Spicy Plantain Chips - Baked

Category: Baking      
Preparation Time: 20 - 30 mins         
Cooking Time: 10 -15 mins    
Servings: For 2 persons

Spicy Plantain Chips

 Ingredients: 

• Raw Plantain - 1 no
• Salt - to taste
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilly powder - 1 tsp (adjust as per spice level) 
• Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
• Oil- 2 tsp

Any masalas of our choice can be used or even plain pepper powder

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 425 F
2. Peel the skin of the plantain and wash well
   
3. Make thin slices of the plantain and soak it in water with little salt and turmeric powder for 5-8 mins
   
4. Drain the water; wash one again and spread the slices over kitchen towel to remove excess moisture
   
5. In a bowl add oil, required salt and masala powder, mix well
6. Add in the slices and mix gently so that it gets well coated with the spice mixture
   
7. Place it in baking tray and bake in the pre heated oven for 10-15 mins or until its done; Check after 7-8 mins and turn it over to cook the other side as well (I have used my cooling racks so I had not turn it over)
   
8. Remove from the pan and allow to cool
   
9. Serve as snacks or with any rice varieties
   
10. If making for kids, we can omit the chilli powder and can add just plain pepper powder and salt. I have made two batches one with chilly and other with Pepper

Potato Cutlet / Patties

Category: Snacks
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 4-5 mins per batch
Servings: For 2-3 persons

Potato Cutlets

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 4 nos
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Chilly powder - 1 tsp (adjust as per taste)
• Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Corn starch / corn flour - 1 tbsp
• Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Bread crumbs - as required
• Oil - for toasting

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and mash it well without any lumps
   
   
   
   
2. Add in all the other ingredients except bread crumbs and oil and knead well
   
3. Make patties in your favourite shapes, then roll in the bread crumbs
   
4. Heat a pan, drizzle few drops of oil and place the cutlets
   
5. After a min, flip it over and allow to cook the other side. If needed few drops of oil can be added
   
6. Once it gets cooked, remove from the pan and serve hot with any chutney / ketchup 
   

Barley Idly & Dosai

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin    
Soaking Time: 6 Hrs / Overnight  
Fermentation Time: 8-12 Hrs    
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch; 2 mins/dosa

Barley idly & Dosa with Carrot Sambhar

Another healthy Idly / Dosa recipe to add on to my list:) I tried substituting 50% of Idly rice with Barley in our normal Idly / Dosa batter and the result was good:) Only the colour of the Idlies would be pale and not pure white but tastes good. Dosai came out perfect and yummy!

Barley Idly

Barley Dosa

Ingredients:

• Barley -2 cups (I used Pearl Barley)
• Idly rice - 2 cups
• Whole white urad dhal - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt - To taste

Method:

1. Soak Idly rice & fenugreek seeds together and barley (separately) for 5-6 hrs / overnight and urad dhal for 45 mins-2 hrs
   
   
2.  In a wet grinder, first add the urad dal, grind till it becomes soft and fluffy. Once urad dhal is done, remove it in a big container and keep aside. While grinding for Idly, make sure you just sprinkle required water at regular intervals rather than pouring it at once. This will make the batter very fluffy and airy which results in soft idlies
3.  Add barley to the grinder and grind it till it becomes smooth, then add the rice and fenugreek seeds to it and grind to a smooth batter, but with a slight coarse texture. Once done, remove it into the container with urad dhal
4.  Add required salt and mix well with hands

   

   Before Fermentation

5.  Allow to ferment for about 8-12hrs and it depends on your room temperature; After fermentation, the volume of the batter would be almost doubled. (Make sure to place the batter in a big bowl to avoid spills after it gets fermented)

   

   After Fermentation

6. Once fermented, make idlies as usual
   
   
   
   
7. Serve with your favourite side dish
8. Next day, just add little water to the batter and make it slightly thinner than the idly batter
9. Heat Tawa and grease it. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it to a thin circle. Pour a teaspoon of oil around the corners and cook covered for few seconds 
   
10. Flip it over and cook other side
    
11.  Serve hot with sambhar / chutney!
    
    

Vegetable Masala Pasta

Category: Pasta / Macaroni
Preparation Time: 10 mins 
Cooking Time: 20 - 25 mins
Servings: For 2-3 persons 

Veg Masala Pasta

Ingredients:

• Pasta - 2 1/4 cups (I used Gigli shaped tricolor pasta)
• Onion, finely chopped - 1 no
• Tomatoes, blanched & Pureed - 2 nos
• Garlic, finely chopped - 5 cloves
• Carrot, chopped - 1 no
• Beans, chopped - 6-7 nos
• Sweet corn, frozen - 1/2 cup
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1/2 - 1 tsp (adjust as per taste)
• Kasoori methi - 1 tsp
• Olive oil - 2 tsp
• Salt - to taste

 Method:

1. Cook pasta as per the package instructions; (Boil water; add pasta with little salt and few drops of oil and cook for 11 -13 mins until slightly soft yet crunchy enough to bite). Drain and rinse with cold water and keep aside
   
2. Heat pan, add Olive oil and then add the chopped garlic pieces, saute well for 2 mins
   
3. Once the garlic gets fried well, add in the finely chopped onions and saute till it becomes soft
   
4. Add the chopped vegetables and saute for 2-3 mins
   
5. Then add the tomato puree along with 1/4 cup of water
   
   
   
6. Add in the masala powders, required salt and kasoori methi, mix well
   
7. Allow to cook in medium flame till the veggies get cooked
   
8. Then add the cooked pasta, mix well and reduce the flame to low. Let it stand for 5 mins and switch off
   
9. Serve hot and it tastes Yummy!
   
   
   

Masala Peanuts (Oven Baked)

Category: Baking    
Preparation Time: 10 mins       
Cooking Time: 12-15 mins      
Servings: For 2-3 persons

Masala Peanuts (Baked)

Ingredients:

• Raw peanuts (Shelled) - 1 cup
• Besan / Kadalai Maavu - 1/2 cup
• Rice flour -  tbsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 3/4 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Garlic powder - 2 tsp (Can be replaced with Garlic paste)
• Salt - to taste
• Water - 1-3 tbsp (as required)
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Curry leaves - few

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 375 F
2. Soak the peanuts in water for 2 mins and drain the water completely (By now the nuts would be moist and not dry)
   
3. In a wide bowl add the peanuts along with the Besan, rice flour, spice powders, 1 tbsp of oil and required salt
4. Mix well and by adding 1 tsp of water at a time, knead to form a stiff dough
   
5. In a baking tray, spread the peanuts evenly in such a way that they are not crowded. If this is not done properly, we will get just the lumps of peanuts and not the separate ones
6. Drizzle the remaining 1 tbsp of oil over it, put the curry leaves on and bake for 10-15 mins until its done
   
7. Once its done, remove from the oven and allow to cool. While cooling it will become more crispy
   
8. Serve with hot tea!
   

Whole Wheat Bread (Eggless)

Category: Baking
Preparation Time: 10 mins 
Cooking Time: 25 mins + 75 mins waiting time
Servings: yields 1 loaf

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour / Atta - 3 cups
• Instant yeast - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Butter - 2 tbsp (melted)
• Curd / Yogurt- 2 tbsp 
• Water - 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups (Adjust as per requirement)
• Milk - 1 tsp

Method:

1. In a bowl, add the wheat flour, salt, Instant yeast and sugar; mix well
2. Add butter and curd into it and mix to form crumbly texture
3. By slowly adding required water, knead to a smooth and soft dough. At this point the dough would be little stickier than our normal chapathi dough
   
4. Cover it with a damp kitchen towel and a lid; rest it for half an hour
5. After half an hour, the dough should have been raised; slightly punch the dough and knead well to form a thick log to fit the size of the loaf pan
6. Grease the loaf pan with little butter / ghee and place the dough inside it and cover it with lid; let it stand for another 40 mins
   
7. By this time, the dough should have raisen well
   
8. While waiting for the bread to rise, preheat the oven at 425 F for 15 mins
9. Make few slits on the loaf and brush 1 tsp of milk over it
   
10. Bake in the oven for about 25 mins or or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
    
11. Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely
    
12. Once it became warm, slice and serve  or can be refrigerated for 2-3 days
    
    
    

    

    Whole wheat Bread with Strawberry & Blueberry Jams (All Home made)