Easiest Fish Curry Ever!

Easiest fish curry ever! And so tasty, with the sharp flavors of tamarind and curry leaves. Got it from here. Don't go by the picture, it's a lot tastier than it looks :)

 Ingredients 

• 5-6 pieces of fish (like seer, pomfret etc that can be cut into slices. Prawn may also be a good idea.)
• 1 tbl spn coriander seeds
• 1 tea spn cumin seeds
• 2 tea spns chilli powder
• A pinch turmeric
• 1 tea spn ginger (a thick piece)
• 1 tea spn garlic (a few pods, I used more garlic than ginger)
• 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract
• Oil
• 10-12 curry leaves
• Salt

Method:

1. Roast cumin seeds and coriander seeds. Cool, and grind. I am assuming that if you don't have the time, you could just use some good quality coriander and jeera powder!
2. Make a paste of ginger, garlic, tamarind, turmeric, the coriander-jeera you just ground, chilli powder, salt, with very little water.
3. Heat a little oil and fry the paste till the raw smell goes off. Now add 1/4 cup water, and add fish pieces. Add the curry leaves cut into two. Cover and cook till done. Taste gravy in between to see if you want to make it tangier with more tamarind. You can either make it slightly-gravy-ish, or cook until dry.

  

I made the mistake of not pre-grinding the coriander-jeera first - it doesn't grind well when you add it to the wet ingredients - that's why the masala looks a bit chunky!

Orange Peel/Bittergourd Gojju

From my friend Roopa, her mother's recipe. I chased her for this for years, and finally made it with the bittergourd! Was nice, a good way of getting that bittergourd in. And it was pretty easy to make too.

 Ingredients

1. Orange Peels (washed & cut hapazardly either by hand or knife)
2. Oil (small ladle)
3. 2 green chillies
4. Mustard seeds
5. Hing
6. Tamarind Juice 2 small cups
7. Rasam Powder 4 to 5 Tbspns
8. Jaggery (almost 1 block)
9. Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, green chillies & hing.
2. Once the mustard seeds split, add the orange peel and fry well on low flame (almost for half an hour).
3. Once the orange peel changes colour to saffron, add tamarind juice, salt, rasam powder and jiggery and mix thoroughly and let the whole preparation boil extremely well (all on low flame).
4. When the gojju is done, it will start separating itself from the pan – that’s your hint that it’s done.
5. Switch off the gas and let it cool. It can be stored in the refrigerator for close to 2 weeks.

Similar method for Bittergourd (haagalkai) gojju.

Moong Dal, Uttar Pradesh style

This is very simple and healthy, nothing is fried. A tasty accompaniment to chapathi and rice. Moong dal swells up during cooking, so if you are just cooking for 2 people, reduce quantity, 200 gms comes up to a lot. Reduce water accordingly.

Ingredients

200 gms Yellow Moong Dal (This is the green moong dal shelled)
2 Large Tomatoes, chopped
2, Green Chillies, chopped
2.5 cms (1 inch) square piece of fresh ginger, chopped
3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
about 8 curry leaves
1 tablespoon butter/ghee/oil

Procedure

Wash the dal well. Soak for 15 mins.

Bring 1 litre water to the boil in a cooking pot. A small cooker in which you can directly cook stuff is good for this.

Add the dal with the tomatoes, chillies, ginger, two thirds of the garlic, and the turmeric powder.

Return to the boil, then add salt to taste.

Cook for around 30 mins. (If you are in a hurry, cover cooker and cook for 1 whistle. But this dal cooks real fast, not really required. Cover and cook, so it will be faster. Keep an eye on it, it will boil up in the beginning, so leave lid open a bit in the beginning)

Remove from the heat and whisk gently with the egg beater, until the grains are completely mashed. (I did not do this, because I wanted the dal to be thick, not watery.)

Add the coriander and curry leaves and cook for 5 mins.

Heat the butter/ghee/oil in a ladle, add the remaining garlic and fry until golden. Pour into the dal, which is now ready to serve. The consistency should be like a creamy soup.

From: '50 Great Curries of India', Camellia Punjabi, Rupa Books (2006)

Potato palya + Lime rice/Tomato rice

A combo meal from Christabel/Sundari :)

Karipatta=Curry Leaf
Haldi=Turmeric powder

Potato Palya
Heat oil and throw in some mustard seeds + karipatta + 1 clove garlic chopped. When they (mustard seeds) begin to crackle throw in fine chopped onions and green chillies and fry till well-cooked. Add very little tomato and cook well till onions start browning and tomato is well cooked. Add the chopped potato a dash of haldi + salt and a little bit of water (to provide steam for potatoes to cook in but not so much as to make a curry!!). Cover and let it cook for 15 mins to 30 mins depending on how much potato you got in there. Add green coriander at the end and mix well.

Lime Rice
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds and when they crackle add karipatta + onions + green chillies + jeera seeds. Fry till onions are brown. Add a dash of haldi + juice of half a lime + green coriander leaves + salt. Fry for a few seconds. Now add cooked white rice and mix well. Can add more lime if needed and some roasted peanuts (optional).

Tomato Rice
Fry onion and green chillies. Add tomatoes + chilli powder + haldi + karipatta (Curry leaf). Cook these well. Then add raw rice and enough water and cook. Can add a dash of butter for added flavour.

Mushroom and Capsicum Subji

Ingredients
• 450 gm Fresh Mushroom
• 1 Capsicum (medium sized)
• 2 tsp Red Chill Powder
• 2 tsp Dry Coriander Powder
• 1 medium Onion
• 1 medium Tomato
• 1 Green Chilli (cut into small pieces)
• 1 tsp Oil
• 1 tsp Cumin-Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste

Preparation
• Wash mushroom and cut into two pieces.
• Trim onions, capsicum, tomato in square pieces.
• Pour oil in a pan and add cumin and mustard seeds to it.
• Mix green chillies and onions.Saute till golden brown.
• Add capsicum and then add tomato, cook till soft.
• Then add mushroom, turmeric, red chill powder, coriander powder, salt.
• Mix it well, cook until the mushroom became tender and then turn off the flame.

http://www.indobase.com/recipes/category/capsicum-50.php

Aloo Gobi (Potaoes with Cauliflower)

This came out really well.

Ingredients
• 1 Cauliflower
• 4 Potatoes
• 1 Tomato
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• ½ tsp Red chilli
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp Oil

How to make Aloo Gobhi
• Wash cauliflower and potatoes and cut into pieces.
• Heat the oil and add potatoes and cauliflower and leave it on medium flame for 5 minutes.
• Add chopped tomato, turmeric powder, coriander, red chili and salt.
• Cook it for 5 minutes.
• I added some chopped coriander in the end, and a dash of lime.
• Serve it with rotis.

From: http://www.indobase.com/recipes

Easy Bhendi!

This wins the award for Easy Recipe!!

From my friend Christabel - will post more of her recipes here, and she says to acknowledge her mother-in-law's cook, who's the source for most of them - so here's to you, Sundari! Thank you!

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Buy bhendi (ladies finger/okra)
Cut off the ends.
Make a slit along the length of each bhindi and stuff it with "MDH Bharwan Tava Fry" masala. Shallow fry till cooked. It tastes awesome with chapati and dal.