Thursday, 23 June 2016

                                                   
                                                        Custard With Mango And Cake

May be one of  the last of the mango dishes, as rain enters and mango is on its way out for the season. Ingredients very easy but taste yummy as a combination. Season ends for the Alphonso mango, the other varieties continue to flood the markets. 

First, make vanilla custard and keep it to set, 1/4 portion each, in two glasses. Once set, make pieces of plain vanilla sponge cake ( I must admit here, that I am very bad at baking and the cake is store bought )  and make a layer in one of the glasses, pour two ladles of milk or till you see the cake submerged, next layer is of mango pieces, the next one will be the portion set in the other glass, transfer it over the mango pieces. Top layer of mango pieces, garnished with cinnamon and cardamom powder.   

Monday, 20 June 2016

                                                       
                                                            Mix Fruit Kesari Bhat

Kesari Bhat, this is a sweet dish which is called Shira in Marathi and Suji halwa in Hindi. Something special about this dish which I would like to share with you. Some years back, the routine in summer holidays was, me taking my kids to their granny's house to be with cousins and the grand parents. All the cousins enjoying together playing, fighting, swimming, watching films, and of course, going out to eat. There is a very famous temple at Basavangudi, The Bull Temple in Bengaluru, where my brother Dada took us every holiday and after darshan  there was this small eatery from where we would pack Vegetable Khara Bhat which is Upma, and Pineapple Kesari Bhat which is Shira. The pack comes in a banana leaf. Never eaten anything like this in a long time now and also never found this unique taste anywhere.

Here I am bringing you a different version of the  Kesari Bhat. Hope you like it.

Ingredients

1 cups semolina (well roasted in two table spoons of clarified butter and kept ready
1/2 cup pineapple pieces

4 cups of mix fruit juice which is made of 1/4 cup kiwi pieces, 1/4 cup dragon fruit, 1/4 cup pineapple, 1/4 cup watermelon and 1 plum. Now for the plum juice you need to bring the plum to a boil in water, deseed once soft and use this water while you make juice of all fruits.

In a deep bottomed vessel pour the juice, add the pieces of pineapple and let it come to a boil, sugar is optional and I have not added any since I thought the sweetness from the fruits was enough. Now add a spoon of clarified butter and add the roasted semolina bit by bit stirring continuously to see that no lumps form, mix well and cook covered stirring in between till it gets cooked and reaches the required consistency. Plate as you wish and decorate with fruits of your choice, my plate has some kiwi and is garnished with basil cress, which was giving a beautiful aroma in each bite.

Saturday, 18 June 2016


                                                                      Spanish Paella

A very famous Spanish Rice Dish about which I had heard but never tried making it. Now since my daughter went to Spain and got me the Paella Spice mix and olive Oil  straight from there, I learnt to make it and here it is for you people to try out too. You will have to travel to Seville in Spain though....to get the Spice mix!!! It originally is made of seafood, but I have made the vegetarian version of the same.

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice
1 bay leaf
1 /2 cup green peas, 1/2 cup red bell pepper, 1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, 1/2 cup green bell peppers, 1/2 cup brocoli florets, 1/2 cup mushrooms, all chopped into medium sized cubes except the brocoli.
1 tspoon chilli powder
2 onions finely chopped
1 tablespoon of garlic chopped fine
10-12 saffron strands soaked in water
1 bunch of parsley

Method

In a vessel keep water and brocoli, peas and mushrooms to boil and bring them to a stage where they are more than half done. You need to use this stock to cook the rice.

 Meanwhile on the other side, in a big wok take some olive oil add the bay leaf, then the garlic, saute till it turns golden brown, add the chopped onion and wait till they turn golden brown, add the rest of the vegetables which are not kept to boil and cook till half done, add the parboiled vegetables, add the rice, mix well add salt, chilli powder and the spicemix, add the stock of vegetables (three is to one should be the proportion of the rice and the stock) add little by little with a ladle and keep stirring and cooking, keep adding the water, when the rice is half done add the soaked saffron and keep adding water and cooking till the rice is cooked and moist. Add chopped parsley and give it a final mix. Rice is ready to be served.




Monday, 13 June 2016


                                                        Dosa With A Chinese Twist    

Ingredients for the batter

1 cup rice
1/2 cup udad dal
1/4 cup poha
1/2 tspn methi seeds
1 cup ragi flour

To make the batter, soak, rice and the poha with methi seeds,
soak udad dal separately for 4-5 hours, grind the soaked ingredients separately and mix well in a deep bottomed  vessel, add the ragi flour and mix well see that there are no lumps in it , keep overnight for fermentation. Add salt to taste and water as required for the dosa consistency.


Ingredients for the chinese filling


6-8 garlic cloves crushed roughly
2 tspns chilli flakes
1/2 cup jullienned cabbage
 1/2 cup grated carrot
 1/2 cup julienned peppers ( red, green and yellow)
1 tblspn soya sauce
a pinch of ajinomoto( optional)
Salt to taste


To make the filling, take a kadhai and put olive oil add the crushed garlic and stir for a bit, add all the vegetables, add salt sprinkle little water add chilli flakes, stir till done add ajinomoto, soya sauce. Let the mixture be not wet but moist.
Now take a tava ready it for making dosa, spread the batter drizzle little olive oil, when u see it a little cooked put the chinese veg mix make a roll, make pieces and serve hot with mustard sauce or any sauce of your choice.

Friday, 10 June 2016


                                                        The quintessential snack of Mumbai.

The Vada Pav of Mumbai as everybody knows it, I was not too fond of this as child neither did I develop a taste for it till I got married and came to Mumbai as a young girl. We owned  a medical store and I would many times be sitting at the counter handling the cash,  with my few month old baby Aswini in tow, when my husband went to do a course at the Kalina University. The shop boys Ajay and Shankar would often go for their snack breaks and come back happy. Once I asked them to bring for me what they ate and from then.....the Vada Pav had a new fan, for life. Loved the whole rustic dish brought in a news paper roughly folded and there in it was the tastiest snack ever. No plate spoon fork, no presentation and all but just packet of pleasure!!! I can bet on the fact that all the strata of society in Mumbai, at some point in life would have had one of these.

1) Ingredients for the vada

4 medium sized potatoes, pressure cooked to three whistles and mashed well
1/ cup fresh chopped coriander
6 green chillies chopped
1 tspoon ginger grated
Salt to taste
Lime juice to taste
Oil, mustard seeds, asefoetida and turmeric powder for the tempering, make the tempering in about three tablespoons of oil.

For the batter

2) 3 cups of  split black gram flour  (chana aata)
Salt to taste
1 tspoon of coriander powder
1 tspoon chilli powder
A few carrom seeds roughly crushed in the palm
Baking soda as required and water for mixing the flour to make a batter

Some chillies slit in between and fried and sprinkled with rock salt, to bite into with the vada.

Pavs for putting the vada in.

 Some green mint coriander chutney and some sweet sour date tamarind pulp chutney to smear on the pav.


Method 
Take all the ingredients for the vada including the tempering and mix well, keep in the refrigerator for about half an hour, so it become easy to make balls out of it. 

Take the mixture out and keep the kadhai to heta with oil enough to fry the vadas. As the oil is heating you can ready the equal sized balls of the mixture, check if the oil is heated. Now dip each ball in the gram flour batter and leave it in the oil to make a golden brown  vada. 

For serving, take a pav open roughly in between, smear both the chutneys to taste, keep the vada in press abit and serve both the chutneys if serving in a plate. Usually the roadside stalls serve it with extra chutney and a chilli if you eat it there, if it is a take away then it is given with only  the chillies and some dry cococnut chutney which is made of dry red chillies, dry grated cococnut and garlic, dry roasted and made into a coarse powder.    

Thursday, 9 June 2016


                                                    Shahi Tukda Fully Loaded, My Version.

A spontaneous preparation with all the available ingredients and a craving for a sweet dish. In this I have used the rusks  which we usually have with tea or coffee. Made a little rabadi but not too thick ( rabadi is reduced milk with sugar and a few strands of saffron) once cooled, mixed mango puree in it. Topped with some fruits and nuts.

Method

First make the rabadi, once it cools mix with mago puree, place the rusks in the serving plate and pour some rabadi over them till they get submerged, after a while you will see them soft and all the rabadi absorbed by them. Now add little heated clarified butter over the rusks. Again spread some rabadi over them and decorate as shown in the picture, sliced dragon fruit, sliced plum, some seedless dates, in the centre you see a hazel nut sitting, around it are some chopped walnuts, almonds, lots of raisins and fresh mango pieces too. An amazingly delicious combination of fruits, nuts, milk and rusks!






Monday, 6 June 2016

                               
                                  Kaala Vataana Usal which means Curry Made Of Black peas

A deliciuos Maharashtrian preparation, malwani style. 

Ingredients
200 gms of black peas soaked overnight and pressure cooked to 5-6 whistles since they are actually hard to cook.

For the gravy you need to grind and keep ready

2 onions chopped roughly
1 big tomato chopped roughly
1/2 a cup freshly scraped coconut
6 green chillies
6 cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger
A small spoon of turmeric powder
Few sprigs of fresh coriander
Juice of half a lime

1 onion chopped into medium sized squares or  thin long pieces
1 tomato chopped fine
1 spoon malwani masala
Salt to taste

In a pan take oil, add the ground paste and cook it till it leaves the sides of the pan, then add the cooked peas, mix a bit and add the salt the masala chopped onion and tomato, adjust the consistency and keep covered to cook till the masala gets well infused in the curry. Stir in between and check  and add  water if required. Once it boils well, remove in a serving vessel and savour it with steamung hot rice, roti or bhakri, the choice is yours. You can also have raw onion pieces garnished with salt peper and a squeeze of lime. This will enhance the taste by adding a punch to the dish.


Friday, 3 June 2016


                                 

Pudding.....Phirni, With Almond Walnut Confetti, Confetti, Blue Berries, Apricot, Banana Mango 
Puree And Basil Cress.

This dish was made yesterday on an impulse when a guest was to come for dinner. Another of my own experi-mental creations.I called Almond Walnut crumb by a new name. I loved calling it confetti, when I heard Nigella Lawson calling it by this name! The guest and my family simply loved the dessert and hoping that you will love it too. This time out came my kitchen tweezer like Mr. George to garnish the dish with basil cress from my tiny balcony.

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
4 cups of milk
Few strands of saffron
1/4 spoon of nutmeg powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 spoon clarified butter

10 almonds
10 walnuts

1 cup alphonso mango banana mix puree, no sugar added
1 cup walnut almond confetti
6 soaked and deseeded dry apricot
10 blueberries soaked 
Some basil cress


Method

In a deep bottomed vessel take 1 spoon of clarified butter, sautee the rice in it for a bit, then add the milk and keep stirring till it is almost cooked, add sugar, nutmeg powder, strands of saffron and keep stirring till it comes to a pudding consistency. Remove in a vessel and keep to cool.

Blend 1 small banana and half an alphonso mango into a smooth puree.

Make a confetti or crumb of 10 almonds and 10 walnuts.

Now for the plating, mould the pudding in a small bowl, upturn it in the centre of the plate, spread some banana mango puree as shown in the picture, spread some almond walnut confetti on the side, top the pudding with blue berries and the apricot, last garnishing should be with fresh basil cress.
Rice