Palak Saag

Ingredients -
1 bag of fresh spinach
1 small piece of fresh ginger - 1 big garlic pod - 1 green chilli(Jalapaeno/ serrano peppers)
1 white Onion (cut into cubes)
1 Tomato (cut into cubes)
1/4 teaspoon Garam Masala (Indian spice for extra hot soup)
2 teaspoon of Olive oil

Tempering-
1 teaspoon Ghee (Clarified butter)
1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Serving options -
Lemon juice
Cream

Kruti-
Make a paste of ginger/garlic/Jalapeno. You can use a mortar pestle for best results.
Heat oil (1 teaspoon) and add half of the ginger-garlic-greenchilli paste.
Add the onions and the tomatoes.
Saute them for a while and once they soften, let them cool down.
Use a grinder to blend them into a puree. Keep it aside.

Now, use the grinder to puree the fresh bunch of spinach (yes, raw), slowly, adding little water.

Tempering Process-
Heat one spoon of ghee and add the tempering trio ingredients - cumin-mustard-turmeric

Once they start to splutter, add the remaining ginger-garlic-chilli paste, and then the tomoato-onion puree.
Add bit of Garam Masala (optional) and pour in the spinach puree.

Let it come to a boil, add salt and let it cook for 2-3 steams on low flame.

After it cools, down, stir in some lemon juice and decorate it with some cream circles.
Have it with you favorite bread, with yoghurt on the side. yummm!

This is pure saag of spinach(sure to cleanse your stomach the next day, coz you can drink it like soup, straight)
Also, you can add, cooked potatoes, fried paneer(cottage cheese), or small onions and cherry tomatoes per your liking and make it a meal.

Two advantages of spinach - Natural laxative and rich source of iron.

Tava Bhaaji

Courtesy - Anita SAthe

1 whole bowl of assorted veggies - preferred broccoli/ cauliflower, carrots/ mushrooms/ potato
1 big onion
2 medium tomatoes (1 cup Puree can be used)
Kitchen King masala/ Chilli powder
All Tadka ingredients
1 cup of beaten yoghurt (sweet dahi)

Kruti:
Heat oil and add the tadka items (Hing-jeera-mohri-haldi)
Add onions and saute till they start becoming soft and add tomatoes and sautee some more.
Add the kitchen masala - 2 big spoons and 1 spoon chilli masala
Add the carrots, sautee some more and add other veggies.
Cover and let it cook on steam on medium flame.
After 1 steam, add salt.
After two steams, switch off the gas.
Now after the steam evaporates, add the yogurt and mix it well.

Enjoy the yummmy flavor of spices in colorful veggies immersed in yoghurt !

Hing wali Dal - Niyati Special

This blog will often have recipes borrowed from my chef-teachers which have lived me with although the friends have separated. Here is a simple dal recipe which contains max. flavor of hing (asafoetida) my favorite spice.


Ingredients
                               

    1 cup split yellow  moong dal/ or toor dal, soaked for 30 minutes, drained
    2 tbsp ghee
    1/2 tsp cumin seeds
    2 tsp of Asafoetida (hing)
    1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
    salt to taste
    2 cups water
                   
Instructions:
Type 1-

Heat the ghee; add cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the seeds start spluttering add soaked dal. Saute for 2 minutes.
Add turmeric powder, salt, and 2 cups water. Mix well and boil until cooked or pressure cooker the mix.

Type 2-
Pressure cooker the dal-pinch of hing n turmeric.
In a small kadhai, heat oil/ghee. Add cumin and another pinch of hing, salt and then add the cooked dal.
You can add coriander leaves for more taste.

whata kick from the hing :)

Favorite Khichdi

A personal favorite, this dish is (as I know) cooked everywhere in India, with each state having their own twist.
This is how a staple ko-bra (koknastha brahmin) recipe would be.


Ingredients:

1 measure of rice

1 measure mix of lentils (yellow moong, orange masoor, toor dal)

1 cut tomato

1 cup lima beans frozen

4 teaspoons Heavenly Goda masala (a kobra delight)

2 teaspoons Red Chilli powder (spicy one)

the four tadka special ingredients - HMTC = hing-mustard-turmeric-cumin

1 cup dry soya chunks (optional)

Few pieces of brinjal or onion or French beans or any veggie you like (optional)

Method:



Cooking in pressure cooker:
Clean and soak the lentils in hot water first (toor and moong dal take longer to cook than rice).
Microwave the soya chunks for 2 minutes in some water.



Set a cooker ready for sautee - Heat oil, check temperature, add tadka -
Sautee the Lima beans, veggies, soya, first until they get tender.


Now add the two spices - red chilli  and goda masala

Add the rice and lentils, with 4 measures of water (double or more the water)

and the pinch of salt that will set it alright!

close the lid and pressure cooker it for 2-3 whistles (Depends on your own cooker)

Let it cool..


Cooking in a pot:
Same as above, but you will need to stir and adjust water as the steam cooks the lentils and the rice.
also you can add the tomato later stage, so it remains in chunks and not pasty.


It does taste better and the grains are nice and separate.



Now the best part - Serving:
Place some khichdi in the plate.
VERY IMP: Add a stream of Ghee on it :)
pour some buttermilk (optional)


Now decorate rest of the plates with any of these items -
Jalapeño Chips
Pappad
Pickle
Salad
Raita



and enjoi the most favorite, simplest and yet best dish of maharastrian brahmins!

Will have a picture of it soon...

some ground rules

The first rule - There aren't any!
yes, I want to make a point that though I am Indian, Maharashtrian, bombayite, west indian or north indian for the southern people and vice versa, My first teacher was my senior roomate from the northern part of India, Ever since, I have learnt from roomates, girl friends, guy-friends, friends ranging from all ages from 20 to 70- anybody who enjoys the art of cooking.
This blog will contain recipes from all over India, and all over the world, (as I learn them :) You might find, Italian dish after a south Indian dessert recipe, or mexican appetizer recipe following maharashtrian salad.
Its just about recipes that bought joy to your life, that which you have mastered and turn out good everytime you try it, or simply the recipes which you failed first time and are in process of learning it..
It will involve recipe blogs from my near and dear friends, websites, cook-books - just an archive of my bundle of joy :)

Its gonna be a fun ride !
Stay tuned!

Joys of Cooking

"You should start learning to cook now. Every girl should atleast know to cook basic dal-rice atleast,.." my mom's voice would reach me on sunday mornings, where she would plan on teaching me "to cook" and just when I was about to drag myself to kitchen, my dad would chime in "Oh just let go, she will hire chefs and servants to do all the cooking, why worry now about it..!" and my smiling face would knew no bounds when I was let go, for two reasons - One, I was of thinking that only when you are a house wife you cook, and I was not planning on being one and Two - cooking in kitchen did not paint a pretty picture before me, it would be someone working hard day and night, responsible for flavor, taste, proportions and was subject to critic and judgements later by their own family members.
And just as your fears come back at you, cooking was one of it... It was not marriage, where I would be expected to cook for my husband and impress my in-laws, but the reason was Me! I was going to be away from my parents in a foreign land where options like "eating out everyday" or "asking your aunty to cook while mom was away" were not possible.
So, reminding myself about how you learn to swim once thrown in the water, I decided to overcome my fear and face it boldly (Lolz, it seems like I am talking about going on a war!)
But that was how it started, and then, the journey began - learning the basic ingredients that go in any dish, and that proportions matter, and that just mixing the ingredients if the list was given to you will not necessarily result in an edible dish, there is a pattern and trick to some dishes, the quantity will vary when you cook for a larger group, and that you cannot afford to get busy watching the climax of a movie while the milk boils on a high gas, and stirring avoids lumps in curres, and that some preparations have to be done a day in advance and most importantly, adding salt with your intuition is an art!! phew! I did go through all of these phases and even more.. But here is what led me to actually start writing a blog on the joys of cooking..
It is the smell of the sabji that you prepared with your own hands, its the steam coming out of pressure cooker giving you a relief that the hardest beans and lentils will get cooked, it the pretty bowl that you serve it in, its the colors that the ingredients change as they go through the process of cooking, its the smell of cake baking in your oven,... its the assurance that its totally healthy coz you used two spoons of oil instead of four! its the sight of a satisfied foodie friends enjoying you dish and its their compliments that sound music to my ears,.. and the most imp. its the sense of gratitude that I feel towards my mom and any other person who cooks pouring their heart and soul into it, so that we could enjoy a hearty meal...
Cheers to all that and more joys of cooking :)