Egg Fried Rice

Egg fried rice and noodles are my favourite indian-chinese fast food in Hyderabad. I don't know what sauces go into egg fried rice, but some of the roadside vendors make it tastier than good restaurants. I tried this recipe today from my own imagination and it turned out good, though not as good as some of the fast food places in Hyd.

Ingredients:

1. Basmati rice - 2 cups
2. Eggs - 3 no.
3. Oil - 4 tsp
4. Cloves - 4
5. Cinnamon sticks - 2 (1/2" long)
6. Onion - 1 no. (chopped lengthwise)
7. Green chillies - 3 no. ( or as required, cut into small pieces)
8. Green peas and beans - 1/2 cup
9. Capsicum - 1/2 (cut into small pieces)
10. Cashews - as required
11. Ginger - garlic paste - 1 tsp
12. Soy sauce - 3 tsp
13. Bay leaves - 2
14. White vinegar - 1 tsp
15. Turmeric powder - a pinch
16. Salt - as required

Instructions:

1. Cook the rice with 3 cups of water.
2. In parallel, heat oil in a pan and add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and fry for 2 mins.
3. Add onion pieces and fry until onion turns brown in color. Add turmeric, ginger garlic paste and fry for another 2mins.
4. Add green chillies, capsicum, green peas, beans and fry until the veggies becomes soft. Add soy sauce and vinegar and cook for 2mins.
5. Break the eggs and pour into the above mix and cook for 3mins stirring continuously. Add salt as required.
6. Add the cooked rice to the above, mix well and fry for another 2mins.
7. Serve hot.

Rasgulla

Rasagulla is a North Indian sweet prepared with fresh curd cheese. If we have soft paneer/chenna in hand it will take 15mins to prepare this sweet. You can find chenna recipe here.

Ingredients:

1. Paneer / curd cheese - 1 lb (prepared with 1/2 gallon whole milk, here is the recipe)
2. Sugar - 2 cups
3. Water - 3 cups
4. All purpose flour - 1 tablespoon
5. Rose Water / Cardamom powder - 1 tsp (for flavoring)

Instructions:

1. Knead the paneer along with flour on a clean surface with hands for 2-3mins.
2. Seperate the dough into equal parts making round balls.
3. Boil sugar and water in a pressure cooker (better to use wide cooker) closing the lid, without keeping the whistle.
4. Once the liquid starts boiling, add the balls to the liquid and cover the lid, cook for 15mins. Make sure there is enough room to rasgullas to cook. Rasgullas become double in size after they are cooked. Add rose water/ cardamom powder to the sugar syrup.
5. Take the rasgullas carefully with a spatula to a bowl and pour the sugar syrup on top of them.
6. Cool at room temperature and refrigirate before serving.

This Rasulla is the main ingredient for preparing the Rasmalais. Cooking these rasgullas in milk, and sugar results the rasmalais. I will try to post the recipe for rasmalais in near future.

Watermelon Granita

When I first saw this slush-type drink/dessert, I thought it was crushed ice colored in red with some flavoring. But when I tasted it, I got to know that it was made from watermelon. So I couldn't wait to try it at home.

Granita is an Italian semi-frozen dessert made with sugar, water and fruit. I used watermelon as it's my favourite summer fruit. As the name indicates, watermelon is 92% filled with water. Here is a hint on how to select a ripe melon:

To pick the perfect watermelon, use the hand to thump the watermelon. The sound will either be solid, like thumping a piece of wood, hollow like tapping a water jug, or thick like tapping a water balloon. If the watermelon is not ripe enough, it will sound solid. If it is too ripe, it will sound thick. A perfect watermelon will sound hollow.

Ingredients:

1. Seedless Watermelon chunks - 4 cups
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup (or depending on the taste of the melon)
3. Water - 1/4 cup
4. Lemon/Lime - 1 no. (extract juice)

Instructions:

1. Boil Sugar with water until sugar has dissolved and the solution becomes clear. Cool it completely.
2. Grind the watermelon chunks along with lemon juice and sugar syrup prepared above. Check for sweetness and add sugar if required, as the dessert is less sweet after it's frozen.
3. Pour into a shallow, wide pan and freeze for 1 hour. Rake the mixture with fork and freeze for another hour. Rake and freeze for one more hour.
4. Rake and serve in cups.

Ravva Kesari

Ravva kesari or Sooji ka Halwa is a commonly prepared sweet in Andhra or South India. There is a Sai Baba Temple near our house and every Thursday devotees offer different kinds of food as prasadam. Today, I made this sweet as our offering to God.

Ingredients:

1. Sooji - 1.5 cups
2. Sugar - 3 cups
3. Ghee - 1/4 cup (I held back on ghee, but can add up to 1 cup)
4. Water - as required (min 4 cups)
5. Cardamom seeds (ground) - 1/2 tsp
6. Cashew nuts/Raisins - as required
7. Food color - optional

Instructions:

1. Heat 2 tsps of ghee in a pan and fry the sooji till the raw smell of ravva goes away. Keep this aside.
2. Boil the water and add the fried sooji slowly to the water stirring constantly (to avoid lumps). Cook for 10mins. Add water as required as water gets absorbed by ravva very quickly.
3. Add sugar to the above mix and cook for 5mins. Add ghee slowly to it and cook for another 5-7mins.
4. Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan and fry cashew/raisins till brown.
5. Add cardamom powder and cashews to the cooked kesari.
6. Serve hot or at room temperature. To make pieces, cool the kesari completely in a greased flat pan/tray and cut in required shape.
7. It can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.