NEW MENU

Right now, I am at my brother's place. He stays in the san fernando valley in tarzana. My husband is travelling for nearly a week, so I decided to take a week off too. Don't know how regular I will be updating my blog, for a week, but as practise, I am posting my menu.
Though this week, I will not cook too much on my own, but I would still try. My main aim however is too actually enjoy the eating scene in the valley, as there are loads of places to check out. So hopefully I would be able to update my blog with all the eating endeveours I take on during this week. Meanwhile here is my menu for the week.

Mon: moong (gujarati style) with aloo payaz ki subzi (potato and onions vegetable)

Tue: carrot peas and aloo masala with yellow dal tadka

Wed: chana dal parantha

Thu: dal palak

Fri: peas pulao and tomato kadi

enjoy

VEGGIE GARDEN BURGER

This is somthing I make all the time. Since my husband is a vegetarain, our freezer always has THE BOCA GARDEN BURGER PATTY. These are meatless patties made out of soy. Spice it up a bit, add a little Indian twist to it, and voila!!!!!!, a good, wholesome burger to enjoy.

I even pack it for lunch somtimes. The other day when I was making it, suddenly, The sandwich festival of 2008, hosted by anupama of Food-n-More came to my mind. I got my camera, and clicked a few pictures, and here I am sharing the recipe with you'll, and posting it as an entry to the event.



This burger could actually fit a vegan diet too, cause instead of real cheese, I used cheese alternatives, which I got from HENRY'S, a fresh produce store. I used the pepper jack flavoured ones.

You will need:

• burger buns- 4 slices halved
• garden boca patty- 2
• lettuce- 2 leaves
• red onions- 1/2
• tomato- 2
• jalepenos- 2-3
• cheese alternatives or regular cheese slices- 2
• maggi hot and sweet tomato ketchup- 2 tbsp
• butter- 1 tbsp

You have to:

1. slice the tomatoes into rounds
2. slice onions. wash and dry the lettuce leaves.
3. heat butter in a pan.
4. saute the onions, till caremalized. add little bit of the tomato sauce.
5. in the same pan, heat the boca patty throughly.(these are frozen, so microwave it for a few seconds.
6. slightly toast the buns, with a little more butter, in the same pan.
7. take a plate. place the burger buns.
8. place the lettuce.
9. spread a little of the tomato sauce.
10. place the patty on top.
11. top it with the onions, and the round tomato slices and some chopped jalepenos.
12. place the cheese slice. sprinkle some salt and pepper. close with the other bun.
13. enjoy......

note: this burger can have loads of variations. I somtimes put some coleslaw salad too. To give it a more indian taste, one can add green chutney. I used sesame buns here, coz that is what I had on hand, but any buns would be fine.

happy eating.

TANDOORI SHIMLA MIRCHI MASALA

With so many blogging events going on, one tends to get creative,and think of interesting entries. I must say the blog events being posted, surely gets us experimenting with our culinary creativity.....with our kitchens turning into labs, and our family members, guinea pigs..........its fun over all. Though I have been on the blogging scene since a year now, but I got regular pretty recently, so I catch up with the events, from my other blogger friends.
Recently I came across the Vow-JFI bell peppers event, hosted by JFI and VoW. Bell peppers are pretty versatile, I think they can be used in any kind of cuisine. Be it Indian, Chinese, Italian, continental, it fits in pretty well. As soon as I read about the event, I quickly ran to my fridge, and saw I had a few bell peppers. I simply got cooking.

Thanks pooja for the event.






Here is the recipe.

You will need

• bell peppers- 3-4 (you can use different colours)
• onions- 1 (cut in chunks)
• tomato- 1 (cut in chunks)
• oil- 1 tbsp
• salt- to taste

for the dry masala

• red chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• garam masala- 1 tsp
• tandoori masala- 1 tsp
• kasoori meethi- 1/2 tsp
• amchoor powder- 1/2 tsp

grind to a paste

• coconut- 1/2 cup
• cilantro (you can use cilantro chutney too)- 1 tbsp
• green chillies- 1-2
• ginger- 1/2
• garlic 1-2 pods
• onion- 1/2
• oil- 1 tbsp
• salt- to taste

You have to:

1. Heat oven to 350 degree franhite.In an oven proof bowl, toss the cut bells peppers, onions, and tomatoes, with the dry masala.
2. drizzle about a tablespoon of oil and some salt.

3. roast the vegetables for atleast half an hour to 45 mins.

4. heat oil in a pan. add the ground masala to the oil. and saute.

5. now add the roasted vegetables, and mix everythign up.

6. add little water and cook, till the masala thickens and comes together.

7. serve hot with paranthas.

note: one can add paneer to this, and even small baby potatoes. this can work as a filling for khatti roles.

enjoy

MENU TIME

I really don't know how many of the people who read my blog, actually wait for Tuesdays, the day I post menus. But I surely have got into a practise of doing posting them. this is what I made for my packed tiffins yesterday. will be posting a few recipes tomorrow.

MON: kashmiri aloo dum and naan (I got packet of frozen naan from TRADER JOES'S.they are simply delicious)

TUE: ghooghni* and pao

WED: undhiyo and moth (red lentils)

THU: gobi aloo mutter masala rice and gujarati kadi

FRI: panchkuti dal and tandoori shimla mirchi masala.

*this is a Bengali speciality, and is made using pigeon peas.Its the same ingredient used to make "ragda", in ragda pattise, in the western parts of india.

A few of the recipes were made to be posted in some of the events going on in the blogger world. will be posting the entries soon.

happy eating.

FRUIT CHAAT

The term "chaat", brings water to my mouth. A very famous terminology in India, "chaat" is a word used to describe, a medley of food stuffs, with a sweet, salty and sour flavour to it. Its an all time favourite street snack in India. From aloo chaat, paapri chat, bhel, chana ki chaat.........wowowo my mouth is watering as I am writting about it. Any Indian can vouch for the ultimate chaat experience. With a little creativity, one can make "chaat" out of any food stuffs.

Back in Delhi, I loved the fruit chaat. Its lunch for so many of the office goers, and you find the stalls, all over the place. Yesterday, I recreated a little "DELHI CHAAT CORNER" right in my kitchen.

We had it in the evening as a snack. Low calorie, and yummyyyy.Great idea to get Here is the recipe. Enjoy it guilt free.

You will need

• pear-1
• banana-1
• strawberries-4-5
• red and green grapes- 7-8
• cucumber-1/2
• apple-1
• peanuts-1/2 cup
• honey toasted almond and cranberry salad accents- 2 tbsp (available at any grocery store, like vons ). this is optional. you can add a handfull of dry fruits instead. like raisins and almonds.
• lemon juice- 1/2 tsp
• roasted cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• black salt-1/2 tsp
• salt- to taste
• red chilly powder-1/4th tsp
• sugar- 1/2 tsp or less.

You have to

1. wash and cut all the fruit into small pieces.halve the grapes.
2. In a bowl, add the cut fruits. add the peanuts and the almonds.
3. add all the spices. mix.
4. add the lemon juice and sugar.
5. mix everything up. taste.
6. adjust the seasoning, according to taste.

serve in bowls, and enjoy. One can add anything to this. Pomegranate seeds, boiled potatoes, watermelon, pineapple, all taste really good. Each time I have had fruit chaat, I don't get any peanuts or almonds. But I feel that adds that little crunchy texture, and it tastes good spiced up.

enjoy.

MENU TIME

Its time to put up my menu for the week. Took pictures of a few dishes whose recipes follow the menu.


Mon: rajhma masala

Tue: cabbage, carrot and peas with gujrati dal

Wed: kasoori meethi aloo with yellow tadka dal

Thu: chilly garlic egg fried rice with vegetable manchurian

Fri: gobi parantha with kheera raita.

I would be more than happy to fulfill any recipe request, apart from the ones I am posting.

The first recipe that I would want to post is "KASOORI MEETHI ALOO". This is a pretty versatile dish. Can be served as a cocktail snack, or along with a lentil with roti, or as a chaat.

KASOORI MEETHI ALOO

You will need

• potato- 5-6 cut into pieces.
• dry kasoori meethi- 1-2 tbs
• oil - for frying the potatoes
• cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• asefotida (hing)- 1/4th tsp
• red chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• amchoor powder- 1/2 tsp
• tandoori masala (optional)- 1/2 tsp
• salt- to taste

You have to

1. fry the potatoes, till golden brown. drain on paper towel.
2. heat 1 tbsp of the same oil, in a pan.
3. add all the spices to the oil, along with the kasoori meethi. saute.
4. add the fried potatoes. toss evrything up.
5. add very little water, to get the masala to stick to potato.
6. taste for seasoning, adjust the spices accordingly.

This can be served as a cocktail snack, or along with a lentil with roti, or as a chaat.

GOBI PARANTHA


This recipe was added to the menu, simply because I wanted to send it for the "roti mela"event by srivalli http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2008/04/announcing-event-to-celebrate-indian.html
A very famous form of stuffed parantha, it specially tastes good, if the parantha is nicely stuffed with the cauliflower mixture. enjoy it straight from the griddle, with ghee or butter.

You will need

for the stuffing

• grated cauliflower- 1- 1 1/2 cup
• ginger (finely chopped)- 1 tsp
• green chillies (finely chopped)- 1/2 - 1 tsp
• cilantro (finely chopped)- 1 tsp
• ajwain seeds- 1/4th tsp
• red chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• salt- to taste
• ghee- for smearing it on the parantha

for the dough

I do not measure the amount of wheat flour and water. So this is an approximation.

• whole wheat flour- 3 cups
• water- 1- 1 1/2 cup.

You will have to

1. knead the dough and keep it in the fridge for half an hour.
2. in a bowl mix together the grated cauliflower along with all the other ingredients except the ghee.
3. take the dough and let it sit for five to ten min at room temperature.
4. roll out the dough to a small circle.
5. fill a spoonfull or a little more of the cauliflower mixture.
6. fold the dough over into a ball. dust with dry flour. roll out into round chapatis.
7. heat a griddle, place the rolled chapatis on the griddle. smear a little ghee on top, flip over. smear little more ghee, and cook till both sides are a golden brown.
8. Serve hot with butter, achar, curd.

enjoy

CHOCO ALMOND COCONUT BALLS

I must admit I have been a little lazy in updating my blog, past couple of weeks. Just been a little hectic. But hopefully it should be better now.

I made this recipe a few days ago and I have been thinking of posting it since then. Its a pretty easy recipe. My mother use to make it in India too. I had lots of plain tea time biscuits lying in my pantry, so I had to think of a way to use them up. After thinking for a few days, I suddenly remembered that mom use to make something similar using Marie biscuits. So, I thought a little more, fished around my pantry for a while, gathered all the ingredients, and began recreating the recipe with all that I had on hand.

It wasn't' hard, cause half way through, I figured out, that almonds, chocolate and coconut, can never taste wrong.
Here is the recipe. It gets a little messy,while making them, but it tastes really good.




You will need

• plain biscuits (Marie biscuits, graham crackers etc)- 20-30
• milkmaid- 1/2 tin
• cocoa powder-2-3 tbsp
• whole almonds
• dessicated coconut- 1 1/2 cups
• milk- 1/2 cup (usually the whole thing is not used)
• sugar (optional)- to taste

You will have to

1. crush the biscuite in a food processor or put it in a Ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin.
2. mix in the cocoa powder and the half the coconut.
3. now add the milkmaid and mix everything. at this point the mixture will be very sticky.
4. add a tsp of milk. mix. taste. if sugar seems to be less, add according to the taste.
5. check if the mixture can be rolled into balls.
6. add little more milk if required.
7. wet your palm with little water. take a little bit of the mixture, flatten it. place one whole almond in the centre.
8. roll it up into a ball.
9. pour out the rest of the coconut into a flat plate.
10. roll the chocolate balls in the coconut, till the coconut covers the entire ball.
11. repeat with the rest of the mixture.
12. depending on the size, you could make close to 20- 25 chocolate balls.
13. refrigerate it for up to a week.

enjoy.

PAUSHTIK MISSI ROTI

This recipe should have been up on my blog somtime last week, as it is from my last weeks monday menu. We left for vegas on friday, so I guess I got into the grove a couple of days in advance. Nevertheless, before I divert myslef from the topic here it is.
"PAUSHTIK" simply means healthy. " Missi roti" is like tortillas, only that it is made with a different kind of flour, the gram flour or (besan).

You will need:

• gram flour or besan- 1/2 cup
• wheat flour- 1 cup
• alfalfa sprouts - 1/2 cup (any sprouts can be used)
• green chillies - 1-2 (finely chopped)
• cilantro leaves- 1 tsp (chopped)
• salt- to taste
• onions-1/2 (chopped)
• red chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• ajwain (parsley) seeds- 1/4th tsp
• water
• ghee or butter

You have to :

1. In a bowl, add all the ingredients excpet the water and the ghee.
2. Knead the dough, adding water little by little.
3. The dough will be a little sticky, at this point you might want add very little oil to get the dough all together.
4. Heat a tawa or a griddle, roll out small chapatis, and cook on the tawa.
5. Add little ghee or butter on the top and flip it over. cook till nice and crisp.
6. Serve with pickles, raita, or dal.

happy eating.

THIS WEEK'S MENU

Woww!!!!!!! it feels I have been away for quite sometime. Well that could be because I spent my weekend in LAS VEGAS. Its as though I have been gone forever.......Haven't still caught up on my lost sleep. But I did manage to provide my Monday tiffins and as per my practice, I am posting the menu.

A few recipes from the last weeks menu, still have to be posted, (which I will do shortly).
more to come later.
enjoy

Mon: pao bhaji

Tues: idli + sambhar + coconut chutney

Wed: veg pulao + chana masala

Thu: kadai paneer

Fri: Dal makhani + boondi raita