Undhiyo

Undhiyo is one Gujarathi recipe that I never prepared at home. Whenever felt like eating ordered it from a nearby Gujarati restaurant, the reason being I used to feel its a time consuming preparation... One day, my friend Nutan Shenoy Kini of Nutan's Kitchen  passed me her recipe for Surathi Undhiyo and I immediately thought of giving it a try... the inspiration being the recipe was written nicely with details. Everybody at home loved this dish and I am happy that I attempted it. Thanks Nutan akka for this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients for methi ghatta

100 gms finely chopped fenugreek [methi] leaves
1/2 cup besan
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp grated cocounut
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Mix all the ingredients to make a stiff dough. Form into small oval dumplings. Heat 4 tbsp oil and fry ghattas for 2 minutes. Remove them from oil and keep is aside on a kitchen tissue paper.

Other Ingredients

100 gms surti papdi (fresh vaal), stringed whole
100 gms chopped raw bananas, unpeeled
100 gms yam (suran) cubes, peeled
100 gms small sized brinjals (eggplant)
4- 5 green chillies crushed
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp whole wheat flour
4 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp carom seeds [ajwain]
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp sugar
lemon juice to taste

To proceed: 

Use a heavy large sauce pan.
Form a paste of chili, ginger, garlic and coriander. Rub the chunky veggies with oil and this masala paste. Marinate it for 30 minutes.
Heat the oil that was used to fry ghattas and proceed. Add all the marinated chunky vegetables in this oil and stir well. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add papdi, turmeric powder, flour, carom seeds and salt. Cover and cook on low flame till the yam gets cooked. Add coriander, lemon juice and sprinkle some water if required. Add sugar and stir. Serve hot with parathas/rotis.
Happy Cooking !
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Angry Bird Idlis

IDLIS disguised as angry birds that will fascinate our kids to eat them. 

Myself, never played this game of angry birds and so wasn't aware of this character. "A" [elder son] neither played it but then he was aware of the character and used to get very excited as he saw them in pics/posters/ t shirts/ shoe designs ... I decided to find about them via google search. While browsing for their pics, I came across a cute creation of various angry bird characters made out of eggs. 

I wanted to create something similar to surprise my son. I adapted the idea and created as per availability of the ingredients in my kitchen.

Idlis is what came to my mind to use for this creation in place of eggs. 

Method:

Make idlis from idli batter. 

Rest all is decoration. Four characters made from idlis

• White idli, 
• Tomato sauce spread on 2nd one, 
• Green idli [added palak puree to give the green color]...U can also spread green chutney on idli instead of adding palak puree
• Saffron milk spread on 4th one to give that yellow color.

Topped with olives, cheese slices, [used to make eyes and eyebrows], sliced olives and tomato slices [feathers], carrot pieces [for beaks] , grapes [ears].

Carrot sticks, swiss rolls [ u can use  waffles] green chutney have been used to give fence look on the plate.

14th November being celebrated as Children's day in India would take this opportunity to wish all the kids HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY through this post

Never imagined that this preparation and presentation would give me so much praise and love from my friends and fellow members in food groups on Facebook. After getting n number of likes and appreciation my reaction was no different than my son ... EUPHORIC

Hope kids gonna love these idlis and attack them like hungry [not angry] birds from their plates. This idea would work like wonders for kids party. Servings portions will depend on the size of idlis and also no. of other snacks/goodies at the party.

Sending this post as an entry to "Kids Delight -Party Ideas" event hosted by Kalyani and event by Srivalli 

See you soon in my next post,,, till then ...
Happy Cooking!
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Brinjal/ Vaingana Sagle

A konkani version of stuffed brinjals is Vaingana sagle. This traditional side dish goes well with rice and dalitoy or chappatis. Preferrably to use small size purple brinjals but if you can get hold of Gulla/green brinjals from the udupi region then you can use them and the dish would be called as gulla sagle. Below is the recipe mentioned by Jaya V. Shenoy in her book titled "Dakshin Bharath dishes". 



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Kothimbir Vadis

Kothimbir is marathi word for coriander leaves and Kothimbir vadis are crispy fritters in which coriander leaves remains the key ingredient. Traditionally, the recipe calls in for deep frying but here for health reasons they are shallow fried and served as teatime snack. 

Ingredients

2 cups chopped coriander leaves, 
1 cup water approx
1 cup besan/gram flour, 
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tsp crushed ginger
2 green chilies crushed
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp sugar 
1/4 tsp soda 
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp tamarind juice [optional, you may use lemon juice instead]
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

For seasoning
2 tbsp oil,
1 tbsp white sesame seeds, 
Little scraped coconut,
1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 
Generous pinch of hing/asafoetida 

Method:

Take enough water in a steamer/ pressure cooker [to be used without whistle] and keep it on the flame. Allow the water to boil.

Meanwhile, in a bowl mix chopped coriander leaves with besan and rice flour. Add crushed green chili ginger mixture, chili powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, soda, salt, sugar, sesame seeds, tamarind juice and oil. Mix everything well without using water. Then add water little at a time and mix it to make a lump free batter of medium/pouring consistency.



Grease a plate/tray or steamer vessel. Pour the mixture upto 3/4th of the plate/tray height. Steam for 25-30 mins on high flame or till a knife/toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool. Cut into desired shapes [triangular, diamond or square].

You can deep fry these steamed vadis. Here I have shallow fried the vadis until light brown on both sides. For that heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. As the seeds splutter add white sesame seeds and hing. Add steamed kothimbir vadi pieces. Shallow fry until golden and crispy on both sides. Finally, add freshly scraped coconut over it. Mix well. Garnish with scraped coconut and coriander leaves, and serve it as tea time snack with green chutney, tamarind chutney or tomato ketchup.

Happy Cooking !
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Custard Powder Halwa/Fudge

Finally, a baby step into the world of food blogging. Still an amateur when it comes to cooking and food photography. This space would be a way to share with you my kitchen experiments. The recipes have been shared by my family members, friends, different recipe books, food blogs and food groups on social sites. While browsing on net for a sweet recipe to prepare this Diwali, I came across halwa recipe here at Blend with spices made from custard powder. Look wise it has a nice glossy texture and preparation wise it is so easy that immediately I tried it following her recipe with few variations.

Ingredients

1 cup vanilla custard powder 

2 and 1/4 cups of sugar [I took 1 cup white sugar and 1 and 1/4 cup brown sugar

3 and 1/2 cups of water 

1/4 cup ghee

Chopped pistas and melon seeds for garnish [ you can use any nuts of your choice]

1/4 tsp of cardamom powder [optional]



Method: 

Take the custard powder, sugar and water. Mix it well to avoid any lumps. Heat a saucepan and pour the custard powder mixture. Stir it continuously. Once the mix comes to a boil reduce the flame, add ghee gradually. Cook until it reaches the halwa consistency. Here the mixture will turn translucent and will have a jelly like texture. You can add cardamom powder[optional] and nuts of your choice at this stage. Switch off the flame and transfer the mixture to a greased plate. Sprinkle some chopped nuts of your choice and allow it to cool. Once set then cut into shapes of your choice. Enjoy eating this halwa.

Note: Instead of pieces you can also pour this halwa in serving bowl and garnish it with chopped nuts of your choice and serve it warm.

Note: If you use only white sugar the color of halwa will be yellow as seen below in the pic.

Happy cooking !

Wishing all my readers, friends and family A very Happy, Prosperous and Safe Diwali!!!

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