Unveil the flavours

After a long time did I venture with some spices this weekend. Yes it was Kitchen time and I was thinking of making something different and untried version of an evening snack. Khandvi, a delicious savoury made with gram flour - a gujarathi special was the special attraction menu. Now please dont accuse me for not having clicked the pictures. Ingredients: For the Rolls. 1. 1 cup - gram flour/besan 2. 2 cups - buttermilk[light curd/yogurt] 3. 1" piece of ginger 4. 2-3 - green Chillies 5. 1/4 tsp - Turmeric 6. A pinch - Asafoetida 7. Salt to taste. For Tempering. 8. 1 tsp - Seasame seeds 9. 2 tsp - oil 10. Few Curry leaves and chopped coriander Green. 11. 2 tbsp Grated Coconut Method: 1. In a bowl mix the besan/gram flour with curd/yogurt/buttermilk. Make sure no lumps are formed. 2. Grind ginger,Green chillies,asafoetida,salt and turmeric - adding two tsps of water. 3. Pour this paste into the bowl of curd+gram flour. 4. Keep stirring till the batter becomes ...

Ingredients: 1. Dates - deseeded about 5 to 6 2. Milk - 2 cups 3. Raisins - about 10 Nuts(optional - if you like it creamier). 4. Choco powder - 1 tsp 5. Sugar - 3 tsp (or less if you want it mild in sweetness) 6. Salt - a pinch 7. Vanilla cream/ice cream - 1 small scoop Method: Immerse Dates and Raisin in half a cup of warm water for about 15 min. Boil Milk and reduce it by half. Keep it aside to cool. In a blender add the reduced milk, dates, raisins with the water, and all other ingredients. Blend it untill all the dates are mixed well and the drink is creamy. Serve it as a whole energy drink. Note: With the addition of nuts you may need to blend for a longer time until it is finely blend. If you like the smoothie to be a little nutty then ensure you place a spoon to scoop it out.

Ingredients: 1. Potato - 2 medium sized 2. Tomato - 1 3. Onion - 1 4. Ground nuts - 3 tsp 5. Garlic - 4 cloves 6. Salt to taste 7. Chilli powder - 1 tsp 8. Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp 9. olive oil - 2 tsp 10. Jeera - 1/2 tsp 11. Green chilli - 1 12. Green Coriander for garnishing 13. Tamarind powder - 1 tsp to 11/2 teaspoon - as per your taste. Method: Dice up Potato and tomato into small cubes Cut onions into long stripes Chop garlic cloves and chilli. Boil the potato and ground nuts until half tender. Take care that it does not become mushy. Heat olive oil in a pan and add the jeera , chopped garlic and chilli. After a minute add Onion and stir unitl its transperant. Next add the garam masala, red chilli powder. Upon mixing this , drop the tomato cubes to the pan. Let it cook for 2-3 minites. Next add the boiled potatoes,ground nuts and mix well. Add the tamarind powder to this mixture. Close lid and cook in low flame for another 2 minutes. Garnish with fres...

I'd like to be honest here before I go ahead with the recepie. This one's from a lazy sunday afternoon where I had to spend the afternoon all by myself. Here is something interesting I came up for a quick lunch. Plunged into the deep fridge compartments only to come out with a few baby carrots and green chilli.  Well the Kitchen store had the onions, garlic , soya sauce and vinegar. Well that was pretty much I needed for a simple meal. Here you go for the instructions to get my style fried rice ready in quick 15 min(Only if you have the rice cooked and ready to use - else you'd easily add up an extra 15 min). Ingredients: 1. Olive oil - 1 tbsp 2. Cooked rice - 1 bowl. 3. Carrot chopped into small cubes - That's what I prefer. You can have them cut into thin strands as well. - about 1 medium sized carrots should do. 4. Jeera - half a tsp. 5. Garlic - 2 cloves - diced up. 6. Chilli - 1 slit open. 7. Onions - 1 medium sized - chopped fine 8. Salt - to tas...

Ingredients: 1. Pizza base (Nilgiris brand was what I opted for). 2. Schezwaneze sauce - 3 tsps (This can be replaced with normal tomato ketchup + Green Chilli sauce + olive oil) 3. Tomato - dice up into cubes - 2 medium sized 4. Onion - cut them into long strings - 2 medium sized 5. Green pepper - dice them up or cut it long - 1 6. Pizza cheese - 50 grams 7. Black/or green olives - 10 to 12 Method: Spread the shezwanese sauce on the Pizza base. Spread the diced tomato, onions, bell pepper, and olives cut into small rings on the base. Place the Pizza on the tawa in low flame in a double boiler system(Rather can say Double heater system - I placed a steel plate over the tawa and the base on the plate) Grate cheese over the spread and close a lid over . After about 8 minutes hot and crunchy pizza is ready to hog. Variation : Jalapenos (optional) - 2 to 3 Garlic - 4 pods chopped into small pieces. Panneer - diced into small cubes - adds richness to the Pizza(You can us...

Ingredients: 1. Potato - 1 boiled and mashed 2. Green peas - 50 grams boiled 3. Grated carrot - half a cup - half boiled 4. Green chilli - 2 chopped 5. Cabbage - half cup - chopped and boiled 6. Sooji/rava - one cup 7. Chilli powder - 2 tsp 8. Garam Masala - 1 tsp 9. Onion - chopped - 1 cup 10. Coriander and curry leaves - chopped about a handfull 11. Salt - to taste 12. Tamarind powder/ Aamchur powder - 1 tsp 13. Besan flour - 50 grams.(optional) 14. Olive oil Method: Mix potato, green peas, carrot, chopped chilli, onion, cabbage, curry and coriander leaves in a bowl. Add the garam masala, salt, chilli powder, tamarind powder. Mix it well. In case you find the mixture little mushy, then you can add the flour to make the consistency right. Make small shapes out of the mixture and flatten them to the thickness as seen in the photo. Roll the cutlets on the rava so that it sticks to it on all sides. Place these shaped cutlets on a hot pan. Add a tsp of olive oil on ...

Ingredients: 1. Baby corn - about 5 to 6 nos. 2. Onion - 1 medium sized. 3. Tamarind powder - 1.5 tsp 4. Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp 5. Olive oil - 2 tsp 6. Garam Masala - 1 tsp 7. Jeera + Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp 8. Turmeric powder - a pinch. 9. Salt to taste Method: Cut the baby corn into small thin rounds to help it cook rightly. Chop the onions into long strings. In a pan add olive oil and once it heats up add jeera + Coriander powder, turmeric powder. After 30 seconds add the chopped onions and fry until they turn transperant. Then add baby corn rounds and fry them for another 3-4 minutes. Add tamarind powder, chilli powder, garam masala , salt and fry until the corn is done completely. Variations: You can add capsicum and tomato to get more veggies in the stir fry.

Ingredients: 1. Semiya/Savige/Vermicelli - 150 gms 2. Rava/sooji - 25 gms 3. Boiled Potato - 2 medium sized. - About 100 gms 4. Green Peas - 50 gms 5. Jeera - 1 tsp 6. Green Chilli - 2 7. Red chilli powder - 1.5 tsp 8. Curd - 2 Tbsp 9. Salt - to taste 10. Coriander and curry leaves chopped. 10. oil - to fry. Method: Warm the Semiya and rava in a pan for about 4 minutes. Add Chopped chilli , coriander and curry leaves into a bowl. Add the mashed potatoes, chilli powder, jeera, curd, salt and blanched green peas. Mix the all these ingredients and to this mixture add the warmed semiya and rava. Make small fritters out of the mixture and drop them to the pan with hot oil to deep fry them. These fritters can be enjoyed with tomato sauce. It goes as a side dish with rice and rasam. Evening snacks cannot be better than these mouth watering easy to make hot fritters. ore tasty. Variations: You can add a pinch of garam masala and a cup of copped onions to make these fritters m

Ingredients: 1. 2 cups of grated Carrot. 2. 200gms of unsweetened khova 3. 50 ml of Fresh cream 4. 1.5 cups of Sugar. 5. 1 tsp Cardamom powder 6. 2 Tbsp Ghee 7. Chopped Nut mix ( Optional). Method: On a low flame place a pan and add 1 tbsp of ghee. Add the grated carrot and the fresh cream and stir it. once the carrot is cooked for about 5 - 6 minutes, add the unsweetened khova. Mix well. After the Khova blends with the grated carrot , add sugar and allow it to completely melt. Keep stirring occassionally and ensure low flame until consistency of halwa is reached. Now add the cardamom, nuts and 1 tbsp of ghee. After 10 more minutes of extra stirring transfer the mix onto the plate where you can cut even pieces of the mixture to get the hard and crisp Carrot burfies.

Ingredients: 1. Capsicum - 1 of green, 1 of yellow and 1 of red. 2. Potatoes - 2 to 3 medium sized 3. Onions - 2 to 3 medium sized 4. Paneer - 100 grams 5. Baby Corn - 4 6. Tomatoes - 2 mediom sized 7. Jeera powder - 2 tsp 8. Besan/Channa gram flour - 1 tbsp 9. Curd - 1 tbsp (optional) 10. red Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp 11. Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp 12. Salt to taste 13. Tamarind powder - 1 tsp 14. Oil - 2 tbsp Method: Dice all the vegetables into equal square shapes (approx 3/4" all sides). Half boil potato and Baby corn in a pinch of salt and drain the water completely. In a bowl mix all the other ingredients except oil. Drop all the diced vegetables and keep it aside for about 10 min for a short marinate. Now place a flat pan on a low flame. Use a sharp stick of 6" long which can run through one set of veggie mix. start with the tough one like potato or babycorn to have the firm grip. Spread a few drops of oil on the pan and place this veggie stick o...

Ingredients: 1. 1 Medium Sized beetroot 2. 1 small carrot 3. 3 cups of wheat flour 4. 2 tbsp of curd/yogurt 5. 1 tsp of cumin seed/Jeera powder 6. 1 tbsp red chilli powder 7. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder 8. 1 tsp of Garam Masala powder 9. Salt to taste 10. 2 tsp of oil Method: Grate the Beetroot and carrot. In a pan add oil and once it heats up add the turmeric powder, jeera powder, chilli powder. After 15 seconds you add the grated beetroot and carrot. Let this cook for about 8 minutes in low flame. Check every 2 minutes so that it does not charr out. When the veggies look done , add Garam Masala ,salt and mix again for a minute. In a bowl to the wheat flour add the yogurt and the veggie mix cooked. Make the dough an roll them into the form parathas, flip on a pan until completely cooked. Serve hot with Aam Ki Aachar/ Mango pickle or coconut chutney.

Ingredients: 1. Palak/Spinach - about 2 cups when finely chopped. 2. Onion - 1 medium sized 3. Garlic - 4 cloves 4. Ginger - 1 inch 5. Paneer - 50 grams 6. Garam masala - 1.5 tsp 7. Green chilli - 1 - 2 (based on how spicy you want the curry to be) 8. Salt - to taste 9. Oil/butter - 2 tbsp 10. Tamarind powder - 1/2 tsp 11. Jaggery - a pinch of it. 12. Curry and coriander leaves - few strands chopped 13. Jeera - 1/2 tsp Method: 1. Heat oil/butter in a pan and place the paneer cubes into it to let it crisp on each side for about 30 seconds. 2. After you have removed the paneer , in the same pan with oil add jeera , chopped chilli , garlic cloves ,chopped ginger and temper it. After about a minute add the chopped curry leaves and spinach . Keep the flame low and cook until the raw smell of the greens are gone. 3. In another pan add half a tsp of oil and fry the onions until they turn transparent, add the Garam Masala, tamarind powder, salt and mix them well for half a m...

Ingredients: 1. Cauliflower - about 200 grams when cut into small pieces. 2. Ginger - about 1/4 inch 3. Capsicum - half 4. Tomato - 1 Medium sized 5. Onion - 1 Medium sized 6. Cashews - 6 to 8 7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 8. Fresh Cream - 2 tsp 9. Coriander and Curry leaves - for garnishing 10. Salt to taste 11. Oil 2 tbsp 12. Green Chilli - 1 13. Tamarind paste - 1 tsp Method: Cut the Cauliflower, tomato, capsicum, ginger, chilli and onion. Boil the cauliflower in salt water and drain the extra water. In a pan heat oil and add cumin seeds , once it splutters, add cut chilli, cashews and ginger. After about a minute add the onions and fry until it turns transparent. Then to this add the Capsicum and saute for a few more minutes until the capsicum turns tender. Now finally add the tomato and after 2 minutes turn off the flame. For the gravy consistency , grind the sauted mixture along with the fresh cream and tamarind paste. Next pour this mixture in a pan and on low flame cook this ...

Italian Paasta when prepared with an Indian twist - I call this blend in tastes - Romantic paasta. Ingredients: 1. Fusili Pasta - 1 cup.(I generally pick fusili - the twisted curls, but you could use any type of the available store pasta) 2. Spring onions/shallots - chopped small - half cup 3. Half of medium sized french onion - chopped small 4. 4 medium sized Tomatoes - (2 grated , 2 slit into 4 pieces each) 5. 5- 6 Garlic pods 7. Olives - green or black - about 2 spoons. 8. Black Pepper powder - 1 tea spoon 9. Milk/cream - 3 table spoons. 10. Corn flour - 1 table spoon. 11. Coriander leaves - chopped - 2 tsp. 12. Salt to taste 13. Olive oil - 4 to 5 tsp. 14. Cheese(optional) 15. Garam masala - 1/4 tsp(optional) 16. Brocolli (Optional) Method: 1. Boil 2 cups of water in a pan and drop the pasta in (with a tea spoon of oil and a spoon of salt) until cooked.Drain down the extra water and wash it in cold water. Keep it aside. 2. Heat a pan and add 2 tsp of...

Ingredients: 1. 1/4 cup all purpose flour 2. 1/4 cup Rava/Sooji 3. 1 handful of channa gram (Soaked in water for about 2 hours) 4. 3 Tb.Sp of rice flour 5. 20 black olives (Canned olives) 6. 1 Onion medium sized 7. Half a bunch of Coriander leaves and Curry leaves 8. 3-4 green Chillies 9. 1 tbsp White Vinegar 10. Salt 11. Grated Coconut 1/4 cup 12. 2 tsp Cumin seeds 13. 1 inch of Ginger 14. Oil to fry. Method: Chop the onions and fresh coriander and curry leaves. Grind ginger , olives, green chilli , soaked channa gram and coconut into a fine paste. In a bowl mix rice flour, rava and all purpose flour. Add cumin seeds ,vinegar and salt to this mix. Add the paste into the bowl to make the dough ready to be fried in hot oil. [consistency of Dough should be as that of the Chapati dough] Make small round balls of size as marbles and deep fry them. Once they turn golden brown they are ready to be taken off the flame. Place the fried olive gundus in a tissue paper to...

Ingredients: 1. 1 1/2 cups Flour 2. 3 tbsp Cocoa Powder 3. 1 tsp Baking Soda 4. 1 cup Powdered Sugar 5. 5 tbsp Oil 6. 1 tsp Vanilla Essence 7. 1 tbsp White Vinegar 8. 1 cup Milk Method: Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powdered sugar together. Add milk and vanilla essence to the flour mixture. Then add oil and white vinegar. Mix well. Pour into a greased microwave safe bowl and microwave on high(900W) for 5-7 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes. Note:* I added a little yeast into the batter to attain a soft and spongy texture. ** Also few nuts and raisins mixture was added to bring the crunchiness in the bites.

When you have an urge to eat some simple snack yet exotic in its style then Ruskizza is what you have to consider. This is a recepie idea borrowed from my sister's friend. For a pizza lover like me, Ruskizza is mini pizza delights. Ingredients: 1.  Rusk/Toast  - 6 pieces. 2.  Tomato - 2 nos 3.  Onions - 2 nos 4.  Tomato ketchup 5.  Origano - 2 tsp 6.  Pizza cheese - 75 grams 7.  Olives [black or green] - 6 no 8.  Jalapeno - 4 no [ Can be substituted with green chilli] 9.  Mushroom [Optional] 10. Salt to taste. Method: Chop Tomato,olives,mushroom and onions into small cubes. Place the rusk on a microwave safe plate. On it arrange the cut vegetables,olives and jalapeno. Add a small dip of tomato ketchup and grate the cheese to cover the veggies. Sprinkle origano and a pinch of salt. Microwave on medium heat for about 5 min or till the cheese melts and combines with the veggies. That's it! You can indulge into your tast...

Ingredients: For Rasagulla paneer: 1. 6 cups milk 2. 1-2 tbl spoons lemon juice For syrup: 1. 1 cup sugar 2. 2 and 1/2 cups water 3. 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder or 1/4 tea spoon rose water Method: Heat milk in a heavy bottomed pan. When it is hot, add the lemon juice. Mix with a spoon and cook for a few minutes till the milk separates.Sieve it through a clean cloth.Tie the towel in a pouch and squeeze it to remove any extra water.Hang the towel for about 30 mins allowing all the water to fall down. Now the paneer is ready.Take it on a plate and knead it very well to remove any chunks. This is very important to get good quality rasgullas.Now make small balls (of peda size), remember, when they are cooked, they increase in volume, so don’t make them too big. It is quite difficult to make these as they break very easily. So apply a bit of pressure to hold them together. Try to give them as smooth surface as possible. In a big vessel, heat sugar and water. When the sugar is diss...

Indian snacks are plenty in number. I try to experiment with the well known names and here is the first one. - Hara bara kabab. It was me and my sis who ventured into this roller coaster ride on one fine weekend. Hope you enjoy the same. Ingredients: 1. Green peas - 0.25 kg 2. Palak/spinach - a bunch 3. Green Chilli - 3 to 4 4. Aloo/Potato - small sized about 3 5. Jeera/cumin seeds - 1 t.sp. 6. Rava/Suji - about 100 to 125 gm 7. Salt to taste 8. Garam Masala - 1.5 t.sp. 9. Oil - 7 to 8 tb.sp. Method: * Boil Aloo/Potato until completely cooked and peel them to obtain only the mashed pulp in a mixing bowl. * Cook the grean peas and blanch the spinach to turn it tender. * Add these two into the mixing bowl. Add jeera, garam masala , chilli, salt. * Grind all these ingredients to a fine paste. * Next add the Rava little at a time until you have the mixture in the consistency of a cake dough. (Note: You can also add a little of all purpose flour if the paste is very loose). ...

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are lingering around in quest of fresh smell an flavours that am ready to pour. Wanna know whats cooking up for you? Here's a mouth watering tangy sprouts dish to start with. Lets get started with the mantra of Eat Healthy to keep yourself fit and fine. Ingredients: 1. Green Gram soaked overnight and if sprouted it would be great. - about one cup. 2. Cucumber chopped into small dices. 3. Green Chilli - 2 chopped. 4. Fresh Lime - half 5. Fresh Grated Coconut( optional but it twists the taste) 6. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tea spoon 7. Oil - 1 tea spoon 8. Salt to taste. 9. Coriander and curry leaves - few strands. Method: * Add the sprouts ,cucumber and grated coconut into a bowl. * In a pan prepare the tadka - heat oil , add mustard seeds, chopped greeen chilli and curry leaves. * Then add this tadka to the bowl of sprouts. * Squeeze the lime juice and mix well adding the salt in accordance to the taste. Preparation time: 10 min (a...