Noodle Soup

This is another of comfort food recipe for the cold-cold winters. We love it as has the enriching nutrients of the vegetables and the great texture of the noodles. I use maggi noodles for this soup, but hakka noodles or rice noodles can also be used. Serve it hot and you have a one course healthy and delish meal ready in minutes. I make these noodles without using the maggi tastemaker masala which is included with the noodles. But if you want an Indian- spicy flavored soup, the tastemaker masala can be added to the soup.

Ingredients

1 cup of prepared noodles (wheat or rice noodles--I use maggi noodles without the masala)
1 medium onion
1 cup chopped vegetables (cabbage, peas, carrot, cauliflower, zucchini, corn kernels)
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon white vinegar
salt and pepper for taste
1 tablespoon oil

Method
Slice the onions thinly. Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger and the sliced onions. Fry till the onions are light brown and well cooked. Add the chopped vegetables and cook covered for 3-4 minutes till the vegetables are soft. Cook uncovered for another 4-5 minutes, so that the vegetables are lightly browned. Add salt and pepper for taste. Mix in the noodles and add 3 cups of water or as desired. Stir in vinegar and soy sauce. Serve hot.

Dudhi na Muthia

I saw this recipe on Vani's blog. Thanks Vani for sharing this recipe:-)


I make handvo quite often, but this recipe seemed much simpler to make as there was no prior fermentation needed. It took me just 20 minutes (thanks to my food processor , it took me 2 minutes to grate the pumpkin and gourd) to make the batter and 30 more minutes for steaming. I had a small piece of lauki (bottlegourd) left, so I also added a lot of grated pumpkin and carrot. I also added chopped coriander leaves and 3 tablespoon of grated coconut while making the batter rather than as a garnish.

Serve steaming hot with Coriander-mint chutney and Chai.

Dahi Alu Papdi Chat

We both were working from home on Thursday during the week. We had some work to attend to in the morning, hence planned to work from home. Work was much faster as there were no distractions --no meetings, no gossiping with colleagues in the pantry..so got the days's work pretty faster than other regular days. My husband A wanted to have chaat in the evening and hence I thought of this simple dahi alu papdi chaat. This dish does not take more than 20 minutes to make if the ingredients are on hand. I had some sweet date chutney and the coriander chutney on hand or you can find the recipe to the Green chutney here and the Date-Tamarind chutney here. All I had to do is make the papdi's and boil the potato. It is a very tasty dish and extremely simple to prepare.

Ingredients
8-10 Papdi ( Look here for the recipe)
2-3 potatoes
1/2 cup curd
4 tablespoon sev
1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon jeera powder
pinch of amchur or dry mango powder
chaat masala powder
4 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 tablespoon chopped tomato
tamarind chutney
mint chutney
4 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

Method
Boil the potatoes till soft. Cool them and chop them into cubes. Arrange the papdi in a bowl. Add the chopped potatoes, onion, tomato on top of the papdi. Add beaten curd as per desired. Sprinkle sev, jeera powder, coriander powder, chaat powder, amchu, tamarind chutney and mint chutney and coriander leaves on top. Serve immediately.

Papdi

Papdi can be used in various chaats or can be eaten just as a snack. For a healthier version bake it instead of frying it.

Ingredients
3/4 cup maida or all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper powder
oil for frying

Method
Mix the maida, salt, pepper and make a stiff dough by adding little water. For a baked version add 2 tablespoon oil to the dough. Take a two-pea sized piece of dough and roll it thinly into a 2 inch diameter circle. Bake it or deep fry it in oil till crisp.

Mango Rice / Kairi Rice

We would always wait for the kairi's to arrive in the market in the summer season. My favorite memories are going to the kariwalla-bhiya who used to sit on his cycle outside my college serving masala kairis. He would slice up the kairis, add a dash of his secret spice powder the kairi pieces and serve them with papdis made from flour. Me and my friends would visit him every day after college to taste his chatpata kairis. There would be a lot of activity going on in my home when the kairi season would start. My mom would make a fresh batch of Chunda or sweet mango pickle, Manglorean mango pickle, Punjabi achaar to last for the year ahead. She would als make panna and also clean and preserve many raw mangoes in boiled and salted water. We would then use these preserved mangoes to make chutney's in the winter and rainy season. We get kairis all year round at our local indian store and I make this rice very often. It is a great main course and also a great low calorie tiffin recipe.

Ingredients
1 raw mango or kairi
1 cup rice
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon chana dal or bengal gram
1/2 teaspoon urad dal
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 green chilies
2 tablespoon grated coconut (optional)
salt for taste

Method
Cook the rice and cool it down. Salt the rice and keep it aside. Skin the raw mango and grate it. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the dals and roast till they are light brown. Add turmeric powder and slit green chillies. Fry for a minute and add grated raw mango. Cook for 5-8 minutes till the mango is soft. Once the mango cools down mix the rice well with the mango. Season with grated coconut.

French Fries

As the winter starts to set here and it gets colder and colder day by day, I look back at wintery days of my childhood. We stayed in Bhopal for quite some time and the temperature would drop to around 3-4 degrees. The sun would set early- at around 4 or 5 pm in the noon. Cold wintery evenings would call for lot of hot, spicy and fried stuff. My mom would cook winter-special food like different bhajiyas (vegetable fritters fried with a coating of Bengal Gram flour), cutlets, omelets along with the regular traditional stuff like dosas and idlis. In these modern age, fried food means a lot of fat and extra calories! So I try to bake food rather than fry it. I make baked bhajiyas, tava-fried cutlets and french fries. Tava-frying takes only 2 tablespoon oil as compared to the cupfuls of oil needed for frying. I have never been a great fan of potato as it makes me feel sleepy and lazy. But my husband Atul loves every dish made of potato and hence I make these tava-fried- french fries very often during the weekends. Season the fries with garlic powder, pepper, salt and chili powder and you have a batch of restaurant quality french fries made right at home. I took the photo of this dish as we were both holding the plate as Atul said " It will take you 5 more minutes to click the photo" and did not let go of the plate!

Ingredients
2-3 potatoes
2 tablespoon oil
pepper
salt for taste

Method
Cut the potatoes into long stripes. Grease the tava with oil and heat it on low-medium heat. Put the potato stripes on the tava. When the are light brown on one side flip them over to the other side. Follow this step so that the stripes are light brown on all sides. Cook on low-medium heat and take care not to burn the fries. Remove from tava when cooked and lay on a kitchen paper to drain the extra oil (if any!). Sprinkle salt and pepper and serve with tomato ketchup and mustard.