Creamy Corn on Toast

I'd bought 2 cobs of fresh, juicy corn and was in the mood to try n cook something new.....out of the depths of memory, the recipe for cream of corn soup suddenly gushed out....Inspired by that recipe but wanting something creamier and more substantial, i decided to cook corn with garlic and mash it up..n oh boy! super hot, creamy n with a hint of chilly n pepper, it was an absolute delight to eat...

Ingredients:

Corn kernels from 2 medium sized cobs (use corn off the cob for best results)
1/4 litre milk (this can vary depending on the corn n consistency you want)
6-7 garlic pods
6-7 peppercorns
chilli flakes and salt - to taste
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons grated cheese (ideally, parmesan or cheddar)

Mehtod:

Heat the oil in a pan, add peppercorns and garlic pods and saute till the garlic gets all brown. Add the corn kernels and cook on high heat for a few minutes till the corn kernels swell up a bit and have just acquired a golden hue.

Add half the quantity of milk, reduce the flame and cook the kernels in the milk till they are soft. Cool it to almost room temperature and blend to a creamy consistency along with the cheese, chiili flakes and salt.
Return this mixture to the pan, add the rest of the milk and cook on a low flame till the milk is absorbed/you get the consistency you want.\

Serve hot with toast, crackers or chapathis :).

Note: To make this recipe richer, saute everything in butter, add more cheese and a dollop of cream right at the end.

Holige (Obattu)

Holige/Obattu/Puran poli - call it what u will...but d mere mention of obattu makes almost everyone's mouth water...especially when it's fresh n hot off the tava!
I've seen mom n granny slogging over this dish and i always thought i could never make it...apparently, i can :) and it feels good!!
Yeah, the mere mention of obattu can be unnerving..but trust me on this - just think of it as a sweet stuffed paratha... n before you know it, you'll be done.
It's hard to say how many you can make with this recipe, but u should be able to make 5-6 at least.

Ingredients:

For the covering (kanaka):

1 cup, maida (sifted)

4-5 teaspoons water

1 cup oil + 5-6 tablespoons oil (you may require more depending on the maida)

For the filling (hoorana):

1 cup, channa dal

1 cup jaggery, broken into small chunks (Vary this quantity depending on how sweet you want the obattus to be)

2 pods cardamom

Oil/ghee, to roast

Method:

Kanaka:

Sprinkle the water on the maida and mix. Now add 1 cup oil and mix until you get a cohesive, soft, pliable dough. If required, add more oil. Put the dough into a bowl and pour 5-6 tablespoons of oil over it. Let this rest for 2-3 hours at least (even overnight in the fridge is cool).

You may have some left over kanaka...use it to make parathas once you run out of the hoorana.

Hoorana:

Traditionally, the dal is boiled in an uncovered pan until cooked. I opted to use the pressure cooker...use whtever works for u. However, i must mention that if boiled in an uncovered pan, drain the dal and collect the water. You can make yummy saaru (curry) from it which i will post one fine day.

Cook the dal until soft and tender (but not mushy) and let it cool a bit. Blend the dal and cardamom. Transfer to a pan, add jaggery and cook till the jaggery melts and the end  result is a smooth, slightly sticky paste. Let this mixture cool.

Now comes the tough bit....Just follow the process of making a stuffed paratha.

Take a small lemon sized portion of the kanaka and using oiled foil or an oiled plastic sheet, spead it out a bit to form an even circle. Place a small orange sized portion of the hoorana on it.

Seal the ends of the hoorana enclosing the kanaka inside it. Now, starting from the centre, moving outwards, pat with your hands to form a big sized circle as shown below.

P.S - Do not worry if some hoorana oozes out or the kanaka wears out a bit. It's fine :)

 Heat a tava, overturn the obattu on it and using ghee or oil, roast on both sides till golden brown and yummy!! Serve with dollops of ghee/milk or both...

Sit back and savour the compliments, it'll be worth it! :)

 

Chunky Peanut Pesto

Pinenuts - i searched around in quite a few places for them, but nada...bored of searching, i finally decided to try it out with groundnuts instead..of course, the taste wasn't original but it definitely was good :). This recipe is a no cook, no chop recipe. Simply combine and blend. And this version stays for days  in the fridgesince it's pretty dry..just ensure there is a film of oil on top if you're storing it for more than a week. And do replenish the oil everytime you scoop out a spoonful.

Ingredients:

a huge bunch of basil leaves
a handful of roasted groundnuts with the skin removed ( i used a microwave, about 4 mins on high)
3 medium sized cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tablespoon grated cheese (preferably parmesan but i used cheddar)
salt, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Dump everything into the blender jar and blend till you get a medium coarse paste. Ensure you do not blend into a fine paste as you won't really get to taste the diff ingredients then.



Lemon Rice (Chitranna) With a Twist

Bored of the usual chitranna that's made in my house, i wanted to try something a lil different this Ugadi. This gojju recipe is half borrowed from my memory banks but modified based on my mood when i made it :). It's an easy recipe and can also be used as a chutney for chapathis or bread..

Here's what the gojju looked like:

Ingredients:

For the gojju:
2 medium sized raw mangoes, peeled and grated (or chopped finely)
3-4 tablespoons grated coconut (you can add more)
5-6 green chillies

For the tadka:
1/2 teaspoon hing (yes, 1/2 teaspoon!)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon each of mustard, sesame (til), coriander seeds, methi seeds - dry roasted and ground coarsely
1/2 tablespoon urad dal
2-3 dry, red chillies
a handful or so of groundnuts
1 tablespoon oil
salt, to taste
juice of 2 lemons

Method:

Grind the coconut and chillies in the blender for a few seconds. Add the grated mango and belnd everything into a fine paste.

Heat oil, add the hing and groundnuts and fry till the groundnuts are well roasted. Now add the mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies and fry till the mustard seeds crackle. Add the corasely powdered mixture of mustard, til, coriander seeds and methi seeds. Immediately add the the mango-coconut-chillies mixture and fry till the water evaporated and the entire mixture forms a cohesive lump.

Turn off the fire, add lime juice and salt to taste. Do add the lime juice, it gives a freshness to the dish, not to mentiond added tanginess.

Mix this with cooked rice and enjoy maadi!

One tip here is to add just enough salt to taste to the gojju so that you can use the leftovers later on. When mixing with the rice, you will need to add extra salt.



H for Hummus

Hummus, for me, conjures up visions of exotic pita pockets either filled with crisp veggies or baked to a crisp, served with creamy hummus....

Once i realised how easy it is to make hummus, it's become an often made dish...and i've experimented with adding mint leaves, basil, oregano and pretty much anything that i fancy at the moment.

I've read loads of recipes and a lot of them call for tahini and for the skin to be removed from the channa...for my version, simple sesame seeds and channa with skin work...so here's d recipe for my plain, simple, not so-classic hummus.

Ingredients:

4 handfuls of dried kabuli channa (chickpeas), soaked overnight and cooked till soft

2 teaspoons olive oil (i used extra virgin olive oil) 

1 teaspoon sunflower oil (or any other neutral oil)

1 handful of til (sesame seeds), dry roasted till slightly brown

4-5 cloves garlic

reserve liquid from cooking the channa/water

salt, to taste,

chilli powder, to sprinkle on top

Method:

Lightly crush the cloves of garlic and roast in a pan. Add the sesame, garlic, salt and the sunflower oil to the blender and whizz till the sesame gets coarsely crushed. Once that's done, add the chickpeas and olive oil and process till the whole thing forms a smooth paste.

If required, add a little reserve liquid to adjust the consistency.

Turn it out into a bowl, flatten with a fork and run the prongs of d fork on the surface to form ridges. Sprinkle the chilli powder on top and serve!!

You can also add extra olive oil on top, specially if you want to keep it for a few days.

Spicy Roast Baby Potatoes

As far as i can remember, i've always loved cooking with potatoes (considering there's very little that can go wrong!!). Add a lil bit of salt, a bit of spice, some oil and ur dish is done!
You can make this dish with chopped potatoes but the potatoes' lil cousin, the baby potato, is a lil sweeter in taste.
And it makes for a perfect morsel to pop into your mouth without having to nibble!

This recipe calls for a tingling of your tastebuds (courtesy the chilli and dry mango powder) and is absolutely yummy to eat with chapathis, as a side dish or just as is!

Ingredients:

8-10 baby potatoes - par boiled and peeled,
2 tablespoons of hung yoghurt,
1 teaspoon of oil,
a teaspoon each of red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and dry mango powder(amchur)
1/2 teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste
salt, to taste

Method:

Prick the potatoes with a fork to allow the flavours to seep in.
Mix the yoghurt, all the powders, salt, ginger-garlic paste and oil in a bowl.
Add the potatoes to this mixture and mix such that each potato is coated with the yoghurt mixture.
Let this marinate for an hour or so in the fridge. Once that's done, you can either grill the potatoes or heat some oil in a pan and roast on a low flame.

Once the potatoes have blackened in bits and pieces, serve them with a final sprinkling of lime juice.