Fajitas

Being vegetarian always has it's pros & cons. It is very hard to go to a restaurant & ask them to make you a custom made food. I feel so bad or say they are feeling sorry for us for not able to enjoy the food as it is. Anyway there are these beautiful restaurants that just make them customized & serve us making our experiences memorable. It's really a nice feeling that we are able to enjoy different flavors that are out there. 

Mexican is one of my favorite foods I like to have it every now & then. The flavors are kind of similar to Indian & make me want them more. I'm sharing a recipe for paneer fajita here, which will sure make you crave for more.

Yields : 4 Rolls  
Ingredients 
4 Tortillas 
2 Cups paneer chopped
3 Capsicum (Any color) sliced
8 Pieces of sun-dried tomatoes chopped in lengthwise
2 Medium onions sliced
1 Cup guacamole 
2 Tbs oil 
Marinade
2 Tbs. sesame oil
1 Tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbs. lemon juice 
1 Tbs. garam masala
2 Tbs. cilantro leaves
2 Tsp. red chili powder 
Salt for taste 



For Marinade
In a bowl as shown below mix all the marinade ingredients together. Adjust the taste if needed. To that add paneer and allow it sit for at-least 30mins.

Heat a pan with oil. To that add onions, capsicum & tomatoes. Sauté them for few minutes & switch off heat. Veggies will be crunchy & gives a nice bite.

In them same pan add the marinade paneer & sauté it for few minutes & off the heat.

Warm the tortilla and arrange the fajita, as you like.

As shown above I layered guacamole to that added the veggies & marinade paneer to the tortilla. Just roll it & enjoy it.

Note: 
1. Replace paneer with your choice of meat or tofu. 
2. You can also add a little salsa to wrap.

Eggless Elachi Thumbprints

This year I had spent around 4months in the India & unfortunately I had to stay thru summer there. It was unbelievably hot, temps were around 46 to 48 degrees. I felt like I was sitting in a hot oven & being baked for days. 

I was experiencing the same when I was baking this thumbprints. It's end of summer here in US & the temps are @ 35 degrees for past few days. I was in two minds whether to bake or not & at last did it. I switched on heater to A/C mistakenly & it was just baking me in & out. House was heating up & suddenly it felt like house was on fire. 

After all that nonsense happened & the time when cookies were baked I was just jumping with joy. They were irresistibly delicious . 

References: Food network
Yields :14 Thumbprints
Ingredients

1 Cup all-purpose flour / maida

¼ Cup sugar and 2 Tbs. sugar to roll

¼ Cup butter

¼ Tsp. baking powder

¼ Tsp. salt

½ Tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tsp. elachi powder

½ Cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees.

Sift flour, salt & baking powder in a bowl.

In another bowl whisk sugar & butter to light & fluffy. To that add vanilla extract, elachi & egg. Just whisk them with sugar & butter. Now add the flour mixture little by liitle & fold it till the flour is mixed well.

Layer your baking sheet with parchment paper & start making some dough balls.

Take a scoop of dough & roll it in to a ball. Roll it in the extra sugar we kept & place it on the baking sheet. Now press gently on top of the dough like you are making a slight hole in the middle. Repeat the same with rest of the balls.

Bake them @ 350 degrees for 20 mins. After 10 mins of baking remove the baking sheet out of oven & quickly fill the jam in the holes. Now bake for another 10mins & remove them from oven. Allow them to cool on your counter top.

Serve as you want. I love having them with coffee or tea.

Note: 

1.     If you think the dough is little runny cover it & refrigerate it for 30min. It will be easy to roll some balls then.

2. Adding jam after 10mins of baking will avoid it to run & mess up your cookies. ( I had that problem with couple more of them)

Dhokla

First time when I had Dhokla (a dish of Gujarat) I was like 17yrs. That time I was pretty busy with my studies and all, so never gave it a thought about it. That is the age where cooking is not your option & all you know is to educate yourself & enjoy life.

Later years life has changed. Now it’s time I have to think about cooking. So then can a friend in my life who invited me to her house for a tea party. She was also a newly married just like me & she was experimenting in cooking. She made “Dhokla” for our tea party & that’s when I got this recipe from her to try it out. 

Yields: 6 Cupcake dhoklas

Ingredients 

1 Cup besan flour
1 Tsp. sugar
1 Tsp. lemon juice
1/2 Cup curd
1/2 cup water 
1 Tbs. ginger green chili paste
Pinch of hing
3/4 Tsp. baking soda 
Pinch of turmeric 
Salt for taste 
For seasoning  
1 Tbs. mustard 
1 Tbs. sugar 
2 Tbs. lemon juice
10 Curry leaves 
5 Gree chilies slit in to half
1 Tbs. Olive oil

Grease a pan with butter & keep aside. I used silicon cupcake molds as you see in the picture so skipped this step.
In a bowl take all the ingredients other than baking soda & mix them well.  Add the baking soda to the mixture and stir it once & don't over do it. 
Now pour the batter in to the greased bowl & either steam cook it or microwave it. 

I steam cooked them for 15mins & checked it by inserting a tooth pick in it. Once it came out clean I removed the cupcake dhokla's & allowed them to cool for some time. 
Mean while heat a pan with oil for seasoning & add mustard, curry leaves & green chilies to it. Once the mustard starts jumping add a 1/4 cup water to the pan. To that add sugar & lemon juice & allow sugar to dissolve. Switch off heat. 

Now gently remove the dhokla on to a plate & spread the seasoning on to it.
Serve it right away.

Note: 
1. I used baking soda instead of Eno. So feel free to use Eno while trying.
2. Microwave method saves little more cooking time. Try it @ your convenience. 

Pudina Kothimeera Pachadi | Putina Kottumalli Thuvaiyal | Green Chutney | Coriander Mint Chutney

Sharing a simple condiment, which is called as Hari chutney /Green chutney in India. This is one those dishes which goes perfectly with any chat pakoda, fritter & any finger food you want to. They flavors of the greens are very well balanced with lime, garlic & ginger. 

Yeilds : 1 Serving

Ingredients

1/2 Cup coriander 

1/2 Cup mint

1/2 Tsp. minced garlic

1 Tsp. minced ginger

1 Tbs. lemon juice

3 Green Chilis 

2 Tbs. grated coconut

Salt for taste 

In a blender add all the ingredients. Blend them till they are smooth. Take the chutney in a container & serve it as you want. 

Note: 

- Instead of lime juice you can add tamarind pulp or amchur powder as replacements in emergency.

- Adding coconut is optional. I love coconut when serving it with dosa or idli.

Baingan Bharta

   Long weekends are always fun to have. But the after holidays blues are hard.I feel lazy to do anything around & just love to stuck myself on a sofa with a good drama. This long weekend is no different from the other, we went to beach, watched an idiotic movie "the World's End" & did a little shopping of grocery & other stuff. So now it's time for me to get back to reality & start working on the blogging marathon again. Wishing myself a good luck with that & I'm here sharing a regional dish for Maharashtra, Bengal, Orissa & Bihar. (Acc. to wikipedia) This dish has a smoky flavor to it becoz of grilling it on a stove top & that makes this dish more delectable. 

Yields : 2 Servings

Ingredients

1 Large eggplant/brinjal

½ Cup chopped onions

1 Cup chopped tomatoes

1 Tsp. ginger garlic paste

1 Tsp. garam masala

1 Tsp. paprika

½ Tsp. turmeric

1 Tsp. mustard

1 Tsp. jeera

1 Tbsp. Olive oil

1 Tbsp. Cilantro for garnish

Salt

- Place eggplant on your stove top & cook it in medium heat. Rotate the eggplant on the burner to cook it on all sides. You can see the brinjal getting softer on all sides & that is when you switch off heat.
- Allow it to cool for at-least 15mins on your counter top. Then peel the outer burnt skin & keep the pulp aside. Mash the brinjal without any lumps.

- Heat pan with oil & to that add mustard & jeera. Once the mustard starts jumping add the onion to pan.

- Sauté them for few minutes. To that add ginger garlic paste & fry for few seconds.

- Add tomatoes to pan along with turmeric, garam masala powder, and paprika & salt.

- Close it with a lid allowing tomatoes to cook & once they are done add the mashed eggplant to pan. Mix well & cook on low heat for 5mins.

- Switch off heat & garnish it with cilantro.

Serve it with roti , naan & chapati.