Gulab jamun cheesecake

This recipe is from Shukti. I set them in individual Graham cracker crusts.. The only change I may do the next time is 'maybe'  hang the greek yoghurt to drain out any liquid .. Anyway , the final result was very very yummy and my guests were happy...And so me very happy too.....

Recipe: Gulab jamun cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. gelatin.

2 cups Paneer

1 cup greek yogurt

1/2 cup condensed milk.

2 pie crusts(small) - Graham cracker

2 cans of haldirams gulab jamun.

·         Slice the Gulab Jamuns into half and place them on the pie crust. 

·         Warm a little water in the microwave and add 1 tbsp gelatin to it. Mix it well.

·         Blend Paneer, Yogurt, condensed milk and gelatin together and pour the mixture on the pie crust to cover all the gulab jamuns.

·         Cover with the lid and place it in the refrigerator. It will take about an hour or so for the mixture to set.

·         Take it out of the refrigerator when you are ready to serve.

Lemon bars...

These turned out heavenly... Recipe from the Allrecipes website....Do read  a few  comments below the recipe to tweak  ingredients.....

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-lemon-bars/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=lemon+bar&e8=Quick+Search&event10=1&e7=Home+

Lemon bliss cake and Chocolate chip brownies

I love going thru food blogs... it is a major time pass for me.. I love the way each blog takes me to another and yet another on a never ending journey of good food.. (and then , since all that surfing has eaten into my cooking time but at the same time all those good pics have me hungry for good food --  I order pizzas! )

Nupur's Onehotstove is one of the blogs I frequent.. I went to her blog yesterday after ages... the pic of her lemon bliss cake looked awesome and so baked one in the evening... while mine did not look equally awesome, it did taste awesome..  and then to do justice to Joy's tummy, baked a brownie from a site I was guided to by the same blog....

(P.S. An amendment -- I recently  baked this cake and glazed it  as per the recipe. And all of us went ga-ga over the cake with the glaze. While the cake is delicious by itself, the glaze gives an altogether different taste to the cake. This time I baked it in a regular pan. Since it did not have a hole in the middle, I poked the cake with a knife to let the glaze enter. Hence those marks on the cake in the pic. Do try the cake with the glaze -- the taste is amazing. Secondly, I could not dissolve the entire sugar and so had some granulated sugar in the glaze. Ab and Joy insisted that it was the crunchiness of the sugar which made it all the more tasty and advised me  not to dissolve the entire sugar in future tries).  

I do not have a bundt so  I used my simple cake pan. I took half the proportions and it took me 40 minutes to bake. On second thoughts, may be I need  to bake it longer since the bottom did not brown as well as Nupur's . I tried overturning the cake but I do not seem to have greased the pan enough as the cake broke. The glaze requires quite a lot of beating as a lot of sugar needs to be dissolved in lemon juice.  I skipped the glaze step as the cake broke and I also realized the cake is very sweet by itself.

http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2008/12/20/lemon-in-the-limelight-taking-a-break-from-chocolate/

The brownie turned out really chocolaty and gooey with the choco chips literally bursting from the seams... It took me 30 minutes to bake and still wasn't dry but I decided I did not want it to  over-dry and quit baking after 30 minutes..I added a little less than half a cup of sugar to make it sweeter as Joy likes them so. 

http://www.blogher.com/frame.php?url=http://www.diannesdishes.com/2007/12/chocolate-chip-brownies-gift-j.html

Kerala Chicken Stew

This was amongst the first chicken recipes I learnt to cook after moving to Sgp... I unfortunately do not remember the name of the book  or the name of the author.. I remember her being based at USA... So regret unable to give due credit to the lady...

What I love about this dish is that this is a single dish of chicken and veggies which can be had with plain rice ....  one of the dishes for the day when I  want something light on spices, nothing elaborate in terms of cooking  but something tasty too..  

8 pieces  Chicken thighs

2 tbspn oil

6 each of cardamom pods (open) and whole cloves

2" cinnamon stick

1/4 tspn pepper corns

2 bay leaves

2.5 cups Chopped onions

2 tbspn chopped green chillies

3 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp aniseed/ fennel/ saunf (powdered) ( Most important as this is what gives a unique flavor to the stew)

1/4 tspn turneric powder

Salt to taste

2 cups chopped vegetables (carrots/ beans/ peas)

20 curry leaves

1 can coconut milk (200 ml)

Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Add cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, pepper corns and bay leaves. Saute until fragrant for about 40 seconds.

Add onions and saute till golden. Add chillies,  1 tbsp ginger, fennel,  and saute for two minutes.

Push masala to one side of the pan. Add chicken. Spoon masala over top and brown the chicken. Flip chicken to brown other side. Stir chicken to mix well with masala.

Add 2 cups  water and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer till chicken is partially cooked.

Add vegetables ,curry leaves, 2 tbsp ginger and garlic. Increase heat to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for five minutes. Add coconut milk  and simmer till the vegetables are tender. 

Serve hot with plain rice.

Bon appetit!!!!

Potoler Dorma / Stuffed Parwal/ Stuffed waxy gourds

Potoler dorma brings back fond memories of mummy's cooking.  Potoler dorma refers to stuffed potol. You may stuff it with coconut, potatoes, fish.  I have stuffed the potols with  keema (mutton) .  We are lucky to get large potols from Bangladesh to make these.

 Pic of the scraped potols. Remove the seeds / flesh  inside with the back of a small spoon. 

Frying the stuffed potols in batches

The final dish

The recipe at Shilpi Bose's  blog

http://itistastyma.blogspot.com/2010/11/potoler-dorma-stuffed-parwals-pointed.html#more

Bon Appetit!!!!!

Orange Souffle

This is a very simple and awesomely delicious orange souffle. Not a souffle in the true sense but the result is a very light dish. It delights me that many friends have made this  at their homes after  tasting it our place... 

 Ingredients :
 2  packets of orange jelly ( making one litre of jelly) 
900 ml  of Vanilla icecream
200 ml of sugarless orange juice  

Prepare the jelly. Heat 500 ml of water . Add the jelly crystals, and mix with water for around a minute or more (count till 100)  till all the crystals dissolve. Add another 490 ml of cold water to the same. After the mixture comes to room temperature, put it in the refrigerator ( not freezer)  to let it semi-set. This is the only important part of the preparation, that it should not set completely. Keep checking the jelly to take it out when it is semi-set  ( wiggles dangerously). Take it out of the refrigerator. Scoop it out and put it in a blender.Pour in the orange juice. Break the vanilla icecream into medium pieces and add the same. 

Now blend the three for a minute or so till all three are completely blended. When u switch off the blender, you will notice in a few seconds, the liquid mixture will automatically coagulate and stick to each other. Pour into individual bowls or in a large bowl and keep it to cool in the refrigerator (not the freezer). Take it out only at the time of serving.  If kept outside, the souffle tends to disintegrate. If you are preparing  a large amount to be used over two sessions, recommend placing them in two different bowls. 


Bon Appetit !!!!

Lehsuni Murgh

A local restaurant, Omar Shariff's chicken garlic kebab turned out mouth melting. With the taste still lingering in  my memory, I came across this recipe of lehsuni murgh  at the NDTV website  and gave it a try. It turned out equally mouth melting and on my list of must make again.    The link to the original website is given . I have copied pasted the recipe , as I have not digressed from the original recipe at all.

http://cooks.ndtv.com/recipe/show/lehsuni-murg-98724

Ingredients :

1/2 kg boneless chicken 

2-3 tbsp ghee 

1 small bowl water 

1 small bowl finely chopped onions 

5-6 tsp garlic paste 

3-4 tsp ginger paste 

3 tsp coriander powder 

4 tsp yogurt 

2 tsp red chilli powder 

5-6 tsp badaam paste 

Salt - to taste 

1/4 tsp jaifal powder (nutmeg) 

1/4 tsp javitri powder 

1/2 tsp pepper powder 

4 tsp fried chopped garlic 

2 tsp kesar ka ghol 

2-3 tsp coriander leaves

Lightly roast the badam and soak it in water for a while. Grind it into a paste and keep aside. 

Heat ghee in a pan, and fry onions. Pour in the garlic paste and ginger paste. Mix well. 

Add coriander powder and add 4-5 tbsp of water. Continue to stir. 

Mix in the yogurt, add the red chilli powder and mix again. 

Pour in the badaam paste and cook for some time. 

Add the chicken and mix well. 

Add salt and water, cook for sometime or till the chicken is well cooked. 

Add jaifal powder, javitri powder, pepper powder, fried chopped garlic and kesar. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Tuck in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pomfret preparation

Joy loves eating pomfret. Here, I  share two recipes.


The first is the way Abhit's mom used to cook it and a family favourite, Joy's favourite.  This is a semi- dry curry.  


And the second is a Goanese style curry, loosely based from Sanjeev kapoor's recipe. This is a curry to be eaten with plain rice. The tanginess of the tamarind and the sweetness of the coconut milk gives a lovely taste.... So here goes....


Preparation 1  -- Ma's style

[ The pic looks more of coriander and less of pomfret ..;) ;) ]

Ingredients : 


3 Pomfrets.


Curry
Onion -- two large , chopped.
Tomato -- Four, chopped.
Garlic -- 2 tbspns
Ginger -- 1 tbspn
Turmeric powder -- 1/2 teaspoon 
Chilli powder -- 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander leaves -- chopped. 
Salt to taste.


Marinade
Garlic, Turmeric, salt, lemon juice. 


Chop each fish in three pieces. Marinate them in turmeric, salt, garlic. The longer they are marinated, the better.


Heat oil and fry the fishes in batches. If you are worried of the fish skin sticking to the pan, dip the fish lightly in corn flour and fry. Place them aside.


Fry the onions till brown. Add the ginger, garlic till the smell of raw garlic is no longer present. Add turmeric, chilli powders, salt ,  tomatoes and cook  till the tomatoes are mashed and the oil comes out.  Remember the fish pieces are already salted and hence add salt to curry considering the same.  add a little water and when it starts boiling, add the fish pieces and let it cook for a minute.  Switch off the heat and sprinkle chopped coriander leaves. This preparation will be semi dry or as they say in Bengali -- " makha makha" :) :)  Serve hot.




Preparation 2 : Goanese style 

Ingredients : 


2 Pomfrets ( 6 pieces) .


Curry
Onion -- one large , chopped.
Tomato -- one, chopped.
Chilli powder -- 1/2 teaspoon
Vinegar -- 1 tbspn. 
Salt to taste.


Paste 

Garlic -- 10 large cloves
Ginger -- 2 " piece
Cumin seeds -- 2 tspns 
Coriander seeds -- 2 tbspns
Red chillies whole -- 2 
Coconut milk -- 150 ml ( you may use half cup fresh coconut alternately)
Tamarind, seedless -- 1 med lemon sized





Marinade
Garlic, Turmeric, salt, lemon juice. 


Marinate the fish and fry them in batches. Place the fishes aside. (The Goanese style actually asks for the fish to be boiled straight with in the curry and not frying them . But I like my fish fried. ) 


Dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and red chillies and make a paste with the remaining ingredients under the list 'paste'.


Heat oil ina pan and fry the onions till brown. Add tomato and cook on medium heat for three minutes mashing them with your ladle. Add the paste and one and half cups of water and let i come to a boil. Add the fried pomret pieces and let it cook for a minute. Put off the heat and stir in the vinegar. Serve hot with plain rice.

And this picture is one of a whole pomfret preparation, Abhit style.

Bon appetit!!!!!!

Khumb Aur Matar Biryani

I am a huge fan of Nita Mehta's cook books as I find the recipes therein totally doable.  My friend Avani, gifted me Nita Mehta's  Vegetarian Mughlai . This recipe is from this book  with the only change being the original recipe is Aloo and  Khumb Biryani.  I love mushrooms too. The biryani turned out delicous and just right with the delicate flavours of the spices wafting thru. Served it with chicken, raita and my current favourite -- lychee sorbet....:) :)

Ingredients :

200 grams or 1 packet fresh mushrooms, each cut into 4 pieces

1 bowl boiled peas.

1 tomato chopped

1/2 cup curd

2 onions : Sliced (the recipe actually asks for them to be ground to paste)

10 flakes garlic and 1  ginger crushed to paste (1.5 tbspns)

3/4 tsp red chilli; 1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 cloves -- crushed

1 tspn salt.

Garam masala to taste.

3-4 tbspn chopped coriander.

Rice :

1 cup basmati rice, washed and kept in strainer for 30 minutes.

1.5 tsp salt.

2 pinches mace/javitri; 2 -3 green cardamoms; 1/2" stick cinnamon.

To seal for dum (optional)

Aluminium foil and dough

Cook the rice with the salt and the javitri/cardamoms/ cinnamon. Do not overcook.  Place aside.

Heat 4 tbspns of oil. Add the onions till they turn brown. Add the ginger - garlic paste, turmeric powder , red chilli powder and mix well. Let it cook for a minute or till the garlic is no longer smells raw.  Add the tomato and cook till mashed and oil separates out. Reduce flame . Add curd , stirring continuously to prevent curdling. Bhuno till oil separates. To prevent the curd from curdling , it is very important to cook on a low flame.  Add crushed cloves and mix well. Add the mushrooms and chuno for 5 minutes on medium flame. Add slat and garam masala to taste.  Mix in coriander. Mix in the boiled peas and bhuno for 1 -2 minutes. 

To assemble the biryani, spread the khumb masala in a baking dish.

Top it with rice. Heat 1 tbspn ghee and spread over the rice. Sprinkle 2 pinches of javitri powder. 

Cover the dish with the aluminium foil pressing the edges well. Seal the end of the dish by pressing the dough strip on the foil  ( talk of modern dum..hee hee hee) 

Keep in the preheated oven for 'dum' at 150 deg C for 30 minutes. Serve hot !! While I did stick to the dum, I feel it may be skipped as we are layering only once.

Bon Appetit!!!!!!!

Baked Asian Style Honey Chicken with Garlic Feta Dip

 A four day holiday calls for variety in meals and hence experimenting. What I love about allrecipes website  is it lets me search for recipes as per ingredients. So I keyed in chicken and I find this Asian style baked honey chicken and I key in Feta cheese and I find this Garlic Feta dip.  Here goes.....

Baked Asian Style Honey Chicken

6 Chicken thighs
Soya sauce  and honey : 2 tbspns each.
One onion sliced.
3 tbspns chopped onions.
1 tbspn grated ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic.

Marinate, in a 9 by 3 inches baking dish,  the chicken  for an hour in soya sauce, honey, chopped onions, ginger and garlic. I marinated them overnight .

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C .  Bake the chicken at 220 degrees C  for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and bake for another  10 minutes and grill (top and bottom) for 5 minutes.

Garlic Feta Dip

1 cup Feta cheese
1 cup Greek yoghurt
3 cloves peeled garlic.
1 bowl chopped and steamed vegetables (corn, carrot, peas)
Salt and pepper for seasoning.
Blend the cheese , yoghurt and garlic  in the mixie. The original recipe stops at this. But since, I wanted soem vegetables too, I stir fried the steamed vegetables for a minute in pepper and salt.  and added the same to the dip. Turned out delicious. Please remember, Feta is very salty and hence season with care. If you find the dip over tangy, add 1/2 a teasoon of sugar to temper the same. Do remember, there should absolutely be no hint of sweetness  or the dip will get crucified.. ;) ;)


Links to the original recipes :
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/Baked-Asian-Style-Honey-Chicken/Detail.aspx?prop31=2
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/Garlic-Feta-Dip/Detail.aspx?prop31=5

Tuck in!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aunt Teresa's Chicken Casserole !

After a heavy Indian meal at noon, the idea of a light, but  also delicious, however  fuss free dinner  turns out to be a challenge for  me.  At such times bread turns out very convenient but am always at a loss for ideas as  the few I know  all end up on lines of subs which gets boring .  So was very delighted to come across this recipe which combined veggies ( abhit  happy) and chicken ( joy happy)  and at the same time turned out very very delicious. Truly a hearty dish, it went very well with Panini. A no fuss dish (me happy) , you only need to have ample time  to bake . The yellow streaks u see on the top, is a very small spoon of butter added by yours truly... not there in the recipe at all and so skip it by all means.  The link to the original recipe is at the bottom. The following proportion is just right for 3 people.  Incidentally, I used boiled chicken. 

Ingredients : 

6 chicken thighs

1 large green capsicum sliced

2 large carrots shredded 

2 onions sliced.

2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking dish lightly (minimal butter) . In it , layer in  the following  order -- onions, pepper, carrots, chicken. Pour the soup over the chicken. Going by other users's recommendations, I also sprinkled some chopped garlic, pepper and  pizza topper (since I had it at home )-- u may add oregano. The next time I plan to layer the chicken with sliced mushrooms before pouring the soup. Cover with aluminium foil and bake at 180 degrees  for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another  15 minutes...The pic below shows the layer -- onions cant be seen, capsicum at the very bottom , followed by carrot, followed by chicken and topped by the soup. The pizza topper and pepper giving a dark appearance to the top.

The link to the original recipe at allrecipes.com is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/aunt-teresas-chicken/detail.aspx

Bon appetit!!!!! 

Almond Cake

This recipe is again from Sohini. Going by the recipes she has recommended in the past and them turning out very successful, I baked this cake to usher in the Chinese New Year. :) :) . I will have to confess here, that I took a short cut and beat sugar, egg, butter together in the mixie in one go. If you go exactly as per the recipe, you will get a fluffy and soft almond cake.  Mine did not turn out fluffy but turned out delicious  all the same.  So here goes... Sadly enough, my pics do not again do justice to what the final dish  actually look like... so do not be disheartened by my pictures at all ... ;) ;) 

Ingredients- 


2 medium sized eggs
one cup normal flour
one cup almond powder/ meal 
one and half cup castor sugar
half cup butter/margarine
essence (I used vanilla since I did not have almond) 
1 tsp baking powder
two tbsp slivered almonds halves

Beat butter and sugar for six minutes with an electric mixer.

Beat egg separately for a couple of minutes

Mix the two flour well, add baking powder and slivered almonds to the mix.

Add egg and flour to the beaten mix of butter sugar one by one, blending as you mix (manual blend). 

Add essence.

Bake at 190 deg for 35- 40 min... Its just plain awesome.