My experiments for Kebabs always have to be innovative, different and always have to be super delicious in taste. My boys love different styles of Kebabs and always look forward to trying different varieties and I believe that’s what pushes me to try different styles.
After making so many different styles of Chicken Kebabs, it does get hard for you to come up with something different with the same set of masalas. I mean its the same spices, yet playing around with them, adding them at different times at different cooking stages makes a huge difference in the flavor of a dish.
These kebabs barely need any marinating time which makes it better for people who are trying to serve something easy and fancy and decide at the last minute or for all those times when we have uninvited relatives/guests who come unannounced, but expect a wonderful menu. For all those times, these kebabs come in very handy.
These kebabs can be made without an oven and the ingredients are also not too fancy. Though I have used Chicken Legs and names them Tangdi Kebab, but you can always use other Chicken pieces or even boneless Chicken and follow the recipe. In case you use this recipe for boneless chicken, try using Boneless thigh/Leg meat and not the Breast. The Chicken Breast meat might be too thick and chewy for this recipe and since the Chicken isn’t marinated for too long and the choice of spices isn’t too fancy either, it might be hard for the juices to get inside the Chicken Breast meat.
This recipe is great for Beginners and Bachelors and pretty easy to impress a crowd by new chefs. Try it today and leave me a feedback as well. Enjoy!!!
Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim
families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go
from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori.
There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of
always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but
it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are
carried on by Muslim families.
The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires
time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always
distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa
Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of
Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too
dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt
that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori
seemed to be a perfect answer to it.
Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together
in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in
the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and
awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that
they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight
container.
When I started making Halwa Poori, it always is great in taste. And then I decided to bring a little twist to this recipe and instead of the regular dough, I switched to Puff pastry dough. So there is also a recipe with Halwa Puff Pastry. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. The Halwa can also be eaten minus the poori or puff pastry.
I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.
This is a fusion dish. I had some dough left from the kachoris I made a couple of days before. Being a Marwari, I love the mix of Onions, potatoes and loads of chilies, but that’s not the case with my family who has more of a sweet tooth and as much as they would try and appreciate everything I make, but they make it clear that gulping one down their throat is enough to prove their love for me, and anything more would come under third-degree torture… LOLzzz
So, when I had the dough left, I knew I cannot make something that I crave. I could have made Maawe ki Kachori but I was making something for evening coffee and I needed it to be different and that’s when I thought of making a mix of cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, nutmeg, and mace. So, this was when I thought of making this little scrumptious, crunchy, and buttery kachoris.
Now the sugar I used is soft brown sugar but you can use any kind you want to. White sugar is fine as well, but just remember to either use granulated sugar or just grind the sugar a little. Adding cinnamon, nutmeg and mace was a wonderful addition to the flavor. Somehow, the combination reminded me of this “cheeni ka parantha” that’s a huge hit between kids in most Indian homes and cinnamon rolls put together.
Though I made these with leftover dough, I am sharing the recipe for the dough in this recipe. The dough can be used for any Kachoris that you’d like.
Though, I don’t think adding nuts to something like this is a good idea but, you can always try crushed nuts as an addition. Any variations or creation of taste buds added to a dish is what cooking is all about. Enjoy!!!
Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori. There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are carried on by Muslim families.
The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori seemed to be a perfect answer to it.
Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight container.
Initially when I started making Halwa Poori, t was hard to make them for just the two of us, Mr. Parveez and me. Making 10 would be more than enough and would last us more than a week and usually by day 2 we would be dead bored and didn’t feel like eating more. So, this is when I felt that the Halwa poori needs a twist and I changed it to halwa Puff Pastry. The good thing about that is that I can always make the dough for puff pastry and keep it in my freezer. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. This way we make the puff pastry whenever we want, eat them warm and fresh and we can also use the Halwa as just halwa minus the poori or puff pastry.
I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.
This masala toast is a famous snack from Iyengar bakery,
which I had never tried. Being from North India, there are these few things
that you miss out on. Like the fresh made veggie toast. Ohhh!!! Don’t get me
wrong, I love the north Indian malai bread and potato sandwich or paneer
sandwich, but I still fell completely in love with this iyengar bakery masala
toast.
This was first made by my husband, Mr. Parveez when he
wanted to flaunt his cooking skills, show casing how breakfast can be made
quick, delicious, light and above all, healthy.
This toast can have variety of veggies put but, the
authentic iyengar bakery toast only has carrots, tomatoes, onions with a few
spices and chilies. It’s a perfect breakfast for on the run, or a perfect snack
for warming up those after school/evening cold winters with a warm drink.
There was a popular supermarket near our apartment. Mr. Parveez and I would buy our regular grocery from that supermarket. During the winter season, a baker in their bakery made carrot cake, with walnuts/ without walnuts, sometimes with raisins. Every winter, also known as “holiday season” in USA, we would look forward to the carrot cake. We even served it to our guests, took it for friends.
And one day the baker left the store. We only found during winter when the carrot cake was being sold but something changed. On trying to figure out, we questioned the Manager and found that the baker was from another country and has left for good. Even the manager agreed that the though he left the cake recipe, it just didn’t come out the same. Eventually, the store stopped keeping carrot cake.
But, we looked everywhere with our taste buds craving the same flavor. 10 years of search and over 100 stores and supermarkets, different towns, different bakeries but it was just not the same. One day I came across a recipe for Thanksgiving carrot pudding and reading that I felt, it wouldn’t be that tough trying it out. I also realized with times that there was some spice that was missing in the normal carrot cake. That spice was nutmeg. Isn’t it funny, that a pinch of a spice can change the complete taste.
I first tried the basic cake without frosting and once I perfected the basic cake, I tried the frosting and both together make a super excellent Carrot Walnut Cake. Its exactly like the cake we liked, probably a little better. This will bring you loads of praises on your parties and get together.
My love for Baklava began in 2003. I was working for a
University in Amman, Jordan. Trying out different foods and adapting myself to new
culture and people is when I first time tried Baklava. Now, Baklava tastes very
different in all middle east countries. I might sound bias but there is nothing
like the Jordanian baklava. Its crunchy, nutty, crispy with just perfectly
sweet. Its hard to decide how much sugar will be perfect for your baklava but
constant practice made me come up with the perfect measure.
Like most of my other recipes, this recipe too is not that
tough. Just be precise with your measurements and oven heat and time. Make sure
the nuts you use are fresh and enjoy the flavor of a wonderful Baklava. It can
be made a day before for your guests and is a great dish for potluck parties
too. The shelf life is a week and can be extended to two weeks if you
refrigerate it. Though it should be thawed before serving.
Jodhpur, my beautiful hometown and land of sweetness and colorful people. One of the most popular sweet is Maave ki Kachori. The crunchy outer crust and slightly sweet inside dipped in the sugar syrup.
For Mr. Parveez it was love at first sight or love at first bite. He enjoyed it so much that every Jodhpur visit, Maave Ki Kachori was a must and if we had any one coming over, we would ask them to get it for us, which I would fry again and pour some warm sugar syrup on it ans serve. As much as we would appreciate the pain people would go through to bring/send these awesome sweets to us, but the only problem was that staying without refrigeration for so long would spoil the taste a little and we wouldn’t be able to enjoy more that 25%. So, with time, we had to give up on that.
The best Maava Kachori according the polls is made by Raawat sweet store and I once happened to have a few guests over , out of which one has been to Jodhpur and has tried maava Kachori from that sweet store. I was truly honored when the guest told me that mine would win if there was a competition. Its always great to receive compliments from my boys and as much as I know that they are honest when it comes to food, I still believe they appreciate my efforts at times and never complain if the dish hasn’t come out great.
And then finally one day I decided to try my own. Before I write the whole recipe, let me tell you this…I have never eaten or tried Maave Ki Kachori. I am just few of those “weirdos” who do not enjoy sweets made with sugar syrup and therefore when the thought came to my mind, it was actually an arrow in the dark. What I knew was that the filling has Khoya and nuts and slight taste of some spices. The biggest blessing is to have a husband who has amazing taste buds and therefore, it was easy to have him try the filling before I finalize it.
The first attempt had too much spice and it was hard to taste the khoya and sweetness. The second try had too little spice. The third one was perfect since I understood how and what to do. The khoya needs to have a little bit of clove but suggest that they shouldn’t be powdered and they should be mixed as is in the pan while cooking khoya and should be taken out leaving the flavor. Besides, cloves, its cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and Nutmeg powder.
When you start cooking the Khoya would melt in the pan and that’s good since it makes it easier to blend it with flavor of spices, and when it cools down, it automatically solidifies again. Sugar should be mixed only once its taken off the pan.
Gajar ka Halwa is our winter favorite. The lovely sweetness of carrots mixed with sugar and milk and a hint of cardamom with desi ghee leaves you taste buds asking for more.
We always loved the idea of warm Brownies and vanilla ice cream. In fact, my kids are big fans of warm brownies/ cake with Ice cream. Its a desert that they would give away their lunch for. Anyways, Mr. Parveez happens to be almost the same when it comes to warm Brownies with Ice cream. With time he wanted try warm halwa with cold ice cream. I wouldn’t have tried making this had it come from someone else, but since it was my biggest food fan, I had to try it.
Warm Halwa and cold ice cream is a super awesome combination. Its something you will only understand after you try it. In this recipe I am sharing the recipe for Gajar ka Halwa and how I combined it with Vanilla ice cream. You can always check the Vanilla Ice cream recipe in the Dessert/ Sweet section.