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!!!