Palak Matar Makai Tikki /Spinach Peas Corn Patties

I have been missing in action for almost a fortnight now.There have been some late nights at office lately and I have been also been pure lazy on the days when office was not that hectic. 
Before I share the recipe, I would like to thank all my readers and fellow bloggers for their lovely birthday wishes. :)  Your comments have made me forget all the lament that I did on my last post :))
This tikki was on my agenda for a long time since the time I saw them at Sanjeev Kapoor. Somehow one of the other ingredients were always missing whenever I wanted to make them, so I have kept it on hold. This weekend I ensured that I buy everything that was needed to make this. 



Ingredients
 1 large Potato, boiled and mashed 
1/2 cup Green peas, blanched
10 -12  Spinach leaves, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup Corn kernels, blanched
1/3 cup Cottage cheese (paneer), crumbled
1 Onion , chopped
 2 Green chillies, chopped
1 inch Ginger, chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp Black pepper powder
1 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Red chilli Powder
2-3 tbsp Cornflour/ corn starch
Oil  to shallow fry

Preparation

1. Heat  1 tsp oil in a pan. Add onion and green chillies and sauté for two minutes. Add peas and spinach and saute for 2 minutes.l.Let it cool and then coarsely grind in a mixture/grinder
2. In a bowl, Add peas and spinach mixture, mashed  potatoes,chopped ginger, salt, pepper powder,roasted cumin powder and half the cornflour and mix well. 
3. Coarsely grind blanched corn kernels in a mixture/grinder Add cottage cheese salt,red chili powder and mix. Add the remaining cornflour and mix.
4. Take a portion of the spinach-peas-potato mixture and shape into a flat and thick tikki. Using a cutter cut out a round from the center of the tikki . Take a little portion of the corn mixture and place it in the hole of the spinach-peas-potato tikki and press lightly.
5. Heat oil in another pan and fry the tikkis till golden on both the sides.
6. Serve hot !!

Linking this to Aipi and Priya's bookmarked event and Veggies/Fruit event of Priya and Reshmi 

A Birthday that came and went

White Cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant

Sometimes you plan a day months in advance and all plan fails on the D-day. My Birthday was one such day. I had been planning the day, the things to cook, a lavish cake  and what not. But as it happened , the week long whitewash was scheduled the same week as my birthday. So all plans were put on hold.  I had forbidden my husband not to buy a cake for me as I wanted to bake my cake myself.  My sister had got fondant and other baking equipments during her last visit, and I had saved it for using them on a special occasion. Earlier, I had planned to make it on the birthday eve, but didn't get any time that day. Finally when I could make it , it was already 9:30 night on the d-day. I put the cake in oven,  and had the delicious Biryani made by  Mr. Sinfoodie and saved the decoration for post dinner. We were both so tired and it was already too late, that I let go of all the intricate design I had thought of. It was my first time dealing with fondant. Mr. Sinfoodie helped rolling out  and cutting the fondant. The cake was finally made, though by the time it was made, it was already midnight. Anyway,it doesn't matter :) I didn't mind celebrating it a day late as long as it was made by me. :-D

The cake was a white cake with 2 layers filled with creamcheese and white chocolate frosting and covered with fondant. The recipe has been adapted from joy of baking

Ingredients

For cake

2 large eggs separated

1 3/4 cups cake flour [ i used all purpose]

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar [I substituted it with white vinegar]

For Cream Chees and white Chocolate Frosting

Recipe is here on my blog -> Cream cheese and White chocolate Frosting

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350F/177C and place rack in center of oven.
2. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper and grease and dust the parchment paper with little flour. 
3. Separate the eggs while they are still cool. It is easier to separate cold eggs.
4. Placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl.  Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and let them come to room temperature, for atleast 30 minutes. 
5. In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
6. In a separate bowl, beat butter until soft with your electric mixture (about 1-2 minutes).
7. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). 
8. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. 
9. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.   
10. In a clean grease free bowl , beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar[ I substituted with vinegar] and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
11.  With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate. 
12. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. 
13. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan. Once the cakes have completely cooled, wrap in plastic and place the cake layers in the freezer for at least an hour. (This makes filling and frosting the cakes easier.)

Assembling the Cake.

1.  Place one of the cake layers, top of the cake facing down, onto your serving platter. Spread the cake layer with cream cheese frosting.  
2.  Place the next cake layer, top of the cake facing down, onto the filling. Spread the remaining frosting over the top Cover and refrigerate for some time.
3. Color,knead and roll the fondant. Cover the cake with fondant and decorate it as per your choice.
4. In case you are refrigerating the cake before serving, keep it at room temperature for some time after taking it out from refrigerator

Crushed Garlic Potatoes

I hope you all are not thinking that SinFoodie has gone back to her VeryVeryLazyGirl days. It is almost a week since I last posted. My entire house was chaotic due to the whitewash that lasted a week. Finally, yesterday it got over and I am back to the blog world again.   I had made these crushed potaoes more than a week back and have got time to post it only now. Here goes the recipe for crushed potatoes which can be served as a starter or as a side dish with grilled chicken/fish.
The recipe is inspired from here

Ingredients:
200 gms new baby potatoes - washed and cleaned
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp butter
Garlic cloves - 5-6 chopped
3/4 tsp Oregano
3/4 tsp Rosemary
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper.
Salt to taste
Chili flakes
1 1/2 tsp coriander leaves
Water.

Preparation

1. Boil baby potatoes with skin  in salted water for 10 minutes. Drain it and wipe it dry.
2. With the back of spoon ,crush it. Toss with 1 tsp olive oil, salt to taste and mix well.
3. In a pan, heat remaining olive oil and butter. Add chopped garlic,crushed potatoes,oregano,rosemary,pepper,chilli flakes.
4. Cook till it browns. Add more salt if needed.Serve it topped with fresh coriander leaves. You can add chaat masala too. 

 
Linking  to Aipi and Priya's bookmarked event

Parwal Ki Mithai

This used to be my favorite Indian sweet. It still is but I haven't had it in years. Looking at the parwals [ pointed gourd ]in the market, I was immediately taken  back to my childhood, when we used to wait for summers to arrive so that we could get this mithai /sweet. Our small little town had only one good quality sweet shop "Ambar" then, and only that shop used to make this mithai. So, many a times we would land up at Ambar only to find out that parwal ki mithahi was already over. It was such a popular item in our town.
After having moved out to Delhi for my further studies, I still craved for this.Though,Delhi has a great sweets culture, this mithai was not available there. It was one such craving that I made this mithai for the first time. It tasted good, but it didn't acquire the same colour as "Ambar shop". It was pale green. I don't think I even had a recipe, I made it the way I thought it could be made. This time around, I wanted the colour to be right too. So, I followed Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe, the image of which was closest to the Ambar Shop's mithai. He has used a pinch of baking soda to get the colour, which really worked. The only thing I found a bit of problem was to check if the parwals were done. No timing is mentioned in the recipe, so when I took out after 10 minutes, it was already sligthly overdone. So,I guess next time I make,I need to taste them at regular intervals to see that it is exactly done. It should be anywhere near 5-8 mins..


So here is the recipe of Parwal ki mithai which comes from Benaras, but is very popular in Bihar.


Ingredients
[Recipe :Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor ]
250 grams Parwals [Pointed Gourd] , Fresh and big
A pinch of Baking Soda
1 cup: Mawa (khoya)  : How to make Khoya
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Green cardamom powder
10 Almonds, chopped
10 Pistachios, chopped
1 cup Water

Preparation

1. Wash and peel the parwal's outer layer so that you can see the white-greenish layer.  Don't worry, this white will turn green when you boil it in steps ahead. Make a slit lengthwise ,so it is open from one side and attached from all other sides. Remove all the seeds from inside.keep aside.
2. For the stuffing, In a pan roast the khoya on medium heat till it becomes soft. Add half cup sugar and continue to roast till it is dryish.[ You can reduce the quantity of sugar here according to your taste].Add green cardamom powder and mix. Take it off the heat and add almonds and pistachios and mix. Transfer the mixture onto a plate and cool
3. In another pan boil 1 cup sugar with one cup water to make a thin sugar syrup of 1 thread  consistency.If you are familiar with another method of making syrup of 1 thread consistency follow that, as at many sites I found 1: 1/2 ratio of sugar and water. I followed  a middle path.
4.  In another pan, heat water, add a pinch of baking  soda. Add parwals and boil for two to three minutes. 
5. Drain and put them in the sugar syrup and cook till they soften. It will take around 8-10 minutes. Drain and cool.
6. Stuff them with the khoya mixture. Sprinkle some slivered almonds and pistachio on top.
7. Refrigerate for few hours and serve chilled. Can be stored for a couple of days in refrigerator.

Sending it to Aipi and Priya's Bookmark Event .

Sending this to Event celebrate sweets-stuffed sweets.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

What makes this cookie special is the generous amount of  chocolate chunks. Chocolate chips cookies always leave me wanting for more chocolate. Replace it with chocolate chunks and it  perfectly satisfies all my chocolate cravings. Though, I must say this wasn't my most favourite cookie, but it works well as a simple cookie to have with a cup of milk ,coffee or tea . My cookie standards have been set high after having baked the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie  and the Nutella Pinwheel Cookies and I  inadvertently start comparing any cookies that I make with them. So,  this one fell short to those standards, but still if you are looking for simple chocolate chunk cookies, this is quite good. And being made up of Wheat Flour, it will lessen some of your guilt too :)

Ingredients
For 12 -15 cookies
[Inspired from Scandilicious].

1 and 3/4th cups Whole wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Baking  soda
1/2 tsp salt
180 gms Butter melted
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar powdered
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
170gm dark chocolate  chopped into chunks.

 Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 155C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep aside.
2. In a medium bowl sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together.Mix well so that baking soda is distributed well.
3. Melt butter.whisk using the electric whisk ,melted butter and the sugars until creamy.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixture. Whisk again and then add the flour. Keep beating for some time stretch those gluten strands.
5. Add the chocolate chunks and fold in. The cookie dough should feel almost dry now.Mix well to spread the chocolate chunks evenly.
6. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
7. Scoop 1 tbsp of dough on the baking sheets, spacing them further than 2 inches apart as these cookies spread upon baking.
8. Bake on the upper-middle shelf of the oven for 25-28 minutes until the cookies are golden,
9. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets.

Litti

Bihari cuisine is not as famous as cuisines of few other states of  India, but there is one dish from Bihar which is synonymous with Bihar and that is Litti .It is a crusted ball of wheat flour stuffed with spiced Sattu [roasted gram flour], traditionally made in an open fire but now is commonly baked in oven due to ease and feasibility.
Sattu is extensively used in Bihari dishes in form of Littis,Sattu Paratha,Satttu ka namkeen sharbat [Salted Sattu drink with lime or aam panna], Sattu ka meetha sharbat[Sweetened Sattu drink],and sometimes simply spiced sattu dough is eaten all alone or accompanied with plain rice or rotis.

If you are in Bihar ,Sattu means flour of Roasted gram flour, but in other states it can mean flour of other cereals too. I have tried searching for it in Bombay at few places without any luck. Though it is available easily in Delhi. So whenever we make a trip to Bihar or Delhi we stock up our Sattu, because life of a bihari is unimaginable without the constant dose of Sattu paratha or littis. And while I am writing this ,I am craving for the salted sattu drink which I haven't had for quite sometime. That for me is one of the most delicious and lip-smacking drink.
Litti and Sattu Paratha have the same stuffing. Though I like sattu parathas more, there is a romantic charm in making littis in the open fire apart from the additional smoked flavour. I have done that only once at my in-laws place .It was slightly cold night.and a brick oven was specially set up that day on the terrace to make littis. My mom-in-law was the main chef , i was only a helper :-) .
I never had courage to make littis in the oven . I had it on my mind since I saw it there and decided to make it for dinner last night. The recipe which I have followed is the way I have seen at home, though the instructions on how to make them in an oven is mainly from Aipi's blog. Since I use a microwave oven in convection mode, I was wary of using aluminum foil as I have heard it causes sparks, so I didn't use the aluminum foil. Greasing the baking dish worked fine for me.

Ingredients
 For Dough:
1 and 1/2 cup Whole wheat Flour
3/4  up Curd[yogurt]
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2 pinch of salt

For Stuffing
1 cup Sattu (roasted gram flour)
1 small onion, finely chopped
7-8 big Garlic cloves finely chopped
1 inch Ginger finely chopped
2  Green chilies, finely chopped
2 tsp Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Nigella seeds (Mangrella or kalonji)
1 and 1/2  tsp Carom seeds [Ajwain]
 Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp Mirch achar masala (stuffing of the red chili pickle) I use the cover too by chopping it
1 tbsp Mango achaar masala [optional]
Mustard oil [ preferably the oil in which Achar/Pickle has been made]

Salt to taste [ add after adding Achar Masala which has salt too ]

Preparation

1. Mix all the stuffing ingredients with Sattu together. Sprinkle some drops of water to make it crumbly.
2. Preheat oven to 185 C.
3. Grease the baking dish with some ghee /oil.
4. With the dough  ingredients, knead the dough. Don't put all the curd at once. Keep adding little by little till a soft dough forms.Make 8 -9 balls slightly bigger than a lemon. Flatten each ball in your palm to make and make a  3 to 3 1/2  inch diameter  circle. Dust with flour if it is sticky.  
5. Stuff 2 to 3 tsp sattu filling in the center of the circle and close it from all sides.
6. Line the littis on the baking dish and bake till it is golden brown. It will take around 35-45 minutes and it differs from oven to oven so keep an eye otherwise it might get burnt. keep aside once done.
7. To give a smokey touch, you can put them on gas flame  for few seconds by holding them with tongs.
8. To serve, apply some ghee on them, you can also break them into half and put a teaspoon of ghee inside. Serve it hot with Brinjal bharta/Chokha.

I have served it with a different  spiced Brinjal bharta which was already cooked in the morning, but traditionally it is served with bharta/choka of boiled Potatoes,roasted tomatoes and roasted brinjal to which mustard oil,chopped onion,garlic and green chillies are added.

Linking this to Aipi and Priya's Bookmarked recipe and Hearth and Soul Hop