Moong Bhajiyas

Ingredients

• 2 cups soaked moong dal (with the skins)
• 3 green chillies
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• oil for frying

This recipe is so simple to make it is ridiculous. Yet it tastes heavenly.

Just blend all the ingredients to a paste with as little water as possible. Heat the oil in a deep pan and drop the batter in the oil a few portions at a time. Deep fry till it is golden brown all over. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or sweet date and tamarind chutney.

Happy Breakfast and Happy Cooking!

Vareka Uperi - Raw Banana and Black eyed beans curry

Here's something new to do with raw banana. Now I know you all are going think that I have some sort of banana fixation. Let me assure you that I have nothing of that sort. It is just that I have somehow been finding myself a little banana-ful lately.

All I knew to do with raw bananas was Avial and a Gujarati preparation. Anyway here's something fantastic that I stumbled upon and it is super-easy to make.

Ingredients

• 1/4th cup black eyed beans
• 2 raw bananas
• 1 tsp jeera (cumin) seeds
• 3 to 4 green chillies
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup grated coconut
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 -3 dry chillies
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• a few curry leaves
• 1 tsp oil

Pressure cook the beans in plenty of water till they are soft. Chop the raw bananas and mix them with the beans.
Grind the cumin, green chillies, garlic, turmeric and coconut to a paste.

Heat the beans and bananas in a pan and make a well in the center.  Add the ground paste in this well. Cover and let it simmer for three to four minutes.

In a separate pan, heat the oil and add the mustard, red chillies, curry leaves and onions. Fry for a few minutes and add it to the  banana-bean mixture. Add salt and mix up the whole stuff. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes and serve hot!

The first thing my husband said after he tasted this was... Mmmm... Yumm!!

Happy Cooking!

Stuffed Casserole

A slightly time consuming recipe by Ms. Tarla Dalal from her amazing cookbook Exciting Vegetarian Cooking.
 It tastes excellent. Just the right combination of sweet, sour, spicy. It did incorporate a lot of refined flour (maida) and God-knows-how-much butter. So I altered it somewhat to make it healthier. There are some aspects of the recipe which are still fattening, but then I guess, I am not that calorie conscious either.

Ingredients

For the pancakes

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt to taste
• water (as needed)

For the stuffing

• 1 cup mixed vegetables finely chopped (cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, french beans)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp chopped garlic
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary 
• salt to taste 

For the casserole

• 1 cup white sauce
• 1 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 cup baked beans
• 3 tbsp grated cheese
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• butter (optional)

For the white sauce

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp refined flour (maida)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder

First make the white sauce
 Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the refined flour and fry well till it bubbles. Add the milk and pepper powder. Stir well to avoid lumps. If lumps do form eventually, blend it in a mixer.

Now the pancakes
Mix all the ingredients of the pancakes, and add water little by little to make medium soft dough. Divide it into 4 to 5 small portions and roll out each portion into a very very papery thin chapati.

Stuffing
Heat olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. Saute for a minute and add the rosemary. Now add all the chopped vegetables, red chilli powder and cover with a lid. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes stirring occasionally or until the vegetables are cooked. Add salt to taste.  

Assemble
Spoon out a teaspoon or two of the stuffing into the pancakes. Seal it shut using a little bit of water. Keep them aside. Now in a casserole dish apply a small layer of white sauce, then top it off with ketchup. Place the stuffed pancakes side by side on to these layers.

Keep layering the white sauce, ketchup and pancakes in this way. The ketchup layer should be  last. Line along the sides with baked beans. Sprinkle a tsp of oregano and paprika, and top it off with grated cheese.

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees centigrade and place the casserole in it. Bake for about 20 minutes and serve hot!

Okay well, I know that this photograph is not as great as some of the other pictures on this blog. I'll promise to do better next time.

Happy Cooking!

Shahi Methi Rajma Curry

Having to cook for many people can be a daunting task. My husband's maternal uncle and aunt and their son are here for some time. While it is really exciting to have so many people over at my house, I really do wish they were more of rice-eaters. Making thirty chappatis morning and evening is not only difficult, but boring even, in this hot and humid weather. But cook we must, and therefore we should try to find some recipes that are not all that elaborate.

I made this no fuss no frills curry for the same reason. It is easy to make and really yummy to eat.

Ingredients

• 1 cup kidney beans or rajma soaked in warm water overnight
• A handful of methi leaves chopped finely
• 1 medium onion
• 7 to 8 flakes of garlic
• 4 to 5 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 to 3 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 to 2 tsp garam masala powder
• a pinch of asafoetida or hing
• 1/2 cup curds or yoghurt
• 2 tsp oil
• salt to taste

 Pressure cook rajma and methi leaves together. Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. Once they begin to change color add the cloves and bay leaf. Fry for a minute and let the oil soak up some of the aroma of the spices. Now add the chopped onion and chopped garlic.

Add the turmeric, hing, red chilli powder and garam masala powder. Now pour the pressure cooked kidney beans and methi into the pan. Add salt to taste and the beaten yoghurt. Serve hot with chappati or rice.

And not to forget....

Happy Cooking!

Upwas Pumpkin Soup

This recipe is my own creation. Although seemingly there is very little permutation combination that you can do with the available few upwas ingredients, this soup is testimony that upwas food need not be boring.

Try this one the next time you are fasting.

Ingredients

• 150 grams red pumpkin peeled and chopped into large pieces
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder 
• 1-2 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 pinches of anar-dana (pomegranate seeds) powder
• 2 cups water
• salt
• 3 cups water
• grated cheese (optional)

Make sure that the ingredients you use were never used for any other type of cooking before, otherwise they won't be suited for the fast. I do keep separate butter, salt, pepper, red chilli powder and cheese for fasting.

Heat the butter in a saucepan, and add the cumin seeds. Once they have begun to change color, add the pepper powder, red chilli powder, anar dana powder salt and the chopped pumpkin. Saute on high flame for 3 minutes then add one cup of water. Allow the water to boil. Then reduce the flame to medium and simmer for ten minutes or till the pumpkin pieces have turned soft.

Cool the soup for sometime and then blend it in a blender. Add two more cups of water to the smooth creamy mixture and boil once again for 3 to 4 minutes.


Garnish with grated cheese and coriander and serve!

Happy Cooking!