Rajma Tikki / Red Kidney Beans Cutlet

Rajma tikki is one easy scrumptious snack to make as long as u have some cooked beans on hand. I usually make these for after school snack for my son, specially on cold winter days.
Nothing like a protein loaded, warm tikki/cutlet dunked in ketchup or chutney.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked rajma,

2 bread slices,

1 tbsp ginger, minced,

1 tbsp garlic, minced,

1 tsp amchur powder,

1/2 tsp turmeric powder/haldi,

1 tsp garam masala,

3 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander leaves,

salt to taste.

Method.

• In a food processor add bread slices and make bread crumbs, add rajma and pulse a few more times, than add the rest of the ingredients and pulse again.
• Take out in a bowl.
• Make small balls and flatten slightly to make discs or long strips.
• Shallow fry in a hot skillet using little oil on medium heat.

Note.

Add minced green chilly for a more spicy tasting cutlet.

Happy Mother's Day !!

Happy Mother's day to all mom's out there.

I am a mom of two lovely kids, so being a mother myself, now I understand all the things my mother did for me.
I am truly grateful and thankful to my mom for everything she did for me n more.
Mother's Day is a very emotional day for me coz 4 years ago I lost my Ma (just 2 days before mother's day). An even after 4 years I have still not been able to accept my loss.
So every year when Mother's Day is round the corner, I feel very happy seeing the excitement in my kids eyes for their mom(me), but at the same time I feel very sad that my mom is not around for me to show her how much I care about her.
Every time my kids surround me and hug me, I just feel that wish I could do one thing and that is to give my mom a nice big hug too..........just to show her how much I love and appreciate her.

I miss my mom everyday specially living in a foreign country on the other side of the world away from my homeland. But I miss her the most on Mother's Day.
One thing is surely true though that no one can replace a mom's love and affection.

So, Ma, wherever you are and if you are seeing me then, I just want to say "Thank you for everything"

Cornmeal Idli(Gluten Free) / Steamed Cornmeal Circles.

Again these cornmeal idlis were born out of necessity to make quick idlis without using rava/semolina.

As semolina/rava idlis are quick to make but they are made of wheat(my daughter is allergic to wheat), so to eliminate wheat from the recipe I replaced the semolina/rava with fine cornmeal but otherwise just followed the rava idli recipe.

There, I created a new quick recipe to cater to my daughters need for gluten free and my crunch for time.

I liked the beautiful natural yellow hue of these idlis, without any addition of turmeric powder/haldi powder.

These Idlis can be enjoyed by all and is not limited to just for people with gluten allergy only.

Sabudana Vada/Appe (Gluten Free, Fat Free) / Tapioca Puffs.

In this part of the world, we are still getting our share of snow :-(
I wanted to make something hot n crunchy for my son for after school snack, but was not at all inclined towards a deep fried snack.

Had just made a batch of boiled potatoes, so what better way to use boiled potatoes for snack other then make tikkis or sabudana vadas, I opted for the latter :-)

I made sabudana vada but in an Appe pan/ Aeblevisker pan. They turned out pretty good, crispy on the outside and soft n mushy on the inside.

My Appe pan is non stick so I made them without a drop of oil, they are totally fat free :-)

Enjoy these guilt free vadas !!

Ingredients

3/4 cup sago,(washed and soaked in water enough to cover the sago for 1 hour then drain any water, I used mini sago pearls called as sago seeds, the size of mustard seeds),

3/4 cup potatoes, boiled and mashed,

2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts,

3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves,

1 green chilly minced,

2 tsp lemon juice,

1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera,

Method.

• Mix all the ingredients.
• Heat Appe pan(pan has many indents/depression similar to muffin pan) on medium heat.
• Make small balls of the dough and put in each indent of the appe pan.
• Let cook for 3 minutes then turn, so that it cooks on the other side.
• The other side will cook quicker, so cook may be 2 minutes on the other side.
• I got 18 Appe Sabudana Vadas from the quantity of ingredients mentioned above.
• Enjoy with whipped sweet yogurt, chutney or ketchup.

Note.

Can add a few drops of oil while cooking.

If you prefer a darker shade of browning for the vadas, cook a few minutes more on each side, but take care that they do not burn. I prefer mine just golden brown.

They were perfect snacks for my kids.

Frozen Ginger Garlic Paste.

I know I freeze a lot of things, but I tend to look for short cuts as much as possible in cooking without compromising the taste, texture and looks of anything, specially with 2 toddlers around me all the time.
I use a lot of ginger-garlic paste in my cooking but I do not have the patience to make the paste everyday.
I tried making the paste and keeping in the refrigerator, but felt that it smelt weird after a few days and also changed color which was not at all appetizing.
So now I make the ginger-garlic paste, put the paste in ice cube trays and freeze them , then just take the cubes and keep them in a zip lock bag and back in the freezer they go.
The frozen cubes retain the original color and the flavor too.
Any time I need a tbsp of ginger-garlic paste I just take out 1 cube and add to my cooking.

I also make ginger-garlic-green chilly paste in the same manner and freeze them as cubes.

Kalae Kappa/Phodi / Shallow Fried Raw Plantain Slices.

Shallow fried plantain slices are prepared in the same way as is potato slices and pumpkin slices.

These shallow fried slices are crunchy on the outside and moist n juicy on the inside, just perfect to devour with simple rice and dal.

Peel the green skin of the plantain, but do not take all the skin off, leave some on.( You can see a layer of the peel on the slices in the picture). Slice into 3/4 cm thick circles.

The rest of the ingredients and method is same as for shallow fried potato slices.

These require sprinkling of water just like potato slices to cook them all the way through.

Cornmeal Dhokla(Gluten Free) / Steamed Cornmeal Squares.

As my daughter is allergic to wheat I have learnt to adapt many recipes and make them gluten free without changing the taste n texture of the dishes.
I make this cornmeal dhokla quite often instead of rava dhokla. It has the same texture as rava dhokla only it is gluten free.
Allergic to wheat or not, this cornmeal dhokla is liked by all.

Just replace cornmeal for semolina and use the rest of the same ingredients and same procedure to prepare as rava dhokla.

Sometimes I add grated carrot/cucumber / zucchini or green peas / corn thus giving it a slight twist.

Doodhi Kappa/Phodi / Shallow Fried Pumkin slices.

In Goa Monday is a vegetarian day, and a vegetarian meal is prepared, which is usually made up of rice, dal, a vegetable and shallow fried phodis made of any vegetable like potato, pumpkin(doodhi), raw plantain banana, eggplant(vaangi), bread fruit(neer phanas), elephant yam(suran), taro root(Maadi),bittermelon(kaarle) to name a few.

Doodhi / Pumpkin is one of my favourite vegetable( actually I like all vegetables, so all veges come in my fav category :) ). Shallow fried pumpkin slices is an all time favourite in our house after the ultimate shallow fried potato slices.

The ingredients and method to prepare this is the same as Batatachi Phodi / Fried Potato Slices just substitute pumpkin for potatoes.
Another thing to note is that pumpkin cooks quicker than potatoes so these slices will be done faster than potato slices.
Any vegetable can be shallow fried in a similar manner.

Simple Bok Choy Bhaaji / Stir Fry.

I like any leafy vegetable, I buy any fresh greens that I can lay my hands on in a Chinese store and cook it just as Ma cooked any greens.

I walk in my mother's footsteps for this matter, she used to cook any kind of vegetables she could lay her hands on too.

Most of the leafy greens I cook is in a similar manner as Ma did with the "Goan trinity" of onion, green chilly and grated coconut. Adding any dal to it is optional , but it definitely enhances the taste and stretches the prepared dish a bit.

Another thing to note about simple goan vegetable stir fry is that there is absolutely no use of oil ( at least in my house). So basically it is fat free dish, now doesn't that sound good !!!!

This bok choy stir fry is prepared in the same way as the ghosali bhaaji / ridge gourd stir fry.

Ingredients
2 tbsp chana dal, washed and soaked in 2 tbsp water for 15 minutes(optional ),
4-5 cups chopped, bok choy,
1/2 onion, chopped,
1-2 green chilly, chopped,
3 tbsp grated coconut,
salt to taste,
pinch of sugar.

Method.

• Put all the ingredients in a pan.
• Cover with a lid and cook on medium low heat till the vegetable and the dal is tender.
• Add some extra water if the water dries up and the vegetable n dal is not cooked.
  

Note
Can use either chana dal or moong dal or omit it totally.