Easy Vegeterian Recipes and Fun Cooking!

I started this blog quite a while back. I can trace back the first post here. I blogged many recipes so far, gained me a few pounds from eating all those stuff that blogged. Most of the recipes were found to be interesting by quite a number of visitors. I do have a list of the recipes that I blogged on the side bar, but I will make it more easier by posting some of the good recipes blogged so far. Feel free to browse them, cook them and share how it come out if you happen to cook them :)

Let us start with some of the Vegetarian Recipes:

Paneer Mattar Masala curry

This was a simple paneer recipe that can never go wrong. Nothing fancy, just a good Paneer Curry. But the real winner in this recipe is How I prepared the paneer or cottage cheese from scratch. yes, you can quite easily make paneer at home.

Simple Palak Paneer

This is another Paneer recipe. A real easy palak paneer. Again, nothing fancy, and it doesn't really look like the palak paneer you get at restaurants. I have simplified this so that anyone one can cook it in less than half an hour. Enjoy!

I also have some kick ass Halwa Recipes. Halwa is an Indian Sweet dish, that can be had as a dessert, or breakfast, or even a snack. Indians do love sweet snacks.

Gajjar ka Halwa

This is an easy way of making Gajjar ka Halwa. Gajjas or Carrot is grated and cooked in Milk and butter, with dried fruits to add that special thing.

Beet ka Halwa

Quite similar to the carrot halwa, but with Beet and this also taste just awesome.

White Peas Cooked with baking soda

Ootti ver 2.0

I actually blogged the above recipe twice. It is a Manipuri delicacy called "Ootti". A real wonning recipe that tastes awesome with rice or Khichdi, and even Puri.

Rice Kheer

This is something like Rice Porridge, again an Indian Sweet dish that is had as dessert or even breakfast. Rice cooked in milk and flavored with raisins and what not.

Peanut Palak Saag

This is a simple spinach or palak recipe. A unique combination of spinach and peanuts. I am sure you haven't had this before. Try it and tell me if you liked it.

Gobi Pakoda

This is a simple recipe of Cauliflower Fritters, cauliflower dipped in a spicy batter of gram flour and deep fried. Great as a beer snack or just something to snack on on a rainy afternoon.

Similar fritters that I blogged:

Veg Pakoda

Potato Fritters

Excuse the prawn recipe in between the veg recipes. I blogged the recipe for both vegeterians and non vegeterians. Same batter, different dips!

Pakoda Kadhi

And curry made out of the fritters.

Gobi Manchurian

This is a faux Chinese recipe that is very popular in India. This is a vegeterian chicken manchurian, only with cauliflowers in place of the Chicken.

Chole Masala

Chole masala cooked in a very simple way. the recipe is very easy to follow. Don't write it down, just remember the steps and try it. Chole is type of chick peas white in color and bigger than the usual chick pea.

Mashed Potato

Who said Indians don't eat mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are very popular in the eastern part of Indian, and is a very popular cuisine. Here is an easy recipe of the Indian mashed potato.

Easy Daal Recipes

Eating daals or boiled grams with every meal, daal can become quite a bore. But spice it up, and it is an awesome dish. Check out my daal recipes.

French Beans cooked with Coconuts

If you have been to Bangalore, you must have come across the French beans side dish that is cooked with grated coconut. Truth be told, that is the only way I like my beans, other the steamed beans served with steaks.

Sarson Da Saag

Now, what is this? Well, as a food blog, that mostly cooks Indian Recipes, passing over Sarsong ka saag would have been a sacrilege. Well, this is the famous Sarsong ka saag. I have simplified the recipe without diluting the flavour. You could call it stir fried mustard greens.

Aloo Karela

Bitter Gourd or karela as the name suggests is bitter, Kaput! Slow fry it with some onions and potatoes, and it becomes a very elegant bitter sweet side dish that is extremely healthy, trust me.

Loki Masala

I don't quite like the usual curry of loki or water gourd, but I have a simple recipe that I sometimes cook and I don't actually mind.

Veg Korma

A list of vegeterian recipes will be incomplete with the Vegetable Korma recipe eh! This is a mixed Vegeterian curry.

Coconutty Cabbage

This is a fry cooked cabbage recipe flavored with grated coconut. Quite light on the stomach!

Cabbage and peas

A quickie side dish you can cook in 10 minutes from peas and cabbage

Aloo Gobi

I love aloo gobi subzee, the dish made by slow cooking potatoes and cauliflower in vegetable oil. Try adding some chick peas, and you get a distinctly different Aloo Gobi.

Gobi Curry

One more cauliflower recipe!

Aloo Jeera

The ubiquitous Aloo Jeera, or potatoes fried with cumin seed. This is a real quickie dish that I can whip up in 10 minutes.

Below is a list of Khichdi Recipes that I blogged:

Green Moong Khichdi

Many people tried and loved this actually!

Simple Khichdi recipe with ghee

Simple Khichdis that I cooked when I was sick.

Low fat, low spice!

Rajma Masala

Rajma Chawal is the favorite of most Indians, a comfort food, a food that many Indians living away from home misses the most. Chawal is easy, but you can also easily make a great Rajma Dish. Now don't put too much onions please. Half an onion fried till golden brown for a pound of Rajma.

Stuffed Capsicum

Have you not tried my stuffed capsicum yet? You will love it!

Capsicum Zhunka

Another capsicum recipe I learnt when in Mumbai. Great Maharashtrian recipe.

Veg Biryani

A simple and quick vegeterian Biryani!

Dum Aloo

A quick and simple Dum Aloo recipe.

Palak Daal

And this is another daal recipe. Toor daal with spinach!

Semi Dry Chicken Gravy Recipe

Yummy looking isn't it. Taste real good with butter Chapatti.


Look at the dart board, used as a back ground. Amateur Photography haha.
Recipe will be updated soon.

The Recipes:

This is a Onion Based Gravy.
4 medium sized onions for 1 kilo chicken.
More onions and the dish will be sweetish. Go ahead if you want your chicken sweet :)


For the garnish:

Add 1 tsp Dhania Powder
Add 1 tsp Jeera Powder.
Add 1 tsp Chilli Powder.
Add half tsp haldi Powder.
Add 1 tsp garlic Crushed.
Add 1 tsp ginger Crushed.
Salt to taste.
1 tsp vegetable Oil.
Mix well and keep in fridge or outside for 2 hours.

4 Onions finely chopped Keep Aside.

Heat Oil in a Wok. I always cook my chicken in a Wok or Kadhai.
The bottom of the cooking vessel has to be thick so that heat distributes evenly.

I use about 3 TBS vegetable oil. Should be enough.
A trick to cook in less oil. Only fry 1/3rd of the onions. Put the rest later.

Crackle 1 tsp jeera and mustard seed in the oil.
Add about one onions portion from the chopped onions and fry till golden brown.

Add 5 green chillis sliced in halves.
Fry for 30 seconds in medium heat.
Add rest of the onions and fry for couple of minutes.
Increase the heat.

Add the chicken and Quickly mix.
Let it mix well. Stir well, such that all the chicken pieces are turned.

Cover the vessel and cook for 15 minutes in low heat.

Now open the lid, and increase heat.
Add 2 tomatoes finely chopped(Optional).
Cook till most of all the juice from the curry have evaporated.
Keep Stirring/mixing.
Add 1 tsp of off-the-shelf Chicken masala.
Cook for couple of minutes after you add masala.

Garnish with coriander for better smell.
I didn't.. Ran out of coriander :)
Bachelor's kitchen you see!!

H1b Official Website Bomb

I have posted this article on H1b official website on my other blog, and the post has made it to the Times of india here.

When you search for the keyword H1b official website on google, you'd expect the pages of uscis, but no. Well at least before I made the post, the first result was of a hate site, called send [them] back dot org. After my post, a few links from other bloggers, now the google result page has pushed down the hate site fron the number one spot of google result page.

But, it is still on page one. I want a few more links to push the result back to at least page two.
I want my dear readers and fellow food bloggers to read this post, and write a post titled H1b official website, with links to the genuine H1b sites below:


http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis
http://www.h1b1.com/welcome.htm
http://www.infinitilaw.com/h1bquotacount.html
http://www.buchanan.org/blog/?p=618

With the anchor text H1b Official Website like below:

1. H1B official website
2. H1B official website
3. H1B official website
4. H1b Official Website

make it fast.
This hate site got into search result number one by getting link with H1b Official website as the anchor text. By linking to the other sites with the same text, we are going to ou\sh the hate site back inside the google result pages.

Start Linking...

Happy Women's Day!!

You don't need a special day to celebrate, but now that you have one why not take it :)

And please visit blank Noise Project today for the Action Heroes.

Did you Vote for me YET!!

If you are a new Visitor, please look at the side bar to browse through some Yummy and extremely easy recipes before deciding if you want to vote for me at the IndiBloggies Awards...


But if you are an old visitor, please take out a few minutes to Vote for me at the Indibloggies Awards..


Tomorrow is the last date Mind you, so Hurrry..

You need to fill in your details and I guess you will get a confirmation link in the email.

Don't worry about the Website or Blog URL field, That is not mandatory..
Just give your name and Email, and VOTE..




Hurry Up!!!

Love you all :)

How to make paneer, Homemade paneer!

This a Part repost, part recap Blog post!

How to make Paneer at home?
Fresh Paneer that you can use to cook mouth watering dishes like Palak Paneer ,or the reason this post was made about a year back. Mattar Paneer, or Paneer with green peas.
I started that post with the lines "The secret of making paneer unvieled!!!" And BTW, the layout for my new blog is almost ready.. Just a little tweaks here and there and we will be in our new distination soon. All fresh posts in there.. No importing of posts.. I just can't have the thought of deleting this blog. Some dishes I will cook again and repost even, for new readers who are too lazy to browze the archives..

The picture above is of the paneer, prepared myself. Turned out quite easy. Otherwise it wouldn't have been posted on Bachelor Cooking!
I had prepared it with inspiration from Atabela..

This is quite simple, simple enough for green horn cooks.

And it was indeed tastier than the Dairy manufactured Paneers that we buy.

Steps:

Boil Milk in a vessel.

* I boiled 1 litre of milk for the purpose.. and The ball above is just about the size of a Cricket Ball, so if you want a bigger Ball, get two litres. I eat alone so It was enough for me.

Boil Milk in low heat ( Low heat so that the milk don't spill, no use crying over spilt milk right?) Boil until about 1/4 or a quarter of the milk has evaporated has evaporated.

When 3 quaters of the milk remain, squeeze some lime juice.

OK put pre-squeezed lime juice. For 1 litre of milk, it took s table spoons of freshly squeezed juice to get all the milk solidify or coagulate. (For more milk use more lime).

The milk will now start to coagulate. That is what we wanted. When you see that the solid and watyre has separated, remove the vessel from heat.

Now lay a muslin cloth like the seen in the picture above over the mouth of another vessel, and pour the milk over it so that only the solid if caught in the cloth.

gather up the sides of the cloth and hold it like a sack or purse.

When you have gathered the sides on the top, hold tight and turn the solid below, so that the cloth tightens over the solid milk or paneer.

(**Now, hot water will squirt from the mesh in the cloth and it will be really hot, so do the tightening under a running water tap.)

Hand the sack for sometime, and then Open..

If you want to cook it, you make cut them into cubes as below.

Deep fry the paneer cubes slowly and slightly till the color below. It makes for much better mattar paneer, paneer Masala or any paneer dish.

Fry just till this brown.. Is it golden brown?

Bachelor Cooking Now Number one on Google for Bachelor Cooking

This Blog, Bachelor Cooking was never number on the google search result, when you do a search for bachelor cooking on google. It was alway Jeremy Zawodny, since he had once mentioned the term Bachelor Cooking on his Much Linked Blog. It has been like this since i started my blog, but after a few tweaking with anchor words, I just saw today that a search for the word Bachelor Cooking returns my Blog. And not only that, but my new blog on wordpress is number. Once I start writing that blog, We will have that one the number one Position... Hopefully.

On my not updating my Blog... I didn't have net connection at home for the past 2 months. My office computer is hardened, ie, all the USB ports are not accessible, so I thought I had take a break.

Also Now I want to post all recipes only in the new blog, whose design will be ready by first week january hopefully, as promised by a very dear blogger friend who is designing it for me.
This Blog will not die... Just keep it in your blogrolling as is..

I will Host the Curry Mela on this blog only, when I do resume the curry mela... As such, this blog had become more curry mela than my recipes. The new blog will be a Pure Recipes and Tips Blog. I will let the old posts remain here only.. I tried to import to the new blog, but the images gets warped.. so I'd rather post new recipes.. maybe I will repost some selected posts from here. But I have Huge list of recipes I will be Cooking up this Comming Year.

Keep Coming Back..

Wishing you and your family a very happy New Year 2007..

Merry Christmas Dear Friends and Readers!

A very Merry Christmas to you all!! have a wonderful Chirstmas.

My Friend is vety confused! Who should he Follow!

One of my colleagues posted on our Bulletin Board!

Oops, which one shall I follow ??


Laziness is the worst enemy of humans. . .
- Jawaharlal Nehru.



Humans should learn to love even their worst enemies...!!!
- Mahatma Gandhi

Help me out with this.....

Just for laughs!!
My Home Net connection starts today evening!
Had to shift twice so I had been erratic!!
My new blog's desugn has also been pending!
Shall get it done before the week is over!!

Happy Thanksgiving to All my Readers

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Read this post meanwhile! And please vote in Indianpad if you like it :).

Cooking for a Crowd Meme.

Actually it's been a long time since I cooked.
I am still not settled in my new job, new place.
The first House I rented turned out to be quite a Disaster.
Nosy Neighbour! Actually a Shrew.
She even hears the sound of my flush and complained, 3rd day into the house.
She don't like guests either.
And she is very 100 happy.
The last tenant left because she used to dial 100 too often.
Calls up the police for every damn thing, and girls cannot visit my Pad.

I can't stay in a such a place...
I have decided to move into a new place, and I will move on 30th.
I have stalled my shopping till then, and my kitchen is not yet fully Functional.
So my dinners have been quite random!
Leave alone time for Bachelor Cooking.

This is the first time I ever Ignored Bachelor Cooking so long.
And add to it the fact that I have moved to a new location.
I still have lots to do to tweak my new blog.
I have to reload all the photographs...
So Till then, I thought I shall update here.

A few more days and I shall be doing a lot of new postings.
My parents are coming and many Manipuri goodies are on its way.
We shall have many authentic Manipuri dishes too...

In the Meanwhile, why not play a Meme?
The Cooking for a Crowd Meme
When was the last time you had cooked for a crowd?

The rule of the meme.
1) Write when was the last time you cooked for a Crowd. The exact date is not required.
Just describe the adventure of cooking for so many people, what you cooked.
How it turned out to be?

2) Tag on the meme to 5 other Food Bloggers.

Enjoy!

Hey but when was it that I cooked for a crowd?
I love having guests at my home and the more the merrier.
And I can cook Alone, I don't mind as long as you don't come in my way!
But you can peel the potatoes (But don't CUT! I have my own measurements)
Peel the Onions, and the Garlic..
Oh you may crush the Ginger and Garlic.
Even the Spices..
Oh I love fresh ground Spices and Freshly crushed Ginger-garlic for my Recipes, specially when I am cooking for guests..

The one adventurous "cooking for a crowd" was when I was in Kolkata.
I had asked some friends to come over.
About 10 of them?


And, I was late. From work!
Just as I came back from shopping the fish and meat and started in the kitchen, people started rushing in.
It was 9 already!

But it was the most memorable dinner, the new year Bar-B-Qs not withstanding!

I was suppose to be tired, but cooking has this magic.. It sure has, and can be a great destresser..

I was sweating in the Kolkata Heat, and I cooked...

My friend kept pouring the scotch... I like my drinks when I am doing big dinners.
I cooked a Pork Dish, a Chicken Dish, Peas and Fish Roe (fish eggs) and a fish Curry, Like I always do.

It usually is a nightmare for vegetarians, unless it is a vegeterian lunch!!
Now that was a memorable Dinner. Somewhere in 2005....
My friends still remember my dinners...
And how pleased I get when people enjoy the same!

I usually don't eat much after such cooking sessions..
I Just watch!!

May I tag

-(Kalyn)
-SaffronHut
-Nandita
-Mandira
-Shaheen
- Revathi

And all my readers, you may consider yourself tagged if you have had adventures cooking for a crowd. I will follow up this Post with tips to cook for a crowd, or rather what I do to simplify cooking a lot of preoparations quickly.
Of course I will link back to all the posts on Cooking for a Crowd.

Delhi Blog Meet

What better welcome than one get than a Blog meet, when you are a blogger.River has a post up on the details of the Blog Meet.

The meet will take place on 5-11-2006 (Sunday) at 3:30 pm in India Coffee
House, CP. The Coffee House in on the second floor of Mohan Singh Place near
Rivoli Cinema. All those who wish to attend the meet can leave little
confirmation notes in the comment-space.

If you blog, or wish to blog some day and you are in and around delhi, do drop-in for a cup of Coffee and lots of fun..

Do confirm your presense by dropping a comment at River's or Shivam's. I won't be too much on the net these few days. i am just Settling in, haven't gotten a connection yet and I still haven't got my ID created in the Office systems.. Anyway see you all.. :)

A very Happy Diwali to all my readers and your Family!

And Eid Mubbarak!

Been Busy with my shifting to a new city, new Job etc etc.
Keep Comming back. I will keep you posted.

How to Deep Fry Fish-II

There is this new blog on the block on Life, Happiness and Relationships called sound of Life . Do Bookmark it or spread a word.

Hmm... BachelorCooking.net is up

Yes Dear all, bachelorcooking.net is up and running. It is still very crude, all the picture have been badly skewed, I need to work on the template first... It will take up a number of day I am sure.

You may start updating your Blogroll with http://www.bachelorcooking.net


I will create a Blog for currymela at www.bachelorcooking.net/currymela and also a forum for all of us to discuss of cooking and tips anything we want to talk about at www.bachelorcooking.net/forum. Get yourself registered in the forum too. As and when it is up..
Also don't forget to link to the forum and curry mela.

Arre yaar, somebody do something about the template :)

Site still in BETA. Been busy so not been able to twaek much.

Help Wanted for a Wordpress Template

Well well, I have registered bachelorcooking.net.
Unfortunately Bachelorcooking.com wasn't available :(

But I want a very nice template, that will go well with the theme :)
Is there any of readers out there who are handy with Wordpress Blogs :)

Just a few words of note:
In the new avatar The bachelorcooking.net will be feature rich.
Will have a directory, a cooks forum, events site, curry mela..
It will be awesome..

I will get me a digital SLR camera soon.. The point and shoot doesn't give too good results boohoo.

When will it be up..
Sigh.. that is the million dollar question...
The moving, new place, new job phew!!!!
But we shall overcome :)

How is my new profile?

Hot ain't it? Lolz

Fry Onions Till Golden brown!

Bachelor Cooking Tip:
In almost every recipe, specially Indian Cooking, You will come across the phrase fry the onions till golden Brown. Frying Onions till golden brown is a very delicate affair. It is hard to say, fry for 4-5 minutes either since I don't know what kind of flame you are using. I don't even know what kind of Cooking vessel you are using. In a thin frying pan, frying till golden is difficult and the onions just tend to get burned. Thick bottom pans are very recipe friendly, and cast iron ones are the best. The picture above is Think Aluminium Kadhai or Wok and it is also very Indian recipe friendly.

The picture was taken just before the Onions turned golden brown. Even if I say fry till golden brown, you need not wait till then. It might just get burned. This is the perfect time when you may add the crushed Ginger-garlic paste and saute before you add masalas or Tomatoes.

The significance of frying till golden brown is that it dries the onion of its sweet juice and gives a slightly seasoned taste to the curry. Burn it, and the curry gets spoiled. That is the secret to Indian cooking.. The perfect timing of frying..

The above picture will launch a thousand Indian Recipes. Good Luck.

Oh, that much onions is enough for 1 kilo meat. For the frying till golden brown, that is. If you want to add more onions, add later when you add the Meat. Add onions later for a nice gravy. Add when the meat is dry, and fry till the onions have turned to gravy.... Enjoy!!

Balayya Again!!

As when I get busy, I bring to you some more entertainment yet again.
I am shifting my home, and will shift city too in a week or two. Broadband has been disconnected.. Will blog now and then, but then I couldn't publish the curry mela this weekend.

But I am damn sure this Balayya Magic will more than make up for it. Very entertaining... Much Fun comes.....

Smoked Beef with Fermented Soya Beans!

This is Smoked Beef Stewed in fermented Soya Beans. A Naga (People of Nagaland) Delicacy, this authentic Naga recipe is right from the Kitchen of a Naga friend who is also an excellent bachelor Cook. Fermented Soya beans or Akhuni in nagaland, Hawaizaar in Manipur and Turumbai in Meghalaya is a part of the North eastern cuisine. Very pungent, you need to acquire the taste before you can actually enjoy this dish, but once you have gotten used to it, there will be no stopping you huh!