Rajma - Curried Red Kidney Beans

Welcome Spring. !!! Finally Spring is here and I hope you are enjoying the great weather as much as we are here in Philadelphia. My son had his Spring break and so I took a short blogging break as well. The highlight of my break was that I got to see in person none other than President Obama himself and I'm still in that happy and excited phase. He was rallying for his health reform bill at the George Mason University in Virginia and since we were visiting some friends there it was a perfect opportunity to hear his speech first hand. I was impressed and since I have been and still am a great fan of President Obama , this was a great occasion for me. So thought about sharing this with my blogpals. Hope I'm not sounding boastful..LOL...
Here is a proof I was there, Moi posing for the Big Event!!!!. This only took a few seconds and I did listen to the President for the entire time except when clicking a few pictures...

Alright lets get down to the Recipe part of the post. Today's recipe is one of our favorites at out house. Its Rajma or Red Kidney Beans. Best combination to enjoy Rajma is with Chawal(Rice). Rajma-Chawal is comfort food to me and I'm sure there are many more who will agree with me. This Recipe was requested by one of my friend's daughter Richa, who really encourages me a lot by her feedback and she is also very passionate about cooking and trying out recipes on her. Stay tuned for her recipe in tomorrow's post. So, Dear Richa This is for you ......

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Rajma/Red Kidney beans
• 1 cup onion puree
• 1 1/2 cup tomato puree
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 black cardamom
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin-cilantro powder
• salt to taste
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped Cilantro

You could substitute 1 cup dried Red Kidney beans for two 14 0z cans of Red Kidney beans. For the onion puree I don't grind it too fine, its like a finely grated texture. You could even just grate the onions.

Preparation :

• Wash the Rajma/kidney beans and soak them in about 4-5 cups water overnight.
• Pressure cook the Rajma with enough water(4-5 cups), turmeric and salt for upto 4 whistles or until cooked. If you were to use canned Rajma/Red Kidney beans you would skip this step. Just wash the canned beans in a colander and discard the stock(canned liquid).
• Heat oil in a pan. Add the Bay leaves and cardamom.
• Next add the onion paste. Saute the onion till it becomes golden brown .
• Add the garlic/ginger paste. Saute for about 2 minutes and then add the tomato puree. Fry for another 2 minutes.
• Add the red chilli powder and the cumin-cilantro powder. Let it cook until the oil leaves the surface (about 5-6 minutes). Now add the Rajma/Red kidney beans with the liquid and let it simmer covered for about 10-12 minutes. (At this step you could add a little water if you think the consistency is too thick and adjust the salt).
• Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro leaves and serve with rice. Enjoy my comfort food- Rajma Chawal with plain Yogurt or Boondi Raita.
• This recipe serves 4.

Corn Bread

This is the recipe I had promised in my last post. This was the corn bread which really complimented our lettuce soup. Now if you are not really a fan of lettuce soup, thats alright you can still give this Corn Bread a try and you will love it just as is. I did add a little red chilli flakes and in my opinion it balanced the sweetness of this corn bread.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup Indian Head Yellow Corn Meal
• 1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes

Preparation :

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• In a bowl combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and red chilli flakes.
• Add the butter at room temperature and mix.
• Mix egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients with a few swift strokes.
• Bake in greased bread pan for about 25 minutes.
• Corn bread is ready to serve. You could serve it warm right from the oven or cold.
• This recipe yields 10- 12 slices.

Lettuce Soup

Today we had beautiful weather and why did I make soup you may ask.. It had rained for the last 3 days and we were waiting for the sun to shine bright and the weather reports did give us some hope of sunny days. But then when the weather is so gorgeous who can resist the temptation to be outdoors. Also it was my son's spring break as well. We had a wonderful day and went for a walk and to soak up the sun. This reminds me of Sheryl Crow's " Soak up the Sun" song, its one of my favorites...

This explains how I had enough time to make this Lettuce Soup with some home baked fresh Corn Bread for dinner. The Corn Bread was contributed by my DH and my older son who wanted to help with dinner. My toddler was our tester. So tonight's dinner was a joint venture.

Ingredients :

• 1 head of iceberg lettuce
• 1 small red onion chopped
• 2-3 gloves of garlic chopped
• 4-6 cups Vegetable stock / water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
• 2 tablespoon butter
• Salt and white pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp lime juice

Preparation:

• Heat butter in a pan. Saute the onions and garlic till golden brown.
• Add the shredded lettuce and saute for a minute.
• Add about 3-4 cups of stock/water and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
• Now puree in a Blender and transfer it back to the pan and add the remaining stock/water. Stir it well. Let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
• Season with Salt and pepper and add the heavy cream. Let it simmer for about another 2-3 minutes. Add the lime juice.
• Ready to serve. This recipe serves 4. We enjoyed our soup with spicy Corn Bread. Stay tuned for the recipe of home baked corn bread in the next post.

Dal Pakhtooni and Sanjeev Kapoor

This particular recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor's cookbook- Khazana of Indian Vegetarian Recipes. It was a gift from my MIL when I was married and soon after moved to the United States in a month. In those days (yeah, can't believe its been 10 years.) Just celebrated our 10th anniversary on Valentine's Day. Alright readers, Its only been 10 years, the way I have described it makes me look ancient..which I'm not..LOL.

In those days we did not have as many blogs to look out for new recipes like today. If I was in a mood to try my culinary adventures I would take ideas from this book. It was my GOTO book. If I had friends coming over and had to decide a menu for a party, this was the book to go to. Every party hosted in those days had recipes from this book, atleast one. This was before I had kids. After I had kids, it was'nt that I did not cook, but had fewer parties. But by then I was confident enough to try out my own recipes.

So you get the idea I hope, how special this book has been to me in my early married life and I'm sure Sanjeev kapoor may have inspired so many of you and he still inspires people with his passion for cooking and his great presentation skills. I must say I had a fantastic time with his recipes with great results and many happy people. Now if they are reading this they will know where I got all those awesome recipes from. Well, the secret is out Now. If you have such stories, incidents and secrets, would love to hear from you.

Here is a youtube video I found of the same recipe presented by none other than Sanjeev Kapoor himself. What more can you ask for..Its the same recipe from this book. I made this Dal Pakhtooni following the directions on this video and the results were amazing.

I'm listing the ingredients and preparation for the benefit of many who may not have the book or may not be able to spare time to watch this video.

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Black whole urad /Black gram
• 100 gms butter (1/2 cup)
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tbsp red chilli powder
• 1 1/2 cups tomato puree
• 2 tsp Garam masala powder
• 1 cup fresh cream
• salt to taste

Preparation :

• Wash the black urad and soak it in four cups of water overnight.
• Cook it in four to five cups of water along with salt, red chilli powder and ginger paste. Bring it to a boil. Reduce flame and simmer till it is completely cooked and tender.
• Melt butter in a thick bottomed pan and add garlic paste dissolved in half a cup of water. Cook for about two minutes stirring constantly.
• Add tomato puree, garam masala and cooked dal. Cook on a low flame for an hour. Stir occasionally. Add water if required.
• Add fresh cream and simmer for about ten minutes.
• Serve hot with any Indian bread of your choice or even rice.
• This recipe serves 4.

You could even do the quick soaking method if you do not have time to soak it overnight. Just wash the Black urad and soak it in boiling hot water for 30-40 minutes covered.

Tomato Chutney

This is a repost. Its one of my earlier posts when very few or sometimes nobody read my blog. So its about time this one sees the light of day and gets some acknowlegement. Also of late I have been involved in so many things and could not devote time to my dear blog which I love and visit my blogpals. To make things worse my laptop died on me leaving me helpless and many pictures are inaccessible on its hard disk. Hopefully can retreive them and can continue blogging regularly. If not I'm trying to be comfortable on my hubby's computer. Also thanks a ton for your love and support and for enquiring about my whereabouts... Till then enjoy this Tomato Chutney recipe.

Tomatoes are an integral part of indian Cuisine. They are high in Vitamin C and a good source of Vitamin A. There are researches being done that show that cooking Tomatoes for example, may enhance the nutrients, providing you with more health benefits than eating raw tomatoes. They say that more of the phytochemical lycopene is absorbed by the body from cooked tomatoes — such as canned tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce — than from fresh. Also when lycopene is combined with a small amount of fat, absorption is even better, making olive oil and tomato sauce a perfect and healthy combination. So this proves that tomato chutney is good for you and its very easy and quick to make. You could serve it with parathas , as a side dish, with dosa or idli .

Ingredients:

• 1 Onion
• 5-6 big fresh tomatoes
• 1-2 green chillies
• 4 gloves of garlic
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin-coriander powder
• salt as required
• a pinch of Asofoetida (hing)
• Olive oil

Preparation. 1. Finely Chop all the vegetables. 2. Heat oil. Add Mustard seeds and asofoetida. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter. 3. Add Onions and fry till golden brown. 4. Add Garlic and ginger and fry for a minute. 5. Add the tomatoes , green chillies and all the dry spices (turmeric,red chilli,cumin-coriander powder,salt). 6. Cook on medium flame till the oil leaves the surface. 7. Ready to be served.

Makai Ki Subzi (Corn in Tomato Gravy) with Masala Paratha

Corn in Tomato Gravy - Makai ki Subzi

Corn in Tomato Gravy - Makai ki Subzi

Its Snowing again. Just had another Snow Storm yesterday, but it was'nt as bad as the last two ones we had this month. It makes me happy to know that Spring is just round the corner. Since kids are home- enjoying their No School days and we parents have been busy keeping them busy. This was my son's request for lunch today. I have'nt made these Parathas for a while and both my kids love corn which explains this combination. This was what we are having for lunch, Would you care to join us ....

Makai Ki Subzi - Corn in Tomato Gravy

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups frozen corn(Makai)
• 1/2 cup red onion puree
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 green chilli slit
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Preparation :Heat oil in a pan. Add the bay leaf. Add the pureed onion and saute till you no longer get the raw onion smell. Add the gingen-garlic paste. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato puree. Fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add the slit green chilli, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Mix it well. Add the frozen corn. Stir it well. Add about 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. Cook on medium flame for about 6-8 minutes. Makai ki Subzi is ready to serve with Masala Paratha/Besan Paratha. This recipe serves 4.
Masala Paratha/Besan Paratha- Indian Bread
Ingredients:

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1/2 cup Besan/Chickpea flour
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• pinch of hing/Asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 1 cup of water for kneading the dough
• oil for shallow frying the Parathas

You could need a little more water when kneading the dough but do not add too much water or the dough would be too sticky to roll out the parathas.
Preparation :
Here is the way I made my Ajwain Parathas. You can make this Masala Paratha the same way. This Recipe makes 12 parathas. Enjoy the hot shallow fried Parathas with Makai ki Subzi. In fact these Masala Parathas could be enjoyed just by themselves as well.

Paneer Cilantro Pilaf

I personally love one pot meals. Pilaf or Pulav is one such versatile one pot meal which you could make it with almost any ingredient you have in your refrigerator or pantry. Today I wanted our humble fresh Cilantro leaves to play an important role in this dish. Mostly it serves its purpose so well as a garnish or a dip. But not today, here its an integral part of this Pilaf. Try it our for yourself and you will fall in love with it too. Also it makes me feel so good when working with fresh herbs.




Ingredients:

• 2 cups basmati rice
• 2 cups paneer diced
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
• 2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 green chillies slit
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• cinnamon stick
• 1 black cardamom
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin-cilantro powder
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• salt to taste

Preparation :

• Wash and Soak 2 cups of rice in 4 cups of water. Keep this aside for around 15-20 minutes.
• Heat some oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, bay leaves, black cardamom and cinnamon stick. Add the grated ginger. Fry for a minute. Next add green chillies and chopped cilantro. Mix it well and add the diced Paneer and fry for about 2 minutes.

• Then add turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder and cumin-coriander powder.
• Add rice with the water which we had kept aside earlier. Let this cook uncovered on medium flame. Now when you see that most of the water has dried up (like 85-90%) set the stove to the lowest flame and c0ver the pan with a lid and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Its ready to serve. Serve with Raita of your choice. The entire process should not take more than 35-40 minutes.
• This recipe serves 4.