Oats Spinach Idli

About this Recipe...

Oats or oatmeal is a very healthy cereal grain, grown from its seed. Oats has numerous uses in foods. You can make so many dishes with this oats. So I wanted to try the healthy oats Idli for a long time. Oats Idli has all the goodness of oats, rava, yogurt and veggies, a complete healthy breakfast or snacks for your family.

The best thing about this oats idli is its instant, so no prior preparation is required to make this idlis. I always make my idlis in microwave, so it's saves more of my time and the idlis are also getting ready very quickly. I wanted to make it more healthy so added spinach purée to the idli batter and my iron rich instant oats idlis are ready. Spinach gives a very nice green color to these idlis. Serve this beautiful idli with Sambar and your favorite chutney.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Plain old fashioned oats
• 1/2 Cup Semolina
• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 2 Tbsp Broken cashew nuts
• 1 Tbsp Bengal gram lentil or Chana Daal
• 1/8 tsp Asafoetida
• 1 tsp Black gram lentil or Urad daal
• 1/4 Cup Chopped Onion
• 5-6 curry leaves chopped
• 1 tsp Finely chopped ginger
• 2 Green chilles finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 Cup Plain yogurt
• 1 Cup Spinach puree
• 1 tsp Eno fruit salt
• Oil for greasing the idli moulds

Directions

1. Dry roast the oats for 2-3 minutes. Now transfer it to a blender and make a fine powder out of it.
2. Now heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida for tempering.
3. Now add broken cashew nut, Bengal gram and black gram lentil and fry them till it changes the color lightly.
4. Now add chopped onion, ginger, green chilies and curry leaves to it and sauté them till it gets translucent.
5. Next add semolina and salt to it and mix it well with everything. Fry it for few minutes and switch off the flame.
6. Now transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool down.
7. Now add the oats powder, yogurt and spinach purée to it and mix it well to get a nice Idli batter. Give it a rest for 15-20 minutes before making Idli.
8. Now put 1 cup of water to the microwave safe idli maker and microwave it for 2 minutes.
9. Grease the idli moulds with oil. Now add 1 tsp of Eno fruit salt to the idli batter.
10. Immediately you will see some air bubbles are forming on the batter, gently mix the batter and pour it to the idl moulds.
11. Now keep the idli moulds in the idli maker and microwave it for 5-6 minutes.
12. Check the idli by inserting a fork, if it comes clean, it means the idli is cooked nicely.
13. Serve the hot idli with Sambar and coconut chutney.

Aam Panna

About this Recipe...

Aam Panna is a Indian summer cooler, famous for its heat resistant properties. It is made with raw green mango, mint leaves and few spices and it is lightly green in color. This tangy drink is considered as a very healthy and tasty drink and it can fight against the intensive heat strokes.

The consistency of this drink is quite watery and there is no particular measurement of sugar, salt and spices. You can definitely adjust water and spices as per your preference. It has the perfect balance of sweetness and sourness.

This is the season of mango and raw mangoes are easily available in indian grocery stores here in USA. Though the weather is not that much hot here but by seeing plenty of mangoes in stores, I got the perfect excuse to make this drink at home. You can make this drink and store in in refrigerator for at least upto 1 week. So whenever you feel like drinking some cooler, just open your refrigerator and have it.

Ingredients

• 1 Medium size Raw mango
• 1/4 Cup Mint leaves
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Black salt
• 1/4 tsp Roasted cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper powder
• 3 Tbsp Sugar
• 4 Cups Cold water

Directions

1. Wash the mango and put it into a pressure cooker with sufficient amount of water.
2. Cook it for 3-4 whistles and switch off the flame.
3. Let it cool down and then peel the skin of the mango and get the pulp with the help of a spoon.
4. Now transfer the mango pulp in a blender along with rest of the ingredients and water and blend everything nicely.
5. Your refreshing Aam panna is ready, pour it in a serving glass and serve it with iced cubes.
6. Sometime, I make Aam Panna w/o mint leaves also, it also tastes equally good.
   

Notes:

1. Instead of boiling the mango in pressure cooker, you can roast it in stove top or oven. It will give a nice smoky taste. 
2. If the mango is too fibrous, then stain it before making the panna.
3. You can replace jaggery with sugar.
4. The measurement of spices depends upon your taste, you can increase or decrease it.

Bengali Style Tomato Chutney

About this Recipe...

Bengali style tomato chutney is a combination of sweetness and little tanginess and it has all the goodness of tomato, dates, raisins and freshly grated coconut. It can be served as a condiment or as a relish.

Every Bengali meal is incomplete without this tomato chutney. It is very commonly prepared in every Bengali household and served it at the end of the meal. Be it a religious functions, marriage party or any get together, this chutney is a requisite for a satisfying Bengali meal. In my mothers home and in laws home it is a must have everyday item in lunch menu. Though sometime they did some variations with the chutney and uses some other seasonal fruits or veggies to make it. My MIL makes very good chutney with pineapple, carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin and those are also equally very tempting.

Traditionally this chutney is made with Panch phoron, which is a blend of five spices, that is cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds and fennel seeds. But today I am using only mustard seeds and fennel seeds for tempering with one broken red chili. This chutney is everyone's favorite including me and I love to have it with at the end of my meal and also with roti as a sides. So whenever I make it, I cooked some extra amount, so on the next day I can have it with roti. This chutney is best served as chilled.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 1 tsp Fennel seeds
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• 1 Dried red chili break into two parts
• 4-5 tomato chopped
• 1/2 Cup Sugar or jaggery or as per taste
• 8-10 Seedless dates
• 10-15 Raisins
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Grated ginger
• 2 Tbsp Freshly grated coconut

Directions

1. Heat up oil in a pan, add dried red chili, fennel seeds and mustard seeds for tempering.
2. Let them splutter in oil and then add grated ginger and chopped tomato to it.
3. Mix it well, cover the pan and cook it for few minutes.
4. When the tomatoes gets soft and releases water that time add pinch of salt and sugar or jaggery and cook it nicely so that everything will incorporate with each other.
5. Now add dates, raisins and grated coconut, mix everything well, cook it for another 2-3 minutes and your sweet tomato chutney is ready.

Bhapa Chingri

About this Recipe...

Bhapa Chingri or steamed prawn in mustard and coconut gravy is a quintessential mouthwatering Bengali dish. Prawn or shrimp is Bengali’s all time favorite seafood and we make lots of dishes with this, such as  Chingri malai curry, Daab Chingri, Potol prawn, prawn with bottle gourd and many such dishes. Among them chingri malai curry and Bhapa Chingri are my favorite. This recipe is very easy to make, ready in no time and tastes extremely well.

Traditionally this recipe is made inside pressure cooker by steaming the curry in a stainless steel tiffin box in boiling water. My mother always used to make it in pressure cooker. But today I will share with you another easy and quick version of making it. I used my microwave to cook this curry. There is no difficulty to cook this curry, you just only need to combine and mix all the ingredients together in right quantity and microwave it for few minutes and the authentic Bengali delicacy is ready to enjoy. The slightly pungent taste of mustard paste and mustard oil makes the Bhapa Chingri a delicious dish. I would like to enjoy this dish with hot steamed rice.

Ingredients

• 15-20 Medium size shrimp deveined and washed
• Salt and sugar to taste
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Yelłw mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Poppy seeds
• 2 Tbsp Freshly grated coconut or frozen coconut
• 1/2 Cup Coconut milk
• 2 tsp Green chili paste
• 2-3 green chillies slitted
• 2 Tbsp Mustard oil

Directions

1. First of all soak both kind of mustard seeds and poppy seeds in little water for at least half an hour.
2. Now sprinkle some salt and turmeric powder on the shrimp, coat it nicely and keep it aside.
3. Now on a blender, add the soaked mustard seeds and poppy seeds, turmeric powder and blend it to a fine paste.
4. Now take a microwave safe bowl and arrange the marinated shrimp pieces, next add the mustard seeds and poppy seeds paste, green chili paste, grated coconut, coconut milk, salt and sugar to taste.
5. Mix everything very gently, add 1/4 cup of water for the gravy, few slitted green chilies and drizzle some mustard oil on top.
   
6. Cover the bowl with a tight lid or plastic wrap and microwave it for 5 minutes.
7. After 5 minutes, take it out from the microwave, stir it gently and again microwave it for 2-3 minutes.
8. When the shrimps will change its color and the gravy will also cook nicely, take it out from the microwave.
9. Your bhapa chingri or steamed shrimp is ready, enjoy it with hot steamed rice.
   

Chingri Malai Curry

About this Recipe...

Chingri Maacher Malai Curry is a traditional dish from Bengal where Chingri or prawns are cooked in a mildly spiced thick creamy gravy made with coconut milk. This is one of my favorite prawn preparation. Usually this curry is prepared during special occasions, especially at the time of Noboborsho (Bengali new year). You can use any size of prawn or shrimp for this dish, tiger prawn or lobster also goes very well in this preparation. But today I am using medium size prawn for this curry.

Coconut milk is the core ingredient for this recipe. Back in home, coconut milk is not easily available in market in canned form and I have seen my mother to do lot of hard work to make this dish as she used to extract the fresh coconut milk from the freshly grated coconut and used that extracted coconut milk for this preparation. But life is very easy here and in every grocery store you will find the canned coconut milk very easily.

So back to today's dish, the recipe and the preparation for this dish is also very easy. You only required few basic ingredients handy and the dish will get ready very quickly. I love to enjoy this curry with hot steamed rice but you can have it with pulao or fried rice also.

Ingredients

• 15 medium size shrimp peeled, deveined and washed
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• Mustard oil for frying the shrimp + 2Tbsp for making the curry
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 One inch long cinnamon stick
• 2 Green cardamom
• 3-4 cloves
• 1/3 Cup Onion paste
• 1 Tbsp Ginger-garlic-green chili paste
• 1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• 1 Cup Coconut milk

Directions

1. First of all marinade the shrimp with salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside for 20 minutes.
2. Now heat mustard oil in a pan and lightly fry the shrimp. When frying is done take it out from the pan and keep it aside.
3. In the same pan, heat some more oil and add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves for tempering.
4. Sauté them for few seconds, when you will get nice aroma from the spices then add onion paste to it.
5. Fry the onion paste till all the raw smells disappears from it.
6. Now add the ginger-garlic-green chili paste to it followed by turmeric and red chili powder to it and fry it till oil starts separating from it.
7. Now add salt and sugar to taste, mix it well and add half cup water to it.
8. When the gravy starts boiling, add half cup coconut milk to it and mix it well.
9. Cook it for some more time, when the gravy will become thick, add shrimp pieces to it and stir it gently.
10. Cook the shrimp for few more minutes in the gravy and add the remaining coconut milk to it.
11. Check the seasoning, if everything is all right, then switch off the flame.
12. Your chingri malai curry is ready, serve it with hot steamed rice and enjoy it.
    

Jal Jeera

About this Recipe...

Jal Jeera is a Indian summer drink mostly popular in northern India. It is a cool and refreshing drink flavored with roasted cumin seed powder, mint-coriander leaves, freshly squeezed lime juice and other spices. Drinking Jal jeera in hot summer days is very beneficial as it aids in digestion and keeps the body cool against the heat stroke.

As the summer has started, almost every day I am preparing some kind of cooling drink to keep my body cool. Making all these summer drinks regularly is really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. Every home has a different recipe of making Jal jeera, some make it with tamarind and some uses lime juice. I prefer to add lime juice, though sometime I make it with tamarind juice or some days I used both. It all depends upon the availability of ingredients at my kitchen or if I want to change the taste of the drink then I used the other alternative. Another important ingredient of this drink is black salt, it is a great digestive aid and also rich in minerals and other vital nutrients.

You can make this drink in large quantity and it can be stored in refrigerator for at least 4-5 days, since it has lime juice or tamarind, it does not spoil very quickly. So in hot days whenever you feel like drinking some chilled drink, just open your refrigerator and enjoy this chilling and refreshing drink.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup Mint leaves
• 1/4 Cup Coriander/cilantro leaves
• 1 tsp Chopped ginger
• 1 tsp Roasted cumin powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Black salt
• 1/4 tsp Dry mango powder or aamchur powder
• 2 Tbsp Lime juice
• 3 Cups Water

Directions

1. Wash and rinse the mint and coriander leaves.
2. Now in a blender, add the leaves and all the other ingredients with 1/2 cup of water and blend it to a smooth paste.
3. Now strain the mixture through a strainer to get a clear drink.
4. Add 3 cups of water on it, stir it nicely, your jal jeera drink is ready.
5. garnish it with lime and mint leaves and serve it chill.

Tofu Aloo Matar

About this Recipe...

It is a very simple recipe of Aloo Matar with protein rich tofu, however you can substitute paneer with tofu. I have mentioned Jain style because this recipe is made without onion and garlic. I have used tomato based gravy on it. A simple, delicious and light vegetarian delight goes well with both rice and any indian bread.

Ingredients

• Tofu cut into cubes 25-30 pieces
• 1 potato cut into cubes
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 One inch long cinnamon stick
• 2 Pieces Cardamom
• 3-4 cloves
• 5-6 Black pepper corn
• 1 Piece Bay leaf
• 1 Whole dried red chili broken into two parts
• 1/4 tsp Asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/2 Cup Tomato puree
• 1 Tbsp Ginger-green chili paste
• 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 Cup Frozen green peas
• 1/2 tsp Dried fenugreek leaves
• Salt as per taste
• 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
• Water as required for making the gravy

Directions

1. First of all lightly fry the tofu cubes and potato cubes and set it aside.
2. Now in a pan heat up some oil and add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, pepper corn, dried red chili, cumin seeds and asafoetida for tempering.
3. Now add the tomato purée and ginger chili paste, mix it well with the whole spices and cover the lid for 2-3 minutes.
4. Remove the lid and mix it once again, when the oil starts separating from the spices, add all the dry spices and mix it well.
5. Now add required amount of water to the pan for the gravy, cover the lid and let it come to a boil.
6. When the gravy will start boiling then add the fried potato cubes, green peas and salt, cover the lid and cook it.
7. When potatoes will cooked nicely add the lightly fried tofu pieces and cook it for few minutes so the tofu can absorb some flavor of the curry.
8. Now take dried fenugreek leaves in between your palms, crushed it and add it to the gravy and mix everything well.
9. Finally sprinkle some garam masala powder, stir it once again and your Tofu Aloo Matar curry is ready to enjoy.

Note:
Potato is optional in this curry, if you don't like then you can omit it.
Instead of tofu you can use paneer in this curry.

Hakka Noodle

About this Recipe...

Hakka Noodle is another favorite snacks of mine since my childhood. It's a Indo-Chinese Recipe which is loved by all. I remember my college days, when for some reason if we skipped our lunch, in the evening we went to the roadside stalls to have this. It’s also called chow mein in many parts of India. A popular street food cooked with Chinese condiments and with vegetables. It can be easily made at home too. My mom used to made this for our Sunday breakfast and she adds lots of vegetables, she also used to add scrambled egg, so that could be your egg chow mein.

There is no particular recipe for this Hakka noodles, everyone is making it on their own way. It's totally up to you what ingredients and veggies you want to add. This is my way of making this dish, sometimes I add scrambled eggs and fried chicken with veggies in my Hakka noodles. But today I made it completely vegetarian with lots of vegetables. If you want to add egg or meat, then go ahead and on the same recipe, you can add eggs or chicken with vegetables.

Ingredients

• 150 g Noodles
• Salt to taste
• Water for boiling the noodles
• 3 Tbsp Oil
• 2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
• 1 Medium sized Onion thinly sliced
• 1 Carrot cut into thin strips
• 1/2 Bell pepper cut into thin strips
• 3/4 Cup Shredded cabbage
• 1/4 Cup of Mushroom sliced
• 3-4 Green chillies slitted
• 1/8 Cup Frozen sweet corn
• 1/8 Cup Frozen Green peas
• 1/4 Cup Small Cauliflower florets
• 1 tsp Black pepper powder
• 1 Tbsp Soya sauce
• 1 tsp Red chilli sauce
• 1 tsp Vinegar
• Spring onion greens for garnishing

Directions

1. First of all boil enough water in a pot. Add salt and little oil to it.
2. When water starts boiling add the noodles and boil it uncovered as per package instruction or till it gets Al dente.
3. Now drain the hot water and rinse the noodles with cold water and keep it aside.
4. Now heat oil in a pan. Add the chopped garlic and sauté them for few seconds.
5. Now add sliced onion and sauté it till it gets translucent.
6. Next add carrot and cauliflower, sauté it for few minutes.
7. Add the shredded cabbage and bellpepper and fry them.
8. Next add green chillies, mushrooms, corn and peas. Mix everything well and cook it for 2-3 minutes until the mushroom gets cooked.
9. Now add salt and pepper to taste, soya sauce, red chili sauce and vinegar, mix everything well.
10. Now add the boiled noodles and toss it nicely, so everything gets incorporated well.
11. Finally sprinkle spring onions and your Hakka noodle is ready. Serve it hot.

Notes: Here I have used all these vegetables, you can alter the vegetables as per your likings.