Ingredients - All purpose flour ( maida) - 1.5 cup Butter - 100 gm Eggs - 3 Castor or granulated sugar - 1 cup Lemon juice - 2 tbsp Lemon zest - 1 tbsp Buttermilk - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 2 tsp Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence - few drops For frosting -
Cream cheese - 1 cup Unsalted butter - 85 g Icing or granulated sugar - 1 cup Lemon juice - 3 tbsp Vanilla essence - few drops To make home made cream cheese - Milk full cream - 1/2 ltr white vinegar - 1 tbsp Boil 1/2 ltr full cream milk, when it comes to rolling boil, switch off the flame, add vinegar and stir it nicely till the mixture has separated completely . when it curdles put the mixture into a sieve, let it strain and cool completely for 10-15 minutes. Transfer it into a blender and blend it until its smooth and creamy. Blend it further if it's grainy. it is ready to use. Method - 1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda. 2. In a big bowl take butter and beat it on a high speed for 2 minutes with an electric beater. 3. Add sugar beating it continuously. 4. Add eggs beating nicely after each addition. 5. Gradually add half of the flour, add the lemon zest, lemon juice and buttermilk, give it all a good mix, then add remaining half, little at a time and mix it thoroughly. 6. Grease and line two baking tins of 6 inch and 8 inches. 7. Divide the batter into it and bake it in a preheated oven until it is thoroughly baked. Insert a toothpick to confirm it's done, if it comes out clean then take it out and let it come to room temperature. Frosting and assemble - 1. In a big bowl beat butter for few minutes until very light. 2. Add cream cheese and beat it further until well combined. 3. Add sugar, lemon juice and vanilla and beat it from low speed to high speed for 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy and of spreading consistency. 4. The cake is ready to assemble, in a serving plate place the bigger layer of cake, trim some of the upper part of the cake to level it, spread the cream cheese frosting on it generously to cover it from the top and sides. 5. Place the smaller cake right on top of it, trim it too, cover it with the lemon cheese cream frosting from the top and sides completely. 6. Transfer the remaining frosting in a piping bag with a star nozzle fitted into it. 7. Pipe big swirls on the edges of the cake and place a lemon slice on each of the swirls to complete the look of it. 8. Your beautiful lemon cheese cake is ready to serve, just put it in fridge for an hour before serving. It's a beautiful cake, can be enjoyed on any summer afternoon. If you want to skip the frosting the cake can be enjoyed without it as well. It has a great tangy flavour.
Method - 1. Take a heavy bottomed Karahi and heat 1 tbsp ghee in it. 2. Break sewai into small pieces and fry in karahi in a low heat for 5 minutes until it turns golden brown colour, keep it aside, 3. Chop all almonds, raisins, pistachios and cashews into small pieces and dates and coconut into long thin strips. 4. Put remaining ghee and lightly fry the almond, cashews and coconut, taking great care not to burn it. 5. Take a heavy bottomed pan and boil the milk in it. 6. Let it boil for 3-4 minutes, put sugar and dry fruits after saving some dry fruits for garnishing. 7. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes on a low heat until the dates are tender and the milk is slightly reduced. 8. Add fried sewai, crushed cardamom, saffron strands, condensed milk and let it cook on a very low heat for 7-8 minutes without covering the pan. 9. Transfer it into serving bowls and garnish it with the remaining dry fruits. 10. Serve it warm, it can be chilled also if you like to eat it that way. 11. It tends to get thicker when it comes to room temperature, add some milk if the sheer khurma gets too thick. 12. If you want to turn this dessert into creamy and heavenly delight, use of full fat milk is a must. 13. As the dates and raisins increase the sweetness of sheer khurma be careful with sugar, first put 2-3 tbsp only then increase according to your taste.
Ingredients - Chicken boneless - 250 g cut into bite size cubes Curd thick - 2 tbsp Cream - 3 tbsp Garlic paste - 2 tsp Ginger Paste - 1 tsp Lemon juice - 2-3 tbsp Garam masala - 1 tsp Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup + Green chilies - 2 (make a paste) Chili flakes - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Egg - 1 beaten Bread crumbs - 1 cup Oil - for frying Skewers - few dipped in water to prevent burning
Method - 1. Wash and clean chicken, dry it in a kitchen towel. 2. Replace it in a big dry bowl. 3. Marinate the chicken by first putting lemon juice in it then followed by all the listed ingredients, except cream . 4. Mix it nicely and keep it for 4-5 hours or overnight in fridge. If using chicken breasts, it needs a longer marination time, preferably overnight. 5. Take it out and mix it again, adjust the salt, Mix the cream in it nicely until incorporated well. 6. Thread the chicken pieces into wooden skewers, 3 to 4 pieces. 7. Take a non stick frying pan and heat oil in it. 8. Cover the chicken into bread crumbs and with the help of a knife pat it to bring it in shape. 9. Dip it in beaten egg and put it in the frying pan, cover for a while and shallow fry it in a medium low heat, tossing and turning in between until cooked well from both the sides and turns a golden brown colour.
Gram Flour ( besan ) - 1 cup Curd - 2 cups Fresh ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp Cumin powder - 1 tsp Red chili powder - 1 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Baking Soda - a pinch Oil - for frying Sugar granulated - 1 tbsp Salt - 1/2 tsp or to taste Black Salt - 1/4 tsp for tempering Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp Asafoetida - a pinch Whole red chilies - 2 Clarified butter ( ghee) - 2 tsp
Method -
1. Sieve the gram flour in a bowl, add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, little cumin powder and chili powder and salt to taste. Beat it with your hands for five minutes, so that it's light and fluffy, check by putting 1/2 tsp batter into water, if it floats, its good to go, add a pinch of baking soda and give it a good mix. 2. Heat oil in a karahi. Deep fry all the pakoras, till light golden brown, little at a time in two - three batches. 3. Take a bowl half filled with normal water, dip the pakoras in it just for a minute as soon as they are fried, squeeze the water out of it, and keep it aside. 4. Mix the curd nicely to avoid any lumps, mix little water if it's too thick. Add sugar, salt, black salt, 1/4 tsp of cumin powder and red chilli powder in it, saving some for the garnish. 5. Take a serving bowl, arrange all the pakoras in it, pour all curd over it, sprinkle cumin and red chili powder, garnish with coriander leaves. 6. Take a small frying pan, heat ghee in it, add cumin seeds, whole chilies and asafoetida, temper it, spreading it all over the dahi fulk. Chill it before serving.
Ingredients - Milk full cream - 1 ltr Sugar - 100 gm Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp diluted in 1 tsp water Ghee - 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Method - 1. Heat a heavy bottomed karahi or pan, preferably an iron karahi. 2. Pour the milk in it and let it come to a boil on a medium high heat, stirring it continuously. 3. Put the flame on a medium low and keep simmering and stirring until it is reduced to half and is thickened. 4. Pour the diluted lemon water into the milk, keep it on low flame, stirring it at the same time as the milk will start curdling at this point. 5. Simmer it for few more minutes, add sugar in it. 6. Keep cooking and stirring as the sugar is dissolved, add ghee, keeping it on low flame as the milk splutters a lot. 7. keep working on it until milk thickens completely and leaves the sides of the pan. 8. Add cardamom powder and let it cook for 2 minutes to let it turn into light golden brown. 9. Grease a loaf tin and transfer the mixture into it, wrap the loaf tin with a heavy kitchen towel so that the heat is trapped into it. It will ensure a golden colour when cooled down. 10. Let it remain like that for 3-4 hours until it is cooled and comes to a room temperature. 11. Separate the sides with a knife and unmould it into a plate, cut it into pieces and serve.
Shahi Tukda as the name suggests, this sweet creamy delight has its connection with the royals. Having it's root in the Mughlai cuisine, Shahi tukda is a rich creamy royal dessert. It is made up of fried bread which is coated in sugar syrup and is topped and soaked with fragrant creamy sweet thickened milk or rabri and garnished with dry fruits. The dessert is rich in taste, aroma and flavour and is particularly prepared during the festive months of Ramadan, making it very desirable dish at iftar, and a meetha famously served at Eid and a must in marriage functions. Shahi Tukda also has a hyderabadi cousin, resembling each other in taste and presentation, there is not much difference between the two except in terms of thickness of the bread. In Hyderabad, the dish is baked after the bread and rabri are combined, and it's referred to as "Hyederabadi Double ka Meetha" after the local word for bread which is double roti. I want to share with you a truly luscious recipe of shahi tukde, though i have changed the dish a bit, in keeping in mind, the health conscious friends of mine, so instead of deep fry, the breads are shallow fried to avoid the extra calories and i used a whole wheat bread instead of white bread....so happy cooking and a happy Ramadan in advance to you all.......!!
Ingredients - whole wheat bread - 8 Milk - 1/2 ltr sugar - 4 tbsp + 2 tsp Almond chopped- 5-6 Pistachio chopped - 3-4 Cashews chopped - 4-5 Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Condensed milk - 2 tbsp Rose essence - 2 drops Saffron strands - 2-3 Clarified butter ( Ghee) - for frying 3-4 tbsp Silver foil /Chandi vark - 1 (optional) Method - 1. Take the bread and remove all it's edges, cut it diagonally. 2. Take a shallow non stick frying pan and heat little ghee in it. 3. Shallow fry the bread slices in batches, in a low heat until crisp golden brown on both the sides, turning it in between and sprinkling with some ghee when it's turned. 4. Fry the chopped dry fruits lightly in ghee too. 5. Make sugar syrup heating one cup of water and 4 tbsp of sugar until its half in quantity, add the saffron strand and keep it aside. 6. Heat a heavy bottomed pan with milk in it. Keep boiling it on a low medium heat stirring it continuously till the milk is reduced and resembles a thick rabri. Add 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp condensed milk, cardamom powder and rose essence into it. 7. To assemble the shahi tukda, take a rectangular tray, dip the fried bread slices into the sugar syrup and arrange it on the tray. 8. Pour the thickened milk ( rabri) over the soaked bread slices, decorate it with chandi ka vark and dry fruits. Dribble a little bit of sugar syrup also on the breads. 9. The recipe can be doubled according to your need, the present recipe serves 3-4.
Ingredients - Eggs boiled - 4-5 Mayonnaise - 2 tbsp Pepper - 1/ 4 tsp Basil powder - 1/2 tsp Garlic powder - 1/2 tsp Onion powder - 1/4 tsp (optional) Tomato Ketchup - 1 tsp Mustard sauce - 1/4 tsp Salt - to taste Method - 1. Take the eggs and cut it into halves, lengthwise. 2. Remove the yolks to a bowl, place the whites into a serving platter. 3. Mash the yolk to a fine crumble using a fork while it's still warm. 4. Add all the listed ingredients into the yolk crumble and give it a good mix until creamy. 5. Use a spoon to scoop out the mixture and put it back into the egg whites, or you can get creative and scoop the mixture into a piping bag and pipe it into the egg whites. 6. Sprinkle some pepper and paprika powder for garnishing.
Ingredients : Mutton - 1/2 kg Rice - 1 1/2 cup Onions - 4-5 Garlic - peeled whole medium size Ginger - chopped1 inch Curd - 4 tbsp Saffron - 2-3 strands soaked in warm milk Garam masala - 1 tsp Cumin seeds - 1 tsp Oil - 5 tbsp + 2 tbsp Ghee ( clarified butter) - 2 tbsp Whole garam masala - to be tied in muslin cloth Cloves - 5-6 Fennel seeds - 1 tsp green cardamom - 2-3 Black cardamom - 1 big Cinnamon - 2 inch Black pepper - 5-6 Bay leaf - 2 Method -
1. Make a bouquet garni with the whole garam masala, i.e. tie the cloves, fennel seed, green and black cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and bay leaf in a muslin cloth. 2. Wash and clean meat, wash and soak rice too in water. 3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in pressure cooker, add cumin seeds, let it splutter, add the meat, ginger, garlic cloves, 3 cups of water, salt, and the tied muslin cloth in it. 4. Pressure cook it for 2-3 whistles and put the flame on medium low and let it cook for 15 minutes or until done. 5. Squeeze the muslin cloth to release maximum flavours. 6. Take out the meat in a plate and keep it aside, store the meat stock that is Yakhni and keep aside as well. 7. In the same cooker take 5 tbsp Oil and fry the thinly sliced onions in it until golden brown. 8. Take out some of the fried onions for garnishing, leaving more than half in it. 9. Add meat pieces, ghee, curd, garam masala, in the cooker, fry it for five minutes. Adjust salt. 10. Strain the rice and add it to the cooker, fry for 2 minutes. 11. Add the yakhni to the cooker, measuring according to the quantity of the rice. if it's less, then plain warm water can be added to it. 12. Pressure cook the rice on medium heat until a whistle. 13. Open the lid when the pressure is gone and add saffron soaked in milk over it, garnish it with the fried onions and close the lid. 14. Serve it hot with walnut chutney and Raita. Ps - if you dont want to cook the rice in cooker then follow the steps until no 6, after that put the oil in some heavy bottomed pan and fry the onions and follow rest of the procedure.
INGREDIENTS - Milk - 2 1/2 cup Cornflour - 2 tsp Coco powder - 2 tbsp Gelatin - 2 tsp Sugar - 3 tbsp or to taste Round baking dish - 7 inch
Method - 1. Heat milk in a saucepan, add sugar and coco powder into it, let it simmer. 2. Mix cornflour into 1/4 cup of water, add it into the milk, keep stirring. 3. Mix the gelatin in 4-5 tbsp hot water until it dissolves, add it into the milk-coco mixture. 4. Let it come to a boil, cook for a minute until it thickens and completely dissolves. 5. let it cool down and come to room temperature. 6. pour it into greased baking dish or individual ramekins, refrigerate it for 3-4 hours or until completely set. 7. Sprinkle some choco chips and praline and serve cold.
Ingredients - All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup Castor or granulated sugar - 1 cup Egg - 1 Baking powder - 1 tsp Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Oil refined - 1/2 cup Choco chips - 2 tbsp Milk - 3/4 cup Custard powder - 5 tbsp Method - 1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a plate. 2. Mix the milk and custard powder nicely. 3. In a big bowl take the oil and sugar and beat it with an electric mixture for 2 minutes until incorporated well. 4. Add the egg and continue beating it. 5. Add flour gradually alternating with the custard milk until all mixed well. 6. sprinkle the choco chips in the batter, saving some for garnishing. 7. Grease a 9 inch round baking dish with oil or line it with a parchment paper. 8. Pour the cake batter evenly on it, sprinkle the remaining choco chips over it and bake it on 180 degree Celsius until baked well and a knife or a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in it.
Ingrerdients - Milk - 1 1/4 cup Sugar - 3 tbsp water - 1 tbsp Eggs - 2 beaten Sugar - 1/2 cup Water - 2 tbsp
Method - 1. Put 1 tbsp water and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat and let it completely dissolve and come to a boil, do not stir, at this point reduce the heat and let it cook until it turns golden brown color, around four - five minutes. Remove from heat and when the boiling has stopped add 2 tbsp of hot water to the syrup. 2. In an another sauce pan heat 1 1/4 cup of milk and 3 tbsp of sugar until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool until its luke warm. 3. Whisk the beaten eggs into the warm milk until mix thoroughly. 4. Pour the caramel syrup into a 7 inch baking dish, before pouring, warm it slightly if it's thickened a bit and spread it evenly on to the baking dish. 5. Pour the egg milk over the caramel sugar in the baking dish. 6. Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius with water filled in the dripping tray for 15 minutes. The tray should be filled 3/4. 7. Place the baking dish over the dripping tray and bake it until the custard has set until 30 minutes. 8. To unmold it, carefully loosen its sides by circling a knife around it, place a plate on top of the baking dish, holding tightly, turn the dish upside down and carefully shake it up gently to loosen it. It will slide onto the plate with the caramel syrup which will form the beautiful golden caramel sauce.
Ingredients : Lobiya ( Black eyed beans)- 1 measuring cup Semolina - 3 Tbsp Coriander leaves or dil, fine chopped - a bunch Green chili - 1 Salt - 1/4 tsp Oil - 3-4 tbsp Method- 1. Soak the lobiya overnight or for 5-7 hours. 2. Grind it with green chili and salt to a fine paste, putting some water into it. 3. Take it out in a bowl, add the semolina, chopped leaves, and put it to rest for 1/2 an hour. 4. Adjust the water, it should not be runny but of dropping consistency. 5. Heat a tawa and grease it with few drops of oil, half slice of onion can be used to spread it evenly. This prevents from sticking to the pan. 6. Pour a ladle full of batter on the center of the tawa and spread it evenly to get a circular dosa shape, drizzle some oil and cover the pan for few seconds to cook it evenly, flip the dosa and cook it on the other side also after spreading some oil. Cook till it's crisp from both the sides. 7. Serve it hot with coconut and tomato chutney. 8. This dosa is packed with goodness and protein.
