Thursday, July 28, 2011

Kebab vegetables with Paneer | Indian Appetizers


Tandoored food items are always in my favorite list. Any dish which is cooked directly under fire has a unique smoked flavor which is unique and makes it even more tasty. Though grilling or barbecueing goes hand in hand with meat or fish, vegetables and paneer also make a very good grilled food. So here, I present grilled vegetables with paneer. Feel free to use any vegetables of your choice and

Rava Besan Laddu

Today, I'm back with another sweet for the regional special theme for the Blogging Marathon and my choice is Maharashtra cuisine. If yesterday's Gulpoli was a makarasankaranthi special, this rava-besan laddo is a Diwali treat. I have made rava ladoo and besan ladoo. The combo sounded interesting. I followed the recipe from Chakali. I liked the recipe for it used less amount of ghee since the sugar syrup is added.  

One reader who had tried the recipe from Chakali had commented that the dough was very sticky and runny that it could not be shaped into balls. So while adding the syrup, I reserved around 3 tablespoons of syrup, thinking I will add later if required. After the resting time for the dough, I felt the reserved syrup can be used up too. It was perfect. Please note that you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients. I used the measuring cup.  



You need

  • Rava/Semolina - 1 cup (Use the fine variety)
  • Besan/Chickpea flour - 1/2 cup
  • Ghee - 3 tblspn
  • Sugar -1 cup
  • Water -1/2 cup
  • Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
  • Cashew nuts - 1 tblspn

Method


Dry roast rava till it is pink. Keep stirring as you roast else it will get burnt and also will not get roasted evenly.  Transfer the roasted rava to a plate. Add besan and roast it. When the raw smell disappears, slowly add 2 tablespoon of melted ghee and mix well. At this stage, the mix will be runny. Keep sauteing till the mix starts to brown and you can smell the heavenly aroma of roasted besan. Add the besan-ghee mix to the roasted rava. 

Add a tablespoon of ghee to the kadai. When hot, add cashew nuts. Remove when it is brown and add to the rava-besan mixture. Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Heat a kadai with sugar and water. Keep stirring so that the sugar dissolves fully. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, it will start frothing. After this stage, cook for a minute or two. The syrup would have turned sticky to one string consistency. Check by dropping some syrup using the ladle. You can see the drops falling stretching to form a string. Remove it from the fire. The syrup consistency is very important. If it is paste this stage, it will be difficult to make ladoos since it will turn crumbly.

Add the syrup to the rava-besan mixture. Mix with a spatula as you add. Cover and leave it for 20 minutes.




By this time, the rava would have absorbed most of the moisture and the mixture will be almost dry. It will be moist enough to shape into laddus. 



You will get around 18 laddus depending on the size.


I'm sending these plate of laddus to Indian Mithai Mela hosted by Mom Chef.

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Chickpea Burger - Indian Style



Nowadays burgers and pizzas have become common like rice/roti. Though magazines and newspapers are show cashing the good and bad things about them, the craze on them is still unfading. In fact I can say it's increasing. I am not an exception to this crazy crowd. I had take a oath not to have them but oh...occasionally I break my oath whenever I see delicious burgers in restaurants.









Needless to say about burgers and more, I am jumping directly into its preparation. This time I have prepared Burgers in an Indian style with the ingredients that are commonly available at every household. They came out very well and tasted like normal veggie burgers. I have added only carrots in place of vegetables and chickpeas. You are welcome to add any vegetables of your choice. Also for serving burgers, you can add cucumber, cheese, and other ingredients which you feel might add taste and style to the burgers. Just for health concern I didn't add any cheese. Try it out, They are delicious!!!



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes
Makes: 6 burgers





Ingredients:



For Patties:



Chickpeas - 1 cup

Grated carrot - 1 cup

Onion - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon

Green chillies - 2 no, minced

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Garam masala - a pinch

Olive oil - 1 tablespoon

Breadcrumbs - 1/2 cup

All purpose flour / Maida - 2 tablespoons



For Burgers:



Burger breads - 6 nos

Tomato - 3 nos

Onion - 2 large nos

Cabbage - 1/4 cup, sliced

Pizza sauce - 6 tablespoon or as required



Method:



For Patties:





1) Soak chickpeas over night or 5-8hours in warm water. After 8 hours, wash it well.

2) Pressure cook it by adding 2 cups of water and when it done, drain the water and grind them coarsely. Make sure it is little dry. Keep it aside.

3) Take a pan and heat oil in it. When it is hot, add ginger garlic and minced green chilli. Stir for few seconds.

4) Add onions and saute them till they are soft and transparent.

5) Add grated carrot(or any vegetable of your choice) and stir it to cook without adding water.

6) When the carrots get cooked well, add ground chickpeas. Give a quick stir.

7) Add Garam masala, turmeric powder and salt.

8) Continue stirring till it turns into a kind of dough like substance. At this stage remove it from heat and allow it to cool down.

9) Divide the dough generously into 6 balls and make patties with the thickness of 1 cm as we prepare for cutlets. Keep them aside.

10) Add little water to All Purpose flour and make a watery batter. In another wide plate take bread crumbs.

11) Dip the patty first into batter and then into bread crumbs. Place the breadcrumbs coated patty in a baking tray.

12) Repeat the step for other patties. Slightly coat the patties with oil.

13) Bake them for 30 minutes or until they turn golden brown in colour in a 250C preheated oven.

14) You can also shallow fry them in a skillet as we do for cutlets. I shallow fried 3 and baked 3 patties.

15) Once baked/shallow fried, cool them slightly so that they can be served with burgers.



For Burgers:









1) Take burger buns and coat the inner side with pizza sauce / tomato ketchup.

2) Place the cabbage slices just beneath these buns.

3) Place a patty followed by one slice of tomato and 2 slices of onions.

4) On the top, place the other slice of the burger bun.

5) Have a big bite and enjoy.









Thanks Priya for letting me know. Sending this recipe to Priya's "Fast Food, not Fat Food" which is hosted by Vardhini.