Chana Masala

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup - white chana
1 Potato - diced

Oil - 1tbsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves - Garnishing
Masala gravy:
Onions - medium sized - 2
Tomatos - 2 (pureed)
Curry leaves - 15
Mint leaves - 15
Chilli Powder -  1 tbsp
Salt 1 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala -  1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Soak chana atleast for 8 hours or overnight. I usually soak the chana in the afternoon, in hot water, so it soaks faster.

Boil the chana and the diced potatoes, with a pinch of turmeric powder and asafoetida, until soft.
Puree the two tomatoes and keep aside.

Blend the onions and rest of the masala gravy ingredients mentioned above, with a little water.

Heat the oil in a large kadai and add the masala gravy along with the tomato puree. Fry until the raw smell is gone and there is a nice aroma. Mix the cooked chana and potatoes (along with sufficient water) and let is cook for another 5 minutes on medium flame.

Add Lemon juice just before you turn off the heat and mix well. Garnish with Coriander leaves. Serve hot with Chapati.

It turned out yum with Chapati. Folks at home just loved it!

Carrot Cupcakes

I came across this recipe for carrot cupcake at joyofbaking. I wanted to try it out over the Easter weekend, as my confidence was boosted with the success of banana loaf a couple of weeks back.

Changes I made to the recipe:
I omitted the raisins and added 1 cup of walnuts instead of half a cup.

The only time consuming part in this recipe is the shredding of carrots and apples. There is no beating/creaming of oil and sugar involved. The recipe just states mixing the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, combining them and then adding the shredding carrots and apples. 

Kourabiethes - Greek Almond Easter Cookies

Kourabiethes are crescent-shaped Greek Almond Easter cookies. Please don't ask me how to pronounce it  ;).

This Easter weekend, my husband was just flipping through the paper when he came across this Easter cookie recipe; he brought it over to me and just mentioned it might interest me to try it out. I was flattered for two reasons a. by his thoughtfulness b. this means he really likes my cookies ;). Needless to say I was simply floored and immediately started copying it to my journal. The recipe mentioned ingredients in metric measures which I converted to US standard measures.

The recipe mentioned 2 cups of cake flour. I substituted cake flour with all-purpose flour and cornflour.

Flour - 1 1/2 cups
Corn Flour - 4 tbsp
Almonds - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 pinch
Butter (softened at room temp) -125g (between 1/2 cup to 5/8 cup)
Icing Sugar - 3/4 cup + some icing sugar for dusting
Egg Yolk - 1
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp


Preheat the oven to 180 C. Soak the almonds in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and roast the almonds in the oven for 10 minutes, on a baking tray, rearranging the nuts every few minutes. Remove from oven; let the nuts cool down and chop coarsely. (I chopped them fine so my daughter doesn't choke on the nuts).

In a large bowl, sift  the flour, cornflour and baking powder. Add the chopped almonds to this mix and keep aside. I had run-out of cornflour and hence I used Vanilla flavored custard powder. So I reduced the vanilla essence to just a couple of drops instead of 1/2 tsp.

In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat well until fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla essence and continue beating for 1-2 minutes.

Add the flour to this mixture until combined.

Take a tablespoon of the dough and shape it into a crescent with the palm of the hand. Place these on an un-greased baking sheet 1" apart. Bake for 15 minutes until the cookies are pale golden brown in color.

Remove from the oven and cool them on a rack. While the cookies are still hot, dust them with icing sugar twice.

Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container. This recipe makes 24 cookies. One batch was still in the oven and a couple of cookies disappeared even while they were cooling down, before I could get the snapshot. Folks at home loved these cookies as they appear crisp on the outside and just melt in the mouth.