Aaam ke aam guthliyon ke daam...

No, not one more post about mangoes. Done with them for this season I guess. This post is about a rather unusual dish that I got to sample about two weeks back. Delighted by the taste I have been asking for more.
Unless you are from Eastern India the dish will sound strange. It is made with Parwal(Potol) and Alu(Potato) peel. Yes, you read that right. Vegetable peel has uses beyond the face pack.

In the East we typically cook vegetable peel with some mustard paste( in the days of the joint families and tons of household help, enough vegetable peel got collected from a day's cooking). Mix the vegetable peel with the ground mustard paste and let it cook in the embers(remember most of the cooking got done in wooden fires) after all the cooking had been done. I have had this before. Both Grandma and later my Mom used to make this at home during my growing up years.

But this one made by my help from Bangladesh was quite different in texture/form and taste. Unless somebody told you that it was made from the vegetable's peel I bet you would not be able to guess. IncidentallyBangals make better cooks than ghottis( people from West Bengal). I have more friends from East Bengal and have sampled some great food. Potoler Kouda as it is called(I just discovered) is perfect as an accompaniment with plain rice or roti.

Potoler Kouda
serves: 2
Ingredients
Peel of about 14/15 medium sized potol/parwal
Peel of 2 large sized potatoes
Onion: 1 large onion, sliced fine
Kalonji/kala jeera: 1 tsp
Green chillies: 1/2( according to taste)
Oil: 2 tbsps

Method

• Boil the potato and potol peel for about ten minutes to soften them.


• Drain the water and grind to a fine paste along with 1/2 green chillies


• Heat the oil in a kadai( I am told the more oil you use for this dish the tastier it is going to be, I would suggest you stay with not more than 2 tbsps), add the kalonji and let them sputter.


• Next add the sliced onions and wait till they turn glassy.


• Add the ground paste and keep sauteing till it dries up and starts to leave the side of the kadai.


• Serve hot.

Made with the most basic of ingredients and packed with a lot of goodness and taste. Remember your early lessons, the peel has the maximum nutrition. It is the simplicity of this dish that makes it truly unique. I am told this tastes best with " sedho bhaat"( steamed rice). I have tried it as a spread on toast. While I know this is an unusual twist to a traditional dish it tastes quite nice. As I write the post I see the dish making its way as canape toppings, add some hung curd to it and viola a nice, spicy dip. Yes, some creativity and an experimentative palate will see this going places.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Last of the mangoes.....

Mango season is almost over. Mumbaikar are united in their Apoos( Alphonso to the uninitiated) obssession - in fact it is the only type of mango a true blue Mumbaikar claims to like. Delhites however debate over a more varied fare: Dusheri, Langda, Chausa, Safeda. If prices are a surrogate for measuring appeal then "langda" looks to be the winner.

Mango is best eaten by itself. Slice them with the skin and then scoop them with a spoon, peel the skin and cut them into small pieces and then eat them with a fork or if they are nice, soft and juicy- slit the top and suck the juice- messy but a lot of fun.

Of course tastes nearly as good in other forms too- icecreams( serve it with a vanilla icrecream or make a mango icecream), in shakes, as cheese cakes, as a salad dressing, as a dip(mango mayonnaise dip), mango with cream( I will vouch for the one sold at Haji Ali- over priced but really nice, packed in ice if you want it as a takeaway).

Just the way a ripe banana inspires you to make a banana cake, an over ripe mango urges you to turn it into a shake. My older one loves a milk shake and I find it an easy way to get him to have a big glass of milk and fruits. Often on weekdays he has it as a breakfast substitute. Since it is the weekend I made him a special shake. Needless to say he loved it( you cannot go terribly wrong when you have ice cream, mango, condensed milk as the ingredients).

Special Mango Shake
Serves 1
Ingredients
Mango: 1 small sized mango, remove the peel and chop into small pieces
Milkmaid/condensed milk: 1 tbsp
Milk: 1.5 cups
Vanilla icecream: 2 tbsps

Method

• Put all the ingredients in a mixie and whip for 2/3 minutes



• Check for sweetness.



• Serve chilled



• Watch them go yumm! yumm! yumm!

A really quick anytime drink. Great during the summer hols when kids are home and forever hungry. Also helps them stay away from aerated drinks and bridge snacks.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Redifining "ghaas phoos"..

Modern day salads have repositioned "healthy eating". People today opt for salads by choice, for the taste and not because they have been asked to go easy on oil and/or spice.
So much so that a popular women's magazine had a salad supplement with its last issue, as many as 100 salads, many of them modified to suit the Indian palate. There were some interesting options though some I think had been stretched/forced fit to make the number 100.

So from being prepared with basic vegetables like cucumber, tomato, onion( with raddish, carrot and beet root added in the winter months) salads have graduated to getting more exotic with names such as tossed rice salad/lentil salads/pasta salad/carrot and raising salad. We think far more innovatively today when we are making salads. I keep adding ingredients even after I have started making the salad. Chicken in the salad below was an afterthought( in fact a substitute for salami strips that I normally add). I added the bread croutons since I was serving it as a meal, would have skipped it if I was serving the salad as a meal accompaniment. They are so handy when you are entertaining, no last minute bother of heating or frying. Keep the ingredients ready, toss them all together and serve. Served as starters too. Most salads can be prepared way ahead and served chilled. Keep a little bit of the seasoning handy in case all of it gets absorbed.
We had an interesting salad last night for dinner and so I have named it after the day of the week( sorry, been rather uninnovative in naming the dish but just could not think of any other name).

Saturday salad
Time: 20 minutes, serves: 1/2

Ingredients
2 bunches of lettuce
2 cups of boiled veggies(beans, carrots, baby corn)
1/2 cup of sauted mushrooms( use half of the regular pack, quarter and cook in a little bit of olive oil, add some salt and pepper to it)
Cherry tomatoes: a handful, these add a lot of colour to the salad, are convenient to use and have a nice, sweetish taste
Olive oil( for the seasoning): 2 tbsps
Garlic: 6/7 large pods, chopped fine
Bread: 1 slice, toast and then chop into small squares
Chicken(optional): boiled and shredded( I use leftover curry pieces- remove the masala and shred them into thin strips- a good way to re-use leftover chicken)
Dried herbs: 1 tsp( I used Basil but oregano would also go well as a seasoning for the salad)
Lime juice: 1 tbsp( half a lime)

Method

• Place the lettuce in ice cold water to refresh. Leave it in the water for about thirty minutes, take out, gently squeeze out the water and shred into large pieces( never chop the lettuce)


• Take a large bowl, place the lettuce in it.


• Then add the boiled vegetables, sauted mushrooms, cherry tomatoes to it.


• To make the dressing: Heat the olive oil in a small wok/tadka pan, add the garlic and let it turn brown, remove from the flame and add Lime juice, Basil and some salt. Mix well.


• Add the dressing to the salad and toss the vegetables lightly.


• Top with bread croutons and serve immediately.

This is a meal by itself. You could serve also serve it along with a clear soup. Lettuce adds a lot of volume to this salad so the portion size is a little deceptive. The portion shown in the accompanying picture serves one adult only.

As with the corriander pulao, this salad combines some fairly varied ingredients for a really flavorsome bite. Be a little generous with the olive oil else the veggies would taste dry. The burnt garlic gives the salad a distinctive taste and helps spice up an otherwise bland fare. Instead of the croutons you could add a handful of pasta, leftover pasta would be even better.

Another successful one dish meal. Bon Apetit and Happy cooking!

Yum!

The title of this post is inspired by a talk I heard this morning. The Managing Director of Yum Foods(the group that owns brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) addressed us at work this morning- a very inspiring speech, related to good food(my kids would vouch for the brands) and I decided that I just had to get back to the blog. It has been a long break- over two months. I have been cooking, trying out new recipes but have somehow not managed to click pictures or write about them.

So back from the break with my favorite theme, " one dish meals". And though I hardly eat rice these days I think our very own "desi pulao" tops the charts when it comes to one dish meals. And thanks to the pressure cooker/rice cooker the pulao gets done in a jiffy too. So full marks on nutrition, taste and convenience. And while the rice gets done and the cooker cools you assemble the raita. Perfecto!

If you are making a veggie pulao you can team it with a plain raita( dahi to which a wee bit of sugar, some black salt or chat masala and bhuna jeera has been added or maybe if you are feeling a little more indulgent then a dahi boondi). And I never fail to get amazed by the number of different types of Pulaos/mixed rice that can be prepared. From the basic jeera(cumin) rice( now this goes well with an elaborate dinner, as a substitute for steamed rice- looks and tastes way better), to the peas pulao( Jeera rice to which you add a handful of shelled green peas- no extra effort, frozen green peas have a permanent place in the freezer- I know of families in Delhi who painstakingly shell peas during the Winter months, then blanch and store them in small single serve zip lock pouches and use it through the year. For those of you who don't want to go through the trouble there is always the Safaal peas). Sorry I got a little carried away. And then of course the regular vegetable pulao and variations therefore like vegetable pulao with tomato, vegetable pulao with paneer, the one Maharashtrians make with goda masala, the traditional vegetable pulao with kaju(cashew), kishmish( raisins)- this one used to be a regular at all family weddings. The list is actually endless and over the next two/three weeks I plan to try out a couple of new types. So watch this space for more.

The pulao I made this evening has just one added ingredient which sets it apart from the regular ones- green corriander( hara dhania) ground to a fine paste with ginger, garlic and green chillies. Gives the pulao an unusual green colour and a really flavorsome taste. Gets done in under 10 minutes and goes well with a regular raita. As the vegetables are cooked and added separately there is no fear of them getting over cooked or the pulao turning lumpy. I think this pulao would taste really good on cold winter evenings with seasonal vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, beans etc.

Corriander Pulao

Cooking time: 10 minutes, serves 4

Ingredients

Basmati rice: 1 1/4 cup, if you are making a pulao try using Basmati rice, Tukda Basmati should also work well. Soak the rice for at least half an hour prior to cooking

Oil/ghee: 2 tbsp

Mixed vegetables, finely chopped: 2 cups( I used beans, carrots, mushroom and baby corn).

Onions: 2, finely sliced

Mustard seeds: 1 tbsp

Curry paste: Grind together 1/2 inch ginger, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp green corriander, 2 green chillies, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp corriander powder,1/2 tsp turmeric powder to a fine paste

Water: 2 cups( prefferably warm water as that prevent the rice from sticking to each other and you get a nice fluffy pulao).

Method

• Heat 1 tsp oild and stir fry the vegetables with some salt and keep aside. This should not take more than a few minutes as they would have been chopped fine.



• Next heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Add the mustard seeds, once the mustard sputters add the onion and fry for a minute or two.



• Next add the curry paste and saute till the raw smell of ginger garlic is no longer there. This should take a few minutes.



• Add the rice and stir for a minute.



• Add the water, close the lid of the pressure cooker and let it give out one whistle.



• Take the cooker off the flame and let it cool down. Open the lid and add the vegetables, mix well.



• Serve with a cucumber, tomato, onion raita.

I loved the spicy taste which got perfectly balanced with the raita. However if making it for young children I would recommend you skip the green chillies.

There are two new interesting dishes that I have made today. Yes, happy to be on an overdrive. Hope to blog about them soon. Writing about them makes cooking a lot more fun. And making everyday dishes blogworthy is even more fun, you invariably try harder.

Till then, Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!