Lasagna

This is gonna be one of those special recipes. Yeah, this recipe is from my youngest contributor to the blog. Her name is Shiny and I suppose shez in her eighth grade...She did this lasagna during our first meetup...V have moved to AZ recently, n her's was the first Indian family I encountered :) I'm glad they were the first...They were such a lovely family, who made me feel at home, nt wen I first saw 'em...it was even before tat...yeah, wen I first spoke to 'em over phone :) I've been quite missing my large rocking band of frnz from IL...looks like I've settled in a similar group nw...no place is gud wen u don't have frnz to talk n share...n tat too for me, who spends most of my time talking...talking...n talking, I NEED FRNZ alltime :)

Coming to Shiny....Shez one of those well mannered kids around...amazing part of her being, she loves to experiment cooking at tis young age...I swear, I was nowhere arnd the kitchen at her age...to be more precise, nt even till i got married and "had" to cook...I knw itz nt too much of a proud secret to share :( still got to accept the truth...Time to present, Shiny's Lasagna to u all nw :)

Prep Time: 20 Min
Cook Time: 45 Min
Ready In: 1 Hr 5 Min
Original Recipe Yield: 9x13

Ingredients :

• 1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles
• 4 cups ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and lay lasagna flat on foil to cool.
In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, Parmesan, eggs, salt and pepper; mix well.
In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat and saute garlic for 2 minutes; stir in spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. Heat sauce until warmed through, stirring occasionally, 2 to 5 minutes.
Spread 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with a layer of noodles. Spread half the ricotta mixture over noodles; top with another noodle layer. Pour 1 1/2 cups of sauce over noodles, and spread the remaining ricotta over the sauce. Top with remaining noodles and sauce and sprinkle mozzarella over all. Cover with greased foil.
Bake 45 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and top is golden.

Note: We did take a pix of it...will upload it soon...
@ Shiny : Thanks a ton for the wonderful dish darl...

Maida honey biscuits:

This was a recipe which I came across in some TV program. Since I don't have much of a sweet tooth and also trying to stay on a diet these days, there is no way that I might try out this quick yet yummy recipe in the near future....Me not going to try it out, isn't going to stop me from sharing the recipe :) Here you go....

Preparation:

From maida, make a dough similar to the one made for poori. Then spread it out like poori after applying some oil in hand and dusting in maida. Make some rectangles from the poori. Fry them in hot oil.Fry till golden brown and remove it once done.

In another pan, add butter. Add cashews + badam + pista + dry fuits and saute till well fried. Cool it. Transfer the fried biscuits to this.Once cooled add honey to it.

Cucumber salad/Raita

Since I'm stuck on to my plan of making some healthy salads for hubby dear these days, i try to come up with some variations in salads everyday. This one was passed from one of my friends. The recipe sounded more like a raita when I got it from my buddy...bt who cares...cos the salad/raita was good and tatz wat matters :)

Preparation:

To finely chopped cucumber add thick yogurt. Add very less yogurt. Do not add like you add for raita.

In a pan , heat oil and once it is hot, temper with some urad dhal, dry red chillies and curry leaves. Add this to the salad. Add salt and pepper as req. Also garnish with some coriander leaves.

It was yummy. So try it out.

Simple Mushroom Thokku

Ingredients:

• Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Turmeric pdr - 1/4 tsp
• Chilli pdr - as req
• Coriander pdr - as req
• Mushroom - 1 box
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp (opt)

Preparation:

In a pan, heat some oil...add mustard seeds (opt)...Once the seeds splutter, add onion and saute till it changes to brown. Then add tomato to this and saute till it becomes mushy. Add mushroom, salt, chilli pdr and coriander pdr. Cook in a closed pan for 5 minutes. Yummy Mushroom thokku is ready. Goes excellent as a side dish for rice. Can also be had with rotis.

Kara Poli

(tried to make like the one we get from Sri Krishna sweets Came out well ... )

Ingredients :

for dough :

• Maida flour - 2 cups
• Turmeric powder - little
• salt - little
• Oil

for stuffing :

• Potato - 4
• Onion - 1
• Red chilli powder or green chillies
• Jeera powder - 1/4 tsp
• Dhaniya powder - 1/4 tsp.

Method :

for dough :

• In a bowl add maida flour + turmeric powder + salt + oil and add water little by little and knead the dough and set aside for atleast 2 hours ..

for stuffing :

Boil potato and mash it well... Chop onions finely and keep it ready. In a Kadai add 2 tsp. of oil , once it is hot add onions + salt + chilli powder or green chillies + dhaniya powder + jeera powder and saute well till it becomes golden brown colour now add the mashed potatoes and mix well and allow it to cool then make small balls of the potato masal and keep it ready ...
 

for Poli :
 

Take small amount of dough and flatten it with hands by applying oil in your hands ...the procedure is same as we make sweet poli or stuffed parathas place the potato masal in the middle and close it with maida dough from all sides then gently again flatten it with hands .Now heat a tawa , and place this poli and heat it on both the sides ...by adding little oil ...hot hot kara poli is ready.

GG-CC Brinjal Curry

I know the recipe name sounds different....trust me, the taste was equally different and nice...wanna give it a try...here comes the recipe :)

Well, to start off, reason behind the name...GG - Ginger Garlic, CC - Chilli, Corriander :) Howz tat ???

Ingredients:

• Ginger - 1 inch
• Garlic pods - 4
• Green Chilli - 1 or 2
• Coriander leaves - 4 or 5 strings
• Brinjal - 5 small or half of a large eggplant (cut into small cubes)
• salt - as req

Tempering:

• Oil
• Mustard seeds
• Urad dhal
• Dry red chilli - 1
• Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

Once you cut the brinjals into small cubes make sure you put them into salted water with turmeric so that they don't discolor.

Grind ginger, garlic pods, green chilli and coriander leaves to a coarse paste without adding any water.

In a pan, heat some oil, temper it with the above listed tempering ingredients and then add the brinjal cubes. Once they are almost cooked, add the ground masala to it and cook on a low-medium flame,covered, for 10 minutes. Add salt as req to this. Once the masala leaves the raw smell, switch off the flame. This dry curry goes excellent with rice and roti..Try it and lemme knw how much u enjoyed it.

Healthy Veggie Salad

Ingredients:

• Carrot
• Capsicum
• Cucumber
• Mango
• Coriander leaves
• Olives
• Beans
• Chickpeas - soak in water overnite and pressure cook for 2 whistles (1/2 cup)
• Lemon juice - as req
• salt - as req
• pepper pdr - as req

Preparation:

Finely cut all the veggies. Semi-cook carrot, beans, capsicum. Mix all the veggies, chickpeas. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper as req. Garnish with some coriander leaves. To this healthy salad, you can also make a small twist. Wanna knw hw...add some ginger or lemon or mango pickle (very lil...juz the pickle alone).

Non-Spicy Mushroom Pulao

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice - 2 cups
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Whole garam masala - as req
• Onion - 1
• capsicum - 1/2 of a medium, cut as julienne
• Mushrooms - 1 cup
• salt - as req
• pepper pdr - as req
• soy sauce - 1 tsp
• balsamic vinegar - less than a tsp
• spring onions and coriander leaves for garnish
• cashews - as req

Preparation:

Presoak rice in water for 10 mins. In a wide pan, add lil butter or ghee. To this add whole garam masala (cloves, cardamom, bay leaf), cashews and finely chopped onion (1/4 of a large onion). Saute it for sometime and then add already presoaked rice. To this add water ( 1 cup rice : 1.5 cup water). Let it cook. Once cooked, cool it and set aside.

In another pan, add onion cut as julienne (1/4 of a large onion). Add capsicum. Saute both till onion turns golden brown. Now add the mushrooms. Saute for 2 minutes. Then add salt, pepper and some soy sauce, balsamic vinegar(careful juz add less than 1 tsp). Add the cooked rice to this. Mix well. Garnish with some spring onions and coriander leaves.

How gud is this going to be....hmm...well, i the dish scored 9/10 from hubby dear...trust me, tatz nt an easy score :)

Chettinad Mushroom

Ingredients:

• Channa dhal - 1 tbsp
• Peppercorns - 2 tsp
• Dry red chillies - 2 or 3 nos
• Oil - as needed
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Mushroom - 1 cup
• salt - as req
• Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
• Cilantro - for garnishing

Preparation:

Dry roast channa dhal + peppercorns + dry red chillies. Cool it and grind it to a fine powder.

In a pan, add oil + mustard seeds + curry leaves. When the seeds pop, add mushroom, req amt of salt (mushroom needs less salt than usual) + already made spice powder + tamarind paste. Cook it till it leaves oil and then garnish with some coriander leaves.

Raw plantain peel fry

Quick Hi n a Quick Recipe :)  -

I knw...I knw...I knw :D Guess wat I knw..."I'm an irregular student to my dear most blogging school" :(               

                 Apologies for staying away from you all for the past couple of months...and special thanks to Gaays for her thoughtful blog anniversary wishes, for sharing her yummy recipes inspite of my absence, for being such a chweet friend and for also missing me :) I also missed u soooooooo much Gaays....As usual, everytime I get a reason and this time itz gonna be sure a special one cos it includes my india trip...Yeah, had a blast back in India for some time and here I am... fully exhausted and tired(hahaha....did u expect me to say "back in form")  Pulling those words from my mouth is gonna be really tough for a while :)

                 If I start my notes on India trip, then I wud end up being all sober again...So for heaven's sake letz catch up with some quick recipe my fellow blogmates...To start with, I'm gonna use something which I have considered to be a waste for years...Never knew that someone cud make a dish out of it....Got this recipe from my mom...No justice if I don't share it with u...So here it is !!!

Watz the secret ingredient....Raw Plantain "Peel"...Yeah, u heard it rite...this was quite new for me...hope it wud be for some of you too...if itz nt, then I accept tat I am the dumb one ;)

Ingredients:

• Raw Plantain peel - 1 ( cut as juliennes)
• Salt and pepper – as req 
• Vadakam - for tempering
• Oil - as req
• Turmeric pdr - a pinch

Preparation:

First cook the raw plantain peel in warm water after adding lil salt and turmeric pdr to it. I microwaved it for 7 mins. In a pan , add oil. Once itz hot add the vadakam. You can also substitute this with mustard seeds + urad dhal or even juz skip the tempering. After tempering add the cooked peels (after draining water) to oil and saute till it turnes 75% dark and crispy. When it is getting sauteed you can add pepper pdr and salt as req to it. Crispy raw plantain peel fry is ready to be served with hot rice. Enjoy !!!!

Chegodilu / Chekodi

Before starting with the recipe ... I have taken a long break from posting recipes ...as I said earlier , I was held up in house shifting and then for more than 10 days no internet connection , meanwhile we decided to go to Egypt and I was held up in that work ...we enjoyed well in Egypt ,we had a good escape from this winter for atleast 6 days ... though my son did not like the trip much ... it was a good break for us ...and I am back ..and expecting my dear friend / sister ...Kavitha to come back to blogging work soon ...as I am missing her a lot ...now to the recipe.

The recipe chosen for november month in Indian cooking challenge by Srivalli is Chegodilu / chekodi .. in Tamil it is called as Kola vadai ...I have to say that the recipe came out very cripsy and my son enjoyed it a lot . I chose the second method :

Chegodilu - Recipe 2 :

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour - 3/4 cup
2. All purpose flour/ Maida - 1/4 cup
3. Ghee - 2 tbsp
4. Ajwain - 1/4 tsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Turmeric really a pinch
7. Salt as per taste
8. Oil to deep fry

Method : 

Boil 1 cup water in a bowl, add salt to it. When the water starts boiling, remove from stove, add ajwain, red chilli powder, turmeric and flours. Stir with a ladle to make sure it is mixed well. Pour ghee on it and cover. Once it cools, knead it to form smooth dough. Pinch out small balls of dough and roll them like threads between your palm, bring the ends together to form into small rings . Fry them in hot oil til they turn golden in colour . Check if the oil is in the correct temperature, by dropping a tiny bit into the oil. Then gently slide the rings or the chakodis in batches of 4 -5. The flame has to be on high until the chakodis come up to the surface, then lower the flame to medium and cook till you get a golden colour on the chakodis. When the chakodis are golden all over, using a slotted ladle, remove to a kitchen towel and cool. Store in an air tight container for longer shelf life.

Notes: These should not be cooked on low flame as they will absorb more oil and can turn soggy also at times.