Veg Biryani in 30-35 min

Last saturday, one of our friend announced that she is coming for lunch giving us really short notice of 1-1.5hrs. So we were frantically looking in pantry to decide what feast we can prepare on such short notice. Then I thought about preparing vegetable biryani/pulav. I have done it couple of times and it was really tasty. The receipe I followed was from book named "Perfect Receipes" by Pratibha Kothawale.  That time I had prepared dish at my own sweet leisure time. So I was not sure if we can have lunch on time. But still I gave it a try and the result was good. So now I can say with confidence that you can have veg biryani, raita and papad meal in 30-35 min. Only thing you need is planning and executing following receipe sequence in order on time.
Following ingredients can serve 2-3 people.

• Wash 2 cups of Basmati rice and keep aside.
• Cut 2 large onions in thin slices vertically.Fry it in oil till it turns golden brown.
• Fry 10-12 cashews next and keep aside.
• In a pot start boiling some water. Cut 2 medium size tomatoes in quarters. Remove seeds and add to boiling water. Let tomatoes simmer for 5 min.
• In meantime slice 2 small carrots vertically, 10-15 french beans, 5-7 medium size cauliflower florets. One by one boil the vegetables one by one  for 5 min. each.
• While boiling vegetables, start preparing masala. 0.5tsp jeera, 2 cardomom pods, 5-6 cloves, 1" cinnamon, 0.25tsp shahajeere, 1 small bayleaf, 2-3 black peppercorns grind together. Next add 2-3 green chillies, handful of corriander leaves and mint leaves, half of the fried onions, boiled tomatoes (remove skin), 1tsp turmeric powder and grind into smooth paste.
• Start heating 4 cups of water in separate pan.
• In pan heat 2tbsp oil in pan. Add whole garam masala (1" cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, 4 cloves,1/4 tsp shahjeera, 1 star anise) and fry for few seconds.
• Add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste and masala paste and fry till masala is cooked properly.
• Once masala is cooked add cooked vegetables, salt and rice. Mix everthing together.
• Add hot water in rice. Simmer on high flame.
• Once water dries out, spread fried onions, cashews on top. Close the lid, cook rice more for 3-5 min on low flame.
• Open the lid just before eating.
• Now by the time rice is cooking, you can prepare raita and fry some papads. Check the timer in the end to confirm if meal is ready within time :)

Note: I know that I did not layered rice and vegetable gravey to prepare biryani. I took shortcut of creating unlayerd biryani because finally we always mix the layers and it.

Something fruity something nutty

Banana bread with nuts is really simple to make and yummy to eat. I wanted to bake one for long time but was not able to keep bananas at home till they are overripe. But finally it happened unexpectedly. So decided to make an eggless version so that my mother can also enjoy this. By the time I finally wrote this blog I have tried two different recipes. You can follow the recipes from

http://www.archanaskitchen.com/desserts/cakes/181-eggless-banana-bread
In this recipe I've done 2 changes. I did not use any butter or oil. Also I adjusted quantity of sugar as the bananas were very sweet.

Second recipe is from http://medhaa.blogspot.com/2008/05/eggless-banana-bread.html Again I reduced quantity of sugar and replaced butter with oil. Both times the results were good tastewise. But in first case the cake was bit dense. Still I liked it as it was low on calories. You can also try it sometime.

One note I would like to add for this receipe. To simplify the preparation, I mixed all ingredients using mixie pot. So start with bananas, mash them well. then add sugar, then oil/ghee, next milk and in the end dry ingredients. The result is smooth and airy batter. The result was delicious

Rava/ Suji Eggless Cake

My last post was somewhere in oct'11 and though I was trying out various receipes I did not update on the blog. Most of the times the reason is that I forgot to take photo of the final product immediately after preparation. And most of the times when I remembered there were no left overs :).
So I was noting down all tried and loved receipes in my lil' blue diary. I am planning to now post is one by one and may be update the images later on.

As usual I am restarting blog writing with a "Sweet Receipe"

This is a simple eggless cake prepared with superfine semolina/rava/suji. I had prepared this cake for the first time on my son Aditya's 2nd month b'day. Had learned about this receipe from a cookery show on either "Mee Marathi" or "Saam TV", i don't remeber now.

The receipe is really simple. Only important thing is that the batter should be prepared well in advance so that the semolina is soaked in the milk+ curd for atleast 2-3 hrs. So that the cake is really soft.

Eggless Rava Cake

Preparation time: 10 min to mix all the ingredients + 2-3 hrs for resting batter.

Ingredients:

 

- 1 cup superfine semolina. In Bangalore they call it "Chiroti Rava". You can use Upama rava, just soak for more time.

- 1 cup milk

- 3/4 cup sugar. (Original receipe had 1 cup sugar. You can adjust this as per your taste).

- 1 cup curd

- 1/2 to 1/3 cup oil. (Original receipe had 1 cup ghee/clarified butter. But I prefer oil. I reduced quantity, but the cake turned out pretty moist).

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tbsp Keshar-elaichi syrup

- Chopped walnuts/almonds/kismis (optional)

 

1. Mix all ingredients (except soda) together and let the mixture rest for atleast 2-3 hrs.
2. Pre-heat oven for min. 5 min (180 C, I use only bottom rod heating in Bajaj OTG) before baking.

3. Mix soda in the cake batter and encorporate it well.

4. Pour the mixture in prepared (grease the pan) cake mould.

5. Bake at 180C for 30-35 min.

6. The cake is now ready to eat. In case you have leftovers, make sure to fridge it.

 

There is one variation to this receipe I call it "Satyanarayan puja prasad cake".

Basically you need to use Panchamruta (Ghee, Sugar, Milk, Curd, Honey) + Riped banana + Semolina as ingredients. You need to adjust quantities for Sugar,Honey and Banana as per your liking.

 

Next time when you have puja at home, do try this option for prasad.

Simple food for the soul

Thanks to Mejwani paripurna kitchen's call for interesting recipes on their Facebook page, I got motivation to finally update my blog with my cooking experiments. Now I'm on extended maternity leave which I'm fully utilizing for trying out different recipes which I had bookmarked long ago. I also have some paper clippings from Loksatta's Sunday supplement.Food critic and researcher Mohsina Mukadam and Dietitian Dr. Anuradha Sovani used to write articles related to different food culture.I think it was 6-7 years or may be even before that. Finally now I got time to try these recipes.

Before my leave I was very much keen on preparing recipes which don't use many ingredients and are not very time consuming for preparation/cooking. Following 3 recipes fall under this category. First 2 are traditional Oriya recipes. Third one is prepared at my in-laws house but I don't think its traditional recipe.

Saag with badi

1 bunch red saag (lal maath) or bathuva (chandan batava)
8-10 badis (these are made from urad dal. Similar to saandage)
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
1-2 green chillies
1 tsp paanch foran (equal mix of cumin, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, kalongi and saunf)
3 tsp oil
salt to taste

Thoroughly wash the leafy vegetables and drain water completely. Chop finely.
Heat oil in pan. Fry badis till golden brown and keep aside. In remaining oil prepare tadka with paanch foran, green chili and garlic.

Add chopped saag and crushed baadi. Cover and cook for 7-8 min. Add salt and again cook for a min or so.
You can eat this with roti or rice.

Jahni poshto

1 Jahni/Dodaka/Ridge guard cut into small cubes
2 medium size potatoes cut into small cubes

1 medium size onion finely chopped
3-4 green chillies
1 tsp paanch foran
3-4 green chillies
4-5 tsp poshto/khaskhas
3-4 tsp oil
salt to taste

Cut ridge guard and potatoes in small cubes. Finely chop onions. Vertically slit 2 chillies. Now heat oil in pan. Once heated add paanch foran, chillies, onions. Fry till
onion is slightly brown.Next add ridge guard and potatoes. Add water and cover to cook. Grind khaskhas to fine powder. Then add green chillies and grind along with khaskhas powder. Once potatoes are almost cooked, add this khaskhas - green chillies powder. Cover the pan again and cook till this masala is cooked well.

This is a great side dish with daal-chawal

Dal tadka with scrambled egg

This is a great dish to eat with phulaka specially on Sunday night as its very easy to cook. Also the ingredients used are very simple. Use of scrambled egg is purely
optional. This tadka tastes equally good without egg.

1 cup black urad (soak for 5-6 hrs)
1 medium onion chopped
3-4 green chillies
1" ginger finely diced
2 eggs (optional)
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp turmeric powder.
1 tsp oil

Pressure cook pre-soaked urad. You may need 4-5 whistles to properly cook dal. You may add salt and turmeric powder while cooking dal or you can add later.
Now in a pan heat oil.Fry ginger till it gives out nice aroma.Next add green chillies and onion. Cook onion till its slightly brown.If turmeric powder was not added
earlier, add now. In this tadka add boiled taal. Let it simmer till it reaches required consistency. Add salt if not added earlier.Cover the pan and switch off gas.
Prepare scrambled egg with just salt as seasoning. While serving dal, place some scrambled eggs on top.

Carrot Halwa Cups/tarts

After successfully baking few cakes, I decided to turn my attention towards pies and tarts. I love to watch TLC or any other channel which shows cookery programs specially related to baking. Nigella Lawson and Rachell Allen are my favourite hosts and I love their baking. So I decided to first try the popular Apple pie. I actually followed recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html this site. And I felt this is lot of work because of all the work I had to do for apple filling plus I'm the only one who like apple pie at home. So instead of baking huge pie, I decide to make smaller version of pies and tarts and savoury or sweet fillings. Now I really dont know difference between pies and tarts, so for my understanding I say covered once are pies and open once are tarts. The thing I liked about pies/tarts is once you know how to make short crust pastry you can perpare any kind of filling. I had once tried savoury cups with vegetable filling. I had prepared white sauce mixed it with assortment of vegetables (carrots, peas, french beans, spinach, sweet corns, mushrooms, etc). Once filling is done all I had to do is fill the cup size tarts (I used muffin/cupcake mold), put some cheese on top and bake. It proved to be instant hit as snacks. Advantage with using cupcake mold was each individual got to enjoyed his/her own customized tart and they looked beautiful on everyone's plate when served. Next time I decied to make sweet tarts. I had some condensed milk left so decided to make most popular bollywood sweet Gajar ka halwa in tart form. First I will explain short crust pastry preparation Ingredients: 2 cups Maida/ All purpose flour 1 cup butter (chilled and cut into cubes) 1 tsp salt 2-3 tsp sugar (skip this when making savoury pies/tarts) 1/2 cup cold water Mix maida, salt and sugar. Start adding butter cube by cube to maida. Mix it well so that the mixture looks crumbly. Add water (in small quantity) to this maida-butter mixture till you manage to make dough. Cover this dough in cling film and keep in fridge for minimum 30 mins. When you want to use it, take it out from fridge and roll out into desired thickness round. As I had to make separate tarts, I divided dough in 6 portions for 6 cupcake molds. Depending on the bakeware you are using you might have to modify quatity. But remember maida to butter ratio 2:1. Once you fit the rolled out dough in desired bakeware, you've to blind bake (refer to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind-baking for details) this for 6-8 mins at 180 degree C. Make sure oven is preheated for 10-15 min. I've bajaj OTG(some 23ltrs capacity) in which I use top shelf for baking and use both side rods for baking. Once the cup tarts are baked, add the desired filling and bake for another 15-20 min or till filling is cooked. Now this timing will vary depending on wheather filling is partially cooked or completely cooked. You may have to do some trial and error on this one depending on your filling. Do try short crust pastry preparation at home and impress everyone. Only you'll know how simple it is. Regarding the butter quantity I've heard that you can replace it with milk and oil combination. I've not tried this, but will sure try and update this post accordingly. Till then happy baking.