Cauliflower Potato Curry

Ingredients
Cauliflower florets - 20 small florets(approximately)
Potato - 2 medium size -  boiled and diced into cubes
Onion -2 small- chopped finely
Tomato - 1 small
Badam - 7/8 soaked for 4/5 hours or overnight
Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
salt to taste

Procedure
1.In a pan add a teaspoon of oil and saute the onions until they are transparent. Keep this aside.
2.In the same  pan cook the cauliflower florets with required salt and little turmeric. Add little water, cover and cook until they are soft and tender.
3.In the meantime make a smooth paste of onion and badam. Add this to the cauliflower florets.
4. Grind the tomato separately(or you can add a teaspoon of tomato puree) and add the same to the pan
5. Add the dry masalas, boiled and diced potatoes, salt for the gravy and a cup of water. Simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
6.Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and fried cashews
This can be served with pulav or roti.

Baghare Baingan

Baghare Baingan is a delicious Andhra Recipe which is usually served with plain rice or pulao. First I tasted this recipe at my friend's place and I just couldn't stop eating it. I got the recipe from her mother and modified a bit. Instead of deep frying the brinjal I have microwaved it and also reduced the oil content. Even coconut can be avoided by substituting with Poppy seeds soaked for an hour in warm water.

Ingredients

Brinjal - small size -8/10
Tamarind extract - 1 small cup or 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind paste
Salt to taste

Saute the following in a teaspoon of oil and make a smooth paste

Roasted peanuts - 2 tablespoons

Coconut(fresh/grated) - 2 tablespoons
Sesame seeds - 2 tablespoons
Dhania - coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon
Onion - small onions preferably - 7/8
Red chillies - 5/6
Fresh Curry leaves - 1 handful

For seasoning
Oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoons
Turmeric powder

Procedure
1.Saute the peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut, red chillies, onions, curry leaves and dhania separately. Just a teaspoon of oil is enough if you saute the onions first. Make a smooth paste and keep it aside.

2. Slit the brinjals lengthwise from the bottom (like a Plus sign). Make sure the brinjals are joined together. Fill in the brinjals with little masala paste. Just to make sure once we cook the brinjals it's not bland.

 3. Microwave this for 4 minutes so that masalas are intact and the brinjal is also soft and tender.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a kadai. Season it with mustard. Once it splutters add the brinjals with little salt and turmeric powder.

5. Saute this for 3-4 minutes and add the tamarind water. Cook this for 3-4 minutes(until the raw smell of the tamarind goes). Now add the masala paste. Mix well and add salt for the gravy.

6. Simmer and cook stirring once or twice in between. Wait till the oil comes on top of the gravy(approx. 10 minutes).

7. Serve with hot Plain rice/Pulao with raitha and papads as accompaniments.

Potato masala for Poori

Ingredients
Potato - 5-6 medium sized ones
Onion - 2 medium size
Tomato - 1 small
Green chillies - 4/5 split into two
Ginger grated - 1 teaspoon
salt to taste
curry leaves and coriander leaves
For seasoning
Oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoons
Channa dhal - 1 tabelspoon
Asafoetida 1/2 teaspoon

Peas paneer with coconut milk

Ingredients

Paneer - 200 gms - cut into cubes

Frozen peas or fresh peas - boiled - 1 cup

For the gravy

Onion - 2 finely chopped

Tomato - 2 finely chopped

Coconut  milk - 1 cup 

(I extracted fresh coconut milk from fresh grated coconut. Instead you can use coconut milk available in the market. Make sure to dilute it by adding half cup of water to half cup of coconut milk.)

Yellow dhal

Ingredients
I have used a combination of masoor dhal and moong dhal. This can be prepared with masoor dhal and moong dhal separately. If you want to make dhal for rice, use Tuar dhal. For Tadka Dhal  follow the same procedure, use little more of ghee while seasoning and add butter while garnishing.
Masoor dhal - 1/2 cup
Moong dhal - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
Ginger - either grated or Juliennes
Green chillies - 4-5 - slit the mouth (Dry red chillies can also be used additionally if you want the dhal to be spicy)
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander
(I  totally forgot about ginger while preparation..Ginger gives a nice flavour. So don't miss it :-))

Potato bread curry

Ingredients

(I have used 1/2 Kg of Potatoes. So adjust the ingredients accordingly)

Boiled potato- peeled and cut into cubes (Baby potatoes are best suited for this curry)

Bread - either brown bread or white bread- 3/4 the quatity of potatoes
Onion - 2 medium
Tomato - 2 medium
Ginger grated - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves
Oil - 4 tablespoons

Parangikkai Erissery (Pumpkin Curry)

Erissery, as all of us are aware, is a traditional Kerala recipe. My neighbour Mrs. Annapoorani, a connoisseur in cooking, gave me this recipe. She said even though this is made with Chennaikizhangu and vazhaikkai (Yam and Raw banana), Yellow Pumpkin is healthier/better choice for kids. This becomes a whole meal when mixed with hot rice and ghee as protein is also included.

Potato Peas masala (Aloo Mutter)

Ingredients
Potato - small - 4 - boiled and peeled
(cut this into uniform cubes)
Fresh peas or Frozen peas - 1/2 cup
(Pressure cook or microwave. Don't drain the water as it can be used for the gravy)
Onion - 2 (small size)
Tomato - 1(medium)
Salt to taste
cooking oil - 1 tablespoon

Channa masala in coriander gravy

I wanted to make channa a little different from our usual tomato/onion gravy. Also I wanted to avoid dry powders and wanted to make it with the basic things available in our kitchen. This is my daughter's favourite school lunch with bread toast!

Ingredients

For the gravy

Fresh Coriander - 2 handfuls
Green chillies-2
Red chillies-2
Cloves-2
Cinnamon-2
Cardamom-2
Dhania (coriander seeds) -1 tablespoon

Soaked channa-(white/black) -

1 1/2 cups(approximately 150gms) Soak overnight(apprx. 8 hours) 

Tomato-1small

Onion-1 small

Ginger-1/2 an inch

Dhal makhani

This is another one of our favourite Punjabi recipes. As usual just like any other North Indian recipe, I used to grind onion/tomato paste, pressure cook and add cream at the last. Archana gave me the near perfect recipe yesterday and the result was a mouth watering Dhal Makhani just like we taste in the restaurants. Thanks Archana.

Gobi Manchurian Dry

It's hard to believe that this is my favourite starter whenever I go out for dinner considering the fact that I had a revulsion for Cauliflower until my college days. Also cauliflower was BIG NO-NO in our households as there was a misconception that it's a variety of meat.

I felt that in the restaurants, onion/ginger are chopped finely and fried. We waste those onions eating only the florets. So I decided to stir fry the onion and capsicum and use ginger julienne instead of finely chopped ginger. Also in restaurants this dish is invariably prepared with Red/orange food colour. I feel it's not needed and the fresh chilly-garlic sauce is going to give us the natural colour.

Karamani Cauliflower Khurma

I always make khurma with mixed vegetables.This time with Karamani(Black eyed Peas) lying untouched after Karadayan Nonbu, I decided to use this along with cauliflower.Soak Karamani for 8-10 hours and pressure cook it with water and salt.Don't drain the water as it can be added to the gravy. More Healthier option would be with Sprouts. You can avoid cashews if you are more calory conscious and substitute it with Couscous(poppy seeds soaked for an hour).

Ingredients

Cauliflower - 1/2 cup
(I microwaved the cauliflower. If you don't have a microwave cook in boiling water)
Karamani-Black eyed peas-1 small cup
(soak overnight and pressure cook until it's soft)
Onion- 1 big- Cut lengthwise
Tomato-1 -chopped finely
Green chilly-1 slit into two
Salt as per taste

Paneer Kofta

This is one delicacy we relish whenever we go out. The kofta can be made with any vegetable. Just use maida or bread or Gram flour for binding and deep fry. Make sure the koftas are made using the moisture content of the vegetable or bread. Avoiding water will make the koftas crispier. I have used Fresh cream in this recipe.If you don't get fresh cream use full cream milk. Whenever you deep fry for recipes like these, use oil just enough for frying as the oil cannot be resued. I have used Badam instead of Cashew, you can try using pistas too...

At the end if you feel the gravy is little bit thick, add fresh milk.

First let us finish the koftas and then prepare the gravy.
Ingredients for the Kofta

Potatoes- 2 boiled and skin peeled
Bread- 2 pieces
Green chillies- finely chopped
Coriander- finely chopped
Salt to taste
Gram flour -1 Tablespoon

Mixed vegetable curry

This recipe may seem a little time consuming. But with microwave occupying almost all the household, this is going to be fast and tasty too. Just use your own imagination while cutting as it makes a lot of difference and make sure all the pieces are more or less the same size. The more evenly you cut more evenly they cook. Also I tried to use only channa masala as I wanted the recipe to be a little bland. If you want to make this a little spicy, add red chilly powder. Add fresh cream if you want this recipe to be more tasty.

Stuffed Brinjal curry

Stuffed Brinjal/Eggplant, 'King of vegetables', is one of our favourite dishes.The stuffing can be prepared in many ways.As I like it a little sour and sweet, I have used Tamarind.Even the sesame seeds is optional.I use it for the flavour.This can be done with curry powder alone. The same masala can be used for gravy too. Prepare the masala as a paste, stuff it and use the rest for gravy. Also the left over masala can be used to prepare Bitter gourd/Pavakkai. Traditional recipe requires a ton of oil and time consuming.This one can be prepared in 20 minutes and also for calorie conscious people you can enjoy the same recipe with less oil.
Ingredients

Aloo Poshto- Potato in Couscous gravy

This is a traditional Bengali dish which is served along with rice and dhal/Kichdi. My friend Malathi, who is  great cook, prepared this dish and she suggested that even though traditonal recipe requires Potato, Ridge gourd(Peerkangai), Bottle gourd(suraikkai) and Raw banana(Vazhaikkai) can be used.


Ingredients
Potato-1/2 kg peeled and cut into cubes
Red chillies-2
Kala Jeera- 1 teaspoon
Onion-3(one for the Masala paste and 2 for cooking)
Poppy seeds-Couscous-Kasakasa-50gms
Green chillies-2
Jeera-1/2 teaspoon

Potato, Green chillies, Kala Jeera, Onion and Poppy seeds, Jeera. Green chilly paste

Paneer Butter Masala

I always  used to think Paneer Butter masala requires lots of tomato and onion for the gravy!During our Coonoor vacation this year, we stayed at MGM Hill Worth Resorts. We asked the chef to prepare Paneer Butter masala and Kids simple loved it. After tasting this dish for over a decade,  I came to know from this chef that there is no tomato in this dish, they just add colour...dish seemed to be really easy..let me share this with all of you. I have prepared this dish without adding the artificial colour!

Avial- Mixed vegetables in coconut gravy

Ingredients

Mixed vegetables

I have used potato, Chow chow, Snake guard, Carrot, Beans, Drumstick and White pumpkin. Some people use root vegetables like Chenai, seppankizhangu and also Vazhakai. It’s up to the individual to decide the vegetables. The reason I don’t use those vegetables is it gives a sticky consistency.

Coconut – 1 big cup

Green chillies-2(I have used only 2 as we prefer this recipe to be bland. Use green chillies according to your spice level)

Jeera-1 Tablespoon

Curry leaves- 1 handful

Fresh thick curd- 1 big cup

Groundnut oil-4 tablespoon

Paneer Masala

Ingredients

Onion-1 medium sized
Cashew-7-8 soak in water for half an hour(or microwave for a minute in water)
Tomato-1 big
Chilly powder-1 teaspoon
Jeera powder-1 teaspoon
Coriander powder-1 teaspoon
Channa masala powder-1teaspoon
Turmeric-1teaspoon
sugar-1 teaspoon
Paneer cut into cubes

Potato Capsicum Dry curry

Ingredients
Baby Potatoes(You can also use boiled potatoes cut into cubes) - 1 big bowl boiled and peeled.
(when you boil the potato make sure you add salt)
Tomato-3 medium sized-chopped finely
Onion-2 medium sized-chopped finely
Capsicum- 1 medium size-cut into cubes
Red chilly powder- 1 TBS
Coriander powder-1TBS
Jeera Powder-1 TBS
Turmeric-1TBS
Mustard for seasoning
Coriander for garnishing
Cooking oil -2 TBS