Tag Archives: vegetariankhana

Thepla

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Thepla

Thepla is a smaller, thinner, and healthier Gujarati cousin of methi ka paratha. It packs in all the goodness of fresh methi (fenugreek) and coriander leaves with whole wheat flour and not maida. Spread some chunda, jam, chutney, roll it and voila you have yummy food on the go.

Board a train to Gujarat and you are more likely to see four out of five people eating thepla with dry aalu curry, onion, chunda and tea. Since the shelf life of theplas is 3-4 days, it’s the preferred travel food of Gujaratis and they will be more than happy to share them. Theplas are a regular breakfast item at my in laws’ place and I always eat them to my heart’s content.

While tea lovers swear by the thepla and tea combination, it goes well with aalu sabji, garlic chutney, green chilly chutney, chunda, or plain yoghurt. I like them with yoghurt and the garlic chutney. You can find the recipe of Garlic chutney here.

Thepla

Ingredients

Makes 25 theplas

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 4 tbsp besan
  • ½ bunch of methi leaves cleaned and chopped
  • 8-10 stalks of coriander cleaned and chopped
  • 3 green chillies
  • 4-5 pods of garlic
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp red chilli powder
  • 2 tbsp coriander powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • Groundnut oil or any other cooking oil to cook the theplas
  • Water to knead the dough

Recipe

Grind chillies and garlic to a coarse paste. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, methi, chopped coriander, besan, chilli garlic paste, turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder, oil and salt.

Add water and make a soft dough. Divide the dough into 25 portions; roll into balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the balls into thin rotis (appx 6 to 7 inch).

Heat the griddle (tava) and place the thepla on it. Cook for about 30 seconds and flip. Brush with some groundnut oil and flip. Brush the other side with some oil and flip again. Cook thepla on both sides by pressing and flipping the thepla (like parathas).

Don’t flip the theplas very frequently or they’ll get hard/crispy.

Berries Parfait (Berries Shrikhand)

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Berries Parfait (Berries Shrikhand)

This Diwali, east meets west i.e. shrikhand meets Parfait. I am a big shrikhand fan but it has to be home made. My grandmother makes the best shrikhand. It’s not extremely sweet or heavy like the shrikhand you get in stores. I am a parfait fan too; especially the strawberry parfait. When I saw fresh cranberries at the grocery store, shrikhand parfait was the first thought to cross my mind. I bought lot of them and put them in the freezer for next dessert.

You can also use blueberries and raspberries for this dessert. Berries are not only rich in antioxidants, but are low in calories and yummy too. I wanted to cut the sour taste of cranberries with the sweetness of strawberries and black currant. I used fresh strawberries and black currant juice for the berry compote.

For the shrikhand part, you can either use hung yogurt or use the Greek yogurt which is ready to use. I used my grandma’s method and hung fresh yogurt in muslin cloth for 5-6 hours to let all the water drain. But the Greek yogurt works equally well if you want a quick dessert. Sugar and lime juice in this recipe depend on the taste of berries. Since I was using black currant juice and the strawberries were sweeter, I used less sugar. You can store the extra compote in refrigerator and add it to yogurt and make a quick dessert.

This time I gave a miss to the cocoa powder for dusting and used my favorite memory boosting spice – Cinnamon to add the nutty flavor to the fresh cream. You can layer it in shot glasses, square glasses, or any other way you want. Make sure to chill it for at least 2 hours before eating or serving.

Berries Parfait (Berries Shrikhand)

Ingredients

Serves 2

For Shrikhand

  • 2/3 cup hung yogurt or Greek yogurt
  • 1 ½ tbsp. Icing sugar or powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla essence

For Berries Compote

  • ½ cup chopped strawberries
  • ½ cup cranberries
  • ¼ cup blackcurrant juice (I used Ribena)
  • 2 tbsp sugar (if the berries are very sour add 1 more tbsp. sugar)

Garnish

  • 1 tbsp finely chopped strawberries
  • Whipped cream (appx 4 tbsp)
  • ½ tsp cinnamon powder

Recipe

Whip together the shrikhand ingredients till you get a smooth and creamy mixture (approximately 2 minutes) and chill for 1 hour.

Put all the Compote ingredients in a pan and let in boil on low flame till you get a thick sauce like consistency (approximately 12-15 minutes should be good enough). Keep stirring in between. Let it cool completely.

Now layer the dessert glass with alternate layers of compote and shrikhand, start with a layer of compote and end with a layer of shrikhand. Top with a layer of chopped strawberries and pipe or spoon some whipped cream and dust it with cinnamon powder.

Chill for at least two hours before serving.

If you are using the ready to pipe whipped cream, you can add the whipped cream just before serving.

 

Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

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Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

Merry Christmas! It is eggless chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for the Christmas. It’s a rainy Christmas in Singapore and with all the neighbors gone, our floor is even gloomier so I just needed something to cheer me up. What better than baking a cake! I like to bake cakes more than eating them. The smell of a freshly baked cake just lifts up the spirits and makes me happy. Baking or rather eggless baking has always been very satisfying for me. As kids, we never had any cakes for birthdays or any occasion for that matter. It was not a Marwadi thing or rather not a middle class thing to afford. But being the odd one out always, I have been trying to bake since my school days. From pressure cooker cake disasters to decent cakes in convection oven, I have tried lot of baking at home. Now that I have a wonderful oven in my kitchen, I experiment even more.

I don’t know what it is with eggs and baking. The more things I want to bake the more I need to research on how to bake an eggless version of it. Once you try these cupcakes you will agree that eggs don’t matter really. For me the most important lessons of baking are Follow the recipe point to point; PREHEAT the oven – however excited you are to put your cake in; ALWAYS use the best quality and exact measurement of Ingredients.

I have made chocolate and vanilla flavors as few members in my family prefer vanilla flavor to chocolate. Really! If you wish to make all chocolate cupcakes, just double the quantity of cocoa powder and mix it in the whole batter or if you wish to bake only vanilla cupcakes, leave out the cocoa completely and double the quantity of vanilla essence.

One thing to keep in mind while baking them is that every oven has a different baking time. Best would be to bake the cupcakes for 15 minutes and check them once and then continue baking as required. These mini cupcakes go well with tea, or as a dessert after a meal or just eat them when you like. You can choose to ice them or just eat them warm.

Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 40 mini cupcakes or 25 normal cupcakes

  • 1 ½ cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • ½ cup hot water
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup oil (preferably rice bran)
  • ½ cup curd (Indian curd)
  • ½ tbsp. vanilla essence

Recipe

Mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and pass this mix through a sieve once or twice so that the soda gets mixed with the flour.

Combine hot water and sugar and beat them on medium speed till the sugar is almost mixed in water and you see very small grains. Add the curd and oil and blend on high speed for 2-3 minutes. Add half of flour mix and blend on low speed. Add rest of the flour mix and blend on low speed till the flour is mixed into the liquid ingredients and there are no lumps. Make sure to scrape the edges in between. 2-3 minutes should be enough to mix the dry and liquid ingredients well.

Divide this batter into two portions. Add vanilla essence to one portion and cocoa powder to another one. If you find the batter with cocoa too stiff, add one table spoon hot water at this time.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a cup cake mould or put cupcake liners in a cupcake mould. Spoon the vanilla mixture in half the liners and cocoa mixture in half. Fill only 3/4th of the liners. Tap the mould lightly on a flat surface. This is to get rid of any air bubbles in the spooned batter. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean when you put it in the cupcake.

For a variation you can also spoon alternate layers of chocolate and vanilla.

Once the cakes are baked, cool them completely and decorate with the icing of your choice.

Icing

I have used Betty Crocker’s Dark Chocolate icing and Cooked Flour frosting from leelabeanbakes.com.

In India, you can get the ready butter cream icing from Pillsbury. It is easily available at supermarkets like FoodWorld and Spencers. You can also try whipped cream or Nutella  Icing. Happy baking!!

Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

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Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

Eggless Oatmeal cookies – I tasted these cookies for the first time in Peterborough; a very beautiful and peaceful city in the east of England. I even asked for the recipe from my husband’s cousin but never got to make these cookies again. Almost 10 years later, when I found the recipe again, I decided to make these cookies. I made some basic changes like switching the white sugar with brown sugar and adding chocolate chips instead of dry fruits. The cookies turned out equally delicious.

The basic ingredients for these cookies are same like most of the cookies. Sugar, butter, and flour. Oats add the crunch and also help lessen the guilt of having butter and flour. You can change the toppings as you like. The cookies I had originally were loaded with dry fruits like almonds, cashews, and raisins. I have substituted that with white and dark chocolate chips. I also added my favorite cinnamon for the nutty flavor. You can leave it out if you don’t like cinnamon.

  

You can roll the dough and cut the cookies using a cookie cutter. This dough is bit softer so I recommend flattening the cookies with hand or may be cut 2-3 cookies at a time by rolling small amount of dough. Do remember to leave space between the cookies when you bake them. They might feel soft when you take them out from the oven but they will harden up as they cool.

These cookies are best eaten as is. But if you want, you can even ice them. I made these for Aryan’s friend so I iced them with letters of his name using fondant. Store the cookies in an airtight jar and you can eat them for weeks.

Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

Makes 30 cookies

  • 500 gms all-purpose flour (maida)
  • 250 gms unsalted butter
  • 250 gms sugar
  • 120 gms oats
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (you can also use dry fruits or raisins)
  • 85 gms fresh cream
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 1 ½ tsp cinnamon powder (optional)

Recipe

Mix sugar and butter till smooth. Add cream, baking powder, and baking soda and mix well. Add flour, oats, cinnamon powder, nuts, and milk to make a dough. Divide the dough into 30 portions. Take each portion, roll it into a ball, and press between palms to make a round flat cookie. You can even use a cookie cutter to shape your cookies.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Line a baking tray with baking sheet. Place the cookies on the sheet with at least 2 inches gap between each cookie. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 mins. Cool on a wire rack and store in airtight container. You can Ice the cookies or eat them plain.

Quick Bisi Bele Bath

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Quick Bisi Bele Bath

Bisibele bath is a dish from Karnataka but also popular in Hyderabad. It’s a spicy and sour mix of rice and lentils.  My mom uses left over rice and dal to make excellent instant bisi bele bath. It’s a quick makeover to the left over dal rice. Just add some mixed vegetables, spices and you have an interesting and delicious breakfast/lunch dish ready.

Hyderabad has numerous restaurants which serve a dish called sambar rice with veggies. This recipe of my mom comes closest to it. My mom uses the khatti dal that we prepare at home. You can use any toor (split pigeon pea) based dal. I haven’t tried this dish with other lentils yet. If you are using a dal which is not sour, add tamarind water while cooking.

You can use any vegetables you like for this dish but I prefer carrots, beans and peas. The main ingredients for this dish are sambar powder and the karampodi. They take this simple dal rice mix to another level. You can add or reduce the karampodi as per your preference of spice in food.  Bisibele bath can be served a breakfast or lunch. It tastes best when it is hot.

Quick Bisi Bele Bath

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp oil
  • ¼ tsp mustard seeds
  • ¼ tsp cumin seeds
  • 4-5 dry red chillies
  • ¼ tsp asafetida
  • 8-10 curry leaves
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • ¼ cup mixed vegetables chopped (carrot, beans, peas)
  • 1 small tomato chopped
  • ½ tbsp sambar powder
  • 1 tbsp karam podi (gun powder served with idlis or south Indian meals)
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • ¼ tsp garam masala
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup dal (I used the khatti dal my mom prepares at home)
  • 1 tbsp tamarind water (optional)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tbsp coriander
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Heat oil in a pressure cooker.  Add mustard and cumin seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add dry red chillies, asafetida, and curry leaves.

Add onions and vegetables and sauté for 1-2 mins. Add tomatoes and cook for 30-40 seconds. Add sambar powder, karam podi, red chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, and salt. Mix well. Add dal and 1 cup water.  Close the cooker and cook till the pressure is released once (one whistle). Switch off the gas after one whistle. Once the cooker is cooled, open and add rice and mix well. Close the cooker again and cook on slow flame till you get two more whistles. Open the cooker once it is cooled completely. Add chopped coriander and serve hot with papad and lime pickle.

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.

Rabdi ka Malpua (Indian Dessert Pancakes)

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Rabdi ka Malpua (Indian Dessert Pancakes)

Rabdi ka malpua is Rajasthan’s answer to pancakes. It is a dessert which is crispy on edges and soft in the center. This melt in your mouth wonder is a fried version of pancake and as with most of the Rajasthani desserts this too is made in ghee. This is a quick dessert that can be made with very few ingredients and most of which are available at home.

Malpuas are a regular feature at all the Rajasthani festivals. The way I like my malpua is soft centered, crispy on edges, and hot of course. You can garnish them with any dry fruit of your choice.

Batter of pouring consistency is the key to a perfect malpua. Keep the batter too thick and it will turn out as thick as bread. Keep it too thin and it will break when you try to turn it.

Every family has a variation to this traditional marwadi mithai. This is my family recipe of the rabdi ka malpua. Happy Eating!

Rabdi ka Malpua (Indian Dessert Pancakes)

Ingredients

Makes around 15-18 malpuas

  • 100 gms flour (maida)
  • 50 gms khova (dried whole milk)
  • 1 pinch soda
  • 5 almonds slivered
  • Approximately 1 cup milk

For sugar syrup

  • 1 ½ cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 5 cardamoms powdered
  • Few strands of saffron

Recipe

Blend together maida and khova in a mixer with half of milk to make a batter of pouring consistency. Consistency of batter is the key for malpuas. Add more milk if required. Keep it aside for one hour.

When you are ready to make the malpua, add soda to the batter and mix well.

For the sugar syrup, combine all the ingredients and bring to boil. The syrup should be sticky but without strings. Keep the syrup aside. The syrup should we used warm. If it has cooled by the time of serving malpuas, you can reheat it a little.

Heat enough ghee in a flat bottom kadhai. Pour a spoonful of batter to form a pan cake. Cook on both sides till the edges are crisp and brown. Remove the malpua and dip it in the sugar syrup immediately. Remove it from the syrup. Garnish it with slivered almonds and serve warm.

 

Chandrakala (Sweet filled with Khoa and nuts)

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Chandrakala (Sweet filled with Khoa and nuts)

Two three days before Diwali, my home resembles a sweet shop. The aroma of the sweets and savories can be felt in the neighborhood. My grandmother, mom, and aunt make lot of sweets and savories to be distributed to family, relatives, friends, employees, friends of friends, the postman, sweeper, and anybody and everybody who comes home to get the Diwali inaam. The most popular of these preparations is chandrakala. I end up eating them for lunch the day they are being made. This is the by far the best mithai/sweet my grandmother makes. No garnishes, no saffron in sugar syrup, plain simple chandrakala which is crispy outside and melts in mouth with each bite. Heaven!

This mithai is a sweet kachori/pastry filled with dry fruits, fried in ghee/oil and dipped in sugar syrup. Its heavy on calories but isn’t Diwali a perfect excuse to indulge.

Folding the chandrakala is an art. I have learnt this from my grandmother. Once you seal two puris with the stuffing inside, gently pinch the edges and twist them to form a pattern. This will make sure that the filling does not come out while frying.

Do not keep these in fridge. They can be stored in an airtight container for few days. Enjoy the sweet treat this Diwali. Wishing you and very happy and sweet Diwali!

Chandrakala (Sweet filled with Khoa and nuts)

Ingredients

Makes 20 Chandrakalas

  • 1 cup refined flour (maida)
  • ¼ cup ghee (clarified butter)
  • Oil for frying

Filling

  • ¼ cup khoa/wava (dried whole milk)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp coarsely crushed dry fruits
  • ¼ tsp cardamom powder

Sugar Syrup

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • ½ tsp ghee (optional)

Mix the refined flour and ghee till it resembles bread crumbs. Add very little water at a time and make a firm dough. The dough should not be very stiff or very soft. It should be of medium consistency. Cover and keep it aside for 15 minutes.

Put khoa in a microwave safe bowl and heat it on full power for 20-25 seconds. Add sugar, nuts, and cardamom powder immediately and mix well. Keep aside.

You can even fry the khoa in a pan for 1-2 mins and move it to a cool bowl immediately and mix other ingredients.

Divide the dough into 40 portions and roll out small puris (approximately 3 inches). Take two puris at a time. Put one portion of khoa filling in one puri, cover it with the second puri and seal the edges and pinch and fold the sides in a pattern so that the edges do not open while frying. You can use the moulds available in the market.

Heat enough oil in a deep pan/kadhai and fry the chandrakalas few at a time, till they are golden brown. While you are frying the chandrakala, bring to boil the water and sugar for sugar syrup and make a sugar syrup of one thread*.

Once all the chandrakala are fried, poke each chandrakala on top with a fork. This will help it absorb the sugar syrup. Put them in the hot sugar syrup and coat them with sugar syrup on all sides. You can leave the chandrakala in the syrup for few minutes (3-4) and remove it carefully. Garnish with dry fruits or eat as it is.

*Sugar Syrup

Consistency of sugar syrup is very crucial for Indian desserts. You need to be very careful while working with sugar as it gets extremely hot and can even burn your skin. This recipe calls for one thread consistency of sugar syrup.

One thread consistency is when a single thread is formed when you take little syrup between your index finger and thumb and pull apart the fingers gently. The thread should not break.

Second way to test this is, pour the syrup in a small plate with water. If the syrup does not dissolve immediately and dissolves when you try to gather it, it is one thread consistency.

Another simpler way is to use the cooking thermometer. Single thread syrup is approximately 220ºF – 222ºF/104º-105ºC and is used for sweets where it needs to be absorbed

To test the consistency of sugar syrup, dip a wooden spatula in the syrup and lift out. Allow to cool for a few seconds. Now touch the syrup with a clean index finger to pick a small amount of syrup and bring your thumb and index finger together and pull apart gently.

Paneer Capsicum Masala

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Paneer Capsicum Masala

Paneer is one of the favorite vegetarian curries at the restaurants. This Indian version of cottage cheese is full of protein. It is a different story that the rich and heavy gravy they prepare at the restaurants almost negates the health benefits. I have tried making restaurant style paneer curry at home many times and this recipe comes closest. For me paneer and capsicum are the best combination. Fresh paneer and capsicum are key to a yummy curry.

I do not get fresh paneer here and I rely on frozen paneer when I have guests at home. Put the frozen paneer in hot water for 3-5 minutes and you have soft paneer ready to cook. Now comes the tricky part. Restaurant style gravy but in a slightly healthier version. I leave out the butter for sure. Second substitution I make is, to reduce the quantity of cashew nuts to half and add melon seeds.

I prepare the gravy in advance and freeze it in batches. Every time I want to cook paneer ki sabji, I just take one batch of gravy and defrost it and cook it with panner and the vegetables of my choice. I have the curry ready in minutes.

This curry can be served with hot roti, naan, or with jeera rice. Do not forget fresh cut or pickled onions and some fresh non spicy green chillies.

Paneer Capsicum Masala

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 1 ½ cup paneer
  • 1 cup mixed bell peppers chopped into square medium sized pieces
  • 1 small onion chopped

For Gravy

  • 1 big tomato roughly chopped
  • 1 small onion roughly  chopped
  • 20-22 cashew nuts
  • 3 inch piece of ginger chopped
  • 4 cloves of roughly garlic
  • 1 green chilli
  • 2 tbsp melon seeds
  • 1 ½ tbsp kasoori methi
  • 3 tsp chilli powder
  • 1-2 tbsp fresh cream (optional)
  • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
  • ¼ tsp cumin seeds
  • 4 tbsp oil

Recipe

Heat 3 tbsp oil in a kadhai or a deep pan. Add green chilli, ginger, and garlic. Once the garlic is lightly browned, add onions and saute. Cook till onions are translucent. Add cashews and melon seeds and cook till the cashews are lightly browned sauteing in between. Add the tomatoes, salt, and red chilli powder and mix well. Cook till oil separates and tomatoes are mushy (2-3 minutes). Switch off the gas and let this mixture cool. Once it is cool, grind this to a fine paste and keep aside.

You can store this gravy in the freezer for future use too.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadhai or thick bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds. Once the seeds pop, add onions and cook till they are translucent. Add bell pepper and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add paneer and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the gravy and mix well. Add little water if the gravy is too thick. Cook for 3-4 minutes or till oil separates. Garnish with fresh cream and chopped coriander and serve with hot rotis or rice.

Corn and Paneer Cigars

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Corn and Paneer Cigars

Corn and paneer (cottage cheese) cigars. This very quick and easy to make snack is just mushy paneer and corn filled bread, rolled and deep fried. This is a twist to the sandwich I make with corn and paneer filling. With the IPL going and Football World cup round the corner, it is going to be lot of night outs and even more snacks and finger foods.

I don’t get the Indian corn here so I used the frozen sweet corn. This adds a hint of sweetness to the filling. If you don’t like sweet flavour, use the Indian corn which is not as sweet as the sweetcorn. Make sure not to crush the corn too much. Grind it very coarsely just enough to be broken into two pieces.

If you can use fresh paneer its great. Otherwise try thawing the frozen paneer cubes before you use them. I soaked the frozen paneer cubes in hot water for couple of minutes and it was good enough to crumble in the mixture.

I used white bread for this recipe but I would strongly recommend using the multigrain bread. It adds a lot to the flavour. Cut off the edges and roll the bread flat using a rolling pin. Do not forget to seal the edges well by wetting the edges with enough water. You can prepare the filling in advance and fry the cigars when you want to eat/serve them. You can serve these with ketchup or any other dip of your choice.

Corn and Paneer Cigars

 

Ingredients

Makes 8 cigars

  • ½ cup corn kernels
  • 6-7 cubes paneer
  • 1 green chilli
  • 2 inch piece of ginger
  • 8 slices of bread
  • 1 tbsp oil + more oil for frying
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

Steam the corn kernels and grind them very coarsely with green chillies.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan. Add grated ginger and sauté. Add the corn and chilli mixture, paneer, and salt. Mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Keep it aside.

Trim the edges of the bread. Roll the bread flat using a rolling pin. Add approximately 1 tsp of the filling in the centre. Wet the edges of bread with water and roll the bread carefully into cylinder shape and seal the edges.

Heat oil in a frying pan or kadhai and fry the bread cigars on medium heat till they are golden brown. Serve with ketchup or choice of dip. You can even cut the cigars into two to make bite sized snacks.