I am wandering in the Foodie Land: Lockdown Stories

Breakfast spread at Kantipur Temple House, Nepal.

We go out, dine. We travel and create foodie memories. When at home, we make Saturday/Sunday specials, recreate meals from our trips. Guess that is why weekends are there, to calm our tantalizing taste buds. But now that we are home for more than 4 months now (thanks to lockdown), the line between week and weekend has softened.

Now, we want that special something on our daily menu. Furthermore, social media ain't helping either, where you see every second person showcasing their cooking skills and posting mouth watering dishes. Even people like me who are not fond of cooking or those who don't know to cook have now taken up this activity.

Pandemic has been quite hard on lives globally, affecting people economically and even psychologically. It has also showed us the mirror once again. The side effects of having a notorious mind has blown on our faces, our wrong doings to Earth have once more proved Newton's third law that every action has equal and opposite reaction. 

Oops! I got drifted with the whole psychology thing again. I better come back to foodie land now. 

Well, another most important thing that this pandemic has taught us (specially to the millennial  and gen X) is, 'Survival of the fittest' and in food department, hell, yes! We can't rely on outside food now considering risks or can have house help do it for us due to their unavailability. So, any foodie like me must have had to take the matter into their hands.

[The least we can do is stay at home, use our privileges for good, spend time without complaining and by being safe to avoid more burden on the health care system and government]

Special food usually mean a little indulgence in fat and sugar. But we cannot do that now. Na Na! No fat and sugar please.

I can't imagine myself gorging on "once in while food", everyday. Thus, at our home, we decided to try their healthier version. E.g. replacing fine flour with whole wheat/suji (semolina)/besan (Gram flour), using homemade butter instead of processed one, replacing cheese with milk in pasta, etc. 

Here I will share with you a few such vegetarian meals, made by me in Amma ki Rasoi, keeping in mind health bhi taste bhi.

Tea Cake

The first special meal I prepared during lockdown was biscuit cake. These biscuits were bought in lot (as they had a good shelf life from Nainital on my last trip). Eventually we got tired of eating them. 

So, one day I just crushed them in the mixer grinder, added some baking powder and baking soda, then some milk to prepare the batter (I absolutely used no butter/oil and only little sugar). 

Then, I put the batter in baking bowl and baked my first ever 'tea cake', in the microwave. (For detailed recipe, enlarge and check image) →

Voila! Tea cake's ready.

I also made Parle G cake with little chocolate (about 10 g). Here is an old recipe when I had tried Chocolate Brownies using Parle G with gems and a chocolate bar (recipe is almost same for both, but if you are making in microwave instead of cooker (which i did while making brownies), follow tea cake procedure as above).  

Parle G cake

Now I will take you through some more dishes I have prepared during lockdown (I will keep updating the list along with their recipes. Recipes are linked wherever possible). They're easy and majority of them totally healthy or have been tried with minimal items while some were prepared with some indulgence of butter, sugar, maida (fine flour) etc. 

Here you go.

Banana pancakes

Banana Pancakes

Click here for recipe: How to make Banana Pancake | Easy to make recipe

[In order to make pancakes with whole wheat and no banana, replace banana with whole wheat, keep the batter consistency as shown in Banana Pancake recipe. For blueberry pancakes, add blueberries in the same whole wheat pancake batter. Just use your imagination and you can try different kind of pancakes pretty easily. Have them with butter, maple syrup, chocolate syrup or honey, the choice is yours.]

Homemade Spicy Momos and Dip - a healthy version 

Homemade Spicy Momos and Spicy Dip

Click here for recipe: Homemade Spicy Momos and Dip - a healthy version 

Shahi Paneer & Matar Paneer

Shahi Paneer

Click here for recipe: Learn how to make Shahi Paneer in a simple and scrumptious way 

Matar paneer with butter naan

Click here for recipe: Homemade Paneer Naan Recipe - पनीर नान made by my mother (For plain naan, you can avoid adding paneer)

Pasta time

Mac and (look like) cheese without cheese

Mac and (look like) cheese without cheese

 

Creamy mushroom pasta (without cheese)

Creamy mushroom pasta (without cheese)

One pot - creamy spinach pasta (without cheese)

One pot - creamy spinach pasta (without cheese)

[The above pasta dishes were prepared without cheese. For cheesy effect, I used lot of milk. After sauteing the veggies, add room temp/warm milk in the hot pot. After giving it a slight boil, I cooked pasta in the same pot. Additional thickness comes from pasta water. Some people also use fine flour for thickness but I avoided that. I also use durum wheat or suji pasta] 

Spinach-tomato based creamy-veggie "Green sauce pasta" (without cheese)

Click here for recipe: Spinach-tomato based creamy-veggie pasta (without cheese).

Malai Kofta

Malai Kofta with phulka and ginger chili salsa

Rajasthani Dhaba Style Sev ki Sabzi

Rajasthani Dhaba Style Sev ki Sabzi
We had it with my mum's special methi paratha, homemade butter & chili pickle

Super healthy Kala Chana Tikki

Kala Chana Tikki

Bhindi Masala

Bhindi Masala along with phulka and dal tadka,
ginger-chili salsa and onion

Click here for recipe: How to make Bhindi Masala at home

Mushroom Xacuti: all the way from Goa

Click here for recipe: How to make traditional Goan "Mushroom Xacuti", a recipe by my friend from Goa, Sonia.

Vegetable Chowmein

Vegetable Chowmein

Vermicelli Vegetable Upma

Vermicelli Vegetable Upma

Some indulgence

Lock-down Birthdays so far ...

Oreo Cake, Whole Wheat Samosa and Suji Halwa

on Brother's (Sports Cuppa) birthday 

Oreo Cake

Samosa made with whole wheat with mint chutney and tomato sauce along with Suji Halwa

Oreo Cake and Vegetable pizza (base also homemade)

on Sister's Birthday

Sister's birthday scene (Megha Shrimali)

WhisCo aka Dalgona Coffee aka

Desi Pheti-wali Coffee

WhisCo (Whisked Coffee) aka Dalgona

Apart from these I also tried my hand on Molten Cup Cake, Healthy Bread Pizza, Paneer Butter Masala, Paneer Tikka Masala, Stuffed Paratha etc.

Huff! I haven't cooked as much in so many years of my life that I have in last 4 months.  Are these Pros, or cons of lockdown? I wonder 😝😈  

[You can also check my "food experiments" under the highlight with the same name on my instagram profile - www.instagram.com/junkkdna]

For more scrumptious yet healthy dishes, some food inventions and a few recipes from my grannies/great grannies khane ka pitara which you might not have heard about, hop on to Amma Ki Rasoi which is my mother's food blog. 

Blog link: https://www.ammakirasoi.in/

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/ammakirasoi/

Also, don't forget to share your foodie extravaganza in comment section. 

For more recipes, stay tuned. Till then, "Stay at home, try something new, keep safe and be happy."

Yours Truly,

Me and My Suitcase 

(Presently wandering in the Foodie Land)

P.S. Food photography courtesy: Stuti Shrimali