Donuts - Inspired Recipe

When I was in class 8, my brother and I used to ask my mum for Rs. 6 each to go buy donuts from FoodWorld. We used to love those sugar glazed donuts, soft and light. We used to devour one everyday after school. Soon after, they stopped selling those donuts and we forgot it in time, leaving it behind as one of our childhood memories. One day, I suddenly had this burning urge to eat donuts. I don't like the ones they sell here in Chennai. They get really hard and stretchy. So I decided I'd make them myself. 

I went shopping and bought all the ingredients and I was ready for the battle. I searched online for tons of recipes for donuts, watched videos on Youtube. I even tried out one batch following a certain recipe from a Youtube video, but I failed miserably. All I got was fried chunks of sweet maida. 

I don't know how, but miraculously the below recipe worked like magic for me. My very first batch, came out perfect. Here's how.

Donuts - Recipe (Frying version)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 yeast

3/4 cup milk

1/4 butter

2 tbsp sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

Oil for frying

For the glaze:

1 cup castor sugar

3 tbsp water

1/4 butter

vanilla essense

Method of preparation:

1. Mix well yeast in 1/4 cup warm water 

2. Take flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre

3. Add the yeast, butter, milk, sugar and egg and knead well

4. Cover for an hour to let dough rise

5. Once the dough has risen to double its size, take it out and roll it on a floured surface

6. Cut out donuts using a donut cutter - I used a dessert bowl to cut out the donuts and a coke bottle cap to cut out the holes in the donuts

7. Let the cut donuts stay for another 30 mins to rise again

8. Fry the donuts till they are brown on both sides

9. Glaze - mix all ingredients till you get a glossy mixture

10. Lace donuts with the glaze and serve. You may also dust some castor sugar on top. 

Any takers? :) 

Aloo Tikki - My Recipe

I fondly recollect the first time I had aloo tikkis. I used to live in Ahmedabad and back then (I'm talking about 1995) MG road was THE most happening place in Ahmedabad. We used to go there every weekend and have veg pizza from a popular eatery, (there were no Pizza Huts/Dominoes back then), and strawberry milkshake with whole chunks of sweet strawberry; aah bliss.  One day, we decided to try out chaat from one of the eateries and my dad got me aloo tikki. I loved it! I ate two and wanted more. After that day, I would have aloo tikkis almost every weekend. 

Strangely enough, I never took a great liking to potato anyway. But for the sake of my cherished childhood memories, I will share the recipe of Aloo tikki I tried out one weekend at home. 

My recipe for Aloo Tikki

Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients
Potatoes - 5 nos, peeled and boiled
Green chillies - 3 nos, chopped
Green peas - 100 gms or 1/2 cup
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil - enough for shallow frying

Method of preparation:
1. Wash, peel and pressure cook potatoes till tender
2. Mash potatoes.
3. Mix green peas and green chillies
4. Season with cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, chaat masala and salt as per requirement
5. Knead well until all spices are infused into the potato mash
6. Make tikkis of desired thickness and keep aside
7. Heat oil in a tawa and arrange tikkis
8. Shallow fry until golden brown on both sides
9. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or mint chutney

With that, my childhood memories are back! 

Semiya Payasam - My recipe

I love making desserts. That's largely because I have a severe case of chronic 'sweet tooth.' To further substantiate this, I have 8 cavities; all filled in at the tender age of 13. 

Aah! 

Getting back; I love sweets and I love making them. Of course, I'm still only going through the trial and error stages, at least I'm making efforts. 

To be honest, when I cook, I go by my instincts. I don't follow 'these many tbsps of masala or these many portions of this and that' I just taste, adjust and cook. I'd like to call myself an uncomplicated cook. Nevertheless, I will share my recipes, with the measurements, just so you can try them yourselves. 

Without further ado, here's my recipe for Semiya Payasam

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Milk - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 5 tbsp (may be adjusted as per your requirements)

Clarified butter (ghee) - 1 tbsp

Semiya/Vermicelli - 100 gms

Almonds - soaked, peeled and chopped

Cardamom pods - 4, pressed 

Method of Preparation:

1. Heat milk in a saucepan

2. Add sugar to the milk and stir until sugar is completely dissolved

3. In a fry pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee and fry the vermicelli till golden brown. Turn off heat. 

4. When the fried vermicelli has cooled a bit, slowly add it to the milk. Be careful while adding the vermicelli; if the mixture is too hot the milk may curdle. Ensure you are stirring the milk while adding the vermicelli.

5. Let the milk simmer, till vermicelli rises to the top

6. Add ground cardamoms 

7. Keep stirring till vermicelli is completely cooked

8. Add chopped almonds

9. Serve hot

My simple Semiya Payasam is ready! 

Mutton Keema - My Recipe

I never eat Keema from outside. I'm apprehensive about the fact that whatever parts I usually discard from the mutton/chicken meat will be included in the minced chunk in restaurants. Therefore, I safely avoid eating any keema dish outside. But that doesn't mean, I will restrict myself of ever trying it out. The safest option for me is to mince the meat myself.
It took me an hour to separate the meat off the bone, but it was worth the effort. I put the boneless mutton pieces into my food processor and I had a beautiful chunk of minced mutton meat with me, ready to be cooked.

Here's my recipe for Mutton Keema
Cooking time - Approx 30 mins
Ingredients:
Minced mutton
Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste - 1 tbsp (10 garlic pods; good amount of ginger; 4 fat green chillies)
Onions - 2 nos, finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 nos, finely chopped
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 4 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 2 tsp
Green peas - 100 gms
Water - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method of Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a kadai/wok
2. Add the ginger-garlic-green chilli paste to the hot oil; stir till light brown or no more raw smell
3. Add the chopped onions and fry till translucent
4. Add the minced mutton and stir
5. When mutton turns pale in color, add chopped tomatoes
6. Add turmeric, coriander, pepper, garam masala powder and salt. You may adjust the seasoning as per your requirements
7. Mix well and add water
8. Close saucepan with lid, and let it simmer on low flame
9. When the water is half reduced, add the green peas
10. Simmer till mutton is completely cooked and raw taste of green peas is gone.
Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with Paranthas.

Fraud Tomato Soup - My recipe

I have a very bad habit of saving up ketchup, oregano, chilli flakes sachets. Today I opened my draw to push in a few more of these sachets and found that the draw was already overflowing with the previously collected ones. I then decided that I should do something with these beauties. Soup I thought! 

We usually eat Knorr soups, but lately I realized that more than the good stuff, they are loaded with tons of preservatives. Ya they claim there aren't any, but why believe them? They'll say anything to make a sale. 

So I decided I'd make some tomato soup today; using the ketchup sachets, oregano and chilli flakes. This is not anything like the traditional home made tomato soups and it takes only about 10 mins to cook. That's why the name, 'Fraud Tomato Soup' :)

Here's the recipe: Tomato Soup - Fraud Version

Cooking Time: 10 mins
Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4 nos

Water - 2 cups

Garlic Pods - 4 nos (finely chopped)

Butter - 175 grams

Tomato Ketchup - 8 sachets

Oregano - 1 sachet

Chilli Flakes - 1 sachet

Pepper - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Coriander, Butter for garnish

Method of Preparation:

1. Peel tomatoes and blend them together in a blender, adding water to dilute the consistency

2. Heat butter in a saucepan

3. Add the chopped garlic into the butter and let it cook till there is no raw smell of garlic

4. Add the tomato puree and cook until the consistency is thickened a bit

5. Add the tomato ketchup

6. Season this with Oregano, chilli flakes, pepper, garam masala and salt

7. Bring to boil

8. Add water if the mixture is too thick. You may wish to add butter at this stage to give the soup a nice buttery texture

9. Remove from flame once you get the desired consistency 

10. Garnish with coriander leaves and a dollop of butter. 

10 mins, 10 easy steps - Your fraud tomato soup is ready to serve!