Tangy Aloo

Ingredients: Serves 2

2 medium Potato, boiled and cut into small pieces

1 Medium tomato, cut into wedges and then halved

1 Medium Onion, cut into wedges

Few Curry Leaves

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

1 dried whole red chilli

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder to taste

¼ teaspoon coriander powder, garam masala, turmeric each

2-3 tablespoon water

Juice of half lime

1 tablespoon oil

Recipe:

Put a wok on medium flame, pour oil and wait till its warmed up.

Add mustard seeds, dried red chilli, onion and sauté till onion have lightly turned brown. Then add curry leaves. And sauté for 1 minute.

Add tomato and all dry spices. Sauté them for around 3-4 minutes with lid on.

Add potato and water. Give everything a nice gentle stir. Water is added to help all spices and ingredients blend together.

Leave it to simmer till water has completely dried up. After which add lime juice and give a final stir. Tangy aloo are ready.

Note:

Eat them with rice or chapati.

Alternatively use them as stuffing in grilled sandwich.

Mash them together nicely and then use them as dosa masala.

Instead of water, add curd and you have tangier aloo with gravy.

Shahi Paneer

I have been eating Shahi paneer forever. In parties, restaurants, at every relatives place etc. Shahi paneer is a must for any food menu. Now everyone has their own way of cooking it. Some add almond paste instead of cashew paste, some other add cream. Some people fry paneer before adding to the gravy, but I like it without frying it as frying makes paneer chewy.

This recipe is inspired from the n number of different shahi paneer I ate over the years. Base of the recipe is the one that my mom makes. To which I added some of my ingredients and came up with this recipe. Incidentally the first time I tried to make it, I got distracted and burned the whole masala as I left it on high flame. Lesson learnt that always sauté masala on low flame, or never leave it unsupervised if using high flame.

Ingredients: Serves 4-5

200 grams cottage cheese / paneer, cut into cubes/ triangles

2 Onions

3 medium Tomatoes

1 green chilly

1 inch ginger

½ cup cashew nuts paste

1 small bay leaf

2 cloves

2 black cardamom

Small piece of cinnamon

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder to taste

¼ teaspoon coriander powder

¼ teaspoon garam masala powder

½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ - 2 cups water

2 tablespoon oil / ghee

1 teaspoon kasuri methi

Recipe:

Grind onion, ginger and green chilli together into fine paste. Add some water in the grinder to assist the process.

Now in a wok on low flame, add oil, add onion paste, cumin seeds, bay leaf, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Sauté this paste till the time onion has just started to change the color. This will happen after around 4-5 minutes on medium flame. Keep the lid on during this and also keep stirring the mixture for even cooking after every couple of minutes.

Meanwhile grind tomatoes into a fine paste. And add this tomato paste in the wok after the above step. Also add salt, red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and give everything a nice mix. Then leave it to sauté for another 5 minutes at least on medium flame. Again keep stirring after every couple of minutes.  

Now add sugar and mix it nicely. Then add water and leave the gravy to simmer for another 4-5 minutes with the lid on.

After this add cashew paste, mix evenly, and simmer the gravy for another 4-5 minutes. Now add kasuri methi by rubbing it between your hands over the wok. Give a gentle stir and let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

Add paneer pieces to the gravy and leave it to simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Shahi paneer is ready. 

Note:

You can use paste of any other dry fruit you may like, for ex: almond. Or instead of paste of any dry fruit add cream. 

Similarly use any other dried herb instead of kasuri methi.

Tamarind Rice

South Indian cuisine is my personal favourite, when it comes to Indian food. I love making sambhar, idli and coconut chutney. My coconut chutney has in fact become very popular in family. However, this is my first attempt at tamarind rice today. And it turned out great. My mom me and my dad all loved it, hence sharing the recipe with you.

I had heard of tamarind rice before but never ate it anywhere until recently when I saw it in the menu of a South Indian restaurant and ordered it. It came with vegetable raita and some kind of spinach curry. Didn’t like the curry, raita was okay, but the star was tamarind rice. I instantly fell in love with it, and wanted to give it a try immediately.

With my tasting capabilities, and also with the help from my mom I analysed the ingredients, added some of mine and came up with the below recipe. And it tastes just fine. J

Ingredients:

Boiled Rice

½ cup tamarind pulp

Salt and red chilli powder to taste

¼ teaspoon coriander powder.

Pinch of asafoetida

¼ teaspoon each of fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds

1 ½ table spoon Gram Daal/ Chane ki daal

Few curry leaves

1 whole dried red chilli

2 Tablespoon oil

3-4 tablespoon water

Recipe:

In a pan add oil, on low flame leave it to warm up for few seconds.

Add fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, whole red chilli and daal, and roast till daal has turned lightly brown. Keep flame medium.

Now add curry leaves, salt, chilli, coriander powder, asafoetida and sauté for a couple of minutes. Its ready when you are able to smell curry leaves in the air.

Add Tamarind pulp along with water and leave it simmer on lowest flame for atleast 5-6 minutes. Its ready when fenugreek seeds has puffed up, soft in testure and so is daal.

Mix some of this tamarind masala with boiled rice, quantity will depend as per your taste. Refrigerate the remaining masala for later use. Eat it with masala papad or vegetable raita.

Sunset Cake

So I have been making Kalakand for 2-3 years now, and it has been liked by everyone, my friends and family. I made it first time as an experiment and it was a success. The only problem I face that was during curdling the milk. But with a little help from my mother I managed it.

I once made and took Kalakand to my office and just two hours into the shift it was all gone. Everybody appreciated it.

Having nailed the basic Kalakand recipe, this time I wanted to experiment again with it, and thought of adding an ingredient, which turned out to be Apple. Why Apple only? I don’t know, it just popped in my head, hence. Anyways, recipe was a success too. J

Ingredients:

For Kalakand:

1/2 kg milk in two places, total 1 kg milk, full cream

1 apple chopped

3 table spoon sugar

Few strands of saffron

2 green cardamoms

½ lime juice

For caramelised apple:

1 table spoon butter

½ inch cinnamon

½ apple, sliced into ½ cm width

2 table spoon ground sugar

Recipe:

For Kalakand:

Pour ½ kg milk in a pan. Put it on high flame and leave it boil. Just when it begins to boil and rise, add lime juice. This will curdle the milk and turn it into creamy granules form known as chhena. Drain the water out using a sieve or muslin cloth. Leave the chenna aside to drain all the excess water.

Meanwhile take the other half kg milk and put it on slow flame, add sugar, saffron and cardamom in it. When sugar has dissolved, add chhena to the milk and bring it to boil. Then put the flame on medium and let the chhena simmer in hot milk. Keep collecting the cream from the sides of the pan using a spatula. After 4-5 minutes milk will start to thicken. Add chopped apple to this and leave it to simmer. Aim is to vaporise the milk completely, so that all that left is creamy apple and chhena. When milk has almost vanished mash the apple chunks with the back of spatula so that everything comes together. When milk has vaporised fully, leaving just a little, Kalakand is ready.

For Caramelised apple:

Add butter in pan on low flame, let it melt, then add cinnamon stick and give it a stir. Add apple slices. When slices have softened add sugar powder and gently move the pan. Do not stir. When sugar has turned brown, give the pan a toss so that apples are covered completely in caramel. It’s ready.

Plating or Presentation:

In a round bowl, spread the caramelised apple slices in the bottom, over which layer the Kalakand and press it so that everything is compact. Leave it this way for minute then turn it over on a plate, your Kalakand cake is ready to munch on. J

Note:

Try experimenting it using some other fruit. However use non citrus ones only.