Hara Bhara Kabab - Guest Post by Shilpa Kini

When I started this blog about a year back, I did not have any plans for it. I posted about what I cooked. Simple everyday cooking. No fancy elaborate recipes. The main purpose behind the blog was to keep a log for everyone reading (and for myself!) on the simple and healthy dishes needing not much time, effort and ingredients, which I manage to create in my kitchen amidst hectic daily life...  but never-the-less are yum in the tum! :)

Okay, so not much has changed since then. Even to this day, I post recipes only which are simple (as that is all I have time for!) and look for similar recipes on other sources as well. One thing I have decided to do anew is... host guest posts! Oh yes, I have featured two bloggers before with two very interesting dishes - Samosa and Carrot Walnut Cake. But whats going to be different now is, I plan to feature non-bloggers here who have some very creative simple recipes up their sleeves. Just a platform for them to share their recipes.

Today I have here a very bubbly person, from amchi Mumbai who happens to be my sister-in-law! :) Shilpa is my brother's wife and loves that extra twist and spice in her dishes. Her stuffed lady's finger is something I have heard a lot about and am waiting to try out someday! :P Meanwhile here she is telling us about another signature dish of hers - Hara Bhara Kabab, which look absolutely yumm!! Over to her :)

"Hello there! It is great to be doing something different... so here I am to post a recipe on my lovely SIL’s blog!

Once we were just casually chatting with each other... (and you all know what girls like us generally talk about after marriage right..!!?) yeah... it has to be either about their respective husbands or food. So this time it was foodie talks and I told her about the menu for the day and then went on talking about other things. At the end of the conversation she asked me.. ‘Shilpa, why don’t you do a guest blog post for me?!'  Now, with such an offer from ‘Nan’s yum yums’, I was very much excited and readily agreed. Out of over excitement I became generous with my ingredients and, you know what happens then! Yes, to my utter dismay the final preparation did not come out well as expected :( Nevertheless, I gave my second try and this time it was awesome! :) And so, here is my awesome Haara Bhara Kabab Recipe........!!"

 

Rajma Paratha | Kidney Beans stuffed Indian Bread

Presenting to you... yet another paratha variation :) This time around its an absolute experiment and a successful one at that. I love kidney beans or rajma as it is called in India. If perfectly cooked, these beans are soft in texture and have an interesting flavour of their own. I have made rajma as a side dish several times and love it with rotis or rice.

These days, to help me manage my work and home schedules, I plan my meals a little better. I pre-cook some basic items before hand at my convenience and store them in the fridge for later, when I need to make a meal in a hurry. For instance, when I have time on my hand, I pressure cook channa/chickpea, rajma/kidney beans, potatoes and store them in the fridge and they come so much in handy when I am in a rush to get to work, as I can dish out a meal like Channa Pulav or Spiced Baby Potato Roast in minutes with the pressure-cooked ingredients ready for use :) Well, this pre-cooking plan lasts for about 2-3 days and it really helps! :)

So, I had this lot of pressure cooked kidney beans in my fridge and I also had a small ball of dough... voila! I could just visualize my meal in front of me... and in another half hour, it was really in front of me :D With a very easy stuffing, which doesn't not need any stove top cooking... I prepared these extremely healthy parathas :)

Rajma is a very paratha-friendly ingredient, by which i mean its its easy to make parathas with it as it gets mashed up and shapes easily into rounds, like boiled potatoes. Try them out :)

Leafy Parathas | a medley of Spring Onions, Fenugreek Leaves & Spinach

Well, by now you know about my love affair with parathas! It is no secret anymore :P The main reason I love parathas is that the meal is ready with just one dish!! Parathas do not need an elaborate side dish and then you can get really creative with the kind of parathas you want to make and make them as healthy and wholesome as you like.

This is one such paratha am very proud of! Its made of wholewheat flour and 3 green veggies. Do I need to say more? :) Well, trust me the flavours were simply super, I was pleased to bits with this combination.

Like most of my parathas, I served this with just a cup of yogurt and a dollop of pickle. You could dish out a simple side if you like... but am sure... it wouldn't be needed! :) With each bite you get a feeling of goodness inside you as everything about this is absolutely healthy! :) Now who said healthy food isn't tasty!!? 

Spinach and Corn Bread Roll

I love the combination of Spinach and Corn and I also love baking with yeast. Now when I decided to put the two together, I ended up with this scrumptious Spinach and Corn Bread Rolls!! They were a treat, both visually and to the taste buds. 

Sine I like the simple taste of Spinach and Corn together, I kept the spinach spread simple and did not include too many ingredients in there. It can be made as exquisite or as simple as you like it.

Like my other favourite yeast bakes: Garlic Buns Rolls, Palya Bun, Coconut Stuffed Buns, I have used whole wheat flour and to keep in line with the health run, I have added in just a single cube of cheese in the spread. This addition was delightful and I am planning to add in a little bit more next time.

Orange Vanilla Cake [Egg-less]

It has been a while since I baked cakes and the moment I saw this post by Divya, I knew this was the one. I had a lone orange sitting in my fridge and I have been nursing a craving for a cake for a few days now.! My all time favourite is the Eggless Vanilla Tea cake and this time I thought, I should re-do it by adding in the orange zest into the batter.

So, here is the result of converting Divya's Orange Yogurt cake into an eggless version. I am pretty delighted with the output, except for the slightly crumbly texture. Oh well, am still learning... will try and fix that next time... for now am munching on these orangey goodies :)

Choco Khoya Kalakhand | Ready in 20 minutes! - my 100th :)

Though I do not have much of a sweet tooth, simple sweets delight me! The ones that are mild on flavours and are light on the tummy. By simple sweets I actually meant flavourwise but if they happen to be easy to make as well... what more to ask for! :) Here is my latest find of an amazingly simple recipe which would make you read the recipe twice to beleive it needs just 20 minutes to put together! :D

  

Nags had posted this beautiful recipe on her blog a few months back and it had instantly caught my attention. They look so elegant and professional.

Now, when my dear 'Nan's yum-yums!' has reached a century... I felt this delightful dessert is perfect for a sweet celebration! :) Yay!! :) Happy 100 to you! :D 

...oh, and the hubby thought these were store bought ! :D double yay! :)

Sprouted Moong and Coconut Rice

Frankly speaking, this wasn't a planned recipe (well, like most of my other recipes :P ) I was not in a mood to cook an elaborate meal that day and hence settled to make some kind of variety rice. Now, I just happened to have sprouted moong sitting in my fridge which needed to be finished. And since I did not have many other vegetables to put into my rice, I chose to team sprouted moong with coconut!

Well, I was skeptical of the final product myself, but hey, it turned out to be interesting! :D

The crunchiness of the sprouts with the slight sweetness of the coconut gave an interesting flavour to the rice. And the best part... it had not much chopping! I hate cutting veggies, when I am not in a mood to cook! :P

You could add in any other vegetables in this if you like. This by itself is a healthy combo packed with proteins and nutrition.