Spicy Baby Potato Roast

I started planning a hurried Saturday lunch menu and decided on the pulka-dal-jeera aloo [Indian Flat Bread/Lentils/Cumin flavoured potato] combo. Why hurried? you may ask but that's usually how my Saturday lunches happen. I have been insisting on minimizing having food outside and the weekends are a big hindrance to this mission. If we end up having lunch at home on Saturdays, we pretty much spend the day at home - that just happens. We start the day waking up quite late and I hurry to get something done before lunch and by the time we finish our lunch its well past noon and then its time for the afternoon slumber which can happen only on the weekends again, so you see how the story of my lazy Saturday goes? :-). So hopefully we can settle into a more active Saturday soon and also have lunch at home.

Now that I have rambled on like i always do, I shall get into the baby potato relevant talk now! So what started out as jeera aloo moved to jeera baby aloo and then I wanted some color for the potato, to be more precise, red color and hence came the spicy masala coated jeera baby potatoes :). The only time consuming activity is peeling the potatoes here, but after that its a breeze! Marinate the boiled baby potatoes in spicy mix and saute them in oil for a few minutes and we have a very spicy and moist flavorful potatoes ready to play with your taste buds.

Ingredients

Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 15 min + 30 min marination time
Cook time - 3-5 min

Baby Potatoes - 15
Tomato paste - 1 Tbsp or puree one medium sized tomato
Turmeric - 1/4 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 Tsp
Lemon juice - 1/2 Tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Oil - 1 Tbsp + 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 Tbsp
Hing/Asafoetida - 1 generous pinch
Coriander Leaves to garnish - 1 Tbsp

How do you do it

1. Boil and peel the baby potatoes until they are tender but firm. Do not overcook them, they will loose shape while you saute them later. So take care to boil them properly without it loosing its shape and collapsing. Its OK to under-cook it a little. With a fork poke a few holes into the baby potatoes gently. Keep aside.

2. Mix tomato paste [or tomato puree] with all the spices powders, salt and 1 Tbsp water. Pour this over the baby potatoes along with 1 Tbsp oil and wrap well so they are coated well. Let these rest for 30 minutes.

3.Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a pan. Add hing and mustard, when they pop add the jeera/cumin and let them roast giving an aroma. Add the marinated potatoes now and saute well in low/medium flame until the paste sticking to the potatoes cook well and all the flavors come together.

4. Check for seasoning , add more salt or spice powders if need. Adjust according to taste.

5.Switch of flame, add lemon juice and coriander leaves and mix well.

Serve with steamed rice or Rotis/Naan for a filling lunch!

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Poondu Karuvepillai Thokku/ Garlic-Curry Leaves Paste for Steamed Rice

I am extremely fond of traditional South Indian recipes, my love for them just grows with each new dish I uncover. Garlic and curry leaves are two of my most favorite ingredients and surprisingly I have never made anything with curry leaves as the hero of the dish until now. I use curry leaves quite extensively, but just as a tempering element in all the dishes. When I stumbled on this video of Chef Damu making a Poondu Karuvepillai Kuzhambu [Garlic-Curry Leaves Paste], I wanted to try it almost immediately. And that is exactly what I did. All the ingredients mentioned in the recipe are a staple in an Indian Kitchen and you can make this thokku [Paste] as soon as you have finished reading this here on FoodOverIP :). The curry leaves puree added in the dish gives that brilliant thickness and unique flavor to the dish and along with Garlic, you have something very healthy!

If you are sighing about peeling garlic - use this tip on how to peel garlic within seconds and I am sure you will not put away of making Garlic based dishes anymore ;).

Other Garlic based dishes on FoodOverIP

Garlic Rosemary Focaccia
Garlic Shallots Curry
Garlic Rosemary Potato Wedges

Ingredients

Recipe Source - Chef Damu
Serves - 3
Prep Time - 15 min
Cook time - 15 min
Spice Level - Moderate

Garlic - 12-15 cloves peeled
Curry Leaves - 1 Handful
Tomatoes - 2 small or 1 Large, pureed
Onion - 1, medium sized, sliced thinly
Tamarind Paste - 1 Tbsp mixed with 1 cup water
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1/2 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 4 tsp [adjust according to spice level]
Coriander Powder [Dhaniya] - 3 Tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 Tsp
Dry Red Chilli - 2
Green Chillies - 2, slit lengthwise
Mustard - 1 Tsp
Urad Dal - 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs to temper
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Salt - as per taste

How do you do it

1. Saute the curry leaves in about a tsp of oil in a pan for a couple of minutes until they start to crisp. Cool and blend with 1/4 cup water in your food processor/mixer-grinder. Keep aside

2. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a pan/kadai. Add the mustard and let them pop. Add the urad dal and let it roast. Add in the whole red chillies [ don't break them] and curry leaves and saute for a minute.

3. Add in the sliced onions and saute for 2 minutes. Add in the garlic, ginger-garlic paste and saute until the onions and garlic are cooked - about 3-4 minutes.

4. Add the tomato puree now, turmeric powder and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Add in the curry leaves paste made in step 1 along with the tamarind paste mixed with water and boil for 3-4 minutes on low-medium flame.

5. Add the red chilli powder, coriander powder, green chillies, salt and mix well. Cook until a thick consistency is formed and oil starts to float above the curry.

6. You can add water if you like a thinner consistency and boil for a few more minutes. Switch off flame.

This goes very well with Dosai, Idli and Steamed Rice. Enjoy.

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Paneer Tikka - Restaurant Style

One of the most happiest things about having moved to the US is the oven range in my kitchen :). It is with so much ease that I can make tikkas, cakes, muffins etc using this proper oven range. The OTG I used back home was just enough to get me started off with baking, grilling etc but I couldn't really do big things with that. For example, Paneer/Chicken tikkas never turned out that great in OTG's, they were quite dry and it took way too much time, and eventually I gave up trying to make the tikkas work in my OTG. The reason why I hadn't posted any kind of grilled Paneer/Chicken/Fish recipe here is primarily because I just wasn't satisfied with the outcome in my OTG.

But now that I have the full range oven that I had wanted for a really long time, we are going to see more of grilled stuff in FoodOverIP. The spice powders that make up the marination for the Paneer just tickled all the taste buds and you would cry for more of it with every bite :). I made this delicious Paneer tikka to pair with healthy Broccoli Parathas for a late Saturday lunch and it was the best lunch I had in the last few months!

Its an easy one if you have all the spice powders and yogurt, just mix up everything to coat the Paneer, rest it for a couple of hours, grill them for 5 minutes and you have Restaurant style Paneer Tikkas ready. I would recommend you to use all the spice powders and not miss any of them. They are the most important ingredients that make up for the taste and missing one-two of them would significantly modify the taste. Also if you have some marinade left, you could use some other veggie [I used mushroom] with it and grill them and have a great snack some other time. 

I forgot to add , I am a total "starter" person. I would just not be satisfied if I went to a restaurant and did not order any of the tikkas, kebabs :), so replicating these at home give me immense happiness. If you are like me, you should definitely try this one, they are irresistible :).

Ingredients

Recipe Source - Monsoon Spice
Serves - 2
Spice Level - Moderate
Prep Time - 5 min + 1 hr of resting time
Cook Time - 5 min

Paneer - 250 gm, cut into big square blocks
Oil - 1 Tbsp

For the Marinade
Thick Yogurt - 1.5 cups [ Recommended to use Greek or Hung curd, or normal yogurt but it should not be very sour ]
Tandoori Masala - 1 Tsp
Garam Masala - 1 Tsp
Coriander Powder/Dhaniya - 1 Heaped tsp
Amchur Powder - 1/2 Tsp or substitute with 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
Turmeric Powder 1/4 Tsp
Kitchen King Masala - 1/2 Tsp
Jeera/Cumin Powder -1/2 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 Tsp
Sugar - 1 Tsp
Salt - 1 Tsp

How do you do it

1. Beat the yogurt well to get smooth, silky texture and remove any lumps.

2. Add all the spice powders, sugar, salt one by one and mix well.

3. Add the paneer pieces one by one and coat well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. I rested it for an hour and it was perfect.

4. Take a cookies sheet and line it with parchment paper. Coat it with a tbsp of oil. Arrange the paneer pieces on it and grill with high setting for 2-3 minutes.

5. Take the cookie sheet out after 2 min, use a tong to turn the paneer pieces to the other side and grill for another 2 minutes until it crisps to a dark brown on the sides.

6. Alternately if you don't have an oven, use a big flat pan, apply some oil on it and toast the marinated paneer pieces on both sides.

Yummy Paneer tikka starter is ready. Enjoy. :)

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