Paneer Butter Masala

I tried this recipe and it was really great. Believe it or not it is very tasty recipe, but takes little longer time, than the normal process.  Enjoy it with phulkas, chappaathi, naan or fried rice.

Ingredients

• Paneer – ¼ kg
• Curd – 1 ½ cup
• Turmeric – ¼ tsp
• Salt
• Chilli Powder – 1 spoon
• Kashmiri Mirch Powder – 1 spoon
• Corriander Powder – 1 ½ tsp
• Jeera Powder – ½ tsp
• GaramMasala – 1/2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste – 1 ½ tsp
• Oil – 1 spoon

Soak all the above mentioned ingredients in the curd for an hour

For Gravy:

• Onions – 3
• Tomato – 3
• Khus-khus – 1 spoon
• Cashew – 10
• Sugar – 1 tsp
• Cloves – 2
• Cardamom – 1
• Cinnamon – 1
• Bay leaves – 1
• Kasuri methi (substitute this for fresh mint)
• Chilli Powder – ½ tsp
• Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
• Jeera Powder – 1 tsp
• Garam Masala – ½ tsp
• Turmeric – ¼ tsp
• Corriander leaves – cleaned and chopped
• Ghee – for cooking

Method:

1. Grind the onions.
2. Boil water in a vessel and add tomatoes to it. (This will enable you to peel the tomato’s skin easily).
3. Grind the tomatoes in the blender.
4. Fry the khus-khus in a tawa without adding oil to it. And, also, fry the cashews. Ensure that you fry them till they are hot and easy to grind them into a fine powder.
5. After an hour of soaking the paneer mixture, put two vessels on the stove.
6. In one of the vessel, add the paneer mixture.
7. In the second vessel, add ghee and sugar. When sugar turns brown in color, add bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom in it.
8. When they start spluttering, add the onion paste to it and fry for few minutes.
9. Then add the tomato paste and fry till they are done.
10. Add chilli powder, turmeric, salt coriander powder, jeera powder as needed for the gravy.
11. Allow it to boil for few minutes.
12. Add kasoori methi or fresh mint leaves to it.
13. Finally add khus-khus, cashew powder and boil it for few minutes.
14. Take the paneer mix from the stove and pour it in the gravy and mix gently.
15. You can add ½ cup of water according to consistency, you want.
16. Take it off the stove and garnish it with the coriander leaves.

Potato Rajma Salad

Tell me something…who does not want to be healthy and eat right. My hubby and me are freaks, when it comes to food, but we love to watch our waistline. So you can guess, we ensure that we eat what is good and that too in right way. We add plently of salads to our meal. Now, I have this problem, my hubby does not like to have same raw veggies as a part of salad. It is okay with him, if it is for a day or so, but not everyday….

To overcome this problem, I have started to experiment in my kitchen with different kind of channas, green moong, to make some exciting salad receipes. Some of them have come out pretty well and hubby is khush-khush and so am I. So this time I tries this potato rajma salad…

Ingredients

Rajma – 1/2 cup soaked in water overnight

Potato – 3 boiled

Tomato – 1 big, finely chopped

Lemon juice

pepper powder

Green corriander – finely chopped

Salt to taste

Method

1. Pressure cook  rajma up to 5 whistles.
2. Peel and dice the boiled potatoes.
3. In a bowl, add the cooked rajma, diced potato, chopped tomato, green corriander. Add salt to taste and pepper powder.
4. Add a dash of lemon and mix well and serve. 

Capsicum Rice

I tried this rice on my own. It was all a mix and match for me while cooking this recipe. I almost used the same ingredients that I generally use for making for sambhar powder, but added some extras to get a different flavour. And ooh lala!! it was perfect which I could not believe. So here it goes….

Ingredients:

Capsicum – 3 medium size (chop in long strips)

Rice – 1 cup cooked

Coconut – 1/2 cup grated

Oil for frying

For Grinding:

Red chillies – 4

Cinnamon – 1: piece

Corriander seeds – 2 tsp

Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp

Urad dal (broken) – 1/2 tsp

Bengal gram – 1/2 tsp

For Seasoning :

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Bengal gram – 2 tsp

Curry leaves – few

Cashew nuts – 6 – 7 (optional)

Method:

The ingredients, that are mentioned in the “for grinding” list, fry them in the oil till they are brown in color. Remove from fire and cool it. Blend it to a fine powder, and keep it aside.

Spread the cooked rice in a plate and cool it.

For seasoning, heat 2 tsp  oil, add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters, then add urad dal, bengal dal, curry leaves. If you want it, add cashew nuts and fry them for few minutes. Now add the chopped capsicum and fry it till it is soft.  Then add the grated cocunut and fry them till brown.

Now add cooked rice, masala powder, salt to taste and cook it for some more time. Serve it hot with appalam.

Dahiwali Bhindi

I tried this recipe from a cookbook.  I thought of adding some extra ingredients and wanted to see how it comes out.  Without thinking much, I went ahead and tweaked the ingredients while cooking, and ooh lala!! the flavour this dahiwali bhindi came out awesome.

Dahiwali Bhindi

 

Ingredients:

Bhindi (Okra) – 500 gms

Besan – 2 tbsp

Ginger – 2″

Green Chilli – 2 or 3

Red Chilli – 2

Garlic – 5 to 6 pods

Corriander Powder – 1 tsp

Mustard for tempering

Curd – 1 cup

Oil

Salt to taste

Pepper – 5 to 6

Method:

Wash and pat dry the bhindi. Cut them in 3″ in length and keep it aside.

Grind  greenchillies, pepper, garlic, ginger in a mixer and keep it aside.

Place a thick bottom pan on the gas stove and fry the besan for few minutes, till you get nice aroma. Remove it from the fire.

Place the pan on the gas stove, add little oil.  When the oil is hot, add little mustard, red chilli and fry it for 1 minute. Then add the fried besan, grinded masala and corriander powder. Fry it for few minutes.

Add bhindi and fry for some more time. Cover the pan with a lid and allow the bhindi to cook for few minutes. After 10 minutes, check if the bhindis are cooked properly or not. Once the bhindis are done, add salt and dahi. Mix and cook for few minutesit over the slow flame . Remove it from fire and serve it hot with parathas.

Yellow Pumpkin Chutney

I tried making chutney from yellow pumpkin and it came out pretty well. This chutney can be taken with rotis, dosa or can be mixed with hot rice and have it.

Ingredients:

Red Chilli – 4 to 5 of them. 

Note: if you want little more spice, then you can add extra chilli.

Urad Dal (broken) – 1tbsp

Channa Dal – 1 tbsp

Tamrind – a small round

Hing – a small piece

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

Yellow Pumpkin – 1/4 kg peeled and diced

For Tempering: you need mustard

Method:

Take a kadai or small non-stick pan, place it on a lighted gas stove, add little oil. When you see that the oil is little warm, add channa dal, urad dal, red chilli, hing and fry them. Ensure that you get a light brown color for dals after frying. Remove them from fire and let it cool.

Now in the same kadai, with whatever oil is remaining there, fry the pumpkin. Remove it from fire and let it cool.

Mix all the ingredients and grind them. Add salt according to your taste. Temper it with fried mustard.

Sweet n Tangy Dosa

For the first time I ate this dosa at my friend, Sowmya’s place. Her mom had come down and she had made this dosa. Dosa was a combination of tangy, sweet, and spicy. Just loved it and I asked for the recipe. The very next day, I was in the kitchen trying it out.

Ingredients:

Parboiled rice – 3 cups

Urad dal – 1 cup

Corriander seeds – 1/2 cup

Red Chilli – 10 nos

Methi – 4 tbsp

Tamrind – in a size of a musumbi

Coconut – 1 cup

Jaggery – 1 cup

Curry Patta – 1/2 cup

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak  parbolied rice and urad dal in a separate vessel overnight.  In another vessel, soak  corriander seeds, red chilli, methi and tamrind.  While grinding, the soaked rice and dal, add the soaked corriander seeds, red chilli, methi, and tamrind. Once they are coarse, add jaggery, curry patta and coconut. Grind all the ingredients till it becomes a smooth paste. Add salt according to taste.  Mix everything together after grinding. Leave it for about 5 - 6 hours in a warm place to ferment.    

While making dosa, check for the consistency, if  required add water. Make dosas and serve hot dosas with butter. Tastes heavenly….

Moong Dal

The other day, I did not have many vegetables in my refridgerator and I was really bugged as I did not know what to make for lunch. The only thing that I could find was few tomatoes, garlic pods, and corriander. Thats it…and ooh la la!! I made this dal and it came out perfectly well.

Ingredients:

Moong dal – 1 cup

Tomatoes – 2 finely chopped

Green corriander – handful

Green chilli – 2

Garlic pods – 4

Khus-khus – 1 tsp (soak in water for 10 minutes)

Coconut – 4 tbsp grated

Water to cook

Salt to taste

For Seasoning:

Jeera – 1 tsp

Oil

 

Method:

 Wash moong dal and pressure cook it up to three whistles. Meanwhile, grind coconut, green coriander, chilli, khus-khus, garlic pods and keep it aside.

 In a kadai, add little oil, add jeera and wait till it splutters. Add add tomatoes and fry it for few minutes. Then add the cooked moong dal, grinded coconut paste, and salt to taste. Cook it for few minutes. Once done, remove it from the flame and garnish it with coriander. Serve it with phulkas or rice.

Creamy Idlis

This idli is really creamy and quite nutritious.  My son just loved it. Since he is too young, so he did not want any chutney, he swapped the chutney for sauce. I made it little attractive by spreading the sauce on the idli and added a cherry to go with it.

 Ingredients

 Rice (Idli) Rava – 3 cups

Butter – ½ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Curd – ½ cup

Baking soda – a pinch

Salt to taste

 Method

Mix all the ingredients and leave it overnight. Add a pinch of baking soda, before making the idlis. Using the idli moulds, make the creamy idlis and serve with hot with green chilli chutney.

Bottlegourd Idlis

Thanks to my MIL, she is the one who gave me these recipes. I tried them and they out very well. Thought of sharing with you all. Thanks again to my MIL

Ingredients

1 medium size Bottlegourd

Channa dal – handful

Rice (Idli) Rava – 3 cups

Coconut – 1 cup grated

Green chillies – 2 finely chopped

Baking powder – a pinch

Green coriander – 2 tbps finely chopped

Salt to taste

 Method

Soak channa dal for 15 – 20 minutes. Grate the bottlegourd. Mix all the ingredients and keep them aside for an hour.

 Make the bottlegourd idlis using the idli moulds. Serve it hot with spicy tomato chutney.

Lauki ki Dal (Bottle gourd)

This dal is one of the best dals that I have ever tasted. My mother used to make it. This dal is quite easy to make. I am putting her recipe in words for her. Basically, I use the ingredients of my own for this. I am trying to put the measurements.

Ingredients:
250 gms of Bottle gourd grated
1 onion finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp
Channa dal – 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Chilli powder
Garam masala posder – 1/2 tsp

Water to cook the dal

For Seasoning:
Oil
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
Green Corriander for garnishing

Method:
Pressure cook the dal and keep it aside. Place a thick bottom pan or kadai over the gas stove. add little oil. As soon as the oil is heated up add, cumin seeds, then chopped onion, tomato and ginger garlic paste. Once the oil leaves the masala. add the grated lauki and fry for few minutes. Then add the boiled dal. Add salt and chilli accordingly. Add the garam masala. Simmer the gas stove.  Cook it for 15 minutes.

Garnish it with green corriander and serve it hot with rotis.