Recipe world

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ

Paneer or Cottage Cheese is a common ingredient in most of the North Indian side dishes. Also, there are varieties of sweets which calls for Paneer as the primary ingredient. Since Paneer is easily available in super markets and convenience stores, most of the people prefer to buy them instead of preparing it at home. If you have enough time, preparing Paneer at home is not a big deal.

Here is the recipe of Home - made Paneer..

Time required: 30 - 35 minutes

Hanging time and refrigeration time: 2 hours

Yield : 25 pieces

Ingredients:

Full cream milk: 1 1/4 liter
Half lime
A Muslin cloth

Method:

Heat the milk in a vessel and bring to boil.
Once it starts boiling, add 1 table spoon of lime juice and stir it nicely. Keep it on medium flame and stir regularly.
After 1 - 2 minutes, add one more spoon of lime juice. You can see the milk starts curdling slowly.
Add little more lime juice if required. Keep stirring the mixture regularly.
After boiling it for 15 - 20 minutes, all the fat separates and the water turns into pale green color.
Switch off the flame and pour the mixture onto the muslin cloth.
Expose the mixture to tap water once, to remove the citrus content.
Tie the paneer mixture inside the cloth and hang it onto a hook or tap for 1 1/2 hours.
Then, spread the paneer mixture on a flat surface and knead it nicely without any lumps.
Pat it into a square or rectangular shape and keep refrigerated for 30 minutes.
Take out the paneer and cut into desired shapes.
While adding paneer cubes to any side dishes, shallow fry them on the tava to avoid them from breaking.

Tips:

Dont discard the water which you get while preparing the paneer. This water, known as Paneer Ka Pani is good for health. You can replace the plain water for side dishes with Paneer Ka Pani.

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ

Don't know whether I am becoming more busy (or lazy!) these days, its becoming tough for me to invest time for blogging. We were roaming around different places during the week-ends and kiddo keeps me busy during the week days! Even I tried varieties of dishes, but couldn't click the picks being with her.

We had a memorable Diwali celebration this time. There are more Indians in our locality. So, we took part in Diwali celebrations at different places. We celebrated the festival at home one day. I had prepared Holige / Obbattu for Diwali this time. In fact I prepared Seven Cup Burfi and Mysore Pak too! But they were for kiddos playgroup and hubby's office.
There are different ways to prepare this Tovve. My version was slightly different earlier; after I learned this version from my friend Maitri, I just shifted to this method. Try this simple and easy curry and let me know your feedback!

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Serves: 2

Difficulty level: Easy

Ingredients:

Moong dal - 1/3 cup (1 cup = 70 gm approx)
Water - 4 cups
Turmeric powder - big pinch
Ginger (crushed) - 1 1/2 inch
Green chilly - 2 nos (adjust according to taste)
Asafoetida / hing - big pinch
Salt - for taste
Finely chopped coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Lime - half slice

For tempering: Ghee / clarified butter - 1 1/2 tsp, cumin seeds - 1 tsp, Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Wash the moong dal in clean water. To this, add around 3 cups of water, big pinch of turmeric and 2 - 3 drops of cooking oil. Pressure cook for 1 whistle. You can cook it directly on the stove top; it takes little longer to cook.
Once the moong dal is 3/4th cooked, add crushed ginger, slit green chillies, hing, salt and lime squeeze for taste. Add little more water if required. Let it boil nicely for 5 minutes and then, add the chopped coriander and turn off the flame.
Heat ghee in a small wok. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Once it starts crackling, mix it with the prepared Tovve or Dal mixture.
Serve it hot with rice and pickle!

Tips:

Lime squeeze can be added either before boiling the mixture or at the end. Anything is fine!

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ

Mysore Pak is one among those famous Indian sweets which are prepared during festivals and special occasions. With the nice aroma and flavor of ghee, this sweet tastes divine and just melts in your mouth!

Mysore Pak is my favorite sweet ever and of course, this is the first sweet recipe I learnt! My Aunt is an expert in preparing Mysore Pak. She uses fresh home made ghee for preparing this sweet and everybody at home loves to have this delicious sweet. Preparing Mysore Pak is not that difficult, but experience makes you perfect! You need to know the right time and consistency to take out the mixture from the flame. And freshness of the ingredients i.e., ghee and gram flour / besan flour also matters a lot.

Mysore Pak can be prepared using Dalda/Vanaspati or other oils also, instead of ghee. I prefer using half - ghee and half - sunflower oil. Try this Mysore Pak recipe at your home and let me know your feedback!

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Yield: 45 small pieces

Difficulty level: Difficult

Ingredients:

Besan flour / chickpea flour / gram flour - 1 cup (1 cup = 100 gm approx)
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Ghee / clarified butter - 1 cup
Sunflower oil - 1 cup
Salt - a pinch
Cooking soda - a pinch
Water - 3/4th cup + 3 tbsp

Method:

Combine sugar and water and bring to boil. By the time it reaches two string consistency, we need to roast the besan flour.
Take 1/2 cup of ghee in a wide pan. Add besan flour and roast it on low flame till nice aroma comes. Add a pinch of salt once its done.
Heat the oil and the remaining ghee separately and keep ready.
Once the sugar syrup reaches 2 string consistency, add it to the roasted besan flour and mix well. Keep mixing it continuously on medium flame.
Add 2 - 3 table spoons of oil at a time to the flour mixture. Once the oil is absorbed in the mixture, add 2 - 3 tbsp of oil again. Repeat it till all the oil gets over. Then repeat the same thing with ghee.
At one stage, the mixture starts leaving the oil from the sides or bubbles start coming up and the mixture starts leaving the ladle.
Quickly add a pinch of cooking soda, mix it nicely and turn off the flame.
Pour the mixture onto a wide plate and allow to set down.
After 3 - 4 minutes when the mixture becomes slightly hard, cut it into desired shapes using a knife. Allow it to cool completely.
Separate the pieces after its completely cool. Enjoy the home made Mysore Pak with your family!

Tips:

If you wont like to use any oil, can use 2 cups of ghee instead.
If the quality of besan flour is not good, you may not be able to get the perfect Mysore Pak sometimes.
Make sure that the ghee and oil will be slightly hot while preparing this sweet. It will give a nice crispy texture to the Mysore Pak.

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ

After coming back from work, having a cup of hot tea blended with spices is my Hubby's daily routine. We all would like to have some snacks along with evening tea, with lot of talk and laughter since it is the relaxing time for us! Me and Hubby prefer home made snacks all the time and so, I maintain at least 2 - 3 varieties of snacks in my pantry most of the time. Just like every other kid, my daughter also loves the store bought biscuits and snacks. So, we buy her favorite snacks sometimes from the stores.

Cornflakes Mixture is one of the tea time snacks which I prepare. We do buy plain cornflakes to make breakfast on lazy days, but most of the time I will use it for making the Mixture. This mixture is easy to make and goes well with your cuppa tea!

Preparation time: 5 - 10 minutes

Servings: 15 approx

Difficulty level: Easy

Ingredients:

Plain Cornflakes (Breakfast cornflakes) - 5 cup (measured in big cup)
Groundnut - 1/2 cup
Almonds - 3 tbsp
Broken cashews - 1/8th cup or more
Raisins - 20
Dalia split - 3 tbsp
Urid dal - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Masala powder - 1 1/2 tsp or to taste
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Oil - 10 to 11 tbsp
Salt to taste
Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 tsp or for taste

Method:

Cornflakes can be used directly if its crispy. Else, you need to toast them on low flame or oven - roast them for few minutes till it becomes crispy.
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add almonds and ground nuts and saute for 2 - 3 minutes.
Add the broken cashews and saute for a minute. Then add raisins, split dalia, urid dal and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start crackling, add turmeric powder. Saute them till raisins puff up.
Then add curry leaves and saute for a minute. Add the Masala Powder and turn off the flame.
Add salt and sugar powder for taste.
Fold in the cornflakes and mix everything nicely. Check and adjust the taste, it required.
Transfer the Mixture onto an air tight container and use as required.
Cornflakes mixture is a perfect snack for tea time. This mixture goes well with Rava Upma and Seasoned Poha too!

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ

Shrikhand is one of the famous sweet dish from Indian cuisine. This delicious sweet is prepared using minimal and easily available ingredients. Adding of saffron, dry fruits and nuts makes it more rich in taste. Amrakhand is also a variation of Shrikhand, which contains the goodness of mangoes.

Shrikhand can be served as a dessert or side dish. It tastes good with Poori, Dosa and Tellevu. Try this easy dessert at home and let me know your feedback!

Preparation time: 15 - 20 minutes

Time to hung the curd: 7 - 8 hours

Serves: 5 - 6

Difficulty level: Easy

Ingredients:

Hung curd - 1 1/2 cup

Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup or to taste

Cardamom / Elachi powder - 1/2 tsp

Saffron strands - 10 to 12

Method:

Take the hung curd in a large vessel and beat it for few minutes without lumps.

To this, add the powdered sugar, saffron strands and cardamom powder. Beat it till everything is combined well.

Serve is as it is or refrigerated. Add few pieces of pista if you would like to.

It can be served as dessert or as side dish with Poori, Dosa and Tellevu.

Tips:

How to prepare hung curd: Pour the curd on a muslin cloth, tie it and hang it to a hook or a tap. Put a vessel below the hung curd to collect the excess water. Keep it overnight or 7 - 8 hours and then, take out the curd.

If not using saffron strands, add 3/4 tsp of cardamom powder instead of 1/2 tsp.