Paneer Makhanwala

Its a cottage cheese cubes made with milk, mild spices and cashew paste. Its a North Indian delicacy slow cooked in medium flame with lots of love and patience. I generally include this in my menu for the vegetarian lot in the group and also for my husband who is a vegetarian. This goes well with rotis and laccha paratha.

Ingredients

1) Panner - cut in cubes - 1/2 Kg ( Panner is cottage cheese, dip panner cubes in milk and keep aside for 1/2 hours)

2) Big size onions - 4 - chopped

3) Ripped tomatoes - 4 - chopped

4) Ginger garlic paste - 2-3 tbs

5) Cashew paste - 1/2 cup ( Dip cashews in milk for 1/2 hours and then make paste out of it)

6) Cloves - 2-3 , Tej Patta - 2-3 , Jeera - 1 tbs

7) Desi Ghee - 2-4 tbs

8) Coriander - fine chopped

9) Salt - to taste

10) Turmeric powder - 2 tbs

11) Refined oil - 4 big tbs


Method

1)   In a pan, put oil and add onion to cook till light brown, Add tomatoes and cook till oil separates. Cool and grind to make paste. The paste will be orange in color.

2) In a big kadai, heat oil and put all the khada masala along with jeera. Add the onion tomatoes orange paste , ginger garlic paste and cook for about 10-15 mins. Add cashew paste and some milk.

3) Once this is cooked properly, add panner cubes dipped in milk. Add the remaining milk as well.

4) Slow cook on low flame for another 15-20 mins.

5) Serve hot.

Sarsoon Ka Saag

Sarsoon Ka Saag is the authentic punjabi household food that’s eaten during winters. Sarsoon is the hindi word for mustard leaves. Sarsoon ka saag is eaten with Makki ki roti and raita. (Any type of raita). In Punjab, people make sarson ka saag in large quantity and eat when ever they want to. When ever it’s served, its tempered with fresh desi ghee and garnished with fresh makhan. This is the most authentic saroon ke saag ki recipe, straight from my mothers kitchen.

Ingredients:

1)      Sarsoon bunch – big one – 2

2)      Palak bunch – medium – 1

3)      Methi bunch – medium - half

4)      Bathuaa bunch – medium – 1

5)      Green Chilli – hot dark green – 4-5 – depends how hot you like

6)      Onion paste – out of 4 medium size

7)      Garlic flakes paste – 10-12 medium size

8)      Salt to taste

9)      Whole red chilli – for tempering – 4

10)   Desi Ghee (Clerified Butter) – for tempering – 4 big spoons

11)  Onion – 2 – Cut into Julienne for tempering

12)   Makki Ka atta – 2-3 medium spoon

Method:

1)  Wash and cut all the leafy vegetables properly. First wash and then cut, otherwise all the vitamins and minerals are also washed away with water.

2) In a pressure cooker, add all the leafy vegetables, onion paste, garlic paste, some water, salt and pressure cook for 15-20 whistles. Let the cooker cool on its own and then open the lid.

3)      Now , keep the cooker on the gas flame and stir and keep sprinkling the makki ka atta till it comes together. Don’t put the lid on the cooker. And keep mixing the saag. The maximum atta you can put in this is 2-4 medium spoons and this is just for binding the saag together. Cook this for about 35-50 mins on a slow flame.

4)      Now, tamper with cut onions, desi ghee and  whole red chilli.5)      Garnish with fresh makhan or cream6)      Serve hot with makki ki roti and raita.

Please message or email me if you want to know the recipe of Makki di roti.

Mango Cheese Cake

Mango cheese cake is made with cheese cream, gelatin and marie biscuits( You can use any biscuits). We have 3 layers in this cake. The base is made with marie biscuits, the middle layer is of cream cheese and the top layer is of mango pulp. I have not used sugar in this cake. But if you want you can add sugar. For making this cake a) You have to make the cream cheese, I make my own home made cream cheese. You can also buy this from the market. b) the base, made with biscuits and butter.c) the top layer made with mango and gelatin.

Lets discuss the ingredients,

1) Mango - 3 - pureed

2) Gelatin - 3 tbs 

3) Cream cheese made from 1 litre milk

4) Mint leaves - for garnishing

5) Marie biscuits - 175 Grams 

6) Sugar - powdered - 1 + 1/4 cup 

7) Butter - unsalted - 100 grams

Method :

1) Make the cream cheese one day prior. You can keep it in the fridge. Click here to read the recipe for CREAM CHEESE.

2) To make the base, grind the all the marie biscuits in the mixer and mix it with the butter. Spread this on a silicone mold with a spoon to make the crust of the cake. And then keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours till it becomes hard and crusty. It will look like this and this is ready.

3) Now, take the cream cheese and mix it with powder sugar and mango puree. Blend it 2 mins. In a 1/2 cup boiling water, add 2 tbs of gelatin. Let it stay in the water for 5 mins, mix well and when cool add this to the cream cheese mix. Blend all for 2 mins again. Spread the cream cheese on the crust and freeze it for 1 hour.

4) After one hour, In a pan add mango puree and heat it for few mins. In a 1/4 cup boiling water , add 1 tbs gelatin. Mix well and let it stay for 2-3 mins. Once cool, add this to the mango puree pan. You don't have to cook mango puree for too long. And add gelatin, when its slight cool. Mix well. Put the puree mix on top of the cream cheese layer and again freeze it for another 3-4 hours.

5) Serve chill and enjoy.

Home made cream cheese

Making cream cheese at home is simple and I learned it for making mango cheese cake. You can use this for making sandwiches, salads and chocolate mousse or different types of cheese cakes. Or simple eat it with biscuits or bread. You can store in the refrigerator for 5-6 days.

Ingredients:

1) Milk - 1 litre

2) Lime juice - 1.5 tbs / or vinegar - 2 tbs

3) Curd - 1 tbs

Method: 

1) Boil milk and add vinegar to separate whey water from the cheese.

 2) Now pour this on a muslin cloth and drain the entire water. Run through under the clean water to remove all the lime/ vinegar flavor from the cheese/panner. Hang this tied in a muslin cloth for 2-3 hours so that all the water is drained completely. 

3) Grind this in a mixer along with 1 tbs curd and store it in the refrigerator. You can add fresh cream to make it more rich and creamy. Your cream cheese is ready.

Malai Kofte

Malai Kofta is cottage cheese dumplings, mixed with few herbs and spices, deep fried and made in rich onion, tomato and cashew gravy. This is a typical North Indian cuisine originated from mughlai cuisine. This goes well with roti, rice, nan, paratha's or even breads. North Indian veg food is all about milk, cream, cheese and clarified butter. Very rich and healthy.

To make 10-12 kofta's 

Ingredients:

1) Fresh panner - cottage cheese made from 1 liter milk at home ( boil milk and squeeze 1 lemon to get panner, hang it in a muslin cloth to remove all the water)

2) Onions - 2 - Large - Grated

3) Tomatoes - 2 - Large - Grated

3) Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs

4) Salt - To taste

5) Cashew - 12-15 - grind to make a paste

6) Chilli powder - 1 tbs

7) Turmeric powder - 1 tbs

8) Coriander powder - 1 tbs

9) Fresh coriander - for garnishing

10) Khada garam masala - 1 badi ilaychi , little jeera , 2-3 cloves

11) Green chilli -2- fine chopped 

12) All purpose flour - 1 tbs

13) Corn Flour - to roll kofta's and then deep fry

Method:

1) In a large bowl mix paneer, 1 tbs maida, green chillies ( I have used red) , salt and fresh coriander. Mix till it becomes smooth to make balls. Roll balls in the corn flour powder and deep fry.

2) The kofta balls are ready now we have to make the gravy. In a big pan or a kadhai, add 2 big spoon of oil. Till the time you make the gravy, dip the kofta's into the lukewarm water to make them soft.
3) Now add the whole garam masala like badi ilayachi, cloves and jeera. Cook for 20 sec.

4) Now add grated onions and again cook till it becomes brown.

5) Add ginger garlic paste, all the dry masala and in the end grated tomatoes. Pls remember this squence. This is very important otherwise the masala is not cooked properly and the raw flavor remains which we dont want. Cook the masala till the oil separates. You can see the oil is separated from the masala.

6) After this add cashews paste and 2 cups water. Let it boil and add kofta's.

7) Garnish with coriander and clarified butter. Serve hot.
8) To enhance the taste further, garnish with the garam masala. But make sure to use the home made garam masala. Check out the garam masala recipe on my blog itself. Click here to read the Garam Masala recipe.

Khaman Dhokla

Khaman dhokla is a savory steamed cake made from gram flour or chana dal (skinned split bengal gram). khaman dhokla are soft, porous, mild tangy-sweet and a great snack anytime of the day. I tried it for the first time and the result was very good. People used to make this in a steamer or a pressure cooker. I tried in Microwave and it was easy and faster to make.

Ingredients for Dhokla Batter: 

1)     Gram flour - 1 cup
2)     Semolina – 1 spoon
3)     1 Lemon- 1 medium size – extract juice
4)     Ginger - ½ inch piece (grated)
5)     Salt – to taste
6)     Eno fruit salt - 1 tsp
7)     Turmeric – 1 small tbs
8)     Hing – A pinch
9)     Curd – ½ cup
10)   Chilli paste – 1 tbs
11)   Water - 1/2 cup
12)   Oil - 1 tbs

Ingredients for Dhokla tadka: 

1)     Green chilly – 2 – Big slits
2)     Fresh coriander – fine chopped
3)     Oil - 2 tbsp
4)     Raw coconut - 1 tbsp (optional)
5)     Black mustard seeds – 1 tsp
6)     Curry leaves- 5-6
7)     Sesame seeds - 1 tsp  (optional)
8)     Sugar – 1 tbs
9)     Grated fresh coconut – for garnish
10)   Water - 1 cup

Method for Dhokla Batter :

1) In a big bowl , add gram flour, 1 tbs oil, water, semolina, ginger and chilli paste, turmeric , hing, salt, lemon juice. Add water and mix well and keep aside for 20-15 mins. It should have a smoothie consistency.

2) After 20 mins, add eno and mix well again. Eno will help you to risen the batter and make it light and smooth. You will see the bubble in the pic as well. This helps to make the dhokla fluffy. Transfer it into the microwave bowl. I have used silicon mould.

3) Microwave for 5-6 min. It will be like a cake and check if its cooked. Put a knife in the mix and see of the knife comes clean. Let it cool down, This is ready. It will look like this after you remove from the mould / microwave bowl. Now this is ready for tadka.

For the tadka,

1) In a pan add oil and once hot add little hing, mustard seeds, curry leaves and let it cook.

Add sugar and half cup water. Let it boil and pour this on the dhokla cake.Garnish with fresh coriander. Cut and serve.

Karele Ki Sabzi

Bitter gourd vegetable made in North Indian style. I have named this “ Achari Karela” . This is the most hated vegetable and I wonder why?? But for me this is my favorite  or can I say my most favorite. Some people eat it but they do crazy things before making it like dipping karela the whole day in salt water or sun drying and what not?? ( In a way they are killing all the goodness of the vegetable) This recipe is simple easy and I bet you, you will love it. My friend used to hate karela before and after eating this style, she started loving it. I don’t throw the seeds or peel it before making. For me it’s like neem, everything is so healthy and tasty. Simply cut and cook. Enjoy and welcome to the Karela Lovers Club. Eat with roties or rice and dal!

Ingredients :

1) Karela (Bitter Gourd) - 4 - Medium size - wash and cut as shown in the pic.

2) Onions - 4 - Medium size - jullians 

( If you are using large size karela then use large size onions as well )

3) Onion seeds - 1 tbs - cut as shown in the pic

4) Sauf - 1 tbs

5) whole coriander seeds - 1 tbs - coursely grind

6) Salt - to taste

7) Red chilli powder - 1 tbs

8) Fresh lime juice - 2 tbs

Method :

1) In a pan, add 1.5 big tbp of oil.

2) First let the karela go into the pan. Cook till it becomes brown.

3) Then add chopped onions and cook till they also become tender and brown.

4) Add red chilli powder, salt, coriander powder, sauf, onion seeds.

5) Cook for another 5 mins till the masala is properly cooked. Add lime juice in the end.

6)  Serve with roti or rice/dal.

Bread Rolls with Cheese and Potatoes

Yes, bread rolls again but this time with cheese and potatoes mash filling. Its different! 

Bread rolls are round balls made with wet bread slices filled with boiled potato, makes a mouthwatering snack. This goes perfect with tea or served as an appetizer. Bread Potato Rolls are crunchy outside, spicy and soft inside.Served with chutneys or tomato ketchup.

Ingredients

1) Boiled potatoes - 6 medium size
2) White Bread - 8 to 10 slices
3) Any green chutney - coriander or mint - 6 tbs
4) Salt - to taste
5) Green chili's - 5/6 fine chopped
6) Grated cheese - as per your taste, I had put about 10-12 tbs

Method 

1) Peel boiled potatoes and add grated cheese, salt, chutney, green chili's and mix well. Keep aside your mash is ready.

2) Take one white bread, dip it in the water, squeeze all he the water, fill in the mash and make round balls. Make all the bread balls together. This absorbs less oil. Keep aside for frying.

3) Deep fry till they turn brown, remove the rolls and keep them on a tissue paper to absorb extra oil and serve hot with tomato ketchup. Enjoy the awesome and tasty snack.

Bread Rolls

Bread rolls are round balls made with wet bread slices filled with boiled potato, makes a mouthwatering snack. This goes perfect with tea or served as an appetizer. Bread Potato Rolls are crunchy outside, spicy and soft inside.Served with chutneys or tomato ketchup.

Makes 8 Bread Rolls.

Ingredients:

8 white bread slices, (bread should be fresh)

4-5 medium size potatoes boiled peeled and mashed 
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon Cilantro (hara dhania), finely chopped
3-4 green chili (hari mirch) minced; adjust to taste
Oil to fry

Method

Peel boiled potatoes and add all the dry masala and fresh green chillis and fine chopped coriander. Mash all together and Set aside.

Fill a small bowl with water to wet the bread. Dip a slice of the bread lightly in the water. Place the slice between your palms and press, squeezing out the excess water. This makes the bread moist.

Place the filling in the center of this bread and mold the bread to completely cover it all around, giving an round shape. Repeat to make all the rolls. 
Before frying, let them sit for about five minutes. (This will evaporate some of the water from the bread so that it absorbs less oil while frying; also making the bread rolls crisper).

Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Drop the rolls slowly into it, taking care not to overlap them.
Fry the bread rolls until they are golden brown, turning occasionally. This should take about two to three minutes. Take them out over a paper towel.
Serve them hot with hari cilantro chutney and tamarind sweet and sour chutney.

Methi Ki Puri

Ingredients for Methi Puri

Wheat Flour – 300 gm (2 small bowls)

Fenugreek or methi leaves – 200 gms or 1 bunch
Oil – for frying
Onions - 2 - fine chopped
Green Chilli - 4-5 - Fine chopped
Salt – as per taste
Oil – To fry

Method : To make Fenugreek Puri

Break and wash fenugreek leaves. 
Cut them finely with a knife.

Take wheat flour in a bowl. Mix salt, fine chopped chillis, fine chopped onions, 1 tablespoon oil and fenugreek, in the flour. Now mix sufficient water and knead a soft dough. Now keep the dough covered for half an hour.

Put oil in the frying pan and heat it. Now take out small chunks from the dough and make 3 to 4 inch diameter disks with a roller. Put one such disk in the hot oil. Turn it when it swells and fry till it turns brown. Now take it out in a plate. Like this fry all the dough disks. Your fenugreek puri are now ready to be served with curd, chutney or your favorite vegetable.

Dates/ Khajoor Chutney

The best dates chutney in the whole world. We call it SOONTH. And this is used for making North Indian Chaat like pani puri , sev puri, dahi puri , aloo pattice , ragda pattice and the list goes on. The same method can be used for making imli/tamarind chutney for similar purposes. 

Ingredients 
1) 250 grams dates - remove the seeds
2) Chilli Powder - 4 tbs ( can add more for making it hot)
3) Roasted Cumin Powder - 4 tbs
5) Salt to taste
6) 1.5 cup sugar
7) 2 Glass water. Can add more if required, need smoothie consistency

Method :

1) Grind the dates in a mixer by adding 1/2 cup water.
2) Put this in a pan/kadahi along with 2 glass of water. Cook for 10-15 mins. You will notice the difference once its cooked. It will become creamier and smoothie type.
3) Add salt, sugar , cumin powder and chilli and cook for another 10 mins.
4) Use when cool. You can put in a glass container and store in refrigerator.

Khandvi : Gujrati Snacks

I love and am proud of myself for making such a wonderful Khandvi today.This is a Gujrati delicacy made with gram flour, hing and sour curd as the main ingredient and then tempered with mustard seeds,curry leaves and green chilli. I made this in microwave in flat 15 mins. The best part was that I could cut roll them into thin stripes without using oil and much fuss.I must say that they are soft light and yummy.

Ingredients For Khandvi Batter:
1 cup besan/Gram Flour
3 cups sour butter Milk/1 cup sour Yogurt + 2 cups water
A big pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
A tbs of turmeric Powder
Salt to taste

Ingredients For Tempering:2 tsp Mustard Seeds
2-3 Green Chillies, chopped curry leaves
1-2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, finely chopped

2 tbsp Oil

Method :
1. Take gram flour, turmeric powder,hing and salt to taste in a microwave safe bowl and mix well. Add curd to the mixture and mix well with a blender. Take care that no lumps is formed. The batter should be thin and flowing without any lumps.
2. Place the bowl in a microwave and cook at high speed for 5 mins. Remove the bowl and mix the contents well.
3.Mean while, keep ready 2-3 steel plates or glass chopping board as I have used and a spatula to spread the batter. Don’t grease them with oil. I have used my kitchen counter to spread the batter.
4. Place again in a microwave and cook uncovered for another 5 mins. Mix well.
5. If the mixture is still runny, place it again in microwave and cook for another 2-4 mins.
6. Spread the thick batter quickly on the counter, back of steel plates or glass chopping bowl. Spread it as thinly as possible. Do the spread test to check of it rolls.
7. Let it cool for 2-3 minutes. Then slice them with knife into 2 inch long stripes and roll each stripe neatly. Place each rolls in a serving dish.
8. For tempering, heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add chopped curry leaves chopped green chillies and sauté it for few seconds.
9. Spread them evenly over rolled the Khandvi. Serve after garnishing with chopped coriander leaves and enjoy.
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Rasgulla

Cottage cheese round dumplings are boiled and dipped in watery sugar syrup. This is a Bangoli sweet served in almost all Indian festivals. Please make sure that you are using full cream milk and not tetra packed ones or the low fat milk or the 
slim /skimmed milk.

Ingredients:
1) 1 Liter full cream milk to make medium size (ping pong ball ) 10- 15 Rasgulla's.
2) Lemon juice squeezed from 2 limes.
3) Sugar - 3 cups
4) Water 1/2 liter.

Method:

1) In a large pan start with boiling milk and once it starts to boil add lemon juice to separate milk and water. As shown in the pic.

2) On another flame, in a pressure cooker add 1/2 liter water and 1.5 cups sugar to make sugar syrup. Don't make it very thick. It has to be watery. Let it boil hard.
3) Meanwhile, once the milk separates, drain it in a strainer and remove the excess water by putting it in a cotton muslin cloth. As shown in the pic. Let it remain moist and don't be too hard to remove all the water. 

5) Put the this solid milk in the mixer and blend for 3-4 mins to remove lumps.

6) Make balls and put them in the boiling sugar syrup. This will increase their size immediately and put the lid to pressure cook for 5 mins.

7) Put the times for 5 mins. This is very important. After this once the cooker is cool then open the lid and remove the rasgulla and put them in the serving bowl.
8) Let the cooker cool on its own.
9) Now in the same cooker which has your sugar syrup add remaining 1.5 cups sugar and bring to boil. 
10) Pour it over the rasgulla and let it be at the room temp. Once cool refrigerate them.
11) Serve chill.