Roasted Petite Golden Potatoes

No, I won't post a recipe for this easiest thing. Just make sure you buy Petite Golden Potatoes.

Pani Puri

Stay tuned for the recipe...

 

Tandoori Paneer with Veggies

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Nava Dhaanya (9 grains) Kuzhi Paniyaram

Stay tuned for the recipe...

Baked Aloo Tikki

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Sambhar Vadai

Ingredients

1. Urad Dhal - 1 cup
2. Green Chilli - 1
3. Curry Leaves - 1 branch
4. Asafoetida - One small pinch
5. Salt - To Taste
6. Oil - To deep fry

Procedure - For Vadai

1. Soak urad dal overnight for atleast 8 hours. Finely (I mean, very finely) chop Green Chillis & Curry Leaves
2. In a grinder, finely grind the soaked urad dal. Don't add too much water, just add as much as it needs to keep the grinder working. (Yes, you can use a mixie too, but if you grind it, you'll get more for your buck!)
3. When its done, add the above finely chopped items to the ground mixture with salt and asafoetida
4. Now, take a ping-pong sized ball of this mixture, place it on your four fingers, make a small hole in the center of the vadai and slowly drop it in boiling oil
5. Keep the stove in medium flame so that you'll let the vadai cook properly and turn golden brown as well
6. In an electric stove with medium flame, it takes about 8-12 minutes for the vadai to come out properly. When its done, keep the fried vadai's on a tissue paper and you'll have a "Oh! My God! See how much oil!" moment, and that's perfectly Okay! No need to call 911...
7. Now, drop these vadai's (that is, after they've cooled down a bit) in some yummy sambhar and let it soak for atleast 6 hours. Don't worry, it won't become soggy
   

Procedure - For Sambhar

• Come on, now don't tell me you don't know how to make a Sambhar! Are you flipping kidding me?

Oh btw, one free advice - The best consistency (பதம்) for the ground mixture is, when you take it in your hand/spoon and keep it upside down, it shouldn't fall down.

Stuffed Peppers

By far, my favorite vegetable is bell pepper. I just love to buy it, cut it, cook it, eat it and the flavor of it in anything (stop your wild imagination right there! "Anything" = A vegetarian soup/salad/entree), is fantabulous.

Ingredients

1. Red Onion - 1
2. Bell (Green/Red/Orange/Yellow) Peppers - 6
3. Garlic - 4/5
4. Ginger - 1 tbsp
5. Serrano Chilli - 2
6. Potato - 1
7. Carrot - 1
8. Peas - 4 tbsp
9. Kernel Corn - 4 tbsp
10. Red Kidney Beans - 1/2 cup
11. Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
12. Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
13. Turmeric Powder - 1 pinch
14. Salt - To Taste
15. Oil - 4 tbsp (Olive/Vegetable/Canola)
16. Mozarella Cheese - 1/4 cup

Before Baking...



After Baking...

Procedure

1. Soak the Red Kidney Beans for 12 hours. Add salt to the soaked red kidney beans and pressure cook the same (one whistle)
2. Keep the stove on medium flame. Add oil & cumin seends and let it splutter
3. Finely chop Onions, Ginger, Garlic, Serrano Chilli and add it to the pan
4. Once the onions turn golden brown, add cut potatoes, carrots, peas, kernel corn & pressure cooked red kindey beans to the pan
5. Add Chilli Powder, Coriander Powder, Turmeric Powder to the above mixture and close the pan
6. Cook it like this for 10-15 minutes until the flavour of the powders gel well with the vegetables and beans
7. While this mixture is getting ready, wash the bell peppers thoroughly and cut the top portion so that it's like a cap for the bottom portion of the pepper. Goes without saying, you have to clean the seeds inside and trash them
8. Mix salt to 3 tbsp of oil and rub this salted oil mixture throughout the peppers (inside-out)
   
9. Now, stuff the vegetables and beans into each of the peppers and garnish it with cheese.
10. Close the stuffed peppers with the cut portion that and neatly arrange in a baking dish (Take a picture of the same if you'd like to post in your blog!).
    
11. If you are smart enough, you should preheat the oven to 350F before starting the stuffing so that you can shove it in oven right after you're done. Otherwise, its not the end of the world, preheat it now and put the stuffed peppers into your oven
    
12. It takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on the oven, so, after 20~ minutes, keep looking at the peppers to see if they're done. If you like it well done, you can leave it for a while, but don't get your peppers black eyed!
13. And yes, its a little painful to eat the peppers as such, so, use your expertise with a knife and fork and I hope you enjoy it

Stuffed Tandoori Aloo

Ingredients

1. Big Russet Potatoes - 4
2. Green Peas - 2 tbsp
3. Finely Chopped Red Onion - 3 tbsp
4. Serrano Chilli - 1
5. Mozzarella Cheese - 6 tbsp
6. Coriander Leaves - 1 bunch
7. Turmeric - 1 pinch
8. Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
9. Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Garlic - 4/5
11. Ginger - 1 tbsp
12. Amchoor Powder - 1 tsp
13. Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
14. Tandoori Masala - 1 tbsp
15. Oil - 2 tbsp (Olive/Vegetable/Canola)
16. Salt - To Taste
17. Cashew - 6 to 8
18. Raisins - 1 tbsp

Before Baking...



Procedure

1. Clean the Russet potatoes well in cold running water. Then, steam the potatoes with water and salt for like 5 minutes. You can 0it (or) put it in a cooker
2. When its done, peel the skin and cut the potatoes into two, length wise. Scoop the inner portion of the potatoes slowly with a spoon so that the scooped potatoes look like a small boat (Lousy example, I know, but for the lack of a better explanation, I had to do it!)
3. Don't throw away the scrap that you've scooped, we're going to need that for the filling
4. For marinating, grind the ginger, garlic, amchoor powder, chilli powder, tandoori masala, oil, a pinch of salt and a little bit of water in a blender. Take the cut & scooped pieces of potatoes and apply the above ground mixture on all sides of the potatoes. Set it aside for a few minutes
5. For the filling, take a bowl and put the scrapped potatoes, green peas, red onions, serrano chilli (chopped), mozzarella cheese (3 tbsp), Turmeric, Garam Masala, Chilli Powder, a pinch of salt and mix it really well. If you want to add little bit of hot water, please do, so that it'll jell better
6. Now, take the marinated potatoes and put the hollow portion with the filling you've prepared in #5 above. Be a little generous when you fill it
7. When you're done with the stuffing, lay the potatoes in a baking dish neatly. Garnish each filled potato with finely chopped cashew, raisins and mozzarella cheese
8. When you're done garnishing, shove it in the oven which is presumed to be preheated at 400F and ready!
9. It takes anywhere from 20-30 minutes depending on the oven, so, after 20~ minutes, keep looking to see if they're done or not
10. Serve it with Tomato Ketchup (or) Green Chutney (the kind you get in a chaat shop)

PS: The 'After Baking...' picture is not here because we ate the potatoes when they were done. Yup! the usual ஆர்வ கோளாறு!

Sweet Corn Tamale

Sincere Advice: Don't even torment yourself by trying this at home. It's so ridiculously laborious that it's not worth the time, when you're done making it. And, if you have eaten a Tamale Cake here, you will feel dumb to have tried this at home. That's your "Duh!" moment.

If you still don't want to listen to my wisdom, be my guest and try it out based on the recipe here

Baked Veggie Cutlet

Ingredients

1. Potatoes - 4 nos.
2. Carrot - 4 nos.
3. Beans - 1/4 lbs
4. Beets - 1 nos.
5. Green Peas - 1/2 cup
6. Salt - To Taste
7. Tandoori Powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Oil - 1 tbsp (I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
10. Wheat Bread - 4 slices

Before Baking...



After Baking...



Procedure

1. Boil all the vegetables with little bit of salt and peel off the skin
2. Now, mash all of the boiled vegetables with some salt, Tandoori & Chilli Powder
3. Grind the wheat bread into a fine powder in a mixie and keep it aside
4. Make patties of the mashed vegetables, and coat it with powdered wheat bread (you can just put the patty on the bread powder and it will stick onto the patty automatically)
5. Grease a baking dish or cookie sheet with some oil and keep these patties on them
6. Shove it in the oven (400F) for about 20-30 mins and you have a healthy, yet, yummy snack.

Masal Vadai

Ingredients

1. Channa/Gram Dhal - 1 cup
2. Red Onion - 1
3. Garlic - 4/5
4. Ginger - 1 tbsp
5. Green Chilli - 1
6. Crushed Red Pepper - 1/2 tsp
7. Curry Leaves - 1 branch
8. Asafoetida - One small pinch
9. Salt - To Taste
10. Oil - To deep fry

While frying...



After frying...



Procedure

1. Soak gram dal for about an hour. Finely (I mean, very finely) chop Onions, Green Chillis, Garlic, Ginger & Curry Leaves
2. In a mixie/blender, coarsely grind the soaked dal with the crushed red pepper
3. When its done, add the above finely chopped items to the ground mixture with salt and asafoetida
4. Now, take a ping-pong sized ball of this mixture and place it on a ziploc sheet (or vaazhai ilai, literally speaking) and pat to flatten it (You can sing this song though!)
5. Slowly, drop the patted vadai in boiling oil. Keep the stove in medium flame so that you'll let the vadai cook properly and turn golden brown as well.
6. Serve with Coconut/Mint Chutney and put on a lot of weight!

Okra & Tofu Manchurian

Ingredients

1. Bell (Green/Red/Orange/Yellow) Peppers - 1
2. Extra Firm Tofu - 1 pack
3. Okra - 1/4 lbs
4. Soy Sauce - 3 tbsp
5. Chilli Sauce - 2 tbsp (or based on your spicy level, you can reduce/increase it)
6. Sweet & Sour Sauce - 4 tbsp
7. Oil - 1/4 lbs.

Procedure

1. Cut the Okra's length wise and Tofu into little cubes. Deep fry them separately and have them ready
2. Cut the bell peppers into little squares and sauté them in a pan with some little oil
3. Now, add the deep fried Okra, Tofu and all of the sauces and sauté them until the sauces are well spread over the Peppers, Okra & Tofu
4. Enjoy this tasty, but unhealthy snack :)

Milagai (Mirch/Chilli) Bajji

Ingredients

1. Mini Bell (Green/Red/Orange/Yellow) Peppers - 5
2. Paprika powder - 2 tbsp
3. Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
4. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Corriander Powder - 1 tsp
6. Crushed Peanut Powder - 2 tsp
7. Besan Flour / Chick Peas Flour / Kadalai maavu - 1 cup
8. Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt - To Taste
10. Oil - 1/4 lbs.
    

Before Frying...

After Frying...


Procedure

1. The smartest way to make this Bajji is to buy the right kind of peppers. If you buy an Anaheim Chilli or a Jalapeno, you can reserve the loo for the next morning and take the day off from work, because you ain't coming out of that haven. Try to select mini bell peppers or pepper specifically for the the Bajji. You can check this in your Produce department and they should be able to help you with the Pepper's spiciness level.
2. You have to make a batter with Besan Flour, Chilli Powder & Salt. Make it a little viscous.
3. Make a paste/mixture with the rest of the powders (Paprika, Cumin, Turmeric, Corriander & Crushed Peanut Powder) & oil
4. Now, cut the peppers length wise and stuff the above mixture onto the peppers
5. Dip the above stuffed peppers onto the batter and deep fry them
6. This would be a wonderful afternoon snack especially when its cold outside. Ofcourse, its not a healthy snack, otherwise it wouldn't taste this good.