Life 'n' Such

In laws are visiting, and we are having so much fun, dont feel like doing any work. I am going to be learning new recipes from Kashmir. Hopefully, I wont be lazy after eating them, and I will post them up here. Today, my mil made this amazing super quick chutney made with walnuts, green hot peppers, yogurt. It tastes pretty close to the coconut chutney made in South India.

Ingredients:

walnuts, handful
yogurt, few tbsp
salt, as per taste (I think we used 1/2 tsp)
hot peppers, as many as you like (we used 3 jalapenos)
optional: 1-2 garlic cloves, small half onion

Method:

Put all the above listed ingredients in a food processor (mini sized one). This chutney should be little coarse or grainy to touch, not smooth. 

Thats it, it tastes great even with simple rice and daal (lentils).

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Yummmmmmmmmmmmy!!!

Thats all I can say to describe this dessert. Halwa is very popular in India, Kashmir, and nearby countries. The recipes vary a little bit. In this recipe by Fauzia, an egg is added towards the end, apart from the other ingredients.

Ingredients:

Semolina (Suji) 2 cups,
Sugar 2 cups,
water 4 cups,
Oil/ghee 2 cups,
1 egg
spices: cinnamon stick, cardamoms, saffron
for garnishing: nuts and raisins.

Method:

First mix the cinnamon stick, cardamoms and sugar in the water, and keep it for boiling. At the same time, heat the oil in a heavy base pan, preferably non-stick. Then add the semolina slowly with your hand, while stirring it constantly. After mixing it well, keep roasting it on medium high heat. Stir constantly.

During this time, take a look at the syrup, if you get the cinnamony smell of the syrup, add the saffron to it.

When you get the roasted smell of the semolina, its ready. Add the nuts and raisins. Mix, add the sugar syrup to the roasted semolina, slowly, it will form big bubbles. Stir fast, when it starts to thicken, whisk an egg and add it quickly to the mix. Stir again. When oil seperates out, the halwa is ready to eat.

Best eaten hot. You can eat this alone, or also with parathas (Indian bread) for breakfast or snack.

I like it hot and cold. I like it anyway. It is sooooo good!

No Comments | In: Dessert, Food, Kashmiri, Recipes | | #

Zhan- zhanit zhunka, give it to me anyday! It is a very typical recipe followed by many in and around Maharashtra. Shanbhag’s Mom taught me how to make it. This recipe has lots of vegetables in it. So its as I like my food to be: super healthy, super easy and super delicious.

Thanks, Aunty!

Ingredients:

1 onion chopped,
3-4 green onions chopped,
a handful florets of cauliflower chopped into small pieces,
1 tomato chopped,
spices: mustard seeds(raai), cumin seeds (jeera)
green hot pepper (As many as you like- we added two jalapenos for this recipe, it was spicy enough)
3-4 cups cold water,
2-3 tbsp chick peas flour (besan)
salt,
2-3 tbsp oil
goda masala (a dark colored blend of spices- its ok if you don’t have it)
other vegetables of your choice (optional)
Method:

First in heated oil, drop the mustard and the cumin. Roast it, till you hear popping sound of the mustard seeds and the sizzle of the cumin seeds. Add hot peppers to this, fry sometime, add the onions and green onions. Fry on medium high (as if you are stir-frying). In a couple minutes add the cauliflower, mix and add the tomatoes. When the onions are translucent, add 2 cups cold water, and cook and cover till the cauliflower is crunchy, or almost done. At this point, mix the besan in a bowl of cold water, mix well, and add it to the vegetables. Now mix well, continuously stirring, so that no lumps are formed. Add salt and a teaspoon of the goda masala and thats it! Your garam-garam spicy hot zhunka is ready!

If you do not have any vegetables, you can only put onions and this recipe will taste great anyway!

Serve with Bhakri ( another typical recipe which compliments this zhunka, made with different kinds of flours) or rice or plain chapatis (basic indian wheat tortilla).

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And all little girls. Happy birthday you guys! One more year older, and a little more wiser! Good luck!

 

p.s. you know I am talking about you. Dont you!

2 Comments | In: About me | | #

I just got back from Pittsburgh today, and I had a fantastic day! I was visiting’s my old buddy Shanbhag’s family. It was so much fun! I ate and ate and ate all day. I will take all recipes from aunty soon, and post them up here for you all to try.

This recipe is a typical Konkani recipe. Konkan is the coastal region in India, and people living here, usually eat sea food. So this is a common recipe followed by people there and around.

I asked Aunty for the recipe, and here it is.

Ingredients:

shrimps (fresh bought from Chinese stores)
salt,
red chilli powder,
turmeric (haldi),
tamarind or lemon juice
garlic paste,
 mix of rice flour and semolina (very fine) 
oil for shallow frying

Method:

Marinate the shrimp, in the ingredients listed above, except the flour-semolina mix and the oil. Then dip the the shrimps in the flour-semolina mix, and shallow fry in the oil. Thats it!  

 

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Ayse Gul made this recipe a few days back at Nurhan’s house. I tried it today, and its just great!!! Its delicious, its easy, its yumm yumm. And oh yeah, did I say easy.

It reminded me of the halwa that someone used to make for me whenever I had the whim.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, 1 tbsp oil
1 coffee size cup all purpose flour (‘maida’)
1 coffee size cup sugar,
1 coffee size cup water
Method:

First boil the butter together with oil in a non-stick pan preferably. In the mean time, dilute the sugar in the water and keep it ready. When the butter starts melting and almost boiling, add the flour to this. And on medium high flame, constantly keep roasting the flour. Dont leave this even for a minute, or it will burn.

Now roast until you get a good smell, and the color is almost beige, like golden brown. At this point, very carefully add the sugar syrup to this, and mix really fast.

*Be extremely cautious while doing this, as the whole thing starts to form big bubbles.

Thats it, quickly mix the whole thing, until all the syrup gets absorbed.

Ta – da! Its done, and ready to eat. Serve warm-hot, and sprinkle nuts like almonds, walnuts, or raisins.

I made it today for some friends, and its great!

No Comments | In: Appetizer/Snack, Dessert, Food, Indian, Recipes, Turkish | | #

“One cannot think well, love well or sleep well if one has not dined well.”
–Virginia Woolfe

Interesting… hmm… our life revolves around food!

So eat; most importantly eat healthy.

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I am such a showoff, aren’t I? But, I finally got it right!!! After years and years of trial and errors; and believe me, a lot of errors, I finally did it!

Tandoori chicken, its either good or just bad. There is no in between. Finally I understood how to cook it perfectly! I had used aunty Sarah’s recipe, and tips from Fauzia, and a little variation of my own. I also had a food critic, so incase you need proof, I can give you his reference
Ingredients:

10-12 chicken pieces legs/thighs
Shan tandoori Masala, 2-3 tsp
Cajun Spice blend 2-3 tsp
salt,
yoghurt about 3 tbsp
ginger paste 1 tsp
garlic paste 1 1/2 tsp
tomato sauce about 2 tbsp
lemon juice about 1 tbsp
2 tbsp oil

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients, and let the chicken marinade at least about 4 hours.

Now for baking, I used a metal tray, lined it with aluminum foil (for easy clean up) and also sprayed the foil with non-stick oil spray (so that the pieces dont get stuck to the foil)

Arrange the pieces on the tray in 1 layer. Keep a foil over it, dont cover it completely.

The trick it to bake it correctly. I asked Fauzia how she does it.

Bake at 375 deg F for about 30 minutes. At this point, remove your tray, you will probably have clear liquid in your tray. Drain as much as you can carefully. Again bake at 350 deg F for about 20 minutes more, then take off the top foil, turn down the temperature to 300 deg F, and leave the tray in the oven for about 30 minutes. This will make the pieces crunchy.

Voila! You will have near perfect tandoori chicken, without a tandoor (traditional oven used for making tandoori)

No Comments | In: Appetizer/Snack, Food, Indian, Kashmiri, Other, Recipes | | #

This is a fantastic recipe with minimum number of ingredients. And the flavor is so unique. Adnan’s mom is visiting him from Bangladesh, and she gave me this recipe of hers. She is going to give me some more recipes, so watch out!

Ingredients:

Onions, chopped,
3 chicken, boneless breast preferably, cut into bite size pieces
tomatoes (lots, visually, should be more than the amount of your chicken), pureed in a blender, or chopped nicely
spices: 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder (methi powder), 1 tsp red chilli powder (laal mirchi), 1 tsp corriander (dhania) powder
ginger paste
oil for cooking

Method:

Start with frying onions in oil, then add the chicken and ginger, and fry for a few minutes. Add the tomato puree and then cook, until the oil seperates out (add salt for taste). At the end, at the spices, and let it simmer for a few minutes. Done!

Goes best with steamed rice.

No Comments | In: Food, Indian, Other, Recipes | | #

Just watched Ratatouille yesterday, and I can proudly say, I want to be Remy the tiny chef; I do have the tiny part covered ! I just want to be bending and twisting and turning, and throwing a dash of this, and a sprig of that! Hmm … well just go and watch the movie, all you fuudies out there!

2 Comments | In: Food, Interesting stuff | | #