Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

I browse through the DIY section of Pinterest when I cannot fall asleep at night, sometimes I come across recipes too in the DIY section, and tell myself, one day I will try them. Well, finally I got around to trying one, and am glad I did. I tweaked the recipe a little to suit my needs. Garlic- Parmesan roasted potatoes are super easy and delicious, they are a perfect snack or a side to any entrée.

Ingredients:

• Small Red Potatoes (or any kind) - 10, cut into halves or quarters
• Salt - 1/2 tsp or more, to taste
• Black Pepper, ground - 1/2 tspn or more,  to taste
• Garlic - 5 pods, finely chopped
• Olive oil - 1 1/2 tblspn 
• Dry Basil - 1/2tspn
• Dry Thyme - 1/2 tspn
• Dry Rosemary - 1/4 tspn
• Parmesan cheese - 1/3 cup, grated or finely chopped
• Coriander leaves - a handful, finely chopped 

You may wanna try the Easy Roast Potatoes, if you do not have the herbs or cheese at home.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• In a bowl mix all the ingredients together, except the potatoes and coriander leaves. 
• Taste the mix to see if it needs more salt or pepper. Once you're happy with the taste, add the potatoes and toss them well, until all the pieces are coated with the mixture.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Empty the contents on it and place the potatoes pieces skin side down.  
• Bake for 25-30 mins or until potatoes are golden brown. A knife put through a piece will go through smoothly when cooked.
• Remove from oven, place in a serving dish and sprinkle the coriander leaves. Viola! 

You may wanna try the Easy Roast Potatoes, if you do not have the herbs or cheese at home.

Deep Fried Smelts/ Nethili meen

Crispy, easy and a tasty recipe. This dish can be eaten as an appetizer or as a side with traditional Indian food.

Ingredients:

Smelt fishes

• Smelts or any kind of small fish - desired amount. 
• Salt - 2 tspn
• Chili powder - 1 tspn
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tspn
• Ginger garlic paste -  1 tbsp
• Corn flour - 2 tbsp
• Lime juice- from half 
• Oil - For deep frying.

Steps:

• Mix all the ingredients except the fish into a paste. If the mixture is too thick, add a splash of amount of water to make it creamy. Taste to see if you need more salt or chili powder.(Once you fry the fishes, you won't be able to able any more salt to them).
• Mix in the fish. Let it marinate for 10 mins.
• In a pan or wok, add enough oil for deep frying, when oil is hot, add about 4-5 fishes at a time. 
• After 2-3 mins, turn the fishes and let it cook for another 3 mins. (If oil gets too hot, slightly lower the heat.)
•  Take the fishes out of the oil and lay on a sheet of paper towel or newspaper to drain any left over oil.

Oven baked Tandoori Chicken (Whole)

Thanksgiving (Canadian) is usually celebrated with turkey, but my husband and I are not big fans of turkey meat, so we decided we will start a new tradition of an Indian thanksgiving with Tandoori chicken :) . I've always wanted to roast a whole chicken instead of cut pieces and this was a good opportunity for me to try it, and it was awesome. Its real simple. Just marinate and bake.

Here are some things you need to know before you start: 

• You have to marinate the whole chicken over night for the best result.
• Use yogurt (Curd) that is thick. 
• You need at least 1 hour to bake, so plan before you start. 

Ingredients:

• Whole chicken skinned - 1

Initial rub:

• Salt - 1 Tspn
• Lemon juice - from 1/2
• Chilli powder - 1 Tspn (optional, if you like it spicy)

For Marinate:

• Yogurt (Curd) - 3 Tblspn
• Ginger garlic paste- 1 Tblspn
• Tandoori chicken masala powder* - 2 to 3 Tblspn based on how spicy you want it (I suggest you taste the powder first, yes! taste it, to see how salty and spicy it is)
• Coriander powder - 1/2 Tspn
• Salt - 1/2 Tspn 
• Corn flour - 1 Tspn + 1 Tspn (For top coating)
• Oil - 2 Tspn

* Or use 1 tspn each of cumin powder, chilli powder, garam masala, dry fenugreek leaves and 1/2 tspn of red food colour.

Final Touch after baking:

• Lemon juice - from 1/2

Steps:

• Clean chicken well and pat dry with a paper towel or clean dish cloth.
• Pierce the chicken with a knife, push it really well into the chicken, not just the surface so that the marinate will get into the flesh. You may want to do some deep cuts in the chicken's breasts as they are white meat, the toughest.
• Mix the ingredients of the initial rub together and spread all over the chicken and into the cuts and pierces.
• Next mix the ingredients of the marinate.
• Spread the marinate well all over the chicken again and inside the cavity too. Cover and refrigerate over night.

Next day:

• Take out the chicken from the fridge and keep it out for about half hour at least to come to room temperature (preferably 1 hour)
• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• Now, dust the marinated chicken with corn flour using a stainless steel strainer for even coating. This will give you a nice crisp layer on top. 
• Drizzle oil all over the chicken.
• Place chicken breast side down on a rack* and bake. This will ensure even cooking all over at the same time.
• Bake for 25 minutes, then flip the chicken around and bake for 20 minutes. Then again flip it and bake for extra 20 mins.
• After the 65 mins, raise temperature to 425 F and bake for 5 mins for the final browning on the top. Not for too long or you will dry out the chicken.
• Remove from the oven and squeeze a fresh lime or lemon all over the chicken.
• Cover the cooked chicken with aluminium foil for 5 to 10 mins to rest before you serve.

* - I used a cooling rack, I placed it on a foil covered baking pan so that the dripping does not stain the pan. If you have a roaster with a rack at home use that. 

If you do not have a roaster or a cooling rack to bake on, don't worry, place chicken on a foil covered pan and remove the drippings from the chicken each time you turn.

Mango Salad

I love mangoes, I think most Indians do, after all India does have the best mangoes :) Here in Canada we get mangoes from California and Mexico, don't get me wrong, they are good, but they cannot compete with Indian mangoes when it comes to taste. If you have not tasted Indian mangoes you've missed something great, even the skin of Indian mangoes taste great.

I found some green Mexican mangoes the other day at the supermarket, they taste like half ripe Kili mooku (parrot- beak) mango, but have bitter skin. I remembered eating a salad made of mangoes long time ago and decided to make it. The mango salad is very refreshing and light. 

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1, thinly sliced. (Any variety of mango, that is firm and not too sweet will work) 
• Carrot - 1, medium size, thinly sliced
• Red Onion - 1/2, thinly sliced
• Red pepper (Capsicum) -1/2, thinly sliced. You can use green pepper if you cant find red.
• Coriander Leaves -  Handful, finely chopped.

Dressing:

• Lemon juice from half a lemon
• Ginger - 1/4 inch, finely grated
• Hot sauce/Chilli sauce - 1/2 tsp or more
• Salt - 1/4 Tsp
• Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Steps:

• Mix all the sliced veggies and mangoes together.
• Mix together the ingredients of the dressing.
• Combine the dressing and the salad well using your fingers. 
• Refrigerate for a while, it will bring out the flavours really well. Then serve.

Cranberry Banana Oat Muffin

Last year during Christmas a baking ingredients company sent a free copy of a little recipe book using their products and coupons for the same to everyone in our city . It had some really nice and simple recipes, so I saved it and after 8 months tried one today. Its called a breakfast muffin, Its health and literally has everything you eat for a breakfast in it.  I made some changes to the ingredients, like swapping white sugar for brown sugar, oil for butter, added vanilla extract and adjusted the amount of Banana added. Don't worry if you can't find cranberries, you can substitute cranberries with raisins, it will be just as yummy.

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour - 1 1/4 cups
• Oats -1 1/4 cups (300 mL)
• Brown sugar - 2/3 cup (Taste batter in the end and add more if you like it sweeter)
• Baking Powder -1 1/2 tsp 
• Baking Soda- 1 tsp 
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Egg - 1 
• Vanilla extract -1 tsp
• Banana - 2 mashed ( Original recipe calls for 2 cups of mashed banana, I'm sure it will be more than 2 bananas, I had only 2 at home, so added 1/4 cup of milk to add more moisture)
• Oil - 1/3 cup 
• Milk -1/4 Cup (You can avoid this and add more mashed banana)
• Dry cranberries or raisins -3/4 cup 

Steps:

• Sift the flour and combine first six dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Mix well.
• Beat egg, mashed banana, oil and vanilla extract together until smooth.
• Add banana mixture to dry ingredients. Stir, add the milk. Stir gently until well combined and moistened. 
• Stir in the cranberries or raisins.
• The batter will be thick.
• Line a muffin pan and fill it 3/4.
• Bake at 375ºF for 15-20 minutes based on your oven. You know your done when you insert a knife and it comes out clean

Home made Mediterranean Burgers

I decided to make my own burger patties after watching an Ad on TV. So I searched the Internet for recipes  and combined ideas from each and here is the result. 

Ingredients:

• Ground (minced) beef : 500 gms
• Egg -1
• Garlic cloves - 3, finely chopped
• Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
• Green chilli - 3 finely chopped. (You can remove the seeds if you don't like too much heat)
• Mint leaves - 2 strands, finely chop the leaves alone
• Bread crumbs - made from 1 slice of bread, recipe here
• Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Sun dried tomato in oil - 1 finely chopped  (optional)

Steps:

• Beat egg with salt and pepper.
• Add rest of the ingredients and combine well. Punch, squeeze and run your fingers through the mixture till the meat is smooth and combined. 
• Take a handful of the mixture, make a ball and then flatten it. Make a small depression in the middle, not too deep tough just a little with your thumb. This will make sure that the patties stay flat when its cooking.
• Keep the patties on a separate piece of parchment paper or aluminium foil. It will be easy to flip them on to the grill.
• Light the grill and when it reaches 400 F, spray oil on the grill and place the patties and close the grill.
• Cook for 10- 12 mins closed. Then flip them, close and cook again for another 10 to 12 mins.
• If you like cheese, place a slice of your favourite cheese on top and close. Turn off heat. Open after a minute. 
• Your done. Use condiments and topping of your choice.

For those without a grill, use a flat pan or a grill pan to make it on the stove top.

Condiments and topping suggestions:

• Lettuce
•  Tomato slice
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Tomato ketchup
• Hot sauce

Chewy Brownies

This is one of the best and simple recipes I found after a long time for a brownie. I decided to bake some brownies as I had some left over cocoa powder. I then realized that I had lost all my recipes while moving,  not that I missed my brownie recipe, my brownies were more like brownie-cakes,  they were soft, not dense. Nor were they chewy, but it did taste good. So I started searching the internet for an easy brownie recipe within minimum ingredients and steps and luckily my search was just 2 clicks away and I found the recipe for the Chewiest Brownies from allrecipes.com. The secret to Chewy brownies - no baking powder or soda, now why didn't I think of that! They only ingredient I added were some chopped walnuts.

Ingredients:

• Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 cup
• Melted butter - 1/2 cup
• White sugar - 2 cups
• Eggs -2
• Salt - 1/2 Tsp
• All-purpose flour - 1 cup
• Vanilla extract - 2Tsp
• Walnuts : 1/4 cup (Optional)
• Icing sugar for decoration - 1/3 cup (Optional)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line pan with greased parchment paper.
• Combine the cocoa, melted butter, sugar, eggs, salt , flour and vanilla. Mix until well combined. It should be very thick and sticky.
• Spread mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool. 
• Dust the icing sugar over the brownie using a metal strainer.

Mango Lassi (Mango shake)

You will be surprised to hear that I first had mango lassi in Canada and not in India :) I love yogurt (curd) but never liked the traditional plain lassi. The  thought of sugar and salt in yogurt, nahh, not for me. So I never tried anything termed "Lassi". So when I came to Canada 5 years ago, my husband took me to an Indian restaurant and told me that the place was famous for 'Mango Lassi'. So I reluctantly tried it and fell in love with it. I hope one day I can make my yogurt-hating brother taste my mango lassi :)

There are 2 ways to do it, the traditional way with plain yogurt or my  fool-proof way with Vanilla flavored yogurt. I came up with my way of doing it when my son refused to eat the vanilla yogurt I had bought for him. I had it sitting around for a week when the idea hit me to make mango lassi with the vanilla yogurt. I served it for dinner on my son's birthday and it was a hit :) Don't worry if you don't get vanilla flavored yogurt or mango puree, you can follow the traditional way.

My way:

In my way it is much easier as you don't have to worry about adding sugar or the yogurt being sour.

Ingredients:

• Vanilla yogurt - 1 tub
• Mango puree - 1 Can
• Water or milk - as needed, for dilution

Steps:

• Blend the mango puree and vanilla yogurt together. You may have to do it in 2 batches if your blender is small. Its 1:1 ratio (1 cup mango-1cup yogurt)
• Add a little water and blend to dilute the lassi to you liking.
• Your done. Enjoy :)

Note: Mango puree already has sugar in it and so does vanilla yogurt, so don't add any sugar. Unless you think you need more after tasting it.

Traditional way:

 Ingredients:

• Fresh Yogurt (curd)
• Sweet mango slices or mango puree
• Milk - if yogurt is sour
• Sugar, as needed

Steps:

•  If using mango slices, blend it till it has become a puree.
• Add yogurt and sugar to it and blend again.
• Add milk if its sour. and blend again.
• Again it will be 1:1 ratio.

Coconut Macaroons

I suddenly remembered that I had saved a recipe for Coconut Macaroons (biscuits) somewhere last year. I had found it after I baked a fruit cake for Christmas and had some dry shredded coconut left. So I decided to find the recipe and bake it. It turned out really well, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside :) 

Its a very easy and simple recipe. If you've read my previous blogs you'll realise I bake or cook that which requires minimum ingredients and steps. Not becos I am lazy, its becos I have a little son running around. He can do some serious damage if left unattended for a long time. So I tend to simplify recipes to suit my time constraint.

Ingredients:

• Shredded sweetened coconut (dry)- 1 1/3 cups
• Granulated sugar - 1/3 cup 
• All-purpose flour - 2 tablespoons 
• Egg whites – 2
• Vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a bowl, combine coconut and flour.
• In another bowl, whisk together the egg whites, sugar and vanilla.
• With a spoon or spatula, mix in the coconut-flour mixture to the egg mixture. It will be dense mixture. Now your ready to bake.
• On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, scoop the mixture with a spoon and place it 1 inch apart. I used a 1 tablespoon rounded measuring spoon. 
• Bake until golden brown, must be for 15-18 minutes, based on the oven. Let macaroons cool. When hot it will not be crispy on the outside.

Tip: Once cooled, transfer to an air-tight container. Or it will loose its crispiness.

Banana Bread

This is an easy and low fat banana bread. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com some time back. I make this every time I have some bananas that don't look pretty enough to eat :) Those dark brown ones are apt for this recipe. Next time you have some uneatable bananas lying around, don't waste them, make yourself a banana bread and enjoy :)


Ingredients:

• Ripe bananas -  2 or 3 large ones mashed
• Baking soda - 1Tsp
• Plain yogurt - 1/2 cup 
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Light brown sugar - 3/4cup
• Sugar - 1 Tblsp (if u like it sweeter, I don't use it)
• Egg  - 1
• Vanilla extract - 1tsp
• All-purpose flour - 1 cup
• Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
• Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Coco powder - 1Tblsp (Optional, for rich color)
• Walnuts - Chopped 1 handful (optional)

*Tip - you can replace 1 whole egg with 2 egg whites and use low fat yogurt for even less fat. I haven't used it like this, so I'm not sure of the taste.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the baking soda and yogurt. Allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the batter.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg or egg whites, and vanilla.
4. In another large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ground cinnamon, coco powder and salt.
5. Then combine the banana mixture with the oil mixture and then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until all the ingredients are moistened. Stir in half the walnuts. 
6. Pour into an oiled  loaf pan or a cake pan of your choice. Add remaining walnuts on top.
7. Bake for about 35- 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Chickpeas Sundal

Chickpeas, kondai kadalai, channa... Call it what you want, on a rainy spring day, hot sundal and ginger tea is enough to relax in the evening. Sundal can be made with peas, chickpeas, green gram etc. It means simply tempering with mustard seeds.

Ingredients:

• Dry chickpeas - 1 Cup
• Water - enough to cover the chickpeas, around 2 cups
• Salt - 1 tsp
• asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

For tempering:

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil - 2 tsp.
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Dry red chilies - 2 
• Ginger - grated 1 tsp
• Coconut - grated 2 tsp 

Steps:

• Soak chickpeas for 2-3 hours.
• In a pressure cooker add soaked chickpeas, water, salt, cumin seeds and asafoetifa powder and cook for 10 - 15 mins.
• After the chickpeas are cooked, heat a pan. Add oil. when oil is hot add mustard seeds, let it crackle. 
• Then add urad dal, red chilies and ginger.
•  Add chickpeas and coconut, turn off heat and stir well.