Spicy Sweet Potato Paratha Recipe | GitaDini Product Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Spicy Sweet Potato Paratha ~ Spicy Indian flatbread made using sweet potato mash and assorted Indian spices

There is always a new gadget to add to the kitchen to brighten up the décor, ease cooking prep, or to store things more efficiently. These days the market is flooded with hundreds and thousands of kitchen gadgets, available in various size, shape and budget to suit every need. There’s a lot more to product design than simply making something look good! For me, a good product is one that I find easy to use, it does the thing that it says in the label, something meets my needs, something that I like to use regularly and lastly, the look is appealing to me. For me, GitaDini products tick all the boxes and easily fit the bill of a good product. This post is about my experience of using GitaDini kitchenware and cookware extensively in my kitchen for the last two months. You can scroll down to find the details about how you can enter a giveaway to win this beautifully crafted kitchenware from GitaDini!

GitaDini is a US based family business founded by a dynamic husband and wife team, Jitu and Gita Patel. Apart from their wide range of home décor and furnishing line, they have a beautiful collection of kitchenware which I will be reviewing here. I’ve always worked with brands which I find best fit for my blog readers, mainly related to food and cooking. I usually take couple of weeks to extensively test the products in my kitchen before posting an honest review as I don't believe in misleading the blog readers with false information. It has been close to two months since I started using the GitaDini kitchenware and I am in a stage where I can happily share my experience.

Punjabi Aloo Gobi Recipe | How to Make The Classic Punjabi Alu Gobi

Learn how to make Punjabi Aloo Gobi/Alu Gobi ~ Simple stir fry of potatoes and cauliflower flavoured with aromatic Indian spices

The summer that never was is really over! While the world enjoyed basking under the glorious sun and BBQs, we in Britain looked enviously at them but still hopeful for few days of sun and fun! We whined about the gloomy weather and dark clouds, grumbled about non-stop drizzles and cold nights, and then rejoiced when a mother nature showed little mercy with few days of clear blue skies and summer like weather! But it was no enough… It is never enough!

Kadai Paneer (Karahi Paneer) Recipe | How to Make Restaurant Style Kadai Paneer or Karahi Paneer

Kadai Paneer or Karahi Paneer ~What’s in name?!

Past three weeks have been really testing and extremely busy week in MS household. First, HD got busy with mountain load of paper works needed for my in-law’s visa and then Lil Dumpling suddenly fell ill with severe cough and then gastroenteritis. Ah, the joys of sending your child to day care means seesawing between little runny nose to viral infections.

Kasuri Methiwale Gobi ki Subji/Subzi: Sweet Romance

Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Ki Subji

Tall, dark and handsome…
Rich, powerful and charismatic…
Beautiful, fair and simple…
Young, virgins and innocents…

You don’t need to appoint detectives from Scotland Yard to figure out what I am talking about. This is how almost all the heroes and heroines of Mills & Boon novels. For all those people who are twitching their nose in disgust at the mention of M&B, did you know it’s been a whole century since Mills and Boon began publishing? Yes, 100 years of romance and romance alone and surprisingly even now at 21st century it has vast readership by selling 130 million books a year in 26 different languages. And did you also know that the company turnover is over £21 million and it has 1,600 writers dedicated to writing romantic novels?

The documentary on BBC channel on a Century of Romance: Mills & Boon triggered the memories of my teen days when I read first M&B book which was stuck in between Hardly Boys and Nancy Drew novels I was addicted to. It was the story of rich, powerful business man falling in love with a pretty secretary of his. And since then I have had read hundreds of similar stories with the same storyline with almost similar characters. The men are always rich, handsome and powerful millionaires or billionaires who are either successful business men or doctors or Arabian sheikhs or business tycoons with a smile that would set every (submissive) female specie’s heart ablaze.

I have lost the count of numer of times I have had read M&B novels, tucked safely in between thick text books of logistics or graphic designing, at boring college lectures. They were notoriously famous among girls as the books were small enough to hide comfortably between any texts books which almost resembled large print oxford dictionaries and dream of their prince charming between coding and programming. Since the book was small with 40 to 50 thousand words, it was easy to finish in a session or two. Well, you don’t need to use your mind when you read M&B novels, just turn pages and finish it and pass it on. Ever wondered why these books were so famous? Do share your stories and thoughts with us :)

Moving on to recipe part, I have different things to romance these days, food and cooking. What did you think? Tsk, tsk… Anyways, I have been seen lately romancing with Dudhi which ruled our kitchen for the past few months and also other vegetables which make regular appearance in our kitchen. But Gobi/Cauliflower is one vegetable which I buy reluctantly, mainly it stinks!!! Did I say that? Hmmm… It does stick when over cooked and I know you too know that!!! Even when I buy Gobi I disguise it among other vegetables, especially I like to pair it with potatoes which makes it much bearable. And I absolutely hate over-cooked cauliflower. But this time hubby dear was particular about cooking it alone without pairing with other veggies. Well, it took me more than one week to think and decide and by yesterday I was almost ready to give up and cook Aloo-Gobi if not for very intriguing recipe posted by dear Indira of Mahanandi.

Indira’s recipe of Gobi Kasuri Methi with Raisins sounded too interesting to be ignored. Kasuri methi rules my kitchen and I usually buy big packs of it from India instead of buying here which hardly gives any flavour. So I was all set to try this recipe and with in few minutes I was chopping cauliflower into medium florets. My recipe of Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Subji/Subzi uses three main ingredients cauliflower, kasuri methi and raisins used by Indira but my recipe is slightly different from the original. I skipped coconut and added little bit of garam masala and aamchur powder. And I also used fresh ginger and garlic along with sweet onions and tart tomatoes. While kasuri methi gives a mild, pleasantly bitter taste, sultanas soaked up in spicy tomato gravy gives it a nice sweet bite to this absolutely delicious Subzi/Subji. Thank you Indira for this delicious inspiration and I am packing this bowl of delicious Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Subji/Subzi to dear Zu for her T&T-Mahanandi event.

Cauliflower, Kasuri Methi & Sultanas

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Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Subzi/Subji (Sweet and Spicy Cauliflower Curry cooked with pleasantly bitter Dried Fenugreek Leaves and sweet Sultanas)

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20-25 mins
Serves: 4-6
Recipe Inspiration: Mahanandi

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Ingredients:

1 medium Cauliflower, cut into medium florets
1 large Onion, finely chopped
1 can or 3 large Tomatoes, finely chopped
1 inch Ginger, peeled & finely chopped
3-4 large Garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼ cup Sultanas or Raisins
1 tbsp Kauri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves
½ - 1 tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp Kitchen King Masala (Optional)
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
½ - 1 tsp Aamchur/Dry Mango Powder (Adjust acc to taste)
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida (Optional but recommended)
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Ki Subji

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and hing. When cumin starts to sizzle and change golden red, add finely chopped ginger and garlic and sauté them for about 30 seconds. Then add finely chopped onions and sauté till they turn golden brown, about 2-3 mins.
Mix in kasuri methi, garam masala, kitchen king masala and turmeric powder and fry for half a minute. Add canned chopped tomatoes or finely chopped tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes on medium flame till they turn pulpy.
Now add ½ - 1 cup of water, salt to taste and aamchur powder and mix well. Mix in cauliflower florets and cover the lid. Let it cook for 10-12 minutes on medium flame, stirring in between, till cauliflower is almost cooked.
Uncover and mix in sultanas or golden raisins and let it simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Mix in finely chopped coriander leaves and serve the delicious Kasuri Methiwala Gobi Curry with any Indian Breads or steaming bowl of Rice and enjoy.

Aloo Palak: Green Indulgence

Aloo Palak

Ever since we came back from our adventurous trip to north Wales (more of it in coming posts, hopefully!), we have hardly been entering our kitchen except for heating the food in microwave. Simple Dal and Rasams is all we managed to cook when it became too agonising to even lift a spoon after all those adventurous sports. Well, all that climbing, biking, and walking seemed like a good way of relaxing at that time, but at present I can’t help but think that we may have overdone it when I try to walk without limping with back and leg pain!

Tired of eating same dal and rasams with rice for last few days, we set out into making something of a treat to ourselves to cheer our taste buds. With few sad looking potatoes in a pantry and a bag of wilted baby spinach on the verge of committing suicide if it was not used in a day or two, I decided to cook much loved Punjabi dish called Aloo Palak. Aloo Palak, delicious gravy of spinach with tender potatoes doesn’t need any introduction. For me Aloo Palak is a dish which serves as a benchmark for many good cooks/chefs at home and restaurants. Like many other recipes in India, Aloo Palak can also be cooked in many ways using as little as 5 ingredients to as many as dozens of ingredients. Sometime you will be served Aloo Palak in a gravy form or simple stir fried form. But whatever way it’s been cooked or served, it remains to be one of the most loved Indian foods among many foodies.

I have been cooking this dish for around 3 years and at last I can say that we have found the recipe which we love the most. The base gravy is little thick due to addition of cashews which not only thickens the gravy but gives it little nutty and wonderful taste. With cashews, I add wee bit of dried fenugreek leaves which gives it very pleasant bitter taste along with extraordinary aroma and flavour it imparts. Both these ingredients are optional, and I don’t think they are used in a traditional recipe of Aloo Palak. But at the same time, these two ingredients add that oomph factor to my recipe of Aloo Palak. So try this recipe when you want to cook little different Aloo Palak and enjoy the whole goodness of greens this winter.

Baby Spinach and Potatoes for Aloo Palak

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Aloo Palak (Potatoes in delicious Spinach Gravy)

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20-30 mins
Serves: 4-5

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Ingredients:
5-6 packed cups of Spinach, washed, drained and roughly chopped
3 medium Potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, chopped and cooked with salt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 Tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tbsp Mint Leaves, roughly chopped (Optional)
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
5-7 Cashew Nuts
3-5 Green Chillies (Adjust acc to taste)
1 inch Cinnamon Stick
2 Green Cardamoms
2 Cloves
1 tsp Sugar
½ tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp Aamchur/Dry Mango Powder or 1 tbsp Lime Juice
½ tbsp Kauri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Optional)
1+½ tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1+½ tbsp Oil/Ghee
Salt to taste

Aloo Palak

Method:

Heat about ½ tbsp of oil in a pan and add cinnamon, green cardamom and cloves. Sauté it for few seconds and add ½ tsp of cumin seeds. When cumin seeds start to sizzle and turn golden red, add cashews and green chillies. Sauté it on medium flame till cashews turn light golden brown in colour.
Mix in roughly chopped spinach, sugar and cover the lid. Cook this spinach cover for few minutes on a medium heat till it is wilted. If needed sprinkle little water in between to avoid them sticking to the pan. Cool the mixture and grind it to smooth paste with mint leaves adding as little water as possible. Keep aside this mixture till required.
Heat ½ tbsp of oil in the same pan and remaining cumin seeds. When it starts to sizzle, add finely chopped onion and sauté it for a minute. Now add ginger-garlic paste and sauté it till the raw smell disappears, about a minute. Mix in chopped tomatoes and sauté till it becomes pulpy.
Add kitchen king masala, garam masala and kasuri methi and keep stirring till nice aroma of masala fills the kitchen, about a minute. Mix in ground spinach paste and add about 1- 1½ cups of water and salt to taste. Let it cook on a low to medium flame for about ten minutes.
Add cooked potato pieces and amchur powder to spinach gravy and mix well. Cook for another 5-10 minutes so that potato absorbs all the flavours. Serve this Aloo Palak with any Indian bread of your choice and enjoy.

Lauki-Channa Dal Masala: Original Recipe

Lauki-Channa Dal Masala

Bored and exhausted, that was me when I came home yesterday. Exhausted because of work load and little too close for comfort deadlines approaching at lightening speed. Bored because I was not in a mood to cook same dal or rasam to go with leftover rice cooling in refrigerator. I had an option of either ordering food from takeaways or opening a can of soup sitting on top shelf of pantry since Dark Age. That’s it then, oily takeaway food or canned soup for dinner.

Who am I kidding?! I would rather eat some fresh salad than actually order oily, unhealthy food from takeaway or forcefully stuff my mouth with soup from tin can. When I opened a fridge, I found small bottle gourd happily (err, may be not that happily as it was beginning to get all wrinkly) snuggled under packets of fresh herbs and had managed to hide itself quite nicely. Intensely staring at wrinkled bottle gourd on kitchen counter with both my hands on hips was how Krish found me when he came home. With in few mins we went over the list of possible recipes we had tried with bottle gourd and nothing seemed to fit into my day’s objective of cooking something simple and quick and something different from usual stuff.

Just when I was about to give up on cooking something new, I remembered tasting a curry made using Channa Dal and Bottle gourd at one of my friend’s home some decades ago. Although I had no idea as how it was made I went along with the idea of combining nutty split chickpeas with little sweet and watery bottle gourd. With in few minutes I had this recipe in my mind and I could almost taste the final dish. I soaked quarter a cup of channa dal in water to soften while I went on chopping the other vegetables. And by the time Krish finished roasting frozen chapattis; this delicious Lauki-Channa Dal Masala was ready to seduce our taste buds. It was light, mild, delicious, quick, simple and different; everything I wanted it to be. This is my entry for Lore’s Original Recipe event and also my second entry for this month’s My Legume Love Affair hosted by Sra and initiated by Susan.

Channa Dal, Bottle Gourd and Kasuri Methi for Lauki-Channa Dal Masala

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Dudhi-Channa Dal Masala (Bottle Gourd and Split Bengal Gram cooked with crunchy Onions and tangy Tomatoes)
Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Serves: 3-5

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Ingredients:
1 medium Bottle Gourd (Approx 4-5 cups), washed, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes)
¼ cup Channa Dal/Split Chickpeas, soaked in water for 10-30 mins
1 medium Onion, thinly sliced
2 large/3 medium Tomatoes, finely chopped
1-2 Green Chillies, slit
½ tsp Jaggery/Brown Sugar (Optional)
1 tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tbsp Kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida
½ tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

Lauki-Channa Dal Masala

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and hing. When jeera starts to sizzle and turn light brown in colour, add sliced onions. Sauté on medium flame till they turn translucent, about 1-2 mins.
Mix in kasuri methi, slit chillies, garam masala and turmeric powder and sauté for half a minute. Now add chopped tomatoes and mix well. Let it cook for 2-3 mins till tomatoes become pulpy and releases its juice.
Add soaked channa dal, bottle gourd pieces, jaggery and salt to taste and mix well. Pour ¼-½ cup of water and cover the lid. Cook the curry on medium flame for 10-15 minutes on medium flame, stirring in between, till bottle gourds are cooked well.
Serve this delicious Lauki-Channa Dal Masala, garnished with coriander leaves, with Chapatti or Rice and enjoy.

Methi-Lobia: Flavours of Life...

Methi-Lobia

So you are a vegetarian? Then how you manage to stay healthy?
How can you survive eating just vegetables, greens and beans? I bet it must be boring to eat same stuff everyday!
Oh! You belong to ghas-phus family then!

I have lost the count on number of times I have been asked similar questions by many people, both in India and abroad. I can hear genuine concern when asked by someone who is unaware of vast vegetarian food choices available in India but I really get annoyed when asked by someone who was bought up in India, at least first two and half decades of their life, eating more vegetarian meals than non-vegetarian and have been living here in western land for two and half years. WTF!!! Either they are suffering from short term memory loss or selective amnesia.

And again we have another set of people back home who thinks we stuff our mouth with every possible living/non-living animals (includes birds, reptiles, etc etc…) as soon as we step out of India!!! Why? Because of their distant relative who had left India some neons of years ago has told them that they cook and eat non-veg due to lack of availability of fresh vegetables in some corner of the world where they live! So they simply assume, there is no way we too can stick to strict vegetarian diet! There are some people who simply ask us the very same question again and again every time we visit India, and are still hopeful that one day we will say we eat meat. Wow!!! You genius people!!!

I have no qualms or issue with any people who have converted from being a vegetarian to non-vegetarian or vice versa. But I do hate it when people repeatedly ask me the same questions, in spite of knowing how easily we vegetarians can survive in meat loving country without tiny-winy bit of a problem. And even if I decide to eat meat, I don’t see why I need to give any kind of explanations. At first I used to find these questions very amusing and later I found it very irritating. And right now I feel much better after ranting away and can’t help but laugh at myself for being so silly and get easily irritated by bunch of jokers! Blogging is therapeutic!!! Ahh...

Now that I have taken out all my frustrations, I can proceed to writing a recipe of Methi Lobia which was inspired from Raghavan’s 660 Curries cookbook. I have combined the main two ingredients, fenugreek leaves and black eyed peas, from the book but went on to cook using my own method and technique. These pleasantly bitter fresh fenugreek leaves combined with nutty black eyed peas and cooked in a sweet onion-tomato based curry was an instant hit with us. Addition of kasuri methi simply enhances the flavour. And did you notice there is no soaking of beans is required? Because I used pressure cooker for cooking it, it doesn’t require too much of stirring and standing in front of a stove. You can simply substitute fenugreek leaves with other green leafy vegetable for different taste but cook this for sure. This curry has all the flavours of life- bitter, sour, sweet and spicy. I am sending this to dear Sra who is guest hosting this month’s My Legume Love Affair event initiated by lovely Susan.

Methi-Lobia

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Methi Lobia (Fresh Fenugreek Leaves and Black Eyed Peas in sweet Onion and tangy Tomato sauce)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20-30 mins
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Inspiration: 660 Curries

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Ingredients:

1 cup Black eyed Peas, washed and drained
2 packed Cups fresh/frozen Fenugreek Leaves
1 medium Onion, finely chopped
3 large/4 medium Tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
1 tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp Kitchen King Masala (Optional)
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder (Adjust acc to taste)
1 tbsp Kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Optional)
1 tsp Jaggery/Brown Sugar (Optional)
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

Methi-Lobia

Method:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add cumin seeds to it. When it sizzles and turns light reddish brown, add hing and finely chopped onions. Sauté it on medium flame till onion turns translucent, about 2 mins.
Now add ginger-garlic paste and sauté on medium flame for another minute. Mix in garam masala, kitchen king masala, chilli powder and kasuri methi and fry for few seconds.
Mix in finely chopped tomatoes and cook till turns pulpy and releases its juice, about 3 minutes. Add fenugreek leaves and sauté on medium flame till they wilt, about 2-3 mins.
Now add washed black eyed peas, salt to taste, jaggery and 3 cups of water and mix well. Cover the pressure cooker lid and cook on medium flame for about 20-25 mins till the beans are cooked well and start to break down.
Let the steam release completely before you open the pressure cooker lid. Serve this delicious, tangy curry with chapatti or any other roties and enjoy.

Serving Crazy with Lauki & Kala Channa Curry

Lauki-Kala Channa Curry

Have you read Amulya Malladi’s “Serving Crazy with Curry”? It is a story of protagonist, Devi, who is fired from her job at Silicon Valley and is suffering from a miscarriage. Tired with the way her life is leading Devi attempts to commit suicide and consequently is brought to her parents' home to recuperate and be looked after. The novel describes the tensions and frustrations, triumphs and tribulations within Veturi family. What happens next is nothing less of a Bollywood movie. After moving to her parents home Devi refuses to talk with anyone and channels all her emotions into cooking elaborate meals. She sprinkles more chilli when she is angry, cook sour food when she is sad and she churns sweets when she is happy. She uses unusual ingredients, as in non-traditionally Indian ones and yet succeeds in cooking extraordinary dishes that pleasantly surprises her family. What happens in the end is something you need to read yourself.

Although I am not much impressed with the novel, I enjoyed reading Devi’s bold character when she takes in charge of kitchen and starts to appreciate her mother who otherwise was portrayed by her as nosy, intrusive and Desi inspite of spending half of her life in other part of the globe. It is Devi’s cooking which prompts her family to initiate honest conversation with one another making them closer than ever before. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in reading something different and the bonus is every chapter ends with Devi’s culinary creations.

Few days back I was in a mood to create my own curry instead of following some recipe book or something which we had already tasted. The result was this delicious Lauki-Kala Channa Curry. Instead of adding cubed Bottle Gourds to curry base and cooking it, I sliced them to half-moon discs and pan fried them in batches till they turned golden brown. Then I simmered them in tangy and spicy tomato gravy till they were cooked to perfection. Don’t be shocked to see unusual use of ingredients like Curry leaves used in almost all the South Indian recipes and Kasuri Methi which adds extra flavour for any North Indian dish. And there are also tamarind, jaggery and garam masala. I used Kala Channa to much loved Kabuli Channa as I like its rustic and earthy flavour and it beautifully complimented the Bottle Gourd. But what I loved the most is the way in which all these ingredients blend together harmoniously and deliver extraordinary taste which tickled our taste buds. There is nothing like feeling of ecstasy when you create something from scratch and it is much appreciated and loved by your loved ones. Pure bliss!
This recipe is on its way to Lore's Original Recipe event.

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Lauki-Kala Channa Curry (Bottle gourd and Black chickpeas cooked in spicy and tangy Tomato gravy)
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Serves: 4-6

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Ingredients:
1 large Onion, finely chopped
1 medium Bottle Gourd (approx 4-5 cups)
1 can Black Chickpeas or 1 cup Dry Black Chickpeas cooked in pressure cooker
1 large Potato, cooked, peeled and roughly mashed
1 can Chopped Tomatoes or 3 Large Tomatoes, pureed
1 tbsp Kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Optional but recommended)
½ tbsp Jaggery/Brown Sugar (to balance the tartness of Tomatoes)
1 tsp Tamarind Paste (Adjust acc to taste)
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Kashmiri/Deghi Chilli Powder (Adjust acc to taste)
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
½ tbsp Oil
½ tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
½ tsp Mustard Seeds
¼ tsp Hing/Asafoetida
Few Fresh Curry Leaves

Bottle Gours, Kala Channa & Tomatoes

Bottle Gourd Slices -Before & After Pan Frying

Method:

Trim the ends of Dudhi/Lauki/bottle gourd and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Slit it length-wise in middle so that you are left with two long pieces. With a help of a spoon, scoop out the seeds and the surrounding spongy mass carefully so that you are left with two dudhi ‘boats’. I left the seeds as they were very tender. Cut them into 1 cm slices as shown in the picture.
Heat a tbsp of oil in a flat pan and arrange bottle gourd slices so that they fir in single layer. Cook them on both the sides till they turn golden brown in colour and place them in a kitchen towel till required. Do it in batches so that you have evenly fried bottle gourd pieces. This step is purely optional. Skip this step if you wish.
Heat ½ tbsp of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When it starts to pop and splutter, add hing, cumin and curry leaves. Sauté it on medium flame till cumin starts to brown, about 30 seconds.
Mix in finely chopped onion and sauté it on medium flame till it turns golden brown, about 2 mins. Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, kasuri methi and garam masala and sauté it on low flame for about 30 seconds.
Pour in pureed tomatoes and mix well. Add jaggery and tamarind and mix well. Cook this at medium heat for about 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cooked kala channa, fried dudhi and mashed potatoes and mix well. Mix in salt to taste and add about cup of water. Simmer and cook the curry, stirring occasionally, for about 15-20 mins till dudhi is cooked properly and flavours blend well.
Serve hot, garnished with chopped coriander leaves if desired, with Chapatti or Rice and enjoy. Tastes better the next day.

Lauki-Kala Channa Curry

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Reminder for JFI-Soya:

I invite you all to celebrate Jihva for Ingredients with this month’s theme JFI-Soya. Choice of Soya products, the recipe, ingredients, method etc is entirely left to you. I would greatly appreciate if you can send me any Vegan or Vegetarian recipes but I leave it to your choice. Soya foods include tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (chunks, mince etc), miso, soya sauces, soya oil and margarine, and soya dairy alternatives.

Deadline: 31st August, 2008

Please go through the guidelines and include all the required information in your post and also in your e-mail while sending your entry. Don't forget to add Your Name, Your Blog Name, Name of the Dish, Type of Dish and Perm Link of the entry along with the gorgeous Photo of final dish.

Click Here or on the logo to find out more information on this event.

P.S: I will be away for next 5 days on short break to make most of the last remaining bits of British Summer and hence will not be able to respond to your e-mails and queries. I will get back to you as soon as we come back from holidays.
Till then, Happy Cooking and Blogging :)

Cheers
Sia

Cooking with Babies: Baby Corn & Carrot Masala

Baby Corn & Carrot Masala with Aloo Parathas

Every time I come back from India I kind of go under emotional roller coaster ride. There you are, surrounded by your loved ones at any odd time of the day or night sipping a cup of filter Kaapi and talking about everything under this sky and it feels like time just flies without you knowing. And here you are, with only your partner to talk to (that to when he is not busy giving bubble bath to love of his life Lajjo Rani (don’t fret, its our car I am referring to) or jumping up and down like crazy guy while stuck to idiot box watching football or cricket (I call it kiri-kiri meaning irritating)). There you are, eating all wonderful food cooked by every other person other than you and hardly required to move your big fat ass. Here you are, fretting over what to cook everyday and arguing whose turn to empty the waste bin. There you are, just required to walk few steps to eat your heart’s content and yet pay few pennies. Here you are, travel miles together to eat at reasonably good restaurant and end up lightening your wallet and half full stomach. Ah!!! Some pleasures of staying away from home!!!!!!

While still recovering from jet lag (I blame my Boss for making me go to office very next day we landed here and now you know why I’ve not been able to blog hop these days. Bhohoo) all we have been eating is Ganji with Ghee and Pickle or just plain Curd Rice. Well, I am not really complaining here. All we wanted after eating the food served on flight was just simple ones as our taste buds were not ready to volunteer as a guinea pig in anymore of laboratory testing. So it was only during weekend after sleeping till noon that we finally managed to eat something other than simple Comfort Food. With big batch of Aloo Parathas I had cooked and tucked in the freezer before leaving to India, we had to just worry about some simple curry to serve. Well, not exactly simple when it comes to taste department. This delicious Baby Corn-Carrot Masala in creamy gravy of onion, tomato and cashews is what we enjoyed with Aloo Parathas. Very tender Baby Corn and Baby Carrots from Farmer’s Market are the highlights of this yummilicious Curry which simply retains is crunchiness and sweet taste even when cooked with spices. And another addition to this gravy is my ever favourite Kitchen King Masala and Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves) which enhances its taste. Do try this Curry of Tender Baby Corns and Baby Carrot fingers simmered in rich gravy of sweet onions, tangy tomatoes and flavourful cashews and well balanced spices which is sure to awaken all your senses.

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Baby Corn & Carrot Masala (Veggies cooked in Creamy Gravy of Onion, Tomato and Cashew)
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 4-5

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Ingredients:
15-20 tender Baby Corn, cut into fingers
10-12 Baby Carrots/ 2-3 medium Carrots
1 medium Onion, finely chopped
2-3 Green Chillies, slit (Adjust acc to taste)
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
½ tbsp Kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves
1 tbsp Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
½ tbsp Oil/Ghee

Baby Corn & Baby Carrots

For Ground Masala:
1 small Onion, quartered
3 large Tomatoes, blanched in hot water and peeled/1 canned Chopped Tomato
2-3 cloves of Garlic
¾ -1 inch Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2-3 Dry Red Chilli (I used Byadagi for Colour, adjust acc to taste)
¾ -1 tsp Garam Masala
½-1 tsp Kitchen King Masala
½ tsp Amchur/Dried Mango Powder (Optional)
½ tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Sugar
10-12 Cashews

Baby Corn & Carrot Masala

Method:

Grind all the ingredients listed above from onion to cashews to smooth paste without adding any water and keep it aside.
Cook Baby Corn and Baby Carrots with turmeric powder and salt to taste in enough water for about 5-6 minutes till they are fork tender. Drain and reserve the water.
Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds to it. When cumin starts to sizzle, add finely chopped onion and slit chillies and sauté on medium flame till it turns golden brown.
Now add ground paste, Kasuri Methi and sauté it continuously for about 2-3 minutes on medium to low flame till raw smell of masala disappears.
Mix cooked Baby Corn and Carrots. Add reserved water as and when required to get required gravy consistency. Simmer and cook for another ten minutes for all the flavours to blend well.
Mix finely chopped coriander leaves before serving it with Chapatti, Roti or Paratha of your choice and enjoy this creamy goodness.