Penne Pasta Salad

Penne Pasta Salad

We had a Potluck in the office the other day and one of my colleagues had made this amazing pasta salad and I was totally glued to it. I did ask her the recipe and just rushed to the grocery store to gather the ingredients that I needed to get on to making an amazing pasta salad myself.

The have a little changes to the original recipe that my dear friend gave me but hey none the less it did turn out to be amazing.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

2 cups penne pasta
1 table spoon Marinara Sauce (the original recipe calls use of Pesto sauce, but the store did not have pesto)
3-4 Spring onions (finely chopped along with the greens)
2 spoonfuls of red capsicum (finely chopped)
Italian Vinaigrette – according to taste
Garlic Salt – according to taste.
Basil leaves – finely chopped.
Boiled Corn – 2 spoonfuls.

Recipe:
This recipe actually does not follow any particular measurements and you can add or remove ingredients as per your taste and liking.

Making pesto is very simple:

Grind together basil leaves, pine cuts, garlic, olive oil and salt to taste. Pine nuts could be substituted by walnuts as well. In case you don’t have basil, coriander or parsley could be used as well.

In a large pan, bring water to a boil. Once the water starts boil add the pasta to it. Also add some salt to add the salty flavor to the pasta. Stir well and let it cook till the pasta is al-dente.

Drain the pasta and keep aside in a bowl. Add the marinara (or pesto sauce), garlic salt, chopped spring onions, basil leaves (chopped), red capsicum (finely chopped), Italian vinaigrette and corn to the pasta and mix all the ingredients well. The salad could be served as it is or you can refrigerate in the fridge for 30 mins before serving.

I am sure this recipe will be a refreshing change for all of you.

Dhabbe Wali Dal Makhani

Dhabbe wali Dal Makhani:

Well well well, I am on my recipe trying spree and this one turns out to be a crowd pleaser for every dinner party that I have had at my place and guess what it turned out to be a greater success when the dal makhani was teamed up with the baked Kerala recipe that I have just posted.

Ingredients:

2 cups kali masoor ki dal
1 cup rajma
4-5 tomatoes (grinded in the mixer to a smooth puree)
3-4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
3-4 green chilies.(finely chopped)
2 tsp dried methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tsp jeera
½ cup milk
2 tsp olive oil (or any cooking oil preferred by you)
3 cups of water

Recipe:
• Soak the kali masoor dal and rajma in a bowl overnight. Drain the water from the dal and wash them thoroughly and fill it with 3 cups of water and pressure cook them in a pressure cooker for 20 – 25 mins on a medium flame or till the rajma and the dal is slightly cooked.
• In a separate pan add the olive oil. Add jeera to the pan and then add the green chilies and chopped garlic cloves to them. Sauté the garlic and green chilies and then add the tomato puree to it. Let it simmer for 10 mins on a low to medium flame.
• Add haldi, dhania, chilly and dried methi leaves and let the masalas mix well with the tomatoes. Add about half a cup of water and let the masala cook for another 10 mins.
• Once the pressure from the cooker is released, add the tomato masala to the cooker and mix well. Remove from flame and add the milk to the cooker and again mix well.
• Put the lid back on to the pressure cooker and pressure cook the dal on a low flame for 15 – 20 mins.
• Once done, garnish with chopped coriander leaves (if required). Your Dhabbe wali Dal Makhani is ready to be served hot.
• Dal makhani is paired well with the tandoori roti or jeera rice as well.

I am sure once you try this recipe; you would want to try it again and again as it does remind you of Delhi ka roadside dhabba and the fragrance of awesome food that you get in Delhi.

Baked Kerala

Baked Kerala ki Sabji:

This might sound funny but it turns out to be a new favorite of mine and I am sure once you try it, you will love it as well.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
4-6 Kerala (bitter gourd)
2 big spoons of saunf (fennel seeds)
2 big spoons of ajwain
2 big spoons of dhania powder
1 spoon of lal mirchi or chilly powder
3-5 green chilies (slit in half)
11/2 spoon of amchur powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1 spoon haldi powder
1 large onion – roughly sliced.
2 table spoons of olive oil (or any cooking oil preferred by you)
Salt according to taste.

Baking tray to bake the Kerala’s

Recipe:
• Thinly slice the Kerala into rounds (keep the skins on). If you don’t like the skin you can peel the skin off with the peeler and then cut them into thin rounds.
• Put the Kerala’s in a bowl full of Luke warm water and add 1 spoon of salt to it so that the bitterness of the Kerala can be lessened. Let them rest in water for 30 mins.
• Drain the Kerala completely so that there is no water left and slightly press them between your palms to remove any excess water and place it in a mixing bowl.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together i.e. dhania powder, haldi, amchur, jeera, lal mirchi, haldi and salt. (be careful in adding salt at this point as we had already added salt to the water in which we had rinsed the Kerala into).
• Add all the dry ingredients to the bowl and then add the roundly cut Kerala to it. Add ajwain and saunf to it and also add 1 spoon to oil to it. Mix all the ingredients together and keep aside.
• Slightly grease the baking sheet with oil, which will prevent the Kerala from sticking to the sheet. Add the Kerala along with the all the masala to the baking sheet and spread it evenly on the baking sheet.
• Place the sheet in a 400 degree F or 280 degree Celsius oven and let them be in the oven for 30 – 35 mins or till the time the Kerala is crisp and golden brown. Keep an eye on the Kerala after around 30 mins to avoid them from getting over charred and burnt.
• Once the Kerala has baked and have a nice golden color remove them from the oven and keep aside.
• In a frying pan add the remaining 1 table spoon of olive oil and add the sliced onion to the pan and sauté the onion till they get a nice pink color.
• Add the baked Kerala’s along with the dry masala completely to the frying pan and cover it with the lid and let them hang in there with the onions till the onion and Kerala have mixed well together. Keep it on a low flame for around 15 – 20 mins.
• Serve with hot roti or paranthas.
• Kerala taste much better the day after you make it and you can enjoy it with the paranthas the next day.

To tell you the truth, this recipe is so good and the Kerala turns out to be so yum that it will get over the night you make it and you will yearn for more and more and more.

Corn Cutlets

I was watching one of the shows on Food Network the other day and got inspired by one of the chefs making fish cutlets by baking them instead of frying and was highly fascinated by the idea and I thought to myself, why not try a vegetarian version of the recipe that the chef had used and I came up with the idea of making Corn Cutlets.

In fact I was so excited about the idea of making corn cutlets that I called some friends over for evening tea snack and tried them and all my friends were impressed by the baked version instead of the fired once as baked cutlets is definitely a healthier choice and it did not lack any bit the taste at all.

Ingredients for the recipe: Serves 6

4-5 boiled and mashed potatoes
1 cup corn (frozen corn could also be used. It need not be fresh corn.)
5-6 green chilies.(finely chopped)
½ cup chopped coriander
Oil for greasing the baking tray and for coating the cutlets.
Salt to taste
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Amchur powder – 1 tsp.
2-3 table spoons bread crumbs.
Bread crumbs - for coating the cutlets.
2 table spoons milk

Recipe:

Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker or a pan. Let them cool a bit and deskin them. Mash them completely once cooled and keep aside. Boil the frozen/fresh corn either using the microwave or over the gas stove. Drain the water completely and pat them dry over a towel to remove the excess moisture. Mash them but don’t crush them completely.

Add the mashed corn to the mashed potatoes. Add the copped green chilies, coriander, salt, cumin, bread crumbs and amchur powder and mix all the ingredients well.

Make flat patties out of the mixture. Take milk in a separate bowl and dip the patties in the milk and coat them with the remaining bread crumbs from all sides. Grease the baking tray with some oil and place the cutlets or patties in the baking tray. Keep it in the fridge for 30 mins so that the cutlets could set well.

Preheat the oven at 400 degree F or 200 degree Celsius. Remove the baking tray with the cutlets from the fridge and apply a coat of oil with the help of a brush over the cutlets. This will help them brown and get crispier.

Place the baking tray in the oven and bake them for 20 – 25 mins till the cutlets and golden brown.

Serve them immediately with green chutney and tomato ketchup. Yummmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Suji Idli

I am back from my 3 day trip to Niagara Falls Canada and Toronto during the long holiday weekend and the trip was really awesome. It was a long drive roughly around 8 hours, but I love travelling so I guess my tiredness was balanced with the excitement that I had to visit the Niagara Falls.

I tried this amazing Suji (Rawa) Idli’s the other day and was a bit concerned initially about how it would turn out because I don’t have the traditional idli steamer with me and I had thought of using the muffin molders and covering it with aluminium foil and then transferring it in the oven (i.e. gas oven) for around 7-8 minutes, but then thought to myself, lets give it a try and to my surprise the idlis were yum and tasty.

I did share the recipe with my close friend via email and with my mother in law via telephone and they tried and tested it as well and were happy to find an easier solution to make quick and easy idli’s in a less than 30 minutes.

Here is the recipe of the Suji Idli’s:

Ingredients:

1 cup suji (rawa)
1 cup yogurt (dahi)
1 tea spoon green chilies (finely chopped) - optional
1 tea spoon jeera
1 tea spoon rai
3-4 kadi patta leaves
2-3 tea spoons chopped coriander
a pinch of hing
3 tea spoons Eno ( fruit salt)
Salt to taste
Water to thin the yogurt
1 tea spoon oil.
Oil for greasing the muffin molds.


Method:

Heat a non stick pan with oil and add hing, rai, jeera, kadi patta to it. Once the rai and jeera start to splutter add the suji and roast it till it turns slightly brown. Take care not to burn the suji and not to over heat it. Transfer to a plate and let it cool for 10 minutes.

In another bowl add the dahi and whisk it well. Add the chopped coriander and chopped green chilies. Add some salt to it as well according to taste and mix it well. Slowly add water to dahi till you get a slightly thinner consistency. Don’t add too much water at once. The consistency should be more like that of a lassi (buttermilk). Then add roasted suji to add and mix well. Grease the muffin molds with oil so that the idli doesn’t stick to the molds. Add eno to the suji and dahi batter and mix well and immediately pour the batter in the greased muffin molds. Cover the mold with the aluminium foil completely so that the mold is air tight from all the sides with the foil. Place the muffin mold in the gas oven and steam the idli for around 6-7 minutes.

The fragrance from the oven will tell you that the Suji idli is ready to be removed. Once you remove the muffin mold let it stand for sometime. This makes it easier to remove the idli from the edges of the molds and it also prevents them from breaking. Remove the idli from the muffin molds and serve with chutney and sambar while it is still hot.

You can also add chopped cabbage to the idli batter as a variation. One more thing that we need to be careful about is that add eno to the amount of idli batter that you would be steaming at one time as it is not advisable to keep the batter with eno already added to it for a long time as it does not bake the idli’s that well.

You can definitely substitute the muffin molds with the idli steamer and steam the suji idlis in the traditional manner over the gas stove as well. Infact these idlis can be steamed in the microwave as well. Just change the muffin mold or the idli steamer with the microwave safe steamer and steam the idlis for around 3-4 minutes.

Suji Dhokla can also be made from the above mentioned recipe. The only thing that differs is adding the batter to the greased plate and putting the plate in the pressure cooker and pressure cooking them without the whistle for around 10 – 15 minutes till the time the dhokla is done. One way to check whether the idli or the dhokla is ready is to insert the knife in the center and if it comes out clean then the idli or dhokla is done if not keep it again for more time till the batter is cooked completely.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!