Whats Cooking!!!!

Tanmaya is the only one at out home who loves to eat a banana every day and when he left for his business trip last week, I had a bunch of ripe bananas sitting on my counter looking at me. I like eating bananas but not everyday and they overripe so fast. So I wanted to bake something. But I didn't want to eat the same plain banana bread.  So here I decided to make a chocolate version of the banana bread. Ingredients: Chocolate Cake mix: 1 package  Banana: 2 medium sized over ripe Milk: 1/2cup Refined Oil: 1/2 cup Vanilla extract: 1 1/2 tsp Coke: 1/4 cup Procedure: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven.  Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a bread pan.  Set aside.  In another large bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, coke and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the cake  mix and stir, or whisk, until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin. Pour the batter

Couple of weeks back, me and Tanmaya visited a restaurant "Bengali Sweets". This was my first visit and I assumed that it would be a place with loads of sweet    from West Bengal, but to my surprise it was more than just a sweet shop, it has a very small menu of very delicious food. What we had was a veggie wrap and sabz handi and it was amazing.  Since that day I have been planning to make this recipe and finally I prepared it for my friends on Diwali. Kadhai sabji a traditional Punjabi dish with a nice blend of spices giving that unique flavor, even though I could not match the taste of the restaurant but it was quiet good. So here is my version. Ingredients: Cauliflower florets - 1 cup Peas - 1/2 cup Carrots/Beans - chopped - 1 cup total Capsicum - chopped into squares - 1/2 cup Onion - 1 medium - chopped into squared petals Onion - 1 medium - chopped finely Tomato Puree - 1/2 cup (I make them fresh - boil 2 medium tomatoes for 5 mins, cool and peel the skin

Jalapeño  Poppers are stuffed jalapeño fitters. The origin is unclear, but they are most likely an Americanized version of the classic Mexican dish, chile relleno. There are extensive variations using ground meat, mushrooms, bacon, or crab, and cooking methods such as baking or grilling. Because I prepared it for the Diwali party I wanted to keep it all vegetarian. So here is my version of vegan jalapeño poppers. Ingredients: Jalapeño: 16 whole Potato: 1 large Boiled Feta cheese: 1/4 cup Butter: 2 tbsp Spring Onion: Finely chopped ( Only the green part) Salt: as per taste (just remember the feta is a salty cheese) Pepper: as per taste Bread Crumbs: 1/2 cup All Purpose flour: 1/4 cup Water: 1/4 cup Procedure: Wearing plastic gloves, slit the jalapeño peppers in the middle with paring knife. Carefully remove seeds and white membrane. Leave the stem attached. Peel and grate the boiled potato into a bowl. To the shredded potato add the feta cheese, butter, salt and p

It is a popular sweet prepared in the kitchen of the Jagannath Temple of Puri daily for being served as prasad. I  this as a part of prasad for Diwali puja this year. Ingredients: Maida : 2 cups Pure ghee : 1/2 cups Sugar : 1 1/2 cup Water: 1 1/2 cup oil: for frying  Salt to taste  Procedure: Make a paste of ghee and flour by mixing half a cup of ghee with equal quantity of flour. Keep this paste aside.  Add a pinch of salt and three teaspoon of ghee to the remaining flour.  Mix thoroughly till its done. To know that the flour is ready take  a handful of the flour and close your fist tightly. When you open your fist the flour should hold the shape. T hen add water slowly to make a stiff dough and not a watery one. Knead it further till the dough gets smoothened.  Roll the dough into a rectangular shape with the thicknes of a chpati (roti).  Then spread the ghee+flour paste evenly over the rectangular surface.  Now roll the rectangular dough from one s

When I think about what diwali meant to me as a kid, the things that I can think of are loads of lights, crackers, beautiful rangoli, at that time it was just something that would come in our way when we would be running around the house, and yah the variety of food laid out on the table starting from variety of sweets, snacks , chaats, the list goes on. The funny part was my mom would spend the whole day  preparing stuff that she would end up sending to our neighbors and in return they would get us there version of the same food. I was never a huge fan of this tradition as all the delicious things my mom would  have prepared would be gone and we would end of other peoples food and as a kid I was very particular about whose kitchen the food came food. You won't belive this but till this day I really don't like kheer prepared by anybody other than my mom or me not even my mom-in-law !!!!! Now that I have my own family and friends I realize its important to start your o

Diwali, the festival of lights, is arround the corner and I bet everybody is wondering what to do different this year. I thought why not try and post some of the dishes that are popular during this festive season. You can pick your favourite one and prepare for diwali and serve it at your own party or take it as a favor to people you visit. So her is my first post "the Jalebi". Ingredients: Maida/All purpose flour: 1 cup Corn Flour: 2 tblsp Thick Curd: 3/4 cup(approximately) Cooking soda : 1 pinch Ghee: 2 tblsp Yellow food color : a  pinch Oil for deep frying Sugar Syrup Sugar: 1 cup Water: 1 cup Lemon juice: 1 tsp Procedure: Mix maida,corn flour, cooking soda,ghee and yellow food colour in a bowl. Add curd and make a thick batter by adding more water.  Consistency should be like vada batter.  Keep it in a warm place for 12 hours/overnight or until it ferments well. Next day mix well with a ladle. It should be a sticky thick batter of droppi

Sambar is a vegetable stew or chowder based on a broth made with tamarind and Thuvar Dal/ Split Pegion Pea, and is very popular in the cooking of southern regions of India, especially in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Each state in South India prepares it with a typical variation, adapted to its taste and environment. Even every family makes it differently. Here is my mom's recipe which we all love and relish. Ingredients: Thuvar Dal/ Split Pegion Pea: 1/2 cup Channa Dal: 1/4 cup Potato: 1 medium cut into cubes Okra: 4 medium cut into half Indian Eggplant: 2 slit into 4 with the steam attached Drumstick: 5-6 frozen thawed Sambar onion: 8 whole peeled green chillli: 2 whole Curry Leaves: 1 strand Mustard Seed: 1 tsp Red dry chilli: 2 whole Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp Sambar powder: 1tbsp Tamarind: size of a lemon Water:  4 cup Salt: as per taste Oil: 1 tsp Procedure: Soak the tamarind in some warm water. In a pressure cooker boil T