TRIP TO TALEGAON...

Over the weekend I had been to my friends house at Talegaon in Maharashtra. My friends stay in Mumbai but they have a house in Talegaon where they can rush off to to avoid the hustle bustle of the city life.

CARDAMOM TEA

BATATA VADA

FOOD MALL

Its about a 3 hours drive from mumbai and so we left quite late i.e. at around 7.30 in the morning
Talegaon is a lovely place, very quite, peaceful and the weather is especially very good.
While on the way we took a halt at a nice place which was called FOOD MALL and we had their specialty
Batata vada , missal pav and a hot glass of cardamom tea.
The batata vada was especially very delicious , I could not click the missal as by the time the vadas came in ,I was busy eating them while the others had their share of the missal .There was nothing left on the plate for me to click.

AMITA'S SAMOSA.....

If you have read my earlier posts you must have read about the chinese dishes that my friend Amita taught me and which we cooked at her place.
yesterday i had been on my usual casual visit to her house. Her house is very close to the classes that my son attends and so i take the opportunity to sit and chat with her while he is in his classes and return back home with him.
we share a good rapport and her way of cooking is different from mine , i am more of a main course person while she loves to make different types of sweets and snacks. She always has some or the other ladoo or burfi made by her in her house .
yesterday she made some tasty samosas which i have clicked and taken the recipe for you all
i hope all my friends like ' my friend's ' recipe.


INGREDIENTS

for the cover: 3 cups plain flour. 1tbsp oil,salt knead all the ingredients together.

for the filling: 2 cup boiled green peas, one potato boiled,1 tsp ginger-garlic paste,1 tsp green chilli paste,salt, 1 tsp dhania jeera powder .one onion finely chopped.

METHOD
1. Take oil in a pan and add onions to it , stir till the onions become nice and soft

2. add the rest of the ingredients and mix till it forms a even mass

3.roll out a roti with the dough kneaded

4. cut the roti into half

5. keep the filling in the center and turn the edges towards the inside so that it forms a triangle.

6. fold the third end upwards and seal with plain flour paste.

7. deep fry till light golden

serve with tomato ketchup.

VILLAGES IN INDIA....

Villages in India are just the way villages are or should be simple,realistic,and peaceful.
I have been born and bought up in a city and so can call myself a hardcore city dweller . But I love visiting villages once in a while and experiencing the peace and quite that one finds there. I love to watch the local people and the market places.
I am sharing with you some photos I clicked when I visited a village called SASAWNE
Which is a beach side village , its simple and you can see that the people are not influenced by the modern day changes, that so easily affects the city dwellers.
I clicked the photos in February last year.




("The Soul of India lives in its villages", declared M. K. Gandhi [1] in the beginning of 20th century. According to the Indian Census of 2001, 74% of Indians live in villages. In north India, village is referred by gram or gaon and pind, and in south India by gramam. Villages in India varies hugely if its population is considered. 236,004 Indian villages have a population less than 500. At the same time, 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Each village may have its own temple or mosque or church depending on the faith of the people. In many villages more than one religious worship place co-exist and people of the village celebrate all the festivals of all the religions there.)-------sourced from wikipedia

PALAK DAL....

I call this dish PALAK DAL and not DAL PALAK because it has more of PALAK and less of DAL.
Actually i make this dish as a leafy vegetable dish and not a dal dish.
Its very nutritious and easy to cook.

INGREDIENTS.

2 bunch chopped spinach leaves.
1/2 cup toovar dal
2 small onions chopped.
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tbsp garam masala powder
marble sized tamarind
1 cup grated coconut
salt to taste.
garlic for tadka or bagar

METHOD

Grind together coconut and tamarind

Cook finely chopped spinach,chopped onions and toovar dal together in a cooker

Take oil in a pan and when hot add finely chopped garlic stir till it turns light brown

Put in the cooked spinach and dal and stir.

Add the coconut and tamarind mixture to this

Add salt to taste.

Serve hot.

COOKED RICE UTTAPAM....

This is an interesting uttapam which can be prepared with leftover rice and they turn out to be really tasty.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cooked rice
½ cup besan or chickpea flour
2 onions finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
½ cup fine rava or semolina
½ cup wheat flour for binding.
2 green chilies finely chopped
coriander for garnish
salt and sugar to taste.

METHOD:

Grind the cooked rice in a mixer or blender.
Take the mashed rice in a bowl add the remaining ingredients to it.
Add salt and mix thoroughly .
Take a hot pan and use a ladle full of batter to make wonderfully tasty and crispy cooked rice uttapam’s.
You can eat these with a chutney , sauce or just by itself , they are quite tasty.


YUMMY!!!!!!

NAAN BREAD SANDWICH....

This is an interesting sandwich that I prepared yesterday , I call it interesting because I used a “NAAN BREAD” which is available in our local bakery . I used the bread like a pita bread and filled it with a chicken and added some fresh carrot-cabbage salad and made it into a whole meal.

FOR THE CHICKEN FILLING….

ING:

500 gms boneless chicken
3-4 onions roughly chopped
1 tomato roughly chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp dhania jeera powder
11/2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp haldi powder
½ tsp amchur powder
salt to taste
coriander or kasuri methi for garnish
you can add ½ cup curds which is optional
METHOD:

Heat oil in a pan
Add the chopped onions fry till golden brown
Add the ginger garlic paste, and stir fry
Add the tomato and stir till oil separates.
Add the chicken which has been cut to small cubes
Stir and add all the remaining masalas
Cook till the chicken is ready
Garnish with coriander.
You can fill the chicken filling in the cavity in the naan bread or you can toast the bread
And fill it with the chicken , you can add a lettuce leaf and even make a salad with mayonnaise.
This is a complete meal and very filling .


THE NAAN BREAD

PRAWN PULAO...

This was my lunch today,
Prawn –peas pulao with a difference
Nowadays I am in a mood to create something different, I just don’t feel like cooking the everyday things and food .
So Prawns pulao it was for today…
What makes this pulao different from the one which I had earlier posted . It’s different because It contains cashew-coconut-green chili paste and it does not contain the regular pulao biryani masala which I usually use when I make biryani’s or pulao’s .
I went on adding the things that came spontaneously to my mind , not thinking of the end result but!!! The final product turned out to be great , and everyone enjoyed it…
When I tasted the first spoonful I knew it was different, but what made it different? That made me think ,and I knew what I felt … it gave a feeling of warmth and homeliness and that was because it was not the usual ‘each grain is separate from each other’ type it was sort of sticky i.e. the grains stuck to each other and that was because of the cashew and coconut paste . The feeling of homeliness was because in earlier days when our mother or grandmother made any rice preparation the stress was not on the texture, colour,or the presentation ,what was important was the taste and that it was approved by the family .
And that’s how the pulao tasted , so cook this my style and let me know how you feel.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup shelled and deveined prawns
11/2 cup rice
1 cup green peas
½ cup cashew pieces.
3 medium onion roughly chopped
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp haldi
3 green chilies
½ cup cashew nuts
½ cup grated coconut
1 tsp dhania jeera powder
2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp amchur powder
coriander for garnish
oil and salt to taste.
3 cups water for cooking the pulao

Heat oil in a pan
Add the onions and ginger garlic paste
Let it become soft them add haldi,garammasala,and prawns
Stir fry till the mixture becomes light brown.
Add all the masalas and the ground paste of coconut, cashew and green chilies
Add the rice ,stir and add the water which you should boil before adding.
Add salt and amchur powder.
Cover and cook on medium flame for 15 mins
Serve hot with coriander leaves and coconut (optional)

WHEAT FLOUR BHAKRI....

This is the first time that I have tried making this dish and it’s for my entry for JFI for coconut.
This dish was commonly made for breakfast by my grandmother, my mother-in-law and many of the older ladies in my family , but I was never fortunate enough tasted it nor did I try to get myself to prepare it ‘I wonder why’ .
So when I read of the event , I just wanted to do something new something which I had never tried before and something that was popular in the yester years , now with lots of changes in the food culture and customs we seem to have forgotten the old recipes , but after tasting this bhakri or for others who are new to this word I will say PANCAKE
I realized that “OLD IS DEFINITELY GOLD”
My hubby was very happy with the end result and polished off his plate before leaving for work.
So I am sure that this will be a ‘must do…’ breakfast item in my house.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups wheat flour
1 cup jaggery
1 cup grated coconut
salt to taste
water enough to get a pouring consistency about 11/2 cup
ghee for shallow frying

METHOD

Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick batter.
Heat a griddle or tawa, apply a tsp of ghee.
Take a little batter in tip of your hand and spread it with your fingers on the griddle in a circular motion.
After 5-6 mins turn it over ,
Let it cook on the other side till you see brown spots
Remove and serve with ghee.

Tip: Some ladies did add a green chili finely chopped to give it a little spicy tinge .

This is my entry for Ashwinis JFI for coconut..

INSTANT DEMANDS....

There are times when my son suddenly realizes that he is very very hungry and wants something tasty (according to his taste) and during such times I am always at a loss of ideas. you know, I always like to make something instantly ,but which is made at a moments notice with some innovative idea.
Today morning was such a day he was back from school early as his unit tests are going on and he was hungry for something new.
He has his regular demands which I am always well equipped for like maggi noodles , macaroni cheese, omelet bread, roti with ghee and jaggery etc….
But today he said “ mamma make something different”
So here I was looking around in the kitchen to make something “different” which I had never tried before and I came up with this INSTANT PANEER TOAST.


INGREDIENTS

Some garlic bread cut into small pieces
One cup milk
Chopped green chilies
Chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice
butter for toasting the bread
salt to taste

METHOD

Toast the garlic bread pieces with a little butter till they are brown on both the sides
Take 1 cup of milk in a vessel and let it boil
Put the lemon juice in the hot milk and stir
You will get soft paneer in seconds.
Take the paneer in a bowl and discard the whey…(water after making the paneer)
You can add coriander,chillies to the paneer and a little salt
Spread it on the hot toast and serve
Isn’t it easy to make, nutritious and tasty…