Dal Nawabi

Hello my friends!!! how are u doing? :) lets cook something very royal and nawabi style today :) how about nawabi dal? :) here we go... :)

DAL NAWABI

Serve this tasty dal with tandoori roti or rice :)

Preparation time: 10-15 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Serves: 8 people

INGREDIENTS:

150 gram split black gram lentil (urad dhuli dal)
200 gram Bengal gram (chana dal) 
100 gram red kidney beans (rajma) 
1 piece ginger (adrak) 
1 onion (pyaj) 
7-8 garlic (lahsun) buds
3 tomato (tamatar) 2 green chilly (hari mirch) 
few coriander leaves (dhania patti)

 50 gm cottage cheese (paneer) 
1/2 cup curd (dahi) 
1 cup cream
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi) 
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) 
2 tsp salt (namak) 
1/2 tsp red chilly powder (lal mirch) 
1/2 tsp black pepper powder (kali mirch) 

a pinch of asafoetida (hing)

2 tsp sugar

4 tbsp clarified butter (ghee) 

lemon juice (optional)

METHOD:

1. Soak all dals and kidney beans in a container for 6-7 hours.
2. Grind ginger in the mixer finely
3. Chop garlic buds and onions finely
4. Finely chop green chilies and tomatoes.
5. Boil all dals in a pressure cooker with turmeric and salt and hing until it is cooked properly and then remove it from the flame.
6. Cut the panner into small cubes.
7. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cottage cheese and then take them out.
8. In the same ghee crackle cumin seeds and fry chopped onion and garlic until it turns pink.
9. Then add tomatoes and cook for few seconds.
10. Then add grinded ginger and cook for few seconds.
11. Then add curd and stir continuously.
12. Then add salt red chilly powder, black pepper powder and sugar and fry for a minute.
13. Then add some cream and cook for some more time.
14. Lastly add all boiled dals and small paneer pieces and simmer for 5 minutes.
15. Then remove it from the flame and garnish with coriander and serve hot with rotis or rice J
16. If you like tangy flavor in dal, you can add lemon juice (depending upon how much tangy you like) into the dal after cooking it. It tastes great. But if you don’t like tangy flavor then don’t add & mix lemon juice :P 

 HAPPY EATING!!! :D :D

FEW TIPS:

1. You can add malai (cream from the surface of milk) instead of cream if cream is not available. But if cream is available always go for it first :)
2. This dal tastes delicious when cooked in medium thick consistency.

Chocolate Cake

Hello Friends :)

I thought of posting a yummy chocolate cake as the 1st recipe on my blog :) As 2013 is coming in 5 days so let us welcome it by making a dessert :D

CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is the cake made by me :)

Preparation time: 10-15 mins

Cooking time: 40-50 mins

Serves: 4-6 people

INGREDIENTS:

 For making cake's bread:

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

For Frosting:

• 400 ml of Condensed Milk
• 4 tbsp Cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

For Decoration:

•  Cherries and one strawberry

METHOD:

 For making cake's bread:

1) Take milk and sugar in a deep bowl and whisk together till all sugar gets dissolved with milk.
2) Now sieve maida, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cocoa in wet milk and sugar mixture and combine it well.
3) Add vanilla essence, mix well.
4) Add lemon juice and mix well.
5) Transfer mixture in to a greased tray.
6) Pre-heat the microwave oven for 10 mins

7) Now place this tray in microwave and put the microwave oven in convention mode and set the time for 25-30 mins.

8)  Remove the tray from microwave oven after the time you have set and insert a toothpick in the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is baked properly :) Otherwise bake it more for 5-6 mins.

FOR FROSTING:

(Make the frosting only after baking the cake. Otherwise it tends to get hardened and then it becomes very difficult to apply it on the cake's bread. My experience :P)

1) Heat sauce pan on medium heat and add butter, condensed milk and sieve cocoa powder in it.
2) Continue to cook for 7 to 8 minutes stirring continuously.
3) Once it becomes thick add vanilla essence, mix well. Frosting is ready.

For Decoration:

1) Spread frosting all over cake evenly with a knife. You may add some water to frosting to make it easy to work on. Or else you may also dip knife in cold water at regular intervals. This will help to spread frosting easily and evenly :)

2) Now cut the cherries in half from the center. Place all these cherries on the edges of your cake's bread. And then put a big and fresh strawberry at the center of your cake

.

AND VOILA!!! YOUR YUMMY CAKE IS READY :D :D

FEW TIPS:

1)This cake has slight sticky texture when its fresh, keep it in refrigerator overnight and it will do magic :)

2) Don't do kanjoosi in putting sugar in your cake...i did that kanjoosi before and know that my cake was't that much sweet :P

2) You can use unsalted butter since your normal butter contains at least 1 tbsp of salt. Too much salt will ruin your cake's taste. Remember we are already adding salt while making the cake's bread :)

Welcome to Foodyindian :)

Hey Friends :) Cooking is one of my favorite hobby :) i love to experiment and make different types of dishes and would love to share my recipes and kitchen tips with you all :) so keep watching my blog and enjoy cooking :)