Jeera Rice and dal fry !

Dal & rice is amongst my all time favourites. In some form or the other its always been relished by me all my life. As a little kid, it used to be plain dal with ghee on rice. I still love that. But I need Ghee from a certain dairy in Cochin by name Udaya Dairy. The "neyyu" (ghee) there is out of this world. I'm not a big fan of ghee other than when it is from Udaya ! Mom(and the rest of my family in Cochin) buys butter from there and melts it into ghee and stores it. I love the black residue sorts at the bottom of the vessel. Its yummy !
Ok that was a drift (i'm known for taking long deviations whenever I talk ! Ashok hates that abt me ! I personally love that about myself..hehe)
So the dal and rice evolution. After the " Parippum chaadam" of childhood, it was "varan bhaat" during my days in Pune. A Maharashtrian speciality I would call it. Any time I would go to anyone's house, I would hope they would serve just this dal-rice. Varan Bhaat is so so yummy. And somewhere during college days, Jeera rice and dal fry also become a favourite. I remember, in our college campus there used to be a small restaurant by name "Sahiba". We would die for the jeera rice and dal fry they used to serve there. It was so awesome !

I had no idea whether Ashok would eat this. But my craving for dal rice was building up, and yesterday, I made Jeera Rice and tried out a kind of dal I hadnt made before. I didnt even think twice about trying it out coz I had assumed Ashok wouldnt eat it and this was made just for myself. I was making some other sabzi for him along with roti ! But even Ashok got carried away with the smell of the rice and dal and we ended up eating just that ! Me happy :)

Very easy to cook. Smells good. Tastes awesome. And leaves you with a feeling only simple foods can do to you !

Jeera Rice :

Heat up oil in a pan. Add lots of jeera. Make sure the oil is so hot that the jeera crackles immediately. I like the flavour that the instant crackling brings . Add it to washed basmati rice, add salt, add water and cook the rice.

The dal I made yday needs:
I cup dal - Toor dal, Moong dal, Chana dal - in any proportion you like. I took more than half the quantity of toor dal and some moong dal and a bit of chana dal. )
green chillies
A medium sized onion
ginger garlic paste
curry leaves
corriander leaves
coriander powder - 1tbsp
amchur powder - 1tsp
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
asafoetida - a pinch
ghee, jeera and mustard for tempering
some chopped coriander leaves

Add salt to the dals and cook in a pressure cooker. Heat a little oil in a pan and add green chillies, curry leaves and the onions. Once the onions are transparent, add the ginger garlic paste. Add the cooked dal and adjust the consistency by adding water if needed. Add asafoetida,coriander powder, turmeric powder and amchur powder. Let it boil for about 5 mins. In a separate pan, heat some ghee, add mustard and jeera.
pour it over the dal and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

I added half a tomato too after frying the onions. Thats solely because I had half of it left after making a sandwich for Ashok in the morning. It tasted good with it, but i'm sure it would taste good without it too !
I also added a single dried red chilly as part of the tempering. Thats just because I like the look of it and so felt like adding it.

One more thing about the jeera rice I would want you to try if you love pop corn (eh? what relation ?) !! Leave the jeera rice to cook in an electric cooker and go out of the house for a walk or something. I went to pick up ashok from the rail station while this was cooking and when we returned the house was smelling so good ! I dont know if I was imagining it, but the house was smelling of pop corn ! and I love pop corn ! Which also lead to me picking up one of those pop corn bags and putting it into the microwave today. Yes, I just had to eat pop corn !

Food in Florida

We were on a recent trip to Florida and I think the restaurants we went to, the food we ate and the drinks we had do deserve a mention here for having contributed to the merry we made during the trip :) So here are a few clicks, sadly not everything is covered. Most times, we attacked the food before the camera could capture it !
First Dinner was at Rainforest Cafe at Disney Downtown,Orlando. It was a very well done-up restaurant, true to its theme. We had a good time at the restaurant though it was very very crowded, I loved it coz sometimes you want crowd ! And oh, we were surprised to know that we have one of their branches near our home and we were unaware of it ! When you travel more often than not, you come across some joint that makes you want to go back to the place for, and other times you end up realizing that this option was always available to you but you never knew of it ! In the US, since everything is a chain, you'll most probably end up finding a branch where you stay.
Another good meal was at Hard Rock Cafe inside Universal Studios - my pick from the picture below, Bahama Mama :) Loved the drink.
Olive Garden..my favourite of the lot. Dinner one of the days was at Olive Garden and it was such an awesome one. We ordered one of each course knowing we wouldnt finish anything. But from the soups to the dessert, there were so many tempting dishes that we couldnt help but call for atleast one of each ! Yes, we boxed it and gobbled it up the next day while driving ! Came in handy ofcourse !  In fact we almost decided our preferences for the next time we go to this restaurant. It probably was also coz being vegetarian our first few meals were largely limited to burgers or sandwiches and this meal was a welcome change. No pictures for memory sake,sadly enough, but the taste lingers on !

Dinner at Shalini's house was awesome too. She is a super cook but hates being called that ! So I didnt even think of taking pictures of what she had cooked. Didnt want to risk it all being taken away.. lol ! She had made some quesadillas and fried rice and manchurian and dal and rice and potato curry and not to forget the vanilla souffle for dessert. Ashok and I had a tough time getting to bed that night !  We were so stuffed. Ashok didnt want to waste the opportunity of pampering his taste buds with such exotic home cooked food. And so he stuffed himself to the max he could ! 

And the last one to mention here would be PF Changs. So very very delicious Chinese food. I'd been wanting to eat Chinese for quite some time. We dont have a PF Changs around where we stay. So i'm glad we chose to go there. The lettuce wraps they serve there is out of the world.

Actually I had been to a PF Changs with my cousin in DC when I was on a B1 trip a couple of years ago. But I didnt even remember the name of the place and this time when we went there and Shalini ordered Lettuce Wraps, thats when I knew that this was the place. I can forget the name of the place, but not what I eat ! :)

Pasta Primevera (and a long story!)

It was one of those days when pasta was The Thing to Eat for both of us.And  Pasta Primevera it had to be. I have a thing for stuff that look colourful and food is no exception. I jus love it when there's yellow and green and orange and white all together on the pan. Pasta primevera is defintely one of them and the yummy look of the dish is what drove us right from the start !
So we did the essential shopping..which is as interesting (or more?) as the cooking ! I made sure I bought all the colourful ones.
We'd thought of making this pasta for dinner (coz for us, pasta and wine is like a perfect dinner !) but we couldn't wait and so decided to make it for lunch. There wasn't any interesting lunch option anyways that day! Anytime we cook together, I am always the one to cut all the veggies. I love doing that anyways and this time it was such a joy. All thin and a little long, looking so good put together. And Ashok is always the one to do the stir fry and seasoning part of it. Thats the only way he can claim his way to fame through what he cooks (err..WE cook ) ! Smart.. But I'll be only happy to let him do so coz he is good at what he does and I am happy as long as I get a tasty result to sit down and enjoy :)
I must admit that I regretted for a very long time that I didnt take a picture of the pasta we made. And somehow I felt it was injustice to post this recipe without a picture coz it looked so good. So what we did was, we made this again another day so that we can take a pic. I also admit that the first time it looked much better. But I guess I'll have to do with this pic now and not wait for another eternity to post this ! It tasted awesome anyways. So no regrets :) Guess I'll get down to the recipe now.No sauce to be made for this pasta.





What we need:
Peppers (yellow, green, red)
Zucchini - 1 medium sized.
Tomato - 1 medium sized
Onion - 1 medium sized
Garlic - 2-3 cloves, finely chopped
Grated Parmesan cheese - a handfull.
Pasta - We chose farfalle. It could be penne or anything of your choice.
Some Italian seasoning (I used McCormick Perfect Pinch)
Ground black pepper and salt to taste.
Olive oil to cook in.



Cook the pasta according to the cooking instructions on the packet. Ours took 10-11 mins of boiling.
Drain and keep it aside while the vegetables cook.
Cut all the veggies thin and a little long. Make sure there's a lot of vegetables coz there's no sauce to add to the pasta. So every bite has to have vegetables going in ! Heat a little olive oil in a flat bottomed pan, pop in the garlic, then the onion and then toss the vegetables in it for a few minutes. We definitely do not want to overcook them. Add salt, pepper and the italian seasoning.When the veggies are done, add the pasta to the pan and stir the veggies and pasta together. Add some cheese to bind them together. Stir well and serve ( I mean eat) immediately.

....and we sat down to eat one of the most delicious meals ever. We had wine to go with it. A lovely late lunch with a good conversation to add to the joy ! Yummmm...Cheers !

Methi Paratha

Everytime I make this one, I aim very high ! I give it all I can so that I achieve what I have been wanting for – for it to taste like how Mom makes it. It always ends up good, but never like Mom’s. There’s hardly anything that goes into it. My kneading and rolling skills are better than my Mom’s. But still the flavour is never like hers (when the players are just 2-3 ingredients ! sheesh ! ).When I made this a few days back, I got kinda close to hers and I was happy ! So I consider myself eligible to post this on my blog :)

What we need :
A bunch of fresh methi leaves.
2 spoons of red chilly powder
A pinch of asafoetida (hing)
3 cups of wheat flour (Atta) and water for the dough  (ofcourse!)
Salt

Boil the methi leaves along with salt, asafoetida and chilly powder. Do not add too much water. Add just enough to cook the methi leaves. We do not want to drain out the water and lose out on all the flavour. The leaves need to boil just for abt 2-3 minutes and then let it cool.
In a bowl take the atta and add the methi leaves along with the water onto the atta. Now knead the dough  well, add a little oil in the end and leave it aside for about 20 minutes.
Roll out the parathas thick or thin , the way you prefer them to be. Heat a tawa and cook the parathas on both sides brushing oil on either side before you cook it.

If the flavours are right, you just need curd and pickle to eat along with it. If the flavours are not rich enough,then make a sabzi and pretend to be eating rotis and not methi parathas :)

Tip : If the methi leaves are too bitter, you can remove part of the bitterness by adding a little salt and leaving them for about half an hour before cooking them. Then squeeze out the water from the leaves and start cooking.

Cabbage Molagoottal

Cabbage is one of my favourite vegetables. It adds good value to the meal, its easy to handle and its a flexi vegetable too coz we can make so many dishes with cabbage. Neither fussy nor messy. Love it :) Maybe I should have a separate section in my blog for cabbage dishes..lol ! someday :)
Cabbage molagoottal is easy, quick and the best part is, needs no side dish ! I dont make any side dish when I make this one. We just eat it with plain rice and it tastes awesome. But many a time I end up making rasam along with cabbage molagoottal coz I love the combo. Whenever I make molagoottal (any kind), I'm tempted to make rasam too. But if I'm lazier than usual that day, I dont make it. Not that rasam takes a lot of effort. Thats a very friendly one too :)

What we need : 
A bowl full of chopped cabbage.
Half a cup of toor dal.
3 tbsp of grated coconut
2 green chillies.
2 tbsp urad dal.
1 tbsp jeera
Mustard
Asafoetida
Turmeric powder.
Quite a few curry leaves.

How we make it:
Boil the cabbage in a pan adding just enough water for it to cook.Add turmeric powder, salt and asafoetida.
Cook the toor dal in a pressure cooker.
While this is going on, heat a little oil in a small pan and add mustard and urad dal to it. Let the mustard crackles and the urad dal turn a little brown. Add it to the grated coconut along with the green chillies and jeera. Grind this mixture adding a little water so that its very smooth.
Once the dal and cabbage are cooked, Mash up the dal with a ladle and add it to the cabbage.Add the coconut paste too. Let it all boil together for about 5 minutes. Heat a little oil in a pan and add mustard to it. Once it crackles, add curry leaves and mix it into the molagoottal. Add as many curry leaves as you like coz thats the main flavour and it makes the molagoottal smell delicious !

I was so not in a mood to cook yesterday. Usually I cook around 4-4:30pm coz then I dont have to be in the kitchen after Ashok gets home. Yesterday, I was lazing around doing my own stuff and I couldnt drag myself to the kitchen early and I started cooking very late. But this cabbage molagoottal came to the rescue. Quick and easy and a hearty meal we had last night :) I kind of avoid eating rice at night. Except on days when I have to make something really easy or I'm craving for "home food" . By home food, I still mean what mom cooks :) Exactly what it meant till a few months back when I was staying alone away from home !

Veggie chili with spicy tortilla strips

This was part of our 6 month anniversary dinner. It was a weekday and I wanted to cook something special and unusual. Gave it some thought and zeroed in on this one. We had eaten this a few weeks back when we'd gone skiing. We were at an American restaurant with very limited vegetarian options. Thats when I ate this for the first time.

This could be a special occassion dish.It could be a healer for a cold day or when you are down with cold / fever – a hot and healthy bowl of chili. Its a mexican-american dish I hadnt even heard of till a few weeks back. Now I love this simple dish. Very easy to cook , very healthy and filling.
What we need :
Bell peppers ( I used green and red, one each)
Some corn.
A handful of soaked kidney beans (rajma)
One large onion finely chopped.
2 Tomatoes diced
Ground pepper
Chilli powder.
Italian seasoning.(Optional)
Some parmesan cheese
Any other vegetable you may like to add.

For the tortillas
Wheat flour or maida ( i used wheat flour)
Chilli powder
Salt.

How we make it :
Knead the dough for the tortillas mixing the flour, chilli powder, salt and water (as needed) and keep it aside.
Add salt to the rajma(I don't like the name kidney beans) and cook it in a pressure cooker. They have to be cooked well enough , not "cooked just enough". ( I don't know why I framed this sentence this way !! but I like it !) What I mean to say is that they have to be cooked a little more than how you might cook it usually as a side dish for rotis. So let the cooker whistles keep coming.
Cut the bell peppers in little squarish shapes. Heat olive oil in a pan and saute the onions till transparent.
Add all the other ingredients and saute for a while. Add the cooked rajma (along with the water thats left in the cooker) If the rajma is cooked well, then it automatically binds the veggies together and thickens the dish. Else you can maybe try mashing some of the rajma to achieve the consistency. Cover and cook for 5-6 mins. Serve it hot with some grated Parmesan on top.

The tortilla strips:
Chili is usually eaten with corn tortilla chips. This one is in the form of strips and home made. I stuck to wheat flour. You can make it with any other flour or just buy the tortilla from the store! (When I reread this part, I realized it rhymes!) I couldn't go out and buy any, so ended up making it ! But I'm glad I did.
Roll and spread the dough in any shape you can (coz anyways we are going to cut it into strips !). Roll it thin and cut it into strips of whatever width you want. Heat a tawa/skillet and put the strips on it after you grease it lightly. after a few seconds turn the strips. Press it down with a cloth till one side cooks.Then turn and do the same to the other side. This way the strips become very crisp.

Variations:
You can use any vegetables you want to suit your tastes.
I used one tomato instead of two and added one spoon of pasta sauce (tomato and fire roasted pepper). It tasted really good !
You can use black beans instead of rajma. Black beans is more commonly used in Mexican food.
You can bake the tortilla strips. I tried,  but mine didn't come out crisp from the oven.
Chili is also served over spaghetti. Its called cincinnati chili. I haven't tried this but want to sometime soon.

Stuffed Baingan

There are two kinds of people. The ones who hate brinjals and the ones who absolutely love brinjals.
I hate brinjals. Till a few months back, I wouldnt have eaten a piece of brinjal even if that was the only sabzi on the table ! I hate the taste,texture, everything about it. But for some reason (and I know what that is), I enjoy cooking brinjal.

I have always had friends who love brinjals and we end up eating it frequently. Though I just stick to the gravy and never the star vegetable of the dish ! And this particular sabzi is the masterpiece of my good friend Jitu. He began cooking a couple of years back and now is an awesome cook. This dish is what he is famous for amongst colleagues and friends ! I dont follow his recipe entirely. There are changes I have made, yet each time I make this dish, I think of him as the reason I made it the first time ! His tastes yum. Mine ALSO tastes yum !! :)

This also happens to be one of the first few sabzis I had made for Ashok and he was mighty impressed.He loves baingan (and not jus baingan!) :)

So here we go – a dish that looks good, tastes good and is super high in calories (thats a disclaimer!)

A picture to start with :                                                               
(taken by Ashok just before we sat down for dinner. Thats to make sure that I post this on my blog ! )

                          

Probably if I had taken a pic immediately after cooking, the coriander leaves on top would’ve looked nice and fresh. Anyway..

What we need :
Small sized brinjals - 4-5
Peanuts - a handful.
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
A big onion chopped coarsely.
A medium sized onion finely chopped.
Red chilly powder
Kasuri methi
Ginger Garlic paste
Coriander powder
Amchur (Dry mango) powder

How we make it :
Slit each eggplant vertically into four till a little below the stem. Do not slit entirely. This is just to put in the stuffing. Cook in microwave till its soft. This can take close to 3-4 minutes.
Dry roast the peanuts and powder them. Most people take off the skin. I didnt have the patience to do that. Trust me, it tastes good even if you dont undergo that pain ! I always explore such short cuts.
Roast the grated coconut till brown.Next fry the coarsely chopped onion till they're brown.
Mix together the coconut, onion, chilly powder, coriander powder and salt.Grind it to a thick paste. Add water if necessary but it needs to remain thick. Mix the peanut powder to the paste. This is the stuffing.
Stuff each eggplant with this mixture.
Heat oil (liberally) in a pan and lightly fry the stuffed eggplants and keep them aside. In the same pan, add the finely chopped onions and saute till transparent. Add ginger garlic paste and let it fry for a minute or so. Then add the remaining portion of the mixture to the oil and let it cook. Add amchur powder and kasuri methi too.Once the mixture is cooked and turns a little darker in colour add the eggplants to it. Add some water to achieve the consistency you want. Add a little more salt according to the amount of water added. Cover and  let it all cook together for about 5 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Its not the easiest dishes to make. But its worth the efforts and sure to impress baingan lovers !

Lets roll !!

This blog is by the foodie in me. Cooking is a new found love and its definitely keeping me busy and occupied and more importantly interested ! Never thought I would enjoy it to this level of experimentation and learning !
Its also to do with the love for eating as much as for cooking. I feel its an awesome combo - to enjoy eating as well as cooking. I know people who enjoy either of these, which is not bad at all, but the combo is more than double the joy, take my word for that :) And to be one, and to be married to one of those who enjoys both cooking and eating, are very pleasant surprises that came my way during the last few months ! And hence this blog. Recipes, experiemnts, adventures ! And stories. Almost every interesting meal has a story associated with it, doesnt it. Its not always just another day and just another meal to fill your tummy. Cheers to food !