Corn Fritters

I found this gem of a recipe in Williams-Sonoma book and totally loved it. It seems this recipe comes from Maharashtra and I was pleasantly surprised. Now I have lived most of my life in Bombay and when I was young I used to spend a major part of my day with my Maharashtrian neighbours playing with friends. Some evenings we kids used to get snacks from the aunties and I have had my first taste of the local cuisine through these generous servings. Being a foodie, I have visited restaurants and local jhunka-bhakar kendras which serve yummy fast/junk food….but I dont remember seeing this dish :) I remember McDonalds first opened in Bandra when I was in college. A single burger used to cost approx 50 bucks…quite a princely amount for a college kid who used to get Rs300 as pocket money. But still all us friends used to save for a few days and go shopping on Link Road and finish the day by having a burger at McDonalds. I thought I had possibly seen all the fast food and appetizer options that Bombay had to offer, so when I saw that this dish came from Maharashtra I had to try this out.  It is really good and can be served as the appetizer course when you have company. I have adapted it slightly to suit my taste and it reminds me a lot of goli bahji which we get in Mangalore.

Ingredients:

1 cup All purpose flour/maida
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp dhaniya-jeera powder
2 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ajwain
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onion/scallions(including green tops)
1/2 cup finely chopped capsicum(any colour)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro/coriander leaves
1 cup corn fresh or frozen(but thawed)
Veg oil for deep frying
salt to taste

Method:

In a bowl combine flour,salt,red chilli powder,garam masala,dhaniya-jeera powder,cumin seeds and ajwain.

In another bowl whisk the milk and eggs. Pour over the flour mixture slowly and stir it to form a lump free batter. You can a few drops of water if the batter is too thick.

Add the corn,spring onions, capsicum and cilantro and mix well.

Heat oil for deep frying. Using a teaspoon or your hand, slip in small amounts of batter and deep fry a few at a time till golden brown. Turn and repeat till both sides are golden brown.

Remove on paper towels to drain. Serve hot with ketchup or green chutney.

 

Anniversary cake.

I know I haven’t updated the blog for sometime but I do have a valid reason this time. Unlike other times when I dont update the blog due to lethargy or because I become more interested in what other folks are writing on their blogs, this time its because my in-laws are here and I am having fun with them I know I have a lot of catching up to do in commenting on other blogs.  I’ll visit soon and do that.

Last weekend they celebrated 43 years together so I had baked a cake. They loved the cake and were quite happy with my attempts at decoration. Mission accomplished! Please keep them in your prayers I dont mean you have to comment here or anything, just send a small prayer when you happen to read this post.

It was simple vanilla cake with chocolate ganache frosting. I just blindly followed the recipe for ganache from the website. I just halved the recipe and omitted the addition of rum. The flowers and leaves are fondant. I still have a packet of Wilton fondant from my cake decorating class and I used that for decoration. The flowers were made from the tiniest cookie cutters and arranged according to my mood. I think I was in a good mood as I still like the arrangement

And here’s the couple cutting the cake.

I had made the fondant flowers the day before and they were set properly and were hard when I arranged them on the cake. I then covered it and we went for mass. When we came back after an hour, they had become glossy and slightly soft. You can see the difference in the 2nd and the 3rd pic. I dont know what happened. If any of you know the reason please let me know. It didnt make any difference to the taste or the appearance but I am just curious about the reason.

PS: Wishing Mandira from Baking Buddies a Very Happy Birthday in advance

 

Shrimp/Prawn Sukha.

This is one of the side dishes I make often whenever I feel like eating seafood. Its quite simple to make and it tastes great with chapathis or with dal-rice. Its one of those feel-good dishes which can be comforting and yet can be served during company.

Ingredients:

1 pound shrimp peeled, deveined and rinsed
2 ripe tomatoes
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger-garlic paste
1 green chilli
1 potato diced
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 tsp badishep/fennel seeds
4 cloves
1 inch piece cinamon stick
6 peppercorns or 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp red chilli powder(or to taste)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp garam masala powder (optional)
salt to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cilantro/kothmeer leaves

Method:

Marinate prawns with salt,a pinch of turmeric powder and lemon juice for atleast an hour.

Heat about 2 tbsp oil. Add the clove,cinnamon stick,peppercorns and bay leaf.

When they change colour add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, green chillies and ginger-garlic paste. Be careful as the ginger-garlic paste tends to splatter. You can use finely chopped ginger and garlic instead of the paste. Stir well and add chopped onions.

When the onions becomes transluscent add the chopped tomatoes. Mix well. Cover and cook till tomatoes become a soft.

Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Mix well. Add the potatoes.

Cover and cook on low to medium flame till potatoes are half cooked (50 percent done).

Then add the prawns,stir well and cover and cook till both potatoes and prawns are well cooked.

Check for salt and add more lemon juice if necessary.

Garnish with garam masala powder and cilantro leaves. Mix well and turn off gas.

Serve hot.

 

Countdown and awards.

Lyandra tagged me for this so here goes. For most of them I couldnt think of something specific  but I liked Lyandra’s list a lot so I had to do it

10  years since I finished college. Bah…time flies way too fast

9   beautiful days spent in Shimla-Kulu Manali was the best vacation ever. Nature at its best!

8  My figure…lol

7  reminds me of the Seinfeld episode  .

6  reminds me of Yuvraj’s perfect score!

5 movies I can watch again and again are French Kiss, Roman Holiday, My cousin Vinny, Angoor and  Hungama

4   I have four pendants on my chain which I wear most of the time as these were gifted by  people  closest to me. A cross  gifted   by my aunt, a small teddy bear gifted by friends, a key gifted by my parents and a heart gifted by hubby  

3 am is the time I go to sleep on most nights. I am an owl!

2 Can finish a Mary Higgins Clark book in 2 days

1 day at a time is my favourite hymn.

Then there was a tag floating around a while back about slow, melodious songs in 2 languages. Since I was anyway doing the above tag I thought I would do this one too. Mandira did 20 songs, so I thought I would follow her But I will add 2 more languages to the mix! This is my current Top 20 list. Konkani is my mother tongue but I couldnt find more of Wilfy Rebimbus songs on youtube. The other 2 are from old Konkani movies of which my dad is a huge fan but its a little different from Mangalorean Konkani. And I’ve grown up listening to marathi songs on the radio  

English

1)  You’ll be in my heart - Phil Collins

2) 25 minutes - MLTR

3) Teardrops on my guitar - Taylor Swift

4) Have you really loved a woman - Bryan Adams

5) Save the last dance for me - Michael Buble

6) Top of the world - The Carpenters

7) It must have been love - Roxette

8.) Bed of Roses - Bon Jovi

9) Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden

10) You’re still the one - Shania Twain

Hindi

11) Chup Tum Raho - Is raat ki subah nahin. Not the right video but Hritik-Ash look gorgeous

12) Yeh raat khushnaseeb hai - Aaina.

13) U, Me aur Hum - Title Song

14) My heart is beating - Julie

15) Hum Tum - Title song

Konkani

16) Mog tuzo kitlo aashelo - Wilfy Rebimbus

17) Molbavello Dhou - Amchem Noxib

18) Dol mojea bai - Nirmonn

Marathi

19)  Aabhas Ha - Yanda kartavya ahe

20) Kalat Nakalat - Title Song of the serial.

And now for some awards!

Dhanya bestowed this lovely “Friends” award. Thanks a lot Dhanya.

And Chandani passed on the “Blogging with a purpose award. Thankyou so much Chandani.

 

I would like to pass on the tags and awards to Lyandra,  Mandira ,  Dhanya, Crafty (dont know if u do tags but u can surely pick up the awards), Abha, Pravs, Kalpana, IHM ,Vrinda, Pretty Woman and Roops . I know some people find tags boring…its ok, you can just pick up the awards

 

 

 

 

 

Rasgulla’s

I have a major weakness for Bengali sweets. Usually my sweet tooth is restricted to anything that has even a hint of chocolate but Bengali sweets are way up high on my “Cant Resist” list alongwith the yummy chocolate. I think chocolates and Bengali sweets can go head to head in their effort to vie for my attention To tell you the truth there is no competition at all. I can finish a plateful of both varieties in a heartbeat. Ofcourse the guilt will follow but atleast my tastebuds will thank me So here we go with the recipe for rasgulla’s. Infact I dont need to describe the wonderful flavour at all! Just have one and let the explosion of taste do the talking for you! Its that good!

Edited to Add: A reader Swapan commented that rasgullas are originally from Orissa. Thanks a lot for the info. Checked on wiki and it says that rasgullas made their way from Orissa to Bengal. You can read more about it here

Ingredients:

2 and half cups of water
1 cup sugar
Paneer
A few strands of saffron.

Method:

Divide the paneer into small balls. These will double in size once cooked, so make the balls accordingly.

Heat water and sugar in a pressure cooker to make syrup. Once the sugar is dissolved and the water is boiling, add the saffron.

Then add the paneer balls. Remember that they will expand so add as many as will comfortably fit in the cooker even after the expansion.

Cook for 1 whistle and keep aside. Bring to room temperature and then refridgerate.

Serve chilled with the syrup.

If you dont have a pressure cooker, you can make the rasgullas in a normal vessel with a tight lid. Just cook the rasgullas on medium-high flame for 25-30 minutes. You may have to add more water, so adjust the propotion of water and sugar accordingly.

 

Paneer

Paneer also known as cottage cheese can be easily made at home without a lot of hassle. It is a protein rich food and can be added to a variety of dishes. I made this batch of paneer to make rasgullas. I will post that recipe in a couple of day. Today I’ll post the basic recipe for paneer which can be used to make sweets or can be added to any gravy.

Ingredients:

6 cups milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water

Method:

Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan or a steel vessel and bring it to a boil on a medium high flame. Try to avoid heating milk in a alluminium vessel.

Keep stirring at regular intervals or the milk will boil over. Once the milk starts bubbling, mix the lemon juice and water together and pour it in the milk vessel.

The milk will curdle and it will seperate from the water. Shut off gas.

Line a colander with a muslin cloth or a cheesecloth. Pour the milk into the colander and drain all the water.

Then place the colander under running cold water and just wash the paneer slightly so that the citric taste is washed off.

Remove the muslin cloth from the colander and squeeze out all the water from the paneer by twisting the cheesecloth. Place a heavy weight on the paneer for atleast 15 minutes so that all the excess water is squeezed out.

Once all the water is drained, remove the paneer(which is crumbly at this point) and knead to a soft dough.

Press it into a small vessel and refridgerate till ready to use. You can then remove the slab and cut it into small cubes and add to any gravy of your choice.

 

Onion Pakoda’s

This is one of the easiest and the yummiest pakodas you can make. This was the first snack I learnt to prepare. It tastes heavenly on cloudy, rainy days with a hot cup of tea. I can vouch for it

Ingredients:

1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1 cup beasan/gram flour
2 tsp ajwain
1 tsp red chilly powder
A pinch of turmeric powder
salt to taste.
Little water
oil for frying.

Method:

Slice onion thinly and sprinkle besan, ajwain, red chilly powder and turmeric powder over the onions.

With your hand, try to mash the onions together with the ingredients. The water present in the onions will help to seal the ingredients together. You can add water little by little, if additional water is needed.

Heat oil in a wok and drop spoonfuls of the mixture. Deep fry over medium flame till golden brown and crisp.

Serve hot with chutney and/or ketchup with a hot cuppa tea!

 

Masoor dal.

Masoor dal is another one of my favourite dals. The preparation is quite simple and it always manages to hit the spot with me! One of the few dishes that come under the comfort food category.

Ingredients:

1 cup masoor dal (washed, drained and soaked for a couple of hours)
1 small onion sliced
1 green chilli chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1 inch ginger minced
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
A pinch of tumeric powder
4 cloves
4 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 inch piece cinnamon stick
1/4 cup chopped cilantro for garnish
3/4 cup of water
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

Method:

Cook masoor dal with salt,ginger,green chilli and tomatoes in about 3/4th cup of water. Once dal is cooked remove from flame and keep aside.

Heat oil in a vessel. Add the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick and bayleaf.

Once they darken add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Then add the asafoetida powder, garlic and turmeric powder.

After about 5 seconds add the sliced onions and fry till transluscent.

Then add the cooked masoor dal and add more water if desired.

Check for salt. Cover and bring it to a boil.

Add cilantro and remove from flame.

Serve hot with rice.

PS: I am sending this to Ashwini for the “Lentils Mela“

 

Val Curry

This is a Maharashtrian preparation and I absolutely love it! You get these dried whole val beans in the Indian grocery store. You need to wash it properly and soak it for atleast a day and half. The outer skin has to be removed because it is bitter and a little hard to chew. Once its soaked, it is easy to peel off the skin by pinching one end and the whole bean just slides out. It is a lengthy procedure but I mostly get it done while watching TV. This recipe calls for coconut milk and the beans impart a nice nutty flavour which is a nice treat for the tastebuds.

Ingredients:

1 cup val beans, soaked and skin peeled off
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 red onion chopped
3 curry leaves
3 cloves of garlic smashed and peeled
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (to taste)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup coconut milk
salt to taste
3 tbsp oil

Method:

Heat oil in a vessel. Add the mustard seeds. Once they splatter add the cumin seeds, asafoetida,curry leaves, turmeric powder and garlic cloves.

Then add the chopped onions and fry till transluscent.

Add the coriander powder and chilli powder.

Add the peeled val to this and stir well so that the val is properly coated with the masala.

Then add the water and cook the val on medium flame till done. Val cooks pretty quickly. Check whether its done after a few minutes by biting on a couple of the beans. The beans should not disintegrate but you should be able to chew it easily.

Once val is cooked, add the coconut milk and bring it to a boil.If you want more gravy, add extra coconut milk

Add the salt and give it a stir.

Serve hot with rice or chapathis.

PS: I am sending this recipe to the Well Seasoned Cook for the “My Legume Love Affair: Eighth Helping” event.

 

Vanilla cake with fresh strawberries.

I made this cake for Valentines. According to me, nothing screams romance like fresh strawberries…. dont know why! My local Albertsons was selling chocolate covered strawberries the entire day. Yum. But we didnt buy them because I had already made this cake and we had bought 4 lbs strawberries from Costco. This was the first cake I learnt to make back in India. My friend came over with the necessary ingredients and taught me how to make it while I helpfully stirred the batter. We didnt have an oven, so our pressure cooker filled halfway with sand doubled as an oven. At the end of it, the alluminium pressure cooker was blackened beyond recognition and this delicious cake was the only reason I didnt get a lecture of a lifetime from my dad Back home we used fresh cream/malai. Over here I use sour cream. For the frosting I used canned whipped cream. Hop over here at Crafty’s for the crocheted version

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter(room temp)
1 and half cup All purpose flour/maida
1 cup sugar
3 eggs ( yolks and whites seperated)
1/2 cup malai/sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Grease 2, 6inch round pans and keep aside.

Sift together flour,salt,baking soda,baking powder and keep aside.

Cream together on medium speed butter,sugar,egg whites till light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes).

Then add the sour cream,milk and vanilla essence. Blend till combined.

Then add the sifted flour mixture into the wet batter and blend on low speed until just combined. Donot overmix.

In the end add the egg yolks and stir it in by hand. See that it is well mixed.

Divide it into the pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

Remove from the pans and allow it to cool.

For the filling, I just chopped up strawberries and mixed them with the canned whipped cream and layered this between the 2 cakes.

I topped it with the same mix.