Simple food for the soul

Thanks to Mejwani paripurna kitchen's call for interesting recipes on their Facebook page, I got motivation to finally update my blog with my cooking experiments. Now I'm on extended maternity leave which I'm fully utilizing for trying out different recipes which I had bookmarked long ago. I also have some paper clippings from Loksatta's Sunday supplement.Food critic and researcher Mohsina Mukadam and Dietitian Dr. Anuradha Sovani used to write articles related to different food culture.I think it was 6-7 years or may be even before that. Finally now I got time to try these recipes.

Before my leave I was very much keen on preparing recipes which don't use many ingredients and are not very time consuming for preparation/cooking. Following 3 recipes fall under this category. First 2 are traditional Oriya recipes. Third one is prepared at my in-laws house but I don't think its traditional recipe.

Saag with badi

1 bunch red saag (lal maath) or bathuva (chandan batava)
8-10 badis (these are made from urad dal. Similar to saandage)
2-3 cloves garlic chopped
1-2 green chillies
1 tsp paanch foran (equal mix of cumin, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, kalongi and saunf)
3 tsp oil
salt to taste

Thoroughly wash the leafy vegetables and drain water completely. Chop finely.
Heat oil in pan. Fry badis till golden brown and keep aside. In remaining oil prepare tadka with paanch foran, green chili and garlic.

Add chopped saag and crushed baadi. Cover and cook for 7-8 min. Add salt and again cook for a min or so.
You can eat this with roti or rice.

Jahni poshto

1 Jahni/Dodaka/Ridge guard cut into small cubes
2 medium size potatoes cut into small cubes

1 medium size onion finely chopped
3-4 green chillies
1 tsp paanch foran
3-4 green chillies
4-5 tsp poshto/khaskhas
3-4 tsp oil
salt to taste

Cut ridge guard and potatoes in small cubes. Finely chop onions. Vertically slit 2 chillies. Now heat oil in pan. Once heated add paanch foran, chillies, onions. Fry till
onion is slightly brown.Next add ridge guard and potatoes. Add water and cover to cook. Grind khaskhas to fine powder. Then add green chillies and grind along with khaskhas powder. Once potatoes are almost cooked, add this khaskhas - green chillies powder. Cover the pan again and cook till this masala is cooked well.

This is a great side dish with daal-chawal

Dal tadka with scrambled egg

This is a great dish to eat with phulaka specially on Sunday night as its very easy to cook. Also the ingredients used are very simple. Use of scrambled egg is purely
optional. This tadka tastes equally good without egg.

1 cup black urad (soak for 5-6 hrs)
1 medium onion chopped
3-4 green chillies
1" ginger finely diced
2 eggs (optional)
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp turmeric powder.
1 tsp oil

Pressure cook pre-soaked urad. You may need 4-5 whistles to properly cook dal. You may add salt and turmeric powder while cooking dal or you can add later.
Now in a pan heat oil.Fry ginger till it gives out nice aroma.Next add green chillies and onion. Cook onion till its slightly brown.If turmeric powder was not added
earlier, add now. In this tadka add boiled taal. Let it simmer till it reaches required consistency. Add salt if not added earlier.Cover the pan and switch off gas.
Prepare scrambled egg with just salt as seasoning. While serving dal, place some scrambled eggs on top.

Carrot Halwa Cups/tarts

After successfully baking few cakes, I decided to turn my attention towards pies and tarts. I love to watch TLC or any other channel which shows cookery programs specially related to baking. Nigella Lawson and Rachell Allen are my favourite hosts and I love their baking. So I decided to first try the popular Apple pie. I actually followed recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html this site. And I felt this is lot of work because of all the work I had to do for apple filling plus I'm the only one who like apple pie at home. So instead of baking huge pie, I decide to make smaller version of pies and tarts and savoury or sweet fillings. Now I really dont know difference between pies and tarts, so for my understanding I say covered once are pies and open once are tarts. The thing I liked about pies/tarts is once you know how to make short crust pastry you can perpare any kind of filling. I had once tried savoury cups with vegetable filling. I had prepared white sauce mixed it with assortment of vegetables (carrots, peas, french beans, spinach, sweet corns, mushrooms, etc). Once filling is done all I had to do is fill the cup size tarts (I used muffin/cupcake mold), put some cheese on top and bake. It proved to be instant hit as snacks. Advantage with using cupcake mold was each individual got to enjoyed his/her own customized tart and they looked beautiful on everyone's plate when served. Next time I decied to make sweet tarts. I had some condensed milk left so decided to make most popular bollywood sweet Gajar ka halwa in tart form. First I will explain short crust pastry preparation Ingredients: 2 cups Maida/ All purpose flour 1 cup butter (chilled and cut into cubes) 1 tsp salt 2-3 tsp sugar (skip this when making savoury pies/tarts) 1/2 cup cold water Mix maida, salt and sugar. Start adding butter cube by cube to maida. Mix it well so that the mixture looks crumbly. Add water (in small quantity) to this maida-butter mixture till you manage to make dough. Cover this dough in cling film and keep in fridge for minimum 30 mins. When you want to use it, take it out from fridge and roll out into desired thickness round. As I had to make separate tarts, I divided dough in 6 portions for 6 cupcake molds. Depending on the bakeware you are using you might have to modify quatity. But remember maida to butter ratio 2:1. Once you fit the rolled out dough in desired bakeware, you've to blind bake (refer to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind-baking for details) this for 6-8 mins at 180 degree C. Make sure oven is preheated for 10-15 min. I've bajaj OTG(some 23ltrs capacity) in which I use top shelf for baking and use both side rods for baking. Once the cup tarts are baked, add the desired filling and bake for another 15-20 min or till filling is cooked. Now this timing will vary depending on wheather filling is partially cooked or completely cooked. You may have to do some trial and error on this one depending on your filling. Do try short crust pastry preparation at home and impress everyone. Only you'll know how simple it is. Regarding the butter quantity I've heard that you can replace it with milk and oil combination. I've not tried this, but will sure try and update this post accordingly. Till then happy baking.

Back after long break

I'm posting new recipe after really long time. Last few months were very busy with my pregnancy, office work, house work etc. Now days and specially nights are very busy considering my 1 month old baby is hungry every 2hrs. But now that I'm on long leave, I get some free time as my mom is here to help me with baby and more imp. I don't have to think about office work even for a second. So I thought what is the best way to spend my free time at home, the answer came immediately....Cook new dishes. And as I anyway have this blog site,I thought why not share the recipes here.

So I decided with something healthy and easy to cook. I decided to do Tomato-Carrot soup. Some 8-10 years back in Loksatta's Sunday supplement there was column from Dr.Anuradha Sohani on healthy food. I had paper cuttings of all the recipes I liked then and which I thought should be tried out. I similarly have some articles from Mohsina Mukadam. I'm planning to take inspirations from these recipes and prepare them with my own twist during this long leave and will post the recipes here.

Now going back to the soup recipe you'll need following ingredients to serve 2 hearty bowls.

Ingredients:

3 medium size tomatoes, ripe and firm.Remove seeds and skin
1 medium size carrots
1 small onion
3-4 garlic cloves
Salt, Black pepper powder to taste
1tsp butter/oil
1tsp sugar (optional)
1-1.5 tsp dried basil leaves (optional)
4-5 cups of water/vegetable stock

Recipe:

1. Chop all the vegetables roughly. First fry garlic and onion in butter. You can do this step directly in a cooker.
2. Next add tomatoes and about a cup of water. Close the lid and cook the vegetables till they are completely mashed (about 3-4 whistles on high flame).
3.Let the mixture cool down a bit and then blend it smooth with the help of hand blender or mixer.You can strain mixture if you want very smooth soup.
4.In another pan boil the blended mixture with required amount of water. Add salt, pepper powder and dried basil leaves.Boil the mixture till it reaches required consistency.
5.Serve the soup with desired garnish.

With the soup, bread tastes delicious.I served garlic bread which is easy to make. Just cut the bread slices in desired shapes.Apply butter on one side and sprinkle some chopped garlic. In OTG keep for 3-5 min on bottom rack with both side heating and max temp. Crispy bread is ready to be served.

Do try the recipe this rainy season