Peas Masala

This is the most simple recipe. My mom was instructing me, and I prepared this dish for our dinner last night. The base is the same, Tomato-Onion, with other standard spices. You can either have this as a side dish or heat well till it thickens to mix with rice. 

Preparation Time:- 25 minutes

Ingredients required:-

Peas – 1 cup

Tomatoes- 3 

Onions- 2

Garlic – 2 pods

Salt to taste

Turmeric – A pinch

Chilli Powder – 1 spoon

Coriander Powder – 1 spoon

Garam Masala – 1 spoon

Cumin Powder – 1/2 spoon

Coriander seeds

Mustard seeds

Jeera

Oil – 2 tsp

1. Boil the peas for 15 minutes
2. Meanwhile, in a pan, add some oil, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, Jeera. – Set 1
3. For Set 2- In a mixie- processor, add the tomatoes, onions, and Garlic. Grind them to a semi-liquid consistency.
4. Add Set 1 +2 on the frying pan along. 
5. Let it cook until the oil from the content comes out. 
6. Now add the boiled peas. 
7. Add some salt, turmeric, coriander, chili, and Garama masala. Mix them all well. 
8. Allow it to boil. 
9. Add some butter/cream to enhance the taste. 
10. Serve as an accompaniment for chappatis or rice. 

Grind the Tomato, Onion, Garlic as a semi-liquid consistency paste

Heat the pan with oil and add the seeds mentioned

Add the Tomato-Onion Paste to the pan containing oil and let it boil

Boil the peas

To the pan content add the spice powders- Coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric powder, salt and Garam masala

Add the boiled peas content to the pan and mix well

Allow it to boil. Now the peas masala is ready to be served.

Onion Vathakolambu

Which proud south indian doesn’t love this dish? It takes different names in different regions of South India: Kaara kozhambu and vetha kozhambu are the ones I am familiar with. I have always wanted to try this dish. Alas, when I did try,  I was delighted that the dish turned out to taste delicious, with the right balance of sweetness and sourness. I was also pleasantly surprised that a dish of such complex flavors was so simple to make.

Preparation time:-25 minutes

Ingredients Required

1. Split Lentil Gram dal-10g
2. Tamarind Paste- 50g
3. Vathakolambu instant powder- 50g (From Grand Sweets)
4. Onions (Juliene cut)
5. Asafoetida
6. Salt to taste
7. Sugar to taste
8. Chopped garlic- according to the requirement
9. Water- 250ml
10. Rice flour/ Atta- for thickening the content- according to requirement
11. Turmeric – a pinch
12. Coriander Powder- 1 pinch
13. Kashmiri Mirch- 1 pinch
14. Curry Leaves- hardly 4-5 leaves
15. More and more love

– Start by heating the pan with some oil and added the chopped onions and dal. Add the curry leaves too.
– Meanwhile, soak the tamarind paste in water and mixed the content
– Once the content in the pan has turned golden brown, add the tamarind water and allow it to boil.
– Add 2-3 Tsp of the Vathakolambu powder(From Grand Sweets) and mix well
– Add salt, asafoetida, turmeric, and some coriander powder. Keep mixing.
– Add some water and add some rice flour if you want the content to thicken.
– If you want the appearance to be bright red, add some Kashmiri Mirch powder.
– Now, allow this content to boil for at least 15 minutes.
– The more you boil, the more you’re allowing the contents to blend well and more will it be delicious!
– Serve with rice accompanied with crisply fried potatoes/ladies’ fingers.
– You can also have it as an accompaniment with curd rice!!

NOTE:-
– You can add Onions/Pumpkins/Brinjals/Small Onions/Drumsticks/Orange rinds.
– The thicker the content, the more the shelf life of the dish. You can add water as and when you use.
– To be stored at refrigerated condition and can be kept for at least 2-3days easily. Always use fresh spoons and do not use hands.

Green Moong Hummus

During one of those boring Thursday’s, I happened to scroll down Shilpa Shetty’s Instagram post and I happened to view her IGTV on Green Moong Hummus. So intrigued and excited, I ended up searching for available ingredients in my kitchen and voila, I was all set to prepare the Green Moong Hummus!! (Ho-mus and not Hum-Mus, all these days I confidently pronounced it wrong!). I never tried the basic Hummus, so this is my first ever proper hummus I have made. I’m going, to be honest with the mistake I did in this attempt. I did not soak and pressure cook the Dal well and hence the end result of the texture became very coarse as it is visible through the picture. Please ensure you give importance to proper soaking and steaming, for wonderful texture result!

Preparation time:- 15 Minutes
Ingredients you require:-

1. Soaked and pressure cooked Green Moong Dal – 50g
2. Soaked and pressure cooked Bengal Gram Dal- Channa Dal- 50g
3. Tahini Sauce – http://www.lesssaltmorelove.com/2019/11/tahini-sauce-dip.html
4. Olive Oil
5. Salt to taste
6. Garlic Pods – 2 (not going to add too much of these pods, as I have already added some in my Tahini Sauce)
7. Lemon Juice – as per your taste
8. More Love

Soaked and Pressure cooked Dal

Grind them all in the processor

Add more Olive Oil and Love will only enhance the flavor!! Keep Adding more!!

Add the Tahini Sauce with a tsp of lemon juice to the mixture

• Start the process by soaking 50g+50g each of the green moong and the Bengal gram dal and boiling them, for softer texture.
• In a processor, add these soft dal with some salt, Tahini sauce, garlic pods and more Olive oil for super paste consistency.
• After every grind and rotation, add 1tsp of olive oil and lemon juice until you achieve the proper Hummus texture and consistency
• Don’t forget to add more love to this dish!

That’s how easy it was. Not much of complicated ingredients and everything from scratch with a twist. We had this with Kulcha and Phulka (don’t they rhyme?). But this is best served with breads and especially Pita’s. You can store this for a week under chiller conditions and use fresh spoons while serving. Give it a try and let me know how it worked out for you.

Tahini Sauce Dip

For the first time today I tried making Tahini Sauce at home without buying the expensive pastes available at the retail. It’s so simple and hardly requires any ingredient. Tahini Sauce Dip is best when made with white sesame seeds and not with the roasted sesame seeds. I had to make this from scratch to prepare Green Moong Hummus. The result turned out to be much surprising. The Dip was super tasty and we had it with Tomato Rice as an accompaniment.Preparation Time:-10 minutes

Ingredients Required

1. White raw sesame seeds- 1 cup (you can also use roasted sesame, there might be a slight change in color)
2. Lemon Juice- 10ml
3. Garlic Pods – 4 pods – as many as you want
4. Salt to taste
5. Olive Oil
6. Water- 250ml
7. More Love

Garlic Dipped in Lemon and Raw white sesame seeds

 

• Start with dipping the garlic pods in lemon juice for 10 minutes and strain the juice.
• Keep the garlic pods, do not discard them
• In a small processor, add the white sesame seeds, salt, Garlic dipped lemon juice and olive oil

Adding more olive oil will enhance the taste and flavor

• Ensure it’s of paste consistency, till then keep adding water and olive oil to the processor.
• While Serving place the Garlic pods on top, for enhancing the garlicky flavor.

 Tahini sauce is now ready. You can use this for the preparation of Hummus, substitute for Mayonnaise and can be served as a dip to crackers.

NOTE:- Mistake I did here was that I added too much of lemon juice. The end product tasted a bit sour and citric.

Not bad! This tasted really good for the first time and should be a good texture ingredient for preparation of Hummus. Now, let me get ready for Green Moong Hummus!!!

Onion Tamarind Gotsu/Gotchu

 

Gotsu/Gosthu/Gothsu/Gojju you can call it however you want. We, South Indians usually have Gothsu with Pongal variant , upma and Idlies. The most common Gothsu is made with Gothsu. Not many must have heard this onion githsu. This is my Grandmother’s signature side dish which never goes wrong when you have it Upma and Rice upma. 

 

Preparation Time :- 08 minutes

Ingredients required:-

1. Oil – 10 ml
2. Bengal Gram Dal – 5g
3. Urad Dal – 5g (I love this and I add a lot of these)
4. Coriander leaves – Handful
5. Sliced green chillies- 5 pieces
6. Red chilles – 3 pieces
7. Tamarind Juice – 250ml
8. Turmeric Powder
9. Salt to taste
10. Chopped Onions

11. Jaggery-5g

Please find the below pictures for better understanding of the recipe

1. TAKE SOME TAMARIND, SIZE OF A LARGE LEMON. 2. SOAK THE TAMARIND FOR TEN MINUTES AND SQUEEZE OUT THE WATER. CONSISTENCY HAS TO BE THICKER

(AUTO-FLASH RUINED THIS PICTURE!) SOMETHING OF THIS SORT

6. ADD THE CHILIES, DAL, MUSTARD SEEDS AND CHOPPED ONIONS. KEEP SAUTEING 7. ADD TURMERIC AND MIX THE CONTENTS. YOU CAN ADD SOME SALT AT THIS LEVEL. Add caption 8. ADD THE TAMARIND PULPY-JUICE AND KEEP MIXING. LET IT BOIL WELL. ENSURE YOU FILTER WHILE ADDING THE TAMARIND JUICE, SO THAT THE EXTRANEOUS MATTER DO NOT GET MIXED. ADD A BIT OF JAGGERY FOR THE SWEETNESS 9. SERVE THIS DELICIOUS TANGY SIDE DISH WITH PONGAL/UPMA/ IDLIES Right now I’m having this with Rice Upma!!!!

Paneer Makhanwala

Woooohoooo!!!  Guess what’s cooking for dinner (combo special) :- Butter Naan with Paneer Makhanwala.All you need is :-

– Paneer – 250g
– Butter – 25g
– Onion – 3 pieces
– Tomato – 5 pieces
– Garlic – 2 pods
– Ginger – 2 pods
– Fennel Seeds / Sonf – a pinch
– Jeera
–  Kasuri Methi/ Fenugreek seeds
– Oil to fry
– Coriander leaves – to garnish

Part 1 ;- 

1. Cut Paneer into cubes and deep fry them till they turn golden brown in color.

Add some raw ones too to enhance the taste

Part 2 :- 

 

1. Remove the tomato skin and dip them in boiling water and make a puree of it

2. Grind onions, pods of garlic and ginger – make them into a chutney/ paste

3. Add the above 1 & 2 mixture

Tomato- Onion Puree

Part 3 :- 

1. Add some butter in a heated tawa / pan

2. Add garam masala ingredients (cumin seeds+coriander powder+cilantro+coriander seeds)

3. Let it splatter for some time and then add the Part 2 puree.

4. To the puree in tawa, add turmeric+chilli powder+dhania powder(coriander)+salt (as per your taste)

5. Keep stirring, till the ghee (remember the butter we added?) oozes out.

Melting the Butter

Adding the Puree

Adding turmeric, salt and chilli powder and coriander powder

6. Add little amount of water to dilute the gravy. (Optional)

Part 4 :-

1. Once the Part 3 gets boiled and the gravy gets thickened, add Part 1 and let the gravy mix well.

2. Add Fresh cream / Milk

3. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and Kasuri Methi

Deep fried paneer into the puree

Keep Mixing!!!

Adding some fresh cream

This is how it looks like. Yayyyyy!!! Readyyyyy!!!!

Paneer Makhanwala

Butter Naan will be my next blog post!! Stay tuned..

Drumstick Curry

I don’t know, I’ve seen many species who love this drumstick. I hate it. I don’t find it appetizing nor it is tasty. For a change, my mom had prepared this drumstick curry just for me. Not bad, it tasted better as a curry! But, still I’m not a huge fan of it!

ALL YOU NEED IS

• Drumsticks – 2 
• Tomatoes – 4
• Onions – 2 
• Cooking Oil 
• Turmeric Powder
• Chilli Powder
• Coriander Powder 
• Coriander Leaves- For the garnish 

HOW TO MAKE: 

• Cut the Drumsticks with a proper measurement of 1 inch each pieces
• Tomatoes and Onions , finely chopped
• Cook the cut drumstick pieces for 10 minutes in microwave.
• Meanwhile, in the kadai (Pan) or the cooking bowl add oil and mustard, wait till the mustard starts spluttering , then add those finely chopped tomatoes and onions .
• Add cooked drumsticks with water and boil it. 
• Salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder are later added.
• For the garnish, add coriander leaves and serve.

Crispy Fried Gobi Manchurian

God knows, when was the last time I had posted and checked my blog post. (Well, if you’d want me to give tips on how to procrastinate, feel free to ask! 😉 ). Something struck me (probably some kind of lighting or maybe a rocket, that burst open my mind?) this Deepavali (Diwali), to log every recipes of my Grandmother and my mom. But how? There has to be something different that I need to start blogging, right? Just before when I was about to scrap this idea too, out of now where my deivam (my mom- lord and my creator) was preparing Gobi Manchurian. I rushed to the kitchen and  gave my mom such mixed emotions. 

*Hyperventilates* *Dino Roars *Tears of joy* *Wipes of those tears* (Probably, I overreacted more than Sivaji Ganesan, my Grandmother felt the reason for me being THIS over-emotional is because I was hungry!)

Without any further prattle, let me just get to the main course. (oops, side dish ;)) 

These are all the ingredients you may need (serving for 5 people) :- 

1. Cauliflower – medium in size
2. 3 Big onions
3. 4 ripened tomatoes
4. 200 grams of Besan or chickpea flour 
5. 50 grams of refined wheat flour (Maida flour)
6. 50 grams of rice flour
7. Oil for frying 
8. Gunpowder or chilli powder (as per your choice)
9. Cumin seeds
10. Turmeric powder
11. Soy sauce
12. Chilli sauce
13. Kissan’s Tomato Sauce
14. Some salt to taste

So, lets get started .

Part – 1

• Mixing of all the flours – Besan + Maida + Rice, by adding some water and till they form a paste like consistency. (In between, add some salt and chilli powder)
• You diligently cut the florets of the cauliflower
•  Mix these florets with the above flour mixture and deep fry them (keep it aside)

Deep fried crispy cauliflowers florets

Florets with the flour mixture

Very very Crispy Florets. (Ok, let me stop!)

Part- 2 

In a pan of oil add some fennel seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, ginger-garlic paste, chopped onions and saute.

Make a tomato puree, by processing the cut tomatoes to a puree form (peel off the tomato skin)

The tomato puree is added to the pan of contents and boiled. 

Fresh Tomato Puree

Tomato puree boiling along with the other ingredients

Part 1+ Part 2 = Part 3

• The fried cauliflower florets are added to the Part 2 content and stirred for sometime. 
• Chilli Sauce, Tomato Sauce and Soy Sauce are added to enhance the color and flavor of the dish (your choice!)
• Add some salt to the content and keep stirring till the oil oozes out and the gravy is thicker. 
• Garnish it with some coriander and spring onions. Other options could be chopped leeks and squeeze some lemon juice on the gravy (typical Indian gravy!)

The fried cauliflower is mixed and stirred with the tomato pure contents. (Later on, variety of sauces like the Chilli+Soy+Tomato are then added to enhance the color and the flavor)

Garnished with Spring onions and  some coriander.

Mini Aunty’s Hara-Bhara Khurma

Everyone will have their own signature dish and recipe. Likewise, today I had this most delicious Khurma rice at my present PG aunty’s (Mini aunty). Whenever and wherever (Yes.. I did sing a bit of Shakira’s song while typing this!) I taste something new, spicier and that makes me Food-gasmic, I immediately make a note of their recipe and blog it! So, here is one of the healthy dish where most of it just requires boiling and no frying at all.  This you can make with variety of ingredients as per your wish (ex- Channa dhal, Bengal Gram Dhal, Black Peas, Butter Beans, Capsicum, Tapioca etc). I’m just giving you a plain idea of how this goes

So all you need is

Vegetables like Carrot, Cauliflower, Potatoes

Green Peas- ½ cup

Garlic- 1 pod

Fresh Coconut- ½

Poppy Seeds- 1 Tablespoon

Green Chillies- 6 to 8 pieces

Fresh Corriander leaf- 1 Bunch

Fresh Mint Leaf- A handful

Fennel- 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon stick – 1

Avarrakkai/ Broad Beans – ½ cup

(Turmeric Powder, chilli powder and salt- to taste)

1) Boil all the vegetables (Carrot, cauliflower, peas, potatoes) including the broad beans with salt ,turmeric powder and chilli powder.

2) Grind all the other ingredients. (Add some water, when required)

3) Mix it with the boiled vegetables and again boil for another 5 to 10 minutes.