(Source: Loksatta)

You Can Write A Cookbook - Kevin Wolfe
An Invitation To Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey
स्वाद संवाद: भाग १ आणि २ - वसुंधरा पर्वते
पार्टी पार्टी - निर्मला टिळक
खमंग - दुर्गा भागवत

भोजनकुतूहलम - इंग्लिश भाषांतर Institute Of Ayurved And Integrated Medicine, Bengalore इथे उपलब्ध
मांसपाकनिष्पत्ती (पार्वतीबाई), उपोषण पाकशास्त्र (दुर्गाबाई भट), गृहिणी-मित्र (लक्ष्मीबाई धुरंधर) - संदर्भ विभाग, मुंबई मराठी ग्रंथसंग्रहालय, नायगाव इथे उपलब्ध
सूपशास्त्र – रा. स. गुप्ते  - करवीर नगर वाचन मंदिर, कोल्हापूर इथे उपलब्ध

The Buddha Bowl

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Tnhz9ckCKAVZbI9WINhw2K/Meditations-on-the-Buddha-Bowl.html

http://www.loksatta.com/khau-anandey-news/mumbai-street-food-food-tours-of-mumbai-1462737/

http://www.loksatta.com/khau-anandey-news/cooking-channel-on-social-media-for-foodies-1452880/

http://www.loksatta.com/safar-khadyagranthanchi-news/best-recipe-books-books-of-recipes-recipe-books-cookbook-recipes-1476232/

Cauliflower Barfi - Lost Recipes, Epic Channel (17 August 2015)

Yep, you read it right. The recipe that was shown is of cauliflower, the vegetable. And if what they said on the program is anything to go by, it was the favorite dessert of none other than Rabindranath Tagore. It is still made at his house every year on his birthday. So here goes the recipe:

Boil cauliflower and turn it into a smooth paste.
Heat ghee and fry raisins. Set aside.
Add cauliflower paste to the ghee and fry. Add sugar to it followed by
cashew nuts. Then add Khoya, fried raisins and saffron mixed in milk.
Mix thoroughly.

Grease a plate with ghee and put the mixture on it. Spread it evenly, garnish with more dry fruits, if needed, and let it cool.
Cut into pieces and serve.

I don't know about you but I am sure going to give it a try one of these weekends. :-)

Masala Lemonade

I am not one of those who after tasting a dish goes about deconstructing and trying it in their own kitchen. Some things are best left to the chefs!

But the Masala Lemonade served at the Pizza Hut seemed simple enough – and tasty enough – to make me want to try my hand at making it. There surely cannot be more than 4-5 ingredients – soda, sugar, lemon juice and jaljira powder, right? So on my way home, I purchased a bottle of soda and a pack of and jaljira powder, tinkered about in the kitchen for a while and then eagerly tasted the end product. Similar but not quite like it. Time to hit the internet. Most of the recipes had listed the same ingredients until I chanced upon one which mentioned the use of 7Up. Aha! This could be the ‘secret’ ingredient. Plus it would save me from the tedious task of dissolving sugar in water.

The next day I mixed a bit of lemon juice with a pinch of jaljira powder and poured in 7Up. Yeah! That’s more like it. Probably a drop of sugar syrup would bring it closer to what I had in Pizza Hut. This one is surely going to be one of my all-time favorite poisons! :-)

शेवग्याच्या शेंगाची भाजी

साहित्य:

तेल, शेवग्याच्या शेंगा, गूळ, हळद, तिखट, मीठ, पाणी, थालीपीठाची भाजाणी, तांदळाचं पीठ, मोहरी, हिंग, सुक्या लाल मिरच्या, ओलं खोबरं, कोथिंबीर

कृती:

१. शेंगाचे तुकडे करून उकळत्या पाण्यात घाला. त्यात गूळ, हळद, तिखट, मीठ घाला. झाकण लावून १० मिनिटं शेंगा शिजू दया.
२. त्यात २ मोठे चमचे थालीपीठाची भाजाणी आणि एक चमचा तांदळाचं पीठ घाला. ढवळत रहा म्हणजे गुठळ्या होणार नाहीत.
३. ५ मिनिटं झाकण लावून शिजवा.
४. ओलं खोबरं, कोथिंबीर घाला.
५. तेल तापवून मोहरी, हिंग, सुक्या लाल मिरच्या, हळद, तिखट घाला आणि ही फोडणी भाजीवर ओता.

(मेजवानी परिपूर्ण किचन, २८ एप्रिल २०१४)

Watermelon Feta Salad

I have tried this salad at two places and it has become one of my all-time favorites. It looked so deceptively simple that I thought making it would be a breeze. I couldn't have been more wrong.

During my first attempt I used orange juice in the dressing and that gave the whole dish an unwanted bitter note. I was so heartbroken that I didn't attempt it again till now. This time I made use of lemon juice and vinegar - 1 tablespoon each - added a pinch of salt and whisked it while adding olive oil.  I poured this mixture over freshly cut melon cubes. Crumbled a generous amount of Feta and tossed it in. Finally, I sauteed pine nuts in butter and sprinkled them over the salad.

And voila! A salad that you have to make a Herculean effort to stop eating :-)

कैरीचा टक्कू

आजकाल आंब्याचा मोसम असल्याने सगळ्या चेनेल्सवरच्या कुकिंग शोज मध्ये आंब्याचे पदार्थ दाखवायची साथ आलेय. बहुतेक पदार्थ 'आंब्यावरील अत्याचार' ह्या सदरात येत असले (उदा. कैरी मांचुरियन, आंबा भजी, आंब्याचे बटाटेवडे वगैरे) तरी एखाद दुसरा पदार्थ पारंपारिक असल्याने करून बघावासा वाटतो. त्यातलाच हा टक्कू. नाव विचित्र वाटलं तरी फारशी खटपट नसल्यामुळे करून पाहिला, आवडला म्हणून ही कृती:

कैरीची सालं काढून टाकून कैरी किसून घ्यायची. त्यात बारीक चिरलेला कांदा, मीठ आणि गूळ घालायचा. तेल तापवून मोहरी, हिंग, हळद, तिखट ह्यांची फोडणी करायची व किसावर ओतायची. नीट मिक्स करून घ्यायचं.

जेवताना तोंडी लावायला आंबटगोड मस्त लागतो. परत कायरस किंवा छुंदा बनवण्यापेक्षा सोपा आणि झटपट. :-)

कोल्हापूरी मिसळ

वन-डिश मील हवं होतं पण दाल बाटी करायची नव्हती म्हणून रेसिपीज लिहिलेल्या वह्या चाळल्या तेव्हा ही कृती मिळाली. मस्त झाली म्हणून पोस्ट करतेय.

साहित्य: ओलं खोबरं, शहाजिरं, लवंग, दालचिनी, आलं लसूण पेस्ट, कोथिंबीर, तेल, हळद, कांदा (बारीक चिरून), टोमेटो (बारीक चिरून), मोड आलेली मटकी (शिजवलेली), शिजवलेल्या बटाट्याच्या फोडी, मीठ, कोल्हापूरी कांदा लसूण मसाला, तिखट, चिवडा/फरसाण/मोठ्या गाठी, लिंबू, पाणी

कृती:

तेलावर ओलं खोबरं, शहाजिरं, लवंग, दालचिनी, आलं लसूण पेस्ट आणि कोथिंबीर परतून घ्या. मग त्याचं मिक्सरमधून वाटण करा.
तेल गरम करून त्यात हळद, आलं लसूण पेस्ट, मोड आलेली मटकी (शिजवलेली), शिजवलेल्या बटाट्याच्या फोडी, मीठ घाला आणि परतून उसळ करा.

कट (रस्सा) करण्यासाठी - तेल (जास्त घ्या) गरम करा. त्यात हळद, कांदा (बारीक चिरून), टोमेटो (बारीक चिरून), कोल्हापूरी कांदा लसूण मसाला, तिखट घाला. परता. मग त्यात वाटण घाला. मीठ आणि पाणी घालून पातळ रस्सा करा.

खायला देताना प्लेटमध्ये तळाला मटकीची उसळ घाला. कांदा (बारीक चिरून) पसरा. त्यावर भरपूर कट (रस्सा) ओता. चिवडा/फरसाण/मोठ्या गाठी घाला. ओलं खोबरं, कोथिंबीर घाला. शेवटी लिंबू पिळा व ब्रेडच्या स्लाईसेससोबत सर्व्ह करा.

ज्वारीच्या हुरड्याचं थालीपीठ

शहरात गव्हाचा किंवा ज्वारीचा हुरडा मिळणं ही जवळपास दुरापास्त गोष्ट आहे. पण साधारण डिसेंबर-जानेवारी मध्ये रानडे रोडवरच्या टायटनच्या शोरूम समोर एक माणूस दोन्ही प्रकारचा हुरडा विकायला बसतो. हा हुरडा तव्यावर थोडासा गरम करून त्यात हुरड्यासोबत मिळणारा मसाला घातला आणि वर लिंबू पिळला की खायला मस्त लागतो. हवं तर थोडं मीठ घालायचं (मसाल्यात असतं).

ज्वारीचा हुरडा

पण ह्यावेळी मात्र मी ज्वारीच्या हुरड्याचं थालीपीठ करून पहायचं ठरवलं. मागच्या वर्षी बांद्रा रेक्लेमेशन वर 'महालक्ष्मी सरस' चं प्रदर्शन लागलं होतं तेव्हा एके ठिकाणी मिरचीचा ठेचा आणि दह्याबरोबर खाल्लं होतं.

अर्थात हा प्रयोग असल्याने (आणि पुढच्या विकेंडला हुरडा मिळेल ह्याची खात्री नसल्याने!) सगळा ज्वारीचा हुरडा वापरला नाही. वाटीभर हुरडा थोडंसं पाणी आणि मीठ घालून मिक्सरमधून जाडसर वाटून घेतला. त्यात बारीक चिरून कांदा, बारीक चिरलेली हिरवी मिरची, जिरेपूड, धणेपूड, तिखट आणि कोथिंबीर घातली. मग पाणी आणि मावेल इतकं तांदळाचं पीठ घालून मळून घेतलं. मध्ये भोकं पाडून तव्यावर पसरून बाजूने तेल घालून दोन्ही बाजूने खरपूस शिजवून घेतलं.

थालीपीठ

घाबरत घाबरत तुकडा मोडला आणि मग इतके दिवस आपण हे का करून पाहिलं नाही असं वाटायला लागलं. :-)

केळ्याचं रायतं

माझ्या आवडत्या फळात केळ्याचा समावेश अजिबात होत नाही. खरं तर केळं हे फळ आहे हेच मला मान्य नाही. :-) त्यामुळे केळं घातलेला रव्याचा शिरा, केळ्याचं शिकरण आणि रायतं ह्या तीनच गोष्टी मी खाऊ शकते. तर केळ्याच्या रायत्याची ही रेसिपी:

केळ्याचे बारीक तुकडे करा.
दही फेटून घ्या. त्यात साखर, मीठ आणि थोडं ओलं खोबरं नीट मिक्स करून घ्या.
त्यात केळ्याचे तुकडे घाला.
तेल तापवून त्यात हिंग, जिरे आणि हिरव्या मिरचीचे बारीक तुकडे घाला.
ही फोडणी केळ्याच्या मिश्रणावर ओता.
कोथिंबीर घालून सर्व मिश्रण ढवळून घ्या.
फ्रीजमध्ये ठेवून गार सर्व्ह करा.

Beetroot Raita

Ingredients: beetroot, curd, salt, sugar, oil, asafoetida (hing), mustard seeds (rai), cumin seeds (jeera), turmeric powder, green chillies, coriander leaves

Recipe:

1. Peel the beetroot and boil in water.
2. Grate it after it cools.
3. Add salt and sugar (if needed)
4. Mix it with curd.
5. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies (chopped finely), asafoetida and turmeric powder.
6. Pour this seasoning on the beetroot mixture prepared in step 4 above.
7. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly.
8. Serve chilled.

Stir Fried Vegetables In Peanut-Chilli Sauce

Recently, I was looking for a gravy dish as an accompaniment - other than vegetables in Schezwan, Manchurian or sweet-sour sauce - for Chinese Fried Rice. I have tried a few recipes from Sailu's Kitchen and liked them. So I checked it out and found 'Peanut Flavored Vegetable Fried Rice & Stir Fried Vegetables In Peanut-Chilli Sauce'.

I am not a big fan of peanuts. Since the gravy cannot be made without them, I decided to omit them from the fried rice. Actually, I did not make fried rice as per her recipe because I thought it would be too bland for my taste. But I followed her recipe for the Stir fried veggies to a tee. And the result was delicious. :-)

Who knew the Chinese and the Thai would get along so famously!

Corn Malaidar

Cooking is something you should never do when you are in a hurry. That should be Rule #1 in any cookbook. But that's the rule that often gets broken - at least as far as I am concerned. I had wanted to try this recipe since a long time because I was kind of getting sick of the steamed corn + salt + red chilli powder + chaat masala routine. However, the steamed corn was sitting in the fridge since the past 2-3 days and in imminent(??) danger of getting all sticky and spoiled.

That's why I was in a hurry and so forgot that the corn + milk mixture was supposed to be coarse-grained. I used the mixer for just a second longer and the mixture got turned into a fine paste. 'There goes my recipe' I said in exasperation. Of course, I had to go through the rest of the steps. I tasted it with more than a bit of trepidation. And Voila! It tasted really good. :-)

I must note that since I didn't have any soya milk at hand, I used plain milk. And since I don't much like mint (except for the divine mint chutney served at places like Punjab Grill or Copper Chimney!) I used coriander leaves to finish the dish.

Next time, I will make sure the corn paste is coarse-grained!

The story of my experiments in kitchen

I am on a roll these days as far as cooking goes. Here are the some of the new recipes that I have tried in the past few days:

French beans is not one of my favorite ingredients unless chunks of it are smothered in soya sauce, chilli sauce and vinegar (for veg fried rice) or in barbeque sauce (for veg barbeque). But I was getting tired of Chinese dishes (the Chinese haven't exactly been helpful - what with their trespasses across the border!) and so was in search of a new way of cooking it the Indian way. That's how I stumbled across Carrot Beans Vepudu in Sailu's Kitchen. For the record, I cooked the recipe in a very small quantity because eating something which hasn't turned out well is not an easy task. But I need not have worried - the Vepudu was excellent. Agreed, it is too dry to be eaten with a chapati or roti. But it will do wonders as a side dish along with a plate of plain white rice and sambar/rasam.

Next, I tried Poondu Kozhambu from Sanjeev Kapoor's site. The very first ingredient made me do a double take. What? 1 cup (55-60 cloves) of garlic? Is this from some episode of The Vampire Diaries? No way I wanted others to smell garlic on my breath for the next week or so. So I reduced the quantity of garlic to 10-11 cloves and increased the Split pigeon pea quantity from 2 tsps to about 6 tsps - little knowing that it, along with 1tsp of rice flour, will make the curry thick enough to be cut with a knife. :-) So next time it is going to be just  2 tsps of Split pigeon pea. "Next time?" you say? Yeah, the taste was good so I will be making it again in future for sure.

Cabbage is another vegetable I would do anything possible (and legal!) in this world to avoid eating. :-) But since no new vegetables are being invented, sadly, we have to make do with whatever the local vendors (and supermarkets!) sell. So cabbage it is! The search for a new cabbage recipe landed me at Padhus Kitchen for her Cabbage Kootu recipe. Here, I have a confession to make. In a bid to use whatever cabbage was languishing at the bottom of the fridge, I broke my Golden Rule of always trying out new recipes in small quantities. The result was a panful of kootu which had to be eaten over 2 days. Even though it tasted great (because you could hardly taste cabbage in it!), I was in danger of developing a serious allergy to cabbage by the time the last spoonful was eaten. Next time, I am going to keep it to half a cup of cabbage, even though it wilts considerbaly on being cooked. Oh, and I did leave out the white channa - it is  mentioned as optional anyways.


The last recipe that I tried was Dahi Bhindi - again from Sanjeev Kapoor's site. If you look at the picture accompanying the recipe on this site, you will notice that the curd is of a very creamy consistency. But when I tried my hand at this dish, the curd, though very well-beaten (to the point of inducing cramp in my wrist!) split spectacularly when cooked. Mind you, I had kept the heat low as advised. Though the dish tasted well, I am not going to attempt again, unless I can figure out a way to prevent the curd from splitting. Any tips, Mr. Chef?

The failure of the last dish hasn't in any way dampened my enthusiasm. Next on the list are a dish made from boiled corn, another dish of boiled baby potatoes and one more containing chicken as the main ingredient. After all, as the title of a cookery show on NDTV Good Times channel goes, Cooking Isn't Rocket Science :-)

Chicken Korma

I have tried the recipe twice so far and both times it has turned out to be pretty delicious. So I guess it is safe to post it here :-)

1. Cut chicken breast into pieces. Prepare a mixture of salt, turmeric, red chilli powder & curd.  And marinate the chicken pieces in this mixture.

2. Dry roast 2 tbsp coriander seeds + 2 tbsp cumin. Blend it to make a powder.

3. Make a paste of 4-5 green chillies + 1 large onion.

4. Heat up oil. Add 1.5 tsp cumin, asafoetida, cinnamon stick, 1.5 tsp garlic paste, 1 tsp ginger paste.

5. Add coriander-cumin powder from step 2. Saute.

6. Add chilli-onion paste from step 3. Saute.

7. Add marinated chicken pieces. Cook.

8. Add 1 cup thick coconut milk. Cover with lid and cook.

9. If needed, add half a cup of thin coconut milk. Garnish with coriander leaves.

(Source: Amhi Saare Khawayye, Zee Marathi, April 2010)

Korean Barbeque Chicken with Kimchi Salad

While the Tomato Egg Drop Rice was nothing to write home about, this one turned out to be a hit - despite me deciding to make it just to mitigate the risk of having only Tomato Egg Drop Rice for lunch. Boy! Do I know Risk Management or what!

Without much ado, here is the recipe (from another episode of the same program on Zee Marathi channel - Amhi Saare Khawayye):

Cut the boneless chicken in thin slices and add them to a bowl. Add dry roasted sesame seeds, sugar, salt, chilli flakes, sesame oil, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped onion and spring onion (the green part). Mix thoroughly. Shallow fry red dry chillies and make their paste with water. Add this paste to the chicken along with soya sauce and vinegar. Marinate for 15-20 minutes.
(I let it marinate for a good 3-4 hours)

For the Kimchi Salad - Mix together red chilli paste, finely chopped ginger, dry roasted sesame seeds, fish sauce, salt, spring onion (the green part), sesame oil, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Add cabbage leaves, cucumber pieces, thin slices of onion and mixed sprouts. Add pineapple pieces, if you want. Mix well.
(I am not going to add ginger next time I make it because it gives a rather sharp taste to the dish)

Shallow fry the chicken pieces with little oil.

Put iceberg lettuce in the plate, add kimchi salad on it. Then add tomato slices and finally add the barbequed chicken.