Peas Rice / Peas Pulao

This is one of those recipes that I love making…one of the simplest, yet tastiest…and something that has never failed me in the many times I have made this for house parties!!! Happy cooking…

Ingredients:
1 Cup Basmati Rice (soaked in water for about an hour)
1 Medium sized onion (finely chopped)
2 Serrano Peppers (split in half lengthwise)
½ Cup green peas (I used frozen, but fresh works too)
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Ghee
Whole Spices – (2 Bay leaves, 3-4 Cloves, 1-2 Cardamoms, 1-2 Star Anise, 1” Cinnamon stick)
8-10 Cashew Nuts
2-3 Garlic Cloves (finely chopped)
1 Tsp Ginger Paste
2 Cups Water
Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste

Heat the oil and ghee in a pan. Add the whole spices and cashews and fry for about a minute. Do make sure that you do not over fry the cashews or they will get burnt. Then, add the onions and Serrano peppers. Fry till the onions turn golden brown. Add the garlic and fry for abt 3-4 minutes. Then add the ginger paste and fry another 2 minutes.

Now add the rice. Do not add the water yet, just add the rice and let it fry along with the onions for about a minute or two. Stir gently. Add the peas. Since I am using frozen peas, I did not have to cook them for long. Then add the water. The ratio of water to rice is 2:1, ie, two cups of water for one cup of rice. Once the water begins to boil, turn the heat down and continue to cook till the rice is well done. Remember to watch over it to make sure that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Do not stir often (and make sure to stir gently), coz that might break the long grains of rice. Add the salt and cook till the rice is done and the water is completely absorbed.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. Chicken/Lamb curry would be an amazing side dish!!!

Spinach Chicken Curry

 

How often have you wanted to eat spinach coz it’s healthy, but you hated its taste? What if you added chicken to spinach...would that make it more appetizing and tasty? Well...that’s what I set out to test...and the outcome - tasty, healthy Spinach Chicken Curry :). So lets get started....

1.25 lbs Boneless chicken breast (Cut into bite sized pieces)

2 Medium sized onions (finely chopped)

2 Medium sized tomatoes (finely chopped)

1 Cup Spinach (finely chopped)
1 Serrano Pepper (finely chopped)

2 Tbsp Vegetable oil

2 Tsp Ginger-garlic Paste

1 Tsp Red chilli powder

4 Tsp Coriander powder

½ Tsp Cumin powder

½ Tsp Turmeric powder

½ Cup water

Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan. Once the oil is heated, add the onions and serrano pepper and fry till the onions turn golden brown. Then, add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the spice powders – red chilli, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Fry for another 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and continue frying till you see the oil separating. This might take a while, so you might want to keep a watch over it, so that it doesn’t burn (especially, if you are not using a non-stick pan).

Now, add the spinach and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the chicken. At a high flame, mix the chicken, so that the outer sides of the chicken turn white. After this, reduce the flame, add the water, cover with lid, and let it cook till the chicken is done!!! Also, dont forget to add the salt. You can also add finely chopped coriander leaves when you add the chicken.

Once its cooked, yummy, tasty and healthy chicken-spinach curry is ready to serve :), and to make it more appetizing than it already is, garnish with coriander leaves !!

Serve hot with Rotis or Basmati Rice..yum yum yum !!

Dhal & Spinach

Alright, time for a veggie delight! To tell you the truth, I was never a big fan of veggies, leave alone green leafy veggies. Growing up, I was forced to eat it on the grounds of it being a healthy dish. Oh..how much I hated it!

Once, I had been to an Indian restaurant in Texas, and I saw a dhal and spinach dish. Now dhals are usually side dishes, which you eat either with rice, rotis or even dosas. For the first time, I loved the taste of this dish. I wondered what was different between what I had had as a kid and what I had at the restaurant. I realized, that the dhal was more whole, which made the taste to be less dominated by the spinach.

So one day, I tried to make dhal with spinach. I had made plain dhal in the past (offcoure, it was my mom’s recipe) and that always turned out tasty. So today, I tried to follow the same recipe, but added one additional ingredient – Spinach! And what can I say, it turned out absolutely tasty. And believe it or not, I make this dish so often these days, and I never fuss having to eat it.

Here’s the list of ingredients

1 Cup Toor Dal

3 Cups Water

2 Cups Chopped Spinach

1 Large Onion

2 Medium Sized Tomatoes

2-3 Cloves Garlic

1 Green Chilli

2 Tbsps Oil

Qtr Tsp Turmeric Powder

Half Tsp Red Chilli Powder

Qtr Tsp Mustard

Qtr Tsp Urad Dhal

Qtr Tsp Cumin Seeds

Salt to taste

Alright, so before you start with the cooking, you might want to soak the toor dhal in water for about 2-3 hours. This would make the dhal softer and would reduce the cooking time.

Chop the onions, tomatoes, garlic and green chilies. In a pressure cooker, add 3 cups of water, 1 Tbsp oil, dhal, onions, tomatoes, garlic, green chilies, chopped spinach, turmeric and chili powder. Bring the water to a boil, mix all the ingredients together, and then pressure cook for about 15-20 minutes. Do remember, however, that each pressure cooker is different and hence the cooking times vary. We want to pressure cook, just up to the point where the dhal is cooked, but it still maintains its round shape and does not become one with the spinach. Remove from stove and set aside.

Now in another pan, add 1 Tbsp oil. Once the oil is heated, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and urad dhal. Fry them until the mustard seeds start popping. Be careful not to burn them. Remove from the stove and add to the cooked dhal. Stir well, add salt to taste and then….whahla….dhal-spinach is ready to serve. Garnish with coriander leaves for that extra appetizing look!!

Spicy Fried Tilapia

One weekend, we had a dinner party at home, so as usual I called my Personal Chef ;) - My MOM ...and believe it or not...it was a simple recipe to make and it turned out be awesome !!!

The best part in preparing this dish is that there is no hard and fast rules on the amount of ingredients you use. It is totally dependant on personal taste and choice. So let’s start off with the ingredients:

8 - 10 Large Slices of Tilapia

5 Tbsp Red Chilli Powder

3 Tbsp Corriander Powder

1 Tsp Turmeric Powder

2 Tbsp Lime Juice

Salt to taste

3 - 4 Tbsp of Water to make a fine paste (add more if needed)

Oil to Fry

Mix together the spices and salt. Add the lime juice and water and make a thick paste. Coat the fish slices in this paste and let it marinate for about two hours.

Make sure that the paste is not too watery, as this would not coat the fish slices well.

After about two hours, its time to fry ! Heat sufficient oil in a frying pan, and fry the fish slices till they are cooked completely. Turn the slices occasionally so that both sides of the fish are well cooked. Remove from pan and spicccyy tilapia is ready to eat...uhhhhh...yum yum !

Trust me when I say that this simple recipe was the star at the dinner party...easy to prepare..simple to make...and can be altered for everyone's taste..and yet tastes amazing.

So remember...don’t be too tough with the ingredients...for those who would not want it to be very spicy..feel free to reduce the amount of chili powder...for that extra tangy flavor..add more lime ! This dish is so versatile….that there can be innumerable combinations.

Happy Frying...and offcourse - EATING!!! :)

Spicy Chicken Curry

My first recipe on this blog is ‘Chicken Curry’, an all time favorite Indian dish. I have made this the South Indian style with a lot of fresh ground whole spices.

Alright, let’s start with the ingredients

Half Kg Chicken (I used boneless coz I couldn’t find whole cut chicken and it would be a big pain to try cutting a whole chicken by myself, but the best would be to use chicken with the bones)

3 - 4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

1 Large Onion

2 Medium Sized Tomatoes

1 Green Chili

2 Tsp Ginger Garlic Paste

1 Tsp Poppy Seeds soaked in warm water

6 - 8 Dry Red Chillies

8 - 10 Curry Leaves

2 Tbsp Corriander Seeds

2 Tsp Peppercorns

1 Tsp Fennel Seeds

1 Tsp Cumin Seeds

1 Inch Cinnamon Stick

2 Cloves

2 Cardamoms

1 Tsp Turmeric Powder

1 Tbsp Yogurt

Half Cup Water

2 Tbsp Cream (Optional)

Salt to taste

Add the turmeric powder to the chicken and give it a good mix. Marinate for about half an hour. Heat about 2 Tbsp Oil in a pan and lightly fry the chicken, on high heat, till the outer side of the chicken turns white. Do not overcook at this point. Remove from the fire and set aside.

Heat about half teaspoon oil in another pan. Add all the ingredients, starting from the dry red chilies to the cardamoms, and roast them for about 2 to 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. You will soon start getting a wonderful aroma from the roasted spices. Remove from pan and grind them into a coarse powder.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and heat it for a couple of minutes. Then add the onions and the chopped green chili. Finely chopped onions are best for this recipe, hence, the finer, the better. Fry them till the onions turn golden brown. Then, add the ginger garlic paste and sauté for about a minute or two. Add the tomatoes and poppy seeds soaked in warm water. I chopped the tomatoes as fine as I could, coz I did not want huge chunks of tomatoes in my curry. Cook the tomatoes for a couple of minutes, till you see the tomatoes and onions are well blended and the mixture resembles a thick gravy.

Now, add the chicken and cook for about 2 – 3 minutes. Add the water. And continue to cook for another 2 - 3 minutes. Add the ground spices and continue cooking till the chicken is almost done. Add salt to taste. Remember to keep the flame on medium heat.

Now add the yogurt and cook till chicken is done. Remove from the flame and add the fresh cream, and give it a good stir. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Yummy, spicy, tasty chicken curry is ready to serve!! ! Serve with basmati rice, rotis or naan. Remember, this dish might be a little too spicy, so feel free to adjust the number of dry red chilies.

This is one of my favorite recipes and I hope you’ll liked it too..Cheers!!!