Padma chutney - the capsicum dip :)

Hello All,

I once heard, nothing ages better than daadi ma's recipes :) And I now know what that saying meant :)

My husband's cousin grandmother makes this super yummy capsicum chutney. Once I tasted it at her place, I so knew that I would  make it once home. I did and here is my take on the chutney (her version was less spicy than mine) :)

Not only is this chutney yummy as a dip but also a great way of using up veggies that are too small in quantity to make a full fledged curry with food. And it is so versatile! You can use it mixed with rice, as a side dish with stuffed parathas, dip for pakodas and even for those tortillas! This would go beautifully with many things :) So, here is the recipe :)

Ingredients  

1 - 2 medium sized Capsicum
1 onion
1 tomato
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 medium sized green chilli (you can substitute it with red chilli powder)
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate (you can use fresh tamarind juice, according to taste)
Salt to taste

Tempering:

1 pinch asafoetida (heeng)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp chana dal (kadalai parappu/split bengal gram)

Preparation:

The ingredients

Coarsely chopped ingredients. You need not chop them very fine as they will be ground eventually

Heat oil in a small pan

Add heeng to the hot oil

A teaspoon of mustard seeds (they should crackle)

Bengal gram (chana dal) to the hot oil

Roast until light brown in colour

Add the chopped garlic and coarsely cut green chilli

Once the edges of garlic get brown, add onions and roast

Add tomatoes and roast till tomatoes soften up

Add salt to taste

Add turmeric (turmeric, when cooked slightly, leads to better taste and colour)

Now add capsicum to the pan

Add a teaspoon of tamarind concentrate (i prefer this as I don't like to get my hands messy with extracting tamarind juice)

Cover the pan and allow to cook until the capsicum becomes soft

It'd look like this after cooking

Grind to a smooth paste in the mixer jar

Add a zest of lemon if you like your chutney tangier. Sprinkle fresh chopped coriander from top and lo! It's ready to eat! :)

 Happy Cooking! Feedback welcome :) And ya, thanks Padma paati :)

Pritesh

A simple chocolate walnut cake

Simple Chocolate Walnut Cake:

Ingredients (for a 10" cake ~ 1.25 kg):
4 eggs
100 g butter (preferably unsalted)
225 g sugar
~ 50 g cocoa powder (unsweetened)
125 g multigrain flour (yeah, I don't use maida)
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
50 ml warm milk
~ 75 ml hot (and not boiling) water
50-75 g walnuts (either broken coarsely or chopped in an electric chopper)

Preparation:

Set your oven to 175 degrees celsius and grease your baking tin with cooking oil. Line the base of the tin with baking sheet. Keep the tin ready before you get the cake batter ready.

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with either hand or a blender (I use blender, so the entire preparation is done in 15 mins flat). Powder the sugar (it quickens the preparation), add to the beaten eggs and beat until the mixture becomes kind of stiff. Now add softened butter (don't add after taking right out of the fridge, it won't mix properly).

In a shallow vessel, sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powder to mix evenly. Add this dry mixture spoon by spoon to the fluid mix and blend. At the end of addition of the dry mixture, it will be a pretty viscous mixture. Now add the milk, blend and finally, add the hot water in small lots.

The mix will now look pretty fluid. Pour into the baking tin and bake for about an hour. To avoid the crust on top, cover with a baking sheet cut to size. This makes the cake softer but needs baking at a lower temperature and for longer time.

After an hour, check the cake by poking with a skewer in the center. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. Take the tin out of the oven and allow to cool. The edges of the cake typically get released from the tin after the cake cools down. Turn upside down with a plate covering the tin. The cake will come out clean. Remove the baking sheet and cut to serve.

Serving suggestion: Pour chocolate sauce in thin lines and garnish with coarsely broken walnuts :)

Corn cheese paratha

Hello All,

After ages, I finally have the time to share the recipe for one of my all time favourites - the corn cheese paratha! This paratha has been a hit with everyone I have ever made it for. You can try your own variation of the same. I am in love with sweet corn, so I make it with that. You can have peas/chana/aloo.......it's your own imagination you're limited by. :)

Ingredients:

• Shelled sweet corn - 200 g
• Mozzarella cheese block - 100 g (you can also use the cheese block containing cheddar but the paratha tastes better with mozzarella). For all those in India, mozzarella is sold by Amul in a block of 1 kg (if you spot a smaller one, let me know too :D)
• Onions - 2 medium sized (peeled and very finely chopped)
• Garlic - according to individual taste (I use it generously), peeled and very finely chopped
• Roasted cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon
• Chaat Masala (optional) - according to individual taste
• Asafoetida (hing) - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Green chillies - 1 medium sized one (either finely chopped or made into a fine paste)
• Coriander - a handful of leaves (finely chopped)
• Soft dough for making parathas (the filling with the quantities above is sufficient for about 10 parathas)

Method:

Boil water (with a pinch of salt in it) in a vessel that will hold the corn and still have about two inches clear depth left for water to be able to boil. Add sweet corns when the water is boiling vigorously. Set your timer for 3 mins from the time when the water starts boiling again. Drain the water from the corn and allow to cool. In the meantime, grate the cheese using a medium grater (if the cheese is grated too fine, it doesn't allow for the distinct tastes of corn and cheese when you eat the paratha). Add the chopped onions, roasted cumin seeds, hing, chaat masala, green chilli, chopped coriander and finely chopped garlic to the grated cheese.

Crush the sweet corn slightly (don't put it in a mixer or chopper, that will make the corn too pasty). Use a flat spoon or vegetable masher for this. Once the corn is crushed a bit, add that to the filling mix prepared and mix thoroughly BUT gently. Cheese should still be in strands when you mix and not become a lump. 

Take a small ball of dough and roll till it is about 3 inches in diameter. Put a tablespoon full of filling in the centre. Lift the edges and seal the filling in. Gently roll with a rolling pin, taking care not to have the filling come out of the edges. Cheese can make it very tricky to roll this paratha, so go gentle. Roast the parathas on tava with a small amount of oil (if you use a non-stick tava, the amount of oil needed is lesser and cheese won't stick either) till you start seeing small dark brown spots on either sides. 

Serve hot with coriander chutney/tomato chutney/curd/pickle :)

Happy Cooking :)

Pritesh

Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe - Indian ingredients

Hello All,


A very very different post so far! Of a recipe! :D


I made a lot of cheesecakes in Stockholm but then, the ingredients were really easy to come by. In India, I've to hunt things down and keep them affordable as well :)

Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe


Ingredients (for a 1.5 kg cheesecake)


Large eggs - 4
The Laughing Cow Cream cheese spread - 3 boxes (128 g each) [You can substitute this with Amul plain cheese spread, NO FLAVOUR], in Pune, it is available in Ozone, Aundh.
Powdered sugar (not icing sugar, you can grind it in your home grinder) - 300 g
Amul Fresh Cream - 2 cartons of 200 ml each
Britannia Nutri-Choice multi-grain biscuits - 400 g
Butter (preferably unsalted but you can use salted butter also) - 130 g
Strawberry syrup (or fresh strawberries, if you can lay your hands on them) - 40 ml
Weikfields Cornflour (or corn starch or corn meal, the names may vary) - 2 tablespoons
Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon full
Sugar (for glaze) - 150 g


Crust:


Break the multi-grain biscuits into small crumbs (don't grind them in the mixer, that makes a crumbly crust). Soften the butter by putting the butter in a cup and putting that cup into a bowl of warm water. Add the butter to the biscuit crumbs and mix thoroughly.


In a baking tin (if you have a springform tin, nothing like it), make a complete lining of aluminium foil and pour the biscuit crumb + butter mix. Make a uniform layer at the base by gently pressing with your hands. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and bake the crust till you get a strong cookie baking smell. While the crust is getting baked, prepare the batter for the cheesecake.


Batter:


Bring the cream cheese to room temperature and beat either by hand or using a food processor until it's absolutely smooth. Add fresh cream to it, one carton at a time and mix until smooth. Now add the eggs, one at a time and beating to a smooth consistency. Add the powdered sugar the same way, little at a time and beating till it becomes a smooth mixture. Add the vanilla essence and 20 ml strawberry syrup. This will give gentle flavour to the cake.


Pour the batter GENTLY (don't pour fast, it'll upset the crust at the bottom) over the crust and allow to bake until the centre of the cake is no long jiggly-wiggly upon shaking the tin. You can also use a skewer but I prefer the shake and check method. Once done, take the cheesecake out and allow it to cool. Once it is cool enough, cool it in refrigerator.


Glaze:


Take 200 ml water in a small (preferably non-stick) bowl and add the cornflour to it. Stir until no lumps remain. Now boil this at a REAL low heat, stirring all the time. Add 20 ml strawberry syrup and the sugar, stirring continuously. The mixture will begin to thicken. Don't allow it to become a gel (you will need to keep checking the consistency all the time). Once it has thickened, pour it gently over cooled cheesecake. Allow to cool and then, put in the fridge. The glaze will become a light pink gel and HOLA! Your cheesecake is ready! :) Enjoy.....................


Happy Cooking


Pritesh