Quick Malai Pedas

Ingredients

1 litre full cream milk
5-6 tbsps white vinegar or lemon juice
6 tbsps full cream milk powder
6 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cardamom powder
Saffron strands (optional)


Take 1 litre of milk in a pan and bring to a boil.

When the milk starts to simmer, add the vinegar/lemon juice

Strain through a muslin cloth and drain all the water out by putting some heavy object on the paneer

Once the paneer cools, crumble well - there should be no big lumps

In a heavy bottomed pan, add the crumbled paneer, cardamom powder, saffron (if being used),milk powder, sugar and ghee and mix well

On medium heat, keep stirring the mixture until you see it leave the sides of the vessel

Turn off the heat and most imp - take the mixture out of the vessel immediately (the vessel retains heat and if left in the vessel even for 5 minutes the mixture gets overcooked) and put it on a plate

While still quite hot, roll out into pedas of desired size and garnish with chopped pistachios/almonds etc


Yummy Yummy pedas ready in a jiffy.

Had made two batches for Diwali but completely forgot about snapping up the pictures.

Seven Cups Sweet

Ingredients:
Besan - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups
Milk - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
Cashew - 1 cup (alternatively you can use grated coconut)
(The total number of cups of ingredients gives this dish its name)

Preparation time : 20 min

1. Soak the cashews and grind it to a fine paste

2. Dry roast the besan in tawa.

3. Mix together roasted besan, sugar and milk making sure there are no lumps

4. Pour the mixture into the tawa and add ghee slowly stirring continuously


5. When the mixture no longer sticks in the tawa pour it into a plate/pan greased with ghee and cut into pieces.



6. Decorate with cashews and serve.


Note : It tastes a lot like Mysore Pak but with a cashew flavor.

Ribbon pakoda

This one is also a tea time snack.
Ingredients:
3 cups rice flour
1 cup besan
salt,hing chilliepowder
1stick butter.

Method.
Mix all these ingredients and knead a dough. This dough should be little softer than the roti dough. Then put this in the chakri machine and deep fry in the oil.

Thatai

This is a tea time snack. I keep munching on it every now and then.Anyway here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice flour 8 cups
Urad flour 1 tbsp
Dariya flour 1 tbsp(dry grind dariya in mixer)
kadi patta
1 stick butter
salt,hing and chillie powder
Chana dal(soak this in water for 3hrs)

Method
Mix all the above ingredients and make a dough.This dough will be softer than Roti dough.
Wet a linen towel and make small ball.
With the help of middle and index finger keep pressing it to make a thin small puri(as shown in the above picture). Then prick these puri's with fork and deep fry them.
It's mouth watering .

Pepper Tofu Dinner

An all-in-one meal - carbs, protein, and veggies in one go.



Ingredients

1 Large Red, Yellow, or Orange Bell Pepper (or a mix of the three), chopped into large pieces
A handful of diced tofu (I use Nasoya extra firm diced tofu)
1 cup cooked rice or pasta
1 tbsp oil
Pinch of Salt
Dash of Ground Pepper

Method

1. Put the chopped bell peppers in a microwaveable container (I use non-plastic), sprinkle water on them, cover loosely, and microwave for 3 minutes.

2. Heat the oil, in a pan, and add the diced tofu. Brown to your taste. Or don't brown, if you prefer that. When the bell peppers are done, add them to the pan and let the skin of some brown slightly if you like - it makes them sweeter. The important thing is to let the tofu and peppers cook together for a minute, so that the tofu absorbs the flavor.

3. Add the pinch of salt, the dash of pepper, and then stir in the rice/pasta. Fry for a minute.

Serves one hungry toddler.

Mac n cheese with onions and peas

Here's a simple quick fix meal option.

A traditional mac n cheese meal (homemade, not from the mix) with stir fried onions and peas tossed in.

Ingredients

Macaroni - Boiled and strained
Onions - Diced to medium size
Frozen or fresh peas
Pepper and salt for seasoning

For the sauce:

Butter - 2 tbsp
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 tbsp
Cheddar cheese - Shredded
Milk - 1 cup

Method

1. In a pan, take some olive oil and quickly stir fry the onions and peas, adding some salt (very light) and pepper for seasoning. Keep it aside.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the maida. Keep stirring and add the milk. Add some salt and pepper (any other seasonings) and add the cheese. Take it off the stove before it gets too thick.

3. Toss together the macaroni, onion/peas and the sauce.

Poha Chiwda

I think this makes a great snack for kids. Most kids love the crunchy stuff and you can adjust the spice in this to customise it to suit their taste buds. Akhil liked the store bought ones, but he cudn't eat too much as he found it spicy, so I thought of making it at home. This is a nice high fat and high protein source for kids, and stays for a long time, so its a good idea to make and store in bulk!

Here's the recipe broken down.

Ingredients

Poha - 2 cups
Puffed Rice - 1 cup
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Dahlia dal - 1/2 cup
Cashewnuts - 1/2 cup
Dry coconuts - 1/4 cup (I skipped this one as I didn't have it)
Sesame seeds (white) - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 20-25 (I used only arnd 5-6)
Curry leaves - 4 bunches, chopped into bits
Coriander powder - 3 tsp
Cumin powder - 3 tsp
Haldi - 4 tsp
Hing - 1 tsp
Salt, sugar
Raisins (optional)
1/2 cup oil

Method

1. Roast poha and puffed rice separately in 1 tsp oil until crisp.
2. Roast sesame seeds.
3. In 1 tbsp oil, roast the peanuts, then the cashews, then the raisins. Set all the fried items aside in a large mixing bowl.
4. Chop green chillies into small pieces. Fry in 1 tbsp oil until crisp.
5. In a frying pan, take 3-4 tbsp oil. Add the mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves, dahlia and haldi powder and fry till golden.
6. Mix all the fried ingredients together and toss in the salt, sugar, coriander & cumin powder.
7. Adjust the seasonings if desired and store in an airtight container.

Tindora Delight

Here's my first contribution to the food blog. I'm calling it tindora delight. The only real labour part of this was cutting the tindora. Otw, it was easy to do. Okay, so there was a little bit of grinding to do Gau....but the result was yummy! Here goes:



Ingredients

Tindora - Cut off the ends, and cut it into thin long pieces. If its too long, halve even that, which is what I did.
Onions - I large, chopped
Tomato - 1 large, chopped
Salt - to taste



For grinding:
Oil - 1tbsp
Channa dal - 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds - 3 tbsp
Red chillies - 3 (you can use more)
Peanuts - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - fresh, a small bunch.

Method

1. First fry all the ingredients lightly in some oil. (peanuts to be roasted in a separate batch)
2. Transfer to a mixie, and add the fresh coriander leaves and some water and grind to a smooth paste.
3. Heat some oil in a large pan, and add mustard seeds and allow to splutter.
4. Next add the onions and fry lightly.

5. Then add the cut tindora, and mix it all together. Add 1/2 a cup of water, and reduce the flame, closing with a lid and allow it to simmer for about 10 min.

6. Next, add the chopped tomatoes and salt, and close for another 10 min.

7. Then add the ground paste, adjust any seasonings and allow it to cook for the final 10 min until the tindora is cooked but still crisp and crunchy to bite into.

8. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with chappathis or rice.

Some tindora facts, while we are at it:

~ Has medicinal value and used widely in Traditional Thai and Ayurvedic Medicine
~ Contains beta-carotene and a good source of protein and fiber
~ It is Low in Cals and fat but rich in minerals and B complex vitamins.

~ Medical Research suggests that gherkins may suppress the activity of certain enzymes involved in glucose production, such as G-6-phosphatase and helps control diabetes.

So low in calories....but that's made up by the protein and fat rich peanuts that we are using to grind. And Akhil loved this vegetable that I even packed it in his lunchbox the next day.

So happy experimenting!

Easy Breakfast - Paniyaram

Today is a 'bandh' in Bangalore with some compulsory family time - no shopping / no malls / not even television other than Kannada T.V.! Thank God for the internet!

So a nice and easy breakfast recipe!

We are usually lazy when it comes to soaking and grinding rice and dal for idlis etc., so when we do it we do it in bulk. Then day one is idli, day two is dosa and day three is 'paniyaram'. But today I cheated and used shop bought batter instead. To the dosa batter, you add some finely chopped onion, finely chopped corriander leaves, grated ginger and salt. Heat oil and splutter some mustard seeds and curry leaves and add that to the batter as well.

I have a non stick paniyaram pan,

but I used oil since it tastes better - you may omit or reduce the amount of oil you use. I used about a teaspoon per paniyaram. Heat the pan, add the oil in each depression and then spoon out a little batter into each depression.

Cover the whole pan and monitor the heat - low for sometime to cook the insides and then high for sometime to brown. When cooked turn them over just to brown the other side as well.

We ate them with sambhar and chutney.

And finally... the proof of the pudding! The girls ate them with jaggery syrup.