Cheese Cutlets

This is a recipe for cheese lovers. You can see melted cheese inside it once you cook them.

Kids will love this recipe and it will be over before you even know it. :)

You can make variations of it with veggies. Do give it a try and leave me any comments or suggestions you might have. :)


Ingredients:

1 cup mixed grated cheese (I used cheddar cheese, monterey jack cheese)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp yogurt
1 small onion - finely chopped
2 pinch of baking powder
1 tbsp coriander leaves - finely chopped
1 tsp Italian herb seasoning
1/2 tsp chili powder or chili flakes.
crushed black pepper and salt to taste

Recipe:

1. Add all the ingredients and make it in a dough like shape. It will be quite sticky, but don't worry about it.
2. Take 1/2 tsp oil and rub it between your palms. Now start taking small portions of dough and roll it in a ball shape. You can fill any stuffing too inside the balls at this point. I chose not to, but you can your extra cheese filling, or cream cheese/dry fruits filling as a substitute.
3. Once all the balls are rolled, heat a pan with 2 tbsp oil in it over medium heat.
4. Once the pan is hot, take one cheese ball, flatten it a little and make it in a small square shape, and place it in a pan.
5. Cook until golden brown on one side. Flip it and cook other side too.
6. This is done at this moment. But if you like it cooked on all side like I do, place all the balls on their sides balancing it on the side of the pan. And rotate until they get color on all for sides.
7. Serve hot to get the feel of ooey-gooey cheese inside.

Corn Fritters in a jiffy

A super quick and simple snack which can be prepared in a jiffy. In that moment when you are hungry and don't want to cook for a long time. This comes to the rescue.

A tasty snack item which is loved by kids and adults alike. Crisp from outside and fluffy inside. A perfect combination with tea/coffee.

Give it a try  and let me know of any suggestions or comments you have.


Ingredients:

1 cup boiled corn
1/2 cup onion - chopped finely
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp melted butter
2 tbsp yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 green chili finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander chopped finely
1 tsp chaat masala
salt to taste
crushed black pepper

Recipe:

1. Add all the ingredients together except milk.
2. Once everything is mixed together, start adding milk 1 tbsp at a time.
3. Add until it reaching a thick consistency which can be spooned.
4. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add oil and scoop the mixture and place it on the pan. Tap it on the top so that it flattens out a little.
5. Once golden brown, flip it and cook until golden brown on other side.
6. Serve hot with ketcup/chutney and a cup of hot coffee/tea.

Chicken & Dumplings - One whole meal

This recipe has every nutrients you need in one bowl. If love chicken soups, this will elevate it to another level. In a cold night, this is a life saver.

One hot bowl of this soup with the combination of a novel. You can just imagine how awesome it will be.

This recipe has chicken, veggies, milk, herb in one bowl. This can't get any better. I love this soup and hope you will too.

Do leave comments or suggestions if you have any.

Ingredients:

For Soup gravy:

2 chicken thighs - cut in bite size pieces
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 small onion - chopped
1 large carrot - chopped
2 celery sticks - chopped
1/4 cup chopped pumpkin
1/4 cup boiled peas
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 cups chicken broth
2 cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
crushed black pepper
salt to taste

For Dumplings:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp finely chopped thyme/parsley/rosemary (add what you like or not add anything at all)
crushed black pepper
salt to taste

Recipe:

1. In a large deep non-stick pan, add oil and heat it up over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, take chicken pieces add 2 tbsp flour, salt and pepper. Coat chicken pieces properly in the mixture.
3. Once oil is hot, add chicken pieces to it. Cook them until they start to get golden brown color. Keep rotating them in between so that they get cooked on all sides. Once cooked take them out.

4. In the same pan add all the veggies,pepper and salt. Cook until translucent and cooked halfway through. I didn't add any extra oil because after cooking chicken in it there is already enough oil left to cook the veggies.

5. Once veggies are cooked, add chicken broth, cream and peas. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add water to this if you feel it is thick. Keep in mind when we add dumplings they soak water too. I added water because I love soup like consistency.

6. Heat it over high. Once it starts to boil, cover it and reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer for 45 minutes.
7. After 40 minutes are over, start preparing dumplings. In a bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well. It will be of sticky consistency.

8. After 45 minutes, with help of spoon add dumplings one by one to the soup mixture. Try to do this step as fast as you can so that they all get even cooking time.

9. Once all dumplings are added, cover the lid, increase the heat to medium and cook it for 15 minutes.
10. Once done, close the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Serve hot and enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - The Classic Way

Chocolate chip cookies, america's almost oldest sweet/snack. It is like a household staple in US. Everyone has to have these in their houses. And since it is so simple to make and taste delicious, it has been the favorite from years and years.

This is one thing which tastes best with a glass of milk. These are the soft interior cookies, you can make crispy version of it too if we decrease the amount of butter in it. Either way it tastes as awesome as it would have been tasted when these were first made.

Hope you all will like this recipe and enjoy it too like it did. Do leave any comments or suggestions you might have down below. Happy Cooking :)

Dry mixture Ingredients:

11/8 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


Wet mixture ingredients:

3/8 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup white granulate sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 egg - at room temperature
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract


Recipe:

1. In a large bowl, add all dry ingredients and mix them well together so that no lumps are there.
2. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add butter and churn it for a minute. Since it is at room temperature this will only take 15-20 seconds.
3. Add rest of the wet ingredients and mix it well until everything is well incorporated and a smooth mixture is formed. Do not over churn them as we don't want too much air to get into cookies unlike cake batter.
4. Once everything is mixed, pre-heat oven at 375 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Now with help of ice-cream scoop, take out equal sized cookie dough balls and place them on the baking sheet. Each cookie ball should be atleast 5 fingers apart from each other.

6. Bake this for 12 - 14 minutes or until they start to turn light brown in color.
7. Once done, take it out and let it cool for about 15 minutes.
8. Eat them with milk or just like that :)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate crinkle cookies, name itself sounds so tempting that you wanna eat it. And once you had these, you will never like any other cookie. That hard exterior and ooey-gooey interior, just melts in your mouth. These are the must have cookies for anyone and everyone.

They are super easy to make. Just one catch that you have to wait for minimum 4 hours until dough is set in refrigerator. But trust me, it is worth the wait.

Once you make them, your house gets filled with chocolaty baking aroma. And who doesn't like chocolates :). Best thing in the whole wide world.

So do make these and enjoy eating them. Do leave comments or suggestions down below. Happy Cooking :)

Dry mixture Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet mixture Ingredients:

2/3 cup granulated sugar - increase the amount if you like things too sweet :)
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence

For outer layer:

1/2 cup of confectionery sugar

Recipe:

1. In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix them well together.
2. Now in a stand-mixer with paddle attachment, add butter and make it in a smooth paste. Do not over mix anything while making cookies as we do not want too much air incorporated in it.
3. Now add rest of the wet ingredients and mix for a minute or until everything is mixed well together.
4. Add dry ingredients to this mixture and mix until everything is well incorporated.
5. Transfer this in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with cellophane sheet and place in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours. Leaving it overnight gives best results.
6. After 4 hours, take it out of refrigerator. Place confectionery sugar in a flat plate as we need this to roll the cookies in.
7. Pre-heat oven at 350 F. Take a large baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.
8. Now take cookie dough and with help of spoon, ice-cream scoop or hands make equal sized balls out of it and roll each ball in confectionery sugar. Place each of them on the baking sheet atleast 5 fingers apart from each other, so that they won't stick when expanded.
9. Cook this for 12 minutes. Take it out and let it rest for atleast 30 minutes. If you try to release them from the baking sheet before this they might break as the interior of the cookies is very soft.

Fried Idli

How many times have you faced the dilemma of what to do with leftover idli's. There is no sambhar left and you are stuck with only idli's.

This recipe makes boring idli's fun to eat. A wonderful and healthy snack for kids and adults alike. And the best part is they can be prepared in a jiffy.

I remember asking my mom to cook more idli's than needed just so that I can have them later as a snack. Loved eating it as a snack more than the regular way. :)

Recreating mom's dishes is always something extraordinary. And this is one of the dishes which brings taste of her hands back to me even though we live in different continents.

Hope you will like them too. Do leave any comments or suggestions you might have down below.
Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

6 Leftover idli's - cut in 4 pieces each
1 medium sized onoin - finely chopped
1 medium sized tomato - finely chopped
1/4 cup peas - boiled
2 green chili's - slit in quarters
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
7-8 curry leaves - fresh or dried
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil


Recipe:

1. In a non-stick saucepan, add oil and heat it over medium heat.
2. Once heated, add mustard seeds. Once they start to crackle add ginger-garlic paste.
3. When ginger-garlic paste start turning slightly light brown in color, add green chili's, curry leaves.
4. As curry leaves start to crackle, add onions. Cook until translucent in color. At this point add tomatoes and cook until they are soft and cooked through.
5. At this point, add peas, turmeric powder and red chili powder. Cook for another minute, stirring continuously.
6. Now add your idli's and coat them well in the mixture. Add salt to taste. If idli's are too dry, sprinkle water over them and cook it over low heat until they are soft.

7. Serve hot with ketchup or any chutney you like.

Spicy lentil vegetable stew or Sambhar

Lentil vegetable stew or Sambhar is a very popular south indian recipe which gets cooked in every south indian home on daily basis. This recipe has lots of variations and this is one of the many variations.

Best part of this recipe is that you can add any vegetable you like and make it your own. I generally like it sour and spicy so I add tamarind paste and chili's. Quantities for both are adjustable according to your palate preferences.

If you want to make it more sour you can always add lemon on top of it while eating it. This recipe serves 4. It can be stored for up to 3 days in refrigerator.

Give it a try. You are gonna love it. Please leave comments or suggestion below. Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

4 handful of toor daal or split pigeon peas - washed thoroughly
1 large eggplant - cut in cubes
6-7 baby carrots
1 medium tomato - cut in cubes
1 medium onion - cut in cubes (you can use baby onions or sambhar onions too)
1 drum stick
1 tbsp tamarind paste
5 cups water
2 tbsp sambhar powder
1 tsp ginger - finely chopped
1 tsp garlic - finely chopped
1 tsp green chili - finely chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dried/fresh curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Recipe:

1. In a pressure cooker, add toor daal and 5 cups water on a med-high heat.
2. Add salt and 1/8 tsp turmeric powder.
3. Add eggplant,carrots, tomato and onion to this. You can always add other vegetables you like. Few of the vegetables which goes well with this are pumpkin or bottle gourd.
4. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook until 3 whistles at medium heat.
5. Once it is cooked, close the gas and let it rest until all the gas comes out of the pressure cooker naturally.
6. Meanwhile on other side, take a small pan. Add oil in it and heat it over med-high heat.
7. Once heated add ginger, garlic and green chili's to it.
8. When garlic starts to turn brown a little, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
9. When they start to crackle add turmeric powder, red chili powder and sambhar powder to this.
10. Cook this for few minutes or until sambhar powder is cooked properly. Keep in mind to keep stirring it at all times since it has tendency to stick to the bottom.
11. Add curry leaves to this and close the gas.


12. Open the pressure cooker, mix everything well so that it gets blended together. Add the tempering to the boiled lentil and veggies.
13. At this point, add tamarind paste and drum stick to it. Close the lid of the pressure cooker again and let it cook for 2 more whistles over medium  heat.
14. Close the heat. Serve hot with rice/idli/dosa or eat it like a soup on its own.

Strawberry Cobbler

This is a super easy dessert to make in hurry. It take very little time to prepare but when served with ice-cream it tastes delicious.

Since made out of fresh strawberries, they give the flavor a different kind of elevation in taste. You can make this with peaches too. Tastes equally yum with them.

If you love strawberries like I do and its a ritual to buy them every time you go into grocery store, you will have lots in hand to make these. And even if you don't buy them that often, buy it next time just to make this. It will make your day for sure once you eat this.

Give it a try and you won't regret it :)

Ingredients:

21/2 cups strawberries at room temperature - cut in halves
3/4 cup sugar for strawberries + 1/2 cup sugar for batter
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
2 tsp baking powder
1 stick of melted butter or 1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt


Recipe:

1.  Add strawberry and 3/4 cup sugar. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. After 30 minutes, strawberries will leave out their juices and become squishy. Squish or cut them a little into small pieces using fork.

3. Preheat the oven at 375 F. Spray or coat a 9 inch baking dish with butter.
4. Take a large mixing bowl and add flour,salt,baking powder and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix everything well so that no large pieces are there.
5. Add milk, vanilla essence and butter to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Do not worry about few lumps in the batter here and there.

6. Pour this mixture in baking dish. Add strawberries along the juices on top of this batter. Do not stir or mix. Just gently spread them over the mixture.

7. Bake this for 40-45 minutes.
8. Take it out after 45 minutes and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Server hot with ice-cream or you can eat it cold too.

Oven roasted herb lemon-orange Chicken

Chicken is one kind of meat, if handled properly can be converted into beautiful dishes. It goes well with every cuisine, be it Indian, Italian or American.

I usually prepare it the Indian way, but as I like to try different versions of it, I though why not bake it with some different flavors. We usually get roasted chicken in US served with veggies/mashed potatoes. And I love mashed potatoes. I don't care how many calories they have. I just love them :).

Coming back to chicken again, this is one of the many variations you can make it with. I didn't wanna wait for any kind of marination to happen, so thought of preparing it without marination. Else you can leave the chicken to marinate in the lemon/orange mixture for an hour or so in the refrigerator.

This recipe take very less time to prep, and rest of the magic is being done in oven. Best to make when you have guests coming over and you don't want to spend your time in the kitchen instead of talking to your guests. :)

Do give it a try , this will become your to go recipe for large get together. Please leave any suggestions or comments you have down below. Happy Cooking to all :)


Ingredients:

4 chicken thigh pieces - thoroughly washed
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 lemon  - thinly sliced
1/4 orange juice
1/2 orange - thinly sliced
1/2 onion - thinly sliced
2-3 rosemary sticks and 2-3 rosemary finely chopped
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried Italian herb mix
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
black pepper crushed to taste

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven at 400 F.
2. In a baking dish/sheet with sides put chicken pieces.
3. In a bowl, add 1 tbsp olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, salt and black pepper to taste. Mix everything well together.
4. Pour this mixture over the chicken pieces and massage chicken pieces with it so that it will get coated properly on all sides.
5. Put lemon and orange slices and rosemary sticks tucked down in chicken pieces.
6. Sprinkle chopped rosmary, onion slices, onion powder, italian herb mix, salt and pepper to taste over chicken pieces.
7.  Drizzle 1/2 tsp olive oil again on top of chicken pieces just to give them a little color while cooking in oven and stopping them to get dry on top.

8. Place this in the oven for 1 hour.
9. Take it out after 1 hour and serve hot with anything you like. I served it on bed of mashed potatoes.

3 Ingredient Sweet Salty Biscuits

It can't get easier than this to prepare homemade biscuits. Only 3 ingredients, butter, sugar and flour. Who would have thought baking can be this much fun. :)

Once you bake them, you will get hooked to these. You can experiment with different flavors like pistachio/almond etc.

When I was baking, my whole house was filled with the most delicious smell of baking which by the way I absolutely love.

You have to make them to fall in love with them. Do give it a try. :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup salted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup baking fine sugar
21/4 all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Recipe:

1. In a stand mixer, add butter and churn it with mixer attachment.
2. Once creamy in consistency, add sugar and mix well.
3. Once both of them are mixed well and coherently, add flour.
4. Mix this until it resembles crumbly mixture.

5. Take this mixture out on your kitchen platform and make a dough using your hands. This process will take around 8 - 10 minutes.
6. It should come together in a dough. Divide this in two equal parts to work with it easily. If you are comfortable you can work with the whole dough in one go.
7. Roll the dough in an inch high cylindrical shape. Now at this point I flattened all four sides to make it square shape. You can give an any shape you like.

8. Take granulated sugar and sprinkle it on the kitchen platform. Roll the rectangular dough over it and cover it with sugar on all four sides.

9. Take cellophane wrap and wrap both pieces separately and tightly twisting the sides of cellophane wrap like a toffee wrapper so that it is nicely packed and tight inside it.

10. Let this rest in refrigerator for 40 minutes.
11. After 40 minutes, preheat the oven at 325 F. Take the rolls out.
12. Cut these rolls in 1 cm thick biscuits and place it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

13. Bake this for 30 -35 minutes until slightly golden brown on edges. Do check every 5 minutes after 25 minutes timeline.
14. Let it cool completely and store it in an air-tight jar.

CatFish in Mustard Gravy

I live in US and searching for a fish which can suit Indian taste buds and style of preparation can be a huge task. I have tried 3-4 kinds of fish such as tilapia, trout etc with this bengali mustard gravy style fish but nothing comes close to what I tasted in India.

 I almost gave up hope, when 2 days back I went to a Thai restaurant and tasted catfish. I loved its taste. So thought of giving it a try with Indian version and voila finally search came to an end. 

Made catfish in mustard gravy and it tasted very very close to the original recipe. Happy me now, no more experimentation  

Enjoy the recipe and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for me :)



Ingredients:

11/4 pound catfish sliced in half and cut in quarters
3 medium size tomatoes - puree'd
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 green chili - thinly sliced
2 tbsp mustard oil
salt
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp dry mango powder
2 tbsp mustard seeds soaked for 15 minutes
2-3 cups water

Recipe:

1. Wash the fish properly and pat dry with kitchen paper towel
2. Take salt and turmeric powder and rub the fish with them so that fish is coated properly on both sides.
3. Take a pan and heat mustard oil in it over medium to high heat.
4. Once oil is heated, turn the heat to low-medium and cook fish on both sides. Keep turning the fish on both sides at regular intervals.
5. Once cooked, get the fish out on a plate.

6. In the remaining oil inside the pan, add ginger garlic paste and cook until they it starts to brown. Do this over low-med heat.
7. Once done, add green chili's and cook for 30 sec. To this add tomato puree, pinch of turmeric powder and red chili powder.

8. Cook this until oil starts to separate out. Meanwhile puree' the soaked mustard seeds.

9. Once tomato mixture is cooked add mustard seed puree and water to it.

10. Let this boil over medium-high heat for 10 minutes.

11. After 10 minutes add dry mango powder. Mix well and add fish to this.
12. Cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat or cook until it reaches the consistency you want.
13. Serve hot with rice or chapatti.