Idli with chicken curry

After long long time i decided to prepare Idli. My friend who is south Indian has been giving me many tips to prepare the fluffiest of all the Idli. I followed her tips and few of my own instinct to achieve the fluffy  Idli.
The basic idea is to ferment the batter. Fermentation requires a warm temperature and few catalyst enzymes. In this episode i used fenugreek as the catalyst and for warm temperature i warmed a bowl of water in the microwave, took it out and then placed the batter inside and allowed it to rise. In around 8 hours i received the excellent rised batter.

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.

Dhokla in 5 minutes(Microwave Recipe)

My hubby kept asking me to prepare dhokla since last few months. It was high time to fulfil his desire to have dhokla. I prepared this dhokla in just 5 minutes. My mother always prepared the dhokla using rice and lentil. Each time she prepared it had great taste. I prepared this dhokla using Besan(Chick pea flour).
This Gujrati recipe is superb and tastes wonderful. I am looking forward to learn more and more Gujarati recipes as most of them are vegetarian and have wonderful taste. My mother and mother-in-law both love having vegetarian food, serving them some of the most delicious recipe will make both of them happy, this is what i aim at for the moment.

 

Spinach Mushroom Potato Cheese Sandwich

Health is wealth, so to preserve this wealth we should try to eat food as healthy as possible. I had to come up with a recipe that would be tasty, filling as well as nutritious. I brought together spinach, mushroom and boiled potatoes to prepare the filling for the sandwiches. I have always liked the Potato tikka sandwiches but this time i wished something more than Potato.

Here is the Recipe:
This will serve - 4
Preparation - 10 minutes
Cooking - 2 minutes
Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

• Potato- 2 large boiled
• Spinach- Bunch of fresh leaves, chopped
• Mushroom-5 large, chopped
• Onion- 1
• Salt
• Pepper powder- 1 Tsp
• Whole wheat Bread slices- 8
• Cheese slices- 4
• Butter
• Oil

Preparation:

• In a skillet heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil.
• Add in the mushroom and fry for two minutes.
• Add the spinach, sprinkle salt to taste, cover and let it cook for 2 mintes in medium heat.
• After 2 minutes, sprinkle pepper powder. Turn off the heat.
• Now add these vegetables to the boiled potatoes, mash and mix everything all together.
• Grease the bread slices with butter or margarine
• Sandwich the vegetable mix and a cheese slice between two slices of bread.
• Place in a sandwich maker for minute or 2.

Your Spinach mushroom potato sandwich is ready to be served, Serve it hot with Ketchup or Mayonnaise.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking.

By- Sushmita Pandit.

Garlic Chicken baked

This is an amazing garlic chicken recipe. The dish always came out with bright colors and mouth watering taste. Its an awesome style of baking chicken specially when you have not much time to cook and also when you want to use minimal spices and ingredients in your food. There's more to this, yes we get baked potatoes and onions free with the chicken all cooked in masaledar juices of chicken, onion, garlic, butter and few spices. So lets get started

• Serves- 4
• Preparation time- 10 minutes
• cooking time- 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

• Chicken - Whole (800-900 gms skin intact) or  4 leg pieces with thigh(skin intact)
• Butter- 100 gms
• Ginger Garlic Paste- 2 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• lemon- 1
• Rosemary and other herbs of your choice
• Pepper- freshly grounded
• Cuury powder or curry paste- 1 Tsp
• Potatoes- 4, sliced into quarters
• Onion- 2 large size, sliced thickly

Method of Preparation:

• Clean the chicken and pat dry with towel
• In a bowl take the butter(soft not melted), add the ginger garlic paste, pepper, salt,Lime juice, rosemary and other herbs. Mix together and come up with a paste like consistency.
• Rub this butter paste every where in the chicken. Place the paste inside the skin of the chicken, this will help chicken to absorb the flavors of spices and will keep it moist.
• Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius or 400 degree Fahrenheit.
• Grease the baking tray with butter
• Cover the base of the tray with onion slices and potato wedges, season with salt and pepper
• Now place the chicken over the onion and potatoes.
• Cook it for 10 mins, take out and grease it with the juices that are released in the bottom of the tray.
• Cook for another 10 minutes, check by poking a fork inside the skin near the leg, if it goes in easily and juices come out of chicken, it means your chicken is ready .
• Let the chicken sit for 10 mins before you serve it. 

Your chicken is ready to be served, Enjoy !!!!!!

Happy cooking.

By- sushmita pandit 

Wanna know how tomake kabab: http://wahsushkitchen.blogspot.in/2011/09/chicken-kabab.html

Khandvi

The khandvi is an awesome steamed food, Absolutely delicious and extremely Healthy. This Gujrati recipie is now one of the world wide famous dish and is being served in Cocktail partys where people are just loving it.

However the preparation of Khandvi needs whole lot of Patience and hell Lot of Strength.

Am writing this for those for whom the above two barriers are way far to be considered when it comes to making an Exceptional dish.

And Obama Wins the Election once again, Congratulations to America for successfully electing its President.

One more thing about Khandvi, babies will be loving it too, just like My baby Darsh do.

Ingredients:

• Chick Pea Flour - 2 Cups
• Yogurt- 2.5 cups
• Water - 6 to 7 cups
• Salt as per taste
• Ginger Chilli paste - 2 Tbs

For Tempering:

• Mustard seeds- 1tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Dry Red Chillies 
• Curry leaves
• Grated coconut 

Preparation:

• Mix all the ingredients in a Bowl and beat them well so as to ensure the batter is lump Free
• Once the batter is ready heat a kadhai
• Pour the batter, keep the flame medium to low
• Keep on stirring until the batter thickens to a paste
• To check wheather the batter is ready , make a thin layer of rectangle over the Aluminium foil, let it cool of, try to peel the layer off from the Foil, if you are able , your batter is ready.
•  In a table spread the Aluminium foil and grease it with oil
• Spread the hot batter as quickly as possible over the foil, repeat until you are done with the whole batter. let all the layers cool off for 5 minutes,
• Take a knife and start cutting 1 inch long strips over the layers. gently peel and roll them as seen in the picture. Repeat with all.

Tempering

• Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan
• Add the mustard and cumin seeds, wait for them to splutter
• add the chillies and curry leaves
• pour this evenly on all over the rolled khandvis with them help of spoon.
• Finally spred some grated coconut over the khandvis

voila!!! Khandvi is now Ready to be served.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Prawn Chilly

Like me i know lots of u love Prawn. Its exceptional taste is what always draws my mind. In india i made a curry with the indigenous spices found in our land. This time i tried to experiment with the Paparika , pepper and the small size prawns and the results were just awesome.

I have heard that in Orissa we do get the Mouth watering Prawn chops, But to my hard luck i never got to taste any and that too after staying there for such a long span. Anyways if someone has the recipe of Prawn Chops please let me know, am dying to try them out.

Lets come back to the prawn chilly and note its ingredients:

• Prawn washed and dried 150gms
• corn flour - 1 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• oil for cooking
• Onions - 1large diced into cubes
• Pepper - 1 large diced into cubes
• Garlic - 10 cloves chopped
• Ginger - 1/4 inch chopped
• Green chilly -3 chopped or slitted
• Soya sauce
• Tomato sauce
• oyster sauce
• water
• BellPepper finally crushed
• Spring Onions/Green onions
• Coriander leaves - finally shredded
• Cumin seeds

Preparation:

• Dust the prawn with corn flour and salt
• Heat 1 tsp of oil in a skillet
• Fry the dusted prawn until there colour turns orange.
• Take them out in paper towel
• In the same skillet add 1 more TSP of oil
• add cumin seeds, and let them splutter
• Add green chillies
• Add garlic and ginger dont fry for long just toss them
• Add the onions, fry until they are soft if you are using white onion, otherwise just toss them for 1/2 minutes
• Also add the bulbs of spring onion
• Time to add the Bell pepper, fry until soft
• Add salt as per taste
• By the time this vegetables gets cooked we can prepare the sauce solution(2TbSP tomato sauce+1 TbSP soya sauce +1TbSP oyster sauce+ 2 TbSP water) Mix well.
• Add the prawns and the sauce solution, mix them well. cover and cook for 1 min
• Take 1tsp of corn starch and mix it with 90ml of water.
• Add this solution to make the gravy
• Adjust the gravy by adding water
• Once you get the desired consistency of the gravy , turn off the heat
• Add 1 Tbsp of crushed pepper
• sprinkle coriander and green onion.

The prawn chilly is ready to be served. Serve it hot as snack or with white rice.

Enjoy and Happy cooking :-)

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By: Sushmita Pandit

Litty Chokha

This recipe makes me miss Ranchi a lot. Go to kacheri area sometime and please have this litty chokha there at the thelas, they are awesome. This Bihari delicacy is mouth watering and for Winter its the perfect meal.
When i was small and each time i would pass by the thelas Grilling the litty on wired racks over the Chullhas, my heart would fill with the desire to have atleast One. This recipe is dedicated to all my friends and family in INDIA.

For Preparing This type of litty chokha we need:
For the Litty:

• whole wheat Flour - 2 cups
• Sattu/ Bengal Gram/chick pea- Roasted and then Powdered - 1 CUP
• Chilly - 3
• Onion- 1 Finely Chopped
• Lime juice - 2 TSP
• Salt as per taste
• Ginger and Garlic-1 TBSP minced
• Ghee/Clarified Butter - 3 TSP for Brushing finally grilled Litties

For the Chokha:

• Potato - 2 Medium Boiled/Baked
• Brinjal/Egg plant -1 large
• Tomato - 2 Medium
• Chilly - 2/3 adjust as per your taste
• Garlic - 4 to 5 cloves minced
• Salt as per taste
• Coriander leaves

PREPARATION:

(LITTY)

• Prepare a dough with the Whole wheat flour and water ,add 1 TBSP of ghee and little salt.
• Prepare the sattu masala by adding all the other ingredients. Add little water to make it just  moist such that u can bind the mixture into balls.
• Prepare logs out of the wheat Dough and cut 1.5 inches of it.
• Roll it into ball at first. The keep your Right thumb in the middle and by pressing around it with all the other fingers rotate it with the help of the other hand. This will help you to make the BOWL shape.
• Fill the bowl with the sattu masala.
• Close the mouth . Repeat with other pieces.

Once Done either you can bake them at 200Degree C in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, Rotating each side from time to time and also brushing with ghee each time you rotate.

or else

Grill them in the same manner by rotating the ball from time to time and brushing them with ghee unless and until all the sides are cooked properly.

(CHOKHA PREPARATION) 

• Stab the Brinjal with the knife or fork as much as possible from all the sides , (Do not distort the shape)
• Grill it or bake it until  the skin becomes burnt.
• In a skillet heat 1 TSP of oil
• Chop the tomatoes and chillies
• Add the chillies to the oil
• Add the garlic, fry little
• Add the Boiled potatoes
• Peel off the burnt skin of  brinjal. Put the cooked and softened inside part in the pan. 
• Add salt and mash them all .
• Once everything is mashed, give them a stir  and finally turn off the heat.
• Sprinkle the shredded coriander leaves .

Serve both the Litty and chokha HOT. 

Enjoy  and Happy Cooking.

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By: Sushmita Pandit

Muthia / Vegan Sausage

This Gujarati Recipe is mouth watering ,healthy and filling dish. Muthia can be eaten as snacks or appetizer.  It can be prepared with bottle guard, cabbage or spinach. One that i prepared was using cabbage. same method can be used to prepare with bottleguard.

Ingredients:

• Cabbage shredded- 4 cups ( in case Using Bottleguard/Dudhi/Lauki: The only thing we need to take care of that once grated the bottleguard will release lots of water ,same should be use for mixing all the ingredients)
• wheat flour  2 TSP
• Gram Flour/Besan  1 Cup or more depending upon how moist is cabbage
• Sugar 1 TSP
• Lemon Salt/Citric acid 1/8 TSP
• Cumin Seeds/ Zeera 1 TSP
• Carom Seeds/Ajwain  1 TSP
• Salt as per taste
• Oil 1 Cup
• Fenugreek Leaves/Methi ka saag  Shredded 1 cup
• Fenugreek  1/4 TSP crushed
• Turmeric 1 Tea Spoon

For Tempering:

• Oil 2 TSP
• Mustard Seeds 1 TSP
• Curry Leaves
• Dry Red Chilli 3

Preparation:

• Mix all the ingredients to prepare tight paste.
• Now take 2 tsp of paste and make sausage shape out of it. Repeat .
• Heat 1 inch of water in a steaming vessel
• Place the steamer inside vessel and after brushing the steamer with oil , place all the muthias on it.

•  Steam it for next 15 to 20 min
• Do a knife test, place the knife inside the muthia ,once it comes out clean your muthia is done.
• Let them cool off. Cut each into 2 halves
• Heat oil in a pan
• Add mustard seeds, Allow them to crackle.
• Add chilly and curry leaves
• Add the muthias and fry until golden brown

Serve with chutneys :-)

Enjoy :-)
By: Sushmita Pandit

Paw Bhaji/Bread and vegetable curry

Paw Bhaji, Stomach full , tasty Dish,Easily available at any corner of Mumbai and on high Demand not only in INDIA but also in other countries like UK ,China ,Switzerland and the travel is On. One of the famous Dish that tops the chart on the menu of street food in India. I would recommend to try this at least once at Juhu Beach. Its a food that especially originated to assist people in saving the cooking time and also providing filling meal. Its too easy to prepare. Please do not drop your jaws Down if you do not have paw bhaji masala. Am going to share a very simple recipe For this Maharashtrian cuisine.

This recipie will serve 4
cooking time -20 min
Ingredients:

• Paw ladi or Bread Buns- 8
• Cheese of your choice.(optional)
• Butter-1/2 stick
• Potatoes- 4 medium size
• Cauliflower- 1 cup
• Carrots - 3 large 
• peas- 1/2 cup
• Cottage cheese/Paneer- 2/4 cup (optional)
• Green Chilli- 3 finely Chopped
• Ginger garlic paste- 2 tea spoon
• Tomatoes- 1/2 cup chopped/ pureed
• Onion- 1 sliced, 2 finely chopped
• lemon
• Coriander leaves- shredded
• Turmeric powder- 1 tea spoon
• Coriander powder -2 tea spoon
• Zeera powder/cumin powder-1 tea spoon
• Pepper powder- 1/2 tea spoon
• Salt as per taste
• Black Salt

Recipie:

• Boil peeled Potatoes, Cauliflower and carrots. Do not throw away the water, keep it for future use as a vegetable stock.
• In a pan heat the butter/oil .
• Add green chillies and chopped onions. saute for 30 sec
• Now add the ginger garlic paste and saute it for next 30 sec
• At this point add all the masalas and fry for 1 minute.
• Add tomatoes/puree and fry till tomato and oil separates
• At this point of time add all the boiled vegetables ,peas and paneer . mash them thoroughly.
• Add salt and 1 cup of vegetable stock
• Let the bhaji simmer until we get a thin paste like consistency.
• Turn off the heat.

For the Paw:

• one conventional way is to apply butter on both sides, slit the paw from the middle and toast it on the tawa on both sides.
• European Touch: Apply Parmesan Cheese on the paws and toast them on a toaster until light brown colour appears. Or
• Apply the cheese paste on the paws Or
• Can bake the paws with mozerrela cheese/Gouda Cheese until cheese melts Or
• INVENT A NEW STYLE OF toasting PAW AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW. :-)

For Serving :

• In a plate serve the bhaji, sprikle onion,coriander, jest of lemon and a little balck salt over it
• Serve the bread and garnish with sliced onion.

Paw Bhaji is ready to be served.Serve it Hot !!!!!!! Enjoy and Happy cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Vegetable Cutlet

Vegetable cutlet/vegetable Chop is the mouth watering Dish. When i was small ,my father use to get it from a restaurant, since it was one of my favorite snack so, i used to eat it with all heart and soul. Its healthy as it contains boiled vegetables and also lots of other micro nutrients.
They are so many versions of it. In some parts of India we get the very flat type with bhujia as the topping over it. In area nearby areas of  west Bengal,they will put peanuts, cashew nuts with a thin layer of bread crumbs, all rolled up..and many more versions. The one that i am going to share is the type prepared in West Bengal area.

Ingredients:

• Boiled potatoes- 2 large in size
• Boiled Beet root- 1 medium in size
• Carrots- 2 large in size
• All purpose flour
• Ginger garlic paste
• Peanuts and cashewnuts - Roasted
• Salt as per taste
• Green chillies
• Onion- 1 medium in size(finely chopped)
• Oil 
• Bread crumbs

Method of Preparation:

• Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan.
• if you do not have roasted cashew nuts or peanuts, you can roast them now.
• After the nuts have been roasted , add green chilies and onion. Saute it for some time.
• Add garlic-ginger paste,fry until the raw smell is over.
• Now add all the vegetables and fry. Mash them,add salt.
• Turn off the heat.

Preparation for frying the chops.

• Now prepare small balls out of the vegetable mixture.
• make a thin paste of all purpose flour and add salt to it.
• Dip the ball in the flour for a thin coating.
• Immediately roll the ball over the bread crumbs.
• Now deep fry them until golden color appears

Your Vegetable chop/Cutlet is ready to be served. Serve it with some chutney or sauce.

Enjoy :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Baked Potatoes,Nice and Crunchy

Hi ,In this Post i will tell you how to prepare mouth watering Crunchy baked Potatoes. This recipie will serve Four.

Ingredients:

• Potato - 4 Medium in size ( Slice as shown in the Image)
• Olive oil 
• Garlic cloves- 3(Chopped minutely)
• Green Chilli- 1(Chopped minutely)
• Pepper powder or freshly crushed Pepper
• Salt As per taste

Method:

• Wash and cut the potatoes.
• Place these potatoes in the baking tray and bake it for two minutes.
• By this time in a bowl mix all the other ingredients .
• Now take out the potatoes and mix it well in the mixture, keep it aside for 1 minute
• again pour the whole thing on the baking tray, separate all the potato slices such that they dont overlap.
• Bake them for next 5 to 8 minutes at 180Degree C

Baked Potatoes are ready to be served. Garnish it with mint leaves and Tomamto ketchup.

Enjoy ...And keep cooking :-)

Baked Potatoes/wahsushkitchen.blogspot.in

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By: Sushmita Pandit

Chana dal Vada

Hi, in this post we will learn how to prepare chana dal vada. It is an Indian snack that's often prepared during various festival . Its mouth watering and i love it. Hope you will enjoy it too. :-)

Ingredients:

• Chana Dal or Bengal Gram -200gms
• Onion- 2 Medium Size, Finely Chopped
• Green Chillies- 3, Finely Chopped
• Turmeric Powder- 1/2 TSP
• Pepper Powder-1 tea spoon
• Oil for frying
• Salt as per taste
• celery leaves or coriander leaves- finely chopped

Method:

• Soak the dal overnight
• Grind the dal as coarsely as possible along with the green chilies
• To this add salt ,turmeric,pepper,onion and celery leaves.
• Carefully make flat round shapes
• Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the mixture
• Take it out until vada's turn golden in color 

Chana dal Vada is ready to be served :-).

serve it hot with green chutney, preferably coriander chutney.

Enjoy and happy cooking :-)

Feel free to share your recipies with me.  Mailto:sushmita.pandit1@gmail.com

By: Sushmita Pandit

Aloo Chop/Potato Dumplings

Hi, in this post i will tell u how to prepare Aloo Chop. Its a famous fry usually found in Eastern part of india with the name chop while in Maharashtra they call it vada yes you are right it is the one that we find in the vada paw. For many its the day meal while for others its a satisfying evening refreshment. And for people like my mummy and my hubby its time for joy cooking and eating chops. In west bengal people will smash and mix the chop with puffed rice locally known as Mudhi again it becomes a stomach filling dish. And as a street food it helps thousands of people to keep on running who does not have time to prepare food. My father always use to tease me whenever i used to cry with a bengoli song that meant duaghter dont cry i will buy u a chop "Chela kandish nai chop kine dibo". I have so many memorable moments associated with this chop. Lets have the recipie.

Ingredients:

• Potato- 5 medium size(boiled)
• onion- 2 medium size(finely chopped)
• celery/coriander leaves- (finely chopped)
• Zeera/cumin-1 tea spoon
• Turmeric powder- 1 tea spoon
• Besan/gram powder- 1/2 cup
• Ajwain-1 tea spoon
• green chilies- finely chopped
• Pea nuts- fried
• oil for frying
• Salt as per taste

Method:

• Mash the boiled potatoes
• Add salt, green chilies,zeera, ajwain,peanuts, celery,onion to the mashed potatoes.
• Now make small balls out of this
• heat oil in a pan for frying
• Take besan in a bowl .To this add salt and water. Prepare paste such that its neither too thin nor too thick.
• to this paste dip the potato balls and deep fry them.

Serve hot with green chutney,sauce or with any chutney...

Happy cooking :-)

Thanks and keep cooking and enjoying :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Spinach Soup Recipie(Palak ka Soup)

Hi, in this post u will learn how to prepare spinach soup. 
Spinach, along with other green leafy vegetables is considered to be a rich source of iron
Spinach is very nutritious and highly rich in Vitamin A ,Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Folic Acid.......and many more elements. It is very much liked by small babies aged 8 months to 1 year. Also its a perfect appetizer.

Cooking time -15 mins
This recipe will serve Four.

Ingredients:

• Spinach - 250Gms 
• Onion -1 medium in size (quaterly chopped)
• Garlic - 4 to 5 pcs
• Salt - as per taste
• Corn Flour - 1 tsp
• Clarified Butter(Ghee) - 1tsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chillies - 2 Pcs(optional)

Method:

• Wash the spinach thoroughly.
• Heat 2 cups of water in a Bowl.
•  Add the rinsed spinach in the boiling water . To this add chopped onion , garlic , green chillies and salt.
• Allow the mixture to boil for atleat 10 to 15 min such that spinach and onion turns tender.
• Now turn off the heat and allow the mixture to come to normal temperature.
• Now grind this mixture to fine semi-liquid paste.

once we have the mixture we will add some flavours to the mixture

• Heat one pan
• Add 1 tsp of ghee or clarified butter to the heated pan
• Once the ghee gets heated add the corn flour and fry it for 1 min in low heat
• Add pepper to this
• Now finally add the grinded spinach mixture to this and allow it to heat under low flame for next 2-3 min

Garnish it with some fresh cream and bread at the top.Your spinach soup is now ready to serve. 

Serve it Hot with some nice Dry Breads........................

Enjoy!!!!

Happy Cooking... :-) 

By: Sushmita Pandit