A nostalgic potful...

I recently was chatting over email with fellow westchester blogger - Phyllis and was quite amazed and impressed by all the culinary greats that she has learnt cooking from. She has actually learnt Indian cooking from Madhur Jaffrey, she describes this beautifully with some recipes in this post.
Well, possibly one of my first Indian cookbooks were by this grand dame of Indian cooking Ms. Jaffrey. I could not actually find it today. I made these kidney beans - Punjabi Rajma, inspired by memory. I do know that here recipe called for two things that I did not do, the first was to add cream and the second was to simmer the beans for 3-4 hours, hey, that is why I have a pressure cooker....

Punjabi Rajma - Spicy creamy red kidney beans

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked red kidney beans
2.5 cups of water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated garlic
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 large tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
Salt to taste (please take care to balance this with the amount of salt that the beans have been cooked in)
1 lemon
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Take about 1/2 the beans and grind to a puree with about 1/2 cup water and set this aside.
2. Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and cook till fragrant and aromatic.
3. Add in the onion and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally until the onion in soft and begining to turn golden (about 3-4 minutes).
4. Add in the ginger and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Mix in the tomatoe and cook for 5-7 minutes.
6. Add in the whole beans, chili powder, powdered cumin the bean puree with about 1 and a 1/2 cups of water.
7. Simmer on low heat till for about 25-30 minutes till thick, creamy and smooth.
8. Squeeze in the lemon juice.
9. Remove from the heat and garnish with garam masala and cilantro prior to serving.

This recipe is being sent to MLLA no #23, being hosted by Susan at the Well Seasoned Cook.

Creamy Punjabi Style Turnips Greens

On Thursday, just in time for the long weekend my husband brought in two full bags of turnip greens. I really was not sure what to do with this unexpected bounty. These greens have rougher taste than spinach and therefore need some coaxing to be mellowed. I also read that there greens taste and mimic mustard greens aka sarson ka saag in Hindi. Now it is difficult if not impossible (if you love Indian regional cuisine like me) not to think of the classic punjabi mustard greens recipe, where these lovely greens are slow cooked till they are nice and creamy. So, I wanted to do this with the turnip greens, with just one problem - the mustard green recipe that I speak of is a winter classic in Indian, when you do not mind cooking something till it is nice and soft and cooked to a puree, unlike the hot summer day that we had today.

Well, here is where perusing the blogosphere comes in handy. I came across this recipe, where the pressure cooker comes in handy. It cuts through both the energy needed as well as the cooktime.  I added in a handful of whole cooked dried peas, these are the whole version of split peas, which enhanced the creamy texture of the greens.

Salgam ki Saag - Creamy Turnip Greens

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

4-6 cups of chopped turnip greens (tough stems, discarded)

1 cup of chopped spinach (I actually had some frozen spinach on hand)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cooked whole dried peas

1 cup water

3 tablespoons maize flour (this is Indian style cornflour, not cornstarch)

2-3 tablespoons oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger

3 cloves grated garlic

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 green chili, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 -2 teaspoons of butter

Method of Preparation

1. Place the greens, salt and half the water in a pressure cooker and cook for about 12 minutes. Cool and mash with the spoon.

2. Add in the cornflour and the split peas with remaining water and cook on low heat until the mixture is thick and creamy about 5-7 minutes.

3. While this is cooking heat the oil and add in the onion, ginger and garlic and cook till the onions are soft and begining to turn golden.

4. Add in the tomate, green chili and red chili powder and cook until the tomato is nice and soft and the mixture is well cooked, you should see the oil on the edges of the spice mixture.

5. Mix into the greens and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

6. Add in the garam masala and top with the butter.

These greens are typically served with handmade cornbreads much like tortillas, I actually did make a version of these, I shall post recipe later.

Alu Baigan - Golden potatoes and eggpants in a spicy tomato sauce

This melt in your mouth gently spiced concoction that simply melts in your mouth, did not start out with such delicious aspirations. In fact, it started out as a lone eggplant, occupying some space in the refrigerator. I asked my helper to cut it into wedges and keep this in a zip lock bag for me. This is something that she does on occasion, although her knife skills are really, really appalling, there is not too much damage one can do cubing a large eggplant.

Well, when I looked at the eggplant, I was quite disappointed, this time not because of the chopping, it happened to be a very seedy eggplant - letting me know rather gently it is not my season...

Well, I first thought of throwing it out, then I figured that I did need to make something. I then chopped a couple of potatoes and fried both the vegetables. Voila, the seedy not so pretty looking eggplant was transformed into a melting soft and luscious creation - testimony to the fact you cannot quite go wrong with some olive oil, eggplant and garlic.

Alu Baigan or potatoes with eggplants is quite a classic dish, there are several variations of this dish. I have for some reason never really tried it, but then as they say there is always a first time.

Here is how I did it,

Alu Baigan - Eggplant and Potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Serves Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1 large purple eggplant, cut into wedges

2 idaho or russet potatoes, cut into wedges to match the eggplant

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 teaspoon asafetida

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1-2 pods of garlic, minced

3 tomatoes, very finely processed in the food processor

2 teaspoons freshly powdered coriander

1 teaspoon powdered cumin

1 teaspoon or more red chili powder

1-2 tablespoon chopped cilantro to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Rub the potatoes and eggplants with half the salt and turmeric and set aside separate.

2. Heat half the oil and fry the eggplants, this can be done in batches, it takes about 4-5 minutes for the eggplants to brown and become comfortingly soft.

3. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to drain (note this is very important since the eggplant does indeed absorb a generous amount of oil.

4. Fry the potatoes in the remaining oil (adding more as needed, all except 1-2 tablespoons), till the potatoes are nice and golden.

5. Remove and add the potatoes to the fried eggplants. The entire process for frying takes about 15 minutes.

6. Note, at this point, you should have oil left in the cooking wok, in this oil, add cumin seeds and wait for them to sizzle, about 20 seconds.

7. Add in the asafetida, ginger and garlic and cook for about 1minute.

8. Mix in the tomatoes, cumin, coriander, red chili powder and the remaining salt and cook for 5-9. minutes on low heat until the tomatoes are well cooked and the oil re-appears.

10. Mix in the eggplants and potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes, till the ingredients are well mixed.

11. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Gajar Halwa - Simple but takes so .......Long!

Relationships like everything else in life are full of surprises. My husband takes this day pretty seriously, well I do not necessarily get 101 roses, but I do feel appreciated and special and he does do something nice ( last year he gave me a collection of movies by my favorite director, which took some time to find, things like that). The reason I find this surprising is not because he is generally not appreciative, but he generally is not especially a fan of what we call Hallmark pressure.

Anyhow, I am the dessert person in this house and unfortunately it shows. My husband does have a couple of favorites - good gulab jamuns and gajar halwa. He likes the former the way my MIL makes it but the later my way. I do this with a few basic ingredients and other than the time, it is fairly simple.

Gajar Halwa - Carrot Fudge

Makes 35 servings

Ingredients

4 lbs carrots
3/4 gallon whole milk
4 green cardamoms
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped nuts

Method of Preparation

1. Peel the carrots and process them in a food processor or grate them.
2. In a heavy bottom pot, bring the milk to a boil and add the carrots cardamoms.
3. Turn the heat to very low and keep cooking stirring occasionally till fairly dry, this process takes 3-4 hours.
4. Add in the sugar and let the mixture turn fairly dry and shiny orange.
5. This takes about 40 minutes and it needs to be stirred frequently at this point.
6. Add in the ghee and raisins and nuts and cook stirring well for 10 minutes.
7. Cool slightly and serve warm. I like this with ice-cream.

Meeta is keeping us dishing out suggary treats with the sweet love theme.

Chicken Tikka Masala - Chicken in a creamy tomato sauce

Chicken Tikka Masala (Serves 6)

INGREDIENTS:
For the Chicken Tikka

Ingredients
1 cup yogurt
Juice of one lime
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tbs tandoori masala
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
Salt to taste
2 lbs cut into bite-size pieces

Preparation
Mix the yogurt and spices to form a smooth paste.
Marinade the chicken in the above ingredients for 8-10 hrs.
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Put the chicken on a baking tray sprinkle with oil.
Bake the chicken for 15 min and broil till lightly brown (5-7min)

Sauce.
Ingredients
Remaining marinade (very important)
½ cup yogurt
3-4 tbs butter
2-3 tbs oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 tbs dried fenugreek
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 green chilies finely chopped
½ green pepper finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 tsp Garam Masala
3 tomatoes finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion and garlic.
2. Add the cumin, paprika, fenugreek and salt.
3. Cook for 5 minutes and add the tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes soften to a pulp.
4. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
5. Blend the sauce with the cream.
6. Return to heat and add the chicken. Cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
7. Add the butter and cook till melted
8. Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro and garam masala.

Gajrella - Indian Carrot Pudding

Gajrella (Indian Carrot Pudding)

Unfortunately, we do not get the truly red carrots as found in India. You can cheat on the color by adding ¼ of a beet. Although, this might make the color a little too red at times.


Ingredients

1 can evaporated milk
1 cup half and half
5 lbs of carrots
1 cup sugar
½ stick butter
1 tsp cardamom seeds powdered.
¼ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup golden Indian raisins.

Directions

In a heavy based pan, combine the milk with the half and half and boil till reduced by ¼. This needs to be done on low heat.
In the meantime peel and grate the carrots. It is very efficient to use a food processor for this.
Add the carrots to the milk mixture. Cook on low heat till the milk evaporates.
Add the sugar, cardamom, nuts and raisins and cooks till dry.
Finally, add the butter and cook till the mixture is smooth and browning.Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ginger and Mango Lassi - Mango Yogurt Smoothie

Ginger and Mango Lassi (A ginger and mango Yogurt smoothie)
(Serves 4)

Ingredients

3 cups low fat yogurt
1 cup water
2 tbs ginger powder
1 large can of mango pulp (available in Indian grocery stores)
1tsp powdered cardomom
1tsp salt
Additional sugar (optional)


Method of preparation

Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend on low speed for 5 minutes
Serve in tall glasses with crushed ice.
Note: A lassi is a yogurt shake that may be sweet or salty. Additional sweet options may be with other fruits such as strawberries for an interesting color. Salty lassi can be seasoned with cumin or mint.