Lauki ka Kofta

Ingredients Required:

To make kofta:

Grated Bottled Gourd: 2 Cups

Besan : 3-4tbs

Green chilly :1

Garam masala: ¼ tsp

Red chili powder : ¼ tsp

Turmeric powder : ¼ tsp

salt

Oil

For the Gravy:

Whole Jeera: ½ tsp 

Cardamom :2

Bay leaf :1

Tomatoes : 3 Small

Green chilli :2

Onion: 2.

Ginger: 1 inch

5 garlic pods

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Red chili powder: ¼ tsp

Jeera powder :  ½ tsp 

coriander powder : 1 tsp

Garam masala : ½ tsp 

Water : 1.5 cup

salt

sugar

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

     Peel the lauki or bottle gourd or louki and grate it. Squeeze this grated lauki till dried and keep aside the juice. Mix the chopped green chilli, garam masala, chilli powder, salt,besan and grated lauki. Make small balls and fry it till golden brown.

Blanch onion, and then blend it along with green chilly, tomato, ginger and garlic. Do not add any water.

     Add 2 tbs of oil in a kadai. Add cumins and bay leaf. Fry the onion tomato paste till the raw smell goes away.Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and fry for a minute.

           Add the juice of lauki and boil. Add salt and water to the paste  and cook for 10                      minutes in low flame.

   Add the fried lauki kofta and cook for another 3-5 minutes and switch off the gas.

          Garnish with coriander leaves and  slitted green chillies.

  

Dhokla

Dhokla is a Gujarati dish that is eaten as breakfast, snack or even part of lunch/dinner. Its main ingredient is Besan or Bengal gram flour. Its a steamed dish and requires very little oil to cook. The tadka done at the end add much more oil and that's something that you can control if you wish. 

Here we have presented the recipe of Instant Dhokla that doesn't required soaking/fermenting of the Besan. We have used Eno powder to create the airy bubbles.

Ingredients Needed:

Besan/Bengal gram flour :11/2 cup

Curd- 1/2 cup

Warm water- 1/2 cup

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Green Chili paste – 1 or 2

Ginger : I inch

Sugar - 1 tsp

Eno – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

For seasoning (quantities as per your wish)

Mustard Seeds

Curry leaves

Grated coconut

Coriander leaves

Procedure:

Mix the Besan with 1/2 cup curd and 1/2 cup warm water .Mix well so that no lump remains in the batter. The consistency should be smooth and thick like idli batter. Add baking soda and keep for 11/2-2 hours. And then add chopped green chillies, oil , ginger and salt to the batter.

Pour water in a pressure cooker or a heavy bottomed wide vessel, keeping a plate inside so that the dhokla vessel is placed on it so that  water doesn't get inside.

Once the water boils, add Eno salt and immediately transfer the batter to the inner vessel and keep in the pressure cooker. Cover the inner vessel with a cloth. Cover the cooker/vessel (Do not put the weight) and cook for 7-10  mins, insert a tooth pick and check whether the dhokla is done. If its cooked properly, the toothpick will come out clean.

Cooked and ready to cut.

Cut into cubes or diamond shapes.

In a small pan, add 1 tbs of oil, splutter mustard seeds, add red chillies and pour it over the dhokla and add grated coconut and Coriander leaves.

Do try this out and let us know how it turned out.

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EGG STIR FRY

Egg stir fry is a twist on the Kerala style liver fry recipe. We basically replaced liver with boiled eggs. It tastes quite good

Ingredients:

Eggs (Hard Boiled and Cut in to 4 slices): 4

Onions, sliced long: 1 Cup

Curry leaves: ½ Cup

Green chillies: 3 Cut into long slices

Pepper corns, crushed: 1/2 tsp

Coconut oil: 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Whole Jeera (Cumin) seeds: 1/2 tsp

Salt: To taste

Procedure:

Heat the coconut oil in a nonstick wide pan and fry the curry leaves and keep the fried leaves aside.  
Splutter the mustard seeds and Jeera seeds in the same oil, add the chopped onions and then fry them till onions become golden brown. 
Next add the green chillies into the pan. 
Add salt and the crushed pepper and mix well. 
Add the sliced egg and slowly mix it.


Add in the fried curry leaves and switch off the stove. Serve hot.

NOTE: 

1. Its always better if you can use a flat wide pan. 
2. After adding the egg, carefully, slowly mix in with the masala.

Easy Penne Pasta

Pasta is one of our favourite dish. We can have it for any meal, or even as a snack. Here is one of the many ways that we cook our pasta. This one's without cheese. The key to this recipe is the tomato puree that is prepared fresh. You could also use ready-to-use tomato puree, if you have no time to make it fresh. We make our pasta in pressure cooker which greatly reduced the effort of boiling, cooling and draining the pasta. In this recipe we add just enough water to cook the pasta without having to throw out any water.

Ingredients:

Penne Pasta:                     200 g
Carrot:                                1/3 cup, chopped
Beans :                               1/4 cup beans
Cabbage :                           1/2 cup, finely chopped
Onion:                                 1/3 cup, chopped
Tomato:                               3 medium size, chopped 
Oil:                                       2 tsp
Salt:                                     To taste

Seasoning:
Black pepper:                     1 tsp, crushed
Oregano:                            1 tsp, flakes

Procedure:

For tomato sauce:
Blend the tomatoes in a mixer. Heat a kadai, add 1/2 tsp of oil, and then add the blended tomatoes. Cook for about 8-10 minutes or until you don't get the raw smell of the tomatoes.

For pasta:
Add the penne pasta in a pressure cooker and add water, just to cover the pasta in the cooker.

Add all other ingredients in the cooker.

Cover the cooker with the lid and cook it on medium flame. After 1 whistle, reduce the flame to minimum. After 5 minutes switch off the gas.

After the pressure in the pressure cooker is normalized, open the cooker.

Add in the tomatoe puree and mix well.

Season with the pepper and oregano.

Easy penne pasta is ready to serve.

Variations:
You can add some Mint/Pudina leaves in the tomato puree as its cooked. It gives a tangy taste to the pasta.

For seasoning you can use a combination of pepper, oregano, chilli flakes, basil, thyme and any other spice that you can think of. 

Wheat-oats muffins

Here's a recipe for making wheat-oats muffin. Rich in energy and fibre, its a healthier alternative to maida based muffins. Very low on oil and sugar, its an ideal snack that you can eat without feeling guilty.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour:        ½ cup 

Oats flour:                      ½ cup

Baking powder:            1 tsp 

Baking soda:                ¼ tsp

Powdererd sugar :        2 tbsp

Powdered jaggery :      1 tbsp

Honey :                          1 tbsp

Milk :                              ¾ cup

Egg white:                    1 egg

Cinnamon powder:      ½ tsp

Vanilla essence :         ¼ tsp

Salt:                              1 pinch

For garnishing:

Raisins: 10 -15

Almonds: 3 - 4, finely sliced

Procedure:

Mix wheat flour, oats flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, jaggery and salt in a bowl (dry mix).

In an another bowl  whip the egg white, add honey, milk and vanilla essence, and mix them well (wet mix). 

Add the dry mix in the wet mix and mix it slowly with a spoon for 2-3 minutes. Remember not to mix it too much. Add the raisins to the mix.

Pour the mixture in the muffin moulds and garnish on the top with sliced almonds. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

Bake the muffins for 15 minutes. Poke it with a tooth pick and check whether it is done. 

Keep it in the oven for the next 10-15 mins. And remove it from the mould once its cooled down and enjoy.   

Rosogolla / Rasgullas

Rosogollas (রসগোল্লা) or Rasgullas are the quintessential Bengali sweet and loved by almost everyone who loves sweets. Any occasion is a good occasion to indulge in Rosogollas. If you visit the home of a Bengali family, you may be served sweets for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.

They are basically balls of cottage cheese cooked in sugar syrup. Not very difficult to make although it may seem so before you try it out. With a pressure cooker at your disposal, it becomes even easier.

Our first results. Each one turned out about 1.5 inches in diameter.

Ingredients:

Milk: 1 litre. You may use high fat milk, although we got good results from 3% fat milk. 

Vinegar: 2 tbsp mixed in ½ cup water or 1 lime

Sugar ¼ kg or as per your taste.

Rose water: few drops (optional)

Ice water: 1 litre

Servings:

Approximately 12-15 Rosogollas. 

Procedure:

Boil the milk. Once the milk comes to boil, reduce the flame and slowly add the vinegar/lime juice till the milk starts curdling. Stir the milk slowly till the milk curdles completely. Switch off the gas and pour the curdled milk (chenna) on a muslin cloth to separate the water from the chenna. Be careful when handling the hot liquid while pouring it out on the muslin cloth.

Now pour ice water over the chenna in the same muslin cloth and wash well to remove the sourness due to the vinegar/lime juice. Drain out all the water and hang the chenna in the cloth at least for 20 min so that all the water is removed. Now your chenna is ready. Knead the chenna gently. Do not knead it hard. Make small balls of chenna. It should be smooth and there shouldn’t be any cracks.

In a pressure cooker take water (sufficient to cover the chenna balls) and mix the sugar in it. Add the chenna balls and pressure cook for 1 whistle in a medium flame. And then 5 min in low flame and switch off the gas.. Open the pressure cooker only after the pressure inside the pressure cooker drops to normal. If you open the pressure cooker before the pressure normalizes, the Rosogollas may shrink. 

Optional: Once cooked, you may add few drops of rose water for added flavour. 

Refrigerate after preparing and consume hot or cold. Do not store Rosogollas for too long as the sugar syrup tends to spoil.

From 1.5 litres of milk, we got 23 Rosogollas

Tweak: Make badam milk and add chopped almonds and pista and soak these Rosogollas in the badam milk. You will have Ras Malai prepared right in your home.

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Making Gulab Jamuns From Readymade Mix

Making great looking Gulab Jamuns is not magic. At least we don't think it is. But our friends and family are mostly awestruck by our Gulab Jamuns. So we decided to share our method of preparing them. What I believe is that making good Gulab Jamuns takes lots of effort. The kneading of the mix with milk into dough takes good amount of shoulder power. Again making the round dough balls takes lots of effort that we have mentioned below. So here goes.

We follow the recipe almost as it is written on the back of packs, with certain deviations. We prefer to use Gits Mix. It has given us the best results.

1. Use lukewarm milk to mix the dough instead of water.

2. Add the milk slowly, about 1 tbsp at a time. If the pack asks you to use 150 ml, measure exactly that much and mix that full amount.

3. Sometimes while mixing you will see the mix will become very sticky but keep on kneading. It'll become dry again. Remember, FINISH mixing the entire measured milk into the dough.

4. The consistency of the dough should be soft. If you don't see oil/ghee on your palm, mixing is not complete. Remember this.

5. Cut the dough into about 1 cm dia. Put in between your palms and press it hard while rotating palms in opposing directions. Reduce the distance between the palms slowly and you will see that the round shape forming slowly. NOTE: If you don't see you palms becoming oily AND warm, you are not putting enough effort 

6. If the dough ball is kinda sticky on your palms, then its having extra water. In that case, compress and roll with extra force to work out some of the water. The moment the palm becomes oily again, reduce the extra force and make a ball to be fried.

7. Either fry it immediately or keep it covered with moist muslin/cotton cloth. The surface of the round dough ball SHOULD NOT dry up before putting in the oil.

8. There must be enough oil that the dough balls do not touch the bottom of the frying vessel.

9. Fry till you get golden brown colour. Remember if you get one shade while frying, it will become lighter than that after soaking because it expands.

10. Making syrup is pretty simple. Follow instructions on the pack. You can increase the water to reduce the sweetness. But cool down the fried balls to room temperature and add to the hot syrup for soaking.

11. Next step is to wait for the GJs to soak up the syrup. At least 2-3 hours it takes to fully soak.

12. Refrigerate immediately and serve chilled or hot, as per your preference. Gulab jamuns with vanilla ice cream s a great combination.

 

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