Gastronomical Delights

Apple Pie with Cream 

Writing on this blog after so long! Had almost even forgotten it existed until yesterday when I was thinking of posting all those dessert pictures I collected in my recent trip and remembered of this baby :)

Strawberry Pie 

I have been mostly a Nationalist and I strongly believed/believe (not sure now😁 ) that there is no comparison to Indian sweets. I would always champion Jalebis, Halwa, Rabri, Gulab Jamun and all sorts of Bengali sweets and so many more. While I do crave for pastries and chocolates once in a while, I am not a big fan.

Baits in the Window of a Bakery

Churros with Cinnamon Sugar

However, to my surprise, in the trip to Netherlands and Belgium I developed a strong liking for them! The cafes and bakeries showcasing such colourful assortment of sweet little baits were hard to ignore. Since I was on a holiday I allowed my temptations to go full swing and plunged in these sinful delights.

Raspberry Pie with Hot Chocolate

More Temptations

Next step now is to create some of these beauties at home :) Very soon...

Noodles Salad Thai Style

Today I was badly craving 'Phad Thai' but did not have all the ingredients, so decided to make a salad style, with whatever was available. Checked my fridge and found tofu, carrots and cauliflower. From my garden I picked some fresh coriander and spring onions. Added a few other assorted ingredients and a delicious noodles salad was ready! It turned out really nice and we relished it with mixed berry juice.

Ingredients: 1 cup boiled noodles, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1 cup assorted veggies (I had only carrots and cauliflower but beans, capsicum, broccoli or any other veggies could be used) cut length wise, 1/2 cup cut tofu/paneer, 1/2 cup well roasted and crushed peanuts, 1 tbsp tamarind pulp, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp lime juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and chilli flakes as per taste, fresh coriander and spring onion leaves for garnishing.

Method: Heat 1 tbsp oil, fry garlic and add the vegetables, stir fry for a couple of minutes, add tofu and mix, add tamarind pulp, sugar, salt, chilli flakes and mix well. Turn off the fire. Add noodles, half peanuts, lime juice, half coriander and spring onion leaves, remaining olive oil and toss well. Leave it aside for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Before serving heat in the microwave for 2 minutes and garnish with remaining coriander and spring onion leaves, and peanuts. Dig in!

Friendship Cake

Neeti & Ritu: I am a little lazy! This story should have come on Friendship Day ideally but then we do not need special days to remember our friends! And Ritu, reconnecting with you after so long pepped me up to write this.

Some of my fondest memories of cooking are with Neeti. we were in college and used to spend almost all time together. either i was at her place or she at mine. our parents too had given up on us. whenever we were night staying at each other's place it was a nightmare for that mom. we used to hijack the kitchen and cook whatever our heart desired. our cooking expeditions generally started around midnight when all others had slept and lasted the entire night. 

mostly we used to bake cakes, vegetable pulav, vegetable soups and cookies. 

listening to vividh bharti and akashvani dilli, giggling over day's events, bitching about other girls and dreaming of a bright future, we used to cook to our heart's content and then finish everything so as not to leave any traces for mom to discover in the morning. after that we used to be so full that we HAD to go for a morning walk.

one night we baked a cake and decided to share it with our friend Ritu. Ritu was our other partner in crime and life could not have been complete without her. 3 of us together have often sent our parents' BP high ;) we realized we couldn't eat this cake without her and decided to fetch her to my place so the 3 of us could eat it together. 
4 in the morning we jumped gates(so not to make any noise) and walked 3 kms to Ritu's place. again jumped gates at her place and knocked on her bedroom door (thankfully her room was in the front of house so there was no need to wake others up). she woke up and when she saw us, she was furious because we had disturbed her sleep. and then she asked us so sweetly to get the cake to her place if we were keen to share it with her. she would not walk to my place!!!
and Neeti and I did not even blink! we again walked back 3 kms to my place, jumped gates, picked up the cake, jumped gates again, walked another 3 kms (haff haff haff...) and shared the cake with Ritu. after walking 12 kilometers our appetite had returned too. 
that cake tasted SO delicious. i do not have the picture but i will share the recipe:

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 1 cup

Milkmaid tin: 1(400gms)

Butter: 1/2 cup

Baking powder: 2 tsp

Baking soda: 1 tsp

Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

Salt: 1 pinch

Water as required

Mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add vanilla essence, butter and milk maid and beat as much as you can. Neeti and i used to take turns beating the cake. Add water if it is too thick. Transfer mixture to a buttered dish and bake for 40 minutes at 180 degree celsius. YUMMY! You can add cocoa powder to make a chocolate cake or any other flavour that you like. Instead of water and soda you can also use coke/limca. It is a fool-proof recipe and comes out great every time.

Just last week I spoke to Lata Bhaabhi and it delighted me no end when she shared she still bakes that cake! Thanks Bhaabhi!

Walnut-Cranberry Muffins

i recently discovered the route to feed Nakshat healthy breakfast without fuss, and it came in the form of MUFFINS!

every morning we would fight over almonds and walnuts and then during the day i would insist that he eat some flax seeds and yoghurt...to no avail obviously :-(
yesterday i thought why not i put all these things together in one package and finish the chik-chik jhik-jhik once in for all. so i combined a cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp of wheat bran, 2 tbsps flax seeds powder, half a cup of roasted and chopped almonds and walnuts, half a cup of cranberries, half a cup of demererra sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup yoghurt, 2 tbsp butter and 1 tsp of vanilla essence all together (ofcourse, first i mixed the dry ingredients and nuts and then poured in the wet ones) and mixed it well till it was uniform.

poured it into the individual cups in the muffin tray (brushed with olive oil) and baked at 180degree celsius in the oven for 20 minutes. 12 delicious muffins were ready and Nakshat gobbled two up with hot chocolate for the breakfast this morning without me having to raise an eyebrow :-)

 next time i am going to add some oats too!

Cooking in a Solar Cooker

it is awesome waking up in the morning amidst greenery, chirping of birds and pure oxygen to breathe at Tapovan. and of course the best part is fresh vegetables everyday. to add to this truly beautiful routine, my mom brought me a solar cooker!

yes, it means cooking in a vessel which operates through sun light. not only do i save on gas and electricity, the food is so very simple to make and tastes delicious. i have been boiling my dals, potatoes and barley in the solar cooker ever since mom got it. we also tried making aloo-gobhi in the solar cooker and it came out pretty decent. but the best thing to make is the kheer. no more waiting for hours on the slow burner for the kheer to cook. just add milk and rice and put it in the solar cooker and forget, creamy delicious kheer is ready by the evening. and mom also made 'gud wale chawal' (rice made with jaggery) in the solar cooker. what was so cumbersome on the gas has become a treat with solar cooking.

Here is how to make gud wale chawal in the solar cooker:

you need one cup rice, one cup grated gud, 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp coarsely grounded saunf and 2 tbsp pure desi ghee. wash rice, mix all the ingredients, transfer to the solar cooking vessel and forget it! if you do it around 930am when the sun is shining brightly, it would take approximately 2 hrs. depending on the season, in summers it takes less time and during winters more, it should take anything from 2 to 4 hrs to cook to perfection. take out the vessel from the solar cooker and enjoy hot gur wale chawal with extra dollops of ghee, curd or spicy potato curry. if serving as a sweet dish, garnish with fried/roasted nuts/dry fruits.

Chenna Poda: Cottage Cheese Cake

this recipe is inspired by Niranjan. a couple of weeks back he spoke so much about this dish that i got tempted too. and then as luck would have it, i chanced upon the recipe and picture while surfing and i was then determined to try it. yesterday Niranjan and Abhijeet had come over and i thought it was the perfect time to give it a try. and we did and the result was absolutely delicious! i could not believe one could make a cake out of chenna (fresh paneer/cottage cheese) and that it could taste so good. this is one of the finest sweet dishes that i have come across lately. how come i had never heard of it before? this dish is from orissa and a hot favourite of Jagannath Puri. and so healthy as compared to many of the other white flour based or fried desserts.

ingredients: fresh chenna made from 3 litres of cow's milk (use vinegar to curdle the milk), 3/4the tsp baking powder, 25gms sooji (semolina), 125 gms sugar, 1/2 tsp chhoti elaichi powder (cardamom).

method: mix all ingredients together and mash well with hands till the mixture is absolutely smooth. take a baking dish and rub some cow ghee on it. line it with a butter paper or better with the dry pattal leaves(the leaves in which we are served chaats or food at temple). now transfer the entire chenna mixture in the bowl and bake it on 200 degrees celsius for exactly an hour. insert a toothpick to check if it is done. if the toothpick comes out clean it is ready. if not then bake some more. now turn it over in a plate and let it cool completely before slicing (well we could not! we ate it while it was still warm) the texture is unbelievably very much like a cake.

if you would like it to be brown from outside like a proper cake, caramelize a little sugar in the baking dish before pouring in the mixture. if you like you can also add some raisins and cashews to the mixture.

go ahead try it and enjoy a yummy dessert. btw i forgot to take the picture so i have picked this one from the net. Shivi wanted me to post this right away so... :D

Paneer & Cheese Roll

this one is for you Anu! a quick snack for the kids. Nakshat loves it and i hope Ruben should like it too. it can be eaten by itself with his favourite dip or can be used as a filling for sandwich or roll. i generally roll it in a parantha with some onion and coriander chutney for his tiffin and it never comes back!

all you need to do is bind together: grated paneer(cottage cheese), grated cheese(the more the yummier but less than the quantity of paneer you take), fresh green coriander, salt, fresh bread slices crumbled after soaking in water or bread crumbs, a little rawa depending on the overall quantity of mixture (roughly 1 tsp for 200gms of paneer)

mix well, form desired shape and deep fry. you could even do all the preparation the night before and keep rolls in fridge to fry them fresh early in the morning.

Raw Mango & Coconut Chutney, Stuufed Chillies & Beetroot Bhujji

Nived picked up raw mango this time during his veggie shopping trip. they had been lying in my fridge for last one week. today i had some free time and i spotted them in the corner of my vegetable basket. in an instant i decided to experiment with them. and today being saturday i will have audience too to suffer my experiments :-)

i asked my maid to grate them thick. then i moved around the kitchen to see what else was there. i discovered some grams, green peppers, boiled potatoes, beetroots and coconut amongst other things. these are what caught my attention and the meal was planned. i asked my maid to grate the beetroots and coconut too. she gave me a wry smile and asked how come i did not have any other work today:P everyday i am so busy there is hardly any time to even enter the kitchen and she is the queen. i think she was feeling threatened with my presence!

anyways, i roasted the grams with some methi seeds and jeera and ground them fine into powder. then i took grated raw mango, grated fresh coconut, one pepper, little jaggery, salt and a tb sp of this fresh powder and churned it in the mixie. then added the tadka made with oil, heeng, mustard and kalunji seeds. the result tastes really good to me, don't know what will be the reaction of others.

so this was the raw mango and coconut chutney.

btw i have also made stuffed green chillies (filled with a mixture of boiled potatoes, grated raw mango, gram powder and salt and then braised in mustard oil) and dry beetroot bhujji (heat oil, add heeng, mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and grated beetroot. cover and let it cook. when it is done, add salt and gram powder and grated fresh coconut. mix well and serve hot with plain rice and curds.

30 minutes later: just finished the meal and trust me it was YUMMY! so different from the regular course. had all 3 of these with hot chapatis, rice and curd. you must try. and beetroot is generally not eaten so frequently. this is a simple and absolutely delicious recipe. hot rice, curd and this beetroot bhujji was absolutely heavenly. happy cooking!

Mishti Doi of Kolkata

oh Calcutta!! i miss it SO much. it was the first time i was at Calcutta last december and i just fell in love with the city. of course the major attraction was definitely the food, specially the variety of sweets & puchkas...yum yum yum, but also the simplicity and a general feel of that city hit me. when i came back to pune, it was the first time that i was not happy coming back home. i wanted to go back. just waiting for my next trip there.
i ate many sweets and puchkas in Calcutta and after coming back had been craving madly for them. what to do? best option was to try them at home and i did. first i attacked the puchkas. though i have been making golgappas at home regularly but Calcutta puchka took my breath away; literally :D and i have quite perfected the recipe thanks to Shivi. will share the recipe soon once i take some nice pictures. every time i make them i cannot think of anything else before i finish the last bit and so have missed taking pictures. in Calcutta too i missed taking pictures while enjoying some of those heavenly puchkas and mishti doi and rosogullas and sandesh and...who could think of pictures in those delicious moments! (some of the pictures shared here are picked up from the net)
yesterday i tried mishti doi and it came out perfect! i even called Shivi to taste and approve and she did (yippee!) here is the recipe if you want to try out. it is super simple.
ingredients: a litre of fresh full cream buffalo milk, 8 tbsps of sugar/patali gur if you can manage, 2 tsp of curd(should not be sour). preparation: boil milk, add half the sugar and let it simmer on slow gas till it becomes half. meanwhile add a tbsp of water to rest of sugar and mix in a thick bottomed pan on slow fire till it become brown. be careful that it does not burn. add this to the milk and allow it to cool. the colour of milk will change to light brown. once it reaches luke warm stage, add the curd, mix well, pour in a matki if you have and let it set. can take 5-7 hrs depending on weather. once set keep it in the fridge for another 5-7 hrs. serve chilled. tastes absolutely heavenly. slurp slurp slurp.

Coconut Cheese Cake

i have been craving for coconut cheese cake ever since i had it first time last year at one of the avyudaya workshops. though i have been able to appease my craving to some extent with coconut icecream at Naturals, the desire to eat that same cheese cake did not leave me. yesterday i was reading a recipe for mango cheesecake by Tarla Dalal (click on the title to get there) and it struck me what if I would replace mango with coconut! i could not wait and immediately called up Nived to get me tender coconut cream. followed the recipe of mango cheese cake by replacing mango with tender coconut cream. the result was not bad at all for the taste buds though my body has been screaming to stop loading it with so many calories ;-)

Tender coconut cream pictures (last 2) courtesy: rawupnorth.blogspot.com/2007/12/making-young-...

Spring Onion Bhujji

if you like green onions and are looking for a variation, must try this one. at our place green onion is a regular vegetable and i was bored with the regular potato-green onion bhaji. yesterday i was surfing on the net and found this recipe, of course i made some changes to it. tried this morning and it came out really well. sorry i could not take the picture :-( it was breakfast time and we were all in a hurry, it was finished before i thought of my camera.

ingredients:
1 bunch of fresh spring onions. wash well and chop into 1 cm bits. mustard oil/vegetable oil 1 tbsp, methi / fenugreek seeds, 1 green chillie whole, 2 pinches hing / asafetoeda, 3 tbsp. besan atta / bengal gram flour, salt, turmeric powder/haldi 1/4 tsp, marble size piece of gur/ jaggery or 1 tsp sugar

heat the oil in a kadhai. add the methi seeds and green chillie and saute for a few seconds till the seeds splutter. add the spring onions, turmeric powder, the salt and gur and stir well before covering tightly and cooking on a low fire till done. now add the besan sprinkling it over the greens a spoon at a time taking care to see that they do not form lumps . Stir well and add more besan till the greens are lightly coated with the gram flour. cover and cook till the gram flour smells done, not raw. this takes about 4-5 minutes when stirred well from time to time. do not let it stick to the pan. serve hot with chapathi or rice. it tastes very nice.

Chilly Paneer

this one is for you Himanshu! one day Himanshu dropped in for some work and it was our dinner time and i was in no mood to cook. he offered to cook and i immediately agreed :-) with Nakshat's assistance, he managed to make chilly paneer which was absolutely superb. Nakshat has been demanding that chilly paneer very often since then and i too have learned to make it well. it is very simple and quick to make and tastes delicious. if you love chinese food then you must try this one. ingredients: 250 gms paneer sliced in 1 inch long pieces, 1 medium onion chopped, 1 tbsp(kadachi) of soy sauce, tomato sauce & olive oil, 1 tsp of green chilli sauce, 6-8 pressed garlic cloves, 2 tsp of chopped ginger, 1/2 cup of chopped spring onion leaves and salt to taste. preparation: heat olive oil in a wok, add garlic cloves, after 5 sec add chopped onion and fry till pink. should not take more than a minute. add ginger and all the sauces, fry for 10 secs and add paneer. mix well and allow it to be full gas for another minute. switch off gas, garnish with spring onion leaves and serve hot. don't forget to check for salt, whether you will need to add salt will depend on the soy sauce you use. some are very salty where are some are not. also depending on your taste buds you could plus/minus quantity of sauces.

takes hardly 3-4 minutes to cook and serves as a yummy side dish or even a starter. in fact you could add a little cornflour mixed with water to make it a gravy and it will become your main dish too.

by the way, you can replace paneer with tofu/mushrooms/baby potatoes/corn/soya nuggets/fries okra....tastes equally exciting.

Pasta in Tomato Sauce

This one is another quickie that you can do in minutes. The ingredients that you need: a cup of boiled pasta, two large tomatoes pureed, bay leaf, half a cup of nicely chopped onion, salt and red chilli powder to taste and ofcourse olive oil. Just heat a tbsp of oil in a pan, add bay leaf and onion and fry till brown. Pour in the tomato puree, add salt and chilli powder and simmer till it looks completely cooked. If you like you can even add some oregano. Now add the boiled pasta, a little water and cook on low gas for another 2-3 minutes. Your basic tomato pasta is ready. Ofcourse you can always get more creative and add different things like cottage cheese, paneer, mushrooms, peas...

Mouth Watering Sizzler

i am very fond of making sizzlers at home and it is the easiest way to make my son eat almost anything. all i need to do is get a little creative and serve the most humble stuff on a sizzler plate. sizzler plate suddenly acts like a throne and gives an aura of exoticness to the regular meal. not that i do not make the 'authentic' sizzlers. but come to think of it, a sizzler is actually a meal served on a hot tava so that the food remains hot throughout. and a tray underneath makes it convenient. whoever thought of it thought well:)
i make sizzlers with almost everything. the most important ingredient is the 'sizzler plate!' usually i place a combination of cutlets, pasta, french fries, tossed tofu and veggies. but many a times i even serve the simple dal-chawal on a sizzler plate. jeera rice, dal tadka and seasonal vegetable all arranged beautifully on the plate with french fries and onion shavings take no time to vanish. sizzling bhaji and pav with loads of butter is Nakshat's favourite. hakka noodles with manchurian and some veggies and tofu makes a very pretty sizzler. sometimes my sizzler plate also serves as the serving plate on which i serve the full family meal: noodles, cutlets and veggies; a combination that we love to eat with toast. actually anything served on the hot platter and topped with butter & vinegar to make that tempting noise is a sizzler with me!

Khandvi

this is a quick and healthy recipe when you have unannounced guests or kids wanting to eat something different between meals. it is really quick provided you have all ingredients ready. i pack it in Nakshat's tiffin quite often since it is so easy & quick to make. takes 1 minute of preparation, 5 minutes of cooking and 2 minutes of final arrangement. that's all!

mix 1/2 cup besan, 1&1/2 cup of buttermilk(curd and water in equal proportion), haldi powder and salt. ensure there are no lumps in the mixture. microwave on high for 5 minutes, stirring twice in between after 1 and a half minute each. it starts cooking from the sides first so don't worry. while the mixture is cooking, clean your slab or keep big steel plates ready(no need to grease). now take out the cooked mixture, mix it well again so there are no lumps and pour on the slab or back of steel plates. quickly spread with a big table spoon like a dosa, as thin as possible. allow it to cool for a minute and prepare the tampering; heat 1 tbsp oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and sesame seeds. can also add chilli powder if you like them sharp. now cut the spread out mixture in 1/2 inch long strips and roll each one separately like a cylinder. it is a pleasure rolling these strips and feeling the velvety texture of cooked besan under your fingers. arrange all in a serving plate. pour the tampering and decorate with fresh green coriander and grated fresh coconut. yum!

Date and Walnut Cake

this one is for all my friends at '3rd avyudaya festival of learning' who showed keen interest in my cake recipes and reading my blog.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour & milk: 1 cup each
Sugar, oil, chopped dates, chopped walnuts: 1/2 cup each
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Vanilla essence: 5 drops
Cocoa powder: optional...can add as per taste or how dark a colour you prefer. i add almost 2 tbsps.

soak chopped dates in warm milk for minimum 10 minutes, it may be more and that is ok. take wheat flour in a dry bowl. add chopped walnuts, baking soda, cocoa powder and sugar. mix well. pour in the dates mixture and vanilla essence and again mix well. in case you find the mixture too thick add more warm milk. now very slowly pour in the oil or melted butter and keep mixing. or you can pour in a little oil, mix well and then pour in a little more and mix and so on till all the oil has been used up. grease your baking tin and pour in the mixture well. preheat the oven at 200 degree celsius, reduce it to 180 when you place the cake mixture and bake for almost 45 to 60 minutes. towards the end you can again increase the temperature to 200 to get a hard crust. do check with a sharp knife if the cake is ready before removing it from oven. pierce the knife in the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean your cake is ready. let it cool before serving. it goes extremely well with vanilla icecream. my mouth is watering. and let me know how it came out.

Quick Microwave Aloo

this is one of my favourite and most treasured recipes. whenever i cannot decide what to make, i make this aloo. it goes very well with toast, parantha or as a side dish. i specially like to eat with a vegetable sandwich and replace french fries with this in my sizzler. takes only 4 minutes to cook and relished by everyone.

peel and cut 2 medium size potatoes in french fries shape. put them in a microwave glass bowl (i find corelle the best for this). add salt, haldi, dhania powder, jeera, a tsp of oil and 2 tsps of water. mix well and microwave on high for 2 minutes. mix again and microwave on high for another 2 minutes. garnish with coriander leaves and it is ready to serve! please note that as you increase the quantity of potatoes you will need to microwave longer. also when using this recipe with continental meal replace haldi and dhaniya powder with black pepper powder.

Multipurpose corn & spinach mixture

this is one recipe you can get very creative with. it is VERY healthy and so simple to make and kids love it. you can add or delete few ingredients and use it for variety of dishes the whole week round. use it to make pizza for a special saturday evening dinner. serve it with crackers on sunday at 11 while watching TV. roll it in a parantha to make a wrap on monday for lunch box. fill up tacos shell and top with loads of cheese for tuesday lunch. spread it on nachos and serve with tea on wednesday evening. it will be a yummy sandwich filling for thursday breakfast. on friday.....well nobody will be willing to eat it by now so just leave it ;) 6 days were enough! but by the way can you think of some more ideas?

puree 1/2 kg tomatoes with as much ginger as you like, i add lots. heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pressure cooker and add mixed dried herbs(oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, parsley, bay leaf, pepper). if you like garlic please do add. pour in tomato puree and allow it to cook for 3-4 minutes. add 1 cup of american corn and 2 cups of finely chopped spinach. pressure cook for 2 whistles. once the steam is out on its own add salt and a tbsp cornflour and cook on low heat till all water evaporates. you can also add crumbled paneer. your multipurpose mixture is ready!

Guide to Calorie Burning

While I am cooking and putting on more and more calories, I also need to do something to burn them. wanted to try something different. picked this up from the 'Chicken soup for the soul cookbook.' I am going to try this now...who knows it may work ;)

Beating around the bush................75

Jumping to conclusions.................100

Climbing on the walls.....................150

Swallowing your pride...................50

Passing the buck.............................25

Throwing your weight around.....300(I like it the best!)

Making mountains out of molehills..500(not bad eh)

Hitting the nail on the head..........50

Jumping on the bandwagon..........200

Running around in circles............350

Tooting your own horn.................25

Adding fuel to fire.........................150

Wrapping it up at the day's end.....12

Fresh Vegetable Treasure

We spend every saturday at wagholi ashram where in the evening we do kriya with some of the kriyabans and then we spend the night. the morning is so beautiful with fresh air, greenery and a rising sun even visible from the room. and most of all i love growing vegetables there. this morning i picked up 9 different kinds of vegetables from the garden: methi, palak, karadi, bhindi, french beans, gawar, lauki, torai and sepu. and not to forget kadhi patta, kali tulsi & tej patta. what luxury! the quantity of the vegetables is not much...can make a mixed vegetable or sambhar at most...but that is ok. home grown fresh vegetables...a treasure indeed!