One Day At A Time

There are times when you like something at a restaurant and you end up trying it in your kitchen. I do that more often, especially restaurant style creamy curries. What I love about this is that it has lots of veggies, cheese and nutrient rich dry fruits... all in one meal. This Korma with a hint of fruity sweetness tastes great with both rice and roti. Navratna refers to nine gems, I guess I missed one and that would be pineapple. Ingredients: Mixed Vegetables - about 3 cups Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese - 1 cup Tomatoes - 2 medium Onion - 1 small Almonds/Badam - 1/4 cup Raisins/Dry Grapes - 1/4 cup Milk - 1/2 cup Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp Poppy Seeds/Khuskhus - 2 tsp Fennel Seeds/Saunf/Badishep - 1 tsp Cloves/Lavang - 2 Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 1 pod (seeds only) Dry Red Chillies - 5 Salt How to cook Indian Navratan Kurma: Soak almonds and raisins in water for about an hour. Raisins will add a slight sweetness to the curry. You can use any nuts of your choic...

Few years ago, we came to US. It took a while to know the local varieties of vegetables and fruits. I learned that Cantaloupe is nothing but a variety of Muskmelon and Butternut Squash tastes quite similar to Pumpkin. I keep trying to cook local seasonal vegetables in a desi style.. making paratha, curry and today's Konkani style shallow fried Zucchini . Ingredients: Zucchini Squash - 2 Semolina/Rava/Sooji - 1/2 cup Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper/Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp Chat Masala - 1/2 tsp Salt Oil How to shallow fry Zucchini Squash: Dice zucchini into slightly thick slices. Sprinkle black pepper powder, cayenne pepper, chat masala and little salt. Mix well.  Coat the zucchini slices in semolina and shallow fry in a pan drizzling little oil. Check with a spatula if zucchini is cooked. Roast until the semolina crust turns crisp. You can add the seasonings to semolina as well.  Serve Semolina Zucchini fritters as an appetizer or as a si...

Whenever I plan a meal, I make sure our diet has more proteins and leafy greens. One of the combinations I like is Dals/Lentils with greens like Spinach and Methi. Sometimes I make Panchmel Dal with five types of lentils. Today I tried something new in my kitchen.. Whole Masoor Dal with Spring Mix salad mix. Try this recipe with a few tweaks of your own, any lentil or bean of your choice with your favorite leafy greens. Ingredients: Whole Red Lentils/Masoor - 1/2 cup Spring Mix or any other leafy greens - about 2 cups Onion - 1 small Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp Coriander/Dhane Powder - 1 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1 tsp Chat Masala - 1 tsp Green Chilli Paste - 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Salt Oil How to cook Masoor Dal with Greens: Cook Masoor Dal with 3 - 4 cups water until soft. I generally use a pressure cooker for Dals, as it saves time. Finely chop onions and spring mix greens. Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Add onions and ginger garlic...

When I don't have time to cook something elaborate, I end up preparing this Egg curry with a few basic Indian spices. An egg curry with plain rice, papad and cucumbers turns out to be a great menu on a lazy day. Ingredients: Eggs - 6 Onion - 1 medium Tomatoes - 2 medium Dry Red Chilies - 5 Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp Chat Masala - 1 tsp Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1 tsp  Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1 tsp Fennel/Saunf Seeds - 1/2 tsp Cilantro/Coriander Leaves - few sprigs Salt Oil How to cook Simple Egg Curry: Boil eggs in 4 - 5 cups water for about 10 minutes. Let the eggs cool completely before peeling. Using a knife, make slits in the eggs. Finely chop onions and cilantro leaves. Puree tomatoes and dry red chilies to a smooth paste. Instead of dry red chilies, you can use red chili powder or cayenne pepper or green chilies. I prefer using mild Byadagi variety of red chilies. Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add fennel seeds and after few seconds add onions, ging...

Happy Friday Readers :)  Friday is kind of special at my place, especially in terms of food. I try not to think of calories for a day. Let me tell you about my menu for today - Green Bean Fries, Pumpkin Paratha with Dry Chutney , Yogurt.... and for dessert Shahi Tukda . Normally, when I make pakoras, its the desi style with besan/chickpea flour or rice flour. But, these fries are more like the American way, with bread crumbs and minus the egg wash. Ingredients: Green Beans/French Beans/Farasbi - about 200 gm All Purpose Flour/Maida - 1/2 cup Bread Crumbs - 1 cup Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper - 1/2 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp Salt Oil How to make Crispy Green Bean Fries: Homemade Bread Crumbs: Blend 3 bread slices in a dry blender to a fine powder. Bake the bread crumbs at 300 degree F for 10 - 15 minutes.  Discard the ends of the green beans. Heat about 5 cups water in a vessel. When water starts boiling, add the green beans and cook ...

Shallow fried Vegetarian or Vegan Cutlets made of potatoes and leafy green Spinach. Ingredients: Boiled Potatoes (Russet) - 2 big Baby Spinach/Palak - about 3 cups Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1/2 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds/Saunf/Badishep - 1/2 tsp Chat Masala or Aamchur - 1/2 tsp Garam Masala or any spice mix - 1/4 tsp Salt Oil Corn Starch - 1/4 cup Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup How to make Aloo Palak Cutlets: Microwave washed spinach leaves for 3 - 4 minutes so that the leaves wilt and lose moisture. Let it cool. You can rough chop the leaves if you like.  Any other greens like Fenugreek/Methi, Spring Mix can be used. Crush the fenel seeds in a mortar pestle to a coarse powder. In a mixing bowl, add mashed potatoes, spinach, coriander, cumin, fennel, chat masala, garam masala and salt. Make sure that the potatoes are cooled completely before mashing and not overcooked. I prefer Russet Potatoes for cutlets. Divide the cutlet mix into  8 - 10 parts. Fl...

Samosa, the most loved Indian appetizer with a crisp crust and savory potato stuffing. When you make such fried fast food at home, you get to make some changes to make it healthy.  Here are some Whole Wheat Aloo Matar Samosas for you to try at home and savor them as much as we did. Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup Carom Seeds/Ajwain/Owa - 1 tsp Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1/2 tbsp (optional) Olive Oil or any other Oil - 1/2 tbsp Potatoes (Russet) - 2 medium Green Peas/Matar - 1/2 cup Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1/2 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Ginger (grated) - 1/4 tsp Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp Green Chilli - 1 Coriander/Cilantro Leaves - few sprigs Salt Oil for frying How to make Indian Samosa: Making Samosa Crust:  In a mixing bowl, add whole wheat flour, carom seeds and little salt. Heat ghee and olive oil in a small pan. Add this hot (not warm) ghee and oil to the wheat flour and mix...

Shrikhand is an easy, effortless dessert made of thick yogurt. Ingredients: Yogurt/Curds - 4 cups Sugar - 2 tbsp Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 2 pods Saffron/Kesar - few strands Pistachios/Pista - 2 How to prepare Homemade Shrikhand: Arrange a sieve/strainer with 2 layers of a thin cotton cloth. Place a bowl below the sieve to collect the water from the yogurt. Pour yogurt in cloth lined sieve and wrap the cloth on the yogurt. Keep this yogurt overnight in the refrigerator so that all the water from yogurt drips down in the bowl. Alternatively, you can hang the yogurt in a cloth as well. You will get about 2 cups of thick yogurt. This hung thick yogurt is also called as Chakka . Crush cardamom seeds in a mortar pestle. Chop the pistachios or any other nuts of your choice.   Mix sugar, saffron and thick yogurt in a bowl until sugar dissolves. Add more or less sugar to suit your taste. Garnish with cardamom and pistachios. Enjoy Shrikhand with Puri .

Gobi Manchurian , Vegetable Manchurian are some of the popular Indo Chinese recipes. Indo Chinese food has a quite distinctive taste - spicy, tangy, slightly sweet. If you are looking for a sea food version of Manchurian, this Prawn Manchurian with Spring Onions is perfect. Ingredients: Prawns/Shrimps/Jhinge/Sungta - 1 pound Capsicum/Bell Pepper - about 1 cup Corn Starch - 1 tbsp Spring Onions/Green Onions - 6 Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp Vinegar - 2 tbsp Soy Sauce - 1 tbsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp Tomato - 1 medium Dry Red Chilies - 4 Salt Oil How to cook Chinese Prawn Manchurian: Clean the prawns by removing the shells and the black vein. Wash the prawns well. In a mixing bowl, add ginger garlic paste, vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper powder and little salt. Add salt keeping in mind that some sauces have salt. Mix all the ingredients and add cleaned prawns. Let the prawns marinate for about 2 hours. Puree tomato and dry red ...