Plaigarism from the web to the print media

You might be wondering why I have posted a copy of HT cafe listing on my blog. Well this is my first introduction to plaigarism and I am not upset about it. I was browsing HT cafe and on the listing page I saw a photo of a sizzler and I felt that the sizzler I make, can compete with the sizzlers of the hotel advertised here :-) A closer look revealed the truth... it's the sizzler photo from my blog and I can also see the windows of my house in this photo. I had a good laugh!! Check it out...

So if you are looking for a five star menu you don't have to go far, just visit my blog at Tandoori Chicken Sizzler :-) Now that's like taking it too far. But I had to share this with all of you. The photo is definitely from my blog and how I could I miss the chicken leg sticking out. I remember wondering how to avoid the leg becoming the star in the photo.
I think that's what happens when you start sharing your photos and recipes on the internet, someone is going to copy it. So be it... I don't care since I still have my very own quirky creativity intact...that's something nobody can copy ;-)

Hope you too had a good laugh at this one :-) I had a bad spell with all my dishes turning out a disaster for few weeks... hoping this weekend, I end the spell and manage to churn out something new and delicious.
Have a nice weekend folks with some fun cooking and creating something new which inspires others!!

Chatpata Tangy Sizzler

I am back from my short holiday to Jaipur and Agra, a walk into the Indian history. The first view of Taj was simply amazing. I had not expected it to be so huge. The architecture and the detailing just left me spell bound.

I had a great time and but at the same time, I was glad to be back home not that I cooked much since I was spoiled on the holiday. Yeah, I did try the Rajasthani thali at the famous LMB in Jaipur but would not recommend it to anyone since it did not impress me. The thali had all the varities that Rajashthani would make but not have them all together!! So back home and back to what I love doing cooking and sharing the love of good and simple food...
I always feel that we spend a lot of cooking but it get's eaten in a jiffy. When I make an elaborate meal with starters and a main course of curry alongwith rice + naan, I spend hours in the kitchen but the meal is over in no time. So when I get up from the dining table even after a ravishing meal, I still feel it got over rather too fast...I could not really savor it. The only meal that I feel that I get to eat slowly, enjoying all the flavors is a sizzler!! The assortment of vegetables, cutlets, rice, etc on a very hot plate with a warm gravy ensures that the meal stays warm all the way through and you are forced to eat slowly since it is sizzling hot!!!

This time I decided to prepare a sizzler with fresh ingredients. No Chinese sauces or barbecue sauces with their high salt content. But I did a wee bit of cheating, I use freeze dried herbs since I just love them and add them in just about anything.

I used a basic tomato sauce prepared with about 2 cups puree and ground onion-garlic paste a dash of red paprika flakes. To add a barbecue flavour I add a large pinch of dark brown sugar and 1/4 tsp tamarind pulp.

I try to make the sizzler a complete meal, of course using interesting combinations. I do not really remember the proportions

1) Paneer Cutlet made with grated corn, paneer & minced green chilli, roasted jeera powder, black pepper powder and chopped corainder. I used fresh bread crumbs and 1/2 tsp corn flour for binding.

2) Boiled potatoes nicely covered with chaat masala, red chilli powder and roasted jeera powder.

3) Assortment of boiled vegetables tossed in some sesame oil with chaat masala and dried parsley+ oregano.

4) Tomato filled with couscous. I stir fried the couscous in some olive oil with garlic and pistachio slivers and dried herbs.

For a chatpata flavour, I used green chutney thickened with some bhuna dal powder and a tamarind+date chutney. Now both these chutneys are very popular with chaats and it tasted great on the sizzlers too.

For an attractive presentation, I placed the chtuney in halved & blanched green peppers.

I place all the three sizzler plates on the fire, allowing it to heat up, while I prepare the ingredients. I placed a rather frying pan which helps me multi-task. While the boiled vegetables are being stir fried, I also shallow fry the cutlets. The potatoes and tomotoes go next. As the ingredients get ready, I transfer them to the individual sizzler plates.The rice is a filler and can be replaced with sphagetti or some noodles. I made the sizzler once with lentil rice and the next day with a sweet corn + red & yellow pepper fried rice so you will see a mix of pictures here.

Here is the plate just before, I poured the tomato sauce on it.

The sizzler with the sauce poured on it. I like the sizzling sound. Devour it with some extra tomato sauce and top it with a spicy green chutney and a tangy-sweet tamarind-date chutney.

Now did I savour this. We could hold a good conversation at the table, enjoying the food and not really being worried that the food is getting cold :-)

Chocolate Almond Tart and Chilli Paneer Pockets

I hardly get the time to put up a post so I have a backlog of dishes that I have not yet posted. So here is a post with sweet and the spicy items I made in a single post. I made a white chocolate almond tart since I had some golden syrup lying in my cupboard. It turned out pretty good. When it comes to tarts, I still need to work on getting the pie crust perfect. The filling was delicious- the flavour of white chocolate blends well with the rest of the ingredients to give a nice caramel flavour combined with the crisp almonds.

During the month of Ramzan, I baked these delicious chilli paneer pockets inspired by a similar recipe in Jennie Shapter's book. I used a dough that I would use for baking pizza but I guess a few herbs to the dough would do a lot of wonders and add a pleasant flavour to the bread. I had a difficult time getting the pockets right initially. The pockets would open up when I baked it and I had to think hard to get a solution to ensure that the pockets remained closed.

Caramel tart

Ingredients
PASTRY
150 g plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
125 g butter cut into small pieces
1 tbsp water
FILLING
150 g golden syrup
55 g butter
75 g soft brown sugar
3 eggs beaten lightly
100 g whole blanced almonds chopped
100 g white chocolate chopped roughly

Method

To make the pastry, place the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl and run the hand mixer until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the water and run with the hand mixer to combine it. You will have to collect it with your hands. The result is a soft dough which you need to flatten out as a disk, wrap it in cling film and chill it for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough to cover a 9.5 cm inch spring form tin or a pie baking tin. Prick the pastry with a fork and leave to chill for another 30 mins. Line the pastry with silver foil and baking beans. Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 15 minutes. Allow it to cool.
In the meanwhile, make the filling. Gently melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a saucepan. Remove from heat and leave to cool slightly. Stir in the beaten eggs, almonts and chocolate.

Pour the chocolate almond filing into the prepared pastry case and cook in the oven for 30-35 mins or until just set. Leave the tart to cool slightly before removing from the tin. Serve with a dollop of cream or vanilla ice cream.

CHILLI PANEER POCKETS
You could fill these pockets with just about anything, the trick is in getting the pockets right.
Ingredients
Pizza Dough made from 2-3 cups of flour
1 cup paneer
choice of chopped vegetables ( I used, zucchini, red & yello capsicum, baby corn and sweet corn)
1/4 cup spring onions/ red onions
1 tbsp chilli-garlic sauce
1 tsp sweet and sour sauce
1/4 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 flakes garlic
salt to taste
1 tbsp sesame oil/ vegetable oil
Method

Heat a wok with the oil. add the garlic and fry. Next add the onion and fry for another minute. Now add the vegetables and stir fry for a minute. Add the salt and chilli flakes and allow it to cook until crisp to bite. Add the crumbled paneer and allow it to cool.
To prepare the pockets. Make small balls of the dough and roll each on a well floured surface. Keep a small bowl of water mixed with a little cornflour ready. Place the filling in the centre of the roll. Identify three corner of the roll. Wet each corner with a little of cornflour mix, this will help retain the shape of the pocket.

Lift one corner and pinch it. Now lift the opposite corners and pinch them to make a triangular pocket. Ensure that the shape is stiff so that the pocket does not collapse.

Managed to get this one right

Place all the pocket on a well oiled baking tray and bake in the oven at 190C for 15 minutes. Ensure that you do not brown it too much other wise it will become rather hard.

Ready to serve with a dash of tomato sauce. The paneer pockets do not just look good but also taste well.

I had overbaked some of the pocket resulting in a tough dough but for next batch, I underbaked them.

I am on a holiday next week, visiting places in India, I have never been before and one of them happens to be Taj Mahal. I am really excited about it.

Happy Diwali!!

Naan and an array of orange coloured desserts

After the month of Ramzaan, it took me a rather long time to get back into groove, I lost touch with all the cooking on blogs that we are all eager to share and savor. I am back with an array of dishes that I tried being inspired by other blogs and sites. So in terms of a recipe, most of the dishes are pretty simple and easy, hence decided to post them together.

Naan
I tried a naan recipe today that I found on Bombay-Brussels website with a few modifications - reduced the yeast to 2 tsp and I used just 1 1/4 cup of water (I used whey my favourite subsitute for water). Never realised that it is so easy to make naan until today.

I made it on a iron tava that I used to make bhakris and in a similar style. I gathered the tips from various sites. The outcome was a very tasty naan which tasted as good as you get in a restaurant. Next time, I will increase the wholemeal portion. I guess this is going to become a regular feature with Indian food on our dinner table.

We had this a yummy chicken curry my mom makes quite often called - Chicken Stew. She does not have the exact proportions so cannot share it :-(

Now to the orange coloured dessert- I did not realise how fascinated, I am with oranges and peaches until I decided to put up this post. I find all kinds of excuses to add orange to a desert. I also made the popular zebra cake with an orange flavour!!
Gelato caught my fancy for some time and I found myself trying out peach-orange sorbet & orange gelato.

Peach Orange Sorbet
The sorbet was prepared with a mix of 2 cups juice (1cup peach puree, 1 cup orange juice) and 1 cup sugar syrup. The sugar syrup is made after boiling and cooling 1/2 cup water with 1/2 cup sugar.

What a super cooler a sorbet is.. I just loved the tangy orange flavour.

Orange Gelato
Orange gelato made with 2 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp grated peel. The milk was heated and made into a custard with 1 tsp corn flour (next time I will try custard powder). Added the sugar, zest and left it to cool before freezing it.

The gelato had an orange flavour with a nice light orange color

There are ample sites which describe the best way to freeze and soften it, so would not repeat it here.

Peach Upside Down Cake

Peach upside down cake using my upside down cake recipe which is an all-time favourite.

A slice of a rather crisp cake topped with a tangy peach

Enjoy... have a nice weekend!!

Baklava for iftar

I bought some phyllo sheets with the plan that I could use to make some low-fat treats for iftar. This was my first experience with phyllo sheets and as I read on the net on how to handle them, I was worried that I would tear them all up since they are so delicate. I found this post on Baklava really helpful and I followed the recipe. I did not have walnuts so I used a combination of almonds and pistachio. I felt that it did not require the 30 mins baking time for the varied temparatures mentioned... so reduced the baking time.

The baklava turned out fine and very tasty. But the effort is tremendous... you have to take each sheet apply melted butter, fill it, fold it... while the rest of the sheets are kept covered so that they don't dry out. My back was hurting with all the bending to get this done. But I must say the end result is really good. The flaky crust with the sweet cinnamon nutty filling topped with sugar syrup is just out of the world.

Place the sheets on a flat surface. You need a really large working surface for this. I had read that you need to careful while handling the sheets, but I had no problem with them. I brushed it with some melted butter. I placed the mixture of nuts on one end. I sprinkled some extra sugar and cinnamon to add some extra flavour.

I folded them like a parcel and place them in a greased springform pan since it need a deep baking dish

Whew, I finally completed all of them. Placed some cloves arbitarily between the rolls, on top of the rolls. Presentation was something that I was least bothered about. I got rather impatient towards the end so I used a whole sheet to make one roll!!! Check out the difference in size and also varied shapes and sizes. It is the result of my attempts to complete it really fast :-)

Baked, with sugar syrup and all ready to eat. I could not allow it to stand as expected in the recipe since I did not have that much time... By the time I finished, it was time to get the rest of the food ready for iftar.

I made just two sheets the way it was described in the recipe, the filling showed from both end since I did not have sufficient filling. It taste best when made in this manner.

I generally try to keep the iftar treats simple and filling since we do not have any dinner later. So it's either sandwiches or a wrap with bhajias and some salad. Bhajias are something that I could not convince my husband to avoid. The sweet dish is normally a kheer, pudding or some dudhi halwa and of course some fruits. Here I have posted the rather simple, tasty and healthy wrap.

What did I used in this wrap
1) whole wheat veggie parathas. I added some grated carrot, a green chilli and corainder to bring some flavour to a rather boring plain paratha.
2) green chutney made with corainder, mint, green chillies, pine nuts ginger-garlic, pepper and roasted cumin
3) water chestnut dip (since I bought some waterchestnuts and made a dip/ sauce)
4) a boiled potato mixed with some chat masala, salt and chilli powder
5) fresh salad - cucumber, tomato and lettuce.
6) bhajias or falafel made from moong dal with skin

I applied the green chutney, to the hot hot veggie rotis. Line the bhajias in the centre, boiled potatoes on one side and the water chestnut dip.

Some salad on the other side, topped with mustard sauce, folded it and the wrap was ready

This keeps us going for the rest of the evening and the next morning till it is time to get up to keep the fast.

Chocolate Bomb - Molten Lava Cake

My daughter calls it a chocolate bomb since it is filled with a liquid chocolate that explodes in your mouth. Mmmm, when the soft warm chocolate touches the tip of the tongue, my taste buds get excited and I allow it to linger and savour the taste. This is one dessert that I am not in a hurry to finish off.

The recipe is same that of Soft Chocolate Hearts with the difference that these are underbaked to allow the centres to remain runny. I generally bake these cakes at least a day and keep them in the fridge covered with silver foil. When I am ready to serve them, I remove them straight from the fridge and into the microwave at 40% power for about 1 minute.

The molten chocolate heart just out of the fridge does not give any clue on the soft soft centre.

The bomb is ready to explode, can you see the liquid just begining to ooze out...

A pot full of molten chocolate mmm...

Bake them in molds, pots or ramekins...just remember to take them out when the top has puffed a wee bit and looks just set. Should not take more than 10 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, the risen cakes will collapse.

The pot hold a lot more of the molten goodness..so if you would like a really really molten centre, then these pots are the best way to bake them.

Veg Tiranga Rice

Independence day fervour got to me last week and I decided to make some dishes which had the colors of the Indian flag (fondly called tiranga by most of us) - green, white and orange. I had planned to post this on this weekend but never got around to doing it since work has been keeping me really, really busy even over weekends. My mom makes this dish quite often and I learnt it from her.


Ingredients

1/2 kg rice boiled and separated into three portion
1 tsp broken cashew nuts lightly fried

Orange layer
250 gms grated carrot
1 tsp ghee
2-3 cloves
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup tomato ketchup

Green Layer
1 cup boiled green peas
a pinch of hing
1/2 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp jeera
1 green chilli
1/4 cup coriander leaves chopped
1/4 cup grated coconut
salt to taste

White Layer
1/2 cup boiled cauliflower pieces
1/4 cup boiled peas
1/4 cup chopped paneer
1/4 tsp pepper powder
salt to taste

Method

Green Layer : Grind the peas coarsely with the chilli and keep aside. Heat the ghee and add the hing and jeera. Add the green peas, coconut and coriander. Fry till the mixture dries up, taking care not to burn it. Mix this with the second portion of rice.
White Layer : Mix the ingredients with the third portion of rice and pour the melted ghee over it.

Orange Layer : Heat a frying pan with ghee. Add the cloves when the ghee has melted and is hot but not smoking. Ad the grated carrot and stir fry it for 2-3 mins. Remove from heat. Add to one portion of the rice. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

To assemble
Grease a deep bottomed vessel with ghee. Place the orange layer in the vessel and spread evenly. Put one portion of the cashewnuts on this layer. Add the white layer over the orange layer and spread evenly. Now put the second portion of the cashenuts on this layer. Finallty place the green layer on the white layer. Cover the pan with a lid and place it in a pressure cooker for about 10 minutes.(remember not to keep the whistle). Alternatively you can place this in a pre-heated oven (180 C) for about 20 -30 minutes.



You may need to pour some ghee on it before keeping it in the cooker or oven, if you feel it is rather dry. But if you would like it to be low-fat, you can serve it with some raita.