Grilled Gobi/Cauliflower Fry

Grilled Gobi/Cauliflower Fry

Grilled Gobi

I would like to have Gobi as the first starter when i stick to veg lunch at restaurants.Though they are good in taste, it comes in a high caloried food list. I planned to have a low caloried version with the same taste hence I used the oven to grill and named them as Grilled Gobi/Cauliflower Fry. I have a baked version of Gobi also and that will be updated little later.

Ingredients

Cauliflower - 1 (small sized)
Maida - 1/4 cup
Corn starch - 1 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red Chill powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Lemon - 1 big sized
Turmeric powder - a pinch
oil - 1 tbsp

Cooking steps

1. Cut the cauliflower into 15 to 20 small sized florets.
2. Add turmeric powder and 1/4 tsp of salt to the cauliflower.
3. Add enough water and bring it to half boiled. 
4. Drain water and keep aside
5. Extract 1 tbsp of lemon juice from lemon and keep aside.
6. Mix maida, corn starch, garam masala, red chilli powder and 1/2 tbsp of salt with lemon juice. Add little water and mix well till it forms a thick paste
7. Coat the cauliflower well with this paste and keep aside.
8. Preheat oven to 200 deg celsius in grill mode
9. Spread a tbsp of oil in a baking sheet and place the cauliflower florets on the baking sheet.
10. Place the baking sheet in the top rack of the over and set the timer to 15 minutes.
11. Turn to the other side of the cauliflower in the mid of the timer set and make sure both the sides are well done.

A few suggestions

Make sure there is no raw smell coming out from the gobi even its grilled completely. If you feel so, just have a shallow fry the whole bunch of gobi florets in a hot pan by adding a tsp of oil.

Carrot Halwa

Carrot Halwa

Carrot halwa is a sweet dessert and it will  be very good with the combination of vanilla ice cream. I prepared this sweet for a party and also had a very good feedback on it and hence I am posting the same recipe here.

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients

Carrot - 2 Big sized
Milk - 1 cup
Cashews - 6
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Ghee or butter - 1 tbsp

Cooking steps

1. Grate the carrot using a grater and make sure this comes approximately around 1 cup. If you get lesser or more than a cup, adjust the milk quantity accordingly. I prefer carrot and milk to be in 1:1 ratio
2. In a wide pan, heat a tbsp of ghee or butter and fry cashews and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add carrot and stir well. close the lid of the pan for 5 mins and ensure the raw smell of carrot goes off completely
4. Add milk and sugar together with the carrot in the pan and stir well till the carrot boils well(may be mushy) with the milk and it is reduced till it comes to solid form(in halwa form)
5. Add the roasted cashews to the carrot halwa

My 2 cents

• Adding milk is purely optional.You can just add 1/2 cup of water. But i found the carrot halwa added with milk is comparatively good in taste.
• You can add cardomom or any essence to get a great smell.

Baked Onion Rings

Baked Onion Rings

Baked Onion Rings

Sometimes I prefer baked stuff. The thing is we can make a less calorie food without losing its original taste. I used the same method for making baked onion rings just like fried onion rings method 

Ingredients

Onions - 2 (Big sized)

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Oats - 1 tbsp

Breadcrumbs - 1tbsp

Water - 2tbsp

Cooking steps

1. Mix breadcrumbs and oats in a bowl and keep aside
2. Mix salt, maida with 2 tbsp of water and prepare a smooth paste
3. Cut onions by 1/4 inch size as shown in the pic to get rings.
4. Dip both the sides of the onion in maida paste first and ensure the onion  is coated well with the paste.
5. Dip the onion in breadcrumbs+oats mixture.
6. Spread a tbsp of oil on the baking sheet.
7. Place the onion rings on the baking sheet
8. Preheat Oven to 180-200 deg. celsius.
9. Place the baking sheet in the middle rack of the oven.
10. Set the timer for 15 mins.
11. Turn to the other side at the mid of the timer set  in the oven. 

Onion Rings

Onion Rings

Deep Fried Onion Rings

This is a quite easy snack that can be prepared with the ingredients that are at home always. Onion rings can be made with little variations of the following ingredients too. Following is the one which i tried first. The other methods will also be updated little later.

Ingredients

Onions - 2 (Big sized)

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Oats - 1 tbsp

Breadcrumbs - 1tbsp

Water - 2tbsp

Cooking steps

1. Mix breadcrumbs and oats in a bowl and keep aside.
2. Mix salt, maida with 2 tbsp of water and prepare a smooth paste.
3. Cut onions by 1/4 inch size as shown in the pic to get rings.
4. Dip both the sides of the onion in maida paste first and ensure the onion  is coated well with the paste.
5. Dip the onion in breadcrumbs+oats mixture.
6. Deep fry both the sides of onion in oil till its crispy.

Mutton/Lamb curry

Mutton/Lamb curry

Yummy Mutton curry

As my hubby would love to taste different varieties of dish that are made with lamb or mutton, I always in need for new recipe with mutton to make him satisfied.When I asked my mother for a new idea, she explained the following recipe(which is her regular mutton curry recipe). I tried this out and that reached the best level for that sunday.

Ingredients

Mutton/Lamb - 250 gms

Onion (small) - 20 nos

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Cloves - 2

Bay leaf - 1

Star anise - 1

Cinnamon - 1

Cardamom - 1

Chilly powder - 1tsp

Corriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Cooking steps

1. In a pressure cooker, add 1 tbsp of oil and let it become hot, add star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, cloves and fry for a min.
2. Once its fried, add ginger garlic paste and saute well.
3. Add lamb or ,mutton to this mixture and let it boil till the mutton is half done.
4. Blend the small onions.
5. In a frying pan, add 1 tbsp of oil and let it become hot.Add the blended onions and saute well and leave it till the raw smell of onion goes off completely
6. Add the fried onion to the mutton in the pressure cooker and saute well. Add salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, pepper powder and cumin powder and saute well for five minutes.
7. Add 1/2 cup of water and close the lid of pressure cooker. Wait for 5 whistles. Garnish with coriandar leaves and serve.

 

Maida Paniyaram /Suzhiyappam

Maida Paniyaram/Suzhiyappam

Ingredients

• Maida - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Rava1 -  tbsp
• Cardamom - 2
• Banana - 1 small sized
• Egg white - 1 (optional)
• Baking soda - a pinch
• Oil - to deep fry
• Water - 3/4 cup

Cooking steps

1. Powder the cardomom and put it in a mixing bowl 
2. Mash banana and add it to the bowl (you can add egg white at this stage)
3. Add rava, maida, baking soda, sugar and water together and mix well till the batter reaches a course paste form
4. In a frying pan, add oil and let it becomes hot.
5. Using a small ladle put the batter in the hot oil and touch the batter constantly to get the puffy paniyaram.

Notes

• Put the batter in the hot oil when temperature is medium high. otherwise the batter would stick at the bottom of the kadai and paniyaram would not come puffy.  

Prawn/Shrimp Fry

Prawn or shrimp fry is the one which we used to put in the starters list first whenever we go for any restaurants . Later i tried it at home and it came out well with the same taste. Here is the recipe for the hotel style fry

Prawn/Shrimp Fry

Ingredients

• Prawn/Shrimp - 10 to 15
• All purpose flour/maida - 1 tbsp
• Corn starch - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Ginger minced - 1/2 tsp
• Garlic minced - 1/2 tsp
• lemon - 1/2
• Oil - to deep fry

Cooking steps

1. Extract 1 tsp of lemon juice from lemon and keep aside
2. Remove head and tail from shrimp and devein the shrimp
3. In a mixing bowl, add maida, corn starch, lemon juice, salt, red chilli powder , minced ginger and garlic paste
4. Stir the mixture well for a minute and make it a thick paste
5. Marinate shrimp with the paste and make sure the shrimps are coated well with the paste
6. Set aside for 10 mins
7. In a frying pan, add oil and let it becomes hot
8. Deep fry the both the sides of shrimp

Notes

• An egg white can be added to the mixture to get more crispy prawn fry. 

Potato Fry

Whenever i would like to have some heavy meal, potato fry is the first thing that comes to my mind. I adore its mild sweetness and the spicy red chilli combination.

Potato Fry

Potato Fry

Ingredients

Potato - 2 medium sized

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Oil - 2 tsp

Cooking Steps

1. Cut potato into small cube size
2. In a frying pan, add oil and let it be hot.
3. Add the sliced potato and give a quick stir by adding salt.
4. Keep the frying pan closed for 10 mins
5. Open and stir potato in 3 mins interval.
6. Add turmeric and chilli powder once the fry is 3/4th boiled.
7. Once the spice is added, keep the pan opened and stir till the potato is fully done.

Notes

• Add 2 more tsp of oil at the sides of the pan to get crispy potato fry.

Rava Paniyaram

When I was a child, whenever there are any guests coming to our home, my mom would prepare this Rava paniyaram which is the easiest one for her to prepare.

Later when i was grown, she suggested me to try this whenever she is busy in other activities. This is the first step of my cooking. And still when we all meet together for any occasion, my mom would like to have this prepared for all guests. Hope you would enjoy my all paniyaram recipes.I would suggest this for beginners who learn to cook snacks for the first time

Rava Paniyaram

Ingredients

Rava  - 1 cup

Maida - 1/4 cup

Cardamom - 2

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - a pinch

Oil - to deep fry

Cooking steps

1. Soak rava in 1 cup of water for 20 mins
2. Add maida and sugar together with the soaked rava
3. Add baking soda and powdered cardamom to the  rava + maida mixture and stir well.Now the paniyaram batter is ready
4. In a frying pan, add enough oil to fry and let it be hot.
5. Once the oil is hot, pour a small ladle of batter into the hot oil and let them fry.
6. Flip the paniyaram and fry both the sides well.

Notes

• Do not oversoak rava than the mentioned time as the crisp of rava will be lost when we oversoak.

About me

Thank you everyone to visit my page here.

I am Lilly Madan and I have started blogging my cooking ideas when I was on a little break from my career.

First of all, I thank my hubby who gives me courage to blog my ideas in this space. Whenever i do write my personal notes, he had insisted me to create a blog and post them instead of noting them down in personal diary.

Sometimes back, when i was feeling that i have no time to spend with my kid and family for the whole day and to make my time with my kid as the precious one. My hubby would always say 'But be sure to make your time the most precious when you are with your precious kid'. Now the time has come to have a break in my work and to stay with my family. 

Whenever I visit my relatives or friends house, I would be the first one who will be directly invited to their kitchen to let my ideas on what they are preparing by that time. I would feel like I am gifted to get this freedom to get control of their the kitchen with my ideas.This thing ensures me that my relatives and friends do love my preparation and that gives me more courage to write on this space. 

I would always love to thank my appa and amma who had trained me to involve in all their cooking stuffs which made me to learn and try new ideas everyday.

I would love to thank my mother-in-law for her support for letting me to learn new stuffs everyday.whenever i try new stuffs, she would be the first one who would add her valuable comments to make the things perfect.Of course she trained me the time management on cooking. I would really thank her for taking care of my kid with her love and care when i was at work & cook

I would love to start with the food recipes which i tried right from my childhood days.

I rarely watch the cook programs in TV and read the cook tips from the books. I do visit others kitchen to learn new stuff. Recently i started watching few food blogs. The recipes which i would present will be mostly from my friends' and relatives' kitchen secrets.

Hope you will enjoy reading my blogs!!! :-)