Carrot cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I never had the guts to try any other type of cakes other than basic chocolate. And now that I did, I’m wondering why on earth did I not try this before. Must Must try for all dessert lovers. If you have never tried it before, then go for this; a totally different world of flavours awaits you.

Note:

I don’t use ginger powder for any recipes, so I dint bother to buy. I needed ½ tsp ginger powder for this recipe, so I did a bit of poking around and found out how to make ginger powder at home. I sliced the fresh ginger root super thin, and popped into a preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes till they had completely dried out. (Microwave works fine too). Then they went into my grinder and brmm brmmm (Just used 3-4 slices). Along with this I also popped my cinnamon sticks into the oven and ground them finely. If you have ready powders, good for you. And the nutmeg, just grate it with a grater.

This recipe serves 8 slices. Each serving provides 225 calories approximately.

For the Cake:

Here is what you’ll need:

1 cup all purpose flour (Maida)

1 ½ cup finely grated carrots

2 eggs

1 cup sugar (3/4 cup sugar if you don’t like it sweet)

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup oil

½ cup nuts (almonds/ walnuts/pecans)

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ginger powder

½ tsp cinnamon powder

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Grease a 10 inch baking pan and dust it with flour.
3. Wash, peel and grate the carrots finely.
4. Chop the nuts roughly and roast it on low heat till light golden and aromatic. In 1 tbsp of all purpose flour toss the roasted nuts and keep it aside.
5. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder, ginger powder and nutmeg powder. Keep it aside.
6. In a large whipping bowl, beat the eggs till frothy for few minutes, and add the sugar. The egg sugar mixture should froth well and thicken.
7. Add the oil, butter and vanilla extract and keep whisking.
8.  Slowly add the flour mixture into the whisking bowl and gently fold in till completely mixed. Do not over beat.
9. Gently fold in the grated carrots and nuts.
10. Pour the batter into the greased pan and pop it into the oven for 30 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.
11.  Let the cake completely cool before frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Here is what you’ll need:

1 cup cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

2 cup whipped cream

Method:

1. Whip up cream as per packet instructions and keep it aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the cream cheese till softened and add the powdered sugar and vanilla essence.
3. Gently fold in the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and your frosting is ready to go.

Frost your cake the way you want and Enjoy!

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Ras Malai - Yummy Creamyy Indian Sweet

Spongy soft balls cooked and served in thick sweet milk garnished with nuts and cardamom flavour is the king of Indian desserts in terms of richness.

This is a no fail recipe. I've been making ras malai since my teenage years and I've never gone wrong with this one and never have I bothered to try any other way.

This recipe makes 18-20 pieces of ras malai and each piece provides 140 Calories approximately.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 cup full fat milk powder

1 tsp all purpose flour

¾ tsp baking powder

1 tsp ghee

1 egg

4 cups full fat milk

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 cardamom

Almonds/pistachios for garnish

Method:

1. Mix the full fat milk powder with all purpose flour (maida) and baking powder. 
2. Crack in an egg and start mixing.
3. Once the mixture starts binding together, add the ghee and if required another 2 tbsp milk powder.
4. Knead to a soft dough.
5. Pinch off small balls and start rolling into a ball. This should make 18-20 balls. Divide accordingly.
6. In a large pot, bring 4 cups of milk to a boil with the sugar and cardamom.
7. Once the milk comes to a rolling boil, lower the heat and start adding the rolled out balls into the milk.
8. Close the lid and let the milk simmer for 7-8 minutes on a very low heat.
9. After 7 minutes, open and check one piece if it’s cooked through the centre.
10. If not, simmer for another 2 minutes and then switch off the flame.
11. Serve cooled garnished with nuts.

Few things to remember:

• Use FULL FAT milk powder. I always used Nido milk, though full fat Anchor would work well too. 
• If your eggs are large you may need to use a couple more tbsp of milk powder while kneading.
• The rolled out balls should have a smooth exterior. This is a proof that your dough is soft and good to go ahead.
• Let the milk come to a rolling boil before adding the balls and then keep the flame on low while adding the balls. If the milk is boiling while adding the balls, it will cook immediately from outside and remain uncooked inside or it may all fall apart.
• Try using a wide mouth vessel for boiling the milk as the balls will expand double its size.

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Recipe by Zohra Sada

Prawns Stir Fry

Quick. Simple. Easy. Keep your ingredients all ready and turn on the heat.

This recipe serves 3 people and provides approximately 120 calories per serving.

Here’s what you’ll need:

15-20 medium sized prawns

½ cup carrot julienned

¼ cup capsicum sliced

1 spring onion with leaves chopped

1 tbsp garlic finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger finely chopped

2 tbsp butter/oil

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp red chilli sauce

Salt as per taste

Method:

1. Heat up the wok and melt the butter.
2. Fry the chopped ginger and garlic on high heat till light golden.
3. Add the chopped spring onions and fry till softened.
4. Add the cleaned deveined prawns and toss till cooked.
5. Season the prawns with soy sauce, red chilli sauce, salt and pepper.
6. Toss in the carrot and capsicum.
7. Garnish with spring onion leaves.
8. Serve with noodles or rice

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Coconut Masala filling/topping for Puttu

 This masala of coconut and chicken is a match made in heaven for puttu. It works perfectly well as a filling for other recipes calling for a coconut filling like chapathi foldovers too. 

Here is what you’ll need:

2 chicken breast pieces

2 large onions

1 ½ cup fresh coconut shredded 

6-7 green chillies

10 curry leaves

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp oil

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp garam masala

½ cup chopped coriander

½ cube stock (optional)

Salt

Method:

1. Sauté the onions, chilli and curry leaves on low flame till the onions reduce. Sprinkle salt.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry on medium heat till the raw smell goes. Fry in the turmeric powder.
3. Add the rest of the masala powders  and then add in the chicken.
4. Let the chicken cook in its own juice. If the masala sticks to the bottom, add a couple of tbsp water.
5. Once the chicken is completely cooked, remove it from the masala and shred it finely.
6. Put back the shredded chicken in the masala and mix well.
7. Mix in the coconut and chopped coriander and cook on low simmer for 10 minutes till steamed.
8. Use the filling for your favorite recipe.

 Recipe by Zohra Sada

Mutton Haleem

Here is what happened. A cold chilling day, and a craving for a dish of hot spicy haleem. I soak the burgul and dals. Defrost the meat and Lo! Behold! the box of haleem masala is almost empty. (I normally buy ready made masala pack, never had the guts to try making from scratch.) So I go like, lets try.  I scan the list of ingredients mentioned on the box, estimate the amount minus all the preservatives and chemicals and tada! The ready dish of haleem turns out to be better than all my previous ready masala haleem.

For making haleem I use broken wheat /burgul. It soaks in no time and cooks faster than whole grains. 

Use the dal mixture of your preference or whatever is available in your pantry.  All these beautiful dals serve as powerhouse of proteins.

Dry roast all the spice mixture till fragrant and powder them in a grinder.

For those of you who like chicken just substitute the meat.

This recipe serves 8 people.   Each serving of haleem gives approximately 385 calories and 25g of proteins.

Here is what you’ll need:

½ kg mutton

1 cup broken wheat (burgul)

¼ cup red dal

¼ toor dal

¼ cup urad dal (mash dal)

¼ cup any dal of your choice (optional) (channa dal)

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

3-4 tbsp oil/ghee

4 tbsp chopped Coriander

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ cube maggie stock (optional)

Fried onions (for garnish)

Lemon (for garnish)

Whole Spices:

1 tsp whole cumin (jeera)

1 tsp whole coriander (dhaniya)

½ tsp whole black pepper

4 cardamoms (elaichi)

1 cinnamon stick (dalchini)

1 bay leaf (tej patta)

4 cloves (lavang)

10 curry leaves 

1 tsp onion seeds/ kalonji/ nigella seeds

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dal and broken wheat in lukewarm water for 1 hour.
2. Dry roast all the whole spices on low flame till fragrant. Once cooled, grind it into a fine powder.
3. In a pressure cooker, heat ghee/oil and fry the ginger garlic paste till the raw smell goes. Add turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
4. Add the cleaned mutton and the powdered spices.To this add 4 cups of water and pressure cook on low flame for 20-30 minutes till all the meat falls off the bones.
5. Separate the meat and bones and shred the meat finely.
6. In a pressure cooker, cook the burgul and dals with 10 cups of water for 20 minutes.
7. Once cooked, add the mutton pieces and soup of the mutton to the dal base.
8. Adjust salt and add  stock (optional). Add the chopped coriander.
9. Let the haleem cook till desired consistency.
10. Garnish with fried onions and coriander leaves. Squeeze in a slice of lemon.

Learn to make perfect fried onions/Birista in the The Kitchen Counter.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Mutton Curry Kerala Style

I love pathiris. The soft rotis made of rice flour is a famous Kerala recipe. But what accompanies the pathiri should be an authentic Kerala style chicken or mutton. The menu of pathiri and kerala style mutton curry is an occasional treat in my house.

For those of you who have never tried this aromatic fragrant curry must try this recipe.

The thing that makes a Malabar or Kerala Curry stand out is the extra hot spiciness and use of whole garam masalas.

For this recipe, I have roasted all the whole spices and the fresh coconut. I have then ground it into a fine powder and added to the bhuna masala.

The people of Kerala love their curry spicy hot!! If you are like me and cant tolerate extreme spiciness then, this recipe is for you. Its much milder.

Here is what you’ll need:

6-7 pieces of mutton in bones

½ cup fresh coconut

1 tsp coriander whole

1 tsp jeera whole

5 whole black pepper seeds

3 red chillies

1 bay leaf

1  inch cinnamon stick

¼ tsp fenugreek

1 medium onion

1 tomato

1inch ginger

5 cloves garlic

2 green chillies

6-7 curry leaves

½ tsp mustard

Salt as per taste

2 tbsp oil

This recipe serves 3 people and each serving provides approximately 350 calories.

Method:

1. In a small pan, heat one tsp oil. Add the whole coriander, whole jeera, fenugreek, whole black pepper, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, red chilli and coconut.
2. Once the coconut starts turning brown, switch off the flame and let the mixture cool.
3. Grind the mixture into a fine paste with little water.
4. In a pressure cooker, heat 1 tbsp oil and splutter the mustard seeds.
5. Once the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, green chillies and onions.
6. Once the onion brown, add the tomato. Cook till the tomatoes go soft.
7. Add the cleaned mutton to the onion tomato mixture, and cook till mutton sweats.
8. Add a cup of water and pressure cook for 4 whistles on medium low heat.
9. Once the mutton is cooked, add the ground paste of coconut and spices and mix well.
10. Add salt to adjust the taste.
11. Serve hot with pathiris.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Dill Leaves Caramel Pudding/ Shawfapana pudding

Haha! I googled for the above recipe and nothing came up. So let me show you how to make it. Tastes better than plain vanilla caramel pudding! The only place where I use dill leaves is in this pudding.

The recipe for a normal vanilla caramel pudding is exactly the same just minus the dill leaves. Dill leaves works as a substitute for vanilla essence. It gives a different flavour. Nevertheless I add both vanilla essence and dill leaves. You can never be too sure around eggs and its smell. :-)

In the picture I have shown where I have strained the dill leaves using a fine muslin cloth which gives a lighter shade of green. If you wish, you could strain it using a strainer, which will give tiny pieces of leaves in the pudding which is also cool. I do it both the ways. The leaves will not bother you.

I use two 10” pans to steam the pudding. I know some people like their puddings to stand tall. I don’t. Also this works as a portion control method. You could use a deep 10” inch pan to steam the pudding or use ramekins. It’s up to you.

So about preparing the caramel, if you’re using a stainless steel pan that goes right into the steamer, then prepare a thicker caramel using less water. But if you want to use ramekins or transfer the caramel into another pan, then you might need to use more water.

This recipe serves 8-10 people providing approximately 135 calories per serving.

Here is what you’ll need:

For the caramel:

4 tbsp sugar (divided)

2 tbsp water

For the pudding:

1 cup tightly packed dill leaves

6 eggs

2 cups milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Separate the leaves from the stem of the dill leaves. Wash thoroughly.
2. In a blender, crack the eggs, pour the milk and sugar along with vanilla essence. Add the dill leaves and blend it all together.
3. Strain the mix in a muslin cloth or fine strainer.
4. Heat up the pan for preparing the caramel.
5. Keep the heat on medium low and sprinkle the sugar on the pan along with water.
6. If making 2 pans of pudding divide the sugar as 2 tbsp for each pan.
7. Let the sugar start boiling and change its colour to deep dark golden.
8. Switch off the heat; pour half the pudding mix into the pan.
9. Place the pan into a boiling steamer and steam the pudding for 20 minute.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Goda Appo/Sweet Dosa

Call it sweet dosa or rice pancakes or whatever. It’s a bit of this and that. It ferments like a dosa and ingredients like rice and fenugreek go into it.  And just like a pancake, eggs go into it. The name goda appo comes from “Gud” that is jaggery and appo, you might know it as “appam”. Crisp from outside and soft on the inside. Spread a tiny bit of ghee and sprinkle sugar and you have a healthy breakfast ready.

This recipe gives 20 medium-small dosas. Each dosa serves approximately 80 calories.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 cup dosa/white rice

½ cup parboiled rice

1 cup regular basmati cooked

1 tsp fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds)

¼ cup  size tightly packed jaggery

3 eggs

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Soak the white rice and parboiled rice for 3 hours along with the fenugreek seeds.
2. Melt the jaggery in ¼ cup water by boiling on low heat.
3. In a blender, finely grind the two types of rice, fenugreek, and cooked basmati rice along with jaggery. Use ¾ cup of water to help grind.
4. Let the batter ferment overnight or for 12-14 hours.
5. Before preparing, whisk in 3 eggs along with salt and baking powder. Whisk to form a smooth uniform batter.
6. Heat a non-stick tawa. Once the tawa is well heated scoop and spread out ½ - ¾ cup of batter and spread it like a regular dosa.
7. Cook for a couple minutes till the base browns and
8. Sprinkle sugar and serve hot.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Creamy Red Sauce Pasta

Yummy Italian pasta with the Indian chilli spice. I don’t care what views you have on mixing Indian flavours with Italian, but this pasta was Uh-ma-zing! Like really. Skip the chicken if you want, add some chopped carrots and peas. Plus or minus. This bowl of pasta was just too good and it is super simple.

This recipe serves 4 people with 250 calories approximately. SKIP the cheese for low fat pasta giving approximately 193 calories per serving.

Here is what you’ll need:

2 cups pasta fusilli/penne

1 cup minced chicken (optional)

1 medium onion

1 large red tomato

2 tbsp tomato paste

5 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp mixed Italian herbs

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp black pepper powder

1/8^th cube of stock

2 tbsp cheddar cream cheese (or any other type)

Salt to taste

 Method:

1. In a large pot, bring salted water to a rolling boil and cook the pasta till al dente or firm to the bite.
2. Drain the pasta and wash it with cold water to stop further cooking.
3. In a large pot, heat the olive oil and fry the finely grated garlic till brown.
4. Add the super finely chopped onion to the oil and sauté in medium flame.
5. Meanwhile, blanch the whole tomato in hot water, peel off the skin and puree it.
6. Add the chicken mince to onions along with salt and stock.
7. Add the pureed tomato and cook the chicken in the sauce.
8. Add the tomato paste and ketchup.
9. Sprinkle the oregano and mixed Italian herbs along with red chili powder and black pepper.
10. Once the tomato sauce is prepared, add the cooked pasta and mix well.
11. Mix in the cheese along with a couple of tbsp of water and stir till all the pasta is coated well.
12. Serve hot with olives.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Butter Chicken

Butter chicken is one of those popular dishes that has evolved over time. It’s one Indian cuisine recognized all over the world.

This recipe is no quick cheat method for your butter chicken. Though it does contain few not so authentic ingredients like ketchup, it tastes amazing and spot on perfect.

The first step is to make the tandoori chicken and the second step is to prepare the thick silky sauce.

If you want to cut down your calories and still want a yummy butter chicken, cut off the cashewnuts and cream thickener. Only yoghurt will work too.

An authentic recipe calls for more tomatoes, but since the tomatoes I use were on the sour side, I used a tbsp of tomato paste and tomato ketchup which gives a subtle sweetness.

This recipe serves 4 people and each serving gives 580 calories approximately.

Here is what you’ll need:

2 chicken breasts

1 large onion

1 large tomato

3 red chillies

1 bay leaf (Tej Patta)

1 cinnamon stick (Dalchini)

3 cardamoms (Elaichi)

3 cloves (Lavang)

½ tsp cumin seeds (Jeera)

½ tsp coriander seeds (Dhaniya Seeds)

5 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp ketchup

7-8 cashew nut (4-5)

2 tbsp fresh cream (optional)

2 tbsp yoghurt

1 tbsp kasuri methi

2 tbsp melted butter

For marination:

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

Salt as per taste

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp tandoori powder

Method:

1. Clean, wash the chicken and cut it into bite size pieces.
2. Marinate the chicken in salt, lemon juice, ginger garlic paste and tandoori masala. Rest it for 1 hour.
3. Once the chicken is marinated, grill it in the oven for 20 minutes or till cooked. Alternatively cook it on stove top till all the moisture evaporates.
4. In a kadai, heat the butter and fry the cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon stick and bay leaves along with cumin, coriander seeds and cashew nuts till fragrant.
5. Finely chop the ginger and garlic and add it to the spices along with red chili.
6. Add the sliced onions to the butter and sauté the onions on low heat till softened.
7. Once the onions sweat and reduce, add the chopped tomato and cook further for 5 minutes.
8. Add the turmeric powder, coriander powder and red chili powder and switch off the flame.
9. Once this mixture cools downs, puree it finely into a thick paste in a grinder. Add half a cup of water if required.
10. Put this mixture back into the kadai, and mix in the tomato paste and ketchup.
11. Whip in the yoghurt and fresh cream and stir well till the sauce thickens.
12. Add the cooked chicken tandoori pieces and mix.
13. Crush the kasuri methi between your palms and add to the butter chicken.
14. Serve hot with tandoori roti or naan.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Hyderabadi Mutton Dum Biryani

Also called the “kacche gosht ki Biryani”, where raw meat is cooked on low flame in trapped steam along with half cooked rice till the meat becomes tender and rice becomes fragrant. The art of making this Biryani has a long history associated with the Mughals. It’s now popularly known as the Hyderabadi Biryani.

The essence of this cooking method is the trapped steam. The marinated pieces of raw mutton get cooked on super low heat for a long time.

This recipe is a two step process. First step calls for marinating the mutton and the second step calls for sealing the pot of Biryani shut and cooking on “dum”.

This recipe serves 4 people and provides approximately 860 calories per serving.

Here is what you’ll need:

½ kg mutton

2 cups long grain basmati

2 cardamoms

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 inch cinnamon stick

Mint leaves for garnish

Saffron soaked in 2 tbsp milk

Marinade:

6-7 green chillies slit

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp Biryani masala powder (optional)

4 cloves whole

4 cardamoms whole

1 inch cinnamon stick

200 gm yoghurt

1 cup fried onions/ fry 2 onions (check link)

½ cup coriander

½ cup mint leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

5 tbsp oil.

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Clean and wash the mutton pieces.
2. Wash and soak the rice for 30 minutes.
3. Prepare the marinade with all the ingredients listed under “marinade”,
4. Marinate the mutton pieces for 2 hours.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.
6. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, cook the rice for 5 minutes or till half done and drain it.
7. Layer the bottom of the pan with the marinated mutton and add the half cooked rice on top.
8. Garnish with few mint leaves and saffron milk.
9. Seal the pot tightly by applying sticky dough of all-purpose flour around the brim of the pot.
10. Once the pot is sealed, cook on low flame for 20 minutes and then keep on “dum” for another 20 minutes.
11. For keeping on dum keep the pot on a hot tawa and then put it on low flame.
12. Serve hot with raita.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Crepes Foldover/ Appa Gudiyo

So, this is the second type of savoury crepes. A ready spicy filling is added to the crepe and folded into pockets. It’s the shallow fried and served hot as an appetizer.

These savoury crepes are good appetizers if you have guests coming over. They can be folded in advance and frozen weeks ahead. All you have to do is defrost it and shallow fry.

Each serving of this recipe will provide 140 calories approximately.

Here is what you’ll need:

Basic crepes

Vegetable and chicken masala filling

Method:

1. Take one crepe out on a plate and arrange 1 tbsp of masala filling on i
2. Fold it from opposites side from all four sides till a square pocket is formed.
3. Repeat with all the crepes.
4. Once all the foldovers are prepared, shallow fry it on medium heat till golden brown on both sides.
5. Serve hot.

Leran to make Basic crepes and Mixed Vegetable and Chicken masala Filling in The Kitchen Counter column.

Savoury Crepes/ Teekh appo

First things first, If you haven’t checked out the Basic crepes recipe yet, go back and check that out first. It will give a better idea of what we are doing here.

Normal type of crepes stuffed with savoury filling becomes savoury crepes. Today’s recipe of savoury crepe is what we call in Bhatkal as the “Teekh Pattal Appo” as in “Spicy thin crepes”. This is a one step process of making a spicy batter for the crepe and does not need any additional fillings. It has a delicious desi taste with the kick of spiciness.

For the savoury type ,the main spiciness is from chillies. I do not add any other spices or masalas. But I do add a tbsp or 2 of any ready bhuna masala I have left over in the fridge (which I normally have :-)). It gives the crepes the extra flavor.  I also add a tbsp of milk powder to the batter. Why? No clue. Mom said so. Maybe it gives the extra rich or subtleness. Nevertheless it’s optional. 

This recipe makes 10 crepes. One serving provides approximately 86 Calories.

Here is what you’ll need:

3 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour (Maida)

2 ½  cups water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cornflour

½  medium onion

1 tbsp milk powder (optional)

3 green chillies

½ inch ginger

2-3 cloves of garlic

4-5 sprigs of coriander leaves

2 tbsp of any type of bhuna masala (optional yet must J)

Method:

1. Mix all the above ingredients in a blender till smooth.
2. Pour it out in a large bowl and heat a non stick frying pan.
3. Scoop out ¾ of a ladle and swirl it onto the hot pan.
4. Keeping the flame medium high let the crepe cook till the crusts turn golden brown.
5. Using a flat spoon slowly ease out the crepe and put it onto a plate.
6. Serve hot.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Basic Crepes/ Pattal appo

Crepes are an all time favorite breakfast for most of us. Eaten plain or with honey, sugar, cream, or whatever sweetener that comes into our mind.

The process of crepe making always seemed to be a daunting one. I used to watch my mom in awe the way she would pour the batter with one hand and swirl the whole pan with the other hand. But once you really stand and do it, with practice comes perfection.

I checked out few other recipes of crepes online but the look of it always puts my mood off as the description itself says delicate thin pancakes. I would describe my crepes as super thin, super crisp, paper weight, melt-in mouth, nothing-like- pancakes. No exaggeration! Whenever mom would make it for breakfast, she would serve us one at a time. Now it’s me making them and my husband sitting on a chair in the kitchen eating it hot and crisp. Crepes never taste as good, if you stack them for the whole family and let them sit. Feels really soggy and heavy.

Custard powder is added to keep the crepes crisp and milk powder gives richness.

Preparation takes no time at all. Keep all the ingredients ready. Crack the eggs, sift the flour and add all the rest of the ingredients right into the blender/Mixer (whatever you call it) and blend till smooth. Pour out the batter into a large bowl and check the consistency. It should not be watery thin or pancake- thick. I’d say the consistency of Lassi?  Maybe. Well you’ll know when you start making.

Heat a non stick frying pan which has edges and keep the flame on medium high. Once the tawa is heated, hold the tawa in your left hand and scoop out ¾ of a batter in a ladle and pour out into the tawa and quickly swirl it till the batter covers the pan. Cooking takes a minute or less on medium high flame. As soon as you see the edges turning golden brown and crisp, it means done .Add a couple of drops of ghee and use a flat spatula to ease the whole crepe out into a plate. All those beautiful tiny holes. That’s perfection. J

I normally apply a drop of ghee and sprinkle sugar over it. Tastes yummy.

This recipe makes 16 crepes of 101 calorie each and serves 4 people.

Here is what you’ll need:

3 eggs

2 cup water

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp custard powder (optional)

2 tbsp milk powder (optional)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. In a blender, crack the eggs, sift the flour.
2. To it, add the milk powder and custard powder along with salt.
3. Add the vanilla essence and blend it together with measured amount of water.
4. Heat a large non-stick pan.
5. Using a ladle, pour ¾  filled ladle with your right hand  and swirl the pan with your left hand making sure the batter covers thinly and evenly the entire surface of the pan.
6. After a couple of minutes when the edges start browning, ease the entire crepe out on  plate with the help of a spatula.
7. Serve immediately.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Mixed Vegetable and Chicken Filling

This chicken filling is an evergreen recipe and can be used for any recipe at anytime. For your sandwiches, puff pastry filling, fatayar, chicken buns, crepes fold over, this filling just works beautiful. Whenever I prepare, I prepare in bulk and freeze the rest. This recipe is more of Indian flavorings and spices.

Here is what you’ll need:

3-4 chicken breast

2 large onions

6-7 green chillies

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

½ capsicum finely diced

¼ cup green peas

¼ cup corn

1 carrot grated

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp chat powder

½ tsp cumin powder (Jeera powder)

¼ tsp garam masala

½ tsp red chilli powder (optional)

½ cup chopped coriander

2 tbsp oil

Salt according to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok, and fry the onions with salt on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the green chillies and ginger garlic paste along with turmeric powder and cook for another couple of minutes.
3. Add in the cleaned chicken pieces and let the chicken cook in its own juices.
4. Add in all the coriander powder, chat powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder and garam masala.
5. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the onion masala.
6. Once cooled shred the chicken finely and add it back to the masala along with the capsicum, peas, corn and carrot.
7. Sprinkle black pepper and coriander and steam for 5 minutes.
8. Serve the filling for any recipe of your choice.

Recipe by Zohra Sada