My dad is a food fanatic. The food he prepares HAS to be right in color, right in texture, right in consistence and not to forget right in taste.
His interest in cooking grew with time and age. He is one of those cooks who tastes a dish and can exactly pin point the masalas used in them and the time it took(!!) Well...phew..
This simple beef kebab recipe that I picked up from him was handed down to him from his mom and my grand mom. As with all family favorites, this ones our family favorite. Birthday, Anniversaries, Festivals or be it any rainy or sunny day - we loved it. He took equal amount of pleasure to prepare this painstakingly as we took less than half the time to mop it up.
I feel it tasted so good because of the love he put in and not because of the spices that he used. Although this one was usually served for lunch and dinner during cold and chilly Ranchi-Allahabad winter, it sure goes down equally well with a glass of beer or wine.

• 500gms beef or mutton mince
• 150 gms channa dal
• 2-3 cinnamon sticks
• 4-5 cardamom pods
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 inch ginger
• 2 cups water

1. Boil all the above in a pressure cooker for 1 whistle or till the water dries up.
2. Grind this in mixer or use a mortar and pestle (like in the olden days).
3. Add salt, lots of chopped coriander, 2 onions finely chopped and a few chopped green chillies (adjust the spice to your taste)
4. Take a small amount of the meat dough on your palm and mould it like a patty burger.
5. Heat oil in a tawa and shallow fry them for 2 mins on each side or till crisp and golden.

You can serve this with green chutney or use it in a burger/sandwich. Seriously, there is no one way you can eat this. So go on, use your imagination :)

Note: While grinding the meat once its boiled, you can take out the masalas, as the meat will have already absorbed all the masala flavours. 

Garlic Prawn (the original)

This sure is not a recipe for a child, however, it tasted yummy when my friends and I made it, so couldn't help putting it here for you to try out.
This is the original recipe for Garlic prawn, in contrast to what we have in restaurants. Handed to me by a very close friend, who happens to be Chinese. Thank you :)

Ingredients:

500 gms fresh prawn, cleaned and deveined
3-4 large pods of garlic, chopped
3-4 green chillied, chopped
olive oil
white wine

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan.
2. Add chopped garlic and chillies.
3. Add prawns and fry for 40-50 sec.
4. Turn over and fry of another 50 sec.
5. Add salt.
6. Add white wine (cover the prawns with it) and cook for another 3-4 mins.

*Instead of olive oil you can also add any white oil of your choice.
*You can add chilled as per your taste.

Please let me know how it turned out for you. :)

Chicken Aloo Tikki's

This one is from a special friend of mine, Atsungla.Thanks for your recipe :)

Ingredients:

4-5 potatoes
boiled chicken shredded
finely chopped onion
finely chopped garlic
finely chopped cilantro
1 egg, beaten
salt
pepper

Method:

1. Boil chicken, shred them and keep aside.
2. Peel potatoes and boil them in the chicken stock till dry.
3. Mash potatoes and add all the above ingredients except the beaten eggs.
4. Make round balls and slightly flatten them on your palms.
5. Heat oil or butter in a pan.
6. Brush them lightly with the beaten egg.
7. Place them carefully on the pan and fry till golden brown on each side.
8. Serve hot with ketchup.

You can also add this to your sandwich.
Butter/cheese two slices and add the tikki.

Rainbow Sandwich :-)

I have noticed how kids often hate vegetables, specially capsicum. Here is a simple and 'colorful' recipe for you child.
Again, please try it out and let me know your kids reviews :-)

Ingredients:

Red Capsicum (halved)
Green Capsicum (halved)
Yellow Capsicum (halved)
1 medium sized potato
200 gms peas
Half a carrot

Method:

1. Chop each of the capsicums finely and keep them in separate bowls.
2. Toss them in some olive oil separately.
3. Add some cumin powder, aamchur powder, and some garam masala (take care not to make them too spicy, unless your kid prefers it that way)
4. Lightly fry the peas and carrots separately in olive oil.
5. Add salt to all of the above.

6. Take three slices of brown bread and place cheese slices or butter on them.
7. Spread each of them with a layer red, green and yellow capsicum with some peas and carrots as well.

8. Cut them into rectangular shapes  (to make real small rectangles, so you will have to cut them twice)
9. Serve with tomato ketchup or coriander chutney
(Note: you can also toast or grill the sandwiches OR you can also add lightly fried chicken or salami slices)

Pea soup

Have you ever noticed how colors... different colors attract kids?
Painting, sketching, 'crayoning'...and so on...
Have you wondered, ''Why not get colors on my child's plate?".
Here's a simple recipe that any kid would love. Try it and let me know your child's reviews :)

Pea Soup

Ingredients:
500 gms of green peas
half a beetroot
2 stalks of celery
some grated cheese
salt and a little sugar to taste

Method:
1. Boil the peas, beetroot and celery stalks together.
2. Remove the celery from the broth.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the boiled veggies and put them in a blender with some water.
4. Blend to a thick creamy consistency.
5. Serve hot!

Side garnishing: 2 slices of tomatoes and potatoes lightly fried, sprinkled with cheese and topped with chopped coriander.

Welcome

A bitterly cold winter evening, a strong breeze that rattled and shook the doors and windows, heavy woollen sweaters, socks, gloves did little to keep Aakriti warm. Even the tantalising warm fire place did nothing to bring a smile on my little niece's face. She was in a cranky mood, sad and very upset. REASON: the bread and butter and hot tea that was served to her did not appeal to her senses. She wanted something more...Woah!!! Well I definitely, am no fairy god-mother (neither does she thinks of me as one) so I was not in a position to rustle up something delicious, appetising and pleasing to her eyes and all her senses and say 'Lo and behold here comes your exclusive dish of so-and-so'. I had to do something more to feed my hungry child and bring that pretty smile back on her sulking face.

I wonder if all the mothers and aunts in this world go through the same thing that I went through that cold evening?  I am sure we all do. And that's when the idea of blogging recipes for children came to my mind.

So, I invite and encourage all of you to post and share your food guide for your children, nieces and nephews here and make the lives of all mothers and aunts slightly better :-)
On that note let's start cooking...