Sausage easy peazy pop sticks

These sausage pops are easy to make and loved by kids  . I give them for their snack time in school .

Cooking time : 5 min 
Preparation time : 10 min or less. 

Ingredients

2 sausage pcs
1 bread crumb of seasoned bread
1 egg 
1 tbsp of corn flour with pinch of salt 
Water enough to make batter 
4 Sticks 
Oil to deep fry .

Method 
1. Cut sausage into half making 4 pcs . 
2. Insert sticks in sausage .
3. Make batter with corn flour , salt and      water . 
4. Dip one sausage stick in corn flour first . 
5. Dip it into egg . 
6. Roll it into bread crumbs . 
7. Deep fry in oil carefully keeping stick up . 
8. Let it be golden brown from all sides . 
9. Drain them into steel sieve. 
10. Serve them hot with garlic mayonise sauce.

Prawn coconut rice

My family loves prawns in any form . And this one is insanely tasty with basmati rice cooked in coconut milk and prawns . This one even taste better if kept in fridge for 5-6 hours and serve .

You will need to serve 2 adults 2 kids 
■ 1 ,1/4 cup basmati rice 
■ 15 large size prawns fresh deveined and detailed 
■ 1- 2 cup of pure coconut milk made with freshly grinded coconut . 
■ onions 1 larfinfinely chopped
■ Tomatos 2 large grinded 
■ 1 inch ginger finely chopped 
■ 1 tsp of black pepper 
■ 1tsp of red chilli powder 
■  salt to taste 
■ 3 tbsp of oil as coconut milk also leaves oil

Method 
1.Soak basmati rice for 1 hour .

2.In the mean time prepare coconut milk with 1/2 coconut . Grind coconut in grinder with water and strain milk in batches .

3.Take about 5 prawn and grind them with little coconut milk .

4.In hot oil 
First add finely chopped ginger fry them for a minute do not burn them   .

5.Then add onions and fry them until almost light brown .

6.Add tomato and let it leave oil . 
Add salt pepper red chilli powder . Followed by remaining prawns  Turn off heat keep it aside with closed lid .  Note : prawns if overcooked may get hard so cook them less than a minute at this step.

7.In a separate pot ,Cook rice with coconut milk , grinded prawns and salt till rice is almost done . 
Strain rice .

8.Now mix rice with fried prawns gently and close lid for another 10 minutes in low flame . This will make rice fully cooked with remaining uncooked prawns .

Now you  try it . 

Butterfly Prawns

We usually order butterfly prawns in our favourite chinese restaurant . And these deep fried prawns are my family's favourite starter .

I struggled many times to create same softness same taste until yesterday when  my family couldn't resist them . And thats the reason i was able to take picture if only two fried prawns in a hurry . 

They were soft from inside and crisp from outside and it had almost same taste as we usually enjoy in Chinese food joint . 
I am sure with this recipe you won't fail .

Ingredients 
    To marinade 
. 12 large prawns deveined and raw.
.  2 tbsp soya sauce 
. Grinded ginger 
.  Lemon or vinegar (i used lemon) 
.  Black pepper freshly grounded
.   Salt if needed as soya sauce has salt .

  To fry 
. About 2 cups of bread crumbs 
. 1 large egg 
. 2 tbsp of white flour or corn flour .
  Oil to deep fry .

Method 

1. Wash prawns keeping tail intact . I      bought deveined large raw prawns.

2. Slit prawn from the center and open wide from both sides . Press it gently with both hands . Refer How to butterfly a prawn.

3. Marinade prawn gently with mentioned ingredients .

4. Keep it for 1 hour shrink wrapped in fridge .

5. When its time to fry , keep white flour, bread crucrumb and an  egg in bowl .

6. Take one piece coat with white flour 
    Then dip in egg 
    Then coat it with bread crumbs . 

7. Fry in high heat for 1 minute on both  sides untill it gets golden brown .

Serve with spicy red pepper side dish or garlic mayonise sauce . 

Corn flakes twist

Another healthy school snack for short break . My Kids love corn flakes with milk any time , but sometimes when we are on move i prefer to give them dry version of corn flakes . Mostly either sugar frosted or chocos or salty corn flakes .These corn flakes are so tasty even adults can enjoy at tea time .

Ingredients 
About 1 pack of corn flakes normal ones
2-3  large onions thin sliced
3-4 green chillies or fresh red chillies if available 
About 100 gm of roasted peanuts 
Cumin seeds (optional) 
Poppy seeds (optipnal) 
About 4 tbsp of oil 
Salt to taste

Method 
1. Take large pan , and heat oil .

2. Fry onions and chillies in batches to make them crisp light brown or slightly dark brown . Keep them separate or with last batch fry cumin seeds and poppy seeds with peanuts . You must put salt enough for onions you are frying in batches . 

3. Turn off heat .

4. In separate large pan dry roast corn flakes for a while untill they get slightly light brown .

5. Let everything get cool .

6. Now mix everything .

7. And you are  good to go . You can keep these corn flakes for a month or so in air tight container and use them .

Egg roll

Ingredient

2 eggs 
Onion (1/2 small)
Cabbage finely chopped (1 leaf)
Carrot (grated) 1 small 
Lettuce 2 leaves
Salt ( to taste )
Black pepper 
2 tsp of mayonise 
1 pitta bread or Indian bread ( ready made )

Method

1. Mix all veggies with salt pepper and mayononise, keep aside .

2. Take two eggs whisk them with little salt and pepper  and fry them in a flat pan to make flat omelette . Cook for a minute on each  side. 

3. Warm pita bread or indian bread with butter  

4. Place bread first , then omelette .

5. Now put all veggies on the side from where you would fold .

6. Press veggies inside and fold bread with egg , press each time you fold so that veggies doesn't come out .

7. Hold with toothpick in the middle .

8. Serve hot .

NOTE:  make omelette in the end so that roll can be served hot . 

Cheese sandwich

This cheese sandwich is super easy , simple and it can still win so many hearts .
I made it in breakfast on valentines day morning for my lovely family .

Ingredient 
Fresh Slice sandwich bread 
Salted butter 
Mozrella cheese pack sliced 
A heart shaped cookie cutter 
And thats all

Method 
1.Take two slices of bread toast them with butter in low flame till it gets just crisp .

2.While hot, take mozrella cheese slice and place it in between two slices of breads .

3. Press them gently , you will see cheese is melting .

4. Cut them from middle with cookie cutter of you choice .

5. Just ready to eat :-) 

Restaurant style coconut chutney

Ingredients

1 cup coconut grated
2 tbsp of roasted chana daal 
2 dried red whole chillies
1/2 inch pc of ginger 
Few curry leaves 
Mustard seeds 
1 tsp Oil for tampering mustard seeds
1 tsp oil for frying curry leaves

Method 
1 . Put curry leaves in hot oil . 
2.  Grind fine coconut, fried curry leaves , chana dal, whole red chillies, ginger with salt to taste and  little water to soften . 
3. Tamper mustard seeds and pour in the chutney . 
4. Ready to eat

Fruits bite for snacks time

Fruit Bite

Ingredients
Any 3 or 4 types of  seasonal fruits .
Toothpicks
salt to sprinkle
You can take banana , apple , water melon , papaya , guava , peach , plum , grapes .

Method
Take took pick and arranged fruit in order .  Sprinkle some salt .
Kids love something different in school for snack time break .

Quick veggie bite

My successful  way of giving  raw veggies to kids . 
This small bite is crispy with fresh veggies and boiled egg , also whole meal for kids. 
Ready to eat 10 minutes .

Ingredient
Ready to cook prawn crispy 4 pcs 
1 egg boiled
1 pinch of salt 
1 pinch of pepper 
1 tsp of mayonise 
4 tbsp of finely chopped cabbage 
4 tbsp of finely grated carrot

Use more veggies depending on what your kids like . 

Method 
1. Mix cabbage and carrot with mayonise. 
2. Cut boiled egg into eatable bites .
3. Fry prawn crispy in hot vegetable oil . 
4. Take 1 or 2 tsp  of veg mix and put on  top of one crispy prawn. Put a slice of egg . Sprinkle some salt and pepper. 

Gits gulab jamun

After so many failures i finally discovered  a way of making "gits gulab jamun" just right .
Important points to prepare jamun

1.Take warm water in a cup .
2.Take damp cloth.
3.Take a flat dish and take little water just enough to make one round gulab jamun . 4.Making one gulab jamun with little water at a time makes sure that jamun is  moist and not cracked and dried .
5. Cover it with damp cloth to keep it moist untill you fry them .

Important points to fry
1. In a deep frying pan let oil be hot enough to let jamun come from bottom to up slowly .
2. Oil should not be too hot , else jamun will get burn from outside and will not cooked from outside.
3. The heat should be between medium low and high in intervals.
4. Watch for jamun getting bigger in size .
5. If they dont rise it means water is not enough and they will.turn hard .

Prepare sugar syrup
1. Grind 1 cup sugar with four small cardomoms.
2. Take 2 cups of water and one cup of sugar . Boil for a 2 minutes .
3. In a warm sugar syrup soak your jamuns .
4. Refrigerate and enjoy .

Cucumber and feta cheese salad for summers

Serve about 2 

Ingredients 
Spinach 250 grams 
2 Tbsp of olive oil 
1/4 onion medium size 
2 Tbsp Feta cheese 
1 sweet cucumber cut diced 
2 deseeded tomato cut diced  medium size
1/4 yellow and green bell pepper diced 
Shreaded chicken 
1 whole juicy lemon 
Parsley 
Freshly grounded pepper 

Take about 250 grams of spinach . Boil water and add spinach in boiling water boil it for 30 sec . Drain and put it in ice water for 2 minute .  Drain and its ready to use.

1 Tbsp of olive oil make it very hot in pan . 

Fry about 1/4 onion cut thin and long untill they get light brown. 

Put 1Tbsp of Feta cheese and fry untill it melts . 

Add spinach and mix it . 
it tastes yum . If you like you could use black pepper. 

In a separate bowl take feta cheese scrumbled ,cucumber , tomato , parsley , yellow bell pepper green bell pepper, shredded chicken pieces ,Squeez one lemon , pepper and salt  and olive oil . 

Mix spinach ,above mix and top with bread crumbs of 1 or 2 slice roasted buttered breads .

I usually make sure that i add minimal quantity of each carbohydrate(bread)  protein(chicken)and fibers in one plate to make the meal complete. 

Turkish poached eggs with yogurt

Today i bumbed into this blog almostturkish and i found so many fresh recipes to try on . Please refer the blog for more exciting recipes .

I did few changes in the actual recipe on blog  . I never knew semi cooked egg will taste that good with yogurt . Hell ! yes . It took me to another dimension i would say .

Serves 1
Ingredients
1 big egg (i used 1 instead of 2)
3 tsp of yogurt with hint of salt and 1 clove of garlic nicely minced or grinded   .
Pinch of whole red chilli flakes
Fresh mint leaves chopped fine
A pinch of freshly grounded black pepper
1 tsp of butter
2 tbsp of vinegar
1 tsp of salt
3 cups of water

Method
1.Boil 3 cups of water with  1 tsp salt , vinegar.

2. Lower the heat and let water be calm .

3. Break egg in one bowl .

4. Turn egg into the water and cook for 3 minutes for semi cooked egg .

5.Take flat spatulla and get egg off the pot and into the plate very gently .

6. Heat 1 tsp of salted butter in pan , turn off heat and glide your chilli flakes into it .  

7. Now on top of your egg turn yogurt mix, followed by butter and chilli flakes . Garnish with mint leaves . Sprinkle some black pepper on top .

8. Serve hot .

Chettinand chicken

Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes
Marination 30 minutes to 2 hours

Ingredients
For about 500 gms of chicken

For frying
1 medium size onion chopped fine
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1 bay leaf
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
Few curry leaves

To marinade
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
1 lemon
1/2 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
1 tsp if ginger garlic paste

For thickening
1 tbsp of poppy seeds soaked for 20 minute and grinded

For chettinand masala
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1/4 cup of grinded dried coconut
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 green cardomom
3 black pepper
1/2 tsp jeera
1tsp of corinader seeds
3 red whole chiĺlies

Method
1. Marinade chicken with the ingredients for marinade .
2. Roast and grind masala .
3. Grind poppy seeds and make paste.
4. Fry bay leaf followed by onion untill golden brown .
5. Fry 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste and tomato paste .
6.Put 3/4 chettinad masala.
7.Thrown in chicken and cook it on high heat for 7-8 minutes .
8. Since there is enough salt in the chicken , there is no need to add salt later .
9. Pour 1 and 1/2cup of water and poppy seeds paste .
10. Cook for another 20 minutes on medium low flame .
11. Check when done .
12. Garnish with curry leaves .
13. Serve with steamed rice or chapati.

Mackerel fried fish

Preparation time : 15 minutes 

Marination time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves 1

Ingredients
For marinade
1 small size mackeral fish
1 lemon
1 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of salt

For shallow fry
1 tbsp of white all pupose flour dab out extra.
Salt to taste in flour .
Water about 1/2 cup
Oil to shallow fry about 1 tbsp

Method
1. Cut fish into 4 pcs .

2. Wash nicely .

3. Mix salt , black pepper, lemon juice , ginger garlic paste and oil toghether .

4. Apply mix gently on fish covering it throughly with marinade . Leave it for 20 minutes.

5. Mix white flour and salt with water.

6. Dip fish pcs in the flour for 10 minutes .

7. Shallow fry them on low heat for 8 minutes each side.

8. Your fish fries are ready . They are crisp frim outside and soft from inside.

Serve them with pasta or toasted bread for dinner.

Important : its imporatnt to cook fish on low heat for long .

Always marinade fish to get rid of smell .

Bhurji pao Mumbai style

Preparation time : 15 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves 2 adults
Difficuly level : very easy

Ingredients
1 finely chopped onion
2 finely chopped green chillies
1 finely chopped green bell pepper
1 finely chopped tomato
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp of pao bhaji masala
6 bread pieces or pao in hindi
Salt to taste
2 tbsp Oil to cook 
Butter 20 gm

Method
1.Heat oil in a pan .
2.Fry onion untill soft and light brown .
3.Fry bell pepper and green chilli   untill.soft .
4.Fry tomato untill soft and squashy.
5.Fry ginger garlic paste for minute .
6. Put spices like red chilli powder, salt , pao bhaji masala .
7. Whisk 4 eggs in separate bowl .
8. Thrown in eggs and stir continously in low flame slowly and gently .
10. Untill eggs are fully mixed with veggies .
11. Your egg burji is ready .
12. Serve with buttered and hot pao .

note : check consistency of eggs it should not be cooked on high flame for long time . Cooking on low flame help it to give soft consistency . 

Kacchi chicken Biryani

Preparation time 4 hours
Cooking time 45 minutes
Serves 4 adults

Ingredients to marinade
1 small whole chicken cut into 8 pieces about 800 gms
4 large onions chopped fine
1 cup of mint leaves chopped
1 cup of coriander leaves chopped
3 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
1 cup of yogurt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp of red chill powder
3 tbsp of Biryani masala
2 tsp of garam masala
Salt to taste
1/2 lemon
1 tsp of nutmeg powder
1 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of shahi jeera
4 green chillies chopped fine

Ingredients for cooking rice
3 cups (250ml  cup) soaked for 1 hour
3 green cardomom
4 cloves
3 small bay leaves
1 inch cinnamom stick
Salt to tatse
Water about 4 cups

Ingredients to garnish
1 large onion cut long and thin and fried golden brown and crisp
2. Handful of mint leaves
3. Kesar strands soaked in 1/2 cup of warm milk .
4. Food colour orange or yellow .

Method to marinade
1. Just mix all the ingredients with chicken and keep it in the fridge 3 hours .

Method to half cook rice
1. Boil water with salt .
2. Pack remaining ingredients in one small cloth tie it and leave it in water to boil for 5 minutes .
3. Thrown in rice and let it be just 50% done .
4. Drain rice .

Method to cook biryani
In a large pot .
1. 4 tbsp of oil make it hot .
2. Put chicken pieces and all stuff .
3. Spread in rice .
4. 2 tbsp of ghee .
5. Sprinkle some fried onions .
6. Sprinkle some mint leaves .
7. Cover the pot and seal it tight with the dough from all over .
8. Cook on a high flame for 10 minutes .
9. Cook on medium high flame for 25 minutes .
10. Cook on medium low flame for 10 minutes .
11. Turn off gas and leave it for 15 minutes .
12 . Your biryani is ready serve it with red pepper chutney and raita .

Chicken pulav or chicken rice

Preparation time 2 hours
Cooking time 45 minutes

NOTE : Chicken cooks faster .
Cooking rice in chicken oil and stalk make them tasty and nutritious .

Ingredients
500 gm of chicken
11/2 cup basmati rice soaked for an hour
And drained

Ingredients for marinading chicken for 2 hours
1/2 cup of yogurt
1/2 tsp of yellow powder
Salt to taste enough for chicken
Black pepper about 1 tsp freshly grounded
1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp of garam masala
Handful of mint leaves
Handful of dhaniya leaves
Freshly grinded coriander seeds
2 tsp of biryani masala

Ingredients for frying
1 cup of slicer onion
1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1/2 inch of cinnamon stick
2 small bay leaves
3-4 whole black pepper
1 whole big cardomom seed
Salt to taste
Oil 4 tbsp

Ingredients for garnishing
Handful of coriander leaves
Handful of mint leaves

Method

1. Marinade chicken for 2 hours with above ingredients .

2. Soak rice for an hour . This is very important step to make rice grain separated with each other . Drain and keep aside .

3. Start frying onions in hot oil in a big pot .

4. Followed by all the ingredients for frying . Now thrown in chicken.peices

5. Let it leave chicken's natural oil .  pour 2 cups of water and boil it . Put salt in this step enough to cook rice .

6. Thrown in rice.

7. Mix thoroughly.

8. Close lid and cook for 30 minutes .

9. Turn off heat and let the it stay with closed lid .

10 . Garnish rice with coriander and mint leave serve .

Yellow lentill cooked with rice or moong daal khichdi

Yellow moong daal khichdi is one delicacy which has been underestimated and under appreciated by many . As in india  we eat "khichdi " usually when we get sick, most of the times. To avoid heavy food when sick i guess.

But me and hubby love it and relish "khichdi" usually on sundays dinner time , for more than one reason . Its light on stomuch at night , its tasty , its easy to cook .

Ingredients 
1/2 cup moong daal washed
1/2 cup white rice washed
2 green chillies slit and chopped fine.
1/2 tsp of jeera /cuminseeds 
oil to cook just 1 tbsp 
Pure Ghee to serve

Method
In a cooking pot fry cumin seeds followed by green chillies . do not fry for long , immedietly thrown in rice and moong daal and fry them for a minute,then add salt to taste and 2-3 cups of water to cook them.

We like our khichdi to be watery . So i keep checking water consistency when rice and lentil are cooked .If its dry then pour more water to make it thick watery . 
Re-check for salt .

Serve very hot with ghee or clarified butter , papad and hot red pepper garlic chutney . Enjoy !

Malai kofta

Serves 4
Preparation time  30 minutes
Cooking time  30 minutes

Ingredients
For making koftas
4-5 medium size potatoes
1 tsp of ginger and garlic paste
1 green chilli chopped
150 gm of paneer
Bread crumbs 2 Tbsp
2 tbsp of corn flour
Cashew to garnish (optional)
Salt to taste

For making curry
1/2 cup of cashew soaked and grinded to paste consistency
1 cup of semi skimmed milk
1 tsp of kasoori methi
1 medium sized onion grinded
1 tomato big size check for sourness grinded( tomatoes, if less sour then use 2)
Freshly grinded coriander powder 1 tbsp
1 tbsp of ketchup
1 tbsp of ginger  garlic paste
1 tsp of garam masala
Salt to taste
Butter to fry about 3 Tbsp

Method

To make kofta
Peel and mash potatoes.
Mix ginger garlic paste .
And green chillies.
Add corn flour .
Add bread crumbs.
Mash everything well .
Make cylinder or round shape patties .
Insert half cashew on top of koftas to garnish them . (I was out of cashews so i didnt garnish)
Deep fry them in high flame untill golden brown .

To make kofta curry
In warm butter fry onions untill light golden .

Put ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute.

Put grinded tomatoes and fry untill it leaves oil or leaves raw smell .

Put fresh coriander powder next .

Followed by ketchup.

Thrown in cashew paste ,mix .

Pour milk , and boil .

When it start to boil thats the time when you put kasoori methi and garam masala powder and just cook for 2 minutes . Turn off heat and close lid .

Serve curry and add koftas on top . Serve hot .
I sprinkled some jeera powder on top just to have little punch ;-)

Cheese cracker

Cooking time 1 minute
Preparation time 10 minutes

Ingredients for making 12 crackers
A pack of Savoury crackers
Mozrella cheese about 1 cup
Finely chopped onions about 1/2 cup
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish
Salt and fresh black pepper to taste (optional )

Method
1. Grate cheese 1 cup.
2. Chop onion fine.
3. Sprinkle some  onion in each cracker followed by little salt and pepper.
4. Sprinkle some cheese on top .
5. Heat in pre heated oven for 1 minute just to melt cheese.
   Or for those of you who dont use oven . Can make an empty pop very hot
   And turn it upside down o  crackers , make sure all your crackers are i side   the pot . Be safe.
6. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve .