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Dahi Baray and batch freezing

March 19, 2020

IF you are brown, I don’t need to explain Meethe Dahi baray to you. But on the off chance you are not, these are lentil fritters in a sweet and spicy yogurt sauce, topped off with the iconic Dahi bara Masala. They are super soft, delicious AND filling! And pretty much one of THE most popular street foods in India and Pakistan

I love making dahi barays as much as I love to freeze them! I always have them in a ziplock back in my freezer right before Ramadan and Life can’t get easier than that! Bonus, also used in mix chickpea chat!

How to make Dahi baray

Preparing the Lentil Batter

a blue bowl with raw yellow (moong) and white (mash) lentils in it.

Different families have different dal (lentil) ratio to make these dahi barays. I make it mostly out of yellow lentils (moong ki daal) and a little bit of maash dal. A mix of these two dals give a sooper soft dahi bara!

Soak the daal for 4 to 5 hours or overnight. This step is pretty important! Don’t be hasty if you wan’t your dahi baras to come out soft and fluffy.

Soaked moong dal and mash dal with a piece of ginger on top

The soaked lentils will of course, puff up into double the quantity. These lentils go in the blender with a small piece of ginger.

Ginger: These dals are sort of flatulent. The ginger reduces their flatulent qualities so that it doesn’t give you gas.

Blend the lentils in a blender with as little water as possible. Make sure to get a smooth paste like mix.

Seasoning and resting

Pour the batter in a bowl and whisk with a spoon for 2 to 3 mins. It makes the batter airy and light. Add all the seasonings and then cover the mix and set aside.

A plate with all the spices needs to make the dahi bara

This resting period also helps in getting soft and airy lentil fritters.

When you are ready to fry, add baking soda to the batter, right before frying. Don’t let the batter sit for a long time once the baking soda is added.

Tip: Mix Baking soda with a tablespoon of water and THEN add to the batter. This will allow the soda to be mixed well in the batter.

Frying the Lentil fritters

The shape of the dahi baray are a personal choice. You can either go for a more ball shaped dahi baray or flat disc like ones. The only difference between them is the way you fry them.

Shallow frying fritters – Gives you flat disc shaped dahi baray
Deep frying fritters – Gives you round thicker dahi baray
Air frying or baking – Flat disc shaped dahi baray.

I prefer shallow frying because obviously its the healthier choice, I can control how much oil I want to use. But also, generally in my family everybody prefers these as well. So win win!

Use a tablespoon to drop spoonful of batter into the pan and spread it out to form circles. Make sure your oil is at medium flame and hot already when you add the batter.

TIP: Always add fritters to oil once the oil is already hot so that the fritters don’t absorb a lot of oil.

When the fritter turn golden brown on one side, flip them over. Don’t overcrowd the pan when the batter is raw, the fritters will stick to each other. Once they are cooked on one side, then you can add more to the pan.

soe golden brown and some raw lentil fritters being shallow fried in a pan

Fry all the fritters and set it aside. If you are going to make them right away, then dip them in water. And then directly in the yogurt sauce.

a stack of freshly fried dahi baras in a plate

If you are making these ahead of time, then wait for the fritters to cool down and then put it in a zip lock bag and freeze. DON’T dip in water.

Making the yogurt sauce.

The yogurt sauce is basically just salt, sugar, water, yogurt and dahi bara masala. You can skip the dahi bara masala in the yogurt if you want but you would still definitely need some to sprinkle on top.

Don’t worry if it looks to watery. After you add the fritters, the fritters soak up a significant amount of the mix and your yogurt with thicken up again. If you start with a thick yogurt, it’ll almost dry up after the fritters are added to it.

For fresh dahi barays, that are already dipped in water, just dip them in the yogurt directly and refrigerate.

For the frozen batch, you’ll need to boil the fritters in water. No need to thaw or anything, just put them directly in the boiling water for 3 to 4 mins. Gentle pick each fritter up and dip them in the yogurt sauce. Refrigerate!

Refrigeration is important to allow the dahi baras to soak up all the yogurt and thicken it.

a size comparison between a fried dahi bara and a dahi bara soaked in yogurt and water — The size difference between a frozen dahi bara and a water soaked and yogurt soaked dahi bara.

Sprinkle the signature dahi bara masala on top, along with chat masala and sweet tamarind chutney and ENJOY!

a plate with dahi bara in yogurt sauce surrounded by spice jars

Alternates, fixes and Remixes

You can make “Namkeen Dahi baray” with the same recipe. Simply skip sugar in the yogurt and increase the salt by 1/4th tsp.
You can also buy pre-made Dahi bara masala. But don’t skip it.
If your yogurt sauce dries too much, add more beaten yogurt on top of the dahi baray.
You can also add more toppings of your choice, like chips, pomegranate seeds and mint leaves.

Related Recipes

Saucy Schezwan Chicken (Szechuan Chicken)

March 12, 2020

This saucy Schezwan Chicken is SPICY and the perfect comfort food to pair with fried rice or chowmein. It’s part of the Sichuan cuisine, (aka Szechwan or Szechuan) which is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan Province. It has bold spicy flavors that come from garlic, chilies and Sichuan peppers.

But no matter how you spell it, its spicy and delicious, which is all that matters honestly! And also comes together in less than 30 mins! win win! I love making this saucy Chicken alongside with some dry Chinese sides like dragon chicken or good old Dynamite Shrimps and a hearty Asian salad, when I feel like cooking a feast for the family. This recipe is spicier than its more humble competition, the chicken shashlik dry.

a pot of chicken sichuan with some rice and chopsticks on the side

How to make Saucy Schezwan Chicken

1. Start with the Curry base

First step is to create a nice aromatic curry base. I used minced garlic, shallots and whole red chilies in oil to create this base.

garlic, red chilies and shallots being fried in oil in a wok with a wooden spoon in it

SUBSTITUTIONS

You can also use chili oil to further enhance that chili flavor in the curry.
For the dried red chili you can use the round ones or long ones.
And if you have some Sichuan peppercorns at hand, throw a few in. (but let’s be honest, we usually don’t)

I like to take the garlic and onions to a nice golden color before adding chicken. It just adds so much more depth in flavor. Make sure to turn the heat to a slightly higher temperature when the chicken is added.

raw boneless chicken cubes tossed in a wok with oil and fried garlic and shallots, with a wooden spoon placed on top of it

2. Then add the Schezwan sauce.

This recipe requires Schezwan sauce as the name itself suggests. You can make the Schezwan sauce at home, or buy it at your local grocery store. Just make sure, the one you buy is made of chilies, garlic and Sichuan peppercorns.

stir frying chicken in schezwan sauce and garlic and oil with a wooden spoon in a wok

3. Season the curry with other sauces and spices.

I added all the sauces, sugar and salt, and kept sauteing the chicken in it. The last addition was of ketchup. Again, I like to use ketchup because of it underlying sweet flavor. But you can substitute with tomato paste as well.

top view of chicken being stir fried in Chinese sauces

chicken cubes being sauteed in a wok with spicy Chinese sauces

4. Adding bell pepper and corn-flour

Next comes red bell peppers. I personally prefer using the red ones because of how they taste (slightly sweet than green). They compliment the dish perfectly, taste wise and color wise. But you can of course substitute with any bell pepper you have at hand or skip it altogether.

add red bell peppers cubes into chicken schezwan

adding water and cornflour in the schezwan chicken curry

After stir frying the bell peppers for 2 mins, add water and cornflour and let it simmer till the corn flour cooks. And viola! Garnish with white or black sesame seeds. Serve it with fried rice or Chow mein.

a side view of szechuan chicken gravy with white rice

Alternates, Fixes and Remixes

You can make the same recipe with beef steak strips, and boneless fish as well.
If you are somebody who likes to have vegetarian days in the week, you can use cauliflower to make a vegetarian Schezwan recreation.
This recipe definitely is on the spicier side, if its turns out too spicy for you, just add a tbsp of brown sugar and ketchup to balance the spice out.
Feel free to add more veggies like square cut onions, or carrots etc.

Schezwan Sauce

March 12, 2020

Schezwan sauce is one of the popular condiments coming from the land of Sichuan in China. Sichuan Cuisine is known for its characterstic bold garlicky and chili flavors. This sauce is made primarly of those 2 ingredients. It is also called as Sichuan or Szechuan sauce. It is very popularly used in Indo-Chinese recipes and is now available pre-made in stores as well.

Where to use Schezwan Sauce?

Sichuan sauce is usually used in Sichuan Cuisine and lots of Indo-Chinese recipes like Schezwan Chicken.
You can mix it with regular ketchup to get chili garlic ketchup (which is very popular back in Pakistan)
You can mix it with Mayo to give you a nice dip.
Use it for chicken and fish marinations.
Add a tablespoon of Schezwan sauce onto your pasta sauce to add a bold flavor.
You can use it directly as a spicy condiment with dumplings or pakoras.

The characteristic feature of Sichuan sauce are the Sichuan peppercorns. They are small and red in color and I usually use about 8 to 10 of them in this sauce. But I didn’t have any at hand when I made this batch. So I skipped it. It has a nice tongue tickling sensation which sets is apart. So I would definitely recommend you to get some. But like you can see, you can still make a kickass Schezwan sauce without it

Making the Schezwan Sauce

Essentially Schezwan sauce is just garlic, oil and chilies. And I believe that’s how it should be. Adding too many extra sauces and spices balances out the sauce and its unique tangy spicy flavor. It is after all a condiment, and condiments aren’t balanced, they are supposed to be loud and bold so that when used in recipes they can add that effect to our dish.

Step 1: Chili Selection

You can use whole round chilies or the dried long ones. Both will give you similar result. The other concern while selecting chilies, are its seeds.

If you want a smooth sauce, you can remove the seeds from the chilies. I personally don’t mind the seeds, and in fact, I think it brings character to the sauce. But the seeds also add to the spiciness of the sauce. You CAN remove the seeds if you want to reduce the overall heat of the sauce.

Step 2: Making the chili paste

Soak the selected red chilies in hot boiling water and cover them. Let them soak until the water comes down to room temperature.

red chilies soaked in hot water in a blue bowl

Discard the water and blend the chilies in a food processor with a little bit of water to give you a smooth paste with seed bits in it.

DISCLAIMER: Please! I beg you! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT touch your eyes or face during this process. 🙁 Don’t ask.

Step 3: Making the sauce.

To make the sauce, put oil in a pan or a wok. You can use Chili oil too if you want to boost the chili flavor.

So Schezwan sauce, in general, has a lot of garlic in it. I’ve added 1 whole garlic pod for this recipe. They are finely chopped.

Tip: When you finely chop the garlic, make sure they are as even as possible, so that they brown evenly.

Wait until all the garlic turns a nice golden brown color. Then add your chili paste in.

garlic and red chili paste in oil in a black wok

Cook it with a little bit of water to get the rawness out of the chilies. Add a little bit of salt for seasoning. I’ve also added a little bit of brown sugar and vinegar in the mix to act as preservatives.

Cook for 2 to 3 mins and turn off the flame. Cover the sauce and let it cool down. Once it cools down, you can fill it up in an airtight jar and refrigerate.

How long can it last?

The sauce has a couple of preservatives in it. So if kept at a stable temperature in the fridge, it can survive for 2 to 3 months. If you freeze the sauce, it can survive indefinitely.

Shezwan Sauce

An Indo-Chinese spicy dried red chili condiment.

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin

Course: Dips & Condiments

Cuisine: Chinese/Indo Chinese

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 10

Additional Time: 20

Total Time: 35

Servings: 2 cups

Calories: 397kcal

Author: Wajiha

Ingredients

Instructions

Soak whole red chilies in boiling hot water. Let it sit till the water comes down to room temperature.
Grind the red chilies in food process to make a paste. (with roughly 3/4 cup of water)
In a pan, add oil and chopped garlic at medium flame.
When the garlic turns golden brown, add the chili paste and water.
Add all the other ingredients and let it cook for 2 to 3 mins.
Turn of the flame and fill it up in a jar.
Use in recipes as a condiment or as marinades.

Notes

This condiment is too spicy to be used as a dip on its own. You can mix it with mayo or ketchup to create spicy dips.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 397kcalCarbohydrates: 37gProtein: 4gFat: 29gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 25gSodium: 2000mgFiber: 3gSugar: 26g

Can’t wait to see your remakes! Tag meon IG with your pictures @butteroverbae

Chicken Tikka Biryani

March 5, 2020

If you are here, I am assuming you already know what Biryani is. Chicken Tikka Biryani is one of my Favorite Biryani fusions! An amalgamation of 2 of the most favorite Desi food, Chicken tikka and biryani…together makes this delectable spicy (chatpati) biryani.

If you are kinky for biryani like me, I also have a quick biryani recipe on the blog. If you are making this recipe for the first time, I will request you to make it as closely as you can, with minimum substitutions.

Let’s see how all of it comes together.

Layers of this Biryani

This biryani, like any other biryani has the following components that makes up each layer:

Marinated baked/grilled chicken tikka
A Tikka curry/Qorma base
The parboiled basmati rice
The garnish and color layer

Making Chicken Tikka

This recipe calls for marinating chicken pieces in Tikka spice mix. I used my homemade tikka spice mix to marinate the chicken. But if you have a packet Tikka mix lying around, you can use that as well. Use the whole packet along with any extra ingredients the packet calls for. You can leave the chicken to marinate for anywhere between 2 to 8 hours.

Chicken pieces marinated in tikka masala in a white bowl — Marinated Chicken in Tikka Masala

You can also smoke the chicken with a piece of coal at this point or do it later while baking.

There are two ways in which you can cook this marinated chicken. You can chose whichever one you prefer:

Method #1 – Baking the chicken

If you opt for this, all you have to do, is simply:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, grease it,
Place your chicken pieces, spray on top of the chicken
And bake, ending with the gas griller for the char.

This method is great if you are trying to watch your calories, plus also it’ll save you time. Your chicken can be baking in the oven and you can be working on the qorma on stove simultaneously. And be done with both at once.

Method #2 – Pan frying or grilling the chicken

If you don’t have a gas oven or don’t feel like heating it up, you can always opt for the old school way of pan frying the chicken or grilling it. But the chicken sometimes doesn’t cook all the way through this way, so you’ll have to toss it in the qorma to cook for 10 mins as well.

Make the Tikka Qorma

The masala in this biryani is slightly different to regular biryanis. It is mostly based on onions and yogurt, with only 1 tomato and all ingredients are chosen very deliberately to reach a certain flavor profile.

Add oil in a pot
Add sliced onions
Add mint leaves and green chilies

Fry onions, green chilies and mint leaves
Let it turn crispy golden and remove 1 cup for garnish

Tip: ALWAYS turn off flame right BEFORE you reach the perfect golden color. The oil is pretty hot at this point so if you wait till your onions get to the right color and THEN turn off the flame, it’ll most probably take your onions to a much more dark shade, and possibly burn them.

Once you turn off the flame, remove roughly about a cup of the fried onions to use for garnish later.

Now the pot has roughly about 1 1/2 cup of oil along with the fried onions in it. I strain most of the oil out, leaving roughly 4 to 6 tbsp behind. Any qorma only needs enough oil to brown the onions. If that’s done, you don’t need anymore. If you’ve fried your onions at the right temperature, you will notice that MOST of the oil is out, almost as much as you had put in.

Adding Spices

Once you’ve removed all the oil, add 1/2 cup of water and turn the flame back on again. Now we are going to add allllll the spices, garlic ginger paste, salt and chopped tomatoes.

ingredients to make tikka qorma in a pot

At this point, show some saute action (aka Bhunna). Saute at medium flame long enough to see oil separate on the side. This step helps in tempering the spices.

Go ahead and add another 1/2 cup of water, beaten yogurt and food color. Mix well and cover the lid for 10 mins at medium flame. When you see slight oil seperation on the sides, use a hand blender/immersion blender to blend the Qorma. This step will give you a more smooth mix and is a very common technique used by lots of Biryani places in Pakistan.

After the immersion blender, give it another 3 mins for the oil to come up again. Once it does, turn off the flame. Your qorma base is ready.

NOTE: If you opted for pan frying the chicken instead of baking it, add it in the qorma masala when you add in the yogurt to let the chicken cook for 10 mins as well

Soaking and Boiling the Rice

Whole spices
Soaked rice
Boiling rice

For any biryani use long grain aged Basmati rice. They hold their shape well and don’t mush together.
I soak rice for about 20 to 30 mins (which is the standard time for most rice brands)
While boiling rice, chuck in some whole spices, salt, vinegar and kewra water as well. The vinegar helps the rice to have a really nice vibrant white color and stabilizes its shape too.
Par-boil the rice for roughly 5 mins. Check a grain to see if it breaks in the center with your hands easily. That’s your cue to drain the water from the rice and set aside.

Garnish for the Biryani

After your tikka, qorma, and rice are ready, lets look into the garnish. The garnish I’ve selected for this biryani are things that compliment the Tikka flavor profile. This particular biryani uses:

Fresh mint leaves
1 cup Fried onions (kept aside while making qorma)
Lemon slices and lemon juice- To add a little sourness
A zesty yellow food color mixed with milk. The yellow color compliments the reddish orange hue of the Tikka and Qorma, which is why we opted for this instead of the standard orange color for biryani.
You can also add a few drop of biryani essence in the color (optional)

Layering the Biryani

My biryani layering sequence looks something like this:

First a layer of 1/3 of the rice.
Then goes in the garnish
Next is a layer of 1/2 of the chicken pieces
I also sprinkle some freshly squeezed lemon juice on the chicken pieces.
Then 1/2 of the qorma masala on top of it.
Repeat once more.
Top layer with rice, garnish and food color in it.

Rice layer
garnish and chicken layer
Qorma layer
Top view of the biryani layers.

Cover the pot with a layer of aluminum foil and then place your lid on top of it. This helps in sealing in the steam that builds up in the pot.

Place a griddle or tava below the pot on the flame. Standard biryani cooking time is 8 mins on medium high flame and another 10 mins on medium low flame.

Tip: Always use a pot size (pateeli) that can hold all your rice and chicken and still has about 1/4 empty space. This helps in mixing the biryani and also creates better steam cooking environment.

You can lift the lid slightly to check if you see any steam build up in the pot, this will ensure that your biryani is cooked. Ideally, let your biryani rest for another 10 mins before dishing it out.

Alternates, Fixes and Remixes

How to make biryani less spicy?

This biryani is definitely spicy! “chatpati” in Pakistani terms. If you can’t handle spicy food, you can reduce the level of green chilies in the qorma by half and reduce the red chili powder by half as well.
Note: The green chilies I use were medium hot, so if the green chilies you are using are very high in heat, (usually the really small green ones are hottest) then you need to reduce them by half anyways.

What to do with the left over oil?

The oil that’s left over from frying the onions, chilies and mint leaves is going to be super aromatic and infused with great flavor. You can use this oil practically in all kinds of savory cooking, greasing, frying etc.

What if I want to add potatoes?

Potatoes have a tendency to absorb spices and salt from gravies. If you plan to add potatoes in this recipe, you will have to increase both salt and spice, plus add a tomato as well. You will also have to add another 250 gm of rice to incorporate the added potato.

side of chicken tikka biryani in a black plate

Gold-coin Recipe with less oil (Potato and bread snacks)

February 26, 2020

If you are wondering why this recipe is called the “gold coin recipe”, let me tell you why.

This is a Pakistani/Indian potato and bread snack which was originally made by cutting bread into circles with a cutter, which was then slathered with a spicy potato filling, and deep fried! It looked like tiny circles of gold, and hence some one decided to call it just that!

Gold coins is something that we have been eating since I was a kid and I first saw Naheed Ansari make it on a random cooking show. If you don’t know Naheed Ansari, she is a renowned Pakistani chef/DIY expert who has some kickass dishes to her name. Originally this snack was deep fried but honestly since it has bread, the amount of oil it absorbs is INSANE! So quite recently I have altered the recipe quite a bit, to my liking and it still tastes amazing!

Also, whenever I host dinners or brunches or Iftars etc, I always like to have at-least ONE potato based side. Because lets face it, potatoes are loved by All and they are super budget friendly too! Some of my all time favorite potato based sides are:

Of-course this bread snack!
Fried potato cakes with spinach and cheese
Desi batata hara
Potato veggie sticks.

a close up of pan fried potato bread snack squares or gold coin in a grey plate with ketchup on the side

Steps to make gold coin aka Potato bread snack

So this snack has 3 main components,

A potato filling
A bread base
An egg coat with sesame seeds and coriander

Making the potato Filling

Step 1: Boiling Vegetables

First up, you boil some potatoes and vegetables of your liking in water with a little bit of salt added to it. I used the frozen vegetable mix which has corns, peas, some beans and carrots. Plus the size of the cubes that the frozen veggies have is ideal for this snack. So that’s another bonus. Personally, peas, carrots and corns go perfect with this recipe. You are welcome to try any veggie mix that you like, just make sure its low on water content.

NOTE: Veggies like onions and tomatoes are a big no no for this recipe because they will leach water when frozen.

Medium whole Potatoes take roughly somewhere between 20 to 30 mins to boil all the way through. So rather than using a different pot for my other veggies, I just throw them in the same pot in the last 10 mins of the potato boil. (smart eh?)

potatoes and mixed vegetables submerged in salt water to boil

Once your potatoes and veggies are boiled, drain them immediately. Don’t let them sit in the water to cool down. Let the veggies and potato air dry. This will cause all the extra moisture to evaporate and give you a nice dry filling.

Step 2: Making the filling

So eventually when the potatoes have cooled down, peal them and mash them in a bowl.

mashed potato in a white bowl with a fork in it

The potato filling has the following components that you are going to chuck in 1 by 1:

Shredded chicken
Boiled vegetables
Boiled potatoes
Spices
Cheese (optional)

I used some left over chicken from my Chicken salan I made the other day. I washed it, shredded it and used it. But you can make a fresh batch of chicken to use for this recipe. A simple salt, pepper and garlic in water should be enough seasoning for the chicken. Feel free to skip the chicken altogether if you are in the mood of making a Vegetarian Appetizer.

shredded chicken and mashed potato in a white bowl

I KNOW this recipe is kid friendly, but I made it spicy anyways! lol sorry! ok go light on the chili flakes if you are spice sensitive or making it for kids.

spices, shredded chicken and mashed potato in a white bowl

The boiled vegetables are generally very tender, so I tend to mix the spices with chicken and potatoes first and then add vegetables later.

mixed mashed potato filling in a white bowl

Lastly, I added boiled veggies and cheese. Honestly the flavor of the mozzarella cheese didn’t really come through and it kinda got lost almost. I would suggest to use a stronger cheese like emmental if you do plan on using it, or just skip it altogether.

Assembling filling and bread

Like I mentioned earlier, this recipe originally had bread cut in circles and then filled. Me being me (aka lazy), I simply cut the bread into 4 squares and used that instead.

To assemble, take a tablespoon of the filling and put it on the bread square and press it down evenly with your fingers. That’s pretty much it! And don’t worry, it WILL stick to the bread and won’t fall off. This quantity of filling gave me about 8 slices of bread cut in 4s so that 32 pieces.

potato and bread squares laid out to showcase how many there are to make the gold coin recipe

Egg wash and pan frying

Once you are done with the assembling, move on to the final step. Egg coating and frying. Traditionally this recipe calls for deep frying the potato bread duo. But dude!!! the bread literally soaks up so much oil its insane!! and too heavy to eat honestly! I tried alternate cooking methods to make this and guess what! literally ALL OF them work! With no compromise on taste whatsoever

Pan frying (with 2 3 tbsp of oil)
Air frying
Baking – at 200 C or 400 F. Takes about 20 mins.

I added salt and pepper to the egg wash for some added taste and a little water to thin it out since the bread absorbs the egg wash too much.

Tip: Just dip the bread in egg-wash, flip over and remove. Don’t let the bread sit in the egg-wash as it’ll soak up a lot of egg mix and you’ll have to use up more eggs.

Put a frying pan on medium heat with a little bit of oil (about 3 to 4 tbsp). And start placing your bread face up on it. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and chopped coriander on the top while its still raw.

Let the bread cook for roughly 5 mins or until its nice golden brown from the bottom. Flip it over and cook for another 6 to 7 mins. You don’t need to add any extra oil when you flip your bread over.

flipped over golden brown gold coins bread and potato snack in a black frying pan

Serve hot with a nice side of ketchup, or green chutney or mayo!

a top view of the gold coin aka potato and bread snack square on a grey plate with ketchup on the side

Gold coin recipe – Alternate, Fixes and remixes

Of course you can remix this recipe anyway you want! Its essentially just bread with potato toppings. So by all means feel free to play around with the veggies you use and the spices you put in.
You can double the quantity of chicken if you want more in your appetizer.
You can bake, air fry or deep fry these gold coins.
Try different shapes and sizes to give it a fun spin.
Reduce the chili level to make it more kid-friendly
Sneak in some veggies that your kids don’t eat otherwise.
If you have accidentally added too much salt in the filling, skip the salt in the egg-wash.

Preparing gold coins in advance

You can make assemble these gold coins a day before and keep in the fridge. Do the egg wash when you are ready to eat.
You can make these delicious appetizers way before you need to use them. Assemble the potato filling with bread and lay them out on a tray. Put the tray in the freezer and freeze for about 1 hour. Once you have solid frozen squares, transfer them into a zip-lock bag and toss them back in the freezer. Whenever you want to make some, take them out, do the egg wash and pan fry. No need to thaw them in advance. They can survive in the freezer for up to 50 days

Low Oil Gold Coin Recipe (Potato and Bread snack squares)

Spinach and Berry Salad with Strawberry vinaigrette

February 20, 2020

Not a very salad savy person, but I do like the occasional fancy looking salads, like this Spinach and Strawberry salad, that goes like a dream with a strawberry vinaigrette.

I originally made this salad so I could finally have some variation to serve on dinner parties, other than the more popular pasta salad and sweet cashew salad that I regularly make. But I now think, this is going into the list of “strawberry season must-make recipes”. The ingredients are very simple and if you like berries and greens, this is the salad for you.

Bonus: This salad has a nice sweet and tangy Salad dressing made with strawberries that just adds that extra oomph.

Making the strawberry Vinaigrette

This strawberry vinaigrette is literally the show stealer. The bright pink color, and a sweet tangy flavor makes it stand apart from regular dressings

strawberry vinaigrette ready in a glass jar.

The dressing has strawberries in it, other than oil, vinegar, honey and seasoning. You can use frozen or fresh strawberries for this mix. Simply chuck all the ingredients in a blender and blend away. Or you could even use an immersion blender to get the job done. Once you get a nice smooth mix, you know its done.

ingredients for the strawberry vinaigrette — Ingredients for strawberry vinaigrette

How to store and use the strawberry vinaigrette?

Make the vinaigrette and store separately. Use it on the salad when you are ready to eat. This dressing can last for up-to 3 days in the fridge, if you make excess. Keep in a container with lid.

Other salad dressing options:

You can use the same recipe and use raspberries instead of strawberries.
You can also do a basic vinaigrette to go with this salad, with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and honey.
You can simply chose to season the salad with lemon, salt and pepper.

Ingredients for the Green berry Salad

top view of all the ingredients needed to make the spinach and strawberry salad — Ingredients for assembling the salad

All the ingredients you need to whip up this salad are neatly laid out in the picture above. There’s some spinach, blueberry and strawberries, almonds, feta cheese and of course, the strawberry vinaigrette.

Ingredient Alternatives

Spinach – If you aren’t fond of spinach or don’t have any at hand, you can use arugula or rocket leaves as well!

Feta cheese – Feta cheese is a personal preference, having been born and raised in the Middle East. But you can also use goat cheese instead of Feta

Berries – This salad is essentially based on strawberries, so of course that isn’t substitute-able. But you can add black berries or raspberries in the mix.

Nuts – I went with almonds for this particular recipe. But be creative and add any nuts of your liking, like walnuts, pecan or cashew. Or skip nuts altogether!

How to keep your greens fresh

Greens that are consumed raw need to be fresh and crunchy when you eat them. Best way to keep your greens looking fresh, is washing them by ice cold water.

Fill a large bowl with ice cold water and dip your spinach or arugula or any other greens in it. Making sure that they are fully submerged. Let the leaves sit in for 5 mins. Slowly start removing the leaves from the top, trying not to disturb the water a lot. You will see a layer of dirt collected at the bottom of your bowl. You can rinse these leaves once more with cold water and they are good to go!

Assembling the Spinach and Berry Salad

leafy greens (spinach) in a white bowl against a wooden backdrop — **Start by layering spinach leaves on the bottom of the bowl**

spinach and blueberry tossed in a bowl to make the spinach and berry salad — **Toss in a few blueberries on it**

sliced strawberries, blueberries and spinach tossed in a white plate on a wooden board — **Add in sliced strawberries in the mix**

Assembliing the strawberry salad by sprinkling crumbled feta cheese — **Crumble feta cheese on top of the salad.**

You can stop right here and refrigerate the salad if you are going to have it later. If you are going to have it right away, then top it with some almonds and drizzle that rich strawberry vinaggraite and dig right in.

Make it a meal.

This salad is already packed with nutrients and is super filling. But you can also turn it into a full fledged meal with a piece of grilled fish or chicken right on top of it, (marinated with some basic salt, pepper, lemon and garlic).

Add some pita chips to add some crunch and carbs to the meal.

How to store it?

You can store the salad in any container with lid, for up to 3 days as long as you haven’t poured in the vinaigrette.

More Recipes on the Blog

Here are more nutritious recipes for you to try:

Pakistani Karhayi Prawns (Prawn masala)

February 10, 2020

Whats in the name of a dish? Asks this spicy prawn masala to you? Well, there’s enough to create confusion. While this recipe is known as Prawn masala to the rest of the world, it is called Karhayi Prawns to us Pakistanis. Although “karhayi” is a type of wok in which something is cooked, but it is also a style of cooking.

Since most of the world identifies to ALL South Asian food as Indian, you’ve also probably heard of Prawn masala too. But never of Karahi Prawns.

Whether you call it prawn masala or Karhai Prawns is really your call, but whats more important is, that whatever you decide to call it, its still gonna be sitting there tasting DELICIOUSLY AWESOME! This recipe is uses most easily available eastern spices at home, a tomato yogurt based gravy and some nice prawns to go with. It is garnished like the regular chicken karhayi, with lots of whole green chilies and julienne cut ginger on top of it. And some cilantro because we put cilantro aka coriander on everything!

I was personally more of a Dynamite shrimps kinda girl, but this karahi has changed that part of me! And if you are a ONLY fried fish, and fried sea food kinda person, trust me , you need to give this a shot!

a side view of the prawn masala garnished with green chili and sliced ginger in a black wok against a light blue backdrop

Step by Step walk through of preparing the Prawn Masala aka Karhayi Prawns

Selecting and preparing the prawns/shrimps

You can select any size of prawns or shrimps to create this recipe. The cooking time will change slightly with the type of prawns you chose, that’s pretty much about it. Ideally, medium sized prawns/shrimps would work best with this recipe.

We are going to start with cleaning, de-veining and removing the tails of the shrimps/prawns. This crucial step is pretty time consuming. Move on to marination after you get this done. (or you know you could just buy the pre-cleaned and de-veined ones) Here’s a quick video to help you clean the prawns

Marinating prawns/shrimps

The marination is very simple, just some salt and turmeric. You can add garlic too if you are a garlic crazy person like me.

Note: The turmeric cancels out the pinkness of the prawns. The pink prawns looks quite appetizing in Western/Thai food etc, it looks off in a desi style gravy. You can apply this li’l hack to any South Asian recipe that uses prawns in them

shrimps marinated in turmeric and salt for prawn masala

You can marinate the prawns and keep them in the fridge for a while if you want to. Although I just simply marinate and cook immediately.

Cooking the prawns

Prawns, in general, cook very quickly and can easily go from just perfect to overdone in a matter of seconds. So cooking prawns perfectly is always key while making prawn recipes, especially for Pakistani or Indian food where cooking times are longer.

The prawns in this recipe are cooked in 2 parts. The first part of cooking happens right after they are marinated, and the 2nd part happens when they are added to the gravy. So you want to make sure that they aren’t over cooked.

Ideal prawn cooking times

For small prawns or shrimps is 3 to 4 mins,
Larger prawns or shrimps it is about 5 to 7 mins
Jumbo prawns it is 7 to 8 mins.

raw prawns in a black pan with butter for making prawn masala

In the first part of cooking, we are only going to grill or fry the prawns for 1 to 2 mins in butter at high flame. Just to get rid of the smell and water that it might leach out. Its ok if you don’t dry it out the water completely. Just remove the prawns from heat within 2 mins. The remaining cooking of the prawns will complete in the gravy.

Set the grilled prawns aside and lets move on to our masala base.

Preparing the Prawn masala base

The masala base for this prawn karhayi is pretty basic. Its a tomato based gravy so it has lots of tomatoes and very little onion, and some yogurt in the end.

raw and chopped: tomatoes, garlic, green chilies, onions displayed out for prawn masala

Start off by adding ghee or butter in a wok. Add finely chopped garlic, onion and green chilies.

Note: Skip the green chilies in this step if you can’t tolerate spicy food.

chopped garlic, onion and green chilies frying in oil for prawn masala base

golden brown fried onions, garlic and ginger for prawn masala

The trio mixture is going to turn a golden brown color in about 4 to 5 mins. Once it gets there, we are going to chuck in our chopped tomatoes and spices with a little splash of water.

Tip: You can use canned tomatoes if you dont want to use whole ones.

Cover the wok and let the tomatoes simmer at low flame. Its important to keep the temperature low, as the salt will allow the tomatoes to soften up and disintegrate to form a smooth gravy base.

diced tomatoes and spices in a black wok

tomato curry base recipe for prawn masala

It may take longer than 15 mins for different varities of tomatoes. If after 20 mins, your tomatoes still seem a lil chunky, you can just put in an immersion blender/hand blender through the gravy to get to the smooth consistency.

Then we are going to add in our beaten yogurt, 3 whole green chilies and some garam masala powder. Mix it well and cover the wok with a lid for 5 mins.

raw yogurt added in prawn masala based with green chilies and spice.

prawn masala base being mixed with a wooden spoon in a black wok

Remove the lid, toss in the prawns and cover the lid. After covering the lid, the cooking time will depend on which type of prawns you are cooking with.

Small prawns – Cook for another 2 to 3 mins max
Larger prawns – Cook for another 3 to 4 mins max
Jumbo prawns – Cook for another 5 to 6 mins max

prawn masala in a black wok ready to be eaten

Usually with Pakistani or Indian curries and gravies, the sign of a properly cooked gravy is that the oil seperates from the gravy and comes on top. But since this one is made in ghee, you won’t see a lot of fat on top, just ever so slightly on the sides. Sprinkle some green chilies, ginger slits and chopped coriander on top of the prawn masala. The final touch is going to be some sprinkled chat masala.

prawn masala in a black wok, garnished with green chilies and sliced ginger placed on a skyblue backdrop

Serve with hot naan, chapati, roti, paratha or plain old zeera pulao rice.

Alternates, fixes and Remixes

You can used canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones.
You can use oil instead of ghee or butter if you prefer.

If your gravy turns out too spicy for you, add another 2 tbsp of yogurt and 1/2 tsp of brown sugar. That should balance out the spice.
If your dish is ready and you still want it to be more spicy, add crushed red chili pepper on top.
Sometimes the tomatoes that we are using may not be ripe or may not have that brilliant red color, which can effect the over all color of the gravy. You can use about 2 tsp of extra tomato paste if you feel like your gravy lacks that nice red luster.

How long can it survive?

You can keep it in the fridge for upto 4 days, provided that you reheat them at least once in between.

If your prawns weren’t frozen before, you can freeze this. Re-freezing prawns isn’t a good idea. Although if you do decide to freeze it, do it as soon as it is cooked and cooled down and don’t let it sit in the fridge. Consume within 3 months.

What can I do with left overs?

Layer with boiled rice, some food color and fried onions to make a quick prawn biryani ( you will have to add a bit more salt to the gravy to make this)
Toss in some boiled spaghetti to make a fusion style – prawn spaghetti. Top it off with Parmesan cheese.

More Related Recipes

Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!

Sweet and Creamy Pasta Salad

February 4, 2020

An easy sweet and creamy pasta salad recipe is ALL you need to make your party menu go from average to Wow! This deliiiiicious pasta salad comes together using fresh bell peppers, apples, and corns tossed with some good old fashion macaroni in a sweet and tangy dressing, ready in less than 20 mins!

I usually think of this macaroni salad as a side to most of my elaborate dinner parties (its crazy how well this complements Biryani btw!) but sometimes they can be a side for dinner too! Here’s some quick Protein options you can pair this pasta salad with:

Whatever you decide to pair it with, its going to be a hit! Oh and btw, if you are specifically looking for a sweet tangy salad recipe, this Cashew salad is also a perfect option for that.

How long can it last in the fridge?

This recipe has sugar and vinegar both, which act as preservatives. So even though, this salad has apples and fresh bell peppers in it, you can easily keep in it in the fridge for about 4 days and consume it within that time, without it going bad, or your apples turning brown.
You can also freeze any left over salad dressing to use later.

Simple Steps to make this Creamy Pasta Salad

a close up view of a bowl of boiled macaroni or pasta

So I used the smaller macaronis for this recipe just because it looks pretty with the finely cut veggies with it. You can of course use the bigger ones if you have those, or the sea-shells one

We are going to start by boiling our pasta in hot water with a little bit of salt. This pasta is not going to be cooked later on, so you wanna make sure that you have a fully cooked pasta when you are done boiling it (rather than the regular al-dente pasta)

We don’t need the pasta water for this recipe either, so you can strain all the pasta water and wash the pasta in cold water. Also, all pastas absorb water/sauce as they cool down. Here’s a little tip that I like to follow for pasta salad.

TIP: Add a cup of chilled milk to the pasta, toss it around and keep in the fridge. This way, the pasta expands a little in the fridge, absorbs the milk and doesn’t absorb the dressing later on.

a cup of milk shown above a bowl of boiled macaroni

If you want to have it right away, keep the pasta in the freezer while you prepare the veggies and dressing. Or if you are going to consume it later in the day or the next day, you can easily leave it in the fridge. Let it chill in the fridge, while we prep our veggies.

TIP: If you are preparing this pasta salad for an event your hosting, you can easily prepare this a day in advance.

The vegetables

The veggie selection for this pasta has been made to compliment the dressing. I used green, red and yellow bell peppers, apple and corn. Yellow bell peppers are sweet, so they, along with apples add a really nice sweet crunch to the pasta. Green bell peppers and corns are neutral and add that color and crunch to the dish. Didn’t have any corn on me when I made this, but dudeee its goes soo well with this recipe! You can ofcourse experiment and add any other veggies that you’d like to.

The salad dressing

The first time I made this salad, it had lots of mayo, and basically nothing else. But over the years, I started swapping yogurt and cream for the majority of the mayo and it tastes EXACTLY the same! So I have stuck by it! Add all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk. You can adjust your seasoning later as well.

salad dressing for the creamy pasta salad ready in a glass bowl over a blue napkin

Next, simply dump in all the salad ingredients in the dressing. Macaroni, chopped bell peppers and apple. Mix it well and viola! its ready!

Alternatively, you can also mix all the pasta salad ingredients in another bowl and add the salad dressing later. This will give you more control over how much dressing you want.

Fix your seasoning now and ideally, let it chill in the fridge for half an hour before serving. (or you know…ignore what I said and dig right in.)

vegetable sweet and creamy pasta salad ready in 2 plates with one plate shown closer to the camera, and 2 forks lying around on the left side of the frame. the background is blue.

Alternates, fixes and remixes

Healthier Substitutions

If you don’t want to use mayo or cream, simply swap them for more yogurt.
You can substitute sugar with honey.
You can also use whole wheat pasta instead of regular ones.
Go for nut milks in place of regular milk.

Fixes and Remixes of the Pasta salad

If your pasta dries out the next day, add a little bit of milk to bring it back to a creamier consistency.
Add more vinegar to make it more tart.
Go with your gut and add veggies that you think you’d like in this recipe. Ice berg lettuce, peas and carrots would work really well with this pasta.
Make it spicier by adding crushed red chili or hot sauce in the mix.
Add shredded chicken to add a bit of protein in the mix.
Grill a piece of chicken or beef and serve as a full meal.
Mix all the salad ingredients and reserve the salad dressing to drizzle on top of the pasta to control the level of dressing you want.

Sweet & Creamy Pasta Salad Recipe

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How to make Dahi baray

Preparing the Lentil Batter

Seasoning and resting

Frying the Lentil fritters

Making the yogurt sauce.

Alternates, fixes and Remixes

Related Recipes

Dahi baray Recipe

Ingredients

Dahi baray or the lentil fritters

Yogurt Sauce for meethey dahi baray (sweet) (for a batch of 8 to 10 dahi baray)

Garnish

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

How to make Saucy Schezwan Chicken

1. Start with the Curry base

SUBSTITUTIONS

2. Then add the Schezwan sauce.

3. Season the curry with other sauces and spices.

4. Adding bell pepper and corn-flour

Alternates, Fixes and Remixes

Saucy Shezwan Chicken

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Recipe for Schezwan Sauce

Nutrition

Where to use Schezwan Sauce?

Making the Schezwan Sauce

Step 1: Chili Selection

Step 2: Making the chili paste

Step 3: Making the sauce.

How long can it last?

Shezwan Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

Layers of this Biryani

Making Chicken Tikka

Method #1 – Baking the chicken

Method #2 – Pan frying or grilling the chicken

Make the Tikka Qorma

Adding Spices

Soaking and Boiling the Rice

Garnish for the Biryani

Layering the Biryani

Alternates, Fixes and Remixes

How to make biryani less spicy?

What to do with the left over oil?

What if I want to add potatoes?

Chicken tikka biryani

Ingredients

Chicken Tikka Marination & Qorma

Spices

Rice

Garnish

Instructions

Notes

To make this biryani with potatoes:

Nutrition

Steps to make gold coin aka Potato bread snack

Making the potato Filling

Step 1: Boiling Vegetables

NOTE: Veggies like onions and tomatoes are a big no no for this recipe because they will leach water when frozen.

Step 2: Making the filling

Assembling filling and bread

Egg wash and pan frying

Tip: Just dip the bread in egg-wash, flip over and remove. Don’t let the bread sit in the egg-wash as it’ll soak up a lot of egg mix and you’ll have to use up more eggs.

Gold coin recipe – Alternate, Fixes and remixes

Preparing gold coins in advance

Low Oil Gold Coin Recipe (Potato and Bread snack squares)

Golden coins

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition

Making the strawberry Vinaigrette