Bhinda Curry

Entrees

Bhinda is also known as Okra or Lady’s Finger.  You can buy them fresh from Chinese, Indian and Iranian grocery stores or you can buy them frozen from the supermarket.  

 Ingredients                                                              

  • 1           lb bhinda
  • 2           medium onions
  • 4           tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2        tsp cumin seeds
  • 2           medium tomatoes
  • 1           tbsp green masala
  • 1           tsp coriander and cumin powder
  • 1/4        tsp turmeric powder
  • 1           tsp salt
  • 2           tbsp yoghurt
  •              juice of 1 lemon
  • 1           tbsp chopped cilantro

Instructions

  1. Take a wet kitchen towel and clean the bhinda.  Slice them into 1/2 rings.
  2. Peel and thinly slice the onions.
  3. In a medium saucepan heat the oil, add the cumin and the sliced onions and fry till the onions are transparent.
  4. Chop the tomatoes and add this to the onions.  Add green masala,  dhanajeera ( coriander and cumin powder), turmeric powder, salt, yoghurt and lemon juice.  Stir and cook this on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
  5. Add the bhinda, mix and cook covered for about 10 min.  The bhinda should be soft.
  6. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Serve with chapatti or paratha

Meat Samosa

Meat

A samosa is a stuffed, deep fried snack that is very popular in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia and Africa. It generally consists of a fried triangular, pastry shell with a savory filling, which may include spiced potatoes, onions, peas, coriander, and lentils, or ground lamb or chicken. The size and shape of a samosa, can vary considerably, although it is mostly triangular. Samosas are often served with chutney,generally as an appetizer. Given the popularity of Indian cuisine, samosas are widely available in Indian restaurants and snack-bars in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

While samosas are traditionally fried, many people  prefer to bake them, as this is more convenient and healthier. 

In many countries samosa is sold as a street food.

Samosa is not an easy food to make.  You need a lot of practice to make it.  Now a days you can buy the pastry at an Indian grocery store and some supermarkets.

Meat Samosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makes about 20

Ingredients

  • 1               package samosa pastry
  • 1               lb ground beef
  • 1/4            cup water
  • ½              tsp salt
  • ½              tsp crushed ginger
  • ½              tsp crushed garlic
  • ½              tsp crushed green chilies
  • ½              tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1               tsp freshly ground cumin
  • 1               tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 1               large onion finely chopped.
  • 1/2            tsp  garam masala
  •                  Few leaves of mint finely chopped.

Paste

  • 3               tbsp white flour
  • 4               tbsp water

Method

  1. Cook meat on medium heat with ¼ cup water.  Stir and break the meat until the meat changes color.
  2. Add all the spices and cook till meat is dry and cooked.
  3. When mixture is cool add chopped onions, cilantro, mint and garam masala.
  4. Make a paste with flour and water.
  5. Fold according to the diagram. 
  6. Fold the small side in half and mark the center
  7. Fold C to F
  8. Apply the paste over this diamond.
  9. Fold A to E
  10. Fill the pocket with meat mixture.
  11. Apply paste to the flap. Close the pocket fold and seal.
  12. Deep fry.

 

Samosa wraping

Cream Chicken

Entrees, Poultry

 Serve 6

Ingredients

  • 4                  tbsp vegetable  oil 
  • 1                  cup finely chopped Green Onions
  • 1                  cup finely chopped Green Pepper
  • 1                  tsp finely chopped Garlic
  • 1                  tsp finely chopped Ginger
  • 1                  tbsp Tabasco
  • 1                  tsp freshly ground Cumin
  • 1                  tomato finely chopped
  • 1                  tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 1                  tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 1                  tsp salt
  • 1                  chicken cut up in 10 pieces
  • 1                  cup chicken stock
  • 2                  cups frozen corn
  • 1                  cup whipping cream*

Instructions 

  1. In a saucepan heat the oil and sauté  the onions and green pepper till they are transparent.
  2. Add  garlic, ginger, Tabasco, cumin, tomato, tomato paste and lemon juice and  salt .  Cook on medium heat for about 5 min.
  3. Remove the skin and fat from the chicken and rinse it in cold water.
  4. Add the corn, chicken, chicken stock and cook on medium heat,  covered,  till the chicken is cooked about 20 minutes. 
  5. Add the whipping cream before serving.

Serve with rice or bread.

*A can of evaporated milk can be used instead of whipping cream.

The chicken is cooked when the meat changes colour and it is firm to the touch.

BANANA BREAD

Sweets

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

  • ½          cup buttermilk
  • 2           tsp baking soda
  • 4           cups white flour
  • 2           cups Sugar
  • 1           cup walnuts (chopped)
  • 3           bananas
  • 4           eggs
  • 8           oz butter

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix baking soda with buttermilk and leave it aside for about ten minutes . The mix should double.
  3. In a large mixing bowl mix white flour and sugar.
  4. In a blender or a foodprocessor blend 1/2 cup walnuts, add the bananas and egg and puree it.  Add this to the flour mix.
  5. Melt the butter and add to the mix.
  6. Add the buttermilk and mix everything together.
  7. Divide this into 2 greased  loaf pans, sprinkle the chopped nuts and bake for 50 minutes.
  8. The bread is done when a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

BLACKBERRY, ALMOND AND CARDAMOM CAKE

Sweets

This recipe is from the Hello Magazine and is by a Norwegian food writer Signe Johansen.  This is a wheat free cake.

Ingredients

  •  4                oz butter                                                  
  • 1                 oz golden casters sugar                          
  • 1                 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3                 medium Eggs
  • 8                 oz ground almonds                                 
  • 2                 tsp baking powder
  • 1                 tsp ground cardamom
  • ¼                sp salt
  • 6                 oz fresh or frozen blackberries               
  • 6                 oz summer berries to serve (optional)    

Instruction

  1. Preheat the Oven to 350 degree F and lightly oil a 23-cm-round cake pan.
  2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time along with a tablespoon of ground almonds to stop the mixture from splitting..
  3. Mix the rest of the ground almonds with the baking powder, ground cardamom and salt in a medium bowl, and then use a large metal spoon to fold these dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Stir until just blended. Add the blackberries and stir once or twice more to incorporate them. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake on the middle oven rack for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cake has risen, looks golden brown and feels firm to the touch.
  4. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before turning out.

Serve this cake either on its own or with mixed summer fruits pile on top and with sour cream or crème fraise. This is quite a moist cake, so it will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight tin or wrapped in foil.

Undhiyu

vegetarian


Undhiyu is a Gujarati mixed vegetable casserole that is a regional specialty of Gujarat, India.  The name of this dish comes from the Gujarati words “matlu” meaning earthen pot and “undhu” meaning upside down since they have been traditionally cooked upside down underground in earthen pots fired from above.

The dish is a seasonal one, comprising the vegetables that are available on the South Gujarat coastline during the winter season, including (amongst others) green beans, unripe banana, muthia  and purple yam. These are cooked in a spicy curry that sometimes includes coconut.

Undhiyu with puri and shrikhand is often eaten in Gujarati houses during winter season.

you will find a few different recipes for Undhiyu. 

Undhiyu has a lot of ingredients and takes longer to make.  It is prepared in stages.

 Undhiyu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

Mutiya

  • 1 1/2                 cup chana flour(gram flour
  • 1/2                    tsp salt
  • 1/4                    tsp Turmeric powder
  • 1/4                    tsp chili powder
  • 1/4                    cup chopped spinach or
  •                          fenugreek leaves (methi bhaji)
  • 1/4                    cup shredded cabbage      
  • 2                       tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4                    cup water
  • 2                       cups oil for frying

Vegetables

  • 1                        yam 
  • 8                        small potatoes
  • 8                        small egg plant
  • 1                        cup green beans
  • 1                        cup Pigeon peas(cooked)
  • 1                        cup water 

Masala

  • 1                        cup finely chopped cilantro
  • 1/2                     cup spring garlic
  • 1                        cup peas (crush it a little)
  • 1/2                     cup desiccated coconut
  • 1/2                     tsp salt
  • 1                        tbsp green masala
  • 2                        tbsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2                     tsp garam masala
  • 1/4                     cup sugar
  • 1/4                     cup lemon juice or
  • 1 tsp                  citric acid
  • 1/2                     tsp crushed  cumin
  • 1                        tsp coriander powder

Vagar

  • 1/4                     cup oil
  • 10                      curry leaves
  • 1                        tsp ajwan
  • 1/2                     tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/2                     tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 1/2                     tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/4                     tsp hing(optional)
  •  
  • 2                        tbsp chopped cilantro for decoration

Instructions

Mutiya(dumplings)

  1. Mix all the ingredients for mutiya except the water.  Make a stiff dough using a little water. 
  2. Put a teaspoonful of the dough in your hands and squeeze firmly to make an oval dumpling about 1” x 1/2”.  Repeat until all the dough is used.
  3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and deep fry the dumplings.

Vegetables

  1. Peel and Cut the yam into 1 inch cubes.  Coat it with oil and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 or until cooked through.
  2. Rinse and slit the eggplant into fours.  Do not cut it through.
  3. Peel and slit the potatoes in the same way as eggplant.
  4. In a small bowl mix everything for the masala.
  5. Use some of this masala to fill the egg plant and potatoes.

Make the Vagar:

  1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil.  Add the curry leaves, ajwan, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds cumin seeds and hing, 
  2. Add the leftover masala and 1 cup of water and mix well.  Layer all the vegetables, eggplants, potatoes, green beans and pigeon peas. (Do not mix this, let it cook layered).  Cook  covered on medium low heat for about 15 minutes.  Add the yams and the dumpling and let it cook for another 15 minutes.

Serve it hot on a platter sprinkled with chopped cilantro.

Victoria Sandwich Cake

Sweets


Victoria Sandwich Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

  • 8              oz butter
  • 8              oz sugar
  • 4              eggs
  • 8              oz white flour
  • 2              level tsp Baking Powder
  • 1              tsp  vanilla essence
  • ½             cup luke warm water

Filling

  • 4              tbsp strawberry Jam

Decoration

  • Icing Sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
  3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
  4. Fold in the white flour and baking powder, together with the water to give a dropping consistency.
  5. Pour the mixture into 2 greased 8″ round cake tin and bake for about 20 min or until done.
  6. Cool on a wire cooling tray, sandwich with the jam and decorate with icing sugar.

Note:

To test cake: –

  1. press gently with a finger, if no impression remains cake is cooked.
  2. Prick it with a tooth pick and if the tooth pick comes out clean the cake is done.
  3. The cake starts pulling from the side.  The cake is done.

This will give you 24 medium cup cakes.

1- 9” cake or 8” sandwich cake,

Chocolate Cake

Substitute 1 oz cocoa for flour.

Coconut

Add 2 oz coconut

Orange or lemon

add zest of 1 orange or 1 lemon and the juice.

Crème Caramel(chasni wadi pudding)

Dessert

 

Serves 6

Ingredients

Caramel

  • 1                 cup sugar
  • 1/4              cup water

Custard

  • 1/2             cups sugar
  • 1                 Liter half and half (light cream)
  • 5                 eggs
  • 1/2              tsp crushed cardamom seeds
  • 1/4              tsp nutmeg powder

Instructions

  1. In a small saucepan  add the sugar and the water. Mix it and boil it till it turns to chocolate  brown.
  2. Pour this in an 8” x 3” round cake tin.
  3. In a large bowl  mix the sugar, half and half,  eggs,  crushed cardamom seeds and nutmeg powder.
  4. Pour the custard on top of the caramel in the cake tin.
  5. Put a baking tray in the oven.  Fill it half way with water and place the cake tin on the baking tray and bake for about one hour or when you put a tooth pick  in the centre,  it comes out clean,
  6. Let it cool.
  7. Before serving:  cover the cake tin with a plate (plate should be bigger than the cake tin) and turn it over.  The custard should come out.
  8. You can make this dessert the day before and store it in the fridge.  To remove:  Fill a flat bottom bowl (the kitchen sink is perfect) with hot water.  Put the cake tin in the hot water for about 5 minutes and then transfer it into a plate.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Snacks & Appetizers, Soups & Salads

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2            avocados
  • 1            cup cooked shrimps
  • 1/4         cup diced cucumber
  • 1/4         cup diced carrots
  • 1/4         cup diced tomatoes
  • 1/4         cup diced celery
  • 2            tbsp mayonnaise
  • 2            tbsp sour cream
  • 1/4         tsp salt
  • 1/4         tsp Black pepper
  • 1            lime (zest and juice)
  • 1            lime for decoration
  •               Parsley sprigs  for decoration

Direction

  1. Cut the avocado in half.  Remove the pip and dice the avocado.  Save the skin.
  2. Take the shrimps and rinse them in cold water.  Drain the water
  3. In a bowl add avocado, shrimps, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, celery, mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, pepper, lime zest and juice.  Mix everything.
  4. Fill the avocado skin with the salad mix, decorate with lime wedges and chopped parsley

Strawberry Cinnamon Chiffon Cake

Sweets

This is a recipe I got from the First Magazine in 1992.

Tip:

Don’t remove the green hulls before rinsing strawberries.  The leaves keep the berries from absorbing water and getting mushy.

 

Serves 16

Ingredients

  • 2-1/4           cups white flour
  • 2                  cups sugar
  • 1                  tbsp  baking powder
  • 1                  tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4               tsp salt
  • 6                  eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/2               cup butter melted
  • 3/4               cup water
  • 1-1/2            tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4               tsp cream of tartar
  • 1                  qt strawberries
  • 2- 1/2          cups heavy cream

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Combine flour, 1 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Separate eggs.  Combine the yolks, melted butter, water and 1 tsp of the vanilla.  With an electric mixer set at low speed, gradually beat egg yolk mixture into flour mixture until just smooth.
  4. With clean beaters, beat egg whites with cream of tartar, at medium speed, until whites hold soft peaks.  Beat in 1/2 cup of the remaining sugar, adding it gradually.  Continue beating until whites hold stiff peaks.
  5. With a rubber spatula, carefully fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
  6. Pour into an ungreased 10” angel-food-cake pan.  Bake until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes.  Cool.
  7. Slice off the top 1/2 inch of the cake and set aside.  Cut a tunnel about 1 1/2 inch deep in the cake.  The cut should be about 3/4 inch from the centre and from the outside of the cake.  Remove cake with a fork to form a tunnel.
  8. Hull and chop half the strawberries.  Beat heavy cream with remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla until the cream holds stiff peaks.  Combine 1 1/2 cups of the whipped cream with the chopped strawberries.
  9. Fill the tunnel with the strawberries-and-whipped cream mixture.  Replace the top of the cake.
  10. Frost cake with remaining whipped cream.  Shortly before serving, hull and half the remaining strawberries.  Decorate the cake with the berries.