Aloo Banarasi

“Banarasi Aloo” – This name struck a chord with me instantly. My mental eye started conjuring up images of the rising sun in the old gangetic town, the clay-kissed narrow lanes, the banarasi ‘ekka’ (horsecart), the saffron-clad priests sitting on the river banks enabling people to complete their rituals, the absolutely gorgeous banaras silk saris…. and many more things. I had to drag my thoughts and tie it down to the recipe on hand.

Lately I have been getting a little bored of the same old curries and was wanting to make something new. That is exactly when I found this lovely yet very easy recipe from Chef in You. I checked the list of ingredients and luckily had most of them handy. I jumped straight away to action - peeled and chopped the potatoes and quickly added them to the pot of boiling water. I started the tadka on the other burner. As the saunf and jeera were spluttering, an absolutely irresistible aroma filled the whole kitchen and I realized this recipe is one killer!

I made a few changes to the recipe, but strived my best to retain its originality. This curry is an absolutely great party dish. No one eating this curry would dream that it gets done in twenty minutes. The cream in the curry creates such a tasty thick sauce around the potatoes that anyone would go for the second and third helpings easily. Now lets go over to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Potatoes (med): 4 – 5 Nos
Tomatoes (small): 2 Nos
Saunf: 1 tsp
Jeera: 1 tsp
Tamarind paste: 1 tsp
Chilli powder: ½ tsp (or to taste)
Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Kasuri methi: 1 tsp
Heavy cream: ½ cup
Water: 1 cup
Cardamom pods: 3 – 4 Nos
Salt: to taste

Method:

Grind the tomato and elaichi together. Do not add water.
Peel and chop potatoes into one centimeter chunks.
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and then lower the flame. Cook till the potatoes are cooked, yet firm and would retain shape when tossed around for about ten minutes. In a kadai, add tadka of saunf and jeera.
Add the tomato paste, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala and salt and sauté till the tomato leaves the raw smell. The tomato paste will become a thick mass now.
Now add the potatoes and toss it till the potatoes gets a good coating of the tomato paste. Cook for 2 –3 minutes.
Add the kasuri methi and toss for about 5 minutes.
Add the cream and water and cook till the sauce reaches the right consistency.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

This curry is my contribution to 'Tried and Tasted' where the featured blog for the month is DK's Chef in You. This event is hosted by this month by Priya, an event taken over by Lakshmi from Zlamushka . One helping of this curry also goes to 'Anyone can cook Series 5' hosted by Ayesha.

Cinnamon flavoured apple icecream

Recently something that I enjoyed making was icecream. I had been eyeing that recipe for some time and when a good friend was stopping over for dinner, I thought it was the best time to make it. I usually do not let go of such nice opportunities to try out something new on unassuming good citizens. :)

I made a cinnamon flavoured apple icecream. I used Tarla Dalal’s recipe, but tweaked it heartily to suit my taste. Cooking the apple first, then cooking the milk and cream, then letting it cool, freezing it, taking it out once in three hours to whip it – all this gave me a certain satisfaction that a store-bought icecream would never give. It is the same difference between buying a cake and baking one at home. The method looks a little long, but, fairly easy and incomparably delicious.

Ingredients:

Milk: 2 cups
Sliced apples (peeled and cored): 1 cup
Sweetened condensed milk: ½ cup
Cream: ½ cup
Corn flour: 2 tsp
Sugar: ¼ cup (or more or less)
Cinnamon: ¼ tsp + ¼ tsp
Lemon juice: ½ tsp
A few apple slices: to garnish

Method:

Add a cup of water, ¼ tsp cinnamon and ¼ cup sugar to the apples and cook the apples till they are mushy. You could cover with a lid or leave it open. It took me about 15 – 20 minutes (covered).
Now cool this mixture. Once cool, grind to a fine paste.
Keep ½ a cup of milk aside. Add the cornflour to this and mix thoroughly so that no lumps are formed. Keep aside.
Take the remaining one and a half cups of milk and bring to a boil.
As it is boiling, stir in the cornflour mixture, condensed milk, ¼ tsp cinnamon and stir constantly.
Keep the flame on medium and keep stirring.
After 5 minutes or so, this mixture would attain a custardy consistency.
Remove from flame. Stir in the lemon juice, cream and the apple mixture.
Once cool, freeze it for 3 – 4 hours.
Take it out for about 3 – 4 times and whip it in the mixie for a couple of minutes to break the ice crystals.
Then freeze till serving time.
Enjoy!

This icecream goes to the following events: 'Dish name starts with C' by Akila; ' Fruit a month -Apple' hosted by Priya Mitharwal, 'Bookmarked Recipes EveryTuesday' event by Priya Mitharwal, hosted by US Masala, and 'Anyone can cook Series 5' hosted by Ayesha.

Rice and Mixed Vegetable bake

I got into making this dish today with three things in mind. One, cook something that I have never made before. Two, send it to Nupur’s Blog Bites Series 8 – One Dish Meals. Three – to finish off the largely untouched big block of cheese that was languishing in my fridge for quite some time. One-pot-dishes, with the notable exceptions of Sambar rice and tomato rice don’t really fit into my cooking schedule since K is not at all fond of them. I made an exception to this unwritten rule and went ahead with this.

Google yielded a lot of vegetable casseroles, but, the easiest of them all was Sunita Bhuyan’s recipe of Three Rice and Vegetable Bake. I still had a few ingredients missing. I used water instead of vegetable stock (which I know would probably make a heavenly difference to the whole finished product), did not have oregano ready, etc.. I still ventured and I guess, it was a fairly successful attempt. I would agree with Sunita and say that this dish looks and feels more like a Khichdi with western flavours left inside the the oven for that final touch. Nevertheless, it was extremely filling and a wholesome meal. Now lets go to the recipe, basically Sunita's recipe, but halved, changed, added, deleted, all at once. :-)

Ingredients (serves 2 – 3)

Basmati Rice: 1 Cup
Vegetable stock: About 4 cups (I used water)
Bay leaf:1
Crushed red chillies: ½ tbsp + ½ tsp
Dried oregano: 2T (I did not use this)
Onion (fairly small, finely chopped): 1 No
Garlic (minced fine): 2 cloves
Carrot (medium, finely chopped): 1 No
Potato (medium, finely chopped): 1 No
Broccoli florets: ½ cup
Beans (finely chopped): 5 – 6
Green Peas (fresh or frozen): 1/3 cup
Cauliflower florets: ½ cup
Grated cheddar cheese: 1 C
Sesame seeds: ½ T
Freshly ground pepper: to taste
Salt: to taste
Corriander leaves: 1 tbsp

Method:

In a large pot mix 3 cups of stock/water, rice, bay leaves, oregano, crushed red chillies, pounded pepper, onions, garlic, salt, and green peas.
Mix this and bring it to a boil on a high flame.
Now reduce the heat and cook for 8 – 10 minutes.
Raise the heat to medium and add potatoes, beans and carrots. Now reduce the heat again and cook on low heat for another 8 – 10 minutes. If you feel the mixture has thickened, add about ½ a cup of water.
Now add the cauliflower and broccoli florets. Cook on simmer for 5 – 6 minutes.
As you add the broccoli, preheat the oven to 400F or 200 C.
Now, this mixture on the stove would thicken again. So, add some water to keep it a little watery all the time.
After cooking the cauliflower for 5 – 6 minutes, add half of the cheese. Mix well for about 2 – 3 minutes and take the pot off heat.
Pour the mixture into a casserole dish (I did not have one, so, I lined my square cake tin with aluminium foil and poured the mixture into it). This mixture was a little gravy-ish at this stage. Sunita suggests to maintain it at this consistency and not let the mixture dry out since this would further cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Now mix the remaining cheese with ½ tbsp of sesame seeds and ½ tsp of crushed red chillies.
Sprinkle over the rice-gravy.
I added some chopped coriander also to this.
Place in the middle rack in the oven for about 15 – 20 minutes.
When the top layer bubbles and it attains a brown colour, it can be called complete.
Serve hot.
I served it with some Pringles on the side for a satisfying and filling dinner.