Crisp Indianised Hash Brown

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

I had prepared this couple of weeks back but got the chance to post now.. The item was amazingly crispy and tasty :) Yet a quick prepartions :)


Ingredients
2 Potatoes
1 Green Chilli
1/4 Cup Cucumber Pickles
A pinch of Black Pepper Powder
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method

• Grate the potatoes and wash them with lots of water to remove all starch.
• Drain all the water from the grated potatoes and let them dry on a paper towel
• Mix the grated potatoes with finely chopped green chillies, picled cucumbers, black pepper powder and salt.
• Heat the tawa and spread ghee to coat it.
• Spread the potato mixture on the tawa to form a thin layer
• Cook on medium flame on both sides till the colour turns to brown

Notes
I used the medium sized grater for this so that the pototo pieces arent too thin/thick. Thicker version will not give as much crisp as this one did.
The green chillies gave it nice firy - spicy touch

Bhel

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Bhel being one of my favourite snacks we end up preparing it often. I also prefer it during outings :) Preparing it at some nice picnic spot is the best, easiest and tastiest food :)


Ingredients
6 Cup Churmura
2 Cup All in One Mixture
1 Cup Shev
1 Cup Boondi
1 Cup Navaratna Mix
1.5 Cup Tamarind
2 Cup Jaggery
2 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
4-5 Dates
2 Onions
2 Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste

Method

• Soak the tamarind and dates in water for an hour or so
• Grind the mixture with jaggery, red chilli powder, green chilli, jeera powder and salt
• Strain the mixture and keep it aside
• In a big pan mix churmura(puffed rice), navaratna mix, all in one, shev, finely chopped onion, tomatoes and corriander leaves. Mix well
• Add the tamarind mixture prepared earlier and Mix well
• Garnish with boondi and serve immediately

Notes
Garnish it with Raw Mango pieces during mango season. It would be more fun :)
Its good idea to make the bhel in batches so that it doesnt become soggy while serving it.
I normally prefer to keep some tamarind mixture aside instead of mixing the full quantity. That helps giving the personal touch :) The taste depends on what one likes.
Very good item for picnics and parties. You can keep everything ready and mix all of the items just before eating

Raskadam

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Its been quite a few months since I had Raskadam one of my favourite sweet. So thought of giving this a shot. The recipe was adapted from 'Ruchira' a well known recipe book in Pune.


Ingredients
3.5 Cup Milk
1 Spoon Vinegar
1.5 Cup Sugar
1.5 Cup Powdered Sugar
4 Cup Khoya
A pinch of Saffron
1 Cup Grated Paneer

Method

• Warm couple spoon of milk and add the safron. Keep aside.
• Heat the remaining milk
• When the milk starts to boil add vinegar mixed with a spoon of water and stir continuously.
• When the milk cudles and water is separated out, throw out excess water and run it through the cold water
• Squeeze this mixture in a cotton cloth and drain out the water.
• Mix it thourghly and make the dough out of it.
• Prepare around 25 balls out it (small sized
• Mix the sugar with the 6 cup water in the cooker and boil it
• Add these small balls in it and let it boil for around 5 minutes
• Cover the cooker with lid and boil for another 5 minutes
• Remove the lid, add half cup of water and boil for another 5 min. Let the balls cool down. Take out these balls and spread them on the plate and keep aside
• In a nonstick pan on medium flame cook the grated paneer till golden in colour and keep aside to cool down
• Mix grated khoya, powdered sugar, safron-milk and make the dough out of it.
• By now the paneer would be cooled and crispy. Powder it in the mixie and spread it in a separate plate.
• Now is the time to assemble the raskadam. Cover the cooked ball with the khoya mixture by froming a cup shape around it and closing it after inserting a ball in it. Roll the ball in the powdered paneer

Notes
Be careful not to burn the paneer and stir it continuously while cooking, I did that so that it was easy to powder the paneer and the raw smell from it goes away.
The ball preparation for the raskadam is similar to the rasgulla except prepare small sized balls and quantity of sugar-water.
You can add orange or pink - red colour in the khoya mixture but i didnt have it and hence didnt use it.

Egg Slices

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Yesterday I tried this something different dry item from boiled eggs. Turned out quite nice and a good change from routine egg dishes.


Ingredients
4 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
A pinch of Black Pepper Powder
A pinch of Cinnamon Powder
Corriander Leaves to garnish
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Boil eggs in water, slice them and keep aside
• In a flat pan, heat oil and add finely sliced green chillies in it
• Add onion and cook till onion is translucent
• Add black pepper powder, corriander powder, cinnamon powder, sliced eggs and salt. Cook for 3-4 minutes with constant stirring.
• Garnish with finely chopped corriander leaves and red chilli powder

Notes
I didnt want to use to many masalas and also the usual combination of masalas in it as I wanted to give it different taste. Cinammon was great choice as it did distinct it from other routine dishes.

Prawns Puff

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

When I was india I had done lot of R&d to prepare the Puff. I tried it couple of times but it didnt become fluffy. It was very messy too. So for a while I thought lets try to use the readily available Puff Pastry Sheets out here in the market. The outcome was amazing. But I would be happy the day I get this outcome when i can make those sheets too :)


Ingredients
2 Puff Pastry sheets
1 Cup Prawns
1 Tomato
2 Onions
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Corriander Powder
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 Egg
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Take out the pastry sheets from the fridge and keep them aside to thaw.
• In the mean time, heat the oil and add finely chopped onion to it. Cook till onion is translucent
• Add finely chopped tomato in it and cook till tomato is almost done.
• Add prawns and garlic to it and cook for couple of minutes.
• Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, jeera powder, black pepper powder and salt to taste. Cook till oil seprates out.
• Add corriander powder to it and again cook for a minute or two. Keep aside
• Pre-heat the oven to 400F
• Grease the baking tray.
• Cut each baking sheet into 3 vertical and 2 horizonal pieces to give you 6*2 = 12 pieces. On each piece of the sheet add in the prawns mixure and fold it and keep it on the baking tray.
• Beat the egg, dip a tissue in it and spread the egg over the puffs
• Bake in oven at 400F/200C for 15 minutes and your puffs should be ready to serve.

Notes
I used medium sized prawns so that I dont need to cut them and neither are they too small to recognise and loose their taste in the masala.
Also I used the egg to get the golden brown effect of the puff as mentioned on the puff pastry sheet box.

Melon Lassi

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

Couple of weeks back I tried this unique experiment. I had one old melon sitting in the fridge so was curd, so thats what lead to this recipe.


Ingredients
1 Melon
6 Cup Curd
5 Spoon Sugar
A pinch of Vanilla Essence
Salt to taste

Method

• Chop the complete melon into small piece
• Keep aside few pieces for garnishing and grind rest of them in the mixie to make the juice.
• Strain the juice and add it to curd.
• Add sugar, salt, vanilla essence and again mix in the mixie
• Garnish with the melon pieces and serve chilled.

Notes
I used sweet thick curd, and didnt need to add any water because the melon juice was enough to lighten the curd to Lassi

Garden Salad

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा

This was salad that I did impromptu with all the ingredients I had at home. The result tasted good and lettuce too this time was quite good.


Ingredients
1 Cup chopped Lettuce
1/2 Cup Pineapple
1/2 Cup Mango
1 Boiled Potato
1 Tomato
1 Fresh Red Chilli
1/2 Spoon Oregano
1/4 Cup Pickled Cucumber
2 Spoon Vinegar
Salt to taste

Method

• Add chopped lettuce to the bowl
• Add chopped pineapple and mango in it.
• Add finely chopped tomato in it.
• Remove the cover from boiled potato and add the small cubes in the bowl
• Add finely sliced red chilli in it
• Cut the pickled cucumber into small pieces and add in it.
• Add Salt to taste, oregano and vinegar
• Mix well and serve.

Notes
I had cut all the stuff and added to the bowl and then around half an hour before dinner I mixed in oregano and stuff well. I thought otherwise all the flavors might get mixed in each other and wont taste as good as I would like :) and that proved right because the next day in lunch box it didn't taste as good as it was for dinner :)