Aloo Gobi Mutor

Ingredients

Chopped potatoes
couliflower broken in tiny pieces
green peas
2 chopped onions
2 chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoon ginder and garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon red chillie powder
2 teaspoon correinder powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
salt
1/4 teaspoon turmaric

Method
Heat oil in wok, after few minutes when oil is hot add the chopped onions, and ginger garlic paste, stir it till light brown, then add two chooped tomatoes then add the spices - correinder powder, garam masala, turmaric, salt, red chillie powder and mix well.when its little cooked add the chopped potatoes cauliflower and add 1/2 glass of water(since no gravy)mix well and cover it with a lid .let it cook for few minutes stir occasionally. later add the green peas and cook little more. when the spies are well blended with the vegitables add fresh coriender leaves and its ready to serve

Turkey Keema and Mattar

In other words this is minced turkey with green peas. Its a very easy dish to make and I would say it is healthier than using minced lamb or beef. I first got the idea of using turkey for this dish from my cousin, who like me is a foody. Some day we might see a cookbook published by her ;)


Ingredients:

• minced Turkey - 2 pounds
• green Peas - 1/2 pound
• ginger paste - 1 tsp
• garlic paste - 1 tsp
• cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• onions - 2 medium sized
• coriander powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
• turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• garam masala - 1 tsp
• red pepper pwder - 3/4 tsp

Method:

Heat some oil in a wok. Add cumin seeds and when it start sputtering add minced meat and start mixing into the wok. Add the onions, the ginger and garlic paste and all the spices. Keep mixing from time to time till you get a keema like look to it. The onions will cook in the fat released by the minced meat. Add the green peas and mix it into the keema. Now put the heat on medium and cover the vessel. Once I was sure the meat was cooked and had the required taste, I broke and layed out the eggs in the wok. Covered the wok and let the eggs cook on low heat. I enjoy eating keema with rice. You can also have it accompany it with some wet gravy based dish with rotis.

Rajma / Red kidney Bean Curry

I made one of my favorite north indian dish. This is actually my mom's receipe. when i was a kid i watched a movie Super Snooper (Terence Hill) a lot, here the hero loves the red bean curry.I wanted to be like him so i got hooked to this dish.

Ingredients:

boiled Rajma / red beans
chopped onions
crushed tomatoes
fresh corriender
fresh green chillies
ginder and garlic paste
red chillie powder
correinder powder
garam masala
salt
turmaric

Method:
Heat oil in wok, after few minutes when oil is hot add the chopped onions, and two teaspoon of ginger garlic paste, stir it till light brown, then add two small laddle full of crushed tomatoes then add the spices - correinder powder, garam masala, turmaric, salt, red chillie powder and mix well. when its little cooked add the red kidney beans add 1-2 glass of water mix well and let it cook well until the gravy is little thick and the spices goes inside rajma. add the correinder leaves as decoration on top

Eggplant in Onions and spices

This is one of my favourite dishes. I love the flavour of onions with eggplant. The cilantro also enhances the taste and smell of the dish. This is something one should have with rice and goes well with Sambar.


Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 Eggplant chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 onions, grated salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. Add the chopped eggplant. Saute on a open wok for 5 minutes.Add the salt and fry for another minute. Then cover your wok and let the eggplant cookand become soft. Once you know that the eggplant is soft, add the grated onions and fry the onions along with the eggplant. Add the red chilli powder and mix it in the eggplant and onions. In the end add the chopped cilantro and also mix it into the dish.

Sambar

Sambar is part of any major meal at home. We have it plain rice, dosa's, Idli's or wada's. I got this recipe from my mom.


Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow split peas (tuvar dal)
• 2 cups water
• 2 onions, sliced in big pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 3-4 dried red chilli
• 6-7 curry leaves
• 6-8 Fenugreek Seeds
• 2 tomatoes, sliced in big pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 green chilies, slit
• 1 carrot (optional, peeled and cubed)
• 2 drumsticks (optional)
• 5 okra, chopped (optional)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 inch piece tamarind, soaked in a cup of hot water and extract juice
• 2 teaspoons sambhar powder (I use MTR sambar powder)
• salt to taste
• cilantro leaves (to garnish)

Method:

Boil the split peas in water till they are soft. Churn the peas with a spoon,and it should turn into a soup like consistancy (You can use a pressure cooker)

Heat the oil in a pot(I did it in a non stick pot). Once the oil is hotadd the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chilli, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. After the mustard seeds start sputtering(make sure the cuminseeds dont burn) add the sliced onions and any optional vegetables you like. I like the okra, carrots and drumsticks in my sambar. Just saute for 2-3 minutes.

Now add 4-5 cups of water to the pot. Add the extracted tamarind juice, turmeric powder, salt, green chilies and tomatoes and bring it to a boil.

Once the pot comes to a boil add the boiled split peas. Keep on boilingfor 5 more minutes and then add the sambar powder.

After the sambar powder has been added boil for another 5 minutes add choppedcilantro leaves. Then boil for another 5 minutes or till the time the sambar comes to a nice soupy consistancy.

Shrimp Curry

Last Year in Summer I was in Orlando with my family visiting Disney world. After an entire week of eating out, we started craving for Indian food. I called up my friend who used to work in Orlando and asked him for a Indian restaurant reference, He suggested Dakshin. In my humble opinion, it has been the best restaurant I have been to in the USA. I dont know if it was because I was very hungry or what... but me and my family had a great dinner. For starters we ordered something called Kolambi Fry (Shrimps soaked in a spicy marinade and shallow pan fried). I loved the dish so much that I wanted to learn the dish. After I got back to boston, I searched the web for the dish and came across a recipe. When I made it, I was very satisfied with the outcome. The biggest mistake I did was I forgot to write down the recipe. So today when I felt like making the dish again, I couldnt find the recipe. Finally I came up with this recipe which was not what I wanted but came out pretty good anyway...


Ingredients:

• 2 pounds shrimp
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 jalapenos chopped
• 2 medium sized onions
• 2 medium sized tomatoes
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Method:

Marinate the shrimp in red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes. In a wok, heat some oil and add mustard seeds. When the seeds start to sputter, add coriander powder. Then add onions and saute till they become golden. Now add the ginger garlic paste and saute till all become light brown. Add the curry leaves. Add the tomatoes, jalapenos and salt, and fry till oil starts seperating from the sides. Now add the shrimp with the marinate. Mix it well and add the cumin powder. Add half a glass of water and bring to a boil. in the end garnish with coriander leaves. You can eat this with rice or chapatis. Hope you enjoy this recipe.

Pongaralu (Dosa)

Made my very first dosa, it came out well. The thing i was most excited about was it did not break, it was crispy and tasty, how cool is that!

Ingredients (in hindi) were:

3 kadchi rice powder
1 kadchi udad powder
Cumin seeds / jeera half
teaspoon
salt
dry Red chilie powder /lal mirchi powder
Asafoetida
powder 1 pinch / hing ek chutki bhari
Fresh green chillies / hari mirchi
Cilantro / Hara Dhania

kadchi = Ladle

Method:

Mix all the Ingredients in water till the batter is very thin. There is no perfect measurement of water, only thing to keep in mind is that the batter be thin with a little hint of viscosity.

Now take a flat iron wok(tava) place it on stove and heat it, then add some oil and spread by brush. take 2 kadchi/ladle of liquid bater and pour on the wok, don't flaten it with any other utensil, pour it in such a way that it should cover all the wok and it should be flat.after that add few drops of oil on the edges. then wait for a min or two until you feel that its cooking well.

Loosen the edges of the dosa with a metal spatula. Use the spatula to turn it then again after a min or two its ready to serve.

Just remember, the more falt you pour dosa it comes out more crispy, ofcourse oil helps too :)