Mushroom Palao

When I saw these lovely fresh (in the vegetable shop, they were fresh) botton mushrooms, suddenly I wanted to eat Mushroom Palao. I never ate it before nor heard of it either. I wanted to cook rice and mushrooms separately and layer them like Biryani. Well I started out cooking it like biryani, but half way through changed course and became palao. read the rest of the post and you will see how.

Ingredients:
For the marinade:
Button mushrooms - 200 gms.
Curd - 1 cup
Tandoor chicken masala - 1.5 tsp.
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt - 1 tsp.
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp.
Onion, chopped across the grain, very fine - 1 no. 
vegetable cooking oil - 2 tbs.

For the rice:
Rice - 3 cups or 400 gms.
Onion, chopped length wise - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp.
Cooking vegetable oil - 2 tbs.
Green chillies, slit - 1 big or 2 small
Mint leaves - handful or 1/2 cup
Shahjeera / Black cumin - 1/4 tsp.
Bay leaf - 1 no.
Cloves - 2 nos.

Method:
Marinade:
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade into whisked curd. Chop button mushrooms into thicker pieces. Mix them into curd and set it aside either in the fridge or on the kitchen counter if the weather is cool, for over an hour. I made the marinade around 9.30 am and started actual cooking at 1.30 pm. So it was a good 4 hrs.
Take a thick bottomed pan or dish. Heat the oil. Add chopped onion and fry. Separate the mushroom from the curd mixture. Keep the curd for later. Gently drop the mushroom into frying onion and cook on medium flame till they are half way done.
Rice:
Clean and wash rice and leave it in water for half an hour. I used Sona masoor rice. 
Measure out six cups of water and put it on for boiling. Drop the bay leaf into it.
I used the pressure cooker, and put it on stove. Once it was hot, poured oil in it. In the hot oil, put cumin and cloves. As they start to splutter, add chopped onion and green chillies. Add ginger garlic paste and mint leaves and stir constantly, making sure onion is not burnt. Drain water from the rice and keep it aside. When they are golden brown, add the rice and mix well. Add the salt for the rice. 
At this stage, I decided not to make biryani style but cook them all together. So, added mushrooms which were cooking in the pan, to the rice. Mixed it all well. After a couple of minutes, poured the boiling water and put the lid and cooked the rice until one whistle. 
Removed the weight after 3 minutes. 
Surprisingly the palao came out very tasty. Shared it with a guest too. 
Try it and enjoy it.

Tomato Omelette

Eggs are tasty but sometimes they can be boring. To jazz up a breakfast, convert an everyday egg into an omelette. Everyone loves a tasty and wholesome omelette. 
You are thinking what is so great about an omelette? Yes, ok, try this recipe and tell me if you still think it is not good. 
This is a very simple and basic recipe which produces a delicious omelette.

 

 

Ingredients:

Eggs - 1 or 2

Tomato - 1 big / 2 small

Spring onion - 1 sprig

Cooking oil / butter / ghee - 1.5 tsp.

Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp.

Salt - to taste

Method: 

Beat eggs in a bowl.

 

Take a non- stick pan, pour oil or butter or ghee into it. When it is hot, put finely chopped spring onion and tomato in it. Fry it until tomato is no longer raw. Add pepper powder and salt. Stir it gently.

Pour the beaten egg over it and spread it evenly.

Turn the omelette on the other side. Cook it until the egg is set but not too dry. take it off the stove, serve with toast and a dip or a smoothie.

Bottle Gourd curry in Tamarid juice

Gajar / carrot chutney

Did I mention that I love Gajar the desi carrots? I did? ok, I cannot love it enough! When they are in season, I buy them by the kilo, and use them in anything and most everything! Here is a chutney variety for you. If you slight sweetening in your food, you will love it. I quite enjoy the natural sweet taste of gajar in any recipe. So it is...

Ingredients:

Gajar / carrot - 1/2 kg

Dry red chilies - 4 nos.

Tamarind - size of a small lime

Oil - 2 tbs. for frying, and 2 tbs for garnishing

Cumin, black gram lentils, and mustard seeds - 1 tsp. each

Garlic pods - 6 nos.

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves - a handful

Method: 

Clean and scrape off the skin from Gajar. Cut them into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, faster they cook. 

Clean and soak tamarind in a cup of water. Heat 1 tbs.oil in a frying pan, add mustard, cumin, black gram to. it. when start splutter, add a few curry leaves, garlic pods, and red chilies. take the pan off the flame, when they are fried. Let it coll down a bit before putting in the mixer / blender jar. Add salt to it and grind it to a powder.  

Now add the tamarind without water. Grind it together.

Pour 1 tbs. of oil in to the pan and when hot put gajar pieces. Cover the pan and let it cook on a low flame.

Stir it once or twice. When the vegetable is almost cooked, take it off the flame and let it cool for a few minutes. Add the cooked gajar to the mixer and run it for a few seconds. The idea is to grind the chutney to a coarse paste. If the pieces are chunky, grind it for a few more seconds. 
Take the chutney into a serving bowl or jar.
Heat remaining oil, add cumin, black gram, mustard seeds; add curry leaves and red chillies. When fried, pout it over the chutney and mix. 
Chutney ready to eat eat with rice, roti or bread. It is so yummy, it can be eaten by itself.

Avial, My style

Avial is a vegetable stew in raw coconut and curd gravy. I love Avial because it is mild, full of flavor and has assorted vegetables. 

Hubby made a big bowl of curd last night. Well, how do we use it before it starts to get sour? Brilliant idea, Make Avial. I then rummaged / foraged in the fridges and came up with a not so traditional mix of veggies. This my style of Avial, so they are all welcome. Hey, I am in luck! Found a quarter of a small coconut in the deep freeze, left over from last week. 

There were different recipes on the internet for avial. I went with ingredients and the result is as follows: 

Ingredients:
Curd - 1 cup
Coconut - 2 tbs.
Dry red chillies - 2 nos.
Curry leaves - 6 - 8 nos.
Cumin and Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp each
Oil for garnishing - 2 tbs.
Green chillies - 2 nos. small
Salt - to taste
Rice flour - 1 tbs.

Assorted veggies:
Drumsticks - 1 nos. cut into 2.5" pieces
Potatoes - 2 nos.
carrots - 2 nos.
French beans - 20 nos.

You can also add yam, raw plantain etc. Since I didnot have them, I did without.

Method:
Cut the vegetables lengthwise. In a thick bottomed dish, pour enough water to cover the vegetables, adding half a tea spoon of salt: cook until water comes to a is boil and the veggies are cooked but still retain their shape. Drain the water and keep the vegetable stock aside for the gravy.
Grate coconut and grind it along with chopped green chillies.
Mix it to the cooked vegetables. The coconut gets cooked partially in the heat.
Stir the rice flour in the vegetable stock and bring it to a boil. It begins to thicken. Take it off the stove and mix to the cooked vegetables. Let it rest for a few minutes or until the mixture is cooled down. 
Whisk the curd for a smooth paste and stir it into the curry. Adjust the thickness of the curry by adding some water to get the desired consistency.
Heat oil in a frying pan and add cumin and mustard seeds, when they begin to splutter, add curry leaves and red chillies. Pour this over the curry. 
Avial is ready to eat!
Mine came out very tasty. Try it and tell me what you think of it.  

Radish and Ginger chutney

There was fresh ginger at home. Wanted to make ginger chutney. But I was not in the mood for a strong ginger flavour. So, to tone it down, I thought of using raw coconut. Then I found this radish waiting to be consumed. it too joined the list. Here is a radish, ginger and raw coconut chutney. it is spicy (thanks to ginger and radish) and quirky!

 

Ingredients:

Radish - 1 no.

ginger - 1" pieces 2 nos.

Raw coconut - 1 cup grated or 1/2 cup pieces

Green chillies - 3 nos. small 

red chillies - 2 nos.

Tamarind - a few flakes

Coriander - a small bunch

Curry leaves - 2 twigs

Cumin and Mustard seeds - 1 tsp each

salt - to taste

Oil - 3 tbsp.

Method:
Clean and cut radish into small pieces. Grate or cut coconut into small pieces. Clean and soak tamarind in half cup of water. Chop ginger finely.
Heat 1 tbs of oil in a pan. Add cumin and mustard seeds when the oil is hot. When they start to splutter, add ginger pieces. Fry for a few min. and drain the fried stuff into a mixer chutney jar. Add salt to it and grind to a powder. Now add coconut to it and grind.
Add soaked tamarind and grind until all the ingredients are mashed to a smooth paste. If needed, pour the tamarind soaked water to loosen the mixture.
In the same pan in the remaining oil, add radish pieces. and fry until they are almost cooked. Add the fried radish to the jar and also the finely chopped coriander. Run the mixer for half a minute or until some of the radish remains coarse. 
Take the chutney into a bowl. Heat remaining oil and fry remaining cumin and mustard, dry red chillies, curry leaves and pour it over the chutney.
The ingredients are an odd combination, but the chutney came out quite tasty and quirky!
You can eat it with rice or roti.

Raw Jack fruit or Kathal stir fry

I had eaten the raw jack fruit stir fry for the first time about 20 years ago when my family visited a Malayalee family in Kannanur in Kerala. Our hostess, went to the backyard, plucked one small young jackfruit and skinned it and cooked it right infront of us. I was amazed. Best part of it was that she used a stone dish for cooking it. I have been trying to source such a pot ever since but with no success. I came to know in the past few years that the stone cutters are not using the right type of stone for making these pots and that they break on usage. Those who own them usually get them handed down from generation to generation. The food cooked in them taste super delicious!
On our recent trip to a farm, we were served this jackfruit stir fry. Now I wanted to cook it myself. What better than to buy one from the same farm! Lo and behold, I came home equipped with a huge raw jack fruit (I wanted a small one, but the host insisted I take the big one).

The I began asking a few Malayalee neighbours for the recipes and also checked on the net. Finally I decided to make it the way, our host had cooked it back in Kannanur. here is my attempt:

Ingredients:
Jackfruit - 2 cups, skinned, chopped to 1" cubes
Green chilli - 1 no. (optional)
Red chilli -1 no.
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp.
Onion - 1 no. medium size, chopped
Salt - to taste (1 tsp.)
Curry leaves - 8 - 10 nos.
Cooking oil - 2 tbs.
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp.
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp/
Mustard seeds / 1/4 tsp.

Method:
Cut and clean the jackfruit. Place them in a steel pot. Pour water to cover the pieces. Add  turmeric powder and salt and cook covered with a lid, on medium heat, until the vegetable is tender. Drain excess water. With fingers separate the fibers and keep it aside.
Take oil in a frying pan; on a medium heat, add cumin and mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, add curry leaves, red chilli, green chilli. fry them for a few min and add chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. Those who rather use asafoetida instead of ginger garlic can do so. Now add the cooked and drained vegetable and fry until done. Best eaten with rice.
I had fresh fenugreek leaves, so, chopped and added to the frying onion mixture. It added an extra dimension of flavour to the stirfry.
Enjoy!

Vegetable Pickle - Punjabi style

I had not been to Langar at a Gurudwara until last year. My friends Teji and Jagmohan very kindly invited me to go with them when they visited on a Sunday. That is when I had food there for the first time and loved their vegetable pickle. Teji offered to show me the method; but one thing or the other kept getting in the way. When both were free and ready, the vegetables were not in season. Finally we got the ingredients ready and agreed on a time and made it. She showed me the procedure step by step. It taste delicious! I was so excited I learnt something new, I told all my friends!
Thanks Teji.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1/2, cut into medium sized florets
Turnips (Shalgam) - 2 nos. cut 2"x1/4" length wise pieces
Red Carrots (Gajar) - 2 nos. cut 2"x1/4" length wise pieces
Onion - 2 nos, cut length wise thin slices
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp.
Mustard oil - 100 ml.
White synthetic vinegar - 400 ml.
Jaggery (good) - 400 gms.
Mustard seeds - 2 tbs. powder it
Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp.
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp.
Garam masala powder - 2 tsp.
Salt - to taste

Method:  
Heat water in a pot. Cook the vegetables in boiling water for a few minutes.

Drain out the water. Make sure the vegetables are not fully cooked. They should be crunchy.

On a stove, put a wide pan and pour mustard oil and heat it. Wait until the fumes are coming from oil before putting the ginger garlic paste. Fry it. Add chopped onion pieces and fry until golden colour. Keep stirring so that they do not burn. 

Put the steamed vegetables into the fried onion. Fry them on high flame. Keep stirring. 

After 7 to 10 min. add turmeric powder, and chilli powder. Add salt and mix thoroughly. Now add garam masala powder. Mix and Switch the stove off.

While the vegetables are frying, on another stove, heat vinegar in a pot. When hot, drop jaggery into it. Wait until jaggery is melted and lightly cooked. Take it off the stove.

Add this vinegar and jaggery mixture to the cooked vegetables. Mix mustard powder into it. 

Vegetable pickle in Punjabi style is ready to eat.
It tastes excellent with both roti and rice.

Sabudana / Sago chips

Sabudana or Sago is made out of Tapioca root. Sago is small white powdery round balls. When cooked or steamed, they become transparent and sticky. 
Chips made from Sago is delicious to eat and easy to make. During summer holidays, it was family project. As a kid, I loved making them and eating too. Unlike most chores, it was fun making them. 



Ingredients:
Sabudana / Sago - 1 cup (any quantity)
salt - taste
Vegetable oil - 1 tsp. 


Equipment:
A steaming bath, like a pot for making idlis.
small metal lids / plates
A sharp edged knife or pin  
Plastic sheet


Method:
Soak Sago in  a bowl with enough water to cover it, for 2 hrs. Sago absorbs the water and become bigger in size. Mix salt to it.

Put a drop of oil in the lid / plate, and rub it all over. Place a tea spoon of soaked sago in the lid, and spread them evenly so that they fill the lid completely without any gaps. Continue until a few lids are ready for steaming.

Heat water in the pot. Place the lids with sago on the plate, and steam them for 10 min. approximately. If sago becomes totally transparent, they are ready to be removed from the stove. You can put the next batch of sago filled lids in the pot and cook them.

The next step is a bit tricky. Using the sharp edge of the knife or a pin, slowly lift the cooked chips, and place on plastic sheet, the same side as in the lid. Because there is oil on that side, and they do not stick to the sheet.

 

Keep the plastic sheet in hot sun. After a day, remove them from the plastic sheet and keep in a tray and dry them in the sun for a few days until they are totally dry.

Store in a jar. Deep fry them in oil, and they are ready to eat as a snack or with a meal.