PANEER RICE BALLS

I have some leftover rice in my refrigerator and already decided this time to make something new with this rice. Everytime I used to make tempered rice with the leftover rice but today want to make something different. So tried this very easy and quick recipe for breakfast.
Choped some veggies from my fridge, added some mozzarella cheese and grated paneer and some spices and the result is here infront of you. They turned so yummy ....no words to expalin. Enjoyed them with green coriander chutney and tomato sauce. Interesting combination of flavours and textures. I guarantee you, children and adulys love these cheesy rice balls. These rice balls are such a treat fresh off stove, stuffed with glorious gooey cheese. If you loved that dish, you will enjoy these cheesy rice balls! You can make some variations in the recipe by using sweet corn carnels, mushrooms,etc. So ready for the next time when you have leftover rice with you, give try to this recipe. An innovative snack of cooked rice , chopped veggies and bound together by mozzarella cheese and coated with a batter of egg and bread crumbs and deep fried till crisp. Indeed a great starter for a grand meal.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Leftover Steamed Rice

2 tablespoon Grated Cheese [mozzarella]

1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Carrot

1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Onion

1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Capsicum

1 tablespoon Finely Chopped Coriander

1/2 Cup Grated Paneer [cottage cheese]

1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Cabbage

½ teaspoon Chilli Flakes

½ teaspoon Oregano

½ teaspoon Green Chilli

A pinch Salt

1 Egg

1 tablespoon Milk

A pinch of Black Pepper
Bread Crumbs or Crushed Corn Flakes for coating the rice balls

METHOD:

STEP 1 –  Add all veggies with the leftover steamed rice and salt. Mix well and keep it aside for 4-5 minutes.

STEP 2 – Till then take another bowl and put egg in it.

Add some seasoning i.e. black pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, salt and chopped coriander.

STEP 3 – After giving rest for 4-5 minutes add cheese in it.

Make small balls of it.

STEP 4 – At last moment add milk in our egg batter and whisk it nice.

STEP 5 – Now dip our rice balls in egg batter and coat them well with the egg batter.

STEP 6 - If you want to make them crispy you can roll our egg coated balls in bread crumbs or corn flakes.

Like this, prepare balls with the rest of mixture and coat them with egg batter as well as bread crumbs.

STEP 7 – Fry them until it get light golden colour.

STEP 8 - Drain excess oil on a tissue paper or a kitchen towel and serve it with Tomato Ketchup or Green Chutney.

Serve ready rice balls with hot green chutney or simply with tomato sauce. 

NOTE: You may use veggies as per your choice. Use of paneer is totally optional.

EGGLESS BLACK FOREST CAKE

Amongst the most popular birthday cakes in India, this cake is favourite amongst  kids. This cake looks incredibly  gorgeous and isn’t half as difficult to make at home. On your kid’s birthday this year, be a star mom and make this cake at home. Believe us, this will be way better than store bought cake. Preparing good or excellent eggless frosting cakes or gateau at home is creative as well as a satisfying effort and trust me the process is not difficult. But yes takes time and you have some extra pans, bowls and stuff that needs to be cleaned.

To make the work seem less discouraging, I suggest to bake the cake a day before and do the frosting the next day. The cake can be refrigerated overnight and the frosting can be done the next day. To make this eggless black forest cake, you need an eggless basic chocolate cake or a chocolate sponge cake. You can get the from outside or make your own at home. I have made the cake at home only for this black forest cake. Serve the black forest cake chilled. The cake weighed more than 500 grams, about 700 grams. So goes very well as a dessert or for celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries.

If roses speak a thousand words, a home made cake adds a precious expression to it.

INGREDIENTS:

For Cake:

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

6 teaspoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

¾ Cup Granulated Sugar

½ cup Vegetable Oil

¼ Cup Hot Coffee

¼ Cup Milk

¼ Cup Yogurt

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

·     * You can use cocoa powder as per your kid’s liking, you can reduce the cocoa powder by two tbsp and replace it by the flour.

For frosting and decorating:

1 Cup Whipping Cream

6-7 Tin Canned Cherries

¼ Cup Dark Chocolate Shavings

Cocoa powder, choco chips [optional]

Method:

For making Cake:

STEP 1 – Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C, grease an line an 8 inch round pan.

STEP 2 – In a large bowl sift all dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, soda, cocoa powder.

STEP 3 – Add sugar and whisk the dry ingredients well.

STEP 4 – Add wet ingredients one by one, oil, milk, beaten yogurt and lastly hot coffee.

STEP 5 – Fold in well,

pour the batter in the prepared pan.

STEP 6 – Bake for 30 minutes until a tooth pick inserted at the centre comes out clean.

STEP 7 – Let the cake cool down well and then demould  before frosting.

Frosting and decorating:

STEP 1 – Once the cake has completely cooled down, (preferably refrigerate it for a 6-7 hours before starting the frosting procedure) take a long serrated knife and slice the cake horizontally into two halves. Do it as neatly as possible. Alternatively, you can use a thread to tie it around the circumference at the level of slicing, knot it and tighten the knot by pulling the ends, till the cake is completely sliced.

STEP 2 – Take the two halves on two plates, with the sliced surface facing up.

STEP 3 – I covered the two halves with the sugar syrup. Again keep it in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.[Drain the canned cherries,  collect the liquid in a bowl. Using a tablespoon, pour this liquid onto the caked halves, not overdoing it, else you run the risk of soggy sponges. Carefully cover whole of the cake surface]. You can do like this , I have done differently.

STEP 4 – For frosting, whip the whipping cream in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters with a hand mixer.

STEP 5 - Make a chocolate ganache with 1 cup chopped chocolate

and 1/ 2 cup of whipping cream.

STEP 6 – Cover the cake all over with chocolate ganache.

STEP - 7 Using an offset spatula, spread the whipped cream onto the soaked surface of the cake slices.

You should spread it in the middle of two halves as well as on the top also.

Cover it from sides too with whipping cream.

STEP 6 – Now make the rosettes over the cake with the piping bag and arrange the cherries over each rosette.[ you can make design of your choice][sorry  I forgotten to click this step pic]

STEP 10 – Sprinkle some chocolate shavings at the side by slightly tilting the cake. [I skipped this step]

STEP 11 – Chill the cake for few hours, preferably overnight before serving.

 Then cut it into pieces and serve it.

Serve the chilled black forest cake to your dear ones and enjoy… 

NOTE:  Sprinkle some chocolate shavings at the sides by slightly tilting the cake.
Cover the cake with whipping cream trying to level it neatly. With using piping bag make fancy design of your choice.
If you don't be able to make design then no worries, just place cherries according to your design, use a tea strainer to sprinkle some cocoa powder on the top surface of cake. 

PINDI CHANA / PINDI CHHOLE

I want to make it from a long time and finally managed to make this few days back. This was again an awesome and spicy chana recipe that is made for the Indian taste buds. This recipe has got a lot of variations. I have adopted this chhole recipe from Internet. Chhole is nothing but chickpeas .This is one of the very simplest and easiest recipe. The recipe tastes good because  of the addition of dry mango powder and chaat masala. You can add pomegranate seed powder too. As it is not available at this time so used chat masala and dry mango powder. Made an instant dry masala for this recipe. This recipe is usually dry and made with black chana, but I tried it with kabuli chana/ chhole. This recipe is gifted from Rawalpindi now present in Pakistan. Pindi chana are best served with either puri or bhature but I served this with chapattis. Let me tell you this dish will leave burst of flavours on your taste buds, will temp you to eat more and will get over very soon. The best part of this recipe is you don’t have to chop anything. Just use ready masalas and you are sorted.  So don’t waste the time and give a try to this yummy and spicy recipe of pindi chhole.   

INGREDIENTS:

Boiling Chana:

250gms Chhole/ White Chickpeas/ Garbanzo Beans

3 to 4 Cloves

2 Cinnamon sticks of one inch each

2 Black Cardamoms

2 to 3 Green Cardamoms

2 Tea Bags [idon’t have tea bag, so made a potli with tea powder in a small piece of cloth and used it]

2 Bay Leaves

7 to 8 Black Peppers

2 Dagad Phool [stone flower]

½ Mace [javitri]

1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

2 tablespoon Coriander Powder

1 teaspoon Turmeric

1 tablespoon Garam Masala Powder

1 teaspoon Dry Mango Powder

 2 to 3 tablespoon Salt/Black Salt

For tempering chana:

2 tablespoon Refined Oil

3 tablespoon Ginger-Garlic Paste

1 tablespoon Caraway Seed

1 teaspoon Sugar

A pinch of Asafoetida

1 teaspoon Chaat Masala

2 to 3 tablespoon Chhole Masala Powder

10-15 Mint Leaves

 1 Tomato

2-3 Green Chillies,make a slit in each of them

2 tablespoon Chopped Coriander

 Lemon Juice from 1 lemon

METHOD:

STEP  1 – Very important soak chickpeas overnight in water.

STEP 2 - Boil chickpeas with the spices mentioned above black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, dalchini and teabag. Pressure cook until 4 whistles or until tender.

STEP 3 – Drain the water from chickpeas. Discard the tea bags and all spices.

STEP 4 –  Powder all the ingredients given in boiling chana section [from 7-16].

STEP 5 -Take a small pan or vessel. Add clarified butter to it. Keep on low heat.

Once it is hot add caraway seeds and sugar.

Saute for 30 secs. Now add the ginger-garlic paste and keep stirring. Watch out it might just spill over you.

STEP 4 – After a minute add all the powdered spices and a pich of asafoetida except chat masala.Add few mint leaves as well. Stir all nicely for a minute.

STEP 5 – Now add chopped tomatoes as well as halved chillies and saute them.

STEP 6 - Now add boiled chickpeas to it. Combine all nicely. Add salt for seasoning.

STEP 7 – Allow this to cook for another 5 to 7 minutes on low heat. Lastly add chat masala and salt stir nicely.

STEP 8 – Just taste and check if seasoning required. Add more salt or spices if required. Switch off the gas. Serve hot pindi chhole and enjoy.

Before serving squeeze some lime juice. Serve pindi chana hot with rotis, purees or parathas.

NOTE: You could use the same recipe for all kinds of beans.

Adding tea bags or amla gives a nice colour, so do add them while boiling.

Ensure heat is on low mode else the spices might burn.

You could make chana bhel by adding sev, onions, puris/ papdis with a dsah of lime juice.