Chana Palak

The theme of the Blog Bites event is really good - taking inspiration from other blogs while giving them due acknowledgement. Great! There cannot be a better opportunity to write a few words about one of my favourite bloggers –Nupur She must be a great inspiration not only to fledgling bloggers like me, but also to many others who are united by a common interest - 'food'. And I am not saying this because she is the owner of this Blog Bites event. I guess Nupur must be immune to such appreciation by now. But, this is my little way of letting her know that I really admire her blog.

Today’s recipe, Palak Chana, is from One Hot Stove. This curry is subtle, very down to earth and hearty and a perfect side dish for roti. If the paste is made beforehand (to save valuable time during busy weekdays), the curry is a true breeze! My only changes to the recipe were that I added one boiled and mashed potato and one tsp of red chilli powder. And I made mine a little gravy when compared to Nupur's.

Ingredients:

• Black chana: 1 cup
• Spinach: 1 bunchOnion (thinly sliced): ¾ cup
• Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
• Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
• Chana masala: 1 tbsp
• Jeera: 1 tsp (for tempering)
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Potato (boiled and mashed): 1

For the masala paste:

• Oil: 1 Tbsp
• Garlic: 2 – 3 cloves
• Onions (coarsely chopped): one and a half cups
• Tomatoes (medium)(coarsely chopped): 7 nos

Method:

• Soak chana for eight hours or overnight and cook till tender. It takes about seven whistles in my pressure cooker.
• Take one tbsp of oil in the kadai. Saute onions and garilic till brown. Then add in the tomatoe and toss for five minutes. Grind to make the masala paste. Keep aside.
• In the kadai, heat oil and temper the jeera.
• Add onions and sauté till brown.
• Add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, chana masala and sauté for a minute.
• Add the chopped spinach, cooked chickpeas and masala paste.
• Bring to a boil on medium flame and cook on simmer for another ten minutes.
• Done, serve hot!

This gravy goes to Nupur’s ‘BB-6 – The Potluck Edition’ and to My Legume Love Affair : MLLA – 26 hosted by Bricole for the month of August and brainchild of Susan.

Cabbage Kofta Curry

It gives me enormous happiness in refering to my friend - R's visit again and again.. She gave me a great recipe of Cabbage Kofta curry. I could never believe this humble hostel vegetable could metamorphose into such a scrumptious party dish. After googling for some more information on the curry, I realised that there are umpteen variations to this dish. So, armed with the culinary wisdom R bequeathed me and some google-insights, I set out to make my own version of Cabbage Kofta Curry. This curry made out of cabbage balls, simmered in a rich thick gravy is a definite once-in-a-while indulgence!


Ingredients:


For the koftas:
Cabbage: 1/2 of a slightly big cabbage, chopped very fine
Green peas: fresh or frozen: 1/4 cup
Green chilli: 1, finely chopped
Shajeera or Jeera: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp or to taste
Besan: About 1/2 of a cup (or more or less; since this is the binding agent which holds the koftas together)
Salt: to taste
Oil: to deepfry the koftas


For the gravy:
Onions (medium): 3
Tomatoes (large): 3
Garlic: 5 - 6 cloves
Ginger: 1/2 inch piece
Cashews: 7-8, soaked in warm water for half an hour
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp or to taste
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 2 tbsp
Corriander leaves, chopped: to garnish


For the tadka:
Cloves: 2
Cinnamon: 1 inch piece
Elaichi: 2
Bay leaf: 1
Jeera: 1/2 tsp


Method to make the koftas:

• Wash and clean the vegetable. Chop into very fine bits. Now, in a pressure cooker, steam the cabbage and the peas in an open vessel for about ten minutes
• Let the steam release. Cool the cabbage a bit, so that the skin on our fingers is not compromised
• Now, preferably using a clean cloth, (or, if a cloth is not found handy), atleast using your hands, squeeze all the water from the vegetable. Do NOT throw away the vegetable water. This can be conveniently poured into the gravy at later stages
• This step is very important because removal of all the excess water would mean that the koftas would be easy to make and difficult to break. If this step is not done, then, the whole kofta mixture would become soggy and would definitely not yield right results
• Now, add the shajeera, salt, chopped green chilli, red chilli powder, and the necessary besan and make koftas out of them
• Deepfry the koftas
• Now, we are done with one part of the dish

Method to make the gravy:

• Take a kadai
• Heat oil and make the tadka
• Now add the ginger-garlic-tomato-onion paste. Cover the kadai. Let it cook for about ten minutes on a slow flame. Just keep giving it an occasional stir.
• Add salt and all other masala powders. Again let it cook for about 5 - 6 minutes
• Once you feel it is done, add the cashewnut paste. Cook well again for about five minutes.
• Add necessary water whenever you feel. The gravy should not be too thick because, after introducing the koftas into the dish, the koftas would soak up all the available water and the curry would turn out very thick.
• After introducing the cashewnut paste, keep stirring because, this paste tends to stick to the bottom of the kadai
• When the gravy has cooked enough, introduce the koftas gently
• Keep the stove on a slow flame all the time, slowly toss the koftas around in the kadai. Do it gently so that the koftas do not break
• Once done, garnish with corriander leaves
• Done!
• Serve hot with roti or naan!

Kadai Vegetable

In reality, all of us have personal favourites. Be it a TV show, or an aunt, or an actor, or a cricketer - all of us are both perpetrators and victims of favouritism. And, we 'definitely' have our favourite food! Instinctively, we are drawn towards our favourite food..

If we introspect carefully, whenever we visit restaurants, we would probably be ordering a particular dish again and again - probably seeking some kind of comfort given the bewildering array of choices presented in the menu cards.. This definitely happens to myself and K. When at any restaurant, no matter what we order or dont order, Kadai Vegetable would eventually find its way up our table, and eventually, our stomachs!

Such personal favourites should be made at home, for sure. My search yielded these two recipes that came close to what I taste all the time. Making a medley of both these recipes, I have made my own. It yields yummy results all the time.

Ingredients (serves three)

• Capsicums (medium): 2
• Carrots (medium): 2
• Beans: 6 - 7
• Cauliflower: 6 - 8 florets
• Potatoes (small): 2
• Tomatoes: 2
• Onions: 2
• Paneer: 10 - 15 pieces
• Green peas: A handful
• Garam masala: 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp
• Bay leaves: 2 Nos
• Oil: 5 - 6 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Cashews (optional): 5 - 6
• Corriander leaves: to garnish
  To grind to a coarse powder:
• Corriander seeds: 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Red chillies: 3
  

Method:

• Chop all the vegetables into fairly big one 3/4 inch pieces. Do NOT chop them too small
• Coarsely grind cumin seeds, corriander seeds and red chillies and keep aside. Dry roast it if you feel like to increase the aroma. Else, omit it
• Fry one onion in one tsp of oil. To this, add curry leaves, cashews and tomatoes and make a fine paste
• Now, in a kadai, add 2- 3 tbsp of oil and fry all the vegetables till they are done. No need to add paneer now. This can be added later. Keep the fried vegetables aside.
• Now heat another kadai (or the same one, as per your wish)
• Add oil and tadka using bay leaves
• Add ginger-garlic paste and onions and cook well
• Add the ground tomato paste and cook again till all the raw smell disappears
• Meanwhile add the ground dry masala, turmeric powder, garam masala
• When you feel the tomato paste has cooked enough, add the saute'd veggies and paneer
• Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup water and cook covered till the vegetables are soft
• Let the gravy thicken to reach the right consistency
• Garnish with corriander leaves
• Serve hot with rotis
• Done!

Dal Makhani

One of the nice things that happened to me last week was the visit of my friend R. It was a lovely rendezvous after a looonnnnnggg time. Though both of us have been in touch very regularly, meeting in person was something very special.

Naturally, my head was full of ideas as to what I would make for dinner.. With a lot of yeses and nos, I decided to make few of my favourites. I tried to keep it very simple so that we have enough time to just sit and talk. With a menu as simple as Dal Makhani, Jeera rice and Phulkas, we did get ample time to catch up on our two-years’ bottled-up tales till four in the morning!

Coming to this post, I would like to dedicate it to my dear friend R. She wanted this recipe and I am blogging it, particularly for her. My recipe for Dal Makhani s adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor and Sanjay Thumma.



Ingredients: (serves three)

Sabut urad dhall: ½ cup
Rajma: 2 tbsps
Ginger ( grated or chopped): 2 inch piece
Garlic (grated): 6 cloves
Tomatoes (medium): 3, ground to a fine paste
Garam masala pwd : 1 tsp
Dhaniya pwd : 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
Kasuri methi : 1 tbsp
Butter : 3 tbsp
Oil: 2 tbsp
Milk : ½ cup
Salt: to taste
For the tadka: Cloves, cinnamon, elaichi, bay leaf and 1 tsp jeera
Corriander leaves: to garnish

Method of preparation

· Soak urad dhall and rajma in three cups of water for eight hours or overnight
· Add half the ginger, half the salt and half the chilli powder and pressure cook the dhall till the rajma becomes soft. Do not throw away the cooking liquor
· Take a kadai. Heat oil. Tadka with the items mentioned
· Add ginger – garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes
· Now add the tomato puree
· Cook on a slow flame with a covered lid for five minutes
· When it starts boiling, add chilli powder, coriander powder and salt
· Cover the lid and cook well again
· Now, add the butter and cook again
· When it has cooked for about 10 - 12 minutes in all, add the cooking liquor and cook very well
· After it has cooked for about 10 minutes, add the dhall and mix well
· Adjust salt and cook again covered
· The cooked dhall would be brownish red in colour
· Now kasuri methi should be added. This is ‘the’ ingredient that adds all the lovely flavour to the dish
· Now add ½ cup of milk. You could go upto one cup also. The technique is to add the milk gradually, little by little, so that the milk does not curdle. You could add cream if you want to make the gravy rich
· Cover and cook on as low a flame as possible till the gravy reaches the right consistency. The more the gravy cooks, the better it tastes.
· Garnish with coriander leaves.
· Done!