Kooky Mess

• Servings: 1
• Time: 45mins
• Difficulty: easy
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At times, there are recipes that I concoct which defy categorisation or even label and this is a very good example.

The day I was making it, I was asked by three people what I was having for dinner and I was at a total loss for words. I mean, how do you explain a bowl of mixed mash, which briefly sums up this kooky mess?!

To quote Francois Mauriac, “To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.” And that is exactly how I feel about today’s recipe.

a bowl of mashed vegetables may not be to everyone’s taste but I am totally in love with this utterly comforting mess!

Ingredients

1 Medium sweet potato

1 Cup shredded cabbage

1 Large carrot

1 Large onion

1-2 Tablespoons cheddar cheese, crumbled

1 Teaspoons olive oil

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash, boil, peel and mash the sweet potato.
2. Wash, scrape and finely grate the carrot.
3. Peel, wash and finely slice the onion.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
5. When hot, lower the heat and throw in the sliced onions along with salt to taste.
6. Mix well, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Uncover and add the shredded cabbage and grated carrot.
8. Once again, cover and cook for 7 to 8 minutes.
9. Uncover and add the mashed sweet potato, freshly ground black pepper and cheese.
10. Mix well and pat the mixture down.
11. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
12. Serve hot or warm with some hot sauce.

Butter Bean Salad

• Servings: 1-2
• Time: 30mins plus pickling time
• Difficulty: easy
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There are some days when I just fancy a big plate (or bowl) of salad for my dinner. So I try to come up with kooky recipes using whatever I have in the kitchen.

In case of today’s salad, I fancied a “beany” one and decided to make it out of some butter beans lying around in my store cupboard.

Since I had some frozen french beans, carrots and sweetcorn in my freezer, decided to throw them in along with some pickled purple cabbage.

Addition of celery and raw garlic makes this a very fragrant salad.

an unusual salad combining raw, cooked and pickled ingredients

Ingredients

1 Cup cooked butter beans

1 Cup shredded purple cabbage

1 Cup boiled mixed french beans, carrots and sweetcorn

1 Large onion

1 Head of garlic

2-3 Celery stalks (including leaves)

8-10 Cherry tomato

1-2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

1-2 Teaspoons mustard powder

1/2 Teaspoon wasabi paste (or a few drops of wasabi hot sauce)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Method

1. First, we need to pickle the cabbage mixture.
2. Peel, wash and finely slice the onions. Separate the strands.
3. Peel and finely slice the garlic cloves along their length.
4. Put the shredded cabbage, onion stands and sliced garlic in a large bowl.
5. Add the white wine vinegar and salt to taste.
6. Toss well, cover tightly and let this mixture pickle for 6 to 8 hours.
7. When you are ready to prepare the salad, wash, wipe and dice the celery. Chop the leaves, if using.
8. Wash and dry the cherry tomato. Slit them from the base leaving them intact (this allows the dressing to penetrate).
9. To make the dressing. whisk together the olive oil, juice of lime or lemon, mustard powder, wasabi, salt and pepper.
10. Add the cooked butter beans. boiled vegetables, celery and cherry tomato to the cabbage mixture.
11. Pour over the dressing and toss well before serving.

Back with an Eclectic Omelette

Eclectic Omelette

• Servings: 1
• Time: 30mins
• Difficulty: easy
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For the past several weeks, I was having serious hardware problems with my laptop which kept me off the internet.

Won’t bore my kooky readers with the saga but the sum of the story: my hard drive had to be reformatted, OUCH! Had a few recipes and photos lined up for posting here, now they are all gone :-(.

I got my laptop back just before I was off on a four day break to Goa and so it delayed my coming online that much more.

Now that I am back with a well-behaved machine, looking forward to resuming my kooky postings :-).

Today’s recipe is one which I threw together at the very last minute. Returned from Goa to a frugal kitchen home to some onions, ginger, chilli, carrot, tomato, coriander and cheese. I had brought back with me local brown bread known as poi (seen in the photograph) so decided to make an eclectic omelette.

The premise of this recipe is to cook the “base”, cool it down and add it to the beaten eggs to make an omelette. This results in a nice, firm omelette (as opposed to watery one which can sometimes happen when you add vegetables).

If you would like to try this recipe (or rather, method) use whatever you have on hand in terms of vegetables and cheese. Bits of bacon or ham would also make a welcome addition.

Poi is a type of Goan bread which you can get in white and brown variety (I had the latter). In terms of taste, it is a bit like the Italian Ciabatta. It is sold freshly made early morning. If you miss the morning delivery, you won’t get it again during the day (at least, this is the case in some parts of Goa). It is moreish and a very good match for any type of egg recipe.

Without further ado, let’s get cracking with this eclectic omelette.

Ingredients

2 Eggs

1 Large onion

1 Large tomato

1 Carrot

Fresh ginger the size of your thumb

Handful of fresh coriander

2-3 Green chilli (or to taste)

1 Tablespoon cheese (I used Cheddar)

1-2 Teaspoons oil

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Peel, wash and finely chop the onion.
2. Wash and finely dice the tomato.
3. Wash, scrub and finely grate the carrot.
4. Wash and slice the chilli.
5. Wash, peel and finely grate the ginger.
6. Wash, dry and chop the coriander.
7. Crumble or cube the cheese.
8. Heat the oil in a wide base frying pan.
9. Once it is hot, add the onion, tomato, carrot, chilli and ginger.
10. Add salt to taste.
11. Mix well, lower the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
12. Once the time is up, take the pan off the heat and let it cool down. You can do this in advance.
13. When you are ready to make the omelette, beat the eggs in a bowl,
14. Add the coriander along with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
15. Mix well and tip in the contents of the frying pan to the eggs.
16. Put the pan back on the burner and turn on the heat.
17. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl so that the eggs and vegetables are totally into each other (!).
18. Add the cheese.
19. Once the pan is hot, add the eggy mixture.
20. Turn the heat down to minimum, cover and cook the omelette for 10-12 minutes.
21. Carefully flip over and cook the other side for a few minutes before dishing out.

Autumnal Spinach & Carrot Soup, The Indian Way

• Servings: 1-2
• Time: 40mins
• Difficulty: easy
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My blogger friend Teagan of the Three Ingredients Serial fame invites her readers to send in three ingredients for each episode of an ongoing mystery story which she posts in installments.

Teagan uses the ingredients sent in by her avid readers to decide how to move the story forward on ‘per episode’ basis. Her abundant creativity and the clever way she makes use of these ingredients means that each episode takes us on a twisting, turning and teasing ride.

Today’s soup recipe is an ode to Teagan’s three ingredients serial.

I was planning on making a very simple spinach and carrot soup. Some tart yoghurt, ginger garlic paste and paste of minced chillies and ginger were beckoning me from the refrigerator. So, I decided to use these three ingredients (which I would otherwise not consider using in a soup) to create an Indianised spinach and carrot soup.

Mighty pleased to say that the soup turned out to be absolutely superb. So much so that there are a couple of other recipes patiently waiting their turn to be posted but this one’s jumped the queue!

a warming, spunky soup which makes you forget how healthy it actually is

Ingredients

250 Grams spinach

1 Medium size carrot

1 Medium size onion

1 Head of garlic

1 Teaspoon ginger-garlic paste

1 Teaspoon green chilli-ginger paste

1 Tablespoon tart/tangy/sour yoghurt

1-2 Teaspoons oil

1 Cup water

Salt to taste

Method

1. Thoroughly wash the spinach.
2. Wash, scrape and roughly chop the carrot.
3. Boil the spinach and carrot in one cup of water and a pinch of salt.
4. Once cooked, let the vegetables cool down completely.
5. Blend the vegetables till you get a puree like consistency. It is okay if a few carrot pieces remain whole.
6. Peel, wash and chop the onion.
7. Peel and chop the garlic.
8. Heat the oil in a pot.
9. Once the oil is hot, lower the heat and throw in the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt.
10. Stir, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
11. Uncover and add the pastes of ginger-garlic and chilli-ginger.
12. Add the yoghurt.
13. Mix well.
14. Add the pureed spinach and carrot.
15. Check for soup like consistency. Add more water at this stage if you find it too thick.
16. Check for salt and add a bit more if you feel it lacking.
17. Bring to a rolling boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
18. Enjoy hot with some bread stick or crusty loaf.

Mutton Dhansak with Brown Rice & Kachumbar

• Servings: 3-4
• Time: 90mins
• Difficulty: easy
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I am so very excited to share today’s recipe with my fellow kooky cooks.

Dhansak is one dish that I have been meaning to make for the longest time but was a bit nervous thinking it was way too time consuming and elaborate with an over-stretched ingredients list. Glad to say I was proved wrong.

A few weeks back, I had this famous Parsi mutton and rice dinner at my friend Meher’s place. Having got the recipe from her, I mustered the courage to try it in my own kitchen.

Dhansak is a stew of mutton, dals and vegetables served over brown rice alongside some kachumbar.

Vegetables to be used include pumpkin, aubergine and small fenugreek leaves. If you can’t get hold of the latter, skip the leaves but don’t substitute with regular or dry variants.

Mutton dhahsak is the most authentic version although you do get chicken and vegetable dhansak as well.

The brown rice is actually white rice which is cooked in caramalised water.  It should become very brown, something I didn’t achieve in my first attempt (mine turned out a pale brown).

Kachumbar is a mixture of finely chopped onions and tomatoes with some chilli and coriander. You can also add a chopped cucumber if you wish.

I used ready prepared dhansak masala; it is available in most Indian grocery stores. Meher’s family use the Mangal brand which they say comes closest to the homemade version so I managed to get a packet from them.

There is one more component to dhansak which I skipped – kebabs.

one of the most satisfying dinner experience you will have

Enjoy with some chilled beer.

 

Ingredients for Dhansak

500 Grams mutton (preferably on the bone)

1/2 Cup tuvar dal

1/2 Cup masoor dal

125 Grams Pumpkin

4 Baby aubergine

4 Ripe tomato

2 Onions

2 Tablespoons ginger-garlic paste

2 1″ cinnamon sticks

4-5 Cloves

4-5 Whole peppercorns

3 Green cardamom

3 Black cardamom

2 Bayleaf

1-2 Tablespoons dhansak masala

2 Teaspoons turmeric powder

1 Tablespoon chilli powder

1-2 Teaspons jaggery powder (or a small lump of jaggery)

1-2 Tablespoons oil

Salt to taste

Method

1. Soak the tuvar dal for 5-6 hours.
2. Clean the mutton and apply a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste.
3. Cook the mutton in about 2 cups of water till tender.
4. Drain the stock and set aside.
5. Wash and cube the pumpkin (I didn’t peel it).
6. Wash and cube the aubergine.
7. Wash the masoor dal.
8. Place the two dals, chopped vegetables, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder and a pinch of salt into a pot. Cook till meltingly soft. (You can do this in a pressure cooker if you wish).
9. Once the dal and vegetables are cooked, mash them with the back of a spoon and set aside.
10. Wash and puree the tomato.
11. Peel, wash and chop the onion.
12. Heat the oil in a large pot.
13. Once it is hot, add the cinnamon stick, clove, peppercorn, cardamom and bayleaf.
14. Lower the heat and add the onion along with salt to taste.
15. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
16. Uncover and add 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
17. Add the tomato puree.
18. Stir well, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
19. Uncover and add the mutton, dal and vegetable mixture, dhansak masala, jaggery and chilli powder.
20. At this stage, check for consistency. If you feel that it needs some water, add the mutton stock. But keep in mind that the dhansak should be fairly thick, not watery.
21. Mix well and check for salt.
22. Cover and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.
23. Take off the heat and keep aside till ready to serve.

 

Ingredients for Brown Rice

1 Cup white rice

2 Onions

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon ghee

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice for 30 minutes.
2. Peel, wash and slice the onion.
3. Take a pot to cook the rice in.
4. Heat the ghee in it and when it has melted, add the sugar.
5. Lower the heat and keep stirring till the sugar melts. It will become brown as it starts caramelising.
6. Once the sugar has caramalised, add the sliced onions.
7. Mix well, cover and cook for about 10 minutes. By the end, the onions should be nicely brown.
8. Drain the rice and add to the browned onions, along with some salt.
9. Gently mix.
10. Add 2 cups of water, increase the heat and bring to boil.
11. Once it reaches rolling boil, lower the heat, cover and cook for about 25 minutes till the rice is full cooked.
12. Once cooked, take off the heat and let it sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Ingredients for Kachumbar

2 Onion

2 Ripe tomato

1 Cucumber (optional)

2 Green chilli

Small bunch fresh coriander

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

Salt to taste

Method

1. Peel, wash and finely chop the onion.
2. Wash and finely dice the tomato.
3. Wash and finely chop the cucumber, if using.
4. Wash, dry and finely chop the coriander.
5. Wash and finely slice the chilli.
6. Mix all the ingredients and chill for half hour before serving.

Serving Dhansak

1. Serve some brown rice on a plate.
2. Ladle dhansak on top of the rice.
3. Serve kachumbar on the side.

Salmon Slaw, The Oriental Way

• Servings: 1
• Time: 20mins
• Difficulty: easy
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 a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips

The weekend gone by was one with multiple moments on the lips and so to ensure that the indulgences are not for a lifetime, I am on a “lightweight” food routine to redress the balance!

Was planning on a simple salad dinner when I got the idea of making an Oriental style slaw with some canned salmon, carrot, cucumber, apple, green pepper and egg. Didn’t have cabbage but I think this slaw works better without it.

The dressing is my made-up recipe and it has me hooked so will be experimenting with it in other dishes in the future.

Straightforward ingredients go towards a simple salad which is elegant, subdued and easy on the tummy.

Ingredients

1 Small can salmon

1 Carrot

1 Cucumber

1 Green pepper

1 Small red apple

1-2 Eggs (depends on size)

1 Teaspoon wasabi paste

1-2 Teaspoons soy sauce

1-2 Teaspoons rice wine vinegar*

1 Tespoon sesame oil

A pinch of salt

Method

1. Drain the salmon, flake it with a fork or your hand and put it in a salad bowl.
2. Hard boil the eggs. Once cool, coarsely grate them.
3. Scrape, wash and coarsely grate the carrot.
4. Wash, de-core, de-seed and coarsely grate the green pepper.
5. Wash and coarsely grate the cucumber.
6. Wash, de-core, de-seed and coarsely grate the apple.
7. Add the grated egg and vegetables to the salad bowl.
8. To make the dressing, whisk together the wasabi paste, soy sauce, vinegar and oil with a pinch of salt.
9. Add to the salad, toss well and serve either at room temperature or refrigerate for a couple of hours if you prefer it slightly chilled.

Note:

1. If you don’t have rice wine vinegar, use any other natural vinegar like white wine or cider.

Leftover Roti Recipe 1

Leftover Roti Recipe

• Servings: 1
• Time: 30mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Today, I would like to share with you a recipe which is my ultimate guilty pleasure.

It won’t win any beauty awards, it is not elegant, it doesn’t have that “wow” factor, it is not one you can boast about but it is one of THE most comforting foods I have eaten.

If you like slurpy or soft, mashable foods (think mac and cheese or a bowl of cheesy mashed potato or a hearty soup) than this one is for you.

The recipe has come into our family through one of my mum’s oldest and closest friends.

very simple and doesn’t require a well-stocked kitchen

This works best with a day old roti or chapatti which is kind of dry. But it is so good that, sometimes, it is worth making extra rotis just so that you can have this the next day.

I have tried this recipe with regular wheat roti as well as jowar (sorghum) bhakhri (photo above) and it is equally delicious with both.

The only caveat is the tartness of the yoghurt you use. It has to be really very sour. I tend to leave the yoghurt at room temperature for a few hours beforehand to ensure that it reaches the right piquancy.

If you are a fan of garlic and yoghurt, give this one a go.

Out of curiosity, how do you use up your leftover rotis?!

Ingredients

4 Wheat roti or 2 Jowar bhakhri (must be day old)

1.5 Cups very sour yoghurt

1 Large head of garlic

2-3 Dry red chillies

1 Teaspoon cumin seeds

1 Teaspoon turmeric powder

1-2 Teaspoons chilli powder

1 Teaspoon asafoetida

1 Tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Method

1. Peel and slice the garlic along its length.
2. Crumble or tear the rotis or bhakhris with your hands. Set aside.
3. Whisk the yoghurt.
4. Add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder to the whisked yogurt.
5. Add about 1.5 to 2 cups of water to the spiced yoghurt and  mix well. Set aside.
6. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
7. Once the oil is hot, lower the heat and throw in the cumin seeds and dry red chilli.
8. Add the asafoetida and stir for about 20 seconds.
9. Add the garlic and cook it for a couple of minutes.
10. Next, add the yoghurt mixture and bring to boil.
11. Once it comes to rolling boil, add the roti/bhakhri pieces.
12. Mix well, cover and cook for about 15 minutes. By the end of the cooking time, the roti will have absorbed a lot fo the yoghurt sauce and you will end up with a stew like texture.
13. Transfer to a pasta bowl and enjoy piping hot.

Baingan Bharta/Smoked Aubergine, The Indian Way

• Servings: 1-2
• Time: 40mins
• Difficulty: easy
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I think age is catching up on me because I often find myself checking my own blog to see whether I have posted a particular recipe! As was the case with today’s one and I cannot believe that having been blogging for nearly a year now, I have not written about one of my favourite Indian vegetable preparations.

baingan bharta is an ode to all aubergine lovers, or so I like to think

Smoked aubergine cooked with onions, tomato and garlic for a velvety, delicious vegetable which can be scooped with any type of bread or equally divine on some plain boiled rice – what is there not to like?!

Earlier, I used to smoke the aubergine directly on a gas burner as is. But I have recently discovered that if you oil it a bit, it truly imparts that smokey aroma and flavour. If you don’t have a gas burner, you can try it on a grill although I can’t vouch for the end result in terms of smokiness.

When choosing an aubergine for baingan bharta, go for one which doesn’t weigh too much (irrespective of size). The heavy ones have more seeds in them.

Ingredients

1 Medium size aubergine

2 Onion

1 Head of garlic

2 Tomato

2-3 Fresh green chilli

Fresh ginger the size of your thumb

1/2 Cup fresh coriander

1-2 Teaspoons cumin seeds

1 Teaspoon turmeric

1 Teaspoon chilli powder

1 Teaspoon garam masala

1 Tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash the aubergine and apply a bit of oil all over.
2. Place the aubergine on a gas burner and cook it till its skin is charred and the vegetable softens about 90% (you don’t want it completely collapsing). This does become slightly messy so be prepared to clean the burner afterwards!
3. As soon as the aubergine is almost cooked on the open flame, transfer it to an airtight container. This way, it will cook in its own steam a bit more.
4. In the meantime, peel, wash and dice the onion.
5. Peel and chop the garlic.
6. Wash and slice the green chilli.
7. Peel, wash and grate the ginger.
8. Wash, chop and dry the fresh coriander.
9. Heat the oil in a frying pan.
10. When the oil becomes hot, lower the heat and add the cumin seeds.
11. As soon as they stop spluttering, throw in the onion, garlic, tomato, green chilli and ginger.
12. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt to taste. Mix well.
13. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
14. While the onion mixture is cooking, go back to the aubergine.
15. Remove the charred skin and roughly chop the flesh.
16. Once the 10 minutes are up, uncover the pan and add the aubergine and garam masala powder. Mix well.
17. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
18. Take off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
19. Add the fresh coriander before serving.

Green Chilli & Garlic Thecha (Condiment)

• Time: 15mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Here’s a quick and dead simple condiment which can go with almost any food.

Thecha is a type of Maharashtrian relish which is served on the side to spice up your palate. There are two variations: green chilli and red chilli.

I have eaten thecha in Poona which is made of cooked chilli and garlic. But my friend Shamala, who is also from the same city, shared her no-cook recipe with me. So I am assuming that there are different versions of the same condiment.

a totally moreish relish for lovers of spicy food

Ingredients

1/4 Cup chopped green chilli

1/4 Cup chopped garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon sesame or peanut oil

Salt to taste

Method

1. Blend everything in a food processor. A bit lumpy is fine. Do NOT add any water.
2. Store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator. Will stay good for upto a week.

Note:

1. If you have the strength, time and inclination do this in a pestle and mortar for an authentic taste.

Moong Dal with Methi/Split Green Gram with Fenugreek Leaves

Moong Dal with Methi

• Servings: 1
• Time: 45mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Although I eat a lot of pulses and whole grains, I have realised that I don’t cook dal the Indian way (rather, hardly ever). Ironic considering the fact that Indian cuisine has a rich repository of dal recipes from across the country; different states and communities have their unique way of cooking this staple.

I favour one-pot meals and so I think I feel a bit lazy when it comes to cooking plain dal because than I would have to make a vegetable to go with it and that means more cooking and more washing up!

So I am delighted to share with you a one-pot meal, uncomplicated and quick dal recipe which requires no pre-soak and few spices.

I have combined the easy cooking yellow moong dal with methi leaves for a balanced dish. You can substitute methi with any other leafy vegetable.

this dal recipe proves that low in fat does not necessarily mean low in taste

Goes very well with, both, rice and any type of bread.

Ingredients

1/4 Cup moong dal

1 Cup fresh chopped methi leaves

1 Head of garlic

1 Onion

2-3 Green chilli

Fresh ginger the size of your thumb

1-2 Teaspoons mustard seeds

1-2 Teaspoons cumin seeds

1 Teaspoon turmeric powder

1 Teaspoon asafoetida

1 Tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash and drain the methi leaves. Set aside.
2. Wash the dal and leave it in 1/4 cup of water while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Peel and roughly chop the garlic.
4. Peel, wash and dice the onion.
5. Wash and slice the green chilli.
6. Peel or scrape, wash and chop the ginger.
7. Heat the oil in a frying pan or pressure cooker.
8. Once the oil is hot, lower the heat and throw in the mustard seeds followed by cumin seeds.
9. As soon as the seeds start spluttering, add the asafoetida and stir for 30 seconds.
10. Next, add the chopped onion, garlic, chilli and ginger.
11. Add salt to taste.
12. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
13. Uncover and add the fenugreek leaves, dal along with the soaking water and turmeric powder.
14. Mix well, cover and cook for about 20 to 25 minutes till the dal is soft. If cooking in pressure cooker, cook on high pressure for 4 to 5 whistles.
15. Serve hot.