Stuffed Mushroom

 Ingredients:

10 Button Mushroom
1 Garlic pod (minced finely)
1 tbsp Cheese Spread (store bought)
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/2 String Cheese
Salt to taste

Tip: I used the Rondale Garlic & Herbs Cheese Spread from Safeway. But any cheese spread or shredded cheese can be used.

Clean the mushrooms with a damp towel and break off stems. This will give us a mushroom cap into which the filling can be added. Chop the stems finely and keep aside.

In a pan heat oil and add the minced garlic. Once the garlic starts to fry add the chopped mushroom stems. Now add red chilli powder, cumin powder and salt to taste. Cook until the mushroom is 75% cooked and shrinks in size. Remove from heat and stir in the cream cheese spread or the shredded cheese.

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).

In a baking sheet arrange the mushroom caps and spoon in the mushroom stuffing into each cap.  Decorate the top with strings removed from the string cheese. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 -  23 minutes. You'll know the stuffed mushroom is done when water starts to form below the mushrooms in the baking pan.

Remove from the oven and serve hot.

Cauliflower in Mushroom-Paneer Masala

Cauliflower in Mushroom-Paneer Gravy
Ingredients

1/2 cup sliced button mushroom
1/4 cup paneer (cut into small pieces)
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 small onion (finely chopped)
2 green chilli (split in the middle)
1 tsp ginger/garlic paste
 1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
Fresh coriander leaves (finely chopped)
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

 Method:

In a pan, heat the oil and saute the chopped mushroom on medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from oil and let it cool. Now in a blender add the paneer and the sauteed mushroom and 1/2 cup of water and blend it into a smooth paste.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the chopped onion. When the onion turns light brown,add the green chilli, ginger-garlic paste and saute until the rawness goes away. Now add the blended mushroom-paneer mixture, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt to taste. Mix well and add the cauliflower florets.

If this mixture is too thick you can add another 1/2 cup of water. Cook covered on medium heat for 10 minutes until the cauliflower florets are cooked. Now remove the cover and cook on high heat until the gravy is thick.

Remove from heat and garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with Roti/Chapathi.

Vegetable Spring Roll - Oven Baked

Makes 10 Spring Roll

1 cup Cabbage (finely chopped)
1/2 cup Carrot (grated)
1/2 cup Spring Onion (finely chopped)
1 tsp pepper powder
10 spring roll sheets
Salt to taste
1 tsp oil

Heat oil in a pan and add the cut cabbage, carrot and spring onion. Also add the pepper powder and salt to taste.  There is no need to add water as this is a dry mixture. Keep stirring so that vegetables do not stick to the pan. Fry until the vegetables are 75% cooked. Remove from heat.

The spring roll pastry sheet is available in any Chinese, Korean or Asian grocery stores.

In a single sheet and place a spoonful of the vegetables at the bottom end of the triangle of the sheet. Fold up the bottom of the wrapper and cover the filling and roll. When you are half way through fold the right and left sides and now roll over the entire length of the sheet. Stick the end to the roll with a drop of water. Repeat this for all the remaining spring roll sheets.


Preheat the oven at 350°F  (180°C) and place the spring roll in a baking pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes. I first set the timer for 25 minutes and later turned over the roll and let it bake for another 8 minutes to get a all around brown and crispy roll.

Serve hot.

Kozhi Varuval - Chicken Fry

Kozhi Varuthathu (Chicken coated and roasted in spices)

Ingredients:

2 lb chicken (with bone and into chunck size pieces
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1tsp coriander powder
1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 small onion (chopped finely)
1 spring curry leaves
2 green chilli
Salt to taste
Some fresh Coriander leaves for decoration.

Method:
Marinate the chicken with chilli, cumin, coriander, 1/2 tsp salt and ginger garlic paste. If possible marinate overnight else at least marinate for a couple of hours.

Now add the marinated chicken and a cup of water in a pan and cook covered until chicken is 90% cooked. Now remove the cover and cook on medium-high until the water evaporates and the masala starts to stick to the chicken. Remove from heat.

In a different pan, heat a little oil and add the onion. Fry until it turns brown.  Add curry leaves and green chilli and fry for a few more minutes. Add the cooked chicken(with any masala that is left), add the garam masala powder . Fry this until no water remains and the chicken pieces gets roasted on all sides.

Remove and garnish with chopped coriander. Serve hot with Mutton Biryani.

Kovakkai Poriyal

Kovakkai/Tindora Fry

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Kovakkai/Thondekai/Tindora(Julienned)
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste

For Seasoning Oil
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp urad dhal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 red dry Chilli
1 spring of  Curry leaves

Method:

Heat a pan, add the Julienned Tindora, salt, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, turmeric. Add a little water and cook until 80% done. This means that the Tindora is not completely cooked through and some of the crunchiness remains in the vegetable. Remove any excess water.

Now in a different pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. When the mustard starts to splutter add urad dhal, dry chilli and curry leaves. Fry for a minute. Now add the cooked Tindora/Kovakkai and fry. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder and cumin powder. Fry on medium low for a few minutes until the spices blend in. Add more salt if required.

Remove from heat and add grated coconut. Adding coconut is a optional step and can be skipped.

Vazhakkai Roast

Ingredients:

1 Raw Banana(Vazhakkai/Plantain/Balekayi)
2 tsp Sambhar powder
1 tsp rice flour
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste

For Seasoning:
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp urad dhal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 red dry Chilli
1 spring of Curry leaves

Method:

Peel the skin of the raw banana with a peeler. You can leave some of the skin on and do not need to peel the skin completely.

Now cut the vazhakkai into medium think slices. In a bowl mix sambhar powder, turmeric powder, rice flour and salt to taste. Add a little(just a few drops) water into this mix and make a paste. Apply this paste evenly on all the cut raw banana pieces. Marinate for atleast 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard starts to splutter add urad dhal, dry chilli and curry leaves. Fry for a minute.

Now place each piece flat on the pan and fry on each side on medium heat until roasted. This could be a tedious process and will take time. But the fired spicy roast at the end was well worth it for us.

Once done, remove from heat and serve.

Julienning Vegetables

Julienne is a cut in which the vegetable or food item is cut into long thin strips

Tamil Puthandu Vazhthukkal

Even though there is a confusion about Tamil Puthandu and Chithirai Thirunal, for most of the Tamilians April 14th is new year. So it is for my hubby.

Tamil Puthandu Vazhthukkal!!

In Photo: Rice, Sambhar, Vazhakkai Roast, Kovakai Poriyal, Paruppu Vadai, Appalam, Aval Payasam

Everything on the menu was a delicious treat and we polished away our plate and enjoyed the dinner.

Homemade Rasmalai

Rasmalai

Happy Easter!!

Last weekend we celebrated Easter with my brothers family. They prepared mouth watering chicken wings on the barbecue which was moist and juicy, fish fry and our all time favorite of Mutton Biryani and Mutton curry from my sister-in-law. We took loads of nice pictures of all the food. Will post it soon.

When I was speaking to my sister-in-law last weekend I offered to bring in a homemade dessert. There were a couple of favorites like the Sorakai Halwa and Rasmalai. Finally I decided on the Rasmalai. Will make the Sorakai Halwa sometime and post the recipe.

Here we go:

Ingredients:
8 cups whole milk
2 tbsp lemon
4 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom
7 pistachio chopped
7 almonds chopped
3 cups water
2 whole cardamom

Method:

Rasmalai is nothing but Rasgulla which soaked in reduced sweet milk flavored with cardamom (sort of like Rabri).

To make paneer for Rasgulla :

Boil 5 cups of milk in a deep bottomed clean pan. Once the milk starts to boil, pour in lemon juice slowly, stirring continually. Remove from heat and remove the water in the paneer. Wash paneer well in water and hang in a muslin cloth till the the water is completely drained.

  
To make Rasgulla :

Take the paneer which is completely drained of water and gently knead and mash the granules to make a smooth dough out of the paneer. Shape it into round ball and flatten slightly with the insides of the palm to form a oval/round shape. I was able to make 8 paneer balls.

In a pressure cooker add 3 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 2 whole cardamom and the shaped paneers. Cook for 2 whistles and remove from heat. Remove from the cooked rasgulla from the water and place in a bowl to cool.

To make Malai: 

Put 3 cups of milk into a heavy-based saucepan and stir constantly while bringing to the boil. Cook steadily and continue stirring until reduced to about 1.5 cups. Lower heat, add sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Now add the powdered cardamom and nuts. Remove from heat and cool.

Finally the Rasmalai:

Remove the Rasgulla's from the water and gently squeeze out water by placing the Rasgulla between both your palms. Place this in the malai prepared in the above step. The Rasgulla is like a sponge and will absorb the malai. Place in the refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes before serving.

Serve chilled and enjoy!!

Mutton Biryani

I tried my hand at Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani tonight and was quite impressed with the end result. I am sure this is not the authentic recipe for the Hyderabadi version but we liked it a lot and hence this quick note down of the recipe for the next time.

I do not have the step by step photos for this because I originally did not intend to post this. Maybe next time, I'll post the step by step photos.

Ingredients:

2 lb fresh Mutton(good size chunks)
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 cup of chopped mint and coriander leaves
1 cup of julienne onion
2 green chillies chopped
2 tbsp garam masala
1 Tomato(chopped)
1/2 cup yogurt
2 cups Basmathi rice
1/2 tsp food color / saffron


In a pan, heat oil and add 1 cup of julenne onion. Fry the onion until they are golden brown in color. Now add the 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and fry until there is no raw smell from the paste left. Add the chopped tomatoes.

Fry for a few minutes and add the mutton pieces. Stir well and add the chopped green chilli, mint and coriander leaves, also add the yogurt and 1 tbsp garam masala. Add salt to taste.  Mix well. Transfer this mixture into a pressure cook and add half a cup of water and cook for 1 whistle. Remove from heat.

In a separate deep bottom pan, take 3 cups of water. Add 1 tsp garam masala and salt to taste. When the water starts boiling add rice and cook 50% until the rice is half cooked and water evaporates. Remove from the pan and keep aside.

When the pressure goes down from the cooker remove the mutton spices mix. Also mix the food color or saffron in 1/4 cup milk.

In the thick bottomed pan, add a layer of mutton-spices mix and then a layer of rice, half the food color and then again a layer of mutton-spices mix, then the remaining rice and sprinkle the remaining food color on top.


Cook on low heat for 45 minutes keeping the lid tightly closed. Decorate with caramelized onion.

Serve with boiled egg and raitha.

Aval Payasam

Ingredients:
1 cup Aval/Beaten rice/Rice flakes/Poha
3 cups Milk(whole milk preferable)
1 tbsp Ghee
1 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
5-6 whole Cashew
5-6 Raisin

Method:
In a deep bottomed pan heat the ghee and fry the Cashew and Raisin until light brown. Remove from the ghee and keep aside. In the remaining ghee in the pan, add the aval and fry for a few minutes. There is no need for the aval to turn brown. Just well coated with ghee.

Now add the milk to this and bring it to boil. Also add sugar. Keep stirring so that the milk does not boil and flow over.  Reduce the heat and keep cooking until the milk reduces to half of its original content and the aval/poha is cooked. Now sprinkle the cardamom powder and remove from heat.

Garnish with the fried cashew and raisins and serve. This can be eaten hot or chilled.

Note: If you feel the Payasam is too thick you can add milk to it. You can also add more sugar to it to make it sweeter.