Vegetable Chop

The simplest snack made in every Bengali home irrespective of the season. It’s been a very long time since I last posted, cherry and her routine and definitely lazy me.
So today when Mr. demanded chop with chai, I thought why not put this one with some clicks.

Twinkle toes has changed a lot since my last post, she’s started eating almost everything / at least tries everything now.
We all prefer fried food with our choice of condiment, for Chop – Mr. prefers salad, I like Kasundi and to my surprise Twinkle toes didn’t ask for her ketchup, instead she actually savored the taste bite by bite ( I’m in heaven)

Preparation time- 10 min
Cooking time- 5 min
Yields – 10 chop

Ingredients

1 cup Potato boiled
1 cup Beetroot grated
1 cup Carrot grated
2 green Chilies finely chopped
1tbsp ginger grated
Mustard oil – for frying and base
Panchphoron- 1/2 tsp
Bhaja Masala-
Dry roast 2 bay leaves,2 dried red chili, 4 methi dana (Fenugreek seeds, 2 tbsp Coriander,2 tbsp- Cumin,1 tsp fennel seeds- cool and grind into fine powder
Maida (All purpose flour) – 2tbsp
Bread crumb – 1 1/2 cup

Dry Roast the spices

Bhaja Masala

Method

In a pan heat 1 tsp mustard oil, temper with Panchphoron, add chopped chili, sauté, add grated ginger – sauté. Add grated beetroot and carrot. stir for 2 minutes and season with salt, cover and let it cook for 2 minutes. open the lid, stir, once the texture is mushy add the Bhaja masala, saute for a minute and then add potato, mash it roughly so as the mixture is combined and doesn’t look lumpy. Allow it to cool down a bit, meanwhile make a thin paste of flour with water to coat the chop.

Make cylindrical rolls, dip them in the flour batter and roll in breadcrumb to coat it evenly.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying, fry till golden brown. Serve with your choice of condiment, as for the salad of Mr. it’s simple julienned cucumber and radish sprinkled with chat masala and lemon juice.

Pomegranate Muskmelon detox smoothie coolant

Lets Detox this summer, adding one more the line of coolant smoothie, this one is more of detox coolant.
How many of us actually like eating pomegranate. Truth be told, I’m not at all a fan of eating pomegranate. One fine evening twinkle toes while watching an advertisement on tv demands for pomegranate juice. Hubby dear started laughing, we finally had someone liking pomegranate in family.
Since then while coming back from school, pomegranate juice and litchi juice have been twinkle toes fav and staple. Today morning while shopping for fruits, she picked them up and demanded juice, but knowing her and worried about the leftover juice which I would have to consume I thought of again blending a smoothie.
Happy daddy, daughter and mom

Preparation time – 5 time

Ingredients
Muskmelon – chopped 1 cup
Pomegranate – 2 – juiced, filtered and frozen
Cucumber -1/2 cup chopped
Coconut water – 1 cup
Honey – 1tsp
Lemon juice -1/2 tsp
Black salt – 1 tsp
Mint leaves- 5-8
Ice cubes

Method – Blend all together, serve chilled on top of ice.

Peach Orange Banana and Coconut water smoothie coolant

Summer Vacations have started or about to start for many and its time for kids to enjoy and remind us “mother’s” that our vacations will start once the school starts😅.
While gathering ideas for coolant drink today I happened to bump upon very ripe peaches, although too small but nostalgia hit and I remembered a small trip to Amber Fort with my parents during summer break.
I might’ve been 7-8 yr that time, in the huge courtyard those days visitors used to feed chana to Langur. It was my first attempt and I clearly remember just freezing on the idea of “How” with packet of chana in my hand, “wham” and I remember everyone laughing.
Langur around me couldn’t wait and simply slapped me and snatched the packet away. How is this related to peaches, well as this picture my father couldn’t capture, there was one click of mine sadly trying to eat a huge peach with Langur in background.
So with this nostalgia in my mind while preparing this coolant smoothie I suddenly thought of serving it with a twist. Lined the rim of glasses with Black salt and pepper and one with Paprika and crushed mint. The hit they gave to this smoothie was another level.
Twinkle toes, well, her glass rim was lined with Nutella and sprinkles and was half finished before I could even click😂.

Preparation Time- 5 min

Ingredients –

Peach- 250g frozen
Banana – 1 frozen
Orange juice – 1/2 cup
Coconut Water – 1/2 glass
Honey – 1 tsp (optional)
Ice cubes- 1/2 cup

Method – Frozen peaches gives the best color and texture to this smoothie and frozen banana the desired thickness. Blend them all and serve chilled. Add some black salt or soaked chia seeds to it if you want to drink this post workout.

Pineapple Mango with Coconut water Smoothie

After playing a lot of “May”-be to ‘Different weather morning and evening’ (From Rain to fog and cold in May) Summer is finally here.
Hubby dear loves summer, summer evenings are best evenings for him. As for twinkle toes as long as she’s not asked to sit indoors she’s happy with every season.
Summer means Mango, everything is mango, every dessert has mango so yes it’s a regular in kitchen and coconut water is also back in my kitchen as a staple.
This smoothie recipe I stumbled upon last month when surprisingly temperatures were soaring really high for April. It provides perfect balance of nutrients, salt and sugar
This smoothie is not a typical sweet one, mango is definitely there as sweet factor but its sweetness is altered by acidity of pineapple and the salty flavor of coconut water that balances sweetness out.
If you are looking for something sweet, add some honey to it before blending. This smoothie is a perfect post workout/ Post long day in school kind of drink.
Also for all diet conscious ones this one is apt. Twinkle toes is still sipping on it as I publish this one. She has started eating few non chocolate things and I’m really excited.

Preparation time- 2 min
Yields – 3 Glasses

Ingredient –

1 Mango – peeled, frozen (min 4 hours)
Pineapple – 1/2 cup chopped and frozen
Coconut water – 1 cup
Lemon Juice – 1 tsp
Ice cubes – 1/2 cup

Method–

Blend all, serve chilled. Freezing the fruit here helps in the texture of smoothie, If you have no patience for freezing them , or simply avoiding too cold drink use fresh, consistency would be diff but nutrient would still be same.