Roma's Space

Happy New year ! May 2010 bring happiness, health and prosperity to you all. Yesterday we had the most relaxed New Years celebration. We went to Niligiris Cake exhibition in St Josephs High School Grounds. Raina was excited about the Big Taj Mahal cake. She couldnt believe it was all cake. There was a long ship, folk dancers, flower baskets, horses, etc; all made out of cake. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weeks ago the ladies in our apartment decided to have a Chinese potluck. They asked me to make Chilly Paneer. Although I have been relishing it at various parties I had never really tried my hand at it. I just knew that this dish is dry and can be eaten as a starter.

I was confused about how to maintain that perfect texture of paneer. Those of you who have experimented with paneer will be aware of how difficult it is to cook paneer cubes well till inside as well as have them firm on the outside.

After interviewing a whole lot of people I found the trick. Its called ‘half-fry’. Here you need to shallow fry paneer fingers till they are exactly half done and pull them out.

Paneer’s behavior :

1) Deep frying paneer makes it go hard and brown.

2) Grilling paneer directly on  tawa / hot plate will make it stick to the bottom

3) Cooking paneer directly without frying makes it brittle

Read the rest of this entry »

For a really long time I have been thinking of making these vegetarian kababs which my mom had learnt from her close friend. Its a recipe that requires considerable effort and may be thats why I was putting it off. Finally, when I saw the Monthly Mingle – Grill It event being organized by Live to Eat, it motivated me to try my hand at it. These vegetarian kababs are made from black chick peas. Its a long drawn process of soaking, boiling, stir frying, grinding, grilling and then finally toasting. Let me see, have I left out any cooking procedure?
I grilled the kababs in the oven so that the outer crust gets a firm texture. Then I went on to toast it on the flame directly. I must also tell you that the end result tasted like never before. The taste of the carefully and mildly burnt sections of the kabab was so unique that now I might want to make it more often.
These kababs which are a bit dry should preferably be served with a minty, thick curd dip or a cheese dip to add to the moisture content.

This is my entry to the Monthly Mingle – Grill It Event hosted by Live to Eat. Do check out the Monthly Mingle Calender for more exciting events and round-ups.

Ingredients :

• 2 cups black chickpeas
• 1/2 teaspoon Jeera seeds
• 2 teaspoons Ginger garlic paste
• 1 Onion
• 1 teaspoon Chaat masala
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• Pinch of Hing or Asafetida
• 1 Green chilly
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 1 slice of small brown bread
• 1 teaspoon of maida (all purpose flour)
• Few springs of Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. Soak chickpeas overnight.
2. Pressure cook until soft. Will require at least 4-5 whistles on medium flame.
3. Drain out excess water. Heat oil. Add Jeera seeds.
4. Once the seeds splutter add asafetida, slit green chilly, chopped onion and ginger garlic paste.
5. Once onions appear soft add chick peas, coriander powder and salt. Mix well.
6. Turn off the heat. Add chaat masala and coriander leaves. All this to cool.
7. Grind this mixture in a mixie jar without adding water.
8. Now mix maida, 1 teaspoon of oil and crumbled brown bread. Knead for a minute to form a smooth dough.
9. Now take a skewer and wrap the chickpea dough around it. Give it an elongated shape with your hands.
10. Brush oil over it. Grill it in oven for about 15 mins at 200 deg C.
11. Now place skewer directly over the flame very carefully. Ensure you dont allow it to rest in one position for more than 2 seconds else it will get burnt. Careful with your fingers too.
12. Your vegetarian seekh kababs are ready. Serve with sauce, chutney and salad.

I gained about 21 kgs during my pregnancy. After my daughter was born the weight-loss anxiety began. I couldnt go on a crash diet as the baby was feeding. My mom told me to start eating broken wheat or dalia instead of rice , especially at night. I totally substituted rice with broken wheat in my diet for about 2 months and lost 7 kgs flat! I also used to walk and exercise but the dalia worked wonders for me. I told a couple of friends about this routine and they also lost weight with this substitution.

I have selected Ranjini’s recipe for dalia upma for the Your recipe rocks event. Her style of preparing the upma is very similar to how my mom makes it except that mom roasts the dalia instead of blanching it. However, the final dish tastes just as good. Thanks Ranjini for sharing your recipe with us.

Dalia is a perfect substitute for rice in any pulao or biryani. It can even be eaten with dal and sabzi. Once its mixed with curries, it tastes exactly like rice. Interestingly the cooking procedure is also the same for dalia and rice. So whats the difference? The calories reduce and the fiber nutrition goes up. Its excellent for digestion as well and can be given to babies over the age of one year.

In this recipe I used ordinary broken wheat as I had a pack at home already. If you go shopping please pick up sprouted broken wheat rawa like Ranjini has used as that is more nutritious.
Thanks to Madhu for hosting this unique event – Your Recipe Rocks. Hope the rice shortage problem will soon be overcome.

Rajani of Vegetarian in Me has given me the Yummy Blog Award. Thanks so much Rajani for thinking my blog to be yummy. I am actually a huge fan of her recipes. Somehow, each recipe she selects seems to be exactly the thing I want to make.

The recipient of this award is expected to do the following :
1) Mention what the award stands for
“This award is given to the blog with most yummy recipes/photos”

2) The recipient should quote their favorite desserts which they have eaten or made themselves

1. Rasmalai
2. Creme caramel
3. Red carrot halwa
4. Malai Sandwich

Wow! I enjoyed this part but it has made me very hungry!

3) Finally, I should pass this award onto 4 other food bloggers. Well, its very difficult to choose 4 as there are so many blogs I really like. Anyway, here are the recipients of this award :

1) Divya of Dil se

2) Asha – foodie’s hope

3) Happy Cook of My Kitchen Treasures

4) Madhuram of Egglesscooking

Congratulations to all!

Last week my neighbour gave me 4 big mangoes straight from her garden. I was ecstatic and was wondered how I can make the most of them. They were placed like a piece of art on my table for a few days. I allowed them to become semi-ripe and made good use of one mango in making these matris.

Few days ago I saw this recipe on TV where they were making little mango dumplings in a curd gravy. I tweaked the recipe to make these matris (in North India Matri refers to a kind of Biscuit made from a well-seasoned dough of wheat flour. Its usually deep fried and crunchy)

I tried my hand at this mango matri and was happy with the final taste. I actually baked the matris initially as that way they can be preserved for a few days. Whenever you want to eat them just deep fry in hot oil.

Please try finding a raw mango thats neither completely raw nor completely ripe. To make these matris a filling breakfast roll out the dough (poori-size) and deep fry. This is my entry to WBB#22, May Mango Madness hosted by Escapades.

Ingredients :

• 1 Semi-raw mango
• 3 tablespoons Gram Flour / Besan
• 1/2 cup Curds
• 1 teaspoon Chilly Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Carom Seeds
• Pinch of Kasuri Methi

Procedure :

1. Roast mango directly on the flame. Remove peel and mash into a pulp.
2. To this add gram flour, carom seeds, chilly powder, salt, kasuri methi and hing. Make a paste by mixing in curds.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry this paste, stirring continuously till it becomes a lump and leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Flatten this mixture on a greased surface with a rolling pin.
5. Cut into desired shape and deep fry till golden brown.

Please NOTE:

1. You can even bake them at 200 Deg for 15 mins. The time of bake however depends on how thin you make the matri. Do monitor and pull them out once they appear brown and crispy.
2. Please Spread out the besan Dough on greased surface while its hot else you will not be able to get a thin layer of cookies.
3. If your mango is too raw then use only half of it and add some sugar to the besan mix in Step (2).