Grilled aubergine with bell peppers and cheese

I love brinjals, but the kids not so much. They do, however, tolerate the vegetable if it is called by its more fancy name of aubergine. I bought these thin brinjals for myself, but when I also saw the colourful bell peppers, I decided to make a dish for all of us. And believe me, aubergines never disappeared as fast!

250 gms aubergines/  brinjal
1 1/2 bell peppers
2 tbsp basill
4 tbsp feta cheese
4-6 garlic cloves
Olive oil for dousing
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Smash the garlic cloves, add 2 tbsp olive oil, and let it seep for 5 minutes
Meanwhile, chop the brinjals into cubes (or discs), and the bell peppers into inch squares.
Toss the chopped vegetables in olive oil, adding salt and pepper to taste. Allow it to marinate for at least 1 hour. Tear the basil leaves and toss in.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease a baking tray and arrange the vegetables on it. Roast for 25 minutes, stirring once to ensure all parts are well done. Remove from the oven.
Crumble the feta cheese and sprinkle over the vegetables.
Serve with garlic bread.

Vegetable ishtew

The hubby is away this week, so I've been experimenting a bit with dinner. I also picked up a lot of veggies from a shop I've finally discovered, and decided to celebrate by making this ishtew. It is a slightly simplified version of the original, and we had it with brown rice.

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, cut into inch long cubes

1/3 cup frozen peas

A handful of spring beans, cut

2 onions, sliced long

1 sprig curry leaves

1 inch piece ginger, sliced

2 bay leaves

10-12 peppercorns

4-6 cloves

1 inch piece cinnamon

1 tbsp cooking oil

Salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water

200 ml coconut milk

Pepper powder to taste

Method:

Steam the potatoes and peas for 5 minutes, add the carrots and beans and steam for an additional 3 minutes. The vegetables should be cooked, but firm. 

Heat the oil, add the spices. Once they start crackling, add the curry leaves, and the sliced onions. Sauté till they turn transparent. Add chillies and ginger, and sauté for half a minute.

Add 2 cups water, and just when it starts boiling, add the cornflour paste and mix well so there are no lumps. 

Add coconut milk, with constant stirring, add the vegetables and let it simmer for about 5 minutes till the gravy comes together. Add a dash of pepper powder before serving. 

I served with brown rice and fryums. 

Bread bombs

After making the bread pakoras, I had some stuffing left over and decided to make something that my mother often made for me when I was a child.

6 slices bread

1 medium potatoes

1 beetroot

1 big carrot

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Boil the potatoes. Peel, mash and keep aside. 

Peel and chop the beetroots and carrots. Steam till just cooked. Keep aside. 

Mix the potatoes, vegetables, spices, and salt. Divide into six equal parts. 

Start heating the oil. 

Cut the crusts of the bread, and moisten slightly. Put the stuffing in the middle, and fold the bread around it. Seal the edges by pressing lightly. 

Slide two balls at a time into the oil and fry till well browned and crisp. Drain on a kitchen towel and serve with ketchup or green chutney. 

Sindhi kadhi

My hubby's aunt often made Sindhi kadhi and Tahdig when she called us over for dinner, and though I was ambivalent the first time I had it, by and by, I grew to like it. One thing that remained a mystery, however, was the nomenclature. When something looked like sambar, and definitely didn't have any curds in it, why should it be called "kadhi"? It was only much later that I found out that the method of preparation of Sindhi kadhi was almost identical to that of regular kadhi, with the main difference being that it substituted tamarind water for curds.
This is the first time I made it, and I am definitely making it again.

4 tbsp besan (bengal gram flour)
A pinch of hing
Few curry leaves
1 tsp jeeraa
1/4 tsp methi seeds
2 small potatoes (cut into big cubes)
2 large carrots, cut lengthwise
1/3 cup peas
1 green chillie
1 inch ginger (chopped / grated)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp haldi powder
 tamarind pulp, made out of 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves (finely chopped)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

Method:
Heat oil in a deep pan, temper with jeera, methi seeds and curry leaves.
 Add gram flour and stir, till besan turns little golden in color and lets out a lovely fragrance.
Add hing and mix well. Add about 1 cup water, and stir well to prevent lumps from forming.
Add potatoes, and after 2-3 minutes the carrots and peas.*
Stir in salt, red chilli powder and haldi powder, mix well. Cover the pot with a lid, and let the vegetables cook till they are soft.
After 5-6 minutes, add tamarind pulp and mix well.
Serve hot with steamed rice, jeera rice or tahdig.

* if you are adding vegetables that need to be fried, fry first, then add to the kadhi.

Pongal spread

One of the advantages of a mixed marriage is that at festival time you can choose what you want to do. If you are in a mood, you can go all out to celebrate, and if you are not in a mood, you can just pretend the festival doesn't exist.
This year, I couldn't decide how I wanted to treat Pongal, so kept putting off making a decision. It was pretty late in the morning by the time I finally decided to make Shakarai Pongal and Korumbu, but they both came out really well, and that's all I really care about. So what if I ended up eating nothing else for the rest of the week- it was a pleasure.

Khatta Meetha Karela

I am not particularly fond of karela, but I keep trying out recipes in the hope I will find something I will like. This khatta meetha karela sounded interesting, and for the most part, it lived upto expectations. I am definitely making it again before deciding if I'm making it a keeper or not.

2 cups of diced bitter gourd, steamed

¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon asafoetida powder
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
¼ teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon dry mango powder
4-5 curry leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of jaggery, or more to suit your taste
¼ cup of roasted crushed peanuts
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons of freshly chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste


MethodHeat oil in a heavy bottomed pan on medium high; add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and allow them to crackle.
To this add the asafoetida, turmeric powder and stir in the steamed bitter gourd and simmer for a few minutes.
Stir in the red chilli powder, dry mango powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and jaggery.
Continue to stir until the jaggery melts and gets well combined into the vegetable.
Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Turn off the heat when the mixture starts looking shiny. Stir in the crushed peanuts and coriander leaves
Serve hot.

Mixed peel chutney

My mother hates wasting anything, and since she is convinced that the bulk of the nutrients reside in the peel, she saves all the peels she can find, to make what she calls "mixed peel chutney". Why she can't just cook veggies with their peel is beyond me, but since the chutney is tasty, I'm not complaining!

1/2 cup mixed peels (carrots, cucumbers work best)

2 to 3 tbsp roasted channa dal

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

2 to 3 green chillis

1 small ball tamarind

2 tbsp jaggery

Salt to taste

Oil

Heat the oil, and temper with mustard seeds and chillies. 

Reduce the flame, add the mixed peels (chopped into small pieces), and sauté till cooked.

Blend with tamarind, jaggery and salt till you get the desired consistency.

Nutty Makhana Curry

I last had Makhana when I was in my early teens- while not quite a staple, it was something that was often made at home as long as we were living in Jharkhand. But once we moved to Calcutta, it disappeared from the dining table, and remained only as a vague memory.
Once I started visiting food forums, I was reminded afresh about makhana- if i made an effort, I could almost taste the crispy goodness, but the real thing remained a dream. Until, we moved to our new place, and I sighted makhana at the local grocery store. Thencame the challenge- the makhana was available, but I couldn't find the recipes I had lusted after. A detailed search finally yielded a recipe that looked interesting, but which was far too rich for my taste. I decided to replace the myriad dry fruits with flax seeds, and voila- one lip smacking dish that takes virtually no time to prepare.

4 pods of garlic, thinly sliced
2 inch piece - ginger, grated
1/2+1/2- yellow and red pepper, thinly sliced
2 1/2 - onions, thinly sliced
1 cup - makhana
1 tbsp - ghee
1 cup milk
1 tsp - garam masala
Oil to sauté vegetables
3 tbsp flax seeds
6- 8 cashew nuts
1 tsp kasuri methi
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Method

Heat the ghee in a non stick pan, add the makhanas and fry for a couple of minutes or until light brown. Keep aside.
Coarsely grind the flax seeds and cashew nuts (without water). Keep aside.
Heat the oil in a non stick pan, add the thinly sliced garlic, ginger, onions and pepper and saute for a minute on medium heat.
Add the coarsely ground nuts and cook for about a minute. Add the 1/2 cup of milk and cook until the milk evaporates.
Add the garam masala, salt, sugar and 1/2 cup of milk and bring it to a boil.
Add the fried makhanas and the kasuri methi and mix well.
Serve immediately. Goes best with hot rotis.

Bajra Whatever

This dish is special, because it is the first meal I cooked for myself in the kitchen of our new house. About a week after we moved in, I got fed up of ordering takeaways (though there are some awesome places to order from here), and soaked some bajra with the intention of making bajra khichdi for lunch.
But when the time came to actually make it, I couldn't find the coconut grater and someone had finished off my stock of singdana, so I had to innovate.

I stir fried garlic, onions and a carrot, added salt, pepper and dry parsley to taste. Threw in the cooked bajra, and some milk, and let the whole thing simmer till I got a consistency I liked.

Tasted much better than I hoped, and the intention is to make it more often, because it makes a change from a regular bajra khichadi.

Khichdi- my "comfort" way

Khichdi is one of my favourite comfort foods, one that I make it as often as I can get away with. Hubby and kids are not particularly fond of it, but as long as it is sufficiently runny and has lots of ghee, they don't mind having it, so it gets made at least once every fortnight. This may not be the authentic version, but it is my favourite version.

2 measures rice (I use a small cup as a measure)

1 measure masoor dal

1 measure dhuli moong dal

Mixed veggies cut into bite sizes (I use carrots, beans, cauliflowers, peas in various proporitons) - 1 cup

1 or two potatoes cut into bite sized pieces

2 onions sliced fine

1 inch piece of ginger

2 green chillis (more or less according to taste)

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp jeera 

salt to taste

1 tbsp cooking oil

Dry roast the dals, and keep aside

Heat the cooking oil, temper with jeera. Add onions and ginger when the jeera stops spluttering, and fry on low heat till onions start turning transparent.

Put all the ingredients in a pressure cooker, add water (two parts water for every part of rice and dal), and pressure cook for two whistles (first whistle on high heat, second on low heat).

Put a dollop of ghee, and stir well before serving (you can also throw a red chillie in heated ghee, and temper before serving).

Kofta curry

When I was a kid we had a grove of papaya trees in the backyard, so I grew up on kofta curry. Now that raw papayas are no longer plenty, my mother uses lauki instead. This is her recipe- perfectly tailored to our tastes (or were our tastes tailored to meet her recipe). My only contribution is in making it "healthier"- I don't deep fry the koftas- a tip I picked up from Gauri Shirke.

For the kofta
One medium lauki, peeled, de-seeded and grated
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 cup besan
Red chilli powder to taste

For the gravy
2 medium onions chopped
1 large tomato chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp jeera powder
1 tsp dhania powder
1 tsp chilli powder
3 tbsp curd

Preparation
Fry the onions in 2 tsp oil till light brown, add tomatos and ginger-garlic paste, dry masalas and fry on very low flame till onions turn dark brown.
Cook for 2 minutes, add curd and water till desired consistency.
Cook for another minute, take off the flame.

Grate the lauki, keep aside for about 10 minutes and squeeze out the water.
Add ginger-garlic paste, salt and besan. Knead well.
Make small balls, press them to flatten.
On a non-stick frying pan, sprinkle 1 tsp water, and shallow fry koftas on a low flame till brown.

Add koftas to the curry, and bring to boil once.

Bread maki

I was looking for something to rustle up for lunch, and found a recipe for "bread maki" by Sanjivni Yatin. Got the proportions all mixed up,so it doesn't look nicely rolled up like hers did, but this is healthier, because it has more carrots.

3 slices white bread
1 medium carrot, grated
green mint chutney

Remove the edges of the bread, and roll over with a rolling pin, to flatten it.
Spread a layer of mint chutney, arrange a layer of grated carrots (with salt to taste), and roll it tightly
Cut each roll into three pieces.

You can also sprinkle the leftover carrots and some sev on top like I did before eating.

Mixed veg Korambu

For some strange reason, my mother would only make this on Sankranti, to be eaten with Shakarai Pongal. The best part was the leftovers- she'd thicken them the next day, and it tasted even better than they did when fresh.

Soak half cup tur dal overnight, cook it and mash till soft.
Cook the veggies you want in tamarind water (1 cup water, and tamarind the size between a marble and a lime- discard the tamarind after taking out the pulp), with haldi and salt. Different veggies take different time to cook, so put them in the correct order so all get fully cooked at the same time.

Dry roast the following, and grind it into a masala-
6 red chillies
1 ½ tsp dhania
1 tsp chana dal
2 tbsp grated coconut

Add masala to the dal, and cook for two boils.

Add the veggies and bring to boil once.

Temper with -
Mustard
½ tsp methi
2 red chillies
Hing
Curry patta

The korambu is meant to be thicker than the normal sambhar, and tastes best with shakarai pongal (sweet pongal). Can also be had with dosas and idlis, but not so good with rice.

Paniyaram with vegetables

The kids wanted paniyaram, mom wanted them to have their veggies. This was the compromise.

Soak 2 measures boiled rice and 1 measure urad dal overnight, along with 1 tsp fenugreek seeds. Grind it smoothly, with minimal water, and let it ferment for 6 hours. The consistency should be thicker than for dosa batter (more like idli batter).
To the batter, add an appropriate quantity of steamed veggies chopped fine (I used carrots and beans because I had both, but you can experiment), or grated veggies (carrots would work fine), chopped dhania patta, and zeera powder and salt to taste.
Rub ghee on the paniyaram pan, pour the batter into the mould and allow it to cook on low heat. When they start to pull away from the edges, turn them around and allow it to cook further.
Serve hot.

Gunpowder keg

 This was invented on a day when I needed some subji to have with my rotis, and these were the only ingredients in hand.

Mash together boiled potatoes and steamed veggies (carrot, beet, peas is what I had)- warm them to desired temperature, if you are using leftover steamed veggies. Add gunpowder (lots), salt, juice of one lime and mix well. Garnish with roasted peanuts (should have crushed them- will next time). Tastes pretty good with rotis.

Bisi bele bhaat

A purist might say that if you use store bought masala, the recipe is not an "authentic" recipe. But when one particular masala works perfectly, you'd be a fool not to use it, specially since it makes cooking so much easier.

Cook one measure of tur dal, with haldi powder, till soft.
Half cook the same measure of rice, add chopped vegetables, and cook till rice is fully done. You can use any vegetables you like- I like beans, cauliflower, peas, carrot, potatoes and one medium onion cut into eight pieces (the boiled onion adds a special flavour).
Lightly fry desired quantity of peanuts and keep aside.
In a large kadhai fry peanuts, grated copra (about 1 tbsp for each small cup of dal/ rice), green chillies. When the copra is nice and brown, add the cooked rice, and dal, and mix well.
Add 3 tbsp of MRT Vangibhat masala, salt and tamarind juice (one marble sized tamarind for each small cup of dal), stir well, and let it cook on low heat for a few minutes. Depending on how mushy you want it add the peanuts (early if you like it soft, right at the end if you want it crunchy).
Add a tadka of mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chillies. Add a dollop of ghee before serving.

Avial

One of the easiest recipes known, it can go horribly wrong if you do crazy stuff like replace the coconut oil with olive oil. And above all, DO NOT add a pinch of haldi- the beauty of the dish is in the pristine colour.










 

Boil the vegitables together till cooked (recommended veggies- drumstick, pumkin, carrots, beans, potato, but you can add any other you like).

Grind fine-
1/4 coconut grated
4 green chillis
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp rice flour

Mix the ground masala with 1 cup sour curds (it has to be really sour, or the taste will not come).
Add the curd-masala mixture to the vegetables. Add salt to taste, and give it a few boils.

Heat 3 tsp coconut oil. Dip a few sprigs of curry leaves in the hot oil and remove immediately (so colur doesn't change). Pour the coconut oil over the avial, close, and allow it to stand for a few minutes.

Chow-chow chutney

This is a "Madhava" dish which is very popular in Bangalore. Like many other dishes in the Madhava cruisine, the chutney is multipurpose- you can have it with rice (and ghee) or with rotis. My mother has it with dosas, and I think it tastes best with curds.

1 medium chow-chow, deseeded, peeled and chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds/ rai
2 tbsp chana dal
1 tbsp urad dal
1-2 red chillies (according to taste)
1 marble sized ball tamarind soaked in a little warm water
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Heat oil in a kadhai, add mustard seeds. When the spluttering dies down, add red chillies and the dals, and fry on low heat till well browned.
Add chopped vegetables, and fry on low heat for 2 - 3 minutes.
Add tamarind juice, sprinkle water, cover the kadhai and let it cook in its own steam till soft.
Remove from flame and let it cool.
Pour into a mixer, add salt to taste, and grind till all the vegetables are pureed and the dals are coarsely ground.
Tastes best when cold (unless you are having it with rice).

Notes-
- the recipe calls for 2 red chilies, but put more or less according to taste, and the relative hotness of the chilli
- tamarind can be replaced with lemon juice and/ or vinegar, but considering most of the taste comes from the roasted dal, the chillis and the tamarind, think before replacing
- some people also add coriander to the chutney before grinding- it is not a part of the original recipe, and I do not do it
- some people temper the chutney with mustard seeds, curry leaves and channa dal- I personally prefer it otherwise

Bread bombs

My mother used to make this for me when I returned home from school ravenous. Then she started working longer hours, and I forgot all about this, till all that talk of beetroot cutlets and veg chops reminded me of this. Recipe my own, because my mother seems to have forgotten all about it, but it tasted exactly like I remembered, so must be somewhat close to "authentic".

Steam assor ted veggies# till soft (I used 2 medium beetroots, 3 small carrots, and a handful of beans, but you can also add peas and cauliflowers).
Boil 2 medium potatoes*
Mash the potatoes and the veggies separately, and mix them together. Fry 1/2 onion chopped and peanuts (optional), till onion turns translucent. Add to the mashed vegetables. Add salt to taste and 1 tsp pav bhaji masala (garam masala would work too- I used pav bhaji masala so it would taste similar to something the kids are used to).
Roll into balls (size of a ping-pong ball), and keep aside.
Cut off the crusts from a slice of bread, moisten one side, press down on palm, place the ball inside and cover, moulding to form desired shape. Drop into the oil and deep fry.
Tastes best with mustard sauce and nostalgia!

* time saving tip- cut the potatoes into 1/8ths, and cook in pressure cooker, along with the veggies (in separate containers)- both take roughly the same amount of time
# destring the beans before steaming, but peeling beets and carrots is much easier after they are cooked

Capsicum stuffed with rice

a.k.a. How to Deal with Leftover Rice I saw the original recipe on TV (Peppers and Wild Rice, I think it was called), and decided to adapt it to use up all the rice that gets leftover every day.

De-top the capsicum, keep aside the large part, and chop the top part into small pieces.
Saute 3 pods garlic, half a chopped onion, the capsicum pieces, half a chopped tomato. When done, add half a cup of leftover rice, salt, pepper, and a little lime juice (I've experimented with chilli flakes and oregano- both work well). Stir well, and turn off the flame.
Lightly coat the inside and the outside of the capsicum with oil. Stuff with rice, grate some cheese on top and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes (or till done).
Serve on a bed of rice leftover after stuffing.

Normally, half a cup of rice is sufficient for two capsicums, but since I was cooking only for myself I made only one (and ate the rest of the rice separately).
The first time I made it, I added salt to the veggies, and totally misjudged the quantity. If you are doing so, remember that you will be adding the rice to the veggies, and use salt accordingly.