Eggless & Yeast-free doughnuts

 It was an Eureka moment for me!! Tried my hands to prepare doughnuts at home for the very first time. That too on a Thursday when we people do not eat non-veg so I could not even use eggs which made me a little scared. And also I did not want to go through the yeast fermentation process etc today out of excitement & curiosity.

So this is an Eggless, yeast-free, doughnut shape cutterless fresh DOUGHNUTS from my kitchen. I have always been wanting to make doughnuts at home. Somehow I got the courage today to try my hands for the very first time. Soft from inside and crusty upper just perfect. The little had one full even after she finished her dinner. Also asking to pack in her tiffin box tomorrow . And I know if my daughter is asking for more it has to be the tasty one.

Doughnut is a type of fried dough confectionary or dessert food, is popular in many countries as breakfast or sweet snack. They are usually deep-fried from a flour dough, and typically either ring-shaped or without a hole and often filled. You can give many variations to your doughnut glaze with maple syrup, milkmaid, honey glaze, chocolate  sauce/or by using different food colours.


Ingredients:

Plain Flour/maida: 1 1/2 cups
Sugar: 4 tbs superfine (you can increase the amount of sugar as per your taste)
Milk: 1/2 cup
Butter: 50 gms.
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder: 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1tsp
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Refined oil: for deep frying


For the glaze

Milk: 1 cup
Condensed milk: 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder: 3-4 tbsp. for chocolate sauce
Store bought Chocolate sauce: 1-2 tbsp. for chocolate sauce
Green food colour: 1 pinch is enough to get the colour
Castor sugar: 1 tbsp. or as required to sprinkle over the doughnuts

Method:

In a bowl, add the melted butter and sugar and beat well until they combine well. Add the milk and mix them well and keep aside.

In another bowl, sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder. Now pour in the above mixture slowly to this dry mixture. Combine all well and knead until you get a dough like consistency. In case the dough is sticky and very moist, you can add some dry flour also. Keep the dough covered to rest for about half an hour.

Divide equal medium sized portions from the dough and make balls, flatten it with palm of your hand You can roll out the balls with a rolling pin also (while flattening the balls or rolling out dust some dry flour). I kept the balls size medium as this would double up while frying. Now with the help of a doughnut cutter (if you have), cut out approx. 3-inch-diameter rounds with 1-inch-diameter holes. I do not have doughnut cutter ,so I used the cap of my mustard oil bottle (little weird, but no other options available with me. But that worked just perfect for me). Repeat the same process for the rest and arrange them in a dish.

Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan/kadhai.  Deep fry the doughnuts one or two at a time for about 1-2 minutes or till golden brown on both sides and keep aside.

For the sauce:

Make the glaze by heating a pan , add the milk, condensed milk and stir continuously till it gets thicken. At this point I divided this sauce into two portions. In one portion, I added the cocoa powder and the chocolate sauce. Mix them well till everything combines well. In the remaining portion, I added the green food colour and combine all well. You can use any food colour of your choice or you can make only chocolate sauce dipped doughnut.

Place all the fried doughnuts on a cooling /wire rack and let them cool for a minute or two. Do not forget to keep a dish under the rack. Now pour in the chocolate & green coloured sauce on the doughnuts and let it set for about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle the castor sugar on the doughnuts with the help of a tea strainer.

Now enjoy your soft doughnuts with your cuppa.

You can make this doughnut healthier by baking it instead of deep frying.
 

Our very own Rasgulla

Rasgulla is a syrupy dessert very popular in India and we all love to eat rasgullas. A commonly seen dessert in weddings/parties. I have seen my mother making rasgullas when I was a kid. And I somehow exactly remember how she used to make it. And I exactly follow the recipe whenever I make my rasgullas. I have seen many people complaining about the chenna not binding properly or the rasgullas not becoming soft & fluffy. But thanks to god & my mom's recipe that as of now , my rasgullas have always been a success. While making rasgulla, a good quality milk plays the crucial part. I have made them with both Tetra pack milk and packaged milk as well and never disappointed. After making the chenna from milk, process of kneading the chenna should be perfect. You just can not ignore this step , in short there is no short cut for this step. Lastly the time required for the rasgullas to get cooked in sugar syrup. I cook them in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Some cook the same in pressure cooker as well.

Ingredients:

Milk: 1 ltr
White vinegar: 2 tsp
Maida: 2 tsp

for the sugar syrup

Water: 2 cups
Sugar: 4 tbsp.
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp
Kesar: few strands

 Method:

In a saucepan boil the milk. After the first boil, add the vinegar and put the flame off. Keep it undisturbed for about 5 minutes so that the milk curdles.  

Through a colander lined with a muslin cloth strain the paneer/chenna that formed and wash under cold tape water very nicely so that the sourness due to the vinegar is removed. Drain off water by squeezing and tie a knot in the muslin cloth and  leave the paneer hanging for about half an hour.

 

After half an hour, take out the paneer/chenna which will be crumbly and dry with little moisture. Now the major part of making rasgulla is to knead the paneer/chenna well with your fingers and palms of your hands. At this stage I added the maida (if you donot feel like, you can avoid it). Mix them well and knead till it forms a dough. This whole process would take about 10 minutes.
Now divide the dough into equal sized portions and make balls without any crack on them , not very big sized as the rasgullas will double up while on boiling.

While making the balls, boil water in a heavy bottom saucepan. Put the rasgullas in the boiling water in batches so that they get enough space to double up and sinks well in water and cover with lid for about 10 minutes or so. After 10 minutes you will see the rasgullas becoming double their original size. Now its very important to know whether the rasgullas are cooked well.

I took the idea of a dear sister Garima, a blogger (her blog's name is Café Garima) having magical hands in the field of cooking, experimenting..that if you want to check whether your rasgullas are cooked, take plain cold water in a glass and drop the rasgulla. If it sinks, it is done. If it floats, boil for a couple of minutes and check again. And yes it works fantastically. Thanks dear sister. :)

Make the sugar syrup by boiling the mentioned quantity of water and sugar in a big heavy bottomed saucepan. Now add cardamom powder & saffron strands. Squeeze out the rasgullas from the water and drop in the sugar syrup. I keep it in boiling mode for about another 5-7 minutes. Put the flame off and let it cool down and serve.


Cooking in Pressure cooker:

Once your chenna balls are ready, boil water and sugar in the cooker and make the syrup a bit thick. This will take about 2 minutes or so. Then add the rasgullas carefully in the syrup. Close the lid and , keep the flame in low and pressure cook for at least 10-12 minutes. Put the flame off. Don't wait for the pressure to release on its own. Place the pressure cooker under running water or on a water bath so that the pressure releases immediately. Open the lid an transfer the rasgullas with the syrup to a bowl.

Serve hot if you like that way or keep in refrigerator to enjoy it chilled.

 

Paneer/cottage cheese in a gravy of Cashewnut & almond

Though I am not a big fan of matar paneer/palak paneer/kadhai paneer etc but I love this paneer preparation ..all white white . Whenever I have guests at home over dinner, I certainly prefer to make this dish when it comes to a vegetarian preparation . Always happy with the outcome . You may call it a shahi paneer or nawabi paneer as the ingredients required are almost same. The very first time I tried to make this dish was when I had a family over dinner and unfortunately or fortunately the husband was vegetarian. I was in a confused state of mind while thinking of paneer , whether to make with matar/peas or paneer butter masala or palak paneer. But then I thought these are something that I actually do not enjoy cooking (donot like to eat as well). Finally the idea for this white gravy came to my mind. And as obvious I did a mess with it. Do not know how come I thought of peanuts instead of almonds. And when I was grinding the roasted peanuts then only I realised that I should have used almonds not peanuts. As I was running short of time, I quickly put some almonds along with the peanuts and made  the paste with some water. Yes it was white !! It tasted good as well with the richness of dry fruits. With time passing by I started preparing this dish by adding /subtracting ingredients and I found this cashew nut & almond paste taste just awesome with paneer. Do check the rich delicious recipe and try it in your kitchen. You will love it its a promise :)

Ingredients:

Paneer: 200 gms cut into equal sized cubes
Onion: 1 large size
Ginger garlic paste: 2 tbsp.
Green Chillies: 1-2
Cashew nut & almond: 1/2 cup
Chopped coconut: a handful (you can replace this with coconut milk as well)
Bay leaf: 2
Dry red chilli: 1
Mace: 1-2
Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick: 2-3 of each slightly pitted
Fresh cream: 2-3 tbsp
Refined oil: 3-4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
Saffron/kesar: few strands soaked in half small bowl of hot milk

Method:

Soak the cashewnuts, almonds and chopped coconut in water for about 5-10 minutes. Then make a paste out of it in a mixer and keep aside.

Make a paste of onion and green chillies and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the dry red chilli, bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mace and allow them to crackle. Add the onion paste and saute for about a minute . Now add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute or so. Add the cashew, almond & coconut paste , mix with the masala and fry for about 2 minutes in low flame. Add 1 cup of water to it , stir and cover with a lid in medium-high flame. Cook this for about 2-3 minutes, checking in between. Now add the paneer cubes, garam masala, salt and combine everything well and simmer for another 5-7 minutes or till the gravy thickens. If you see the gravy dries up, you can add some more water. Finally add the fresh cream and the saffron along with the milk in which saffron was soaked in, give the gravy a nice stir and put the flame off. Now the paneer in white gravy is ready.

Serve hot with rice or roti.

 

 

Russian Salad

Russian salad is an easy to make salad recipe and is quite popular. I love this salad very much. Whenever I see it being served in any party/weddings I always think of preparing this at home. But unfortunately it never happened. Yesterday only I finally made it as all the required ingredients were available at home.

I heard some one saying also that this is actually not the original Russian salad and its just an indian Russian salad. Fact is we have many other international dishes in our own indianised version. So as far as the taste matters, we foodies are always ready to experiment and give twists and turns to our food.
So here is the very simple recipe of this yummilicious salad...

Ingredients:

French Bean: 4-5 numbers chopped
Carrot: 1 medium sized peeled & chopped
Potato: 1 medium sized peeled & chopped
Peas: 1/4 cup
Apple: 1 small sized chopped
Pineapple: 3-4 slices chopped (I used the canned pineapple)
Mayonnaise: 2 tbsp.
Cream: 1 tbsp.
salt to taste
Black pepper: 1 tsp
Honey: 1 tsp (you can replace with sugar also)


Directions:

Pressure cook the chopped vegetables and the peas with some salt and keep aside (1 or 2 whistles should be enough). Chop the fruits almost of same size of the vegetables and keep aside.

Mix the fruits and vegetables in a bowl and keep aside.

In a mixing bowl, take the mayonnaise & cream and mix them well till they gets a smooth consistency, and not a runny one. Now into this sauce add all the cooked vegetables & fruits. Add some salt, black pepper powder and honey  & combine everything well.

Now your delicious salad is ready. Serve it chilled.

 

Very famous chicken Do-pyaza

Its been a week or so that I was just not in touch with my second baby- my blog. Had to share something here today. So when I was buying chicken today, thought to prepare chicken do-pyaza as its been like many months that I have not cooked this dish. This is a delicious Indian recipe served as curries is basically cooked with two types of onion  & two types of tangy agents. Little sweet and sour this dish goes well with rice/roti/nan.

Ingredients:

Chicken: 500 gms (you can use boneless as well)
Onion: 2 (1 medium sized finely chopped & 1 medium sized cut into cubes)
Tomato: 1 medium sized pureed
Ginger garlic paste: 3 tbsp.
Carmdamom/clove/cinnamon: 2-3 of each pitted
Curd: 2 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder: 2tsp
Red chilli powder: 2 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Garam masala powder: 1 tsp
Black pepper powder: 1 tsp
Green chilli : 1-2 for garnishing
Fresh Coriander & mint: for garnishing
Mustard oil: 3-4 tbsp

Method:

Cut the chicken pieces in equal size, wash properly. In a mixing bowl, marinate the chicken with 1 tbsp. of ginger garlic paste and 1 tsp chilli powder and keep aside for about half an hour.

Take the curd in a bowl and mix 1 tsp turmeric powder & 1 tsp chilli powder and beat well and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadhai/pan. Add the pitted cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and remaining 2 tbsp. of ginger garlic paste and saute. Now add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent. Add the tomato puree and cook till it cooks and release oil. Add the beaten curd into this and add salt. Add remaining 1 tsp turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, remaining 1/2 tsp chilli powder, black pepper powder.  Mix them all very well and fry for about a minute or two.

Add the sliced onions and combine well with all the ingredients. Now add the chicken and garam masala. Mix everything well and cover with a lid. Keep the flame low to medium. Add half cup of water and cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked properly.

Now your chicken do pyaza is ready. Transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves, chopped green chillies and mint leaves. You can add fresh cream for garnishing as well.

Serve hot and enjoy with your rice or chapatti.

 

Ronga Lau pitika - Mashed pumpkin

In Assam, we love to eat smoked mashed dishes , whether it is mashed potato/tomato/sweet potato/egg plant/fish etc. One of the famous among them is ronga lau pitika (mashed pumpkin). Yesterday I made this dish for lunch but in a little different way. Instead of keeping the pumpkin raw boiled, I cooked it in oil with few spices to make this dish a bit interesting to eat. Very easy with few handy ingredients and very light to eat as well.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin: 1 cup cut into medium sized cubes
Onion: 1 medium sized grated
Garlic paste of 3-4 cloves
Green chilli: 1 chopped
Panch phuron: 1tsp
salt to taste
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Fresh coriander for garnishing
Mustard Oil: 1 tsbp

Method:

Par boil the pumpkin pieces in a saucepan with sufficient quantity of water. Once cooked, keep under running tape water, strain. Take a fork or spoon and mash the pumpkin pieces and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadhai. Add paanch  phuron and allow it to splutter. Add the chillies & onion and saute for about a minute or two or till translucent. Now add the garlic paste, coriander powder and fry. Time to add  the mashed pumpkin. Mix with all other ingredients , add salt and cook for about 4-5 minutes covering with a lid checking in between in low-medium flame. Once the pumpkin is cooked completely and takes a light brown colour, put the flame off.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice & dal.