Simple Spinach

Boil/steam for just 2 minutes and blanch it.

cook spinach in a pan with a little butter, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and nutmeg. Toss until wilted season to taste and serve.

now say voila! :)

Make room for Mushroom!

My experience with Mushroom has been - 'yummy'!! n it continues :)

Chop button mushrooms of about 200 gms ,each in 4 pieces. Put mustard seeds and golden fry onion,crushed garlic,dry red chillis and curry leaves.
When onion are golden, add coriander powder,turmeric,red chilli powder,chicken masala and salt.



 Saute for 5 minutes. Add mushroom and cook for 5 minutes. Add a cup of water depending on how gravy you want it to be. Cook for 10 minutes more.

 

Okra Kulambu

Curd is a staple diet of South India.This innocent piece in the fridge can turn a simple lunch or dinner tastier by its many facets.Kulambu is a popular dish of SI and wide variety of dishes can be made from it.

For 2 people Okra Kulambu you need ,

About 10-15 Okras,chopped and steamed in half a cup of water.
Mix 1 large cup of curd, 1 tsp coriander powder,1 tsp red chilli powder,1/2 tsp besan powder,
salt and 1 tbsp water.
Seasoning -  1 tsp each of cumin,fenel,mustard seeds. Curry leaves. 1 tsp hing powder

Heat oil and let the seasoning heat till the seeds burst. Add the curd mixture and the okra.Cook till it boils,mixing continuously. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
Garnish with Coriander leaves 

All Masala Lamb curry

Tender lamb is delectable and most tastiest when combined with the spices. Another experimental weekend and topped off with deserts too!!

For about 700 gms of lamb, which would be about 25 medium cubes, you would need the following

1 large onion very finely chopped or better still paste,1 heapspoon of GG or ginger garlic paste - saute till onion is golden brown
1 tsp turmeric,2 heaps red chilli powder,2 heaps cumin powder,3 heaps coriander powder,1 tsp pepper powder

Saute the cubes till they are slightly brown.Then shift them to a cooker. Saute the onion and GG paste with the spices for 5 minutes. Shift this too. Add water which covers the mix till a quarter more. After 5minutes of cooking add 2 heaps of garam masala,1 tsp chilli flakes and salt. Close lid and cook on medium flame for 7-8 whistles.

Serve with steamed rice or kulcha.
 

Spinaching the pasta

I had Pasta Spinach a week ago at an event and though I do not remember anything else much from the horrible buffet,the taste of this particular dish did stick to me. The delicious pasta was liberally coated with olive oil and the taste of spinach leaves was simply superb.

For all those who love pasta but are annoyed by the rubbery feel of it,should make sure it is cooked with good amount of water content. This doesn't mean simply adding in water. Spinach contains enough water content which is brought out along with its flavour while cooking.

Put pasta in boiling water and cook till its edible. Drain and keep. You may keep a little water separately for cooking.

Chop and cook spinach like you would normally cook it. You can opt between just adding the leaves and the stems you can chop very finely. In olive oil,add dry red chilli flakes,chopped spring onions and ginger garlic paste.You need not even put onion and turmeric if you do not want. I tried and the taste was not very different. When the spinach is cooked well enough,add the pasta, a lump of cheese and mix well. If the pasta feels sticky,you can add a dollop of olive oil. Remember to cook for 5 minutes more and taste before you serve to check the raw taste of oil goes away.

You can opt to add sausages,by cooking and then adding the chopped pieces or simply serving it along with pasta.

Livery Fry

The iron enabled chicken liver is finger licking tasty when combined with the right spices. This week has been all about Basil leaves. And I wanted to try basil on liver too.

Mix 2 tsps red chilli powder,1 tsp each of garam masala,coriander and pepper powder. Add salt,pinch of turmeric and chopped basil leaves. Mix it all well with a little water which makes a slight heavy paste. Marinate the liver in this and keep it so. Cook onion,and ginger garlic paste till it looks slightly brownish.
Keeping the liver pieces separate,add only the paste and chopped tomatoes to this and cook. Let cook till the water evaporates(in case you want it dry). Add the liver and mix slowly so as not to break them. Cover and keep mixing till the liver is semi fried.

Garnish with basil leaves. Told you...it's basil week!!! :-) Always serve and have it hot.

Check out prawns and spaghetti dish right here

Confused on weekends? Maybe you should read this !!

Playing hard to get Chickpea !

I swear Kabuli chana alias Chickpea is one tough nut to crack. Yes, pun intended, and to be more specific, it is one tough legume to cook! I  was all in the mood to cook a nice dish of chickpea and tomatoes and relax with some FRIENDS shows, but the whole evening went in checking and rechecking if the chana had cooked which meant opening ,closing and reopening the cooker lid some 25000 times! Yes exaggerating! duh!

So just for all those hardworking and also lazy guys who want to try cooking this filling and delicious dish, remember to keep aside time to just let it cook,which would be about 10 whistles in the cooker,covering it with water till 2 levels up.

Once this battle is won,it's relatively easy to make this. Mix onion,green chilli,turmeric with tomato puree and let cook for 10 minutes. The raw taste of the puree should go away. Then add the chana,red chilli powder,garam masala and let simmer for 15 minutes,depending on how cooked it is. The icing (actually ) is the nice smell of coriander leaves which garnishes it.

Quick Gun Capsicum

I woke up today morning and was in a hurry. As usual ,I was thinking what to pack for lunch and was clearly not interested in buying oily food from the office cafeteria. I remembered a lonely piece of capsicum in the veg tub in the fridge and thought will cook up something fast. That’s a pro on this nutritional vegetable, native to America. You can prepare it very quick and with the right spices it’s really tasty.

Since I had just 1 with me ,I added tomatoes too. In warm olive oil,put half an onion and small green chilli chopped. Add a pinch of turmeric and mix well. Put the capsicum first and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes,mix ,cover and cook for 5-6 minutes till Capsi is done. I experimented with basil leaves coz that’s my fascination for this week. The aroma just made me wanna buy this also beautiful looking leaves from Namdhari’s, known for it’s good collection of herbs.

Can’t believe I got it done in 20 minutes. Will not miss the bus today ! :-)

Since you saved up on time and can timepass check out what some pics can say in more than 1000 words.


I'm travelling...I mean right in my kitchen!! Taste popular dishes from around the globe 

Dill leaves and Potato -ballet style !

Dill leaves look beautiful . Tiny fern like plants. It’s nice to wash them in water than subject them to heat and gross red chillies. Anyways...people need to eat.

Cutting them is a little time consuming as you need to remove the semi hard stem separately. Chop a bunch of them and meanwhile pressure cook 2 large potatoes.

For seasoning you need urad dal,dry red chillies,mustard seeds,hing and cumin seeds. Put all of these in a warm non stick pan and add oil. Once urad dal is slightly brown and the mustard seeds splutter,add the potatoes,dill ,2 chopped green chillies,3 cloves of garlic mashed and turmeric.

Here’s where the ballet comes in picture. You need to be careful while mixing the stuff. Your hand goes ,literally in those graceful ballet moves and you need to move your torso also in the direction of your hand. Ok, that was exaggeration.

The semi cooked potato has a tendency of sticking to the pan like Yash Chopra had of sticking to SRK all the fore years!. So mix it,the stuff in the pan ,carefully,rounding off from the sides. Then for 5 minutes,cook covered. Open and mix. Ensure they don’t burn (needless to say) and cover again for 5 minutes.

Serve (if successful) with steamed rice or ofcourse,whatever you have.

Zimply chicken

Long weekend. Lazy Friday. NOTHING to do. chicken in freezer. Nobody at home.
Boneless chicken pieces. Chilli flakes. Dijon mustard paste. Curry powder . Garam masala. Ginger garlic paste.
Mix all with water and cook in cooker. 6 whistles. Layer with sour cream cheese.
Thats why long weekends are good...you can lick your fingers till Sunday night !! :)

Voila! I discovered the simplest chicken ever !!