Homemade Pizza From Scratch

Hi everyone,

Who does not like Pizza? The delicious crust, the tangy sauce, the juicy toppings & the cheesy crust mmmmmmm. But what stops us from enjoying this delicacy is the extra fat from the fast food chains & let's not forget, its never easy on the pocket as well.

Like everyone me & my family tried to make the pizza at home, but we always got the base from outside. Now that base is as good as a pita bread / Big bread slice depending on where you get it from. I always wanted to make the pizza from scratch at home & my latest purchase, my beloved oven made it possible for me.

So without further delay,
Here's a simple easy to follow recipe.

Makes 2-3 medium size Pizzas
Preparation time 2-2.5 hours
Cooking time - 20-30 mins

For The Dough :

2 tsp active dry yeast
1.5 cups all purpose flour (maida) or whole wheat flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup warm water (it should be warm enough to dip your pinky in, too hot & the yeast won't rise)

Add sugar, salt & yeast to the warm water & mix gently. Cover it up & leave it undisturbed for 10-12 mins. Try to use a transparent cover so that you can check whether yeast is bubbling or not without disturbing the cup.
PS - If your yeast has not foamed & bubbled, it won't raise so start again with new yeast.

Take the dry flour in a large mixing bowl & add the oil & the yeast water.
Start kneading the dough similar to how you would knead it while making Roti / Chapati / Bread.
If needed use a little extra water. Knead the dough until it's smooth & elastic for 3-4 mins.

Take a ziplock bag & oil the insides well. Now rub olive oil on the dough nicely & place it in the ziplock bag. Leave it in a dry & warm place, I kept it inside my oven itself. Leave the dough undisturbed for at least 2 hours. By this time the dough will have doubled in size.

Rolling out the Dough:

Place the dough on your rolling board & divide it into 2-3 pieces.
Dust your rolling board with a moderate helping of flour & gently start rolling it out like a Roti / Chapati.
For Thin crust pizza - Roll out your dough till it is as thick as a well stuffed Aaloo Paratha
For Thick crust pizza - Roll out your dough till it is as thick as 1.5-2 well stuffed Aaloo Parathas

For The Sauce:
1/2 medium size chopped tomato
1/2 medium size finely chopped onion
3-4 cloves of grated garlic
1/4 tbsp pizza mix herbs / pasta mix herbs OR make a combination of dry basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme or any herb you like
1/4 tbsp dry garlic powder
1/4 tbsp mustard sauce
1/2 tbsp crushed black pepper
1/2 cup tomato ketchup 
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
Water to get the desired consistency 

Take a nonstick pan & add olive oil & garlic to it (add garlic to the cold oil itself to get the best flavour out of it). Once the garlic starts to sizzle add in the finely chopped onions, cook the onions till they become translucent. Add in the tomatoes & salt, cook till the tomatoes get pulpy & start separating.
Add in the dry spices & cook for about a minute followed by ketchup & mustard.
Cook for 2-3 mins & add water. Reduce the sauce to the desired consistency (It should be more or less like runny ketchup for easy spreading.)

The Toppings:
This is a step which depends on your taste.
You can cut some toppings small, some big, do them anyway you like.

I went for a capsicum, mushroom, jalapeño & chicken sausage topping.
I sautéed the mushrooms & capsicum lightly in the pan that I had used to make the sauce. This helped  give my mushrooms & capsicum another dimension of flavour. The jalapeños & chicken sausages were cut into small bite size pieces.

Layering the Pizza:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree C for 8-10 mins with all the four rods elements on.

Dust your baking sheet with some flour & place your rolled out pizza base on it directly. (Alternatively you can also roll out your base & place it on the butter paper & then layer, this step avoids mess & prevents the base from burning. )Add a generous helping of the sauce & spread it all over the base. Make sure to leave half inch space around the edges. Put all your toppings & then top with cheese. Optionally you can brush the non sauce covered area of the base with some olive oil / Garlic oil for the extra flavour. 
Remember to do this as quickly as you can & do not let your topped pizza sit on the tray as it may lead to soggy pizzas.

Place the baking dish in the oven & cook with all four rods on for 7-8 mins or till your pizza starts to shrink a little. Switch to top 2 heating rods & cook for 3-4 mins or till the outer crust starts to develop a little color. Take out your pizza from the oven & drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil.

Your home made pizza is ready to be eaten :)
Making pizza at home may sound complicated but its really easy.
Do try this recipe & let me know how it works out.

Happy Cooking :)

Simple Quick & Easy Palak Paneer

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since I have added anything here. Basically I am adding the recipes which I have perfected. Being a young working women, I am not always able to make my recipes perfect.

Ingredients : (for 2 people)

One Spinach (Palak) bunch

2 medium sized tomatoes / 1 big tomato

2 medium sized Onions / 1 big Onion

3,4 garlic cloves

1/2 inch ginger piece.]

1-2  Green chillies (as per taste, but do use one at least)

Panner (according to preference, I have used 200 gms)

1 tbsp jeera for tampering

1-2 tbsp ghee or 3-4 tbsp oil

1/4 tbsp of red chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder & garam masala

Salt to taste

Preparations

Thinly slice the onions & keep aside. Remember the thinner they are, the better the taste :)

Wash the tomatoes & keep aside. Basically we need to blanch the tomatoes.

This can be done in two ways, either we put them in boiling hot water or cook them for 2-3 mins in microwave. The important thing to remember here is, before we proceed with blanching, we need to remove the top green part & on the bottom side we need to make very thin cuts in a cross shape. This is to loosen the skin of the tomatoes so that they are easier to peel.

So once we have prepared our tomatoes we need to blanch them & then set them aside for at least 10 mins so that they get cooled.

Once the tomatoes have cooled down, take out the skin as much as you can.

Add the blanched tomatoes, garlic, ginger & green chillies to a blender or chopper & process till its a smooth paste.

Now for the spinach-

We need to cut off the roots & wash it properly.

Next we need to take about 100-150 ml (small cup) of water & heat it in a vessel.

Once the water is hot we add the washed spinach to it & cover with a lid.

The idea here is to partly steam & not exactly boil the spinach, boiling the spinach takes out most of the flavour so we should use as little water as we can.

Once the spinach is reduced to half & still looks green, we need to turn off the flame & let it cool.

Once cool, we need to grind it to a fine paste in the blender or chopper. If you need additional water, use the one in which we boiled the spinach.

Take the paneer out & dunk it in warm water if you have time.

Otherwise just cut into small cubes.

Some people like to fry the panner a little in ghee/butter/oil to. I avoid this part for some health reasons but it really enhances the taste :)

Cooking:

Take a kadhai & add the ghee/oil to it.

Once the ghee is hot, add the jeera, please ensure that the jeera floats up in the ghee otherwise it will taste a little raw.

Next add the thinly sliced onions & cook them till their edges start turning a little brown.

Next add the blanched tomato, garlic, chilly ginger mixture & Salt

Cook till the mixture starts to leave the ghee / oil.

Add the pureed spinach to the mixture & mix well. Cook for less then 1.5 mins & add the paneer cubes.

Mix everything and cook for less then 2 mins on medium flame.

Turn off the flame & cover the kadhai with a lid. (this helps keep the paneer soft & palak green & the curry is cooked in its own heat)

Open the lid after 10 mins & your yummy Palak Paneer is ready to be served!

Some people like to top it off with a spoon full of malai or lemon juice to :)

It's very simple & will not take more then 20 mins from start to finish.

Tastes excellent with roti or paratha.

Do let me know how this recipe worked out for you & Happy Cooking :)

Pav Bhaji- Street Style

Ingredients:
Vegetables: Capsicum, Green Chillies, Onion, Beetroot, Tomato, Gobhi, Yellow & Green Peas, Boiled Potatoes, Ginger Garlic Paste, Fresh Coriander.
Spices: Pav Bhaji Masala, ,Turmeric, Red Chilly powder, Kasuri Methi.
Butter, Buns.

Method:
Boil yellow peas (soaked over night) & potatoes with some salt and keep aside Take 2,3 tbsp of butter in the cooking vessel and cook capsicum & green chillies(without seeds) till capsicum is done
Add the boiled yellow peas & green peas, cook till they are tender
Next add finely chopped onions & ginger garlic paste,
Add finely chopped tomatoes & beetroot, salt and cook till tomato melts, mash everything up
Add boiled mashed potato & add water
Add a little chopped coriander while the water is boiling along with pav bhaji masala & some kasuri methi
Keep Mashing till you get the desired consistency 
Turn off the flame & garnish with chopped coriander & half lemon juice.

For the bun, sprinkle some pac bhaji masala over it before toasting in butter

Serve with finely chopped onion & a wedge of lemon

Italian Omelette / Frittata in A Pan

Hi Everyone, 
I realise I have neglected this blog and cooking for a long time now and its making me sad. So here I am, back to my kitchen and now I have decided I will cook something nice every week no matter what and will share my recipes & experiences here. Hope you all like it :)

So today I will be sharing the recipe of Italian omelette ( Frittata). This is a simple dish and makes an awesome breakfast/brunch. Goes really well with simple wheat toast for breakfast or with pasta as brunch on those lazy sunday mornings.

So here's the recipe

Ingredients (for two servings)

3 Fresh Raw eggs
Milk (equal to one egg)
Fresh chopped vegetables, according to taste (I have used Capsicum, Onion, Tomato and garlic. You can also add mushrooms, Zucchini, Broccoli, Parsley, Spinach or pretty much any vegetable you like)
1 tbsp cheese (i have used cheese spread as its readily available)
1/2 tbsp Italian herbs (Basil, Oregano, Parsley etc etc, I have just used Pasta mix which is a premixed mixture of all the italian herbs readily available in market)
1 pinch of black pepper
1 pinch roasted cumin powder
Salt to taste
Olive Oil to taste

Method:

Heat some olive oil in a deep flat pan and add the garlic, let them fry in the oil till they start getting golden spots.
Next add in the onions and wait till they get translucent.
Add in the chopped capsicum and any other vegetable you want to add except for tomatoes and mushroom. Mix everything well and cook for about 30secs.
Next add the chopped tomatoes and mushroom and cook for 20 secs
Sprinkle the herbs all over the vegetables followed by cheese.

Mix everything well and cook till cheese completely melts and coats the vegetables.

Beat the Eggs, Milk, Pepper Powder, Roasted Cumin powder and salt together nicely and pour all over the vegetables in pan. do not mix, the egg mixture will find its way between the vegetables, dont worry about it.

Now cover the pan with a lid and leave for about a minute.
Remove the lid and check if the lower side of Omelette is cooked.

Now this part is a little difficult, since the Omelette is so big, its really difficult to flip it over with out breaking it, so i cut the Omelette into four pieces and then flip each piece. 

Cover again with the lid and cook on low flame for about a minute or as desired.

Tada!! your delicious brunch is now ready to be enjoyed :)

   
Serve with some fresh Juice or Hot coffee along with Wheat Toast or Pasta. 

So go ahead, try this delicious, quick and easy to make Italian Omelette and enjoy a delicious breakfast/Brunch :)

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)

So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Quick & Easy Spaghetti / Pasta !

Hi everyone,
Lately I have had lots of work at office, as a result of which when I come back home, I am just too exhausted to cook anything with a long recipe.

So I make this 10-15mins time taking spaghetti. Its easy, quick, filling & delicious!

So here's the recipe

Ingredients: (for one serving)
Spaghetti ( use any number you like, for one person about 20-30 should be good enough, but its a personal choice)
1 medium sized onion
3-4 peeled cloves of garlic
Italian herbs ( I use this pre mixed mixture of pasta herbs, its easily available in the market, else one can use basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, if fresh herbs are available its even better :)  )
olive oil
1 tbsp cheese (optional use 3-4 tbsp cheese if you like it cheesy :)  )
4 big tbsp ketchup / tomato sauce
1 tbsp any ready made italian sauce ( i like primavera sauce, you can use any red sauce available, trust me using these sauces save a lot of time)

Optional ingredients: (veg)
Capsicum, mushroom, corn, carrots, spinach, basically any vegetable you wanna add. Cut them in small pieces or any way you like
note: if using broccoli or brussel sprouts, dont cook them, add them just 2-3 mins before serving the pasta, else they develop a weird bitter taste

Optional ingredients: (non-veg)
sausages, shredded/diced meat, boiled egg whites
note: if using sausages, add them just 2-3 mins before turning the flame off. There is no harm adding the sausages before, its just then they loose all their flavour. Adding towards the end helps retain their own flavour & yet it absorbs the juices for enough time to blend in.

Method:

Cut the onion in long thin slices, crush the garlic and cut the other vegetables as you like, just make sure the pieces are not too big.

Break the spaghetti into half if you dont have a vessel big enough to boil it. Now we all know boiling pasta takes a lot of time, so I have a short cut, boil the pasta in a pressure cooker with the whistle on, as soon as you get the first whistle, immediately put the cooker under running water till you can open the cooker. Drain the spaghetti / pasta in a strainer taking off all the water, coat with one table spoon oil. It saves a lot of time n the pasta is just al dente (to the bite)

While the spaghetti gets boiled in the pressure cooker, heat about 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. As soon as the oil starts to smoke, add the crushed garlic cloves followed after 5secs by long thin sliced onions. cook the onions till they start to shrivel a bit. Add in the herbs and let them fry a little in the garlic onion oil mixture.

Add the tomatoes n 1/4 tbsp sugar & wait till tomatoes start dissolving.

Next add the cut vegetables and meat/eggs and cook them till they are also al dente. If using boiled meat/eggs, add them after the vegetables are al dente as they dont need much cooking.

Add the spaghetti to the mixture and mix well with all the ingredients. Add in the cheese and keep mixing till all cheese has melted and has coated the vegetables and spaghetti.

Now add the chosen pasta sauce and mix well and let it stay for 30 secs.

Next add the tomato ketchup/readymade pasta sauce and mix. Follow by 1 cup of water ( the quantity should be such that 1/8th of the spaghetti gets covered, our aim is to form a sauce which isn't too liquidy but at the same time the pasta should not feel dry.) Add salt to taste. 

Bring to a boil as you constantly keep mixing, add the sausages if using any.

Turn off the heat and add broccoli / brussel sprouts and mix.

Now is the time to get a bowl and enjoy a delicious easy to cook meal. Tadaa!!

I just use the garlic & onions & sometimes frozen corn to cook after coming from office, & trust me folks, it tastes  really good!

So go ahead, try this basic, quick and easy to make spaghetti :)

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Easy to make sheera/ kesari bhath/ suji ka halwa/ semolina pudding

Hi friends,

I am writing after many days. Finding very little time to write as the work keeps me really busy.
So here I am posting about the easy to make & good to eat sheera.

Its a very good breakfast and since it takes just 10-15 mins to make, its a good choice for when in hurry :)

Ok so let's get started!

Ingredients:
Suji/ rawaa/ semolina
ghee
milk
water
1-2 cardamoms
sugar
Turmeric/ Saffron (To give color)

Time: 10-15 mins

Now as you all would have noticed, I have not specified the quantity, well for this delicacy, there is a ratio, remembering which goes a long way :)

its: 1 cup suji-1 cup sugar-3 cups milk-1 cup water - 2tbsp ghee

Method:

Take a deep bottomed pan ( preferably non stick) and add the suji and powdered cardamom, you can add cardamom at the end to. Add the pinch of turmeric now if you are using it, if using saffron soak it in milk n add when you add milk.
Roast the suji for about 3-4 mins till you just start getting the aroma of roasted suji. Add the ghee now and mix well with the suji.

Now some recipes say you should boil the milk/water and then add sugar to it, but honestly who has all this time, so here's my effective shortcut

Once the suji is roasted, add in the milk and water and keep stirring the mixture constantly. If any big lumps are there, try to break them with the spatula but keep stirring, the lumps dissolve sooner or later. Keep stirring for 2-3 mins like that and then add the cup of sugar and keep mixing and stirring constantly. No stopping the stirring folks, that's the key :)

Now the mixture will come to a boil so be careful while stirring, in a minute or two you will see that the whole mixture starts moving in the pan more or less like one big mass. Now that's the point when you can turn off the flame n tadaa!! :D

Sprinkle with some powdered cardamom and coconut and enjoy :)
P.S if you wanna add dry fruits like resins, cashew nut, almonds etc, put them in while you add ghee, no need to fry, roasting them in ghee along with suji gives them a nice delicate flavour and does not make them heavy.

So here it was, the easy and quick to make sheera/ suji ka halwa/ kesari bhath/ semolina pudding.


If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Ema Datse (Chilly Cheese) Bhutan's National dish

Hi everyone,
Today I am going to share the recipe of Ema Datse with you all. Most of us are not aware of this excellent Bhutan's dish which is excellent for cold weather and for cold treatment. I love having this dish as breakfast or night's dinner or anytime of the day. In Bhutan people have it with every meal. Its really really really healthy!

Ingredients: ( for 2 servings)
1. 2 medium onions, cut into long slices
2. 3-4 Green chillies
3. 2 Medium tomatoes, cut into long slices
4.  one capsicum, cut into long slices
5. Fresh green Spinach leaves, the quantity after cutting should be equal to those of the tomatoes. Cut spinach as you like.
6. One tbsp ghee or clarified butter or normal butter will do although the dish will taste a little different.
7. 1-2 tbsp cream cheese ( the Bhutanese use a spl chesse, but i have seen this gives the flavor atleast, you can use normal cheese to)
8. 1/4 tbsp pepper powder.
9. A pinch of turmeric
10. Salt to taste (at least 3/4 tbsp)

Method:
1. Heat ghee in a deep frying pan till its melted completely. 
2. Split the green chillies from middle or break each chilly into 2 pieces and add to ghee, cook the chillies till they are totally fried. Now you can either leave the chillies in the pan or throw them away. The point of frying them is to remove their heat, yet retain their flavor. So enjoy the taste of green chilly but no need to worry about the acidity :D
3. Next add the onions to fry in the pan. The flame should be kept on high always and onions should be tossed around constantly. Repeat tossing till onions edge starts developing brown color at places and you get a nice aroma.
4. Throw in the spinach leaves at this stage and lower the flame and let the spinach leaves get cooked, after about one minute or so add the cut capsicum.
5. Put the flame back on high and fry for 1-2 mins.
6. Add in the cut tomatoes and fry for about one minute.
7. Add the black pepper,salt, cheese and turmeric and mix thoroughly & fry for about one minute.
8. Add 1 glass of water or as much water as you would like and bring to boil. Boil for 1-2 mins and tadaa! :D

You have your perfect food for cold weather. You can even add shredded/cut pieces of boiled chicken and cook alongside onions if you are a non vegetarian. Adjust the salt according to taste and increase black pepper quantity to 1/2 tbsp n turmeric to 1/4 tbsp.

The dish is really really good, healthy and delicious, it tastes excellent with momos! 

So everyone enjoy this recipe and happy cooking :)


If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Basic Indian Curry / Gravy (Smooth)

Hi everyone! Today I am going to share this basic Indian curry/gravy recipe which is the smooth type. This is the curry/gravy you can use when you want that rich restaurant like smooth curry/gravy. Like the ones they use to cook paneer dishes like paneer butter masala, kadhai paneer , Butter Chicken etc. I'll upload a pic next time I make it. So here is a recipe you can make whenever you feel like eating those restaurant style mild spicy gravies :)

Sample pic of Paneer Butter Masala Curry:

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

1. 2 medium sized Tomatoes
2. 3 medium sized onions
3. 5-6 cloves of garlic
4. 1/2 inch piece of ginger
5. 1 tbsp garam masala/meat masala/kitchen king masala/ powder of 3-4 black pepper corns, 2 cloves, 1 inch bay leaf, 1/2 inch cinnamon, 1/4 black cardamom, 1/4 star anise, 1tbsp cumin and any other spice you can find (better dry roast the spices and then crush them dry using pestle & mortar, you get excellent flavor!!)
6. 1tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) 
6. 1 Green chilly medium size
7. 1/2 tbsp red chilly powder
8. 1/4 tbsp turmeric powder
9. (optional) 1/2 inch piece of beet root( the amount should be like 1 inch cube of beet root)(it gives a nice reddish color)
10. cold/normal temperature milk ( quantity varies according to taste)
11. Oil to cook
12. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Grind ginger and garlic & green chilly in pestle & mortar and make as smooth paste as you can.
2. Chop the onions. No need to chop fine, for a rough idea cut the onion into half and 6-7 pieces of that half. No use wasting your time and energy on chopping onion this fine. Don't forget to take out the white part at basement, it can spoil the taste of curry/gravy. Same goes for cutting of tomatoes.
3. Heat 3-4 tbsp oil in a deep frying pan/kadhai.
4. Add 1/2 tbsp cumin and fry till you get that roasted cumin smell just right. Immediately add the ginger,garlic,green chilly paste. Cook the paste while you stir it continuously till you see garlic changing its color to brownish. 
5. Add all the chopped onions and mix in with the ginger garlic chilly paste. Add 3/4 tbsp of sugar to the onion and mix properly. Adding sugar gives the onion a nice pinkish color and nice flavor and also helps in making onion get brown quickly. Add the garam masala/meat masala/kitchen king masala/ powder of spices. The taste of curry/gravy varies according to what masala you use. I personally like to use meat masala (vegetarians don't worry, its 100% vegetarian but has a nice flavor that you find in these hotel gravies.) Add the fenugreek leaves to. Add the red chilly powder, turmeric powder and mix well.
6. Let the onions absorb all the flavor of masalas that we have put in and start getting brownish. You get this really nice roasted masala smell.
7. Make a whole in the center and add tomatoes and let them cook. Mix well and let tomatoes leave their juices all over the onions. Add in the beet root and add salt to taste. Let the onion tomato mixture get cooked till you get smell of cooked masala or when the tomatoes start to leave their skin.
8. Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool down nicely. It's very important that the mixture cools down. Coz once the mixture is cold, transfer the contents to a mixture grinder and add cold milk or normal temperature milk will do to. Now the milk here is a replacement for water and cream that we add to give the curry/gravy its liquid consistency and rich taste. So add milk as you feel. You can use water to, but pls add at least one small cup of milk. Grind the mixture nicely in the mixer grinder till you get the desired consistency.
9.Transfer the smooth curry/gravy paste to a bowl and Tadaa!! :D

You have your basic smooth Indian curry/gravy! :D

Now you can make a variety of dishes with this curry/gravy. I will be uploading them in a short time. Like if you want just add some fresh paneer, 1 tbsp butter to this curry/gravy and heat, garnish with fresh cut coriander and you have your paneer butter masala. hehe i'll write down the recipe in more detail some other time but just to give you an idea, its that easy :)  

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Aaloo Pyaaz ke Pakode (Potato Onion fritters)

Hi friends! how are you and how's cooking going on? Well I was really busy at office so couldn't update my cooking experiences, and I didn't cook anything much new, but I made Pakode(fritters) yesterday, you know how sometimes you just have to have these yummy fried delicacies! Well I thought why should I put up this recipe, most of us know it, and there are so many recipes out there, BUT when I was going through some of these recipes, I noticed none of them explained the way, ingredients etc needed had to be assembled and cooked to make these delicacies properly!! So here I am with the solution! :D 

Here's my recipe covering every detail! kyunki yummy garma garam pakode khaana to sabhi ka haq banata hai! (coz eating hot & yummy fritters is everyone's right!)

Ingredients: (10-12 pakode)
1. 3-4 small size potatoes.
2. 1 medium size onion
3. 3-4 tbsp fresh chopped coriander leaves.
4. 1-2 tbsp fennel/anise seeds
5. 1-2 green chillies
6. Besan( Gram flour of course!) get at least 250gms, if left out we can use in other dishes.
7. 1 tbsp roasted cumin powder
8. 1/2 tbsp garam masala (if not available, ground 2-3 black pepper corns and 1-2 cloves, and a little piece of bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise or whatever spice you get your hands on. But dont leave out pepper and cloves)
9. 1/2 tbsp red chilly powder
10. Salt to taste
11. 1/4 tbsp turmeric
12. Cooking oil (no olive or coconut oil, rest groundnut, soya been, sunflower, mustard oil etc can be used)
P.S: You can vary the amount of garam masala and roasted cumin powder to taste. Same goes for green/red chillies, but this is the minimum I would suggest.

Method:
1. Peel the potatoes and then cut in thin small sizes. The thickness should be close to that of wafers or potato chips, can be little thicker to but not very thick. Length can be as small as garlic clove or just cut the potatoes length, although I prefer the garlic clove size.
2. Peel and wash the onions and finely chop the onions. Oh ya! the potatoes can be of around the same size to, a bit larger will also do.
3. Add the chopped potatoes and onions in a bowl, add the finely chopped coriander leaves, cut green chillies, fennel/anise seeds, all the dry powders, and salt. 
4. Add 1-2 tbsp oil to the mixture and add gram flour 1-2 tbsp at a time. Now keep adding gram flour and water little by little till all vegetables are just covered. Add 1 tbsp of gram flour more at this stage and mix. Don't worry if the mixture looks a little dry, we have to leave the mixture like that for 10-15mins, during this time the flavors get mixed and vegetables leave some water, so we get the perfect pakoda(fritter mix). & if you feel you need more water, you can always add at any stage :)
5. Once the mixture is ready, taste it to make sure all flavors are there. Any additions, adjustments can be done at this time.
6. Ok now that the mixture is ready, we have to do the frying, now how much oil should be used??
Well here for making pakode I am using a table spoon, so the pakode is going to be medium sized. You should use a medium/small vessel to fry. Fill the vessel with oil, the oil level should be enough to submerge atleast 2/3 of pakoda(fritters). Heat the oil till it starts to smoke a little.
7. Drop in the pakode mixture 1tbsp at a time. Keep putting the mixture such that there should 2-3 cms spacing between each pakode(fritter).
8. Now let them sit in oil and get cooked, what's the sign that they are cooked?? They will start to turn golden brown. This is the time to turn them around and let them get golden on other side.
9. Now before taking them out from cooking vessel, press the pakode(fritters) gently between the stirrer/ladle and let oil drip out. Take them out on a plate covered with tissue paper to absorb the excess oil. 
10. Serve them hot with Ketchup or Dhaniye ki Chutney (will upload the recipe soon).

Tadaa!! So we have the simple to make, delicious to eat pakode(fritters) !! 


If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Perfect Tomato soup at home!

Here I am at my office, and most of the people are suffering from cough & cold. Well not surprising as its mid October now and winter has slowly started creeping its feet in our lives. Well winters are fun, but only if we take good care. You ignore it for one hour max, and you definitely catch cold !

Well humaare paas iss cold ka bhi tod hai !( we have answer for this cold as well)

Remember the days when we used to fall sick at home, mom's used to bring those delicious tomato soups ! aaye haaye, kya din the wo, but ab ghar se door wo soup ka sukh kahaan..( what days were those, but now we don't have that soup's relief away from home)

I am sure we all miss that healthy healthy hot hot soup, so here's my recipe for that perfect healthy tomato soup/shorba.

Ingredients:( 2 bowl full servings)

1. 8-10 medium sized tomatoes (the more red in color the better)
2. 6-7 peeled garlic cloves
3. half inch ginger piece
4. 1-2 tbsp each of chopped green coriander leaves, Spinach leaves, Basil leaves ( holy basil{tulsi}, or even dried Italian herb basil will do).
5. Black pepper powder to taste
6. 1/2 tbsp Roasted cumin powder(bhuna jeera)
7. 1-2 tbsp ghee/butter ( use ghee preferably, one can use 3-4 tbsp of ghee for that goody goody warmth if you feel like)
8. Salt to taste


Method:

1. Wash the tomatoes and cut each into 4 pieces.
2. Heat the ghee/butter in a cooker and heat till ghee/butter melts.
3. Crush ginger & garlic gently and add to the hot ghee/butter and cook till garlic starts developing brown specs.
4. Add in the chopped green leafs in the hot ghee/butter and cook till the leaves just start loosing their color.
5. Add in the cut tomatoes and add salt, roasted cumin powder and let the tomatoes cook. Remember no adding water ! Coz if we add water then tomatoes don't get cooked in the ghee and loose their water & flavor.
6. Once all the tomatoes are cooked from at least some side and you get that nice tomato cooked smell a little, then add one to one n half glass of water. Bring to boil without covering the lid of cooker. (add sufficient amount of water, insufficient water can lead to burning of tomatoes).
7. Cover the lid and wait till you get the first whistle. lower the flame and let it stay for some 5-7 mins, or if in no hurry, wait till you get the second whistle out of cooker. The advantage of doing so is the vegetables get nicely cooked and you dont need to put them in blender, putting in blender some how reduces the taste is what i feel.
8. let the cooker cool down on its own or put under a tap of running water and open when all steam is released.
9. Transfer the contents into a strainer and press the rest with a ladle. Press nicely so that you get all the pulp. you can keep adding the extracted soup again to get more out of the boiled vegetables.
10. Once completely extracted heat the soup to desired heat, we can add a little ghee/butter to the soup although I have never done it. Check the salt, add pepper to taste.
11. If you wish, you can cut down some toasted bread croutons and add to the soup. the toasted bread bits can be stir fried on a pan in 1 tbsp butter for further taste and cut into desired shape and size. Top the soup bowl with bread croutons and Tadaa !

Our healthy healthy soup is ready ! :) hope you all get benefited from it.

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :) 

The perfect Egg Scramble Assemble

For all those who have spent their time watching those hilarious sitcoms like F.R.I.E.N.D.S, How I met your mother, Two and a half men etc, we have all seen them eating scrambled eggs.

Now in India, we make ande ki bhurjee( indian style egg scramble), so what is it that they eat in those sitcoms and how is it different then our own pyari ande ki bhurjee, and can we add our own little tadkas and twists to it??? YES!! and here's how

Ingredients (For Basic recipe): 2 Servings

1. Four fresh raw eggs in the shell
2. 8-10 tbsp milk
3. Salt to taste
4. A very small pinch of turmeric (if you like the color and flavor this wonder herb imparts to our food, bus ek chutki bhar hi kafi hai(a pinch is enough))
5. 1-2 tbsp oil (preferably olive{ for a delicate exotic flavor}, coconut{ trust me for all those coconut biscuit cookies and chocolates & candies lovers, give it a try, you will love the delicate flavor}, mustard oil{ for that must tadka jhakkas chatpata east Indian flavor, use red/green chillies too with this oil}, even our simple normal cooking oil will do :)  )

Method:
1. Break the egg shells and pour the eggs into a bowl.
2. Add the 8-10 tbsp of milk (preferably warm).
3. Add in the salt and turmeric, and now my dear friends, we have seen those spring like egg beaters, well if you are in love with egg dishes then I suggest you buy one of these coz its totally worth it!! Use it to beat the eggs and they get frothy so easily with the spring action pumping all that air in the eggs and the warm milk helps to :)

4. Heat the oil in pan till it begins to smoke, yes my dear smoke ( don't burn it hehe, but you know you will get those vapors) , I know many of us don't do it these days even though we have seen our grand moms do it, there is a reason why they did that, cooking is in art you see, there are steps for art.
Heating oils to that point helps utilize their flavors to best.

5. Lower the flame & Pour in the beaten egg mixture and immediately start stirring the mixture with a spatula. Stir and circle in such a way so that little lumps of egg are formed. Take out any egg mixture sticking to the sides and lightly toss around in the pan. 

6. To ensure that the eggs are cooked properly, cover with a lid and let it stay for 1-2 mins, that's enough. Toss the eggs a little more and turn off the flame. Tadaa! :D 

We have our basic egg scramble :)

Now here are some add on garnishing, flavoring, veggies etc you can add.

Variant 1: Add lots of  finely chopped raw tomatoes(1 large), onions(1 small), coriander(to taste), ginger garlic Julienne(to taste) to the recipe. Do preparation like normal egg scramble and heat the oil, instead of adding the egg mixture to oil, add mustard/cumin seeds(optional), ginger garlic julienne(cook till garlic just starts getting brown flecks), followed by finely chopped onions( cook them till they turn a little brown at edges), add in the tomatoes n cook for about 40-50 secs and pour in the egg mixture, the idea is to maintain tomatoes raw tangy flavor. Rest as normal. At the end add fresh chopped coriander. This is a variant of famous Parsi dish Akuri. 

Variant 2: Add pepper powder, masala to the original egg mixture along with salt & turmeric ( any masala, garam, meat, fish anything you like!) throw in ginger garlic onion tomatoes  into the pan and cook as instructed in variant  1 above. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander. This is a variant of our popular Indian ande ki bhurji.

Varient 3: In the normal egg cooking recipe, add some cheese to the eggs before covering with lid, after you open the lid, mix well and toss and serve for that soft warm cheesy flavor.

Varient 4: Jhut put simple masala eggs ( My Favorite in student life)
To the original mixture add meat/garam masala, cumin powder, black pepper powder, black salt and cook as normal, great to eat just like that and also with chapati :)

Actually with eggs the thing is you can experiment with anything! the more you try, the more you will learn and the more you will enjoy! 

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Coconut Water Lemonade

Back to my office again and sitting on my desk and sipping on the lemon flavoured soda!

So folks, what's up? :-) 

So ok I am having lemon soda and i have a coconut tree in front of my window, this takes me back to a drink I once made at home.

I am a huge fan of coconut water and lemon.

So here's my recipe combining these 2 drinks. Enjoy! :-)
Ingredients:
1. Two tender coconuts
2. Two lemons
3. one tbsp sugar.
4. 3-4 mint leaves.

Ingredients & Method : (2 servings)
1. Two tender coconut ( ask the Shop keeper to give you the ones with thin inner lining or coconut flesh, you know the jelly like consistency one.. mmmm at that stage the coconut water is just right tasting! 
2. Take out the water ( i would recommend u ask the shop keeper only to extract the water and inner lining and bring it back home in a bottle and container, coz lord knows how difficult it is to cut open a coconut without those spl dangerous looking knives! hehe)
3. So ok once you are back home, keep the coconut water in fridge and let it cool.
4. Squeeze out the juice of two lemons in a bowl/jug and add 1 tbsp sugar, just one is good enough. If you like you can add a spoon of some berry syrup or crush although I like the strong coconut flavour.
5. Take the tender coconut lining and chop it as finely as you can. add to the lemon sugar mixture.
6. take 3-4 mint leaves and wash them properly. dry them up and turn them over, now we all have those mortar and pestle at home, if we don't a rolling pin will do. Gently place the pestle on the leaf and exert pressure and rub it gently, remember we dont want to tear the leaf, the pressure should be just enough to expose the inner layers a bit( the idea is to get a mint taste but not to strong.)
7. Transfer the lemon tender coconut sugar mixture into the jug and add the cool cool coconut water, drop in the mint leaves and mix thoroughly.
8. Pour in the drink and what you have is an exciting fresh refreshing drink!

You can even add chaat masala or jal jeera powder if you want the Indian masala flavor.

Hope you all will enjoy it. :-) 


If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

Chole Masala (Quick cooking Jhut-Put Indian Style Chickpea Curry)

Hi everyone,
I had Chole Bhature in breakfast today at my office.
Both were ok, well to be honest, eat it & get going! Nothing to enjoy about.
But during breakfast, or for that matter at any time, cooking such delicacies takes a lot of time, and time is what working women like me don't have. So what do we do? Just eat anything we get or order from outside? Nah!

So here is my jhut-put  quick & easy to cook Chole masala recipe!

Chole Masala:( 3-4 ppl)

Ingredients:
1. Chickpea/ Kabuli Chole, about 2-3 handfulls soaked n washed over night

P.S I never like using 200gms, 300gms etc in my recipe, coz let's be honest, most of us don't have those measuring instruments at home, and even if we do, its too much work to take them out from their hard to find hiding places, hehe :-) so here I am using easy to get measuring systems, hope you all like it.

2. Any Chole Masala available in Market, I prefer to use MDH.
3. Three medium size Tomatoes & Onions or two Large ones.
4. Sabut Garam Masala (cumin, cinnamon, cardomom, black pepper, bay leaf, cloves all solid)
5. two Tbsp ginger garlic paste (more garlicy if you are a fan like me :) )Try not to get those ready made one's, the preservatives just ruin the taste for every one, just have some fresh hand peeled.
6. Green Coriander/Cilantro leaves. Humaara pyaara Haraa dhaniya, arey iske bina to Indian khaana adhura hai( Translation: our beloved green coriander, without it our Indian food is incomplete! )
7. two medium or one large potato

Method:

All right, ill write in paragraphs here as the method is a little different then traditional recipe

1. If you can, try to dry roast all sabut garam masala( whole spices)You get a nice smell and then gently pound the roasted spices when cool enough, mmmmm the aroma. Don't powder, just break into pieces of desired size.

2. Peel and wash the onions, tomatoes, coriander, Cut onions and tomatoes into 4-8 pieces as desired.Remember to take out the white part near the end of onion, this does not taste good and spoils the curry.Put in the mixer grinder, add a little water and wwwwrrrrrrrr, start the grinder, make a paste and keep aside.

3. Heat 7-8 tbsp oil in a Pressure Cooker( preferably sunflower, soya bean or any similar tasting less flavored oil)
Once the oil is hot, add 1tbsp mustard seeds, add the pounded garam masala(spices) and roast a little, mmmm the spicy smell again, add the ginger garlic paste and roast nicely till the paste just starts to develop brown specs( remember taking it beyond this point over cooks ginger and garlic and we loose the flavor)

4. Add the onion, tomato, coriander mixture and go away, coz my dear it splatters in hot oil! once the splattering has stopped, mix the oil and masala, now I know that strong onion smell, well we have a solution for that as well, add just a pinch, not more then that to the mixture and mix, after a few secs the smell is gone, now nicely roast the mixture and add 1/4 tbsp turmeric, 1/4 tbsp red chilly or 2 Green chillies( Split into 2 parts, else it bursts and you might get a burn) and 1 tbsp chole masala.

5. Roast nicely till you get that nice roasted smell of masala, that is the true sign, for color sign the color should be slightly brownish. And the masala will start leaving the oil.

6. Wash/Drain the Chick peas/ Kabuli chole and add to the roasted mixture, mix well and let it stay like that for 3-4 mins mixing occasionally. 

7. Add salt to taste ( i guess about 1 to 1 and half tbsp salt should be enough).

8. Add desired amount of water. Cut the potato in half if using one big one, do not peel, just wash thoroughly. Cover the lid of cooker nicely and safely and put flame on high.

9. Wait till you get the first whistle, then keep flame at minimum and let it stay like that for 15-18mins. Turn off the flame and let the cooker loose the pressure and heat.

10. Once cool and safe, open the lid gently, don't force. Once open take out the boiled potato and check to see whether chickpeas/Chole are done or not, if not, cover and put on flame for another 5-7mins. 

11. Mash the boiled potato nicely.

12. Put the cooker on low flame and add the mashed potatoes, add 1/2 tbsp chole masala and mix nicely.

13. Let it sit that way on flame till you get desired consistency. turn on the flame

14. Chop the coriander and if desired half medium size onion finely.

15. Add to the cooked chole masala and Tadaa! :D


The time saving shortcuts:
no need to boil potatoes and chole seperately
no need to cut onions and tomatoes finely
the grinded mixture gets roasted quickly if u dont add too much water and does not require monitoring constantly.
The chole are flavored better coz they were cooked in masala water so no need to cook it long like we do in traditional method

Ok so i hope you all will like it and enjoy it. 

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)