one side, carefully flip it over, and turn the heat to medium.
6. Place the pressing cover on top of the fillet and cook it for 10-12 minutes. (This is a very important step, this makes sure that the fish is cooked very well from the middle as well).
7. Repeat the steps for the remaining two salmon fillets.
8. Serve hot over cilantro rice with limes.

ENJOY!!!



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Falooda

As we say our goodbyes to the month of Ramadan this year... it breaks my heart that this blessed month is already over and we have to wait for another long year for the next one to come back... Not only will I miss all the prayers and supplications and suhoor and iftaris, but I will also miss all these goodies that I have been sharing with you all for the entire month! One of them being Falooda... this is one of the best drink to serve at Iftrai. It's not only filling but also very flavorful and healthy!!

Ingredients:

1. One cup milk
2. One tblsp tukmurie seeds (available at Indian Stores)
3. Two tblsp Falooda sev (available at Indian Stores)
4. Three tblsp sugar (adjust according to your taste)
5. Chopped nuts - cashew, pistachio, raisins and almonds
6. One scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream
7. Pink food color (optional)

Process:

1. In a boiling water, boil falooda sev and tukmurie seeds for 4-5 minutes. Let it cool and drain all water out and keep aside. 
2. In a pan, heat milk and add sugar and food color (if using). Heat it just enough so that the sugar melts out. Let it cool. 
3. In a serving glass, place tukmurie and falooda sev at the bottom.
4. Pour milk over it. 
5. Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top
6. Garnish with chopped nuts (more the better :)). 
7. Serve immediately.

Sending this to Ramadan Friendly Recipes Event hosted by the Halal Foodie, Joy from Fasting to Feasting - V Event hosted by Yummy Food, and Only Recipes from the Royal Kitchen hosted by Divya's Culinary Journey started by Foodelicious. 

ENJOY!!!

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Mini Bread Pakora with a Twist & Award

And we twist, we twist, we twist
And we twist, we twist, we twist
(Song from Love Aaj Kal)...

Well first of all, sorry for being away for a while from the blogging world... this time round I have a pretty good reason for it. Last weekend I was trying to see how well I multi-task, so I was on the phone with my mother in law, washing potatoes on one side, and frying kheema (ground goat meat) on the other. Not a good idea to do when you MIL is giving you good tips on what to do for Eid, while you are working with hot water and hot OIL... guess what, as soon as I dropped the kheema in the wok where I had oil heating up.. all the oil splashed up to my hand, burning my right hand wrist... 

I felt the hot and burning sensation throughout my hand, quickly lowered the flame and mistakenly put my hand under HOT water... Ouch!!! Now keep in mind all this while I was on the phone with MIL so I wanted to make sure that she doesn't know about it... so you can't technically scream... :). Quickly turned the water into cold and let it ran through my hand, and in two minutes or so I went back to cooking. All this time I was thinking well the oil can't be that hot, 'cause I had just turned on the stove.. but boy I was wrong. For next hour or so, I continued on working/cooking/cleaning and took a shower. After the shower my wrist was all red and burning so bad... Dear Hubby, being a Doctor he is, got super mad at me for not paying attention. I go, "it's not that bad, it will heal soon".. and he goes, "Yeah, but it's your right hand, and you won't be able to cook or work for next seven days!!!"... Uh-O... The burn is about two inches long and one and half inch wide... Now everyone who sees it, asks me what happened and I tell them the entire story, and they are like, "How can you not know that it burned that bad"... Hey I just didn't okay.. this is my first burn ever, how am I suppose to know?!?!?!?"

So, anyways, it hasn't healed yet but Hubby does the dressing twice a day so I am able to work and cook.. thank God for him being a doctor... :) (only in times like this :) )

Coming back to the recipe, I made this prior to the burning incident. It came out so good and everyone loved it. You can see my regular bread pakora recipe here. 

Ingredients:

1. Two medium potatoes - peeled, cubed, and boiled.
2. A bunch of fresh coriander leaves
3. Two-three green chilies - finely chopped.
4. 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
5. One tblsp lemon juice
6. Salt per taste
7. For tempering - half tblsp cumin seeds, half tblsp mustard seeds, and two tblsp oil.
8. For Batter - Half cup chickpea flour, 1/2 tblsp red chili powder, 1/2 tblsp dhaniya powder, a pinch of turmeric powder, salt per taste, half tsp lime juice and Half cup warm water.
9. Six breads - cut diagonally in both directions making four pieces out of one bread. 
10. Oil for deep frying
11. Here is the twist - Yellow American Cheese Slices - Cut diagonally in both directions and horizontally from the middle - this should give you eight mini triangles from one slice. 

Process:

1. Mash boiled potatoes, add in coriander leaves, lemon juice, green chilies, salt and turmeric powder. Mix well, add a little bit of water (only if needed).
2. Heat oil for tempering, add in cumin and mustard seeds, let it splutter, then sprinkle over potato mixture and mix well. Keep aside.
3. The potato mixture should look like this filing that I had previously made for Aloo Paratha.
   
   
   
4. Mix all ingredients for batter - make sure there are no lumps of chickpea flour and the batter should be more towards the thicker side. Adjust water quantity as needed. Lime juice is key to this batter, what it does is when you fry the pakoras it doesn't let it absorb so much oil. 
   
   
   
5. Spread some potato mixture on the one of the diagonally cut bread, place the second bread on top, place cheese slice, and press tightly. Repeat the process for rest of the breads.
   
   
   
6. Heat oil for frying.
7. Dip the potato filled breads into the batter and deep fry till golden brown. Repeat for the rest of the sandwiches.Serve hot with some tomato ketchup.

Sending this recipe over to Ramadan Friendly Recipes event hosted by The Halal Foodie and Joy from Fasting to Feasting - V event hosted by Yummy Food. 

I would also like to Thank R. Punitha and Asmath Nawaz for passing over this award to me. 

As per the rule says,

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you.

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.

5. Go to their page and tell them.

6. Remember, no tag backs!

Question tagged by Asmath,

1.What was the inspiration behind your blog? - Nothing really, just wanted to get away from the regular routine hence started this blog. 
2.Which aspect of blogging do u find more interesting? - Comments. 
3.How many hours doyou spend on blogging in a week ? - 4 Hrs. - I would like to spend more but can't... :(
4.What is the craziest thing you've ever done? - Not that adventurous to do crazy stuff, I am pretty boring and routine... 
5. What quality do you most like in yourself and why? - Helping nature. 
6. If you were given a chance to undo one thing from your life what would it be and why?? - None, I would live the exact same way. 
7.Whats ur memorable moment/fav memory since you became a blogger? - When I got my first follower Cool Lassi(e). 
8.What is your idea of a perfect breakfast? - Warm aloo paratha with yogurt. 
9.What is your favourite pastime? - Bollywood Movies
10.Who is your favorite blogger? - Every single one of them... :)
11.If you had to describe yourself in 3 words.. what would they be?? - You tell me :)

Sending this award to: 

1. The Halal Foodie
2. A Taste of Madness
3. Amateur Perceptions
4. Creating Memories
5. Divya's Culinary Journey
6. Erivum Puliym
7. Flavours
8. Hamaree Rasoi
9. Kurry Leaves
10. Shabbu's Tasty Kitchen
11. Food For Thought

I am going to keep the same questions as Asamth... Enjoy everyone and have a great weekend!!!

ENJOY!!!

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