Ashu wishes you all a Happy New Year 2022
Wishing you all a joyful and blessed year ahead.
ashu.
Happy New Year 2022
Tag Archives: ashusrecipes
Happy Sankrant 2022
Wishing you all Happy Sankrant. As said in marathi-Til gul ghya goad goad bola.
ashu
Food Art
Sharing some of the pictures of the food that I cooked in my Kitchen in the recent past. It was a great time creating this art on my food and thought to go ahead and share it today and not wait for the recipe post to be written. It will follow eventually but until then do enjoy these pics.
It has been so much fun to create these recipes and each of these food moments was memorable. Trust you all too enjoyed these images as much as I loved creating them.
Hope all are keeping safe and enjoying healthy eating.
Ashu😊
Happy Holi
Wishing you all a very Happy & Colorful Holi.
Holi special menu: Puran Poli & Mixed Dal Vada.
Enjoy!
ashu 🙂
Happy Gudi Padwa
Ashu wishes you all a very Happy Gudi Padwa / Ugadi. A happy Chaitra Navratri too.
Gudi Padwa is a festival celebrated in Maharashtra on the first day of the Chaitra month, it marks the beginning of the new year of the Hindu calender.  It is the time to welcome the mango season 🙂 . Ugadi is celebrated in Andhra as the first day of the new year.
The rituals followed for this auspicious day are making colourful rangolis on the front entrance of the house, tying a marigold flowers and mango leaves toran at the entrance door. A gudi is setup and  worshipped and an elaborate vegetarian meal is cooked and offered as Naivedyam. A Shrikhand Puri, or Amrakhand or Puran Poli sweet is made. Pachadi too is made in some houses, it is a neem leaves, tamarind and jaggery mixed liquidy dish. I do not make this, never learnt it, though my mother used to make it. Raw mango dishes too are made.
Sharing couple pictures from today. I have not made many a dishes like the masale bhath and raw mango daal etc, made puran poli for sweet though I got Alpohsnso mangoes for the Amrakhand that I did not make 🙂 , will make it for the weekend menu! I made Bharli Vangi, mixed daal vadas/pakode, alu vadis, varan baath and mattha and fulkas. Even though I skipped some dishes but this itself was a heavy lunch, couldn’t stop with only one puran poli😀.
Wishing you all a blessed New year 🙂 .
Enjoy!
ashu
Chicken Momos
Chicken Momo is a dumpling which is one of my favorite and hence a frequently made food in my kitchen. I make it using refined flour and boiled chicken that is seasoned with simple seasonings. I have already shared a couple other recipes of momos, but the chicken momos was not yet posted.
CHICKEN MOMOS
INGREDIENTS:
Refined Flour: 250 gm
Boiled Chicken: 250 gm
Green Coriander: 2 Tbsp
Salt: To taste
Pepper: For Seasoning as per taste
Water: 1 glass (as needed)
METHOD:
Boil/Steam the chicken (I used 1 chicken breast) in a pressure cooker or rice cooker for a single vessel or 15 min.
Take a bowl and make a medium soft dough of the refined flour to which a pinch of salt is added, and keep the bowl covered.
Shred the boiled chicken, add salt and pepper as per taste and the chopped green coriander. This will be our Momos filling.
Divide the dough into small balls and roll out thin circular puris. Spoon the chicken filling  on the puri, and then bring together and close all the ends giving a twist before sealing at the top. I prefer to remove the excess dough at the top end.
We can give any shape to the dumplings, but I prefer the one seen in the pictures. The more one practices shaping and making the momos, the better the shape 🙂 . I like to make smaller shaped momos, easier to eat in a single or two bites. Also note, the thinner the outer coat, it tastes better, my personal preference here.
Brush the steamer basket with oil before putting the momos for steaming, this prevents them from sticking to one another or to the basket, and we can easily remove them without the filling falling over from torn momos.
Steam the momos for 10 minutes, until the flour cover becomes shiny.
Serve them hot with a dip of choice, I have served with the parsley pesto that was handy in my fridge. Click for the Parsley Pesto recipe here.  It tastes best with the spicy red chutney made of tomato and ginger. You can click here for this recipe.
As always I am happy to share with you all another of my favorite and nutritious recipe. Hope you would like to give it a try in your kitchen too. Do click the links below for my other momos recipes:
Happy cooking delicious food 🙂
Enjoy!
ashu
TILGUL LADDU
Each January month the Hindus celebrate the festival of Sankranti. In Maharashtra the new crop harvested is worshiped before the Sun god, mother used to keep the Sugarcane cubes, the red Ber, the Mutter ki Phalli (peas in the pod), carrots, Tilgul, and some whole wheat. The haldikumkum is also performed in the Maharashtrian houses, a function where the married ladies are invited at home, haldi (Turmeric) and Kumkum (Vermilion) is applied to the forehead, a ritual that I too do every year since my marriage.  Also flowers and a handful of five of these foodstuff is given as part of the ‘Oti’-wheat, Sugarcane cubes, Green peas, Carrot cubes and Ber along with the TilGul (Sweet made of Sesame seed and Jaggery) and a small gift. These were the things I grew up seeing my mother offer to the invited ladies for the function. It is not always possible to get/gather all the five things that form as part of the ‘Oti’ for me since living here in the UAE. I try giving it only when I can otherwise only the flowers, sweet and the gift is given for the Sankranti Haldikumkum to the invited ladies.
It is customary to wear a black Sari during this Sankranti haldikumkum, and I loved wearing my Black Chanderi Sari and my most favorite (and heirloom) jewelry-my mother’s wedding Nath and hubby’s grandmothers Ekdani (the gold & black beaded necklace). Both were gifts given to me by these elders, and I love wearing them for this special function.
The Tilgul that I make during Sankranti and offer is in the form of Laddu. I have been fond of the taste of Laddus that my mother makes and hence continued to follow her simple recipe each year. It is a blessing to carry forward the traditions set by the elders and I enjoy each and every moment of it. With the many Job changes over the years, we have moved to many different places and the numerous friends at every place we stayed have always loved these laddus and hence I have decided to share it here on the blog.
My stay in Vadodara has seen us enjoying this Uttarayan festival as it is called in Gujarat with the whole day flying kites and enjoying the special dish-Undhiyo and sweets Jalebi. It is so much fun, the whole city and state is in the festive spirits with loud speakers blaring loud music on each terrace, and the whole day spent with family and friends flying the hundreds of kites that are kept ready and stacked to last the whole day of 14th January. I learnt to make Undhiyo from my Gujarati neighbors and since then every year I make this dish in my kitchen in January. I have to hunt the local markets for the numerous vegetables and other ingredients that are needed for this dish, but the trouble is worth it. Most times my family members have packed the special papdis and Tur dana that goes into the dish for me and gave them to me if I happened to travel to India in the December holidays. Unfortunately I am yet to get all the ingredients needed and have yet to make it this January, but hopefully soon.
The most delicious sweets are always very simple to make at home, one needs a little effort and inclination to prepare and the whole family can continue to enjoy the innumerable traditional and tasty Indian recipes.
TILGUL LADDU:
INGREDIENTS:
Til (Sesame seeds): 300 gms
Jaggery: 250 gms
Desiccated coconut: 2 Tbsp
Cardamom Powder: 2 Tsp
METHOD:Â (Makes 15-18 Laddus depending on the size.)
Dry roast the Sesame seeds so that the raw taste is removed as they get roasted and acquire a slight brown color. Take care that you should not brown the seeds too much, this results in a burnt taste of the powder that we will make of the roasted seeds.
Powder the roasted Sesame seeds in a mixer pot. Grinding to almost a fine powder does not require addition of few drops of milk to set the laddus.
Grate the Jaggery using a fine grater. I have used the solid Kholapur gur, it is easy to grate and mix.
Mix the grated Jaggery, Sesame powder, the desiccated coconut, and the powdered green Cardamom together. Care should be taken to ensure the thorough mixing of the Jaggery with the powder, this helps prevent lumps being formed. One can use a few drops of milk to bind if the mixture is too dry and cannot be formed into laddu shape.
Taking a small amount of the mixture shape into small laddus and keep in airtight box. The ladoos can be enjoyed for long as they have a longer shelf life.
They are so yummy that one tends to eat quite a few, but one need to take care and avoid overeating as it might result in an upset tummy 🙂 .
I did the haldikumkum at my place last week and since then have been trying to post the Laddu draft post that I had kept ready, and today finally it is time to publish the post 🙂 .
Happy Makar Sankranti to all of you my blogging friends and readers 🙂 .
Enjoy!
ashu
Italian Herb Baked Chicken Breasts
In continuation with posting of the recipes from the Tandoori platter that I had cooked for lunch last week, sharing here the recipe of the baked chicken. (You can check picture and the recipe links at the end of this post)
I am very fond of Tandoori food and it is a favorite food at home, the meat or vegetable may change but the Indian spices used for marination always remain same. But my Jr was after me for a long time to make something that is grilled but not using the Indian spices. Having tasted the recipes using chicken breast in some fast-food joints here, I decided to use the home available ingredients and dish out something new for him. As I stock up on my dried herbs, I have an Italian herb mix that I had asked my hubby to bring for me during one of his tours to Rome. It is my most favorite herb mix, it gives the Marinara sauce that I make at home for my Pasta dishes the perfect taste. Sharing with you all what I made the other day and it was the most delicious baked chicken meat that I ate.
BAKED CHICKEN BREASTS
INGREDIENTS:
Chicken- 2 chicken Breasts
Garlic- 2 cloves
Olive oil- 2 Tbsp
Bread crumbs- 75Â gm
(Readymade) Italian seasoning mix- 2 Tbsp
Grated Parmesan cheese- 2 Tbsp
Salt- To taste
Note: Ingredients of the Italian seasoning used were-dried Garlic, Tomato, Oregano, salt, Onion, Carrot and Celery.
In case you do not have readymade seasoning available, then you can make a homemade mix of dried Oregano, basil, red chili flakes, salt, pepper, and dried onions, and garlic. If dried garlic is not available then simply increase  the garlic cloves used in the recipe to 3 or 4 in number, depending on the size of the cloves. We want to impart garlic flavor to the oil, but it should not be too strong.
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
Clean and wash the chicken and pat dry using a kitchen towel or tissue.
Poke the chicken flesh with a fork, this will enable the oil and herb marinade to penetrate inside.
Take a small sauce pan, heat olive oil and then add crushed garlic cloves and the herb mix and switch off the gas flame. One could also use butter instead of oil, but my choice is always olive oil.
Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and a pinch or two of the herb mix. Season lightly with salt.
Apply the herb olive oil to the chicken meat, it should be rubbed well so that the flesh is drenched with the herb mix and oil. Leave it to marinate for 15-30 mins.
Note: (If in hurry to eat, bake it without marination time 🙂 )
Coat this herb oil drenched chicken flesh with the bread crumb mix.
Grease a baking dish with the herb oil and put the coated chicken breasts and let the dish then go into the oven for baking. Bake for 30-40 min.
The chicken should be turned once so that both sides are evenly baked. It takes around 30-40 min for the chicken to get cooked. Once it is cooked, I turned on the top grill function of the oven for giving the chicken surface a grilled appearance. Grill it for 10 mins so that the top coat of the bread crumbs get crispy and gave the bite the perfect crunch.
The chicken was well cooked, perfectly marinated, with crispy outer coat. I also baked few baby corns and carrot cuts along with it.
Go ahead and try out this Italian herb seasoned baked chicken dish from ashusktichen 🙂 .
Alternative to oven: In case one does not have an oven, then use a frying pan to cook the chicken. Heat the pan and add 1 Tbsp oil to it and let the chicken cook in the pan for sometime and then only turn. Later tossing and turning it from time to time gives it a crispy outer coat.
If you would like to check out other recipes from the Tandoori platter picture below, do click the links (in red) given to open the recipe posts.
ashus Tandoori platter-Â Tandoori Paneer , Tandoori Prawns, Tandoori Gongura prawns.
Using the ingredients that are available at home one can always dish out something new and interesting with just a bit of motivation. Hope you all liked this simple chicken bake and would go ahead and give it a try. Happy Baking 🙂
Enjoy!!
ashu.
Tandoori Paneer
Last week, as already mentioned in my earlier posts, I had made a tandoori platter for my lunch. It had lots of Tandoori prawns, Paneer, Ghongura prawns and also baked chicken breasts. A sudden snag in the laptop functioning resulted with me having to take a forced break from my writing and posting up the remaining tandoori posts. Finally, after a gap of couple days, the laptop snag is corrected and now it is functioning fine and here I am completing the few posts that were well due last week, yeah I had made a mental note of posting them :).
For this tandoori paneer recipe I used the cubes of paneer.  I prefer to buy fresh paneer for making any dish, but always keep a packet or two of paneer in the freezer for those occasions when I get sudden urges of cooking paneer dishes  and cannot go to the supermarket to buy.  The packaged paneer cubes come handy when we are adding few cubes to a recipe, mixing vegetables and paneer, or adding few cubes to any potato filling etc. Keep paneer packet in the lower compartment of the refrigerator overnight, it gets thawed well. One can also empty the contents of the frozen paneer packet and keep on the kitchen platform for an hour or so and the cubes easily get thawed and can then be readily used for cooking. One could also use the thawing function of the Microwave for that matter, but I never go for this option.
TANDOORI PANEER
This is yet another simple and a quick recipe. You need paneer cubes, lemon juice, whole soaked Kashmiri Chili and Tandoori masala for this recipe. In case the store bought masala is not available at home you can use a mix of red Chili powder, coriander powder, chaat masala, garam masala, and cumin powder. You can either make a paste of the soaked Kashmiri chili and dried masalas as I have done here or can simply use the dried masala mixed with oil and lemon. If you have Kashmiri chili powder you can add a teaspoon of it to the dried masala, lemon and oil and use it as the marinade. Sharing here the method in which I made a wet paste of the chili and masala and ground it to smooth in a Mixie pot.
INGREDIENTS:
Paneer cubes: 250 gms
Kashmiri Red Chili: 2 no
Tandoori masala powder: 2Â Tbsp
Lemon: 1/2
Olive oil: 1 Tbsp
Salt: To taste
Turmeric: 1 Tsp
Note: You can use any cooking oil of choice.
METHOD:
Soak the Kashmiri red chili in hot water, they are easier to grind after soaking as they become soft.
Preheat the oven to 200 deg C on the grill and oven setting.
Grind the Kashmiri chili along with the Tandoori masala powder, salt, lemon juice and some oil.  Adding oil helps make a smooth paste and we can easily coat this paste on the paneer and keeps prevent paneer from drying up in the intense heat of the grill. Keep the marinated cubes in fridge for 30 min before grilling, you can avoid this if are in a hurry to eat. The marinated paneer cubes taste better if we allow the marinade to soak in.
Put the marinated paneer cubes in the preheated oven for 10- 15 minutes, tossing in between, so that all sides are grilled to perfection. The oven time depends upon the oven used at home, use self discretion, do not over grill the cubes as they toughen and then taste like rubber.
These paneer cubes were bit crisp on the outside and soft inside with the perfect blend of tandoori masalas, Yummy was my Jr’s comment!! 🙂
NOTE: In case you do not have a grill or oven at home, you can use a fry pan to cook the paneer. Heat the frying pan, add cooking oil of choice and put the marinated paneer cubes and cook on medium-to-slow flame, taking care not to burn them. Cook the cubes for only 10-15 min, turning/ tossing once so that both sides become crisp.  Do not cook for long as the paneer will harden and become rubbery. (I have used smaller cubes and hence the time needed for grilling was less, and the grill/oven was already hot.)
SERVING:Â Serve the piping hot grilled paneer cubes with a mint yogurt chutney/dip. You can check out ashus Yogurt dip recipe in the Archives.
Check out other Tandoori recipes in the Archives.
Enjoy!
ashu
Tandoori Prawns
Greetings to all my readers and blogger friends, and hope the weekend is going great :). As mentioned yesterday in my earlier post Tandoori Gongura Prawns (recipe link), I am posting my next post of the Tandoori Prawns. This is yet another simple and a quick recipe. You need shrimps, lemon juice, Kashmiri Chili and Tandoori masala for this recipe. In case the store bought masala is not available at home you can use a mix of red Chili powder, coriander powder, chaat masala, garam masala, and cumin powder.
TANDOORI PRAWNS
INGREDIENTS:
Prawns: 250 gms
Kashmiri Red Chili: 2 no
Tandoori masala powder: 3 Tbsp
Lemon: 1/2
Olive oil: 1 Tbsp
Salt: To taste
Turmeric: 1 Tsp
NOTE: The shrimps used are small-sized, increase the ingredient quantity if using bigger sized Prawns. The Tandoori dishes are red in color and I do not make use of artificial food colors in my dishes and the hence the use of Kashmiri chili imparts the prawns the perfect red color. I prefer to make my recipes as healthy and nutritious, and as well as yummy too 🙂 !
METHOD:
Soak the Kashmiri red chili in hot water, they are easier to grind after soaking as they become soft.
Wash, Â devein, and clean the shrimps and pat dry with kitchen towel or tissue.
Apply salt and turmeric.
Preheat the oven to 200 deg C on the grill and oven setting.
Grind the Kashmiri chili along with the Tandoori masala powder, salt, lemon juice and some oil.  Adding oil helps make a smooth paste and we can easily coat this paste on the shrimps. Oil does not make the shrimps dry when being grilled.
Do remember that shrimps have delicate flesh and hence do not need long grilling time, over grilling will result in burning and making them hard. Also do not keep them very close to the grill. The intense heat dries up the prawns, and do note that hardened and dried up tandoori prawns do not taste good. Hence adding oil to the marinade prevents the flesh from drying.
Line the skewers with the marinated prawns and insert them in the preheated oven for 10 mins.  After 10 min. check if they are done, and if not crisp on the outside then keep for another 5 minutes and remove. They are perfectly done in 10-15 min, the time depending upon the shrimp size and the oven grill used for grilling them.
Once done remove them from the skewers and serve hot.
NOTE: In case you do not have a griller at home, you can use a fry pan to cook the prawns. Heat the frying pan, add cooking oil of choice and put the marinated prawns and cook on medium to slow flame, taking care not to burn them. Turn them over so that they are cooked on both sides and crispy too. Enjoy the tava or pan fried Tandoori prawns along with a yogurt and mint dip or with thinly sliced tomato and onion salad.
SERVING OPTIONS:Â They can be served with a tomato and onion kachumber/salad. This is the salad of choice for a tandoori dish. Yogurt Mint dip is also a favorite choice.
For the other Tandoori recipes from ashuskitchen, click the link below:
Happy Weekend 🙂
Enjoy!!
ashu
Tandoori Gongura Prawns
I know most of us are way too much fond of grilled baked food, I love tandoori food. I have been making a lot of tandoori veg and non-veg dishes at home as we all love it, but have posted very few of the recipes. I always wanted to make use of Gongura and prawns combination, Andhra recipes use this combination if I am not wrong, but had never tried. I absolutely love the Gongura leaves and as it is not a regularly seen leafy vegetable in supermarkets here, I always buy and prepare the Gongura chutney and store in the refrigerator. It is my pickle that I enjoy whenever I am eating a simple meal of dal and rice. Indian recipes give us a lot many options for making meals either very lavishly elaborate or as simple as a khichdi or rice and dal combos for days when one wants a light simple meal. For today’s tandoori menu I decided to make the Tandoori Gongura Prawns and yes, I loved it. My Jr. does not like the Gongura leaves so he choose not to eat even a single of this, but I had also made other tandoori prawns and he finished those. The tandoori prawns recipe will be my next post. The Gongura imparts such a tangy and unique taste to the sweetish prawns, those who love to experiment with their food will love the combination, and as I love it so I am gonna start making it more often.
Today lunch at my place was an assortment of tandoori dishes and can tell you how satisfying the lunch turned out to be. My Jr. had been asking me for sometime now to make some new type of dish from whole chicken breast meat. I used Italian herb mix and made a yummy baked dish, will be posting that recipe too. Then I made Tandoori Prawns too, the typical red colored spicy one, and they were so so Yum!!
Also baked and grilled some vegetables to go along with the chicken. I had fresh paneer cubes stored in the refrigerator, and marinated few of the cubes with my homemade tandoori masala and grilled it. So you can see I had a full tandoori platter as my lunch:). The weekend started out with masala tea with Karachi Bakery Cashew biscuits and a tandoori platter lunch and simple dal and rice with Gongura chutney as dinner. 🙂
Now to get started with making this recipe. We need the Gongura chutney for this recipe and few Kashmiri Chilies and Prawns that are cleaned and deveined. You can see my Gongura Chutney recipe here.
TANDOORI GONGURA PRAWNS
INGREDIENTS:
Gongura Chutney: 2 Tbsp
Kashmiri Red Chili: 3 no
Prawns/Shrimps: 250 gm
Olive oil: 2 tbsp
Turmeric: 1 Tsp
Salt: To taste
NOTE: You can use any cooking oil of choice.
METHOD:
Soak the Kashmiri red chili in hot water, they are easier to grind after soaking as they become soft.
Wash, Â devein, and clean the shrimps and pat dry with kitchen towel or tissue.
Apply salt and turmeric.
Preheat the oven to 200 deg C on the grill and oven setting.
Grind the Kashmiri chili along with the Gongura chutney and some oil. The chutney already had oil so you may only need 1 tbsp or less.  Adding oil helps make a smooth paste and we can easily coat this paste on the shrimps. Oil does not make the shrimps dry when being grilled. Use remaining oil, if required, to brush on the prawns while they are being grilled.
Do remember that shrimps have delicate flesh and do not need a long time to be grilled, over grilling will result in burning and making them hard. Also do not keep them very close to the grill. The intense heat dries up the prawns. Hence adding oil to the marinade prevents the flesh from drying.
Line the skewers with the chutney marinated prawns and insert them in the oven for 10 mins. After 10 min. check if they are done, and if not crisp on the outside then keep for another 5 minutes and remove. They are perfectly done in 10-15 min, but depending upon the size and the grill oven used decide upon the grilling time.
Remove from the skewers and serve hot. The gongura chutney already imparts the tangy flavor and hence I did not need any sauce or dips along with these.
Serving Options:
- You can serve it with a fresh salad of thinly sliced onions and tomatoes, seasoned with only salt and pepper. This is the classic salad accompaniment to any tandoori dish.
- You can make a chutney infused olive oil dip as seen in the picture.
- You can mix these with mixed salad and serve too.
For the other Tandoori recipes from ashuskitchen, click the link below:
Wishing you all a Happy Weekend. Looking forward to see you visiting again for checking out more tandoori and other yummy recipes.
Enjoy!! 🙂
ashu
Ganpati Bappa Morya
The Hindu month of Bhadrapad brings with it the auspicious Ganpati festival. It is a ten days festival, but in my house we celebrate it for five days. This year we celebrated this festival from 5th September to the 9th September. It is a busy time with the daily Prasad or Naivedya offerings to the Bappa and the pujas and artis. Many guests are invited and friends visit to have a darshan of the lord and to attend to the pujas. The last day of the festival marks with the immersion of the idol.
This year I thought of sharing few festival pictures of the celebrations done at my home.
GANPATI BAPPA MORYA:
ashu
Kothimbir Vadi-2
Kothimbir wadi is a popular Maharashtrian snack dish. It is served as a part of the Maharashtrian Thali meal too, a favorite in the festive season. We see it being sold in many snack shops in Pune and Mumbai, cities of Maharashtra state in India.
For me the winter months are nostalgic with childhood memories when mom used to make these vadis frequently, the season when coriander was in  abundance. We nowadays see the coriander being available all year round. With changing times, the season no longer dominates the food cooked in the house, more so with me residing away from my motherland, though I would still prefer the Kothimbir vadi that is made using the coriander when in season than to the coriander that I buy at any given time of the year. I had tasted this particular kind of Kothimbir vadi in thali meals, during puja lunches, but I never made it at home until this week. I have always enjoyed Kothimbir Vadi preparation that my mother made, click here for that recipe.
It is a compulsion with me and I cannot let go of the urge to try out any new dish that I get to taste outside and like, I almost always end up making it in my kitchen. Lately I had been getting opportunity to eat this particular type of vadi on a number of occasions and the constant reminder from self to give it a try in my kitchen was always nagging the mind, finally I tried it this week. I had to invite my friends for lunch this week, planned a Maharashtrian meal menu, and hence this was the perfect starter to add to the thali menu was my thought. I tried making it in small portion on one morning and after perfecting the recipe to my taste made it for my party lunch, and the friends loved it. I was asked for my recipe and with this post I am sharing here my method of the recipe. I matched the ingredients to the taste of the Kothimbir Vadi that I had recently tasted at a Puja lunch, at my friend’s house where the food was from a local restaurant here.
This easy method recipe is my way of making it, may not be similar to traditional recipe, but tastes perfect and yum. I have now uploaded both methods of making Kothimbir wadi, and this one can be called an easy-to-make recipe, as the time required is less and almost always all the ingredients are available in the house. Do give it a try and let me know what you all think about this recipe.
Kothimbir Vadi- Easy Method
INGREDIENTS:
Coriander: 1 Bowl (finely chopped)
Chickpea Flour/Besan: 1 Bowl
Rice Flour: 1/2 Bowl
Semolina: 2 Tbsp (Optional)
GingerGarlic paste: 1 Tbsp
Curd: 2 Tbsp
Sesame seeds: 50 gms
Ajwain/ Carom seeds: 1 Tsp
Baking Soda: 1/2 Tsp
Chili Powder: 1 Tsp
Garam Masala Powder: 1 Tsp
Cooking Oil: 1 Tbsp (for batter)
Sugar: 1 Tsp
Salt: To taste
Cooking oil: 200 ml for frying
METHOD:
Clean, wash, dry and then finely chop the green Coriander. Make a paste of the ginger and garlic, taking equal amount. I add green chili also to it.
Assemble all the ingredients before starting the procedure to make this Vadi. (Pic below is for illustration, not the actual measurements used in this recipe)
In a big bowl or deep plate take the finely chopped coriander. Add the gingergarlic & chili paste, the sesame seeds, ajwain, salt, chili powder, garam masala, sugar, curds, and 1 Tbsp oil. Mix well.
Take 1 bowl chickpea flour, 1/2 bowl rice flour, and 2 Tbsp Semolina in another bowl and add 1/2 tsp baking soda to it and mix all the ingredients well.
Add the mixed flours to the coriander mixture, and mix all the ingredients well. Use little water if required to make a medium consistency wet dough that is easily spreadable with hand on a vessel, or tray or plate, and is not runny or loose.
We need to grease the plate or tray or vessel with oil in which we are going to steam the vadi. Evenly spread the dough in the greased tray or plate or vessel, pressing it well with fingers for spreading evenly, as we want same thickness when we cut the vadi.
Steam this for 15- 20 minutes in a pressure cooker without whistle or a steamer, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool the steamed cooked dough, and then cut into small bite-sized pieces.
We can either shallow fry the vadi or deep fry in hot oil till the outer side is crispy. Deep frying gives it a more crispier look as well as taste.
Serve it with green chutney or chili sauce or tomato sauce. I did not make a green chutney, served here in the picture above is with green chili sauce.
NOTE: The bowl measurement is given for reference for the flour quantity, one can use any bowl-a steel wati or soup bowl. I used a ceramic soup bowl and topped it tightly with finely chopped coriander, it tastes better when lot of coriander is used. Semolina is optional, I prefer the texture it adds to the bite, but can be avoided altogether if not preferred. All the spices, ginger garlic and chili paste add to the taste, and adding a little sugar enhances all the flavors giving it a perfect sweetish ting. It tastes best with a green chutney, a coriander mint one, my preference :).
Wishing you all a great September month, will be posting some yummier recipe posts as it is the Ganpati festivity month. I welcome Ganpati Bappa morya at my humble home on the 5th of this month :), it is five days of festivity with yummy Prasad and Modak offerings.
ashu.
Dill Sabji
Dill Sabji
Dill, a green leafy vegetable that can be used as vegetable or a herb , it has a typical flavor that is strong, is aromatic, and was something that I had never tasted in my mother’s house before marriage. My dad never liked the strong flavor of this vegetable and hence mom never made it in our home. I got introduced to this leafy bundle after my marriage, my mother-in-law used to make it perfectly, and I have adapted this recipe from what I have tasted when she cooked it. Both my kids love these greens, and this recipe is the most preferred method of the two that I use to prepare these Dill greens. We can prepare the greens using soaked Mung dal too. I usually do not like to see oil oozing out on to the plate from any sabji that I cook  for the day, but for this one I usually add a little extra oil.
Until last month I had eaten Dill leaves in this particular sabji form only, never cooked or tasted its different recipes. But during my recent Georgia travel, I got to taste some amazing recipes using the herb Dill. It is used extensively in other cuisines too, and I loved the versatile uses of it. It was used in soups, salads, as well as rice, and some unique chicken and mutton recipes. I loved the use of it in soups, it enhanced the flavor of the vegetables and chicken so perfectly, the taste still lingers on my tongue. I hope to try out some of these below recipes in my kitchen soon.
These couple food picture below that I am sharing are from my Georgian travel, the soups and Chicken salad that used dill as a herb, it imparted a perfect flavor to these simple recipes.
Now let us get on with the preparation to make the Dill sabji. It is also called as Shepuchi bhaji in Maharashtra in India.
DILL SABJI/SHEPUCHI BHAJI
INGREDIENTS:
Dill greens: 2 Bundles
Green chilies: 2Â long ones
Onion: 2 Medium
Tomato: 1 Medium
Garlic: 2-3 Cloves
Oil: 3 Tbsp
Turmeric: 1 Tsp
Cumin: 1 Tsp
Salt: To taste
METHOD:
Clean the leafy bundle by separating the tender stems and leaves. Wash and towel dry the Dill greens.
Slice the garlic cloves. Finely chop the green chilies, onions,  and tomato.
Heat a Kadai on the gas stove. Add the oil to it, once it gets hot then add the cumin.
Next add the chopped green chilies and garlic. Saute, then add the finely chopped onions. Cook till the onion become pinkish, then add the chopped tomato. Cook till it gets soft and we see oil at the sides. Then add the turmeric and salt.
Then add the chopped Dill greens. Cover with lid for 5Â min, and then remove the lid. We cover it for only few minutes because we just want to ensure the tender stalks get cooked but without changing the color of the leaves. If we cover with lid for long, it adds water to the sabji and gives it a dull color, and also the taste is compromised.
Cooking the greens does not take much time, and hence try and be near the stove while it is getting done.  Dry up any liquid from the sabji and put off the flame from the stove, and empty the sabji on to a serving plate or bowl.
I had made a simple bottle gourd Dal to go with this sabji, a freshly made cucumber salad, fulka and some red groundnut chutney. This was my simple dinner menu the other day. I have one roasted papad too on the plate.
ashusrecipe-Dill Sabji
I will try and make a post of my other Dill greens recipe that I make adding the Mung dal sometime sooner.
This is a simple vegetarian sabji that I make in my kitchen, and am happy to share with you all here on the blog. Hope you like this easy-to-make Maharashtrian recipe.
Enjoy 🙂
ashu
Kale Chane ki Chaat
This is one of the easy-to-make dishes of mine that I often love to make and pack for lunchbox. The family is always happy when this chaat is packed for tiffin. The simplicity and versatile aspect of this dish makes it a favorite of mine too, I have a good scope of adding different ingredients each time. If the chane are kept boiled, ready to be used, then one can end up making a couple preparations out of them. Today for this post I am sharing my chaat recipe.
The chaat is loaded with fiber not only from the Chane but also the vegetables and fruits used. It has the sweet and sour taste of the green apples and hence I have not added lemon juice. The finely chopped onion and the green capsicum gives it a good crunch . We can add any single colored or all the bell peppers and make it a more colorful combination. I have used only the green capsicum as I wanted to impart the capsicum flavor without adding more of its sweetness. The pomegranate pearls add the sweetness as well as the fiber. Any chaat is incomplete without the savory Sev, a must for all chaats, use it as per your own requirement. As this chaat is made of chana and the Sev is also made of gram flour, so we do not need heaps of Sev on this chaat, just a small sprinkle is good enough. One can pack this for school or office snack/lunchbox or can also serve as a chaat accompaniment in the party menu at home. One can keep the boiled chane handy in the refrigerator and can make a quick snack when hungry. It is a good recipe for those who are trying a weight loss regimen, the bowlful chaat is full of protein and fiber and hence gives fullness to the tummy as well and does not make us go for another quick bite of food. The fiber load makes it good for Diabetics too.
KALE CHANE KI CHAAT
INGREDIENTS: (For one portion)
Kale Chane:Â 150 gm
Oil: 1 Tbsp
GingerGarlic paste: 1 Tsp
Onion: 1 Medium
Turmeric: 1/2 Tsp
Coriander powder: 1 Tsp
Red Chili Powder: 1 Tsp
Chaat Masala: 1 Tsp
Cumin: 1/2 Tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 Tsp
Capsicum: 1 small
Green Apple: Few slices (1/2 apple)
Pomegranate: 1/2 (as per requirement)
Barik (Fine) Sev: 1 Tbsp
Green Coriander: 1 Tbsp (Finely chopped  for garnish.)
NOTE: I have given recipe for one portion only. You can increase the chana quantity and accordingly the rest of the ingredients to make more portions.
METHOD:
Soak the kale chane overnight and bring to boil upto three whistles in a pressure cooker.
Finely chop the onion, capsicum, green apple and green coriander. Remove the pearls from the pomegranate and keep ready. (You can click here to know the easy method to remove the pearls.)
Heat Kadai on the gas stove, add oil and as the oil heats up add the mustard seeds and cumin. As they crackle, add the finely chopped half onion, saute and as it turns pinkish, add the spices.
Then add the boiled chane to the kadai and cook. If little water of the boiled Chana gets added then cook till all the water is dried up. Switch off the gas stove, then sprinkle the chaat masala over the Chana and mix.
Empty the Chane in a bowl or serving plate. Top the Chane with the finely chopped half portion of onion, green capsicum, green apples and the pomegranate pearls. Then sprinkle on top with the fine Sev and finally garnish with finely chopped green coriander.
You can note how easy and fast the recipe can be prepared. If a recipe has many health benefits then it should be definitely tried out at home and encouraged to be eaten by all.
Hope you all enjoy trying out and tasting this quick Chaat dish, and making it a more versatile version by adding your favorite ingredients, provided you keep it as healthy.
Happy eating home cooked food and maintaining a good health. 🙂
Check out below links for my other Chaat recipes:
ashu
AamRas and Kurudi Papad
The food available during the season decides the menu for most festivals in Indian homes. For us summer is the mango season, the market is flooded with lots of varieties of mangoes. The fruit starts appearing first in the market as the suns intensity increases from end of February to early March. March  month sees the Badam variety of mango starting to appear on the fruit stalls. The taste of the mangoes is best as the summer heat peaks up. In today’s times many fruit sellers resort to methods to quickly ripen the fruits, but that alters the taste.  With the market flooded with mangoes, the different dishes or recipes of mangoes dominate the dining table menu :). The summer months also is time for school vacations, and it was the best time during my childhood to enjoy as many varieties of mangoes. Too much or over excess of mango eating results in the boils appearing overnight , but still one would not care as it was vacation time. Also we had many local varieties of the fruit available brought directly from the farms, something that is greatly missed now as an adult, something that my kids have never even got to taste, as we reside out and here the supermarkets have fruits supply coming from many countries. Still I  try to make the dishes with whichever variety of mango is available in this region.
Aamras is the sweet dish made up of ripe mangoes. It is just mango pulp, sugar and little milk or water added to get a thinner consistency. It is part of the meals as a sweet dish. When the aamras is made, then the kurudi or papad are also deep fried to eat along with the Aamras. Also, boiled homemade Sevai or Vermicelli is eaten along with the Aamras. This becomes a part of the whole vegetarian meal or thali. It is a popular and delicious sweet dish. The many different varieties of mangoes can be used to make Aamras. The best taste would be from Alphonso variety of mangoes, but I equally prefer the Junagad Kesar variety of mango that I used to buy when I was residing in Gujarat, India. The Kesar mango that we get is Gujarat is my personal favorite.
Currently I reside in the UAE, and the supermarket or vegetable vendors have mangoes from many countries being sold here. As I visited my home country in the month of May I was able to relish the fresh mango produce of Alphonso mangoes and also the Aamras.  This weekend I got the Chaunsa variety of mango, a produce of Pakistan from the supermarket, and decided to make the Aamras for this post. The taste of this Aamras is definitely different, but when Alphonso mangoes are not around then this or whichever variety is available would do if one craves for the Aamras, right?! 🙂
AAMRAS & KURUDI PAPAD
INGREDIENTS:Â
Ripe Mangoes : 500 gms
Sugar: 25 gms
Milk: 100 gms
METHOD:
Wash and dry the ripened mangoes. Remove the skin using a sharp knife and cut the mango into small pieces and throw away the seed.
Take mixer pot and put the cut mango pulp and sugar into it and whisk the mixer on high speed so that we get a smooth paste. Add milk to it and get the thinner consistency as desired.
The kurudi papad is deep fried in oil and served with Aamras.
NOTE: The amount of sugar used depends upon the sweetness of the mangoes.
The Chaunsa mangoes that I have used were extremely sweet and I had to add very little quantity of sugar for the mango pulp/cubes used to make the Aamras. Do use the sugar quantity as needed depending on the mangoes used and also the sweetness preferred.
Any traditional Vegetarian Maharashtrian or Indian meal for that matter is served in a thali form , a big steel plate with all the dishes for the day served in small portions along with the sweets that form as the dessert and served to the guests. It consists of two to three types of vegetables, curry, pickles, chutneys, papads, roti, rice & dal with ghee, and the sweets. When you serve the Aamras with the Kurudi, the meal served becomes a feast, the guests too are happy. This was the way we ate our meals in childhood, but now mostly only on festival days or special days, as any regular day it is usually not so elaborate but simple and more of regular kind of food.
Nowadays one mostly prefers to make mango milk shakes or smoothies, but do give this dish a try and serve it as part of a vegetarian meal or thali meal and enjoy the different flavors in your meal.
Wishing you all a good day.
ashu 🙂
Oats and Bottle Gourd Fritters, my healthy breakfast recipe.
We all are aware of starting the day with a good breakfast. To make it a healthy breakfast we need to make a dish that is balanced, having all the nutrient components. The dish in this post is one such that provides us with the carbohydrates, proteins, fats, Vitamins & minerals, and also has dietary fibre. Dietary fibre is essential to the daily diet as it adds bulk, providing the necessary roughage needed for our normal bowel movement and emptying.
The recipe is simple, uses cooking oats and grated bottle gourd as the main ingredients.
INGREDIENTS:
Bottle Gourd- 1/2 small (1 bowl grated)
Oats- 1/2 Bowl (8-10 tsp)
Carom seeds- 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Green chilli- 1Small, finely chopped
Green coriander & garlic paste- 1tsp (can also use chopped coriander and crushed garlic clove)
Olive oil- 1 ml (used just to grease the pan)
Salt- To taste.
METHOD:
Wash the bottle gourd and grate it. Add carom seeds and sesame seeds, finely chopped green chilli and 1 tsp of the green herb paste.
Add the oats and salt and mix all the ingredients together. The juice of the grated bottle gourd is sufficient to mix the oats and make a dough-like mixture.
Divide this mixture into 4 portions. Heat a frying pan on medium flame of the gas stove and add 1/2 tsp Olive oil or whichever cooking oil you use.
Flatten out each portion of the mixture into the pan and cook, turning over and using the left over oil. Cook till it is golden in colour and crispy.
Once done, remove the fritters on the serving dish that is kept ready. They can be served with yogurt and mint dip/chutney. These should be eaten hot to enjoy the delicious taste and crispiness.
This is one of the many healthy dishes that I cook for breakfast. It is essential to use less quantity of fat in our diet. Any change in our diet pattern does not happen overnight. But if one wishes, then it is never too late to start eating healthy food, cooking it with all the necessary ingredients and taking care that it is appealing to the sight and tasty for the taste buds. A little effort of eating healthy on a daily basis is beneficial in the long run.
Happy cooking this dish. Looking forward to your interaction in the form of comments.
Enjoy!
ashu 🙂
Deseeding Pomegranate
We all are aware how tiresome it can be to take out the red pearls from a Pomegranate if one does not know the easy technique. I would buy the fruit and most often it would just be left inside the refrigerator to be used for a later time, reason being the tedious work for deseeding it. Once, while watching Nigella’s show, she mentioned this easy technique and from then on it has always been just a few seconds work. Now I never shy away from buying the pomegranates after knowing this easy technique.
I start sharing my easy tips and tricks with this post. Every Sunday I plan to share one tip. This Sunday I posted this technique on my Facebook page.
Deseeding The Pomegranate:
Cut the fruit into two halves. With the help of a rolling pin, whack it from all sides so that the red pearls start falling apart. Hold the fruit over a bowl to collect all the pearls. Do take care not to injure the fingers holding the fruit.
The above pictures show how it is done and how easily the seeds fall apart. This takes just a few seconds of our time. Hope this method would be making it easy for you all and you too start eating more of this fibre-rich fruit.
ashu 🙂
Colourful Rice: My Healthy Recipe
Looking at a plain white sheet of paper might not be interesting to the sight, but just add some colour to this blank sheet of paper using dark green, red, yellow, orange, and pink crayons and then take a look at the same white sheet. The coloured sheet would look interesting and more appealing to the eye. This was just for making you picturize the dish that I am going to be posting today.
A bowl of plain rice might not be a very interesting option to eat for any meal. But by just adding vegetables of vibrant colours to the rice not only adds colour, flavour, and texture but makes it so engaging to the sight. For me the food that is served at the table has to be inviting to the people and should provide contentment.
Let’s get making the plain boiled rice an interesting, appealing, and an eye-catching option so that when you eat it, you would like to try making it more often.
INGREDIENTS:
Boiled rice – 2 Medium bowl (approximately 100 g raw rice that is boiled)
Bell Peppers- ½ of each- Green, Red, Orange, and Yellow.
Onion- ½ (Medium-sized)
Broccoli-3-4 Florets
Boneless Chicken pieces-6-7 (or as required)
Olive oil- 1 Tbsp (any oil that you use for cooking as required)
Seasoning– Salt, pepper, Chilli flakes, and dry Oregano herb.
Garnish– 1 Boiled egg
Preparation of Vegetables & Chicken: Cut the chicken into cubes. Bell peppers should be chopped and onion should be diced. Chop the broccoli florets.
Note: The chicken and egg are the protein part of the dish. Vegetarians can replace the chicken with Soy chunks or Paneer (cottage cheese), or Tofu.
Method:
Heat a Wok or skillet or Kadai and add the cooking oil to it. Add the chicken cubes and sauté, season with salt and pepper.
As the chicken gets cooked, put all the cut vegetables into the wok and sauté just enough so the raw taste goes. The vegetables should be crunchy to bite. Season with salt and pepper.
Put the boiled rice and mix well with the vegetables, season with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and oregano. Mix well and serve hot.
Our colourful rice is ready to be served at the dinning table for all to enjoy. I made it this afternoon for lunch and ate with dal fry. It can be enjoyed as it is or any dal preparation would go well with it. Dal Fry recipe I will post on a later date.
Keep visiting for some interesting versions of the different dishes that I cook in my Kitchen.
Enjoy!
ashu 🙂
Chocolate Banana Bread
Time spent in the company of my friends is always filled with fun and laughter. The last week was one such week that can be said as a friend-week, with lunch and dinner meets, a totally food indulgence week. The weekend brought in some great news from a dear friend who secured her dream project. Another thing to note, it makes me very happy to tell you all that this is my 25th post. To celebrate all these happy moments I am posting my Chocolate Banana Bread recipe. In my home country all celebratory occasions call for something sweet and hence the indulgence. Just like our friends and family who add joy to our daily life, this too is a delicious bread that fills the house with a very sweet aroma when being baked, adding the joy to our cake craving taste buds. A yummy delight!
Bananas are abundantly available all year round, and are a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin B6. But asking the kids to eat them on a daily basis is a task in itself. Most often than not, they end up ripening in the fruit basket, giving them one more reason to not eat them. This bread is my way of using the ripened fruit and making it appealing and irresistible for them, which they never refuse. The recipe requires very ripe bananas, almost with black dotted skin, the one that would be seen fit for throwing in the waste bin. The more ripe the fruit, the better the taste and flavour of the bread. The plain banana bread was not much fancied at home, the colour of the bread is not that appealing. As mostly chocolate based cakes are preferred at home so I tried adding cocoa to the list of ingredients and that made this bread a winner. The kids cannot refuse this, in fact want it more, and even the baker gets to over indulge once in a while!
This is a very easy recipe, even new cooks will find it easy. I always enjoy baking it, and today am happy sharing with you all. Do try baking it and sharing the bread with others and continue my chain of spreading happiness to others that you come across.
Ingredients:
Medium-sized extremely ripe Bananas-2Â Â Â Â 
Eggs-2
Butter (unsalted)-100 gm
Sugar-200 gm
Refined Flour (Maida)-150 gm
Cocoa Powder-50 gm (3-4 Tbsp. I used Hershey’s cocoa)
Baking Powder-1 Tsp
Walnuts-50 gm (Dry roasted in hot oven for 10 min)
Note: All ingredients are at room temperature. Prepare/weigh and keep them ready to use.
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a bread/loaf tin with butter and keep ready for use.
- Sieve the refined flour, baking powder and cocoa together. Ground the sugar and mix it with the flour mixture.
- Take the room temperature butter in a glass bowl or a big mixing bowl. Beat the soft butter with spatula.
- Mash the ripened bananas and mix with the butter.
- Lightly beat 2 eggs in a small separate bowl and add to the butter mixture. Do not be alarmed if the mixture looks curdled.
- Whisk for a minute all the ingredients of the glass bowl with a hand mixer so that the butter, bananas and eggs get mixed well.
- Add vanilla essence and give one whisk to the butter mixture.
- Fold in the flour mixture into the butter mixture. This is done with help of a spatula, in one direction. The mixture should not be over mixed.
- Add the oven roasted walnuts. (The nuts can be roasted for 10 minutes in hot oven.)They should be coarsely crushed with hand before adding to the cake batter.
- Empty the batter into the greased loaf tin and put this in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- When the cake is done, remove tin from oven and cool. Then remove the cake from the tin and let cool on wire rack.
Enjoy the freshly baked warm banana bread with tea or coffee or store in fridge for later use. Today afternoon, in my house, it was a patient wait for cutting and eating this sweet temptation. So dear readers go ahead and try it out.
Enjoy!!
ashu 🙂
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