Bekti Fish Cutlets Bengal style

Happy Holi

Happy Holi Everyone,

Today is my daughter's third Holi and first one, she really enjoyed. Even though there was not too much of it. She loved applying color to her own face and on to us. She is 2 years btw. The menu to mark the occasion was thandai, chhole tikki and gujhiyas. Lunch was Vegetable pulao with chhole and dahi vadas. Will soon be sharing most recipes and pics as I get the chance.

Happy New Year 2013

Hi Friends,

Happy New Year 2013.
Have been away for quite some time, but will soon be back with recipe of colorful idlis.
My daughter loves idlis but gets bored of the same white color.
This is a variation of idli which I made for my little daughter and had the challenge of making it more enticing and it was so delicious that not just she but we also loved them.

Hey, the recipe is available on this site and me being me do not want to write it again.

Healthy Colorful Idlis for kids


Ciao,
Take care

Mushroom, Spinach, Broccoli and Pepper stuffed Chicken Breast

Here is a recipe made with chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, broccoli, spinach and peppers. Had this in one of our favorite Italian cafe and wanted to replicate it. It wasn't exactly the same, since I tried cutting back on cheese and butter but was still super yum.

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied (Use a sharp knife to cut the breast horizontally but not completely to make a large thin slice). You can also hammer it further to get as big piece of chicken as possible without tearing.

1 cup button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 large onion chopped

2 -3 garlic cloves, minced 

1 large bunch of fresh spinach leaves

1 cup red, yellow and green bell peppers chopped

1 cup broccoli florets small

1 tsp Italian seasoning ( The one I have has thyme, oregano, garlic powder, paprika, basil. You may also use these herbs individually to your taste)
salt and pepper

 
2 tablespoons olive oil
 
1 tsp butter

Recipe

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Season the chicken breasts with a little salt and pepper and keep aside

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Saute onions, and garlic for couple of minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté for 2 minutes. Now add spinach, broccoli and peppers one after the other and sauté for some more time.

Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to your taste.

Let the stuffing cool down a little bit.

Place the stuffing in the middle of the chicken breast and fold over to cover it completely.

I use toothpicks to secure the ends. You may also tie with a thread to secure it.

In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive and 1 tsp butter.

Once oil and butter heat up, add prepared chicken breasts and brown them on medium heat  for 5-8 minutes.

Put into a hot oven for 15 minutes. 

Take it out, slice into ½ - 1 inch slices and serve.

You could also make a sauce with butter and flour with remaining stuffing and serve with this.

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Khandvi

Khandvi is a simple but delicious snack which comes from the state of Gujarat. It is one of those tricky recipes which are extremely easy once you have got a hang of it, but most difficult when you try afresh. It is quite technical and trick lies in the preparation and working fast. It requires very few ingredients which are most often present in all Indian kitchens and takes about 15 minutes to prepare.

I remember my first couple of times were not so great, but I tried again few days back and it came out perfect.

I am a lazy bum and didn't want to write the whole recipe again, so you can find the recipe on here where I referred it from.

Kadi Pakora

I made Kadi Pakora quite a few weeks ago and it came out so well, that i decided to share the pic on facebook and pinterest. Friends requested for the recipe and here it is :

Most Indians are aware of Kadi Pakora and most people love it. Kadi is basically a yogurt(curd) based gravy made with gram flour( besan) and is cooked in different ways throughout northern and western parts of India with slight differences. So kadi from the hindi belt of U.P and Rajasthan has plain pakoras made from just besan, while in Punjabi kadi, pakoras have onions and potatoes. Gujarati kadi is usually without turmeric(haldi) and a little sweet with no pakoras. Maharashtrian kadi too is made without pakoras. Sindhi kadi has lots of veggies in it. Palak kadi has spinach added to basic kadi. Infact I have had a South Indian gravy from a friend's lunchbox, which is very similar to kadi and has bhindi(okra) in it. I think it is called Mor kolumbu. My apologies if this is incorrect, but it was delicious and very similar to kadi.

Kadi is usually served with plain steamed rice and kadi-chawal is the ultimate comfort food. It is good to have sour curd so that kadi turns out khatti. Here, I give my recipe which is a mixture of many styles.

Ingredients

For Pakoras

Besan(gram flour) - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Chilli powder (optional) to taste
Water to make batter - 3/4 cup
Oil to deep fry pakoras

Water - 1 big bowl full

For Kadi

Besan - 1/2 cup
Curd - 1 cup
Onion - 1 large -chopped into slices
Fenugreek(methi) seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds( rai dana) - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) -  1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder (haldi)- 1/2 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Asafeteda (hing) - 1 pinch
Curry leaves - 8-10 leaves
Dry red chillies - 2-3
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder (optional)
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
Water - 5-6 cups

Recipe

Pakoras

For kadi we make plain pakoras.

• In a big bowl, add besan. You may want to sieve besan to ensure there are no lumps.
• Add salt and chilli powder to it, according to your taste. Add a little first. You can always adjust later.
• Make a thick batter by adding water gradually and keep whisking to make sure no lumps are formed. This batter should be thicker than regular pakora batter.
• Taste a little to check salt and chilli. Add more if needed.
• Whisk well to make batter light and fluffy.
• Heat oil in a frying pan or kadhai.
• Once the oil is hot, drop small portions of batter to make pakoras using your hand or a spoon.
• Fry till golden brown on medium flame.
• Take out pakoras using a slotted spoon and put in big bowl filled with water at room temperature.
• This last step make the pakoras soft and removes excess oil too. Leave the pakoras in water for 5-6 minutes and then squeeze the water gently and transfer to a plate.

Kadi

• Take a large bowl and sieve besan into it to remove any lumps.
• Add salt to taste.
• In a separate bowl, beat the curd well to a smooth consistency.
• Add curd to besan and add turmeric (haldi). Beat well till smooth.
• Add 5 cups of water little by little to make a smooth and thin batter and keep aside.
• In a large kadhai, heat oil.
• Add asafetida, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds till it crackles.
• Once aroma starts coming, add dry red chillies and curry leaves.
• After a few seconds, add the besan-yogurt mixture.
• Keep stirring till kadi comes to a boil.
• Lower the heat to low and let kadi cook for 30 minutes. keep stirring occasionally.
• If kadi gets thick, you can add some more water.
• Finally add pakoras to kadi and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice.

Kadi is supposed to get better in taste after few hours or overnight.

A new begining..

Hi,
I Love cooking and sharing recipes and pics. Never thought of starting my own cooking blog, though I read quite a few of them. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do and I watch cookery shows on TV in as many languages as I can understand.
I share pics through facebook and many friends ask me for recipes. Not quite keen on sending mails, I decided to share it in a blog.I already have a few blogs which were started with equal zest and then somehow went to the back burner. will try to be regular here.