Spicy Mushroom Peas

10 oz pack of sliced cremini mushrooms
1 1/2 tomatos ( 150 gms or 10oz) finely diced
1 small yellow onion finely diced
1 cup of frozen peas
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn cumin powder
1/2 tspn red paprika
1/2 tspn turmeric
1/2 tspn garam masala
1 1/2 tspn salt
1 clove of garlic minced
1/2 tspn ginger minced
1 tspn dry fenugreek ( kasoori methi)
oilfe

Ingredients

1. Cook the mushrooms with 1 tspn oil for 7 minutes till they wilt and turn a deep bown.
2. Remove the mushrooms, add t tbspn oil to the pan. Add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the tomatos, garlic, and ginger. Cook for 5 minuted. Add the spices coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, and paprika.
3. Add 1 cup of water and let the tomatoes and onions disintegrate.
4. When the water is reduced to half add the peas and the mushrooms.Now cook till the liquid almost evaporates.
5, Add the garam masala and the fenugreek.
6. Serve with naan or paranthas.

Asian Rice Pudding

A very easy rice pudding and awakened with asian ingredients like ginger and lime zest. You could serve this with tropical fruits like mangos and pineapples. Also use strawberries and kiwis. Cube the fruit and warm it in a saucepan with butter and some sugar.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of thick rice ( cook in 1 cup of water)
1 egg
1 cup of half and half
1 tspn vanilla essence
1/2 cup of cocout - roast
zest of 1 small lime
1/4 inch piece fresh ginger grated
1/2 cup of sugar

Instructions

1. Mix the egg, half and half, essence.
2. Add to the rice and cook on slow heat around 7 minutes.
3. Add ginger and lime zest
4. Roast the coconut till golden brown.
5. Add to the pudding

Kesar Meetha Chawal- Saffron Sweet Rice

This is a distant variation of 'Zarda', a pakistani sweet rice made for Eid. Zarda is much more richer with loads of nuts , much more ghee and some versions even have khoya.
1 cup of rice
1 cup of sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 pinch saffron
2 pods cardomom
1/2 cup powdered coconut
2 tbspn ghee

Boil the rice in the milk and water. Add saffron and sugar after rice is half done. Add crushed cardomom. Roast the coconut.
When the rice is done add the coconut and ghee.

Nariyal Ladoos - Coconut Balls

Level of difficulty - Very Easy

A very simple recipe...practically throw together these easily available ingredients and make little balls out of them. I am a big fan of kaya jam , which is a Singaporean jam made of coconut milk, eggs, and sugar. Kaya toast is pure sin. To me this dessert comes a little close. I take a piece of bread, crush a coconut ball or two on top of it, and bake it. The sweet roasted coconut with toast is an easy indulgence.





Ingredients

3 cups coconut powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
2 cardomom pods





Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients and cook in a wok on low heat
2. Cook till the mixture leaves the side of the wok.
3. Make small balls out of the mixture.
4. Chill in the fridge.

Tip- Substitute milk and sugar with sweetened condensed milk .

Matar Poha - Pressed Rice with Peas

Level of difficulty -Easy

Poha is a pretty easy breakfast dish or a plain snack. You can add peanuts, potatoes, or just make it with plain onion ( known as kanda poha).


Ingredients
1 cups of thick pressed rice (poha)
2 thai chillies (dice finely)
1/2 cup of peas
1/2 cup of corn
1 white onion ( cut finely lengthwise)
1/2 tspn mustard seeds
2 curry leaves (optional)
1 small lime
3 tspn salt
1/2 tspn turmeric
2 tbspn oil
coriander leaves

Instructions

1. Add the poha to a colander and run water over it for 30 seconds.
2. Add the oil to a sauce pan and wait for the oil to heat. Add the mustard seeds till they splutter.
3. Add the onion and saute till it is transparent. Now add the peas and the corn.
4. Add the poha, salt, haldi, chillies, curry leaves.
5. Toss around for five minutes. Add juice on one small lime.
6. Garnish with coeiander leaves.

Pancakes in Syrup- Malpua

Malpua is a north indian dessert which is really comforting on a cold dark day. Malpua has a very rustic essence to it and is also served with a dollop of ice cream on the top. The pancakes are sweetened with sugar syrup or really condensed milk sweetmeat known as rabdi. However this recipe uses a milk syrup. I have also substituted all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. To my mind this adds to the earthiness and the rusticness of malpua. However, you could use all purpose flour for a finer , more delicate flavor.


Ingredients
for the malpua batter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tspn of fennel seeds (saunf)
1/2 cup of coconut powder
4 cardomom pods crushed
1 cup milk
ghee to fry
For the syrup
2 cups of half and half
3/4 cup sugar
4 strands of saffron

Instructions
For the Pancakes- makes 8
1. Mix all the ingredients except the ghee to make a thick batter.
2. Add 2 tbspn ghee in a pan, and add 1/4 cup of the batter trying not to make it spread a lot.
3. Make a thick pancake. when golden on one side flip.
4. Make 8 pancakes.

Syrup
1. Boil the half abd half, sugar, and saffron till it is reduced to less than half.You can further heat it if you want your syrup to be thicker.

Pour the syrup over the malpuas and serve warm.

Crushed Spicy Peas-Matar Nimona

Level of difficulty- Medium

Another north indian winter comfort food which is a wonderful showcase for fresh shelled green peas. I am not exactly sure where this originated from - Bihar or Banaras. All I know is that this is a wonderful way to cook peas and works well with frozen peas. So you could make it anytime of the year if you can't find enough fresh produce.

Ingredients

1 16 oz pack of frozen peas
1 small onion diced finely
1 small potato boiled and diced
1 small tomato finely diced and deseeded
1/2 cup of plain yoghurt
1/2" piece of ginger grated
4 bay leaves
1 pinch of asfoetida
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn red chilli powder
1 tspn garam masala
3 tspn salt
1/2 tspn turmeric
1 tspn cumin seeds
1 tbspn oil

Instructions
1. Blanch peas for 5 minutes and crush.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the asfoetida, bay leaves, and cumin seeds till the seeds splutter.
3. Add the ginger and then the pea mixture.
4. Add the coriander powder, turmeric, red chilli powder, and salt.
5. Crush the peas with spices for 2 minutes.
6. Add the tomato and crush the peas even more. Add the potatoes.
7. Add 1 cup of water and cook for 20 minutes. Keep crushing the peas.
8. Add garam masala. Shut off flame. Stir in yoghurt.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot rotis or paranthas.

Cucumber in yoghurt sauce - Kheera Raita

Level of difficulty-Low

1 cucumber- grate and wring out excess water
1 cup of plain yoghurt
1/2 tspn cumin powder
1/4 tspn black pepper pepper
1 tspn salt

Mix all the above and chill.

Saffron Cumin Rice - Kesar Zeera Rice

Cumin Saffron rice is pretty simple. It just jazzes up your regular rice and goes very well with richer lentil stews like kidney bean (rajma), garbanzo beans ( choley), black lentils ( urad dal).

2 cup of basmati rice
4 cups of water
3 tbspn ghee
1/2 tspn cumin seeds (zeera)
1 tspn salt
8 strands of saffron

1. cook 1 cup of rice in 2 cups water and 1/2 tspn salt. cook the remaining rice separately with the saffron and 2 cups of water.
2. when the rice is done , mix the saffron rice and the plain rice together. You get a medley of white and orange rice.
3. heat the ghee in a small saucepan. add the cumin when the ghee is hot.
4. when the cumin splutters and turns brown, add to the rice.
5. mix the rice so the ghee coats the rice grains evenly.

Baked Indian Eggs

Indian omelettes are characterized by corainder leaves, green chillies, and onions. all of the ingredients are folded in the eggs and fried on a skillet. However, the given recipe combines spices with eggs and is baked and is better suited to at least four people for breakfast.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1 pack of cremini mushrooms (227 gms)
1 medium onion
2 thai chillies
2 Tbspn half and half
1 tspn coriander powder
1/2 tspn turmeric
1/2 tspn cumin powder
1/2 tspn garam masala
1/2 cup of chopped coriander leaves
3 tspn salt
oil

Instructions

1. Dice the onions. Chop the mushrooms. Heat oil in

Dinner Party

A typical dinner party in India for a limited crowd of 4-6 people would look like this.

The All Out Menu

Appetizers
If you plan to serve dinner after a while after allowing your guests to mingle, you could serve appetizers with drinks. However this is purely optional since Indian meals do not always include appetizers. You could also serve an indian savoury snack, also known as chaat or buy mini samosas from a store.

Main Course

1.Vegetables - For a party of four, you should ideally try to include at least two vegetable dishes. You could serve one vegetable curry with gravy and one dry vegetable dish. Popular curries include matar paneer, saag paneer, koftas, dum aloo, aloo matar. Dry vegetables include cauliflower, potatoes, mixed vegetables, okra, cabbage, potatoes and greens, eggplant. You might want to include at least one paneer(Indian cottage cheese) dish, dry or with gravy, since paneer is quite a crowd pleaser.

2. Bread - You can choose between paranthas, naan, rotis, or kulchas to go with your vegetable dishes. If your curries are very rich , naan is a good choice. However if you made lighter curries, paranthas and rotis are a better choice.

3. Lentils - You could serve one lentil dish. Popular party choices include choley or chana dal ( garbanzo curry), rajma ( kidney bean ), dal makhani ( black lentils), kala chana (bengal gram). However if you want to go lighter and the dinner is less formal, opt for pigeon peas, mung , black eyed peas.

4. Rice - You could serve plain steamed rice or cumin rice, depending on the lentil dish you choose. Basically the rice is supposed to be the accompaniment to your lentil stew and hence you do not want the rice to overpower the lentil flavor.
Rice entrees like pulao and biryani, do not need a lentil stew at all. They can be served with raita or vegetables in a yoghurt sauce.

Accompanients
1. Raita- Raita helps to temper the spicy curries and are easy and quick to prepare. Curd sauce with cucumber, onions, tomatoes. Popular choices include vegetable raita, cucumber raita, onion raita, mint raita, potato raita.

2. Pappad- Get your favorite brand from the Indian store. Microwave each pappad for 50 seconds.

3. Pickles

4. Salad- Cut onions, cucumbers, tomatos, into slices and just add a little lemon juice/ salt on the top. You can also add carrot and radish batons.

Dessert
Just serve store bought ice cream or kulfi ( indian ice cream), rasgollas (cottage cheese balls in syrup) , ras malai (cottage cheese balls in a milky sauce) if you don't want to work too hard. Some of the desserts on this blog like gajar ka halwa and malpua are excellent cold weather comfort desserts.

The One Wow Dish Menu

Serve paav bhaai
Serve a rice entree like pulao or biryani with raita

Zucchini Potato Fritters

Level of difficulty - Low

Hello 2009 !!! I am kicking off the year with a blog on a quick and easy appetizer. The only indian ingredient is garam masala. This cutlet is a good appetizer and can also be served for breakfast as well. You can also use it as a patty for a sandwich.

Ingredients

1 zucchini
1 large potato
1 thai chilli ( diced finely)
1/2 onion ( finely diced)
1 egg
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1 tspn garam masala
1 tbspn salt
1 tspn black pepper
Canola Oil

Instructions

1. Grate zucchini and potato.
2. Mix all infredients except oil.
3. Make 8 cakes and shallow fry on low heat.
4. Serve