Malai Kofta Curry

Malai Kofta is a rich curry and is my restaurant favourite.This is the way I make malai kofta..Though it takes a bit of time, it tastes wonderful.This is my entry for the JFI 'potato' hosted by Vaishali of Happyburp

Ingredients for koftas

Potatoes- 4 medium
peas- 1/4 cup
paneer(grated)-1/2 cup
chilli powder- 3/4 tsp
garam masala- 1/4 tsp
gram flour- 2 tsp
maida/all purpose flour- 1 tsp
cornstarch- 1/2 tsp
coriander leaves- a few chopped finely
salt to taste
oil for deep frying
For the gravy
Onions- 2 medium chopped into cubes
Tomatoes- 2 or 3 medium chopped into cubes
ginger- 1" piece chopped roughly
garlic - 4 cloves
cinnamon-small piece,cloves- 2, saunf-1/4 tsp
poppy seeds- 1/4 tsp
cashews- 6 to 8
coconut -2 tsp
chilli powder- 1 tsp
coriander powder- 2 tsp
jeera powder- 1/4 tsp
kasoori methi - a few
garam masala/kitchen king masala- 1/4 tsp
Fresh cream- 2 tsp
milk- 1/2 cup
Oil + ghee/butter- 6 tsp
salt to taste

Method

Boil the peas and potatoes together. Remove the skin of the potatoes , add all the other ingredients except oil and mash it . Do not add water. Make small balls and deep fry it in hot oil.
keep it aside.
Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pressure pan and add cinnamon, cloves and saunf. Then add onions, ginger and garlic pieces. When the onions become transparent add the tomatoes, cashews and poppy seeds. Fry till the tomatoes are mushy.
Now add the chilli powder, coriander powder,jeera powder and garam masala powder. Add little water to this and pressure cook this for 5 mins or till one whistle.
When cooled grind it to a fine paste. Heat a pan and add the remaining oil+ghee. Pour the masala paste , kasoori methi and milk.When it boils add the koftas and remove from heat. Garnish with coriander leaves and fresh cream on top. Serve hot with chappathis /rotis/phulkas.

Note

U can add chopped cashews to the gravy too.
U can check out Vineela's version of Malai kofta here and Asha's Version here

Vegetable Cutlets

Blogger Friends Recipe(BFR#3)
This is my 2nd entry for coffee's MBP Finger foods and starters. Cutlets and Samosas are my favourite and I made this from Priya's kitchen, for my Inlaws who have come to visit us. Vegetable cutlets turned out pretty well and we all loved it. Check out the recipe here

Dosa, Sambar and Strawberry Cheese Cups

These are my entries for this month's AFAM(strawberry cheese cups) by Maheshwari and Pooja's valentine's special. You may wonder what Dosa and Sambar has to do with Strawberry cheese cups...Yes this is what I made specially for my husband. Dosa and sambar is my husband's all time favourite. He can have it without any complaints for breakfast,dinner and even lunch. He doesn't like many desserts... doesn't eat icecream ,almost all sweets ... I had made these strawberry cheese cups before and he liked it . As I wanted to make a really nice dessert for him, I chose this one. Though the menu sounds extreme, I wanted to make only this because this is SPECIALLY FOR HIM!!!!!

Dosa

Ingredients
Idly rice- 4 cups
Urad dal- 1 cup
Methi seeds- 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
Method
Wash and soak rice and Dal+methi seeds seperately. soak for atleast 4 hours. Grind dal in to a fine past by adding water little by little . Then grind rice into a fine paste and mix it with dal .Add salt to taste and ferment it for abt 8 hours or overnight.(It may take a longer time in winter)
Sambar


Ingredients
For sambar powder
Red chillies- 2 to 2 1/2 cups
Coriander seeds- 2 cups
Bengal gram dal- 1/4 cup
Thoor dal- 1/4 cup
Pepper- 3 tsp
Fenugreek- 2 tsp
Jeera- 3 tsp
Curry leaves- a few
Dry roast all these seperately and powder.
Thoor dal- 1 cup
green chillies- 5 sliced
garlic- 5 cloves
tomato- 1 chopped
pearl onions- a few( u can use one chopped big onion too)
methi seeds- 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Hing- little
Tamarind juice- from small lime sized ball
Veggies of ur choice- (carrots, brinjal, drumsticks... etc)1/2 cup
For Seasoning
Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
red chillies-1
hing- little
jeera-1/4 tsp
pepper- 4 to 5
methi seeds- less than 1/4 tsp
curry leaves- a few
coriander leaves- a few
Oil - 3 tsp
salt to taste
Method
Wash 1 cup of dal and add greenchillies, garlic,turmeric powder, hing, methi seeds, tomatoes in one bowl and the veggies in another bowl and pressure cook this .
Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds , when it splutters add the other ingredients for seasoning and then the onions . Saute till the onions are transparent . Add the tamarind juice and 1 to 2 tsp of sambar powder. now add the cooked dal (mash it well with a ladle) and the cooked vegetables. Add enough water and salt to it.simmer it and close it with a lid for 10 mins. garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Sambar is ready. Serve hot with dosa,idly or rice.

note

Sometimes when I grind sambar powder I was not able to get good colour cos of the red chillies. so I reduced the amt of chillies (10 ) and prepare powder. Then when making sambar I add 1 tsp of readymade sambar powder(i use shakti masala) and 1 tsp of the sambar powder which I made.By this way I get good colour for sambar.

Strawberry cheese cups

Actually I found this recipe for the cups, in the Pepperidgefarm puff,pastry sheet packet . They had printed a recipe for choc peanut butter cups and I replaced it with creamcheese filling.. Crispy puff and creamcheese was real Yumm!!
Ingredients
pepperidge farm's puff pastry sheets
cream cheese-1/2 cup
powdered sugar-1/4 cup or to taste
heavy cream- 2 tbsp
strawberries- a few(slitted half)
Method
Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature 40 min. Preheat the oven to 400F.Unfold the pastry on the lightly floured surface , roll it and cut into 4" squares approx.Press the squares in the muffin pans. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Mix sugar, creamcheese and cream together and beat well till u get a smooth texture.
Place the cream in the puff cups and then a piece of strawberry on top.

About Valentines day... Though we knew what is valentine's day in our schooldays we didn't celebrate it or bother about it much.There was an 'Archie's gallery' opposite to my college and it used to sell wonderful valentine cards. That's how I got a better picture of valentine's day . Me and my husband had exchanged valentine cards only in the first year of marriage as feb 14 was only one week after our wedding. After that we don't care much for V'day because I feel that if u want to epress ur love to someone u can do it anytime, not only on v' day.

And now about my Husband.. His Name is Sundar.. He is a person who doesn't talk much while on the other hand I talk a lot...(I think in these 7 yrs it has reduced a bit ). He is a very patient guy while Iam not.Though we are chalk and cheese in some aspects there are a lot of other aspects where we have similar tastes too, and all these makes life interesting... He has stood beside me during some of the hard times in my life and I can never forget that. In short, He is a real gem of a person(My Husband who sitting near me ,reading this gave a big,broad smile )Happy Valentine's day!!!

Pedas

Today is our 7th Wedding Aniversary and I thought I would begin the day with sweets. So yesterday I made these lovely pedas. They are very easy and quick to make.My 5 year old little daughter helped me and we had fun making this..

This is my entry for Trupti's ' Little Chefs in the kitchen' Event and Meeta's 'Monthly Mingle- Sweet love'. Though it may be a bit late for the Sweet love event,but I thought will be nice to post this on my Wedding day which would surely be the best day to show the love I have for my Better half. Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Ingredients

Sweetened condensed milk(whole milk)- 1 tin

milk powder- 2 cups

butter-4 tbsp(room temp)

crushed pistas and almonds- a few

food colour(optional)- any colour u like

saffron-(optional)- a few

silver warq- optional

cardomom powder- a pinch

Method

In a microwave bowl add the butter and heat it for 2 mins or till it is melted.

Add the milk powder and condensed milk, mix it well and microwave it for 2 minutes.

Add the cardomom powder,saffron and food colour at this stage and microwave for 4 minutes , taking out and stirring after 2 minutes.

Cool it completely and make pedas of ur desired shape.

Add crushed nuts on the top of the pedas and press it. Apply the silver warq.

note

For shaping the pedas take a lid from a small bottle, keep a few nuts inside and place a ball of pedas on it. press well and invert it. U will get lovely round pedas.

Cheese sticks

I made these cheese sticks while we were watching superbowl last sunday. My Daughter loves these cheese sticks and I always buy it from the frozen section. She was asking for cheese sticks last weekend and I didn't have it in the freezer.... So I thought 'Let me check out for the ingredients and if I have them at home I can do it '. I googled for cheese sticks and got many recipes for that.. I will give u the method by which I made. This is my entry for coffee's MBP.

Ingredients

mozarella cheese- 1 pk
Pancake mix-1/2 cup
cornstarch- 1 tsp
paprika- 1/2 tsp
bread crumbs/ flavoured bread crumbs- 1cup
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method

Slice the cheese to thick fingers(if u slice it thin it will melt fast)
Mix pancake mix, cornstarch, paprika and salt together in a bowl and add milk/water to form a thick paste.
Dip the cheese in the pancake batter , roll in the breadcrumbs and then again in the batter and finally in the crumbs again and deep fry in hot oil.(u have to do it twice so that the coating is strong)
Fry for one or two mins till both sides turn golden brown and serve hot with tomato sauce.

Note
The original recipe had eggs in it ..I did not use it but I strongly feel that if u dip the cheese in eggs , the coating will be more strong.If using eggs beat an egg or two in a seperate bowl, dip first in the batter, then egg and finally the bread crumbs.
The recipe said to use flavoured breadcrumbs.. I had some flavoured croutons and I just grinded it and used.. It was good.
U can substitute the pancakemix with flour and cornmeal.