Kabuli chana with aloo tikki

I adapted the recipe I used to make a rich paneer dish, to make kabuki channa, and it tasted as yummy as the paneer dish. The leftover I had with aloo tikki, and felt I was in gastronomical heaven.

250 gms kabuki channa, soaked for 6 hours

1 bay leaf

1 inch piece cinnamon

1 badi elaichi

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp haldi powder

1 tsp dhania powder

1/2 tsp amchur powder

1 tsp kasoori methi

Salt to taste

A pinch of nutmeg 

For gravy:

4 tomatoes, chopped

2 onions chopped

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1/2 cup water

Method:

Pressure cook the kabuki channa with the dry spices till soft. Keep aside 

Pressure cook the ingredients listed under gravy for 20 minutes on sim after the first whistle (I cooked the channa and the gravy at the same time). Cool and grind to a fine past 

Heat oil, add bay leaves, and sauté for a minute or two

Add paste, and dry spices, and sauté on a low flame till the oil starts leaving the sides

Add cooked channa, kasoori methi, salt and cook for 5 minutes

Serve with parathas or roti. 

Matar paneer- rich, creamy version

We end up having a lot of osneer at home, so when I saw a recipe for a "quick" version of paneer masala which can be whipped up in a jiffy when visitors drop in unexpectedly, I was obviously interested. Unfortunately, the lady has very different standards when it comes to cooking- this turned out to be at least as involved (if not more so) than my regular version. But the dish was more than worth the effort. Definitely a recipe I'm going to use much more. 

200 gm paneer

1/2 cup peas

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp haldi powder

1 tsp dhania powder

1/2 tsp amchur powder

1 tsp kasoori methi

Salt and sugar to taste

A pinch of nutmeg 

1/2 cup milk

For gravy:

4 tomatoes, chopped

2 onions chopped

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 inch piece cinnamon

2 green cardamom

10 cashew nuts

1/2 cup water

Method:

Pressure cook the ingredients listed under gravy for 20 minutes on sim after the first whistle

Cool. Discard cinnamon and cardamom and grind to a fine paste

Heat oil, add bay leaves, and sauté for a minute or two

Add paste, and dry spices, and sauté on a low flame till the oil starts leaving the sides

Add peas, milk, kasoori methi, salt and sugar, and cook for 5 minutes

Add paneer, bring to a boil, and turn off the flame

Serve with parathas or roti. 

Chicken korma with Khus Khus

I developed a sudden craving for khus khus tonight, and realised the best way to disguise it into food would be in a chicken korma. Modified it slightly, and the recipe worked really well.

1 kg chicken

1 tbsp curds

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

3 medium onions

2 medium tomatoes

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

12 cashewnuts

1 tbsp khus khus

4 tsp dhania powder

2 tsp jeera powder

2 tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp kasoori methi

Salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

 

Whole spices:

1 bay leaf

1 inch piece cinnamon

1 star anise

1 large badi elaichi

Method:

Marinate the chicken in a mixture of curds, ginger garlic paste and salt for 1 hour.

Grind the onions with a little water till you get a fine paste. Keep aside.

Grind the tomatoes, cashew nuts and khus khus and keep aside.

Heat the oil, add the whole spices, and toss around for 30 seconds. 

Add onion paste, ginger garlic paste, and the dry spices. Fry on a low flame till the oil starts leaving the masala.

Add the tomato-cashew- khus khus paste, and mix well. Saute for about a minute till the raw smell goes.

Add the marinated chicken, allow it to come to a boil on a low flame, cover, and let it cook for 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes, stir it a bit so it doesn't stick. Do not add water.

Soya pasanda

Both the kids are going through a phase where they want soya nuggets every week, and I indulge them, because it is of course full of proteins. But the same old tomato based gravy gets a bit boring, so I jazzed it up a bit this time to get a smoother gravy.

100 gms soya nuggets
6 pods garlic
1/2 large onion, chopped fine
2 large tomatoes
1 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp kasoori methi
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste


Method:
Soak the soya nuggets in boiling water, till soft. Drain and keep aside.
Heat oil, and saute garlic and onions till transparent.
Chop the tomatoes directly onto the onion-garlic mixture, and saute till it turns mushy. Add the spices and  cook for 2-3 minutes.
Blend the mixture till smooth, and return to the pan.
Make a paste with cornflour in 1/2 cup water, and add to the paste, with constant stirring.
Add the nuggets and squeeze a bit, so the water is drained and the gravy can take it's place.
Sprinkle kasoori methi, mix well, and let the gravy bubble till it thickens a bit.
Serve with roti or paratha.

Ragi idiyappan

The packers seem to have lost an entire carton of kitchen equipment, so I had to go shopping for things as basic as kadhais, tawas and pressure cookers. Since this is the first time I have gone utensil shopping since I started cooking seriously, I ended up picking up a whole lot of stuff I never possessed, but which I now feel I cannot do without. One of them was the sevai maker (which can double up as a chakli maker), which I had to try out at once. I could have started with the conventional seat, but thought of making a ragi sevai instead. I've adapted the recipe so it tastes like ragi puttu, and we all loved it.

2 cups ragi flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups water

Grated coconut to taste

1 or 2 bananas

Oil for greasing

Additional equipment- idli steamer, sevai maker

Method:

Roast the ragi flour till the raw smell goes. Add salt and mix well. 

Gradually add water, mixing and kneading throughout, till you get a consistency thicker than dosa batter but looser than roti dough*. Knead a bit more, till smooth. 

Grease the idli maker and the inside of the sevai maker with a bit of oil. 

Fill the sevai maker with the dough, and pipe it onto the idli moulds.

Cut the banana into slices and place around and above the piped dough. 

Steam for 15 minutes. 

Carefully demould the idyappams, garnish with coconut (you can mix some sugar with it), and steamed bananas and serve. 

You can also enjoy idyappams with butter and sugar. 

*- I am not mentioning quantities, because the recipes I said 2:3, but i required only 1:1

Green gazpacho soup

 There are days when you plan your meal and there are days when you take an inventory of what is there in the fridge and find a way to use the stuff. I had some steamed capsicums left over from last night, and a cucumber, so a green gazpancho it was for me. A cold soup for a warm July lunch.

1 cucumber, peeled and cored

1 capsicum steamed

1 slice stale bread

1 large pod garlic

½ litre vegetable stock

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Method

Moisten the stale bread and keep aside

In a blender, mix the cucumbers, capsicum, garlic and bread, and blend to a smooth purée along with the vegetable stock.

Add the salt and pepper and mix well. Add a little stock, if required to thin out the gazpacho.

Serve chilled garnished with croutons or chopped cucumber.

Sprouted moong dhokala

Sprouted moong is a perennial favourite of mine. When I was young, I would consume enormous quantities of it, and I still can. But with age, the tongue gets more demanding, and I need to sprinkle salt on it now. I also love experimenting with dishes that have it as a primary ingredient, and this dhokla was particularly good. 

1 cup sprouted moong

1/2 cups spinach

1/4 cups grated carrot

1 tsp ginger- green chilli paste

2 tbsp besan

A pinch of hing

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp haldi powder

1 packet Eno fruit salt

For tempering:

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp urad dal

1 tsp mustard seed

1 tsp sesame seeds

Method:

Grind the moong sprouts, spinach and carrot till you get an even but slightly coarse consistency 

Mix in the ginger green chilli paste, salt, hing, besan, haldi powder. 

Grease a flat plate and keep aside

Add Eno fruit salt to the mixture, and while the fizzing is still taking place, spread the mixture on the plate

Steam in a pressure cooker with the whistle removed for 12 minutes. 

Cut after allowing to cool

Heat the oil, add mustard seeds, and after it stops spluttering, add urad dal and sesame seeds. Pour over the dhokla, garnish with grated carrot and serve. 

Kadhi, without pakode

Kadhi is one of my go-to recipes- almost impossible to go wrong with, and something that everyone likes. Today, however, I did not feel like making pakodas, so experimented a bit with the seasoning, to come up with something that we liked almost as much as the original.

For kadhi:

1 cup curds
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp besan

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp jeera seeds

A pinch of hing

1 medium onion sliced long

3 sprigs mint


Method:
Mix all the ingredients under kadhi into the curds and keep aside for 5 minutes

Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a kadhai, and splutter the mustard seeds. Add jeera seeds and sliced onions and sauté till onions are well browned. Add the hing and mint leaves. 

Reduce the flame, add the dahi mixture and water if required. Mix well, and bring to a boil. 

Serve hot with steamed rice. 

Chocolate Sago Pudding

Continuing on the Sago Saga started last year, here is a delightfully rich chocolate pudding, which almost makes you forget about chocolate bars.

1 litre milk 

100 gms sago/sabudana
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
3 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:
Soak the sago in water. The water should cover the sago and there should be a bit extra. Keep the soaked sago overnight, in the fridge. In the morning, drain the sago from the water and keep aside. You need about 1/2 cu sago for this.
Reserve 1/2 cup milk. Bring the rest of the milk to boil, reduce the flame, and heat with constant stirring till the volume reduces to half. Add sugar, and stir till it dissolves.
Add the drained sago to the milk, and keep stirring for 3-4 minutes until the sago pearls lose their opaque white color and become colorless. Remove from fire.
Add the cocoa powder, and mix well. Chill in the fridge for 3 hours. 

Mix in the reserved milk before serving.

Makhana Palak Curry

Makhana was an ingredient I associate with my childhood. We often had makhana curry when I was a child in Jharkhand, but the ingredient completely disappeared from my life soon after. It reappeared only after we shifted to our current house, and one of the things I am apprehensive about regarding our impending move to Hyderabad is that I might not get makhana any more.
I picked up a packet the other day, and impatient to use it, decided to make palak paneer with makhana instead of paneer. It was a huge hit, because both the kids loved squishing the fox nuts before chewing them. Definitely an ingredient I am going to use more of in the next few weeks.

1 cup makhana/ fox nuts

1 bunch spinach chopped fine

1 medium onion chopped
1 medium tomato chopped fine
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp rai
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder

Salt to taste
Cooking oil


Method:Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Once they stop spluttering, add onions, and saute till transparent.
Add ginger garlic paste, chopped tomatoes and the spices, and cook till mushy.
Meanwhile, blanch the spinach leaves for 2-3 minutes, and keep aside.

Add water and greens. Bring to boil, add salt, cover, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

While the gravy is simmering, dry roast the makhana till they start browning. Add to the gravy, mix well, and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot with rotis.

Cheesy Simple Eggplant Casserole

I wanted to make my  mother's chessy eggplant casserole, but wanted something slightly lighter as a concession to the heat. I replaced the tomato paste with sliced tomatoes, and it got polished off in no time at all.

1 egg plant, sliced into thin circles

2 tbsp besan
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Cooking oil for shallow frying

2 tomatoes diced
3 tbsp grated cheese

Method:
Coat the eggplant slices with salt, keep aside for a few minutes, and squeeze out the juice.
Cover with a mixture of besan, red chilli powder, and shallow fry on a low flame till done.
Place a layer of eggplant slices on a baking tray. Place a layer to tomato slices over the eggplant, and drizzle with olive oil and cheese. Keep layering till all the eggplant slices are used up, and finish with a thick layer of cheese.
Bake for 5 minutes, till the cheese is well melted.

Modified Kosimbir

I always loved my mother's Kosimbir, which she learnt to make from her mother. The lightest, tastiest, healthiest snack/ salad possible is how I always thought of it. Till I had cabbage kosimbir a couple of weeks back, and realised even that perfection could be made better. This started out as a carrot kosimbir, but ended up as something entirely different. Nobody's complaining!

1 cup split moong dal
1 cucumber
1 carrot
1/2 bunch dil weeds
1/2 lemon
1 tsp chilli flakes
salt to taste


Method
Soak the split moong dal overnight (or at least for 4 hours)
Cut the cucumber into tiny pieces, grate the carrot, and mix both well with the dal
Remove the leaves of the dill weeds, cut fine, and mix.
Add salt to taste, squeeze the lemon on top, and toss well.
Serve chilled, either as a stand alone snack, or with rotis.

Matar ka halwa

While I love gajar ka halwa, and try to make it at least once a year, grating carrots is not exactly my idea of fun. Which is why I have been wanting to try matar ka halwa ever since I saw a recipe nearly a year back. I finally made it today, and liked it a lot. Given my family, though, I am going to reduce the sugar a bit more next time I make it.

2 cups green peas, shelled
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp ghee
Cardamon powder, optional
Sliced nuts for garnish

Method:
Blanche the peas in boiling water for 5 minutes (or till the colour turns a more vivid green). Remove into cold water, drain and keep aside.
Grind the peas coarsely in a blender.
Heat the ghee, add ground peas, and saute till the raw smell goes.
Add sugar and milk, stir well, and cook on a low flame till most of the milk evaporates.
Stir in cardamon powder.
Garnish with nuts and serve chilled.

Chicken in dark sauce

I modified this recipe from my older recipe for roast chicken. The sauce is nearly the same, but the method of cooking makes it much easier.

5 chicken legs (I used curry cut chicken, but legs would be much better)
3 small onions, or a handfull of shallots
5 tbsps soya sauce
2.5 tbsps Worcesterchire sauce
1 tsp freshly ground pepper powder

1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsps olive oil
Salt to taste

Method
Wash and clean the chicken. Make a few small slits in the flesh. Marinate in a mixture of soya sauce,Worcestershire sauce and 2 tbsp oil for 1 hour.
Heat the remaining oil, pour in about 1 tbsp of the marinade, add sugar and stir it on high heat for about 30 seconds (till the sugar starts to melt). Reduce the flame, add the marinated chicken, with the marinade. Add pepper powder and salt, and bring to boil. Cover and let it cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the shallots or make cross cuts in the onion (taking care not to cut all the way through).
Turn all the pieces around, place the onions/ shallots over the chicken, and cover them with sauce. Cover and let it cook for 15 minutes (or a bit more till done).
Thicken the gravy if needed.
Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables


For mashed potatoes, boil the potatoes, and mash with butter, milk, salt and oregano.
For steamed vegetables, steam the vegetables, and season with salt and pepper.

Fennel Pumpkin Curry with Webbed Dosa

Many months back, I saw Vikas Khanna making Webbed Dosa with Pumpkin curry on TV, and took down the recipe on my iphone. The phone got lost, but the recipe was saved on the Cloud and turned up on my new phone. By the time I got down to making it, I had completely forgotten what the original recipe looked like, so recreated it using my imagination.
Verdict- the pumpkin curry was good, but I am not sure the webbed dosa is worth the trouble.

250 gms pumpkin
1 large tomato
4-6 pods garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Cooking oil
Salt to taste

For the dosa
1 cup rajma, cooked
1 cup maida
1 egg
oil for drizzling
salt to taste

Method:
Puree the rajma, mix well with maida and beaten egg. Add salt to taste and keep aside.

Peel the pumpkin slice, and cut it into chunks. Boil till it is slightly soft.
Heat the oil, add garlic (crushed), curry leaves and chopped tomatoes and saute till tomato turns mushy.
Add the chilli flakes and fennel seeds, and saute for a minute
Add the boiled pumpkin, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, and cook on a low flame for 2-3 minutes

Lightly grease a tawa with oil and heat over high flame till smoky. Reduce heat to medium and carefully wipe off excess oil with a tissue. Using the squeezie bottle or Roti Jala mould, drizzle the kidney bean batter onto the griddle to create a web. Drizzle over with ½ teaspoon oil. As batter sets and turns golden, carefully flip the web over, taking care not to break. Drizzle over ½ teaspoon oil and allow to cook till almost crisp.

Maharashtrian inspired Dry Chicken

One of the side effects of having a dog in the family is the fact that you often have chicken in the freezer. This was something I invented as a top up dish.

500 gms chicken

1 medium onion, chopped fine

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp Maharashtrian Goud masala

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 red chillis

1 sprig curry leaves

2 tbsp cooking oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil. Splutter the mustard seeds, add onions, red chilli and curry leaves and saute till the onions turn transparent.

Add chicken, and fry on high heat to fix the juices.

Remove the onions, and reserve them. Add sesame seeds, masala and salt to taste, mix well, cover and let the chicken cook. When almost done, return the onions, and fry for another minute or two.

Serve with rotis and dal.

Pudina Chicken

I made regular chicken curry for the family, but wanted something different for myself, so attempted this minty curry. I really, really loved it, and might just make it when we have people over for dinner.

500 gms curry cut chicken
1 medium onion, chopped into small pieces
1 tomato chopped
1 green chilli
3 pods garlic
1/2 inch piece chicken
1/2 bunch mint leaves
3 tbsp coconut
1 tsp jeera
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat the oil, splutter jeera, and saute the onions, green chilli, ginger and garlic till the onion turns transparent.
Add the tomatoes and mint, and saute till the tomatoes turn mushy. Add the coconut and stir for 30 seconds.
Grind the masala.
Add chicken, and stir it well so all the pieces are well coated with the ground masala.
Add 1/2 cup water, cover, and let it cook on a low flame for 30 minutes till done.
Serve hot.

Eggplant tomato casserole

My mother used to make an eggplant casserole which was one of my favourite dishes. Somewhere along the line, she misplaced the recipe, after which I embarked on a quest to hunt it down. I finally found what I was looking for at a restaurant in Delhi, and everytime we went there, I insisted on ordering that dish and no other. Now that I am a reasonably confident cook, I know I can re-create the dish anytime (and I will do so soon), so the next phase begins- experimenting with the classic dish.

This is a desi version of my favourite eggplant casserole, and is every bit as lovely as the original.

1 egg plant, sliced into thin circles

2 tbsp besan
1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste

Cooking oil for shallow frying
2 tomatoes, chopped into coarse pieces
1 medium onion, chopped fine
3- 4 pods garlic
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
pinch of hing
salt to taste
1 tbsp cooking oil

Sour cream for garnish

Method:
Coat the eggplant slices with salt, keep aside for a few minutes, and squeeze out the juice.
Cover with a mixture of besan, red chilli powder, and shallow fry on a low flame till done.
Heat the oil, temper with mustard seeds. Add garlic and onions and saute till it turns transparent. Add tomatoes and curry leaves, and cook till it turns mushy.
Add hing, salt and red chilli powder, and saute for a few minutes.
Place a layer of eggplant slices on a baking tray. Pour some of the tomato paste over it. Keep layering till all the eggplant slices are used up, and finish with a layer of tomato paste.
Bake for 2-3 minutes. Pour on the sour cream and serve.

Palak chicken

The hubby and kids wanted a regular chicken curry, but I craved something different. Since there was a luscious looking bunch of spinach leaves in the fridge, I whipped up some palak chicken for myself, with minimum extra effort. Something tells me my meal was nicer than their's was!

1/2 kg chicken cut into regular pieces

2 tbsp curds

1 tbsp garam masala powder

salt to taste

1 tsp haldi powder

2 bay leaves

1 inch piece cinnamon

2-3 cloves

1 medium onion 

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 green chilli

1 medium tomato chopped

1 bunch spinach leaves

Cooking oil

Method:

Marinate the chicken in a mixture of curds, garam masala powder, haldi powder and salt.

Grind onions and green chilli to a coarse paste

Meanwhile, temper oil with the whole spices, add onion-green chilli paste, ginger garlic paste and cook on a low flame till the raw smell goes completely.

Meanwhile, saute chopped tomatoes and spinach, till the raw smell goes, grind, and add to the main masala.

Add chicken, stir it around for a few minutes, and pressure cook for 20 minutes.

Tastes great with rice.

Imli-pudina chutney

We were relaxing one Saturday evening, when some friends called up and told us they were dropping in for dinner. Too late to really cook a well planned meal, I decided to throw together whatever I had and make do. Luckily there were some dahi vadas in the freezer, so all I had to do was whip up some imli chutney. Since I didn't have enough pudina for a green chutney, I added some to the imli chutney, to get my own imli chutney with a twist.

1/3 cup dates cut lengthwise
2 tbsp tamarind concentrate
1 sprig mint
3 tbsp jaggary
1/2 tsp Sonth/ Dry ginger powder
1/2 tsp jeera
1 tsp red chilli powder
3/4 cup water
 
Method
Boil the water, add the chopped dates, and simmer for about 10 minutes till the dates are really soft and can be mashed.

Meanwhile, roast the jeera separately, powder coarsely and keep aside.

Add jaggery and tamarind concentrate to the mashed dates, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt, red chili powder, roasted cumin seeds powder, and dry ginger powder.
Cool, add the mint leaves and grind till smooth. Pour it back into the pot, and give it one final boil.