Vegetarian Dalca

another dish for my ladies gathering
Vegetarian Dalca

What you need..

2 cups of toor dhal
2 tbs of ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder
2 eggplant - quarter
1/2 cup of baby carrots - halved
1 big tomato - quartered
1 big onion - sliced finely
2 sprig of curry leaves
1 green chilly-slit lengthwise
2 tbs of chicken masala powder
1 tbs of sambar powder
*2 cardamon
*1 tsp cumin
*1 tsp fennel
*1 cinnamon
*3-4 cloves
*3-4 aniseed
*1 bay leave
chopped coriander and or mint

p/s : you can add potatoes, carrots, long beans if you wish.

How to do...

• Wash and pressure cooker the dhall with ginger garlic paste and tumeric powder and tomato.
• When the dhall is cooked add in green chilly,carrots, eggplants and any other vegetables that you like.
• Once the vegetables are cooked, add curry powder and sambar powder and salt to taste
• In different wok/pan, heat oil and saute all marked * till aromatic, add in onions and curry leaves, bay leaves. Fry till the onions are soft.
• Pour into the dhall, stir well and let it boil for a few more minutes. Remove from fire and add coarsely chopped mint/coriander.
• Serve with rice, thosei, idli or chapatis/puris.

Chicken Masala with Methi

This is another version of chicken masala - kind of creamy and not spicy.

What you need..
1.5 kg of chicken - cut into small bites.
1 1/2 cup of yogurt - whisked (I use laban)
3 tbs chicken masala powder
1 tsp of tumeric powder
1 tbs of ginger garlic paste
1 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of fennel powder
1 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of cardamon powder
1/2 tsp of clove powder
1 big tomato - chopped
1 big onion - sliced
coriander leaves a handful
2 tbs of dried methi leaves

How to do...

• Marinate chicken with all except tomato, onions, methi and coriander for at least half hour - the longer the better.
• In a different pan cook the marinated chicken over medium fire - covered. Do not add any water.
•  In the meanwhile, in a different wok/pan, heat oil sand saute onions and tomatoes till soft and brown on slow fire. Remove from fire, let it cool and blend together with coriander leaves till a fine paste.
• Once the chicken is done, add in tomato/onion paste together with methi leaves, salt and then cook on slow fire for a few more minutes till the methi leaves are soft.
• Serve with flavoured rice, plain rice or chapatis/puris/parotha.

Dates Roll

Tina & Anand, a Malaysian couple with 2 young boys, invited us to their house for Divali dinner. Tina had invited 2 other family ..I brought along the cookies that I made for Divali..hope she likes them.  One of her guest brought a few type of sweets..Dates Roll, Split Mung Dhall Puding, Fruit Cake and Seri Muka..I am familiar with Seri Muka as it is one Malaysia's famous local snack/sweet.  The rest of them tasted good too.

Dates Roll is a combination of nuts, sesame seed, raisins, oats and dates combine with melted butter and if you wish honey.  Its a very healthy dish and good if kids have a liking to it.

I made mine without honey to bring over for my monthly Tamil Ladies Birthday Gathering- this month with man of the house as it is Deepavali Gathering too. 

Lets have a look at Dates Roll

What you need..
1 kg of dates - remove seeds and chopped
3 cups of oats
1 cup of chopped almonds- I roast  it till light brown
1 cup of golden raisins
1 cup of sesame seeds
enough melted butter
honey if required

How to do...

• chopped the dates
• mix all ingredients till well mix
• roll into logs and cover with aluminium foil and chill in fridge
• cut and serve
• if kept fridge can keep for days

p/s the thickness of the roll is up to you.

Divali Day and the Food

Happy (belated) Divali to all my Hindu readers...

The celebration started with the day before, preparing the next days menu...Chicken Dalca, Mutton Perathal, Chicken Masala and Jeera Rice.  Eve of Divali lighted up tea candle lights instead the usual earthen lamp and oil. Needed the use up the tea candle lights (trying to figure up why I got them in the first place...)

The only food that I managed to take pictures was of Idli...Family photographer on school trip...The recipe for Idli is the same as Thosei...It is steamed  with a special mould and steamer, normally for a 15 mins depending on the size of your mould.  Remove the idli from the mould with a spoon and serve.

Dalca is combination of meat and lentils with some vegetables and curry powder with sambar powder.  Tradionally it is cooked with mutton, I changed it to chicken as my hubby and kids are less fond of mutton.   I added drumstick, the fruity part of Muringa Tree and eggplants

Chicken Dalca

What you need..

2 cups of toor dhal
2 tbs of ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder
2 eggplant - quarter
2 long drumstick - cut into bite size.
1 big tomato - quartered
1 bowl of chicken pieces - preferable the one with bones.
1 big onion - sliced finely
2 sprig of curry leaves
1 green chilly-slit lengthwise
2 tbs of chicken masala powder
1 tbs of sambar powder
*2 cardamon
*1 tsp cumin
*1 tsp fennel
*1 cinnamon
*3-4 cloves
*3-4 aniseed
*1 bay leave
chopped coriander and or mint

p/s : you can add potatoes, carrots, long beans if you wish.

How to do...

• Wash and pressure cooker the dhall with ginger garlic paste and tumeric powder and tomato.
• When the dhall is cooked add in green chilly,eggplants, chicken meat and drumstick and any other vegetables that you like.
• Once the vegetables are cooked, add curry powder and sambar powder and salt to taste
• In different wok/pan, heat oil and saute all marked * till aromatic, add in onions and curry leaves, bay leaves.  Fry till the onions are soft.
• Pour into the dhall, stir well  and let it boil for a few more minutes.  Remove from fire and add coarsely chopped  mint/coriander.
• Serve with rice, thosei, idli or chapatis/puris.

Chocolate Treasure

Another of my favourite...it has two steps, first with the base and then the topping..a little work but worth the effort.

I have this cookies a few time and this time I decided to make a little change...ie by adding rice bubbles and instead of drizzling with cooking chocolate I sprinkle with hundreds and thousands. 

Chocolate Treasure

Mama Zieza @ www.resipi.net

For base

250gm butter
25 g milk powder
65 gm castor sugar
250 gm flour
65 gm corn flour
50 gm cocoa powder

For topping
2 cup of cornflakes
500 gm white chocolate
50 gm almond nibs.
50 gm golden raisins/blackcurrants/ kismis
cooking chocolate for drizzle

Method

1.     Beat butter and sugar till mix well, add the rest of the dry ingredients, mix well and make balls and place in paper cup and press lightly.  Bake and let it cool.

2.  For the topping - melt white chocolate double boiler (its best to do it in small batches), once melted add the cornflakes, almond nibs and golden raisins.

3.  Mix well till all are well coated - ensure that not many cornflakes as it will not stick.

4.  Lined the baked cookies on a tray, scoop out the topping and cover the base. 

5.  Melt cooking chocolote and pour into piping bag and drizzle on the topping.  Let it dry and store them.

p/s - well received by the kids as they look inviting with colours.

Snowball Cookies

This is a another quick and easy cookie making courtesy of Wan Noor Baya of US.  Thanks Baya for sharing.

What you need :

2 cups of flour (250gm)
2 cups of finely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecan) - I used walnuts 
1/4 cup fine sugar (55gm)
1 cup of softened butter (226gm)
1tsp vanilla
icing sugar for coating/rolling

How to do :

• Pre-heat oven at 180C
• Mix flour, nuts, sugar, butter and vanilla essence.
• Mix on low speed till mix well (3-4 mins)
• Using teaspoon, scoop and make balls.
• Place on cookie sheets 1 inch apart
• Bake at 18-20minutes or till it turns light colour.
• Remove ASAP from cookie sheet.
• Roll over icing sugar, let it cool and roll once again. (I put them into small paper cupsfor easier handling)
• Store.

Note - this is a soft kind of cookie so beware.

Cornflakes Cookies

A crunchy cookies worth trying from http://citarasawan.blogspot.com/  I used honey nuts coated cornflakes so it was a little sweet otherwise they were excellent. 

What you need :

250gm butter (I used unsalted ones, so add 1tsp salt to the batter)
150gm sugar
2tsp of vanilla essence
250gm of flour
4 cups of cornflakes - crushed

How to do :

• Beat sugar and butter till white and fluffy.
• Add in vanilla essence, stir.
• Mix salt, flour and cornflakes, stir till well mix.
• Using teaspoon, scoop each teaspoon on a baking sheet.
• Bake 15-18mins at 180C or till golden colour.
• Store once cooled.

p/s : will be uploaded later...

 before baking

after baking and ready to be eaten....

Divali @ Middle East, Doha...

Its the time of the year where Hindus all over the world celebrate Divali or Deepavali with lots of food, sweets, new clothes and etc.. Divali this year will be on Wednesday, October 26, 2011.  There is no public holiday or any feeling of the festival mood over here in Qatar, but am not to going to let this dampen our festival mood..

For me Divali is more of a time for family members to gather and enjoy the festivity.  I have always managed to celebrate with either side of family members except for the one year when me, hubby and kids celebrate Divali in Nanjing, China...It was still fun as we were together as a family.

This year however, Varsha will be away on a school trip to Cyprus for a week.  Looks like we will be celebrating without her. (Well looks like we have to get used to the idea of the kids may not be able to join us during celebrations or festivals as soon they will be leaving the home for further studies etc).

What is Divali without murukus...So as Mr Hubby was on shift off day, got him to help me with the making of murukus.  thanks Mr Hubby for spending your time making muruku  with me - you make our day. 

Making murukus used to be an elaborate preparation.  I remember my parents busy at least a month before Divali itself.  The whole idea of getting the ingredients like rice, urad dhall, ajwain, sesame  seeds, wash thoroughly, lay out on newspapers at the balcony of our flat house where we used to live.  I remember seeing my mum changing the papers everynow and then ensuring that the ingredients are dried thoroughly.    Then, it will be my dad's turn to take them over to the grinders to have them grinded to powder form, after which the whole process starts, with mum and dad taking an afternoon of a weekend just a week or so before Divali to make murukus, achi murukus and ommupadi (fine murukus mixed with dhals and nuts).

When we were kids, we were never allowed to be in the kitchen when my parents are making murukus - why their fear that we might get ourselves burnt.  The only thing we are allowed to do was making sure they are cooled and packing them in big cream cracker tins.  Those were the days.  (Emm when making the murukus I went on memory lane with my kids and Mr Husband).

Now it is simple - go over any grocery store - pick your choice of the many distributors who sells all sorts of readymade indian palagarams (tidbits).  My mother sent me via a friend 2 packets of Lingams readymade muruku powder. Just add roasted ajwain(omum) and sesame seeds, water and mix into nice dough enough to press them out of muruku press...voila you have murukus..

Now Varsha will have some murukus to take with her to Cyprus...atleast she will have the Divali mood with her....

Enjoy the pictures - Happy Deepavali (p/s -  I have Varsha requesting me to make achi muruku a sweet tidbits made out of rice powder, sugar, coconut milk and Mr Hubby said that he is willing to help out again....Might as well I take this opportunity - we will see)

Mr Hubby in action....

muruku waiting to be fried

muruku and sizzling oil.....

And murukus ready to be eaten

Cauliflower,Carrot, Potato Subzi

My quick and simple dish that goes well with chapati, puris and rice.

What you need

• 1 cup cauliflower - cut into small florets
• 1 carrot  - cut into small cubes
• 1 potato - cut into smal cubes
• 1 big red onion - chopped fine
• thumb sized ginger - chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp of cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder
• 1 tsp of garam masala
• 3 - 4 tbs of yogurt - beat well

How to do

• cut the vegetables.
• diced ginger and onion - set aside
• Heat oil in a kadai and add in cumin seeds. 
• Once it starts to pop, add in ginger and onions and fry till golden brown
• Add in the vegetables and stir well.  Add in some water and cook for a few minutes.
• Add in the salt, cumin powder, tumeric powder, garam masala and stir well.
• When the vegetables are cooked, add in the beaten yogurt, mix well and remove from fire.
• Add in chopped coriander leaves and serve hot....

Enjoy.........

A Family Affair @ Kitchen - Chapati making

Today's dinner was a very family affair, with Mr Hubby, me and the kids making chapati....chapati is not my cup of tea..I never get it right for making dough, though am good at rolling out and cooking itself....

Since dear son has been asking for chapati - he wants home cook one not from the restaurant..so papa went one making dough and me cook the side dishes to go with the chapati and the kids too helped...

I made 2 side dish a cauliflower, carrot and potato dish click here and a Punjabi eggplant dish  (will post the menus later). 

Chapati on a tawa...

Chapati ready to be enjoyed....

Enjoy....

Black Pepper Chicken

Enjoy a simple, quick to make dish.  My style, Chinese dish...

What you need

• 900gm chicken breast - cut into small cubes
• 1/ 2 green bell pepper - sliced
• 1/2 white onion - sliced
• 1 carrot - quartered and slice diagonally
• 1/2 bowl of cauliflower
• 1 tbs of ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• 3 tbs of soya sauce
• salt to taste
• spring onion - optional

How will you do....

1. Marinate the chicken with ginger garlic paste, sesame oil and soya sauce.
2. Heat oil in a wok/pan. Add in the onions, stir for a few minutes.
3. Next add in the cauliflower, carrots and bell pepper, saute for more minutes
4. Mix the black pepper powder with 1/2 cup of water.
5. Add in the chicken and black pepper mixture, stir well and cook till the chicken and vegetables are tender and done.
6. Garnish with spring onion and serve hot with rice.

Moong Dhall Curry

Whats for lunch/dinner, a multi dollar question asked everyday....so today while going the pantry, I realized that I have not cooked moong dhall curry for a long long time...so in action today's dinner....  next I have to think a good combination that goes well this curry... thinking hard....and while the moong dhall is in action, being boiled...I am off to the fish market...

What you need....

1 cup of moong dhall
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1 tsp of tumeric powder
1 big onion - chopped finely
thumb size ginger - chopped finely
1 medium sized tomato - chopped.
2 small red chillies (green is also ok, Ilike the rainbow effect in my gravy)
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of urad dhall
tumeric
1 tsp of fennel powder
1/2 tsp of cumin powder
 a dash of hing (asofoetida)
salt to taste
ghee for tarka - ghee for the aroma, otherwise vegetable oil will do
chopped coriander for garnishing 

How will you do...

1.  Wash and soak the dhall overnight, and then pressure cook with ginger garlic paste and tumeric powder till soft
2.  Remove from fire and mashed using the back of a spoon. Then return to fire
3.  In a different pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
4.  Once it starts to pop, add fennel seeds,urad dhall and hing, fry for a few minutes.
5.  Add in tomato, ginger, garlic, onions, curry leaves and chillies and fry for a few minutes till the onions turn golden brown, keep stirring till the tomatoes are soft.
6.  Add the onion mixture into dhall, fennel powder and cumin powder, season with salt,  keep on low fire and continue to cook till a boil.
7.  If you gravy is too thick you can add a little water or milk.
8.  Garnish with chopped coriander before serving.

Serve hot with rice or chappatis.

Vegetable Kurma

Another dish that I made for our monthly ladies gathering....

source - yours trully...
What you need....

1/2 cup of baby carrots - halved
1/2 cup of cauliflower florets
2 whole potato - quartered
1 whole onion - sliced
1 big tomato- chopped fine
2 small green chillies - cut into two
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp heaps of coriander powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
3 tsp heaps of fennel powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
1 tsp of tumeric powder
1/4 tsp of clove powder
1/4 tsp of cinnamon powder
2 tsp of ghee
2 small bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 aniseed
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
2 cardammon seeds
a handful of almonds - soaked in hot water for half hour and removed skin
a handful of raisins - blend soaked almonds and raisins to a fine paste.
chopped coriander leaves for garnishing.

How to do...
1.  Heat ghee in a pot.
2.  Once hot, add in bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, aniseed, cumin, fennel and cardamon seeds.
3.  Once they start to pop, add sliced onions, fry till they are soft and golden brown.  Add in green chillies
4.  Add in the tomato and mix well well, cook till it is very soft and mushy.
5.  Add in the powders, stir for a few minute, adding about 2 soup bowl of hot water.
6.  Add in the potatoes and let it cook .
7.  Once the potatoes are three quarter done, add in the carrots and cauliflowers and cook till they are tender.
8.  Add in almond/raisins paste to the gravy, put heat on low fire and boil for a few minutes, add in salt to taste.   Add in chopped coriander before serving.

Serve with rice, chappatis and puris.

Baby Corn, Mushroom & Methi Masala

I made this vegetable subzi for our monthly ladies lunch gathering.  

What you need
1 packet of baby corns
1 packet of mushrooms
a handful of dry methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)
1 big tomato - quartered
1 big onion - quartered
3 garlic
thumb size ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 small bay leaves
1 tsp heap of garam masala
1 tsp of tumeric powder
salt to taste

How to make

1.  Wash baby corns and mushrooms, drain
2.  Remove stems from mushrooms, halve and slice the mushrooms.
3.  Baby corns cut into small pieces.
4.  Blend tomato, onion, garlic and ginger into fine puree.
5.  Heat oil in a pan/kadai.
6.  Add in jeera and bay leaves (you can also use ghee for additional flavoring).
7.  Let it fry for a few seconds.
8.  Add in the baby corns and stir fry for a few minutes. 
9.  Pour in the tomato puree, stir further,  cook for till the baby corns are three quarter done.
9.  Add in the mushrooms and methi leaves, stir for another few minutes.
10.  Add in the tumeric powder, garam masala and salt to taste.
11.  Do not add any water because the mushrooms will ooze out water.
12.  Mix well and fry till it is semi dry or dry up to your preference.

Serve hot with rice, chapatis or puris.

Orissa Style Fish Curry

I am back after a long summer vacation in Malaysia. accept for a few post, my blog too went hibernation although the cooking, eating were not in hibernation.  Now that we are back to reality (oh is it that I have to do the cooking), have to get myself back on the right track.

A few days ago I tried Orissa style fish curry  - thanks to Sharell of http://www.whiteindianhousewife.com.  Lets indulge on Orissa Style Fish Curry...


Ingredients

Fish - cut small - (I used kingfish medium size)
tumeric powder
salt
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 onion - finely chopped
1 tomato - finely chopped
1 tsp of black mustard seeds
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
3 cups of water
1 - 3 tbs coconut milk powder (I used fresh milk)
a handful of chopped coriander leaves.

Method

1.  Rub tumeric and salt into the fishes and let it sit for a few minutes.
2.  Heat oil and fry the fish lightly.
3.  In a pot, heat oil and add in the mustard seeds. Once it starts to pot, add in the curry leaves and chopped onions, fry till golden brown.
4.  Add in the chopped tomato, ginger garlic paste, chilly powder and garam masala and fry for a few minutes.
5.  Add in the water and coconut milk, cooking for a few more minutes ( the curry is kind of watery and spicy)
6.  Finally add in the fried fish and coriander leaves, salt to taste and cook another five minutes.

p/s - pictures will be uploaded later...