Paneer Bhajji / Paneer Fritters | Indian Appetizers

Paneer is in my "all-time favorite" list. I have tried variety of curries and rice using Paneer, but haven't tried any deep fried dishes with it. This time I planned to make some deep fried fritters with paneer, for a little weekend evening munchies. 

Ingredients:
Paneer - 7 oz - 200g
Besan flour/Chana dhal flour/Garbanzo beans flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/3 cup
Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp or to taste
Asafoetida - Hing - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - a pinch (optional)
Chaat masala - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Salt - to taste
Oil - to deep fry

Method:
Cut the paneer to cubes, lengthwise or any desired shape. Mix besan flour, rice flour, red chilli powder, asafoetida, baking soda and salt with water to make a batter of dipping consistency. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Take a paneer piece and dip in the batter and carefully drop in the hot oil. Drop about 5 or 6 pieces at a time and do not crowd the pan. Flip it over and fry until it turns to a golden brown. Remove from oil and drain in tissue paper. Serve hot with chutney or ketchup or just dusted with chaat masala.

Sending this to LGSS - Paneer event by Vatsala.

Orange Flan / Orange Crème caramel

Flan or Crème caramel is an easy to make and a convenient make-ahead dessert and perfect for get-together. It can be made in little serving bowls or in a cake pan according to the personal desire. I had been wanting to make Flan aka Crème caramel for a long time ever since I saw it in few blogs. Many recipes used condensed milk and/or heavy cream but I wanted to keep it simple. So I made with just regular milk and eggs and flavored it with orange zest and juice. It tasted just out of the world.

Ingredients:

Adapted from here
Makes 3 - 7 oz ramekins, can be doubled as needed
For the soft caramel:
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Water - 40 ml
For the custard:
Milk – 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Eggs – 2
Egg yolks – 1
Vanilla essence – 3/4 tsp
Orange zest -  from 1 orange
Orange juice – from 1 orange – approx 1/2 cup

Method:

For the Caramel:

Add sugar and water to a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When it starts to brown, swirl the saucepan around. Do not use a spoon to stir, because swirling ensures that the sugar becomes brown evenly. When it reaches a honey brown color, remove from heat and pour directly into the ramekins. Swirl each mold to coat the caramel evenly at the bottom.

For the Custard:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Heat the milk until it is heated through but not boiling. Mix the eggs, egg yolk and sugar until pale and light with a whisk or hand mixer. Add the vanilla essence. Now add the milk to the eggs slowly in a single stream and stirring continuously while adding the milk. The milk should not be poured at once since the heat from the milk would cook the eggs. Add in the orange juice and zest and mix well.

Pour the milk-egg mixture into the caramel coated ramekins. Place the prepared ramekins in a cake pan and fill the pan halfway through the ramekins with boiling water. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 325 F. Bake for another 30-40 minutes. A toothpick inserted should come out clean. Remove the pan and cool the ramekins until the water cools. Chill the ramekins in the refrigerator until the time of serving. While serving, un-mould the bowls with a knife and invert it over a bowl or a plate. Serve chilled with fruits if desired.

Sending it to Veggie/Fruit of the Month - Orange event by Savitha and Priya and to A.W.E.D. Mexican event by DK and Smita. And finally to our event Serve It-Chilled happening at Denny's Oh Taste N See.

Sending this to Srivalli's Kid's Delight hosted by Nupur of UK-Rasoi, for the month of April 2012.

Idly Fry - Chinese Inspired | Indo-Chinese Appetizers

Idli is a popular South-Indian breakfast item and is our all time favorite and comfort food. I had been struggling to get the idli batter fermented well during winter. I used to place the batter in the conventional oven (turned off of course) but it still takes long. Come summer, I am very happy about the batter getting fermented well and even happier about softer idlies. These days I am making an extra batch of idlis. I use that batch for making Idli upma or Podi Idli for our next day meal. This time though I wanted to make something interesting for our weekend breakfast. So quickly came up with this chinese inspired Idli fry.

Ingredients:

Idli - 10 - Each cut into 6 or 8 pieces
Onion - sliced thin - 1/2 cup
Ginger paste - 1/4 tsp
Garlic paste - 1/4 tsp
Green bell pepper - julienned - 3/4 cup
Tomato paste or Tomato ketchup - 1/3 cup (I used Diluted Tomato chilli sauce, and left out the chilli)
Green chilli - 2 - sliced thin - optional
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp (I used low sodium variety)
Green Onions/Scallions - chopped - 2 tbsp - For garnish
Oil
Salt to taste
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix the idli pieces with 1 tbsp of oil, salt and chilli powder. Make sure the idli pieces are evenly coated with salt and chilli powder. Transfer it to a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 mins, turning the pieces once in between. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wide bottomed pan and add the the chillis if using. Now saute the onions until golden brown. Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for 2 mins. Turn the heat to medium high and add the bell peppers and saute for about 3-4 mins. It should be crunchy. Add the tomato paste and soya sauce. Turn off the heat, add salt to taste and the idli pieces and mix it gently to coat the sauce. Do not tend to overmix, as it may break the idli pieces. Garnish with green onions and serve for breakfast or a quick snack. 

Note: You could alternatively deep fry or shallow fry the idli pieces, but I preferred this method.
Sending this to CBB - #4 Chinese Cuisine event by Radhika of Tickling Palates. Check out her space, she has a very interesting theme every month.

Spicy Cucumber Buttermilk / Vellari Neer Mor

When we were kids we always used to enjoy summer holidays at grandma's. We used to play all day with our cousins not worrying about the hot weather. Those were the days when the fast foods or bottled drinks were not famous much and all food and coolers where home made daily with fresh ingredients and lots of love by grandma and aunts. Other than the regular meals, mid-mornings and evenings are always time for something cool, like flavored buttermilk, kambu koozh (Pearl millet porridge), ragi koozh (Finger millet porridge), fruit juices, cut fruits etc.,. Time for another summer cooler now. 

Ingredients:
Curd/Yogurt - 3/4 cup
Water - 2 1/2 cups
Cucumber - 1 big - cubed - approx 1.5 cup chopped
Salt - to taste
Green chillis - 1/2 of a small one (Do not add more than that)
Cilantro / Coriander leaves - 2 twigs
Grated ginger - to garnish

Method:
Blend together the curd and water in a blender adding salt to taste. You may use buttermilk if you have. If using store bought buttermilk, dilute with some water to make about 3 1/2 cups and make sure it is not sour. Set aside. Now add the cucumber to the blender with about 1 cup of buttermilk (just made). Pop in the green chillies and cilantro. Blend until smooth and mix with the remaining buttermilk. Serve chilled with cilantro and grated ginger.
Tip: You can even garnish with little asafoetida fried in a little oil.

P.S. The green colored lining in the glass is the cucumber peel, which I used like a ribbon to give a colorful accent to the glasses..

Sending this to Serve It-Chilled event happening at Denny's Oh Taste n See.

Healing Foods - Event announcement

I am very excited to guest host Healing Foods event for this month. This is a wonderful event started by Siri of Cooking with Siri. And any guesses on what food I chose for this month's theme... Yes, It is "Banana". 
Banana is a favorite fruit for most of us. It serves as an instant storehouse of energy due to its carbohydrates content and is rich in iron, vitamins, potassium and fiber. It is also a natural antacid and provides a cooling effect to the body, much needed in this summer. It is one of the three royal fruits (Mukkani - meaning three fruits) in Tamil literatures. The three royal fruits are Maa (Mango), Palaa (Jackfruit) and Vaazhai (Banana).
Almost all part of the banana plant is edible or has its uses. The trunk(stem), blossom (flower), plantain (raw banana), banana (fruit) are used as food. The banana leaves are traditionally used to serve food and are also used as eco-friendly plates.

And now coming to the guidelines of the event

1. Make any dish with Banana as the main ingredient. Any dish with ripe banana, raw banana (plantain), banana blossom, banana stem is welcome.
2. The dish can be any part of the meal, like appetizer, main course, dessert, sides, shakes, smoothies or in its raw or baked form. Only vegetarian entries, but eggs are allowed.
3. Please link to this page and Siri's Healing Foods event announcement page.
4. Any number of new entries posted in the month of June 2011 is accepted. Archived entries are accepted if reposted with a latest date in June. Maximum of two entries from archives please.
5. Use of logo is appreciated
6. The last date for the entries is Jun 30 2011.
7. Please email the following details to krithiskitchen[at]gmail[dot]com with subject line as "Healing Foods - Banana"
    Name, Blog Name, Recipe Name, Recipe URL, Country, Picture (resized to 400 px please).
8. Non-bloggers can also participate. Send in your recipe with a picture to the above email id.
And now to the interesting part of the event, "The Giveaways".

1. Cooking at Home with Pedatha
    Awarded Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the world 2006, this book documents culinary legacy of a illusrious Indian grandmother for posterity.

2. Sukham Ayu
     Winner of Best Health and Nutrition Book in the World 2009-Second place, this beautiful book has been researched at KARE, an idyllic ayurvedic research and rejuvenation establishment near Pune.

Two lucky winners will be randomly selected from the entries received and be awarded the books. Myself and Siri are not eligible to participate in the random draw. Both the books will be shipped to any place in the globe. So there are no boundaries on who can participate and win the lovely treasures.

Expecting a lot of healthy and tasty entries from you all!!