French Carrot Soup

Easy to make and healthy carrot soup.

Ingredients:

• Carrots- 5-6 Orange ones
• Rosemary- 2-3 big sprigs
• Silken tofu 1 cup
• Garlic- 1 big pod
• Ginger- small piece
• Salt to taste

Method:
Wash and cut the carrots into big chunks. I don't always peel them. Steam them in a pressure cooker with little water, Rosemary, salt, ginger and garlic. 2-3 whistles.

Let it cool down. Remove the Rosemary sprigs and grind everything in a mixer with silken tofu. You'll get a silky smooth consistency. Empty the soup into a container in which you can heat it as and when you'd like to have some.

Garnish with a little extra virgin olive oil before eating.

Enjoy!!

Ragi Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake

I came across this recipe posted by a runner in one of the running magazines in India. Made it for the first time on Christmas Eve and it turned out to be much better than expected.

The cake uses all healthy ingredients  and can be made in vegetarian / vegan way.

Ingredients A:

• 1 cup ragi flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 2 level tea spoons baking powder

Mix the above and sieve all together.

Ingredients B:

• 1-1/4 cup jaggery powder (I used "bhoora" powder)
• 1 cup oil / melted butter
• 1 cup milk / smooth beaten curd / soy milk
• 3 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed (leftover over-ripe will also do just fine)
• 1 level tea spoon vanilla essence (optional, as the chocolate and bananas already lend plenty of flavour)
• 1 cup walnut (lightly crushed)

Mix the above with a wooden spoon stirring in one direction only. You can use a cake blender, if you use one. It should be well blended with no big lumps. The small lumps of jaggery (about the size of a wheat grain) are hard to avoid. But that’s fine. They will dissolve slowly or melt when baking and meld with the cake.

Fold ingredients A into ingredients B. By fold, we mean add the flour a spoonful at a time and gently incorporate it into the wet mixture using the side of your spoon while continuing to stir in one direction only. You will be maneuvering the spoon with your wrist.

When all the flour is incorporated, pour it into a baking mould of around 10 inches in diameter, lined with aluminium foil or butter paper at the base. (This is my no-fail way of ensuring cakes willingly slide out of their pans when done. You don’t need to oil the pan.)

Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 180 C. You know its done when a cake tester (or small knife) inserted into the cake comes out clean. If the tester still has liquid dough on it, let it bake for another 5-10 mins. Due to the mashed bananas, the cake will tend to have a moist texture, so the tester might not come out fully dry like traditional cakes, which is okay.
If using a microwave convection oven, you may need to grill it for about a minute to get the top of the cake fully cooked.

You can eat it hot or cold, separately or with vanilla ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Raita Booster

I have been using the Christmas break to try out some new recipes. Also, it's a good time to post some old ones.

Starting with this very simple, easy to make and nutritious Raita recipe.

Ingredients:

• Sprouts (1 cup)
• Finely chopped cucumber (1 cup)
• Pomegranate seeds (1/2 cup)
• Roasted peanuts (1/2 cup)
• 1 green chilli
• Curd (2 cups)
• Rock Salt (kala namak) as per taste

Process:

• Remove the skin of the peanut and break into halves.
• Mix everything together.

Try not to mix too much of the usual Raita spices, since this tastes fresh and best with just green chillies and some rock salt.

Enjoy the fresh flavors !!

LEHSUN DAHI BREAD PAKORAS

Ingredients

 For batter 

·         Rice -1cup

·         chana dal -1/3 cup

·         garam masala pd

·         chilly pd

·         salt -to taste

·         coriander leaves

 For filling

·         onion -2

·         tomatoes-4

·         ginger- 1" piece

·         garlic- 10 to 12 cloves

·         green chillies- 2

·         jeera-1tsp

·         salt to taste

·         coriander leaves

·         oil 2tb sp

 BREAD - 6 slices

Curd -3/4 cup

Oil for frying

Method

·         Soak rice and chana dal overnight and grind to a fine batter with enough water to make it coating consistency. Mix all masalas and chopped coriander leaves.

·         Heat 2tb sp oil, add jeera, chopped onions and crushed ginger ,garlic & green chillies. Fry till brown, and add pureed tomatoes. Cook till oil separates. Add salt, filling is ready.

·         Beat the curd in a bowl and keep aside.

·         Remove the crust of the bread slices and cut each slice into four rectangles.

·         Heat oil in a kadhai for frying the pakoras.

·         Now take two small rectangular pieces of bread, spread a tbsp. of filling between them, slightly first dip in the curd and then the rice batter and deep fry until golden brown.

·         Repeat as long as the ingredients last.

·         Serve hot sprinkled with a little chat masala and green chutney.

Variation : Add boiled potatoes or paneer to the filling.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Cake

I have attempted to make this cake couple of times, and the combination of banana and chocolate chip never fails.  Unfortunately never took a picture of how it looks but will upload once I make this one next.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (1/2 cup can be replaced by oat flour)
• 1 cup sugar  (granulated)
• 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup sour cream; ½ cup of warm milk can also be used
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 or 1 ½ cup chocolate chip

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170 C, and butter a 8-inch round cake pan or loaf pan
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.  
• Mash the bananas and add them into the butter and sugar mix until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, until combined.  Add and mix cream or milk and vanilla.
• Add the flour mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips to the wet ingredients, and mix by hand lightly until combined.
• Put the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
• Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a fork.

Yum yum yum :) !!!

GINGER ( Adrak) CHUTNEY

                                   
               INGREDIENTS

1. Grated Ginger       :   200 gms
2. Lemon                   :    7-8
3. Sugar                     :   200 gms or 100 gms
4. Sait                        :  acc to taste ( app 3 tsp )
5. Garam Masala       : Zeera, Big Cardamoms,Black Pepper ( powdered )

              METHOD

1.       In a pan, simmer sugar and lemon juice together till the sugar melts.
2.       Add grated ginger and simmer  again.
3.       Remove from heat and add masalas.      

Masala Oats Paniyaram

This one is a great great breakfast  meal or lite dinner option - very quick to make, extremely light and very very healthy since this uses lot of veggies and almost no fat! I got this recipe online and made some minor modifications, but end product is so yummy that my sister, who hates the very mention of oats, has finally started eating them!

The below will make close to 27-28 paniyarams. Hence assuming one, if not like my elder brother, eats 8 to 9, this will suffice for 3 people. Those who like more generous quantities can double the ingredient amounts.

Ingredients 

• 1 cup oats (you can use quaker's)
• 1 cup curd
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
• 3/4 cup mixed veggies (I used carrots, cabbage etc - but you can pretty much use anything you like - beans, peas, corn, lentils etc). If you want to add slightly more veggies, that's also fine.
• 2 tbsp semolina
• 2 tsp rice flour
• 2 tsp chickpea flour
• 1 or 2 green chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• Finely chopped coriander leaves
• Some curry leaves
• Pinch of asafoetida
• Pinch of soda
• Salt to taste (I used 1 1/2 tsp)
• Oil - few drops

Method

• Mix oats, semolina, curd, rice flour and chick pea flour in a bowl. Adjust the batter consistency by adding water or butter milk
• Add mixed veggies (you can pulse them for one round in mixer), finely chopped onions, green chillies, grated ginger and curry leaves.
• Add salt and soda.
• Allow the batter to rest for 10-15 mins so that oats gets soaked in curd.
• Heat the appe/ paniyaram pan.
• Add a drop of oil in each mould of the pan.
• If the batter is too thick, you can adjust the consistency of batter once again and spoon out into each mould until it fills upto 3/4th .
• Cook it covered over low flame.
• Flip them in between and cook on other side until they turn golden brown from all the side (takes 3-4 mins each side or lesser)
• Once done serve them warm with chutney of your choice or sauce.

And the dish looks like below and those (like me) who don't know what appe/ paniyaram pan looks like..a picture of the pan is added as well. :)

Orange butter cake with chocolate ganache

First of all, I am quite shocked (and those who know me obviously very well know that I may have many talents but cooking is certainly not one of them) that 'I' am going to contribute to this blog and that too - not one but two recipes.

When you belong to a family where almost everyone can cook so well, all level 0 amateur cooks like me can completely understand the pressure of show-offing culinary skills to a set of cooking experts who can smell garam masala from over a kilometer away and can talk about whether a particular dish has X amount of salt, Y amount of ginger, Z amount of heeng, tomatoes, onions, cinnamon, black pepper etc etc. (my only achievement till date is to call out haldi and that too only since the dish looked yellow)

So proud of myself!

Anyways, here is the first one - Orange butter cake with chocolate ganache! (I have to thank Masterchef - at least I can sound intelligent since my food GK is definitely better than an average Indian household and there will be times when I will be using such terms to prove what a good cook I am evolving into :) :)

Here are the ingredients for the cake

• 225 gms  while butter at room temperature
• 170-180 gram sugar (you can reduce it by 10-20 gms more if you like)
• 220 gram flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1-2 tsp orange zest (trust me, peeling it isn't as simple as it looks in many cooking shows that we see :O)
• 1/3rd cup freshly squeezed orange juice. Adding a little more also will not harm.
• Essence (obviously ideally orange, but since I had none at home, I ended up using vanilla and it worked! I think cooking is not as difficult as I thought it will be)

Ingredients for chocolate ganache

• 100 g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt Dark, Orange Intense - really worked very well :))
• 100 ml of cream

Method is simpler and shorter than list of ingredients

• Grease and line an 8” round baking pan or a  loaf pan. 
• Preheat oven to 175-180 degree C. 
• Sieve flour, baking powder and salt.
• In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until light and creamy. 
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until mixture is light and fluffy. Add in the orange zest.
• Add in the flour and stir in orange juice. Mix until well combined.
• Turn out mixture into prepared tin. 
• Bake for 45-50 or until cooked through when tested with a fork. the cake is ready!
• For ganache, heat the chopped dark chocolate and whipping cream over a low heat and stir till melted and smooth. Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes and spread over the cake.

And eat when hot! :)

BROTH

Ingredients (for 2 people)
-------------------------------
6 crushed garlic cloves
2 tb sp dhuli masoor
1onion chopped
2bay leaves
3tb sp chopped carrots
2tb sp chopped potatoes
3tb sp chopped fresh beans
3tb sp chopped cabbage
2tb sp chopped tomatoes
1 green chill1
4 tsp oil
salt, kalimirch to taste

Method
-Soak masoor for an hour
-Heat oil, fry onion with bay leaves
-Add masoor, all vegetables except tomatoes,
 andcook for two minutes
-Add 6 teacups of water, cook covered for 15 min.
-Add tomatoes and boil for 2 min.
-Sprinkle salt, pepper
-Serve hot with garlic bread.

Never fail easy peasy Chettinad Biryani

This saviour of a recipe (given its easy and the husband absolutely LOVES it) comes from my sasural. I usually make a fresh coconut based curry to go with it (will post the recipe for that some other day) and the combination is simply divine. Of course raita goes perfectly well with it too. Enjoy...

Ingredients:

Biryani rice (any fragrant variety would do) - 2 cups

Chicken (preferably with bone) - 1/2 kg

Onion - 2-3 (cut into thin long pieces)

Tomato - 2-3 medium (finely chopped)

Ginger garlic paste - 1 heaped tbsp (I always make this fresh as anything store bought is not half as good)

Green chillies - LOTS (this is the only pungent thing as there is no chilli powder in the recipe. So use many else it will NOT be Chettinad enough!) say 6-8 medium spicy ones. Slit them lengthwise into 2

Mint leaves - 1 big bunch (say 1 big mug full after washing and chopping)

Coriander leaves - 1 bunch (1 cup full after washing and chopping)

Mint & coriander should be finely chopped

Curd - 2 tsp

Oil - little to sauté stuff

Salt to taste

Whole garam masalas

Cinnamon - 1 big stick

Elaichi - 2

Badi Elaichi - 1

Star Anise - 1

Cloves - 4

Bay Leaves - 3

Method:

Wash and marinate the chicken with salt and two tbsp curd for sometime (minimum 1 hour or overnight). 

Wash the rice and drain water.

In a thick bottomed vessel, the pressure cooker itself works well, heat oil and add the whole spices. Once they are aromatic add sliced onions and fry well till light brown. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté till the raw smell goes. Now add tomatoes and salt to taste and sauté till nicely cooked and pulpy. Add the green chillies and sauté for another minute or so. Add the finely chopped mint and coriander and sauté for another 5 minutes. 

By now others at home will know that you are making biryani!!

Now add the chicken and sauté for say 4-5 mins. Add the uncooked rice and sauté for another 2-3 mins. Add water inn the ratio 1:2 (rice:water)and check salt.

At this stage I like to add a little ghee (verrry little :P).

Close the cooker and once the steam starts coming out put the weight on and reduce the flame. Switch off the stove after exactly 10 mins. (this timing works miraculously well!).

Open after a while say 1/2 an hour or even later is ok. Give the biryani a nice mix before serving. 

Your Chettinad style biryani is ready!

Welcome !!

Hi all,

Welcome to this amazing culinary journey :)

Here are some common labels to use to make searching recipes easier:

1. Nick name of the author : e.g occasionalCook
2. Category of dish : "veg" / "nonveg"
3. Type of dish : "starter" / "mains" / "dessert" / "snacks" / "accompaniments" (e.g chutneys, sauces etc)
4. Main ingredients : Few main ingredients used in the recipe 

Looking forward to cooking, sharing and having a lot of fun !!

Cheers
Rajni