Shahi Mattar Paneer

Ingredients

· 2 finely chopped Onion
· 1 tsp. minced ginger and 1 green chili minced along with ginger
· 1 can of tomato puree
· Salt to taste
· 1 tsp. red chili powder
· 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
· 250 gm. Indian cottage cheese / Paneer
· 3 cups of green peas (mattar)
· ½ cup of curd
· 2 cardamoms/eliachi
· 1 teaspoon of sugar
Directions· Cut cottage cheese/ paneer in 1 inch cubes and keep it aside.
· Now take a non stick pan and add onion and ginger mixture to it.
· When onions turn golden brown add tomato puree.
· Add Cardamoms and cook the mixture till 5 minutes.
· Now add Green Peas/ Mattar
· Add Salt, Red chili powder, Sugar and Turmeric.
· Add curd and let it simmer for 5-8 minutes.
· After cooking whole mixture / masala now add Paneer to this and let it simmer for 5

more minutes.
· Garnish with green chilies.
· Serve hot with Naan / Chapatti or Parantha.

-Chitra

Daal Makhni

A very popular Indian Dish, well known in wedding food or restaurant food. Here is a home made recipe.
Ingredients
1. 1 ½ cups of black whole urad daal soaked and boiled (until soft)
2. 1 ½ tsp of Ginger and Garlic paste
3. Salt to Taste
4. 1 teaspoon Red chili powder
5. ½ tsp of Kasuri Methi
6. ½ tsp. of cream
7. 1 cup of tomato puree
8. Oil and Water

Directions
1. In a non stick pan heat 2 tsp of oil on medium heat.
2. Now add Ginger and Garlic paste and kasuri methi
3. When the mixture is well mixed add tomato puree and salt and red chili powder
4. Cook it for 3 minutes and now add daal.
5. Mix well and add 2 cups of water, let it cook for 10 minutes
6. When daal is cooked, garnish with cream and serve hot with naan or chapatti.
-Chitra

Band Gobhi Mattar - Cabbage and Peas

Ingredients
· 1 chopped Cabbage/Bandh gobhi
· 2 cups Peas/Mattar
· 1 teaspoon Haldi/Turmeric Powder
· 1 teaspoon Red chili powders
· 1 tsp. minced /finely chopped ginger and green chilies
· 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds/zeera
· Salt to Taste
· Oil for cooking
Directions· Add Oil in non stick pan and add Cumin seeds.
· When Cumin seeds splutter add ginger and green chilies.
· Then when ginger turns light pink add peas and stir for 2 minutes.
· When peas turn little brown add Salt and Dry masala.
· After that add Cabbage and stir and let it cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
· Serve hot with Roti or Parantha’s or make a stuffed sandwich for breakfast or fill in

burritos and serve as a evening snack.

-Chitra

Sauteed Green Onion - Hara Pyaaz Maslan

Ingredients
1. 2 bunches of Spring Onions / hara pyaaz with green stems
2. 1/2 cup of Red bell pepper diced thinly
3. Salt to taste
4. ½ teaspoon of turmeric/ haldi powder
5. ½ teaspoon of cumin / zeera powder
6. Oil

Directions
1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a non stick pan and add onions and bell peppers
2. When they turn golden brown add salt and turmeric powder and cumin powder.
3. Cook for 8-10 minutes and serve.
-Chitra

Everest Indian and Himalyan Resturant and Grill

This is a first series for Food on the Go Series with Chitra.
Everest Indian and Himalyan Resturant and Grill, their website:- http://everestirving.wix.com/everest
This is an Indian restaurant I visited recently in Irving, Texas. It is located 3310 W. Rochelle Road, Irving, Texas, 75062 . When you arrive at this restaurant the first feeling you get is its shady area. But don’t go the book by its cover.I am sure you will love the food here like I did. It sis quite reasonable and a different kind of restaurant experience which you will not get in all the restaurants, you will see why after you read this post, so keep reading and enjoy.
According to their Website it is a restaurant which provides you authentic Nepali taste..For those of you who don’t know where is Nepal, click here. They have experienced chef especially, our head chef who has  more than 15 years of experience in preparing the special Nepali and Indian cuisine. The ambience here is really cozy. I felt really warm and comfortable in sitting here, the decorations also shows some ethnicity for Nepal and India. Ok now comes the fun part, the food I ordered there, lets start with appetizer. I ordered Chili Chicken Fried Momos ( Fried Chicken Dumpling/dim sum), which was the best ever eaten momos ever in my whole life till now. Believe me guys I am from Delhi and since 10-12 years, I have tried many places for momos, since they came first time in Delhi. Delhi people love street food and spicy street food. In Delhi Momos are either served as steam or fried . But here fried means always stir fried not deep fried. Its is served with spicy chili sauce, and with spicy means its really spicy. Spice level for me is 08 (in1 being low and 10 being highest). My husband does not like momos at all, but this time when he saw this appetizer which I ordered he was tempted to eat it. He was the first one to eat it and he loved it. They were bomb spicy and best ever. Here is the picture of it., I am sure everyone will be loving this dish   So lets move to entrée now:- We both ordered Veg and Non Veg Indian Thali. It comes with Rice, Naan bread, Curd/Youghurt, Three kinds of vegetable or curries, pakora and one sweet Basically Thali experience is hard to get in USA, there are only few restaurants who serve this kind of specialty. Here is the picture for this:- So my overall experience was really good, I would totally recommend this restaurant to everyone who are visiting Dallas or just travelling. If you want to experience this Thali experience in Dallas Texas, you must go. I will give  four stars to this restaurant and food I ate and my experience I am saving one star for Hope you enjoyed my first post on this series and you will back when I come back again with another fun post for you.
Chitra

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies (Egg less)

Ingredients
1. 1 cup of Whole Wheat Flour
2. ½ cup of all purpose flour
3. 1 cup of sweetened chocolate chips
4. 1 cup of Sugar
5. ½ cup of unsalted butter melted
6. ½ tsp of Baking Soda
7. 1 tsp of Vanilla essence
8. ½ cup of Buttermilk

Directions
1. Mix Flour, Baking Soda and Sugar in one bowl
2. Mix Butter with 1 tsp of Sugar
3. Mix Vanilla essence in Butter slowly and keep stirring.
4. Preheat the Oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes.
5. Mix all wet ingredients in dry ingredients slowly and stir it continuously
6. Now add Chocolate chips
7. After they are mixed the ingredients will be little dry still.
8. Now start adding buttermilk slowly and keep on stirring the mixture till it is smooth.
9. Take one table Spoon and keep on adding on Cookie sheet or parchment paper or greased foil paper.

10. Now bake the cookies for 30 minutes or till they are golden brown at 350.
11. Take out the cookie and let it cool for at least 15 minutes and then serve
12. These eggless cookies, whole wheat cookies are healthy for your family, you can serve them with milk.
-Chitra

South Indian Style- Peanut Baingan/Eggplant

 

This is new version of eggplant, I ever made and tasted, but I have some of the ingredients used in south Indian cooking. When I bought this week to try something with this, I never found any recipes for green eggplant other than green bharta, which I don’t want to try. So I created my own version, I hope you will like it too like my family loved it.

Ingredients

1. 5 green round Eggplant/ Baingan cut in ¼ inch slices

2. One Onion (chopped roughly)

3. One tomato diced

4. 3-4 green chilies (according to you, you can also opt for dry red chilies)

5. 3-4 garlic cloves

6. ½ cup of peanut

7. 2 tbsp or 8-10 leaves of kaddipatta / curry leaves

8. 1 tsp of cumin seeds

9. 1 tsp of fennel / sauf seeds

10. ½ tsp of fenugreek seeds

11. ½ tsp of coriander seeds

12. Salt to taste

13. 1 tbsp of imli / tamarind concentrate

14. Oil

15. ½ tps pf turmeric, red chili powder, cumin and amchoor / mango powder each

Directions

1. Heat oil in a non stick pan and add slices of eggplant in it.

2. Stir fry them till both the sides are slightly brown.

3. Take them out and keep them aside in a bowl.

4. In the same pan add little bit oil again and add onion garlic and green chilies and saute them till light golden.

5. Add peanuts and curry leaves also now and keep on shaking the pan, so that they don’t burn.

6. Now with a spoon just shift all the onion aside and add the dry spices, let them stand for 2 minutes and then mix with onion mixture.

7. Now mix in the tomatoes and let the mixture cook for 5 minutes.

8. Add all the dry spices now, salt, red chili powder, turmeric, mango and cumin powder and cook for another 2 minutes. Let it cool down and take off the heat.

9. In a mixing bowl or cup add tamarind concentrate in little water.

10. In a mixer/grinder add the onion/peanut masala with tamarind water and blend it really well. The mixture will be turned out as little grainy, but this is what you are looking for.

11. Add the mixture in same pan and cook with ½ cup of water. Bring it to boil.

12. Add the sliced green eggplant and let it cook in low heat for 5-8 minutes.

13. Serve with hot roti or parantha , naan or rice.

- enjoy

Chitra

ChowMein Noodles / Lo Mein Noodles

 

Chow mein (/ˈtʃaʊ ˈmeɪn/) are stir-fried noodles, the name being an English language corruption of the Taishanese chāu-mèing. The dish is popular throughout the Chinese diaspora where it will appear on the menu of Chinese restaurants. It is particularly popular in the United States and Britain It is commonly known as Loomein here in USA.

 

Here is my quick and easy version of homemade Chinese noodles for you.

Ingredients

1. 2 cup of dry egg noodles or dry spaghetti pasta par boiled.(al dente)

2. Green Beans (1 cup sliced in two parts)

3. Red Bell peppers (½ cup sliced) or choose any color

4. Mushrooms (1/2 cup sliced)

5. Red Onions (1/2 cup sliced)

6. 2 tbsp of garlic and ginger chopped finely

7. 2 tbsp of olive oil

8. 2 tbsp of red chili flakes

9. Dark Soy Sauce( opt for low sodium)

10. Vinegar

11. Scallions/ Green onion for garnishing

12. Water

Directions

1. Blanch the beans in hot boiling water for 3-5 minutes and then take them out and put in ice cold water. This way beans will be still crunchy but not raw and still maintain green color.

2. Heat the wok on medium heat add oil.

3. Add ginger and garlic with red chili flakes, let them be light pink and add all veggies one by one.

4. Sauté the vegetables for 5-6 minutes, do not stir them just shake your wok to turn them around.

5. At this point of time, if you want to add an egg you can add it now, but if you want vegetarian version just add boiled noodles.

6. Stir the noodles with tongs. Let them get some color.

7. Now when the noodle are ready add 1 tbsp of vinegar and 2 tbsp of soy sauce and mix it well.

8. Let them cook till soy sauce evaporates and then add little bit salt if required.

9. Serve hot and garnish with scallions.

Chowmein/Loomein are everyone’s favorite now you can make them home instead of eating outside and eating high calories food and destroying your health.

Pau Bhaji

 

A dish which everyone loves to eat outside. But now you can make it  this at home very easily and it will be much more nutritious and hygenic.

 

    

Ingredients

1. Two fresh medium diced tomatoes

2. One small boiled potato (mashed)

3. 1 cup of chopped green beans, carrots, bell pepper and peas.

4. One big Onion (chopped)

5. Three cloves of garlic ( minced)

6. 4 tsp. of Pau Bhaji Masala (MDH recommended)

7. 1 tsp. of Red chili powder

8. Salt to taste

9. 2 green chilies (chopped)

10. 3 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil/Vegetable Oil

11. 2 tsp. butter

12. 2 cups of water.

13. 10 buns cut in half with butter on one side. (2 whole buns for family of four)

Directions

1. Puree Tomatoes and keep it aside.

2. Heat Oil in non stick pan and throw mix veggies inside the pan.

3. When veggies are turning light golden brown add tomato puree and stir till oil leaves sides of the pan.

4. Simmer to medium low and add mashed Potatoes.

5. Stir and close the lid let it simmer for five minutes till we prepare the masala to go in this pan. (You must close the lid, as soon as the potatoes are added tomatoes puree will be bubbling up and will make your stove top dirty).

6. Take another small non stick skillet / pan and heat 2tsp. of butter or Oil

7. Add minced garlic and green chilies and onions.

8. Add Salt, Red Chili Powder and add Paubhaji masala and add one tsp of Tomato puree from another pan.

9. Now add this garlic masala to main pan.

10. Add two cups of water.

11. Let it simmer on low heat for 15-20 mins till color is red-orange.

12. Till the Bhaji is ready heat the bread buns and chop one onion for garnish.

13. Now serve it hot to your family their favorite dish from your kitchen. I am sure they will ask for more.

-Enjoy Chitra