Khajoor-Badam Laddoo (Dates-Almond balls)

Khajoor-badam laddoo

I tried Whole foods Dates-pecan rolls a while back at cousin's place. Wanted to make something sweet for Makar Sankranti so thought will try something healthy this time. Made a trip to whole foods specifically for the dates. Here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Dates - 1 bowl
2. Almonds - 1/2 bowl
3. Dry grated coconut

Preparation:
1. Add dates and almonds in the grinder and fine grind it.
2. Make small balls out of this mixture.
3. Roll these bowls over the dry grated coconut to remove the stickiness.
4. You can also garnish with some dry fruits on top.

So far the easiest recipe in my list!

Guacamole (Avocado Sauce)

Guacamole

During lunch I remembered that I have 2 avocados sitting happily in my fridge. I got them to make guacamole last week and forgot. So I decided to do the honor before dinner and below is the recipe. Remember to make it in small quantity as it turns brown (due to oxidation) quickly and you don't want to eat discolored guacamole.

Ingredients:
1. 2 ripe avocado
2. Small red Onion
3. Tomato
4. Lemon Juice
5. Black pepper
6. Salt

Preparation:
1. Cut Avocado in half and then remove the seed. Use a spoon to take out the inside stuff in a bowl.
2. Mash the avocado in the bowl.
3. Add a pinch of black pepper in it.
4. Add finely chopped 1/2 onion in it.
5. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in it.
6. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt in it.
7. Mix the ingredients in the bowl.
8. Finally add a small chopped tomato to it before serving.
9. Serve it with corn chips or you can also have it with roti or bread.

Avocado

Nan Khatai (Butter cookies)

Nan Khatai

It feels like ages since I have updated this blog. Yes I was lazying around with no motivation to do anything! My sisters tried making Nan khatai and i was tempted to eat those but unfortunately only got to taste it virtually. At 8:30pm I go into my kitchen to try my hands on making some nan-khatai. I checked several recipes online and then made my own version with ingredients I had available. By 9:30pm my cookies as well as my dinner was ready.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. 1/2 bowl Flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 bowl Semolina (Sooji)
3. 1/2 bowl Gram flour (besan)
4. 1/2 cup butter
5. 1/2-3/4 bowl powdered sugar
6. Baking soda (I used a pinch of Eno as a replacement)
7. Almonds, walnuts (optional)

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven at 375 F.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a bowl (Caution: Do not melt the butter. Let the butter soften on room temperature)
3. Beat the butter and the sugar mix.
4. Mix the flour mixture in the butter-sugar bowl.  (I added a pinch of Eno as well)
5. Knead the mix so that its soft. It might be a bit sticky. I tried putting the mix in refrigerator for 15 min to let it settle.
6. Make small balls out of the mix.
7. Flatten the ball a bit and place it on the oven sheet.
8. Sprinkle some fine cut almonds and walnuts on top. (this step is optional)
9. Bake the cookies for 15-16 min or until they are brown on the sides.
10. Let the cookies cool for a bit and then store them in an air tight box.

Just out of the oven

Palak ka Kaapa (Spinach Saag)

Palak ka Kaapa

Friday evenings are usually lazy for me. So today also I wanted to cook something quick and healthy so decided to cook something with spinach. The first thing which came to my mind was Kaapa which I wanted to make since some time but could not. A little background about this dish for those have no clue what this is. 'Kaapa' is a specific dish of Kumaon (part of Uttarakhand where I come from in India). There are many more savory dishes from Kumaon and I will focus on them from time to time when I try them. Palak ka Kaapa is made of spinach, curd and flour. It goes well with rice or roti. So heres the recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Spinach (250gms)
2. Curd ( 1/2 small bowl) (Beat it a little to make it smooth)
3. Rice paste (1/2 small bowl)
4. Cumin seeds (Jeera)
5. Asafoetida (Heeng)
6. Turmeric
7. Red chili powder (I use paprika powder instead of red chili powder in my cooking)
8. Oil
9. Salt
10. Water
11. Some hot spices (according to your own taste)

Preparation:
1. Wash and chop spinach. Boil it and keep it aside
2. Soak rice in water for 2 hours and then make paste out of it. (Of course I was lazy so I just heated the rice in water for some time and made a paste out of that)
3. In a pan, heat the oil.
4. Put heeng, jeera to it.
5. Now put turmeric and red chili powder and let the spices to get roasted.
6. Now add the boiled spinach to it. Save the water for later use from the boiled spinach.
7. Cook this for few minutes.
8. Add curd to it and keep mixing. Now add the rice paste and water from the boiled spinach to it.
9. Cook it for some time and keep mixing otherwise the rice paste can form lumps.
10. Add Salt and some garam masala (Hot spices) to make it.
11. Serve it with rice or roti.

Dont forget to eat some oranges ( and get vitamin C) to absorb all the iron you just got from Kaapa :)

Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna

I had bought all the ingredients for making lasagna last week but ended up using some of them for baking pizza twice. So finally I thought today is the day! Essentially it turned out to be an Italian food weekend. Now I feel all cheesy cheesy :) Hopefully next time I will plan to make something with less fat and more protein!

Before making lasagna, I spent some time reading about the way its made and I found that there is no one particular way. All the recipes were different.  So here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
1. Vegetables (bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, tomato, green beans, cauliflower)
2. Garlic (1 clove)
3. 1-2 cup Pasta sauce
4. Dried basil
5. 1 cup mozzarella cheese
6. 1 Egg
7. 1 cup ricotta cheese ( I am using less than normal cheese)
8. Dried basil
9. Lasagna noodles
10. Olive Oil (2 tablespoon)

Preparation:

Sauce

Cheese sauce

1. Mix mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and egg in a bowl and keep it aside.
2. Cut all vegetables in finely.
3. In a pan, heat oil and fry all the vegetables for 5 min.
4. Add the pasta sauce to it. Add 1 teaspoon basil to it. Let the mix simmer for 10 min.
5. Preheat the oven on 350 F.
6. In a deep oven pan, spread a layer (thin) of the above created vegetable sauce. Top it with the lasagna noodles. make sure that the noodles are on top of the sauce. spread a layer of the cheese sauce on top. Put another (thick this time) layer of the vegetable sauce on top. Repeat the layering. The last layer will be of the cheese sauce.
7. Cook this in the oven for 30-40 min.

8. Leave it to cool for some time.

9. Serve pieces with some salad as side.

After baking

Vegetable Pizza

Vegetable Pizza

It had been raining this whole week. It did not rain today but there was storm and even now I can hear the sound of wind and the trees waving outside. Overall a lazy weekend so while grabbing some stuff from Trader Joe's I decided to buy pizza dough. I wanted to avoid spending too much time making dinner tonight and I think pizza worked very well.

Ingredients:
1. Pizza dough (I used garlic and herb dough. You can even make it at home, Google more for that)
2. Small cut vegetables
3. Cheese (I used mozzarella cheese)
4. Marinara sauce
5. Small quantity of flour (to spread below the base)

Preparation:
1. Preheat the over at 450/500F for about 20-30 min
2. Spread a layer of flour on a flat pan
3. Put the dough ball on the pan and spread it so as to make a circle of around 12 inch diameter.
You can also use a roller to do so

Pizza dough spread on a flat pan

4. Spread marinara sauce above the base
5. Spread a layer of cheese above the sauce on the base
6. Spread the cut vegetables (green bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms etc) on top of the cheese

Marinara sauce spread on the base

Before putting toppings

Before baking

7. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 min
8. Serve pizza hot with coke

In oven after baking

Gujiya

Gujiya

It was Holi last week so I decided to devote this weekend to the famous sweet of Holi celebration : Gujiya. People in North India make gujiya in different ways. I wanted to make Khoa gujiya and had been thinking since yesterday that I will go to Indian store and get some khoa and then the start of day light saving screwed up the whole schedule. So finally at 4pm today I started to make gujiya with some homemade khoa. Here is my recipe (modify the quantity according to the number of gujiyas you want to make). I made around 6 of them. 

Ingredients:
1. 1 bowl of flour (Maida)
2. 1/2 small bowl of Almonds
3. 1/4 small bowl of Cashews
4. 1/4 small bowl Raisins (kishmish)
5. 1/4 small bowl Sooji
6. 2-3 tablespoons Sugar
7. Shredded dry coconut (I did not use it but its also used in the filling)
8. Milk
9. Ghee
10. Khoa

Preparation:
Making Khoa:
I used milk to make khoa. Boil 2-3 cups of milk in a pan and keep stirring in between. Add 1 spoon of lemon juice to make it faster. Let the milk become dry to a granular mix (khoa)

1. Cut almonds and cashews into fine pieces
2. Cut the raisins into half and add to the above mix
3. Roast the sooji and keep aside
4. Add 1 tea spoon ghee to a pan and add the above prepared mix of dry fruits to it
5. Add the khoa and sooji also to it
6. Roast it for a few minutes and then add sugar and keep aside

Filling mix

7. Now prepare the dough for the gujiya shells
8. Add ghee to the maida and mix it well. Add water to the dough and knead it to make it soft
9.  Now make small balls of this dough and make round circles of about 4 inch diameter
10. Since I did not have a gujiya mould available, I just made them myself. I used a paperclip to stick the corners together.  Use maida mixed in few drops of water to stick the corners so as to make a half circular gujiya
11. Make all the gujiya and keep them aside.

Before frying

12. Heat oil/ghee to fry (I did not use ghee to fry) in a deep fry pan
13. Deep fry previously made gujiya on low to medium flame

Serve them hot or on normal temperature. You can even store them for few days.