Traditions Archives - Page 2 of 16

Gaajar matar gobhi ki sabzi

Gaajar matar gobhi ki sabzi (carrots, peas and cauliflower) is a wonderful combo of three winter vegetables. All vegetable vendors bring fresh red carrots, peas and cauliflower in abundance during winter. Though these three vegetables can be cooked separately, ( Aaloo Gobhi ki sabzi ) as a combo, gaajar, matar aur gobhi creates a delicious vegetable dish. The sweet taste of carrots and peas is balanced by adding ginger, green chilies and garam masala. Kids also love this vegetable as they find their favourite peas here.

Sometimes the taste of gaajar matar gobhi ki sabzi is ruined if peas are not of good quality. They remain hard until carrots and cauliflower are completely cooked. To avoid this issue, I prefer buying very soft peas. But in case you have hard peas, then before cooking them, boil them in a pressure cooker for just one pressure. Now peas will be completely cooked along with carrots and cauliflower. Be careful, don’t boil peas for more than one whistle, otherwise, they will become mushy by the time all the vegetables are cooked.

You can check out more recipes in the blog for different vegetables:

Vegetables (Curries)

Ingredients:

Carrot 250 gms
Cauliflower 250 gms
Peas 100 gms
Grated ginger 1/4 tsp
Green chillies chopped 3-4
Oil 5 /6 tbsp
Salt as per your taste
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Garam masala powder 1 tsp
Tomatoes 2 / lemon juice 1+1/2 tsp /amchur powder 1 tsp
Green coriander leaves for garnishing
Water 3-4 tbsp if required

Process:

Peel, wash and chop carrots. Cut cauliflower in small florets and shell out peas and wash them.

In a wok heat oil and crackle rai, hing, jeera (small mustard seeds, asafoetida and cumin seeds).

Add carrots, cauliflower and peas followed by chopped green chilies and grated ginger.

Add coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt and mix it well with veggies.

(If all the water is drained out from the vegetables after washing and sieving them, add 3-4 tbsp of water after mixing spices. If still some water remains while adding veggies in the wok, then there is no need to add water unless spices start sticking to the bottom of the wok).

Cover the wok and let vegetables cook on sim heat. In between, stir them two or three times until they become soft.

Now add garam masala and chopped tomatoes/lemon juice/amchoor powder. Mix it properly and let the veggies cook for two-three more minutes. Gaajar matar gobhi ki sabzi taiyaar hai.

Transfer it to a serving bowl and sprinkle finely chopped green coriander leaves. Enjoy this winter special vegetables treat with roti, paratha, poori or rice.

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Deeksha Pathak78 Comments

Milk powder based Mawa (Khoya)

Milk powder based Mawa (Khoya) is very popular for preparing sweets at home. As milk powder based mawa (Khoya) gets ready within 15 minutes, it is also known as instant mawa. Though my first choice is always to prepare through the traditional method by boiling the milk (Khoya/Mawa), it is a time-consuming process. So this recipe of milk powder-based mawa is very helpful if you are planning to prepare Gaajar ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa) or any mawa based sweets this winter season. Try this easy recipe of only three ingredients-based instant mawa/khoya and I am sure you will avoid buying khoya from the market. Moreover, New year celebrations are about to start – so plan some homemade sweet dish based on mawa or khoya!

Ingredients:

Milk powder 2 cups

Milk 1 cup

Desi ghee (clarified butter) or unsalted butter 4 tbsp

Process:

Take two cups of milk powder in a bowl.

Measure one cup of milk and pour half milk into the bowl of milk powder. Mix it nicely to avoid lumps. It will take the form of a paste.

Now pour the rest of the milk and mix again.

In a heavy-bottomed pan take four tbsp desi ghee and melt it on medium heat.

Once ghee melts, reduce the heat to sim, pour the milk powder and milk mixture in the pan and keep stirring it – otherwise, it will stick to the bottom of the pan immediately.

Keep the heat on sim and continue stirring. Slowly, the liquid will start thickening.

Keep stirring till it becomes thick and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Switch off the heat and shift mawa/khoya in another bowl to use it in any of your sweet preparation or mawa based gravy dishes.

If you want to use it the next day then let mawa cool down completely and keep it in the fridge in a covered box. If you have leftover mawa and no plan of using it in a few days, you can freeze it for around 2 months in an airtight box after wrapping it in 3 to 4 layers of cling film.

December 31, 2020October 27, 2021

Deeksha Pathak66 Comments

Mohanthaal

Mohanthaal is a traditional Rajasthani and Gujarati sweet dish prepared with (besan) gram flour and clarified butter (ghee). It is a kind of besan ki barfi but mohanthaal has very fine granules of roasted gram flour. If you love gram flour sweets then definitely you should try this recipe. When you just gulp one piece of fine granules of besan roasted in desi ghee along with cardamom flavour settled down with sugar syrup, I bet you can’t stop with one piece only!!

My love for mohanthaal goes back to my childhood. This is one consistent mithai my mother used to prepare every year for Holi and Deepawali festivals. It is a sugar syrup based sweet dish and some people find difficult to prepare the right consistency of syrup. So my mom used to be in high demand during festival time in the neighborhood to help with the last step of mohanthaal when sugar syrup is getting ready! I was amused when my mom told that this year also during Deepawali that was called by next-door house aunt saying that mohanthaal has not come well, please do something…

Don’t worry, it is not really that difficult to prepare. Actually, mohanthaal is prepared in two different ways. One method is lengthier than other. My mom follows the first method, and I, being my mother’s daughter, am also used to the slightly longer process. I will post the short method too sometime in future.

A few points to remember :

While frying besan mathri, keep the heat somewhere between sim and medium as besan gets fried faster . Don’t worry much if Mathris remain slightly raw from inside. While roasting, we will take care of this.
Oil can be used in the whole process, but ghee gives wonderful taste. So decide as per your preference. I have used oil only for frying mathris .
Two thread sugar syrup (do taar ki chashni) is the right consistency for this sweet dish. But if you add roasted gram flour slightly early in sugar syrup and mohanthaal is not set firmly even after a few hours, don’t worry. Once again, add the gram flour in kadhai, stir it for 5-7 minutes on medium heat till the batter is thick and that will make it set nicely.
Mohanthaal will be very dry and brittle if sugar syrup becomes thicker than two-thread consistency. Again, don’t panic, collect dry mohanthaal, grind it in coarse powder, heat 1/2 or 1 cup milk in a wok/ kadhai and add powdered besan. Stir the batter continuously till it becomes thick and leaves the sides of wok/kadhai and then set it.
Reduce or increase sugar quantity as per your taste.
Ready gram-flour batter will be very hot when we shift to the greased plate for it to settle down. Because of heat, while cooling down, mohanthaal will change its colour and become bit more dark. But this will not affect the wonderful taste!
If gram flour is roasted nicely, you don’t need to keep mohanthaal in the fridge for a week.
Sweets of besan are usually very delicious and pure ghee will make mohanthaal irresistible. So, be aware of calories! Do some exercise and relish this homemade traditional Indian sweet to satisfy your sweet cravings this winter.

I have a few more posts on Indian sweets in the blog. If interested, you can take a look…

Seven Cups Burfi

Rasgulla

Rasmalai

Naariyal ki burfi (coconut burfi)

Naariyal Ke Laddoo

Rabdi / Rabri

Ingredients :

For muthiya/mathri

Gram flour (besan) 250 grams
Ghee/oil 6 tbsp
Water 1/4 cup
oil for frying
35 to 40 gms muthiya 10

For roasting

Ghee/oil (melted)1/3 cup

For sugar syrup

Sugar 300 grams
Water 1 +1/2 cups
Milk 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder and some chopped dry nuts of your choice
Ghee to grease the plate

Process :

Thoroughly grease a plate having edges with desi ghee and keep it separate.

In a broad vessel, mix besan and desi ghee together. Then slowly add water and prepare tight dough.

Divide this dough in equal parts and prepare these flat rolls as shown in the picture. We call these flat rolls Mathri or Muthiya.

In a wok/kadhai heat oil or ghee and fry these mathris.

When mathris are fried break them into pieces and grind them till you get coarse powder. Sieve this powder in a slightly medium-sized-holed sieve.

Add ghee and coarsely grinded powdered besan in a wok/kadhai. Roast it on medium heat till you get a nice aroma of gram flour. Shift this roasted gram flour to a separate vessel.

Heat water and sugar in the wok/kadhai to prepare sugar syrup .

Add milk the moment sugar gets dissolved completely. All the impurities of sugar will float on sides of the wok. Discard them with the help of a spatula. Let the syrup boil on high to medium heat till it reaches two-thread consistency. Add powdered cardamom in sugar syrup.

The moment syrup is ready, add roasted gram flour. Be quick here…mix it thoroughly in sugar syrup and shift this batter to the greased plate and spread it evenly. Sprinkle cardamom powder.

Spread finely chopped nuts and press them slightly with the back of a spoon so that the nuts settle down.

After one hour, when mohanthaal is still little warm, cut it in desired shape and size. Let it cool and settle down completely.

Very difficult to hold our temptations, right!! Till then satisfy your craving with the scrapes of mohanthaal from wok/ kadhai😋

Because of hot batter, besan gets roasted even while cooling down and turns slightly darker in colour and this enhances the taste a lot 😋😋😋

December 16, 2020October 27, 2021

Deeksha Pathak84 Comments

Mathri (kasuri methi flavor)

Mathri with kasuri methi flavor is a wonderful savory munching snack with tea/coffee. But do you know that many people enjoy mathri along with the masala of mango pickle too? In Indian households, mango pickle is commonly available throughout the year. So if you have not tasted this combo of mathri and pickle till now, give it a try!!

During festivals, we sure prepare a variety of snacks and sweets. Though shops are full of endless varieties of sweets and snacks, till we don’t get the wonderful aroma of home-made fried snacks, festivities are incomplete. During Holi and Deepawali I always prepare Namakpara /Nimki, Layerd papdi or Murrukku. But this year I decided to prepare Mathri also – not the plain ones but with kasuri methi flavour. Did I like the taste of kasuri methi in mathri? I loved it a lot and so did my husband and daughter. So if you have never tried this flavor before in mathri, you can give it a try now. Winter season is here and savory snack is always welcome with a hot cup of tea/coffee!

Mathri is fried on very low flame so that it gets fried from inside too, making it evenly crisp. If you will lose your patience while frying and increase the heat, mathri will be crisp from the outside but will remain soft from the inside and that wouldn’t taste good. Perfectly fried mathri can be stored in an airtight container for a month, making it a great home-made savory snack while traveling too!!

Ingredients :

White flour (maida) 250 gms
Samolina (rava/sooji) 2 tbsp
Salt 1 +1/4 tsp
Dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi, crushed) 1/2 tbsp
Carom seeds (ajwain) 1 tsp
Crushed pepper corns (kuti hui kali mirch) 1 tsp
Water 1/3 cup +1 tbsp
Oil/ghee 6 tbsp
Oil for frying

A few tips:

Mathri can be prepared with half wheat flour and half white flour or completely with wheat flour also. Adding rava is optional though it adds on nice crunch.
Fry mathri on sim flame so that they can get fried completely from inside.
I have used homemade kasuri methi, so 1/2 tbsp gave perfect flavour. If you are using market-bought kasuri methi, increase the quantity a bit more as homemade one has a stronger flavor than market-bought ones.
If kasuri methi doesn’t go well with your taste buds, then omit it – use any other flavoured dry leaves, spices, carom or cumin seeds, or just simple plain mathri with salt.

Process:

Collect all dry ingredients in a broad pan.

Add oil and mix well with dry ingredients. Oil helps in mathri becoming crisp. Mix it all nicely and take a little mixture in your palm and hold it tight. If the mix binds well instead of crumbling, the oil quantity is perfect. If the mixture crumbles, add some more oil.

Slowly start adding water to it and knead it in a tight dough. Apply some oil on the ready dough (so that it doesn’t dry) and keep it covered for half an hour.

Knead the dough a bit after half an hour. As we don’t want smooth dough, don’t knead till it is smooth. We want little rough looking dough. Divide the dough into 20 grams small balls. Flatten this dough ball a little bit between your palms without worrying about the correct shape or smoothing the edges.

Make some cut marks with the help of a knife or fork on this flattened dough on both sides. Prepare the rest of the dough balls in the similar manner.

Heat oil and then reduce the flame to sim and fry mathris till they are crisp.

Let them cool down and crisp mathri with kasuri methi flavor is ready for you and your family, friends, neighbors and visitors!!

November 28, 2020October 28, 2021

Deeksha Pathak81 Comments

Gobhi ke parathe

Gobhi ke parathe (stuffed wheat flour flatbread stuffed with spicy cauliflower) is the best meal for a lazy Sunday brunch!! Though any variety of stuffed parathas will fall in this catagory like – Aaloo ka Paratha (wheat flour flat bread with spicy potato stuffing) , Pyaaz ka paratha (Indian flat bread, stuffed with roasted onion) and Mooli ka paratha (wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish) . Stuffed Gobhi ke Parathe require a little extra effort, so I prefer to keep them safe for Sunday brunches.

Generally people are hesitant to prepare stuffed parathas in their kitchen. They find it slightly complicated and always feel that homemade ones are no match for restaurants’ ones. Personally, I never liked stuffed parathe in restaurants. First reason is that the stuffing doesn’t go well with my taste. Next, I always feel that in restaurant they make very thick paratha. You might say that I am too fussy in my food habits, but not really, I can give you a long list of desserts that I can have any time only in restaurants!! But any variety of paratha – I prefer them to prepare in my kitchen.

Take care of a few points and you can prepare the best gobhi ke parathe in your kitchen…

Wheat flour dough should be more loose than chapati/roti’s dough. If dough is hard, then while rolling paratha you will have to apply slightly more pressure and stuffing will come out from the sides.
Stuffing should not have a lot of moisture. Wet stuffing will be troublesome while rolling the dough.
Let stuffing cool down properly – don’t ever fill hot stuffing in paratha.
Don’t overfill the stuffing. While rolling, stuffing will come out from the sides. But don’t fill too less also, otherwise there wouldn’t be any taste. With a few trials you will be an expert in any kind of stuffed parathas.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower 600 grams
Oil 2 tbsp
Ginger ( grated) 1/4 tsp
Green chillies (chopped) 3-4
Small mustard seeds (rai) 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida powder (hing) 1/8 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Dry mango powder 3/4 tsp
Garam masala 1+1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Salt as per your taste
Oil for preparing paratha
Wheat flour dough
Dry wheat flour

Process:

Cut cauliflower florets, wash them, let the water rinse out completely and then grate them.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok and crackle rai, hing and jeera. Add grated cauliflower, grated ginger, chopped green chilies followed by all spices, except dry mango powder (amchoor) . Mix everything well and let it cook until cauliflower becomes soft. Keep on stirring in between and cover the pan. When mixture is ready, add dry mango powder, mix it well and let this masala cool down completely.

Prepare wheat flour dough and heat tava. Take a small portion from the dough (approximately 50-60 grams) and make a round ball, apply some dry flour on it and roll it evenly with the help of rolling pin in a small round shape.

Keep some cauliflower mixture on rolled dough and seal it by pinching from all the sides. Don’t stuff too much masala otherwise while rolling it will come out from the sides.

Again apply some dry flour and roll this by applying very light pressure in a round shape, carefully and evenly, from all sides.

Place this on hot tava and when you notice tiny bubbles, flip it to other side and apply oil and follow the same for other side too.

Paratha will puff up beautifully if you have rolled evenly.

To make paratha crisp, use slightly more oil and press it from both the sides with spatula. That extra oil will give paratha beautiful colour and nice crisp cover. Serve hot with curd, chutney, butter or pickle!!

I like it best with butter!!!

November 20, 2020April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak104 Comments

Baingan, saim ke beej aur mooli ki sabzi

Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabji (mix vegetable of brinjal, seeds of flattened beans and radish) might sound a little different combo of veggies but trust me, this combo rocks! Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabzi is completely my mother’s invention. Whenever we used to get bored during winters, she used to prepare this three mixed vegetables combo.

The best part was that all three vegetables used to be from our kitchen garden. Whenever we used to pluck beans from the vines, there were always some extra beans which had big ripened seeds. These beans couldn’t be used for normal Flattened beans with potatoes sabzi – so my mother used the bean seeds with radish and brinjal and an excellent mixed sabzi was invented!

Though this sabzi can be prepared without onions too, but If you are not against using onions then I would strongly suggest you to add them. Onions enhance the flavour significantly!

Ingredients:

Seeds of flattened beans 100 gms
Brinjal (small size) 4
Radish (medium size) 2
Green chilies, chopped 3-4
Onion (big size) 1
Oil 5 tbsp
Small mustard seeds (rai) 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) , a pinch
Coriander powder 2 tbsp
Red chili powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Water 4 tbsp

Process:

Take out the seeds from ripened flattened beans. Peel and cut radish into small pieces and wash both of them.

Chop onion and roast it in a wok with 1 tbsp oil till they are brown in colour. Keep them separate.

Heat 4 tbsp oil in the wok and crackle hing, rai and jeera. Add seeds of flattened beans, radish and chopped brinjals. Always cut brinjal just before adding in the wok. if we cut brinjal beforehand with other vegetables, they start turning black and their taste changes.

Add rest of the spices along with chopped green chilies followed by two tbsp water.

Mix everything well, cover the pan and let the sabzi cook on sim heat till all three veggies turn soft.

In between, keep turning them upside-down for even cooking and if you feel that sabzi is sticking to the bottom, add 2 tbsp more water and cover it.

When sabzi is cooked completely, add roasted onions and serve with roti, parathe or as a side dish to rice.

October 3, 2020

Deeksha Pathak86 Comments