Banana Pancake/ Banana Dosa

Lunch box recipes are the most challenging to the extent that sometimes the best of us run out of ideas when it comes to what to pack for their little ones lunch. This definitely is one good lunch box idea although I have usually served this for my son for breakfasts. But one of my friend sends this to her daughter for her school lunch.

Again as always it is easy to make, calls for very few ingredients and is yummy to taste.

You will need:

1. Egg- 1 No.

2. All purpose flour - 1/2 -3/4 cup

3. Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp

4. Sugar - 3-4 tsp

5. Baking Powder- A pinch

6. Bananas - 2 (Ripe ones)

7. Milk - 3-4 tbsp

Method:

Mash the bananas and add the egg, vanilla essence till well incorporated. Now add the flour little by little along with the baking powder and Sugar. Finally you can add milk to get the right consistency of the batter. It should be the consistency of a dosa basically.

Once the batter is ready you can pour it using a ladle on to a hot frying pan. Smear some butter on the sides and you can cook the pancake with the lid on for a couple of seconds and once you see the bubbles on the pancake you can turn it to the other side quickly.

Serve the pancakes with some maple syrup or with any other jam, marmalade or honey. Enjoy!

P.S: Use a spatula to incorporate the ingredients. Don't let the pancake cook too long on one side else it may burn.

Aloo Chaat/ Spicy Potato Salad

I sincerely apologize for my hide and seek for the past couple of years. But priorities change don't they? I was at one time having the time to blog ever so frequently but the last two years has changed my life drastically that I though I have had time and have tried a lot of recipes that I would like to share with you, I have been putting it off much too long. This has gone to the extent that most of the people who used to ask when I am going to revive the blog have stopped asking me that question.

The foodie that I am I believe that we should be eternally insatiable when it comes to the love for food. The last two years has made me try out some of the most amazing foods out there and I hope to blog about them soon. Probably that will have to make up for my absence from blogosphere :).

I have a list of recipes to post online. The first one being the Aloo chaat. Now this is a great party starter. I had this the first time at a friends place and fell in love with it immediately.

It is simple, easy to make and does not have an exhaustive list of ingredients.

So here goes the recipe. You will need:

1. Potatoes - 4 Medium sized, boiled

2. Onion - 1 small, finely sliced

3. Peanuts - 1 Handful, Roasted in a little oil

4. Green Chillies (Optional) - 2, finely chopped

5. Coriander leaves - Finely chopped

6. Chaat Masala - 1/2 Tsp

7. Salt - to taste

8. Juice of 1 Lemon

How do you make it?

Peel the Potatoes and make them into small chunks. Put the Onions, Green chillies, Coriander leaves, Chaat Masala, Salt. Squeeze in the lemon.

Pulse the peanuts just for a couple of seconds till they are rough in texture. Add the peanuts on top of the aloo chaat and mix all of them till everything is well incorporated. Aloo Chaat is ready to be served!

P.S: You can use other nuts like pinenuts instead. If you are serving this for children you can skip the green chillies from this recipe.

Vegetable Pulao/Pilaf

I had to spend about a month's time in Ireland on Business. It is unusual to make friends in such a scenario. But I have been lucky enough to have met K...

So when she invited me over to her home during my last week in Dublin I was unsure what to take along with me. A bottle of wine is customary but what along with it, I wondered.

Indian food though loved the world around is always synonymous with the word spicy. I wanted to shatter that opinion since not every Indian dish is spicy. So to suit the taste buds of my friend I came up with this recipe of a simple pulao made from scratch.

By the way for all the mothers who read my blog this can be good lunch box recipe.

You will need:

1. Mushrooms - 1 Packet
2. Carrots - 4-5 chopped
3. Onions - 2-3 Small
4. Green Peas (frozen) - 1 Cup
5. Beans - 1 Cup chopped
6. Corn (frozen)- 1/2 Cup
7. Tomato Puree - 2-3 tbsp
8. Garam Masala - 1 tsp
9. Kashmiri Chilli - 1/2 tsp
10. Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
11. Maggi Coconut Powder - 25-30 gms OR coconut milk - small packet
12. Salt - to taste
13. Basmati Rice - 2 Cups
14. Water - 4 cups
15. Olive Oil - 3-4 tsp

Method:
1. Wash the rice and boil it in salted water till cooked. For this recipe I generally have enough water such that the rice is entirely cooked and the water need not be drained. But you can boil the rice as per your choice.
2. Heat oil in a wok and add the chopped onions. Fry till they are slightly brown.
3. Now add the vegetables one by one and keep frying.
4. Once the vegetables are all fried add the tomato puree, salt, garam masala, coriander powder, and Kashmiri Chilli Powder. The masala should be well incorporated into the veggies.
5. Now add the coconut powder and mix one last time. Switch off the gas.
6. Stir in the cooked rice into this mixture little by little and mix well.
7. Garnish with fresh coriander leave (optional).
8. Enjoy the pulao with some homemade yogurt!

Cooking with Leftovers - Part 3 - Lemon Rice

This is a ice breaker post. Its been about a year or so since I blogged. Was out of India for close to a year and had no time for blogging. Now I want to restart this weekly activity again. Its like coming back from your hibernation after a long winter.

Anywhich ways, cribbing apart I have got a breather now. Though not quite as you think, I have logged into one of those office calls where no one has joined yet and no one may be joining :) and I thought there is no better time then now to blog about hmm.. let me see something simple.

Now today's dish is a no fuss dish that all of us may have made now and then with left over rice. I never used to like this transformation of rice from nothing to the tangy yellow version of what they call "Lemon Rice" till this once incident.

I was visiting this friends place one weekend and she had to attend a potluck dinner where the menu was "Anything South Indian".

My friend was initially quite unsure of what to take and then finally settled for "Lemon Rice". This was one of the best Lemon Rice I ever tasted and this made me a great fan of this dish. I must say this is an easy to make and yummy recipe to cook up for say a sunday morning breakfast or brunch.

You will need:

• Left Over Rice - 2-3 cups
• Chopped Onions - 1 cup
• Chopped Green Chillies, chopped -1-2
• Curry Leaves - 2 Sprigs
• Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
  
• Haldi - 1/2 tsp -
• Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
• Hing - a pinch
  
• Salt to taste
  
• Oil -2-3 tbsp
  
• Mustard seeds -1/2 tsp -

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok.
2. Throw in the mustard seeds and after they splutter throw in some hing and curry leaves.
3. Now add the chopped onions.
4. Put little bit of salt and let them fry. Once they are translucent add the haldi and coriander powder.
5. Fry for a couple of minutes more. Switch off the heat.
6. Now microwave the rice on a high for about 3-4 minutes. You may need to add salt into the rice and mix it well if the rice does not have any salt added when it was boiled.
7. Now mix the hot rice along with the onion masala till it is well incorporated and the rice gets transformed to a yellowish consistency.
8. Now comes the best part. Add lemon juice as per your taste and mix it one last time. Your lemon rice is ready to be served! Enjoy!

Easy Bread Pockets

You have unexpected visitors at home and you are hard pressed for time. You still want to impress them with some homemade snack..Hmm..does this describe you? At least I am like that to a certain extent..if not more..

Now this dish is very easy and quick to make and is for the circumstance mentioned above :) It is also a good accompaniment with tea or coffee. This recipe was passed onto me by a dear friend of mine who got it from her mom. Thanks R!

Ingredredients:

4 slices of bread

Boiled Potatoes - 2

Salt to taste

Garam Masala (1/2 tsp)

Kashmiri Chilli Powder (1/2 tsp)

Little Water

Oil for Frying

Method:

Heat oil in a wok.

Make a mixture of boiled potatoes, salt, Garam Masala and Chilli Powder.

Cut the sides off the bread and then sprinkle both the sides with water.

After the water is saoked squeeze the bread in between your palm till the water is drained.

Keep about a tbsp of the potato mixture on the bread and join the edges of the bread to make it look like a pocket. You can press it down a bit once fully closed.

Deep fry the bread pockets in hot oil till they turn golden brown.

Serve hot with Tomato Ketchup. Enjoy!!!

Little Lamb - DIY craft for children

While my son was going through one of his magazines he happened to come across this do-it-yourself craft. Since he is at that age when he can niether say he is truly indepedent nor dependant he wanted me to "help" him make it.

I wanted to use this blog to showcase this craft. So here goes this simple marvel that we came up with just the following things:

Some cotton, two pepper corns, some fevicol and four match sticks. Lots of Imagination and Voila!!

Khatti Bhaji Ki Chutney

Its been a long time since I posted. I am not getting any time from my routine work and weekends have just flown by without me posting anything. But that does not mean I have not been baking and cooking.

I had baked an apple cake recently that we took along for a family friends birthday. Everyone out there gave it a thumbs up. So yes, I will be blogging about that soon. I have some other recipes too lined up!

Okay to start with I want to blog about this nice and tangy chutney that made today. It is so easy to make and amazingly delicious. Goes well with both Rice and Rotis.

Actually this bhaji called Khatti bhaji in North. In hindi "khatti" means sour and this leafy veggie is naturally very sour and tangy. This veggie was a favorite of my grand mother-in-law so I was told.

Also called "gongura" down south and they use it in chutneys, dals and even pickles made out of these leaves are quite famous. This recipe was passed onto me by a generous colleague of mine who had the patience of answering all my questions.

Here goes:

Ingredients:

• Gongura leaves (a small bunch)


• 2 tbsp of roasted peanuts


• 2 Green Chillies


• 4 cloved of garlic


• salt to taste

Method:

Grind the roast peanuts into a fine powder.

Boil the leaves along with Green Chillies in little water till the leaves are light green and are cooked.

Grind the leaves along with any little water left and the chillies into a fine paste along with garlic and salt.

Add the peanut powder and give one final stir.

Temper the chutney with chopped onions.

Your chutney is ready. Enjoy!!!

P.S: If you do not want to temper then you may add some hot ghee (optional) on top of this chutney and then top it with freshly chopped onions (mandatory :)).