Modak's for my Chota Ganesh!

I am talking about my dear son. My mom calls him her chota Ganesh (baby Ganesh- Ganesh is an Indian god). Even before I was pregnant and my mom was pestering me to have a baby, she would refer to the baby as chota Ganesh , as if she knew even then that my first one would be a boy. Anyway, finally her dream came true and her adorable chotu Ganesh was born almost 9 months back :). So, just before Ganesh Chaturthi, I was cribbing to my sister of how I always miss this time of the year and all the festivities back home and she goes, your chota Ganesh is at home, what are you cribbing about...just celebrate him!!! So, we did a small Ganesh Puja at home and I made modaks -my all time favourite prasad. I tried making them for the VERY FIRST TIME and they came out good. So, here's the step by step recipe (this is how my mom makes it).

For filling -
2 cups grated coconut (wet or dry). I used the frozen wet coconut.
1/2 cup jaggery (you can also use 1 cup if you want it sweeter)
Elaichi (Cardamom) powder (from 2 pods is sufficient).
Few strands of Kesar (gives a lovely golden orange color)

Mix all above ingredients together and cook for 10-15 mniutes until all the jaggery melts. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

All ingredients mixed together



Cooked filling


For the coating -
2 cups whole wheat flour
2-4 tablesoons oil (or more if you want flaky dough)
A pinch of salt
Water to knead the flour

Knead the flour with the above ingredients. Do not make it too soft. It should be hard enough to roll it without using any flour or oil.

To make the modaks, roll out one small portion of dough, fill it with the above filling and close it as shown in the pictures below. This takes some practice. Fry these on low flame and done! The modaks are ready. Hopefully, by the time my son starts eating regular solid food, I will have mastered the art of making modaks!

Rolled dough with filling


Giving it the modak shape


Modaks before frying


Frying them finally


Finished product


This recipe goes to Pallavi of All Things Yummy, who is hosting the Yummy Festival Feast-Diwali event.

Yummy Guvar (Cluster beans) Sabzi!

This guvar ki sabzi brings out many memories! Memories of all the people who mean a lot to me. I dont see them often, and may not seem some at all, but I grew up with them and they took good care of me. These were construction laborers my dad had hired when he started his construction business way before I was born. There were five couples and their kids. They would live in small huts close to the construction site and move from job to job. Finally, we build them permanent houses close to our home. These people were like our extended families. They shared their joys and sorrows with us, took real good care of me and my sisters and loved us unconditionally and still do. These people have touched my heart in more than one way. Their food used to be very simple. One sabzi with lots and lots of mirchi (red or green chilli) in it and rice and may be a spicy chutney. Mirchi seemed to be the main ingredient in their food :). All of their food was made on mitti ke chulhe (wood burning stove made out of mud)making it even more yummier.I do not remember a whole lot of recipes, but do remember the Guvar ki Sabzi (Guvar is cluster beans) as I used to eat this often. Its a very simple recipe, but add the flavor of the chulha (stove), the wood, lots of green chilli and some love and it turns out amazing :)!

For this recipe you need
Guvar - Cluster beans(I use mostly frozen as fresh is not available most times)
Garlic (I use lots of it - you can use per your taste)
Tomatoes - (one should be sufficient)
Green chilli (per taste)
Oil
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste

Chop the chilli and garlic and fry them in oil, add turmeric. Add cut tomatoes to this and cook till tender. Add the cut guvar to this, add salt and cook till done. Thats it, its simple and tasty! Eat with roti and dal (my recipe for dal follows soon).



This recipe goes to Lucy of Nourish Me, who is hosting the September edition of My Legume Love Affair, an event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook

Fried Rice!

After a lot of trial and error. I finally got it. I know how to make chinese style fried rice - with or without egg. Here's the recipe without egg.

Vegetables - Green beans, peas, cabbage and carrots (all cut in small pieces).
Rice - I just used regular basmati rice - cook it with less water so its not very sticky and separates easily.
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking (I use canola oil)




Stir fry the veggies together - keep them crunchy -



Add salt and add the cooked rice. Mix everything together and thats it. The rice is ready. Serve hot with any chinese entree.

I am back!

Its been A YEAR since I started this blog. When I first started working on my blog I was determined to keep it up. Determined to post at least one recipe each week, or bi-weekly :). But pregnancy, an online course, a full time job and moving to a new place did not help the cause! Finally, its all behind me. We moved to a new place, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, my parents came to the US for the first time, stayed with us, really enjoyed their time here and we enjoyed having them here. They left, I started working full time again, we hired a nanny, my inlaws came to visit us and life is back on track again (at least it looks like it :)). So, some more recipes coming shortly!

Tofu Chilli - Chinese style!

My husband loves Indian Chinese food and whenever we go to Fremont, we land up going to Spice Hut and eating Indian chinese there. On a recent visit to the grocery store, I found Pete's Soygenic Szechuan tofu n sauce (see pic below). It was extra firm tofu marinated in chilli garlic sauce.


So,I tried making tofu chilli (instead of Paneer Chilli) and it turned out really good. Here goes the recipe.

1 Pack Soygenic Szechuan tofu n sauce - cut in to small cubes (Can use any extra firm tofu and marinate it with chilli garlic sauce for a couple of hours, or can use paneer).
2 Sliced capsicums
1 Sliced Onion
Salt to taste
Soya sauce to taste
Oil for cooking (I use canola oil)

Fry the capsicum and onion together on high flame. Dont overcook it. Keep it crunchy.


Add soya sauce to this and salt to taste. Add the tofu cubes and mix everything together. Serve hot with fried rice!