Mooli / Radish paratha

Stuffed paratha always reminds me of Bangalore, there are plenty of small paratha stalls in Bangalore where they serve different varieties of  stuffed parathas. Me and my sister- n-law  make sure to go on all friday evenings to one such paratha stall and eat  all our favorite parathas, actually the paratha size is not too big and we can easily eat 3 to 4 parathas. Of all the stuffed paratha, mooli is my second favorite to aloo paratha. I get tempted when ever I the see the mooli paratha in a restaurant menu. Here in US I don't get to eat much of mooli paratha in the restaurant so I end up making this dish myself at home. Making perfect round paratha without the stuffing oozing out is an art. You can't make it perfect for the first time but after many practice you can master this art. I am still learning this art. Here is the recipe of this mooli paratha.

Ingredients

For Stuffing

Mooli/Radish - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Cilantro - 2 tsp chopped
Salt to taste
For Dough
Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Water - 1 cup
Oil for making the mooli paratha

Method
Sieve the wheat flour and salt. Add water and knead to soft dough. Cover and keep aside. Peel and grate the radish and squeeze out all the water.
Heat the pan and fry the radish for some time and add the ingredients and fry for sometime until the raw flavour is gone.
Take a lemon sized dough and roll to a small round say 4 inch in diameter and place 2 to 3 teaspoon of fillings in the center and cover and seal the ends and roll again gently to a thick round paratha.
In a hot griddle cook the paratha on both side until golden brown using little oil on both sides. Serve hot with tomato fry or just yogurt and pickle. Refer my earlier posting for tomato fry recipe.

Lemon Soufflé

Soufflé is a light and fluffy French cake made basically with combining egg yolk and beaten egg whites with other ingredients.
I can't believe I making a dish from a food network channel, usually I think they make only fancy foods, which is very far from my reach, but this one I felt very interesting and quite easy for a amateur baker like me and not to my surprise this dish also came out really good. I used lemon juice and lemon zest (grated lemon skin) hoping it would give a nice fresh taste and it did actually but only disappointment is that my boy didn’t like the lemon flavor and said its very lemony, promised him will do chocolate version next time.

Ingredients
Freshly squeezed Lemon juice – ¼ Cup
Lemon Zest – 1 tsp (Grated outer lemon skin)
Eggs – 2 (Separated)
Milk – 2/3 Cup
Flour – ¼ Cup
Sugar – 2/3 Cup
Salt – ¼ tsp
For Baking You’ll Need
Ramekin or Soufflé bowl or I used small cake pan - 3 or 4
Big rectangular Cake pan just in a size to fit the small cake pans

Method

•  Pre-heat oven to 350*F. Boil 3 Cups of water.
•  Separate egg yolk from egg white and make sure not even a single drop of yolk falls in the white, if  so  repeat the process again.
•  Combine egg yolk, milk, juice, zest, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the flour and mix well.
•  In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until you get a stiff peak, better to use a power mixer.
•  Add the egg white to the yolk mixer and fold slowly, don’t mix it as it would loose all the aeration in the white.
•  Butter the soufflé bowl and add the sugar and coat evenly by rotating the bowl slowly and repeat this for all the bowls.
•  Pour the mixture evenly on all the bowls and this is not gonna raise.
•  Fill half way of the big cake pan with hot water and place the soufflé bowl in the water.
•  Bake for 30 mins or until the top turns light golden brown.
•  When done, allow to cool down and gently invert into a plate and enjoy..

 

Mint Flavored Delicious Fish Fry

Fish fry is a very popular dish all over India, especially in Kerala, a beautiful state famous for its backwater and lots of coconut trees and not to forget Kerala is one of the a great place for honeymoon.
I still remember a trip to a dam(forgot the name) from my school in Tamilnadu where you get to see people fry and sell the freshly caught fish everywhere neat the dam and you get nice fish fry smell(feel sorry for who hates fish), the one which you can’t avoid but I didn’t get a chance to eat one that time, later when we went to Okanakal dam with my family, I got a chance to eat it and it tasted good.
This fish fry is different to the usual one, I used mint and cilantro and it added more fragrance to the fish and it tastes really good. Looking at the picture don’t conclude I burned my fish, its just the bright green color looks like burned, sorry about that.

Ingredients
Tilapia Fish Fillets – 4
Ginger – ½ “
Garlic – 3
Mint and Cilantro – 1Cup
Curry Leaves - 4
Coconut – 1 tsp
Green Chilies – 3
Lemon Juice – 2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1tsp
Garam Masala – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry (I used Coconut oil)

Method
Grind all the masalas and marinate the fish in that and set aside for minimum 2 hrs. Shallow fry the fish I until its roasted on both the sides. Enjoy!!

Tomato Dhal

This is very very simple and yet very satisfying dish. Tastes heavenly when eaten with rice and a papad but I always prefer eating with a spicy fish fry ..hmmm ..yummy.This is my girl's favorite food, she likes it with lots of ghee in it and it always happens that she won’t eat the entire plate of hers and I don’t like wasting this yummy dish.. so I end up eating the remaining food …that’s how I put on weight….can't help. Okay lets get to this simple recipe of tomato dhal.

Ingredients
Toor dhal – ½ cup
Tomato – 3 medium chopped
Garlic – 3 chopped
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Seasoning
Mustard – ½ tsp
Cumin / Jeera – ½ tsp
Garlic – 2 chopped
Curry leaves – 6
Whole red chili – 3
Ghee – 2 tsp

Method
Pressure cook dhal with tomato, garlic, turmeric and salt and mash them well.
Season it with mustard, jeera, garlic, red chili and curry leaves in ghee. Serve hot with rice..

Shrimp/Prawn Gravy

When I want to cook only for me and it should be simple and tasty I always prefer cooking shrimp, shrimp is always a magical dish, which cooks fast. This dish takes no more than 30 mins and I have made this dish numerous times. Shrimp is one dish which tastes always great however cooked provided if you like shrimp. This dish is cooked in a wonderful onion and tomato sauce with all the spices. This is a great combination for rice.

Ingredients

Shrimp - 2 cups

Tomato - 2 chopped
Onion - 1 chopped
Ginger - 1/2"

Garlic - 4 cloves

Green Chilies - 3

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 2tsp
Oil - 3 tsp

Red food color - Optional 

Salt to taste

Method

Fry onion , tomato, ginger, garlic and green chiles in 1 tsp of oil in a pan for 5 mins and grind to a fine paste. In a pan heat 2 tsp of oil and fry the grounded paste for few mins and add all the dry masala powders and add the shrimp and cook till the gravy thicken to your desired consistency. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with rice.

Potato N Mushroom Curry

When you are in need of a easy and tasty recipes for a side dish to please your family member, this is it Potato N mushroom curry. Vegetable dishes are a nutritious way to our family feast. A combination of heart mushroom, everyone favorite potato and some green peas made this dish look and taste is so luscious. Nothing satisfies like mushroom and potato and this great dish with all the spices raises to a new height of taste.

Ingredients
Potato – 1 big cubed to small bite size pieces
Mushroom Chopped – 2 cups
Peas – 1 Cup
Onion – 1 chopped
Ginger Garlic Paste – 2tsp
Tomato Puree – ½ cup or use 2 tomato
Coriander Powder – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Dry Mint leaves – 2 tsp
Cream – 2 tsp (Optional)
Oil – 2tsp
Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil in a non – stick pan and add the onion and sauté for few mins.
Add the potato and mix well and add ginger garlic paste and mix well, add some water and cook for 10 mins.
Now add all the dry ingredients except the mint leaves and give a nice mix.
Add the chopped mushroom and peas and the tomato puree and cook in a low flame, add water if needed.
Add the mint leaves and cook until all the veggies are cooked. Add cream and remove and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with chapati.

Warm Up With Hot N Sweet Vegtable Soup

It was very lazy day yesterday as it was raining all day and nothing can comfort than a nice hot soup on rainy day and even more better when u have cold. Yesterday dinner was totally chinese, vegetable noodles and this hot and sweet soup. I'm fairly certain that everyone enjoyed their dinner including my little girl. Its been a while since I made this soup and when I made yesterday it tasted heavenly.
My girl refused to have the food I made for her and she wanted only the spicy noodles and she didn't have much of this soup as it was too spicy for her.

Ingredients
Vegetable Broth - 1 tin (chicken broth can also be used)
Cream style corn - 1 tin
Mixed vegetable - 1 cup very finley chopped ( I used carrot, beans, cabbage)
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Chili Garlic Sauce - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped - 1tsp
Garlic chopped - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 2 tsp
Oil - 1tsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spring Onion to Garnish

Method
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the chopped garlic and ginger and saute for few mins.
Add the vegetables and fry in a medium flame and add the chili garlic sauce and splash little water to it to avoid burning and cook till the veggies are half cooked.
Now add the vegetable broth and vinegar and cook in a low flame for 10 mins.
Now add the corn and cook again for 10 more mins and add soy sauce and  salt and pepper to your taste.
Finish it with by adding the corn powder mixed in little water, this helps to thicken the soup. Garnish with spring onion.