Corn Capsicum Masala with Gulab Jamuns for ICC

Dear All,

Hows everyone doing? I hope the sun is shining bright in your side of the world :-)  This post is little late but better late than never right? For this months Indian Cooking Challenge Srivalli chose Gulab Jamuns, one of the most favorite indian sweet of all time. This was also the first time I prepared gulab jamuns using khoya and they turned out to be simply melt in mouth type! Making khoya at home is little time consuming but if you use ready made khoya than making gulab jamuns at home is so very easy and quite simple too.

Recipe for Gulab Jamuns:
1 cup khoya (250 gms)
1/2 cup maida (all purpose flour)
1 pinch of baking soda
Oil/Ghee for frying

Recipe for Sugar Syrup:
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups of water
few saffron strands
4 Cardamon pods
2 tsp of rose water

Procedure for Gulab Jaums:

• For jamuns, mix khoya, maida and baking soda together. Knead together and make small balls.
• For sugar syrup, heat together all the ingredients and let is simmer for 10 mins until one thread consistency is reached.
• Deep fry the jamuns on low heat so that they are cooked evenly.
• Remove and drain excess oil on paper towels.
• Add the jamuns in sugar syrup and let them soak in syrup for 3 to 4 hours. You can also keep them over night.
• Serve warm and to top it up add a dollop of vanilla ice cream :-)

Winter has already started here, its the time of the year for shawls and pullovers, good old morning walks have returned. Its the time of the year when you feel lazy and getting up early in the morning sounds like climbing a mountain. Its also the time when we crave for something warm and welcoming especially during the nights. On one such chilly evening I prepared Corn Capsicum Masala a perfect combo with rotis and pickle.

Ingredients for Corn Capsicum Masala:
1 cup sweet corn (200 gms)
2 medium green capsicum, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, quatered
2 medium onions, quatered
2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger paste
1 - 2 tsp fresh cream (malai can also be used)
1 - 2 tsp oil
2 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 - 2 tsp sugar
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste


Procedure:

• Grind together tomatoes, onions, green chillies and ginger paste with very little water into a smooth paste.
• Heat oil in a pan, add in bay leaves, cinnamon stick and tomato-onion paste. Fry for 3 to 4 mins until raw smell of onion disappears.
• Now add in the masalas, capsicum and sweet corn. Add little water if required.
• Cover and cook for 10 to 15 mins until well cooked. Make sure you have enough water so that the curry doesnt get burnt.
• Just before serving add in fresh cream and give a quick turn.
• Serve warm with hot rotis or phulkas.

Baked Methi Corn Cutlets

Staying away from family has its own advantages, when I visit home I am pampered like anything, my mom makes may favorite dishes, I can watch disney channel without interruption(which my brother hates!) and sleep till mid day. On my last visit home, i went to see my aunt and by mistake i mentioned we dont get fresh methi leaves in swiss and immediately she packed a big box of dried methi leaves for me to take back. My aunt sun dries the fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves and stores them. Dried methi leaves stay good for months and you just need to soak them in water for 10 mins before using and they are ready to be used. I am sure everyone knows the health benefits of methi so i wont repeat the same and bore you guys. I always try to find new ways to incorporate methi in my diet. On of my favorite is methi theplas which is very much gujju's trademark. Another dish I am fond of is Aloo Methi which i'll be posting soon.

I made these cutlets in my effort to use up the sweet corn kennels which i had in my fridge. Initially i thought of making cheese sweet corn balls which i posted here but then the idea of all that unwanted calories made me feel guilty! Cutlets were second in my list and by adding methi they were super healthy and delicious and not to forget guilt free as they were baked!!

These Baked Methi Corn Cutlets are off to Madhuram's Low Fat Eggless Baking event and to CFK:Leafy Vegetables guest hosted by Pavani, mastermind of Sharmi. The first pic is off to Click:Stacks event by Jugalbandi.

Ingredients: 1 cup boiled mashed potatoes 1/2 cup fresh/dried fenugreek(methi) leaves finely chopped 2 tbsp fine bread crumbs 1/2 cup sweet corn roughly grinded 2 green chillies finely chopped 1 tsp fresh lime juice 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp chaat masala Salt to taste 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander Bread crumbs to roll the cutlets in
Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
• Mix all the above ingredients together nicely. Make sure you dont make it extremely mushy.
• Make small round balls and press them in middle to make flat round cutlets.
• Roll these cutlets in bread crumbs.
• Line the baking tray with foil paper.
• Grease the foil paper using little oil.
• Bake the cutlets for 15 mins on one side, flip and bake for another 15 mins until light brown on both the sides.
• Serve hot with sauce or coriander chutney. You can also use these cutlets in between the burger buns.

Corn Palak (Sweet Corn with Spinach)

HMMM It was thursday afternoon when it all started....while surfing i saw this yummy picture of palak paneer on one of the food sites, though I am not a BIG fan of palak but i do like it in gravy dishes. I wanted to go home and make palak paneer that moment itself...you know how cravings are....so i patiently waited till the clock ticked 6 and immediately ran out of office to buy some fresh spinach leaves. Being very fussy as I am I really dont like the taste of frozen vegetables, i always prefer fresh ones. Unfortunately fresh spinach's are not available everywhere here.....people usually use the frozen cubes. As i was walking towards the supermarket I was praying that i get some fresh spinach today. I didnt have much hope as I was already late...shops get closed by 6 here and very few shops are open till 7 or 8, even if you find them open most of the fresh leafy veggies are already gone.  As i reached the counter i saw there was only one BIG bunch of baby spinach leaves left and I immediately grabbed it...i felt as if i found a treasure :) an aged guy standing next to me gave me a look as if I am crazy, I gave him a big smile..m sure i must have :))....in all my excitement i didnt even notice that the bunch which i had bought was very very BIG, i guess lots of spinach recipes coming up in my future posts :) 

Hmmm one down and one more to go....paneer....again i didnt want to use the frozen paneer....they are not fresh and the one which we get here are hard as a rock, whereas I prefer homemade paneer are soft with melt in mouth texture. Well making paneer was absolutely out of question as it will require lot of time and i didnt really have so much patience...so not giving up i made this dish using sweet corns. The dish came out very well, i simply followed my mom's tips on spices and the result was creamy and delicious curry. Perfect for nan, roti and parathas. I simply adore this recipe because of its simplicity and taste :)) It just took me under 30 mins to prepare this yummy dish :)

Sending corn palak to SWC- Cooking with greens event guest hosted by Sowmya of Creative Saga, mastermind of Laksmi. This dish is also off to WYF : Quick Meals hosted by EC.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh spinach leaves

2 medium onions squared

2 medium tomatoes squared

1 cup sweet corn (i used canned)

3 medium green chiilies

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp oil

1 tsp fresh cream for garnishing

Procedure:

• Blanch the spinach in hot water for about 8 - 10 mins, until the leaves become soft.
• Grind together onions, tomato, green chillies with very little water to make a smooth paste.
• Heat the oil in a pan, add in ginger paste, saute for few seconds, now add in the onion-tomato paste, salt, sugar and turmeric powder.
• Cook the gravy for about 5 to 7 mins until the raw taste of onion disappears.
• Now add in the sweet corn kernels and simmer for about 3 to 4 mins.
• Grind the blanched spinach into smooth paste.
• Just before serving, add the spinach paste in the gravy and simmer for about 2 mins.
• Adust the salt and sugar according to taste.
• Garnish with fresh cream or malai and serve hot with nan, roti or parathas.

Sweet Corn Cheese Balls/Fritters

This is one of my favourite recipe, I make these occassionally as they are fried and contains cheese and I am bit of a calorie conscious person but once in a while we all should give a treat to ourselves and just enjoy the food and these fritters absolutely melt in mouth. This is my sister's favourite recipe too, if given a chance she would probably have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I remember my mom used to make the filling in huge quantity as my sister would have this for atleast next two days :) Darling of my father and apple of my eye, she always keeps me on my toes. She is chirpy little girl who goes on and on...until your head starts spinning. Like me she is too a complete foodie and loves Pastas or i should probably say lives on pastas :) Hey sweetie if you are reading this, i really miss you :) Well lets get back to the recipe, this recipe is fairly simple to make and tastes delicious. Kids love these yummy cheesy fritters and its perfect for dinner parties and functions. I basically make this dish for functions and family gathering, I serve it as a farsan along with the the other main dishes. Farsan is usually some fried dish like bhajia(fritters), samosas, kachoris or sometimes even dhoklas.  The below recipe will serve 2-3 people. This dish goes to Sunday Snacks - Chaat Indian/Street Food hosted by Pallavi of All Thingz Yummy and to WYF Side Dish hosted by EC of Simple Indian Food.

Ingredients:

1 cup of grated veggies (I used cabbage, capsicums, carrots and onions)

1/2 cup of sweet corn roughly grinded

2-3 green chillies finely chopped

1/3 cup of grated cheese

1 tsp pepper powder

Salt to taste

1-2 tbsp of cornstarch

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

• Mix grated veggies, green chillies and salt. Keep aside for few minutes.
• Strain the veggie mixture and remove all the water which was left out from veggies.
• Add in sweet corn, grated cheese and pepper, mix well.
• Make small round balls out of it. If the mixture is not sticking together, try adding in little cornflour, cornflour will act as binding agent for the fritters.
• Heat oil in a deep frying pan, fry them on medium heat, it will take 5-7 mins for each ball to get fried properly. If fried on high heat the inner part of the fritters may not be cooked properly.
• Serve them hot with tomato ketchup or hot and sweet sauce.

Sweet Corn Frankies

I am a complete foodie and love to eat all kinds of chatpata food. Thats one of the things which I miss a lot living in Swiss :( Back in bombay I used to have chaats almost every other day. I have always been a tasty food eater and i cannot take plain bland food. In Bombay we buy all our household stuff from Alfa which is situated in Vile Parle, its a custom notified store with the lowest rates on a range of international products. Just beside Alfa there are some mouth watering chaat stalls for Dabeli, Frankies, Grilled sandwiches, paani puri etc the list goes on....For me its like a tradition to have chaat there whenever I visit the store....:) The best one i like there is frankie...stuffed with potatoes, onions and spiced with green chillies and chaat masala....hmmm....yummy. Last weekend i was craving to have something spicy and chatpata so i made these frankies with little variation of my own :) I made the stuffing using sweet corn and potatoes, i love the taste of sweet corn and they go very well in chaat items. For the roti base I have used the ready made frozen plain parathas we get here, just need to heat them up, you can also use the home made rotis or parathas. The below recipe will make around 4 -6 frankies depending upon the size of the cutlets. I am sending this recipe to Monthly Mingle event Kids Lunches hosted by Srivalli of cooking4allseasons, started by Meeta and to Single Serving Recipes event by Sahaja of SpicyRasam.

        MM:Kids Lunches          

                                         Single Serving Recipes        Ingredients for filling : 1 cup boiled mashed potatoes 1/2 cup boiled and roughly grinded sweet corn kennels 3 small green chillies finely chopped 1-2 tsp salt (adjust to taste) 1/2 cup corainder finely chopped 1 - 2 tsp sugar (adjust to taste) 1 - 2 tsp lime juice (adjust to taste)

1 - 2 tbsp cornflour

2-3 tbsp oil for cooking 1 big onion finely chopped 1 tsp chaat masala 1 tsp red chillie powder Corainder chutney (Recipe below) Ingredients for Corainder chutney :

2 tbsp roasted chana dal 1 cup freshly cut corainder leaves 1 tsp salt 2 green chillies cut into halves 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp lime juice Procedure for Corainder chutney:

Grind all the ingredients in a mixer with little water until smooth paste. Adjust the spices according to your taste. Store in airtight container in frigde.

Procedure for filling:

• In a large bowl mix potatoes, sweet corns, green chillies, corainder leaves, salt, sugar and lime juice. Mix well so as all the ingredients are blended well.
• Make small cutlets out of the mixture, if the mixture is too sticky add some cornflour to it.
• Roll the cutlets in some cornflour so that it does not stick to the pan while frying.
• Heat the oil in non stick pan, add in the cutlets and cook them on medium heat on both the sides until light brown in color.
• For frankies, heat the parathas or roti using little butter or ghee whichever you prefer, spread some corainder chutney on it, add chopped onions, chaat masala and red chilli powder. Place a cutlet in the middle and roll the sides of the roti tightly to make a wrap.
• Serve with corainder chutney or have it just like that...enjoy.

For people who are not calorie conscious can add grated cheese for melt in mouth texture. Next time i may simply bake the cutlets in oven to make it more calorie friendly...:)