Potato curry.

Another simple homely dish with practically only ingrdients usually available at all times in most homes. You fall short of vegetables, you are in a hurry, no time to visit the market, sudden arrival of guests? This is the dish which will fill in the blank in your curry bowl. So make and hope you enjoy. No time to make rotis this tastes awesome with bread. I have seen my mom and grandmom make this at such times. I always remember enjoying this sweet and sour delicacy. Thanks to them since this comes in handy many times. This shows that anything can bring back memories to your heart.

Ingredients

For the temparing you needsome oil, mustard seeds, asefotida, turmeric powder.

3 large potatoes washed peeled and chopped into medium sized pieces
2 big onions chopped to medium sized squares
2 tomatoes chopped into medium sized pieces
 1/4 cup of tamarind paste
1/4 cup jaggery grated
Salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste.
1 heaped tspoon saar masala
1 small bunch chopped coriander

Method
In a deep pan crackle some mustard seeds in oil, add turmeric powder, asefotida, add the chopped onions, let them sautee till transparent, add tomatoes, stir well, cook for a while, add the chopped potatoes add enough water to immerse the veggies, cook covered adding salt and chilli poader, keep opening and checking the potatoes and adding water as and when it requires, once the potaoes get softly cooked, add the saar masala, tamarind paste, jaggery,  chopped coriander, let the curry consistency be, bring it to a boil, check that the jageery has melted. The curry is ready to be savoured.

This is a super cooler for summer, I can safely call it one of my experi - mental entries
The ingredients below will make one tall glass of the cooler
Step 1 ) Soak 1/2 tspoon of basil seeds for using as a topping as they are known to be the best coolers.
It is said that you must soak a spoonful for an hour or so and have them with milk or water in the mornings to keep you cool through the day. Prevents headaches and nausea, which happens to many because of heat.
Step 2 ) 1 cup watermelon, 1/4 cup boiled raw mango, pulp removed, 2 mint leaves,1 spoon basil, sugar as per taste, salt as per taste, 1/2 tspoon of pepper powder.
Grind all the above to a smooth paste, remove add water as desired. Then add the soaked basil seeds, decorate with basil or mint leaves. Be coooool.....

Chole

This is a typical Punjabi dish eaten with Bhatura, a kind of  fried bread made with refined flour, goes best with the Chole.

Now Chole takes me straight back to my college. I did my Home Science with Literature, Psychology and Nutrition. In the Home Science practicals one of our classes was to run the canteen on one of the weekdays. Our group ran it on Thursdays. There my Chole Bhature sold like crazy, with Gajar ka Halva. We had a Punjabi teacher as a guide for the canteen, she taught us the right way of making the Bhaturas. Actually, our nutrition teacher in the kitchen was a very pretty looking lady called Rosa. First thing she told us on the first day was, "Girls for cooking you need to know how to switch the gas on!! So come on with your lighters". So coming back to the canteen, we truly enjoyed the experience.

We classmates, were a group of fourteen. We literally painted the town red, be it the famous M G Road or Commercial Street (in Bangalore). And all the theatres which ran morning shows in those days. We would take the same auto as the lecturer got off from and rush to the cinemas. Now we are literally spread all over the globe. Luckily this time some of us managed to meet after three decades . We ate, chatted and brought back all memories:) We all realised that we could still give the current college girls a run for their money mann!! What with all of our energy and enthusiasm and the naughtiness!! has not become less by even half a percent.

So here comes my recipe of the famous Chole.

Chole (This is my Mum's recipe and all of us enjoy it made this way)

Ingredients

200 gms of Kabuli Chana soaked previous night, pressure cooked with salt and little soda 
3 onions finely chopped
2 tablespoons of tamarind pulp
1 tspoon cumin pdr
1 tspoon coriander pdr
1 tspoon pepper pdr
1 tspoon garlic paste
1 tspoon ginger paste
1 tspoon chilli pdr
Salt to taste
Finely chopped coriander for garnishing

Take oil in a kadhai, put the ginger garlic paste, saute a bit, add onions, cook it till brown, add all powders, the salt (add salt with care since we added it while cooking the Chana), tamarind paste, cook well, then add the boiled Chana, stir, mix well and see if it is too thick, then add little water to make it a required consistency. garnish with coriander, serve with Pooris or Bhaturas. Enjoy accompanied with freshly cut onion, tomato and sauteed green chilli.

MUTABAL
Mutabal, a middle eastern delicacy eaten with pita as a dip, of course we ate it with hot hot rotis and enjoyed it.
So friends another variety for you people. It was my daughter's birthday and she rarely asks for anything special to be cooked. This time I actually coaxed her into letting me know what to cook. She said she wanted the Mutabal which she ate in Turkey where she was for her last birthday! I was a bit thoughtful but then took the help of some sites and made the dish for her. It seemed like a fusion meal with Mutabal and chickpeas made in the Indian style. Here is the recipe. Hope you people enjoy the dish as much as my family did. I came to know later that she was missing Turkey!


Ingredients

1 huge seedless aubergine, I roasted it on the gas after smearing a little oil over it.
Removed the skin and mashed it roughly with a spoon.
2 tablespoons of tahini paste
3-4 garlic cloves crushed
2-3 tspoons of olive oil to mix in
More olive oil to pour over the dish as per taste
Coriander or parsley chopped finely for garnishing
2 cups of yogurt
Salt to taste

Method

Take the mashed aubergine and mix all the above ingredients except the extra olive oil and the ingredients used for garnishing. Mix well serve with olive oil poured over it and garnished with either parsley or coriander.

Hi friends, I am back with some more stuff for you guys man. This time I go, Yo man, and Wallah wallah!

I love food ! is the basic reason for being here, is an old story by now. What is new is that I am here with some International dishes. I have loved eating them, making them and now am even happier sharing them with you.

First dish is a Scone which is a British breakfast dish, eaten with tea. You can make them sweet and savoury. Mine is a savoury.

Second dish is an Arabic/Egyptian dish, Falafel. This is made with chickpeas and eaten as is, or as a filling with veggies and hummus in pita bread.

My family enjoyed both the dishes and hope you enjoy them too. Here again the credit for introducing me to International cuisine goes to both my bachchas.

Feta Bell Pepper Scone
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
Orange and red Bell peppers, half of each, chopped into pieces and sauteed in olive oil
2 tspoons of olive oil
1 tblspoon butter
Little sugar
1/2 a tspoon baking powder
2 tbspoons Feta cheese
A handful of fresh parsley chopped
A handful of fresh coriander leaves chopped
Salt to taste (go easy on it since cheese and butter both have salt in it)
Buttermilk as required for making the dough

Method
Mix all the above ingredients in buttermilk to a bread kind of consistency and keep the dough for resting for half an hour. Make a big ball, flatten it and put it to cook on a greased pan, cover while cooking, flip and cook till light brown and crisp. Serve with basil leaves, grated cheese if you like cheese and a sprinkle of olive oil.

Falafel
Ingredients
For grinding to a coarse paste, put in all these except the flour and parsley
2 cups chickpeas boiled
1 small onion roufgly chopped
3-5 roasted garlic cloves
2 tspons of cumin powder
1 tspoon of coriander powder
1/4 tspoon of pepper powder
1/4 tspoon red chilli powder
A pinch of ground cardomom

1 and a 1/2 tbspoons of flour
A handful of chopped fresh parsley
Salt to taste

Take a vessel and mix the ground paste and the flour and parsley. Keep oil for heating in a wok, make small balls of the mixture.Once the oil heats up, put one ball for trial, if it breaks and spreads, then you need to add little more flour. Check again and fry all.

This can be eaten as it is or you can put it inside the pita bread with hummus spread, tomatoes, cucumber, fresh lettuce. This makes a meal in itself. Hoping that you enjoy both the dishes.

Amti Bhat, Poli Bhaji

The dishes both my children love when it comes to home food, prepared by me.

My daughter I remember 30 yrs back, born to me when I was  around 22. A cute little red cheeked bundle of joy. Nurses called her Goli. We called her rasmalai. She started growing and with her I too started learning and enjoying my  first new phase, that of motherhood.

She is an extremely talkative and hyperactive person. If I would say I am not talking to you, no problem, she would talk to the plates, glasses, cupboards, anything she thought  that was listening to her. At school there was only one complaint about her, that she talks a lot. I had no answer to this, but only a smile on my face. Always surrounded by neighbours who never had enough of her.

Four years later, another sweet little chubby cheeked bundle of joy, my son was born, I was around 25 then, my second phase of motherhood. A little more mature, a little more experienced. A very diffent experience from the first, because bringing up a daughter and a son, it is very very different. We called him rasgulla because of his fair round cheeks. More learning and more experiences. He is a little quieter than my daughter, but very witty and sharp. Oneliners are like his second nature.

Quietly mischievious, upto something always. At school the complaint was that he is a quiet boy. He would ride the cycle the whole day, go for his cricket classes. Very much interested in sports and other activities. He has a short temper too. When he coud not even speak, but wanted to show anger, he would bang his head on the ground.

 

So many memories, I could write a book and bore you readers for a lifetime. Now both are big and in their own world. My third phase of learning has begun. Now I am busy asking them questions like they asked me at one time. How do I use the mobile, the internet, WhatsApp, the various sites, how do I start a blog and what not!!! Phew!! They get fed up, the tables have turned on me or them I am not sure!! They taught me everything and that is how I am here, with my food blog.Thanks to both of them.

But anyway, now they have tasted all kinds of cuisines, from all over the globe, but I vouch for the fact that this is comfort food for them anyday ,anytime.

So here come the recipes.

For the Amti which means dal or lentils wth sweet sour taste.

This actually is regularly made in most homes in Maharastra and Karnataka.

Ingredients

1 cup split pigeon pea (toor dal)  pressure cooked with one small tomato two slits in between, one radish chopped into roundels, a pinch of asafoetida, a small spoon of turmeric, a small twig of curry leaves (as shown in the pic)

1/4 cup tamarind pulp

2 spoons of grated jaggery

1/2 tspoon chilli powder

1 spoon saar masala

salt to taste

Method

Take a  deep bottomed vessel, add little oil, mustard seeds, let them splutter, add asafoetida and turmeric(small spoons), add the dal, salt, chilli powder, saar masala, jaggery, tamarind paste and add water according to your desired consistency. Let it boil well with all the spices, the taste of the radish already enhances the flavour of the dal since it boils with it. Once it boils well, add chopped coriander for garnishng and serve with a dash of clarified butter  (ghee) and steamed rice.

Cabbage Bhaji

Ingredients

200 gms of cabbage chopped into fine julliens

2/3 green chillies chopped

Salt to taste

1 tspoon sugar

Chopped coriander for garnishing

2 tspoons of oil, little mustard seeds, little asafoetida and turmeric powder for tempering

Method

Take little oil in a kadhai, add mustard seeds wait for them to splutter, add asafoetida and turmeric powder, add green chillies. Now add the chopped cabbage, salt, sugar and 1/4 cup water, cover and cook, check in between while stirring and add water if required. See that it does not burn and retains the yellow colour. Once cooked, garnish with chopped coriander and serve with hot phulkas.

Idli Sambar and Chutney

My husband's favourite. He is not my husband, no no don't mistake me, what I mean is that, he is more than a husband to me. I came to his house from Bangalore, not as big a city as Mumbai. I was a very young girl,  just out of college, too enthusiastic, noisy, naughty and mischievous. He was always very sober, controlled and too soft by nature. He would wonder how I could laugh and giggle over small things! I remember my father told him only once just after we got married, not to leave me alone anywhere, since my father was too protective by nature. So much so that when I would be little late from college than normal, he would make both my brothers run all over the place to look for me. So the instruction to my husband. Till date he sees to it that as far as possible I am not alone, except at times when there is no choice! He has pampered me all the 33 years of married life and it still continues. So you see sometimes it is my duty also to make something of his choice. He hardly demands anything anyway. Philosopher, guide and above all, my bestest friend. He is the one who can pamper me and straighten me also when necessary!!

Here comes the recipe of The Idli Sambar and the Chutney. Sounds  more like a title of a film!

Method for Idlis

Proportion is 1 is to 3, one cup udad dal a handful of thin beaten rice and three cups idli ravaSoak one cup udad dal and the beaten rice for abt 3-4 hours in the afternoon and grind it to a fine paste, keep it to ferment overnight.At the same time wash three cups of idli rava and drain out all the water, keep it also overnight.Next morning mix the groud udad dal and the idli rava, add salt to taste and little soda so the idlis become soft and fluffy.Steam the idlis for abt 7-10 mins, they are ready to eat.

Method for Sambar
One cup toor dal, while pressure cooking this add little turmeric pdr, a pinch of asefoetida and also some curry leaves, adding vegetables of ur choice is optionalRoast 3 red chillies, 1/4 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds,1/2 cup fesh scraped coconut,1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon of corriander seeds, 7-8 peppercorns and grind all this to a fine mix.Take a kadhai with some oi lcrackle some mustard seeds add asefoetida, turmeric pdr, then add 2 onions cut into thin long pieces, saute it pink add the ground masala, cut one medium tomato into small pieces and add it cooking all this together till it changes colour and leaves the sides, add the boiled tur dal, bring it to a boil adding salt and 2- 3 spoons of tamarind paste, add finely chopped corriander leaves and sarve hot.

The Coconut ChutneyGrind together half scraped fresh coconut, some corriander leaves, some green chillies, little ginger, 3- 4 teaspoons of daaliya (fried gram or we call it phutana), squeeze lime and add salt as per taste, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, u can add water to grind the mixture according to the consistancy required, remove the chutney in a vessel. Make a tempering in a small kadhai with little oil, splutter some mustard seeds some add some asefoetida and a teaspoon ofudad dal make it pink and then add few pieces of dry red chilli and some curry leaves, pour this over the chutney.