YAM (SURAN) SUKKHA (with coconut)

First time I made yam (suran). And it’s a real pain to cut and clean. But the end result is pretty good. Plus you can try this dish just to humor me for all the original recipes (this too) I've been and will be sharing with you all.

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1 tsp. cumin seeds

4-5 curry leaves

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 tsp. ginger garlic paste

1 tsp. coriander powder

1 tsp. turmeric powder

½ tsp. chilli powder

½ tsp. garam masala powder

1 tsp. sugar

1 maggi cube (I use this as a substitute for salt and it gives a wonderful flavor)

Fresh coriander, finely chopped

A chunk of yam (peeled, clean and chopped into small pieces)

1.5 cups fresh coconut

1.5 cups water

A little tamarind

2 tbsp. Olive oil

2 tbsp. fresh coriander for garnishing. 

Heat oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds. When they start to splutter add curry leaves and onion and sauté till it becomes translucent. Then add ginger garlic paste and mix well. Throw in the chopped yam and add half cup water. Let it cook for about ten minutes till the yam becomes little soft. Add all the masala powders and stir well. Then add the tamarind, sugar, maggi cube and the coconut. It should look a little dry by now. Mix all the ingredients well and add remaining water. Cook on medium flame for about 15-20 minutes or until yam becomes soft. Garnish with fresh coriander.

This dish is mostly for those who like coconut. In a good way. Lol. And I'm a hardcore Mangalorean in terms of coconut lovin'. So enjoy!!

TUNA CUTLETS

If I tell you guys how tasty this is, you won't believe me. You HAVE to try these super-duper easy cutlets which can magically appear in less than 30 minutes! And lucky for you, this is a no fail recipe by my mum. You could be the dumbest person in the world (you probably are) and still get these right.

INGREDIENTS

1 can of tuna (it’s always pre-cooked)
2 large potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (you can increase this)
Finely chopped coriander
1/2 tsp. garam masala (increase according to taste)
1/2 tsp. chilli powder (increase according to taste)
2 tbsp. tabasco
1 egg
Oil for deep frying

Mash boiled potatoes. Heat little olive oil in a pan and add onions. Sauté till translucent. Reduce flame to low and add the contents of the tuna can, including the oil. Add the masalas, potatoes and mix well until everything sticks together. Put tabasco and mix again. Turn off flame. Make cutlets with the mixture, dip in egg first and then in bread crumbs (see below) and deep fry. I tried shallow frying it, it was kind of hard to fry it on the sides.

The breadcrumbs fry really fast about 30 seconds on each side.

Questions always welcome :D Bon Apetit

MIXED VEGETABLE KORMA

I wasn’t a huge fan of green peas until this recipe. It’s delicious and really easy to make.

INGREDIENTS

1 carrot (finely chopped)

1 potato (finely chopped)

Few baby corns (I used about 3 which was left over from my stir fry)

A cup of peas (I used frozen ones)

2 onions (finely chopped)

1 large tomato (finely chopped)

3-4 tsp. Ginger garlic paste

1 small stick of cinnamon

3 cloves

½ tsp. garam masala powder

½ tsp. turmeric/haldi powder

1 Maggi Cube (I use this as a substitute for salt and it gives a wonderful flavor. If you don’t have this, use salt according to taste)

1 ½ cup water

Olive oil

To grind:

3-4 green chilies (I used 4 and it became quite spicy)

1 tsp. coriander seeds

1 tsp. jeera

6 cashews

6 tsp. freshly scraped coconut

2 tsp. coriander leaves, finely chopped

Grind the above masala and set aside. I suggest you may boil the carrots and potatoes for about 5-10 minutes prior. Alternatively, you can cook it for a longer time after adding the masala.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the cloves and cinnamon. Add the onions and sauté. Add ginger garlic paste and mix well. Now add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Add the remaining vegetables, turmeric and garam masala powders. Stir well and let it cook for some time. Now add the ground masala and mix. Add a cup and a half of water and let it cook on medium flame for five minutes. Now crumble the cube into the vessel and mix well. Cover the lid and let it simmer until vegetables are cooked. (It took me about 30 minutes for the vegetables to completely cook on medium flame)

So tasty!

Serves 3-4 really hungry people.

PS. You can use other vegetables too like French beans, cauliflower, paneer or anything you like. Alternatively you can use frozen cut vegetables as well.

SOUTH INDIAN BREAKFAST

South Indian breakfasts are the ultimate pleasure. I’m a huge fan of them and my personal favorite is the Masala Dosa. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life. I think. Anyway, here’s an awesome chutney and uttappa recipe with more focus on the chutney because I cheated with the uttappa. Lol.

For onion uttappa:

Readymade idly/dosa batter

Gingelly oil (that’s what I use)

Onions

Green chilli

Chop the onions and chillies fine. While pouring the dosa batter on the pan, sprinkle the onions and chillies over it and let it fry. That’s it.

If you want a plain dosa, just skip the onions and chillies and pour in the batter in a small frying pan. Sprinkle the gingelly oil and flip when done.

For coconut chutney:

This is the ultimate coconut chutney recipe. It’s my moms and it’s unbeatable. I don’t know correct measurements so you’ll have to do the guessing. I made it in this blender, so my measurements are according to this.

Less than 3/4^th blender of fresh scraped coconut

Half an onion, or one small onion

1/4^th tsp. ginger garlic paste

1 dried chilli

½ tsp. tamarind

2 tbsp. water

A pinch of salt

Blend all the above ingredients. If required, add more water. If it’s too spicy, add little more tamarind.

Serves 2 really hungry people. 

CHINDIAN (It's a thing now)

If you refer to my previous post, you’ll know what Chindian is. And if you’re too lazy to do so, it’s Chinese plus Indian. And no, I’m not a loser ‘cause I didn’t make that up. It’s a real restaurant in Mumbai J

Initially I wanted a stir fry recipe from a certain cooking type friend. But since I wanted a little gravy or sauce, I added some water and could conveniently eat it with white rice.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures; I was really hungry lol, so this is all you get. The leftovers! And it’s soooo good!

INGREDIENTS

1 big carrot

1 yellow bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

4 large mushrooms

5 baby corns

3/4^th cup of sweet corn

2 medium sized onions

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp. ginger paste

1.5 tbsp. honey

1.5 tbsp. soya sauce

1 tbsp. schezwan sauce (I couldn’t open the bottle so I skipped this)

Stock (I used chicken stock)

2 – 3 tbsp. olive oil

2-3 tsp. chili flakes

½ tbsp. corn flour (if you want thicker gravy, I skipped this)

3/4^th – 1 cup of water

Half a lime

What I love about this recipe is it’s so versatile and you can add and subtract ingredients as you like. You can add absolutely any vegetables you want. I tried to make do with whatever was readily available in my fridge. You can add cauliflower, broccoli, capsicum, pakchoy, cabbage etc.

Boil one cup of frozen sweet corn and keep aside. Heat olive oil in a non-stick vessel. When oil is a little hot, add garlic and reduce flame to medium. Add onions and let them become slightly translucent and brown. Then add ginger paste. It will start to splatter, so be careful. Then add the carrots and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Add baby corn and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Add peppers and mushrooms and give it a good stir and leave it to cook for about 2 or 3 minutes more. Add soya sauce, honey and schezwan sauce and stir well. Modify quantity of these 3 ingredients according to your taste. Now what I did was I added water, let it cook for about 5 minutes and then crumbled one Maggi cube into it. You can alternatively add the cube to a cup of warm water and mix well and then pour it into the vegetables. If you’re doing it this way, don’t add extra water. Finally squeeze lime and add corn flour if required. Add the sweet corn last as it is boiled already. Add chili flakes and give it one final stir. Switch off heat when you are satisfied with the consistency of the gravy.

Also note, I don’t use any salt because the stock is fairly salty and the dish doesn’t require more than that. You may add more salt according to your taste. Also, if you wish to keep the gravy light and subtle, you can leave out the schezwan sauce.

It’s a really easy and tasty dish and this serves around 2-3 people. You can have it with white rice.

Let me know how it goes. *makes Chinese eyes and bats eyelashes*

FUDGY CHOCOLATE MICROWAVE BROWNIE IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES

Being the first blog post, we wanted to keep it really simple. So here you go:

After my heavy Chindian lunch (Chinese+Indian) (don’t judge, I’ll tell y’all the story later), I decided that I had to satiate my cocoa cravings. I have this “thing” where I just have to have something sweet after a meal. Actually, many people do. So anyhow, I stumbled upon the simplest recipe ever because I didn’t have several ingredients required to make a full-fledged Choco cake. I was a little skeptical as this recipe didn’t have milk, or butter or Choco chips.

But as you can see, it went quite well!! Here’s how I whipped it up:

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp. all-purpose flour (Maida)

4 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. cocoa powder (I used Cadbury’s and I suppose this makes a difference)

2 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used sunflower since I didn’t have vegetable oil)

2.5 tbsp. water

A pinch of salt (I used 1/4^th tsp. and it became too much)

A mug and a microwave, of course

Mix all the above ingredients and ensure there are no lumps of flour left behind (which almost always happens to me). Microwave it for about 1 minute depending on how gooey you want it. Mine is medium gooey.  Either way, when it’s out of the microwave, it has to be a little wet. Eat hot J and just FYI; this is about half a mug of pure unadulterated cocoa awesomeness.

And that’s how it’s done folks. Pretty easy, eh? And now, for the story of the lame name. My friend in Mumbai lives in an apartment that has a Chinese/Indian restaurant just outside called Chindian. LOL. True story. And you probably won’t know what Chindian food is if you’re not Indian/ Nepali.  And my favorite dish is Gobi Manchuri Roadside style :D (Kidding, I hate Chindian; I just wanted to use the word “manchuri” lol)

Om nom nom.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BLOG

We are not good with introductions but just so its crystal clear, this blog is about food and everything that's around it and inside it. We are random people who love to eat, cook, bake, steam, fry and of course burn. So while we have nothing unique to offer here, if you keep reading, you might just stumble upon something nasty (like dead lizards). And no, we are not sensitive to vegetarians. Or maybe we are. We don’t know yet.

We want to create an ”everything” blog. So as of now, we’re looking at recipes (vegetarian and non-veg from all over the world, bakes and cakes, sweets, desserts, pretty much everything that can go down your throat). We also care about staying healthy (some of us don’t), so you will find health tips, low calorie recipes, just as tasty substitutes and everything else that can keep you in shape.

So while we randomly experiment with everything from live animals to kiwi cheesecake (see what I mean), keep reading and trying out our stuff, and tell us what you think (we don’t really care if you don’t). We also don’t assume any responsibility for food poisoning.

Om nom nom