Veg Korma

So I have been trying out recipes from the blog world. I trust them to be better than the recipes found on other sites.

I have to empty my fridge to defrost it. I had cauliflower, few green beans (french beans ), a brinjal (aubergine) and potato. I didn’t want to make a rice dish like pulav with it. So I searched online and found this recipe. It turned out yum 🙂 I did a few tweaks to suit my cooking but main procedure was the same.

Here’s how I prepared it.

Ingredients:
Veggies you need
1 small Cauliflower cut into florets
1 medium aubergine(brinjal)
few green beans
1 medium potato
1 medium onion

For the sauce
3/4th can of Coconut milk ( I used Pride coconut milk)

10-12 cashew nuts (or more if you have)
1 and 1/2 tspn Ginger Garlic paste

Spices
1 tspn Garam masala
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
1/2 tspn chilli powder

4 green cardamoms
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick

1 tbspn Olive/Vegetable/Sunflower oil

Green coriander to garnish
Salt to taste

Recipe: Original recipe for the Veggie Korma can be found here.

I substituted cream or half and half for coconut milk as I had that at home. Also used a non-stick pan with lid.

1. Chop cauliflower into florets, cut potato and brinjal into cube. Cut french beans in half around (1.5 inch pieces)

2. Toast the cashew nuts in a non stick pan, till they are brown.

3. Blend the toasted cashew nuts with ginger garlic paste and 1 tbspn of water to a coarse paste. I had to add little bit more water, depends on the blender.

4. Heat oil in the non-stick pan and fry the onions till they are golden brown. Sprinkling little salt on them helps them cook faster.

5. Once the onions are sauteed add in the ground ginger-garlic-cashew paste and let it mix well. Keep on low flame throughout. As per the original recipe it’s for 5 mins. Depending on the onions and the amount being prepared this time can vary.

6. Add in cardomoms, cinammon and turmeric. Stir well.

7. Add the coconut milk. Remember to shake the coconut milk well before opening the can. Also still the milk with a spoon so that the milk is uniform and no lumps are present. Add about 3/4th cup of water and stir well. Bring this mixture to a boil on medium flame and simmer for about 5 mins.

8. Now add in garam masala, chilli powder and salt to taste. Stir well.

9. Add cauliflower and potatoes first as they need more time to cook. Cover and simmer for 5 mins. Add little bit more water if it’s getting dry.

10. Add in aubergine(brinjal) and green beans. Mix well and simmer for another 5-6 mins.

11. Simmer for few mins until the veggies are cooked.

Garnish with coriander (optional) and serve with naan/roti or rice. We had it with warmed tortilla.

This dish is cooked on a low flame which makes it very tasty. Enjoy this recipe from Dining Alone.

Beetroot Raita (Beetachi Koshimbir)/ Beetroot Salad

Been on a hiatus for a long time. Have been busy with family and moved to UK now.

Been making this dish many times now. Love to share this tasty dish 🙂

Ingredients:
1 Beetroot medium
1 cup curd/yogurt
1 green chilli
1/2 tspn sugar
salt to taste

Method:
Wash and peel the beetroot. The ends may have roots so chop them off and make sure the beetroot is clean.

Heat water in a pan, it should be just enough to drown the beetroot. We partly cook the beetroot to get rid of the strong earthy taste. Once the water starts boiling, put in the beetroot. Allow it to boil for around 7-8 mins.

Let the beetroot cool down. You can add cold water and cool it down as well.

Beat curd with little water to make it smooth.

Grate the beetroot finely and keep in bowl. Chop the green chillies finely.
Add the curd, chillies, sugar and salt to the beetroot. Mix them up well.

Serve with any rice dish.

Enjoy this tasty and healthy salad 🙂

Goan Chicken Xacuti ( Goan Chicken Curry)

Hi, I am hopefully back to blogging after a long long time.. here’s my fav chicken xacuti recipe as my mom makes it 🙂

I prepared it this weekend and it got finished before I could take any snaps! I’ll add in the snaps as soon as I prepare it next!

Ingredients:
500g Chicken (with bone or boneless)
2 tomatoes
2 and 1/2 onions (medium)
Coriander to garnish

For the masala:
1/2 cup fresh coconut or dried coconut or mix of both ( I used Natco’s dried coconut)
1 and 1/2 onion
2 Tspn coriander seeds
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
1/2 star anise ( around 3-4 petals)
1 inch piece of cinnamon
4-5 cloves
8-9 pepper corns
1 tspn shahi jeera
1/4 piece of nutmeg
1 Tspn poppy seeds
5-6 red chillies
8-10 garlic (small )
a small ball of tamarind

For marinade:
1/4 cup of coriander leaves
1 inch piece of ginger
2 garlic pods
2 green chillies
2 Tspn curd
1/2 tspn turmeric powder

Method:
Prepare the marinade:
Grind together coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies. ( you can replace ginger-garlic with ginger garlic paste.)
Wash and clean the chicken pieces.
Apply the ground masala, turmeric powder and curd to the chicken pieces .
Marinate for 1/2 -1 hour.

Prepare the masala:
Slice the onions.
Dry roast on a  slow flame the following spices:

cinnamon, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, cloves, peppercorns, red chillies, nutmeg, shahi jeera and star anise
Keep stirring the mix in between till a nice aroma comes ( the coriander seeds will be slightly browned). (approx 7-8 mins)

Take out on a plate and leave it to cool for a while.

Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the sliced onions, garlic pieces and coconut on slow  flame till the coconut gets a golden color. Keep stirring the mix while it’s roasting. (takes approx. 10 mins)

Take it out on a plate and allow it to cool .

Grind together the roasted spices, roasted coconut mix, turmeric powder and tamarind with around 1/2 cup of water to a fine paste. (add water as required to make the paste fine, but make sure it does not turn very watery).

For the main chicken dish:

Chop the remaining onions and tomatoes.

Heat around a table spoon of oil in a pan and add onions to it. Add a pinch of salt for the onions to cook faster.Once the onions are lightly browned add in the tomatoes. Fry for a few minutes.

Now add in the marinated chicken. Fry for 5-6 minutes. ( Cooking times will vary when you use chicken with bone).

Add in the ground masala and salt to taste. Mix well.

Cook for 25-30 mins on medium flame. Check if the chicken is done else let it cook for few more mins.

I use a pressure cooker for this dish. when the masalas and chicken are mixed, I pressure cook it for 1 whistle for boneless chicken. ( around 2 whistles for chicken with bone).

Adjust salt and spices as per taste. Taste that the chicken is tender and cooked properly before serving.

Serving:

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Generally this dish is served with bread slices or hard crusted goan bread known as Pao in the first course.

For second round it’s usually with jeera rice or pulav or just plain rice.

Remember to serve lime pieces as well as it’s quite spicy 🙂

Enjoy this yummy Chicken Xacuti at home 🙂

Moog Gaathi (Green lentils side-dish)

Finally my most favorite dish during mostly made for any festival or occasion like Ganesh Chaturthi. This is usually served as a side-dish and is pure-veg i.e. without garlic or onion.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup moog/green lentils
1 tea spn jaggery
few pieces of cashew nuts (optional)
salt to taste

For masala:
1/3 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut ( do not use dessicated coconut)
2 red chillies
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
small piece of tamarind

For Tempering:
1 tea spn of mustard seeds
2 sprigs of curry leaves
pinch of hing
2 tbl spn of oil

Method:
Soak moog for around 4 hours in the evening and keep them covered in a wet cloth for making moog sprouts overnite.

Grind the masala ingredient to a fine paste with water. Be careful with the chillies. Do not make the paste very watery. Keep aside.
Tip: use tepid water for grinding during winter season or when using frozen coconut. Helps grinding the coconut faster.

Wash the sprouts properly removing the green cover as much as possible. Cook the moog sprouts for 1 whistle in a pressure cooker.

Heat oil in a pan on high flame, add the mustard seeds and hing, cover with a lid until the seeds splutter. reduce to low flame and add the curry leaves.
Then add in the masala, heat for a 2 mins and keep stirring. Then add the cooked moog along with water used to cook it. Keep water to 1 cup max. Add in salt to taste and jaggery. Mix well and cook for 8-10 mins on medium heat. Stir in between and add the cashew nuts if using.

Serve with dal-rice, roti or chapati or even goan paav. Optionally garnish with chopped green coriander leaves.

Masala Cola ( Mild Spicy Cola) Drink

Have you been to ‘Barbeque Nation’ @ Domlur Bangalore ? Well it used to be our treat pad in Bangalore for quite some time. Easily accessible and good starters and good desserts 🙂 I happened to try their ‘Masala Cola’ once and was hooked on to it. It was OMG 🙂 a masaledar break from the normal coke.

Here’s my attempt to make it at home and it was pretty good 🙂

Ingredients:
1 can               coke/diet coke/cola
1/2 tea spn   chaat masala
a pinch of salt (optional)
2-3               fresh mint leaves(optional)

Method:
Put the chaat masala in a tall glass. Add the coke to it slowly. Let the foam settle . Add the salt.
Gently crush the mint leaves and add it to the coke. Lightly stir once with a spoon.

There you are.. masala coke is ready !

Serve with chips or samosas or just as is 🙂

Updated Posts: Veggie Pizza

Guest Post – Mango Lassi

Been lazy with the Winter coming down here.. and a short 3 week hectic trip to india.. Should be back with more posts soon 🙂

Here’s a long pending guest post from my friend Asmita…
There is no season for a mango.. delicacy all year round.. Yummy 🙂
Having had a mango lassi on my last visit to an Indian restaurant in southall I coudn’t resist posting it here.

Ingredients:
Thick Yogurt
Mango Pulp
Sugar (to taste )

Method:
Blend mango pulp, yogurt and sugar.
Adjust pulp and sugar to taste.

Serve:
Add ice cubes / refrigerate.
Serve in a dainty glass with an umbrella topper/mint leaf/slice of mango … let your imagination flow 🙂

Enjoy Madi!!

You can get Mango pulp in any indian grocery store.

Alami-chane Tonaak (Mushroom-peas Gravy)

During monsoon, Goan markets are flooded with local mushrooms called as ‘Alami‘. This is a seasonal speciality and makes the fav dish of goans 🙂 The Alamis have a different taste then the generally available button or other mushrooms. The taste is absolutely divine!

Hence, moment this Alamis start appearing, it’s quickly bought ( at a quite high price ofcourse!). The most commonly made as crispy rava fries and the alami tonnak.

This is also my favorite recipe of all !

I prepared this using the normal button mushrooms available here. For a twist I added some green peas as well. And the result ? Finger licking good! 🙂

Here’s my recipe:
Ingredients:
10-12 button mushrooms (medium)
3/4 vaati green peas
1 large onion
1 tomato
4 tbl spn grated coconut
2-3 tea spn Oil

For the masala:
3 tbl spn Coriander seeds
2 red chillies
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
2 cloves
5-6 pepper corns
2 cloves of garlic (small)
1/2 – 1 star anise
1 piece of cinnamon (medium)
1 tea spn of fennel seeds (Badishep)

Method:
Chop onions and tomatoes length wise.
Chop mushrooms into 5-6 pieces each.
Thaw the peas if using frozen ones. I generally get frozen green peas and keep them in hot water to make them thaw fast.

For the ground masala:
Heat a tea spn of oil in a pan and add in the masala ingredients. Fry for 3-4 mins on medium heat. A nice aroma will come. Stir in between. Remove on a plate. I add badishep as my mom adds it whenever onion is added in the masala. Adding star anise gives the dish a nice aroma.

Add little more oil and fry tomato and 1/4th of the onion. Fry till the onion is cooked. Remove on the masala plate.

Now put in the coconut and fry for a minute till it gets a light brown tinge. Frying coconut also gives a nice aroma. Make sure none of the ingredients are burnt.

Put the masala ingredients, onion-tomato and coconut in a blender. Add a little water and grind till a fine consistency is reached.

To make the tonaak:
Heat 2 tea spn oil in the pan, add the remaining onion and fry for a few mins. Now add in the peas and mushroom pieces. Fry for 2-3 mins. Add in the masala paste and 1 vaati water. (Do not add too much water, as it will make the dish watery.) Cover and cookl for 10 mins on medium flame.

Alami Tonaak

Serve with white rice or chapatis or just bread 🙂

Generally in Goa, tonaak is eaten with Goan Paav 🙂

Alami tonaak with rice and fish fry!

Tip: I added some coriander stems while grinding the masala. Usually these stems are wasted as only the green leaves are used. Reduce the amount of coriander seeds used, if using coriander stems.

Links: Goan Fish Rava Fry

Palak Bhajji ( Crispy Spinach Fries)

There are times when you hate certain vegetables.. and when they lie in the fridge staring back at you.. you just don’t know what to do with them.. ( at that moment you just stare back and close the fridge 😉

Spinach is one such veggie.. I would hate to eat..

But then this version made me love it!!! It’s very simple crispy bhajji which my husband had made few months back.. and I had a pack of spinach leaves lying in my fridge.. so on today’s rainy day in UK I decided to try it out.. motive ? finish the spinach 😉

But I was wrong.. finally i’ve started to like it 🙂

Here’s the recipe :
Ingredients:
30 medium spinach leaves
1 cup of Besan ( Gram Flour)
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
2 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn coriander powder
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash and clean the palak leaves. Spread on paper for drying.

Take the besan in a bowl, add masala powders and salt. Mix well. Add a little water and mix using spoon. Keep adding little water till the batter becomes a little watery. Don’t add too much water, the batter has to have enough consistency to stick to the leaves. Adjust the spices to taste.

Keep aside for 10 mins so that the lumps can be easily dissolved. Mix well to remove any lumps remaining. For testing the batter, dip a spoon and check the coat on the back of the spoon. The spoon should have a light coat of the batter.

Heat oil in a kadai/pan. Once the oil heats up, dip a single palak leaf in the batter. Coat the leaf lightly on both sides. Lightly put this leaf in the oil. Repeat with 2-3 more leaves. Fry till the bhajjis turn light brown on both sides. The spinach leaves remain greenish. Remove on tissue paper/kitchen roll. Taste this first set and adjust spices in the besan mix as per taste. Now fry the remaining leaves.
Do not fry till dark brown.

Serve with tomato sauce. This is a crispy – crunchy snack and a good tea accompaniment 🙂

Enjoy!

No pics as the bhajji’s disappeared as soon as the batches came out! But will post as soon as I make this the next time 🙂

Back Again

Back to blogging after a long long time!

We have shifted to UK. Shall soon be posting more recipes.

Here’s an easy to make Mackerel fish curry – I came up with this when I reached UK. Stuck without a mixer/blender and a craving for Goan food made me come up with this one! It was an instant hit with a friend who had come down to meet us 🙂

Easy Fish Curry
Ingredients:
Fresh Mackerel pieces – 5-6
1/2 can of Coconut Milk (approx 150-200 ml)
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 inch piece ginger
3-4 green chillies
1/2 – 1 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn of coriander powder or use 1 tea spn of fresh green coriander
3-4 pieces of kokum
5-6 pieces of tephal (optional)
1 small onion
1 tea spn oil

Method:
Wash and clean the mackerel pieces. Apply salt and keep aside.

Crush the ginger using a mortar-pestle and make a coarse paste.
Chop onion finely. Slit the green chillies.

Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry for a few minutes till the onions turn slightly pinkish.
Add in ginger, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix well.
Now add in the coconut milk and little water. (Water to dilute the coconut milk if it’s thick.) I use Amoy Coconut Milk.

Adjust spices to taste. Mackerel curry requires more turmeric powder, as mackerel stink more than other fish.

Let it come to a boil. Mackerel cooks very fast, hence add it only after the onion is cooked. Then add the mackerel pieces. Now put in salt, green chillies, kokum, and tephal. Adding tephal gives it a nice aroma. Simmer for around 7-8 mins. Approx time required to cook the mackerel pieces.

Turn off stove. Now add in the coriander powder or chopped green coriander.
Serve with hot steamed rice and crispy Fish Rava fry.

The one I made was a mildly spiced curry.

Enjoy madi 🙂

Bharille Bangde (Stuffed Mackerel)

I will be without net connection for a few weeks now. I apologize for being lazy in posting on this blog! I am shifting out of bangalore hence the gap. Will be back after a while.. till then enjoy my fav dish 🙂

My Fav fav fav dish. Yummy and very filling. Generally it’s one whole mackerel per person 😀

when I made it, my hands were full with fish and other pastes used. hence i could not take snaps. After i finished, all were so hungry that the mackerels were finished. Well after all it was served with steaming rice and prawn curry :p

Ingredients:
1/2 to 3/4th vaati freshly grated coconut
1 medium onion chopped/sliced
1 and 1/2 tbl spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
3-4 flakes garlic
a small round of tamarind
1/2 vaati rava
4 mackerels (cleaned)
salt to taste

For frying:
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1 tea spn chilli powder
piece of thread (sutt)
oil for shallow frying

Method:

Clean the mackerels, keeping the tail. (Remove the head and fins. )

Slit the mackerels in the middle keeping one side closed, the bone (skeleton) should be visible.
apply salt and keep aside.

Grind together – coconut, onion, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, little turmeric powder, tamarind, green chilies, ginger, garlic and salt to a coarse paste with little water. The paste should remain thick hence don’t add too much water. keep the paste aside. (Adjust spices to taste)

Divide the thread into 4 parts – each part should be long enough to be tied around the stuffed mackerel.
Mix rava, turmeric and chilli powder together.

Heat oil on a tava.

Divide the stuffing paste into 4 parts/rounds. Take a mackerel and stuff it with the paste.
It will look something like this.

Tie the thread around the mackerel to avoid the paste from coming out during frying. Roll this stuffed mackerel in the rava.

Serve along with fish curry – rice and lemon wedges.

Instructions: You can remove the thread just before serving or instruct to be careful about the thread when eating.

* All photos and links are from Google Search. Please let me know in case of any issues with the same.