Egg Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tbsp Cheese
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 tbsp Mustard powder 11
• 1 1/2 tbsp Mayonnaise
• 2 bread Slices

Method:

• Finely chop two hard boiled eggs . Add 1/2 tbsp of grated cheese (I used Amul cheese cube), one finely chopped small onion, 1 finely chopped small tomato, pinch of salt and black pepper powder to season, 1/4 tsp mustard powder and 1 1/2 tbsps mayonnaise. Mix well.
• Apply butter on two slices of bread (on one side) and spread this egg salad all over on one slice, place the other bread slice and toast till golden. Serve warm.

Macaroni with Spinach Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 cups boiled macaroni
• 2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 bunch spinach, blanched, drained and chopped fine
• 2-3 tbsps grated cheese
• 1 1/2 tbsps butter
• 3/4 tbsp maida/flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• freshly ground pepper to season
• salt to taste

Method:

• Cook macaroni in salted rapidly boiling water, add a tbsp of oil and cook until al dente, drain completely. Sprinkle a tbsp of olive oil and keep aside.
• Heat butter in a vessel, add garlic and saute for a mt. Add maida and saute for 2-3 mts. Slowly add the milk and go on combining till it forms a creamy consistency. Add spinach, 2 tbsps grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste and mix.
• Turn off heat. Garnish with grated cheese and serve warm.

Eggless Basic Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sieved
• 1 cup curd/yogurt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsps baking pwd
• 1/2 cup refined oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

• Preheat oven to 200 C for 10 mts. Grease and flour an 8″-9″ inch baking pan.
• Cream the sugar and yogurt until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add baking pwd and baking soda and combine. Leave aside for 3 mts. You will find that bubbles appear.
• Add vegetable oil and vanilla essence and combine well. Now, slowly add little flour/maida (about a tbsp) at a time and blend with the wet ingredients.
• Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree C for 10 mts, reduce temperature to 175 and bake for 20-25 mts or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cool the cake for 20-30 mts and then overturn onto a plate.

Note: To give a chocolate flavor to the cake, combine 1/2 tbsp of cocoa pwd to 1/4 cup of the basic cake batter and combined well. While pouring batter into pan, pour a tbsp of cocoa batter towards the edge of the pan and next to it pour a tbsp of white batter, followed by the cocoa batter. Follow this pattern till the first layer is done. Over this layer, pour the remaining white cake batter.

If you want to frost the cake follow this vanilla butter icing recipe – Sieve 1 1/2 cups icing sugar and add to 1 1/4 cups white butter and beat until smooth using an electric beater. Add pinch of salt and 1 tsp vanilla essence and combine. Chill and and spread the icing all over the cake

Mint Chutney

Ingredients

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 cups fresh mint leaves
• 1 green chile pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium onion, cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon tamarind juice or lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water, or as needed

Directions

• In a food processor, combine the cilantro, mint leaves, chili pepper, salt, onion and tamarind juice. Process to a fine paste, adding enough water to achieve a thick sauce.

Garlic Flavored Spicy Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) container plain yogurt
• 1 clove garlic, mashed into a paste
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 5 saffron threads
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Method:

• Stir together the yogurt, garlic paste, lemon juice, garam masala, white pepper, and saffron; season to taste with salt. Toss the chicken in the yogurt and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 to 12 hours.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Toss in the cumin seeds and allow to cook until fragrant, 20 to 30 seconds. Add the chicken and brown in the oil. Discard any remaining marinade. Turn heat to medium-low, cover, and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Pour in the cream and heat through. Serve immediately.

Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 coconut- grated (scraped)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of hing (asafoetida)
• 2 dry red chillies
• 2 tsp urad dal (split black gram)
• 1 tbsp cashew nuts

Method:

• Cook rice and set aside to cool.
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, hing, dry red chillies, urad dal and cashew nuts.
• When mustard seeds start spluttering, add coconut and sauté till golden brown. Add salt. Mix this with rice and serve hot coconut rice with poppadums (papads).

Paneer Tikka

Ingredients:

• 250 grams paneer (Indian cottage cheese)
• 1 medium green capsicum (bell pepper)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 cup thick yogurt (curd/ dahi)
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp tandoori masala
• 1 tsp chaat masala
• 2 tsp ginger- garlic paste
• 2 green chillies- crushed
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

Method:

• Cut paneer, onion, tomato and capsicum into 1&1/2 inch pieces.
• Mix yogurt, turmeric powder, tandoori masala, chaat masala, ginger- garlic paste, green chillies, salt and oil to a smooth paste.
• Add paneer cubes to this marinade. See that paneer is well coated with it. Keep in refrigerator for 2 hours.
• Soak a few bamboo skewers in water for 20 minutes. Take out, pat dry and grease them with few drops of oil.
• Put onion, tomato and capsicum pieces in the marinade and coat them well. Thread pieces of marinated paneer and veggies one after the other on the skewers.
• Cook on an oiled grill turning the skewers a few times. Or you can set your oven to Broil. Preheat your oven broiler to high. Broil till you see brown- black spots on the paneer and vegetables and paneer is slightly charred on the edges. Or you can also cook on Barbecue. Or you can also make paneer tikka in an electric or gas tandoor if you have one.

Note:

While cooking paneer tikka just don’t go anywhere and keep an eye on it so that they don’t get burned. Also don’t over cook it.