Paneer Tikka

Every Punjabi, I believe, has a blood relation with paneer tikka. It’s the soul of everything that a Punjabi does, be it a wedding or an escort for their one glass of Patiala peg. ;)

Being a Punjabi myself, I remember indulging paneer tikka ever since the very beginning of my childhood. Dad always ordered it from a local restaurant and then my whole family used to have it together. Now, I make this at home, dad eats all the paneer pieces, mom eats all capsicum and I eat all onion. J

Traditionally, it is made in a cemented tandoor / oven in the bottom of which are bright red burning coal that give it a distinct burnt or charred flavour. With electric ovens the task has become easier however that original taste is always missed. This is what I have tried to achieve in this recipe by charring tikkas on nude flame. This recipe is mine, inspired from many others over the years. Hope you like it. J

Ingredients: Serves 2-3

200 gram cottage cheese or paneer, cut into 1 – 1½ inch pieces

1 medium sized capsicum, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 medium sized onion cut into four pieces

For batter:

4 tablespoon gram flour or besan

1½ tablespoon corn four

 5 tablespoon yogurt

½ tablespoon oil

Paste of 6-7 slices of garlic and 1 inch ginger

Salt and red chilli powder to taste

1/8 teaspoon each of Garam masala, chaat masala, rock salt, coriander powder, turmeric, dried mango powder.

For garnish:

Lime juice and chaat masala

Recipe:

In a microwave friendly bowl, add gram flour and corn flour sieved. To this add all dry ingredients and mix well.

In another bowl add yogurt, garlic, ginger and mix well.

Add this yogurt to dry ingredient along with oil and whisk to make smooth batter.

Now add paneer onion and capsicum to this batter and gently mix so that batter covers vegetables and paneer completely. Now keep this mixture in refrigerator for 15 – 30 minutes. Take the mixture out and let it come to room temperature.

Then microwave it for 4-5 minutes at highest temperature, after which take the bowl out.

Now skewer the veggies alternatively, onion paneer capsicum, and char them above nude flame on the stove. With help of pliers, hold one end of the skewer and roast tikka on the flame from all sides.

Paneer tikka is ready, garnish them with lime juice and chaat masala.

Note:

If you don’t have skewers, try tooth picks they work the same way, however just be cautious not to burn yourself as it’s made of wood and will burn when put on fire.

You can make tikka of any other vegetable in the same way.

Holi Special Dessert

This dessert recipe is created by me; however its inspiration came to me from one of the recent episodes of Masterchef, wherein Chef Ranveer Brar had put an awesome dessert in front of the candidates as pressure test. His dessert had orange jelly as one of the elements and I thought that I should also try something with orange jelly.

Unlike Chef Ranveer’s dessert which was very difficult to make, my dessert is very simple, perfect for home cooking and has four different elements combined to make one dessert. Each element is very easy to prepare and final outcome looks great. Not only kids but adults too will surely crave for it.

Ingredients: Serves one

For Orange Jelly:

One cup fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon agar-agar flakes

For Choclate Cake:

1 tablespoon maida

1 tablespoon Butter

1 tablespoon sugar.

3-4 tablespoon milk.

1/4 teaspoon or a pinch of baking powder

1/8 teaspoon or a pinch of baking soda

½ tablespoon cocoa powder

For Sugar Hokey Pokey Candy:

2 Tablespoon sugar

3-4 Tablespoon water

Pinch of soda bicarb

For Milk Sauce:

3 tablespoon sugar

1½ tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon water

5-6 tablespoon milk

Recipe:

For orange jelly

Pour juice in a pan and put on low flame, add sugar, and stir till sugar dissolves. Add agar-agar, put on high flame and bring a boil. Then leave it to simmer for 4-5 minutes. Remove from flame and leave to cool down a little. Then divide the juice in two containers equally, shape of container is your choice. I used round ones. Juice will set into jelly at room temperature. Once it has started to settle move containers into refrigerator, and leave there till final presentation.

For Cake

Mix together all dry ingredients maida cocoa powder baking powder baking soda (sieved) and sugar. Add butter, milk and whisk nicely. When all lumps have disappeared, grease a microwave friendly bowl, pour batter in it. And microwave it for one minute at highest temperature, microwave for another minute if not set.

For Hokey Pokey Candy:

Mix together sugar and water, put on high flame. Let the water boil and bubble nicely, after around 4 minutes on flame it would have changed into thick syrup and will just begin to caramelise. Its colour will be slightly changing to golden brown, right then remove it from flame, add soda bicarb and whisk quickly, golden froth will start forming. Immediately empty the contents on a greased foil or parchment paper. Leave it set for couple of minutes.

For Milk Sauce:

In a pan mix together water sugar and butter and put on low flame. When butter has melted and sugar has dissolved put on high flame. Once it has boiled once, add half milk and keep stirring on high flame, it will start to thicken then add remaining half of milk, stir again till it has turned slightly thick. Perfect consistency would be when it is thick yet of pouring consistency, because when it cools down it will turn solid like a milk candy.

Presentation:

Take out jelly from the container. On one jelly in the center of the plate, place chocolate cake and then place another jelly on it, like cake is sandwiched between jellies. Crush hokey pokey candy roughly and place few pieces on top of the dessert. Then drizzle generously with milk sauce. Dessert is ready to be served.

Vegetable Garlic Bread

A delicious Italian inspired side dish for pasta, pizza or anything Italian. This is a very easy and quick recipe. Hungry at 2 am, chop some veggies spread them on bread along with butter and its ready under 5 minutes, or may be quicker depending upon your knife skills. Mine are pathetic. It takes me an hour to chop just one onion, capsicum and tomato each. But I do have persuading or convincing skills coz I always end up convincing somebody else to chop vegetables for me, like I did today. ;)

Anyways, coming back to Garlic Bread, here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion chopped

½ Tomato and Capsicum each, chopped.

5-6 Garlic slices chopped

1 ½ Tablespoon Butter.

4 Bread Slices.

Salt and Chilli each to taste.

1 teaspoon Dried Oregano.

Recipe:

In a microwaveable bowl, mix onion, tomato, capsicum and garlic together.

Add butter and microwave it for 20-30 seconds maximum at maximum temperature. Butter will just start to melt. Take the bowl and give it nice stir and incorporate everything together. Microwave it again for 10-20 seconds at max temperature. Butter would have completely melted by now.

Add spices and give it a nice mix.

Spread it generously on each bread slice, dividing mixture equally into 4 parts.

Now microwave the bread slices. Duration will depend upon how you prefer your bread. I like it little soggy with all butter absorbed into it, which I get after toasting it for one minute on max temperature. Increase the duration if you prefer crispy base and slightly burnt topping, as that in pizza. Alternatively, you can first toast the bread and then spread the buttered veggies on it and eat it. Choice is yours.

Try it and tell me how you like it. J

Black Currant Pudding

I prepared this pudding keeping in mind how kids love anything sweet, and also how they stay away from anything healthy like vegetables and fruits. So I thought and made this pudding from nothing but fresh juice, and added more fruits in it to make it healthier. I am sure kids will love this because it is everything they like: Sweet, colorful, jelly like and parents will love it because it’s easy to make, can be preserved in refridgerator for 2-3 days and did I mention that it’s healthy?? ;) J

Ingredients: Serves 3

1 ½ Cup fresh Black Currant juice

2 tablespoon sugar

4-5 tablespoon water

A little more than 1 tablespoon agar-agar flakes

Garnish:

6 Green Grapes

6 Black Currants

Recipe:

In a sauce pan pour juice and water together. Turn heat on at low.

Add sugar and stir till it dissolves.

Add agar-agar flakes, and bring the juice to boil. Then skim the impurities.

Simmer for 8-9 minutes. Meanwhile prepare three bowls by dividing grapes and currants equally in them.

After 8-9 minutes, turn the heat off. And let the juice cool down a little. Then divide juice equally in three bowls and leave it to cool down completely. It will start to set when at room temperature. Shift bowls in refrigerator. And pudding will be ready to eat when it’s completely chilled. Texture will be a little somewhere between liquid and jelly. You can make it a complete jelly by adding more agar-agar before boiling process.

Note:

This pudding can also be made with any other kind of juice.

If making fresh juice at home, strain it nicely.

Zucchini Canapés

So I went for shopping in my nearby vegetable market last week and saw loads of zucchini piled up on every stall. As expected, I instantly bought one not even knowing what I will be doing with it. Anyways I searched over internet to come up with some ideas of recipe using Zucchini as a main ingredient and majorly found zucchini chips on almost every link I clicked. So I started with slicing zucchini, but while slicing idea of zucchini canapés popped in my mind, and here’s the recipe for the same. J

Ingredients:

For Canapés:

1 Zucchini average size, sliced finely in round shape.

1 tablespoon Maida / refined flour

½ teaspoon Semolina

Salt, red chilli powder to taste

¼ teaspoon each garam masala, aamchoor (dried mango powder)..

Pinch of coriander powder.

½ teaspoon dried oregano.

For Salsa:

½ each Onion and Tomato, finely chopped.

Fresh coriander, more the merrier.

¼ teaspoon chaat masala

Oil for deep frying.

Recipe:

For Canapés:

In a bowl spread zucchini slices.

In another bowl mix all dry ingredients/ spices together except chaat masala.

Sprinkle this dry mixture all over zucchini slices, and mix with spatula or hand so that slices get covered in this powder all over.

For Salsa:

Mix together onion tomato coriander and chaat masala. This salsa will be the topping for canapés.

Method:

Now fry the zucchini slices till they are golden brown in colour and crisp from the outside. Take them out and dry the excess oil on kitchen towel. Spread salsa on fried slices and Zucchini Canapés are ready to eat.

Potato Chips

Potato chips have been my all time favourite. I remember eating them always during my childhood and also fighting over them with my siblings.

Uncle Chips were available everywhere during those days. Lays came much after. Another favourite in my family were Twinkle Chips, especially their mint flavoured chips. They were our favourite also because we got a free comic book with them. :p Anyways we just needed one or the other excuse to eat them.

So here’s the most basic way to make chips, hope you like them.

Ingredients:

Potato

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder to taste

Oil for brushing

Recipe:

Slice potato into chips slices using any slicer you may have. I used slicing blade of my food processor. However, thickness of the slices should around 0.2 – 0.3 cm, as the chips shrink in size when they are baked.

Now lightly brush a plate with oil, avoid this step if you are using non stick microwave safe plate or tray.

Layer the slices of the potato on the plate, and lightly brush them too with the oil.

Sprinkle salt and chilli on the slices.

Method:

Now these will take around 10-12 minutes in total to bake in microwave at 600 degree Celsius. First bake them for 3 minutes then pause the timer, take the plate out and flip all the chips, again sprinkle salt and chilli on them and bake again for 3 – 4 minutes, after which flip them again but don’t sprinkle any spice this time around. Bake again for 2-3 minutes and check again. They will be ready when chips have turned slightly brown and are crispy in texture. Bake for another couple of minutes if they are soggy. Don’t leave microwave unobserved. Serve them with ketchup or tea.

Note:

You can use any other spice or even herb to flavor the chips. Use Chaat masala for a tangy taste. Use salt or Oregano if you like Italian taste. I am planning to make these next time with dried mint and salt. :)

Kesar Jalebi

I have never met anyone who doesn't like jalebis. It’s a favorite mithai / sweet of every Indian I guess. I remember my childhood days when I used to wait for Ahoi Goddess puja, wherein jalebis were served as Prasad. I and my siblings waited from day before till next day’s evening prayer, after which we were allowed to relish jalebis. We still have this puja at home every year and I too still wait for them, longingly.

My grandma also made me eat jalebis whenever I suffered from cold because it is believed that jalebis soaked in milk is homemade medicine for cold and cough. And I never complained, who would have if the medicine is as tasty as Jalebi. In fact I even faked illness sometimes, just to eat delicious sweet jalebis, Best part, my grandma always knew that I was never sick. ;) :p :D J

Here’s the recipe that I use to make them.

Ingredients:

For Batter

2/3 Cup Maida or all purpose flour:

1 Tablespoon semolina

2/3 Cup water

1 ½ Tablespoon curd/ yoghurt

¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds powder

Oil for deep frying.

For sugar syrup

1½ cup water

1 cup sugar

One lime wedge

Few strands of Kesar / Saffron

Recipe:

Batter:

Sift flour and semolina in a bowl. Add water and curd. Whisk well for around 15 – 20 minutes. This will put air in it and little bubbles will start forming in the batter, which means fermentation has begun. At this stage leave the batter aside, in a warm place, for at least 4 hours of fermentation, but overnight is preferred.

Once the batter has nicely fermented, add cardamom powder and mix it using cut and fold method. Do not mix it quickly otherwise the batter will lose its air. Batter is ready.

Sugar syrup:

Pour water in a bowl on low heat, add sugar and mix nicely. Once sugar has dissolved, put syrup on high heat and add the lemon wedge. Once it has started to boil nicely, check the syrup for any sugar residue or impurities on the surface, and remove it using a spatula. Remove lemon wedge. Add saffron and let it simmer. Syrup is ready when it’s of one string consistency.

Method:

Pour batter in a sauce bottle. In a pan on medium flame add oil. Now squeeze the batter using circular motion in the pan. Fry on both sides till its golden brown. Take it out and dip it and swirl it in the sugar syrup and leave it there few seconds for Jalebi to absorb the syrup. Then take it out and drain the excess syrup. Jalebi is ready to eat. Eat it with a warm glass of milk.

Note:

Semolina is added to make Jalebi crispier. It can be avoided if you don’t like crispier jalebis.

Instead of cardamom, you can use fennel seeds powder or cinnamon powder in the batter.

One string consistency of the syrup is checked by taking a little bit of syrup on the thumb and tapping finger on it, if syrup forms one string it is ready.

Lemon wedge in the syrup ensures that any impurities get concentrated on the surface of syrup.