Gujarati Kadhi

What I miss the most in this cool days ? Those days when I was able to enjoy hot served food by mom on dining table , and absolutely , I didn't have to do anything at all, other than enjoying delicious meals. :D . Gone are those days, but by Mom's grace I am able to make those dishes on my own today, and well 24/7 helpline is there :) so I can call her anytime when I am stucked with any recipe :).
Making kadhi is fun for me, as I like it very much, just the idea of having kadhi as part of my meal makes me happy, so preparing it anytime is no trouble for me :)

Ingredients:
2 Cups little Sour Curd ,
4 tsp Besan ,
1 1/2 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste ,
2 Green Chillies, finely chopped ,
1/2 tablespoon Ghee,
1 teaspoon cumin seeds,
7-8 fresh curry leaves.
salt to taste ,
a pinch of Asafoetida ,
a pinch of Turmeric Powder(optional , I haven't used it for making kadhi).
coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Beat the curd and add two cups of water. Add the besan and mix them well with a hand blender, make mixute such that it will not have any lumps there.
Take a kadhai or thick bottomed saucepan. Heat the ghee in it and crackle the cumin seeds add curry leaves also. Next add chopped green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Pour in the curd mixture,boil the curd mixture on slow heat and stir constinuosly. Add salt and sugar as per taste , and remove from heat when it starts boiling.Sprinkle coriander on top and serve hot.
It tastes best when accompanied with any kind of rice , pulao or Khichadi.
I had it with Jeera rice accompanied with fresh vegetable salad .

Note:
There are many different ways by which we can make kadhi. It can be made by adding jaggary in place of sugar. It also can be made without adding sugar or jaggary at all. I normally do not use turmeric powder to make kadhi this way.

When I make it without sugar and little spicier I add turmeric powder to it. I also add 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder to it when I make it that way, but its a totally different way to make kadhi , and also final taste of it is different totally.

What I found after I came here in Pune , that It is very popular to serve spicy kadhi with pakora . That is also the other way kadhi can be prepared and used. Some other time I will also add those recipes…. Till then stay Tuned…and Happy blogging. :)

Cabbage with Green peas

Winter is green for me :P , with my kitchen full with different green dishes ... :D
Now is the turn of green peas and green cabbage ....
Simple and delicious , cabbage curry with green peas...
Recipe source- None other than my loving Mom :) .

Ingredients:
1 green cabbage , cut into long shreds
1 cup green peas ,
1 medium tomato,chpped in to small pieces,
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 fresh hot green chili, finely chopped
salt as per taste ,

1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2tsp oil ,
1 tsp cumin seeds ,
1 tsp Mustard seeds
7-8 curry leaves ,
coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Core the cabbage and slice into fine long shreds. Preheat the oil over medium-high heat in a large pan. When hot add the cumin seeds ,mustard seeds and curry leaves. now add the cabbage.Add the turmeric powderand green chilli, mixing well.Cover and reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
when cabbage is half cooked, add green peas and tomato to it.let it cook for another 2-3 minutes,or until vegetables are crisp-tender.Finally add Garam masala and salt to it. and remove it from heat.Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati accompanied by
Coriander-peanut chutney .

A delicious meal is ready for you :) .

Palak Paneer

Winter is here, and I am so happy to include fresh green vegetables in my kitchen. :)
Last week was almost like methi week for me. :) I used methi much in last week, and still more I m going to use :D . Anything with Methi is fine for me. Yesterday was the turn of Palak. And I made palak paneer of it very simple way. As usual this recipe also needs not to spend much time on. Just one thing is you need to have Paneer ready with you: D

This is the first time I made palak paneer using my home made paneer. One suggestion from my neighbor friend was to make it by adding curd in it. In past I tried to make it by adding lemon juice in place of curd, and I find a bit difference in the taste of both. From hubby's view also when I made it using lemon juice it was little bitter in taste while this time it was perfectly fine. He was happy so was I :) .

Here is the process by which I made Paneer :
Pour the gallon of milk into a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Watch carefully, as it will boil over almost as soon as it starts to boil. As the milk begins to boil, add curd into the pot in a steady stream while stirring constantly. The milk will separate into little white balls, take care to don’t let it form a bigger white balls of it, while water starts separating from the mixture , remove it from heat. Have cloth like filter and remove the whole mixture in it. Place cloth into a colander, twist the cloth from above corner of cloth and press it gently until the water like part of the whole mixture stops dripping. Or u can gently press a flat based vessel on it to remove all the liquid part out of it. as soon as it is dried enough , replace it in a dish , and when it turn to little cool, cut them in pieces .

Palak Paneer

Ingredients:
2 bunches palak(spinach), washed and chopped,2 large tomatoes- chopped finely,1 onion-chopped finely,10-12 fresh paneer cubes,Salt to taste, 1 tsp garam masala. 2 tsp Oil for cooking.

Method:
Chop the palak, Put it in a large pan with 2 cups of water.Boil till well done.This should take about 10 minutes.Blend the boiled mixture to get a coarse paste.
Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion till well browned.add the tomato. Now add palak pulp, salt and Garam masala &cover and cook for 7-10 mins. Add paneer pieces and put off the flame . Serve hot with chapati, naan or paratha.

Note:
I don’t use fried paneer for this recipe, I find fried paneer perfect for paneer tikka masala like
spicy curry, for this paneer in its original form goes well.
If you think the gravy is too thick then add little hot water to it.take care that it should not make this gravy thin otherwise it will loose real taste of it.

Pretty Boy!

Few days ago I had a forwarded email from a friend. It had an attachment with it.
Luckily to share that with you , u don’t need to download anything , you are just a click away and that wonderful gift is here :)
I loved it, and I thought it is worth sharing to my dear friends there, who likes to listen music and good lyrics. I don't know exactly what attracted me this much to this song, it’s so effortless, innocent and cute, like no big words, nothing to pretend and nothing much to show off. Just like straight forward words from a heart full of Pure Love for someone...
You might be wondered what its here on this blog, but well, that's what I am, full of everything. When I do something, I do it with its fullest otherwise I simple do not do that :).
A part of my liking is here to share with you, just a single click away!

Methi-Matki Curry (my way :) )

Methi-Matki Curry

Fenugreek is a well-known leafy vegetable. It has excellent medicinal virtues. It is Nature's great boon to mankind and its regular -use will help keep the body healthy.

Sprouted beans are as always knows is a great source of nutritions and proteins, then why not to try this combined for the great benefit of both.
I had little methi leaves left ,as to make curry of its alone was not possible , I thought to give it a try this way. Easy to make and tasty too ...


Ingrdients:
1 cup fenugreek(methi) leaves,
1 1/2 cup sprouted matki,
1 medium sized onion chopped,
1 medium sized tomato chopped,
1/2 tsp turmeric powder,
1/2 tsp chillo powder,
salt to taste,
1 tsp oil.

Method:
Heat oil in a kadhai, add chopped onion to it, when it turn to transparent , add methi to it, let it cook for 2 minutes, and then add turmeric powder to it. Next add matki to it ,cook it on low heat for 2-3 minutes. Finally add tomato to it and mix it well with all the ingredients. add red chilli powder and salt in it.
A real different taste than normal curry is ready with good arome spreading around.

Boondi Raita

Curd or yogurt is a lactic fermentation of milk. It is esteemed for its smoothness, its pleasant and refreshing taste. At our home we have some amount of it stored in refrigerator all the time and use it either by making buttermilk of it or directly. Sometimes we try it even different way,when it come to try it different way there are so amny options, may be some other time i ll discuss that too... here the way I tried it just yesterday ...

Ingredients:
1 cup Yogurt or dahi
3/4 cup Boondi
Cumin( jeera) Powder 1 tsp,
Red chilli Powder 1 tsp,
Salt to taste,
Coriander leaved to Garnish.
Method:
Take yougurt in a bowl and shake it well to make smooth consistency of it without any lumps.
Mix all the above listed Ingredients in it ,and garnish it with coriander leaves.
Serve Chilled.

Its a perfect side dish to enjoy with your favourite dish (rice, chapti-bhaji,biryani, thepla..... )

Bottle gourd(Lauki) Thepla

I had a bottle gourd in refrigerator since 2-3 days and was thinking of how to use it. Simple curry of this is much common so i tried to recall what my Mummy used to make of it,and got this wonderful memory in my mind . So this was now final that I was going to make tasty thepla using lauki I have. I remember that I have heard and read this so many times that Bottle gourd is good to eat and has many advantages of eating it to keep away heart trouble and so many others... I have got more info on this too, check out for bottle gourd - food that heals , if it is so advantageous to eat it, I think I must prepare different kind of food out of it regularly . :)
this time it was turn to make Thepla of it , Here is my recipe for Thepla.

Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
1 small sized tender Bottle gourd(Lauki/Dudhi) peeled and grated
7-8 cloves of garlic,crushed
2 tbsp oil ( for dough),
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder,
1 tsp Chili Powder,
salt to taste,
oil for frying

Method:
Take a small sized Bottle gourd peel it and grate finely. Do not let the water of this get wasted ,Instead use this in preparing dough , it will add better taste to thepla when it is ready.
Take wheat flour in a big bowl,add all the ingredients. use a little water to make a smooth dough of it.







Make lemon sized balls from the dough, and roll each into 5"-6 "round . Place vit on a hot griddle or roti tawa . roast a little from one side (as shown in middle figure above) and change the side , then spread little oil from sides to center. do the same for both sides. repaeat the same for all balls. here is your Thepla ready to serve. :)
Can be served with pickle- Chhunda.
Best accompanied with Aloo ki sukhi Bhaji(Some other time I 'll post recipe for this too ) when traveling, as it remains good for 2-3 days at room temperature.

One can also add sesame seeds and chopped coriander leaves to it while preparing dough,that will also taste Yummyyyyyyyyyy..................:P

Aloo- methi

Winter is near, and vegetable stores are now full with fresh and green vegetable . I love this season b'coz it provide many option to people like me, who loves to prepare different kind of food every time. I came to see fresh fenugreek leaves(Methi) at store alst week and it was so fresh that i could not resist to buy it. As my hubby don't like little bitter taste of it, I decided to try it some other way. Here is how I made it with potato and one tomato in it. As just one tomato in it will change the whole bitterness of fenugreek into wonderful taste for this main course.

Ingredients:

2 medium sized potato cut into small cubes,
1 bunch of fenugreek leaves, cut and washed thoroughly ,
1 medium sized tomato,
3-4 flacks garlic -crushed,
½ tsp Cumin seeds,
¼ tsp mustard seeds,
¼ tsp turmeric powder,
½ tsp red chili powder,
Salt to taste
1 tsp oil,
Method:

Heat oil in a pan or kadhai and then add mustard seeds & cumin seeds. Add crushed garlic . When garlic turn little golden add potato cubes. cook it for 3-4 mins until it is tender. Next add turmeric powder to it and fenugreek leaves. Fenugreek leaves doesnt take much time to cook , just let it cook for 1-2 mins and then add tomato pieces to it. Mix it well with the all ingredients and finally add red chili powder. serve hot with chapati or roti.

It is very simple to make yet tasty. I love it coz it takes even less time to cook. :)

Green Coriander-peanut chutney

Ingredients:
1 large bunch of fresh green coriander leaves,
2-3 greenchillies,
8-10 raw peanuts ,
5-6 garlic flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Method:
Wash coriander leaves and chop them. Chop green chilies.
Blend all the above to a smooth pasteadding a little water.
Can be refrigerated for about 8-10 days.
At my home it usaully ends up before 4 days, so i don't have experience with more days :) .
As I know it remains very aromatic and fresh fr first 2-3 days.
You can serve it with Idli, Dosa, Samosa, Uttapam or as side dish to our regular meal. We usaually have it with all the mormal meals too . :) And believe me it really goes well .

Nutritious Batata poha(my entry for WBB-6 - Twist in the plate)

Ingredients:


2 cups poha (thick flattened rice),

1 big potato, peeled and cut into small cubes,

few curry leaves,

2-3 green chilli,cut into 1 inch length

1 big sized onion, chopped

1/2 cup green peas, 2 medium sized tomato,

1/4 tsp turmeric powder,

salt as per your taste,

1 tbsp sugar,1 tbsp lemon juice,

for garnishing corainder leaves,

1 tbsp oil .

Method:

Wash poha in a sieve under running water. Drain & keep aside.(I use drain it as shown in pic above, thos completely removes excessive water and soak poha very well). Then Heat oil in kadhai or pan, add onion, chili and curry leaves. when onion turns pink, add turmeric powder , and cut potatoes.Cover and cook till potatoes are tender. next add green peas to it and after 1 minute add salt to it.


Finally add well soaked poha to it, mix well with all ingredients and cook on low heat, next add tomato to it. then add sugar and let it cook for 1-2 mins on low heat.
for this we don't need to cook tomato very well, as it tastes best when it is little in its original taste. one can even add tomato after the whole cooking process is done, even that taste better.



Finally turn off the heat and then add lemon juice to it. mix it well to spread its taste to whole batata poha dish. garnish it with coriander leaves and serve hot. Don't forget to add your love to this, as thats the main thing which adds taste to any dish :)




Enjoy a Nutritious breakfast- as it has very low oil, tomato and green peas high in Nutritions and curry leaves with just spread linger of hunger in our stomach . :))

This is my submission to Nandita's WBB-6 - Twist in the plate .