Recipe - Mix Veg Poriyal or Palya

Poriyal or Palya is a dish from Kerala and Tamilnadu made by shallow frying vegetables and garnished (and slightly cooked) with freshly grated coconut. It can be made using any vegetables and sometimes even made with chicken or lamb. The recipe remains pretty much the same.

Ingredients: Serve 2-3

1. Cabbage - 1 cup chopped
2. Capsicum - 3/4 cup chopped
3. Potato - 1/2 cup chopped
4. Tomato - 1 small chopped
5. Onion - 1 medium chopped
6. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
8. Curry leaves - 4-5
9. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Salt - As per taste
12. Coconut - grated 1/2 cup
13. Oil - 3 tsp

Method:

1. Chop all the vegetables into small sized pieces. Break open a ripe coconut and grate it. 1/2 cup is what we will be using in this recipe. Remaining can be stored in the fridge for use in some other recipe.

2. Heat oil in a wok. Put mustard seeds in. When they start popping, put the cumin seeds and curry leaves. Put the chopped onion after 10 seconds. When the onions turn slightly brown, put the other vegetables in and mix well. Cover the wok and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Keep checking every couple of minutes to make sure that the veggies are not sticking to the wok (the water in the cabbage should help, but still it's better to check). Put all the spices and salt in and cover again for 5 minutes.

3. Once the veggies are almost cooked, put the grated coconut in and mix well. Let it cook for another 3 minutes without covering the wok this time.

4. Garnish with fresh coriander if you like and serve with chapati or appam.

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Some chefs put the veggies in boiling water to cook them first and then just toss everything together in a hot oil. I don't like doing that. Also, like I said before, any veggies can be put in this or even diced chicken and lamb.

The nagger made this dish and I must say it tasted amazing! 

Recipe - Aloo Paratha (Stuffed Indian Flatbread)

Ok, It's been more than a week since I posted anything. Was tied up with work. I did manage to have a few good dinners during the week though! Anyway, so today, I wanna post a simple recipe of Aloo Paratha. There are many variations to this; I will post the one that we tried and usually make.

Ingredients:

1. Whole wheat flour (Atta) - 150 gms
2. Potatoes - 2 medium
3. Onions - 1 medium
4. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Green chillies - 2 finely chopped (if you like them)
9. Ginger Garlic paste - 1 or 1+1/2 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil

Method:

1. The most important aspect of this is a well kneaded dough. Take the wheat flour in a bowl or a big flat pan with high edge. Put a pinch of salt in it and also 1 tsp of peanut/sunflower (or your favorite, but thin) oil. Now add a little water and start mixing and kneading. Keep adding water intermittently till you make it into a dough. The dough should be very soft (even a little sticky). The harder the dough, the more difficult it is to make good paratha

One suggestion is to take water in a small bowl from which you can pour in just a little bit at a time. It's very easy to over do the water. Be very careful. Make equal sized balls of it (about 1+1/2 inch diameter roughly). Let the dough rest for 15 min (or more if you are not too hungry

2. Boil the potatoes (I put them in a bowl of water and microwave for 7-8 minutes). Meanwhile, chop the onions and green chillies very fine.

3. Peel off the skin from the boiled potatoes and mash them up. Saute the onions in a little oil and also the green chillies. Mix them up with the mashed potatoes and put the chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Make a homogeneous mix.

4. Dust the rolling board with flour and flatten the doughball into a circle of about 5 inch diameter using a rolling pin. Apply a little oil at the center.

5. Make a small ball of the potato mix and put it at the center

6. Pull up the ends of the flattened dough and stick them to enclose the potatoes inside. Use a little oil to smooth-en out any cracks

7. Use the rolling pin lightly to flatten out the ball again into a circle of about 8 inch diameter (or as thin as you can without breaking it). Keep using flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling board or the rolling pin. This is why you need soft kneaded dough.

8. Heat a tawa or a flat thick bottomed pan and put a tsp of oil on it. Put the the paratha on it for cooking.

9. When the paratha is cooked a little on the underside, flip it around. Pour a little (1 tsp) oil around the paratha edges so it cooks better.

10. When properly cooked on both sides, serve with curd or spicy pickle :)

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This dish was made a  week ago (maybe more) but I do remember that I had a great time eating it! It's easy to make, fills the tummy and tastes amazing.

The filling can be changed to anything you want (including minced meat) and it will still taste good! The name would then change from Aloo paratha to minced meat paratha of course!

Recipe - Cauliflower & Potato Curry

After last night's semi successful experiment with the fish, I decided to go for ingredients that I know a little better. Cauliflower and potatoes. The maid has already made chapatis (I get bored of making them), so now it was only a matter of making the sabzi and eat!

There are two ways of making this sabzi. Dry and curried. I decided to make the curried one. Even with this I had two options, I decided the short cut method. It's easy and doesn't need a mixer/grinder. This is the method I used when I was in UK and I didn't have the luxury of some of the things that are easily accessible here.

Ingredients -

1. Cauliflower - approx 500 gms
2. Potato - 1 medium
3. Tomatoes - 2 medium
4. Onions - 1 big
5. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
8. Red chilli powder - as per taste
9. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
10. Garam masala - as per taste (around 1 tsp should be enough)
11. and of course, Salt

Method -

1. Cut and wash the cauliflower into small pieces (cutting is not exactly what it should be called. it's plucking and cutting happening together). Wash the potato (I don't like peeling them) and cut into small pieces as well. Then thinly chop the onion and tomatoes. I love this part :)

2. Heat oil in a pan and put the mustard seeds in till they start splitting. Then put the cumin seeds and quickly put the onion in. Mix it and let it cook till golden brown (if it's red onion, it's a little tricky to tell if it's golden brown or not). Put the ginger-garlic paste in mix it.

3. Put the cauliflower and potatoes in. Mix well and then then put the turmeric and chilli powder in. Mix well and put the salt in. At this point (after it's cooked of course) it can still be served without any problem. tastes great! but has no curry.

4. Put the Garam masala and the tomatoes in. Mix well and pour a cup of water. More can be used later. Cover the pan and and let it cook for 10 min. Keep making sure that there's enough water. When both the main ingredients are cooked, it's done!

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33 minutes and a small fight later...

Don't know what's wrong with me since the last couple of months. My mind's not in the right place. I very stupidly put "Goda masala" instead of "Garam masala". It still tasted good, but not the taste that I wanted. I gotto get out of this phase...