*********Deepavali Festival Special ********* "Mohanthal" - A Gujrati/Rajasthani dessert

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous Diwali....

Finally managed to make "Mohanthal" which turned out to be easier than I thought...
My first attempt at making this at home...
Have had this dessert several times in some Rajasthani restaurants, and managed to even get the recipe, but always thought it was tuff to make so postponed it...

A yummy Gujrati/Rajasthani dessert....you could even called it "Gram Flour Fudge"

Try making it...its easy and yummy too...

Diwali Celebrations Begin - Finger Food for your Diwali Party - Minty Crisp Baby Potatoes

My favorite festival "Deepavali" or "Diwali" is just 'round the corner.....and the weekend before Diwali is the most hectic one for me....Shopping for gifts for all my near and dear ones....cleaning and re-decorating my home....and then the most important and satisfying time.......making some yummy Indian Sweets....like Gajar Halwa....Coconut Burfi....and some yummy finger foods for the Diwali parties.....
This year I am planning to make "Mohan Thal" a Gujrathi sweet dish...got the recipe from a famed Gujrathi/Rajasthani restaurant here..probably will make it in a day or two...

But meanwhile here is a simple Finger Food....Minty Crisp Baby Potatoes....

Easy to make and yet finger lickin' good...

Ingredients:
Serves 4
Baby Potatoes - 500 gms - Boiled and peeled
Black Salt - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Cumin powder - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Chat masala powder - 1 tbsp
Mint leaves - 2 handfuls - for frying
Mint leaves - 1 few for garnish
Oil - 2 tbsp - for shallow frying

Method:
Take a large shallow pan, keep on medium heat, add oil, allow to heat for about 1 min, then add the black salt, red chilly powder, cumin powder, salt, chat masala and the 2 handfuls of chopped mint leaves along with the boiled and peeled baby potatoes.
Stir fry until golden brown.
Garnish with a few mint leaves.
Serve hot.

'Prawn Koliwada' - A Mumbai Street seafood

"Prawn Koliwada", is a lovely prawn starter very famous in Mumbai.
During my childhood I used to love these made by my grand aunt but over the years I almost forgot about them.
Recently I went to this sea food restaurant in Bangalore which is a very famous Mumbai sea food restaurant chain. And there we ordered the day's special "Prawn Koliwada"
While eating these yummy prawns I was reminded of my childhood mumbai holidays....the way me and my dad used to gorge on these lovely prawns...is a memory i will cherish for a lifetime...
Back home after this dinner, I was going thru my granny's hand written cookbook once again, finally found this lovely recipe...
I know its been a while since I posted any dish, but the last month has really been hectic...office work, house work, exams, festivals, parties....

Am sure you will forget my long absence once you cook and eat this one...so here goes....

Chicken Butter Fry

My very own creation is this Chicken Butter fry.
Inspired by my Butter chicken recipe, this one will surely make you drooling for more....

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks - 1/2 kg
For marination:
Curds - 6 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Dry mango powder or Amchoor - 1 tsp ( Optional)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Tomato puree - 2 tbsp
Cashewnut paste - 2 tbsp ( make paste my soaking 10 cashewnuts in warm water for 15 minutes, then blending to a paste in a mixer)Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
For frying:
Butter - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Cream - 4 tbsp

Method:
Preparing the chicken:
Mix all the ingredients under "for marination" , and apply to the chicken pieces and allow to sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Frying the chicken:
Take a heavy bottomed pan, keep on medium heat, add the butter, oil and cream and fry the marinated chicken legs till done. Make sure all the marination is also added to the pan, and chicken is fried until all the marination evaporates and sticks to the chicken.
If you have tandoor or barbeque, you could fry the chicken drumsticks in the tandoor or barbeque.

Serve hot with onion rings garnish with mint leaves.

Sukkal sungta kosambari/dry prawn salad

Dry prawn salad or "sukkal sungta kosambari" is a Mangalorean konkani side-dish...
this dish is not as popular like the Goan version of Dry prawn Kismur but i love it equally...

Ready in a jiffy...is the ideal side-dish when there is less time to cook but you still cannot manage without seafood...

"Nasheeli Champe" or Drunken Lamb Chops

"Nasheeli Champe" or Drunken Lamb chops is a starter that is totally my own creation...in terms of the recipe...
the name maybe used by some restaurants or on the net, but I just used this name as i thought it fitted well with the ingredients in the recipe....
Easy to make...have used "red wine" in the recipe so am calling it Drunken or nasheeli.

Achaari Fish Tikka

"Achari Fish Tikka" is another  lovely seafood starter which is easy to make, tasty and almost fat free (if you do not use any butter during grilling).
This is an enhanced version of the "Fish Tikka" which I have published earlier..its just that the marination/masala is more punjabi pickle based.
This is a spicier version of the fish tikka.You could use fillets of any fish, but the best fish fillet chunks can be got from fish like Salmon, Sea Bass and Basa since they are firm and can stand well on the grill/tandoor especially during baking/grilling.
You could even deep fry these fillets if you do not have an OTG/Grill, but "Fish Tikkas" are normally grilled on open fire/tandoor. I have used an electric oven (OTG) and grilled the fish.