APPLE BHAJJI / FRITTERS

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Hi all, Hope you had a wonderful weekend. What do you make when you crave for Bhajji's yet want to eat something healthy at the same time. I had an Apple and unfortunately my son is not a big fan of it so this is what I came up with to satisfy all of us.

APPLE BHAJJI'S / FRITTERS

APPLE : 1 RED OR GREEN
ALL PURPOSE FLOUR/MAIDA : 1 1/2 CUP
SUGAR : 4 TBSP
SALT : 1/2 TSP
CINNAMON POWDER: 1 TSP
MILK: 1-2 CUP AS REQUIRED
RAISINS : 5 (OPTIONAL)
OIL FOR FRYING

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MAKING

Peel the outer layer of the Apple and cut them into thin slices. In a bowl, add the Flour/Maida, Sugar, Salt, Cinnamon Powder, Raisins and mix them well. Add the Milk in slowly to make a nice Semi-liquid batter. It should not be too thick or too liquid just like the normal Bhajji batter. Heat Oil in a deep frying Pan. Dip in the sliced Apples into the batter and drop it in the oil. Once the outer becomes golden light brown, take it out and place them in a kitchen towel to drain all the excess oil. Delicious Apple Bhajji's or Fritters are ready to eat. It has the delicious outer layer with a wonderful Cinnamon flavor and has the healthy Apple inside, both make a deadly combination. I found that Maple syrup makes an excellent side for it. Enjoy !

TIPS/VARIATIONS

I added fresh Cinnamon powder (grind the cinnamon sticks into fine powder). It doesn't drink a lot of oil as it cooks fast so take it out at the right time (light brown) or it tends to darken soon. If you want you can add an Egg to the batter to make it more fluffy The best part is , once you run out of apples, just drop the batter in the hot oil and take it out when light brown. You get your own version of the Doughnut or Indian vada's. The batter in itself once fried, is delicious.Try it out and let me know

QUICKFIRE DAL

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Hi all, its been a while and life has gotten a little bit busy and so the recipe I am going to post today is a quick fire one which can be made in the cooker . Because its so quick and easy I am going to name it

QUICKFIRE DAL

INGREDIENTS

TOOR DAL: 1/2 CUP
MOONG DAL: 1/2 CUP
TOMATO: 1-2 CHOPPED
GINGER: 1 TBSP CHOPPED
GREEN CHILLI"S: 2
RED CHILI POWDER: 1 TSP
DHANIA POWDER: 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER: 1/2 TSP
JEERA/CUMIN : 1 TSP'
SALT AS REQUIRED

MAKING

Wash the Toor and the Moong Dal throughly and place them in the cooker with 2 cups of water. In it, add chopped Ginger, Tomato, Tsp of Jeera, Green Chilli, Turmeric Powder, Red Chilli powder , Dhania Powder with required salt. Close the lid

Switch off the gas after 3 whistles and garnish with fresh chopped coriander and quick fire Dal is ready. Serve it hot with Roti's or have it with Rice. its perfect for a busy or a lazy day.

CHEESE-PAPAD STICKS

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Hi all,

Its been hectic with my daughter running all around pushing and throwing everything she gets hold off. Coming to recipes, I saw this one when it was posed on the Food Network site and thought of making it. Its easy and is a big hit with kids as verified by my 2 little kids who finished it quick and fast. So here it goes, I've named it

ChEESE-PAPAD STICKS

INGREDIENTS

MILK: 3/4 CUP
ALL PURPOSE FLOUR: 1 CUP
SALT
LIZZAT PAPAD OR ANY FLAVOURED PAPAD (JEERA, GARLIC ETC) 1-2
MOZARELLA CHEESE: AROUND 15 PIECES
BREAD POWDER : 1/2 -1 CUP

MAKING

First, take a bowl in it, add 3/4th cup of milk and 2 tbsp of flour and mix them well without any lumps and set them aside. In another bowl, mix the bread powder and finely crushed Papad and set them aside. Put the rest of the All Purpose Flour in a Zip lock bag. Now the process begins, take the cut mozarella cheese and first put them in the flour bag and mix well, next drop the flour coated cheese in the milk-flour bowl and finally into the bread-papad mix so that the cheese is thoroughly coated with the bread mix. Take a flat baking tray and grease the base with vegetabe oil, place the cheese-papad stick in a single layer so that it doesn't touch each other. Refrigerate them for atleast 1-2 hours. Preheat the oven to 400 degress and bake the cheese-papad sticks for about 10 minutes until the sticks are light brown. Delicious Cheese-Papad Sticks are ready to eat.

TIPS

Make sure you refrigerate the cheese sticks well. You could even do that one day in advance. This is necessary as cheese remains firm and does not melt when its in the oven. Its very important to do this step as my first try had all the cheese half melted.

BAGARA BAIGAN

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Hi all, Wishing all of you a very Happy Vishu and New year. Its been busy with Spring and kids wanting to play all the time. Anyway, this recipe was made by my husbands aunt when she had come to visit us. She is an excellent cook and innovative too, trying to make new dishes all the time. Baigan as in Brinjal/Kathirukkai is an interesting vegetable in the sense that not everyone likes them and there are not a lot of dishes that can be made out of them (Thats what my assumption is, maybe I am wrong). This one is an excellent side dish for Chapathi's OR Roti's so, Enjoy !

BAGARA BAIGAN

INGREDIENTS

BAIGAN/BRINJAL/KATHIRUKKAI : 4-6 Small ones slit into 4 without cutting them all the way through
ONION; 1 BIG OR-2 SMALL CUT INTO LONG SLICES
TOMATO: 1-2 LONG THIN SLICES
GREEN CHILLI: 1-2

FOR THE GRAVY

SESAME SEEDS: 1 TBSP
GROUNDNUT: 1 TBSP
COCONUT: 1 TBSP
GINGER AND GARLIC: 2 tsp or small size
CORIANDER POWDER: 1 TSP
GARAM MASALA; 1TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER: 1 TSP
JEERA: 1 TSP
SALT: 1 TSP

MAKING

The first step is to slit the Brinjal without cutting the brinjal completely. It means the whole Brinjal should be intact but slit into 4 right till the bottom and fried in oil until the brinjal becomes brown on the outside. Take it out and place it on paper to drain all the excess oil.

Next, take a pan and fry the Sesame seeds and Ground nut until it turns brown (not burnt brown but well fried brown). keep them aside. Do the same with Coconut until it turns brown. In a blender add all the three along with all the spices mentioned above for the gravy and grind it into a nice paste.

Take a pan, saute the Onions, Tomatoes with Green chilli. Add the fried Brinjal and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes before adding the masala paste. Cook for another 5 minutes until all the gravy has mixed well with the vegetables. Garnish with fresh Coriander leaves and Bagara Baigan is ready to serve.

TIPS

Make sure the sesame and grown nut are not burnt and also use them in proportion coz then then will overpower the entire dish which many may not like.

You can add a tsp of cashews if you want to add more flavour but mind that the dish is already on the heavier side with fried Brinjal and coconut.

DAL MASALA

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Hi all,

The recipe I am going to share today is one of my favourite side dish. Its a very common dish and I am sure many of you would be making it often as well. I was introduced to this dish by my MIL in one of her visits to the US. I loved it and since then its been a regular at our house for dinner. Hope you like it as much as me and my family do. Here it goes

DAL MASALA

INGREDIENTS

MOONG DAL : 2 CUPS
ONION: 1 MEDIUM CHOPPED
TOMATO: 1 MEDIUM CUT INTO SMALL PIECES
GREEN CHILLIES: 4-5 CHOPPED
GINGER: CHOPPED (2 TSP)
HALF A LEMON
CHOPPED CORIANDER LEAVES
OIL AND SALT AS REQUIRED

MAKING

Boil the Moong dal covering it with enough water on a low flame with a pinch of turmeric and salt. Make sure the gas in in low flame as Moong dal tends to overflow and the salt added should be half of what we is needed for the entire dish as we add the rest to the veg gravy in total. Take a kadai, fry the onions in 2 tsp of oil until light brown. Add the Ginger, green chillies and stir for a couple of minutes. Once the onion is sweating and soft, add the cut tomato pieces and stir again until the tomatoes are soft and have mixed well with the onion mix. Add the other half of salt as required and allow it to cook for about 2-3 minutes on a medium flame. Finally, add the boiled Moong Dal and cook for another few minutes until the dal has mixed well with the rest of the ingredients. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves. Delicious Dal is ready, serve it hot with roti's /chapathi's,

TIPS

 If you want you can make the Dal without Tomato in it. In that case, just add the lemon juice right at the end after garnish to get the flavor. Make sure the gas is switched off when adding the lemon juice. Enjoy !

GREEN TOMATO PACCHADI

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Hi, This recipe come straight from my MIL's kitchen. She gave me this recipe when I told her that I had a lot of green tomatoes growing in my vegetable garden. Its easy to make and tasty to eat. Here it goes, its called

GREEN TOMATO PACCHADI

INGREDIENTS

GREEN TOMATOES: 3 MEDIUM CHOPPED INTO SMALL PIECES
COCONUT: 1/2 CUP
GREEN CHILLIES: 3
MUSTARD SEEDS: 1TSP
JAGGERY: 1 TSP
SALT
TURMERIC
OIL
CURRY LEAVES FOR GARNISH

MAKING

Take a pan and cook the cut Green Tomatoes with enough water, salt and turmeric until its soft and tender. Meanwhile grind Coconut, Green Chilli's and 1 Tsp. of Mustard seeds with a little bit of salt,  into a fine paste and add it to the cooked Tomatoes. Add a Tsp. of Jaggery for additional taste if needed.

Finally for the tempering/Tadka, heat oil and add Mustard seeds, 1 Red Chilli and 1/2 Tsp. of Methi seeds. Once the Mustard seeds splutters add it to the finished Green Tomato Pacchadi and its ready to serve. Garnish it with fresh Curry leaves.

TIPS

Add a tsp. of Jaggery for additional taste. You can add the Curry leaves as Garnish at the very end or add the curry leaves during tempering/Tadka. Enjoy !

BANANA ALMOND BREAD

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As I promised, I am here with the recipe for the delicious Banana Almond bread  I made over the weekend. The best part is its healthy and tasty so here it goes

BANANA ALMOND BREAD

INGREDIENTS

ALL PURPOSE FLOUR: 2 CUPS
SUGAR: 2/3 CUP
BAKING POWDER: 2 1/4 Tsp.
SALT: 3/4th Tsp
EGG: 1 LARGE
MILK: 3/4th CUP
CANOLA?VEGETABLE OIL: 1/3 CUP
VANILLA EXTRACT: 1 Tsp.
MASHED BANANA: 1 CUP
CUT ALMONDS: 1 CUP

MAKING

In a bowl, combine Flour, Sugar, Baking powder and Salt. Mix well. In another bowl, blend Oil, Egg, Milk and Vanilla Extract. Add this to the Flour mix until it is moistened. Finally combine the mashed ripe Banana and the chopped Almonds to the above and mix them thoroughly.

Grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan and pour in the above Banana-Almond Mix and bake it for 45 mins- 1 hour at 350'F. Keep checking at constant intervals to make sure, insert a knife to see if its cooked. If the knife comes out clean that means the Bread is ready. Allow it to cool for 10 mins and then cut them into slices and delicious Banana-Almond Bread is ready to eat. Serve it warm with fresh or whipped cream.

TIPS?VARIATIONS

Instead of Almonds, you can do the same with Walnuts. This bread is not too sweet and it has the consistency of a bread so don't expect it to be too moist and fluffy like a cake. You could also pour the mix into a cupcake pan and make cupcakes out of it. It wont be your typical cupcake but its still good, most of all its healthy and my kids loved it.