Monday 29 December 2014

Indian Tea Masala Powder / Chai Masala Powder



Indian Chai or Tea is a everyday beverage for most of the Indians. Everyday we start our day with Tea made with ginger, Cardamom and Cloves. Sometimes to make tea more spicy we add Cinnamon and pepper. 

It is always good to make our own version of tea masala powder and keep it handy. Add a pinch of it while boiling tea. There is no rule to make tea masala, we can add more or less of any of of the spices according to our taste.  You can also add more spices or other ingredients like lemon grass, nutmeg or herbs if you want.

Here is my version of the tea masala powder.


Ingredients

30 Cardamom / Elaichi
A small piece of Dry ginger / 1 teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder
1 teaspoon Black Pepper 
20 Cloves
2 small sticks Cinnamom 
1/2 teaspoon Fennel Seeds

Directions  
  1. Collect al the ingredients you want to add to tea masala powder. It is always better to dry them in Sun for 1/2 an hour or place them on a hot tava/ pan for a min. To do this , heat a pan for 2 minutes. Switch off the stove and place the ingredients on it for a min. Now grind them to a fine powder.
  2. While boiling tea, add a pinch of it for 2 cups of tea. Enjoy your version of masala tea.




Pinwheel Cookies



Made these cookies during these Christmas holidays. These fun cookies with chocolate and vanilla swirls are fun to make. These are delicious and perfect for Christmas parties. Though the rolling is a bit difficult, it is worth making these for a nice treat. You can also pack for lunch box.


Ingredients

2 cups All Purpose Flour / Maida
1/2 cup  Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1  cup + 2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter 
2 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 teaspoon Salt 

Directions
  1. In a bowl add vanilla essence to flour and mix it well. Whisk 1 cup of butter at room temperature. Add powdered sugar mix it well. No need to salt salt if you are using salted butter. Now add flour 1 cup at a time and knead it well.
  2. Divide the dough into 2 portions, one slightly bigger than the other.  In another bowl whisk 2 tablespoons of butter at room temperature then add cocoa powder. Mix these well.
  3. Now add the small ball of dough to this and mix it. Now wrap these vanilla and chocolate dough balls in plastic wrap keep it in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  4. Take them the dough balls out and roll the vanilla dough on a wax paper( or on foil ) into a rectangle. Do the same for chocolate dough. Flip the rolled chocolate dough onto vanilla dough, peel the wax paper (foil) off. Cut the edges. Use these cut edges to make marble cookies (Step 6).Now gently roll the dough so that both the layers are adhered.
  5. Now the tough part. Gently and tightly roll the sheets from one side like a log. While rolling use the foil or wax paper press the log to get proper shape. Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick slices. Preheat the oven for 5 minutes at 160 degrees . Place a baking sheet on baking tray and then place these cookies on the tray. Bake them for 10 minutes.
  6. We are left with some pieces of vanilla and chocolate dough after cutting the rectangle sheets. Make a dough ball with that. Take small portions, place on baking tray, press them down and bake them for 10 minutes. You also made marble cookies now.
  7. Store them at room temperature in a cookie jar or airtight container if they are any left.
    Good thing about making cookies is after rolling the dough into log you can freeze them and whenever you are ready to bake , take them out of freezer slice them and bake. Enjoy your parties with these delicious cookies.




Friday 26 December 2014

Vegetable Mayonnaise Sandwich



Vegetable Mayonnaise Sandwich is a really simple breakfast recipe.  It can be made with various vegetables and mayonnaise. You can add vegetables of your choice . You can also grilled vegetables. 

You can add as many vegetables as you want and as much quantity as you wish. You can white or brown bread. There is no hard and fast rule to make this. My kids just love it with tomato circles and mayonnaise. 

You can also eat this as a snack.

  

Ingredients (Makes 10 sandwiches)

2 tablespoon Mayonnaise
2  Lettuce Leaves
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1/2 Carrot
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper 
(You can change the proportions as you wish)

Directions

  1. Remove the core (seeds)of tomato. Cut all the vegetables to small pieces. Add salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix it well and keep aside. Cut the bread slices diagonally.
  2. Spread the mayonnaise mixture on one slice and put the other slice on it. 
  3. That's it. Enjoy this quick and easy breakfast. If you wish to pack it for lunch box reduce the mayonnaise quantity to 1 tablespoon.



Thursday 11 December 2014

Basic Rava / Suji Upma Recipe



Upma is one of the easiest South Indian Breakfast dish which can be made in a jiffy. Upma is a healthy and delicious which can be served with Coconut Chutney or any pickle. Kids will love to have it with Sugar. It can also be had plain.

Upma can be made with Semolina or Suji. Today I am posting the upma recipe made with Suji / Rava.



Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 1/2 cup Sooji / Suji
5 cups of Water
1 tablespoon Channa Dal
1 teaspoon Urad Dal 
2 tablespoons Peanuts
1/2 teaspon Jeera
1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds
2 Green Chillies
1 Sprig Curry Leaves
2 teaspoons Oil 
1 1/4 teaspoon Salt 

Directions

  1. Heat a pan with 2 teaspoon of Oil. Saute channa dal , urad dal, jeera, mustard and peanuts in that to light brown. Add sliced green chillies and curry leaves. Saute for a minute. Then add chopped onion.
  2. Saute onion till translucent. Add salt and water. Let it boil. Meanwhile keep sooji ready.
  3. When you lot of bubbles in the pan keep it in low flame and add sooji slowly. Add and mix sooji at the same time so that no lumps are formed.
  4. when the whole thing comes together keep it covered and cook it on low flame for 3 minutes.
  5. Delicious Suji Upma is ready to be served. Have it hot.



Monday 8 December 2014

Soft Mysore Pak - Diwali Sweets



Soft, melt in mouth Mysore Pak. Why am I saying soft Mysore Pak? Is there a hard mysore pak version too. No but store bought Mysore Pak is a bit stiff with lot of holes in it and also it is brown in the middle and golden yellow at the ends.  I saw a cook making this version of Mysore Pak when we had to make mysore pak in large quantity for a function at home. He used oil, ghee and cooking soda. I like this one too. I tried making that version few times never came out well. I don't know the proportion of oil and ghee. So following my mom's soft and tasty mysore pak.

My kids and  husband liked it so much that they finished it in a day. They just left a piece for me.
 :-)     :-(

Yummy treat with just 3 ingredients.


Ingredients

1 cup Besan flour
2 cups Sugar 
1 cup Water
3/4 - 1 cup Ghee

Directions

  1. Sift Besan Flour to get rid of the lumps. Melt ghee. Grease a plate with ghee ready. Boil sugar and water for sugar syrup.
  2. Keep a small bowl with water. Keep checking the consistency of sugar syrup. Pour a small quantity of sugar syrup in water. When you get string consistency as shown in picture add half the quantity of besan in sugar syrup. Mix it well from all sides. Then add the remaining quantity. Keep stirring it. There shouldn't be any lumps in that.
  3. After mixing and stirring it for 5 minutes add half of melted ghee. Keep stirring again on a low flame. Now add remaining ghee. Mix it. The whole mixture frothy at one stage and there will be a nice cooked besan flour and ghee smell. The mixture also starts leaving the pan. Be quick now. Transfer this mixture onto the greased plate. Level it. Within a minute cut that into desired shape. Let it cool down for 30 minutes. Now you can easily take the pieces out.
  4. Transfer this into a container and have these soft , yummy treat.


 





Wednesday 3 December 2014

Corinader Chutney / Kottimeera Pachadi / Kottimeera Karam



Here is a chutney with many uses. We can eat with south indian breakfasts like Idli, Vada, Dosa, Pesarattu etc. or with north indian breakfast and snacks like aloo tikki, samosa, veg sandwich, pakoras and also add it chaat items like Bhel puri, Sev puri, Ragda patties, 

Coriander chutney stays well in refrigerator for 5- 6 days. Make it once, store it and use it in many items. When you don't time to make other chutneys like coconut chutney, tomato chutney for Idli, Dosas you can use this.




Ingredients

2 bunches of Coriander
2-3 Green Chillies
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds 
Salt as needed

Directions

  1. Clean Coriander leaves. Grind all the ingredients with some water in a chutney grinder or blender to a smooth paste. Check for salt and lemon juice add more if required.
  2. Store it in refrigerator. Stays well for 5-6 days.