Shortbread Cookies

Wish You All A Very Happy Christmas!

Christmas brings back some nice memories for me. I have a very close childhood friend who celebrates Christmas. During my school days, I used to spend every Christmas in her house. After her early morning mass, she comes home to pick me up and then we take off to her house for the whole day. I spend the whole day with her family. All that came to an end after I joined my high school. We both went to different schools and then took different directions. But, I am very happy that we are still best buddies.

Today's recipe is about short bread cookies with an Indian twist. I made this yesterday to give it to my son's teacher and they tasted really good. They were melt in your mouth kind of cookies. Drizzle these cookies with dark chocolate and I am sure, they will be a big hit in any party. Since I did not have time, I skipped this step. But if  you have time in your hand, definitely give it a try.

Ingredients: All purpose flour - 2 cups Sugar - 1 cup Butter - 1 cup (2 sticks) Freshly ground cardamom powder  - 3/4 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract  - 1/2 teaspoon  Coarsely ground cashews  - 1/2 cup Coarsely ground almonds  - 1/2 cup Method Cream butter and sugar. Mix in vanilla extract and cardamom powder. Slowly mix in the flour and coarsely ground nuts and make a soft dough. Heat the oven to 300F. Make 30 golf ball sized balls and place them in an ungreased baking sheet . Make sure the cookie balls are placed one inch apart from each other. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until you start seeing golden brown surface in the bottom of the cookies. Cool the cookies in a cooling rack before you store them.

Popcorn Chicken

Santa came a little early this year. 
When I started blogging, my husband asked me if I wanted him to get me a real nice fancy camera. I was not so very impressed with that idea. But he was very interested in buying me one and so last week,I got my Canon EOS Rebel T3 as a Christmas gift from my husband. I am snapping photos of everything in the house. There is a lot to learn to use my new camera. But for now, I am just experimenting. I did not realize what I was missing, until I saw these pictures.I know I am just a beginner with food photography and this camera, but I am very happy with this gift from him.

Coming to the recipe, it is along the same lines as my last post. Popcorn chicken is a popular product with kids and I am not a big fan of the frozen ones. My son had the frozen version of this at one of our friends place and he loved it. I knew, I am going to make a homemade version of that for sure and here goes the recipe. It is very easy to make and the result is awesome.

Ingredients: Chicken breast - 2 medium sized pieces All purpose flour - 1 cup Garlic Powder - 1 teaspoon Salt & Pepper - to taste Cajun seasoning  - 1 teaspoon (optional) Egg - 1  Panko Breadcrumbs - 1 cup Method Clean and cut the chicken into 1/2 inch pieces. Take 3 separate bowls.  In the first bowl mix flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cajun seasoning (if using). Keep it aside. In the second bowl, beat the egg with a splash of water and keep it aside. To the third bowl, add panko breadcrumbs. Heat oil on a medium heat in a skillet. Dip the chicken pieces one at a time in the flour mixture and then into the egg mixture and coat it with the breadcrumbs. Again dip the piece into the egg mixture and finally with the breadcrumbs. This process of dipping it twice in egg and breadcrumbs makes it more crunchy. Repeat the process with rest of the chicken pieces. Drop the chicken pieces one by one into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides. Drain as much oil and place them in a paper towel. Serve it with ketchup or your favorite sauce.

Mac n Cheese My Way

Loads of sodium and artificial coloring agents did not look like a good option for me to feed my kid. It was my husband who was very particular about not feeding my son packaged/processed/frozen foods. Initially I felt almost unrealistic to shield our son from processed foods. But now, I am very happy we took that path. I am not saying we never fed our kid any store bought food (He has had the store bought boxed mac n cheese once so far). But I try my best to make homemade versions of the store bought boxed foods.

Store bought mac n cheese would be a really big time saver, but homemade version is easy to make and it always good to know what goes into the food that you feed your kid. It might not look anywhere near the store bought version, but I promise homemade version tastes so much better. I have used cream cheese here in this recipe. But Vermont white cheddar works well too. Sometimes I also, add veggies like broccoli or carrots or green beans to it.

Ingredients: Macaroni- 1/4  cup Butter - 1 tablespoon Garlic - 1 clove grated (optional) Cream Cheese - 1 1/2 tablespoons Salt & Pepper - to taste Whole Milk - 1/2 cup Method Boil water in a pot and cook macaroni until it becomes soft. Drain the water and keep the macaroni aside. In another pan, heat butter and add grated garlic and saute until fragrant. Add milk and bring it to a boil. Add the cooked macaroni along with cheese, salt and pepper. Let it cook until the sauce thickens. I remove it from heat just before it thickens because the sauce tends to get very thick once cooled down. Serve it with a side of steamed vegetables.

Sweet Potato Paratha

I love shopping at stores and roaming malls. Usually, towards the end of Black Friday, our house will be filled with shopping bags. But this year, it was very unusual to see just two bags with just two cooking pans as a result of my Black Friday shopping. I was wondering if my shopping interest was slowly dying without my knowledge until I started getting emails from retailers with a subject line “Your shipment confirmation” or “Your order is ready to be shipped”. I have become more of an online shopper over the past couple of years. The ease of shopping from home, the ability to compare prices before I buy a product, read others reviews about a product and top of all free shipping makes online shopping more fun and more preferable way to shop these days. But I still love visiting stores and roaming malls.

Apart from shopping, thanksgiving is all about getting together with friends and family and having a grand thanksgiving dinner. Turkey being the main dish of a Thanksgiving dinner, there are many other foods alongside the main dish. One of the side dishes that everyone prefers for a thanksgiving dinner is sweet potato casserole and I wanted to make it for a get together with our friends. I have to blame the online shopper in me for not letting me bake any new stuff. I was busy looking for deals and completely forgot about this casserole and ended up making an easy appetizer for the party. So what did I do with the sweet potatoes? I used one of the sweet potatoes to make parathas and I should admit, it was unbelievably soft and delicious. Sweet Potatoes gave a very nice and rich color to the parathas.

Ingredients: 1.       Sweet potato – 1 large 2.       Whole wheat atta – 2 cups 3.       Salt – as needed 4.       Ghee – 1 teaspoon 5.       Chilli Powder – 1 teaspoon / per taste 6.       Asafoetida – a generous pinch Method: 1.       Cook the sweet potatoes in boiling water until they become soft. Drain and mash them into a smooth puree. 2.       Mix all the ingredients until you get soft dough. Water can be added if needed. I just added a few drops of water to make the dough. The moisture from the potato will itself let you make very soft dough. 3.       Divide the dough into 8 to 10 equal portions. 4.       Roll out each portion into parathas and place it in a hot tawa. 5.       Cook until you see light brown spots on both sides. Oil/ghee can be used while cooking these parathas. Serve it with raitha and pickle or any side dish of your choice.

Mutton Chukka

First meal after the wedding in a bride’s house has lot of significance and importance. It is all about impressing the new member of the family with lots and lots of food. Being a great cook, my mom was not an exception. She brought out the best from her kitchen for this first meal and mutton chukka stole the show. My mom has made mutton chukka for him several times after that and he says, the mutton chukka he had during the first meal in my place is the best.

During my parents visit here, many of our friends have tried my mom’s mutton chukka and demanded the recipe for that. So, as promised, here comes the recipe for Madurai special mutton chukka. The recipe below is using premade powders. It tastes even better if you can dry roast the spices and grind it fresh.

Ingredients: Boneless Mutton - 1 lb Sesame Oil - 1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds  - 1 teaspoon Curry leaves – 1 fist full Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon Black Pepper Powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon Cumin Powder - 1 tablespoon Salt - as needed Method Clean and cut the mutton pieces into small bite sized ones In a pressure cooker, heat sesame oil. Once it is hot enough, add mustard seeds. Add curry leaves once the mustard seeds splutter ,add the meat. Give it a quick stir and add all the dry masala ingredients along with salt. Mix it well with the mutton. Sprinkle  little water and pressure cook it for a couple of whistles. After the pressure is released, cook the masala, until it becomes dry and all the oil oozes out. Serve it as a side dish for white rice or briyani.

PB&J Stuffed French Toast

I guess some of you must have noticed the change in the template of my blog. I have started playing around with the design of my post with background colors. I somehow felt, the orange background didn't go very well with other colors. So I am keeping it simple with a light background. I am still getting used to this template. Being so used to the orange background of My Recipe Congeries, few times, I kept looking at the pages, just to see if this is really my bog. Hope you all like it. I welcome any suggestions or comments on the new design.

Now to today's recipe...

How about a delicious hot breakfast, which actually tastes like dessert, but still being good for you? Yeah, it is french toast stuffed with all the goodness of peanut butter and jelly. The name might be a little long, but I promise, you can put this together in less than 15 minutes.

What could be better than a stuffed French toast for a breakfast lover? And if it is stuffed with peanut butter and jelly, it is a double bonanza. It makes a very good lunch box item for kids. You can go as creative as you want with French toast. You can stuff it with literally anything you eat. My next project with French toast would be chocolate stuffed version. I am sure my two chocolate monsters would love it. 

Ingredients: Egg  - 1 whisked with a splash of milk Sugar – 2 teaspoons Cinnamon – a pinch Peanut Butter – 1 heaped tablespoon Jelly  - 1 tablespoon Butter – 1 tablespoon Method Whisk together egg, milk, sugar and cinnamon and keep it aside in a flat bowl. Take a tablespoon of peanut butter and spread it in one slice of bread. Spread any fruit jelly of your choice in another slice of bread. Make a sandwich out of these two bread slices. You can either dip the whole sandwich in the egg mixture or make strips as I did for the little hands. If you decide to go with the second option, make 1 to ½ inch thick strips of the sandwich. Melt butter in a non stick pan over medium high, dip either the whole sandwich or the strips in the egg mixture to coat the slices and place in the pan. Turn the piece/ pieces in about 3 to 4 minutes or until it turns golden brown and cook the other side until it turns golden brown. Serve it with maple syrup.

More Kuzhambu with Cucumber

I wonder how our taste buds change as we get older. I still remember, my mom literally running behind me with a bowl of vegetables. Since, dad was a picky eater, mom would cook something every day that dad liked and that is how I survived. Being dad's little princess, I loved whatever he liked. Vegetables other than beans, potato and cauliflower were seen as inedible vegetables by dad and me. But slowly, I have learned to enjoy foods that I never liked before. And surprisingly, when dad was here, he ate everything whatever I cooked, even the vegetables that he never used to like before. I called home a couple of days back and mom said she is making cabbage paratha looking at the recipe I had posted. And today I found out that dad loved it and he asked mom to make it again for breakfast today  J

Growing up, I hated the taste of More Kuzhambu. But now, it tastes like heaven. We both loved the taste. I did not have any white pumpkins at home. So I added cucumber to the curry and it turned out great.

Ingredients: Cucumber - 2 cups (Peeled and cubed) Curd - 1 1/2 cups Water - 1 to 1 1/2 cups Salt - to taste Asafotida/Hing - 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon Coriander seeds - 1 1 /2 teaspoon Channa dhal - 1 1 /2 teaspoon Red Chillies - 3 Coconut - 1 tablespoon Fenugreek - 1/2 teaspoon Thoor Dhal - 1 tablespoon Oil - 1 tablespoon Mustard - 1 teaspoon Curry leaves - few  Method: Soak toor dhal in water at least for an hour. To the boiling water, add peeled and cubed cucumber along with little salt and turmeric. Let it cook until the cucumbers turn a little soft. It should still be firm enough and not mushy. Dry roast channa dhal, coriander seeds, red chillies, coconut, fenugreek until nice aroma comes out. Make sure you do not burn any of the ingredients. Transfer the above content along with the soaked thoor dhal into a mixie/blender and make it into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Churn the curd with required amount of milk and dilute it. Add turmeric,salt and the grounded paste to it. Pour the mixture into a kadai and let it boil until the raw smell goes away. Add more water if the curry gets thicker during boiling. I let the curry boil for at least 20 minutes in low medium flame until the raw smell of the ingredients went off. In another pan, add oil and when it is hot, add mustard and curry leaves. Add the tempering to the curry. Serve it over piping hot white rice along with any crispy fries.

Mutton Kola Urundai / Mutton Kofta

For people who live in this part of the world, did you enjoy an extra hour of sleep yesterday? I got up at 6 o clock and few minutes later, I looked at my mobile where it said 5:05 AM.  I was so happy, that I got this extra hour all to myself.  Being a mom of a 3 year old, this additional hour all to myself means a lot. I bet many moms would agree with me on this.


Today’s recipe is Mutton Kola Urundai/ Mutton Kofta. This is my mom’s specialty. For some reason, I don’t have this recipe written in my recipe book and every time I want to make this Kola Urundai, I would give her a call and she will be more than happy to tell the recipe to me. I like to hear it from her rather than looking at the recipe book.  Another such recipe which I like to hear from mom is Mutton Chukka. I will post that recipe soon.



Ingredients:


1. Mutton Keema / Minced mutton – 2 cups
2. Grated Coconut – ½ cup
3. Roasted gram / pottukadalai – ½ cup (grounded)
4. Green Chilli – 4 -5
5. Saunf / Soambu – 1 tablespoon
6. Garam Masala – 1 teaspoon
7. Salt – as needed
8. Onions – 1 finely chopped
9. Cilantro – 1/4th cup finely chopped



Method:


1. Grind the grated coconut, green chilli, saunf ,garam masala and salt to a fine paste with very little water  using a mixer/ blender.
2. Add the ground meat to the blender/ mixer and grind it until all the ground masala mixes well with the meat.
3. Also add the finely chopped onions and pulse it a couple of times. This step is really optional. You can add the chopped onions to the ground meat in the next step if you do not want to pulse the onions.
4. Transfer the meat to a bowl. Add the roasted gram powder little by little. Do not add too much as it will make the koftas very dry. The meat mixture should still be a little moist.
5. Now add the chopped cilantro and mix it well.
6. Make kofta balls out of it. Rubbing little oil in your palms will definitely help this process. This measurement will give you approximately 25 koftas.
7. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry till golden brown.


Serve it as an appetizer.

Cabbage Paratha

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a fun filled Halloween.  We had “White Halloween” this year with snow  :-) .

Couple of weeks back, a very good friend of mine had given a mini food chopper and told me that it is very good for chopping cabbage for cabbage paratha. And she is right, the chopper is brilliant and the cabbage came out perfect for making parathas. Thank you dearie girl for the food chopper. I will be using it very often.

Sharmi’s website had square shaped cabbage parathas and I wanted to make mine in square shapes too. It looked lovely and tasted excellent. This recipe is definitely a keeper. A very good way to sneak in the vegetables. I modified her recipe a little bit and here goes my recipe for cabbage paratha.

Ingredients:

Cabbage- ¾ th cup

Atta/chappathi flour – 1 cup

Salt – as needed

Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala – ½ teaspoon

Turmeric – a pinch

Ginger Garlic Paste – ½ teaspoon

Chopped cilantro leaves – few

Water – required to make the dough

Oil – as required

Method:

Take a bowl add finely chopped cabbage, atta, salt, chilli powder, garam masala powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste, cilantro, make a soft dough by adding water little by little.

Since cabbage leaves out water, be very cautious in adding water. Let the dough rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal portions and make parathas  out of the dough. Pictorial illustrations for making square shaped parathas can be found at Sharmi’s blog .

Place the rolled out parathas in a heated tawa. Cook on both sides until you see golden spots.

Serve with Raitha and Pickle.

Kaara Boondhi | Diwali Special

I had tried making Kaara Boondhi few years back and it came out very greasy. I guess it is because, my batter was too watery. This time, I mixed the batter to the right consistency and fried it till golden brown and it came out great. We are enjoying this nice spicy Boondhis with Ladoos for this Diwali.


Refer to my Boondhi Ladoo Recipe for pictorial illustrations on the batter consistency and boondhi preparation.

Ingredients:


Besan Flour- 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - as needed
Rice Flour - 2 tablespoons
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
Chilli Powder - 1/2 teaspoon or more
Asafotida - a generous pinch
Oil - to deep fry


Cashew Nuts, peanuts - 1/4 th cup
Curry leaves - few


Method:

1. Prepare the batter for the boondhi with the ingredients mentioned. Add little water at a time. My besan flour required approximately 1 cup of water. It really depends on the texture of the besan floor you use. So add water till you get a thick dosa batter consistency. (Refer to the batter consistency picture in my boondhi laddo recipe)
2. Heat oil in a wide frying pan. Pour a spoon full(I used a kuli karandi) of batter in a perforated laddle and let the batter pass through the perforations by moving the spoon in a circular motion. Fry till golden brown.
3. Repeat the same with the rest of the batter. You should wipe the perforated spoon clean before starting each batch of frying. Otherwise the perforations will be covered with batter from the previous batch and you will not get good shaped boondhis.
4. In the same oil fry cashews, peanuts and curry leaves seperately and mix it with the boondhi.
5. Store them in air tight containers after they cool down.

I am sending this entry to the following events


Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories event by Radhika
Serve It - Festival Potluck event by Denny & Krithi
My Diwali My way event by Khushi
Diwali - Festival of Lights event by Anu

Boondhi Ladoo | Diwali Special

Mom would say:"Ammu... Get up... Its 4 AM and all your friends woke up already for firecrackers..." This is how my Diwali starts usually during my school days. We(Me and my brother) would have asked mom to wake us up very early so that we can join other kids in the street for firecrackers. So she would wake up earlier than us, takes a shower and then wakes us up at around 4 AM in the morning when most of the kids in our street wake up on the day of diwali. I would just jump out of the bed, quickly rush to the shower. I would have to literally roll my brother out of the bed to wake him up. Unlike me, he is a good sleeper. By the time, we come out of shower, mom would have the  pooja room set up with all the decorations, new clothes, sweets and snacks. At that point, all my concentration would be on when I would get to wear my new dress and show it off to others. As soon as mom finishes pooja, we would go wear our new dresses and go out to enjoy the fireworks. Since dad doesn't show much interest in fireworks, he would still be sleeping happily, till his usual 5:00 clock alarm. We will finish most of our fireworks in the morning and save the rest for the day.


By then mom would come out and ask me to help her with rangoli. Previous night , me and mom sit together to come up with a special rangoli for diwali. So that design goes on the floor with beautiful colors. I will be very eager to see my opposite house aunty's rangoli design, as she does a very good job making designs. Then I would go for a stroll around the street to see all the rangoli designs that others have made and help them out with designs if they need. It would be 7:00 AM by now and mummy goes off to the kitchen, to start her special cooking for the day.


Dad would also be ready by then with his new white kadhar shirt and dhothi. I love seeing him with his white kadhar shirt and dhothi. His inspection work in the kitchen would start. He would make sure that the mutton pieces are small enough and it is well cooked. Mom would give him a piece to taste. 99 out of 100 times , his answer would be to cook the mutton for one more whistle. Very lovingly, he would bring the plate to the living room where me and my brother would be watching diwali programs, to ask us our opinion on the mutton :-). The day goes on like this with more tasting of mummy's cooking. She would proudly present her idli, poori, mutton curry and Gulab Jamun for breakfast. Diwali lunch was always very special. It used to be very elaborate, with a lot of moms exotic dishes. After the heavy lunch, goddess sleep would doze us off. Again in the evening, rangoli session would start in all the houses. More fireworks, more food, more chatting, lighting diyas and the day would end with a simple comforting meal. Such were the golden days, when we used to look forward for this "Festival of Lights".

All these evergreen memories make me miss home during this time of the year. The least we could do from here is to do a quick pooja in the morning before going to work and light some diyas in the evening. And is there a celebration without sweets and snacks?


This is the first time I tried to make Boondhi Ladoo and I should say, it was not as tough as I thought. It came out perfect and it tasted delicious. Far better than store bought ones. Once you get the consistency of the syrup right, you will get perfect ladoos.

This recipe yields about 20 ladoos.

Ingredients:

1. Besan Floor- 2 cups
2. Yellow food color -  a pinch
3. Water - 2 cups approximately
4. Oil - to deep fry

For the Syrup:

1. Sugar - 2 cups
2. Water - 1 1/2 cups
3. Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
4. Saffron - few strands
5. Yellow Food Color - a pinch

 Cashew nuts- few roasted in ghee

Method:

1. First start preparing the sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water. Also add saffron and yellow food color. Let it boil and reach the single string consistency. Best way to check this- take a bowl of water and drop a little sugar syrup in it, the syrup should not dissolve and you should be able to form a soft ball out of the syrup with your hand. Remove the syrup from heat as soon as it reaches the single string consistency.
2. In the meantime, prepare the batter for the boondhi with the ingredients mentioned. Add little water at a time. My besan flour required approximately 2 cups of water. It really depends on the texture of the besan floor you use. So add water till you get a thick dosa batter consistency.
3. Heat oil in a wide frying pan. Pour a spoon full(I used a kuli karandi) of batter in a perforated laddle and let the batter pass through the perforations by moving the spoon in a circular motion. Take the boondhis out before they turn very crispy. You should not fry it till golden brown.
4. Remove the fried boondhis and drop it in the warm sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should still be warm.
5. Repeat the same with the rest of the batter.  You should wipe the perforated spoon clean before starting each batch of frying. Otherwise the perforations will be covered with batter from the previous batch and you will not get good shaped boondhis. I used the boondhis from the last batch to make a coarse powder before I dropped it in the syrup.
6. Let the boondhis stay in the syrup for about 15 to 20 minutes. The sugar syrup should be in a temperature for you to handle with your hands. Add cardamom powder and fried cashew nuts.
7. Start making ladoos out of the boondhi and syrup mixture. The ladoos will still be a little loose. It will take about an hour to firm up.

If handled properly the ladoos will stay for up to 4 days in air tight containers. You can also refrigerate it up to a week. But ladoos taste good at room temperature. So, if you keep them in the refrigerator, allow it to come to room temperature before you serve.


I wish all my readers a Very Happy and a Safe Diwali.








I am sending this entry to the following events


Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories event by Radhika
Serve It - Festival Potluck event by Denny & Krithi
My Diwali My way event by Khushi
Diwali - Festival of Lights event by Anu

Beetroot Curry

When I saw my dad eat this beetroot curry with rotis, I was shocked. He is a very picky eater when it comes to vegetables and I have never seen him eating beetroots till then. My mother-in-law made this curry and so I thought, my dad ate this without having any other option. After he got up from the lunch table, I went to him quickly and asked how he ate the beetroot curry. He replied with a smile in his face “It was really good”. I grew up seeing him and he was my role model even for my eating habits. So I wanted to try it out for myself and I loved the taste. From then on, this beetroot curry visits our kitchen every once in a while.

Ingredients:

1. Beetroot-1 large, peeled and chopped finely
2. Oil- 2 teaspoons
3. Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon
4. Onion - 1 medium, chopped
5. Tomato- 1 chopped finely
6. Moong dhal- 1 fistful
7. Salt - to taste

To grind:

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 3

Fennel seeds/Saunf -2 teaspoons

Green chilli- 3

Method:

1. Make a fine paste of the ingredients under the To grind section and keep it aside.
2. In a pressure cooker, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
3. After it splutters add the finely chopped onions and let it saute till it becomes soft.
4. Now add the tomatoes and saute for a minute.
5. Add the washed moong dhal and give it a quick stir. 
6. Add the chopped beetroot along with the ground mixture. Add salt and water if needed. The consistency should not be too watery nor too thick.
7. Pressure cook till one whistle and switch off the heat. Check for consistency after the pressure is released and serve with rotis.

Vegetable Cutlet

Last night I set the alarm in my cell phone and went to sleep.  For some reason, my phone decided to switch off on its own.  Today morning, I jumped out of bed, panicked to see the clock read 6:45 AM. But luckily, today is Pizza day at school and I managed to pack lunch for me and my husband with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. This story has nothing to do with this post, just another reason for me to use the drafts which is my blog saver :-) .

Ingredients:

1. Carrots, beans, cauliflower – 2 cups chopped
2. Peas – ½ cup
3. Potatoes – 2 large
4. Onion – 1 large finely chopped
5. Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tablespoon
6. Green Chillies – 3 finely chopped
7. Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
8. Salt – to taste
9. Egg – 1 optional
10. Breadcrumbs – 2 cups (for the coating)
11. Oil – To fry
12. Cilantro leaves – ¼ cup chopped finely

Method:

1. Cook the potatoes in a pressure cooker and mash it with a fork and leave it aside.
2. In a pan, add the chopped vegetable, just enough water to soak the vegetable, salt, turmeric, 1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and cook it till all the water is evaporated. Keep it aside.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, add a tablespoon of oil. Once it becomes hot, add the chopped onions, remaining ginger garlic paste, salt and green chilies. Sauté till the raw smell goes away.
4. Now add the cooked vegetable and the mashed potato. Combine well. Add peas and let it cook for a minute or so. Remove from heat. Let it cool down a little bit, so that you can make cutlets out of this mixture. Check for salt and spices and adjust if needed.
5. Once the mixture cools down a little bit, add chopped cilantro leaves. The mixture should be firm enough to make cutlets. If the mixture is too loose, add more potatoes or I use a little bit of breadcrumbs.
6. In a bowl, beat an egg and leave it aside. If you do not want to use egg, mix maida with water to make dosa batter like consistency and leave it aside.
7.  Have the breadcrumbs in a plate or bowl to coat the breadcrumbs
8. Take a handful of the vegetable mixture and make shapes of your choice. Dip it in the egg bowl or the maida liquid. Then, place the cutlet in the breadcrumbs and coat it completely.
9. Repeat it for the rest of the vegetable mixture and deep fry it till golden brown.

Serve it with Ketchup.

Back to Life Back to Reality and a Recipe

Back from a wonderful trip to India a week ago. We are still settling in. We managed to have as much fun we could have in the three weeks time. This trip was all about my little one spending time with the family. He sure was pampered to the core by grandparents from both sides of the family and I am glad he experienced it.




I was not in a mood to cook anything fancy last week. This is when drafts come in handy and I am using one of my recipes from draft.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 lb
2. Onion - 1 big chopped finely
3. Tomato - 1 small chopped finely
4. Oil - 1 tablespoon
5. Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
6. Curry Leaves - few
7. Ginger Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
8. Green Chillies - 3 or 4 slitted
9. Fresh ground pepper - 1 tablespoon
10. Salt - as needed

Method:

1. In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves once the oil gets hot.
2. Add Onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste and saute till all the raw smell goes away.
3. Add tomatoes and wait till it gets mushy and soft.
4. Now add the chicken pieces and give it a quick stir.
5. Add a little water, cover the pan and cook the chicken until it is just about done.
6. Once the chicken is cooked, wait till most of the water is absorbed.
7. Add freshly ground black pepper and mix it well. Wait till oil separates from the chicken.

Serve it with fresh rotis or over rice.