A Turkish take on pizza. U can play with so many variations and trust me it’s delicious Ingredients 250 gm maida 11 gm sugar 4 gm salt 3 gm yeast 20 ml oil 120-130 ml …
Living in Hyderabad I have discovered so many interesting dishes. After experimenting with loose prawns, I was told to try the Apollo fish. I have tasted a few versions but the best was at this …
I am not a big fan of bangda or mackerel but every time I have made this curry, it’s always a finger licking hit. Its not as watery as regular curries and thats what makes it different.
A thick gravy with loads of chillies (munchi), very little coconut and the right balance of sourness with the tamarind (puli) added to it.
Perfect to have with rice or chapati. Red rice just enhances the flavour of any fish curry and today’s Sunday combination was just that. With some sliced onion and just a dash of salt for the rice. Enjoy
Ingredients
20 dried red Kashmiri chillies (adjust as per spice preference)
2 tbspdhania
½ tbspjeera
1/3 tbspn rye
¼ tbspnmethi
6 peppercorns
10 chopped garlic flakes
2 onions- 1 sliced, 1 chopped
1 (big) marble size ball of tamarind (adjust as per taste)
4 tbsp coconut
6-7 pcs of bangda (mackerel)
Haldi
Salt
2 green chillies
karipata
oil
Dry roast dry chillies, dhania, jeera, rye, methi seeds, pepper on a tawa.
When the aroma rises, dry grind it first and then add 1 chopped onion, tamarind, coconut and very little water. Make a thick gravy
Heat oil, add the karipata, sliced onion, garlic and slit greenchillies, sauté for 1 minute
Add the ground masala with little haldi and salt
Fry till raw smell of the masala goes and add the fish
Bring to a boil and simmer till cooked. Mix gently as fish can break easily.
Is there a dish that u have been wanting to make since ever but everyone’s preference overtook yours. For me one such dish is Moussaka
Moussaka is a Greek bake layered with brinjals, mince cooked in tomatoes, sliced potatoes and a cheese sauce. It’s baked to a golden goodness and served family style.
Every time I bough mince, and thought I would make a moussaka, everyone else’s preference would be keema matar or spaghetti bolognaise or shepherds pie or shammi kebab. My poor moussaka was pushed in a corner
Today did not discuss menu options and set about making it. Read up a few recipes and after understanding the concept, made it my way.
The pics speak for themselves. Waiting to tuck in.
Ingredients
MINCE SAUCE
500 gms mutton mince
2 big onions
5 skinless tomatoes puréed or chopped
1/2 pkt tomato purée
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
10 minced garlic
Salt
1 tsp Chilli flakes
1 tsp oregano,
1/2 tsp basil
olive oil
CHEESE SAUCE
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 tbsp maida
2 cups milk (appx)
2 egg yolks
pinch of nutmeg powder
salt/pepper
OTHER INGREDIENTS
2 big brinjals
2 boiled potatoes
olive oil
salt
thyme
chilli flakes
2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
Slice the brinjal lengthwise into 1/2 inch thickness
sprinkle salt and leave for 15 minutes.
Wipe clean, sprinkle thyme and chilli flakes.
Pan fry with olive oil and remove to a grill stand when tender.
Boil the potatoes, peel and slice thin lengthwise
MINCE SAUCE
Blanch or roast the tomatoes and remove the skin. Blitz in the mixer
In a pan, heat olive oil and add the onions and garlic. Sautée to pink.
Add the mince and brown it well
At intervals add the tomato, pkt purée, Worcestershire sauce, chilli flakes and dried herbs
Let this cook out for close to an hour adding little water as it becomes dry. Once cooked, ensure that the mix is not watery. Keep aside
CHEESE SAUCE
Heat the butter in a pan, add the maida and roast for a few minutes.
Add milk and bring to a boil, and reduce the flame.
Keep stirring to remove all the lumps and add milk till u get a thick smooth consistency. It should be like a smooth potato mash and not watery.
beat 2 egg yolks and heat it on another pan on a low flame, add 1 tbsp of the hot white sauce, mix it well. Add this mix to the sauce and mix well.
Adjust seasoning with salt, nutmeg powder (and pepper if u like).
Add the cheese and mix well.
ASSEMBLY
Preheat the oven to 180 C
sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the base of your baking dish.
Layer half the brinjals on the base covering the pan completely
pour in the mince sauce over the brinjals and spread it out well
Put a layer of the sliced potatoes and season it.
Finally layer with the rest of the brinjal slices.
Pour the cheese sauce and spread to cover the entire dish
Mark the top layer with a fork making a pattern of your choice.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or till the top layer is golden brown
Leave it in the oven for another 20 minutes and then serve it.
So where would you like to go today. On a virtual culinary tour of an exotic land? How about sunny sensual Brazil. My favourite blogger couple the Mukherjees, www.gigglingspoons.com set the theme of the month for Chefs Across Boundaries (a group of like minded foodies and bloggers) with Brazil as the place to discover, So decided to give u a sneak peak into the cuisine with an awesome Brigadeiros bark.
Brigadeiros are traditionally similar to a truffle covered with chocolate vermicelli that is quite common in Brazil.
Me being me. Wanted to give it a spiked spiced twist. Made a chilli rum chocolate bark with a mix of dried cranberry, homemade candied orange peel and pistachio with sea salt.
When someone asks you to bake a cookie, what would u do. Choose the one you would like and make it right. Well with me, its “What!! Just the one?” Well I had 3 that i wanted to try and try I did.
The earliest cookie recipe I saved was Saloni Sharma’s red velvet. The colour had such a novelty factor and I knew it would make my pictures pop. The cookies were crunchy and yum and me and the kids loved comparing the colour on our tongues. ;-P
The next recipe was the chocolate crinkle cookie from All Recipes. The look of the cookies – like the earth just shattered is oh so gorgeous. And the taste, I would rate it no 1 amongst the 3 cookies.
And the last cookie is the chocochip one from Pooja Dhingras – The Big book of treats. I like her recipes, they are simple and easy to follow.
Chocolate crinkle cookies
Ingredients
2 cups castor sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, castor sugar, and oil.
Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch flat balls. Use a strainer and generously sprinkle icing sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets leaving a 2 inch gap in between the cookies.
Bake in a preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.
Chocolate chip Cookies
Ingredients
75 gm butter
65 gm brown sugar
50 gm castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
175 gm all purpose flour
175 gm choco chips
Whisk together the butter, brown sugar, castor sugar and vanilla extract till soft and fluffy.
Break the egg in, whisking properly.
Sift the baking powder and flour and fold into the mixture with a spatula.
Mix in the chocolate chips. Now cling wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 165 C and line with parchment paper.
Scoop out mid size rounds and flatten them slightly leaving a 2 inch gap between each cookie.
Bake for 15 mins or till the edges start browning. Leave to cool on the tray for a bit before transferring to a wire rack.
With an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar till smooth and creamy.
Add the egg. Whisk. Add the vanilla and colour. Whisk.
Add the flour, slowly, and fold in without over-mixing.
In a small bowl, add the white wine vinegar to the baking soda and mix into a paste. Add to the dough and give it a good whisk to ensure it is mixed properly.
Chill for at least 2 hours.
Pre heat oven to 180 C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper/ butter paper and shape the dough into two dozen balls, flattened at the ends.
Leaving enough space for the cookies to expand, bake for 13 -15 minutes in the oven.
Leave in the oven for a few minutes and then cool on the rack.
One night I was restless and got up at 4.45 am and how much ever I tried I couldn’t sleep. A friend suggested that I bake bread. Hmm not a bad idea, but me being me, it had to be dessert. Sometimes you have so many ideas in mind but never an occasion to bake.
Finally, my sister called up and said that her colleagues would always say that you only praise your sister’s cooking but you have never made us taste it. So she asked me to make a box of goodies to floor them with. Now I was excited, yippee finally I had a free hand.
I had a chocolate brownie recipe by a wonderful foodie friend Saloni Sharma which I had made before. Gooey, chocolatey and fudge. Wanted to give it a twist so decided to make them Mocha brownies and they were just as decadent as i thought they would be.
Serve it plain or a friend said topped with milkmaid or the conventional way with ice cream or still better dollops of Nutella. yumm
Ingredients
Morde Dark Chocolate – 220 gm Amul Butter- 110 gm Eggs- 3 Brown Sugar- 210 gm Flour- 80 gm Cocoa powder- 10 gm Vanilla extract- 1 tsp Choco chips- 2 tbsp Instant coffee powder – 1 tbsp (u can add a bit more if you want a strong coffee flavour)
Melt the butter and chocolate together. Cool to room temp.
Add the sugar to the chocolate mix and whisk.
Add the eggs, one by one, whisking between each addition.
Add the vanilla extract and give another quick whisk.
Sift the flour, coffee powder and cocoa powder.
Fold the flour in two increments. Do not over-mix.
Pour into an oven-proof dish lined with butter paper, leaving a little bit of overhang on all sides, just enough to be able to pull the baked layer from the dish. Smoothen the top with a spatula.
Sprinkle the choco chips over the surface.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 30-35 minutes.
The tops should be firm and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come away with just a little stickiness.
Leave it in the oven for a few more minutes. Cool.
Holding firmly to both sides, tug the paper free from the baking dish and place on a flat surface. Cut into bars.
As kids, mom would make pork vindaloo often as it was my dad’s and middle sister’s favourite dish, We used to order this bread wala naan from the bakery and gobble the vindaloo with it. My eldest sister is a vegetarian (delivered at the wrong address maybe :P) and she would eat the creamy potatoes from any non veg dish but couldn’t digest meat.
I am not a big fan of pork as find it quite fatty though loooovvvee Bacon anytime. When I started cooking, I decided to use mutton instead of pork. And it tastes as delicious as I remembered it.
Super spicy, delicious and the perfect tang. Goan mutton vindaloo. Adjust spice levels as per your choice and if you have Goan fermented vinegar, it will add wonders to your dish. That gravy is the perfect place for the pav to swim in
ingredients
1 kg mutton
15-20 Kashmiri dried red chillies
6-8 pepper
1 tsp rye
2-3 onions
8-10 garlic
2″ ginger
1/4 cup vinegar
2 star anise
1″ cinnamon
1 bay leaf
6 curry pata
Salt
Haldi
6 whole baby potatoes or 2 big potatoes chopped to big pieces.
mix together ingredients 2-8 with little water in a mixer to a fine paste
heat oil in cooker, add ingredients 9-12. When it sizzles, add the masala, salt, haldi and mutton.
add very little water and pressure cook to 2 whistles. Lower gas and cook for 10-15 mins or on quality of mutton
semi cook the potatoes separately
when pressure drops, open the lid and check if the mutton is 90% cooked. If not give it a few more whistles.
Summer is here and the season of mangoes is in full bloom. Mangoes usually means aamras, pickles, mousse, milkshakes, desserts. In Mangalore we make curries out of it. I have previously posted a pineapple menaskai (curry) recipe that can also be made into a mango menaskai
Another variant in curries is the Kuku Da Kajipu which is like a light mango curry. Tangy and sweet and delicious with rice. I have used alphonso as had some ripe ones with me but this curry calls for the basic ordinary mango which is not too sweet.
Enjoying the mango at the end of the meal, till the seed looks all forlorn after savouring the pulp is the best part of this dish.
Ingredients
4 regular medium size very ripe mangoes (any variety that is not too sweet)
1 big chopped onion
1 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 karipata
3-4 dried red chillies
1 lime size tamarind ball soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Jaggery (optional and as per taste)
Peel (Do not slice) the mango skin allowing some flesh to come away with the peel. Keep the full mango aside.
Soak this peel in lukewarm water for 20 mins
Squeeze whatever pulp u can manage from the peel into the water in which they are soaked. Throw the peel.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, add the mustard seeds and when they splutter then add the kari pata and onion.
When the onion turns pink add the dried chilli and chilli powder. Mix well
When the onions are done, add the full mangoes and the pulpy water that we had collected from the peel. Let it cook for 10-15 mins
Add the tamarind water and salt. Taste the curry, if its sweet avoid the jaggery but if u feel the mangoes are not sweet enough then add jaggery as per taste.
Cook and let it thicken for another 15-20 mins. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot with rice
There used to be a time when I absolutely hated mushrooms. Like abhorred them. I used to work in Pune that time and there used to be a restaurant called Zamus which was famous for their crispy fried mushrooms with garlic sauce. My friends ate there all the time and I was left looking at their faces.
Then one day I can’t remember how and when, I felt deeply madly in love with mushrooms and couldn’t wait to get back to Zamus to hog on their crispy mushrooms . And my love affair with mushrooms led me to try so many styles
Presenting mushroom stacks. Crispy bread topped with spiced tomato chutney and garlicky sautéed mushrooms. Made stacks and topped with caramelised onions. So pretty that you can easily celebrate an occasion with it. So today I celebrate my love for mushrooms
Ingredients
1 loaf brown bread 1 pkt of button mushrooms sliced 1 onion chopped 7-8 garlic minced Salt 1/2 tsp each – chilli flakes, oregano Butter/olive oil
1) heat butter and sauté the onion and garlic till they start to sweat. 2) add the mushrooms on a high flame. Sauté till it leaves water. 3) add the salt and herbs and keep on high flame mixing occasionally. 4) shut the gas when the water has dried up and the mushrooms are golden
1) heat olive oil in the pan, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute. 2) add the tomatoes and all the other ingredients. Cook on slow flame for 20-30 mins. 3) once the tomatoes leave oil, mash them till they have a chutney texture.
1) heat oil and butter in a pan on high heat 2) add the onions and mix well 3) lower gas and cook the onion for 10 mins 4) add sugar and salt and let the onions turn a nice amber colour mixing frequently. About 20-25 mins.
Assembly
1) cut the bread into shapes of your choice and brush the bread slices with olive oil and pan fry to make them crispy. 2) spread the spiced tomato chutney on one slice of bread, top with the mushrooms. Add another slice of bread and spread chutney and then the mushrooms. Add the top slice and sprinkle some caramelised onions on top. Serve hot.
Whats spicy, tangy and garlicky all at once. This delicious hot garlic prawns. I can devote my life to prawns and oh yes bacon and of course Nutella and…. Stop I am deviating. Lets get back to prawns.
So this dish is a fantastic starter or a main and barely takes 15-20 mins to put together. Spice levels can be adjusted to your taste buds from Tingling to OH MY GOD
Ingredients
½ kg prawns
Salt
Oil
Chilli flakes/pepper
15 flakes crushed and chopped garlic
6 dried red chillies – soaked in water and ground to a paste
4 tbsp readymade purée
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
¼ tsp sugar
1 tsp cornflour dissolved in 1 cup of water
Marinate the prawns in salt and chilli flakes/pepper for 2 hrs
Fry prawns with little oil. Keep aside
In another pan heat oil, add garlic and fry to golden brown
On low heat, add red chilli paste, sweet chilli sauce, tomato purée, soya sauce, ketchup, sugar, salt. Stir for a few seconds.
Add the dissolved cornflour and little water. Stir till the sauce thickens
Add the prawns and cook till sauce coats the prawns.
I am a fan of Nita Mehta’s recipes. I know a lot of purists will not agree but I find it simple and the end results never fail.
This is a dal makhani I make using her recipe and its an absolute favourite with the kids. All you need is some steamed or jeera rice and a light raita to accompany it. Here is the recipe modified to my taste buds.
Wash the dal well, put it in a big cooker along with lots of water, 1 tsp ginger garlic paste, ghee and dried red chilli. After the first whistle, keep on low for 40 mins. Shut the gas.
In a heavy bottom vessel, add a tbsp of ghee and 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste, fry it and then add the tomato puree. cook till the paste is dry and leaves oil
Add the masalas and salt and fry it for a while. Add the kasoori methi and mix it well.
Add this masala to the boiled dal and cook on low flame.
Add the butter and keep cooking for another 20 mins, stirring at intervals.
Adjust seasoning and add the cream, mix well.
Let it simmer for another 15 mins on a low flame, Serve hot
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