Aloo Paratha, Potato stuffed flat bread, Kartofel Brot

This aloo paratha recipe is one of the easiest. Do give it a try. I hope it turns out absolutely delicious for you.

Veg Korma (vegetable creamy curry)

This is quite an easy curry, something that can be prepared in no time. You just need some fresh vegetables like few florets of cauliflower, carrot and young french beans. Young peas also goes well in the curry , but addition of too many vegetables somewhat gets overloaded in the curry. Therefore, my suggestion is to keep it simple and plain.

Idli with chicken curry

After long long time i decided to prepare Idli. My friend who is south Indian has been giving me many tips to prepare the fluffiest of all the Idli. I followed her tips and few of my own instinct to achieve the fluffy  Idli.
The basic idea is to ferment the batter. Fermentation requires a warm temperature and few catalyst enzymes. In this episode i used fenugreek as the catalyst and for warm temperature i warmed a bowl of water in the microwave, took it out and then placed the batter inside and allowed it to rise. In around 8 hours i received the excellent rised batter.

Meetha Pulao(Sweet Basmati Rice)

This is another lovely recipe. This has been shared to me by my mother. Its an awesome fragrant sweet basmati rice recipe. This can be served along with chana dal or Dal kaadu or any curry of your choice. It tastes great and i totally adore it.
Hope you too like this recipe.

Kaju Curry(Cashewnuts Curry)

Kaju curry has always been my all time favorite. For the first time i tasted this dish in a famous restaurant in my home town . Since then i fell in love with it. Usually am not able to eat more than 2 Tbsp of any rich curry  but when it comes to Kaju curry, am never full.

The long and large size cashew nuts are good for this curry but any type of cashew will also do.
The recipe is extremely easy and simple in preparation. It is rich, creamy and awesome in taste. It will go very well with bread, nan, chapati or rice.

French Beans Curry

French beans are universal and so are the diversity in the dishes made out of them. This french beans curry recipe has been passed on to me by my mother. Her cooking is nonparallel and so is her teachings. When it comes to cooking my mom is my teacher. She usually directed me to do one task while something was on stove. However each time the task was different. After some time she directed me to perform combination of tasks .Then came the time when she only asked  "Honey!! would u like to prepare the curry for the dinner tonight". That's how i leaned cooking. I was always ignorant of the fact that by performing single task i m learning how to do one, and it was a gradual ignorant process of me learning how to cook. I never realized that i unknowingly have learnt cooking until one day i prepared curry of my own version . I was always hopping around in kitchen when i was 11 years old and by 16 i knew how to prepare dinner, which usually served 4. Whenever i was at home during holidays i would cook for my family. My dad would always  love whatever i cooked.
And i carried this cooking legacy forward to my college where cooking was not allowed. But life is so dull unless and until you have never broken any rules. Sometimes my canteen food tasted yakky so i arranged for 1 small portable heater and a sauce pan. Whenever i didn't feel like turning to the canteen i Prepared quite a few things using the sauce pan. My friends would always praise me for what ever i cooked. There were two reasons they did that...1. Few genuinely found my cooking good while 2. others were only concerned with the their part ha ha(Hostel is a mixture of unique people). Oh i miss my college days, lots of fun and hungama.

Chicken Egg Roll with a video

When it comes to preparation of chicken egg roll am always on my toes and you won't believe that it can be do in less than 40 minutes(kneading, Filling preparation,rolling and cooking the egg roll).

Ranchi and Bokaro street vendors prepares some of the Best chicken rolls. However i was really disappointed with the egg rolls that i had in Bangalore at several places.

There is way to prepare this and therefore i shot a video of the final assembling of everything.

I have learnt how to do this by watching the street vendors as they prepared it. Being raised in a vegetarian family i always prepared the veg roll adding soy granules instead of chicken chunks and it was also good. But as soon as i got married and came to Hyderabad i tried doing some hands on with the chicken roll. I surprised my hubby by presenting him an excellent one and since then he knew that i could cook few of the awesome mouthwatering snacks.

So friends here is my favorite roll recipe and i know like me there are many of you who love it too. So i dedicate this recipe of mine to all my friends of Ranchi and Rourkela.

Steamed Broccoli with garlic and cashewnuts

There are times when i do not feel like looking at spices anymore. These are the times when i prefer healthy steamed vegetables. I prefer steaming rather than boiling as nutrients remain intact so that i benefit the most out of these vegetables. My family eats vegetables most of the days except on weekends. It sometimes turn boring preparing the curry every time . Moreover there are very few ways i like having broccoli, either steamed or saute. I do not like it in curry at all as i strongly feel that Broccoli has its own taste and adding too much of spices to it kind of loosen that original taste.
My kid 18 months like having it steamed too along with carrots and potatoes. So i steamed broccoli along with carrots and potatoes.
For the sauce i used olive oil instead of butter and made a kind of sweet, tangy and crunchy sauce by adding cashew nuts to it. This was perfect for our dinner and had great taste. I found this way of making everyone eat broccoli. It was very nice and i hope it works for you too.

Mushroom masala with corn(When it rains in jharkhand)

Mushroom has always been my all time favorite. In my hometown we get several varities of them. I know them by their local names and i just love them. There is one which is round in shape and has a dark colour once we open it, popular in Ranchi as Rugda or phutka. The other one has an open umbrella and is popular as chata(umbrella). One more variety is like flower, but a stiff flower which is popularly known as Dingil. These are all wild but are edible. Their taste is unparallel. They are never cultivated and we get them only when the wild soil is blessed by monsoon during the summer.

These are rare varieties of mushroom and are only available "when it rains in Jharkhand". 

Kadai Paneer

Kadai panner is an awesome Indian spicy cottage cheese curry. This is easy in preparation and has an amazing taste. This is like my "Weekend special". Quick and tasty".
Lets quickly get on to the recipe.

This recipe 
serves-4
Preparation time- 5 minutes
cooking time- 20 minutes
Level of difficulty- easy

Rajmah curry(Kidney beans curry)

Kidney beans are quite popular everywhere. I just love this rajmah curry with rice. It is a superb combination. I know like me there are many rajmah curry fans.
This dish is quite popular in Indian restaurants. My hubby loves it and therefore i prepare it every now and then. Preparing it becomes easier with the canned kidney beans. Otherwise the kidney beans need to be soaked in water overnight and then boiled before it can be assembled along with the spices.

Kaddu chana dal Curry(Bottlegourd and Lentil curry)

While i was in Bangalore i usually prepared this curry for my Lunch box. This is a pretty simple and straight forward curry which requires no cooking mastery.Talking about the end product, i bet you will always prepare this because its tasty as well as easy to prepare.

Kadhi pakoda(Fritters in yogurt gravy, Kadhi curry)

I remember one of my Punjabi neighbour who prepared mouth watering kadhi pakoras. This curry is  a total inspiration from her. I learnt many more punjab special dishes from her like cabbage paratha, aloo paratha and sarson ka saag recipe. Anyways my hubby likes having Kadhi with rice. The gravy turns out to be so simple yet serene in taste. At times i skip preparing dal along with rice instead i prepare this kadhi for a change.
Try this aloo pakoda kadhi and enjoy this dish.

Aloo Dum(steamed Potato spicy curry)- Bengoli style

During my childhood my mother always used to prepare this aloo dum curry, which we used to enjoy with puri's. This spicy potato curry was always special for us , reason being she always prepared it simple yet it had a taste that was unique and super delicious.

Vegetable Kurma or veg Korma Curry

Vegetable Kurma or Navratan Korma is one of the famous vegetable curry dish . This dish can be easily found in any menu of an Indian restaurant. It is rich , creamy yet a hearty dish.

Cucumber and tomato raita(Kheere ka Raita)

With the summer Raita's mark a prominent place on my dining table . There are two specific reason for it. The first being that its so simple and easy to prepare yet its very tasty and nutritious. Secondly it greatly helps in cooling down the stomach after we have anything spicy.

Sattu k Parothe (Lentil stuffed flat bread)

Am back from my home and already feeling nostalgic . Anyways i enjoyed a lot during my stay. It was killing summer with some cats and dogs pouring rain in between. Sattu is the famous lentil powder of bihar and jharkhand, India. It is made from roasted chana dal. It is perfect for summer as it keeps the stomach cool and filled.

Lets take a look at the recipe
Serves- 10 Parathas
Preparation time- 10 minutes
Cooking time- 2 minutes for each paratha(filling, flattening and cooking)
Level of difficulty- medium

Ingredients:

• Chapati dough
• Sattu/Lentil powder(chana dal roasted and then powdered)- 1 cup
• Onion- 1, chopped thinly
• Green chillies- 1, chopped
• Ajwain or carom seeds
• Ginger minced- 1 Tbsp
• Garlic minced- 1 Tbsp
• salt as per taste
• Ghee or butter for cooking
• Water

Preparation:

Sattu masala preparation(filling preparation)

• To make a perfect sattu filling, add ajwain seeds, salt, onion, green chillies ginger and garlic to it, add little water and come up  with moist sticky sattu powder ,slightly like a dough.

Filling and flattening

• Now take handful of chapati dough and make balls out of it. Fill in the sattu masala and roll it flat.
• Heat a tawa or a pan in medium high heat.
• Place the chapati over the tawa, wait until some brown spots hit below, flip on to other side and wait until the brown spots hit on the other side too. Now flip again and add a tsp of butter or ghee. Grease both side well and take the paratha out off the pan.

Your sattu paratha is ready to be served. Serve it hot with any curry, sauce or pickle. It always tastes great.

Enjoy and happy cooking.

By- Sushmita Pandit.

How to make Nan.
How to make chapati . 
How to make aloo paratha.
How to make puri.
Radisch Chapati

Dhokla in 5 minutes(Microwave Recipe)

My hubby kept asking me to prepare dhokla since last few months. It was high time to fulfil his desire to have dhokla. I prepared this dhokla in just 5 minutes. My mother always prepared the dhokla using rice and lentil. Each time she prepared it had great taste. I prepared this dhokla using Besan(Chick pea flour).
This Gujrati recipe is superb and tastes wonderful. I am looking forward to learn more and more Gujarati recipes as most of them are vegetarian and have wonderful taste. My mother and mother-in-law both love having vegetarian food, serving them some of the most delicious recipe will make both of them happy, this is what i aim at for the moment.

 

Aloo Palak(Spinach and potato curry)

I had a packet of spinach in my pantry and i was wondering like what to do with it. Then i remember my mother adding thinly sliced potatoes in the spinach while she stir fried the freshly chopped potatoes. It always tasted wonderful. But what i had was minced frozen log of spinach . Anyways i tried my mum's recipe and i came out with wonderful result. Then it became necessary to post this as it was a recipe worth to be noted.

Mixed Dal /Mixed Lentil recipe

Lentils are rich source of protein. I always feed my baby some or the other lentils. I myself like it very much with rice and chapati. This is a quick and easy mixed lentil/dal recipe. I am using three commonly used lentils in this recipe. They are masoor dal, moong dal and arhar dal. Addition of vegetables like eggplant and tomato adds to the taste  and makes it an awesome finger licking Dal.