Jeera Pulav with Rajma

Though I am a South Indian, born and brought up in Chennai and the Northern most part of India I have seen is Mumbai :) , when it comes to comfort food, my mind, rather tongue doesn't just stop with South Indian food. I might say avial, rasam are my comfort foods but that doesn't exclude rotis/pulav. With grey weathers in this part of the world, people tend to crave for comfort food rather than a rich/exotic diet. On one such cold day, I thought how would it feel to have some jeera pulav with rajma. When it comes to food, I have no second thoughts and went ahead soaking some rajma for dinner. Good that I had the craving early in the day giving me sufficient time for soaking the rajma. Talk about planning and foresightedness! That always works well between me and my food.

So, here I present to you, my comfort food that is sure to please your palates as well.

One great thing about this is you can finish both in 30 - 45 minutes time.

This is how I do it!

Soak the rice. Quickly slice the onions. Fry them. While it gets cooled, blanch the tomatoes. Grind and fry the paste. While the paste gets fried, puree the tomatoes. Add everything, close the pressure pan and come back to rice and finish it. By this method, you can finish both quickly.

Jeera Pulav:

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 cup soaked in 1.5 cups water for 15 to 30 min

Jeera - 1.5 tablespoon ( A little less if you do not like too much jeera and just need some flavour)

Ghee - 3 tsp

oil - 1 tsp

Slit green chillis - 2

Cloves, Cardamom - 2 each

Cinnamon - a small piece (I am not fond of this flavour. May be you can add a little more if you like it)

Salt to taste

Method:

1) Add 2 tsp of butter/ghee/oil (a combination of this or just one), add 3C(clove,cinnamon,cardamom) and fry for 15 sec.

2) Add jeera, green chillies and fry for 10 sec. (You can also add onions, sliced lengthwise)

3) Add the rice and fry for a min. Now pour the water in which you soaked the rice. Cover the pan and cook for 3 min. When the water boils, add salt.

4) Cover again and cook till the water is absorbed and the rice gets cooked. (will not take more than 10 min over medium flame) Switch off the flame.

5) Add a little ghee. Wait for some time and mix well without breaking the rice.

You can garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve hot with rajma or any gravy of your choice. Plain curd will also suffice.

Rajma:

Ingredients:

Rajma 1 cup soaked overnight

Onions 2

Tomatoes - 4 (blanched and pureed)

Garlic 2 pods

Ginger a small piece

Green chillies 4

Cinnamon stick a small piece

Cloves,cardamom 2 each

Cumin - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder, Chilli powder, Dhania powder - 1 to 2 tsp each

Water 3 cups

Ghee/ Oil for frying (a combination would be nice)

Salt to taste

Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Add a little oil. Fry cloves, cardamom, cinnamon. Add sliced onions and fry till dark brown.

Grind this with ginger, green chillies and garlic. I am frying the onions to get rid of the bitter taste. If you are confident that your raw onions will not turn bitter on grinding, you can simply grind and skip frying. While grinding make sure that you get a smooth paste. The cardomom and cloves should be ground properly. If you have bits of those while eating, it can be really irritating.

Alternatively, fry the spices separately, make a fine powder and add it to the gravy at the end.

2) Now, heat ghee & oil in a pressure pan, season with jeera and add the ground paste. Fry well. The frying time will vary between raw onion and fried onion paste. Once it turns golden brown, add the tomato puree.

3) Add turmeric, dhania powder and chilli powder. Now add rajma with water and pressure cook for 6 to 8 whistles.

4) Add salt. If you have the spice powder, add it now. You can also add a little garam masala if you like. In case any case, boil for 2 min. You can add more water if you think you need it. In that case boil till everything comes together.

5) Garnish with chopped cilantro and fresh cream.

Serve hot with rotis/ pulav varieties. Tastes heavenly with jeera pulav.

Though the method appears big, this is quite simple to make.

I have a secret to share! I just added a handful of black urad dhal to my rajma. Got inspired from dal makhani.

Sending this to My Legume Affair- Eighteenth Helping @ Srivalli's blog.

This event is initiated by Susan, The well-seasoned cook.

Kala Channa Masala

Another Punjabi treat! I had a lot of kala channa (black chickpeas) in my pantry and wanted to use it, quickly. So, decided to make kala channa masala in the same line as chole masala that's made with kabuli channa. It did taste yummy and a bit different from the normal gravy. This would taste great with idiyappam too.

Let's quickly get into the recipe.

Ingredients:

kala channa (black chickpeas) - 1.5 cups (soaked overnight and cooked)

Potatoes - 2 medium, diced

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Onion - 1 big, finely chopped

Slit green chillies - 2

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1.5 tsp

Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp

Dhania Powder - 2 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Chole Masala - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Chopped cilantro to garnish

Ghee - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil, season with jeera. Add the chopped onions,green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Fry till dark brown.

2. Add the diced potatoes. Sprinkle a little water and cover till half cooked. Add chopped tomatoes.

3. When the tomatoes turn soft, add turmeric, chilli powder, dhania powder, cumin powder and salt. Add the cooked channa and a cup of water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add chole masala, garam masala, cover and cook till oil separates.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, add the ghee and serve hot with puris/rotis/pulav varieties.

Sending this to My legume Love Affair 16 th helping @ cook sister originating from Susan's blog.

Kwik Fix Series # 9 - Okra hot & sour gravy

Don't get perplexed by the post title. The recipe is 100% South-Indian and I have just renamed vendaikka(okra) puli(sour/tamarind) kozhambu (soup/gravy), thus for the benefit of non-Tamils.

This is a real hot and tangy kozhambu to go with hot-hot rice and a papad/quick curry. Ideal for the people in Northern hemisphere, now, with the advent of winter. This is a such a quick recipe and bachelor friendly meaning, it uses common ingredients from your kitchen and does not require any special kitchen appliance including mixer/blender.

The typical iyer vetha kozhambu is also prepared in the similar way except that, there are no tomatoes/onions in a typical vetha kozhambu and we add some sun-dried fries like sun-berries.
You can also make it with just drumstick/onion/egg plant/bitter gourd. Sometimes, a teaspoon of toor dhall is added while seasoning to compensate for the lack of lentils ( like in sambar).

Kara kozhambu is also similar to this and a little coconut milk is added as a last step and boiled for a min.

Puli kozhambu/vetha kozhambu/kara kozhambu, all refers to this simple gravy sans lentils.

I have added onions, tomatoes and okra in my kozhambu.
You can add brinjals in the place of okra, shallots in place of normal onions or replace everything by just drumsticks. Really lip smacking for cold weathers.

Ingredients:

Onions - cut length wise, a handful
Tomato - 1, blanched, skin removed and mashed. Or, you can simply chop them, fine.
Okra- cut into 1.5 '' pieces
Tamarind pulp extracted from lemon size tamarind or 2 tsp tamarind paste dissolved in 1 cup water.
Red chilli powder or sambar powder - 1 tsp ( I used kashmiri chilli powder for a bright color)
Red chillies 2 broken into pieces
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste

For seasoning:
Fenugreek/vendayam/methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Sesame oil 1 tablespoon (Tastes best with sesame oil)
Hing a pinch

Method:
1) Take a thick bottomed vessel, heat the oil, season the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add onions and red chillies. Fry till light brown.
2) Add okra and fry for 2 min. Add the tomato pulp or chopped tomatoes.
3) Cook for a min and add the tamarind extract. Add salt, chilli powder and curry leaves.
4) Boil till the oil separates and serve hot with rice.

Tips:
1. If you think it is watery, mix a little rice flour in a tsp of water and add to the kozhambu.
2. If you wish to add coconut milk, add as a final step and boil for less than a minute.
3. This gravy has a way too much oil, chillies and tamarind which is not a very healthy option.
So, don't eat this often due to the simplicity of the recipe. As a healthier variation, you can cut down the tamarind paste a bit and add a little lime juice at the end.

Podalangai (snake guord) Poricha Kootu

This is one more kind of kootu from the Iyer cuisine. Like any other type, this is also rich in proteins from dal and the nutrition from the veg used. With these kind of dishes, you can enjoy the full advantage of the veg, without any loss of nutrients resulting from frying in oil. Check another recipe for kootu(molagootal) here. Ironically molagootal (molagu or milagu means pepper in tamil) doesn't have pepper while poricha kootu has the flavour of pepper imbibed. This makes poricha kootu spicier than its counterpart. In my humble opinion, podalangai tastes better when made as poricha kootu. So normally I make use of it for this recipe. You can also make use of chow-chow or a mix of veg like carrot, beans, avaraikkai (flat beans), raw plantain etc. to make this delicacy.

Ingredients:

Podalangai (snake guord) - 2 cups
Moong dhall - 1/2 cup
Thoor dhall - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric a pinch
Salt to taste
For paste:
Urad dhall - 3 tsp
Channa dhall - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Grated coconut - 1 tablespoon
Pepper - 1 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
For seasoning:
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Red chilli - half or 1
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - a few

Method:
1.Pressure cook the veg and dhall with a little water and turmeric(optional) for 2 whistles.
2. For paste: Heat oil , add urad dhall & red chillies. Fry till the dhall turns light brown. Add pepper, jeera and coconut. Fry everything till the coconut becomes dry. Cool and grind into a fine paste.

3. Mix the ground paste with the boiled veg. Add a little water if it is very thick. Heat this till frothy.
4. Heat the coconut oil, add urad dhall, mustard & red chilli. When the mustard pops, switch off the gas and add the curry leaves, hing. Pour over the prepared kootu.

Tastes great with rice and papad. I love to have this with rice & lemon pickle.

Cauliflower Kurma

Cauliflower is a versatile vegetable just like potato; it can be used for making chaats in the form of cutlet or pav bhaji, north Indian gravies, south Indian curries and even Indo Chinese food like manchurian.
It's the favourite of most people and a very few people dislike it fearing it might contain worms. But now a days, I see only clean cauliflower with absolutely no worms. So better to consume this nutritious vegetable. This is low in fat, high in fibre and has anti cancer properties. I try to include this in diet weekly once.
This cauliflower kurma is also versatile just like the veg; can be had with rotis, puris, pulav/biriyani varieties or idiyappam.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 medium
Boiled Green peas - 1/2 a cup (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Butter or oil or mix both - 1 tablespoon
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Cilantro to garnish
Paste 1: 1 big onion, 2 to 3 medium green chillies, 3 garlic pods, A small piece of ginger
Paste 2 : Tomato puree
Paste 3: Cashews soaked in water for 10 min, Khus Khus 1 tsp, 1 cardomom, 2 cloves, a small piece of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon grated coconut, 1 red chilli

Method:

1. Clean the cauliflower by putting it in luke warm water along with salt. Wash it and boil it with a little water and turmeric. Add salt when half done. Cook it 3/4 th and keep it aside.
2. Heat the butter, season with fennel seeds and add paste 1. Fry till light brown. Check if the raw smell of onions is gone. Otherwise the paste will be bitter. If you use yellow onions, do not grind it. Just add chopped onions. Click here to know why.
3. Add the tomato puree and cook till the oil separates. Add salt and chilli powder. Remember, you already added salt to cauliflower.
4. Add cauliflower and boiled green peas.
5. Add paste 3. Add a little water depending on the consistency you require.
6. Cook till frothy and garnish with cilantro.

Serve hot with rice/rotis/idiyappam/puris

Check out another interesting kurma here - Veg Kurma

Olan

Olan is an authentic Kerala dish. It is a must for onam sadya. With my roots in Kerala, I am quite familiar with this dish right from my childhood. This is such a simple dish with not much spices. Rice, olan and pappadam makes a mouth watering meal. Black eyes cowpeas is included in the actual recipe which I omitted in my preparation this time. I suddenly decided on the menu and didn't have the soaked cowpeas ready. So if you are planning ahead, soak the cowpeas overnight and pressure cook.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

White pumpkin - Chopped 2 cups
Cooked cowpeas - a handful
Thick Coconut milk - 1.5 tablespoons
Slit green chillies - 1 or 2
Curry leaves to garnish
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 2 to 3 tsp

Method:
1) Cook the pumpkin with 1 cup water till tender along with slit green chillies.
2) Mix the cooked cowpeas, salt and coconut milk. Heat for a min till everything blends.
3) Switch off the flame. Season with coconut oil and curry leaves.

Serve hot with rice and pappadam.

Baghare Baingan

Baghare Baingan is a rich Hyderabadi cuisine. Owing to its Moghalai and Persian heritage, Hyderabadi food has the royal Nizami style imbibed in it. This dish has shallow fried brinjals simmered in coconut-peanut gravy. It has the addition of lot of oil secreting ingredients - sesame, peanut, coconut plus khus khus and cashews making it rich, delicious but at the same time heavy in calories. But occassional indulgence of such a delectable dish should not be counted as a sin. Right na?

Ingredients:

Brinjals(small violet ones) - 4
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoon
Dhania seeds - 2 tsp
White sesame seeds - 3 tsp
Khus Khus - 1/2 tsp
Peanuts - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 3 tsp
Tamarind Paste - 2 tsp
Cashews soaked in water - 5 to 10
Onion - 1 big
Ginger Garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Coriander to garnish

Method:

1) Heat a tsp of oil and fry the chopped onions till dark brown. Set aside. Fry dhania,sesame,khus khus,peanuts and coconut one by one. Grind all this together including onions and cashews into a smooth paste. Mix tamarind paste, turmeric and chilli powder with this.
2)Slit the brinjal like + at the base.Retain the stem if you like it or have it cut.
3)Heat oil in a pan and arrange the brinjals. Turn occasionally and cook all the sides. Keep aside.
4)Heat the remaining oil, season with jeera and dry chillies.Fry the ginger garlic paste. Add the ground coconut paste and cook for 2 min.
5)Add 1 to 2 cups water, salt and bring it to boil. Add the brinjals and cook for a while till the masala gets into the brinjal.
6)Garnish with coriander and serve hot with roti or rice.

I served it with peas pulav, which would be my next entry for kwik fix series. So, look forward to it.

More kuzhambu

is loosely translated to yoghurt gravy and is popular among iyers.

I am updating my blog after a long break (a week) mainly because I was away on a vacation. I returned two days back but certain amount of laziness crept in and I was in a laid back mood. My own blog seems unfamiliar after the break and I had to try really hard to defy my laziness and break the silence. That explains how hard I work to get myself active. :)

Had an awesome holiday. Everything went on fine except for the awfully bad food. Being a vegetarian, I had to resort to cheese pizza and fries all the time. The cheese and potato made me really sick. Sick enough to transform me from a potato lover to a staunch hater of it. I despise the very sight of potatoes. Hope I will get back to the normal self after a week or so. I just wanted to gain access to my own sweet kitchen and started craving for healthy home food. I really wonder how some Indians could change their food habits and thrive on pizzas and like. It's never an healthy option and I think I can never change my food habits anytime anywhere. Infact, I am really proud of Indian food varieties. I see non-Indians falling crazy for Indian food and that explains the goodness of our food culture.

But being a foodie, I like trying diff varieties now and then. I started loving mexican food since it offers more choice for even veggies like me.

Coming back to the post, this is a typical south Indian food made regularly at home. I made it this time with lady's finger. You can even use pumpkin, taro (arbi) or chayote squash(chow chow).

I have given two methods though I posted the pic for the first method only. First is the Tanjore style and second, Kerala style.
Finally, my blog looks updated and I am glad for getting back on track.




Ingredients:

Okra - 5 chopped
Thin Yoghurt or sour butter milk.(If the yoghurt is not sour, mix half a tsp tamarind paste)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
For Paste
Coconut - 1.5 tablespoon
Red chillies - 2 medium sized
Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
Soaked thoor dhall - 2 tsp
Channa dhall - 2 tsp
Dhania - 1 tsp
Fry the channa dhall, dhania, red chillies and fenugreek till light brown in a tsp of oil and grind together with coconut and thoor dhall.
Seasoning: Curry leaves, mustard, fenugreek 1/2 tsp, coconut oil or sesame oil or mix both.
salt to taste

Method:
1. Fry the okra in oil till crisp. Generally it is deep fried, but suddenly I turn calorie conscious and hence used a little oil to fry. Mix a little salt and keep aside.
2. Mix yoghurt, turmeric, hing, salt and ground paste.
3. Season the ingredients under seasoning, mix the curd and okra. Simmer a little and don't boil; otherwise the curd might break. That's the standing instruction for anything cooked with yoghurt.
Your gravy is ready to serve. Good to go with rice.

Method 2: Grind coconut, 1 tsp of cumin, 3 green chillies and use the paste in the similar way as method 1.

PS: For veggies other than okra, just boil and add. Don't fry.

Avial - My Comfort Food

Avial - an amazing yet simple dish from God's own country - Kerala. I got introduced to this lovely dish, way back, when I was a child and so I call it my comfort food. This made our standard sunday lunch - we would have rice, avial and pappad for lunch. Infact, I would go for a second round and have a bowl of avial, just like tat. Whenever, I make or eat this, I get transported to those lovely days. I would say it is a family favourite. Nutritious and yummy. Though cooking avial is easy, preparation time is more since we got to cut a lot of veggies. After some yrs, when I grew up, I took the job of buying the fresh veg and cutting it down. I, being a vegetable lover, would happily venture out selecting diff veg for avial. I wouldn't even mind a long walk to the veg market. Just the sight of the fresh veg would help me unwind. I would even try to be creative by getting bajji milaga (banana peppers) or tindora to add to the curry. I'm totally crazy about fresh veg. You got the idea, right?

I can offer you a tip here. If you are that kind of a person, who feels cutting a lot of vegetables is tedious, try to save the veg you cut during the course of the week.You can save time and effort that way. But take care that you cut them into thin slices suitable for avial and that too, of uniform size. This way you can store cut carrots, pumpkin, yam and beans in the fridge. But as far as I'm concerned, I like to cut them fresh just before cooking. I never use frozen veg that are available in the market. (except for peas) So, you decide the best.

White pumpkin is the major ingredient of avial and try not to omit it. But, in my opinion, nothing is mandatory and use up all vegetables you can. (However, avoid brinjal or okra)
If you do not have any other veg, you can make a simple avial with just white pumpkin. The combination of white pumpkin, coconut, green chillies and coconut oil is just awesome.

If you are such a perfectionist and have lot of patience, boil each veg separately or group them depending on the cooking time they require. I generally mix everything , add salt and pressure cook. I don't see any major problems. However, I do not pressure cook the drumsticks since they might break into sticks on overcooking. I will microwave it separately and mix with the rest. Coconut oil is mandatory and don't substitute it.

Ingredients:
Carrot - 1
Beans - 10
Chow Chow (Chayote squash) - 1
White pumpkin (must)- a small piece
Yellow pumpkin - a small piece
Raw banana - 1 small
Raw mango - a small bit (optional, add if you really like it)
Yam - a small piece (I dont add it, since I get only frozen yam)
Potato - 1
Peas - 1/4 cup
Drumstick - 1
Curd - 1 cup (I do not like using sour curd, if you like the taste, go ahead and use it)
Coconut - 1/2 a cup
Cumin - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 5 to 7
Turmeric - a pinch (I like white avial so I do not add it)
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 1 tablespoon (If you are health conscious add a little for taste. But this is mandatory)
Curry leaves - to garnish

Method:

1. Pressure cook the veg with a little water. When half cooked, mix the salt and cook again till done. Don't overcook, you should be able to see every veg in its original form.

2. Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin. Add this paste to the curd and mix well.

3.Add the curd mixture to the cooked veg and heat for a while. Just till everything blends. Too much heat will break the curd.

4. Switch off the gas, add the coconut oil and garnish with curry leaves.

Serve hot with rice and pappad. I like to eat this with bisibela bath.

Chole Masala

It's time for some authentic Punjabi food. Are you looking for the recipe of the famous Chole Masala? You have landed, rightly here! I have seen several versions of the recipe using tea for inducing black colour. I sort of, don't like the idea and omitted it conveniently.Well,convenience both in terms of cooking and eating.

When did I actually fell in love with the dish? The best channa masala I have had till date, surprisingly does not come from a dhaba. It is indeed from my fav Saravana Bhavan. However, I have had it in the hotel's Chennai branches a couple of years back and not sure whether it is the same now. During my college days, I used to have a plate of cutlet channa from the restaurant atleast once a week, while walking back home from the bus stop. The plate was served, garnished with a chilli, slices of onion, a ring of tomato, a wedge of lemon and chopped coriander. Nothing to beat the taste. In an effort to recreate the magic, I tried this recipe and I should say, it tasted different yet wonderful. Mine is closer to the Dhabha taste and therfore I can rightfully claim that it is authentic chole masala. May be, the dish at Saravana Bhavan was tweaked a bit to be able to go as a chaat.

Kabuli channa is rich in proteins and that makes this a nutritious food. You can have this with batura, poori, roti or even with bread or cutlet as chaat. Garnishing with onions and lemon really does the trick and enhances the taste.

Ingredients:
Boiled channa - 3 or 4 cups(Soak the channa overnight and pressure cook till completely done)
Onion - 1 big
Tomatoes - 2 Medium
Cilantro - Handful
Green chillies - 3 medium
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhania powder - 1 tsp
Chole masala - 1 tsp
Ginger and garlic - just enough to make a teaspoon of paste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Kasoori methi - 1 tsp(Optional)
To garnish: Chopped coriander, sliced onions, Lemon wedge

Method:

Paste 1: Onions(Optional), ginger and garlic. (Read this if you are grinding onions)
Paste 2: Cilantro, green chillies and tomato
Paste 3: Grind a handful of boiled channa

1. Heat the oil and season with Jeera.
2. Add paste 1 and fry till light brown. If you are not grinding onions, add chopped onions and fry. Now a days, I have resorted to chopping onions.
3. Add paste 2, turmeric, dhania powder and chilli powder. Cook till done.
4. Add the cooked channa and a little water. Add salt, chole masala, kasoori methi and boil. Mix Paste 3.
5. Serve hot with pooris, bhatura or rotis. Don't forget to garnish with onions and lime.



Tip: Add half a tsp of chaat masala if you are serving as bread channa or cutlet channa.

Sending this to Sunday Snacks - Chaats hosted by Pallavi.

Keerai (greens) molagootal

This is a traditional Palakkad iyer dish which is quite famous at my home. One irony about the dish is, though it is called molagootal, we don't add any molagu(pepper corns)to it. I see lot of people mentioning about pepper in their molagootal recipes. But the authentic recipe doesn't have any pepper and this is highly nutritious, non-spicy food, good for everyone.Molagootal is made using ara keerai and since I get only spinach here, I made use of it. Other famous molagootals are cabbage,mixed veg(raw banana,carrot,yam,potato,chow-chow), just chayote squash(chow-chow), yellow pumpkin and you can always be creative and come up with your own combination. I'm tired today to post anything eloborate and so limiting myself to a simple recipe. This can be made in a jiffy specially with the kind of spinach you get here. It's so clean and fresh unlike Chennai where we got to spend a lot of time in cleaning up greens. But of kors, you don't get so many Indian varieties here. That's a trade-off and I am actually quite happy that I get a lot of Indian veggies here. I never expected so much.Spinach is a great source of iron,vitamin A,B and C and this is one great way to consume it without losing the nutrition. This has spinach,dal and coconut making it tasty,healthy and nutritious. Now let us get cooking.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 2 cups finely chopped

Thoor dhall - half a cup cooked

coconut - 1 to 2 table spoons

Red chillies- 2 medium

jeera - 2tsp

urad dhall - 2 tsp

Mustard - 2 tsp

coconut oil - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:

1. Cook the spinach and mix the cooked dhall.

2. Grind coconut,chillies and jeera into a paste and add to spinach.

3. Boil till frothy and season with urad dhall, mustard, asafoetida in coconut oil base.

Use the same method to make any molagootal substituting spinach with a diff veggie.

Goes well with vetha kozhambu or rasam rice. Also, plain rice and pickle makes a good combo to spice up this non-spicy dish.

Shahi Paneer

I have an exciting array of recipes up my sleeve, waiting to get posted sooner or later. This one in particular has been staying in my digi cam for a little over two months and finally managed to find its way to my blog. Yet another paneer dish waiting to reach your taste buds! Well, only if you wish to make it for yourself. So much for just writing the recipe!

Shahi means royal and this is definitely royal with rich ingredients. This is actually similar to paneer butter masala except that I add curd to it. But i have seen some people adding curd to PBM also. So I am not sure about the actual differences between the two but I have slight differences in my recipes. Well, it doesn't really pain to add one more recipe to my database without much effort. I mean in terms of remembering a new set of ingredients and method that an extremely different recipe would call for.

I'm really proud or rather happy for having been born in such a country which has so many food varieties. I'm enthralled by the extreme diversity of food culture in India. It differs from state to state and sometimes even within a state like how we have the Chettinad cuisine which is different from the normal Tamilnadu cuisine. Well, this deserves a separate blog entry and I do not want to dilute its intensity by writing more about it in this post.

INGREDIENTS:

onions 1 or 2
tomatoes 2 medium sized
paneer cubes 10 to 15
Sliced ginger and garlic - 1 to 2 tsp
curd 1/2 cup
coriander handful
chilli powder 3 tsp
dhania powder 2 tsp
garam masala - 1 tsp
jeera powder 1 tsp
fresh spice powder 1/2 tsp (cardomom,cinnamon,cloves)

for frying
butter 50 g
oil 1/4 cup

soak and grind to a smooth paste
cashew 2 table spoon
khus khus 1 table spoon

METHOD

1. Slice the onions, fry till light brown in 2 tablespoons of oil,grind to a fine paste and keep aside.
2. Cut tomatoes and ginger into small pieces, fry then in the same oil, grind to a smooth paste and keep aside.
3. Heat oil and butter, add the onion paste, thinly sliced garlic and fry till dark brown.
4. Add the cashew khus khus paste and fry well.
5. Add the tomato and ginger pulp and cook well.
6. Add the dry powders
7. Finally add the curd and cook well
8. Add 2 cups of water, fresh spice powder,coriander and then the paneer.
9.Serve hot with cream

More Keerai

translated into english means spinach in buttermilk gravy. This simple dish pairing with vetha kozhambu makes a heavenly lunch. Though I love eating masala and spicy dishes, nothing can beat a humble south Indian dish. Home food to me means typical iyer food and I would vouch for it anytime.Hailing from Palakad, I have been exposed to both Tanjore and Palakad kind of cooking. Take the case of simple morekozhambu, my mother used to make both kinds.

This is a small variation to the usual spinach kootu. I love greens but unfortunately the only available (Indian) keerai here is spinach and I am left with no other option. I can eat boiled greens with salt without even adding anything to spice it up. For that matter, I can have any veg just like that including bitterguord. That explains my affinity to vegetables. I really do not like frying them with lot of oil. More than the health factor, I feel the flavour of veg is lost that way and every veg has a distinct taste to be savoured.






Ingredients:


Spinach 2 cups finely chopped
Coconut - 2 table spoon
Butter milk - 1 cup (If u have only thick curd, just dilute it with water)
Green chillies - 2 to 3 depending on your taste
salt to taste
coconut oil,Mustard, urad dhall and red chilli to season


Method:


1. Boil the spinach with water and add salt.
2. Grind green chillies and coconut to a smooth paste. You can also add a tsp of jeera if you wish to.
3. Add the paste to the spinach and boil till frothy. Switch off the gas and add the butter milk.
4. Season with the ingredients listed for seasoning

Dum aloo gravy

comes as a follow-up of the aloo fry I made few days ago. Dum aloo has potatoes simmered in tomato gravy along with Indian spices. I have made this the Punjabi way. I guess for the Kashmiri style, dry fruits are stuffed inside potato balls. Somehow, the idea does not appeal to me and I feel dry fruits are made for sweets and desserts. I like to have it the spicy way. Here's one more recipe that gets into the punjabi, aloo label. Go for it!

Ingredients:

Potatoes or baby potatoes - 1/2 kg

Onions - 2

Tomato - 2

Curd - 2 tablespoon

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 2 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Dry roast and grind to powder:

Dry Chillies - 3

Pepper - 2 tsp

Dhaniya - 2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 1

Cardomom - 1

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes, Cut into small cubes, deep fry in oil till golden brown and keep aside.

2. Add oil and fry the chopped onions or onion paste till light brown. Read this if you are using onion paste.

3. Add the tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, salt and cook.

4. Add the fried potatoes and spice powder. Add curd and a little water and simmer the gravy.

5. Garnish with coriander.

And I forgot to tell you, this is the one that enlightened me about the use of onion paste - my previous post.

Veg Kurma

is a rich, creamy vegetable gravy which dates back to the 16th century. This goes well with north indian roties and south indian appam, puri and idiyappam. It makes an awesome combo with pulav and biriyani varieties as well.

Ingredients:

Beans -20 nos

Peas 1 cup

potatoes - 2

Carrots - 2

Tomatoes - 1

Coconut milk - half a cup

Turmeric powder 1tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Butter- 1 tablespoon

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Paste 1:

Onion - 1

Green chillies - 4

Coriander leaves- handful

Paste 2:

Cocunut -2 tablespoon

Cashews 5 to 10 soaked in water for 15 min

Method:

1. Chop the veggies finely

2. Heat butter, season with fennel seeds, add paste 1 and fry

3. Add the vegetables and a cup of water. Cook for a while and add the coconut milk. Add more Water as per your requirement.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes, dry powders and cook for 2 min

5. Add Paste 2 and cook till the gravy thickens

PS:

1. You can add a piece of ginger and few garlic cloves to paste 1.

2. You may include a tsp of garam masala with the dry powders

Pumpkin Puli Pachadi (sour gravy)

This is a dish from palakkad regularly made at home. Pumpkins can be substituted by lady's finger. Generally it is made using either of the two.

Ingredients:

yellow pumpkin chopped into pieces - 1 cup

tamarind paste - 1 tsp or tamarind extract from a lemon-size ball

coconut - 1 tablespoon

mustard seeds - 1 1/2 tsp

Green Chillies - 4

Urad dhall - 1 tsp

Coconut oil - 1 tsp

salt to taste

Coriander to Garnish

Method:
1) Boil the yellow pumpkin with 2 cups water till soft

2) Add the tamarind paste and salt. Check for the water content and add some more if required 3) Grind cocount,half a tsp mustard(Hold the rest for seasoning) and green chillies into a smooth paste

4) Add the paste and boil till frothy(Don't boil too much after adding coconut)

5) Temper the mustard and fry the urad dhall in the oil and season the gravy

6) Garnish with chopped coriander

Panner Butter Masala

Paneer Butter Masala is a rich, creamy and yet spicy preparation of paneer in a tomato gravy . It is basically a punjabi dish and anyone would crave for it. Though it looks and sounds a bit complicated with so many ingredients, it is a relatively easy preparation and you can make it restaurant-like so quickly.

Ingredients:

Onions - 1/4 kg

Tomatoes - 1/4 kg

Paneer cubes - 1 cup

Khus khus and cashew paste 2 tablespoons

Dry powders
Turmeric powder 1 tsp

Chilli powder 2 tsp

Dhaniya powder 2 tsp

Garam Masala powder 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Spice powder

(To be fried in oil and powdered)

cardomom, cinnamon, cloves 4 each

For Frying

Oil 1 tablespoon

Butter 1 tablespoon

For seasoning

Jeera 2 tsp

Bay leaves 2 to 3

Coriander 1/2 bunch

Kasoori methi a pinch

For garnishing

Fresh Cream 1 table spoon

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter and season with jeera and bay leaves.

2. Fry the chopped onions till dark brown

3. Now add khus khus cashew paste and fry well.

4. Add the dry powders

5. Mix well and add the grated tomatoes

6. Add salt and simmer till the oil comes out

7. Add about 2 cups water and panner cubes

8. Sprinkle the spice powder and chopped coriander

9. Decorate with cream and serve hot.

Tips:

1. It is gud to add grated tomatoes to give a nice texture.

2. Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) really does the trick. Try to add them without fail to give a nice aroma and flavor

3. Home made paneer recipe : Raw milk - 1 litre ; Sour curd-1 cup; Lime juice

Boil the milk and add curd and lime juice.

Stir till the whey water is clear

Strain in a thin cloth

Place a weight on the top and keep for sometime.

( I have always used ready-made paneer and I find it equally good. If you could invest so much time and patience, try this :) )