Yesterday morning my sister and I were trying to think of what to take for lunch, something that would be light, green and filling.
So while my sister showered, I quickly satuéed broccoli, eggplant chunks and mushrooms with mustard seeds and garlic (adding the garlic after the mustard seeds have *popped* in the oil, and waiting until the garlic was a very light brown). I then squeezed some lemon on the veggies and packed them with leftover fried rice.
And I can say that it was a hit! 😉
I made this with my sister a few days ago… we were craving something spicy and creamy with loads of gravy and vegetables – and this definitely satisfied the craving.
We were in such a rush to eat that we forgot to take down how much of each ingredient we were using, so I won’t put up the recipe yet … but I promise to make it again and share it with all of you!
We ate the sabji (hindi for vegetable dish) with naan and a salad of cucumbers, tomato and onions.
This is a dish that is very close to my heart, and a childhood and family favorite. This mustardy recipe from Bengal is a healthy, fun and delicious way to eat eggplant. Mustard oil is a must – it’s what gives the eggplant the taste that makes this dish what it is!
These can be served as a side to a meal, or as a yummy snack.
All you need is:
Turmeric
Salt
Mustard Oil
1 Large Eggplant
Chaat Masala (optional)
Cut the eggplant into about 1/4 inch thick slices. Rub turmeric on both sides of each slice; the amount should be just enough to cover the whole slice in a very thin layer.
Heat mustard oil in a pan. When hot pan fry eggplant slices until brown on one side, then flip and brown other side.
Put the fried slices on a bed of paper towels to absorb the extra oil. Sprinkle both sides of each slice with salt, and chaat masala if you want that extra *zing*.
Serve!
It’s been almost an year since I last posted something…. and also since I last cooked regularly. The first semester of college was hectic, to say the least, and though I often wanted to cook my own wholesome meals (unlike the food available on campus), I found myself not having the will power, or often the time, to cook in the perpetually dirty shared kitchen on my floor.
But now it’s summer… and I have a glorious amount of time, and most importantly, easy access to my own kitchen. Yay!
So in short, I’m going to be posting again! These might be mostly Indian recipes, because these were sorely missing for my life while I was on campus, but also because I enjoy them the most. There’s nothing more fulfilling than a meal of roti, dal, sabji and rice!
I came back from school today with a ravenous craving for some fresh sauteed vegetables, and so I decided to try something new.
I fried some sliced ginger and green chillies in olive oil, and then added mixed ground pepper, oregano and the vegetables (beans, mushrooms, and broccolini).
The vegetables turned out to be delicious and I loved the taste of the mushrooms, but I didn’t get as strong of a ginger-y taste as I was expecting.
I asked my mom, and she said there would be a stronger ginger flavor if there was something wet to bring it out.
Next time, I’m going to add maybe balsamic vinegar, or soak the ginger in soy sauce.
The bread in the picture is baguette drizzled with olive oil with garlic and Italian seasoning in it.
I am over at my nani’s (nani is the hindi word for grandmother) house for a visit, and one of my favorite pastimes while I’m here is reading through my nana’s (grandfather) old collection of recipe books.
My nana was a man who enjoyed the finer things in life, food and cooking in particular, and would often prepare complicated dishes from different cuisines, even though he lived in India in a time when many ingredients from other cuisines were not easily available. My mother often warmly recounts stories of lavish parties with detailed menus of food and drink, but also of family dinners when nana would make everybody try new things.
My nana passed this love of food onto my mom, who then passed it onto me. I will always be happy that my mom was able to experience the intricacies of different cuisines even in a time when information wasn’t so easily accessible, as she was then able to share this knowledge with me!
So, back to the recipe books.
Every time I visit, I make it a point to read through this collection, and it truly is a treasure. Old books of different cuisine full of detailed recipes and mouthwatering pictures, sometimes with ingredients I’ve never heard of, and always full of dishes I want to try.
I always want to take all of them with me, but only take two or three because I’m pretty sure my mother would not be happy paying the airline excess baggage fee!
Here are a few pictures:
The day I made these, I had a HUGE craving for something fried. After scouring through all my recipe books I finally found the perfect thing 🙂
These are absolutely heavenly and REALLY easy to make. You just have to mix everything together! Tastes best with Green chutney and tomato ketchup.
Cottage cheese (paneer in India) is a firm and spongy cheese and has a really unique taste – not at all like other cheeses . It is used a lot in Indian cooking and lends itself well to all tastes!
Happy Cooking!
INGREDIENTS:
250g cottage cheese, crumbled or grated
1/2 cup corn, boiled and mashed (I did not mash them and they burst while frying. So you should.)
1 tbsp ginger, grated
3 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
2 slices bread crumbled
2 tbsp. cornflour
1/4 tsp chaat masala
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste
Sesame seeds to coat
Oil to deep fry
METHOD:
Mix everything except the oil and sesame seeds in a bowl.
Heat oil for deep frying. Spread the sesame seeds in a plate.
Make small balls of the cottage cheese mixture and coat in the sesame seeds. (Don’t worry if the whole ball is not covered. It is supposed to be sparsely covered) (See pic)
Deep fry till golden brown. (Again, don’t worry if the sesame seeds fall off while frying.)
Drain on a paper towel and serve hot with green chutney and tomato ketchup.
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Hello readers!
Sorry for not posting for sooooo long! But I was having fun being blissful in Ladakh!
It was breathtaking…….and the cuisine – YUM!
They have food like Thukpa, Skew, Momos (heavenly) and Chutaki
The scenery will take your breath away each and every time you go out and the rivers – Indus and Zanskar are beautifullll.
But now that I’m back, I’ll be posting recipes again!
Enjoyyy!
Sexy Cuisine Thank you so so so so so so much! I’m so glad that my blog is being recognised by such an inspiration to me and such a well established and great blogger too!
The rules to accept this awards are:
1) Accept the award
2) Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link
3) Answer the questions below
4) Pass the award to 10 other blogs providing links to their blogs
5) Contacting them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
Questions:
1. Favourite colour? : Purple
2. Favourite animal? : Puppies (SO CUTE!)
3. Favourite number?: 2
4. Favourite colour? : Blue
5. Favourite drink? : Cold Coffee
6. Facebook or Twitter? : Facebook
7. what is your passion? : Cooking
8. Giving or getting presents? : Both. Love seeing the joy on someone’s face when I give, and everyone loves to get a present!
9. Favourite day of the week? : Friday
10. Favourite flower? : Plumeria
My 10 nominees for the sunshine award are:
5. at350degrees
9. Cornaby’s
My mother’s recipe, these kebabs are very addictive! You can never have enough of them! An easy recipe and absolutely delicious, this will make your family go crazyyyy.
Ingredients:
1 /2 Kg Bengal gram/black chickpeas( soaked overnight)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 green chillies, finely chopped
1 inch peice ginger, finely grated
1/4 cup finely chopped green coriander
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste
oil or ghee for frying
Method : Pressurecook the Bengal gram after adding salt and little water just enough to prevent the Chickpeas from sticking to the bottom. After it has cooled down, grind the chickpeas. It will yield a grainy paste. It should be moist so that you can mould it into kebabs- like a wet dough. This kebab mixture can handle a lot of moisture as it is made of chickpeas. Add rest of the ingredients and knead well. Make small kebabs and shallow fry on a non-stick pan in refined oil/ghee according to your preference. Serve hot with green coriander chutney and sweet tamarind chutney.
SERVING SUGGESTION:
Serve hot in pita bread pockets with onion-cucumber salad and mint-yogurt chutney.
This is the recipe for the green chutney. I will soon post the tamarind chutney recipe 🙂
1 cup coriander leaves
1 green chilly
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste
Blend all ingredients in a food processor.
My Food escapades 