Truth Personified

Potato fry:

See what an overflow of potatoes can do to you. I am never going to repeat this mistake again! Even if I get it for free. I really wanted to go knocking on my neighbours’ doors and offer them free potatoes but thought the better of it…

Potatoes cleaned and skinned and cut into tiny cubes.

Heat some oil in a non stick pan and add the cubed potatoes. Sprinkle salt and paprika powder and fry till the potatoes become soft and lose their crunchy texture. Have it with rice or roti. Try a variation by adding some onion and garlic. Add tomatoes towards the end and cook till the tomatoes lose their raw taste… Throw in cubed carrots along side the potatoes. The list goes on and on…

Another addition to my Uniquely Simple Dish.

 Last week we had friends over for dinner and breakfast. Instead of making something i already had i asked my friend what he cooked and he said ‘Egg fried rice’ and I jumped at it because it was a recipe another friend of mine had asked for some time back. It’s pretty simple and so here goes…

What you will need:

Rice - 2 Cups

You can use basmati or sona masoori. We used sona masoori and pressure cooked it with water:rice ratio of 2:1 for about 15 min. I usually microwave basmati rice on high with a lot of water (H2O:rice=4:1) for 19 to 20 minutes and then drain the excess water. That way i get rid of all the starch and can make sure that the rice doesn’t stick. Once this is don keep the rice aside to cool.

Oil - 1 Tbspn

Mustard - 1 Tspn

Cumin -  Tspn

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tbspn

Onion - finely sliced - 1 Cup

green chili - sliced and seeded - 1

tomato paste(optional)

Eggs - 6 med size or 5 large

Salt and pepper to taste

Soy sauce - 2 Tspn

Take a large open mouthed non stick vessel and heat the oil. Let the mustard and cumin splutter and then add the asafoetida and the ginger garlic paste. The ready made paste usually has salt in it so be careful while adding salt later on. Let the paste cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat to lose the raw taste. Now add the onion and saute till it turns translucent which would b another 9-10 minutes. At this point you can add a tspn of tomato paste if you like. Add the chili and saute for about a minute. Crack open the eggs and make a scramble out of the whole mixture. At this point add the salt and pepper and keep mixing really well. What we need to look for is a dry texture and all the liquid in the scramble if any has completely evaporated. Turn off the heat and keep aside uncovered for about 5 minutes to set. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust.

Now add the rice and mix carefully to make sur that the rice grains stay separate and don’t mash. At this point add soy sauce and mix well. Serve with crisp potato chips on the side.

Bonus:

Egg fried Bread

Instead of the rice you can simply add roughly cut white sandwich bread slices to the egg scramble and mix well. A delightful breakfast item. Wanna make it heavy? Toast the bread with butter/ghee and mix it into the egg scramble.

Amma’s Dhokla

Recently i made some Dhokla from scratch and couldn’t wait to taste the original recipe by Mommy dearest. What she did differently was to add Eno salt:Baking soda = 1:1. While doing the Tadka part add 1/2 cup water after taking it off the heat. Also fill a chili with some salt and cook it in some oil for a tasty accompaniment.

Roasted Veggies…

These are here to stay… They’re a huge hit with the (R)oomie and I was even asked a recipe for it! One day I woke up and was not in the mood for the kitchen. I wanted something healthy and tasty and didn’t want the added effort that goes into making food look and taste good. So this was it. All you do is clean and cut and it’s ready within a matter of a few minutes. If you don’t like cutting veggies, don’t fear, what are expensive, frozen cut veggies for??? If you are a farmers market kinda person then this dish doesn’t disappoint you either. If you are the kind that ends up buying more veggies than you can chew or fit in your fridge(like me) then this one is for you too…

So here goes:

Roastable veggies - Beans, Zuccini, Cauliflower, Onion, garlic, peas and the list goes on and on… Preheat your oven to 350F and prepare your baking pan by covering it with an aluminium sheet and placing the veggies on it. Drizzle some oil and some garlic/regular salt. Into the oven for 10-12 minutes. Midway take it out and move the veggies around to roast them evenly. The best combination I enjoyed was beans, onion and garlic.

Some veggies like zucchini need not be roasted for more than 9-10 minutes so be alert… It’s another Uniquely Simple Dish.

Enjoy with rice on the side or JLT.

Plum Preserve:

Another uniquely simple dish… I was not happy with the plums we got this time. I tried eating them fresh but they just wouldn’t go down my throat. So i decided to add some sugar and make a preserve. I had to rinse the plums multiple times and wipe them really clean. Otherwise like you can see in the picture they had a thick white layer over it…

What you will need:

Plums - deseeded and cut into 1” pieces - 4 cups

Brown sugar - 2 cups

Lime juice- 1 Tbspn

I used a heavy bottomed vessel and put the plums in it. Covered and let it cook for a bit. I then added sugar, lime juice and covered and let cook for another 15 minutes stirring occasionally. All the water from the plums will be out by now. I used a masher to evenly mash all the plums. Keep stirring on med heat for another 15 minutes. The preserve should be ready now. Test for a set by placing a little of the preserve on a cold vessel and push the blob with your finger to see if it forms a wrinkled skin. Boil for another five minutes if needed and do the set test again. Skim the top of the preserve and set to cool. Pour into clean jars and your preserve is all set…

Plum Preserve

earlier: Nectarine preserve , Golden Raspberry preserve

Kala Chana fry & Green gram curry:

Another uniquely simple dish made as an offering to the Goddess on Dasera. One of the advantages of having so many festivals is the diverse cuisine you get to taste. Each part of India celebrates festivals differently. I have always been told to enjoy dasera in Calcutta and I’m still looking forward to that day. The gujaratis celebrate Navratri by dancing a special dance called ‘Garba’. Having had Gujarati friends and roommates I have heard about how fun the ‘Garba’ is for them. The attire for this dance is very pretty and so is the jewelery.

South Indians(Andhra Pradesh) celebrate this festival differently and there is dance involved called Bathukamma but its completely different from the ‘Garba’ of the ‘West’. There’s also a display of toys and idols of gods as part of the festivities. In Mysore this festival is celebrated for a month where as in other places it celebrated for 9 nights and in the extreme South(Kerala) it is celebrated for just 3 days! Read some more here. The immersion of the idol of a powerful Goddess ‘Durga’ happens on the 10th day in certain parts while in other parts the burning of an evil king ‘Ravana’ is celebrated. The uniqueness of the festival is such that the whole country celebrates - whatever the reasons.

Getting down to the dish:

Black chana/Chickpea/Bengal gram/Kala chana - 1 cup cleaned, soaked overnight and boiled in the microwave for about 20 min. Do not drain the water - keep aside.

Tempering:

Oil - 2 Tspn

mustard - 1 tspn

cumin - 1/2 tspn

dry red chili - 1

urad dal - 1 tspn

ginger - 1” slice finely chopped

curry leaves - 5 finely chopped

turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn

paprika powder - 1/2 tspn

salt to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom vessel and add the ingredients in the order mentioned except for the salt. Saute well and then add the boiled chana along with the water. Cook on high till all the water evaporates. And it’s ready to be served. Kala chana can also be let to sprout and eaten jlt.

Alternate way:

Drain the water from the boiled chana and keep aside. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom vessel and add the ingredients in the order mentioned except for the salt. Put this mixture in the chana and mix well. Add salt to taste.

I did it the first way cause I like my chana to absorb all the flavours of the tempering. As I always say - do it your way, always!

As a bonus…

Green gram curry:

Green gram - 1 Cup cleaned, soaked over night and boiled in the microwave for about 20 minutes. Do not drain the water.

Use the same tempering as above. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom vessel and add the ingredients in the order mentioned except for the salt.Add the boiled green gram and mix well and let it come to a boil. Add salt to taste and your dish is ready to be plated.