G.U.J.J.U.!

Today's culinary travels took me to Gujarat :) I am thinking it is not such a bad idea to do one state each day..
Today's meal was a Gujarati daal and Oondhiyu.

Oondhiyu and Gujarati Daal

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Oondhiyu

1 raw banana peeled and cut into small pieces
5-6 yam peeled and cut into small pieces

1 carrot and 1 potato peeled and chopped into pieces

1 cup green peas 

(the original oondhiyu recipe calls for the flat beans and brinjal. Did not have the flat beans and hate brinjals so omitted those and added the carrots, potatoes and peas instead!)
4-5 green chillies

1 inch piece of ginger 
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. coriander leaves 
1 tsp. wheat flour
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ajwain 

Salt to taste
1/2 tbsp. sugar
lemon to taste 

Grind the chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves coarsely to a paste. Marinate the vegetables with this mixture and 1 tbsp oil for about 30 mins.

For methi ghatta
1 cup methi leaves finely chopped
1/2 cup gram flour (besan)
1 tbsp. fresh ground coconut (could not be bothered to grate fresh coconut so used dessicated coconut!)
salt and chilli pd to taste

Mix the above with a little water to form small balls (the size of marbles) and then fry them till they are brown. Reserve

In the same pan add the marinated vegetables and cover and cook for about 5 mins. Then add the turmeric, flour, ajwain and salt. Mix well and then sprinkle some water to cook the vegetables through. cover and cook till the vegetables are all soft but not too mushy. Now add the ghattas, salt, sugar and lemon juice and stir well. 

Gujarati Daal

1 cup tuvar daal

1 drumstick

1/2 cup of peanuts

1 green chilli

1 large tomato finely chopped

Handful of curry leaves

A pinch of asafoetida pd

1 tsp ginger finely chopped

Salt and chilli pd to taste

1 tbsp jaggery

1/2 tsp cumin and mustard seeds

1/2 inch cinnamon stick

Pressure cook the daal with the drunmstick and the peanuts in the pressure cooker till the daal is mushy and well cooked. Mash it with the ladle after it has cooked and reserve.

Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds to splutter. Then add the cumin seeds and curry leaves and green chilli, cinnamon stick and ginger and let them cook for a minute. Then add tomatoes, turmeric pd, asafoetida, red chilli pd and saute until the tomatoes are soft and tender. Now add the cooked daal, jaggery and salt and 1/2 cup water and cover and simmer for 5 mins. The consistency of the daal should not be too thick. Serve it with rice or rotis.

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Ok then Sui Javo! Let us see which part of India tomorrow's culinary travels take us......

The Bong Connection!

Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ashe Tobe Ekla Cholo Re.....
For some reason, was prompted to cook some Bengali recipes :-)
So today's dinner was Bandhakopir Dalna(Cabbage curry) and Kanchkolar Kofta (Plantain kofta)

Bandhakopir dalna and Kanchkolar kofta

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Bandhakopir Dalna

1 cabbage, sliced finely
2 potatoes, cut in small cubes
1 tbsp turmeric pd

Green chili paste to taste
1 tsp cumin pd
1 tsp coriander pd
1 inch Ginger, grated
2 bay Leaves
1/2 tsp garam masala pd
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Heat oil in a pan and fry the potato cubes till they are brown. Reserve. In the same oil add the cabbage and salt and cover and cook till the cabbage is tender. Add turmeric powder, chili paste, cumin, coriander and ginger to the cabbage. Stir and fry until the spices are well blended with the cabbage. Add a little water, the potatoes and salt and sugar and cover and cook till the potatoes are cooked and the water evaporates. In a separate pan add butter or little oil and fry the bay leaves and the garam masala and then pour over the cabbage. Mix well and serve.

Kanchkolar Kofta

For the koftas

Raw banana : 1

1 medium sized potato

1 onion - finely grated or ground to a paste
1" piece ginger finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 green chillies finely chopped 

Fresh coriander leaves finely chopped

Gram flour or besan to bind the koftas
Salt to taste

Peel green banana, potato and boil them. When they have cooled squeeze out as much water as possible and then mash them well. Add onion paste, ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilli or red chilli powder, salt and coriander leaves in mashed banana-potato mix. Add gram flour slowly in the mix until you can shape koftas from the plaintain-potato mix. Fry these in oil till golden brown and keep aside.

For the gravy

1 Bay leaf 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tblsp ginger paste

4 tomatoes chopped finely

1 tsp turmeric pd
1 tsp cumin pd
1 tsp coriander pd
salt and chilli pd to taste
1 tsp Bengali Garam Masala powder- take 2-3 of cardamoms, cloves and 1 stick of cinnmon and grind it to a powder

Heat oil in a pan and add the bay leaf and cumin seeds to crackle. Then add the turmeric, cumin, chilli and coriander pd mixed in 2 tbsps of water and continuously stir to prevent them from burning. Add chopped tomatoes (I pureed mine and used that instead of chopped tomatoes) and cook til tomatoes turn mushy. Add 1 cup water and cook til the gravy thickens. Add the koftas just before the gravy starts to thicken. Sprinkle the bengali garam masala before you take it off the stove.

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.....Ekla cholo, ekla cholo, ekla cholo re.......

Jhatpat khana

The pain in the neck persists... So had to whip up something that wouldn't take too long. I have this Asian grill and stir fry seasoning that was begging to be used today so a quick stir fry rice dish it was for dinner today!

Quick Asian stir fry rice

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Quick Asian Stir Fry Rice

3 cups cooked rice 

2 cup of mixed veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, beans all chopped lengthwise into 2 inch sticks)

1 cup of chopped paneer (you could use firm tofu if u have that)

1/2 cup of the Asian stir fry seasoning (for the ones who are curious about its ingredients; it contains the following - Salt, Dehydrated Garlic, Sugar, Sesame Seeds, Black Sesame Seeds, Dehydrated Red and Green Bell Peppers, Dehydrated Onion, Orange Peel, Soy Sauce, Spice)

4 dry red chillies chopped

4 cloves of garlic chopped

Heat oil and add the red chillies and garlic. Fry for about a minute. Then add the vegetables and saute till they are cooked and yet crunchy. Now add the seasoning and cook for a minute. Then add the rice and salt according to your taste. That's it!

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Wan an! that's good night in Chinese!

The day has been a pain in the neck!!

Literally! I have spondylitis and due to the pain cannot even turn my head around. Like a zombie I need to turn my whole body around if I need to turn to look at something!! It would be funny if weren't for the pain :-)
Anyway, made soy granules pulao and Paneer bharwan tamatar (recipe courtesy Good Housekeeping - April 2011)

Paneer bharwan tamatar and Soy pulao

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Paneer Bharwan Tamatar

For the stuffing

1/2 cup of grated paneer

1 small potato boiled and mashed

1 small onion finely diced

1 green chilli finely diced

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander pd

1 tsp garam masala pd

1/2 tsp turmeric pd

Salt and chilli pd to taste

Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. After they have spluttered add the onions and the chilli and fry till the onion turns pink. Now add the salt and other spice powders and saute for a min. Now add the potato and paneer and mix well. Cook for a minute and set aside.

For the gravy

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 big onions roughly chopped 

2 tomatoes roughly chopped (also add the scooped out insides of the prepared tomatoes)

Grind the above to a smooth paste. 

1 tsp garam masala pd

1 tsp kitchen king masala

Salt and chilli pd to taste

3 tbsp cream (optional. You could also add coconut milk, cashew paste or poppy seed paste instead)

Heat oil in a pan and add the paste and fry till the raw smell goes away. Add the spice powders and saute for some more time. Remove from flame and reserve.

For the tomatoes

5 tomatoes - They should be a good size and capable of standing straight on their own! Alternatively you could cut a slice off the bottom to make them stand upright (just need to be careful that you are not slicing it too deep so all the filling would leak out. 

Slice the top off the tomatoes and scoop out the insides. Use the insides in the gravy as mentioned above.

Assembling the dish

Fill the stuffing into the tomatoes pushing down till they are completely stuffed :) Place the tomatoes in a dish so that they are upright. Now pour the gravy gently taking care that the tomatoes do not topple and the gravy does not submerge them. Bake in the oven at 170 for about 20 mins till the tomatoes are a little cooked but do not turn mushy. Serve with rice or pulao.

Soy Pulao

Soy granules 1 cup pre-soaked in water. I used the small granules.

1 cup peas

1 tomato chopped

1 onion sliced

1 tsp garam masala pd

1 tsp coriander pd

salt and chilli pd to taste

Heal oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to splutter. Add the garam masala and salt and saute for a sec. Now add the onions and fry till they turn brown. Add the tomatoes and soy granules and peas and saute for a few minutes. Add a little water to cook the peas. Then add the cooked rice and mix well.

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Okay then! see you all tomorrow. Hope the pain in the neck is no more!!

Roti Subzi with a twist!

I did not have the inclination to post the Friday's recipe so I am going to add it to today's. Friday I had made dum aloo.
Today's recipe was an 'I owe you" from one of the earlier posts. It is a 'recycle recipe' if you will! If you have leftover rotis sitting in your refrigerator this one is a good one to rustle up. It was the brain child of my mom :-)

Recycled rotis - R2

Dum aloo, Jaipuri bhindi and rotis

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Recycled Rotis

Rotis - chopped into inch sized squares

A cup of diced vegetables - you can use whatever u have; capsicum, carrots, potatoes, peas etc

2 onions diced

1 tomato diced

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp maggi sweet and hot sauce

Salt and chilli pd to taste

Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to splutter. Now add the onions and saute till they are golden brown. Then add the tomatoes and saute them for a minute. Add the vegetables (the ones that take the longest to cook go in first) and keep sauteing them. Add the soy, chilli and the maggi sauces and the sal and chilli pd and add a quarter cup water. Cover and cook till the vegetables are cooked but still crunchy. Then add the chapati pieces and stir until they are well coated. Saute for a minute more. 

Dum Aloo

4 Potatoes peeled and quartered (ideally you should use the baby potatoes about 10 - halve them if they are too big)

2 Onions + 3 tomatoes + 3 cloves of garlic ground to a paste

1 small bowl of curd well beaten

2-3 Cardamom pods

1/2 stick of cinnamon

2-3 cloves

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander pd

1 tsp garam masala pd

1/2 tsp turmeric pd

salt and chilli pd to taste

Fry the potatoes with a little oil till they turn light golden brown. Do this on a slow flame and constantly keep moving the potatoes around (It would be easier to deep fry them like the original recipe calls for but trust me this is far healthier!). Keep them aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. When you smell the aroma, add the cumin seeds and let them splutter. Now add the ground onion tomato paste and fry till they lose their rawness. Now add the chilli pd, coriander pd, turmeric and salt and cook for a minute more. Remove the pan from the flame and let it cool down a little before adding the curd to it. Mix well and then return the pan to the stove top and cook for another 5 mins. Now add the potatoes and the garam masals pd and cover and cook for a few minutes till the potatoes are soft. Garnish with coriander and serve!

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Toodles! Till tomorrow then!

Putthandu Nal Vazhthukkal!!

For those who are wondering what the title means - Happy new year!
Today is celebrated as New year in some parts of India - Putthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala and Baisakhi in Punjab.

Today the kitchen was not functional at my place :-) Lunch was outside at Golden Dragon at Taj Krishna - my favorite place for Chinese. Absolutely awesome. I have some leftovers that would be for lunch tomorrow as well :-)

Dinner came from my parents place. Mum's New year's special sambhar, rasam, avial and vadai.

Rice with sambhar, vadai and avial

I guess will give you the recipes some time later. Today just want to chill and watch some movie and have some popcorn!

So see you all tomorrow folks!

(Ch)Ole! (Cho)Ole!

Went to watch Rio today with my son (that is where the Ole came from in case u were wondering about the title of this post) - his first time at the movies and that too a 3D flick!! He did pretty well till the intermission. He was seated in his seat with the glasses and was enjoying the movie. But that intermission seemed to have broken the trance he was in! He was restless after that. Kept walking around and even had a brief crying spell :-( But all in all a good first time for a 2.6 yr old in my books :)

Today made chole for dinner.

Chole Masala

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Chole Masala 

2 cups Chole (Garbanzo Beans) - Soak them overnight and the boil them till they are soft

2 tomatoes (chopped)

1 cup Tomato Puree or Paste

3 medium onions finely chopped

2-5 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp ginger past

2 green chilies chopped

1/4 tsp turmeric pd

1 tsp coriander pd 

1 tsp garam masala pd

1 tsp chana masala pd (if not available use the kitchen king masala)

1 tsp kasuri methi

1 tsp cumin seeds

Salt and chilli pd to taste

Heat a pan and add oil. Add the cumin seeds and let them splutter. Then add the garlic and ginger paste. Add chopped onions  and a pinch of salt and fry till they turn brown. Add coriander powder, turmeric pd, chili powder and salt to taste. Fry for a sec. Now add the garam masala and the chana masala and fry. Add the tomatoes and the puree and kasuri methi and fry till the oil leaves the sides (this almost never happens in my house since I put so little of it to begin with!!!) So fry till the tomatoes have turned into mush and the entire contents of the pan become one. Add the chole and a little water according to the desired consistency and cover and simmer. Garnish with coriander and fried onion slices (totally optional).

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Buenos Noches muchachos!!!