Monday 27 January 2014

Egg Cubes In Gravy

Here comes the point how egg cubes can be ditched as paneer



I had talked about Egg Cubes In my Previous post If u had missed check it out!!
Talking of showing egg as fake paneer and that too without it being smelly is an achievement to me.
When I found about this 1st I really wanted to try myself 1st to see if it really is what it is presented? or another fake? As usual I did some of my homework browsing around and made eggcubes 1st then proceeded with gravy.

Lets see the making of Gravy and below my explanations on how and why does egg cubes respond as fake paneer.

Ingredients Paste from 1 large onion
Tomato - 2 (pureed)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1tsp
Kastoori methi- half tsp
Milk - 2 cups (fullfat)
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Oil - 1tbsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 1tsp or more for flavoring
Egg Cubes



Method:
- Heat oil in pan add ginger garlic paste and saute for a min.
- Add in onion paste and cook till nice aroma start emitting
- In The tomato paste add all the dry spices + kastoori methi with 1 cup milk. mix it well
- When the onion is ready add tomato paste and cook in low flame till masalas are cooked well and oil start oozing out. thats when you know ur gravy sauce base is ready.
- Once the base is ready add other 1 cup milk, little by little and mixing it, otherwise your milk might curdle due to acidic feature of tomatoes, the sauce is ready,
- Add in the Egg Cubes and cook it for little while closing the lid of the pan (say 5-7 mins in medium heat)
- Check for salt and spices.
- At last add butter for gud flavor, garnish with coriander leaves
- Makes a gud side dish for anything.
- Serve it hot with Roti Naan Phulkas or Hot Steaming Rice

Notes:
If egg cubes R not ready, you can try this with paneer pieces too.
You can make this along with boneless chicken too but add chicken along with ginger garlic paste and onions + salt and cook that 1st. then the gravy process.
Add fresh cream for extra richness instead of milk at the last.
Add red color for restaurant style look, but I avoid most of the times when not needed     

Reasons:
When we make egg cubes those cubes taste more like an omlet just with different shape.
But when we further cook it along with gravy These cubes of eggs becomes more firm like paneer.
If u had seen my previous post Egg Cubes I had talked about pores. Now The point is these pores readily absorbs all the flavors of gravy while cooking and make the egg cubes juicy and yummy!!

Impression:
I totally loved my experiment and it was a hit!!
My bro was a little skeptical about the whole thing and dint wanted to eat.
My Mom was absent there to taste.
Comes my dad next - When he was eating he started saying paneer is tasting very gud today!! I was there giggling to myself and said that is eggs, not paneer? I should have framed his expressions then :D He couldnt beleive it was eggs and asked me once again! Are u sure? this is not paneer????

So to tell u my dad is eggs lover and a person like him failed to recognize the difference what egg cubes can create to the gravy and leave its identity joining hands with paneer hehe.

Do try it frnds im sure u wont be disappointed!! Not just this gravy u can add egg cubes to any of ur fav gravy and serve it ur way!! Choice is yours!!

*** Pic Quality is too bad But that dosent affect the taste and our spirit to cook it rite????


Do let me know ur feedbacks if u try!!

Stay tuned

With lots of love from my end
Aara
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Sunday 26 January 2014

Egg Cubes | False Paneer

Honestly  U Can Ditch Anybody With This Even The Person Who Loves Eggs And The Ones Who Hate It Too.

Im not going to show some magic but yes I had shared this long time back in my fb page when I had started it. That was even before I started blogging. So there  R some Recipes Untouched which I dint share in blogs yet!!

Why I recalled those untouched recipes?? Ohh haa I got a big reason! If one is regular reader of my blog they would know I hadnt blogged for more than a week!! and yet ones connected to me In fb know the reason.
A very big reason I hold now is Shifting our house! Seriously its a big tiring job and I hate it!! It really takes ur time, energy and strength more over disturbs ur whole of routine hah!! And now I dont want to cry upon all the new adjustments we r trying to make. Im just glad with wat ever little im able to Blog!! 

Lets get back to the recipe.
Now this is just the basic on how to make egg cubes the falsehood of paneer shall come up with next post :)


INGREDIENTS
Eggs - 4
Onions small - 1
Pepper - 1/2 spoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 spoon (optional)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Oil - 2 spoons
Butter - 1 spoon (optional) gives gud taste



METHOD:

- Add Everything Together and whisk it 

- Take a flat based glass bowl or stainless steel bowl and grease it with butter/ oil. The best take is to use a butter paper or parchment paper below. To get a clean shaped whole egg cake.
- Now pour the egg mixture in to the bowl and steam it as dhoklas.
- Steam for 30mins minimum till it takes a solid form. You can also bake it for 15-20 mins in 180C best when done in large batch if u are baking.
- Insert a knife or sekwer and check if ur knife comes out clean and u are done!!
 - Now Using a knife slowly slide into the sides of the bowl and loosen the sides of egg cake and invert it.
- Remove the cooked egg from the bowl carefully.
- Chop it into medium sized cubes. - If u want to eat as it is you can!! Garnish with coriander leaves/mint leaves and Serve.

But this would taste more like an omlet we make it in tava/ pan


- I Used it in gravy next.  Thats when this will get a magical touch of False Paneerhood




*** If u can see the pores in between the egg cubes in the above pic??? I have this sudden doubt as The pic I uploaded bfr looks completely different in laptop than what I used to see from my desktop. I guess the appearances of pics changes from one device to another But for now A Dull Finished Pic is what I can show now :)




Stay tuned for next recipe 
Till Then Bubye!!
With lots of love
Aara :)
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Monday 13 January 2014

No Baked Chocolate Brownies

The name itself is so interesting makes one to check out with recipe for sure!!!


I have seen so many variations of this recipe but never bothered to try on my own its all saved and in my todo list!

Here comes Beulah with a surprise of these lovely brownies as guest post!!
To be honest fb groups are really amazing! Even If miss post with Google reader I get updates from blogger friends there in their profile or in groups! More exciting is to discover a new blog!!

One such day I realized there was some1 named Fullscoops posting in group. I bumped into her blog and loved all her simplicity she presented there also she had tried my recipes put up at group It made me more curious to know the person behind. I happened to add her and know more about here. When I asked why she posts link by name fullscoops?? She said she is too shy to come in public with her real name. For a year now she had been silent reader in the group following us hehe So finally she decided to come out!!


Simple and neat blogs Really catch my attention to the core!! I never leave a chance to comment and appreciate neatness of blogs if I come across one :)

Like wise I come across with many new bloggers and to be honest one of the ways to make them public and known is to ask them if they would be interested to write a guest post!!  It becomes more simpler for me to introduce them here in blogosphere. Guest posts are great way out where we can discover new blogs/ existing blogs unknown to us!! Atleast for me I had discovered many blogs from guest posts of other bloggers :)

Lets see what our Guest Beulah shares with us today :)

My name is Beulah, I blog at Fullscoops and I am new to the world of blogging, I'm only a few weeks old! As I was wondering how to connect with the other bloggers and how to reach out, I saw a friend request from Aara Shaikh! I was already familiar with her blog and have tried out her recipes vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream.  I was pleasantly surprised to see her message. She is such a sweet person and volunteered to help me and clear all my doubts. I am glad to have met her.


And then suddenly one day she asked me if I will write a guest post in her blog! I was excited about it and I thank her for giving me this opportunity.



For this recipe, I chose to do a simple and well loved recipe as I would like people to be able to make this dish with ease. This is a very easy brownie to make and you probably will have all the ingredients required for this recipe at home so give it a go. It tastes delicious! With every bite you get a taste of biscuit, chocolate and nuts and it tastes as fudgy as a baked brownie!

Recipe Source - 
Edible Garden

Ingredients
20-25 Marie biscuits 
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup roasted nut of choice (I used walnuts)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 of a 400gm tin condensed milk 
1/4 tsp salt

Method
1. Crush the biscuits. You can use a blender but I chose to put all the biscuits in a ziplock bag and used a rolling pin to crush them. This way I got some coarse pieces too which gave a lovely crunch to the brownie.
2. Add the cocoa powder and salt and mix well.
3. Add the sugar and mix again.
4. Dry-roast any nut of choice and let it cool. Roughly 1/4 cup should do. 
5. Chop it up coarsely and add to the mixture. Mix well. 
6. Add half a tin of condensed milk to this mixture.
7.  Mix well with a sturdy spoon. Mix well until all the powdery bits are combined with the wet ingredients. 
8. Line a plate, pie dish, or baking tray with butter paper (or just grease with some butter) and transfer the mixture to it. Press firmly with wet fingertips until the mixture is uniformly spread. 
9. Put a cling film over it and refrigerate atleast for 4 hours or overnight if possible.
10. If you refrigerate longer, then they can be cut into perfect squares and taste delicious.

Enjoy the brownies!


Thank u dear for such a lovely guest post! After seeing ur pics now Im tempted to try these goodies!! May be soon :)
For More Recipes Pls Visit Fullscoops And show some love to our new blogger friend :)

For more such lovely recipes Stay Tuned at Sweets and Spices
Till then Take Care 
With lots of Love
Aara!!



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Thursday 9 January 2014

Lamb Chops With Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Lamb Chops With Creamy Mashed Potato Sounds a Lovely Combinations To Me


Welcoming Nargis Habibullah for her another delicious Guest Post for me today!
She is sharing her recipe of Lamb chops and Creamy Mashed Potato!! This is her kids favorite and they enjoy this combo with Lebanese bread!

For once who dont know let me introduce once again! Nargis sis is my friends in fb, who shares a common name with me, originally thats how we got connected! But now foodie buddies too. She is a non blogger but loves to cook for her kids and keeps sharing her unique recipes to me as guest post.

Lets get Started With the recipe 

We need sweet chilli sauce which is the star ingredient of this recipe

To make sweet chilli sauce
500g long fresh red chillies, stems trimmed
3 garlic cloves, peeled
750ml (3 cups) white vinegar
645g (3 cups) caster sugar

Step 1
Halve 100g of the chillies and place in the bowl of a food processor. Halve and deseed the remaining chillies. Coarsely chop and place in the food processor. Add garlic and 250ml white vinegar. Process until finely chopped.
Step 2
Place the chilli mixture, remaining vinegar and caster sugar in a large saucepan over a low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
Step 3
Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 35-40 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Pour into a container and store. 

To make your task easy you can buy ready made sweet chilli sauce available in market.


To make lamb chops:
- Marinate 1 kg mutton with 1cup sweet chilli sauce, pepper and salt accordingly for 2hrs.
- In a non stick pan add a little oil and fry these marinated chops 4-5 in a batch till u finish frying the whole.
- Keep turning the sides when frying and remove when u start seeing the chops getting slightly burnt in color
- It takes 5-6 mins to cook 1 batch in medium heat.


Note: 

- When you fry the marinated chops it will ooze out water. Let it cook along with water, as the water will dry out, sweet chilli sauce will start caramalizing  giving burnt appearence which is the sign to remove meat.


Creamy Mashed Potatoes
4 large potatoes peeled and cubed steam them in a steamer or boil it
1/2 cup of cream
less than 1/2 cup of milk
2tbl spoon of butter
when the potatoes R cooked mash with a masher then add salt, butter mix it then add cream and little bit of milk at a time it should not be liquid. but should give a well creamy texture to the potato mix

Both these recipes are very simple to make and she served with Labanese bread Which is store bought usually, She said its same like chapati, but made of white flour :)  We can also serve this with regular Phulk, Chapati or Paratha


Thank you Dear Nargis sis for such lovely recipes! Hope to learn more and more from ur kitchen!!

Stay tuned for more recipes!!

With lots of love 
Aara
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Monday 6 January 2014

Simple Paneer Gravy UP Boy's Style!!

Hi Guys 
Today im sharing recipe of brother which he had seen from his friends

My bro's friends are from UP with whom he shares his room, he tried to follow their method and made it at home recreating their taste. According to me it was yumm which is making me share this over here!

I can take it as guest post from my bro :D

Ingredients:
Paneer - 200gms 1pack
Onion - 3 medium size roughly chopped
Tomatoes - 2 medium - large roughly chopped
Green Chillies - 2 chopped
Salt as per taste
Oil - 2-3 tablespoon


Dry spices to make paste
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 
cumin powder, coriander powder, Garam masala powder 1tsp each 
Turmeric powder - 1/4th tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Take all the ingredients in bowl and make a lump free paste using water.

Whole spices For tempering:
Cumin seeds - 1/2tsp
Cardamon- 2 
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon - 1 stick



Method:
- Pressure cook tomatoes and onions with 2 cups of water for 1 whistle
- Let the pressure drop and grind this to a smooth puree set aside.
- Heat oil in a pan, add whole spices and green chillies, allow it to saute for a minute add the paste of spices and cook in low flame till nice aroma comes, add little more water if needed in case u feel its sticking and burning at the bottom.
- Add the onion tomato puree, paneer , salt and cook it for few more mins till the whole mixture gets into gravy consistency. 
- Check for salt and spices and you are done
- I would suggest to let it rest for sometime bfr serving reheat it and serve hot with roti/ rice / paratha



Notes From Me:
- After mixing everything, pressure cook the whole mixture for 1 whistle, This will ensure even cooking and make the paneer soft too.
- You may add some cashew nuts with onion and tomatoes while pressure cooking, it will result in giving much richer gravy if u desire
- You may also add kasturi methi for a different flavorful taste

This recipe is simple yet detectable in taste!

Do try and let us know!! so that others mite benefit with your reviews!

With lots of love
Until then bubye

Aara

Sending my recipes to
Cook With Comfort


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Saturday 4 January 2014

My 3rd Award And Nominees

Hello Everyone Im Happy To Come up with Libster Award Today

This is my 3rd award and I thank +Parvathy Chandrasekaran For nominating my space for this award! Parvathy blogs at Paru's Kitchen and I went to her space 1st time, So u see there R many such blogs im not aware of :) but may be soon we shall meet across the net some where or the other and get connected!!

I had plans to generate an award in the start of this year to all the new bloggers to encourage and support them! And here it is that the award came to me 1st. 

Ok now as Introduction lets see what does Libster Award mean:

The word comes from German origin which has several definition meaning loved, dearest, sweet, valued etc etc....

Libster award is a kind of E-award given by one blogger to another. As a token of love, appreciation, affection, likeness, valued, dearest etc etc. And who dosent like such sweet awards??? 

What Does this award do / help?
It is a chain process which helps you explore different bloggers, know their views and interact with them! This award is not just restricted to food blogs but to any kind of bloggers who blogs at regular basis. 

Why is it called chain process? 
Because this award has to be passed from one blogger to another and this chain is suppose to go on. 
And honestly This is another means of getting traffic to your blog :) You discover new blogs and u help them get recognized by others too isnt it sweet? So dont break the chain process let it continue. Breaking the chain would be your loss :) There are people who refuse to accept the award! But its their choice of moving! there is no force! If they dont want to be a part of this award they can certainly let the blogger know so that other blog can get a fair chance for this opportunity. 

So libster award is basically welcomingnew blogger to blogosphere world.

*******Things to do when you receive a libster award:
- Blog about the award in your space.
- Copy paste the award pic to you blog, Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back the blogger at your space.
- Next answer some questions asked by the blogger in his/her space to you
- Now your turn to nominate 10- 15 other bloggers at your space who have less than 200 followers.
- Frame 10 questions for them, inform them about their nomination and the award in comments section of their blog or where ever u can get connected to them, and leave a note to them to collect it from your space!




Ok now coming back to answering questions framed by Paru for her nominees:

1) What was your 1st blog post and why did u choose that?
My 1st blog post was Tangy Channa Masala and I was not specific about what is going to be my 1st post! I started a fb page 1st which lead to blogging later on for various reasons. Channa masala was my experiment and it turned out really yummy, and quick to cook too. 

2) Spicy Foods? or Sweets?
My blog gives the answer :D Im very fond of food which gives blends of both the flavors!

3) Which is your fav cuisine?
I love to try various cuisine which is veg / halal but Indian cuisine is appealing to me.

4) If you are suppose to cook in 15 mins, what will you prefer doing?
There R few recipes I have blogged about which can be made within 15 mins time, I would make them if ingredients available. I hardly prefer outside food :D

5) How will you clean the kitchen? While working simultaneously or after finishing all works?
- I dont handle kitchen independently so I cannot answer this question with much perfection! But yes! I do clear the kitchen counter once spices and other things are utilized to cook!

6) What is your fav cooking show you never missed to watch?
- When I was small I loved to watch Khana khazana by sanjeev kapoor in zee, cooking up with Tarla dalal in sony, And Naram garam in starplus! But now I hardly watch any cooking shows! its all over the internet :)

7) One thing you never do in your kitchen?
- I cannot answer it in particular on 1 thing which i never do in kitchen! but I dont like talking to anyone while busy in cooking :P it highly irritates me :D

8) Pick one of the items which u always need in your pantry?
- Food Processor
- Mixer
- knife set
- skillet
- Microwave

I always need mixer, knife and skillet :P so I cant choose one at all

9) What is the best dish you ever made!
It is sheerkhurma out of 40 - 45 liters milk which I made it in last Eid I did all the preparation process and also did some variations which turned out really gud! Haa My dad was proud of me :D yes yes mom too hehe 

10) What is the 1st thing you grab as soon as u enter a grocery shop?
Nah I dont grab anything in particular! But I got the habit of hunting what is new in the shop and buying it immediately to experiment with!

Thank u paru for all ur questions it was really fun to answer them!!

So The interesting part 
Im Passing this libster award to the following blogger with their respective blogs

- Buleah Of Fullscoops
- Jyothi Nidhish Of Kitchen Rhymes
- Shaami Of Flavors I Luv
- +swetha vantalu Of Swetha's Vegetarian Cuisine

Congratulations nominees  
Do Accept the award and take out sometimes to forward this award to fellow bloggers!

*** Note: If anyone not interested to accept the award feel free to let me know! So that some other blogger may get a fair chance to receive the award :)

Question For My Nominees are:

1) What did u understand with the concept of blogging?
2) What are the things that changed after you started blogging?
3) If you are a food blogger do ur family and friends support your efforts?
4) How is your blog different from other blogs you came across?
5) Do you have virtual friends? How does it feel when u interact with them?
6) What is your new year resolutions and why?
7) One thing you can change about yourself?
8) One thing you always fantasy about u can have?
9) 5 things you love the most
10) Blogging is a different World!! What if u were not a blogger? and what if u have to quit blogging anytime???

One extra question from myside :)
11) Who inspire and motivate u to cook :)

Hope my questions are not hard :) But apart from being fun, these questions we help us understand thing more clear and better :) Have fun guys!!!

Stay tuned for more! 
Till then Bubye



                                                                         Lots of Love 
                                                                                    Aara!!









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Thursday 2 January 2014

Sweet Potato Indian Fries

I am Late But Wishing all my Fellow Bloggers and Readers A Very Happy New Year And Year Full Of Happiness and Blessings!! 


Wishing All my Muslim Brothers and Sisters, Rabbi-ul-awwal Mubarak It is 3rd Month Of Islamic Calender And Our Prophet Muhammad SAW was born in this month! Its month of blessings and Many of our fellow Muslims Also Celebrate It Very Grandly In their Locality and Mosque etc etc.. So this is a short intro abt Rabbi-ul- awwal

Today I have come up with a interesting recipe my innovation with sweet potatoes. I wanted to make dry curry with sweet potatoes, but my mom and bro were making faces coz its something new Im experimenting with lolz. You can imagine a daughter cruely brutally forcing her new experiments to her family members ha ha well its funny but it makes me feel angry :P 

After making sweet potato halwa with carrot I still had a large one left of lying un-noticed, today I tot of using it and here I come up with Indianized version of sweet potato fries which is deep fried with aromatic flavors fused in giving it a unique taste, Im glad I tried it and you should trust me that my mom and bro who always criticize my new innovations were eating it without complaint :D

Lets Peek-a-boo into the recipe

Ingredients: 
Sweet Potato - 1 large (2 cups of potato fingers)
All Purpose Flour - 3 tsp (heap)
Corn Flour - 4 tsp (heap)
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Water as per needed
Oil to deep fry
Some curry leaves
Red Color (purely optional)
Chaat Masala (optional)

Method:
- Peel the sweet potato and dip it inside water, Now Slice the potatoes evenly and then cut thick enough to fry as chips (see the pic below)

- In a pot take water and bring it to boil, now immerse these sweet potatoes and let it sit in boiling hot water for 1 min and drain it, allow it to come to room temp. 

- Mean while mix APF , cornflour, dry spices and salt with enough water to make a thick paste. And mix the blanched sweet potatoes into this spice mixture.


You are Ready To Fry!
- Heat oil in low medium drop these marinated potatoes one by one and fry it in batches also add curry leaves into the oil for extra flavor while frying. Each batch should take aprox 3-4 mins. Make sure you dont over fry Its ok if these r soft.

- When u are finish frying the whole thing, get ready to fry it again. This is done to obtain crispiness.

- You can fry it immediately after finishing frying 1st time or still keep it as it is and fry when ur ready to consume.

- 2nd fry should be again done in low medium heat till you get nice hard outer coating. dont over fry. 

- Once you are done remove it into tissue/ news papers and allow the excess oil to drain.

- When it cools you are ready to munch these crispy yummies


Toss Some Chaat masala to these fries and Serve (optional, see notes)

Ready to Munch as it is or serve it along with Ketchup/dip

Notes:
- As you peel the potato and cut it to fingers make sure u immediately immerse it into the water, As I noticed it was getting black and patchy as it gets dried.

- As I saw it was getting patchy I added some red food color to it, but later while frying it was realized that the color is getting too dark! but still as it was fried in low temp, I was able to maintain the color without make it look over fried or burnt. So if u want u can skip the food color and obtain nice golden brown color.

- Add more spices if u desire to eat spicy,  as it is sweet potato it observes the amt of spices I had added, you can add more spices for real spiciness if u wish.

- Adding chaat masala is purely optional. As I felt sweet potato had neutralized the spices I added chaat masala to these after 2nd fry and tossed it to mix well. It gave a very unique flavor on the whole. May be next time I would add spices a little more but not much! 

- I did the 1st fry in the afternoon and 2nd fry in evening. It was quiet crispy enough to store in air tight container until we consumed after 2 hrs, So u can really be calm while doing this! there is no urgency at all, you can take ur own time and do the 2nd fry when ever u desire


Impression:
I loved the new taste in my mouth! Just different. I planned to blog this today itself as new innovation of 2014 and was eating it again and again to give it a name :P lol I can be funny ;)

My bro dosent like sweet potato, but later he started asking me where is the fries u were making? and he had his share without any fuss

My Mom She told me 2-3 time that she liked it, it has come out very nice, except for the chaat masala, she would have liked more with sweeter taste! (now thats her choice she dosent like much of chatpata flavor from chaat masala)

Also My mom said she will bring more sweet potatoes and I should make this again!

My dad is sweetheart he eats all my cooked food without any fuss! yes he do gives his gentle reviews as he eats but for this he dint say anything which meant he liked it and was ok with the taste!

Dear Friends Hope u enjoyed this new recipe Also do try making it! as winters is almost ending and sweet potatoes wont be available that easily after sometime :)

When u try pls give ur humble feedback So that others can benefit with ur reviews

Want Some? :)


Stay tuned for More recipes
Bubye Until then 
With lots of love 
Aaraaa

Sending my recipe to 
Cook With Comfort



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