Methi dal

Finally first post of the year … Better late than never! Posts may not be regular, pictures may not be appealing but still I am not going to give up blogging :)

Moving on to today’s post…

It’s not easy to fresh methi easily here unless we go to a desi area but  luckily one of the superstore here stock up frozen methi leaves. It’s so handy to make dishes like methi dal or methi chicken without having to clean and prepare them and I end up making methi dishes a lot and  today I am sharing a  simple methi dal  recipe which is absolute comfort food for us.

Ingredients

Moong dal – ¾ cup

Onion – 2

Tomato -2

Ginger garlic paste – 1 ½ tsp

Methi leaves – one bunch or 1  frozen cube

Cumin seeds/jeera – 1tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Red chilli powder – 1tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Method

Soak dal for ½ an hour and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles adding enough water

Meanwhile in a saucepan add oil and sputter cumin seeds.

Add chopped onions and saute until light brown.

Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute or so

Add chopped tomatoes,turmeric, chilli powder and cook for few minutes

Add methi leaves and cook until leaves are almost cooked

Finally add the cooked dal, water if required  and let it boil.

Add garam masala, salt and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Remove from fire and garnish with chopped coriander leaves if you wish.

Serve hot with rice/roti and enjoy !

Kerala parippu curry/ Kerala sadya parippu / Kerala dal curry

Wishing everyone a happy Vishu! I am glad that this year Vishu is falling on  a bank holiday weekend, so after ages we will get to celebrate Vishu the same day. We have a kerala sadya potluck  planned and I am looking forward to eat a scrumptious sadya tomorrow. 
 Today I am sharing a simple Kerala parippu curry/dal curry which is served as a part of Kerala sadya. It’s so easy to make and you can whip it up in less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Moong dal/cherupayar parippu – ¾ cup

To grind

Grated coconut – ¾ cup

Shallots /cheriya ulli – 3

Cumin seeds/ Jeerakam – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 4

For tadka/ thalikkal

Coconut oil /ghee

Mustard seeds – 1 ½ tsp

Shallots/ cheriya ulli – 2

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Whole red chilli – 3

Method

• Soak the dal for ½ an hour
• Pressure cook the dal for 2 -3 whistles
•  Grind the grated coconut with ingredients mentioned above adding little water.
•  Add the paste to the dal and bring to boil
•   Finally in a small pan add oil/ghee sputter mustard seeds, add the finely chopped shallots.
•   Fry it for some time until slightly brown.
•   Finally add split whole red chilli and curry leaves and fry until red chillies get little dark    
• Add the tadka to the parippu/dal 
  

Paalak dal /spinach dal/ parippum cheerayum

Dal/Parippu is an absolute comfort food for all of us here. Even when we go on holiday the first thing I want to eat when we get back is some steaming hot rice with some dal. It’s pure bliss.

Many years ago when we set out to Switzerland for  our first holiday together I was so excited to see the places and to try new food. I enjoyed the food the first two days, trying out new food was really great but after that it became a bit less enjoyable and  I was desperate to eat some rice.So out we went for an indian  restaurant hunt but couldn’t find any restaurant nearby but instead found a Chinese. I didn’t even want to look at the menu , all I wanted was some rice. I can never forget the pleasure I got from eating that bowl of rice. Rest of the days we were automatically drawn towards that restaurant . After our holiday we came back hungry and tired, still I didn’t want to order a take away or eat out. I dragged myself to the kitchen and cooked some dal and rice. The taste of that dal and rice is still in my mouth, it was a pure comfort meal and we ate as if we haven’t seen food in many days J

Ingredients

Green gram lentil/ Mung dal – ¾ cup

Onion – 3 medium

Tomato – 2

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 4

Cumin seeds – 1 heaped tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ stp

Spinach – 100 gm

Coriander leaves – few (finely chopped)

Oil

Salt

For tempering/ tadka ( optional)

Oil/ghee

Mustard seeds

Whole red chilli - 2

Garlic minced – 1 1/2tsp

Curry leaves

Method

• Pressure cook the dal adding enough water.
• In a pan add oil and sputter cumin seeds.
• Add chopped onions and saute until light brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell goes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, green chillies and cook for few minutes until tomatoes are mushy.
• Add turmeric and saute until raw smell goes.
• Finally add cooked dal, chopped spinach , add enough water and cook for 5-10 minutes.
• Remove from fire and add chopped coriander leaves.

Tempering/tadka

• Take oil in a small pan and sputter mustard seeds.
•  Add minced garlic and fry till  it’s brown.
• Finally add split whole red chillies and fry until dark. Add in curry leaves and to tadka and remove from fire.
• Add the tadka to the curry

Dal Makhani

I hate the fact that I have to scratch my head every single day for coming up with what to cook for dinner. If I ask my other half he never gives an answer really, or maybe I should say I only cook something if I am also upto eating it /cooking it  :) Every single day when I enter the kitchen I declare to my hubby that I hate cooking and washing up and its a fact that  I hate my daily cooking if its usual things, so blogging has kind of helped me to enjoy  cooking and whip up  something interesting / different. 

Back home when we used to live in Pune I never used to have this dilema as the veggies available were endless and there was a fish market nearby so most of the time the question is which fish curry to make rather than which curry to make. But here things have changed, we dont like  fish curry that much, mainly because the english fish doesnt give that authentic  taste when they are curried, so we prefer to fry it so curry options are limited.

 I miss Pune very badly when thinking about all those fishes and fresh vegetables and most of all the eating out. If I ever go back to Pune again first thing I will do is go and eat out in all my favourite restaurants and cook some nice fish curry ! Anyway Dal makhani is something I got introduced from Pune and there was this Punjabi dabba, a kind of take away place and all I had  to do on lazy day is to just pick up the phone and order our favourite tandoori chicken or dal makhani   etc etc..I never cared to make dal makhani back then, who will when you get such great food outside ! I love Dal makhani , I have been trying to  recreate the one which I used to have from the Punjabi dabba in Pune and after few attempts  I am very  happy the way they turned out this time. So this recipe is for my own future use aswell :)

Ingrediets

Sabut Urad / Whole urad / Uzhunnu - 1 cup

Rajma/ Red kidney beans  - 1/4 cup

Onion - 4 ( chopped )

Tomato - 3(chopped )

Ginger - garlic paste - 2 tbs

Coriander powder - 1 tbs

Garam masala - 1 1/2 tsp

Redchillly powder - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Ginger (Julienned) - 1 tbs

Fresh cream- few tablespoon

Coriander leaves 

Salt 

Water as required 

Method

• Soak whole urad and rajma overnight or atleast 10-12 hours.
• Pressure cook the dals adding enough water until cooked very well. Mash the dals lightly.
• In a saucepan add oil and add chopped onions and saute until light brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 1-2 minutes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, redchilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and cook tomatoes until mushy.
• Add cooked and mashed dal and boil for 5- 10 minutes.
• Finally add garam masala, fresh cream  and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from fire and add finely chopped corainder leaves.
• Meanwhile in small pan add juliened  ginger and fry until brown. Add this to the dal.
• Serve with rice / roti with a dollop of fresh cream on Dal !

Brown Masoor Dal curry and Wimbledon Championship pics !

After living so close to wimbledon for almost 3 years we thought that its a shame if we still dont go and see wimbledon tennis atleast this year.We didnt have any pre booked tickets or anything so despite of hearing from news and from friends about the long queues we still wanted to of tryour luck and guess what? it was the luckiest day in our life.There was no queue and we could just walk in and even got a half priced ticket ! Leander Paes was the only desi playing yesterday so we decided to see his prequater of mixed doubles and got inside the court.The match was quite exciting as Leander was doing so well and he made all Indians proud by winning the match with his Russian partner Vesnina !

Below you can see pics I clicked yesterday.

Coming back to todays recipe..its nothing special just a normal dal curry which we all love !

Ingredients

Onions -3
Tomato - 2
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Brown Masoor -1/4 - 1/2 cup
Redchilly powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Salt
Coriander leaves


Method
1.Soak brown masoor for 2-3 hours and pressure cook it by adding little water.
2. Add oil in saucepan and sputter cumin seeds.
3.Add chopped onions and saute till light brown and soft
4.Add ginger garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes and its slighly fried.
5.Add chopped tomatoes and all the spice powders and cook till tomatoes are all mashed up .
6.Add Cooked dal to the masala and boil it for few minutes or pressure cook it for 1 whistle.
7.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Rajma and chana dal curry

Rajma was a thing which I never ate when I grew up,my mom never cooked it, but when I got my own kitchen , cooking became my passion . My h always appreciate whatever I cook which gives me even more enthu to try out new things. I first tried rajma curry 5 years ago when my mother in law came to visit us for a short time,I was trying to impress her with new things ,but I was not lucky enough with rajma,I didn't know that rajma need to be soaked overnight and pressure cooked bit more than normal dals, I tried out couple more times till that packet got finished ,but my rajma never used to get cooked properly and we had to somehow eat it.I totally ignored rajma after that until I had it from a friends place an year ago,I couldn't believe that rajma was giving such good gravy !! I asked her how to cook it and she gave me some tips. After that I have been cooking rajma regularly and never had problem cooking it.

Ingredients

Rajma - 1/2 cup
Chana dal - 1/4 cup
Onions - 2
Tomato - 1 1/2
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1tbs
Redchilly powder - 1 tbs
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Coriander leaves

Preparation
Soak rajma overnight in warm water.Soak Chana for 2-3 hrs.
Pressure cook rajma first atleast for 3-4 whistles.Then add in soaked chana and pressure cook again for 2-3 whistles.
In a saucepan add some oil and sputter cumin seeds. Add chopped onions and saute till it is light brown. Add in ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute.Thrown in chopped tomotoes and all the masala powders and saute till it becomes a paste .Now add this paste to cooked dal , pour some water if required and pressure cook again for 1 whistle. Check the salt and garnish with coriander leaves.