Tag Archives: vegetarian khana

Ras No Fajeto (Mango Kadhi)

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Ras No Fajeto

Fajeto or ras to fajeto as it is addressed is a mango flavored Gujarati kadhi. Yogurt whisked with mango pulp and gram flour is tempered with spices like cinnamon, ginger powder, cloves etc and served with hot puris. Mango season in Gujarati homes means mangoes for lunch breakfast and dinner and may be in between for snacks too. When I first heard of this dish, I was very skeptical ( I hate sweet flavors in main course, especially with rice) but the taste won me over. Mango kadhi might not sound appetizing if you are not a mango lover but if you like Gujarati food, this dish is worth a try.

The richer the aroma of mangoes, the flavorful fajeto you will have. Ratnagiri or alphonso are the best choices for this kadhi.if you want to add more flavor you can replace the water in buttermilk with the water from mangoes (from peels and stone). You can adjust the sugar in this dish depending on the sweetness of mango pulp and as per taste. You can even replace sugar with jaggery. For the pulp, I would recommend a thick and strained pulp.

The dry spices especially ginger powder (saunth) complements the mango flavor very well. Try not leaving that out if you are short of ingredients. You can use oil instead of ghee for the tempering. Some people roast and powder the cinnamon, cloves, and dry ginger, but I like the taste with whole spices (I can take them out once I have the desired flavor).

While fajeto can be eaten with rice too, I love it with hot puris.

Mango Kadhi

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 5 cup butter milk (1/2cup yogurt+1 cup water)
  • 1/2 tbsb gram flour (besan) besan
  • 1/4 cup mango pulp
  • 2-3 pinches turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • Salt to taste

For Tempering

  • 1 tbsp ghee
  • ¼ tsp mustard and cumin seeds
  • 1 dry red chilli
  • 1 green chilli
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 piece of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp dry ginger powder (saunth)
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 1 inch piece of ginger grated

Recipe

Combine the ingredients for fajeta in a bowl and whisk well. Make sure there are no lumps. Keep aside.

Heat ghee in a kadhai or thick bottomed pan. Add cumin and mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add the curry leaves, dry red chilli, green chilli, cloves, cinnamon, ginger powder, and grated ginger. Sauté for 5-10 seconds. Add the yogurt mix and continue stirring till the mixture comes to a boil. You can do this on high flame too. Once the fajeta comes to boil, reduce the flame and cook it for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with puri or rice.

Aalu Toast

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Aalu Toast

Aalu toast is a fantastic lip smacking street food you can eat only in Hyderabad or so I thought until a friend from Jaipur shared this similar recipe. Aalu toast originally is triangle shaped bread topped with potato mix, deep fried and then served as a chat with various chutneys and lots of sev. This one is more of a bite sized DIY chat version. There is no match for the aalu toast you can get at couple of places in Hyderabad but this comes closest if you want to make it at home. Thank you Kshamta for reminding me of this delicious street food 🙂

You can use any bread you like. White, wholewheat, or multi-grain. I tried white and multigrain breads and both tasted fine. To make the chat healthier you can even toast the bread instead of frying it. The idea is to have a crisp and crunchy base. How you do is totally up to you. The fried one tastes better of course.

aalu toast

This is one of the best DIY snacks. You can prepare the chutneys, potato mash, and bread n advance and just let the guests decide on how sweet or spicy they want their chat. Since the chutneys and potato can make the bread soggy, this chat is best enjoyed immediately after it is topped with potato and chutneys.

Aalu Toast

Ingredients

  • 3 slices of bread
  • 1 potato boiled and mashed
  • ½ tsp chilli powder
  • ½ tsp chat masala
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • 2-3 tbsp thick yogurt
  • 2-3 tbsp mint chutney
  • 2-3 tbsp sweet chutney
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup thin sev
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil to fry the bread

Recipe

Cut the bread into bite sized pieces in desired shapes. I used cookie cutters to cut the bread into bite sized circles and squares.

Heat oil in a deep pan/kadhai and fry the bread till it is crisp and brown. Drain in on paper towel to remove excess oil. Keep aside. You can even toast the bread in oven if you want to make it healthier.

To the potato mash, add red chilli powder, cumin powder, and chat masala. Mix well and check for salt. Add salt if required.

Just before serving, put approximately 1 tsp potato masala on a piece of bread; top it with mint chutney, sweet chutney, yogurt, onions, and sev. Serve immediately.

Vegetable Kurma

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Vegetable Kurma

Vegetable Kurma is a very popular south Indian curry. Assorted vegetables are cooked in gravy made with coconut, tomato, onions, and spices. This versatile curry can be served with poori as breakfast, with paratha or rice as lunch/dinner.  I don’t know if the place still exists, but there used to be a small south Indian restaurant called Rau’s near my dad’s shop; I have tasted one of the best kurmas there apart from in my mom’s kitchen ofcourse. There are different variations of this curry. This recipe is my mom’s version of the kurma.

The spices for kurma gravy differ from region to region. I like the flavor of poppy seeds in this curry but unfortunately, poppy seeds are not available in Singapore. Another change you can make is to replace fresh coconut with thick coconut milk to make the gravy creamier. If you want thicker gravy, reduce the amount of water from 2/3 cups to ½ cup. I keep the gravy little runny as I like to eat this curry with plain rice too.

I don’t know the reason but most of the restaurants have the veggies cut in diamond shape for kurma. I usually avoid cauliflower in this curry but if you like cauliflower, do add it. It adds to the flavor of the curry. Some restaurants add mushrooms too. I stick to the veggies I like.

Vegetable Kurma tastes best with hot puris and rava dosa. You can also have it with plain rice, biryani, parathas, or naan.

Vegetable Kurma

Ingredients

Serves 3-4

  • 1 carrot diced
  • 5-6 green beans chopped
  • 1 potato cubed
  • ¼ cup green peas
  • ¼ cup cauliflower florets
  • ¼ cup thick yogurt
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste

For Gravy (To be ground to fine paste)

  • 1 tomato
  • 1 onion
  • 2 green chillies
  • 2 red chillies
  • 5-6 cardamoms
  • 3-4 cloves
  • 1 small piece ginger
  • 2-3 pieces (appx 2 tbsp) coconut
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 inch piece of ginger
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
  • 2 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus) (optional)

Recipe

Grind all the ingredients for gravy to a smooth paste. If required, you can even pass the paste through a sieve to get a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add curry leaves. Once the leaves pop, add the gravy paste and cook for 2-3 minutes or till the fat separates. Keep mixing every few seconds. Add the turmeric, garam masala, vegetables, salt, and water. Mix well. Close the lid and cook for 2 whistles. Once the pressure is released, open the cooker and let the curry cool down for few minutes. Add the thick yogurt and mix well. Serve hot with puri or rice.

Nutella Truffles

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Nutella Truffles

I am a big hazelnut fan and for me Nutella is THE best hazelnut spreads. It adds the delicious nutty taste to any dessert. I have made cake icing, milkshakes, chocolate mousse and many more desserts with Nutella. Nutella truffle is one of the quickest recipes I know. This is a real quick recipe with very few ingredients.

I have tried using various biscuits as a base for these truffles but Marie works the best for me. You can try using digestive biscuits too but they don’t bind too well. Marie biscuits are easier to crush and bind. You can crush them using a rolling pin. I used a blender to make it quicker and easier.

You can coat these truffles with anything you like; toasted nuts, icing sugar, cocoa powder, sprinkles, melted chocolate. I like the toasted nuts and coconut coating for my truffles. Only tough thing in the recipe is to wait for the truffles to set. If you can resist that, you have amazingly quick and delicious truffles ready in minutes.

Ingredients

Makes 14-16 Truffles

  • 12 Marie biscuits
  • 7-8 tbsp Nutella

For Coating

You can use any of these or all of these or any other coating of your choice.

  • ¼ cup roasted and coarsely ground almonds
  • 7-8 tbsp dry desiccated coconut
  • 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder

Recipe

Put the biscuits in a zip lock bag and crush them using a rolling pin. Or simply put them in a blender and crush them finely. Put the crushed biscuits in a bowl. Add one tbsp Nutella at a time and make a moldable mix. Make small balls and roll them lightly in the coating of your choice.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours. The truffles are ready to eat.

Tamarind Rice (Khatte Chawal)

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Mom’s indeed are the best cooks in the world. Not because they cook gourmet food but they make normal food taste like gourmet food and that too in minutes. Khatte chawal (this is what my family calls it), known as pulihora/puliodare/puliyogare in south India is tamarind flavored rice with a tempering of nuts, lentils, and spices. This tangy rice is a common prasad at most of the south Indian temples.

This is not an authentic pulihora recipe but this is one of the best I have eaten apart from the ones at temples of course.

The taste and color of this dish depends a lot on the quality of tamarind. To get the best results, clean and soak the tamarind in water for 2-3 hours. It will be easier to get the pulp out. You can also add cashewnuts, urad dal, and grated coconut too. My favorites in this dish are the fresh curry leaves, asafoetida, and just a hint of jaggery.

My mom prepares the tamarind mix in advance and then it is just a matter of minutes to turn plain white rice to tangy and yummy south Indian delicacy. You can store the tamarind mix in fridge for up to a month.

This is a great travel food too. It tastes equally good when it is cold. Try to mix the rice couple of hours in advance before eating.

Ingredients

Serves 2

  • 2 cups cooked plain rice
  • 3-4 tbsp oil
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp asafoetida (heeng)
  • 3-4 green chillies slit
  • 4-5 dry red chillies broken
  • 15-20 curry leaves
  • 1 tbsp chana dal
  • 2 tbsp groundnuts
  • ¼ cup tamarind
  • ½ tsp red chilli powder
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp jaggery
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Soak tamarind in ½ cup water for 1-2 hours. Mash the tamarind thoroughly using fingers and pass this paste through a sieve. Keep aside. This recipe requires a thick pulp so add as less water as possible.

Heat oil in a non stick pan or a kadhai. Add mustard seeds. Once the seeds pop, add curry leaves, green chillies, dry red chillies. Let them cook for around a minute. Add the chana dal, ground nuts, and asafoetida. Sauté and cook for 1-2 minutes till the dal and ground nuts are lightly browned. Be careful not the burn the dal and the nuts or they will taste bitter. Add the tamarind pulp, salt, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder. Mix well and let this cook on low flame till the oil floats on top (around 6-8 minutes). Keep mixing in between. Let it cool down a little.

Mix few spoons of the tamarind mix at a time in plain rice. You can add more or less mix in the rice based on your taste. If you like the rice sour add more mix. You can store the left over tamarind mix in fridge for upto a month.

 

 

 

Toast Cups

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Toast Cups

Toast cups or mini quiches as they look like are a quick way to upgrade a simple toasted sandwich to look like a gourmet snack . It is a very easy dish to make. Bread is rolled, cut, and baked into cups, filled with different savory filling, topped with cheese, and baked into delicious hot snacks.

You can practically fill the toast cups with any filling you like. I like this Mexican filling with corn, capsicum, and paneer. The Mexican taco spice mix or the chili spice mix adds a new flavor and spice to the filling. It also makes it quick to cook.

You can choose to cut the edges of the bread if you like. Rolling the bread will make it easier to cut it and fit in the muffin mould. To add flavor to your toast cups, you can brush the cups with olive oil mixed with dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme etc. You can use any cheese you like to top the toast cups. If you want to prepare the dish in advance, you can prepare the filling and toast the cups lightly. Assemble and bake the cups just before serving. This snack tastes best when it is hot.

Ingredients

  • 12 slices of bread with the edges cut
  • ½ cup boiled/steamed sweet corn
  • ¼ cup mixed bell peppers chopped
  • ¼ cup paneer chopped
  • ¼ cup onion finely chopped
  • 35 gms Taco seasoning/any Mexican seasoning
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • 2-3 tbsp water
  • Cheese to taste ( used cheddar cheese)
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the bell peppers, paneer, and sweet corn. Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the taco seasoning and 2 tbsp water and mix well. Taste and add salt if required. Cook for 3-4 minutes mixing in between. Transfer to a bowl and keep aside.

For the toast cups, roll a bread slice using a rolling pin. Cut a circle using a cookie cutter or a sharp edged bowl. Divide the circle into two. Adjust the semi circles in a muffin tray to make a cup. Follow the same procedure for rest of the bread slices.  Spray the toast cups with olive oil. Pre-heat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius and bake the cups for 10-12 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven. Add a table spoon of filling in each cup. Top it with grated cheese and bake for 8-10 minutes till the cheese melts. Serve hot.

Rainbow Cupcakes

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Rainbow Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my favorites when it comes to baking so when Hannah (my wonderful neighbor) offered me some cake flour and icing a day before Christmas, I already knew how I am going to use it. Unlike other parts of the world, Christmas is not cold and nice in Singapore. To add to my complain about bad weather, this year it was a super wet Christmas with the rain refusing to stop whole day. I wanted to add color to the cupcakes to make us feel happy and colorful in this gloomy weather.

I decided to make simple vanilla cupcakes with as many colors as I can to make them look even more prettier. You can also use sour Indian curd instead of the milk and vinegar mix. But this one needs less whisking than mixing the oil and curd.

You can add as many colors as you like and you can even layer different colors, give a marble effect or try any other creative ideas instead of baking single colored cupcakes. Make sure not to over fill the liners.

Rainbow cupcakes

After looking at these colorful cupcakes, icing was really not on my mind but thanks to Hannah again, I had a super delicious chocolate icing. Whipped cream, or cooked flour icing is ideal with these cupcakes. To add a festive touch, I tried icing couple of them with white icing and tried making Christmas trees with the icing too. These cupcakes can be enjoyed for up to 3 days when you store them in refrigerator. Remember to warm them up for not more than 10 seconds before eating.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

  • 240 gms cake flour (you can use all purpose flour too but this helps to make the cake soft, and spongy)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 120 gms sugar
  • ½ cup oil
  • 5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • Different gel colors ( I used blue, orange, pink, yellow, green, purple, and red)

Recipe

Mix the milk and vinegar in a bowl big enough to add the wet ingredients and keep aside for couple of minutes (1-2 minutes is enough). Combine cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and sift it 1-2 times so that the ingredients get mixed properly. Put the sifted flour in a deep bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.

Add the oil and vanilla extract to the milk and vinegar mix and whisk well (atleast 2-3 minutes) till all the ingredients are mixed well. Add this liquid to the dry ingredients. You can make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients and mix it using a whisk. Do not over mix this batter. Just mix it enough so that there are no lumps.

Divide the batter into 7 bowls. Add few drops of color to each bowl and mix gently till the color is incorporated into the batter completely.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line the cupcake mould with cupcake liners and fill each mould with different color batter. Do not fill the liners more than 2/3rd with the batter. Bake the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes. The cupcakes are done when you put a toothpick in the center of the cupcake and the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes completely and ice with the desired icing. I have used chocolate butter cream icing. The cooked flour frosting goes very well these cupcakes.

Ker Sangri

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Ker Sangri

Ker sangri is one of the most popular dishes from Rajasthan.  Ker sangri are dried berries and beans which are found in abundance in the desert. They do not look edible at first look but you have to taste this curry to know why it is so popular in Rajasthani cuisine. It is a part of almost every Rajasthani wedding menu. There are different ways to prepare this curry. This is the recipe which is cooked at my place.

You need to soak ker sangri overnight. Some people soak this in buttermilk too but plain water works fine. It swells to more than double in size. Make sure to wash it well under running water to get rid of any impurities.

If you do not have dry mango powder, you can use tamarind water to add the sourness. This curry is ideal for travelling too as it stays good for 2-3 days without refrigeration. This curry tastes best with puri, missi roti, paratha, and rotis.

Ker Sangri

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

  • ½ cup ker sangri
  • 8-10 cashewnuts broken
  • 10 raisins
  • 2 dates chopped
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • ¼ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
  • ¼ tsp mustard seeds (rai)
  • 2 dry red chillies broken
  • ¼ tsp asafetida (heeng)
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 2 tsp coriander powder
  • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp dry mango powder (amchur)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • Salt as per taste

Recipe

Soak ker sangri in water over night. Wash it well under running water.  Bring 4-5 cups of water to boil and add the ker sangri, cashews, dates, and raisins. Let them boil for 8-10 mins or until they are tender. Drain the water.

Heat oil in a deep pan or kadhai. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida, and dried red chilli. Once the seeds pop, add the boiled ker sangri, cashews, and raisins, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, sugar, and dry mango powder and ¼ cup water. Mix well. Cook for 10-12 mins till the oil floats on top. Serve with puri, roti or parathas.

 

Tzatziki (Healthy Greek Dip)

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Tzatziki

One of the reasons I love winters more is the barbecues.  A nice chilly weather, traditional coal barbecue grill, and family and friends are a perfect definition of happy family time for me. I can sit and cook all night.

My most favorite part of barbecues is the different dips and sauces. I like to keep them healthier and don’t want to lose the taste at the same time. This Greek dip is one of the healthiest dip I know. This can be enjoyed with kebabs, grills, burgers, falafels, chips, vegetables etc.

Greek yogurt is one of the healthiest things to eat. If the quality is right, you will not even realize the absence of cream, cream cheese, or any other fatty stuff. I get the Greek yogurt available in store and hang it for further 2-3 hours to get any remaining water out. you can use the yogurt set at home too. The idea is to get all the water out of the yogurt to get a creamy and thick yogurt. Once it is whipped well, it is as creamy as mayonnaise, or fresh cream.

Cucumber with its cooling properties is a perfect choice for this dip. Make sure to de-seed the cucumber and chop it as finely as you can. Dill is cucumber’s best friend when it comes to salads or dips. If you can add fresh dill, that’s the best. I like this dip with nachos, slivered carrots and bell peppers. This can be stored in fridge for 2-3 days. I made this for the Halloween party recently and it was loved by everyone.

Tzatziki

Ingredients

Makes 3 cups

  • 2 cup hung yogurt/Greek yogurt
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 ½ tbsp vinegar
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • 1 cucumber peeled, de-seeded, and diced finely
  • 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped finely

Recipe

I used around  800-900 gms of Greek yogurt  and hanged it in a muslin cloth for around 3 hours to get 2 cups of hung yogurt.

Combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix until well combined. Using a whisk, blend the yogurt well. Add the olive oil mixture to the yogurt mixture and mix well. Add the cucumber and dill and mix well. Chill for at least 2-3 hours before serving. Serve with vegetable crudités, chips, or nachos.

Cham Cham Pops (Indian Dessert Pops)

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Cham Cham Pops (Indian Dessert Pops)

Chamcham pops or you might want to call them rasgulla pops going by their look. Its an east meets west experiment gone right. Cham cham is a famous sweet in India. It is made with fresh chenna and cooked in sugar syrup. This is my idea of dressing up the traditional Indian sweet as cake pops. Chilled cham chams iced with khoa cream taste just perfect for people who like sweets with a twist. The same taste and texture but without the mess of sugar syrup and overdose of sweetness.

Fresh and full fat milk makes the best chenna. Make sure there is no water left in the chenna otherwise it will be very difficult to roll the chenna balls. You can add colors of your choice to the chenna. I used the gel colors and added them just before mashing the chenna.

Do not over boil the sugar syrup. Add the chenna balls as soon as the syrup starts boiling and do NOT touch the cham cham unless it is cooled and chilled. Let it sit for at least 6 hours or more if possible.

For the icing, you can be as creative as you want. You can just simply dip the cham cham in khoa cream and roll it in dessicated coconut, coarsely  ground dry fruits, sprinkles etc. Or you can just fill the icing in a piping bag and ice it as you want.

As this is made with fresh milk, the shelf life of this dessert is not as long as other sweets. Two days is the max this can stay in the fridge. Chill it well before serving.

Cham Cham Pops (Indian Dessert Pops)

Ingredients

  • 3 cups milk (preferably full fat)
  • 2-3 tbsp lime juice
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 cups water
  • 1-2 pinches food color (optional)
  • 1 tbsp plain flour or corn starch for dusting

For the khoa cream

  • ½ cup khoa
  • 3 tbsp icing sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp milk
  • ½ tsp cardamom powder (Ilaichi powder)
  • 1-2 pinches food color (optional)

Recipe

Bring milk to boil. Switch off the gas as soon as the milk starts boiling. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Keep stirring in between. Dilute the lime juice with some water. Start adding 1 tbsp lime juice at a time. Stop adding the lime juice when the milk curdles. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Take a white cheese cloth and spread it in a deep bowl. Put the curdled milk and tie the cloth. Now run the tied cloth under fresh water for 2-3 minutes so that the chenna (curdled milk) gets washed and gets rid of the lime flavour. Hang it over a sink or any clean place  where water can drip. Let it hang for 20-30 minutes so that all the whey is strained out.

Transfer the chenna to a flat surface or a wide plate. Mash the chenna well using the heel of your palm. If you wish to make colored cham cham, add color at this point and mash the chenna well. Divide the chenna into 16 portions and roll them into smooth balls without any cracks. Keep these chenna balls on a plate dusted with plain flour or corn starch.

Combine sugar and water in a pressure cooker and bring to boil. As soon as the sugar syrup starts boiling, add the chenna balls. Close the lid and cook on high heat for 1 whistle. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 8-9 minutes. Switch off the heat and put the cooker under running water to release the steam. Open the cooker and transfer the chamchams and the sugar syrup to a bowl. Do NOT touch the cham cham until they are completely cooled. Let the cham chams cool down and refrigerate them for 7-8 hours.

To make the khoa cream, blend the khoa, icing sugar, milk, and cardamom powder to a smooth paste. If you want to add color to your icing, add color at this point. You can change the consistency of this icing as desired. Add or reduce milk based on the how you want to ice the pops. If you want to dip the pops in khoa cream, keep the consistency runny. Keep the consistency stiff if you want to ice it using a piping bag.

Put a cham cham in cocktail stick and ice it as you like. You can dip it in the icing or put the icing in an piping bag and ice it as you like. Serve chilled.