Bhindi Achari

When you are too bored of eating the same bhindi recipe, try this easy recipe with a twist. Tastes good, and gets ready in a jiffy.

Ingredients

• 3 cups chopped bhindi (okra)
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 3 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric seeds
• 2 tsp dry red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp pickle gravy (any)
• salt to taste

1. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds
2. Once they begin to splutter add the onions. Saute till they are browned evenly.
3. Add the chopped okra, and all the dried spices.
4. Mix it all well and cover and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Once the okra has cooked, add pickle gravy (the masala in the pickle, not the pickled  ingredients)
6. Add the salt. Add very little in beginning, taste and then adjust accordingly.
7. Serve hot with chapati or parantha.

Happy Cooking!

Kids-friendly Mini Pizzas

Ah, the feeling, when everything goes exactly as it should! When the pizza base is soft as a cushion, when the sauce is just right! I am about to float...

This time there is a change. I have taken pics at almost every step, to show you exactly how to make the pizza base.

 Gloating! And how!

I won't blabber much, just write the recipe.


Ingredients
For the base

• 3 cups flour
• 5 g yeast 
• 3 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 130 ml warm water

For the sauce

• 2 large tomatoes finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 basil leaves
• 2 large sprigs of thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp red chilli powder (more if you are making for grown ups)
• salt to taste

Toppings

• as per your choice
• large quantities of mozarella cheese

This is how much of the base ingredients you will require. Roughly. That is one cup flour. You will need 3 cups. And that is not wine in the wine glass, it's olive oil!

 

 2. Warm the water. Do not make it hot otherwise you will end up killing the yeast. You should be able to comfortably dip your finger in the water for more than 5 seconds. Add the yeast, and sugar to the water. Keep aside for ten minutes. The above picture is an examply of how frothy it gets. Looks like the foam on top of a latte, doesn't it?

  

 3. Add the above frothy mixture to the flour. This is EXACTLY how sticky it gets. Says who that kneading dough is therapeutic? Bread doughs get irritatingly messy. But that's just it... the stickier the better. Try and manipulate it somehow kneading to and fro, squishing between your fingers, picking it up and  throwing it down, for a good fifteen minutes. Anything to release the gluten!

4. Rub a little olive oil into a bowl and place the dough in it. Pat a little olive oil on top of the dough. This is how much the dough will be initially. Cover with a damp cloth and leave it for one hour (or more depending upon the heat  and draught.) The point is, it should double in size.

This is where you cross your fingers and pray that you have done everything right.

 5. And this is where your prayer gets answered! Look, look! It doubled up, yay! Now the disappointing part. Poke your finger in the dough and deflate it and knead it flat again. Sadly, this must be done to redistribute the air through the dough. Let it sit for 45 more minutes.

Meanwhile make the sauce.

1.  Heat the oil. Add garlic and let them brown.
2. Throw in the chopped tomatoes.
3. Toss in the herbs and red chilli powder
4. Add ketchup.
5. Add salt.
6. Cook for five minutes till tomatoes are soft.
7. Remove the thyme twigs, and puree the sauce. It is ready.

Assemble everything.

1. Your dough will have risen again. Knead it again to make it flat. 
2. Dust your work area with dry flour.
3. Make a small ball of dough and place it in the dusted work area. Push the dough apart with your fingers (greased) till the dough becomes flat and round, with raised edges. 
4. Place the dough in a tray. 
5. Spoon a little sauce on top of the base.
6. Add the toppings. (I used tomatoes, capsicum, mushrooms and onions)
7. Top it off with grated mozarella cheese.
8. Push it on the top rack of your oven or microwave.
9. Grill for ten minutes till the edges turn golden brown.

Yum! This is what you get!

 
Too good to be true, man! Simply amazing! Saee ate them with gusto. Thank God!

Happy Cooking!

Onion Rice

Coming to think of it, whenever you sample some really good Indian food, and ask what's in it, the answer will definitely have onion and garlic. Of course, there are many recipes without onion and garlic which I equally love. One of them is Rishi chi Bhaaji. This recipe is made on the second day of Ganesh Chaturthi which is called Rishi Panchami. I absolutely love this recipe and can eat bowlfuls of it just like a stew. It is a classic example of how simple food can taste absolutely exotic.

Yet, there is no substitute for onions and garlic. Used a lot, they overpower the flavors of other ingredients, but used in the correct quantity, they yield that subtle sweet and pungent taste which is so unmistakeable in Indian curries.

This recipe, like most of my recipes is very very simple. I saw a lot of recipes using a plethora of ingredients, but I wanted something which could be quick and easy, and yet bursting full with flavor. So this is my version of onion rice, which I can say is a variant of the usual jeera rice.

Ingredients

• 1 cup basmati rice washed 
• 2 small onions sliced
• 4 pods garlic chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 inch piece of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 3 tsp vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil, because it is non-fattening as compared to peanut oil, and the difference is visible)
• salt to taste

1. Heat the oil in a wok, and add cumin seeds and cinnamon. 
2. Once they begin to change color, add the garlic. 
3. Allow the garlic  to brown a little and add the onions. Saute the onions well for about four minutes till they turn a lovely golden brown color. This really brings out the sweetness of the onions. 
4. Now drain the rice and add to the onions. Saute for a minute and add one and half cups of water. 
5. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
6. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for five to ten minutes till all the water is soaked up. 
7. Serve hot. (I have garnished mine with fried potato wedges. So much for dieting!) Skip the potato garnish, and use brown rice to make a recipe which is low in fat and high in dietary fiber.

Happy Cooking!

Kid-Friendly Potato Peas and Cheese Surprise!

Okay the name is a little dramatic, I admit. For a lack of any good cutlet recipes, or should I say, different cutlet recipes, I came up with my own. It isn't fancy, neither does it take too much time. Just the idea that when you bite into the cutlet, through the soft potatoes and peas shell... Surprise! Say cheese?

The cutlet is children-friendly, though you can notch up the spiciness quotient to make it an ideal snack for a small tea-party too. Though you may better watch it. Since it is a kid-friendly cutlet, I have incorporated chunks of cheese. Cheese, as we all know isn't adults-friendly, especially women and it tends to, shall we say 'show' in all the wrong places! Damn. Why are all good things in life so sinful.

Anyway, read up. Make it, and let me know how it turned out.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized potatoes, boiled
• 1/2 cup peas, boiled
• 10 rectangular chunks of processed cheese (big sized  for kids, microscopic for us!)
• 2 tbsp cornflour + 2 tbsp for coating
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (more if grown-ups are going to eat it)
• 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp dry mango powder (amchur)
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp sugar (trust me!)
• 1/2 cup semolina for coating
• oil for shallow frying

1. Mash the boiled potatoes well. This is first and foremost a necessity if you want to make good tikkis. The potatoes must be mashed till atleast most of of the large chunks are gone. 
2. Add the peas, cornflour, dry spices, sesame seeds, salt and sugar.  Mix it well. (although bread slices are preferred, I didn't have any, so I used cornstarch. Works just as well.)
3. Divide the above mixture into ten equal portions. 
4. Grease your hands with a little oil. Roll the potato and peas mixture into a ball. Make a deep long indentation in the center using your index finger. 
5. Place a cheese stick in this indentation.
6. Roll the edges of the potato mixture over the cheese and shape into a rectangular block. (this makes it easy to fry.)
7. Prepare all the ten cutlets in this manner and set them aside.
8. Heat a skillet and pour just enough oil to shallow fry.
9. Make a thin paste of cornflour in water.
10. Roll each cutlet in the cornflour paste, then into the semolina and place in the skillet to shallow fry.
11. These are delicate things, so do NOT attempt to pick them up and roll them over. They are rectangular remember? So just nudge them on to their adjacent side once the base has cooked to a crisp and brown purrrfection!
12. Fry on all sides.
13. Dip them in ketchup, and pop them in your mouth and feel ecstasy as the cheese melts like so much yummy molten lava!

I admit that the pic is not very good. But I made these in the evening and the light these days is really fickle. (Plus I need to get my eyes checked, but I am not going to say that, am I?)

 Happy Cooking!

Bottle Gourd and Red Lentil Curry

It's Monday again, and the time of the week when no onion or garlic ever find their way into the food. However, food without onion and garlic can be just as delicious. This is one of those recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups peeled and chopped bottle gourd (doodhi)
• 1 cup red lentils, washed
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 4 dry red chillies
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp dry mango powder (amchoor)
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• salt to taste
• chopped coriander, to garnish

Pressure cook the bottle gourd and red lentils with 1 cup water, salt and turmeric powder.

Open the pressure cooker after the steam has escaped and keep the cooked bottle gourd and lentils aside.

Heat the oil in a wok, and add the cumin seeds. Once they begin changing color, add the fenugreek seeds, red chillies, and one pinch of asafoetida. Add the ginger, and pour the cooked dal into this tempering.

Add coriander powder, red chilli powder, dry mango powder. Bring the curry to a boil. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot!

Happy Cooking!