Kheema mattar

This is an amazing dish of Kheema and mattar or peas.
And with the bird flu thing, red meat was the dish of choice at the Bachelor Cooking..

I have much to write but I am already in the office. So I will write up nicely in the evening
Please bear with me, Recipe will be up by the evening.

OK: Here I am... Back home..

So that was Kheema that I cooked..
Kheema or Minched Meat tastes real good cooked dry or gravy with the meat as the base of the gravy... I will post a gravy version soon.

I cooked half a Kilo of minch meat.
I asked the butcher to first wash the meat before making the kheema or Minch, so that I don't have to wash the minched meat. Don't wash the minch meat...

In the minch meat I added:
1/2 tsp each Jeera powder, Dhania powder, red chilli powder, 1 tsp Meat Masala
I Tbs Ginger garlic paste, salt to taste and kept aside for 1 hour.



Then, I heat oil and add 1 tbs Jeera, 2-3 cloves and 2 bayleaves,
Then i added one large onion chopped fine and fry till transparent.

Now I added the meat, and cook covered.
Now open from time to time and mix well so that it don't stick or buttom don't get burnt,
and then cook for 10 minutes.

Now add 1/2 a cup of peas and cook further.
When oil and meat starts to separate add 3 finely chopped tomatoes.
Cook for 10 minutes in low heat and garnish with coriander.




Tags :: Kheema+Desi+Minced Meat

Aloo Gobi with Chana daal

Long time since I have posted a really simple, hardcore bachelor cuisine.
This is a dish very often cooked in bachelor pads, in whatever way that suits the bachelor cook whose turn it is to cook that day.
Let me give you a simple way to come up with an excellently simple and tasty recipe.. I found it amazingly tasty and went very well with daal rice when i cooked ikt a few days ago. The evergreen (is it yellow) bachelor food, Aloo Gobi. The chana daal was an experiment and it turned out amazing. I am yet to try out urad daal in my curries though. I will put up more variations soon.


Ingredients:

One large Potato- Cut in cubes and then cut into two.
( so that each is half a cube and thinner)

2 cups of 1 inch cauliflower florrets.

2 tomatoes roughly chopped.

1 Onion finely chopped and 1 tsp ginger-garlic (ground).

2 Tbs chana daal soaked for an hour or two.

1 tsp Jeera gota.

1 tsp Dhania+Jeera powder, and turneric and chilli powder.

Now, In a separate utensil, boil the cauliflower for about 5 minutes by adding a little salt.
Heat 2 Tbs vegetable oil in a kadhai, and add jeera when oil is hot.
Let sputter, and add The soaked Chana daal.

After 3-4 minutes of saute, add the finely chopped Onions.
Saute till transparent and now add 1 TBS of ginger garlic paste.
Add the potatoes and fry for some time. Then, add the cauliflowers.

Cover the Kadhai and cook in low heat till done.
Just don't forget to keep stirring so that it don't stick.
When potatoes are soft, add the 1 tsp dhania-jeera powder,
and also add 1/3rd Tsp Turmeric and Chilli powder.
Add salt to taste, and cook for 5 more minutes covered.

Eat with soft chapattis or daal rice..

And, If you have missed the Pomfret curry I posted just before the curry mela.. here it is again...

Or the Chicken masala-Dry.. This was an amazing treat....

Curry Mela-VII.. Running for The seventh weekend

Welcome to my Curry Mela-VII, the seventh Curry mela or A Food Carnival I host at Anthony's Bachelor Cooking every weekend.
This time again, I have managed to round up a few Posts. Hope you will like it.

Let me start by introducing a fairly new food blogger... Check out this Fish Curry, and may I add that this blog is updated very regularly with amazing recipes. I say, it will be one of the more famous blogs very soon.

Maa I cried, When I saw this amazing Uttapams.. Ok I was kidding, my mom don't cook Uttapams nor Dosas, she only eat out for those... :-)

Not for Residents of Maharastra ( Have I told you that I have thrown away all the eggs i had bought the day before the news broke out.. I know its safe but why take chances even if it is 0%), For the other Check out this amazing , Rotini with chicken in red wine sauce from a very dear friend of mine...

She always surprises me like she did with this Thai Green Curry with Jashmine rice....Another amazing food blog.. She says, "thai food is so wonderfully sensuous to cook. just washing the lemongrass before cutting it leaves a lovely scent on the fingers which last all evening long. and then there's thai basil which is much more fragrant than regular basil. galangal, cilantro and lime also add to the fresh flavour blasts one gets when cooking thai."

Check out this Amazing picture of Carrot Pickle, right out of the home made jar....

Methi Kabuli Chana( fenugreek with Chick Peas), Chick peas are a great source of protien, and contain a substance called saponin, which can act as antioxidants, says the Blogger.

Mirchi Ka Salan from this Blogger who just turned a Full Length Book Writer. My congratulations to you...

Think of a recipe that Starts with "W", well Waran Bhaat for one, but I am sure you thought of the blogger who must have posted it!!!

From the land of laloo, The First ever Bihar ki Recipe on my Blog lol. Aloo Bharta in the Bihari Style... Khet mein Aloo aour Bihar mein Laloo....

Mooli(Raddish) Paratha... , well she likes to play around with parathas as she says...

Seemingly easy to cook Idli ;-) , well it indeed is not impossible. I need to get me some separators, I need to cook Momos as well. The pictures are worth a thousand words but the steps have been explained in a detailed manner.....

Potato Spinach or Aloo Palak, My favorite Combo.. I have cooked a million times..lol Lovely..

Fried Senai kilangu / Suran / Elephant Yam, and check out the surprise announcement as well. And hey! If you are here, Congrats again.....

Methi Masoor Rice, this dish has been entered in another event like some other recipes here.

Another rice dish, Vegetable Pulao, But I always say that veg pulao and fried rice are the same to me. Oh! DId I mention I had amazing Khichidi yesterday, late night. I came back home at 10 and cooked with dollops of Ghee.

Phulkas: The traditional way is for the cook to make phulkas one by one and serve each immediately after removing from the flame. says the blogger..

The sasav (or sasam) is a versatile dish and can be made with any fruit that is in season - oranges, sweet limes or even grapes. Says the Blogger.

Mouth watering even without Pictures:

Fried fish with herbs and spices.here is a lovely recipe for fish that i came up with to liven up a dish of plain fried fish., says the blogger.

Have a nice weekend..and do endorse this event on your blogs...

PS: There are a good number of visitors here on my blog and some returmn visitors but i get very few comments.. Boo Hoo.. i know I don't leave much comments but you see, I do visit all your blogs, but only via My Feed reader these days, but trying to round up posts for the mela and my posts, I get little time for blog hopping ..(Since i do also have a err... a job to keep let's say which takes up more than 10 hours a day) so even if i can't reply comments It doesn't mean I don't love comments, in fact your C0mments get me going.. so hey... do drop a comment if you can.. :-D

OH! now, Before you go, Please do read this shocking post on child abuse and see if can link it from your blog.

Technorati tag:: Curry Mela

Pomfret Curry!!

Recipe coming soon. Relish the Picture for now..
I am a bit tight up today...
The webex is on right now on the side..
It was a small break.... lol
Update: Dear Friends, please wait till monday for the recipe. I am working on the curry Mela VII now . Yippy.
Come back soon for the weekend Curry Mela


I am back...I have saved the curry Mela in Draft....
Will Post it after 12 hour Gee...

For the Recipe, It was cooked in a very simple way.

3 medium sized Pomfrets slitted slightly ( Optional).
Marinate the Pomfret in salt and a little turmeric and keep for an hour.

Now heat 3 TBS Mustard oil in a Pan and shallow fry the pomfret in medium heat for 5 minutes . on each side.( It shouldn't burn) Keep Aside.

Keep in medium heat and
In the remaining oil, splutter a TSP each of Mustard seeds and Shahi Jeera.
Also add 2 bayleaves and 2 red kashmiri chillis and two sliced green chilli.
Add half tsp of meethi seed.

Now add, I tsp each of Ginger and garlic coarsely ground.
Add less than half a tsp (1/3rd) each of turmeric, jeera powder, dhania powder.

Add one cup water and let boil.
Add salt to taste and then add the fish and Shimmer for 5 more minutes .

Garnish with Coriander....

Update: Please read this post on child abuse and link it from your blog.

Remembering Manjunath..

23rd feb or a few hours from is Manjunathan’s birthday.

I don’t know how he might have celebrated his birthday if he were alive today. Maybe, he would have had a busy day at work, and might have treated himself to a private dinner at a restaurant with a small group of friends. Maybe he might have had a bash. I don’t know.

But this, I know. His father would have called him up to wish him happy birthday, and his mother and kin and all his close friends would have called him up, and even though he might have been 1 year older the same time last year, he might have felt really good that his friends have remembered his birthday. Small pleasures of life. His mother would have offered sweets to the Deity for the long life of her son, “Let my son live longer”"Meri Ummar bhi unhe lag jaye".

But none of that would happen as we all know.
For, thanks to some People who thought his life wasn’t worth the ill incomes they were making by cheating customers, cheating the government, evading taxes, abetting in polluting the environment further, and all these they did by mocking the government, “ Look we killed one of agents because we know we will get away with it” . We will buy some other agents of the same government and get ourselves acquitted.

And indeed, they might still get away.

But we don’t want to let it happen, would we?
Manjunathan didn’t die in vain. And he left behind a strong example of truth, and the ability to stand by truth. A heroic deed few of us would ever be able to repeat.
But we can stand by him, and remember him on his birthday.

And we can do a little more, we can help in whatever we can by helping this trusts, The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust . The least we can do is spread the word.
Visit the site and Gaurav's Post for more info.


The media did started to take notice, and the news got a fair amount of coverage partly due to the effort by some Bloggers. Blog about it, link to it. Do spread the word.

It is about the good and the evil.
Let the good win.
Let there be justice...

Cabbage and Cococut- Cooking For love

The theme, this time, from Meena's from the rasoi, is cooking for Love.
Ummmm… I hardly cook for hate, and I put a lot of love into my cooking, more so if I am cooking for people, guest or close ones and specially my blog readers like I keep saying that I have cooked much better since I started the blog because I know I have to take a picture and blog about it… THE ONLY complain being that I ma losing any weight, much to the chagrin to my Mom and other people :-D

This dish in particular makes me nostalgic about a pace that no more has its charm, or rather the charm has been lost in the traffic, but Bangalore of the late 90’s and early 2000’s and the darshinis and lunch rooms. I was still eating out those days and used to try out different Thalis, and I can still remember those white cabbage dish… You see, this cabbage preparation was done sans turmeric, so it was not yellow like the usual cabbage subjee. And it tasted different, and somehow that taste grew on me. I started loving it and always associated the same with sago and another is the beans preparation.

The white cabbage was flavored with Coconuts and it made amazing subjee with Chapattis. Well, I tried that using my imagination…

Chop the cabbage into fine slivers

Now heat 1 TBS oil or ghee and when hot, add 1 Tsp Mustard seeds and let sputter.
Add a sprig of Curry patta.
Add one finely chopped onion, and fry till translucent.
Add the cabbage, and cook covered in low heat.
And cabbage are soft, add two TBS scrapped coconuts and salt to taste.

Serve…

And may I introduce this great new Food Blog, Ladies and gentleman, Introducing KITCHENMATE...


Tagged with :: Cabbage : Coconut : Desi : Cooking : Bachelor : South India

Curry Mela VI

Hi Everybody,

Here I am, with The Curry Mela-VI

.. I do Hope you are still enjoying the mela.
This time have added some non-desi Blogs too though the name is curry.
I didn't want to be predictive you see.
Because of your continued support, I am getting fatter by the day lol...
That only calls for a work out schedule.
One must eat well isn't it??
But do work out to burn the fats..lol.


So, without further ado, let us start with this weekend's Curry Mela....
(PS: No copying of Photos please.. All the pictures posted here are copyrighted by respective blog owners do so take prior permission from bloggers if you do want to copy a Picture) **For me, a Link back as the source would suffice..








I am opening the mela this amazing Braided and baked FISH!! ( I have intentionally not put the Blogger's name so that you don't get biased) Food Democracy....

Have you ever tasted Milk Puris, here is your chance to do just that. Isn't it an amazing Dish. I can't wait to try it out..

I don't usually link to non-recipes but I could pass this on. The key to Indian Cooking, how spices mixes and blends- Secrets to the Indian cuisine revealed...I even thought of opening the meal with this but then I thought let me start with a recipe at least.

Ah, who don't love a real dark and sinful Chocolate Biscuits (not the chips kind)

Well this Fried Jalapenos with Roasted red pepper aioli was reall Red HOT

Have a nice look at the layout of this beautiful cheese sandwich, the recipe will make your mouth water.

Have I told you that this was perhaps a Sandwich week, Another Cheese Sandwich . Did anyone mention valentine's day???

Yet Another Cheese Sandwich , but heh, this is the ungrilled type... ( for a pleasant change)

Well, Estofado catalan is what this is. Check out the accompanying pictures and the amazing recipe.

If Food were love This cake is Hot sex, says the blogger. I couldn't agree more and There are more pictures..

Ah, ho I love pork. I haven't posted any pork recipe, have I? I was quite known for my pork recipes, belive me I can cook amazing pork. I don't where I will get prok nearby.. Anyway, all pork lover, check out this Pork Braised in Milk it is an amazing recipe too..

Aloo paratha always gives me pleasant nostalgia, so this Bajra Aloo Paratha was no less.

Prawns galore..... Era mita aka sweet prawns Prawns with a Twist says the Bachelor Chef.

Amazing shrikhand Imagine that you are dipping your finger and in a smooth motion you scoop up a finger full of shrikhand and slurp it... Ummm My imagination is running wild, i know I can do a lot more with Shrikhand.... And I was using Strawberry Ice-cream all the time....

Check out this Ghugni By Indira, if pictures could Kill I won't be writing now..




Carrots and peanuts , two of my favorite combo. Got to try this out soon....

Amazing array if fruits and vegetables in this Dry Salad, you must have come across it though

;-)

Another fruity dish, the Fruit Parcel., this small picture hides a beautiful preparation waiting to be unvieled..

She is a very dear blogger friend of mine who have promised me a full bengali Feast, but for now I have to do with this Doi Macch (Fish curd) Well, I tried Doi Chicken day before yesterday and it was amazing though a little sour.. lol.. Will post it soon

Aloo methi is another favorite dish of mine and it is a very healthy food too, but I cook in a little different way than this.. I will post it soon, but this is damn good I say..

And How did I miss these delectable Samosas in a Food mela.. Damn the feedreader.. But Good god, peas and potato Samosas can never go out style... Will remain by favorite snack food, Best had with some sweet Chutni....

Well I have a few more recipes without pictures, but please don't pass it., these are some amazing recipes which is why I have posted them.. just read the recipes and you will see.. You can visualize the picture right there.

Banana stem in yogurt curry.. I will try to cook it znd post a picture soon.. Because this is one of my favorite vegetables..
Ahh.. Nargisi Kofta, Nargisi Kofta..Nargisi Kofta.Nargisi Kofta.. guess what? I have all the ingredients so i am going to cook it tomorrow for lunch... It was a mouth watering recipe..
Bitter Gourd Curry is another healthy food. And this a very new way of cooking bitter gourd..

PS: If you do like the Curry Mela, please endorse this event on your blog. It would be very nice of you all.
Previous Curry melas

CulinLinkus-I

CulinLinkus-II

CulinLinkus-III

CulinLinkus-IV

Curry Mela-V

Technorati tag:: Curry Mela

Weekend herb blogging

My entry to kalyn's weekend herb blogging. I couldn't post earlier as the herbs weren't properly growing, Oh these are home grown lol. I had it sent from home which is 1000s of miles away.


I have been planning to enter Kalyn’s Weekend herb blogging but I wanted to make the debut with a Manipuri herb. For the very purpose and also I promised Thalassa Mikra that I will order saplings from Manipur and grow it at my place so that I can post a picture, I was waiting till the herbs had grown beautifully. Now that it has, I am blogging it today.

This called Maroi Napakpi in Manipuri. Maroi is a common term we use for all spicy herbs, and even spring onions are marois, so it might not be surprising when I say that Maroi Napakpi belongs to the Onion Family ( Botanically) I don’t know it is called in English, and I am sure the Chinese use this herb, and it would be great if someone can tell me the English name of the same. The botanical name however is Allium Hookeri ( Allium is the Onion familie).

We use this herb for tempering, use it in lieu of onion when we cook fish, and we use it in out Stews or boiled vegetable with smoked fish dishes. This, however taste very different from onion, very different. Fish curry taste great with this herb, and the roots of this herb are another delight. The roots are used basically for tempering and while cooking Fish. Fish can be cooked only with this herb and the roots with meethi and jeera and the taste is awesome.

We also make pakoda with this, and it is a delight, believe me.
And Omelet with maroi napakpi is just awesome.
And then we also make a Steamed pakoda ( Kothimbir vadi of Maharastra) with this in lieu of coriander. In fact our version of kothimbir vadi is prepared with this herd only, and kothimbir or Coriander is more freely available in Manipur. So imagine how different and nice this herb must taste.

If you happen to see this herb in a Supermarket or in china Town, prepare Pakoda or omelet and tell me how it is.
You will be thoroughly surprised, and Numb…This is one great herb….

Prawns and Peas

I love Peas, and I love potatoes, and I have posted several other combos of the two.
I love prawns too, so I thought the combo would be killing?
Well it indeed was...
And I got an amazing side-dish in a matter of minutes and as simple as making scrambled eggs.

1. One large Onion, roughly chopped.
2. 4-5 cloves of garlic roughly crushed.
3. One medium potato cut in small pieces.
4. One cup of Green peas fresh or frozen.
5. 1 Tsp of jeera.
6. Half a cup of Prawns, any kind, fried for a five minutes in 1 TBS oil and kept aside.

1. Heat 2 tsb oil and add the jeera, garlic and onions.
2. You don't have to wait till golden brown, add the rest of the ingredients as the onions get transparent.
3. Fry till Potatoes are cooked.

Serve with Chapati or with dal rice.

Tag :: Prawns, Peas, Food, Food and Drinks

Beet ka halwa

I like Beet with Potatoes, and in salads, but I never knew that Beet halwa would taste so good. It was as tasty if not better than my gajjar ka halwa. And the food value of Beet is well known. This is the healthiest dessert I ever tasted and very very yummy too.

Do try it out. It will be well worth the effort.....but my pot is all red ....

Steps:

Peel and then grate 3 medium sized beets well.
Heat 1 TBS desi ghee or butter in a pan.
Put one bayleaf and then add the grated beet.
saute and then cover and cook in low heat for 1o minutes.
Mix from time to time so that beet don't stick to pan.

Increase heat and then add half a litre of milk and sugar measured to your taste. Add some crushed cardamom ( you may use powdered.
Add semi crushed cashewnuts.

Cook till milk evaporates and mixture becomes dry like in the picture.
EAT

PS: this recipe was inspired by Mika's dish

I am not getting any comments on this :-(

Update: I have started working on this weekend's Curry Mela....

Veg Korma

Great looking, no?
It was Delicious too.
My first Vegetable Korma.. A prelude to Vegetable Kolhapuri.. Anybody tell me how to cook Shahi Paneer Korma.. I will cook it too.
Oh! Happy Valentine's day to all the Ladies..
Will write up the post a little later.. don't mind puhleez.. Me tired today..

The recipe now:

Vegetables:

half a cup each of carrots, french beans, Potatoes, cauliflower, capsicum.
Cut the vegetables into small half inch cubes and keep aside. Don't boil.

Chop one onion.
5-6 flakes of garlic and an inch of ginger the size of your middle finger crushed.
Soak half a TSP each of jeera and meethi (not leaves) in water.(My trademark, it helps)
Bayleaves and 2 Red Chilli

Now,
Heat 2 TBS oil in a pan
Put 1 or 2 bay leaves and 2 red chilli.
Immediately put the soaked jeera and methi.
Now add the Onion and saute till transparent.
Add the ginger garlic paste.
When mixture turns slightly brown, add the vegetables and saute well.
Add half Tsp each of jeera powder, red chilli powder, dhania powder,
turmeric powder and Garam masala and mix well.

Then, Add half a cup of coconut milk and let shimmer.
Cover and cook in low heat for 10 minutes.
Open lid from time to time and mix.
When liquid begin to dry, open and increase heat.
Saute well.
Add salt to taste.
Now add a cup of hot water and let shimmer.
Cook for 10 minutes in medium heat and garnish with coriander .

PS: For bachelors eat off the pan lol

Daal-chicken!

Just amazing.. The outcome and the taste.
Actually, I eat alone and I couldn't eat all the dry chicken masala, so I kept a few nice pieces. Throwing away food is not prudent, with so many poor and hungry, I don't like eating the same dish again. So what I did, I cooked a modified Daal of of the same.

And it was amazing, the chicken version of Murighonto.

I heat 1 tbs oil, added a bayleaf and 2 red Chilli and then put some jeera and let sputter.
Added one onion finely chopped and fried till golden brown.
I added a TSP of ginger-garlic paste, and saute for sometime
and then added 2 choppes tomatoes.
half Tsp each of chilli powder, Jeera and dhania. Slightly lesser amount of turmeric.
And I added half a cup of properly washed tur daal. Add water accordingly.
I added the chicken.

I let out 3 whistles from the cooker, turned off the heat and let it cool by itself.
Open the lid of the cooker and the let boil for sometime till daal is cooked.
I added salt to taste, and it was YUMILICIOUS