Thursday, 28 December 2017

A few days ago when I was thinking about what can I try new that is simple but elegant, mouth watering but does not take much effort, I decided to try eggplant rollatini. This veggy dish, with its cheesy goodness of ricotta, mozarella and parmesan turned out to be super hit with my hubby and daughter. Both of them instantly requested me to repeat the dish as soon as possible. The aroma of this Italian delicacy is just irresistible. The mix of baked brinjal with tomato puree and the cheese was complementing each other perfectly. This is a perfect dish to make your children start eating brinjal if they do not like this vegetable. Please let me know how it turned out at your end. 

Ingredients:

Eggplant/brinjal - 1 medium
Salt
Pepper
Ricotta cheese -1 cup
Olive oil -1 tbsp
125 gms canned tomato puree
Chopped parsley-1 tbsp
Minced garlic -3 cloves
Egg - 1
Mozzarella cheese -3/4 cup
Parmesan greeted -1/4 cup




Recipe:

Cut the eggplant stem and end portion.
Cut the eggplant lengthwise  into 1/4 inch thick slices.
Arrange these slices on the baking tray and drizzle some oil’ salt and pepper.
Use baking sheet this time and bake it in 200c for 15 mins in preheated oven.
Take a mixing bowl and put ricotta cheese, chopped garlic, egg, chopped parsley, 1/4 cup mozzarella and Parmesan. 
Now take a bake proof tray and make a bed with tomato.
Take one baked eggplant slice and put some cheese mix and role it and place it on the tomato bed.
Make all of them one by one and place them on the bed.
Then again put some tomato on the eggplant role and cover with the remaining mozzarella.
Bake it again 15/20 mins in 200c.
Serve hot.

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Bengalis are fond of different type of chops - aloor choop (potato fritters), onion fritters, vegetable chop, dimer chop or egg devil, fish chop or macher chop etc. Hot chops and tea with a group of friends and relatives is the ideal way of spending evenings after a hard working day or even after a lazy afternoon siesta on holidays. Fish has a special place in Bengali cuisine. So it is obvious there will be fish chops when we are discussing various types of chops from Bengali food habits. Fish fry can again be of many types and is made of different types of fish. Today I would like to share my recipe of fish chop that I made on a chilly winter when a couple of my friends came to visit our place. This is prepared with a normal fish.

To make it clear to all, fish chop is different from fish fry. See the different type of fish fry recipes from my blog.

Ingredients:

Ruhu or katla fish – 10 pcs
Chopped onion – 2 medium
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Chopped green chilli – 1tsp
Chopped coriander leaves – ½ cup
Salt
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Bread crumbs – 200 gms
Egg – 1
Red chilli powder – 10 pcs
Cumin seeds – 2 tbsp
Cloves – 10 pcs
 Green cardamoms – 10 pcs
Cinnamon – 2 inches
Bread without side – 4-5 pcs
Regular flour – ¾ tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Oil for deep-frying

Recipe:

  1. Marinate the fish pieces and boil it till cook.
  2. In a pan dry roast the whole spices like cumin seeds, dry red chilli, green cardamoms, cloves and grind it. Grind it till it becomes like powder and keep aside with a lid for aroma.
  3. Now take the boiled fish and smash it. At this time remove the skin and bones.
  4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and put the chopped onion and sauté it.
  5. Remove from heat and add the fish. Then add ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilli, coriander leaves and salt and mix it.
  6. Now add bread slices and mix it very gently. These bread slices help to bind the dough.
  7. Then add the powdered spices and mix very well to make a dough.
  8. Make some balls from this dough and give shape as per your choice, I made here oval shape.
  9. Take a bowl and beat an egg with a pinch of salt.
  10. Take some regular flour in a plate and roll each chop to coat with flour.
  11. Now dip the flour coated balls into beaten egg.
  12. Take bread crumbs in a flat plate and role all the balls nicely, make sure all balls coated nicely with crumbs.
  13. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying and fry them till golden brown.
  14. Serve hot with salad and tomato sauce or kasundi (Bengali mustard sauce). I always prefer kasundi.

**If you want you can make the chops early and keep in refrigerator. Whenever you need just take it out of the refrigerator and fry them.
       **If you use regular flour, chops will consume less oil. Whenever you make any deep fried starter which will be coated with bread crumbs or anything else, try to coat them with flour first.

Sunday, 26 November 2017

Few months back we shifted to Brussels for my husband’s job. So before coming here I was very excited for the new place and obviously their food. And that time one day I was checking the local fruits and vegetables of this place and learnt about Brussels sprout. When I saw it for the first time, I was super excited to taste this veggie. From the very first day I was looking for this veggie each and everywhere but didn’t get. One day I got it a frozen pack of this in a supermarket but I was looking for the fresh one. Generally I don’t like to eat frozen things but sometimes we are helpless.Two weeks ago I got this finally from a local market and now everywhere we are getting this as this is the season. Now I am happy and make some new dishes with it. This salad is one of them. This is super easy and hope you will also like this recipe.

Ingredients:

Brussels sprout - 10 pcs
Apple - 1/2
Cranberry - 1 hands full 
Salt
Saya sauce - 2tsp
Honey - 1tsp 
Dizon mustard - 1tsp
Olive oil - 1tbsp
Black pepper crushed -1/2tsp
Lemon juice - 1tsp
Brussels Sprout Salad with Apple and Cranberry
Brussels Sprout Salad with Apple and Cranberry caption

Recipe: 

Chop the Brussels sprouts.
Take apple and cut into cube pieces.
Take a bowl and mix all ingredients except Brussels sprouts, apple and cranberry.this is salads dressing. 
Take a mixing bowl and put all fruits and veggies and add the dressing.

Just mix the vegetables and dressing and serve.

Sunday, 22 October 2017

Last Sunday my husband bought so much of fruits from market including lots of pears. And I am absolutely clueless what can I do with all these fruits. So I decided to make some salad with pears. This pears salad had an amazing taste. Not like a typical salad. It was little tangy on the other hand little sweet. And when I was putting lemon juice, got an idea and put little bit of lemon zest also and I think these ingredients make this salad more tasty.

Ingredients:

Pears - 1 small 
Cucumber - 4 inches
Tomato - 1/2 medium
Lettuce - 4 leaves
Black olive slices - 1tbsp
Roasted almond - 8-10

Ingredients for dressing:

Olive oil -1tbsp
Salad seasoning mix - 1tsp
Lemon juice - 1tsp
Lemon zest - 1tsp
Honey -1tsp
Salt 

Tangy fruit salad with pears
Pears Almond Salad

Recipe:

Take a mixing bowl and put all ingredients for dressing. 
Mix all of them together and keep aside.
Your salad dressing is ready.
Now cut cucumber and pears into slices.
Cut tomato into julienne cut, if you have cherry tomato use that. It will look better. I didn't have at that time, so I couldn't use.
Cut the lettuce roughly.
Now take a serving plate and make a bed with lettuce.
Then put cucumber - pears - tomato - olive slices.
Sprinkle the dressing on top of the vegetables.
Lastly add roasted almond.
If you want to make this salad you can make it early but don't put almond. Add almonds just before serving, otherwise the almonds will loose their crunchiness.



Sunday, 8 October 2017

This is a very yummy snacks recipe. First time I made for my daughter’s evening snacks and she liked it. Then I decided to make for one potluck party and there it was finished just like a hot cake. Not only kids’, elders also liked it. Then I decided to share in my blog. Most importantly it is very healthy and low calorie snacks because it is baked and made with lot of vegetables.
Actually “canapé” is a small piece of bread with some savory toppings, served with drinks at party. This is generally a cracker topped and a type of finger food.
bread canapes with mixed vegetablr
Mixed Vegetables Bread Canapes

Ingredients:

Bread slices – 12 pcs
Chopped onion – 1tbsp
Chopped tomato without seeds – 1 tbsp
Chopped capsicum – 1tbsp
Chopped carrot – 1 tbsp
Sweet corn – 1tbsp
Chopped parsley – 1tsp
Chilli flakes – 1tsp or as per taste
Black pepper powder – as per taste
Salt
Grated cheese – 4/5 tbsp
Butter – 1 tbsp
Tomato ketch up – 3tbsp
Oregano – ½ tsp
Black olives – 6/7 slices
Oil – for brushing
yummy snacks recipe with bread and mixed vegetables
Mixed Vegetables Bread Canapes

Recipe:

1.      Take a bowl and put butter, 1tbsp tomato ketch up and grated cheese 1 tbsp and mix together. This is the spread.
2.      Take another mixing bowl and put all chopped vegetables, parsley, chilli flakes, pepper powder, salt, oregano and mix well. This is the filling of canapés.
3.      Now cut the bread slices in round shape with the help of a sharp edge glass or bowl or cookie cutter if you have.
4.      Now take half of the slices and cut the middle of the piece in round shape with the help of a smaller cookie cutter or sharp edged bowl. This will look like donut or a disc with a whole.  
5.      So you will get six pairs from 12 bread slices. Each pair will have once round shaped slice and one donut or disc shaped slice.
6.      Take one bread slice and spread the ketchup – butter spread prepared earlier.
7.      Now keep one disc slice on the bread and put some filling in the middle of the disc. Just lightly press once with your palm from top otherwise there will be a chance to detach both slices.
8.      Make more 5 canapes like this way.
9.      On the top of the canapes put some grated cheese and place an olive slice.
10.  Now brush some oil on the edges of the bread.
11.  Bake them into 200c preheated oven for 8/10 minutes or till the breads turn golden.
12.  Serve hot.



Sunday, 24 September 2017

Mango Baked Yogurt, this in a dessert with mango flavor and made of curd. Everybody knows that “Mishti Doi” is a very famous Bengali dessert. But this baked yogurt and mishit doi is fully different. I am saying this because I heard many people saying that both are same, but making process and taste both are fully different. I hope all will enjoy this easy recipe. And the actual cooking time is only 40 seconds, so I guess one of the quickest dessert recipe you can think of. I believe my recipes are always very easy but tasty and this time I am sharing one of my very easy and yummy dessert recipe. Hope you all will love it.
According to ingredients the below recipe will be for 4 persons.
Preparation time 5 minutes and cooking time only 40 seconds.

Ingredients:

Hung curd – 1 cup
Condense milk – 1 cup
Cornflour – 1tbsp
Mango pulp – 2-3tbsp
Mint leaves – for garnish
mishti doi or baked yogurt with mango
Mango Baked Yogurt

Recipe:

1. Take a mixing bowl and add condense milk and hung curd.
2.  Mix it very well with a whisker.
3.  Add corn flour and mix, don’t allow to make a lump.
4.  Add mango pulp, here I had used canned mango pulp.
5.  Mix well and you should get a smooth texture.
6.  Now take an individual dessert bowl and for this quantity you should need 4 bowls.
     Pour the mixture and keep it in microwave. Switch on the oven in micro mode full power for 40 seconds.
8.  Open the microwave door and if you can see the bubbles in edges of the bowls that means your baked yogurt is ready and immediately take out from the oven.
9. Garnish with mint leaves.


Let me know how did it turn out at your end. If you like the recipe, please let me know through comment or share in social media.

Checkout my other dessert recipes by clicking here. You can find more Bengali dessert recipes here.

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Kadhi is a combination of yogurt and gram flour, which is very popular side dish in western belt in India like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab. I had spent few years in Maharashtra, so I was able to learn some Maharashtrian dish from my friends there. And this Kadhi recipe is one of them from the list. I found this dish very tasty and easy to make as well as healthy. Sometimes my little one refuses to eat yogurt, but she happily eats it as she likes Kadhi. So we both are happy. 

In Maharashtra I saw this is just a combination of yogurt and gram flour or besan. But in Punjab it is little different, they generally put pakoras (fritters) in kadhi. While making kadhi, the measurement of gram flour is very important. Do not put too much of besan, this will affect the taste. For the ingredients required for tempering, I did not mention measurement because this will depend on your taste.


Ingredients:

Yogurt – 125 gms
Gram flour / besan – 1 tbsp
Water – 125 ml
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch (optional)
Paprika powder – ¼ tsp (optional)
Salt
For tempering:
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Chopped green chilli
Chopped coriander leaves
Curry leaves – 8/10
Dry red chilli – 2 pcs
Chopped onion – 1 tbsp
Chopped garlic – 1 tsp
Oil/ghee - 2 tbsp

Recipe:

First take a mixing bowl and mix yogurt, besan and water. Whisk then and add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. You can use electric blender for good result, I personally like to use this option. Blending mixture should be smooth, don’t allow it to form lump.
Now take a heavy bottom pan and pour this mixture and keep it in medium flame. Continuously stir it otherwise it will be stuck in the pan and also will start forming lump.
When it starts thickening or you see it starts bubbling, this means your curry is ready. Take it out from the flame and add some chopped coriander leaves.

Now 2nd step for tempering:
Take a pan and heat oil or ghee.
Put cumin and mustard seeds.
Allow them to crackers and add dry red chilli.
Wait a few moment and add curry leaves, chopped onion and garlic and sauté them.
Add chopped green chilli.
Just sauté it and when they will start to change colour take out from flame.
Immediately pour into Kadhi.
Your Kadhi is now ready. Serve hot with rice or roti.

Do not forget to let me know how it turns out at your end. Happy cooking.

Thursday, 24 August 2017


Murg Banjara….I think this is one of my most tasty recipe from lazy Sunday kitchen. But why this dish is called Banjara! Actually Banjara is a community, usually they are referred as a people who move from one place to another, instead of living in one place. We can found this community the northwestern belt of the Indian subcontinent and now spread all over the India.

Banjara art is rich and includes lots of performance arts like dance, folk music, rangoli and painting. Their culture is full of vibrancies. And this is the similarity with my dish, Chicken Banjara which is rich with spices.
If you want you can give a name but I like to call it Chicken Banjara.
In my website you can get one more banjara named recipe that is Chicken Banjara Kebab. Both are completely different, this one is with gravy what we called side dish and obviously kebab is a starter.

Ingredients:

Chicken – 600 gms
Chopped onion – 2 medium
Cherry tomato – 8-10 pcs
Capsicum – 1 medium
Saffron – 1 pinch
Kasuri methi (Dry fenugreek leaves) – 1 tbsp
Curd – 3 tbsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Mace powder – ¼ tsp
Salt
Sugar – 1 pinch
Ghee – 2 tsp
White oil – 2 tbsp
Butter – 1 tsp
Bay leaf
Murg Banjara
Murg Banjara

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken with curd, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, mace powder and keep aside for half an hour.

Heat ghee and oil in a pan with bay leaf and chopped onion. Fry till golden.

Now add marinated chicken and mix it gently. Add one pinch of sugar and salt as per taste and mix it. Add little water and cover it till the chicken is cooked.

Heat butter in another pan and put capsicum and tomato. Here I used cherry tomato. If cherry tomato is not available, you can you use normal tomato. Toss it gently for only 1-2 minutes. Put this tossed vegetables in the chicken. Add saffron and kasuri methi and mix. Switch off the oven and keep it covered for 10-15 minutes.


Serve with pulau or paratha as you like.

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Prawn is one of the most favourite non-veg item at our home. Though I do not normally cook with wine, this time I thought of trying out wine in prawn recipe. This turned out so yummy that I just can't wait to share with my friends. If any one one of you try, please do not forget to let me now how it turned out at your end.

Ingredients:

Medium size Prawn – 15 pcs
Chopped garlic – 1tbsp
Chopped onion – 1tbsp
Lemon zest – 1tsp
Chopped parsley – 2 tbsp
Red chilli flakes – 2tsp
Salt
Olive oil – 3tbsp
Cream – 2tbsp
White wine – ½ cup

yummy lemon garlic prawn easy recipe
Lemon Garlic Prawn

Recipe:

Clean the prawns very gently and devein it.
Now marinate the prawns with salt for 5 minutes.
Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and fry the prawns.
When it starts to change the colour remove from the pan.
Add another 1tbsp oil in the pan and put garlics.
Just wait for getting aroma and add chopped onion and sauté it.
Add red chilli flakes.
Add white wine and keep it in high flame.
Add prawns and chopped parsley.
Add salt as per taste.
Add cream and keep it in medium flame.
Allow to boil and add lemon zest.
Now gently put the prawns and cook for two minutes. After 2 minutes take off the prawns from the pan otherwise they will be hard. Prawns need very less time to cook.
Allow the gravy to thicken like sauce.
Switch off the gas and pour gravy on the prawns. All the prawns should be covered with sauce.
Serve hot with rice, pasta whatever you like.

You can see my other prawn recipes also. Happy cooking J

Saturday, 29 July 2017

Zucchini Fritters is one of my daughter’s favorite snacks. She is always ready to eat it. And I am also ready to make this because this is very healthy, tasty as well as low calorie. It is really very easy to make with very few ingredients. If u r vegetarian u can avoid the egg. If you are not calorie conscious you can make it deep fried but as per my recipe it is pan-fried because me and my family like it.

Ingredients:

Zucchini -1 large
Chopped garlic – 1tsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Egg – 1
Black pepper – crushed
Corn flour _ 2 tbsp
All-purpose flour – 2 tbsp
Salt
Grated cheese – 2 tbsp
Herbs – as per your choice

Zucchini Fritters healthy evening snacks
Zucchini Fritters

Recipe:

Grate the zucchini first and keep in a large bowl with pinch of salt. Keep aside for 15/20 minutes.

Now squeeze out the water from zucchini with your palms.
In a mixing bowl put the zucchini and add an egg, salt, crushed pepper, chopped garlic, 1 tsp olive oil, any herbs and mix it.
Then add corn flour and all-purpose flour and make a dough, consistency like cookie dough.

Grease your pan with remaining oil and heat it. Take small portions of the batter and put it in the pan while giving a circular shape like fritters. Cook for 2/3 minutes. Then flip off and cook the other side.

Serve hot with mayonnaise or English mustard sauce.

Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Me and my family is in love with anything grilled - be it chicken, fish, broccoli or pineapple. Today I made grilled chicken in pan and prepared white sauce to spread over it. Along with this I made vegetables tossed in high flame to accompany with chicken. I also cooked spaghetti to make it a complete meal. Let me know if you like the recipe. Happy cooking J

Ingredients:

 Chicken breast – 250 gms
Spaghetti – 100 gms
Yogurt – ¾th cup
Chopped garlic – 1 ½ tbsp
Chilli flakes – 1 tsp
Herbs – as per your choice
Ginger- garlic paste
Flour – 1 tbsp
Milk – ½ cup
Black pepper (crushed)
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Salt
Carrot
Red and yellow bell pepper
Broccoli
Green beans
Zucchini
Black olives
Olive oil
grilled chicken made in pan with vegetables and spaghetti
Pan Grilled Chicken With Vegetables And Spaghetti

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken breast piece with salt, crushed black pepper, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and keep aside for 30 minutes.
Boil the spaghetti as per packet instruction and reserve the boiled water what you will get from spaghetti.
****Always reserve the water after boiling pasta. It enhances the taste if used in cooking.
Grease a nonstick pan and heat very well.
Cook one side of the chicken in high flame for 4 minutes, then flip off and cook the other side for same time.
Place your grilled chicken in a serving plate.

Now it’s time to make the sauce.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and put chopped garlic.
When you get the nice aroma from garlic switch off the gas and add herb (here I added fresh parsley), chilli flakes, salt, crushed black pepper and mix.
Then add yogurt and mix it well.
Your sauce is ready.
Just pour it in the grilled chicken.

In the grill pan, put the vegetables and toss it in high flame with herbs, salt and pepper.
After 2 minutes place it in serving plate.

Now make the spaghetti.
Heat oil in a pan and put chopped garlic and stir it.
Add 1tbsp flour and stir it occasionally.
Add the water that you reserved from spaghetti and continuously stir it, don’t allow to form lump.
Add spaghetti, salt, pepper and mix it very well.
Add cream and mix well in low flame.

Add chopped black olives and serve with grilled chicken.