Aloo Chop

A typical oriya evening snack. Most people just order these aloo chops or Vadas from the nearby road side snack stores. Each guy makes his a little different. This preparation is made by my mom and both my husband and I love it. In fact right after my mom came over from India, she made it for us. What jet-lag ?

I send this off to WYF:Side dish event ! In Orissa this is served with evening Chai or sometimes with Masala Mudhi (Jhaal Mudhi or Murmura)...

Ingredients

Filing

4 small potatoes boiled and mashed

1 sprig of curry leaves
2 green chilies chopped (skip for kids)
1 medium onion chopped finely
1 inch grated ginger
4-5 garlic cloves minced
1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder
handful of peanuts
salt to taste

Batter

1/2 cup of Besan
1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
1/2 tea spoon red chili powder
salt to taste
1 cup water

Oil for deep frying

How To

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non stick pan.
Add the curry leaves, onion,ginger, garlic and chopped green chilies and fry until the raw smell goes off (3-4 minutes)
Add the mashed potato and add the salt and turmeric powder.
Mix on low flame and add the peanuts (preferably dry roasted earlier - you can use raw ones too).
Keep aside and let it cool.

Prepare the batter by mixing the besan well with the salt and turmeric powder and chili powder, until no lumps remain.
Make the batter a little thick so that it coats the stuffing nicely.

Heat the oil for deep frying.
Divide the potato mixture into small balls and flatten them with your palm.
Dip each flattened piece in the batter and deep fry till golden brown.

Serve hot with ketchup or salad as I did...

Arisha pitha

This is a typical Oriya sweet and made in most households. But if you do not know the trick it either turns out hard as a rock (mostly) or crumbles on touching... Truthfully I have never made it myself and even my mom doesn't make it. I have helped by grand mom make the round balls sometimes, and it was loads of fun. But the eating part is even better.

Here is the recipe as described by my mom....

This goes to Mithai Mela event hosted by Srivalli

Ingredients

Rice- 2 cups (do not use parboiled rice)
Jaggery or Sugar-2 cups
Ghee-2 cups
Salt to taste

How to

Soak the rice in water overnight.
Remove water and pound the rice to make powder.
The Rice has to be ground but not too fine.
Take 1 cup of water and add the sugar or jaggery and heat it.
Keep stirring it until you get a slightly sticky consistency.
Add the rice powder slowly into the sticky misture and keep stirring on low fire until you get a dough like consistency.
Heat ghee in a bowl.
Make small round shape from the dough with your hand while it is still warm.
Deep fry them in low fire until they turn brown on both sides.

These stay fresh for a month!

Thank you!

The days heave been busy and chaotic. While I had plans of posting more often, things turned very busy at work. Then one day I logged in to see a very nice award from the sweetest blogger friend I have - Priya Sriram. And guess what - it is my first award and I am so thrilled! She is an awesome blogger (http://vishnucooks.blogspot.com/- check out the clicks first!) and her sharing this award with me is of course an honor! Thank you Priya...

Few days later Sangeeta shared the same award too. She has a beautiful site (http://geetlovetocook.blogspot.com/ don't you love the site name itself...) and has loads of unique dishes. Love her site and was really touched to get 2 awards from her... Thank you Sangeeta - don't have enough words to say it of course...

So while I am figuring out this blogging world, thank you my friends for all the encouragement and the nice awards. Other blogging friends who visit my site, these awards are for you! Please accept them and feel free to forward them.

And while we are on this happy note, I have to share that my Mom is here now. So it should be few months of just eating, clicking and posting and no cooking! Hurray! She came with 2 suitcase full of stuff for all of us. My kids didn't leave her room for 2 whole days - peaking into each of her suitcases and unpacking sorting everything several times... My daughter loves the variety of clothes she gets and my son just loves having Aei come over (Aei is Oriya for grandmother). I of course love having Mom over. She comes with Arisha pitha (special Oriya sweets) from my grand mom's place. I just love eating these pithas - unfortunately I don't know how to make them.

Pana Sankranti

Happy Oriya New Year! We celebrate Oriya New Year on Pana Sankranti which is considered the 1st day of the Solar Calendar. The day is called Pana Sankranti - since a special drink called Pana is served on this day. While I did know somethings (knowledge was limited to having the yummy Pana) about Pana Sankranti growing up, I learnt a lot more over the last few days by quizzing my Mom and reading up on the net. Here is some details I found on the importance of Pana Sankranti in Orissa from Festivals of India

While I would love to give the exact recipe of the Pana - I don't have it. Here is my version of it. It was yummy and everyone enjoyed it at home. So here goes my version of Pana.

Ingredients

1/2 cup freshly made paneer
1/2 cup apple peeled and cut into tiny pieces
1/4 cup mango peeled and cut into tiny pieces
1/4 cup banana peeled and cut into tiny pieces
1/2 cup Honey or Jaggery
1/2 cup yogurt
2 cardamom
handful of cashews ground separately
fistful of fresh grated coconut (optional)

How to

Put all the fruits, yogurt, paneer, cardamom and sugar in a mixie and mix well. Add about a cup of water to it and mix well. Serve fresh with ground cashew and fresh shredded coconut sprinkled on top...

Tomato Pickle

If you have red tomatoes and want to eat something sour and spicy - try this fresh Tomato Pickle.

This is a new recipe that I learnt from my Nanny! She makes this for herself sometimes when she is bored of our typical Oriya food. Last time when I tasted it - I was hooked... She makes it really, really spicy and the recipe here is hers... So if you can't stand the spice level, reduce the green chilies. Its yum and easy to make...

Sending this off to FIC - Red + Green event which is hosted this month by Neha of easyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com and brainchild of Harini of SunshineMom of TongueTinglers.

Ingredients

4 Tomatoes - cut into small pieces
1 small onion - cut into small pieces
4 green chillies - slit in 1/2
handful of peas
bunch of coriander leaves
Salt to taste
1 table spoon Oil (mustard oil tastes good - others work fine too)
1/4 tea spoon Methi seeds

How to

Heat oil in a pan and add the methi seeds. Once it sputters, add the onions and green chillies and fry.
Once the onion starts changing color, add the tomatoes and salt and keep frying in low fire.
In about 10-15 min, the tomatoes get cooked through and you have a nice paste like consistency. Add the green peas and coriander leaves and cook for 1 more minute.

Serve cooled with chapatis or rice. It stays fresh in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Sunday ka Anda

I remembered the jingle growing up 'Sunday ho ya Monday - roj khaye Ande'... Ha-ha! No we don't eat eggs everyday - but this is a quick and easy protein food. Its very difficult to get my daughter to eat even 1 egg a week, so this tasty recipe helps her to gobble down 1 or 2. Its a different story with my son. He likes his eggs as omelet or scrambled!

This goes to Event for Eggs hosted by Sudeshna

Ingredients

6 Boiled eggs
6-8 Boiled potatoes skinned and cut in 1/4
3-4 Table spoon of Oil
1/2 table spoon of ginger garlic paste
1 large onion sliced thinly
1/2 tea spoon of garam masala
1 large onion cut into small pieces
Salt to taste
Turmeric to taste
Chili powder to taste

How to

Take a little bit of oil in a pan and fry the boiled and peeled eggs in it for a few minutes until they turn nicely golden. Keep the eggs aside in a plate.
Pour the rest of oil and fry the onions. Once it starts changing color, add the turmeric and chili powder and the ginger garlic paste.
Keep stirring frequently until the oil starts leaving the mixture.
Add the cut tomatoes and salt and boiled potatoes and let it cook for a few minutes.
Add the garam masala and little bit of water.
Cook for a few additional minutes and add the eggs (either whole or slit in 1/2).

Yummy Spring rolls

Any trip to the local chinese restaurant is not complete without this appetizer. But this spring roll is with a twist - relatively healthy!

Most weekends its a mad scramble getting kids to activities, cleaning house and cooking for the week. Last weekend was a little different. My friend was coming over with her Mom and I wanted to experiment - try something different. Of course Pakoras were on the menu but I wanted to try something else too. I love spring rolls and I started surfing for an easy recipe of spring and was delighted to find a non-fried version. I made it on Saturday night and it was polished off in seconds and so I had to make a second batch when my friend's family came over.


This recipe is a little different from my usual easy ones. Most of my recipes take less than 10-15 min to make, this one is adapted from Madhuram's Eggless cooking and did take me about 1 hr to put together.

Ingredients

1/2 of a small Red cabbage - shredded
6-7 Mushrooms - cut into 4 pieces
1 carrot - cut into small pieces
1/4 cup of tofu - cut into small pieces (replace with paneer if you don't like tofu)
2-3 spring onions - cut into small pieces
1/2 red onion - slices thinly
1 table spoon of soy sauce
1/2 table spoon vinegar
1 table spoon of Chili sauce (optional)
2-3 table spoons of Oil
Salt to taste
Thawed Pastry sheets - leave in the refrigerator overnight

How to

1st chop the vegetables as suggested above.
Preheat over to 350 F
While the oven is preheating, take 2 table spoon of oil and saute the vegetables (start with the sliced Onions). Once all vegetables are cooked, add the tofu and salt and stir fry for 1/2 min. Add the sauces and vinegar and take the mixture off the fire and let it cool for a few minutes.

Take a couple of the thawed pasty sheet, fill with the vegetable mixture above and roll. I didn't close the edges but nothing spilled out.
Brush some oil on the baking pan and put these rolls in.
Bake for 30-35 min, turning once in between and brushing with oil again.

Eat fresh off the oven - tastes great. It tastes as good or better than the the deep fried version.

Dahi Ambula

My friend had come over from NJ with her Mom and her little one. Her daughter just turned 6 months and she was such a pretty princess. Wow - what a no-fuss baby! She was a darling.

Whenever we go to her place, she serves a whole buffet. Two things that is always there in the spread is the Dahi ambula khatta and her awesome chocolate cake. So when she came over, she got both my favorites. I am sure she won't mind me posting her Mom's recipe here. It just tastes awesome....

This is a typical oriya chutney or khatta. It tasted good with everything and best with pakhala (special rice dish of orissa) of course. I can eat a whole bowlful of it with nothing else. In fact that's what I did after I took this picture.

This goes to Shama for Village Special Recipes

Ingredients

3-4 Ambula (Dried mangoes - stays fresh in air tight containers for months)
1 tea spoon of fresh mustard paste
1 cup of yogurt (beaten well)
1-2 Green chillies
1/4 tea spoon Mustard seed
1 sprig of curry leaves
1/4 table spoon oil

How to

Put the ambula in water and let it soften for 1/2 hr.
Mix the salt and mustard paste and yogurt nicely. Add water to yogurt if you like to change consistency.
Heat oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seed and let it sputter. Add the curry leaves and green chillies and add to the yogurt mixture.

Serve fresh or leave it the refrigerator and enjoy for 1 week!

Chicken Pakoras

My blog without an entry for Chicken Pakoras would not be possible. Did I tell you everyone at my home loves fried food? And this is an all time favorite of my husband. I have heard stories that his Aunt makes the best chicken pakoras. Each time she used to make them for the whole family, he would finish it all off and the women in the house (2 other kids and Aunt) would have to eat bread for dinner! Of course mine were not as great I am sure - but he did say it reminded him of his Aunt ones... Hey that's a big star!
I had some minced Chicken from the store and I tried this on a whim. It takes 5 minutes to mix, no marinating required (though you could do it for 1/2 hr if you want) and then fry and eat fresh.


Ingredients

1/2 cup of minced chicken (store bought)
1/4 cup bread crumb
1 large onion cut into small pieces
1 tea spoon of ginger-garlic paste
1-2 green chillies cut into small pieces
1/2 tea spoon of garam masala
1/4 tea spoon coriander powder
1/4 tea spoon cumin powder
2 table spoon of vinegar
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Cilantro for garnish

How to

Mix the chicken with all other ingredients other than Oil and Cilantro and leave for 5-10 minutes.
Get the oil hot and make balls of the mixture above and fry these in low fire.
Serve them hot.

My husband loves to eat his with bread and ketchup while I love mine with Mint chutney!

Spicy Vegetable Noodles

Growing up in my sleepy town, I don't think I ate Noodles until Maggie was introduced. Maggie was a big hit item back then and used to be eaten for special occasions initially for few years. But this is an all time favorite at home now. Usually on Sunday evenings, when we are tired of cooking and running around and I want something quick and easy I put this together. It has plenty of vegetables and doesn't require much coaxing or bribing to eat the vegetables. Add some paneer and tofu and you have the protein too. Again a simple and easy dish that is a keeper for one and all...

Ingredients

1 packet of Noodles (Hakka Noodles from the Indian store - cooks in 4 minutes)

1 carrot - thinly sliced

4-5 Beans - cut into small pieces

handful of frozen peas

1 Large Onion - thinly sliced

Capsicum - thinly sliced (sorry didn't have on the day I took the picture)

4 Spring Onions - cut into small pieces (optional)

1 Table spoon of oil

Salt to taste

2 table spoon of Soy Sauce

1 tea spoon vinegar

1 table spoon of chili sauce (added after the kids are served)

Freshly ground pepper - add to taste

How to

Boil water in a big pan. Add salt and the noodles and cook for 4-5 minutes (or follow instructions on the packet).

Once the noodles is cooked through, drain the water and let some cold water run through it (this stops the cooking right away and prevents your noodles from getting soggy). Add 2 drops of oil to this cold noodles so that it doesn't stick and keep aside.

Take a wok. Let it get hot. Add the oil and add the vegetables (start with the onions first) and saute for a few minutes. Add the salt. Don't over cook the vegetables.

Add the noodles, mix well and serve to the kids piping hot.

Add the sauces for the adults and eat piping hot.

This goes to Sahaja for her Single Serving Recipes