Easy Potato Fritters

While browsing I came across this awesome recipe. My hubby wanted to eat some snack and quickly thought that this is something that I will prepare and surprise him in a few minutes. I tried the potato fritters and they turned out yummy within a few minutes.

I want to thank Asifa Rafiq of Delicious Bytes *Love of Cooking*. Since I got this on Face Book I am not able to get the link to this recipe. Maybe if I get the link, I will update it here :)

This recipe can be cooked with any vegetables of you choice, like carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, green peas, etc. You can also alter it by adding spice of your choice.



Ingredients:
2 (2 cups) potatoes
4 tbsp plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
4 spring onion
2 tbsp green coriander
1/2 tsp or to taste salt
to taste dry crushed red chillies
1/2 tsp cumin powder (optional)
oil for shallow frying

Procedure:
Grate the potatoes and keep aside.
Finely chop the spring onion and green coriander.
Beat the egg in a pan.
Combine all the fritter ingredients.
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Use 1tbsp of mixture per fritter. Now cook 3 or 4 fritters at a time for 3 to 4 Min's over medium heat. Turn and cook for another 3 mins. Or until crisp and cooked through. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot with sweet chilly sauce.
Enjoy :)

Banana Halwa

Banana Halwa...
The thought of this brings water to my daughter and hubby's mouth. My daughter loves to have this everyday for breakfast with a chapati. My hubby too loves this and prefers this home-made halwa to any types of ready made jams.

My mom is an excellent cook and she thought me to prepare this banana halwa. She gave me the exact quantity and this is a real fool-proof method. There is a secret to the Nendra Banana's. Ensure that they turn ripe. That is the outer skin should completely become black. You might feel that they are rotten. But they won't, they will get ripen properly and that is the best time to consume them. Off course, you should use your intelligence to judge whether they are ripe or rotten :) Just ensure that there are no flies flying around them :)
Another method is, if you don't want them to be extra ripe, then boil them a little more while cooking.

I celebrated my first Bloggoversary yesterday. No problem, I prepared a nice sweet dish for my blog. I have been preparing this halwa since a long time. Even the recipe was saved in my dashboard. Just that I had not clicked any pictures. I was waiting for the right time and the right type of picture. This is a very simple halwa and does not require much effort too. Just give it a try once and I am sure you will love it.

This halwa can be stored in fridge for up to 7 days. I slightly heat a sufficient quantity in microwave before serving.

Ingredients:
3 Ripe Nendra bananas
4 cloves
9-10 tsp sugar
3 tsp ghee
1 tsp elaichi powder

Procedure:
In a pan add 2 cups water and boil on medium flame.
Add ghee and cloves.
Add sugar while boiling and keep stirring for 5 Min's.
Add banana slices and stir.
Boil for 10 Min's if the banana's are ripe, else boil for 15-20 Min's( if they are not very ripe).
Add elaichi powder for garnishing, mix and switch off the gas.

My Dear Friend Anjali loved this dish and asked me to link it to her ongoing
"Cakes, Cookies and Deserts" event.
This is her first event, so friends please do have a look at it and try to participate :)

Note: The peel of banana's should turn black completely, only then the banana's become ripe. This banana halwa tastes good only when the banana's are ripe completely.

Raksha's Kitchen Turns 1 Today

                   
Yes, I know that this is a day to celebrate.
Maybe I did not bake a cake, nor did cook something special. But yes definitely I will have a bash after some days :) maybe a belated Bloggoversary. I had planned some guest posts and also wanted to hit my 100th post on this special day. But due to some medical emergency I had to cancel all my bloggoversary plans and take complete care of my health. "Health is Wealth". I believe that if I have proper health then my work will also flourish after sometime will get all the publicity it deserves :) Thinking positive is the way of life is what I learnt in the last 15 days :)

Indeed it's a great achievement for Raksha's Kitchen.
In a short span of a year, it has achieved 50,648 hits :)
94 posts, 1 event ( CEDD 5 ) 1 guest post, 1 kitchen appliance and 2 book reviews :)

I am loving it. I started this as a hobby and I love to blog about what I cook.

Thanks a lot my Dear Friends for giving Raksha's Kitchen all the love it deserves.
 Please keep this love pouring in.

Schezwan Hakka Noodles

Hakka Noodles is something that I have been cooking since a long time. Maybe from the time I learnt cooking. With each and every preparation the taste has improved. This is very easy to cook and is a great option when some guests arrive unexpectedly. It only takes some 15-20 Min's to cook this.

In the super store I came across a packet of Kings Hakka Noodles. I also got a packet of schezwan masala for free :) I immediately came home and cooked this dish with the new schezwan masala and the dish turned out really delicious.

Cooking hakka noodles at home is really good. In Chinese restaurants outside, they use a lot of oil and we never know whether they wash the veges properly or not. I prepared this veg. Schezwan hakka noodles. Chicken or egg can be added to the same recipe to get a non-veg version of the same.

I had a surprise guest one day. He is my hubby's good friend. I prepared this hakka noodles and he loved it. He asked my hubby for the recipe, it took me sometime to to post this recipe. But surely it will help our friend and many more people around :)


Ingredients:
1 packet hakka noodles
1 packet schezwan masala
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chilly sauce
1 Maggi cube
5-6 garlic pods
1/2 cup chopped spring onions greens
1 onion
1 cup chopped spring onion whites
1 small carrot
1/2 big sized capsicum
1/2 cup green peas
1/2 cup chopped french beans
1 tablespoon butter

Procedure:
Boil the noodles in 3 cups water. Add 3-4 drops of oil to the boiling water. Add 1 tsp salt to it.
Let the noodles boil partially. After it boils partially, spread them on a strainer and let them dry for sometime. Take a fork and gently run it through the noodles.

Boil the noodles and let them dry

Chop the onions length wise. Chop carrots and capsicum 1 inch lengthwise. Chop french beans of 1/2 cm width.
In a wok/kadai, add 2-3 tablespoon oil and fry onions. Once they turn pinkish, add chopped garlic and fry for sometime with lid closed. Now add the carrots,capsicum,green peas and french beans. Fry till the veges are slightly cooked.

Mix all the veges

Now add the sauces and mix properly. Add Maggi cube, mix and fry for sometime. Add the schezwan masala and mix properly. Add the spring onion greens and fry for 2 minutes.

Add the sauces

Add salt to taste. Add a blob of butter. Now add the noodles and mix everything properly.

Note: Veges of your choice can be added. Also schezwan masala is optional. Without this masala, it will be the plain hakka noodles.

This is not a paid review. I wrote this with my own interest as I loved the Schezwan masala and the Maggi cube :)

Southern Flavours by Chandra Padmanabhan : A Book Review

Thanks to BlogAdda for providing me with yet another opportunity to review another cookbook - 

"Southern Flavours".

When I received the cookbook I really liked the cover and way it's published. The cover has a very attractive look. The first sight of it would really make someone grab the book off the shelf.

The book is written by a famous author Chandra Padmanabhan. She has graduated from Calcutta University and did her post graduation at Delhi University. She is a very experienced cook cooking since 4 decades and is the author of 3 bestselling titles namely Dakshin, Southern Spice and Simply South. The book Simply Spice has won the International GOURMAND award for the best Vegetarian Cookbook in 2009. Just like any of us, the author has learnt all the cooking after her marriage from her in-laws. I feel much honored to review this cookbook written by such a famous author.

Southern Flavours has a rich collection of recipes from the four famous states South India, namely Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.  The measurements and the exact time to cook the dish are mentioned and any beginner can very well understand and cook these dishes. This book is a very good way of gifting to someone, especially to someone who has recently settled in south India or even to a newly married South Indian Girl.

All the recipes mentioned in this cookbook are vegetarian recipes. This is because most of the South Indian’s are vegetarian people. Right from the basic recipes to the complex ones, all the recipes are well explained. Even the most basic recipe, i.e. how to cook rice has been mentioned. This is something that I have seen first time in any cook book. Different varieties of Podi (powders) are also well. South India has a variety of snacks from Dosa, Idli to bhajis and all these are well mentioned.

A lot of pictures are present in this cookbook. The pictures are those of authentic south Indian food. Just looking at the pictures, makes one cook the dish. I would have had really preferred if all the pictures of the dishes were present. This would help the non-South Indian’s to know what they are cooking. Some new recipes like Oat Upama are mentioned. I liked “Sheela Auntie’s Pulusa” and “Chitra’s Keerai Sambar”. This clearly shows that the author has thanked her friends and family members from whom she had learnt these dishes. Many more dishes of such type are mentioned. Recipes belonging to various communities of South India like the Saraswat’s of Karnataka, Hebbar Iyengar Community of Karnataka, etc are well explained.

Apart from recipes the various types of cooking equipments which are a must in the South Indian’s kitchen are mentioned. A lot of tips for effective cooking in the form of notes are provided at the end of the recipe. Menus and Indexes’ have been mentioned at the end of the cookbook.  The contents of the cookbook contains some basic recipes, Sambar & Kuzhambu, Rasam, Poriyal & Kootu, Rice, Snacks, Sweets, Accompaniment & Buffet Spreads.

Of special interest is the glossary which is mentioned at the end of the book. This has a translation of all veges from English to Hindi to Tamil. That was something I liked the most. Since I came in South India, I had a lot of problem in local market while asking for some veges.

Priced decently at Rs. 599/-, this book is a sure keeper.  Since the book has a collection of vegetarian recipes, I feel most of the people will surely buy this book. I feel every South Indian in India and from the other parts of the world should keep a copy of this book in their kitchen. This will help them in their daily life and also when some special guests come to their home.

... and now I am going to cook something delicious for my family from this cookbook :)

This review is a part of theBook Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!