Grape Squash/Grape Syrup

Ingredients

Purple Grapes: 500gms

Sugar: 500gms

Lemon Juice: 2 big lemon/ ¼ cup

Cloves: 2 (optional)

Method of Preparation

In a pressure cooker add grapes, cloves and 2 ½ cups water.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles and switch off the flame.

Open the lid after the pressure releases.

Add this to the blender when slightly cooled and blend it well and sieve with a strainer.

Add this sieved juice again to a pan add sugar and lemon juice and keep on flame.

When it boils, low the flame. Stir occasionally.

When it becomes slightly thick and get slight one string consistency switch off the flame. (Don’t wait the squash to be thicker while on stove, as it becomes thicker while cooling, so switch off the flame when it is slightly thick)

Cool and transfer to a clean and dry bottle.

Keep refrigerated.

To make juice from it, take 3tbsp squash to 1 glass cold water, stir well and serve. If necessary or according to your taste you can add 1tsp lemon juice to it.

Sending to ABC Series-Fruit Fiesta Event at Ramyas Space

Vegetable Shawarma

When I posted Chicken Shawarma, soon I wanted to post the vegetarian version too as most of my fellow bloggers are vegetarians. The falafel recipe is already there in my space, and the below mentioned falafel recipe has got a slight variation from it. You can see the pictorial directions of shawarma here, only slight difference in the stuffing.

Ingredients

Falafel

Chick Peas: 1 ½ cup

Coriander leaf: ½ bunch

Parsley: ½ bunch

Green Chilli: 2

Onion: 1 small

Garlic cloves: 6

Cumin Powder: 1tsp

Coriander powder: 1 tbsp

Baking powder: ½ tsp

Bread Crumbs: ¼ cup

Oil: for frying

Salt: needed

Assembling

Pita Bread/Lebanese Bread

Lettuce

Onion

Tomato

French Fries

Tahini Sauce (Can use the white Tahini Sauce instead of this too, I find no taste difference still I will soon update that recipe too)

Method of Preparation

Falafel

Soak the chick peas for 5 hours.

Wash and drain and blend the chick peas coarsely. (not to smooth paste not too crumbly)

Then in the blender add garlic, coriander leaf, parsley, onion and green chilli to a smooth paste.

Add this to the blended chick pea mix.

Then add cumin powder, salt and coriander powder.

Mix well with hand. Then add bread crumbs and baking powder to it and again mix well.

Make small balls from it and deep fry it medium heat oil till it is cooked well.

Drain and serve as snack or can make a sandwich filling.

Assembling

Take pita bread, Spread Tahini sauce on it.

Then add chopped onion, tomato, French fries and lettuce as per needed.

Then add 3 or 4 falafel length wise.

Roll it from one end to the other

Wrap with Parchment paper and serve hot.

Linking to EP Series Spices and herbs at julies space

Linking to GIMME GREEN EVENT at Rosh’s space

Tomato-Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

Garlic cloves: 5

Tomato: 1

Kashmiri Chilli Powder: 1 tsp

Salt: needed

Refined Oil: 1tsp

Lemon Juice: ¾ tsp

Method of Preparation

Heat Oil in a pan, add garlic cloves to it.

When it turns slightly brown, add Kashmiri chilli powder and chopped tomato.

Add salt and stir. Close with a lid and low the flame.

Switch off the flame when tomato gets cooked.

When it is slightly cooled, blend in a blender to a smooth paste.

Transfer into a bowl and add lemon juice and mix well.

Tomato-Garlic Sauce is ready.

Black Eyed Peas Kebab

Ingredients

Black Eyed Peas/ Vellapayar: 1 cup

Onion: 1 small

Green chilli: 4

Garlic: 3 cloves

Ginger: ½ “piece

Coriander leaves: ¼ bunch

Gran Flour/ Besan: 1tbsp + for dusting

Corn flour: ½ tsp

Garam Masala: ½ tbsp.

Cumin Seeds: 1tsp

Pepper Powder: ½ tsp

Salt: needed

Oil: for deep frying

Method of Preparation

Soak the peas for 5 hours.

In a pressure cooker cook the peas by adding salt till done.

Drain the peas from the cooker, add garlic, ginger, green chilli, onion, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, garam masala.

Add all these to the blender and blend to a smooth paste.

Transfer this to a bowl, and add pepper powder, gram flour and corn flour to it. If needed add more salt.

Mix it well with hand.

In another bowl take some gram flour. Keep this aside.

Heat oil in a pan, take small balls from the above mix and shape to an oblong shape.

Roll this in the gram flour well and deep fry in oil.

Take this out when both sides are done well.

Drain it in a kitchen towel.

Serve hot with ketchup or any dip of your choice.

Linking to EP Series Spices and herbs at julies space

Cilantro Dosha

I made this with the left over Dosha batter as evening snack. It was really a great flavorful dosha. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

Dosha Batter: 2 ½ cups

Coriander leaves: ½ bunch

Garlic: 2 cloves

Green Chilli: 2
Shallots: 5

Curry leaves: 1 hand full

Salt: needed

Method of Preparation

Grind coriander leaves, garlic, shallots, green chilli and curry leaves to a smooth paste.

Add this to the dosha batter and add salt.

Stir well.

Heat a nonstick pan, pour a ladle full batter and spread with the back of ladle to a round shape.

Close with a lid and take out when done.

Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Linking to EP Series Spices and herbs at julies space

Linking to GIMME GREEN EVENT at Rosh’s space

Chicken Shawarma

For the veg version of Shawarma you can replace chicken with Falafel. And the black tahini sauce can be replaced by the white tahini sauce. The original shawarma recipe calls for the white tahini sauce. I made the black sesame sauce as i was out of white one :( , still I succeeded in doing so.
Ingredients

Chicken Grill

Chicken Breast: 300gms

Lemon Juice: 1 tsp

Vinegar: 1tbsp

Garlic: 1 (crushed)

Pepper Powder: ¼ tsp

Garam Masala: 1tsp

Chilli Powder: ¼ tsp

Curd/ Yogurt: ¼ cup

Salt: needed

Olive oil: 2tbsp

Arranging

Small Lebanese Bread/Pita Bread: 4

French fries: few

Onion Thinly Chopped: 1

Tomato Thinly Chopped: few

Tahini Sauce: needed (I used the black sesame seed sauce, you can use the White sesame seed sauce)

Method of Preparation

Chicken Grill

Cut the chicken breast piece into thin wide pieces. Wash and drain and keep aside.

In a bowl add curd, vinegar, garlic paste, pepper powder, garam Masala, chilli powder, lemon juice and salt. Mix well with hand.

Take washed and drained chicken. Make holes with a fork on the chicken pieces. Marinate with the above paste and keep aside for about 2-3 hours.

You can shallow fry the chicken or can grill the chicken. I Shallow fried, heat a pan and add olive oil, place the chicken pieces and shallow fry by flipping it and take out when done.

When slightly cooled chop into small pieces. Keep Aside

Arranging

Take Lebanese bread/ Pita bread.

Spread tahini sauce on it.

Then add some chopped onion, French fries, tomato, chicken pieces, if needed again you can add some more tahini sauce on top 

and roll 

and wrap with parchment paper and serve hot.

Note: you can add carrot, cucumber or any veg of your choice. You can add a tbsp of mayonnaise in each wrap too which would add an extra taste to it, i didn't do so as i am really concious of intake of calories.

Tahini Sauce (with black sesame seeds)

The below is tahini sauce with black sesame seeds. It is usually made with white sesame seeds, but unfortunately I ran out of white sesame seeds and the main problem with me is that if I see or come to know about any recipe I have to try it soon. So I tried with black sesame, I didn’t find any difference in the taste. The main reason that I am posting this if any one like me who doesn’t have the white sesame and not trying this, it will help them too. The actual motivation to make the tahini sauce was for making shawarma. When one of my friends called and gave me the recipe for shawarma, which she saw from one of the TV Channel, all the ingredients were there with me and only the white sesame was out of stock, I didn’t give up and I made it the day after itself. So here goes the recipe for tahini sauce and shawarma recipe is on the way.

Ingredients

Black Sesame Seeds: ¼ cup

Olive oil: 4tbsp

Garlic: 3

Lemon Juice: 1 tbsp

Curd/Yogurt: ¼ cup

Salt: needed

Method of Preparation

Heat a pan and dry roast the sesame seeds. Switch off the flame when it starts spluttering.

Add this into the blender when slightly cooled.

Blend it for some time and then add the olive oil and blend again.

Then add the garlic, lemon juice and salt and blend again.

Take out from the blender into a bowl and add curd to it and mix well.

(Can add more olive oil and curd if you need it thinner than this)

Tahini Sauce is ready.

French Fries

Ingredients

Potato: 3

Oil: for deep frying

Salt: needed

Method of Preparation

Cut the potato in stripes to ½” thickness.

In a bowl take some cold water and add little salt in it.

Soak the potato stripes in cold water for half an hour.

Take out from water and pat dry with kitchen tissue.

Heat oil a pan and deep fry in oil till it becomes golden brown or till it is done.

Drain and sprinkle some salt and serve hot.


Sending to Just 4 fun event at shobas space

Wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients

Wheat Flour: 2 cups

Maida: 1 ½ cup

Luke Warm Water: 1 ½ cup

Yeast: 2tsp

Sugar: 1tbsp

Olive oil: 2tbsp

Salt: needed

Method of Preparation

In a bowl add yeast, sugar and ½ cup warm water and keep aside for 10 minutes.

In another bowl take the wheat flour, Maida, salt and mix with hand.

Then add the fermented yeast mix to wheat flour mix and the balance Luke warm water and knead to form smooth dough.

Then apply olive oil on the dough, knead again for a while and place it in a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth.

Keep this aside for 1 hour or till it double the size.

Take the dough, punch the air out and divide into 8 equally sized balls. Cover with a damp cloth and keep aside for 10-15minutes more.

Take each ball and roll to ¼ to ½” thick round shape.

Bake in pre heated oven at 200⁰C to about 7 minutes or till done.

Serve hot with any curry of your choice.

Sending to I Love Baking Event at Tickling palates

Jeera Rice/ Cumin Rice

Ingredients

Basmathi Rice: 2 cups

Onion: 1

Cloves: 3

Cardamom: 4

Cinnamon sticks 1”: 2 pieces

Bay leaf: 1

Cumin powder: 1tbsp

Cumin seeds: 1 ½ tbsp.

Salt: needed

Butter/Ghee: 2tbsp

Method of Preparation

Wash and soak rice for 15 minutes.

Heat butter in a pan, add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves bay leaves and cumin seeds.

Then add thinly sliced onion, when it turns slightly brown add 3 ½ cups water.

Add salt to it and when it boils add soaked and drained rice.

Stir and close with a lid and low the flame.

After 10 minutes open the lid and stir. Close again.

When the rice is cooked, sprinkle cumin powder on top and switch off the flame and close and keep it for 15 minutes so that the aroma of cumin spreads all over the rice.

Serve with the curry of your choice.

Linking to EP Series Spices and herbs at julies space

Sending to WTML at Roshans space started by Gayathri 

Sending to Kerala Kitchen Event hosted by prathiba, started the event by Ria and Rose

Instant Mango Pickle

Ingredients

Raw Mango: 2 big

Kashmiri chilli powder: 3 tbsp. (can adjust according to your tolerance)

Asafetida powder: 1tsp

Fenugreek powder: a pinch

Salt: needed

Coconut oil: 5tbsp

Curry leaves: few

Mustard Seeds: ½ tsp

Method of Preparation

Wash the mangoes, pat it dry and chop it into small pieces.

In a clean dry bowl add chopped mango, Kashmiri chilli powder, salt and 3tbsp coconut oil.

Mix this well with hand. (Addition of coconut oil in this step is very important as it takes off the raw smell of chilli powder.)

Heat 2tbsp coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add asafetida powder and fenugreek powder and curry leaves. Stir and switch off the flame and add this to the prepared mango mix.

Stir well with a spoon. Transfer to a clean sir tight bottle.

It can be used after 3 hours.

Note:

1.     You can roast chopped green chilli, ginger and garlic while tempering and add to the pickle.

2.     If the mango is not sour you can add 2tbsp vinegar to it.

3.     If you don’t like the crunchiness of the mango, you can add the mango mix to the pan after tempering and keep in low flame for 3-5minutes.

4.     I didn’t add water or vinegar to the pickle still it was enough moist after sometime.

Sending to WTML at Roshans space started by Gayathri 
Sending to Kerala Kitchen Event hosted by prathiba, started the event by Ria and Rose 

Cilantro-Okra Rice

Ingredients

Basmathi Rice: 1 cup

Coriander leaves: 1 bunch

Garlic cloves: 3 pods

Ginger: ½” piece

Onion: 1 small

Curry leaves: 2 strings

Cardamom: 4

Cloves: 2

Cinnamon stick 1”: 2

Lemon Juice: ½ lemon

Olive Oil: 3tbsp

Water: 1 ¾ cups

Okra/Ladys finger: 8

Sat: needed

Method of Preparation

Wash and soak rice for 15 minutes.

In a blender add coriander leaves, curry leaves, garlic and ginger and grind to a smooth paste.

Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan, add cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Stir and add thinly sliced onion.

When it slightly browns, add water and cilantro paste.

Add lemon juice and salt.

When the water boils add soaked and drained rice. Close with a lid.

Low the flame when it boils after adding rice

Stir occasionally. Switch off the flame when rice is done.

Meanwhile the rice is cooking, wash and chop the ladys finger.

Heat 1tbsp oil in a wide nonstick pan and stir fry the okra in medium flame till done. It takes almost 15-20 minutes to get the okra done.

Add this to the cooked rice.

Note:

1.     The okra fry should be added soon after the flame is switched off. Stir and close the lid.

2.     You can replace butter instead of olive oil.

Linking to EP Series Spices and herbs at julies space

Linking to GIMME GREEN EVENT at Rosh’s space

Mushroom- Sausage Fry

Ingredients

Mushroom: 100gms

Sausage: 8

Shallots: 12

Chilli Powder: 1 ½ tbsp

Turmeric Powder: ¼ tsp

Coconut Oil: 3tbsp

Curry leaves: needed

Coriander Leaves: garnish

Salt: needed

Method of Preparation

Split each mushroom into 4 pieces. Split the sausage into 4 pieces and cut into small pieces. Coarsely grind the shallots.

In a kadai, take mushroom, sausage, crushed shallots, chilli powder, turmeric powder, few curry leaves and 1tbsp coconut oil and salt.

Mix this well with hand. Sprinkle some water. (Do not add more water, as water will be produced from mushroom)

Keep this on stove and close with a lid. Low the flame when it is heated.

Stir occasionally, when the water is well absorbed and gravy becomes dry, add 1tbsp oil and open and stir frequently in low flame till it becomes dry. Switch off the flame.

Add coconut oil, curry leavers and coriander leaves and close with the lid for 5 minutes. (This step is important; the fresh taste of coconut oil, curry leaves and coriander leaves gives the actual taste for the dish)

Wheat Bread

The bread was very soft and the addition of semolina paste worked as a magic to the bread. I was totally satisfied with the outcome. Half loaf I used as bread and the other half I made rusk out of it. My son is fond of crispy n crunchy things. The rusk too came out well. If you are planning to make rusk you can increase the quantity of sugar from 1 tbsp to 1 ½ tbsp., rest all are the same. The oven temperature, I will mention while posting the clicks.
 (So sad, i had taken the images but by mistake i deleted it together with all the other archive photos from my phone, really feeling sad. Will bake another one and upload the photo soon)

For Rusk: Pre heat the oven, spread the bread pieces on the wire rack and bake at 180 Deg C to about 20-25 minutes. (Oven time may vary, so please keep watching after 18 minutes)

Ingredients

Wheat Flour: 2 ½ cups

Olive oil: 3 tbsp + brushing

Yeast: 1tsp

Warm Milk: 1 cup (or as needed)

Semolina: 1 ½ tbsp

Salt: needed

Sugar: 1 tbsp

White sesame: for topping (optional)

 

Method of Preparation

In a bowl add yeast, sugar and ¼ cup milk. Let it be there for 10 minute for fermentation.

In another bowl take ½ cup milk and semolina. Stir and keep this on stove and when it thickens switch off the flame. Keep aside let it cool.

In another bowl add wheat flour, salt and 2tbsp olive oil. Mix with hand

Add yeast mix, semolina mix and needed warm milk to form soft dough. (The dough should not be too sticky or too hard)

Apply 1 tbsp oil on it and cover with a damp cloth keep in a warm place to about 1-1 ½ hours or till it becomes double the size.

Punch down the air and knead for 1 minute more. Shape the dough into loaf and apply olive oil on top and sprinkle sesame seeds and place it in a loaf pan.

Cover it with a damp cloth and keep aside for 20-30 minutes more.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170⁰C to about 40-50 minutes or till done.

After taking from the oven cool on a wire rack, otherwise the bread will become soggy.

Slice when cooled and serve.

Sending to I Love Baking Event at Tickling palates