Naan in a Pressure Cooker

Naan is a leavened bread and belongs to the North Indian Cuisine. It is traditionally cooked in a clay oven/Tandoor. 

This is one thing that we order every time we eat out . It is kids favorite too. Their menu seems to be fixed. Butter Naan and Butter Chicken. They never seem to get bored of it. 

Like everyone I too was on the notion that Naans can be made only if I have a tandoor - until I bumped into this recipe. So now all the naan fans can surely try this at home..Even if you don't have an oven.Yes you heard me right. Convert a pressure cooker to a tandoor. :) Check it out..

INGREDIENTS

All Purpose Flour	500 gm
Curd	2 tbsp
Dry Yeast	2 tsp
Sugar	1 ½ tsp
Ghee	2 ½ tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Butter	To apply on the naans
Oil	1 tsp
Water	1 ¼ cup

METHOD

Warm 1 cup of water.

Mix the sugar and yeast in it. Stir well until the yeast dissolves. Cover and keep until its frothy. Takes about 5 minutes.

Sieve flour.

Add the yeast mixture along with curds, ghee and salt.

Mix well using little more warm water and make soft dough.

Knead the dough for 7 minutes.

Cover the dough with a wet cloth and let be for ½ hour.

Punch down the dough and knead the dough for another 1 minute.

Divide the dough into small balls and roll it into round shapes.

Take a wide, deep pressure cooker and grease it with little oil.

Heat it upside down for 2 minutes.

Place it upright and place on the stove on high flame.

Take each naan, apply little water on one side and stick the wet side on the walls of the cooker.

Let it cook and as brown spots appear it will fall off to the bottom of the cooker. Remove and grill the uncooked side for 10 seconds. It will puff up. Remove from grill.

Apply butter and serve hot.

Tips:


Tilt the cooker a bit to stick the naans to the sides of the cooker.


Grill on medium flame.


The naans fall off to the bottom of the oven when cooked on one side. You can cook the other side from the bottom of the cooker but be careful not to burn your hands. It is easier on the grill.


To give the right shape to the naans after rolling it, just pull it from the bottom to get the triangle shape. But make sure that size will fit into the cooker. Else just roll it round.

Vada Paav / Indian Vegetable Burger

The popular tea time snack of Maharashtra - the vada pav or I should say the famous Mumbai road side snack. The Mumbai Veggie Burger complete with toppings and a soft square bun (paav).

It is no more the 'poor man's food'.

Potoato Vada is sandwiched between the buns and topped with cilantro peanut sauce and roasted garlic spice blend.  Truly a mouthwatering snack !

It is a long process to prepare them but the end result is worthy of the effort, I should say. And didn't manage to get the real paav so managed it with buns :( . Anyways I am happy with the result. Enjoy!

So here is my first try at Maharashtrian Cuisine.

Vadaa Paav/ Fried Potato Sandwiches


Printable Recipe


INGREDIENTS


For the roasted garlic spice blend


1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
6 medium cloves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon coarse / sea salt ( add as per your taste)


For the cilantro peanut sauce/ chutney


1/2 cup cilantro leaves
2 tablespoon shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt( add as per taste)
3 green chillies ( the original recipe says 6-8 but I find that too hot so add as per your spice level)


For the garlic potatoes


450 gm potatoes boiled and mashed
1/2 cup frozen peas (no need to thaw it)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 cup curry leaves
3 green chillies
4 cloves
2 slice ginger(1 1/2 inch long)


For the batter


1/2 cup  chickpea flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tablespoon cornflour
1/2  teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt


10 small, paavs

METHOD


Roast the peanuts over medium heat in a small skillet for about 2 - 4 minutes. Roast till the nutty smell comes and the nuts turn reddish brown.Transfer half of the peanuts to a plate to cool. Put the other half in a blender jar and keep aside.

In the same skillet add the coriander, cumin, chillies and sesame seeds and roast. The spices have to turn reddish brown ( 1-3 minutes). Add this mixture to the peanuts on the plate.

Add the garlic to the remaining oil in the skillet and cook stirring occasionally until they are sunny brown in colour. Spread the garlic over the spices on the plate. Let it cool completely.

To make the cilantro sauce or chutney -  pile in the cilantro, coconut, salt, chillies, ¼ cup water to the peanuts in the blender . Blend well. Transfer to a bowl. Add 2 tablespoon water to the blender and swish it again to remove any remaining sauce. Stir well.

To make the roasted garlic spice blend transfer the spices on the plate to the blender and powder it. Make sure the spices are cooled well before powdering else it may become slightly cakey.

To prepare the patties combine the potatoes, peas, salt and turmeric in a bowl. Combine the cilantro, curry leaves, chillies, garlic, ginger in a food processor and mince. Add this to the potato mixture to make a slightly yellow green dough.

To make the batter, mix the two flours, corn flour, salt and turmeric in a bowl. Pour in warm water to make a smooth thick batter.  You will need about 3/4 - 1 cup water.

Divide the dough into 16 portions. Shape it into round balls and press a bit in between your palms to make ½ inch thick patty. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok.

Line a large plate with paper towels and keep ready.

When the oil is ready, dip a patty into the batter and carefully slide it into the oil. Fry them until they are golden brown. Fry 3-4 patties at a time and remove them with a slotted spatula.

For assembly of the sandwich slice open the paav, spread the cilantro sauce, place the patties, sprinkle the garlic spice blend and close the bun and serve.

 Tips:

The spice blend and cilantro sauce can be made even up to 2 days in advance.

The sauce can be refrigerated until ready to use.

The spice blend can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator or room temperature up to a week.

A pinch of baking soda in the batter can make the patties more crisp.

If you are using iodized salt then reduce the quantity.

Healthy Nutritious Pulao

Vegetable Pulao is my all time favourite especially when there is no time for elaborate curries and rotis. A healthy and quick recipe liked by all. 

The addition of soya chunks along with the veggies make it all the more nutritious. Soya is making headlines these days because of its nutrient facts. It is high in protein, iron, dietary fibre, vitamin C and many more...

INGREDIENTS

Basmati Rice	1 ½ cup
Soya Chunks	1 cup
Cumin Seeds	½ teaspoon
Ginger paste	1 teaspoon
Garlic Paste	1 teaspoon
Tomatoes	1 cup
Carrot	1 cup
Beans	½ cup
Peas	½ cup
Vegetable stock cube	1
Water	3 cups+ 1 ½ cup
Salt	As required
Oil	3 tbsp
Bay leaf	1
Garam Masala	½ teaspoon

METHOD

Wash and soak rice for half hour and strain.

Boil 1 ½ cups of water and soak soya chunks in it for 15 minutes. Squeeze out the water and chop into small pieces.

Wash and chop vegetables.

Heat oil. Add cumin and stir for 4 seconds.

Add ginger garlic paste and stir.

Add onion and stir fry till its golden in colour.

Add the bay leaf.

Add the vegetable stock cube, garam masala and mix well.

Sauté the carrot and beans. Cover and cook till the vegetables are half cooked.

Add the tomatoes and cook again till the tomatoes are mashed.

Add green peas and let cook for 2 minutes.

Boil 3 cups of water in a separate vessel.

Add the chopped soya to the vegetable mixture and stir well for a minute.

Check salt, add water. When the water comes to a boil add the rice. Cover and cook on medium flame for 10 minutes.

Stir slowly and cook for another 5 minutes/ till done on slow flame.

Remove the bay leaf.

Serve with raitha and chutney.

Coriander Mint Chutney

INGREDIENTS

Coriander	1 cup
Mint leaves( Pudina)	½ cup
Grated Coconut	1 ½ cup
Chilly	1 or 2 large
Tamarind	A small piece
Onion	1 medium
Salt	As required

METHOD

Chop coriander, pudina, chilly and onion.

Grate coconut.

Mix all the ingredients along with salt and blend coarsely.

Check salt and serve with Pulao / Biriyani.

Sending this recipe to Savory Sunday at The Sweet Details by Amanda

Also sending this recipe(FB, WLI) to Anyone can cook: Series 21 by Umm Mymoonah of Taste of Pearl City.

Kinnathappam / Malabar Style Rice Cake in an Uruli

It is yet another famous tradional dessert famous in the Malabar region. Kinnathappam is served on all major occasions like weddings, house warming, baby shower...the list goes on. 

Kinnathappam is a rice cake cooked in rich coconut milk, enriched with ghee, sweetened with jaggery and spiced up with cardamom. The texture is very soft and the color is deep brown.

'Kinnam' refers to the vessel or plate in which it is transferred to and 'Appam' is the rice cake.

I have always seen people buying it from bakeries and wondered how this soft and tasty appam is prepared and decided to find the traditional way of preparing it. The first reaction I got from all was ''ohh..that is very time consuming and takes a lot of heavy stirring.'' But I was still for it to learn a very authentic dish. Finally I got the recipe and here it is for my dear readers.

Coming to the preparation part it is very tedious but the end result just makes us forget the time taken to prepare this yummy rice cake. It requires a minimum of 3 people just to stir. And since it requires lot of  effort it is usually prepared in bulk. Home prepared kinnthappams stay longer compared to the ones at bakeries. Here are the step by step preparation of Kinnathappam. Enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS

Raw Rice	1 kg
Jaggery	¾  kg light + ¾ kg dark
Chana Dal (Kadala Paripu)	¼ kg
Coconut	5 large
Cardomom	5
Sugar	2 tbsp + 1 cup
Water	7 litre
Ghee	3 tbsp

METHOD

Melt jaggery by adding 200 ml water. Filter it in a sieve to remove impurities. Let it cool.

Cook Chana Dal  with one piece of Jaggery in a pressure cooker. Add water just enough so that it sinks and cook till 1 whistle (half cooked).

Grind the rice to a thin paste form.

Powder the cardamom along with 2 table spoon sugar and remove skin from the mixture.

Grate coconut and sqeeze to remove the first milk(Onnam Paal). Keep aside.

Add 200 ml warm water to the coconut and squeeze to remove the second milk (Randam Paal) and third milk (moonam paal).

Keep a thick bottom vessel/ Uruli ready to start the cooking process.Mix the rice batter, second and third coconut milk, jaggery, remaining water and start stirring on high flame.

This has to be continuously stirred using a long steel spatula. It has to be steel or a heavy duty stirrer as the mixture will thicken as you stir and it will be difficult to stir otherwise.

When the mixture starts thickening (it will take about 2 hours) add the first milk and cardamom powder. Take a small portion and hold it b/w your thumb and index finger, press it and pull. A strand consistency is formed.

After about 15 minutes add ghee to the sides of the vessel. Add the chana dal and mix well.

Add sugar at this stage as per your taste/or you feel the sweetness is not enough.

This is the tradional kinnam. Keep the kinnam/vessel/ any other dish ready

 Keep scrapping off any mixture that sticks to the sides with a knife.

The mixture will start leaving the sides and start wobbling like a jelly and leaving the sides of the Uruli.

By this time keep the Kinnams /Brass vessels/ any dish ready with ghee smeared on it.

The right consistency is when you hold a small portion in between your thumb and index finger and roll, it forms a ball shape without sticking to your fingers.

Remove from fire and quickly transfer it to the vessels and flatten it so that it takes the form of the vessel.

Cool, invert it on a plate, cut and serve.

Chocolate Ganache Cake

This is the cake I made for my hubby on his birthday. I don’t know why it took so long for me  to post it on my blog.

The best part about this cake is the ganache. Just love the glossy look. No one believed it was a homemade cake.

The base cake is the same one I had posted before, the only change is in the shape. I made a round cake. Now I wanted it to look a little different. Since I did not have any other shaped tins I made a hole in the middle J I wanted the look of a lava cake.

So here it is.

Chocolate Frosting Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

Chocolate Cake

Sugar	2 cups
Flour	1 ¾ cups
Cocoa	¾ cup
Baking Powder	1 ½ tsp
Baking Soda	1 ½ tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Eggs	2
Milk	1 cup
Vegetable Oil	½ cup
Vanilla Essence	2 tsp
Boiling Water	1 cup

Chocolate Frosting

Butter	100 g
Cocoa	2/3 cup
Powdered sugar	3 cup
Milk	1/3 cup
Vanilla Essence	1 tsp

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp sugar

12 oz. Semi sweet chocolate

METHOD

Chocolate Cake

Mix the dry ingredients with a ladle i.e. flour, sugar, cocoa in a bowl.

Mix baking powder, baking soda, salt separately and add to the other dry ingredients.

Add eggs,milk, oil and vanilla essence and beat well for 2-3 minutes.

Preheat oven for 10 minutes.

Boil water and add slowly to the mixture. Now mix it with a spatula.

Pour into a greased cake tin. (9’’ round tin)

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Check if it’s cooked by inserting a toothpick. It should come out clean.

Remove from oven and let it cool.

Once cooled invert it on to a plate and let it cool.

Chocolate Frosting

I used half the quantity as that would be enough for the round cake

Melt butter in a microwave.

Add the cocoa powder. It should be very dark cocoa for best results.

Alternately add sugar and milk.

Beat till you reach a creamy consistency. Add vanilla essence and mix well.

Spread it over the cake. Add 1-2 teaspoon milk if frosting is not of spreadable consistency.

Chocolate Ganache

Take a heavy bottom pan. Place the heavy cream, butter and sugar into it. Keep on medium flame.Keep stirring frequently and bring to boil.

Microwave the chocolate for 30 – 60 secs to soften it. Pour the cream mixture into the chocolate. Mix the ingredients well and make sure all the chocolate is dissolved.

Pour the ganache over the cake while the ganache is still warm.

This recipe will yield 2 cups ganache which is enough is cover an 8" - 9" cake

Molten Lava Cake

Celebrating back to school with Molten Lava Cake!!!

Its time when kids get all geared up to go to school. Back pack full of everything NEW. Ohhh..I just love it. The smell of new books...remember opening my books every now and then as a kid. New uniform, bag, lunch box , umbrella. Aaah.. I miss my school days!! But now I enjoy shopping for my son.  :)

Now let's get back to the recipe.

Chocolates are my all time favorite and so are Chocolate Cakes. When ever I have a craving for Chocolate,  I make the Molten Lava Cake. Made them so many times..Love the flowing Chocolate..yummm. Its so moist and delicious. Its only when you scoop it with a spoon that you find the pudding like center of the cake. It has all the characteristics of a souffle, cake or a pudding.

For all those who are new to baking, this ones the best try. Easy, tasty and sure to win many hearts ;)

Molten Lava Cake

Recipe adapted from Ria’s Collection

INGREDIENTS

Dark Cooking Chocolate – 100g

Butter – 100g (at room temp)

Eggs - 2

Sugar - 1/3 cup

All-purpose Flour - 1/4 cup

Butter - for greasing ramekins

METHOD

Melt chocolate in a microwave for 30 – 60 seconds (till it gets soft).

Mix the butter until it melts fully

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs till fluffy.

Now add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the chocolate butter mixture to the egg mixture.

Add all purpose flour and mix well till it’s well incorporated.

Preheat oven for 10 minutes.

Butter the bottom and sides of ramekins.

Pour the mixture ¾ full.

Bake at 180 degree for 10 – 15 minutes until the top edges turns a bit flaky and the middle is wobbly.

Invert after 2 minutes or serve as it is in the ramekins.

Serve hot.

Tips:

Remove immediately from oven.

You can prepare the batter well in advance, pour it into the ramekins and refrigerate. Bake it just 20 minutes before you want to serve it.

To invert it run a sharp knife around the edge and invert.

It can be served with fresh cream / a scoop of vanilla ice cream / just simply the molten lava cake( I like the third option) :)

The time taken may vary a bit depending on the size of ramekins used.

Sending this recipe to the Chocolate Recipes Event hosted by Dr.Sameena at http://myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com

Bread Pudding

My lovely SIL has made this yummy pudding on many good occasions. Now that I could enjoy it every time she makes it made me lazy to try it. She had given me the recipe 2 years back and still didn't feel like making it as I enjoy her preparations a lot..

Today I just wondered why not try it. I have not added any pudding on my blog and I know hers is a fool proof recipe. So here it is..a simple and tasty pudding. My kids just gobbled it down :)

INGREDIENTS

Recipe Source - Nishna (My Sis in law)

Milk                    500 ml

Eggs                   3

Sugar                 10 Tbsp

Butter                 1 tbsp (at room temp)

Bread                 7-8 slices

Vanilla Essence  1 teaspoon

METHOD

Boil the milk and let it cool to room temperature.

To caramelize sugar, add 3 tablespoons sugar into the pudding container. Add a few drops of water and heat it till the sugar turns brown. Spread on the base of the container. Keep it aside

Whip the eggs in a mixer/blender.

Add the sugar and blend again.

Strain and pour the milk into this egg sugar mixture.

Remove the crust of the bread and crumble them.

Keep a cooker with water and a ring. Let the water boil on low flame.

Meanwhile add vanilla essence to the egg- sugar-milk mixture and mix well.

Add butter and warm the mixture on low heat till the butter melts.

Remove from heat and add the bread. It should soak well. Stir well and make it a paste.

Pour this mixture into the caramelized sugar container.

Cover the container with foil.

Place this container on the ring and close the cooker lid. Do not place the weight.

Cook on high flame for 10 minutes, medium 10 minutes and last 1 minute on high flame.

Remove from heat. 

Remove the container from the cooker and refrigerate the pudding.

Invert when cold and serve.