Luchi & Ghugni :)

When I was a kid, my mother used to prepare Luchi a lot. On every Sunday morning & whenever there is some guest, she will definitely prepare Luchi. So in our area - the small place Nutanpara, my mmother was famous as Luchi-Lady. It was a kind of tradition for our family to serve guests with Luchi :). Now a days, I prepare Luchi when I am having fever or in weekends :)

I first prepared when I was in class IX or X. One of the very old friends of my Baba came on that day & my mother was in school. So my Baba/Dad told me to prepare tea & omelet. But I prepared Luchi (to impress my Dad as well as my Ma). Long story short, my Baba was very happy as we were able to serve Luchi in spite of my mothers absence.

Here the way she used to prepare. One more thing, these Luchis go gret with Ghugni. The recipes are given below.

For Luchi:

Ingredients:

Maida - 500 gms.

Sugar - 1tea spoon

Salt - to taste

Oil to fry.

Method:

1. Sieve the maida well with salt, sugar and place in a flat dish. 

2. Make a bay in the center and put a little of oil for leavening. 

3. Add cold water and make a stiff dough. 

4. Make roundels of 15 gms and form dough. 

5. Roll out on an oily surface into thin discs. 

6. Briskly fry in smoking oil till puffed up and turn over. 

7. Serve hot.

For Ghugni:

Ingredient:

Chick peas - 250gm

Onion - 4 (medium / 2 for paste, 2 for slicing)

Garlic paste - 2 tbs

Ginger paste - 1tbs

Turmeric Powder - 1tbs

Cumin powder - 1tbs

Coriander powder - 1tbs

Chilly Powder - 2tbs

Green Chilly - 2

Tomato - 1 large

Potato - 1 large

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1tbs

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight, so that they become soft easily. Even after soaking also you have to put them in pressure cooker for 4-5 whistles.Add little bit salt while in cooker.After that drain that water.

2. Now heat a pan with mustard oil. Add garlic paste and then add the onions paste & slices.

3. Add chopped green chilies and fry the onions till they become soft.

4. Now add potato pieces & tomatoes and stir for  2 min in medium flame.

5. Now add the cooked peas in the pan. Increase the flame a bit and fry this whole mixture properly.

6. After 5 min of frying, add turmeric powder,cumin powder,coriander powder, chilly powder and ginger paste in it. Again stir properly so that masala can mix properly.

7. After frying all the peas and masalas, now add water. Add sugar & salt.

8. Now cook for 5-7 min in high flame.

9. Finally add garam masala just before finishing.Stire it properly.You can garnish it with chopped onions and chopped coriander. Even you can also add chopped green chili.

Note :  Sometime I like to have a sweet & spicy Ghugni. To do that you can add more sugar. Adding more sugar means, you have to add more chilly powder

Linking: Monsoon Of India and JCO.

Jhinge Aloo Jhol (Ridge Gourd-Potato Plain Curry)

This is a very common curry in our home. This is simple yet tasty. As I am staying alone, so sometime when I am not in a mood of spicy food, I prepare this. This plain curry is good for the diet chart as well :)

Ingredients:

Ridge Gourd - 2

Potato - 2 (medium)

Onion - 1 (medium)

Nigella seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Oil

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Salt

Green Chilly - 2

Method:

1. Wash & peel off the outer hard skin of ridge gourd. Cut into small square shaped pieces. Cut the potatoes into medium pieces after removing the skin.

2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan; add nigella seeds; When it strats o splutter, add sliced onion & chilly.

3. When onion becomes little soft, add the potato pieces & saute for 2-3mins. Now add ridge gourd pieces. Add two chilies - cut into two parts. Add turmeric powder, salt to taste & saute.

4. Lower the heat & cover the pan. Enough water will come out of the gourd pieces, which is sufficient to prepare the dish.

5. When you get desired amount of curry, turn off the heat.

Salad for Lunch: Cucumber & Beet

In today's lunch, I tried some creativity with my salads.

The recipes are simple. Just cut the vegetables & give a shape :) . Simple, isn't it? :)

I generally do not like salad that much, so tried these creativeness to make myself attracted to have them. I was successful in my work.

Here a few pics of them.

The Simple Cucumber Salad

Cucumber with its Skin

Cucumber with Beet Rose

For this one:
Using a vegetable peeler, slice the cucumber lengthwise into paper-thin strips. Roll the strips. Cut in the middle breadth-wise.
Start peeling the beet continuously in a long spiral. Roll the strip of beet inner skin tightly. Form a beet rose from the roll and place it carefully on the plate

Cucumber & Beet flowers

I am working on more salad variations & creative decorations.

Stuffed Zucchini Roll

This one is a very recipe. I was trying to prepare some easy but different salad for my lunch. So came up with this.

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini

salt and pepper

For the filling:

Carrot - grated

Onion - sliced

almonds, for decoration

Method:

1. Cut off the stem end of the zucchini. Using a vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini lengthwise into paper-thin strips.

2. Season with salt, pepper. (For better taste, you can leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes.) The zucchini strips will be more translucent and pliable after resting.

3. Mix the grated carrot & onion slices. Season with salt and mix vigorously until thoroughly incorporated.

4. Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling on the cut end of the zucchini strips.

5. Roll the zucchini strip over the filling and plate.

Note: You can use different vegetables as fillings with cheese. But since I am avoiding so much fat in my food, so not using cheese.

Mushroom with Zucchini

This is the first time I had Zucchini in my life. In my hometown, we cannot find these & after coming to the new place, this was the first time I saw them in the local market.

This recipe is slightly adapted from cookingforengineers.com

Ingredients:

Mushroom - sliced

Zucchini - cut the zucchini lengthwise twice and chopped into quarter inch sections

Salt

Oil

Turmeric powder

Onion

Cumin seeds

Method:

1. Heat a pan with one tablespoon oil. When the oil started to shimmer, add cumin seeds. When the seeds started to splutter, add the minced onion and keep it moving in the pan until evenly browned.

2. Turning the heat to medium-low, add the sliced mushrooms & toss. Add salt over the mushrooms. After a few seconds, toss them again. 

3. Once a decent amount of liquid had evaporated from the mushrooms, add the chopped zucchini to the pan, sprinkling on an additional dash of salt & turmeric powder.

4. Turning the heat to medium-high, allow the Zucchini to cook, tossing them every ten or fifteen seconds. Once some of the zucchini picked up some brown caramelized bits, remove from fire.

Mushroom Jalfrezi

Jalfrezi or “dry fry” is an Indian curry in which marinated pieces of meat or vegetables are fried in oil and spices to produce a thick, dry sauce. You can use bell peppers, onions, paneer, French beans, or any of your favorite vegetables.

I always want to try different vegetables, spices & other ingredients in different ways. So yesterday evening when I was with R in the market, suddenly some colorful vegetables came into my eye. This was the first time I found these vegetables in the market in my 1year staying in Marathahalli. While buying the colorful vegetables I decided what I would prepare in the next day lunch. 

I saw the vegetable jalfrezi recipe of Sanjeev Kapoor once in some TV show, so I tried to remember the recipe & modified that with mushrooms.

Hope you like it!

Ingredients

400 gms Mushroom

2 medium tomatoes

1 medium green capsicums

1 medium yellow capsicums

1 medium red capsicums

2 medium onions

½ tsp ginger paste

½ medium bunch coriander leaves

2 whole green chillies

3 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

1 ½ tbsp vinegar

Method

1. Wash and cut tomatoes, onions, and capsicums into long slices.

2. Clean the mushrooms & cut into quarter pieces.

3. Clean, wash, and chop coriander leaves. Remove stems and break green chillie into two.

4. Heat oil in a pan. Add the green chillies, ginger, and onions. Sauté till the onions turn golden brown. 

5. Stir well and add red, green & yellow capsicum slices. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add mushroom and toss.

6. Add salt and vinegar and cook for 2-3 mins. Add the tomato pieces.

7. Garnish with coriander leaves & serve hot with chapatis.

Pepper Bhindi Fry

In dinner, last night, I prepared a cuisine of Kerala, Pepper Bhindi fry. I am a regular cook, during weekends we want to have something different as well as less spicy. This recipe made the dinner better with its tangy taste.

Ingredients:

Black peppercorns,crushed 2 teaspoons

Tender ladyfingers 350 grams

Oil 2 tablespoons

Green chillies 2-3

Salt to taste

Lemon - 1 small

Sambhar onions,halved 1 cup

Method:

1. Slit the ladyfingers into four vertically and then halve each of them.

2. Heat oil in a pan, add green chillies and sauté for a minute. Add ladyfingers and salt and stir. 

3. Add sambhar onions and crushed peppercorns and toss well. Cover and cook on medium heat till the ladyfingers are done.

4. Add lemon juice and toss. Serve hot. 

Sweet Mango Pickle

Last night I prepared the popular Gujrati pickle, Mango Chunda. This is the first time, I tried for pickle recipes.

In his book, Cooking with Love, Sanjeev Kapoor mentioned one of his favorite food prepared by his mother-in-law. I loved the recipe. But since unripe mangoes were not available in our local market, so tried with the less-ripe mangoes. This worked. I have stored in a sterilized jar & today we had it in breakfast, lunch and while having bhakarwadi too :)

Ingredients:

Mangoes - 500gm

salt - 1tbs

turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

sugar - 500gm

chilli powder - 1tbs

Fennel Seeds - 2tbs

Method:

1. Wash,dry thoroughly,peel & grate mangoes.

2. Place the grated mangoes in a stainless steel bowl. Add salt & set aside for 1hr.

3. Add the turmeric powder & sugar, mix.

4. Cook on medium heat till the sugar dissolves & forms a syrup of one thread consistency.

5. Set aside to cool completely.

6. The next day, add the chilly powder & sauf powder & mix.

You can store in a air tight jar.

Vegetable Bhakarwadi

Today is a rainy day and we had Chicken Pulao in lunch - a heavy lunch. But in the evening, we wanted to have some chatpata snacks. This time I tried to follow a recipe which I found in the book "Cooking with Love" by Sanjeev Kapoor. As I did not have all the ingredients in my kitchen, so I used those which I had & prepared the vegetable bhakarwadi.

These small things tasted very good & were perfect for our rainy-snacks.

Ingredients:

Refined flour (maida) - 1 cup

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Cauliflower - 1 cup (finely chopped)

Carrot - 1 cup (finely chopped)

Black pepper powder 1/4 teaspoon

Method:

1. Knead the refined flour with salt, oil and sufficient water to a semi-soft dough. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside. 

2. Blanch the cauliflower and carrot separately till soft. Drain thoroughly and mash. Mash together the cauliflower, carrot, salt and black pepper powder.

3. Divide the dough into four equal portions and roll out into thin chapattis.

4. Spread the vegetable mixture evenly on all four chapattis. Roll them tightly into cylinders and cut the cylinders into half inch slices.
5. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep fry the bhakarwadis, on medium heat, till golden and crisp. Drain on absorbent paper and serve.

Linking: Monsoon Of India and JCO.

Chicken Pulau

Today's rainy sunday weather was perfect for a heavy & spicy lunch. So prepared the Chicken Pulao. But  since I do not like too much spice & curd, so discarded curd from my recipe & made it less spicy.

Enjoy the less spicy Chicken Pulao!

Ingredients :

Chicken - 500 grams

Onion - 3 (2 - paste use in marination; 1 - fry)

Basmati Rice - 1 cup

Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Ghee - 50gm

Poppy seed paste - 1/2 tea spoon

Kaju paste - 1 tbs

Oil

Green Chilly,chopped- 1

Cinnamon Stick - 1

Star Anise - 1

Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Bay leaves - 1

Water

Method:

1. Take Chicken, wash well and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Marinate the chicken with poppy seed paste, red chilly powder, salt and ginger-garlic-onion paste. Massage well using your hands to rub in the masala and then keep aside for half an hour to marinate.

2. In a wok heat 1 tbsp desi ghee and add 2 onions, chopped lengthwise and brown them. Keep the fried onions aside along with the ghee.

3. . In a wok heat 1 tbsp desi ghee and  add cinnamon stick, 1 star anise and saute. Now add the marinated chicken with all masalas. Cook for 5-8 minutes on high flame till colour of chicken changes. Add Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Red chilly powder, Salt. On high flame fry for 5-8 minutes.

4. Add chopped green chillies according to taste.

5. Then add 1 cup of water and let it come to a boil. When the chicken will be soft & the water is soaked completely, keep the chicken aside.

6. Wash and soak rice in water for 1/2hr. In the cooker take ghee, whole garam masala, drained rice. 

Add 1 1/2cups water (use the same cup used for measuring rice), chicken with gravy and salt. 

7. Cook on high flame & wait for the cooker to whistle once. Turn off the heat & let it set for 10-15 mins.

8. Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish Serve hot.

Soya Pulao

I made this pulao with some left-overs.

Ingredients:

2 cups - Basmati Rice
1 - Onions
3 tbsp - Ghee
1 - Carrots, cut into cubes
6 - soya chunks
1/2 - capsicum, cut into pieces 
Salt To Taste
1 Pinch - Turmeric powder
1 tb spoon - garam masala
2 - bay leaves

Method:

1. Soak rice for half an hour. Soak soya chunks in hot water till these are soft.

2. Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee is a cooker, fry bay leaves.

3. Add the garam masala and fry. Add the vegetables & soya chunks and mix well.

4. Cook until the masala separates from oil and vegetables (subzi) gets tender. Add turmeric powder.

5. Add rice, salt, four cups of water and stir well. Cover and cook until the rice is done on slow flame. Stir once a while .

6. Serve soya pulao hot with curry

Tomato Chatni

This is a very popular & easy dish in  my home. My mother likes it a little soupy whereas I like the jelly version. So here I am going to post the recipe which my mother follows; but I have modified to make the chatni thick jelly like.

Ingredients:

1 tblsp panch phoron

1/2 kg sugar

salt to taste 

1 tsp oil

1/2 kg tomatoes

Kismis & kaju to garnish

Method:

1. Wash and cut the tomatoes into quarters.

2. Heat up oil in a pan, add panch phoron.

3. When it starts to crackle add tomatoes and cook.

4. Add sugar along with a little salt and a little water if required.

5. Stir till it is dark red in colour and thick.

6. Sprinkle the kismis & kaju over the chutney.

Baked Egg in Banana Leaf

That day, I was not feeling well. So I wanted to prepare something different (my friends know it very well that when I am not feeling right I'll cook something different). But there was only eggs in my room & a few onions, three small banana leaves & tomatoes.

So the output was a modified recipe. The method is somewhat similar to the we use for Hilsa fish recipe. I was not very sure about the recipe but result was very less-oily tasty kofta :) . Now my friend R is waiting to taste it again.

The recipe is here. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Egg - 2
Flour - 2 tb spoon

Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 1 medium
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tea-spoon
black pepper powder - 1/2 tea-spoon

>oil

Method:

1. Beat eggs with all ingredients;beat until it becomes smooth.

Heat up a sheet of banana leaf (make sure no holes) either by placing it on top of a heated pan or oven for a few minutes, or rinsed in boiling water. This softens the leaf and also releases the aroma.

3. Place the heated banana leaf in a baking tray (in case the juices seep out, which it will) and place batter on the banana leaf and wrap with the leaf. There is no need to wrap it tightly.

Bake for 15min in a tawa or oven.

5. Cut the baked egg in small pieces. If you want you can fry these cakes & make curry.

Tri-Colured Roti

Life is full of colours & I love to add this colour in my foods also.

I wanted to prepare paratha with some vegetable stuffing. But my friend R was not into a mood of oily foods. So while preparing roties for dinner, I thought to use those vegetables (which I wanted to use in stuffing) in roti as colours.

So the result came out a beautiful colurful recipe which made our dinner tasty :)

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 2 cup

Salt - 1/2 tea spoon

For red Colour:

Beet root

For orange colour:

Carrot

For green colour:

green capsicum, green chilly & green moong chana

Method

1. Divide maida in three parts.

2. Mix each part of maida with different coloured liquids separately; knead into three soft & smooth doughs. If required add water to make it smooth.

3. Divide each dough into 8 equal portions & combine one portion from each three coloured doughs together. Repeat the same thing for remaining 7 portions. Keep aside.

4. Roll out one portion of the dough into a circle of 75 mm. (3") diameter using whole wheat flour.
5. Cook on a hot tava (griddle), until both sides are ready.
6. Repeat with the remaining dough and stuffing to make 7 more roties.
7. Serve hot with daal tadka, daal pakoda & Onion.

Note: 
1. You can make parathas in same way using a little oil/ghee.
2. To make the colured liquids use blender for the three colours separately.

Capsicum-Chilly-Moong

Beet Root

Carrot

Baked Paneer Cube (different approach)

I have tried the baked paneer in different way this time. This time also, it came out very well.

Ingredients:

1 cup bread crumbs

1 onion

1 tomato

1 chilly

1 tb spoon salt

1 tb spoon vinegar

4 Paneer cubes

1. Preheat cooker;

2. Combine bread crumbs, salt, onion, tomato, chilly and vinegar in a food processor and process until finely ground. Transfer mixture to the shallow rectangular dish.

3. Dip the Paneer cubes into the bread crumbs mixture. Arrange cubes in a tiffin box. Place the tiffin box in cooker (there should be a little water in cooker before placing the box).

4. Bake 8-10 minutes, until crust is golden brown and Paneer is soft.

5. You can fry the cubes, in a kadai by spraying a little oil, for a different taste.

6. Serve with tomato ketchup

Bhapa Doi

Bhapa Doi or steamed yogurt is a traditional Bengali cheese cake which is prepared by steaming sweetened yogurt.  To simplify the steaming process in our modern kitchens, sweetened yogurt is baked in a water bath to make this delicious dessert.

I followed the recipe given here except the garnishing.

Ingredients

Condensed milk

Thick yogurt,whisked

Milk

Sugar

Method

1. Pour the condensed milk into a bowl.

2. Add the yogurt, and milk and mix well. Transfer the mixture into a steamer container.

3. Heat sufficient water in a steamer. Cover the container with aluminium foil and place in the steamer. Cover the steamer and steam for twenty to twenty five minutes. 

4. Cool and set in the refrigerator. Unmould onto a serving plate. 

5. Top with a few saffron strands,kismis & kaju. Serve chilled. 

Tuberose Chicken

I always look for something to improve my experiments with foods. A few days back, watched the movie Bacuse I said so and there in one seen the character Milly said to the little kid that the flowers of the bouquet were edible. Her words gave me the idea & I started looking in internet. There it was! So many recipes (mainly desserts) with flowers.

This weekend I wanted to prepare something with chicken but I could not find any recipe with chicken & rose/ tuberose (these two are very much available near my house :) )

So I tried this one on my own & it came out very tasty. My friend liked it & we are planning to have it on next weekend with some other friends :) .

(Sorry for the picture quality)

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons cooking oil

250 g chicken, peeled the skin, leaving the tail

1 capsicum, chopped

50 grams of tuberose flowers, soaked in warm water, 1 tomato

1 tea spoon salt

1 tsp coriander powder

2 onions

8 cloves of garlic

Method:

1. Heat oil, add garlic paste, chopped onions & saute until the onion becomes soft.

2. Add  chicken, cook until it changes color

3. Add capsicum, tomato, tuberose flowers & mix well

4. Add turmeric powder,  coriander powder , salt. Simmer on low fire. 

5. Add the tuberose soaked water. Add more water if you want more curry. Stir and cover. Cook on medium fire until chicken is soft & desired amount of curry is there.

6. Server with rice or roti.

Enjoy :)

Tengra Fish with Thekera

In today's lunch, which was a weekend special, I wanted to have something sour but at the same time little bit less spicy. So I prepared one Assamese dish which fulfilled all my expectations.

Ingredients:

Tengra Fish - 4 cleaned tengra () Fish

Turmeric - 1 Tb spoon

Green chilies, Chopped - according to taste

Onion - 1 (small, chopped)

Jeera - 1/2 tea spoon (optional)

Jeera powder - a pinch

Dhania powder - 1/4th tea spoon

Mustard Oil

Salt to taste

The most important thing - Thekera

Method:

1. Put the "thekera" in a cup of water. A piece of thekera will give you one bowl of curry to serve one person.SO soak as much as you want. Keep for about 1/2 hour. For better tangy taste you can soak it whole nighte.

2. Mix the turmeric and salt with the fish. Fry the fish in oil lightly. Remove from pan.

In the same pan, Remove the extra oil, leaving about a table spoon behind and add onion; make the heat low.

3. When onion will be soft, add jeera. Put green chillies, jeera powder, dhania powder, turmeric powder & salt.

4. When fried, put the cup of water with "Thekera". Add extra cups of water (depending on the number of "Thekera" used). When it comes to boil, add fried fish and reduce flame

5. Let it simmer for some time (10-15 minutes), till the juice gets cooked and a tangy flavor comes out.

6. Garnish & serve with rice.

Baked Paneer Curry

As I have mentioned in my earlier blog on Baked Paneer, that some more experiment will be done on baking paneer, so here is my new recipe on Baked Paneer.

Ingredients:

For Baking Paneer:
Paneer - 100 gm
Flour - 5 tb spoon 
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tea-spoon
black pepper powder - 1/2 tea-spoon
oil to fry

For Curry:
Bay leaves - 2
Elaichi - 4-5
Potato - 3
Onion - 2 (big)
Garlic - 1
Ginger paste- 1 tb spoon
Jeera Powder - 1 tea spoon
Dhania Powder - 2 tea spoon
Chilly Powder - 1 tea spoon
Sugar - 1/2 tb spoon (if you like sweet taste)
Salt to taste
Oil

Method:

To make Baked Paneer:
1. Mash Paneer with salt and black pepper powder to make a smooth batter.

2. Heat the pressure cooker for 5 mins. Grease and dust the baking container with oil & flour.
3. Pour the batter in it and place the tightly closed container in the cooker after adding a little water. Keep the cooker on low flame.
4. After 20mins turn off the heat & set aside the container.
5. Take out baked content out of container and cut it in pieces in your desired shape.

6. Mix flour, water, turmeric powder to make a paste. Coat each piece with the paste and dip fry in oil.
7. The koftas are ready.

8. You can have the koftas with Pudina chatni or Tomato sauce. Or you can make the curry.

To make Curry:
1. Cut potato,onion,tomato.
2. Heat d remaining oil in kadai and add bay leaves and  elaichi. Add garlic followed by onions.
3. Saute over medium heat till onions become soft,then add potato pieces.
4. When the potatoes are light brown add tomatoes. Saute it over low heat. Aftr 2-3min add ginger paste and masalas. Adjst salt.
5. Saute. After 2 min add sufficient water acc to the curry amount you want.
6. Cover and lower d heat. Cook for 8min. 
7. When water starts boiling and the potato become soft, add the koftas.
8. Cover the kadai. After 5min highr the flame and add dhania patta. 
9. After 3min turn off the heat & the curry is ready.
10. Serve hot with nun, chapati or rice.