Healthy breakfast snack

This one tried, when I wanted a snack, nothing too heavy, leftovers not be wasted.

I had made some Chole one night and when I saw my fridge the next day, I knew I was not in for another round of Chole-Rice or did not want to fry those pooris again.

I made a quick snack with whatever I could find in my kitchen.

I made 3 big chapattis – Atta and not maida ok

• First I washed the cooked Chole in water (Mind you, here I am talking about the Chole masala that I had cooked the day before).
• some onions (You can use depending on your taste)
• one half cucumber
• one small raw tomato (Fine!!! I did not. I just wrote that to make the recipe sound good okay..but you know, you should add tomatoes. I don’t eat raw tomatoes but I have been told that it tastes good)
• 2 green chilies
• One big sized potato (Boiled and cut in small cubes)

I made some pudina chutney by mixing pudina, one clove of garlic, little salt, little sugar and mix them in the mixer with very little water.

My cabbage was good to be thrown but I took out the outer rotten leaves and was left with very small tiny cabbage which helped

NOTE – you can add any kind of vegetables that you want. I just don’t like to add too many as it confuses my taste buds.

After I got all the ingredients chopped, I was ready.

Now that I have it all, I mixed it all together, took one chapatti, put the mixture in between, spread some pudina chutney.rolled it, ducked the chappati from behind and awesome…. Healthy snack ever. No oil, No masala, no leftovers.. yeeehhh

I wont say try with bread because.. than you loose the authenticity of it.You can also use the chapattis that you made the night. It is nice to eat even if the chapattis are crispy – Just like Tacos ;)

I saw this on TV once. Some Indian street food vendor was making it in South Africa… Can you beat it… It’s a hit in that country

Easiest and quickest Spaghetti and something extra

There are 1000s ways to cook spaghetti and on the internet you will find plenty of recipes. My recipe is no different. I just have a tip on how you can make spaghetti easily and very quickly.If you think, early morning, you need a quick bite and do not have the time to cook, on a weekend, prepare the sauce and keep it refrigerated. The sauce is the life of spaghetti ( 4 people)

Now without much complication, make the sauce.You would need -

1) 8-10 ripe tomatoes

2) 4-5 onions

3) 4 cloves of garlic

4) Use basil/ tulsi leaves if you have but even if you do not have, don’t fret on it.

5) Salt and sugar

Now boil the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes. Than take the tomatoes and keep it aside in a small bucket of iced water. Remember even if you dont have that, it is absolutely fine because it is done to retain the color of the sauce. So like I said "dont fret on it".. Oh by the way peel the skin off. In the meantime, slice the onions thinly and fry them in little oil till they are little brownish, add chopped garlic, red chilly powder, salt based on taste and 2 teaspoon of sugar. Fry for 4-5 minutes and in low flame and keep aside

Boil 1 cup of water in another pan, crush the tomatoes and add into the water. Also add the fried onions and the rest of the mixture. Once all the ingredients are little soft, please take out the basil leaf and mix them all together to make a puree in a mixer.

OK, every household has a mixer, however keeping in mind that my recipes are written based on the idea that “I can cook without getting it complicated”, you can crush the puree in a manual grinder as well. It really does not matter.

And guess what – that’s your sauce. That’s the basic thing that you need to make spaghetti

Now in a pan, Add 8-10 cups of water and once the water starts boiling, add the spaghetti and cook for 8-10 minutes. Boil till they are not crunchy and its ok to for the noodles to be little hard in the centre. Once it is cooked, take it out, wash it under cold water and in another pan, add the noodles and the sauce and cook for another 5-6 minutes and it is done my friend

I made this in the morning :)

Here is another tip – if you do not have spaghetti – do you have Maggie – Yes my friend!!! In a pan, boil the Maggie with little water and DO NOT add the masala. Once the Maggie is about to be cooked, add the sauce and let is cook for 1 minute or so that you made and see the wonder

Mix vegetables with Tinned fish - Its healthy and its yummy

If you like Tinned fish, you will like this too

All you need (if you are cooking for say 4 people)

1)      vermicelli –White ones (Sewai) . So when you go to a store, ask for sewai which is not fried.One packet is enough

2)      Two medium size potatoes

3)      2-3 capsicums

4)      Green chilies

5)      1 small Cauliflower

6)      1 mooli – I seriously don’t know the English name

7)      2 tomatoes  - Not too raw

Oil, Salt and water

Basically, you can add other vegetables that you like. I have mentioned the above because they go well with Tinned fish

The process

·        Cut all the vegetables in small cubes and set it aside. In a Pan/Karahi, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and fry the potatoes, mooli and cauliflowers.

·        After 5-7 minutes, check if they have softened little bit.

·        Once they are, add the other vegetables and add little water and cook for another 5 minutes. Let the vegetables soak the water completely. Mind you, don’t get too greedy with water as the cauliflower is going to break its water ..Ha ha Here comes the baby cauliflower…

·        While they are being cooked, boil 4 cups of water in a different utensil  and add the vermicelli and bring it boil. Once the vermicelli is done, set is aside by throwing the extra water.

Now check your vegetables, add the tinned fish, fry in low flame for 2 minutes, Add salt and than add the vermicelli and cook for another 5 minutes in low flame

  

If you prefer gravy, you can add extra water

And if you add something extra… Please go on food lovers. If you love food, "EXPERIMENT" 

Mojitos -Care for a cool refreshing Rum drink

You can have it on a hot summer day as well however I cannot guarantee the after effects. If you are a Rum drinker, you know what I mean. Lets not forget that this is no Russia

What you must have

1) White Rum (Obviously)

2) Ice - Crushed

3) Lemon slice

4) Lime juice

5) Club Soda

6) Powered-ed or say granulated sugar (Arre nahin hain toh mixer main grind kar do…)

7) Mint leaves..lots of them (Pudina- Please note that it makes the entire drink, hence it’s a must)

Place the mint leaves (8-10 for one glass),1 and 1/2 cup of club soda,2 tea spoon of sugar and mix well till the sugar dissolves.
Than add 3 tablespoon lime juice, add the rum (depending on how strong you want your drink to be) and mix. Add crushed ice and Mix well again.
Strain the drink and garnish with lemon slice and 2-3 mint leaves.

So there you go - A cool refreshing Rum drink Mohitos (Pronounced as MOHITOS). Dear friends, enjoy clubbing at home :)

If you like pumpkin, you will love this pumpkin dish

Cut one small pumpkin and two potatoes into small cubes.

Wash and keep it aside

In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and add Pass puran/Pancho purno in Bengali

Add the pumpkins and potato and keep frying till they are little soft.

Now add 1 teaspoon of turmeric (Haldi) and zeera powder and salt to taste

Cook for another 2-3 minutes on low flame.

Now add little water and cook for another 5-10 minutes

Take one small garlic piece, mash it and add it and cook for another 5 minutes or till they are cooked well

(DO NOT forget to mash the pumpkin little bit )

Very Important tip – the garlic is the essence of this dish. It won’t taste the way it should if you miss to add “Mr Garlic”

Chicken soup/boil chicken

Being an Arunachali/ Naga/Mizo we all eat mostly boiled stuffs. How about making it little different than the everyday’s boiled stuff- Chicken soup or boil chicken with bread or with rice (Rice if you are a north eastern)

So this is what you need to do…
The ingredients

1) 1/2 kilo chicken

2) 3 Tomatoes - sliced

3) Chillies

4) 1 Tbs black pepper - Jaalmuris..Lol

5) 2-3 cloves of garlic and ginber

6) 2 eggs

6) Salt to taste

Bring 4 big cups of water to boil. Add 3 sliced tomatoes – Big sizes (If you can please remove the seeds), Chilis if you like.

Crush 4 pieces of garlic and ginger – not mash but crush and add them

Add small pieces of chicken , add salt and bring it to boil (please keep it covered)

Cook for 15-20 minutes based on what kind of chicken you are using – You know local murgi has thick skin

Before you take out the chicken, add one/two raw egg /eggs(beat the eggs well first)..2 eggs are more than enough for 1/2 kg chicken

Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes and see how different it tastes that your usual boil chicken

A good food tip for vegetables/dal - This is specially for my North eastern friends

Use "Kasuri Methi" by MDH ;) in your dal or vegetables (Obviously not boil ones) .... It simply delicious

TRY

Aaloo Pitika with a difference -Works when you only want to have daal and rice

All you need are potatoes, Red dry chilies (sabut that means not powered), salt and onions.

Boil the potatoes and in the mean time, fry the red chilies and sliced onions till they are little crispy (I said Crispy .. so something brownish. YOU MADE IT BLACK duh!!!)

After 4-5 whistles, take the potatoes out, mash it (use Steel glass – works well –saw one Manipuri friend of mine doing it) and add salt, chilies and onion.

(See I forgot to tell you that the chilies and onions are supposed to be fried in “Meetha teil”/Mustard oil ONLY) If you are one of those olive oil users, America is THAT way.

And now that you have mixed them all, enjoy the simple dish with your Rice and daal. And important tip – No leftovers. It looses its charm when its cold

Another add on – heard about those famous bamboo shoot pickles from Nongpoh (Meghalaya)????Well honey if you love it, add little bit of the pickle with the aloo. I love it that way

Something sweet when you don't have lot of time - All you need is bread

This is the easiest and quickiest dessert one can make when one has a craving. These recipes are easily available on the net however I thought I would make one so that some of my food lover friends who are little lazy can use this

What we need

1) Bread (cut the brown part) - say 4 pieces of bread and cut them into two slices - sandwich style

2) Oil to fry

3) Milkmaid

4) 2 1/2 cup of milk (NOT powdered milk)

The process....

• Fry the bread pieces in the oil till they are crispy and set them aside
• Then mix the milkmaid and and milk and mix them religiously or with a fork whatever works best for you
• Put the bread slices in the mixture and keep in the fridge for sometime (Till it cools down) .. I have kept it in the freezer when i got greedy ;)

And Voila