Cooking for Pleasure

Sooya/ Sava/ Dill leaves Parantha with Mint Raita

2010-09-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Dill/ Sava/ Soya (Not Soy) is a herb with a beautiful aroma. Actually, Dill is a calming and sedative food. The Greeks put dill leaves under their caps or covered their heads with leaves to induce sleep. Hindu Physicians in Ancient India advised keeping a few sprigs of the herb next to the pillow to counter insomnia. In fact, the Hindi name for dill is “sooya or soya” meaning “slept”. Interesting isn't it? Soya always reminds me of Winters in Delhi...eating soya parantha/ potato soya and roti etc in our porch under the calming sunlight..bliss..

So, I have been looking for Soya leaves for quote sometime and finally I saw it last week in the Indian store and grabbed two packets.

First I made soya paranthas out of it..the preparation goes like this:

2 cups powdered wheat
2 cups chopped dill leaves (take out the stems and chop only the leaves)
1.5 cups water (or enough to make a dough that can be easily rolled)
Salt to taste
2 tsps ajwain (not necessary; available in Indian stores)
2 tsps red chilli or paprika powder
Vegetable/ Canola or Mustard Oil (I am always partial towards mustard oil)

I made a dough using all the ingredients and 2 tbsps of oil. I then rolled out a 1 inch diameter round and spread a little oil on it. I then folded it and spread some more oil and then fold it again. Sorry but I forgot to take pictures, so just for illustration, I used this picture from http://indianfood.about.com/od/breadrecipes/ig/How-to-Make-Parathas/Making-Parathas---Step-1.htm
These 17 steps are a great illustration for beginners.

I then spread a little oil on a flat pan and put the triangle on it. While one side is cooking I spread a little oil on the side on top. After one side gets little brown spots, I flipped the parantha and cook it on the other side. Remember, put oil only to cover the parantha on each side. Our aim is not to fry it, but just to get some crunch on the parantha.

For my calorie conscious friends, you don't need to use oil at all if you don't want!! No oil while making the dough or no need to make a triangle, you can just make a round without using oil or no need to use any oil while cooking if you are using a non- stick pan..There you go! A healthy meal!!

Now to add something more to these paranthas, I made a Mint Raita. Preparation is as follows:

1 cup cold yogurt
2 tbsp dried mint
Salt to taste
1 tsp or less paprika powder
1 tsp cumin powder (dry roast cumin seeds and crush them a bit: trust me it has a taste of another level)

Mix all the above ingredients and your raita is ready!! It can be a great dip as well!

Hope you all will enjoy...

Pleasures of eating a Light and Simple POHA..my way!

2010-03-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Believe me not, poha was one of the first dishes I cooked :p I love it for the fact that it is light, easy on stomach, can adapt to tons of variations and can be eaten any time of the day. You can use any permutations and combinations of vegetables and chicken etc. You can do onion (kanda), potato (batata), peas, eggplant, etc etc.

I have sometimes managed to spoil it by using the wrong kind of poha (flattened rice). So, first thing is, use thick poha and not thin. I will share my way of making poha for 2 people with you all.

I just wash 2 cups of poha in a colander for 10 seconds or so and put the colander in a utensil so that the water drips out of the poha. In the meantime, I put lemon juice, salt and sugar in the poha and mix it. I then just leave it as is.

I use mustard oil for my poha, because the taste it brings to the poha is unique! Then, in a pan, I put 1-2 pinches of aesafotida (i love aesafotida and I put it in almost all my dishes :p) and 1-2 tsp mustard seeds, and after mustard seeds start to splutter, I add dry red chillies, 1 tsp chana daal, 1 tsp urad daal and 2 tbsp broken peanuts. I then fry till the things become light brown. I then add 5-6 curry leaves and after 5-10 secs, I add 1 cup chopped onion.

When the onion becomes translucent, I add 1 tsp haldi and let it cook for 5 secs or so. I then add 1 cup of chopped potatoes and put 1/4 cup of water (just to cook the potatoes). I use little red potatoes and use them with their skin. After I see that the potatoes are cooked, I add the lemon, salt and sugar cover poha and mix well. I then garnish it with fresh coriander leaves!

Ahhh...fresh poha is ready! A perfect breakfast, snack or any meal you want to make it is ready! Try it out guys with some changes like mustard oil, skinned potatoes and poha covered in lemon, salt and sugar and let me know how you like it!

This recipe also goes to Divya Vikram's healthy snacks event

AND
Jihva Breakfast Event at Suma's Veggie Platter

Gajar (Carrot) Parantha

2010-03-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I was all tired with this unpacking stuff and had to make something for dinner. Actually I was badly craving something nice and desi. So, I decided to make parantha...ahhh....the mere name induced a rush of flavors pump in my body!! I so love paratha with yogurt...yummmm... I digged in my new new fridge and saw that i have some unused organic baby peeled carrots. Immediately, I wanted to make carrot paranthas.

So, I grated the carrot and mixed in some ajwain (http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Trac_amm.html), garam masala, red chili powder, a little chaat masala and kosher salt. If you want you can squeeze out a little water from the mixture because carrots will ooze out water once you put the spices and salt in it. I then filled a small round of wheat dough (about 1.5 inch in diameter) with the carrot mixture. Keep the sides of the round thin, but the center thick. I made a small package (kind of a potli) and with some dry wheat powder, i rolled out the parantha. I went as thin as I could without it sticking on the surface and the rolling pin. In between I again used some dry wheat powder to cover the parantha. It is good to work with the carrot juices that ooze out from the carrots because they cover the parantha which kind of gives it a nice yellowish color.

I then put it on the tawa (flat pan) and used oil on the sides to cook it. I cooked it until I saw some brown spots and the parantha looked nice and crispy. And there was my lovely parantha!!! trust me it was yumm!!!

Serving suggestions: Yogurt/ Pickle

And this goes to Divya Vikram's healthy snacks event.

AND

Jihva Breakfast Event at Suma's Veggie Platter

MOVING

2010-03-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating the blog! We just moved from an apartment to a house...so everything is in boxes and haven't had time to cook anything! Will be back very very soon!!!

Kadhai Paneer

2010-02-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

I have eaten kadhai paneer at many Indian restaurants in US but nothing has impressed me yet..kadhai paneer is usually almost equal to any other paneer dish..So, I decided to make something on my own and try to achieve a taste that I would like...so the other day, I prepared my version of kadhai paneer and not being very modest, I am saying that this came the closest to satisfy my paneer craving :D You guys must try it..hope you also like it like me and hubby..

I first put frozen paneer outside for like 2 hrs until it became nice and soft (microwave defrosting doesn't work!!!). In a pan, I put asafoetida, jeera (cumin) and saunf (fennel seeds) and let it cook until you smell the nice fennel and jeera aroma. Then I put chopped onion (1 medium sized) and fry it until it became light brownish. Meanwhile, in a small bowl I mixed haldi (turmeric), coriander powder and red chilli powder and little water (just enough to make a paste). I put this paste in the pan and cooked the spices until the water evaporated. **Putting a paste doesn't let them burn which sometimes happens without us realizing and does affect the taste!**

I then added some chopped green pepper and cooked it for 2-3 minutes until it was soft and I then added chopped tomatoes, ginger garlic paste (**added it with tomatoes because otherwise it stick to the pan**), salt and some raisins (**Raisins add a lovely taste**). After 2-3 minutes, came paneer cubes' turn, which I added and mixed everything carefully (making sure I don't break the paneer cubes). After coking it for 4-5 minutes, I added kasoori methi and kept it on low setting for 2-3 minutes and the dish was then ready! It was delish!!

Snow in Mississippi!

2010-02-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

After spending 2 years in Michigan, I became quite used to seeing snow but still got excited to see it after the 1.5 years sabbatical while I was in Los Angeles. A rare occuring in the South, a mere 2-3 inches of snow has become the talk of the town with all schools and some offices (including mine!) shutting down for the day.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100212/NEWS/100219825?Title=Rare-snowflakes-in-the-South-

So, here I am relaxing at home and enjoying an accidental long weekend... Made nice pancakes in the morning and while my husband watched an action flick, I wondered what should I cook (thinking this is my favorite timepass). So, I decided that I should cook a nice baked tilapia southern style! (well...I don't have butter, but I have olive oil, so it becomes a semi- southern dish).

I read about this recipe on Food Network website, called Bobby's Baked Tilapia and I added a rice, peas and potatoes side to it.

So, basically I followed the same recipe as in the link above and while baking the fish, I put some potatoes as well. I laid the baked fish on peas rice. I just sprinkled some drops of lemon juice, black pepper and fresh parsley on the top. Had this hot baked healthy fish recipe on a cold Friday afternoon. I recommend that you must try this recipe (a good change from a fish curry recipe).

Roti Chawal (Chapati Rice)!!

2010-02-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Yes yes...two posts in a day..only because even though I made the recipes at different times and days, life was too busy to post it!!

Ok...so when I told hubby dear that I am going to make Roti Chawal, his reaction..."What? What in the world is that?"..My mom and grandmom used to make it with leftover roti and chawal and I lurrved it! I didnt have leftover rotis and chawal, because I keep leftovers in the fridge and use it for the next day's meal..but whatever...I especially made roti and rice for it.

So what I did was that I put hing (asafoetida), jeera (cumin and let it brown in 1 tblsp oil. I then, out sliced onions (how much..ummm..upto u..I used 3/4 cup for 1 cup rice). I light browned the onion and then added roti which I again fried for less than a minute and then added cooked rice. Added salt, red chilli powder and garam masala and fried it for 3-4 minutes. Then the Indian garnish...the almighty Dhaniya!!! The super and quick dish with roti and rice is ready!

Hey...I just thought..you guys can add peas and potato etc too if you want! Might taste good...

So, I just finished 3 entries for the APS rice event...!! Yayy!!

Almond Rice

2010-02-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

This is a simple, light and feel good recipe :) Feel good though is a very generic term, but I guess this recipe does the trick with its subtle taste.

In a pan, warm up olive, vegetable or canola oil. Put about 1/2 cup of chopped almonds and brown them a little (very little!), then add 3/4 cup of onion and ginger juliennes and sauté it (do not brown, just till its translucent). Now add 1 cup of rice and fry it for a minute or so till it becomes glossy. Now add 2 cups of water and add salt and black pepper and cover it.

Keep checking and when the rice is cooked to your expectations, garnish it with dhania (cilantro).

I have to say here that I love the aroma that this dish generates and I savor eating it!! (Made it first time for hubby and as usual ;) I got compliments)

This one is for the APS Rice Event:

Phare from the kitchen of U.P.

2010-02-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

So for the APS Rice event I decided to call my mom in India and ask her about this rice flour dish that she used to make. It took me one week to take out time from my daily schedule and prepare this dish. I used to eat uncountable number of Phare when they were made. The number of phare mummy used to make were never enough :p Well, now I can't do that because of the weight consciousness! Anywho...at least Anita's event gave me a chance to make it in my foreign land kitchen and share my side of cuisine with my husband.

Phare are rice flour dumplings that are stuffed with Urad Chhilka daal and kind of steamed after that. Actually we can call them the DESI DUMPLINGS!

Ok..now to the point..The Recipe!

Rice Atta 250 gm.

Urad Chilka (Split Black Gram) - 125 Gm

Cumin Seeds- 1/2 tsp,

Oil- 2tbsp

Coriander Powder- 1 tsp

Black Pepper- 1tsp

Brown Cardamom (Badi Elaichi) -1 tsp

Fennel- 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 1 pinch

Salt- to taste

Soak the daal over night and then rub it and remove the chhilka (the black cover of the daal). You will have to wash it several time so that most of the chhilka is out Its ok if a little bit still remains. Then, grind the daal a little such that it does not become like a paste. Mix all the ingredients except the salt. Put salt only when you are about to put the filling. Then, make a dough of the rice flour with water and make small flat rounds. Fill the daal mixture inside and try to make a soft curved triangular shapes (like gujiya) as in the picture below. Don't close it completely from all sides, leave a very little opening (so that the daal inside gets cooked).

Heat Oil in a pan and put the Phare in there and cover it with a plate (an upside down thali would be better if you have it!). Now start adding water from the sides (if it is a thali you dont have to take off the thaali and pur water, you can do it from the openings on the sides of the thali). Do this so that steam is formed in the pan.Keep adding little amounts of water until you think the phare are cooked completely (the toothpick test!) After that put a chaunk (aesfotida, cumin, green chillies in heated oil) and serve the Phare with green chutney (which I didn't have as I didn't get a chance to go to the Indian store in the Mississippi rain!

Now this recipe is defintely a little tricky and a good rice flour is needed to make proper base. In my case I would not say that it was the perfect rice flour, but it was just about ok. If you can find a good one or may be make your own, then I guess it will be really good!

This goes to the APS Rice Event

My tweeks to the omlette...

2010-01-31T17:05:00.000-08:00

Sunday is the day when I get to sleep more, pursuade my husband to make the morning chai and laze around...I am usually excited about the breakfast (usually at 11am) I am going to prepare on the weekend. So, today because I also had to prepare my rice entry for Anita's Kitchen's APS Rice Event, so I decided to make the good old omlette for the hubby..So, here I am with my changes to the omlette recipe...

I whisked 2 eggs with 2tblsp milk well. I don't mix salt while whisking because then it becomes watery. I then added some finely chopped onions and pour the mixture in a greased pan and sprinkeled some parmesan cheese and dried parsley on top. Then I covered it with a lid and let it cook on Low.

The omlette starts to rise after sometime and the sides start to become brown. This is the time, when I took it off the stove and served it.

Got compliments from the hubby (I am a vegetarian, so dont eat eggs like that and hence trust his taste buds :p) The omelette was soft and the taste of parmesan and parsley did the trick!

And this goes to Divya Vikram's healthy snacks event.