Pav Bhaaji - Indian Street food!

Pav bhaaji is something you find in food carts in almost any city in India. Bhaaji means vegetable and Pav means bread. It's a simple combination of bread toasted lightly with a lot of butter, and a spicy tomato based gravy with tons of vegetables. Served with some raw onion and lemon wedges and a dollop of butter, you just can't get enough of this. I can almost guarantee you will end up overeating just like we did today!

Prep Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4, or 3 very hungry people :)
Ingredients: 

1 medium onion
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes ( I use canned tomato for this recipe because it's usually more reliable than fresh tomato. You need juicy ripe tomatoes for this recipe which can be hard to find. )
2 medium green peppers
1-2 large potatoes
1.5 cups cauliflower
1 cup peas
1/2 cup carrots
1.2 cup beans
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1.5 tablespoons Pav Bhaji masala
1 teaspoon chilli powder
Salt
1 load of dinner rolls or "Pav"
Tons of butter! - Okay, 1 stick or 1/2 cup of butter for the vegetables and a little bit for the dinner rolls. If you want to eat clean and try a healthy version, you can totally go easy on the butter and use just enough to fry your onions.
Lime, onion and cilantro for the garnish

Method:

1. Heat about 1/4 cup of butter and add the cumin seeds until they splutter.

2. Add the onions and fry until golden brown.

3. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry until you lose that raw smell.

4. Add green peppers and saute for a few minutes before adding the diced tomatoes, pav bhaji masala, chilli powder and salt. Fry this mixture until you see the oil separate from the masala.

5. Add the potato, cauliflower, peas, carrots and beans with about 2 cups of water and let this boil for about 15-20 minutes or until well cooked. Stir and mash the vegetables with your ladle occasionally. The bhaaji is ready when all the vegetables are nicely smashed but there's still a little chunkyness left in the mixture. Add another 1/4 cup of butter (if you decide to live on the edge :)) in the end and mix well.

6. To toast the dinner rolls or pav, add some butter in a frying pan. Coat the dinner rolls in this butter and lightly toast them on the pan.

Garnish with lime, cilanto and raw onions. Serve with a dollop of butter and lightly buttered toasted dinner rolls.

Sabudana Khichdi!

My aunt lives in Pune which a city in Maharashtra, India. She used to make this for us every time we visited her or when she visited us. It's a Maharashtrian dish that is usually made during fasts as it is quite filling and the carbs can keep you going for a long while after you're done eating. I usually make this when I know we are going to get some physical activity and it's become our go-to breakfast on days that my husband and I go for a hike.

The recipe requires a little bit of prep work but once you have that out of the way you can get this ready in about 10-15 minutes. If you do the prep work the night before you want to eat this, you can have it ready in under 15 minutes!

It is a little hard to get the right texture with this khichdi. Water can totally ruin it and you'll end up with a flop that my dad likes to call "soggy dana". Follow my recipe and you should have absolutely no problem getting this right.

Here's a terrible pic of the final product before we move on to the actual recipe! I need to take better pics...Oh well. At least you know I haven't used photoshop to make it look better than it really is :)

Ingredients:

1 cup unsoaked sabudana pearls (tapioca or sago pearls)

1/2 to 3/4 cup of roasted peanuts (crushed or powdered)

6-8 green chillies

2-3 small potatoes or 1 large potato

2 teaspoons jeera

Handful of chopped cilantro

Salt

Prep work!

1. Soak the sabudana overnight.  Add just enough water to cover the top and soak it overnight or at least 4-5 hours. If the sabudana is particularly powdery, I sometimes rinse it a couple of times before I soak.

2. Chop or powder the peanuts. I like to use a mix of powdered and chopped up peanuts so you get a few peanut pieces in every bite!

3. Chop and boil the potatoes in a microwave so you don't have to spend time frying them in step 2.

Method:

1. Mix the crushed peanuts and sabudana (post soaking).

2. Heat oil and fry the jeera until it splutters. Add the boiled potato and green chillies. Fry until the potatoes are brown. If you boiled these in the microwave, then make sure the water has evaporated.

3. Add the sabudana and peanuts mixture with salt and just let it cook while stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn. The sabudana will turn from opaque white to this slightly translucent shade. That's when you know it's done. It usually takes about 5-7 minutes for this step. 

4. Add chopped cilantro and dig in!

We usually serve it with some lemon wedges and cold yogurt. The yogurt helps mellow out the spice of the green chillies and the whole hot and cold combination is just tooo yummy to handle!

Corn Pulao

Working from home and I had to make a quick lunch!! This corn pulao was just perfect!! We ate it with some leftover prawn curry..Best lunch ever! Give it a shot people...you won't regret it! Its an easy dish to make when you don't want to labor over a biryani but plain rice is too boring :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups basmati rice
3 1/2 cups water, washed
1 cup sweet corn kernels
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
3 green chillies, sliced length wise
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon oil

Method:

1.Bring the water to a boil in a big pan.
2. Heat the oil and add the bay leaf, cloves and cardamom. This is the main seasoning for the dish.
3. When you start to get the aroma of the spices, add this oil/spice seasoning to the water. Let the oil cool down, you don't wanna burn yourself when you add it to the water!
4. Add the washed rice, corn, salt and split green chillies.
5. Let this boil until the water is almost completely absorbed and you start to see little bubbles form in the rice.
6. Shut the pan and simmer for 5 minutes before you take this off the heat.

Your yummy corn pulao is ready!

Alternatively, you can make this in an electric rice cooker. Just add all the ingredients (prepare the oil/spice seasoning separately) in a regular rice cooker and let it do all the work!

Barbecue Chicken Wings..YUM!

Ok so I haven't been very good with this blog and it has been more than a year since I posted..but these chicken wings are absolutely delicious and I had to share the joy :D This recipe is easy breezy peeps! you gotta try it!

 Ingredients:
 10 whole chicken wings (not split into thigh and baby wings)
 Marinade:
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons hot sauce (Tabasco or lousiana or anything you have at home)
3 tablespoons green chilli sauce(or) 5 finely chopped green chillies
5 cloves garlic ( smashed, microplaned, chopped ..whatever you prefer)
2 teaspoons red chilli powder
2 teaspoons sugar (or) 1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon olive oil (optional, the skin on the wings has enough fat to keep this thing going in the oven so you can totally skip the oil)

 Method: 

1.Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and combine with the chicken wings.
2. Set aside for 2-3 hours or longer, I usually let it marinate for  the entire day if possible.
3. Place wings on a wire grill rack and pop them in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or slightly longer depending on the size of your wings.
4. Take them out after 35-40 minutes or when the meat leaves the bone. You can turn the oven temp up high and broil them for another 5 minutes if you want them extra crispy :) Serve immediately!

Tips:
1. Use a wire grill rack that has been coated with Pam or some kinda cooking spray or oil. Set your oven to heat from the top and bottom so you don't have to turn these around half way through. If you don't have a wire grill rack you could do these in a baking tray or cooking sheet but remember to turn the wings around after 20 minutes.
2. You can split the wings into the thigh/wing portions but I prefer not to cos the skin on the wings helps to seal the moisture and keeps the chicken really soft and tender. I personally feel that splitting the wings will break that seal :)

Hyderabadi Mutton (Lamb) Biryani

This is one of my mom's recipes for Biryani..She makes several versions..right from the authentic hyderabadi biryani..to the soggy South Indian biryani that borders on mutton gravy and rice :D.. This version is close to Hyderabadi biryani..

*A pic of my cousin's biryani for illustration :)

FYI This recipe might look a little complicated, but its actually not..

Ingredients:
1 Kg mutton(Marinated for 2-3 hours or longer)
2-3 Bay leaves
5-6 cardamom cloves
2 large onions - Sliced
2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
2 bunches Mint leaves (pudina)
1 bunch Cilantro
250 grams green chillies (finely chopped or ground to a paste)
2 cups uncooked basmati rice
Garnish:
1 cup fried onions- Sliced and deep fried till they are dark and almost crispy.
Boiled egg

Method:

1. Marinade

1. Mix 1 cup yogurt, 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste, green chilly paste, cilantro, 1 bunch of mint leaves.
2. Marinate mutton in this mixture for about 2-3 hours

2. The meat

1. In a big Kadai(wok)or cooker, add oil and fry the whole spices ( bay leaves, cardamom,cloves).
2. Add the remaining ginger garlic paste, and the onions..and fry until golden brown.
3. Add marinated mutton. Fry the mutton for about 5 minutes...or until the marinate loses its raw smell.
4. Add water as needed ( I say this because I have no clue how much water I need, I just keep going until the meat is cooked :) )..and slow cook the meat. Keep going until the water reduces, and all you are left with is a very thick gravy, just coating the meat.

While the meat is slow cooking, you can prepare the rice..

3.The rice

1. Wash the rice once.
2. Soak the rice for 5 minutes or less and drain without mixing or breaking the grains.
3. Bring about 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the rice, along with a little Garam masala,1 bunch of cilantro and 1 tablespoon of salt.
4. When the rice is about 3/4 cooked (the grains will be long but slightly translucent), drain the water.
5. The rice is now ready to go into the meat mixture.

4. The last step..We're almost there :)

1. Add the semi-cooked rice layer over the meat mixture. If you have the patience and time..you can make several layers of meat and rice, and add a layer of mint/cilantro leaves. ( if you do this, you would probably want to reduce the mint/cilantro in the marinade step. I don't cos I love the flavor!)
2. Seal the cooker/kadai with a tight lid and cook for about 5 minutes. There is no need to add any water, the rice cooks with the moisture from the meat mixture.
3.Garnish with deep fried onion slices and slices of boiled egg.

Serve hot with a Raita or chicken gravy.

Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

250g butter
250g caster sugar
250g self raising flour
2 teaspoons-Vanilla essence
4 medium eggs
50 ml buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to Gas mark 180°C.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar, until smooth and creamy.

3. Add eggs and flour a little at a time, beating the mixture to maintain the creamy consistency.

6. Add the vanilla essence and buttermilk, mix for a few minutes.

6. Pour the batter into a 9 inch pan and bake in an oven(middle shelf) for 30-35 minutes.

8. Cool on a wire rack.

Serve plain or with a jam/cream filling.

Quick Chicken fry

My cousin made this for me when I visited her recently.I don't remember the ingredients very well, so this is my variation. It is definitely the quickest and best chicken fry I have ever eaten or made!
If you have time, you can marinate the chicken before hand.I did not but I guess it will make a difference!

8 Red chillies
1/2 tablespoon Mustard seeds
1/2 tablespoon Jeera
1/2 tablespoon Methi seeds
1 bunch curry leaves

1 onion chopped fine
1 1/2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
1 pound Chicken
1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
2 tablespoons Chilli powder
1 tablespoon Coriander powder
1/2 tablespoon Garam Masala
Salt-to taste
Lime

Method:

1.In a shallow pan, add oil and the first 5 ingredients.Cover until the mustard and curry leaves stop spluttering.

2.Add the chopped onions and fry until they are nicely browned.

3.Add the ginger-garlic paste and continue frying until it loses its rawness.

4.Add Marinaded chicken and remaining ingredients and salt.

5.Fry the chicken until cooked, stirring occasionally as the masalas start sticking to the pan.

6.Add lime juice or vinegar just before taking off the stove.


Serve with rice or rotis.