Impromptu pizza from scratch

I am so tired of weighing everything to make western dishes. A cup of this, a teaspoon of that, arghhhh. I wanted cooking to come naturally, the way you never measure the jeera dhaniya when you make kuali ko tarkari. So I just decided to assemble the ingredients and wing it!  And I actually ended up with the best pizza that I have ever made. So here goes an easy pizza recipe for lazy folks like me!

Ingredients in clockwise order:

1. Flour

2. Sugar

3. Water

4. Salt

5. Yeast dissolved in warm water

6. Oil

First of all, take some yeast and dissolve in warm water. Let it stay for five minute while you sprinkle oil, sugar and salt (more sugar than salt) into the flour in reasonable quantities. Finally, pour in the yeasty water as well. Begin kneading the dough. Pour water as and when needed. The dough should be smooth and soft, like for making parathas. Knead it well.

Of course, I still have to vaguely follow the directions for what to do, even if I do not measure the ingredients. So after kneading the dough, lightly coat it in oil. The recipes say to cover it with moist cloth, but since I do not have an unlimited supply of clean rags like my ama does, I make do with paper towels, and it works just great! Keep in room temperature for at least a couple hours. It is desirable to let the dough ferment overnight, but I cooked after  4 hours and it turned out yummy. After a few hours, you can wrap it up in plastic and refrigerate it. It will continue to ferment in the fridge. You can keep it for up to 3 days.

When you are ready to make the piza, start the sauce (yes, we are making everything from scratch, no cheating, i.e., store bought pizza sauce). This sauce is actually so lovely that you might be tempted to finish it before it reaches the pizza :)

First of all, puree some tomatoes. (Ok , you may use canned tomato puree instead of grinding fresh tomatoes). But if you are pureeing fresh tomatoes, add half a chilli pepper too. Trust me on this one, piro pizza is great  :) Set tomato puree to boil in  a pan, adding water if the canned puree is too thick. Add these things to the pan:

1. Ground garlic

2. Salt

3. Sugar (again, more than salt)

4. Just a dash of olive oil

5. Just a sprinkle of ground cheese, preferably parmesan

6. Ground black pepper

7. Oregano leaves

Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes

Use this time to chop up topping. Of course, topping can be anything you want, but here are my favorite vegetarian toppings: pineapple (of course!!!!), spinach, mushroom, onion. 

At the point, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Take the dough in your hand and knead it for a minute. The dough should have risen to double its size, but once you knead it, the size vanishes. Start expanding the dough by hand, slowly increasing its size until you get the desired size and shape. Thickness is important too. I like thin crust pizza and try to stretch the dough as far as I can without breaking it. You can also set the dough on the baking try and then stretch it into shape.

Take your baking tray and line with aluminum foil, that will prevent your tray from getting burnt. Of course, a pizza stone is better if you wanna go all professional, but since I do not have one, I make do with aluminum foil on a normal baking tray.

Line the aluminium foil with flour, so that the pizza doesn't stick tot he bottom. Then place you dough over it. You can continue to shape your dough if it has shrunk or acquired holes in moving. 

 Ladle sauce over the dough. Remember to raise the crust higher than the pizza, else your sauce will run out like mine :P

Sprinkle grated cheese over the sauce, generously. And I mean Generously, completely obscuring the sauce. Mozzarella and Parmesan are recommended, and in my experience, a mixture of them works best. Can't wait to come home and try local Yak cheese, which I am suspecting will work best on our palates. 

Finally, add the toppings. The mistake I made here is putting the spinach on top, which was burnt to a crisp. What I learnt from the experience is to put the fragile items like spinach and mushroom at the bottom, and then sprinkle bulkier items like onions and pineapple on top. You can even add a thin layer of cheese after the delicate topping like spinach, and this method was actually the yummiest because the cheese seemed to be spinach flavored. Though I like to have a LOT of topping, somewhere I read that adding too much topping prevents the bread base from rising. So, use your discretion on this one. 

Finally, slide the pizza into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Check after 20 minutes though, just to be sure, and if the crust starts turning brown, then it's time to take it out!! Serve hot, or cold! :)

Doesn't this look like the yummiest pizza ever?

I admit it's not round, but who cares? I wanna make yummy pizza, not pretty pizza :)

Secret recipe of crunchiest pakodas

There are many types of pakodas, and this one is the recipe for kauli and bread pakodas. First of all, take the bread and kaulis and cut them into desired shape and size. 

Next, cut green chilly and coriander into minute pieces for the batter.

Put some besan in a bowl. Now here is the secret part of the secret recipe:
1. put the coldest possible water into the besan, preferably something n which ice cubes have been melting for a while
2. Put a teaspoon of oil into the batter.
These two tips combined give you the crunchiest recipe ever.
After that, go on to pour the following things into the batter:
1. Salt to taste
2. Ground garlic
3. The minced green chillies and cilantro
4. Cumin and coriander powder
5. Garam masala if you like
6. Other spices like heeng that you are partial to.
The batter should be thick and not runny, and should look like this:

Heat some oil in a pan. Dip each kauli or bread piece into the batter individually.

Insert kauli and bread piece in the oil. Cook until golden brown, turning to cook both sides.

Take out from oil and strain for a few seconds. Pile on a plate lined with paper towel / newspaper. Mounds and mounds of crunchiest pakodas are ready for you !!!!!

Pretty Saucy Neutrella Chili

In case you are unfamiliar with Neutrella (as I was some time ago) they are these soy nuggets you get by the kilo in any kiraana pasal. Sewa and I were deprived of this for long because Ama didn’t like it (she still doesn’t), and never brought any home. The first time we tasted neutrella inside momos in Damak, Sewa went berserk and claims it was the best dumpling she ever had. Well, neutrella still isn’t dunked with potatoes in a curry in our home, but at least now I am quite comfortable with it. The idea for this recipe begins from Renu’s Saandheko Neutrella, which was Neutrella boiled and spiced. And I was about to make the same when Kaka said, make Neutrella Chili instead. It sounded good, and though I tried it with trepidation, all my office girls said it was awesome. I found no working recipes online, so made it up as I went (and it is really easy).

All things needed:

Neutrella (that has been squeezed like hell), sauce, tomatoes, chili, onion, potatoes, and  you're done!

1. Neutrella: Around 250 grams should be more than adequate
2. Hot water: Preferably boiling hot. Enough to dunk the soy chunks into
3. Onion: A big one, chopped roughly (but not into small chunks)
4. Chilies: Around three should do, cut into two (or four) vertical slices
5. Sauce: The hot and sour ones are best, around ten spoonfuls or more
6. Tomatoes: Three
7. Boiled and cubed potatoes: Completely optional, recommended if you are an aloo fanatic

Whipping it up:

Drop the neutrellas into a vessel full of water. Let them sizzle and bloat for two minutes. NOTE: Do not leave them lying around in the water, as they will get soggy. The first time I made this dish, I plunged the poor soy nuggets into hot water and kept them there for around ten minutes, and they had soaked up all the water to become lumpy. Also, Prakriti boiled them in a pressure cooked and they turned to pulp.

Neutrellas fizzling away to glory, listen to them in the water to understand what I mean

So, after the two minutes is gone, strain off the excess water, and squeeze the neutrallas one by one. If they begin flaking off, do it gently. It is okay if they seem to have a slightly harder center.
Next, heat oil, and drop the neutrellas into it. They tend to stick a bit, which should not be worrying, just scrape them off and make sure you drain the oil as much as possible.
The procedure after this is just like any other chili recipe. Heat oil (or use the oil left after frying neutrellas). Fry the chili first, then the onion. After the onion begins to turn brownish, add the tomatoes and let it simmer for a while. If you have boiled and cubed potatoes at the ready, mix them in. You can also add the sauce at this stage. Pour in a liberal amount, and also add salt. The sauce should now be of a thick consistency.
Once the sauce begins bubbling up, simply put in the fried neutrellas and stir. It should look red, and spicy, and yummy!  

Yes, I ate the bowlful!

paneer chilli for dummies

This paneer chilli recipe is actually not for dummies. It is for people like me who miss paneer because there is none in their village. And then they go out and make their own paneer. I only called it dummies because that's what they say when they give instructions from scratch. Anyways, here goes:

First of all, boil some milk. And if you are farther sighted than me, you will boil more milk than the quantity shown, which yielded a very tiny quantity of paneer. Once the milk comes to a boil, pour a misture of water and vinegar into the milk. Vinegar can be replaced by anything acidic, like lemon juice.

The milk will start curdling. Boil for a few minutes, until all of the milk is curdled and separated into crumbly pieces and greenish water. If the milk is still milky after a few minutes, pour more vinegar and water. Boil for a couple minute, this will help the crumbly pieces to congeal.

Ideally, at this stage the paneer should be tied up in mulmul ko kapada and left to drip overnight for best texture. But I have neither the expertise, nor the equipment, for that complicated procedure. So I will settle for straining the crumbly pieces, with a jhaanjhar, or spoon, and putting them in a separate bowl. Throw the water away. Gently squeeze any remaining water from the milk solids, Don't squeeze too hard, as that will result in very compressed paneer. Be sure put all crumbly pieces together in a mound. Refrigerate for a few hours. 

When you are ready to cook, take the mound of paneer out and cut it as you would cut normal, store bought paneer. But be careful, because this paneer has rough edges and is liable to be slightly more crumbly than the industrial version. If you are using industrial paneer, follow rest of recipe for paneer chilli. 

Heat some oil in a pan and fry on medium heat for a few minutes (remember medium, else the paneer will burn on the outside)

When the paneer is golden brown, take it out and put in a separate box. This is the right time to remind you to use lots more milk than I did and avoid ending up with a minuscule quantity.

In the same oil, fry some chilli (that's what makes the paneer chilli), onions and capsicums. When they are nearly done, add tomatoes. Also, a tiny pinch of salt to taste.

Add a mixture of water and ketchup (Maggi hot n sweet is THE best, but if not, any will do). The mixture should be thick but not sticky like chasni. Add paneer: the sooner you add paneer, the more time it will have to absorb the flavor and expand. Bring it to a boil and then let simmer until the sauce condenses to a thick gravy. 

Voila! Yummy paneer chilli is ready. My version looks like charana ko tarkari lai barana ko masala, but if you add the right amount of paneer, this dish can surely be paneer chilli instead of chilly with paneer topping :) This amazing snack can be served hot or cold!

Ingredients

Paneer

Milk

Vinegar / lemon juice

Water

Sauce

Oil

Green Chilli

Onion

Green pepper

Tomato

Tomato Ketchup

Soy Sauce (Optional)

Deviled Eggs for Beginners

I loved deviled eggs the first time I had them, and have loved them ever since. When I started looking for recipes online, they were so easy that I was ecstatic (I expected the recipe to be fancy since the eggs look fancy). My first try was a little saltier than I would have liked, though it was still good. I am sure that with time and more experimentation, I will get better results. So here goes: 

1. Hard boil a few eggs and cut them  in half.

2. Take the yolks out and put them in a separate bowl

3. Add a little bit of mayonnaise, a dash of vinegar, and a very (very) small pinch of salt. Many recipes called for mustard at this stage, but I hate mustard anyways. The mixture should be slightly gooey, like in the picture.

4. Put the mixture back into the eggs (I know there are all these pretty pictures online with fancy patterns on the filling, but I am yet to figure out how to do that)

5. Garnish with pepper. Look how pretty they are, I finished three of them before I even thought to take the picture :)

Corrections and additions will be made as when they occur in real life. Until then, enjoy deviled eggs for beginners. 

Ingredients

Boiled eggs

Mayonnaise

Vinegar

Salt

Powdered red pepper

How to make a dump salad

This is an alternate version with yoghurt and strawberries

My colleague once made a dump salad – she dumped all thefruits she had and covered it in some kind of ready made sweet dressing. It wasdelicious, but that’s not what this recipe is about. It’s about another saladthat I invented and named it dump salad, because it involves dumping togethereverything in the fridge.

My dump salad has 5 groups of ingredients:

1. The essentials

2. Vegetables

3. Fruit

4. Moisture

5. Spice

6. Nut

1. The essentials.

The essentials are the things that youabsolutely cannot do without. Salt,khorsani, lemon, and oil fall here. Use them as per taste.

2. Vegetables

As I said, just dump everything in yourfridge. Just follow a few guidelines:

a. Choose veggies that are relatively bland. Forexample, veggies like karela and bhede khorsani have a distinctive taste andflavor of their own and do not taste good when eaten raw or semi raw. Cauliflowers, boiled corn, mushroom, cabbage, are some of my favoriteingredients. But you can go ahead and add green beans, peas, boiled chana,asparagus, iskus or anything else you want. I do not like the taste of rawcarrot, and if you do, go ahead. If not, grated carrot should be good.

b. Dice up all these veggies into minute pieces.

c. Take the veggies that you do not normally eatraw, like mushrooms, which might smell if raw, and cauliflowers, which are toocrunchy when raw, and either micro, steam or boil them for 2 minutes. Do notcook for more than 2 minutes, else they will lose their texture and turn intoslime. This is a dump salad but not baby food.

Mushroom amd cauliflower about to be microed. I only added corn because they are frozen, I do believe fresh boiled corn is better.

d. Dump everything else that is eaten raw – banda,peas, green beans, etc. Saag is wonderful too. I personally dislike rayo. I luvsup ko saag but many people find it too strong. Anything in between, chamsurpalungo, romaine spinach, go for it, but sprinkle it on top, else it may becomewatery.

3. Fruit

Frankly, vegetable salads always soundedbland to me, until I discovered that I could add fruit to it. I got the ideafrom the book lemony snicket, where Beatrice Baudelaire makes a salad of peasmangoes and avocados. Anyways, fruit is an essential part of this salad.Choose a fruit that has a tang (imagine a very sweet fruit like banana in aveggie salad. No, it would absolutely not work.) My favorite fruit to putin a dump salad is amilo aaru, or tangy peach. Strawberry, kiwi, pear, alubakhada, and pineapple workgreat too. Raw mango would be the best, but if the mango is too hard to bite,then you can either cook it with the veggies or grate it. I would assume thatother berries like cranberry, and ainselu would do great too. Just chop up n mixwith salad.

5. Moisture

Moisture is a vague name. I guess it can loosely be called chhop. This ingredientgives some kind of lassa to the dish, There are three options for this. Avocado,yoghurt, or boiled egg yolk. Dahi is my favorite, and though avocado works,sometimes it gives a strong fishy smell in company of other veggies. But if you can stand it, go for it. Boiled eggs work great, the whites add to the salad and the yolk can be blended thoroughly to provide a creamy texture. And if you like none of these, then don't use any. Salad tastes fine without this ingredient.

4. Spice

You can use either onions, or garlic, orgreen onion. Using more than one would be overkill I think, because salads requiremilder flavor than cooked veggies. My personal fav is onions, from all theversions that I have tried.

This version has green onions as spice, avocadoes as moisture and nectarines as fruit.

6. Nut

The nut adds flavor and texture to the salad. Use chopped walnuts, cashews, or almonds. Do not use whole nuts, they might prove too hard to chew. And don't use too many nuts, as the the vegetables should be the main ingredients and nuts should be just the garnish. Again, do not use more than one type of nut at a time, because it takes away from the vegetables. A sprinkling of raisins or dried cranberries and the like wouldn't harm. Nuts, like moisture, are optional, but are highly recommended.

Finally, throw everything together, sprinkle salt and lemon juice to taste, and garnish with oil of your choice. I use olive oil, which works fine and is healthy too, but I get misty eyed thinking of tori ko tel. The oil can be used raw or heated. The benefit of using heated oil is that you can jhano the dish with methi and khrsani, but I often use unheated oil and raw khorsani which works great too. Go wild withjimmu heeng or any other exotic spices that you would like to use (I use heeng to great effect).

Enjoy yummy and pretty dump salad :)

Alternate version with pineapples, cucumbers and boiled beans, ground carrot 

Flipping a yummy Tomato Cheese Omelet

For this I have to thank Anil Bhenaju. We had gone over to Prabha Di’s place for lunch, and among all the delicious stuff like Mushroom Choela and Dai Vada was the Cheese and Tomato Omelet. I watched Bhenaju making it from scratch, and was mighty impressed. Cheese and eggs and two of my favorite foods, but the idea of combining them, though so simple, had not occurred to me. And even if it had, I wouldn’t have known how to best mate them. But Bhenaju put up such a simple display I make it every other day. And whenever I ask Mayuri what she wants as a lunch accompaniment, she says “Cheese Omelet!”

Two eggs, one half-whisked. Half a slice of cheese that passed through the shredder.
 And tomatoes  plucked from the vine.

Well, the ingredients are so rudimentary you do not even need to list them down. For a person, you need just one egg, around fifteen shreds of cheese (no, you needn’t count!) and one large tomato. Or two small ones, depending. And salt and oil, of course. Onion and tomato if you are into that sort of thing. Which I amn’t, as I find them too intense in an omelet.
Just shred the cheese, slice the tomato into tiny pieces, and whisk the egg around on the bowl. Add the salt to the egg and heat the oil. Once heated, pour in the egg and wait till it sizzles and then settles down to half-cooked consistency. The trick, as I have learnt through trial-and-error, is knowing exactly when to put in the cheese and tomatoes. That is JUST before you turn it over, otherwise it either sticks or burns. Sprinkle the cheese around, dash in the tomatoes, then flip the omelet and wait till it settles too.

I command you to flip me at this exact moment!

 The end product should send off a heavenly smell, you will be reminded of pizza. The texture is similar too, the mushy, spongy feel. Scrape it off and enjoy!

Not my best picture, but I taste yummy!