Karela (Bitter Gourd) with Peanuts and Tamarind

We all have a relationship with this gourd. And mercifully, it's uncomplicated. We either love it or hate it - there's no middle path here! Thankfully, I belong to the karela fan club. I don't remember how and when I fell in love with this bitter version of gourd but I do have my Mom to thank, as she always made me eat whatever was cooked. I have a very fond memory of this sabji.

This gourd is considered very good for diabetes. So, add it to your table to keep diabetes at bay.

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd - 4, peeled and cut in rounds
Peanuts - A handful, roasted and crushed
Tamarind - lemon sized ball, soaked and strained
Jaggery or sugar - 1 tablespoon or according to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Spices - coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, 


Way to go:

1. Peel and cut bitter gourd in round pieces. You can mix the roundels with salt and leave for a while. Wash them thereafter.
2. Add oil in a heavy bottomed pan. When oil is warm, add jeera, fennel seeds and curry leaves.
3. Add bitter gourd. After 5 minutes, add salt, red chilly powder.
4. When it's almost done, add coriander powder.
5. Towards the end, add coarsely grounded peanuts. Add tamarind juice. Add jaggery or sugar.
6. Cover and let cook for a while. Eat with hot chapatis.

Mix Daal

On a lazy, normal day, I heard a knock at my door. When I answered, there was a bunch of friends, springing a belated birthday surprise on me! Now, who doesn't love surprises? I was overjoyed with this loving gesture. The thought was so touching and beautiful. 

They came armed with cake, gifts and food. We had a lovely time, chatting and lunching together. There was homemade cake, appas, puliyohara, paneer, mix daal, kheer and tandoori roti. Everything was delicious. I took recipes and whenever I make them, fond memories are sure to waft around, along with delightful aromas :)

Thankyou for this recipe, Pooja!

Ingredients:

All whole lentils and beans available at home. For e.g. black gram, chickpeas, black eyed beans, whole masoor, whole moong, split toor, chana, kidney beans, pinto beans, whole dried peas, black urad, dew gram. 

Onions - 2, chopped

Tomatoes - 2, chopped

Garlic - 6-7 cloves

Ginger - 1 inch

Green chillies - 2

Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)- 1 teaspoon, crushed

Oil or ghee - 1 teaspoon

Bayleaf - a couple
Raw mango powder - 1/2 teaspoon (I substitute raw mango powder with dry gooseberry powder or with lemon juice).

Way to Go:

1. Soak lentils overnight. 

2. In a pressure cooker, heat ghee. I use an Instant Pot - which is a programmable electric pressure cooker. 

3. When ghee gets warm, add cumin seeds and chopped garlic. Sauté garlic for 10 seconds. Add onions. When onions turn transparent, add tomatoes, ginger and green chillies. 

4. Add spices like coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, red chilly powder and turmeric. Add bayleaves. 

5. When the mix is well cooked, add lentils. Add water so that it is two inches over and above the lentils. 
6. Cook in the same way as you would cook daal makhni. First a couple of whistles, then let it simmer on low flame for a few more minutes. Or put it on Bean/Chilly mode for 40 minutes  . 
7. Add raw mango powder towards the end. My friend also adds a magic paste made by her Mom. I'll update it when I get to know the ingredients for the same:) Edit : I just posted a recipe for this garam masala paste.

8. The consistency can be as desired. A little loose if you want to eat with rice or just mushy, to be eaten with piping hot chapatis. It's an excellent and filling meal for cold winter days. 

Tips:

1. You can use it as ragda for ragda patties.

2. It can be eaten as a chaat on its own. Add a bit of curd, coriander chutney, tamarind chutney, chopped onions, tomatoes, shredded carrots and garnished with chopped coriander. Yum!!

Coriander Chutney

What's life without some spice! If this spice comes with no oil and cholesterol, what better can one ask for? 

This coriander chutney can be used with stuffed parathas, chaats, pakoras, sprouts, sandwiches, rolls etc. The options are endless. As coriander leaf is a good source of potassium and antioxidants, this chutney is high in both nutrition and taste.

Though there are tons of recipes for making chutney, this one  is courtesy my friend Arti. I often make it this way since onion and tomato give a good body to the chutney. 

Ingredients:

Coriander - 1big bunch

Onion - Half 

Country (desi) tomato - 1 small or half medium

Garlic - 3 cloves

Green chillies, hot - 4 

Ginger - half an inch 

Salt - according to taste
Black salt - according to taste

Red chilli powder - half teaspoon 

Cumin seeds -  1 tablespoon

Lemon juice - half 

Way to go:

Clean. Wash. Grind. Enjoy!

Tips:

1. Lemon juice and tomato provide enough moisture for grinding. If not, add some water.

2. Add a bit of raw mustard oil to your portion. My Bengali cook gave me this tip and I love it!

3. This chutney can be made weekly or fortnightly. I make a batch and freeze half of it. When needed, I remove it from freezer and keep in fridge overnight. 

Instant Handvo

One morning, my neighbour knocked at the door to borrow a little gram flour. She was making handvo and promised to bring me some when done. What she got were delicious, soft and steaming pancakes. Handvo fit perfectly in my kind of recipes - fast to cook, good to eat and healthy for the body. It's an excellent meal for a cold or rainy evening. It's also a great finger food for little ones and makes a great addition to lunch box menu.

Makes : 2-3 handvos

Ingredients:
Semolina raw - 1 cup
Gram flour - 1/4th cup
Sour curd - 1/2 cup
Bottle gourd or mixed veggies - grated, 1 cup  like carrot, cabbage, ridge gourd, spinach, methi etc.
Ginger-chilly paste - 1 tablespoon
Curry leaves - 8-10 chopped. Chopped leaves means that everyone would actually eat curry leaves which are packed with nutrition.
Coriander leaves - chopped.
Red chilly powder - a pinch
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Eno - 1/2 teaspoon for each handvo. Or add a pinch of baking soda for each handvo.

For seasoning-
Sesame seeds - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Way to Go:
1. Mix semolina, gram flour, curd, vegetables and all the spices. The batter should be thick. You can add water if the batter is too thick.
2. Heat a griddle or a wok. I like to use an iron griddle.
3. Spread some oil on the griddle.
4. Take batter for one handvo in a separate bowl. Add eno and mix.
5. When the griddle is hot, add mustard seeds and let them splatter. Add sesame seeds.
6. Immediately, spread the batter on griddle. Pour half a teaspoon oil all around it.
7. Cover the griddle with a lid. Let the flame be medium.
8. After 2-3 minutes, check handvo. The top side would have dried up. Flip it and let the other side cook for a while.
9. When both sides are done, your handvo is ready.
10. You can make quarters and serve immediately with ketchup or green chutney.
11. Take another portion of the batter and mix eno in it only before spreading it on the griddle. This way, each handvo will turn out to be fluffy.

Mushroom Pasta

Pizza and pasta have taken tastebuds across the globe by storm. Our home is no exception. We all love to eat pizzas outside but I have gotten good at making mushroom pasta at home. Pasta cheers up little A anytime and is a good school lunch too. 

Ingredients:

For mushroom pasta:

1. Pasta - 200 gms
2. Button mushrooms - 300 gms

3. Bell Pepper - optional, 1 small, finely chopped
4. Onion - 1 medium

5. Garlic - 2 fat pods
6. Any other veggies like beans, carrots or spinach. All finely chopped.

7. Olive oil - 3 table spoons

8. Marinara sauce - 200 gms. I buy the ready, organic one. You can make your own sauce too by following the recipe given below.

9. Shredded cheese (mozarella) - 4 tablespoons

10. Fresh or dry herbs - oregano, basil

For pasta sauce (if you're making your own sauce): 

1. Ripe tomatoes - 10

2. Garlic - 1 pod, chopped finely

3. Fresh or dried Italian herbs - basil, oregano, thyme etc. 

Way to go:

How to make red pasta sauce:

1. Blanch tomatoes. Skin them when cool. Chop roughly.

2. Heat oil. When it gets warm, add chopped garlic. Add tomatoes. 

3. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add fresh or dried herbs.  

Mushroom pasta:

1. Choose pasta of your choice. I buy organic, whole wheat pasta. Boil it according to instructions on the packet, with salt and a little oil.

2. Wash mushrooms thoroughly and slice them. Chop bell peppers, garlic and other veggies finely. 

3. Heat oil in a pan. Add garlic when oil gets warm. After 30 seconds, add onions. 
4. After a couple of minutes, add mushrooms. If you like, you can add bell pepper, beans and carrots. I am a big mushroom fan and love only mushrooms in my pasta. But if I run short of mushrooms, I add other veggies too. Add some herbs at this point too.

5. When mushrooms are done, add marinara sauce and herbs and simmer for 3-4 minutes. If you can find fresh herbs, especially basil, you can taste heaven! I add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the pasta as the sauce is generally too tart for my taste. 
6. Add boiled pasta and cheese. I like to add chilly flakes to  my plate for that extra zest.

7. Serve piping hot. 

Quinoa khichdi

One fine Californian evening, I got introduced to this dish by my sister-in-law. I tell you, it was love at first bite! It somehow reminded me of those bhajans, where you retain a filmi tune and just change the lyrics. In this case, the recipe was the same, only sabudana was replaced with quinoa. I detest that practice for bhajans but absolutely loved it in a recipe. 

We all love sabudana khichdi in our family. Hence this healthier twist to it was a welcome addition to my arsenal. Quinoa is considered to be one of the superfoods. It is a fill-in-the-blank for protein requirement in vegetarian diets. I tried incorporating it in our diet in the form of rajma-quinoa but got a thumbs down. Now I am happy that little A and big D can be made to eat quinoa, minus the screwing up of noses and the accompanying drama. Another advantage of this khichdi is that it can be made instantly, as opposed to sabudana, which has to be soaked at least for 4-5 hours.

Serves - 3 

Ingredients:

Quinoa - 1 cup

Potatoes - 2 medium, boiled and crushed OR raw and diced

Peanuts - roasted and crushed OR powdered

Oil or ghee - 1.5 table spoons

Curry leaves - 6-8

Green chillies - 2 -3

Cumin seeds - 1 table spoon

Coriander leaves - a handful, washed and chopped

Salt - according to taste
Pepper - couple of pinches
Sugar - 1 teaspoon (optional)

Lemon juice - 1 table spoon

Way to Go:

1. Boil potatoes. Skin and break them by hand. If you want to use raw potatoes, peel and dice them.
2. In a pan, boil one cup of quinoa with 2 cups of water. 

3. Heat oil or ghee and add cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chillies. Add potatoes.

4. Crush peanuts. They can be crushed or powdered depending on one's preference. When potatoes are done 3/4th, add peanuts. 

5. Add boiled quinoa, salt and pepper powder. Mix well. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes on low flame. Add sugar.

6. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Add lime juice and mix well. Serve piping hot.

My Tips:

1. To reduce my time in kitchen, I put potatoes to boil in advance. When they are ready to be peeled, I put quinoa to boil. On another burner, I start sautéing potatoes. While they are being done, I crush peanuts, chop coriander and get lemon juice ready. By the time potatoes and peanut mix is ready, quinoa is ready to be added. 
2. You can adjust the quantities of ghee or (oil), chillies and pepper according to your taste.
3. You can add grated coconut or fresh pomegranate kernels for garnishing and added taste.

Paired with broccoli slaw salad, this is a complete meal. You can also pair this khichdi with a hearty mango lassi or aam raita (amarta) in summers and any soup in winters.

Laapsi - a traditional Rajasthani dessert

Laapsi - kadhi

Laapsi is a traditional Rajasthani dessert. It can be found on menus across jeemans (a traditional sit-down meal to celebrate an occasion). Laapsi is a triple whammy of sorts as it is easy to cook, is delicious and to top it all, is nutritious too. Kadhi is my favourite accompaniment with laapsi. I like to pit my sweet tastebuds against the savory ones and preside on the debate as I douse them alternatively with the sweetness of laapsi and tanginess of kadhi! The battle generally draws in favour of whatever the cook has done a better job with, but if both are well made, then it's a difficult but an eventual draw.

One day, when I hadn't cooked or even planned anything for dinner, I was rummaging my mind for a quick-fix. Suddenly , I remembered laapsi and went to the kitchen with a spring in my step.

Ingredients:

Broken wheat or daliya : 1 cup

Ghee : Can range from 4 tbsp to 1 tbsp. The more, the tastier!

Water : 4 cups 

Jaggery (or sugar) : A little less than 1 cup. If you lean towards less sweet, go for 3/4th cup. 

Cardamom : 6-8 pods, crushed

Almonds : Sliced, 1 tablespoon

Saffron: a pinch, dissolved in a teaspoon of milk

You can use sugar in place of jaggery but I prefer jaggery as it wins on nutrition and authenticity quotient. I had organic gud (jaggery) from my father's village, so loved it all the more. 

Way to go:

1. Pour ghee in a pressure cooker. Roast daliya on low-medium flame for about 7-10 minutes till it turns golden brown.
2. Add water and broken jaggery. Mix well. 

3.Pressure cook with 3- 4 whistles. Keep on low flame for 2 minutes. 

4.Garnish with diced almonds, cardamom and raisins.

5. Serve piping hot just like that or with hot kadhi. 

I love the dark brown colour!