Thursday, January 3, 2013

Carrot & Potato Puree (Baby food)

With the teething of my baby i had to cook up many dishes for my baby.My primary concern was that the food should be nutritious. So i picked up carrot and  potato. 
My experiment was successful in the sense that my baby really enjoyed eating the puree, Here is the recipe that suits kids of 1 year age.

Ingredients:

  • Potato -1 boiled
  • Carrot -1 boiled
  • quarter of medium sized onion - chopped thinly
  • salt
  • pepper
  • butter or ghee- 1 TBSP


Recipe:

  • Heat ghee or butter in a pan
  • saute onions until they turn golden brown. Add little pepper if your kid likes little spicy food.Turn off the heat once done.
  • Using a mixer grinder or blender make a puree of potato,sauted onions and carrot.Add little water to adjust the consistency.
  • Take the puree in a bowl and add salt to adjust taste.
The puree is now ready to be served.

By: Sushmita Pandit


Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Orange Flavoured Cake

Recently on Deepawali me and my hubby prepared the orange cake . It came out to be really awesome.
I  have been trying my hands on preparing the cake for so long time, i must say that orange cake is one that is appreciated by a large age group.

Ingredients:


  • All purpose flour- 3cups
  • Sugar- 2cups
  • Egg- 2
  • Butter/Refined oil- 1 cup
  • vanila Essence-1 tsp
  • Baking Powder- 1tbsp
  • Baking Soda- 1tsp
  • Cinnamom powder-1/2 t

For icing

  • Orange juice- 1cup
  • Whipping Cream -200ml should be very cold at the time 
  • Hand mixer/Beater kept in freeze for 1 hour before whipping
  • Vessel in which we will prepare the icing should also be kept in freezer for 1 hour before.
  • Powdered sugar- 1 Tbsp

Baking :

  • Grease the baking tray with butter
  • preheat the oven at 180 Degree C.
  • Beat all the ingredients until you can see some bubble inside the mixture.
  • Place the mixture in the baking tray, give the tray some tap before placing it in the oven.
  • Place the tray in the oven at 150 Degree C for 25 minutes to 30 minutes.
  • Check the cake at 20-25 minutes, insert a toothpick inside the baked cake if it comes out clean take out the cake and let it cool off.
  • Once the cake cools off, cut it into two layers, remove all uneven layers.

Icing:


  • Whipp the cream and sugar until the milk ends up in a foam. With hand it will take around 1/2 hours and with electric beaters hardly 2-3 minutes.
  • Pour evenly the orange juice on all the layers of the cake.
  • With the help of the flat spatula start placing the whipping cream over the bottom most layer, spread evenly on the upper surface.
  • Place the other layer of cake over the whipping cream And again place the half of the whipping cream, this time cover the upper surface as well as the side surface of the cake with whipping cream.
  • Now place the left whipping cream in a cone, place a star tip at the mouth of the cone and make some good shapes at the edge of the cake or what so ever way you want it . 
  • You can also place some choclate chips over them
  • Kiwi, strawberry, and orange looks really good when thinly sliced and placed over the cake.
  • Freeze  the cake for around 2 hours atleast before serving.
And thats how the Orange cake is Baked and dressed.
Thank you for reading my blog, Happy cooking, enjoy :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Monday, November 12, 2012

Jalebi


Happy Deepawali to all.
Make jalebis today and celebrate this Deepawali .
Such is the power of Jalebi. watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk8Z0WbSWV0&feature=colike just love it. Finger Licking, Mouth Watering Garma Garam Jalebiyaan....Whola. As soon as i hear the name jalebi , i start Craving for it.
So i prepared the batter and have kept in refrigerator ,Next time whenever i feel like having it i can prepare it in no time.
For perfect shape, Try preparing jalebi often :-)

Ingredients: Batter
  • 1/2 cup of all Purpose flour
  • oil- 1 tsp
  • Sugar- 1 tsp
  • 1 Tbsp yeast , activated in 2 Tbsp of lukewarm water
  • luke warm water
Sugar syrup:
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
Frying and shaping:
  • plastic cone bottle or any cone
  • Oil for frying
Preparation:
Batter preparation-
mix all the ingredients by adding little amount of luke warm water unless paste kind of consistency is reached.
Let the mixture rise for atleast 30 min to 1 hour
Syrup preparation:
mix the sugar and water , heat until it becomes little thick, keep the heat at low

jalebi Preparation:
once the batter is ready, put the batter in the cone and adjust the nozzle size.
Heat oil in a skillet for deep frying, keep the heat at medium.
make swirling round shapes and fry until golden brown in color
Take out jalebis and put them in warm syrup for like 10 seconds and take them out.


Jalebi is ready to be served : serve it hot and enjoy Deepawali, it tastes awesome :-)

Enjoy and Happy cooking .
By: Sushmita Pandit

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

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

Sunday, November 4, 2012

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 :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Monday, October 22, 2012

Panner Bhurji




Hi in this post you will find the recipe to prepare paneer bhurji in just minutes.
Ingredients:

  • Paneer/Cottage Cheese- 150 gms
  • Onion- 1 large Chopped
  • Bell Pepper - 1 large chopped
  • Garlic - 8 -10 cloves chopped
  • Green chilly- 2 chopped
  • Salt as per taste
  • Pepper powder- 1 Tea spoon
  • Cumin seed- 1 TSP
  • Oil for frying

Preparation:
  • Heat 2 TSP of oil in a pan
  • Add the cumin seed
  • Once they crackle add green chilly and garlic
  • wait until garlic softens add onion
  • Saute for sometime and add bell pepper
  • Fry until bell pepper is soft.
  • Add paneer crush them while adding
  • Add salt and pepper powder
  • If you have coriander leaves sprinkle some of it
  • Turn off the heat
Serve it hot with Nan or Chapati. enjoy :-)
By: Sushmita Pandit

Friday, October 19, 2012

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.


By: Sushmita Pandit



Saturday, October 6, 2012

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


Monday, October 1, 2012

Potato omelet / Aloo omelet

Sometimes we need food that can be cooked in just minutes. Omelet is one such food ,easy and quick in preparation. So what if we put potatoes in the egg, nothing they are just great combination. They taste awesome, Gut :-).
I quite often prepare omelet in so many different manner. But then this potato omelet is kind of filling and hunger satisfying. Sandwich them in bread with cheese and vegetables. Its good everywhere and every time.


Its a great way to start your morning with a piece of toasted bread and this omelet.
 For preparing this omelet you need:
  • Potato-1 small/medium (sliced very thinly)
  • Eggs - 2
  • oil- for cooking
  • Salt as per taste
  • Freshly grounded Pepper
Cooking
  • Heat 1 TSP of oil in a skillet.
  • Place the sliced Potato without overlapping
  • Sprinkle salt and grounded pepper
  • cover and cook for 1 minute. Turn and then cook the other side for 1 min more.
  • Sprinkle 1.5 TSp of oil over them 
  • Beat two eggs well in a bowl . Season with salt and pepper
  • Pour the beaten egg on top of the potatoes
  • Gently raise the sides of the omelet and allow the oil to slip in
  • Cook for 1 min
  • Carefully flip to other side without breaking
  • Cook for 1 more minute
Turn off the heat. Your omelet is ready to be served. 

Guten Apetite :-)
By: Sushmita Pandit

Saturday, September 29, 2012

kabuli Chana Chola Curry/Chick Pea Curry

Sunday breakfast All time Favorite Chola with puri . My good old days when my Mummy steaming the chola in the pressure cooker and the whistle of it would make us get up early from the bed to start the Sunday morning with this mouth watering dish.
My hubby's favorite breakfast which we love preparing occasionally on weekends. This mouth watering chola was accompanied by large number of puris. By the time you people will be reading this am sure nothing would be left back on my pan ;-)


For this chola curry we need:

  • White Chick pea- 200 gm soaked overnight in water
  • Potato peeled - 1 large size
  • Tomato -1 large finely chopped
  • Onion- 1/2 cup chopped
  • Ginger-Garlic Paste- 2 Tea spoon
  • Green Chilly- 3 Finely chopped ,depends how much hot you want your curry to be.
  • Cumin powder- 1/2 TSP
  • Coriander powder- 1.5 TSP
  • Pepper Powder- 1 Tea spoon
  • Turmeric Powder- 1 Tea spoon
  • Salt as per taste
  • Oil for cooking
  • Cumin seeds-1/2 Tea spoon
  • Mustard seeds-1/2 Tea spoon
  • Mint leaves- shredded
  • Sauce tomato, Cream (optional)
Cooking:
  • Boil the soaked cheak pea and potato by adding some salt and water to either the boiling pot or pressure cooker .Boil until cheak pea turns soft but not mushy.In a pressure cooker for boiling(4 whistles would be enough).
  • In a skillet heat 3 Tsp of oil and add mustard and cumin seeds. Allow them to crackle.
  • Once they start crackling add green chilly and after 10 seconds add onions.
  • Saute onion until they are soft.
  • Add the ginger garlic paste to it.
  • In a medium size bowl take all the masalas, salt and tomato mix them well by adding little water.
  • Once ginger garlic paste gets fried,I.e the raw smell is over add the masala paste.
  • Fry until oil separates from the masala.
  • At this point of time add the boiled cheak pea and potato . To this add 1 cup of water(use the same water which was used for boiling the cheak pea and potato) and let the curry simmer for next 10 mins.
  • Turn off the heat sprinkle mint leaves or coriander leaves.
Your Kabuli chana chola curry is ready to be served. serve it hot with Nan, Puri or chapatis.
Happy cooking.. enjoy :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit