Nylon Khaman-Microwave Recipe

Healthy snack prepared in a jiffy, sounds like a keeper, yeap I'm talking about gujju dish called khaman. Gujarti food is well known for its sweet and sour taste and unique preparations, Khaman falls in that category.Tasty because it  has sweetness from sugar, tangy taste from citric acid crystals and hot flavor from green chili and ginger. Healthy because it is steam cooked (here microwaved) without excessive oil or frying.
And on top of it, it is prepared from besan which is a very good source of protein. Hence we can say this is a guilt free snack.
Khaman falls into the category of dhokla, along with khatta dhokla, rasia dhokla and more famous these days are tri-colored cheese dhoklas. Usually dhokla are made by fermenting the chickpeas batter but the nylon khaman calls in for chickpea / bengal gram flour and is the easier version compared to other dhokla recipes.
The word "Nylon" perfectly adheres to this khaman because it is very smooth to palate plus airy and tender in texture.
 I had great time cooking this recipe which took less than 12-15 mins from start to finish. :)

Ingredients:

For Khaman:
1 cup Besan (Bengal gram flour)
2 tbs rava/sooji/semolina
pinch of turmeric powder/haldi powder
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp citric acid crystals/nimbu ke phool
1 tsp ginger-green chili paste
1 1/2 tsp Eno/fruit salt
salt to taste
1 cup water

For Garnish:
handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp of red chili powder/lal mirch powder

For Tempering:
2 tbs oil
1 tbs sesame seeds/ til
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
2 green chillies slit and halved
pinch of asafoetida/hing
3 tbs water

Method:
Grease two microwave safe containers of approx 5 to 6 inch diametre and keep aside.
In a big bowl combine all ingredients for khaman except eno, mix well and break any lumps that might have formed in the batter.
Now add eno to the batter and pour 2 tbs of water on it in such a way that eno sizzzles up into a foamy bubbly mix. Now mix the batter well so that eno is fully incorporated in batter.
Pour this batter into two greased containers and wrap it with cling film (if you dont have a cling film then cover the container with microwave safe plate)
Place one container in microwave and Microwave on 100% power for 2 minutes. Let it stand for 90 seconds and then remove. Repeat this process for second container.
Remove the wrap and let khaman cool down a bit.
Prepare them for tempering by cutting them into square pieces and sprinkling red chilli powder and coriander leaves on them. Keep aside.

For tempering :
Heat oil in a small pan, add rai to it and once it starts to crackle add til, hing and green chillies. Turn of the heat and add 3 tbs of water to it. Pour this tempering mix to prepared khaman.
Serve with chutney of your choice or ketchup, I prefer with green chutney.

Apple & Raisin Cake

Wishing you all a Very Happy Women's Day. To my loving Mom and Mother-in-Law, this is for celebrating you, as you are, just the way you are, loving, caring and indispensible to me. And to all my girl friends and fellow bloggers , wishing you all are very happy women's day.

I've adopted this recipe from Shilpa's blog here thanks shilpa for posting this easy to bake and tempting recipe. I've baked this cake in my pressure cooker, yeap you're reading it right, in my pressure cooker just to make a contribution to Nupurs MBP # 1 Cookers, Blog Bites. 
This cake came out to be super moist and rich in texture, raisins gave a nice surprise at every bite, apple flavor was subtle and blended nicely with vanilla flavor. 

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour/maida.
1 apple (i used 1 big gala apple)
1/2 cup raisins
3/4th cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
2 medium eggs
1/3 cup + 2 tbs milk
1/3 cup oil (i used sunflower oil) + little more for greasing
1/4th teaspoon salt

 Method:
Grease and dust one baking pan, in my case cooker ka dabba, grease with oil and dust it with maida. Keep it aside.
Place pressure cooker on a very low heat along with its lid closed but Remember to remove its whistle/weight (we shall bake cake without the whistle ). This is done to make an oven environment. Place a small ring or some small stand in the cooker, this is to place our dabba on it.

Remove the skin of apple and chop it into big chunks and place them in a blender along with milk. Blend it well.
Add oil and pulse it couple of times to make sure oil is mixed well.
In a deep bowl, break in the eggs and beat them till light and bubbly. Mix this with apple,milk and oil liquid. Just mix it dont beat it.
Now sift baking powder, salt and all purpose flour and mix in sugar nicely. Make a well in middle and drop in raisins.
Add the milk, apple and egg mix to the flour mix and gently fold it, make sure you dont over stir or beat it well or else it shall result in sweet bread instead of perfect cake, I make sure not to stir more than 10-14 stir rounds.
Pour this into the dusted dabba.
Place it in the cooker and bake it for 40-50 mins.
To check whether the cake is done, insert a toothpick and draw it out, if it comes out clean turn off the heat and remove the dabba. Let it stand for 10 mins and then remove the cake frm the container by inverting it on a plate.
Allow the cake to cool. Store in an airtight container.
This cake can be stored for upto 3 days without refrigeration and upto 15 days in refrigerator.

Tips:
Dust powdered sugar on the cake after the cakes cools down completely.
Decorate this cake with nice vanilla icing and cherries for a nice party dessert.

Urad Dal Hara Masala/ White lentils cooked with ginger, garlic and green chillies

How can we vegetarians, fill in our protein needs?!! Anyone's guess, turn to lentils. Urad dal cooked with all green spices, by green spicies I mean real fresh grown ones... which include green onion, green garlic (dont sweat if you dont have green garlic, add in normal garlic pods as I did), green chillies and ginger and the result is tempting garlicy aromatic dal.
We gujju's love this dal with bajri rotla/ bajre ki roti. Besides this I love this dal as a sippy side dish and goes great along with any sukhi sabzi  and roti.
Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup urad dal/white lentils, pressure cooked and lightly mashed
3 green chillies slit in half
1 inch piece of ginger chopped
5 pods of garlic chopped
2 green onions, including the greens, chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
2 tbs oil for tempering
pinch of asafoetida
handful of chopped fresh coriander, for garnish.

Method:
Heat oil in heavy bottom pan and add oil, once it starts to smoke add in mustard and cumin, let them crackle
add in asafoetida. Now add all chopped greens and saute for 1 minute.
Add in lightly mashed urad dal and salt to taste.
Add in 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water and bring it to boil.
Garnish it with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Tips:

This dal goes well with jeera rice and as well as any kind of parathas.

Fansi nu Shaak/ French beans and Garlic Stir Fry

Back to routine food after a wonderful weekend and all eatouts, so I decided to prepare french beans, urad dal and chappati along with our favorite achaar for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:
250 gms Fansi/French beans chopped into 1/2 inch length or whatever cut you like
150 gms / 1 large onion chopped length wise
3 tsp garlic paste
2 green chillies chopped roughly
1 inch piece of ginger grated
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
1 tsp punjabi masala/ all spice mix
1/2 tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1/2 tsp red chili powder/lal mirch powder
salt to taste
pinch of asafoetida
2 tbs oil for tempering

Method:
Heat oil in heavy bottom pan/kadhai and add mustard and cumin, once they come to crackle add asafoetida and ginger, garlic and green chillies. Saute for 30 seconds and add in chopped onion, saute for one min and add in chopped fansi along with turmeric and salt.
Cover the pan and cook till veggies are nice, tender and almost cooked, at this point add red chili powder and all spice.
Mix well and turn off the heat.
Serve warm along with chappaties or rotis or enjoy it along with dal and rice.

Palak Masala Khichdi/ Spicy Spinach Khichdi

Imagine the wholesomeness of this dish as it has all the proteins via lentils/dal, all vitamins, minerals and fiber from spinach and carrots and all the wonderful subtle aroma borrowed from lovely indian spices...yeap thats whats for dinner tonight, lovely Palak masala khichdi and jeera chaas along with papad and aachaar.
P, loves anything with lots of veggies and is a die hard fan of rice, so I thought of making nice biryani for him but then I said lets add some protein in form of dal and make khichdi instead of biryani. It was just few days back when I was surfing for some nice palak recipes I read this recipe at foodatarian.com, find the recipe
here

Secondly after nupur announced MBP #1 Cookers
here
I had to get busy and jump in to be a good sport.

This one pot dish is easy to prepare and light to digestive system.
So here's the recipe for this tantalizing palak masala khichdi... enjoy.


Ingredients:
1 cup Basmati rice
1/2 cup Mung dal
1 bunch palak/spinach chopped and washed thoroughly
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 green onion roughly chopped
1 small carrot peeled and chopped roughly
1 medium tomato or 1 tbs tomato paste
2 green chillies slit and cut in half
1 inch piece of ginger grated
3 pods of garlic grated
1 tsp turmeric/haldi powder
1 tsp red chili powder (i used kashmiri lal mirch powder)
1 1/2 tsp garam masala/ all spice powder
salt to taste
Handful of chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

For tempering
1 tsp oil
1 tbs ghee/clarified butter
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1/2 tsp rai/mustard seeds
1 pinch asafoetida/hing
2 dry red chillies


Method:

On a medium flame heat pressure cooker, add oil, ghee and once they start to smoke add all other tempering ingredients.
Add in all veggies and ginger-chili-garlic, except palak. Add all other masalas and sautee for 30 seconds and then add in palak. Let the palak shrink in sized and then add in rice and dal
Add 3 1/2 cups of water.
Closed the pressure cooker with its lid and cook on medium flame for 3 whistles and then on low flame for 5 mins.
Let the steam subside before opening the pressure cooker.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with plain curd or gujarati kadi or punjabi kadi or masala chaas... anything made of curd goes fine with this khichdi.


Tips:
If you prefer more tangy flavor, grind curd along with handful of coriander leaves and add this to khichdi just before serving.

Mysore Sada Dosa & Mysore Cheese Chutney Dosa

We all have to agree that south indian food not only is mouth water and satiating but also has a unique style and taste to it. There are numerous version of dosa, idly and vadas and puttus. Today I'm planning to prepare Mysore sada dosa for dinner as my fridge is running empty on veggies except some cucumber, carrots and few other things which can nicely make a lovely pot of sambar, which is a must have for any dosa may it be sada dosa, paper sada dosa, masala dosa, mysore sada dosa, rava dosa or neer dosa or plain ghee dosa.
Mysore sada dosa comes from a beautiful city of Mysore and this dosa is just like any sada dosa but with a kick of mysore chutney inside. After preparing the dosa, mysore chutney either in powder form or paste form will be dusted or spread inside the dosa. This mysore chutney recipe has many variations to it too.
Preparing dosa require a bit of planning, rice and urad dal needs to to soaked for 5-6 hours and then ground to smooth paste and kept in warm place for a couple of hours. Hence if you are planning to make dosa for lunch make sure to soak those ingredients at night and grind to paste first thing in morning, but if you are planning to make dosa for dinner soaking rice and lentils early morning and grinding them around 3 in afternoon is perfect for lovely dinner.

For Dosa we require to soak 2 cups of rice and 1/2 cup of urad dal(white lentils) seperately. Drop in few seeds, roughtly 10-12 seeds of methi(fenugreek seeds) in both rice and lentils.
Soak them for 5-6 hours or overnight.

Now using a blender, grind the drained rice with just enough water to a smooth paste. Add only about 1/3 cup water.
Now grind drained urad dal to a smooth paste add around 1/2 cup water.
Mix both paste nicely and add salt and a pinch of asafoetida.
Keep this container in warm place so that the batter can start the fermenting process.
In case of dosa batter does not need for than 2 hours of fermenting in summer season and not more than 3 1/2 hours fermenting in winter or humid conditions.
This batter can be stored in refrigerator for upto 4-5 days and used as required.

Make thin dosas, using the back of the ladle to spread the dosa out on the skillet. These thin dosas only need to be cooked on one side. When the top of the dosa is dry to touch, sprinkle some of the chutney powder or spread some liquid chutney (as i did). Ready to be served with sambar and any chutney or your choice.


For Mysore chutney blend 3/4th cup of fresh coconut along with 15-20 garlic pods, 1 tbs of sesame seeds/til, 1-2 tbs or kashmiri lal mirch powder (adjust according to your taste) and salt to taste. As i surfed the net to find the perfect mysore chutney recipe i found that roasted channa dal and urad dal are added to this chutney after grinding them to fine powder.... sounds good too. This time i didnt add those powder instead opted for plain garlic chutney option.


Make sure that the chutney is bit watery or a bit on liquidish side.... which ensures nice spreading on dosa.



Along with garlic chutney, spread a bit of coriander mint chutney too, then grate a little cheddar cheese and fold the dosa, voila!! you have mysore chutney cheese dosa.

Tips:
Add any leftover veggies to this dosa and sprinkle some cheese, now roll this crepe into a wrap and tuck in one open side, now you have for yourself a nice veggie mysore wrap.