Gobi Matar / Cauliflower and green Peas Curry

Last week-end, my husband was craving gobi matar which is cauliflower and green peas curry.

Instead of the green peas, I used green beans since I didn’t have green peas in the fridge and it was as delicious 🙂

If you have the base spices used in Indian cooking, this recipe is very easy and takes about 30 min. I used the Gobi Matar recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor as guide line.

Ingredients

Cauliflower: 1 medium, separated into florets

Green beans: 1 cup

Tomato: 1/2 medium, chopped

Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon

Ginger paste: 1 teaspoon

Garlic: 1 head, chopped

Coriander powder: 2 teaspoon

Red Chili powder: up to 1/2 teaspoon (I only put some using the head of my knife since I don’t like when it is spicy)

Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon

Garan masala: 1 teaspoon

 

Method

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Once they start changing color, add the garlic and ginger paste and sauted for hald a minute. You will start smelling the ginger.

Add coriander powder, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and sauted for another half a minute.

Add the chopped tomato and cook until it becomes mushy.

Add cauliflower, green beans and 1 cup water. Salt and mix well.

Cook for about 8 to 10 min. Add the Garam masala, mix and cook for another 8 to 10 min.

You can garnish with fresh coriander leaves and eat with roti or paratha.

 

Paneer Bhurji

On Sunday, my husband suggested to have paneer Bhurji since we had some left in the fridge.

We had also some baguette and we thought that it would be great to eat the paneer bhurji with it.

Since the baguette was one day old, I put it for few minutes in the oven so it would get slightly toasted and it was delicious with the paneer bhurji.

Ingredients

– 300g of paneer (if fresh: mashed into a crumbly texture. I didn’t have it fresh and cut it into small cubes)

– 1 medium onion chopped

– 1 tomato chopped

– 1/4 tsp turmeric

– 1/4 tsp coriander powder

– 1/4 tsp garram massala (optional)

– 1/4 cumin seeds

Preparation

– Heat the oil in a pan on a medium flame, till hot. Add the cumin seeds and fry till Théo starter to crack open

– Add the onions and fry till soft. Add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are pulpy.

– Add spices and mix well. Fry for 2 minutes.

– Add the paneer. Mix well and cook for 2 more minutes. If the paneer gives off water at this stage, cook till the water has dried up. Turn off fire.

Season with salt, if desired. Garnish with the chopped fresh coriander and serve hot with Chapatis or Parathas, or baguette!

Spring Sunday and Mango Shake

Spring is here or at least it seems like it has finally decided to make it to this part of the world.

This time of the year in India is the beginning of mango season and we can see a few mangos here and there in New York City that seems okay to be eaten. Even though nothing will beat Indian mangos…

I was in India last June in the deep heart of mango season and our entire menu was revolving around mangos: mango shake for breakfast, mangos for lunch, again mango shake to go through the afternoon. Yes life was hard…

Face timing on Sunday morning with my in-laws in India, we know that they have already started the mango shake diet to kick off the season.

We had just bought a mango and I was still wondering how I would eat/prepare/cook it. Obviously I had to try my first home-made mango shake. Just to make us feel like we are a little bit in India…

Mango Shake

Ingredients

– 1 mango

– 3/4 cup of milk

– 4 ice cubes

Preparation

Peel the mango and cut it into small cubes.

Blend the mangos, milk and ice cubes and serve fresh.

 

Hurricane Sandy candle light cooking

This is candle night #2 after Hurricane Sandy and while we lost power, wifi & network, we are lucky to still have running water & gas.

The fridge starting slowly to be out if service, I need to think about what to cook with what I have in the fridge/freezer that can turn bad to avoid maximum waste.

Right now Vegetables in the freezer are still half frozen so I can afford another day before using them.

I decided to cook daal with rice and in top of that Paratha.
I had frozen ready-made Paratha and they were starting to be completely un-frozen (understand they would turn bad pretty quickly).
When eating daal, you either have rice or Paratha/Roti but we got both tonight as hurricane exception.

Besides we are hosting a Dutch friend in the city to run the NYC marathon.
We still don’t know if it will actually happen but in case it does, she needs a high carb diet.
Indian lentils & rice are a good start.

Daal

2 cups of Indian lentils – you have different varieties, I used the yellow one.
4 cups if water
Salt
1 tsp of butter
1/2 tsp of garlic
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds (Jeera)

Wash the lentils and put them in the pressure cooker with the water and salt.
Once you hear the whistling, let the pressure go away after 1-2 min by opening the top button.

In a tablespoon, melt the butter on top of a flame. That said you need to have gas to be able to proceed.
Once the butter is half melted, add the garlic & cumin seeds & keep cooking on the flame until the cumin seeds turn brown.
Toss quickly into the daal and mix. The quickly part is important as it allows you to keep all the flavors.

Serve in a bowl with some rice mixed together.

Aloo Bartha

As I am learning more and more Indian dishes, I tried for the first time to cook Aloo Bartha – or vegetable dish based of potatoes.

I am starting to get better at Indian cooking – apprehending the spices and base ingredients.
Maybe I haven’t made enough to discover the variety or I am just starting with the basics and getting better at it.
At least I can host my friends with basic Indian cooking and they love it.
That’s a good sign, isn’t it?

Alloo Bartha – potato vegetable dish

Put in a pan:
Some olive oil or 2 table spoon of ghee
1 tea spoon of cumin seeds (Jeera)
1 Tomato or 2 tomatoes depending on their size or tomato paste
Green chili
Ginger

Let it cook until all water is gone.

Add salt, coriander powder, red chili, a little bit of tamarin powder.
Let paste cook for 2 more minutes.

Add 1 table spoon of yoghurt.

Let it cook for 2 minutes till the oil separate out.

Add boiled potatoes.

Mix everything & add water 1.5 cup.

Add fresh coriander.

Let it boil & reduce the flame once it’s boiling, cover & let cook for 10 min, until you can see the layer of oil separating.

You can serve that as a side dish or eat with roti or bread.

When I cooked it, I made it as main dish with bread and had also a salad to go with it.

Chicken Curry

Last night was my first try using the pressure cooker to make chicken curry.
My husband helped me a lot from his mom’s cooking souvenirs.

We had this chicken curry with Baratha and it was delicious.

Here is what I did:

Ingredients :

Chicken – 10-12 medium pieces
Onion – 2 medium finely chopped.
Tomato – 2 big blanched and chopped.
Yogurt- 2 tablespoons
Ginger- 1 tablespoon(grated or paste)
Garlic- 2 tablespoon(grated or paste)
Coriander powder- 2 tablespoon
Turmeric- 1/2 teaspoon
Red chilli powder- 1/4th teaspoon or (to taste)Bay leaf- 1
Salt – to taste

To grind

Cumin seeds(jeera)- 1 teaspoon
Cloves- 6-7
Black pepper corns- 10 -12
Black cardomom- 1 Big
Green cardomom- 1
Dry red chilli- 1 (seeds removed)

Method :

Grind cumin, cloves, cardamoms(black and green), black pepper corns, dry red chilli using mortar and pestle.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or directly in the pressure cooker.

Add bay leaf and add onions and saute till rich golden brown.

Add all the grind spice mixture and saute for a minute, don’t let it burn.

Add ginger garlic paste and cook till raw smell goes.

Add all the powdered spices, mix well.

Add yogurt and cook till oil separates.

Now add the chicken pieces and cook on medium high heat for 4-5 minute till the chicken becomes slightly brown, keep stirring.

Reduce the heat to low, add a little water if required and cook till the chicken is half done.

Now add the chopped blanched tomatoes, cook for another minute.

Add little water(not too much else it would be too watery), close the lid and pressure cook for 5 minutes.

For best results, Open the pressure cooker only when all the steam has escaped.

Samosas & Litchies

Tonight was a diner all in memory of our recent trip to India 🙂

My husband brought a big bag of litchies back from China town and we got Samosas from his family in Connecticut.

Yes. I didn’t do the Samosas my self, I am far from that level…

The only thing I had to actually do was to prepare a yoghurt sauce to go with the samosas.

– 1 or 2 table spoon of yoghurt
– add some salt, garlic, coriander depending on your taste.
Any other spice can go too, and I regretted not having any dill as it would have been perfect with the yoghurt.

Paneer

Some of you are probably not very familiar with Paneer.

It is one of my favorite Indian food, I just LOVE it!

Paneer is curd cheese, made by curding heated mils with lemon juice, vinegar or any other food acids.

Here is a picture of it raw.

I don’t know how to make Paneer as I have just learned basic Indian cooking so far. I honestly don’t know if I will ever know how to make it and ever do it my self 🙂

You can cook with Paneer various dishes. My favorite is Saag Paneer or Palak Paneer: with spinach. It is delicious and vegetarian.

To enjoy with a delicious Roti or Naan warm from the oven!