Aloo Pudina | Baby Potatoes simmered in a spiced mint and fried onion sauce

It was a whirlwind India trip last month, imagine travelling to 6 cities in 3 weeks, thats what we did. Constant travel and things to do all of the time I stayed there. I had a great time during my sisters wedding, imagine kalyana saapudu for 10 days ;), meeting all of my extended family after a really long time, learning some super authentic recipes from them and the list goes on. Thats a valid excuse to have ignored this space for quite a while :D. Hopefully I will be back to regular blogging soon.

This minty aloo is from before the India trip. Yummy baby potato curry from 660 curries book by Raghavan Iyer. I have made a few modifications to the recipe to bump up the hotness of the dish and S loved it. It was a very different taste - thats what happens every time you choose a recipe from this book. You end up with a taste that you hadn't cooked before and I love that. This book makes you experiment and changes your regular style of cooking. It makes you test weird combinations and challenges you to do something different. On to the recipe now.

Ingredients

Source - Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer
Serves - 2
Spice Level - Medium
Prep time - 30 min
Cook time - 10 min

Baby potatoes - 1 pound
Oil - 2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Tomato Paste - 1 Tbsp
Firmly packed mint leaves - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Kashmiri Garam Masala - 1 Tsp
Green chillies - 2
Dry red chillies - 2
Garlic pods - 4
Fried Onion paste - 1/4 cup [See below for recipe]
Salt - as per need

How do you do it

1. Mince the green chillies, red chillies and garlic pods together and keep aside. Whisk together the fried onion paste, tomato paste, 1 cup water and salt. Keep aside.

2. Peel the baby potatoes and wash them well. Boil the baby potatoes until they are 1/2 cooked. Do not over-cook them. Drain and keep aside.

3. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the green-red chilli- garlic mix and saute for a minute. Add jeera/cumin seeds and let it roast.

4. Add the potatoes now and stir fry them well until they turn a shade of light brown - for about 10 minutes

5. Pour the onion-tomato mix now over the potatoes and cook them in low flame, occasionally basting the potatoes in the sauce until they are fork-tender, about 5 minutes.

6. Stir in the mint leaves and garam masala now and mix well. Serve with roti or any simple pulao of your choice


Fried onion Paste

** Requires 1 red onion - thinly sliced

1. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the thinly sliced red onion and saute in medium flame for about 15 minutes until they turn shade of deep brown. Keep stirring constantly to avoid burning of the onions.

2. Cool the onions and grind them into a smooth paste with little water and keep aside.

Continue Reading >>

Mushroom Lobia Malai

This dish is inspired by the traditional Methi Matar Malai north indian curry for rotis. Mushroom has always been one of my favorite vegetables and lobia [ black eyed peas] is the new addition in that list. I wanted to make something different combining muhsroom and lobia and ended up making this creamy and delicious curry. Though no tomatoes are used in the traditional malai based savory dish, I have added a spoon of tomato paste in this dish for the tangy flavor. Enjoy this creamy mushroom lobia gravy with rotis or your favorite pulao.

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Prep Time - 30 min
Cook time - 30 min
Spice Level - Moderate

Onion - 1 small sized, chopped finely
Mushroom - 200 gm, chopped into thin pieces
Lobia [Black eyed pea] - 1/2 cup
Tomato paste - 1.5 Tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1 Tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Leaves - 1/4 cup, finely chopped
Milk - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup or more as needed
salt - as per need
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp

To fry and grind to a paste

Onion - 1 Large, sliced into thin pieces
Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 Tsp
Cloves - 2
Green chilli - 5
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Cashews - 6

How do you do it

1. First soak lobia overnight and pressure cook it for 1-2 whistles. Drain and keep aside the cooked lobia

2. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the cloves, cumin and let it roast. Add the sliced onions, ginger garlic paste and green chilli. Saute till the onion turns a  light brown shade. Switch off flame, cool and grind into a smooth paste along with the cashews. Keep aside.

3. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a kadai. Add cumin seeds to roast. Add the chopped onion and saute till its cooked. Add the mushrooms and saute for 3-4 minutes. Once they turn shiny, add the ground paste and saute well for 5-7 minutes.

4. Add the tomato paste and saute for another couple of minutes. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder and give it a good stir.

5. Add the milk and water and mix well. Add required salt and in low flame simmer the gravy for 5-10 minutes until it reaches desired consistency. Add more water if you desire a loose curry.

6. Switch off flame, garnish with coriander leaves. Squeeze in the lemon juice just before serving.

Serve this yummy curry with any kind of Indian flat bread or pulao.

Continue Reading >>

Easy and simple Veg Biryani

I have tried many different versions of vegetable biryanis over the last few years and nothing has come this close to being a favorite. This recipe that I have here now is what I would call my Vegetable Biryani winner in the "Easy Biryani" category. It all started out with a packet of mint remaining in my vegetable drawer section that I wanted to use it somehow and be done with it.  I strongly feel any kind of biryani is incomplete without mint. The mint leaves gives that kind of addictive and crazy "wanting for more" taste at the end of each mouthful. With some mint, ginger-garlic paste, and handful of mixed veggies this super quick biryani fix could make your day :)

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 15 min
Cook time 15 min

Red Onion - 1 , thinly sliced
Cauliflower florets - 7, cut into bite sized pieces
Frozen green Peas - 1/4 cup
Carrot - 1 , cut into small pieces
Beans - 7, cut into small pieces
Mushroom - 5 pieces , sliced into pieces
Tomato - 1 , cubed into medium sized pieces
Bay leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Curry/Red chilli powder - 1 Tsp
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Basmati Rice - 1.25 cups

To grind to a paste

Mint leaves - 1/2 cup loosely packed [
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Green chilli - 5
cloves - 2
cardamom - 2
Fennel seeds - 1 Tsp

How do you do it

1. First wash the basmati rice well and soak the basmati rice in enough water for 20 minutes. Meanwhile grind the ingredients under " to grind to a paste" with little water and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add bay leaf, cinnamon and jeera seeds and wait for the jeera seeds to roast. Add the sliced onions and saute until they turn transparent, for about 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the ground paste now and red chilli/curry powder and saute for 3 minutes. Add all the veggies now except cauliflower and saute for a couple of minutes. Cauliflower is added last because we dont want them to be overcooked.

4. Drain the soaked rice now and add it to the cooker. Saute for another 2 minutes.

3. Add 1.5 cups of water now, required salt [ about 3 tsp ], cauliflower pieces and close the pressure cooker. After pressure starts coming out [it will take 1-2 minutes], then put the weight on. Keep flame in medium, Cook for 8 minutes exactly starting from the time you closed the pressure cooker with lid.

4. Keep aside until pressure releases naturally. Remove the cooker lid now and fluff well with a fork.


Serve this yummy biryani with the traditional onion raitha and chips for an absolutely splendid meal.

Continue Reading >>