Peeled Green wheat+Chana Dal+ Brown Rice Payasam with jaggery for Vishu

This year for Vishu celebration I missed setting Vishu Kanni . I am marking this auspicious day with Payasam recipe based on Chakkari Pongal.I found a packet of Peeled Green wheat in one of our local convenience store...It is wheat without skin...I added Chana Dal , Brown rice and made this fusion Payasam/ Kheer. Freshly made Ghee from unsalted butter gave nice aroma and taste.

Ingredients :-

• 1/2 cup peeled green wheat ( regular wheat can be used too) - soaked in water
• 1/2 cup Chana dal - soaked in water
• 1/2 Cup brown rice - soaked in water
• 1 Cup grated jaggery
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup grated fresh coconut
• 10-12 Cardamom - finely powdered ( keep 2 whole cardamom aside)
  
• 3 Tb.spoon raisins - fried in ghee till well puffed and turned golden brown.
• 20-25 Cashews - fried in ghee till golden brown.
• 7-9 Cups water.
• 5 Tb.spoon Ghee ( clarified butter)
  

Soaked wheat , Chana Dal , Brown rice

Cashews & Raisins fried in Ghee

Preparations before Cooking Kheer :-

1. Mix wheat,chana dal and brown rice in big bowl and thoroughly rinse under water till water stands clear. Soak for 6-8 hours.
2. Take small pan and heat 1 tbspoon ghee - Add golden raisins and fry them till they nicely puff and get golden brown shade.
3. Discard remaining ghee from pan by wiping with paper towel. Add fresh 1 tbspoon ghee, moderately heat and fry cashew nuts till they turn golden brown.
4. Also you will need to wash pressure cooker thoroughly with metal scrubber to eliminate smell of earlier cooking.
   

Method of cooking Payasam/Kheer :-

1. Take minimum 4 Quart size pressure cooker. Heat 1 tbspoon ghee. Add two whole cardamom and let them sizzle for 10-15 seconds. Add 1 tbspoon grated coconut and fry for 30 seconds.Put soaked wheat ,chana dal and rice - Stir for 2 minutes on high heat. Add 6 Cups water and wait till it starts boiling.
2. Add grated jaggery and brown sugar. Stir well till jaggery+sugar melts. Add half quantity of powdered cardamom.
3. Cover the lid and allow two whistles. Quickly reduce heat to low and let it stand for 5-8 minutes..It is fine if cooker blows one more whistle.Shut off the gas and wait till pressure cooker releases all built up pressure.
4. You will find that almost all water has been absorbed and wheat , chana dal is tender and plump. Add remaining cardamom powder, fried cashews and raisins, grated coconut. Mix well.
   
5. Add 2 more cups of water , Mix well and let it simmer on medium heat for 8-10 minutes. As per your consistency requirement add one more cup water.
   
6. Lastly add 2 tbspoon ghee. Mix well . Take hand blender and quickly give 10-15 seconds of swirl in one side of cooker. This will balance consistency of Kheer. Let it simmer for another 5-6 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature drizzled with melted ghee.
   

Pressure cooked Wheat,Dal and rice

Fresh Clarified butter / Ghee made with Unsalted butter

Coarse Textured - Spicy Palak Paneer.

Palak Paneer is traditional Indian dish, popularly relished in Indian parties and restaurants. Today I cooked it slightly different by maintaining partly coarse texture..generally this dish is very mild but I spiced it up by adding few spices and made it hot with green chilies.

Ingredients :-

• Fresh Spinach - 1o oz packet (284 gm) or one bunch of spinach.
  
• Paneer - 12 oz. (340 gm )- griddle roast - cut into half inch cubes. ( 20-25 cubes of paneer)
• 1 extra large onion - finely chopped
• 3-4 fresh garlic cloves - finely crushed
• Ginger 1 inch piece - finely crushed
• 4-5 Green chilies - finely chopped
• 2 Tb.spoon cooking oil
• 1 Tb.spoon melted Ghee
  

Spice Blend for Palak Paneer

• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
• bay leaf - 1 inch long
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 T.spoon Shahijeera

Combine all spices and make fine powder.

Advance Preparations :-

1. Clean and rinse spinach leaves thoroughly in water and divide it in two parts. You can use either 10 oz packed fresh spinach or a fresh bunch of spinach.
   
2. Take half the quantity of leaves and boil in salted water in microwave for 4-5 minutes. Drain the water and puree with hand blender. Keep it aside.
3. Remaining Spinach finely chop in the food processor. Keep it aside.
4. Cut Paneer block into 1/2 inch thick slab and fry it on griddle by maintaining very low temperature until it turns golden brown on both sides. Cut the slab into 1/2 inch cubes OR you can first cut cubes and later fry them on griddle. Cover fried pieces with moist paper towel and keep it aside.
   
5. In a small jar of blender mix ginger,garlic and green chilies - Finely crush and keep it aside.

Method of Cooking Palak Paneer :-

1. Place a heavy bottom pan and heat 2 tbspoon oil. Add chopped onions and saute until they turn soft, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add the crushed ginger-garlic-green chili mixture and saute for one minute.Now mix the powdered spice blend and saute for one minute on medium heat.
   
3. Add griddle roasted paneer cubes , little salt - Gently stir and mix with onions and spices.Add chopped spinach and combine all well, add little more salt and let it cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes. If you find it too dry then sprinkle little water.Keep stirring at regular interval.
   
4. Lastly add pureed spinach and mix well. Decrease heat to low , cover with lid. Shut off heat after 2-3 minutes.Finally drizzle melted ghee. Enjoy this deep green colored,coarse textured spicy palak paneer with roti and rice or as a sandwich/wrap spread.

Note :- You can also use frozen chopped spinach for this recipe. You can skip first three steps from advance preparation. At step 3 of cooking process - before adding paneer cubes, add frozen spinach and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Place immersion blender directly into the pot and partly puree spinach. Don't swirl blender all around pot. This way you can balance coarse and pureed texture. After this step add paneer cubes and let it cook for 4-5 minutes on low heat.
When you want to cook Palak Paneer for big crowd - Use fresh spinach and frozen chopped spinach (50:50) ratio.

Mushroom Matar Masala with Malvan Zest.

Few days back I cooked spicy and creamy Mushroom Matar, Today is another version..this time I didn't use cream and made it more spicier with Malvan Spice zest made from scratch. Try this if you want to enjoy intensely spiced aromatic Matar+Mushroom curry.

Ingredients :-

• 300g button mushrooms (12-15) - cut each mushroom in 4 pieces.
• 1 Cup frozen green peas.
• 2 medium size onions - one cut length wise and one another chop finely. (Total yield -little over 2 cup)
• 4 medium tomatoes - cut in one inch cubes.
• 4-5 garlic cloves - finely crushed.
• 1 inch piece of ginger - finely crushed.
• 2 Tb.spoon oil.
• 1 Cup - fresh cilantro finely chopped.
• 1 T.spoon - brown sugar or jaggery.
• 1 T.spoon - red chili powder.
  

Malvani Spice Blend

Malvani Masala Blend :-

• star anise - half piece
• 1/4 T.spoon shahijeera
• 2-3 pieces of Dagad phool.
• 3-4 Nagkeshar
• 1 Tb.spoon corriander seeds
• 1/2 T.spoon whole black pepper.
• 1 T.spoon fennel seeds
• 1 inch long Bay leaf
• 2 Green cardamom
• 1 inch long cinnamon stick.
• 5-6 cloves.

Gently roast all above spices on medium heat for two minutes and ground to fine powder.

Cooking Method :-

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in heavy gauge pot. Add onions and saute till they turn soft and translucent - about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add crushed ginger and garlic - saute with onions for one minute.
3. Add ground Malvani masala blend and saute for one minute.
4. Add diced tomatoes -Saute for 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup water. Stir and Mix well with onions and simmer on medium heat for 3-4 minutes without lid on top.
   
5. Add mushrooms , red chili powder, jaggery and salt - Let it cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat with covered lid.
   
6. Stir in one cup green peas. Combine all well and cook for 3-4 minutes. Mushroom increases liquid in curry so if necessary cook little more on high heat till you get desired thick gravy.
7. Lastly garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and enjoy this spicy mushroom matar curry with Roti / poori and rice.
   

Griddle fried chicken thighs with Worcestershire sauce marinade.

Today griddle fried chicken thighs with worcestershire sauce marination prepared with generous quantity of ginger,garlic,green chilies,red chili powder . This sauce has nice tangy,bitter,mild sweet,salty taste and acidic aroma . It infused well with other marination ingredients and helped to enhance taste and texture of chicken and made caramelized marination mixture more zesty.

Ingredients :

• 4 Chicken thighs - boneless cut into two pieces each.
• 1 Tb.spoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 inch piece of ginger - finely crushed
• 7-8 garlic cloves - finely crushed
• 4-5 green chilies - finely crushed
• 1 Tb.spoon red chilli powder
• 2 Tb.spoon cooking oil

Method of cooking :-

1. Take 4 chicken thighs and debone them. Make 2-3 pieces in each thigh.Wash it under running water and place them in a bowl or plate. Sprinkle little salt over thighs and rub with fingers. (Worcestershire sauce has mild salt content so use less salt)
2. Pour 1 Tb.spoon Worcestershire sauce, Add crushed giner+garlic+green chilies,red chili powder. Rub it thoroughly over chicken. Set aside for half an hour.
3. Heat griddle ( anodized metal works great for Indian Tava recipes) and pour 2 tbspoon cooking oil. Maintain medium temperature.Place chicken pieces on griddle. Make sure you coat them neat with marination masala. Save leftover marination masala for blasting chicken pieces during later stage of frying.
4. At regular interval turn chicken pieces with tongs. After ten minutes reduce heat to medium low. You will notice that little marination mixture sticks to the griddle..sprinkle little water and avoid marination mixture from burning.
5. After 15-20 minutes apply remaining marination liquid over chicken to retain moisture.Keep turning chicken at regular interval.
   
6. It will take total 30 minutes to fully cook chicken thighs. Once they are done place them in a plate...gently scrape stuck marination from pan and apply over chicken pieces and serve with roti /rice or enjoy as appetizer.

Marination Stage

Griddle Frying Stage

Note :- This Tava recipe will work best for lean, boneless pieces of chicken which are not thicker than half an inch. If you wish to use big bone-in pieces like chicken drumsticks,leg quarter,whole breast then use oven or out door grill for frying by using the same marination mixture.

Singoda & Rice flour Eggless Mini cakes with Dates & Pistachio

Today I enjoyed baking eggless cake without using All purpose flour (Maida). There was no exact recipe to follow...Singada flour was in mind...with mix and match of few Indian ingredients at end, I baked mini eggless cakes in heart shaped muffin pan. Lovely cardamom aroma, light delicate texture of singada flour, dates, pistachios all together gave very delicious Indian twist to the cake.

Ingredients :-

• 1 Cup Singoda/singada flour (water chestnut flour) - Roasted
• 1/2 Cup rice flour
• 1 Tb.spoon Soy flour
• 1 Tb.spoon golden flaxseed meal - soaked in 3 tb.spoon hot water for 10 minutes.
• 1/4 cup Pistachio - roughly chopped
• 10 Dates - cut into tiny pieces ( 1 cup yield)
• 10-12 Cardamom - finely powdered
• 1 Cup dark brown sugar
• 1 Tspoon - baking soda
• 1/4 Tspoon - baking powder
• 1/2 stick butter
  
• 2 Tb.spoon Ghee or butter for roasting chestnut flour.
  
• 2 Tb.spoon oil
• 1/4 Cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup milk

Method Of Baking Cake :-

1. Roast singada flour in heavy gauge pot for about 10-12 minutes on medium heat by adding 2 tbspoon Ghee or butter. You need to stir frequently till color changes to one shade and flour releases aroma. Keep it aside to cool.
2. In a deep bowl add half stick butter - beat it for 1 minute. ( I used hand mixer)
   
3. Add soaked flaxseed meal and cardamom powder - beat along with butter for 1 minute.
4. Add 1/4 cup whipping cream and 2 tbspoon oil - beat for another 2 minutes.
5. Add brown sugar and half cup milk - beat until incorporated.
   
6. Mix water chestnut flour,soy flour, rice flour and baking soda, baking powder - stir in with spatula. Beat with hand mixer for 30-40 seconds.
   
7. Mix chopped dates and pistachios - Fold in with spatula until evenly distributed. Scrape down all sides of the bowl with spatula. Your cake batter is ready.
   
8. If you are using similar muffin pan or mini cake pan scoop the batter in each greased mould and smooth the top. Sprinkle few chopped pistachios. Place rack in center of the oven and Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes . Reduce oven heat to 300 and let it bake for another 5-6 minutes. To check for doneness insert toothpick in the center of the cake; if the toothpick comes out clean, you can remove the cake from the oven after two minutes.
9. I poured remaining cake mixture in small loaf pan. It took 20 minutes to bake @ 300 degrees F . Once toothpick came out clean, I left cake pan in oven for another five minutes and then removed out of oven.
10. If you are using cake pan then don't fill cake batter more than 1 1/2 inch thickness. My loaf pan cake took more time to bake than muffin pan mini cakes. Adjust your baking time based on your pan and thickness of batter.
11. After cake is cooled down cover it with plastic cling wrap. Enjoy!! these light and rich mini cakes as snack or dessert.