Chawal ki Kheer (Indian Rice |Pudding)

Ingredients:

full fat milk                               -1 litre
basmati rice                               -1/4 cup
sugar                                          -7 to 8 tbspoon or as per your taste
cardamom powder                     -2 pinch
Milk Powder / Mawa                 -2 tbspoon
Saffron                                       -a pinch or 3-4 strands (soaked in a tspoon of milk)
Almonds                                     -10-12 grated or sliced
Cashews                                     -10-12 grated or sliced
Pistachio                                    -5-6 sliced
Rose water                                 -1 tspoon (optional)


Instructions:

Rinse the rice till the water runs clears of the starch. soak the rice in enough water for 20 minutes.
Boil the milk. Turn the heat to low.
Drain the water from rice and keep aside.
While in the low flame add the rice to milk.
stir and simmer the milk and let the rice grains cook.
The whole rice cooking process in the milk takes about approx 30-35 minutes on a low flame.
Let the rice cook really well.
Now add the milk powder or mawa to the kheer and the kheer will start to thicken up.
Now add the sugar. Stir and continue to stir often so that lumps are not formed.
Now add sliced or grated nuts to the kheer. Also add the cardamom powder to it.
scrape the sides of the pan once in a while and add this dried milk into the pan.
cook further till the rice grains are completely cooked. the kheer would also thicken by then.
Now add the saffron milk to the kheer.
remember to keep on scraping the sides and adding the dried milk from the sides in the simmering kheer.


The kheer stays good for 2-3 days in refrigerator. This can be served as dessert or can be eaten with puri in breakfast.

Aloo ki Kachori

Ingredients

For Dough:
Plain Flour/ Maida                               -1 Cup
Clarifying Butter/ Melted Ghee           -2 Tbspoon
Carom seeds/ Ajwain                           -1/2 Tspoon
Water                                                    -to knead the Dough
Salt                                                       -1/2 Tspoon

For Stuffing:
Potatoes                                                 -2 Medium Sized, Boiled and Mashed
Amchoor/ Raw Mango Powder             -1 Tspoon
Turmeric powder                                   -1/2 Tspoon
Coriander Powder                                  -1/2 Tspoon
Red chili Powder                                   -1/2 Tspoon
Garam masala                                        -1/2 Tspoon
Salt                                                         -to Taste
Fresh Coriander                                      -2 Tbspoon Chopped

Method:

Preparing Filling:
Heat the ghee in pan. Add boiled and mashed potatoes and spices together. Mix well and remove from the fire. Keep aside to cool.

Preparing Dough:
Combine all ingredients Maida, Ghee, Ajwain, and salt in a bowl and make stiff dough like puri dough. Knead till it's smooth and doesn't break while rolling. Cover it with wet cloth and set aside for an hour.

Making Kachoris:
Divide the dough into equal 6 portions and roll each one with the help of rolling pin for about 1 inch.
Now place one tbspoon of filling in centre of wrap and pinch the edges of rolled dough.
Now roll it again into a ball and press them very gently to flatten it. You can make the kachori with your palm or roll it with rolling pin.
When rolling with rolling pin remember to be gentle and place the pinched side up.
Heat the vegetable oil in the Karahi on high flame, when oil is hot enough, turn the heat to slow.
Now put a kachori in Karahi and deep fry it. Flip both sides slowly until the colour is golden. Do it on slow flame for more crispiness.
Serve the hot kachori with Chutney, Aloo ki sabzi or sweet tangy sauce.

Aloo Matar Samosa

Ingredients:

For crust:
Maida / All Purpose flour                  -1 cup
Sooji (fine semolina)                         -1 tbspoon
Salt                                                     -1/4 tspoon
Oil                                                      -2 tbspoons
Lukewarm water                                -1/3 cup


For filling:
Green peas                                         -2 cups boiled (I used Frozen peas)
Potato                                                 -2 cups boiled and mashed roughly
Oil                                                      -2 tablespoons
Coriander powder (dhania)                -3 tspoons
Red chili powder (Lal Mirchi)          -1 tspoon
Mango powder (amchoor)                 -1 tspoon
Garam masala                                    -1/4 tspoon
Salt                                                     -adjust to your taste

Method:

For Dough:
First Mix flour, sooji, salt, oil and water together to make soft dough. Knead the dough to make it smooth and pliable.Cover the dough and let it sit least 15 minutes.


To Make Filling:
Squeeze the excess water from boiled peas, and pat dry. Mix Potato mash and peas together.
Mix all the dry ingredients coriander, chili powder, garam masala, mango powder and salt to potato and pea mix.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
Put the potato and peas mix, stir fry and keep mashing, stir fry until no moisture is left, but do not make it very mushy. This should take about 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the filling cool to the room temperature.


Method to Make samosas:
Knead the dough again for a minute. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal parts and roll into balls.
Roll each ball about 4 inch diameter and cut each circle in half.

Take one semicircle and wet the sides lightly all around and fold it into a cone shape.

Pinch the side of this cone so that it is completely sealed.
Fill the cone with about 1 teaspoon of filling. Press this filling down lightly.

Close the top of the cone to form a triangular shape, pinching the top edge to seal it completely.

Continue filling the rest of the samosas.

Heat about 2 inches of oil in a Karahi on medium heat.
To check if oil is hot enough place a small piece of dough in oil and dough should sizzle and come to the surface slowly.
Put 4-5 samosas in the karahi at a time, they should not overlap.
After samosas are floating on top of the oil turn them slowly. Fry the samosas until the samosas are golden color on all sides. This should take about 6-7 minutes.
If you use a high heat, the samosa crust will be cooked from outside but inside the crust will be raw and not cook properly.
Put the Samosas out over paper towel to absorb extra oil. Samosas are ready.
Serve them with Green Chutney and Tomato Chutney.

Sweet Corn / Makai Pulao

Ingredients:

Basmati rice         -2 cups
Sweet Corn, Frozen -1 cup
Mint leaves         -5
Coriander leaves -2 tblsp
Salt                          -To taste
Garlic                 -2 cloves
Ginger                 -1/2 tspoon very finely chopped or grated
Black Pepper            -4 whole
Cinnamon         -1 small stick
Cloves                 -2
Bay leave                 -1
Black Cardamom     -1
Mace                        -very small piece
Star Anise               -very small piece
Turmeric                 -1/2 tspoon
Coriander powder   -1/2 tspoon
Oil/ghee                 -2 tblsp
Water                 -2 cups



Method:

I always use frozen corn to cook corn pulao.
If you prefer to use the fresh sweet corn, first separate the kernels. Wash and keep aside. Wash and soak the rice for at least 15-20 mins.
Heat a heavy bottom vessel with oil into it. Now add bay leaves, black peppers, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, mace, star anise. Stir them for 2-3 minutes, when they start to leave their aroma, add ginger and garlic fry for 2 minutes in medium flame and let the raw smell go away.Now add Turmeric and coriander powder, mix well.
Add the corn kernels and fry for another 3-4 minutes in medium flame. Add little salt for the corn.
Now add salt, mint leaves, coriander leaves and rice. When it starts boiling, check for salt and reduce the flame to lowest possible and cook for 12-15 minutes and switch the flame off. Now cover it and keep off from the heated burner to avoid over cooking.
You corn pulao is ready. My Kids love to eat it as they love sweet corn. You can serve it with any Sabzi, just Yogurt or Raita.

Note: If you do not prefer basmati rice, you can use your regular grain rice, only adjust the quantity of water to cook the rice.
If you are using pressure cooker, just go until one whistle and switch off the flame.

Gobhi Parantha / Cauliflower Parantha

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour (Atta)                 -4 cups
Cauliflower (Gobi)                             -2 cups Grated
Coriander leaves                                 -1 tbspoon finely chopped
Green chilies                                      -1-2 finely Chopped
Ginger                                                -1/2" finely Chopped
Red chili powder                               -1/2 tspoon or optional
Salt                                                    -to taste for dough and filling
Garam Masala                                   -1/4 tspoon per taste
Butter /Oil                                         -for shallow frying
Water                                                -to Knead the dough



Method:

For the Dough:

Mix flour, salt and water together to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes to make soft, smooth and pliable dough.
Set the dough aside and cover it with a damp cloth.


For the Filling:

Take grated and squeeze the cauliflower to take out as much water as possible.
Now heat a tspoon of oil in a pan, add cauliflower, green chillies, ginger, coriander, salt, garam masala, red chili powder into the Oil. Fry it for 3-4 minutes to dry all the water from the mixture.
Now after 5 minutes, switch off the flame and let the filling cool down.

Method to make Parantha:

Divide the dough and cauliflower mixture into 6-8 equal parts, depending on to the size you want to make. roll the dough parts into balls.
Roll one ball of the dough into a three inch circle. Place one part of the filing in the center. To wrap it, pull the edges of the rolled dough together to cover/close the filling. Repeat to make all six / eight balls.
Allow each filled ball to settle for a minutes before rolling. Please do not leave the filled balls for too long or they will be soggy and start to burst from the sides while rolling.
Heat a heavy skillet on medium high heat. sprinkle 2 drops of water if it crackles , skillet is ready to cook paranthas.
Roll the filled balls on flat surface with dry whole wheat flour, it will be easy or parantha will stick to the surface. While rolling keep the sealed side of filled ball on top.roll it gently to make an about 6" parantha.
Put the rolled paratha on the skillet. After a few seconds, the paratha will start to change color and puff up. Flip the paratha over. You can see the golden-brown spots on it.
After a few seconds, spread half teaspoon of oil over the paratha. Flip it again and lightly press to let it puff a bit. Keep Flipping it and pressing it until both sides are golden brown.
Repeat the same process with remaining filled balls. Cool the parathas on a wire rack / tray so they don’t get soggy.
Serve the Paranthas with Yogurt or Chutney (your taste). I served it with Boondi Raita and Tomato Chutney.

Note:

wrapped the paranthas into aluminum foil and store in a covered container.
For later use, parathas can be frozen (wrapped in aluminum foil) for a month.  Re-heat in a skillet or toaster.