Aloo Lahsuni ( Garlic Patatoes..)

 

 

Spicy n Hot ( or not! ) Aloo Lahsuni ( Garlic Potatoes )

 

 

 

With all the festivities of holidays going on around me how could I stop myself from blogging about one delicious recipe my husband experimented over a couple of days and has now mastered the skill. Don't caution yourself just by looking at the super spicy texture of these baby potatoes... It will be a taste to remember.. No doubt!!

 

A simple recipe with minimum ingredients and super quick is what everyone is looking for to make a good conversation starter!!

 

Ingredients:

1. Small Baby Potatoes - preferably in round shape  15 count
2. Peeled Garlic cloves - 15
3. Oil - 3 Tablespoons
4. Hing / Asafoetida powder - 1 pinch
5. Cumin seeds - 1 Teaspoon
6. Curry leaves - 5

Masala

1. Garam Masala - 2 teaspoons
2. Coriander powder - 3 tablespoons
3. Chaat masala or amchur powder - 1 tsp
4. Kashmiri Red Chili Powder - 1 tablespoon ( This is not so spicy compared to the regular red chili powder)
5. Salt - To Taste

Wash thoroughly the potatoes then pressure cook the potatoes to boil them.

 

Boil the potatoes in a Traditional Indian Pressure cooker and peel them. One good trick to peel hot boiled potatoes is to submerge them in cold water so that the skin leaves the potato body and it is easy to peel it off. Make sure that the potatoes are not too soft and crumble when you peel them.

 

 

 
 
Chop the Garlic into small pieces as shown below

 
In a flat base Skillet warm the oil and let the cumin seeds crackle. Put the curry leaves and the pinch of Hing and let the garlic pieces saute for 2-3 min. Then mix the remaining Masala Ingredients together and blend in together to get the spicy look.

 

Let the onions saute for 5-10 min till they are crispy on the outside. Stir until the oil separates from the potato masala.

 

Yummy comfort food ...finger snacks are served!!

                                                                  ENJOY the holidays!!!


 

Khao to Jano - Gawar ki Phali

 

Even if we have tried the most fascinating and delicious foods from around the globe, I have experienced that we still come back to our authentic classic food. Cluster beans or gawar (guar) ki phalli is one of the the low calorie, green vegetable widely consumed in North India

 

Ingredients:

 

We start with 1 lbs Gawar ki phalli - cut & washed as shown below.

 

For the Tadka :

• 3-4 Curry Leaves
• ½ Teaspoon Zeera ( Cumin seeds)
• 1 pinch asafetida (Commonly known as Hing)
• 3-4 garlic cloves - cut into small pieces
• 1 medium onion, cut into small pieces and saute till brown in the skillet on medium flame.

Vegetable oil - 3 Teaspoons
Masala:

• 2 Teaspoons coriander powder
• ½ Teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala powder
• ½ Teaspoon turmeric powder
• Salt - per your taste

1 Teaspoon mango powder (Amchoor) / Chat Masala Powder

 

Step : 1   We start with 1 lbs Gawar ki phalli - cut & washed as shown below. Now take one medium onion, cut into small pieces.	Step :2   Heat a skillet and add the vegetable oil and crackle the Curry leaves and the Hing.
Step : 3   Now add Cumin seeds, Garlic pieces and saute till garlic is golden brown. You can soon start getting the aroma of burnt garlic. Make sure that the garlic does not burn and turn red.	Step : 4   Now take one medium onion, cut into small pieces and saute till brown in the skillet on medium flame.
Step : 5 Let it simmer on low flame for 20-25 min ( can be pressure cooked with water just covering it for 3 whistles)	Step:6   Now put all the spices except the amchoor/chat masala and mix it well.
Step :7   Saute for another 5-10 minutes till the phalli is crisp.	Step:8  The yummy Gawar's are ready to eat!

Enjoy this dry entree with Poories or Chapati.

For making the gravy version :         Mix 2 teaspoons of Thick Yogurt (Curd) in 1½ cups of water and mix well. Add a picnh of salt to taste. Add a pinch of Turmeric. Now add 3 teablespoons of Besan and blend well.     Heat Oil in a pan, crackle with Curry leaves, mustard powder and hing. Add the liqiud mix and simmer in heat for 10min, Constantly keep stirring this so that curd does not break away into milk particles.     Now add the dry gawar from above and bring it to a boil and set aside for 5-10 min so that the gravy is absorved in the gawars.       Enjoy this entree with steamed Rice!

Nawabi Cutlet

Potato Cutlets are my all time favorite for evening snacks. I made some healthy twists to the recipe and would love to have you all try this...

Ingredients:

• Potato - 2 big boiled and peeled
• Green Peas - A handful
• Spinach - cut and washed 1/4 cup
• Coriander leaves - cut and washed 1/4 cup
• All purpose flour /  corn flour - 4-5 tablespoons
• Roasted Rava - 2 tablespoons
• Oil to Deep fry

Spices

• Garam Masala
• Azwain
• Sauf ( funnel seeds)
• Salt - to taste
• Red chili powder
• Kasuri methi leaves - 2 tablespoons
• Chat Masala - 1 teaspoon or fresh Lemon Juice 1 teaspoon
• Roasted Groundnuts broken into small pieces - 2 tablespoons



Process :

Take the Green peas, spinach and Coriander and mix them well with a blender / Mixer .

The paste should look somewhat like this. Love the green color

Take the boiled peeled potatoes and mash them.

Blend the mashed potatoes with the green mix, Add all the spices and mix well.

Carefully divide the mixture into equal parts and make patties as shown above.

Make the Roasted Rava and Batter of water and All purpose flour/ corn flour ready!

 Now dip the patties into the batter mix so that it gets coated with a layer of the batter.

Roll the patties into the Roasted Rava and set it aside to dry for 2-3 minutes

Don't they look inviting?

Heat oil in a pan to deep fry and when the oil is hot place the patties

Deep fry them till golden brown

Take them out and place on a Paper towel so that excess of the Oil is soaked.

Serve them hot with a chutney and hot steaming tea.
Make your evenings yummier than ever!

Masala Baingan Dry

Not many people like this unique vegetable but then they might not have tasted this recipe...

My mother-in-law's super simple recipe of masala dry baingan is super simple and YUM.







Ingredients :

1. Baingan - 4 small
2. Coriander powder : 2 tablespoons
3. Cummin powder : 2 tablespoons
4. Turmeric powder : 1 pinch
5. Cummin seeds whole : 1 teaspoon
6. Saunf (funnel) powder - 1 tablespoon
7. Salt - to taste
8. Red chilli powder : 1 teaspoon
9. Amchur powder : 1 teaspoon
10. Garam Masala : 2 tea spoons
11. Vegetable Oil : 3-4 tablespoon
12. Hing ( astafotedia powder) - 1 pinch
13. Ground roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup

To Do:

Wash the Eggplants and dry them, slit them in 4 pieces (not all the way through as shown in picture). Start cutting from the smooth end and stop at least 1 inch before the stem, so that the pieces do not fall out.

Heat oil in a skillet and add the cummin sees to crackle. Add the dry ingredents except Peanut powder, and mix it so that it becomes a paste like consistency. Saute till golden brown.







Cool down the masala a bit and fill the slits of Baingan with the masala just prepared above.

Add all the baingans in the skillet and saute for 5 min, then sprinkle some water on them.

Cover this with a lid and reduce the flame to low and let it cook for 8-10 min. After every 2 minutes keep rolling them so that it is evenly cooked.

They should have shrunk a bit as shown in the picture, now take it out in a serving dish. Add the coarse peanut powder as a garnish and savour this delicacy with pulao / Rice or Poori .

Pulao Jayekedar

                                                                      

Pulao is  generally served hot with raita , also referred to as rice Pilaf and a very common delicacy meal for north Indians for lunch and dinner. I love this specially on a on a sunny lazy Sunday afternoon! Why don'y ou try this super simple recipe and enjoy this aromatic dish!

Ingredients

Tadka

• Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon
• 1 large Onion
• Ghee -3 tbsp
• Bay Leaves - 3-4
• Coriander seeds - 1 tables poon
• Black Mustard - 1 table spoon
• Garlic cloves cut into small pieces - 4-5 for the tadka
• Green chillies - 2 slit by length
• Cinnamon sticks -2
• Cloves  - 6-7
• Black and green Cardamoms - 2 each\
• Garam Masala - 3 tablespoons

Masala

• Nutrella powder for protien - 1 small cup
• Paneer grated - 1 small cup
• Cashewnuts - per taste
• Raisins -per taste
• Salt To Taste
• Sugar - a pinch
• Fresh Lemon juice - 1 table spoon
•  Mint leaves - a handful
• Fresh cut Coriander leaves  a handful

Basmati Rice - 2 cups , water 4 cups

Wash the rice and then soak it half an hour in warm water.This helps get the right texture of the Pulao.




Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee is a pan, fry cashewnuts and raisins and take it out for later. Heat the remaining ghee add the tadka, as soon as it crackles, add the rice and other and saute them.

   Add rice, salt, water and stir well. Cover and cook   
   until the rice is done on slow flame. Stir once a while .




Add the masala and stir well. Add 4 cups of water. Cover and cook
until the rice is cooked on slow flame.

You can also add a couple of sauted vegetables like carrots, greaan peas, cauliflower etc. to make it healthy dish before dding water





Stir once after 10 min, you can taste the water to see if the salt/sugar is OK..

After 20-25 min, stir the Pulao so that the rice is flakey.and leave it to cool a bit.



Garnish with Cashews, raisins, mint & Coriander leaves.

Enjoy the steaming hot pulao with raita with your family!

Corn Peas Palak

In my go green world of recipes, I was all set to make Palak Paneer today for a couple of my friends.. but found that paneer was not available. I thought of trying out something which I had at home. A brief look around made me realize that I had peas and corn. So here it is .. my accidental recipe which was indeed mouthwatering!

Jayant, Dilip and Pragya... you are ones who can vote for the taste, since you tried it today!!!





Ingredients:

Tadka:
1. Oil - 3-4 table spoons
2. Hing - one pinch
3. Cummin seeds - 1 teaspoon

1. Spinach ( palak ) - 1 bunch ( make a puree with water - 1 cup)
2. Corn - 1/4 cup
3. Peas  -1/4 cup
4. Tomato - 2 medium ( cut in small pieces)
5. Onion - Grated 1 Big
6. Tomato Paste ( 2 teaspoons )






Masala :
1. Garam Masala - 2 teaspoons
2. Ginger Paste  - 1 teaspoon
3. Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon
4. Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Red Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
6. Salt - per taste


Steps:


1. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to crackle. Add the hing powder.

2. Saute the onions till golden brown.

3. Add the tomato and mix well, saute for another 2-3 minutes on high flame and add the masala.

4. Now add the corn and peas to the mix and saute for another 3-4 min

5. Add the pured spinach to the pan and let it simmer for 10 min,

6. Keep mixing it every 2-3 minutes so that it does not stick at the bottom. Turn off the heat once the color starts turning dark.

Enjoy this with nan/ roti/ poori