Paneer Tikka

Almost always Kundan orders for paneer tikka when eating out. So, I had wanted to try this for a long time now and had an opportunity to make it when we had guests for lunch yesterday. I have seen proper south Indian restaurants serving this starter (tastes way different from northern versions though) as there are many takers of it down here too. Mine was a simple beginner’s kind; it turned slightly salty otherwise the recipe was definitely good.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  10 minutes

Marinating Time: Minimum 30 minutes

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Panner – 200 gm

2.    Youghurt/ Hung curds – ½ cup 

(Normal curd might be runny after mixing spices and will not stick onto paneer, hence we use hung curds)

3.    Salt as required

4.    Red chili powder – 1 tsp

5.     Chaat masala – ½ tsp

6.    Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp

7.     Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

8.    Pepper crushed – ¼ tsp

9.    Butter – 2 tbsp

10. Coriander or salad for garnishing

Method:

Step 1: Cut the paneer into cubes or flat rectangles as you desire.

Step 2: Prick holes on all the surfaces with the help of a fork.

Step 3: Whisk curds with all the spices and salt and smear over the paneer cubes. Preferably refrigerate it until cooking because we want the marinade to seep into the paneer at the same time preventing the curds getting sourer.

Step 4: Now heat a tawa, grease with butter and arrange the marinated paneer ensuring that the paneer holds as much dressing as possible.

Step 5: Cook in medium heat so that paneer gets cooked well and then flip carefully with tongs. Drizzle some more butter and when done transfer delicately to serving plates as the tikkas have turned softer by now.

Step 6: Serve with green yoghurt chutney. This is prepared by grinding: a fistful mint leaves, a fistful coriander leaves, a green chili, a clove of garlic, juice of half a lemon, salt and then mixing it with whisked hung curds. So simple na… I am a bigger admirer of this chutney than the starter itself. I keep licking it even before the starter comes on table and after we finish the starter ;)

Veg Sandwich

Sandwiches are very flexible and customizable in terms of what can be filled in between. Sandwiches, in addition to attributing as any of the meals (breakfast or lunch or dinner or just snack) happen to be one of the healthy-tasty foods ever which is also usually easier to prepare. In fact it is more convenient for packing and munching on travel.

Yields:  5 Sandwiches

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  10 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Bread Slices - 10

2.    Tomato –  1 + ½

3.    Onion – 1 + ½

4.    Capsicum – 1

5.     Cucumber – 1

6.    Lemon – 1

7.     Coriander – 1 small bunch

8.    Green chilies – 2

9.    Ginger – 1” piece

10.  Garlic – 4 cloves

11.   Oil – ½ tbsp

12. Butter – 1 tbsp

13.  Grated cheese – 2 tbsp

14. Salt  to taste

15.  Chaat Masala – 1 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Thinly slice one onion, one tomato, capsicum, cucumber and season them with little salt, chaat masala and lemon juice.

Step 2: Chop and sauté half an onion, half a tomato, ginger, chilies and peeled garlic in the oil.

Step 3: Clean, wash and chop the fresh coriander leaves.

Step 4: Grind it along with the sautéed vegetables along with some salt. This is the green spicy spread for our sandwich.

Step 5: Now take bread and spear butter on outer side of it and green spread on the inner side. Arrange the sliced vegetables on it and scatter some grated cheese over it. On the top side of the covering bread smear some butter and cover the sandwich. Get the entire sandwiches ready this way. (oops! the pic has a wrong focus)

Step 6: Now toast it on a tawa or sandwich maker and serve hot with sauce or ketchup.

Dosakai Kababs

Dosakai is a vegetable that seems like a yellow ball and is used mainly in Andhra recipes. I had got them from my vegetable vendor and was hunting for a novel recipe to try with it. I happened to come across a snake gourd recipe which I adapted, replaced snake gourd with dosakai and tried the recipe. This is a super hit starter with our friends. This is a must try for deep fried snack lovers or even as party starters. 

Serves: Yields 25 kebabs

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Dosakai – 1

2.     Snake gourd finely chopped – ¼ cup (Optional)

3.     Green chilies – 2

4.     Gram flour – 3 tbsp

5.     Bread crumbs – ½ cup

6.     Salt to taste

7.     Corn flour – 1 tbsp

8.     Red chili powder – 1 tsp

9.     Asafoetida – 1tsp

10.            Lemon – 1

11.             Cumin powder – 1 tsp

12.             Oil for deep frying

Dosakai / Dosakaya

Method: 

Step 1: I had chopped the dosakai and snake gourd after peeling but I think grating coarsely should be better. Chop green chilies finely.

Step 2: Add gram flour, corn flour, chili powder, asafoetida, cumin powder, salt and juice of a lemon and mix well. No water must be required as the vegetables leave water. If in case it is too water to roll into balls, add some gram flour, corn flour or even bread crumbs.

Step 3: Make them into to small lemon sized balls and roll them in bread crumbs. Once done, refrigerate it for at least half an hour. You can even freeze them for longer in case you want to.

Step 4: Heat oil in a deep kadai, and deep fry the kebabs till golden brown.

Step 5: Serve with ketchup, green chutney or fresh salad.

Bread Upma

I used the frozen left over bread to make bread upma. As I usually buy brown breads, the derived bread upma is healthy too. Some people make chunks of bread to make upma, I had pulsed them in mixer jar to get soft bread crumbs before using them in the recipe. It is good for a fast breakfast. Honestly, I am not a big fan this though Kundan likes it.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Bread crumbs – 2 cups

2.     Onion – 1

3.     Green chilies – 2

4.     Green peas – ¼ cup

5.     Oil – ½ tbsp

6.     Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

7.     Urad dal – ½ tbsp

8.     Bengal gram – ½ tbsp

9.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10. Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Step 1: Heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, fry urad dal & Bengal gram and add chopped coriander and green chilies to it.

Step 2: Sauté chopped onion in it until translucent and add green peas to it and cook further.

Step 3: Season with necessary salt and add bread crumbs to it; mix thoroughly and turn off heat after a couple of minutes.

Step 4: Serve hot for breakfast. It actually is good without any accompaniment however ketchup can be served if required.

Kakori Kebab

I am surprised to hear many people do not consume snake gourd. I don’t remember any vegetable that was avoided in my mom’s kitchen. We were strongly discouraged to have any favorism for a particular vegetable; we simply were not allowed to avoid a veggie though we are choosy at times about what is cooked with it. This starter recipe can actually get you started with eating snake gourd if you are not used to it.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: Yields 15 kebabs approx

Ingredients:

1.     Snake gourd – 1 medium sized

2.     Boiled and peeled potato – 1 large

3.     Capsicum – 1 small

4.     Bread crumbs – 1 cup

5.     Corn flour – 3 tbsp

6.     Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

7.     Pepper crushed – ¼ tsp

8.     Chaat masala – ½ tsp

9.     Chili powder – ¼

10.             Salt as per taste

11.            Lemon juice – 2 tbsp

12.             Cardamom powder – 1 pinch

13.            Sugar – ¼ tsp

14.            Oil for deep frying

Method:

Step 1: Peel and grate the snake gourd; mash the potato.

Step 2: Now in a mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients except bread crumbs and oil.

Step 3: Check the taste and adjust consistency by adding bread crumbs to get a soft but not watery mix such that you can mould them with your fist.

Step 4: Shape them into finger length cylinders like in the picture below and roll them on bread crumbs. Repeat for the entire mix.

Step 5: Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry the kebabs until they get a nice brown color.

Step 6: Serve hot with ketchup or green chutney.

TIPS:

*You can prepare and refrigerate the rolled kebabs in advance to fry while serving; especially when made for guests we don’t want to do messy things in the last minute in front of them.

Bombay Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is a spicy chaat originated from Maharashtra and famous in Mumbai but thoroughly relished in all parts of India. Though it technically falls under the chaat category, we can have it happily for a healthy meal slightly mellowing down on the butter and spices; it makes a wholesome meal with plenty of vegetables and bread to compliment.  Pav bhaji initially seemed to have been invented for the mill workers to enable them to finish lunch quicker in a short break’s time; pav (the bun) replaced rotis and side dishes amalgamated into a single curry called bhaji. Bhaji is simply the blend of lot many vegetables and condiments while pav can be made at home or be store bought.

Serves: 2-4

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Pav (Buns) – 2 packs of 4

2.    Potato – 2

3.    Tomato – 4

4.    Carrot – 2

5.     Beans – 10

6.    Green peas – 1 cup shelled

7.     Capsicum – 1

8.    Cauliflower florets – 1 cup (if in season)

9.    Onion – 2

10.            Green chili – 1

11.   Lemon – 1

12.Coriander leaves chopped – 2 tbsp

13.Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

14.Pav bhaji masala – 3 tbsp

15. Chili powder – 1 tsp

16.Salt to taste

17. Butter – 3 tbsp

18.Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

19. Sugar – 1 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes, peel and mash them.

Step 2: Chop the carrots, beans, cauliflower roughly and blanch them till soft.

Step 3: Chop finely one large onion, tomatoes, capsicum and green chili.

Step 4: Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pan and splutter cumin seeds in it; add ginger garlic paste, green chili, onion and sauté until soft. Add tomatoes and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Step 5: Mash the tomatoes and onion with a potato masher and add capsicum to it. Sauté for 3 minutes and again mash the mixture.
Step 6: Add the mashed potatoes and other vegetables into the pan and keep mashing and cooking until all vegetables become unrecognizable (Some people even puree it, but mashing is the typical roadside recipe of bhaji).

Step 6: Now add pav bhaji masala, chili powder, salt as per taste, sugar,  another blob of butter and mix well to cook in simmer for 5 more minutes.

Step 7: Chop coriander, one onion and cut lemon into 8 pieces.

Step 8: Garnish with chopped onion & coriander; serve along with buttered and roasted pav and lemon.

TIPS:

*The bhaji flavour is lifted mainly by the pav bhaji masala and so pick a fresh and good one from store, I use ‘Everest’.

*If pav buns are not available the bhaji goes equally well with normal bread slices; particularly people who avoid maida can relish with wheat breads or multi grain breads.

*Yellow peas can be soaked overnight, boiled and be used in place of green peas; that gives a slightly different taste but that is very good too.

*Variety of other vegetables can be camouflaged by this recipe to feed it to cranky kids and grown-ups; I add beetroot and Brinjal.

*Roadside recipe includes a bit of color to give that red attraction.