BEST FOOD RECIPES

In Gujarati food, khicdi - kadhi is most delicious and light food you will get. If you are coming from long trip or vacation, if asked to Gujarati people they will prefer hot khicdi-kadhi and papad.Here is the recipe of famous khicdi.
Ingredients:
2 cup rice
1 cup moon dal
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
pinch of asfoetida
1 whole red chilli
3-4 cloves
1/2 cup mix vegetables (optional)
oil for tempering
salt

Method:
Soak rice and dal for an hour in warm water.
Heat oil in pressure cooker.
Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, asfoetida, cinnamon, clove, red whole chilli, turmeric and red chilli powder, salt to oil.
Add dal and rice to this tempering.
Add 6 cups of water to this and let it boil for 3-4 mins.
Add 1/2 cup of water.
Close the lid and pressure cook it for 3-4 whistle.
Your Khicdi is ready to eat.

Serve with hot kadhi, ghee, papad and pickle

I can never forget the taste of Hotel Surya's kadhi and Rajdhani's khicdi -kadhi in Vadodara. Gujarati Kadhi goes with lots of dishes like Khicdi, roti, paratha , rice or pulav. I simply love khicdi-kadhi combination with papad and pickle. You can prepare simple kadhi or vegetable kadhi.It is also very healthy food preparation and just take 15 mins to prepare.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tsp gram flour /besan
1 stick of cinnamon
2-3 cloves
1 cardamon whole
1 red chilli whole
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp of green chilli and ginger paste
4-5 curry leaves
pinch of asfoetida
salt
jaggery (according to taste)
water

Method:
First of all in vessel take gram flour, yogurt and 1/2 glass of water.
Mix it well with hand blender
Heat oil in pan.
Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cardamon, cinnamon, clove, asfoetida, ginger-chilli paste, curry leaves and salt. (Tip:adding salt is very important to let yogurt turn into kadhi and not butter)
Add 1/2 glass of water.
Let it boil for 2-3 mins.
Add yogurt-besan mixture to this.
Mix it well with spatula spoon.
Let it boil for 4-5 mins.
Add water to get consistency like soup.
Finally add jaggery and salt according to taste.
Boil for 7-10 mins and turn off gas.

Serve kadhi with hot khicdi or pulav or roti.

Samosas are my favorite snack. I still remember my childhood days when I used to buy one samosa for 50 paise in India. I simply love the crispy layer of it with spicy masala in there. Oh! I want to run to shop and have it right away! I also remember Vishal's samosa sandwich in Alkapuri.
There are lot of recipes which can be made using Samosa. But as I started gaining some weight, I thought started shredding all kinds of oily food. It is very rightly said, ' Necessity is mother of invention'. How long can you avoid your favorite food. So I made Samosa without deep frying in oil. In other words I baked Samosa in oven. And guess what? I am at winning side. My samosas are simply awesome--crispy layer and spicy masala...Oh! I love it.
Ingredients:

For masala:
5 Medium boiled Potatoes
1/2 cup peas
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp crushed green chilli paste
1.5 tsp ginger paste
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp crushed peanuts
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup green chopped coriander
Mango powder
Salt
oil for sizzling

For Cover:

2 cup all purpose flour (maida)
salt
sugar
oil
baking soda (slight)
5-6 drops lemon juice
cold water for kneading

Method:

For Masala:

In a bowl add mashed potatoes, peas, coriander powder, salt, ginger and chilli paste.
Mix them well.
Heat 2tsp oil in a skillet pan.
Add coriander seeds, crushed peanuts, cumin seeds and sesame seeds to this.
When sizzling is done, remove it from stove and mix it well in potatoes mixture.
Add green coriander, mango powder and salt according to taste.



For Cover:
Mix all ingredients viz., all purpose flour, sugar, salt, baking soda.
Knead well with cold water and lemon juice into soft dough.
Keep a side for 15 mins.

Making of Samosa;
Take small portion of dough and form round ball using your hands
Roll dough ball in 4-5" circle.
Cut it into half using knife
Take semi circle roll and fold into shape of cone.
Fill the potato mixture using spoon.
Seal the opening using some water.

Oven Baked Samosa:
Turn your oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.
Reduce the temperature to 300 degree Fahrenheit when you keep samosa in oven.
Usual time is 45 mins for perfect crispy samosas to get ready.
In between keep turning sides , so that they dont get burn on one side.

Serve them with mint-coriander chutney and tamarind chutney. Enjoy

In my childhood days, my mom used to prepare methi thepla and use to give with jaggery and clarified butter (ghee). I still remember the taste of spicy and sweet thepla. I was craving for that taste and today the urge for it was at highest. So I decided to make this yummy methi na thepla.
It is good for kids who dont like to eat vegetable. You can mix any vegetable in dough and give them in form of thepla. Thats what my mom used to do for me.

Ingredients:
2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup lentil flour (besan)
1 cup barley flour
1 sp chopped chillies and ginger paste
1 cup chopped methi (fenugreek)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
oil

Method:

For Dough:
Mix all above flour well.
To this add all above mentioned ingredients. Mix them well with flour.
Add 3 tsp oil to flour, mix it well (This is important for softness of thepla).
Knead the dough with water and keep covered for 30 mins. (dough should be like roti..not to soft nor too hard).

For Methi Thepla:
Make a small bowl of dough and rub in wheat flour.
Try to roll it with roller stick used to make rotis
Make round roti shaped thepla.
Heat the flat skillet on stove
Place thepla on this
Turn to other side when you see small boils on thepla.
Shallow fry both side with 1 tsp oil.
Remove thepla from pan and allow it to cool down.

Serve it with curd, pickle or masala.

How about a having a healthy bowl of salad everyday? There are tons of recipes of salad and in minutes it is prepared, but still we have an excuse of not having it. I thought of having balance diet in terms of nutrition value viz., protein, fat, carbohydrate, sodium salt, calcium, vitamin C and antioxidants, magnesium etc. Just think instead of having protein rich or other rich energy bar, if we have bowl of salad then we are having all mentioned in our diet. Isn't it great?

Ingredients:

1 cup of sprouted moong beans
2 grated carrots
1/2 cup corn
5-6 strawberry
1/2 cup chopped lettuce
2-3 tbsp raisins
1.5 tsp olive oil
2tsp lemon juice
salt

Method:

For Sprouted Moong beans:
Soak moong beans 1/2 cup moong beans in warm water overnight.
Next day morning drain water and transfer moong beans into thin cotton cloth and tie it.
Keep this in closed container in dark for a day (24 hrs).
Open the tie and transfer sprouted moong beans to siever and wash with cold water.
Refrigerate for latter use.

For Salad:
In a bowl , take sprouted moong beans.
Add grated carrot, chopped lettuce, corn, raisins and strawberry to it.

For dressing:
In a bowl take olive oil. To this add lemon juice and salt. Mix it well.
Add dressing just before eating it, otherwise your salad will be spoiled.

Nutritional perspective:
Protein: Sprouted moong beans, corn
Fat: Olive oil, corn
Carbohydrate: Corn
Vitamin C and antioxidants: Straberry, lettuce
Magnesium: Lettuce
Calcium: Raisins

Above mentioned nutrional perspective is best to my knowledge.

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Paneer Butter Masala is very rich recipe and to get the right taste you need to add right amount of everything. This sunday one of my closed friends was going to visit me. My friend's wife is allergic to tomato. Tomato is also not good for people who have kidney stone problem. My dad has that and he dont consume tomato at all since last 25 years.So makingPaneer Butter Masala without tomato, a big question mark for me?

Finally with one of my friends advice , I replaced tomato with dried mango powder (amchur) and result was simply fabulous. You can see the photo, but still cant say that this recipe is without tomato..


Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
3 big chopped onions
1 tsp kasthuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tbsp garlic-ginger paste
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp kitchen king masala
3-4 cloves
3-4 whole cardamon
1 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp red chilli powder
dried mango powder
paneer cubes
milk
salt

Method:

Heat oil in pan. Fry chopped onions till golden brown. Turn off the stove and let it cool down.
Make a smooth paste by adding some water in blender.
Heat butter in another pan. Add sugar with continous stirring (This is very important step, if you want to get taste like hotel)
To this add crushed kasturi methi, clove, cardamon, ginger garlic paste, onion paste, kitchen king masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Allow it to fry for a while.
Add amchur powder according to taste.
With continous stirring, add milk to this very slowly.
Let it boil for 5-7 mins.
Add salt to this.
Finally add paneer cubes to this.

Garnish it with corriander leaves and serve with paratha

Anyone who has visited Ahmedbad will agree with me for bataka vada speciality. Just imagining that yellow crispy crust with potato masala in there, simply brings water in my mouth. Alongwith that some fried chillies, yellow chatni and some onion ...oh, I am feeling a strong urge to eat that right away. It is just simple potato ball , but the way it is prepared it is just awesome..
I tried to make same one at my place and I got the right taste of it...I cant stop eating it. Here is the recipe for it:

Ingredients:
Potato masala

3 big boiled potatos
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp green chilli and corriander paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp sugar
raisins
salt
oil

Batter:
1 cup besan (lentil flour)
1 tbsp sooji (rava or semilona )
salt
1/2 ajwain
pinch of turmeric powder
pinch of red chilli powder
water

Method:
Potato Masala:

First of all, mash boiled potatos with smasher.
Heat oil in pan. To this add mustard seeds, allow it to splutter.
Then add turmeric powder, salt, grated ginger, green chilli-corriander paste.
Once all masala is mixed well, add mashed potato in there and mix well.
Add sugar and bit of salt and raisins.
Turn off the stove.
Make small potato bowls of it.

Batter:
Mixing all ingredients as directed above in batter section, allow it to stand for 10 mins.

Frying:
Heat oil in pan and let it come to boil.
Deep potato balls in batter and deep fry potato balls.
Turn them when turned golden brown.

You can serve this with fried chillies, yellow chutni, onion, curd and also use this for vada pav.

My husband tried a really great combination of vegetables. And I must say, it turned out to be one of most awesome dish. You all must try it for sure.

Ingredients:

1 cup cut frozen Indian gourd (Tindora)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/3 cup frozen cut broccoli
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp corriander powder
1/2 tsp sugar
salt
water
oil

Method:
Heat oil in non-stick pan.
Add cumin seeds and let it splutter.
Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and little water.
Add all vegetables to this and cover it.
Occassionally stir it.
Cook it for 15 -18 mins.
Add sugar, corriander powder to it.
When vegetables are well cooked, you can turn off gas burner.

You can serve this with Indian bread, Roti, Paratha and curd.