Food Corner

Kapoor kand’s main ingredient is vegetable of bottle gourd [louki / dudhi]. This recipe is also called halwa of louki / dudhi and it is easily digestible.

INGREDIENTS

1kg green louki

1.5 liter milk

200 g Sugar or as per taste

1 g saffron

3 tsp cardamom powder

Half to one tsp black pepper powder

25 g almonds cut into pieces

25 g pistachio cut into pieces

50 g cashew nuts

50 g dry fruit chironji

10 to 20 leaves of red rose for garnishing

Half tsp rose water or kewda water for flavour

PROCESS

Peel off and deseed louki. Grate it in small pieces. Put it in stew pan. Add milk, sugar, saffron, cardamom powder, black pepper powder and 50% of dry fruits. Put the stew pan on full flame for five minutes, afterwards on medium flame. Keep stirring from the beginning touching bottom of the stew pan. Avoid over heating. When the contents remain less than half and becomes a thick paste the process is over. Taste a little, if it tastes half cooked, then continue cooking until completion. Transfer the kapoor kand in a plate or bowl. Mix rose water or kewda water or both. Garnish with dry fruits and red rose leaves. Serve hot or cold.

Easy to cook, rich in taste, cheap in cost, no time consuming, eat now – eat later.

Serves: four to six persons

Time required: 20 to 30 minutes

Ingredients required

About 300 g wheat flour

¼ to half tsp each of — cumin seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black pepper, cloves, cardamom powder, caraway, nigella, poppy seeds, niger, kasoori maithy, maithy seeds, [all are not necessary]

2 tsp turmeric powder

40—50 g onion finely chopped

2—5 green chilies chopped finely

25 g coriander leaves finely chopped

10—25 g ginger chopped finely

Pure ghee [clarified butter] or cooking oil for dough and deep frying

1tsp salt or black salt

Easy process to make rich balls

Mix in a large bowl 50 to 85 g of ghee or oil and salt with flour. Mix well it again using your skill. Now mix very well all the ingredients in it. You have to make hard dough of it by mixing little water in 3 to 5 steps. Now make 40 to 60 balls of it.

Take a pan or kadhai pour 100 to 200 g of ghee or oil and heat it on low flame. In one step deep fry or shallow fry 6 to 12 balls with stirring them until golden brown. Now the balls are rich and ready. Taste one hot ball. You must like it. Repeat the process and fry all the balls up to golden brown. Serve hot all alone or with salad, curd, raita, sabji, pickles etc.

Puff Samosa

Things you need:-
1 cup of maida
2 table spoon of salt
2 table spoon of ghee
Rice flour or corn flour
100 grams of ghee for frying
4 big sized potatoes
1 small sized onion
2 green chilies
1 tea spoon of red chili powder
1 tea spoon of coriander powder
½ tea spoon of ginger paste
1 tea spoon of dry mango powder
A bunch of green coriander leaves
1 tea spoon of gasam masala

How to make:-
Add salt and 1 table spoon of ghee into maida and make soft dough by adding little water. Make a paste with 1 tea spoon ghee and 2 tea spoon of corn flour. Peel the boiled potatoes and make small pieces of it. Now make a paste of onions, ginger and green chilies and green coriander. Now heat 1 table spoon of ghee in a pan. Add cumin seeds, chopped onions and stir fry it, and then add ginger paste. Add potatoes, salt, red chili powder, coriander powder, dry mango powder, garam masala. Mix properly. Cool it.
Now make 2 balls from the dough and roll very thin. Spread corn flour paste on one roll and place other on it. Now spread corn flour paste on it and roll it. Now make 12 pieces from it. Now close it from one side and roll it from other side. Now roll it in a long way and fill it with potatoes and cover it. Deep fry it. Serve hot with chutney.

It is a very sweet and tasty halwa generally prepared in Indian homes, preferably in the early hours of the day. It tastes good when it is hot. Children like it very much as well as the old people. In India joint families exists in a large numbers especially in villages. Up to four, five generations live to-gather in it. Daughter in laws prepare haluaa to please their father in laws and grand father in laws especially for those who doesn’t have teeth in their mouth.

Ingredients required

200 g wheat flour

100 g sugar

50 g pure ghee or 75 g butter

Half tsp black pepper powder

1tsp cardamom powder

1g saffron

30 g almonds chopped

30 g dry fruit chironji

20 g pistachio chopped

Process

In a stew pan, mix well flour with ghee or butter, under low flame. Parch it up to golden brown in the same flame. Now mix well in it 300 ml water, sugar and saffron. Heat it on medium flame with stirring down to the bottom to avoid heating and cooking it properly. When the water disappears and halwa becomes dry, taste a little if it tastes good the process is over. If it tastes half cooked parch it more until cooked. Mix and garnish rest of the items. Serve it hot along with some salty item.

I am not sure about what the louki is called in English language gourd or pumpkin. We say it louki in India, in Hindi language. It is light green from outside and white from inside. These are generally half kg to 2 kg in weight and 8 to 20 inches long. It is very good for stomach and pocket too. Patients too can consume it safely. Juice of louki is also good for health.

Ingredients

Half kg louki fresh

2-3 tsp pure ghee or butter

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp coriander powder

Half tsp cumin seeds

25 g fresh coriander leaves chopped

Process to prepare

Wash the fresh louki and peel off. Cut it in length in two portions. See if the seeds are big, deseed it otherwise not. Cut into small pieces. Put stew pan on flame. Fry cumin seeds in ghee or butter. When they splutter add coriander and turmeric powder. Parch it. Add louki pieces and parch all for 5 to ten minutes. Now cover it for five minutes by metal plate. Avoid under heating and over heating. When it is cooked mix coriander leaves. Serve hot with fulka, chapatti, pudi, paratha, rice etc.

Lassi is a cold drink of India from ancient times. It is prepared from fresh curd, sugar and ice. It is prepared in every part of India. But lassi of Indian Punjab is more famous. Equally famous is the Punjab’s glass of lassi. The volume of the glass is about liter. Even the big personalities often refuse to consume the whole Punjabi glass of lassi. It is the reason why Punjab’s people look stronger and better personalities than peoples of other parts of India.

Normally the lassi is sold all the year round; but its sale increases 50 times in summer season. In summer season you can see lassi shops every where in cities. In other season they disappear.

Simple ingredients to prepare lassi

Half kg fresh curd

100 to 200 g sugar

300 to 500 g ice cubes

A few drops of rose water or kewda water

Easy process to make cold drink of India

Beat all the ingredients in a mixer or by hand blender in a jug. When the ice remains 10 to 20 percent the Indian cold drink is ready. Cheers. You can add cardamom powder, saffron, chironji, almonds, pistachio, currant, cashew nut etc. to it.

In India we call ‘sabudana’ to sago. It is a very popular eatable raw material. It is not a grain, nor a pulse. It is produced mostly in south Indian factories from some type of underground fruit. So it comes under the category of falahari items. Falahary items are the eatables; which can be eaten during Hindu fastings. Generally Hindus eat one time in 24 hours on the day of fast “Falahari dishes” and fruits or fruits alone.

INGREDIENTS

150 g sago small-soaked in water for 3 hours

300 ml milk

100 to 200 g sugar or as per taste

1-2 tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of saffron

50 g almonds cut in to pieces

½ tsp black pepper powder

EASY PROCESS

Boil 500 to700 ml of water in a stew pan. Drain out water from soaked sago. Add sago in boiling water. Start stirring it deep and continue boiling until sagos change color to semitransparent. Change the flame to medium or low. Add all the ingredients and continue deep stirring. When the sugar is dissolved the sago kheer is ready. Taste it, if you want to add sugar or water or milk, add it. Finally it must be tasty.

In India methi ke paratha’s [parathas made with vegetable fenugreek] are a popular recipe in homes during winter season because this vegetable is available during this season only and also it is good for this time.

Ingredients

Half kg vegetable of methi

Half kg wheat flour

100 g gram flour

1 tsp ajwain

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp salt or to taste

Pure ghee or butter or cooking oil for cooking

Process

Clean the vegetable with water and pick all the leaves from it. Mix well both floors, ajwain cumin seeds and salt. Again mix well in it 125 to 200 g of pure ghee, butter or oil. Mix picked leaves in it. Now adding small quantities of water make hard dough of it. Make flat balls of it, about 30 - 35 g each. Make one ball full flat in round shape to a thickness of about 3 mm with the help of pastry roller. Now fold it from centre on the other side. Fold it once more. Now the size is ¼ and thickness 4 times. Using pastry roller expand it to 3 mm again in any shape. Now cook it in fry pan or tava on medium or full flame using or without using or little using butter, ghee or oil until golden brown. In this way make parathas one by one. Serve hot with whatever you like.

It is a very simple Indian recipe. Those people who believe in plain living and high thinking must like it. This recipe has no spices, but if you like you can add. It tastes good when it is hot.

Simple Ingredients

200 g rice

100 g gram pulse

50 to 75 g pure ghee or butter

Lemon to taste

Salt to taste

Process

Mix rice and pulse in pressure cooker and wash it 3 times with plain water. Drain out the water. Mix 1 tsp salt and 300 ml water. Close the cooker and put on flames. Cook it up to that point after which it could be over heated. After release of pressure, see that the contents are dry. If yes mix little water and cook it again. Now add pure ghee or butter and taste it hot. If salt seems to be less, add more salt and mix well. Taste it again with lemon. It is one of the India’s pure foods. Serve it hot. If you also make kadhi at the same time and eat with it the taste doubles. Add papad, bijora, mango pickle, green chilli and onion with it and enjoy taste of India.

This name is very much attached to Hindu worships. Hinduism is the main religion of India. 80% population of Indians is Hindu by religion i.e. about 880 million people. About 60 million Hindu people live in other countries. Main ingredients of panjeeri are wheat flour, pure ghee and sugar. In worships we Hindus offer panjeeri as prasadam along with other items also, to our Gods and they bless us by accepting our prasadam. This prasadam is distributed amongst devotees. Every Hindu lady who is active in kitchen is supposed to be familiar with the preparation of panjeeri. Rich peoples add spices and dry fruits in their panjeeri. You worship Hindu Gods or not, you can taste it by making it with your own hands in your own kitchen. The recipe follows.

Essential ingredients

250 g wheat flour

50 g pure ghee made from cow or buffalo’s milk

100 g sugar

Optional ingredients

All or any of these

1to 2g Saffron

2 tsp cardamom powder

1tsp black pepper powder

2 to 3 tsp khus khus,

Dry fruits—- chironji, almond, pista, cashew nut, and kishmish etc, Total quantity not over 100 g

Process to make panjeeri

Pour the pure ghee in a kadhai over low flame. If you are using saffron, mix it in medium hot ghee. Off the flame and continue mixing. Mix wheat flour very well in this mixture. Now heaten this mixture in kadhai over low flame and continue mixing. Avoid overheating. When the color changes of all the flour; the process is over. Wait for 10 minutes. Now mix mashed dry fruits, sugar and all the items. Taste it, if you are pleased; send a little prasadam to me also, in India.