Batate Vaagu 2 ~ Spicy Potato Curry(Without Onion and garlic)

This is a spicy Konkani curry that features in our menu on auspicious days when we don't eat Onion and garlic. It is very easy to prepare with minimum ingredients and yet full of flavour. It has mild sweetness from freshly grated coconut and heat from red chilli powder.
I have already blogged about this curry here. Over time I have modified this recipe and this one is our current favourite with extra tang from tomatoes and a hint of coriander.

Serves: 4
Time to cook: 30-45 mins

Here is what's needed:
3 large Idaho Potatoes
4 medium Roma Tomatoes (finely chopped)
1/4 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen) at room temperature
1/2 tsp coriander powder
2 -3 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder(Kashmiri chilli powder gives a lovely colour with less heat. Increase or decrease the chilli powder according to your taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp Asafoetida(hing)
Salt to taste
2tbsp Oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3/4 tsp urad dal
1 sprig curry leaf torn in to bits
Finely chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1) Pressure cook Potatoes for 3 whistles. Let it cool. Peel and chop into bite sized pieces.
2) Heat Oil in a pan. Add in mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add Urad dal and saute until it turns golden brown. Add curry leaf.
3)Throw in the chopped tomatoes and let it cook until mushy. Add the hing powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder. Let it cook for two to three mins. Add in the potatoes. Add salt to taste and mix well until the potatoes are nicely covered with the masala.
4) Turn the flame to medium and add 1/2 cup water. Cover and let it cook. Keep mixing in between to make sure that the curry does not stick to the bottom. When the water evaporates add the grated coconut and saute the curry well for 5 mins. Add in the coriander leaves and give it a quick stir.
Serve hot with Rice and Dal or with phulkas. I have served this with some Rice noodles. (Recipe coming up soon)

Kadai Mushroom

Mushrooms are a family favourite. Every trip to grocery store is in complete without buying lovely mushrooms. Back in India we used to use the thunder mushrooms that grow only during the monsoon season. Here I used the white cultivated mushroom that is easily available. I usually make traditional konkani style spicy mushroom song or bhutti or North Indian style subzi out of it. Some times I add it in Biryani's or pulaos too. I love to replace paneer with mushrooms in many of the paneer based dishes as I am not very fond of paneer pieces in my gravy. I like grated paneer curries or if making palak paneer or matar Paneer I like small pieces of paneer.
In the process of cutting down fat I regularly replace the paneer out of Kadai Paneer with mushroom. I usually make this dish dry but this time I made it a little with gravy so that Little A can eat his Phulka dabbed with home made ghee in it. He prefers gravy based dishes more than dry sabzi's.
Long back when Nupur announced "spice and something nice" event I had participated and got fragrant homemade kadai masala with other goodies from a very lovely girl Divya. This masala was so fragrant that every time I used it my curries I got rave reviews. The recipe that Divya shared with me is sightly different. Will share it here next time. Here is how I made a quick version of it.

Ingredients:
2 cups cleaned and chopped Mushrooms
1 green pepper Chopped to bite sized cubes(Coloured ones taste yummy too)
2 medium Onions chopped
2 tomatoes
1 tsp fresh ginger garlic paste
1tsp Tomato ketchup
2 tsp Kadai masala or (dry roast 2tsp coriander seeds, 2-3 red chillies and powder coarsely. Use this fresh powder and little bit of garam masala to taste)
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
3 tbsp Oil
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
salt to taste
chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1) Blanch tomatoes in hot water and puree them.
2) Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and saute green peppers until crunchy but done. Keep aside.
3) Heat the remaining oil in the same pan and add cumin seeds with bay leaf in to it. When cumin seeds start spluttering and change their colour add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Fry well until done.
4) Add the tomato puree and cook further for 3-4 mins. Add in the masala powders and tomato ketchup and saute for 2 mins or until oil seperates.
5) Throw in the chopped mushrooms and cook uncovered on a medium to high flame until done. First the mushroom starts leaving water and when you continue to cook the water evaporates. Add salt and sugar to taste.
6) Finally add the sauteed peppers, Kasuri methi and cook for a minute or two and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and switch off
Serve with hot Phulka's or with mild pulao's.

Back to blogging with Palak Paneer

Feels like its been ages since I have updated this dear space of mine! The space that I lovingly created to keep myself busy and to document the experiments in my kitchen. Life got really busy shuffling with a new job and naughty little toddler. I did cook but did not have the time nor patience to click pictures and make a post. But again things have changed and for better. We have moved to US and I am now a full time mom to my 21 months old son. He makes sure that he keeps me busy all the time. But I have decided to keep some time aside just for myself and this dear space of mine. I hope I will keep up and continue with the same enthusiasm with which I have come back to the world of blogging.
Now, Coming back to the topic this dish, It is one of our favorite dish.

Here is what's needed:
1 bunch Palak/Spinach leaves cleaned
1/2 cup cubed Paneer (I used store brought)
1 medium Onion finely chopped
1 medium Tomato finely chopped
4 cloves of Garlic minced
2 green Chillies
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds/Jeera
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
1/4 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Kasuri methi
1/4 tsp red Chilli powder (Optional)
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Oil

Procedure:
1) In a pan boil 2 cups of water. Add spinach and green chilies and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and run through cold water to prevent it from getting overcooked. Make a puree and keep aside.
2) Heat oil and add cumin seeds. When they splutter add in the garlic and onion, fry until pinkish and add in the chopped tomatoes. Cook until mushy.
3) Add in coriander powder and kasuri methi and fry for a minute and then add the spinach paste. Add salt and check if the spice is right. If not add in a little chilli powder.
4) Give the mixture a boil and  add the cubed paneer and garam masala powder.(I do not fry the paneer nor add in cream when I am cooking just for us).
5)When the mixture comes to good rolling boil switch off. Serve hot with warm phulka's.

Babycorn masala

Rains are in full swing here and Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rains but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. Hence going out in this rains needs a lot of planning. We avoid taking the little one out in this weather. This is also the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftover veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. I had picked this up randomly during my recent grocery shopping. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.

Rains are in full swing here.Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rians but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. This is the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftvoer veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.
Here is what's needed

a pack of freshly peeled baby corns, slit lengthwise and chopped into two
2 medium tomatoes blanched
3 medium onions cubed
1 capsicum cubed
handful of mushrooms quartered
10 cashews soaked
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp Sabzi masala
1 tsp garam masala
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
salt to taste
oil
coriander leaves chopped to garnish

Procedure:
1) Grind the blanched tomatoes, cashews to a smooth paste with required quantity of water.
2) Cook the baby corn in sufficient water till almost done.
3) Heat oil, add bay leaf. After few seconds add in the Onions and fry till translucent. Add ginger garlic paste capsicum and mushroom. Fry until capsicum can be broken using a spoon and mushrooms have wilted.Add in the masala powders and fry till oil separates.
4) Add the tomato paste and cook further. Mix in the babycorn and give it a good rolling boil. Add in the kasuri methi and salt. Mix well, add sufficient water and check for seasoning adding any if required. Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: To enhance the taste of this curry milk or cream could be used. I skipped this completely as I am not too fond of cream based gravies. This curry came out so good that I see myself using this base gravy with many more vegetables.
We enjoyed it with hot chapathis.

Back with a good news

Dear friends,

I have been missing from the blogosphere for quite some time now. I have some good news to share. We are now proud parents of a little boy. Our son is 4 weeks old :)

I was busy with my pregnancy, my brother's wedding and shifting back toIndia for good. At present I am enjoying motherhood completely.

I have not updated this space for quite some time as I had severe aversion towards food and also since I have not been cooking regularly too ( Since my mom is doing all the cooking and I am enjoying eating them :P).

Now coming back to cooking, This dish was prepared by my sister-in-law during her recent visit home. It was so simple and tasty that I had to share it. She made use of ready to use Chicken - 65 masala powder. (Even Kebab masala powder works fine) This serves as a great starter dish.

Baby corn Rava fry

Ingredients:

Baby corn 200 gms

Ginger & Garlic paste : 1tbsp

Chicken 65 masala powder : 2-3 tbsp

Salt & Chilli powder to taste

Fine Rava ( enough to coat all the pieces)

Procedure:

1) Cut baby corn into 2-3 pieces.

2) Marinate baby corn with ginger garlic paste and set aside for 30 mins.

3) Add the powders and salt to taste. Add little water.

4) Add enough rava to coat all the baby corn pieces. Deep fry in hot oil.

Drain and serve hot.

Capsicum and Potato side dish (2 Variation)

This is another variation of using capsicum and Potato. You can check my previous version here. I got this recipe from my dear friend R who is a Rajasthani. I have already made it twice and every one who has tried this recipe have loved it a lot. I normally look for different varieties of side dishes as I get bored pretty easily. R makes these only with capsicum and I added Potato as the day I made it for the first time I had just one capsicum in hand. But we loved addition of it (who does not love potato). This is going to feature regularly in my hubby's lunch box :) I have started making phulka's regularly along with rice and some curry. Hence I have to come up with new side dishes everyday :)

Here's what's needed:

1 large Capsicum deseeded and cubed

1 large Potato peeled and cubed (Store in water until the time of use)

1/2 tsp each Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds

2 tbsp Chickpea flour (Besan)

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)

1-2 tsp red Chilli powder

1/4 tsp Garam masala powder

a small pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)

Salt to taste

Oil

Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil. Add in mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add Cumin seeds and when they splutter add hing and saute for a while.

2) Drain the potato's and fry for a 3-4 mins,until slightly soft. Add in all the spice powders and saute it well.

3) Add in cubed capsicum and fry. Add salt and cook covered. Make sure that the flame is always on medium. When capsicum is slightly soft i.e it breaks easily add the besan. Fry until the raw taste goes away.

4) Add little water to prevent the mixture from getting completely dry and cover for 2-4 mins. Check for seasoning and add any if desired. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with Phulka.

I love this curry as it does use any ginger garlic paste or onion to be sliced. Easy breezy recipe and tastes great.

P.S: I have been working out with some changes in this blog and by this month end I am hoping to come out with the changes. So may not blog regularly but will definitely come over to your blog.

Alsande Bea Sarupkari (Black eyed beans in garlic seasoned curry)

We use a lot of grains,lentils and beans in cooking along with vegetables. When beans are used it is usually made with Coconut based gravies. Sarupakri is an exception to this. The name sarupkari loosely means stir fry with some soup in it. Sarupkari was very common side dish with rice for us while growing up. We all loved it as it had a simple taste and nice aroma of seasoned garlic. When I got married this was one among the first South Indian dish I had tried in my new house. My in-laws were not aware of such dish. But now this is frequent at our place as it does not take long time to prepare and yet is delicious.

What's needed:

1/2 cup Black Eyed Beans soaked in water for 2-3 hours
1 small Potato peeled and cubed
4 Green chilli's slit (Increase or decrease as per your spice tolerance level)
Salt to taste

For Seasoning
5-6 Garlic pods crushed well
2 red chilli's torn
Oil

Procedure:
1)Pressure cook beans and potato until soft. Make sure that they retain their shape.
2)Transfer the boiled beans and potato to a vessel. Add water if required. Add the spilt green chillis and salt and boil it well.
3)Once done remove it from flame and in a seasoning pan heat oil and add crushed garlic fry until it turns slightly brown and add red chillis. Pour the seasoning over the gravy. Serve hot with rice,pickles or papads.

Variation: A variation can be done to the saarupkari by giving it a seasoning of mustard and curry leaves instead of Garlic. If garlic is not used then while bringing it to boil after adding green chilli's hing water is poured over it to get wonderful aroma.

P.S: Saarupkari can be made even with Moong(Whole green gram) or Tingalavre(Dried white beans). They taste equally well.

Aamras and Poori Saagu

King of fruits - Mango often makes it appearance in our fruit basket. The mangoes available here are neither sweet nor do they have tanginess so that they can be used in curries. Though it often hapens that when I see these beauties I cant resist the temptation to buy it :( With a secret hope that it would be of different variety and that it would taste better. Finally due to lack of taste it gets used up in milkshakes or juices and on rare occasion as Aamras. Here is how I make aamras :

What's needed:

4 Ripe mangoes
2-3 pinches of fresh pepper powder
Sugar to taste

Fresh powder of 5 peeled green cardomom seeds.
1/2 - 1 cup of fresh milk

Procedure:
Blend all the ingredients in a blender and serve chilled. Aamras can be served along with Pooris or on its own.



Poori saagu:


One of the common breakfast items in Bangalore hotel is Poori saagu. My hubby is a great fan of Poori. He loves it with any side dish. Though the frequency of its appearance in our kitchen is very very low. From the past few weeks whenever I asked him as to what to make for breakfast I would get a prompt reply of either idli or Poori saagu/Bhaji. So finally one day I decided to make Poori saagu. I did not have the recipe to make saagu so I searched the blogosphere and landed at Aroma! When i saw her recipe of Saagu I decided to make it. I was dissapointed when I saw the ingredient list. I did not have Chana dalia(its not available here), Poppy seeds, nor the mint leaves. I did not want to make this by skipping all these finally it was decided to make kurma instead of Saagu. I made it a point to ask amma to get a small pack of dalia when she came here. And thus we had Poori saagu for breakfast today. Thanks for the recipe Asha Saagu came out really well and as per your suggestion I made it previous night and we had it this morning with Fluffy Pooris. Saagu will definately be made on regular basis from now on though I might try making dosas/Chapathi to go with it. Since I have followed the recipe exactly I am not going to write it down here. Please click here for the recipe.

Paneer Matar masala With baby corn

Last week I found some fresh tender baby corn at the market and could not resist buying them. My parents and us both like Baby corn so I picked up 2 packets of beautiful baby corn. I used most of them to make Baby corn manchurian leaving behind just a few of them. Last night when I decided to make Paneer matar with chapathi for dinner and I saw few baby corns which needed to be finished too. Thus a new addition to the usual paneer matar. This is not authentic Paneer matar masala. I also added kasuri methi and kitchen king masala that gives a different taste to the gravy.





What's needed:

1/2 cup Paneer cubes2 cups frozen green peas
5-6 tender baby corns sliced
2 medium sized onions sliced
2 medium tomatoes pureed
1 tsp fresh ginger garlic paste
8 cashews soaked in warm water for 10mins and ground to paste.
1-2 tbsp red chilli powder(increase or decrease as per taste)
1 tsp garam masala powder(increase or decrease as per taste)
1 tbsp Kitchen King masala(increase or decrease as per taste)
a big pinch of kasuri methi
salt to taste
sugar a pinch (optional)
oil
Coriander leaves chopped.

Procedure:

1)Boil the green peas and baby corn slightly with water or microwave it until its 3/4th done.
2)Heat little oil or ghee in a non stick pan and fry onions with little salt until they turn brown. Let it cool.
3)Grind the cooled onions to fine paste.
4)Add some oil to the same pan and add the cubed paneer and fry well until it turns slightly brown. Take the paneer peices and put it in a bowl of cool water. This keeps the paneer soft.
5)Heat the oil that remains after frying the paneer and add ginger garlic paste to it. Fry until the raw smell goes off. Add onion paste to it and fry for some time.
6)Once done add the tomato puree and fry well till the raw smell of tomato is gone.Add a pinch of sugar if desired.
7)Add all the masala powders and kasuri methi and fry until oil seperates.
8)Add the green peas and baby corn to it and mix well.
9)Add ground cashew paste and salt as per taste.Squeeze the paneer out of water and add it to the gravy.
10)Boil the gravy well on medium flame until the curry is of desired thickness.
11)Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot with Chapathi or roti.

This is my contribution to the Curry Mela hosted by Srivalli . Thank you Srivalli for hosting this wonderful event.

Spicy Cauliflower side dish - Cauliflower Song

Song a konakani dish is usually made very spicy. We love spicy food so Amma made a variety of songs with Potato(Batate song),Green Peas(Dried batani song),tender cashews(Bibbe song),Cauliflower, and okra(Benda Song). My hubby too is fond of spicy food so one of these songs happen to make their appearance in our kitchen frequently. After marriage my mom in law(refer to her also as amma) introduced me to one more variety of song made from Breadfruit(Jeevkadgi song). Song with White rice and Daalithoy is always a hit at our place.
We also make a spicy dish called Batate Vaagu the recipe will be soon posted. Song also tastes great with chapathi or dosas. My mhaav – Jayanthi mhaav(amma's elder sister) who is a wonderful cook makes this well. She usually made this with Shevai(Rice noodles) and i used to skip my meals just to have this all three times a day. We never had problem with our choice of food while growing up as my mhaavs stayed close by. Vidya mhaav stayed in the same building and Jayanthi mhaav stayed at a walkable distance from our place. When i would notice any food that was not of my choice I would check with my mhaav's as to what was cooking in their kitchen, and if they had something of my choice then it would be sent to me ;). Food was always exchanged between the houses depending on our liking. Now far away from all of them i miss everyone's cooking. So trying to recreate those dishes in my kitchen.
What's needed?
1 Cauliflower broken into bite sized florets and soaked in water with salt and pinch of turmeric powder for 15 mins.
1 big Onion chopped finely
1 Tomato finely chopped
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbsp juice of Tamarind(decrease if u prefer less tangy)
½ tsp crushed Coriander seeds
1-2 tsp Chilli powder (Increase or decrease based on your spice level)
¼ tsp Turmeric powder
oil
Salt to taste
Chopped Coriander leaves to garnish
Procedure:
1)Heat oil and add mustard when it splutters add chopped onions and little salt. Fry until they turn brownish.
2)Add chopped tomatoes and cook until mushy.
3)Add crushed corainder seeds and other powders and fry for sometime.
4)Add tamarind juice and stir well.
5)Add chopped cauliflower,salt and water.cook covered until done on medium flame.
6)Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with chapathi or as a side dish for rice.