Bundle up Iron and Calcium!

Recipe for Palak Paneer

Palak, also known as Spinach is seriously a wonder green. Loaded with iron, it is said that 100g of spinach leaves can fulfill 25% of daily iron requirement. Palak is also loaded with vitamins - A, C and K primarily and there are amounts of folate and pyridoxine B vitamins too. 

It is quite ironical that I have written the above lines given that I used to run away from spinach and greens of all sorts when I was a kid. There's a traditional South Indian dish called Keerai Masiyal (a gravy made by grinding greens adorned with a tadka) from which I used to run away at super speeds. Basically, this dish changed the color of my snow white curd rice and I hated it for that. I hated beet root curry too for the same reason. 

But there is no more running !! I make palak parathas and am a big fan of Palak Paneer. 

Yes, this blog post is on a quick and simple recipe for Palak Paneer. 

Now, Paneer is another wonder ingredient, I tasted it for the first time in my class 7 when I went with my family, to eat out in Chennai. Eating out had not sunk in as a trend then as much as it is nowadays. A huge element of suspense was in store for me as I was about to relish Paneer Butter Masala with Naan at Sangeetha hotel, Mylapore, Chennai, back then. The exposure to Paneer was only minimal during school days and it got just as much a big routine during my college days at BITS, Pilani; there began a fondness for paneer which saw no abatement thereafter.

Paneer can be made at home by boiling milk, curdling it with lemon juice or vinegar, straining the curdled milk through a muslin cloth, squeezing excess water and leaving contents in muslin cloth undisturbed for say  an hour. The remains in muslin cloth gets solid and this is paneer, ready to be rinsed and used in gravies and dishes, also known as cottage cheese. Fresh paneer is available in most sweet shops and these have a shelf life of 1-2 days. Once opened, they should be stored in a bowl of water in refrigerator. Paneer is available in all stores under many brands, these have longer shelf life of 15-20 days; must be stored in cool case in refrigerator.

Paneer is a rich source of calcium and phosphorus. There is reasonable amount of cholesterol and fats in it, the usual stuff that tugs along with any dairy product. However, paneer is a very rich source of protein, matters a lot for pure vegetarians and should be included in one's diet in right preparations.   

Now after that brief introduction, let us get down to the recipe of Palak Paneer, a dish that kicks in enough calcium and iron into us in one go :) 

Ingredients (for two) 

Paneer 175 g cut into small cubes ( I used Milky Mist Paneer, available in most Bangalore retail stores, this one is super soft) 

Spinach/Palak leaves (2 medium bundles) 

1 medium sized tomato (roughly chopped) 

2 green chillies (roughly chopped) 

1 medium sized onion (finely chopped) 

1 garlic clove (finely chopped) 

1/2 inch ginger (finely chopped) 

Few sprigs of fresh coriander leaves (finely chopped for garnish) 

1 tsp turmeric powder

1-2 tsp red chilli powder (2 if you like it spicy) 

1/2  tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder 

1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 

1 tsp aamchur powder (used MDH brand, optional) 

1/2 tsp sugar 

salt to taste 

1/2 tsp garam masala powder (used home ground, pretty strong and so 1/2 tsp) 

2 tsp oil 

1 tsp ghee

Milk (5 tbsp) (along with it if you 1 tbsp cream , if you desire) 

Water required for gravy and grinding 

Method 

1. Saute the spinach leaves in a non stick pan after washing them thoroughly in tap water. 

2. Roughly chop tomato and green chillies and transfer (step 1 and step 2 stuff) them to a mixer. Grind using little water to nice gravy consistency

3. In the non stick pan, add oil and ghee, when warm , add jeera and let it splutter. 

4. Now add finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and fry well with turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder, salt and sugar. 

5. When fried well, transfer contents of the mixer, add little water and combine well. Let the gravy boil and begin to leave oil, reduce in volume. 

6. When the gravy shrinks, add paneer cubes and give a gentle mix. 

7. Add freshly chopped coriander, aamchur powder and garam masala and combine them well on strong flame. 

8. Now add milk and cream (no need for thick store bought cream, the one on top of boiled milk at home will suffice) and do not overheat as it leads to curdling and a sour taste to gravy. Combine well on medium flame and switch off the gas. Steps 7 and 8 are to be done on medium heat, totally towards the end of the process, should not take too long as masalas would lose flavor and curdling of milk/cream is not desired. 

Yummy Palak Paneer is ready to be served with phulkas or naans. 

Curry Leaves Thokku

It is not really uncommon to see people picking up curry leaves used in seasoning and keeping it aside. Sounds a very simple act, as if these curry leaves are meant for goats and other herbivores and not really for man :) 

However, if one knew the benefits of this simple, commonplace leaf used in seasoning, found in almost every dish in South Indian cuisine, the heavy cost of this act, one out of ignorance, can be realized. 

Curry leaves, a few of them, about 4-5, washed and eaten raw in the morning are said to reduce much unwanted abdominal fat. Curry leaves, soaked in warm water, laced with little honey is an age old remedy for constipation. Curry leaves churned along with butter milk not only enhance the flavor but help cure acidity and indigestion problems. Basically, these simple leaves, a rich source of iron and folic acid work wonders in small ways in every meal if we eat them religiously. 

Curry leaves rubbed and added to a ladle of coconut oil, heated lightly and applied onto scalp can promote healthy and jet black hair growth. I can stand a solid witness to this effect. 

Shanti Krishnakumar's Cook book is a blog which I have been following for over an year. Her recipes combine a mix of traditional Tamil recipes and many from the present, modern times. There are lots of useful tips that come in very handy. Please feel free to visit - http://shanthisthaligai.blogspot.in/ for any reference. 

So when Shanti Aunty listed out a recipe for curry leaves thokku in her blog space, I could not waste a minute and immediately set out to try it. The preparation time is about 20 minutes only and I loved the thokku very much. I mixed it with warm rice and a spoon of oil and relished it thoroughly. 

Here is the link to the recipe on Shanti Krishnakumar's Cook book - karuveppilai-thokku-curry-leaves-thokku

I am jotting down the ingredients and the method for any direct/future personal reference. I omitted the use of sundakkai or turkey berry prescribed in the original recipe as I did not have them at home when making the thokku. 

INGREDIENTS:
Curry leaves - 4 cups tightly packed
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball
Dry red chillies - 4 (I used 5)
Pepper - 1/4 tsp (I used a little over 1/4 tsp, may be 1/2)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Ghee - 1 tsp.
Gingelly oil - 1 ladle
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Hing - a pinch

Method: 

1. Soak the tamarind in little water to soften it. 

2. In a thick bottomed pan, add ghee and when warm, add to it pepper and red chillies and fry them well. Add them to the mixer. 

3. Add the softened tamarind as well to the hot pan and saute once, add to the mixer. 

4. Wash the curry leaves and drain all water, saute in the same pan till all moisture is lost, add little extra ghee if needed. Add this too to the mixer. 

5. When all contents in the mixer are cooled, grind well to a paste. 

6. In the same pan, add gingelly oil, when the oil is hot, add cumin seeds, mustard, hing and salt to taste, transfer the thick curry leaves paste from the mixer to this pan. Mix and stir well until oil begins to leave the sides. 

7. At this stage, transfer to an air tight container, clean and free from moisture, store for later use.  


Thanks to Shanti Aunty for sharing such a valuable recipe :) 

Eggless Mango Cake

Come summer and it rains mangoes :) The Senthuram variety has hit many juice junctions in Bangalore and people are guzzling mango milk shakes like never before, may me to a greater extent this year with the heat being unbearable. The Banganapalli variety has just begun to make a meek appearance in local markets. 

Last week, I managed to grab half a dozen Alphonso mangoes from a super market here. Alphonso mangoes are known for their rich orange-red, highly juicy pulp and fibrous texture. I used two of these mangoes, extracted pulp out of them and decided to bake a cake.It was worth trying as the idea was quite different from usual stuff like milk shake, jam and mango burfi fare made using mango pulp. 

There are many eggless cake recipes I have followed from multiple blogs, from all of them I drew cues for the ingredients and their measurements required and eventually constructed a recipe out of it all. Quite a daring challenge, I must say, given the hefty price of Alphonso mangoes. 

Here goes the list of ingredients and the quantity required: 

1 cup atta 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup mango pulp (used two Alphonso mangoes) 

1/2 tsp cardomom powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

2.5 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup oil 

1/3 cup milk 

a little over 1/2 cup castor sugar (little over can sum up to a heaped table spoon in addition) 

icing sugar for dusting 

Method: 

In a big bowl, add the mango pulp, cardomom powder, vanilla essence, sugar and mix well using a hand mixer at moderate speed for two minutes. 

Add milk to this mixture and baking powder and whisk again using the hand mixer for a minute. 

Now add oil too and give a thorough blend for less than a minute and keep this mixture aside.

To this, add the flour mixture and fold in well using a spatula. No need to use the hand mixer at this stage, just patiently fold in the flour into the wet ingredients avoiding lumps. 

Grease a tin and dust it with flour, alternatively you can line a tin with some parchment paper. I used a 8'' round tin. 

Preheat the oven to 180'C and pour in the cake batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes till an inserted knife comes out clean, check the center of the cake specially. 

Cool , invert and dust icing sugar all over the top of the cake using a fine sieve. This cake came out little moist and dense with rich taste of mango pulp. Somehow, I found the cake tasting richer and better the day after baking. 

Below is a picture of the cake, a slice cut out from it-

Eggless Mango Cake 

Simple and Healthy: Wheat Dosa

I am sure many of us would have heard this, multiple times from doctors and friends - if you intend to lose weight, avoid high glycemic foods like Maida, Aloo and try to avoid Rice. Now if you are a South Indian, the avoidance of the last item might prove a Herculean task. How can one imagine breakfast without idli and dosa? In hot summers that parches one's throat, to eat rotis only during afternoon might seem next to impossible. Please give me curd and rice will be the appeal. While the ban on Maida should be taken a bit seriously and restraint be exercised on Aloo intake too, rice intake's damage can be controlled if the quantity of veggies and salad that go along with rice as accompaniments are just double the proportion of rice eaten itself.

To start with, all these restraints might feel too strenuous. But to make something a habit, it is widely accepted that all you need is stringent practice and upkeep of rules for a period of three weeks, then things no longer appears difficult.

Dosa is best made when one uses rice and urad dal. There is absolutely no match to this blend. But no need to forgo this completely. If you have restrictions try to insert this simple and healthy wheat dosa in your routine at times and believe me you even get a discount too while preparing this ;)

Ingredients
To make 4-5 dosas 
3/4 cup whole wheat atta flour 
1 big/heaped tablespoon of rice flour (this is the discount I was talking about for the rice lovers) 
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 
Few curry leaves 
1 tsp hing 
Salt to taste 
Water and 2 table spoons of curd to make the batter using all of the above

Method
Make a batter using all of the above ingredients. The batter must be little thin and runny, little thinner than our normal dosa batter but not as runny as rava dosa batter also. Sounds confusing? 
Prepare the batter and keep aside for 10-15 minutes. 
If you want to make the process little complex, then add chopped onion and coriander too to the batter. If you are adding onion, you can remove hing. My mother in law says that where onion comes into play, hing is not required at all as it is rendered useless in taste. 
Heat the dosa tawa on flame, pour a ladle of the batter, spread into a circular dosa using the ladle. Cook on both sides and serve with idli chutney powder/dosa molagai podi. You can use any chutney as accompaniment. The hing added and curry leaves actually yield very tasty dosas and surely this recipe is worth a try. 

Big note of advise
I have used all brands of Atta - Aashirwad, Annapurna and Pillsbury; I feel somehow all these brands feign it (big time) when they say theirs is 100% atta and no maida added. 
For the last few months, I have started buying whole wheat grains and get them ground in the flour mill close to my house. This atta which is freshly ground, I must say, is pure and there is a lot of difference when I use them in the same recipes. 

Wheat dosa getting ready!

Nutty Minty Chutney

This is a yummy, little coarse chutney that goes well with dosas, bread sandwich and even rotis too. I learnt this from my mother. And I must say, this chutney works wonders with the main course - 100% 

Ingredients (these will yield chutney required for 2, may be accompaniment for about 10 dosas) 

1/2 cup groundnuts 

1 medium sized onion (chopped into chunks) 

1 big garlic pod 

1/2 inch long piece of tamarind 

1 tsp urad dal

4-5 long red chillies (long salem red chillies is the variety used, adjust according to level of spice, 4 would be apt) 

1 medium sized tomato (chopped into chunks) 

A handful of mint leaves (Pudina), you can add few more sprigs in addition if you love the freshness of Pudina

Coriander leaves (little less than the amount of mint leaves used) 

Turmeric powder

Oil 

Salt to taste 

1 tsp grated coconut (optional) 

Method

1. First in a dry kadai/pan, roast the groundnuts well, until the outer peel turns brown-little black. Add this to the mixer. 

2. In the same kadai, add 1 tsp of oil, fry in it - the red chillies, urad dal and transfer this to the mixer (when chillies and dal change color and give aroma) 

3. Add one more tsp of oil now, add onion chunks, garlic (chopped) , tamarind, tomato chunks, coriander leaves and pudina leaves, saute well adding turmeric powder and salt to taste. Saute well until the raw smell of all these veggies and greens go off. Transfer this all to the mixer now. 

4. As an option, adding little coarseness, add 1 tsp grated coconut to the mixer contents. 

5. Grind all the contents of the mixer adding very little water only (if required). The resultant chutney must not be thoroughly ground and must have a coarse texture. 

Yummy chutney READY :) 

Soft dosas served with chutney

Sugar and Spice and all things nice

It is customary to make kheer or payasam when there is a festival or special puja at home. The payasam or kheer would be made from rice if it was Tamil New year day, from jackfruit and coconut milk if it was Vishu, from rice pieces and coconut milk (Palada Pradhaman) if it was Onam and from moong dal and jaggery if it was Varalakshmi Vratham...many variations of a simple milk based dish to suit different occasions. 

I broke this convention recently on one such important occasion and prepared Atta Burfi; I must say it was a welcome change. My mother makes a certain sweet called 7 cup cake during Deepavali and the Atta Burfi  I prepared takes its cues from this sweet.

So here goes the recipe for this very simple and super delicious sweet which took me a preparation time of 15 minutes. The measure of ingredients can yield about 10-12 medium sized pieces of atta burfi. 

Atta Burfi

Ingredients

1/2 cup Atta (whole wheat) flour

1/4 cup milk powder 

Cardomom powder (3/4 tsp) 

Saffron (about 10-12 strands) 

Ghee (6-8 tablespoons, I used 6 and that was sufficient) 

Sugar (little less than 1/2 cup) 

Method

Prepare a one string consistency sugar syrup using sugar and little water in a non stick pan. When the sugar syrup is just beginning to thicken to the consistency required, add saffron strands and stir well. The syrup would turn yellow due to the saffron strands and leave a pleasant aroma; quite unparalleled. 

Now lower the flame, add atta and milk powder slowly to the sugar syrup. Stir well avoiding any lumps in the flour. 

Start adding ghee spoon by spoon to the mixture in the pan. Stir well to bring all of the contents in the pan together. When mixing with a ladle, the contents of the pan, at some point, will come together as a big clump or a mass. Ghee will begin to leave from this mass onto the sides of the pan. This is the stage when one adds the cardamom powder, gives one final, quick stir and turns off the stove.  

Before you set out on the whole process, prepare a well greased container into which you will transfer the hot sweet from the stove. The contents of the pan are transferred to the greased container and allowed to cool. 

If the sugar syrup was of the right consistency and if you had not turned off the stove in a hurry; the sweet will begin to solidify and set. 

While the greased container is still hot to touch, make lines/patterns on the sweet running a knife so that you can cut and serve the burfi when cold. Strike while the iron is hot :) 

Upon complete cooling, lift cut portions of atta burfi using the knife, serve on a plate. 

Atta Burfi, cooled and cut pieces in an air tight container

Chick peas Sundal 

The black chick peas variety is my favorite and I always make a sundal out of it for every puja or festival at home. After everything sweet and sugary, I really crave for some salt and spice intake. I am sure this is a very widely known recipe. However, I am listing it for the sake of completion. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup black chick peas (soaked in water for about 6-8 hours) 

1 tsp oil 

1/2 tsp mustard

Few curry leaves

Little (say 1 tsp) idly chutney powder (dosa molaga podi) 

Salt to taste
Pinch of turmeric powder

Method 

Pressure cook the black chick peas with water for about 3 full whistles. Add required salt, little turmeric powder while cooking in the pressure cooker. If you want the black chick peas to be cooked well and be really soft, add 1/2 tsp ghee along with salt and turmeric powder. 

When out of the cooker, drain excess water, take a pan, add oil, when the oil is hot, add mustard, curry leaves and transfer the boiled chick peas to the pan. Stir and fry well for few minutes. Add idly chutney powder to the chick peas, give a quick and thorough mix, turn off the stove and serve. 

One can add broken urad dal (1/2 tsp) along with mustard and sprinkle grated coconut (1 tsp) in the end to make the sundal more fanciful.

Chick peas sundal and Atta Burfi - Sugar and Spice and all things Nice :) 

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 3

Whole Wheat Garlic Pull Apart Rolls 

I tried this recipe some time last week and I must say it yielded really tasty and soft rolls. This recipe is adapted from Divya Kudua's Easy Cooking blog, please follow http://www.divyascookbook.com/2012/04/whole-wheat-garlic-pull-apart-rolls.html 

I am re writing the recipe - list of ingredients and method here for direct reference. 

Ingredients

Whole wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Lukewarm Water - 1 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Olive Oil - 2 tsp

For the Garlic spread
Softened butter - 2 tbsp
Garlic cloves - 4-5,finely chopped
Green chilly - 1,finely chopped
Fresh Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp,finely chopped

Method  

There are many illustrations on Divya Kudua's blog for this recipe and they are highly explanatory and more than sufficient. 

1. Warm water, Sugar and Yeast are mixed together in a small bowl and stirred vigorously until frothing happens. Frothing depends on both the quality of yeast in use and the temperature of water - must not be boiling hot as it will kill yeast and not mildly warm as it may be inadequate to activate yeast. When warm water is touched with one's finger, the warmth must just be tolerable. So now this is where it all gets really subjective and that is precisely what makes working with yeast highly challenging. 

2. Add salt too to this yeast mixture and keep aside for 5-10 minutes. 

3. In a bigger bowl, with sufficient space to knead, add the flour mixture, yeast and olive oil and make a soft dough kneading well. Do not add all of the yeast with water mixture in one go, check for softness and stickiness of the dough and then add. Cover the dough after kneading with a moist cloth and keep aside in a warm place, undisturbed for an hour. 

4. Now for making the garlic spread - add all ingredients to warm butter in a pan, mix well. 

5. Divide the dough into two equal halves. From one portion, roll the dough into a rough rectangle using a pin, smearing sufficient flour on the kitchen slab/work space and apply the garlic spread well on to it. Roll the rectangle, cut into spirals. For this step, Divya Kudua's illustrations can be of immense help. Now she's a really patient blogger, I say. Repeat rolling, cutting into spirals with the remaining dough as well. 

6. Grease  a pan with olive oil and place the spirals in an arrangement. Allow these rolls to rest in the pan for about 30 minutes more.

7. Brush the top of rolls with little milk (helps better browning), preheat oven at 180'C and bake at this temperature for 30 minutes. 

8. Upon removing from the oven, cool the rolls, pull them apart, devour them with a cup of hot tea. 

Eggless Baking: Custard powder Cherry Cake

One more attempt at baking a cake and this time too I picked up a recipe for trial from Divya Kudua's Easy Cooking blog. Please follow the link - Eggless custard powder snack cake for the original recipe.

I made some modifications to the recipe in the above link and I am glad these changes I made did not let me down. Without further ado, below is the list of ingredients I used and the method.

Ingredients

All Purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Vanilla flavoured Custard Powder - 3/4 cup (I used Brown and Polson brand) 
Baking powder - 2 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1 cup 
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 cup 
Milk - 1 cup
Cherries (sweetened) - 50 g (cut into halves) 
The recipe I followed by Divya Kudua uses butter 150 g instead of oil and 3/4 cup sugar. 


Method


1.In a bowl, take milk, sugar and beat well using an electrical hand mixer at low speed for a minute. To this add, the baking powder and beat again, let the mixture rest for a while and ensure bubbles appear at the top. 


2.Add oil too to this mixture and beat well, again for a whole minute. 


3.Add vanilla essence and beat for a few seconds. 


4. Prior to performing steps 1-3, sift custard powder and flour together and keep aside. 


5. Prepare the tin for baking. I used an eight inch ring mould/bundt cake tin. I lined bottom and sides with oil, after greasing, placed cherries onto the bottom of the tin, sprinkled little flour on the sides and bottom. 


6.Preheat the oven to 180'C 


7. Fold in the flour and custard powder mixture to the wet ingredients in the bowl of step 3 , fold smoothly ensuring there are no lumps. 


8. Pour the cake batter prepared into the ring mould slowly. Bake at 180'C for 45 minutes, check for the knife coming out clean. 


9. Cool the cake on rack and invert, if baked well, the cake will come out as a whole with cherries engraved on top. 


I used oil instead of butter, used little extra sugar and the results were right for me. The cake was nice yellow in color due to addition of custard powder. The cherries on top added little richness to the otherwise simple, snack cake. 


Below are some pictures - 

Cake in the tin, waiting for it to cool - the apple perched on top of the tin is just for a minor special effect

Tin inverted, cake comes out clean, cherries seen on top of the cake

Eggless Baking: Chocolate Walnut Cake

My Microwave Convection oven is back after some repair work and I have been earnestly trying to make up for time lost not baking. The baking spree is also on to test if my oven has really got back to good working condition.... stress testing it :) 

This recipe is from Divya Kudua's Easy Cooking - Eggless Chocolate Walnut cake. I am writing down the ingredients and procedure down here for any direct reference. There is a difference in temperature setting I used from the blog I referred to. 

Ingredients

Flour - 1 cup

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup (I used Cadbury's Cocoa powder) 

Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp (used BRU instant coffee powder) 

Thick curd(homemade) - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup (this quantity yields sufficiently sweet cake, just perfect)

Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Chopped Walnuts - 1/2 cup (tossed them in sugar)

Chocolate vermicelli - 2 tbsp (these are also like choco chips, but slender and rod shaped) 

Method

1. In a mixing bowl,beat together - sugar and curd till creamy. Mix in baking powder,baking soda and vanilla essence,beat well at low speed in electrical hand mixer. Let it rest for a couple of minutes till bubbles appear. 

2. Beat in oil into this at the same speed for a minute. 

3. Sift together flour,cocoa powder and coffee powder and keep aside. 

If the coffee powder is not powdery (happens that Bru gets sticky and solid quite fast), then beat it along with the other ingredients in step 1. 

4. Add the flour mix to beaten wet ingredients and fold in using a spatula to form a smooth batter  without any lumps. 
5. Prepare a tin, I used a 6 inch square tin, first rub on its sides and bottom little unsalted butter (softened) and once the greasing is done, dust little flour on sides and bottom. 

6. Pour the cake batter into the tin and top it with chopped walnuts and give a generous dash of chocolate vermicelli. 

7. Preheat the oven to 180'C and then bake the cake for 45 minutes (use a knife, check if it comes out clean to confirm end of baking) 

8. Cool the cake completely after baking, if baked well, you can invert it intact and I was lucky to get a perfect, well baked cake. The cake is one awesome thing to eat and relish and will surely vanish in a jiffy. 

A closer look at the cake 

Step 1 is very important for a fluffy cake, beat sugar and curd well along with baking powder and baking soda (I used my NOVA electric hand mixer at low speed for a minute) and let is rest for a while till bubbles appear. Step 4 is also important, take care to fold in the flour slowly using a spatula and check there are no lumps.



Not that I intended to bake this cake for any special reason, but Chennai Super Kings clinched a marvelous win that evening against Royal Challengers Bangalore, chasing the second highest total ever in IPL. Many thanks to Divya Kudua of Easy Cooking blog for sharing the recipe for such a delectable cake. 

Baigun Bhaja and Alu Bhaja - Lessons from East

The Khichadi prepared (please follow my blog post Khichadi) goes well with Baigun Bhaja (Brinjal fry) and Alu Bhaja (potato fry). Khichadi being little bland, blends perfectly well with these spicy, tawa fried vegetables. Khichadi along with these bhajas make a favorite dish for Bengalis.  

For Baigun Bhaja


Ingredients
1 big brinjal 
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste 
Pinch of sugar 
Red chilli powder
Oil for shallow frying 


Procedure
1. Cut the top and bottom portions of the big brinjal and discard. Make round slices (about 1 cm in thickness) from the rest of brinjal. 
2. On a plate, add about 2 tsp of turmeric, salt to taste, a pinch of sugar, 1 tsp red chilli powder (you can add one more tsp of this if you like the bhaja to be more spicy) and mix all these dry powders well. 
3. Coat the brinjal slices on both sides evenly with this mixture prepared in step 2. Take a brinjal slice and dab it on the mixture in plate. Keep these coated brinjal slices aside for 5 minutes. 
4. Take a fry pan and add about 2-3 tbsp of oil, heat the pan lightly so that the oil spreads to cover the surface of the pan. 
5. Place these brinjal slices on the heated oil, cover with lid and cook on medium flame. Open at times to ensure that the slices do not get charred. Turn over to cook the other side as well after one side becomes soft and mushy. 
6. There is no need to add more oil to cook the other side of brinjal slices, just sprinkle little water and ensure that there is enough moisture. The brinjal slices will cook well. 
7. The Baigun Bhaja is ready when both sides become soft, press the center of the slice with a ladle and ensure it is soft. Remove the Bhaja onto a plate. 

Brinjal to be used for Baigun Bhaja

Slices of Brinjal, ready to be coated with masalas

Masala coated brinjal slices getting shallow fried in tawa

How to make Alu Bhaja?

Ingredients

1/4 kg small alu (potatoes) 

Oil for frying 

Turmeric 

Chilli powder

Hing

Salt to taste

Rice flour

Procedure

1. Pressure cook the small potatoes for 3 whistles. Upon cooling, peel them and keep them aside. 

2. Prepare a masala mixture combining about 2 tsp of turmeric powder, 3 tsp chilli powder (if you like the alu spicy), salt to taste, generous shower of hing and 2 tsp rice flour. The last two ingredients of the mixture are additions from my side. I always like the flavor of hing and rice flour addition makes the alu crispy. 

3. Coat the boiled and peeled potatoes evenly using the mixture prepared in step 2. 

4. Take a fry pan, add little oil - about 2 tbsp and heat well so that oil spreads to cover the surface of the pan. Add the coated potatoes to this oil, cover and cook. Open the lid at times to check the potatoes do not get charred, shake the pan to ensure the potatoes are cooked on all sides. Sprinkle very little water and cover again with lid and cook, if there is any doubt. 

Alu bhaja

I have chosen small potatoes as shown in the picture above to prepare alu bhaja.You can use normal, medium sized potatoes for alu bhaja in which case, there is no need to pressure cook them. Peel the big potatoes, cut them into thick slices, coat the slices in masala mixture in step 2 and carry on with the frying process in the tawa.