Spicy Mee Goreng ( Indonesian noodles)

I have had this craving for this spicy noodles since a month now. I first had them at the restaurant at Lake Louise in Alberta. It was one of the few vegetarian options they had.
Then i had them at noodles and company. There it was named as Indonesian Peanut Saute.
Since there is no noodles and co here in Boston, the only option was to try my hand at recreating this dish.
Read ahead to get the step by step procedure with pictures.

Ingredients:
Rice Noodles
1 bowl broccoli florets
1 cup sliced cabbage
1 onion sliced
2 stalks chopped scallions
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
2 tsp dark soy sauce
5 tsp sriracha
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional) (coz i like it spicy)
1 tsp chopped ginger
Half a lemon
Salt to taste
1 tsp Sesame seeds

Method:

• Put water in a container and let it boil. Once water starts boiling put the noodles in it and cook them al dente.

• Combine the soy sauce, sriracha and lemon juice in a bowl and keep aside

• Take a couple tsp of oil and heat a pan. Add peanuts and roast them till they turn slightly brown.
• Add the sliced onions to the pan and sauté them till they turn translucent.
• Add the broccoli florets to the pan and let them cook.
• Once the broccoli is done, add the prepared spicy sauce from step 2.
• Mix it properly and make sure all the veggies are properly coated in the spicy mixture. Add the red chilli powder at this point if you want it extra spicy.
• Add the cooked rice noodles to the mix and toss gently.
• Add the sliced cabbage now. It is to be added last so that it retains its crunch.
• Mix everything together well and let it cook for a few mins.
• Sprinkle the chopped scallions and sesame seeds on top.
• Squeeze a little lemon on top before serving.

Enjoy this hot and spicy noodle dish! :)

Pesto Pasta

Pesto Pasta is my non-desi soul food and it is amazingly simple and quick to make.

Ingredients
Pasta
pesto (i use the ready made ones bought from stores)
onions
green bell peppers
red bell peppers (for added color)
peas
garlic
mint (phudino)
dry basil
salt to taste

Method:

• Cook pasta until al dente. add salt to the water while it is cooking.
• Take the rest of the ingredients and saute them. season with salt, basil, phudino and pesto according to taste.
• Add pasta to the mixture and mix it up.

Get ready to chow down the amazing pesto pasta.

Dahi vada

The mithi chatni I made in the afternoon is going to be put to good use in the evening. I am planning to make dahi vada. I asked dadi dearest for this recipe too. :)

Ingredients
split urad dal
ginger
green chillies
curd/yogurt
salt
oil for frying
For garnish:
mithi chatni
salt
red chilli powder
roasted cumin powder
coriander leaves

Method:

• Soak the split urad dal for atleast 4-6 hours.
• Grind the urad dal into a thick creamy paste. add ginger, salt and green chillies to this mixture. Do not add much water to the mixture while grinding to maintain a thick consistency.
• Heat oil in a vessel and put small portions of the mixture in the oil to fry.
• Take them out as soon as they are a little golden brown and put them in cold water.
• Remove from cold water and press them between the palms of the hands to remove excess water.
• Take yogurt, add a little water and whisk it to make a mixture.
• Let the vadas soak in the yogurt mixture for some time.
• Before serving pour some more yogurt on top, drizzle with the mithi chatni, sprinkle salt, red chilli powder, roasted cumin powder and coriander leaves.

Tip: Grind the urad dal mixture right before frying them, if the mixture is kept for a while before frying the vadas will take more oil.

mithi chatni / imli chatni / khajur chatni

It hasn't been that i have not been cooking for the past several months but life has just been too busy. Busy or not i realized my mistake when I came to my blog to search for a specific marwari dish my husband loves and i could not find it here. I had to go over all the trouble of asking around for the recipe and then googling it to create my own.

Well today is not about that dish, today is for the mithi chatni which is also known as imli chatni or khajur chatni.
This chatni can be used in so many different ways. in bhel , pani puri, kachori, dahiwada.....almost all the chaats.
I have tried making this chatni before but could never make it perfect. Instead of searching all over the web for the perfect recipe i asked my grandmother for it. Getting recipes from grandmother is really a shortcut :) ; Its tried, tested and loved by all.

Ingredients
Imli
khajur(dates) / jaggery ( you can use either of the two)
red chilli powder
dhanajiru
salt

Recipe:
Take equal amouts of imli and khajur and soak them in warm water. you can substitute khajur with jaggery here.
Grind them in the mixer till it becomes a fine paste.
Add salt, red chilli powder and a little dhana jiru as per the taste needed.
Pour the chatni in a pan and heat it for a while.

Voila...the chatni is ready!! Allow it to cool before storing in a glass container.

Pesto Pizza

I wanted to have a homemade pizza for so long, but it was either i did not have the necessary materials or was on short of time. This monday it was time for the pizza though :)

I had a bottle of pesto which i had never used. I had brought it for adding it to pasta but never got around doing that. on allrecipes.com i saw a recipe for pizza where they had used only pesto as the base sauce, and then put all the veggies and cheese.  I changed that recipe a bit by adding home made pizza sauce on top of the pesto and it turned out amazingly delicious. The left over pizza was like by everybody at the office when i brought it for lunch.

Ingredients

4 tomatoes

1 finely cut onion

3 garlic cloves

olives

jalapeno

pesto ( i used a store brought bottle)

mozzarella cheese

salt

sugar

basil seasoning

red mirchi 

ajmo (also known as ajwain or carom seeds)

green chillies 

ginger

1 pizza crust (i got mine from traders joes)

1. With a knife put an X on the bottom of a tomato and put it in boiling water. After about 5 minutes remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and put it in cold water. Tt will crumple up the skin and it would be easier to remove it.
2. Remove the tomatoes peel and add the tomatoes to the blender.
3. Add 2-3 chillies, a pinch of ajmo, a small piece of ginger, garlic and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion to the blender and make a puree.
4. In a vessel add some olive oil and pour the tomato puree in it. Add salt, sugar and red mirchi and let it simmer. Atleast 1/4 of the water should be evaporated and the puree should have become thick in consistency.
5. Heat the oven to 350F.
6. Brush the pizza crust with olive oil, specially the sides.
7. Spread pesto all over the pizza generously. layer it with the pizza sauce. Add onions ,olives and jalpenos for topping. sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and put it in the oven to bake.
8. It should take about 15-20 minutes. Remove the pizza when the sides turn a little brown and the cheese has melted.

Bread Poha

Every time i make this dish i screw it up somehow. It always comes out soggy and in part inedible. I think it might be because of the use of tomatoes. So yesterday i googled up some more ways to make this dish. It turned out pretty great. Next time around i will try some more modifications by adding some vegetables. This  is good when you are very hungry and dont have much patience to cook something extensive. This recipe takes a maximum of 5 mins to make.

Ingredients

5-6 slices of stale bread

3 tablespoons curd

salt

red mirchi

haldi

oil

mustard seeds

1. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds to it after it becomes hot. add asofoetida after the mustard seeds splutter.
2. Break the bread into pieces. Add the salt, mirchi and haldi to the bread and mix it up with your hand. I do this before putting   everything into the pan.
3. Let the bread pieces turn to light brown in color.
4. Add a few drops of water to curd and whisk it up.
5. Add the curd to the bread mixture. Take care in the quantity of curd as too much curd would make the bread soggy.

Other additions that can be done. Before adding bread, saute some onions and green bell peppers. Jalapeños would also be a good addition.

Rabodi ki sabji

well, my husband is a marwadi and he likes all the traditional marwadi dishes. so for lunch today he wanted fresh rotis and rabodi ki sabji.
rabodi is sour in taste. I have got homemade rabodi from my mother-in-law. I dont know exactly how the rabodi made so i will update my post later tonite after asking her.
This is how uncooked rabodi looks like.

Ingredients
2 cups rabodi
water
2 tablespoons curd,
ginger
green chillies
red mirchi
salt
ghee
jeera
asofoetida

Heat the ghee in a pan. after it heats up add jeera. after the jeera splutters add asoefoetida, green chillies and ginger.
mix the curd with some water and form a paste. add it slowly through a strainer so that it does not separate out.
add all the other masalas and water and let it boil.
after about 5 mins add the rabodi to it and let it cook for another 5 mins.
the rabodi is ready. quick and easy. :)
enjoy with phulka roti.
i realized i hadnt taken a pic until almost all of it was over. here's a pic with the leftover rabodi sabzi