

With the festive season upon us, it's time to look forward to some lip-smacking dishes and desserts. So, we asked readers to share their Diwali recipes with us. As part of a continuing series, we present five delicious dessert recipes that we received:
First up is Piyush Khandelwal's recipe for Paneer Butter Masala:
Cuisine: Indian
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
300 gms paneer
25 gms cashew nuts
1/2 tsp red Kashmiri chillies
Cardamom and cloves
1/2 tsp of garlic
1 large onion (chopped)
2 tomatoes (chopped)
2-3 green chillies
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp garam masala
4 tsps fresh cream
25 gms butter
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar
Oil for frying
Method:
Cut the paneer into 1-inch pieces and fry in oil till light brown, then set aside.
Heat 1 tsp oil with butter, add chopped onions and fry till light brown. Add tomatoes, ginger, garlic and green chillies and fry for 2 minutes on medium heat.
Add salt, sugar, cardamom and cloves, Kashmiri lal mirch, garam masala and heat on low flame, covered for 2-3 minutes so that the flavour comes out. Add cashew nut paste and stir for 2 minutes on low heat. Now add fresh cream and paneer and heat for 5-6 minutes on low flame. Add coriander leaves for garnishing.
Now the Paneer Butter Masala is ready. Have it with rotis or naan.
Health quotient: The paneer provides protein and the cashew nuts provide energy.
Next we have Prerna Saxena's Corn Biryani preparation:
Cuisine: Indian/ Hyderabadi
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 30-45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 500 gms corn (boiled)
- 3-4 onions (adequate for the masala)
- Garam masala [ Images ] (cinnamon sticks, badi elaichi, 1-2 laung, shahzeera, bay leaf (tejpatta))
- Red chillie powder or green chilly paste (subject to availability and taste)
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsps coriander powder
- 300 gms curd
- Salt to taste
- 4-5 tbsps oil
- Coriander leaves
- 1000 kgs rice (not over-cooked)
Method:
- In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat oil and add garam masala (as mentioned in ingredients) till it crackles, then add onions. Fry till the onions are golden brown.
- Add coriander leaves and fry a bit, as they enhance the taste.
- Add corn -- please make a note that it should be properly boiled beforehand.
- Add haldi, red chilly powder or green chilly paste, followed by coriander powder and salt.
- Cover the pan for about 15 minutes and simmer.
- Remove the pan and add beaten curd -- always remember never to add curd when the pan is on the flame, as it starts breaking and the gravy becomes watery.
- Mix all the contents and cover the pan, cooking till the gravy thickens a bit and remove it from the flame.
- Grease a separate heavy-bottomed vessel with melted ghee, add a layer of rice followed by a layer of the corn masala and alternate till the last layer is that of rice on top. Add coriander leaves, deep-fried onions and ghee, cover the vessel and put on a medium flame to cook till you see steam coming out of the vessel from under the lid.
- Garnish with onions and coriander leaves.
Health quotient: Corn provides carbohydrates, curd is a source of Vitamin A and ghee gives the body its quota of 5 mgs of fat per day.
Here's how to cook Dum Aloo by Khadija Sayeed, who has submitted a friend's recipe:
Cuisine: Kashmiri
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 18-20 small potatoes 18-20
- Oil for deep-frying
- 5-6 Kashmiri red chillies
- A generous pinch of asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp green cardamom powder
- 1 tsp dry ginger powder (soonth/sonti)
- 2 tbsps fennel (saunf) powder
- 1/4 cup mustard oil
- A generous pinch of clove powder
- 2 cups yoghurt
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Method:
- Peel, wash and prick the potatoes with fork. Soak in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and wipe dry.
- Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry potatoes on medium heat till golden brown. Keep aside.
- Remove stems and make a paste of Kashmiri red chillies using a little water.
- Whisk yoghurt with Kashmiri red chilly paste, cardomom powder, dry ginger powder and fennel powder.
- Heat mustard oil in a pan. Add clove powder and asafoetida. Add half a cup of water and salt to taste and bring to a boil.
- Stir in yoghurt mixture and bring to a boil again. Add fried potatoes and cook till the potatoes absorb the gravy and oil floats to the top.
- Serve hot, garnished with roasted cumin powder and garam masala powder.
Health quotient: Nutritious, but to be made occasionally as it can be heavy.
Shweta sent in her mother's recipe for Paneer Chilla:
Cuisine: Indian
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
For chilla:
- 1 cup moong dal (peeled)
- 1 tbsp rice flour (optional)
- 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste (optional)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
- Salt to taste
- 1 pinch soda bicarb (optional)
- Oil for frying
For stuffing:
- 200 gms paneer (grated)
- 50 gms cheese (optional)
- 3-4 finely chopped green chillies
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 1/2 inch grated ginger
- 1 small bunch chopped coriander leaves
- 1 pinch salt
Method:
- Soak moong dal for 2-3 hours, rinse and grind till smooth like dosa batter.
- Add rice flour and other ingredients of the chilla and mix properly; set aside for 15-20 minutes. The consistency should be like dosa batter.
- Mix all the ingredients for stuffing together.
- Heat a dosa tava and make chilla from the batter (the thickness should be similar to a dosa).
- Fry it using just a few drops of oil at medium heat till golden-brown.
- Stuff with the paneer mixture and fold.
- Serve with green chutney or tomato ketchup.
Health quotient: It's a healthy recipe full of protein and calcium. You can avoid cheese if you have a bp problem. If you don't want to use rice flour, then chilla can be made using moong daal only; don't use soda if rice flour is not added to the batter. Paneer can also be replaced by tofu -- then it becomes even more healthy. Try using very little oil while making the chilla to avoid extra calories.
And finally, here is a Soya Kurma preparation from DS:
Cuisine: North Indian
Type: Vegetarian
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 250 gms soya (mini chunks)
- 2 small tomatoes (finely sliced)
- 1/2 an onion (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp chilly powder
- 1 tsp dhaniya (coriander powder)
- 1/2 tsp Sombu (saunf)
- 1 tsp masala (preferably meat masala powder)
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- Coriander leaves for garnishing
Method:
- Pour the oil in a cooker and let it heat well. Put in the saunf and let it splutter.
- Next, add the chopped onions and saute for 1-2 minutes, then add the ginger garlic paste. Saute for 3-4 minutes until you can smell the aroma.
- Add turmeric, chilly and pepper powders in that same order.
- Add dhaniya (coriander) powder and then meat masala. Saute for another 2 minutes until you smell the aroma of the spices.
- Add diced tomatoes, pour 2 cups of water and add the soya chunks. Mix well and let it simmer on a medium flame for 5 minutes.
- Close the pressure cooker. Wait for 3-4 whistles.
- Turn off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot chapati or any Indian bread.
- If the gravy is too watery, let it simmer on a low flame for 5-7 minutes after the lid has been taken off.
Health quotient: The recipe uses very little oil and soya chunks are a healthy food option for vegetarians.
Do you have any special Diwali [ Images ] recipes that you'd like to share with us and other readers? Simply fill in this quick form and we'll publish your recipes right here on rediff.com

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