Here comes the Chinese version of the desi samosa! We saw the recipe on Tata sky cookery videos and my help Sunil managed to make these for us. He quickly converted something I have always wanted to eat into something stunning right on my plate.

Wontons remind me of that movie ‘Zinda’. Omigawd! What a movie. A poor guy was kept captivated for 14 years and was given only wontons to eat everyday. The taste hung onto him so much that after he escaped he ate only wontons at every street in Bangkok to find the place from where his wontons were got. Thats how he managed to finally track the person who did this to him. Why would someone hold anyone hostage for 14 years? I don’t want to say more, please see the movie. I saw it with only one eye open, other was squeezed in fear. I felt like I was inside that box… gasping for freedom. May be we all are in that box in some way. Think about it while you munch on these wontons.

Ingredients :

• 2 cups of all purpose flour / maida
• 3 cups of grated mixed vegetables (carrot, beans, capsicum, cabbage, spring onion)
• 3 teaspoons of oil
• 2 teaspoons Tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon chilly sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• Pinch of salt and black pepper powder
• Oil for frying

Procedure :

For the Dough

1. Mix 1.5 teaspoons of oil and salt into maida till it resembles the texture of bread crumbs.
2. Add luke warm water and knead the dough to medium stiffness.
3. Allow it to rest for at least half an hour.

For the filling :

1. Heat  1.5 teaspoons of oil. Fry the grated vegetables till they are half cooked.
2. Add black pepper powder and all the sauces to the vegetables and turn off the heat  (Do not add salt as the sauces are quite salty by themselves)

For the Wontons :

1. Take a ball-sized piece of dough. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a round-shaped roti.
2. Fill it with a teaspoon of filling. Apply water on the inner edges of the roti.
3. Fold over and press the edges slightly extending outwards.
4. Hold the two extreme ends and fold over. Apply water and press again to make a wonton (like that in the picture).
5. Deep fry on medium heat till it turns golden brown.

Crunchy Soya Toasts

I love Tata Sky- it has made my life jhin ga la la! Simply because we get new recipe videos everyday. These are typically 4 videos recorded for NDTV Good times and some other regional channels earlier. The set of 4 videos is called ‘Menu for the day’ and it has a starter, a salad/ beverage, a main course dish and a dessert. Some times the combination varies, like if its raining too much outside they have only hot snacks. They even have festival special videos where they demonstrate how to make delicacies specific to each occasion.

Aravind, the younger brother of the house help we had after my delivery is very interested in trying his hand at new dishes. He had come home to stay with us for a couple of days and watched the recipe for crunchy soya toasts on Tata Sky. He didnt realize that the video repeats itself all day. I found it really cute when he said ‘Didi, I have understood the recipe, when is it going to stop?’

Few days later he soaked the soya beans on his own and started making these toasts in the evening. It was such a pleasant surprise and I ran for my camera to share it with you guys. I liked the way this little 15-year old was making a unique snack smartly on his own. I watched as he deep fried the toasts and thought to myself ‘This guy is like I was years ago’ (I wont tell you how many years ago, or you will know my age! ;-p)

Ingredients :

• 1 cup soya beans
• 1 onion , few springs of Coriander leaves, 2 green chillies (all fine chopped)
• 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Dried mango powder (amchur)
• 2 teaspoon All purpose flour / Maida
• 1/2 teaspoon Red chilly powder
• Pinch of Ajwain

Procedure :

1. Soak Soya beans for 2-3 hours.
2. Pressure cook in sufficient water for 15 mins.
3. Drain and cool. Grind coarsely.
4. Mix fine chopped onion, coriander leaves and green chillies.
5. Also mix salt, coriander powder and amchur powder. Keep this mixture aside.
6. Dissolve the maida in water and make a runny paste out of it.
7. Now mix salt, pinch of coriander powder, red chilly powder and ajwain.
8. Take a bread slice. Cut it in half. Place the soya paste over it.
9. Dip these slices into the maida paste and deep fry.
10. Serve hot, crunchy soya toasts with pudina chutney and sweet chutney.

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.

Taj Mahal made out of cake

Somehow this cake exhibition brings back a lot of memories. As a child I never missed the show even once. We would stand in long queues and drool over a hundred cakes. Everyone bought at least one little  pastry, if not a cake. Sure my mom has some nice memories too. It was a day after visiting the Niligiris cake exhibition that she went into labor. She delivered a breech baby (me ) a few days later. This exhibition is now 36 years old and guess how old I am going to be?

A delicious shipping vessel

Edible Dancers

At night we had some mocktails and blasted music till midnight. Mayank, Raina and I put on some disco lights and danced till we dropped.  How we used the fact that one night in a year neighbors cant complain about noise. Sorry guys, no pictures of the mocktails. It was gone before we knew it. Baby was so tired after all the partying that she slept on her own right after the New year wishes went out. She woke up at 10.30 am today , played for a few hours and went back to sleep on her own! he he hee…is that a good sign? God, please tell me that all this year she is going to sleep on her own like this

Orange Fresh Cream Cakes

I made some mushroom manchurian and Mayank made Vegetable Pulao for lunch today. Mayank makes much better pulao than me. I dont want to learn, else I’ll have to make it I bought the manchurian masala from a sale that was attached to the cake show yesterday. Its the true dhaba taste that you get from buying spices from small shops. They are basically vendors who make Chinese food and who also want to pack the masalas off in small quantities to make some money out of it. I found the instructions on the packet so cute. It asked me to ‘try’ the pieces in hot oil (instead of fry). It also said that the manchurian will be very ‘testy’ Whats that now? May be I have to test it before tasting it

Anyway, a nice lunch and now we are off to mom’s place for a small new year party with Grand mom and sister. I was planning to make fruit cream. Somehow freezing the fresh cream made it granular. So I whisked it with sugar, flour and essence to make these orange short cakes. Some things created by accident are so tasty …err…or should I say testy.

Mushroom Manchurian

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon manchurian masala (contains salt)
• 1/2 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon corn flour
• 10 pods of Garlic
• Spring onions to garnish

Procedure :

1. Mix the flours with a little water to make a paste.
2. Dip the mushroom pieces into the paste and deep fry.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Add finely chopped garlic . Dont let it brown. Add the manchurian pieces and stir fry till done.
4. Garnish with Spring onion leaves.

Orange Fresh cream cakes

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Fresh cream
• 1 cup Flour
• 2 teaspoons Ghee
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• 1 tablespoon orange squash
• 1 tablespoon milk
• A few drops of vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon Choco-chips (optional)

Procedure:

1. Whisk the flour and baking powder into the cream. Add sugar and mix till it dissolves.
2. Add milk, vanilla essence and ghee. Mix well.
3. Finally add some choco-chips (optional) and orange squash.
4. Pour into greased muffin molds. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 deg C for 20 mins.

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

If you follow the technique of shallow-fry and half-fry you can be sure to get cubes that will not break till you want them too, yet they will be soft enough to relish. Try it out when you have guests over next. You can eat Chilly Paneer with noodles/ spaghetti, as a starter or even with rotis!

Ingredients :

• 1 cup paneer chopped into fingers
• 2 capsicums, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup finely chopped garlic
• 1 slit green chilly
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 2 teaspoons maida / all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons Soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon Chilly sauce
• Pinch of Black pepper powder
• Maggie tastemaker cubes (optional)
• Spring onions (to garnish)
• Oil to fry

Procedure :

1. Dust paneer fingers in a mix of cornflour, maida, pinch of salt and maggie tastemaker cubes. Let it rest for 1 hr.
2. Heat oil and shallow fry paneer. Ensure it doesnt become brown, half fry till its firm and take it out.
3. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a wok. Add slit green chillies, finely chopped garlic, onions and saute.
4. Now add capsicum slices and cook till it turns tender.
5. Add the half-fried paneer fingers to the mixture. Also add black pepper powder, chilly sauce, soya sauce to this mix and cook for 5 more minutes on medium heat.
6. Turn off the heat and garnish with spring onions.

Please note :

1. If you are using a tastemaker like maggie it will mostly contain salt in it. Hence, please add very little salt (if required) to the paneer while marinating.
2. You can start cooking the capsicums in a wok. As and when the paneer is fried you can directly take it out into the wok and continue cooking. Parallel processing will save you some time.
3. Dont let the Garlic go brown while frying, else the taste will change.

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).

Next time the family wants to have bondas and you dont have the batter ready just try out the Instant Bonda recipe.

You can serve these bondas with rasam for breakfast. This combination is commonly known as Bonda Soup. Well, this is one soup we would all love to be in!

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Urad dal flour
• Teaspoon of Grated Ginger
• Finely chopped green chillies
• Finely chopped curry leaves
• Salt

Procedure :

1. Make a batter of flour with water. Let the consistency to be pasty (like dosa batter)
2. Mix in green chillies, curry leaves, grated ginger and salt.
3. Deep fry into balls. Serve hot with coconut chutney or rasam.

Although this dish is similar to the tamarind rice we usually eat I think its easier to prepare because you dont need to have rice prepared ahead of it. Whats more? Even my one year old baby cant get enough of it!

We tried eating it with Haldiram’s Golden Mixture and found that the crunchy namkeen further geared up the taste.

Tamarind Rice / Puliyogre paste is commonly available is stores these days. However, if you have the tamarind rice powder, you can try it out with that as well.

Ingredients :

• 3 cups Poha (beaten rice – thick one)
• 2 teaspoons Tamarind rice paste
• 1 teaspoon Ground nuts
• 1/2 teaspoon split white urad dal
• 1/2 teaspoon channa dal
• 1/2 teaspoon rai
• 1 green chilly
• Few curry leaves
• Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. Moisten the poha.
2. Heat Oil. Add groundnuts to it and stir for a minute.
3. Add urad dal, channa dal and rai. Let them splutter.
4. Add green chillies, curry leaves and tamarind rice paste.
5. Now add the soaked poha, salt and mix well.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and namkeen mixture.

Please NOTE:

1. You need to be careful while moistening the poha. Just wash it once with water and let it stand in a strainer.Wash again after a while. Repeat this till poha becomes soft.
2. After you add tamarind paste don’t cook it. Immediately add the poha, else the paste will burn.

Ingredients :

• 1/4 cup finely chopped beans
• 1/4 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
• 1/4 cup peas
• 3 potatoes
• Small piece of ginger (grated)
• 1 finely chopped green chilly
• 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder
• Pinch of black pepper
• Few tablespoons of rice flour

Procedure :

For the stuffing :

• Finely chop beans, carrot, onion (optional). Mix in peas.
• Heat oil. Add veggies, salt and pepper. Cook till done.

For the cutlet :

1. Boil potatoes. Cool and mash well. To this add ginger, green chillies, jeera powder and salt. Knead well into a smooth dough.
2. Make equal sized patties of the potato dough and stuff in the vegetable mixture.
3. Keep the cutlets in the fridge for about 2 hours or more so that the potato dries up.
4. Once you take it out of the fridge keep aside for 30 minutes so it can reach room temperature.
5. Heat oil well. Dust the patties in rice flour and deep fry.
6. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or Spring onion chutney.

Please NOTE :

1. When you take patties out of the fridge you need to let them reach room temperature before frying, else the temperature mis-match can cause them to split and scatter.
2. Temperature control of oil is essential in this snack. Fry patties in hot oil. Dont fry more than 2-3 at a time else the oil will go cold.
3. Once you take them out, allow the oil to heat up again before frying more patties.