How to make Malpua

Malpua is an traditional sweet of north India. Holi festival is around the corner, so thought of sharing this malpua recipe. plus i also had some requests to share the recipe of fluffy malpuas. It is prepared in during the festival of Poush Sankranti in Bengal.It is also the morning food which is served to lord Jagannath in his temple.

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 cups of milk
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour (maida plain flour)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Approx. 1/3 cup water use as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom crushed (ilachi)
• 2 tablespoons clarified butter (ghee)
• 2 tablespoons sliced pistachios (pista) for garnishing

Method:

• Boil milk in heavy bottom pan over medium high heat till it reduces to about 1 cup, stir the milk occasionally and keep scrapping the sides. Add the cardamom and mix. This should take about 15 minutes after milk comes to boil. This is known as rabdi.
• In a bowl mix flour, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1/3 cup of milk (rabdi), and about 1/3 cup or as needed water to make a smooth batter of pouring consistency. Keep the batter for about four to five hours before making the malpua.
• Add the remaining sugar to remaining milk (rabdi) and mix, set aside. This will be used for garnishing.
• Heat the non stick skillet over medium heat and grease it generously. Let the skillet get moderately hot.
• Pour approx. 1-1/4 tablespoons batter to the skillet and gently spread to 2-1/2 inch circle, to form a pancake. After top of the batter start drying spread about ½ teaspoon of clarified butter. Wait another minute and flip the malpua.
• Malpua should be golden brown on both sides.
• Set the malpuas in serving plate and pour about 1 teaspoon of reduced milk over and garnish with pistachios.
• Malpuas are ready to serve.

Onion Pakoda (South Indian Style Pakoras)

Onion pakoda or onion pakora are onion fritters that are battered with chickpea flour and then deep fried.These are very commonly prepared in most south Indian homes and is a popular street food too.These are easy to prepare when you have a sudden guest or friend at home and you want to make them feel special. These make a good tea time snack especially during the cold winters.

INGREDIENTS:

• Onion – 1 medium or 1⅓ cups Sliced
• Green chilies – 2 small, finely chopped
• Ginger paste – ½ teaspoon
• Curry leaves – 4-5, chopped
• Cilantro – few sprigs, chopped finely
• Salt- to taste
• Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
• Red chili powder – 1 teaspoon
• Coriander powder – ½ teaspoon
• Carom seeds (Ajwain) – ¼ teaspoon
• Rice flour – 2 tablespoons
• Besan (Chickpea flour) – 5 tablespoons

Method: 

• Take sliced onion in a bowl.
• Add chopped green chilies, cilantro, curry leaves and ginger paste.
• Mix it very well.
• Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and carom seeds.
• Then add rice flour and besan.
• Mix it well. So all the flour and masala coat the all sliced onions. Adjust the besan quantity to coat the onions. Make sure all the sliced onion should be coated with flour.
• Leave it aside for 20 minutes. So onion will start to leave its water and flour mixture will get wet. We don’t want to make batter of flour so do not add any extra water. Water from onion is enough. Less water = crispy pakoda.
• Heat the oil (few inches deep) in the pan on medium heat for deep frying. Once oil is hot, add spoonful of pakoda mixture.
• Fry it till it becomes golden brown on both sides. Turn them around while frying for even cooking. Deep fry few pakodas at a time. Do not over crowd them.
• Then remove it on paper towel lined plate.
• Serve onion pakoda hot with a cup of tea or coffee.

Notes:

•  If amhcur isn't available then just add some chat masala instead.
• The batter has to be thick and not thin.
• Fry them on medium heat else they might get burnt.
• You could add baking soda if you wish to. However I haven't added.
• The onion need to be sliced thinly else it would take a longer time to cook.

Vegetable Malai Kofta Curry Recipe

Vegetable kofta curry is the most amazing combination of several healthy vegetables. Kofta are extremely tasty in eating, and you can really feel a crunchy taste and flavor of each and every vegetable you are putting into it. Gravy is tremendously awesome and fragrant with fennel seeds and whole garam masala. You can choose to add vegetables of your choice and cook it in same style thick red gravy or curry.

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Vegetable Malai Koftas:

• 2 boiled potatoes, mashed
• 1 carrot, chopped and steamed
• 1 cup of green peas, steamed
• 1 cup cauliflower florets, steamed
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 tablespoons gram flour
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• oil for pan frying

Ingredients to be ground into a paste:

• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• an inch piece of ginger
• 2 green chillies, roughly chopped
• 5 cashew nuts

Other Ingredients for Kofta Curry:

• 2 cups homemade tomato puree
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon homemade garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kasoori methi
• salt, to taste
• cream for garnishing
• oil for cooking

Method:

• To begin making the Vegetable Malai Kofta Curry Recipe, we will first make the kofta balls.
• Add all the steamed vegetables into the food processor, along with the gram flour, salt and cumin powder. Pulse to make a coarse kofta dough mixture. Check the salt and adjust to suit your taste.
• Shape the kofta dough into bite-size lemon balls and keep them aside. (About 8 to 10). 
• Roll each ball in over the breadcrumbs so they get coated evenly. You can now cook the kofta's in the Oven or in the Kuzhipaniyaram Pan
• If you plan to use the Oven to bake the kofta's; then place the kofta balls on a greased baking sheet. Brush the kofta balls with some oil and bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until the koftas turn golden brown in colour. Remove the kofta's from the oven once baked and keep them aside.
• If you plan to use the Kuzhipaniyaram Pan; then place the kofta balls in the pan's cavities; drizzle the kofta's with a little oil and pan fry them until golden brown on both sides. You will have to flip the kofta balls so they fry on all sides evenly. 
• The next step is to make the Kofta Curry
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a heavy bottomed pan; add onion-ginger-garlic paste. Saute until the raw smell goes away. Add in the pureed tomatoes and the remaining ingredients for the gravy and simmer for 10 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and the gravy is thickned. 
• Once the Vegetable Malaik Kofta gravy has thickened, add in the pan fried Vegetable Kofta Balls and simmer for another couple of minutes.
• Transfer the Vegetable Malai Kofta Curry into a serving bowl, garnish by drizzling with fresh cream and coriander leaves.
• Serve the delicious Vegetable Kofta Curry with Tawa Paratha and a Rice Dish of your choice. You can also serve these pan fried vegetable balls as an appetizer for your parties.

 Tips:

• Serve hot with jeera rice or plain Indian chapati.
• This kofta curry is best to serve with roomali roti or sometimes with butter naan.
• You can add the koftas to the curry just before serving.
• Adjust spices to your taste, the above mentioned spice level will give u a little hot kofta curry.
• Taste the salt level on regular basis, because the fried koftas already contains salt.

Vada Pav Recipe

Vada Pav is the most popular street food of Mumbai. This vada pav recipe is easy and the chutneys could be made in advance. vada pav is one of the most humble street food of mumbai, yet it is tasty and delicious. it basically has batata vada which is sandwiched between two slices of a pav, along with sweet chutney and green chutney. i have had vada pav in many places in mumbai right from my childhood. even today when i go to mumbai, i do make sure to have vada pav there. however on occasions i do make them at home.

Ingredients:

• 8 ladi pavs (small squares of white bread)
• 1 recipe Dry Garlic Chutney

For the vada filling:

• 1 1/2 cups boiled and mashed potatoes
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp grated garlic
• 1 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)
• 6 to 8 curry leaves (kadi patta)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1 tbsp oil

For the outer covering:

• 3/4 cup besan (Bengal gram flour)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• a pinch of baking soda
• 1 tsp oil
• salt to taste

Other ingredients:

• oil for deep-frying

 Method:

For the vada fillling:

•  Pound the green chillies, ginger and garlic using a mortar and pestle.
• Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida and curry leaves and sauté for a few seconds.
• Add the pounded mixture and sauté again for a few seconds.
• Add the potatoes, turmeric powder and salt and mix well.
• Remove from the fire and cool.
• Divide into 8 equal portions. Shape into rounds. 

For the outer covering:

• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and make a batter using approximately 1/3 cup of water.
• Dip each round of the vada filling into the batter and allow it to coat the mixture well .
• Deep fry in hot oil, till golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside. 

How to proceed:

•     Slice each pav into half and spread some dry garlic chutney inside.
•     Place one vada in each pav and serve immediately. 

Tips:

• Laddi pavs are small square shaped white bread rolls which are available at local bakeries.
• You can also use bread roll or slices if the pav is not available.

Cold Coffee Recipe

Simple, easy and refreshing Cold Coffee Recipe! Cold Coffee has always been my favorite drink to order in hotel and cafes. I am sure we all have had cold coffee and most of us love them with a scoop of icecream.This is for those people who love coffee..It was so good that I couldn’t stop with one cup..If you don’t have icecream you could use fresh cream or do it without icecream..But I recommend you to try this with icecream..

Ingredients:

• Instant Coffee powder - 2 tblspn
• Sugar - 4 tblspn
• Cold Milk - 3 cup
• Icecream- 5 to 6 scoops
• Chocolate syrup as needed
• Hot water - 3 tblspn

Method:

• Take all your ingredients
• You need to boil some water
• Take coffee powder in a bowl,Add in sugar
• Pour over the hot water and mix well
• so this is your coffee syrup, you can store this in a container in fridge for more than a week
• Take a blender and pour in your icecold milk, now the milk is in
• spoon as much coffee syrup as you like, now take your vanilla icecream, if you can get
• your hands on some coffee icecream then use that, Scoop the icecream in
• I added some more coffee syrup as well, cover with a lid and blend to a frothy milkshake
• Take a cup
• Now take your chocolate topping, drizzle the chocolate topping in like a pattern
• Pour the milkshake in, now it is frothy and drizzle some chocolate topping

Fried rice

Today we are going to prepare Fried rice. We usually order Fried rice when we visit hotels but do you know that we can prepare it in no time at home. Moreover the advantage of preparing at home is that we can prepare it to suit our liking, adjust sauces to suit our taste buds and we can also skip which is very harmful for our health. I usually prepare this with brown rice to make it more healthier and it tastes really good with brown rice. How to cook brown rice? .Do try it. Here is a quick recipe for Indo Chinese Vegetable Fried rice.

 Ingredients needed:

• 2 cups Rice
• 3 tbsp Oil
• 100 gms Beans Finely Chopped
• 2 Carrot Finely Chopped
• 1 Onion Sliced
• 100 gms Cabbage Finely Chopped
• 2 Spring Onions Finely Chopped
• 2-3 Green Chilies cut lenghtwise
• 1 tsp Ginger Chopped Finely
• 1 tsp Garlic Finely Chopped
• 2 tbsp Soya Sauce
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

•     Pick, wash and soak the rice in enough water for 10-15 minutes and drain.
•     Boil water, add rice and little salt.
•     Cook uncovered on low heat till rice is tender.
•     Take care not to overcook the rice. Each grain of rice should be separate.
•     When rice is done, drain and add soom cold water and drain again using a

              large seive and set aside.

•     Heat oil in a kadhai / large pan and stir fry all the chopped vegetables.
•     Cook for 3-4 minutes.
•     Take care that vegetables are not overdone, they should be crisp.
•     Mix salt and pepper to taste.
•     Add the cooked rice and mix well. Now mix the soya sauce to it.
•     Cook the chinese fried rice for 2-3 minutes and serve hot.

Tips:

• Rice: You can use 3-4 cups of rice for this recipe. If you do not have leftover rice, then you would have to a little bit of prep of cooking and cooling the rice. Preferably you want the rice to be a little separated, not as much as say a pulao recipe (see Paneer and Muttar Pulao Recipe) and not a mushy rice either. See step 1 for details on how to cook the rice for this.
• Bell pepper (Capsicum): You can use any color you like. I use the Red variety for their health benefits, superior to that of the green variety.
• Sesame oil: I usually use a chilli + sesame oil mix for the spiciness. But you can use regular sesame oil and add chilli sauce additionally. You can also use the toasted sesame oil towards the end if you like. If sesame oil is not your thing, just add regular vegetable oil.
• Ginger: Depending upon the quality and taste preference, you might need add more or less ginger (ditto for garlic) 

Samosa – Indian Snack

India’s popular snack that finds a place in almost every bakery or chaat shop – our very own Samosa. Savory comfort food at its best, a crisp exterior filled with a savory potato stuffing that goes very well over a hot cup of chai especially on a rain filled, cold day. Samosa is always store bought and on rare occasions prepared at home, like today.

Ingredients for Samosa dough:

•     1.5 Cup All-Purpose-Flour (Maida)
•     1/2 Tsp Carom Seeds (Ajwain)
•     1/2 Tsp Salt
•     1/4 Cup Water
•     3 Tbsp Oil

Ingredients for Aloo stuffing:

•     2 Pinch Asafoetida (Hing)
•     1/4 Tsp Mango powder (Amchoor)
•     1/2 Tsp Red Chili powder
•     2 Small Potato (Boiled potato)
•     2 Tbsp Green Coriander
•     1/2 TspGaram Masala 
•     1/2 Tsp Coriander powder
•     1/2 Tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
•     1 Tbsp Green Chili (Chopped into small pieces)
•     To Taste Salt 
•     1/4 Cup Peas

Ingredients for Samosa frying:

 Enough Oil (To deep frying Samosas – 75% of pan should be filled.)

Method:

• Cook the potatoes until soft, peel and mash.
• Chop the green chillies, garlic, ginger and the coriander leaves.
• Mix all the ingredients for the dough except water and rub thoroughly. Sprinkle water and make a hard dough. Set aside for about 10 minutes.
• Divide the dough into round portions as per the size of the samosas required.
• Heat the ghee and add cumin, when crackling add garlic and saute.
• Add the rest of the ingredients excluding the final four and sauté for 5 minutes. Mix in the rest of the ingredients, including the potatoes and mix well.
• Roll each portion of dough into a thin oval shape cut into 2 semi-circles. Take a semi-circle. Apply water on the straight edge of the semi-circle. Hold the semi-circle in your hand, fold the straight edge, bringing together the watered edges, seal the watered edges into a triangular pocket.
• Stuff the potato mixture and then seal the upper edges. Repeat with the rest.
• Deep fry in oil till golden brown and serve with a mint or a tamarind chutney.