Khaman aka Khaman Dhokla

In Gujarat khaman and dhokla are considered as two different recepies however in Maharastra I found they called khaman as khaman dhokla. I make dhoklas but khaman I never tried making at home until I came across Daagh's blog ARAD. Now I make khaman dhokla quite often.

Thank you once again Daagh for this Jhatphat Khaman Dhokla, true to its name...came out fluffy and soft everytime I made it. I made a itsy-bitsy variation by adding little sugar to the batter and used red chili powder instead of green chilies.

This is my entry for Rooma's MBP, theme - Finger Foods and Starters.

This is also my entry for Trupti's - Little Chefs in the Kitchen, event. My li'l one is about 2 yrs old so its too early for her to help me in the kithcen, so I did not have her show up in the snaps however I am sending in this kid friendly recipe for this event.

Ingredients

1 cup Besan (gram flour)
1 cup Water
3 tbsp Lemon juice
3 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Eno Fruit salt
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tbsp Sugar (plus 1tsp for batter)
1/3 tsp Red chili powder (Daagh calls for2 finely sliced green chilies )
Curry leaves
Salt

Method

• Mix togather besan, salt, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp lemonjuice, red chili powder, sugar and water 1/2 cup or little less than that. The batter should not be runny, if so add little besan...should be kind of like idli batter
• Heat up the pressure cooker with some water to steam the khaman or you could do as Daagh suggests, in a large vessel, take a glass of water and put a wire mesh upside down in the vessel. Make sure the top of the mesh is above water level
• Grease a baking pan (you can also use cake pan).Now add Eno and mix well and pour this mixture right away in the greased plate/pan
• Steam it for 20 minutes. To check if its done, insert a toothpick or knife and if it comes out clean its done
• For tarka, heat remaining oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Mix together remaining 1/2 cup water, sugar and lemon juice and pour into the tarka. Boil it
• Take out dhokla and cut into pieces
• Pour the tarka mixture over it
• Garnish with corriander leaves and serve.....there you have it friends fluffy and soft khaman ever.

Rice Pudding - Valentine Day Special

Happy Valentines Day.

I have been asked to share some of my memories. I am not very good at penning down my thoughts and feelings, so thought to avoid it.....mmmm! I love my hubby S a lot!!! As a young girl I used to dream about my perfect prince, he should be this, he should be that .....and found everything that I wanted in my prince to be, in my hubby and more than that. I feel I am the luckiest girl in this whole world (I bet most of us think the same way!)

He is always there for me, understands me, supports me, loves me….he completes me. I love the fact that he pampers me a lot ;) and sometimes I feel that I am competing with my daughter! :).

The part of the heart shaped pillow that you see in the last picture was my hubby’s first valentine gift to me, after marriage.

We both love rice pudding(pal payasam) a lot...and now even our little one loves it. I think it will taste better when serve in the earthen pot, I didn't have one. Have to get it next time I visit India.

This is my entry for Pooja's Theme of the week - Valentines Day.

Ingredients

½ cup Rice
5 cups Milk
8 tbsp Sugar
4 Cardamoms
Few raisins

For Garnish

Dried cranberries

Sliced Almonds

Cherry

Method

• Rinse the rice under water and place into the pan
• Add the half of the milk and stir. Cover and cook for 15-20 min until soft. Mash the the mixture for few minutes
• Then add sugar and remaining milk. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until the rice is quite thick in consistency. If the kheer is to thick, add a little extra milk or water
• Add cardamom and raisins. Remove from the heat and pour into serving dishes
• Decorate with nuts and dried cranberries. Kheer can be served hot or cold

Note:

Tastes better the next day.

Veg Pulav & Meme

This is the first time I ever got tagged, I am excited as well as nervous...I was tagged by Sandeepa of Bong Mom's CookBook with a MeMe of "5 Things most people don't know about me". Thank You Sandeepa. Well 5 things most of you don't know about me are :

I had never cooked until I got married. I couldn't even prepare a cuppa tea (It was not that I was not interested in cooking). All our relatives and friends use to complain my mom about not teaching her children to cook....and mom use to smile and say, the kids will learn whenever the time comes. She was so true and here i am with my food blog!

I was born in Kerala, raised in Gujarat, and my in-laws are from Mumbai. So that's why you can see the mix of recepies from all the three states.

I am scared of horror movies.....Its been a long long time since I have watched a horror movie. I think the first and the last time I ever watched a horror movie was when I was in 3rd grade and that too an English one, couldn't sleep for couple of months and kept everyone else awake too :).

I am usually in control however when it comes to my daughter, I don't know what happens to me, I just trip...that's how I called 911 couple of times without any reasons and had to apologize both times.

Sri is not my name. Actually it's my daughter's nickname.

I would love to tag Sumitha, Mandira, Mishmash and Shaheen.

I am sure everyone of you know how to make a veg pulav...However I thought that I will contribute my version too!! :). So here's the recipe for the pulav....

Ingredients

2 cups Basmati rice
2 tbsp Oil/ghee (you could do 50-50)
Whole garam masala (1 bay leaf, 1 inch cinnamon, 3 cloves, 1tsp fennel seed)
1 small Onion (or half of medium size Onion)
1/2 cup Green beans (you can add more if you wish)
1/2 cup Carrot
1/2 cup Green peas
1 tsp black pepper or Red chili flakes
1 inch Ginger
4 Garlic cloves (mine were big ones)
6-7 Green chili
1 tsp Lemon juice
Salt
4 cups Water

Method

• Soak the basmati rice for half an hour or so
• Wash and french cut the green beans or you could also use frozen french cut beans, chop the carrots and chop the onion
• Make a paste out of ginger, garlic, grenn chili,lemon juice and salt
• Heat oil or ghee in a pan, add the whole garam masala
• After few seconds add the chopped onion, french cut green beans, green peas, carrot, red chili flakes and salt
• Sauté for till the onion are golden color then add the ginger-galic paste, add the garam masala powder and saute for a minute or two
• Drain the rice and add it to the pan, mix it gently
• Add 4 cups of water and bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover and cook till the rice is done...and there you have it friends veg pulav!!!
  
  
  

Note:

You can substitute water with vegetable stock or even chicken stock for that extra flavor.

Instead of adding the whole garam masala you could go ahead and add garam masala powder....if using powder add it while adding the ginger galic paste.

Churetta Appam

Churette means fold in Malayalam, thus churettappam, this is what we called it at home. It is a dish that we make for breakfast. This is one of those snacks which I prefer to cook when I feel like lazing around and don't want to spend much time in the kitchen!

You can also find a similar kind of dish made in Bengal, named Pati Shapta which I recently came across at Sandeepa's blog.

For this recipe you could make the batter using just Wheat flour or Maida (all purpose flour) or could also do 50-50 or in any ratio I think you got the point. For filling you could add sliced banana or plantain as well , I am not a big fan of banana so left that out. The quantity for filling could be altered and measured as per your need and taste.

Ingredients

For Batter
3/4cup Wheat
1/4 cup Maida (all purpose flour)
Salt

For filling
1 1/2 cup Coconut scraped
1/2 cup Jaggery (you could also use sugar if you want to)
1 sliced Banana (optional)
Cardamom powder (optional)

Method

• For filling mix together all the ingredients from For filling in a bowl
• For the batter mix in the flour and salt with some water to make it like dosa batter

• Heat tava, use little oil if not using nonstick pan and spread a ladle full of batter as you would for dosa

• After a minute or so turn it over and spread the coconut mixture in the center

• Fold it towards the center from both sides

• Take it out on to a plate with seam side down, and there you have it friends... Churettappam!!!

Shaheen's Plantain Pinwheel

Couple of days back I tried Shaheen's Plantain Pinwheel. They were out of this world...it was really tasty. This comment is coming from the person who doesn't like banana or plaintain that much! Will definitely try again...Thanks for sharing this recipe Shaheen.