Samosa

The never-ending drizzles in Bangalore have arrived a wee bit early this year. It starts drizzling early in the morning for the first few days, then it starts raining by midnight. In a few days, the time of day that rains start, keep advancing. Very soon it starts raining by the evening hours after sun-down. It does not pour. It just drizzles with varying intensity. The roads are a mess during this season and the traffic is more chaotic than ever. But on the bright side, on a warm Saturday afternoon when the drizzles start early, it is rewarding to sit down in the balcony and enjoy the rains with a hot cup of tea. A crisp samosa, especially home-made, with the tea is an added bonus.

Ingredients:

For the stuffing:
Potatoes (medium-sized) - 5
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Amti Masala - 1/2 tsp
Ajwain - 1/4 tsp
Kalonji or Nigella seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coriander - 1 tbsp

Note: In place of Amti masala, you could use Garam masala too.



For the crust

Maida - 1 1/2 cups
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Water - as required


Assembly
Oil - for frying



Method
Stuffing
Wash the potatoes and slice them in half. Boil the potatoes until soft. Cook the green peas until soft. Peel the potato halves and mash them coarsely. Allow some 1 inch pieces of potatoes to remain whole. Add the green peas and all the spices, to the mashed potatoes and mix them with finger tips such that they are evenly incorporated. Add the coriander leaves to garnish.
Crust
Sift maida with salt. Add the oil and coarsely incorporate with finger tips. Add water and knead into a smooth dough.
Assembly
Make balls of the dough the size of a lemon. Roll out into a thin circle. Using the back of a knife cut the circle in half. Place palm-ful of the stuffing on one half of the rolled-out dough. Fold the dough to cover the stuffing and seal the edges.








Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and lower the samosas carefully into the oil. Fry until one side is golden brown and then flip over to fry the other side.


Serve hot with ketchup or chutney.

Verdict The spices (chilli) is deliberately less keeping in mind the little girl who has to consume the samosas. You could adjust the spices to your taste. You could also roll out the dough into a circle then fold it into a triangle and roll it out. Cut the triangle in half and stuff the potatoes. You will get a layered and crisp crust this way.

Vazhai-poo Vadai

Vazhai-poo vadai, or banana blossom fritters is a known delicacy in South India. But it is time consuming to make. Of course, if we have someone do the cleaning of the banana blossoms, then it is a breeze to make. But it tastes simply awesome and is a very rewarding experience for all the trouble put in. 

An average banana blossom makes around 18 - 20 vadas.

Ingredients:

Bengal gram (channa dal or kadalai paruppu) - 1 cup

Flowerettes of 1 banana blossom (See post for cleaning tips)

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp (required to remove the raw taste and smell of banana blossom)

Red chillies - 2-3

Curry leaves - 4-5

Coriander leaves - 1tbsp, finely chopped

Salt - to taste

Oil - for frying

Method:

Boil the banana blossom flowerettes and drain the excess water. 

Soak the bengal gram or kadalai paruppu in normal water for 2 hours.

Grind the soaked dal, boiled flowerettes and red chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, garam masala and salt into a coarse paste. 

Make balls the size of a small lemon, of the vada paste. Keep aside and flatten them out just before dropping them in oil. . 


Heat oil in a deep, heavy bottomed kadai. When the oil is hot enough, drop a few of the flattened balls of vada paste. Fry until lightly brown on one side, then flip over and fry until the other side also goes brown.

Serve hot with chutney or sauce. 

Verdict: In our household, any form of vada or cutlet is a hit. Even my little girl loves these preparations. Given that these taste so yummy compared to their dal counterparts (read masala vada or urad dal vada), there is no dearth of takers for this delicious side at tea-time.

Tandoori Chicken

Chicken recipes are always interesting at our household. In a home where non-vegetarian dishes are restricted to eggs, chicken and very rarely fish, you can very well imagine the buzz around the kitchen when we cook chicken. That makes it all the more interesting for me to come up with variations in the dishes.

I never miss an opportunity to make a grilled dish or nuggets when we have boneless chicken at home. Hubby dear bought ½ kg of boneless chicken breast on a visit to the hypermarket and when I asked him if he had dry starters or gravy in mind, he said its up to me. So I decided to give the gravy a miss and work with starters instead. There were 4 pieces. I cute two of them into smaller pieces for tikka and the remaining two I just marinated them whole. They rested in the freezer for a couple of days before I could make the tikka. I have no pictures here so I will post that some other time.  This is the recipe for tandoori style chicken grill.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breast – 2 large pieces
Oil – 1 tsbp
Marinade:
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Cumin – ½ tsp
Amti masala or Garam masala – 1/4 tsp
Salt -  to taste
Ginger paste – ½ tsp
Garlic paste – ½ tsp
Curd – 3 tbsp
Cornflour – 2 tbsp
Juice of 1 lemon
Garnishing:
Coriander leaves
Thyme (optional)

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together and keep aside. 

Make incisions on the chicken breast pieces. This is to facilitate the chicken to absorb the spices well. 

Smear the marinade paste generously on all sides of the chicken pieces and place them in a freezer safe box. Smear the remaining marinade mix onto the pieces and refrigerate for a couple of hours. If you intend to use it later, then place the box in the freezer and thaw the chicken 4-5 hours before you intend to grill it.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Place the chicken pieces on a roasting tray. Brush them generously with oil. 

Using the microwave+grill mode in the convection oven, place the roasting tray on the high rack, and grill for 15 minutes. The chicken should be almost cooked and nicely browned on top. 

If not, put the tray back and use just the grill mode (without microwave cooking option) for another 5 minutes. Let it stand for 4-5 minutes and then garnish with coriander and thyme. 

Serve hot with chutney as a starter or as main course with bread.

Verdict: One cannot go wrong with this recipe. You might have to adjust the temperature and time to suit your oven and the type of chicken. Some tender varieties cook in just the grill mode without the microwave. 

Grilled Chicken Drumstick

College days! That wonderful days phase, absolutely light-hearted fun with friends, those delicious road-side Chaat and Bajji's, the numerous trips to the ice-cream parlour. Those were great times indeed... How I miss all that fun now... Yes we do eat out a lot more now (read every day lunch at cafeteria), than in those days, but the fun factor is completely missing now. Meal-times are nowadays just barely to survive and energize ourselves, a mundane, drab every day task. But there are certain foods that bring back such loving, fond memories. For me the chicken drumstick is one such dish.

The entire gang from college went to a nice up-class restaurant for a change from the mess food. We ordered some wonderful starters and soup. Some of us were very fond of chicken starters, and we ordered a plate of chicken drumsticks. When the plate arrived, all of us pounced on it and then pulled back with the same urgency. It was so hot that we realized we could not hold it and eat immediately. It was too greasy too.  So a couple of us, reached into the tissue holder, wrapped the drumstick bone with the tissue and started devouring it. A few others who saw us do this, started teasing us "Eh, Peteru... look at that, ivanga kaila saappida maataanga (look at these little missy's they will not use their hands)". That is what we all do in college don't we?

When there was a bag of chicken leg pieces in the fridge and I had just purchased my Samsung Convection oven, I wanted to try out the grill function. That is how this dish came about one Saturday evening and ofcourse it brought back some fond memories from college. I miss you, girls!

Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks - 10
Masala:
Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1/3 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Thick Curd  - 2 tbsp 
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt - to taste
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Oil - for grill
Method:
Wash and clean the chicken legs. 

Mix all the masala ingredients in a bowl; Drop every  leg piece in the mix and cover it thoroughly with the mixture and place aside. Marinate the chicken pieces for an hour or more at room temperature. If leaving it for longer, refrigerate the marinated chicken pieces. 

Cook the marinade mixture and the chicken pieces without adding any more water. When the chicken is cooked until soft, add a few drops of oil and let the masala mix dry up, coating the chicken leg pieces. 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Place the pieces on the roasting tray, brush some oil over the pieces and grill for 15 minutes. 

If the chicken is tender enough, you can use the microwave + grill mode for 15 minutes and directly cook the chicken and grill at the same time. You can skip the cooking part above. 

Serve hot with chutney. 

Verdict:

The blend of spices was perfect and the chicken was cooked perfectly. The little one and the elders at home enjoyed this dish.

Beetroot Cutlet

How to make weekends more interesting for kids? Well, these bundles of energy hardly agree to get a shut-eye or give you one on weekends. Atleast that is the case with my little girl. She refuses to sleep in the afternoons, even if I lie down with her and forcibly try to make her rest. At times, I have barely escaped from my eyes being dug out while pretending to be asleep. Well, the imp knows well that I am not really asleep and tries to get her message across, that she is not ready to sleep either. So to keep that bundle of energy occupied, I leave it to her to pick the activity.

One Saturday afternoon, after unsuccessfully trying to force her to take a nap, I gave up and asked her what she wanted to do instead. She suggested we make red cutlets. Fortunately that day, I had beetroots lying in the refrigerator waiting to be consumed. So that is how these came about.

Since most of these are are extempore attempts, I barely manage to click pictures and trust me passable pictures are very tough with the little one itching to help me with every single activity, blogging and photography included.

Ingredients:
Beetroot - 2, diced
Potatoes - 2, cut in chunks
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Thyme (Omam) - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Ginger paste - 1/2 tsp

To assemble the cutlets:
Powdered Rusk/Bread crumbs - 1/4 cup
Maida - 2 tbsp
Water - 2 tbsp

Oil - for frying 

Method:

Boil the beetroot with very little water and keep aside. Boil the potatoes and green peas together. Retain the water from the beetroot, you can either add it to the mashed mix, if it gets too thick or consume it as such. Do not discard the nutrients from the water. 

Mash the potatoes and green peas until soft and add the beetroots. Add the spices into the mashed vegetables and combine well. Make small balls of the vegetables the size of a lemon and keep aside. 

Mix the water and maida to form a paste. Place the rusk powder on a flat plate. Take one lemon-sized ball of the vegetable mix and roll it into the maida mix. Pick up the maida paste coated vegetable and roll it into the rusk powder quickly. Flatten the ball and shape as desired and keep aside. You can shape them in simple round cutlets or squares or hearts. My little one wanted two of each. 

Heat a girdle and add oil. When the oil heats up, place 3-4 cutlets on the girdle and let them cook on one side. Once done, flip the cutlets over and cook the other side. Flip them gently so they don't break loose. 

Alternately you can grill them in an oven, since veggies are already cooked, you only need to grill them. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C, place the assembled cutlets on a roasting plate and grill for 12 minutes. 

Serve hot with chutney or sauce.

Verdict: This is a fun way of feeding the little ones some healthy veggies. They easily gobble up 2-3 cutlets, so there goes the quota of veggies for the day.

Spinach-corn Cutlet

How many of you remember the adorable Zoo-Zoos, the cute Vodafone characters of 2009? Check out this video if you wish to have a good laugh :).I particularly remember the "daily prayers" when two of them are hanging from a tree off the cliff. I showed this video to my daughter a few days back. She was particularly struck by the zoo's caretaker leaving the crocodile's plate of food and carefully leaving only for the phone to ring, leading him to possibly getting caught by the crocodile. She was curious as to what the green bite sized pieces the crocodile was being fed. I jokingly told her that it is green cutlet and wham, she wanted to taste green cutlets. So the following weekend, off I went to buy some corn and spinach and make some "Green cutlet" for my little girl.

I had read about spinach-corn cutlets in the blogging world, but I had not tried them myself. I was used to making the vegetable cutlet, so often I had not tried any other variations. I am yet to post that recipe here. Since this turned out good, I clicked a few pictures and decided to post it.

Ingredients:
Spinach (Palak) - 1 bunch
Corn - 1 kernel
Garlic - 1 tsp
Green chili - 1
Cumin - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Potato - 2 medium sized
Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
Oil - for shallow frying
Method:

Boil the potatoes and keep aside. Boil corn kernel, shell it fully and keep aside. Wash and clean the spinach well. Drain the excess water and chop the spinach finely, including the stalks. Mash the potatoes and add the corn and palak. Make a coarse paste with these three ingredients. Add the spices and mix it well into the paste. Make lemon sized balls of the mix and roll them into the bread crumbs. Flatten the balls slightly and shape them.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Place the cutlets and shallow fry them for a few minutes on each side. Alternately they can be baked in a pre-heated oven (200 degrees C) in grill mode for 15-17 minutes.

Serve hot with chutney or tomato sauce.

Verdict: The cutlets are mildly spiced and taste great as an evening snack or starter. They are very healthy too owing to the spinach and corn and minimal use of oil.

Spinach Garlic Balls - Eggless

I made the Spinach-garlic balls a while back and it was relished so much, that I decided to try the eggless version.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch

Garlic paste -  1 tbsp
Powdered bread crumbs - 1 cup
Mashed potatoes - 3 small potatoes (equivalent to 1 large potato)

Aloo mash - 1/2 cup (I had to use this as I had run out of potatoes)

 

Processed Cheese - 2 tbsp, Melted
Butter - 2 tbsp, Melted

Spices:
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp (optional)
Amchoor (dry Mango powder) - 1 pinch (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (350 F).
Wash and clean the spinach leaves and chop into small pieces.
Boil and mash the potatoes. Add the aloo mash and make a paste.
In a large bowl, add the mashed potatoes and spices and whisk well. Add the melted butter, cheese and garlic paste and stir until combined.
Mix in the chopped spinach. Add the powdered bread crumbs and make a paste. The consistency should be such that you can make slightly firm, 1-inch balls of this paste.
Otherwise add in some more bread crumbs/aloo mash
Make small 1-inch balls of this paste and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe makes 16-18 such spinach-garlic balls.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Verdict:  The spinach-garlic balls make and excellent starter item for elaborate meals. It also makes a good tea-time snack. Once you have the spinach washed and chopped and aloo mash in hand, it is a breeze to make this.

 

Paruppu Vadai

If there is a contest between the vadai varieties and I am asked to judge, I will always vote the paruppu vadai the best! Biased, me! But I am sure even though some folks might have other preferences no-one dislikes this vadai.
This is a must have for all festive occasions at home. For the same reason it is very difficult for me to get good pictures of this vadai.

Ingredients:
Channa dal (bengal gram) - 3/4 cup
Toor dal/Masoor dal - 1/4 cup
Onions, large - 2
Green chillies - 2
Curry leaves - 10-12
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Salt - to taste
Oil - for frying
Water - for blending the mix

Method:
Wash and soak the both the dals together for an hour.
Chop the onions, chillies, curry leaves and coriander leaves.
Drain the water from the soaked dal and grind the dal to a very coarse mix. It is good to have some whole dal grains.
Mix in the chopped onions-chillies mix from above and add the cumin, asafoetida and salt.

Heat oil in a pan. Make small balls of the vadai dough, flatten a little with the palm of the hand and fry until golden brown.
Serve hot with chutney or tomato sauce.

Tips: You could use red chillies instead of green chillies.
Do not let the dal soak for more than 1.5 hours. The longer the dal soaks the less crispier the vadai turns out.
For the same reason it is not a good idea to make the vadai dough in advance.

Verdict: This is always a hit at home. Dear hubby gobbles up two of these even before it goes for pooja. But I do not really mind these things, and mom is also very happy that he eats, let alone worry that it was not offered to God first!

Fish Baked and Grilled (Rohu)

The very idea of buying fish was not a welcome idea, when I was growing up. Dad always felt, no matter how it was cooked, it left some unpleasant odor. He just could not stand the smell. So it was always chicken for non-veg at home. 

When I got married, DK had given up eating meat. But he was open to me eating it if I wished. Like to goodie wife I am (ha.... haa...), I refused to eat too. This went on for 2 years. Reliance fresh opened up close to our home and we started our weekly grocery and vegetable shopping there. Reliance also has a "Delite" store that stocks meat and farm eggs. When we started exploring that store, he had started feeling the need to make our diet protein rich. So we starting buying chicken (boneless breast) and making chicken gravy at home. 

When we were comfortable with the idea of cooking chicken at home, he wanted to try out fish. I had no idea how to cook fish. So I came up with a basic recipe to make healthy fish grill. I baked the fish first and then grilled it. It was an instant hit at home :) Everyone loved the flavors and the soft cooked flesh. So this became a regular at home too for a while. I could not stand the smell of fish for a while when I was expecting my little girl and fish was one of the items disallowed during the first year of the baby's life. So out went the opportunity to make fish! But chicken continued to be a regular at home. My little girl has come to love chicken so much, that I have to make it atleast once a week. But she had never tasted fish and we decided to make it at home, after a hiatus of more than 2 years.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Fish fillets (rohu works well) - 10

Curry leaves (chopped finely) - 10

Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder (jeera) - 1 tsp

Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp

Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
1. Clean the fish fillets well.

2. In a small bowl, combine  all the ingredients to make a smooth paste. Apply the masala paste generously over the fillets and allow to marinate for 4 hours in the refrigerator.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 

4. Arrange the fillets on a lightly greased aluminium foil on a baking sheet and apply olive/sunflower oil on the surface. 

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned. 

6. Finish off by grilling for 5 minutes.

7. Serve hot with Chutney or sauce.

And be ready to get all the adulation for creating a mouthwatering starter :).

Tip: If you cannot grill it right away, put the fillets in a freezer container. The marinated fillets can be frozen for upto 5-6 days. The day you want to grill the fillets, pull out the container from the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator for several hours.

Spinach Garlic Balls

Spinach is such a great leafy vegetable, rendering itself suitable for versatile dishes... I was intrigued by Vardhini's event on Spinach and garlic. I have tasted a spinach and corn roll in Chinese restaurants and wanted to recreate something like that at home. I browsed for suitable recipes and came across innumerable quick starter-snack dishes with spinach. There was a good recipe for spinach-garlic balls, with a lot of western ingredients (thyme, parsley, parmesan cheese etc). I did not even have the patience to look these up and figure out their availability. I just took the basic principle and added our own spices.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch

Garlic paste -  1 tbsp
Powdered bread crumbs - 1 cup
Eggs - 2

Processed Cheese - 2 tbsp, Melted
Butter - 2 tbsp, Melted

Spices:
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp (optional)
Amchoor (dry Mango powder) - 1 pinch (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (350 F).
Wash and clean the spinach leaves and chop into small pieces.
Beat the eggs lightly.
In a large bowl, add the eggs and spices and whisk well. Add the melted butter, cheese and garlic paste and stir until combined.
Mix in the chopped spinach. Add the powdered bread crumbs and make a paste. The consistency should be such that you can make slightly firm, 1-inch balls of this paste.
Otherwise add in some more bread crumbs.

Make small 1-inch balls of this paste and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe makes 14 such spinach-garlic balls. 

Verdict: This was relished by my daughter and my hubby. It was a hit as a tea snack :)

I plan to try the Eggless version next time with mashed potatoes.

This was supposed to be my entry to Vardhini's event. But I missed the deadline :)

Chicken cutlet

I love Chicken starters... Anytime at a Chinese or North Indian restaurant, I do not miss the opportunity to try some new chicken starter.

I've been planning to make chicken nuggets for a while now and been buying boneless chicken for the same, but just didn't find the time. So the boneless chicken would be made into some semi solid chicken fry dish :)...

Last weekend dad bought 1/2 Kg of boneless chicken as usual; I decided to make shallow-fried  chicken cutlet this time, in contrast to the deep fried nuggets...

I just tried this intuitively from my experience with vegetable cutlets.
 

Here is the recipe:

For the chicken filling:

Boneless chicken - 500g

Medium sized onions, coarsely chopped - 2

Large Tomato, coarsely chopped - 1

Ginger paste - 1 tbsp

Garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Wash and clean the boneless chicken breast and cut into large pieces. 

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed cooker. Add the chopped onions and tomatoes and saute well. Add the ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, salt and garam masala and saute until the raw smell is gone and there is nice aroma. Add the chicken pieces and fry for a few minutes. There is very little fat content in chicken breast and hence you will not find oil separating from the meat. Add just enough water to cover the chicken pieces until halfway and close the cooker. Allow two whistles and turn it off. 

Once the pressure is gone, open the cooker and turn on the flame to let all the water dry out. When you get a semi-solid mass, turn off the flame again and let it cool down completely.

Pulse this entire preparation in a blender for 10-20 seconds. It becomes a soft light brownish paste. Make small balls the size of a lemon with this paste and keep aside.

To assemble:

Corn flour or Maida - 3 tbsp

Powdered rusk - 1 cup

Water - 1.5 tbsp

Mix the water and corn flour to make a paste. Take the chicken ball, flatten it and dip it in the maida/corn paste, then roll it over the rusk powder to coat all sides. Shape the cutlet as desired. 

You can shallow fry these cutlets in a girdle with 3 - 4 tbsp of oil. Heat the oil in a girdle and place three or four cutlets. The cutlets can easily break and hence you need to place them atleast an inch apart on the girdle. Wait until one side turns golden brown and then flip over to the other side and let them fry until golden brown. The second picture on top (right) is that of the shallow fried cutlets.

Alternately you can also grill them with the microwave-grill option. This uses very little oil and ensure even browning. Place the cutlets on a grill sheet and apply oil over both sides of the cutlets using a pastry brush. Place the tray on a high rack in the microwave; grill them on the microwave-grill option for 10 minutes. Midway through the grilling time, pause the oven and flip the cutlets. 

Here is a picture of one shallow-fried and one grilled cutlet.Serve with Mint chutney or Tomato Sauce.   Can be had as an evening snack with tea or as a starter. But remember that these are quite heavy and it is difficult to eat more than two at a time. This recipe makes 20 cutlets.         

 Verdict: Well this one was a winner, especially the grilled cutlets, but as I mentioned earlier, obviously we could not finish it between the 5 of us; We had my dad's friend joining us for dinner that night. So we sent some over to my friend who shares the same taste for chicken as I do ;) and put the left overs in the fridge for consumption with tea the next day.