Fried Baby Corn with Salt & Pepper

The rainy months bring an abundance of corn into the vegetable market. Corn is highly nutritious and can be enjoyed in many ways... roasted corn on the corb with salt, chilli and lemon rubbed onto it, steamed corn, baked corn, corn with methi as a vegetable, corn in salad and also in starters like canopies, corn and cheese keish etc. Here’s an easy baby corn recipe for a starter or side dish that you could easily put together and am sure will be a big hit with family and friends.
Ingredients:

• 1 packet baby corn
• 3 spring onions finely chopped
• 1 capsicum finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons corn flour or maida
• Oil for frying
• 1 tsp. Butter
• Salt and Pepper to taste
Procedure:
Make a thin batter of cornflour and water with a little salt. Dip each baby corn in the batter and deep fry in a kadai with hot oil over a medium flame till crisp and golden brown. Remove from oil and keep aside.

In a frying pan melt butter on a low flame, add spring onions and capsicums and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add fried baby corn, salt and pepper and toss around. Remove from fire. Serve hot with Chillie sauce or Schezwan sauce.

Food in France

I am just back after a week in charming Cannes (Cannes Festival of Creativity) and experienced in Big measure the natural beauty, warm sunshine, lovely people and exotic food. It's a pity that being a vegetarian I couldn't sample the sea-food delicacies at all the dinners that we got invited to. At a french food restaurant in the old town, I was surprised to see that they actually served 10 inch prawns that were devoured by my colleagues and friends.

While there is limited choice for vegetarians, I enjoyed some very good pizzas, soups, sandwiches, sauted vegetables, khous khous and salads with delicious dressings. At one of the meals I particularly enjoyed a light and tasty starter which had a cheese and herb filling wrapped in a crispy outer covering, shaped like our samosa, served on a bed of stewed apple slices. The one thing that stands out for all french cooking is the delicate flavours, and being extremely light on the stomach. Every meal also has a variety of freshly baked breads and crossaints to accompany the meal and of course the french love their wine, so there was a variety for every occassion.

Since I do eat egg, I really had a go at the exotic range of French confectionery and desserts - pastries, tarts, pies, mousses and several others.



Bon Appetit

The Rains are upon us it's beautiful outside. A perfect atmosphere to have a hot plate of Pakodas with Masala / Adrak Chai or Filter Coffee. So let's get into the kitchen and quickly dish up what is making our mouth water.

Ingredients
1 potato peel and cut into thin slices
1 capsicum cut into 1 inch wide vertical strips
A few spinach leaves minus stalk (palak)
A few thin slices of doodhi (pumpkin optional)
1 cup gram flour (Besan)
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp ajwain
Few coriander leaves finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Pinch of Soda Bi-carb

Procedure
Put gram flour in a big bowl. Add the dry spices and coriander leaves and make a thick batter with water. Make sure there are no lumps (like consistency of custard). Keep aside for about 10 minutes.

Heat oil (to reach about 1/3 of Kadai)on high flame. Dip the sliced potatoes and the other vegetables one by one in the batter. Take out excess batter and put in hot oil one by one. Reduce flame a little and let the Pakodas fry, turning with a sieve spoon till they are golden brown on both sides. Take out Pakodas from the kadai with the help of sieve ladle and take them out on a plate covered with tissue to absorb any extra oil. Arrange in an attractive glass plate or dish and serve with tomato ketchup green chutney pickle or coconut chutney.

Dahi Wada

Most Indians love Dahi Wada as a dish in a chat party or as an accompaniment to a meal or even as a snack. Dahi Wadas are made and served differently in different parts of the country with a different topping or a tadka. While, all communities consider Dahi Wada as a delicacy, it is rare to find soft and fresh Dahi Wadas that melt in your mouth, I am sharing with you today the Sindhi way of making and serving Dahi Wadas and I hope you enjoy them as much as my guests do.
Ingredients:
• 1 cup Udad dal
• ½ inch piece ginger
• 1 green chilli
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• Salt
• A few coriander leaves finely chopped
• Curds of 1 litre milk
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• Oil for frying
• Pepper, chilli powder and cummin seed powder to taste
Procedure:
Soak udad dal in water for 5 to 6 hours. Now grind with ginger & green chilli to fine paste. Add cummin seeds, juice of ½ lemon and salt. Mix well. Heat oil in kadai. Make small balls of mixture and deep fry till golden brown. The Wadas are now ready. Before serving boil water in a pan and in the boiling water add the Wadas and put off the flame and soak Wadas for 5 - 10 minutes till the Wadas are very soft. When cool squeeze out water from each wada. Blend curds, add salt and put in the wadas in an attractive glass bowl. Before serving add a little more blended curd and garnish it with cumin seed powder, red chilli powder, pepper and coriander leaves. Serve with tamarind & date chutney or green chutney (optional).