Winter feast

Winter, spring, summer, and fall each bring their own seasonal flavours. For example, summer season offers unique refreshing juices to avoid dehydration. Likewise, to beat the winter chill, it is important to cook foods that keep the entire family warm. Following are some recipes perfect for chilly winter.
Sesame chikki
-- This Chikki is very nutritious because of the combination of sesame seeds and jiggery, both of which are good sources of iron.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sesame seeds (til)
1/3 cup jaggery (gur)
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp ghee for greasing
Method:
-- Roast the sesame seeds until they are light golden in colour. Cool and keep aside.
-- In the meantime, grease the back of flat thali with a little ghee and keep it aside.
-- Heat the ghee in a pan and add the jaggery to it.
-- Simmer over a slow flame till the jaggery melts.
-- Add the roasted til and mix it thoroughly with the melted jaggery. You may need to put out the flame during this process.
-- When the mixture is ready, pour the entire mixture over the greased thali. Roll it out into thin sheets using a greased rolling pin.
-- When cool, cut into square pieces. Store in an airtight container.
You can also replace seaseme seeds with peanuts, almonds, and cashew for more variations of chikki. Omit ghee if you like hard version off chikki.
Chinese corn Soup
It is a healthy and delicious hot drink to keep you warm during winter season. It also protects you from winter cough and flu.
Ingredients
-- 1 chicken breast
-- 1 liter chicken stock (liquid)
-- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
-- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
-- 1 chicken stock cube
-- 375 gms sweet corn
-- 2 tbs corn flour
-- 2 egg
-- 2 spring onion (optional)
Method:
-- Cover chicken fillet with water and simmer until cooked.
-- Remove chicken, cool. Keep water.
-- Shred the chicken into long strips, but do not chop.
-- In a pot, combine chicken stock, ginger powder, and sesame oil, crumbled chicken stock cube and meshed sweet corn.
-- Bring to the boil.
-- Add the shredded chicken and bring back to boil.
-- Mix corn flour with small amount of chicken water to form a thin paste. Drizzle into the soup, mixing thoroughly.
-- Mix in one or two eggs together with a dash of the chicken water, then drizzle it into the pot very slowly from about 15 cm above the pot.
-- Garnish with chopped spring onions.
Amritsari fish
Fish is an ideal food to beat winter blues. Fish is a low calorie, high protein brain food. It prevents heart disease, boost brain power, the omega-3s in fish are effective at treating depression.
Ingredients:
-- 600 g Surmai Fillets (cut into fingers)
-- 1 cup Gram Flour (Besan)
-- 1 tbsp Red Chili Powder
-- 1 tsp Carom Seeds (Ajwain)
-- 2 tbsp Ginger Paste
-- 2 tbsp Garlic Paste
-- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
-- 1 Egg
-- Salt to taste
-- Oil to deep fry
-- 1 tsp Chaat Masala
-- 2 Lemons (cut into wedges)
Method:
-- In a bowl, take the fish fingers and add red chili powder, salt, ginger paste, garlic paste, carom seeds, lemon juice, gram flour. Mix all the ingredients well and keep aside.
-- Break egg into the fish mixture and mix well.
-- In a wok, (kadhai) heat sufficient oil and fry the fish fingers in batches until golden and crisp. Drain and put on a paper towel.
-- Sprinkle chaat masala and serve hot with lemon wedges.
Methi Paratha
Ingredients: (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
-- 2 cups whole wheat flour/atta
-- 1 cup tightly packed fenugreek leaves/methi
-- 1 green chili, finely chopped
-- 3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
-- 2 tsp oil
-- water as required
-- Salt as required.
Method:
1. Rinse the methi leaves well. Drain them completely. Chop the methi leaves finely and keep aside.
2. In a bowl or parat, mix the flour and salt. Add the chopped methi leaves, green chilies, garlic, oil, and mix.
3. Pour some water and knead to smooth dough. Make medium sized balls of the dough. Roll the dough into medium sized rotis or rounds.
4. On a tava or frying pan, cook the methi rotis or parathas with some oil or ghee until they are browned and cooked on both sides.
5. These methi parathas have to cook like the way we cook parathas on the pan.
6. Serve methi paratha hot with some pickle or raita.
Roasted eggplant
Ingredients:
-- 3 medium eggplants
-- 3 tablespoons olive oil
-- 1 tablespoon coarse salt
-- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
-- One teaspoon dried basil leaves
Method:
-- Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut eggplants into 1-inch cubes; divide between two baking sheets.
-- Dividing evenly, drizzle with olive oil, coarse salt, and ground pepper and basil leaves, toss to coat. Spread in a single layer; roast, turning once, until golden and tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on sheets.