My first recipe post

Sometimes a simple meal is all that we need after a day’s of hard work. Opened the fridge but couldn’t find anything interesting or it could be that I just chose to ignore the veggies stored. Anyways finally after much brooding, cooked Masoor daal in a little different way than I am used to only because the stock of garlic in my house has becoming overwhelmingly high. Quite interestingly though, the daal turned out to be quite different and equally delicious.

Masoor Daal

Ingredients: Masoor daal, turmeric, salt, paanch phoron, dry red chillies, garlic, coriander leaves, onion, mustard oil

Method:

1) Pressure cook the daal with little salt and water.2) chop the onion and half the garlic pods 3) For tempering, heat oil in a pan 4) Once the oil is hot, add paanch phoron and dry red chillies 5) allow them to crackle and then add the garlic 6) sauté till the garlic leaves its aroma and turns brownish 6) Now add onions and cook till it becomes translucent 7) Add turmeric and finally add the daal 8) Adjust the seasoning and the consistency as per your taste 9) Finally garnish with coriander leaves

Note: Many people add turmeric powder while pressure cooking the daal. The reason I don’t do that is to avoid washing an extremely stained pressure cooker afterwardsJ

Potato-French bean fry is the easiest thing you could make in a jiffy. It goes well with both rice as well as roti. Amazingly simple yet delightful is all I can say.

Potato-French bean Fry

Ingredients: Potato (Peeled and cut into cubes), French-bean (cut into bite such pcs), 2 green chillies slit vertically, turmeric, salt and oil

Method: 1) Heat oil in a kadhai 2) add turmeric and the green chilli 3) sauté for say ½ a second and then add the veggies 4) sauté for 2-3 minutes on medium flame 5) Cover and cook on low flame till the veggies are well done 6) Adjust the seasoning

Finally my hard core non-vegetarian hubby arrives from office and declares the menu to be boring. Buys chicken from the neighbouring store and gets to cooking. Wow, ain’t I luckyJ  Today we decided to cook rather a bland chicken curry taking inspiration from our Assamese roots. None of us are in the mood to consume much spice.  The curry went perfectly with our dinner mood and became an instant hit. Here is how he cooked it.

Chicken Curry

Ingredients: Chicken cleaned and cut into medium pcs, chopped onion, tomato cut into quarters, 2 green chilli cut into halves, ginger-garlic paste, cumin seeds, Cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, salt, coriander leaves, mustard oil

Method: 1) Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste and all the dry spices except cumin seeds 2) Heat oil in a kadhai. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and allow them to splutter 3) Now add the onion and fry till it becomes translucent 4) Finally add the chicken along with tomatoes and green chilli 5) sauté for 10 minutes till the outer edge of the chicken gets brown 6) Add water, salt and cover and cook till the chicken is done 7) Garish with coriander leaves

The Olive chutney mentioned here is pre-made. It’s called Jolphai in Assamese and Bengali and Jaitun in Hindi. The texture and taste is quite different from the ones that you get in bottles. Jolphai is definitely more aromatic.Yes, I don’t think I can use it to top pizzas or make pastas as the taste is more pungent but nevertheless I love Jolphai and its chutney is a personal favourite.

Olive Chutney

Ingredients: Jolphai, red chilli powder, jaggery, cumin powder, salt, oil

Method: 1) Pressure cook the jolphai 2) Once cooked mash them and keep aside. Please don’t throw away the seeds 3) Heat oil in a kadhai 4) Once the oil is hot, add the mashed jolphai and sauté for ½ a minute on medium flame 5) Add jaggery and red chilli powder 6) Finally add the cumin powder 7) Check the seasoning

Note: Once done allow it to cool and then store in an airtight container in the fridge. You can adjust the seasoning as per your taste. The above recipe will yield a sweet-sour-hot combination. You can change it the way you like completely sweet or sour or hot. Incase you run out of jaggery, you can very well use sugar. Personally I feel that jaggery gives a much authentic and better taste.

Echorer Daalna

Ingredients: Echor, chopped onion, chopped tomato, ginger-garlic paste, cumin, cumin powder, coriander powder, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, red chilli powder, sugar, salt, mustard oil and coriander leaves

Method: 1) Pressure cook the echor. Make sure you don’t overcook them. It should be soft and at the same time the pcs should be intact. 2) Heat oil in a pan and add cumin 3) Allow the cumin seeds to crackle 4) add the onion and ginger-garlic paste 5) Sauté the same for 4-5 minutes 6) Now add echor pcs 7) fry for 1 minute 8) now add all the dry spice powders and stir everything together 9) the key to a good daalna is to fry it nicely so take your time and fry the ingredients in the pan on a medium flame for 10-12 minutes. Please keep stirring in between 10) Add sugar and salt as per your taste 11) put little water and cover 12) In the meantime roughly crush the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves 13) Heat ghee in a small pan and add the crushed spices 14) Sprinkle the same over your daalna and stir lightly 15) Garnish with coriander leaves

I hope nobody expects me to give the recipe as in how to cook steamed riceJ