Recipe : Gond aur Atte ka Halwa. Indian gum and wheat flour dessert. Kada Prasad

I’ve been craving something sweet for a couple of days. Pre-lockdown that normally meant buying one portion of dessert - cake / macaron / pudding / ice cream. But now I was stuck at home wanting something sweet, with no enthu to bake and I didn’t want kheer, but something with texture.

Aunty Shikha (My brothers MIL) used to whip up halwas so easily when I visited with her in February. Halwa and papad is a regular breakfast in her Rajasthani household. So I decided that a wheat halwa would be simple enough and hit the spot.

This literally took less than 15 minutes to prepare.

I started with a basic Kada Prasad idea - ghee : wheat flour : water : sugar :: 1 : 1 : 1 : 1.

I had gond (Indian gum - see how pretty it is) in my pantry (I think I originally bought it because of how pretty and shiny it is ☺️). Gond is used liberally in winter sweets in Gujarat and UP for its warming properties. Given that it’s winter here, I deep fried the Gond and a mix of nuts before starting on the halwa. Removed them and then added them when the halwa was done.

Ingredients :

1 cup ghee

2 tbsp gond - Indian gum - tragacanth gum - gond katira

2 tbsp nuts (your choice of almonds, cashews, pista)

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup hot water

1 cup sugar

Method:

Heat the ghee in a wide mouthed pan - ideally, a kadhai.

Drop the gond into it, and remove as soon as it fluffs up (a few seconds)

Now put the nuts in and take them out as soon as they are done (again, just a few seconds).

The ghee might turn a bit cloudy after the nuts are fried, don't worry about it.

Now add the wheat flour, stirring continuously, so it doesn't form lumps.

As soon as you start smelling that the wheat flour is roasted (a few seconds), add the hot water.

Stir continuously as you are adding water, so it doesn't form lumps.

Once it starts melding into a halwa, add the sugar and stir continuously.

When the ghee starts to separate from the mixture, your halwa is done.

Mix in the fried gond and the nuts before serving.

Yummy and very satisfying.The husband was delighted with the totally unexpected sweet treat .

For a traditional Gurudwara style Kada Prasad, drop the gondh and dry fruits and follow the rest of the recipe.

Kim's Tip 1 : Since this recipe cooks so quickly, measure all ingredients and keep ready before you start cooking.

Kim's Tip 2 : You can decrease the sugar if you want, but do not decrease the ghee, you can remove the ghee that separates from the halwa before serving, if you are worried about it.

Kim's Tip 4 : Gond can be very sticky like 'gum' when you eat it. If you don't like the sticky feeling in your mouth, you can powder it after you have fried it. It then blends in better and you don't get sticky lumps.

Since this is cooked in ghee, the recipe is vegetarian, not vegan.  My cousin Jenny who runs an organic cafe in Mumbai, recommends substituting the ghee with a nut butter, but given how the ghee is supposed to work in this dish, I’m not sure if any vegan substitute would work here. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Recipe : Chattambade / Dalwada/ Parippu Vadai/ Masala Vada - Vegan

Chattambade/ Dalwada/ Parippu Vadai/ Masala Vada with Green Coconut Chutney.

This vegan fried snack made with split channa dhal / split Bengal gram / split chickpea lentils is made across India and is called different names across the country. Each household uses their own spicing and ratios. Some add a mix of different lentils to their wadas.

This one is my method and suits our tastebuds best.

Ingredients:

2 cups channa dhal / split chickpea lentils

1 chopped onion
2-10 chopped green chillies depending on spice tolerance
1 handful chopped coriander
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped curry leaves (optional)
Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Method:

Soak 2 cups channa dhal / split chickpea lentils overnight (8 hours at least)

Drain to remove as much of the water as possible.

Some people coarsely grind the entire lot. We like the crunch from the whole bits, so I coarsely grind 80% of the dhal and use 20% whole.

Mix the ground and whole lentils together.

Add all other ingredients except oil

The mix should be dry enough to form vadas/cutlets.

If it’s too wet, you can add besan/chickpea flour.

My batter was just a bit wet (I didn’t have time to leave the soaked dhal to dry), so I formed the wadas (slightly flattened balls) and left them on a sheet of kitchen roll to get rid of the slight excess.

Deep fry in hot oil on medium flame until golden.

Don't be tempted to increase the heat, you will get burnt outsides and raw insides.

Serve hot with chutney / ketchup.

Nana occasionally made these as a tea time snack, but we had these for brunch on a cold winter day.

Kim’s tip : If grinding fresh chutney, do that first and then grind the dhal in the same jar without rinsing/washing. The leftover chutney imparts good flavour to the dhal. 

Recipe : Chinese Chicken Sweet Corn Soup

Chicken, pork & sweet corn soup kind of day, today.

The basic recipe is from Gousto Cooking, but I added some chillies, extra ginger & garlic, lemon juice and leftover pork stock & some pork pate that was a little too chunky & gamey to use on toast.

The recipe below, builds on Gousto's recipe with the additions that I would use for myself.

For a vegan/vegetarian version, drop the chicken or substitute it with mushrooms/tofu and replace the chicken stock cube with a vegetarian stock cube.

The noodles make this a one pot meal. If you just want a plain light soup without the carbs, drop the noodles

This recipe makes 2 bowls of soup.

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast or 2 thighs - boneless

4 cloves garlic - peel and finely chop (or grate)

15g or 2" ginger - peel and finely chop (or grate)

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce (2 sachets)
1 chicken stock cube
2 wheat noodle nests
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tin (150g) of sweetcorn or frozen

good squeeze of lemon juice

10g (3.5 tsp) sesame seeds toasted
2 spring onions finely sliced
10g (3-4 stalks + leaves) fresh coriander chopped

2 - 5 green chillies chopped fine

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil 

vegetable oil - sunflower/canola

salt to taste

a kettle on the boil

Method:

Dissolve the chicken stock cube in 600ml boiled water – this is your chicken stock

Put the cornflour in a bowl and gradually stir in 100ml boiled water, then whisk to a smooth paste
Tip: the cornflour and water paste will help thicken your soup!

Put the wheat noodle nests with a pinch of salt in a pot and cover them with boiled water until they're fully submerged
Bring to the boil over a high heat and cook for 5-7 min until tender with a slight bite
Once done, drain and return to the pot with a drizzle of vegetable oil (this stops them sticking together)

Heat a large, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick) with a matching lid, with a drizzle of vegetable oil over a high heat

Once hot, add the chicken breast and cook on both sides for 3 min or until lightly browned (don't worry it won't be fully cooked yet!)

Add both the chopped garlic and chopped ginger to the pan, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 1 min

Add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and chicken stock, cover with a lid, and cook for 12-15 min until the chicken is cooked

Once done, transfer the cooked chicken from the broth to a clean board and shred it apart, using two forks – this technique is known as ‘pulling’

Drain the sweetcorn

Keep the pan of broth over a high heat and gradually whisk the cornflour paste into the broth until it's silky smooth and thickened

Add the shredded chicken back to the broth along with the sweetcorn and cook for 2 min or until hot – this is your chicken & sweetcorn soup

Divide the drained noodles among large bowls and ladle over the chicken & sweetcorn soup

Give a good squeeze of lemon juice over each bowl

Garnish with the toasted sesame seeds, sliced spring onion, chopped green chillies, coriander leaves and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil

Recipe : Spicy Ginger Lemon Soup (Vegan Option too)

This is a lovely, very easy to make Soup from Jigyasa & Pratibha's "Sukham Ayu - Cooking at Home with Ayurvedic Insights"

Its perfect for Winter or the Monsoons, or anytime you just want a quick easy to digest soup for dinner. It doesn't need any stock or pre-preparation, and is is ready in 30 minutes or so.

The Recipe calls for 2 green chillies, but I used 5, because we like our food spicy.

Ingredients :
1/4 cup Split red or green gram (masoor or moong dhal)
2 inch ginger crushed (try and keep it whole, so you can remove the whole piece, rather than straining it)
5 green chillies slit (adjust to spice tolerance)
pinch of turmeric powder (haldi)
powdered rock salt to taste (rock salt is recommended in Ayurveda, but you can use regular salt, if you don't have rock salt)

1 tsp coriander leaves chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice or to taste (I used half a lemon)

To Temper :
1 tsp Cows Ghee (Cow's Ghee is Ayurvedic, to make it vegan, use any neutral oil of your choice)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
7-8 curry leaves

Method :
Wash and pressure cook the gram to a soft consistency. The trick is to use just enough water to cook it, so that the gram can get completely disintegrated (about 4-5 whistles?)

Add ginger, chillies, turmeric powder, salt and 2 cups of water and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Strain and return to flame to simmer . (I just removed the ginger, but let the chillies remain)

In your tempering pan, heat the ghee, pop the mustard. Reduce the flame and add jeera, hing and curry leaves. Pour the tempering over the simmering soup.

Switch off the flame and add lemon juice and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Optional:
My husband wanted more substance in his soup, so before adding the tempering, I added a 1/2 cup of quartered cabbage leaves and let it simmer for about a minute before adding the seasoning.

Recipe : Rasam / Mulligatawny Soup - Vegetarian / Vegan

Rasam is a dish that is commonly believed to be a part of every South Indian's diet along with curd rice, sambhar and idli-dosa. Surprise, surprise! Neither my mum nor my grandmum ever made this soup for us!

I learnt to appreciate it much later in life with the influence of Tamilian friends whose mums served up some awesome variants.

I love to have this soup on cold winter evenings, on rainy days and when I have a cold coming on.

If you prefer, you can season the soup with curry leaves and mustard seeds in the end and serve it with rice. You can garnish it with coriander leaves if you like. My husband prefers this soup with all the mashed up tomatoes and onions. My sister and I prefer to have it completely strained through with no bits and bobs in it.

I use a lot of spices in this which have medicinal qualities in them and I love a lot of pepper + chilli in my rasam. You can tone it down if you prefer a milder version. Rasam is great as an appetiser or even as a digestive, that's why it features so prominently in so many menus in the South.

Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp black pepper
a pinch of methi (fenugreek) seeds
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp rasam powder or paste (optional - it just adds )
1 sprig curry leaves
1 inch ginger slightly crushed
2-3 cloves garlic slightly crushed
2-6 green chillies slit down the center
2 onions finely sliced
4 tomatoes finely sliced.
1 litre water

Method:
Semi crush the pepper, methi and jeera.
Heat the oil, add the crushed spices to the hot oil, when they sputter add the curry leaves.
Then add the green chillies, onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic.
Fry on a low flame until they are all soft and mushy.

Once mushy, add the water and increase the heat.
Let it bubble and roil until the water reduces to 3/4th original consistency.

You can now either serve it hot by
1. straining it and drinking it out of a cup/glass.
2. garnish with chopped coriander leaves and drink it straight or eat with rice.
3. season with mustard seeds and curry leaves and eat hot with rice.

Recipe: Manglorean Prawn Masala

I'd defrosted some prawns today, and wanted to make something quick, dryish (not a curry, but with a bit of masala clinging to it) and spicy. I didn't want to fry them as I normally do as I wnated them to be an accompaniment to the rice and rotis and not an appetiser. So I revisited an old favourite. If you have cleaned prawns and meetmirsang on hand, it literally can be ready in 5-10 minutes.

Ingredients:
200gms cleaned prawns (weight after cleaning should be 200gms)
1 tsp vinegar
pinch of salt
2 pinches of turmeric powder
1 tsp coconut oil (you can use regular oil, if coconut isn't available)
1 sprig curry leaves
1 medium sized tomato
1-2 green chillis - optional (add only if you like your food spicy)
1 tbsp meetmirsang masala

Method:
Clean the prawns and lightly toss in a mixture of vinegar, salt and turmeric powder (to get rid of the fishy smell)
Chop the tomatoes and green chillies if using.
Heat the oil in a pan and temper with the curry leaves.
Add chopped tomatoes and green chillies.
When tomatoes are semi cooked, add the meetmirsang and fry until tomatoes are fully cooked.
Now add the prawns.
Stir fry on high heat for 2-5 minutes, depending on size of prawns.
When done, take it off the fire and serve hot with steaming hot rice and saar.

Note:
This dish can also be served as an appetiser, but you may want to decrease the spice by omitting the green chillies.

Recipe: Fried Chicken Kebab / Chicken Pakoda (Fritters)

This is a quick and easy recipe if you suddenly have someone dropping in for an evening snack or you have just decided to treat yourself and your family.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo chicken
1 or 2 eggs (depending on size)
2 tsps ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp soya sauce
Cornflour to make the batter
chilli sauce to taste
salt to taste
1-2 tsps of rava (semolina) - if you want more of a crunch to the taste.
Vegetable oil to fry
Chopped corriander to garnish

Method:
Make a batter with the eggs, ginger garlic paste, sauces, salt, cornflour and the rava if you are using it. It needs to be a thick consistency where it will give a good coating to the pieces.

Wash the chicken and pat dry. You can use either bite sized bits of boneless chicken which will go well as an appetiser or with drinks or use smaller pieces of chicken with the bone in them.

Marinate chicken in the batter for at least 30 minutes.

In a deep pan, heat oil till very hot.
Deep fry chicken pieces, turning gently half way through.

Note:
Deep frying will give a nice crispy texture.
You can shallow fry it, but then make sure you use thinner pieces of chicken and use less batter on the pieces, else it will turn into a soggy mess.

Serve garnished with Corriander leaves.

Variations:

This recipe can also be used with large sized prawns or bite sized pieces of boneless fish for seafood versions or cauliflower or paneer for a vegetarian version.

Marinate prawns or fish for 15-20 mins in a light mixture of 1/4 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp turmeric powder + 1/2 tsp vinegar, then use this marinade and continue as above.

For cauliflower/paneer, follow the same recipe.

If you want to marinate it overnight, then don't add the eggs, until just before frying, else it will lose its crispiness.

Note : the egg will cause the oil to froth when you start to fry, leave enough depth between the oil and the top of the pan

Recipe : Mummy Lorna's Mince Cutlets/ Indian Burger Patties

This was something mom would make us when we came home with good marks or won a prize at something. They were a special treat because it meant mum had to individually shape these cutlets and the cooking process is a little lengthy. But they are so worth the effort!

Ingredients:
1 kilo mince (beef/chicken or mutton)
1/2 kilo potatoes (you can increase this quantity if you want more cutlets or to stretch your budget)
some fresh corriander
salt
stew powder or pepper powder for a strong taste
optional : 4 tablespoons channa dhal (split chickpeas) soaked for 4 hours at least - this gives a third texture to the cutlets.
egg for frying.

Method:
Put washed mince, skinned potatoes, dhal, salt, stew/pepper powder in the pressure cooker without any added water. Cook for 3 whistles (Hawkins).
Open cooker, if any liquid is remaining, keep cooking it with the top open until dry.
If you want smooth cutlets, grind the mince in the mixi/food procesor, else just mash and blend everything with a potato masher.
Add chopped corriander and mix well.

Beat one egg.

Shape into cutlets (any shape or size you like - burger/croquette/meat balls), dip in beaten egg and shallow fry on all sides.

Server with rice and curry for a meal.

Between slices of bread for breakfast/snack/journeys/picnics.

With chutney and sauce as a tea time snack.

This can be eaten anytime.

Optional : Roll in bread crumbs after dipping in egg and before frying.

Recipe : Kebabs - Simple to Shikampuri

I first had the good fortune of tasting shikampuri kebabs at Hyderabad House in (you guessed it) Hyderabad, India. This has been one of my favorite kebabs ever since and a must eat when I visit Hyderabad.

I recently came across a recipe for making them, sadly it wasn't exactly the taste I was craving, but they were pretty good never the less.

This is an easily adaptable recipe.

You can try to make the shikampuri kebab which requires a little skill for the stuffing or just prepare it as regular cutlets/kebabs or turn them into deep fried meat balls or use it to make koftas for a mince kofta curry.

I use beef or mutton mince in my recipe but you can substitute with chicken mince if you prefer.

You can also lower the spice quotient by reducing the chilli powder.

This recipe is perfect for those who have trouble getting their cutlets/meat balls to the right consistency or end up breaking and splintering when frying.

Ingredients:

250gms of mince

1/2 cup of bengal gram dhal (channa dhal/ split chickpeas)

1/2 inch ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 inch piece of cinnamon

tsp chilli powder (use less if you want it less spicy)

salt to taste

4 cloves

Method:

Soak the dhal as long as you can (I did not have time to do this today and it became difficult at the grinding stage, so you will see a lot of whole dhal in the pictures, which is tasty but spoils the texture) at least a couple of hours.

Clean the mince, don't squeeze out too much water, as we will not be adding any water in the cooking stage.

Mix all these ingredients in a pan and cook without adding any water until it is dry.

Once it is dry, turn the gas off and let it come down to room temperature.

Then grind the mixture to a fine paste adding 1 egg and Juice of 1 lime

The finer you grind it, the better the kebabs will turn out.

Filling:

1 onion finely chopped

1 green chilli finely chopped (I used red and many of them as you can see below)

a few drops of lemon juice

a little salt to taste

Mix thoroughly.

Take a lime size ball of the ground mince paste, hollow it out and stuff the filling into the hole.

Cover well and make a tight flattened cutlet.

Deep fry in hot oil.

Tip: Because of the egg in the mince, the oil will froth, don't worry too much, but remember to leave space in the pan for the frothing oil.

Serve hot with green chutney or sauce.

In this picture, you can see the effect of the filling in the stuffed cutlet. (kebab split in half)

The crisp onion contrasts sharply against the smooth mince paste.

Alternatives:

If you are not sure of your cutlets holding shape or you want mini appetisers, ignore the filling.

Roll the mince paste into little balls and deep fry.

You can even skip the deep frying step completely and drop the mince paste balls into a bubbling gravy of your choice for a kofta curry.

Shikampuri kebabs/meat balls can be served as appetisers or as sides with Indian bread/roti or even rice.

Kofta curries go well with rice. (the picture above has shikampuri kebabs, meat balls and ajwain puris)

Recipe : Prawn Bajjes (Pakodas/Fritters)

Rushina from A perfect bite... is having a Hot and Spicy Pakora contest! This is my first entry for the same. :)

Coming from a Coastal town, Prawn bajjes were an evening treat we relished. They weren't made very often because of the high price of prawns & financial prudence dictated that they were better suited for a curry that would go a longer way especially with potatoes and green mangoes added to the mix.

My sister is visiting and I had promised her some prawn pakodas when she arrived, plus Rushina's contest had me frying some up this evening. It may be monsoon and pakoda time in Coastal India, but its peak summer in Egypt and I don't have airconditioning in my kitchen. Hence this turned out to be evening dinner (I only cook once the sun sets)

Ingredients:
500gms shelled prawns (any size) cleaned & deveined
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
half a lemon (or 1 teaspoon vinegar)
1 medium size onion
4-5 green chillies
10-14 sprigs corriander (cilantro) leaves
250gms besan (chickpea flour) - moderate the quantity as needed.
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (or 1/2 tsp ginger paste)
pinch of soda bicarbonate
salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Clean and devein the prawns thoroughly. Coat them with the turmeric powder and juice from half a lemon and keep for a while. This helps get rid of the strong fishy smell. Add some salt to the prawns to flavour them.

Small sized prawns are best for this dish. I have used larger ones for ease of cleaning. My mum sometimes chops up the prawns if they are too large so the pakodas can be made in smaller bite-sized pieces.

Finely chop the onions, chillies, ginger and coriander leaves. You can use less or more chillies depending on your love for spice.

In the picture above, you can see that my stock of Indian chillies has started to dehydrate, so I was forced to use some of the larger less spicy chillies that are available in Egypt.


Mix all these chopped ingredients into the prawns and mix well.

Slowly add spoons of besan to the prawn mixture and moderate the water to get a batter of dropping consistency.
Add a pinch of soda bicarb to give the pakodas a bit of crispness.
You can add some salt at this stage too, in case you haven't added too much salt to the prawns.

Heat oil in a pan (at least 1 inch of oil in the pan). Since the oil is going to be constantly heated at a high temperature, use an oil which does not go bad on long exposure to high heat.
Corn oil or sunflower oil are good options.

Form the mixture into balls with your hand. (For those not familiar with this Indian technique, you can use the 2 spoons technique used for choux pastry: Take a tablespoon of the mixture, and using another tablespoons, spoon it from one to the other to tighten the ingredients and drop it in the hot oil)
Fry them for a minute or so before turning them over.
Fry on the other side for a minute so till they turn deep brown.
Take them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and drain them.

Serve hot with a spicy and sour green chutney.
Green mango Chutney
Mint Chutney
Coriander Chutney
are all good options.

You can even serve them with tomato sauce, but they won't taste as good.

Serves 3 hungry people :)
Makes about 40 pakodas

Tip: Sometimes there may be a bit of batter and chopped non-prawn stuff left in your vessel. Cut a slice of bread diagonally in half. Dip the bread into that batter and deep fry in the same oil.