Whats Cooking!!!!

Vegetable cutlet is a popular tea time snacks. It is a nice combination of taste and health. Even though its deep fried, it uses a lot of vegetables and can be baked as well as fried. Ingredients: Potato: 2 large boiled Beet Root: 1 medium Green Peas: 1/4 cup Carrot: 1 medium Beans : 10-15 strings Green Chilli: 4 finely chopped Ginger garlic paste: 1 tbsp Coriander powder: 1 tsp salt: as per taste Red chilli powder: 1 tbsp turmeric powder: 1 tsp Cashew: 8-10 broken Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp finely chopped Chaat Masala: 1 tsp Oil: 1tbsp Bread Crumbs : as required Maida: 1/4 cup Oil for deep frying Procedure: Peel and grate the potatoes. Cube the vegetables and boil them. Drain the vegetables and roughly mash them. In a pan heat oil and add cumin seeds. as the cumin seeds stop cracking, add the broken cashew, chopped green chili and coriander leaves. Add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriande

It was almost 5 PM on Friday and I was looking at my computer screen wondering what did I do wrong that  my code is not working as expected, when Tanmaya called to tell me that he is starting from  office.  I told myself, hell with the code, cannot look at it anymore and decided to blow up some steam in the kitchen, but realized that there is not much left in the refrigerator to use. The only thing usable was a packet of frozen shrimps, so decided to make some fitters. Ingredients: Shrimp: 15 cleaned, skin removed and deveined. Onion: 1 medium finely chopped Green Chilli: 2-3 finely chopped Coriander Leaves: 2 tbsp finely chopped Garlic : 2 flakes grated/crushed Ginger: 1/2 inch finely grated Cornflour: 1 tbsp Salt: as per taste Red chilli powder: 2 tbsp Chaat powder: 1 tbsp Gram flour: 2-3 tbsp (adjust as per requirement) Oil for deep frying. Procedure: Roughly chop the cleaned shrimp into small pieces. In a bowl mix all the ingredients except the oil. Ma

Not a lot of people know how to enjoy a fish head. But we oriyas are kind of pros in eating it and have lot of variations to prepare the same, so that one does not have to put a lot of effort in enjoying one. Here is one more variation. Ingredients: Maccha munda ( fish head ): 2 (Tilapia/Carp) potato : 1 medium cubed tomato: 1 large chopped mustard seeds: 1 tsp garlic flakes: 10-12 green chills: 2 salt: as per taste turmeric: 1 tsp red chilli powder: 1 tbsp oil: 3 tsp Procedure: Soak the mustard seeds for 20 mins. Grind the mustard seeds and half of the garlic flakes into a smooth paste. Wash the maccha munda and add salt and turmeric to it. Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan. Add the maccha munda. Fry it on both sides . Crush into small pieces in the pan and fry for some time till the pieces turn crispy. Remove the fried fish from the pan. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok. Add a few mustard seeds along with the green chills.  Once the mustard seeds stop cracki

Last week I had been real busy with work, home, house hunting and camping, so could not post anything. While at camp had a real great time camping with friends. Even though we ate up all the food the we took, a lot of bread was left. So I kept wandering what to do with all that. Here is my take on bread roll. Ingredients: White bread: 6 slices Potato: 1 medium Green Peas: 1/4 cup Onion: 1 small finely chopped Green chilli: 2 finely chopped Curry leaves: few Turmeric Powder: 1tsp cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp Asafetida : a pinch Red Chilli Powder: 2 tsp Garam Masala: 1 tsp Chaat Masala: 1 tsp Oil: 1tbsp Salt: as per taste oil for deep frying Procedure: Boil, peel and cube the potatoes. In a pan heat oil add the cumin seeds and asafetida. Once the cumin seeds stop spluttering add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder to the oil and once the raw smell is gone add the curry leaves and green chillies. Add the chopped onion and a pinch of salt and cook till the o

Stuffed karela (bitter gourd) is a very popular dish prepared all over India. Its prepared in many different ways, people use different kinds of stuffing for this purpose. In my house we use mustard paste as the stuffing. Ingredients: Karela: Medium sized 4 Mustard seeds: 2 tbsp Cumin Seeds: 1tbsp Garlic : 4-5 cloves Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp oil: 1 tsp Water: 2 cups salt: 1 tbsp Salt: as per taste Oil for cooking: 2 tbsp Procedure: Soak the mustard and cumin seeds in water for 20 mins wash and pat dry the karela. Make a slit in the middle of the karela , leave the ends attached. In a pot bring 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of salt to a boil, add the whole karelas and let them cook till the karela is cooked through. By doing this we reduce the cooking time after the karela is stuffed and introduce salt to the karela otherwise only the stuffing would have taste in it but the karela itself would remain bland. Make a fine paste of soaked mustard and cumin se

Sukhua is oriya for Dry fish. It has been used in many cuisines for centuries now. Being from a costal state I have always enjoyed fish and related products, dry fish being one of them. After coming to the states, I was not sure if I can find a place where I can buy these, as most of the Indian grocery stores are either run by Panjabi's, Gujurathi's or are south Asian, but one fine day I smelled dry fish being cooked  in my apt complex, and we have mostly south Asian people staying around, not much Indian. That made me realize that I can buy these somewhere. And I found them in most of the Chinese stores, and one of my friends mentioned that see even bought some from a Indian grocery store, Patil Brothers (for any body in santa clara/san jose, CA). For this recipe I am using Hilsa dry fish that my Mom gave, but you can always use other kind of fish as well. Ingredients: Dry Fish: 2 pieces ( if using smaller whole fish use 4) Green Chilli: 4 crushed (Adjust to s

Kadhai chicken is a very popular recipe served at restaurants and I guess it gets its name the way it is served in a small kadhai ;)  Ingredients: Chicken : 1 lb cut into cubes Capsicum: 1 large cut into cubes Onion: 1 medium cut into chunks Marinade: ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp Red chilli powder: 1 tbsp Turmeric Powder: 1 tbsp lemon juice: 2 tsp Salt: 1/2 tbsp Gravy: Onion: 1 medium finely chopped Ginger garlic paste: 2 tbsp whole cinnamon : 1 inch cardamon: 2 whole cloves: 2 Red chilli powder: 1 tbsp Turmeric powder: 1 tbsp Coriander powder: 1 tbsp Cumin powder: 1/2 tbsp Tomato: 1 large finely chopped Garam masala powder: 1 tsp Salt: to taste oil: 2 tbsp Procedure: Mix the ingredients for marinade in a bowl. Add chicken to the marinade and let id marinade for 30 mins. In a kadhai/wok heat oil, add the whole garam masala ( cardamon, cinnamon and cloves) to it. As the whole garam masala stops cracking add the finely chopped on

Chattu Bara is a popular Odiya side dish, generally served with steamed rice, dal and any curry. Ingredients Mushroom:500 gms Rice:1/2 cup Garlic : 4 cloves Cumin seeds:1tbsp Turmeric powder:½- tsp Chili powder:1tbsp Onion:1 medium chopped Green Chilli: 2-3 chopped Salt:to taste Oil: 2tbsp Procedure: Soak the rice and cumin seeds for 30 mins. Then grind the same with garlic into a fine paste. This paste is called pithau and is used in similar preparation but using Pumpkin Flower. Wash the mushroom and cut into small pieces. Mix the mushroom with the pithau, onion slices,green chilli, turmeric powder, salt and chilli powder.  Heat oil in a frying pan on medium flame.  Make flat vadas and fry both the sides till crispy. The Chhatu Bara is ready to served. Even though it is severed as part of a meal in Odisha you can always prepare this as an evening snack or an party appetizer. Its crispy and tasty :) I hope you enjoy this variation of mushro

Today is Raksha Bandhan, the festival that celebrates the unconditional love between a brother and sister. On this day sister ties a decorated silk thread called Rakhi on her brother's wrist and prays for his long and happy life. In return the brother promises to protect her from no matter what comes in her life. I am blessed with such a beautiful person as my brother and sitting here 1000s of miles away from him I am really missing him. This is the only day in the year when I really get home sick :( Growing up he used to be my punching bag and we used fight like dogs and cats. But when it would come to protecting we would stand for each other. I would carry his tiffin box to school because other kids would eat his :), he would get angry if walking on the street some guy looked at me  ;) As sitting here and just missing him doesn't help I decided to prepare a dish that reminds me of him the most, Sandesh. As a kid he always had a sweet tooth, and sandesh used to