Naan Khatai - Coming Soon!

Chilli Paneer - Coming Soon!

Radhika's Birthday "Something Edible" for her 29th!

This is a continuation of a conversation between my bestie and myself, which started a few days before this blog post, and continued...

Bestie: I think you should make me 29 desserts for my 29th birthday.!
Me: No.

A few days later...

Bestie: I think you should make me 29 desserts for my 29th birthday, and give me the 29th one on my 29th birthday!
Me: No. I'm travelling out of town on your birthday, I won't be here!

And then a few more days later when I had made the Chilli Paneer and had Bestie's Fiance and our other Bestie (not in the conversation below, as he was just enjoying eating the Chilli Paneer!)

Bestie: I really think you want to make me 29 desserts for my 29th birthday
Me: It's a bad idea. You're getting married in 8 months time!
Fiance: What?
Me: I'm not doing it!
Bestie: I realllllllly think you should!

Come December 29th, and I made the first 1/29...

Me: I've made your first 1 of 29
Bestie: I knew you would do it!
Me: Yes, I can't help it. You're getting married and I'm getting all sentimental!
Bestie: Yay!
Me: But its not going to be all desserts. That would be bad. I'll be making savory dishes too.
Bestie: I like that!
Me: Oh, and you should read the rules I have on FB too!

The Grading & Rules:

*** Rules & Conditions ***

1. Whatever I make, you (Radhika Bajaria) will need to eat! LOL
   
2. I may not be able to make 29 items before February 16 2011, but shall try.
   
3. If I cannot make 29 items by the said birthday date, then I will graciously keep making items in your name until you are married, after then, the responsibility of all your future birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, etc., goes to your Babe (Umesh Nawani) :))
   
4. If before the said birthday date, I am unable to make 29 items, only then will I repeat a recipe! :))
   
5. I'm thinking...

*** Grading ***
A - I can eat this for a week! (Being realistic, because who wants to eat something for the rest of their life? Okay, if it really is that good, then you can give me an A*)
B - This is great! Wouldn't mind it occasionally!
C - Nice try!
D - YUK!
F - FAIL! I need some Hajmola!

As I said, this is a continuation of a conversation between my bestie and myself, which started a few days before this blog post, and continued... until I gave in! :))

Kit-Kat Coffee Cruch Hot Chocolate - Coming Soon!

Jallebis! :) - Coming Soon!

Diwali Mithai - Coming Soon!

Jambu - Coming Soon!

Colorful Coconut Barfi Balls - Coming Soon!

Penda People - Coming Soon!

Orange-Cranberry & Walnut Barfee - Coming Soon!

Roasted Almond Chocolate Barfi - Coming Soon!

Tom Yum Soup - Coming Soon!

Handvo - Coming soon!

Pani Puri - Coming Soon!

Pudla (Savory Chickpea Pancakes)

I've been a little lazy and haven't been cooking as much... So, now I'm back. It's a Saturday night, and I wanted to eat something hot like parathas! However, I didn't have the energy to make the paratha dough, roll it out, the fry it... Too many steps! I had besan. What Indian kitchen is without besan (unless you've just ran out!) In terms of vegetables I had an onion, tomatoes, spinach and fresh coriander leaves. I also had ginger, garlic and green chilles.  Put all those ingredients together in a batter, and voila! You'll have pudla for dinner tonight!

So, this recipe is not from any website. But you can ask Googlebhai, and he will show you a list of websites which have the actual recipes in terms of the precise ingredients. I kind of just tasted my batter, and adjusted the spices accordingly. The most important part is to get the batter the correct consistency.

1 cup besan flor
1 tbsp whole wheat flour (or chapatti flour, or all purpose flour. This helps hold the batter better)
Grated or very finely chopped roma tomato
Grated or very finely chopped onion )I prefer red onions, as they contain less water)
Finely chopped (chiffons) spinach - about 1/4 cup loosely packed (when chopped)
Finely chopped cilantro - about 5 sprigs, and no need to add the stem after the last leaf

¼ tsp minced garlic

¼ tsp minced ginger

1 minced green chillie

Salt - to taste

Chilli powder - to taste
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of ajwain seeds
Water - as needed
Oil for frying

1. Mix all the above together (except for the oil) and add water so that the batter is like pankcake batter
2. Heat a frying pan (medium heat on an electric stove works for me), add a little oil, put in a dollop of batter and spread it in a circular motion
3. If your frying pan has a lid, then cover the pudlo so that the top is steam-cooked
4. When the bottom is cooked brown, but not burnt, flip over and cook the other side so that it is brown too.

And I like to eat mine hot hot hot with some cold yogurt! Yummy!

Oh, and a good Pudlo is one which has a sponge, or as we call in Gujarari "jaari" texture. In other words, slight holes due to the fermentation.

Roasted Cauliflower Steaks!

Having become a fan of the Aarti Paarti blog / YouTube channel, I surfing through their recipes, I came across the following: Roasted Cauliflower Steaks. AND I had a cauliflower from the local farmers market. Could I become any healthier? :) The dish is extremely simple to make. My twist was that I just seasoned the Cauliflower with salt, pepper, cumin and garam masala. The original recipe has amchur (dried mango powder) and I was so hungry, that I didn't have the patience to try and find my amchur! Oh, and I didn't have greek yogurt, just standard low-fat yogurt in which I added a little microplaned ginger. Now although the twisted raita was edible, I did find it a little runny, so I would recommend you use full-fat/strained or greek yogurt. And the ginger - nah! It was a nice try! LOL

1 medium cauliflower head, stripped of leaves and stalk chopped off
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp garam masala
salt and pepper to taste (I prefer rock salt and freshly grated pepper)
½ cup low fat greek yoghurt
zest from one lime
splash extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Slice cauliflower down the middle, or either side of the middle so that you have 1-inch steaks. (If any break in florets, then that is okay too, you can use them as well.)
3. Mix the olive oil, cumin, garam masala and salt and pepper
4. Rub the oil mixture all over the cauliflowers
5. Place the cauliflower on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes then carefully flip over abd bake for another 5 minutes. The cauliflower should be a little crisp around the edges, and slightly brown.
6. While the cauliflower is being roasted, in a small bowl, combine yogurt with lime zest, season with salt and pepper and squeeze of lime (as much as you like), according to taste. And if you are Gujarati, you will also add just a teensy-weensy bit of sugar into your raita! :)
7. Serve the Cauliflower with the yogurt. It is best eaten hot. (But not that hot that you burn yourself!)

Warm Cucumber & Mint Soup!

I saw this on the website ShowMeTheCurry.com. Their soup was Cool Cucumber Mint Soup.  I was hungry. The AC had been on. So I didn't want it chilled, and so had it warm! And it was spicy! Very spicey! (I had used 4 jalapeños  and had added some birds eye green chilli paste too! Sometimes, my "twist" does get carried away!)

I had it with Papads (also known as pappadum)

1 medium onion - diced (can be large dices)
1 tomato - chopped
3 jalapeños - sliced
3 cloves of garlic - diced
½ ginger paste
2 cucumbers - deseeded and chopped (about ½ wide)
Handful of mint,
3 cups of vegetable broth
½ cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to season
A little olive oil for sauteing

1. Heat the oil, and saute the onion, jalapeños, and garlic.
2. When nearly done, add in the tomatoes and ginger.
3. Allow to cool,. add some of the vegetable broth, and blend in a blender/food processor
4. Add in the mint leaves and sour cream, and blend.
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Voila!

And that's it. Very easy! Very yummy! Even if it is a little spicy! :)

I did have mine warm. However, I'm sure that in very hot weather this soup would taste great cold.  It's also very nutritious, low in carbs, and great for diabetics too!

Kothimbir Vadi and Koshimbir

1This is a simple and delicious snack for warm weather. I wanted to cook something different, so started Googling. One of my friends from Mumbai was going to come and visit me, and although I she said not to cook anything, I just wanted to! Since she hailed from Maharashtra, I decided to Google for Maharashtrian foods.

Kothimbir Vadi is a similar to Dhokla. It is steamed but made with chick-pea flour and coriander/cilantro. And most of the spices are the same as what is used in Dhokla. Koshimbir is a raita with ground peanuts.

Kothimbir Vadi
1 cup chick-pea flour
¼ cup wheat flour and semolina
1 tbsp rice flour
¾ tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp green chilli paste

½ tsp ajwain seeds

½ tsp citric acid

1 fresh lemon, juiced (about 1-1 ½ tbsp)
Pinch of hing/asafoetida

2 cups packed chopped coriander/cilantro. (User the lead and soft stems, but not the hard stems)
1 ¼ tspn eno

1. Mix everything together except the eno
2. Add water to your steamer pot and heat on medium (you should have enough water to boil/steam for 30 minutes).
3. Spray/coat the pans/trays with a little oil
4. Add the Eno to the batter you are going to steam, whisk quickly and pour into trays. 
5. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from steamer and allow to cool
7. Score a knife around the edge and cut like a cake (I cut mine into 8 triangular pieces)
8. This part is optional, but you can toast these on both sides with just a teeny-weeny smidgen of oil.
9. Serve with Koshimbir (recipe follows)

Koshimbir Raita

¼ grated cucumber
¼ grated tomato
¼ grated onion
½ cup yogurt
½ salt
½ sugar
½ cumin
2 tbsp peanut powder
A few sprigs of chopped coriander leaves

1. Grate the cucumber, just a little salt and leave for 5 mins
2. Squeeze the water out from the grated cucumber
3. Mix all the above ingredients together

Enjoy!  

Timings did not work out, and my friend was unable to come! :(

I did take a very photo of my Kothimbir Vadi and Koshimbir. The photo is not that great, but the dish certainly was! In fact, next time I go to a barbeque I'm going to make the Koshimbir raita! I could eat it by the bowl!

Hmmm... I want some more Koshimbir! :)

Below are two more photos. The one on the left is the Kothimbir Vadi straight out of the steamer, and the one on the right is the Kothimbir Vadi toasted.

  

Earl-Grey Tea Kesar-Elaichi Kulfi Pops!

"What?" you maybe asking yourself? "Earl-Grey Kesar-Elaichi Kulfi Pops?"

Yes! That's right! A little twist on the desi kulfi where we use Earl-Grey tea.  It really does taste yummy! So good, that I didn't even have a chance to take a photo, because they are that good!

I've been watching Foodnetwork TV's "The Next Food Network Star" (season 6) and have become a BIG fan of Aarti Sequeira. She has inspired so many people (just read her Facebook fan page) to cook, and I am one of them! In fact, Aarti commented on one of my posts I made on her page. And yes, I did take a screenshot, and that is what you see below!

So the original recipe for Earl-Grey Kulfi Pops is Aarti's. And you can find the original recipe here. What follows below is my recipe, with my own minor twists!

12oz can unsweetened evaporated milk
6 earl grey tea bags (or 6 tspns if it is loose)
14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy/whipping cream
½ tspn ground cardamom (elaichi)
¼ cup whole unshelled unsalted pistachios (roast these a little, let them cool, then chop them up)
A pinch of saffron (kesar)
A few drops of rose essence

1. Add the earl grey tea to the evaporated milk and heat. Keep stirring occasionally. When you see little bubbles appear around the edges, switch off and take off the heat. Cover, and let it cool.
2. To the cooled mixture, add the sweetened condensed milk, and heavy whipping cream and give a good whisk! It will help build muscles!
3. Crush the cardamom and saffron up together.  Even if the cardamom is ground up, it will help grind the saffron.  I do this with my pestle and mortar. Add to the mixture.
4. Add the chopped pistachios and a few of drops of rose essence. Mix.
5. Pour into popsicle mounds (I use these, and so does Aarti) or Ice cube trays or a cake pan (and you'll need to slice like a cake when cool.)
6. Allow to freeze! The kulfi takes about 4-6 hours to freeze in the popsicle mounds. If you poured the mixture in a cake pan, it will take longer.
7. When you're ready to eat them, I just let them sit outside of the freezer for a couple of minutes and then the popsicle cover just slides off.

Enjoy!  Oh, and below is the post that Aarti made!

Unfortunately, I did not have any photos of the actual Kulfi out of the Popsicle mold, except when I took them out! So, enjoy! :)

Dhokla

"Tum Gujarati log kitne cute hote ho! Par tum logo ka khana khatar naak kyon hota hai? Dhokla! Fafda! Handva! Thepla! Khakhra! Aise laga hai kae jaise missiles hai!" 

-- Pia (Kareena Kapoor) from the movie "3 Idiots"

I love the movie "3 Idiots". I also love Dhoklas (or as some Gujarati's pronounce, "dhokras"). And I love th above dialog. Moreover, I love making dhoklas and feeding friends!

My Mother is a fantastic cook! In fact, my Mother is a very talented woman, and credit goes to her for my all that I have learned.  However, being the person I am, I do tend to add a little twist to recipes. Or as I call it - I Dipafy them! :)

I describe dhoklas as "steamed semolina savory cakes". Don't they look yummy! I will try and upload a clearer photo when I make them next time.

The recipe follows. The recipe is also precise. If you follow it as it is, it will taste delicious. However, adjust the spices and seasoning according to your taste.  For the record, I had friends over, and for the record, Prashant said "These are better than my Moms!" Now that is one great compliment!

I serve these with a tamarind chutney (will one day post it up). However, traditionally, dhoklas are served with a "Lili chutney" -- where "Lili" simply means Green, and the green comes from the fresh coriander (cilantro). So, you could also call it cilantro chutney!

The only special equipment I have is a idli steamer which has 4 round dhokla trays (7 ¾ diameter x 1" high). If you don't have one, you just need to to have a vessel in which you can steam what looks like brownie pans in.

For the Batter

3 cups semolina

¼ cup chick-pea (garbanzo bean) flour (also known as besan or gram flour)

3 tbsp oil

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp citric acid

½ tsp sugar

1 ¾ tbsp salt

¾ tsp ginger paste

1 tsp green chilli paste

¾ cup sour cream (or yogurt) -- the sour cream is my twist! My Mother's recipe uses yogurt.

2 cups water

2 ½ tsp Eno

Red chilli powder for sprinkling

Oil for spraying/coating the pans/trays

For the Vaghar/Tarka (tempering)

4 tbsp oil

1 dry red chilli (if these are small, add a few)

2 tsp black mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp cumin

Pinch of hing/asafoetida

Chopped coriander for garnishing

1. Mix semolina, chick-pea flour and oil together
2. Add water to your steamer pot and heat on medium (you should have enough water to boil/steam for 30 minutes).
3. Spray/coat the pans/trays with a little oil
4. Add all the remaining ingredients except the Eno and red chilli powder (The above recipe goes into my steamer of 4 trays at the same time, If you think you will need to split the batter into two or 3 times to get it into your Idli trays, then split the batter up now).
5. Add the Eno to the batter you are going to steam, whisk quickly and pour into trays. Sprinkle a little red chilli powder. If you are only using ½ the batter, add only 1 ¼ tsps of Eno - adjust accordingly.
6. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes.
7. Be careful when taking the lid off the steamer! We don't want any scalds!
8. Take the dhoklas out of the steamer and let the pans/trays cool for 10 mins. 
9. Score a knife around the edge and cut the dhokla whille still in the tray.
10. To make the vaghar/tarka (tempering), heat the oil in a pan
11. Add a few mustard seeds, and when these pop, add the hing/asafoetida, red chilli, remaining mustard seeds and cumin. Everything will start popping, so cover your pot, and take it off the heat.
12. Drizzle the oil over the dhoklas with the rai and jeeru mixture. You just want to make sure that the dhokla is covered and not wet. The oil helps because the dhokla is very dry! If there is any oil left, you can throw it away, but try and get all the rai and jeeru on the pieces.
13. Garnish with the corriander on top, then move the pieces into another container.

If you've used your Idli container and need to steam another batch of batter, then you can do the vaghar/tarka at the end. Just take these round dhoklas out on a plate and let them wait for the remaining batches to be steamed!

Enjoy!

Hello World!

Welcome to Deewani's Duniya! Yes, finally... 6 months late, but I've managed to start my "Deewani's Delights!" blog.

"Deewani" as I like to think is "an intense, excited, enthusiastic, passionate crazy" person! And "Delights" is simply "joy". As a person, I am a deewani, and I hope to bring you some joy with this blog. I do love cooking! It's just that for a while, I became lazy, just not wanting to cook at all!

Anyway, I see food as a science, chemistry, an experiment to arouse the senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, sound. The first four are easy... It's the 5th one which will be hard, unless you're listening to my pots and pans banging. Yeah... maybe I'll bring some sound into this with some Bollywood songs. See, I told you I'm Deewani! :)

Welcome!

Welcome to Deewani's Duniya!