Aloo Paratha

Just the name conjures up a wintry morning in Punjab. Hot griddles sizzling with pats of homemade butter, the clang of metal spatula on the tawa, thick fluffy parathas with just the right amount of stuffing, served up with a side of full cream yogurt and a slice of tangy mango pickle. Its my favorite breakfast and the ultimate comfort food.


I tried my hand at these last weekend and was pretty satisfied with the result. The aloo stuffing is so versatile you can take it from a simple salt-chilli powder combo to a jazzed up version with finely diced onion and 15 masalas(I counted!)


I have never had much luck with paratha-roti-puri type things. A couple of months ago I got the hang of making rotis and from then on it was an easy transition to parathas. My mom makes these great parathas with a unique flavor combination of ginger and coriander. Its very basic, less than 8 ingredients and the simplicity of the preparation lets the flavors really stand out.

To me it tastes like childhood.

For the stuffing

2-3 medium sized potatoes, boiled and peeled

1/2 inch ginger

1/4 cup coriander leaves

2-3 green chillies

Salt to taste

Grind the ginger-coriander leaves-chillies together using very little oil. Mash the potatoes and add the ground mixture to it. Mix together thoroughly and adjust salt to taste.

For the paratha dough

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp oil

1/4 cup warm milk

a pinch of salt

Water

Knead the dough with enough water to make it soft and pliable. Cover with a wet napkin and let it rest for half an hour.

Make two dough balls, roughly the same size. Roll them out to small thick circles.

Place a scoopful of the potato stuffing in one of the circles and put the other circle on top of it. Seal the sides together by crimping them slightly. Use a touch of water if necessary.

Dust with flour and roll out gently using equal pressure on all sides. Cook on a hot griddle and drizzle generously with ghee. I usually let one side cook without oil till it starts puffing up. Then I flip it over and add a tablespoon of ghee.

Serve with chutney, yogurt, pickles or just some plain butter.

Veggie Puffs

Ingredients: (Serve up to 4-6 people)
Puff Pastry Sheets (Frozen)
2-3 medium size potatoes
½ cup green peas
½ cup sweet corn
Oil, Garam masala, Red chilli powder, salt to taste

Recipe:

Boil the potatoes. Cut into small pieces.
Remove pastry sheets from the box as needed and divide the sheet into 3 parts. (Pepperidge farm 1 pastry sheet contains 3 single layers…so for 4-6 people, 1 sheet would be sufficient.)
Thaw the pastry sheets at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the curry by frying potato pieces, green peas, corn and spices in oil.
Unfold each pastry sheet on a flat surface such as a lightly floured board or countertop. You can roll them a little bit, to make them thinner but do not roll out too much.
Cut each pastry sheet layer with a knife into 9 square pieces. (3 squares in each layer of the sheet, ending up with 9 square pieces.)
Grease the aluminium foil with butter/olive oil to avoid sticking.
Place the squares on a large baking sheet or aluminium foil. (Make sure to place them apart from each other to allow for the pastry to puff up.)
Fill each pastry with a spoon of curry in the middle, leaving room for sealing easily.
Seal filled pastries by folding the edges to form either a triangle or rectangle and pressing the edges together.
Preheat the oven to 300F.
Bake the pastries in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry puffs up and turns golden brown.
Turn over the pastries and bake for another 15 minutes or until the pastry puffs up and turns golden brown.
Serve the light, tasty curry puffs with tomato ketchup or sauce!

Notes:
Don’t cut very large pieces of the pastry sheet.
You can also use onion and mix vegetables (Carrots, beans, peas and corn) if you like.
Similarly you can prepare Egg Puffs by substituting vegetable curry with eggs (boiled, sliced and pepper and salt added)

Quick Fix Tiramisu

Quick Fix Tiramisu

Here's a simple and quick recipe to make yummy Tiramisu. It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare this delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

(For 4-6 servings)

8 Ounces regular or light cream cheese
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whipped cream
1 package ladyfingers
½ cup prepared espresso, strong coffee
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Semisweet chocolate, grated for garnish

Recipe:

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract.
Fold in 1 1/3 cups of whipped cream. Dunk lady fingers in prepared coffee. Halve and place layer of ladyfingers in the bottom of glass pan. Spoon half of cheese mixture over ladyfingers. Sift some cocoa powder on the layer. Top with another layer of ladyfingers and remaining cheese mixture. Top with ladyfingers. Spread remaining whipped cream over top. Sift cocoa powder over the topping and garnish with grated semisweet chocolate. Refrigerate the dessert for 2-3 hours.

Source: Television Food network, G.P.
Copyright 2006: Robin Miller

KHARERA (CHANA DAL KI SABJI)

This is one of my favorite sabji made by chana dal, but u can make it by besan (gram flour) also.

INGREDIENTS----------

Chana dal---200 gms.(soaked in water for 5 hrs.)
Garlic paste----2 tbs.
Musterd seed----2 tbs
Red chilli powder--2 tsp
Salt
Coriander leaves---chopped
Turmeric powder---1/2tsp
Tomatoes-----1/2cup chopped
Methi seed----a pinch
Whole red chilli--2
oil--for deep frying
METHOD----------
This sabji is made by 2 steps----1)-square or trianguler shape berfi or wari and2)-gravy

-For Wari u have to grind chana dal into fine paste.
-Then add salt,1/4tsp turmeric powder,1/2tbs garlic paste,1tsp red chilli powder,and a glass of water into this paste.
-Take a nonsticky karai or pan,put 1tbs oil
-Now put chana dal paste mixture and cook it stirring continuously on medium flame for around 10 minutes untill water evaporates (it should look like a dough by which u can make any shape),now switch off the gas.
-take 2 flat plates or tray,grese it eventually by oil,take 1 part of that dough in 1 plate and other part on another plate and flat the dough to 1 inch thickness around the plate (dough should have to be hot or warm,if it will cool down then it will not make any shape).
-After 15 min. cut it into any shape or size as you like,and deep fry till golden brown
FOR GRAVY------

-Take a karai,put 3tbs. oil,then add methi seeds and whole red chilli,cook untill methiseed turns golden brown.
-Then add mustard paste,turmeric powder,redchilli powder,fry it for 6-7min. on medium flame.
-Then add tomatoes and salt, and cook for more 5 min. then add 1 glass of water.When water start boiling then put the waries and coriender leaves and switch off the gas immediately and cover the pan for 10 min. and then serve hot with rice.







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Potato Dolma Curry

I found this recipe in a magazine years ago, when I didn't cook so much. The pictures always tempted me but at that time the complex recipe intimidated my can't-boil-an-egg self. I always carried it around though waiting for the perfect occasion. At one party where I was forced to put out all vegetarian fare, I did try this and it was a success.

According to my one and half minute research, 'Dolma' is a Turkish dish from where it originated, but it is found all over the Arab world.Each country has its particular way of cooking.For instance; the Turks line the base of the pot with cleaned pigs trotters, the Lebanese with lamb chops, while the Jordanians make each Dolma so small, each one a mouthful.Basically any vegetable that can be stuffed is used; usually onions, vine leaves, courgettes, tomatoes and green peppers.Once the vegetables are stuffed they can be frozen until they are needed.
So you could say this is Stuffed Potato Curry, only I like saying Dolma. It sounds interesting and decadent.

Its a calorie laden, rich curry, and a little reminiscent of the sweetish Malai Kofta. Those who like the sweet-savory flavors will definitely enjoy this. It does have a lot of ingredients and requires some work but the results are so worth it.

So here goes
3-4 medium size potatoes

For the filling
Half a cup sweet peas-boiled and mashed lightly
2 tbsp paneer- crumbled
2 tbsp khoya - crumbled
1 tsp pistachios - chopped
1 tsp almonds - chopped
1 tsp white jeera powder - roasted
1/2 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste

For the gravy
1 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
2 medium size onions, sliced
1 tbsp green/red chilli paste
1 tbsp cashewnut paste
4 green cardommoms
1 peice of cinnamon
2 tbsp raisin
2 tbsp khoya
1/2 hung curd
Take some curd and tie it up in a muslin cloth and leave it for 3-4 hours. Once all the water drains out you will be left with thick curds.
Salt and sugar to taste

Mix all the ingredients for the filling and keep aside.
Boil the potatoes till they are soft enough to carve but firm enough to hold their shape. Cut them in halves and scoop out the centre of the potato to create a hollow space for the filling. Rub a little salt on the insides. Put the filling in and pack it really tight. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the stuffed potatoes lightly till they develop a crisp exterior. Make sure to move them around carefully so the the filling doesn't fall out. For the curry, fry the onions till they look light brown. Do not burn or caramelize them. The khoya is already sweet and caramelized onions will turn this into dessert. Add the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, ginger paste, chili paste and fry for a while. Let the mixture cool for a while and then blend with the curds, khoya, raisins and cashew paste. Add some water. Heat the mixture again until its cooked thoroughly and pour over the fried,stuffed potatoes. Cover the pan and simmer till potatoes are cooked.
I like this curry with roti or naan. the curry is not thin enough to be had with rice, although you could make it thinner.

Veggie Soft Tacos

Here's a simple recipe to make Veggie. tacos.
If you use Fajita size tortillas, 6-8 tacos can be made with the measures mentioned below.

Ingredients:
6-8 Flour Tortillas (Taco size tortillas are very big, so I normally use Fajita size)
1 LB Vegetarian refried beans
1 packet of taco seasoning mix
2-1/2 to 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce
1/2 cup Chopped onion
1 green chili- finely chopped
Butter

For garnishing:
Shredded lettuce, chopped tomato and green pepper, Sour cream, shredded Mexican cheese, taco sauce

Recipe:
Filling:
Heat oil (use very little oil- about 2 t-spoons) in a pan.
Add chopped onions and green chili, saute' until onion become brown.
Add tomato sauce, refried beans and taco seasoning mix, mix well and boil.
(Make sure not to add a lot of tomato sauce so that the filling does not become a thin paste.)

Tacos:
Heat both sides of tortilla on a skillet with little butter.
Spread little sour cream on the tortilla and then spread the filling on the tortilla (in the middle portion) . Do not spread the filling near the edges.
Garnish with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, green pepper, shredded Mexican cheese and sour cream.
Add some taco sauce on the top and then fold the edges of the tortilla on top of the filling.
If you want to make it little crispy, heat the tortilla for a longer time.
Serve hot.

Anda paratha

I had some leftover hard boiled eggs the other day and wasn't in the mood for your regular egg salad. So I did my own variation of it and put it in stuffed paratha for breakfast. It turned out pretty good, the egg filling was spicy enough to hold its own. I didn't even need dahi with it. Just a dollop of melting butter.

Paratha stuffing

3-4 hard boiled eggs
1 bay leaf
1 small onion
1 clove garlic grated
1 green chilli, chopped fine
a little coriander leaves, chopped fine
a little ketchup
salt-pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 pinches chaat masala

Boil the eggs, peel them and set them aside to cool. When they are completely cool, grate them. In a pan heat some oil, add the bay leaf and the onion. Cook the onion for a short time till it turns translucent. Try not to overcook it. Just a little bit so that its not completely raw in the stuffing. Add the grated ginger and let it cook slightly. Let the onions-ginger cool. Take the bay leaf out and add it to the grated eggs. Add the rest of the spices, green chilli, coriander leaves, salt-pepper and ketchup. I like the tomatoey taste but if it makes the stuffing difficult to roll, leave it out and serve ketchup later. Put the stuffing in the paratha dough and carefully roll it out.
Serve hot.