Hara Bhara Kabab

by Deerga // July 19, 2016 // No Comments

It has been quite some time since my last post. How you guys doing? Sorry folks, I don’t get time to post regularly like before. It is summer break here in the US and school year starting back home. Different parts of the world and different routines 🙂 Coming back to the recipe for today, I have posted a snack food for a change. It is really healthy and you would be surprised, especially children if they come to know about the ingredients. It is called as the Hara Bhara Kabab.

Kabab in general refers to a variety of snack foods cooked mostly in skewers and made of meat. It originated in the Mediterranean and is widely popular all over the world. India too has its own share of kabab varieties. Since more than half the population is vegetarian and us being the innovators :), we have vegetarian kabab varieties. Hara Bhara Kabab is one such variety made using spinach and peas. I came across this recipe a while ago and have made it quite a few times since then. It is one of my favorite snacks and my HB loves it too.

The main ingredients of Hara Bhara Kababs are, as mentioned earlier, spinach and peas. These are very easy to make and uses minimal ingredients. Hara Bhara Kababs can either be pan fried or baked in the oven. I am yet to try the latter and so the cooking method followed in this recipe is pan frying. Having hot Hara Bhara Kababs with ketchup in the evenings is one way to experience culinary nirvana :). Try it out and enjoy!

Hara Bhara Kabab

Recipe type: Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 2 mins

Total time: 7 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

Spinach – 2 cups
Potato, medium – 1
Green Peas, boiled – 2 tbsp
Green chilli – 2 nos
Ginger – small piece
Chat masala – 1 tsp
Amchur powder – ¾ tsp
Gram flour – 1 ¼ tbsp.
Salt as required
Oil – to smear around kababs

Instructions

Pressure cook the potato for 2 whistles.
Blanch the spinach in boiling water for a minute or two without covering and strain and wash them immediately with cold water – to retain the color. Completely drain the water and keep it aside.
Grind the spinach along with green chilli, ginger and boiled green peas (I used frozen) and grind them to coarse paste without adding any water.
Meanwhile drain and peel the potato.
Add the peeled potatoes to the spinach puree and mash it together.
Add amchur powder, chat masala, salt and gram flour. Mix well and make tikki shapes.
Cook it in the flat pan drizzling very little oil. Cook for a few minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown on both sides. Enjoy the yummy hara bhara kabab with ketchup! 

Notes

1.Do not add too much gram flour. It might change the flavor.
2.Don’t overcook the potatoes.
3.Kabab has to be like cotton soft when cut. That’s the right texture.

Guacamole and Chips

by Deerga // February 8, 2016 // No Comments

Every country has its own snack food variety and the US is no exception. USA is an amalgamation of different cultures and each one has brought their version of snack food. One such is the Guacamole and Chips. Guacamole and Chips are the staple snacks/appetizers served in all Mexican restaurants here. The best part about this food is that it is healthy! And today, I have posted the recipe for Guacamole and homemade tortilla chips here.

Guacamole is similar to chutneys in Indian cuisine. It is made from Avocado, a super fruit, tomato, mint, cilantro, garlic, onion, lime juice and salt and is super easy to make. Avocado is also known as butter fruit or ice-cream fruit back home. It is a calorie rich fruit full of healthy fat. Guacamole is one dish that can be made from Avocado. You can also eat avocado as is or with salt and pepper sprinkled over and also can be used to make sandwiches. Here in the US, Guacamole and Chips is one of the game day foods, along with chicken wings. Game day foods are snacks that are usually had while watching a baseball game or football game with friends in a bar or at home.

As mentioned earlier, Guacamole is a healthy snack and hence kid friendly. Try this amazing snack in your home and have it with friends and family while watching a game or just as a snack 🙂

Guacamole and Chips

Recipe type: Appetizer

Cuisine: Mexican

Prep time: 1 min

Cook time: 3 mins

Total time: 4 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

For making Guacamole

Avocado, pitted – 1 no
Lime – ½ no
Salt – ¼ tsp
Red onion, finely chopped – 1 tbsp
Cilantro, finely chopped – 1 tbsp
Garlic clove, minced – 1 no
Cayenne pepper – ¼ to ½ tsp
Tomato, deseeded, finely chopped – 1 tbsp

For making chips:

Tortilla – 2 nos
Salt – a pinch

Instructions

Finely chop onion, garlic, cilantro and tomato and keep it ready.
Halve the avocado (cut vertically in the middle and twist two halves), pit ( bang knife on the seed and pull it out as shown in the picture), cut to dices and scrape them using spoon (as shown in the picture).
Add the chopped avocado, lime juice and salt into a medium mixing bowl and mash them using spoon or fork or with the same knife.
Now mix in finely chopped onion, garlic and cilantro.
Finally add the finely chopped tomato, mix well and leave it for an hour or refrigerate the guacamole.

For the chips:

Pre heat the oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit. Cut tortilla like pizza and spread them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Place them in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
Take out and flip them. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on top and bake for 5 to 10 minutes until the tortilla turn brown and form as chips. Enjoy with yummy guacamole! 

Zucchini Bread

by Deerga // July 28, 2015 // No Comments

Today, I have posted a kind of healthy dessert variety that you don’t find normally in restaurants or bakeries. It is called as the Zucchini bread. As the name suggests it is made from zucchini, a relative to pumpkins 🙂 Zucchini is also called as summer squash and is of European origin, mainly from Italy. You can make a number of dishes from zucchini like fritters, fries, as a topping in pizzas (it tastes yummy 🙂 ) etc.

Zucchini bread is a very easy to make bread variety and can be had as snack and for breakfast as well. Zucchini, as with all vegetables, is rich in nutrients especially vitamin A and very low in calories. I first had zucchini bread in a vegan restaurant and liked the taste so much. Believe me, you cannot identify that it is zucchini bread unless someone tells you that 🙂

Zucchini bread, as said above, is a very good breakfast dish, especially for children who normally do not like to eat vegetables (which covers 95% of them :)). Try this tasty bread variety and let me know your comments.

Zucchini Bread

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 65 mins

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 1 9x5x3 inch loaf

Ingredients

1 ½ cups bread flour or all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup grated zucchini
½ cup chopped walnuts (or any nuts of your choice)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius.
Grease a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inches) with butter or oil on the bottom and all four sides and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Sieve all the dry ingredients together into a small bowl.
Combine oil and sugars to the large bowl. Mix well until well combined.
Add in the eggs and beat well until creamy consistency.
Add and beat the vanilla extract.
Now combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix well without any lumps.
Finally add in the grated zucchini and chopped walnuts into the mixture and mix well.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Shake the pan and even the batter on top using spatula.
Bake in oven (preferably in the middle rack) for 55 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean – I covered the pan with aluminum foil after 35 minutes when it starts to brown on top.
Turn out onto a wire rack and allow them to cool. Serve the yummy zucchini bread as hot or cold for a breakfast or brunch or as evening snack. Enjoy! 