Egg Curry
A delicious dish to be savored with rice and roti or even bread would make a great accompaniment. Mildly flavoured yet a pleasure on the plate. Here goes my recipe....
Ingredients
6 eggs boiled and peeled
4 onions chopped finely
2 tomatoes finely chopped
2 tspns tamarind pulp
1 tbsp ginger garlic crushed
Salt to taste
For grinding to a paste
1 onion
1 cup freshly scraped coconut
1 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 black peppercorns
A few fenugreek seeds (6-7)
4 green chillies
Some fresh coriander
Method
In a pan take either sunflower oil or coconut oil, I used coconut. Add the onions, saute till golden, add the ginger garlic, fry till the rawness goes away, add tomatoes cook till mushy. Now add the ground paste and keep cooking till well done and the oil separates, lastly add the pulp of tamarind and salt, cook well. Add water and adjust the consistency, you can make it depending on whether you are eating it with roti or rice. Add eggs cut the way you can see in the picture. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve.
Aloo Rajma
A post by my sweet friend/inspiration, Shimpa Rathore, she always posts new dishes from the hills and valleys o of India. They are so inspiring and the pictures are so tempting that you feel like jumping on to the plate and just tasting what is in it!! I felt like all my friends should have the recipe of this dish which is from the pundits of Himachal and Kashmir. Aloo Rajma with no onion garlic. Served with soft piping hot white rice. Here goes the recipe followed to the T.......
Ingredients
Rajma 250 gms
Potatoes 4med
Mustard oil 2 tbsp
Hing 2 1/2 tsp
Deghi mirch 3 tsp
Garam masala powder 3 tsp
Saunf powder 1tbsp
Dry ginger powder 3/4 tbsp
Dahi 4 tbsp
Salt
Method
Soak rajma for 6-8 hours. Peel and halve each potato. Heat mustard oil in a pressure cooker, add the hing and potatoes. Once slightly browned,add the rajma, and all the masala powders and salt. Mix well. Add well beaten dahi and enough water. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles and it’s done. Serve with fluffy white rice.
Palak Pulao
Bored of eating dal and chawal everyday! I made this typically wintry green rice with matar and palak. Goodness of the sweet taste every pea brings into a bite, the spice of the aromatics and the freshness of the greens makes this dish a delight on the palette. Does not need any accompaniment. So here is the simple recipe .......
1&1/2 cups of basmati rice, wash drain and keep aside
1 cup of fresh green peas
All the below ingredients to be blended into a smooth paste
10 leaves of spinach roughly chopped
1 small bunch of coriander roughly chopped
A few mint leaves
1/2 tomato roughly chopped
1 inch ginger chopped
4 garlic cloves
3 green chillies
1 onion roughly chopped
Juice of half a lime
Method
In a pressure cooker take some oil, splutter some cumin seeds, add turmeric just a bit for colour, now add the ground paste and saute till it leaves the sides, add the rice, mix a bit, add the peas, water as required so the rice becomes neither too sticky nor too separated, add water keeping in mind the moisture from the paste. Mix well, add salt, cook to 2 whistles and the dish is ready.
Spiced Indian Flat Bread With Raw Papaya
I always get tempted with all the green and fresh vegetables in the market. Now since winter is setting in the vendors have a wide variety of vegetables. What attracted me was the small cute raw papaya sitting in one one of the vendor's baskets!! Bought it, came home and thought of how to use it! I made parathas, one of my experi-mental dishes. Turned out good, worth a share. So here goes my recipe with some tips from my son.
Ingredients
1 small raw papaya peeled and grated
1 small bunch of coriander chopped
A handful of mint leaves roughly chopped
2 grated gooseberries
2 tbspns of crushed chilli
1 tspn of cumin powder
Salt to taste
Some oil
Wheat flour as required
Method
In a mixing bowl or a paraat take all the above mentioned ingredients except the flour, mix well with your hand. Leave it for about 15 minutes to release juices and also the papaya to absorb the spices. Now start adding the wheat flour, keep mixing till you get a nice firm dough. Drizzle with oil, make small balls, roll out the parathas, roast on a pan as shown in the picture, use oil or ghee. They are ready to be served with some home made yogurt, pickle and kadhi.
Paneer, Kasoori Methi Poori
Fried Indian bread with the goodness of cottage cheese and some dried fenugreek, can be eaten as a breakfast, lunch or an evening snack. Tastes best as is or with chutneys, pickles and a bowl of fresh yogurt, freid green chilli goes without saying!! Here goes my recipe.....
Ingredients
Whole wheat flour as per need
1/2 cup of semolina
200 gms of grated cottage cheese/ paneer
3 tspns of crushed kasuri methi
3 grated gooseberries/ amla
1 tspn of jeera powder
2 tspns of crushed green chilli
Salt to taste
No need of oil while making the dough since the paneer would be giving you the required oiliness
Method
In a large mixing bowl take all the ingredients other than the wheat flour, add whet flour stage by stage as you mix the dough, we are not using any water so the flour needs to be added to make a tight dough for pooris/fried Indian bread. Once the dough is made, leave it to rest for about ten minutes. Now make small balls, roll them out and fry them in oil as shown in the picture. Your dish is ready to savour with any of the above mentioned accompaniments.
Kadabu
That is the name given to this awesomely delicious sweet preparation from North Karnataka. Offered to the Elephant God Ganesha. The story goes that he ate 21 of these kadabus and went on a ride home on his vehicle The Mouse. He fell down because the little mouse could not bear his weight!! It was night and there was the Moon who burst out into a laughter seeing this. Lord Ganesha got furious and cursed the moon saying that people who looked at him on that particular day would get into trouble!!
So we too eat many of these with lots of home made clarified butter during the festival and sleep away. Here goes the recipe for the same......
For the stuffing
1 cup of bengal gram lentil, soaked for 8 hours and pressure cooked to three whistles, water should be just enough for the lentil to submerge.
1/2 cup grated jaggery
1/4 nutmeg grated
6 strands of saffron
1/2 tspn of green cardamom powder
1 tspn of poppy seeds dry roasted
For the dough
2 cups of wheat flour
1/4 cup semolina
4 tbspns of oil
1/4 tspn of salt
Oil for frying the Kadabus
Method
Make the dough like we make for pooris with the dough ingredients mentioned above, keep to rest till you get the stuffing ready.
Once the lentil is cool enough add all the ingredients except the saffron strands and poppy seeds, make a ground paste. Now in a pan transfer the paste, add the saffron and poppy seeds, stir on low flame till it becomes a semi dry mixture. See that the consistency is such that the stuffing will not moisten the dough and break in the oil while frying. Keep ready.
Now make small balls out of the dough, roll out each, stuff enough mixture, close and make folds the way I made them in the picture. Fry on medium flame to a nice crisp golden colour, enjoy with home made clarified butter.
Paneer Palak Bhuna
An enjoyable accompaniment with roti, phulka or naan. Bhuna means sauteing the spices, the aromatics and the greens without using any water or salt which would give out moisture or even covering here while cooking is avoided. This I learnt from a friend. I like to eat bhuna in restaurants so tried making it and enjoyed it. Here goes the way I made it.....
Ingredients
1 bunch of palak cleaned and chopped fine
200 gms of paneer grated
2 onions chopped fine
1 tomato chopped fine
2 tspns of ginger garlic paste
1 tspn garam masala
1 tspn of chilli powder or as per taste
Salt to taste
Some chopped coriander
Method
In a pan take oil, add chopped onion, saute till golden, add the ginger garlic paste, saute till done, now add the palak, wait till all the moisture goes away from the vegetable, that is to bhuno the vegetable, now add the tomato and the rest of the ingredients and stir well till the tomato becomes mushy and one with rest of the ingredients. Once done add the paneer and mix well, do not cook the paneer for long since it will become dry. Garnish with coriander and serve.
