Vada Pav

Vada pav is the quintessential Indian burger. It is one of the most popular street foods in India especially Mumbai. In Mumbai you will see these everywhere; outside local train stations, near shopping areas, next to colleges etc.

It is quick, cheap, filling and most of all delicious and many a Mumbaite will have this for a quick lunch on the go. I practically lived off this stuff during my training in that city.

I have tried to create my favorite vada pav recipe. There are a lot of vada pav recipes on the web and they are all pretty much the same except for adding little more masalas or different chutneys. This is based on Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe . He is the king of Indian cuisine and I do love his recipes.


You can use dinner rolls or burger buns, in India they use the 'ladi pav'. If you are using the dinner rolls , you can make your vadas a little smaller, however, if you are using burger buns, like me, make the vadas slighly larger.

Try this popular Mumbai Burger and have it the mumbai-style with a hot cup of chai. This dish brings back so many fond memories.



Vada Pav

Dry Lasun ki Chutney ( Garlic Chutney, Dry )

This is a garlic spiked red hot chutney that will perk up anything it is put in. I love it in my sandwiches and sometimes I even add this to my sabjis to jazz it up a bit.

Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients

9 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/3 cup dried coconut flakes
2 tbsp deggi mirch powder ( or substitute with 2 tbsp cayenne powder / lal mirch powder, I use deggi mirch for the lovely red color )
a big pinch of sugar
salt, to taste
1 tsp cooking oil


Method

• Heat the oil in a small saucepan, add the garlic cloves to it and saute briefly till it get a light golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on an absorbent towel. Next add the coconut and saute till it gets light golden brown, add the red chili powder to the coconut and saute lightly again for one minute and remove from heat.
• Blend in a blender, do not add any water to this. Mix in the sugar and salt. Store in an air tight container, at room temperature.

 The garlic and coconut + red chili powder after roasting.

The final result after grinding.

Rangoli Decorated Sugar Cookies

I recently joined a group of very creative and enthusiastic bakers called ' The Daring Bakers '. Every month you are supposed to create something new based on who is hosting that month. The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I was so excited as I love sugar cookies as much as my five year old. Mandy requested that we use her sugar cookie recipe, which I have written below. I have also posted two different royal icing recipes; one using meringue powder ( the one I used ) and one using fresh egg whites ( recipe provided by Mandy ). The cookies are really great to decorate. They taste good and maintain their shape during baking and also are not very fragile. I rolled my cookies to 1/4 " thickness and baked for 11 minutes,and they came out great.

The theme of my cookies are Rangolis. September marks the advent of our major festivals and it continues throughout the fall season. Rangolis are generally drawn outside the main entrance of the home, but during the festival season the Rangolis become even more colorful and intricate. I thought it would be a good idea to make Rangoli cookies to give as gifts during this season. I really enjoyed making them. This is my first attempt at decorating cookies with royal icing so please bear with me. My only tip is to let the outline dry before filling in the colors. I used the Wilton Gel Icing Colors ; the Red ( no taste), Royal Blue, Kelly Green, Buttercup Yellow, Pink, Violet and Orange. The way I did it was that I first outlined the base and let it dry overnight. Next day I outlined the design and let it dry for a couple of hours and then lastly I added the color and let the whole thing dry for another 12 hours.


Rangoli Decorated Sugar Cookie

Banana Bread

I love this Banana Bread recipe; it is moist, full of banana flavour, tender, light and airy. I have had a lot of banana breads and I can confidently say this recipe is the best for me. I have been making this recipe for 10 years now and it has never failed me. I assure you even the non-banana lovers in your house will love this Banana Bread.

And I will know as bananas are not one of my favorite fruits. If it were left to me I would never buy it, but it is a very healthy fruit and I wanted my son to develop a liking to it, so usually you will find some bananas in the fruit platter on my countertop. Whenever some get left behind and are not eaten up in time, they get used up in this wonderful Banana Bread recipe. This is the only way I will eat bananas.


Recently I tried the Banana Loaf at Starbucks and while it tasted identical to this recipe ( there was some different flavoring added to it though ) the texture was nowhere near this recipe. Their loaf was dense and solid unlike the light and tender crumb this recipe produces. In fact I wonder why it is called a banana bread when it actually should be called a banana cake. Also the walnuts add a lovely texture and crunch to the bread. If you do not have any walnuts you can substitute it with almonds.

So if you have some bananas that are getting brown and needs to be used up pronto make this bread recipe and enjoy it with a nice cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk.



Banana Bread

Paneer Makhani or Paneer Butter Masala

If you are searching for  a lip smacking, a little sweet, a little tangy and fiery Paneer Makhani ( Paneer Butter Masala ) then your search ends here.....

According to me, Sundays are the best day of the week. It is not like Monday to Friday when I am rushing about at a maniacal pace, counting down the days till weekend. Neither like Saturday, when I am so joyous that the weekend is finally here that I cannot wait to get out there, catching up on the local museums and shopping at malls. Then comes Sunday,the pace of this day is unlike any other of the week, we have worked, we have played now its time to kick back and take it slow.

The story with my cooking also runs along the same line. All week long I cook at break neck speed, trying to finish cooking before hubby goes to office and son goes to school. Then comes Saturday and I declare my kitchen to be under strike and take a break from cooking. Sunday however I am all rested and can take all the time to cook up some dishes whose ingredient lists will have you emptying half of your pantry on the kitchen countertops. My husband takes over the childcare and lets me be one with my stove......

Paneer Makhani or as I love to call it Paneer Butter Masala is a one of those dishes. Please do not be deterred, I was exaggerating about the ingredient list, it is no more than any other sabji with gravy. The only things different about this dish is a couple of extra steps, but its totally worth it.

I got this recipe while training in a hotel in Mumbai. I still have the scrape of paper on which I quickly jotted down the recipe while our chef rattled it at break neck speed. The paper is stained, dog eared and the ink smudged in places where it came in contact with my wet fingers. Still this piece of paper is very precious to me. I have adapted it by reducing the oil and omitting the red food color.


Paneer Makhani

Rajma

I apologise for not posting anything new on my blog this whole past week. Schools opened this week and suddenly I find this huge block of free time on my hands. In the past I have often fantasized about this time and how I will spend it and now that it is here I just cannot for the life of me remember what I wanted to do with my free time. Cook and bake was on top of my list but my 'mojo' seems to have vanished, anything I touch turns all wrong. I burnt the cookies, under baked the cake and over salted the sabjis.

But now we are one week into school and my little one is adjusting to life in kindergarten and I am adjusting to life at home ! So I am relaxing a bit and redoing all the dishes I messed up. I have finally gotten my mind and heart back into my kitchen. However, it is still a work in progress, so I am taking baby steps. I made Rajma as it is his favorite sabji after paneer. I usually do not add that much red chili powder as I have mentioned in the recipe as the kids will not like that.

Whenever I am in a rush I use the canned red kidney beans and a small jar of salsa, all you have to do is add some garam masala and your Rajma is ready; this eliminates that need to soak the beans overnight and cook them in a pressure cooker, cut up onions, tomatoes etc.

This is a really tasty recipe, it is spicy but the spices do not overpower the taste of the kidney beans. Rajma is a good source of protein and fiber and in our house we cook this at least once a week,. Do not cook out all the water as a little gravy to this sabji is desirable.



Rajma

Upma ( Indian Polenta )

Upma is a savoury dish made from semolina and could be easily be termed as Indian Polenta*. This is a very popular South Indian breakfast dish. You can also have it in the afternoons with a cup of hot chai.

There are people who like sweet dishes for breakfast and then there are those who like spicy and savoury dishes for breakfast. I belong to the latter group, though I will make an exception for a little Sheera . I cannot imagine waking up in the morning to doughnuts and assorted jam filled danish pastries. Don't get me wrong, I love these things, but not early in the morning and definitely not as breakfast. Whenever we travel and have to eat the continental breakfast served in our hotels, I know that day I am going to be hungry. I do have a big sweet tooth but I like my sweets only as desserts.

So if you are like me, you will love Upma. It is mildly spicy and savory, it is very nutritious too. I love it when the Upma is all fluffy and the cooked grains are not clinging to each other forming a tight mass of ball that when you take a bite you find yourself groping for a glass of water to help you swallow it down. The trick to achieving the right consistency is the ratio of water to semolina, as given in the recipe below. Also do not skip the roasting-the-semolina step, if you do omit this step the taste of the Upma will be a little off.

This is my mom's recipe. Adding tomatoes to Upma is not the traditional way to make it, but I had it this way once at one of my aunt's house, Rita Maushi makes delicious food and her Upma was really tasty. She is a great cook among many of her other talents. Try this recipe and you will have the most delicious Upma ever. Enjoy a bowl of warm Upma in the morning and suddenly life will seem so much better !

I found this interesting article on Wikipedia and I thought I will share it with you all ,
" Rava is often translated as Semolina in cook books and by various authors on the Internet. While this is not wrong, it is not entirely accurate either. Semolina is most commonly made from Durum wheat, which is thicker and yellow in color with a higher protein and gluten content than Rava. Rava on the other hand is specifically semolina made from soft wheat also known by the trade name of Cream of wheat or farina (food), which is a softer white cereal . " And I always thought of suji and rava as semolina.




Upma

Hayagriva ( a lentil based sweet )

This is an Indian sweet dish made up of cooked bengal gram dal, jaggery, freshly grated coconut and poppy seeds. It is very popular in the south of India especially in Mantralayam.

I love making this sweet as it is very delicious, nutritious ( when was the last time you heard of a sweet dish being nutritious too !) and very quick and easy to make. Hayagriva is very similar to the puran in Puran Poli / Holige .

Some people like their Hayagriva to be a little runny in consistency. However, I like mine in a soft, semi solid state. This depends on personal preference, so if you like it a little more runny do not evaporate a lot of the moisture out during the cooking process. Also when cooking the channa dal / split bengal gram dal , some opt to cook it in the pressure cooker. I, personally, prefer the stove top method - cook it in a saucepan with lots of water - as this allows me to control the texture of the cooked dal. I like my dal to maintain its shape and integrity and putting it in a pressure cooker can be a hit or miss in that. Again there is no hard and fast rule here, as this is not going to change the taste of the dish, just the visual appeal.



Hayagriva

Kelewele ( Fried Pantain - Ghanaian Style )

Kelewele are a popular street food in Ghana. This are the most amazing Kelewele recipe ( spice-rubbed-deep-fried plantain pieces ). In fact they taste just like the ones you will get from the street vendors dotted along the streets of Accra, Ghana.

We used to buy our Kelewele from the vendor who sat right across the street from my school's main gates. She had this make-shift stand made of some wooden poles and tin shed for roof. In the middle of all this was this gigantic, black frying pan filled with oil sitting on firewood. In that hot oil she would have these plantain pieces, rubbed with her secret blend of spices, frying. After school all the girls would gather around waiting for her to serve us with  just-out-of-the-hot-oil Kelewele. It was a common sight to see people unable to wait for the Keleweles to cool down before popping them in their mouths thus causing their jaws to bob up and down in rapid succession all in the vain effort to prevent their mouths from burning.

Her Keleweles had the right blend of sweetness from the ripe plantains  and heat from the red chilies and ginger. For a long time I have tried to recreate those Keleweles but for some reason they just did not taste like hers. You see I always thought that the spices in which the plantain pieces marinated were made of ginger and red chilies. However I finally got the secret to perfect Keleweles from an old friend. So I went ahead and tried out the new recipe and voila these were just like the ones I remembered.

You can fry these longer so that it gets a little crispy and brown at the edges - this happens when the sugars in the plantain caramelizes ( just the way I like them ). Just make sure that your plantain is not too soft and mushy or else it will absorb too much oil. Also, remember to clean, with a slotted spoon, the bits and pieces of fried marinade floating on the surface of the hot oil after removing each batch of fried plantain or else it will stick to the new batch of plantain you put in and will look messy. My photos of them are not very picturesque but trust me they taste wonderful. Also you can cut them on a diagonal as I have done or just cut them straight, there are no hard and fast rules here. Do try this popular Ghanaian street food.


Kelewele

Paneer Bhurji

Paneer is an Indian cheese. According to Wikipedia " It is a fresh cheese of Indian origin. It is unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese or curd cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or other food acid."
" Unlike most cheeses in the world, the making of paneer does not involve rennet as the coagulation agent, thus making it completely lacto-vegetarian and providing a source of protein for vegetarian hindus. " Thanks to Wikipedia for that !


Yesterday was one of those days, I woke up late and then everything was a mad dash after that. In all this hurry I had to think of what to make today. One of the biggest questions of my life, what to cook today? What can I make that is quick, nutritious and tasty. Well luckily I had some paneer chilling in the fridge and everybody in our house loves paneer. Now the quickest dish with paneer is the Paneer Bhurji. There are various variation of this dish, but this is the way I love it. I have kept the dish simple so as to allow the flavors of the onions, tomatoes and paneer to shine through.


Try this recipe and I assure you that you will not be disappointed, it is a quick and simple and not to mention so tasty that even your pickiest eater will love it.


Paneer Bhurji