Hot Cross Buns...

The buns that I am mentioning is not the plural form of bun but a very famous breakfast item that can be found in most of the homes and restaurants in Mangalore. This is basically a deep fried Indian bread that is usually served with either chutney or dalithoy. At our place we usually have it without any side dishes. As kids we used to dunk it in hot coffee and eat :) I know its a little wierd.

This is slightly sweet due to the addition of banana and sugar If you are not fond of the sweetness you may serve it with some spicy coriander leaves chutney or any other chutney of your choice.

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Maida (All purpose flour)

1 cup Atta (Whole wheat flour)

1 pinch Baking soda

2 medium sized Ripe banana

1/2 cup Curds

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tbsp oil + extra to deep fry

Procedure:

1) Mix sugar and curds and let it sit for 10-15 mins.

2) Add mashed banana,cumin seeds to the sugar - curd mixture and mix well.

3) Sieve the flours and soda. Add it to the mixture and knead it. It will be a sticky mixture. Resist the urge to add more water or curds. The liquid from curds and banana is sufficient to knead the dough.

4) Heat a tbsp of oil until hot and pour it over the dough and let it rest overnight or at least 8-10 hrs.

5) Knead the dough again incorporating the oil. Make small balls and roll it using a rolling pin. The rolled out disc should be slight thick.

6) Deep fry in hot oil and drain it on a tissue paper.

Serve hot.

P.S: Often the top of the Buns tend to crack up in oil causing oil to splutter a little. So make sure that you are careful when you flip the Buns in oil.

Capsicum and Potato side dish (2 Variation)

This is another variation of using capsicum and Potato. You can check my previous version here. I got this recipe from my dear friend R who is a Rajasthani. I have already made it twice and every one who has tried this recipe have loved it a lot. I normally look for different varieties of side dishes as I get bored pretty easily. R makes these only with capsicum and I added Potato as the day I made it for the first time I had just one capsicum in hand. But we loved addition of it (who does not love potato). This is going to feature regularly in my hubby's lunch box :) I have started making phulka's regularly along with rice and some curry. Hence I have to come up with new side dishes everyday :)

Here's what's needed:

1 large Capsicum deseeded and cubed

1 large Potato peeled and cubed (Store in water until the time of use)

1/2 tsp each Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds

2 tbsp Chickpea flour (Besan)

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)

1-2 tsp red Chilli powder

1/4 tsp Garam masala powder

a small pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)

Salt to taste

Oil

Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil. Add in mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add Cumin seeds and when they splutter add hing and saute for a while.

2) Drain the potato's and fry for a 3-4 mins,until slightly soft. Add in all the spice powders and saute it well.

3) Add in cubed capsicum and fry. Add salt and cook covered. Make sure that the flame is always on medium. When capsicum is slightly soft i.e it breaks easily add the besan. Fry until the raw taste goes away.

4) Add little water to prevent the mixture from getting completely dry and cover for 2-4 mins. Check for seasoning and add any if desired. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with Phulka.

I love this curry as it does use any ginger garlic paste or onion to be sliced. Easy breezy recipe and tastes great.

P.S: I have been working out with some changes in this blog and by this month end I am hoping to come out with the changes. So may not blog regularly but will definitely come over to your blog.

Paneer kati rolls

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year. I know its late but we had taken a small break and had been to a place called Sun Island which is 80 km from Shanghai. Along with 13 other friends we had a great time. We did the new year countdown, played games like crazy, did go karting, archery, speed boat ride and what not. Definitely a great start to the wonderful year ahead. Thanks to all our friends who made it really special for us. Hope that this year brings in lot of luck, love and peace to all of us. Once we were back we were a bit a busy with one of our very good friend's family moving to India.

Well resolutions are a part of the New year.. though we do not believe in new year resolutions this year we decided to make some. Hoping that we will be able to keep it up :)

We have decided that we will make more healthy choices starting from this year and try to be more active and fit. I have even thought of giving more time to this blog and update this tiny space of mine regularly. I just hope I will be able to do it.

Now back with the recipe for the day. I made these kati rolls at the last minute when I realised that we were going to have guests for dinner. Luckily the previous day I had just made paneer for another dish and ended up using in this.

I am a big and ardent lover of rolls and wraps. Though I am not a very fond of Paneer I do make it twice in a month and every time I did I try a new recipe. This is one such. This is not the original kati roll recipe. Normally chapati's made of maida is used. I prefered to use our normal phulka's and we liked it. I had coloured bell pepper's at home so used them up too. The end result was yummy and our guests too liked them. I have just added spices randomly feel free to change.

For filling :

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Paneer cubed (I made mine at home)

1 small Green bell pepper cubed

1 small Red bell pepper cubed

1/2 Onion chopped

1 small Tomato chopped

1 tsp Red chilli powder (adjust as per your liking)

1/4 tsp Kitchen King Masala

1/4 tsp Garam masala

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

Chat masala to taste

Kasuri methi a generous pinch

juice of 1/2 lemon

Oil 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Fresh Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Heat oil and saute onions and bell peppers on high flame for a min or 2. Add Ginger garlic paste and spice powders and saute. Add in cubed paneer,tomato, kasuri methi and salt. Saute for 2-3 mins and switch off. Squeeze lime juice and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Prepare phulka or roti as usual and place the filling in the center and roll it to form a wrap. Serve with mint chutney and sweet chutney.

P.S: You can add some sliced onion, cucumber and lettuce over the filling to make it even more tastier.

Eggless Banana bread

I had always wanted to bakes cakes and bread at home. Cakes and muffins I usually do but bread baking will take some more time I guess. I am scared of Mr.Yeast (or is it Ms). Anyways, the point is I tried making some Pizza last time with Active Dry yeast and the dough did rise well and the Pizza was deliciously soft. But it had some peculiar smell. The product had not expired and I still do not know what was the issue. My blogger friends suggested me to use fresh yeast but I have no idea where to look for here.. So bread baking is still a dream for me. I am on baking spree and chance upon every occasion to bake something. It makes the kitchen warm in this harsh winter and also the wonderful aroma of cake makes me happy. I have some good friends who are ready to try out any cake at any point of time :D which is another advantage for me.

I had wanted to try making Banana bread at home and my search took me to Mansi's site. I wanted an eggless one as my friend's mom does not eat eggs. Her recipe was simple, straight forward and I decided to try it out. I bought banana's and waited for them to ripen :D.

I just added some almond bits on top for crunch and did not make any changes to the recipe. The result was too good and my friend's mom loved it. Thanks Mansi for sharing this wonderful recipe with us. I will surely make it again.

Blueberry Muffins

Recently when I went shopping, I found a small batch of fresh blueberries. I had never tasted blueberries nor used them. We enjoyed few of them by itself and I wanted to bake with the rest. After a lot of google search I zeroed on Maria's recipe. The recipe was simple and I was bowled over by the photograph. I did not make any changes to the recipe. I just halved it and got 7 jumbo muffins out of it. The house smelled divine and the outcome was perfect. Thanks Maria for a keeper recipe. I am going to make it often now. Please click here to view Maria's recipe.

Just sink your teeth into it and enjoy the divine taste of soft and moist muffins :)

Capsicum and Potato side dish ~ Quick side dish

I just love capsicum. It lends a complete different flavor to simple dishes. This is one such dish that can be made on a weekday with no much effort, yet a tasty option. Have it with Chapathi or simple rice and dal :) I learnt this from my dear friend S. If you love capsicum then this dish is for you. There is no exact measurements for this dish just play with flavours as you wish :)

Here is what's needed :

2 medium green Capsicums thinly sliced

2 medium Potatoes thinly sliced

1 medium Onions thinly sliced

2 medium Tomatoes roughly chopped

1/4 tsp jeera

1 tbsp ginger garlic finely chopped and crushed

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Red chilli powder, Garam masala powder and Kitchen king masala to taste

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat oil. Add jeera. When it splutters add onion and fry until done.

2) Add the powders,capsicum and potato. Fry well for 2-3 mins.

3) Add chopped tomato and salt. Mix well, cover and cook till done without adding water.

4) Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Celebrations ~ Milk burfi

Pardon me for my sudden absence from this space...I just got back from my 2 weeks trip to Mangalore. It was all of a sudden and the tickets were surprise gift for me from my hubby dear on my birthday.. My brother Uttam got engaged on 15th nov and I had gone to Bangalore to attend the function. It was really good meeting my friends and relatives.

Aparna who is my very good friend is my blogger friend too.. She and her hubby too made it to the engagement. I also go tot meet my rakhi bro Sandeshanna and Durga vanni.They also came home and we had pretty good time talking about our good old days. You guys really made our evening memorable :)

I also got to meet Suma and her cute little kid Smera... In spite of such short notice I am really happy that we could meet..She is really sweet. Her kid is very friendly and easy to get along..We had a really good time. I am already looking forward to meet her next time. Thanks Aparna and Suma for making my trip memorable.

This trip was pretty pleasant and hectic. First it was bro's engagement. I am really lucky to have such a sweet and cute Vanni (sister-in-law). I was able to make it to temple functions with my Father-in-law and parents ( I really miss going to temple here.. :(). I even got my results of MSc(IT).. I cleared my fourth sem.. and now I am a masters degree holder.. I have been really wanting this for quite sometime..

I also celebrated my birthday last month. This was one of my best birthday well planned by my hubby. He invited all my friends and at sharp 12 I cut 2 cakes. One on account of my birthday and second on account of our engagement day. Yes, We got engaged on my birthday :D hubby arranged cakes, chips, coke etc for party and it was really fun to have everyone around in-spite of it being a week day.

Anyways with so many good news it will be unfair if I don't share sweets with you all.. What if it is virtual!! Here is my MIL's famous Milk burfi. It is really simple and if done with patience turns excellent. She gets request from young and old alike to make this sweet and it gets over in no time.. This time I told her that I wanted to learn it from her and also told her that I wanted to post it on my blog . My FIL too helped us with this and made neat pieces of burfi :) We had fun time making this together. My batch from India is already getting empty and all my friends have asked me for recipe... I need to make it again :D

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Milk

3 cups Sugar

1/4 cup Besan/Chickpea flour

1/4 cup Sooji/Semolina

1/4 cup ghee

Cardamom powder to taste (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Fry besan with little ghee until frangrant and colour changes slightly. Cool it completely.

2) Add milk(cold need not be boiled) and mix. Make sure that there are no lumps.

3) Add sooji and sugar and mix well.

4) Keep it on the gas on medium and keep stirring often.

5) The mixture tends to thicken and starts leaving edges. Add cardamom powder if using. There is actually no need to use as this sweet has its own fragrance from ghee and milk. To test if done take a small lump of mixture and cool it. If it hardens then it is done. Takes about 50 mins to 1 hr. Inspite of that if it is not done then add 2 fistful of powdered sugar and mix well. Check again.

6) When done, spread it on a greased plate and level it with a glass whose bottom is smeared with ghee to prevent it from sticking. Cut into desired pieces and store it in jar when completely cooled.

Tried and Tasted ~ Gajar ka halwa

Carrot halwa the famous sweet is one of our fav. I love to have this warm with vanilla ice cream. I love combination of sweets (Yes.. that makes it double pleasure and also double calories..:P ). My pacchi make yummy carrot halwa with the red carrots. I love those carrots but since they are not available here I used the normal carrots. This sweet was not a very common one at our household. I did not know the recipe that my pacchi used but I remember her using milk to make it tastier. When I was browsing through recipes at Manasi's Acook@heart I found this and bookmarked it. Thank you Manasi for the wonderful recipe. Please hop over to her blog to find some more interesting recipes.

A treat!

My hubby celebrated his birthday early this month. In between with Diwali and our vacation I was unable to post it here. I planned a surprise birthday party for him and invited all his friend's home for dinner. Hubby was not aware of my plan and when he was back from office the house was decorated with balloons and ribbons. Friend's helped me out to carry on with the plan perfectly and it was the best birthday party. I baked a blackforest cake from Nita Mehta's book. The icing was melting at rapid speed and I was not sure of it so I rushed to the nearest bakery and got a mocha cake. Hubby had two cakes to be cut.

We had a dinner menu consisting of all my hubby's fav. Green salad, Puri, Chole, Idli, Sambar, Biryani and potato masala. My friend and her mother made Biryani and Potato masala. I need to learn the recipe from aunty. She is a wonderful cook. I was not able to get all the pics. Hence few of them to share with you.

You can find idli recipe here. I used ready made sambar powder to make sambar.

For chhole:

1 cup Chickpeas (soaked overnight and pressure cooked until soft)

2 Onions finely chopped

2 Tomatoes

1 tbsp finely chopped and crushed Ginger & Garlic

1 Bay leaf

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Chat masala

1/4 tsp Amchoor powder

1-2 tbsp Everest chhole masala powder

1 tbsp or more Red chilli powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

a generous pinch of kasuri methi

1 tbsp Tomato ketchup

1/2 tsp Coriander cumin powder (Optional)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Oil

Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Pressure cook the chickpeas until soft. Drain and reserve the liquid. Blanch the tomato in hot water. Peel and puree.

2) Heat oil add Cumin seeds and bay leaf. When they splutter and chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. When Onions turns pinkish add Tomato puree and cook until the raw smell goes off.

3) Add in all the masala powders and stir for a min or two.

4) Add in cooked chana with little water (from boiled chickpeas) and salt. Let it boil. Add a tbsp of tomato ketchup and kasuri methi and give it a quick boil. (I read in some blog that adding tomato ketchup gives it the dhaba taste. From then on I have been using it regularly and everyone has liked the taste of chhole. I am not able to get the blog name. If anyone has an idea please suggest. I would like to give the credit to the blogger) Mash few chickpeas to get a thicker gravy. Taste the gravy and add any seasoning if needed. Let it boil until you get desired consistency.

5) Switch off. garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with Puri accompanied with freshly chopped onion and lemon.

Diwali Special

I am sure everyone must have enjoyed a lot this Diwali. I wanted to make this post right before Diwali but due to some issue with connectivity and lack of time I was unable to do so. Anyways my warm wishes to everyone.

We had a good time this Diwali. Visiting friends, bursting fire crackers everything made it so special.

Thanks to the wonderful bloggers I tried my hand at making Chakkuli's (Murukku), Sev etc. It seemed so simple and tasty that I will not have to look out for store brought one's here after.

From Surpiya's Home spices blog I tried Kashi halwa (Wintermelon/Ash gourd halwa) and Chakkuli. Both were a big hit. Thank you Supriya :). I made Sev using Chakali blog. I have bookmarked a lot of dishes from this site. Do visit the sites for the original recipe. Sorry for the poor picture of halwa as we clicked it at the last moment before leaving for the party :)