in love with food: January 2008

January 26, 2008

RAW PAPAYA PARANTHAS

I am not a great fan of papaya, but at times I feel like having it especially on days I feel I should be eating healthy!, sometimes however I really enjoy some chilled sweet ripe papaya and feel how could I not like this??A very long time ago I had tasted kacche papita ka parantha (raw papaya parantha) and I remember I liked the taste so I thought of making these today.

Apart from being an excellent source of Vitamin A, it also contains the digestive enzyme-"papain", raw papaya is very good for tenderizing meat and if applied on the skin leaves it smooth and acne free!

Grated raw papaya -ready for stuffing into paranthas

Ingredients-

Raw papaya- 1 medium sized
Coriander leaves- a handful, chopped
Garam masala- 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Ajwain -1/4 tsp.
Salt to taste
Wheatflour for dough

Method-

Grate the papaya and squeeze out excess water, add all the other ingredients, mix well and keep aside.

Knead dough the usual way , stuff with the prepared raw papaya stuffing, cook on a hot griddle (tawa), smear with some pure ghee on both sides cook till golden brown.

Raw papaya paranthas -ready to eat with pickle, yellow butter and curd

These paranthas turned out so delicious it was hardly possible to discover it's basis, and I can bet that if you don't tell someone what they are stuffed with, no one can guess!

These are off to lovely Nags for AFAM-Papaya

Technorati Tags: raw papaya paranthas

January 23, 2008

QUICK COCOA FRUIT CAKE

I have been thinking of baking a fruit cake for ages, but somehow all the recipes of those gorgeous fruit cakes are so lengthy maybe really great for once in year kind of Christmas baking but what if you want a delicious fruit cake in a jiffy, this is exactly that kind of of Cake and the best part is that it keeps fresh for several weeks!

Quick Cocoa Fruit Cake

Ingredients-

Flour, sifted-1 1/2 cups
Sugar- 1 cup
Cocoa- 3 tbsp.
Salt- 1/2 tsp.
Egg- 1, well beaten
Soda- 1 tsp.
Butter(melted) / Refined oil- 5 tbsp.
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Milk- 3/4 cup
Vinegar- 1 tbsp.
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 cup chopped mixed fruit, dredged with flour

Method-

Take a large bowl and add all the ingredients, and mix together very well for 10 minutes.Preheat oven to 180 deg.C and bake for 45 mins. in a well greased and lined pan.

Cover immediately after removing from oven so that the cake remains soft, store in an airtight box.

This recipe yields one large cake, we really enjoyed it with Fruit Ice-Cream!.

This cake goes for my event-the theme for this month is Cakes and muffins .

Technorati Tags: quick cocoa fruit cake

January 15, 2008

"AL YAKKHN" Kashmiri garlic-flavoured bottlegourd

In continuation of my quest of recreating authentic Kashmiri dishes, I made this delicately spiced yogurt based dish, which has a subtle touch of garlic and has literally transformed the humble bottlegourd to gourmet level!

Today when I was making this Yakkhn, the aroma transported me back in time to my mother's tiny kitchen in Dehradun, where we all used to sit together and she would serve us Kashmiri food hot off the stove on cold winter nights.

If you are a new here do read my previous posts on Wazwan and Kashmiri spices and ingredients and if you like lamb do look up Kashmiri dhaniwal korma ,.....here is my first vegetarian recipe from the Valley.

"Al Yakkhn" -Kashmiri garlic flavoured bottlegourd, warm in my Nanima's (grandmother's) hand-embroidered Kashmiri shawl

Ingredients-

Bottle gourd (lauki)-1/2 kg, young and tender
Cooked yogurt -1/2 cup
Black cumin seeds (shah zeera)- 1/4 tsp
Pure desi ghee (clarified butter)-2 tsp
Turmeric (haldi)-1/4 tsp
Garlic (lasan) water - 1/2 tbsp
Cinnamon (dalchini)-2 sticks
Aniseed (moti saunf)- 1 tsp
Black cardamom (moti elaichi)- 1
Green cardamom (choti elaichi)- 4
Dry ginger powder (sonth)- 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method-

Peel the gourd and cut into discs, quarter the discs and remove the seeds like below

Add 1/2 tsp salt to these pieces, and wash well after 15 minutes, fry these pieces in refined oil till light golden.

Combine ghee, turmeric, bruised cardamoms, dry ginger powder, garlic water,cinnamon, salt, and aniseed in a large pan and boil for 10 minutes with 2 cups water, strain.

Add the fried gourd and cooked yogurt, cook till gourd is meltingly tender and gravy is thick, sprinkle black cumin seeds and serve with fresh boiled rice.

"Al Yakkhn"

I am sending this over to dear Sunita's event - Think spice,think garlic

Technorati Tags: kashmiri garlic flavoured bottlegourd

January 8, 2008

"These are a few of my favourite things"-Chocolate round up and announcing new theme for JAN-08

                         "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
                           Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
                           Brown paper packages tied up with strings
                           These are a few of my favourite things

                          Cream coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels
                          Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
                          Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
                          These are a few of my favourite things

                          Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
                          Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
                          Silver white winters that melt into springs
                          These are a few of my favourite things

                          When the dog bites
                          When the bee stings
                          When I'm feeling sad
                          I simply remember my favourite things
                          And then I don't feel so bad"

This lovely song from the movie-"Sound of music" totally sums up the mood of this event!, I would like to thank each one of you for the great entries and for making this a success!!, and... also looking forward to your participation every month.

The theme for this month is equally delightful and a favourite with all of us again!!!

Yes!! It is all about that tucked-away lovely recipe of Cakes and muffins ,which should be brought out this month!, Bake, bake bake... click and post and send it to me at- bindiyasingh7@gmail.com with the subject line- My favourite things-Cakes and Muffins , before the 7th of February 08 alongwith a picture of the same and a link to this post.

Now for the round up of the previous month's favourite theme-Chocolate....

A lovely walnut strudel from Dhivya, with chocolate!

Suganya's divine Chocolate creme pots with truffles

Home made chocolate truffles! from Arundati

Delicious Persimmon spice Cake baked to perfection by Mansi

TBC's great Chocolate balsamic truffles

What could be better than Mom's delight by Nagalakshmi

Sinful Mocha chocolate pots by who other than Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi

Bharathy's lovely Mexican hot chocolate

Delicious Home made chocolates! by Aparna

Superb Chocolate Sformato with amaretto whip by Siri

Namrata's to die for Fruit and Nut squares

Super duper Chocolate orange cupcakes from Deeba

Divine Cookies by Sunita

Unusual Chocolates and cinnamon crunchers by Rachel

Collection of favourite chocolates by Srivalli

Valli's beautiful Chocolate pudding

Slurp! Chocolate soup by Happy cook

Mouthwatering! Chocolate orange muffins by Rajitha

Beautiful Chocolate coated nuts by easycrafts

Pretty Cappucino hearts by pretty Zlamushka

Cute Cadbury's chocolates by Archana

Sweetiepie Asha's yummy brownie cookies

Kajal's delicious almond chocolates

Meera's favourite Five Star chocolate- mine too!!

Varada's simply divine chocolate fondue

Johanna's sinful fudge sauce with fruit

Chocolate cinnamon cakes-my entry

Selection of chocolates -my entry

Renuka's delightful Chocolate malai barfi

This roundup is enough for even diehard chocoholics like me to start salivating and, dear ravenous (after seeing this roundup!) reader- hope you had a great chocolatey New year ,coz I sure did!!!

Do check out all these delicious chocolate delights (just click on the picture or name to take you to the complete recipe)

Chao! till next round up!!!

Technorati Tags: my favourite things event chocolate round up

January 4, 2008

A NEW YEAR PARTY AND GREAT GRILLED FISH TIKKAS

My sister and brother-in-law hosted a lovely dinner at their place, this New year's eve, a quiet evening with some close friends and terrific food!, here's what the table looked like-

clockwise- cheese balls, masala almonds, chips, chicken and mutton seekh kababs, green chutney, yogurt dip and pickled onions

And believe me there was loads more, these were just appetizers- like this superb Grilled fish tikka, which just melted in my mouth!...and is unbelievably easy to make.....

MELT-IN-THE-MOUTH Grilled fish tikka's

Finally managed to get my hands on the recipe from my brother-in-law who made these !!here it is....

GRILLED FISH TIKKAS

Fresh fish (boneless) fillet- 1/2 kg

for the marinade-

Fresh thick curd- 1/2 cup
Ginger+garlic paste- 1/2 tsp
Gram flour(besan)- 1 tbsp.
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the fish overnight, just before serving put under grill for 20 minutes, serve hot with pickled onions, green coriander chutney and fresh yogurt dip, and of course ketchup if you like!