Aloo mutter kheema

Lamb and potatoes are one of the best combinations ever and today I jazzed it up a bit by adding fresh green peas to it. This curry goes great with either white rice or ROTI . Today I served it with rice and baingan ka bharta or baingan Khatta. This baingan ka bharta is my mom's version and is pretty easy and super fast. So enjoy your delicious meal

Aloo Mutter Kheema (Ground lamb with potatoes and peas)

Aloo Mutter Kheema

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb ground lamb
2. 2 medium potatoes cubed
3. 1/2-2/3 cup fresh peas
4. 1 medium onion chopped
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. 1/2 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder
8. Fresh chopped coriander for garnishing

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till they start to brown. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add the ground meat and fry for 10 minutes while breaking it. Add the rest of the ingredients and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add peas and simmer till potatoes are done. Garnish with cilantro and serve with  baingan ka bharta and rice

Chicken with Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Today was the day when Day light savings begins. And the weather has been weird. Its cold till 10.00 AM and then it gets super hot and then by 4.00 PM its getting cold again. Soup time is here. I didn't have many vegetables in my fridge but I had a couple of Zucchinis and Yellow Squash. So using those I made a delicious silky soup with Chicken and served it with flat bread and brown rice. Whatever you prefer to eat it with, it is delicious.

Chicken with Zucchini and Yellow Squash Soup with Mint

Chicken soup with Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium zucchini chopped
2. 2 medium yellow squash chopped
3. 2 chicken breast 
4. 4 cups chicken stock
5. 1 medium large potato chopped
6. 1 medium white onion chopped
7. 1/2 tablespoon each of olive oil, butter
8. 2-3 garlic pods chopped
9. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, fresh ground black pepper, Italian seasoning
10. 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the butter and olive oil and add the onions and fry for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Add the chicken and fry for 5-7 minutes. Add the vegetables and stir to combine. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Cut the heat and let it cool. Drain the chicken and shred with a fork. Grind the vegetables with an immersion blender or a regular blender. Return the soup and chicken to the pot and simmer again for 20-25 minutes. Add the chopped minutes in the last 5 minutes. Serve with a flat bread or brown rice

Tomato Egg Curry and Ambada Dal

This is a variation of a egg curry recipe  I posted more than an year ago. I really loved the egg curry made by one of the cooks' who used to work for us. I was kind of young at that time and I am not exactly sure which of these versions is actually the original. No matter, both of them are equally delicious and easy to make. And it can be served with either rice or Any Roti

Tomato Egg Curry (Boiled eggs in Tomato Gravy)

Tomato Egg Curry

Ingredients:

1. 6 hard boiled eggs, shelled
2. 1 can petite cut tomatoes (I use fire roasted)
3. 1 teaspoon black gram (Urad dal with skin)
4. 2 cloves gralic chopped fine
5. 3/4 teaspoon each of salt, cumin, chilly powder
6. 1-2 dried red chillies broken, few curry leaves
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of  turmeric, coriander powder 
8. 1 tablespoon oil+ oil for frying the eggs

In a wok or pan heat about 1-2 teaspoons oil and fry the eggs (make some slits in the boiled eggs else they will splutter in your face!) and fry for 5 minutes stirring often. Drain and set aside.

If there is not enough oil, add some more. Add urad dal and cumin, dried chillies and curry leaves and fry till an aroma starts emanating. Add garlic and fry for 30-40 seconds. Add all the powders and fry. Add tomatoes and stir well and cover and cook till pulpy. Add eggs and stir to combine and garnish with cilantro and simmer till almost all the juice evaporates. Enjoy with rice and Dal

Ambada Moong Dal (Amaranth leaves with Black Gram)

Ambada Moong Dal

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup yellow moong dal
2. 1/2-3/4 cup Amaranth leaves chopped and washed
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric, salt
4. 1 green chilly chopped
5. 2 dried red chillies broken
6. few curry leaves
7. 1-2 cups juice from a small lemon sized tamarind
8. 1 clove garlic minced

In the pressure cooker, cook the dal and Amaranth leaves with 2 cups of water and turmeric for 4 whistles. Let all the steam escape, open the cooker and mash the dal. Add the salt, green chilly pieces and tamarind juice. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry cumin and mustard seeds for a minute. Add garlic, red chilly pieces and curry leaves and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add this tempering to the dal and bring it to boil again and boil for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Gravy for Biryani

Whenever you order biryani in any of the Indian restaurants you get a side dish of GRAVY with it. I was never a big fan of this dish because it had too much oil and too much garam masala for my liking. But recently, there opened a new restaurant and I love the gravy they serve with the biryani. So I started searching for the gravy recipes and I made it. And I loved it soooooooo much along with everyone else. From now on, whenever I make biryani this is going to accompany it

                    This time around I made Mutton Biryani, gravy and Cucumber Raita. Here is the recipe

Gravy for Biryani (Tomato and Coconut based side dish)

Gravy for Biryani

Ingredients:

1. 1 tablespoon oil
2. 1 medium small onion ground to paste or sliced thin
3. 2 medium tomatoes, quartered (and if they are big, slice into halfs again)
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of chilly powder, turmeric, cumin powder, ginger-garlic paste, garam masala
6. 1 teaspoon coriander powder 
7. 1/4 cup thick coconut milk
8. coriander for garnishing

Ingredients for paste

1. 2-3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
2. 1 teaspoon khus khus (poppy seeds)
3. 1 teaspoon broken cashew 

Dry roast the ingredients for paste and let them cool. Grind it to a smooth paste . (I used coffee grinder)

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till translucent. Add all the ingredients in number 5 and 6 and fry for a minute. Add tomato quarters, reduce heat and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the ground paste and stir to combine. Add 2 cups water, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the coconut milk, salt and coriander and stir to combine and simmer further for 3-4 minutes. Serve with your favorite rice dish like Mutton Biryani 

or Chicken Biryani or Ground Lamb Biryani

Pumpkin Spice Latte Lite

Yeah, Pumpkin season is here and the weather is surely getting cooler and the days are getting shorter. I am sooooo waiting for the day light savings to begin, just so I can have one more hour of sleep. But, I am pretty sure its not going to happen. Because my kids will be up on that Sunday on time based on their biological clock in their heads. I wish it was a Monday, because then nobody can wake up the kids. And they will sleep till afternoon

Anyway, there was this article about making a Pumpkin Spice Latte at home on Yahoo.com the other day. And I just had to try it. I made a few changes to the recipe (Roll Eyes...as Usual!!!) and the Latte was delicious. I hope you will try it too and DO let me know, when you get a chance

I am using Splenda here instead of sugar but not saying this as Sugar free because Pumpkin Puree has its natural sugars in it. SO its just Lite


Pumpkin Spice Latte (Spiced up Latte with Pumpkin Puree)

Pumpkin Spice Latte Lite

Ingredients:

1. 2 heaped teaspoons canned pumpkin puree
2. 3/4 cup 1 % milk
3. 1/4 cup water
4. Instant coffee depending on how strong you want 1 cup of coffee
5. 1 splenda
6. 1/4 teaspoon each of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom powders

In a pan heat the milk and add all the ingredients and whisk for 4-5 minutes. Add this to a cup and sprinkle with some nutmeg. Let it cool a bit and enjoy on a cold evening

Cannoli without Marsala Wine

Today is all about improvising. Its all about cooking without the right equipment and getting amazing results.
I made two dishes today. But for both of the dishes I didn't have the require equipment but I made them :D and they were great.

The first dish was a cheese stuffed chicken breasts dish and the second was this-Cannoli. Cannoli is a dessert made of fried tubes and filled with sweet ricotta or some other stuffing. First off, I did not have any Marsala wine with me today. Second I don't have the Cannoli tubes which are used to wrap the dough and fry in hot oil. Thirdly I didn't wanted to deep fry it. So here is the healthy (as per not being deep fried) version of Cannoli without wine

Cannoli without Marsala Wine

Cannoli without Wine

Ingredients:

1. 1 egg
2. 1/2 cup white sugar
3. 2 tablespoons each of butter, vegetable oil
4. 3/4 cup all purpose flour
5. 1/8 teaspoon each of  baking powder and salt
6. 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
7. 11/2 teaspoon each of distilled white vinegar and chilled water

Ingredients for filling:

1. 1-11/4 cup lite ricotta cheese
2. 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the flour with baking soda and salt. In another bowl stir together the egg, sugar butter and oil till well blended. Add the flour to this along with vinegar and mix well. Add the water a little at a time until you get a thin pancake like batter.

Mix all the ingredients of the filling and leave it in the fridge until ready to use.

Heat a griddle to medium heat. Take 1/2 tablespoon of batter, place it into middle of the griddle and spread it with the back of a ladle with a light hand into about 4 inches circle. Let fry for about 2 minutes. Turn and fry for 1 more minute. Flip again and place a wooden cooking spoons handle and roll the hot cannoli onto it. Take it off into a place. Let it cool.

Right before serving, fill in the filling from the middle from both sides. Enjoy crunchy and cool Cannoli

Home Made Tomato Soup

Today, my little lady wanted to eat Tomato Soup and I didn't notice I didn't have her and my favorite store bought tomato soup, Campbell's Heat and Eat Tomato Soup. I had cans of tomato Sauce though. So I searched for the recipe and made my Home Made Tomato soup with canned Tomato Sauce. And it was as good as the store bought one but with just as much salt as I want.

Home Made Tomato Soup with Canned Tomato Sauce

Home Made Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1. One 8 oz can of tomato Sauce
2. 1/2 cup whole milk
3. 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
4. 1 tablespoon finely chopped onions
5. 1 garlic clove minced
6. 1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper
7. salt to taste
8. 1/8 teaspoon Italian seasoning
9. 2 teaspoons olive oil
10. Grated Parmesan cheese for garnishing (optional)

In a small pan heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the tomato sauce and stir well and add all the ingredients except milk. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add milk and simmer further for 10 minutes. Let it cool a bit and enjoy with your favorite toast or as it with a little garnish of your favorite cheese