LAUKI KA JUICE INDIAN RECIPE

LAUKI KA JUICE Healthy cooler - a must try! Preparation Time : 5-10 minutes Cooking Time : 5-10 minutes Servings : 4

Ingredients

Bottle gourd (lauki/doodhi), peeled , seeded, chopped 2 medium Amla (Indian gooseberry), sliced 4 Ginger, chopped 2 inch piece Fresh mint leaves 15-20 Salt to taste Black salt (kala namak) to taste Cumin seeds 1 tablespoon Lemon juice 2-3 tablespoons Ice cubes as required

Method

Put the bottle gourd, amla, ginger, mint leaves, salt, black salt and cumin seeds in a blender. Add one cup of water and blend it for two to three minutes.Add another cup of water, lemon juice, ice cubes and blend it for another two to three minutes. Strain into individual glasses and serve chilled.

ADRAK NAVRATAN Indian Recipes

ADRAK NAVRATAN A tasty digestive lemonade. Preparation Time : 5 mins Servings : 4

Ingredients

Green chillies 5-6 Tender ginger 100 grams Lemon juice 1/4 cup Salt to taste Raisins 1/2 cup Dried dates (chuhare) 10-12

Method

Peel, wash and cut ginger into julienne. Wash and pat dry raisins. Deseed and finely slice dried dates lengthwise. Remove stems, wash and cut each green chilli into two.Combine all the ingredients and pour into wide mouthed glass jar. Shake well.Serve when the juice turns pink. It makes a tasty digestive ade.

AAM KA ABSHOLA -Indian Recipe

AAM KA ABSHOLA Sweet and sour mango drink Preparation Time : 15 mins Cooking Time : 10-15 mins Servings : 4

Ingredients

Fresh mint leaves, 1 cm cubes test 6-7 sprigs Salt to taste Rock salt (sendha namak) to taste Roasted cumin powder 2 teaspoons Powdered sugar 1 cup Black peppercorns, crushed 1 teaspoon Lemons, cut into roundels 2 Raw mango 1 kilogram

Method

Place serving glasses in a refrigerator to be chilled. Boil and peel raw mangoes and extract the pulp. Keeping aside a few mint leaves for garnish, grind the rest. In a pan mix raw mango pulp, sugar, salt, rock salt and two cups of water. Cook on high heat for a minute. Add crushed peppercorns, roasted cumin powder and ground mint leaves. Stir and cook for two to three minutes.Remove from heat and pass the mixture through a sieve. Coat the rims of the chilled glasses with a piece of lemon and dab them on a bed of salt. Pour the prepared drink into the glasses. Top it with chilled soda. Garnish with the reserved mint leaves and a lemon wedge and serve chilled

Curry puffs

Easiest recipe for curry puffs. I made this yesterday for my husband as Father's day special. Ofcourse I dont make it from scratch but I use puff pastry sheets, which makes my life very easy to make these tasty puffs.

Ingredients
Pepperridge farm puff pastry sheets
very little maida or roti flour
for stuffing:
potato chopped
carrot chopped
beans chopped
batani (peas)
Garam masala - 1/2 table spoon
chat masala - 1/2 table spoon
Red chilli powder - depends on taste
Salt to taste
Jeera
Oil
Lime/lemon juice - 1 table spoon (optional)

Method of Preparation
Remove the puff pastry sheets from freezer and keep it outside for defrosting it. You can even use microwave for doing it, but I like to do it naturally rather than using microwave as it sometimes overheats it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Start by making the stuffing ready first. Take a kadai, add oil to it and let it heat.

2. Add jeera to it. Now add all the vegetables with pinch of turmeric to it.

3. Add red chilli powder, mix it and let it cook for few minutes covered on medium flame.

4. Now add garam masala, chat masala and salt to taste and mix it. once the vegetables are cooked switch off the stove. Do not overcook the curry.




5. Now the stuffing is ready lets make the puffs ready. there will be two big sheets in each puff pastry and we can make 9 puffs for each sheet. Cut the sheet into 9 by using a pizza cutter or knife.

6. Now sprinkle little maida or roti flour and make them a little bigger to stuff the curry properly using belan. Do not press harder or make the sheet thin, as it would reduce the puffiness by overpressing it.

7. Add curry to middle of the sheet and press all the sides with little water.

8. Arrange all the curry puffs in oven safe tray. Arrange them with little gap in between puffs so they have enough roof to get puffed up.

9. Bake the puffs for 20 minutes or till you see they are done by observing the color of the puffs turning slightly golden brown.





Remove the puffs from baking and serve hot with any ketchup or chutney.

My Container Garden & Eggplant Sandwich

My container garden is doing pretty good except for the two tomato plants and squash have practically overgrown the pot, but I'm going to risk it for this summer and leave them in there. Lesson for next season is to buy some bigger pots. Here are a few pictures.

Mint

Cherry Tomatoes

Cayenne Pepper

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich:

I had a roasted eggplant sandwich with sautéed spinach, roasted red peppers and provolone cheese called “Aunt Nina’s Sandwich” in a small Italian Café type place recently. Though the sandwich itself was very bland, I liked the combination of ingredients. So I tried to recreate it at home; I used Ciabatta bread and spread store-bought pesto on it and I have to say I liked my sandwich much better than the original.

Ingredients:
Eggplant – 1 medium, cut into ½” thick pieces
Spinach – 2 cups, chopped
Roasted red peppers, canned – 3 slices, cut into strips
Pesto – ¼ cup
Monterey Jack cheese – 4 slices thinly cut

Method:

• Heat a stove-top grill pan (or use outdoor grille) on medium high; Spray lightly with cooking spray and grill eggplants until grill marks are formed and the pieces are cooked through, about 4-5 minutes each side.
• Remove and keep aside.
• In the meantime sauté spinach with 1 clove garlic and season with salt & pepper. Keep aside.
• Drain and pat dry roasted red peppers; cut into thin strips.
• To assemble; spread about 1tbsp pesto on the bread halves. Arrange 3-4 eggplant pieces on the bottom half of the bread. Scatter spinach and red peppers; arrange 2 cheese slices. Cover with the top half of the bread. Press lightly and enjoy.

This sandwich is off to Priya (@ Easy n Tasty Recipes) for her AFAM-Bell Peppers Event. AFAM is the brainchild of Maheshwari. Thank you Priya for reminding me of AFAM.

Kohlrabi Greens curry

As a child I was never a picky eater and my mom never had any issues with my food. But I did have some absolute favorites (like eggplant, okra fry, potato fry, majjiga pulusu to name a few) and I also had some that I didn’t like as much. I would say to myself: “Amma, why can’t you make dosakaya pappu (cucumber dal)?? Why do you have to make this curry?” I never liked dosakaya kura, don’t know the reason.

But I loved all leafy greens no matter how they were cooked. But after coming to the US, I never found some of the greens we find in India like chukkakura, I don’t even know the English name for it. At least Indian stores in NJ are always stocked with fresh methi, bachali kura (red pohi??), thota kura (amaranth) and gongura. But since we don’t visit Indian store as frequently as a Korean/ Chinese or our local farmers markets, I started to buy any green that looked remotely close to the ones I remember from India (to be honest while in India I didn’t know the difference between spinach and methi!!!). I have been successful with some and totally disappointed with others (had to dump the whole dish in the garbage.. gross.. yucky and to top it all off-- my husband H still taunts me about that whenever I make anything green, so it was pretty bad).

My latest success is cooking with kohlrabi greens, they are mellow and don’t have any distinguishable taste, almost like chard. So I made this dish that I learnt from my SIL in Sweden (which she made with spinach). Very simple to make and tasted good too.

Ingredients:

Kohlrabi greens – 6 cups, chopped
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Green chilies – 3, slit
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Chana dal – ½ cup, soaked for ½ hour

For Popu (tadka):
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Red Chilies – 2
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Wash the greens thoroughly and finely chop them.
  
• In a pressure cooker, heat 2tsp oil; add tadka ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add garlic and sauté until fragrant and lightly browned, make sure that garlic is not burnt.
  
• Add green chilies and onions and sauté until onions turn translucent, about 6-8 minutes.
  
• Add the chopped greens, soaked chana dal, salt and 2-3 tbsp water; lock the lid and cook for 2-3 whistles. Once the pressure is down, open the lid and cook further if there is too much water or serve right away with steamed white rice.

This is my entry to Cooking for Kids: Leafy Greens event. Send in your entries before June 30th.

Maize poha chudva/chevda

This item reminds me of my childhood. My mom n dad when they go to hyderabad exhibition they used to bring the maize poha from there and then my mom used to prepare chudva out of it. It tastes crispy and nice. Try this recipe and I can guarantee you wont be disappointed by the taste. This recipe can take a little time and patience to make but tastes very good.

Ingredients
Maize poha
Oil
Peanuts
Chick pea (putnalu)
Red chilli powder
salt
citric acid (a pinch or two)
Oil



Method of preparation
1. Take a vessel and add oil to it and heat it.

2. After the oil is heated up, take a small amount of maize poha and spread it in a bowl type spatula with holes. (I shall post the picture of what I am talking soon). Lower the spatula until the poha touches the oil. Poha will get fried like papad. Remove it after it becomes papad immediately. If you feel it is hard for you to get a spatula of that kind or if you feel it is hard to do that way, you can add poha directly in the oil but make sure you remove immediately as soon as it increases. Making it stay longer in oil will make poha turn brown and black immediately.

3. After poha is prepared add peanuts and chick pea also the same way (by adding it to oil).



4. Now take maize poha, fried peanuts and chick pea in a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder with a pinch of citric acid and toss them till they mix up.

Now you have your timepass snack ready.

Note: If you are health conscious, you can even spread maize poha in a microwave safe bowl and heat it in microwave for 15-30 seconds (heat settings of microwave may be different).