Rava Upma

I've had some pretty superb Rava Upma versions (courtsey Vidhya (sister) and Harini (sister's sister-in-law) and this one ranks right among them.
http://vegetarian-planet.blogspot.com/2009/08/ravasooji-khichadisemolina-khichadi.html

One alteration I made was substitute the the cloves, cinnamon, etc for 1 tbs of  pulav masala (I did not have the ingredients on hand.)

Half Mint Half Dulche De leche Mocha Brownie

The basic recipe I used was from here and the  idea for mint came from here  and dulche de leche brownie came from here

What I used ( Apart from the other ingredients in the recipe)
Dark Chocolate Pearson's Mint Patties - 10
Dulche de leche (From previous post) - 2 Tbls
Mocha Expresso - 1 tbsp- prepared using 1/3 cup of water
Light Brown Sugar ( instead of white sugar)

Changes:
1) Added the prepared expresso right after adding the coco powder ( made no other change to proportions)
2) Initially filled the 9" pan with 2/3 of the mix
3)  Lined the 10 patties on on half of the 9" tin. Added dollops of the dulche de leche on the other half.  The Dulche can be mixed in gently using a knife (do not overmix)
4) Add the rest of the batter on top and bake for about 25 minutes.
5) Let it completely cool and chill in fridge for  hour. Cut into pieces and freeze.
PS: I am coffee lover and the next time I bake these brownies, I would up the expresso level to about 2 tbsp.

Dal Makhan-less

Ingredients
Butter - 1 Tbl
Dal Makhani Masala (MDH) - 2 Tbl
Whole Black Urad Dal - 1cup
Rajma (Kidney Beans) - 1/3 cup
Channa Dal  - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 5 small ( Blanched and pureed)
Onion - 1 (Pureed)
Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 Tbl
Almond Milk - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Cumin seeds - 1 Tbl
 Olive Oil - 1 tsp
Coriander - 1/2 bunch chopped
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Method
1) Soak the dals together overnight. Cook in pressure cooker with tumeric, half the chopped coriander and salt. Mash half the the cooked dal.
2) In a kadai, heat olive oil
3) Add cumin seeds and wait until it splutters
4) Add onion puree and ginger garlic paste and fry for about 5 min
5) Add the masala and butter and fry for about 3-4 min
6) Add tomoato puree and cook for about 5 min
7) Add the cooked dals and boil for about 5 min
8) Add the milk and cook for about 1-2 min.
9) Remove from stove and garnish with coriander.
10) Serve with Chapathi or Rice

The buttery texture comes for the mashed portion of the dal, you do not have to add too much butter to get the texture. Dal makhani recipes on the web recommend anywhere between 1/2 stick to 1 stick of butter and 1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream. I'm fairly sure that those recipes would taste wonderful. However, 1 Tbl butter with 1/4 cup almond milk tasted really really good as well :)

P.S: I have always noticed eating a dish after a few hours (or even leaving overnight) helps marinate the flavors better.

Dulche de leche - from divya's blog

Link: http://www.divyascookbook.com/2011/02/how-to-make-dulce-de-leche.html

Can it get easier than this?

Paneer Masala Bread - Show me the curry - Not very successful for me :(

Link: http://showmethecurry.com/breads/paneer-masala-bread.html
I think when I baked my first ever cake from scratch, I discovered my inner "crazy" baker :)

Alas, the debacle ...
I was too bored to drive to the Indian store and decided to use cottage cheese from the local market (Baaad choice...). It had too much moisture (which I unsuccessfully tried  to remove using a cloth (probably should have bought a proper cheese cloth) and that caused all the problems. After I spread the cottage cheese + masala on the dough, rolled it up and set aside to rise, the water from cheese seeped through and made the entire rolled up dough extremely soggy to a point where I could not even lift it off the plate I had it on. I ended up mixing the dough and filling, adding more flour and baking it as a bread(-ish). Result -  it was bearable, did not get any of the cottage cheese taste but got a fair bit of masala and right amount of salt. I will probably cut into slices, toast and eat it like plain bread...
Well, there is always a next time :)

Dates and Walnut Cake From ShowMeTheCurry

From here: http://showmethecurry.com/desserts/eggless-date-and-walnut-cake.html
Came highly recommend from sis dearest and worth every bit the effort  (extremely miniscule if I can say so myself :))

Paneer Egg Burji Curry

Ingredients
Paneer - 10 cubes
Egg - 2 (beaten)
Bell pepper - 1 small or 1/2 large - cut into large cubes
Tomato - 2 (pick firm ones)- cut into cubes
Onion - 1 large - cut into cubes
Garlic - 3 cloves - chopped rough
Coriander - 1/2 bunch chopped
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder -  1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Cumin - 1/2 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp

Method:
1) Heat oil in kadai, add cumin and allow to splutter
2) Add garlic and onions and fry until onion is semi-translucent
3) Add the pepper cubes and Fry for about 3-4 minutes
4) Add tomato cubes  and all the spice powders
5) Cook until the mixture becomes dry
6) Move the mixture to one half of the kadai. Add the beaten eggs to the other half.
7) Scramble the eggs
8) Mix the veggie mix and scrambled eggs and cook for about 2 min
9) Add paneer and mix until all paneer cubes are coated with masala
10) Cover and cook for about 2 min
11) Switch off the stove, but do not remove the lid. Allow it to sit for about 5 minutes
12) Serve hot with chapati or bread or rice

Why I started this blog? - New Goal

I'm retracting my earlier  "Why I started this blog" statement.  I realized that I'm not much of a cook. Cooking is probably not  my favorite thing to do and after nearly 5 years of cooking on my own, I still have not figured out the "tastes" of the different masalas (Which is what I claimed to do in my original statement). To be honest, I realized that I don't have the patience or inclination to find out.  As long as the food is edible it works for me :). Basically, this blog contains recipes that are quick-easy, no-fuss and will get you out of the kitchen in about 10-20 minutes most of the time. 



Earlier statement:
10 months ago I got married and came to the US. It was huge shift for me and suddenly I was given a brand new responsibility. I had to COOK. I was not a "cooking" illiterate by any means but the times I cooked were far and few and did not qualify me to cook on my own. My mom ever so diligently wrote down a few important recipes ( like the parrupu kozhambu or the elimichchai saathamudhu) and bought a lot of mallika badrinath recipe books to supplement. And so I started cooking. After a couple of months of  trial I felt good about my cooking.I started experimenting. People liked it , my husband definitely did and even my " expert sis" approved of my cooking. I felt good. I had one basic mantra , add vegetables, spice powders and spice pastes ( chilli,garlic,ginger,coriander,mint) to make a recipe work. By powders I mean everything I can possibly find in an Indian kitchen. Turmeric, chilli, coriander, garam masala, aam chur, pepper were always present and the chat masala  was added depending on my mood. Till  two months ago I thought I was a great cook. Most things I made turned out good. But then one fateful day I started analyzing my cooking. I realized my cooking was nothing more than a bunch of masalas. I had no idea what each masala did. I had no idea How it would taste if I left out one of the masalas. I had no idea how different would it be to add fresh garlic instead of a paste or vice verse. I decided that from that day onwards my policy was "less is more". Making sure I added few things but make the dish taste great. I am on a voyage and would put up recipes as and when I try them. Hopefully you like it.

Pancake cookies

I woke up Saturday morning with a cookie craving :). As usual my "bake" goods were non-existent. Lack of ingredients has rarely stopped me from making what I want :) and so I decided to make cookies anyway :)
Ingredients:
Pancake mix flour - 1 cup (Approx) (Reason for choice: It has Flour, Sugar and Sodium bicarbonate :))
Nutella (I used the JIF brand equivalent) - 2 Tbls
Butter - 1 Tbl
Egg - 1
Almond milk - 1/4 cup (Reason: This is what I currently add to  my morning cereal)

Method.
1) Melt butter, add Nutella and whisk until mixed
2) Add the Egg and milk and whisk again
3) Add the flour and mix it in (Don't overwork it - Reason: I have no idea but most websites recommended that :P). The mixture will be sticky.
4) Place in Fridge for about 20 minutes
5) Spoon out (I did about 1 Tbl per cookie) onto a greased baking pan
6) Bake for about 5- 8 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven

These cookies are extremely soft and do not spread too much when baked. They are also not really sweet (Perfect for me but might not be enough for most people). You could add some sugar if you like it sweeter. Personally, I would recommend adding some dry fruits (raisins, cranberries, chopped dates) to increase sweetness.