Quick Snacks: Garlic Bread

A) Ingredients:

1. A loaf of garlic bread

2. Garlic - 1

3. Corn

4. Mozarella cheese

5. Chilli flakes (to taste)

6. Salt (to taste)

7. Dried Oregano (to taste)

8. Hot Molten butter - 2 spoons

B) Method

Cut slices out of garlic bread of about 1 and a hlaf cm thickness. You can vary the thickness as per your liking. Keeping too thin slices will make the bread very crispy. Keep the pieces aside.

Clean and peel the garlic, and crush each slice into a paste. Mix this paste with around 2 spoon of hot molten butter. Apply this final paste nicely on each garlic bread slice. Make sure that the butter and garlic paste is evenly spread out on the slices. Now shred mozarella cheese over the garlic bread slices.

Sprinkle the corn over the garlic breads, and sprinkle salt over it. Now put these garlic breads in a microwave over for 3 min on high. Make sure that the cheese is nicely molten over the bread and has percolated through the bread skin.

Take out the bread. Sprinkle with chilli flakes and dried oregano. Serve hot. For best results, couple up with lemon iced tea.

Goond ki Panjiri

Introduction
An age old recipe famous in north India and cherished as a dessert. This is a dish from Maa (my mother's) ki Rasoi :)
Recipe (Around 20 pieces of panjiri)

A) Ingredients
For Panjiri
100 gm: Coconut powder
100 gm: Dried/peeled melon seeds (Kharbooje ki giri)
100 gm: Eatable goond
250 gm: Sugar
250 gm: Ghee
1 glass: Water
B) Method
--> Heat ghee in a pan, and deep fry goond slowly one table spoon at time. The goond will bubble up as white balls. The substance is little sticky, and upon frying it will loose the stickiness. Fry all the goond, and keep aside. When it cools down crush it into smaller pieces.
--> Similarly fry the melon seeds in ghee and keep aside.
--> Mix coconut powder with the goond, and keep aside.
--> In a pan take 1 glass of water, and add the 250 gm sugar to it. Bring to boil, and stir well. Bring the liquid to a thick consistency where it doesnt flow free like a liquid.
--> In the meantime keep another dish ready with a little ghee applied to all its sides, so that when we pour the final mixture into this, the mixture doesnt stick to the walls.
-> In the hot sugar syrup, add the coconut powder and goond mixture. Add the fried melon seeds and mix it well.
--> Pour the hot mixture into the dish that we kept aside, and settle it into a even layer. Cut small pieces and serve when cold.

Hare Bhare Kabab

Introduction

This is an impromptu recipe invented by my sweet little sister and me on an important day of our lives, Indian Independence Day (15th August), in our small little kitchen.

Recipe (Serves 4)

A) Ingredients

For Kabab Batter

1 Cup: Sooji (Rava)
1 Cup: Sour Curd (if Sour Curd is not available, regular curd can be used)
11/2 tbsp: Salt (to taste)

3/4 tbsp: Red chilly powder

1 medium sized finely chopped onion
1 medium sized finely chopped tomato
2 finely chopped green chillies
finely chopped beans/carrot/cauliflower (1 cup)
finely chopped garlic (1 tbsp)
finely chopped coriander (2 tbsp)

For frying

oil/ghee
2 tbsp self rasing flour mixed well into 1/4 cup of water to bind the kababs while frying (Binding mixture)

B) Method
Mix sooji + curd + 1 and 1/2 tbsp. salt + 3/4 tsp red chilly powder in a bowl. Mix well to make a thick batter.
Add the finely chopped onion, tomato, green chillies, garlic, coriander and cut vegetables to the batter, and mix well. Allow to stand for five minutes.

For frying, heat oil in a deep pan. Make a little ball out of the batter, dip it in the binding mixture, and deep fry. Allow to fry on a medium flame till golden brown from one side. Turn over and fry again the other side till golden brown. Drain out the kababs and serve hot with chutney and salad.

Tip: Garnish with fresh coriander, green chilli, tomato and chat masala.

Gatte Ki Sabji (Spicy vegetable of corn flour rolls)

Introduction

Originating from the Indian State of Rajasthan, and traversing down to the grounds of Bihar and Jharkhand, 'Gatte ki Sabzee' leaves a wonderfully spicy taste to the tongue. Specifically healthy as it consumes very little oil, and easy to cook. This particularly is a saviour when you might not have your refrigerator stacked with enough vegatables to cook. For those who arent very familiar with the name 'gatta', 'gattas' are small rolls of corn flour dough boiled and cut to pieces. Here is the recipe.

Recipe (Serves 6-7)

A) Ingredients

For Gatta rolls

200 gm: Besan

2 tbsp: Ghee

1 tbsp: Dhaniya

1 tbsp: Red chilly powder

1 tbsp: Garam Masala

1 tbsp: Salt

2 tbsp: Oil

a pinch: Haldi (Turmeric) Powder

For gravy

2 medium sized onion (finely chopped)

2 tomatoes (finely chopped)

1/2 bowl chopped fresh cilantro (dhania leaves)

1 tbsp: Red Chilli Powder

1/2 tbsp: Haldi (Turmeric) Powder

1/2 tbsp Jeera seeds

Salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil/ghee

B) Method
Mix besan + 3/4 tbsp. salt + ½ tsp red chilly powder + 1 tbsp. dhaniya powder + 1/2 tbsp. garam masala and ghee. Make a dough out of it. The mixture will turn out little sticky, so take an oil drop on your palm, and make 5-6 thin and long strips of the dough. Put these strips in boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Cut these gattas into small pieces. Keep aside.
For the gravy, pour 2-3 tbsp oil/ghee in a pan, and add zeera seeds to it. When they crack, add chopped onion, chopped dhania leaves and chopped tomato. Stir well till the gravy becomes one.
Add 1 tbsp of dhania powder + 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder + salt to taste. Mix well.
Now add around 2 cups of water, and finally add the gattas. Bring it to a boil and take it off the heat.
Then leave the preparation in the pan covered, so that the aroma seeps in. We are done and ready to serve.