Aloo Chat

Last month it was my Son's birthday and as a starter i prepared Aloo chat for our guest. It was a hit for the day and my guests thoroughly enjoyed this food.

Let me give you a bit of more insight about aloo chat . Aloo chat is the most enjoyed street food of India. Made with potatoes, bit of chick peas and then dazzled with yogurt ,few chutneys and fried Bhujiyas. This food has got the capacity to water your mouth with just a mere look at it (Only if you know how good it tastes).

Chicken Seekh Kabab

Merry Christmas. This festive season is turning me all lazy. Its so difficult to get up from bed these days. I find this winter more colder than the last years . The shopping season is about to end and i have grabbed all desired stuffs in discounts. 

The exchange of Christmas gifts with friends is happening almost everyday. My son is totally loving the Christmas tree at our house and is amazed with the ornaments and lighting on it.

Curry Würstchen(Sausage curry)

Its Christmas time and the place where i live in Germany is all set  with Christmas market. All over the market area theres lots of innovative lighting show that has been placed. This looks absolutely amazing.
In my visit to Christmas market i focused mainly on the food. Apart from Gluwien(Hot seasoned red wine) and Kinderpunch(mix fruit juices for kids) sausages are major consumed food during this season.

Prawn- 65

I know its long time since i have been back on my blog. But this time i bring to you a wonderful recipe of Prawn, which is known as Prawn-65. Chicken 65 is more popular but i must say that prawn-65 is none the less in taste. This is quite a simple recipe and also a quick one.

Suppengrün suppe Rezept(Karroten, Lauch, Sellerie, Petersilie) Soup Recipe

Supermarkets in Germany often sells Suppengrun in their vegetable counter. I was quite fascinated with this combo whenever i strolled through the market. Last day i bought this combo to prepare the soup. I would like to tell you all that my soup turned out superb and super delicious. Here's the recipe of this tasty and highly nutritious soup :

Serves- 4
Preparation time- 10 minutes
Cooking time- 20 minutes
Total time- 30 minutes

Ingredients:

•  Carrot- 2, chopped
• Leek- sliced
• Celery- chopped
• Potato- 2, large, peeled and chopped
• Butter- 1 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Pepper- 2 Tsp
• Petersilie/ Parsley
• Cream/ Sahne

Direction:

• Heat butter in the boiling pot.
• Add all the vegetables except parsley. Season with salt.
• Saute until they are half cooked.
• Add 500ml of water. cover and let it boil for 15 minutes until everything is done.
• Once it is done turn off the heat. Mash the vegetables with the help of blender or once it cools you can grind them in the mixer grinder.
• turn on the heat once again, add the cream and mix well once again. Finally turn off the heat. Sprinkle freshly crushed pepper.
• Sprinkle the chopped parsley and serve.

Serve hot with Baguette or any bread of your choice.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. 

Happy cooking.

By- Sushmita Pandit

Black Forest Cake - Halloween Special

Its Halloween time. My cake isn't so scary but it suits well with the mood of Halloween. Yes i prepared the black forest cake for my son. It tastes same as what people get in CCD back home. Here's the recipe to this mouth watering , lovely cake.

Schezwan Chicken Noodles

How about having a schezwan noodles to refresh up your evening. For making this noodles you need to have schezwan sauce with you. You can either prepare this sauce at home or you can easily find the sauce in the market. I paired this noodles with chicken and few other vegetables like broccoli, mushroom , carrot and french beans.
You can always add the vegetables and meat of your choice for this noodles.

Schezwan sauce

Spice up your mood with awesome mouth watering hot Schezwan Recipes. This sauce can either be prepared at home or can be bought from market.

For preparing schezwan sauce we need:

Ingredients:

• Dry red chilly- 200 gm, soaked in warm water for 3 to 4 hours
• Garlic- 1 bulb, peeled
• Ginger- 1 inch, chopped
• Onion- 1 large, finely chopped
• Sugar- 1 Tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Oil- 1 Tbsp
• Soy sauce- 1 Tbsp
• Fish sauce- 1 Tbsp(Optional)
• Tomato sauce- 1 Tsp
• Vinegar or lime juice- 1 Tbsp

Direction:

• Drain away the water in which chilies have been soaked.
• Remove their seeds and then grind them to make fine paste.
• Heat a pan in medium to low heat and add oil to it.
• Now add the finely chopped ginger and garlic . Saute until raw smell of ginger and garlic is over.
• Now add the onions and saute until translucent.
• Finally add the chilly paste and salt. saute for 5 minutes until oil oozes out.
• Now add the soy sauce, fish sauce, tomato sauce and vinegar.
• Saute for some time. finally add little water and cover and cook for 1 minute.

Turn off the heat. Once the sauce reaches the room temperature you can store it in the jars and refrigerate it. Use it when ever required.

Enjoy....

By- Sushmita Pandit

Murgh Shorba curry(Chicken soup curry )

For those cold and wet days when there is a transition from one season to another, many of us are often affected by cold and cough.I present to you a perfect curry to lighten up your soul at this time. This is Murgh shorba curry(Chicken shorba curry).

Carrot Cake

Its October and i can see that people are all set for the October feast out here in Germany. Back in India its time for Durga puja (Dusshera, Navratri). When i was a kid i would wait the whole year for this festival, Its a full on 4 days of energy pack festival in India. In west Bengal Durga pooja is celebrated with all pomp and show, you will be amazed with the number of pandals and the different styled Idol of Goddess Durga. Its time when the city of Kolkata is on the light show.
I have planned to visit the Pandal here in Stuttgart and pay my respect to the Devi Durga.

Methi Aloo stir fry

Methi aloo is what i call a sober side dish in the Indian Thali. The outcome of incorporating the fresh Fenugreek leaves with potatoes is wonderful. This easy dish can be prepared in just minutes.
This is my mums favorite stir fry and this recipe has been shared to be my mummy.
Its perfect for those days when you wish to have something light and less spicy.
Do you know that after fast its good to break it with little green leafy vegetables. Back home vegetarians consume so many different types of Leafy vegetables. Most popular are spinach(Palak saag), methi saag, lal saag, bathua saag, pui saag, amarnath saag and the list continues. My state special saag(green leaf) are Konark saag, kalmi saag and chana saag. Yes in India we have n number of vegetables and grains which i miss so much at times.
Anyways coming back to the methi saag, which is favorite of so many people, here is my mums special saag recipe.

Apple Cake

First time i came to Germany, i tried the apple cake. I was so impressed by this dish that i often enjoy it at my favorite bakery. But this time i decided to prepare one by myself. I find this recipe extremely easy and tasty. Would love to share it with you all.
My son with his rapidly developing taste buds is showing a lot of interest with cakes. It took him seconds to finish this cake.

Butter Chicken- The Easy way

I love butter chicken
This is the easiest and the wonderful recipe for butter chicken...After a sad incident with my machine i was quite upset but to my surprise things got back on track in time.I love my hubby's detective attitude for that, he is quite smart and intelligent and never ever looses a chance to impress me....

Baked whole chicken

After long time i was craving for the baked chicken. Its kinda cold at my place and continuously drizzling since 3 days. I felt like having some crispy soft chicken at this time. So i baked a chicken by incorporating both deshi and videshi ingredients. The outcome was fantastic. My husband and son enjoyed it. I am sure you will enjoy this recipe as well.

Banana Blossom and potato curry

Banana Blossom's curry are one of my favorites. My mother often prepared it fresh by plucking the fresh Blossom from the banana plant. Apart from the blossom the stem is also used in preparation of curry. Its little tedious cleaning the flowers from the blossom but its worthwhile as the curry has incredible taste.
Banana plant is the one whose every part is brought into use while cooking is done. Right from the stem, blossom. raw banana, raw banana's skin and the ripen banana. The leaves of banana tree finds a very important place as its leaves are used as plates. Yes dishes are served on the fresh cleaned banana leaves. I love this environment friendly idea of serving food. The food tastes even more tasty when its served on the leaves.

Methi K Parothe(Fenugreek Leaves Flat Indian bread)

Methi k Parothe... I am sure many of you have your mouth water when i say this. Its all time favorite of many Indians. Methi has a widespread use in Indian kitchen and also the seed has lots of Medicinal properties.

Rawa Ladoo -Teej Special

Today is the festival of Teej. Hindus all over the world celebrate it. Today the women observe fast and tribute their worship to lord Shiva and goddess Parvati. It is celebrated for the well being of spouse, childeren, purification of body and soul as well as harmony in Married Life.

French Bread(Baguette)

After the foccacia bread was over i thought of trying out the the french bread baguette. I love this bread and its life savior at times when i am extremely hungry. I often buy baguette from market which has garlic and butter filling in the gashes. I enjoy it with soup or lentils.
I tried this recipe and and it turned out good.
My hubby loves it and i think its the best bread to bake at times. Here goes the recipe of french bread Baguette.

Foccacia Bread

Finally my Oven gets installed after so many hush hush. And i could not stop myself from baking. I thought why not to start with a bread. But before bread i tried some ginger garlic baked potatoes and to my surprise my kid loved it . He finished it in just minutes.
I have been buying Foccacia bread from supermarkets but could not find the one which would please my palate. So it was the topmost things to be baked. I found a recipe on the website of Sorted. The recipe was very easy and simple.
Few mistakes that i had done earlier while bread making is now that i no more repeat. One of it is adding garlic to the dough at the very beggining. Garlic is the enemy of yeast and it quickly kills all the yeast thereby you end up making some useless loaf. So beware once you are using garlic, check the timing when you are adding garlic to your bread next time.
So here's the recipe of Foccacia bread.

Quick Chilla with Coconut& peanut chutney

What if you get something very tasty dish right on the weekend morning. Something that can prepared just in minutes. This is wheat and rice flour chilla . I found this recipe in one of my fellow bloggers site"Tickling Palates". I tried this recipe  and i must say i am impressed with this.

To accompany this i prepared coconut and peanut chutney which was a perfect side dish for this chilla.

 

This recipe

serves: 15 medium size chilla

preparation time- 5 minutes

cooking time- 1 minutes for each chilla.

Rosogulla,sponge rasgulla recipe

Happy Rakshabandhan to all....
I have already sent my Rakhi gifts to my brother back in India. I have received my gift too. I miss his presence here at the moment. To celebrate this special occasion i prepared the Rosgullas. This sweet which is prepared from curdled milk is extremely tasty and is a perfect way to treat yourself.
There is no rocket science in preparing this rosgullas. Once you follow this simple steps you will end up making perfect spongy rosgullas.

so lets get started
Serves- 10 small size Rosgullas
Preparation time- 15 minutes
Cooking time- 15 minutes.
Level of difficulty- medium

Ingredients:

• Milk- 1 Ltr (3.5% fat)
• Vinegar or lime juice or citic acid solution- 1 Tbsp
• Sugar- 3 Tbsp
• Water- 250ml
• Cardamom powder or crushed cardamom

Other required instruments

• 1 large flour shifting sieve 
• 1 muslin cloth or cotton cloth that can be placed over the Sieve(size should be big, such that you can fully cover the sieve)
• 1 Tray
• Food processor or mixer grinder(optional)

Direction:

• Boil milk in a sauce pan. Once it comes to boil add the vinegar or citric acid. Stir well and let it curdle until the curdled milk and water gets separated fully.
• place the cotton cloth over the sieve. Now pour the curdled milk over the cotton cloth placed on the sieve. Wash the accumulated curdled milk with 1 liter of cold water. you can do this by simply placing the sieve beneath the running water from the tap. 
• Now carefully remove the cotton cloth squeezing out water from the curdled milk. you can twist the cloth to squeeze out water from the milk.
• Once the milk is dry place it in a mixer grinder jar. Give a little jerk, mix well and then jerk again....until all the nodules turn into smooth batter . Do not churn it too much.
• Now place the milk batter out of the mixer jar and spread it on the plate. Touch it if its too sticky place it inside the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. Take out , now knead this with your hand for 5 minutes. Next make small balls out of it. Remember once you place them in sugar syrup their size will become double.
• To prepare a sugar syrup we add the water and sugar in a pressure cooker or in a vessel in which we can entrap steam once we close its Lid.
• Now we place the vessel on heat until sugar dissolves and water comes to boil.
• Next place the balls inside the sugar syrup, cover the cookers lid and remove the whistle. Let this cook in low heat for 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes, turn off the heat. Let this sit for 10 to 20 minutes.
• Once cool check out your super spongy , mouth watering rosgullas. Add the cardamom powder and serve.

Happy Rakshabandhan .....enjoy your Rosgullas....

By- Sushmita Pandit.

Couscous Salad (Indian Independence Day Special)

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indian.
India completes 66 years of freedom since British left India. Since then India has come a long way. Countries across the globe have recognized it as a wealthy and rich country with a rich heritage culture and history that goes back more than some 10000 years. Although its a developing nation but aims to become developed by 2020.
On this special occasion i pay my respect to all the freedom fighters who led their lives in the path to attain freedom. Vande Mataram.
Today i prepared Couscous salad with a tricolor theme. This is a quick and super tasty salad. gets prepared in no time and tastes wonderful. I dedicate this recipe to Durga Shakti Nagpal ...A young and honest IAS officer who is fighting for justice in the country against Sand mafia.

aloo cheese paratha(Potato Cheese Stuffed Flat Bread)

Cheese and Paratha is a superb combination. These cheese inside the bread gives a good moisture and texture to the bread. The end product is  a tasty mouth watering paratha.
India is famous for several varities of flat bread. Since the popularity of cheese has grown up so much , we definitely needed to blend the cheese in Indian food in some or the other ways. Hence we have this cheese paratha.
Rakshabandhan is also coming up. Its the celebration of brotherhood where the sisters on full moon day in the month of Shravan (Buddh Purnima) ties a holy thread on the wrist of her brother which signifies the well being and prosperity of the brother. In return the brother takes a vow to protect his sister throughout his life.
I have already sent my Rakhi threads to my brother. Those who haven't may soon send their Rakhi love to their brothers.

Nariyal k ladoo(Coconut ladoo)- 2 Min recipe

Nariyal k ladoo are favourite ladoos of so many people. What if i let you know a quick Nariyal ladoo recipe. I found this recipe on food food by Rakesh Sethi. The way he explained this recipe and with so much humor. I am really impressed with his presentation.
Without wasting any time, let me take you straight to the recipe.

Yields- 10 medium size ladoos
Preparation time- 10 minutes
No cooking required

Ingredients:

• Dry Grated coconut or - 1 cup
• Milk powder- 3/4 cup
• Sugar- 3 Tbsp or as per taste
• Milk- 1/2 cup Luke warm
• Cardamom powder- 1/2 Tsp or crushed green cardamom- 5 to 6 pods
• Pistachios crushed for garnishing
• Saffron for Garnishing

Direction:

• Bring together coconut, Milk powder, sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well.
• Now add milk little by little just to make the mixture moist such that it can be combined together in a 1/2 inch ball.
• Prepare 1/2 inch ball out of the mixture.
• Garnish your ladoos with saffron and pistachios.

And your ladoos are ready to be served. Serve them immediately and the leftovers can be stored in refrigerator . Enjoy and happy cooking :-)

By- Sushmita pandit.

Chilly chicken with gravy

And once again am back with a Chinese cuisine. My love for Chinese dish will always remain the same.
Previously i posted Dry chicken chilly and here am posting it how to prepare it with gravy.
This dish tastes wonderful with rice and noodles as well. With gravy it is apt to serve as a main dish.

Ramadan Special- Eid Menu

The holy month of Ramadan is going on . On the 30th day of fasting with the appearance of moon in the sky Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid-ul-fitr.

India is all set to Celebrate it with pomp and show. The Eid markets all over India is flooded with eateries and new clothes. The special eateries being Dates, different varieties of sewai(Vermicelli), sweets , Bakery, falooda and Mughlai cuisines.

The celebration varies from region to region. However one thing that remains common amongst all is the celebration of brotherhood. This is marked by meeting of all the Muslims in either Eidgah or mosques(Masjid) early morning dawn for offering the Eid ki namaz (Special prayers for Eid).

However before Namaz(Prayers) one thing that is quite popular is the sacred bath. This is the usual bath however its significance is that the earlier you bath in the dawn the more you cleanse your soul with something pure like milk. The preparation  and drinking of "pyala" (Milk, sugar and coconut )  or (Milk with dry fruits) takes place just after bath.

Kheer(Milk rice ) Milch reis

Kheer is the most loved dish in India. It is often prepared during celebrations, poojas, wedding and any other special occasion. On birthdays Preparation of kheer is compulasory in my family.
However since my husband and my son love it i like preparing it often.
I was in supermarket and found a packet of rice called as milch reis. I got that this rice is special and can be used with milk. This was small flat broad rice unlike the usual one that we use for preparing the rice. To my surprise this rice tasted awesome in milk.
I am sure you will love this kheer recipe.

Meetha Pulao(Sweet Basmati Rice)

This is another lovely recipe. This has been shared to me by my mother. Its an awesome fragrant sweet basmati rice recipe. This can be served along with chana dal or Dal kaadu or any curry of your choice. It tastes great and i totally adore it.
Hope you too like this recipe.

Kaju Curry(Cashewnuts Curry)

Kaju curry has always been my all time favorite. For the first time i tasted this dish in a famous restaurant in my home town . Since then i fell in love with it. Usually am not able to eat more than 2 Tbsp of any rich curry  but when it comes to Kaju curry, am never full.

The long and large size cashew nuts are good for this curry but any type of cashew will also do.
The recipe is extremely easy and simple in preparation. It is rich, creamy and awesome in taste. It will go very well with bread, nan, chapati or rice.

French Beans Curry

French beans are universal and so are the diversity in the dishes made out of them. This french beans curry recipe has been passed on to me by my mother. Her cooking is nonparallel and so is her teachings. When it comes to cooking my mom is my teacher. She usually directed me to do one task while something was on stove. However each time the task was different. After some time she directed me to perform combination of tasks .Then came the time when she only asked  "Honey!! would u like to prepare the curry for the dinner tonight". That's how i leaned cooking. I was always ignorant of the fact that by performing single task i m learning how to do one, and it was a gradual ignorant process of me learning how to cook. I never realized that i unknowingly have learnt cooking until one day i prepared curry of my own version . I was always hopping around in kitchen when i was 11 years old and by 16 i knew how to prepare dinner, which usually served 4. Whenever i was at home during holidays i would cook for my family. My dad would always  love whatever i cooked.
And i carried this cooking legacy forward to my college where cooking was not allowed. But life is so dull unless and until you have never broken any rules. Sometimes my canteen food tasted yakky so i arranged for 1 small portable heater and a sauce pan. Whenever i didn't feel like turning to the canteen i Prepared quite a few things using the sauce pan. My friends would always praise me for what ever i cooked. There were two reasons they did that...1. Few genuinely found my cooking good while 2. others were only concerned with the their part ha ha(Hostel is a mixture of unique people). Oh i miss my college days, lots of fun and hungama.

Prawn butter masala curry

I love prawns, but i hate to devein them. I just not only find it complex but more of a tedious process. Being said that i love the butter curry that is prepared with prawns. My hubby is not a great fan of sea food as he is more sensitive to the sea food smell. So before i cook any of those i make sure that i have put in all the ingredients that removes that typical smell.
 This time i brought king prawns and before i started cooking it, i marinade it with little spices and with the curry leaves. Later i tossed it in butter before i introduced it to my final curry. The fried prawns were as awesome. The butter and the curry leaves left some enchanting flavors on the prawns and it was nice and crunchy by that moment. However i quickly jumped up for preparing the curry and then my house was filled with aroma of whole spices, butter and curry leaves. Once i hopped out of my house i could still smell it when i passed by my window, lovely.
I am enjoying the fact that it is summer at my place and the sun sets at 10:00pm . This is like the best time of the year and i adore this moment. I quickly finish my dinner in the evening and go out for walk near parks and garden. It is very beautiful to admire the setting sun and the fleet of birds taking their flight back home. I wish it would remain like this as long as possible.

Chicken Curry - The Bangla Style

The Bengali Culinary art has always inspired my cooking. Say it like fish, chicken or any vegetable i often like to cook it the Bong way. This time it was chicken curry that i prepared. As i mentioned earlier a bong dish often has a dash of sugar to it for carmelizing the dish. I used the same principle in this curry too. 

The output of this recipe is superb. My husband was extremely happy with texture ,taste and flavor. While i was cooking the aroma was tantalizing. I am sure the readers of this post will find it extremely helpful to prepare chicken curry the bong way. 

Chicken Egg Roll with a video

When it comes to preparation of chicken egg roll am always on my toes and you won't believe that it can be do in less than 40 minutes(kneading, Filling preparation,rolling and cooking the egg roll).

Ranchi and Bokaro street vendors prepares some of the Best chicken rolls. However i was really disappointed with the egg rolls that i had in Bangalore at several places.

There is way to prepare this and therefore i shot a video of the final assembling of everything.

I have learnt how to do this by watching the street vendors as they prepared it. Being raised in a vegetarian family i always prepared the veg roll adding soy granules instead of chicken chunks and it was also good. But as soon as i got married and came to Hyderabad i tried doing some hands on with the chicken roll. I surprised my hubby by presenting him an excellent one and since then he knew that i could cook few of the awesome mouthwatering snacks.

So friends here is my favorite roll recipe and i know like me there are many of you who love it too. So i dedicate this recipe of mine to all my friends of Ranchi and Rourkela.

Steamed Broccoli with garlic and cashewnuts

There are times when i do not feel like looking at spices anymore. These are the times when i prefer healthy steamed vegetables. I prefer steaming rather than boiling as nutrients remain intact so that i benefit the most out of these vegetables. My family eats vegetables most of the days except on weekends. It sometimes turn boring preparing the curry every time . Moreover there are very few ways i like having broccoli, either steamed or saute. I do not like it in curry at all as i strongly feel that Broccoli has its own taste and adding too much of spices to it kind of loosen that original taste.
My kid 18 months like having it steamed too along with carrots and potatoes. So i steamed broccoli along with carrots and potatoes.
For the sauce i used olive oil instead of butter and made a kind of sweet, tangy and crunchy sauce by adding cashew nuts to it. This was perfect for our dinner and had great taste. I found this way of making everyone eat broccoli. It was very nice and i hope it works for you too.

Mushroom masala with corn(When it rains in jharkhand)

Mushroom has always been my all time favorite. In my hometown we get several varities of them. I know them by their local names and i just love them. There is one which is round in shape and has a dark colour once we open it, popular in Ranchi as Rugda or phutka. The other one has an open umbrella and is popular as chata(umbrella). One more variety is like flower, but a stiff flower which is popularly known as Dingil. These are all wild but are edible. Their taste is unparallel. They are never cultivated and we get them only when the wild soil is blessed by monsoon during the summer.

These are rare varieties of mushroom and are only available "when it rains in Jharkhand". 

Chicken curry- Andhra style

Being a total chicken fan, i always hunt for ways to cook it differently. This time i searched for south Indian recipe and since i always ordered the Andhra chicken curry whichever restaurant we went in  Hyderabad , as i liked it a lot, so i decided to prepare in on my own this time.
To my luck i came out with a delicious and rich andhra chicken curry. I used poppy seed and coconut to prepare the gravy. I was surprised with the effects that this two ingredients had on my dish. It was more flavorful and the chicken curry tasted simply superb.
I know many of my friends like me are chicken curry fan, i dedicate this curry to them

Vegetable and egg fried rice

I love fired rice. Whenever i have some rice leftover with me i quickly give it a colorful texture. My son loves it. Its so easy to prepare that it hardly take much time, roughly 10 to 15 minutes. I like adding scrambled eggs to the rice which add in taste to it.
This is the recipe for people who wish for taste in no time. I like keeping it clean and simple but yet tasty. I also like several Chinese and Indian version of fried rice.

Chinese Chilly gobi and potato chilly(Famous Indian Street food)

Chinese cuisines are remarkable. It has marked its place more as a street food not only in India but across the globe. The taste ,simplicity and ease with which it can be prepared is what i guess has made it popular and widespread as well. Am in Germany and whenever i enter a famous mall at my place i see like most of the people with packets of noodles strolling all the way. This is just a snapshot of the popularity of Chinese cuisine.

Chicken meat balls with Spaghetti(Asian style)

I have always been fascinated by the pictures of meat balls lying over spaghetti. I never tried it with meat because of so many reason but then i realized i can simply do it with the chicken itself as chicken being low fat this would be better. I quickly went through the recipes of usual meat balls and then i knew how i was going to make it in Asian style with a little Indian touch to it.

Kadai Paneer

Kadai panner is an awesome Indian spicy cottage cheese curry. This is easy in preparation and has an amazing taste. This is like my "Weekend special". Quick and tasty".
Lets quickly get on to the recipe.

This recipe 
serves-4
Preparation time- 5 minutes
cooking time- 20 minutes
Level of difficulty- easy

Rajmah curry(Kidney beans curry)

Kidney beans are quite popular everywhere. I just love this rajmah curry with rice. It is a superb combination. I know like me there are many rajmah curry fans.
This dish is quite popular in Indian restaurants. My hubby loves it and therefore i prepare it every now and then. Preparing it becomes easier with the canned kidney beans. Otherwise the kidney beans need to be soaked in water overnight and then boiled before it can be assembled along with the spices.

Lamb Vindaloo curry(Mutton Vindaloo )

Lamb Vindaloo is a famous Goan cuisine. This is basically a Portuguese dish, which Indians in Goa later customized. My hubby prefers lamb over chicken and since its a special day of ours i just asked him if we could sit back at home and i cook something special for him.

Kaddu chana dal Curry(Bottlegourd and Lentil curry)

While i was in Bangalore i usually prepared this curry for my Lunch box. This is a pretty simple and straight forward curry which requires no cooking mastery.Talking about the end product, i bet you will always prepare this because its tasty as well as easy to prepare.

Kadhi pakoda(Fritters in yogurt gravy, Kadhi curry)

I remember one of my Punjabi neighbour who prepared mouth watering kadhi pakoras. This curry is  a total inspiration from her. I learnt many more punjab special dishes from her like cabbage paratha, aloo paratha and sarson ka saag recipe. Anyways my hubby likes having Kadhi with rice. The gravy turns out to be so simple yet serene in taste. At times i skip preparing dal along with rice instead i prepare this kadhi for a change.
Try this aloo pakoda kadhi and enjoy this dish.

Aloo Dum(steamed Potato spicy curry)- Bengoli style

During my childhood my mother always used to prepare this aloo dum curry, which we used to enjoy with puri's. This spicy potato curry was always special for us , reason being she always prepared it simple yet it had a taste that was unique and super delicious.

Rawa Idli- Quick microwave recipe

Idli is the king of South Indian Breakfast but the whole country have it every now and then. This rice and lentil steamed dumpling is a great way to start the day. The side dish like coconut chutney and sambar makes the meal complete. Its a solution for fast food. I remember back in Bangalore whenever i could not have my breakfast at home i would rush to my office canteen to grab a plate of idli. This plate of idli would make me not feel hungry until the lunch time and thus helped me to concentrate on my work.

Watermelon cooler(Tarbuj ka sharbat)

#Beat the heat. Yes its summer, am hunting for thirst quenching drinks. I made this water melon cooler with just lime and melon. This is very simple but a refreshing drink. Easy to prepare and really nice to serve.  

In my last two post in the beat the heat series i posted the mango cooler and stone apple drink. Am looking forward for many more drinks to bring in this series of Summer dink.

Thus recipe
serves- 4
Preparation time - 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• Fresh watermelon - sliced and deseeded
• Salt as per taste
• Ice cubes
• Lime juice- 1 Tsp

Preparation:

• Pump in the watermelon in the blender and blend to puree it.
• Pour in the serving glass.
• Sprinkle salt and add in squeezed lime juice.
• Drop some ice cubes

Sit back , relax and enjoy.. your refreshing watermelon cooler.

By- Sushmita Pandit

Coriander Chicken(Dhania Chicken)

I love using herbs in my food. It entangles the dish with some enchanting aroma. That is why i cooked up the herbs chicken. The herb that i basically used in this dish are the fresh bunch of green coriander leaves and a bunch of fresh mint leaves. To be straight forward i added the green chutney in the chicken . The preparation of green chutney is very simple but the taste that it imparts to the whole dish  is just unparallel. 

Vegetable Kurma or veg Korma Curry

Vegetable Kurma or Navratan Korma is one of the famous vegetable curry dish . This dish can be easily found in any menu of an Indian restaurant. It is rich , creamy yet a hearty dish.

Chicken Noodles

Watched an awesome romantic Bollywood movie yesterday "Aashiqui 2". Heart touching movie and some of the most soothing songs of this decade. Aashiqui 2 is a must watch for Bollywood fans .