Highlights from Railway Budget 2014-15

Union Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda presented his first Railway Budget in Parliament. Below are the highlights of this Budget:

• No new hike in passenger fares and freight charges
• Bullet train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector
• Diamond quadrilateral for high speed trains
• Proposal to enhance speed of trains to 160-200 km/hr in 9 sectors
• Online booking to support 7,200 tickets/minute; to enable 1.2 lakh users log in simultaneously
• Revamp of reservation system, ticket-booking through mobile phones, post offices to be promoted
• Online platform for unreserved tickets
• Stations to have Combo parking-platform tickets
• Women RPF Constables to escort ladies coaches; 4,000 women constables to be inducted
• Retiring room facility to be extended to all stations
• Battery powered Cars for differently-abled and senior citizens at major stations
• Feedback services through IVRS on quality of food
• Food can be ordered through SMS, phone; Food courts at major stations
• Cleanliness budget increased by 40% over last year
• CCTVs to be used at stations for monitoring cleanliness
• Forming a corpus fund for stations’ maintenance
• RO drinking water at some stations and trains
• Automatic door closing in mainline and sub-urban coaches
• 58 new trains and extension of 11; 864 additional EMUs to be started in Mumbai over 2 years
• FDI in railway projects, except in operations
• FDI, domestic investments in rail infrastructure
• Office-on-Wheels: Internet & workstation amenities on select trains
• WiFi in A1, A category stations and in select trains
• Railways university for technical and non-technical subjects
• Some stations to be built to international standards through PPP model
• Parcel traffic to be segregated to separate terminals to make passenger traffic unhampered
• Loss per passenger per kilometre up from 10% in 2000-01 to 23% in 2012-13
• Use of Solar energy at major stations
• Highest ever plan outlay of Rs. 65,455 crore for 2014-15
• Expenditure in 2014-15 pegged at Rs. 149,176 crore.

Kesar Paneer

Many cuisines have a mix of spices specific to them. Spices are used in many different forms and every spice adds their signature taste to its dish. Most Indian dishes have their own unique mixture of spices and many of these dishes have their unique taste based on the method of cooking and the addition of spices either in the earlier or later part of cooking. For example lighter spices are added last to retain its flavor while stronger spices are added in the beginning. Also frying the spices in a combination of little ghee and oil enhances the overall taste of the dish.

Indian gravies are generally filled with masala and they tend to appetize spicy taste buds. Additionally rich gravies which are occasionally served either for a large gathering or festivities tend to contain milk cream based gravies with added nuts or poppy seeds ground to a paste. This dish even though is a milk based gravy doesn’t have any nuts and is quite simple to make. The gravy is very rich and creamy with kesar (saffron) giving the subtle aromatic pleasure to the senses. Usually when curds are used in a gravy and heated they tend to curdle, to avoid that whipping thick curds and mixing them with bengal gram flour not only enhances the taste but also avoids the curds to curdle giving the most wanted creamy texture. I served this dish with rotis. They can equally be accompanied for pulao, biryani, nan or kulcha. Enjoy!!!

Step-by-Step Pictorial:
Recipe Source: 100 Delicious Vegetarian Curries by Mallika Badrinath




Cut paneer into small cubes or long strips. In a small bowl mix one-third(1/3) of the ground paste with fresh cream, 1 Tbsp of curd, bengal gram flour, lemon juice, and salt. Coat all sides of the paneer with the above curd paste. Let it marinate for at least for half an hour. Shallow fry the paneer pieces until golden brown. Paneer pieces can be deep-fried if preferred.

Whip remaining curd and remaining 2 Tbsp cream. Keep it aside. In another bowl soak saffron in 1/2 cup warm milk. Keep it aside. Heat a wide pan with 2 Tbsp of oil add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. The seeds should turn lightly brown not black as fenugreek seeds will tend to add bitterness when they are burnt. Add the remaining 2/3 of ground paste.

Stir fry for a minute and add the whipped curd-cream mixture. Reduce heat and cook for few minutes. Mix 1/4 cup of water with corn flour. Make it to a paste and add it to the pan. Cook till the gravy thickens. Add the soaked saffron along with milk and cook for another 2 minutes. Switch off flame. Just before serving arrange fried paneer in serving dish and pour gravy on top of the paneer. Garnish with coriander leaves. Deep fried onion rings can also be used to garnish. Enjoy!!!

Kesar Paneer

Ingredients

• Paneer -- 350 gms
• Saffron -- 3/4 tsp
• Fresh Thick Curds -- 1 cup
• Bengal Gram Flour -- 2 Tbsp
• Fresh Cream -- 3 Tbsp
• Corn Flour -- 1 Tbsp
• Lemon -- 1 Tbsp
• Warm Milk -- 1/2 cup
• Oil -- 2 Tbsp
• Butter -- 1 Tbsp
• Salt -- as required
• Fenugreek Seeds -- 1 tsp
• Cumin Seeds -- 1/2 tsp
• Coriander Leaves -- finely chopped for garnishing
• Oil -- 2 Tbsp + for shallow/deep frying paneer
Grind To Paste:
• Green Chillies -- 7
• Ginger -- 1 inch piece
• Garlic -- 5 to 6 medium pods

Instructions

1. Cut paneer into small cubes or long strips. In a small bowl mix one third(1/3) of the ground paste with fresh cream, 1 Tbsp of curd, bengal gram flour, lemon juice, and salt.
2. Coat all sides of the paneer with the above curd paste. Let it marinate for at least for half an hour. Shallow fry the paneer pieces until golden brown. Paneer pieces can be deep fried if preferred.
3. Whip remaining curd and remaining 2 Tbsp cream. Keep it aside. In another bowl soak saffron in 1/2 cup warm milk. Keep it aside.
4. Heat a wide pan with 2 Tbsp of oil add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. The seeds should turn lightly brown not black as fenugreek seeds will tend to add bitterness when they are burnt. Add the remaining 2/3 of ground paste. Stir fry for a minute and add the whipped curd-cream mixture.
5. Reduce heat and cook for few minutes. Mix 1/4 cup of water with corn flour. Make it to a paste and add it to the pan. Cook till the gravy thickens. Add the soaked saffron along with milk and cook for another 2 minutes. Switch off flame.
6. Just before serving arrange fried paneer in serving dish and pour gravy on top of the paneer. Garnish with coriander leaves. Deep fried onion rings can also be used to garnish. Enjoy!!!

ndian Cooking Challenge: Sarvapindi ~ Ginnappa

Sarvapindi or Ginne appa is a rice flour pancake popular in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. I never heard or saw my cousins or aunts from Andhra region talk or prepare this pancake. So I am assuming this is from Telangana region of the state. It gets the name Sarvapindi or ginne appa based on the method of preparation. Sarva is a kind of a pot and pindi is flour. Sarvapindi is a snack prepared with flour dough made in a sarva. Ginne is a vessel or a bowl and appa is a snack. Plenty of herbs, sesame seeds and peanuts are added to rice flour to make the dough and then the dough is pressed into a wide pan to make the pan cake. It is then cooked on low flame to cook the rice cake. Sarvapindi is similar to thalipeeth, a snack from Maharashtra but it is prepared with a fixture of flours. When saw Nupur’s post I thought, oh this is how it is made in my neighboring state! Sarvapindi is also similar to akki roti, a specialty from Karnataka but the difference here is the preparation. From the recipes I have seen for akki roti, the rice flour is added to hot water to make the dough unlike for sarvapindi, where room temperature water is used.

Do you see the shape of a bowl/vessel/pot in the appa~pancake?

When Srivalli asked me to suggest a recipe for ICC, sarvapindi & sakinalu came to my mind. I never made these two items at home. We have already covered most of the traditional recipes in ICC and of these two recipes; sarvapindi is the easier one to prepare. I called up my cousin to get the recipe for sarvapindi as that is the easier of the two items that I had on mind. She gave me approximate measures so I called my mom and then my aunt. All three of them did not have exact measures and they said they just go by hand. Moreover, this recipe is so flexible that you can add anything you like as long as you season it well and cook it on low flame. Since I did not have any measurements to give to give Valli, I made the recipe at home 3 weeks ago before sharing it with her. I thought of making it again to take good pictures but never got to make it until today. I probably would have skipped this ICC too but since I suggested the recipe, I thought I should at least post the recipe. When I made it today, I pretty much followed the same recipe I gave Valli but I made two pancakes or appas instead of three. Also, I did not have curry leaves and instead substituted it with more scallions & cilantro.

Total Time: 40 – 60 minutes
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 – 40 minutes (about 20 minutes per appa or pancake)
Yields: 2-3 depending on the size
Ingredients:

• ¼ cup Sesame Seeds washed
• 2 tbsp. or little less than ¼ cup Roasted Peanuts soaked (5-10 minutes, until you finish the prep work)
• 1 cup or 165 – 170 grams Rice Flour
• 5 – 6 Green Chilies or ¾ tbsp. Green Chili Paste coarsely ground
• 1 tsp. Jeera
• 1 Garlic Clove (medium size.)
• ½ cup Onion finely chopped
• 1 large or 2 small Green Onion chopped (approx. 2 tbsp. (heaps) or ¼ cup loosely packed)
• ½ cup (approx…) tightly packed chopped cilantro
• 5-6 Curry Leaves chopped or 1 tbsp. chopped curry leaves (I did not have any curry leaves today so added 1 more green onion & more cilantro)
• 1 – 1 ¼ tsp. Salt
• 1/3 Water (You may need little less than that)
• 2 – 3 tbsp. / 6 – 9 tsp. Oil (2-3 tsp. per cake if you make 3 pancakes or 3- 4 ½ tsp. if making 2 pancakes)

Preparation:

• Wash sesame seeds in warm water.
• Soak the roasted & split peanuts in water.
• Coarsely grind green chilies.
• Grind ¾ of the chopped onion, garlic, jeera and salt to fine paste.
• Chop the herbs.
• In a bowl take rice flour, add chili & onion pastes. Mix until the pastes are nicely blended into the flour.
  
  
• Add remaining chopped onions, herbs, sesame seeds, peanuts and mix well. Taste the flour and adjust the seasoning. You can add little chili powder if it is a not spicy enough.
  
  
  
• Gradually add water to make soft dough. The dough should be like chapati dough.
• Divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal parts and make round balls. Today I made 2 balls.
  
  
• Rub a 10” frying pan with 1 ½ – 2 tsp. oil. (I meant to add 2 ½ – 3 tsp. but I forgot and added only 1 ½ tsp. oil). Today I was not in a mood to spend too much time in the kitchen and used two pans to make the appa. I used one non-stick & one hard anodized pan.
• Take one of the dough balls and press it into a flat cake in the pan. Use your fingers to press the cake. Wet your hands if needed. Thinner the cake, crunchier it will be. Using your index finger, make holes to the cake.
• Sprinkle or lightly brush 1 tsp. oil on the pancake. Or you can pour little oil in the holes.
  
• Put the pan on a medium heat, cover and cook it for 5 minutes.
• Remove the cover, reduce the flame to medium low- low heat and cook for 10 – 12 minutes or until the cake is light golden brown in color. Move the pan around every 2-3 minutes for even cooking (What I mean by this is, we normally place the pan on the stove such that the center of the pan is directly on the fire. Every 2-3 minutes, move the pan towards the center of the fire. Move the pan around 3-4 times so that all corners of the pan are directly under the pan at some point during the cooking process. This is done to make sure the pancake is evenly cooked.)
  
  

  Moving the pan aside to evenly cook the appa
• Flip the cake over and cook for another 2 ½ minutes. My hard anodized pan is not very wide and the shape of my cake was like a bottom of a pot. Even if I flipped it, it would not have cooked properly, so I continued to cook it for another 2 1/2 minutes without flipping it. Remove from the pan.
  
• If you are using one pan, let the pan cool and repeat the same steps for the rest of the dough balls.
• It is usually faster to use 2 pans to speed up the process. Sarvapindi is usually cooked in a very wide pan with very liberal amount of oil on very low heat.

These are collage of pictures of preparation of sarvapindi. I took these when I made it the first time before sharing the recipe with Valli. You can click the image to see the large image.

Notes:

• The cooking time is based on my stove. My aunt said she cooks the pindi on low heat only. She does not cook it on medium heat even for 3-5 minutes. But my mom & cousin cook it on medium heat until the pan is hot and then reduce heat to low. All three of them said they never checked the time and it usually takes 15 – 25 minutes.
• This preparation requires lot of oil. The amount of oil mentioned is the minimum. For crunchier taste and, if one wants to indulge oneself, they can use up to 4 tsp. per pancake (if making 3 cakes) or 6 tsp. per cake is making 2 pancakes with the given measurements.
• Some people cannot take the heat of green chilies, they can substitute it will chili powder or with ½ green chilies and ½ chili powder.
• Peanuts can be substituted with chana dal and it has to be soaked for at least ½ – 1 hour.
• My mom & aunt do not grind the onion and instead use chopped or sliced onion. My cousin grinds the onion. I ground most of the onion and used very little chopped onion.

Variation:

• Peeled and grated bottle gourd can also be added to the dough. If using bottle gourd, you can use only chili powder instead of green chilies. Also, you may not require any water to make dough, as grated bottle gourd releases water.

How to Make Jalebi

Ingredients

• Cooking oil for deep frying
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 tsp saffron
• Water (may not be needed)
• 1 tsp warm ghee
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (Powdered)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (maida)

Method 1 of 2: Syrup

1. 
   1
   Add sugar to a flat-based pan and put it on low heat. Add water slowly while mixing until you get one string syrup.
   Ad
2. 
   2
   Add saffron. Mix well.

Method 2 of 2: For the Dough

1. 
   1
   Mix one cup of refined flour and buttermilk in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
   • Stir until smooth. Add water only if necessary.
     
2. 
   2
   Cover and let stand overnight at room temperature.
3. 
   3
   Add remaining flour the next morning. ghee.
4. 
   4
   Put this mixture into a plastic bag and punch a small hole at the other end. This should be so you can squeeze the dough out like one squeezes toothpaste out of a tube.
5. 
   5
   Heat oil in a wok.
6. 
   6
   Pour batter into pan in concentric circles to make spiral shapes.
7. 
   7
   Fry until the spiral shapes turn crisp and golden brown.
8. 
   8
   Remove from pan (two or three at a time) and put them into the syrup for about one minute.
9. 
   9
   Ensure that they are coated well on both sides. Repeat with remaining jalebis.
10. 

Papaya Halwa

The papaya should be ripe at the same time should be firm enough to grate the same.

Ingredients:
1 cup Grated papaya
1 cup Milk
3-4 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Ghee
Cardamom powder (optional)

Dry fruits, Charoli etc. for garnishing

Method:  
1. Heat a kadai and add the grated papaya and saute for two minutes.
2. Add the milk, sugar and keep on stirring in medium flame till it starts leaving the sides of kadai.
3. Transfer it in a bowl and garnish with dry fruits.
4. Serve hot or cold as you wish.

Peanut Chikki

Ingredients
Peanuts - 1 cup (roasted)
Sugar/Jaggery/Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Cardomon Powder - 1/4 tsp

Method
1. Melt the sugar/brown sugar in a non-stick pan till it turns honey brown in color.
2. Crush the peanuts and add it to the melted sugar with a pinch of cardomon powder.
3. Put this mixture immediately into a greased plate or tray.
4. Spread it to the desired thickness using a rolling pin.
5. Immedietly cut it with a greased knife.
6. After it cools, separate the pieces and store in air tight containers.

Tips
     - You can make the same chikkis with sesame seeds, cashews and other nuts too. Variations
   - When the mixture is cool enough to handle you can make small balls out of it. This is called Kadalai urundai (Peanut balls). It is usually made during the tamil festivals Kaarthigai Deepam.

Nankhatai

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Unsalted Butter/Ghee - 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardomom Powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Pistachios/Raisins/Cashews/Almond - for garnish

  

Method
1. Take a mixing bowl with the room temperature butter in it.  Add the powdered sugar to it and cream together till the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients (flour, cardamom powder, baking powder and salt) into a seperate bowl.
3. Add this to the creamed butter mixture little at a time and keep mixing. Knead it to form a soft dough. Cover the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 C). Make small gooseberry sized balls of the dough. Smoothen the balls by rolling in between your palm. You can also use a cookie cutter to shape the cookies.
5. Place each ball in a cookie sheet. Leave some space in between as the cookies will expand when it bakes. If you want to make it more rich, press a pistachio or raisin or cashew or almond on top of the balls gently.
6. Bake at 300 degrees for 12-15 minutes until the bottom of the cookies turn light golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and gently transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. The cookies will be very soft at this stage.
8. After it cools completely, store in an air tight container for upto a month. Serve as a snack with a cup of tea.

Variations
    - You can make ragi biscuits by using ragi flour instead of all purpose flour.

 

    - You can also add some 1 tblsp of cocoa powder along with the flour and make chocolate cookies.

 

      - For crunchy biscuits, replace 1 cup flour by 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup of rava and 1/4 cup crushed nuts.