Red Masoor Dal (Bengali dal Hyderabadi Style)

 

This is my mom's recipe and my hubby got addicted to this style of dal. Actually, he wants it every weekend and I get bored of eating it every weekend.This is a very simple recipe and only needs onions and tomatoes.

Red Masoor Dal - 1 cup 

Turmeric - according to taste

Onion - 1/4 sliced finely

Tomato - 2 sliced finely

Green chilly - 3/ 4  (slit in half)

Briyani leaf - 2

Caraway seeds(Shahi jeera) - 1/4 tspn

Cinnamon stick (Patta )  - 1/4 stick 

Clove(Lavang)  - 3 / 4 

Cilantaro / Coriander  - as needed.

Ginger galric paste - 1/2 tspn

Garam Masala - 1/8 tspn 

Chilli Powder - 1/4 tspn ( add according to u r taste )

Oil / Ghee - 2tbsp

1. Cook the dal with a little tumeric in a pressure cooker or a stock pot.

2. Heat oil / Ghee in a small vessel. Add the briyani leaf, shahi jeera, Patta, lavang and let it fry for a minute .

3. Add the green chillies and onions , fry them till brown and then add ginger garlic paste. Add the tomatoes and fry till the oil/ ghee separates.

4. Add the chilli powder and salt .

5. Add the dal,a little water and garam masala and boil it till it reaches the desired consistency.

6. Add the chopped coriander.

Yellow split peas in a tamarind gravy (PappuCharu)

 

In a previous post I had mentioned that I  hate to eat the same thing for more than one meal , this is one exception to that rule. If you take a poll among gults I am sure this will come as one of their favorite dishes.

Actually in this we do not use any special powder like we do in sambhar and it can be made with an array of vegetables or just plain , whichever way, it always tastes good.Today I used brinjal which is my favorite vegetable.The quantity i am giving here is sufficient for 2 people for 1 meal.

 

Toor/Tuvar dal -1/4 cup

Tamarind - a small lemon sized ball(soaked in water for at least 30 to 45 min )

Tomato - 1 (chopped)

Brinjal - 4 ( slice each longitudinally  into 6 pieces)

Green Chilli - 2 (split in half)

Garlic - 2(crushed coarsely)

Curry leaves - 5 

Coriander - 1/8 of a bunch (chopped finely)

Onions - 1/4  (sliced finely)

Red Chilli powder - to taste 

Coriander Powder - 1/4 tsp 

Jeera Powder - 1/8 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chilly - 2 

Oil - 2 tbsp

1. Soak the Dal for 30 min and cook it with a little tumeric in a pressure cooker and keep it aside . The Dal should be mushy .

2.In another vessel , put 2 tablespoons of oil and let it reach its heating point .Now add the crushed garlic. Once it is brown , add the mustard seeds , jeera seeds, Red Chillies, Curry leaves and onions .

3. Fry till the onions are cooked , add brinjal and tomatoes.Fry for  a min and then add Chilli powder, jeera powder , salt and coriander powder.

4. Add the Tamarind water plus another cup of water to the veggies. Let it come to a boil.

5. Now transfer the contents of this to the pressure cooker and let it cook in the cooker for one to two whistles.

6. After The cooker cools down , open the cooker , taste the pappucharu and adjust the spices and salt and add coriander leaves and boil for a few minutes more.

Note: To make it more tasty , just before switching off you can add a tspn of ghee in it and mix.

If you think pappu charu is very sour and it also has sufficient spice to it then u can add a small piece of jaggery to balance out the taste.

Bread Pakoda

The first time I made this was for my hubby's birthday. He was always talking about this dish that his mom makes and described it.I have tweaked the recipe to make it more chatpata.

Ingredients : (Makes 8 Pieces)

Bread Slices (at least a day old, so that it does not become oily) - 4

Mint chutney - 2 tbsp

Gram flour / Besan - 4 tbsp

Red chili powder - according to taste

Salt - to taste

Jeera powder - 1/8 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Baking soda - a pinch

Oil for frying.

1.To make the batter mix all the ingredients except mint chutney and bread  with enough water to be of medium consistency.

2. Apply the chutney on the one of the two slices and cover it with the other piece. Cut it into 4 pieces .

3. Dip the chutney sandwich into the batter and fry it.

4. Take it out when it is brown and put it on a tissue so that it absorbs the excess oil.

Mint Coriander Chutney

This is the recipe that one of  my best friend A likes a lot , she used to buy store bought mint chutney. I had tasted it once and was totally repulsed by that. I made this chutney for her, now she says that she is addicted to my mint chutney and is not able to eat the store bought chutney.

Mint - 1 bunch
Coriander/ Cilantro - 1 to 1.5 bunches
Sugar - 1 tsp
salt -to taste
Mirchi / Jalepeno - 3
Lemon juice / Tamarind extract - 1 tbsp
Roasted bengal gram / roasted peanuts - 1 tbsp

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender and blend it.Adjust the spices according to your taste.

One base and three Dishes

As much as I like to cook , I hate to eat the same thing for more than one meal. I also hate to throw excess food out , so I tend to create new dishes with the same base but slightly different taste. Last friday I made Chicken Kathi Roll which is a specialty of Kolkata.I first ate Kathi Roll when our rasuhouse gang had gone on a trip to Kolkata and Darjeeling.This was one fun filled trip and we were destined to miss our train one way or the other. The day we were traveling to Kolkata from Bangalore, we had to catch the train from chennai and we had booked the train from bangalore to chennai , but as sheer luck would have it, there was a strike in chennai and they were not allowing any form of transport too come in from karnataka because of the water dispute. We took the bus to chittoor and then a bus from there to vellore and then a taxi to chennai, we reached 15 mins before the train was going to depart to kolkata. Anyways, we managed to catch it only to miss it when  we were travelling from Darjeeling to Kolkata. I guess I went back in time was reliving all the good times we had in Bangalore.Let me come back to the recipes, today i am going to post three recipes which has the same base of chicken and use it in three different cuisines.
The first being Kathi Roll , which I learned from my mom-in-law and hubby.My hubby first made it when we were in DSQ asking precise instructions from his mom.My MIL used to even make the rotis and then make the roll but i am using a shortcut here.The Second being the all American favorite Pizza, the inspiration is the tandoori chicken pizza of Pizza Hut in India  and the last but not the least the Tandoori Chicken Biryani which I had learned from my mom who according to me makes the best Biryani in Hyderabad.

Egg Chicken Kathi Roll: 

(Makes 4 Rolls)

  

Malaysian /Malabar Paratha- 1 pack (you can find it in the frozen section)

Red Onions -1 medium sized cut into round thin slices 

Green Chillies - 2 cut into small pieces.

Eggs - 3

Red chili powder - 2 pinches

Jeera Powder - 2 pinches

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Salt - to taste

Tomato Sauce - As needed.

Chicken - 2 boneless breast pieces.

olive oil - as needed

For Marinate: 

Tandoori Masala - 1 packet ( Kitchens Of India) 

Thick Curd - 2 tbsp

1.Cut Chicken in bite sized pieces and mix tandoori masala and curd in it .I generally keep it marinated overnight but 3 to 4 hours should be ok.  
2.You can grill this on the grill or shallow fry it in a wok in a Tbsp of oil.If you are doing it in a wok , Fry on high till you get the desired color on both sides then reduce the heat and cover and cook for a few min till the chicken in cooked.   
3.Remove the chicken and keep it aside and in the remaining oil put the onions cut into rings , chillies and fry it till they become translucent.  
4.Heat the Tawa and  fry the parathas according to the instructions given on the packet.  
5.Beat the eggs, red chilli powder , jeera powder , salt.  
6.Put  2 tbsp of egg on the tawa and then spread it and put the paratha on top of it , reduce the flame  and let the egg cook .
7. Now place the prepared paratha on a plate and put some chicken in the middle and add onions and chilli mixture and put some sauce in the middle and roll it .  

The Chicken used in this is the base for my other two dishes.

Tandoori Chicken and Pineapple Pizza:

(serves 2)

 

Pizza Base : 1 (meduim size)

Tandoori Chicken : As needed.

Pineapple : 4 slices

Red Onions : As you like it.

Capsicum: 1/2 

Pizza Cheese : As you like it.

For the Pizza Sauce:

Hunts Tomato sauce : 1 small can

Dried oregano: 2 pinches 

Red Chilli flakes : 1/4 tsp

Brown Sugar : 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli Powder : 2 pinches 

Salt : to Taste

For the Sauce, put all the ingredients in a suacepan and boil it , Taste it and adjust the spices accoording to your taste.

For the Pizza: 

   1. Heat the oven for 400* F .

   2. Put the Sauce the on the pizza base , add the chicken pieces (make it bite sized pieces) , pineapple (make it bite sized pieces), onions , capsicum, cheese.

   3.Bake it for 15 to 20 min or atleast till all the cheese melts. 

   4.Cut it into slices and enjoy it.

The Last and the final dish with the leftover chicken is biryani. I made this with leftover cooked chicken and left over raita that I had.This Biryani is a little different from the traditional one , nonetheless very tasty.

Tandoori Chicken Biryani:

(serves 1) 

Basmati Rice : 3/4 cup

Onion : 1/4 sliced thinly

Curd - 2 tbsp ( I used my leftover coriander raita)

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon stick(patta) - a small piece

Cardamom(elaichi) - 1

clove(lavang) - 2

Shahi Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Mint - 10 leaves sliced finely

coriander - 1 tsp sliced finely

1. Wash the rice properly and let it soak for 10 min , meanwhile put a saucepan with atleast 3 times the amount of rice you have taken. 

2. Put the bay leaf,cinnamon , cardamom , clove and 1/4 tsp shahi jeera in the water. Add a little salt and then add the rice in the saucepan.

3. Switch off the heat when the rice is atleast 3/4 cooked . Drain in the colander and remove the unwanted bayleaf , cardamom , cinnamon , clove .

4. Heat a thick bottom pan with 2 tbsp oil . Fry the onions till brown and keep it aside.

5. In the oil , add the remaining shahi jeera and then the chicken, let it fry for 2 minutes then switch  off the heat.

6. If you are not using leftover raita , then add chilli powder, jeera powder, Garam masala and salt and mix.

7. Add the curd to the chicken in the saucepan.Add the layer of rice. Add the browned onions, mint, coriander and if you want a little saffron mixed in warm milk .

8. Seal it with aluminium foil and put a heavy weight on the saucepan ,I actually used my tawa on top of the saucepan and let it cook on sim for 10 to 15 min.

9. Mix it before serving.

This was actually very tasty and a good use of leftover chicken if you do not want to make a curry out of it.

Thai Red Curry and Roasted Brocolli

I am the new kid on the block.I have been hovering around the food blogs for nearly two years now but haven't had the guts to write my own blog. I love cooking and trying out new things and love scoring the internet for new recipes.Today, I am taking my first baby steps into the food blog world, hoping that somebody would find my recipes interesting. My husband loves Thai food, so this sunday when  he asked me to make Thai Red Curry with Chicken, I thought why not post this online. When my hubby was in school, one of his classmates had called us for dinner his wife had made Thai Red Curry along with Chickpea curry and batura,I was a little apprehensive about eating it as I had eaten red curry in a restaurant and it had an overpowering smell of Fish Sauce in it which I had totally detested but when I ate what she had made I fell in love with that. I got this recipe from her and have made changes to it according to my taste. I love reading food blogs and like to make new stuff every week.

Thai Red Curry:

Thai Red Curry Paste - 3 tbsp
Green Capsicum, Carrot (both cut into small pieces) - 1/2 cup ( you can increase it if u want )
Boneless Chicken  ( cut into small pieces) - 1 pound
Thai coconut milk - 1 can (small)Stock - 1/2 cup
salt  to taste
Red chilli powder according to taste
Spring Onion leaves for garnish.
Onions - 1/4 cup

1. Heat oil in a pan and put the onions . Once the onions are translucent  add the red curry paste and let it fry for a few minutes until you get a fragrant smell.
 2. Add a little bit chilli powder (since i am a Gult , i like my food a tad hot) and fry it , now add the chicken pieces and let the whole masala be coated to the chicken. Let it fry for a 3 min.
4. Now add the coconut milk and also the stock and let it boil.If you like your veggies to be crunchy , add it a little later , if you like them soft then add it now.You can also add more water or stock here if you want a thin gravy.
5. Simmer it Until the chicken is cooked.

Note: For veggies, change chicken to paneer and the stock to veggie stock

We had oven roasted broccolli with that .I used Rachel Rays recipe for that , but just excluded the chilli flakes.The recipe can be found at:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chili-garlic-roasted-broccoli-recipe/index.html