Pumpkin Parathas with Garlic Butter

 We all know how Suhaina's Garlic rolls has won the heart of lots of all bloggers, whoever tries it for the first time will definitely fall in love with it.  The aroma released from the garlicky butter while baking is simply irresistible.  Baking home made breads and working with yeast has become something very normal and usual in these days, thanks to bloggers, cookbooks and TV shows.
  Still if you are a learner or beginner in cooking and you are not so familiar in using yeast, yet you are tempted to make garlic butter, then this is the recipe for you.  I'm not comparing these with garlic roll, since that's the best, but still this can satisfy your  garlic rolls craving in the form of soft parathas.  In normal parathas you apply plain butter or oil in the middle of the dough, in this we have replaced the plain butter with this aromatic garlic butter.  Hope enjoy making this at home.

Makes 18 to 20 parathas
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
Wheat flour- 2 cups
Pumpkin puree- 1/2 cup
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Oil- 2 tsp
Water just enough to make a smooth dough

For the filling: ( Mix together all the ingredients to make the filling )
Butter- 2 tbsp ( at room temperature )
Grated garlic- 3 tsp
Dried Italian Herbs- 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Note:
Dried Italian herbs can also be replaced with finely chopped fresh coriander and mint leaves.

Method:
 Mix together flour and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the middle, add oil, pumpkin puree and enough water to make a smooth dough.  Cover the dough with a cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Divide the dough into 18 to 20 equal rounds.  Flatten the dough slightly, apply garlic butter in the middle.  Cover the dough and make it into a round again.  Flatten the dough into 8 to 10 cm diameter.  Repeat the same process with the remaining dough.  Heat a tawa, place one paratha in the middle, when you see small bubble on top, turn it other side, apple little oil or ghee.  After a minute turn it to other side, apple some more ghee.  Remove it from the tawa and serve it immediately.  Serve the parathas warm with some spicy curries.  These parathas are at it's best while they are still warm.

To make pumpkin puree:
Peel and chop the pumpkin.  Stem it in a steamer for about 10 minutes, puree it in a blender without adding any water.

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Rava Peas Tikki

Just like all mums, I too have the same worries every day night before going to bed, what lunch / snack I'm going to pack for kid.  As a mum our responsibility doesn't end  just  by packing the food, it's also our responsibility to make sure that he / she likes it and enjoys the food.

Each and every kid is unique and they have different taste buds, only a mum will know what her child needs.  So here is a simple dish which I adapted from Tarldala's Cookbook ( Cooking for kids ).  It's a very simple, nutritious and very easy to make i.e. , you can pack it very easily for your kids even on a busy weekday morning.  According to your kids taste you can vary few flavours or the vegetables like instead of peas, you can also add corn, carrot or even broccoli.


Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Ingredients:
For the Outer Layer:
Rava / Semolina - 1/2 cup
Water- 1 cup
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Oil- 1 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp

For the filling: ( Mix all the filling ingredients together )
Boiled and crushed peas- 1/2 cup
Chaat masala- 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil  for frying

Method:
Prepare the outer layer :
Heat the water along with the salt in a pan.  When water starts boiling add the rava little by little and keep stirring continuously.  Add turmeric and stir until it comes together like a dough.  Take it off from heat, add about a teaspoon of oil.  Cover it and leave the dough for about 5 minutes.
Divide the dough in to 8 equal rounds and divide the filling into 8 equal rounds. Apply oil to your hand and  flatten the dough in the middle of your palms. Place the filling in the middle and cover it without any cracks and flatten it again slightly.  Heat the oil in a pan and fry the tikki's in medium heat until they look light brown in colour.  Serve it warm with tomato ketchup .  To pack in a lunch box, let it cool down for a while, wrap it in aluminium foil and pack tightly in a lunch box.

Sending this to Cooking With Seeds- Peas, Snacks Mela, Kid's Delight- Colour Palette hosted by Veg junction originally started by Srivalli

 

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Paal Paniyaram for Bonjour

This post is exclusively for bonjour series by Jabeen's Corner.  By this time most of us should be familiar with Jabeen's Bonjour series.  I feel very happy to be part of this great series.

When Jabeen asked me to make my signature dish, the first thing which came to my mind was Chocolate Fudge Cake, this cake has never let me down, but the next thing again which came to my mind was I have to buy cream, also my little one ho loves this cake is not well at the moment.  I really didn't want to make it when she can't have this, so I asked my husband to give me suggestion, well he suggested this paal paniyaram.  I have made this only a very few times and every time it's a big hit.

Paal paniyaram is a traditional Chettinad recipe.  Chettinad Cuisine is well known for their spicy, aromatic flavours.  It is also known for this special recipes like paniyaram, idiyappam, murukku etc.  Traditional recipe suggest to use raw rice and urad dhal to make a thick batter, which is then fermented and made as paniyaram.  I have used only idli batter in this recipe, which I found it quite easy method and much more soft paniyarams.  Since idli batter is readily available in most of the South Indian's home I thought this would be better option.  Also these paniyarams gets soaked quickly and you don't have to put them in hot water before soaking in milk.  This has won the heart of my family members, hope it'll win yours too.

Ingredients:
Idli batter- 250 ml ( recipe follows )
Milk- 500 ml
Coconut milk- 250 ml
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Sugar- 75 g
Oil for frying

Method:
Heat the oil in a kadai for deep frying.  Drop small spoonful of idli batter in the hot oil.  Fry them until they look very light brown in colour.  Take it out from the oil and drain it in kitchen towel.  Heat the milk in a pan  for about 5 to 10 minutes.  Add the sugar and stir well.  Finally add the coconut milk and cardamom powder and take it off from heat. Add the paniyaram in the hot milk, let it soak for about 10 minutes and serve it immediately.

Note:
You can vary amount of sugar according to your taste.  Also if your batter is too thin, you can add some rice flour and mix well.  Make sure you don't add too much rice flour which will harden the  paniyaram and it never gets soaked well.
In case if you find that your dumplings are too hard, you can immerse them in hot water for 5 minutes and then soak it in milk. 

Idli Batter:

Parboiled rice-  3 cups
Urad dhal- 1 cup

Soak urad dhal and rice separately.  Grind them separately to a smooth batter.  Then combine both the batter, mix it along with salt and let it ferment over night.  Once fermented use it according to the recipe.
This proportion will yield about 3 to 4 litres of batter.

Linking this to White Christmas Challenge,  Yummy Desserts for New year, Sinful delights, Jingle All The Way- Edible entertainment, SYF and HWS series- Cardamom

 

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Bibingka or Rice flour Cake For Sweet Punch December 2011

Bibingka is a Filipino dessert which is baked with glutinous rice, rice flour, cheese and salted eggs.  Actually I was supposed to make this for Daring Baker's last month, which I skipped it since I couldn't find glutinous rice, next I found it quite peculiar using whole salted eggs for dessert.

We use eggs almost for most of our puddings and mousse, which is normally whipped up and get blended but this one is baked with whole salted eggs in the middle.  After skipping the process of using salted eggs and glutinous rice, I found this cake  as a very familiar taste to me, it was very much like a rice flour paniyaram which my mom used to make, except that this is been baked.  Anyways I loved this cake a lot, a best option for gluten free cake, so this recipe is my submission for Sweet Punch.  Oh! Yes, I forget to say, this month Sweet punch team has left to our choice to bake anything of our choice.  Hope you enjoy baking this cake in your home.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time:  30 minutes
Makes 4

Ingredients:
Rice flour-  150 g
Eggs- 2
Sugar- 75 g
Coconut milk- 60 ml
Butter- 3 tbsp ( melted )
Baking powder- 2 tsp
Cardamom powder- 1 tsp
Fresh grated coconut- 2 tbsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Mix together rice flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.  Beat in the eggs, cardamom powder and  coconut milk into the rice flour mixture.  Finally add the melted butter into the rice flour mixture.  Grease and line four ramekins.  Pour the mixture equally into the ramekins and  sprinkle the grated coconut on top of it.  Bake it in the preheated oven  for 30 to 40 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.  Take it out from the oven, cool it in the wire rack for about 5 minutes.  Remove it from the ramekins and serve it while they are still warm.
Sending this to Cook, Eat Delicious Dessert- Coconut hosted by Raksha's Kitchen originally started by Raven  , Let's Cook- Baked Goodies, Cooking Concepts- Holiday Baking, A 100 Day Global Food Festival, SYF and HWS Series- Cardamom,  Jingle All The Way,  Christmas Delicacy, Sinful Delights and Bake Fest 

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Beans Poriyal

This time I'm not going to say, I'm back after a long time, held up with this or that and so on.  Since this has become my usual routine these days.  Anyways today I have come up with a very simple version of poriyal.
  In my earlier days of cooking, I consider even this poriyal as something special, for me poriyal used to be very simple stir fry, with only vegetables, salt and turmeric powder.  Poriyal has to meet  the purpose of intake of vegetables in your regular diet, that's it for me.  I never cared about adding any extra touch or flavours to it, which was more than enough for me and my husband.

  But when I cook for others, the poriyal has to meet a few criteria, like proper seasoning with dried chillies, curry leaves etc.. also it has have few extra additions like grated coconut, moong dhal etc.  I have seen so many people making so many different version of poriyal, each one is unique and delicious.  Sometimes I even used to think, why we shouldn't have cooking as simple as just steaming , roasting with less spices or without any spices.   Our great great ...  ancestors  lived with those food, they were happy and stayed much healthier as well.  When cooking got complicated with lots of innovative techniques, our taste buds also went complicated, seeking for more flavours, sometimes which may also lead into lots of problem like wastage of food in some star restaurants to meet their high quality or even some minor problems in family with flavours or varieties etc...  No no, please don't lead your thinking that is there any problem with my family, this is just general discussion about what happens around in most of the family.  Okey let's move on to our recipe now.

Preparation time:  10 minutes
Cooking Time:  15- 20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Beans- 250 gm
Yellow split moong dhal- 1 tbsp
Fresh grated coconut- 1 tbsp
Onion- 1 small sized ( finely chopped )
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil or sunflower oil- 1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Seasoning:
Dried red chilly- 2
Curry leaves- 5 to 6
Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
Urad dhal- 1/4 tsp

Method:
Chop the beans finely and steam it in a steamer for 5 minutes.  This will help your beans stay in shape and colour when you are cooking.  Soak the moong dhal for about  30 minutes.  Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and urad dhal, once the seeds start spluttering, add dried chillies and curry leaves.  Stir for about a minute.  Now add the finely chopped onions ans saute well until it looks transparent.  Now add the grated coconut , moong dhal, turmeric and salt.  Stir it for about two to 3 minutes until coconut gets light brown in colour.  Finally add the beans and stir well.  Cover the kadai with a lid and cook it for further 5 minutes until the beans look cooked well.  Serve it warm with steamed plain rice, rasam and papad.

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Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

Time surely flies, isn't ?  Almost each and everybody will say this, I have no time, I have done nothing, OMG! time just flies.  In the last few weeks or may be last few months I have been lagging a lot in blogging and I have a lot lot to catch up.
I couldn't keep up the schedules promptly and post recipes on time.  My apologies for having Any One Can Cook on hold for long time now.  I promise that it'll be surely on next week no matter whatever the situation.

Today I'm going to post Beetroot chocolate brownies.  This is been on my drafts for a long time now, so decided to go ahead today.  This recipe is adapted from Chef in You, I don't think anybody needs introduction about Chef in you, even if you are beginner in cooking, when you follow her recipes you'll be a great cook.  Do check out her site for all yummy recipes with easy instructions.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Makes 15 to 16 squares

Ingredients:
2 medium sized beetroots
Flour- 100 g
Butter- 100 g
Sugar- 150 g
Egg whites- 3
Cocoa powder- 3 tbsp
Dark chocolate chips- 75 g
Walnuts- 10 to 12 ( optional )
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Method:
Peel and wash  the beetroots.  Chop the beetroots into cubes and steam it for 10 to 15 minutes until they become soft.  Puree the cooked beetroot in a blender without adding any water.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Beat together butter and sugar, until it looks creamy.  Beat it in the eggs one by one until it looks fluffy.  Add the beetroot puree and mix it to combine.  Sift together flour and cocoa powder in a large bowl.  Fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture.  Finally fold in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.  Grease and line a 9 inch square cake tin.  Pour the mixture into the  prepared tin and bake it in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Take it out from the oven, leave it cool down in the tray and cut into squares.  Once cooled completely, store it in a air tight container.

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Qubuli Uzbaki ( Afghani Style Mutton Pulav )

It's time for Blog Hop Wednesdays again.  Actually I'm lagging behind now, since I missed last blog hop, this week I have decided to complete my pending work and then continue with current work.
  Last time I was paired with Shireen of Ruchik Randhap, after going through her lovely blog , my eyes got struck to her tempting non veg recipes.  I'm just posting one recipe for this blog hop, but I have bookmarked a lot from her blog.  Do visit her blog to check all her yummy recipes.

Recipe Source: Ruchik Randhap
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Basmathi Rice- 2 cups
Mutton - 2 cups
Ginger garlic paste- 2 tsp
Garam masala- 1 1/2 tsp
Carrots- 2 medium sized ( julienne cut )
Onion- 1 medium sized ( sliced )
Raisins- 20 g
Almonds- 20 g
Pistas- 20 g
Mutton Stock- 3 cups
Coriander and mint leaves- 2 tbsp ( chopped )
Pinch of saffron soaked in warm milk
Salt to taste
Oil for frying and cooking

Method:
Wash the mutton well.  Add oil to the pan, then add the sliced onions and ginger garlic paste and fry until lightly golden in colour.  Now add the washed mutton pieces and stir well.  Cover the pan and cook it for 5 to 10 minutes until the water oozes out from the mutton.  Now add the garam masala, coriander leaves, mint leaves and salt.  Cover the pan and pressure cook upto 3 to 4 whistles or until the mutton looks tender.
Now take another pan, fry the carrots and nuts separately in little oil and keep it aside.
Soak the rice in water with little salt for about ten 10 minutes.  Now take a heavy bottomed pan, layer it with half of the mutton pieces, now top it with rice, continue layering with carrots and nuts.  Repeat this layers alternatively until everything is done.  Pour the saffron milk, stock and 1 cup of water.  Add enough salt to taste.  Cover the lid and cook it in medium to low heat until the rice looks well cooked and fluffy.
Serve it warm with raita and gravy.

This post is linked with Royal Feast- Biryani and  Blog Hop Wednesdays.

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Povitica- Daring Baker's Challenge for October 2011

Hi All,  I'm back after a very long time, I can imagine what's going on when you are reading this, where did you disappear suddenly..  Well, I have some reasonable reasons for not being blogging in the past few weeks, something which is more important than blogging.
Anyways I'm back with Daring Baker's Challenge.  I would have skipped this month if I had an opportunity, but I have missed quite lots of challenges in this year, so was determined to complete this one.

This time we were challenged by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk to make Povitica.  Povitica which is pronounced as po-va - teet - sa, is a traditional Eastern European Bread which is served during holidays.  It's also known as  Nutroll, Kalachi etc.. As I said Nutroll, just as the name suggests, this soft layered bread is filled with layers of sweet and delicious nut filling.  The actual recipe suggests walnuts, you can use your creativity to play with different filling which is sweet or savoury.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
All purpose flour- 300 g
Egg- 1/2 beaten
Dried Yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Oil- 1/2 tbsp
Warm milk- 120 ml
Salt- 1 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp

For the filling:
Walnuts - 100 g
Butter- 1 tbsp
Milk- 3 tbsp
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Cocoa powder- 2 tsp
Egg- 1/2 beaten
Cinnamon powder- 1/4 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp

For the topping:
Chocolate- 100 g
Walnuts - 5 to 6 chopped finely

Method:
Prepare the dough:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix it well, add the sugar and yeast, mix it together.  Make a well in the center, add the oil, beaten egg and warm milk.  Beat it together with a electric beater fitted with a dough hook, until the dough comes together.  Knead the dough in a floured surface for about 5 minutes.  Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl, cover with a cling film and let it sit in a warm place until it doubles in size.

Prepare the filling:
Powder the walnuts in a blender.  Mix together the powdered nuts, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl. Heat the milk and butter together, until the butter gets melted completely.  Pour the hot liquid into the nut mixture and mix it together.  Quickly beat the beaten egg into the mixture and allow it to sit in room temperature, until it reaches spreadable consistency. 

Start preparing the loaf:
Take the risen dough, knock the air back.  Dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough as thin as possible.  Spread the dough with the nut mixture and start rolling the dough like a Swiss roll.  Grease a 2 lb loaf tin and place the roll inside the tin.  Cover and loosely with a foil and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake the loaf in preheated oven for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 170 degree Celsius and bake it for further 30 to 40 minutes, until the top of the loaf look brown in colour.  Take it out from the oven and allow it to cool in the wire rack.
Once the bread is cooled down, pour the melted chocolate on top of the bread and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top.  This bread would be great as a dessert or even with a hot cup of coffee.

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Vazhaipoo Usili for Blog Hop Wednesday

Phew! It's time for blog hopping again, I just can't believe how time flies.  I know almost everybody says this, how quick the time goes, even little kids at the age of 2 and 3 are saying, Oh! I'm busy, don't disturb me.  Whatever I talk to them, come back to me at some point .  Feel like so much to be done in very little time.

Anyways this week for blog hopping, I hopped over to Schmetterling Words.  I love her recipes and I was lucky to taste her food when we were in Germany.  This is a recipe which I have been waiting for a long time to try it from her blog.

Just a short explanation about this recipe,  Vazhaipoo is nothing but Banana flower.   Vazhaipoo Usili is made with banana flower and ground lentils with a blend of spices.  This can be served along with rice, rasam or dhal.  I found this recipe very delicious just like soft and crumbled lentil vadas.  Hope you enjoy making this recipe at home.

Preparation Time:  20 minutes
Cooking Time:  20 minutes
Serves :  2 to 3

Ingredients:
Vazhaipoo/ Banana Flower- 1
Toor dhal- 1/2 cup
Dried red chillies- 4
Fennel seeds-  2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 5 to 10 leaves
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Onion- 1 medium sized ( finely chopped )
Oil- 1/2 tbsp
Salt- To taste

Method:
Soak the toor dhal in water for 1 hour.  Then grind it into a coarse paste along with two red chillies and 1 tsp of fennel seeds.
Start preparing the banana flower,  peel the banana flower completely until you get a white part which is found inside.  Chop the top part like a stem.  Now chop the top part which contains small florets.  Chop finely the remaining  white part, and immerse it in a thin buttermilk to avoid discolouration. 
Mix the chopped  vazhaipoo , salt and  ground toor dhal.  Steam the mixture in a steamer or idli plates for 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, dried red chillies, fennel and curry leaves.  Add the chopped onions and saute until it looks soft. Add turmeric  powder and mix it well.   Finally add the steamed mixture and keep stirring continously without sticking at the bottom.  Keep stirring for about 10 minutes until the mixture looks well cooked and dry.
Serve it warm along with steamed rice, rasam or dhal.

This recipe is linked with Blog Hop Wednesday, also sending it to Kerala Kitchen Event and ABC series: Bfor Banana

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Any One Can Cook: Series36

Hello Foodies,

Hope you all had a great weekend.  We had some excellent entries last week, my big thanks to all dear food bloggers who managed to link your entries for the event.  Here are the three selected  recipes from last week series
Chocolate Ladoo by Dee's Kitchen

Chatpate Makhane by Indulge- ashscorner

Cupcakes - My way by Crumpled Chillies

If you are a new reader to this blog, to read the details about the event click here.  If you would like to get featured in this event, all you need to do is just link your recipes which are easy to make.  If you find any trouble in linking your recipes, just mail me your recipe link to ayeesha.riaz@googlemail.com

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Beetroot Halwa Tarts for Sweetpunch October 2011

This month for Sweet punch,  we have sweet little Jam tarts from  Ria's Collections.  The first thing which came to my mind was whether I'm going to use store bought jam with loads of sugar or something home made.

Initially I had the idea of making mixed fruit jam which my mom used to make, which is still with lots of sugar.  Not sure whether it'll work with brown sugar or demerara sugar.  Finally made up my mind with beetroots.  After searching through lots of recipes in net, I was afraid that  I'm not going to get jam consistency without jam sugar. 

So I made just the way how we normally make beetroot halwas and replaced white sugar with demerara sugar and of course all purpose flour with whole wheat atta .   If you are wondering why do I have to replace white sugar and all purpose flour, you can read the reasons from here and here.

  Now about the tarts, the pastry was just amazing, it had a perfect texture and the beetroot halwa worked well with it.  My kids loved this and I enjoyed baking this.  If you would like to start baking with us in Sweet punch, click here.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 12 to 15 minutes
Makes 12 tarts

Ingredients:
Whole wheat atta / All purpose flour- 200 g
Cold butter from refrigerator- 100 g
Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt- a pinch
Cold water- 4 or 5 tsp
Beetroot halwa- 12 tsp ( recipe follows )

Method:
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Chop the butter into small pieces and rub with the flour gently until it looks like fine bread crumbs.  Add a splash of cold water and bring the dough together.  Don't add too much water or knead the dough, it'll ruin the pastry completely.

  Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.  Roll the dough in the middle of two baking parchment paper.  Make small rounds using a cookie cutter.  Place the small circles in the tart tin and push it in gently on the sides.  Drop a level teaspoon of beetroot halwa inside the tart cases, if you want you can cut the remaining dough in star shapes and place it in the middle of the tart.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.  Leave it in the wire rack to cool, then serve immediately or store it in a air tight container.

Beetroot Halwa:
Beetroot- 2 small sized, peeled and grated finely
Demerara sugar- 75 g
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Ghee- 5 tsp

Add the grated beetroot and  1/2 cup of water in a heavy bottomed kadai and cook until all the water evaporates.  Keep stirring in the middle to avoid burning at the bottom.  Now add the sugar and keep stirring continuously, when it looks like a semi solid.  Finally add the ghee and cardamom powder, stir well until it incorporates into the halwa.  Take it off from heat.  Allow it cool down and use it for the recipe.






 

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