Lauki Kofta (Steamed Version) Gravy

Lauki, also known as Bottle Gourd in English or Dhoodi in Hindi, is a vegetable which I used in this gravy and I have never dealt with this particular vegetable anywhere, any time in my life. Also we don't get this vegetable so easily in the place where we stay right now. I came to know recently that this particular vegetable contains a lot of health advantages. The most attractive health advantage was, it helps in weight loss. So, why shouldn't I spend some money on this. 
One fine day, when we went to Indian store, I got to see this vegetable and grabbed one immediately. And then, I wanted to make something special, something healthy, yet delicious. I googled and googled and googled.....and googled. Saw so many recipes. And as you know, I don't follow any recipe to the 't' , even my own recipe the next time. So, this recipe I got from many websites, combined everything and finally got this amazing mouthwatering result!! I myself was amazed by the colour. May be my tomatoes had such effect. Anyways, the taste was decent. Not bad!! And so, with no guilt, I will share the recipe with you all.

 

Ingredients

• Lauki/ Bottle gourd - 4 cups, grated
• Rice flour/ Gram flour - 3/4 cup
• Onion - 1/2, finely chopped
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped

For the gravy

To Grind

• Onion - 2 nos, roughly chopped
• Tomato - 2 nos, roughly chopped
• Cashew - 5 nos
• Almonds - 5 nos
• Cinnamon - 1 small stick
• Cardamom - 1 no
• Ginger - 1/2 inch
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Green chillies - 2 nos
• Red chillies - 2 nos 
• Fennel seeds- 1 tsp
• Water - 2 cups

Other ingredients for the gravy

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Bay leaves - 1, broken
• Cloves - 2 nos
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Pav bhaji masala - 1 tsp
• Kasuri methi/ Dried fenugreek leaves - 1 tsp, crushed between your fists
• Low fat yoghurt - 1 tblspn
• Salt- to taste
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - a few to garnish

Method

For the koftas

For the koftas

• Squeeze out as much as water from the grated lauki. Preserve the water.

• Mix all the ingredients under "For the koftas" heading in the ingredients list. Make like a dough. Divide them in to 8 or 9 equal portion and make a small lime sized balls 
• Grease your idli plates with some drops of oil. Place the koftas in the idli plate and stem them for about 15 minutes in a medium heat.
• Turn off the hit. Do not open the lid for another 10 minutes.

To Grind

• Combine all the ingredients under "To grind" heading in the ingredients list in a vessel and bring it to heat. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Let the cashews and almonds become little tender and let the onions and tomatoes get cooked properly.
• Turn off the heat. Allow it to cool. Grind in to smooth paste. Make sure there are no solid particles remaining after grinding.
• Heat oil in a pan. I used ceramic pan. So required just 1 tsp of oil. Crackle cumin seeds and add broken bay leaves and cloves. Let it release its aroma
• Add the ground onion-tomato paste, salt, sugar and some water. Cover and cook it for another 10-15 minutes in a medium heat. Beware, it will splutter. Keep mixing every 3 minutes.
• Meanwhile, take the water squeezed out from the lauki, add coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and pav bhaji masala. Mix well and keep it aside. Let it sit like that for 15 minutes.
• Now add this masala mixture in to the gravy along with kasuri methi. Add the streamed kofta balls. 
• Again, cover the lid and cook it for 5 minutes. Add whisked yoghurt and turn off the heat. Mix until everything is combined. Sprinkle some coriander leaves. Close the lid again and let it sit for another 10 minutes. Let koftas absorb the flavors.
• After 10 minutes, transfer to a serving dish and serve hot with any indian flat breads or with any mild pulaos. 

 

 

Schezwan Vegetable Dosa

Hiiii friends,

After a while, I am here with a recipe, which is simple to make, spicy, yet delicious. Tried my hands for the first time and happy that the experiment was a success. My hubby was so impressed with this dosa. It got finished in no time. Myself and my hubby loves spicy foods. So, this one was like a big treat for both of us.

Please note: This recipe is solely dedicated for spice lovers. If you cannot stand spicy foods, then please reduce the amount of chillies used to make schezwan sauce.

If you want, you can add cheese in to this. But I avoided that step as we do not want to add much calories in our food this time. The choice of vegetables used in this is completely up to you. 

Try this recipe and I am sure you are going to love this.

Ingredients

For Dosa

• Dosa Batter - as needed to pour dosas
• Butter / oil - to smear on top of dosas
• Schezwan Sauce - as needed (Recipe given)

Vegetable filling

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1, thinly sliced
• Cabbage - Julienne 1/2 cup
• Carrot - Julienne 1/2 cup
• Capsicum - any colour, Julienne, 1/2 cup
• Schezwan sauce - 1 tblspn

For Schezwan Sauce

• Dry red  chillies - 25 nos
• Ginger and Garlic - Both crushed, 4 tblspn each(15-20 cloves garlic)
• Tomato sauce - 1 tblspn
• Chilli sauce - 1 tblspn
• Soya Sauce - 2 tsp
• Freshly crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tblspn

Method

For Schezwan Sauce

De-seed the red chillies and add in to a pan. Add a cup of water and allow it to boil for 5 minutes in a medium flame. The chillies might have become soft by then.
Allow it to cool and blend in to a smooth paste along with the water.
Keep it aside

Heat oil in a pan and add crushed ginger and garlic. Saute until it starts changing the colour.
Now add the chilli paste and give a good mix.
Add tomato sauce, chilli sauce and soya sauce. Mix good and cook for a minute or so.
Now add salt, sugar and pepper. Let it cook on a medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Allow the sauce to cool down completely and then transfer it to a clean air tight container. Use as required.

For Vegetables

• Heat oil in a pan. Let the heat be in high.
• Add all the veggies together(even onion). Toss them in the pan for about 5 minutes. The veggies should be half cooked and the crunchiness should be still there on them.
• Now add salt and some schezwan sauce. Give it a good mix and turn off the heat. Your vegetable filling is now ready. Keep it ready

How to proceed?

• Heat your dosa tawa and spread the dosa batter as thin as possible. Make sure to keep the heat in medium in order to get crispy dosas.
• Drizzle some oil or dollop a tsp of butter.
• Spread a tsp of schezwan sauce all over the dosa, as evenly as possible. This step is completely optional. But tastes extremely good.
• Top it with the veggies. Add some grated cheese. (If you want. I did not add. But tastes great). 

• Let the dosas get crisped up. Fold and serve.
• You do not need any side dish for this. Tastes absolutely good just like that.

Eggless Milk Powder Cake

The more I bake, the more I love it.. and now a days I am trying to prepare eggless and butterless cakes, so that to some extent it will be useful for weight watchers like me.
I love simple cakes, which is easy to prepare and with mild falvors.
I had a lot of milk powder at home and was confused about how to finish it. I googled and googled to find out something interesting. At last, I came up with this mind blowing cake.
I have modified the original recipe to suit my diet requirements. But I feel the result was really mind blowing, because it had an amazing texture and colour. I couldn't stop with one slice. My hubby liked it so much that he said 100 times that it is too good and asked me to prepare again and again.

 

Ingredients

• All purpose flour / Maida - 1+3/4 cup (210 gms)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup (150 gms)
• Milk powder - 3/4 cup (100 gms)
• Vanilla essense - 1 tsp
• Oil -  1/2 cup+1 tblspn (100 gms)
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 2 tsp
• Yoghurt (unsour) - 1/2 cup (120 ml)
• Milk - 1/2 cup(120 ml)
• Water - 1/2 cup (120 ml)
• Almonds - 1/4 cup, chopped
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 tblspn

Method

• Take all your ingredients (Forgot Apple Cider Vinegar in the pic)

• Preheat the oven @160 Deg Celcious. Take a loaf pan and grease it well using oil or butter. Sprinkle some flour and coat on all the sides. Tap out the excess flour and keep it aside.

• In a vessel, mix together milk, curd and  water. Mix really well.

• Sieve together flour, milk powder, baking soda and baking powder. Sieve them 2 or 3 times until everything is combined.

 

 

• In another vessel, mix oil, sugar, vanilla essence and Apple Cider Vinegar.

• Now all 3 mixtures are ready; flour mixture, sugar and oil mixture and milk-curd mixture.

• To the sugar and oil mixture, add half of the flour mixture and full milk-curd mixture. Use a whisk/spatula and fold in gently.
• Now add the remaining flour mixture and fold again gently, just until there are no lumps and everything is combined.

• Pour the entire batter in to the loaf pan and sprinkle some chopped almonds on top.

 

 

• Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

• Take out from the oven and allow it to cool atleast for 20 minutes.
• Run a knife through the edges and remove the cake from the pan. Allow it to cool. Slice / cut them and Serve. 

  

 

Vegetable Korma Biriyani with Bread koftas

It was a fine sunday with a very fine mood to cook. I wanted to make something special for my sweetheart. When I asked him what he would like to eat he said "Pulao of your Choice". So I searched, searched, searched!! Finally concluded with this particular dish, which he liked it a lot. It requires a bit of patience, but totally worth it. My hubby was eating the koftas, piping hot, as soon as I finished frying it. LOL!!! 

Here is the recipe;

Method

For the bread koftas

• Bread - 6 - 7
• Salt - 1.5 tsp
• Green chillies - 2, finely chopped
• Coriander leaves - a few, finely chopped
• Garlic - 4 cloves, finely chopped
• Onion - 1, finely chopped
• Curd - 1 tsp, beaten
• Cornflour - 2 tblspn
• Water - 2 tblspn
• Oil - to shallow fry

For biriyani

• Ghee - 1 tblspn
• Cashews - 8 - 9
• Raisins - 1 tblspn
• Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
• Cloves - 2 nos
• Cardamaom - 2 nos
• Onion - 1/2 no, thinly sliced
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Green chilly - 1, slit
• Salt - to taste
• Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped
• Mint leaves - few, finely chopped
• Yoghurt - 1 tblspn, beaten
• Long grained basmati rice - 2 cups
• Coconut milk / Water -2 cups

For the Vegetable Korma

• Oil - 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1, sliced
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tblspnw
• Mint leaves - few
• Coriander leaves - few
• Green chillies - 2 nos, chopped
• Tomato puree - from 2 big tomatoes
• Vegetables - 1 cup (Carrot, beans, green peas, Capsicum, corn, broccoli, cauliflower etc)
• Salt - to taste
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Chilli powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Fennel powder - 1 tsp
• Kitchen king masala/ garam masala - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp

To garnish 

• Caramelized Onions
• Coriander leaves 

Method

For the koftas

• Cut the sides of the bread and crush it in a mixer to get fine bread crumbs
• Transfer this in to a bowl and combine all ingredients in the "For Koftas" list in the ingredients section.
  Add 1 tblspn water in to it and knead them like a dough
• Divide in to 6 or 7 equal portion and roll them between your fists to make an oval or round shaped bread koftas. Keep aside
• In another bowl combine cornflour and water. Mix well
• Heat some oil in a pan (preferably non-stick or Ceramic pan) and keep the heat medium. Dip each koftas in corn slurry and place them on the pan.
• Keep changing the sides using your spatula, for every 10 or 15 seconds in order to get the even cooking on all the sides.
• Once you see the koftas are golden brown from all the sides, drain them using kitchen towel and keep it aside

For the Biriyani

• Wash and soak basmati rice for about 20 minutes.
• Heat ghee in a pressure cooker. Add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Saute until it releases its nice aroma. Now add the cashews. Fry till it starts getting brown. Now add the raisins.
• Add onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Fry until onions become translucent. Add salt
• Now add the chopped coriander and mint leaves and curd
• Drain the water completely from the soaked rice and add to the pressure cooker. Mix well.
• Add 2 cups of water/ Coconut milk. Let it come to 1 boil. Now, close the pressure cooker lid and allow it to cook until it gives 1 whistle.
• Turn off the heat and let the pressure release by itself. Open the pressure cooker lid. Fluff the rice with fork. Do not mix it with spatula until the rice its a bit cooled down.
• Keep it aside.

For the Vegetable Korma

• Heat oil in a pan and crackle cumin seeds.
• Add ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and onions. Cook until onion becomes translucent and raw smell goes away from ginger and garlic.
• Add all the vegetables. Add water until it covers the vegetables in the pan. Add turrmeric. Close the lid and allow it to cook until vegetables are tender. 
• Now add the tomato puree. Mix well. Close the lid and cook for another 3 minutes, until the raw smell from tomato vanishes.
• Add salt, sugar and all the spice powders; coriander powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala and fennel seeds powder.
• Add coriander leaves and mint leaves. Close the lid again and let it cook in a medium heat for about 5 minutes. 

How to proceed?

• Transfer the rice in to a pan containing vegetable korma. Bring it to heat. Keep stirring. Add the koftas and mix well. Once it is hot, turn off the heat. Let it sit like that for 5 - 10 mnutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and caramelized onions and serve hot.
• Enjoy with raithas of your choice.

Eggless Coconut Nuttela Star Bread

I love baking!! And love baking something new and different every time. I was going through some youtube videos and happened to see a video about this recipe. The recipe required egg. But I somehow wanted to avoid eggs in my preparation. So, I made an eggless dough. I also modified the filling part. 

Here is the detailed recipe with some pics for the better understanding.

Ingredients

For the dough

• All purpose Flour - 2 cups
• Milk - 1/4 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Salt - 1.5 tsp
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Butter - 2 tsp
• yeast - 1.5 tsp

For the filling

• Nutella - 1/2 cup
• Coconut - 1/2 cup (Freshly grated)
• Powdered sugar - 2 tsp (Optional)
• Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp (Optional)

Other Ingredients

• Melted Butter - For greasing
• Any jam - 3 to 4 tsp (I used lemon jam)
• Dessicated Coconut - to sprinkle after baking

Method

For the Dough

• Mix Maida and salt in a large bowl. Mix until combined
• In another microwave safe bowl, combine milk and water. Microwave until it is just warm. You can also do on stove top. It should not be hot because, hot water has the capacity to kill the yeast.
• Add yeast and sugar to the milk water mixture and keep it aside for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes the milk water mixture would have become frothy, if you had done everything well. If not, you need to start the entire process from the beginning.
• Now slowly pour the milk water mixture in to the flour, kneading well. Keep kneading for about 10 minutes, until the dough starts leaving your hands.
• Spread some melted butter all over the dough and knead again
• Transfer the dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for a couple of hours

For the filling

• In a microwave safe bowl, melt Nutella in microwave. Do not melt it too much. This is done just to loosen the Nutella
• Mix coconut, powdered sugar and cinnamon in to it. Keep it aside. Your filling is now ready

How to proceed?

• Preheat the oven @175 deg C.
• After 2 hours, your dough would have become double the size. Punch out the air pockets from it.
• Divide the dough in to 5 or 6 lemon sized portions.
• Rotate each portion between your fists in order to get a round shape.
• Dust some flour on one portion and roll it using your rolling pin

 

• Keep some filling in the middle. Bring together all the edges to seal it. 

 

• Dust some flour again and gently roll it. Make sure the filling doesn't come out.

• Cut the rolled dough 12 times

 

• Now, rotate each petal in 90 degree angle, to form a shape of the flower.

 

• Do the same for the rest

 

• Arrange them in a baking tray and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Brush each flower using some melted butter. If you wish, place some jam in the centre.

 

• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 - 35 minutes, until the top portion becomes golden in colour.

 

• Once it is baked, take out of the oven and brush some melted butter again on top of each flower bread
• Sprinkle some dessicated coconut . Allow it to cool and then serve.