So Cheesy

This weekend whether you are inviting friends over or chilling out at home, you might like to try making yummy, melt in the mouth cheese balls as a perfect accompaniment with drinks or as a starter for a good meal or inbetween meal snacks.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 100 gms cheese grated
• 1 ½ cups gram flour
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 green chilli
• ¼ tsp soda bicarb
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

Procedure:
Make a thick batter with gram flour, grated cheese and other ingredients and a little water. Keep aside for about an hour.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry small balls of the batter on a medium flame till golden brown on the outside and well cooked on the inside. Serve hot with chutney / ketchup.

Masala Koki

As the weekend approaches, one thinks of ways to relax, chill-out and have a couple of leisurely meals which are a luxury for all big city residents. Today I share a recipe for a quick very tasty and rich breakfast ideal for winter weather that we are experiencing in Mumbai.

This is a typically Sindhi recipe, which can be relished for breakfast with the following accompaniments. A bowl of dahi and papad, mango, lemon or any other sour pickle, an omlette, fried egg, boiled egg or even egg bhurji. Enjoy Masala Koki by itself or with any of these accompaniments and top it up with a hot cup of tea, coffee or horlicks and you have a truly satisfying and yummy breakfast that is going to set your weekend off to a great start!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• Small bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped
• ¾ cup pure ghee
• Salt & pepper to taste

Heat ½ cup ghee and add to flour. Mix in onion, green chillies, coriander leaves, salt & pepper and knead it into soft dough with some water. Divide dough into 6 portions. Heat tawa/griddle and reduce flame, flatten each portion into a round thick chapatti ¼ inch thick and cook on tawa over slow flame moving gradually. When both side are evenly covered with brown spots fry each side with ½ tsp. pure ghee till crisp and golden brown. Serve hot with curds and papad.

Dabal - Ka - Meetha

What I am sharing today is a quick and easy to make delicious dish for those with a sweet tooth and specially great for cool days that we are currently enjoying in Mumbai. Dabal-ka-meetha can be had for a Sunday breakfast or as a hot desert to wrap up a satisfying Indian meal. It is best had hot just out of the pan and if you are in the mood for a richer experience, you could top it up with a little malai or rabdi for the ultimate satiating experience.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices bread
• 1 ½ cup milk sweetened with a little sugar
• ¾ cup sugar
• 6 cardamoms ( shelled) / 2 tbsp rosewater
• Oil for frying

Procedure:

Heat sugar with one cup of water and cardamom seeds. Let it boil on a low flame for 2 to 3 minutes. Shut off flame. Pour milk in a dish. Heat oil in a frying pan or kadai. Dip each slice of bread in milk. Squeeze out extra milk and fry till golden brown. Dip each fried slice of bread in sugar syrup and serve hot.

Bajra Roti - A Winter Favourite

Winter is a good time to try out recipes that are slightly heavy on stomach because one's appetite is much better in winter and one can exercise more in winter enabling you to eat richer food. A good addition to the winter meal is bajra rotis which are delicious and highly nutritious. While kneading the dough for bajra rotis, add finely chopped green chillies, onion, coriander leaves, salt and pepper to bajra flour along with 2-3 tps. of cooking oil. Knead like you would regular wheat flour dough. Heat the tava / non-stick pan and roll-out rotis that are slightly thicker than regular wheat flour rotis. Place roti on a hot tawa and wait for bubbles to appear. Flip to the other side and cook for 1-2 minutes. Pour a few drops of oil on each side to make the crisp on the outside.

If you like,instead of oil you can use pure ghee for the rotis. Also, the rotis can be made without masala and had with honey, jam, or melted jaggery to wrap up your meal.

Dessertilicious

Winter is here and so are delicious, juicy strawberries that make most of us in Mumbai drool. While strawberries are great with ice-cream or fresh cream and in exotic desserts and tarts, they can also make a yummy and nutritious jam which can brighten up any breakfast table.

Here's my simple, quick recipe for totally natural home-made strawberries jam.

I am sharing the proportions. You can decide the quantities that you want to try out with.

Wash strawberries and remove the top green crown, slit each strawberry into two vertically. Measure the strawberries as number of cups / bowls. For every two cups / bowl of strawberries measure 1 cup of sugar.

In a thick-bottomed pan, add the cut strawberries and the measured sugar and cook on slow flame. Keep stirring every couple of minutes. The strawberries will initially give out their juice and after a while the mixture will start to thicken. Let it thicken till it is of tomato-sauce-like consistency, put off the flame and allow to cool. Please note that jam will become thicker when cooled.

When completely cool fill in jar and refrigerate. Since this jam has no preservative added, it needs to be refrigerated.

The home-made strawberry jam tastes great on hot buttered toast, chappatti, hot puris, pancakes etc.