Kids recipe - Episode 4 - Chinese Corn and Crab Soup

Ingredients:

3 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) low-sodium chicken broth 2 cans (14 3/4 ounces each) no-salt-added,

cream-style corn1 can (6 ounces)

crabmeat1 teaspoon

grated ginger root or 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

4 large egg whites, lightly beaten

1/3 cup finely-chopped green onions

Preparation:

Put the chicken broth, corn, crabmeat, ginger, and pepper in a large saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Fold in the egg whites, and remove from the heat. Continue to stir gently until the egg white sets. Garnish with the green onions

Nutriton fact:

Crab meat is very healthy, good protein, low fat, very tasty. Also rich in Omega-3 fatty acids

Kids Recipe - Episode 3 - Maryland Crab Soup

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
A pinch of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons of Old Bay Seasoning (Note: More if you prefer spicy, less if you don't.)
2 - 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes, drained
1- 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1/2 of a 16 ounce package of frozen peas (Note: Normally lima beans are used for MCS)
1/2 of a 16 ounce package of frozen corn kernels2 cups of water1 pound of crab meat, rinsed and picked over for shells .

Preparation:
In a large stock pot sauté onions and potatoes with a little sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper until onions are tender and both onions and potatoes are slightly browned.
Next add Old Bay Seasoning and stir to coat.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, frozen peas and frozen corn, along with water and bring to a quick boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are fork tender.
Once potatoes are tender add crab and cook for 5 minutes to heat through. Serve immediately.

Notes: This soup is extremely easy to make and has a bit of a wow factor to it too. It is also very healthy, so that is always an added plus. You could use lima beans in place of the peas .

Nutitin facts:

Crab meat is very healthy, good protein, low fat, very tasty. Also rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.

Kids Recipe - Episode 2 -Halim

Halim is another Muslim's dish whichi learned through my friends Aliya & Maria. This dish is very nuitritious since it has many saoked whole grains and meat in it. I have slightly customised this recipe for kids. But generally this dish consumes a lot of cooking time if it has to be done authentically.

Ingredients :

Black gram/Urad Dal - 5 Tbsp

Bengal Gram/Channa Dal - 5 Tbsp

Split red gram/Toor Dal - 5 Tbsp

Split green gram/Moong Dal - 5 Tbsp

Meat or chicken - 1/2 Cup

Prep:

1. Soak all the grains/dal in seperately for about 3 hours. And pressure cook until extremely cooked say for about 10 to 12 whistles.

2.Now pressure cook the meat/chicken seperately until extremely cooked say for about 10 to 12 whistles.

3. Mash them both together to form a thick paste. And add salt and turmeric and let it cook for another 5 mins.

4. Saute the mixture with some splittered Lavan/Patta/2 Cardomom.

This dish is very nutritious so kids can only eat half or 3/4 of their usual quantity of this food.

Nutrition facts :
High in protein - helps in overall metabolism and building muscles.

Kids Recipe- Episode 1- Peas-Carrot-Fish Mashed

It might sound familiar or even simple but we might run out of choice for making varieties of food for kid or even ourselves. So i thought of starting new episodes just for Kids . Most of my Kids recipes would be suitable for small kids age between 6 months to 3 years, as my recipes are based on what i do for my little one aged 16 month as of now!
This is a very simple recipe to start with so lets get into it.

Peas-Carrot-Fish : (age starting from 11 or 12 months)



Ingredients:
Peas and carrot - 1 cup diced
(Either fresh ones or
Frozen)

Fish Fillet (Either fresh ones or frozen entries
from any retail store) - 2 to 4 tsps (depending on age)

Oil /Ghee - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 1
Salt - 1/4 to 1/2 tsp

Preparation :

Either boil or steam or pressure cook the vegetables. The frozen fish fillets can be microwaved. Now put all the ingredients together in a blender and add some water and blend it according to the age of the kid (Fine paste for younger kids and coarsely for older kids ).
Take a pan and add some ghee or oil and add the garlic (crushed) and add the paste into the pan and leave it for few minutes.
Can store this mixture in a container in refrigerator and can be used within 2 days.



Nutritional Fact about fish in toddlers diet:
Despite of the fact the fish contains mercury and is not safe for kids until the age 12 months, many researches and studies proved that fish has many constructive benefits for the children's brain development.

All over the world , the pediatric association recommends adding fish to your toddler’s diet after a year of age. There is a lot of different fish to choose from, but you may not know which ones are safe. Two easy ones to remember are: Wild pacific salmon (not farmed) and canned light tuna (not albacore) to start with.

Oily fish is a good source of omega 3 fats - responsible for the development of brain. Examples of oily fish include salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, pilchards, eel and fresh tuna. You can offer your toddler oily fish once or twice a week. Many toddlers will enjoy oily fish in home-made fish cakes, or fish and potato pie, made with a mixture of oily and white fish.

Starting New Episode Of Recipes For Kids

Sometimes we might run out of choice for making varieties of food for kids or even ourselves. This idea for starting new episodes just for Kids basically emerged becoz i kind of felt hard to maintain routine for my kid when my mom left after her stay with us . I usually give him the same usual kind of food. With my daily & busy schedule i found hard to even think of a new one. But later i managed myself to give my kid some varities as they have to get used to diff kinds of food. No wonder we will eventually become a pro.
Based on my personal experience i planned to compile all the recipes that suits Kids (mostly indian kids). Most of them are my mom's recipe, and some of them are personalised from tv and books. All these Kids recipes would be suitable for small kids age between 6 months to 3 years.

Although we need to train them and start giving them the usual food that we cook regularly for ourselves just with less spice and salt, i have shedded a few ideas which you can try if you bored of trying you usual stuff. Have fun and hope u all enjoy the recipes.
Stay tuned for my next post..........

Chicken Manchurian

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of small pieces of chicken(boneless)
2) Soy Sauce - 3 to 4 tbsp
3) 2 tbsp Ginger cut into small pieces
4) 3 tbsp Garlic cut into small pieces
5) Coriander leaves
6)1 Onion cut into long pieces
7) All purpose flour Or Corn flour- 1/2 cup
8) Egg - 1
9) Bell pepper - 1 cut into small pieces
10) Agin-o-motto - a pinch
11) chilli powder, salt, black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Mix the all purpose flour or corn flour, beaten egg, salt, chilli powder to make a paste.Can add food color which is optional.

Add the chicken to the paste and let it for few minutes say 10 mins.

Heat some oil in a pan and deep fry the chicken.

Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onions, bell pepper, ginger and garlic pieces.

Add the soy sauce and let it boil

Add the fried chicken pieces to the boiling mixture.

Add the agin-o-motto and coriander leaves.


Depending on your choice of having chicken manchurian, you can make it dry or like a gravy, by adding or lessening more(or less) of soya sauce and water.

Chicken Manchurian is best served with any kinf of fried rice or Rotis or Parathas.

Rava Dosa

Had been a long time since i posted anything in my cookery blog. As usual busy with daily routine and my other blogs. ried this rava dosa first time , and it came out to be a complete disaster. I got the batter perfectly done, but i couldnt get the shape of dosa. took some time to figure out wat was going wrong. And then i called my mom , she gave me these tips to get dosas on shape. So here i am, to share the tips with you all.Rava dosa is very easy to prepare & within short time.

Dosa Batter:
Rava/Semolina - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
salt - accordingly
Pepper corns - accordingly
Green chillies - 3
Curry leaves - 1/2 hand full
Jeera/Cumin - 1 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Water - accordingly


Preparation :

The main thing to keep in mind while preparing the batter is to keep the consistency of the batter thin as a butter milk. So add the water to all the mixture above and get the batter ready and set it aside for 10 mins.

Now to make Dosas:

Now Keep the pan with almost more than a medium flame on the stove top. but make sure its not at the high flame. Since the batter is too thin we cannot pour it like a regular dosa as we will not get the desired shape. Therefore , to make onion rava dosa, first sprinkle on the stove and then sprinkle the bater with your hand and that forms a thin layer of dosa with its unique feature of forming holes . Now apply oil/ghee to make it wasy for us to flip.
Keep in mind that even though the flame is set to almost high, the rava-dosa does not gets cooked so fast. Also it does not get the brown color. So you may not worry that it would get burned at high flame. So leave it for a while until the sides of the dosa seem to get browned so that it can be flipped.
Thats the trick. Dosa is done. And can be served with any kind of chutney , but prefferebly mint or corriander leaf chutney , or coconut chutney , or sambar.

I miss-placed my digital-camera somewhere within our house :-)) will post the pictures once i find it. Till then try it out and have fun.

Cauliflower Kootu

Ingredients:

1 medium sized cauliflower

Onions -1

Garlic - 3

Tomato - 1

Any other vegetables like carrot/peas etc. - 1/2 cup

2 tsp oil1 tsp

mustard seeds

Few curry leaves

Channa dal - 1/2 cup

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

To Grind:
----------

2 tsp Jeera
3 tbsp grated coconut
1 or 2 green chillies (Optional)




Method :


Soak Channa dal atleast half an hour before starting to cook(soaking in hot water will take probably just 15 mins; )





Heat little Oil in a pressure pan, add mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, curry leaves. And then add onion/garlic/tomayos fry till it turns light brown.
Add, cauliflower, soaked dal and vegetables and salt. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes and close the lid and pressure cook it by allowing it to cook for 2 whistles.


Open the lid of the pressure pan when the steam is completely gone. Now add the ground paste : (the Grated coconut, jeera,greenchillies). Mix it well with the contents and let it boil just for couple of mins and set aside.


Kootu can be best served with rotis.

Vegetable Korma

Ingredients:

Vegetables- potatoes, carrots, peas, cauliflower- diced, not too small pieces

Onion-medium sized, sliced lenghthwise

Garlic-sliced lengthwise-5-6

cloves-4

cardamom- 2 each

Oil-a tbsp

Chopped corriander leaves to garnish

Salt-to taste

To Grind into a paste:

Coconut-1/2 cup

Green Chillies-3-4 nos

Roasted gram/pottukkadalai-2 tsps

Fennel seeds/saunf-a tsp

Khus khus/poppy seeds-a tsp(optional)

Method:

1. Cook vegetables till done. Or you may use pressure cookker to cook the veggies seperately.

2. Heat oil in the utensil intended to make the curry.Throw in the spices first and then the onione/garlic/tomatoes one by one. Sauté the contents till the raw smell vanishes.

3. Now add the cooked vegetables to the container and saute it for a min. Not necessary to saute it for long becoz its already pressure cooked.

4.Transfer the ground paste along with enough water.Bring to boil .

5.Garnish with corriander leaves.

Korma is best when served with parathas, rotis or even ghee rice.

Chicken Pasta

Ingredients:

Pasta - 1 cup(uncooked)

Chicken - (either minced or small pieces) 1 cup

Mixed vegetables - 2 cups

Garlic Crushed - 6

Onion sliced- 1 big

Dry oregano - 1 tsp

Dry crushed red pepper - 1 to tsp

Onion Powder - 1 tsp

Aji-no-moto - just a pinch or two

soy sauce - 1tbsp

Method:

To cook the pasta :

Boil some water in a large pan.Add salt.When it bubbles and swirls, add Pasta .Reduce the flame to medium and close the pan with a lid.Cook for 4-5 minutes or until they are ‘just’ soft.Take care not to over cook. Drain the pasta. and rinse it under a running tap of cold water.Drain the cold water and add a tbsp of oil and mix it which will help pasta to be separate and glossy.

To cook the chicken:

Heat some oil in a pan, add the chicken either minced or small pieces , here ihave gotten minced.

add some salt ,pepper to it and saute it until the chicken is cooked. Set it aside.

Now, heat some oil in a pan, and throw in the onions , then add the garlic and then all the vegetables and saute them all under high flame, until the vegetables are crisp and just cook(not too soft/over cooked). Add oregano/dry crushed red pepper/onion powder/soy sauce/aji-no-moto and mix well together along with the vegetables. Add the pasta and cooked chicken to the pan and mix them all together. You may garnish this with some spring onions on the top.

Hong Kong style egg custard

Hong Kong style Egg Tart
Serve 3 – 4. Ingredients: 2/3 cup hot water 1/3 cup evaporated milk 4 Eggs ¼ cup sugar
Method: 1. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling hot water not for too long though. Set aside to cool. 2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs lightly. 3. Pour the cool sugar syrup and evaporated milk. 4. Strain the egg mixture thru a fine sieve. 5. Pour the custard mixture carefully into the ready made pastry tart.
6. Bring mixture to steam for 15 – 20 minutes.
(or)
Bake at 130°C/260°F/Gas 1 for 45 minutes or until set.

Mint Pulav

Mint Pulav for 2 people:

Ingredients:

Mint - 1 bunch

Green Chillie -5(medium)

Ginger - abour half inch

Garlic - 6

Grind them all together and keep this paste aside.

Oil - 3 tbsp

Cinamon -1, clove -4, somph - 1 tsp, Curry leaves, salt (Accly), any vegetables that could best go along with this rice pulav like cauliflower/carrot/potato - about 1/2 cup, Rice -1 cup.

Preparation:

This is a very easy recipe which could be done within 10 mins (except the cooking time of the rice).

Take a pan , add the oil, add all the dry ingredients first saute it, and add the rest except paste, saute it. Finally add the paste and saute it until the raw smell is gone.

Keep the rice in the rice cooker seperately and add some salt. And now add the contents of the pan to the rice cooker. As simple as that. the process is over.

Mint pulav can be best served with vegetable(carrot/cucumber/onion/jeera) raita.

Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup for 7 to 8 people:
Ingredients :
Onion - 1 (big), Tomato -1(big), Ginger - about 2 inches(juliana), Garlic - about 7(juliana), Green Chillies - 3(slit). Mint/Corriander/CurryLeaves, Cinamon (1), Clove-6, Black Cardomom - 2, Somph - 2 tsp, Egg white - 1(if you like to have egg drop in it), oil - about 3 to4 tbsp

Salt, Turmeric, Chicken - about 4 to 5 pieces pre-cooked , Chicken stock - 20 ounce.
Preparation:
Take a heavy bottomed vessel or a pressure pan prefferably, and first add all the dry ingredients ( Cnamon, Clove, cardomom, Somph) as shown below;

And then, Add the rest of the ingredients like onions, ginger/garlic, tomato, curryleaves/corriander/mint .
Now saute it well untill the raw smell goes off.

Now shred the already cooked chicken into small pieces and add it to the pressure pan. Saute it again for a while. Now add , Salt, turmeric, crushed pepper, and about 20 ounce of chicken stock. And close the lid of the pan and let it pressure cook until a whistle.

Serve the soup real hot.

Sare Beingan ka salan (Whole Eggplant Curry)

Eggplant Curry Recipe for 4 to 6 people:
Ingredients:
Brinjal - 6 , Onions - 2 medium, garlic -5, Tomato - 1, salt, turmeric, redchillie powder - 1/2 tsp, mustard seeds- 1 tsp, curry leaves, tamarind water - about 4 cups.
peanut -2 tsp, sesame seeds - 2 tsp, coconut powder-2 tsp, Jeera - 1/2 tsp --> Roast them all seperately one by one and grind it into a powder.
Now, saute 1/2 the onion, garlic and add it to the above grounded powder and make it a paste and keep it aside.
Preparation:
Take a pan and add some oil(about -4 tbsp), add mustard seeds , curry leaves and then add onions, garlic, tomato, saute it until the raw smell goes. Now add the paste and saute it for a while. Now add the tamarind water and stir it well, add salt/turmeric and chillie powder to it. Let it boil.
On the otherhand, slit the egg plant from the bottom into 4 pieces without taking off the stalk. Now deep fry the eggplant and keep it ready simultaneaously.
Add the fried egg plant to the curry boiling on the other side. Keep it in sim for about 10 mins.
Egg plant curry is a good combination for Biryani/Rotis/Parathas/Plain white rice.

Hyderabadi Dum Chicken Biryani

Hyderabad chicken biryani for 4 people :

Take a thick bottomed vessel and fill it with chicken (big pieces prefferably).

Now take 2 big onions and cut them longitudinally and then fry them with 3/4 bowl (about 10 ounce) of oil or ghee. Fry till dark brown. And set aside , sprinkle about 2 pinches of salt to avoid sogging.
Now comes the Marination of chicken. Basically the chicken is marinated with the following things:-
1. Common Masala :

Salt - 3 tsps

RedChillie - 1/2 tsp

GingerGarlic Paste - 2 handfull

Turnmeric - 1/4 tsp

2. Hara Masala :

GreenChillie - 2 Big Ones

Mint Leaves - 1/2 bunch

Corriander leaves - 3/4 bunch

3. Gharam Masala :

Patta - 1 big

Lavang - 4 or 5

Elaichi - 1/2 handfull

Whole PepperCorns - 1/2 tsps

Shazeera - 1/2 Handfull

4. Other Etc Ingredients:

Curd - about 6 tbsp

Lemon - 1/2 of big sized one

Fried onion - (1) big

Little bit of raw Onion (About 5 or 6 longitudinal leaves of the cut ones).

Oil - 1/2 bowl about4 to 5 ounce.

Mix all the above four Masalas and that will look like :

Now, boil the rice seperately. Take a big bowl of water and add the following :
Shazeera - 1/4 tsp
Lavang - 4
Elaichi -7/8
Corriander - 1/2 hand full
Mint - about 10 leaves.

Add 3 cups of rice to the boiling water , and wait till half way cooked about 10 to15 mins barely. Then drain the rice and add it with the marinated chicken in the heavy bottomed vessel.

And then add :
corriander

mint

saffron + milk (or use orange food color)

ELaichi powdered from fresh ones

Rest of the oil

Lemon juice(1/2)

Fried Onions (1)

Then you will have an almost finished product like the below :

Now cover the heavy bottomed vessel with foil and close the lid and pt it in the oven , which has already been preheated at 350 or 400 degree for abt 5 mins. Let it be cooked inside the oven for about 50 to 60 mins. After which take it out and using a spatula see to the bottom of the biryani , if theres any water left more. If so keep the vessel again , but at 200 degree now , for about 10 mins. And then take the biryani out and check for water at the bottom again. There might be a little bit of watery gravy still , but thats fine. Keep it on stove top at high flame for 10 mins.

Biryani process is over. Serve the biryani with brinjal curry or raita which is the most popular combination .

Courtesy: My Friend Aliya.