Tawa Sabzi

Hi all,
Hope you are having a good time .With weather changing again for this weekend cold, dull and freezing again.
Today we will be talking about tawa sabzi.
Tawa sabzi is typically made with stuffed sabzi's on the hot tawa and then served on the hot tawa too ! Delicious right .

Ingredients:
1 lbs Bhindi
1 lbs Small eggplant round
1 -2 cut long slit  bitter gourd (karela)
2 medium potatoes cut slit long about 1/2 inch thick
2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 tablespoon chopped chili
2-3 tablespoon gram flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
oil for cooking ( approximately 2-4 tablespoon per batch )

Method:
Mix turmeric, chili powder, gram flour, salt to taste and ginger garlic paste with chili paste and leave it aside to marinade.
Cut slits in eggplant, bhindi and stuff it with the above marinade.
Put oil on a shallow nonstick pan add stuffed bhindi in the first batch. Cook until crisp.
Repeat same for stuffed baigan and cook on low heat until cooked thoroughly from inside.
Finally cook the cut slit bitter gourd and potatoes.
At the end mix all the vegetable and when ready to serve and heat the tawa hot and put the vegetables back on the tawa, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice  and serve with hot chappati.

Enjoy

baigan kadhi

Hi all,
Kadhi is a very famous food in Gujarati thali. Often served with khichadi or pulav rice or plain rice too.
This is one of my favorite made by my mother in law. Its my hubby's favorite too...Baigan kadhi.
Very simple, very easy and yet delightful. Hope you all enjoy.
Traditionally kadhi is made from gram flour and yogurt with tadka of ghee but this has a twist.

Ingredients:
1 cup yogurt blended with 3-4 cups of water
2 -3 tablespoon gram flour
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 cup finely chopped eggplant ( Chinese eggplant works just fine )
salt to taste

For tadka :
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 pinch asafoitida powder

Method:
Mix gram flour with yogurt and water with finely chopped garlic, ginger garlic paste and salt to taste. keep it aside.
In a wok heat 1 tablespoon oil when hot put mustard seeds, let it crackle and add asafoitida. Now add finely chopped eggplant. Let it cook. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste. When cooked well add gram flour yogurt mixture. let it boil until cooked throughly.
Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with hot rice.
Enjoy.

Sweet potato !

Well weekend is approaching and i am sure like me we all have that something lingering in the pantry that we don't know how to use it at this very present moment.
Here is a great recipe that i recently tried and we all loved and and your family ( especially your picky eater will say yummy! ) coz the secret ingredient is sweet potato. So the recipe is sweet potato kofta curry.

Ingredients :
1-2 baked medium sized sweet potato ( to bake preheat the oven to 350  and coat the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and cut slits thruoghout with fork or a knife. leave in the oven for 20 minutes and they r ready )
1/2 head of garlic finely minced
1 chopped green chili
1 table spoon ginger
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes.
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1-2 tablespoon cashew paste
1 cup of torn day old bread soaked in 1/2 cup of milk
oil for deep frying

Method:
First let's start by making the gravy. Its the basic recipe of  you favorite gravy.
Take 2 table spoon of olive oil in a pan , turn the heat up and add onion, tomatoes and garlic (1 table spoon ) and ginger paste.
Let it cook for 2 minutes then add turmeric powder, chili powder, garam masala powder and salt to taste.
Cook it thorough until the oil separates out .At this point add cashew paste to thicken it out. Your gravy is ready and you can either use it as a chunky version or can blend it and use a thin version.

OK lets move on to the secret ingredients section. We eat the kofta's in the restaurant that are usually made with potatoes well here is the way to take it up a notch and substitute potato for sweet potato.
So start with the 2 medium sized baked sweet potatoes and bread crumbs (day old bread works just fine, just crumble them soak them in milk for 5 minutes ) add salt pepper to taste and green chili if desired for spiciness.
Mix all the ingredients and deep fry them for 1-2 minutes and your kofta's are ready to serve either by itself of just serve them over the curry and enjoy your dinner !

Have a great weekend !

Vegetable Tortilla Soup

Hi all,
Lately the weather has been not so co-operative ...rain, cold ..and along comes feeling tired, sick and what not.
Well, lets warm up to hot hot soup. This soup is so refreshing and  delectable that even kids love it .

Ingredients :
1/2 cup each medium sized diced vegetables - yellow onion, red bell pepper and  roasted green chili ( you can roast this over the gas range or broil it under the broiler at high for few minutes watching it constantly making sure it does not burn )
1/2 cup canned tomatoes
4-5 cups vegetable broth
2  table spoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup frozen corn
Chopped cilantro for garnish
Lime wedges for garnish
Monterey jack cheese for garnish ( or any cheese of your choice )
Salt to taste
Crushed tortilla chips

Method :
Just gather all the ingredients and mix them in the slow cooker except the garnish  and crushed tortilla chips.
Put it on for 4 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low settings.
After the cooking time check vegetables and add salt to taste as broth may have some salt.
Serving suggestion - Laddle the hot soup in the bowl and garnish with crushed chips and cheese and lime wedges.
Voila ! your soup is ready . Enjoy.

Stuffed bhindi

Hi all,
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you my friends.
Today's featured food is Stuffed Bhindi ( Lady's Finger ). My favorite food of all.

Ingredients:
Fresh Bhindi 1 lbs with slit cut in the the middle for stuffing
Roasted peanuts 1/2 cup crushed
1 table spoon ginger garlic paste
4-5 green chillies chopped / or fine paste
2 table spoon gram flour
( gram flour is a chick pea flour, found commonly in indian grocery store )
Salt to taste and crushed  black pepper

Method :
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Make a slit in the bhindi and stuff it with the above mixture.
Put 2 table spoon of oil in a nonstick tava and place the bhindi's in it and let it cook until nice and crispy.
Garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy ! and Happy Valentine's Day .

corn and cabbage

Hi all,
Lately things had been too delayed for me and was very different that i could not make it to writing the recipes as often as i did. But dear friends i am back.
I always had a thought to use corn and cabbage together and found a way without frying it. Make a paratha. Kids love it and so will you.
Recipe follows :
2-3 cups cabbage finely chopped
1-2 green chillies finely chopped ( optional )
1 cups of corn ( defrosted )
salt according to taste and  flour as needed to make the dough

also optional is  - ginger garlic paste and  boiled potatoes

Method :
Start by mixing all the veggies and add salt
Make a dough to the way that you can roll pancake like round paratha.
Heat the griddle and then when hot put the rolled dough and place it onthe griddle, cook it on one side for 1-2 minutes each and then flip it to the other side .
Add butter  (prefered for richness ) to make it nice red and crunchy.
Serve it with butter and yogurt and fried green chillies.
Enjoy my dear friends.
Have a great weekend and will see you next week on Valentine's day

Something you might like :

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas: 7 Totally Free Ways to Win Her Heart

have a great weekend

Last weekend was crazy with kids getting sick and just not great weather. Hopefully this week be better. Looking forward to work as usually. So what are your plans. Watching the little ones practice ABC's and 123's and may be some "sight " words. Wow never knew that would have to go back and read and practice so much before u can teach your preschooler. Also the vowels and the sounds they make.  Will try to do as much as can and see you all next week.
Enjoy your weekend !

what's for dinner tonight ?

Isn't that what your little one ask and very rarely you get a nice response back !
Every night same question and never ending query. Does everyone feels that or is it just me ?
This is the recipe for chola daal dhokla. Dhokla is a very common Gujarati snack but when made with nutritious daal like chola daal makes it a meal some for kids. I found this recipe a very long time ago when i moved here in US, missed my home and mom a lot and the way she cooked Dhokla. Fortunately i found something similar @ a cooking website and here is something similar from my old notes.


Ingredients


1/2 cup chola daal, soaked overnight and drained
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1/2 cup chopped fenugreek


2 tsp ginger and green chili paste
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp eno (fruit salt)/baking powder
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp oil for greasing

Method

1. Combine the chola daal, spinach, fenugreek leaves and ginger green chilli paste and blend in a mixer to a smooth paste, using enough water.
2. Add asafoetida and salt and mix well.
3. Just before steaming, sprinkle the fruit salt over it.
4. When the bubbles form, mix gently and pour spoonfuls of batter immediately into the greased idli /muffin molds.
5. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes or till the dhoklas are cooked.
6. Let it cool and serve immediately garnished with shredded coconut.

Enjoy. Will be back tomorrow with more.

no cheeseey

Hi all,
Tuesday run quite a bit busy for me. So decided to go for the same old Mac and Cheese combination. But if you
are a healthy freak mom like me thinking that that's not nutrition in that store bought mac and cheese box this is something worth while. When its done outcome ..it looks exactly..trust me ..exactly like the regular mac and cheese but with almost no cheese. Here's how it goes :
Start with the 1 cup of macaroni pasta or any short pasta.
1 and 1/2 cup of butternut squash chopped into small cubes.
1/3 cup of whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
for the final touches  2-3 tablespoon of your choice of cheese.

Method :
Boil butternut squash cubes into a pot of boiling water with some salt just for the taste. It takes about 4-5 minutes to cook it thoroughly. In the same manner  cook the paste of your choice according to the package directions.
Now in the mean time your  squash might have cooled down enough for you to handle . So go ahead and drain it and blend it in a food processor or even just mash it with a fork to get the pureed consistency. Mix the milk to make it creamier.
Now add your pasta to this mixture and add milk if squash looks to thick to handle.
At this point you can turn the broiler in your oven to preheat and  when your oven is ready go ahead and sprinkle your cheese as a garnish and put it in the oven until the top browns.
Your kids will ask you seconds and you will never have the guilt of feeding them cheesy food.

I would really like to hear from you, if you had sneaked in any veggies for your kids in any of your favorites to make it theirs and have turned out like they just loved it. Do let me know. Enjoy the rest of the sunny day and will see ya all tomorrow.


Something you might like :

http://www.macaronicheeserecipes.com/
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