Bisibele Bhat

Bisibele bhat is a very popular South Indian rice dish which has all the flavours like sweet, salt, spicy, and can safely be called a whole meal since it has lentil and vegetables too. When it is eaten topped with a dollop of clarified butter and lentil crispies as accompaniment the the pleasure multiplies.

Ingredients
1 cup rice, I used brown rice, 1 cup split  pigeon pea lentil (Toor dal)
1/2 cup french beans chopped into medium sized pieces
1/2 cup broad beans
1/2 cup carrots chopped into medium sized pieces
1/4 cup green peas
6-7 curry leaves
A small spoon of turmeric powder and a small spoon of asafoetida
All the above ingredients need to be pressure cooked with 3 cups of water to three whistles, since there is brown rice. If you use white rice then 2 whistles will suffice.

Now for grinding into a paste
1/2 cuep grated dry coconut
1 t spoon cumin seeds
1 t spoon coriander seeds
1/2 t spoon black peppercorns
3 t spoons tamarind paste
2 marathi moggu, a spice looking like cloves used in South indian dishes
6 dry red chillies
A few fenugreek seeds

For tempering you need 4 teaspoons of oil, some mustard seeds, some turmeric powder, some asafoetida powder, 3 red chillies roughly broken, few curry leaves.

Keep 1/4 cup grated jaggery, the use of which I will specify in the method.

Method

Once the pressure cooked ingredients are ready which you will be directly making in the pressure cooker, continue the process in the pressure cooker itself. Add salt as required, add the ground paste, add the tempering, now comes the grated jaggery, mix all well, keep covered without the whistle, on the gas again on low flame for the jaggery to melt and all the spices get infused in the rice mix. This should take not more than 7-10 minutes, but keep a look out so it does not burn. The consistency should be a bit runny. Now serve the dish with crispies or papads of your choice, and a dollop of clarified butter. Tastes best with the Lijjat punjabi masala papad or the traditional South Indian Papad.

                                                 
                                                     Cumin Flavoured Potato Cauliflower

A super tasty vegetable made of potato  and cauliflower with the dominating cumin flavour. I can never forget this tasty breakfast dish which was packed for us on this misty morning  when we started off from Hotel Spick And Span at Leh for the awesome Pangong Lake. The aroma of this vegetable is still there in my memory, the lovely pooris actually complimented the dish. I came back home and learnt to make it, since then it  is often one of the favourites on my dining menu.

Ingredients

4 poatoes chopped into medium sized squares, medium sized florets of 1 cauliflower par boiled and drained, ready to go into the spicemix.
1 tspoon of cumin seeds
1 tspoon of chilli powder
1 small spoon turmeric powder
1 small spoon asefotida
1 heaped tspoon of cumin poder
Salt to taste
Corinader for garnishing
3 tspoons of mustard oil 

Method

Take mustard oil in a kadhai, let it heat well, add the cumin seeds, let them splutter, add the asefotida, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and give it a quick stir, now add the parbolied vegetables, sprinkle very little water and let the vegetable cook open, I chose to add even the fresh coriander in the oil, it tastes awesome in my opinion, let the vegetables almost cook to a golden brown in the spices, at this stage you can remove the pan from the flame. Tranfer into a serving bowl. The brown crust which forms at the bottom can be scraped and ....this tastes awesome too. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with hot Indian fried flat bread... phew!! I mean puris. 

                                                             Stuffed Baby Bittergourd

This vegetable was made on an impulse, I went to the market and my eyes fell on these super fresh baby gourds and I was instantly tempted to pick them up, so  here comes the dish made out of them. Showing you the picture of the stuffed ones before they are ready because I have neither scraped them, nor have I boiled them in salt water and drained them. Without doing any of this the vegetable tastes super yummy.

Ingredients

300 gms of baby bittergourd, sides removed with a slit in the middle, deseeded
1/2 freshly scraped coconut
5 onions 
2 tomatoes
2 tspoons of ginger garlic paste
A small bunch of coriander
2 tspoons of malwani masala
1 tspoon of garam masala
1 tspoon amchur powder
2 tspoons of chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method
For grinding take 2 roughly chopped onions, the scraped coconut, 1 tspoon of chilli powder, 1/2 tspoon amchur, salt to taste. 1 spoon of ginger garlic paste 1 tomato roughly chopped, garam masala and keep the paste ready, 

In a kadhai take oil, add 3 finely chopped onions, 1 tspoon ginger garlic paste, sautee till golden brown, add the finely chopped tomato, little chopped coriander, 1/2 tspoon amchur, 1 tspoon of chilli powder, malwani masala, salt to taste and let it cook well till it comes together and leaves the sides of the kadhai. Once it cools stuff this in the gourds as shown in the picture. 

Now take some oil and add the stuffed gourds into this, sprinkle little salt and water, cook them covered, till almost done. In the meanwhile in another kadhai add a bit of oil and add the ground paste and keep it to cook till it leaves oil, now add the remaining masala if any, after stuffing the bitter gourds, add the stuffed gourds and let this cook for a while, add water as per requirement, see that the gourds are well cooked, take care to stir carefully so the gourds do not break open. This tastes best with phulkas or parathas.

                               
                                   Aubergine Salad With Red Green And Yellow Bell Peppers

This salad is also known by the name of Baingan Ka Bharta commonly. I have put in  my experi-mental twist to it. My guests loved the dish, hope you all like it too. The roasted smoky flavour gives it a super flavour.

Ingredients

1 big sized aubergine, usually used for the salad and it is mostly seedless or with very few seeds.
The aubergine should be roasted on the gas directly after smearing little oil over it. The cooked pulp removed  kept ready.
2 green chillies chopped into small pieces
Fresh thick yogurt as per need
1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper, all chopped into small squares
Salt to taste
Coriander for garnishing

Method
 In a pan take some oil, add the green chilli, saute a bit, add the bell peppers and sautee on a high flame, see that they do not get fully cooked, they should be crunchy in the bite, reduce the flame, now add the roasted aubergine pulp, salt to taste and mix and cook for five minutes, remove in the serving bowl. Cool it and then add the yogurt, garnish with coriander, serve with bhakri or chapati. 

                                                       

Vegetable Made Of red Cabbage

Chinese cabbage, my version.

Ingredients

1 small sized chinese cabbage chopped into fine julliens
1 tbspn coconut oil
3 green chillies chopped
1 small spoon split black lentil (Udad dal)
Mustard seeds, asefotida and turmeric powder for the tempering
Salt to taste
1/2 cup freshly scraped coconut

Method

In a kadhai put oil, mustard seeds, once they splutter add asafotida and turmeric powder, then the split black lentil, ad the chopped chillies, stir a bit add the cabbage, coconut, salt to taste and cover to cook after sprinkling water, keep checking the moisture from time to time and sprinkling water to see that it remains moist all through. Once it cooks add fresh scraped coconut and coriander for garnish and serve with phulka or chapati. Enjoy:)

Tehri Pulao...this is a very tasty pahadi way of making flavoured rice. Learnt from a cookery show, turned out to be very delicious and has taken a very special place in my kitchen from then.

Ingredients
2 cups long grain basmati rice
1 potato chopped into squares, 1 cup cauliflower florets, 1 small cup green peas, 1 small cup carrot chopped into squares,1 small cup french beans broken roughly into pieces
2 table spoons of mustard oil
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon
3 green cardamom
1 brown cardamom
10 pepper corns
3 cloves
2 finely chopped onions
1 tbspn ginger garlic paste
2 green chillies slit in the centre
1 tspn cumin pdr
1 tspn coriander pdr
1 tspn chilli pdr
1/4 cup water mixed with a pinch of asafoetida and 1 small spoon turmeric pdr
Salt to taste
1 cup curd
Juice of half a lime
Finely chopped coriander for garnishing

Method
In a pressure cooker take mustard oil, add 2 green cardamoms,2 cloves half the brown cardamom, bay leaf,let them leave aroma, then add onion, ginger garlic paste,slit green chilli, saute till brown, then add the remaining 1 green cardamom, 1 clove, half the brown cardamom, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, water with asefoetida and turmeric, mix well, add the vegetable, the washed rice, salt to taste, the curd stir well, mix water according to need see that the rice does not become sticky when cooked.give it two whistles and after it is cooked drizzle little mustard oil on top and serve with garnished coriander. ,