‘Only’ Series Event Announcement For January

Dear Friends!

First of all wishing you all a very enjoyable day as we step into a new year tonight. I hope and pray that the coming  year brings all the happiness and sunshine in your life. I really wish that all your dreams come true and sorrow stays miles away from you & your family.

With a positive note in life and wishing that we all stay very fit and fine, I’m announcing a very healthy event for this month …’Only’ Sprouts.The event will be guest hosted by Priya Mitharwal of Mharo Rajasthan Recipes, the details of the event can be checked in her blog later today.

The giveaway is sponsored by www.tarladalal.com.  There will be two giveaways Cooking With Sprouts and Stir- Fry which the winner will get and will be shipped only in India.

                                                                                        

 

Gear up to cook tasty and innovative food using sprouts and start the year on a healthy note. Good luck to all.

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Broccoli and Potato Fry

           Usually it is just the potato fry or the stir-fried broccoli, thought of bringing them together in this fry with a little garlic and black pepper, the end result was really good. People who find it hard to swallow broccoli alone can try this combo..

Need To Have:

• Broccoli chopped - 2 cups
• Red potato - 3 medium sized
• Garlic - 3 pods 
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Chilli powder - 3/4 teaspoon
• Pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry leaves - a few
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Jeera seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

          Chop the potatoes with the skin. Heat oil add mustard and jeera seeds, add the potatoes, saute for a few mins, add the salt, turmeric and chilli powder, mix . Add the chopped garlic, mix and cook without covering. Cook the broccoli separately either in the microwave or stove-top. Once the potato is cooked add the broccoli and pepper powder, mix well cook for 5 more mins. Add curry leaves, mix and serve. Goes with rice, roti and dal.

Note:
Don't cover when the potao is cooking, it'll become mushy.
When I updated the pictures, I had used the regular potatoes, not the red ones.

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Eggless Chocolate Cake

            Hello everyone, Welcome to my blog, Aromatic Cooking. The recipes will be mostly of Indian origin, but I always like to try anything new, a slight change in the spices or vegetables added would sometimes end up in an entirely new dish. Most of the recipes will be my experiments in my kitchen. Thought I should start on a sweet note..

                    
            This is a very easy cake, just mix in all the ingredients and bake, how much simpler can it get, an eggless version, but still very moist and light, and I would say, a low-fat version too..
                                                                                                                       
Need To Have

• All Purpose flour or Maida - 1 cup    
• Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Baking powder - 3/4 teaspoon
• Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• Fat free evaporated milk - 1 cup
• Curd - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Vanilla extract - 3/4 to 1 teaspoon
• Butter scotch chips - 1/4 cup melted in little milk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9" cake pan, I used a loaf pan. Take all  the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the wet ingredients, mix well. The batter will be watery like idli batter. Pour it in the pan, mix in the melted butter scotch chips, bake it for 25 to 30 mins. Keep checking after 25 mins, cool it. Slice and serve it as such or with ice cream.

Note:
If evaporated milk is not available, can use milk that has been boiled to reduce to half the quantity.
Can leave out the butter scotch chips, can increase the sugar to 1 cup if you need a very sweet cake.
If you like frosting, can do the same, I left it out because everybody at home likes it plain.

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Enquête publique PNM

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Four Recipes & A Book Review- Master Chef India Cook Book by Pankaj Bhadouria

Hi All.

2010 was when Master Chef  India was aired for the first time. It was a huge platform  for people passionate about food, to show their hidden talent to the entire nation. So many people from different walks of life tried their luck to get into this competition/reality show and only the very talented could make it to the top twelve. These involved home cooks, strugglers, college going students, a few corporates and amongst them was also Pankaj who had quit her many years of teaching job to participate here, so there was quite a lot on stake…

The entire journey of Master Chef  India was fun and lot of learning, though quite melodramatic at times unlike Master Chef Australia, but I guess all Indian reality shows have a lot of melodrama in it to gain TRP. Millions of the viewers watching the show laughed and cried along with the participants. People had their own favourites and I had mine too. I loved  to watch Radhicka, Zebi, Smitha, Jaynandan and Pankaj  cooking. But in heart of hearts I prayed that either Pankaj or Jayanandan should win as they were not only talented but  both of them needed the title badly as Jaya would have got a direction in his life and Pankaj because she took a big challenge by quitting her job of 16yrs and I surely could relate myself  easily with her..

To my delight Pankaj won and Jayanandan was the runners up. We had a privilege of meeting  Chef Jayanandan at The Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon. He was kind enough to spend a quality time with us and surely helped us decide on the menu at the famous restaurant Diya. The food was amazing and I would highly recommend it.

It was around this time of the year, last year, when Pankaj Bhadouria was declared the winner of the coveted  Master Chef India 1 Title and a few days back her book got released for sale. I have already tasted Jayanandan’s cooking and since I’m an equal admirer of Pankaj, I wanted to grab my copy and explore her recipes and live her style of cooking in my kitchen.

The book titled Master Chef India Cook Book by Pankaj Bhadouria starts with a foreword by Akshay Kumar, brief introductions about Chef Kunal Kapoor, Chef Ajay Chopra and Pankaj Bhadouria herself. Then Pankaj describes her journey in Master Chef kitchen to winning the title.

Whenever I buy a cook book, I majorly get attracted by the paper-print quality, the pictures, method of description of the recipe and surely the simplicity of language. This book has an excellent paper-print quality, the papers turn easily and do not produce glare. The font size and font both are adequate to provide an ease in reading and do not strain your eyes. The photograph quality is excellent and the food is very aesthetically captured, making you drool over it and surely inspires you to try it. Each and every recipe has a photograph to go with it, giving us a fair idea how the final product looks like. All recipes provided in the book are new except the last section. It has about 75 recipes and is priced around Rs350 which I thought was reasonable for the quality of paper used in the book and also the number of recipes one learns. I got the book at much lower price as I had booked the book much earlier.

The book is divided into 4parts which are

Quick Fix Recipes

Gourmet Recipes

Desserts &

Master Chef Kitchen Recipes

The first three parts have most of the recipes by Pankaj and a few contributions are by Chef Ajay Chopra and Kunal Kapoor who are the Master Chef judges. The last section has selected popular recipes made by the Master Chef contestants in the Master Chef Kitchen of which I definitely want to try Zebi’s Kimami Seviyaan and Sweet Cheesy Basil by Jayanandan.

Barring a few, most of the recipes are made with ingredients easily available in the market. Each recipe has been provided with preparation time, cooking time and the number of people it serves making it easy for us to choose recipe based on the time we have in hand and also we can increase and decrease the quantity of ingredients based on the number of people we are cooking for. The book also helps you to understand how the recipe is served.

Each section except the dessert section has a mix of recipes for starters, soups, salad and main course. I have tried a soup, a starter, a main course and a dessert to write this review. I was particularly interested in trying out so many because after watching the episode of this year’s Master Chef Australia in which the final four contestants Kate, Michael, Alana and Danny had to write their recipes for the cook book in such utmost detail that when their recipe was tried by home cooks they would not face any problem at any step, for which they tried their recipes many times and corrected the procedure. There was a detailed description  regarding the size of pan and utensils used, the portion size, quantity of ingredients etc. making it extremely easy for anyone to understand and try..

I wanted to see whether Master Chef India has taken enough pains like Master Chef Australia to provide us with a cookbook which is flawless has highly accurate and detailed  descriptions. I also wanted to check whether the book provides simple tips, precautions and tricks while cooking the recipe. Does it provide alternate ingredients and substitutes in case an ingredient is not easily available. In short I wanted to understand the highs and lows of the method described in the book. Four recipes surely gives you a fair idea about the positives and negatives of the book.

I tried the Minty Green Pea Soup, Chickpea Kebab with Couscous, Tahini and Arabic salad, Ker Sangri and Chocolate Lava cake. All recipes that I tried are by Pankaj and they gave me a fair idea of her style of cooking. I must say that I admire her more after trying them. Barring Couscous and Ker Sangri which are not available every where, all the other ingredients for making these 4 recipes are easily available. I picked up Ker Sangri  intentionally as I had bought them when I had visited Jaipur and wanted to use them. 

Minty Green Peas Soup Preparation Time-5min Cooking Time- 20min Serves 4 Ingredients 2tbsp Butter 1medium onion finely chopped 2cloves garlic finely chopped 2cups shelled peas 1cup mint leaves 2-1/2 cups vegetable stock 1/4tsp salt 1/4tsp black pepper pwd 1cup cream Method Heat the butter in a pan and add the onions and cook on low heat for 2mins or until the onions are soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the peas, chopped mint leaves and ¾ of the veg. Stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium and cook covered for 20 minutes. Process the soup in the blender to make a thick puree. Return the puree to the pan, season with salt and pepper and stir in the rest of the stock and cream. Simmer for a few minutes. To Serve Swirl some cream over the soup and serve with crunchy bread sticks.

My verdict on the soup

The soup is extremely simple to make and is surely a quick fix item. It tastes good, is very refreshing and filling too.The method explained is easy to comprehend and try. The soup was relished by my family. I personally found it under seasoned with 1/4tsp salt as I had used unsalted butter in my cooking. I would have preferred a salt as per taste in the list of ingredients or the mention of using salted butter. I guess the author had used salted butter for cooking in that case 1/4tsp salt should be enough but in case of unsalted butter the soup needs some salt. Plus the soup uses vegetable stock, I made my vegetable stock by boiling a mix of carrots, celery, beans and cauliflower. A quick tip on making veg stock by the author would have helped many.

Also, I would have appreciated that the author gave an alternate option to peas. I personally thought that Spinach or Lilva Beans/ Fresh Pigeon Peas can also replace Peas.

Chickpeas Kebab with Couscous, Tahini and Arabic Salad Preparation Time: 40mins plus soaking Cooking Time:20mins Serves:4 Chickpea Kebab Ingredients 250g Chickpeas 1tsp Tabasco sauce 1tbsp each of finely chopped ginger and garlic 1tsp finely chopped coriander 1tsp dried oregano 1tsp freshly ground pepper 1/2tsp salt 1/2cup olive oil for shallow frying Method Soak the chickpeas for 6hrs in water. Drain and cook in fresh water till tender. Drain and spread out on a kitchen towel to dry. Grind the chickpeas to a coarse paste. Transfer to a a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, except the oil and mix well. Divide mixture into 10 portions and shape into flat oblong kebabs. Shallow fry in moderately hot oil till light golden brown on all sides. Drain on absorbent paper. Vegetable Couscous Ingredients 250g Couscous or broken wheat (dalia) 1medium each of yellow, red and green capsicum finely diced 4tbsp fresh corn kernels 1tsp salt 1tsp freshly ground pepper 1cup vegetable stock 2tbsp finely chopped parsley Method Place the couscous in a bowl. add the vegetables, salt and pepper and mix well. Heat the stock and pour over the couscous mixture. Cover and leave to stand for 5 minutes till the stock has been absorbed and the couscous grains are light and fluffy. Garnish with finely chopped parsley. Tahini Ingredients 1/2 cup sesame seeds 3cloves garlic chopped 1/2tsp salt 1tbsp olive oil 1/2cup lemon juice 1tsp finely chopped parsley Method Dry roast the sesame seeds and soak them in 1 cup of warm water for 20mins and process or grind to a smooth paste. Add the garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice and process till smooth. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with copped parsley. Arabic Salad Ingredients 2medium cucumbers quartered 2 large tomatoes quartered 12 baby spinach leaves 3tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves 1tbsp lemon juice 2tbsp olive oil Method Toss all ingredients together and transfer to a serving bowl. To serve Arrange the kebabs on a platter with the couscous. serve with the tahini and Arabic salad.

My verdict on the platter

It is a filling platter and can make a light meal for the family with simple ingredients easily available in the kitchen. It is an extremely good platter for people on a diet. I replaced the parsley with coriander as the herb is not easily available here.The couscous is very light and with the richness of so many colourful vegetables it looks very appetising and also the Arabic salad. The recipe asked for mixing the veggies with the couscous and then pouring the warm stock, I did not do that as I like my veggies with a bite so I mixed the veggies later. Couscous is not readily available everywhere and Pankaj has given daliya as a substitute for couscous.

The Kebabs were bland for my Indian palate and I found them dry too, but then Arabic food is bland! I thought that the idea of spreading chickpeas on a kitchen towel is not good as it makes them further dry. I would surely add a little oil in the kebab mix the next time and also more of Tabasco sauce and pepper too. I also thought that the author should have mentioned that these kebabs need gentle handling. Using a lightly wet hand while making the kebab surely helps in shaping them easily.

The Tahini recipe can be a disaster if you add the half cup of lemon juice mentioned in the list of ingredients. I followed my instincts and squeezed only two small lemons. Plus this makes a lot of sauce so use this quantity only if you want to store it and while storing spread a layer of olive oil on the top and refrigerate.

Ker Sangri Preparation Time: 15mins + Soaking Cooking Time:20 mins Serves:4 Ingredients 25g dried ker 75g dried sangri 1tbsp mustard oil 1tbsp ghee 1tsp cumin seeds 1large dried red chilli 1tbsp garlic 1large onion, finely chopped 1/2tsp cumin pwd 1/2tsp coriander pwd 1tsp turmeric pwd 1tsp red chilli pwd 2large tomatoes, finely chopped 25g kumita seeds rinsed 1tsp salt 6tbsp yogurt 1tbsp finely chopped coriander a pinch of sugar 2tsp lemon juice Method Wash and soak Ker and Sangri separately, in cold water to cover for 3hrs and drain. Heat the mustard oil in a large pan until it reaches smoking point and add the ghee. When the ghee melts add the cumin seeds and dry red chilli and sauté till the seeds start to change colour. Add the chopped garlic and sauté for a few seconds. Add the chopped onion and saute until golden brown; add the cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powders and saute for a minute.Add the tomatoes and cook until the moisture from the tomatoes has evaporated and oil starts to separate from the mixture. Add the ker, sangri and kumita seeds and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the salt and yoghurt and stir until the mixture returns to a slow boil. Pour in half a cup of hot water and cook, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes until the beans and berries have almost soaked up most of the liquid from the sauce. Stir in the chopped coriander, sugar and lemon juice. To serve Ladle the ker sangri into a bowl and serve with crisp papad and hot roti.

 

My Verdict on the dry curry

I had been longing to try this preparation ever since I tasted it for the first time at the Spice Court in Jaipur. It is an amazing preparation and depicts the real flavours of Rajasthan. The ker and sangri are dry berries and can be stored and used when required. If only I had not tasted this preparation earlier, I would have hated myself for cooking this recipe, as the quantity of spices and the salt is definitely not enough for the amount of ker and sangri mentioned in the book.

The ker and sangri triples in volume after soaking and this preparation is enough for almost 6-7 people. The berries demand a large quantity of salt. I added almost 3tbsp to this preparation and almost 2tbsp of red chilli pwd and other spices. I also added a dash of garam masala too. Do not avoid the yogurt and lime juice as they help remove the pungency of the beans. The next time I make this I will soak the berries in butter milk and not water. The kumita seeds, I have never heard of and I could not find about them on Google too. Let me warn you, if you follow exactly the way the book mentions, one might hate this preparation. But after all the repairs done, my family relished the curry.

Chocolate Lava Cake Preparation Time: 20mins Cooking Time: 10mins Serves:  6 small cakes Ingredients 75g Butter 100g dark chocolate chopped 2 extra large eggs 1 egg yolk 3tbsp sugar 2tsp cocoa powder 3tbsp APF Icing sugar for dusting Method Preheat the oven to 180C. Melt the chocolate and butter together over a low heat. In a bowl whisk eggs and sugar lightly till the sugar has dissolved. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mix and stir well. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture quickly. Do not over mix as this will make the cake heavy. Pour the batter into 6 buttered ramekins or small ovenproof dishes. Bake in the preheated oven for 10mins. Remove from the oven. To serve Dust icing sugar through the sieve on top of each cake and serve immediately.

My Verdict on the cake

This was a super hit with my family and you can understand by the fact that I’ve already tried it two times in the last few days. It’s a quick preparation and can be a winner with anyone. I'm sending this cake to my event 'Only' Cookies and Cakes.

The only problem I faced was that the ingredients does not mention baking powder and the method does. I added 1/2tsp baking powder to my preparation. The recipe mentions 10mins cooking time but the crust gets flaky in 10mins so I reduced the time to 8-1/2mins the second time and got perfect result.

Coming from Master Chef India, I had expected the book to have interesting recipes, on which it does keep the promise. The book has recipes from India as well as the East and West. The book shares drool worthy desserts, starters and kebabs. As you all know, I am big fan of Kebabs, I’m looking forward to try many more from here. I also want to try the different Indian breads that the book offers.

This book has many exciting recipes which I do want to try in future but after trying 4 recipes I have started doubting the measurement of ingredients to an extent, this is where Master Chef India needs to learn from Master Chef Australia, on trying to produce a recipe which is flawless!!!

I love Pankaj’s style of cooking but I would have appreciated this book further more if the measurement of ingredients was flawless and ingredients not missed out. Many  recipes in the book are surely not for beginners in cooking, as it misses out giving handy tips and tricks and one should know basic cooking skills to attempt this book. I also did not like that the veg and non-veg recipes are not segregated, though it compelled a veg cook like me to peep into non veg recipes and think of suitable ingredients to replace them, yet I feel I would have preferred the segregation. Overall the book is a keeper and a must buy for cooks and foodies like us, the food bloggers, and also  for all those who are ready to try innovative recipes, explore higher culinary skills but at the same time ready to take risks too while cooking. But taking risks while cooking is surely what we all food bloggers do…isn’t it?
Sending the Chickpeas kebab to my event ‘Only’- Cooking From Cookbooks guest hosted by Gauri.

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The New Winner For ‘Only’ Curries

Hi everyone.

Since Amina Khaleel did not pick up her win, after waiting for two days I’ve picked a new winner for the giveaway.

The new winner is Amarendra from Amu’s recipes. Congrats. Please mail me your detailed address with pin code and your phone number to cookingoodfood@gmail.com.

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Okra Kurma

  Okra is one vegetable that the whole family enjoys, but when I got bored with the regular okra sambar and fry, I tried out this..
                                                                                                                                     
Need To Have:

• Okra - 10-15
• Onion - 1 big
• Tomatoes - 1 big
• Garlic - 5 pods
• Ginger - 1" piece
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp or to taste
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 2-3 teaspoons
• Curd - 1 tablespoon
• Cloves - 4
• Cinnamon - a small piece
• Curry leaves - few
• Coriander leaves to garnish

To Grind:

• Coconut - 1 tablespoon
• Roasted gram dal -1 tablespoon
• Small red onions - 3
• Poppy seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
• Fennel seeds - 2 teaspoon

Method:
   
           Grind all the ingredients given under 'to grind'. Wash and chop okra into 1" pieces. Chop the onion, garlic and tomato, grate the ginger. Heat oil, add the cloves and cinnamon, add the onion and garlic, saute for a couple of minutes, add the okra, mix, cover and cook till half done or for 8 mins. Add all the powders, salt, tomatoes curd and ginger, mix, cover and cook till the tomatoes soften. Now add the paste, water, cook for 5mins, garnish with curry leaves and chopped coriander. Enjoy it with rice or roti.

Note:
Can add more coconut to make richer kurma.
Can saute the tomatoes separately and grind with the coconut and add to make a thicker gravy.

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Winner Announcement Of ‘Only’ Curries

Hi All!

Thank you so much for participating in the event and the details of the event can be checked here and the round up here. I was going through the round up and realised that many entries are not even linked to event announcement page and some have not linked it to either of the announcements and still left their link for the giveaway. Please understand that not linking properly can be a serious matter ….Those who have sent their entries, kindly go back and check that you have fulfilled all the criteria of the event and linked properly else your entries will be removed from the round up.

Based on the links left in my announcement page and crosschecking the valid entries in the round up, using the random method the winner of the  is

Amina Khaleel with her Baghare Baingan entry. Congrats Amina, pls send me your detailed address with proper pin code and also your phone number, to cookingoodfood@gmail.com within two days else I will have to pick another winner.

Will meet you again with a very interesting post, till then….see you

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Healthy Cheese Bread Sticks

Hi all.

I know it’s been a while that I posted here. I intended to post a few interesting preparations but a conscious health decision prevented me to do so. I am following a strict diet regime these days and indulging more into food surely is not going to help me on that. I will surely post in detail about the diet plan I am following in case I get positive results but for the time being this space is going to see more of health food.

As we all know that soups and salads are an important and unavoidable part of a diet plan. Even I’m indulging myself more into that. To go along with the wholesome, warm bowl of soup I made these bread sticks which are not only healthy but tasty too. These surely give a great crunch to the soup but are filling too. They make an extremely welcome snack, my kid is in love with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

makes 24 of size 1cm by 8inches

preparation time:10mins

rolling time per batch: 3mins

baking time per batch: 11-12mins

1cup whole wheat flour

2tbsp olive oil

1/4cup grated cheese (I used tomato flavoured)

1tsp salt

1/2tsp chili flakes

1/4tsp crushed pepper powder

1tsp dry thyme

APF for dusting

curds for kneading dough

milk

Method

Mix olive oil in the flour to get a crumbly texture. Add all the other ingredients and then using curds make a stiff dough.

Cover it with a cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Take a lemon size dough, dust the kitchen platform with APF and roll out a rectangle of 3mm thickness.

Cut strips of 1cm thickness lift gently and twist them.

Grease a baking sheet and place the sticks on it, apply milk wash lightly and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 12mins or till the edges starts browning. Do not over bake.

Cool and store in airtight containers.

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Announcing ‘Only’ Event For December & Giveaway

Hi!

December is a month of celebrations with Christmas and the  New Year coming up. This month surely is a month which invites more baking so I decided to keep this month’s event as ‘Only’ Cakes and Cookies. So, bake as many variety of new cakes and cookies and treat your loved ones in this festive month and send them across to me as I’m hosting the event this month.

 

For this festive month the book that has been sponsored as a giveaway by www.tarladalal.com is called ‘Cakes and Pastries’. It is a book that any baker would like to have in his/her library for the amazing collection of cakes and pastries that it offers.

Rules for giveaway

This giveaway is open for everyone across the globe as long as you are able to provide me with an address in India as the books gets shipped only there.

For winning the giveaway the participants after sending the entry to me have to leave the link of the entry in my event announcement page and have to clearly inform me how you are eligible for it as you can increase your chances of winning either by

1.  following my blog publicly

2. become a fan on the face book page of my blog

or

3. By publicising this event through your space.

The winner will have to provide me (Pari) within two days of the winner declaration  an address in India with correct pin code and phone number, at cookingoodfood@gmail.com so that I can make arrangements for getting the giveaway delivered. If the winner is unable to contact me within two days, I’ll have to pick a new winner.

Rules of The Event

1. Any number of fresh entries can be sent but only 2 entries from the archive will be accepted. Archived entries to be reposted, else will not be accepted.
2. Only vegetarian dishes accepted (eggs can be used)
3. Use of logo is mandatory as it helps spread the word.
4. The entry should be linked back to my event announcement page.

5. The winner of the book from Tarla Dalal will be chosen by me by random. org at the end of the event from the links left in my event announcement page.

6. You can either leave the link in the linky tool given below or can send the entry to me at cookingoodfood@gmail.com in the following format

name
blog's name
blog url
recipe name
recipe link
pic  resized to 300pixel
7. I will post the round up within 7 days of event completion unless there's an emergency.
8. I can not win the giveaway as I'm  hosting it.
9. Non bloggers can also participate, in that case they can send entries to me and I can post them on their behalf.

Please submit you entries here.

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Fresh/Raw Pigeon Peas Saaru…my first experience with the beans

Hi.

Days here are quite gloomy as we are amidst heavy rains, one can see flooding all over and the city. Telephone and Internet services are badly affected. Commuting has become painful as one faces traffic jams and the roads too are in bad condition. The state government declared holiday for schools since Friday itself but the kid’s school seemed quite indifferent to all the chaos and was still functional. On top of it they also conducted the KET exam on Saturday and the parents were supposed to drop their kid to school.

Since S, was busy with his CEO it was my turn to drop the kid to school in the rains. My car’s battery was down so I had to drop him on the two wheeler and was thoroughly drenched by the time I reached home. Wading in the floods on the two wheeler where the road was not even visible was surely very scary. I simply followed the vehicles in front observing for any potholes and ditches. By the time I reached home I  already  had headache and throat pain. I decided to have warm food and nothing is more welcome than either some hot soup or saaru (rasam).

I had got hold of some fresh tuvar beans recently and the beans were peeled and ready to use. I was looking out to make something very interesting using the beans as this was my first time with them but at that moment when I was craving for something hot, I decided to use them in making a saaru. I made this saaru in the same line of my avarekaalu saaru with a little variation in the ground masala.

I was very sceptical about the taste as I had never worked with these beans earlier but I was extremely delighted that the saaru turned out very tasty and had a great flavour of the fresh beans. With hot rice and some ghee on top it made a very hearty combination. I’m ready to try out more recipes with these beans surely as my first experience turned out very successful. I wanted to post this on Saturday itself but the server has been mostly down because of  the rains.

Ingredients

a cup and a half peeled pigeon pea beans/ tuvar dal beans

half cup grated fresh coconut

2red chillies

2tbsp rasam powder/saaru podi

2tbsp coriander seeds

1/2tsp cumin seeds

1-1/2tsp tamarind paste

a sprig of curry leaves

1tsp mustard seeds

a pinch of turmeric powder

salt to taste

2-3tsp oil for tempering

finely chopped cilantro

Method

To make the fresh masala for saaru…

Grind to a paste using water, coriander seeds, red chillies, cumin seeds, saaru podi, coconut and a little cooked pigeon peas.

Wash the beans and then boil the beans in water and some salt till cooked.

Mix the masala paste to cooked beans. Adjust salt and mix the tamarind paste. Add enough water to get a saaru consistency (I added about 1 cup water).

Bring it to a boil and temper it with mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves.

Boil for 2 more minutes and then serve hot with rice or Chapati.

Sending this to my event ‘Only’ Curries guest hosted by Kamalika and also MLLA41 guest hosted by Simona and is the brainchild of Susan. Also, reposting two of my favourite curries for my event

Paneer Dhaniya

Smoked Cottage Cheese Stuffed Okra

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