cream toasts

This is one of my favourite appetizers. Its a recipe my mom invented and has been my brother's and my favourite dish. Its also usually a great hit at potlucks :D

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion (finely chopped)

1 bell pepper (finely chopped)

1 tbsp ginger paste

2 tbsp heavy cream

5-6 green chillies (chopped)

1/4 cup rawa/sooji

salt to taste

a pinch of baking soda

bread

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients mentioned above (except bread) in a bowl.

2. Toast the bread and cut into smaller triangular pieces (2-4 per slice)

3. Apply the above mixture on the bread and shallow fry the created toast i.e. take a tsp oil on a tawa and just fry the side of the toast with the mixture.

4. Serve hot or warm with ketchup or green chutney.

Strawberry shortcake

I visited a cousin last christmas and was quite awed by a very nice strawberry shortcake one of my sister's friend made. Upon taking some notes from her on the recipe, I came back and tried it out, only messing it up completely! My darling friend who was visiting with me, added some more notes to the recipe, which atleast sounded like not ending up into a tragedy. Finally with a lot of contemplation on the recipe, I have come up with this one. Fortunately it turned out to be quite good this time!


Ingredients:
1 angel food cake / pound cake
1 packet strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
whipped cream



Procedure:
1. cut the strawberries (leaving 4-5 for decoration) into small pieces and add the sugar to it and keep aside for 2-3 hours. The strawberries are quite nicely dipped in sugar syrup by then.

2. Arrange one layer of angel foodcake in a tray. Layer the strawberries on the cake.

3. Add another layer of the foodcake on top of it and pour the sugar syrup on it. In case you think the strawberry flavour is not enough, you can use some jello syrup too. Just make sure you don't wet the cake too much (that was my mistake first time along)

4. Let the cake set for 2-3 hrs so that the syrup mixes well with the cake. Set it in the fridge.

5. While serving, cover the cake with a layer of whipped cream and decorate it with fresh strawberries. Serve cold.


Some notes:
1. As some friends pointed out, you can also add alcohol to the cake, instead of using more jello syrup. Just wet the cake with alcohol!

2. Add the whipped cream before serving, this keeps the cream fluffy and nice.

3. Using pound cake is also fine, but that makes the shortcake too heavy. Angel foodcake is light and nice!

4. Beware of the sugar content you use. Account for the fact that angel foodcake itself is sweet.


Here is a picture of a smaller version of the true cake I made. Hope you like it!

stuffed bell peppers

After a long time I returned back to experimenting with cooking. Due to the presence of my mother (who is an expert cook and thinks I suck at cooking), I haven't really been cooking much. So here is a new experiment I tried today, trying to imitate some stuffed bell pepper I had at a mid-eastern place.

Ingredients:
1 small potato
2 bell peppers
1/2 cup cooked rice (brown rice tastes better)
2-3 tomatoes chopped
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
1 cup tomato-garlic-onion pasta sauce

preparation:
1. boil the potato and peel and keep.
2. In a pan, heat the oil and add jeera (cumin seeds), garlic paste, tomato (blanch them), red/green chili paste/powder, mashed potato, the cooked rice and salt to taste.
3. Cut the bell peppers from the top, removing the centre on the pepper, keeping the remaining intact.
4. Fill the above made filling into the bell peppers.
5. Coat the bell peppers with oil and cook (in microwave or pressure cooker or oven) until the pepper gets cooked, but doesn't get soggy.
6. Heat some pasta sauce in a pan and pour the sauce over the cooked bell peppers.

The stuffed bell peppers are ready!

Methi Matar pseudo-malai

This is a slightly (though not very) healthier version of Methi Matar Malai.
Ingredients:
2 cups green peas (matar)
1 cup chopped and drained fenugreek leaves (methi)
10-15 cashewnuts (kaju)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped)
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1/4 cup milk
salt to taste
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oil
rai, jeera as per tadka

Preparation:
1. Soak the cashewnuts in milk or water for 15-20 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add rai and jeera to it. Add the onion and saute. Add ginger and garlic pastes and tomato. Saute until cooked.
3. Crush the above mentioned tadka and the cashewnuts with some milk.
4. Remove the crushed gravy in a pan again. Add some turmeric powder and garam masala/kitchen king masala (as per taste). Add the peas and methi to the gravy. Add salt and sugar. Cook the mixture for 5-10 minutes until all vegetables are well cooked.
The methi-matar-malai is ready!

Its healthier than adding malai, but not so healthy since you are using cashewnuts. :(

Methi Dhokli

Most Gujarati/Rajasthani people have heard of Daal Dhokli. The idea is to cook square flat pieces of atta (flour) in a Daal preparation. Methi dhokli is something similar: You cook square flat pieces of atta in a methi curry! I personally love this preparation :D

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped methi
2 cups wheat flour
3-4 green chilies (chopped)
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp rai (musturd seeds)
1/4 tsp jeera (cummin seeds)
salt to taste
1 tsp oil for atta and 1 tsp oil for tadka

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, take the flour, 1 cup chopped methi, 2 chopped green chilies, 1 tsp oil and salt to taste. Knead the flour with minimal amount of water, so that it is easy to flatten the kneaded flour.
2. Once the flour is kneaded, flatten the flour on a plate using a rolling pin, to a thickness of about 3 mm and cut into small rectangular pieces. Keep the pieces aside, in a manner that they don't stick to each other.
3. In a pan, take 1 tsp oil and add rai and jeera to it for tadka.
4. Add chopped green chilies (about 2), minced garlic, salt and the remaining chopped methi. Add 2-3 cups of water and let the methi cook.
5. When the water starts boiling, add the rectangular cut pieces of kneaded flour to the mixture and let it cook for 7-10 minutes. Stir occasionally. If at any point you think the flour is sticking to pan, or the water is too less for it to cook well, add a cup of water to the mixture.
6. When the flour seems well cooked, the dhokli is ready!
7. Serve is a bowl, with a tsp of ghee for taste.

p.s.: For BB who might want to cook this sometime and can't find me on the phone :P

Vegeterian Chili

Chili is this American dish for which I have caught a fancy. The main reason being, there are so many vegetables in it! Ofcourse the more important reason being its tasty :P This is the second year I'm making chili for the department chili cook-off. Last year's chili happened to be a little too tangy, this year I made up for it :D
















Ingredients:

2 cups rajma (red kidney beans)
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper (chopped)
1 small zucchini (chopped/grated)
2-3 sticks of celery (chopped)
1/2 cup corn
1 small can diced tomatoes
1.5 small can tomato puree
1 tsp minced garlic
1 medium sized onion (chopped)
McCirmick chili seasoning
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1/2 tsp rai (musturd seeds)
1/2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1 tsp oil
jalapenoes and cheese for garnishing

Preparation:

1. Soak the rajma overnight and boil them until soft.
2. In a pan, take 1 tsp of oil and add rai and jeera seeds (musterd and cumin seeds). Then add onion and cook until brown.
3. Then add minced garlic, tomato puree, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, celery, zucchini and corn to the pan. Add salt, garam masala, red chili powder and McCormick seasoning to the pan. Add about 1/2 cup water and cook. Cover the pan for better results. Cook for about 15-20 minutes so that all the veggies get cooked well.
4. Add the kidney beans to the mixture and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with cheese and jalapenoes.
6. Chili is ready!!!

Steelers Cake!

The Steelers won the 43rd SuperBowl. The only team to win the SuperBowl for the 6th time!!! The fact that Pittsburgh was in the SuperBowl was reason enough to make the cake. We were going to watch the match together, so might as well make something to eat :) As it turns out, the match as well as the cake were yummy :D



















Chocolate vodka Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkt yellow cake mix or butter cake mix (without pudding)
2 pkts chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup kalhua liqeour
1/4 cup vodka
3/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter or 1 cup oil (if its butter cake, use butter)

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients above and pour the mixture is a greased tray.
2. Bake the cake is a preheated oven at 350 deg for 1 hr. It is advisable to keep checking every 15-20 minutes, just to make sure you don't burn the cake.
3. When done, let is cool for 15 minutes.
4. Remove on a plate and decorate with icing of your choice! Icing can also be made from Kalhua and sugar.

This is a little adapted recipe from an online recipe. But the cake turns out to be extremely soft and creamy. The proportions of eggs etc might change as per the instructions on the cake mix pkt.

Palak Tofu

I have discovered over the past few months that Tofu is much healthier substitute of paneer, and infact I like it more than I like paneer. I always disliked palak-paneer but discovered it was more due to the "malai" taste of paneer. Tofu is much better in that sense, no malai taste, highly spongy and very healthy!

Garlic Tofu Spinach (A type of appetizer)

Ingredients:
1/2 packet Spinach
1/2 packet Tofu
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tomato
1/4 cup chopped red bell peppers
black pepper
garlic powder
salt to taste
1-2 tbsp oil
1-2 tsp chopped pecans/walnuts (optional)

Preparation:

1. Cut the tofu cubes, cover them in garlic powder and keep them aside for 5-10 minutes.
2. In a pan boil the spinach and red bell peppers with enough water to cook them. Add salt to taste.
3. After they are cooked, add the chopped tomato and cook for 2 minutes.
4. In a different pan, shallow fry the tofu cubes in oil until golder brown. Add turmeric powder and black pepper and mix gently.
5. In a plate, make a base of the cooked vegetables. Put the fried tofu peices on top. Garnish with pecans/walnuts.

General tip - I found this recipe on the internet, with additions of brocolli. I personally don't like brocolli so kept it out. Also I personally found the vegetable mix a little too tangy. To do it differently, I would reduce the red bell peppers and tomato to 1/2 this amount, or probably just use spinach.



Palak Tofu - Like Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

1 packet palak (spinach)
1/2 packet tofu (preferably firm)
1 onion
1 tomato
1 tsp minced garlic or garlic paste
3-4 green chilies
rai, jeera, jeera powder (for regular masala)
salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Boil the Palak in about 2 cups of water with salt. You could just microwave it for 3 minutes.
2. In a pan heat 1tsp oil. Add rai, jeera, onion, tomato, minced garlic and crushed/cut green chilies to it, like in regular tadka.
3. Once the palak and the tadka is cooked, girnd the palak with the tadka in a mixer.
4. Remove the mixture is a pan. Add cubes of tofu and some jeera powder to the paste. Add about 2-3 tsp milk, just for the colour.
5. Cook for about 5 minutes. The palak tofu will be ready to serve :)