Fried baby potatoes

I wanted to use the leftover marinade as I personally do not prefer wasting anything. This idea came to my mind and I attempted this one...it turned out awesome.
I took around 400gms baby potatoes, washed them clean to remove all the coated mud. Then I boiled them in salted water in pressure cooker. (I also trued using baby corn, capsicum, mushroom along with boiled veggies, they turned out good. just microwave the these veggies for a minute before throwing them in pan with fried potatoes.)
I chopped the boiled potatoes into half longitudinally, and deep fried them in 5-6 tbspn vegetable oil over high flame (2-3 turns) till they are crispy brown. Potatoes absorb very little oil when fried in very hot oil. I didnt peel the potatoes.
To fry  I took very little oil-1 tspn, heated it, added the fried potatoes, pepper (2 tspn), 1 tspn (chat masala), 1 tspn black salt and tossed the potatoes to mix the masala. I then added around 1 cup of left over marinade on high flame and tossed the potatoes to coat them with marinade. The potatoes tasted yum when hot.

Barbecue veggies

Its chill in the evenings (in Delhi) and a long week end was the right time to have season's first barbecue last evening.. had an awesome time, three of us together with our favourite things. I had set up a traditional coal  grill apart from the electric BBQ grill and the traditional one proved better..plan to do some more this season. Here's the marinade that I had put together-
Medium sized onion: 2 nos
garlic cloves- 7-8
ginger shoot- 1" piece
green chillies -2 nos
curd- 2 cups
salt to taste
kitchen king or tandoori masala- 4 tspn
red chilly powder- 2 tspn

Grind onion, garlic, ginger and green chillies, add it to the beaten curd. Add kitchen king/tandoori masala, red chilly powder and salt.
Take all veggies u wish - baby potatoes (parboiled), capsicum green, red, yellow (1" pieces), baby tomatoes, paneer(cottage cheese) 1" cubes; onion, button mushrooms and baby corns. Pour the marinade over the veggies and let them marinade for 4-6 hrs before taking them to BBQ.

Makke ke parathe

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali. It looks so festive in Delhi and now I am heading for Indore tomorrow, more excited to go back home on Diwali after three years.
Sorry for being away for long. I bring you something very easy to make and very good for winters.

Take 5 cups  of maize flour (makke ka atta)
Finely chopped onions (1 1/2 cups or less as you prefer)
Chopped green chillies- 2 long ones
chopped coriander leaves- a bunch
Coriander powder- 2 tspn, garam masala- 1 tspn; salt to taste.

• Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough with warm water. Don't keep it for long after kneading, it is to be made immediately after kneading.
• Make ten to twelve balls of dough.
• Roll each ball into round parathas. My mom in law can make it with hand but lesser experienced like me prefer to use polythene sheets to roll parathas. To go my way, take two 10"*10" square pieces of thick polythene sheet. Grease them with cooking oil on one side. Keep one ball of dough on the greased side of plastic sheet and cover it with another one with the greased side down on ball. Use a rolling pin to roll the paratha with soft hands. Remove one sheet on top and carefully place the paratha on a hot greased skillet or tawa. 
• Turn sides when cooked oiling on both the sides with ghee or cooking oil.
• Serve hot with Sarson ka saag or chutney.
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Bharwan Karele (Stuffed bittergourd)

I just love karele in all forms. This one is a very tasty recipe taught to me by Mrs Shrivastava, my colleague's wife who is an amazing cook.  Use of methi dana and onion reduces the bitterness and imparts a unique sweet flavour to karele. Well try it and let me know how it turned out in your kitchen.
You need:
Chhote Karele (small/medium sized bittergourd) : 8-10
Chhote pyaz (Small onion) : 5-6
Tel (Cooking Oil): 3 tbspn
Rai (mustard seeds): 1 tspn


Baravan masala (stuffing)
Pyaz (onion): 1 large
lahsun (garlic cloves): 7-8
Adrak (Ginger): 1 " shoot
Hari mirch (green chilly)- 2-3

methi dana (fenugreek seeds): 12-15 seeds
saunf (aniseeds): 1 tspn
Dhania (coriander) powder: 1 tb spn
Lal mirch (Red chillly) powder: 1 tspn
Amchoor (dry mango) powder: 2 tspn
haldi (turmeric powder): 1 tspn
salt to taste (use lesser than what you would use in normal course as we rub salt on karele which makes them little salty).

• Peel karele (bittergourd), slit on one side longiitudinally, remove hard seeds.
• Keep the peel, chopp it finely.
• Take 2-3 tspn salt and rub it on each of the karelas (bittergourd) and on peel. Keep for 1 hr. This helps to reduce the bitterness.
• Peel the small onions, and put two slits half way from top crossing each other  .  
• Grind onion, ginger, garlic, green chilly, fenugreek seeds and aniseeds. Add rest of the stuffing ingredients and mix well.
• Wash karele and peel seperately.
• Mix the peel in the stuffing/masala.
• Fill all the karelas with the stuffing and tie them with thread so that the masala stays inside.
• Heat oil in a large flat bottomed pan, add mustard seeds and gently place the karelas and small onions in it. 
• Cook it on slow flame for 30-45 mins stirring occassionally till karelas are cooked evenly.
• Serve them with chopped green coriander garnishing. You can store these karelas for 2-3 days in refrigerator.

Eggless chocolate cake (in microwave)

I have been making this recipe for long. It turns out best in a grill, even microwaving it makes a good cake but the cake turned out well in microwave convection cooking also. Sharing the recipe:

Missed to take a picture...
You need:
Maida (Flour)- 1.5 cups
Malai (Cream on top of boiled milk)- 1.5 cups
Milk powder- 3/4 cup
Powdered sugar- 1 cup
Baking powder- 1tspn
Baking soda- 1/2 tspn
cocoa powder- 3-4 tbspn
Warm milk- 3/4 cup
Ghee- 2 tspn
Vanilla essence- 5-6 drops
Chocolate sauce to decorate

• Keep the microwave on convection preheating at 190 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes.
• Mix flour, milk powder, soda, baking powder.
• Beat sugar in malai using a hand mixer (or grinder).
• Add the flour mixture in this paste. Keep adding small quantities of flour while beating. Add milk as and when required (you may need more than 3/4 cup of milk, check the consistency of dough, it should be of pouring consistency).
• Add cocoa powder and mix well.
• Add ghee, essence and mix well.
• Grease a baking tray, dust it with flour.
• Pour the batter in tin and convection cook it in preheated microwave at 190degrees centigrade for 1 hour. 
• Remove from microwave and after 10 minutes turn it upside down on the serving dish.
• Decorate it with chocolate sauce.
• The cake turns out well without cocoa powd

Mordhan ki Idly

Mordhan ki khichadi is the most clicked recipe on my blog. So I thought of bringing some more recipes of mordhan. I  tried two variations with Mordhan today for asthami vrat. This is a steamed preparation, so is pretty light. Sanjeev liked the fried mini idly variation as he found the other one too plain.

You need:
Mordhan: two cups
Curd: 1 1/4 cup
Crushed- ginger chilly- 2 tspn.
sodium bicarbonate (meetha soda) or Eno- 1/4 tspn

• Mix curd in mordhan, add enough water to soak it well (of idly batter consistency). Soak it for 45 min to 1 hr. The  batter would not be of fine consistency and curd and mordhan are quite separated. Let it be like that or you can slightly churn it in the mixer. 
• Before steaming, add soda (or eno) and mix well.
• Grease idly cast. I greased both mini idly cast and normal idly cast. Made one set of mini idlys and one set of large idlys.

Fried Mini Idly

• The mini idlys' will splitter a little bit on steaming, so use the thick batter at the bottom. Remove it after steaming, and keep it to cool for 5 mins.
• Remove the idlys from cast. 
• Heat 2-3 table spoon oil, add mustard and zeera to splitter.
• Add one chopped green chilly, 2 tspn til (sesame) seeds, 7-8 curry leaves and 1 tspn coriander powder in same order.
• Add the mini idlys. Mix well, add 1 tspn garam masala, little bit of chopped coriander and mix well.
• Serve hot.

Plain Idly

• Serve large idly with green chutney and curd.

Singhade ke Cheele

Singhade ke cheele- I tried making cheele (dosa) with singhade ka aata like rawa dosa yesterday and it came out well. I can say its an instant vrat recipe that tastes good and is light to eat.
You need:
Singade ka aata (Singada flour): 1 cup
curd (beaten) - 1/2 cup
cumin seeds- 2 tspn
coriander powder- 2 tspn
red chilly powder- 1 tspn
ginger finely crushed- 1 tspn
green chilly finely chopped - two medium sized
salt- to taste

• Mix curd in singada flour, add 3/4 cup water or more to make the batter of very thin pouring consistency (just like rawa dosa). Add other ingredients to the mix.
• Pour the batter in circles on a hot tawa/skillet so that it spreads evenly, and you see holes in the cheela. (do not spread it with a laddle). You can swivel the tawa to spread the batter evenly in a round shape.
• turn sides when cooked.
• Serve with curd and green chutney.