Chole/Chana

My friend Hema is a fabulous cook. I try to follow her recipe for chole as much as I can. Mine is not as good as hers, but it is pretty decent.

Soak garbanzo beans overnight. Pressure cook them for 3 whistles. You can skip the step if you are using canned ones. In oil fry cumin seeds, add finely chopped ginger. Crushed garlic couple of mins later.  Once done add onions and tomatoes (just one or two). Cook them thoroughly. Once done add garbanzo beans, salt, garam masala, black salt, pomegranate powder and amchur(dried mango powder). Let it cook till garbanzo beans absorb all the flavor.

I make my own garam masala. I just buy the packet of whole spices, toast them and grind them in the coffee grinder.

Tiramisu

This is dish tougher than I thought. Key to any dish is the quality of ingredients.

Ingredients:

Lady Fingers-2 packets

Expresso-8 shots

Mascarpone Cheese-750gms

Sugar(I used caster sugar)-1 cup

Whipping cream-500 ml

Eggs-6

Cocoa powder/Chocolate shavings

Recipe:

Separate Egg Yolks

Add 1/2 of sugar.

Beat them.

Add some kahlua.

The cream:

You have cook this mixture in double boiler. I dont have a double boiler, so I boiled water in a wok, held the vessel on the boiling water and cooked it for 6-7 minutes.

Beat the whipping cream and rest of the sugar till it forms peaks.

In another vessel(Yes, dish washing after this is uber painful) mix mascarpone cheese and the cooked mixture. Add whipped cream fold it in. Mix everything with a whisk till the mixture becomes fluffy.

Assembly:

Dip lady fingers in the expresso and place them in a flat dish. Form a layer of Lady's fingers.

Over this layer, pour the half of prepared cream and spread it.

Sprinkle cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.

Repeat the above 3 steps.

Cover and chill it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.

You will have a delicious tiramisu.

Something to eat on the last day of the universe

If the universe explodes tonight destroying all celestial & terrestrial objects, what is the last thing you would eat? I would eat parvannam or rice pudding. This dish happens to be my family's favorite.

In Andhra Pradesh(the part of India that I come from) rice pudding is the first cooked food given to the baby. Among lots of the other cultures it is eaten during auspicious occasions.

The recipe I am posting is our family recipe. Though it takes only 3 ingredients, the dish takes longtime to cook. But result is well worth it.

Ingredients
1 gallon milk
2 1/2 lbs jaggery
1/2 cup rice

Boil milk, after the milk starts boiling, add rice and let rice cook completely. Keep stirring to make sure that milk doesn't burn. While milk is boiling, break jaggery into small pieces. Pieces should be small enough to mix into milk quickly. Once the rice is completely cooked, add jaggery and cook till it is condensed. Don't forget to stir.

Jaggery is not processed and is high minerals. It also has numerous health benefits according to Ayurveda.

After this you will have tired hands and a tasty dish that I could eat dying.

Introduction

I just love food! Almost everybody is getting a food blog, so I thought I should too. I am a decent cook. I experiment a lot because while cooking I realize that I don't have the essential ingredient and I dont like to follow directions. I hope to share some recipes, hopefully there will be somebody interested.