Dum Aloo

By mistake i piked baby potato bag instead of regular potatoes, and i noticed it only after coming home. And when i was thinking of what to do with them, i got remember sanjay saying,  by mistake he went to Kashmir in his Dum aloo video, and decided to make dum aloo.  For this recipe the main ingredient is Fennel Powder, but i dont have it handy, so i decided not to use it. So it may not taste traditional way, but we enjoyed it. 

Ingredients:


Baby Potato - 5 or 6
Onion - 1 small Chopped
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Whole Garam Masala ( 2 clove, 1 inch cinnamon, 2 cardamom, 4 pepper corn, 1 bay leaf ) 
Curry Leaves - 3 or 4
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Red Chilli Powder - to taste
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2  tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves 


Procedure:

Wash, Boil and peel Potatoes.
Now take a fork and make very little wholes to the potato on all the sides.
Now sprinkle little turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder (optional),  little salt and yogurt and set aside.

Take a cooking vessel, add oil, when it hot enough, add Whole Garam masala, cumin seeds, when they crackle add curry leaves, and saute for 30 sec. 
Now add Onions, little salt and cook for 2 min, then add ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell goes away.

Now add coriander powder, cumin powder, little turmeric, mix well and now add yogurt with 1 cup of water and mix well, and bring it to one boil.

Now add Potatoes, and again cook for 15-20 min on low flame.

Finally add few Coriander leaves and cook for another 2 min, and switch off the stove. 

Serve Hot with Rice/Roti.

Simple Fried Rice

When i was in Hyderabad with my friends in Ameerpet, we used to eat in near by small restaurant. Always we used to go to only one restaurant. And the order was also same every time. Panner Butter Masala with Nan, and Fried Rice. And the taste of that fried rice was unique, and i never had such a delicious fried rice. It's not Chinese fried rice with a touch of strong soy sauce. We used to call that as Indian fried Rice. Here is the recipe....

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice - 2 cups
( Left over rice would be better for this rice)
Finely chopped Carrots and Beans - 1/2 cup
Finely chopped Green chilly - 4 or 5
Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Salt - To taste
Finely chopped Ginger and Garlic - 2 tsp
Chopped Spring Onion white - 1/2 Cup
Chopped Spring Onion Greens - 1/2 Cup
Oil - 1 tbsp

Procedure:


Take a cooking vessel, add oil, when it is hot, add cumin seeds and when they splutter, add chopped ginger, garlic and green chilly and cook for 2 min on high flame.

Now add veggies, little salt to cook veggies and fry for 4 min.

Now add chopped Spring onion Whites and cook for another 2 min.

Now add Vinegar, Pepper Powder and cook for 1 min. Now add chopped spring onion greens.

Now add Rice, Mix well.

Adjust salt and Serve hot with White Onions and Lemon Slice.

Crispy Karela

This version of karela fry does not taste bitter, and needs very less amount of oil to cook. Goes very well as a side dish when served with Sambar/Rasam. Even tastes good with hot white rice alone. For making this dish we need to squeeze out little juice from karela.....i know that the juice is very important in health point of view, but to avoid deep frying and to get crispness, i made karela little dry. Earlier i used to sun dry karela pieces for 30 min., but here in US as i cant make them sun dry, squeezing out some juice.

Ingredients:

Karela/ Bitter Gourd – 2 medium size

Salt – to taste

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Oil – 2 tsp

Red Chilli Powder – to taste.

Coriander powder – ¼ tsp (optional)

Cumin powder – ¼ tsp (optional)

Garam masala – ¼ tsp (optional)

Procedure:

Wash and clean Bitter gourd. Slightly peel off the skin and cut them into thin round slices.

Put them in a bowl; add ½ tsp of salt, ¼ tsp of turmeric, gently mix well with your hand.

 

Now wrap them in a paper towel and let them rest for 30 min.

Now open the paper towel, squeeze them little (optional), arrange them in a plate and leave it for another 10-15min.

 

Now take very wide pan/cooking vessel, add oil, when it is hot enough add karela.

Let it cook on low-medium flame for 15-20 min.  Check them in between, and fry them nicely.

When karela is turning brown, add dry spices (you can add your own combination of coriander, cumin, red chilli powders, or even garam masala, but here I added only red chilli powder). Adjust salt, red chilli powder.

Serve Hot with white rice. Or even you can eat them just like chips.

Stuffed Eggplant-2

Stuffed Eggplant with Coriander Leaves

Usually I cook eggplant in different ways, like stuffed, complete fry, half boil and fry etc., one variety of eggplant fry is with Ginger-Greenchilli along with very little Coriander leaves. But recently I heard that some people even uses this mixture of Coriander leaves-ginger-and green chilli to stuff the eggplants.... and immediately I tried and it turned out very good.

Ingredients:

Baby Eggplant - 5 or 6
Coriander Leaves - 1 full medium size bunch
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Green chilli - 10
Garlic Pod - 1 small (optional)
Oil - 1 or 2 tbsp
Salt

Procedure:

Wash, clean and wipe eggplants, slit them into quarters for stuffing.
Wash and chop Coriander leaves, and Ginger.
Take a blender, add coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and green chilli, make into a fine paste.

Now add little turmeric, salt to the masala and mix well.

Stuff this mixture into eggplants.

Take a pan, add oil, when it is hot enough, place the eggplants, and cook on high flame for 2min., turn them slightly again cook on high flame for 2 min.

Now reduce flame to medium, sprinkle very little salt over the eggplants, cover it with lid and cook till they are 90% done.

Now add remaining/ left over masala to the pan, slowly mix well, and roast the eggplants nicely for another 5 min on low flame.
 

Serve with hot rice and ghee.
 

Bajji Mixture // Murmura Chat 2

Another variation of murmura chat is ‘Bajji Mixture’, prepared with green pea’s masala.

Ingredients:

For masala:

Green peas – 1 small cup
Coriander powder – ½ tsp
Cumin powder – ¼ tsp
Turmeric – 1 big pinch
Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
Salt
Oil – ½ tsp (optional)

For mixture:

Murmura/ Puffed Rice - 2 cups
Finely chopped Onions
Finely chopped Tomato
Finely chopped Coriander leaves
Fried/ Roasted Peanuts
Raw Dhaliya/ fried chana dal
Sev
Lemon Juice

Procedure:

Pressure cook green peas for 2 or 3 whistles, drain the water, and mash the cooked green peas little bit and set aside.

Take a pan, add ½ tsp of oil (optional), add mashed green peas, cook for 2 min then add coriander powder, cumin powder, redchilli powder, salt, turmeric and mix well

Add little water to cook the spices and cook it on low flame for 5 min, and switch off the stove.

Now take a bowl, add all the ingredients for mixture except lemon juice and mix well.

Now add green peas masala to the murmura mixture, mix well.

Adjust salt, redchilli powder and lemon juice according to your taste.

Garnish it with some plain murmura, and serve immediately.

You can make green peas masala before hand, but add this masala, and lemon juice to chat just before serving.

Magai Chutney

Magai Pachadi/Chutney is made of Magai Uragaya/Pickle. This Chutney goes extremely well with Plain Dosa and Mysore Bonda  . In my childhood when ever my mom makes this chutney for dosa, I used to eat one extra dosa for this chutney. Usual my mom makes this chutney with old magai, i.e. last year's or previous year's left over magai, but now I am making it with fresh magai. 

I know that many people don't understand what Magai is; magai is another variety of Mango Pickle. And it is made of dried mango slices. They cut the mango into thin small slices, then they add sufficient salt, little turmeric and store it in a ceramic bottle for 3 days, on the 4th day, they take out the pieces, squeeze little bit, and keep the slices sun dry for 2 or 3 days. They also keep the squeezed out juice for sun dry for half day/ 1 day. Then they mix these sun dried slices with spices, oil, and the juice. By then Magai is ready to eat. If we store it carefully, it will be good for at least 2 years. We can directly eat this magai with white rice and ghee. To serve with any Tiffins like idly, dosa, upma, or vada, we make that magai pickle into magai chutney. 

Ingredients:

Magai Pachadi - 1 cup
Green Chilli - 10 or 15
Coriander Leaves
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Chopped Onion - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Take a mixie jar, add magai pickle ( Mango) , green chilli, coriander leaves, yogurt and make into a fine paste. If required add very little water.

Store this chutney in a air-tight container and refrigirate.

This will be good for 15 to 20 days.

Serving:

Just before serving, take 1 tbsp of cutney in a separate bowl, add luke warm water to get the consistency you want, add chooped onion, and salt (if required) and serve with dosa.