Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Aloo, Palak, Gobi Curry

It was one cold evening and I had to cook. I was having a usual fight with my wife on phone who is back in India. Suddenly I realised that it was 9:30 PM. Ramesh, Antony, and Praveen should have been hungry. Realising that I also found that prasanth is yet to return from office. I asked them whether they were hungry. Fortunately they had not lost their patience and they said they were not.! And praveen had a slight flu due to the sudden climate change. I found that the rice in the rice cooker was ready. now what? I saw that there was some carrot and beans there and I cut them as if for some frid rice. Then I thought "i will make some pulav ?". thinking that I started peeling the potatoes. Then suddenly I felt, Fried rice with potato fry would be a great idea. then when i lookedint the refrigerator, I saw that there was a cauliflower. I broke some pieces off it and added. Suddenly I thought if it was fried rice and potatoes, it would be very dry; why not make a aloo gobi ? thinking that I added some choppped onions and found that there were hardly any fresh peas for adding to it.

So I thought will try a new curry. and hence was this curry evolved out of our pan.

*2 tablespoons cooking oil
*1 large onion, chopped
*1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into 3 inch pieces
*3 large potatoes peeled and cut into 3 inch pieces
*1 cup of finely chopped spinach(paalak)
*3 cloves garlic, chopped
*3 Medium sized potatoes beaten to puree
*1 cup water
*1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
*1 teaspoon cumin
*1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon tumeric powder
*1/2 teaspoon coriander
*1/4 teaspoon (or more if you can handle it) crushed red pepper
*salt, pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and cook until softened. Add garlic and cook for about 1-2 minutes. Add water, and stir in ginger, cumin, tumeric, and coriander, and red pepper. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Pour contents of skillet into a separate bowl. Do not discard any remnants in the skillet.
2. Add the cauliflower and potatoes to the same skillet and cook for about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in the water mixture and stir to coat the cauliflower and potatoes evenly. Cover and cook for about 7-8 minutes until the cauliflower is softened.
3. Add the spinach and stir. Spinach cooks well.
4. Add the tomato puree. Add more masala if required.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Keep Stirring till it gets to the required consistancy.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Aviyal.. the great..!

It is supposed to have been invented by Bhima (one of the Pandava brothers) during his Agnaathavaasa. According to the legend, when Ballav (Bhima's name during this time) assumed his duties as the cook in the kitchen of Virata, did not know how to cook. One of the first things he did was to chop up many different vegetables, boil them together and top the dish with grated coconut..!



Praveen and Prashanth are adepts in preparing this dish..!

Serves  4

Preperation Time  15 Minutes

Contents
Green Vegetables

Ingredients

Yam 150 gms
Ash gourd150 gms
Raw bananas2 nos
Drumsticks2 nos
Potato1 no
Shelled peas1/2 cup
Sour curds1 cup
Turmeric powder1/2 tsp
Curry leaves Few
Coconut oil1/4 cup
Raw mango slices - 1/4 cup

 SaltTo taste
PASTE : Coconut1/2
Green chillies6-7 nos.
Cummin seeds1 tsp.

Recipe

1. Grind together the coconut, green chillies and cummin seeds to make a fine paste, adding very little water.Mix the curd to the ground paste and keep aside. It is Ok if we do not mix curd also. If you get raw mangoes also you can add a few slices to get that sour taste to it.

2. Peel and chop all the vegetables into 3-inch lengths.

3. Cook the vegetables separately with very little water in a heavy-bottomed vessel.

4. Mix all the cooked vegetables together with salt and turmeric powder.

5. Add the paste and heat through, taking care to prevent curdling.Add the 1/4 cup coconut oil and curry leaves and mix well. Donot heat.

America..., America

It is a techies dream to reach the land of yankies at least once a life time. I reached here when least expected. Life has to go on and so am here. and as life has to go on..one has to eat. Family being at home, I joined a few bachelors who will once be writing a blog like this. I think the following series of recipes shall all be the ones we do it in here. I might give some tidbits which I learnt here while cooking.


the pic above is the new delhi restaurant which we had a lunch on while visiting philly..

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