Shahi Methi-Matar

 

This is a wonderful recipe to impress your guests at a dinner, but that does not mean that you cannot include it in your normal weekend meals.Every region you go has their own interpretation of a popular recipe. Take methi matar malai, for example – depending on where you go, you’ll find several versions, ranging from simple onion or  cashew -based gravy to a rich and exotic Mughlai-style curry made with cashew and cream.

 

 Ingredients

1. 2 cups fresh Green peas
2. 1/2 bunch or 2 cups of fresh fenugreek/ methi leaves washed and drained and chopped finely.
3. 1/4 tsp turmeric (Haldi)
4. 2 tsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
5. 1 tsp Garam Masala
6. 1tsp white pepper powder
7. 1 tsp cumin seeds
8. 1/2 cup fresh cream (malai)
9. 1tsp sugar
10. 1 cup full fat milk
11. Cooking Oil
12. Salt

For the paste:

1. 10 cashewnuts
2. 1 large or 2 small onions – chopped fine
3. 1″ long piece ginger
4. 4 – 5 cloves garlic
5. 4 green cardamom
6. 4 green chilies
7. 2 tsp poppy seeds

Instructions

1. Mix some salt in chopped Fenugreek leaves and keep them aside for 10 minutes.
2. Boil green peas in 4 cups of water till soft and drain.
3. Take onions, green chilies, ginger, garlic, cashewnuts, poppy seeds and green cardamom, grind them all into a fine paste using little water. Consistency of masala should be fine.
4. After 10 minutes, squeeze the excess water out from fenugreek leaves. This helps to reduce the bitterness of fenugreek.
5. Heat 2tsp of ghee in a pan. Add fenugreek leaves and fry for a few minutes.
6. Keep the cooked fenugreek leaves aside. 
7. Same pan add 2 tbsp oil to it. Add cumin seeds, let it splutter. when cumin seeds gets roasted, add white paste, turmeric (Haldi) and salt, cook for 2 minute.
8. After White Masala gets roasted add garam masala, dried fenugreek leaves, sugar, green peas, cooked fenugreek leaves , cream, milk and salt.
9. Mix all the ingredients well and cook them for 6-7minutes.
10. Methi Matar Malai is ready to be served
11. Enjoy this delicious preparation with pooris or rotis.

Dhaba style ...Methi aloo-paneer

Happy weekend!

It's not every day that one can spend long hours in the kitchen preparing elaborate meals. But on weekends and holidays when the family is at home and there is more than enough time to go crazy in the kitchen. You can easily dazzle everyone with delicious meals- starting from a beyond-the usual breakfast to a hearty lunch to a four-course dinner.

  Today i am here with such interesting rich and creamy dish with fenugreek,baby potatoes and paneer/cottage cheese, A Perfect  dhaba style dish .This recipe is perfect for Saturdays and Sundays when you have more hours to devote to prepping and cooking, but you can just easily make them on any day of the week if it so please you. Savor this yummy recipe with your family and friends. Make your weekend table a place for good food and good times. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups Fresh Fenugreek/Methi leaves
• 20 Baby potatoes
• 200 grams Fresh paneer/cottage cheese,crumbled
• 3 cups Full Fat Milk
• 2tbsp Fresh cream
• 1 Onion,chopped
• 2 medium Tomatoes ,pureed
• 1tsp Sugar
• 1/2tsp Turmeric powder/haldi
• 1tsp Cumin
• 1 Onion
• 2 tsp Ghee
• 1 tbsp Oil

For masala paste:

• 1 Onion
• 1inch Ginger
• 6-7 Garlic cloves
• 3-4 Green chillies
• 10 Cashew nut,cut into pieces
• 2tsp Poppy seed/Khus khus

For the Garam masala powder:

• 2(1 inch) pieces Cinnamon sticks
• 6-7 Cloves
• 4-5 Green cardamoms/elichi
• 1 Black cardamom/badi elichi
• 2tsp Coriander seeds
• 1tsp Jeera/cumin seeds
• 1tsp Fennel seeds/saunf
• 1/4 Mace
• 1/2tsp Pepper corns/kali mirch
• 1tsp Kasoori methi ( no need to roast)

Cooking Directions

1. Wash fenugreek leaves 2-3 times and drain.Sprinkle some salt to get rid of the bitterness if any.Keep aside for 30 minutes.
2. Wash baby potatoes well to get rid of mud if any and cut into half. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry potatoes till light golden and take it on a plate.
3. Soak cashewnut and poppy seed in 2tbsp of warm water.
4. Grind all the ingredients for the masala to smooth paste along with soaked cashewnut and poppy seed.
5. Now dry roast all the ingredients to be powdered till you get the nice aroma of the spices.Let it cool completely before grinding to fine powder.
6. Now squeeze the fenugreek leaves to get rid of that extra water .
7. In a kadai, heat 2tsp of ghee and add cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add the fenugreek leaves and saute for about 5-6 minutes on low flame till all the moisture dries up and you get nice aroma.
8. Transfer the fried methi leaves to a plate and in the same pan add oil and add chopped onions and saute till light brown colour.
9. Add the ground paste, turmeric powder and roasted masala powder and mix all the spices well,saute the mixture till the oil comes on top.
10. Add the tomato puree next and saute till oil separates.
11. Add the fried baby potatoes, fenugreek leaves milk, cream, salt, sugar and a cup of water and cook for about 10 mins.
12. At last add the crumbled paneer and cook again for 3-4 minutes and switch off the gas.
13. Transfer to a serving dish,garnish with a tbsp of cream and serve hot with hot pulkas or roti.

Dry fruit stuffed Gulab Jamun

    

We Indians are fond of sweets. Many varieties of sweets are prepared, served and tasted all over India. Indian Festivals and marriage parties cannot be completed without sweet dishes. People in India serve and offer sweets as part and parcel of every celebration, Indian delicious sweets are famous all over the world for their variety. 

             India is a country of sweets, and Indians, if they can afford, would like to have sweets with almost every meal. Each region has its own specialties; even each Indian festival has its own traditional sweets. The Indian festival sweets have a charm of their own. Basically, various regional recipes are only different forms of rice puddings, milk puddings, vegetables & fruits dipped in sweet syrup. Besides, there are a variety of milk-based Barfis and pastries. These are decorated with raisins, almonds, pistachio and like,various combinations of all the above delicacies offer hundreds of varieties of our Indian sweets. 

                       i am here with one of the famous sweet of India specially prepared on the eve of  Diwali, "Gulab Jamun" rich ghee fried khoya balls stuffed with nuts and soaked in Sugar syrup.

Prep time: 40mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 60 mins
Yield: 12-15
Ingredients

• 250 gms Khoya/mava
• 3 tbsp Maida/All purpose flour
• 200 gms Sugar
• 1/2 litre Water
• 1/4tsp Cardamom powder
• 1 pinch Soda(Optional )
• For stuffing : Cashew nut,raisins and almonds( 2tbsp ,Crushed )

Cooking Directions

1. In a bowl add khoya and maida,mix both together to form a soft dough ,you can use your food processor for better result and keep a side.
2. Meanwhile Prepare sugar syrup with sugar and 1/2 litre water. Add little saffron to it.
3. Now start making jamuns. Knead the dough again and make about 12-15 medium sized balls from this mixture small marble sized balls and stuff each balls with dry fruits and nuts mixture .For making balls take sufficient dough and press between palms. Then rub the pressed dough in circular motion to get a smooth round shaped ball then start stuffing the jamuns.
4. Heat a pan and add oil to it. To test the right hotness of oil take a small piece of dough and put it into the oil. The dough first sits at the bottom of the pan and then slowly rises to the top�that is the right temperature at which we have to fry the Jamuns. If the dough rises fast from the bottom of the pan, it indicates the oil is overheated. You need to switch off the stove and wait for a while.
5. Take a slotted spoon and turn the oil to make whirls.
6. When they are dark golden brown in color remove from oil. Keep the Jamuns aside for 3 to 5 minutes before adding them to the warm syrup. Switch off the stove as the temperature of the oil will be more to fry the next round of Jamuns. After 5 minutes add the fried Jamuns to the warm syrup. Stir the cooked Jamuns in intervals.
7. Now again switch on the stove and make seven more balls. Test the heat of the oil before adding the powdered sugar coated Jamuns. Fry them as mentioned earlier.In this way you can fry 4-5 jamuns in each batch
8. Do not crowd the oil pan by adding more balls to the oil while frying. As the balls become double in size ensure free space for the balls to move around. Even if you are left with little dough for the last batch, do not add more balls to the oil. Fry the Jamuns and soak them in warm syrup for at least 1 hour before serving .

Eggless Caramel Pudding

I never thought of making Caramel pudding without eggs but a week ago i wanted to post some dessert in one of my vegetarian food group and i wanted to prepare something which is simple and no one ever tried there before and thats how i thought of trying this pudding which is very simple and easy to make.All you need is little corn flour and china grass.I tried it with cornflour before but this time just added a tsp of china grass which makes this pudding deliciously sweet and amazingly gorgeous ,is truly a wonderful treat for the whole family.yes my family is in love with this eggless caramel pudding and i assure even yours will like it equally .Just give it a try and sit back and relish the taste.

Ingredients:

Milk-1/2 litre

Vanilla custard powder-1tbsp

China grass-1tsp

Sugar-1/2cup

Sugar-1tbsp for caramel

Method: 

• First mix the custard powder in a 1/2 cup of cold milk,boil the remaining milk with 1/2 cup of sugar,when it comes to a boil add 1tsp of powdered china grass,cook for 5 minutes.Add dissolved custard powder mixture and cook till thick.

• In a pan add 1tbsp sugar for caramelizing with 1tsp of water and Cook till sugar turns to dark brown, immediately transfer this to pudding mould and spread the syrup all over the mould. You can use small moulds.Here i have used 3 small moulds,1big and 2small sized moulds.Once you are done with your caramel pour the custard sauce and set for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator before serving.Before serving make sure to loosen the sides and over turn on the plate.