Tomato Briyani..(Pressure Cooker Version)

Tomato Briyani is very similar to Tomato rice with a little twist of ingredients. Tomato rice taste more a like tangy taste, but i have kept very less sour taste in briyani. Last week during his holidays i had cooked this one pot meal for the lunch and i serve with chilled yogurt raita. When ever you ask him shall i cook tomato rice he will never say no to it, he loves tomato rice but i'm not a big fan of rice items, i cook rice items just because he likes it and i enjoy seeing him eating.. This is my new innovation in briyani and my hubby like it very much. I hope my blog readers also like this recipe :)

Ingredient's

2cup Raw rice

1 Bay leaf, 1 Cinnamon stick, 2 Cardamoms

2 dry red chillie, 2 star anise 

2 Onions, 2 green chillies (finely sliced)

2 ginger garlic paste 

1 hand full of mint leaves 

1tsp Kasoori methi 

1tsp red chili powder, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp coriander powder 

1tsp Cumin, 1/2tsp mustard seeds 

1/2cup curd

a pinch of food color 

Tomato 2 (large red tomatoes, finely chopped) 

Oil 2 tbsp 

Salt to taste 

Coriander leaves for garnish.

Cooking Method

Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add cumin, mustard, cinnamon, cardamoms, star anise, red chillies and bay leaf, stir fry 30 secs. Add the sliced onions and saute for 3minutes. Add green chili, ginger-garlic paste, mint leaves and kasoori methi and saute for 4-5minutes. Add red chili powder, turmeric and coriander powder and mix. Add chopped tomatos, curd and salt to taste, mix and cook till oil separates. Reduce heat, add the raw rice, food color, mix gentely, then add 3cup of water, close the lid and pressure cook for 3whistles (1 in high flame 2 in low flame)

Remove onto a serving bowl. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve warm with raita or any curry of your choice.

Bengali Rasgulla..

Rasgulla it is popular throughout India and other parts of South Asia. The dish is made from ball shaped dumplings of chhena (an Indian cottage cheese), cooked in light sugar syrup. This is done until the syrup permeates the dumplings. This was the first attempt and i was quite happy with the result.

Ingredients:

4 cups milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 1/2 cups water

1tsp arrowroot flour

Pressure cooker.

Method for Paneer/Chhena

Mix lemon juice in half cup of hot water and keep aside.

Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.

As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.

Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with muslin cloth.

Wrap the curd in a muslin cloth, and rince under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.

To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.

Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until the paneer is almost rolls into smooth soft dough.

Knead the paneer and arrowroot flour by dragging the palm of your hand hard on the paneer. Keep scooping it back to togather and knead more. If the paneer is too crumbly, add a teaspoon of water. Your palm will be little greasy.

Method For Rasgulla 

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.

To make the balls apply some pressure at the first and then release when forming the balls.

Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium high heat and bring to a boil.

Add the paneer balls and close the pressure cooker. After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about seven minutes.

Make sure the pressure cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished Rasgullas, as they will expand to about double in the volume while cooking in the syrup.

Close the heat and wait a few minutes before you opening the pressure cooker. Pour cold water over the pressure cooker before opening.

Rasgullas should be little spongy. Serve the Rasgullas chilled.

Merry Christmas!!!! Eggless Mini Bundt Cake.

It's Christmas time again. Merry Christmas to all my blogger friends and readers. Do lots of shopping, cooking and enjoy your holidays... I have made this bundt as i had made the pound cake with little bit of change in ingredient's.. And this bundt also had come out very spongy, this year i'm doing lots of baking, there are many more recipes yet to come, u'll all see it very soon :)

Ingredient's

1+1/2cups all purpose flour

1/2cup butter, room temperature

1/2cups sugar

1cup plain yogurt

1/4cup milk

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

4tbsp dried black grapes and raisin.

For the icing

2tbsp icing sugar

1/2tbsp warm water.

Baking Method

Preheat oven at 350F/180C for 10minutes. Grease and flour the mini bundt cake tin.

In a small bowl blend together the, milk, yogurt and vanilla extract.

In another small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until it’s light and fluffy. To this mixture, add the liquid ingredients in 3 additions, beating well after each addition.

Now combine the dry ingredients and blend well. Stir in the black grapes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. I made 6 mini bundt cake from this batter.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. You will be able to remove the cake from the pan in about 10-15 minutes. Keep the cake on the wire rack and let it cool completely.

After the cake completely cooled pour the icing on it..

Eggless Pound Cake!!! To celebrate Christmas

Pound cake refers to a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. This is the way to make a perfect pound cake, but i have not used egg in my pound cake so i don't call it a perfect pound cake. Many people don't prefer egg in their cakes, it is the same case with my hubby also. What ever i bake i keep in my mind to use very less eggs in it. Last night i was just going through some websites there this recipe caught my eyes and i have changed the many ingredient's, but still the result was awesome. The cake was very soft and good to taste... So friends do try this recipe and let know :)

Ingredient's

1+1/2cups all purpose flour

1/2cup butter, room temperature

1/2cups sugar

1cup plain yogurt

1/4cup milk

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

1/4tsp salt

4tbsp dried black grapes.

Baking Method

Preheat oven at 350F/180C for 10minutes. Grease and flour the mini bread loaf tin.

In a small bowl blend together the, milk, yogurt and vanilla extract.

In another small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until it’s light and fluffy. It will take about 5 minutes. To this mixture, add the liquid ingredients in 3 additions, beating well after each addition.

Now combine the dry ingredients and blend well. Stir in the black grapes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. I made 6 mini pound cake from this batter.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. You will be able to remove the cake from the pan in about 10-15 minutes. Keep the cake on the wire rack and let it cool completely.

Mini Uttapam

A delicious and quick breakfast recipe made with a dosa batter, seasoning and top with tomatos and onion. I had this mini uttapam once in restaurant on my way to chennai, they were looking so cute i din't feel like eat them, i just wanted to keep looking at them only. I wanted to try this at home from a long long time but i use to always forget. Last week i had dosa batter in my fridge and i was not having idea what to cook with that dosa batter. Then suddenly i told myself when not cook those mini uttapam which we had on that day in restaurant. Then i made mini uttapam they were as beautiful as i had in restaurant... I love it.

Ingredient's

2 cup Dosa Batter

1 cup finely chopped (tomato, onion, green chilli and coriander leafs)

Salt and Oil to taste.

Cooing Method

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Pour few drops of oil

Take one ladle full of dosa batter and pour into small portions to make 2 to 3 mini uttapams.

Sprinkle some salt and place the tomatoes, onion, chilli and coriander mixture over each of mini uttapam.

Cover with a lid and cook on low fire.

Turn over very gently and cook the other side.

Once both the sides are cooked, remove and Serve hot with Chutney.