Butter Biscuits and a Special Request

A friend of mine had asked me if I knew the recipe for butter biscuits; you know the ones that we get in bakeries in India? I had no idea but I promised her that I would find a good recipe for it. After a couple of trials, I think I have found a match. These buttery cookies are super indulgent, because of all the butter in them (go figure!), but will that stop us from eating more than one at a time???

Ingredients
All purpose flour – 1 cup
Powdered sugar – ½ cup
Melted butter – ½ cup
Baking powder –  ¼ tsp
A pinch of salt (not required if butter is salted)
A pinch of cardamom powder
Method
Melt the butter and keep it aside to cool. In a bowl, mix the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, and cardamom powder and mix well. Pour in the melted butter, slowly, and knead to make soft dough. The dough will be slightly crumbly, so keep working it until it forms a smooth ball. Allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350⁰ Fahrenheit.

Layer a cookie sheet with parchment/foil and keep ready. Divide the dough into equal sized balls, press lightly and arrange them on the cookie sheet. Leave at least an inch between them, as they will expand.
You can make a design on them by pressing with a fork (just an added touch). Bake the biscuits for 18-20 minutes, or until they turn golden brown. Remove the biscuits from the oven and let them cool completely before putting them away in air tight containers. 

Note

1. I have noticed that confectioner's sugar is very expensive compared to regular sugar, so I just powder the regular sugar that I use at home as required.
2. Place the biscuits in the middle rack; else the bottom could turn dark brown.
3. If you do not have a cookie sheet, use any baking dish. Just turn the pan upside down and use the bottom of the pan like a cookie sheet.

Recipe sent to Delicious Dish Tuesday Recipe Link Up

Overripe Bananas and my Favorite Recourse

I am super stoked to tell you about a prize I won. I had submitted my Baked Mishti Doi recipe to Chinet's Bakeoff Contest on Facebook and it was selected as one of the weekly winners. I received an email about it, but I had no hopes of receiving a prize. I received another email last week saying there was some kind of delay with the shipping and that the prize would reach me by the end of the week, and it did. A FedEx guy knocked at my door at 6.30 PM on Friday, with this box and I was like, wow, this is really happening. And the prize…a set of Chinet's use and throw bake ware and an apron.

Coming to today's recipe, I had a couple of overripe bananas in the fridge and wanted to use them up. This banana bread is what came to my mind first.

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – 1 ½ cups

Baking powder – 1 ½ tsps

Honey – ½ cup (or to taste)

Coconut milk – ¾ cup

Mashed bananas – 1 heaped cup

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Olive oil – 4-5 tbsps
Flax seeds - 1 ½ tbsps (optional)
Raisin Bran Cereal - 3-4 tbsps (optional)

A pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking powder, salt, flax seeds, and cardamom powder). Mix the wet ingredients (honey, oil, coconut milk, mashed bananas) separately and then fold into the dry mix. I wanted to add raisins but realized that I did not have any. And then I had an idea...why not add some cereal. I mixed a couple of tablespoons of the raisin bran cereal to the batter and sprinkled the remaining on top.
Blend well and pour into a greased bread pan or any baking dish you like. Bake it for 30-35 minutes or until done. Slice and serve. Bon Appétit. 

Shared with Delicious Dish Tuesday Link Up

Raggada Patties or Aloo Tikki Channa

During my early school years, my father was posted in Dhanbad, Bihar. It was here that I was exposed to the lip smacking tangy chaats that I love even today.

I was in my fifth grade when a chaat shop opened near my house in Dhanbad. The other kids in the colony all raved about this shop and my brother and I insisted that our parents also take us there. So on a Friday evening; my parents took us to the shop.

My brother had his favorite bhelpuri, and my mom and dad shared a kachori chaat. I was a very poor eater as a child, and hence my mom suggested that I share with everyone. I did not like the idea one bit and said I would have one dish for myself. My father agreed and I choose the first thing I could see on the menu – Aloo tikki Channa.

I had never had this before and didn’t know the quantity or the taste. So, our chaats arrived. My brother and parents stared having their food and all I could do was stare at my plate. My plate was fully heaped with channa and allo tikkis beneath them. I had never had even half the quantity of food that was in front of me at one sitting before that time. But I had to eat now, as the dish was ordered only because I had refused to share.

So, slowly I started eating. The aloo tikkis along with the channa was surprisingly a very good combination and somehow I seemed to like the taste. It did take me an easy 45 minutes to finish off the plate, but the experience was worth every morsel.

Since then, aloo tikki channa is one of my favorite chaat items. Here’s the recipe for this lovely chaat for all of you to try it at your homes.

Ingredients

For channa

Dry white peas – 5 to 6 ladles (soaked overnight)

Onion – 2 finely chopped

Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tbsp

Tomatoes – 2 to 3 finely chopped

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Green chillies – 3 to 4

Chaat masala – ½ tsp

Aamchur powder – ¾ tsp

Black salt – ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Oil – 3 to 4 tbsp

Coriander leaves – 1 cup

For tikkis

Potatoes – 6 to 8 small (boiled and mashed)

Green chillies – 3 to 4 finely chopped

Bread crumbs – 1 cup

Coriander leaves – 4 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Aamchur powder – 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil – 3 to 4 tbsp

For serving

Onion – 1 cup finely chopped

Green chutney – ½ cup

Tamarind chutney – ½ cup

Coriander leaves – ½ cup

Lemon – 1 or 2 cut into small pieces

Method

In a big bowl, mix the potatoes, breadcrumbs (¾ cup), green chillies, coriander leaves, turmeric powder, chilli powder, aamchur powder and salt to make smooth dough. Divide the dough into equal portion and make them into small discs. Roll the discs in the remaining breadcrumbs.

Heat a tawa and evenly spread 1 to 2 tbsp of oil in it. Simmer the stove and place the tikkis in it. Cook the tikkis by flipping them over from time to time until they become crisp on all sides. Once done, keep the tikkis separately.

Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onions and sauté until the onions turn translucent. Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies and the tomatoes. Cook for five minutes and then add all the masalas – Turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt, black salt, chaatmasala and aamchur powder. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes and then add the cooked peas. Cook for 5 minutes or until the whole gravy is well blended.

Take serving plates and add 2 or 3 tikkis on each plate.  Cover the tikkis with the cooked channa. Be generous in adding the channa. Add one or two spoons of green chutney and tamarind chutney on top of the gravy. Garnish with chopped onions and chopped coriander leaves. Place a piece of cut lemon on each plate and serve.

Kiwi Pops

Will you believe it if I tell you that there was an age when I did not like ice creams? Yes, but luckily it was a long long time ago!!!  Apparently I used to cry when standing outside a store and the people there would think I was crying for ice cream and tell my parents to buy me some, little did they know that I was saying "inikkyu ice cream venda (I don't want ice cream)".

My husband read this and gave me a funny look, one of utter disbelief (he has only seen the ice cream lover in me). Imagine if I had to call my parents for back up!!! He finally believed my story only after hearing it from my them :-).

That being said, the situation has been remedied…a lot. Coming to today's recipe, it is a summer dessert. I love fruit popsicles and this one is made with one of my favorite fruits, the kiwi. It is quite guilt free as it contains very little sugar. You can even skip the sugar if the fruit is sweet, but in my case the kiwis were too tart and needed some sweetening.

Ingredients

Kiwis – 4

Water – ½ cup

Sugar to taste

Method

Puree the kiwis and keep aside. In a small pan, boil the water, add the sugar and simmer until it is completely dissolved.  Let it cool a bit and add to the kiwi puree. Mix well and pour into desired molds and freeze.

If you do not have molds, you can pour it into cupcake liners. I used mini cupcake liners and these make really cute, bite sized popsicles. An added advantage…being small, you can enjoy 2 or even 3 at a time :-). Bon Appétit.