Naan with yeast

I have tried Naan all time with baking soda and fruit salt. But this time I tried it with yeast and the results were really good. The same soft and fluffy naan were ready for dinner. I uesd instant yeast and the dough rises in about 1 hr. I read that instant yeast helps to rise the dough fast than normal dry yeast. But many recipes uses the active dry yeast. But if you have to prepare in short time go for instant yeast.

I used the same method of cooking on tawa for this naan as with chappatis. But some recipes recommend using the convection oven. Try out this and enjoy your delicious soft Naans

Ingredients:

Maida/ All purpose flour - 2 cups
Milk - 1/4 cup
Fresh curd - 1/4 cup
Instant Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or as required
Butter - 1 tsp


Procedure:

Mix sugar in warm milk. Milk should be just warm as bearable when you touch with your fingers.
Add yeast to this and leave for 5 mts. After add curd to this and leave it covered for 10 mts. The mix will be frothy and bubbly by this time

Mix salt and butter to the flour in a large mixing bowl. To this add the yeast mixture and knead to a soft dough. Add water if required but be careful not to add too much. Apply oil on your fingers if the dough is sticky. After kneading apply oil on top surface of dough and leave this covered for 1 - 1/2 hrs in a warm place.

The dough will raise after 1 1/2 hours. Gently knead the dough again and make balls slightly bigger than for chappatis.

Dust the rolling surface with flour and roll the balls. It should be slightly thicker and try to elongate on the sides like the traditional naans.

Heat the tawa on medium flame. Apply water on one side of the rolled naan. And put this side on  the hot tawa. This helps it to stick the rolled dough on the tawa. It will start bubbling up slowly.

After you see the bubbles, turn the tawa upside and show it direcly on the flame. This will help in cooking the top part of the naan. After you even spotting on the naan remove from the tawa and apply butter on top.

Alternatively you can take the naan and flip it on a flame directly over a stand which is used for making rotis directly on flame. and flip it on wither sides to get even coloring. Spread butter on top. a

Serve the butter naans hot with your favorite side dish.


Options:

After rolling to the desired size, add thin slices of garlic pieces and roll again slightly. This will give Garlic naans
Similarly you can add sesame/cumin seeds on top and roll once to get Sesame/Cumin Naans

Teddy bear cookie

Cookies are ever time favorite for kids. Why not make it even more interesting for them? Yeah.. its cookie in the shape of teddy bears with a cool handle to hold. I got a cool idea from Howdini.com.  This will be perfect for birthday parties too.

And the most important thing, we can involve them in decorating. My cookies were decorated by my kid. So please don't bother about the perfection. All I'm happy is they are getting engaged outside the TV box..For the video recipe please check here. I used the instant cookie mix this time, but you can try with your own cookie recipe.

Ingredients

For making Cookie Betty crocker peanut butter cookie mix - 1 packet
Egg - 1
Oil - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

For Decoration Icing mix
Colored candies
Popsicle sticks


Procedure

Mix all the ingredients for cookie to a dough.

Make a big ball around the size of a golf ball of the cookie dough. Shape it round and keep it on the greased cookie tray. This is for the face of the teddy

Make two small balls for and keep on the top part of the big ball to shape as ears. These 3 balls(1 bug and 2 small) makes 1 teddy.

Make similar balls and keep 8 teddy in one sheet with spacing inbetween.

Next insert the popsicle sticks to the neck part and press down. Gently press the balls to flatten them

Bake them in a preheated oven at 375F for 10_12 mts until slightly brown. Cool them in a cooling rack.

After they cooled down using icing mix for making the parts of face.. eyes,  nose and mouth

Keep a drop of icing mix and press a candy on top of that for making nose. Similar way do for the eyes. Using the icing mix, draw the mouth part. Add some bows to make the teddies really inviting.

Yummy Teddy bear popsicles are ready to crunch.

I'm sending this recipe to Cookie-Mela happening at Cooking 4 All Seasons.

Carrot Halwa

A simple and healthy treat. Great for any occasions. The color of this halwa is the most tempting part. How much I eat this, I will always need somemore extra at the last bite. Try out sure and u'll love it.

There are recipes which use condensed milk instead of milk and sugar. I've never it but this sure is delicious. To speed up the process, u can pressure cook the carrots too. But the grated texture of carrots will get mashed up in that procedure.

Ingredients:

Juicy orange carrots, grated - 3 cups
Water - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/2 litre
sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cashews - 1 tbsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
elaichi powder (cardomon) - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

Heat Ghee in a pan and roast the cashews and raisins one after another. To this add the grated carrots and saute till the raw smell goes off and add water. Close it and cook for 5 mins on medium flame

Add the milk after five mins and mix well. Once the milk comes to a boil, slghtly reduce the flame and let it keep boiling and get thick well. Keep stirring occasionally.

Once the milk is almost half reduced, add sugar and continue the heating and stirring.

Continue on low heat till the mixture collects in a soft ball and ghee oozes out. Add cardamom powder and mix well and turn off the flame.

Carrot halwa is ready to serve.

Easy Banana Muffin

This is an easy dish with leftover bananas. Quick to make and can be served instantly. I did this on microwave and this can be done in conventional baking method too. I added some cereal to this and it added some extra crunch.

Ingredients:

Ripe Banana - 2
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Oil - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Left over cereal - 1/2 cup, crushed
Sugar - 1 cup

Procedure:

Mash the bananas well in a mixer

To this add egg, sugar and oil and mix for 2 minutes

Mix the flour and baking powder and crushed cereal. To this add the egg mixture and mix well with a spoon.

Grease the microwave muffin pan with oil and pour the muffin mix till 3/4th.

Microwave this for 3 minutes on 60% power. Check if its done by picking with a toothpick. If not done, microwave for another minute.

Cool for a while. Yummy Banana muffins are ready to serve.

Muttai(egg) kuzhambu

Egg is always my favorite. And this is my most wanted one of my mom's recipes. As I am fond of puli kuzhambu and eggs, this combination of eggs with puli kulambu is excellent and is a best accompaniment with rice.

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs (no need to boil)
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato(small)
• 6 Garlic Flakes
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder
• 3 tbsp Tamarind Paste
• 1 cup Water
• Oil for cooking
• Mustard seeds
• Jeera / Cumin seeds
• Curry leaves
• Coriander Leaves for garnishing
• Salt to taste

To grind (powder)
Pepper - 2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 


How to make Muttai Kulambu:

• Chop the onion, tomato and garlic.  Grind the pepper and cumin to a powder (coarse is okay)
• Heat the oil. Its better to use a wide pan as we need more space for dropping the eggs separately
• Add Mustard seeds and jeera. Allow spluttering. 
• Add the chopped curry leaves, onion, tomatoes and garlic.  Saute till they turn brown and tender. 
• Mix turmeric powder, red chili, coriander powder and salt and fry for few minutes
• Fry the mixture for few minutes. 
• Add tamarind paste and water.  Bring it to boil and keep it covered for 5 mins.
• Add the ground pepper, cumin powder.
• Now reduce the flame to medium and break the eggs directly to the gravy one by one separately. A wide pan will help this to give more room for the eggs.
• Cook it covered over medium flame for 10 minutes.  Once the eggs are cooked properly, adorn the gravy with coriander leaves. 
• Serve it with steamed rice.

I am sending this post for Spotlight: Curries and Gravies happening at Cuisnie Delights

Idly manchurian

I am always a fan of Gobi manchurians. This is an excellent starter and have tried it in all ranges, from street-side shops to restaurants. This week when I had excess idly batter, I made some idlys keeping in mind to try out this mouth-watering Manchurian with fried idly. It came out very good and we all enjoyed a variety snack this evening.
I thought  that idly may absorb lots of oil. But if the batter is perfect, its as good as Gobi Manchurian with less oil in idly.

Ingredients:
Idly - 8
Chopped onions - 1 small size
Chopped capsicum - 2 cups
Red chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 3 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 (I skipped for kids)
Finely Chopped Ginger & garlic - 1 tbsp each
Salt
Water - 2 tbsp
Sesame Oil - 2 tsp
Batter for frying idly
Corn flour - 4 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Salt - very little as idly has salt already
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Oil - to fry

Procedure:

First mix the ingredients for the batter with little water. It need not be too watery or too thin. As that tends to absorb more oil. So maintain a slight thick consistency. Cut the idlys into cubes and roll over them in the batter. Fry them in hot oil till golden brown. Drain them and keep aside Heat sesame oil (or any other u use regularly) in a pan and saute the chopped ginger and garlic. To this add green chillies and onions. After sauting for a minute add peppers/Capsicum and saute till it turns tender. add the soy, chilli and tomato sauce one by one and little salt. now if needed add little water and let the gravy get mixed well. To this add the fried Idly and mix well. And turn off flame. Arrange in a plate and sprinkle spring onions and serve hot.

Veg Pulav with coconut milk

This is an easy to make veg pulav.  Addition of coconut milk gives it a nice taste and it serves a great recipe for parties and potlucks. I learned it from a friend and have tried it successfully so many times. I actually bake this recipe which really makes the rice elongated and absorb the flavor perfectly. But keep in mind you have to allot 1 hr for baking. This can also be tried in the traditional rice/pressure cooker method. This will be very mild and kids will love it too. This dish goes very well with any gravy veg/non-veg.

Ingredients:
Basmati rice -2 cups, soak in water for 1/2 hr
Onions- 1 big size, thinly sliced
Tomatoes - 1
Mixed veggies (carrots,beans, peas) - 2 cups
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
green chilli - 2
Whole garam Masala
Oil/ butter - 2 tbsp
Salt
Coconut milk - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Chopped Mint leaves, Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

Procedure
Pre-heat oven to 400F and grease a oven-safe container with oil and keep ready
Heat oil/butter in a pan and add the whole garam Masala
Add sliced onions and saute them well for 2 mins. Then add ginger garlic paste and saute for 1 more min
Then add green chilli, tomatoes and veggies and saute for few more minutes. Drain the water from the soaked rice and add it along with salt.
Now turn off the flame and add the chopped mint and coriander leaves. Mix well

Convection-oven method:
Transfer this to oven-safe container and add the coconut milk and water and mix well. Cover this with aluminium foil and seal the edges and let it bake for 1 hr in 400 F. After 1 hr tun off the oven and take it out safely and mix well. Sprinkle little water on top if needed and close it again with aluminium foil and keep it back in the oven until ready to serve.

Rice/pressure cooker method:
Transfer the mixed contents to the rice cooker and add the coconut milk and water. Cook until done.
For Pressure cooker, cook this on low flame for 5 mins and increase the flame for 3 whisltes.
Serve with your favorite Rita/gravy