Strawberry cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes

These cupcakes are made with golden sugar and real strawberry filling!

Indian dinner

Let me share a simple dish made with ladies finger…don’t be apprehensive about the curd in the recipe. Trust me, it tastes great. This is one of the very few recipes that I like in Mallika Badrinath’s book.

Ladies finger Masala

Ladies finger - ½ kg
Green chillies – 3
Chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp
Salt
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Sugar – 1tsp (optional)
Tomato – 1
Fresh thick curds – 2 cups
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Cashew – 15
Onions – 4 or 5
Poppy seeds- 1tbsp
Oil for deep frying

Cut ladies finger into 1.5” pieces. Deep fry in hot oil till light brown.
Dice onion and tomato into 1” pieces.
Slit green chillies vertically.
Dry roast poppy and cashew separately.
Fry onions till transparent in little oil.
Grind the onions, poppy seeds and cashew together.
Heat oil in a pan, tamper cumin seeds with a little fenugreek. Add green chillies and ground paste. Stir constantly in medium flame until golden brown.
Add sugar, salt, chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Continue frying till oil separates.
Add strained and whipped curds, tomato and ladies finger. Bring to a boil.

I served this dish with chappathis...I guess it goes well with poori too!

Irresistable Italian food!

I like to eat different types of food and I get easily bored when I eat the same stuff repeatedly when I go to a restaurant. Most restaurants have a standard menu and over time it gets monotonous...
This often happens when I want to eat pizza..I love pizza and pasta....but most restaurants in Chennai offer them with a tomato base. So I decided to try something different at home, with a basil pesto. Some day I would like to make the pizza from scratch, but for now I used a ready made Pizza base. Using basil pesto as the base, I made the pizza and pasta.

Basil pesto is best when used fresh. You may also store it in the fridge for about five days. Remember to use an airtight container, and coat the pesto with olive oil.

Pizza Gardenia (Tarla Dalal)



For the vegetable topping-
1 red pepper (Tarla says sliced, but I prefer cubed)
1 green pepper, cubed
1 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, cubed
1 eggplant, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil

I also used one yellow pepper

Other ingredients

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

To prepare the vegetable topping -
Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan, add all the remaining ingredients and cook over a high flame, stirring continuously till the vegetables are slightly browned. remove and keep aside.

Place one pizza base on a greased baking tray.

I always use a parchment paper for my tray when I bake pizza

Spread half of the pesto on top of the pizza base. Top with half of the roasted vegetables and mozzarella cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for ten minutes.

As I mentioned earlier, I tried making pasta using the pesto...it turned out quite well..

2 1/2 cups cooked penne
1/2 cup basil pesto
2tbsp Olive oil
2tbsp grated cheese

Heat oilve oil in a pan. Add pesto. Fry for a few minutes until cooked. Add the cooked penne. Cook till the pesto coats the pasta. Add grated cheese. Simmer until the cheese melts.

Garden Fresh - Poori with Aloo methi and Dal

A few days back I tried a Punjabi recipe from Tarla Dalal's book. It is a very simple dish, using few ingredients. This recipe uses fenugreek leaves, which is available in small bunches in the market. Be careful when you clean the leaves - the best way is to cut off the roots before opening the bunch. Then, clean the leaves several times in water.
Today I tried a combination - poori with aloo methi and dal. This is one of the best dinners I have ever had!



1 1/2 cups peeled and boiled potatoes
4 cups fresh fenugreek (methi) leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped ginger
2 whole dry red chillies, dry roasted and broken into pieces
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp asafoetida
4 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Wash the fenugreek leaves and chop them finely. Sprinkle some salt over them and keep aside for half an hour.
Squeeze out all the water and keep aside.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.
When they crackle, add the ginger, garlic, green chillies, red chillies and salt.
Add the potatoes and stir fry them for 5 minutes.
Add the fenugreek leaves, coriander powder, turmeric powder and asafoetida.
Cook covered for ten minutes on a low flame.
Serve hot.




Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 cups + 3/4 cup
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp

Wash the dal and pressure cook with 2 cups of water.
Mash the dal very well.
Add 3/4 cup water and bring to a boil.
Add salt and turmeric powder and simmer for a few minutes.
Heat the ghee, add the cumin seeds. Once the seeds crackle, pour it into the dal.

Basundhi

Basundhi is my all time favorite sweet. But I have never attempted to make it at home. I always thought it was a cumbersome process, but I realised I was totally wrong! Today I tried making it, and it turned out really well. Try my recipe...

Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 3 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Finely sliced almond & pista to garnish

Boil the milk on a slow flame. Keep stirring it once in a few minutes. Keep mixing the cream that forms on top. Keep boiling till 3/4th of the milk is reduced. This took about an hour. Add sugar. Remove from fire.
Cool completely. Refridgerate. Garnish with almonds and pista roasted in ghee.
P.S. I have not added my basundhi picture coz we finished eating it before I could click!

Quick starter!

Cauliflower florets – 4 ½ cups
Diced onion – ½ cup
Diced capsicum – ½ cup
Corn flour – ½ cup
Kashmiri chilli powder – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
Chopped coriander – 2 tbsp to garnish

Immerse the cauliflower florets in hot salted water for ten minutes. Drain.

Add the corn flour, salt and chilli powder when the cauliflower is still damp. Deep fry in hot oil and keep aside. Fry the onion and capsicum separately.

Mix all the vegetables and sauté together in a pan for a few minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Ubiquitous Rava Upma!

Hi!
Ok! Ok! Ok!
I can see the smirk on most faces when you are reading this. Upma is a common dish in South Indian homes and at least 6 out of 10 people I know hate it. But, according to me, any dish is interesting when it tastes good. We often do not pay much attention and care to cook simple dishes and that is where we go wrong. The best thing about Upma is that it can be made in a jiffy and its a wholesome dish too! I’m sharing my recipe of Upma, and I’m sure you will love it…trust me!

Ghee – 1 tsp
Gingelly oil – 4 tbsp
Semolina/ Rava – 1 ½ cups
Boiling water – 5 cups
Finely chopped onion – 1 ½ cups
Roughly chopped green chillies – 2 ½ tbsp
Finely chopped ginger – 1 tbsp
Mustard – ½ tsp
Broken urad/black gram – 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal – 1 ½ tsp
Fresh curry leaves loosely packed – ¼ cup

I used a non stick pan to cook this dish, so that the upma is completely non – sticky.

Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the rava on a slow flame. Keep frying until you are able to smell the rava. Keep aside.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan. Add bengal gram dal, urad dal and mustard, in the same order, leaving a few seconds gap in between each addition.

Add the green chillies, curry leaves, onion and fry till the onion is translucent.

Pour the boiling water into the vegetables. After 3 minutes, add the rava, little by little. Keep stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Cook for 7 – 8 minutes.

Finally, add the remaining oil and mix well. Cook for 2 minutes.