Ujwal's Kitchlab

Friday, July 29, 2011

Capsicum-Cumin Rice with Saffron

I love the variation in rice dishes.They are so easy to make plus, healthy and most of the times require no side dishes and can be made in jiffy with minimum utensils to be cleaned. This is one such dish that I was recommended by my SIL. I love Shilpa's site for the simple dishes and clear instructions. This is one such no fail recipe that tastes great on its own or even good with some spicy side dish. I had made this on my mom's birthday as she loves capsicum but never got time to post it until today. This has been in my drafts for really long time.
I almost followed the recipe but made very minor negligible changes. Click here to view the original recipe from Aayi's recipes.

What's needed:
2 cups basmati rice washed and soaked for 30 mins
2 tsp cumin seeds/Jeera
few strands saffron soaked in 1 tblsp milk
2 capsicum chopped (I used green as I had that it hand)
A pinch turmeric (I forgot to add it)
4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
2 onions sliced
5-6 cloves
5-6 green cardamom
1" cinnamon
2 bay leaves ( Not in the original recipe)
6 green chillies slit
Oil
Salt to taste

Procedure:
1) Heat oil add jeera when it splutters add the spices and onion, garlic and fry until golden.
2) Add capsicum and fry for a while. Add rice and green chillies. Fry and add 4 cups of water and salt to taste. After one boil lower the flame and cook covered.
3) When 3/4th done open and add the saffron milk and cook further till done. Fluff with fork and serve hot.

We had with Dal fry.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Aloo Paratha

Rainy season makes you crave for something hot and spicy . Regular rice and curry takes a backseat. I am more of a chapathi/Phulka person. I love paratha's too. My mom makes awesome masala chapathi which is South Indian take on stuffed aloo paratha. I make both the versions. This is my version of aloo paratha a little spicy and little tangy.

Here is what's needed:
(For outer dough)
2 cups atta / whole wheat flour
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
sugar to taste
2 tsp oil or ghee

(For the Filling)
2 medium sized potatoes
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp red chilli powder - increase/decrease as per your taste
1/2 tsp each cumin and coriander powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp Kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp amchur powder
salt to taste
A handful of coriander leaves chopped

Oil/ghee/butter to shallow fry the paratha's

Procedure:
1) I prefer to use warm water to knead my dough as it makes softer roti's. Mix all the ingredients for the outer dough and knead into a smooth and elastic dough. It should not be sticky. Add more water or atta as per your preference.
2) Boil, peel and mash the potatoes making sure that there are no lumps. Heat little oil and fry the onions till they turn slightly pinkish. Add in all the masala's and fry for a few seconds. Add the mashed potato and turn off the flame. Add salt to taste and add the coriander leaves. Let it cool.
You can also skip frying the onions and use them raw too. I prefer this one than raw onions or skip onions completely. Incase you dont want to add onions just mix all the ingredients listed under the filling. Adjust seasoning according to your taste.
3) Make small balls out of the dough and same size balls with the filling. Out of the atta dough, roll a small puri and keep the filling at the center and cover it completely by gathering the puri over the filling. Roll it into slightly thick paratha by dusting it with sufficient atta to prevent sticking to the rolling board.
4) Transfer to a hot griddle and fry both the sides until golden brown by spraying oil, ghee or butter. Repeat with rest of the dough and serve hot with curds or curry of your choice.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Babycorn masala

Rains are in full swing here and Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rains but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. Hence going out in this rains needs a lot of planning. We avoid taking the little one out in this weather. This is also the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftover veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. I had picked this up randomly during my recent grocery shopping. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.

Rains are in full swing here.Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rians but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. This is the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftvoer veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.
Here is what's needed

a pack of freshly peeled baby corns, slit lengthwise and chopped into two
2 medium tomatoes blanched
3 medium onions cubed
1 capsicum cubed
handful of mushrooms quartered
10 cashews soaked
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp Sabzi masala
1 tsp garam masala
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
salt to taste
oil
coriander leaves chopped to garnish

Procedure:
1) Grind the blanched tomatoes, cashews to a smooth paste with required quantity of water.
2) Cook the baby corn in sufficient water till almost done.
3) Heat oil, add bay leaf. After few seconds add in the Onions and fry till translucent. Add ginger garlic paste capsicum and mushroom. Fry until capsicum can be broken using a spoon and mushrooms have wilted.Add in the masala powders and fry till oil separates.
4) Add the tomato paste and cook further. Mix in the babycorn and give it a good rolling boil. Add in the kasuri methi and salt. Mix well, add sufficient water and check for seasoning adding any if required. Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: To enhance the taste of this curry milk or cream could be used. I skipped this completely as I am not too fond of cream based gravies. This curry came out so good that I see myself using this base gravy with many more vegetables.
We enjoyed it with hot chapathis.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Paneer Masala dosa

After a long time I have been able to click pics for the food blog. I have been experimenting a lot with food. Days are busier as I have just enrolled in a teaching course which I am loving a lot. At times I feel that days are flying ahead with wings! Little A is growing up fast too and getting naughtier. Keeps us all busy with his antics. I am loving every moment spent with him.
Coming back to food, whenever we are eating out I prefer to have outside food for lunch or dinner but breakfast I love homemade. I am not big fan of hotel idli's. But if I have to have then I prefer plain paper dosa. I find the other dosa's too oily. For masala dosa's I like the onions in bhaji to be cooked slightly. But I love the colour of hotel dosa's. Thanks to Niya, I can now make such good looking and healthy dosa at home too with much less oil.

Here is what's needed:
1 cup urad dal
2 cups rice
a fistful of cooked rice
1 tsp methi seeds
Salt & sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, urad dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours. Grind the soaked rice and dal along with cooked rice to a smooth batter adding sufficient water.
2) Add salt to taste. Let it ferment overnight. Next morning add a tsp or two of sugar. Mix well.
3) Heat a tawa and pour a ladle full of batter. Spread uniformly. Roast on one side by adding a little oil.Serve hot with chutney of your choice.

With the left over batter I made some Paneer dosa for us.It is very simple to make and tastes great. A change from the regular potato masala dosa.

Here is what's needed for the masala:
200 gms paneer chopped into small cubes
1 capsicum chopped
2 onions chopped
1 tomato chopped
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp garam masala and kitchen king masala
a pinch of turmeric powder
11/2 tsp red chilli powder
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1) Heat oil. Add cumin seeds when they splutter add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Fry well until transparent.
2) Add chopped capsicum and cook. Add chopped tomatoes and cook further.
3) Add in the spice powders one by one. Add salt, chopped paneer pieces and cook further until all the paneer pieces are uniformly coated with the masala. Add kasuri methi. Mix well. Switch off the flame and garnish with corainder leaves.

This can be served with chapathi or with dosa's too.

To make Paneer masala dosa:
1) Spread the dosa batter on the tawa. When it is cooked slightly place a spoon full of masala in the center, lengthwise and cook further until dosa is done. Fold and serve immediately.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Avnaas ambe sasam ~ Mixed fruit curry in mustard and coconut sauce

(Thali ~ Salt, Amla pickle, Mixed veg sambar, Avnas ambe sasam, rice, papad , buttermilk and wheat halwa)

Sunday meals were always special at our household. That was the only day when we would all sit and have an afternoon meal together. Amma always made something special for us on that day of the week. This thali is one of our simple sunday meal. With mango being in season and having a basket full of it we decided to make a curry with it. This is one of the traditional GSB dishes. I love this so much that whenever we attend some functions during summer I look out for this and reach for second helping too. This is basically a sweet curry and is served cold. Traditionally, Pineapple and mango is used to make this but these day mixed fruits are also used. We had an apple and few banana's left, not wanting to make fruit salad opted to use it in this curry. Tasted delicious.

Here is what's needed:

1/2 cup pineapple cubed

5 ripe mangoes cubed

1 apple cubed (Optional)

4 small banana's cubed (Optional)

4 tbsp dry grapes soaked for an hour (Optional - but tastes great)

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1/2 coconut grated

5 dry red chillies

1 cup Jaggery scraped or as per taste

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Cook pineapple pieces till done. If it is not very sweet add a little bit of jaggery. Cool it.

2) Dry roast mustard seeds for few seconds. Remove and in a little oil fry the red chilies.

3) Grind grated coconut, mustard seeds,salt and red chilies to coarse paste. Add jaggery and grind further.

4) Mix the fruits and paste together and refrigerate until the time of serving chilled.

Posted by Uj at 2:54 AM 5 comments

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