Semolina Pancakes Recipe

While we were enjoying some really delicious madeleines at evening tea one of the girls said, "we are one heck of ungrateful people. We have many Desi foods that taste much better than these well marketed foreign delicacies. Huh!" And we all had to turn our heads to her ask her what happened? Then she said she had some homemade pancakes that tasted somewhat similar to madeleines Or I think EVEN BETTER than these little beauties. And her grandma who was visiting them made these pancakes for the breakfast. We all were so curious to know the about these REALLY GOOD pancakes now and wanted taste them right then but obviously that was impossible so we asked her to share detailed recipe in the WhatsApp group. Lol
So she did that and surprisingly my mom aunty already knew this recipe. They said just because you the new generation doesn't appreciate traditional sweets so we don't make them now otherwise we used to feed you these foods while you were young. And they made fun of me that your generation isn't aware of what they have and is blindly running after whatever is being made popular by good marketing. It was getting on my ego now so I just rolled up my sleeves started gathering the ingredients. And after o5ne hour, with the help of my sweet sis, I was able to present these lovely pancakes. They were really a hit!! My sis even kept some for her friends visiting in the evening. And everybody who had these pancakes had happy expressions. Alhamdulillah! :D

I know, I know you want to know the recipe now so here it is,

HOW TO MAKE SEMOLINA PANCAKES

Ingredients:

1 Cup Fine Semolina
2 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Sugar
A Few Drops of Orange Blossom Water
OR Rose Water OR Cardamom Powder (or Any other fragrance of your choice)
A Pinch of Salt
Butter (for shallow frying the pancakes)

Directions:

1. Break eggs in a mixing bowl and add sugar and salt and beat till sugar melts.

2. Slowly fold in the semolina and and add the fragrance or of your choice and and cover bowl and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes.

3. Heat a non stick pan on medium low flame and brush it with melted butter and pour one spoonful of pancakes mixture. Let it cook on one side for about 3 minutes and then flip over and cook on the other side till done.

4. Better served warm.

Prawn Biryani Recipe

Biryani is LOVE so are prawns! and when both get together everyone at home becomes happy. Alhamdulillah! :D

Yeah I know chicken and mutton are there and nothing can compare to nice layered Chicken Biryani or Mutton Dum Biryani but Fish or Prawns Biryani taste equally good too or even better at times, believe me! And seafood is good for health compared to poultry, to be honest.

We get daily fresh produce of seafood here and I am really grateful to Almighty for that O:) So, it was one such day when we had fresh, big, white prawns bought straight from the local fishermen. I was all set to make Butter Prawns and Veg Pulao for lunch but then somebody said BIRYANI! and my brain prompted me, CHANGE THE PLAN! So I just went ahead with chopping the onions for browning. And after one and a half hours I served piping hot biryani with minty cucumber raita and fried papad followed by a rich carrot halwa as dessert which was prepared in a jiffy yet tatsted really good alhamdulillah. Yumm!!! :D

How to make Prawns Biryani:

Ingredients:

1/2 Kg Rice
15 Large Prawns
8 Large Onions
5 Medium Sized Tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Ginger Garlic Paste
1/2 Cup Curd
1 Packet of Shan Bombay Biryani Masala
3 Medium Sized Potatoes
1 Tablespoon Cumin Seeds
1/2 Cup Oil
5 Tablespoons Melted Pure Ghee OR Butter
Salt as per taste
1/2 cup water + for boiling the rice
A pinch of saffron strands soaked in 1.5 tablespoon of hot water
1 Tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves
1 Teaspoon of chopped mint leaves

Directions:

1. Peel, wash, pat dry and finely slice the onions. Heat oil in a pan and brown the onion till crispy. your brista or crispy fried onions are ready. Keep the aside in a airtight container so that they can stay crispy.

2. Wash and Soak the rice for 10 minutes. Meanwhile boil about 2.5 Litres of water with salt and cumin seeds. When water comes to a boil discard water from soaked rice and pour the rice in boiling water, cook till half done, strain and keep aside.

3. Chop tomatoes and fry in 1/2 cup oil in a big pot (you are going to use the same pot for making the biryani). When tomatoes turn pulpy add ginger and garlic paste, curd, brista (save some brista for garnishing) and Shan Bombay Biryani Masala. Mix everything well and saute till starts leaving oil then add washed and prawns and saute for a minute and add half cup water and let it cook covered.

4. Wash and peel the potatoes into thick round slices and arrange the slices on prepared masala.

5. Now arrange rice on potato layer and garnish with chopped coriander and mint leaves, some brista and let it cook covered for 15 minutes (cover it well so that no heat can escape from the pot).

6. After 15 minutes pour 5 tablespoons of melted pure ghee or butter and the saffron water. Cover it again and cook for 5-7 minutes. The prawns biryani is ready to be served!

Steamed Egg Pudding

EGG PUDDING

Puddings are always a hit dessert in family functions and this one is one of those traditional pudding recipes that have been passed over by grandmas from generation to generation. It requires just a few simple ingredients to prepare this light, creamy pudding. either serve it warm or cool it for several hours in fridge it will taste great anyway. The is key is to steam it for right duration so that you can get that perfect firm texture. The perfect egg pudding will have a firm texture and will leave juices at the bottom after it has cooled down to room temperature.

Egg Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Eggs
1 Liter Full Cream Milk
1/3rd Cup Sugar (or as per taste)
A pinch of Salt
1/4th Teaspoon Cardamom Powder
1/4th Teaspoon Saffron Strands
Slivered Almonds and Raisins for garnishing

Direction:

1. Keep the apparatus ready by heating about 2 inches of water in a double boiler.
2. Break eggs in a mixing bowl one by one and beat well with a wire whisk. Add sugar and salt and keep pouring the milk little by little meanwhile. When all the milk has been added to the beaten egg mixture and sugar has melted almost completely, transfer the mixture into steaming pot or bowl and sprinkle cardamom powder, saffron strands and gently garnish it with slivered almonds and raisins.
3. Close the lid of steamer and let it cook for 30 minutes. Check if its done by inserting a wooden skewer, if it comes out clean the pudding is done.
4. Serve either still a bit warm or completely cold, the way you want.

Puri Bhaji Recipe | Bhaji Puri Recipe | Poori Bhaji Recipe

Puri Bhaji with chutney and lemon

High carbs alert! 😅

Who can resist this sinfully yummy, calorie packed breakfast? No one! Yes you can be a dieting ninja but I bet you just can't resist a plate of spicy dry potato bhaji and scrumptious pooris when served as breakfast or even as dinner. I know it will give you a tough time at the gym while burning those extra calories but it's worth it, to be honest! Lol

This popular breakfast is typically served with a side of coconut based chutney (that's usually white but I like green colour so I add some greens), pickle, watery pea curry (Usal) and lemon with raw onions but you can never find any bits of raw onion in my plate, I just don't like that smell. I couldn't make usal or pea curry or channe ka salan whatever you may call it as it was not a planned meal and i had no soaked or tinned chickpeas or peas so I served the simple puri bhaji with chutney and lemon.

Puri Bhaji Recipe

How to make pooris:
I followed this recipe How to make perfect Pooris and the result was amazingly perfect puffy pooris.

For making Potato Bhaji you will need

Ingredients:

2 Large Boiled Potatoes
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon Chopped Ginger
10-12 Fresh Curry Leaves
1/2 Cup Fresh Coriander Leaves
3-4 Green Chilies
1 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1/2 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1/4th Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
1 Teaspoon or as per taste Salt
2 Tablespoon Cooking Oil
1 Chopped Onion (optional)

Method:

1. Peel and chop boil potatoes. Peel and crush  the garlic cloves. Finely chop green chilies and coriander leaves and ginger.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves once they start to splutter add crushed garlic (and chopped onion, if using). When garlic turns golden add ginger, chilies and coriander and saute it well on low flame till nice aroma arises then add salt and turmeric powder and stir well. finally add chopped potatoes, mix well and cook cover till potatoes absorb all the flavours.
3. Always serve it hot with puris, lemon and chutney.

For Making Chutney:

Finely slice 1 cup fresh coconut and grind it to a fine paste along with 2-3 cloves of garlic. add salt to it and give tadka of mustard seeds. you can add green or red chilies and a few coriander leaves while grinding the chutney. Use very little water while making the chutney.

Chicken Afghan Karahi Recipe

Afghani Chicken Karahi

It's not everyday that we cook traditional food so you may find some odd recipes here. Odd in the sense they are not kokni recipes, as the blog title suggests. So, here is one such recipe - Afghani Karahi Chicken. The recipe was shared in a Facebook group and it was looking so tempting that I just couldn't ignore the post but digged through the comments to find recipe and saved it. Today I thought let's try that chicken recipe instead of making zinger burgers (that's what was the plan for tonight) so I asked everyone if they're ok with the change in menu and they all were like, "okay, no problem." So I just went ahead with the recipe. Firstly I gathered the three spices for making special Afghani Karahi Masala once the masala was done I stored some as I  made extra masala powder by using 3x quantity of spices because it was smelling so good and I sensed that  the recipe is gonna be a keeper and I'd might want to make it for a dawat dinner which is scheduled 2 days later (in sha Allah). After doing the masala I had to clean and wash chicken once again as I needed curry pieces for this recipe and I was supposed to make zinger burgers with boneless chicken fillets but then I marinated the fillets and kept them in freezer for later use and started working on this recipe of Afghan Chicken Karahi. Anyway, I was able to present the dish at dinner table on time alhamdulillah.

So here it is,

AFGHANI CHICKEN KARAHI RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 Kg Chicken

2 Chopped Onions

4 Chopped Tomatoes

1/4th Cup Oil

2 Tablespoons Ginger Garlic Paste

3-4 Green Chilies

1/2 Teaspoon Salt (or as per taste)

1/4th Teaspoon Chili Flakes

1/8th Teaspoon (or a pinch of) Turmeric Powder

For Special Masala:

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper Corns

1 Tablespoon Cumin Seeds

1 Tablespoon Coriander 

(Roast them well on medium low flame on a cast iron griddle, let them cool down to room temperature and then grind coarsely. Your special masala is ready)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a skillet and fry chopped chopped onions till light golden brown then add washed chicken pieces and cook on high flame for 5 minutes.

2. Add ginger garlic paste, chopped tomatoes, green chilies and one tablespoon special masala. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Sprinkle salt, turmeric powder, chili flakes and cook with stirring occasionally till oil starts to separate.

4. You can garnish the dish with 1/2 teaspoon of special masala, green chilies, chopped ginger and fresh coriander leaves. (I had no time to decorate the dish :P)