Veggie pudina Pulav

Sunday lunch special was Veggie pudina pulav & boondi raita.

Veggie Pudina Pulav

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice- 1 1/2 cups
Carrot- 2 (diced small)
Long Beans- 15 pieces (finely chopped)
Fresh Peas- 1/2 cup
Onion- 1 Large chopped fine-length-wise
Ginger Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
Cinnamon
Bay leaf
Clove
Pepper crushed
Water- 3 cups
Jeera- 1 tbsp
Oil- 2 tbsp
Ghee- 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Pudina chutney if you have it ready at home, else chop pudina leaves, grind it along with some greeen chillies & lemon juice in a mixie and keep the mixture aside.
Coriander leaves- finely chopped for garnishing

 I prepared my pulav directly in a pressure cooker

Method:
In your cooker, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the jeera and let it splutter. 
Add onion, ginger garlic paste, Cinnamon, bay leaf, clove, crushed pepper and cook till the raw smell goes and the onion turns transparent pink.
Add the cut beans & carrot and cook it for another 2-3 mins. 
Add the fresh peas and mix till it is covered with oil, at this stage you can add salt, pudina chutney/ mix and the washed rice and mix well again till the rice is covered well with the mixture.
Add water and cook the rice. (2 whistles on high flame, simmer it for another 7-10 mins). 
Once the pressure comes down, add the chopped coriander and lightly mix the Pulav with a ladle. Serve hot with Raita.

We like our rice to be not too spicy and soft, hence I have not added too much spice and cooked the rice additionally on simmer for 10 mins.

Veggie Raita
prepared this for saturday night dinner.

Ingredients :
Grated Carrot- 1/2 cup
Grated Cucumber- 1/2 cup
Pomegranate- 1/4 cup (optional)
Salt to taste
Sugar- 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder- 1/4 tsp
Curd- 2 large cups

Method:
Beat the curd well and add rest of the ingredients 
 
Raita is ready to serve with your pulav.

Boondi Raita
 
Ingredients :
Curd- 2 large cupsSalt to taste
Sugar- 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder- 1/4 tsp
MTR Khara Boondi- 1/2 cup

Method:
Beat the curd with salt, sugar, chilly powder & Jeera powder. Just before serving add the MTR Khara Boondi to the curd, mix and serve.

Eggless Chocolate Brownie

This was a part of my anniversary gift to my hubby dear. Original recipe is from Jyotibabel's blog, I added milk instead of water..and I am thrilled with the consistency, texture & taste of my brownie. 

Ingredients:

Maida/ All purpose flour- 1 cup

Cocoa Powder- 1/4 cup

Sugar- 1 cu

Butter (unsalted)- 1/2 cup minus 2 tbsp

Baking powder- 2 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Curd- 1/2 cup +2 tbsp

Milk- 3 tbsp

Chocolate chip- Handful

Vanilla essence- 1 tsp

Walnuts- optional

Method:

1. Preheat the microwave at 160C.

2. Sieve the maida, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together butter, curd and vanilla till the butter is soft and blends with the curd.

4. Add the maida mix to the butter curd mix. Add 1 tbsp milk at a time until you reach the thick flowy consistency. 

5. Add the chocolate chips & Walnuts at this stage. I didnt have walnuts at home so added only the chocolate chips.

6. Prepare your baking tin by applying some oiling and dusting it with maida.

7. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared tin and bake it for 30-35 minutes at 160C. 

8. Check your brownie at 25 mins & 30 mins by inserting a skewer. Once the skewer comes out clean your brownie is ready to be pulled out.

9. Let it cool down at least for for a few minutes and move the brownie to a wire rack

10. Slice it up and it is ready to eat as it is, or you could do some simple chocolate frosting or have it with a scoop of icecream. I prepared some chocolate frosting for my brownie :)

Note: this does not rise up like other cakes..so dont keep waiting for it to rise and burn up your brownie ;-)

This was a midnight surprise I gifted along with my home made ginger wine to my husband on our 13th anniversary :) And he's loved every bit of it...

Cookies & Ginger Wine

Key chain & bead bracelet gifted by my dear daughter to us on our Anniversary

 

Whole wheat choco chip cookie

The original recipe is from Food.com. But I modified it and have added milk, cocoa powder and baking soda.

Ingredients: 
Whole wheat flour- 3/4 Cup
Unsalted Butter- 1/2 Cup
Powdered Sugar- 6 tbsp
Vanilla Essence- 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder- 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
Chocolate Chips- handful
Milk- 1 tsp (optional)
Cocoa Powder- 1 1/2 tbsp

Method:
1. Sieve together Flour, baking soda and baking powder.
2. In another bowl mix butter and sugar in a bowl and add Vanilla essence into it.
3. Now the flour into the butter mixture and add the chocochip and mix well.
4. You could add in milk at this point to be able to mix your dough wel.
5. Cover the dough and refrigerate for about 30 mins.
6. Preheat the microwave oven at 180C.
7. Once out of refrigeration, make small balls of the dough, spread on oven tray and press a little.

8. Bake the cookies in Microwave convection mode at 180C for 18-20 mins.
9. Once done, rest it for a while and then move to wire rack and let it cool.
10. Store in an airtight container.

Choco Chip Cookies

Wifey's bakes in progress...trying out choco chip cookies today..

Saw through many recipes on the net, but finalized on the one posted by Raks Kitchen

Ingredients:
Maida- 1 cup
Choco chip- about handful.
Sugar- Powdered 6 tbsp
Unsalted Butter- 1/4 cup in original recipe, I put almost 1/2 a cup.
Baking soda- 1/4 tsp
Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
Milk- 1 tblsp
Vanilla essence- 1/2 tsp

Method:
Preheat the microwave at 180C.
Sieve together Maida, Baking Powder and Baking Soda in a bowl. 
In another bowl mix butter, sugar, vanilla essence. 
Once this mixture is ready add in the chocochip and the maida mixture and mix it into a dough. 
Add the milk at this stage to help you with mixing.
Make small balls of this dough and place on the baking tray and flatten it out.
Bake in Microwave Convection model at 180C for 20mins. 
Check your cookies between 15-18 mins, just in case yours gets done(golden) faster.
Let it on the tray for a while and cool it on wire rack.

yyaayy, I was worried that the extra butter I had added might make my cookie soft. But no...it looks perfectly done. 
My daughter telling me I should have added cocoa powder also into the dough :-) The love for chocolate is endless...

Peanut Butter Cookies

Since I was excited about the success with the outcome of Nankathais, I thought I could try one more and I ended up preparing Peanut Butter Cookies for my kids. In comparison I would prefer the nankathai because of the ghee flavour it has, but I would say as a standalone this also is amazing.

I used the Eggless recipe from Gayathri's Blog. Gayathri's recipe had peanuts roasted and put in. The lazy me decided I would do without it and used the Crunchy peanut butter instead and I ended up baking the cookies for 30 mins!!

Ingredients: Maida-3/4 cup
Butter-1/4 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter-3/4 cup+1 tbsp Light Brown Sugar-1/2 cup Baking Powder-1/2 tsp Milk-1/8 cup
Method: 1. In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder. 2. In another bowl mix together butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until soft. 3. Add milk and beat. 4. Add the flour mixture and mix well 5. Cover the dough and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. The dough will become firmer and it will be very easy to shape the cookies. 6. Preheat microwave at 160C. 7. Pinch out small lemon sized balls out of the dough, roll it and place it on the tray. Arrange the balls leaving atleast 1" gap giving the cookies place to spread. 8. With a fork, press the ball into flat round cookie shape and get a criss cross pattern. 9. Bake in Convection mode for 30 minutes at 160C 10. Remove from oven and let it sit on counter until the cookies are firm. Incase you feel that cookies are not getting firm, bake for another 2-3 mins. 15. Carefully remove the cookies from the tray and transfer to a wire rack. Allow it to cool completely.

Nankathai

I am just done with preparing Nankathai. Referred to DivyasCookbook and followed her steps. Now am waiting for it to cool for it to be tried. I prepared mine in Microwave Convection.

Ingredients:
Maida/ All purpose Flour- 1 Cup
Sugar- Powdered- 1/2 Cup
Ghee- 1/2 Cup
Cardamom/ Elaichi- 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder- 1/2 tsp

Method:
Melt the ghee and mix the powdered sugar and cardamom into it. Sieve the maida & baking powder into the ghee mixture and mix well into a dough. 
Keep the dough aside for an hour.
Preheat the Microwave oven at 160C. 
Make small balls of the dough and flatten it with your hand on the microwave tray.
Now, set the Convection mode to 160C and bake for 23-25mins. 
Check the nankathai at 20mins to see if its cooking well. I took out mine at 24 mins.
The cracks on the nankathai tell you that its done.

I just gave a piece of nankathai to my son and he says its like cotton biscuit :-). Husband's saying its yummeeeee

Sweet n Spicy Pan roasted Pumpkin

I had a small piece of pumpkin left with me after I was done with the cake. Decided to quickly cook up something with it. 

Ingredients:
1. Pumpkin - 8-10 thin cut slices
2. Garlic paste 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp depending on your taste
3. Olive oil/ any cooking oil- 2 tsp
4. Chilli Powder
5. Sugar- 1/2 tsp
6. Salt- as per taste

Procedure:
I cut the pumpkin into small thin slices, added a tea spoon of cooking oil..olive oil would work better I think. Put the garlic paste & Salt into it and mixed it till all the pumpkin pieces were coated with garlic flavored oil.
Heat the pan and spread the pumpkin slices on the pan. Turn over when one side is done. The slices will tend to get soft and turn into golden brown when they are fully cooked. Now add the chilli powder and Sugar on your pumkin slices and roast both sides once more and remove from fire. 
The dish is ready to serve..It could serve as a good side snack with your meal. You could also add a dash of lemon juice incase you like your food to be tangy.

Husband loved the taste of this...daughter said she wanted the same done with potatoes and my son came back asking for a few more pieces.