Lets Eat/EshoKhai/AaoKhayen

Sizzling Hot Vegetable Sizzler!!

mitalibanerjee — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:16:12 +0000

My mom is here and I am on my way to learn some great recipes from her. Last weekend we prepared a delicious Sizzler with lots of vegetables, vegetable cutlets made of boiled mashed potatoes and cottage cheese; Manchurian balls along with Rice and Sizzler sauce — All prepared at home!! I’ll be writing down the recipe soon, for now take a sneak peek into the delicious dish!

Ajwain ki puri(Fried bread with Carom seeds) and Matar Paneer (without Onion and Garlic)

mantramugdha — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:28:17 +0000

Lets face it, we all have days when we do not feel like eating non veg/onions/garlic etc or cant eat due to religious restrictions. We for instance, do not eat non veg and onion on certain Tuesdays when we have a fast ( Hanuman ji ka vrat, i am a big time devotee. Sab unki kripa hai)

here is a plain and simple recipe that goes well on such days and is very tasty and wholesome at the same time.

For Ajwain ki puri :

No big secrets here. Just add a teaspoon of Ajwain (Carom Seeds), one tea spoon of ghee (first heated and then cooled a bit, this is called moyan. Can also use Oil in place of Ghee) and a few table spoons maida (finely milled flour) to the regular Atta ( wheat flour) while preparing the dough. Mitali has mastered preparing the dough in the Mixer grinder. With practice any one can get the water balance right.

Making puris is a process even i cant teach you… you have to see it in action.

Hope this Video link would be useful.

For Matar Paneer: (Mitali posting the recipe here!!)

A very simple and fast recipe for preparing this delicious dish is as below:

Finely chop tomato and green chillies. Don’t forget Coriander leaves!
Paneer (Cottage Cheese) should be cut into small cubes (rectangular or square) and deep fried till the edges are golden brown. Boil the peas (Matar) and keep aside.
Prepare a ginger and Jeera paste (not vry fine, leave coarse)
Heat oil in a pan, add the Ginger and Jeera paste followed by finely chopped Tomoato and Chillies. Add a pinch of salt to cook the tomatoes. Add Turmeric powder (Haldi), Red Chilli powder, Dhania Powder, Garam Masala (freshly ground masala is the best) and salt to taste. Add a pinch of Sugar to the gravy.
Add a tablespoon of Malai (Fresh Cream) and some milk to the gravy and boil the same till oil comes to the surface. Add Paneer cubes and Matar and boil for 10 mins.
Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve hit with crisp poories!!

An Impromptu Lunch Party

mantramugdha — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:46:40 +0000

Genies at play

Well Pooja joined Mindgenies ( our workplace) around a month back and has become a part of the team and close friends bringing in her husband Hemant into the fold. Mitali and I had quite a few pending parties to settle and we had a good time at our place with all my office team being there. Due to the wet nature of the party the focus shifted from the food but thats for another time.

Last weekend, Pooja proposed out of the blue to drop by at our place and cook. Being foodies who were we to let such an offer pass…. so we invited everyone on Sunday ( 14th Mar) although it was only Ruchi who was able to make it. Everyone was cribbing about the time ( Lunch on sundays… we sleep till 2!) Lucky US!

Everyone was late. JD was shedding lots. My drawing room felt like the wild west with hairballs running across. Got enough time to cleanup before ruchi, hemant and pooja showed up with the chicken. We had to wait for ages for the food to be ready, which left us scraping for whatever edible we could find, but it was truly worth the wait.

Hemant and Pooja

Simply fried chicken curry, rotis and jeera rice is what we had ( gorged was more like it). At the end of it all we felt we wouldnt need for the rest of the day but of course it didnt happen that way.

Read the simple but delectable recipe below.

Nutritious Vegetable Salad

mitalibanerjee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:19:19 +0000

The recipe will follow shortly, just posting the pictures of our latest experiment! We tried a Vegetable Salad with a delicious dressing complemented with Garlic bread and Mashed Potatoes… Have a look at the stages here:

3 different pastas, 3 tastes….

mantramugdha — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:42:42 +0000

As a couple, Mitali and I are fairly health concious. Time permitting, we make it a point to hit the gym , though I am somewhat of a slacker in this dept. (then again , who needs a gym with a size/shape like mine ) anyways… we have paid a bomb and joined the recently opened Addiction gym near our place in Noida. Day one saw me hitting it with gusto and then not going for the next two.

Anyways Monday I decided to push Mitali off to the gym and then practice some of my awesome culinary talents ( just kidding…..well..not really ). So I went ingredient hunting and got loads of stuff.

I prepared penne parboiled pasta and 3 types of sauces to provide the variations. One was a Basil and thyme based braised Chicken breasts with pasta, a white sauce with mayo, cheese and boiled veggies and the last one was a boiled grams ( chana) based pasta in a groundnut and tomato base.All three turned out great with my personal favourite being the Chana one, while Mitali favoured the white sauce.

Hey and did I tell you we had mustard and honey dressing also. and washed it down with peach juice. Heaven

Jheenge Posto/Ridge gourd with poppy seeds/

mantramugdha — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:42:59 +0000

This dish is a simple and easy to cook item that is also my father’s and Mitali’s favorite. There are also a number of variations that we do , typically some are from my moms side and some from my fathers.

Jheenge Posto

Serving : 4 people
Ingredients:

Jhinge- 200 gms

Green Chili – 4

Poppy seed (Posto) Ground to paste – 5 tbsp

Oil – 4 tbsp

Salt- to taste

Sugar – to taste

Kalo Jeera – 1tsp

Method:

Wash and cut Jhinge (about 1/2 ” size). Marinate with salt and sugar for 15 mins. Heat the oil in a pan and add Kalo Jeera. Add the Jhinge and stir. Add green chillies, posto paste and salt. Cook on a medium flame. Add water as required. Cover the pan till Jhinge is cooked.

Variations:

You can add finely chopped onions to the oil and fry it for some time before adding the jheenge.
You can use mustard and red chilli powder inplace of kala jeera/kalo jeere.

Feeding My Somali Cousin

mantramugdha — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:54:58 +0000

My cousin Abhishek and I are really close. We both are single kids and thus are more blood brothers than others. Its funny how fate has always taken us every where together. I wound up doing my engineering from Bangalore and he followed suit a year after me. I worked all over the country before settling down in Noida ( at least for the time being) and voila’ my brother lands up at IMT ghaziabad for his management degree.

Well anyways, he drops down on weekends at our place and these weekends turn into food binges like never before. He eats rice and dal in quantities that would beat 5 best Andhraites eating their fill ( which is a lot ) . When Mitali start cooking I tell her to cook for 5 if Abhishek is around. If all people in the world were like him, we would finish all food reserves in a month.

We saw GI Joe- Rise of the Cobra on Saturday and had Dal Bhaat (rice), Shukto ( vegetable stew, read elsewhere) and Aalu bhate ( boiled potato with butter) . Simple but filling.

One great thing is that Shukto premade masla is now available at most speciality Bong food stores and that makes making Shukto really easy.

On Sunday I gave a call to my parents in the noon. They were preparing to have Dal, Bhaat, Kumdo diye Pui shaker chochchodi ( will write soon about this) , Begun bhaja ( brinjal fry ), Aalu Bhaja( Potato fries) and Chingdi macher malai curry (Prawn Malai Curry ) ( this dish is coming up next).

Mitali and I swore to match up and prepared a nice feast of sorts with Dal, Bhaat, Shukto, Kancha posto, Posto diye aalu begun potol bhaja, Lauki ka raita ( Bottle gourd in curd base ) and Seviyan ki kheer.

We managed to finish all and then slept the food off till 7 PM.

Dum Aloo Recipe / Dum Aloo Kashmiri

mitalibanerjee — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:09:54 +0000

Dum Aloo Kashmiri

Dum Aloo Kashmiri is a tried and tested delicious dish with which you can never go wrong! It is a very good option as a Veg main dish along with some Non-Veg dish in your Dinner Party… Let’s see how it is prepared!

Ingredients Required:

Aloo (Potatoes)
Water
Salt To Taste
Ghee or oil for deep-frying
1 cup ghee
1 large Onion (chopped)
4 tbsp tomato puree
Curd (Remember, the gravy is made of Dahi/ Curd and not Tomato!)

Curd- Alternative for tomato in white gravies

1 green Chillie (seeds removed and sliced)

Spices:

Saunff

4 cloves
4 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns
4 green cardamoms
1 brown cardamom
1piece cinnamon stick
Garam masala powder

Paste:
1 large onion (chopped)
12 flakes garlic
2 tbsp ginger
6 black peppercorns
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dry red chilies
1 tsp turmeric powder
A pinch of ground mace
A pinch of ground nutmeg

Method:
1. Make a fine powder by blending together the ingredients of the masala in a blender. Keep it aside.
2. Remove the peel from boiled potatoes (not too soft) and prick them.
3. Take oil in a frying pan and heat it for about one minute. Fry the potatoes on a medium heat until their color changes from white to light brown. Keep it aside.
4. Add grated onion, asafoetida, bay leaves and ginger-garlic paste to the remaining oil.
5. Fry the mixture till the paste turns reddish brown.
6. Add the masala prepared and heat for about 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Add turmeric, chilli powder and salt.
8. Fry again for about a minute.
9. Now add fine curd to make the gravy.
10. Keep stirring continuously, add water if the gravy appears too thick.
11. Now add pricked potatoes to this gravy till the oil comes up.
12. Remove from the flame after 4 to 5 minutes.
13. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves.
14. Dum Aloo is ready to serve. Serve with hot paranthas or Rotis!!

Tips and Variations:

1. What we do is roast the garam masala components like cloves, dalchini etc. on a pan and then crush them in a mixer grinder. This gives a great taste to the dish. Try this in other recipes as well!

2. To make the gravy gritty and thick, a good option is to grind some poppy seeds (khus khus or posto dana) with little water and add to the gravy. This improves the consistency of the gravy!!

Poppy Seeds... A very less known ingredient of most white gravies!

3. Another variation can be to add ground peanuts which will give the gravy a unique taste and gritty consistency!

Peanuts... An important ingredient in some of the best gravies!

ENJOY the delicious and mouth watering Dum Aloo and earn accolades from your friends and family!

Testing Pixelpipes’ awesome new service

mantramugdha — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:12:21 +0000

If you are reading this then our Pixelpipe account is correctly set up.

check out their services at www.pixelpipe.com

Paneer Makhana Gravy/Makhane ki Sabji/Fox Nut and Cottage Cheese Gravy

mitalibanerjee — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:05:55 +0000

Following is the recipe for a mild and delicious paneer dish with makhana (also known as Fox Nut or Gorgon Nut). You need very basic ingredients for this and it takes hardly 15-20 mins prepare.

Ingredients are:

Makhana (Fox Nut): 2 cups
Paneer (Cottage Cheese): 200 gms
Milk: 2 small cups
Malai / Cream: half cup
Tomato: minced , 2
Onion paste: 2 in number
Garlic and Ginger Paste
Ghee
Oil
Cashew Nuts (Optional)

Masala / Spices:

Lal mirch / Red Pepper
Haldi / turmeric Powder
Dhania Powder
Freshly ground Garam Masala (Dal chini, javitri, cloves, kali mirch etc. or you can use the ready made garam masal powder)
Salt to taste
Sugar

Prerequisites:

Roast the makhana for few minutes in miminum ghee by continuously stirring it. This is important to propoerly cook the makhana which otherwise would taste uncooked. Meanwhile, prepare the following pastes separately: Ginger Garlic paste, Onions (2), Tomato and Green Chillies (2 each). Also, cut the panner in small cubes. There is no need to fry these. If the panner is not spft enough, the best option is to boil the cubes in salt water for a few minutes.

Gravy:

Heat the oil in a pan or kadhai (Just 2 table spoons of oil). Add garam masala to the oil, then add Ginger-garlic paste and cook it till iy becomes mild brown. Now add the onion paste and cook the same till it becomes golden brown. The main trick is not to add too much of onion as that would make the gravy pungent. 2 small onions should be enough. Now add the spices to this paste as mentioned above and allow it to cook for 2 mins till the oil comes up. Now add the tomato and chilli paste and cook it for a few minutes.

This is followed by adding malai / cream and two cups of milk. Add salt to taste and a pinch of sugar. Cook the gravy to a boil and then add panner cubes and roasted makhanas to the gravy. Add water just enough to make the gravy a bit lucid. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 5-8 mins till the makhanas become soft.

Garnish the dish with coriander leaves and some malai / fresh cream.

Your sabji is ready to serve!!