Happy Birthday

धिरेंद्रजी,

जन्मदिन की बहुत बहुत बधाई हो.
हर दिन शुब हो.
दोनों का जीवन सदा सुखमय हो.

आपके जन्म दिन की खुशी में , मैं खाजः, फेनी और मठ्री बनाई हूँ.
आपको भेज रही हूँ.

हमारे पुरे परिवार के तरफ़ से, आपको बहुत बहुत बधाई हो.

आपकी मम्मी शैल।

खाजः और फेनी

मठ्री

Papdi Chaat for Daddy-Jiiiii

Daddy-ji, Wish You A Very Very Happy Birthday from all your near and dear ones from Banglore, Bhilai, Minneapolis and Tokyo. Also wishing you a long, prosperous and healthy life. I know mummy has made lot of your favorite dishes today, but I have also prepared some thing special for you and its "Papadi Chaat". We all know that you avoid eating out side junk food, but enjoy when prepared at home and I still remember how you used to tell me different stories to keep me away from eating outside. This plate is for you daddy-ji, totally hygienic and very tasty. Hope you like it.

For Papdi Chaat you need:

• Semolina Puries
• Cilantro chatni
• Tamarind chatni
• Bitten thick curd
• Boiled potatoes 3 chopped
• Boiled Peas
• 1 chopped onion
• Hand full chopped cilantro
• 2 green chili chopped
• 1 tsp chart masala
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1/2 dried ginger powder
• 1 tsp black salt or common salt

For Semolina Puries:

• 1 cup semolina or suji or rava
• 1 tbsp maida or all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oil
• Warm water
• Oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients and make a tight dough with warm water and leave for 20 min. Then make small golf ball size puries and deep fry in oil till golden brown. Press the puries while deep frying.

For Cilantro chatni:

• 1 bunch of fresh and clean cilantro
• 2 green chili
• 2 garlic flakes
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 1 tsp mustard oil
• Salt to taste

Put all the things in blender and make a nice and smooth paste and you are ready with coriander chatni.



For Tamarind chatni:

• 50 gm tamarind
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 100 gm sugar

Soak tamarind in water for 2-3 hrs, extract the pulp & filter, mix all the ingredients and boil it till it becomes half. Add sugar as per taste.

For Padpdi Chaat:

Take 5 -6 puries in a plate and make hole from one side for filling the ingredients. Now fill it with boiled potatos and peas, ddd chopped onions and chili. Now fill it with the chatnies and curd. Then sprinkle all the masalas and salt. Garnish with cilantro and bhujiya sev. Yuuummmmyyy now you are ready with very tasty chaat. In some part of central India it is also called as SPDP (Sev Puri Sahi Puri).

Vegetable Instant Rava Idli

Our saturday breakfast is fixed. It is either Idli Dosa or Idli Dosa or finally Idli Dosa :-) But this weekend somehow I forgot to make the usual batter. Still wanted to have idli only, so thought of making quick rava idli. To make it nutritious, I added vegetables to it, which made it healthier and tasty too. My first encounter with rava idli was in Banglore restaurant, where they serve it with some creamy yellow color gravy (Not remembering what they call it). They used to serve giant size rava idli and even 1 rava idli is enough to satisfy your hunger. To maintain the nutritional value of the vegetables I hopped them finely and steam them only once while making the idli. Cooking vegetables short and fast helps in maintaining their nutritional value.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cup rava or semolina or suji
• 1 Cup finely chopped vegetables (carrot, french beans, peas, capsicum)
• Curd
• Salt
• 1-2 tsp fruit salt
• Oil (for tempering and greasing the idli dish)

For tempering you need:

• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp chana dal
• 1 tsp urad dal
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• Few curry leafs
• 1 tsp chopped green chillies
• 7 - 10 Broken cashews

Preparation:

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan.
• Put all the tempering items in the pan and fry till light brown.
• Then add rava and fry till light brown.
• Then take this rava in a separate bowl and add vegitables, salt, curd and make a thick batter.
• One the other side take idli container or pressure cooker and put 1/2 glass in it and boil it.
  
• Once water starts boiling, put fruit salt in the batter and mix nicely and put it in the greased idli stand.
• Now place it in the boiling water and cook for 7-10 mins as we do for normal rice and lentil idlis.

Tips:

1. Add fruit salt at the end.
2. Make thick batter.
3. If using cooker for making idli, then remove the whistle or weight.

My this preparation goes to Divya's Show me your Breakfast & EFM-June-Breakfast-Series of Me and My Kitchen.

Chili Chicken

Indo-Chinese dishes are my favourites. The combination of Chinese style cooking with Indian style seasonings makes it simply awesome. Chili chicken, was the first chicken dish, I learned and that too from someone who was a GREAT LOVER of chicken dishes. No no, its not my mom, sister or friend, it is my eldest brother. He is really a great cook, when it comes to any chicken dishes. Chili Chicken made by my brother is by far the most sought after dish in my home. But later he became a complete veggie and following his path, most of my family members have turned veggie, so no more chicken preparation at my home now :-) . But there is no restriction at my own house or in-laws home. We all love chicken dishes, especially my father-in-law loves the Chili chicken prepared by me and enjoys the dish like anything, which gives me lot of satisfaction.


Ingredients:

• 500 gm Bone less chicken (small pieces)
• 2 Medium size bell pepper (Chopped length wise)
• 1 Big Onion (Chopped length wise)
• 2 Tbsp ginger garlic paste or chopped
• 1 Egg
• 3 Tbsp Cornflour/ corn starch
• 3 Green chillies chopped
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp chili sauce
• 2 Tbsp tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp vinegar
• 1/4 Pepper powder
• 1/4 Chili powder
• Salt
• Oil to fry
  

Method:

Wash and dry the with the help of kitchen towel. Then add cornflour, 1 tbsp off all the sauce, egg and salt. Keep this marinate aside for 10 mins. Take oil in a pan for frying marinated chicken cubes. Fry by putting small amount of chicken cubes in the oil and do not over crowed it and fry till golden brown. Drain on paper
towels when cooked through. And also hide them after frying, as you family can finish it off, thinking it as chicken nuggets. :).
Now heat 2 tbsps of oil in a pan and then add chopped ginger , garlic and green chillies and saute for 2min. Then add chopped onions and bell pepper and fry them for 2- 3 mins. Then add all the remaining sauce , pepper powder and chili powder and salt (use little, as sauces have it own taste and salt) and fry for 1 min.Then finally add fried chicken cubes and fry for 3-4. Add now you are ready with yummy Chili Chicken.

Tips : Add some more cornflour if marination is very liquidy.
Adjust the ratio of sauce according to your taste.




My this entry goes to Potluck - Chicken hosted by Viki at Viki's Kitchen and AFAM-Bell peppers hosted by Priya's of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes event by Maheswari

Stuffed Dal Paratha and Strawberry Kheer

Stuffed Dal paratha and strawberry kheer was our sunday breakfast. Dal Paratha is a traditional dish of northern India and is mostly prepared during the time of festivals. It is made like other parathas or can be deep fried too. Dal stuffed paratha is mainly famous as "Dal Puri" (even if it is not deep fried). It goes well with any type or curry, kheer, chatni or even with tomato ketchup.

For Dal Puri you need :

2 cup Bengal gram or chana dal.
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 Cumin seeds or jeera
2 Green Chili
1 Medium size onion (finely chopped)
1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste or finely chopped
1 Tspn Kitchen king masala or any sabji masala
Wheat flour 3 cups

Oil
Salt

Preparation:



Soak Chana dal overnight or 5-6 hours. Boil chana-daal in cooker with salt & turmeric with very little water till it gets soft. Mash it with masher or in a mixer(without water). Heat oil in kadhai and fry jeera, green chilli, cut onions, Kitchen king masala . Then add mashed dal & mix together. Make medium consistency dough with wheat flour. Use this dal filling in making parathas with the atta dough as we do for making stuffed aloo paratha.


For Strawberry Kheer you need:




1 litre milk
100 gm rice
200 gm Sugar
Elaichi powder
Dry coconut powder
Kaju
5-6 Strawberry

Method :

Clean & wash rice. Add sugar in milk and boil. Take 1 cup of boiled milk and keep aside for cooling. Add strawberry in the 1 cup of milk and grind in mixer finely. Add rice in the boiled milk and cook in a medium flame. Continue to boil till it reduced to half and rice gets properly cooked. Turn off the flame once the kheer is ready. After 10 - 15 mins, add strawberry milk and cook for 2 min on a light flame. Garnish with dry fruits & dry coconut gratings. Serve hot or cold as prefered. I like it cold.





Dal Puri & Strawberry kheer goes to:

1. SHF- Fruits & Nuts event hosted by Mansi.
2. To Happy Cook's Strawberry Feast .
3. To Monthly Mingle #33 -Ravishing Rice Recipes hosted by Nags of Edible Garden. event by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey?.

4. To FIC June Delectable combinations, hosted by Kamalinka of Dedicated to Janaki Patt ,event by SunshineMom's event.
5. To Divya's Show me your Breakfast .
6. To My Legume Love Affair event by Susan and hosted by Annarsa
7. To EFM-June-Breakfast-Series of Me and My Kitchen.

Grilled Fish

Japan, hub of marine food, tremendous amount for sea foods are available here. Its like heaven for sea food lovers. You can get unlimited range of fish, weeds and other sea products. You name it and you get it, but the thing is you should know its Japanese name :). Japanese foods are considered as one of the best and nutritious food, as they do not perform much alteration with its original form. For example, 'Sushi', a world famous dish (considered to be very healthy and tasty) is created by putting raw pieces of fish or fish eggs over a rice ball.

Now coming to the topic, since I am brought up in central part of India, our consumption of marine foods were limited. We use to eat river fishes like Bangra, Rohu, Katla etc. My mother knows the real secret of making them with mustard paste and gravy, which I love a lot. Grilled fish which I have prepared is an inspiration from my brother's MIL (mother in law). She is an expert cook. My first experience of sea fish was at her place only in Bangalore. I can still taste that experience. She make this shallow fried fish with "Surmai" (name of fish) and I always forget this name and fill as it is called 'Sundari' :). This time also it happened the same way and corrected with the help of my brother. Here I have used her recipe with little alteration and with other fish. This recipe can be used with other fishes too but it should be thin sliced fish.

Ingredients:

Thin sliced fish 4 pieces
Ginger garlic paste 2 tbsp
Chili powder 1/4 tsp
Cumin powder 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder 1/2 tsp
Kitchen king or sambar masala 1/2 tbsp
Vinegar 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Semolina or rava or suji 1/2 cup

Preparation:

* Wash fish slices nicely and drain extra water.
* Add every thing expect rava in vinegar and make paste like.
* Evenly spread this paste on fish slices and marinate for 1 hr.
* After an hr of marination, sprinkle rava evenly on every slice of fish.
* Roast in griller till nicely cooked, if needed brush with oil.
* You can also shallow fry it with oil.

I like preparing grilled fish with no oil but my husband insists me to brush few drops of oil while grilling over his servings. Squeeze lime juice over it and serve it hot.

Tehari with Boondi Raita

Vegetable masala rice, is popularly known as "Tehari" in northern India. You can also call it "Vegetable Biryani" as my friends call it, when they forget its name ;) , and they are bit fair when they name it so. It goes well with any type of raita or any spicy chatni.




Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Basmati rice
• Vegetables (French Beans, Carrot , Peas, Cauliflower) chopped
• 1 Large onion chopped
  
• 2 Tomato chopped
• 2 Green chilli chopped
• 1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 4 Clove
• 1 Cinnamon stick of 2inches broken
• 2 Bay leafs
• 1 Tsp cumin seeds
• 1 Tsp ajwain
• 1 Tsp turmeric powder
• 1 Tsp red chilli powder
  
• 2 Tsp coriander powder
• 1 Tsp biryani masala
• 1 Tsp kitchen masala
• Salt as per taste
  
• Ghee

Method:

• Take 2 tbsp of ghee in pressure cooker and add cumin, ajwain, Cinnamon, clove and bay leaf and temper.
• Then put ginger garlic paste and saute till cooked.
• Then add onion and fry till brown.
  
• Now add all the vegetables and cook for 5 min.
• Then add chopped tomato and cook for 2min.
• Now add all the powder masala.
• Fry for few mins.
• Now add washed rice
• Finally add salt as per taste.
• Add water (double the amount of rice)
• Finish it off with 1 tbsp of ghee and coriander leafs to get nice flavour.
• Cook till done.
  

This is my entry for Monthly Mingle #33 -Ravishing Rice Recipes hosted by Nags of Edible Garden, event by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey?