Moong Chilla

I am reviving this blog since I have moved back to Delhi and am motivated to cook.

My colleague is on a weight loss regime and has replaced her rotis with moong chilla. It is very healthy... with lots of proteins and very less carbs. I had taken the recipe from her and tried it out earlier with a few modifications. There are many variations on this online.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup green moong daal (makes 4-5 chillas)
- 1 onion
- 1 tomato
-  1 green chilly
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder

Method:

- Soak the green moong overnight

- Crush the moong with ginger garlic paste, salt and red chilli powder in a mixer with a little water. It should be a thick batter and not very thin. It should be as thick as a dosa batter



- Add onion, tomato and green chilly to the batter. Mix. You can also add other veggies like carrots. I will try next time with carrots

- Heat a non stick tawa. Add some oil.. spread it on the tawa. Add 3-4 spoons of batter and spread it out. It will not spread smoothly but use a spoon to prevent any gaps in the middle

- Cook till it becomes brown. When the underside is cooked, it will be easy to flip. Flip and cook well. Cook on medium or low flame so that it does not remain uncooked inside



- Serve hot.

This is a time consuming recipe so not the most suitable for weekdays. If you want to have it as a roti, don't add veggies.

Healthy Smoothie

Anita tweeted the recipe for this very, tasty and healthy recipe for a strawberry banana smoothie. I tried it today and loved it.

Ingredients:

- 6-7 strawberries... it is ok if they are not very sweet
- 1 banana- a ripe one. It will give sweetness and there is no need for sugar/honey
- 2-3 tbsps of curd...

Blend in a mixer. I expected it to turn out sour but it was quite good.

Daal Bhaati

I hail from a small town in Gujarat which is 3-4 hours away from Rajasthan and so some of the Rajasthani food is available in our town... Daal Bhaati is very famous. My mom makes fabulous daal bhaati. It is made very frequently during winter. Sometimes when we are not in the mood for cooking we just order the daal bhaati from small restaurants which serve spicy garlic chutney along with it.

In November'11, I decided to make daal bhaati at home for the first time. Generally, bhaatis are made in a special cooker but I made it in the microwave and it was just as good.

How do you eat it? Break the bhaati into small pieces, pour the daal over and eat with hands/spoon.

Bhaati- nos 7 small ones

• Add 1.5 cups flour (regular one), lots of oil (triple the quantity you would use when making regular chapattis), some salt and little haldi. Knead the dough with little water. It has to be very, very hard... as hard as you can make it. Make flat oval shapes (you can even make round ones)


• Boil water in a big vessel. Put the bhaatis in them. They will be done once they come on top. It takes around 10-15 mins. Ensure that the water completely covers the bhatis


• You can either cook them in a tandoor (available everywhere) for 10-15 mins. Heat a tandoor, put the bhaatis on the grill, cook covered. Once the top becomes firm and brown, turn and cook the other side till they also become brown


• For microwave, mine has an automatic setting and cooked in 15 mins. For others, I guess the convention mode will have to be used. Put bhaatis on a tava, place tava on high grill and cook on high for 7-8 mins. Turn the bhaatis and cook for another 7-8 mins

Dal (serves 3-4 people)

• Boil 1/4 cup tuvar dal, 1/4 cup urad dal and 1/2 cup moong chilke wali dal. The idea is to use 3 types of dal in this ratio
• Crush the dal once boiled. Add the water leftover from boiling bhattis (why throw away nutrients?)
• Add 1 chopped tomato, salt, green chillies, salt. Boil
• In another pan, heat oil. Add jeera, hing, 1 small chopped onion, red chilli powder, haldi.
• Add the mixture to the dal and let it boil
• After 5 mins add nimbu/tamarind paste

Serve the bhaatis with ghee.

Jam filled muffins

I made these way back in Nov'11.

I took the recipe from Anita's blog.

Ingredients

-1 and 3/4 cups Flour
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 tablespoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2/3 cup milk
-1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
-2 eggs
-1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
-1/2 cup jam  ( I used peach jam)

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400F
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat eggs, milk, butter and lemon rind.
4. Pour into the dry ingredients and the stir until moistened.
5. Spoon half batter, make a well, add jam, spoon the remaining batter and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden.

Tutti Fruti cup cakes

I posted this in Feb'12.

I went shopping for groceries at Modern Bazaar in Gurgaon which stocks a lot of imported stuff... came across tutti fruti.

Few months back I was looking for tutti fruti to add in cupcakes and could not find them anywhere. What a bummer. This time I was inspired- reached home at 8 pm and started making cupcakes batter. The recipe was taken from Maria Goretti's blog (she was a VJ on MTV and is the wife of Arshad Warsi). The batter looked fab and I was looking forward to devouring the cupcakes. Unfortunately, I left the microwave on preheat for a very long time. It conked off and wouldn't turn on. I had to throw away the batter. I was planning to get it repaired on Sunday and resume baking.

But I tried turning the microwave on in the morning and it worked. Yoohoo. I returned from work, did the whole thing again and baked a bunch of lovely cupcakes.
Below is the recipe taken from MG's blog.

Cupcakes
1 1/4 cup , self rising flour
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
Tutti Fruti (not in original recipe- added by me)

Method:

Pre heat oven to 250 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.. Mine took 10 mins only and then I turned it off.

1.Sift the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
2.In another small bowl, stir the milk, vanilla and almond extracts together. I used essence instead of extract.
3.In a large bowl, with the hand mixer on medium, beat the butter and sugar, until it lightens in colour about 3 minutes.
4.On low speed, add the flour to the butter mix in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, till its just about blended and set aside.
5.In another large bowl , beat the egg whites with an electric beater till it is nice and shiny white , smooth and nice and stiff. Stop beating when it starts looking like snow... you will see the peaks. This is the hardest and most boring part.
6. Stir about 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter, with the electric beater , then stop and with a spatula , just fold the rest of the beaten egg whites in.
7. Take the tutti fruit on a plate... sprinkle some flour and mix them together. This will prevent them from settling at the bottom. Add into the batter with a spatula.
7. Put the batter into your muffin moulds , they make about 6 and cook them at 160 degrees for 17 minutes, and the little white poppykins are ready , take them out and leave them to cool....

Chikoo Shake

I am trying to eat as healthy as possible these days and scouting for new recipes in that regard. I drink milk everyday. When I was a kid my mom would force me to drink milk every morning. I never liked it... and now it has become a habit. I feel uneasy on mornings when there is no time to drink milk. I hate plain milk and need to add flavor. But is that healthy? Not as healthy as I would like it to be.
I have switched to chikoo shakes. It is the healthiest option in summers.

Ingredients:
- 1 chikoo
- 1/2 glass skimmed milk
- 2 drops of honey (I do not use sugar... honey is a healthier option)

Method:
- Cut the chikoo. Put it in a mixer jar. Add some milk and honey
- Turn on the mixer
- Add rest of the milk. Turn on mixer
- Serve

Nutella Lave mug cake

This is the easiest cake I have made. It was quite a rage last year with many food blogs featuring it.

Ingredients:

 - 4 tablespoons self rising flour (maida), sifted

- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

- 4 tablespoons caster sugar

- 1 medium egg

- 3 tablespoons Nutella

- 3 tablespoons milk

- 3 tablespoons olive oil

- 2-3 teaspoon chocolate chips

Method:

- Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips.
- Beat well with a whisk till smooth and blended.
-  Put the batter in 2-3 mugs 3/4th full. Mine was enough for 2 small mugs.
- Add 1 tsp of chocolate chips in each mug and push it through the batter.
- Microwave on high for 1.5 mins. I did it for 1 min and the bottom half was not completely cooked... which was ok since I liked the oozing chocolate. If you microwave for a longer time, it will become completely cooked and lose the oozing chocolate.

You can even add whipped cream... or strawberries and jazz it up a little bit.