Fresh Coriander Leaves, Potato Sabzi

 

This is a very healthy and tasty preparation that goes well with boiled rice or chapatis. I saw it in a food group and the contributor was gracious enough to share the recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups of coriander leaves washed, cleaned and cut

4 big potatoes boiled, skinned and cubed

1 tbsp oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of asafoetida

5 flakes of garlic cut

1 green chilli cut

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, cut green chillies, turmeric powder, and garlic.

-          Add the cut coriander leaves, mix well.

-          Add the potatoes and salt, do open cooking for about ten minutes, stirring in between. Sprinkle some water if it looks too dry.

-          And the sabzi is ready to be served!

Here you can see this sabzi, with boiled rice, masoor dal, salad and slices of fresh turmeric and ginger put in lemon juice. 

Gujiya

 

This is one of the few North Indian dishes I learned from my mother in law. Since we stayed with my husband’s mama’s family in Lucknow for six months after our marriage, majority of North Indian cooking I learned from mamiji, who is a great cook. Gujiya and Diwali are synonymous; it is always prepared during Diwali. Once when my daughter was in the hostel, I wanted to send with her for friends, I made 70 gujiys, which is my record!

Ingredients

For the filling

¾ cup khoya (solidified milk) (for 30 gujiyas)

1 ½ cups sooji (Bombay rava)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps raisins

2 tbsps broken cashews

½ tsp cardamom power

½ tsp nutmeg powder

For the covering

4 ½  cups refined flour

A pinch of salt

2 tbsps ghee or oil

Water, roughly 1 ½ cups

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Roast the sooji till dark brown and keep aside.

-          Roast khoya till the fragrance comes and keep aside.

-          When they are at room temperature, break khoya into finer particles with fingers. Add sugar, raisins, cashew nuts, cardamom and nutmeg powder to the roasted sooji and khoya. Mix well and the filling is ready now.

-          Knead the refined flour, salt, and ghee adding small amounts of water at a time, into a stiff consistency.

-          Spread the dough into a big round, cut small rounds from that.

-          Hold it on the left palm, put a small quantity of the filling in the centre, and apply water along the rims. Fold into half and press and fold along the margin.

-          Heat the oil, reduce the flame to minimum and fry the gujiyas from both sides. If fried on high flame, it will become soft, not hard and crispy.

Vegetable Kurma

 

There is this wonderful dish of vegetable kurma that is served in restaurants with puris and Mysore buns. I just love its aroma and was so happy when I made it at home last week. Here is how:

Ingredients:

½ cup peeled and cubed carrot

½ cup peeled and cubed potato

½ cup green peas

½ cup flowerets of cauli flower

3 baby corns split lengthwise and cut into ½ inch pieces (optional)

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

A few curry leaves

2 cardamoms

A small cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1 onion sliced

2 green chillis

2 tsps ginger garlic paste

1 tomato cut fine

Salt to taste

3  cups water

To grind

¾ cup grated coconut

A few mint leaves

¾ tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp poppy seeds

A few cashew nuts

2 cloves

Instruction

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add cardamoms, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cloves and stir.

-          Add curry leaves and sliced onion. Saute for some time, when the onion turn transparent, add green chillis and ginger garlic paste.

-          Stir for two minutes and add the cut tomato. Keep stirring in between and when the tomato turns mushy, add carrot pieces, then potato, baby corn pieces, cauli flower, and green peas.

-          Saute for two minutes, add salt and water. When it comes to boil, cover it, reduce the flame and cook for ten minutes.

-          Meanwhile grind all the ingredients with some water to a smooth paste and mix it in to the cooked vegetables. Add more water if needed, mix well and simmer for five minutes.

-          It is ready to be served with chapatis.

Jackfruit Cookies

 

These are awesome cookies, crispy, crunchy, with awesome aroma and flavour, an excellent accompaniment to tea or coffee.

Ingredients

¾ cup refined flour

½ cup wheat flour

½ cup sugar

¾ tsp cardamom powder

1/4 tsp dried ginger powder

½ cup finely chopped jackfruit

⅔ cup ghee

¼ teaspoon salt

Instruction

-          Mix together the flours, sugar, salt, dried ginger powder and cardamom powder.

-          Add the ghee and knead well, adding the finely cut jackfruit pieces too.

-          Roll this dough into a log, wrap in cling film and freeze for 20 minutes.

-          Preheat the oven to 250 degrees celcius.

-          Take out the dough from the freezer, cut into ½ inch thick slices.

-          Place them on a greased aluminium foil about 2 inches apart and bake for 20 minutes at 250 degrees. The top will be golden in color and the sides brown.

-          Take out from the oven and let them cool completely.

-          Store in airtight container.

 

 

Caramelized Jackfruit Cake

Jackfruit season is the time I want to do something new with this amazing fruit. Last year I made Panache Dhonas, this year I tried caramelized jackfruit cake. Sent some of it to a friend, who is a great cook herself, and she said, “It was so delicious. I give you 200 % marks.” Coming from her, it was a great complement to me. Here is the recipe, in case you want to make it and enjoy! I was having many things to do on the day I baked it, so couldn’t take too many photographs. You can watch the steps from this video for the caramelizing part, I adopted the core recipe from HERE. 

Ingredients

½ cup sugar to make the caramel syrup

¼ cup water to make the caramel syrup

½ cup sugar

1 cup wheat flour

2 tbsps semolina (this is optional, you can replace it with wheat flour)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

2 eggs

½ cup oil

¾ tsp vanilla essence

1/3 tsp dried ginger powder(this I add to every jackfruit preparation as it doesn’t cause any stomach upset in prone people)

10  deseeded bulbs of jackfruit

1 tbsp cashews

1 tbsp raisins

Instruction

-          Keep ½ cup sugar in a thick bottomed pan on low/medium flame and let it liquefy, stirring in between. When it is totally liquefied, slowly and carefully add the ¼ cup water (be careful, it will splatter). Make the flame low and keep stirring till the caramelized portion dissolves completely. Keep aside for it to cool. Caramelized sugar gives a wonderful color to the cake.

-          Grind the jackfruit pulps into a paste

-          Sieve together the wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the dried ginger powder and semolina. 

-          Beat the eggs, add vanilla essence, sugar and the oil in sequence, mix well.

-          Mix in the caramelized syrup, jackfruit pulp, and finally add the flour in spoonfuls, mixing in thoroughly.

-          Mix a little dry flour with cashews and raisins, fold this in gently into the batter.

-          Grease a baking vessel, pour in the batter. 

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

-          Cool and cut into pieces.

 

-           

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Mysore Puris

 

I learned the recipe of Mysore Puris in Manipal way back in 1985, and prepare this at least once a year . Usually it is served with potato tomato curry and raita.

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour (for 12 puris)

3 small potatoes boiled peeled and mashed

4 bread slices

2 tsps ghee

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tbsps water

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Dip bread slices in water, gently squeeze and keep aside for 15 minutes.

-          Knead together the bread slices, mashed potatoes, ghee, salt and water into a smooth dough

-          Divide into 12 balls, roll each ball between palms smeared with ghee, applying some pressure

-          Heat oil, keep on medium flame, spread each ball into round and fry on both sides

Mysore puris served with pumpkin sabzi and potato tomato curry

Chamcham that I learned in Libya

In the late 1980, we Indians in Libya were very closely knit and used to have many gatherings. Once I tasted this chamcham and took the recipe. My younger daughter liked it so much that I taught her how to make when she was around 5 years of age, as in our house, if somebody liked a dish, he/she should learn how to make it.

Ingredients

10 heaped tablespoons of Milk powder

1 small egg

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp baking powder

For syrup

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

For the covering

3 tbsps milk powder

Instruction

-          Keep the sugar and water on low fire.

-          Knead the first four ingredients to a stiff dough. Sprinkle water if needed. I didn’t have to add water today.

-          Make 21 balls by rotating between moistened palms with some pressure and keep on an oiled plate.

-          By the time you finish this, the sugar would have dissolved completely in the water.

-          Drop each ball slowly into the sugar syrup kept on low fire. Keep sprinkling some sugar over this every five minutes or so.

-          When the sugar syrup is almost finished and the balls have become double the size (takes about 15 minutes), remove from the fire, drain the balls and spread on a plate to cool.

-          Take some milk powder in a plate, roll each ball in this to coat all the surfaces. Can be served now, but it tastes better after refrigeration.  

Broken Wheat Laddu

 

This is an easy to prepare, delicious sweet which tastes similar to boondi laddu.

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat (for 7 laddus)

2 tbsps ghee

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp raisins

4 cups boiling water

A pinch of food color

¼ tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of nutmeg powder

Instruction

-          Heat ghee in a kadai and add broken wheat. Keep stirring on medium flame till the color changes and aroma comes. Meanwhile put the water to boil.

-          Add the sugar, raisins, and boiling water to the roasted broken wheat. Mix well, cover it, and reduce the flame. In between open and stir it a couple of times.

-          When it is somewhat thickened, add food color, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.

-          When all the water has evaporated, remove from fire and let it cool.

-          Make laddoos and enjoy!

Thepla

This is a very nice snack/breakfast/lunch item.

Ingredients

-          2 cups wheat flour (for 6 theplas)

-          1 ½ cups finely cut fenugreek leaves

-          Salt to taste

-          ¼ tsp red chilli powder

-          ¼ tsp turmeric powder

-          A pinch of garam masala powder

-          1 green chilli finely cut

-          ½ tsp grated ginger

-          1/3 tsp ajwain  seeds

-          1 tbsp oil

-          ¼ cup beaten curds

-          Water

Instruction

-          Mix all the ingredients except water first. Then slowly keep adding water and kneading to get a soft dough.

-          Smear oil on the surface of the dough and keep covered for about 20 minutes.

-          Divide the dough into 6, roll each portion into thin rounds, cook on a hot thava, drizzling some oil on both sides

-          Serve with pickle and curds, or with any sabzi.

                    Here, thepla is served for breakfast, with cabbage peas sabzi and water melon

Banana Coconut Cake

Two ripe bananas were eyeing me from the dining table. I moved to the kitchen and the grated dried coconut (copra filings) looked at me longingly. Yes, I got the message – time to bring them together in a cake. So that’s what I did. And it turned out to be such a delicious one, with the divine aroma of nutmeg and cardamom! The lightness it was imparting, was it because of the added butter milk? No idea.

Ingredients

-       ½ cup wheat flour

-       ¾  cup refined flour (maida)

-        ½  tablespoon baking soda

-       A pinch of salt

-       ¼  tsp nutmeg powder

-       ¼ tsp cardamom powder

-       ¾ cup  sugar

-       ¼ cup ghee

-       1 egg

-       2 ripe bananas, mashed

-       ¼ cup grated dry coconut (you can omit this item too)

-       ½ cup buttermilk

Instruction

-Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease and flour the baking dish, or just line with baking paper, which I do.

- Sieve the flours, baking soda, and salt together, add the nutmeg and cardamom powder and keep aside.

- Mix together sugar and ghee in a large bowl till it becomes fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

- Mix in mashed bananas and grated coconut.

- Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, mixing well after each addition.

- Pour batter into the prepared dish.

- Bake in the preheated oven until cake springs back when gently pressed, or a tooth pick inserted deep comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack or towel. Slice when cool and serve with tea/coffee. Be ready to get complements J

Matar Chivda (Beaten rice with green peas)

 

Quite often I prepare poha for breakfast, it is easy to make and is delicious. I got an urge to try matar chivda and was surprised at the flavour and taste that resulted.

Ingredients

1 cup medium thickness beaten rice

2 tbsps milk

3 tbsps water

Salt to taste

1 /2 tsps sugar

1 tbsp oil

1/8 tsp mustard seeds

 ¼ tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

A few curry leaves

2 tbspa roasted peanuts

½ cup cooked green peas (cook in salted boiling water for 5 minutes and drain)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsps grated coconut to garnish

Instruction

-          Wash the beaten rice in water, drain the water, add the milk and water, salt and sugar, cover and set aside for about 20 minutes.

-          Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, and ginger garlic paste. Keep stirring till the ginger garlic paste turns light brown.

-         Now add the roasted peanuts and cooked green peas. Stir well and mix in the soaked beaten rice. Check for salt and add more if needed.

-          Remove from fire after two minutes and mix in the lemon juice. Garnish with grated coconut while serving.

Tender Jackfruit Thoran

 

Ingredients

2 cups finely cut tender jackfruit chunks that have been skinned and pressure cooked for 4 minutes

Salt to taste

1 tbsp oil

¼  tsp mustard seeds

1 red chilli broken to pieces

1 tbsp finely cut onion

A few curry leaves

To grind

¾ cup grated coconut

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp cumin seeds

3 flakes of garlic

Instruction

-          When I get a tender jackfruit I skin it, cut into big chunks and pressure cook for 4 minutes with a little water. The water is then drained and the jackfruit pieces are refrigerated to be used in various preparations. They stay fresh for up to a week.

-          For making thoran, a few of these pieces are cut into very fine pieces.

-          Grind all the masalas with the grated coconut and keep aside.

-          Heat oil with the mustard seeds, when they splutter, add the broken red chilli pieces, then the curry leaves and cut onion, keep stirring.

-          When the onion turns brown, add the cut jackfruit, salt, sprinkle some water and keep on low flame for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the ground coconut and cover.

-          After two minutes, open, stir nicely and remove from fire. Serve with steamed rice and dal.