Peanuts and some Fashion

I have always been a fan of all the dried snacks which can be made and stored for several weeks. I like them for the fact that I feel less guilty munching on them than the store bought. They are most handy on festivals, when you have guests coming on and off. One of such thing I made for the guests visiting at my place was Besan ki Mungfali.

Besan ki Mungfali.

Ingredients:

200 gm Mungfali / Peanuts
250 gm Besan / Gramflour
2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Dried Mango Powder
Oil to Deep Fry
Salt to taste

For Masala:
1 T Oil
2 tsp Red Chilli POwder
1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
2 tsp Chaat Masala
1 tsp Dried Mango Powder

Wash the Peanuts under running water in a colander. Remove it onto a plate and sprinkle 2-3 T Besan on it and mix using a spoon. Once done sprinkle some more Besan and little water, enough only to coat the Besan over the peanuts. Extra water will make the peanuts stick to each other, that is not desired. Repeat it till all the Besan is used.

In a wok heat the oil and drop the Besan coated Peanuts in the oil using a Spatula. Fry till golden brown. Remove on a paper towel.

To spice it further, heat 1 T Oil in a wok, add all the masalas and add the fried Mungfalis. Roast till all the masala has been coated on the Peanuts. Store it in an airtight container once cooled.



Yesterday I caught on Fashion. Though the movie was realeased over Diwali...but this is not your typical Diwali movie. Probably Golmaal would have been my choice too for a Diwali movie, only if it wasn't for some of the crap movies I have been watching lately. As I was sure that Fashion would have some content while Golmaal Returns (Sequel to Golamaal) could go eitherways, though I had loved Golmaaal.

Fashion does show some of the truths behind the Ramp, but doesnt reveal as much s Page 3 had. The ones that are shown are the ones viewer is already aware of, is the biggest weakness of Fashion. This is out and out Pryanka Chopra's film. She narrates her story from an ordinary girl to a Supermodel. Priyanka shines like never before. After 6 flops ths one is a breather . This is got to be her best performance till date.

One of the best thing about this movie is the wondeful supporting cast. Everybody leaves you spell bound. Mugdha Godse is terrific in her first movie. Kangana is wonderful, but we have seen her do the same thing over and over again, I would really like her to do something different now. The surprise packge is Arbaaz khan, he fits to the T in a serious role. Kitu Gidwani is very good in her role.

Problem with Fashion is its length...nearly 3 hours long gets on to you when the movie is quite predictable. Fashion doesnt reveal as much as Madhur's film promise to. Its still definitely a good watch.

Moong Ke Mangode

Rain Gods have smiled over Chennai and its raining, raining hard. A li'l rain itself can flood many parts of Chennai, and this is heavy rains I am speaking of. The main road in front of my office was below knee length water and getting out of the place seemed like a herculean task. The Times of India symbolized this beautifully in their next day’s edition:


One thing Chennai's rain always does, even if it rains for a couple of hours, confine you to the place you are at, coz of the flooding that happens. To make the most of it, I normally setup the chairs in the balcony and plant myself with a plate of something fried and a hot cup of tea. It was Mangode made with Green moong we relished this time with some green chutney.

Mangode

Ingredients:
150 gm Whole Green Moong
3 Potatoes
2 Green chillies
2 tsp Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Soak the Moong for 4-5 hours and grind to a thick paste along with a green chilli. Add salt, red chili powder and finely chopped green chilli to it. Mix well. Peel and dice the potatoes separately into cubes.


In a wok heat the oil. Add the potatoes to the Moong paste and mix well. When the oil is hot enough for frying, with your hands or with a spoon, drop little by little of this mix into the oil. Fry till brown. Enjoy this with green chutney.


They are a good combination between bread slices with some chutney and salted curd sprinkled on them.



I am sending this to FIC: BROWN event hosted by SunshineMom of Tongue Ticklers



Looking out for something more to relish in monsoons:
Onion Pakodas
Paneer Tikka Sandwich
Bread Upma

Playing the guessing game

In my last post I had asked you'll to play a guessing game with me. A few of you did come close. I will come to that a li'l later.

Serving your guest with something they, in most probability, must have not had before, are going to love it and is still so simple to make...clicks with me. Works well even as an evening snack or when served in breakfast.

It is one snack whenever made for any of the guests, they have almost instantly asked for the recipe, men included! The men have always said that they would go back and try it at their home. How much of that really happened...I don't know :)

The dish looks like Idli...is called Idli..but definitely is not one.

This recipe is called DAHI IDLI / BREAD IDLI.

Ingredients:
10 Sandwich slices
2 Potatoes Boiled
8 T Curd
1 T Oil
1 t Mustard seeds
½ t Red Chilly powder
Salt to taste
Coriander finely chopped to Garnish

Add the chilli powder and salt to the boiled potatoes and mash it.

Add salt to the curd and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan (or a smaller utensil used for Tadka) and add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter and take off the stove.


To cut a slice into round you would require something circular which when placed over a slice will cover only the soft of the slice and not the edges. I normally use a glass or a sharp bowl for it.

On a cutting board place a slice of the bread and cut into circular using a glass, making sure edges are left behind. Similarly cut all the other slices


Apply a layer of potato mix on one side of the slice.


Heat the tawa and sprinkle few drops of oil. Place 2 potato covered slices at the center of the tawa, with their potato side down. Apply a generous coat of the Curd, making sure it doesn’t drip around.


This now needs to be covered with a lid making sure the lid doesn’t touch the bread. I use my pan lid for it.

After approx a min take off the lid and sprinkle ½ tsp of mustard oil mix over each bread and cover again. Cook till the potato layer is lightly roasted. Take it of the tawa and sprinkle some coriander leaves on it.


Serve hot with green chutney or tomato ketchup.

Now for the guessing part...there were a couple who guessed the ingredient, Curd, correct and the others guessed it as Idli. While Sripriya came closest with her Bread Idli guess!

Chilli Cheese Toast

GOSH! Don’t remember when was the last time I logged into my blog! Last 10 days have been so hectic. What when you have every possible thing turning up, keeping you extremely busy, except the maid. With the visiting guests...extra work load in office and in the middle of all this the Maid doesn’t turn up for one entire week, without any notice :(

Not as if I kept busy 24 hours a day...In whatever little time I got, I have been reading ‘The Three Mistakes of my Life’ by Chetan Bhagat.

The maid turned up yesterday, so I am much more relaxed now. Oh what if she doesn’t end up again today (Its already 11:30 am and she isn’t in as yet!)

But in those last 10 days I would be looking for quick easy to make snacks after returning from work...that would last me till I could fix the dinner. One of these instantly made snack is Chilli Cheese Sandwich.

This sandwich doesn’t call for any preparation time, is done instantly... and leaves a nice chilly taste. This must be a Chennai specialty. I hadn’t tasted this anywhere before...you can find it almost everywhere here. Makes for a perfect quick snack.

Ingredients:
4 Slices of Sandwich Bread
2 Slices of Cheddar Cheese
2 Green Chillies chopped

The pic is self explanatory. I folded the cheese slice at the edges to prevent it from flowing out when it melts.


Cover this with another slice. Similarly set other sandwich as well.
Heat the griller and place the sandwiches in.


Best enjoyed with some Potato Chips and Tomato ketchup.


Talking of it...My next post is going to be another quick snack.

Do you wanna take a guess at what this is? or what ingredients this calls for?

Paneer Tikka Sandwich

I love the cooking part...However deciding what to cook is the part I dread. My Mom would tell us that we didn't help her decide what to cook and always left it to her. I didn't see a big deal in it until I took my plunge. I find myself always asking my husband to help me decide what to cook. On Friday night however I gave him a warning, he had to come up with what the breakfast was going to be the next day, else there was going to be no breakfast. He immediately replied with 'Paneer Tikka Sandwich'.
Paneer Tikka Sandwich for breakfast?? Did he purposely say that because I had never made it before?? Either ways, I took it up.

Spicy Paneer Tikka Sandwiches:

Ingredients:
4 slices of Sandwich Bread
8 slices Cucumber
6 slices Tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded Carrot + 1/2 cup shredded Cabbage
1 Cheese slice

For Paneer Tikka:
1 T Oil
Pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)
Pinch of Jeera (Cumin)
½ Onion
1 Green chilly
1 ½ tsp Red Chilli powder
½ tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Coriander
1 tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp Black Pepper powder
1 Tomato grated
1/4 Yellow Bell Pepper chopped in square pieces
10 small Paneer pieces

1. Cut all the vegetables required.

2. Making Paneer Tikka
Heat the oil in a wok. Add jeera, once it splutters add hing. Saute the onion till transparent. Add the green chilly, slit and cut into 1 cm long pieces (You don't see it in the Cut Vegetables pic above, coz I remembered about it later :) This is what happens when you are making something for the first time). Now add all the masalas. Add grated tomato to it and saute till the oil separates. Add the Capsicum; let it cook for a min. Cook for another 2 mins after adding the Paneer. Take it out in a bowl and let it cool.

3. Laying the Sandwich
On a bread slice, lay out the cabbage and Carrot mix. The next layer is of the Paneer Tikka. Place half of the cheese slice folded into half. Put the cucumber and the tomato pieces and cover this with another Cabbage and carrot layer.

Cover this with another slice. Similarly set other sandwich as well.
Heat the griller and place the sandwiches in.
Enjoy with tomato ketchup.

What say??? Does it look Yummy? Tastes even better :)

A must try.

I am sending this to SnackShots #6: Sandwich event being hosted by Michelle of Greedy Gourmet.

Its Raining!!!

The moment it starts raining, two things hit my mind the fastest; the sweet aromatic smell of the parched earth after the first few drops, and the urge to eat something spicy and, still better off, fried.

Weather has been quite pleasant in Chennai for the last 4 days. It was raining on the weekend and so I started evaluating my options to munch on, as I should get it ready before it stops raining, being the major criteria :)

Most of the street food in India is spicy and oily, does it taste good? Must be kidding, it is awesome. Some of the common street food in Mumbai would typically consist of Paav Bhaji, Vada Paav, Daabeli, Onion Pakodas, Bhel Puri, Paani Puri, while in South you normally see varieties of Dosas, Idlis and Sambhar Vada being sold on carts. North displays variety of Chaats on its streets like Gol Gappa, Dahi Paapadi Chaat, Dahi Bhalla, Aaloo Tikki; so also, you cannot miss the sight of Samosas, Bread Pakodas, Jalebis, Mix Veg Pakodas in any of the streets in Delhi.

Onion Pakodas came to our rescue.

Onion Pakodas
Ingredients:
1 Onion
½ tsp Chilli Powder
2½ T Gram Flour (Besan)
Salt to Taste
Oil to fry

Cut the Onion into julienne and add salt and chilli powder to it.

Let this stand for 10 mins, so that Onion will give away its extra water and the pakodas will turn out crispier. Add the Besan to form a thick mix. Normally the water left by the Onion would be enough to form the mix, only if required add some water to it

Heat oil in a wok. Take some of the mix in your hands and drop little by little in the oil.

They taste great with Tomato Ketup and a big cup of Hot Tea.

We finished them really fast, I am going to make it with 2 Onions next time. Meanwhile I'm off to pray to the Rain Gods :)

Missing the chinese

Veg American Chopsuey has always been one of my favorite dishes since my college days in Goa. I suddenly started missing it a lot, may be bcoz I have not had it after I moved to Chennai, as far as 3 years back :( For some reasons I have not found this dish in Chennai’s Menu card.

Anyways, I decided to give American Chopsuey a try. I tried to Google for the recipe but they seemed very different from the ones I loved in Goa. So I decided to go by my instinct and try to make it from whatever I remembered of it. So I do not know how authentic this recipe is :)

Incidentally I have also come across a lil different (In fact very different) recipe for Hakka Noodles in a small restaurant here, Noodles floating in Milk puddle. When the waiter had placed our order on the table, we were shocked to say the least and thought he had a mistake in taking down the order. Later we were told, that slimy dish on our table was in fact our Hakka Noodles (:sigh).

Since then every time before ordering it, I ask them for the preparation of it.

American Chopsuey

Ingredients:
100 gm Noodles
Water to Boil
1/2 T Salt

Sauce:
2 Tomatoes
1 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 T Corn flour
2 T Sugar
1 tsp Salt
250 ml Water

1. Boil the water in a vessel and add salt to it.

2. Add the noodles. Boil it till al dente (little kachcha). Do not over cook it. This should take 2-3 mins only.

3. Strain the noodles and wash it under running water. Sprinkle 1 tsp Oil over it to protect them from sticking to each other. Let them to cool.

4. For the sauce heat oil in a pan. Add black pepper, sugar, salt and the diced tomatoes. Cook for a min and add water to it. Make cornflour paste by adding 3 T water in it. After a boil, sim the gas and continue stirring as you add the corn flour. Cook for another 2 mins and the sauce is ready.


5. Heat oil in a wok. Fry the noodles till crisp. Remove it on a paper towel.

6. Once you are done place some of the fried noodle on each plate and press it against the plate, leading to the crumbling of the noodles a little bit, just for the ease while eating. Do not over do it, else you will land up with tiny bits of noodles.


Once done, heat the sauce a little and generously sprinkle it over the served noodles.


I liked it and was simple to make as well. But I would like to try the other ways of making it also. How do you make your chopsuey?