Gram flour cookies

Gram flour Cookies

Gram flour(besan) and Nigella seeds( kalonji) these are commonly found ingredients in everyone's kitchen. We use it for different recipes. We used to combine it for some recipes too. This combination is a classic in itself. While preparing pakodas or bhaji I used to add some kalonji (Nigella seeds) to the besan batter( gram flour batter) which give a different kick to the bhajis. So I thought of making Cookies with this combo.

My experiment with the combo was very successful. Everybody love the flavour and combo too. It became a perfect tea time partner. Here is my recipe of gram flour Cookies.

Gram flour (besan)- 1cup

Maida- 1 3/4cup

Castor sugar - 3/4cup

Rava(suji)- 3tbsp

Kalonji- 2tbsp

Salt - 1/2tsp

Baking powder - 1tsp

Oil- 1cup

Green cardamom powder -1tsp

Shift besan, maida and baking powder together. Add in Nigella seeds and rava and mix properly. Keep aside.

In another mixing bowl add sugar and oil beat properly upto the sugar dissolves totally in the oil . Add cardamom powder to it and beat again. Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix properly like a soft dough. Keep in the fridge for 15mins.

Preheat the oven in 200 degree for 10mins . Line the baking tray. Bring the dough  out of the fridge.  Make small balls and place on the baking tray. Now with hand or fork press a little. Don't forget to keep some gap between two cookies.

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 mins in 180 degree. Baking time of the cookies may differ from oven to oven. So while baking have a watch on the cookies. Bake up to golden in color . Keep on the wire rack to cool down and then store in the airtight container. It can be stored for 15days

Radha Ballavi with Hing Wali Allo Curry

Radha Ballavi With Hingwali Allo

Radha ballavi is the staple bongo food. They love it so much that they can have daily. It is prepared as an appetizer during lunch and dinner at marriage functions. It is prepared during special pujas and occasion. Though it is a calories loaded dish as it is deep fried but it is very tasty and addictive. Radha ballavi is an 

Urad dal stuffed pooris ( flat bread). It is usually thick pooris and it is served with cholar dal and hing wali Allo ki sabzi.

This dish is my hubby's favourite dish. I wanted to prepare this special dish for my dad. Some other guest also came that night. All the People loved the food and kids loved it too. This version of the dish taught to me by one of my cosister ( jethani) shibani. But I made some changes according to my choice. Here is my version of the dish.

For filling

Urad dal - 1 cup

Castor sugar - 2tbsp

Salt to taste

Amchur- 2tbsp

Haldi - 1/2tsp

Red chilli powder - 1/2tsp

Ginger- 11/2inch

Oil- 2tbsp

Green chilli - 1

Hing- 1tsp

Nigella seeds- 2tbsp

Fennel seeds - 2tbsp

Zeera- 1tbsp

Red chilli - 2

 For dough

Maida- 2cups

Oil- 2tbsp

Salt to taste

Water to knead

Oil for deep frying

Clean and rinse urad dal and soak for 5 hours . After 5 hours in a grinder jar add soaked urad dal, ginger and green chilli make a smooth paste and keep aside

In a pan dry roast red chilli and then dry roast zeera separately. Make a powder and keep aside.

In a mixing bowl add urad dal paste, salt, castor sugar, amchur powder, haldi, red chilli powder and roasted zeera and chilli powder and mix properly. Taste the mixture and balance the taste.

Heat oil in a non stick kadai add hing, saunf ( fennel) and kala zeera (Nigella) and let it release it's flavour in the oil. Add urad dal mixture and fry properly. The paste will stick to the buttom of the pan but don't worry after cooling down it can be scarped off. Fry up to very dry and keep aside to cool down.

In a big mixing bowl add maida, salt, oil and rub properly. Add water and knead to a soft dough and cover wet cloth. And keep it for 20 mins.

Make small balls from maida dough. Stuff the above masala and make ball again. Heat oil in the kadai for deep frying. Roll the balls and make pooris. Deep fry the pooris in hot oil up to golden and transfer to the kitchen towel or tissue paper. Fry all the radha ballavis like this.

Hingwali Allo ki Sabzi 

Boiled potatoes - 5

Salt to taste

Hing- 1tsp

Red chilli powder- 1/2tsp

Red chilli - 2

Zeera - 1tbsp

Panch phutan- 1tbsp

Oil- 2tbsp

Ginger- 1inch

Tomato- 2

Heat kadai add zeera and red chilli dry roast properly and separately and make a powder.

Heat oil in a kadai add red chilli and punch phutan and let it crackle. Add hing saute again. Add chopped ginger and saute upto red. Add chopped tomatoes and fry upto oil separates. Break the potatoes randomly with hands. Add boiled potatoes and saute properly. Add water as per requirement and allow it to boil for 5mins. Add zeera and chilli powder to it. Serve hot with radha ballavi.



Odia style chicken curry

Odia Style Chicken Gravy

Every region has a special style of preparing chicken dish. Some dishes are gravy, some are dry and some are semi gravy. Odias do have a separate style of cooking chicken. This gravy dish is called Kukuda Mansa Jhola. Kukuda Mansa means Chicken and Jhola means Gravy.

While growing up I used to eat this dish. My parents are vegetarians, so cooking of chicken came to me. This is the first dish I learnt to cook for my younger brother. This dish is special as we add potatoes to the gravy. A simple dish with lots of flavour. Here is the recipe

Chicken- 1 kg

Onion- 4 Medium

Gralic- 6 to 7 cloves

Ginger- 1 1/2 inch piece

Salt to taste

Haldi- 1 tbsp

Red Chili Powder- 1 tbsp

I use Kashmiri red chili powder

Tomatoes- 2

Zeera Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp

(Cumin)

Dhania Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp

(Coriander)

Clove- 3 to 4

Green Cardamom- 3 to 4

Zeera- 1tsp

Black Pepper- 5 to 6

Cinnamon- 1inch piece

Potatoes- 4

Mustard Oil- 2 1/2 tbsp

Peel and clean onions. Make a coarse paste and keep aside.

Peel and clean ginger and garlic and make a smooth paste and keep aside.

Clean and cut the potatoes in half.

In a bowl add chicken and clean properly under running water. Squeeze out all the water from chicken and keep in another bowl. 

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai. When hot, add whole garam masala and let it crackle.

Then add ginger and garlic paste to it. Fry it up to it starts sticking to the buttom of the kadai. Now add onion paste to it and fry till all the masala incorporated properly.

Clean and chop tomatoes. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a min or two. Now add dry spices and fry again .

In the mean time heat 1/2tbsp of oil in a kadai and add halved potatoes, salt, haldi and red chili powder and fry again. It should be cooked up to red in colour.

When the masala is mushy and oil separates, add cleaned chicken to it. Cook the chicken covered throughout.

When the chicken is half done add fried potatoes. Now cook the curry up to potatoes and chicken become soft.

Now add water as required. I have added 11/2 cup of water to it. Let it boil in simmer for 5 to 6 mins. Then switch off the gas. Garnish the gravy with chopped coriander leaves.

Chicken gravy is ready to serve. This goes really well with plain rice or paratha.

Mushroom Biryani

Mushroom Biryani 

Sinu, a friend of mine invited me to her house to have lunch. She prepared Mushroom Biryani. That was the best Mushroom Biryani I have ever had. It was very tasty and flavorful. The flavour of the mushroom was prominent there. I asked her for the recipe of this special Biryani. She obliged me by giving this recipe. Also told me that this recipe is her family recipe. She learnt this recipe from her mother. I was happy to get some one's family recipe.

There are different types of mushrooms. But all are not edible. All the mushrooms, mostly button mushroom, sold in the supermarket are commercially grown in mushroom farms. Mushroom is used commonly in many cuisine like Chinese, Korean, European and Japanese. It is known as the meat of the Vegetable world. Nowadays use of mushrooms become very famous in Indian cuisine too. People are making mushrooms in Indian version. Mushroom Biryani is one among them. Here is my learnt version of mushrooms Biryani.

For mushroom masala

Mushroom - 400gms

Onion - 1/2 kg

Garlic - 7 to 8 cloves

Tomatoes - 2big

Salt to taste

Curd - 1cup

Haldi- 1/2tsp

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Kitchen king masala - 1/2tsp

Garam masala - 1/2tsp

Oil - 1tsp + 3tbsp

Chopped mint leaves- 2 tbsp

Chopped coriander leaves - 2tbsp

Sugar - 1/4tsp

Clove - 3

Green cardamom - 2

Cinnamon - 1inch

Papper corn- 5 to 7

Zeera- 1/2 tsp

Saha zeera- 1/2 tsp

Mace- 1pinch

Green chilli - 2

For rice

Rice - 3cups

Water- 6cups

Salt to taste

Chopped mint leaves - 1tbsp

Chopped coriander leaves - 1tbsp

Ghee- 1tbsp

Clove - 2

Green cardamom - 2

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch

Zeera- 1//2 tsp

Sahi zeera- 1/2 tsp

For Assembling

Ghee- 2tbsp

Green chilli,- 2

Mint leaves - 3tbsp

Coriander leaves - 3tbsp

Rice

Heat ghee in a heavy button pan and add whole spices and allow releasing their flavour. Add cleaned rice and fry up to water dries up. Then add 6cups of water and salt to taste to it. Cook the rice till done.

Mushroom Masala

Peel and clean mushrooms properly. Cut them in big pieces and keep aside. Heat oil (1tsp) in a pan, add mushrooms and fry upto golden brown and keep aside.

Peel and clean the onion, slice them properly. Heat 11/2 tbsp of ghee in a pan and add sliced onion and fry it up to brown and keep aside.

Clean and chop tomatoes and peel garlic. In a grinder jar add tomatoes and garlic and make a smooth paste.

Heat 3tbsp of oil in a kadai, add the rest of the whole spices and allow them to release their flavour. Add above paste and saute up to the oil separates from the masala. Now add dry spices, salt and sugar to the masala. Beat the curd without lumps. Add curd to the masala and saute in high flame and mix properly. Then lower the flame and cook up to the oil separates from the masala. Then add fried mushrooms and half of the fried onion and saute again. Add chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves and saute again for 5mins. Switch off the gas and Keep aside.

Assembling

Heat ghee (1tbsp) in a kadai. Spread some mushrooms, masala, green chilli, mint leaves, coriander leaves and some rice like layers. Repeat the layers again. Add 1tbsp of ghee on the above the layers and put in low flame for 5 to 6 mins.

Serve hot with any choice of raita.

Heat ghee (1tbsp) in a kadai. Spread some mushrooms, masala, green chilli, mint leaves, coriander leaves and some rice like layers. Repeat the layers again. Add 1tbsp of ghee on the above the layers and put in low flame for 5 to 6 mins.

Serve hot with any choice of raita.

Sahi Paneer, a no onion and no garlic dish

Sahi Paneer, No onion & No garlic

Any special occasion like birthday or anniversary on a fasting day is a tension for everyone. What to cook special without onion and garlic is the question. This year hubby's birthday fell on a vrat of ekadashi. Special dinner without onion and garlic is difficult to prepare. After much research I zeroed down with a dish named as Sahi panner.

Sahi means royal and paneer means cottage cheese. This is a gravy dish. Place of origin of tis dish is Punjab, India and Pakistan . It is to be believed that during mughal empire this dish was created . Sahi paneer is a preparation of paneer in a thick gravy made up of cream, tomatoes and spices . In my version I replaced dahi to cream. But the creaminess of the dish is intact 

Here is my version of Sahi paneer.

Paneer - 400gms

Almond- 30gms

Kaju- 20gms

Tomato - 2big

Ginger- 11/2 inch

Dahi- 3/4 cup

Salt to taste

Sugar- 1/2tsp

Haldi- 1/2tsp

Red chilli - 1/2 tsp

Kitchen king masala - 1/2tsp

Green cardamom -3

Clove- 3 to 4

Mace- 2pinch

Cinnamon - 1 inch

Butter- 1tbsp + 1tbsp

Oil- 1tbsp

Saha zeera- 1/2 tsp

Oil to frying paneer

Bay leaves- 1

Coriander leaves for garnishing 

Cut the paneer in triangle shape and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan and add the paneer pieces and fry upto golden brown and keep in hot water. 

Clean and chop tomatoes and keep aside. Clean , peel and chop ginger.

In a pan heat 1tbsp butter add almond, kaju- and fry up to golden. Then add tomatoes, ginger and green cardamom. Saute up to tomatoes cooked properly and mushy. Allow it to cool down and add bit water and make a smooth paste.

Heat oil and butter ( in this process butter won't burn ) in a kadai, add all the whole spices and fry them. Add the above paste saute upto the oil separates. Then add Salt , haldi, redchilli, sugar and kitchen king masala and saute again. Beat the curd without lumps. Add the beaten curd to the masala and stir in high flame or the curd will spilt. After 3 mins lower the flame, cover and cook till the oil separates.  

Add 1/2 cup of water and let it boil. Add fried paneer to the gravy, cover and cook. Switch off the gas when oil float up and come over the gravy. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with nan or paratha.

Prawn Curry

Prawn Curry

Prawn or shrimp whatever one name it, is the best sea food as per me. A very tasty sea food. But shrimp is the smaller one and prawn is the bigger one. It is a very commonly available seafood all over world but also commonly loved by everyone. Though this particular seafood isn't dearer to all.

Prawns are very good source of unsaturated fats. It is also a good source of omega 3 fatty acid which our body don't produce. This fatty acids can reduce inflammation and risk of heart disease, cancer and arthritis. It is a very good source of protein and sodium. But too much eating is also bad. It can increase cholesterol level of the blood.

Prawn can be cooked in different ways. But prawn curry is one of the way. It is the tastiest way one can cook according to me. Prawn curry is loved by one and all in my family. A family favourite dish in my blog. This is odia style of cooking prawn curry. Here is my version of the dish 

Prawn - 1kg

Onion - 3 (medium)

Garlic - 7 to 8

Ginger- 1 1/2 inch

Haldi - 1tsp +  1/2 tsp

Red chilli - 1tsp + 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp + 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 1/2 tsp + 1tsp

Garam masala - 1 1/2 tsp + 1 tsp

Mustard oil- 1 tbsp + 2 1/2 tsp + frying prawn 

Tomato - 1 big

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1/2tsp

Salt to taste 

Green chilli- 2

Clove - 2

Green cardamom - 1

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch

Potatoes - 2

Peel and devein the prawns. Wash properly and keep aside.

Clean and cut potatoes in wedges and keep aside in water.

In a grinder jar add garlic, ginger, green chilli and whole garam masala and make a smooth paste and keep aside.

In a mixing bowl add 1tbsp oil, above paste 1tbsp, 1/2 tsp of haldi and red chilli powder and 1 tsp of cumin, coriander and garam masala powder and mix properly. Add cleaned prawns and marinate for 20 to 25 mins.

After 25mins fry the prawns up to golden in colour and keep aside.

In the same pan fry the potato wedges and keep aside.

Clean and chop onion and keep aside.

Clean and chop tomatoes and keep aside 

Heat mustard oil in the kadai add sugar for caramelising, add zeera to it and let it crackle. 

Now add chopped onion and saute up to golden brown. Add the ginger garlic and spice paste and saute again in high for 2 mins. Then add chopped tomatoes and saute again. Add salt and all dry spices except garam masala and lower than he flame and let it cook up to the masala separates from oil.

Now add fried potatoes and fried prawns to it, saute again properly. Add water as per the gravy one needs. Let it be in simmer for 5 to 6 mins or up to the potatoes are cooked . Add garam masala and coriander leaves and switch of the gas.

Serve hot with rice or luchi as per choice .

Eggless Lychee Cheese Cake

                          Eggless Lychee Cheesecake

Cheese cake is a sweet dessert.  It is sometimes baked and sometimes frozen.  Egg, sugar,  fruits and cheese added to make cheese cake.  History of cheese is very ancient.

Lychee is a seasonal fruit. Now it is end of the season.  The yummiest summer fruit for me.  I love lychee and it's flavour. So do my parents.  So I thought of making lychee cheesecake with lychee glaze.  The crust is something which my kids loved a lot, that is Oreo biscuits.  So it has become a family favourite.

Here is my version of lychee cheesecake with lychee glaze.

Oreo biscuits -  10 to 15

Milk -  1lit

Curd -  600ml

Vinegar -  3 tbsp

Sugar  -  7 to 8 tbsp (According to taste) 

Agar Agar (China Grass)-  4  tbsp

Milk- 1/2 cup

Lychee  -  1/2 kg

Butter -  2 tsp

Boil 1 lit milk and add vinegar to it.  Let the milk curdle and let it boil for 5 more mins.  Then spread a cheese cloth on a colander and pour all the milk solid and water on it.  Collect all corners and tie it and press a heavy object and keep in the fridge for 3 hours.

In another colander spread a cheese cloth and pour in all the curd. Collect from all corners and tie it and press a heavy object and keep in the fridge for 3 hours.

After 3 hours grind the oreo cookies to biscuits crumb, transfer to a mixing bowl. Add butter to the powdered biscuit and mix properly.

In a loose bottom cake tin pour the biscuit powder, press the biscuit mixture with hands. It should be even from every side. Keep in the fridge for half an hour.

In the mean time peel and de-seed lychees, make a smooth paste from the lychees. Soak agar agar in water. Boil the lychee puree and reduce it to half.

In a blender jar add hung curd, paneer and milk and make a smooth paste. Add sugar to the paste and grind again.

Put the soaked agar agar on the stove and melt. Add the liquid to the reduced lychee puree. Allow to cool down a bit, then add to the cream cheese mixture. Bring the cake tin from the fridge and pour the lychee and cream cheese mixture. Keep it in the fridge to set.

For Lychee Glaze

Peel and de-seed the lychees and make puree. Put the puree on the fire and reduce to half. Add sugar and lemon juice to the reduced puree. Mix corn flour and water and add to the puree and let it thick and allow it to cool down.

Bring out the cheese cake from the fridge and pour the Glaze on it and level it. And keep it in fridge for over night to set. Serve with whipped cream.