Paneer with Chick peas

Some people in my family love paneer, others love chick peas. This curry is so simple to make and hearty and delicious and versatile to serve with many different things. Serve it with Roti or rice or with Aloo Tikki or Oats Aloo Tikki
Chole Paneer (Indian cottage cheese with chickpeas)

Paneer Chole

Ingredients:

1. 1 can chick peas drained and washed
2. 8 oz paneer cut into 1 cm cubes
3. 1-2 tomatoes chopped
4. 1/2 cup chopped onions
5. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric and Nigella (onion) seeds
7. 2 tablespoon oil

Add a tablespoon of oil and fry the paneer pieces for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a pan heat the oil and add the onion (Kalongi) seeds if using. Let them fry for a minute. Add the onions and cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add ginger garlic paste and stir for a minute. Add tomatoes and all the powder ingredients. Cook for 5 minutes. Add chickpeas and paneer and 1/4 cup water and cover and simer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Garnish with coriander and enjoy

Rolled oats potato cutlet

Once in a while the people in my house start thinking of eating "healthy" and we get a ton of things which will not finish up once the initial fad has faded. One such ingredient is the rolled quick oats.

I was looking for something different to make on a Sunday so I found the recipe for Oat Aloo Tikki by Tarla Dalal. Its pretty yummy. I served it with Paneer chole

Rolled oats potato cutlet (Quick cooking oats and potato patties)

Oats Potato patties

Oats Aloo Tikki Paneer Chole

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup plain rolled oats
2. 1 cup masala oats (or increase the rolled oats quantity)
3. 2 medium large potatoes boiled and mashed
4. 1 medium small carrot grated fine
5. 1/2-1/3 cup paneer grated (optional)
6. 1 teaspoon salt (use less if using masala oats)
7. 1 teaspoon amchur powder (dried mango powder) or substitute with 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
8. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
9. 1 Thai chillie chopped fine
10. handful of coriander leaves chopped fine
11. 2-3 tablespoons water
12. oil for shallow frying

Mix all the ingredients for the patties and add water in the end to make a stiff dough. Divide it into 12 parts and make them into 1/2 inch thick patties.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil on a griddle and fry the patties 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve it as is with ketchup or with Chole on the side for a full meal

Shallow fried plantain chips

The original recipe is from here . This is a pretty easy and yummy recipe to make. To those of you who do not know what a plantain is...its the green banana you see near the vegetables. The Indian variety are small...may be 6-8 inches where as the Mexican or American variety are pretty bug. I used the Indian plantain for this

Shallow fried plantain chips (Shallow fried green plantain with Indian spices)

Shallow fried plantain chips

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 medium plantain
2. 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric, sambar powder, salt, mustard seeds, urad dal, fennel seeds, cumin, asafoetida
3. 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4. 2 tbsp oil divided
5. 1 dried red chilli
6. few curry leaves
7. 2 tbsp water

peel the plantain and slice them about 1/8 inch thick coins.

add  turmeric, sambar powder, pepper and  salt and coat the spices on the plantain and set aside.

In a pan heat 2 tbsp oil and add mustard seeds,  urad dal, cumin, fennel, broken red chilli, pinch hing and few curry leaves and let it splutter. Now add the plantain pieces

Stir-fry for 2 minutes till raw banana gets coated well with oil.

Spread the plantain in a single layer in the pan and add the remaining oil.

cover and cook on medium flame for 10 minutes. Abut 7 minutes, add 2 teaspoons water and cover and cook stirring  occasionally.

Uncover and fry for 2-3 more minutes to make them crispy

Serve with Sorrel leaves rice

Ginger Chutney

Its still lockdown central here at home and today was Vada/Garal for breakfast. The recidents of my house  aka my fam...they looooove Peanut Chutney but today along with that I also made Ginger Chutney. This one is equally easy to make.

The red onions I used , gave the chutney a purple hue

Ginger Chutney(Ginger and Onion side for Indian Breakfast)

Ginger chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium small onion chopped
2. 2 inches of ginger peeled and chopped
3. 1.5 tablespoons chana dal
4. 1 tablespoon urad dal
5. 1 teaspoon oil
6. 2 dried red chillies
7. 1 teaspoon cumin
8. 1/2 cup thick juice of tamarind
9. 1 teaspoon salt
10. 2-3 tablespoons jaggery or brown sugar

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chanadal for a minute. Add the urad dal and fry till they start turning brown. Drain and add the onions and chillies into the same pan and fry for 2 minutes. Add ginger and fry for 3 more minutes. Let them cool.

Grind all the ingredients together until smooth. Enjoy with idli or vada or dosa

Turkish Meat Gozleme

Every country has their own recipe of stuffed bread. This is one of the best. I normally do not like Turkish food. I feel it is too bland. But this recipe and the dish are awesome. My family loved it. I am going to be making more variations of it in near future :)

The original recipe is from here

Turkish Meat Gozleme (Meat stuffed bread pocket)

Meat and Spinach Gozleme

Ingredients

Gozleme Pastry

1. 3 cups all purpose 
2. 3 tablespoon  extra virgin olive oil
3. water
4. 1/2-3/4 tsp salt

Spiced lamb

1. 1 tbsp olive oil
2. 2 garlic cloves , minced
3. 1 onion , finely chopped
4. 1 lb beef or lamb mince (ground)
5. 1/2 cup frozen spinach squeezed of all water or  3 oz baby spinach
6. 1 teaspoon each of  cumin powder, paprika
7. 3/4 tsp each salt and pepper
8. 4 oz  feta cheese (I got Mediterranean blend)

Filling:

Cook beef in a hot pan without oil (if it has more than 90% fat) else add 1 teaspoon oil, breaking it up as you go.

Add cumin, paprika, cayenne (if using), salt, pepper and water. Cook for 2 minutes.

Add spinach, stir until wilted.

Cool before using.

Add the salt to the flour and add water to it as needed to make the dough. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the dish you made the dough and start kneading it for 5 minutes. Repeat 2 more times with the remaining oil until the dough becomes pliable, and smooth. If you have a hand mixer, mix the dough for 7 minutes.

Cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle work surface with flour. Cut dough into 4 pieces.

Roll out into 35cm/14" x 20cm/8" rectangle.

Add the filling to the dough and sprinkle with feta cheese and close the edges.

Heat a griddle and add some oil to it. Fry the Gozleme for 3 minutes on each side. Enjoy

Baked beans cookie sticks

Who says cookies have to be round? After seeing these cookie sticks/ fries I am in love with them and I want all my cookies to be shaped like this. They are the perfect shape to dunk it into your tea/coffee if you want to.

Also instead of making the regular chocolate chip cookies I added Bush's Vegetarian Baked beans in them. Oh Gosh...so yummy. You will not taste the beans but you will not be able to resist these cookies. sooooooo goooood.

Baked beans cookie sticks (Chocolate chip cookies in the form of a stick with baked beans)

Chocolate chip cookie sticks with baked beans

Chocolate chips cookie sticks

 Ingredients:

1. 3 cups all purpose flour
2. 1-1.5 cups Bush's vegetarian baked beans (drained as much as possible) and mashed
3. 1 stick butter
4. 2 eggs
5. 1/2 cup brown sugar (if you like it sweeter make it 3/4 cup)
6. 1-2 tablespoons hot water
7. 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix the room temperature butter with the mashed beans and add the eggs and sugar and beat them up for 2 minutes. Add the flour and mix well. If the dough looks too tight (dry) add 1-2 tablespoons hot water. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread the dough in a 8X8 tray into a 1/2 inch flat and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees (even for dark pans)

Cut it into 1/2 inch thick 4-5 inches long stick, place them on a parchment paper. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown. 

Cool on a wire rack for  10 minutes before consuming. :) Enjoy

Ravva Uttapam

This is one of the speedy lunch/dinner ideas ever. And it is super delicious. I made it a little more healthy by adding vegetables in the batter itself

Ravva Uttapam(Indian Pancakes with Semolina)

Ravva Uttapam

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup sooji (coarse, semolina)
2. 1/2 cup yogurt 
3. 1/2 cup each of cabbage finely grated, finely grated carrots, bell pepper chopped fine,  tomatoes chopped fine
4. 1 Tbsp each of cilantro ,green chili, ginger 
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
7. oil for frying

Mix sooji, salt, green chili, ginger, cabbage, carrot and yogurt, and add water as needed batter should be little thicker than dosa batter. Set it aside for 20 minutes
Add more water if needed and add the baking soda and mix well. 
Heat the skillet over medium heat and lightly grease the skillet. Pour about 2 large spoons of batter and spread consistency should be of thick then dosa. Sprinkle with some chopped oni ons, bell pepper ,tomatoes and cilantro and press it lightly into the batter.
Pour about 1 teaspoon of oil around uttapam and cover it and let it cook for about 2 minutes and turn them over, uttapam should be golden brown from bottom making crisper, and top should be cooked well but not brown. Uttapam should be cooked over low medium heat.
Uttapam is ready to serve. 

Enjoy with Peanut chutney