Guacamole

Guacamole is a classic Mexican dip that is usually served with nachos and tortilla chips. Ripe avocados mashed just enough with a little bite left, seasoned with salt, lime and chillis, this one is one sure shot winner. Onions, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic and pepper are also used to add flavor to this recipe. One word of caution though, it is loaded with calories ( avocado being rich in fats, good ones actually but still it is FAT ).

I have given a little twist to this recipe by using finely chopped avocado instead of the mashed one ( which can also be used as a salad ) and replacing 1/3 of the avocado with crunchy tender cucumbers ( which reduces the total calories consumed ). The cucumber adds a refreshing flavor to this yummy dip. Read on for the recipe:

Preparation Time - 10 minutes ( + 30 minutes in the fridge )

Ingredients - 2/3 of a ripe avocado ( sliced and seeded ), 1/2 of a small cucumber, 1 small red onion, 1 tsp chilli flakes, juice of 1 lemon, salt to taste, 1-2 tbs chopped cilantro.

Preparation - Scoop out the flesh of the avocado and finely chop it. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Peel the cucumber and finely chop it. Repeat the process for the onion. Transfer both to the mixing bowl containing the avocado.

Add salt, chilli flakes, lemon juice and cilantro. Mix nicely.

Cover and allow to sit in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Spoon on some over your chips/nachos or serve as a salad.

Tip: If you are desperate for sinking your teeth into some guacamole and the avocados are still green, throw in one or two ripe bananas into a paper bag and put the avocado into it. Store in a cool dark place . The avocados will ripen within a day or two. But remember to put the ripe ones in the fridge else they get spoiled very soon.

Doodh Peda

Ganapathi Bappa is known to be partial to laddoos, his favorite sweet. 'Til ke laddoos in particular' retorted my MIL. But since i did not have any til or sesame in stock, I decided to offer something different to the Lord on this Ganesh Chaturthi. One quick recipe that came to my mind was 'Doodh Peda'. Not the traditional variety which takes hours but an improvised version with condensed milk and milk powder. Here is the recipe:

Preparation Time - 20 mins

Ingredients - 1 cup condensed milk ( milkmaid/mithai mate ), 2 cups milk powder, 2 tsp ghee, 14-15 almonds, almond essence.

Preparation - Take the condensed milk and milk powder in a heavy bottomed vessel ( preferably non-stick ). Mix well till no lumps remain.

Cooking - Put the vessel on a low flame. Add the ghee. Stir continuously for 9-10 minutes till the mixture thickens and just starts to leave the bottom and sides of the vessel. ( if the mixture is cooked for longer time, the peda turns hard )

Remove from flame and allow to cool down till it is bearable to touch.

Take small balls of the dough. Roll into small balls without any cracks and flatten with the thumb. ( If it is too hard, add 5-6 drops of warm milk and knead well. If it is still hard, repeat the process till dough is pliable enough )

Stick a almond into the middle of each peda. Allow to cool down.

Store in a airtight container in a fridge. Stays fresh till one week to ten days.

Badam Pakoda ( Peanut Fritters )

Peanuts, also known as ground nuts or monkey nuts are loaded with essential nutrients. They are a rich source of Vitamin E, niacin, folate, magnesium and phosphorus. With a high MUFA or 'good fat' content, zero trans-fat and zero sodium content, they are a boon for people suffering from cardiovascular problems. It's manganese content also helps regulate blood sugar levels.

Another reason to munch on peanuts ( other than being pocket-friendly ) is the presence of p-coumaric acid and resveratol, both powderful anti-oxidants that fight the aging process and the sundry aliments associated with it.

Peanut pakora is a snack that is equally loved in the North as well as South India. Here's the recipe:

Preparation Time - 15-20 mins

Ingredients - 3/4 cup raw peanuts, 2 tsp corn flour, 3 tsp besan or gram flour, 1 tsp red chilli powder, pinch of asafoetida, salt to taste, 2 pinch amchur, 1/4 tsp jeera-lanka powder or roasted cumin powder, oil for frying.

Preparation - Dry roast the peanuts for 3 minutes in a pan. Remove from pan and allow to cool down.

Take the corn flour, gram flour, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, asafoetida and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the peanuts and mix well.

Add 1 tsp of hot oil. Sprinkle a little water at a time and try to form into a loose dough. It should be just enough to coat the peanuts and not watery.

Cooking - Heat oil for frying in a wok. Add the peanuts in small batches, while separating the peanuts with your fingers before adding to the oil.

Fry on low to medium flame till the sizzling sound dies away. (3-4 mins)

Remove from wok and keep on tissue paper to absorb excess oil. Repeat for remaining peanut dough.

Add the remaining chilli powder, jeera-lanka powder, amchur powder and pinch of salt to the roasted peanuts. Shake well to coat the peanuts.

Allow to cool down for becoming crunchy. Store in a airtight container.

Palak Paneer ( Cheese in Spinach gravy )

Palak or spinach is one of the most nutrient dense foods available to us in abundance and at an economical rate. Along with a high water content and soluble fibre content, it is loaded with vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, folate, manganese, iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6. It’s a very good source of protein, phosphorus, vitamin E, zinc and copper. Also it’s a good source of selenium, niacin, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

But since it is loaded with pesticides and fertilizers ( common problem with most leafy vegetables as they grow so near to the soil ), one should prefer the organic version whenever possible. I myself buy the 'Gopalan' brand that is stocked by Bigbasket.com.

I try to keep on incorporating it my diet and often come up with new combinations. But today i am sharing a popular and all time favorite recipe 'Palak Paneer'. Read on :

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients - 350 gm paneer, 1 bunch of spinach ( 2 1/2 - 3 cups ), 2 medium sized onion, 1 1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1-2 green chillli, 1/2 teaspoon jeera-lanka powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp Fortune Rice Bran oil, butter, salt to taste, turmeric.

Preparation - Cut the paneer into cubes.

Remove the stems from the spinach and chop roughly. Cut the onions into large pieces.


Cooking - Heat water in a pan. Add salt and turmeric and bring to a boil.

Add paneer cubes and boil for 5-6 minutes. Drain water and keep aside.

Boil fresh water in another pan. Add the spinach leaves and boil for 1-2 minutes. Drain the water and wash in cold water. Keep aside to drain off all the water.

Heat oil in a wok. Add half of the chopped onions and fry to translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the green chilli and spinach leaves with salt to taste. Fry for 3-4 minutes.

Transfer to a blender cup, allow to cool down a bit and grind into a smooth paste.


Add some butter to the same wok. Add the remaining onions and fry till translucent. Add the green paste prepared earlier with jeera-lanka powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add paneer cubes and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot with pulao rice/basmati rice/rotis.

Cheese Veggie Strips

Kids love all kinds of fried stuff. Though they are high on calories, i do give in at times and make something for my little one. This time i used some veggies and cheese along with a little seasoning to make these easy snacks. The strips can be made and stored in the fridge for 2-3 days .

Preparation Time - 20-25 minutes

Ingredients - 1 medium sized boiled and peeled potato, 2 tbs finely chopped carrots, 2 tbs finely chopped beans, 2 tbs sweet corn, 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp finely chopped garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper powder, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder or 1 tsp chilli sauce , salt to taste, 2 tsp finely chopped coriander.

For the outer layer - 1 cup freshly made bread crumbs, 1 tbs cornflour, little cornflour for dusting, salt to taste, oil for shallow frying.

Preparation - Take all the ingredients ( except those for the outer layer ) into a mixing bowl. Mix well and shape into long flat strips.

Take the 1 tbs cornflour and mix it with 3-4 tbs of water. Add a little salt and form a thin batter.

Take the breadcrumbs in a flat plate. ( To make fresh bread crumbs, take 2 slices of bread, cut off the sides and transfer to a food processor. Buzz for 1 second. Fresh breadcrumbs are ready. )

Cooking - Heat the oil in a wok.

Take each strip, dust it with a little cornflour, dip in the thin batter and roll in the breadcrumbs.

Dip in the hot oil and fry till light brown on both sides.

Serve with chilli & tomato sauce.

Panchamrit

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi To All !!! Ganapathi Bappa Moriya!!

Panchamrit can be literally translated as 'five nectars'. It is used as an offering during pooja. After doing the abhisekha with it, it is distribute among the devotees as prasadam.

Preparation time - 5 mins

Ingredients -  2 tsp milk, 2 tsp curd, 1 tsp ghee, 1 tsp honey , 1 tsp jaggery/sugar.

Preparation - Take a clean vessel and add milk, curd, honey and jaggery/sugar. Mix well. Add ghee at the last.

Note - Tulsi leaves can also be added to the above prasadam.

Korua (milk solids ) Ladoo

I usually make ghee at home every month. After cooking the butter and draining off the golden colored liquid ( ghee ), one is left with these brown colored nutty flavored sediments/residue. They are quite nutritious and i almost always end up incorporating them in my meals/snacks/desserts. This time Ganesh Chaturthi being around the corner, i incorporated them into laddoos ( Ganeshji's favorite snack ). This is an easy breezy recipe. Read on:

Preparation Time - 10-15 mins

Ingredients - Milk solids ( 2 cups ), whole wheat flour ( 3/4 - 1 cup ), powdered jaggery ( to taste ).

Preparation - If the milk solids are a little lumpy, freeze them. Take into a grinder cup, buzz for 20-30 seconds and turn into coarse powder.

Cooking - Heat a non-stick vessel on low flame ( i had reused the vessel in which i made the ghee ). Add the milk solids. Fry for 1 minute.

Sprinkle the flour, a little at a time and mix well. The contents of the vessel should look like one whole mass/lump and not powdery ( else the laddoo will not have binding ).

Fry for 5-6 minutes till the flour is roasted.

Add the powdered jaggery, mix thoroughly and cook for 2 minutes.

Remove from flame and allow to cool down till it is bearable to touch.

Take small amounts of the mixture into your palm and shape into balls/laddoos. If they are not binding or too powdery, add 1-2 tsp of melted warm ghee to the mixture.

These laddoos can be stored in the refrigerator for a month.

Khari pakoda

Khari biscuits are a favorite with almost everyone. They are light, airy and wonderfully crispy. I usually serve them to my guests with tea ( yeah i do try to resist them....loaded with butter...u know :) ) and they disapper in minutes. But at times some are left in the cupboard for too long or maybe hubby forgot to close the container properly and they lose their flavor ( no Tupperware/LocknLock works in this case ) . I had been putting those in the dustbin till last week.

But then i heard Ranbir Kapoor singing about 'Khari pakoday' with 'nukkad ki chai' in the promos of his latest flick 'Besharam'. Voila, and a new dish was born. Initially i tried making pakoras with the broken crumbs of khari biscuit and they are ok-ok types. But then i tried to take each biscuit, pull apart the layers and then dip them into the batter individually before frying. I must say these pakoras are wonderfully crisp and totally worth the effort.

Preparation time - 15 mins

Ingredients - Khari biscuits, oil for frying.

For the batter - 4 tbs besan, 1 tsp cornflour, 1/3 tsp jeera-lanka ( cumin-chilli ) powder, 1/3 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp coriander shoots finely chopped, 1 tsp green chilli finely chopped, salt to taste.

Preparation - Take all the ingredients for batter in a mixing bowl. Add water and make into a paste of medium consistency. Keep aside for 15-20 mins.

Cooking - Heat oil in a wok.

Take each khari biscuit and pull apart into 3-4 layers. Dip each piece into the batter and leave in the oil. Fry till light golden brown. Remove and keep on a tissue to drain excess oil.

Serve hot with tomato sauce and tea.

Drumstick kadhi ( Sajana Chuein kanji )

There used to be a patch of 'Khada Saga' (Amaranth) growing in our vegetable garden during my childhood days. They are perennial plants and one can harvest and eat the leaves and tender stems throughout the year. Once cut, the leaves and stems grow back in a fortnight. But during the summer months, the foliage reduces, the plants shoot up in height and start flowering. It is now time to cut and remove the main stems called 'Khada'. These make a wonderful 'kanjee', a lightly flavoured sour soup and an appetizing raee with badi and saru (colocasia).

Since i havn't been able to source and khada outside Orissa, i turned to using drumsticks for this kanjee. Though the taste is quite different, i quite enjoyed this new recipe.

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients - 2-3 drumsticks ( chopped in 2" or 3" pieces ), 1/2 cup sour yogurt, 1 tsp besan, 1-2 red chilli, 1 sprig curry leaf, 1/3 tsp mustard seeds, 2 tsp oil, salt to taste, pinch of asafoetida, pinch of turmeric.

Preparation - Lightly beat the yogurt. Add besan and salt and dilute with 1 1/2 cup water.

Cooking - Boil the drumstick with a little salt and turmeric till tender. Drain all the water and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the broken red chilli and mustard seeds followed by the curry leaves and asafoetida. Add the boiled drumstick and fry for 30 seconds.

Reduce the flame and add the besan-yogurt mixture slowly while stirring continuously. Stir for 2-3 minutes and bring to boil. Allow to simmer for 3 minutes.

Serve hot with white rice.

Note - one can also add a touch of mustard garlic paste to the kanjee/kadhi. It gives a wonderful flavor.

Poee Raee

This is my 300th post and such a special occasion is the right time to get the spotlight back on Orissa. When i first started writing this blog my sole objective was to showcase the cuisine and food habits of Orissa. My initial posts do bear a testimony to that. But since we all inhabit a cosmopolitan world, my latter posts were influenced by the varied cuisine that i came in contact with.

'Raee' or vegetables cooked in a light mustard gravy is a signature dish of Orissa. While some people add cumin along with the mustard, garlic may or may not be added depending on the day(vrat/osa bara). Usually vegetables  like raw banana, colocasia and brinjal are added to this preparation but i have skipped those due to a food allergy in the family.

Preparation Time-20-30 mins

Ingredients - 4 cups chopped poee, 1 cup pumpkin cubes, 1/2 cup ridge gourd cubes, 1/2 cup potato cubes, 1 medium sized tomato chopped, 2-3 garlic flakes, 1 small onion chopped, 1/2 tsp pancha-phutana or mustard seeds, 1 dry red chilli, 1/3 tsp turmeric, salt to taste, 4 tsp oil.

For the mustard paste: 1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 5-6 garlic cloves, 1 red chilli.

Preparation: Grind the mustard, cumin and red chilli into coarse powder in dry state .Then add a little water along with garlic flakes and grind again into a fine paste.

Cooking: Heat 1-2 tsp oil in a wok. Add the chopped poee and stir fry on high flame till excess water evaporates. Remove and keep aside.

Add the remaining oil to the wok. Add the broken red chilli and pancha-phutana/mustard. When it starts spluttering, add the crushed garlic flakes and onion. Stir fry for 1 minute.

Add the mustard paste along with a little water and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add 2-3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add all the vegetables and cook with lid covered till they soften.

Add the fried poee to the wok and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve hot with white rice.

Dahi Gupchup

These days i feel like i belong to an endangered species, one of the last custodians of 'tehzeeb' or courtesy. The next generation with their 'grab-it-all' attitude no longer have the time or inclination for such niceties. Well I maybe exaggerating but i do feel that we all are being sucked up into a big 'black hole' of materialism with the media playing the role of a very tantalizing devil in thin disguise. Our wants have become all consuming living little scope for old world romanticism or even practicality.

The Dominoes and MacD's of the West have influenced our food preferences to such an extent that we no longer crave for the comfort element associated with local food which is more suited to our climate and economy. The Western food palate with its Meat & Cheese staple is essential for providing energy and heat in the cold climate while our dal-chawal or dal-roti is supposed to satiate us without the excess body heat. Nothing satiates me more than a Dahi-pakhala or arwa bahta-dalma but i inadvertently get drawn to the 'Buy 1 get 1 Wednesdays' Dominoes offer beamed on the telly. I guess i have to banish the TV to stop myself from ordering those luscious looking pizzas. Now thats' a tall order so instead i have taken a resolution to forgo any western ingredients and go back to my roots this week ( just one week at a time ).

Today i will be sharing this 'Dahi Gupchup' recipe which I used to have during my childhood years in Rourkela. There used to this obscure little thela 'cart' in front of Deepak talkies near Ambagan which sold the yummiest version of the street snack. No idea if the younger lot still frequents this place but i havn't visited it for years.(See what i was talking earlier, even i am not immune to such influences) Hence i am doing this based only on my memory and without any inputs from the guy himself. Read on:

Preparation time - 10 mins

Ingredients - 10 gupchup/puchka/puris, 2/3 cup fresh yogurt/curd, 1 tbs tamarind-dates-jaggery chutney ( u cn replace it with Imli Pichkoo ), 1 small boiled potato, 1 small onion chopped, chopped green chilli, 1 tsp sugar, salt to taste, jeera-lanka powder, kala luna (black salt), chat masala, roasted coriander powder, red chilli powder ( optional ), chopped coriander.

Preparation - Take the boiled potato in a mixing bowl. Mash it and add half of the onion, green chilli, jeera lanka powder , coriander powder and salt. Mix well.

Add a little water, salt and sugar to the yogurt and beat lightly. Dilute the tamarind-dates-jaggery/imli picchkoo with a little water.

Take the puris and arrange on a plate. Puncture the upper layer on the puris.

Put a little of the potato mixture into each one.

Pour the beaten yogurt over the puris, followed by the tamarind-dates-jaggery chutney. Sprinkle the jeera lanka powder, coriander powder, chat masala, red chilli powder kala luna and salt. Finally add the green chillis, coriander leaves and chopped onions. ( Add a little shev but its optional )

Serve immediately as the puris tend to get soggy very fast.