Momos at home (from scratch)

During this time of the year when are bound to stay at home, I have got ample time to indulge in cooking and create my favourite dishes which I cannot eat from outside anymore!

Here is the recipe of momos that I cooked, at home, from scratch!

For the cover: 

• Maida (All purpose flour) – 1 cup (will make 10-12 momos depending on the thickness you roll into)
• Water
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Salt – a pinch

For filling: 

• You can fill almost anything!
• I filled finely chopped cabbage, capsicum, paneer, carrot, beans, corns, salt, garlic and cheese.
• You can even add soya granules (soaked in water first), shredded chicken or anything!

For chilli momos sauce:

• Tomatoes
• Lots of garlic
• Dry red chillies
• Salt
• Chopped coriander

Process:

Mix all ingredients (without coriander) of momos sauce and grind them together to a rough texture! Garnish with coriander in the end. Keep aside.

Mix all ingredients mentioned for the cover to make into a dough not very tight.

Mix all ingredients for filling.

Now you are set to roll!

Take a ball of maida, a really small one, roll it into a round share 1/4th the size of a chapati, add your filling and steam for 20-25 minutes!

Tips:

• The more you steam the more soft they get!
• You can have fun while folding the momos! After all, happiness comes in all sizes .. and shapes! You can check out different shapes here: https://redhousespice.com/fold-dumplings/

 

Dahi ke Sholey

Dahi ke Sholey has been one of my favorite items to order in a restaurant. Even my friends love it a lot. I always thought how would it be like to stuff curd inside the bread, but to my surprize, when I tried this recipe, it came out to be really easy!!

Dahi ke Sholey

Ingredients:

• Hung Curd – 1 bowl
• Onions finely chopped – 1 big
• Coriander finely chopped – 3 tbsp
• Green Chillies finely chopped – 2 tbsp
• Salt and Red Chilly powder – to taste
• Bread Slices
• Oil – to fry

Steps:

• Mix hung curd and all other ingredients except bread.
• Dip the corners of the bread in water. It is just like you do when you make bread rolls stuffing potatoes inside, but you avoid soaking it in the middle for dahi ke sholey.
• Squeeze out the excess water by pressing the bread between your palms.
• Put a spoon full of mixture prepared in the first step, in the middle of the bread. Fold the bread and cover the mixture to make a roll out of it.
• Deep fry these rolls and cut them into half. Enjoy!!

Comparing food groups in Delhi

If you want to start getting annoyed by food and you’re from Delhi or Mumbai (primarily Delhi), go to Facebook and join these groups: EatTreat, Eatlo and Food Talk India. To explain the difference in between them let’s compare them to religious beliefs. EatTreat is an Atheist, Eatlo religious and Food Talk India is a guru. Let me elaborate on this.

EatTreat started by Arjun Sawhney is high class, feel they’re educated, discuss health and only the most expensive restaurant. The fancier food you know, the better. Don’t make the mistake for asking for budget and basic food options here as these unicorns eat silk cloud sprinkled with confetti and fart butterflies. Of course, if you want to know more about them, there’s : http://eattreatmeans.tumblr.com. If you want to feel low on confidence, poor and feel you will die if you don’t eat like that, join the club.

Eat started by…

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Homemade eggless Pancakes.. Very soft, very fluffy!

Homemade Eggless Pancakes

I never knew making pancakes at home would be so easy and they would turn out so damn delicious.. that too EGGLESS !!

No one can go wrong on pancakes with this recipe, so just go ahead and try out with the most simple ingredients and the most simple steps..!!

Ingredients:

• Maida (All purpose flour) – 1/2 cup
• Milk – 1/2 cup
• Salt – 1/4 tsp
• Sugar – 1/2 tbsp
• Baking Powder – 1/2 tbsp

Steps:

• Take a bowl and mix the dry ingredients first. Then add milk and whisk till no lumps.
• On a non-stick pan on low flame, pour some mixture in the center and do not spread.
• Wait till there are bubbles and they stop. Turn the pan cake carefully and cook for another 20-30 seconds.
• Serve with butter and honey on the top!!

You could serve it with fresh fruits, maple syrup, nutella, chocolate sauce.. just go crazy !! 😀 😀

Pancakes with honey !!

Nachos at home .. from scratch!

Yes! Making nachos at home can be extremely simple. It is as simple as kneading dough, making a chapati, cutting and frying.

Crisp, Cheesy, Spicy !!!

Who doesn’t like nachos? Its my favorite snack in parties, cafe’s, home or a cinema hall.

I have always bought Doritos, Senor Pepito from the market but once I went to a Mexican restaurant in Delhi, I was quite happy to eat nachos made from scratch. It added that authentic feeling to it.

Since then, I have been waiting to get my hands on some good corn meal so that I can try them at home until I finally did.

I hope you like the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Corn Meal (Makki ka aata) – 1 cup
• Salt – a pinch
• Lukewarm Water – to knead dough
• Two A4 size plastic wraps for rolling the dough
• Oil for deep frying

Steps:

• Put the cornmeal and salt in a bowl and add lukewarm water to knead it well. It should not be too sticky but it should hold together. (Yes, its just like makki ki roti 😛 )
• Let the dough sit for 15 minutes and then divide it into balls (size of your convenience).
• Take a small ball of the dough, place it in middle of two plastic sheets and roll them according to your preferred thickness.
• Cut them into triangles, poke with a fork (don’t forget this), and deep fry.
• Add some spices to the nachos while hot, so that they stick to it. I added a poha masala i had at home, which was full of paprika.

Extremely simple!

Nachos are wonderfully delicious, specially when they are accompanied with hot salsa or loaded with cheese..!

For Salsa Sauce: Mix chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers of your choice, fresh coriander, green chilies in a bowl. Add a dash of tomato ketchup, few drops of lemon juice with a lil salt and enjoy your fresh salsa.

I topped my nachos with some mozzarella and baked them for 10 min to get some cheesy nachos. They were loved by all. 🙂

Voila !!!

Homemade Thin Crust Pizza ! (Crust from Scratch)

My family loves eating pizzas and so do I. I used to cook a lot of them in my childhood, but we soon started hating the ready-made crust available here in Delhi. However, now a days, a thin crust is also available but unfortunately, its equally sad.

And then one day, I picked a random recipe of pizza crust from scratch and there was no looking back. I have been cooking them a lot since then and it has totally been loved by my family. We bake the crust at home, along with the pizza sauce and we love the way how healthy it has turned out.

Enough to take me to heaven !

The process is fairly simple and doesn’t require much efforts. Sharing my recipe here:

For the Pizza Sauce –

Ingredients:

• 7-8 big Tomatoes
• 7-8 cloves of Garlic
• 1/2 tbsp Oregano
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oil

Steps:

• Blanch tomatoes and grind them into a puree. (I put cuts in my tomatoes, zipp them in a pouch and microwave them for 2 minuts)
• Add oil in a pan and let it heat.
• Add garlic and stir to roast it well.
• Add oregano and stir, make sure it doesn’t burn. Be quick for the next step.
• Add the tomato puree and sugar. Stir well till the excess water evaporates, and it looks like a paste.
• Add salt and pepper, to taste.

For the Pizza Crust –

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• Lukewarm water for kneading

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in half cup lukewarm water along with the salt and sugar, and let it rest until frothy. Make sure to keep it in a warm place. I kept it inside my microwave (of course it was off 😛 )
• Take flour in a bowl, make a well and add yeast mixture, to knead it in a soft dough. Add more water as required.
• Cover it with a wet kitchen towel, and let it rest for an hour in a warm place.
• Make equal balls of dough,  and using your hands or a rolling pin, make it flat. The crust will double its size while baking so you can decide how thick you want it to be and roll accordingly.
• Now spread the prepared pizza sauce over it, add cheese, veggies or meat and set it in the oven till the cheese and veggies are done. You  would notice the sides getting brown too.

Ready to hit the oven !

After all, hapiness comes in all shapes and sizes ! ^_^

Tips:

• You could easily make small bite size pizzas with the same dough and serve them as snacks.

Prem ji Dilli Wale ki Chaap..

Including Bharwa Gol Gappe, Matra Kachori, Moth Kachori and a lot of other street food, East Delhi has a lot to offer on your plates and you would definitely get one of the best soya chaaps here, be it tandoori or gravy.

From what I have observed, a lot of people residing in old East Delhi, are pure vegetarians and they avoid restaurants where non-vegetarian food is cooked. Hence, pure vegetarian restaurants do very well in this part of Delhi.

On entering the lane of Kalra Sweets near Jheel Chowk, I spotted a local momos selling guy with a huge roadside stall at my left. To my surprise, that stall was pure vegetarian and he made a lot of other Chinese stuff too. We had momos from there, which he served with the fiery not-so-great momos sauce, topped with mayo and a bowl of soup. Nothing very great but I am still looking forward to try more stuff from him.

Moving ahead in that lane, on your right, you would find another stall, crowded again. That’s the Prem Ji Dilli Wale bhai ka Chaap (and other) tikkas stall. On one side, there is a huge tawa on which he keeps on adding gravy and chunks of soya chaap simmering to the delectable Gravy Chaap. On the other side, he has smoke emanating from the grill that he has set for the mushrooms, paneer and chaap.

Prem ji Dilli Wale Stall

He also has a little chulaah with a bowl of butter boiling on it which he uses to brush the tandoori items and mind you, he is very generous while using it. 😉

Boiling Butter

We had the tandoori malai chaap, mushroom tikka, masala chaap, and gravy chaap. The gravy chaap was not over the top but the malai tikka chaap was superb and a must try. What I like, that he also adds capsicum and onions while grilling chaap, which is not done by a lot others in east delhi. I loved the way he did the mushrooms too.

Tandoori Masala Chaap

Gravy Chaap

Now if you hit this stall in East Delhi, then Kalra Sweets just adjacent to it, it surely a must visit. His rabri faluda was selling like hot cakes, even better than that. And the amount of ras malai I could see in people’s hand was no less. I loved the texture of the ras malai and rabri faluda. We also tried the Gulab Jamun and they are surely one of the best I have tried in Delhi. So soft, they would just melt in your mouth.

Kalra Sweets

Rabri Faluda from Kalra Sweets

So hit both these places and let me know if I am exaggerating!! 😛

Eggless Cinnamon Rolls and Garlic Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls.. just out of the oven..

The paternal side being Brahmins from Rajasthan, eggs are not allowed at my home. 2 years back, I found a recipe for cinnamon rolls, it had eggs and the craving took me to my cousin’s home where eggs could be used. They came out perfect! Soft, less sweet, sugar well caramelized, and the aroma was divine..

I tried another eggless recipe at home but it wasn’t successful! Hence, I would wait to go to my cousins to satisfy my craving..

Few days back, I thought of trying my hands on it again. I found a random eggless recipe on the internet, took an idea, closed that, and started off with an experience of baking buns recently.

I was amazed at the results. They were better than those with eggs. These cinnamon rolls came out better than anything that I have ever baked! The sugar was perfect, the texture was super, they were lil moist and soft from the inside, and the experience of having them took me to heaven for a second!

 

The cinnamon rolls were away, and after rising.. baked to perfection !

 

If you like cinnamon, you are going to love this !

Try this simple recipe :

Ingredients

For Dough:

• Yeast – 1 and 1/4^th tbsp
• Sugar – ½ tbsp
• Salt – half tbsp
• Oil/butter/ margarine (melted but not hot) – 1/4^th cup
• Milk – ½ cup + ½ cup
• Baking soda – ½ tbsp
• Baking powder – ½ tbsp
• Maida/all purpose flour – 2 cups

For filling:

• 3/4^th cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Cinnamon powder
• 1/4^th cup butter

 

Steps :

• Take half cup milk, dissolve yeast and sugar in it and keep it aside till foamy.
• Take butter, salt, maida, the yeast mixture, and remaining 1/2 cup milk and knead it well to form sticky dough. You could use a lil more dough or milk, just ensure that the dough is a lil sticky.
• Keep this aside for an hour or until it gets double the size.
• After an hour, press the dough, add baking soda, baking powder and knead well again.
• Sprinkle generous amount of maida on your workspace, take the dough and make a flat rectangle out of it, almost half inch thick.
• Brush it well on the top with butter.
• Mix cinnamon powder and brown sugar, and sprinkle it well, all over the rectangle shaped dough.
• Now roll the dough, make a cylinder out of it, cut it into sections of 1 ½ inches each, and place it in a baking dish. Remember to keep a lil space between them, as they would rise.
• Keep this dish aside for an hour again, to rise them and you would now see them sticking to each other.
• Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees until light brown on the top. Remember to brush them with butter in between.

 

Notes :

• Before serving, you can also glaze them with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/4^th tbsp vanilla essence, and ¼th cup milk. Beat them well until smooth and drizzle it all over your freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I avoided it, because my family members have diabetes.
• Brown sugar goes very well with cinnamon but if you don’t have it, you could also use normal granulated sugar but take lesser quantity.
• If your dough would be tight, they would not come out very soft, use oil on your hands if you face a problem handling the sticky dough.
• You could use oil/butter/margarine.. I used margarine.

 

I used the same dough and made garlic rolls. The process was all the same but just that the filling was replaced with garlic butter prepared at home by mixing butter, garlic paste, salt and pepper..

Garlic pull-apart rolls

Please comment for more queries on the Garlic Rolls 🙂 .. and of course, if you liked the post, don’t forget to share the foodie love 😛

Ultimate Fruit Sandwiches – Jain Coffee House, Chawri Bazaar

Long back, I had a small sandwich making competition which was a group effort. All members were puzzled when I told them to bring fruits ! And of course, we won the competition for the fruit sandwich I made. It was loved by the judges and they thought it was a very unique and delicious idea.

Well.. honestly, it was not unique 😛 .. I got the idea from the unexplored-by-many, Jain Coffee House, which is located near the Shree Gujarat Namkeen Bhandar in Chawri Bazar among many traders.

This shop has been serving traders of Chawri Bazaar since 1948 with tea, coffee, sandwiches, shakes and the ultimate and the unique fruit sandwiches. I bet you cannot find such sandwiches in whole delhi !

Mixed Fruit Sandwiches served in Summers

The place is run by two brothers and they usually get bulk orders for club sandwiches along with tea from the traders but their fruit sandwiches are to die for. The taste of those fresh fruits along with butter and a lil jam is simply marvelous! He uses fruits that are available in the season and has special mango sandwiches in summers which are my favorite.

 

My favorite Mango Sandwiches served in Summers !

 

The idea is quite simple, to add thinly sliced fruits, with lil jam, paneer and butter..

Story of a Fruit Sandwich at Jain Coffee House

Fruit Sandwich served in Winters

What makes eating a sandwich even more interesting there is the old charm that they still maintain. The blue painted walls with old style calendars hung on it, shaky wooden chairs with old tables and a rusty fan is what adds to the Chawri feeling.

How to reach: If you walk towards Nai Sarak from the Chawri Bazar Metro Station, take a left turn after you cross the famous Shree Gujarat Namkeen Bhandar. Another left in the courtyard, ignoring all the traders there, this Jain Coffee House is located in the corner just adjacent to the PNB atm.

Kheere ki Subzi

Yes! You heard that right! 😉

Once I went to my friend’s place and his mom made us taste a subzi and asked what it was.. The guesses began with ghiya, tori, tinda.. by the looks of it, but we were unable to guess it. And when we took a bite, it was totally different and it did not fail to amaze us. It had peanuts and a creamy texture. It was kheera when aunty told us.

 

Kheere ki Subzi

 

Coming back home, I talked to my mum about it and she told me that my grandmother too used to cook it, and mum told me the recipe. I combined both the recipes and tried my hands on it. Success ! My mom loved it and since then, this is a regular subzi that we cook at our home.

 

So here it goes.. the simple recipe 😉

 

Ingredients:

• Kheera(Cucumber) medium size – 2
• Onions finely chopped – 2
• Tomatoes chopped – 3
• Green Chilies chopped – 3-4 (or as you like 😉 )
• Peanuts – ½ cup roasted, skin removed and then crushed. (Do not crush them into a very fine powder)
• Coonut milk – 1 pack,
• Salt – to taste
• Red Chilli Powder – to taste
• Dry coriander powder – ½ tbsp
• Garam masala – ¼ tbsp
• Fresh Corriander Chopped – for garnish

Steps :

• Take a khadhai/pan and add 4 tbsp oil to it. Add chopped garlic, let it go light brown. Add grated ginger and let that go brown as well.
• Add chopped onions and stir fry to brown again.
• Add green chillies, tomatoes and stir till the tomatoes are soft.
• Add salt, red chilli powder according to your taste. Remember we have added green chillies too.
• Add coriander powder, garam masala and stir well. The mixture will now start leaving oil. If it doesn’t, cook for some more time.
• As it starts leaving oil, add peanuts and stir for a minute. Now add ¼ cup water and stir.
• Add chopped cucumbers and stir well.
• Cover the pan and cook for 10minutes or until the color of the cucmber changes. It would change to a dull green. Don’t forget to stir in between.
• Add coconut milk and stir well. Cook for 2 more minutes and add fresh coriander to serve. J

 Note : 

• Cucumber leaves water with salt while cooking, so don’t worry if your subzi is watery, it’ll dry in the process.
• Cucumber changes color when it is cooked but do make sure you cook it for 2 minutes extra for that extra softness if you want.

Kheere ki Subzi

Do share if you like it, and comment for any queries. 🙂