Fresh Green Gram Rice

A quick fix rice dish when you have unexpected guests or when you are in a dilema what to cook for a quick meal with ingredients easily available at home. I am happy to have used the coriander which grew in my tiny kitchen window.

Ingredients

2 cups long grain rice

2 onions chopped into long thin pieces

4 green chillies slit

1/2 cup fresh green gram

Juice of half a lime

10 peppercorns roughly pounded

Salt to taste

1/2 a teaspoon sugar

Fresh green coriander

1 spoon cumin seeds

2 spoons clarified butter and 1 spoon oil

Method

in a pressure cooker put two tablespoons of clarified butter, 1 tablespoon oil, add cumin seeds let them splutter, add the green chillies, add onions, let them become lightly brown, add the fresh green gram, the rice, pounded pepper corns, stir well, add four cups of water, add salt sugar and the coriander, lime juice, stir well and cover cook to two whistles. The rice should neither be dry nor too sticky. Cook it to a nice moist dish. Garnish with more chopped coriander. Serve hot.

Dal Hyderabadi

Learnt this from the Satya, the lady who helps me in cooking. She is from Andhra and this is the way they make their dal, We loved it and hope you too will like it. I have given it the name Dal Hyderabadi.

Ingredients

1 cup toor dal pressure cooked with a pinch of asefotida, little turmeric powder, a few curry leaves.
2 teaspoons of tamarind paste
1 onion chopped into thin long pieces
1 tomato chopped into medium sized long pieces
5 cloves of garlic roughly crushed
1/2 a teaspoon of chilli powder
1/2 a teaspoon of coriander powder
1/2 a teaspoon of cumin powder
Salt to taste

Take a deep bottomed pan, put oil in it, splutter some mustard seeds, asefotida, little turmeric powder, add the chopped onion, let it become light brown, add tomatoes, cook a bit add all the powders, the tamarind pulp, stir a bit and add the dal and the required amount of water. Make like a curry to be eaten with steaming rice. Serve garnished with chopped coriander.

This particular dish is something that I have learnt to make on my own. There is an eatery around our area which delivers food, once when I ate the Mushroom Masala from there, I just loved it and made my own version of it. Hope you enjoy making and eating the dish. The restaurant called it Bharwah Kumbh.

Stuffed Mushrooms Curry

Ingredients

200 gms fresh big mushrooms, washed and stalks removed for filling
3 potatoes boiled mashed and tempered with little oil, mustard seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida, mixed with salt to taste, juice of 1/2 lime, chopped coriander

For the gravy
6 cloves of garlic

1 inch ginger
3 onions roughly chopped
2 big tomatoes pureed
1 spoon kitchen king masala
1 spoon chilli poder
salt to taste
1 spoon kasuri methi
1/2 cup fresh curd
Metod
Fill the mashed potato mix in all the mushrooms and keep them in a pan to get cooked from all sides,
In the meanwhile take oil in another pan and saute the onions, garlic, ginger till brown and puree this.
In the same pan take a little oil and put the ground paste to cook till it leaves the pan and then add the tomato puree and again cook till done, now add the cooked mushrooms, mix well seeing that the mushrooms do not break and taking care to see that the filling remains intact. Add salt to taste, chilli powder, kitchen king masala, after a while add the curd, sate a bit and lastly add the kasoori methi, cook for a while and garnish with chopped coriander. Serve with hot parathas. Enjoy:)

Buttermilk Curry made with Green Sorrel and Chickpea Flour

Our own Indian Kadhi made of buttermilk, besan and khatta palak. I normally don't see this green vegetable often with vendors, this time I got my hands on a few bunches of the Green Sorrel which is Ambat Chuka in Marathi, Khatta Palak in Hindi. Mildly sour, the fresh vegetable lends an amazing taste to the simple Kadhi with a tempering of ghee and jeera. Many times in my childhood I would get to hear in my house, that the menu was going to have Ambat chukyach Kadhi with rice.

Ingredients

1 bunch green sorrel, cleaned and chopped.

2 glasses of buttermilk with 3 tablespoons of besan or chickpea flour mixed well to see that there are no lumps.

Salt to taste

Small spoon of turmeric powder, asefoetida, cumin seeds and 2 tspoons ghee for tempering

Sugar or grated jaggery to taste

1 green chilli and 4 cloves of garlic roughly crushed

Plain water to be added as per the required consistancy

Method

In a deep bottomed vessel take two teaspoons of ghee, heat it a bit add cumin seeds let them splutter, add the garlic chilli mixture stir for a bit, add a pinch of asefoetida and little turmeric powder, add the chopped green sorrel, stir till a little cooked, add the buttermilk chickpea flour mix, keep stirring and adding ater if you think it is too thick. bring it to the required consistancy and then add salt and sugar or jaggery. Bring it to a quick boil and serve hot with steamed rice.

Thecha, something that occupies a corner in my fridge and heart always.

Coming up early morning with a spicy post, the reason being that I got hold of some fresh tamarind flowers which I could use in my recipe .Always mesmerised and happy with the colours and tastes that nature has to offer to us smile emoticon

Easy peasy recipe.
in a pan wash and put the 100  gms of chillies, handful of tamarind flowers and the tender leaves, salt as per taste, a small spoon of asefoetida, 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons of refined sunflower oil, 10 fenugreek seeds. mix all well and keep it on the gas, cook coveredand check in between while stirring that the water has not dried up, if so add little bit stir and cover back, cook till the chillies are tender and have change colour, they should retain moisture even after they are cooked. Now blend them to a course paste, your Thecha is ready to be eaten with chapati, bread, curd rice, can be added in the bhel mixture too.

This is a nice tasty drink, like a soup which can be sipped piping hot on winter mornings or chilly evenings too.

  Tomato Saar With Coconut Milk And a hint of Green Chilli

 Ingredients 

1) Ingredients for grinding to a paste
3 big tomatoes
2 green chillies
1/2 cup freshly scraped coconut

2) Ingredients to be added later
1/2 tspoon pepper powder
1 tspoon sugar
Salt to taste

3) For the tempering you need 1 tspoon ghee, 1 tspoon cumin seeds, 1/4 tspoon asafoetida

Method
Grind the step one ingredients to a fine paste, strain well, adding water 2- 3 times, till all the pulp and the coconut milk strains out well. This will give you a thick consistancy, add water making it to a little thicker than soup consistancy. Add step 2 ingredients, bring to a boil and then make a tempering of the step 3 ingredients and pour over the saar. Serve decorated with coriander leaves and a dash of lime which is optional.
This is usually served with a meal and can be sipped through out the meal.

Cabbage Fritters
This would make a nice teatime snack for a chilly winter evening. Learnt it from a regional cookery show and thought of sharing the recipe. Hope you enjoy.
Ingredients
2 cups of chickpea flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 cups of cabbage chopped into fine juliens
1/2 cup onions chopped to fine juliens
a handful of curry leaves chopped fine
6 green chillies chopped fine
1/2 cup of mint leaves chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves chopped fine
Salt to taste
1/2 tspoon edible soda or 2 tablespoons of heated oil
Method
Mix all the above ingredients adding very little water and mixing it to a fritter consistancy. heat oil in a kadhai, make small portions and fry them on medium flame taking care to see the fritters do not burn from out and at the same time get thoroghly cooked inside also.

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