Shepherd's pie

   Shepherd's pie has a meat filling and is  lined with the crust made of mashed potatoes.  This savoury pie was traditionally devoured whenever there was  left-over of grilled meat.  I can also say that it's a comfort food.   With so much humidity around, all you need is a piping hot shepherd's pie and a good book to mark a great day.

I got this recipe from my mom's Morphy Richards oven guidebook.  They have beautifully twisted it according to our Indian palette.  This dish is a layered dish.  The layers start with  thinly sliced potatoes, followed by vegetable mince, lamb mince and topped with mashed potatoes.  This, in turn, is brushed with melted butter and some crumbled cheese.  When these layers are baked, all you get is aromatic and a crispy potato crust top, followed by soft layers of vegetables and meat mince and ends with potato slices. I flavoured meat mince with dill and totally  this pie had such complementing flavours that I ended up devouring them as such.  Alternatively,  you can dig them with roti as well.  

  The round  casserole, I used here is 15 cm in diameter and 5 cm depth.  The filling measurements are made accordingly.  You may have to twist the measurements according to your casserole's size. 

So, let's get started. 

Chunky vegetarian delight

      With cloudy day today, we need to take an preferable break from summer-delights, isn't it?   Well, these tikkis are made from chunky vegetables, spinach, cheese and are baked.  Out of the oven, these were completely gorgeous with an cheese burst surface and full of flavours.  All loved it and my little daughter showed her  not-so-bumpy biceps and said, 'mommy, I am getting lot of strength now'  :)  :)    These cute, cheesy and iron-rich tikki's are best served hot with tomato & fig flavoured sauce.

Though these tikkis are made of finely chopped vegetables, baking them  released not only their flavour, but also chunkyness is reduced to mushy, soft, grainy texture and paalak is like dissolving in your mouth.  This delightful tikki not only kids-friendly, sure to appeal adults too.  You must cool tikkis completely before peeling them from butter paper, as they might disintegrate when they are removed hot.  

Punjabi-styled pickle

     Well, this post is most special to me, because this is my first achaar/pickle post.  All thanks to my dear potluck partner, Shoba from Foodmazaa.

With an hot mid-summer,  it is true that we always look upon to chilled beverages, but this pickle, I must say, is an all-weather-dish.  Especially to all savoury-lovers, this is an real treat.  The choice of spice mix is perfect, as it infused the smell of mesmerizing achaar, and to top that, you are making this with vegetables - puts forth an healthy option, isn't it?  

Yes, yes, I know... my time off is exceeding between posts -  nowadays, I am struggling to catch upon my usual routine, with my daughter shifted to another school, that includes odd sets of timings.  I, have hardly tried anything, but, I promise to be back in lane soon, keep in touch, guys :)

Meal maker tikki with makhni sauce

 Going out of vegetable stock?.... Refrigerator under repair?....  nor do you have an surprise guest visit?.... Do not fear, if tiny, chocolate brown soya chunks or meal maker is there, this would be, perhaps, an blessing in disguise :)  Just make sure you stock them up from your nearest supermarket and they may never fail your expectations.... Yes ranging from pulao, curry, noodles this meal makers can be mixmatched in our regular cooking, here is one such sample.... meal maker tikki.  To top them more delecious for Potluck party, I have accompanied them with my version of makhni sauce.  Both were godly and  pleased all...

I have combined meal maker with few of vegetables, but other half of combo is completely left to you.... you can add anything that is stocked up at your home ranging from left-over rice, poha, murmura, crumbled paneer etc

Detox salad

Hi guys........  How are you all :)  And how was your new year celebrations?  We, celebrated ours @ Paradise :P  Yeah, that is an advantage of being an Hyderabadi, you know??  So, after an hectic schedule and exotic party foods, you must now feel to cut down some fat, opt for an brisk walk or prefer your green tea??  If so, then,  this salad is perfect for you :)  :)  Detox is nothing but, De + Tox, that is removing (De) the toxins/poisons from your body.  This is done by intaking fruits/vegetable known to nourish such properties.  

Detox salad, is an colourful platter of  such healthy vegetables and fruit in an glossy and sparkling dressing :)  I dressed them with olive oil, brown sugar, lime juice and crushed garlic.  Garlic, again is an pure anti-oxidant and I am used to eating them raw earlier days in order to get releived from monthly menstrual pain.  (Beleive me guys, garlic always does an ABRACADABRA magic to  periods pain)  If you guys are not used to raw garlic, you can avoid them and go with other dressings :)  I have also included spinach here, again it is not at all problem to include canned or raw baby spinach leaves.  I have used paalak, one can use mustard/Amaranthus too :)

Cooking time: 30 seconds

Cooling time/drying time: 15 minutes

Assembly: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients required

For salad

• 1/2 cup of  beetroot, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cup of carrot, cut into thin strips 
• 1/2 cup of pineapple, cut into thin strips
• 10 spinach leaves

For dressing

• 2 tbspn of olive oil
• 1 tsp of brown sugar
• 2 garlic pods, crushed
• 1 tsp lime juice

Method

Blanch spinach leaves in hot water, for about thirty seconds.  Remove and dry them for fifteen minutes.  Tear them into long strips.  In an bowl, mix all dressing and toss beet, carrot, spinach, and pineapple sticks into them.  Enjoy....

       Happy cooking and happy detoxing :P  :P  :P  :)  :)  :)

Hiruva masala shaak / Green masala curry - POTLUCK PARTY, CYBER STYLE Dec 10

   It's party-time!!! :D  yes, back to potluck party, cyber style hosted by Jagruti mam where several bloggers meet with their party dishes online and share treat virtually  :D.  They, also pair up and prepare the other partner's dish and cherish them as well.  Isn't it interesting??   But, travelling frequently for past two months, I was not able to make up.  This time, I do proudly present the authentic curry preparation, made by my Mother-in-law - Hiruva masala shaak or Green masala curry.

 

As the name suggests, green masala curry is  very hot (Caution to spice-tolerant guys!), they differ from Nilgiri/green coloured curry because it is not the  (green) colour that matters here.  Hiruva masala shaak has many green chillies (8-10), sauted and pureed, this masala is added to regular curry-base, unlike other curries where  pureeing mint/coriander leaves is done to attain characteristic green colour.   

Hot dog- wraps

     Making wraps/rolls are always in my pending list.  Finally made them this weekday,  must say that this hot dog styled wraps were awesome.  Selected vegetables were mashed, shaped like hot dogs and  were grilled.  This was wrapped in roti with prepared green mayonnaise sauce along with thinly sliced vegetables.  Altogether this wrap was an heavenly combination.

 

Kids would love to grab them, so did Varsha :D  If you are willing, you can also dash in barbeque sauce, mustard sauce and can serve like 'subway' type.  Most importantly, these wraps are healthy and goes heavy on your stomach.  You can prepare the hot dogs the day before and can refrigerate overnight, if you felt them time-consuming.  I prepared them mildly, so that my kid could consume, you could also prepare them spicy as you wish.  So, why wait to experiment :D :P  Just do it :)

Spaghetti with meat sauce

  Spaghetti is thin, long pasta from Italy.  Here, I used dried form of spaghetti packet, made of wheat durum semolina.  Spaghetti is topped usually with tomato sauce, with herbs like basil and oregano.  Here, I used meat sauce and the result was awesome.  The basic sauce, I used was Maggi's instant pasta sauce.  If you want an home-made one, click here

 

Since, this was my first Italian association, I followed each steps carefully.  These spaghetti were a bit denser than our instant noodles.  I cooked them till they were completely done and it went good with sauce.  They were heavy on stomach. One bite topped with sauce was completely heavenly.  I added both meat and vegetables here, vegetarians can replace the same amount of meat with additional mushrooms.

 

WORLD DIABETES DAY - November 14th 2013

   Hi all, this day,  November14th is observed as World Diabetes day.  When  Swathi , highlighted this importance and announced the event, I can barely resist myself from joining.  Thanks to her, this event made me go through a lot of learning process and know more about Diabetic diet.  So, with no more delay, I present you two diabetic-friendly dish topped with brief description.

 

 

 

What is Insulin?

Our body cells needs energy in order to perform all our physical tasks.  And this energy is available in form of glucose/sugar that floats freely in our blood.  But our body cells won't easily grab them or digest them.  They need some hormone to help/intake the glucose available, just like my kid, Varsha who wants food, but needs Mommy to feed her :D .  So, this mommywali help is done by Insulin, an hormone secreated by Pancreas.  Insulin helps cells to digest the glucose so that your body cells becomes active and carries on all activities.

What is Diabetes?

    Just imagine your body cells when  not enough Insulin is created, or when Insulin is not recognized by them.  The amount of glucose/sugar stays as such, and increases everytime you have your food.  This results in high level of glucose in blood or  high blood sugar.  This condition is called as Diabetes mellitus. 

Complications

So, when blood sugar increases, there is an urge for blood cells to feed/ to consume, where will they go??  Some try to utilize fat content available as energy source while some degenerate.  Such degeneration of cells throughout they body may lead to severe complications like Heart-attack, Paralysis, Dementia (loss of memory), Blurred vision, Loss of weight, Increased thirst, Frequent urination and other gastric-oriented problems like Nausea, Vomitting etc

No Direct cure

Since there is no direct cure, an diabetic patient must restore to all three preventive measures, given below.

• As key effect, degeneration of blood cells should be prevented.   Medication plays its part here and homeopathic medicines have also shown to have good remedy.

•  Alternatively, body sugar levels must also be controlled.  This is helped by physical exercise.

•  Following an diet with high-fibre, low-fat/cholestrol is also important since this disease may lead to cardio-vascular problems.

Diabetic Diet

Diabetic diet is filled with whole grains(wheat, oats, barley, maize, brown rice, millet etc), fresh fruits, vegetables.  Here, I am going to make two dishes, which are diabetic-friendly in order to highlight this event.  They are Barley vegetable soup & Barley topped fruit salad. 

Barley vegetable soup

Ingredients required are 1/2 tsp amul 'light' butter, 3-4 garlic pods sliced, 1 cup of finely chopped vegetables like  Onions, Mushrom, Carrot, Palak (spinach), 1/2 cup of Barley pearls soaked for 3-4 hours, Salt & Pepper, to taste.

Heat butter in pan, add garlic slices and sauté till they brown.  Add onions and other vegetables and sauté well.  Wash the soaked barley and add in pan. 

 

Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for single whistle. 

 

Season them with salt and pepper, serve hot!

 

 

Barley topped fruit salad

 

Ingredients required are 1/2 cup of barley, soaked for two hours, 2 cups of chopped fruits like Apple, Papaya, Kiwi, Banana, 2 orange deskinned de-seeded and separated to segments, 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds, 1 tbspn of lime juice, 1 tsp of chaat masala.

 

Wash the soaked barley seeds, cook them on stove-top with one cup of water.  As you will notice, barley will absorb water and turn soft after it gets cooked.   

 

 

In a large bowl, add chopped fruits, pomegranate seeds, barley pearls, lime juice, chaat masala.  Mix well, finally fold in orange segments. 

 

 

Serve them chilled. 

 

 

Happy cooking!!!  :)

 

 

  

 

Bisibela baath

   Bisibela baath, a two-word recitation and that dates back to my school days where my mother used to prepare on every saturdays.  Served hot with ghee, these would literally melt in my mouth. This meal, as such is heavy on ur stomach and will mesmerize your mind wanting for more!!!!!!!   Back at home, found best time to prepare, that is on sunday when my hubby (who always requested to make some) was there to support   :P  :P

     Bisibela baath, orginating from Karnataka cuisine lets out meaning like "Hot Lentil Rice" .  Here,  an array of vegetables (Brinjal, snakegourd, pumpkin, carrot, beans, drumstick etc) are cooked in dal tempered like sambhar style.  Cooked rice is mashed, added to the dal and masala comes at the end.  The much interesting part of cooking bisibela baath is its spice mix.  Since I luved my mom's, called her and got her ratios.  Tweaking a bit, I proceeded and yes !!!!!  Bisibela baath was very awesome, it got over by end of the meal!!  :)  

Carrot cake with cream,cheese icing - a birthday treat for my lovely daughter

August month is always exciting for me, yes, it has my cute pie's birthday.  From the first week itself, all the planning starts.  With tonnes of cake variety online, it gets only harder to settle for one.  Nonetheless, the carrot cake won my heart.  Not only known for its simplicity - it will impress any mother, who wants to load her child's tummy with vegetables.  So a win-win for both!
   

The day started with going to the temple, offering prayers.  Back at school, we arranged a cake cutting from a bakery nearby.   So, this carrot cake was reserved for her evening bash.  The best thing about carrot cake is that they are  made with oil, rendering their texture so soft even when consumed directly from the refrigerator.

Tangy cream cheese frosting went along well.  So, let's buckle up and enjoy the cake in making....

Ingredients required

For carrot cake

• Self-raising flour - 2 cups
• Powdered sugar - 11/2 cup
• Egg - 4
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 11/2 cup
• Shredded carrot - 3no or 21/2 cups

For cream cheese icing

• 125 gm of Cream cheese
• 125 gm of unsalted butter
• 5 tbsp powdered sugar

Method

Stir in salt to the flour.  Keep aside.  

In a separate vessel break four eggs, add powdered sugar and beat well till they are combined.

Add in oil, vanilla essence and beat again

Slowly fold in shredded carrots.

Finally,  add in flour mixture in three batches till they are well incorporated.

Pour them on a parchment paper lined 6-inch round baking pan and bake at preheated oven 180 -degree celsius till done. Cooling the cake can be done by inverting them over the wire rack for two hours.   I got four muffins and an entire cake made of 6-inch pan.  

Now prepare cream cheese icing, in a blender blend in cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Later on, add softened butter/melted butter and blend again till you get a fine paste.   This is our icing.

After the cake has been thoroughly cooled, cut into two and ice them on centre.

Close over the other half and ice the entire cake.

You can also make spiky patterns on a spoon's back.  Refrigerate them to set.  

On her Birthday, cake cutting was done and here we go, a yummy slice for you all!!  :)

HAPPY BAKING :) :)

Coco-carrot milkshake

      A sudden travel due to my father-in-law's upcoming bypass surgery rattled my world.  He was a regular walker and on top of that, an authentic vegetarian too!  Only God knows why such healthy body has to face an terrible operation!  Though  people casually say to each other, 'Come on, bypass surgery has nowadays become an common option, many do so', the pain you feel when your dear ones had to face is very infinite.  But, all thanks to Almighty, surgery went fine and he has shifted to ICU.  Will get back to my place soon after he discharges from hospital.  These times, I really feel to stick to chennai, most importantly to my family.  But, neverthless, shama had to work at hydi and varsha must school somewhere there.  She is really enjoying herself at her grandma's residance.  Playing with (cousin)brother, picking and dropping him to school, sleeping with uncle & aunty she really has an nice time here.

   And yes, coming back to our blog, you all know am an member of Potluck party, cyber style.  For july month's challenge, I was paired with Jagruti mam.  I had to redo the yummy milkshake she made.  But very sorry that I was not able to make up to the time.  So here it is coco-carrot milkshake from my part.

Schezwan fried rice

     Who doesn't like to have a fried rice?  Especially when it turns out to be an week-end and you dine out?  This would always be my first preference along with manchurian gravy.  Back at home, my mother used to prepare an excellant chicken fried rice in weekends and we used to relish it with utmost temptation!  Now, here once I tried, the outcome was not worthy :(  But I didn't give up, tried a couple of times till I got it perfectly  done.  Today I tried it with schezwan sauce and guess what?  hubby calls from his office (which he NEVER does) to inform that lunch was good!  :)  

Schezwan sauce is an hot fiery sauce originating from schezwan pepper, they are also termed as indo-chinese sauce because of the equal amount of Indian spices addition.  The sauce is very aromatic too and here I used Chings schezwan sauce easily available in grocery stores.  One might also prepare these at home.  So let us move to recipe.

Hot & Sour Corn balls

   Not long before, I watched hot and sour mutton balls cooked on a TV show.  I wanted to make them too!  Using mutton at my home is like once in a month, so I just skipped the idea of making them with mutton, instead came up with this vegetarian idea.

This dish came out very delecious and went great with roti/dosa/all sorts of bread, do try and let me know.

Vegetables in garlic sauce

   I dont know why, but recent times i have grown addicted to chinese  cooking  a lot.  Hence comes this preparation.  Personally speaking I am an garlic-luver, for I can be the only person who visits to ' THE CHUTNEYS' (Authentic vegetarian restaurent at Hyderabad which has an wide range of idly and dosa platter) and order an 'garlic dosa'   :)  :)  So this luv for garlic had even more triggered the 'chinese' part in me!

 When I read about this preparation in one of cookery books, I cannot wait to try hands on them.  But, at the sametime I was soo worried about addition of 'n' number of sauces into it.  So, I restricted them to chilli sauce alone.  Tried replacing tomato sauce with home-made tomato puree, and yes the magic worked.  The final preparation tasted entirely chinese!

Avial

      Hi guys, hope you all had an amazing weekend!!  Here I have my parent-in-laws (finally got releived from babysitting for sometime) for an vacation visit.  Had an awesome time with them :) So, as I had told you in my previous posts, am an active member of Jagruti mam's Cyber partystyle cooking (You can view more details here) For this month's challenge I had prepared handvo, and as we have party over here, I prepared Sini's Avial.  Sini had prepared excellant avial and gave handy tips to acheive great taste too!!  I really appreciate her doing this, and that gave me very ease to prepare the same.
 

   


    I  prepared avial along with hot rice and vathakulambu.  Avial was excellant with such an combo.  Avial, itself can be had with hot rice.  It was very tasty and the aroma filled my entire home :)  And yes, Sini's preparation technique and methodology was simple to acheive great product.  Finally, my husband luved it and appreciated me for making lunch much healthier.  After all this,  I did felt bad, 'why didn't I prepare this before?? What took me so longggg? '   So,  guys, this avial is gonna top my regular food timetable  :)

So, let us move to avial making

Kadaai vegetables - Hyderabadi styled

Ingredients required

• 4 tsp oil
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2 green chillies broken
• 4 tsp finely chopped mint leaves
• 1/2 cup pureed onions (which are boiled in hot water)
• 1 cup  tomato puree
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp dhanya powder
• Salt, as per taste
• 1/2 cup cauliflower florets
• 1/4 cup each of chopped beans, potato, capsicum, carrot
• 100ml of fresh cream

Thai green curry

   This is my second post to Thai curry (apart from thai red curry posted before)

Ingredients required

To make thai green paste

• 3-4 thai chilly/green chillies
• 4-5 Kaffir lime leaves
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest (yellow part forming lemon's skin)
• 1/2 cup of chopped coriander leaves
• 2-inch piece of galangal/ginger
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 cup finely sliced shallots
• 1/4 cup soy sauce

other

• 1 cup of mixed chopped vegetables like broccoli, brinjal, cabbage, carrot
• 1/2 cup of partially cooked baby potatos (pressure cooked for one whistle, deskinned)
• 4 tsp of oil
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• Salt, to taste

Mili-juli subzi

Mili-juli subzi is an combination of seasonal vegetables & Paneer cooked on milk, creamy onion-tomato gravy

Ingredients required

• One cup of quartered onions
• 2-inch ginger piece
• 6 pods of garlic
• 11/2 cup tomato puree (made from three tomatos)
• 2 tsp dry kasoori methi 
• 2 cups of mixed chopped vegetables like carrot, green peas, capsicum, Beans, baby corn, cauliflower
• 1/2 cup of boiled, de-skinned potatos, quartered
• 1/2 cup of paneer, cut into thick slices
• 1/4 cup milk/ cream
• 4 tsp butter