Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs

Simple to make and delicious, these kababs were a part of dinner last night. Sufficiently pushed by the good folks who follow my blog's Facebook page, who asked me to share this recipe when I posted a picture - this quick post is for them :) These make a perfect starter, you could make these even smaller for bite sized pieces. I'm sure they'd taste good rolled up in soft phulka rotis.

Recipe for Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs

Makes 10 medium sized kababs

Ingredients

3 small raw bananas

1/2 cup paneer - finely crumbled or grated

fresh coriander leaves, chopped

2 tbsp of finely chopped onion

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 garlic clove, grated

a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp of good garam masala powder (by good, I mean fresh and fragrant)

1 tbsp semolina / bread crumbs

3/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp oil or so to cook the kababs

How to make

Cut the bananas in half (length wise) and pressure cook with peel or boil them until very soft.

Once cool enough to handle, remove peels. These will slip off easily with a squeeze, if the bananas are well cooked. Mash with a fork. 

Add all other ingredients except oil. Pinch off 10 portions, flatten on palm and place in single layer on a plate. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or covered with cling film until you need to make them.

Grease a non stick tava / grill pan. Cook these on both side with little oil until golden. Serve hot with chutney or Tabasco sauce.

Note

You can use mashed potatoes instead of raw banana and tofu instead of paneer too! Don't use too much onion, i've deliberately used a couple of spoons only, just for flavouring and not as a vegetable.

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The secret to making fully loaded Nachos

It's been unbearably hot this month in Bangalore. And being the good girl I am, I have been focussing on making the most of the sun, such as sun drying tomatoes, making sun tea and getting my daily dose of vitamin D. 

Those who follow me on Instagram might have seen my gleeful updates on restarting my kitchen garden. We sowed a ton of seeds 3 weeks ago and each morning, I would take my coffee up there to talk to the little seedlings and watch each one come out from the soil and take head count (just kidding there!). As usual, I jumped too soon. There's this nut-job of a stray dog who climbs up on our terrace garden every single night and he has taken it as is life's singleminded motto to dig out every inch of soil in the garden, and along with it every thing that I sow. It is such heart ache for me that I cannot bear to step into the garden and see the mini earthquake unleashed by that 10 kilo dog. He sure was an earthmover in his previous birth! Now that I've vented my anger and frustration, I can get back to talking about good food things. 

Since the last few Fridays, I've been making a big platter of these fully loaded nachos for dinner. It's like a big salad with lots of veggies, beans, cheese and of course tortilla chips. If you get down to baking these chips, then you have a completely healthy, high fibre, high protein snack ready to serve for a house party. I plan to bake these chips in advance for this weekend.

This is the perfect party dish, easily scaled up. You can assemble these in smaller foil containers, sprinkle cheese and bake so it can be shared between two people. 

Preparing the beans:
These are not exactly refried beans because in the former, they are mashed to a coarse paste. Here the beans are pressure cooked until soft but each holding their shape and not mushy. They are then sautéed with some seasonings and kept aside for use in the nachos. You could  make these ahead of time and refrigerate up to 10 days in an airtight container.

Ingredients
1/2 cup raw rajma ( I use the smaller Kashmiri variety) 
pinch of baking soda
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp cumin powder
1 chipotle chilli or a regular dried red chilli, finely chopped or 1/4 tsp chilli flakes
3/4 tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander

Directions
Soak the rajma overnight with a pinch of baking soda.
Drain, wash well and add 1 cup water to this or enough water to completely immerse the beans in a utensil that goes inside the pressure cooker.
Pressure cook the beans for 10-12 minutes. (After two whistles, keep on sim for 10-12 minutes) The cooking time depends on the size of the rajma, for bigger sizes you may have to cook for slightly longer time. You want the beans to be cooked thoroughly, pressing with the back of the ladle or the thumb should mash it to a paste but it should hold its shape. Drain any excess water and keep aside.
In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the olive oil. Saute the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt until the onions are soft. Add the drained cooked rajma, cumin powder, chipotle, salt, coriander. On a low heat, gently saute and let all the seasonings coat the rajma for 5-7 minutes. Once this is done, keep aside until use.

Fully Loaded Nachos
Printable version here
Serves 4

Ingredients
200 grams Tortilla Chips - salted or flavoured (I use the salted variety of this brand and find them extremely crisp with good taste) 
1 big onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
1 large green capsicum, deseeded and diced
1/4 cup cooked corn kernels (optional)
some sliced pickled jalapeño (how much or how little, depends on your preference)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of seasoned rajma beans (method above)
Fresh coriander, chopped

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200C. If you are using an OTG with heating coils on the top and bottom, make sure the top heating coil is on, for the cheese to melt.

In a large oven proof dish place half the chips in one layer. Top with half the onions, tomatoes, capsicum, corn, jalapeño, rajma and cheese. Place the remaining chips in a single layer over this and sprinkle all the remaining ingredients with coriander and half the cheese right on top.

Place this in a hot oven for 7-8 minutes until the cheese melts.
Remove from oven and eat right away. If serving young kids, make a small portion separately minus the jalapeños and use plain boiled and salted rajma in their dish.


Some tips:
Use fresh and crisp chips for a crispy crunchy dish.
Once you top with all vegetables, do not waste time. It needs to go into the oven immediately or the tomatoes will start making the chips soggy.
The more cheese you use, the more delicious it will be. Use a sharp tasting cheese for a tastier dish.
If you dont have an oven, this dish will taste good as it is, only the cheese wont be melted :)

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Foxtail Millet & Basil Patties - Another recipe using this wonder grain

Foxtail Millet is clearly my best food discovery of 2013 so far. I've eaten it in place of rice, added it to salads, made tiffin items like upma, tomato 'baath' and it has never disappointed me. The best thing with this grain is that by controlling the extent of the cooking, you can get it mushier (to eat with the accompaniments you would eat rice with) or al dente enough with each grain separate (for salads). By cooking it to a mushier texture, you can also make these superbly textured and flavorsome patties. They don't have much of a taste by themselves so you'll have to add strongly flavoured ingredients to make these delicious patties - which is why I've chosen basil, garlic, onions and cheese. But go ahead and try your own flavour combinations.

A few nutritional pointers about Foxtail Millets
It's naturally gluten free, so those who cannot eat wheat and wheat based products and don't want to eat rice for all your meals, this is a very nutritious alternative to providing the necessary carbohydrates in whole grain form.
It contains twice the iron of wholewheat and very rich in magnesium. Magnesium is known to reduce migraine attacks, reduces severity of asthma and keeps blood pressure under control.*
It also contains a good amount of silicon. "It contains 4 times the amount of silicon in whole wheat (160mg/100g) which is required for hair growth, blood circulation, protection from mental fatigue, arthritis and infection.*
[*Source: Laugh With Health: Your Complete Guide to Health, Diet, Nutrition & Natural Foods, Manfred Urs Koch]
The high fiber and protein content make sure that you stay full for a long time after eating millets. 
This grain is extremely diabetic friendly, so if you are cooking for diabetics in your family, make sure you stock up on this grain at home. I will go ahead and say that is the best alternative to quinoa available in India, locally grown and wont cost you an arm and leg and a huge carbon footprint that it takes to import the grain from the other end of the world. 

Do read my story Superfoods in your Backyard published in Mint this week!

Recipe for Foxtail Millet & Basil Patties

Ingredients
3/4 cup foxtail millets
1/2 cup roughly chopped basil
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup breadcrumbs 
1/2 cup coarsely grated cheddar or any other hard cheese
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper (or more as per taste)
1 tsp salt
2 green chillies, finely chopped (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil or any other cooking oil

Directions

1. Rinse the millets in water, place it in a container that will fit in the pressure cooker and add 1 3/4 cup of water to it. Pressure cook for 2 whistles and on sim for 5-7 minutes. Once the cooker is cool enough to open, remove the millets, mash with a spoon and keep aside.
2. To the mashed millets, add all other ingredients and mix well with fingertips.
3. If you want to make this gluten free, omit breadcrumbs and use 2 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed instead.
4. Divide this into 6-8 balls and flatten on your palm to make patties as shown in the photos and keep in one layer on a plate.
5. At this stage you could cover the plate with cling film and refrigerate for few hours until you need to make them.
6. Grease a non stick tava, once moderately hot, place the patties in one layer. Once the bottom side turns golden brown, turn to the other side and cook for another 5 minutes until crisp and golden.
7. Serve immediately with ketchup, chutney or marinara sauce.
8. Omit the chillies if you are sharing this with young kids :)

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Tandoori Aloo & Tandoori Broccoli [no tandoor required]

Let me start by saying that I don't have a tandoor. When I moved into a home with a little garden, I did have this wild idea of building my own tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven used for baking / cooking heated by burning coals inside it). I can't say I have completely abandoned that idea but this tandoori recipe doesn't need a 'tandoor'. If you have a microwave oven with a grill or the grill function in a regular convection oven, that's great. If you don't have either ovens, you can use a non stick skillet to grill these.  

The best part about this recipe is you can make perfectly delicious appetisers using minimal or no oil. Use a low-carb vegetable like broccoli, cauliflower or bell peppers (stuffed or as it is), and you have a perfect low carb vegetarian side dish. For any vegetable, the basic steps are the same. 

Step one: Clean and partly cook the vegetable.

Step two: Marinate the vegetable

Step three: Grill

I use the same marinade for both recipes, mostly eye-balling the ingredients to make roughly over a cup of marinade.

Tandoori Marinade

3/4 cup thick yogurt

2 tsp chickpea flour

1 tbsp kasoori methi* (key ingredient, do not omit. Crush between finger tips to a coarse powder and then add)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2 cloves garlic, grated

2 tsp oil (optional)

In a large bowl, mix all of the above. Cover and refrigerate until use.

For Tandoori Aloo

Parboil 2 dozen baby potatoes with the skins. Either boiling in water for 3-4 minutes or pressure cook for two whistles. Remove, drain well and poke 3-4 holes per potato with the skewer. This is so that the flavours of the marinade can go inside the potatoes.

Immerse the skewer sticks in water for 2-3 hours. 

Marinade the par-cooked potatoes with skins in the prepared mix. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, skewer them and place on a grill safe plate. Grill for 5 minutes. Turn to the other side and grill another 5 minutes. Serve with tamarind chutney and green chutney.

For Tandoori Broccoli

Break a broccoli into medium sized florets (around 2 dozen florets). Immerse in a bowl of salted water for 10 minutes. Wash thoroughly. Place them in a microwave safe bowl with lid, add 2 tsp water and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes until partially cooked. Once slightly cool, place in marinade for 30 minutes (refrigerated).

Either skewer them or place them in a single later on a grill safe plate and grill for 5-7 minutes.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon along with a hung yogurt dip or mint chutney

[inspiration for tandoori broccoli came from the brilliant dinner we had at Blue Terrain where this was one of the dishes served]

*Kasoori / Kasuri methi is just dried fenugreek leaves, which when crushed and used in any dish gives a very distinct fragrance and flavour. You cannot use fresh fenugreek leaves or fenugreek seeds instead of this. This can be found in the spice aisle of most supermarkets in India or Indian supermarkets abroad.

Feedback from people who tried this recipe

Tandoori cauliflower for lunch! Thanks @saffrontrail for posting this simple, healthy and delicious recipe :-) twitter.com/Ayeshazh/statu…

— Ayesha (@Ayeshazh) March 2, 2013

Grilled veggies, inspired by @saffrontrail good fun only twitter.com/maxdavinci/sta…

— maxdavinci (@maxdavinci) March 2, 2013

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