Spinach Soup
Spinach soup is one of the most healthy soups I have prepared. Easy recipe but tasty start to your meal. Here goes the recipe
Ingredients
1 bunch of spinach and a few leaves of mint blanched
1 green tomato, 1/2 cup of green peas, 1/2 a green chilli pressure cooked
Salt and pepper powder as required
Once all the above ingredients cool down, blend them to a fine paste and add as much water to make a soup like consistency. Add salt and pepper powder, give it a boil and savour.
Spinach in itself has no distinct taste so I have used the green tomato and green peas for taste and mint for flavour.
Ragda Patties With A Twist
The name may be familiar to all but there is a twist in the making of both ragda and the patties. the ragda was made this way by my mother in law, she loved all the tongue tickling snacks and chats loaded with spice and tang. This is one of her specialities and the pattie is my experi-mental method. Hoping you too enjoy making it and savoring a new delicacy.
Ingredients for the patties
A)
3 potatoes
1/2 cup peeled milk gourd pieces (dudhi)
The above to be pressure cooked to two whistles
B)
1 small bunch spring onion, only the green portion
4 slices of whole wheat bread
4 green chillies crushed
1/2 cup freshly chopped coriander
1/2 a lime squeezed
Salt to taste
1 tpn coriander powder
C)
Mix all the above ingredients to make a dough, make equal sized balls, give them a pattie shape and shallow fry them till golden with a little oil, on both sides
Ingredients for the ragda
A)
2 cups of split pigeon pea lentil (toor dal) pressure cooked to 2 whistles, once done, mix all ingredients given below and bring it to a boil to make a not very thick consistency of ragda
B)
3 tspns of tamarind paste
1 tspn of coriander powder
1/2 tspn of chilli powder
1/2 tspn of black pepper powder
Salt to taste
1/2 cup freshly chopped coriander
To serve
Take a serving bowl, serve the ready patties, pour a ladle of the ragda on top and savour. You could add the sweet chutney or the spicy chutney for extra taste but believe me you will not need any of these because as it is the dish is super tasty.
Beetroot Soup
As mentioned earlier I make one variety of soup everyday with my light dinner. This is one of them and here goes the recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup beetroot ( peeled and chopped roughly)
1 cup potatoes (peeled and chopped roughly)
1 tomato with 2 criss cross slits
Method
Pressure cook all the above to 2 whistles, cool and blend to make a smooth paste. Transfer to a deep bottomed vessel and add enough water to make a soup consistency. Bring to a boil adding salt and pepper to taste. I serve the soup in glass so it can be sipped through dinner.
Saar Masala
An eternal spice mix in my mother's kitchen was this Saar Masala. Have been hearing this name and been using this mix ever since I can remember. I always got it from my mother even after getting married as is the practice in every home of some specialities always coming from mum's home. In fact it is used in my daughter's kitchen too! It is added to amti which is the sweet sour dal preparation, tomato rice, stir fry potatoes, brinjal masala, so many preparations in which a dash of this can create magic!! here goes the famous recipe from my mother's kitchen.
The ingredients given below should be lightly dry roasted separately, cooled completely and ground to a fine powder and stored in an air tight container
50 gms coriander seeds (dhane/ dhaniya)
50 gms cumin seeds (jeera)
50 gms black pepper corns (mire/ kalimirch)
50 gms dry red bedgi chillies (lal mirchi)
50 gms fresh curry leaves (kadi patta/kadilimbachi paan)
25 gms special asafoetida ( khada hing/ the stronger variety avalable as small blocks)
25 gms mustard seeds (mohri/rai)
25 gms whole dry turmeric (halkund/ akkhi haldi)
25 gms splitblack gram lentil (udad dal)
25 gms split bengal gram lentil (chana dal)
25 gms fenugreek seeds (methiche daane/ methi dana)
Carrot Pumpkin Soup
A delightful soup, pleasant on the palate with a hint of pepper. We sip the soups through light dinners consisting of a vegetable, a bowl of yogurt and the ever refreshing glass of buttermilk to end the meal.
Ingredients
1 cup of peeled and roughly chopped pumpkin
1/2 cup of carrots cleaned and roughly chopped
1 tomato with two long slits
All the above to be pressure cooked to 2 whistles, cooled and blended to a smooth paste.
Salt and pepper powder as per taste to be added later.
Method
Transfer the blended paste into a deep bottomed vessel and add as much water to make a soup consistency to your taste, add salt to your taste, pepper powder to taste. Bring to a boil and serve.
Baby Aubergine And Potato In a Semi Dry Gravy
A semi dry curry made of baby aubergines (baingan or vangi) and mildly spiced,eaten with parathas or curd rice.
Ingredients
8-10 baby aubergines slit in the middle on both sides in the opposite way
4 potatoes peeled and chopped into medium sized cubes
The above vegetables to be kept in water till they submerge for at least an hour before cooking
3 onions chopped fine
2 tomatoes chopped fine
2 tbspns of ginger garlic crushed
2 tspns of goda masala
Salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste
2 tspns of grated raw mango
2 tspns of grated jaggery
Fresh coriander for garnishing, I like using it while the gravy cooks too for the aroma to infuse in the dish
Method
In a pan take some oil, add mustard seeds wait till they splutter, add turmeric powder and asafoetida , add the aubergines and potatoes after draining out the water, add salt, chilli powder, the goda masala, some water and keep covered to cook, once cooked transfer to a bowl, now in the same pan take some oil and add the chopped onions saute for a while, add the ginger garlic, wait till this mixture gets cooked well, you can sprinkle little water and add salt carefully since we already added some to the vegetables, so the ingredients do not burn, now add the tomatoes and the coriander, saute till mushy, add the cooked vegetables, mix well, let this cook well, does not take too long because all the ingredients are already cooked. Transfer to a serving bowl and savour with phulkas, parathas or curd rice.
Jeera Kalimirch Aloo
An extremely tasty dish, an inspiring post by our own Shimpaji. Inspite of being a vegetarian I was super tempted looking at this chicken dish !! I tried making it with potato as suggested by her with the skin intact. Made it enjoyed eating it with phulkas and now sharing with all of you.
Ingredients
For the jeera kalimirch masala you need to sundry or lightly dry roast the ingredients given below
Cumin seeds 4 tbsp
Black peppercorns 4 tbsp
Fennel 2.5 tbsp
Cloves 1.5 tbsp
Cinnamon 2 inch piece
as stated by Shimpaji, the sweetness of the fennel rounds off the sharpness of the pepper and cloves in the spice mix. Goes well with seafood and meat. Does justice to coconut based gravies. Added tartness of the lemon, kokum, tamarind, yogurt or natural vinegars does wonders to the flavour profile of a gravy or a stir fry when made using this masala.
Potatoes cubed with the skin on 250 gms
Ginger 1/2 an inch piece
Onion 2 medium
Yogurt 2 tbsp
Jeera kalimirch masala 2tbsp
Turmeric 1/4 tsp
Oil, salt
Mix the cubes of potato in salt and turmeric
Method
Heat oil and shallow fry the potato cubes, remove in a bowl, in the same oil, add minced onion, ginger and garlic, saute till golden. add the potatoes back to the pan.mix the jeera kaimirch masala, add a little salt, to the yogurt and add it to the potatoes, mix well. Add 1/2 cup of water, cook covered till the water evaporates. Serve with rice, appams, or phulkas.
Mango Shira With Basil Seeds And Pumpkin Seeds
A sweet dish very simple yet tasty, specially with the addition of the king of fruits...the alphonso mango. I had some pumpkin with me for making vegetable, I removed the seeds, dried them, peeled and used them in the shira for the crunchy texture. Seeds of the sweet basil for the cooling effect and to enhance the deliciousness of the dish.
Ingredients
1 cup rava or semolina, roasted to a golden brown in two tbspns of clarified butter
Freshly removed pulp of 1 alphonso mango
2 cups of milk, you can use more if you feel the shira is dry
1/2 cup of sugar or 1/2 cup grated jaggery is optional, I have not used any of these
Few strands of saffron
2 tspns of sweet basil seeds
A handful of pumpkin seed
Ahandful of cashewnuts roasted in little clarified butter
2 tbsp of clarified butter
Method
in a pan take the milk bring it to a boil, add saffron strands, the mango pulp, do not heat it too much,as soon as you see a boil, add the roasted semolina and stir constantly to see no lumps are formed, at this stage you can add your sugar or jaggery, also the clarified butter, mix well and cook covered, once done take it off the flame, just sprinkle a little milk and spread the basil seeds, cover again and keep for about 15 minutes. you will see the seeds swelling up. Now mix well, pour the clarified butter, keep covered for a while. You can garnish your dish with the pumpkin seeds and serve.
In the picture below are the pumpkin seeds, took me quite a while to get them out of their skin!!!
An Eggy Dosa
There are some days when you eat as much as you like but still you do not feel satiated!! This was one of those days for me when my experi-mental mind did some work and I found that this dish discovered was worth a share. So.....I had one dosa, two dosas, not enough to fill me up!! looking for something more, I found some eggs and a cheese cube in my refrigerator. This is what came out as a delicious satiating platter of breakfast.
Method
To make one portion I spread the dosa batter on the pan, sprinkled some olive oil, once it was a little done, broke two eggs directly on the batter added salt pepper and herbs, allowed it to cook a bit, grated half of the cheese cube on it and cooked it till it got done. Ready it is to savour!!
Dessert Made of Alphonso Mango Basil Seeds and Sago Pearls
When there are mangoes in plenty in the market, Mumbai gives you the best of the king of fruits The Alphonso then there is nothing to stop you from experimenting with the fruit and as they say, Make hay while the sun shines, I say Make desserts while the season last !! So here goes one of my creations for you.
Ingredients
Medium sized pieces of 2 ready to eat alphonso mangoes
1/2 cup sago pearls soaked for about 2 hours in water
1/2 cup sweet basil seeds soaked in water for an hour
1/2 cup nolen gur or date palm jaggery
300 ml of skimmed low fat milk
A few sweet basil leaves for garnishing
method
Mix the sago pearls and the basil seeds in a deep bottomed pan, see that there is enough water in them, keep to boil, once it heats up, add the milk and the jaggery, wait only till the jaggery melts to take it off the heat else the milk can curdle sometimes. Stir and keep to cool, the mixture is thick enough and has a great texture because of the sago pearls. Once chilled add the mango pieces, serve topped with basil leaves. This topping comes straight from my tiny balcony.
