Mango Peanut Salad

Ingredients -

Ripe mangoes - 1 big size
Fried peanuts - 2 tblspns
Mint leaves chopped finely - 2 tblspns
Coriander leaves chopped finely- 1 tblspn
Green chilly chopped - 2
Chat Masala - 2 tblspn
Sugar - a pinch
Lime juice - 1 tspn

Method

Cube the Mangoes.
Deep Fry the peanuts.
Chop coriander and mint leaves.
Cut chillies very fine.

Put the mangoes in a chilled glass bowl.
Add to it the mint and coriander.
Add chillies.
Add peanuts.
Keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Add lime juice and sugar.
Add chat masala.
Serve immediately.

Tiffin recipe- Sago cutlets and Badam Modak

Badam Modak –

Almonds – 1 cup – blanched and peeled

Sugar – 4 tblspn

Full Fat Milk – ½ ltr

Saffron – 1 tspn

Elaichi (Cardamom) Powder- ½ tspn

Whole Almonds  - 2 tblspn

Whole Cashew’s – 2 tblspn

Ghee (Clarified Butter) – 1 tspn

Method-

Crush blanched Almonds coarsely in a mixer.

Make a powder from whole almonds and whole Cashews.

Heat a non stick kadhai.

Add ghee.

Add almonds.

Saute till slight brown.

Add milk and stir well.

Cook on  medium flame till milk is reduced to half.

Add Sugar and mix well till sugar is dissolved.

Add cashew powder and almond powder.

Mix well.

Keep on stirring.

Add cardamom powder.

Add Saffron.

Keep mixing till the whole mixture comes together.

Put off the flame.

Allow the mixture to cool.

Shape into modak using modak moulds.

Garnish with whole cashews.

Tip- If u do not have the modak mould, you can shape them into laddoo or any shape you desire.

Sago Tikki –

Sago (sabudana) – 1 cup – soaked for 4-5 hrs.

Boiled Potato –  2 large

Roasted  Peanuts- ½ cup

Cilantro (Fresh dhaniya) – ½ cup

Salt – to taste

Dry roasted Cumin (Jeera) powder – 2 tspn

Dry roasted Black Pepper (crushed) – 1 tspn

Oil – to deep fry as required

For garnish-

Carrot and Beetroot jullienes – 2 tblspns

Tomato sauce – 1/4^th tspn

Whole black pepper – for the eyes

Method-

Drain water from sago and get rid of excess water by pressing well between your palms. Keep it aside.

Mash boiled potatoes well.

Crush roasted peanuts coarsely.

Chop cilantro finely.

Mix the sago, potatoes, peanuts.

Add cilantro.

Add to it the roasted cumin powder.

Add crushed pepper.

Add salt.

Bring the mixture together by using your hands.

Do not add any water.

Shape into flat tikki’s.

Heat oil in a kadhai.

Deep fry the sago tikki’s till well done from both sides.

Arrange in the tiffin box.

Use carrot and beetroot jullienes to make hair.

Use pepper to make eyes.

Use sauce (ketchup) to make mouth.

Mili Juli Tarkari (Mixed Vegetable)

Winter is the season of plenty of vegetables like carrot, beans, cauliflower, peas, variety of greens, babycorn etc. Preparing these ingredients in the same manner makes life monotonous so one would prefer to have a different method to cook these veggies in a variety of ways. Today I'm sharing the recipe of mili juli tarkari better known as mixed vegetable. This recipe is certainly not for the weight watchers but it can be a main dish for a dinner or lunch menu for the guests. This can go well with the paratha.

Ingredients

Cauliflower - 1/2
carrot - 1
green beans - 7-8
brinjal small -  2-3
Peas - 8-10
Potato - 1 medium
baby corn - 4-5
onion - 1 large
ginger garlic paste - 2 tspns
refined oil - for deep frying as required + 1.5 tblspns
bay leaf - 1
curd - 2 tblspn

dry masalas-

coriander powder - 1tblspn
red chilly powder - 1 tspn
turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
cumin powder - 1 tspn
clove powder - a pinch
cinnamon powder - 1/2 tspn
green cardamom powder - 1 tspn
salt - to taste

Lemon Juice - 1 lime juice

Method-

1. Slice onion thinly.
2. Prepare florets from cauliflower.
3. Cut Potatoes into cubes.
4. Cut Carrots into cubes.
5. Cut green beans into small pieces.
6. Cut brinjals into roundels.
7. Cut baby corn into diagonal pieces.

8. Shell peas and blanch them in boiling water.
9. Deep fry all the other vegetables.

10. Whisk curd and put coriander, chilly, cumin, turneric, chilly powder and salt.
11. Heat oil in a pan/kadhai.
12. Add bay leaf.
13. Add onion and saute till reddish.
14. Put the curd-dry masala mixture in the onions and cook till oil starts separating.
14. Add all the vegetables and peas.
15. Mix well till the masala coats all the veggies.
16. Add lemon juice and mix again.
17. Sprinkle cardamom, cinnamon and clove powder.
18. Mix gently.
19. Serve hot.

Buttermilk - Chaas

Buttermilk helps in digestion and is a very good beverage for the obese. Can be had as an appetiser or just to augment the liquid intake during summers. Goes very well with upma for breakfast. It also helps in detoxifying the body. Fill up bottles in your refrigerator by preparing butter milk in advance so that the use of aerated drinks is eliminated and buttermilk would give a soothing effect. A natural cool drink devoid of any chemicals is a real good option to beat the heat so get set go to prepare this real easy beverage.

INGREDIENTS-

Natural Curd – 2 cups
Chilled Water – 4 to 5 cups

Roasted Cumin Powder – ½ tspn + pinch for garnish

METHOD –

Mix Curd and cold water in a blender.

Add cumin powder and give it a whisk.

Serve in glasses.

Garnish with a sprinkle of cumin powder.

 

Note – I’ve not used salt here but if you so desire can always put salt to taste.

The Train Cake

It was my son's 5th birthday party and he wanted it to celebrate it at home. Firstly I was apprehensive then for the little one I thought I should invest all my imaginations and creativity to bake a cake. Several options were there like the character cakes, Alphabet or Number Shapes cakes. Or should I say a simple round, square or a rectangle cake. Finally a thought came to my mind to use my best imaginations and to make it look really beautiful and presentable I would make the cake in the shape of the train.
I baked 4 large choclate cakes in the shape of rectangle. One cake was made in the jelly bowl, one cake was made in the choclate tin - round shape.I did the icing then I fixed the round shape cake to the jelly shape cake and attached a piece of large cake to it. Used the other part as the base. Fixed it up tightly with the long size toothpicks so that the cake is fastened securely.

Decorated it with Oreo biscuits as wheels as pink icing filled in the nozzle. To show the steam I used white polo and for a colorful effect I used gems. As a glue I used choclate spread. This was the most difficult part then I used the rest of the cake pieces to make the train. I covered the entire cake with the icing and used different flavoured Oreo biscuits to make the wheels. Decorated the entire train with different coloured icing from the piping bag using different nozzles. Used the munchini to make a small boundary in one of the compartment and assembled the entire train on a piece of cardboard which was covered with the silver foil. Used dessicated coconut mixed with green color as grass , rectangle biscuits for the boundary and red heart shape lollipop as signal and used marzipan for the rest of the decorations. Would tell you how to do the icing in my next blog, until then bye hope you enjoyed reading it as I did writing it.

Sattu Ka Paratha

Sattu is Bihar's staple food. It is a high energy giving food. Sattu means roasted gram flour. Either black gram or bengal gram is baked/roasted and then ground to prepare Sattu Flour. Sattu is easily available in all stores. In summer Sattu is mixed a glass of water and people drink it to get the cooling effect. It is a cooling agent which gives respite from heat waves. Sattu is also used to make Litti . Today am writing about famous Sattu ka Paratha which is best had with Tamatar ka Chokha or pickle.


INGREDIENTS -


For the filling -

Sattu ka atta (Roasted Chana flour) - 1 cup
Onion - 1 Large chopped
Green Chillies - 3/4 chopped finely
Garlic - 4/5 flakes chopped finely
Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped finely
Coriander leaves - 2 tblspn chopped finely
Onion Seeds (Kalaunji) - 1 tspn
Carom Seeds (Ajwain) - 1 tspn
Salt - to taste
Fresh Lime Juice - 1 tspn
Pickle (Achaar Masala) - 1 tblspn
Water - as required


For the Covering/dough-

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt - to taste
Carom Seeds (Ajwain) - 1/2 tspn
Roasted Flax Seeds (teesi) - 1/2 tspn
Onion Seeds (Kalonji) - 1/2 tspn
Coriander chopped - 1 tspn
Water - for kneading dough


METHOD-


For the filling -
In a bowl mix all the ingredients under filling and mix well. Add 3-4 tblspns water, to make it a wet filling. The water acts as a binding agent.


For the Dough -


Mix all the ingredients under the "dough" and prepare a dough. Rest it for 15-20 mins.


For the Paratha-

1. Take a little dough and using roller pin make a small chapati.
2. Prepare a small chapati of about 3 inch diameter.
3. Put 2 tblspns filling in it.
4. Close the chapati to form a small ball.
5. Using the rolling pin prepare a paratha.
6. Heat a non stick tawa/griddle
7. Place the paratha on the pan.
8. Turn sides when done.
9. Smear some ghee on both sides.
10. When brown specs appear means the paratha is done.
11. Cut in to quarter and serve hot with Tomato Chokha, ketchup, pickle or veggie of your choice.

Tricoloured Honeyed Veggies

Stir Fry is to prepare a dish in a jiffy which just needs a bit of saute and less oil and is full of vitamins as the cooking procedure is cut down which retains the essential nutrients. Stir Fry means to retain the texture i.e the crunchiness. The less you cook the veggies, the more nutrients you get from it. Here is a quick Stir Fry dish which has the power-packed Protein in the form of Cottage Cheese (Paneer), Carrot- A rich source of Beta-Carotene and Capsicum - A rich source of Vitamin 'A' Vitamin 'C' and Protein.

Ingredients -

Carrots - 2
Capsicum - 1 Large
Cottage Cheese - 200 gms

Marination -

Honey - 3tblspn
Tomato Ketchup- 2 tblspn
Chilly Sauce - 2 tblspn
Olive Oil - 2 tblspn
Oregano- 1/2 tsp
Chilly Flakes - 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

For Saute-

Olive oil - 1/2 tspn
Chopped Garlic - 1/2 tsp

Method -

1. Cut Roundels from the Carrots
2. Dice the Capsicum (Large sized)
3. Cube the Cottage Cheese
4. Mix everything given under the heading "marination"
5. Marinate the veggies and Cottage Cheese with the prepared mix.
6. Keep it aside for 30 mins.
7. Heat olive oil in a fry pan
8. Add Chopped Garlic, saute till browned
9. Add the veggies and Cottage Cheese with the marination.
10. Stir fry till well coated and veggies are slightly cooked.
11. Serve Hot.