Sugar and salt intake when kept in control gives us good health and keeps our weight in check. In this series, I will share few of my daily lunch platter. Ingredients are sometimes plenty but sometimes it is just fridge clearance. I have replaced sugar with stevia or jaggery when required.
I made butter garlic prawns served on a bed of sauteed brocolli and red and yellow peppers.
Also, I had removed excess water from the chana dal I had made earlier. It had very little salt and little turmeric . I added a pinch of kashmiri chilli powder, a punch of roasted cumin powder and a pinch of carrom seeds powder, flittle ghee and boiled for a few minutes.
To make garlic prawns, I peeled and chopped almost 10 fat cloves of garlic and sautted it in half a teaspoon of butter and half a teaspoon of oil. As soon as it started to turn brown, I added the pre marinated prawns (with salt, black pepper powder and a tablespoon of cornflour).Cover and cook for a,few minutes. Keep turning it up and down . Remove the lid and stir fry for 2 minutes. Serve it on top of vegetable bed.
To make brocolli and peppers stir fry , add a drop of oil to your non-stick pan,add the cut vegetables. Add salt and pepper, two drops of white vinegar and sate on high flame. Remove it when there us still crunch in your vegetables.
Air fryer is a boon for weight watchers and diet conscious people. Its been almost five years and I have tried cooking almost everything in the air fryer. My girls are mostly on low carb diets and that’s what inspired me to try new vegetable side dishes to complete the otherwise protein rich platter. To try today’s dish my ingredients are: 250 gms of longitudinally slit okra into four 4 tbsps of rice flour 1/2 tsps each of turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, kashmiri red chilli powder, dried mango powder and salt to taste 1 tbsp of oil. Procedure: Cut each okra into four long pieces after cutting off the top. Coat the okra with the spices,salt and oil. Put it in the air fryer basket and set the air fryer at 200 for 10 mins. After 10 mins shuffle the okras and let it cook for 5 mins. Your dish is ready to serve.
Also known as gobi musallam is one of the tastiest vegetarian recipes and can be served as a centre piece on your dining table. I have made its steps fairly easy for beginers . Ingredients Whole cauliflower 750 gms Tomato puree 200 gms Curd 100 gms Bay leaves 2 Turmeric powder 2 tsps Curry powder 1tsp Chilli powder 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder 1/4 tsp Kasoori methi 1/4 tsp Onion paste 200 gms Cashew paste 100 gms Tomato sauce 1 tbsp Ghee 2 tbsps Oil 1 tsp Water 1/2 cup Salt to taste.
Serves 6
Procedure
Make paste with 1 tsp turneric powder, 1/4 tsp chilli powder, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp of oil and keep aside.
Wash the cauliflower thoroughly under running water and check carefully to get rid of any dirt or small insects trapped inside.
After which apply the paste on the cauliflower and ensure it is coated wirh the spices. 4.Turn on the flame of the gas on high and place the spiced cauliflower on the flame directly and roast it carefully on all sides to get charred marks all over.
Keep it aside.
Put the pressure cooker on medium flame and add bay leaves , onion paste, tomato paste and cashew paste. Fry it very well.
Then add all the powdered spices and fry.
Now add tomato sauce and curd and fry.
Add salt and fry and add the whole cauliflower. Make sure to coat it with the masala on all sides.
Add water and then put the cauliflower with the flower side down.Put the lid and cook on low flame for two whistles. After which turn off the gas.
After removing the lid turn the cauliflower upside down inside the cooker and then bathe it with the spices and juices released while cooking.
Now add ghee, kasoori methi and fry till the masala dries up. Serve.
Rice kheer holds a very important position in our festive celebrations mainly because of the fact that India is an agricultural country . This is served as a dessert and in Bengali households it is compulsory to serve rice kheer as a dessert after offering it to Gods as proshad on birthdays. Each home has its own recipe and my recipe has been made easy for youngsters to keep this in their menu .This measurement serves 6 people . Ingredients:
1 litre milk reduced to 750 ml by boiling
100 gms of rice previously soaked for almost an hour
A can of milkmaid or sweetened condensed milk
2 bay leaves
2 green cardamoms
25 gms of chironjis
25 gms of cashews broken into two halves
25 gms of almond slivers
Few strands of saffron
Procedure:
In a heavy bottom pan take 1 litre of milk, add bay leaves and cardamoms and keep boiling it on low heat till it reduces to 750 ml.
Strain the rice and add it to the boiling milk on low heat. Keep stirring at intervals of five minutes till the rice looks cooked. Take out bay leaves and cardamoms.
Then, add the dry fruits and saffron and cook it further. At this stage, add a full can of condensed milk and stir well till everything comes together.
Stir well and pour into your serving bowl or individual bowls. Keep it in the fridge and serve cold.
This is very warm evening snack that takes care of even your dinner, if you are a poor eater, of course.It has rustic feel to it and can be packed as a lunch too. The ingredients I added are the ones that I had in my fridge so leave it to your imagination and palate . One foot long sandwich would suffice for an interesting evening snack for three .
Ingredients
1 Garlic bread from my local bakery
Iceberg lettuce torn roughly
5 Cherry tomatoes roughly chopped
10 Green or black olive slices
Few roughly chopped barks of cheddar cheese
Sweet onion dressing
One ripe avocado roughly mashed with one tsp of lemon juice ,olive oil and salt
2 sliced jalapenos for heat
2 eggs scrambled on the fire with a dash of milk, pinch of pepper and salt and few chopped spring onion greens.
Procedure
1.Cut the garlic bread into two horizontal halves keeping one end of the bread attached.
Spread sweet onion dressing on both the halves on top of which make a bed of lettuce leaves. 3.Spread scrambled eggs, mashed avocado,cheddar barks, olives, jalapenos,cherry tomatoes layer by layer. 4.Generously drizzle sweet onion dressing. 5.Take a sandwich paper or cling wrap and wrap the whole sandwich tightly. 6.The idea is to not let the ingredients spill out of the sandwich while eating.
Cut the sandwich into number of pieces you want to. 8.Wrap it in a sandwich paper before serving.
Yummy and absolutely visually delightful presentation.
This is an Italian rice ball recipe but it is easy and hassle free because you can use leftover rice . I would’nt go for any particular measurement because it is for you to decide the size of the balls and also how much quantity of rice you have. Look for some vegetables like carrots, beans, cabbage, coriander leaves,green chillies, coloured peppers .Chop the veggies very fine and if you want to add sausages and salami,chop them really fine. Combine rice and veggies ,salt to taste, Italian spice mix and tomato sauce. Make rice balls and stuff small cheese squares in the centre. Dip them in egg batter and coat the balls with bread crumbs. Deep fry and serve with salad of your choice. Ideally mint raita or even tomato salsa really goes well. It is time to try Italian rice balls with Indian mint raita and Mexican salsa and make it an international recipe. You can make it totally vegetarian by omitting egg batter and replacing it with refined flour batter.
This is one of the most loved Indian recipes and I have always been asked for the recipe. Today I am sharing my way of making this. This particular recipe varies from kitchen to kitchen as to how many spices to be added or how to knead the dough. It would actually depend on your scale of measuring your spice level. People in some states India like it very flavoursome and spicy while some like to keep it mild. Likewise, when I recently made it for a few non- Indians, I kept it really mild with salt, pepper, butter and a few Indian herbs namely mint, coriander leaves and kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves). The result was awesome and people loved it.
Preparing this recipe will come in three stages namely kneading the dough, making the potato filling and final assembly.
Makes 8 parathas
Ingredients for the filling
1/2 kg potatoes boiled, drained and mashed without lumps
2 tbsps Tomato paste
1 tbsp of Spice blend of dry roasted and powdered spices namely cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies(Combine and roast all the spices in a wok, powder them and take one tbsp of the powdered spice)
1 tbsp each of finely chopped coriander leaves, green chillies finely chopped, freshly grated ginger, fresh mint leaves.
I have tried making this with dried coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chillies. You can always use dried herbs if you don’t find the fresh ones.
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
1 tsp Butter
Procedure for the filling
Take a micro waveable glass bowl. Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them with a fork till there are no lumps. Now add all the spices that suit you. Omit the ones you dont have or don’t want to incorporate. Add tomato paste, butter and salt and if you are adding dried herbs this is the time to do so. But don’t add the fresh ones at this stage. Mix them well. Microwave on high for two to three minutes by pausing after a minute and mixing again with a fork to ensure uniformity in cooking. Add fresh herbs now. Mix well and keep aside.
For the Parathas
Ingredients
250 gms of wheat flour
100 gms of refined flour
2 tbsps of oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp salt
Water as required to knead.
Procedure:
Add the dry ingredients to the kneader and run it once to mix everything. Now, add water and run it. The kneaded dough is ready. Cover it and keep it.
The final assembly
Take your dough and roll two rotis half the size of normal roti.
Keep one aside and the other on the rolling board.
Take out two tbsps of stuffing and spread on the roti on the rolling board leaving the sides.
Take the second roti and put on top of the stuffing sealing all the sides with your hands.
Then roll both the rotis together dusting it with flour so that they dont stick to the rolling board.
Put the non- stick tawa on the burner and let it get adequately hot.
Keep oil or ghee or melted butter in a bowl with basting brush .
When hot, turn the flame to medium and put the paratha on it.
Press gently with a spatula to make sure every part of the paratha is cooked uniformly.
This should take you around 3-4 mins.
Flip it and let it cook on the other side too.
When both the sides look cooked(when there are brown spots on both surfaces), brush oil or butter or ghee on both the sides and fry on high.
It will puff up, once it is cooked.Take it off the heat and serve or store in a bowl with lid. Make sure to line the bowl with a padded cloth in the bottom and on top.This prevents the parathas from turning soggy.
Serve with pickle and yogurt.
I have an easier version though. Knead 500gms of flour with grated boiled potato, finely chopped coriander, green chillies, ajwain powder, red chilli powder, salt to taste, oil and garam masala powder and water. Let the dough rest for a while. Roll the chapatis and cook on a tawa .
This is a very easy snack and my family’s favourite. I had crackers with me but toasted bread also works well. I made the creamy white layer by beating hung curd with a whisk and added salt and white pepper powder. I chopped an onion, a tomato and coriander leaves for the topping. I had two types of caviar : red and black. I layered the crackers with hung curd, topped it with caviar and chopped veggies. It tastes heavenly.
In these rationing and trying days, my pantry gives me the pleasure of my lifetime. I found some crabmeat in my freezer and I had fresh bread with me.
And here was the heavenly combination that I made earlier and had made wraps and canapes also. Actually speaking, this is just a filling or can work as a dip with nachos or fries.
Makes 10 sandwiches
Ingredients
1/2 a cup of crabmeat
2 tbsps of mayonnaise
2 tbsps of cream cheese
Few sprigs of herb of your choice. I used finely chopped coriander leaves.
1/2 of an onion finely chopped
1/4 of a tomato (seeds removed) finely chopped
1/2 if a spring onion green chopped
1 tsp each of mustard sauce, tomato sauce, any hot sauce
A squirt of wasabi paste (optional)
1/4 tsp of black pepper powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp of olive oil.
Procedure
Combine all the ingredients except onion, tomatoes, spring onion green and olive oil.
Mix it well and keep it aside.
Take olive oil in a small shallow pan and once hot, add onion and fry till translucent. Then add tomatoes and saute. Now add spring onion greens and turn off the flame.
Add this to the mixture in the bowl. Mix well and store it in a box. Use it when required. Spread it on a slice of bread and cover it with another slice.
Or let a dollop of it sit on a cracker or canape. This looks very decorative as a snack on a platter.
Or spread it on a tortilla and make a wrap. Let your imagination run wild.
This recipe is one of my favourites. When it comes to beetroot, people especially children don’t seem to like it. But the preparation I am sharing with you now, is one of the best tasting vegetarian food ever. This is also offered to Gods in temples in South of India. I have added a few things of my choice in this recipe.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 beetroots (peeled and grated)
1 green chilli chopped very fine
2 tbsps of freshly grated coconut
1 tbsp of oil
1/2 a tsp of mustard seeds
1 tbsp of mixed pulses like chana dal, split urad dal and tur dal
A pinch of asafoetida
2 cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped
Salt to taste.
Procedure
Take a shallow pan with lid and put it on the flame.
Add oil and once hot, add mustard seeds. Let them crackle and then add asfoetida and chopped garlic.
Now add the mixed dals and then add grated beetroot. Saute and now cover and cook for ten minutes on low heat. Don’t add water.
After 10 minutes remove the lid and mix everything and now add grated coconut and green chillies.
Mix everything well and let it cook uncovered for a few more minutes. You can add red chilli powder if you want it hot because beetroot tends to tender a sweet taste which is why it isy not like by many.
This is usually served with plain rice. If there are leftovers, this can be used as an excellent colourful dip or raita when combined with hung curd or thick creamy yogurt.
Aromas of My Kitchen 