MY STYLE GREEN CHICKEN CURRY

I FORGOT HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TOLD MY READERS ABOUT MY FIGHT TO STOP HATING CHICKEN!

I can only say it was a miraculous come back starting to eat chicken again with a pleasant mind. Chicken came regular, for few years I was unable to have the chicken curry I was cooking. I had been always a mutton lover, also enjoyed the Sunday's chicken curry whilst watching Sherlock Holmes and few others. Doordarshan had given us good watches one after another. Why does time pass this fast I do not know. But I had been a dilli-dallied self in a fast paced world, I relished life I think! I have eaten the food I enjoyed, I have read the books I wanted. Everyone would have something unread, unversed that he or she might have wanted to cover in a lifetime but couldn't. I think we need not bother about that part much, one lifetime is too short to get to do all that we want. At times, I do want to re-watch my favourite serials from the Doordarshan era. Not only we watched the serials but also the documentaries like Bharat ek Khoj I liked, I was fond of Jonny Soko and his flying Robot, WWF. Watching Knight Riders and Remington Steel, I learnt about a rich country named America, not from the history books. Watching Jaws, I learnt about Hollywood. I started losing interest in the tele serials in the early noughties. They did not remain as good as what we watched in the 80's-90's. After watching Tamas you would not want to watch petty stuffs. Yes, I remember my chicken leg piece and some of them well. I forgot about most of them, when social media does a mention of them, I get nostalgic. What else to do sitting idle at home?

ON A BENGALI NEW YEAR'S DAY WE ATE HOME COOKED FOOD!

In fact, for a couple of years things are like this, we spend a special day as any other normal day, just that the man enjoys an extra holiday and I enjoy cooking and off course his company. You can blame it on me, I cannot mingle. I also do not get why people's lives are guided by the social media. The spontaneity of a relationship is lost and I got to be more like a snail. I get to hear the son too is kind of reclusive. Mumma wants him to have a warm & active friends circle without hampering each-other's academics. I made a late start today and want  to wrap up quickly. I was baking dates cup cakes to update an older blogpost, may be tomorrow. Yesterday, we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch with Hilsa fish curry, Dried Bombay Duck fish and Vegetables Medley, Raw Mango-Red Lentil Curry. I forgot to click. Because it was our New Year, I asked the fish vendor brother for big cuts of the fish and I got wind, it is not always about misery. In the evening, we were planning to order pizza. Then I changed the plan and cooked our favourite noodles with potato, onion, green chilli, scrambled eggs, vinegar, salt, black pepper. 

Even my sophisticated man loves this version of noodles. Below was my today's first meal. Making of that Bajra Roti / Pearl Millet is pretty tough. If I mix it with wholewheat flour, we still enjoy. But a gluten-free version with the millet alone is a strictly no for the rest at home. 

I too did not find all of that work worthy enough, with a dysfunctional thyroid gland, it is not okay to have millets. I am making my kitchen devoid of excesses. Henceforth, I would stock only Barnyard Millet among the millet varieties, only few varieties of lentils and beans Bengalis were known to eat decades back. Those who eat fish and meat, they need not eat that much of Bean protein. Instead vegetables are better to have.

WHAT IS MY STYLE GREEN CHICKEN CURRY?

I cooked this last November but the clicks done at the night time were not making me happy. I again cooked it last December, 21st day time and clicked. Either the son arrived on that day or the next day to spend few days with us. I think of those few days and miss him more. That is because he doesn't talk to us often and I do not work that I can make up that void. I have tried several times to make my men feel this but in vein. So I cook this and that. 

The entire morning was spent on this. I had to swim less, my God Family was hungry. I had to write a blogpost, the mind was looking for a thriller to watch. In the morning only I chose to blog about an easy recipe without needing to sort the stepwise pictures. I am not a machine and all day, at all times I would not be in the same mood. I found this non-vegetarian, gluten-free meat curry, MY STYLE GREEN CHICKEN CURRY as a perfect share for the day. To be on the safer side, I would tag it my style because I do not store kaffir lime leaves or candle nuts at home. Our marts do stock "Tom Yum" or "Thai Green / Yellow / Red Curry"spice packets, I feel lethargic needing to be this organised before cooking a dish. I cooked this recipe with whatever was available in my kitchen, that gets the best out of me.

Few other similar blogposts can be the following; DHONEPATA BATA TYANGRA MACH, BEET GAJOR ALOO DIYE MUTTON, GURO MOSHOLAI MUSHROOM BROCCOLI

 INGREDIENTS : 

CHICKEN : 1 KG [MEDIUM CUT]

BABY CORN : 7-8

GREEN CHILLI : 6-7

FRESH CORIANDER : A HANDFUL

FRESH MINT : 8-10 LEAVES

SKINLESS ROASTED PEANUT : 1 TSP

LEMON GRASS : 2 STALKS

GARLIC PASTE : 2 TBSP

ONION PASTE : 2 TBSP

GINGER PASTE : 2 TSP

LEMON LEAF : 2

LEMON JUICE : 3-4 TBSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash well the chicken under the running water, drain the water. Marinate it with salt, the lemon juice, half of the ginger+garlic+onion pastes. Keep aside for an hour.

Prepare a paste with roasted peanuts, washed and chopped coriander & mint leaves and green chillies. Discard the stem end of the baby corns, cut half and wash.

Discard the outer layer of the lemon grass & wash, cut into pieces the softer, young portion and crush a bit.

Heat the oil in a wok, add the crushed lemon grass. Give a stir and add the rest of the onion+ginger+garlic pastes+salt. Stir fry at low heat for 2-3 minutes, add the marinated chicken and keep stir frying at medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Reduce the heat to the minimal and cover.

Keep checking the wok every 7-8 minutes, give a stir. After some half an hour, remove the cover and add the baby corn pieces and the green paste. Fold in well. Add 1 & 1/2 coffee mugs of warm water.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 12-15 minutes. Remove the cover, add the lemon leaves, stir cook for 2-3 minutes. We should be done.

                                                                                                         

EASY MADE FRAGRANT SWEET

WHY DO THE VARIOUS OCCASIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD COINCIDE WITH EACH OTHER THESE DAYS?

I keep wondering about it. May be it had been always like this and I wasn't bothered about other's celebrations or mournings when we were staying in Kolkata? It can be that once I entered the Blogging world I took upon myself the ardent task of uniting the people from different walks of life or say different communities. I consider it a holy duty to serve food on the maximum of my reader's plate. Actually the Indian Bengalis, specially those from West Bengal would celebrate each other's occasions. Bengali Hindus would go out to have "biryani, rezala, rumali roti, firni" on the occasion of Eid celebrations before anyone else would. When the son was this little, we had Turkey meat at a restaurant in Park Street around the Xmas time. May be the ritual was already there since way before but I hail from a family where Xmas meant "Borodin" which had to have fruit & nut cake in the breakfast, thereafter may be "pulao" & "mutton" or "doi mach" for the meals instead of the regular fish or chicken & vegetable dishes. Our father never took us to dine in a restaurant. He had been staying in Kolkata since the early 60's and did visit those restaurants in his student life, never did acquaint us with those. He wasn't selfish, after getting into a family life, he did not leave us and go, enjoy there; he chose a simple life for the family. He did go for outings with the friends and also with the family along with his friends'. I have gone to the best of places with the man, yet could not ever ditch what the parents taught us, simplicity. Showing off irritates me, I feel shy to exhibit in front of those who may not be that fortunate. I keep telling the son about what I want from him; that he has to achieve a lot in his life but he need not be a show off. I do not believe in living a life below one's capability, I do not believe in exhibiting one's wealth.

YESTERDAY WAS ANOTHER SUNDAY AND I DID NOT DO MUCH OF EXTRA COOKING.

It is over a week I am not cooking that much. I am not in a hurry to update the earlier blogposts. This month and next we are busy with something else, a travel is on the cards. If yesterday's lunch was with a fish curry and vegetables I cooked last Saturday, the dinner was with Bhature, we had to finish the stale rajma curry. My Bhature breads are soft and tasty, I am not really fond with their looks.

I have a picture of Bhaturas done few years back, spotless just like "naan poori" of Kolkata. May be I have forgotten to cook that just like I am failing to make "murir moya". I must re-learn them on my visits to Kolkata. I enjoyed yesterday's lunch plate too. I did not expect to like the fish curry because back in Kolkata we do not buy "Bacha" fish much, we buy more it's look alike "Pabda" fish. Here, at the Rajdhani Enterprise, "Bacha" fish is always available fresh, cleaning them is easy. The addition of the sliced onion in the curry really enhanced the taste, the mother cooks this fish this way. I forgot to click my fish plate, I dislike the frozen fish varieties, only the frozen "kechki" and "hilsa" varieties suits us. If the Bengal Carp varieties had been like those in Kolkata, life could have been better. My non-Bengali speaking readers may not understand this issue; how we want a proper fish curry on our plates regular and that I cannot stand the smell of the sea-fish varieties.

WHAT IS THIS EASY MADE FRAGRANT SWEET?

What I share on a special occasion is important to me. We may not celebrate Eid but my friends would, a large section of the man's colleagues would. I wish I could cook chicken tehari or biryani on the day for one of my favourite daughters who happens to be a muslim. These days we hardly meet, you know once these young people starts earning, they want to explore the food and go to places, aunty's home cooked food no more interests them. They would again come back to home cooked food in their mid-forties or may not like my brother and his spouse. The duo's food choice is scary. I have changed a lot; give me three luchis, two roshogollas or pantuas, fresh coriander chutney; I would be happier. I have left behind that Bengali mentality of Kolkata and West Bengal where people whisper at your back if you do not treat them with large prawns and mutton once invited. We have to walk out of our homes and mingle to broaden our horizons. This vegetarian sweet meat, EASY MADE FRAGRANT SWEET, is the outcome of a series of failures of mine. My initial plan was to prepare a "khaja" sweet with dates sans any amount of sugar or jaggery. But I failed to get them crisp, also their look wasn't good. I had put the fried stuffs in a blender, made a coarse mixture, added the sticky date palm jaggery and thus the sweet came into being. I must say I rolled out fab round shaped uncooked parathas from the dough. Then a poor planning marred all of the possibilities. Also the dates filled with pistachios were gifted by the Neogy family of Abudhabi. I stock pistachio, walnuts, almonds at home in smaller quantities besides the cashew nuts and raisins, we do not enjoy or can digest a lot of dry fruits, we are not used to using them in food regular. I wished to share a chicken recipe, then this week we also have a prayer ritual where we would be fasting for our kids and family, no non-vegetarian share I can make. I have deleted almost 10 to 12 photographs, else I could have shown you my journey to failure, from there getting to an insanely tasty something. Anyway, below was my first meal sometime back.

Few other similar recipes from my Blog can be these; SUGAR FREE OATS SNACKER , SUJI AND MIXED SPICES STUFFED BREAD SNACK, APPLE BANANA STOVETOP CAKE , DALDAR LUCHI, TRADITIONAL MALPUA

INGREDIENTS : 

REFINED FLOUR : 1 & 1/2 COFFEE MUG

DATES : 10-12

PISTACHIO : A HANDFUL [OPTIONAL]

DATE PALM JAGGERY : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/2 TSP

GHEE : 2 TBSP + 1 TBSP

OIL : 100-150 ML

PROCEDURE :

Our friends from Abudhabi got us that box full of pistachio stuffed dates. None of us can have such sweets, though I am fond of dates, pistachios only a little bit atop a sandesh sweet. The box was resting in a dark corner of the refrigerator. The expiry date was approaching, I had to do something with the pricey stuffs. Come, let us make good use of the stuffed dates.

I took both of the dates and the pistachios in a blender and blended to a paste.

In a bowl, I had taken the refined flour and the dates paste, rubbed well for 2-3 minutes.

Thereafter, I added to it 2 tbsp ghee / clarified butter and kneaded to prepare a dough. I did not require water, if you require add a little.

In a round wok, I heated the oil & 1 tbsp ghee, tore off portions from the dough and fried them well. I forgot to click this step.

Once cool, I coarsely powdered the fried dough balls. 

Thereafter, I added a little of water to the date palm jaggery bowl and microwaved to get a sticky consistency, I added it and the green cardamom powder to the coarse mixture; folded in well with a spoon.

We have to shape and bind them while the mixture is still warm. 

Enjoy having fresh. If you refrigerate, take out an hour before having.

BANANA ORANGE OATS CAKE

AFTER EVERY SPECIAL PRAYER RITUALS AT HOME, I WOULD PREPARE SOMETHING WITH THE LEFTOVER FRUITS!

That too after some 15-16 days post the occasion. I love my choice of fruits but I am not supposed to have too much of them. The man would take a little only in his lunch boxes. The son ate fruits when packed in his snack box. I do not know really if he buys fruits for himself these days. Today, whilst on my morning walk, I saw a 11-12 year old boy in the school uniform having cup noodles. Such scenes make me get  angry at the parents. There isn't any excuse when it comes to parenting. Even if both the parents are working, it is not an ardent task to wake up early, prepare a butter bread toast or boil some noodles, broccoli, carrot, onion; season and feed the child and then send to the school. There is a primary school, a high school, a 7-Eleven outside of our back gate, such scenes are rampant; kids buying packaged food from the stores. I do not think the parents should have any excuse when their kids' health is concerned. I cannot thank the mother enough for teaching us the important lessons about home care through her tremendous dutifulness towards her family. For both of us family & kids are prime; we do not need much of resources to spend partying, chatting with friends. We only have weaknesses for buying saris which are not that pricey, household stuffs. In my case, I enjoy sitting alone in an eatery. I cannot just mingle with people. Most hilarious was a client, she gave me good business a few times and then almost claimed, placed a condition that I have to roam around the island with her. She  might have been a nice girl but I couldn't agree to that. Many a woman in this island made unnecessary calls without any intent to buy food from me. In business, I would seek profit and name, not friendship at all. A person of few words, I had to put an end to this. Although I love watching my friends party, sing and dance; I feel awkward amidst a crowd. There are many in the same food business, unfortunately, the Bengalis too want chole-bhature or idli-dosa on their plate instead of "lau-ghonto, chichinge-boti, dhokar dalna". Bengalis are those Indians who have forgotten their own food; they eat biryani, fish fry, chicken kobiraji, chicken and paneer masala day and night. At least the reels say that. 

WHY DOES OUR SON HAS TO PROVE HE IS DIFFERENT?

It feels he is in constant endeavour to prove he is weird and a rebel. Doesn't his mother pay enough attention to him that he has to behave this weird to get her occupied in his thought 24/7? Some 20 years back, all my friends would say he does all the weird acts to irritate me, that he behaves normal in my absence. Since then, until now; all my attention revolves around him, he doesn't need to do anything for that. May be for few years I became a bit absent minded, I curse myself for that. I should not have missed a single moment of his company. In fact, I need not curse myself, that happened because all of a sudden his father wanted him to be independent; I wasn't allowed to sleep with my child, bathe him, feed him, kiss him, hug him. What emotional upheaval I went through only I know, a void was created. I believe everything has a time, I need not had to be distanced with my playmate after a decade of staying with him alone, he was my only living play dough 24/7 whose childhood I shaped as per my wish. Nope, we are not in a strained relationship, it is our joint decision to keep our son's need our top priority. I do not like people talking about spending lakhs doing the interiors of their home but tell their kid / kids they do not have money to sponsor their kid's education abroad. However, they have money to buy property in two-three cities of India or buy jewellery for the spouse. That way I am proud of the underweight partner, I get angry when both my men ignore my emotional needs. I then keep myself happy cooking and eating. Yesterday, I ate those and gained 500 gm by this morning.

I had more rice than usual because the sides were dried fish, Hilsa fish and veg dal. More of wrong was to have two bowls of puffed rice and coconut. At night, I was to make appam, but the iron wok betrayed, the sides got stuck. The same batter was used in a non-stick pan. Having consumed a big amount of coconut caused me wind this morning, this keeps happening since my childhood. Too much of coconut consumed may cause acidity and wind in many, I am one of them.

WHAT IS BANANA OATS ORANGE CAKE?

I think this is the easiest and simplest of all the cakes I have made until now. Whatever I am unable to do is complex mathematics to me. All those three & four tier designer cakes are as complex as science, mathematics, geography taken together. But I love to bake and keep on doing that. Not only this vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan BANANA ORANGE OATS CAKE is easy make, we found it tasty too. I am  fond of using fruit juices in cakes, not really fond of dairy products, eggs, chocolates. All those chocolate rice & rainbow rice, sugar coated fruit strips atop a cake put me off. Fresh Fruit & Cream atop a cake is a love though the cream would have egg & dairy products in it. That too I avoid after the son relocated. To eat fancy stuffs you have to have an equally enthusiastic partner. He shows no interest, I too do not wish to spend on a choice of pastry only for myself. A Bengali mother would pause and think, "my child might be hesitating to have a 21$ meal in a choice of eatery or he may have skipped two meals to have that over the weekend! Let me wait until he gets a deserving job." However, mumma keeps buying from the Lazada, Shein, saris & kurtis while in Kolkata. This is the time and onwards I / we want the son's concern for us and attention. We are waiting for him to settle. We will see if he gets normal, else what to do, we would keep travelling from the Himalayas to the Kanyakumari. It is not right to complain about your kids unless they cause major harm to you. Anyway, I made myself something between "nonta suji and sujir upma" today, I cannot eat the gooey upma neither I had the patience of sprinkling a bit of water a few times on the roasted semolina to make what I enjoy.

I do not know why the son dislikes upma, poha, dosa. He would love  sausages, bacon, breads on his plate. His father too but he enjoys upma, chirer polao too. It is from him that we have learnt about upma in the early 90's. 

Few similar recipes from the Blog are DRAGON FRUIT CAKE, VEGETARIAN GLASS CAKE, STEAMED TAPIOCA CAKE

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG

FRESH ORANGE JUICE : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

MASHED BANANA : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

SLICED BANANA : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

RICE FLOUR : 1/4 COFFEE MUG

CORN FLOUR : 2 TBSP

SUGAR : 4 TBSP [YOU MAY NEED MORE] [I USED BROWN SUGAR]

BAKING SODA : A PINCH OR TWO

BAKING POWDER : 1/4 TSP

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Mix together the orange juice and the mashed banana pulps. 

Take the oats, rice flour, corn flour, baking powder & soda in a bowl and mix well.

Add the wet ingredients, oil and the sugar to the dry ingredients, mix loosely. We do not need to beat vigorously.

Grease an oven proof bowl.  Add the batter, tap on the counter to level well. Arrange the banana slices atop.

Mine is a convection mode microwave oven. I did place the low height wired stool inside the microwave.

I preheated the oven at 160*C. I did place the bowl with batter atop the wired stool, closed the door and baked it for some 20-22 minutes. We were done.

Temperatures may vary in different machines. The cooking time may slightly differ in your's.

The only mistake I did was that I sliced the bananas thicker, I had to slice them thinner. If you are eating it fresh, there would not be any issue. If you refrigerate, the banana slices would darken if you wouldn't slice them thick.

VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA

I WOULD WANT TO TAKE A LOT OF PRIDE IN TODAY'S  RECIPE SHARE IN THE BLOG!

The urge to prepare a "dahi vada" platter occured last week. I was there at the East Coast for some work. Still on the bus, I could see a renowned fast food Indian joint, my destination was after 2-3 stoppages. I thought on my way back I would walk to have their chaat. I do not visit that side regular, I eat my first meal late, also the eatery was on my bus route. As planned, I walked to the eatery and ordered a plate of "papdi dahi bhalla". I have no complain about the taste and quality of the food, neither the ambience. But I am not the kind who would want to pay 13$ for one piece of vada / lentil fritter, six pieces of papdi / fried snack, some yogurt, 7-8 pomegranate kernels. Kailash Parbat gives a way big platter including roasted mirchi / fat chillies at that price. Shiv Sagar's 6$ plate houses two "Vadas", may be less decorative. Near the sea it is expensive they say, whilst the son was in school we thought of renting a flat that side. Then, I must stay near the Desi market area. Hence, we prefer always the North-East line, my choice to be precise. Anyway, after paying 13$ for a minuscule amount of "doi bora", I landed into this vegan & gluten-free "doi bora" platter. What is there not to take pride in it?

YESTERDAY WAS A BETTER SUNDAY THAN THE ONE BEFORE!

The man was back from the tour by the Saturday afternoon, we had a late lunch together with fried Hilsa fish. And the leisurely Sundays we spend together watching various stuffs on the OTT Platforms and pestering the son to talk to us. When he travels, a Sunday gets too lonely. But your work comes first because it fills our stomach. What puts me in tension is that he drives 5-6 hours each side alone and through a highway. Who knows if you can feel or not what tension means for a fear monger who suffers from anxiety disorder since the 90's. Whatever goes on my mind, I do not fail to cook well, feed others well, eat well. Last night, I cooked a noodle bowl for the two of us, I had some leftover broccoli, yellow chilli, green beans, used them. The man as usual refused any amount of vegetables in his noodles except for potato, onion, garlic and eggs. Our mother never considered potato as an important vegetable with nutrients, I unconsciously think that way though I love potato, unlike her. 

I forgot to click yesterday's lunch plate but how I loved homemade yogurt with the pomegranate kernels, any choice of fresh fruit with plain yogurt works for me. Then, I can have them as a post meal treat, not as a main meal. Today, it is Dol Purnima / Holi celebrations, the quickest thing I could cook for my God Family is that Whole Wheat Halwa. It is about a month that I am offering fruits to my God Family once in a day, in the other two meals they have brown or palm sugar. I stopped offering snacks thinking we do not eat salty snacks waking up in the morning. Who will eat biscuits every day or sugar crystals?

I used a lot of ghee and roasted the wheat flour, yet I believe I fail to make it as good as a North Indian Home. I love the Halwa varieties.

WHAT IS VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA?

It is that plate whose idea popped up from a sense of dissatisfaction and that it resulted into what I exactly wanted. In fact, I did not expect the Soy Pudding to taste this close to a plain yogurt, I purposefully bought a low sugar, plain flavoured one. I visited the FairpriceXtra to get a vegan yogurt, they stock Cocobella's and Reglan's coconut yogurt. They are pricey and I was skeptical about how a coconut yogurt may taste, at least I have tasted and like a soy pudding that is too light on your stomach. Then oven cooking some oats vadai adding some spices and soaked beaten rice was a cake walk given Cristine helped dressing the pomegranate. How I enjoyed assembling and having a plateful of this VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA !

I also had the fritters separately with my hot cuppa, thats how my men would prefer it. In fact, I have arranged the platter like this because my men wouldn't want a yogurt based chaat bowl. I believe this plate would suit the Iftar & Easter table too, next Monday, I can get the oats-banana cake for you.

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG

BEATEN RICE : 4-5 TBSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/4 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

CRUSHED CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP

BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP [IT DID NOT FUNCTION MUCH]

SOY PUDDING : 300 GM [YOU CAN USE VEGAN YOGURT]

DATES TAMARIND SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

CORIANDER LEAVES & GREEN CHILLI SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

GINGER EXTRACT : 1 TBSP

POMEGRANATE KERNEL : 2 TBSP

GRAM FLOUR POTATO FRIED NOODLE  : 1 TBSP [AUTHENTICALLY THE BOMBAY SEV VARIETY IS USED, I BOUGHT ALOO BHUJIA]

OIL : 3-4 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Powder the oats. Soak the beaten rice in water for sometime, strain and add to the oatmeal. Also add 2 tsp oil, all of the powdered & whole spices, salt to it.

Mix them together very well, knead actually and them shape into patty.

Grease an oven proof plate with a little of oil and arrange the patties on it.

Place the low height wired stool inside the oven and on it the plate full of the uncooked patties.

I combo cooked, grill+microwave at C-02, 15 minutes one side and 5 minutes the other side.

Once they cooled a bit, I brushed oil on them.

To the lightly sweet, natural flavoured Soy pudding, I added a bit of salt and ginger extract, beaten well to get a near taste of our kind of plain yogurt. We must keep it for chilling in the refrigerator.

For the Dates-Tamarind Chutney, follow my this recipe BHAJA MOSHOLA DATES TAMARIND CHUTNEY Else I follow the late Tarla Dalal's recipe of it too. You can use store bought.

For the green chutney, you can paste together some washed coriander leaves, boiled and strained green chillies, salt or follow this blogpost of mine MINT CORIANDER CHUTNEY!

I always would buy the gram flour noodles, making them at home is a complex method, I never had been fond of them, also they are enemy to your weight loss journey. Authentically, they use Bombay style gram flour noodles for a chaat dish, I used Aloo Bhujia.

I would not apologise for the fact that the fritters are not fluffy, I have given you too tasty a snack so that you can forget making a chaat plate and just have them hot with less of guilt. Omit using the baking soda if you want.

 

VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE

IT MAY NOT BE MY INNOVATION BUT I AM LOVING IT!

I am talking about the cake I am going to blog about today. I have seen "bonde paratha" doing the rounds in the social media, I have seen state of the art ladoo cake in the internet, I cannot be that decorative, neither can eat that amount of sweet. My initial plan was to get an oats cake to the blog today, but looking at the dates of various occasions around, it felt let me share something more of relevant to the Dol Purnima / Holi celebrations. Of course, this suits on an Iftar table. The oats cake can come for the Easter. The actual fact is that I have got a box of ladoo last week and only I had to eat them. Cristine is not fond of desi sweets, the man would not eat anything extra than the bread, noodle, pasta & rice meals the entire Ramzan month, he would have the breakfast and leave for the office without his lunch box, he would eat the dinner thereafter. There is no room for sweets after his limited intake of whisky or beer each night. Sweets & Fruits are only packed with his lunch box at this home. He had been travelling since yesterday morning. Cristine went for her off day yesterday. Tell me what to do all day? I too found the sweets too high in sugar, I cannot eat much of the store bought sweets, I can do them better. This idea to use the ladoos in a cake, popped up all of a sudden. I thought I need not have to add sugar either. It feels bad to eat something without sharing it with the son & the man. Also, the senior of the men would be travelling often now onwards, thats what he says. I cannot live without all my pleasures. Food gets me the necessary high.

AS PART OF OF MY PLEASURE TRIP, BELOW ARE WHAT I DID!

What I eat in a day is pretty alarming, they are all high in starch food. Within the limitations of my inability to eat clean, I try to adapt to certain healthy habits. I try to fry the potatoes in the air frier or in the grill mode using few drops of oil. May be I do not eat this amount of potatoes on a regular basis.

My lunch was broccoli-onion-pasta with a cheese slice atop yesterday. Even when I would have lonely meals, I would arrange it well. Because I am not a good pasta maker or pasta is not among my topmost favourite food, I had to eat a bit of oats+homemade yogurt+palm sugar post the meal. I even love too much a bowl of muesli, do not allow myself; the muesli mix would be high in sugar. At night, I preferred a vegetarian meal. How I love a "dal-aloo bhaja" meal. These days, I love my choice of vegetarian dishes too. I was also watching a series on Hoichoi, Cristine came home pretty late. And today is another day. I miss the early morning & evening time chitchat with the man. About the son, I had to let go for his good but his parents have be together at one place. The kids too are at peace when they see their parents are not fighting much.  And now let us see what I had for my first meal today. It was a blunder. I had soaked some small pearls of Tapioca to prepare "sabodana khichuri", the pearls melted almost. I prepared a paste of it, ginger, green chilli, salt, refined flour; added some fruit salt & water, made those dosa crepes. You can see some were rightly done, some weren't.

The measurements of the ingredients in a dosa batter is important, I want my dosa to be crispy & thin. I cooked that "aloo-peyaz-roshun bhaja" in the air frier using few drops of oil.

WHAT IS THIS VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE?

As told in the beginning, I was finding the store bought ladoo sweet having too much of sugar, I use way less of sugar in my homemade sweets. After using the ladoos in this easy bake VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE, I felt I made good use of what was seeming to me too sweet. What brings satisfaction to me is that I used few ingredients that are always present in our kitchen, even the flavouring agent is a natural cinnamon powder. I think I did not do anything, the cake got baked by itself. I do not think you need to add any extra amount of sugar in the cake batter, I did not. If you want you may add the sugar but remember, the ladoos or bonde whatever you are using are good enough substitute for the sugar.

Few other easy recipes from the Blog are these : STOVETOP COCONUT CAKE, BANANA FRITTER, MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE KIWI CAKE

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 1 COFFEE MUG

LADOO SWEET : 5-6 [ALTERNATIVELY BENGALI BONDE 250 -300 GM]

BOILED MILK AT ROOM TEMPERATURE : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

PLAIN YOGURT : 5-6 TBSP

BAKING POWDER : 1/2 TSP

BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP

CINNAMON POWDER : 1 TSP

OIL : 4-5 TBSP

I DID NOT USE SUGAR OR HONEY, YOU MAY.

PROCEDURE :

We will take together the refined flour, baking soda, baking powder & the cinnamon powder, mix well.

We will break the ladoo sweets pressing gently, if using bonde sweet then this step is not required.

In a blender, we with take together the milk, yogurt, oil and blend until incorporated well.

We will add it to the flour mix and beat well for 5-6 minutes.

We will add the maximum of the sweet balls to the batter leaving a little. We will give a stir and not beat.

We will grease a cake tin with few drops of oil and pour the batter into it. We will tap the cake tin on the kitchen counter to level the batter. 

We will add the rest of the sweet balls on the top layer of the batter, tap again.

Mine is a convection mode microwave oven, I did place the low height wired stool inside, preheated at 160*C.

Thereafter, I did place the cake tin atop the wired stool and baked at 160*C for 20-21 minutes.

Temperatures vary in different machines, the time taken may be less or more in your's.

Enjoy a slice with your choice of beverage.