Goan Stir fried beef and dal

The way we have been eating is been changing lately. We are trying to eat less carbs and when you eat less carbs you would have to eat something else which would make you full and keep you satisfied for a long time...TADAHHHH enter meat...

So during this week's grocery run, instead of getting ground meat I got sliced meat and I made this beef stir fry from the North West state of Goa and it was great. I served it with rice and Goan dal for the kids and for people who do not want to eat rice, I served it with Barley

Goan Stir Fry 

Goan style beef stir fry

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb stir fry meat
2. 1 medium small onion sliced into half circles
3. 1 large tomato chopped
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
5. 1 serrano chillie chopped fine
6. 1 tablespoon oil
7. 1 heaped teaspoon ginger garlic paste
8. 2 big pods of garlic chopped fine
9. 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
10. 1 tablespoon white vinegar

Marinate the meat with salt and pepper and vinegar and ginger garlic paste  for atleast 1 hr.

Heat a pan and fry the meat on low flame for 20-30 minutes.

In a different pan heat the oil and fry the onions till they start turning brown. Add the garlic and the chopped chillies and fry for a minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the meat into this pan and stir to combine. Simmer for 10 minute, give a taste test and garnish with cilantro and serve

Goan Masoor Dal (Lentils with Tomato)

Goan Masoor Dal

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup masoor dal
2. 2 tomatoes chopped fine
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin and mustard seeds
4. few dried red chillies
5. few curry leaves
6. 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
7. 1/2 tablespoon oil
8. 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric, salt, hing
9. 1/4 cup sliced onions

Cook the masoor dal along with tomatoes with turmeric with 2 cups water for 30 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds and the dried red chillies and curry leaves. Add the hing and fry for 20-30 seconds. Add the onions and fry till they start becoming dark. Add this to the dal and bring to a boil. Add salt and lemon juice if using and boil for 7-10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve

Green beans with meat and Lentils with Shallots

I always thought Shallots were small red onions but looks like they are a totally different thing. And so are pearl onions. They are more closely related to leeks than onions. Back in India, in the olden days onions used to be pretty small. Only after I came to US did I ever see an onion which weights close to 1 lb but has no taste what so ever. Anyway, the other day I got some small red onions (or shallot...or whatever they are ) from the Indian store and I made dal with it and I loved it. But only pain with those little onions is peeling them. As is, I hate peeling any onions and these were tiny. But NO PAIN NO GAIN

Green Beans with Meat (French cut green beans with lamb curry)

Green beans with lamb

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups frozen french cut green beans thawed or a can drained
2. 1/2 lb lamb or goat cut into bite size pieces
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder,ginger-garlic paste
4. 1 medium onion sliced thin
5. 2 tablespoons oil

In a pressure cooker heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add all the other ingredients except green beans and fry for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 3 whistles. After the steam escapes, open the cooker and add green beans and simmer till the gravy thicken. About 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Choti Pyaz Toor Dal (Lentils with shallots in Tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup toor dal
2. 10-12 shallots peeled and halfed if big
3. 3 cups juice from a small lemon sized tamarind
4. 1 big or 2 small green chillies chopped
5. 1/2 tablespoon each of oil, coriander powder
6. 2 garlic pod chopped fine
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal , chana dal, turmeric
8. 1 teaspoon salt
9. 2 green chillies
10. few curry leaves

Pressure cook the dal with turmeric and 2 cups water. After the seam escapes, open the cooker and add all the powders and shallots and green chillies and tamarind juice and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal for 2 minutes. Add garlic and red chillies and curry leaves and fry for 3 more minutes. Add this tempering to the dal and bring to boil again. Simmer for 5 minutes and garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Vegetable masoor dal with Qageena

I wanted to make scrambled eggs but was kind of bored with the way I always make it and so started to search for the recipes. And I came across this recipe which is my old favourite but I totally forgot about it. So after being reminded of its existence, I just had to make it. And this dish is very famous in Hyderabad. Its called Hyderabadi Qageena, khagina, etc etc
            To go with it, I made the most amazingly yummy masoor dal. For some reason my mom didn't make masoor dal often when I was a kid. But anyway, I make it. So here are the recipes. Hope you will make them and leave me a note

Qhageena (Scrambled eggs with a twist)

Khagina

Ingredients:

1. 6 eggs
2. 1 large onion chopped
3. 1/3 cup milk
4. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt, chilly powder
5. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
6. 3 tablespoons oil

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till they become tranlucent. Add salt, turmeric and chilly powder and stir to combine. Add milk and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium and spread the onions on the pan into a layer. Bread the eggs one by one and drop them onto the eggs and cover the dish (Don't mix or scramble yet). Let it cook for five minutes. Stir in such a way as not to break the eggs into too little pieces. Cover again and cook for 5 more minutes. Garnish generous with cilantro and stir once again and serve with Roti or white rice.
                       Also you may want to take a look at the way i generally used to make Scrambled eggs


Vegetable Masoor dal (Red lentils with Eggplant)

Masoor dal with Eggplant

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup masoor dal
2. 2-3 indian egg plant (I used half of Japanese purple eggplant) cubed
3. 1/2 cup onion chopped
4. 1 garlic pod chopped fine
5. 1/4 cup chopped green beans (optional)
6. cilantro for garnishing
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds, hing(asafoetida)
8. 3 red chillies broken
9. few curry leaves

Soak the masoor dal in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds for a couple of minutes. Add hing, red chillies and curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add turmeric and garlic and fry again for a couple of minutes. Now add onions and egg plant and fry for 5 minutes. Add green beans if using and reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Add dal and water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes or until dal getting cooked and the stew becomes creamy. If it gets too thick add 1/2-1 cup water. Add cilantro stir to combine and add salt and serve with rice or roti
You might also want to check my  Other Masoor Dal Recipe

Kaddu Moong Dal

I was searching for some simple dal curry to go with the roti I was making. I made Pesara Pappu Sora Kaaya. This is one of the most yummies dal curry you can ever mae and eat. So njoy

Kaddu Moong Dal (Lentils with bottle gourd)

Lauki masoor dal

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium sized bottle gourd
2. 1 cup moong dal (toasted)
3. 2 cups water
4. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
5. 1 green chilly cut into pieces
6. 2 red chillies broken into pieces
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin and mustard seeds
8. few curry leaves
9. 1 tablespoon oil
10. 1 garlic chopped (optional)
11. 1/4 cup chopped onions

Peel the bottle gourd and cut into small pices about 1 inch. In a pressure cooker, heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add dal and bottle gourd, turmeric and water and cook for 3 whistles (Don't add salt here). After the steam escapes, open the cooker and mash the dal and bottle gourd pieces a bit. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds for a couple of minutes. Then add  garlic, green and red chillies and curry leaves and fry till the chillies get dark. Add this on top of the dal and simmer for 5 minutes along with salt. Garnish with cilantro, stir to combine and serve with Roghni Roti or regular roti

Roti (Pan fried Indian bread made with wheat flour)

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups wheat flour (makes about 8 rotis) and extra for rolling
2. water as needed
3. 3/4-1 teaspoon salt
4. Oil or butter for pan frying

In a bowl mix the salt into the flour and add water little by little until you can make soft dough. Take about 2 teaspoons oil in your palm and roll the dough ball. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 parts . For rolling take a rolling pin, add some flour to your cleaned counter top. Put one part of dough on the flour and spinkle some flour on top of the dough and roll the dough until you get about 1/6-1/8 inch thick tortella. Fry it on a hot griddle or pan and apply oil once drak brown spots start appearing on the roti. Remove from heat and serve hot roti with your favourite dal or any curry