Batata Wada

Batata Wada needs no introduction, its a popular roadside snack eaten all across Maharashtra. First time I must have had batata wada was during my school days in our school canteen, then it used to be a 'must have' snack during our college days. This was probably more than 15 yrs back when they used to sell batata wada for 5 bucks (those were the days!!). Our girl gang used to literally attack the college canteen, every single day- land up eating batata wada & never got bored of eating it.
The Wada is made with boiled potatoes with added spices, coated with besan & deep fried. Batata Wada  is sandwiched between soft bun which is called Wada Pav.

Batata Wada

Ingredients
For the Wada

1. 8 medium size potatoes (boiled & mashed)
2. 2 onions (finely chopped)
3. 3 green chillies(if using spicy variety)
4. 2 " ginger
5. 6 cloves of garlic
6. handful of coriander leaves (finely chopped)
7. 3 tbsp lemon juice
8. Salt as needed
9. 2 tbsp oil for tempering
10. 2 tsp mustard seeds
11. 1 pinch of turmeric
12. 1 pinch of hing  
13. 2 stems of curry leaves
14. oil for frying

For the Batter

1. 1 cup besan (gram flour)
2. 1 tsp red chilly powder 
3. 1 tsp turmeric powder
4. salt to taste
5. pinch of baking soda
6. water as needed
7. 1 tsp hot oil

Method

1. Boil the potatoes, keep them aside to cool, mash/grate the potatoes when they come to room temperature,  
2. Grind the green chillies, ginger & garlic, add this to the mashed potatoes.
3. In a pan add oil, when it becomes hot add the mustard seeds, turmeric, hing, curry leaves & onions. fry until the onions turn transparent. keep it aside to cool.
4. Add the lemon juice & chopped coriander to the mashes potatoes, the onion mixture and mix well.
5. To make the batter mix the besan, red chilly powder, turmeric, salt & baking soda & hot oil. Add water as needed. mix it with the help of a whisk. See to it that there are no lumps in the batter. The batter should be thick but not very watery. Similar to a thick dosa batter.
6. Make flat patty of the potato mixture, dip it into the batter and deep fry until golden brown. Drain excess oil on kitchen towel.
7. Serve immediately with soft buns (pav).Batata Wada can be served with tomato ketchup, garlic chutney or fried green chillies. 
   To make the fried chillies, make a slit into the chilly, fry it on the gas stove, add salt serve immediately.

Eggless Pancakes

A very simple & easy recipe to start the New Years:- Soft, fluffy & spongy egg-less pancakes, served with maple syrup & strawberries.you can also replace maida with wheat flour

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1 cup milk

1 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp melted butter

Few drops of vanilla extract
pinch of salt

2 pinches of cinnamon powder

Maple syrup & few strawberries for serving.
Chocolate sauce (optional)
Method 

Combine the dry ingredients (Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & cinnamon powder) and mix well. Add the milk,melted butter & vanilla extract  With the help of a whisk mix everything together. See to it that there are no lumps formed.

Heat the non-stick pan on a medium flame and add a spoonful of batter. you will see some bubbles forming on the pancakes, flip the pancake after 5 minutes. Cook until done.

Serve it with the maple syrup & strawberries.
My son had his pancakes with chocolate sauce & strawberries and he loved it!

A perfect weekend breakfast!

Chatpat Veggies for BBQ

Ingredients
1 pack mushrooms
3 bell peppers ( of different colours)
½ kg cottage cheese (Paneer)
½ cauliflowe
4 table spoon curd
8-10 garlic cloves
3 table spoons salt 
4 tablespoon red chilli pepper
3 table spoon chat masala
Method
Chop mushroom into half, peppers & paneer into cubes.
Add the curd, garlic cloves, salt, red chilli powder, chat masala into the grinder and make a smooth paste. this should be little spicy and salty
Add this paste into the veggies and marinate for 12 hrs
Add these veggies and paneer on a skewers and BBQ until done
Use the remaining marination as a dip by adding little more curd if it is too salty/spicy

Please note:This recipe can also be prepared on Grill-fry pan

Gobi Manchurian

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower (florets only)

1 cup chopped onion

2 green chilly 

1 bunch spring onions

1 small green capsicum

finely chopped garlic as needed

Finely chopped ginger as needed

Soy sauce

Green chilly sauce

Oil – 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Ingredients to prepare of cauliflower fritters

4 tsp corn flour

Finely chopped garlic

Finely chopped ginger

Salt to taste

Oil to fry
1 cup water

Method

Cut the cauliflower into medium size florets & add it to the boiling water with a pinch of salt and leave it for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat before it gets overcooked and then drain the water. Keep it aside.

Make a thin batter with water using wheat flour, corn flour, ginger and garlic & salt

In a wok, heat 2 tbsp of oil, add  ginger, garlic, onions & fry till they become translucent

Now add the chopped green chillies, green onions, chopped capsicum & toss for a minute, add salt, Mix them together and keep on frying till you get rid of the raw smell.

The capsicum should be crispy.

Add soy sauce, green chilly sauce, 3 to 4 tbsp of water, mix well.

Add some more water if required and cook for a couple of minutes and turn off the stove.

Heat oil in a deep and thick bottomed pan, dip the florets in the batter & drop it in oil, Fry till golden brown. Repeat the process with the rest of the florets.

Turn both the sides and fry. Leave enough space between frying to retain the heat of oil.

Now add the fried cauliflower to it and toss it carefully till the fritters are coated with the sauce

Leave it for 5 mins.

Remove from heat and garnish with green onions.

Note: Add the fritters to the prepared sauce about 5 to 8 minutes before serving. This will keep them crispy

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
1 pack of button mushrooms (Use the big one's)
1 boiled potato (medium size)
1/2 onion (very finely chopped)
1 small green chilly (finely chopped)
3 tsp lime juice
3 sticks of coriander (use the leaves only)
1 clove of garlic (finely grated)
2 inch of cheddar cheese (finely grated)
salt & pepper as needed
2 tsp Butter for cooking mushrooms & 2 tsp for potato mixture
Method
remove the  mushroom stem with a sharp knife, soak the mushrooms in cold water.
mash the boiled potato when they are hot, add butter, the chopped onion, green chilly, lime juice, coriander, garlic, salt as per taste. mix well, see to it there are no potato lumps left.
Use a zip lock bag, pipe in the potato mixture & cut a one inch hole at one end from where you will pipe in the potato over the mushrooms.Keep aside
in a small wok add butter, add salt & pepper as per taste & fry the mushrooms in the butter until they are properly cooked, See to it that the mushrooms are well coated with salt, pepper & butter. Mushrooms doesn't take much time to cook, this procedure will take about 2 minutes.

Now take a baking dish & arrange the mushrooms over it, pipe the potato mixture into the mushroom pocket, sprinkle some grated cheese. Grill the mushrooms at 130 degrees until the cheese melts.

Don't over cook the mushrooms as they are already cooked and may shrink
Remove the mushrooms& serve immediately.

Sabudana Vada

Sabudana wada- Delicious snack eaten during fast, mostly popular as a road side snack. Sabudana Wada has a crunchy coating which melt in the mouth & leaves you craving for more. It can be eaten with a simple yoghurt dip. It goes well with a hot cup of tea.
Sabudana Wada is traditionally made during fasts like Ashadi Ekadashi or Shivratree. Elders in the family often used to follow these fast and me including all my cousins used to gorge on the delicacies made on that special day. I've grown up eating these wada's not only during fast but also during the rainy season sitting in the balcony looking at the rains with a hot cup of tea, chatting with my dear friends, cousins & family. These wada's brings back my memories of my P.G. days when my non- marathi friends used to call up mom and ask her to make her special treat while we completed our projects, feasting on the wada's.
 

Ingredients

1. 1 cup Sabudana (sago)
2. drinking water to soak sabudana.
3. ½ cup roasted peanut powder (Danyacha kut) 
4. 6 finely chopped green chillies
5. 1 big potato (boiled & mashed)
6. ½ tea spoon sugar
7. juice of lemon juice as required
8. Salt for taste 
9.  chopped coriander
10. curd if the mixture becomes too dry.
11. oil for frying

Method

1. Soak the sabudana in  drinking water for 1 hr, water level should be just above the sabudana. After 1 hr press sabudana and see if it has become soft. if not keep it in water for another ½ hr. otherwise drain excess water by transferring it into a strainer. leave aside for 2 hrs or overnight if you want to make it the next day. 
2. In a wide plate mix all the ingredients- the soaked sabudana, along with mashed potato, roasted groundnut powder, chopped green chillies, coriander, juice of a lemon, salt & sugar. 
3. make lemon size balls and flatten them to make vadas by help of your palm, if the mixture is too sticky to make vada's wet your palms.
4. heat oil in a deep kadai and fry the vada's on medium heat until they turn golden brown. remove on a tissue for excess oil to soak.Serve with jeera curd.

Ingredients for Jeera curd

1. curd 2 small bowls
2. ghee 2 tsp
3. jeera ½ tsp
4. 1 very finely chopped green chilli
5. sugar and salt as per taste
6. coriander for garnishing

Method

1. Add jeera & finely chopped chilli to hot ghee, add this to curd and mix well.
2. Add salt and sugar and garnish with coriander.

Note: Over the years, I have noticed each company's sabudana takes different time to soak. One trick for soaking sabudana is when you buy the sabudana from the shop soak a tablespoon of sabudana and note the amount of time it takes to become soft. It may differ from the regular brand you always use. 

Other Recipes for fast

Sabudana Khichadi 

Batata Cha Kiss

 Spiced Buttermilk -मठ्ठा

Chicken Strips

Hubby darling was in the mood to cook dinner for me. I grabbed this opportunity to make the most of my free time watching a movie I'd missed in the recent past. But honestly I was distracted by the delicious aroma from the kitchen & followed it (like they show in cartoons) & was surprised to see the food was almost ready to eat! it looked so juicy, moist & tender piece of meat that was ready to dig in. I guess the picture says it all :)

Ingredients

4 chicken breast

salt & pepper to marinate the chicken strips

5 tsp ready-made garlic-chilly tomato sauce

1½ tsp honey

2 tsp olive oil for cooking

Method

Cut chicken into wide strips.

heat the grill pan, while you combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Grill chicken over direct heat for 5 minutes on each side, coat with sauce. Cook another 4 – 5 minutes with the grill lid closed until chicken is no longer pink inside.

can be served with salad or fried rice of your choice.

the above quantity will serve 2 adults & 1 child

Pasta Salad

Ingredients (1)

1 cup pasta (cooked as per instructions on pack)

1 small onion, sliced

1 cucumber, chopped

1/2 capsisum, chopped

10 leaves of lettuce, finely chopped

1 cup corn kernels, thaw if you take frozen corn otherwise cook the kernels

for the vinagratte (2)

3 tsp olive oil, 1 stem chopped parsley leaves, 1 clove of grated garlic, chilli flakes salt & oregano as per taste, juice of half a lime

Method

Take a salad bowl and add all the ingredients from (1)

how to make the vinagratte?

add olive oil, lime juice, chilli flakes, salt & oregano and whisk for 1minute. add garlic, parsley mix again

toss the salad while adding the vinagratte.Serve chilled
some tips:
While cooking the pasta add olive oil so that the pasta doesnt stick to one another. Also add some salt.

Sprouts Chaat

A proud moment for my food blog. One of my recipe appeared in Saakal Times "Young Buzz" a children's daily circulated in schools in Maharashtra & Goa reaching 30,000 kids. Here's the recipe of "Sprouts Chaat". Thank you all for your encouragement & support always!

Chaat is one of the popular street food loved by people of all ages! you will find many vendors all across India serving yummy chats but I have not come across anybody serving "sprouted green moong chaat" Sprouted Moong are considered very healthy as it is rich in proteins.If sprouted moong are available, preparing this recipe won't take much time.I am sure many of you, just like me store tamarind chutney in their deep fridges so that they can enjoy any of their chaats at home within no time.Kids are surely going to love making sprouts and it will be a "fun activity" for them to see the green moong emerge into sprouts.

Ingredients
1 cup sprouts (green moong)
1 medium size onion
1 small tomato
tamarind chutney as needed
salt as per taste
red chilli powder as per taste
2 tsp chopped coriander 
4-5 tsp zero number shev
chaat masala as required
Method
Soak moong over night (or 8 hrs) in boiling hot water.In the morning rinse the water, you will notice the moong dal has is plump with light green colour. clean the moong dal  with fresh l water. now take a soft cloth and tie this moong dal into the cloth.
some tips: don't tie the cloth very tightly otherwise sprouts may not emerge.Use a casserole to store the moong dal tied in a cloth. keep this casserole in a microwave since the temperatures inside the microwave is warmer (esp during winters & rainy season)
After the sprouts emerge, add these into a mixing bowl, and add chopped onion, tomato, tamarind chutney, red chilli powder, chaat masala & salt as per taste, also add shev  and toss lightly.
Serve immediately otherwise the shev will turn soggy.

Garlic chilly Paneer

Recently I prepared garlic chilly paneer, one of the popular & favourite dish in Indo-Chinese cuisine for dinner.This recipe works well as an appetizer or with veg fried rice.As I write this post I'm craving for this spicy,tangy lip smacking recipe.

Ingredients

500 gms paneer

4-5 green chillies (slit) use more if chillies are not very spicy

15 cloves of garlic (chopped)

3 strands of green spring onions 

½ capsicum

1½ tsp-Soy sauce

1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp chilly sauce

1½ tsp garlic tomato ketchup 
½ tsp sugar

Salt to taste

cooking oil as required

Method
Slit the green chillies, chop garlic,spring onions fine.cut the capsicum into 1 inch juliennes.

Cut the paneer into 1 inch square cubes.In a wok, stir-fry the paneer in some cooking oil till they turn brown. soak the paneer in salted water for a few minutes to retain the softness
In the remaining oil, fry the green chillies, garlic for 2 mins. Add the spring onions and sauté for a minute. add the capsicum, cook for 2 minutes.

In a small bowl mix the soy sauce ,vinegar, chilly sauce, garlic-tomato ketchup, sugar, add salt but as required because the paneer is soaked in salty water.Add this sauce to the vegetables.

Now add the paneer pieces, see to it that the paneer is well coated with the sauce. If required add more chilly sauce & garlic tomato sauce.

Cook for 5 more  minutes and serve hot!
Can be served with garlic fried rice

Halloumi Bruschetta

First time I had a tomato Bruchetta (pronounced "brusketta") at an Italian restraurant & fell in love with the freshness & the simplicity of the recipe (and the best-est part being it can be prepared within 10mins) Although the traditional tomato bruchetta has basil in it I just added my favourite Halloumi cheese to this recipe along with some Indian flavours like onion & capsicum.This can be eaten as a starter or an afternoon snack.Kids are surely going to fall for its rich colours & the cheese

Ingredients

100gms Halloumi cheese

1½ tomato

½ capsicum

½ onion

few parsley leaves

olive oil as required

salt as per taste

freshly ground pepper

1 clove of garlic (sliced into half)

Bruschetta bread ½ loaf

Method

finely chop the tomatoes (squeezing the seeds and water from it), add finely chopped onion and capsicum.Mix olive oil, salt and pepper & finely chopped parsley.Toss this mixture well and keep aside for all the flavours to combine well

Grill the halloumi cheese cutting it into squares of the similar size of that of the bruschetta slice

grill it until it take this colour

now preheat oven to 180°C, slice the bread diagonally with ½ inch thickness, toast the bread from both sides and brush one of the side with the mixture of olive oil and garlic

After the slices are grilled, arrange the slice of halloumi cheese and on top of it heap the veggie topping

If Halloumi cheese is not available, grill the bread and spoon out the topping of the veggies over it, and serve immediately, for the bread might turn soggy!

Buon Appetito!  

Serves : 2persons

Paneer rolls

I would like to thank my co-sister Shilpa for sharing her paneer roll recipe with me, I remember eating these rolls during my college days from kapila - a famous food joint in Pune. But I guess I had almost forgotten about it for many years until Shilpa re-introduced these yummy rolls in my recent trip to Pune. This post goes to all the fans of "Kapila  kababs" I am not sure whether that joint still exists or no!

Ingredients
For chappati

Wheat Flour/Atta - 2 Cup

Warm Water - To make dough

Salt- To taste

oil

make chappati as usual and keep aside
For mint chutney

1 bunch of mint leaves (washed )

1 green chilli

1/2 bunch of coriander leaves

salt as per taste

lime juice

Mix all the above ingredients in a grinder and make mint chutney, keep aside 

For the Filling

½ kg Paneer (cubed)

2 tsp giner-garlic paste

3 tsp curd or as required

1 big capsicum

1 big tomato finely chopped
2 tsp gram flour
5 tsp water to mix gram flour

Oil

Salt to taste

red chilli powder as per taste

3 tsp kitchen king masala (or as required)

slices of onion soaked in salt water (to be used as garnish)

Method

In a big sauce pot add curds, kitchen king masala, ginger garlic paste, salt, red chilli powder & paneer & keep this to marinate for 15 minutes, add more curd if required.
in a sauce pan add oil & cook onion until it turns transparent, add capsicum cook for 2 mins switch off the flame. Keep aside. In the same sauce pan add paneer pieces, cook for 10 mins until the curd gets absorbed and the paneer is well cooked, add onions & capsicum, the gram flour, mixed in water so that the paneer & vegetables are mixed well. cook for 2 mins.

Now spread the mint chutney on the chappati and spread the paneer filling in the middle of the chappati, add the sliced onions and roll the chappati

grease the iron griddle (tawa) and cook the roll from both side until it become brownish

Serve immediately!

Kids Korner

Dear Mothers,

This section of my blog is dedicated to all beautiful mommy's, their beautiful kids and children of all ages. This was something I wanted to start for a while now. I firmly believe that feeding & preparing kids food helps them develop a healthy and curious attitude towards eating. 

A word of advice for all mothers of toddlers or young eaters: Don't attempt to feed the new food to your   baby when he's overly tired or sleepy. you'll know the best time to feed him when he is hungry and in a good mood to try new stuff. 

Most of these recipes can be eaten at breakfast time, eaten as snacks during the afternoon or carried in lunch boxes which is one of the most difficult task of all mothers who's kids go to school I guess.

Hope you enjoy cooking these recipes as I enjoying sharing them with you.I would love to get your feedback, suggestions and comments (if any). Please write to me on sonikhadilkar@gmail.com or "comment" on the comment section right below this post! 

Cheers and Happy cooking
Soni

Here are the recipes..............!

Pound Cake

Methi Puri

Wheat Nankatai

Rawa Cake

Mushroom, spinach & corn panini

Carrot Cake

Chicken Sandwich

Oat and Banana with Cinnamon bread

Whole wheat Scones

Wheat flour & Curd cake (Eggless)

Chocochips oats Cookies

Date & Walnut Loaf

Chocolate Muffins

Carrot Cake/Muffin

Coming up ...

Dalia upma (Broken Wheat Upma)

Rawa Idli

Rawa Cake (Semolina cake)

I have fond memories associated with this cake, my grandmother and mother used to bake this one when we were kids and we used to love the simplicity of this cake. No baking in the oven or microwaves (of course we didn't have one at that time), Simple but yet very tasty and delicious. My grandmother baked these a few times on our birthday and used to decorate this with icing sugar and butter and she did a great job then. She also added a lot of candid fruits (home-made dried orange peels) and some times gave it a marble effect just by adding some cocoa powder into it while baking.We used to have this cake with cold milk and relish it! Now a days microwave/oven has become skeleton of our kitchen. At least I cannot think my life without one. Here's the recipes for baking on both oven /gas stove! Enjoy

Ingredients

1 cup Rawa (Barik rawa)

1 cup buttermilk

¾ cup sugar (I used brown sugar, therefore the rich brown color, white sugar is absolutely fine)

1 spoon clarified butter (melted)

1 pinch of salt

2 drops of vanilla essence

1 pinch baking soda

2 pinch baking powder
1 tbsp of clarified butter residue ( तूप बेरी) (Optional)

Method

1. Mix the buttermilk, semolina& baking powder and keep aside for 2 hours
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place a rack in center of oven.
3. grease a baking tray keep aside  & in the bowl of semolina & buttermilk mixture add the sugar, ghee, salt, vanilla essence & powder into this batter, give it a mix and pour it into the baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean
4. I normally bake this cake when I made clarified butter and use the residue in the cake.

Baking on a gas stove

1. Mix the buttermilk, semolina & baking powder and keep aside for 2 hours
2. grease a baking tray & in the semolina & buttermilk mixture add the sugar, ghee, salt, vanilla essence & baking powder into this batter and pour it into the baking tray  and keep the tray on frying pan (or tava) and cover with a heavy plate(or tava) (so that heat is evenly spread)
3. Please heat both the tava's before you star baking the cake. so that heat is evenly spread.
4. bake on low flame for 30-45 minutes
5. you will know the cake is done once a toothpick inserted inside the cake comes out clean, also the whole house will smell heavenly :-)
6.  Allow it to cool before cutting it into pieces.
7. I normally bake this cake when I made clarified butter and use the residue in the cake.

 Check out the cake made by my sister, such a cute looking cake. She added chocochips in the batter.