It is funny that I am actually writing this post, but today morning I just thought about it and realized many people might be actually struggling even with rice. Okay, great chefs, this post is definitely not for u. This is for the foetal chefs ;). It does not mean people who have been chefs since they were foetus. This term is also conjured up by me. I actually meant to write newborn chefs, but then I realized that there are a lot of people out there who are not even born as chefs. They have literally not cooked anything, but thought of cooking some day, and definitely love to eat. Those, I call foetal chefs. So, all my dear foetal chefs, take your birth with the most versatile and easiest thing(yes, easier than maggi), and an absolute necessity in Asian food. Yes, my friends, you got it right - It is our lovely rice.
So,let's get to the recipe and I promise you will be surprised why you never tried it, considering how easy it is.
What we need:
Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
And That's it :)
Lighting the stove:
Measure 1 cup of rice in a bowl and wash it nicely and drain the water.
Yes, that's my measuring cup. You can use any cup you like.
Measure 2 cups of water and add it to the rice. (The trick here is to water twice the amount of rice, no matter in what you measure).
Now, pour all of it to a pressure cooker.
Place the cooker on gas. Keep the flame on high until you get one whistle.
Now, immediately reduce the flame to lowest and let it give 2 more whistles. Then, switch off the gas.
Let the pressure release naturally and the let cooker open by itself. It won't take more than 5 minutes. So, don't get too impatient.
Now, take out the soft and fluffy rice and enjoy it with anything. Yes, almost anything- dal, curry, chicken or any damn thing.
I had it with sambar, potato fries and onion. Yes, that's my comfort food. ;)
Note: Some varieties of rice may take longer or shorter times to cook. In that case, when you open your cooker after 3 whistles, if it appears hard, close the cooker lid and give one more whistle. If it appears overcooked, give one lesser whistle next time.
Masoor dal is something I never used to count as a dal, and bought it around once a year when I got bored of all the other dals. Though it looks all colourful and pretty, but I never knew how it would taste good. But, once I found this recipe, I just keep cooking it all the time. It tastes like dal fry, just wayyy better. Just give it a try, and I am sure you are gonna love it.
So, here is the recipe:
What we need:
Masoor dal- 1.5 cups
Onion- 1 medium
Tomatoes- 2 small to medium
Zeera- 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 7-8
Green chillies- 3-4
Garlic cloves- 8-9
Hing- Pinch
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Garam masala powder or zeera powder- 1 tsp
Kasoori methi- 1 tbsp
Lemon juice- 1 tbsp ( Optional)
Coriander leaves- For garnishing
Ghee- 1 tsp
Salt- To taste
Oil- 2 tbsp
Lighting the stove:
Wash and soak the masoor dal in water for around 15 minutes.
Take around 1.5 cups of masoor dal and pressure cook with salt, turmeric, one chopped onion, 2 chopped tomatoes and a little ghee for 3 whistles.
Heat refined oil in a kardhai, add zeera, mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.
When mustard seeds splutter, add chopped garlic and green chillies. Fry till garlic turns golden brown.
Add the boiled dal with 1/4th cup water and let it boil for 2 minutes. Now add garam masala powder or zeera powder and chilli powder. Mix well.
Add kasoori methi and lemon juice. Boil for 1-2 more minutes.
Finally, add chopped coriander leaves and mix well.
Serve with roti or rice. Tastes really awesome with roti, but is equally good for rice.
Parwal or pointed gourd has always been my favourite. Though it is not much available in Bangalore, I try to get it from some place or the other.
I have tried many recipes for this but had not been able to get a hold of it yet. It always turned out under-boiled or dry or watery, except one recipe that my Mom makes which is too oily, hence, I don't make it often. But, this is perfect. I learnt it from my sister-in-law when we visited her recently, though her version was too healthy with minimum oil and no curry powder or chilli powder. I just modified it to suit my taste.
What we need:
Parwal- 250 gms
Potatoes- 2 medium
Onion- 1 large or 2 medium
Tomatoes- 2 small or 1 medium
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp
Oil
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Salt-To taste
Coriander powder or curry powder- 1.5 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Lighting The Stove:
Scratch the parwals(don't peel completely), just rub out the outer dark green layer. U can do this with a peeler or knife, and then wash them and cut the two ends.
Cut into thin slices. Cut potatoes also in same style(long and medium thin).
Heat oil in a kardhai, add the parwals and potatoes, salt and turmeric powder. Mix well and let it fry for 1 min.
Then, add half a cup of water and cover it. This helps to boil the parwals perfectly.
Keep stirring in between and cook till done.
Heat 3 tbsp of oil, add the sliced onions and fry till golden. ( Can use any oil, mustard oil gives better flavour)
Add 1 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste. Mix well and fry for 1 more min.
Add coriander powder and chilli powder, mix well and add tomatoes.
Mix nicely, add 1/4 cup of water and cook till tomatoes turn mushy.
Add all the fried vegetables and mix well with the masala. At this point, u can take it out and serve or u can do what I did.
Add half a cup of water and cook covered for 2 min.
Finally, sprinkle chopped corainder leaves and garam masala. It's ready to serve.
Very simple, but tasty curry. Tastes best with chapati, paratha or rice. Worth cooking again and again for daily food.
Kundru is kinda hated or sometimes, not even considered as a vegetable. Some people in my region believe that eating this makes u lose your brains and makes u an idiot. But, I avoid believing that stuff. Science, however says that it can help you control your blood sugar level, gives you high amounts of vitamin C, beta-carotene and some more.
So, ditch your local knowledge, be a little scientific and eat kundru or coccinea or ivygourd or tindora or dondakaya or whatever it is called in your language. If you don't like any name, go ahead and have your own name for it. I mean, our humble kundru won't mind a bit if it gets one extra name along with so many that it already has.
Ok... enough of rambling. Let's get to the recipe. This recipe was requested by a friend. Hope this helps.
What we need :
Ivy gourd - 200 gms
Onions- 1 large or 2 medium
Peanuts - Half a cup
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Zeera - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 8-10
Chilli powder- 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder or Curry powder - 1/4 tsp
Lighting The Stove:
Wash and cut the kundru into thin slices.
Fry a handful of peanuts in oil untill they are done. U can know they are done by the change in colour.
Now, fry the kundru with a little salt till it is cooked.
Heat a little oil in kardhai and add mustard seeds, zeera, curry leaves. Fry for 2-3 seconds.
Now, add thinly sliced onion and fry on medium heat untill golden.
Then, add a little chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder or curry powder.
Add the fried kundru and peanuts and mix well.
Serve hot with rice and dal or sambar.
The taste takes me back to the hostel days where this simple nutty taste was a delicacy. This is very easy to ccok, so, bachelors and busy people out there, definitely try this out. You will sure enjoy it. :)
It is actually cabbage chips or cabbage fritters but I call it Chori Ka Cabbage because ...well... there's a story to it.
During my 12th, I studied in a residential college called Sri Chaitanya and even this simple cabbage fry was a rare delicacy in comparison to usual hostel food. This was the special veg item for the vegetarians on the days when chicken was served. So, it won't be wrong to say it was comparable to chicken. Even, few people sacrificed their plate of chicken to eat this. It was supposed to be served not more than one plate. And what trick we had applied to have more of it was that we used to take one plate and pour rice over it so as to hide it and then asked for one more plate saying we came late or some other reason. So, there goes the stealing. :) Ah !!! Nostalgic times !!! I tried hard to get this recipe and finally landed on this one which is a mixture of various recipes and some of my memories of that taste. This dish is a favourite of me and my best friends. So, here it is. This one is for you and those times.
What We Need :
One half of a small white cabbage- around 200 gms
5-6 heaped tablespoons of besan
3 tablespoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of coriander powder or curry powder
8-10 curry leaves
3-4 finely chopped green chillies
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
Salt to taste- around 1/2 teaspoon
Oil for frying
Lighting The Stove:
Chop the cabbage thinly and mix with besan, cornflour, coriander powder, curry leaves, chopped green chillies, chilli powder, salt, and 1 tbsp oil. You can add a pinch of food colour if you want a richer colour. I didn't add it.
Mix nicely to make a very dry dough.
Now, deep fry it on medium flame till they are lightly browned.
Serve hot with Andhra style dal(which is called Pappu. I will post that recipe very soon) and hot steamed rice.
Raw jackfruit, the summer vegetable has been one of my favourite vegetable since childhood. After leaving home for studies, I almost never tasted it around 4-5 years. When I had my own kitchen where I could cook anything without questions, it was great joy for me. But I never had the courage to try jackfruit, specially because I didn't know how to cook it as well as cutting it involves a little hassle. My Mom was never confident enough that her little daughter would actually be able to cut a jackfruit and cook it. She always asks me to visit her in summer so that she can cook it for me. But, since it is not available after this month, I finally decided to buy it and also insisted my Mom to give me the recipe. Reluctantly, she agreed and hence, here is the recipe.
Cutting it is a issue because of its sticky secretion. But I didn't have to face that since I rubbed a lot of mustard oil on my palms before cutting. It totally solved the problem.
What we need:
800 gms raw jackfruit
2 medium sized potatoes
3 large onions
3- 4 large tomatoes
1 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 cardamom
1 stick of cinnamon
5-6 whole black pepper corns
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste or else 4-5 cloves of garlic and 1 inch ginger
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
3 tbsp coconut milk (can skip it)
Salt as per taste
Lighting the stove:
Cut the jackfruit and potatoes into small pieces leaving out a very thick peel.
Fry jackfruit and potatoes in mustard oil in a pressure cooker and then add a cup of water, salt and turmeric powder and cook for 1 whistle.
Now, grind ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, half of cardamom, half of cinnamon and black pepper first and add onions to it and grind roughly again. It should not turn into a paste, I used to incher option on my grinder to get this.
Then, heat oil in a kardhai and add the ground paste to it.
Fry till onions are golden brown. Add garam masala powder and chilli powder.
Add chopped tomatoes and cook till oil oozes out.
Remove the water from the pressure cooker and add the boiled jackfruit and potatoes and mix nicely. Preserve the water for next step.
Let it fry on medium heat for sometime so that the masalas get mixed nicely.
Add the water removed from boiling and cook on high heat for 2mins.
Now add the coconut milk and mix lightly. Cook on high heat for 2-3 mins more.
The water will get dried up.Crush cinnamon and cardamom with 1 tsp of water and add to the curry.
Cover it and leave for 5 min and then it is ready to serve.
It's an awesome traditional dish with jackfruit which tastes good with anything but best as a side dish with rice and dal.
Yes, that's my measuring cup. You can use any cup you like.
