Homemade Croutons

When we make sandwiches we cut the hard brown edges of it and we throw them. Don't do that from now on. You can make croutons with that. Croutons are crispy cubed and baked bread which can be added to soups and salads. You can also make croutons with the left over white or brown bread pieces but I prefer making these with the edges of the bread because of the texture. 

 Today I made croutons with a flavour of Italian Herbs and Coriander. You can try your flavours with garlic, ginger etc.

Ingredients

Edges of 10-12 Bread Slices or 4 Slices of White / Brown Bread  

1/2 cup Melted Butter 

1 teaspoon Italian Herbs 

1 tablespoon Chopped Coriander

3/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Ground Pepper Powder

1. Cut Bread Slices into small cubes. In a bowl, add corinder, herbs, salt and pepper to melted butter. Mix it well.

2. Add bread slices to the bowl and mix it. Pre heat oven at 180 degrees. Place an aluminium foil on baking tray and spread bread cubes on it. Bake them till the bred cubes turn golden brown. Takes about 10 -12 minutes. Turn them in between. 

3. Store these in an airtight container once they are cool. Add these croutons to salads or hot soups .

Chickpea Sundal / Channa Sundal

Dussera Navaratri are from 13th - 21st October this year. During these days South Indians mostly make Sundals and other desserts as offerings to Lord Durga in 9 avatars for 9 days. 

Rice Cakes with Nutella and Banana- Kids Recipes

Nutella is becoming kid's most favourite thing these days. They are asking me to make Nutella Rice cakes, Nutella Sandwiches, Nutella bread sticks, Nutella popsicles the list is endless. They want everything with Nutella. Here is one of those easy peesy crunchy snack for the them. 

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas / Spicy Chana

Wondering what to do with soaked chickpeas!!! One thing is to make Chana Masala and another easy thing to do is to roast it and eat it as a snack. These Roasted Chickpeas are spicy, salty, crunchy and healthy snack.  This is also a low- fat alternative to peanuts. 

Ingredients

2 cups Chickpeas

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

1. Soak chickpeas in water overnight. Discard water and dry them. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan. Add dried chickpeas to the pan. Saute it every 3 minutes for about 15 minutes. When the colour changes and you see black spots here and there reduce the flame to medium. Add salt and chilli powder. Mix it. Saute it again for 5 minutes.

2. A very easy crunchy snack.

Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) Tikka in oven

Paneer Tikka is a good starter and snack. Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) is marinated in with curd and indian spices and then grilled. You can easily make this at home. With this oven method recipe you can make paneer tikka in bulk for parties.

There is no green bell pepper in my paneer tikka recipe because of my daughter. She doesn't like it and exchanges that with paneer pieces. Whenever we order this in restaurants we both are always finally left with vegetable pieces.   So I started making these at home without green bell pepper.  Problem solved. 

Enjoy your winter, rainy days with hot Paneer Tikka. Serve it with Green chutney and 

Sweet Chutney.

Ingredients

12 1" Paneer Cubes / Indian Cottage Cheese

1 Yellow Bell Pepper / Capsicum

1 Red Bell Pepper / Capsicum

1 Green Bell Pepper / Capsicum

1 Onion

2 Tomatoes

3 tablespoon Yogurt / Curd

1 teaspoon Ajwain

1 teaspoon Dhania Powder

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper Powder

1/4 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

Salt as needed

Oil as needed

1. Mix curd, cumin powder, black pepper powder, Ajwain, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt in a bowl. Add lemon juice and mix it.  

2. Grease the skewers with oil. If you are using wooden skewers, keep them in cold water for atleast 30 minutes so that they don't burnt in oven. Keep the frozen paneer in hot water till it becomes soft. Then cut paneer to 1 inch cubes. Remove the seeds from tomato and peppers. Cut tomato, onion and all peppers to inch size. Coat the pieces all over with the marinade. You can also marinate vegetable pieces. Keep them in refrigerator for atleast 2 hours.

3. Preheat the oven at 220 degrees.  Arrange paneer, tomato, peppers and onion in skewers. Keep on them on a grill or on a baking tray. I placed them on a grill and kept the grill in a baking tray. Bake them for 15 minutes or until the edges of the paneer turns brown.

4. Serve it hot with green chutney and sweet chutney.

Dahi Papdi Chaat - Chaat Items

Best thing about these chaat recipes is every bite tastes different and you get many flavours and textures at a time. Dahi Papdi Chaat with a mix of sweetend curd, soft boiled potato, sweet and tangy chutneys, crispy papdis and masala powders is mouth watering.

You can buy papdis and chutneys from Indian grocery shops or can easily make these at home.

Click on the link for Green Chutney / Mint Coriander Chutney recipe

Click on the link for Sweet Chutney / Date and Tamarind Chutney recipe.

Click on the link for Papdi recipe. 

Click on the link for Sev recipe. 

Ingredients (Makes 4 Plates)

24-30 Papdis

4 tablespoons Yogurt / Curd

1 teaspoon Sugar

3 boiled Potatoes

4 tablespoons Chopped Coriander

Sev as required

Green Chutney as needed

Sweet Chutney as needed

Chat Masala Powder as needed

Red Chilli Powder as needed

Salt as needed

Cumin Powder as needed

1. Cut potato to 4 parts. Boil potatoes for 3 whistles in a pressure cooker, discard water, remove the skin of potato and let it cool. Cut these boiled potatoes to small cubes. Keep all the ingredients ready. Mix sugar to yogurt to sweeten it. 

2. Place 6-7 papdi on a plate. Place 2-3 potato cubes on each papdi. Pour a teaspoon of sweetened curd on papdis.

3. Add sweet chutney, green chutney and then a teaspoon of chopped coriander.

4. Add sev. Mix all the powders and salt. Sprinkle this powder mixture on papdis. 

5. Serve it immediately.

Papdi for Papdi Chaat - Chaat Items

Main ingredient for Papdi Chaat and Dahi Papdi Chaat is this Papdi. You can easily make these crispy round indian crackers at home. 

Ingredients

1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida

1 teaspoon Ajwain

1 tablespoon Oil / Ghee

Salt as needed

Oil for deep frying

1. Mix maida, salt, ajwain and oil. Add water little by little to make a smooth dough. Knead it well, cover it and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

2. Knead it again with a tablespoon of maida. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Coat the dough with oil. Knead it again to a smooth dough.  

3. Roll that into big thin circle and then cut small circles from it using a bottle lid or a round cookie cutter. 

4. Heat oil for deep fry. When the oil is hot, reduce the flame to medium, gently place these circles in oil and fry until golden colour. Remove from oil , drain them on a kitchen towel.Allow them to cool.

5. Store in airtight container.

Aloo Tikki / Potato Patties- Chaat Items - Indian Street Food

Aloo Tikki's is our all time favorite snack with mouth watering crisy outer crust, spiciness and the colour. These shallow fried potato and green peas pattice can be anytime and can be used in making Aloo Tikki Burger, Ragda Pattice, Aloo Tikki Chaat and many more or just have it as it is with the chutnyes. This is a very polpular north indian street food. 

Click on the link for Green Chutney Recipe.

Ingredients (Makes 12) 

3 Potatoes

1 cup Green Peas

1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 teaspoon Dhania Powder

1/4 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

Bread Crumbs

Salt as needed

oil for shallow fry

Chaat Powder as needed

1. Cut potato into 4 part with skin. Boil it for 3 whistles in a pressure cooker. Throw the water and let potato cool. You can also boil green peas along with potato. But if are using frozen green peas, boil it in microwave for 10 minutes. Remove the skin of potato, add green peas, red chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder, dhania powder. Mix it well.

2. Make 12 equal sized balls with that. shape them in the way you want or flatten it like patties  Cover it bread crumbs all over. (You can store bought bread crumbs, but you can also make bread crumbs at home by cutting the brown edges of 3-4 bread slices and grind it for 2-3 minutes.)

3. Keep all the patties or tikkis ready. Heat a pan with oil for shallow fry. Place the patties in the pan, cook it on medium flame for 2-3 minutes, Check the bottom of the patties. They should turn golden brown and should be crispy. 

4. Turn the patties upside down and cook it till golden brown. Remove it from pan onto a kitchen towel.

5. Sprinkle some chaat powder over them and eat with date and tamarind chutney and green chutney in a restaurant way. Enjoy.

Cabbage Vada / Cabbage Garelu

Vada is a popular South Indian breakfast and snack item. We like Onion vada but Cabbage Vada has become our favourite recently and also I am making these quite often these days. It is easy to make and very delicious and crispy.

Vadas can be offered to god as prasadam. I usually make Medhu vadas / Garelu for prasadam but got bored with it recently and can't offer onion vada to god as there is onion in it. So found a better alternative in Cabbage Vada.   

Recipe for Medhu Vadas / Garelu

Ingredients (Makes 12)

1 cup Urad Dal

2 cups finely chopped Cabbage

3 Green Chilli

2 sprigs Curry Leaves

salt as needed

1. Soak urad dal in water for 2-3 hours. Grind it in pulse / juice mode with 4 tablespoons of water.Add salt and mix it. Finely chop cabbage,green chilli and curry leaves. Add all these to urad dal mixture. Mix it well.

2. Heat oil for deep fry. Wet your palms with water, take a big lemon sized dough, turn it and shape it a ball, flatten it and with your thumb place a hole in the middle.

3. Drop it gently in hot oil. Fry till vada turns golden brown on both sides. Remove it onto a absorbent paper.

4. You can have these Crispy cabbage vada with coconut chutney or sambar.

Date and Tamarind Chutney / Sweet Chutney - Chaat Items

Chaat is incomplete with out sweet chutney and green chutney. This sweet chutney has a perfect balance of sweet and sour because of tamarind and dates. This chutney can be used in making many chaat items like aloo tikki, samosa chaat, sev puri, paani puri, bhel puri, dahi puri.

This chutney stays good for 2-3 weeks so make it less.

Ingredients

1/4 cup seedless Tamarind tightly packed

1/4 cup seedless Dates

1/4 cup grated Jaggery

1 cup of Water

Big pinch of Cumin Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Red Chilli Powder

Salt as required

1. Cook tamarind and dates together in water for about 10 minutes on a low flame ot till they become soft. Add jaggery and continue to cook until the jaggery dissolves and the mixture thickens. 

2. Now add cumin powder, red chilli powder and salt. Stir and cook for 2 more minutes. Let the cool down and then grind it to a smooth paste. Add water if required while grinding.  

3. Store it in an airtight container and keep in refrigerator. You use it in making chaat items.