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

Aloo Paratha/ Potato stuffed flat bread

I remember my mummy preparing aloo paratha during winter season and serving it with mango pickle which she had already prepared during the summer. Those hot parathas with pickle ,oh it was such a tasty treat for me and my brother. It makes me nostalgic.

well with time i have seen paratha getting customized with so many other vegetables, cheese and chicken. 

In North western India, the region of Punjab,Haryana and Delhi are specialized in parathas and now you can find these parathas being prepared everywhere in India. As you reach Bihar there is another very tasty and popular paratha dish called Sattu Paratha.

With time these parathas have crossed the borders and have reached to the dining plates of most of the countries on the globe.

My son has no teeth yet but he still loves them ,chewing the small bits with his tight gums. My hubby likes them too and i often pack them for his lunch. 

The type of aloo paratha that i prepare is very simple.

Ingredients:

• Wheat Flour -2 cup
• Water to knead the flour
• Boiled Potato - 2 large sizes
• Onion-1 finely chopped
• Garlic- 8 cloves finely chopped
• Ginger -1 TSP minced
• Green Chilly- 3 finely chopped
• Salt as per taste
• Ajwain -1 TSP
• Cumin seed- 1/2 TSP
• Coriander/Mint Leaves- shredded
• Unsalted butter/Ghee for cooking

Preparation of the dough:

Prepare the dough with wheat flour and water ,leave it aside.

Preparing the filling:

mash the boiled potatoes .Add onion,garlic ,chilly,ginger,ajwain,cumin seeds,coriander/mint leaves,salt. Mix well.

For the Bread:

make logs of the dough and simply tear them into balls of pamfull size.

Dust them with flour powder and then make bowls out of it.

For making bowls, hold the ball in left hand with the thumb at its center. With the thumb of the right hand finger start pressing around the left hand thumb.Keep rotating with the other fingers of left  hand.

Fill the bowls with the potatoes mix and close the mouth of the bowl and then roll them flat.

Heat the tawa . Place the flattened bread over the heated tawa. Turn on both sides until both the side becomes golden  brown in color. Once ,done grease the bread with ghee/butter on both sides. press with spatula on both sides once the bread seems to be cooked  take them off the tawa.

Serve them hot with tomato chutney , yogurt or pickle.

Enjoy and keep cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Salmon Fried/Maach Bhaja!!!

Salmon!  Oh i love this fish, Its delicious, Awesome. One reason being it doesn't have many bones here and there except for the single rib line which is mostly taken out in one go before it comes to the market.
i like many other fish the usual Rohu, Katla and pomfret. I love Prawns too but Salmon is my favorite among st all.

This salmon had been prepared in the simple convetional way.

Recipie:

•  Marinating the fish with teaspoon of turmeric,1 TSP of oil and salt. 
• Leave the marinate for 1 hour 
• Heat 4 TSP of oil in a skillet
• take two to three piece at a time and shallow fry them, until all sides turn golden brown in color. 

Serve it hot with Mayonnaise. Enjoy :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Lemon Rice

Lemon rice!!
Once i was travelling on Dhanbad Allepy Express. This Train connects extreme of south India to east of Jharkhand and this journey takes more than 37 hrs on whole. We Indians often carry home made food for such a long journey. Sometimes its better to keep interacting with fellow travelers as it becomes easy to pass such long long hours. In the same coach a south Indian  family was travelling with me carrying a Tin packed with Lemon Rice for the whole journey. They were very friendly and during lunch hours they offered me a plate full of lemon rice. As a courtesy i accepted the food and to be honest it was mouth watering awesome dish.  Since then i fell in love with this simple and serene recipe.
In south India during Pongal they prepare this rice. Also in several other festivals i have received lemon rice and gram curry as prasadam.
Take a note of this recipe:

Ingredients

• Rice- 2 Cups (boiled)
• Curry Leaves/Mint Leaves/Coriander leaves- Finely Chopped
• Mustard seed- 1 Tea Spoon
• Roasted ground nuts- 1/4 Cup
• Whole gram/Chana Dal- 3 TSP (soaked in water for 1 hour)
• Lemon juice- 3 TSP
• Salt as per taste
• Green Chilly- 2
• Turmeric- 1 Tea Spoon
• Oil for cooking
• Onion- 1 Chopped

Method

• Heat 2 TSP of oil in a pan or skillet
• Add the mustard seeds
• Once they start crackling  add the gram and roast it. If u have Curry leaves ,at this point of time add some curry leaves. If you are adding curry leaves  then mint or coriander leaves are not require to be added further.
• Add the chilly and onion
• Fry until onion is soft
• Add the groundnuts ,salt and turmeric powder. Fry for 1 min
• Finally add the rice, Fry until every thing gets mixed up well.
• Add the Lime juice , Mix well.
• Turn off the heat and finally add Mint or coriander leaves to it. 

Serve Hot with Pickle or Yoghurt. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Pepper and garlic Paneer /Pepper and Garlic cottage cheese

Am kind of bored deep frying almost every chili preparation. So this time i decided to prepare something without deep frying .Moreover i wished that it mus taste equally as good as any Chinese chili item.

I have been reading many cook books and following many chefs. They always keep a check on the amount of fat that we use in the preparation of any recipie. Its always good to use fat as little as possible but then to give space to exception its okay to consume more than a little bit sometimes. For this paneer preparation i paid special attention to garlic and ginger because i wanted the flavours of Chinese chili items. Here's the recipe:

 Ingredients: 

• Paneer/Cottage Cheese- 250gms sliced into 1/2 inch cubes(how to make paneer-http://wahsushkitchen.blogspot.in/2012/09/paneercottage-cheese-how-to-prepare.html )
•  Bell pepper- 2 sliced into cubes
• Spring onions - 4 sticks chopped
• Green chilly - 2 sliced
• Pepper cons / Pepper powder- 1 Tea Spoon
• Ginger-1 TSP finely chopped
• Garlic- 4 large cloves , chopped
• Corn starch/ Corn flour- 1 TSP
• Oil- 3 TSP
• Tomato- 1 diced
• Onion-1 sliced
• Salt as per taste
• Tomato sauce
• Soy sauce

Method :

• Toss the paneer cubes over the corn flour powder and pinch of salt.
• Heat 2 TSP of oil in a pan, now toss the paneer until its  golden brown from all sides.
• Take out the cubes once they are golden brown.
• Now in the same pan add 1 more TSP of oil and add the chilly and onion
• Fry for 30 sec ,add garlic and ginger, fry until light soft
• Add bell peppers , fry for 1 min, and add tomatoes and salt.
• Fry for next 1 min and finally add the tossed paneer cubes
• At this point of time add all the sauces and fry for some more time
• Make a solution of cornflour by adding 1 tea spoon to 90ml of water.
• Add this solution and let it thicken.Turn off the heat
• Finally add freshly crushed pepper cons or pepper powder
• sprinkle the spring onions.

Pepper and Garlic Paneer is ready to be served. Serve it hot with Fresh steamed rice. 

Enjoy and Happy Cooking :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Paneer/Cottage Cheese-how to prepare from scratch

Am in Germany and am very bad in Deutsche but then i have not given up.Am trying to learn it as much as possible. Its a sea and am only trying take  few plunges down the water. Anyways Paneer what do they call it in Deutsche- googled and found Paneer- Paneer kaase but that was quite different from what we use, so Finally i have to learn the art of preparing paneer by myself. Previously i thought of it as tiresome difficult process but then its just a child play. So my search of paneer has finally settled with me preparing itself all the time. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Milk- 1 ltr
• lemon salt water/citric acid- 1.5 TSP or else lime juice- 2 TSP
• Large sieve
• Muslin cloth
• Cold water- 1 ltr
• Heavy weight

Method:

• Boil the milk
• As soon as it comes to boil add the lemon salt water and keep on stirring
• Once water separates turn off the heat
• Place the muslin cloth over the sieve and drain the milk over it
• Cheese will settle over the muslin cloth and water will drain off.
• Now pour the cold water so as to remove the sourness from it. squeeze to drain remaining water.
• Make a desired shape of the cheese say round or rectangular block and then tightly tie the muslin cloth squeezing out extra left water .
• Put a heavy weight over the tied cheese and keep it aside for 3 hours.

Paneer is now ready to use. Remove the cloth and you will get  soft spongy entact paneer block.

Have a happy cooking :-)

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

Dalia khichri/ Wheat Rice Khichri

In this very fast life, on coming to food we often end up eating fast food ,just to save time. To bring in notice there are so many healthy food which are quick and easy to prepare, nutritious and tasty as well.  It save one from damage to health and time too. One of them is the wheat rice.It is easily digestible food, contains fibers and lots of other nutrients. It can be consumed by a wide range of age group, Say 8 months infant to 90 years old. One way to consume this item is to prepare its khichri .
Here's the recipe:This will serve four

Ingredients:

• Wheat rice -1/2 cup
• Tur Dal/lentil-1/2 cup
• Butter(unsalted)-2 TSP
• Cumin seeds- 1/2 TSP
• Salt As per taste
• Turmeric powder-1 tea spoon
• Tomato- 1
• Green Chillies- 1 (optional)

 Method:

• In a deep vessel such as cooker, heat the butter.
• Once the butter has melted,add cumin seeds and allow it to crackle.
• Now add wheat rice, and fry it for 1 min.
• wash the dal/lentil ,and add it.
• Add salt, tomato, turmeric and 2 cups of water.
• Cover the lid of the cooker and on medium flame ,wait for 5 whistles.
• let the steam of the cooker settle. 
• Serve it hot with/without curd.

I have prepared it several times. Most of my friends and family members love it. Hope you enjoy it too. :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit

Chicken Chaw Mein

Browsing through the picture gallery on my phone I saw this image of chaw mein, that I prepared some evening last week. I always had an affinity towards these kind of Chinese fast food. To admit I love eating Junk food ocassionally, Especially Chinese Fast Food. Their texture ,aroma and the hotness appeals me a lot, i cannot resist ,in short they drive me Crazy.

For those who love chaw chaw like me can land up on one ultimate Chinese Restaurant called Kyra,Indira Nagar ,Bangalore. Oh I will never forget the taste of Chinese fried Rice, a soup that was a mixture with bamboos ,lemon grass,other herbs and baked chicken sticks. Mouth watering. Please visit the restaurant some time . For those at Ranchi can try the chaw mein Served at Kaveri restaurant Ranchi, GEL church complex. There are many more to name, but once I start listing the list will go too long....Those who had very good experience at other places can help me, by naming those restaurants.

For this quality of Chaw mein preparation ,

following ingredients are required: This will serve two.

• Egg noodles- 250 gms
• Oil
• Chicken Breast pieces- chopped into small size
• French Beans- 1 cup,Sliced in length
• Carrots-1 cup, sliced in length
• Cauliflower/Broccoli- ½ cup
• Onion- 1 large, sliced
• Green chillies- 2,chopped
• Salt as per taste
• freshly crushed pepper
• Tomato Sauce
• Vinegar
• Chilly Sauce
• Oyster Sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Ginger Garlic- minced(optional)

For the preparation,

First we need to boil the noodles . There is a way to boil them or otherwise you will end up with sticky noodleesss.

• Heat the water in a pan by adding salt and oil.
• Once the water is hot then add the noodles and boil them until they turn soft.
• Drain the water, and put 2 TSP of oil in the noodles, such that they retain moisture.

Now for Add Ons

• Heat oil in a pan.
• Add green chillies
• Tuen the flame high, and add onion, sauté it and then add the Chicken pieces and salt. If you like ginger and galic , then this is the right time to add them.
• Fry for some time,until chicken gets cooked.Pour soy sauce and tomato sauce.
• Now add all the other vegetables, sprinkle salt for them and finally add crushed pepper.
• Once all the vegetables are cooked, then add the noodles.
• Fry for some time and then sprinkle all the sauces. Mix well and turn off the heat.(optional- you can take sauces of your own choices while serving ,and can leave the chawmein as it is at this point of time.)
  Your chicken chaw mein is ready to be served.Serve it Hottt!!!!,

Enjoy!!! :-)

some may like to add ajino- moto too. Thats all your choice. Keep Cooking and keep updating me with your experiments :-)

By: Sushmita Pandit