Egg Roll /Mughlai Paratha

• Egg (I use one egg to make 2 rolls or 2 parathas )
• Maida ( to make a soft dough using a pinch of salt and water )
• Finely chopped onion, green chillies, capsicum, carrot and cucumber.
• lemon juice( a must!!!)
• Black peeper powder.
• Tomato ketchup.
• Refined oil for frying.

Knead the maida with water and a pinch of salt and cover the dough with a soft wet cloth for an hour. Then add 1 tsp oil from top and knead it again to make it soft. Make balls (3 inches diameter) from the dough. Roll it using dry flour .You can roll them in two ways. If you make egg roll then the roti will be of traditional size ( 6 to 7 inches diameter) .If you make mughlai paratha (Egg paratha ) you have to make it large enough( approximately of 8 inches ) to ensure that the paratha is like a rumali roti (as thin as a paper or hanky!!!) .

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a little water. Beat it well for 50 times.

Take all the finely chopped vegetables in a large platter and add salt, lemon juice, black peeper powder and tomato ketchup. Mix them thoroughly.

Heat a tawa. Add 2 tsp oil and 2 tbsp of the beaten egg. Place the paratha over it and press. Turn it upside down and fry till golden brown in colour. Arrange all the egg rolls on a platter and stuff each of them with the veggies. Roll it and serve hot.

If you want to make Mughlai paratha first place the paper thin paratha on the tawa. Then add 2 tbsp beaten egg and 2tsp chopped veggies inside. Fold the paratha in a traingular fashion and fry it with refined oil till golden brown.

Serve hot with ketchup, chutney or pickle.

wonton soup

• stock made from chicken broth
• finely chopped carrot and cabbage
• finely chopped spring onions and capsicum
• finely chopped garlic and green chillies
• shrimp/shredded chicken (if required, you can keep it purely veg too)
• flour, seived with hot water, a pinch of salt, and a little refined oil
• butter
• tomato/chilli sauce

1. making the wanton: Add a pinch of salt, and mix the carrot, the cabbage, the garlic, the spring onion, the capsicum, the green chillies. Make small balls from the flour dough, flatten with a roller and and fill them with this mixture. Wrap these up to form "wonton balls".
2. Bring the stock to boil, and add salt, black pepper, and butter. Slowly add the wonton balls. Do NOT stir. Boil for 15 minutes.
3. Serve hot with ... anything ... goes as a starter. Just add some ketchup and/or chilli sauce.

Quick Cake

This is my sister-in-law (brother's wife) Tanusri (or to keep it short, Tanu) and their two-yr old cutie ... we call him Google. Tanu made this cake on Google's second birthday. Tanu and I learnt the following recipe from my mum. It's a pretty quick recipe to produce good-quality cakes when sudden needs arise.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (sieved)
• baking powder
• sugar
• 2 cups sugar (finely ground)
  
• 4 eggs (well beaten)
  
• essence of vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• butter (2 tbsp, melted)
• dry friuts (cashews, raisins, cherries ... almonds ... you name it!)

Procedure:

Place sugar and the egg and beat it with the help of a fork (approx 100 times). Add the sieved flour, baking powder, butter and milk into the mixture and again beat at least 200 times. Grease the cake pot with butter uniformly, and pour the mixture into it, and refreigerate for 1/2 an hour, after covering it.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 180 deg Celsius, take the cake-pot out of the refrigerator and place it immediately in the pre-heated OTG, on the middle rack (keep both, the top and the bottom heaters on) for 45 minutes.

Ensure that the full cake is baked, by using a dip-stick ... see that nothing liquidy sticks to it.

This is one of the quickest and the most hassle-free cake recipes around. Hope you enjoy it!

healthy crispies

Prevalent in the famous Indian monsoons are the associated diseases that ... run abound in the damp air ... viral fever, flu. cold n cough ... blah blah blah ... to help combat these and to bring back the lost appetite (read anorexia) ... here's a recipe guaranteed to become a hit in this season. Shiuli , Horsinger in Hindi ( Nyctanthes arbortristis linn) belongs to the family Oleacae, is a very common tree in India, which bears really beautiful flowers in the auutmn season, and in Bengal, is not only symbolic of, but also used in Durga Puja. In this recipe, we shall use the leaves of this plant, which are very important from the Ayurvedic perspective, since they cure anorexia, and expectorate quickly. Ingredients:

• shiuli leaves
• gram flour (besan)
• rice flour
• salt
• turmeric powder
• kalanji (kalo jeera)
• kuskus (posto)
• refined oil for frying

Procedure: Clean the shiuli leaves thoroughly and pat-dry. Make a batter, mixing gram flour and rice-flour in 2 : 1 ratio, and all other ingredients (except oil) with water, and refrigerate for 2 hrs. Heat oil, and coat each leaf with the batter and deep fry, till golden brown. Serve hot with rice and desi ghee.

Bread D-Lite

Though world-class bread loaves are available at all departmental stores, I always rely on my favourite 20 year old Kidderpore bakery which delivers all kinds of customised oven-fresh bread loaves at my doorstep.
My seventy-two year old father, N L Banerjee loves bread like anything, and this recipe is dedicated to him. He served for a multi-national pharma firm and is now retired for sixteen years.

Ingredients:

• oven-fresh loaf (cut into thick pieces)
• Kissan tomato ketchup
• Kissan cheesy spread
  
• cheese (2 cubes, grated)
  
• egg (2, well beaten)
  
• green chillies (4, finely chopped)
  
• garlic (8 cloves, finely chopped)
  
• onion (1 large, also finely chopped)
• capsicum (1 large, again finely chopped)
• flour (1 tbsp)
• milk (1/2 cup)
• butter (melted 1 tsp)
  
• salt, sugar, and black pepper powder

Procedure:

heat the wok, and dry-fry the flour. Keep aside.
Heat the butter and add garlic, onion, capsicum, and chillies. Saute for 2 mins. Meanwhile beat the egg with cheese, milk and the dry-fried flour, along with salt and a little sugar. Add this mixture to the previous mixture (consisting of the garlic, butter, onion, capsicum, and chillies), and stir so as to ensure that no unwanted lumps form. Add black pepper powder from top, and allow it to cool.
Take the bread pieces and evenly and generously spread Kissan cheesy spread followed by Kissan tomato ketchup  uniformly. Now Spread the previously made giant-mixture evenly and thickly (mind it!) on any ONE side of all the bread pieces, and toast in a pre-heated OTG for 15 minutes.

Serve hot with more Kissan  tomato ketchup.

Sabji Paratha

This is my son Wrahool (Subhayan's) favourite dish. This paratha is not only lipsmacking but also enriched with fibre and being loaded to the teeth with veggies, it has good nutritional value too.

Ingredients:

• vegetables (potato, carrot, beans, cauliflower) - all finely chopped
• capsicum, onion, garlic (finely chopped)
• ginger (grated)
• green chillies and coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• lemon juice
• wheat flour and normal flour (1:1 ratio for the dough)
• refined oil
• salt

Procedure:

Boil the vegetables in water, just sufficient to completely boil them, not more. Allow them to cool, then mash them with your hand. Fry the onion, the capsicum, and the garlic in 2 tsp refined oil, and then add green chillies, ginger and the mashed vegetables. Add coriander leaves and lemon juice and salt. Cook in high heat so as to make the mixture completely dry. Spread the mixture on a flat platter and allow it to cool.

In the meantime, make the dough by mixing wheat flour and the normal flour (with a pinch of salt) with water to make it very soft. Cover with a wet cloth for one hour. Make balls from the dough for the parathas and stuff each ball with the vegetable mashup. Roll the balls in your palm, then flatten with a rlling pin to produce the requisite circular shape. Heat the tawa and pan-fry till golden brown.

Serve with chutney or ketchup.