Boondi Raita

This is the easiest raita to make especially when you have unexpected guests! I have tried making a rose from Annita’s blog.

Ingredients:

Curd – 2-3 cups
Boondi – 1 1/2 cup
Jeera powder – 1 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

Soak the boondi in hot water for 10 mins. Squeeze out the water and keep aside. Beat the curd or pass the curd through a sieve, add sugar, salt, coriander leaves and boondi and mix well. Sprinkle chilli powder and jeera powder on top. Refrigerate and serve cold.

Palak Puri

I learnt this from a cousin and is really lip-smacking! I like it spicy which is why I use a lot of chillies in this recipe.

Ingredients:
Palak/Spinach – 2 bunches
Wheat flour – 2 glasses
Gram flour/Besan – 1 glass
Garlic – 4-5 flakes
Green chillies – 10 nos.
Jeera – 2 tsp
Coriander seeds – 3 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method:
Wash the spinach thoroughly and blanch with some salt for 3-4 mins. Drain, cool and puree it without adding water. Grind together garlic, jeera, coriander seeds, green chillies coarsely. Sieve the wheat flour and besan together. Add to it the ground mixture, spinach puree, salt and haldi. Knead into a dough without adding too much water. Stand for half an hour. Make small balls out of the dough and roll into small discs. Fry the puris in hot oil. Serve hot.

Spicy Bites

Simple, tasty and easy to make snack.

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 2 medium sized
Peas – ¼ cup
Green chillies – 4
Ginger – 1inch piece
Chilli sauce – 1 tbsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Coriander leaves – ¼ cup
Bread slices - 6
Salt – as per taste
Butter/mayonnaise

Method:
Boil the potatoes and mash well. Boil the peas and mash slightly. Grind ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves to a paste. Mix this with the potatoes. Add peas, chilli sauce, salt and garam masala and mix well. Butter the bread slices on one side. Apply this mixture on the other side of the bread slice. Grill or toast in a sandwich toaster. Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Tomato Soup

This is my mother's version of tomato soup and is always a hit whenever she makes it.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 5-6 nos
Maida/flour - 2 tbsp
Butter/ghee - 1 tbsp
Milk - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Pepper and salt as per taste

Method:

Wash and pressure cook the tomatoes. Puree the tomatoes and sieve well. In a pan, heat the butter/ghee till it melts. Add the flour and cook till aromatic. Add milk stirring continuously till all the lumps are dissolved. Add the tomato puree gradually stirring continuously. Mix in the salt and sugar and cook for another 2 mins. While serving, sprinkle freshly ground pepper, and a dash of cream. Serve hot with croutons.

My rendezvous with the kitchen

"Eat to live or live to eat?" Well, for me it works both ways! My inspiration to cook is my husband who is a complete foodie! I luv to experiment different recipes just to see his huge, ear-to-ear grin!! His words of encouragement is all it takes to put my culinary skills to test....