Bread Gulab Jamuns

Divu's on a cooking spree these days, and yesterday, she thought of trying the Bread Gulab Jamuns that her granny used to make. Here's the recipe:


Ingredients:


* White bread - around 10 slices
* Milk
* Sugar - 2 bowls
* Raisins
* Vegetable Oil


Procedure:


Remove the sides of the bread slices and crush the white part. Mix milk with bread and prepare a dough. Make sure that the dough is neither too hard nor too soft. So, add just the right quantity of milk.


Grease your hands with oil and make small-sized balls using the dough. Put some raisins inside each jamun. Keep the size of the jamuns small to avoid the taste of raw bread. Heat enough oil in a pan and deep-fry the jamuns till they turn golden-brown. Simultaneously, prepare the sugar syrup by boiling sugar and water till the solution becomes dense. Make sure that the syrup is free-flowing.


Soak the jamuns in the syrup for an hour or so. Warm the gulab jamuns before you serve them.

Methi Matar Malaai

Just before the dinner, at around 8 PM, I felt like having something different and my mind started going back to my bachelorhood days when I used to eat daily at a small restaurant. That was the place where I had made friends with the owner and would always order something off the menu and the chef would always make me the dishes I ordered in the way I wanted them. Of those, one of my favs was Methi Matar Malaai and I made it today. Here's the recipe.


Preparation time: 15-20 Minutes


Ingredients:

• Matar (Green Peas - Fresh or Frozen) - 1 Bowl
• Methi (Fennel Leaves) - 1/4 Bowl - You may chose fresh/dry leaves and if you chose dry, soak in fresh water before use
• Cream/Malai - Half Bowl
• Red Onions - One
• Tomatoes (optional) - One
• Jeera (Cumin seeds), Red chilly powder, Salt, and Kitchen King (a pinch of it for taste)

Procedure:
Heat 1 TSP oil in a pan. When it gets real hot, put cumin seeds in it and let them change their color to dark brown. Add the finely chopped onion and stir fry till they become golden brown. At this stage, you can also add chopped tomatoes (if you wish) to the onions and fry them. Now add the peas and stir for 2-3 mins.

Add the remaining spices, except Kitchen King. We'll save it for the end. Fry the mixture for a min and then cover it to let the peas cook for some time.

After 2 mins, add the fennel leaves and mix them well with the peas. Stir the mixture for 1 more min. You'd now get the nice aroma of the fennel leaves.

Now add cream and mix it properly. Also, add a pinch of Kitchen King to flavor it. Methi Matar Malai is almost ready now. While serving, pour a TSP of ghee on it. Tastes amazing! :-)
Have it with garma-garam fulkas (chapattis), Naan ...slurp slurp!

Besan Kadhi - Simple Quick and Tasty

Most of the time, the young / adults, married or unmarried, are running short of time. Hardly anyone has the patience to spend time in kitchen. For all those enthusiasts (I used to be one of those) who want to eat some good homemade food and that too with minimum effort, here is the simplest dish from my kitchen : Besan (Gram Flour) Ki Kadhi (don't confuse it with Curry).

PS: I am not adding any pakoda's in it, if you prefer, you can prepare pakoda (bhajjhi) separately and then add to the kadhi at the end

Total Time - 10 mins

Ingredients:

Gram Flour: 2 Bowls
Water: 5 Times the Gram Flour
Curd / Yogurt: 2 Bowls
Coriander Seeds: 1 TSP
Red Chilly Powder: 1/2 TSP
Red Dry Chillies: 3 - 4
Turmeric Powder: 3/4 TSP
Asafetida Powder: Pinch of it, as per taste
Salt: Per Taste
Vegetable Oil: 4-5 TSP

Preparation:

0th Min: Mix Gram Flour with 2 bowls of water. Make sure that you get rid of flour lumps if there are any.

1st Min: Heat 2 TSP vegetable oil in a wide pan, and when hot, add coriander seeds, red chilly powder, turmeric powder in it. It would take less than 5-7 seconds for the spices to start blackening,

1 Min: Add the gram flour + water mixture in the pan and stir it for 2-3 mins. Make sure that you constantly stir the whole mixture with a spatula. If you don't, lumps will get formed at the bottom and the whole mixture will have to be dumped. Add remaining water if the lumps are forming and add more if required.

4 Min: Mix the Curd / Yogurt with little amount of water to make a slurry. Add the slurry to the mixture and keep stirring for another 1 min.

5 Min: Add salt to the mixture and keep stirring for sometime.

6 Min: Let the mixture come to a boil. This might take 2 mins.

8 Min: Heat 2 TSP Vegetable oil in a small pan. When the oil becomes super-hot, add some coriander seeds and dry red chillies. It would take a couple of seconds for this 'tadka' to be ready.

9 Min: Pour the 'tadka' over the mixture and your KADHI IS READY.

Serve HOT with fresh cooked Basmati Rice.

Aaloo Achari - on public demand!

So this happened a week ago when Divu was continuously trying out new stuff and happened to try Achari Aaloo as well. They turned out so good the first time that we decided to make it for the next potluck. And this time, I gave her a hand. ;) They tend to become a hit with everyone and people have been asking for its recipe since long. So here it is, on public demand! :)

Ingredients:

• Potatoes (medium-sized, boiled, and cut into wedges - around 1 inch Size ) - 4-5
• Medium-sized Red onions (ground) - 4-5
• Ginger paste - 1 TSP
• Garlic paste - 1 TSP
• Salt, turmeric powder (haldi), red chilly powder, cumin seeds (jeera), mustard seeds (sarson), onion seeds (kalaounji) - all to taste
• Whole red dry chilies - 3-4
• Cooking oil

Keep these two aside as extras for the end :-)

• Sugar (1 TSP)
• Vinegar (1/3 cup)

Procedure:

1. Deep fry the potato wedges in oil till they are golden and keep them aside.
2. Heat one TSP oil in a wok, add onion paste to it, and saute it till it turns brown.
3. Make sure that you stir the paste constantly to avoid overcooking it. We need a light brown color - no dark shades. :) In less moisture, the onions should not take more than 3-4 mins to get the right color, but if the moisture is high, they might take 2 extra mins.
4. Add garlic and ginger paste to it and saute for some more time - around 3-4 mins.
5. Add salt, red chilly powder, turmeric, and then stir for a min ; at this point, the hot mixture should start releasing its fragrance and you can smell the taste :-) "Make sure you don't have runny nose at this time or you would miss some real good fragrances. ;-) "
6. Add the fried potatoes now.
7. Mix the potatoes well with the mixture and add a cup of water to it. We don't want to make the potatoes float and nor do we want them to be dry. So add water appropriately.
8. Let the mixture cook on low flame for 3-4 minutes.
9. Heat 1 TSP of oil in another pan.
10. Add whole red chillies, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and onion seeds to it.
11. We did not have whole red chillies so we used chilly flakes. :)
12. When the seeds begin to crackle and the chillies turn dark, pour this mixture on the top of the potatoes.
13. Achari Aaloo is ready steady go!

I had earlier asked you to keep Vinegar and Sugar aside; here is why. The above recipe will give you salty Achari Aaloo. If you intend to make it a little sweet to maskofy your "woh" do this:


After step 6-7 (adding water and stirring), mix sugar and vinegar in a separate bowl and add it to the mixture. Stir it for 1-2 mins and then do the remaining steps.

Aaloo Achari would go best with garma-garam pooris, butter naan, and my personal favzz Plain Lachhaa Paranthaazzzz....yummmyyy mummmyy.


Best of Luck and Enjoyzzz!