Moroccan Curry - My version

                                                   
                                                             MOROCCAN CURRY

This is the recipe I re-tweaked for my cookery show. An easy protein and mineral rich recipe for a healthy back-up.

All you need:

Chicke pea (chole): boiled 1 cup

chopped onion 1 medium

chopped garlic

seasonal vegetables, like eggplant(brinjal), squash, sweetpotato, potato, bottle guard, pumpkin : 1 cup

Tea water: boil 2tsf tea in 1 cup water. strain.

for seasoning

finely chopped basil

oregano

black pepper

chilli flakes

salt

oil 2 tsf

In a cooker, heat the oil. saute onion and garlic till caramelised. add vegetables. saute. add chick peas. season with above seasonings. add tea water. whistle 5 times in the cooker.

serve with tortilla, garlic bread, kulcha or steamed rice

one can see the recipe at below link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9_9EYsL894

Soya Chunks : Chinese style

Soya Chunks : Chinese Style

A friend of mine is pregnant and going through the third trimester of pregnancy. She was recently diagnosed heavily anaemic. She was put on protein rich diet. Being vegetarian she was bugged of eating lentils each day.

The day she shared this, she asked me if I could make something interesting out of soya chunks available in markets.

Soya protein has 50gms of protein per 100gms (as per the nutrela box), but my research says it’s around 35gm/100gm.

Here I came up with the idea, a tangy version for my expecting lady. I made soya chunks in some Chinese style.

Here is the recipe:

Soya chunks  100gm

1 onion chopped

1 capsicum chopped

Soy sauce  ¼ tsf

Red Chilli sauce  2tsf

Vinegar 1tsf

Corn flour a pinch

1 tsf vegetable oil

Boil the soya chunks as per instructions on the box.

In a pan, heat the oil. Sauté the onion, capsicum till tender. Add the sauces and vinegar. In 100ml of water mix corn flour (make sure no lumps). Add it to the pan. Add boiled soya chunks. Wait for 5minutes. Season with iodised salt and cracked pepper. Serve hot.

Can be served with steamed rice.

Cottage Cheese and Spinach Balls

Cottage Cheese and Spinach Balls

Last Sunday, there was a dinner at my house for the close friends. I had planned a black and white menu theme for the dinner. My flour miller promised me that he will deliver me the buckwheat flour by 5pm. But it turned out, that the shop was closed a little early. The guest were expected at 7pm. I had to prepare the main course and there was no time to create an elaborate starter.

I came up with the idea of a quick starter from the ingredients out of my main course. It blew away my guest and so did me.

I made a quick starter from cottage cheese and spinach. No need to mention that it was rich in proteins, minerals and iron(good for anemic patients).

Another thing to mention here is that I steamed the balls instead of frying. Hence it was calorie free. ( ok! I am calorie freak).

Here is the recipe:

Cottage cheese: 200gms

Spinach: 50gms

One small onion finely chopped

Garlic one clove finely chopped

Green chilies finely chopped

Chaat masala

Salt

1 tsf vegetable oil

In a pan, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil till caramelized  Blanch the spinach and finely chop after removing excess water.

Switch off the heat, add minced cottage cheese, spinach, green chilies and spices to the pan.

Make small balls of the batter. Steam them for 5 to 7 minutes in a steamer.

Serve hot with coriander chutney or salsa.

Besan Chilla

Besan Chilla or Gram Flour Pan cake

Mornings are always beautiful if we get a full, healthy breakfast. The breakfast forms the integral part of our diet. The dietitian says that you can skip your lunch but a heavy breakfast to begin a day is must. I have seen my colleagues who don’t indulge in habit of having breakfast, cribbing and lazing out at work. I always say: Eat healthy, Stay fit.

A common recipe used in north Indian houses for breakfast is besan chilla  or we can say besan pan cake, as the recipe is quite similar. But the richness of protein derived from gram flour beats the refined flour used in pan cakes. They are the healthiest way to start a day.

Here is the recipe:

Besan (gram flour) 200gm

Onion 1 diced finely

Ginger garlic paste 1tsf

Coriander finely chopped

Cumin

Asafoetida

Green chilli

Fruit salt (baking soda)

Salt

Vegetable oil to cook.

In a bowl sieve the flour, mix all the ingredients. (You can use roasted cumin, but I like unroasted cumin here). Add 100ml of water. The consistency of batter should be flowy i.e. neither too thick nor too thin similar to pan cakes or dosa. The batter should be vigorously mixed as to avoid lumps and better turn out.

Put a non stick pan on medium heat, put one tsf of oil and spread the batter in round shape. Wait for two minutes. Flip to other side and cook again till golden brown. Instead of oil, butter can be used.

Serve with green chutney and ketchup.

Tofu Muttar sabzi

Tofu Muttar 

                                                      Tofu Muttar / muttar paneer sabzi 

I came back home to find that my fridge had peas, tofu, tomatoes. So I came up with an innovation of our regular muttar paneer sabzi. The recipe is same as authentic muttar paneer sabzi, just replaced paneer (cottage cheese) with tofu. Tofu is soya protein condensed in cubes. Its rich in protein, calcium, magnesium and other minerals.

Here is the recipe:

All you need is:

Peas 100gm

Tofu 100gm

Onions 2

Tomatos 5-6

Tomato puree 2tsf

Ginger garlic paste

Green chilli

Chilli powder

Coriander powder

Turmeric powder

Refined oil 4-5tsf(option to desi ghee)

Cream 1tsf

Home made garam masala a pinch

Salt to taste

In a blender, blend garlic ginger, onions, green chilli. Take a wok, heat the oil on medium heat, add the paste. Sauté till the paste starts leaving oil. Add few pepper, cloves. Blend the tomatoes. Add tomato paste and puree in the wok. Add all the masala. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add peas, tofu (diced in cubes). Heat for 20minutes in the covered vessel. The recipe is done once it starts leaving oil in the corners. Garnish with cream. Green coriander leaves.

Savor with roti, phulka, paratha, puri or rice.

Mooli ki bhaji (mooli ki burji)

Mooli ki bhaji (mooli ki burji)

The day was clumsy, I hate my physiotherapy sessions as they aggravate my pain contrary to the fact they will help me recover fast. I got a call from my dear friend that she has an exam near my residence and she wanna drop by afterwards for dinner. She asked for mooli ki bhaji (radish leaves) with chapattis. The request lifted my mood in a jiffy.

Mooli ki bhaaji is a common dish cooked in north Indian houses especially in winters. Though this dish is rich in minerals , I find it medically unbalanced diet. Hence I improvised it with fortifying it with some protein. Being a vegetarian i have limited options of adding protein to a savoury.

Here goes the recipe:

250gms of green leaves of radish (mooli)

1 stem of radish (white one is better as the pink is slightly stingy)

Soya chunks (soya wadi) optional, 50 gm

2tsf refined oil

Cumin (Jeera ) 1 tsf

Asafoetida (hing) a pinch

Lemon half

Garlic 7 cloves finely diced.

Salt, pepper,turmeric powder

Soak the leaves in saline water for an hour (it will clean the leaves, if infected with pests) drain and rinse with clean water. Finely chop the green leaves and radish. Boil the leaves,  radish and soya chunks  in 100ml of water until just soft. Squeeze the excess water from the leaves by putting between the palms. (the drained water can be used in kneading the dough for chapattis, or can be used in dal).

In a sauce pan, heat oil, sauté cumin, asafoetida, and garlic. Wait until garlic is almost burnt. Add salt, pepper, and a pinch of turmeric powder. Add the boil and strained leaves. Sauté for 3-4min. Add lemon juice.

Serve hot with chapattis.

Tofu and Vegetable Clear Soup

Tofu and Vegetable Clear Soup:

Tofu and Vegetable Clear Soup:

Soups are generally considered low calorie diet. Dietians often recommend soups for reducing weight. But they generally forget that soups are deprived of protein. Vegetable soups are generally rich in minerals (unless cream is added, which adds extra calorie and fat). I came up with the idea of fortifying a regular clear soup with extra calcium and proteins.

I recommend this soup especially  obese who have knee problems and trying to reduce weight.

Tofu is soya protein(paneer) which is rich in calcium and proteins.

Here is the recipe

All you need is:

1tsf of olive oil

Tofu 100gm diced in small cubes

Peas, cabbage, cauliflower,spring  onion, beans : 100 gms

1 tsf corn flour

500ml of vegetable stock

Salt

Oregano, chilli flakes

Garlic powder

1sf vinegar

In a cooker, sauté the vegetables and tofu in olive oil. Add salt, garlic powder,corn flour(dissolved in water), oregano,chilli flakes, vinegar and salt.

Whistle the cooker and wait for two whistles.

Handva

I always get fascinated by the variety of farsans (snacks) savored in Gujarati families. The names are endless, khakhara, handava, khandvi, dhokla, patra etc. and lemme tell you, they all taste unique and awsome.

The curiosity is in the process which is widely in use, these days because of diet awareness and increasing tendencies of obesity among Indians. they use the steam process for the preparation of variety of snacks like dhokla, patra.
Although the snacks are quite healthy and rich in proteins. but, the heavy tempering full of cotton seed oil ruins the charm of low calorie snacks. not to forget that tempering obviously increases the flavor of snacks.

Today I tried Handva (handvo) in my kitchen. I tried making it low calorie (being a diet conscious).
its a very healthy hearty recipe full of proteins and give a fuller effect on satiety. people sometime replace it with the meals. In some gujarati thali, its a part of platter.

Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:

1 cups rice 

1/2 cup toovar (arhar) dal

1/4 cup urad dal (split black lentils)

1/4 cup moong dal (split green gram)

1/4 cup chana dal (split Bengal gram)

1 cup sour curds

2 1/2 cups grated bottle gourd (doodhi / lauki) other vegetables like carrots, potato can be used.

4 tbsp oil

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp soda- bi-carb

1 tbsp sugar(optional, for contrast)

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

3 tbsp green chilli-ginger paste

salt to taste

for tempering optional: 2tsf oil, hing(asafoetida), mustard seeds, sesame seeds, chopped green chilli, chopped coriander.

soak the rice and pulses for few hours. grind them in mixer. add sour curd and ferment for 3hrs (in summers,time for fermentation can be reduced). add the rest of ingredients in the batter. 
spread the batter in a baking dish. bake it on 180.C in preheated oven for 30-40min untill the crust becomes golden brown. 

after that, tempering can be done, in a pan, heat oil, add hing, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, green chillies. heat it untill the seeds start crackling.
another option is, that tempering can be mixed in the batter itself before baking 
garnish with coriander. serve with imli chutney.

chick pea cutlet or diet cutlets

A heavy snack is what i crave for after a busy afternoon. They say snacking is not healthy for my knees. Well a health conscious foodie can be creative sometimes and make snacking lil bit healthier, rich in protein, low in calories and fats.

I came up with an idea of diet cutlets. Well the name diet has become rave these days and i have observed that diet food is not as delicious as fried crisp ahhhannn food.

Here i go with my chickpea cutlets.

Boil 100 gms of chickpea (chole) and 100 gm of desi channa(black pea). Mash them properly. Add chopped coriander, ginger garlic paste 1tsf, black pepper, chaat masala, salt (as per taste, mind well chaat masala has salt in it as well).  Mix properly and make a thick batter. Now make rolls of batters like cutlets (tikki). Take some oats (regular oat meal from your breakfast drawer) and sprinkle over the cutlets. (oats is healthier option than bread crumps. And they are more crispier than bread crumps).

Now shallow fry in regular vegetable oil on a pan. Or you can bake it as well.

Serve it with coriander chutney.

Rajma masala ‘maa style’

Being a vegetarian, i crave for my protein.  I googled it and found that 184 g of kidney beans contain:
Calories: 54
Protein: 43.4 g
Carbohydrates: 110 g
Water: 21.6 g
Dietary fiber: 45.8 g
Starch: 45.8 g
Calcium: 263 mg
Iron: 15.1 mg

Well... not enough for a day’s requirement.  Today I decided to make Rajma Masala similar to what my mom always does.  My mom prefers to make ‘Chitra’ rajma instead of the regular bigger black/ red kidney beans. It’s easier to cook and tastes better than the usual red kidney beans. I prefer the tangy flavour of rajma than the spicy one.

The recipe says: soak rajma overnight (It’s good to soak pulses for a longer time, saves fuel and time when cooking) or at least a few hours before. Boil it, say 5 whistles. Gravy Preparation: In a chopper, add 3-4 cloves of garlic, few inches of ginger, some green chillies, 2 medium size onions and then sing my favourite jingle: Chop! Chop! Chop! ...And it’s done. In a pan, add 3 tsf vegetable oil. When heated, add cumin, carom (ajwain), whole black pepper and 2-3 cloves.  Add the chopped veggies. When golden brown, add 5-6 medium sized chopped tomatoes. (I prefer slightly unripe tomatoes as they are li’l bit tangy). Wait for few minutes. Add salt, turmeric, coriander powder. Mix the gravy with boiled rajma in pressure cooker. Add a pinch of homemade garam masala (the recipe I‘ll share one day though). Whistle again for say 4 -5 times. And it’s done.....

I prefer eating it with pilaf while Vishwa asks for chapattis!