Mixed Vegetable Kababs

Hello, I know its been a loooooooooooooong time I blogged a recipe. Got busy with the little one and the job. But passion of trying new recipes dragged me back to my blogging. So happy to be here. My son's school is going open in a month school and I am bookmarking dozens of new recipes to pack for lunch. Here are some of the ideas I took from various bloggers who have tons of ideas about vegetarian lunch ideas for kids from toddler age. I was so happy that I was able to try few of them and turned out really good (I had empty boxes in the sink to have 100% proof). One of the recipe that was instant hit was Mixed vegetable kababs. There are lot of versions of vegetable kababs. I took little from all the recipes and made my own with my own choice of vegetables. Ingredients: Spinach-1 full cup Totakura(Amarnath leaves)- 1/3 cup Menthi Kura(Methi)- 1/4 cup Potatoes-2 medium size boiled Onion- 1 small finely chopped Tomato-1 finely chopped Green Chillies- according to your taste( I took 1 as I was making for kids) Green beans- 1/2 cup Capcicum(you can take any color of your choice)-1/2 cup finely chopped Sweet corn-1/2 cup Kala Chana(optional)-1/3 cup boiled Cumin & Coriander powder-1 tsp Salt-per taste turmeric -1/2 tsp Corn flour/Maida- together 1 cup Bread Crumbs- 1/2 cup Oil- for shallow fry Method: 1. Take a heavy bottom pan and bring water to boil by adding very little salt to it. 2. Wash all the green leaf vegetables, take the stems off. 3. Turn off the boiling water and put all the green leaf vegetables for 1-2 minutes. 4. Drain the water and keep aside the vegetable to cool. 5. In the same add a tsp of oil and add all the other vegetables except onion. 6. Fry the vegetables for 3 to 4 minutes, turn off the flame and let them cool down with the green leaf vegetables. 7. Boil the potatoes, peel the skin off and mash the potatoes. 8. Add in all the vegetables along with onions,salt,turmeric,CC powder and mix them well. 9. Make a water consistency batter with corn flour and maida. 10. Make your desired shape with vegetable mixture in your palm dip it the corn flour, maida batter and immediately roll over in breadcrumbs. 11. Heat the pan and place all the Kababs coated with bread crumbs on the pan and put oil around them and fry for 3 minutes on each side or until you see the golden brown color. 12. Serve with ketchup or hot&sour chilli sauce. PS: Feedback from my kids is they tasted better when they are in room temperature than hot. In correct words from my darling son, " I could enjoy the taste of the kababs to the full when are not hot".

Eggless Vanilla Cake- Simple and Tasty

Ingredients: 1tin-Condensed Milk, 2-3 cups plain flour(maida), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2tsp baking soda(soda bicarb), 1/2 cup icing sugar, 1/2tsp vanilla essence, 1/2 cup melted butter, 100ml milk, 100ml coke Process: * Seive flour,bakingpoweder,bakingsoda,sugar,cocoa all together 2-3times....keep aside. * Pour condensed milk in a bowl....add the melted butter and beat well till smooth. * Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture. In between...add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff. * once all the flour is used up, beat the batter as above till light(5-7)mins. Add the coke & mix gently till smooth. * pour into a greased cake tin. Do not smooth with a spoon, if the consistency is right this will not be needed. * pre-heat oven to 300deg. place tin inside. Bake at 400deg till done. *poke with a skewer...if it is not sticky then u r cake is ready to eat. *cool it before u do icing on it.

Mixed Vegetable Manchurian

Indian Chinese cooking is the adaption of Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques to Indian tastes. It is said to have been developed by a small Chinese community that has lived in Kolkata for over a century. Indian Chinese has followed the mainstream Indian expatriate community as they have spread across the world, providing expatriate Indians with a taste of authentic Indian Chinese.

Coming to Manchurian may be Gobi or mixed vegetable is one of my favorite fusion food after noodles. My immense love for this dish made me learn it and become a perfectionist. Grated vegetables mixed with maida, corn flour, soysauce, vinegar, make lemon size balls and deep fried immediately mixed up with sauce. Works great with noodles or as it is. I am sure one cannot resist and wait until served with noodles. It sure is a time consuming dish but believe me every single minute is worth it. You will surely accept once you taste it. You can grate the veggies and mix up with spices ahead to save some time. I always grate them a day ahead and pop it in the fridge.



Vegetable Manchurian Recipe:

Preparation time: 1hr
Serves: 4 persons
Cuisine: Indo-Chinese

Ingredients:

For Manchurian:

Cabbage
Carrot
Green beans
Green capsicum
Green chilies
Green onions
Maida
Corn flour
Aginomoto
Soy Sauce
Vinegar
Ginger garlic paste
Red chilie sauce
Ketchup
Food color
Oil for deep frying

For Sauce:

Sliced ginger
Sliced garlic
Ginger garlic paste
Soy sauce
Chilie sauce
Vinegar
Green onions
Ketchup
1 tbsp of oil

Method:

Grate cabbage and carrot squeeze all the water from it. (I use food processor for grating cabbage and carrot as it is less time consuming).

Finely chop green beans, capsicum, green onions, green chilies, and cilantro.

To this vegetable mix add salt, maida, corn flour, GG paste, aginomoto, soy sauce, vinegar, chilie sauce, ketchup. Do not any water as the water from the veggies will be sufficient. The batter should be thick enough to hold the shape of a ball. Adjust the spices to your comfortable level.

In a frying pan add oil sufficient for deep fry, make lemon size balls with the veggie mix batter and deep fry until they are golden brown. The temperature of the oil should be medium and it takes a while to fry them, if the oil is too hot, the outer part will be brown but inside it will be raw.

In a wide pan, put a tbsp of oil; once the oil is hot add sliced ginger, garlic, GG paste, soy sauce, chilie sauce, vinegar, ketchup, finely chopped green onion.

Once all the sauce is sautéed a bit add the fried Manchurian into the sauce and mix it carefully without breaking.

Enjoy them as it is as starter, or serve them along with noodles or spaghetti (it looks exactly like meatball spaghetti)

Oatmeal Dosa

Oats is surely a comfort and healthy food.It loweres cholestrol and its low glycemic index of the old fashion oats can turn into glucose slowly in your body. Though not great in its taste,with a little creativity it can surely be enjoyed a lot.
Last week I am out of dosa batter and I made this instant dosa.I took the recipe from lot of sites and added a few ingredients and took out some and made my version of this yummy,easy to make oatmeal dosa.It was a hit. I made a little batter as I was not sure whether my son and hubby will like it or not,but to my suprise i had to mix the batter again to satisfy their tummies.

I like to eat it as it is without any chutney,but tastes good with peanut or tomato chutney.

Ingredients:
Oatmeal: 1 cup
Upma ravva/suji:1/4 cup
Rice flour :1/4 cup
Yogurt :1/2cup
Water :as required to make into a pouring consistency
salt :to taste
chilli powder :as per taste.
cumin :1/2tsp





Method

* Mix all the ingredients and set aside for 1/2hr.Oats will become very soft.




* Heat the griddle and pour the batter and spread it slowly from inside to out,it will not be as big as normal dosa.Now put a tsp of oil around it.




* Dosa tastes great if its cooked on a medium-low heat.

* Once done on one side flip the dosa for other side to be done,approx for 1/2min.



*Serve dosa with your deisred chutney but believe me it tastes great just like that.

VEGETABLE DUM-BIRIYANI

Being a hyderabadi, biriyani is my all-time favorite food. I can eat biriyani any day, any time.

There are 26 varieties of biriyani made in India. Biriyani come from the Persian word “birian” which means “fried before cooking”. The vegetable Biriyani is the “tarkari” version which was originally made for cashiers and financiers who were mahajan hindus. The hyderabadi version of mixed vegetable biriyani is the Tahiri.
In olden days rice was fried (without washing) in ghee. After the rice is stir fried it was cooked with water and spices till half-cooked. In an earthen pot called “Handi”, the rice and vegetables are layered, the top and bottom are always rice and the interior layers may be introduced between the rice and vegetables. Saffron mixed in warm milk may be added for added color and aroma(alternatively you can also use orange food colour). The Handi is sealed and put on coal embers to cook. Now days we use oven to do that work.
source:wikipedia

My version is soaking basmati rice in water for a while…cook until 70% is done with oil and salt, layer with half-cooked vegetables along with herbs, seal it with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 20mins. Just open it before serving and enjoy with mirchi-ka-salan or bagara baingan and raita.

VEGETABLE DUM-BIRIYANI RECIPE:

Preparation time: 1hr (including baking time)
Serves : 5 people
Cuisine : Indian

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 2 cups
Gingergarlic paste: 1 tsp
Cloves-3
Elachi-5
Cinnamon stick-1/2stick
Shah jeera-1/2tsp
Bay leaves-2
Everest shahi biriyani masala- 1tbsp

Vegetables:

Onions-2
Green chilies-6-7(depending on your spice level)
Potato-1
Green beans-5
Bell pepper (any color of your choice. I prefer green and red)-1/4 of each color
Carrots-1
Paneer--shallow fry in ghee(optional)
Mint-1/2 bunch
Cilantro/dhania/kottimeera-1/2 bunch

Method:

Wash the basmati rice thoroughly and soak them in water for 1/2hr.

Wash all the veggies and cut them length wise except paneer.



In a wide pan add oil or ghee; once it is hot add the whole masala (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf and shahjeera) let them fry for a minute.Now add ginger garlic paste, once the masala is frying in GG paste add onions and fry them till they become soft.



Now add rest of the veggies and cook them until they are ½ done. At this point add salt(remember,we add salt to rice while cooking)chopped mint, cilantro and store brought biriyani masala.





Mean while turn on the rice cooker with 1:1 ratio (1cup water for 1cup rice),add oil and salt.

once the rice is done, take an oven proof dish ( I usually do it in foil tray)put a layer of rice and on top of it the veggie mixture, mint, cilantro, fried paneer and add food color(or saffron mixed with milk).Continue layering until all the rice and veggie mixture is done. Finish off layering with chopped mint, cilantro.








Seal the tray with aluminum foil and bake it in oven at 300deg for 20mins.



Serve warm with your choice of gravy and raita.

CARROT HALWA

Today is the first day of my blogging; I want to start with a sweet dish, wishing that my journey in blogging will be sweet and pleasant. We don’t have sweet tooth in our house but this is one of the dish which we all enjoy on any day. Don’t calorie count on this dish as some of the Indian sweets must have ghee and whole milk to get the original taste.

Grated carrot shallow fried in ghee, cooked in whole milk (has to be the whole milk, doesn’t taste the same with low fat), decorated with nuts makes this dish simply irresistible.

Carrot Halwa Recipe:

Preparation time: 30 mins
Serves 3 people
Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients:

Medium size Carrots--1/2lb
Whole Milk—1cup
Sugar-1/2 cup
Desi ghee—3tbsp
Cashews—for garnishing
Raisins---for garnishing

Method:

1.Wash the carrots thoroughly and grate them. Heat a tbsp of ghee in the heavy bottom pan and fry the grated carrot for a minute.





2.In a separate pan add a tbsp of ghee and fry cashews and raisins.

3.Add milk and cook the carrot until all the milk evaporated.



4.Add sugar at this point stirring until the sugar is dissolved and comes to a shiny texture.



5.Transfer this to a serving bowl and decorate with the fried nuts.


6.Enjoy it warm or cool,either way it tastes great.