Rajasthani Thali

Kesariya Balam Aaonee
Padharonee Mare Des Rey, Padharonee Mare Des
Kesariya Balam Aaonee, Padharonee Mare Des :) :)

Rich Rajasthani culture reflects in the tradition of hospitality which is one of its own kind.
Nothing beats the spicy, colorful, scrumptious and wide varitied Rajasthani food! I was married to it, and today with the food and lifestyle of Marwar, I feel home. Today, I've prepared an entire platter of Marwari dishes or let me call it Marwari Thali!

Daal Baati, Gatta curry, Masala dahi, Methi Dana Papad ki sabzi, Mix veg, Matar Pulao, Khoba roti, lehsun mirchi ki chutney(garlic red chilly chutney) Sooji ka halwa, Papad with some salad and pickle

Gatta curry
Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of asafoetida
• 2-3 tbsp oil
• Lukewarm water

For Gravy:

• 2 medium sized onions Paste
• 2-3 medium sized tomatoes pureed
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 green chillies
• 1 cup sour curd
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil

Directions :
For gatta:

• In a mixing bowl add chickpea flour, cumin seeds, turmeric powder,coriander powder, red chilly powder, salt and asafoetida.
• Add oil and mix everything well.
• With the help of lukewarm water knead a stiff dough.
• Divide dough into 5-6 equal parts and roll them into cylindrical tubes.
• Boil these rolls in water for 10-15 minutes or till the rolls are cooked from inside.
• Take out the rolls from the water, cut rolls into 1 inch pieces.
• Reserve the water for later use.

For gravy:

• Add oil in a wok, put cumin seeds, when it crackles add ginger garlic paste, let it cook till it leaves the raw aroma.
• Add onion paste and cook till light brown in colour.
• Next add tomato puree and cook till oil leaves sides, add all dry spices and cook for another 2 minutes, simmer the flame.
• Whisk curd and add it to the cooked onion tomato paste, let it cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the reserved boiled water and bring it to boil, add gatta pieces and cook for 3-4 minutes on medium flame.
• Switch off the flame and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
• Serve hot.

Dal Baati
For dal baati recipe click here

Methi dana papad ki sabzi
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp yellow methi dana (Fenugreek seeds)
• 2 papad raw
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• A pinch of asafoetida
• 1 tsp dry mango powder
• 1 tsp jaggery grated
• 10-15 raisins
• Salt to taste
• Red chilli powder to taste
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 cup water

Directions:

• Soak methi dana for minimum 3-4 hours, drain the water and put the seeds in a strainer and wash under running water.
• In a pan heat oil, add methi seeds, fennel seeds and all dry spices, raisins and cook on medium heat for 4-5 minutes. 
• Add water and grated jaggery and cook further for 2-3 minutes, put broken papad pieces and cook for a minute and switch off the flame.
• Serve hot.

Masala dahi:
Ingredients :

• 1 cup fresh curd
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp chaat masala
• Salt to taste
• Red chilli powder to taste
• 1/2 tsp Black pepper powder

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl whisk curd along with the dry spices.
• Serve chilled.

Lehsun Mirchi ki chutney
Recipe courtesy : Scratchingcanvas.com
Ingredients:

• 2 pods garlic
• 8-10 dry red chillies
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

• Soak red chillies in lukewarm water for 30- 40 minutes.
• Peel garlic cloves, make a smooth paste of red chillies and garlic in a blender using little water.
• Heat oil in a pan, add fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds when they start to crackle put garlic chilli paste along with sugar and salt.
• Add little water, cover and cook it for 3-4 minutes until the oil floats on the surface.
• Serve.
• Store it in an air tight box in refrigerator for 2- 3 weeks
  

Matar Pulao
Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice ( washed and soaked for 30 minutes)
• 1 bowl green peas.
• 1 onion sliced
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 6-7 pepper corns
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sticks cinnamon
• 2-3 cloves
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 tbsp ghee(clarified butter)
• 2 cups water

Directions:

• Heat ghee in a wok, add cumin seeds, when they start to crackle add the other whole spices, saute till they release aroma. 
• Add sliced onions and fry till light brown.
• Next add peas and saute for 3-4 minutes, add water, salt and bring it to a boil, add rice cover and cook on medium flame for 15-20 minutes or till rice grains are cooked.
• Serve hot.

Khoba Roti
Ingredients:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
• Water as required

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl add wheat flour, salt and ghee. 
• Knead into a stiff dough using little water, cover and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, roll into thick roti. 
• Heat griddle over low flame, place the rolled roti and cook for a minute.
• Turn the roti and pinch using your thumb and index finger to create indentions.
  
• Cook for 4-5 minutes from the bottom and carefully turn the roti on the other side.
• Let it cook completely and serve with ghee.

Mix Veg :
Ingredients:

• 250 gms chopped assorted vegetables of your choice(I took carrots, peas, beans, mushrooms, cauliflower, potatoes and capsicum)
• 1 big onion chopped
• 2 tomatoes pureed
• 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1-2 green chillies
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• Red chilli powder to taste
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil

Directions:

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add cumin seeds, when the seeds begin to crackle add ginger garlic paste chopped onions and saute for 2-3 minutes.
• Once the onions and ginger garlic mixture is cooked add tomato puree and cook for 10-12 minutes on medium heat or till you see oil on the sides of pan.
• Add all the dry spices and chopped vegetables, cover and cook on medium flame(stirring occasionally) for 15-20 minutes or till done.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.
  

Sooji ka halwa
Ingredients:

• 1 cup sooji(semolina)
• 1 tbsp besan (chickpeaflour)
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• Handful of chopped nuts for garnishing
• 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)

Directions:

• Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
• Add sooji and besan, roast till it begins to turn light golden brown and gives little aroma.
• In a separate pan bring water to boil, add sugar and cardamom powder.
• When sooji is roasted slowly add boiled water constantly stirring it to avoid any lumps.
• Cook for 3-4 minutes on medium flame till you get desired consistency.
• Switch off the flame anf garnish with chopped nuts.
• Serve hot.
  
  
  
  
  

Roast a Papad, add some salad, green chiily, lemon and your favourite pickle to complete :)

Thandaai Cheesecake

Continuing with my holi excitement I'm sharing today traditional Thandaai with a twist :)
Flavours of thandaai mixed with creamy cheesecake :) :) sounds exciting na... :)
Normally cheesecake is made with cream cheese which is a big no in my family :( Nobody liked the cheesecake I made last time with cream cheese. So I made the Indian version of cheese cake :p with the easily available ingredients .
And the best thing was it was approved by both, my son and hubby loved it. <3 <3 
Yayy happy me :):)
So here we go!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Cardamom flavoured cookies crumb
• 2-3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 200 gms hung curd
• 150 gms cottage cheese ( approx.)
• 100 gms condensed milk 
• 3-4 tbsp thandaai mix
• 50 gms fresh cream
• Sugar to taste
• Few drops of rose essence
• 12-15 strands of saffron
• A pinch of turmeric
• Handful chopped Pistachio nuts to garnish
  

For the thandai mix:
Ingredients:

• 20-25 almonds 
• 20-25 cashews 
• 20- 25 pistachio
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp melon seeds
• 8-10 black peppercorns
• 8-10 green cardamom

 

Directions:

• Grind all the ingredients to a fine powder.
• Store in an air tight container.
  

For the cheese cake:

Directions:

• In a bowl mix together cookie crumb and butter until moistened.
• Spoon the crumbs into glasses, lightly press with the back of a spoon and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile blend together hung curd, cottage cheese, condensed milk and thandaai mix in a blender until combined.
• Pour this mixture over the cookie crumbs and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
• Next prepare the topping. In a bowl whip some fresh cream with sugar, rose essence, turmeric powder and saffron strands ( leave some strands for garnishing) 
• Spoon this cream on the top of cheese cake
• Garnish with some chopped pistachio nuts and saffron strands.
• Serve chilled :)
  

Thandaai

Holi is supe duper fun at my place! It's bound to be when you've got a six year old boy :)! He enjoys it so much...the colours, the water ballons, pichkari!! I give him all that yummy food which he enjoys just as much as the colour and stuff...gujiyaas and laddoos appear and disappear fast from the plates ;) but these are for him so it's bound to happen! What's for us...well it's thandaai...the little one doesn't enjoy it yet...it's bit spicy for his tastebuds...so I make it just for me and hubby in large quantities.....no there's no bhaang in it before you get any ideas..it's spicy and tasty!! :)

So let's the celebrations begin with this traditional Thandaai :)

Holi hai bhai holi hai......bura naa maano holi hai :) :) 

Ingredients:

• 1 liter full cream milk
• 20-25 almonds 
• 20-25 cashews 
• 20- 25 pistachio
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp melon seeds
• 8-10 black peppercorns
• 8-10 green cardamom
• 10-15 edible rose petals
• Few strands of saffron
• Sugar to taste
  

Directions:

• Soak almonds, cashews, pistachios, poppy seeds, melon seeds and fennel seeds in  water for an hour. Peel almonds and make a fine paste of all these ingredients using some milk. Keep aside.
• Bring milk to boil, add cardamom seeds, rose petals, saffron strands and sugar to the boiling milk and simmer the flame. Add the ground paste to the milk and simmer the flame for 4-5 minutes.
• Strain and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
• Garnish with rose petals and few saffron strands.
• Serve chilled.
  
  

Gary- the snail!!

Kids Special!!
Chocolaty snails goes for a walk in the park ;) ;)
My little dude is a big fan of Rossana Pansino. He is also fond of playing in the park around our locality.But this last week was bad ...he fell ill..the viral bug got my baby :( so no parks no tv...was just tugged in his bed and very cranky...he doesn't like medicines :'( poor baby! This is where Rossana came into the picture. I showed him her videos as he always enjoys them...and he did! so when he got little better, I wanted to treat him with something special....enough of the bland food. So he got all excited and asked for Rossana's Snail Cinnamon Rolls...!!! It sounded perfect...and I fulfill his wish :-* just replaced the cinnamon with all time favourite Nutella :) 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All purpose flour
• 1 cup Wheat flour
• 1 tsp dry active yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
• 1/4 bowl oil
• 1 Jar Nutella
  

Directions:

• Add yeast, water, milk and sugar to a bowl, stir and let sit undisturbed for 10 minutes.

• When bubbly foam starts to form on the surface add this into flour along with oil, knead into soft dough.

• Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour, dough will double in size.
  
• Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll into round shape.
  
• Spread Nutella evenly. 
  
• Start to roll from the opposite side till you reach the end & a cylindrical roll is formed. 
  
• Cut into 1/2 inch size rolls. 
• Unroll the end of each roll and pull it out a little to make snail head.
• Make small antennas and foot using the dough and paste them on the snail.
  
• Bake them at 180 degree C for 10 minutes or till done.
  

Strawberry Surprise

It's Valentine's week!!...do you wish to cook???
No.....I din't think so...
So why not do something immensely romantic and pretty and red!!
With minimal efforts you will be able to impress the one you love!!
Strawberry surprise...triple the love in a single course!!...
It's an appetizer....an entrèe..and lastly....the sweet something that seals the deal!!

Ingredients:
For strawberry sauce

• 500 gms fresh strawberry pureed
• 1/4 cup sugar or to taste
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 3-4 tbsp water

For grilled cheese:

• 2 thick slices of cottage cheese
• 2 tbsp  strawberry sauce
• 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• Few drops of cooking oil

Other ingredients:

• 10-15 Blanched Spinach leaves
• Some fresh strawberries sliced
• A handful roasted peanuts
• Strawberry yogurt
  

Method:
For strawberry sauce:

• Combine all ingredients in a pan and cook for 15-20 minutes over medium flame.
• Sauce is ready.

For grilled cottage cheese:

• Cut thick slices of cottage cheese.
• Mix  strawberry sauce and sweet chilli sauce in a bowl and marinate cheese slices in this for 20-30 minutes.
• Place a grilling pan over medium heat, drizzle some oil and grill cottage cheese for 3-4 minutes.

Plating:

• Arrange spinach leaves in a platter, place sliced strawberries over it, sprinkle some roasted peanuts over it.
• Place grilled cheese on the bed of spinach and strawberry, top it with some yogurt dressing.
• Serve
  

Cookoholic now on yummly!

Love our spirit of cooking?Yum us at yummly
Yummly

Mac & Cheese croquettes in Appe/ Aebelskiver Pan

Fix it- Freeze it- Fry it!!! 
Mac n cheese going to "Appe"ville ;)

And the superhero of my kitchen is back :). My appe/ aebelskiver pan never fails to impress me. Here is yet another lip smacking everybody's favourite Mac & cheese croquettes in appe pan.........with crunchy exterior and absolutely melt- in- mouth creamy centre !!! Yummy it was :) 
Ingredients:

• 200 gms cooked elbow macaroni
• 1 1/2 tbsp whole wheat flour/ all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 2-3 tbsp water
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• In a heavy bottom pan heat butter, add flour and stir in milk to make a lump free sauce. 
• Add salt, pepper and oregano, cook for 2-3 minutes till the sauce gets thick.
• Add cheese and cook over low heat till the cheese is melted.
• Stir in cooked macaroni and mix well.
• Let it cool and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to make it firm and sticks together.
• Mean while make a thick paste of all purpose flour and corn flour using water, add in salt. 
• After 2 hours take out from the fridge and roll into balls.
• Dip macaroni balls into all purpose flour paste and then coat with bread crumbs.
• Heat appe pan, add 2-3 drops of oil in each indent and place macaroni balls in them.
• Cook each croquette for 3-4 minutes from each side or till the outer layer is golden brown.
  
• Serve hot.