Potato Podimas

Looks like potatoes featured the maximum number of times in my blog posts. Not surprising though, owing to its versatility. Whenever we are confused as to what to cook; we end up making potato curry or aloo paranthas or sandwich, well most times. Potatoes are sure to lend a helping hand to entertain your surprise guests or make a quick meal.

This potato podimas(mashed potatoes) is a mildly flavored curry to go with hot & spicy sambar rice. This is a twist to the normal potato fry made with chilli powder and lots of oil.

A very simple, easy to make recipe!

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 4 medium (boiled, peeled and mashed)

Green chillies - 2 finely chopped

Ginger a small piece finely chopped

Lemon - 1

Curry leaves - a few

Oil,mustard,urad dhall, channa dhall - a tsp or 2 each for seasoning

Turmeric - 1 tsp (optional)

Grated coconut - 2 tsp (optional)

Hing - a pinch

salt to taste

Method:

1) Heat oil, season with the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add hing and turmeric.

2) Reduce the flame, add chillies, curry leaves, ginger, mashed potato and salt.

3) Add the grated coconut if you wish to, fry everything together for a while.

3) Switch off, squeeze the lime juice and serve hot with rice. Tastes great with sambar rice.

Radish Sambar

Hi all! Hope all my blogger friends are doing fine. It has been a real long gap and I thought I should break the silence at least today. Once there is a gap in blogging, it takes lot of effort to come out of the block. Anything in life, for that matter.

I am back with a recipe for sambar. I am a kind of person who really gets bored of cooking the same dishes again & again. I always love to try out new recipes. But being a south Indian, it so happens that I cook sambar & rasam frequently(at least twice per week). That's my comfort food. As I said earlier, I get bored of following the same recipes and would love to experiment.

So, I came up with this recipe for sambar and I should say, the result was outstanding. The addition of spice powder and cumin did the magic and sure to give any hotel, a run for money.

Try out the magical sambar!

Ingredients:

Radish - (sliced into thin rounds) handful or depending on your taste

(Substitute radish with drumsticks/carrots or anything you wish)

Tamarind paste - 1.5 tsp or equivalent pulp extracted

Sambar Powder - 1 tablespoon

Spice powder (check the recipe here) - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Salt to taste

For pressure cooking:

Toor dhall - 1 cup

Onion - 1 chopped thin lengthwise or chopped fine

Tomato - 1 finely chopped

Slit green chillies - 2

Turmeric powder - 1.5 tsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning:

Mustard - 1.5 tsp

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp

For garnishing:

Curry leaves, cilantro & a dollop of ghee(optional)

Method:

1. Pressure cook the ingredients listed for pressure cooking with 2.5 cups of water for 4 whistles.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil, season with the seasoning ingredients. Add radish and fry well. Add a little water and boil till the radish gets cooked. Radish takes a bit longer time for getting cooked and make sure that it is cooked to perfection before adding the tamarind paste.

Now add the tamarind paste and a little water. Boil well.

3. Mash the pressure cooked ingredients and add to the boiling sambar. Add sambar powder, spice powder and salt. Bring to a boil.

Garnish with curry leaves (you can also add this with the seasoning. I like it raw), cilantro and a dollop of ghee.

Serve with rice/idli/dosa or vada. Sure to taste heavenly.

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Thanks, dear.

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My hearty thanks to you guys and all those who checked with me, if everything's fine.

I would also like to thank everyone who visits my blog and take pains to leave comments. You all make my day!

For the folks in US, have a great weekend!

Kadai Paneer

Kadai Paneer is a Punjabi curry with fried paneer & bell peppers simmered in freshly ground masala. Addition of kasoori methi renders a magical flavor & aroma to any punjabi curry specially, the paneer ones. This is a dry curry suitable for rotis. Kadai means wok and the curry is typically served in a kadai. I love the way in which Indian curries are served in a cute copper kadai in restaurants. Getting one such kadai, tops my list of to-buy items during my next visit to India.

I would like to cook up a Punjabi curry, fill-up the kadai and click a nice picture for my blog.

Hope my dream gets realized.

See, what all dreams a foodie can have!

Ingredients:

Bell peppers 2 cut into cubes(Diff colors)
onions 2 finely chopped
tomatoes 3 (blanched, skin peeled and made into a puree)
curd 1 cup
paneer 1 cup or 250 g cut into cubes
butter or oil 1 tbsp
bay leaves 2
chilli powder 2 tsp
Garam masala powder 1 tsp
dhania powder 2 tsp
salt to taste
kasoori methi 1 tsp
prepared kadai paneer masala 2 tsp

Kadai Paneer Masala:

Dhania seeds 1 tbsp
pepper 1/2 tsp
red chillies 6
methi 1/2 tsp
cinnamon 2 tsp
jeera 1/2 tsp

Dry roast in a tawa, powder and keep aside.

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter and fry onions till brown, adding sliced garlic (1/2 tsp) and bay leaves.
2. Now add the ginger garlic paste and fry well.
3. Add the dry powder and fry. Add salt.
4. Add the tomatoes
5. Fry the paneer and capsicum and keep aside
6. Let the tomatoes boil and leave out the oil.
7. Add the curd and boil for sometime.
8. Now add the paneer and capsicum
9. Lastly add the finely chopped coriander and methi(fresh) or kasoori methi

Serve hot with rotis

Aloo 65

Aloo 65 is a spicy curry with the versatile potato. You can deep fry the potatoes to serve as a starter. I chose to shallow fry it to pair up with rice, also saving oil. The curry was perfectly spicy for a cold winter night.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes - half a kg

Curd - 1 cup

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 2 tsp

Garam Masala - 2 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 3 tsp

Tandoori Color - optional (I didn't use it)

Salt to taste

For Seasoning:

Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - handful

Cilantro for garnishing

Method:

1. Pressure cook the potatoes. Peel the skin and prick roughly using a fork.

2. Mix the dry powders, ginger garlic paste in the curd. Soak the potatoes in this mixture for 2 hrs.

3. Heat oil, season with mustard and jeera. Add the potatoes along with the mixture. Roast over slow flame till golden. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice.

You can follow the same recipe for paneer 65 and Gobi 65. Both will taste good when deep fried.

Before deep frying, coat with corn flour batter.

Check out my other potato delicacies - Dum Aloo fry, Fiery hot potato fry, Dum Aloo Gravy

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Idli Milagai Podi

After the sinfully sweet gulab jamuns, here comes an aromatic spice powder - Idli Milagai Podi.

This together with sesame oil makes a tasty and ready made dip for idli, dosa and like.

I don't see the presence of sesame seeds in the shop brought ones. The magic of an aromatic milagai podi lies in the addition of sesame and ellu(sesame) milagai podi is absolutely divine.

Idli(s) coated with milagi podi make a great candidate for travel lunch boxes.

Ingredients:

Channa dal - 4 tablespoon

Urad dal - 3 tablespoon

Red Chillies (long ones) - 10 to 12 (If you are making this for kids, reduce the chillies)

Black sesame seeds - 1 to 1.5 tablespoon(Black sesame seeds give a nice smoky flavour. If you do not like the smoky taste and dark color, go for white sesame seeds. If you are using white, you can go for a little more)

Salt to taste

Asafoetida half a tsp

Method:

1. Dry roast the dal(s) along with red chillies on a low flame. You can add a little salt to avoid the pungent smell of red chillies. When the dal starts changing color, add the sesame seeds. Roast till the sesame seeds start popping. Add the hing.(Take care that the ingredients don't char)

2. Cool and grind into a coarse powder with salt.

Serving tip:

Take 1 tsp of the spice powder in a plate. Make a well in the center. Add sesame oil(highly recommended) and mix well.

Serve with idli/dosa

Idli coated with milagi podi tastes great for travel.