Yogurt And Pomegranate Raita

Here is a raita recipe that is going to have you smiling with satisfaction! For me its just one of those things in life you really cant stop eating. "raita" are yogurt based dishes that are often served as accompaniments with a variety of Indian main course or starters, there is a huge variety of raita, generally flavored with herbs and spices. Although you could eat this raita all by itself, its great to be served with non-vegetarian dishes essentially biryani or pulav. Its perfect for this season as pomegranates are so easily available. The pomegranate adds a sweet and fresh punch to the raita, so its ideal to be served with spicy dishes.

Ingredients:

Dahi (yogurt) (200gm)

Anaar ke daane(pomegranate seeds)(seeds of half pomegranate)

Onion (1 small)(finely chopped)

Tomato (1 small)(finely chopped)

Kothmir (Coriander)(1/4 cup)(finely chopped)

Green chilli (2-3)(finely chopped)

Sugar (2 tbsp)

Chaat masala (1 tbsp)

Salt 

Method:

1. Take the curd in a bowl,add 4 tbsp of water and beat the curd well with a whisk or spoon until its smooth.
2. Add all the ingredients and mix well. refrigerate for an hour and serve cold. enjoy:)

Shepu wadi

Shepu wadi is one the perfect tea time snacks. My granny would make rolls and rolls of it and store for us when we visited her house during vacations. This is her recipe that i have learned. I love the crunchy texture and mild taste of the wadi. hope you too will enjoy it too:)

Ingredients: 

Kothmir (Coriander)(1 bunch)(finely chopped)

Shepu or sowa (dill) (1 bunch)(finely chopped)

Besan flour (gram flour) (5-6 heaped tbsp)

Green chilli (5-6)

Lehsun (Garlic cloves) (3)

Zeera (cumin) (1 tsp)

Haldi (turmeric powder) (1/2 tsp)

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Grind together the green chillies, garlic and cumin. Make a fine paste and keep aside.
2. Fill a deep bottomed pan up to half with water and keep the water to boil. we need this water to steam our dough. you want to place a sieve on this vessel so make sure you a suitable vessel.
3. Mix the coriander and dill together and add the green chilli paste, gram flour, turmeric powder and salt together. Mix well, add a few tbsp of water so as to make a soft dough, like shown in the picture. 
   
4. Shape the dough in rough roll shape. use some oil on your palm to easily shape the dough.
5. Place a sieve on the vessel you are boiling the water in. and place the dough roll on it and cover with a lid.
6. Cook for 10-15 mins. Check the dough after 10-12 mins to see if it is cooked. perfectly cooked dough should feel tough yet soft.
7. Once the dough is cooked, remove and keep aside. You may cut it into slices and fry whenever you want to eat it. you can store this for about a week in the refrigerator.
8. You may steam the dough in a steamer, cooker or even in an oven :)

Chunky watermelon milkshake

I am visiting my native place Satara (Maharashtra) I have never come here around this time of the year.  The climate is beautiful and everything looks green! There are farms everywhere I see. Looking at the agricultural side of India is fun. Living in Mumbai,  you never get to see this kind of stuff. Cooking here is a bliss everything is just so fresh! and somebody bought home this delicious watermelon and after eating all I could from it, I decided I wanted to make a milkshake from it for everyone else. Although the watermelon season has almost ended in India but for my friends that are going through summer right now this is one recipe you should try, its not the traditional milkshake but a chunky deliciousness. Everyone here loved it I am sure you will too:)

Ingredients :

Watermelon (a quarter part if using a big one and half part if using small one.) (de-seeded and chopped into little cubes)
Milk (1 litre)
Sugar (1-2 cups depending on how sweet the watermelon is. )
Rose essence (6-7 drops)
Red food color (optional)

Method :

1. Completely dissolve the sugar in the milk add the essence and food color to it.  
2. Add the watermelon chunks to the milk. Keep back a few watermelon chunks to add on top when you serve.  
3. Serve chilled.

Chicken Spring Rolls

Its raining heavily in Mumbai and somehow rains always make me hungry! So my hunger today has made me land on this old recipe of mine. As a teenager i had eaten these really light and fresh spring rolls the memories of which come back to me almost every time it rains. So i thought of making these crunchy delights once more and sharing the recipe. Spring rolls are a very popular Asian dish. Although almost every Southeast Asian country has their own version of it, the Indian version of it is often fried.This is my version of this delightful snack. Sit down with a hot cup of your coffee and indulge in these fresh little crunchinesses! I am sure you will enjoy as much as i did:)

Ingredients:

Onions (2) (finely sliced)

Capsicum (1) (finely sliced)

Cabbage (1/2) (finely sliced)

Carrot (1) (finely sliced)

Green chilli (2-3) (finely chopped)

Spring onions (3) (finely chopped)

Chicken (1 small bowl) (boiled and shredded)

Black pepper powder (1/2 tsp)

Tomato sauce (2 tbsp)

Soya sauce (1 tsp)

Butter (1 tbsp)

Oil (1 tbsp)

Spring rolls sheets (10-12)

wheat flour (2 tbsp)

Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a non stick pan heat 1 tbsp of oil with 1 tbsp of butter. Add the spring onions and green chilli to it saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the vegetables and chicken to it. Saute for 2-3 minutes on high flame. you don't want to over cook the vegetables. You want to retain the crunchiness of the vegetables.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for two minutes.
4. Let the mixture cool and your filling is ready.
5. Mix the wheat flour with little water and mix well, this is to be used as the gum to stick your spring rolls together.
6. Fill the spring roll sheets with the filling. Roll them up as shown in the picture and use the wheat flour to stick them.
7.  Apply the flour on the edges and wrap tightly.
8. Deep fry until nicely golden brown on both sides. Serve with a hot and sweet red chilli sauce or your normal chilli tomato ketchup you choose. Enjoy!!:)

Rajma (Kidnney bean) Kabab

It all started out with a whim to create something new from kidney beans (Rajma), because it seems like a very versatile ingredient to me. So i took it up this morning as i had saved some of the boiled rajma from last night's dinner. So i settled on the idea of making a kabab from it, and oh! what a delicious whim it turned out to be!! Serve it with a dahi (yougurt) dip or use it as a burger patty, its a healthier option to the normal potato patties as kidney beans are a rich source of protein. 

Ingredients: 

Rajma (Kidney beans) (boiled) (2 cups)

Shepu or sowa (Dill) (1 small bunch)

Kothmir (Coriander) (1 small bunch)

Lehsun (Garlic) (6 cloves)

Bhuna zeera powder (Roasted Cumin powder ) (1 tbsp)

Red chilli powder (2 tbsp)

lemon juice (1 tbsp)

Bread slice (1) (dipped in water)

corn flour (3 tbsp)

oil (for frying)

salt to taste

Method:

1. In a mixture jar or a small food processor put the kidney beans,dill,coriander,garlic,cumin powder,red chilli powder,lemon juice,bread and salt. Grind it all together.
2. you want a thick consistency not a puree, do not add any water at all. The mix has to be thick so that you can shape the kababs easily.
3. Set the mix aside for 5 mins before moulding into flat circular kababs.
4. Dust each kabab nicely with corn flour and shallow fry them.
5. Serve with a smoked yougurt dip or use as a patty in your burger. you decide! enjoy:)

Green chilli chicken

This is one of my mom's recipe that I like to keep original because its already perfect. This recipe has a lot of fond memories attached to it, its the type of masaledaar (spicy) stuff you expect from Indian food. you can serve this as a starter, a side dish or a main course its completely your choice . Hope you like it as much as I do:)

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken (small pieces) (1/2 kg)

Turmeric powder (1/2 tbsp)

Dalchini (Cinnamon) (3 medium sized pieces)

Kali miri (Black pepper) (12-15 peppers)

Zeera (Cumin)(1 tbsp)

Green chillies (6-8)

Lehsun (Garlic cloves) (9 cloves)

Kothmir (Coriander) (1 big bunch)

Oil (1 big spoon)

Salt to tate

Method:

1. Wash the chicken thoroughly.
2. In a deep vessel or a kadai put the chicken and add half a cup of water, turmeric powder and salt.
3. Turn the gas on and cook on high flame with the lid on.
4. Keep stirring the chicken every two minutes or so, till all the water evaporates.
5. At this point add half the amount oil to the chicken and lower the flame.
6. cook on low flame till the oil starts separating.
7. In the meanwhile grind together coriander, green chilli, garlic and cumin.
8. Once the oil starts separating from the chicken, add rest of the oil. (you may add more or less oil depending on your liking)
9. After adding the oil the second time, add the coriander paste to the chicken and mix well.
10. Give the chicken a nice stir, and cover with the lid again but keep stirring every 2 minutes.
11. Cook till the chicken is completely cooked and gets a slight reddish color.
12. Serve with a few onion slices and lemon:) enjoy:)

Kejrival toast

Now that Maggi is banned in India we need some new quick and yumm recipes for the late night hungers and the early morning rush. So here is one really quick and simple snack ''the Kejrival toast''. N no! it has nothing to do with Mr.Arivind Kejrival, this is in fact a famous street food available in Mumbai at the local 'anda pav (egg and bread) stalls''. this dish comes from another Mr. Kejrival who was not allowed non veg at home so he would eat it outside and in his time at the Wellington club came up with this brilliant dish. Here is my twist to this perfect mumbaiyaa dish.

Ingredients:

eggs (2)

cheese (2 cubes)

bread (4 slices)

butter (1 tbsp.)

green chilli (2)(finely chopped)

red chilli flakes (1tsp)

black pepper (freshly crushed)

coriander power (1 tsp.)

salt.

Method:

1.  Heat a little butter in a pan and toast the bread slices till nicely crispy.you may use your toaster to do this even faster, i just like bread toasted like this better. keep the bread slices aside.
2. Beat two eggs in a bowl and, add a pinch of salt to it and keep aside.
3. Now, heat 1 tbsp of butter in the pan again, and add the eggs to it and scramble them.
4.  Place a little bit of egg on each bread, break the cheese cube into small pieces with your hand and add it on top of the eggs.
5. Sprinkle a little salt,red chilli flakes, black pepper, coriander powder and a nice amount chopped green chillies.(only add as much chilli as you can handle because they can be really hot.)
6. Enjoy hot:)