Hakka Noodles

Originally from the Hakka region in China, with all the goodness of Soy Sauce, this very delicious spicy noodles is served in most of the Indo-Chinese eateries all across India. The recipe is made by stir frying the wheat based flat / round hakka noodles with soy sauce and pepper, by adding the desired vegetables. A colorful combination of cabbage, carrots, broccoli and spring onions makes this more delightful and the most flavorful dish.

Ingredients

• Hakka Noodles (any brand - Ching's preferably)
• Carrots, Cabbage, Onions, Spring Onions, Broccoli - Desired quantities
• Soy Sauce, Crushed Pepper and Oil.

Preparation

• Cook noodles for a 2 to 3 minutes in boiling water, drain and rinse in cold water. Toss the noodles with little oil, to avoid stickiness.
• On a frying pan, heat oil, stir fry vegetables until they are cooked.
• Add noodles to the vegetables, add soy sauce and then season with pepper. Add salt if required.

Capsicum (Bell pepper) Chutney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients Bell Pepper 2 Onion 1 Coriander Sprigs 5 Tamarind Paste 1/4 tsp Hing / Asafoetida 1/4 tsp Oil 1 tsp Salt to taste

Optional ingredients Shredded Coconut 1 tbsp Dalia 1 tsp Dry roast Urad Dal 1 1/2 tbsp Red Chillies 6

How-to

1.Dry roast urad dal until it becomes light brown and you start smelling roasted dal. Then dry roast red chillies. Grind this in mixie preferably, as blender does not grind it as good as  mixie.
2.Pour a teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and saute onion. When onion fries well, add chopped bell pepper and saute until the edges of capsicum becomes little black. This gives a grilled texture. Now add this to powdered ural dal & red chilly mix, add coriander, dalia, tamarind concentrate, hing, coconut, little water and grind thoroughly. Add required salt in the end.

* Green capsicum chutney is very flavorful. Chutney made out of red bell pepper is very colorful and gives a good presentation. I have made chutney with yellow bell pepper though.

Badhushah/Balushai



Happy Anniversary to us ^_^

Ingredients:

1.All purpose flour/Maida - 4 cups
2.Thick curd/Yougurt- 6 tbsp
3.Ghee (Do not melt/heat) - 2 tbsp

Sugar Syrup:

1.Sugar-2cups
2.Water -3/4 cup
3.Lemon-1/2

How to:

Thanks to my friend Lalita for the excellent recipe. Mix all the ingredients. Dough should be of following consistency. Do no heat ghee or substitute yogurt with buttermilk. Else flour will start melting in hot oil.

Mix together

A lil looser than roti dough

Knead the dough.  No need to knead it soft as we need a little rough texture. Make donuts (do not make a hole in the centre but just your thumb impression will do) Main reason is that when you press with your thumb,dough expands and will have tiny cracks through which sugar syrup will seep in.

Deep fry all the donuts and put them in a bowl. Heat the oil very well initially and when you start frying keep the heat to medium so that badhushas get cooked very well inside too.

Make sugar syrup ; consistency should be a little thick.Just the stage before string consistency. squeeze the lemon so that sugar syrup does not become thicker. Switch off stove and put all the badushas.leave for 15 mins and take them out. If you leave longer, badushas might get softer and starts breaking. If you leave for less time, sugar syrup wont seep in and badushas will taste sweet outside and no flavor inside.

Note: Try this with 1 cup flour first so that you will not waste much oil, ghee and other ingredients.

P.S. Was lazy to click pix with camera, just took it with  iTouch. Excuse me for that!


Thenkuzhal

Ingredients:

This is an awesome recipe from my mother-in-law who is an expert in making this snack.

Rice flour - 5 cups
Urad dal powder (sieved) - 1 cup
Besan flour - 2 cups
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Hing/Asafoetida- 1/2 tsp
Salt as required
Oil to deep fry
*Need thenkuzhal press to make this dish. I have used store-bought flours for this recipe. Comes out crispy and tasty.

How to:

Mix all the ingredients, add little water. Heat oil in a deep frying skillet. Add 2 tbsp of mildly hot oil to the dough and mix well again. Dough should not stick to your hand but it should be loose enough to get pressed.
Check oil heat by putting a pinch of dough in it. If the dough raises up immediately, oil in ready for frying. Then use press to make thenkuzhals. Flip them until they are golden brown on both sides.

Paneer tikka

Ingredients:

Paneer
Color bell peppers - 1 of each color
Bamboo Skewers - few sticks
Onion 1
Cilantro - to garnish

For marinating:

Yogurt - 1 tbsp
Tandoori masala - 1 tsp
orange color - a pinch
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt for taste

How to:

Mix all the ingredients mentioned for marinating. Cut paneer into cubes or triangles, bell peppers into squares and onions (a little wide ) and dip them in yougurt mix. yougurt is just a binding factor. Do not add more yougurt. Refregirate them overnight.

In a baking tray place all the veggies and paneer and broil in the oven for 7 mins ( unlike bake mode, broil does not have temperature control). Take the tray out, reverse the paneer and veggies and broil for another 7 mins. Do not keep paneer for more than 16 mins put together. It will burn. Once they are broiled, arrange them in skewer , add finely chopped cilantro to garnish.

Alternatively dip the skewer in cold water (else skewer will burn), spit paneer and veggies in the skewer and broil. Timing will be the same.

A good way to start your party!

Rainbow Raitha

Well after a long time I am re-entering my blog. I read somewhere that a meal platter should look like rainbow with all colors of food. I am not talking about the artificial colors but the colorful veggies and fruits.

I picked this recipe from www.veggiebelly.com , an awesome blog for vegetarian recipes.

 Unlike usual raitha, this recipe will have less yougurt/curd and loads of veggies. Remember the recipe as 7 Cs viz.
Carrot -1
Corn - 2 tbsp
Cucumber -1/2 small
Capsicum ( all colours green, yellow, red and orange )- 1/2 each
Curd -3 tbsp
Cherry tomatoes-10 cut into halves
Cilantro
Chillies (optional)- 2

How to:

Finely chop all veggies. Refregirate them overnight. Add yogurt and salt before serving.This makes the raitha crunchy and yummy.Trust me you will fall in love with this dish. And have it as frequently as you can as it is loaded with nutrients.

Note:If you add salt early, it leaves the veggies watery.Also veggies get soaked in yogurt if it is added early.

Tomato rice

Ingredients:

Rice-1-1/2 cup

Tomatoes-2

Onion-1

Pudina/Mint leaves-4 sprigs

Green chillies-2

Oil-1 tbspmper must

Mustard-1/2 tsp

Fenugreek-1/4 tsp

Salt,Chilli powder,asafoetida for taste

Tumeric powder-1/4 tsp

Procedure:

1.Cook rice and allow to cool.

2.Temper mustard and fenugreek.Add turmeric powder, finely chopped onions and fry well. Then add tomatoes, mint and green chillies.

2.When it cooks well, add chilli powder, asafoetida and salt.Leave it in stove for 5 mins.Garnish with corianderleaves and switch off stove.

3.Spread rice in a bowl, add a teaspoon of sesame/gingelly oil and then add the cooked tomato paste.

Tomato rice,raitha and papad would be a good combo!