Category: Appetizers

When you suddenly have cravings for south Indian food and you want to dish something yummy without wanting to soak or ferment. This recipe was shared by my colleague’s mother-in-law. Her tiffin used to have such amazing snacks and typical South Indian flavors.  Here is a simple recipe

Ingredients

• One Cup- Poha grinded
• One Cup Sooji
• Half Cup curd
• 2 tablespoons rice flour
• One boiled Potato- grated
• One Cup of Coriander leaves chopped
• 5 curry leave chopped
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• One-fourth teaspoon of Baking soda
• One Onion chopped (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of oil in the batter and
• Additional oil for deep frying

Method

• Poha should be grinded finely
• Mix poha, sooji, and curd and leave for 15 min
• Add remaining ingredients to the soaked mixture and mix well
• Give it shape as per your liking and deep fry in oil
• Please note you will need hot oil when you put them and then pl cook them on medium heat till they are cooked well from the inside

You can add onion or grated carrot to make it more interesting or give your twist. Serve with either Green Chutney or Coconut Chutney

Easy breakfast toast recipe

There can be two versions of the same thing and you can add any vegetables of your choice or even make it as a sandwich.

Garlic toast

Ingredients

• Amul garlic and herb butter
• Any seasoning of your choice(oregano,chili)
• Salt to taste
• Any type of bread you prefer

Method

• Add your favorite seasonings in the butter 
• Spread it over the bread
• Before popping it in the oven you can add your favorite veggies(corn,capsicum,cucumber)(optional)
• And bake in the oven till golden brown and crispy
• Serve hot!

Chili cheese toast

Ingredients

• Amul garlic and herb butter
• Any seasoning of your choice(oregano,chili)
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 green chilies chopped finely
• Any type of your favorite cheese
• Any type of bread you prefer

Method

• Add your favorite seasonings in the butter 
• Spread it over the bread
• Add the cheese
• Add the chili
• Before popping it in the oven you can add your favorite veggies(corn,capsicum,cucumber)(optional)
• And bake in the oven till golden brown and crispy
• Serve hot!!

Let our creativity go wild with crazy variations … .there can be endless possibilities to it…let your brain do your thing!!

Note:- We did not add any veggies to show the simpler version of garlic toast

This is a simple tikka recipe and you can add vegetables, paneer or nonveg of your choice. In the below recipes I have used cauliflower and paneer to make sure  the kids eat the vegetables

Ingredients

• 100  grams Paneer cut in cubes
• One Onion cut into thick wedges
• One capsicum cut into one-inch pieces
• One cup of cauliflower florets
• One Tomato with pulp removed and cut into pieces
• One and a half tablespoons hung curd
• One teaspoon besan
• Half teaspoon ginger paste
• Half a teaspoon of garlic paste
• One teaspoon of lemon juice
• Half a teaspoon of jeera powder
• Half a teaspoon of Dhania powder
• One tablespoon oil
• Salt to taste
• One teaspoon of tandoori powder
• Half teaspoon halide powder
• One teaspoon of chili powder
• One or two green chili chopped
• Half teaspoon kasoori methi

Method

Mix all the ingredients of marinade and grind them into a paste

Marinate paneer, onion, tomato, capsicum with the marinade paste

Keep aside for at least half an hour

Grill in an oven (180 degrees)for 8-10 minutes or cook in a non-stick pan with a teaspoon of oil. cook on all sides till light brown (4-5 minutes)

Note:- You can even add broccoli or bell peppers

These are best for vegetarians and have a good protein content and gives a change to boring salads.

Ingredients

• Two cups boiled Black Channa
• One medium size Onion finely chopped
• Two Carrot grated
• One teaspoon Grated ginger
• Three green chilies
• One tablespoon cornstarch/oats flour or roasted besan
• One Teaspoon garam masala
• One teaspoon amchur powder/Dry Mango Powder
• Salt to taste
• Oil for grilling or shallow frying
• Onion rings, lemon juice and chaat masala for garnishing

Method

1)  Soak black Channa overnight and boil with salt and basic spices

2)  Once cooled, grind them in coarse paste

3)  Mix all the ingredient and form a dough

4)  Make small bowls and grill them till golden brown

This is a healthy snack and a complete meal itself.

Tips– while boiling Channa’s you can add bay leaf, clove and black cardamom and garlic

You can also add beans, beetroot or vegetables of your choice by blanching them and grinding with Channa’s

South Indian potato fry

This recipe was taught by my south Indian cook in Bangalore and a very simple one. We would be getting late for office and she would quickly make this for our tiffin. This also became one of my kids favorite and sometimes they even make it themselves. It’s that easy. But I added my own twist into this recipe to make it simpler.

Ingredients For dry masala

1) Two teaspoon Urad Dal

2) Two teaspoon Channa Dal

3) Three dry Red Chilli 

4) One teaspoon black PepperCorns

For tempering

5) Two tablespoon Oil /Ghee

 6) Half teaspoon Urad Dal

 8) Half teaspoon Chana Dal

9) One-fourth teaspoon of Cumin seeds

10)  One-fourth teaspoon of Mustard seeds

11) One-fourth teaspoon Asafoetida powder

12)  A few Curry leaves

Other ingredients

13) One Onion Finely chopped

14) Half teaspoon Turmeric powder

15) Salt to taste

16) 15-20 Boiled and Peeled baby potatoes

17) Tablespoon Podi Powder (U can increase the quantity of this and skip making the dry masalas)

Method

1. First step: Dry roast the Urad Dal, Channa Dal, Red Chilli & Pepper, till it turns golden brown colour.

 2. Cool it & grind it into a fine powder.

 3. Heat Oil in a pan. Add ingredients for tempering Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Cumin seeds & Mustard seeds. Once the Mustard seeds start spluttering add the Asafoetida powder & sauté it.

 4. Then Add Onions & Curry leaves, sauté the onion for a few minutes.

5. When the Onion turns transparent add the Boiled Baby Potatoes, Salt, dry masalas and Podi powder

 6. Mix it well, till all the Potatoes are coated well with Masala powder.

 7. Roast it for few minutes & then turn off the stove

 8. Serve hot with Rice or Hot Rotis

This recipe is very easy and quick to make. It is delicious and finger licking good!!

I prefer to make it with Desi Ghee and a lot of time skip making the dry masalas and use only Podi Powder. In the current one I have been using Home Kouzina – Molgai Powder and it is good. 

This is a very healthy and high protein recipe and a good way to feed the kids oats. This is lipsmacking snack and has replaced the regular tikki.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow moong lentils/Dal
• 1 cup oats
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1tsp garlic
• 2 green chilles chopped
• 1 boiled potato
• 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
• 1 tsp spring onion/ or any vegetable like carrot (optional)
• Dry spices as per taste- garam masala, coriander powder, amchur powder, red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• Little oil for grilling

Method

1. Soak Dal for about 1 hours
2. Cook the dal in one cup water in open pan till dal becomes soft. This step is critical that dal needs to be cooked and not watery.
3. Let it cool and if required you can coarse grind it. I did not grind but mashed with hands.
4. Oats can be ground or used as it is.
5. Mix all the ingredients and shape in rounds
6. Grill them on non stick pan with little or no oil
7. You can serve with regular sauce, mint chuntey or add curd

Tip- In case you find oats making it dry, please add 1 -2 tbsp of curd.

Thanks for the overwhelming response for the last post on Banana Cake. I know the lockdown is making the cook come alive in us. Will try and post things which are readily available at this time.

We all need to have very high protein diet so here is recipe of Kali Masoor ( Black Lentils ) Kabab. This recipe I learnt from my Aunt who is pure vegetarian and religious person. She used to tease us that this is non veg of veg people and you will forget the Lucknow famous Galauti Kabab.  My family esp my sister in law loves this and in any family potluck parties I usually get to make this. So here goes the recipe of bua-nani’s kababs as fondly called in our house.

Ingredients

• Channa dal ½ cup. (Yellow Lentils)
• Kali masoor- ½ cup ( Black lentils)
• Fresh ginger grated- 2tbsp
• Fresh Garlic- 10 pods
• Dry spices
  • 1-mota elachi, 2 laung, 1 stick dalchini, 1-green elachi, 1 tej patta, 1 star flower, one dry red chilli
  • salt and turmeric
•  Fresh coriander + Dry coriander powder- 2tsp
• Amchoor Powder (Dry Mango Powder)- 1 tsp
• Garam Masala – 1tsp
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 green chillies chopped
• Kasthuri methi
• Cornflour /Besan- only if it becomes watery or 1-2 slices of bread
• For Garnishing- Lemon juice, Chat masala and few onion rings

Method

1. Soak both Dal/Lentils together for one hour
2. Pressure cook the soaked Dal with Dry spices and ginger and garlic and water just upto the level of dal in cooker and not more. It needs 1 whistle and 10-12 min on slow flame.
3. Once the pressure is released please check the water level if it is fine then mash the mixture after it is cooled.
4. If it is watery then just add little bread or 1 tbsp of cornflour or you can roast on gas to remove excess water if any
5. Add Fresh coriander, onion, chillies or kasthuri methi , garam masala, coriander powder and shape the Kababs as per your liking
6. Shallow fry them on Tawa, Serve them hot with sprinkled chatmasala, lemon juice, and onion slices and Green chutney.

Do try this and tell me . You could do variation by adding a little different dals or Rajma with Channa dal.

After a long break sat down to write something.  In this crazy lifestyle and Rakhi thrown in the middle I could not find time to pen it down.  A healthy variation when we do not want to eat salad but crunchier vegetables.  I was not a lover of Tofu but forced by doctor to try, so in this recipe I replaced paneer with Tofu. I keep changing vegetables and color palettes to suit everyone’s taste.

Before we start the list some tips to have softer tofu. Soak it in water for 30 min and boil it in salty water.

For Hung curd it is better to use packaged curd and hang it. It gives better taste than homemade. If using homemade curd then hang curd for 4 hours.

Ingredients

• Tofu- 200gm
• Onion -1 cut in thick wedges
• Tomato remove pulp and cut in big pieces
• Capsicum- 1 big cut in 1 inch pieces
• Bell peppers- – 1 big cut in 1 inch pieces
• Broccoli- florets separated
• Ginger paste 1tsp
• Garlic paste- 1tsp
• Lemon juice- 1tsp
• Hung curd- 2 tbsp
• Oil- 1 tbsp in marination and then later for grilling if using a pan instead of oven
• Salt to taste
• Tandoori masala-1tsp
• Chili powder- 1tsp
• Kasthuri methi- 1.2 tsp
• Mango pickle masala – 1tsp optional
• Jeera powder- 1 tsp
• Dhaniya powder- 1tsp

Method

• Mix together ingredients except vegetables in to a paste form
• Mix the vegetable in the paste
• Marinate for ½ to 4 hours in fridge
• Arrange the vegetables in skewer sticks
• Grill in oven for 8-10min or cook in non stick pan or grill pan

You can replace the tofu with boiled chicken cubes. I had sticks readily available so used them but you can generally grill them in a pan and eat them like salad.

Kids just keep changing the vegetables in the marinade. My daughter has added boiled potatoes and even baked chicken nuggets to the paste. More you involve the kids in a little bit of experiment it will make them finish the most hated vegetables.

Another tip is not to increase the hung curd quantity to increase the taste. It will just make the marinade liquid-y

Happy  grilling!!

This week I have spent lot of time thinking what recipe or tips I should be writing for my readers. Interestingly my daughter who is the smart one in our house says that I should talk about the starters you make when we suddenly decide to have play dates or forgetful papa forgets to tell you that he has invited his friends over.  This happens quite often in our house but thanks to our modern societies that you get a intercom before the visitor comes up.  Not sure if I should be thankful for 5 min advance intimation, which is small mercy or get angry with kids or hubby for not telling me on time.

But I guess with guests at door you need to put a smile on the face and greet them, irrespective of whom you want to murder. This recipe is variation of toppings done on biscuits like Monaco or Cream Crackers or Oats biscuits. I make it with whatever vegetables are left in my fridge after last night’s dinner.

I have given it a grand name and I call it Cream Cheese Sweet Corn Crackers.

Ingredients

• I packet of Salted biscuits/ Crackers
• I cup Vegetables chopped finely-( onion, capsicum, bell peppers, carrot , beans)
• Garlic pod- optional
• Vinegar- I tsp
• Chilli sauce- ½ tsp
• Mustard sauce- ½ tsp- optional
• Salt to taste
• ½ tin of cream style corn
• Olive oil or any cooking oil- 1 tbsp
• Grated chesse to put on the top of biscuits about ½ cup
• Chilli flakes

Method

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add garlic and fry for two min and then add the vegetables and sauté for 2-3min
• Add salt and cream style corn
• Sauté for 1min
• Add vinegar and other sauces and mix
• Take a biscuit and put the mixture on the same. Since Crackers are bigger bisucits I put 2 tsp on the same
• Top with some Grated cheese and Chilli flakes
• Grill for 3-4 min and serve hot with ketchup or sweet & sour sauce

Generally they have been a great hit and without people knowing it was done instantly. Incase you donot want to use cream style corn tin, you can put boiled corn and ½ cup of white sauce to give the same effect

Other variation if you do not want cheesy kind but tangy replace this with baked beans and follow the same steps.

This goes well with high tea or drinks or kids menu. This looks very tempting and pleasing to the eyes. You can be creative on the toppings.

Hailing from Lucknow , the city of nawabs how can I forget Tunday kababs!! People including me just can not stop eating at one. The original recipe is secret one but who says we cannot invent one!

With help of my Muslim maid of Lucknow we tried the various combinations of vegetarian versions of the same. So this time instead of talking of cakes and desserts let us try our hand at something very healthy and nutritious.

We came up with our style of lauki ke kabab.. a hit in our parties and forget kids even adults can not make out it is lauki.

Things that you will need

• Channa dal ½ cup . Soak for ½ hour
• One medium size lauki (bottle gourd) cut into pieces
• Spices – 1 mota elaichi (black cardamom), 2 laung (clove), 1 stick dalchini (cinnamon), 1-green elachi (green cardamom), 1 tej patta (bay leaf), 1 star flower
• Few pods of garlic, Grated ginger, One dry red chili
• Salt and turmeric.

Pressure cook everything above with 1/2 cup water. Give it 2 whistles and then 15 min on slow flame. Pl note water should not be too much as lauki also leaves water.

Mash the mixture after it is cooled. If it is watery then please roast on slow flame to remove the excess water or otherwise we would need to increase quantity of bread or corn flour.

To this add two bread slices ground in the mixer, 1 tbsp Corn flour, finely chopped onion, dhaniya leaves, and green chillies. Add garam masala, jeera powder, redchilli powder, salt if needed, kasthuri methi.

Mix all and shape in the form of kababs. Shallow fry them on a flat pan (tawa).

Serve them hot with sprinkled chat masala, lemon juice, and onion slices and Green chutney.