Mochar Kabab/Banana Flower Kabab

It s a very common vegetable used in our home, Kolar Mocha. In our local market, back in home-town, it is a common vegetable you will find in a certain period of year. But here, in local markets, I could not find it last year. This year luckily, on my way to my house, I saw it. I was surprised & overwhelmed. I brought a big one prepared two different recipes. One of them I am posting here. In my next post, I'll write about the other one.

So here is the recipe for Mochar Kabab. Hope you will try & give me some feedback.

Ingredients
Flower of Banana (or Mocha): One
2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method

1. For this you need the innermost conical part of banana blossom which is not possible to peel further.
2. Cut the conical part from the stem and boiled the whole thing in water for few minutes with added lemon juice.
3. Mash the banana blossom coarsely and keep aside.
4. Add maida, salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder, grated mushroom and mix well.
5. Divide the mixture into equal portions and shape them into small kebabs.
6. Heat the oil in a kadhai and deep fry the kebabs till they turn golden brown from all the sides.
7. Drain on an absorbent paper and serve hot.

Is there anyone reading these posts, or, I am on my own. Please give some feedback or some comment so that I can understand someone is there too :).
See ya!

Linking: Monsoon Of India and JCO.

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.