Masala Potato Chips

Last week had made potato finger chips, I was telling about it to my friend Bhavika. She told me this gravy recipe cooked from tomato and garlic which will be a yummy add on to the normal finger chips. It sounded tempting and quick to cook. So I had to try it out soon. 

Here goes simple and easy to make masala chips recipe...

What goes in it:

Potato, long finger shaped- 4 big sized

Salt- ¼ cup

Oil- sufficient to deep fry

Garlic, chopped- 9-10 cloves

Tomato, puree- 2 medium sized

Ajwain- ½ tbl spn

Cumin seeds, jeera- ½ tbl spn

Red chiili powder- ½ tbl spn

Coriander leaves, finely chopped- ½ cup

How did I make it:

First make potato finger chips which I posted earlier but make this one more crisp. 

Just a quick recap-

Peel potatoes. Cut them into long finger shaped slices. Wash them off and drain the water properly. Take kadai, put oil in it. Heat it and prepare for frying the cut potatoes. Put cut potatoes in kadai for frying. Fry till they turn crisp and golden brown. When cooked, put it on absorbent paper to soak extra oil. Keep it aside.

Now lets make gravy.

Chop garlic into small pieces.

Cut tomato into four and make puree in mixture grinder.

Take a frying pan and put oil in it. Prepare oil for tempering. As oil heats up, sauté jeera and ajwain till they pop properly. Now add chopped garlic to it and shallow fry it till they turn golden brown.  

Add tomato puree to it. Put red chilli powder and salt to it. Add ample of coriander leaves. Mix them all well and cook for about 2 minutes.

Transfer it to a bowl.

Just before eating, coat potato chips with this tomato-garlic gravy. Serve masala chips in a plate.

Rasgulla

I never thought I would be cooking rasgulla myself at home when until recently I was at my uncle’s place for lunch. Any meal is incomplete without a sweet; yummy rasgulla completed the perfect Gujju meal. It was then and there, I was tempted to cook rasgulla myself at home.

I browsed through various rasgulla recipes on internet. And came across this simple recipe for making rasgulla on sharmis passion blog.

I cooked it once but was not successful as they cracked while cooking in sugar syrup. Second time I again tried cooking it with a little change in the ingredients. This time I added cornflour as binding agent and a little sugar while rounding paneer balls. And Yipeee I was successful making round and soft rasgulla.

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes: 12-14 nos

What goes in it:

Milk- ½ ltr

Lemon juice- 1 ½ tbl spn

Sugar- ½ cup

Water- 1 ½ cup

Cornflour- ½ tbl spn

Cardamom powder- ¼ tbl spn (infact less than that, a pinch)

Ice cubes- 4 to 5 nos

How did I make it:

Take milk in a cooking pot. Switch on the gas on high flame and boil milk. As milk boils, add lemon drops one by one. Keep on stirring the milk as you add lemon drops.

As you will stir continuously, milk will slowly curdle up.

As milk curdles up, switch off the gas stove.  Add 4 to 5 ice cubes and let them melt completely. Drain off the whey water using a strainer or channi.

Tie this curdled milk in a cloth. Hang it for 30-40 minutes.

[Foodies’ Note: After half hour when you open up the colth. It will be paneer (cottage cheese).]

After hanging it for sufficient time squeeze in the extra water. Open up the cloth and put it in a plate.

Crumble the paneer. Add cornflour to it. Cornflour will act as a binding agent so rasgulla does not break when you cook it in sugar syrup or chasni.

Knead the paneer with cornflour properly for about 10-15 minutes till you get smooth pliable dough. More properly you knead the paneer, softer the rasgulla will be.

Make 10-12 small balls out of it. While making balls put very little sugar (less than a pinch) in it and make round balls. Keep it aside. See to it there are no cracks while you round the balls.

In a heavy bottomed vessel, put water and sugar. And heat them till it boils. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder for flavour. As the sugar syrup boils, slowly add balls one by one to it.

Cook rasgulla on medium flame keeping it covered for 10 minutes. As you will see, the rasgulla will grow in size. The rasgullas are then done and let it cool.

After sometime transfer to a small container and refrigerate it.  Take out of refrigerator after 1 or 2 hours and Rasgulla is ready to be served.

Finger chips or Potato chips

Potato finger chips or French fries is the easiest dish to cook in kitchen. Often it is loved by all. I have finger chips many times at home the way I want it to be- Crispy or Spicy or Peppery. This time I tried to add cheese to these chips. It tasted yummm when you feel melted cheese with crisp potato chips.

Just try it out...

You can supplement Aloo burger with finger chips for which Mc D is famous for...

What goes in it:

Potato, long finger shaped- 4 big sized

Salt- ¼ cup

Black pepper powder- ¼ cup

Cheese, grated- 1 cup

Oil- sufficient to deep fry

How did I make it:

Peel potatoes. Cut them into long finger shaped slices. Wash them off and drain the water properly.

Take kadai, put oil in it. Heat it and prepare for frying the cut potatoes.

Put cut potatoes in kadai for frying. Fry till they turn crisp and golden brown.

When cooked, put it on absorbent paper to soak extra oil. 

Sprinkle salt and pepper to it. Mix them well.

While it is still hot, grate cheese on top it off and mix them all well.

[Foodies’ Note: Grate cheese while the potato chips are hot so the cheese melts and leaves cheesy flavour on chips.]

Serve this cheesy potato finger chips with tomato ketchup. Eat it before it cools.

Bari (Colostrum milk sweet dish)

I am sure many of you must be wondering what is Bari. Well it is a food dish not the bari which is given on karvachauth. It also has a different name which I came across on the World Wide Web; it is known as Posu in south India. Now the next question will be what exactly colostrum milk is? Well it is the first milk which is produced by the cow after delivery of calf.

Bari or Posu is a sweet dish which is delicious, soft, fluffy and rich in calcium.

This is my favourite and mom always makes it when our milkman delivers colostrum milk. Yesterday morning when I went to kitchen I saw yellowish thick milk in a cooking pot. My next sentence was, “Mummy, yippee Bari...” This sweet dish is made by my mom and I was there only to assist her. It is cooked within 30 minutes and when served cool to your guests they are surely going to love this not so regular sweet dish. Just try this for this is healthy too...

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 30-40 small squares (from 2 dhokla plates)

What goes in it:

Colostrum milk (Cow’s first milk after delivery) - 1 ltr

Milk, boiled- ¼ ltr

Sugar, grinded- 3 to 4 cups

Caradom powder- ¼ cup

How did mom make it:

Grind sugar in mixture.

Take colostrum milk in a cooking pot. Put grinded sugar in it and mix them well by stirring milk with spoon. Add your routine boiled milk to it. Stir well.

[Foodies Note: You add normal milk to colostrums milk so that bari turns out to be soft and yummy.]

Now take a dhokla cooker. 

Pour down this mixture in different dhokla plates. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder on the milk in each plate. Place them one by one inside the cooker. 

Close the lid of the cooker so that it cooks inside the steam like you cook idli or dhokla. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Turn off the stove. Take out the plates and let it cool.

After it cools cut into squares.

Transfer them to a container and refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Whenever you want to eat it just bring out the container form refrigerator and serve/ eat it. And store in refrigerator only.

Masala Naan

What goes well with a Punjabi sabzi, the answer is naan. I prepared naan with the great help of mom. Infact it would be more correct to say that I had helped mom making naan.

It tastes superb even when ate alone as this is more of a masala naan. I had cooked naan to eat with paneer butter masala.

Preparation time: 10 minutes (to make dough)

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 10 makes

What goes in it:

Maida- 300 gms

Yeast- ½ tbl son

Cooking soda powder- ¼ tbl spn

Sugar- ½ tbl spn

Warm water- 1 cup

Ginger, finely chopped- small piece (about an inch)

Garlic, finely chopped- 2-3 cloves

Green chilli, finely chopped- 2-3 nos

Coriander leaves, finely chopped- ½ cup

Sesame seeds (Til)- 1 tbl spn

Salt- as per your taste

Ghee- 3-4drops

How did I make it:

In a bowl, mix yeast, soda and sugar. Mix them well.

Heat water in a small cooking pot. Make it warm. Now add yeast mixture to the water and stir it al properly till sugar dissolves. Keep it covered for ½ hour.

After half an hour, you will see yeast water has swollen a bit. So this water is now ready to knead your dough.

To make the dough take a wide plate, put in maida add ghee, salt, ginger-garlic-green chilli paste, coriander leaves and til to it. Mix them all well. Knead the dough by adding yeast water little by little so that it becomes pliable. Keep it covered for 4-5 hours in a dark place. So that you get nice swollen dough.

Make small lime sized balls just before you are to prepare naan.  With the help of rolling pin, roll the dough. Apply water on the entire circular side of the naan. So that it does not drop off tawa.

Heat the tawa. Put naan on it. Cook one side of it till it runs brown. 

To cook second side turn the tawa upside down.  Cook till it browns.

You may find this technique of truning tawa a bit difficult but trust me it is not. If you are not able to turn it upside down simply cook the second side of naan on stove directly as you do for chapatti. But tawa will give you a nice taste...

Once it is done put in a plate. Apply ghee/ butter to it.

Serve it with any vegetable you want. I had it with Paneer butter masala. Also if you eat this naan alone, it will taste good.

Paneer Butter Masala

Well accidently this recipe turned out to paneer butter masala. I was trying to make paneer tawa masala with no idea on how to use the ingredients to makea  tawa sabzi. Though I did cook and after cooking realised, it looked like paneer butter masala. I was lucky that it did turn into a yummy delicious paneer sabzi- tawa masala or butter masla who cares when it tastes and smells tempting.

Let me tell you, I have not used cream to make the sabzi. But still you will get thick delicious gravy for your paneer butter masala and when served hot with  Naan, the smell itself will be mouthwatering...

Recipe for Naan coming up in next post.

Preparation time: 5 minutes (to make tomato- onion puree and cut paneer to cubes)

Cooking time:  10 minutes

Serves: for 3 person

What goes in it:

Cottage cheese (Paneer), diced- 250 gms

Capsicum, square pieces- 1 medium sized

Tomato, puree- ½ cup

Onion, puree- ½ cup

Garlic-Green Chilli-Ginger, paste- 2 tbl spn

Garam Masala- ¼ tbl spn

Pav Bhaji Masala- ¼ tbl spn (I used Baadshah’s Pav Bhaji Masala)

Biryani Masala- ¼ tbl spn (I used Baadshah’s Biryani and Pulav Masala)

Red chilli powder- ½ tbl spn

Turmeric powder- ¼ tbl spn

Dried coriander- cumin powder- 1 tbl spn

Salt- as according to your taste

Cashew powder- 3 tbl spn

Oil- 2 tbl spn

How did I make it:

Cut paneer and capsicum into square pieces. Keep them aside.

Cut tomato and onions into four and put in mixture. Add 2-3 green chillies, 2-3 cloves of garlic and part of ginger.  Grind them all to make puree.

Take a kadai. Pour oil in it and heat it. As it heats up. Put tomato- onion puree to it. Keep on stirring and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Now add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, dried coriander-cumin seeds powder, garam masala, pav bhaji masala and biryani masala. Also add cahew powder to it. Stir them all well and cook for next 1-2 minutes.

As the gravy boils, add paneer cubes and capsicum to it. Cook it covered for 5-7 minutes.

After it is ready shift to a serving vessel.

Serve yummy paneer buter masala with naan.

Toast Sandwich- with Rajma & Salsa Sauce

My mom like every second Indian is a big fan of cricket. And today it was do or die situation for Indian crocket team for ICC 20-20 World Cup 2012. So she declared it was her holiday from cooking which meant Vruti prepare tonight’s dinner. J

I was thinking what to cook and when I remembered I had to pending recipe to try on my list- Refried Beans Quesadillas with Salsa Sauce. I came across this recipe when I was just browsing through net. I never really got time to try this out. Finally tonight I could try my hands on it.

Well I tried it out with bread because I never really cared to find out where exactly you get Tortillas here in Vapi. The taste was good like a different variety of toast sandwich (different than what I made earlier) which is rich in proteins. So this recipe is for those who are rajma (bean) fan...

Preparation time: 15 minutes (to cut vegetables)

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Makes: 12 big wedges

What goes in it to make stuffing:

Red kidney beans (Rajma), boiled- 500 gms  

Onion, sliced vertically- 1 medium sized

Garlic, finely chopped- 1 tbl spn

Cumin seeds (Jeera) - ½ tbl spn

Chilli flakes- 1 tbl spn 

Salt- as per your taste

Oil- 1 ½ tbl spn

Bread- 12 slices

Also you will need,

Cheese, grated- 3 cubes (I used Amul cheese cubes)

Coriander leaves, chopped- ½ cup

Pepper powder- ¼ cup

Butter- to apply on bread as per your wish

How did I make bean stuffing:

Wash and soak rajma in water overnight. Pressure cook rajma for about 10-12 whistles. As it is boiled drain off the water. Mash part of rajma with potato masher and keep it aside.

Well I forgot to mash rajma. And once they are cooled you cannot mash them so I just crushed half of rajma with hand blender.  I think that didnot make much of a difference to the taste.

Cut onions into small vertical slices.

Take a kadai and put oil in it. Heat it up. As oil heats, sauté cumin seeds and chopped garlic till they turn little brown. Add chiili flakes and sauté for about 1 more minute. 

Add rajma and salt to it. Mix them all well. Cook for 3-5 minutes by stirring generously.

Bean stuffing is ready.

What goes in to make Salsa Sauce:

Onion, finely chopped- 1 big sized

Tomato, finely chopped- 1 big sized

Capsicum, finely chopped- 1 big sized

Garlic, finely chopped- 1 tbl spn

Ajwain- ½ tbl spn

Sugar- 1 tbl spn

Red chilli ppwder- 1 tbl spn

Salt- as per your taste

Tomato ketchup- 2 tbl spn

Oil- 2 tbl spn

How did I make it:

Cut onion, capsicum and tomato into small square pieces.

Take a pan. Heat oil in it and prepare for tempering. Saute ajwain and garlic till it turns little brown. Add onion, tomato and capsicum and cook till onion turns golden brown. Put sugar, salt, red chilli powder and tomato ketchup. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Let it cool.

To make toast bread:

Take a bread slice. Apply butter on it.

Make a layer of bean stuffing. Spread it evenly.

Next spread salsa sauce evenly on it.

Top it off with grated cheese and coriander leaves.

Sprinkle a pinch of pepper.

Apply butter on another bread slice. Place it on the stuffing and press gently.

Toast it in a sandwich toaster until both the sides turn golden brown.

 Ready to be served with salsa sauce or green chutney.