Agathi Keerai Poriyal

Agathi keerai in Tamil, scientific name is sesbania grandiflora and in English the spinach variety is called as august tree leaves or humming bird tree leaves. It is extremely nutritious like most leafy greens. It is part of the special food prepared on dwadesi, the day after ekadesi. Reason is that on ekadesi, Hindus normally fast and we are expected to break the fast next day with a certain menu. One of them is agathi keerai as it has ability to sooth stomach ulcers. Some may fear the fasting but it is interesting how our ancestors had thought through it and designed the menu around it. It is not often that I get hold of these but here is what I made with them this time…

3 tablespoon mung dal
4 tablespoon grated coconut (I used dessicated coconut)
1 dry red chilly
1 bunch agathi keerai, leaves taken off the stalk and washed well
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida
Cooking oil (I used coconut oil)

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and after it splutters, add turmeric powder, dry chilly and asafoetida. 
Add the leaves, required water and allow it to cook and add some salt half way through

In another small pan, add the dal and cook it with required water. The dal should be well cooked but not mushy

Once leaves are cooked and all water is dried, add mung dal and coconut and fry for couple of minutes
Serve with cooked rice!

Saag Paneer

Saag Paneer

I guess everyone has days when they just want to throw things together so a scrummy meal turns up at the end. I have hose days often because I cannot begin to tell you how tight I am on time. I try to make three side dishes for rotis on Sunday so I only have to make the rotis in the evenings after work. I try to keep things simple and avoid additional processes like grinding etc. While a traditional palak paneer would require blending to smooth puree and so on, I was not up for it although we all love it. I decided to sauté everything and it did come together quite well. Here is how I made it...

2-3 bunches of palak/saag

125g paneer, cubed

1 onion, diced

1 tomato, cut into quarter

½ teaspoon black onion seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon garam masala

Turmeric powder

2-3 green chillies, slit

1 teaspoon coriander-chilly powder (use just coriander powder if you do not want any heat)

Salt to taste

Cooiking oil

Heat oil and add the black onion and cumin seeds. Once cumin begins to darken, add onions, add the turmeric powder and green chillies and sauté for a minute

Once the onions turn translucent, add the spinach and tomato. We are adding tomato with spinach as we do not want it to get mushy unlike regular curry

Once spinach is cooked, add the spice powders, required salt and cook until raw smell goes.

Add the paneer and cook for 3-4 minutes and serve!

Poached Egg Curry

Egg Poached in Tomato Sauce

One of my friends made egg poached in tomato sauce. I tried it once but was not sure if I liked the texture. I made a smooth sauce this time and it turned out to be nice. I am not a fan of poached egg but this is not quite the same as the regular ones. These can be eaten with rice or rotis. Use a flat bottomed dish to allow space for eggs to poach. I noticed that adding too much water to the mixture does not help as it becomes even more watery after cooking. Here is the recipe...

2 onions, chopped

1 tin tomatoes (about 3-4 tomatoes)

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

1 teaspoon chilly powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 heaped teaspoon egg roast masala (substitute with mixture of garam masala and fennel powder)

Cooking oil

Turmeric powder

4-5 eggs

Salt to taste

Heat some oil in a flat bottomed dish and add the onions and ginger garlic paste. Add green chillies if desired.

Once onion begin to change colour, add the tomatoes and cook until they begin to reduce and raw smell goes

Grind this to a fine paste in a blender or use a hand blender and bring back to pan. Add all spice powders and salt and bring to boil and allow raw smell to go

 Now reduce the heat and break each egg into the mixture giving room for each of them to get cooked. Cook covered eggs are done or until how wobbly you like poached eggs to be.

Serve

Cauliflower Keema

Cauliflower Keema

I have never had real keema so I cannot tell you if this is close but the idea of this dish is to cook minced vegetable. It is cauliflower that I picked for this dish and result was quiet good. I used it to stuff into dosa to make keema masala dosa one evening and then layered it over a very simple pulav rice for packed lunch. I used tandoori masala which is typically used for non-vegetarian dishes and I think it helped. Here is the recipe without any more rant…

1 medium cauliflower, grated

1 onion, finely chopped

1 small tomato, cubed

3 cloves crushed garlic

1 small piece of ginger, grated

1 cup green peas

2-3 green chillies, chopped

1 teapsoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon ghee and some cooking oil

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon chilly powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 heaped teaspoon tandoori masala or garam masala

Turmeric powder

Some chopped coriander leaves

Heat some oil and ghee in a heavy bottom pan and add cumin seeds. Once it becomes golden, add onions and fry till they begin to change colour and also add garlic, ginger and chillies

 Add the grated cauliflower and some turmeric powder, mix and fry for a couple of minutes

Add all the spice powders and the tomatoes and peas. Fry for couple of minutes, add salt and cook covered until veggies are well cooked. You may want to add few spoons of water so it does not burn

Allow it to cook on low flame uncovered for a couple of minutes so all extra water vaporises and you are left with a dry-ish curry.

Serve with rice or rotis or dosas

Potato and Cauliflower stem sabji

Potato and Cauliflower stem sabji

Call me frugal but I just love to find ways of using as many edible parts of a vegetable as possible. When I was in college, my mom once mentioned that some of her colleagues cook the cauliflower stem. By stem, I am referring to the rib of the outer leaves that cover the curd. I then tried using it in a gravy and was quite good. Years later, I am beginning to do the same again. This time, I have used it in a dry sabji and when combined with potatoes, anything would go down with my better half. It is quite nutritious as well so that makes me even happier that I managed to use it. Avoid using the thick ones as they are very fibrous, the tender ones are ideal. Here is a simple recipe...

1 onion, chopped

About 10 baby potatoes, boiled and peeled

Tender stalks from cauliflower, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon chilly powder

½ teaspoon sabji masala or garam masala

Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

½ teaspoon amchur powder

Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add the cumin seeds. Once it browns add the onions and cook until it just begins to change colour

Add the stalks and little salt and cook covered until it is cooked i.e. soft

Add the boiled potatoes, turmeric powder, chilly powder, garam masala, more salt if needed and amchur powder and cook until all raw smell goes away.

Ready to serve

Darbari Dal

Darbari Dal

Recently, dals have been my saviour considering life is getting more and more demanding and tiring. As always, I stick to cooking fresh food everyday and eating hot meal atleast for dinner. It usually is roti and a side dish. The only down side with dal, as I see it is that it is not always rich in vegetables. Having said that, dal itself is one of your five a day food so very well having them everyday. I like to add atleast onion and tomatoes to them to make their nutritive value better. Half an onion is part of one of five a day vegetables, so that is easy. Most of the times, I also add other vegetables like courgettes, green papaya, ash gourd, ridge gourd etc. One evening though, I was a bit bored of all of these and decided to try something from Tarla Dalal’s website and what a brilliant attempt it was! I tried darbari dal and was a bit sceptical about the result because it did not look like there was anything out of the ordinary in it. I was very wrong, the innocent lentils literally transformed to flavour bombs. In addition to the ground  masala, what I learned from this dish was what a spoon of milk and yogurt could do to an ordinary dal. Infact, I have made this practise common now and add a dash of both to most dals I make. Do not over do, else the dal will start tasting like payasam (dessert), learn from my experience!! The original recipe calls for cream but I used milk and still it was great. This dish is fit for special occasions as well and not just a mundane evening. Here is the recipe…

1/3 cup  masoor dal

1/3 cup moong dal

2 tbsp toovar dal

1 tbsp ghee
1/3 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
3 green chillies slit
1/2 tbsp ginger paste
1 large tomato, chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
2 tbsp yogurt, beaten
2 tbsp milk

1 tsp cumin seeds

Cooking oil

Heat a pressure pan, add some ghee and some oil, heat and add cumin seeds, followed by onions, ginger paste, dried fenugreek leaves and green chillies

Saute until onion begins to change colour and add tomatoes and all spice powder and salt and sauté for 3-5 minutes so raw smell goes away

Add rinsed and drained dal, two glasses of water and pressure cook for about 4 whistles

Open the pressure pan and add milk and yogurt and bring to boil

Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve hot

Oven Roasted Aloo Jeera

Oven Roasted Aloo Jeera

It is only Monday today but I am so exhausted and the rest of the days are quite busy at work. Hope I find some strength from somewhere. Today has been so demanding at home as well that I could not even cook much. Anyway, enough of my rant as it does not do any justice to this yummy dish. Potatoes can save the day when one does not have strength or motivation to do much cooking and this dish is ideal anytime. I would suggest this be served fresh from the oven to enjoy most of the flavor  You can add any other spice powders you may like but here is my simple recipe...

3 large potatoes, cubed

1 generous teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon chilly powder

1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

Salt to taste

Turmeric powder

Cooking oil

Put the potato cubes drizzled with some oil in an oven proof dish and cook at 180degC for about 15 minutes, stirring in between

 Once the potatoes are almost done, add salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder. You could either add the cumin seeds straight away or temper it in some oil until it just begins to brown. I do the latter as it is more flavourful. Drizzle bit of oil and roast for further 8-10 minutes

Add the coriander leaves and it is ready!

Oven roasted Achari Baingan

Oven roasted Achari Baingan

I absolutely love aubergine/eggplant/brinjal. Call it by whatever name you like, I love it, period. I have now heard from quite a few people that they dislike this veggie, some do not know what to do with it. For me, there is no limit to what we can make with this beautiful veggie. The varieties I get in this part of teh world do need plenty of seasoning and oil to get good results and there are times when I cannot be bothered waiting for it to cook on the hob. My sister-in-law had mentioned that she had good results roasting eggplants in oven and I often roast the whole large eggplant instead of charring on flame. So I decided to cook them in teh oven for this wonderful achari dish. Achar means pickle and as the spices used in this are typically used for north Indian pickles, it gets the name achari. Fennel seeds are usually added but I skipped it. The dish was super scrummy and for the little effort that I put in to prepare it, the results were plenty-fold better. I used the left over spice powder to prepare a similar dish using green chillies!

1 long brinjal, cut into roundels, about ¼ inch thick (about 2 cups of cut brinjal)

Turmeric powder

½ teaspoon amchur powder

Salt to taste

Cooking oil

½ teaspoon methi seeds

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon sesame seeds

½ teaspoon nigella seeds

½ teaspoon chilly powder

Sprinkle turmeric powder on the cut brinjal (this helps avoid it going black) and rest until oven preheats to 180degC. Drizzle some oil and mix. Cook this in the oven for about 20 minutes, mixing it in between

Roast all seeds and crush to powder

Once the brinjals are done, add the crushed powder, salt, chilly powder and amchur powder, mix and put in oven for about 5-8 minutes

Serve hot with rice or rotis. I used the left over spice powder to fill into some slit green chillies and sautéing them in mustard oil...yum!

Mushroom Methi Curry

Mushroom Methi Curry

Methi is one of those greens I absolutely love. Although it is suppose to be bitter, there are only a very few instances when I found it bitter. I think it is down to how it is prepared. I absolutely love the aroma and flavour it adds to a dish. This time around I tried to make a slightly rich gravy and combined methi with mushrooms. I was such a delightful dish, I was hoping no one saw me licking the saucepan! I have added melon seeds to this dish in the past but in a rush and lack of concentration, did not cook them enough. So, try not to make that mistake else you will get bits of the seeds while chewing and that is not quite pleasant.  Here is the recipe…

1 pack mushrooms (I used btton mushrooms and halved them)

1 onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 green chillies, chopped

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

1 tablespoon melon seeds or use poppy seeds soaked for about 10 minutes in hot water

4-5 cashew nuts

1 teaspoon chilly powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 bunch methi leaves

Turmeric powder

Cooking oil or butter

Heat some oil and add the onions, ginger garlic paste and green chillies and fry until onions soften

 

Add the tomatoes, melon seeds, cashew nuts and some water and cook until all ingredients are well cooked, especially the seeds must have softened

Cool and grind this to paste

Heat the pan and add oil and the mushrooms and in a couple of minutes add the methi. Cook until methi is almost done and mushrooms soften

Add the ground paste, turmeric powder, chilly powder, cumin and coriander powder, salt to taste and some water and bring to boil. Simmer until desired consistency is achieved

Serve hot with rice or naan or and Indian bread