Kitchen-Kollections

i had always imagined what it would be like to eat grilled kababs. I had heard about non vegetarian seekh kababs a lot but since i am a veg..i thought of making veggies kababs. We recently brought a BBQ  grill and its quite a fun to BBQ and eat when the sun is shining..ofcourse we continued grilling even in the night!! Well..After searching a lot, I finally decided to make my own style of kababs. I had already sokaed moong dal and beautiful sprouts had come out. So my main ingriedent was moong sal..high protein rich legumes!

If you have any kabab paste left, you can make patties too. Stuff them in bread, and eat it like a sandwich!! Personally, i dont like to soak and fry kababs in oil..they unnecesarily absorb lot of oil which is bad for health. Instead of that, i just roast them on a flat pan..by just adding few drops of oil.

Ingredients:

200 gm boiled spinach leaves (1/2 cup puree)
2 cup boiled moong sprouts
1 cup boiled potatoes-mashed
2 tsp green chillies-chopped fine
2 tsp ginger- garlic paste
1 tsp salt or to taste?
1 tsp chilli powder or to taste
olive oil to brush

Method:

Blend the palak, moong daal, potatoes, green chillies, ginger and garlic in a blender. Mix in the salt and chilli powder. It should be a dough like consistency. Shape into tube like shapes around a skewer and BBQ, brushing with oil now and then. Add cut bell peppers,onions and paneer cubes. I added some mushrooms too.

Hii all..i am again blogging after a long time..i had gone to my sister’s place. My second niece was born last month! I had a great time there..but actually i got some great oppurtuniteis to try out new recipes. I was quite surprised to know that there is something called mooli pachadi too!All credit goes to my dear mother…she is having a gala time playing with hee two small grandkids…she is experimenting with chutnyes (now i know where i got the bug haha ) Its a mouth watering chutney which one can use as a spread on tortillas, bread..and you will be shocked…i am planning to use it as a spread on a pizza!!!

Whenever i get radishes..i only add them in pulusu/sambhar or i make parathas. But this time…chutney!!!

Here it goes

Ingredients

Bite size pieces of radish – 2 cups
Peanuts – 1/4 cup
Tamarind – 2 tbs
Jaggery – 2 tbs

Tadka/popu ingredients

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Jeera – 1/2 tsp
Menthulu – 4
Red chillies – 3
Hing/inguva – a pinch
Urad dal -  1 tsp
Turmeric – A pinch

Method

• Add 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry mooli till tender.
• Take oil in another pan and fry the popu ingredients
• Add the cooked mooli, tamarind, jaggery and salt to taste. Keep mixing for 5 minutes.
• Grind the chutney once its cool. Garnish it with chopped coriandar leaves.

Ingredients

Chopped potlakaya or snake gourd – 2 cups
Beaten curd- 1 cup
Green chillies
Ginger
Turmeric powder
Salt
Coriandar leaves

For popu
Oil
Menthi seeds- 2
Red chilli- 2
Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves- a sprig

Method

• Take a pan and add 1 tbs oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and menthi seeds and let them splutter. Add a pinch of turmeric.
• Add chopped potlakaya pieces and salt. Mix it well and cover it with a lid and cook till done.
• Grind green chilli and ginger into paste and mix it with the beaten curd. Add the cooked vegetable and mix it well. Garnish with coriandar leaves.

This curry tastes amazing with hot steaming rice!

Ingredients

2 tsp Oil
1¼ tsp Salt (or to taste)
½ tsp Asafoetida powder
10 nos Curry leaves (fresh)
½ cup Coconut (grated) (dry dessicated preferred)
6 clove Garlic
10 nos Dry red chili
½ cup urad dal
¼ cup chana dal

Method 

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai and roast the dry red chilies, garlic and curry leaves, remove.
• In the same pan add these in the following order and roast Bengal gram, toast until slightly golden and remove.
• Add the second tsp of oil, toast Split black gram until golden and remove,
•  Now turn off the flame and toast the coconut (the heat in the pan should work) till slightly golden.
   Remove and cool all the ingredients
• Grind all the ingredients except garlic (dry red chilies + bengal gram + split black gram + curry leaves + salt + asafoetida) to a fine powder.
• When done add garlic cloves and run on pulse, (2 to 3 times) just to pound and blend.
• Cool again and then store in air-tight jars.

Serve this podi liberally drizzled with gingely oil as a side for steaming hot idlis.
 

Halwa ~~ A dessert made from various kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains and lentils. The ingredients in Halwa are grated finely and fried in ghee and sugar. Nuts and milk may also be added. Halwas have the consistency of a very thick pudding.

This is the technical definition of halwa but the whole experience of eating this dish away from homeland is totally different. Although I ate this halwa in quite a number of restaurants but somehow I felt that they did not get the taste right. Frankly speaking, I did not know that by adding condensed milk, the taste will come out this amazing!!! I thought the ingredients would be only milk sugar and carrots..thats it. With condensed milk..the taste comes out real good.

Try this recipe and let me know how was it!!

This is my entry to Paajaka sweet series is carrot halwa. This dish was specially made for my DH birthday!

Ingredients

4 cups grated carrot
1 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup cashewnuts
1/4 cup badam
2 cloves
2 tbs ghee

Method

• Wash and peel carrots and then grate them finely.

• Take a deep skillet and add two tbs ghee. Add cloves,cashewnuts and badam. Add grated carrot. Keep stirring till it cooked properly. It will take at least 15 minutes to do this on medium heat. Do not cover the skillet with any lid.

• Add condensed milk and mix it well. Add the cardamom powder. Keep stirring for five minutes more.

• Add sugar slowly and keep mixing for 10 more minutes.Halwa is ready to eat. You can top it with dry coconut powder.

This is another typical hyderabadi dish which goes quite well with biryani. With a rich gravy made of peanuts, coconut powder and sesame seeds, it gets tastier the day after it is made same like biryani.. I tried different versions of this dish but this is the one i liked the best so far. Its quite important that the stuffed brinjals are fried well and there is no rawness left in the brinjals and taste of the stuffing goes right into the heart of the brinjal!!  Well..here goes the recipe..

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp chilli powder
1/2 cup thick tamarind pulp
1 large onion
4 green chillies

For stuffing
1/2 cup coconut
1/4 cup peanuts
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cummin seeds
Salt to taste

Method

• Wash and clean each brinjal. Make two slits(plus sign) in each brinjal from base towards stalk end without separating quarters. Don’t remove the stalk.  Soak the brinjals in salted water for 10 minutes.
• In the meantime, roast coconut, peanuts,sesame seeds, coriandar seeds and cumin seeds. Cool and grind it into a coarse powder. Add little salt and mix well.
• Now take each brinjal and stuff the powder into the slits and keep them aside.
• Grind chopped onion and green chili into a smooth paste.
• Heat oil, drop the stuffed brinjals into hot oil, shake the pan from time to time and lift out brinjals when they change colour. This process will take at least 15-20 minutes on medium high heat. Make sure that brinjal pieces are not torn off. Better use a tong to rotate the brinjals.
• Take another pan and add oil and cumin and curry leaves. Once they splutter, add ginger garlic paste and fry.
• Add  ground onion and green chilli paste and fry till oil seperates and the paste becomes light brown in color.
• Add the remaining stuffing and mix it well.  After few minutes, slowly add the brinjals, then add salt, tamarind pulp and sufficient water to cook the brinjals till tender but firm.  It will take at least 15 minutes on medium high.

Serve hot with mutter pulav or plain rice!