Radish Leaves Fritters

Here I had asked a question, which no one really answered :((

But then, I self-answered it and tried three consecutive recipes with Radish Leaves :-B ,  one as a Radish leaves pulav, second similar to Methi- Dal, and last are these fritters.

Out of these, Pulav’s taste did not really attract me, while the Radish leaves Dal turned out fine with minimal Radish taste. But the Fritters or Pakodas turned out remarkable ! They are quite simple to prepare, yet you don’t get the distinct bitter taste of the leaves.

You Need:

• Radish Leaves: Finely chopped about 2 cups
• Gram flour: 3 heaps of tbsp.
• Rice Flour: 1 tbsp.
• Semolina Flour: 1 tbsp.
• Green Chillies: 2 finely chopped
• Cumin Powder: 1 tsp.
• Red Chilli Powder: 1 tsp.
• Turmeric: 1 tsp.
• Fennel Seeds: 1 tsp.
• Salt to taste
• Oil to Deep Fry
• Water to mix, as per the requirement

You Do:

1. Mix everything mentioned above, minimal water to keep thick consistency of Fritter batter.
2. Make small heaps and Deep Fry in a Hot Oil Kadai.
3. Fry till golden brown.

 

Done! Serve with Ketchup or have with Rice and Dal. We had these as a cold evening snacks. :-h

This goes to Radhika’s “Deep Fried Snacks” event.

Very Sweet Century

After Sachin breaking unlimited records, its Personal Tadka aka Kitchen Gossip’s chance to hit its maiden century :D

Won’t start any Oscar winning speech here, but a couple of huge words says it all :

Thank you!!

Without all of you, I won’t be posting this, thanks and Love you.

So this is once again a Sweet, infact a Very Sweet Post.

We had a chilling winter this year, foggy mornings, misty evenings, subdued sunny afternoons, we loved it all. I belong to humid sultry Mumbai winters, so the only Hot stuffs that I prepared were – soups or fried items. The Foodie, who is from northern part of this country, had mentioned of having Hot Jilebis or Gulab Jamun during winters. He had brought this Ready Mix.

I’m too naive to prepare Jalebis from scratch, but even making them with the Mix was an experience to cherish. Homemade Jilebis are crunchy, soft and main is you can decide the sweetness.

Its quite easy to prepare –

• Mix the content of the mix with the mentioned quantity of water. It should be a thick soft paste.
• Add this to the Jilebi maker and prepare circular jilebis, like pretzels, in hot ghee. Fry this light golden.

• Prepare a sugar syrup, boil it to make a thick consistency syrup. I used 1:1 measure of water and sugar.
• Soak the fried Jalebis in the syrup for half a minute. Remove it immediately before it turns soggy. It turns dark golden. You can add food colour to get the right colour.

We had it hot, garnished them with some dry fruits – almonds, cashews, walnuts and pistachios. Few of them were somewhat chewy but most were crunchy and crispy with the crystallized sugary exterior coating.

Jilbi-Jalebi-Jilebi, whatever you call it was the only sweet I used to have as a kid, so when I prepared this @ home today, I loved it. If you like this sweet, you should try preparing this with the Mix.

Happy Cooking Guys !

Tilgul

Ghya … Godd Godd Bola :)

Translates to “Eat Tilgul…talk sweet”,  Maharashtrians celebrate Makar Sankrant by greeting families, friends with this tagline. And we prepare this sweet ladoos on this occasion, made of sesame seeds and jaggery. It was once again one of my first attempts at trying out this alone,  it went fine with nearly 50 Ladoos.

They might not have come out perfect – but I was proud of them :)

You Need:

• Sesame Seeds – 1/4kg esp. for Ladoos ask for – Polished Til
• Jaggery – 1/4 kg esp. for Ladoos ask for – Chikkicha Gul

• Roasted Chana Dal – 2-3 tbsp
• Crushed Peanuts – 3-5 tbsp
• Ghee – 2-3 tbsp

You Do:

1. Roast the Til on a Hot Wok, they turn light golden and fluff a bit.
2. Add Ghee in Non-stick Wok, follow with Jaggery.
3. Melt the jaggery to dark Red colour, turns to thick liquid consistency.
4. Add Til, Crushed Peanuts and Chana Dal to this. Mix immediately so that all seeds are covered with jaggery.
5. Cover and switch of the flame in 1 min.
6. Remove from stove and when still warm start rolling the thick mix to small balls.

Me and The Foodie started the rolling and within ten minutes we completed 50 Ladoos :D

Quite simple and very good for this Cold Weather. Distribute among your friends, neighbours and colleagues with the First Line greeting :)

Egg Salad Toast

Egg salad is one of the most balanced diet salad , it has high-proteins and low-carbohydrates seasoned with spices of your choice. This is often used as a sandwich filling, and that’s how I used my salad to give a special treat to my BRO. 

I Indianized the sandwich with green chutney spread, then westernized it with heavy mayo spread and cheese slices. And toasted N-number of sandwiches and had a very heavy breakfast with family, on the first day of the year. :)

It’s a simple three step sandwich…

1. Butter the Brown Bread
2. Spread Green chutney and Mayonnaise
3. Fill the slice with Egg Salad and Cheese Slice

Done, toast it if you want else have it just like that with Ketchup.   This goes to Akila’s “Dish name starts with E” event.

P.S: The green chutney was prepared with my harvested Mint Leaves, it turned much more tastier ;)

Egg Salad\Koshimbir

I love experimenting with Eggs, they never disappoint me. >:D< My Mom used to prepare this simple healthy salad during our school time, but dunno by the time we’ve grown up this salad just lost its way. So when Mom was visiting me over the weekend, I was planning to prepare my Patent Cheesy Omelette, but she suggested me to try our Egg Koshimbir or Salad.

You Need:

• Boiled Eggs: 4-5 – Peel and cut into big and small chunks
• Capsicum: 1 small – chopped
• Onion: 1 small – chopped
• Tomato: 1 small – chopped
• Green Chillies: 2 – minced
• Coriander Leaves: fistful – chopped
• Chaat Masala: 2tsp
• Cumin Powder: 2tsp
• Black Pepper: 2tsp – crushed\powdered
• Salt to taste

You Do:

Single Liner:  Mix everything mentioned above. And .. wait for it … wait for it … Done. :P

 

Very simple – typical Salad ishtyle recipe. Cut – Mix – Done :D  Have it as a salad or as a stuffing in a Sandwich.

This goes to Pratibha and Pari’s “Only Salad” event.

Chaat Chutney

As a kid, Chaat was just weekend special evening snack but today I have been having chaat nearly on daily basis. Today's working couples will agree on this, while returning home from work – having evening chaat is most accessible. To avoid this daily eat out I’ve decided to keep basic chaat ingredients on hand, so that I can prepare them whenever I want to.

To start off, I have prepared the basic ingredient – Meethi – Godd - Khatti Chutney, and stored in my Pantry.

You Need:

• Jaggery (Gull) : 1/2 measure
• Tamarind: 1/2 measure
• Dates: 1 measure
•  Water: 2 measures
• Salt to taste

You Do:

1. Mash dates, mince jaggery and chop tamarind into small pieces.
2. Mix everything mentioned above, boil the mixture for about 5-10 mins, in accordance with the required consistency.
3. Once it cools down, use a blender or grinder to make a smooth paste.  Remove tamarind threads if any.

We had a Chaat Weekend, so used this Sweet chutney then, but now I have refrigerated it in one of my sauces bottles. Planning to use this chutney on daily basis for evening snack, like might just take some sprouts, boiled potatoes whip up this chutney and then garnish with Shev, it will taste awesome.

Happy Cooking and Posting about it ! :)

Sweet to start the Year

Wanted to start this year with a Sweet Post, and for most Indians the Most Simple, Rich Sweet Snack is Besan Ladoo. I do not belong to a Sweet Tooth family, so sweets were prepared for Birthdays- Festivals-Celebrations. And my earliest memories of cooking any sweet @ home is helping MOM making these small balls from a warm muddle of Tup- Ghee and Flour.

This was my first attempt at preparing Ladoos alone from scratch. So measurements were teleconferenced by MOM, and with help of The Foodie who himself was very excited to prepare this, I call my first attempt a Success. ;) Ladoos did take their own position, changed their Circular Figure and flattened themselves after sitting for some time, but that was Thanks to the Ghee, you can reduce the quantity if you feel but then that would also make them less Rich.

You Need:

• Gram flour (Besan) : 5 cups
• Sugar – Finely Powdered : 1 1/2 – 2 cups
• Ghee (Sajuk Tup) : 1 cup
• Cardamom Powder: 1 tsp
• Cashews \Almonds \ Raisins : in accordance with your taste – I used about 1/2 cup of all

You Do:

1. Heat Ghee in Kadai, Add sieved besan flour slowly.
2. Stir continuously and cook till fragrant besan changes its colour. I cooked this for about twenty minutes.
3. Grind Cashews and Almonds coarsely.
4. Add Cardamom powder  and the coarse powdered cashews and almonds to the besan. I used single raisin in single Ladoo while moulding it but you can always mix it here.
5. Take it off the stove and follow with powdered sugar.
6. Mix well, and let it cool slightly, then with the warm mix start preparing small balls – Ladoos, with your palm. Its easy to mould them when warm, so call out anyone to help you out on this, yeah, most of the ladoos are courtesy to The Foodie.

Done ! Store in Tupperware – Air tight container. Ladoos can be served at any time, mostly we eat it as snack. But my Aajoba – grandpa  used to have this as a  Mukhshudhi – Sweet desert after lunch.

Enjoy and have a Sweet year ahead ! <:-P