Hilsa Fish With Mustards / Shorshelish / Patodi

This a favorite bengali steamed fish recipe, which I got from my friend Mousumi. Though I do not eat seafood I learned this for amith. He tasted it when he visited Kolkata. Ofcourse my cooking could never level it but i tried my best to make this steam fish tasty.


Ingredients

Hilsa Fish – 4 pieces
Mustard seeds – 2 tbsp
Green chillies – 6 no.
Curd – 2tbsp
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Mustard oil/ refined oil
Poppy seeds / khus- kus – 2tbsp (optional)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Clean the fish and marinate it with haldi, salt.

Make a paste of mustard seeds, Green chilli (2 no.) and khus-kus. Take curd, turmeric and salt in a bowl and add the paste. Apply this mixture to the fish pieces.

Wrap the marinated fish with a slit green chilly in a banana leave. Chilli will make the fish spicy.




In a flat wok or pan, add little mustard oil or vegetable oil and fry the wrapped fish pieces for 10 minutes by turning in between.




In microwave - Brush little oil of the microwave plate and place the wrap on it. Microwave it for 15mts turning sides once in between.

Simple Egg Noodles

Ingredients

Plain Chinese Noodles (Hakka) – ½ pack
Eggs – 4 no.
Onion – 1 no. Finely chopped
Green chillies – 4 no. Slit it
Ajinomoto /Chinese salt – a pinch
Soya sauce – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil


Procedure:

In a bowl, take noodles and add water till the noodles are ¾ in the water. Allow it to boil with a tbsp of oil. This would avoid sticking of noodles. Once the noodles are done. Drain the extra water and run them under cold water. Set it aside.

In a non-stick pan, add little oil to scrabble the eggs. Add salt to taste and 1 tsp of pepper powder. Transfer the scrabbled egg into a separate plate. In the same pan, add little more oil and fry onions till transparent and green chillies till done. Reduce the flame to low and add the salt, Chinese salt and soya sauce. Stir for a minute and add the noodles and slowly fold into the onions. Add the scrabbled egg finally and fold in. I love it without any sauce.

Corn Patties ~ Corn Vada

Ingredient

Corn kernel – 1 Cup
Rice flour – ¼ Cup
Onion –1 no. Medium sized
Green Chillies – 3 no.
Coriander leaves – few sprigs
Cumin / jeera – 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Make a coarse paste of all the ingredients except rice flour WITHOUT water. To this paste add flour to bind the ingredients.
Make lemon size balls and with a wet hand press it till you get a round flat shape. Put a small hole in the center with your finger. Deep-fry the patties. They taste good with Green chutney.

Coconut Rice

Where ever I traveled (down south) I found authentic coconut rice preparations belonging to that region. And almost all of them are different- different in taste and preparation. But one thing was common- the delicious taste.

Here is Andhra version of it, which I learned from my mom.

Ingredients

Rice – 1 cup
Coconut milk - 2 cups
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
Cloves – 5 no.
Cardamom – 2 no.
Ghee – 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Coconut milk preparation: Make a paste of fresh coconut in a blender and add it to the 2 cups of warm water. Leave it for 10 minutes and them strain.

In the cooker / Rice cooker, take the washed rice and add the coconut milk and set it aside. In a wok, pour 1tbsp of ghee and add spices, curry leave. Sauté for few minutes. Add this to the soaked rice with salt and cook it till the rice is done.
It goes very well with the Andhra chicken.

Andhra Chicken Curry

This recipe was supposed to be posted long back but becoz of my hectic schedule got delayed. Deeps tasted this curry when she visited me last time and feel in love with that taste (of course, i didn't make it. It was mom.). From then she is waiting for this recipe. So here it is Deeps, exclusively for you.


Ingredients

Chicken – ¼ kg
Onion – 1 big no.
Tomato – 1 big no.
Coconut– quarter piece of a medium sized coconut
Cloves – 5 no.
Cardamom - 2 no.
Cinnamon – 1 inch pieces 2
Green chillies – 2 no.
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Oil – ¼ cup
Salt to taste
Chilli powder, Turmeric as required

Procedure:

Make a paste of onions, tomatoes, coconut, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and green chillies with little water. Set it aside.

Take a non-stick pan and heat oil. Once warm add washed chicken and ginger garlic paste. Allow the paste to fry for 2-3 minutes while stirring. Now add salt, turmeric, and chilly powder and fry it for few more minutes till the chicken starts changing color to brown. Add the paste and fry for few minutes before covering. Cook on a medium flame till chicken is tender. Don’t forget to garnish it with coriander leaves.

Tastes amazing with roties and tadka rice.

For Dry Skin

1. Oatmeal Yogurt: Oatmeal is supposed to be very good for the dry skin. To the fine granules of oatmeal add little yogurt and apply to the face. Leave it for at least 30 minutes before you rinse.
2. Banana honey mask is also very effective for dry skin. Leave this mask for 10 minutes and rinse. Check if honey suits your skin coz my mom landed up with rash when she used honey on skin.
3. Olive oil is also great for dry skin. It has loads of Vitamin K. Use it as a moisturizer and apply before going to bed. I use this for my baby for massaging before bath. I use it only for face.

For Dry Hair

These are result of my tremendous research to find home remedies for dry hair. Hoping you all will add few more to my list.

1. Banana pulp with little curd would act as a good conditioner for dry hair.
   I tried this and it actually works.

2. Olive oil is also very good for dry hair and also fights dandruff. Apply warm oil before going to bed. Next morning shampoo the hair.
3. Hot towel treatment also helps. Apply warm oil to the scalp and tie a hot towel to the hair. Repeat it hot towel treatment for at least 4-5 times before washing.
4. Also hibiscus leaves paste acts really fast on the dry hair. You can make the difference in a single wash but I find difficult to wash the bathroom as the leaves are very sticky and the whole place will be a mess :)

Chicken Roast ~ With Potatoes

When I say Chicken Roast, most of them feel it is a fry dish. But actually it is not.

I like it because there is no heavy masala and oil in it. I love the potatoes more than the chicken.

Ingredients

Chicken – ¼ kg
Potatoes – big 1 no. Remove the skin and cut into 4 pieces
Tomatoes – 2 big no. Chopped
Onion – 1 big no. Chopped
Green/Red chillies – 4 no. Slit them
Whole Pepper – 6 -7 no.
Ginger – 2-inch piece finely chopped
Cinnamon, Cardamom and Cloves - 2 each
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil – ¼ cup

Preparation

In a cooking bowl, add all ingredients except oil with 1 ½ cup water and cook till chicken is tender. Take out the chicken pieces from the rest and set aside.

Take a kadaii and heat the oil. To the oil add the boiled chicken and fry till brown. Once the chicken is fried add the rest of the boiled veggies and leave it on a low flame till thickens. Garnish with green chillies, coriander leaves and onion rings.

Note: If needed bake for 30 minutes. I rarely do that. I prefer the other way.

Dum Ka Murgh

I learned this dish for Benna aunty, amith's aathi. Now i've excelled this dish becoz of her. She was the only person who told me that Dum chicken is once of the easiest chicken dish. I was confused then but now i totally agree with her. Again she is a great cook. Hoping to learn more recipes from her kitchen for all of US.

It is a easy chicken dish when you have guests at home.

Ingredients


Chicken – ½ kg
Onions – big 2 no. (1 chopped, 1 grinded)
Tomatoes – big 2 no. (1 chopped, 1 grinded)
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Gram masala – 1 ½ tsp
Chilli powder – 1½ tbsp
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Chilli sauce – 1 ½ tsp
Soya sauce – 1 tsp
Vinegar – 1 tsp
Red food color – a pinch
Tomato sauce – ½ tsp (Optional) Add this if you want to have with Roti
Jeera and Mustard powder – 1 tsp (Optional)Oil – ½ cup or more. You need little more oil for this recipe



Procedure

Mix in all the ingredients except for the chopped tomatoes and onions. If the chicken pieces are big, pock the chicken using a fork. Allow this to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a thick bottom wok, to the warm oil add onions and fry till transparent. Add tomatoes and also the marinated chicken. Allow the chicken to cook under a medium flame till tender and oil starts separating. Transfer this to oven and bake it for 20 to 30 minutes at 150 Deg C. Garnish with Curry leaves, Coriander leaves ,mint leaves and green chillies.

Variation:
You can have a gravy version also. Just add little more paste of tomatoes and onions. And DO NOT bake it. This tastes great with roties.

Groundnut Chutney ~ goes well with Dosa, Idly and vada

This is my favorite chutney that my mom makes and it’s a super hit among my friends.

Ingredients

Groundnuts / Palli – 1 cup
Green chillies – 5 no.
Garlic pods – 4 no.
Cumin/ jeera – 2 tbsp
Tamarind pulp – 2 tbsp
Curry leave – 1 sprig
Red chillies – few
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Fry groundnuts and green chillies in little oil; set aside.

In a blender, add fried groundnuts with chillies, jeera, tamarind, garlic pods and salt to make it to a paste. Season it with cumin, curry leaves and red chillies.

Tastes amazing with dosa, idly and vada :)

Apple Rabdi

I got this recipe from one the cookery sites. I wanted to try it out as it was too simple to make and looked yummy. Hope you also would feel the same.

Ingredients

Apple – 2 peeled and grated
Milk – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 tbsp
Cardamom– 2 no.
Cashew nuts, raisins and almonds – fried in little ghee

Procedure:

Powder sugar and cardamom in a blender and set aside.

In a thick bottom wide pan (I used a non-stick one), pour the milk and allow it to reduce to half the quantity. Add powdered sugar and grated apple. Leave it for few more minutes on low flame till it thickens. Add the dry fruits. Serve hot or cold.

Five things I wanna do…

As every one have plans for their future even I have – a small list. This is not a wish list but the things I WANNA do, WILL do come what may LIST. I’m not a person who believes in planning for the life post retirement. I want to live and then relive those memories in my old age.

I began to write them. I thought it would flow easily because it is MY LIST and that too just five of them. But when I actually started writing down I felt five is a wee number. I was wondering what I did all these years. So, it became more important to write down the things I wanna do.

Believe me it is not easy, but here is the crisp list of 5 THING I WANNA DO…

1.Want to retire on my 40th Birthday so that I can do the rest mentioned below.
2. Publish my cookbooks
3. Learn and own – a car, a piano and a telescope
4. Visit holy land (want to walk on the streets, which Christ did before his crucifixion.), Greece and most of India, if not entire.
5. Last but never the least; want to spend all my time cooking for Amith (my husband), playing with Kyra (my 6 month old daughter who will be grown up by then) and taking care of my mommy and dadda.

If you have any such list – I’m sure every one would have one, please do share with me.

Pizza

My love for corn can never die. Here is one more recipe with corn.

Ingredients

Pizza base – 1
Corn – ¼ Cup
Tomatoes – 1 no. chopped
Tomato Ketchup – 1 tbsp
Cheese grated – 2 cubes / ¼ cup
Paparika/ Italian seasoning / chilli flakes – 1 tbsp
Sandwich spread (optional)


Procedure:

Take the pizza base and apply sandwich spread throughout. Over the spread, apply a layer of tomato ketchup. Another layer of tomatoes and corn over that. Put the grated cheese .


Microwave this for 2 minutes on high or bake for 10 minutes in oven.


Sprinkle the seasoning before you eat.

Corn Upma

I love corn so much that I invented corn upma. Believe me now I make it quite frequently :).

Ingredients

Rava/ Bombay Rava – 1 Cup
Corn – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 medium size finely chopped
Green chillies – 3 no.
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tsp
Oil and ghee – 3 tbsp

Procedure:

I cook corn with little water in microwave for 10 minutes as I use frozen corn. If the corn is soft you need not cook it.

In a thick bottom wok, heat oil and add curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies; sauté for few minutes. Add onions and fry till transparent. Add 2 cups of water, corn, salt and lemon juice; bring it to boil. Now add rava little at a time and keep stirring till the whole of rava is finished. Once it starts thickening, simmer the stove and cover with a lid; leave it for 5 minutes.



Note: I don’t fry rava before making corn upma. It saves LOT of my time and also you cannot make out the difference.

Pepper Mutton

Again, one more simple mutton recipe without too many ingredients. It is also quick to make and tasty as well. I usually make it when I have to pack lunch for Amith (my husband and my reason behind cooking non-veg), which mean quick fix lunch.

Ingredients

Mutton – ¼ kg
Pepper Powder – 3 to 4 tbsp (I use Catch pepper powder)
Potato – 1 big no. boiled and chopped lengthwise
Onion – 1 big no. chopped lengthwise
Tomatoes – 3 big no. finely chopped
Green chilles – 3
Coriander leaves
Oil – 4 tbsp

Procedure:

In a pressure cooker, cook mutton with pepper powder in a cup of water till tender. I boil the potato unpeeled in the cooker with mutton. Later, I peel and chopped it lengthwise.

In a kadai, pour oil and fry onions till transparent. Add chopped tomatoes and sauté till soft. Add mutton (with the pepper water), potatoes and salt. Leave it until thickens. Garnish with green chillies and coriander leaves.

NOTE: You can make it tastier by baking it in oven for 20 minutes or grill in microwave for 10 minutes.

Plain Cake

I wanted to bake a special cake for Kyra’s 7-month birthday but I landed up making a plain cake. I was glad that it came out very well. So here goes that recipe.

Ingredients

All-purpose flour – 1 cup
White butter/ unsalted butter – 1 cup (melted butter)
Sugar (powdered) – 1 Cup
3 eggs
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tspChopped Cashewnuts (Optional)

Procedure:

Grease and flour a cake pans.

In a bowl, sieve together flour and baking soda; set aside. Using a mixer, blend eggs till fluffy. Add butter and sugar to the bowl and mix till light and frothy. Mix in vanilla essence. Add flour mixture, mix until combined. Stir in nuts. Pour into greased cake pan.

Bake for 45 minutes at 200 Deg C. Or Bake for few more minutes and check by inserting a skewer / knife in the center of the cake, which should come out clean. Let it cool on the oven rack for 10 more minutes.

Note: I cover the pan with a lid (as I love the golden brown color of the cake) after 30 minutes to avoid burning and then bake for another 15 minutes.

Pav Bhajji

Ingredients

Pav – 1 pack (has 6 buns)
Potatoes – 2 no. Scrapped and chopped
Onions – 1 big no. finely chopped
Tomatoes – 2 no. finely chopped
Carrot – 1 no.
French beans – 6 no. Chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 2 tsp
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Chat masala - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure

Boil potatoes, carrot and beans. Keep them a side.

In a thick bottom kadai, heat oil and add onions. Fry till transparent. Mix in ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and allow them to fry for 2 minutes. Immediately add tomatoes to prevent the masala from getting burnt. Once the tomatoes become tender, add all the boiled veggies and smash them with a spoon. Cook till oil separates. Just before removing from the stove, add lemon juice and chat masala and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves and onions.

Fry Pav with little butter/ghee and have it with bhajji

Kheema Fry ~ Minced Meat fry

Ingredients

Kheema / Minced meat – 250 gms
Ginger Garlic paste – 3 tbsp
Coriander and Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
Chilli Powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp
Soya Sauce – 1 tbsp
Rum - 2 tbsp (optional)
Salt for taste
Oil

For Paste

Onion – 1 big no.
Shah jeera – 1 tsp
Cardamom / Elachi – 3 no.
Cinnamon / Dalchini – 1 inch two sticks
Clove / Laung – 5 no.

Make a paste of these ingredients and keep it aside.


Procedure:

In a thick bottom kadai (I prefer not to use a non-stick one), heat ¼ cup or little less of oil and add the cleaned, water stained kheema. Allow it to fry till the color changes or 5 minutes. Add ginger garlic paste and keep stirring occasionally till paste is fried. (It leaves a nice spicy smell). Add the onion paste and keep stirring till the oil separates.

Finally, add all the powders and soya sauce- fry for few minutes. Just before removing it from the stove add rum and garnish with mint leaves.

Malaysian Chicken Fry

Ingredients

Chicken – ¼ kg
Onion paste – 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Gram Masala – 1 tbsp
Cumin and coriander powder – 1 tbsp each
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder – 3 tbsp
Pepper Powder – 1 tbsp
Salt as required
Potato – 1 big no. chopped like finger chips

For frying:
Oil (as required for deep fry)
All purpose flour – ¼ Cup
Corn flour – ¼ cup

Procedure:

Clean, dry and prick the chicken using a fork. Marinate it using all ingredients except potato. Leave it at lease for 30 minutes.

In a bowl, mix corn and all purpose flour. Keep it aside.

Heat the oil in a thick bottom wok; take a chicken piece and dust it/ roll it in the flour mixture and fry. Repeat it till you finish all the pieces. To the left over marinate, add the chopped potatoes and leave it for 2 minutes. Fry the potatoes as well.

It is a good evening snack.

Simple Tomato Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind pulp (thick) – ¼ Cup
Ripe Tomatoes – 2 no. medium size
Garlic Pods – 4 no.
Bunch of coriander leaves
Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, red chillies, Asafetida/hing – for seasoning.

If you have VADAVAM, use that for seasoning.

Now that I mentioned Vadavam I want to add few words about it. Vadavam is made of 19 ingredients, which are used in seasoning. All these ingredients are mixed with castor oil and are allowed to dry for few days. The dried vadvam is made into small ball and stored in dry jar to be used for rest of the year.

Vadavam rasam is one of the best I ever tasted. But unfortunately it is not very easy to make. I was lucky to get it from my husband’s aunt who is from Tirchy. I use it occasionally.

I heard it is available at few stores in Chennai.

Procedure:

Mix the tamarind pulp, finely chopped tomatoes, coriander leaves and½ tsp of turmeric to 2 cups of water. Allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Crush 2 pods of garlic and leave it for 5 more minutes. Season the rasam with the Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, red chillies, Asafetida and garlic pods in little oil .

Appam ~ with coconut Milk

Ingredients
1. Rice – 1 ½ Cup
2. Urad dal – ½ Cup
3. Coconut – ½ Cup chopped
4. Methi /Sugar / cook rice – 1tbsp
5. Salt as required

Procedure
Soak Urad dal and rice for at least 4 hours. Once soaked, remove the water and grind with Coconut pieces, methi and salt.

Leave to ferment for 7 hours or overnight. (I leave it overnight)
When fermented, add enough water to make it a pouring consistency like in dosa batter.

Heat the appam kadai (you get non-stick appam kadai in the market. It is easy to use) and grease with oil. Pour a ladle full of batter into the kadai and swirl it around to make a thin layer.




Cook covered till the edges start lifting and center of the appam is cooked.

You don’t need to grease the kadai every time in a non-stick maker.
Serve it with coconut milk or Vegetable stew or mutton stew

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Coconut Milk Preparation

Make a paste of ½ cup grated coconut and add to 2 cups of warm water. Allow it to stay for few minutes and strain. Add sugar and elachi powder to the coconut milk.

Chicken Vindaloo

As its weekend, I wanted to make something special but again simple. I locked on Chicken Vindaloo. It is a Goan dish mostly made with pork. This is adaptation for chicken eaters.

Ingredients

Chicken – ½ kg
Onion – 1 no. (big size)
Tomatoes – 3 no. ( big size)
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Mustard and Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 3 tbsp
Vinegar – 1tsp
Potatoes – 1 no. cut into four pieces
Oil – 5-6 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure:

For gravy: Make paste of all except chicken.

In a thick bottom wok, heat oil and add gravy, chicken and potatoes. Leave it in medium flame till the chicken becomes tender. Serve it hot with white rice.

*Chicken vindaloo and coconut rice are great combination. It goes well with Rasam as well.

Channa Masala

This is a very simple and easy to make recipe. When I know I have to fix a quick breakfast the next morning, this is surely one on my list.

Ingredients

1. Channa (Chick Peas) soaked overnight – 1 cup
2. Onions – 1 cup finely chopped
3. Tomatoes - 2-3 no.
4. Garlic ginger paste – 1 tbsp
5. Garam masala powder*
6. Mustared oil/ refined oil – 4 tbsp
7. Tej patta/ Biryani leaf – 2 small

* If the garam masala powder is not available. Take 3 cardamoms, 1” cinnamon, small and big elachi, 2 cloves, javitri 1 petal and put it in the blender while making ginger garlic paste.

Procedure:

In a cooker, add jeera, tej patta, and whole red chillies to the warm oil. To this, add chopped onions, salt and haldi. Fry till brown. Once fried add chilli powder, jeera powder, dhania powder, ginger garlic paste and tomatoes. Keep stirring few minutes. Add the soaked channa and cook for 5 whistles. Remove it to a bowl, garnish with coriander and add a spoonful of ghee for taste. Tastes good with chapatti or puri.



*My Garam masala powder does not have javitri in it. I powder it separately as I use it very rarely in my cooking.

Dal Mutton

Ingredients

1. Mutton – ½ kg
2. Toor Dal – 200gms (Boil and smash it properly without using blender)
3. Channa dal – hand full (Soaked for atleast 30 minutes) (OPTIONAL)
4. Ginger garlic paste – 2tsps
5. Cloves – 3-4 no.
6. Cinnamon – 1 inch
7. Cardamom –2
8. Bay leaves / Tej patta – 2 small leaf
9. Onion – 1 big one, finely chopped
10. Fresh pudina and coriander leaves - handful
11. Few curry leaves
12. Oil and ghee for frying - 4-5 tbsp
13. Garam masala, coriander powder – 1 tsp each
14. Tamarind paste – 1 tsp

Procedure:
In a cooker, heat oil and ghee. Add curry leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaves and fry for 2 minutes. To this add ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes away. Now add onion and fry till golden brown. Add garam masala, coriander powder and fry for a minute. To this masala, add mutton, (soaked channa dal, if using) and fry for 5 minutes. Add two cups of water and close the cooker. Cook it till the mutton becomes tender.

After the cooker cools down, put it on low flame and add pudina and fresh coriander to the mutton and keep stirring. Add the dal paste to the mutton and stir. Now add tamarind paste* and mix well. Serve it hot with white rice.


*If you want the curry to be thick, add the tamarind paste else dilute the tamarind paste in a cup water to make it like sambar. You can also add big pieces of bottle gaurd to make it tastier. Personally, I like it with vegetables .