Jeera Rice

This is another recipe which is a hit in my household.

What you need:

• 2 sliced onions
• Ghee
• 1 cup of basmati rice or Jeera rice(soak for 10 minutes before cooking)
• Salt to taste
• Cashews 10-12

How to do:

1. Cut the onions in thin strips and fry it in the oil and keep it aside on a tissue paper
   Add ghee in the cooker. Once the ghee is hot, add Jeera and wait until it splatters
2. Add cashews and fry till it becomes golden brown
3. Add the basmati rice and stir gently.
4. Add 1 glass of water and cover the pressure cooker lid. Turn off at the first whistle.
5. Allow it to cool down. Remove the lid, garnish with the chopped onions and serve hot.

Tip:

This goes very well with Daal fry.

Chana Masala

What you need:

• 100 gms chana daal cooked (soaked overnight)
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 table spoon chilli powder
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder(dhaniya)
• 1 tablespoon everest chole masala powder
• 1 chopped tomato
• 3 slit green chillies
• ½ inch ginger(finely chopped)
• Salt to taste
• ½ tablespoon chaat masala and kasuri methi powder(optional)

For masala:

Grind 1/2 onions along with 5-6 cashews to a thin paste in a mixie.

How to do:

1. Add the soaked chana daal along with chole masala, green chillies, ginger and salt in a pressure cooker upto 3 whistles. Add a tea bag for additional flavor and color. Remove the tea bag and keep it aside.
2. Take an open kadai, add oil. Once the oil is heated, add Jeera and wait till it splatters. Add the chopped onions, fry till it becomes pink and then add tomato to it.
3. Add the grounded masala
4. Add chilli powder, dhaniya powder and cook for 5 minutes by covering the lid.
5. Once the gravy starts to boil, add kasuri methi powder and chaat masala powder
6. Serve hot with rice/roti

Paneer Burji

This is one recipe which was liked by many of them. First time I saw this recipe on Tarla Dalaal’s cookbook but later made some variations to this. Basically this is a microwave recipe, but I have tried this on a Tava/open kadai. However, I feel it’s better if you do it in a microwave.

What you need:

• 1 cup paneer crumbled
• ½ cup onions chopped(very thin)
• ½ cup tomatoes chopped(slightly raw, do not take the mushy ones
• ¼ cup capsicum chopped
• 1 spoon ginger chopped/or ginger paste
• 1 green chilli chopped
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• ½ tea spoon chilli powder
• 2 table spoon vegetable oil (tastes better with olive oil)
• Salt to taste
• 2 table spoon chopped coriander

How to do:

1. Take the oil in a microwave safe bowl and add onions and fry it on HiGH for 3 minutes. Ensure you stir it once in every 1 ½ minutes, so that onions are not burnt.
2. Add tomatoes, ginger, chilli powder and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes
3. Add capsicum, salt and microwave for another 2 minutes
4. Add the paneer and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Tips:

• All vegetable should be finely chopped.
• When you cook in the microwave, the veggies won’t become mushy when compared to tava/open kadai.

Vegetable Pulav

What you need:

• Basmathi Rice – 1 cups
• Oil/ghee – 2-3 tbsp
• Onion – 3 (chopped)
• Potatoes – 2
• Carrots – 2
• Beans – 20- 25
• Turnip-2
• Green peas – 1/2 cup
• (you can also add cauliflower)
• Turmeric – 1tsp
• Sugar – 1 tsp
• Salt to taste.
• Ginger-1 inch(optional)

Masala:

• Cinnamon – 1 inch
• Clove – 4 -5
• Poppy seeds (khus khus) – 1 tsp
• Mint leaves (Pudina) – 1/4bunch
• Coriander leaves – 1/2  bunch
• Garlic – 3-4 cloves
• Green chillies – 5-6
• Cashews-4-5
• Grated coconut-1/2 cup

How to do:

1. Cut all the vegetable, wash it thoroughly, drain and keep it aside.
2. Add the above masala ingredients to an open kadai and fry it for 2 minutes(Add the mint and coriander leaves at the end, just before turning off the stove).
3. Once it cools down, add them to grated coconut, turmeric  and coriander leaves and grind everything into a fine paste.
4. Add oil to the pressure cooker, add onion and saute till it turns pink.
5. Add all chopped vegetables and saute for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the masala, rice and then mix well.
7. Add 1 cup of water.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Add a big spoon of ghee at the end for  extra flavor.
10. Close the lid of the cooker and wait for one single whistle and turn off.
11. Serve hot with Raitha.

Note:

If you don’t want your vegetables to be crunchy, saute them little longer( par boil).

It’s a little weird that I am starting a food blog. I hated cooking all through my life and the few things that I cooked were also terrible. Whenever my mom used to call me into the kitchen I used to make excuses and run away from her. If she had to go out of town for a day or two, she would prepare everything and keep it ready. That way I never had an opportunity to learn and never showed interest in cooking. The first time I cooked something, I remember a friend of mine tasted and told me that I should never attempt to cook and just hire a cook instead. Today it’s very strange that I am able to cook and learnt it in a very short span. The best thing is that I am enjoying it!

All thanks to moving out of my mom’s place, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to explore something which I had never tried in my life. When people used to ask me how would I manage on my own? I used to smile and say “That’s in my genes. My mom and granny are awesome cooks and I am confident that it will be in my genes too”. I don’t know if it’s the magic of the genes or my interest, but something did work.

The reason I wanted to start this blog is for my mom. She has a huge collection of recipes, most of it in her memory and some in various books. Someday I want to be able to cook like her (I know it’s not possible). This blog is an effort to retain all her recipes (as I have a bad memory, can’t recall) handy.