Life 'n' Such

Nothing is as good as your mom’s cooking. Isnt that true? Well, its definitely true for my mom. She is one of the world’s best cooks! I didnt think this till about 5 years back, but now from the other side of the world, I am a firm believer.

She can practically make anything, not every thing she makes is great, but generally she can make great stuff in minutes, I think Racheal Ray will really like her. She hates asking for recipes. I dont know why, but she never did. I am not like her, I appreciate good food, and I am not shy in asking people their tips and tricks.

Anyway, this is a fantastic recipe for making paneer makhanwala. Paneer is indian cheese, and makhan means butter. Sorry, it is extremely high fat food, but amazingly delicious. Eaten with naan (indian tandoori bread), its just like Heaven! or atleast as close

Ingredients:
Dry spices: chilli powder(laal mirchi), black pepper powder, turmeric (haldi), salt, corriander powder(dhania), garam masala

For the paste:
4-5 onions,
handful cilantro/corriander (dhania)
7-8 garlic cloves,
fresh green hot peppers (mirchi)
whole black pepper, bay leaf, clove
cashews soaked in water,

Put all of the above in a mixer/blender, and grind to a coarse mixture, almost smooth.

In ghee fry this, till oil seperates.

In another small pan, fry half a chopped onion and 1 bayleaf. Add 1 can tomato sauce and fry well. Put dry spice mix to this. After oil seperates, add butter and cream (I use sour cream, as much as you like:) ) Add this to the fried onion mix. Mix well. Add either plain chopped paneer to this or fry the paneer cubes in oil before adding it to the gravy/curry.

Enjoy!!!

Note: You may need to fry the onion mixture for several minutes, stop when you see the oil floating/seperating, so be patient!

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Who doesnt love Pizza, even my parents dog Winnie loves it. She can hold the pizza box down with her two front paws, and then practically eat away all the pizza, even the cardboard on the bottom of the box.

The first time Papa John’s came out with the Perfect pan pizza, I didnt try it. You see, we are always looking for the best deals on pizzas, and that time I dont think there was any deal on those.

Again when they got it in, we ordered it once, it was with 5 toppings of your choice and a large pizza for 12.99 wasnt a bad deal. So we got it, and since then we havent gone back! The pan is really made to perfection!

We love it! I made a few of my friends try it, and some of them have converted to Perfect pan-ism. Give it a try.

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I just cant get enough of Buffalo sauce, I had never eaten buffalo sauce in India. But its tangy and hot, like indian dips.
Recently at Burger King, they have buffalo sauce as one of the dips. I got a few extra from them, and now I am planning to make my own home-made Buffalo chicken Sandwich.

Ingredients:
Get the buffalo sauce dip from Burger king,
Get fresh buns from bakery/just plain bread,
Chicken breasts,
eggs beaten and kept in a wide mouth bowl,
flour with couple pinches of salt and any seasoning (italian is good)
oil for frying
lettuce, mayo, tomato slices, cheese (i like blue cheese with this sandwich)

To make the chicken patties, dip the chicken in egg, then in flour and a couple more times repeat. Finally dust the chicken with the flour. Fry the pieces in little oil.

Keep aside. To arrange the sandwiches, dip the shallow fried chicken in buffalo sauce, and arrange layers of chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese on one side of the bun. Spread some mayo on the other side. Thats it. Serve hot!

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In India, we spread fresh home-made ‘makhan’ butter on bread and eat for breakfast sometimes. It is delicious. In America, the cream cheese when softened is pretty close to the makhan of India. Spread it on toasted bagels or plain bread. Its so great, add a few slices of tomato or even scrambled eggs, and you have a delicious and pretty healthy breakfast. Have a glass of juice, and you are set.

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Buttery, flaky, yummy! I visited Ulfet, and she made this pogaca (bread). Katmer means layers, cos its flaky, because of lots of butter!

Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 cup warm milk,
1 turkish tea cup oil,
1 egg white,
1 tbsp yeast,
1 turkish tsp salt,
1 and half tbsp sugar,
flour as much as needed

1 stick softened butter

Optional:
1 egg yolk for brushing the top of the bread before baking, and/or sesame seeds

For the filling:
turkish /feta/mozarella cheese and parsley, or meat filling, or potato and onion filling

In a large mixing bowl, put the yeast and sugar and the warm milk. Cover and keep aside for 15 mins, till it rises. Add all the remaining ingredients listed for the dough except the flour. Put the flour little bit at a time, till you get a soft dough. Let it rise for a few mins, then divide the dough into 8 parts. Roll out into flat discs about 7 inches in diameter, one at a time. Keep the softened butter ready, and apply to each layer as you start stacking them one on top of the other. (Basically, roll one disc, apply butter, roll out another disc, lay it on top of the first one, apply butter, and so on, till you reach the last one. Do not apply butter on top of the 8 disc)

Now with a thin rolling pin, open the stacked discs into a bigger circle, about the size of a large pizza (maybe a little bit larger). Now with a pizza cutter, cut to make small pieces (triangles).

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Put your desired filling on the narrowest side, then roll (as you would to make croissant rolls). Lay it on the tray. Repeat, till all done. Now wait till they become almost double their original size. Brush the top with egg yolk. (Sprinkle sesame seeds if you like). Preheat the oven at 350 deg F. And bake till almost done. (Few mins). Turn your oven setting to broil. Again broil till the top is reddish brown in color.

Pull out the tray from the oven, cover it with a cloth or a towel for a few mins. Thats it. Now dont wait, grab a plate, and enjoy delicious yummy katmer pogacas.

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Mixed vegetable stir-fried or cooked with indian spices is a great way to add vitamins and anti-oxidants to your diet. Just use the recipe on making basic vegetable and add different vegetables to it, the only rule of thumb is add the veggies that take the longest to cook first.

Some combos that go good together:

These are just a few combinations. Try various combinations and if you have a winner, share it with us. Have fun, eat healthy, stay healthy.

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Another fantastic side dish eaten with rice or roti (indian bread) by Madhu aunty.

Ingredients:
Papad- 4 medium side circles
Yoghurt (dahi) 1 bowl
Salt as per taste
1 tsp Red chilli powder (mirchi powder)
quarter tsp turmeric (haldi)
1 tsp corriander powder (dhania)
half tsp whole cumin (jeera)
oil for cooking
cilantro for garnishing

Heat the oil in the pan, and fry the jeera in it. Mix all the spices, in yoghurt and add this to the oil. After a few minutes, add a glass of water to this. After this boils, break the papad into pieces and throw it in. Simmer for another few minutes. Garnish with fresh cilantro (fresh dhania)

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I wouldnt usually recommend people to spend their money, but trust me, there are tons of things at Kaufmann’s that are 75% off now. Plus today and tomorrow, they are extra 40% off. Shoes, clothes, baby clothes, coats, dresses, etc etc. Now tell me, isnt it worth goin shoppin! So hey, why are you still at the computer, go go….you wont wanna miss it!

p.s. Kaufmann’s is soon going to be Macy’s, thats why such great deals, they are kinda cleaning out.

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Super easy kebab recipe by Hacer. Give it a shot.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground meat (lamb, beef, etc)
2 big onions grated,
1 egg
salt, black pepper, red pepper, mint
fresh parsley a handful chopped
Bread crumbs handful

Mix all the above and make it into flat patties. Fry this in oil, till both sides are brown.

Note: Another variation is take a baking tray, then put layers of slices of potato, tomato, peppers and kebabs. Then mix 1 can tomato sauce and 1 cup water, and pour this over the layers. Bake at 350 deg F for almost an hour.

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Recently I posted a recipe on making chinch gulaachi aamti. This recipe is actually a variation using the chinch gulaachi aamti. I made this tonite. Actually Daal dhoklis are made in Gujarat (India) by gujarati people. As there are many gujaratis in Mumbai (where I come from) I often ate this at my friends house. I dont have the exact recipe for making authentic daal dhokli, but what I made today is pretty close to the actual taste.

I will ask my Mom to get the authentic recipe for daal dhokli and post it on the website sometime soon. Till then, enjoy this simple and tasty recipe for daal dhoki.

Ingredients:

For the dhokli part:
wheat flour,
salt,
carom seeds/thyme (ajwain)
water
little oil

Method:

For the daal part follow the chinch gulaachi aamti recipe, just one extra ingredient: add peanuts to the daal while cooking it. Use more water, since the daal will be boiled more time, with the dhoklis in it.

Make the dough for the dhoklis. It should be little stiff/tight, using less water than you would usually use for making normal rotis. Roll out circles approx 8 -10 inches diameter. Cut diamonds with a knife.

When the daal is ready, add the diamond shaped pieces into the boiling daal. Boil another 15 mins, till the dhoklis are completely done.

While serving, add few drops of lemon juice. Serve hot.

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