Coconut Halwa

Greetings to all my readers,


Among the varieties of halwa , this time its coconut halwa. A better option to serve as desert . This is my own recipe and tried at home several times.  kindly go through the recipe below.

Ingredients:-


1 - grated fresh coconut
1/2 litre - milk
5 cooking spoon - condensed milk
Ghee - 2 cooking spoon
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Almonds - 5 to 6 pieces
Cashew nut - 5 to 6 pieces
Golden raisin ( kishmish) -  5 to 6 pieces
Cardamom powder (elaichi) - 2tbs




How to:

• Heat the ghee in deep pan and add grated fresh coconut to it. Mix it well and let it cook till the coconut is light pink in colour. If required add more ghee to it. Keep stirring the mixture.
• Add milk and condensed milk and sugar. If condensed milk is sweet then add sugar according to taste.
• Cook it for 10 min and stir it
• Add cardamom powder and golden raisin to it. Stir till the mixture soaks all the milk and its thick.
• Garnish it with dry fruits and serve it hot.

Cassava Vada

Dear readers,


I  always try to cook varities of vadas. This time its cassava, a substitute to potato while cooking. It is one of the staple diet of kerala state of India. Cassava vada is easy to cook and tasty as well.

Ingredients:-


Cassava - 400gms 
Boiled potato - 3
Salt, chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder - as per taste
Lemon juice - 1 tbs
Sugar - 1/2 tbs
Green chilli chopped - 1
Cooking oil - for deep fry.


Preparation:-

• Mash boiled potatoes and add salt, chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder , lemon juice and sugar with chopped green chilli to form mixture.
• Grate the cassava and add it to the above mixture . Now make equal ball shape vadas.
• Heat the cooking oil in pan for deep fry, and fry the vadas till it turns light brown .

Serve it hot with coconut chatni or tomato ketchup. 

Pav Bhaji

Dear Readers,


Pav Bhaji is popular dish of Maharashtra state in India. Its availability and popularity is mainly in metro cities like mumbai and pune. The origin of this dish is traced to the hectic day of the textile mills in mumbai. The labourers used to have too short lunch break to have full lunch and light lunch was preferred. A vendor created this dish as a substitute to full meal, roti and other indian bread was replaced with Pav (bun) and rice and other meal item was replaced with bhaji ( curry made of mixed vegetables ). Initially it remained the meal of mill workers but with time its popularity spread among restaurants of city . Its popularity is world wide as mainly served as fast food in restaurants of Asian countries like Singapore , Hong kong and U.S.A and U.K. Now a days in most of the families Pav bhaji is common dish , its preparation is easy and mentioned below.
                          

                              Serves - 4 to 5 persons

Ingredients:


Boiled Vegetables - 500gms 
Preferably potatoes, brinjal, green peas (mutter), cauliflower, cabbage, carrot.
Butter - 2tbs
Chilli powder - 3tbs
Turmeric - 2tbs
Coriander powder - 3tbs
Salt 
Lemon juice - 1 tbs


For Gravy:-


Tomato - 2
Onion - 2
Garlic paste - 1 tbs
Ginger paste - 1tbs
Green chilli - 1


For Pav bhaji masala:-


Red chillis - 50gms
Coriander seeds - 50gms
Cumin seeds, Black pepper,cinamon,clove -25gms each
Black cardamom - 4 to 5
Dry mango powder - 25gms




How to:

1. Mash all the boiled vegetables.
2. For gravy, grind the tomato, onion green chilli, ginger and garlic paste in food processor.
3. For masala roast all the ingredients and grind in food processor.
4. Heat the butter in pan and add the gravy to it, let it cook for 5min.
5. Later on add the mashed boiled vegetables to the gravy and mix well.
6. Add the chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder , lemon juice and salt as per taste.
7. Add 4tbs of the pav bhaji masala or if required more spicy add accordingly.
8. Cook it for 15min at low flame , serve it hot by garnishing it with coriander leaves.
9. For Pav, slice pav into 2 piece from middle and  fry lightly on both the sides with ghee or butter on Tava.

Tip :-
The pav bhaji masala can be stored in air tight container and used when needed. Now a days pav bhaji masala is available ready made in the market.


At my home this dish is often cooked and preferred with salad, butter milk and pappadum.

Dal fry

Dear Readers,


Dal fry is often cooked at my home due to its nutritional value of protein and fast to cook and tasty as well. It can be substitute to main course . At home its usually with punjabi dishes and also at times in lunch with chapatti (indian bread). 
The entire taste of Dal fry is based on Tadka. Below is the recipe.


Ingredients:


Tur dal - 3 cup Boiled
Chopped onion - 1
Chopped tomato - 1
Chopped green chili - 1
Lemon juice - 1tbs
Salt 

For tempering:


Cooking oil - 4tbs
Black mustard seeds  (Rai) - 1tbs
Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - 1tbs
Clove - 4 to 5
Fenugreek Seeds (methi) - 1/2 tbs
Garlic Paste - 1 tbs
Neem leaves - 4 to 5
Chilli powder and turmeric - 1/2 spoon each
Asafoetida (hing) - 1/4 tbs


Preparation :

1. Heat cooking oil in deep pan and add black mustard seeds (rai) and cumin seeds (Jeera) to it.
2. When it starts crackling, add clove, fenugreek seeds (methi) , Neem leaves and garlic paste. Be careful while cooking as the crackling mustard seeds, cumin seeds and clove may pop out of the pan.
3. Add chilli powder and turmeric and asafoetida (hing) to it and quickly add the chopped onion and tomato and green chilli.
4. Let it cook for 5min and then add boiled dal to it.
5. Add 2 cup water and again add salt as per taste, lemon juice, chilli powder , turmeric and coriander powder.

Let it boil for 15min and keep stirring , garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot.
                                     Serves 4 to 5 persons.

Methi Mutter Malai Sabji

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Hello everyone,

Today's recipe is of punjabi sabji. The story behind this recipe is interesting , we been to restaurant and read this in menu card, but it did not attract me much to order as combination of methi (fenugreek leaves) and mutter ( Green Peas) sound odd to me . Later on we were invited for dinner by one of my friend and had the same sabji. Really it was so delicious that i was convienced to cook on my own. There after i tried this at home twice and ready to share the recipe. The uniqueness of this sabji is it has all the ingredients like dry fruits, green vegetable, malai, along with different spices. No doubt easy and fast to cook, so here we go with the ingredients list and its method.

Ingredients:

Fenugreek Leaves  (Methi )- 400 gms

Green Peas ( mutter) - 200 gms

Malai - 1/2 cup 

Salt - 1tbs

Chilli powder , turmeric and coriander powder - 2tbs each

For  Gravy:

Cashew Nuts - 16 pieces

Green Chilli - 2

Mint ( Phudina leaves) - 50 gms

Clove - 2 to 3

Ginger paste - 2tbs

Garlic paste - 2tbs

Onion Chopped - 1

Salt, chilli powder, turmeric, and coriander powder - 1tbs each

Cooking oil - 3 tbs

How To:

1. For gravy, grind in food processor the cashew nuts, green chilli, mint clove along with ginger paste, garlic paste and chopped onion in addition to salt, chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder as mentioned above.
2. If the green peas ( mutter) are frozen , boil it for a while before adding to the gravy.
3. Heat the cooking oil in a pan , add the gravy and 1/2 cup water to it and cook for 5min.
4. Add the fenugreek leaves ( methi) and the green peas ( mutter) to it and add 1 cup water.
5. Add 1tbs salt and 2tbs each of chilli powder, turmeric and coriander powder.
6. Let it cook for 10 min and the sabji is ready.
7. Malai if thick  or frozen then turn it into semi liquid and with spoon garnish it in round shape on the top of the sabji in the serving bowl.

Tip:

 Garnish malai on the hot sabji just before serving. 

Must say that while cooking this sabji, the smell of it did spread in the whole house  due to the gravy of cashew nut along with mint and fenugreek leaves ( methi). One can easily make out that some delicious dish is cooked. I am sure while reading itself feeling tempted , so don't wait and cook it as soon as possible . I had it with paratha, dal fry and jeera rice.  Serves 4 to 5 persons.