PALAK PANEER

Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

Palak - 2 bunch
Paneer - 8-9 cubes
Green Chilli - 3 nos
Onion - 1 medium chopped finely
Tomato - 1 medium
Garlic - 2 cloves
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Methi Leaves dry - 1 tbsp
Milk/Cream - 3 tbsp
Salt

Preparation:

Clean palak well and discard stems. Now chop the leaves roughly and boil with just 3-4 tbsp water till leaves are cooked. Then drain and wash them in cold water to retain color. Once cool blend them to a puree with green chillies and keep aside.

Add butter/oil in a pan ad fry the paneer pieces slighly brown. Roughly about 2 mins on each side of paneer.

Now in a pan add butter/oil and add in the onions. Saute till transparent and then add garlic. Saute for a min or 2 and then add in tomatoes and saute till tomatoes are smashed well. Puree this mix in grinder by addind minimal water ( this puree stage is purely optional). In the same pan add the pureed mixed and once boiled add in the powders. Saute till raw smell of powders are gone. Then add in the methi leaves and saute for a min, Next add in the pureed palak with chilli and mix. Add in salt, milk/cream. Once boiled switch off and add in the paneer. Serve warm with roti.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

BESAN LADDOO (MICROWAVE) - DIWALI SPECIAL

Besan Laddoo

 

All credit goes to my SIL for teaching me this. I had no idea this can be so easy in microwave :). Thanks a lot sis.

Ingredients:
Besan - 1 cup
Rava - 1/4 cup
Ghee melted - 1 cup
Sugar powdered - 1/2 cup
Almonds and pistachios - garnish

Preparation:

In microwave safe bowl  make sure the bowl is a big deep one as the mixture when heated rises) heat the ghee for 1- 2 mins. Then add the besan and rava slowly and stir with spoon. Now keep this in microwave and heat for about 5 mins. Remove and stir. Again microwave for another 5 mins. Keep this going on every 5 mins till you get the aroma of besan (This is done to remove the raw taste of besan). Keep tasting the mix to see till the raw taste of besan is gone. You will see that the besan mix has changed in color to darker side than it was lighter initially. Once the raw taste of besan is gone, take the bowl out and then add in the powdered sugar and stir nicely. Add more powdered sugar if you need more sweetness. Keep aside to cool. Then keep it in fridge for about 20 mins. The mix will be firm. In a tray spread butter paper.  Now take small balls of the mix and make small balls and place on the tray. Garnish on top with sliced almonds and pistachios. Keep it in fridge for laddoos to be firm. Eat whole heart after 15-20 mins ;P.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Note:
1. You can add few strands of saffron too while heating the mix and also for garnish.
2. Keep checking the mix when you keep in microwave. Sometimes you wont need 5 mins for heating depending on the microwave you have as the mix can rise and overflow (the cleaning part is very tough). So keep checking every 2-3 mins.
3. The laddoos are soft and wont be hard.

 

Button Idli Sambar aka Mini idli dipped in sambar

Ingredients:

For Button idlis:
Idli rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1 cup

Preparation:
Soak the rice and urad dal in separate bowls for 6-8 hours. Grind them in a mixie or stone grinder with little water, The batter should be slightly thicker than dosa batter. Mix and keep them in warm place to ferment for a minimum of 8 hours. Add salt once fermented. Spoon them into idli moulds that is greased with oil. Steam them for 10 mins or till done. Spoon them out once little cold. Or you can dip spoon in cold water and take hot idles out :).

For Sambar:
Toor dal - 1.5 cup
Shallots/sambar onions - 10 nos sliced thinly
Tomato - 1large chopped finely
Tamarind -a small lemon size soaked in 1/4 cup water
Potato - 1 medium cut into small cubes
Carrot - 1medium cut  into small cubes
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp ( I used eastern)
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves - half handful
Salt to taste
Oil

To roast & grind:
Coconut grated - 2.25 tbsp
Chana dal - 2 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1.25 tsp
Red chilly - 3 nos
Curry leaves - 7 leaves
Asafoetida - a pinch

Preparation:

Roast all the ingredients on low flame (under the grind ingredients). Then grind them in grinder when cooled.

Meanwhile pressure toor dal in almost 3 cups water till done. Then mash them nicely with back of the spoon. Keeping the dal to further boil, add in the vegetables.

Meanwhile, in a pan add a tsp of oil and to this add mustard seeds. Once seeds splutter, add in the onions and sauté. Once light, add in tomato and add a bit salt for faster cooking. Cook till tomato gets smashed. Then add in the turmeric powder, sambar powder. Sauté till oil starts leaving sides.

Crush the tamarind in soaked water with fingers to remove the pulp from seeds. Then add the pulp paste to the dal mix. Now add the onion mix sautéd to the dal mixture. Stir. Finally add in the roasted powdered masala and stir nicely. Add salt per taste. The consistency of sambar should not be too thick. A little thin will be right. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serving:
Serve in a bowl with mini idlis soaked in hot sambar.

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Look who is here!!!

 

These days you dont get to see my new recipes or rather say trial and tested recipes cz the above pic says it all :). Now a full time mommy job and sleeplees nights is making me too lazy and tiring to try out and post something.

 

We were blessed with a baby boy on Aug 4th and the arrival of this little king made our family complete.. Like the saying goes, "We 2, for us 2". My little girl is very excited to be with him these days ( though she was not at first) that I cant even leave him alone for a second. The bro - sis hungama is quite an entertaining to watch :)

 

I will be on a break for quite sometime. Definitely will be back and also drop into my fellow bloggers profile to comment. Its been quite a while and really have lost touch with updates.

 

Love u all and keep posting great recipes :).

 

Cheers,

Neetz ;)

 

 



 

MUTTON BIRIYANI (My Way)

Mutton Biriyani (serves 2-3)

Ingredients:


Marination:
Mutton - 1/2 kg
Curd - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt


For Pressure cook:
Marinated mutton
Water - 1/4 cup


For Masala:
Onion - 1 large grinded to paste
Ginger-garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Tomato - 1 medium grinded to paste
Cashew nuts - 4 nos soaked in milk for atleast 30 mins. (optional)
Green chilli - 3 nos
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
Salt

For frying

Onion - 1 large sliced thinly

For Rice:
Basmati Rice - 1 bowl (measure of a normal 4.5" rice bowl)
Cardamom - 2 nos
Bayleaf - 1 no
Clove - 3 nos
Star anise - 1 no
Cinnamon Stick - 1 no
Salt

Pudina leaves - 1 cup
Rose water
Ghee

Preparation:

Marinate the mutton pieces once cleaned well with all the ingredients mentioned under marination, for atleast an hour. (I kept for 2 hours)

Then in a pressure cooker, add water and rest of ingredients mentioned under pressure cook and cook for 3-4 whistles.

Meanwhile cut all the ingredients for masala and grind then one by one. Grind greenchilli and coriander together and set aside. Gind tomato and cashew and keep aside. Likewise, onion paste too.

In a pan, add about 4 tbsp oil and add onion paste. Saute till it turns light brown in color and then add ginger garlic paste Saute till brown in color and then add green chilli - coriander paste and saute for 2-3 mins. Then add cashew-tomato paste and saute till oil starts leaving the sides. Then add the masala powders one by one and saute till oil starts leaving the sides again. Then pick only the pressure cooked mutton pieces (leaving the stock behind) and add to the masala mix. Then add coconut milk and cook covered till all the water is evaporated and you get a thick dry gravy. Now you have the mutton pieces ready.

Soak rice for 20 mins and in a deep pan add the soaked rice, the spices and little salt and then instead of water add the mutton stock that we got in the pressure cooker. Measure of rice to water will be 1 cup of rice to 2 full cups of water (take water in the same cup you measured rice). Measure the stock first and rest add water to it. Boil till water is evaporated and rice if half boiled. Now rice is ready.

While rice is being done you can slice the 1 large onion and fry in batches till golden brown in color and drain in tissue. Cut pudina leaves and keep aside.

Now for the arrangement:
Rub ghee on the base of the dish and layer first with rice. Then on top layer with mutton pieces and on top pudina and fried onions. The again on top layer with rice again and finally pudina and fried onions again. Since quantity was less I got only 2 layer of rice with mutton in middle. Drizzle drops od rose water on top of the rice and add few drop of ghee too here and there. Cover with a aluminium foil and bake at preheated oven 190C for about 30 mins.

BIRIYANI JUST OUT OF OVEN

For non-oven users, you can arrange the dish as said above and cover with a tight lid and then coverig the edges with a dough or masking tape. Then on very low flame, dum for about 1 hour.

Serve warm with Onion raita, achar and pappad :)..

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

PALAK KOFTA (Low Fat Version)

Palak Kofta

Ingredients:
Palak - 1 bunch

For the Kofta:
Potato boiled - 1 big
Paneer grated - 1/4 cup
Peas boiled - 1/4 cup
Green Chilli chopped veru finely - 3 nos
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Brown Bread slices - 2 nos
Low fat cream - As needed
Salt

For the Curry:
Butter - 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp
Cashew nutes - 8 whole
Onion sliced - 1 large
Ginger Garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Tomato - 2 medium sliced
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Kasuri Methi - a liberal pinch
Low Fat milk - 1 cup
Low fat cream - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Cut the stems of the palak and chop finely the leaves. In a pan add about 2 tbsp water and add the chopped palak and boil till water gets evaporated. Drain well. I further chopped the palak and kept aside.

For the Koftas:
Smash the potato so that no lumps are formed. To this add all the ingredients, 1/4 cup of palak, except bread.

Cut the ends of the bread and soak the bread in the water and squeeze nicely. Then add to the potato mix.

Now make small round balls of the mix. Flatten the the balls lightly and add about less than 1/4 tsp of cream and then cover the flatten ball to form a ball again.

Add 1/4 tsp of oil into Unniappam Pan, add each balls into one hole and fry till golden brown. Alternatively you can make a paste of cornflour, salt and water to a thick paste. Dip each balls into the cornflour and deep fry till golden brown. Drain in a tissue to remove excess oil.

You can see the cream in the centre when kofta is cut

For the Curry:

In a pan, add 2 tbsp butter. First add the cashew nuts and fry till golden brown and remove. Then to the same oil, add sliced onions. When slightly pink in color add ginger garlic paste and fry till light golden color. Then to this add tomato and saute till tomato gets smashed nicely.

Add in the powders and saute till oil starts leaving the sides. Leave the mix to cool down. In a grinder add the onion-tomato mix and cashew nuts and grind to a paste. I added almost 1/2 cup of milk too the grinding stage.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp butter and add the grinded mix and also remaining milk. While its coming to boil, add the very finely chopped remaining boiled palak to the mix and stir. Then add add kasuri methi and cream and stir. Switch off flame.

Serve the koftas topped with curry. It goes best with rotis and naans :)

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Notes:
While adding boiled palak, squeeze once more the water out and add.
Kasuri Methi is purely optional.

BOMBAY BREAD TOAST/FRENCH TOAST/BREAD TOAST

Bombay Bread Toast

Ingredients:
Brown Bread - 5 nos
Egg - 2
Milk - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Cinnamon Powder - 1/4 tsp
Butter

Preparation:

Beat the egg till light and fluffy. Beat milk and sugar together and then pour into beaten egg and to this add cinnamon powder and beat further.

In a flat pan, rub fair amount of butter on it. Take bread the slices and dip in the mix. Dip the reverse side too. Place the dipped bread slice onto the buttered pan and cook on low flame till both sides are light brown in color. . Serve with fruits and honey. Best for breakfast or evening snacks ..

Can it get more helathier than this :) :)...

Cheers,
Neetz ;)

Notes
You can definitely use normal white bread instead of brown bread.