Gaajar Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

Ingredients: 

Serves 6-8 people

• Regular Carrots : 6 (grated to 4 cups of unsqueezed watery lumps)
• Sugar : 1/2 Cup
• Green Cardamom Powder : 1TSP
• Almonds : 10-12 
• Cashew : 10-12
• Golden Raisins: 10-12
• Desi Ghee: Just enough on how fat cautious you are :-)
• Full Fat milk - 1/2 Cup.
• Optional : Coconut Powder

Preparation:

1. Nicely wash the carrots and then peel the skin off. Use a regular grater to grate the carrots. Do not grate too thin or the Halwa will become squishy. 
2. Warm a cup of water and soak the Raisins in it, leave it aside.
3. Put a deep pan on the burner with medium flame. Add 4 TbSP of Ghee. Add all the grated carrot in it. Mix it well. With Ghee mixed with Carrots, it will give a shining glow to the carrots. Cover the mixture with a pan and let it on the flame. Occasionally toss the carrots so it don't stick to the bottom of the pan, if you see it sticking, add a TbSp of Ghee and mix well. The reason I do not add all the Ghee in the start is to use less of Ghee.
4. We have to make sure that the carrots are nicely cooked and do not give a dry taste/smell. So it will be wise to taste a little of the mix after every 2 mins. It should take around 20 mins (+/- a few) for carrots to cook properly.
5. When you feel the carrots are getting done / almost done, spread the sugar uniformly over it and mix it well. That should make the mix even shinier. Cover the pan again for a minute or two.
6. While the carrots are getting cooked, use a mortar-pastle (इमाम दस्ता) to crush the almonds and cashews. Do not crush very fine. Keep aside a little amount and crush it fine.
7. Use a small frying pan, add 1 TbSp Ghee, heat it on a low flame (4-5) and add the almond/cashew mix to it. Fry it till the mixture absorbs all the oil. Add it to the carrots and mix it gently. 
8. Rinse the excess water of the raisins and add that to the mix.
9. Now the milk. The purpose of the milk is to get smoothness to the Halwa. Some use sweetened condensed milk too, but i prefer regular milk (If you use sweetened condensed milk, you will not need any sugar.) The trick to adding milk is to not add cold milk. Warm/Boil the milk separately before adding it to the mixture and mix it gently.
10. Take a spoon of Halwa and taste for sweetness. If you need it more sweet, add more sugar and let it cook for another minute, otherwise, Halwa is ready for Garnish.
11. Use the pinch of powdered cardamom and mix it nicely with the carrots. Green Cardamom will add to the aroma of the Halwa itself.

Halwa is best served Hot but alot of Indians would love to eat it cold:-). Serve as you like.

Traditionally, we also use खोया or खोए , but it is difficult and costly to find it here in US. If you do find it, add it instead of milk. 

I just made it last night cause my wife happened to crave for it, no it is not the pregnancy. She just likes sweet. Served it hot with a pinch of coconut powder to garnish. 

Of course she wanted it more sweet and with खोये :)...Bon Apetite!!!

The Chronicles of San: The Twos Xpress

The Chronicles of San: The Twos Xpress: talk slowly, Mommy, and let me play i usually ignore what ever you say be it night or be it day all i wanna do is scream and play ...

Pesto Mushrooms

I was just sitting around, talking to her highness about her dislike of mushrooms, and then I recalled that she has a dislike for Pesto sauce too.

So, why not combine a few dislikes to make something that she likes! And I chose the day when a very sweet couple visited us.

Taadaaa!!!! PESTO MUSHROOMS!!! Lightly sauteed mushrooms in Pesto Sauce. Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms             1 Cup Button Mushrooms (Halved)
• Onions                    1/2 Cup Sliced or Diced
• Red Bell Pepper        1/2 Cup Sliced or Diced
• Green Bell Pepper     1/2 Cup Sliced or Diced
• Pesto Sauce             4-5 TBSP

Seasoning:

• Salt (optional - Pesto sauce contains some salt. If you want the dish to be extra salty, add more salt according to taste)
• Red Chili Flakes
• Black Pepper (I have Garlic Pepper and I used that. Tastes great!)
• Ginger Garlic Paste or Chopped Ginger and Chopped Garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 3 TSP

Procedure:

Heat the oil slightly in a non-stick frying pan. Add onions and saute for 1-2 Mins. Add the bell peppers and mix. Saute the mixture until the bell peppers become slightly tender, but not mushy. We need to retain their crunch.

Add the ginger-garlic paste and mix well. Add the chilly flakes and salt (if needed).

Add Pesto sauce and mix well. Lastly, add the mushrooms and mix well to coat everything nicely with the pesto sauce.

You may add the mushrooms first and then the pesto sauce, but mushrooms tend to shrink and lose water very fast, so they need to stay in the pan for a very less amount of time.

Take the mixture off the heat and serve hot.

If you like, you may top it up with some grated Parmesan cheese.

Daal Makhani - 2

In the earlier version of Dal Makhani, I talked about the the dhaabha version/quick recipe of Dal Makhani. Here is another one that is a little more spicier and tangy. You will find this flavor in executive restaurants serving traditional recipes (sometimes served in Haandi/Matki etc). This preperation method takes A LOT of time so one have to be very patient.

Ingredients

• Black Whole Urad Dal: 2 bowls
• Garlic: 5-6 cloves 
• Ginger: same quantity as Garlic, chopped
• Red onions: 2 medium ( Chopped 1/2 cm Julian)
• Salt: to taste 

For Puree

• Tomatoes: 4-6 medium and blended into a paste
• Desi Ghee: (4 TSP)
• Red Chili Powder: 2 TSP
• Asafoetida (Heeng): 1/4 TSP
• Coriander (Dhaniya) Powder: 1 TSP
• Roasted Cumin Powder: 2-3TSP
• Garam Masala Powder: 2 TSP

For Garnish

• Whipping cream: 1/4 bowl
• Ginger: Julian Cut 10-12 picks
• Whole Green Chili: Slit from center: 4-5
• Red Chili Powder: 1 TSP

Pre-preparation

Wash and Soak the Dal , Cloves and Garlic Chopped in the warm water over night. ( water level should be 2-3 times the depth of dal). In the morning(around 10hrs of soaking) use the same mix of dal and with water and put in a pressure cooker. Add more water to the cooker. Keep in mind it takes a lot of whistles depending on a variety of things. The traditional way is to make Dal Makhani is boiling it in open pot, but that would take a few days to cook (Yes, Few Days). Pressure cooker reduces the time to 7-8 hours of continuous cooking.

Also, chop onions in Julien style with half cm wide. Wash and Soak in water for a few mins to reduce the acidic smell. Check the mixture every 10 whistles. 30 mins interval, open the cooker, stir the mixture(20 mins), add more warm water if the water is less. In between, add the chopped Onions to the mix and let it boil with the Daal. Taste the daal and if you feel more whistles are required, so be it, do it. After 2-3 hours of pressure cooker cooking, open the cooker and add salt, chilli powder.

Let the mixture boil uncovered now for an hour. Stir regularly. In between, use a masher to mash some daal, it will help make the daal thicker. Taste the daal and if you feel more cooking is required, let it stay on flame for 10 more minutes. If you feel salt/spice is less, add it in the puree. like wise if it is more, add less in puree.

Puree Preparation
In a separate open pan, Heat Ghee/Butter in a pan. Add cumin seeds and let them splatter for a few secs. Add Garam masala,  Asafoetida(Heeng), Coriander Powder, Roasted Cumin Powder and let it crackle for few secs. 

Make a fine puree of the tomatoes and add to the pan and stir for a few minutes. Add salt to taste. Add the puree to the Daal. After around 30 mins of cooking the mixture, take the open cooker and transfer the mixture to a wide pan and let it cool. When the mixture is cool enough, put the flame on low heat to keep it warm and add the whipping cream to the mixture and mix it slowly. 

**The mixture should not be too hot while adding the cream. You may chose not to use whipping cream and just add butter to make it tasty.

Turn off the stove and transfer the daal to serving bowl.

Garnish
Heat Butter in a small pan. Add cumin seeds and let them splatter for a few secs. Add green chilis, Red Chilli Powder, Julien cut ginger and let it crackle for a few secs (10-15). 

Use a spoon to spread the garnish the daal in the bowl. Use 1/2 spoons of whipping cream to garnish daal.

I nicely cooked daal goes best with Naan, Rice and almost everything else:-)


Bon apetite 

Bharvan Baingan - Stuffed Eggplants

Here's another one for the Eggplant lovers... a recipe of Bharvan Baingan with a couple of twists.

What you need:

• 6 Baby Eggplants
• 1 Big Red Onion
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1 TBSP Coriander seeds (Dhaniya) 
• 1 TSP Mustard seeds
• 1 TBSP Fennel seeds (Saunf)
• 1/2 TSP Fenugreek seeds (Methi)
• 1 TBSP Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 1 TSP Onion Seeds (Kalounji)
• 2 Dry Red Chilies
• Salt - to taste
• 1 TSP Mango Powder (Amchur)
• 1 TSP Lemon Juice
• 6 TBSP Mustard Oil 

Dry roast all the dry spices (except Amchur, Salt, and Onion Seeds) on a low flame until a nice aroma comes out from them. Let the spice mix cool a bit and then grind it to a fine powder. Finely chop half of the red onion and garlic cloves. Heat 1 TSP of oil in a pan and add garlic. Saute it on a low flame until it turns light brown. Add onions and saute until they become translucent. In a bowl, mix the onions and garlic with the spice powder that we prepared. Add Amchur, Salt to taste, Lemon Juice, and 2 TBSP Oil. Give it a good mix. The oil and lemon juice help in binding the stuffing so that it doesn't fall out of the eggplants later.

Wash the eggplants and slit them partially into quarters. Stuff the eggplants well with the Masala that we prepared. Cut the other half of the red onion into long slices.

Heat the remaining mustard oil in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot, add onion seeds, and let them crackle a bit. Add the eggplants one by one and arrange them in a way so that each eggplants gets enough space to cook. Do not clutter the pan with too many eggplants. Now add the sliced onions around the eggplants and let them cook on a low flame. Keep turning the eggplants in between to make sure that all the sides get cooked. It might take around 30-45 mins for the eggplants to get cooked completely.

Serve them hot with Lachha Paranthas/Chapatis. You may even have them with rice!

Microwave Cooking

Continuing on the road of sharing the tips on Microwave cooking. Here are a few more...

Why I like microwave cooking? The simple answer is that once the method is perfected, I don't have to worry about turning off the gas or overcooked food ;-). And while the dish is being cooked, I don't have to bother looking/checking, and I can spend that much time in cooking/doing something else.

I use microwave cooking for very basic items, nothing fancy. Although, I know that there are a lot more items that can be cooked in the microwave. The things I prefer doing in microwave are:

• White Rice
• Jeera Rice
• Boiled Potatoes
• Tea ;-)
• Pasta (boiling)

Rice / Jeera Rice:

Cooking time: 12-15 mins, depending upon how much rice you cooking.


You would need:

• Oil: 2 TBSP
• Salt: 1 TSP
• Basmati Rice: 1 Cup
• Water 2.25 Cups
• A large microwave-safe bowl ( should be able to hold more than double the amount of water and rice combined)
• Cumin Seeds (Jeera) – 1 TSP (if you making jeera rice)

Wash the rice and then soak it in the given amount of water for 15 minutes. In the microwave-safe bowl, add oil and cumin seeds, and keep the bowl in the microwave for 30 secs. Take out the bowl and add rice (along with the water) to it. Put the bowl back in microwave for 12-13 mins approx and relax! When the microwave beeps, take the bowl out of the microwave using mittens or a kitchen towel, because the bowl will be very hot. Serve the rice hot!

Boiling Potatoes: 

Peel and cut the potato(es) into small cubes and put them in a microwave-safe bowl. Add water to the bowl till a level where the potatoes are completely immersed in water. If you are going to use the potatoes for a salty dish, it’s a good idea to add the salt now. Put the bowl in the microwave and run it for around 15 mins. It may need more / less time depending on how much potato you used.

I do around 15 mins for 3 large Russet Potatoes.

Boiling Pasta:

Different types and shapes of pasta take different amount of time to cook. I will use the simple elbow pasta as an example here. It's the one that we cook a lot for our daughter.

You would need:

• 1 cup Elbow Pasta / Farfalle Pasta
• 3 cups water
• 5 TSP Salt
• 1 TSP Olive Oil

Combine the pasta, salt, and water in a microwave-safe bowl and run it in the microwave for around 12-14 minutes. Once done, carefully drain the HOT WATER. Toss the pasta in a pan with a good amount of Olive Oil. This method prevents the pasta from turning sticky if you aren't using it immediately.

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

• Ripe Roma Tomatoes - 10 (Quartered)
• Garlic cloves - 5-6  (Chopped)
• Urad Daal (Black Gram) - 2 TSP
• Chana Daal ( Bengal Gram ) - 1 TBSP
• Curry Leaves – 1 stem (8-10 leaves)
• Small Green Chilies - 4-5 ( Chopped )
• Dry Red Chilies - 2
• Cumin Seeds - 1 TSP
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 TSP
• Tamarind Pulp - 2 TBSP
• Sugar - 1 TBSP
• Salt - To taste
• Vegetable Oil – 2 TBSP
• Asafetida – ½ TSP

In a medium-large frying pan, heat 1TBSP Vegetable Oil. When hot, add Mustard and Cumin seeds and let them crackle for 15-20 seconds. Add Asafetida, Chopped Garlic and Green Chilies and sauté for a few seconds. Once the cloves and chilies turn slightly brown, add Chana Daal. Stir continuously until the Chana Daal turns slightly brown. Now is the time to add Urad Daal. We add Chana daal before Urad as Chana daal takes more time to cook. When Urad daal turns light brown, add the dry Red Chilies and Curry Leaves. Let the mixture cook for a few minutes. Stir continuously so nothing gets burned.

Add the Tamarind Pulp. After 15-20 seconds of stirring , add Tomatoes, Salt and Sugar(you may also add jaggery). Cover the  mixture and let it simmer at low flame for around 20-25 mins. Mix occasionally so that nothing gets stuck to the pan. The water released from the tomatoes helps the mixture stay wet.

Take the pan off the flame and let the mixture cool for a few minutes. Then run it in a blender.

The Chutney is ready. It goes well with Idly, Dosa, Rice....I guess anything you like! ;-)