Carrot halwa using organic jaggery

Carrot Halwa

Carrot or gajar halwa is a mughal period dish. And it's name originates from arabic word halwa which means sweet. It is strongly associated with Punjab. But it is favourite of North India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. But gradually it took its place all over India.

Carrot halwa originally contains milk, sugar  gajar and ghee. But with the passing of time  many ingredients are being added to this and also some ingredients are also replaced. Khoya and milkmaid is the new ingredients to the list and jaggery is the substitute of sugar in the dish.

Carrots are called as super healthy food. These are source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K, potassium and anti oxidants. These prevent heart disease and blood pressure. These improve eye sight, digestion and also an immune booster. 

Jaggery is made from unrefined sugar. It is better than white sugar. It improves digestion of food. It detoxify the body. It has antioxidants which build our immune system. It is a natural sweetener and provides energy over a period of time.

The recipe for all.

Carrot- 750gms 

Milk- 4cups

Milkmaid- 2tbsp

Ghee-3tbsp

Jaggery to taste

Cashew- 10 to 15

Raisin- a handful

Cardamom- 3 to 4

 Clean and peel the carrots. Then with a help of a grater, grate all the carrots. You will get 5 cups of grated carrot.

Put all the milk  in a deep pan and keep on the gas and let it cook. Let it reduce a little.

In a pan heat 1tbsp of ghee, add broken cashew and raisins. Fry them and bring out to a bowl and keep aside.

In the same pan heat all the ghee. Peel the cardamom pods and add to the ghee. Then add the grated carrots to the ghee and fry up to moisture evaporates. It should be fried up to dry.

Now add little milk to it and fry. Let the milk evaporate. Again repeat the same process up to all the milk added to the halwa. Now add 2tbsp of milkmaid to it and mix properly. Let it cook again and dry up.

Then add jaggery to it. I ve added 1/2 cup Jaggery to it. But it depends upon the taste. Let it melt in and dry up. Stir continuously so that it won't stick to the pan.

Let it dry up completely and follow your laddle. Now add fried cashew and raisins to it.

It can be served hot or cold as per your choice.

Keema matar

Keema Matar

Keema means minced meat and matar  means peas. A semi gravy and tasty dish with the combination of the above ingredients and indian spices. Some say it is a mughal originated dish but some other say it is originated in India only. It is always  a part of royal menu. In Many restaurants this dish is prepared but taste was not that great. So having this at home is always better than having in restaurants.

Normally mutton Keema is used  for this dish. But I tried it with chicken Keema. The taste of the dish differs but not the essence. This dish goes very well with naan, paratha or phulkas. This became a family favourite. My friends also liked it very much. 

 

 So here is the recipe for all...

Chicken keema- 250gms

Matar- 1  1/2 cup

Zeera- 1tsp 

Pepper -  8 to 10 

Cardamom -  3 to 4 

Bay leaves -  2

Onion -  3 medium 

Ginger paste -  1 tbsp 

Garlic paste - 1tbsp 

Tomatoes -  2 chopped 

Oil- 2tbsp 

Ghee- 1tbsp 

Green chilli -  2

Cumin powder -  1 tbsp 

Garam Masala -  1 tbsp 

Salt to taste.

Haldi- 1tsp

Red chili powder -  1 tsp 

Coriander Leaves chopped -  2tbsp 

Mint leaves chopped -  1 tbsp 

 In a bowl  add fresh  green peas or matar,  add water,  salt 1/2tsp and haldi 1/2tsp.  Keep the bowl on the gas and let the peas cook.  When cooked strain the peas and keep aside.  If using frozen one then skip this step.  But fresh peas add more flavour  to the dish. 

Peel and chop onions,  tomatoes  and green chilies and keep aside. 

If keema is too fine, add half cup of water to the keema.  If not then no need of adding water. 

Heat ghee and oil in a pan.  Add zeera and whole garam masala  to the oil.  Then add chopped onion  and fry up to golden brown. 

Then add garlic and ginger paste  to it and fry in high flames  for  2 mins.  Then  add chopped  tomatoes  to it and  fry again. 

After a couple of minutes  add all dry spices except garam masala  and little water to it and cook  again. 

When oil separates from masala  add the keema to it and fry for 2 to 3  mins in high  flames  and later lower the flame and allow to cook. 

When keema is cooked properly and oil started ozing  out of the keema add garam  masala  to it.  Taste the dish,  balance the seasoning  and also add some water if it required.  Then add chopped  coriander  and mint leaves and switch off the gas..  

Serve hot with any bread of your choice..  

Hara bhara kabab

Hara Bhara Kabab

Hara Bhara Kabab is a famous dish in restaurants. It is a healthy and tasty dish. I will call it as a winter delight as all the ingredients used in this dish are freshly and readily available in winter. This dish also a treat to eyes due to its vibrant green colour. This green colour comes from palak, green peas and capsicum.

Health benefits of palak (spinach) are many. It is low in fat and lower in cholesterol. Spinach is high in protein, fiber, vitamin A, C, E and B6, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus etc.

Green peas are little power house of nutrients. Peas are low in calories and also a good source of protein, vitamins and soluble and insoluble fibre.

In short this kabab is a healthy and tasty vegetarian dish which can either be deep fried or  shallow fried on pan. The deep fried version of the kabab is very tasty. But to make it healthy one can fry it on tawa or can be baked in oven. (Though I didn't try the baked option).

Here is the recipe for all

Green Capsicum- 1 medium

Fresh Green Peas- 2cups

(One can use frozen also)

Spinach- 1 bunch

Fresh Mint Leaves- 8 to 10

Fresh Coriander Leaves- a handful

Oil- 1tbsp + for deep frying

Zeera ( cumin)- 1tsp

Ginger-11\2 inch piece

Green Chilli- 2

Salt to taste

Haldi- 3/4 tsp

Potato- 1 large

(Boiled, peeled and grated)

Bread Crumbs- 2tbsp + 1/4 cup

Cornstarch- 1tbsp

Rava (suji)- 2tbsp

Chaat Masala for sprinkling

In a bowl put the green peas, add water to it. Keep this bowl on the gas and let it boil. Add 1/2 tsp of haldi to it. If using frozen then keep outside the fridge for some time. And then repeat the process. When cooked, strain the peas and let it dry.

Clean the spinach and soak in water for some time. Again clean properly so that dust and dirt will be cleaned properly. Heat water in a bowl and add the spinach leaves to it. Let it boil for 2 to 3 mins. Then switch off the gas and let it stand for 5 mins more. Then drain the leaves and soak in cold water for 10 mins. So that the colour won't be destroyed. Then drain and squeeze the leaves so that all the excess water will removed from the leaves. Don't throw this water. It can be added as stock to vegetable curry and soup. Chop the blanched and dried leaves and keep aside.

Clean and chop capsicum and keep aside. Clean mint and coriander leaves and chop and keep aside. Clean and chop ginger and green chilli too.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add zeera to it and let it crackle. Then add chopped ginger and green chilli and let it fry for some time. Then add boiled and drained peas, chopped spinach and chopped capsicum. Let all these fry and capsicum cook. While cooking add salt and haldi to it. Then add mint and coriander leaves.

Fry till the above ingredients start sticking to the pan. That means our mixture for kabab is ready. Remove from pan and let it cool down.

In a blender jar add the cooled mixture and make a smooth paste. Try not to add water to it but if needed add only 1 or 2 tsp of water.

In a mixing bowl add the above paste, boiled and grated potato, 2 tbsp of bread crumbs and corn starch. Add salt if needed.

Heat oil for deep frying.

In a plate spread bread crumbs and rava and mix properly. Bring out a small amount of mixture (a patty size) roll it and make Cutlet. Then press on the bread crumbs and rava mixture so that theses will have a perfect coating on the kabab.

Deep fry the above kabab in hot oil and move to a kitchen towel. If you want to make a healthier version of the kabab, then shallow fry the kabab on the frying pan or tawa using little oil at a time.

When all the kababs are done sprinkle chat masala to it. Serve hot with your favourite chutney or sauce..

Sarso ka saag with makki ki roti

Saraso ka saag and makki ki roti

I always wanted to try my hands on sasrso ka saag and makki ki roti. This recipe requires varieties of green.  In Chennai, 

getting Sarso ka saag is very difficult. one of my friend arranged this from Delhi. Then another difficult task started; that is to get other greens for this dish. But I  failed to arrange these except spinach or palak. I thought to myself it was better to proceed this dish with available ingredients. In the meantime I got radish leaves. So now I have three greens to go forward with my recipe.

Sarso ka saag or mustard leaves are full of peppery and rich flavours and also very less in calories. Sarso ka saag is full of fiber, vitamins and minerals. It may help protect from heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. 

Here is my jugad recipe of Sarso ka saag for all..

Sarso ka saag( mustard leaves)- 1 bunch

Palak patte( spinach leaves)- 1bunch

Muli ke patte( radish leaves)- 1/2 bunch

Onions- 2medium size

Garlic- 7 to 8 cloves

Ginger- 2inches piece

Tomatoes- 2medium

White radish- 1small

Green chilli- 1

Red chilli powder- 1tsp

Haldi powder- 1/2 tsp

Hing- 1/4tsp

Water- 2cups

Sugar- 1/2tsp

Maize flour-2 to 3tbsp

Cream - 3tbsp

For tempering 

Butter- 2 tbsp

Zeera-2tsp

Whole Red chilli- 2

Onion- 1 small

Garlic- 3 cloves

Clean and soak the mustard leaves so that all the sand and dirt will be cleaned properly. Then strain it on a colander for some time and chop them randomly and keep aside. Repeat the same procedure with radish leaves and spinach.

In the meantime chop onion, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and radish. Clean everything properly before chopping. 

In a pressure cooker add chopped greens, onion, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, radish,   salt, haldi, red chili powder, hing and add water to it and close the lid and cook for 2 to 3 whistles. Let it cool down and open naturally.

Open the cooker and strain the cooked stuff and collect the stock. Then grind the leaves into a smooth paste. Then add the stock which we  got while boiling the saag.   Transfer this to a heavy and deep buttom pan. I prefer pressure cooker for this process.

Keep the cooker on gas again and add maize flour or makke ki atta to it. Mix it properly without any lumps and cook. Boil it for 15 to 20 mins stiring all the time so that the saag won't stick to the base. At this moment add sugar and balance the seasoning. Add cream to it too.

At the finishing of 20 mins saag will be thick a bit. Now it's time to temper the saag. Chop the onion and garlic. In a pan add butter and let it heat. Add zeera and red chillito it and let it change the colour. Ten add garlic and cook it up to brown. Then add onion and cook properly. Add this tadka or temperingto the saag. Garnish with cream and serve with makki ki roti.

Makki ki Roti

Makki ki Roti- 2 cups

Wheat flour- 1cup

Salt to taste

Warm water to knead the dough

Butter to cook roti and garnish

Mix wheat flour and size flour together. Add salt to it and knead a dough using warm water. It shouldbe a soft and tight dough. Cover a wet cloth and let it rest for 20mins.

Then roll it and make makki ki roti. Heat tawa and put the roti on it and flip it when one-sided is cooked. Then add butter to it and cook and transfer to a plate. 

Serve this with Sarso ka saag. Best thing for winter..

Paneer jalebi

Paneer Jalebi

Diwali is the celebration of victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. Its celebration includes millions of lights shining outside and inside of the house.  Colorful rangolis at the entrance of the house, Preparation of sweets in the kitchen and happy and enjoying kids outside with crackers..  it is celebrated along with laxmi puja.

Got bore of regular jalebis, so try this special jalebi on this Diwali. A very easy and very satisfying sweet dish to eat. Fried paneer coils dunk in sugar syrup and soaked, crispy and juicy at the same time. You will definitely fall in lover with this. It is an east Indian delicacy, mostly Bengali and odia people prepare this for special occasions.

Here is the recipe of the dish

Milk- 1 lit (full cream)

Vinegar- 4 to 5 tbsp

Sugar- 1 1/2 cup

Water- 1 1/2 cup

Cardamom- 3 to 4

Saffron- a pinch

Maida- 3 to 4 tbsp

Suji- 1 tbsp

Orange colour- a drop (optional)

Baking powder-1/4 tsp

Milk- 2 tsp (optional)

Ghee for frying

In a heavy button pan boil milk and add vinegar to it and let it spilt. In this way you will get paneer or chhena. Drain the paneer on a colander or strain and keep aside for an hour.

After an hour bring out paneer on a wide plate and start kneading up to a min. If it is too dry to knead then add 1 tsp of milk to it. The add suji or rava and baking powder to it and knead again.

Then add maida to it and one spoon at a time. Maida will soak the moisture and help in formings. I have added 3 tbsp of maida and made soft dough which can rolled to form jalebis.

In the mean time in another kadai add sugar and water to it and let it melt. Cook the sugar syrup up to one thread consistency. Make cardamom powder and add to it. The add saffron and color to it and let it infuse in the sugar syrup.

Take a lemon size ball from the dough. Put on the kitchen platform and try to make rope out of it. Then make coil like jalebi with the rope to form jalebis. While preparing jalebis if u see crack then repair it with wet hand. Like this make jalebis out of the dough and keep aside.

Heat ghee in a kadai and fry the jalebis on low and medium flame. When done one side and flip to the other side. Similarly fry all the jalebis and drop in the sugar syrup. Temperature of ghee is very important, and it should not be very hot. Drop all the jalebis in the hit sugar syrup.

After putting all the jalebis in the sugar syrup give a boil to the syrup. It will help to soak the jalebis better. Let it stand in the syrup for 2 hours before serving.

This can be served warm, cold or in room temperature. The motive is to eat which ever temperature doesn’t matter. 

Besan and oats ladoo

Besan And Oats Ladoo

Diwali is the festival of light, colour, sweets and crackers. This festival is celebrated in the month of November. It is originally celebrated to welcome prabhu Sri Ram from forest exile (vana basa). Diwali is my favorite festival. I used to celebrate it with my friends as we stay away from my native.

This diwali is also no difference from others, so lots of sweets will be prepared by me. I started my diwali celebration with besan and oats ladoo. This dish is the combination of two healthy ingredients, besan and oats. Besan or gram flour is pulse flour made from ground chickpeas. It can be used raw or roasted. Raw one is bit bitter taste but roasted one is very flavorful.

Oats is another healthy ingredient of the dish. Rolled oats are used to make porridge and in baking and other cereal like muesli and granola. But in india people started adding oats to their traditional dishes.

Here is the recipe

Besan- 2 cups

Oats-1 cup+ 4 to 5 tbsp

Sugar- 4 to 5 tbsp (depends on the sweet taste)

Cardamom- 3 to 4

Magaz (melon seeds) - 4 to 5 tbsp

Ghee- 4 to 5 tbsp

Take a heavy button pan, add besan to eat and dry roast it properly in low flame. After 5 to 6 mins a smoothing smell will come from the besan. Fry for some more mins. Switch off the gas and keep aside.

In the same pan add oats and dry roast for 5 to 6 min on low flame. Don’t change the colour of the oats. Switch off the gas and let it cool down. Once it comes down to normal temperature make a coarse powder.

Deseed the cardamom pods and make powder,

Dry roast the magaz or melon seeds and keep aside.

In a big plate add roasted besan and crushed oats together. Before mixing, reserve 4 to 5 tbsp of crushed oats aside. Then add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and magaz to it. And mix again. Now add ghee to it one spoon at a time and mix. After mixing of one spoon of ghee try to make ladoos. If ladoo formed then don’t add ghee any more. If not then again one more spoon of gh. I used 4 to 5 tbsp of ghee to make. But sometime more or less may be needed. Roll the ladoos on the crushed oats and place on the plates.

Now ladoo is ready to be served to the guest. It can be used as gifting purpose.

Sabudana Dahi Vada

                             Sabudana DAhi Vada                                                             

Sabudana is a processed ready to cook food product from tapioca. It is a considered as a good nutritional food for infant and sick person or during fasting period. There are varieties of dishes prepared from this ingredient like kheer, khichdi, vada etc. it is full carbohydrates and also has the goodness of tapioca. In Andhra Pradesh people make papad out of sabudana.  They called it vadiyaalu. It is very tasty.

It resembles a lot with sago palm. Both the product are small (2mm diameter) in size, dry, opaque balls and white in colour. At the time of soaking and cooking, both become large, soft and spongy . Both the ingredient used for pudding.

During navratri use of sabudana increased as a fasting food. Mostly sabudana khichdi, kheer or vada is prepared from this. I thought of putting this crispy vadas in chilled and sweetened dahi with some spices. That turned out to be very soft and yummy. So here is the recipe of sabudana dahi vada.

Sabudana- 1 cup

Peanut- 1/2 cup

Sugar- 1 tsp

Rock salt to taste

Ginger- 1/2 inch

Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp

Boiled potatoes- 3 medium size

Zeera- 1 tbsp

Green chili- 2

Red chili powder- 1/ 2 tsp

Oil for frying

Dahi- 1 ½ cup

Sugar- 1 tsp

Rock salt to taste 

chili powder- 1/2 tsp

Zeera- 2 tbsp

Red chili- 2

Wash and clean sabudana properly and soak them in water for 4 to 5 hours. If it is hard in the center after soaking for 4 to 5 hours the soak for some more time.

Heat a pan add peanuts to it. Dry roast the peanut properly or up to the skin can be removed easily. Let it cool down and crush it a bit. Mash the potatoes till very soft and keep aside.

In a bowl add soaked sabudana, crushed peanut, sugar, mashed potatoes, salt, chopped green chills, grated ginger, zeera, chili powder, coriander leaves. Mix Them properly.

Heat oil for deep frying. Divid the dough in equal size balls. Now flatten the balls in the middle of the palm and shape it like medu vadas. Slowly and carefully slide the vadas in the hot oil and fry them up to golden brown in both side. Similarly fry all the vadas and keep on the tissue paper.

Heat kadai and dry roast zeera and red chili separately. Let it cool down a bit and then make a coarse powder.

Take dahi or curd in bowl and beat properly without any lumps. Add sugar, salt, red chili powder and the ½ tsp above roasted powder to it and mix.

At the time of serving place two vadas (I placed 2 but the number depends on choice) on a plate then spread the masala dahi on it. Then sprinkle some roasted masala on the top. One can add green chutney and mithi chutney to complete the dish.

Arrange the plates just before serving or the vadas will be soggy.