Tamatari aaloo

I was lazy today to make lunch so I while checking out my fridge I found some boiled potatoes(that I boiled last night). I wanted to be quick so thought of making aalloo tamatar ki sabji :)

When I was young I see elders fasting in navratras and eating some special food during these fasts. I never missed this gravy since then :P

So here we go :

Ingredients :

1. 2 tablespoon refined oil
2. 3 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch pieces
3. 3 medium tomatoes
4. 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
5. 1 green chilli cut into small pieces
6. 1 1/2 inch ginger grated
7. salt to taste
8. red chilli powder
9. pinch of hing
10. Fresh green coriander chopped
11. pinch of turmeric (optional. I don't use it though)

Method :

• Heat oil in a kadai. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter.
• Add ginger and hing and let it cook for two minutes. (Add turmeric at this stage if you want to add it)
• Puree tomatoes with a hand blender or mixer grinder and add them too. Cook tomatoes for 4-5 minutes or till oil separates.
• Add two potatoes cut into 1 inch pieces and leftover 1 potato should be mashed and then added. It makes gravy thicker and gives good texture.
• Add 1 1/2 glass of water and let it come to boil.
• Add green chillies and let the boil continue for another two minutes.
• Switch off the flame and add fresh green coriander.
• Serve hot with puri, chapati or rice.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews :)

Gobhi Aaloo

After a long vacation to my parent's place I came back today and my empty fridge forced me to go buy some veggies right away. There I see a single beautiful inviting cauliflower left on the counter. There are many recipes one can find for Gobi aaloo on web. Still I thought of posting my version of gobi aalloo for all you to try. This is originally from my mother's kitchen.

So here we go :

Ingredients :

1. 1 Cauliflower
2. 3 medium potatoes
3. 2 tablespoon refined oil
4. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
5. 1 Onion
6. 2 medium tomatoes
7. 1 green chilli
8. salt to taste
9. 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
10. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
11. 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
12. Some fresh green coriander leaves.

Method :

• Cut potatoes and cauliflower in small pieces.
• Heat refined oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadai. Add cumin seeds in it.
• Add chopped onions to it and cook till it becomes translucent.
• Grate ginger and add to it.
• Chop tomatoes into small pieces and add to it.
• Add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric and mix well. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
• Add potatoes and cauliflower into it and mix well. Cook it on low flame for 20-25 minutes.
• Keep mixing it every 5-7 minutes so that it won't burn. Sprinkle a few drops of water if needed. Cook till its tender.
• Add garam masala and fresh chopped green coriander and serve hot with chapati.

Try this recipe and share your reviews :)

Veg nutrela Lasagne

I tasted lasagne first time in US in 2011. Slowly I developed this flavor and now I like it very much. While shopping in a food store in Bangalore I saw lasagne sheets so thought of trying it at home. So, here is my version of veg lasagne.

Ingredients :

1. 9 lasagne sheets
2. 25-30g parmesan cheese
3. 50g mozzarella cheese
4. 500 ml milk
5. 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
6. 2 tablespoon butter
7. 1/2 teaspoon of oregano
8. Black paper to taste
9. 150g small nutrela chunks
10. 3 medium tomatoes
11. 3-4 garlic
12. 1 teaspoon oregano
13. 1 tablespoon olive oil

Method :

For red gravy :

• Soak nutrela chunks in warm water for 10-15 minutes.
• Heat olive oil in a pan. Puree tomatoes and garlic and add to oil. Add salt and black paper and little oregano to taste. Cook for 3-4 minutes
• Squeeze out nutrela and add that to tomato mix. Cook for another 3-4 minutes. Keep aside.

For white sauce :

• Take a pan and add butter to it. Melt it on medium heat.
• Add all purpose flour and stir it continuously till the raw small of flour goes and it becomes golden brown. Keep it stirring so that no lumps are formed.
• Add milk to it and boil. Add salt, black paper and oregano to taste. Keep aside.

• Grate mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Take a rectangular baking tray.
• Spread white sauce first. Place 3 sheets of lasagne over it. next layer is of red nutrela gravy. Put grated cheese over it. Next layer is again lasagne pasta sheets. Put white sauce and grated cheese over it. Layer lagne pasta sheets again and cover it completely with red, white sauce and leftover cheese. Save little red sauce for later use.
• Cover lasagne with foil and bake on 180 C for 20 minutes. After that remove foil and again bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Take it out of the oven cut it into 4 or 6 pieces. Serve hot with a table spoon of red gravy over it.

Try this recipe and let me know your reviews :)

Mushroom Pasta

I tried this pasta at my cousin's place and it was yummy. She came to Bangalore to stay with us for a few days. Here, I got time to get the recipe from her. I am not a big pasta lover but this one is something I can never say no to.

Ingredients :

1 packet of penne pasta (200 grams)
1 large capsicum
1 packet of button mushrooms (200 grams)
1 large onion (preferably white)
Black paper
Salt to taste
500 ml milk
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon of oregano

3 teaspoon olive oil.
20-25 grams of mozzarella cheese

Method :

• Boil water. Add 1 teaspoon salt to boiling water and add pasta. Let it cook till tender (5-7 minutes)
• Chop capsicum and onion in small pieces. Chop mushroom into big pieces.
• Cook onion in a teaspoon of with a pinch of salt and black paper.
• We repeat same process with capsicum and mushrooms as well.
• And keep all of them separately.

White sauce :

Take a pan and add butter to it. Melt it on medium heat.
Add all purpose flour and stir it continuously till the raw small of flour goes and it becomes golden brown. Keep it stirring so that no lumps are formed.
Add milk to it and boil. Add salt, black paper and oregano to taste.
Add all vegetables to this sauce.

To serve :

In a plate put boil pasta and pour white sauce on top of it. Serve hot.

Serves 3-4 people.

Try it and let me know your reviews on this recipe.

Rabdi Faluda

I tried rabdi a few days back and it turns out to be really really good. Rakesh loved it so I make it whenever he wants now :)

Would love to share this recipe with you all.

Ingredients :

For Rabadi :

2 liter milk (preferably full cream)
3-4 green caradomn
8-10 strings of saffron
handful of pistachios (you can use almonds or cashews also)
2 tablespoon sugar

For Faluda :

1 liter milk
Ruh Afza

Luckily I found instant faluda mix which contains

Faluda
Basil seeds
Dry fruits
Sugar

Method :

• Take a heavy bottom pan and put milk into it and start reducing it on a medium or low flame.
• Mix and soak saffron in 2-3 table spoon of milk (milk should be on room temperature or cold) for a few minutes.
• Add saffron mix into milk.
• Crush green cardamons and add it to milk.
• Reduce milk till it is 1/3rd of original quantity.
• Chop pistachios to small pieces. Remove milk pan from heat and add pistachios into it.
• Let it cool on room temperature. Pour it into in an aluminum bowl or kulfi molds for freezing.

Tip : If milk is not reduced to 1/3rd or lesser quantity the kulfi might result like an ice candy with ice in it. Boiling reduces water quantity in milk which makes final output to be more creamier than icy.

To prepare faluda :

• Boil milk with 500 ml of water in it. Add faluda mix and cook it for 7-8 minutes. 
• Turn off heat and let it cool down to room temperature before we chill it in fridge.

In a serving glass add some pieces of kulfi. Pour faluda mix on it and pour 1 tablespoon of ruhafza on top and serve.

Let me know your reviews for this recipe :)

Punjabi Rajma

This is something I grew up eating. I just love rajma rice any day. Whenever I make it at home, you can find me with a bowl full of rajma rice almost every alternate hour :P
My friends love the way I make rajma. The recipe belongs to my mom :)
Therefore this post is dedicated to my mom.

Ingredients :

1. 350g of red rajma (I prefer to use kahmiri rajma which is shown in the image)
2. Pinch of asafoetida (hing)
3. 4-5 table spoon refined oil
4. 1 tea spoon cumin seeds
5. 1 big onion
6. 5 medium tomatoes
7. 1 green chilli
8. 1 1/2 inch long piece of ginger
9.  5-6 pieces of garlic
10. salt to taste
11. 1/2 tea spoon red chilli powder
12. 1/2 tea spoon garam masala
13. fresh green coriander for garnishing

Method :

• Soak rajma overnight or atleast 2-3 hours.
• Pressure cook rajma with hing and a tea spoon of salt for 25-30 minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter.
• Grind onion in a grinder and make a paste. Add that paste into pan and let them cook till they become golden brown.
• Make a paste of ginger and garlic and add that to pan and cook for another two minutes.
• Make paste of tomatoes and green chilli and add that to pan.
• Add salt (don't forget we added salt to rajma as well) and red chilli powder and stir it well. Let it cook for 10-12 minutes now or till oil separates from this onion tomato mix.
• Add rajma to this mix and let it boil for 4-5 minutes.
• Add garam masala and mix it.
• Garnish with green coriander and serve hot.

Try this recipe and let me know how you like it :)

Mango Shake with a twist

I love mangoes and mango shake is something I am crazy about. I don't like to miss even a day in summers without mango shake. I am going to share my version of mango shake here which I always crave for. So here we go :

Ingredients :

1. 1 ripe mango
2. 500ml chilled milk
3. 2 table spoon sugar
4. 2 table spoon ruh afza (my secret)
5. some almonds and walnuts for garnishing
6. Ice cubes

Method :

• Add pealed and deseeded  mango in a jar.
• Add sugar and ruh afza and grind it to a smooth paste.
• Add milk and grind again.
• Add ice cubes and grind.
• Pour it into glass and garnish with almond flakes and small pieces of walnuts.

Try it and let me know your reviews on this version of mango shake.