thayirsaadham

Hey all,

How have you been? Am doing great :).
One rhetorical question - how many of us feel happy for what we have? I was talking to my cousin the other day and we were discussing about this dialogue that came in some movie one of us had watched (How specific is that? ). The dialogue went something like this “I have gas in my car. I have a variety of food to choose from in my refrigerator and if I feel like it, I can always go out and eat. I have clothes to cover my back and I have a roof over my head. Why do I have to feel sad for what I don’t have when I seem to have so much more than what a lot of people have?” After the conversation, I was just thinking about how lucky I am. I do have my fair share of problems. I mean, who doesn’t? So much of our life goes away in dealing with the problems we have that we forget to be thankful for the smaller things in our life. Though this is going to sound like a cliche, I am going to say it - I really am thankful for the spring weather that we are having here. Something about the blue skies makes me happy. I just take a deep breath and settle down on the couch with a good book and a cup of coffee next to me. Another smaller nicer thing happened to me last week. I found one of my favorite t-shirts at the back of my closet which I thought I had lost. It’s a different issue that I am not fitting in that as well as I used to.

Have you ever started cooking with something in mind and then going somewhere else with the recipe? I am sure I am not alone in this. The recipe I have for you today is the result of one such experiment. I started cooking with bisibelebath in my mind. Then I realized I did not have rice. (Cue for applause on my planning skills). So, I decided to make a sabzi for roti instead. Since I was no longer having rice, I wanted to make the meal substantial and added some black chickpeas that I had soaked sometime back. The spice mix that I used is very similar to the one I use for bisibelebath.

Ingredients

1. Black chick peas (soaked and cooked till soft) - 1 cup*
2. Potato - 1 (chopped into bite sized pieces)
3. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
4. Tomato - 1 (chopped finely)
5. Peas - 1/2 cup
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Oil - 2 tsp
9. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Salt - to taste

Spice mixture

1. Ghee - 1 tsp **
2. Cinnamon - one 1″ stick
3. Whole black pepper - 1/2 tsp
4. Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp
5. Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 3-4 ***
7. Cloves - 4
8. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
9. Coconut - 3-4 Tbsp

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Add the mustard seeds to the pan. Once the seeds begin to pop, add the cumin seeds.
3. Once the cumin seeds start sizzling, add onions.
4. Fry the onions till they turn translucent.
5. Add tomatoes and add a little water and cook the tomatoes till they turn mushy.
6. Add the potatoes and peas.
7. Add salt and the chilli powder and let the spices mix with the vegetables.
8. Now, add the chickpeas and add around half a cup of water and let the chickpeas cook for around 5-10 minutes.
9. In the meantime, roast the ingredients for spice mixture (except the oil) in the oil and then grind these with a little water into a coarse paste.
10. Add the spice mixture to the mixture in the pan and let it come to a boil.
11. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes.
12. Add water accordingly to get a mixture of the preferred thickness.
13. Adjust for salt and switch off the stove.

Serve with rotis and yoghurt on the side. You could also have this with rice (if you are unlike me and plan well)

Notes

* I usually soak the chickpeas in water for around 8 hours. Then I cook them on the stovetop for around 30 minutes till they are soft but not mushy. They should have a mild bite to them. You could also cook them in the pressure cooker for a couple of whistles.
** You could roast the ingredients for the spice mixture in oil. But please use ghee - an awesome aroma fills the kitchen when you roast it in ghee. You do not want to miss that!
*** Adjust the amount of red chillies in the spice mixture according to your level of spice tolerance. I like mine spicy and I used around 6 red chillies.

Hey all…

Stilllll here. Just been a little busy at work. Plus with the weather improving little by little, I have been trying to spend more time outdoors - walking, running, etc. Seattle, for all its gloomy weather, is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I have been living here for more than an year now and even now, everytime I catch a glimpse of the mountains - either from my office or when I am driving, it never fails to astound me. I want to stop and look. Not a cool idea when you are driving at 60 miles per hour.

So, coming to today’s dish, I started with no idea about what to cook. I cut some vegetables and then kind of built up the recipe as I went along. Usually, I can never function that way. I need to know what I am cooking, what the side dish should be and everything that goes into the dish. I usually cook at night and take it for lunch the next day. So, it has to be something that I can carry to work and something that will taste edible after 18 hours. This needs a lot of planning for someone like me with limited culinary experience.

Ingredients

1. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
2. Tomato - 1 (chopped)
3. Potato - 1 (chopped into small cubes)
4. Carrot - 1 (chopped)
5. Peas - 1//2 cup
6. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Olive Oil - 2 tsp
8. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. urad dhal - 1 tsp
10. Salt - to taste
11. Asafoetida - a pinch

To grind into a paste

1. Coconut - 5 tbsp
2. Green chillies - 2 (chopped very finely)
3. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
4. cumin seeds - 1 tsp
5. red chilli powder - 1 tsp
6. garam masala - 1 tsp
7. cashew nuts - 5-8
8. ginger - a small piece

Method

1. Soak the cashews in warm water for 10-15 minutes. Then grind them with the other ingredients for the paste and keep aside.
2. Take a heavy bottomed pan and add some oil to it.
3. Add the onions and fry them till the onions turn pink in colour.
4. Add the tomatoes next and let them cook for 5-6 minutes till they break down. You can add some water at this stage.
5. Add salt and turmeric powder and the vegetables. Cook them till the vegetables are soft but make sure they don’t turn mushy.
6. Add the ground paste and let everything simmer at a low flame for 15 minutes.
7. Adjust salt as needed. You can also add more red chilli powder if you want the dish to be more spicy.
8. Do the final tadka with mustard seeds,urad dhal and asafoetida.

This tastes great with chapathi/rice. It was creamy due to the cashews but was also low-fat. You can also skip the cashews if you want. Or you can add milk instead of cashews. Also, you can add other vegetables. I was on a refrigerator cleaning mode and added whatever I could find.

This dish started out as a south indian dish. I wanted to grind just coconut and jeera . Then, I realized that too many of my dishes have that in common. So, I thought of making in north indian by adding cashews, coriander powder, chilli powder and garam masala. At the end, I decided to make it south indian by doing the tadka with asafoetida. Don’t ask me why. I think I was in a weird mood that night.

I have never cooked anything with paneer before. I was always a bit apprehensive about how the paneer will cook or whether it will get disintegrated… weird doubts.. I know
I needn’t have worried. The paneer was nicely cooked and the dish tasted nice.

Mattar paneer was the one dish that was mandatory when I used to go out for dinner with my parents and sister. My mom likes to eat south indian food even at restaurants and despite our innumerous pleas to try north indian, she would refuse. Sometimes, she would relent so far as to order poori or chapathi. Don’t ask me why.. I have no clue. My dad, sister and I would just go ahead and order soup, naan, mattar paneer and some other north indian side dish like malai kofta. And of course, end it with icecream. Those were the days when the word “calories” did not exist in my dictionary
After all this vyakyaanam (I cannot think of an English word for this - maybe meaningless chatter?) about matar paneer, you might be surprised about why I prepared paneer butter masala. The incredibly efficient planner that I am, I did not have any peas that day

So, I was looking for a paneer recipe and found this on Mansi’s FunnFud. I followed her recipe for the most part but omitted butter and cream from the recipe. Yes… the word calories again . To make it creamy, I added milk. I don’t know if you can add milk to a paneer dish. All you expert cooks out there, please let me know. The dish did taste good with the milk though.

I am reproducing the recipe here with the changes that I made.

Ingredients

1. 2 tomatoes - pureed
2. 1/2 pack paneer
3. 2 onions
4. 1 bay leaf
5. ginger paste - 1 tbsp (you can also use ginger garlic paste. I don’t like garlic. So, I used ginger paste)
6. red chilli powder - 1 tsp
7. cashews - 10
8. coriander powder - 1/2 tbsp
9. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
10. kasuri methi - 1/2 tsp
11. garam masala powder - 1 tbsp
12. salt - according to taste
13. lemon juice - 2 tsp
14. olive oil - 3 tbsp
15. cinnamon stick - 1 inch stick
16. milk - 4-5 tbsp

Recipe

1. Chop the onions and drop them in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Then, puree them in the blender and keep aside.
2. Soak the cashew nuts in warm water for 15 minutes and then grind them into a paste.
3. You can puree the tomatoes following the same method that I used for onions. Or if you have readymade tomato puree, even better.
4. Take 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry the paneer pieces till they turn a nice golden brown. Take some hot water, add a pinch turmeric powder and drop the paneer cubes in the water for 10 minutes . Remove them and keep aside. This is to avoid the paneer cubes from becoming hard.
5. Add the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil to a pan and add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
6. Add the onion paste and fry for 5 minutes.
7. Now, add the ginger paste and the cashew paste and let it cook for 5 minutes.
8. Add the tomato puree, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala, kasuri methi and salt and let it cook for 7-10 minutes.
9. Now, add the milk and let it cook for 5 minutes.
10. Add the paneer cubes and let it cook for a further 10 minutes.

While serving, you can garnish with cilantro and/or cream. I did neither
This goes well with naan, chapathi, rice. I had mine with chapathis and I was transported back to the days when I used to have dinner in a restaurant with my parents.

I should have take much better pictures. But my camera batteries died as soon as I took a couple of pictures. By that time, I was extremely hungry and did not have the patience to wait till I could charge the batteries. I put the camera away and gobbled up the dish

I have been wanting to cook chole using the traditional recipe for sometime now. I saw this recipe on Sunshinemom’s site and decided to try her version.

I followed the recipe for the most part and just changed the amount of the ingredients to suit my taste. Earlier whenever I made chole, I just used to fry onions and cook the chole with it. The ground paste of onion, ginger and green chillies added a very nice taste. Will follow this one from now. It came out really well and it can be made quickly which wins my vote

Mahima of Indian Vegetarian Kitchen has given me the Lemonade award. Mahimaa is one of the first bloggers whom I started bugging with questions and she has always been gracious and helpful and provides constructive feedback about my site. I am just lazy in incorporating her suggestions . Thank you Mahimaa

Mansi of funnfud comes to my rescue again
I was looking for a good recipe involving potatoes apart from the regular sabzi that I make. I chanced upon her dum aloo and proceeded to make it. It turned out to be delicious. Her recipe has a lot of ingredients. I had to write them down and mark off each one as I used it , just to make sure I did not miss anything
But adding all that gave this awesome aroma that I have never smelled before in my kitchen. I wish I could bottle that fragrance.

As usual, I am reproducing the recipe here for my copy. The only thing different from her recipe - I did not add spring onions and poppy seeds as I did not have any. Also, I added a little less chilli powder as I wanted this dish to be on a medium spice level.

Ingredients
1/2 kg baby potatoes - boiled and peeled
3 tbsp lemon juice
Few coriander leaves - chopped
green spring onion - chopped for garnish
4 tbsp cup ghee
Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp tandoori masala (available in indian stores)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk.
oil for shallow frying the potatoes

For the masala paste
2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp poppy seeds (optional)
2 small onions, chopped
a small piece of ginger
1/2 cup grated coconut
8-10 cashew nuts
2-3 green chilies
2 tsp red chili powder
6 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric and curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala

Method

Mix all the ingredients of masala paste and blend to make a fine and smooth paste.
Peel the potatoes and make 5-6 holes in them using a toothpick. Then shallow fry them in a little oil and remove immediately. This is just to give them a crispy texture on the outside. Now heat ghee in a pan and fry the ground paste. When it starts giving out an aroma and ghee starts to separate at the edges, add water and milk and let it simmer. Next add the lemon juice and the potatoes. Add the tandoori masala and cook covered partially for 8-10 mins to allow the masala to seep into the potatoes. Once it’s cooked and the potatoes look tender, remove from flame and transfer to a serving bowl or kadai. Garnish with chopped coriander.