Chocolate Balls

When everyone says, CAL is an addiction, I didn't realise what they meant until couple of days ago, or should I say nights ago, I suddenly craved chocolate balls, not as much to eat as to cook and present my efforts to the group. 

It being middle if the night, I didn't have all the ingredients I usually cook with, so I altered the recipe to suit the ingredients I had... The result wasn't bad. 

So this blog isn't just about my recipe, but the alternate recipe as well...

Beginning with the original recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Marie Biscuits 10-15 nos.

Chocolate Sauce 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 1/2 tbsp

Melted Butter 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Gems 1 small packet

Melted Chocolate 3 -4 tbsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Grind Marie Biscuits into fine powder. 

2. Add cocoa powder and mix till they are properly mixed. 

3. Add melted butter and mix well. 

4. Add chocolate sauce spoon by spoon and make into dough.

5. Form balls and refrigerate them for 20 to 30 minutes. 

6. Once set, roll top half in melted chocolate and place a gem. 

7. Refrigerate them for another 15 minutes.

8. Take out and transfer to serving platter and serve.

And here goes the alternate recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Mc Vities Biscuits 10-15 nos.

Powdered Sugar 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 2 tbsp

Milk 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Gems 1 small packet

Nutella 3 -4 tbsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Grind Biscuits into fine powder. 

2. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix till they are properly mixed. 

3. Add milk spoon by spoon and make into dough.

4. Form balls and refrigerate them for 20 to 30 minutes. 

5. Once set, roll top half in nutella and place a gem. 

6. Refrigerate them for another 15 minutes.

7. Take out and transfer to serving platter and serve.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Keep the balls refrigerated, so you can keep them for 5-6 days. Take them out 10-15 minutes prior to serving. 

2. You can use different garnishing instead of gems. 

3. You can dip the whole ball into chocolate. 

4. If you prefer to have it plain, no need to roll on melted chocolate.

Cook with love...

Crispy (no onion) Bhindi

Wanted a quick recipe for bhindi and something different from the usual varieties that I cook (besan wali bhindi, bharwa bhindi and bhindi pyaz ki sabzi); so as always, called up mom. And as always, she had something up her sleeve - a no nonsense, quick and simple recipe.

So here's her, jhatpat crispy bhindi recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Bhindi 500 gms.

Oil 2 tbsp

Salt to taste (I used 1 and 1/4 tsp)

Red Chili Powder 2/3 tsp

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Dhaniya Powder 1 tsp

Garam Masala (mom made) 1 tsp

Pisa Anaar Dana / Amch1ur 1 tsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Wash bhindi and let it air dry completely.

2. Once dry, cut it lengthwise into four.

3. Add oil in a wok and let it heat.

4. Add all the spices except garam masala and anar dana.

5. Add bhindi to the wok.

6. Cook on high flame with continuous stirring for about 20 minutes or till almost cooked.

7. Add garam masala and anar dana and cook for another minute.

8. Transfer to serving dish and serve hot with rotis and raita.

P.S. Onion is Added Only as Garnish

Cook with Love...

Tehri (Or Luckhnowi Veg Biryani)

Every time I suggested khichdi to my husband, he would come up with the name 'tehri' - his fall back option when in doubt or when needing something light and something that doesn't require too much effort.

Since I had never heard of tehri, (tehri is more of a Uttar Pradesh dish), and since the husband kept demanding it, it meant calling up saasu ma for her recipe - which I did. 

Being a person, who has always had rice plain, except for salt and jeera in it (I wasn't a pulao person - because of the sheer amount of vegetables in it), this seemed like a dish I will just have to put up with since the husband loved it so much...

But to my utter delight, I actually found out, that I too loved tehri - I didn't mind the veggies in it at all. So it became, not just his, but our fall back option when we weren't sure what to cook, or were too tired to cook.

So, here's the mum-in-laws super easy recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Potato 2 nos. large

Onion 2 nos. medium

Carrot 1 no. medium

Peas 1/3 cup

Elaychi 2 nos.

Tej Patta (Bay Leaf) 1 no.

Long (Cloves) 4 nos.

Dal Chini (Cinnamon) 1 medium piece

Oil 2 tbsp.

Salt to taste (I used 2 tsp.)

Haldi (Turmeric Powder) 1/4 tsp.

Rice 1 Cup

PROCEDURE:

1. Wash the rice, drain them and keep aside.

2. Wash and cut potato in to dices, onions long and carrots in small pieces.

3. In a pressure cooker, add oil and let it get warm.

4. Once hot, add crushed elaychi, tej patta, long and dal chini. Saute for about 30 seconds.

5. Add onions and saute for about 2 minutes or till onion turns translucent.

6. Add potato and carrot to the pressure cooker and saute for another minute and half.

7. Add peas and saute for half a minute. Then add salt and turmeric powder. Saute for another minute.

8. Add rice and mix well. Let it cook for another couple of minutes.

9. Now add about 2 cups of water and let it cook for about 3 whistles or it is cooked.

10. Transfer to serving dish and serve with curd or achaar and papad. 

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Instead of oil, you can use desi ghee for more flavor.

2. Use Basmati rice for best results.

3. You can add more spices like star anise (chakri phool) or badi elaychi (instead of small ones).

4. Do not let out the steam by removing whistle, it robs tehri of its flavors. 
5. You can also add cauliflower (gobhi) to the vegetable when you add potatoes and carrots.

Cook With Love...

Kurkuri Arbi

Arbi... one of the humble vegetables, I loved eating it, but never dared to cook it. Reason was simple - the whole exercise of washing them, drying them, peeling them and cutting them like my mom was too much of a task - it was time consuming and difficult. 

But then, I learnt this new way of cooking this humble vegetable post marriage from my mum-in-law. Not only, it was the easiest recipe but at the same time, it was even more delicious - made using most basic of ingredients.

Here's my mum-in-laws super simple recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Arbi 500 gms

Oil 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Ajwain 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida (Hing) 1/4 tsp

Salt To Taste (I used 1 and 1/2 tsp)

Red Chili Powder 1/2 tsp

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Dhaniya Powder 1 tsp

Coriander for garnishing

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil arbi. Let it cool and peel the arbi (this is the most easiest way of peeling arbi).

2. Cut it into pieces.

3. Take oil in a wok and let it heat.

4. Add ajwain and let it splutter.

5. Add remaining spices and mix.

6. Add arbi to the wok. Mix it well.

7. Cook on slow heat till its golden brown and crispy. Mix occasionally.

8. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with coriander and serve hot.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Keep the pieces big in size about 1 inch by 1 inch.

2. When leaving on slow heat to cook, spread the arbi across the wok so that it cooks evenly.

Cook with Love...

Coconut and Coriander Filled Khandvi

Going through the posts on the facebook page of CAL, I stumbled upon this wonderful 7 minute microwave recipe for khandvi by Ms. Charu Bhargava. I decided to try it out, since it was the simplest recipe I could find on CAL page and least time consuming. How I thought I would surprise the husband, if the dish came out perfect.

The joy, when husband came in, saw the dish and simply said, "arre waah, kahan se mangaya" and when I told him, I made it. But the joy was only short lived because when I asked the husband to taste it, he simply said, he didn't like the khandvi much.

Well, I said, if you don't want it, its okay. I can have it all since I love khandvi; I picked up the plate and started eating it all on my own. And the husband gave me such a look and said, "zyada pasand nahi hai, lekin thodi to khaunga". That certainly made my day. Since then, I have been wanting to give this plain and perfect recipe a twist of my own. And today, I finally found some time to try the filling waali khandvi.

Here's the recipe with the hope, that husband likes this one as well :)

INGREDIENTS:

For Khandvi:

Bengal Gram Flour (Besan) 1 cup

Curd 1 cup

Water 1 and 3/4 cup

Salt to taste (I used 1 tsp)

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida (hing) 1/4 tsp

For Tadka/Tampering:

Oil 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Til 1 tsp

Rye 1 tsp

Curry Leaves 4 to 5 nos.

For Filing and Garnishing:

Dry Coconut Grated 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Coriander Leaves Finely Chopped 2 tbsp

PROCEDURE: 

1. Mix all the ingredients of khandvi in a microwave safe bowl.

2. Blend them together till there are no lumps left.

3. Put the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes.

4. After 2 minutes, take out the bowl and stir the mix well till no lumps remain.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 two more times. Total 6 minutes.

6. After 6 minutes, put the bowl in one last time for 1 minute.

7. While the batter is cooking, ready your spreading area (you can use back side of steel thalis or spread foil sheet on the platform or use platform directly).

8. After 7 minutes of cooking, take out the batter, put about 2 spoons of batter on your spreading area (depending on the size of your area you can alter the number of spoons to be put)

9. Using a flat steel spatula spread the batter as thin as you can.

Without Filling

10. Repeat the process till you have spread all the batter. Steps 8 and 9 to be performed very quickly as batter hardens very fast - but don't burn your hands :)

11. Leave the spread batter aside while your ready the tampering.

12. Put the oil in a small wok and let it heat.

13. Once oil is hot, add rye and til and let them splutter. 

14. Add the curry leaves to it and take off the burner. Leave aside.

15. Cut the spread batter as per the size you desire. 

16. Spread 3/4 amount of coconut and coriander each evenly on the spread batter.

17. Start rolling the batter to form khandvi rolls and arrange them in the serving dish.

18. Put the tampering on the arranged khandvi.

19. Garnish with remaining coconut and coriander.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. If you don't want the filling, you can skip step number 16. The quantity of coconut and coriander required can be changed to 1 tbsp each.

2. In the tampering, you can skip til.

3. In the tampering, you can also add half slit green chilies.

4. Spread the tampering evenly. For best results, you can spread the tampering using spoon.

With Filling

Cook with Love...

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

In my quest to search and cook new things for hubby, I stumbled upon this wonderful group - Chef At Large (CAL). The wonderful people, cooking wonderful dishes inspired me to no end.

I had bought a kg of baby potatoes to try my hand at 'dhaniye ke aloo', inspired by my mum in law and my bua saas. That my friends, was a failed first attempt. I will need to go back to those wonderful cooks to learn that recipe properly. So I had these left over baby potatoes and a husband who kept mentioning dum aloo and how he is going to cook the dish one of these days.

Being inspired by the group, I fired up my laptop, searched the internet for a recipe, found one - altered and tweaked it a bit to my taste and voila - I had the perfect Kashmiri Dum Aloo! And the real happiness comes when after the first bite husband says - bahut badhiya... oh the joy that filled me!

So here's my altered recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Baby Potatoes 20 nos. boiled in salted water and peeled

Onion 1 medium size, finely chopped

Thick Curd 3/4 cup or 5 tbsp

Bay Leaf 1 no.

Asafoetida (Hing) 1 pinch

Red Chili Powder 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp

Coriander Powder 1 tsp

Cumin Powder (bhuna pisa jeera) 1/2 tsp

Ginger 1 pc.

Garlic 4-5 cloves

Green Cardamom (Elaichi) 1 pod

Cinnamon 1 small pc. 

Cloves 4 nos.

Kasuri Methi 1/2 tbsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Cooking Oil 3 and 1/2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Corriander Leaves 1 tbsp, finely chopped (for garnishing)

PROCEDURE:

1. Take boiled and peeled baby potatoes and poke them slightly with a fork (this would make sure that flavors go deep inside).

2. Dry roast cardamom pod, cinnamon and cloves on a flat tava for 2 minutes and then crush them in a mortar and pestle till they are grounded to a fine powder. Keep it aside.

3. Grate ginger and garlic and keep aside. 

4. Take about 1 and 1/2 tbsp oil in a wok and heat it. Then add the potatoes to it and shallow fry them till they are golden brown. 

5. Strain them and keep aside.

6. Add remaining oil to the wok and heat it. Now add asafoetida and saute for about 10 seconds.

7. Add the bay leaf and chopped onion and saute till the onion turns slightly translucent.

8. Add the ginger and garlic from 3rd step to the wok and saute for another 30 seconds.

9. Now add the dry powder from 2nd step to the wok and saute for a minute.

10. Beat the curd and slowly add it to the wok. Add the turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder to it. Mix again.

11. Continue stirring  for about 3 minutes or till the oil separates.

12. Add shallow fried potatoes from 4th step to the wok.

13. Add kasuri methi, sugar and salt and cook on low heat for about 2 minutes.

14. Add 1 cup water and bring to boil.

15. When it starts to boil, cover the wok with a lid and cook on low heat till desired consistency of the gravy is achieved.

16. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Additional Noteworthy Points:

1. Grating ginger and garlic imparts extra flavor. You can grind them in a mixer or use garlic ginger paste instead.

2. Dry roasting and then crushing the pod, cinnamon and cloves imparts more flavor. You can grind them directly in a mixer as well.

3. For additional richness, you can grind about 8 to 10 cashews with the spices as well.

Cook With Love...

Gobhi (Cauliflower) Manchurian

So, going home for a long vacation surely has its perks - one of them being - you learn new recipes... these recipes are no normal recipes, because these ones are passed on from one generation to the next...

So here's sharing, something I learned over the only month long holiday I got in my two year long PG program (oh well, that didn't need to be part of this).

Gobhi Manchurian, one of the many food demands, that the husband and the sister-in-law, make sure is fulfilled. The husband loves it so much, that I decided to learn it this time around and it surely wasn't a bad first attempt, in fact it was a fairly good attempt - that is so, because

1. the mothers (in-laws) are the best teachers and
2. the recipe is that simple

As my mum-in-law taught me, its a simple 3+(3+3)recipe - 3 ingredients for the manchurian and 3+3 for the sauce. So here's your recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

For the Manchurian

Cauliflower 1 medium size

Salt to taste (I used 2 tsp)

Oil to fry

All Purpose Flour 1 tbsp

For the Sauce

Vinegar 1 tbsp

Hot and Sweet Sauce 4 tbsp

Soy Sauce 2 tbsp

Ginger 1 medium size piece

Garlic 10 cloves

Green Chilies 7 to 8

PROCEDURE:

Manchurian

1. Shred the cauliflower, but not too much. Stop at the hint of it being shredded.

2. Add salt and let it rest for a few minutes.

3. Add all purpose flour to the cauliflower and roll the mix into small balls.

4. Fry the balls till golden brown and crisp.

5. Leave on the side to cool.

Sauce

1. Finely chop the garlic, ginger and chilies.

2. Take about 1 tbsp of oil in a wok and heat it.

3. Add the chopped garlic, chilies and garlic to it and fry them slightly.

4. Add the 3 sauces to it and heat another half a minute.

5. Add the manchurians to it and heat for half a minute and voila you are done!

Additional Noteworthy Points

1. The less you shred the cauliflower, the crispier the manchurian balls will be.

2. Add as much multi-purpose flour as is needed. If the cauliflower binds itself into balls with lesser flour, use lesser flour - so that manchurian doesn't taste floury.

3. You can change the amount of chilies, garlic and ginger as per your liking.

4. Instead of using hot and sweet sauce, you can use normal ketchup and it would work just fine.

Cook With Love!

Chocolate Cake Recipe (Served With Some Ice-cream and Chocolate Sauce)

Since its the first thing, that I am putting up, I want to start it on a sweet note, thus have picked up the chocolate cake.

In summers, you drink lots of liquids and sort of ignore the food. So here's little something, that will cool your insides, get something solid in you and sweeten your taste-buds - a recipe that has been passed on to me by my mother. I used to bake this cake with mom when I was a kid, but it was only after wedding that I did this cake on my own. And the first time that I baked it, we were going to visit the husband's grandparents. And since we were visiting them during the festival, there were many other relatives too. Oh, what joy it brought me, to bake it well and knowing that everyone enjoyed eating the cake too. But the rendered version with the cake was something that I did for my husband. So here's the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

For The Cake

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Baking Powder 1 tsp

Powdered Sugar 1 cup

Refined Oil 3/4 cup

Medium Sized Eggs 3 nos

Chocolate Essence 1 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 1.5 tbsp

Milk 4-5 tbsp

To Serve the Cake With

Ice Cream 2 Scoops

Chocolate Sauce

PROCEDURE

1. Pass the all purpose flour and baking powder through a sieve twice so that they are properly mixed.

2. Break the eggs, add chocolate essence to it and blend it thoroughly till its nice and frothy.

3. In a mixing bowl, put the powdered sugar and add oil to it. Stir the mixture in one direction (yeah that was one thing my mom used to be very particular about - you have to stir the mixture in one direction only) till all the lumps vanish.

4. Add the blended eggs to this mixture and continue stirring in one direction till all lumps disappear.

5. Now add the flour in small quantities and keep stirring till all the flour has been added to the mixture and the lumps disappear. 

6. Now take cocoa powder in a bowl and add milk to it. Keep adding milk till the powder dissolves properly. 

7. Add this cocoa milk mixture to the cake mixture and stir again. Keep the mixture aside.

8. Take a baking dish, grease all the sides and base with oil and then line it with butter paper.

9. Pour the cake mixture in baking dish and put it in the microwave. Set the convection model on microwave and set it at 180 or 200. Bake the cake for 8 minutes.

10. At the end of eight minutes, use a knife to pierce the top in some places so that the air has some place to come out of and the cake doesn't fall apart. And then put the cake back in for another 6 minutes.

11. And your cake is ready!

Additional Noteworthy Points:

1. If your cake mixture is stiff, you can add milk to soften it.

2. If you want a vanilla cake, chuck the cocoa powder and use vanilla essence instead of chocolate essence.

3. You can add other flavoring or tootie-fruity to the cake mix instead of chocolate as per your liking.

4. Its always advisable to do the clean knife test to make sure the cake is fully cooked.

SERVING:

1. Once the cake has cooled down, slice it and arrange in a serving dish. 

2. Place a couple of scoops of ice-cream of your choice to the side. I have used vanilla ice-cream here since my cake was chocolate.

3. Pour the chocolate sauce - little amount or ample - as you like it and serve before the ice-cream melts or dig right in if its for you...

Cook With Love!