Pav-Bhaji

                                  
Well there is nothing much to say about pav bhaji, being one of the most prefered and popular foods around major cities in India. More info can be collected at www.wikipedia.org just search pav bhaji and you’ll end up reading everything about it. I haven’t heard any Indian saying they don’t like pav bhaji… it is the beloved street food of western region of India especially Gujarat, Maharashtra and its popularity reaching as far as Himalayas, yes, I have seen people flocking at pav-bhaji stalls in Nainital too, which is a beautiful hillstation situated in Uttarakhand, India (north-east of India).

The version of pav bhaji that I’m posting today is very much similar to what the vendor of pav bhaji stall makes at his road side eatery, street food totally street side style. So without further wasting our precious time I shall jot down the recipe and post some yummy snaps for all of you to drivel on. Enjoy.

      Close up of Bhaji – Sorry P you have to wait a few minutes those were my words while clicking this snap.

On a flat bottom pan add a little water, about 1/2 a cup and add  
1/2 cup chopped Capsicum, I added combination of red and green capsicum.

Let it sizzle for about 2 minutes or till the capsicum is tender then add in  
1 to 1&1/2 cup of chopped Tomatoes, P prefers less tangy food so had added only 1 cup of  chopped tomatoes so adjust according to you taste, also add in
2 tbs of ginger-garlic paste,  
3 tbs of chopped coriander leaves/cilantro leaves 
1/2 tsp kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric,  
1 tbs red chili powder,  
1&1/2 tbs of pav bhaji masala,  
1/4 tsp of hing/asafoetida
1 tbs of lemon juice and  
2 tbs of butter. Let it cook for another 2 minutes or till the raw smell of garlic is gone. (you can start mashing this mixture at this stage or later whatever you prefer)

Now add
2 more tbs of butter
2 cups of boiled and partially mashed potatoes and  
1 cup of boiled and partially mashed veggie combination including cabbage, green peas, cauliflower and bottlegourd.
Add salt to taste and get busy mashing up the mixture with the help of pav-bhaji crusher or something like potato masher. Crushing it enough so as to make non of the veggies recognizable…. hope I’m explaining it good enough but the pictures can back up what I mean to say.

Now adjust the water, salt and spicies and I’m sure you’ll have to add some of them (add a bit red chili if you don’t feel it to be hot enough or add a bit of pav bhaji masala is you feel that flavour is bit less). 

This dish tastes better if its a bit liquidy, not to soupy but not too firm also, a bit more of curry consistency.
Let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.

Serve it hot with butter toasted pav/buns, for me it was home-made ladi pav get the recipe here ; chopped & mixed onion-cilantro; blob of butter and a wedge of lemon.

               Bhaji served with home-made pav and chopped onion-cilantro mix, DH still waiting for his dish.

You all might be thinking that I forgot to put onions in bhaji recipe… but that isn’t the case…. the fact is pav bhaji itself doesn’t have onions and it tastes best raw on side. Adding onion while cooking bhaji gives it a typical taste which is a big no-no for pav bhaji. But if you prefer, go on and add some…

Ladi Pav/Maska Pao/Double Roti/Basic White Dinner Rolls/Butter Rolls

I know you guys might be thinking whats with me and baking, well the reason is, I have a brand new oven on my hand, isn’t that good reason enough?!!! As you must have guessed these days I spend days searching and surfing for good baking recipes and what better than baking the most basic baking recipes, so I thought of baking my own buns for pav bhaji, which I have planned for dinner tonight.
Now surfing for pav-bhaji pav was a daunting task in itself, many bloggers had attempted to prepare and bake these goodies, but what I was looking for, was the very very basic ladi pav that we get at pav-bhaji stall in any city in India, some call it maska pav, some double roti and some ladi pav. Ladi pav means a slab bun, it literally is a slab of multiple buns stuck together and is well known for its soft tender interior and crunchy upper crust. It has pillowy goodness which would meet the standards of any delicate royalty, here I can surely say it melts in your mouth without any effort at all. Ok I feel the readers yawning…. so coming back to the quest for the perfect recipe, there are many bloggers who have either over baked it or looking at the snaps of their creation didn’t satisfy my standards of perfect pav, either they were too crunchy interior or hadn’t puffed enough or where just plain dry to look at, I could feel the hardness of the pav from the pictures itself, but too be very frank some did meet my stringent standards.
After being too critical labeling recipes as hard, flat, dry etc, I was very doubtful about the recipe that I decided to try my baking luck on, but to my delight it came out just perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing. Hope you enjoy watching it, as much as I did, baking it.

Ingredients:
2 cups of APF/Maida
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp butter melted
1 tsp salt
1 cup luke warm water

2-3 tsp of milk for brushing

Preparation Method:
Take 1 cup luke warm water and add yeast and sugar, mix well and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. This is done to activate the dry yeast by feeding it sugar and warm water. After 5 minutes you shall notice that a layer of bubbles have started to form on top of the water, this is the sign that yeast is ready. At this point add salt and mix well.
On a wide working surface take APF and make a well in middle. Pour the water sugar and yeast mix to this well and start kneading a soft dough. At the very start you might feel that you have added excess water as the dough might be very very sticky and hard to handle but rest assure APF will soak up all the water and turn into soft pliable dough in just a few minutes of kneading. Key to it is “Keep Kneading”. After a solid 5-8  minutes of kneading the dough will be soft and almost non-sticky, rather glossy and light to feel, now add 2 tsp of melted butter and knead a bit more. Just enough to incorporated the butter in the dough.

Lightly oil a very large bowl and place the dough in it. We are taking very large bowl coz the dough shall rise and double its size in it.
Cover it with cling film or put the bowl in plastic bag and put a knot to it. Place the bowl of dough in a warm place for 1 & 1/2 hours to 2 hours to rest and rise.

                                                  This is dough after rising for 2 hours

Open the dough and punch it down so as to release all the air from the dough, 3-4 knocks are enough. Now divide the dough in 8-10 chunks and roll them into a very smooth balls (I made 9 equal dough balls).
Dust a tray or a pan in which you intend to bake pav. Place the dough balls at 1-2 inches distance, cover it with cling film again and keep aside for 30 minutes.

                                                 9 dough balls placed in a dusted dish
                     

                                 Covered the dish with cling film and set aside for 30 more minutes

Preheat the oven at 190 Degree C for 10 minutes.

You shall notice that dough balls might have risen and shall now be slightly touching each other.

           After 30 minutes of rest time dough balls brushed with lill milk…. now almost touching each other

Brush the top of the pav with milk using a cotton ball or a kitchen towel or a brush (I prefer using silicone brush) and place them in oven. Bake for around 25 minutes or till they are golden brown on the top (my oven took 28 minutes to be precise)

                                                                      Baking in oven

                                             Just out of oven and ready to be glazed with butter

                                          Lightly spread a lill butter with the help of brush

                                                                Close up after glaze

                                           Check out the tenderness and airy pockets of pav

                    This is how soft they are… that one just bounced back as soon as I loosened the pinch

Enjoy along with marmalade or butter or pav bhaji or vada pav or misal pav or usal pav or dabeli or egg curry or egg bhurji… options are endless.

Tips:
Kneading the dough for 5-8 minutes helps to form gluten in the dough. Gluten affects the elasticity and hence the chewiness of the bread, in short directly affects the volume of baked product. In general, bread flours are high in gluten while cake flours are low. We want our breads to be airy and elastic and our cakes to be moist and tender. The amount of moisture in the dough also affects the formation of gluten. Baking schools teach that to make a perfect white bread one has to add 55% of moisture to flour proportion.

Brushing milk on the top of the dough balls ensure that we have a nice crust to the pav. It also ensures a nice sheen to the pav.

Rub a little butter on top of the pav after they have been baked and removed from the oven. This will ensure that the pav remains moist and soft and also add a bit more sheen to the finished product.

Always remember if you are using 1 cup of APF add 1 tsp melted butter at the end and if using 5 cups of APF add 5 tsp melted butter in the end… in short ratio is 1 tsp butter per cup of APF.

Bhindi ki Sukhi Sabzi/Stir Fried Okra with Onions/Kanda-Bhinda nu Shaak

The thing about Bhindi/Okra is that either you love it or you hate it, P is on the love side and I’m on the hate side, rather to say ‘was on the hate side’. I still remember, we had just been married for about 3-4 months and I had just reached Riyadh for the first time and we had started our new life together. I hated bhindi so much that I didn’t even care to know how its prepared, I had to call my mother-in-law to ask for the recipe with P liked the most, it wasn’t over there, P forced me to eat same quantity of bhindi sabzi as much as he ate, I’d say not the best dinner!!!

P has a very funny food fundamentals, he says “we have to develop liking for a dish in very specific way, start by eating it little by little and then one day will come you shall like the most dreaded food too!!”, now I guess I agree with him. I love Bhindi but only if it is prepared in a very specific way and is not soggy and gooey.

This is a very simply but tasty recipe, actually simplicity is the key to this recipe, let the vegetable advocate for itself don’t overpower its taste with adding un-necessary spices.

Heat 3 tbs oil in heavy bottom pan

add 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera and let it crackle

now add 1/4 tsp hing/asafoetida and curry leaves

Add 2 small to medium sized chopped onions and 3 tsp of ginger-garlic-green chili paste.

Saute for 1 min and then add 250 gms chopped okra/bhindi

Add salt to taste and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder.

Mix well and cook on low flame till okra is tender and done. NEVER PUT A LID WHILE COOKING OKRA OR THE DISH WILL TURN INTO A SOGGY GOOEY DISH.

Once the okra a done add 3 tsp of Dhania-jeera powder/coriander seeds-cumin seeds powder and 1/2 tsp red chili powder

Mix well and turn off the heat.

Serve warm with roti, chappati, naan or paratha of your choice. Tastes great with Dal-Chaval too.

Tips: Add 1/4th tsp of tava masala or garam masala for a more aromatic sabzi.

Potato Rosti with grated Beetroot, Onion and Cheese

Potato Rosti is one of the most versatile recipes that you can find. Primarily made with grated potato alone or in combination with other veggies and meats and herbs. This dish originated in Switzerland and many Swiss consider it as a national dish. Usually there are quiet a variation in techniques and size of rosti itself, they can be pan fried or oven baked, I have selected the latter method. I also added an unusual veggie, beetroot, to make it a health friendly dish.

Preheat the oven on 200 degree C
boil 3 medium sized potatoes for 10 mins, remove skin and grate them
boil 1 medium sized beetroot with 1 cup water + 1 tsp sugar, grate it too. Add a little salt and pepper to it.

take 1 large onion, chop it finely or pulsated in food processor along with 1 green chili and handful of fresh cilantro, jalapeno will be the best but any green chili will do. Add salt, pepper, red chili flakes and garlic powder to it

Take 4 tartlet tins and butter them lightly.
First spread a little grated potato, after that lay grated beetroot, top it with minced onion mixture, lay 1 tbs of shredded mozzarella/cheddar cheese and to finish the rosti with another layer of shredded potatoes.

Place it in pre-heated over and bake for 40-50 mins or till the top potato layer turns golden brown.

Tips: As I prefer a lightly brown rosti I have baked it to that extent only, continue baking for few more minutes if you prefer a bit darker brown dish.

Homecooked Pizza Sauce

This weekend I’m planning on preparing veggie pizza with homemade dough and this homemade cooked pizza sauce. This time I’m preparing cooked pizza sauce another way is uncooked pizza sauce in which you just need to add all condiments and little tomato sauce to tomato paste and done, I shall be posting that recipe later
I think there are 3 ways of enjoying pizza,
1. call domino’s or pizza hut (which is the easiest) but then you have no idea what goes into your loving lazy pizza or how fresh the ingredients were or how many calories you consume.

2. prepare pizza at home using store bought pizza dough/pizza base along with store bought pizza sauce, you just have to assemble your pizza with your favorite pizza topping and cheese. Now come no one can be fooled here… this is as good as ordering a pizza from any pizzeria, the only satisfaction you have here is that you know how much cheese you’ve put on top, which I guess shall be much less than the pizzeria one and how much veggies you add to your pizza. Ok so you win 40% battle over ready made pizza but still you don’t know what goes in you store bought pizza sauce…. things with complicated name to confuse customers and trick them into eating unhealthy food. Guys I don’t have any personal grudge towards those companies but a fact is a fact… cannot be changed. But I should also thank them for making life easier for many who grab the pre-cooked sauce during their crunch time. Going to our last point

3. prepare pizza from scratch, prepare the dough and sauce, select your favorite toppings and cheese. Bake and enjoy. This way, no doubt you shall be eating junk food but at least you shall be sure of what’s landing in your body. Who said junk food can’t be healthy?!! prepare dough using whole wheat flour instead of white flour, use fresh herbs and fresh tomatoes for sauce, add tons of veggies as toppings and limited quantity of cheese, this way even unhealthy thing as pizza can be made into a satiating healthy junk food.
So coming back to my weekend plan … I’m preparing this pizza sauce in advance and shall freeze it, this way it becomes handy on weekend … all I have to do is thaw it and use.

Take 3 medium to large ripe tomatoes… make sure they are bright red, blanch them, remove skin and pulse it few times in a food processor to get a chunky puree.
1 small onion and 2 green chillies pulsated in food processor or mixie / chopped very finely
Heat 1 tbs of EVOO in a heavy bottom pan (don’t bring it to smoking point or else all benefits of Olive oil are killed) add 4 big garlic pods grated, chopped onion and chili. Let it work for a few minutes may be 1-2 minutes and then add in chunky tomato puree.
Add 3 tbs tomato paste and 1/3 cup water. Bring it to a boil and simmer it on very low heat for 3-5 minutes.
Now add in 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp chili flakes ( I also added 1/2 tsp red chili powder, as I prefer hotter version of pizza sauce)
1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs tomato sauce

Mix well and let it simmer for another 2 minutes and done.
Store it in an airtight jar and use as required. Can be refrigerated upto 3-5 days depending on weather conditions or can be stored in freezer for upto 30-45 days.

Tips:
This Sauce tastes better after refrigeration, that is because the condiments get time to release their flavor as the time passes.
Can also add in parsley, thyme and other herbs, I haven’t added it as I was aiming for a specific taste.

Dal Makhani (Kali Dal)

Ever thought of a dish which you used to love as a kid / otherwise came across and as time passes you move places, see things, learn, watch and grow intellectually, that kid within you keeps searching for that taste that is registered in your mind, may it be “Maa ke haath ka so n so dish” or “Mirch Masala (name of the restaurant) ki Masala chaas” or some road side eatery dish. This happened to me when P and I had gone to Mauritius, it was the day before our departure from Mumbai to Mauritius and we were staying at Intercontinental, The Lalit, Mumbai, it was during our lovely lunch we had ordered Kali dal along with rice, paneer curry dish, garlic naan etc. I shall never forget the aroma and buttery texture of that dal which I felt at the very first spoonful of it, ever since then I have tried to hunt down the recipe for that perfect dal. So my quest landed me at this recipe which I found at one of the best blogs,  www.vegeyum.wordpress.com. The author has similar experience with dal and had got the recipe from one of the chefs at Oberoi Bangalore. So I decided to give it a try and check the results.
Going through the recipe I learnt it calls in for almost 100 gms of butter + 50 gms of ghee and 30 ml of cream, which I didn’t have courage to pour in as you know its not good health wise, So I modified and adapted the recipe as per my needs. Though I have added more than usual amounts of butter and cream otherwise this recipe can’t be called Dal “Makhani”, which literally means buttery.
Well this recipe is a keeper, I should say its almost there in sense of my quest for that perfect kali dal. I shall be sticking to it for a long long time.

Soak over night/min 6 hours
1/2 cup whole urad dal / black lentils
1/4 cup Rajma / red kidney beans
1/4 cup Channa dal / Bengal gram dal

Pressure cook soaked grains along with
1 inch ginger peeled and grated
2–3 big garlic cloves
2-3 green chillies
salt to taste
Make sure that there isn’t excessive water in dal, if so drain and reserve (just in case you need it). Roughly mash the cooked dal with ladle, but be careful not to be over zealous.

For tempering heat
2 tbs ghee in a seperate vessel and add
1/2 tsp methi seeds / fenugreek seeds and
1 tsp cumin seeds / jeera once they start to sputter add
3–4 big garlic cloves crushed and chopped along with
1/4 tsp asafoetida cook for 30 seconds and add
2 tbs tomato paste (diluted with 2-4 tbs of water) or 1/2 cup thick tomato puree (I added tomato paste as it gives that distinct red colour to dal, also add more if you prefer a tangy dal. P doesn’t like much tangy taste in dal and veggies so I have adjusted the taste accordingly.)

Add this tempering mixture to the cooked dal, mix well. Add 1 tsp red chilli powder (I used kashmiri lal mirch), 3-5 tbs butter and 3-5 tbs cream. Bring dal to a boil and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes / till dal acquires a buttery texture.
Serve warm with jeera rice or plain steamed rice or enjoy it with roti, paratha or naan of your choice.

Tips: Add 1/2 tsp garam masala for that nice aroma. Also, best way to serve this dal in its full splendor is to serve it with a dollop of butter.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

America’s best culinary contribution to the world comes in form of small round cookie having mini blast of chocolate in form of chocolate chips, yes I’m talking about chocolate chip cookies. P is crazy about Ben’s cookies especially when served warm and soft and chewy. This will be the first time I shall be baking any cookies and as if being overly confident in my baking skills, I’ve already promised someone that I shall bake some Chocolate chip and Double chocolate chip cookies for them, which now makes me nervous.
I’ve adapted this recipe from a perfectly tried and tested site www.joyofbaking.com (minor changes to original recipe) and I should say this recipe truely rocks. Also I have halved the recipe from the site as I wanted to make a smaller batch at a time. The site has recipe for 4 dozen cookies while I made almost 2 dozen at one go. Cookies came out perfect and I shall let the pictures advocate themselves.

Sift together and keep aside.
1 cup + 1 tbs plain white flour/maida
3/4th tsp vanilla essence or vanilla extract (I used powdered form so added to flour mix, if you are using extract or essence add it along with egg to butter mix)
1/4th tsp salt
1/4th tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

In a large bowl whisk 1/2 cup unsalted butter untill light and creamy. Add 3/4th cup sugar (can also use brown sugar and white sugar in 1:1 ratio to make 3/4th cup together), keep whisking it for about 3-5 minutes or untill the mix feels fluffy. Add in 1 whole egg at this stage and whisk for few more minutes. Use a hand held mixie for this whole process if in hurry. I prefer to beat this mix with wire whisk only and the process takes no more than 10 mins.

Before proceeding further, preheat oven to 375 degrees F(190 degrees C) with rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil/parchment paper, I prefer aluminum foil.

Now add in the sifted flour mix to the butter mix and using your hand mix in to form a soft fluffy dough. It take not much of an effort to do this, folding flour in butter mixture using fingers will suffice. now add in 3/4th cup Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate chips.

Divide the dough in 25 chunks and roughly form a semi flat balls and place them on the baking sheets 1 inch apart. Bake for 12-18 minutes or till cookie edges turn golden brown. Keep a contstant eye on cookies after 12 minutes as these delicate goodies can burn very easily and cooking time varies for every oven. Mine took 16 minutes.

Dunk it in milk or just carry a few to enjoy during your drive to office, nothing beats this small treat in itself.

A real "Happy" Birthday!!

Yesterday ie on 7th started with all normal nitty-gritty, P off to office and me busy with cooking and cleaning etc. Since P has started his new job, starting of this month, he is very punctual with his return home timings, but today he said he had to conclude some pending work at his old work place, which is quite normal, so he said instead of 5pm he shall be a bit late. Time went and it was 9pm with no sightings of my husband, a quick phone call revealed he is chatting with his old pals, again very very normal for him and his pals. He came home around 9:15 pm and started pestering in his usual way, what was for dinner and what was there for sweet etc, then came the question “what would u like for your birthday gift”, as usual I had nothing in mind…. but he kept pushing the questions on and on…. this too is very normal… then at 9:30pm riyadh time which is 12 am Indian time my sister called to wish me, then came my mom-dad n bhai…. i was very happy that dot 12 they called me, infact i was handling two calls at a time one from Surat (my sis) and another one from Vadodara (my parents and bro)…. during that time too P kept asking what i wanted as a birthday gift…. in quite a funny way.
After duely finishing the phone chats, i turned to find P at the window peeping out and on his toes, determining whether our hijacked parking spot was now vacant or not, much to his relief it was vacant. Again he started off with that pestering question but this time i had the answer, i said i wanted a nice oven to satiate my starvation for baking. And he duely promised me my oven . Actually i was looking for one since last few months but was’nt able to make my mind on any one specific brand yet.
After a few minutes i saw him heading down to move the car to our authorized parking spot. As he returned and i opened the door, he was standing there with a huge box of Black n Decker 35 litres oven and a huge smile on his face. (Now at this time i dont know what were the exact expressions on my face but i was grinning ear to ear i suppose…. along with some child like jumping actions…. I know real Hoot!!!)

He wasnt done yet, under the pretext of forgetting something he went back downstairs while i was busy hurriedly opening my real surprise gift. He came in with another huge box of something and various bags of SACO (one of the home improvement store chain out here), then like a Santa in plain clothes, he started handing me over one item at a time from those magic bags. First out came Neoflam slicer-dicer-chopper-shredder (including ice shaver for my ice golas) ;

second came oven safe 6 tart dishes ; then came out microwave n oven safe marinex Broiche dish and Quiche fluted dish ; at the end came out some nice pizza cutter and cake n pie server/cutter.
Bonus a Black n Decker hand mixie. I felt like a kid in a candy store….

Well to conclude, i am really happy to know that P actually knows what i really want, since few months i always kept my eye on nice ovens while we went shopping and P duely noticed it, as a perfect hubby would . Thanks huni for making my day a “REAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. (I bet I will be smiling for days all along).
More to come yet as excitement has’nt ended yet….  as i have just been informed that we shall be heading to a very classy Mall called GRANADA, along with few of our friends, tommorow at 10 am. Wow!!! don’t want this day to pass any more quicker!!!
Now, got to catch some sleep as tommorow is a huge day ).

Nylon Khaman-Microwave Recipe

Healthy snack prepared in a jiffy, sounds like a keeper, yeap I’m talking about gujju dish called khaman. Gujarti food is well known for its sweet and sour taste and unique preparations, Khaman falls in that category.Tasty because it  has sweetness from sugar, tangy taste from citric acid crystals and hot flavor from green chili and ginger. Healthy because it is steam cooked (here microwaved) without excessive oil or frying.
And on top of it, it is prepared from besan which is a very good source of protein. Hence we can say this is a guilt free snack.
Khaman falls into the category of dhokla, along with khatta dhokla, rasia dhokla and more famous these days are tri-colored cheese dhoklas. Usually dhokla are made by fermenting the chickpeas batter but the nylon khaman calls in for chickpea / bengal gram flour and is the easier version compared to other dhokla recipes.
The word “Nylon” perfectly adheres to this khaman because it is very smooth to palate plus airy and tender in texture.
 I had great time cooking this recipe which took less than 12-15 mins from start to finish.

Ingredients:

For Khaman:
1 cup Besan (Bengal gram flour)
2 tbs rava/sooji/semolina
pinch of turmeric powder/haldi powder
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp citric acid crystals/nimbu ke phool
1 tsp ginger-green chili paste
1 1/2 tsp Eno/fruit salt
salt to taste
1 cup water

For Garnish:
handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp of red chili powder/lal mirch powder

For Tempering:
2 tbs oil
1 tbs sesame seeds/ til
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
2 green chillies slit and halved
pinch of asafoetida/hing
3 tbs water

Method:
Grease two microwave safe containers of approx 5 to 6 inch diametre and keep aside.
In a big bowl combine all ingredients for khaman except eno, mix well and break any lumps that might have formed in the batter.
Now add eno to the batter and pour 2 tbs of water on it in such a way that eno sizzzles up into a foamy bubbly mix. Now mix the batter well so that eno is fully incorporated in batter.
Pour this batter into two greased containers and wrap it with cling film (if you dont have a cling film then cover the container with microwave safe plate)
Place one container in microwave and Microwave on 100% power for 2 minutes. Let it stand for 90 seconds and then remove. Repeat this process for second container.
Remove the wrap and let khaman cool down a bit.
Prepare them for tempering by cutting them into square pieces and sprinkling red chilli powder and coriander leaves on them. Keep aside.

For tempering :
Heat oil in a small pan, add rai to it and once it starts to crackle add til, hing and green chillies. Turn of the heat and add 3 tbs of water to it. Pour this tempering mix to prepared khaman.
Serve with chutney of your choice or ketchup, I prefer with green chutney.

Apple & Raisin Cake

Wishing you all a Very Happy Women’s Day. To my loving Mom and Mother-in-Law, this is for celebrating you, as you are, just the way you are, loving, caring and indispensible to me. And to all my girl friends and fellow bloggers , wishing you all are very happy women’s day.

I’ve adopted this recipe from Shilpa’s blog here thanks shilpa for posting this easy to bake and tempting recipe. I’ve baked this cake in my pressure cooker, yeap you’re reading it right, in my pressure cooker just to make a contribution to Nupurs MBP # 1 Cookers, Blog Bites. 
This cake came out to be super moist and rich in texture, raisins gave a nice surprise at every bite, apple flavor was subtle and blended nicely with vanilla flavor. 

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour/maida.
1 apple (i used 1 big gala apple)
1/2 cup raisins
3/4th cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
2 medium eggs
1/3 cup + 2 tbs milk
1/3 cup oil (i used sunflower oil) + little more for greasing
1/4th teaspoon salt

 Method:
Grease and dust one baking pan, in my case cooker ka dabba, grease with oil and dust it with maida. Keep it aside.
Place pressure cooker on a very low heat along with its lid closed but Remember to remove its whistle/weight (we shall bake cake without the whistle ). This is done to make an oven environment. Place a small ring or some small stand in the cooker, this is to place our dabba on it.

Remove the skin of apple and chop it into big chunks and place them in a blender along with milk. Blend it well.
Add oil and pulse it couple of times to make sure oil is mixed well.
In a deep bowl, break in the eggs and beat them till light and bubbly. Mix this with apple,milk and oil liquid. Just mix it dont beat it.
Now sift baking powder, salt and all purpose flour and mix in sugar nicely. Make a well in middle and drop in raisins.
Add the milk, apple and egg mix to the flour mix and gently fold it, make sure you dont over stir or beat it well or else it shall result in sweet bread instead of perfect cake, I make sure not to stir more than 10-14 stir rounds.
Pour this into the dusted dabba.
Place it in the cooker and bake it for 40-50 mins.
To check whether the cake is done, insert a toothpick and draw it out, if it comes out clean turn off the heat and remove the dabba. Let it stand for 10 mins and then remove the cake frm the container by inverting it on a plate.
Allow the cake to cool. Store in an airtight container.
This cake can be stored for upto 3 days without refrigeration and upto 15 days in refrigerator.

Tips:
Dust powdered sugar on the cake after the cakes cools down completely.
Decorate this cake with nice vanilla icing and cherries for a nice party dessert.