You all must have eaten masala dosa...but have u ever tired masala uttappam? I ate this first time in a restaurant near my place back in Thane. It was so tasty and yummy. So anytime u have the masala filling and dosa batter why not try this than the conventional Masala dosa..:)


Ingredients :

Dosa batter
Oil for cooking
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Chaat Masala - 2 tsp


For Spicy masala

Potaoes - 5 boiled and mashed
tomato - 1 chopped
Green chillies - 3 finely chopped
Ginger - 2 tsp
Garlic - 1 tsp (optional)
Fresh corinader leaves
Mustard seeds
oil
Salt to taste
Kitchen king masala - 1tsp (optional)

Method :

Firstly we will make the masala. Now this masal is similar to the masala dosa masala preparation. U can even use the leftover masala from masala dosa to make this. Anyways, In a kadhai take some oil and put in the mustard seeds. Let it splutter and add the green chillies, garlic and ginger. Go ahead and put in the chopped tomatoes along with all the powders. Mix well. Cook till the tomato is tender and the masala is cooked. Add in the boiled mashed potatoes and add to it a cup of water. Mix well and let it cool well. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Now ur spicy masala is ready.

Assembling the Masala utthappam. Pour a big laddle full of batter on the pan and spread it to make a nice thick dosa. Sprinkle the chaat masala and chopped onions. Let it cook for 1 minute and scoop in a spoonful masala on the utthappam and flatten it. Pour oil on the sides on the dosa. Let one side cook completely well and then flip it over to cook the other side. Pour oil to the other sides too and cook well. Ur masala Utthappam is ready now to relish.

Enjoy ! Have fun.

I am from Mumbai the chaat paradise of India. I love chaat items and I am lucky that my hubby enjoys it too....actually he is good at making these chaat items too. Will surely share few of his chaat Speciality with u guys later. So As we both like Chaat we often make it and sometime its our dinner...:) Unlimited chaat hehehe :P.

Sev batata poori is something i dont make that often mainly coz i dont get those flat pooris here that easily. And If I spot them in any shop... I stock my pantry with atleast 3 packs of these pooris hehehe :P. Sev is the thin noodles kind of snack made with gram flour. U can easily get it in any India store. Batata means Potato in Mumbai local language and Poori are normally small puffed hard shells but in this case....they r flat discs like canapes.

Anyways here goes the Sev batata poori recipe.

Ingredients :

Sev batata puris (flat ones) - 1 pack

Potato boiled and mashed -2

Garbanzo beans cooked and lightly mashed - 1/3 cup (optional)

Tomato finely diced - 1 cup

Red Onions finely chopped - 1 cup

Chaat masala - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Spicy Green chutney - 1/2 cup (optional) / u can even use red chilly powder :)

Sweet tamarind Chutney - 1/2 cup

Fine Sev - 1 1/2 cup

Fresh coriander leaves - 1 cup finely chopped

Method :

For Spicy green Chutney - Grind coriander leaves, green chillies and mint leaves together. Dont put too much water. Adjust the chillies according to ur spice intake. Ur green chutney is ready.

For Sweet tamarind chutney. Take tamarind water or tamarind concentrate mixed in water and boil it. Add jaggery and boil for 20 minutes.. once the chutney becomes a bit thick ur tamarind chutney is ready.

For the potato filling - Mash the boiled potatoes and the garbanzo beans together. Add salt, red chilli powder and little chat masala and mix well. Keep aside.

Making sev puri. In a serving plate arrange the pooris. Put a spoonful of the potato filling on the puri. Top the masala with a tsp of green chutney and a tsp of sweet chutney. Sprinkle onions, tomato, fresh sev and some chat masala on each poori. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and Serve.

Ur simple and easy Chat is ready...:)

Vegan chocolate cake for a dear friend. My dear childhood friend Krithika visited me here in US for the first time and that too with her new born baby girl. The day she was going to come to my house was her birthday..:) I wanted to make something special for her....and wts better than a sweet treat. As she was coming with her mom, and granny I wanted to make something eggless.

I found this awesome Vegan chocolate cake recipe in Madhuram's blog and I was so glad. This recipe is so simple to make and can be made with the ingredients readily available at home. Cool isnt it? Here is the actual recipe. I will list down the recipe and the small changes I made in it. The icing is not vegan. I used ready made buttercream frosting and I didnt have much time I just sprinkled some colourful ice cream sprinkles on it...:P easy way to decorate :)

Ingredients :

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup

Vanila extract - 2 tsp

Canola Oil - 1/3 cup

Distilled Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Cold water - 1 cup

Method :

Preheat the oven at 375 degree F.

In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder) together. Keep aside.

In another bowl take the water and mix in all the wet ingredients to it (oil, vinegar, vanila extract). Whisk well. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well using a hand blender. Blend till a nice smooth batter is formed.

Grease a cake pan with some butter (I used wiltons cake release. Its very very good, and the cake out out so well.) Pour in this mixture into the pan and even it out. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a tooth pick outs out clean. Off the oven and leave the cake in for 5 more minutes. Dont try to remove the cake from the pan now. The cake will break / crack. Let the cake cool well in the room temperature. Leave it for an hour or so.

Run a knife along the edge of the cake to remove it from pan. turn it upside down on a plate of serving tray and pat the bottom of the pan to loosen the cake.

Now u can serve the cake hot as it is with tea or coffee.

To frost the cake, let the cake cool completely. I left it out for another hour and Sliced it into 2 layers, then wrapped it with a plastic wrap and kept it in the freezer for 1 hour. Keeping it in the freezer helps the frosting to stay on the cake well. U can slice the cake into 2 layers if u want to frost in the centre.

Once the cake is cool. I frosted it with store bought buttercream icing and decorated with ice cream sprinkles..:) My friend loved it and I was so happy to see the smile on her face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRITHIKA :)

This is one amazing Appeatiser that I have made till date. Its so simple to make and so tasty.
I wanted to make something simple and light for my dad. He is visiting us from india. I am so excited about his visit and I want him to enjoy this stay...:) I just started this and went of building this recipe according to my taste and it turned out so nice...:) I am glad I tried to experiment..:)

Anyways getting back to my eggplant...here is the recipe for the same. I have made a chinese style filling u can alter the filling according to ur taste.

Ingredients:

Italian / Chinese eggplants - 3
Low fat Cheddar Cheese - 1 cup
Pam spray

For the stuffing:

Onion / Green onions finely chopped - 1/2 cup
Bean sprouts chopped - 1/2 cup
Carrot julliened - 1/2 cup
Green Bell Pepper finely chopped - 1/2 cup (optional)*
Soya sauce - 1 1/2 tbsp
Red Chili garlic paste - 3 tbsp (reduce it if its too spicy)
Ginger - 2 tsp
Tomato Ketchup - 2 tbsp
Sugar -1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Red chilli flakes (optional)*
Sesame oil - 1tsp

It was a lousy spring evening and I was feeling so lazy. I didnt even wanna get up from the couch to open the door. Hmm somedays I do get this attck of laziness but then as we have to eat and cook I have to push myself to go to the itchen and start working...phew!.

That particular day hubby was graceful enough to offer to make some snacks for us...:DAnd he came up with this. I personally dont like frying much, but when ur getting things done for u without doing anything... the best thing is to keep quiet and enjoy hehehhe:P I am a devil na? hehehe

Anyways going to this recipe, it turned out so nice and tasty, a very good Appeatiser.

Ingredients :

Firm Tofu - 1 pack
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
All purpose four - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2tsp
Salt to taste
Pepper - 1 tsp
Kitchen king Masala - 1 tsp (optional)
Oil for frying

For Garnish:
Chaat powder
Onion slices




Method :

Open up a Tofu packet and drain out the water. Squeeze the water out of the Tofu. Wipe it with a kitchen towel to remove any excess water. Cut the Tofu in cubes and keep aside.

In a big bowl add the AP flour, corn flour, Red chilli powder, salt, pepper and kitchen king masala. U can Also add a tinge of soya sauce to it if u desire. Add very little water and make into a smooth paste. see that its not tooo watery.

Add the tofu cubes to this mix and coat all the tofu cubes with the batter. Leave aside for 5- 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a kadhai. Add the tofus to the oil and deep fry. See that the tofu doesnt stick to each other while frying. Once golden brown in colour, remove from out and drain out on kitchen towel so that all the excess oil is removed.

Now for serving. You can serve this anyway u want. I put these on a toothpick along with a piece of onion and sprinkled some chaat powder on it. Serve it hot along with some Tomato Ketchup.

U can even make chili tofu out of these or even tofu manchurian. We made chilli tofu with the leftover tofu but forgot to take any snaps :P hehhee. Enjoy this dish and have fun!

Yummy Tofu Tikka masala :D enjoy!

Who doesnt love pretzels and specially if its an Jalapeno Pretzels.... hehhe I can see all the spicy food eaters shaking their heads along with me. I was first introduced to this pizza with handle at Wetzel's Pretzel here in Los angeles. I normally cant eat jalapenos much, but when it comes to this I can keep hogging with tears running down my cheeks yet wont stop :P...hehhee. I instantly fell in love with it. From then, whenever I go for shopping I make a point to grab one of these. Its so filling and tastes so good.

I found out recently that not just Wetzel's Pretzels but almost all the pretzel centres in USA have these Jalapeno pretzels. I recently had one in Aunt Annie's. It was not as good as Wetzel's but yeah, it was Jalapenos okie :P

Did u know that soft baked pretzels r very very famous in Pennsylvania. U can find it in almost all stores and mall there? Well I didnt know but I remember seeing that in some show. Anyways now u wants to know about the origin right? Lets talk about this recipe... I combined the procedure and ingredients from 2-3 sites to get my own pretzel recipe. I got a bit confused with the yeast quantity..( I didnt see the amount of water I have to use to mix the yeast....hmmm :( and ended up with a watery dough... and then again ended up adding more flour and yeast hehhe) hence I didnt get the perfect knot on the pretzel and it looks all merged up :P

Well did u know that the calorie content in an Aunt Annie's pretzel is 310 and its very high in sodium? Thats coz they r normally fried. Hmmm yeah seeing that I felt y not trying making our favourite at home, thats way I know what I am putting into it... good or bad ;) So here is my recipe. I have used All purpose flour for this recipe... But u can make it even with wheat flour for making it more healthy...:D





Wooo can u see the baked Jalapenos on that one.... I am sure that will make u drool over this one :) Isnt it??

I somehow dont like plain pretzels. I need the cheese and the butter grease on it for me to appreciate its genuine quality... hehehhe:P Anyways here goes my recipe. I took some tips from Divya's Dil-se blog too. Thanks Divya.

Ingredients :

Active dry Yeast - 2 1/4 tsp
All pupose flour - 3 cups
(If using Wheat flour - 4 cups )
Sugar - 1 tsp +1 tsp = 2 tsp
Luke warm water (for yeast) - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Options for caramalising the pretzel..

Milk - 1/2 cup
or
Baking soda - 2 1/3 tsp &
Hot water - 1 1/2 cup
0r
Eggyolk - 1
and 1 tbsp of water
Or
Maybe some sugar solution (check the video to understand about these toppings :D)

Other toppings:

Butter - 1 tbsp
Cheddar cheese - 1 cup
Jalapeno thinly sliced - 1/2 cup
Garlic powder (optionla)
Kosher salt


Method :

In a measuring cup take 1/2 cup like warm water and add 1 tsp sugar and yeast to it and mix well. Keep aside till the yeast froths well.

In another bowl add all the dry ingredients like the flour, salt, sugar and mix well. Slowly add the yeast mixture and knead the dough for 8-9 minutes. The dough will be elastic which is okie...:) Mix well until smooth :). Add a tsp of olive oil on the dough and mix well so that the oil coats the dough well and that the dough doesnt stick to the bowl. U can even use a fresh greased bowl instead...Cover with a cling wrap and keep aside for 1 hour or so.

Preheat the oven at 450 degree F.

After 1 hour u can see that ur dough has doubled in size. Now make small tennis ball size rounds and keep aside. It will make around 11 balls. Take each ball and roll it into a long medium thickness thread and twist to form the famous pretzel shape. You can either form a knot or else u can place the ends across on each side...:) You can refer to this site for tricks for this step. You can check this video to know more about shaping the pretzels and making the colour nice and golden brown :D

Now that ur pretzels r shaped now comes the turn for the topping. Before we start with the topping we have to think how we r going to make out topping stay on oyr pretzels and also how to get that caramalised brown colour on our pretzels.

Commercially they use a product called lye which is very corrusive and as we r trying to making something healthy (before than store bought stuff) we dont wanna handle anything that damages our tissues right? So what else can we use. I have given different options in the ingredients and also the video that I shared tells u in detail what all can u use. For this recipe I have used Baking soda alone. we can combine it wil Egg yolks to make it more golden. I skipped it...:)

In a bowl take nice hot boiling water. Add baking soda to it and mix well with a spoon. Add the shaped pretzel in the water and leave it for like 30-40 seconds. Leaving it for this much time is important orelse ur pretzels wont get that golden colour...:) Take it out and place it on a lined cookie tray. Use lined tray to make it low cal... greasing is no way better right?

Now garnish ur pretzels with some kosher salt, sliced jalapenos and top it with some cheddar cheese as garnish. U can add garlic powder if u wish. Now ur pretzels r ready to be baked. Put them in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Once the pretzels become golden on top u can take them out and serve hot...:)

Hope u enjoy these pretzels.

I have tried to share as much information possible so that u can enjoy these lovely pizza with handles at home...:) Do leave ur comments and suggestions :D

Enjoy!

Ohh.... I did I forget about this one. I had posted a very touching post about how my hubby had cooked for me when I was sick and promised that I will post the recipe soon and conviniently forgot about it.... hehehe:P here is the link to that post...

Well thanks to my lovely friend Meenakshi, who reminded me about this and asked me to post the recipe, I am going to complete this ode to my sweet hubby....) who took such good care of me... when I needed him the most...:) Love u Sweetheart !

So here goes the recipe.


Ingredients :

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Tomato Puree - 1 can or Fresh tomatoes - 5 medium finely chopped
Roasted salted Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Onions fiely chopped - 1
Jeera - 1 tsp
Ginger, finely chopped - 2 tsp
Green chillies - 5 slit lenghtwise
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 2 tsp
Fresh corinader leaves
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt and Pepper to taste
Lemon juice
Oil - 3 tsp

Method :

In a kadhai take oil. Once the oil is hot add the jeera, once that splutters add the green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and peanuts. Stir for a minute and add the onions and turmeric powder. Stir fry till the onions r transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they r tender. Add the garam masala and coriander powder and stir fry. At this time u can go ahead and add the asafoetida, salt and pepper. Stir fry till all the water is almost gone.

Add the rice to this mixture and stir fry for sometime. If u feel the mixture is too tight add a spoonful of oil and mix again. see that the rice is roasted a bit..:) Keep stirring so that the rice doesnt burn. Now u can put 2 cups of water to this and close with a lid and let it cook on medium low flame orelse u can just empty all this into a rice cooker (if putting in the rice cooker add a tsp of lemon juice to this. The lemon juice helps the rice to remian seperate) and let it look. Hubby did the later as its much easier. U can do either.... both the ways it will taste good..:)

Once the rice is cook but yet not mashed up, remove from flame. garnish with fresh corinader leaves and lemon juice. Mix well and serve hot with raita.:)

ENJOY!

We both love lasagna but I somehow never attemped to make it at home, maybe coz I somehow cant just have lasagna for my meal. hehehh Yeah I know its funny but thats the main reason. I have seen that lasagna is easy to make but yields a large quantity at a time. As I didnt wanna have just lasgna for dinner I was thinking how I can minimize the bulk quntity that a original lasagna recipe produces...:P. And Tada...! I landed up with this recipe...:D

I remember seeing some recipe like this in the new menu of Olive garden.We were almost tempted to order it and then we realised it has beef in it and stopped ourselves...:P It happens so often with vegetarians that u love the picture on the menu and r so tempted to try and then all ur desires r dampened by the waiter who informs u that all this time u were actually drolling or a chicken/ deef or any other meat dish... hmmmm. Thats what literally happened with us that day....:(

I thought y not try it out at home in our own vegetable version...:D So here we present to u - Vegetable Lasagna Rolls :P - Nothing non-veggie about it ;) hehehe ) . Hope u try it ad enjoy it as much we did....:) This makes a very very good appeatiser too and yet is so filling :D


Ingredients :

Lasagna sheets - 15
Spinach frozen - 2 cup (thawed and water squeezed out)
Shredded parmesan Cheese - 2 tbsp
Sweet corn kernels - 1 tbsp
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Garlic cloves - 4 finely chopped
Ricotta Cheese - 3/4 cup
Chopped mushroom - 1 cup
Dried / fresh oregano - 3 tsp
Dried / fresh Basil - 2 tsp
Mozerella cheese shredded or sheets - 1 cup
Salt & Pepper - according to taste
Store bought Prego sauce / marinara sauce - 4 cups


Method :

Preheat the oven to 450 degree F.

Boil the water in a big vessel. Add salt and oil to the water. Now add the lasgna sheets. See that u use fresh and good quality lasagna sheet as old sheets will break into pieces when ur trying to roll it.

Firstly make the filling as u have to work fast once the noodles is done. Orelse u can work simultaneously when the noodle is cooking.
In a big bowl add the ricotta cheese and cream it well. Add the thawed spinach, garlic,mushrooms, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and mix well. Finally add the parmesan cheese and corn kernels and mix well. Keep aside.

Cook the Noodles until its tender enough to roll yet firm to bite. Drain the water and arrange the noodles seperately on a foil sheet, so that it doesnt stick together.

Grease a 13X9 inch glass baking dish with olive oil. U can use any glass baking dish..but I prefer this one..:). Pour 1 cup of prego sauce and spread it evenly on the baking dish.

Work on 4 noodles at a time on a flat surface. Spread 3 tablespoon full of the cheese and spinach filling evenly on each lasagna sheet. Starting at one end roll each noodle like a jelly roll. Now lay the roll on the Baking dish, seam side down. Roll all the noodles this way and arrnage them in the baking dish. See that the rolls dont touch each other. Pour 2 cups of prego sauce evely on top of the rolls. Garnish with pepper, mozerella sauce and some oregano which is optional. Cover the dish tightly with an aluminium foil and bake for about 20 minutes until the sauce bubbles a bit.

Uncover the baking dish and bake again for 15 minutes or till the cheese on top becomes golden brown in colour. Off the oven and let the lasagna stay in for 10 minutes. Serve hot with the left over prego / marinara sauce.


Variation : I didnt use the mozarella cheese for the topping / garnish as I was trying to reduce the intake of cheese. Instead I topped each roll with a blob of feta cheese... which was okay in taste.:)




Hope u enjoy making these lasagna rolls as much as I did...:) Its a real confort food and I no more get overwhelmed buy this Lasagna...:P

ENJOY!!