Thursday, 19 November 2015

Ingredients:

Chicken fillet – 2 pcs
Curd – 3 tbsp
Mustard powder – 1 tsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp (or according to your taste)
Salt
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Finely chopped lemon leaves
Ginger-garlic paste – 1½ tsp
Vegetable oil – 1 tsp
baked chicken chicken with lemon juice
Lemon Baked Chicken

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, salt and a pinch of black pepper powder for an hour.

Then take a mixing bowl and mix curd, mastered powder, salt, black pepper powder and sprinkles of fresh lemon leaves. Add the marinated chicken fillet and coat with the curd mixture.

Now take an oven proof dish and keep the fillets. Place whole green chili and cover the dish with foil paper. Bake it for 25-30 minutes or till the chicken is cooked at 180 degree Celsius.

Serve with some sprinkles of fresh lemon leaves. This is best served with plain rice.


Tuesday, 10 November 2015

‘Kulhad ki kheer’ is one of the favourite dessert for me as well as my family. But I was little confused about this dish because of its name and its recipe.  Actually I got so many recipes of this but main ingredients are little different, first time I saw vermicelli flour but then I saw rice flour in the other recipe. So I thought here is some secrets or twist in the word ‘kulhad’. And yes, I was right.
According to Wikipedia, kulhad (kulhar) means a traditional handle-less clay as well as terracotta cup from North India and Pakistan. This is actually disposable, use and throws. These cups are mostly used in roadside tea stalls, curd and some regional traditional desserts. When you serve anything in kulhad or in clay cup it will be tastier for its earthy aroma.
Kulhad ki kheer is a very popular dessert in the Navaratri festival, served in clay bowls to match the occasion and this is also served with semia rice (vermicelli flour) with dry fruits.
kulhad ki Kheer made of vermicelli of semai rice, traditional dessert
Kulhad Ki Kheer

Ingredients:

Milk – ½ ltr
Semia (vermicelli) flour – 1 tbsp,
Sugar – 4 tbsp
Saffron – 1 pinch
Chopped pista
Green cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Recipe:

Take 2-3 tbsp milk and soak the saffron in it.
Put milk in a pan and add the semia powder. Mix gently in low flame. Keep stirring constantly and scrap the sides of the vessel. After 10-15 minutes, when the semia powder becomes soft, add sugar and stir it. Mix well and simmer for 4-5minutes. Now add green cardamom powder and soaked saffron and mix it gently.  When it becomes thick remove from the fire. Pour into a serving bowl and keep aside to cool slightly and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Garnish kulhad ki kheer with chopped pista and serve.
Wish you all a very happy Diwali!!! Happy cooking  J

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Corn fritters is an easy to cook snacks recipe. This can be prepared in a ziffy with out much preparation and is savored by all age groups. This is cereal snacks is healthy too as it has a low carb count and low fat content but has high fiber content. 

Ingredients:

Baby corn – 10 -12 pcs
Gram flour – 4 tbsp
Rice flour – 4 tbsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Salt
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Water
Oil

Baby corn fritters prepared by frying after dipping in a batter
Corn Fritters

Recipe:

Cut the baby corns horizontally.
Now take a mixing bowl and marinate the corn with ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, black pepper powder and salt. Keep aside for 20 minutes.
Make a batter with gram flour, rice flour, ginger-garlic paste, salt, black pepper powder and water.
Now deep the pieces of corn into the batter and deep fry it till golden.
While serving, sprinkle some chat masala.

Serve hot as evening snacks with tea or coffee or as veg starters at lunch or dinner.

Happy cooking J


Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Ingredients:

Whole wheat – 1 cup
Vegetable oil – 1/3 1/3 cup
Jaggery powder – ¼ cup
Sugar powder – ¼ cup
Butter milk – ½ cup
Hot water – ½ cup
Baking powder – 1tsp
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Grated fresh ginger – 1 tbsp
Crushed black pepper – ½ tsp
Cinnamon powder – ¼   tsp
Clove powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp

Eggless ginger cake with cinnamon and clove powder
Eggless Ginger Cake

Recipe:

1.      Take a large mixing bowl and mix all dry ingredients like whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder, clove powder, crushed black pepper, salt and grated ginger.
2.      Sieve it once.
3.      Take another mixing bowl and mix oil, butter milk, jaggery and sugar powder with a spatula.
4.      Then add all dry ingredients and mix gently with one side direction.
5.      The batter should be ribboning. At this stage add some hot water to make the batter consistency ribboning.
6.      Now take a greased cake tin and pour the batter.

7.      Bake it in preheated oven at 180c for 25 -30 minutes.

Please let me know how it turns out. Happy baking. ...  J

Wednesday, 12 August 2015

Hilsa or Ilish is the most popular fish for Bengalis. This is the national fish of Bangladesh. Bengalis wait throughout the year and look forward to the rainy season for Ilish. I think Hilsa is most popular for its aroma and taste and also very easy to cook. Nowadays Hilsa is not so pocket friendly but the positive thing is that this fish is very light weight. Bhapa Ilish or steamed hilsa is one of the most popular hilsa dish in Bengal.
Bhapa Ilish or Steamed Hilsa is a popular Bengali hilsa recipe
Bhapa Ilish (Steamed Hilsa)

Ingredients:

Hilsa belly piece – 2pcs
Mastered paste – 3tbsp
Salt
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Mastered oil – 3-4 tbsp
Green chilli – 2-3 pcs

Recipe:

Marinate the fish with turmeric powder and salt.
Now take a bowl and mix mastered paste, 2-3 tbsp mastered oil and salt.
Now take a stainless steel tiffin box and arrange the fish. Pour mastered mix over the fish. Put green chilli. Cover the box.
Then take a vessel and fill half of it with water and keep the tiffin box in the vessel.
Now cook it for 10 minutes.

Your vapa ilish is now ready. Serve with hot steam rice.

Try my other Hilsa recipes


Please let me know your feelings of relishing bhapa ilish or any other hilsa recipe with hot steamed rice with your near and dear ones. Happy cooking ... J

Tuesday, 30 June 2015


 Kebab…………I love kebab. This is the one and only dish which I want to eat anytime, anywhere. The smoky flavor makes me crazy. Not only me, my whole family loves kebab, even my three and a half year old daughter also likes it.

Kebab is a dish from Middle Eastern, Eastern Mediterranean and South Asian countries. When you serve, it should be hot. Traditionally kebabs were made by lamb. But it depends on local taste and society. Actually tastes differ man to man and that’s why you will get many different types of meat including beef, chicken, goat, pork, fish etc. Like other ethnic foods spread by travelers around the world, kebab, which was a part of regular cuisine in most of the Middle Easter and South Asian countries, is now enjoyed by people around the world.

Nowadays kebab/kabab is the most popular dish in urban India. Any get to gather or party will be incomplete without kebab as a starter. Banjara kebab is a type of kebab which I learned from a regional television cookery show. And it is very easy to make at home in your microwave and very tasty too.
chicken banjara kabab recipe
Banjara Kabab

Recipe of Chicken Banjara Kabab

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken cubes – 300 gms
Dry red chilli – 6-7 pcs
Cumin – 1 tsp
Coriander – 1tsp
Kababchini – 1 tsp
White pepper corn – 1 tsp
Nutmeg – 1/4th tsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp
Peanut/groundnut paste – 2 tbsp
Dry mango powder – 1 tsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Hung curd – 2 tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice
Wooden skewer

Method:

Marinade the chicken with lemon juice and salt for around 30 minutes.

Now take a pan and roast dry red chilli, cumin, coriander, kabab chini, white pepper corn and nutmeg. Then grind and keep aside with lid.

Now marinate the chicken with lemon juice and salt for 15-20 minutes.

After 15 minutes you will get some excess water from the marination, so drain that water and again marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, groundnut paste, dry mango powder, kashmiri red chilli powder, hung curd and the grinded spices for 30 minutes.

Now take some wooden skewer and string the chicken pieces one by one and cook it in microwave mode for 4-5 minutes. While cooking in microwave, instead of putting the skewers on tray, take a medium size bowl and keep the skewer on it so that both ends of the skewer touch the edge of the bowl and the chicken pieces do not touch the base of the bowl. The air gap between the edge of the bowl and chicken will help it to cook all sides of chicken well. This will also help to keep the microwave clean as the juice from chicken will drop in the bowl.

Garnish chicken banjara kabab neatly and serve hot. Let me know how it turned out at your end. Happy cooking :-)


Sunday, 14 June 2015

Mango banana dome is an easy to make dessert with two of the most commonly found tropical dessert. Mango the national fruit of India. This seasonal fruit is mostly available in summer. But now a days, canned mango pulp is available in market throughout the year. Banana is anyway available throughout the year. Another advantage of this delicious dessert is that it can be prepared days before the actual serving.  This chilled dessert is prepared with mango pulp and smashed banana. The two distinct layers are created by periodically freezing it and garnished with mint leaves to add a touch of green.

chilling desert with mango and banana
Mango Banana Dome

Ingredients for mango banana dome:

  • Mango pulp – 1 cup
  • Banana – 1 small
  • Vanilla essence – few drops
  • Whipped cream – 2 tbsp
  • Mint leaves
  • Sugar (as required)

Method of mango banana dome:

  • Take the mango pulp and add sugar (depending on sweetness of mango) and blend it very well.
  • Now take silicon dome mold or cupcakes mold, if you do not have silicon mold, you can use normal mold but have to grease it slightly, and pour the blended mango pulp.
  • Now freeze it for 3-4 hrs.
  • Then take a banana and blend it. Now add whipped cream and vanilla essence and again blend it. This is like a banana mousse.
  • Freeze it for 1 hr.
  • Now take the chilled mango pulp and scoop it to make a hole for stuffing.
  • Then pour the chilled banana mousse into the hole and again freeze it.
  • Before serving, remove the mango banana dessert from mold and cut with a sharp knife. Decorate with mint leaves. Enjoy this chilled dessert with your loved ones.

Friday, 5 June 2015


Ingredients for Zebra Cake:

Flour – 1 cup
Butter – 50 gms
Egg – 2
Sugar – ½ cup
Coco powder – 1 tbsp
Chocolate essence – few drops
Vanilla essence – few drops
Milk

cake with zebra stripe
Zebra Cake

Recipe of Zebra Cake:

At first grind the sugar and keep aside.
Now take a mixing bowl and put butter and sugar powder and beat well. Then add an egg and beat it well and add few drops of vanilla essence.
Now take a mixing bowl and mix 1 cup of regular flour and baking powder.
Add this flour into beaten egg and mix well. If you feel the batter is thick, add lukewarm milk. Actually this batter should be ribboning.
Now pre heat the oven in convection mode at 180c for 5 minutes.
Divide the batter in two portions and keep them in two separate bowl.
Now add coco powder and chocolate essence in one bowl and mix it very well.
Now grease the baking tin and pour 2 tbsp white batter and wait for few second. When you see that the batter is spread in the tin, pour 2 tbsp chocolate batter and repeat this process. When two types of batter will is finished take a tooth pick and just cut some line over the batter. The lines make a nice design. Now place it into oven in 180c for 25 minutes.
Take the cake tin and gently prick it with a toothpick from top. If the toothpick comes out clean this indicates that your zebra cake is ready.
After sometime cut the cake and you can see the design like zebra.

Tuesday, 14 April 2015


Channar payesh is very popular dessert of Bengali cuisine. Tomorrow is Bengali New Year – poila boisakh, so I decided to make an authentic Bengali dessert for my family. Channar payesh is not so well known outside Bengal like rosogolla or misti doi. Even, not always available in all the sweet shops in West Bengal. Yet popular enough so that once the pilot of the plane I was boarded, reminded the passengers to enjoy this dessert before leaving Kolkata. Bengali sweets means, channa is the hero. In EasySteps2Cook I have already given some Bengali sweets, where channa is the main ingredient, like sandesh, rosogolla/kamla bhog. Chennar payesh is not always available in sweet shops. This is mostly prepared at home. So now I decided to give channar payesh recipe on the eve of Poila Baisakh as my tribute to this delicious Bengali dessert.

The basic difference between chenna (ছানা) and paneer is that chenna is the first step of preparing paneer. This is the lumps created while breaking milk with lemon juice. When chenna is kept into pressure to and solid chunks are created, this is called paneer. Chenna is mostly used in ewdgastern part of India including West Bengali, Assam, Bihar, Orissa. Paneer is more popular in northern and western parts of India.

Ingredients for making channar payesh:                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Milk – 1 ltr
Lemon juice
Sugar– 1/3 cup
Chopped pista
Chopped almond
Soaked saffron ½ tsp in 1tbsp milk
Cardamom powder -1 pinch

bengali dessert channar payesh
Channar Payesh

Method of making channar payesh:
 In a vessel heat ½ ltr milk and then add a few drops of lemon juice. As a result the milk will break and turn into chenna (paneer) and will look like spongy lumps. Then strain water and keep chenna in a bowl.    
                                
Now heat the rest of milk in low flame and stir continuously. After sometime you will notice the milk has become thick and add sugar. Now add a pinch of cardamom powder and continuously stir it. Add saffron and turn off the oven.

Keep it aside and allow cooling down to room temperature.

After that, add the channa which you have already made …and mix gently. It is better to add chenna in the milk when it cools down to room temperature otherwise there will be risk of breaking down the milk due to its acidic property.

Garnish with some chopped dry fruits like almonds, pistachio.

For more Bengali sweet recipes click on the following links:
Rosogolla

Monday, 30 March 2015


Hara Bhara Kebab is very popular veg starter in India, especially North India. This kabab is available in almost all decent restaurants in India and is a must have for all veg lovers. This is very mouthwatering and made by some green vegetables like spinach, green peas, coriander leaves, potato and paneer. In this recipe spinach and green peas are hero. Hara bhara kabab is a very healthy dish because of its ingredients. In this recipe I have shallow fried the kebabs but you have one more option, deep fry it. Actually me and my family like the aroma of smoke so I chose the first option; means shallow fry.

pure veg hara bhara kebab with green peas spinach and paneer
Hara Bhara Kebab

Ingredients for hara bhara kabab:

Spinach leaves – 1 bunch
Green peas – 1 cup
Boiled potato – 2 medium
Smashed paneer – ¾th cup
Chopped green chilli – 1 tbsp (according to your taste)
Chopped coriander leaves – ½ cup
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Chat masala – 1 tsp
Dry mango powder – ½ tsp
Salt
Bengal gram flour (chattu) – 4-5 tbsp (as required)
Ghee
Cashew nuts

Ingredients for green chutney:

Mint leaf – 1 cup
Coriander leaf – 2 cups
Green chilli – 2 pcs
Curd – 2 tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice – 2-3 tbsp
Chat masala – 1 tsp

Steps of Hara Bhara Kebab
Steps of Hara Bhara Kebab

How to make hara bhara kababs:

Blanch the spinach and green peas and strain the water. Keep aside. Now chop the spinach.

Take a large mixing bowl and smash the spinach and green peas. Then add boiled potato, paneer and ginger paste.

Then smash all these ingredients and add green chilli and coriander leaves and mix it.
Then add all the spices like coriander – cumin powder, garam masala powder, dry mango powder, chat masala and salt. Mix it very well.

Now add Bengal gram flour and make dough. This ingredient will be used for binding. Mix very gently and make smooth dough.

Then from this dough make 24 balls and turn them into kebab shape with your palm (ie. flatten the balls). Now put half a cashew nut on top of the kebabs.

 Now take a tawa or fry pan and brush some ghee. Heat it and place the kebabs.
Keep it till golden brown and flip off the kebabs and fry the other side.
If you want you can deep fried it.

Your Hara Bhara kebabs are now ready. Serve hot with green chutney.

Recipe of green chutney:

Take all ingredients of green chutney and blend it to make a smooth paste. Now your green chutney is ready also. If you like you can add some garlic in the chutney. 

See my another veg kabab recipe Jackfriut (Echor) Shammi Kabab.

Please let me know how it turns out at your end. Happy cooking :)

Sunday, 15 March 2015

Kerala chicken stew or nadan kozhi stew is a very traditional dish as well as Sunday special dish of southern Kerala. This stew is basically made by coconut milk and served in breakfast. Nadan kozhi stew is one of the favorite dishes to Syrian Christian community of Kerala.

Stew is basically a combination of meat and vegetables cooked in low flame. This is very healthy light, good for kids too. For more detailed recipe of regular chicken stew (without coconut milk) please visit my post Chicken Stew - A Healthy and LowCalorie Kids Friendly Recipe.

This dish is made by fresh coconut milk. But nowadays preparing fresh coconut milk is very difficult for us because it is a time consuming process. So you can use readymade coconut milk. Even I have used this. But obviously fresh coconut milk has a natural flavour which enhances the taste. As nadan kozhi stew is a Keralian recipe, generally  coconut oil is used.
Keralian Chicken Stew with Coconut milk
Keralian Chicken Stew or Nadan Kozhi Stew

Ingredients required for Nadan kozhi stew:

Medium chicken pieces – 400 gms
Sliced onion – 1 medium
Chopped ginger – 1 inch
Green chilli – 2 pcs
Curry leaves – 15-20 pcs
Coconut milk – 1.5 cup
Carrot – 1 pc
Potato – 1 pc
Green cardamom – 4 pcs
Cinnamon – 1 inch
Cloves – 4 pcs
Salt
Sugar
White oil – 2 tbsp
Steps of Keralian Chicken Stew
 Steps of  Keralian Chicken Stew

Nadan Kozhi Stew
Nadan Kozhi Stew


How to prepare Nadan kozhi stew :

Cut all vegetables into small pieces. Please make the vegetables in similar shape and size.

Now take a pressure cooker and put 1 tbsp oil and heat it. Then add sliced onion, chopped ginger, green chilli, 8-10 curry leaves, chicken and vegetables.  Add 1 tsp pepper powder, 1 tsp vinegar, salt and just 1 pinch of sugar. Sugar gives you a balanced taste of vinegar, salt and coconut milk. Put ½ cup coconut milk and cover the cooker with a lid. Wait for 2 whistles.

Then heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and put all whole spices like green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and 8-10 curry leaves. Wait some moments and when you start getting some aroma of spices add the boiled chicken and vegetables. Then add 1 cup coconut milk and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Garnish with fresh curry leaves.  Serve hot with roti, bread, appam as well as rice.