Dum Aloo

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes                            - 12-15
Oil                                             - 4 tbspoon
Cinnamon stick                         - ¼ inch piece
Green cardamom                       - 2
Bay leaf                                     - 1
Cloves                                       - 2
Poppy seeds                              - 1 tbspoon (washed and soaked for 30 min)
Cumin seeds                             - 1 tspoon
Red chili powder                      - 1 ½ tspoons
Coriander powder                     - 2 tspoons
Turmeric powder                      - ¼ tspoon
Onion                                        - 1 large, roughly chopped
Ginger                                       - ½ inch piece, chopped
Garlic                                        - 5 cloves, chopped
Green chili                                - 2 chopped
Tomato                                     - 2 big chopped
Cashews                                   - 10-12
Salt                                           - to taste
Kasoori methi                          - 1 tspoon
Heavy cream                           - 2 tbspoons
Water                                      - as required
Fresh Coriander                      - 2 tbspoon finely chopped



Method:

Boil the potatoes in pressure cooker. Once cool to touch, peel them and shallow fry them in oil with little salt. Keep it aside.
In the same pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Once hot add cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf and cloves. Saute till you get nice aroma.
Mix in onion, ginger, garlic and green chilies. Cook till onions are translucent.
Then add the tomatoes till they are soft. let it cool down.
Once cool, grind into smooth paste along with cashew nuts and poppy seeds.
Heat remaining oil in a pan. Once hot sizzle up cumin seeds.
Then add prepared paste, partially cover the pan and cook.
Cook till all the moisture goes away and leave the sides of the pan.
Now add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder. Mix and cook for 2 minute. Now add kasuri methi.
After 2 minute add enough water and let it come to a boil.
Add baby potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Switch off the flame and add heavy cream.
Finally sprinkle fresh coriander and Dum Aloo is ready to serve.

Mix Vegetable

Ingredients:

Mix Vegetables             – 2 cups Chopped/Diced/Sliced(carrots, potatoes, french beans, capsicum, peas, Corn kernels)
Onion                            - 1 chopped finely
Tomatoes                      - 2 chopped finely
Green chili                    - 1 chopped finely
Ginger-Garlic paste      - 1 tbspoon
Coriander powder         - 2 tspoon
Turmeric powder          - 1 tsppon
Chilli powder                - 1/2 tspoon or as to your taste
Garam masala powder  - 1/2 tspoon
Cumin seeds                  - 1 tspoon
Oil                                 - 2 tbspoon
Salt                                - as per your taste
Water                             - as required



Method:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed Kadahi/Pan.
Add cumin seeds. Once they start to crackle, add the chopped onions. Fry the onions till they become translucent.
Add the ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a minute or till they are cooked and raw smell disappears.
Add the tomatoes. Keep on stirring till the tomatoes become soft and pulpy.
When the mixture becomes smooth mixed well, then add all the dry spice powders.
Stir the spice powders with the onion-tomato mixture. Add the green chili.
Mix in the chopped veggies, salt and water.
Cover and let the veggies cook.
Don’t forget to check the veggies after occasionally.
Add more water if the water dries up and if the veggies are still to be cooked.
You can also garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve mix vegetables as side dish with pooris, parathas, kulcha or chapatis.

Daal, Baati, Churma

Ingredients:

For Panchmel Dal:
Toovar dal(split yellow lentils)                             -1/4 cup
Masoor dal (split red lentils)                                -1/4 cup
Chana dal (split Bengal gram)                             -1/4 cup
Moong dal (split green gram)                              -1/4 cup
Urad dal (split black lentils)                                -1/4 cup
Chilli powder                                                       -2-3 tspoon (Optional)
Turmeric powder (haldi)                                      -1/2 tspoon
Coriander (dhania) powder                                  -1 n 1/2 tspoon
Garam masala                                                      -1 tspoon
Cumin seeds (jeera)                                             -1 tspoon
Red chillies                                                          -2 dry whole
Asafoetida (hing)                                                 -a pinch
Onion                                                                   -1 cup finely chopped
Garlic                                                                   -1 tbspoon finely chopped
Tomatoes                                                             -1 cup finely chopped
Lemon Juice                                                        -2 tbspoon
Ghee                                                                    -3 tbspoon
Salt                                                                      -to taste
Fresh Coriander                                                  -2 tbspoon to garnish

For the baatis (for 10-12 baatis):
whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)                      -1 cup
semolina (rava)                                                   -1/2 cup
Salt                                                                      -to taste
Baking soda                                                        -1 pinch
Melted butter or Ghee                                        -2 tbspoon

For Churma:
whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)                     -1/2 cup
semolina (rava)                                                  -1/4 cup
Baking soda                                                       -1 pinch
Melted butter or Ghee                                       -1 tbspoon
Grounded Nuts                                                  -4 tbspoon (Almond, Chews, Pistachios)
Cardamom Powder                                            -1/2 tspoon
Raw Sugar                                                         -4 tbspoon or to taste


Method:

For the Panchmel dal:
Clean and wash all the dals and soak them for half an hour.
After half n hour drain the water from Daal mix.
Now put the Daal mix in a pressure cooker and add 4 cups of water to it. Add salt and turmeric while cooking Daal mix.
Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles or till the Daal mix is cooked.
In a bowl, combine the Chilli powder, Coriander powder, Garam masala with 2 tablespoons of water and mix well. Keep aside.
Heat the ghee in a pan and add the Cumin seeds, Red chillies and Asafoetida.
When the cumin seeds crackle, add the prepared masala paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
Now add onion and garlic to it and saute for 2 minute. Now add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are soft and well mixed with other ingredients in the pan.
Add the cooked daal mix in the pan. Now put lemon juice and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.
Adjust the consistency of the dal before serving and if required, add some boiled water.
Garnish with Fresh coriander and serve with Baati and Churma.

For the baatis
Mix all the ingredients and knead into a firm dough. Knead well for 8 to 10 minutes.
keep the dough aside for half an hour to let it rise a bit.
Now after half an hour take the dough and divide into 10-12 equal portions and shape each portion into an even sized round balls. As you can see in the picture.

I've baked the Baatis into Oven and not fried.

Preheat the oven for 250 degrees. Now place your Baatis into the Oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or untill they are golden brown and double their size.
Keep an eye while baking, if they start to get brown soon but not puff up lower the over temprature and give them sometime to cook from inside.
Some people bake them only one side but I like to bake the both sides golden brown so they do not taste raw.
When Baatis are golden brown from both sides, take them out of Oven and dip them in menlted ghee or butter.
Keep them aside to cool down.

For the Churma:
Knead flour, semolina, baking soda and melted ghee togather and make smooth dough. Knead it for 10-15 minutes to mix it very well.
keep the dough aside for half an hour to let it rise a bit.
After half an hour take few drops of ghee on your hands and knead the dough again for 2 minutes.
Now divide the dough into equal portion of 5 balls or the muthias as you can see in the picture.

Now Heat oil in Karahi and deep fry these muthias/balls in it till golden brown colour.













Take them on a paper towel to take out the excess oil. Let them cool down.

Now mix grounded nuts and cardamom powder in a deep bowl.
Corsa grind your fried balls/muthias into a food processor, do not make it into a powder. This is called Churma.
Mix Churma into the grounded nut bowl. Now add the sugar and mix ir very well.
Garnish with some fried dry fruits.


Note:
I keep the Churma corsa cause we do not make it in laddoo. If you want to make it in Laddoo grind it till very fine powder. add some ghee and bind that into laddoos.
You can also bake Muthias/balls of Churma and not deep fry.
Less Oil and Less Ghee will make these dishes very healthy and they will still taste good, very good.

Paneer Parantha

Ingredients:

For Dough:
whole-wheat flour  (Aata)              -1 1/2 cups
All Purpose Flour (Maida)             -1/2 cup          
Salt                                                 -to taste
Water                                             -as required
Oil                                                  -1/2 tspoon

For Filling:
Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)         -2 cups crumbled / grated
Amchoor (Raw mango powder)         -1/2 tspoon
Cumin seeds                                       -1 tsp (lightly roasted optional)
Salt                                                     -to taste
Fresh Coriander leaves                      -1/4 cup finely chopped
Green chillies                                     -2 finely chopped
Ghee (clarified butter)                       -to pan-fry parathas


Method:

Mix all the ingredients listed for dough. now knead it all to a smooth and pliable dough and keep aside for an hour.
Meanwhile mix Paner, Amchoor, Cumin seeds, Salt, Fresh Coriander, green chillies together to make filling of Parantha. Mix it all well.
Divide the dough into equal sized balls. I made 6 paranthas in this quantity, as I serve them in two pieces.
Flour a clean surface and roll each ball into a circle of 3".
Put about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon of the paneer mixture into the center of the circle and fold / pinch the edges over to cover the filling completely. Gently press to seal the filled balls.
Heat a heavy skillet on medium high heat. sprinkle 2 drops of water if it crackles , skillet is ready to cook paranthas.
Roll the filled balls on flat surface with dry whole wheat flour, it will be easy or parantha will stick to the surface. While rolling keep the sealed side of filled ball on top. Roll it gently to make an about 6" parantha or the size you like.
Put the rolled paratha on the skillet. After a few seconds, the paratha will start to change color and puff up. Flip the paratha over. You can see the golden-brown spots on it.
After a few seconds, spread half teaspoon of oil over the paratha. Flip it again and lightly press to let it puff a bit. Keep Flipping it and pressing it until both sides are golden brown.
Repeat the same process with remaining filled balls. Cool the parathas on a wire rack / tray so they don’t get soggy.
Serve the Paranthas with Yogurt or Chutney (your taste). I served it with Boondi Raita and Tomato Chutney.

Note: wrap the paranthas into aluminum foil and store in a covered container.
For later use, parathas can be frozen (wrapped in aluminum foil) for a month.  Re-heat in a skillet or toaster.

Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

Paneer                                                        -250 gms  cut into cubes
Fresh spinach/palak                                   -1 bunch
Green chilies                                              -1 or 2 chopped
Garlic                                                         -1 Finely chopped (optional)
Ginger                                                        -1/2 inch Finely chopped
Onion                                                         -1 medium sized finely chopped
Tomato                                                      -1 medium sized finely chopped
Garlic/lahsun                                             -4-5 finely chopped
cumin seeds/jeera                                      -1/2 tspoon
Turmeric powder/haldi                              -1/2 tspoon
Coriander powder/dhaniya                        -1/2 tspoon
Red chili powder                                       -1/2 tspoon  (optional)
Asafoetida/hing                                         -a pinch
Garam masala powder                               -1/2 tspoon
Bay leaf/tej patta                                        -1
Cream                                                         -1 or 2 tbsp low fat
oil                                                               -2 tbspoon
salt                                                              -to taste
water                                                           -as required
Kasuri methi leaves/dry fenugreek leaves -1 tbspoon (optional)
Fresh Coriander  leaves                              -1 tbspon to garnish



Method:
Rinse the spinach very well under running tap water. boil water in a pan with some salt.
switch off the fire and add the spinach leaves in the hot water.
cover the pan with a lid and let the spinach leaves sit in the water for 2-3 mins.
After 3 minutes drain the water. Now puree the spinach in a blender or with the hand held blender. Take out the puree and wash the jar. Make a very smooth puree.
Now Add the ginger, garlic, green chilies, onion and tomatoes in the blender and  blend again. Blend it till it becomes very smooth.
Now heat oil in a heavy pan or kadai. Put the cumin seeds and asafetida when oil is hot. Then add the bay leaf. Now add the Onion, Garlic, Ginger and Tomato  puree to it. Cook it covered with lid for 5 minutes, once it starts to leave the oil.
add the turmeric powder, coriander  powder and red chili powder, stir and saute for some seconds.
Now add the spinach puree, add some water if required. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or more till the spinach is cooked.
After 10 minutes add salt and garam masala. Stir well to mix everything again.
At this point you can also add some crushed kasuri methi leaves, If it's of your taste.
Now add the paneer cubes. Cook the gravy for another 5 minutes. Paneer cubes will become tender and juicy.
Switch off the flame. Add cream and stir well but avoid breaking the paneer cubes.
Palak Paneer is ready to serve with hot chapatis and rice. Sprinkle Palak paneer with fresh coriander leaves.