Lauki Dal

Hello everyone,

Lauki dal is an Indian lentil curry which is made using bottle gourd and mix of dals. Adding bottle gourd to the dal makes the curry more nutritious and healthy. This is easy to make and it goes well with rice or rotis. 

The usual Lauki dal is prepared only with Chana dal. But, this recipe is prepared with toor dal, Chana dal and moong dal with equal quantities. 

I had tasted this when I was working in Chennai. I used to stay in company's guest house where the cook is a North Indian. He makes this dish with Chana dal. For some reason we never used to buy bottle gourd in India. After coming to US, I started making South Indian style kootu with this. I bought instant pot recently and its pretty easy to make this dal in it. 

The recipe below has both pressure cooker and IP method of preparation. 

Serving size: 4-5 people

Ingredients:

Lauki/Sorakkai/bottle gourd - 2 cups

Toor dal - 1/4 cup

Channa dal - 1/4 cup

Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Onion - 1 

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Ghee or oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Kasoori methi - 1 tsp

Water - 2 - 2 1/4 cup

Salt as per taste

Cilantro -  few finely chopped 

Preparation:

1. Peel the skin of the bottle gourd and chop into small cubes by removing seeds. 

2. Take all the three dals in a bowl and soak in water for half an hour.

3.Finely chop onions, crush the ginger garlic and keep it ready.

Method:

Pressure Cooker:

1. Heat the pressure cooker, melt ghee and add cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds splutters, add onion, ginger garlic paste. Sauté until it turns golden brown and the raw smell goes. 

2. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and sauté for a minute.

3. Now add chopped bottle gourd and sauté for another minute. 

 4. Add soaked dals, water, kasoori methi and required salt. Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. 

5. Once the pressure cooking is done, stir well and garnish with cilantro. 

Instant Pot:

1. Set the IP in Sauté mode for 8mins. When it is hot, add ghee and cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds splutters, add onion, ginger garlic paste. Sauté until it turns golden brown and the raw smell goes. 

2. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and sauté for a minute.

3. Now add chopped bottle gourd and sauté for another minute.  

4. Add soaked dals, water, kasoori methi and required salt. 

5. Close the lid and make sure the vent in sealing position. Set to pressure cook mode for 8 mins at high pressure. 

6.. Once the pressure cooking is done, leave it for 10-15 mins and allow the pressure to release by itself.

7. Open the lid, give it a good stir and garnish with cilantro. 

Serve hot with steamed rice or Jeera rice or rotis. 

Notes:

1. You can add one slit green chili if you like it more spicy. 

Chana Masala/Chole

Hello everyone,

Chana masala/Chole is a popular indian dish which is made by cooking chickpeas in onion, tomato gravy along with spices. 

I make chana masala more often as it is rich is protein. I usually make it with basic spices but off late I am using homemade masala powder to prepare this. It goes well with poori, jeera rice, bhatura.

 

Ingredients:

Chickpeas or Garbanzo bean - 1 cup

Water - 2 1/2 cup to boil

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 cup finely chopped

Green chili - 1 slit

Tomatoes - 2 large

Chole masala powder - 1 tbsp

Ghee/oil - 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch

Cilantro -  few chopped

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak chickpeas in water overnight. Pressure cook with little salt and 21/2 cup water for about 5-6 whistles on a medium heat.

2. Chop tomatoes and blend it to puree without adding water. Keep it aside.

3. Melt ghee in a large pan, add cumin seeds, bay leaf, cinnamon and then add onion,green chili, ginger garlic paste. Saute until onion turns golden brown.

4. Add chana masala powder and sprinkle some salt for the onion. Cook for couple of minutes. 

5. Now add tomato puree and saute until oil separates from masala.

6. Add boiled chickpeas and adjust the consistency.

7. Cover and cook for about 10mins in low flame.

8. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy chana masala with roti, poori or jeera rice.

Note:

1. Mash few chickpeas if the gravy is watery. Mashing or grinding the chickpeas makes the gravy thick.

2. Adjust the chana masala powder quantity depending on the spice level.

Matar Paneer

Hello everyone,

Matar Paneer is one of the popular paneer dishes where paneer and peas are cooked in creamy onion, tomato gravy. Adding Kus kus and cashew makes the gravy more creamier.

I often make matar paneer as it is easy to cook and it goes well with rice and roti.

 

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes - 1 1/2 cup

Fresh or frozen Peas - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Chili powder - 1/4-1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch

Bay leaf - 1

Yogurt - 1-2 tbsp

Coriander leaves -  few for garnishing

Kasoori methi - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Oil/Ghee - 1tbsp

Salt to taste

 

To Sauté and Grind - Onion tomato paste

Onion - 2 nos chopped(I used 1 big onion)

Tomatoes - 2 nos chopped

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Garlic - 1(big pod)

Kus Kus - 1tsp

Cashew - 6-7

 

Method:

1. Heat oil/ghee in a pan, add onions, ginger, garlic and sauté until onion turns light brown.
2. Add tomato and sauté until it turns mushy.
3. Finally, add kus kus, cashews and cook for a minute. It should give a nice aroma when all of them are nicely cooked.  Switch off the stove. Allow it to cool down and grind it to a fine paste.
4. Heat oil/ghee in a another large pan, add cinnamon stick, bay leaf and fry for few secs until you get nice aroma.
5. Simmer the flame, add chili powder. Sauté until you see nice red color.(Do not sauté for more time. Chili powder will turn brown).
6. Now add the ground paste to the pan and mix well.
7. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder to the ground paste. Mix well and cook for 2-3 mins.
8. Add curd, stir continuously until it blends with the onion tomato paste. Add water to adjust the consistency.
9. Add add paneer cubes , peas and cook for about 6-7 mins in a medium heat.
10. Finally add crushed kasoori methi, then sprinkle garam masala. Switch off the heat.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati, roti, phulkas, naan or jeera rice.

Carrot Radish Paratha

 Hello everyone,

Parathas are traditional Punjabi cuisine. Mostly parathas are prepared for breakfast and people used to eat with pickle and curd/yogurt.

I always love stuffed parathas. I tasted radish/mooli paratha in Bobby Da Dabha near Ulsoor, Bangalore for the first time. The parathas they serve are delicious.

I usually make sambhar or paratha using radish. When I thought of making radish paratha, I found I had only one which is not sufficient to make parathas for 3 people. That’s when I thought it will taste better if I add carrot.

This Carrot Radish paratha is prepared with grated carrot and radish  and some spices.

Carrot and Radish mix is stuffed in the parathas which gives unique flavor and taste.

Ingredients

For the stuffing:

Grated Carrot-1 Cup

Grated Radish-1Cup

Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

Chili powder- 1/2tsp

Cumin powder-1/2 tsp

Amchur powder-1/4 tsp

Ajwain/carom seeds-1/4 tsp

Coriander leaves- few finely chopped

Salt- as per taste

For the dough:

Wheat flour/Atta - 1.5 Cups + 1/4 Cup for dusting

Salt- as needed

Water- as needed

Oil- 1tsp

For Roasting:

Oil/Ghee - as needed

Method:

Procedure to make dough:

1. In a large mixing bowl, take wheat flour, salt. Add water little by little to make a soft pliable dough. Then add oil so that the dough will not be sticky.
2. Kneed the dough for 5mins.
3. Cover it with moist cloth and let it rest for 30mins.

Procedure to make stuffing:

While the dough is resting, lets make the stuffing.

1. Squeeze the water completely from grated radish. Keep the extracted radish juice to add in dough.
2. Transfer the radish to a mixing bowl. In the same bowl, add grated carrot and all other ingredients in the 'For the Stuffing' section.

3.Mix well so that all the ingredients are blended with carrot and radish. Now the stuffing is ready.

Assembling and roasting parathas:

1. Take a medium ball sized dough ,roll and flatten it to a circular shape. (Do not make it too thin as we make chapati)
2. Place the carrot radish stuffing in the center.
   
3. Close the stuffing by pinching the edges towards the center.
   
4. Sprinkle some wheat flour and roll it to a think paratha.
   
5. Heat tawa by drizzling some oil/ghee. Once the tawa is hot, place the paratha.
6. Cook the paratha on both the sides by applying some oil/ghee on it. Press it gently.
   
7. Carrot Radish paratha is ready to serve with curd and pickle of your choice.