SAMOSA....

So finally, a post from me...and yes after reading this all those who know me would definitely agree that I need a job...after all I prepared Samosa at home!!!...it turned out to be good...so here is the recipe....

Ingredients:

Boiled Potatoes (5-6 should do if you are preparing for 2 ppl)
Boiled Peas (Fistful...with this you would have understood that this recipe comes from my mom :-))
1 tsp Fennel Seeds (basically Saunf)
Little Pudina, Coriander, Green Chilli (depending on your taste), Curry Leaves, Lemon
Maida (think 125 gms should do...but pls add or reduce according to your judgement)

How to prepare:

Paste:
Grind the fennel sees first. Then add pudina, coriander, green chili and a few lime drops and some water and grind all of these together so as to make a paste.

Masala:
Heat oil in a kadhai. Add rai, curry leaves and hing. Then add the above paste and saute the paste for about 5 mins. (You dont need to wait for the oil to separate like we usually do). Then add the potatoes (u need to cut them into pieces although i have not stated this earlier), peas, salt, turmeric, coriander leaves and lemon.

Dough:
Take the maida, add salt and oil (you would need quite a bit of oil here...think i added around 5-6 spoons). Add water and knead the dough well)

Now the Actual Samosa...
Prepare the rotis of the dough...cut each roti in 2 pieces. Take one piece and make it into a cone. Use water to join the ends. Stuff the masala in the cone and then seal the end with water again...

Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry on medium flame...

DBC (or should it be BCD… whatever…who cares!!)

For a person who is still struggling to make perfect rotis… last Sunday came as a surprise. Well, my MIL asked me to make Daal – Baati- Choorma on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi... the thought itself sent shudders across me… but how could I say no…so with a tensed mind, I got up as 630 (on a Sunday!!) and resolved to make at least edible stuff that day…

Daal: It was the usual moong + udad ki daal. But ensure that the tadka is only of tomatoes and NO onions please. Daal has to be a bit diluted as compared to the daal normally made.

Baati: Well…This was the difficult part. Since I didn’t have Tandoor in my kitchen, making standard Baati wasn’t possible. So for this my MIL gave me the suggestion of making “baafna” baati… gosh… I had just had that once and didn’t even recollect how it looked like. Help came from my husband… no no…he didn’t cook. He just described, how it looked like… as per his description… it looks like “a spongy ball just coming out from a swimming pool of ghee!!” I discovered later that you shouldn’t ask guys for describing anything!

So the first task was to knead the dough. So for that take wheat flour, salt, ajwain, about 3-4 teaspoons of ghee and with warm water, knead soft dough and then form balls of 5 cms diameter. Boil water in a container (2/3 filled) and put these balls into the same. Let it boil for some time (about 7-10 minutes) till the wheat balls become light and start floating. Once this is done, take out the balls and cut the same into half. Heat ghee in a kadai and let these cut balls fry in the same. Ensure that it’s on a low flame. One you get the golden brownish color, take the same out… well…Baati is ready!!

Choorma: If Baati was difficult, Choorma was time consuming. So let’s start…

Ingredients:
Wheat flour: two bowls
Water : Enough to knead the dough
Sugar : we take boora, but if you don’t get it, then take powdered sugar (1 bowl [which can be increased depending upon how sweet you want])
Ghee (lots of it!!)
Cardamoms
Almonds and cashews: Again as per your taste buds

First, knead the dough after adding 8-10 tsp of ghee. Then prepare small balls, about 3-4 cms in diameter, and then flatten the same, so that it is about ½ cm in height. Now deep fry these, on low flame in Ghee. Once its golden brown in color, take the same out and crush it into smaller pieces. Then, crush it those and further crush it finely in a mixer, and sieve the same and add sugar, cardamom and other dry fruits. Add ghee to it. The quantity of ghee should be so much as to hold the choorma together.

So this was the experiment which I did on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Spent some 2 hours in the kitchen to get everything right…and it actually ended up being right :-)

A few words of Caution:

• If you one of those calorie conscious people, this dish isn’t for you!! so starve for a week and then have this :-)

• You will really feel lazy and would feel sleepy after having this…so beware!

• It takes a lot of time, so don’t hurry up!

Ganpati Bappa… Moriya!!!!!!!!

chocolate cake!!

Just when you thought it would never happen.....a recipe from me! :)

Chocolate cake (also known as the-one-and-only-divine-cake-flavour)

So...first...photo...to get ppl interested. Remember this is with my digicam with my extremely advanced food photography skils...ahem..now that we're all drooling...

Ingredients!!
2 cups maida
2 cups powdered sugar (not granular sugar ppl...so u need abt 1.5 to 1.75 cups of granular sugar to get 2 cups of powdered)
1 cup water
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp cocoa pwder (i like my choc cakes darrrrrrrk....so i put 4 heaped)
1/2 cup oil (regular cooking oil...koi sa bhi chalega...not like mustard obviously...)
1/4 cup white butter (also knows as cooking butter) DO not put amul or any other salted one. bad idea.
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (at room temp)
1 tbsp vinegar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking soda

How to:
1. Seive the maida, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together...abt 2 to 3 times. Keep aside.
2. In a largish vessel...mix together sugar, oil, butter and vanilla essence. Beat with an electric beater if u have one. If you dont have any...lure ppl in the family to do it for u....(with huge portions of cake promised...it usually works). The idea is to get a lot of air incorporated into the sugar mix....
When u think ur done...or are tired of beating the damn thing....add the eggs...again beat well. then add water, milk and vinegar and mix nicely. The mixture will seem extremely liquidy. Do not panic.

3. Grease and flour a baking dish of ur choice. Remember this needs to cook in an convection oven....so use aluminium or glass. No plastic. I have reason for stating this very obvious fact.

4. Also preheat ur oven. I make this on a gas oven...so i have no clue to what degree C u need to preheat ur oven. I think 200 deg C should be good. If it isnt...well...there's always a next time.

5. Now...take the flour mix (already seived and put aside) into a big bowl. Add the liquid mix to this slowly and mix it all together with minimum strokes. Yeah u need to add it slowly..but mix it quickly...just another way to make things look difficult. Main idea being...mix it before the fizz of the soda goes away and u end up with a flat cake.Sufficiently scared?

6. Bake for approx 40 mins. I think 20 mins at 200 deg C and then another 20 at 180 deg C should do it. Check...do the toothpick test and cook more if required. Like i said....i use a gas oven...so i take no responsibility for the time recommendation.

7. Once done....cool and then dig in!!

Enzoy.