Wackiest Vaangi bhaath

The title should not scare you for the fact that its is certainly not a crazy stuff. Just the name rhymed and i titled it so!

Bhaath - means variety rice. I was introduced to this term only in Karnataka. Any rice meant Bhath - vaangi bhath, tomato bhaath, menthya bhaath, bisi bele bhaath, what not? uff.... The list is endless.

I hate this vege "Eggplant, aubergine, brinjal, garden egg". Oh, hold on. They are all the same. You call them in which ever way you love, i just cannot tolerate the sight of it! Yes. But i had to use them and do something new for my hubby who is a complete opposite in this thought. He loves them.

So, i thought lemme get my hands washed off by cooking something simple. I have used MTR vaangi bhaath mix here.

Also, you can substitute the above said mix with home made masala.

Masala :
1. Fenu greek seeds - 5 tsp
2. Pepper corns - 10
3. Cumin seeds - 3 tsp
4. Red chilly - 10
5. Coconut - grated 3 tsp
6. Sesame seeds - 1tsp

Dry roast all the above ingredients and blend them into a coarse powder. Store them in air tight containers for future use. This can be used for any of the above said bhaath, along with the dish specific vegetable.

Vaangi bhaath ingredients:
1. Egg plant - 3 - sliced into 1 inch long slender pieces
2. Onion - 1 small finely chopped
3. Tomato - 1 small finely chopped
4. Curry leaves - 5
5. Cooked rice - 1 cup
6. Above said bhaath powder or MTR mix - 2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
8. Cilantro - finely chopped
9. Salt to taste and oil for frying
10. Mustard, cumin seeds for seasoning

Heat oil in a wok, add the seasoning stuff and go on with onion, curry leaves and egg plant.Roast them until oil oozes out of egg plant. Add tomatoes now. Cook till soft. Add salt, MTR mix, turmeric and cook for just 2 minutes. Sprinkle water onto this cooked stuff and add rice slowly by stirring the mixture. Stir it well such that the mixture and eventually color are equally spread across.

A simple Raita would do with this as an accompaniment.

tc,
N:astro

Vegetable paneer snack

Please refer "Paneer wrap" for the cutlet. Thats the main stuff here. I prepared it with the left overs from "Paneer wrap"!!! And, lo, i got a lot appreciation.

Take the left over paneer stuffing and make them into small pan cakes and shallow fry them, with a drop or 2 of oil.

Take a zucchini. Slice them into round shape. Put a pancake on top of it. Add few chopped vegetable like red/yellow bell pepper. Splash lemon juice and oregano on it.

Lo, what an invention , isnt it?!

tc,
N:astro

Restau type "Kadai chicken"

Its a side dish, which goes well with either Roti or flavored rice such as pulav, jeera rice, etc.
This contains few pieces of diced vegetables too! They in fact add that zest to the dish.

Lets go about it now.
Ingredients:
1. Onion - 2 finely chopped
2. Tomatoes - 2 finely chopped
3. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
4. Chicken - 1 lb cut into 1 inch cubes (boneless preferred)
5. Bell pepper - 1 diced
6. Cauliflower - 5 florets diced
7. Yogurt - 2 scoops
8. Garam masala - 1 tsp
9. Whole spices - Shahi jeera - 1 tsp, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, etc. each 1 or 2
10. Chilly powder - 2 tsp
11. Green chilly - 5 slit
12. Salt to taste and oil for frying
13. Lemon juice - 1 scoop

Clean the chicken and marinate it with salt, garam masala, 1 scoop of yogurt and slide it into your fridge for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok, add whole spices. Let the flavor come out. Add onion and green chillies. Fry them for 5 minutes. Add the raw vegetables, except tomato. Fry them till they are cooked. Drop in tomatoes. Cook them well, before you start adding chilly powder, salt. Add rest of yogurt too at this stage. Now, drop the marinade into the mixture on flame. Pour a glass of water and allow it to cook for 25minutes or until the chicken is tenderly done.
Splash the lemon juice all over it and serve hot.
Cilantro can be also sprinkled.

oops, forgot to take a picture of it!

tc,
N:astro

Kiddo's Favo "Paneer wrap"

This one came just out of a mixture of vegetable thoughts!!!

Yes, you might not believe, but i did this out of permutations and combinations of ingredients.

Wraps are the final product of 4 sub divided items. Chapathi or Roti, plain or flavored Spread, Freshly sliced veges and of course the tikki or the cutlet which makes it further more tempting to cook :)

Chapathi :
1. Wheat flour - 2 cups
2. Oli - 1tsp
3. Salt to taste

Mix them with enough water (1:2 - water : dough ratio) and make this into a stiff dough that is kept aside for at least 330 minutes for fluffy chapathis.

Spread :
1. Butter or Mayonnaise - 50 gms
2. If butter, then choose to add any finely grated vegetable into it, to make it flavored!

I used plain butter this time. Would love either zucchini butter or garlic butter.

Vegetables:
Let them be as colorful as possible. Let it be a mixture of onion rings, bell pepper - you got infinite colors in them, Zucchini slices, Potato wafers (Raw would tatste good, believe me), tomatoes sliced, etc.

Cutlet :
1. Carrot - 1 finely chopped
2. Cauliflower - few florets - finely chopped
3. Onion - 1 finely chopped
4. Tomatoes - 1 finely chopped
5. Paneer - crushed using a blender
6. Potatoes - boiled, peeled and mashed.
7. Oil for frying
8. Salt to taste
9. Garam masala - 1 tsp
10. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
11. Chilly powder - 2 tsp
12. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Heat 3 tsp of oil in a deep pan, add cumin seeds. Allow it to splutter. Add onion, ginger garlic paste. Fry till soft. Add carrot, cauli, tomatoes and fry till they are cooked well. Now add the garam masala, chilly powder, salt and cook well. Dont let it char.

Now, throw in the crumbled paneer and mashed potatoes and cook till the raw smell emanates from it. Let go off the raw smell and end up with well cooked delicious mixture. Add a dash of lemon juice for sourness, if preferred.

Let the mixture cool. Take a small amount of it and make a ball out of it. Later flatten it into a cutlet.

Take one roti, apply the floverd/plain spread, place some fresh vegetables, Put on a cutlet. Fold the roti and have it at one go like my hubby!
touch wood......

tc,
N:astro

The Kannadiga's Maduve sweet "Chirote"

This sweet is very different from the ones i have eaten usually. I was introduced to this dish, during my classmate's wedding, when we were studying our bachelor's degree. Yeah, she got married very soon in life.

I initially was apprehensive about allowing the server to keep a Chirote on my banana leaf, cos i was already full and my Saree wasn't giving me enough space to stuff any more items! But my fellow student was quick enough to ask them to serve one on my plate, as it is "The Most Yummy" in her book of sweets. And then, no marks for guessing what happened - I fell in Love with it.

Now, that I am married, after so many years (lol!), i was explaining my hubby how I got intro to this special dish and How I went onto observe that every Kannada wedding (Maduve) had one at the end of the feast.

Having a hubby with sweet tooth means catering to his taste at least once in a week with a new sweet item. So, this week I came across a similar kind in one of the websites and decided myself that I would prepare Chirote.

Here is how I went about. There are 3 ways to make the final product, I would suggest the third one, cos it does not allow the stuffing to spill out. Rather minimal amount of stuffing peeps out, when you roll.

This sweet has 3 parts - Poori with a filling, Sugar and milk

Ingredients:
1. Rava or Semolina - 3/4 cup
2. Maida or All purpose flour - 2 1/4 cup
3. Oil - 2 tsp and for deep frying
4. Salt - a pinch
5. Sugar - Powdered
6. Cardamom - 5-6, powdered along with sugar
7. Butter - 100 gm
8. Rice flour - 2 tsp
9. Milk - 1 cup

Part 1:
Sugar - Finely powder it with few cardamom.

Part 2:
Milk - You can either use plain milk or Badam (Almond) milk

Part 3:
Poori - with stuffing.

Mix all purpose flour, Semolina, oil, a pinch of salt and enough water to make a stiff dough which can be further rolled, without any extra moisture.
Keep aside for about 15-30 minutes.
Now, get back to doing the filling mixture. Take butter and add rice flour to it. Whisk it nicely, to make a soft, smooth creamy filling.

Now, take a portion of the dough and roll it into a chapathi/roti, which is as thin as possible. Apply/Spread the butter filling onto it. The thinner the filling, the better the outcome!
Similarly, do it for 3 more chapathis.

Part 3 - Method 1:
Now, sandwich all the chapathis, such that every chapathi has a surface that is coated with butter. Its like chapathi, butter on top, chapathi, butter on top, so on till you reach the 4th one!
Now, roll these into a cylindrical shape and seal them at the ends.
Cut them into cross sectional 1 inch pieces and roll them yet again, to form a poori. Make sure that the filling does not spill out.

Part 3 - Method 2:
1 chapathi with butter on; roll it into a cylinder. Next chapathi with butter on. Put the 1st cylinrical roll on the 2nd chapathi, and roll them together! Go ahead with 4 chapathis, doing the same. end with a roll.
Now, seal it at the ends and cut them into 1 inch pieces and roll them again into flat chapathis.

Part 3 - Method 3 :
Do the same as in method 2, but do not cut them into pieces. After sealing the ends, just roll the entire sandwich into a big chapathi and cut it into squares approximately. The squares should be of a palm size.

Deep fry them in oil.

How to eat these.
Take a fried chapathi, crush it into pieces, in a bowl. Add sugar powder onto it. Pour some milk - can be either cold milk or warm. Allow it to soak for a couple of minutes and relish the dish!

tc,
N:astro

much awaited Spinach chicken

I love greens - unlike so many in this world. Since i love it, i keep stuffing the same into my hubby's list of "likes" in food category. He is supposed to eat them, cos he cant cook for himself anything like what i do; or even nearer to it. No self praise here.

This time, i did not decide and pick ingredients to cook this. It just fell in place. I had stocked up a bunch of Spinach and yesterday my hubby picked a pound of chicken to make kebabs. But as i said, i love stuffing my likes on him!!!

Here is how I went about it.

Ingredients:
1. Spinach - 1 bunch
2. Chicken - 1lb
3. Onion - 1 cut into cubes
4. Tomatoes - 1 cut into big chunks (Rather use baby/Cherry tomatoes)
5. Potatoes - 1 cut into cubes
6. Green chillies - 3 slit
7. Lemon juice - 1 tsp
8. Garam masala - 1 tsp
9. Red Chilly powder - 2 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Caraway seeds - shahi jeera - 1tsp
12. Oil for frying
13. Ginger garlic - 2 tsp (Freshly chopped or paste)

Clean Spinach and boil it in a cup of water. Cool and blend it to smooth consistency.

Marinate the chicken with garam masala, half the total amount of salt, red chilly powder for 15 minutes.

In a pan, add 2 tsp of oil, allow the caraway seeds to splutter by adding them. Add chopped onion, ginger, garlic, potatoes and roast them to slightly brown. Add tomatoes and fry. Now add the chicken marinade and cook it for 3 minutes by turning the pieces so that they are evenly coated/roasted.

Now, heat another pan, add the spinach paste and allow it to cook for 5 minutes parallely. Turn off the chicken mixture and slowly add all that into the spinach paste. Put on the lid and allow it to cook until the chicken is soft and succulent but well cooked. This will take about 20-25 minutes. You can keep the mixture on heat for 5 more minutes to drain the excess moisture if required.

tc,
N:astro

Humble Zucchini Yogurt Dip

I love this vegetable. I cannot be reminded of any other vegetable so humble, elegant in its nature. I am praising it because, its one such vege, which can mold into any dish, without bringing any great change to the dish's flavor. The texture is so gentle, but not juicy, which makes it much easier to cut them into any desired shape and it shall not add any extra moisture to the dish.

All said and done about Zucchini, the king of vegetables, in my opinion. Lets move onto the actual stuff that holds zucchini in it. This time, its a dip. I have found that people here are so crazy about chips and dips! Lol.

All set to go now.

Ingredients:
1. Yogurt - 2 scoops
2. Salt to taste
3. Pepper - 5 corns crushed
4. Zucchini - 1 finely chopped
5. Parsley or cilantro - 1 tsp finely chopped
6. Green chilly - 1 finely chopped

Whisk yogurt until a smooth consistency is reached. Add salt, pepper, finely chopped cilantro, green chilly and mix it well. Now add zucchini and finish off with a pinch of chat masala if you like it.

Carrot kheer - my style

Simple - elegant - yet tasty.
This is what i can tell about carrot kheer that i made.

Ingredients:
1. Carrot - 3 grated (Would suggest you to grate it in a mixie)
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Cardamom - 2 powdered
4. Milk -1 cup
5. Water - 1 cup
6. Cashew nut or walnut or almonds - roasted in ghee (clarified butter)
7. Ghee - 2 tsp

In a heavy bottom pan, add 2 tsp ghee, fry the grated carrot until the raw smell is completely gone. Add 1 cup of water and allow it to cook until soft. May take 5-7 minutes. Blend it till smooth paste using a blender.

Now, boil milk in another pan. Add the sugar, cardamom, smooth paste and allow this to boil for just 3-4 minutes. When you are able to smell the aroma, add cashew and turn off the gas. Cool it for an hour and serve or serve hot.

tc,
N:astro