Dahi Aaloo / Potatoes in Yogurt Gravy

I  make potato curry in 2 or 3 ways, a simple dry roast, with onions and peas or as stew with coconut milk. I had heard about potatoes in yogurt but never tasted it. I recently tried this potatoes in yogurt gravy and it was pretty good. The flavors of ginger, green chilli  and yogurt was very refreshing. My husband liked it a lot as well and commented multiple times, it is good.

Here is the recipe


Get Ready

 3 medium sized potatoes boiled, peeled and crumbled
1/2 onion thinly sliced
2 green chillies slit lengthwise ( increase if you need more heat)
1 tsp chopped ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafetida powder/ perungayam
Salt to taste
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp besan / kadalai mavu
2 tsp oil
1 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
A few sprigs of curry leaves
Cilantro for garnish
Water as required

Go

Set the potatoes
Add the besan to the yogurt and whisk well till there are no lumps. Set aside
In a pan, add oil and add the cumin seeds and let them crackle.
Add the curry leaves, asafetida, onion ,green chil, ginger and turmeric powder and sauté till the onions are translucent.
Add the crumbled potatoes, little salt, reduce heat and sauté for 1-2 mins
Add the yogurt with besan to the potatoes and  gently stir, but continuously so the yogurt does not curdle.
If the gravy gets too thick add little water to the required consistency of the gravy.
Let it cook for 1-2 mins. Adjust salt as per taste.
Turn the heat off.
Garnish with cilantro.


Serve with phulkas, parathas or rice.

Virgin Mojito / Alcohol free Mojito

Mojito is a famous  alcohol based cocktail drink from Cuba. It has sweetness of sugar mixed with the freshness of mint, citrus flavor and the kick from rum and sparkling water. I always go for a alcohol free mojito when we go for fancy restaurants and absolutely loved the minty citrus taste of it.I wanted to try making at home and found some recipes on line. Instead of making sugar syrup and using sparkling water, many on line resources recommended using Sprite.

The mind and lime are pounded with a muddler, but I did not have that and used a mortar and pestle instead. The day I wanted to make it ,I did not have any lime but had lemons. Sorry for using one boring cup, did not have any fancy ones!

Get Ready:

• A hand full of fresh mint leaves
•  a small wedge of lime/ lemon cut into 4
• 1-2 tbsp lime juice
• Crushed ice
• Sprite
• A nice glass cup to serve

Go

• In a mortar add the mint leaves, lime wedges and pound it  for few minutes till the leaves are semi crushed. Add this to the cup in which you ar are going to serve the drink.

• Squeeze the lime/ lemon juice and add it to the glass without seed

• Add the crushed ice to the glass
• Add sprite and serve immediately
• Garnish with some more mint leaves

Enjoy this summer drink with your fmaily and feel refreshed! 

Try it and let me know if you like it.

Murungai Keerai Stir Fry/ Moringa leaves Stir Fry

Recently I planted some" murungaikkai" seeds and had a small plant growing in my container. While trying to research as how to plant it in the soil, I came across a lot of information about "Moringa" which is how the western world calls our murungaikkai!

It seems Moringa is one of the health foods that has super duper healing powers to cure any ailment listed in the medical textbooks! Well, Our grandmothers and mothers knew this way before wikipedia knew! We all remember the famous Bhagyaraj movie where he uses murungakkai as an aphrodisiac. He is a genius man, I am telling you!

Many homes in south India will have a Moringa tree and we use the pods for making sambar! The aroma of well seasoned murungakkai sambar is just AMAZING. The green leaves are used to make kari, kootu, added in adai or used while making ghee!

while having a conversation with my medical assistants, I heard that one of them had this tree in their house and did not know what to do with the leaves etc. After I explained all the things we do with murungakkai, my MA brought me a whole bag of those leaves.

And, I made this stir fry with Moringa leaves. My family cooks this keerai only with moong dal, coconut ( No onion or garlic) and that is how I remember eating this. I used onions and cooked murungaikkeerai after many many years. I had some friends over and they all loved this dish. i shared this with my medical assistant who also liked the dish.  I want to share this recipe with you all.

Once you have the leaves, remove them from the stem, it is called " elai ayaradhu". The leaves are tiny and one does not need to chop them, but i gave it a rough chop! Like any other greens, once cooked the leaves reduce in quantity.

Get Ready

• 3-4 cups of moringa leaves washed and roughly chopped
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves chopped ( optional)
• 2 tbsp grated coconut
• 1/4 cup moong dal washed and soaked in water X 20 mins
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp urad dal
• 1 red chilli broken in half
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• a pinch of asafoetida
• 1-1/2 tsp salt or per taste

Go:

• In a pan, add oil and do the tadka with mustard seeds, urad dal , red chilli and as asafoetida. 
• Once the mustard splutters and the urad dal is golden brown, add the onions and saute till translucent

• add the chopped moringa leaves, the soaked and drained moong dal.

• add salt to taste, reduce flame and mix all well. do not cover and cook as the greens will become dark
• Add the sugar, this helps to keep the green color and also takes away the  slight bitterness from moringa leaves.
• The leaves will wilt and cook everything till the moong dal is soft, but still retaining it's shape.
• Adjust salt as per taste.
• Add grated coconut and give everything a toss.

•  Turn the heat off. To make it more flavorful, add a tsp of coconut oil at the end.

Serve as a side for rasam, sambar or morkuzhambu!

Diamond Cuts Sweet & Savory

Diamond cuts make me think out about my " paati"! She was very good in making all types of "bhakshanam", but will give it out to us only in a rationed way. Now, I know she was implementing portion control then! I remember her making these, mainly the sweet ones and as a kid I loved to much on them a lot. I made them recently and wanted to share the recipe with you all. I made a savory one as well for my DH. I personally like the sweet ones with some hot chai and TV!

Get Ready:


 Sweet Diamond cuts

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp ghee/ butter
• water
• Oil to deep fry

Go

• In a  bowl whisk all the dry ingredients till well combined.

• Add the ghee or butter and mix well with your hands, rubbing it in the flour.
• Add water little by little and make a soft dough. 
• Add a few drops of oil and and coat the outer surface of the dough ball.

• Cover in saran wrap and set aside for few mins.
• Make ball in the size of a clementine and roll it out thinly like a chappathi.

• Use a knife or pizza cutter and cut into thin strips both vertical and diagonal to make small diamonds.

• Heat oil on medium heat, add the diamond cuts and deep fry them till the bubbles stop, they float or turn golden brown.

Savory Diamond cuts

• 2 cups All purpose flour/ maida
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 & 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp Ajwain/ omam
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• 1/2 tsp hing/ asafetida
• 1 & 1/4 tsp salt or per taste
• 2 tsp ghee
• Water
• Oil to fry

Go:

• Mix all the ingredients and make a soft dough by adding water little at  a time.
• Make them into diamond shapes and deep fry them till golden.

Keep them stored in an air tight container and enjoy as a snack

Bell Pepper and Coconut Thogayal / chutney

Bell Peppers are on sale now and I picked up a bag of these mini peppers from safeway. I like to eat them raw with humus. What do you like to eat them with as a snack?

I made a quick thogayal with this and some coconut and it was pretty good. Our family enjoyed this with some steaming rice, ghee and okra fry.

Here is the very simple recipe for it. You can use  sauted onions and garlic instead of the coconut. I used 2 long red chillies, as my family does not eat very spicy food. But if you like spicy thogayal, u can use 4 red chillies.

Get Ready

• Mini bell peppers ( red, orange) 5 
• 2 red chillies
•  1/4 cup broken urad dal
• 3 tbsp grated coconut
• 1/2 tsp asafetida powder
•  1 tsp tamarind paste
•  1-1 & 1/2 tsp salt or per taste.

To Temper

• 2 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds/ kadugu

Go:

• wash the peppers, remove the stem cut in them in big chunks and set aside. 

• In a pan add 1/2 tsp oil and roast the red chillies and urad dal till the chillies are shiny and the dal is golden brown. set aside to cool.

• In  the same pan, add a drop of oil and add the peppers. saute them and cook till they are soft but still crunchy. turn the heat off and set them aside to cool.

• In a blender add the sauted peppers, red chilli, asafetida, tamarind, salt to taste and coconut and grind them till coarse. add a little water if it is dry.

• Add the urad dal and the end and grind them again to desired consistency. I like my thogayal with a little crunchy urad dal pieces in them. 
• In the same pan that you sauted the peppers, add a little oil and to the tadka with mustard seeds.

Serve hot with rice, idli, dosa, pongal, chapathi or spread on toast and enjoy!

Vegetable Fried Rice Indochinese style

Every household has a different recipe for this Indo chinese version of fried rice. using green chillies, indian spices, soy sauce, eggs  or not ...it goes on and on! Here is a simple one that I do that my family likes. It definitely is not authentic, but tastes good! left over or cooled rice works better for this recipe. You can add mushrooms, bok choy or celery as well.

Trader Joe's has this chicken less mandarin orange morsels, a vegan product which is pretty good. they are selling them for a pretty reasonable price. I don't really care for these fake meat products, but my teenage son likes them. I have also used frozen garlic from Trader Joe's ( Dorot brand) and I absolutely love their products.


Get Ready

• 1 cup rice
• 2.5 cups water
• Mixed vegetables ( I usesd carrot, broccoli, cabbage, green bell pepper,  green beans, peas and corn, did not measure them, roughly 2 cups of veggies) chop them evenly for easier cooking

• 4-5 Green onions, green and white thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 2-3 garlic cloves finely minced

• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp black pepper powder or per taste
• salt to taste
• 1 .5 tbsp oil

Go:

• Cook the rice in a rice cooker with little salt and tsp of oil. Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and  set aside to cool. I used basmati rice. 
• In a pan, add the oil. Once hot add the white part of the green onions and cook on high flame till fragrant.

• Add the grated ginger , garlic and saute for few seconds till aromatic on high flame.
• Add the chopped vegetables and cook on high flame with a pinch of salt stirring constantly. Cook till they are a little soft but still crunchy.

• Add the rice, soy sauce, black pepper powder, salt to taste and gently fold in with the vegetables. reduce the flame. Soy sauce has salt and hence adjust salt accordingly.

• Don't use too much stirring as it may mush up the rice.
• If the rice mixture is too dry, sprinkle some water.
• Finally add the green part of the spring onions and turn the heat off.

Serve with a side dish of your choice. I used Trader joe, Chickenless " orange morsels" and it was delicious. Of course, I have to have it with some onion and tomato raita!

Enjoy this quick one pot rice dish!

Variations: add slit green chillies or a little bit of sriracha sauce for some extra spicy flavor.

Stuffed Bell Pepper with potato crumble

I recently saw a pic of a stuffed bell pepper on FB on my friends page. I asked her what it was stuffed with and she said " Potato Podimas" ( aka potato crumble) ! I was very intrigued by that and could not wait to try it.

To my limited knowledge, i have seen bell peppers stuffed with rice, cheese and all kinds of things which did not catch my attention. This one surely did! I did some online search and found that majority of them cooked the bell pepper on a tawa. I wanted to bake it and see. So, here I am with a recipe for stuffed bell peppers, baked and cooked on a tawa. I liked both versions and the tawa ones have a little smokier flavor.

You can add garlic, paneeer, carrots, green chiili to the stuffing as per your taste.

These stuffed peppers are so wholesome as a meal themselves. it also depends on the size of the bell pepper. Our whole family liked it and let us get to the recipe!


Get Ready:

• 3 bell pepper ( i used green and orange)
• 3 large potatoes, cooked, peeled and crumbled
• 1/2 large onion chopped
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• chopped cilantro
• salt to taste.

Go:

To make the potato stuffing:

• Peel and crumble the cooked potatoes and set aside

• In a pan add 1 tbsp of oil and when hot add the cumin seeds
•  when they crackle, add the onions and saute till they are translucent.

• Add the green peas and saute for 1-2 mins

• Add the crumbled potatoes, salt , red chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and fold the mall well.

• If it gets too try sprinkle a little water, reduce the heat and cook on medium flame till all the spices get incorporated in the potato.
• Check your spice level and if needed add chilli powder or garam masala as per taste.
• Finally add the cilantro, turn the heat off and set aside to cool a little

The stuffing is ready.

To stuff the bell pepper.

• Wash and dry the bell peppers.
• With a sharp knife, remove the pith of the pepper and dump the seeds inside. You will just have a whole on the top of the pepper.

• the other method is to cut off the top of the pepper like a lid and set aside. remove some of the white fibers and seeds from the inside of the bell pepper.

• Apply a little salt to the inside of the bell pepper and this enhances the flavor.
• The peppers are ready to be stuffed.

• With a spoon stuff the potato podimas inside the peppers pressing down.

To bake them:

• Pre heat an oven to 300 degree C
• Line a baking tray with foil and spray with cooking spray
• Apply oil to the outer surface of the bell pepper
• Bake for 30 -40 mins depending on your oven till the bell peppers is soft and and cooked.
• Make sure to flip them over in between so all sides are cooked well.

To Pan cook

• In a tawa, add 1 tbsp pf oil.

• Place the stuffed pepper in the pan, cover and cook for 3 mins on low to medium flame. 
• Flip them around 360 degrees every 2-3 mins till  all sides are cooked well. If you like a little charred taste, Uncover and cook longer if you want it crispy.

• Turn the heat off till all sides are cooked.

Serve hot with rice or as a one pot meal!

In my picture, the one on the plate is the tawa cooked one and the other two with the yellow bell pepper is oven cooked.

Carrot Chutney Sandwich : Inspired by Mark's & Spencers Carrot & wensleydale sandwich

Any one who has tasted the M &S carrot chutney and Wensleydale cheese sandwich will elaborately tell you how good that one is! It is one of their best vegetarian sandwiches, hands down! i wish supermarkets here carried nice vegetarian sandwiches as the ydo in M & S, Sainsbury or Tesco!

The US markets have really limited options for vegetarian sandwiches !

I wanted to re create that sandwich here, but could not find any recipes on line. I was not sure what the equivalent of wensleydale cheese would be. After looking through the online resources, I came with this recipe and decided to substitute cheddar cheese for wensleydale cheese.



I open my fridge and found that I have only cheddar and colby grated cheese. I used what I had and am very pleased with the sandwich.  My variations were

* I used some grated ginger with carrots
*used some red chilli powder
*used less sugar , as my chutney had a little zing from the ginger and was not too sweet.
*used some cilantro
*made a sandwich and a wrap


So Here is the recipe

 Get Ready

For the sweet chutney

• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 -2 tsp grated ginger ( optional)
• salt to taste
• 2 tsps dark brown sugar
•  salt to taste
•  1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1-2 tsp water
•  1 tsp ghee

To assemble sandwich

Bread/ tortillas

Mayonaisse

Cheddar cheese chopped/ grated

cilantro ( optional)

Go:

• In a pan, add the ghee . Once hot add the carrot and ginger and slight toss them around till fragrant.

• Now sprinkle some water, add required salt ,chilli powder and cook covered on a low flame.
• Add water little by little as needed till the carrots are soft.

• Add the  brown sugar.

• The carrot  mixture will be gooey.
• Cook stirring in between till the chutney comes around together leaving the sides of the pan, within 3-5 mins. 

• Turn the heat off and let it allow to cool.

 To assemble the sandwich

• Apply a thin layer of mayo on both sides of bread.

•  spread the sweet carrot chutney on one side. sprinkle cheese on top of the chutney.

•  you can add cilantro, or lettuce or baby spinach on top of the cheese
•  cover with another bread , cut and serve.

To make it as a wrap, use a flour tortilla. spread the mayo in circle, add the carrot chutney and greens of your choice. roll tightly, cut diagonally and serve.

Enjoy this lunch with some chips, yogurt or fuit!

A perfect sandwich for luch, birthday parties, back yard parties or book club gatherings.