Anzac Cookies (Oats Biscuits)

I had a jar of powdered oats specially made for Anaya. I used to boil it in milk with very little salt and feed her for breakfast. Over a period of time she got bored eating the same stuff and refused to have it any more. I didn’t want to waste the oats so thought of making these cookies. I got this recipe from Nitya of  4^th Sense Cooking. Thanks Nitya for a wonderful recipe.

Milo named it Anzac cookies (Australian famous cookies).  Oats have the property for rising up, so baking powder or Baking soda is not required to be put in these cookies.

Check this link for the original recipe –

http://www.4thsensecooking.com/2011/01/winning-moment-oats-cookies.html

These were one among the assorted biscuits I made for the cooking competition in office.

Ingredients-

1 cup powered oats,

1/4^th cup Brown Sugar,

3 tbsp all purpose flour (Maida),

1/4^th cup Butter (I used Amul butter)

3 tsp milk,

A pinch of salt

Method –

Grind brown sugar to a fine powder.

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until it turns creamy.

Mix the powdered oats, salt and all purpose flour together and gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.

Now flatten the dough into a smooth disk shape with your hand and wrap in plastic wrap.

Chill the dough for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Knead the dough well with little milk.

Take out the dough and pinch off equal little bits of dough and roll them into smooth balls. 

Press them a little flat with your palm.

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Cooking Competition @ Work

Women’s forum in my office had arranged a cooking competition for all the ladies of the organization. Due to some reasons I didn’t want to participate in it. But due to Milo’s constant persuasion I took part and I am very happy to tell you all that I bagged the first place. 🙂

This wouldn’t have been possible without Milo’s and my Mother – in – Laws support. They both helped me a lot in the preparation. All the credit goes to them. We choose the bakery theme and  made all baked items – Dates Cake, Chocolate Muffins, Finger Millet Biscuits, Anzac Cookies, Kasuri Methi Biscuits and Pickle Biscuits.

Here are the photos…

The theme of my presentation –

The full table display –

Dates cake and Chocolate Muffins –

Assorted Biscuits –

I also kept the main ingredients for display. See the below pic –

I got a set of Tupperware boxes as the prize. I will post the pics soon….

Paneer Mushroom Chili

This is another Indo Chinese dish that needs to be cooked on a high flame without covering the pan. The capsicum should remain a little crunchy. You can also add baby corn and spring onion.

 Ingredients –

200 grams paneer (Cottage cheese) cut into cubes,

10 mushrooms chopped into 4 pieces each,

2 medium sized capsicum cut into cubes,

1 onion chopped lengthwise,

12 cloves of garlic finely chopped,

1 “piece of ginger finely chopped,

3 green chilies finely chopped,

½ tsp pepper powder,

3 tsp soya sauce,

2 tsp tomato ketchup,

2 tsp green chili sauce,

Salt to taste,

2 tbsp oil

Method –

Heat oil in a wok and fry ginger, garlic and green chilies for a minute.

Add onions and fry for another 2 minutes.

Mix in all the sauces and also put paneer and mushrooms.

Stir the contents well and add pepper powder.

Keep stirring for time to time.

Add capsicum and little salt.

Cook for another 5 minutes and switch off the gas.

Goan Garam Masala (My Moms version)

 

This is my mom’s version of garam masala. She makes this in bulk and uses it for the entire year. Every year I get my share of masala from her. We use it in Chicken Xacuti, Chanyacho Roos and many other goan recipes. Special goan variety chilies (short ones) are used for this masala. If that is not available then you can use any other chilies.

Ingredients-

1/4^th Kg Dried Goan Chilies,

1/4^th Kg Coriander seeds,

1/4^th Kg Saunf  (Fennel seeds),

1/4^th Kg Khas khas (Poppy seeds),

1/8^th Kg Peppercorns,

25 Grams Mustard seeds,

10 Grams Sahi jeera (Caraway seeds),

10 Grams Dagad Phool (Black Stone Flower),

10 Grams patri,

25 Grams lavang (Cloves),

3 jai phal (Nutmeg),

2 tsp Methi (Fenugreek) seeds,

3 Grams Masala elaichi (Big Cardamom),

25 Grams haldi in its full form,

1/4^th cup dried white peas,

5 Grams cinnamon            

Method –

Dry roast all the above ingredients one by one. Allow it to cool. Grind to a very fine powder and store in air tight glass jars.

Chicken Xacuti

This is another well known chicken curry of Goa pronounced as Shakuti. It is generally made on Sundays in most of the Goan households and is eaten with pao (bread) and with rice.

The garam masala that I have used in this is my mom’s home made masala. Click here for the recipe. You can use any store brought garam masala but the taste differs. You can also make ‘roos omlet’ (another well known Goan delicacy) of the left over curry by just making an omlet of an egg,  soak it with this chicken curry and serve it stuffed in a Goan poli (famous bread of Goa). So here is the recipe of Chicken Xacuti.

Ingredients –

1 kg chicken cut into medium sized pieces,

2 onions finely chopped,

2 tomatoes finely chopped,

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste,

Juice of 1 lime,

1/4^th tsp turmeric powder,

1 bay leaf,

2 green chilies,

Coriander leaves,

5 tsp oil

To grind-

2 cups grated coconut,

1 big onion cut lengthwise,

4 cloves,

6 peppercorns,

A small piece of cinnamon,

4 tsp garam masala powder,

2 tsp red chili powder,

2 tsp oil

Method –

Marinate the chicken pieces with ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, lime juice and salt for a minimum 1 to 2 hours.

Heat oil in a pan and fry lengthwise cut onions till golden brown. Add coconut and keep frying till the mixture turns dry and light brown in color.

Add cloves, pepper and cinnamon and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Once cooled grind this with garam masala and red chili powder to a very smooth paste with sufficient water.

Keep this masala aside.

In a deep bottomed pan heat oil and fry bay leaves and slit green chilies for half a minute.

Add finely cut onion and fry for 5 to 6 minutes till onion gets cooked. Now add tomatoes and fry well till tomatoes are done.

Add chicken pieces to this, mix well and cover it with a lid.

When chicken is half cooked, add the ground masala. Adjust salt.

Cover and cook till chicken is done.
Garnish with coriander leaves and add more lime juice if required.

Serve hot with pao or chapattis, or plain rice.

Paneer Masala

We all were bored of eating same food everyday so I had plans of making Paneer Koftas for lunch.  I mashed boiled potatoes, mixed it very well with ginger garlic paste and kasoori methi and mixed all this with grated paneer, made small balls and started deep frying with hot oil. Koftas started melting in the oil :-(. . It was common sense not to fry grated paneer balls but I lacked it at that time :-). I was very disappointed looking at it and I wanted to throw all the kofta mixture straight in the bin. I was also tensed as it was almost lunch time and I didn’t know what to put in the ground masals. Milo made use of the kofta balls by making a starter with stuffed papad. It tasted amazing. See the below pic.

In the mean time I quickly went and I got frozen paneer from the stores and made this paneer masala. Both the dishes tasted good. We all liked it.

The basic ground masala is the same one used in Mushroom Masala.

Ingredients-

200 grams fresh/frozen Paneer,

2 medium sized onion cut lengthwise,

1 small tomato,

1 tsp sahi jeera,

1 bay leaf,

½ tsp garam masala powder,

Salt to taste,

3 to 4 tsp cream (optional)

3 tsp oil

Grind to a fine paste the following –

5 cloves of garlic,

1” ginger,

2 green chilies,

3 tsp chopped coriander leaves,

1 tsp roasted poppy seeds,

½ tsp roasted badishep,

1 tsp roasted coriander seeds,

2 cloves,

2 pepper,

1 small piece of cinnamon,

8 cashew nuts,

½ tsp fresh/frozen grated coconut

Method-

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan, crackle sahi jeera and fry bay leaf.

Now fry onion till golden brown. (Approx 5 minutes).

Put the ground paste in the fried onions and fry for another 4 to 5 minutes.

Now put the paneer, tomato and garam masala. Season with salt.

Cover the pan and let it cook till paneer is done.

Now mix in the cream and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve hot with roti/naan

Eggless Dates Cake

Here is another recipe from Shilpa’s ‘Aayis Recipe’. This is one of the best cakes I have every made. The best part about this cake is its vegan and puffs up very well even without egg. I have made this many times for my family. The first time I made it I used ground nut oil as that was the only type of oil I had at hand and the cake smelt bad. Always use refined sunflower oil or canola oil to make this. You can also add walnut and chopped dates to make a walnut cake (This reminds me of the walnut cake from the famous Major Bakery of Goa).

Here is the link for the original recipe –

http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2006/05/27/date-cake-eggless/

Thanks to Shilpa of Aayis Recipe.

Ingredients-

10 dates(Khajoor),

3/4 cup milk,

3/4 cup sugar,

1 cup all purpose flour or maida ,

1/2 cup oil,

1 tsp baking soda,

Method-

Soak the dates in warm milk for 3 to 4 hours.

Remove the seeds. Add sugar and grind them to a smooth paste along with the milk in which it is soaked in.

Add oil and mix.

Sieve together flour and baking soda. Add the flour one table spoon at a time and mix slowly.

Preheat the oven at 175C. Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 35-40min (or till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).

Finger millet / Nachni / Ragi Biscuits

Shilpa’s ‘Aayis recipe’ is one of the sites from where I try most of the recipes from.  She has a very good collection of recipes. I got this recipe from her site http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2008/09/23/finger-millet-cookiesragi-biscuits/. They taste amazing. Ragi is supposed to be high in calcium and is very good for health. These are favorite among kids and adults also. It’s a good way to make our children eat ragi. Do try them.

P.S. The original recipe called for butter. I have used pure ghee.

Ingredients-

2 cups finger millet / nachni / ragi flour,

1 cup powdered sugar,

1 cup pure ghee,

½ tsp cardamom powder,

1 tsp baking powder,

3 tsp broken pieces of cashew nuts

Method-

Roast flour in a big pan, on a medium heat, for about 5-10mins (do not burn it). Take off the heat.

Now add sugar, ghee, baking powder, cardamom powder to it and mix well.

Preheat the oven at 175C for 10mins.

Make small balls of the dough and keep it on a greased or (lined with parchment paper) baking tray.

Leave enough space between two biscuits as they double in size after baking.

Bake at 175 degree C for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack before storing them.

Chanyacho Roos (Green Peas Curry)

 

This is a Goan delicacy made with green peas and ground coconut. Green Peas are called as chanae and the gravy is called as roos in Konkani. These are not the fresh/frozen green peas that we get in season. You need to use dried green peas. This is Milo’s favorite Goan dish. We both like to eat it with hot idlis. We see to it that we eat this whenever we visit Goa or when my mom visits us. The garam masala that I have used in this is my mom’s home made masala. I will post the recipe for this very soon. You can use any store brought garam masala but the taste differs. So if you want authentic chanya cho roos then wait till I post my moms garam masala recipe.

Ingredients-

3 cups dried green peas soaked overnight in sufficient water,

2 cups freshly grated coconut,

1 big onion chopped lengthwise,

1 small tomato chopped,

6 cloves of garlic,

1” piece of ginger,

5 cloves,

7 to 8 peppercorns,

1 small piece of cinnamon,

2 tsp garam masala,

1 big tomato cut into 4 pieces,

Coriander leaves to garnish,

2 tsp oil,

Salt to taste

Method-

Pressure cook green peas for just one whistle. They should not be overcooked. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry onions till light brown.

Add the grated coconut, ginger, garlic, cloves, pepper and cinnamon to the pan and fry well by keeping the flame very low.

The onion coconut mixture should become dry after frying and the color should be light brown.

Add the small chopped tomato and fry for 2 minutes.

Allow it to cool and grind to a very fine paste with sufficient water and garam masala powder.

Add the ground masala to the cooked green peas.

Add salt and more water if required and let the masala cook well.

Add the big pieces of tomato and coriander leaves.

Cook the tomatoes till they are little soft but are intact.

Serve hot with chapattis, rice, idli or pao.

Aadai

Aadai is a very nutritious south Indian breakfast with different lentils and rice. I made it for Sunday breakfast when my parents had visited us. I served it with tomato chutney. We all liked it. Do try it out and let me know.

Ingredients-

1 cup raw rice,

1/4^th cup tuvar dal,

1/4^th cup chana dal,

1/4^th cup udit dal,

14^th cup moong dal

2 green chilies,

1” piece of ginger,

7 to 8 curry leaves,

1 tsp cumin seeds,

1 tsp mustard seeds,

1/4tsp asafetida,

1 onion finely chopped,

2 tsp chopped coriander leaves,

Salt to taste,

Oil to make aadais

Method-

Soak rice and dal in sufficient water overnight.

Next day in the morning coarse grind the rice and dal. In the end add green chilies, ginger and curry leaves and grind for 5 to 6 seconds.

Add salt and finely chopped onion and coriander leaves to the batter.

Heat oil in a small tempering pan. When the oil is hot enough add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafetida. Add this to the addai batter.

Mix well.

Heat a griddle, smear with oil and put a ladle full of the batter in the center and spread it evenly to make a circle.

Cover and keep on a low flame for 3 to 4minutes.

Flip and cook on the other side for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Serve hot with any chutney