Cheesy Corn Nuggets

Ingredients:

1) Corn (frozen ones will do) - 1 cup - heat them in microwave till they are a bit soft
2) 4 large potatoes - boiled, peeled and mashed
3) Butter - 50 gm
4) Cheese - 50 gm
5) Parsley (1/4th cup - chopped)
6) Corn flour - based on how much binding you need
7) Bread crumbs

Mix all the above ingredients thoroughly so as to not leave any lump. Put salt to taste. If you want you can add red chilli flakes or bloack pepper. Make nuggets shapes out of this batter. Add corn flour - as minimum as possible, only for binding the nuggets. Roll the buggets on the bread crumbs, so that the crumbs form a nice covering. Deep fry in oil.

Eat them with sauce or cheesy dip. They are excellent snacks for kids or for their bday parties!

Tip: Don't over-boil the potatoes - otherwise you end up using too much of corn flour and lose the inherent taste.

Green Cold Pasta

Now this is one of my culinary inventions. A few days back I got parsley and Italian basil plants for my kitchen garden. I had to use these in one of my dishes, so here we are, with a new variance of pasta:

Ingredients: Broccoli, Cabbage, French beans, Carrot -- all cut into big pieces- 1/4th cup each
Pasta (penne or spiral preferably) -- 2 cups
Mint, Coriander leaves - 1 cup in all
2 green chilies
Curd - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Paneer - 1/2 inch sized cubes - 1/2 cup (should be fresh and soft)
Italian basil and parley - 3-4 leaves of each

How to make:
1) Boil pasta in water. Put 2-3 drops of olive oil so that it doesn't stick to each other. Also put 1 teaspoon of salt while boiling
2) Grind mint and coriander leaves with green chilies. Form a paste, put curd and salt to taste. Add crushed pieces of basil and parsley and mix with the paste. Keep it aside.
3) Shallow fry all the veggies in little olive oil till they are nearly cooked. To keep the freshness don't overcook the vegetables. Also, broccoli florets should remain green - so add it to the veggies only later and cook it for lesser time.
4)While shallow frying the veggies, add Italian seasoning and salt. You can also add red chili flakes if you like it spicy.
5) Add the cooked pasta to the veggies and let it cook on a low flame for about 2-3 mins.
6) Let the pasta cool down. Now add the mint and coriander paste to the pasta.Mix the paneer cubes. Put parmesan cheese powder or simply grate cheese cube on the pasta and put it in the refrigerator.
7) After it has cooled down, serve it with a bread of your choice.

Besan and Atta Ladoo

I call this "Chota bheem" effect! Whenever my daughter watches these series, she demands these ladoos. So I generally have them stocked in my house

What you need: 1) 1 bowl ghee (preferably made at home - as it has a nice aroma)
2) 1 bowl wheat flour (you can take the multigrain wheat flour available in the market)
3) 1/2 bowl gram flour
4) 1/4th to 1/2 bowl of dry fruits of your choice
5) Sugar (as per your taste)

Procedure : 1) Put ghee in wide mouthed kadahi
2) After it heats a bit, add wheat flour and let it roast under low flame while you stir it every now and then
3) After 5 mins, add gram flour and let the ingredients roast
4) Make sure you keep on stirring it and the color of the flour should change uniformly
5) Let it be on the low flame(key is to stir) till it changes its color to brown and you start getting the rich aroma
6) Grind the dry fruits and put it in kadahi along with the rest of ingredients till it becomes a smooth batter
7) Switch off the flame and let it cool down
8) Grind the sugar and add it to the rest of the paste after it has cooled down
9) Make the ladoos and store it in an airtight container

Sprouted Moong Dosa

A few days back I heard that Dosa has a high glycemic index (it is not a good thing is all I know!)
But hopefully this one should qualify better on that!

Ingredients: 2 cups rice, 1/2 cup white urad dhuli daal, 1/2 cup sprouted moong(whole green) daal
Finely chopped 2 medium sized onions, finely chopped green chilies as per your taste, Finely chopped coriander leaves

1) Grind the rice
2) Mix the 2 daals and grind
3) Mix both of them and put salt
4) Let it ferment for 4-5 hrs (Depending on the heat keep it in the fridge. It should not be outside in the summers for long as it tends to make the batter sour)
5) Mix onion, coriander leaves, onions in the batter just before making the dosas
6) Add red chilli powder or black pepper powder depending on your taste
7) Make dosas(pancakes) on the dosa tawa. If you make them thinner, they will really turn out tastier and crispier.
8) Serve it hot with your favorite chutney!

This dosa has a different taste than the regular ones because of the sprouted moong and also it is a healthier version. It also tastes good without onions, chilies and coriander - specially kids might prefer this.

Palak Kofta

Ingredients:
1) Veggies whatever you wish to put in a kofta
2) Spinach (3-4 bundles)
3) Moong daal (Yellow) -- half bowl
4) CornFlour (3-4 tbsp)
5) Onion - 1 big
6) Tomatoes - 2 big
7) Garlic Cloves - 10
8) Ginger - around 1 inch

Method:
Boil Veggies, Mash them, add cornflour. Add all the masalas(whatever you wish for taste) and then make round koftas. You can either deep fry, but I would prefer either make them in microwave or shallow fry, to restrict the calorie count.

Boil Spinach along with moong daal. Make a paste in the grinder. Now make a paste of onion, ginger, garlic and tomato.

Put oil in a pan, followed by a few cumin seeds. Put the paste of onion etc. Put turmeric(1 tsp). After the paste turns brown, add the ground palak and moongdaal. Add salt and red chillipowder to taste. Let it boil for a min and then simmer for 5 mins. Add the koftas to this and the palak kofta is ready.

Tip: If the koftas are too soft, its better to add the koftas into the palak curry just before serving.
Also, you can make a paste of a few dry fruits of your choice and add to the palak curry. It gives a rich taste.

Daal with Veggies

Ingredients:
1) 1 small capsicum (or 1/2 capsicum)
2) Around 100 gm of cabbage
Chop the above.
3) 7-8 garlic cloves
4) Ginger - 1 to 2 -inch piece
5) 1 big onion
6) 2 tomatoes
7) Channa Daal - 1 cup
8) Urad dhuli daal - 1/2 cup
9) Turmeric, Salt

Procedure:
1) Put the daals with water, turmeric and salt. Pressure cook them.
2) Put oil in a pan. Crush the garlic and put in oil. Put chopped onions and cook till they turn brown.
3) Put capsicum and cabbage and cook them. You can put red or green chillies depending on how much spicy you need it to be.
4) Put tomato and ginger. Fry them till they leave oil.
5) Mix the cooked daal and let it simmer for 5-7 mins.


Tip -- put good amounts of ginger, garlic, onion and tomato - it enhances the flavor.

Sooji-Wheat Chila/Pancake

A good snack/breakfast specially for kids, with many variants

What you need:
1) 1 cup wheat flour(you can take multigrain atta to make it more nutritional)
2) 1 or 3/4th cup of Sooji (preferably roasted)
3) 1 spoon butter
4)  Some milk
5) Salt to taste
6) Ginger - 1 small spoon grated

How you make:
Mix all the above ingredients. Mix enough milk to make the consistency of that of a dosa batter. Make pancakes or chila on a non-stick fan. It takes a bit of time to cook - but the end result is delicious

Variant -- Butter is optional, you can do away with it. Also instead of milk, you can put 1 large tablespoon of curd and let the batter set for 20 minutes. Use water to thinner it. If you want it spicy, add green chillies. You can also add finely chopped green coriander for that extra taste.

Karela Pasta(Bitter gourd Pasta)

Now this is totally my invention and karela (bitter gourd) lovers would simply love it. Its a unique blend with pasta :-)

You need 1 cup of pasta, some bitter gourd (3 small), 2 table spoon curd and 1 red-onion. If you wish you can add some cheese(grated or can even make use of cheese spread, may be garlic flavour)

Take 2 table spoon of olive oil and put the read onions(cut into long slices). After they have been cooked just say 30% add the sliced bitter gourd. Let it cook mostly on low flame.
Now take around 3 cups of water and put a few drops of olive oil and the pasta along with a little salt. Cook the pasta till it becomes tender. Drain out the excess water after it is cooked.
After the bitter gourd is cooked properly, add the curd and let it cook for 2-3 mins. Now add the cooked pasta and cheese(optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. You can even add some herbs or may be some garam masala powder if you wish(one of the two).

Tip : You dont need to add any sauce or tomatoes as the bitter gourd itself has a strong flavor. You can also add some garlic to enhance flavor.

To reduce the bitterness of bitter-gourd , you need to peel it and keep it soaked in salt-lemon water for 1/2 hr.

Butter Paneer without butter

This recipe I have learned from my MIL. Simply love it because its not high on calories :-)

You need 2 white bread, 2 big red tomatoes, 400 gm paneer, 1/2 cup milk and kasuri methi

Boil the tomatoes in microwave and peel the skin. Put the tomato and bread in a mixer and make a thin paste(if need add a spoon of water). Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a kadahi(deep-pan). Put some ajwain and then add the paste of tomatoes and bread. Let it simmer for 10 mins till it cooks, you can add a bit of water as and when required but dont make it very thin. Put paneer cut in big cubes in the kadahi now, add salt and pepper to taste and let it cook for 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup of milk and let the curry boil. Add Kasuri methi (1 teaspoon) and let it cook for another 2-3 mins.

Paneer Kheer

For this you need home made paneer -- Paneer should be soft without any tinge of sourness.

For making paneer -- Boil 1/2 l of milk and then add a bit of lemon till the milk start curdling. Remove the water from the paneer.

In another pan boil around 1 l of milk. Put some cardamom powder and let it simmer till it becomes say 3/4th. You will need to stir it in between and make sure the flame is low. Add sugar to taste and let it dissolve in the milk. Remove it from the flame and let it cool down. Once it come to room temperature, mix the paneer (by now it would have cooled down). Let it chill in the refrigerator. After it has cooled down substantially, take it out and decorate it with grated almonds and cashews.

Tip: You can change the consistency of the kheer by adding more paneer.

Black Channa kebabs

Very simple but delicious and fattening :-)

Cook black grams in a pressure cooker. Drain the water (you can make a soup out of it). Grind the black grams in the mixie. Mix green chillies, ginger and salt to taste. Add lots of cream something in the ratio of 1:3 (1 cream:3 black gram paste). Mix everything well. Now shallow fry on the tawa. Dont need much oil as the cream will make it soft creamy and non-sticky. Kebabs are ready. These are rich in proteins and calories -- excellent for the kids!

Broken Wheat Upma

This is ideal for kids...nutritious and tasty
Take 2 table spoons of Broken Wheat and add to it 1/2 table spoon of Moong daal. Put 1 bowl of water and pressure cook it on high flame for 2-3 mins and then at low flame for around 7 mins.
Cut vegetables in small pieces -- cauliflower, potatoes, carrot and peas.
Put oil in kadahi. Add the vegetables and cook them. Put salt to taste, cumin powder and if needed green chillies/red chilli powder. Add the above boiled broken wheat/daal. Let it fry for 2-3 mins, sprinkle a bit of lemon and the upma is ready. You can even add ghee if you are fond of :-)

Tip-- Broken wheat really expands a lot so be careful about the quantity

Curd kebab [Dahi ke kebab]

You need 500 gm curd (water squeezed out), 100 gm grated cheese, 3-4 green chillies, a few finely chopped coriander leaves, dry fruits like cashew/walnuts finely ground, black pepper powder

Simple steps to simply delicious kebabs -
1. Squeeze out water from the curd. You need to wrap it a thin muslin cloth and keep it overnight.
2. Mix the cheese, green chillies(very finely chopped), coriander leaves, pepper and salt well so that the batter becomes smooth and it should not be watery
3. Make kebabs out of these and shallow fry these on a tava.

Broccoli Tikki

Perfect for kids -- nutritious and very tasty!

Take a few big florets of broccoli , clean them properly. Half cook it in microwave by putting the florets in water and salt. Grate or grind these. Put 1 big spoon of cheese(say for 2 medium sized tikkis) and mix well in the grated broccoli. If you feel the consistency is not good to stick, add a bit of grated wheat bread. Add, salt and cumin powder. You can also add black pepper powder.

Make tikkis till they are golden brown.This combination of broccoli and cheese tastes just great!

Tip: You can even add coriander leaves(which generally kids don't eat but we want them to eat!!:-)) with the broccoli in the grinder.

Mango-Banana MilkShake

This one is a very smooth drink -- it mellows the strong taste of Mango and Banana and creates a melody :-)

For Making 1 Glass :
Take Banana and Mango(Sweet) in 3:2 proportion. Blend it together and then put a bit of milk(1 spoon) and blend again
Now put 2/3rd glass of milk and blend well. Its ready :-)

Creamy Cucumber Sandwich

Yes, its creamy without cream :-) and it takes only 10 mins of preparation. Good for your kid also if he/she wants something soft.

You need for the filling -- 1 spoon thick curd(no water), 1 small spoon cheese (garlic cheese will taste best), grated cucumber depending on how much you want to fill.

Mix the above for the filling along with salt and pepper. You can some herbs or oregano if you want. Take 2 slices of bread (preferably brown). Spread the above thick paste. Wrap it in a plastic foil and put in the refrigerator to set for 5-10 mins. It ready for eating :-)

Tip-- Separate the water of the cucumber. The paste should be thick for best results.

Bread Sandwich with Veggies

This is one which everybody will like - mothers because of vegetables, children because its bread and others will anyway eat because they dont have to make it :-)

Recipe for 1 sandwich --

You need to chop finely -- tomato, cabbage (green or purple!), capsicum(any color!), carrot
You need to keep aside -- 2 slices of bread(brown or any other multi-grain, herb panini), 2 spoons of roasted Sooji,  1 spoon of cheese(preferably cream-cheese :-)),
For Taste -- Black pepper powder, salt

Mix the finely chopped veggies with cheese and Sooji to make them smooth and cook them for 5 mins in microwave- till they are half cooked.
Make the bread slices crisp on one side on a tawa/pan or microwave(use the pizza option).
Put the above batter on the other (soft) side of the bread and then cook it a bit.

Most imp -- put it on the plate and serve and don't forget to keep aside your share...its going to be yummy!!! :-)

The Sama's Space

I have opened this space for my parents - Pawan Kumar Sama and Vinod Sama.....They have been writing for long now - though the forte is different. But then they write and I blog, so I am blogging whatever they write.

My mom is so very fond of cooking and is an excellent cook. She has been gathering and creating these recipes since 1972!!
My dad has been writing about everything under the sun since I don't know when - poetry, prose, articles in Hindi, Urdu and English.

So here I am sharing this with all of you - read it, enjoy it...comment on it...:-)