Zaiqa

During my childhood, this spongy vegetable ranked among the toppers in my list of disliked vegetables . The only way I would eat them was when these eggplant discs were deep fried till crisp on the edges with a soft flesh in the center, and lightly seasoned with red chilli powder and salt while still warm. But today, eggplants seem to have become one of my favorite vegetables over time and I somehow end up getting a few eggplants home most usually. There are so many delicious preparations that can be made out of this  simple vegetable, for ideas I recommend going through this cookbook – Eggplant – More than 75 delicious recipes, it will make you fall in love with eggplants.

Indian eggplants ~ cut into chips

I am sure even you all will enjoy these eggplant chips, my childhood favorite, as an accompaniment to your meals.

Taleh Baingan – Deep fried Eggplant discs

Ingredients:

Baingan/Aubergine/Eggplants – 4 (I used baby eggplants as shown in the picture, you can even use Japanese eggplants)
Red chili powder – 3/4 tsp or to taste
Salt – to taste

Taleh Baingan – Deep fried Eggplant discs

Method:

1. Cut the eggplant into half inch thick slices and soak them in surplus salted water in a mixing bowl.
2. Heat oil to deep fry in a kadai or wok at medium heat and as soon as it is warm enough. Drain the eggplant discs and gently slide them in the hot oil, and deep fry in batches on both sides until the color is changed to a golden brown color and the outer edges are wrinkled.
3. Remove using a slotted spoon into a wire mesh strainer for the excess oil to drain away. Immediately sprinkle the fried discs while warm with the red chilli powder and salt on both sides. Serve immediately and enjoy while still warm.

Luv,
Mona

Aloo ke Cutlets/Potato croquettes is a popular snack food in India, usually enjoyed as chaat. Whenever I have time on hand, what I do is, prepare these in bulk and freeze or refrigerate them to store for future use. Everyone at home enjoys them as a side-snack to meals, and I have a quick snack on hand.

Aloo Qimah Matar ke Cutlets – Potato croquettes
Makes: 14-15 cutlets

Ingredients:

White Potatoes – 6 or 7
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked peas (fresh or frozen)(thawed if frozen) – 3/4 cup

For Qimah:

Canola oil – 2 tsp
Minced Veal meat – 250 gms
Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Aloo Qimah Matar ke Cutlets – Potato croquettes

Method:

1. Wash and drain the qimah. In a large sauté pan at medium high heat, pour in oil and as soon as it warms up, add the drained qimah and all the remaining ingredients for qimah and mix well. Let it cook stirring frequently until the qimah is completely cooked and well browned and all the moisture has been dried up. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.
2. Wash and drain the potatoes. In a pressure cooker, add the potatoes and pressure cook for a few minutes until the potatoes are soft. make sure that you do not pressure cook for long such that the potatoes burst open. Open the cooker and drain the potatoes in a colander. Once they are warmish to touch, hold the warm potatoes using a kitchen towel in one hand, and peel them using the other hand. Place the peeled potatoes in a mixing bowl. Mash them well. Add the prepared cooled qimah, the cooked peas, black pepper powder and salt. Mix well.

potato+peas+qimah cutlets

cutlets stacked in a food storage box to be refrigerated

3. Shape the prepare potato mixture into patties as shown in the picture. Grease your hand with a little oil to aid in the process. Once the potato mixture is complete and the patties are ready, stack them as shown in the picture in a food storage box, in layers and sheets of aluminium foil separating them (store them this way if you plan to finish them all within one week). To eat, shallow fry a few of the patties in just a few drops of oil in a frying pan on both sides until light brown. Serve warm.

Tip: You can also prepare larger patty shaped potato cutlet and enjoy these shallow fried cutlets sandwiched between burger buns for a quick breakfast.

Tip: If you plan on storing these cutlets for a longer time, arrange the shallow-fried cooked cutlets and freeze them individually for 3 hours. Later, stack them all up in a food storage box and store the frozen cutlets for future use. To use, microwave them for a few minutes before you serve.

Luv,
Mona

I have been enjoying some winter treats from the past few days, first~a light and delicious Pumpkin halwa, then some spicy Besan ke Murkul.

Murkul, or Murukul, are delicious savories that are made with rice flour, or lentil flour or gram flour, etc. There exist various varieties of this crunchy snack. This variety of Murkul is easy to prepare, doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, and at the same time, satisfying.  They are usually prepared at home and stored in air-tight containers for eating. They are also available ready made in Indian stores.

murkul press, with various attachments for different shapes of the murkul

To prepare these savory addictive crunchy snacks at home, special molds are required to press the dough into desired shape into the hot oil to be deep fried. These molds are inexpensive and are available at Indian stores and called as ‘Murkul press’ or ‘Murukku press’. These molds come along with many attachments for different shapes for the murkul. Today I have used the star shaped attachment.

Besan Murkul – Savory Crunchy Gram flour Coils
Makes- about 20 Murkul

Ingredients:

Gram flour/Besan – 3 cups
Cumin seeds – 3 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Water – 2/3 cup
Canola oil – to deep fry

Murkul, along with a cup of warm tea on a gloomy autumnal afternoon

Method:

1. Heat oil to deep fry in a kadai.
2. In a mixing bowl, add all the above ingredients and mix thoroughly to form a sticky dough like paste.
3. Fill the murkul press with the prepared dough and press into hot oil forming coils. You will get the hang of it with practice. Deep fry a few murkul at a time in the kadai until browned on both sides. Remove using slotted spoon onto a paper towel lined platter. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Once they are all completely cooled, transfer them to an air-tight container to store. Serve as snack.

Tip: Grease the back of the slotted spoon with oil, and press the dough using the mold into circular ring. To fry the murkul, gently invert the spoon over hot oil so that the murkul drops into the oil in perfect shape.

Luv,
Mona

Have I ever told you that bhindi is one of my favorite vegetables?

Lady’s finger/Okra ~ Bhindi

I especially love Tali hui Bhindi, which is also a family favorite. If anyone of you is grossed out by the mucilaginous character of okra, then this dish is for you. Crisp and flavorful okra is the final result, perfect as an accompaniment to meals, a perfect way to enjoy okra. Judge for yourselves.

Tali huwi Bhindi – Crispy okra

Tali hui bhindi, Khatti dal, Chawal and Chicken 65 – our meal today. (Rizruby I tried your Chicken 65, it was yummy!)

Tali huwi Bhindi – Crispy okra

Ingredients:

Fresh and tender Okra/Bhendi – 2 lb
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Canola oil – 4 or 5 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and pat dry fresh okra completely before you begin to cut it. Top and tail each and cut into thin slices. Keep wiping the knife frequently with a clean kitchen towel to remove the viscous substance.

thinly sliced okra

2. In a non-stick heavy bottomed large frying pan at medium high heat, pour oil, as soon as it warms up add the okra slices and gently mix. Let it fry for 3 minutes undisturbed. Give it a gentle stir. Again let it fry for 3-5 minutes and then give it a stir. By now, the okra will start to exude sticky slimy substance and form into a one viscous mass. But do not worry, it will dry off and disappear in just a few minutes. Do not stir and mix the okra a lot (which will result in more viscous stuff), only once in 3-5 minutes and very gently. In a few minutes, you will observe that the okra has shrinked in size and has started to brown. Once it is well browned and nicely fried, sprinkle red chilli powder and mix well. Serve the crisp fried warm okra immediately.

Any Indian restaurants are sure to list Paneer Butter Masala on their menu. One of the favorites of any Indian, this North-Indian curry is rich, creamy and pleasing to the eye with its bright orange-red color.

Paneer Butter Masala

I usually prepare my own home-made Paneer at home. But occasionally I get it from the stores to simplify my work. The usual ready made brands that I trust and buy usually are Nanak and Mother dairy. Recently I had got Paneer manufactured under ‘Nanak’ brand name, and it was a totally bad experience for me. The paneer block had bits of egg-shell like pieces in it (which when I had later contacted their Manager, I was told that the pieces were scales of deposited calcium chloride from the surface of the tubes in which the coagulation of milk takes place, which look like egg shells, he also apologized for it and asked if he could replace the product). It was totally unpleasant, and I hence had to discard the curry I had prepared using it, as I did not like the feeling of a crunchy Paneer.

The following is my sisters recipe, which I thoroughly enjoyed eating along with fresh warm Methi wale Naan.

Butter Paneer Masala – Paneer in rich buttery tomato-cream sauce

Home-made Paneer block – 400 gms
Tomatoes – 4, medium sized, chopped
Long green chillies – 2, chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Onion – 1, large, finely sliced
Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Kasuri methi – 1 tsp
Tomato Ketchup – 1 tbsp (I used Heinz)
Canned Tomato puree – 2 1/2 tsp
Half and half cream – 1 cup
Salt – to taste
Cashew nuts – handful, whole
Unsalted Butter

Fried Paneer cubes (Paneer is Indian Cheese)

Method:

1. Cut the paneer block into rectangular bite size pieces. Heat Canola oil in a pan, and shallow fry the paneer pieces until lightly browned on all sides. Remove using a slotted spoon onto a paper towel lined platter. Keep aside. Also, fry the sliced onions and cashew nuts individually in the same oil until golden brown. Remove using a slotted spoon onto a platter and keep aside.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes and green chillies into a blender and blend into a smooth puree.
3. Heat 2 tbsp butter in a medium sized saucepan at medium heat and as soon as it warms up, add the ginger garlic paste. Fry for a minute. Add the fried onion and mix well. Pour in the pureed tomato+chilli paste. Add coriander powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, kasuri methi, tomato ketchup and tomato puree. Let cook for 5 minutes covered on simmer.
4. Pour in half and half cream and salt. Mix well. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the fried paneer pieces and let it cook for a further 3-5 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and fried cashew nuts and serve.

Luv,
Mona