Saturday, 31 December 2016

                                                               
                                                                     Sarson Ka Saag

Come winter and the market is full of the fresh mustard leaves, green and tempting. Inviting you to make the famous sarson ka saag and makke di roti. So I too made it and enjoyed the evergreen recipe.

Ingredients
All ingredients below to be pressure cooked to just one whistle with just enough water
1 bunch mustard leaves, 1 bunch of spinach leaves, 1 bunch of chenopodium album ( bathua in Hindi and chakwat in Marathi) stocks removed washed, roughly chopped
1 onion roughly chopped
1 tomato roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 inch ginger crushed
3 green chillies crushed
1/2 tspn of salt

For tempering you need 
White butter 2 tspns
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 tspn of ginger garlic paste

For the final step
 2 tspns of corn flour, as in the flour of corn, makai ka aata
1 tspn garam masala

Method
The pressure cooked ingredients should be roughly blended by a hand blender and kept ready

In a deep bottomed pan take the white butter, add the ginger garlic paste, saute, add the onion , saute till golden, add the pressure cooked ingredients, mix well, add salt carefully since we already added a bit, add the makai ka aata, stir to see there are no lumps. Mix well and serve with makke ki roti.








Monday, 26 December 2016



Hummus with Garlic Bread and Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients for the hummus
200 gms chick peas soaked overnight and pressure cooked with a pinch of soda
8-10 cherry tomatoes
3 teaspoons of olive oil
Salt to taste 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper powder
Juice of half a lime
Method
Grind all the above ingredients to a fine paste remove in a bowl and cut the cherry tomatoes into fours and use as garnish, tomatoes are optional.
For the garlic bread
Take some olive oil put mix crushed garlic and oregano powder in it, spread it over the bread and toast them on a pan, crisp or soft as u like to eat them.
Garlic toast and the hummus is now ready to savour, if u like more olive oil u can pour some over each serving according to taste.

Saturday, 24 December 2016


Rice with fresh winter special pulses
This is a quick fix rice dish, when you have unexpected guests and you need to make a filling dish with ingredients usually available in every household. I have used fresh tur dana or green pigeon peas, harbhara or green whole chickpea. They actually take the taste of the simple dish to another level! I was also pleased to use the fresh coriander which grew in my tiny balcony.

Ingredients
2 cups long grain rice
50 gms harbhara
50 gms Tur dana (fresh green pigeon pea)
1 onion finely chopped

Ingredients to be made into a paste
3 green chillies
1/2 an inch of ginger roughly chopped
1 small tomato roughly chopped
1 onion roughly chopped
1 small bunch coriander cleaned and just roughly torn
4 cloves garlic
Juice of half a lime

Method
Keep the paste ready of the ingredients above mentioned.
In a cooker take little oil, add the chopped onion, let it cook till light brown, add the masala paste, salt to taste, the pigeon peas and the chickpeas, rice, mix well, add water double the quantity of rice, give it 2 whistles and it is ready. Serve hot topped with finely chopped coriander.
This dish according to me does not need any accompaniment, but if you do feel like it, then have yogurt or curry with it.
This tastes good when made with any of the seasonal whole green pulses available in the market.

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

                             
                              Huli, A typically south Indian Spiced Lentil Curry with Vegetables.

You will surely find this curry in all functions in South indian, weddings and also in temples and maths where there is lunch served after we finish worshipping God. Tangy, tasty and spicy. The picture above shows you the curry with red pumpkin which I have chosen to use in the curry, served with rice. This is usually made with vegetables like white pumpkin, drumsticks, french beans and carrots. 

Ingredients
1 cup split pigeon pea lentil pressure cooked to 2 whistles with the vegetables chopped into medium sized cubes, a pinch of turmeric powder, a pinch of asafoetida, a few curry leaves.

The ingredients below need to be ground into a fine powder
6 dry red chillies
1 tsp poppy seeds
2 marathi moggu
1 small piece of cinnamon
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper corns
1 small ball of tamarind
Salt to taste

Method
In a deep bottomed pan put oil, add mustard seeds let them splutter, add turmeric powder, asafoetida and now add the pressure cooked lentil with vegetables, add the ground powder, add water as per your liking to bring it to a curry consistency,  let this come to a boil and add salt only if required since we already added salt. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with steaming hot rice.

There is an option of using onion in the tempering, i have chosen to skip it so I could only taste the aromatics and nothing else. I have also used only red pumpkin pieces.

This cute little pumpkin prompted me to make this dish.



Tuesday, 20 December 2016

                                    
Double Beans Curry with Egg

Ingredients
200 gms of pressure cooked double beans
2 eggs
1 onion chopped into long pieces
For the paste
2 onions chopped in long piece
2 tomatoes
5 green chillies
Some green coriander leave( a small bunch)
1/2 Dry grated coconut
6 cloves of garlic
2 cloves
A tiny piece of cinnamon
A table spoon of lime juice
Salt to taste

Method
Take a kadhai, put some oil, you can use coconut oil too, put the masala paste, saute for a bit and add the extra chopped onion, saute till the masala leaves the pan, add the cooked beans, add salt ( little extra can be added because we will be adding eggs later, or then taste and add later so it does not become salty) squeeze the lime and let it boil adding as much water to bring it to a curry consistency, now break the eggs directly into the curry stirring gently as you add the eggs, egg will get poached in the curry and give it thickness plus the lovely aroma. The curry is ready to serve with hot chapatis or with steamed rice

Sunday, 18 December 2016

                                                                             
                                                                      Paneer Dosa

Bored to eat the same old roti subzi, but yet the desire of eating paneer, so the midway out for me was the doas stuffed with paneer and a nice blob of fresh white butter.... slurrrppp

For the dosa use 1 cup black split gram lentil, 3 cups of rice, 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds, soaked for about 3-4 hours and ground into a smooth paste and kept to rise overnight, next morning mix salt, 2 tsp of sugar and make dosas

 I have spread green chutney too on the dosa before the paneer burji. (optional)

For the stuffing

200 gms of paneer
2 onions finely chopped
1 tsp of  ginger garlic paste
1 tomato finely chopped
3 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp of amchur
1 tsp of kitchen king masala
Salt to taste
lots of coriander finely chopped

Method
In a pan take some oil, add the chopped onion saute till golden, add the chillies and the ginger garlic paste, add tomatoes cook till done, add all the masalas, the coriander and mix well cook for a while. The burji is ready.

On a dosa tava spread dosa batter, wait for it to cook a bit,  apply little white butter, spread the green chutney if you wish to or else only the burji and cook it fully roll as shown in the picture and eat.



Thursday, 15 December 2016

Kurmura or Puffed Rice

This is a snack item which can be made and preserved in airtight containers, stays good for about a fortnight.

Ingredients
1 regular pack of puffed rice which we use for making bhel
Oil, mustard seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida and dry red chillies for the tempering
2 spoons of metkoot ( this is a mixture of all grains and pulses dry roasted and ground into a powder)
1/2 cup dalia or chutney dal
1/2 cup peanuts

Method
In a big kadhai make a tempering with rai haldi and hing add the pieces of dry red chilli, peanuts, fried gram, stir for a while till they become crisp, add the puffed rice, salt to taste, sugar to taste and the metkoot, mix well and store in an airtight container after it cools completely.

I am also giving here the recipe of metkoot which is used in making the puffed rice and also the thin variety of beaten rice made in the same manner as above, barring the peanuts and the chutney dal. Also used by mixing with piping hot rice, a drizzle of clarified butter and salt, this is a very tasty mix of a meal. Can be savoured with lime pickle and papad as accompaniments.

Ingredients below should be dry roasted, cooled and made into a fine powder, stored in airtight containers. Stays good for a few months. Make sure you lightly roast the powders mentioned below separately.

1 cup split bengal gram lentil
1/2 cup split black gram lentil
1/2 cup split green gram lentil
1/4 cup rice
1/4 cup wheat
1 heaped tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of dry ginger powder
1/2 cup coriander seeds
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4 dry red chillies

Monday, 12 December 2016

                                                     
                                               Spicy Green Rice with a Drizzle of Cheese

My all time favourite rice made into a new delicacy. The rice has all healthy ingredients, but for a careful bit of indulgence! This is the first time I made it and liked it, so sharing with you too.

Ingredients

1 cup long grain basmati pressure cooked to 2 whistles and kept to cool
1 cube of Amul cheese
1 bunch of spinach leaves washed and chopped fine
Small bunch of coriander finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
4 garlic cloves and 1 inch ginger pounded
4 green chillies chopped into medium sized long pieces
1 tomato very finely chopped
1/2 tsp of chilli powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp Garam Masala

Method 
In a pan take some olive oil, add the chopped green chillies, saute a bit, add onion, let it turn golden brown, add the ginger garlic, saute till done, add the chopped tomato cook till it becomes totally mushy, add the coriander and the spinach, stir cook till done, add salt, chilli powder and then the rice. Mix well and finally grate the cube of cheese, cover for a bit till the cheese melts a bit and savour the  piping hot spicy green rice.

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Raw Mango Sweet and Sour Chutney
A delicious colourful sweet sour chutney which is made with fresh raw mangoes and can be savoured with bread, roti, curd rice and also with lunch basically as a side.I remember my mom very promptly refilling the bowl of chutney every time we polished it off.
Ingredients
1/2  tsp of dry roasted mustard seeds
2 raw mangoes grated
1 tablespoon of grated jaggery
1/4 tsp of dry roasted fenugreek seeds
Salt to taste
5-6 leaves of mustard cress
1 small spoon of chilli powder
Salt to taste
You need a tempering made of oil, mustard seeds, turmeric powder and asafoetida, I have chosen to skip it though.
My chutney has a garnish of lovely mustard cress from my tiny balcony, the bite of this gives a pungent, peppery heat to the palate.
Method
You just need to grind all the above ingredients to a not so fine paste, except the tempering which will be used as a topping after the chutney is transferred into the serving bowl.

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

                                             
                                                 Spinach Mushroom Cheesy Bites

 A very tasty spicy evening snack to be had on a chilly evening with tea.

Ingredients
Slices of brown bread as per requirement
200 gms of mushrooms washed and chopped into small pieces
1 bunch of spinach washed cleaned and chopped fine
6 garlic cloves and an inch of ginger and 6 peppercorns pounded in the mortar pestle
2 onions finely chopped
2 tomatoes pureed freshly
1 tsp of chilli powder
Salt to taste
Cheese spread, I used plain Amul cheese spread
Any cheese cubes or a block for grating on the bread slices
Olive oil 

Method
In a pan take olive oil, add the pounded ginger garlic and peppercorns, saute till well done, add the onion and cook till golden, now add the tomato puree and salt and chilli powder, stir to make a mushy mix,  add mushrooms, cook well, add spinach and cook till the water has all dried almost. keep it only as much moist as you need it to spread easily on the bread. 

Take each bread slice spread little cheese spread, the mushroom spinach mix, grate little cheese and put them in the preheated oven for five minutes, the cheese melts and the bread becomes a little crisp, cut each slice into fours and your cheesy bites are ready. 



Monday, 5 December 2016

                                                                     
                                                                         Ghee Rice

An extremely tasty, subtly flavoured rice dish, absolutely palatable, from the treasury of my mother's recipes. Was made on special days, served with a special dal for accompaniment, or as it is.

Ingredients

2 cups long grain basmati rice cooked with a little ghee, some white peppercorns and salt and cooled.
2 onions chopped into thin long pieces
6 roughly crushed garlic cloves
1 inch of cinnamon, 3 cloves pounded in the mortar pestle
Salt if required, since we already cooked the rice with salt
1/4 tspn of sugar
2 tspns of lime juice

Method

In a pan take 4 tspns of ghee, add the pounded spices, wait for the aromas to be released, then add the crushed garlic, saute a bit, add the onions, let them turn almost brown, like caramelised, then add the rice, salt if necessary, the lime juice and the sugar, stir to mix well and your delightful rice is ready.


Thursday, 1 December 2016

                                                             
                                                           Chilli Coriander Egg Rice

I am a rice lover and a chilli lover to top it, I literally can live on any kind of rice dish. The key ingredient here is the green chilli!! So I relish it all the more. Here goes the recipe of this simple yet tasty delicacy.

1 cup long grain basmati rice, pressure cooked and cooled. The grains should be separate and not sticky.

3 eggs, made into a scramble with salt, pepper and a bit if milk, kept ready.

4 green chillies chopped crossways into thin pieces,  a medium sized  bunch of coriander finely chopped, salt to taste, 10 black pepper corns pounded roughly.

Method

In a pan take some olive oil, saute the chillies, add the rice, salt, pepper powder, mix and then add the egg scramble,  mix well, ad the coriander and mix well again. Serve as it is or with vegetable manchurian. Tasted great with the dry manchurian.