Masala Bhaingan

INGREDIENTS:
1 big Bhaingan.

OTHER SPICES:
11/2 tbspn coriander powder
1 tspn red chilly powder
2 tspn dry mango powder
1/4 tspn turmeric
salt as per taste.
1 tbspn oil.

METHOD:
Mix all the spices together including salt.

Mix all the spices well with your hand or a spoon.

Wash the eggplant well. Wipe it dry and cut into circular discs as shown:

Now make slits in each disc in a criss cross fashion. The slits should not be too deep.

Flip and make slits on both sides of the disc.

Open or widen the slits and add the spice powder in the slits.

Heat oil in a non stick pan.

Once the oil becomes hot put the eggplant in the pan and keep the flame on medium.

Add some oil on the top portion of each disc.

Lower the flame and cover with a lid.

After about 3-4 minutes open the lid and flip each disc.

Again add some oil on top.

Cover and let the other side cook now.

Open and check again after about 3-4 minutes.

Cook for a few more minutes if the eggplant is not done, adding a little more of oil with a spoon (so the eggplant does not look too dry) and cover with lid. Flip accordingly to make sure both sides are done well.

Masala Bhaingan is ready. You can have them with Roti or Paratha. They taste delicious. You can also top them up with a slice of tomato, cheese, finely chopped green chillies and some chopped oives with lemon squeezed on top and serve them as a starter.



Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

Home Made Paneer.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Litre of full fat/full cream milk (you can use fresh milk or UHT milk).
Juice from 1 big lemon or 2 tbspn lemon juice.

METHOD:
Boil milk.

Once the milk boils, squeeze lemon juice into it.

You will see that the milk starts to curdle. Stir and allow to boil on a medium or low flame.

Continue to boil (for approximately 8-10 minutes, stirring in between occasionally) till you see the liquid part has become clear but it may have a very slight pale yellow color.

Switch off the gas. You need to strain the cottage cheese using a strainer.

Keep a cotton handkerchief on the strainer and pour the curdled milk in it, rinsing the container in which you boiled milk with some water and pour this water so you take all the cheese that might be stuck on the utensil. Do the straining part in the wash basin or make sure you put an empty container below the strainer.

Wash the cottage cheese below running tap water. Be careful that the water should not be overflowing or else the cheese will fall out of the strainer.

After you have washed the cheese well, squeeze out the extra water as shown:

Squeeze out as much water as you can from the cheese. Your cottage cheese is ready. You can use this cheese to make dishes that will use scrambled cottage cheese as shown:

OR

If you want to make cottage cheese cubes you need to process it further.

Squeeze all the water out.

Flatten the handkerchief between your palms.

Keep it on a flat plate now.

Put another flat plate on it, basically sandwich it between 2 flat plates.

Keep something heavy on it, so the heavy weight is evenly spread on the cheese. I have placed a pressure cooker filled with water. Leave this undisturbed for about 1-2 hours.

Take the weight and the plates off. Open the handkerchief. The cheese is now 1 big circular piece.

Gently take off the handkerchief.

You can cut it into small squares now (as the cheese will be firm now).

Use the cottage cheese fresh or you can even pack it in a zip lock, freeze it and use later.

OR

You can always buy the ready pack available in most Indian stores and some super markets should have them as well. The brand names that Indian stores mostly have is Amul paneer and Kohinoor Paneer.

NUTRITIP:
Home made paneer is a good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Potassium and Selenium, and a very good source of Vitamin D, Riboflavin, Calcium and Phosphorus.

Makhani Dal and Poori

When mum made makhani dal and poori I thought her hands were magical. It was one of my favorite dishes as a child and still is. Now my little fellow Aaditya thinks my hands are magical when I make it for him. This dal is so simple to make and yet very delicious. It goes very well with poori. I'm sure you guys will love it too. So here is mum's very special recipe for you all. Mum's hands still have magic in them......

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup yellow moong dal

2-3 green chillies (depending on how spicy you like your lentil to be).
1 big piece of grated ginger.
1/4 tspn turmeric powder
Salt as per taste.
11/2 tspn oil or ghee (clarified butter)

OTHER SPICES:
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn dry mango powder
1/2 tspn red chilly powder

METHOD:
Wash the lentil well and soak in water for an hour or at least half an hour.

Boil it on a medium flame. The lentil should be completely submerged in water as you can see.

Add green chillies either slit/chopped or full.

Add grated ginger.

Add salt.

And turmeric powder.

As the lentil boils on medium flame there will be some froth forming on the surface.

Remove the froth and discard it. Stir the lentil well. Once the dal comes to a boil lower the flame and let it cook.

Stir the lentil occasionally during the boiling process to make sure the lentil is not sticking to the bottom. In about 10-12 minutes the lentil will increase in its volume and the water content will reduce as you can see below:

Add some more water about 1/2 cup, stir well and boil further it the lentil becomes soft.

Once the lentil has become soft blend it to form a smooth puree. The lentil should have a creamy thick consistency (not too thick though).

Dal is ready.

Before serving, sprinkle coriander powder generously on the dal spreading it evenly on top.

Now sprinkle red chilly powder depending on how spicy you want to make it. Some red chilly powders have a good color and are not that spicy so you can use more of the powder. It looks nice and is not too spicy either. Otherwise be careful not to add too much since we have already added green chillies in the lentil.

Add dry mango powder again generously and spread evenly on top of the lentil.

If you find it easier use your hand to sprinkle the spices evenly.

Once you have added all the 3 spices on the lentil heat oil or ghee in a small container as shown below:

Once the oil/ghee becomes hot pour it over the lentil. The spices will sizzle when you pour the hot oil on top.

Serve hot with pooris.

Now the Poori:
INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup whole wheat flour
Salt as per taste.
1 tbspn oil.
Water for kneading the flour.
Oil for deep frying.

METHOD:
Add salt in the flour.

Add 1/2 tbspn oil.

Add water little by little.

And mix with hand binding the flour together.

Keep adding the required amount of water slowly bringing all the dough together to form a ball.

The poori dough should not be too soft. The texture of poori dough is always a little hard. As you can see the dough is ready but the surface looks too dry.

Hence I have added 1/2 tbspn of oil and knead the dough a little more. Now the surface does not look dry and crumbled.

Cover the dough and keep it for 1/2 an hour.

Now make small balls from the dough. Roll between your palms to make a smooth ball.

And flatten the dough between your palms:

The small sized dough balls are ready.

Flatten further just before rolling them out.

With a rolling pin roll out to a medium size diameter poori not too thick and not too thin. You may add very little dry flour if the dough sticks during the rolling process.

Keep all pooris ready.

Heat oil on a medium flame for frying the pooris.

To check if the oil is hot enough add a very small piece of dough into the oil, if it comes sizzling up that means the oil is hot enough and now you can start frying the pooris.

The small piece of dough has come up sizzling, oil is ready now.

Add the poori gently into the oil.

Flip the poori once you see the surface bubbling up or getting small balloons.

Once you have flipped it let it puff up completely.

You may want to flip the poori once again to make sure both sides are cooked well and then drain excess oil and keep it on a paper towel.

You may want to adjust the flame and make it a little low in between the frying process if the oil gets too hot and then make it medium again, since pooris are normally fried on a medium flame.
The pooris are now ready.

For kids you can also make different poori shapes using cookie cutters or involve them in your kitchen and tell them to make the shapes. Aaditya does this bit himself and enjoys eating the shapes that he makes. I feel kids will invariably eat what they have made on their own. This is a nice way to get them to eat (if they are fussy about food) especially when you introduce something that is new to them.

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” ~Thomas Edison