Aloo fry/ potato masala

The recipe for this aloo fry is from my friend who is a great cook. I have also learnt a few North Indian recipes from her, but this one in particular is the one I make often, especially when I am pressed for time or crave something spicy.

Ingredients

Potatoes – 5-6 medium

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 ½ tbs

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – 1 ½ tbs

Hing – pinch

Coriander leaves – finely chopped

Method

Peel and cut potato in cubes or wedges

Boil some water with salt and cook potatoes until just done (do not overcook)

In a kadai/pan, add oil and sputter cumin seeds.( be  generous with oil for this recipe)

Add all the spice powders and fry for a minute or so until the raw smell goes.

Add the cooked potatoes and fry for few minutes until well coated in the masalas.

Add salt if needed and garnish with coriander leaves 

Aloo tikki

Simple recipe with few ingredients is what everyone likes. I was chatting the other day with my little sister  who  used to try a lot of my recipes when she got married, but few months before we had a new arrival in our family who is keeping her busy all the time. Since then she doesnt do much cooking . She was telling me  that when she checks my blog and find lengthy ingredients she give up straighaway and another reason was  most of the ingredients that  is not easily available there. There might be lot of people like her who want to do simple cooking with readily available ingredients so I am going to really work on that and post some simple recipes and post under the label simple cooking :)

This Aloo tikki defintely falls in that category, it takes only about  30 minutes if you pressure cook your potaoes and with few ingredients  you can serve this is as a starter when you are running out of time :)

Indredients (makes 10 tikkis )

Onion - 1 small(finely chopped 0

Boiled Potato - 5 ( Medium )

Green peas (boiled ) - 3/4 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Redchilly powder - 1/2 tsp

Chaat masala - 1 tsp ( use a mixture of  garam masala and coriander powder if you dont have chaat masala )

Coriander leaves - finely chopped

Bread crumbs - 3 tbs (optional )

Salt

Oil ( for shallow frying )

Method

• Mash the potato and keep it aside.
• Add rest of the ingredients and mix well.
• Make small balls out of it and flaten  it a little bit in between the palms.
• In a frying pan add oil and shallow fry the patties on a medium flame for about 4-5 minutes  until they are firm and hold their shapes without falling apart.
• Serve hot with some tomato ketchup.

Mysore Masala Dosha

Till now I havent met anyone who doesnt love masala dosha. A crispy masala dosha paired with some coconut chutney and sambar is something I never get bored of ,be it at home or at restaurant.

I got this recipe for a restaurat style masala dosha from my cousin sister and I have been hooked onto this ever since.If u follow the recipe and tips as it is ,I cant see any reason for this to go wrong...Mysore masasla dosha is nothing but  usual masala dosha with a  tomato chutney spread on it so its like a cherry on top of cake ! But I am warning u if are going to take pictures of mysore masala dosha like I did, the tomato chutney will make the dosha a bit soggy,so if you are looking for a crispy dosha eat as soon as u make it :)

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Chana dal- 1/8 cup
Toor dal - 1/8 cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbs
Rice flakes/poha/avil - handful
Salt
Ghee

Method

1.Soak rice,urad dal,chana dal,toor dal  and fenugreek seeds for 6-7 hrs .

2.Add rice flakes to the soaked ingredients and let it soak for 10 - 15 minutes. 

3.Grind the soaked ingredients  adding enough water .

4.Allow it to ferment overnight( I kept it an preheated oven beacuse of  cold weather here ).

5.Add salt to the batter and mix well.

6 Heat a non stick pan ,rub some oil/ghee on the pan and pour one laddle of batter and spread it with the laddle as thin as possible.Cook it covered for 1-2 minutes.When the bottom of the dosha is brown and crisp take the lid off  , spread some ghee , tomato chutney,potato bhaji and roll it.Serve hot with Sambar and coconut chutney.

Ingredients for potato bhaji

Potato - 3

Carrot - 2

Onion -1 big

Ginger minced - 1 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves

Green chillies - 1-2

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method

1.In a sucepan add oil and sputter mustard seeds, add urad dal and let it become brown.

2.Add chopped onions and suate until soft.

3.Add ginger and saute for 1 more minute.

 4.Add chopped  potatoes, carrot, greenchillies,curry leaves

2.Add salt,turmeric powder,enough water and cook until potatoes are done,mash it slightly.

Ingredients of tomato chutney

Tomato - 3 no
shallots - 3-4 nos
Onion-1 medium
redchilly powder(1/2 tsp)
curry leaves ( few)

Garlic clove - 1-2
Salt to taste

Method

1.Take oil in a pan and saute onions and shallots for few minutes.

2.Add Tomatoes, curry leaves, red chilly powder,garlic  and saute for 2 minutes. Let it cool for some time. Add salt and grind. Donot add any water.

Notes

Usually in retuarants they cook masala dosha uncovered but  at home I found that , doshas  cooked covered tasted better and was cripsy too .

Aloo Paratha

Hope you all had a good weekend, here this weekend it was Summer fair in lil A's nursery for some fundraising. I really liked the whole idea of the fair,each class in the school has a stall and all the money raised goes towards the Schools fund. Nursery were asked to put a stall with kids toys/book and clothes which were donated by the parents and unlike back home, here buying used things is very common,so its a kind of recycling the toys,books and clothes ! The best part is I found one of his favourite toy from Disney cars movie in the stall and since I was volunteering in the stall before anyone could buy, I bought it for lil A and the smile on his face when he got it was priceless,it has been 3 days and till now he hasnt kept it anywhere...one pound well spent !!

Coming to todays recipe its Aloo paratha...I have been making this since ages,but never thought about blogging it till now..but since laziness has crawled on to me these days ,nothing much exciting is cooking in my kitchen,hopefully I will be back in action soon , till then please bare with for uploading simple recipes :)

Ingredients

Potatoes -2
Onion - 1/2
Ginger -garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Chaat masala - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 /2 tsp
Kashmiri redchilly powder - 1/4 tsp
Wheat flour - 1 1/2 - 2 cup
Coriander leaves
Boiling water -3/4 cup
salt
oil

Method

1. Boil poatoes ,peel the skin and grate.
2. In a saucepan add little oil and saute the finely chopped onions for 1 minute and add all the masalas ,cumin seeds and ginger garlic paste ,add a splash of water and cook for 1 minute till raw smell goes.
3.Make chapathy dough by taking 3/4 th cup of salted boiling water ,add little oil in it and add the wheat flour little by little and mix it with a wooden spoon ,when the dough cools down a bit use hands and knead it well to get a smooth dough.Cover the dough with a cloth or wrap in cling film and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
4.Mean while mix poatoes , cooked masala and coriander leaves and make balls and keep it aside.
5.Divide the dough into balls and roll it out a little bit and place the potato balls inside and seal it .
6.Roll it out with a rolling pin carefully .
7.In a nonstick pan add little oil and cook the paratha flipping the sides by spraying/rubbing oil on each side.

Potato masala

This week S came with a news that he might get a 2 weeks off for Christmas !! Flying to India was the first thing that came to us ,but gosh the last minute tickets at this time of the year is ridiculously expensive, so we had to give up that idea.This would been the best time to go home to escape from 2 weeks of winter:(
Still need to finalise what to do if he gets days off ,if he stay home for 2 weeks we both will be bored.I still remember last year during christmas holidays when he was home for 4 days, on the last day my lil one ( he was only 2 1/4 yrs old then ) asked him to go to work.LOL !

Since last couple of weeks ,daily cooking is something that I dread, I have been soo lazy even to think what to cook , so I found a way to overcome my laziness by trying out new things and it worked !! Now I am getting all the enthu to cook everyday, but it came with a price too, I have already put on atleast a kilo :(
Potato masala is something that I usually dont prepare,but the potatoes I got this time was a bit small and few of them were too small like baby potatoes so I didnt feel like chopping them and the this was the best way to cook them !

Ingredients
Baby potatoes - 8
Onion - 2
Tomato - 1
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbs
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves

Preparation

Boil the poatoes and peel the skin.
In a sucepan add some oil,sputter cumin seeds and saute onions till soft. Add ginger garlic paste saute for 1 minute and then add all the masala powders and tomotoes.Cook till it becomes mushy.Now add the cooked poatoes and cook it covered for 2-3 minutes.Garnish with coriander leaves.