Healthy Dahi Wada!

One of my favorite appetizers! I love sweetened yogurt. And the sweet and spicy flavor with a bit of tang to it. I have experimented this time and instead of frying the wadas, I steamed them! They came out so good and seriously, the taste was the same. I also replaced urad dal with the moong dal as I find urad dal kind of on heavy side in warm weather. Urad dal is strictly for winter as it imparts the much necessary warmth.

Dahi Wadas
Makes about 12

Ingredients

For wadas:
1 cup split moong dal, yellow, soaked in water for about 4 hours
Salt to taste
1 tsp Ginger, shredded
1 Serrano pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp baking soda

For sauce:
3 cups plain yogurt
Sugar to taste
Cayenne pepper, roasted cumin powder and chaat powder to taste
Date and Tamarind sauce

How to:

Grind moong dal with enough water till it resembles pancake better.

Add salt, ginger, baking soda and chopped Serrano, whisk.

Divide the batter into idli moulds and steam for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, add sugar to yogurt and whisk good till sugar dissolves.

Cool down the steamed wadas and place them in a container.

Pour the yogurt on them, followed by the date and tamarind sauce.

Sprinkle with cayenne, cumin and chaat powders.

Serve these wadas chilled.

Vegetable Biryani

To all the mothers out there, a Very Happy and Blessed Mother's Day!

I've read a very good poem about mothers. So true! Here it is:

"M" is the million things she gave me

"O" means she never grows old

"T" is my tears she wiped away

"H" is for her heart, purest gold!

"E" is her eyes, always filled with love

"R" means right, and right she always be!

put them all together

they spell "MOTHER"

A word that will always be

A word like no other

Mom's cooking! The BEST! For me, I have tweaked mom's recipes over the years to make them low fat(!) obviously but still, there are times when I crave mom's "free hand" cooking! This one fits the bill. It has the same biryani flavour and taste as that of the chicken or meat and it is very rich and full of nutrition. I remember when my cousins would come over to visit, they always asked mom to make this biryani for dinner. The only change I made was to add paneer to it.

Vegetable Biryani

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of good quality Basmati Rice

250 gms. Cauliflower

2 medium sized Potatoes

2 medium sized Onions

50 gms. Green Peas
100 gms. paneer, cubed and fried

A few Cloves,Cinnamon stick, Black Pepper, big Black Cardamom, a Bayleaf or two (everything whole)
Oil for frying

Salt to taste
1 medium Tomato chopped
1/2 cup of Yogurt

Ginger Garlic paste

1.5 tsp Turmeric powder

2 tbsp Cumin-Coriander powder

2 tsp .(or to taste) Red Chili powder

How to:
Wash rice and put them into boiling salted water with the Bay leaf and cinnamon stick for 10 minutes and drain. Keep aside.
Chop the onion and fry with whole garam masala listed in the ingredients until brown.
Cut all the vegetables into big pieces and add to the onion mix.
Add paneer cubes, chopped tomatoes, yogurt, salt, Ginger-Garlic paste, turmeric powder, Red Chili powder and Cumin-Coriander powder.
Stir until all the vegetables are well-coated with spices.
Cook all the vegetables till they are done.
Spread the rice over the vegetables.
Cover with Aluminum foil and cook on very low flame for about 20 minutes.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, fried cashews (if desired) and serve with Raita.

Ras Malai

Believe it or not, I am not big on desserts. I still like to make and indulge in paneer based desserts as they are less sweet and somewhat nutritious. Ras malai is one of them. I haven't forgotten the taste of the rasmalai from Bhagwati in Ahmedabad! It has been years since then, still the taste is very fresh in my memory. So here it is, short cut rasmalai that looks and tastes as good as Bhagwati's!

Ras Malai

Ingredients
For balls:
1 lb. full fat ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder

For syrup:
1 can Nestle condensed milk
500 ml regular milk
Almonds and pistachios for garnish
A few strands of saffron, soaked in a tbsp of milk

How to:
To make sweet balls, mix the ingredients till creamy. Pour in idli moulds and steam them without the lid for 10 minutes or until the tops are springy. Once cool down, take them out of the moulds and keep aside.

To make syrup, mix the ingredients and simmer gently till bubbles form. Let it cool down completely and pour over balls. Refrigerate overnight and serve chilled.

Mixed Thali!

Don't know what I was thinking when I made this dinner! I was having a pounding headache. And I went ahead and made chicken masala, aloo gobi and Methi gota! I took a little help with store-bought naans! My idea was to make parathas but I was too tired to make parathas. Hubby also asked me why I went through all the trouble when I had a headache! But then, it's me!
Chicken masala was very quick since I had some chicken tenders, marinated in the fridge in salt, pepper and lemon juice marinade. Nothing fancy. So I quickly browned onions, cook the traditional Indian masalas like cayenne, turmeric, cumin powders and ginger garlic paste with pureed tomatoes till the oil separates . Throw in the chicken tenders and let it cook slowly till the tenders are done.

On the 2nd burner, I just heated up the oil, added whatever seeds I saw( I guess they were mustard and cumin) first in the spice cabinet. Then threw in the chopped cauliflower and potatoes with a bit of traditional Indian spices again and let it cook till the potatoes are fork tender.

While these 2 dishes were cooking, I chopped methi, made the gota batter with besan, ginger, garlic, salt, whole peppercorns and of course, methi and water! And deep fried them!
I have some left over which I am going to use for Gatta kadhi tonight! It will go very well with Khichdi and okra fry! Hey, there it is, my tonight's dinner plan already laid out!

No Noodle Veggie Lasagna

I thought of this lasagna recipe last month when my hubby was fasting during the Lent and gave up the pasta. I wanted to make it during the Holy week but somehow didn't get a chance. Finally, last Wednesday, I finally got to give this recipe a try and boy, it was delicious! I only had russet potatoes and eggplants on hand and we are not big on zucchinis so this was the perfect way to have a low carb, no noodle lasagna.

I pan fried the potato and egg plant slices and steamed the broccoli a bit. Just to take the edge of it and to give the veggies a head start.

No Noodle Veggie Lasagna

Ingredients
1 lb large russet potatoes, peeled, sliced into 1/4" thick slices
1 lb egg plant, sliced as potatoes
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 bottle marinara sauce
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 cups pizza cheese blend
Oil

How to:
Pan fry the potato and egg plant slices. Salt and pepper them and keep aside. In a bowl, mix ricotta cheese and egg, keep aside. In 13X9" baking dish, pour half the bottle of marinara sauce. Lay potato and egg plant slices, overlapping each other on sauce. Spread ricotta cheese mix evenly. Layer steamed broccoli on cheese mix. Pour rest of the marinara sauce on broccoli and spread with cheese blend. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 425° oven for 40 minutes. Remove the foil wrap and bake for 15 more minutes till the cheese is nice golden brown and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Bon appetite!

Beef N Spinach Casserole

Wednesday night is usually pasta night in my house. Yesterday was no different. The only difference was " what kind of pasta dish I will make?" ! I wasn't sure at all what to make for dinner. The only thing I had on hand was sautéed onion and garlic and browned ground beef, so that part of dinner production was taken care of. Well, as I thought about it, one thing was sure that I would be using cream cheese and egg! So I asked Mark to take the cream cheese container and an egg out of the refrigerator and put them on the counter to come to the room temperature. He instantly knew that I'd be making pasta!

OK, I reached home, started the pot of water to boil anyways. Need that to cook pasta right?! Then I saw baby spinach and cheeses, looking at me, crying out to me, pick me, please! So the dinner was planned in my mind. Beef and spinach casserole, oozing with cheese! And you guess it right! The complements! Got 2 thumbs up! Now that's the part I love to get after a comforting home cooked food.

Beef N Spinach Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 big onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups packed fresh baby spinach
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
350 gms whole wheat pasta(I used fusili)
3 cups marble cheese, shredded

How to:
Cook pasta according to the pacakge directions. Drain and reserve a cup of pasta water.
Sauté onion and garlic till onion is translucent. Add ground beef, spinach, beaten egg and cream cheese. Mix well. Now add cooked pasta to the beef mixture and slowly add the pasta water till you get creamy consistency. Put in a greased 13X9 baking dish and sprinkle lots of cheese on the top. Bake in 425° F oven till cheese is melted and is nice and bubbly. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

The beauty of this recipe is that you don't need to preheat the oven. And a healthy and delicious, almost one pot meal is ready for you to devour!

Melt in your mouth Khasta Kachoris

Easter long weekend was a blessing indeed. Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures creeping in through my window, birds chirping sweetly early in the morning, it is utterly a wonderful feeling. With a steamy cup of coffee, I was thinking it is time to make something spicy(not hot!) and mouth watering which would serve as a light but filling snack! It suddenly dawned on me that some sort of chaat is in order!

Growing up in India, believe it or not, I wasn't a fan of street chaat! The road side vendors in Ahmedabad, selling pani puris, ragda patties, pavbhaji,dalwadas and what not, dressed in the shabbiest of clothing and the sweat from their foreheads falling straight down in the pot of pani! Their hands, they scratch their heads with, would go right in the same pot of pani to make you tasty(!) chaat! Uh,uh, not a pretty picture! On top of it, people around them, with their mouths full of big puris and pani running down their chins, I was like, man, how can somebody stand this?!

Well, it was somewhat a different story when I came to Canada. I still am not fond of chaats. But hubby dear is! And as we all know, in North America, you were required to make your own chaat before the explosion of Indian population! These days, we have so many restaurants that serve only chaats to satisfy any palate, but still nothing is like homemade stuff. Over the years, I have experimented a lot and I have learned of ways to replicate different recipes. So here is one of multi tasker recipe! You can eat it as puris or as a chaat, smothered with spicy and tangy chutneys, yogurt and tons of other fixings, where each plate creates a whole new experience in your mouth. And you don't have to go out to any restaurant and splurge. You can have this in the comfort of your home.

Khasta Kachori(makes 16)

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of All purpose flour
3 tbsp ghee
1/4 cup water
Salt to taste

For filling:
1/2 cup besan
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seedsgarlic-ginger paste
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp amchur (dry mango powder)
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste


Other ingredients :Oil for deep frying

How to :

For the dough :Mix all the ingredients and make a firm dough by using a little water. Knead for at least 5 to 7 minutes. Divide the dough into 16 equal portion and keep it under a wet kitchen towel.

For the filling :Heat the oil in a pan, put the cumin seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the well drained moong dal and fry for a few seconds. Add the green chilli-ginger paste, fennel seeds, chilli powder, garam masala, besan, amchur and salt. Stir for 5-7 minutes till all the masalas are cooked properly. Cool and divide it into 16 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball and keep aside.

For Kachoris: Roll each part of the dough to a puri of 2" diameter. Put a tbsp of the filling mixture in the centre of the rolled puri. Cover the filling mixture with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling mixture. Close the ends tightly by pinching them together. Roll each filled puris to upto 2½" diameter. Also make sure that the filling does not spill out. Lightly press the centre of the kachori with a thumb. Deep fry in a hot oil over a slow flame till they puff up and turns golden brown on both sides. Cool and keep aside.

To serve as chaat:


Keep one kachori on a plate and a crack a hole in the centre of it. Fill it with 3 to 4 tbsp of the beaten plain yogurt. I also added boiled whole moong to get some nutrition out of this! Drizzle the green chutney and tamarind chutney. Sprinkle chilli powder, jeera powder, salt and coriander on the top of the kachori.Sprinkle sev on top. Serve immediately.