Gajar achar (carrot pickle)

I know its been sometime since my last post, but was tied up with a few things. I wanted to share this recipe which I have been eating as a kid. I am sure you will love this simple, tangy recipe and it will definitely appeal to your taste buds.

Ingredients
1) 3-4 medium sized carrots, cleaned, peeled and chopped fine.
2) Asafoetida (2-3 pinches)
3) Mustard seeds
4) Cumin seeds
5) Fresh lemon juice
6) Salt
7) Red Chilly powder
8) Oil (2 teaspoons)
9) Water

Method
Prepare the tempering by heating oil in a vessel. When the oil is heated, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. When they crackle add some water (1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon) and immediately cover the vessel. Now add the chopped carrots, salt, chilly powder, fresh lemon juice and mix well. Cover it and keep for sometime. Let the carrot mellow down a little due to the heat of the vessel. After it cools, you may refrigerate it. Serve as a side or pickle with Roti-sabzi.

Tip
You could make it tangy and less spicy and just eat it as a side.
You could also buy shredded carrot from store and chop them, just to save time.
Add a pinch or 2 of asafoetida on the top and mix it along with salt, chilly powder etc at the end if you like.

Frankie

Frankie is a very popular fast food item in Mumbai. It is also an interesting way of presenting Roti-sabzi to kids. You could replace the aloo masala below with veggies if you like. This is a healthier version of frankie made with wheat chapatis or rotis. Hope you all like this recipe just like we do :)


Ingredients

1) Chapattis/Rotis

2) Aloo - 4

3) Onions - 1

4) Capsicum - 1

5) Cabbage (if you want)

6) grated ginger & garlic 

6) Garam masala

7) Frankie masala (if you don't have this, you could leave it out or substitute whatever masala you have, I put any masala on hand like dabeli, little pav bhaaji)

8) Vinegar - few drops

9) Salt

10) Salted butter

11) Grated cheese

For the sauce

1) Maggi hot and sweet

2) Fun food eggless sandwich spread or any other sandwich spread

3) Green sandwich chutney

4) Mustard sauce if you want (I skip this)
5) Tamarind-date chutney

(You could use any other sauce you prefer)

Cut onions, capsium, (if you want cabbage) into thin strips and soak them in a little vinegar (just a few drops enough to soak all). Add some salt, chilly powder, dabeli masala). Soak them, cover them and keep them in the refrigerator until you prepare remaining things.

Making the aloo masala

1) Boil the aloos and mash them. You could add some chopped onions and cabbage.

2) Add salt and all masalas - frankie/ dabeli/garam/pav bhaaji masala

3) Add grated ginger-garlic

(This masala need not be spicy because you will be adding sauces anyway)

For the sauce mix all ingredients listed under Sauce above. (I use little less eggless sandwich spread just because it has a strong taste). 

Make big chapattis and let them cool. (Tip: You could also use left-over chapattis)

To roll the frankie

Take a chapatti. Spread very little above prepared sauce on it or you could just spread maggi hot and sweet sauce. Then place some aloomasala lengthwise (cylindrical) in the centre of the roti. (Put appropriate quantity so it is easy to roll the frankie, dont put excess) Put some vinegar-soaked onion-capsicum-cabbage strips on this masala. Then put some above prepared sauce on this followed by grated cheese. Roll it into a frankie. Make sure the ends of the roti close properly when you roll it in a frankie (otherwise the masala will come out). Apply little or more (whatever your prefer) butter on both sides of this rolled frankie covering it almost end-to-end and place it on a tava. Shallow fry one side, then turn it and shallow fry the other side. Press it with a spatula so the masala doesn't come out and it is easier to eat. 

Enjoy your frankie!

Khajur-walnut Roll (Date-walnut Roll)

It is a well-known fact that dates have several health benefits, but besides that they say it is good to consume them especially in winters. This is an extremely simple recipe and probably takes only about 15 minutes to make. My husband and I love to snack on these any time of the day, we also carry these to work.


Ingredients
1. 4 cups of chopped pitted seedless dates (I usually buy these from BJ's - http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=1279011&prrfnbr=1659839&pcgrfnbr=1647234)
2. Sweetened condensed milk
3. 1 cup walnuts
4. 1 tb sp Ghee (optional), and some more to make the rolls
5. Almond powder (optional)


Method
Take the ghee in a heavy bottom non-stick pan. Add the almond powder if you have it on hand else you could skip it. Add the walnuts and roast them in the ghee for like a minute. Add the chopped dates. Pour condensed milk over the dates + walnuts just enough to cover them completely. Be careful not to pour excess condensed milk since it could make it too sweet and sticky. Then keep stirring until the dates soften a little, dissolve and become like a solid mass and until all ingredients have mixed well.


How to make the rolls
It is important to roll these while the above mixture is warm. Take some ghee on your palms. Take some of the above mixture and roll it into cylindrical shape. Repeat this for the rest of the the mixture. Put these cylindrical rolls into an airtight container and freeze them. After an hour or two, remove these from the freezer and cut them into rounds. Store these khajur rolls in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  


The condensed milk gives it a great taste, you can snack on these whenever you crave for something sweet! 

Potato puff (Aloo puff)

Here is my first recipe. This is a quick recipe and can be put together in 15-20 mins (excluding the baking time).

Ingredients

1. Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets (http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductDetail.aspx?catID=767), usually found in frozen section in grocery stores

2. Potatoes (2-3 medium ones), boiled.

3. 2 medium green chillies (chopped, can add more if you like it spicy)

4. 1 inch ginger (grated or chopped)

5. 1 clove garlic (grated or chopped)

6. salt

7. chilly powder

8. garam masala

9. dry chilly-garlic chutney

10. lemon juice

11. chopped corriander

Method

For the filling --

Mash boiled potatoes, add the dry chilly-garlic chutney (which is usually eaten with vada paav, also available in Indian stores). Add fresh grated ginger, garlic, chopped green chillies, lemon juice, salt, garam masala and chilly powder. You could add whatever spices/masalas you want. Then add chopped coriander.

To make the puffs --

Thaw the pastry sheets by keeping them outside at room temp for about 45 minutes (or just follow the directions on the packet). Then take a strip, cut it into 2 or 3 rectangular pieces, fill the potato filling and fold them so as to pack them well, be sure to seal the edges. (You could make triangular or rectangular shapes). Then bake according to packet instructions, I usually pre-heat the oven to about 350 or 400 F and then place all the rolls in a baking tray (you may grease the tray with oil, but usually I just rely on the oil in the puff pastry sheets), keep watching them, and turn them from time to time so all sides are equally baked. They should be crispy like "Khaari".

Tip - You can alternatively use paneer or veggies for the filling to make paneer or veg puff.

Serve as an appetizer/snack with ketchup or chilly sauce. Enjoy!

Hello world!

Hello "bloggees"! Hmm, is that even a word? My editor's spell checker underlines it red, so I am guessing it is not a word "yet". However if "facebooking" can be a word, then why not bloggee? I could define blogee as the one who reads people's blogs, so that makes all you guys out there reading my blog - bloggees :)


This is my first attempt at blogging and the very first post, so I just wanted to say hello and introduce my blog. I plan to use it to share recipes/experiments that I try out in my kitchen. I would love to get your feedback/comments and hear about any recipes that you may want to share. As of now, I have plans to post recipes pretty regularly; meaning at least once a week, so we'll see how well do I stick to my plans :)


Oh by the way I am a vegetarian, so you will only find vegetarian recipes here. 


Thats all for this post. Will share my first recipe soon.