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La Gourmet Chef

June 11, 2009
11:49
Hi
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Hi All,

It's been a long since I visited my blog. Almost 2 or 3 months. Have been pretty busy with household work, office work and other embroidery and needlework. I have even started another blog for crafts and arts. Drafts are piling up day by day, I think I need an assistant to work on those.

My son turned ONE in May and we were busy with this party all that month. We celebrated his birthday on two different days, May 8th with family and May 16th with all others. The pictures from both days are not so great as we handed over our camera to our friends. We really don't blame them because we didn't tell them how to use that. 80% of the pictures were out of focus and initially I was very disappointed but now I am ok.

Summer is here, which is my favorite season even though it is very hot. I just cannot take any kind of cold, of course Fall and Spring have their own charisma but I like summer for its long days. I get to do a lot of things during day time. I sit in my yard and do some embroidery which otherwise is not possible.

I cooked a lot on Kinu's birthday. I will start with those recipes in my new blog. Yes, I am going to move this there as I am having hard time logging into this one. It is in the prep state as I am working on the most important part which is the header.

See you soon..
February 05, 2009
19:41
Aloo rules~ Aloo Gajar Paratha
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Recipe will be posted tomorrow...
February 04, 2009
19:53
Soya Chilli Manchuria
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Yum, Yum, Yum ....oh this is so yummy...that is what my taste buds said when I ate this.

Usually for any Manchurian, you need to deep fry the item, but this one I shallow fried and the taste remained the same...that Manchurian taste you die for.

Very easy recipe, can be made in minutes...I don't have the exact measurements I used, since I made this long long time ago...so just use your own measurements. I will make this again sometime to add the ingredients with exact measurements.

Ingredients you need to make this are:

Soya nuggets
Maida
Cornflour
Chilli powder
Salt
Onions
Garlic
Green Chillies
Capsicum
Soy Sauce
Vinegar
Spring Onions
Coriander

Initially put soya nuggets in hot water and soak for a while. Remove and squeeze away water after they become soft. Add salt, chilli power, maida and cornflour to them and mix them until the mixture coats well to all the soya nuggets. But, don't add any water to it. Deep fry or shallow fry in oil and keep aside.

Now, heat the oil in a pan, add crushed garlic, chopped onions, chopped green chillies, chopped capsicum and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add some water and bring it to a boil. Add soy sauce, vinegar, salt and chilli powder and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix corn flour with water and add it to the above sauce for thickening the sauce. Just before the sauce begins to thicken, add crunchy fried soya nuggets, chopped coriander and chopped spring onions.

Remove in a serving plate, garnish with chopped coriander and spring onions.

Enjoy...
February 03, 2009
20:31
Paneer Tikka Pizza
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Pizza is the most famous fast food known to Americans. Every Friday evening when I drive
back home, I find at least 20 delivery vans passing by. Now the times have changed due to
the recession/depression, people are cutting down on ordering food from outside and finding comfort on home cooked meals.
It is the same case with us, we are just trying to save our money in this bad economy and
this made me make Pizza from scratch. I did make Pizzas at home before but by buying
crust from outside. But, this time I made crust too at home. Couple of years back I tried
Tarla Dalal's crust recipe, but somehow that crust came out very hard after baking, so
this time I followed my friend Sharmi's recipe and the crust was as good as it can be. Here is the link for making Pizza crust. Pizza Crust And for the Paneer Tikka, just follow any Paneer Tikka recipe. On the crust, put a layer of Paneer Tikka masala and top it with Cheese. That is why my picture doesn't look so Paneery...as it is more cheezy. To avoid that put Cheese on the bottom and top it with Paneer masala.
The way I made Paneer Tikka Masala was..
I marinated paneer with yogurt, ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, cilantro chutney aka green chutney, salt and marinated for more than 4 hours. Later, I heated a pan with oil, added onions,
sliced into big pieces and stir fried for a minute. Then added tomatoes (boiled in microwave for 3-4 mins, removed the skin and mashed the tomatoes, my idea initially was to add make these into sauce, but I avoided that step and added directly to the curry. Along with Tomatoes, added some Pineapple pieces as Pizza without Pineapple is a no-no in our household. At the end added the marinated mixture, stir-fried for 3-4 mins on high. Removed and added on top of Pizza crust and baked for 15 mins.
The Cheese that I got from the store is a mixture of Mozzarella and Cheddar, called Pizza on Kraft brand.
Enjoy your Pizza..
February 02, 2009
20:08
Chatpata Salad ~ Moong and Veggie
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

This crunchy & crispy salad was so so crunchy and chatpata. I might incorporate this into our daily meals.
I am not a big salad fan when it comes to mixing all kinds of veggies since I prefer eating them separately any time of the day. But, one salad I love the most is the one that is served in Thai restaurant near my house. Basically the dressing is what that lets you enjoy the salad and they use some kind of sweet cilantro dressing. We go there atleast once in a month and enjoy eating that salad.

I was badly looking for some Indian flavored kind of salads and just then I found some recipes on Hindu Site. There were four recipes all together made in restaurant style and since I had all the ingredients for this, I chose to make this first. I was so apprehensive about the taste but me and my family members enjoyed eating it..

Cabbage, carrot and moong dal salad
Printer Friendly: Moong and Veggie Salad

Ingredients

Cabbage, finely sliced: 1 cup grated
Red carrot, grated: 1 cup
Capsicum, finely sliced: 1/2 cup
Moong dal: 2 tbsp
Lime juice: 1 tbsp
Coriander, chopped: 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Soak the moong dal in water for 2 hours. Immerse all the vegetables in ice cold water for sometime. This retains the crispness of the vegetables. Drain excess water. Mix the vegetables and the soaked moong dal. Add lime juice. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Serve garnished with chopped coriander.

Recipe Source:
www.thehindu.com
February 01, 2009
9:59
Some Nuts- Some Chips ~ Banana Muffins
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef
Category: Muffins
Type: American

Recently in one of my posts, I mentioned that only few of my friends read my blog. For that I got various emails from many of friends trying to tell me that they visit my site often and encouraged me to set some time aside to post my recipes. It really lifted me and I am working towards it. Sorry folks for saying that and thanks for visiting my site.

Raining Banana Recipes at my blog today. What to do, I had so many ripe bananas and Ravi wouldn't eat them, I had to figure out something. Sunday is mostly dedicated to baking at my place and since I love Baking, I try to collect as many recipes as possible and set something aside for Sunday.

The main speciality of this post is the combination of Banana and Chocolate Chips in one of the muffins, I wanted to try something different from regular banana-walnut combination. Ravi was surprised at the combination and he asked me hundred times why I wanted to try that. You know Ravi sometimes can't digest some different combinations but he did say he liked the muffin. To me the muffin was moist and the chocolate chips were creamy inside, it was heavenly combination.

Chocolate also goes very well with Rasberry and especially White Chocolate. There is also an icecream from Haagen Daaz that says White Chocolate with Rasberry Truffles, I think you should definitely try that or come to my place as I keep one box of it in my Freezer all the time.

I had this recipe written somewhere from a long time and this is totally eggless which is something special to me, otherwise I rarely find any without eggs.

To the below quantites, I used only half for my baking.

You need..

Printer Friendly Recipe: Banana Muffins

4 ripe bananas (I used 2)
3/4 cup sugar (I used half)
1/3 cup butter (I used half)
1 tsp soda (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp baking powder ( I used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt (1/4 salt)
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup flour)

For Banana Walnut Muffins, half cup of crushed walnuts.
For Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, half cup of chocolate chips, I used Ghiradellis.

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mash bananas, add sugar and melted butter and whisk with hand blender for a minute.
3. Mix all dry ingredients in another bowl and slowly add them to the above blended mixture. Mix with hand blender again.
4. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Add chocolate chips to one half and chopped walnuts to the other half and mix lightly.
5. Fill muffin cups, I used Pyrex bowls to make into two big ones.
6. For decoration, sprinkle walnuts and chocolate chips on the respective ones.
7. Bake for 20-30 mins or until the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
7:00
Say Yes to Banana Milk Shake!!
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

A life-saver when an unexpected guest arrives. This is the first basic milk-shake I learnt back in India when I was in 6th or 7th standard and have been making ever since. I know it is highly loaded with calories but in one way I save some calories by not adding any sugar to it. I make this usually when the banana goes very ripe and when Ravi hesitates to eat such ones.

To make this, put bananas in a blender with little milk and crumble them. Then add dry fruit masala, little ice cream, mostly we go with Vanilla but this time I added Kaju Draksh. (If you do not have any ice creams in hand, then add 1/2 cup of cream and if you do not have any dry fruit masala, add cardammom powder according to your taste). Add remaining milk and blend till the shake is uniform. Aerate it to get some bubbles and leave it for 2-3 minutes before serving.

I served this with Bhel Puri which is also a life-saver. And the recipe for Bhel Puri has been posted in my previous post.
January 08, 2009
23:28
Bhel Puri
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Bhel Puri is an all time snack at my place and sometimes becomes our dinner when we think of eating something light. I ate this first time in Calcutta when I was I think in my 4th standard. so, all my memories of Bhel Puri take me to that city whereas my Mumbai friends tell me that Bhel Puri is from Mumbai :-) For this wonderful snack, do you think place really matters?

My brother has been trying to make Bhel Puri for him and Ravi ever since I came to India and he didn't find any luck making a nice one. He has been trying to contact me at very odd hours and not getting any help, he really got frustrated. I thought I will go ahead and post the recipe without picture for this time.

Things you need are either bhel mix or murmura and sev and mix with the chutney recipe below.

To make chutney, you need..

green chutney
red chutney/sweet chutney
garlic chutney
onions, finely chopped
tomatoes, finely chopped
cucumber, finely chopped (optional)
potatoes, boiled and chopped
chaat masala
salt
chilli powder
lemon juice
sugar

mix all the chutney items well and combine either with Bhel Puri mix that we get in Indian stores and garnish with coriander. Serve Immediately.

or

mix with puffed rice and garnish with sev and coriander. Serve Immediately.
January 03, 2009
19:22
Happy New Year
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Wishing you a Happy and Joyous New Year to all my friends, family and dear readers.

2008 brought me many many happy memories and each one of those is special to me.

One good thing happened to me was the birth of my little Son Kinu, a little angel who made my days thereafter wonderfully joyous. More than me, he is Ravi's little buddy, they play together for endless hours and never get bored of each other. Looking at him makes me think of having more and more kids lol! He woke up as I type and he wants to write too...he is saying..
FV
FDDETETEE3 RJF6BHY, V GGFDF ER7EB vcc XS F ...

don't know what that means, I guess he is saying Happy New Year to you all too.

2008 was bad on blogging part, I have so many recipes in draft mode, all of them with wonderful pictures but with no content. I guess I need a second hand of help to put those together, I wish there was a copy of me somewhere whom I can call upon when needed :-) I do make recipes, try recipes but just lazy to put up any. Hoping to make those drafts into posts this new year and hoping I come out of my shell asap!

I even observed that there are many many new food bloggers around now and I feel that I have lost in touch with my old blogger buddies and even the traffic has slowed down to the site. And there are only 4 friends of mine who seriously visit this blog all the time and encourage me like day n night to blog whereas remaining 1000s of friends are not interested in cooking at all. And the blog is mostly used my brother, who again calls me hundred times for step by step preparation even after taking a printout :-)

Farewell 2008, Welcome 2009
November 10, 2008
13:17
Lazeez Lauki
» ‎ La Gourmet Chef

Name says it all for this dish. It was indeed Lazeez!!

I was wondering what other dishes we could make with Lauki, other than Lauki Dal or Lauki Kofta, but my mom mentioned about eating this at many places but she never got to make this one at home. We followed Ayeesha Sireen's recipe but made changes at few places. We added only cashews and not the other nuts. Didn't add any meat or veggies but made Khoya from Happy Burp's recipe. In fact this recipe tasted well with the Khoya made from milk powder and not when used Khoya directly. I think rest everything was done exactly as said. It is a 3 step easy process.

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