Chilli Broccoli

       Chilli Chicken is always liked by people. Many vegetarian versions like Chilli Paneer, Chilli Mushroom and non veg versions like Chilli Fish is already there. So i planned to make this dish with Broccoli to add extra nutrition to our diet. It is a spicy Manchurian type of preparation.This is spicy with the addition of extra chilli powder in both fried broccoli and also in the gravy.

       I have to say this dish is really yummy and easy to make too. Paired with any Chinese dish really tastes amazing. You can make this dish very dry and eat as a starter too. Can add more water and sauces and made as pouring gravy too.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes  Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Category: Main Course (Dry) Cuisine: Indo-Chinese

INGREDIENTS:

To make Fried Broccoli:
Broccoli, chopped- half big head (1 cup)
All purpose Flour/ Maida- 6 teaspoons
Corn flour- 3 teaspoons
Baking powder- 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Tomato sauce- 1 teaspoon
Soya sauce- 1 teaspoon
Sugar- big pinch
Salt- to taste
Oil- To deep fry

To make Chilli Broccoli:
Oil- 2 teaspoons
Onion, cubed-1
Green chillies- 2

Garlic- 3 big cloves

Capsicum/ bell peppers, cubed- 1
Salt- to taste
Sugar- 1/4 teaspoons
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Tomato sauce- 1 teaspoon
Soya sauce- 3 teaspoons
Corn flour- 3 teaspoons
Spring onion, chopped-1

PROCEDURE:

• In a bowl add all purpose flour, corn flour, baking powder, chilli powder, tomato sauce, soya sauce, sugar, salt and water. Mix well as a semi thick slurry without any lumps. If you drop the batter from spoon it has to drop.

• Dip the broccoli florets till the oil gets hot. Deep fry the florets in hot oil till crispy.
• In another pan heat oil and add the onion, green chillies and garlic and cook till the onion colour changes to white.

• Now add the capsicum and cook till white blisters starts to appear on the skin.
• Add sugar, salt, chilli powder, tomato sauce, soya sauce and mix well.
• Dissolve corn flower in 1/4 cup water and add and stir continuously.

• Once the sauce starts to thicken add the fried broccoli florets and mix well till the gravy coats well and thickens. If needed add a teaspoon of oil and cook well till the floury taste leaves.
• Garnish with chopped spring onion and serve hot.

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Pineapple Jam

       Pineapple jam is one of the yummiest jam. My choice for jam is always Pineapple jam. In my native place its pineapple season and a pineapple was there at my home and i planned to try this jam. Pineapple jam comes handy when u make tarts or dessert with fruits, perfect jam for brushing on top of fruits. Perfect side dish for Biryani.

       It is a super easy jam without pectin, artificial colours or any preservatives. Without pectin you can achieve a superb spreading jam consistency. The sweet cooking smell of pineapple filled all over my home. Super easy jam within minutes without any pain.

INGREDIENTS:

Pineapple-1, large (2 cups of pureed pineapple)
Sugar- 1¼ cups
Water- ¼ cup
Lemon Juice- ¼ , a squeeze

PROCEDURE:

• Peel and remove the black colour eyes lightly from the pineapple and cut the edges of the pineapple.
• Cut the pineapple into  four pieces and remove the center core from four pieces.
• Roughly chop the pineapple pieces and puree them inside the blender jar; Set aside.

• In a pan add sugar and water, turn on the heat to dissolve the sugar in water.
• After the sugar water comes to boil, the sugar dissolves and form first a cloudy syrup later it form a clear syrup.(Do not want syrupy consistency. But the sugar must be dissolved in water)
• Add the pineapple puree and stir well to combine.

• Once it starts to boil light frothy layer will form on top of jam. Dont worry it will disappear once the jam thickens.
• When the jam get thicken, the frothy layer starts to disappear and the jam starts to become a clear glossy yellow colour. Now add the lemon juice, mix well and put off the gas.
• Switch off the gas when the jam is almost thick but little runny if you drop the jam from spoon it has to fall easily. Because of the sugar content the jam thickens further after cooking.

• Once the jam cools down transfer the jam into a clean sterile bottle and tightly close with a lid. You can store this jam for a week in room temperature and can be stored in refrigerator for a month or more.
• Yields around 250-300 ml jar of jam.

• Note: Adding lemon Juice is optional in this recipe. If you are planning to use this jam immediately and finish it is not necessary.
• Lemon juice can be replace with citric acid available in shops too.
• Lemon juice is added to prevent crystallization of jam.
• Initially dissolving sugar in water properly is the essential step to avoid crystallization.
• In-case if your jam crystallizes after a day or two add a teaspoon or two of water and melt inside oven or on stove top your jam will be fine.

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Baby Corn Fingers/ Baby Corn Fritters/ Baby Corn Golden Fries

       Baby corn Fingers is an easy to make Starter/ Appetizer. Can be served as a snack or side dish with rice and curries or with variety rice. Outside is crunchy and the inside is soft. Super easy dish to be prepared in minutes without much pain.

      Kids love this dish because of the shape and taste. If the size of the corn is big boil them initially to half cook them then dip inside the batter and fry thm. A perfect Finger food. Serve with Ketchup or mayonnaise as a dipping sauce if needed.

INGREDIENTS:

Baby corn- 8-10
Maida/ All purpose Flour- 3 tablespoons
Corn Flour-1 ½ tablespoons
Rice Flour- 1 ½ tablespoons
Ginger Garlic paste- 1/2 teaspoons
Garam Masala (or) Chaat Masala- 1/4 teaspoon
Chilli powder/ Kashmiri Chilli powder-1/2 teaspoon
Soda powder- pinch
Salt- to taste

PROCEDURE:

• In a bowl take all the ingredients and dry mix with a spoon to mix all the ingredients.
• Then add water little by little and make like a thick bajji batter consistency.
• Dip an roll the babycorn well in the batter.

• Heat oil to smoking hot and reduce the flame to low and deep fry the corn till crisp on outside and deep golden colour appears.
• Drain them in paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

• If the size of the baby corn is big boil them to half cook them with little salt and dip inside the batter and fry them.

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Carrot Orange Zebra Cake

       I have previously posted two Zebra cakes Chocolate and Vanilla Zebra Cake and Red Velvet Zebra Cake using Natural colours. This inspired me to try another colour and flavour to this same concept. So I have chosen Carrots for Colour and Oranges for Flavour. Colourwise and tastes wise both compliment together. This is my new trial cake with Carrot and Orange combination in Zebra Pattern. I have to say this cake is amazing in taste and the texture. Super soft and moist cake and so orangy in flavour.

       Again i am preparing this cake for my sons snack box for Orange colour theme in his school. So healthy cake as it includes carrots in it and i have not added any eggs in it. You can add two eggs instead of yogurt if you wish to make this cake with eggs. Refer here if you are adding eggs. I have made this cake two times. First time when i made this cake i have done this zebra pattern by adding a tablespoon of batter in alternating manner. I could not able to differentiate the colour well in that cake while taking photos. Next time i have added two tablespoon of batter to show the colour band pattern clearly and succeeded.

INGREDIENTS:
Oil- ½ cup
Sugar- 1 cup
Yogurt- ½ cup
Baking Powder- 1 teaspoon
*Baking Soda- ½ teaspoon
*All Purpose Flour/ Self Raising Flour- 1 ½ cups
Carrot- 1 big
Orange, juice and zest- 1
*Do not add Baking Soda if you are using Self Raising Flour.

PROCEDURE:

• Combine All purpose flour/ Self raising flour with baking powder, *Baking Soda (Do not use if you are using Self Raising Flour); Mix well and sift if needed.
• In a bowl add oil and sugar and whisk using electric hand mixer or a wire whisk till the sugar is almost dissolved.
• Add yogurt and whisk till combined well.
• Add Orange Juice and zest; mix well.

• Immediately add the All Purpose Flour/ Self Raising Flour 1/2 a cup at a time and mix/ fold with a wooden ladle or hand mixer.

• Divide the dough into two equal parts.
• In one half add the carrot puree and mix well until uniformly combined. 
• To make the carrot puree, roughly chop the carrots and puree them finely in a blender with out adding any water (Add little orange juice if you need liquid to puree them). Add orange zest with this and mix well or pulse once more to combine.

• Transfer this puree in another bowl and add the half of the batter. Now this batter will be little loose (thinner than white batter) in consistency.

• Add little more orange juice to make the white batter little thin so that the batter drops from spoon easily.
• Preheat the oven to 180^oC.
• Take a 20 cm baking pan and line with wax paper or grease the pan with oil or butter and dust with flour and shake off the excess flour.
• At the centre of the pan add two tablespoons of white batter then add two tablespoons of carrot batter at the centre of white batter. Like wise repeat the same process in alternative manner till you finish the whole batter.

• When you add the whole batter in this manner it spread and reach the whole tin in thin layer. Once you bake the cake it raises and gives zebra appearance.

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Peanut Butter Spread

       Peanut butter is an easy to make yummy spread. Liked by all age groups. Comes handy for break fast as a spread for any kind of bread. Kids love this nutty spread. Can be made easily in a jiffy at home without any preservatives. I felt home made is more tastier than the store bought ones. You can feel the freshness of the spread from its taste.

       This spread can be prepared using very limited ingredients that are available in our pantry. Adding Honey in this recipe is optional. Diabetes patients can avoid using it. Using this peanut butter cookies, Blondie like sweets can be made.

INGREDIENTS:
Peanuts-  2 cups
Salt- 1/2 teaspoon
Honey - 1 ½ teaspoon
Peanut oil / Vegetable oil- 2 teaspoons

PROCEDURE:

• Roast the peanuts until you get the popping sound of some peanuts and the skin of the peanuts gets light brown colour spots.
• While roasting toss and mix the nuts for every 15 seconds for even cooking.

• Or else spread the peanuts in a baking tray lined with aluminium foil and roast them in 180 degree oven foe about 30-40 minutes. Once it reaches 15 minutes toss and mix the nuts and keep for roasting for even cooking.
• Allow nuts to cool and roughly deskin them.
• Add the nuts, salt,oil and honey inside the blender and blend till it becomes a smooth paste till you get the peanut butter consistency. Scrape the sides and blend well to get the uniform paste.

• Transfer the spread on a sterile bottle and close tightly.

• Note:
• Add 2 tablespoon of roasted roughly chopped peanuts for chunky Peanut butter.
• You can keep this spread for a week at room temperature or refrigerate and keep for even a month or more.
• Colour of the spread depends on the roasted nuts colour. If you roast till dark patches on the surface the spread will be deeper in colour.
• Recipes using peanut butter Peanut butter banana smoothie.
• Peanut butter cookies

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Mushroom Kothu Parotta

       Kothu Parotta is a street food served during evenings to late nights. Bus stands and the by pass road's night shops are very special for this dish. But nowadays it has been served in restaurants also by incorporating varieties like Paneer, Mushroom in it for the vegetarian versions. It is easy to make tasty dish. Does not require any side dish. It has several variations veg (Mushroom, Paneer)and non-veg (Chicken, Egg) versions.

       Left over parottas can be used to make this dish in a fresh make over. Super tasty filling dish. It can be eaten as Breakfast or Dinner or even Snack. What time you eat is your choice but whenever you eat, you will feel to eat more. Yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

Button Mushroom, chopped-250 grams (2 cups)
Parotta, cut in to pieces- 8-10 medium sized
Oil- 2 teaspoons
Curry leaves- 1 strand
Onion, chopped- 1
Green chillies, chopped- 2
Ginger and Garlic, chopped/ paste-  each 1 teaspoon
Tomato- 1 big or 2 small
Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder- 1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander leaves, chopped- 1 tablespoon
Salt- to taste

PROCEDURE:

• Chop the mushroom in to thin slices.
• Cut the parottas using kitchen scissors or chop them using chopping board or tear them using hands.
• Heat oil in a broad pan and add the onion, green chillies and curry leaves.

• Once the onion cooks and become translucent add ginger and garlic and cook for a minute till raw smell leaves.
• Now add the tomatoes and salt; cook well.
• When the tomatoes becomes mushy add the mushroom and salt and cook for a minute or two till water starts to oozes out from mushroom. 

• Add the masala powders turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powders.
• Mix well and cook for thirty seconds and make like a thick gravy. Now add the chopped parotta and cook in that gravy for a minute or two till the gravy coats well in the parotta pieces.

• Do not allow to dryout the parottas. If you feel too dry sprinkle little water and cook. So that the parotta will be soft and slightly moist.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves and serve hot. Serve with chopped onion/ onion rings.
• You can serve with Onion Raitha too.

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Idli Milagai Podi/ Idli Podi

        Idli Milagai Podi/ Idli Podi is an easy to make tasty podi and can be made easily at home. So healthy as it includes various lentils in it. Really comes handy when we are running out of time, just mix with oil and have it. Best for travel too mixed with idli or spread inside the dosas to take as a dry food during travels.

       It is always better prepare this podi at home. Because we can prepare this podi as per our taste and spice level. If we like garlic more we can add more. If you like it more spicy you can add more red chillies. Taste wise it is always better than the store bought ones.

       Various proportions of Idli podis are available. My mom used to prepare only with channa dhal and urad dhal in a  2:1 proportion. I used to prepare in this proportion. Howeve at times i used to replace 1/2 cup channa dhal with 1/2 cup toor dhal.

INGREDIENTS:

Channa dhal/ Kadalai Paruppu- 1 cup
Urad dhal/ Uluntham paruppu- 1/2 cup
Moong dhal/ Siru payiru paruppu-1/2 cup (Could replace with Channa dal/ Toor dal)
Dried Red Chillies- 20
Garlic, unpeeled- 10-12
Tamarind- small gooseberry size
Asafetida- 1/2 inch piece (or)1/2 teaspoon powder
Curry leaves- 1 strand
Salt- to taste
Oil - 1 teaspoon

PROCEDURE:

• Dry roast channa dhal till golden colour and transfer to a plate or a dry paper and allow it to cool.

• Same way roast Urad dhal and Moong dhal separately (as all dhals are different in size the cooking time varies for each dhal) and allow to cool.

• In a pan add a teaspoon of oil and add the dried red chillies, garlic(cut into two if the cloves are big), tamarind, asafetida and curry leaves and roast till the chillies are properly roasted (it should break. Do not burn the chillies)

• Transfer everything with some salt in a blender jar and powder it. Spread on a news paper and allow to cool.
• Store inside an airtight container.
• Serve with Idli or Dosas. Take a tablespoon of Idli podi and make a hole using finger at the centre and add a teaspoon of gingelly oil and mix well.

Note: The colour of the podi varies from dark red to yellow depends on the chilli you use.

Texture of the powder also depends on your wish coarse or fine powder you can make.

You can replace 1/2 cup of channa dhal with toor Dhal if you like.

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