Grilled Paneer & vegetables

This was AmAr's creation for Valentine's day dinner. I'm posting it on behalf of him.

Ingredients: -

Cut the following in such a way that they can be grilled: - 2 cups paneer, 1 capsicum & 1 onion

1/2 cup thick curds

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp jeera powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp kasoori methi

salt

Method: -

1. Add red chili powder, turmeric, ginger - garlic paste, kasoori methi, garam masala & salt to curds.

2. Beat the curds along with the ingredients.

3. Now add the vegetable pieces & paneer.

4. Mix well till all the pieces are coated with the sauce.

5. To marinate, refrigerate the mixture & let it sit for 4-5 hours.

6. Preheat the grill at 180 Deg C for 10 minutes.

7. Arrange the marinated vegetables & paneer on the barbeque sticks.

8. Grill till the vegetables & paneer turn a little brown. This should take around 15-20 minutes.

9. Serve hot.

Mosaru/Thair/Dahi vade or Dahi balle

Mosaru (in Kannada) or Thair (in Tamil) or Dahi (in hindi) vade is deep fried urad dal balls soaked in curds. To make the curd sauce spicy, red chilly powder along with cumin powder is used. It's a good appetizer.

Ingredients: -

1 cup Urad dal / black lentils, de husked

fist full of moong dal

2 -3 green chilies, finely chopped

2 cups thick Yogurt (I used 3 x 150g of 3.5% Yogurt)

2 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp cumin seeds powder

1 tsp black pepper powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp Sugar

Coriander, for garnishing

Oil for deep frying

Salt

Method: -

1. Soak the lentils over night in luke warm water with little salt.

2. Beat Yogurt by adding half a cup of water, along with little salt, black pepper powder, sugar & red chili powder.

3. In a small pan prepare the seasoning by adding mustard seeds to oil. When they splatter, pour the seasoning over the beaten Yogurt & mix well.

4. Grind the over night soaked lentils to a smooth batter by adding very little water, salt, black pepper powder & green chilies.

5. Heat oil in a frying pan.

6. Drop in teaspoons full of batter & fry till the vada turns golden brown on both the sides. Deep fry in batches.

7. Remove from oil into a colander. Then drop the vadas in a bowl of water.

8. After about 4-5 minutes, remove the vadas from water & squeeze them gently to remove excess water.

9. Place them in a big flat serving bowl.

10.Pour the Yogurt sauce so that each vada gets soaked.

11. Decorate with tamarind & green chutney.

12. Place the serving bowl in the refrigerator & chill. Let them be soaked for about 2-3 hours.

13. Before serving garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves, curry leaves, sprinkle red chili powder, chat masala, black salt, boondhi & Sev.

Baby corn & capsicum stir fry

I'd bought a small packet of baby corn over the last weekend. The only dish that came to my mind was Baby corn Manchurian. I dint want to add to our increasing waist line by frying something again this week. So thought of either making a soup or some stir fry. After spending some time on the Internet, was loosing hope of finding what I was looking for as most of the recipes indicated deep frying. I found this recipe of a stir fry here. I was impressed & was happy to find something that suited my need.

Ingredients: -

15-20 baby corn pieces, cut lengthwise

1 large green chili, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp corn flour

1 tsp soya sauce

2 tsps tomato-chili sauce

few slices of capsicum

few slices of onions (optional)

Oil

Salt

Method: -

1. In a pan add a tsp of oil & heat on medium high flame.

2. Add the capsicum slices & saute for a minute or two. The pieces become brown instantly because of high heat. Remove & keep aside.

3. In a cup, combine corn flour, soya & tomato-chili sauce.

4. Add two tablespoons of water & mix well.

5. In the pan add another tsp of oil & saute the baby corn pieces on high flame.

6. After about 5 minutes or when the baby corn pieces are brown, add green chilies & ginger-garlic paste.

7. Mix well.

8. Pour the sauce mixture & stir well so that all the pieces of baby corn are coated with the sauce.

9. Add the roasted capsicum pieces, salt & pepper.

10. Serve it hot as a starter.

Baingun Bhaja

Baingun (Brinjal / Eggplant) Bhaja is a bengali dry curry, served as part of a traditional wedding feast along with rice creations. It also makes a good appetizer.

This is my entry to Harini's 'Recipes for rest of us-Starters' event hosted by Ramki.

Ingredients: -
1 Big Purple Brinjal
1 tsp turmeric Powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp rava
1 tsp rice flour
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp dhania powder
Salt
Oil

Method: -

1. Cut the brinjal into around 1/2" slices & drop it in a bowl of water for around 15 minutes. Drain the water & wipe all the slices dry.

2. Mix all masala ingredients along with rava in a mixing bowl.

3. Apply this mixture on the both sides of all the brinjal slices.

4. Heat little oil in frying pan & place the brinjal slices in the pan. Shallow fry the slices. Brinjal absorbs oil so care should be taken not to use lota oil while frying.

5. Turn the slices around & fry till they turn brown on both sides.

6. Garnish with coriander leaves on cooked slices & relish as an appetizer.

Gobi Manchurian

We were at the fest on Saturday and had something very unusual that we never had tasted before in Germany. It had a striking similarity to Gobi Manchurian. The lady served it with Kräuter sauce and we added some chili sauce to spiece it up a little. It tasted brilliant. Few hours ago, before we came to the fest we'd purchased a medium sized Gobi to make Alu Gobi or Gobi parathas during the week. So I was tempted to make Gobi Manchurian at home as I had not made it since a long time. I made it in a very simple way. We both love Gobi in any form, fried, baked, grilled or cooked.


Well after having searched online and in the books I did find many recipes; few of them using Maida and few using besan. Well I think I prefer besan.


Ingredients:-

1 Medium Gobi (break into florets, according to the size you want)
2 tsp of haldi/turmeric
4 tbsp Cornflour
1/2 cup Besan
1 tsp red chili powder
3 tbsp Tomato sauce, soya sauce and green chili sauce
1/2 Capsicum, cut into small pieces
1 big Onion -Sliced
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
4 Green chilies - finely chopped
Salt
Oil for frying


Pre cooking:- This is done to clean the Gobi.
Boil the Gobi florets for 5 minutes with plenty of water. When its boiling add haldi (turmeric) and little salt. Remove from fire and drain the water. Pat dry on a clean cloth.


Batter preparation and frying the Gobi: -
1. Add besan, cornflour, ginger-garlic paste, red chili power/2 finely chopped chillies.
2. Add salt according to taste.
3. Mix well and make a fine batter without knots.
4. Keep the batter as thick and semi solid as possible.
5. Dip the florets in the batter one at a time and deep fry it in oil.
6. After deep frying all of them keep it aside so that they can cool. Cooling is necessary to retain the crispiness before mixing them with the masala.


Masala Preparation: -
1. Add 2 tbsp of oil in a heavy kadai and heat.
2. To this add onions and fry till they are transparent.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and the remaining green chillies and fry for one-two more minutes.
4. Add the capsicum pieces and continue frying for one more minute.
5. Now add tomato, soya and green chili sauce and saute it for few seconds.
6. Add salt according to taste.
7. Add enough water to get the required thickness. To this add the cooled fried Gobi.
8.Garnish with fresh/dry coriander leaves and serve with tomato sauce.


This is my first recipe online. :)