Vegetable Pasta in Spicy Malai Sauce

Now a days pasta is one of the comfortable food for all. A big bowl of pasta with rich creamy sauce and the addition of mixed vegetables is a perfect and easy choice for dinner. Here is a quick and delicious recipe of creamy vegetable pasta in spicy and rich thick coconut milk sauce (malai sauce).

Ingredients:

1. Pasta-1 cup
2. Butter-2 tbsp
3. Thinly chopped garlic-1 tbsp
4. Thinly chopped onion-1 
5. Chilly powder-1 tsp
6. Pepper powder-1/4 tsp
7. Cumin powder-1/4 tsp
8. Salt-to taste
9. Chopped carrot-1/4 cup
10. Green pea-1/4 cup (fresh / or cooked dried)
11. All purpose flour (maida)-1 tbsp
12. Thick coconut milk- 3/4 cup
13. Chopped cilantro/ basil leaves- to garnish

Preparation:

• Cook pasta in enough boiling water by adding salt until done (8-10 minutes).
• Drain it and keep aside.
• Heat butter in a pan; add thinly chopped garlic and onion; saute for a minute.
• Add chilly powder, pepper powder and cumin powder .
• Add chopped carrots and green pea; saute 3-4 minutes.
• Then add all purpose flour and mix well on low flame for two minutes.
• Add thick coconut milk in to it and stir well.
• Cook on medium flame until the mixture starts thickening.
• When it starts thickens; add enough salt and cooked pasta in to it.
• Mix well and switch off the flame.
• Add in to serving plate, garnish on top with chopped cilantro and serve warm.

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Sooji Dhokla

Dhokla is a staple vegetarian food originated from the Indian state of Gujarat. Normally it is made with the fermented batter from rice and split chick peas. Here is an easy and instant version of dhokla using sooji. The nice, spongy and savory sooji cake is absolutely delicious and and serve it along with mint chutney or itself.

Ingredients:

1. Semolina (sooji/ rava)-1 cup
2. Ginger paste- 1/2 tsp
3. Green chilly paste- 1/4 tsp
4. Asafoetida (hing powder/kayam)- a generous pinch
5. Curd-1 1/2 tbsp( or lemon juice-1 tsp)
6. Salt-to taste (little)
7. Water-to make a batter
8. Eno/ Fruit salt- 1 1/2 tsp

For Seasoning:

1. Oil- 1 1/2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds-1 tsp
3. Curry leaves-2 spring
4. Powdered sugar-1 /4 tsp
5. Grated coconut-1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Grease a steaming pan with 1/4 tsp of oil and keep it ready.
• In a large mixing bowl; mix sooji (semolina) with ginger, garlic, turmeric powder, hing, salt and curd.
• Mix well and add water little by little to make smooth batter (little thick but running consistency like dosa batter).
• Now heat a steamer with water and switch on the flame.
• Place the greased pan on top.
• Now add eno to the sooji batter mix and give a quick good mix. Then the batter gets bubbled and increase the quantity.

• Quickly pour the batter in to greased pan.
• Cover the pan and cover the steamer also.
• Cook for about 20 minutes (insert a skewer and check whether it comes out clean; if not cook for few more minutes).
• After cools down; (run a sharp knife through the sides) invert the cooked dhokla in to a serving pan
• Do seasoning on top.
• Heat a pan with oil; splutter mustard seeds followed b;y curry leaves, green chilly and grated coconut.
• Cut the dhokla in to square pieces and spread the seasoning on top along with powdered sugar.
• Serve warm and enjoy the great taste!!

Note:

• As soon as adding eno; don't mix the batter too much; and quickly add to the steaming pan. there must be no lumps in the batter.
• Dont' over cook. As the spongy text gets harden .

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Coconut Milk Murukku

Murukku is a crispy Indian tea time snack.Usually we used to buy it from the stores. But we can easily make it at home; if we have the murukku maker (star shaped mold of idiyappam maker). Here is an easy murukku recipe using coconut milk  and rice flour.

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour-1 cup
2. Urad dal-3 tbsp
3. Roasted Chana dal -1 tbsp
4. Butter-1 1/2 tsp
5. Black sesame seeds- 1/2 tsp
6. Thick coconut milk-1/2 cup (approx)
7. Salt-to taste

Preparation:

• Dry roast urad dal for a minute.
• Add rosted chana dal and urad dal in a blender.
• Make a fine powder with it.
• In a wide bowl add rice flour, sesame seeds, salt and melted hot butter.
• Crumble it well with hand.
• Add coconut milk little by little and make a smooth dough. (if the dough is too hard add few teaspoons of coconut milk more; don't add too much; then the murukku get loosen and breaks easily.).

• Insert a part of dough inside the murukku mold; start squeezing out desired shapes to hot oil.
• Fry on medium flame until nice golden.
• Drain in to paper towels and allow to cool.
• Store in an air tight container after cools down completely.

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Chicken Bread Pockets:

Bread pockets are an awesome snack with fried bread slices filled with  favorite stuffing's. Here i used my shredded chicken pieces along with some veggies and it results a lovely chicken bread pockets!!

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices-6 no(for making 6 pockets)
2. Oil-for deep frying
3. Corn flour-3 tbsp
4. Salt-a pinch

For The Filling:

1. Chicken pieces (fried or cooked)-1 cup
2. Chopped capsicum-1/4 cup
3. Chopped cucumber-1
4. Tomato ketchup-3 tbsp 
5. Coriander leaves-few

Preparation:

• Take two slices of bread. In a rolling pin place one bread slice over another and roll them slightly to flatten (without breaking the bread).
• Cut out the edges of bread slices. 
• Now using a large bottle gap (or by a steel glass/ cookie cutter) cut out the possible length circle.
• In a blender add the edges of bread slices and powder it.
• Keep it aside in a wide bowl.
• In another wide bowl mix cornflour with salt and 1/4 cup of water; mix well.
• Now take the circle (it has two slices of bread circle; don't separate them) and quickly dip in the cornflour mix on both sides (dip just for a second; dipping for long time results the bread to melt and cut down).
• Next coat it in the bread slices powdered evenly.
• Heat a pan with oil; when it is hot deep fry the prepared circles on medium flame until puffed up  and nice golden. (if the slices have any cracks in it; then it will not puffed up..no problem 😃).
• Drain in to paper towels to avoid excess oil.
• Cut the fried circles in to equal halves by a sharp knife; so that two pockets are formed.(if it is not opened;just insert a knife inside so that it will open up). 
• Now for the filling mix shredded chicken pieces with lengthily chopped cucumber and capsicum.
• Add little salt and tomato ketchup mix well.
• Fill the mixture inside each pockets as much as possible along with the coriander leaves. 

Check out the step by step photo video below to ease your preparation:

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Jhal Muri- The puffed rice chat

Jhal muri is a puffed rice chat recipe popular in the streets of Kolkata. This crispy and delicious chat can be put together in minutes and also get finished within minutes 😊

Ingredients:

1. Puffed rice- 2 cup
2. Onion-1 medium
3. Tomato-1 medium
4. Cucumber-1 small
5. Green chilly-1
6. Coriander leaves chopped-one handful
7. Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
8. Chat masla- 1/2 tsp
9. Garam masala powder- 1/4 tsp
10. Salt-to taste
11. Lemon juice-1 tbsp
12. Sev- 1/4 cup 
13. Fried chana dal- 2 tbsp
14. Fried peanuts-2 tbsp
15. Sweet sauce- 1/4 cup (tamarind dates chutney)

Preparation:

• Thinly chop onion, tomato, cucumber, green chilly and coriander leaves.
• Mix them in a large wide bowl.
• Add pea nuts, sev and fried lentils.
• Add chilly powder, chat masala, garam masala powder, salt and lemon juice.
• Add sweet sauce in to it and give a good mix.
• Lastly; just before serving add the puffed rice; give a quick good mix and serve soon😋😋.

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Bread Upma

Upma is a versatile Indian breakfast choice. Semolina Upma; Oats upma; broken wheat upma etc. are common varieties among them. Here is another  quick and easy upma recipe with bread slices.

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices-5 
2. Oil-2 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
4. Cumin seeds- 1/4 tsp
5. Curry leaves-1 spring
6. Thinly chopped ginger-1 tsp
7. Thinly chopped garlic- 1/2 tsp
8. Thinly chopped green chilly-1 tsp
9. Thinly chopped onion-1 medium
10. Thinly chopped tomato-2 medium
11. Thinly chopped capsicum-2 tbsp (optional)
12. Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
13. Chilly powder-1 tsp
14. Salt-to taste
15. Coriander leaves-to garnish

Preparation:

• Cut a slices bread in to small cubes.
• Heat oil in a non-stick pan; crackle mustard seeds followed by cumin seeds.
• Add thinly chopped ginger, garlic, green chilly and curry leaves. Saute for a minute.
• Add chopped onions and capsicum; saute another a minute.
• Add turmeric powder and chilly powder.
• Add chopped tomato pieces and saute well until all the tomato pieces get mashed and mixed well.
• Then add salt and bread pieces.
• Give a good quick mix (carefully without breaking the bread slices).
• Cook for another 5 minutes in low flame until the bread pieces gets slightly crisp (stir occasionally.)
• Switch off the flame ans sprinkle coriander leaves on top.

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Chocolate Doughnuts

 Fried doughnuts is a deep fried piece of dough, often mixed with various sweeteners and flavorings. The puffy, crusty dough nuts covered with beautiful toppings are always attractive, kids favorite and easy to make. 
Ingredients for doughnuts:

1. All purpose flour (Maida)-1 3/4 cup
2. Cocoa powder-1/4 cup
3. Milk-3/4 cup
4. Melted butter-1/4 cup
5. Sugar-2 tbsp
6. Active yeast-1tsp
7. Salt-1/2 tsp
8. Oil-for deep frying

Ingredients for glazing doughnuts:

1. white cooking chocolate-100 gms
2. Sugar sprinkles-to garnish

Preparation:

•  Make the milk little warm, add sugar, salt and yeast. Mix well.
• Add butter and flour; knead smooth dough. (if the dough is too watery add little flour to adjust or if the dough is hard add little milk or water to make a smooth dough).
• Generously spread some flour on the working place and roll the dough in to a big circle of ¾ cm thickness.
• Cut in to round dough nuts with a glass and make a small hole in the Centre with a small bottle cap.
• Put it on a tray and brush with little oil on top to avoid dryness.
• Cover it with kitchen towel and keep aside for 2 hours until puffy.
• Heat oil in a large pan and gently place the doughnuts in to it.
• Fry on low-medium flame until they are nicely cooked.
• Pour it in to a tissue paper.
• Melt white chocolate in a microwave or by double boiling method.
• Garnish it on top of the fried doughnuts and sprinkle some sugar sprinkles on top.

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Chocolate Dipped Clementines

It's that time of year when clementines are in season.  I love these little cuties just as they are but they make a perfect snack or a quick dessert.  I use a container of Baker's Dipping *Dark Chocolate.  This container works great with left over chocolate, just pop on the plastic lid and refrigerate until you make these again.  The chocolate won't stay in the fridge long because you'll make these often!

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, wax paper or a Silpat (non stick baking mat). Peel and segment clementines, set aside.  Be careful not to break the skin as the juice will seize the chocolate.  Gently melt chocolate in  the microwave.  Dip segments in chocolate and transfer to parchment-lined sheet. Once all pieces have been dipped, set the sheet aside until chocolate hardens (takes about an hour). To quickly harden chocolate, transfer baking sheet to the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

*You can use milk chocolate if you prefer.

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Chocolate Covered Cookie Dunkers

These crazy delicious cookies are begging for a wholesome glass of milk!



This blog post is sponsored by The a2 Milk Company™ 


"Because when your milk is naturally easy to digest, life is easy to digest"






There are few simple pleasures in life that never get old, like dunking a cookie into a rich and soothing glass of milk. No matter how old you are, there is something delicious and

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Frankenstein food

Today is a public holiday and I'm currently sitting at the office, working on projects due tomorrow. In what could only have been a self-loathing, self-pitying fury, I ate an entire large packet of chips. They're called Chipi Multigrain Chips (basically a rip-off of Pringles) and they are - what Weight Watchers would call - my frankenstein food. 

Frankenstein foods are those terrible snacky-type foods that are impossible to stop eating at just one. We all have a particular weakness... and mine happens to be bizarre discount chips from Dischem.

Needless to say... I feel quite ill now.

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