Happy Birthday my Dear

     (My first attempt at frosting a cake )

 

    (From our little one to his beloved Daddy)

RedChilli-Garlic Chutney(Lashnichi Chutney)

                Fire(y) Wood  for Click -Wood at Jugalbandi

A handful of roasted peanuts (with or without skin), some red hot dry chillies, some garlic pods and salt; pound them together, not in the mixer but in a mortar and pestel; that’s it-the hot fiery chutney is ready.

Serve with Bhakri, Chapati or sprinkle on Khakras. Add a little peanut oil to the Chutney if you like before serving.

 

Gulab Jamun

I always thought making Gulab Jamuns at home will be a difficult task. Some time back I decided to give it a try since my son relishes them. Most of the recipes I browsed required Maida (all purpose flour). A friend suggested, I use Arrowroot instead of Maida. My Mom too used Arrowroot to make Gulab Jamuns when we were kids. So I decided to use arrowroot to make my first ever Gulab Jamuns (made at home).The result was fantastic; and it was a pleasure to watch my son feasting on them.

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Gulab Jamun recipe

Makes~ 25-30 Gulab Jamuns

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Ingredients

For the Gulab Jamuns

500 gms Khoya/Khawa/Mawa

75-80 gms Arrowroot powder

1 pinch baking soda

 

For the Gulab Jamuns

3 cups sugar

3 cups water

Few strands of Kesar/Saffron

2-3 drops of Rose essence

 

Other Ingredients

Ghee (preferably Cow Ghee) for frying

 

 

     Make the sugar syrup by boiling the Sugar and Water till the sugar dissolves (~7-10 minutes).

     Add saffron and rose syrup, mix nicely and keep aside. 

     Mix Khoya ,Arrowroot powder and baking soda to form a dough. Knead this dough slowly, taking care it does not stick to your hands (if it does, add a little Arrowroot powder and knead)

     Once the dough is soft and uniform, make small smooth balls from it.

     Heat the Ghee in a kadai/wok

     ‘Test’ the Ghee temperature by dropping in a pinch sized ball of the dough

     Fry the Gulab Jamuns evenly on low heat till golden brown. The ghee temperature is the key to good, well fried gulab jamuns. So you need to keep on regulating the heat.

     Add the warm gulab jamuns to the warm sugar syrup. Soak them at least 30-40 minutes before serving. (Actaully they tasted better the next day)

     Serve them warm or at room temperature

My Foodcourt – Second Innings

For a long time now My Foodcourt has been absolutely lifeless. I can’t get into the details of why it has been so passive for such a loonnnnnnng time, since the reasons are too personal. My apologies   for not responding to all those, who have been dropping comments and enquiring about me. But I assure you that it was absolutely impossible for me to respond.

I hope I am able to make up for it in this ‘Second Innings’, as I call it! I am attempting to breathe My Foodcourt back to Life. I have missed all of you and the wonderful foodblogs so much.

 Welcome back to My Foodcourt!

 

            Home made Gulab Jamuns to kickstart the ‘Second Innings’

 

Click- The Traditional Nut

 

The traditional Betel Nut all dressed up for Click: December 2007 (Nuts)

Cauliflower Curry

I am back after a long hiatus (the longest since I started blogging). A short trip to Coorg and then some unavoidable reasons kept me away from the blogoshpere. But now things are under control and I hope I am able to post regularly.

Here’s a very simple and quick Cauliflower curry to make a spicy comeback on My Foodcourt!

The addition of spices like cinnamon and pepper dominate the strong Cauliflower smell. This is one of my favourite ways to cook cauliflower hope you like it too.

 

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Cauliflower Curry recipe

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3 cups cauliflower florets

2 large onions sliced

2 medium sized tomatoes blanched and pureed

2 tsp grated dried coconut

1“cinnamon stick

4-5 peppercorns

4-5 dry red chillies

1 tsp cumene seeds

Salt as per taste

4-5 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds 

Dry roast the Cinnamon, peppercorns, red chillies and cumene. Cool and powder the spices.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the sliced onions till golden brown.

Add the dried coconut and fry for 2-3 minutes more.Cool and grind to a smooth paste. Add water if necessary.

Add the ground spices to the onion paste and spin one more time. 

Heat remaining oil in a pan.

Add mustard seeds.

Add the onion-spice paste once the mustard seeds splutter.

Fry the onion paste nicely till all the moisture evaporates.

Add the cauliflower florets ,add salt, mix nicely. Add a little water to bring it to a sauce like consistency, cover and cook till the florets become just tender.

Add the tomato puree and cook for some more time.

Serve hot with Chapati. 

Crunchy Cookies

I saw the recipe for ‘Crunchy Cookies’ on a TV cookery show. I liked the recipe since it looked quite simple, very few ingredients which I had at home, it needed only Wheat Flour and the cookies were baked for just 10 mins, in the microwave of course! So it gave me a chance to utilize my microwave for something other than just reheating.

I made them and sent them to my sweet little nieces (aged 2 and 4) in Mumbai; it’s a fantastic ‘Khau’(snack) for small kids.

These ‘Crunchy Cookies’ are also my Christmas present to Zuzana of Zlamushka’s spicy Kitchen. I know Christmas is still far away but I am sending them for her blog event ‘ A Spoonful of Christmas’!

Zuzana please accept my Christmas present!

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Crunchy Cookies recipe

makes ~ 12-14 cookies

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1 Cup Wheat Flour, sieved

¾ Cup Powdered sugar, sieved (The original recipe asked for 1 cup sugar)

½ cup Butter (cold)

1 cup crunchy Cornflakes

1 egg

Cold water if required for kneading.

 

Mix the Wheat flour and sugar.

Add cold butter. I used Amul butter. If you are using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt to it.

Rub in the butter with the Flour-sugar mixture. The mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and mix nicely.

Add a little cold water if the mixture is too dry.

Add the cornflakes and mix nicely. The mixture should be cold. If it is not cold refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes.

Grease a microwave proof dish/tray.

Drop spoonfuls of the cookie mixture onto it .

`

Bake in the combi (convection/microwave) mode for 7-8 minutes or till the cookies become crisp.

Alternatively bake them at 180^oC.

Allow cookies to cool on baking tray for 5 minutes and then remove them on the  wire rack to cool completely.  

Variation:I made 1 lot with the above recipe. To the next lot I added 2 tbsp drinking chocolate and they tasted yummy. 

        hgfehgfehgfehg

Wish you all A very Happy and Safe Diwali!

Some Diwali Treats on My Foodcourt:

Anarsa

Besan Ladoo

Coconut Barfi

Chivda

See you all on 16^th November.       

        hgfehgfehgfehg

….And Plagiarism Continues!

I never thought someone would like to steal my photos too till TBC informed me about this. J Thanks a lot TBC for informing me. Lots of hugs to you!

This is a screenshot of the Paneer Pakoda photo on My Food court:

And this is a screen shot of the stolen photo on this site:

This intelligent person does not have the comments section open; so that no one should complain about the plagiarized photos, nor did I find an Email ID through which I can ask this person to remove my stolen photo from the site.

So this is a notice to Sathy (whoever you are) to

‘Please remove the photo of Paneer pakodas from your blog immediately’.

I hope you know, you cannot steal anyone’s photos/content without that person’s permission or without giving due credits to the blog.

If you like my photo so much at least put a link back to My Foodcourt!

Tamarind rice (Pulliogre) and Raffle Prizes

This Dassera we had a delicious South Indian menu for lunch. In my house whenever we have a South Indian menu I am the one who enjoys it the most! And I just love Tamarind rice (Pulliogre) – sour and spicy.

Pongal, Sagoo, Puliogre, Engai (Brinjal curry) for the Dassera Lunch

This is my Mother-in-law’s recipe and I like it so much that I don’t make any variations to this every time I make it! The Pulli Gojju (tamarind paste), that is made for the Tamarind Rice can be made in bulk and kept in the refrigerator to make instant tamarind rice whenever you want. 

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Tamarind Rice recipe

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2 cups cooked rice

¼   cup tamarind pulp

1 tsp jaggery (adjust tamarind and jaggery to your taste) 2-3 tsp Rasam powder2 tbsp sesame seeds roasted and powdered1 tbsp peanuts½ tbsp chana dalFew curry leaves¼ tsp mustard seeds¼ tsp hing3-4 tsp oilSalt to taste 

Cook rice with salt and 1 tsp oil and cool. The grains should separate nicely.

Heat oil in a pan.

Add the mustard seeds, hing ,peanuts, chana dal, curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes.

Add the tamarind pulp, jaggery, Rasam powder and boil nicely.

Boil till the raw tamarind smell goes away (10-12 minutes), the paste becomes thick and oil separates out.Add this tamarind pulp to the rice.

Add the powdered sesame mix nicely, so that the mixture coats the rice nicely.

Serve hot or cold with Curd/yoghurt or as it is. 

 

Note: When you have the precooked tamarind pulp, just add the pulp to cooked rice and add some tempering to it with mustard seeds, hing ,peanuts, chana dal, curry leaves and then serve.

                                ™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜ 

Raffle Results: FAHC~Subscribe to Smiles: 

To see the winners of the FAHC Raffle draw Check out the results at Mahanandi.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thank you everyone for all your generous donations. 109 donors have helped us to collect $ 4,735.

Thank you to each one who supported FAHC campaign. 

Sreelu of Sreelus Tasty Travels has won the The Red Chilli subscription at www.sanjeevkapoor.com from My Foodcourt.

Sreelu checkout your mail to see your prize! You are only a few clicks away from the Red Chilli subscription!

Boondi Raita

Boondi Raita is one of the most popular Raitas (Yoghurt based salad) in Northern parts of India. Also a very popular dish in the ‘salad section’ in many wedding feasts.

This Raita is very easy to make when you have readymade Khara (salted) Boondi available at hand and it teams up very well with Parathas.

I made this quick Boondi Raita, flavoured with Mint and some other spices, over the weekend when we had some guests for dinner. 

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Boondi Raita recipe

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1 cup fresh Khari (salted) Boondi

2 cups curd/yoghurt whisked nicely, chilled.

¼ -½ cup pomegranate seeds

8-10 fresh mint leaves torn

½ tsp cumene powder

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp Red chilli powder

Salt to taste  

Whisk the curd well.

Add cumene powder, sugar, Red Chilli powder, salt, mint leaves and mix nicely.

Just before serving add the Boondi, pomegranate seeds, and mix well.

Serve immediately with parathas.                                                   

                                    hghghghghghg