Flexi-easy-chicken

Recently, I discovered that our pantry was over crowded and we really needed to use up things quickly.

So I went on a mission to utilize what's already there in my cooking. I had a can of rendang paste and a coconut as well as heaps of potatoes and onions. Bought some chicken (though traditionally beef is supposed to go in rendang but i wanted to make something quicker), cut potatoes and onions (3 each) in big chunks (just 6 to 8 pieces of the whole thing), blended the coconut (about 100 grams) and cut the chicken thigh fillet in big chunks of 2 by 2 inches as well.

Fry the onions for a minute or two, add the potatoes and chicken, fry for another two, add the rendang paste and coconut, turn heat down to low after another two minutes, cook for about 40-50 minutes and done :) Now *that* is an easy dish to make and not too bad on the taste buds either!

Plain daal

Here's a version of daal that I made when Gunjan was recently under the weather. Among all the different varieties, I can safely say that this is my favorite.

Ingredients (for 2):

1. Daal - 150 grams
2. Whole chillies slit (fresh, or dried) - 2
3. Cumin seeds - 1 heaped teaspoon
4. Oil - 20 ml
5. Salt - 1/2 teaspoon (or, to your taste)
6. Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon (or even lesser)
7. Coriander - a decent bunch (chopped)

Wash the daal (to get all chemicals off it), and boil it in 1ltr water with slit chillies, turmeric, salt in a pressure cooker for 15 mins) or a saucepan for 25 mins on high.

Once boiled, heat the oil in a narrow saucepan or a tadka pan if you can get one. When oil is hot, add the cumin and when dark brown, add to the daal. Add 300 ml more water so that it becomes soupy, boil covering it on high for another 5 mins and add the chopped coriander.

Making pumpkin masala recipe even easier

If you thought that the pumpkin masala / kaddu ki sabzi recipe couldn't get any easier, you're wrong - you can skip skinning the pumpkin - just dice without peeling!!! Saves a lot of time and is equally tasty, if not more :p

recipe for marathi kadi / marathi kadhi

Pulaav (left) with kadi - yum! 

my wife, gunjan, is extremely fond of marathi or maharashtrian kadi. The recipe, given to me in 2004 by Alka Lokhande (Reema and Meeta's mum), is quite easy yet simply delicious. Here it goes:

Ingredients

• yoghurt - one bowl
• gramflour - one heaped tablespoon
• salt - to taste
• sugar - 1 heaped tablespoon
• green chilli - 3/4
• ginger - 1 finger sized (my finger :D)
• mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• curry leaves - about 15-20
• oil - 3 tablespoon
• water - 1.5ltr

crush the ginger and chilli

mix the yoghurt and gramflour and whisk together gently (you don't want butter to come out of the yoghurt now, do you!?) till no lumps, to which add sugar, salt, and water. mix well till uniform and add crushed ginger and chilli.

heat oil on high in a deep saucepan and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. after 5-10 seconds, add the yoghurt mix and keep stirring till the boil comes. boil for another 5 mins on high heat, stirring regularly, and then turn heat to mid (4 to 5 o'clock) and stir intermittently for 20 mins. Done :)

Hope you enjoy this :p

cheers
gaurav

the ABSOLUTE easiest recipe

hi all,

this is a simpler form of the khichdi recipe I posted a couple of weeks back. it's a shove-everything-in-and-just-don't-forget-about-it kind of recipe.

ingredients:
1 bowl low starch rice (preferably basmati)
1 bowl split green moong daal (lentil)
1 big potato - diced (on the bigger side)
1 carrot - diced
4 bowls of water
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
4-5 whole dried chillies/ fresh chilli padi (if you like it hot!)
salt to taste

wash the rice and lentil together and get any excess starch off them. mix ALL the ingredients together, cover and cook on high heat for 7 mins, stir, then on 3 o'clock (low heat) for 20 mins.

DONE !!!!

cheers
gaurav

pumpkin masala / kaddu ki sabzi

This is a recipe I am posting as an apology to Eric for not turning up for the skype chat on Wednesday evening :(

Serves 2

1kg Pumpkin - JAP - the green one
Mustard seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/3 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (for spicy otherwise half)
Turmeric powder - 1/3 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoons
Oil - 4 tablespoons
Coriander leaves for garnishing

cut the pumpkin. the size of the dices in the image will make the end product mushy (which i like). NO NEED to skin the pumpkin :) if you want the pieces to be separate at the end - cut bigger pieces.




Heat oil in a saucepan and when hot add mustard seeds and after 2-3 seconds cumin seends and after 3-4 seconds the diced pumpkin. toss so that they mix nicely. cover lid, turn heat down to 3 o'clock and cook for 20 minutes, tossing one or two times in between.

mix the chilli, turmeric and coriander powder in a cup with water so that it dissolves and becomes a liquidy paste. turn the heat high and add this paste, stir till they mix decently and turn the heat down again to 3 o'clock. Cook for another 5 minutes and done! garnish with coriander leaves and serve with bread/naan/ chapaati/ pooris (but not rice :D)

khichdi

quite a number of people like khichdi, because


a) it's easy to make
b) it's healthy
c) it's easy to make

you really want to have khichdi a day after the following

1) all you can eat buffet
2) chocolate fondu night
3) movie night with free chips at the hosts'
4) large big mac meal because it was just 50 cents more than regular meal
5) mom visited you for 2 weeks
6) finished a kg tub of homer hudson full fat ice cream because you *suspected* it was going bad (although you just bought it from woolies the same day :D)

coming down to business, the ingredients you *need* are

0) water - 5 cups
1) rice - 1 cup
2) lentil - either split moong or toovar or mix - 1 cup
3) oil
4) salt 1 teaspoon
5) turmeric 1/2 teaspoon, chilli powder 1 teaspoon
6) cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

ingredients you might want to add are


7) onions - 1 large chopped nail size
8) tomatoes - 2 medium chopped rather big (about the size of a "normal" dice)
9) cloves - 6-10 pieces
10) cardamom - 3-5 pieces
11) 2 bay leaves
12) potatoes - two medium - cut into match box size)

pressure cooker is best otherwise you can also cook in sauce pan with secure lid

put oil (about 5-6 tablespoons) and when hot, add the cumin seeds, bay leaves, cardamom and cloves and after 5-6 seconds or before it burns :D add the onions. fry for a while - not too much as in curry, just a little while - say about 2 mins. while onions fry, wash the rice and lentils together and keep aside. (no need to have soaked the lentils beforehand since these are the thin lentils - toovar/split moong)

add the chilli powder, turmeric and salt.

add the potatoes, rice and lentils and fold a couple of times. then add the 5 cups of water and when it boils, add the tomatoes and put the lid on.

a) if using pressure cooker, cook for 5-6 minutes on high and 10 minutres on 3o'clock position.

or b) if using saucepan with lid, cook for 7-8 minutes on high and 15 minutes on 3o'clock position

done dona done done :p

my favorite khichdi with sweet lime pickle and yoghurt