Vegetables Sizzler in Black Pepper Sauce

One thing good about sizzlers is that the food is steaming hot till the last spoon. Second thing is the novelty of the sizzling plate that comes shooshing on your table like a steam engine parking on your space, the smoke from the plate blinding you, the colorful combination of different assorted vegetables and that slurpy sauce make it even more exotic. More-over it’s a complete meal by itself and one plateful should suffice for nutrients required to go all day.

No wonder, sizzler can be made of the combination of your choice and there is no rule as such that it has to be made in a particular way. You can neatly arrange all the ingredients side by side or you can place them piled up one by one, the main taste is in the sauce that you pour over it and there are various types of sauces that you could experiment with to give your dish different flavors each time.

Ingredients that I used

1 cup rice

For sauce

1 tsp olive oil

2 pods garlic (grated)

2 medium spring onions (chopped)

2 green chilies (cut slant-wise)

1 vegetable cube

2-3 basil leaves

1 tbsp chopped celery

1 tbsp pepper sauce

1 tsp corn flour

For stir fry vegetables

1 tbsp olive oil

200 grams mushrooms (diced)

1 medium carrot (diced slant-wise)

1 medium capsicum (diced)

3-4 Paksoi leaves (chopped)

1 tsp crushed black pepper

Salt to taste

During arrangement

5-6 Cabbage leaves

1 tsp vinegar

Now ready to cook:

Step 1

Steam 1 cup of rice adding salt and oil.

 Step 2

Keep the plate for heating for 20 minutes.

 Step 3

Make sauce

1.     Stir fry garlic in I tsp of olive oil,

2.     Add spring onions, green chilies, add 1 cup of water, vegetable cube, basil leaves, celery leaves, black pepper sauce,

3.     Let it cook for ten minutes,

4.     Add 1 tsp corn flour in ½ cup water,

5.     Stir till the sauce gets thick,

6.     Keep it aside

Step 4

Stir fry vegetables

1.     Stir fry garlic in 1 tbsp of olive oil,

2.     Add mushrooms and carrot,

3.     Mix and add capsicum, green chilies, Paksoi leave,

4.     Sprinkle crushed black pepper and salt on it.

Step 5

Arranging the sizzling plate

1.     Transfer the hot sizzler plate on a wooden base,(from step 2)

2.     Arrange cabbage leaflets on the plate,

3.     Add the layer of white steam rice,(from step 1)

4.     Add the layer of stir fried vegetables  (from step 4)

5.     Pour the sauce on the top (from step 3)

Step 6

Dissolve 1 tsp of vinegar in 1 tsp of water and pour on it for sizzling effect.

Basic recipe: Peas potatoes

If you are an expert cook then this recipe is too simple for you, thank you for visiting.

Today I get a call from my friend who is newly-wed pampered woman, who has never cooked before and is challenged by her mother-in-law to show some of her culinary skills.


She asks me for a very basic dish, something that is not difficult and tasty as well.


I am not surprised!

Yeah, I have met many such women who don’t even know to fry an egg. For some reason, they have never found reason to cook before marriage.  Busy with studies or career and have enough helpers at home to do the cooking, what is the need to cook? 


There are many parents who will never encourage their children to cook arguing, "Let her rest, there is whole lifetime to cook," so there is chalta hai attitude, 

But after marriage comes a bit of responsibility. One cannot eat everyday out and some basic cooking is important.

This is just the basic recipe which can be cooked by a person who is new to cooking…….

Look into the kitchen for following ingredients

1 tbsp oil

1 medium onion (finely chopped)

2 medium potatoes (diced)

2 green chilies (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (grated)

½ inch ginger (grated)

2 medium tomatoes (chopped)

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 cup shelled peas

1 tsp salt

2 tsp chopped coriander leaves

Let the exercise begin

 Fry onion in 1 tablespoon of oil

Till it gets light brown

Chop potatoes, green chilies and grated garlic and ginger

Add half cup water and Mix garlic, ginger and green chilies

Add chopped potatoes

Add chopped tomatoes

Add dry masalas like coriander powder, turmeric powder, cumin seeds and salt

Mix it well

When we become an expert cook, we can start to grate the tomatoes and add, but when new to cooking, this  kind of rough chopping of tomatoes will pass..the more we pamper our guest the better we are expected to perform, Its best to be just our self and do what is comfortable to us’

Add green peas

Add chopped coriander leaves

Put one cup of water, cover and keep it till potatoes are tender.

Serve it with steamed rice or freshly roasted chappatis


Variation: Instead of peas, vegetables like cauliflower, mushrooms or fried okra can also be used,

Dish of the day

Vegetarian Salad

Vegetable Stew

It’s not the cooking that takes time; it’s the thinking about what to cook, of a decision to prepare a particular dish that can take hours. The more the family member we have in the house, the more restricted our choice gets, unless we are ready to cook separately for each member, and of course there are some families that I know, who do even that. How difficult it is, when all the members have different taste, some want food with chilies, some without, some want vegetarian and some strictly non-vegan, some like it dry and some stew, the list is endless and it depends on the woman of the house whether she is ready to comply and please all the members of the house.

It is easier when you have to cook for just one person whom you love too much –

Yes! You get that right! It is easy to just cook for yourself.

Think quickly and assemble the Ingredients

6 pods of garlic, crushed

½ tsp red chili flakes

100 grams vegetarian soya meat

1 medium onion, chopped length-wise

1 medium carrot, chopped slant-wise

1 medium capsicum, chopped length-wise

6 green chilies, chopped length-wise

2-3 basil leaves

2-3 kafir leaves

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cornflour

Let’s cook

1.    On a high flame, stir-fry crushed garlic and red chilies flakes,

2.    Add vegetarian meat, mix till browned,

3.    Add one-by-one, stirring all the time, chopped onions, carrots, capsicum, green chilies, add basil leaves, Kafir leaves, sesame seeds and salt,

4.    Make a corn flour solution by adding 1 tsp of corn flour to two cups of water and add to the vegetables.

5.    Mix till the sauce thickens.

Serve with steamed rice.

Okay, I agree I made too much vegetables,(Burp!) but fret not, dinner was with flat rice noodles

Thank you for the opportunity for sharing my dish on your link at Global Food Festival

Sizzling Mushrooms

When a person says he hates mushroom then we must believe it, right? 


Wrong!


Some people say they hate certain type of food without ever tasting it and my nephew is one of them. The minute he heard that I was to make mushroom he started to hunt for take-away-menu card to order the food from outside. It took lot of persistence and muscle power to make him wait and decide after he has tasted the dish.

The aroma from the cooking pot escaped from kitchen to the room where he was watching TV and distracted him. When the sizzling plate arrived at the dining table, he watched slyly at the other members relishing the taste.

 “Okay, I will taste a bit, although I don’t think I will like it much” he said as he took a spoonful of cooked mushroom to ‘just taste’

Soon, he was grabbing second serving and then the third and finally, “Why do you cook so little?” he said.

Sizzling Mushroom

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil

6 cloves garlic (crushed)

6 green chilies (cut diagonally)

500 grams Mushrooms (halved)

2 capsicum (chopped length wise)

4 medium size spring onions (chopped length wise)

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp corn flour in 1 cup of water

8 cabbage leaves (steamed)

Lets Cook

On a high flame, keep sizzler plate for heating.

In a wok, stir fry garlic and chilies in oil, add mushroom and stir well. Add capsicum and spring onion, add salt and black pepper. Make a solution of corn flour and pour it over mushroom, stir till sauce is thick and creamy.

Move the red-hot sizzler plate on the wooden tray. Arrange the steamed cabbage leaves at the base. Pour the mushroom in sauce over the cabbage and add the oil-water mixture on the plate to make it sizzle.

Serve with garlic bread.