Aloo Besan squares

Besan is Chick Peas flour. It is super delicious if you know how to cook with it and make sure it is cooked through.  This is similar to Aloo Bonda  but instead of  deep frying these I made the batter like a crepe and add the potato curry to it and toasted it again. Yum yum.
And I serve this deliciousness with beet root chutney

Aloo Besan Squares (Potato curry wrapped into a chick peas flour and toasted again with mustard seeds)

Potato curry for the stuffing

Potato stuffed chickpeas squares

Ingredients

1. 3 cups chick peas flour or besan
2. 1 cup plain yogurt
3. 3/4 teaspoon each of salt, baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon ajwain (optional)
5. oil for frying
6. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Beat the yogurt along with 1/2 cup water and salt. Add the besan to it and the ajwain if using and stir to combine and make the batter a little thinner than pancake batter. Set aside.

Heat a griddle.

Take a ladle of batter and drop it into the center. With light pressure and outward motion spread the batter into a circle 6 inches wide. Drizzle some oil on the perimeter. Cook in medium flame for a min till the edges start to rise. Flip the "dosa" and fry for a inute. Flip again. Add 2 tablespoons of cooked potato curry into the center and close it into a square. Set aside and continue with making the others.

Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to a pan and add the mustard seeds to it and cover on a medium flame. Let all the mustard seeds splutter. Add the besan squares seam side down and fry for a minute. Enjoy with Beet root chutney

Beetroot Chutney (Beet root dip for Dosa and idly)

Beet root chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 can beetroots drained
2. 1/2 tablespoon urad dal
3. 1 tablespoon chana dal
4. 2 red chillies
5. 1 inch ginger
6. 2 garlic
7. 1 small piece of tamarind soaked in 1/4 cup water
8. 1/4 cup dried coconut flakes
9. 1 teaspoon salt
10. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pan heat the oil and fry the urad dal and chana dal and the red chillies for a couple of minutes. Add ginger and garlic and coconut and fry for a minute. Add the drained beetroot and cook for 5 minutes. Cut the heat and let it cool.

Grind all the ingredients along with the tamarind + water and salt to a smooth paste. Serve as is or temper it with 1 teaspoon oil + cumin + urad dal+ red chillies+ curry leaves and enjoy

Pretzel hot dogs

You remember the olden days when you would go to a mall and eat pretzels along with the most saltiest dips there are on the planet . Sometimes instead of the plain pretzels you would get hot dogs in pretzels...yeah these are the ones I made today. But I made the pretzels without yeast and they were super delicious. I served them with spicy mustard and the Boar's Head Deli Style Mustard with White Wine. They were so delicious.

If you want to make the pretzel the traditional way here you go Soft Pretzels

Pretzel hot dogs (All beef hot dogs baked in a yeast-less pretzel)

NO Yeast Pretzel dogs 

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups all purpose flour
2. 1/2 cup plain yogurt
3. Water for mixing the dough
4. 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
5. 1 teaspoon each of baking powder, baking soda
6. 1 tablespoon sugar
7. 3/4 teaspoon salt
8. 8 hot dogs

Ingredients for boiling water:

1. Deep pan with atleast 5 inches of water
2. 3 tablespoons salt
3. 1 teaspoon baking soda

Beat the yogurt along with lemon juice, sugar and salt. Sift the flour with baking soda and baking powder and mix into the yogurt mix. Add some water at a time until the dough comes together and it starts raising. Set aside for 15 minutes. Cut the dough into 8 parts.

 Start boiling the water the ingredients mentioned under boiling water.

Roll each piece of dough into an 8 inch log. Roll the hot hot diagonally so that most of it gets covered by dough. Drop it into the boiling water and try it a couple times within 1 minute. Drain onto a baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brush the top of the pretzel dog with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt if desired and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown top is formed.

Enjoy with your  favorite mustard or cheese sauce

Since "a" person in my house does not like hot dogs I made a pretzel pocket for "the" person with deli turkey slices and provolone

No Yeast Cheese Turkey Pretzel Pocket

Chicken Cauliflower fry

This chicken cauliflower dry is pretty similar to Chicken 65 but is a little more healthy , all thanks to the added cauliflower. Just to sneak in some vegetables into every one's plate.

Chicken Cauliflower fry (Chicken and cauliflower stir fried with spices)

Chicken Cauliflower fry

Ingredients

1. 2 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into small cubes
2. 1 tablespoons corn starch
3. 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
4. 2-3 tablespoons oil
5. Handful of curry leaves
6. 2 big or 3 medium garlic pods chopped
7. 1/2 of a large size cauliflower cut into florets
8. 1 teaspoon coriander powder

Ingredients for Marinade:

1. 1 heaped teaspoon ginger garlic paste
2. 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
3. ½ teaspoon each of turmeric, red chilli powder
4. ¾ teaspoon salt

Marinade the chicken with the ingredients in marinade and set aside for at least 45 minutes. Add the all purpose flour and corn flour and stir to coat well .

In a non stick pan heat the oil and add the curry leaves and after 30 seconds add chicken in one layer and on medium low flame fry the chicken  for 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower and coriander powder and stir to combine and cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Give a taste test and adjust the salt if needed. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with hot steamed rice and Palak Dal

Yeast less Stromboli

Stromboli is one of my favorite foods...going back to the first time I had it, over 12 years ago. Over the last few years I have become an expert at baking buns

Tuna Buns
Eggless buns (These don't look golden because I even skipped the egg wash for the top)
Meat stuffed pockets

So, this recipe for Stromboli is for a day when you want to have a Stromboli but do not want to wait for yeast to do its thing. These days sitting at home, cooking all three meals, while managing kids school work, while working...who has time for that.


Yeast-less Stromboli

Stromboli with Turkey

Ingredients

1. 2 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
2. 1/3 cup each of oil, milk and hot water (plus more as needed).
3. 1 tablespoon sugar
4. 3/4 teaspoon salt
5. Optional (1 teaspoon each of poppy seeds, sesame, onion powder, garlic powder) or 2 teaspoons everything mix

In a bowl beat together the liquids well for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead on a clean surface until it forms a smooth ball. Set aside for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll into 6 inches wide by 4 to 5 inches wide oval. 

Layer with your favorite stuffings for stromboli

I used turkey, provolone, spinach, mushrooms and 1-2 tablespoons marinara sauce.

Roll the dough on the long side to form a log. Tuck the edges in and on a prepared baking sheet, lay on the seam side down.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Finish making the rest of the Stromboli. With a knife slit the tops across 4 places. Brush with either egg wash or oil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Let it cool a bit and serve with marinara sauce

Lemon poppy seed biscuit layers

Sunday...the day when something delicious is expected for every meal. So, I  decided to jazz up the regular old buttermilk biscuits with lemon poppy seed sugar and make them more yummilicious.

The original recipe is from www.pillsbury.com .
I skipped the butter.
Also the cream cheese topping makes it yummy. Otherwise the biscuits are not as sweet

Lemon Poppy Seed layered biscuits

Lemon Poppy seed pull-apart biscuits

Ingredients

1. 2/3 cup granulated sugar
2. 2 tablespoon poppy seed
3. 1 large lemon (1 tablespoon grated peel and 1 to 2 tablespoons juice)
4. 1 Pillsbury Grands  refrigerated biscuits
5. 1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
6. 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Prepare a 9X5 loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In small bowl, mix granulated sugar, poppy seed and lemon jest.

Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Separate each biscuit into 2 layers. Dip into poppy seed

 mixture. Starting at one short end of pan, place biscuit layers on their edges, just 

touching each other, until pan is loosely filled. Sprinkle any remaining poppy seed 

mixture between biscuits.

Bake 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. To prevent excess browning, loosely cover

 with aluminum Foil, if necessary. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack,

 using parchment paper as handles. Cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, the cream cheese,

 powdered sugar and lemon juice with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and 

drizzling all over the biscuits. Serve warm.

Ground meat with cluster beans

Gavvar ki phalli  or Gawar ki phalli in Hindi or Cluster beans in English or Goruchikkudu in Telugu is a kind of beans which, while growing up were not my favorite. But by and by I started to like them and these days once in a while I have a craving for them and when I cook them they taste pretty awesome and my family also loves them.

This recipe with ground meat and the cluster beans is one such recipe. Everyone loved it and it just flew off the dish like it has wings.

Ground meat with cluster beans

Ground meat with cluster beans

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb ground meat / chicken or lamb
2. 8-12 oz of frozen or fresh cluster beans ends removed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3. 1 tablespoon oil
4. 1/ teaspoon each of turmeric, salt, chilli powder
5. 1 teaspoon each of ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, amchur powder (optional)

In a pan heat the oil (skip if using ground meat with less than 90% fat). Add the ground meat and cook for 5 minutes breaking it. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover and cook for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally. Garnish with cilantro and chopped green chillies (if you like it a bit spicy) and serve with roti or rice and dal

Here are one more recipe with Gawar ki phalli 

Maath ki phalli nariyal masala

Chana Dal Maath ki bhaji

Maath ki Bhaji (Amaranth leaves) or as it is called in Telugu...Thota kura. This is one of my favorite leafy vegetables .

The other day I got "Pav" from the Indian store to make Pav Bhaji but life happened and I could not make the bhaji with potatoes for the Pav. I wanted to make another "bhaji" for the Pav and I made this awesome, super delicious Chana dal Maath Ki bhaji. This is awesome with the Pavs or rice or with any Indian bread.

Chana Dal Maath ki bhaji (Split peas with Amaranth leaves)

Chana Dal Maath ki bhaji

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup chana dal soaked in water for 30-60 minutes
2. 1 cup packed or 2 cups loosely packed chopped Amaranth leaves
3. 1 large tomato chopped
4. 1 large carrot chopped
5. 1/2 cup chopped onions
6. 1 tablespoon oil
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of nigella/onion seeds (optional), ginger garlic paste
8. 1 bay leaf
9. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, red chilli powder, turmeric
10. 1 teaspoon each of amchur powder (or 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice) , pav bhaji masala

Cook the chana dal in a pressure cooker along with the amaranth leaves, tomatoes and carrots for 10-12 whistles. 

In a pan heat the oil add the bay leaf and the onion seeds and fry for a minute. Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes or until they start to turn brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Let the steam escape. Open the cooker and add the dal mixture to the pan along with all the spices. Mix well. Simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with roti/rice/pav with chopped cilantro and red onions and lemon wedges