Another sling bag

Here's another sling bag I made over the weekend. An 8 x 6 inches bag, just enough to carry a cellphone, a wallet, and some other small things.

Baked Nippattu

Nippattu is a deep fried snack, very popular in South India. We all love nippattu, have made it a couple of times in the traditional way, but it is always so oily; so I was searching for recipes online but all of them included onion and maida. I did not want any with onion (especially with the high price of onions now) nor with maida as it is not healthy. I wanted to make it as healthy as possible as my husband loves snacks like these. So instead of stopping him from eating them, I prefer to make the snacks healthier so that he can enjoy these snacks with me worrying about the calories ( no, my husband does not believe in worrying about calories at all). So I decided to try something on my own. I tweaked a recipe which I had used earlier to make the crackers and the results were great.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Oats flour- 1/2

Wheat flour - 1/2

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp or as per taste

Fresh coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Roasted chana dal/dalia - 1/4 cup

Salt to taste

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Milk to bind the dough

Mix all ingredients together except the milk. Mix well to form crumbs. Then add the milk a little at a time. You may also add water if you want to bind the mixture together and form a smooth dough. Add a few drops of oil on the dough surface and knead a little more. Make small balls of the dough. Keep the balls please two baking sheets and press down to make flat discs. Bake these discs at 180 degree C for 12-15 minutes or until crisp and slightly brown at the edges. Cool and store in an air-tight container.

A hot pad and a sling purse

This is a starburst hot pad. I have used two yarns for this, both acrylic. One is a plain lavender colour. The other is a variegated yarn.

 This is a sling purse as wanted by a client. It is made using little gems stitch which I have used earlier for a cellphone pouch too.

A closeup of the purse.

Whole wheat baked cracker

My family is very very fond of fried snacks like banana chips, murukku etc. Though I enjoy making them, I  prefer not to make them too often for health reasons.  So my husband would then buy fried stuff from the market which is very tasty but then again not good for health. So I was in search of a recipe for wheat crackers. Since I did not get one recipe which I liked, I decided to just try something on my own. A simple recipe but the end result was greattttttt!!!

Recipe:
Ingredients:  Whole wheat flour - 1 cup.
                         Salt to taste
                         Chilli powder - 1 tbsp (optional)
                         Milk - 1 cup.
                         Kasuri methi - 1 tbsp (optional)
                        Oil - 1/2 tbsp

Sift the wheat flour and salt.  Add the chilli powder and kasuri methi.  Add the milk a little at a time to make a soft dough. Add the oil and knead the dough until it has a smooth surface.  Leave aside for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.  Make lemon sized balls of the dough and roll them out in a thin round. Use biscuit cutters to make the desired shape. Place on  baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees C for 8- 10 minutes or until crisp and slightly brown.

Even plain crackers without using chilli powder or kasuri methi, tastes equally good. You may also add other flavouring agents like Italian herbs or dhania-jeera powder.

A couple of days ago as I was browsing other recipes blogs, I came across www.priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com and she has a similar recipe using oatmeal. I tried that recipe and it turned out great too. In fact it was soo good that I had only four crackers left to click a picture for this post. My husband was ready to pounce on it the minute I finished clicking the picture.  So make sure to make a big batch of these crackers.  

Low oil murg kali miri tikka

Since long I have been wanting to try making tikkas at home. This is my first attempt with chicken and it turned out awesome!!

Ingredients: Boneless chicken 500g diced
                      Pepper - 2 tsp or as per taste, freshly ground.
                     Capsicum - 2 diced                
                     Onion - 1 big
                     Ginger - 1 inch
                     Garlic - 1 pod
                     Green chilli - 2-3
                     Garam masala - 1tsp
                     Hung curd - 2 tbsp
                     cornflour - 1 tbsp
                     Egg - 1
                     Salt to taste
                     Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
                     Oil - 1 tbsp

Heat oil and fry onions until brown. Cool and grind to a fine paste with little water.
Grind together ginger, garlic, and chillies.
Mix the chicken with the onion paste, ginger, garlic and chilli paste, and rest of the ingredients.
Set aside to marinate for 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Arrange chicken and capsicum on  skewers and place on a greased microtawa. Cook in the preheated oven for 12 minutes. Keep rotating the skewers in between.  Do not overcook  chicken as it becomes chewy and dry.  Serve hot with pudina chutney.

Pudina chutney:
Ingredients: Pudina/mint - 1/2 cup
                       Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
                       Green chillies - 2-3
                       Ginger - 1 inch
                       Curd - 2 tbsp
                       Salt to taste.
                       onion - 1 medium

Grind together all the ingredients.

Do make a big batch as this tikka disappears within seconds!!

More bags!

This is a bag as per client's order. She wanted a black and red combo with a single handle long enough to sling it on her shoulder.

This bag is also for the same client. It is a FBB bag with pony beads.

Cellphone pouch with little gems stitch

Using a new technique of crocheting with different colored yarns, I crocheted a new cellphone pouch.

Another Japanese bag

This one is made to order for a client.

A crocheted belt

This time I crocheted something new - a belt!  Frankly, it was not my idea but an idea of a dear friend who has also been a client of mine since nearly two years now. She gave me a lot of business for embroidered kurthis. She is a great fan of handwork and this time she wanted me to crochet a belt for her.  She selected the yarn and beads from my yarn stash and gave me a basic idea as to how she wanted the belt to be. So as per her idea, I made the belt and it turned out very nice - something innovative, something different.

The humble PAV!

If you have lived in India, you would have definitely heard of Pav Bhaji, if not tasted it. If you have lived in Mumbai, you would have definitely enjoyed tucking into a plate of hot Bhaji topped with some melting butter, chopped onions and coriander leaves, accompanied by the slightly toasted humble pav.  Another great snack with this humble pav is the vada pav which is the staple food for many Mumbaites. I have always been intrigued by this Pav or bread, which has a nice crusty surface but so soft and cottony inside. As I was in the mood for some baking yesterday, I was surfing for some easy baking recipes. I chanced upon this website, www.chefinyou.com which had this recipe for dinner rolls or the pav. Immediately I set to work and within a couple of hours, we were tucking into just-out-of-oven pavs and our kitchen was smelling heavenly with the baking aroma.  The pavs were just great!!! I am just an amateur baker, but still the end result was great all thanks to the recipe. Do give it a try.

I halved the pavs and slightly toasted them on a tawa and served them with bhaji this morning. The pavs disappeared in no time!