Shimla Mirche ke Chawal | Spicy Green Bell Pepper Rice

Fried rice recipes are so easy to put together. A well spiced fried rice dish tastes wonderful warm or cold and makes for a simple and flavorful recipe for a packed lunch or a picnic lunch. Though fried rice recipes are often made with leftover rice, I love to make them with fresh rice too. They make a great one pot meal for lunch or dinner and then if I have any leftover I use it for the lunchbox. If you have an office microwave, you can carry this for lunch the next day too.

Subz Korma | North Indian Style Mixed Vegetable Korma | No Chili Peppers

There are times when I like to make subzi without any chili powder or green chilies. Just flavor with whole spices, garam masala, tomato, garlic, and cilantro, and you get the most wonderfully flavorful blend!! Today I am adding just such a recipe to my food blog - Subz Korma or North indian Style Vegetable Korma. This dish is not only delicious, but also nutritious and perfect for little ones.

Masala Matar | Green Peas Masala

Regardless of season I always keep green peas in my refrigerator or freezer. They are perfect for adding to pretty much any curry or dal and also make great stuffing for parathas, pooris, and kachoris!! Fresh peas tend to be so sweet and delicious that I generally make very simple recipes with peas. They taste best when they are just a little undercooked and not over seasoned. But once in a while I like to indulge and make curry rich dishes that include peas. My brothers visit last weekend was one such occasion and I wanted to make loads of special food to spoil him.

Saboot Moong Dal Pulao | Whole Mung Bean Pilaf (with Coconut)

Right in the middle of all the festive cooking, the deep frying, the sweets, the savouries, isn't it just typical that one should crave simple home cooked food!!!! I have been making festive treats ever since the beginning of the Navratras and all I wanted to eat yesterday was some simple everyday khana (food) - chawal (rice), dal (lentils), dahi (yogurt) - sigh!!

Chana Masala | Spicy Chickpea Curry | Garbanzo Bean Curry

Kabuli Chana is a very popular and loved food in my family. Its made almost on every festival or celebration with Puri, Paratha, or Luchi. However we never really seem to stick to a particular recipe. As I was getting this post together, I realised I already have two recipes of Chole on my blog: Tari Wale Chole | Curried Chickpeas and Rice Plate Chole | Chickpeas with Rice. The first is a recipe that TH likes to make every so often, and the latter is a reminiscence of my days at DU!

Kathal Pulao | Rice with Tender Jackfruit

Kathal or raw Jackfruit is not available in my part of the world. Even Indian stores do not carry it. The only way to indulge any craving for Jackfruit is to get it canned from Asian stores that import it from Thailand. I remember Kathal largely from my time in Delhi. My Mum would get it from vegetable vendors in the Sarojini Nagar market when it was in season. Kathal is not an easy vegetable to prepare, just the peeling, cutting, separating the seeds and removing them from their tough shells is a cumbersome task. This is usually made even more difficult by the sticky sap that oozes out of the peel when it is cut into!! We were kids in school and for us it seemed more like an adventure - to get to the delicious flesh of this wonderful vegetable!! And so the end result was always more than worth the trouble.

Masala Tamatar Bhaat | Spicy Tomato Rice

Whenever I want to make tomato rice, I hunt around for the tangy yet sweet pink tomato!! Piled high at green grocers in the big vegetable markets of New Delhi, these tomatoes were firm yet wonderfully juicy. No winter salad would be complete without them. Tomato purees and tomato paste was not widely available in those days and my Mum and Grandma made do with the fresh version for all those wonderful winter recipes.

Chana Dal Sookhi | Punjabi Style Bengal Gram Lentils

Dals or lentils are a staple of the Indian Kitchen. They are prepared in a variety of ways that can often be identified as regional. Dals from the Punjab are often hearty and made with a combination of big flavours!! Chana Dal Sookhi is a fragrant combination of lentils, spices, fenugreek leaves, onions, and garlic.

Bhuna Masala Lobhia | Black-Eyed Peas in a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Lobhia or Black-eyed beans are one of the more popular beans cooked across the Indian sub-continent. They are easy to prepare, very tasty, and chock full of nutrition - including calcium, folate, and Vitamin A!! They can be prepared in a dry vegetable style or in a more soupy way as a curry. They are excellent served with Parathas or rice.

Ingredients:
2 cups lobhia, soaked overnight
1 black cardamom
1 tsp cumin
6 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 small piece star anise
2 cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt, to taste
2 large dried red chillies
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 large onion, diced
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Pressure cook the lobhia with a pinch of salt and turmeric. If you do not have a pressure cooker, cook it in a pan until soft.
2. In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Next add the cumin, cardamom, bay leaves, black peppercorns, cloves, and star anise. When these spices release a delicate aroma, add the onions and fry until transparent. Now add the chillies, and the chopped tomatoes.
3. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Now add the beans along with the water they were cooked in. Mix well. Boil and the cook on reduced heat for another 10 minutes.
5. Adjust the seasonings, and serve steaming hot with rice.

Note: This curry can be frozen and will stay well for at least a month in the freezer. Pull it out when you have surprise guests for a meal, or you need to add one dish to your dinner!

Vegan Recipe

All text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007-2013. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.

Gujarati Kadhi | Sweet-Sour Buttermilk Curry

Hey Folks! I'm back after a short hiatus. February was supposed to be our home moving month, with the actual move planned for the end of the last week. However we had some rather unexpected warm and sunny weather on the weekend of 23-24 February. Given the 100 plus inches snow that we have plowed our way through since the start of this year, the ray of sunshine seemed promising, and indeed too good to pass up. At the very last minute we decided to take advantage of this good fortune that nature had sent us and move a week before planned. There was some unfinished maintenance at our new home, yet we decided to chance it :)