Paneer chaat sandwich

 So…it’s one of those days where whatever I have is not what I want for lunch. So I was looking g for sandwich recipes and I found a paneer sandwich but of course that as a base…I made my own paneer sandwich and yum yum yum …lunch 😊

Paneer Chaat Sandwich (Sourdough sandwich with spiced Indian cottage cheese )

Paneer Chaat sandwich

Ingredients 

1. 2 -3 tablespoons grated paneer
2. 1 tablespoon thick plain yogurt 
3. 2 tablespoons each of boiled sweet corn, boiled black beans
4. 1 tablespoon each of fresh cilantro and mint chopped fine, fresh squeezed lemon juice
5. 1 green chili finely chopped 
6. 1-2 teaspoons chaat masala
7. Salt to taste
8. Sour dough bread + butter to toasting bread 

Mix all the ingredients to become a homogeneous mix.

Heat a griddle and toast the bread with butter on one side.

Flip and toast with butter on the other side 

Pull the paneer mix on the bread and cut it into your favorite shape and enjoy

Chinese cookies

 Lightly sweetened cookies

Chinese cookies 

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
3. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1 large egg
5. pinch of salt

Mix the butter and cream cheese into a smooth batter and add sugar and mix until its melted. Add the egg and mix well. Add the salt and flour and mix for a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into 15-18 parts and flatten them into 1/2 cm thick cookies.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15- 17 minutes. Enjoy!!!

NOTE : Add chocolate chips to these cookies and make them into choc chip cookies :)

Sweet potato sticks

 Today has been one of those extremely cold days here and I wanted to eat some snacks but no snacks were available. I has sweet potatoes though…so I made easy sweet potato sticks

Sweet potato sticks ( Basked sweet potato snacks)

Sweet potato sticks

Ingredients 

1. 1 medium large sweet potato boiled for 20-22 minutes until soft.
2. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
3. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
4. 1 large egg
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 2 cups all purpose flour

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F

In a bowl mix together butter and cream cheese until well combined. All sugar and mix well. Add the mashed sweet potatoes and the egg and mix well. Add the flour and salt and mix with a spatula. The dough may be a bit sticky.

In a baking sheet spread the dough with a spatula until it’s 1/2 cm thick. 

Note: I cut the dough into square with the spatula before baking. After 15 minutes at 400 degrees, I cut them into sticks and baked at 300 for 10 more minutes

Bake for 10 minutes and flip and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy

Maat ki phalli fry

 Maat ki phalli fry ( stir fried clusters beans with coconut and peanuts)

Maat ki phalli fry

Ingredients 

1. 12 oz frozen clusters beans beans thawed or fresh ends cut and cut into 1-11/2 inch pieces
2. 2 tablespoons oil
3. 1 medium onion chopped fine
4. 2 tablespoons each of besan and grated coconut, roasted peanut powder
5. 1 teaspoon each of coriander powder, chilli powder
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt (add more to taste), cumin powder, turmeric, mustard seeds
7. Few curry leaves

In a pan heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and fry till they start to splutter. Add the onions and fry for 2 minutes, make the flame to be high and add the cluster beans and fry for 10 minutes covered. Stir occasionally.

Add all the spices and mix, reduce the heat to medium add the besan and rest of the ingredients and continue to cook for 5 more minutes . Add coconut and peanut powder stir to combine, reduce heat to low and cook covered for 5 minutes. Add the curry leaves fry for 2 more minutes and enjoy with white rice and dal

Badusha

 So...this was one of my fav. sweets but I have never known its easy to make. So again...this was one of the "shorts" I came across. It was pretty easy so I tried it and it turned out super easy and good .

Badusha (Fried wheat items in sweet syrup)

Badusha

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup plain yogurt
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. 1/4 cup clarified butter/ghee
6. 1 teaspoon rose water or vanilla essence
7. oil for deep frying
8. 1-1.5 cups sugar + 1-1.5 cups water

Beat the yogurt with the baking soda and baking powder and set it aside for 5 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, add the salt and ghee to the flour and mix well.

Add the yogurt little by little and mix well. If needed, as 1-2 tablespoons of water. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Make simple syrup with the sugar and water. Add either rose water or vanilla essence.

Divide the dough into 12-15 parts. Take a part of the dough and press it between your palm while move palms in circular motion in opposite directions. Press in the center to make a small dent in the center. Make the rest of the dough and set aside.

Heat oil in a deep pan until it is slighly hot. Add the Badusha in it and fry on medium low flame for 2 minutes. Flip and fry for 2 more minutes. Flip and if need be fry for 1 more minute on each side. Drain and add it to the sugar syrup. Enjoy super delicious and easy Badusha

Dal Pitha

 Well...it happened again...I was watching some "shorts" on Youtube and I spent a whole 1-2 minutes watching someone cook something and boom...I keep getting more and more of those. Well...one of those videos was for a recipe from Jharkhand...a state in India and it looked interesting. I didn't even know what it was called.

I made it...relatively not too difficult to make and it was pretty delicious. So here is the recipe and also before I write it...I needed to know what it is called and it is called

Dal Pitha (Wheat dumplings stuffed with Bengal gram)

Dal Pitha

Dal pitha with Mint chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup yellow chana dal (bengal gram) soaked over night or atleast 4 hrs
2. 1 inch ginger, 1-2 green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1 cup wheat floor
4. 1 tablespoon oil + 2 teaspoons oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, sesame seeds
7. 8-10 curry leaves
8. 2 dried chiilies (use these if you do not want to use green chillies in the dal...if you eat less spice)

Grind the soaked chana dal along with Ginger, green chillies if using...use no more than 1 tablespoon water. Add salt and mix well and set aside.

Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons oil in the wheat floor and mix well. Add water little by little and mix a dough and knead for a minute. Set aside for 10 minutes. Dive the dough into 4 parts and divide the dal mixture also into 4 parts.

Make a disk of about 5-6 inches diameter with the 1/4 part of dough . Spread 1/4 dal mixture on half of the "disk and flip the other half and press with fingers to close the dumpling.Repeat to make 4 of these dumplings.

Heat 2 inches water in a wide pan until it starts to boil. Add the stuffed dumplings and boil for 7-9 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Cur each into 5-6 pieces.

In a pan heat 1 tablespoon oil and add the mustard seeds and cover and fry until they start poppoing. Add therest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Add the dumpling pieces and fry for 3-5 minutes on medium high flame until they crisp up. Enjoy with ketchup or mint chutney

Chicken and eggplant coconut curry

 Coco Chicken and eggplant (Eggplant and Chicken in a creamy coconut gravy)

Chicken eggplant coconut curry

Ingredients:

1. 1 can chicken breast drained (save the broth)
2. 2 cups peeled chopped American eggplant
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, chilli powder, cumin powder, tandoor masala (optional), garam masala
4. 1 teaspoon each of coriander powder, ginger-garlic paste
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. 1 medium small red onion sliced thin

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions until they start getting brown. Add the eggplant and cook for 10 more minutes on medium flame. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken all the spices and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and add the coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes. Add some chicken broth to adjust the thickness to your liking. Enjoy with a naan or paratha or roti