Shahi Dal

The name suggests a very involved recipe. But it is one of the laziest recipes I have ever known. I learnt it from my father, another cooking enthusiast like me. It combines the goodness of spinach (palak) and whole  pulses (dal) and avoids using oil. Ideal for the health watchers.

Ingredients:
* Green moong dal - 1/2 cup
* Black masoor dal - 1/4th cup
* Washed and finely chopped spinach (palak) - 1 cup
* water - 1 cup

* Finely chopped onion - 1

* Finely chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies - 2 tea spoon

* Finely chopped tomatoes - 2

* Turmeric powder: 1/4th tea spoon

* Salt to taste

* Butter (optional) - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Bring water and salt to boil in a pressure cooker

2. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and continue boiling for 1 min

3. Add the onion and continue boiling for 1 min

4. Add the Dal and continue boiling for 1 min

5. Add the spinach and continue boiling for 1 min

6. Add tomatoes and continue boiling for 1 min

7. Close the cooker lid and wait till the first whistle.

8. Lower (sim) the gas

9. Cook in the cooker for 10 min with low heat

10. Turn of the cooker

11. After the pressure is released, open the lid and serve hot with rice or whole wheat bread.

12. Topped with a spoon of butter, this tastes rich. But adding butter is not mandatory to get the naturally awesome taste of this dal.

Tomato pasta

I like the whole wheat or durum wheat pasta. They are slightly coarse in grain structure. But much tastier and healthier. I combine vegetables in pasta just to make it a complete meal. Instead of veggies, you can add mushroom (sautéed) or chicken as well.

Ingredients:
* Pasta boiled - 2 cups (Tip: Add bit of salt and 1 tea spoon olive oil while boiling pasta. Strain it immediately after it turns soft. Pour cold water on the strainer after pouring the hot pasta. This will keep the pasta firm)
* Cheese grated - 2 tbsp
* Butter - 1/2 tbsp
* Chopped chunky veggies (Carrot, zucchini, Brocoli, capsicum) - 1/2 cup
* Garlic - 3-4 cloves, chopped fine
* Milk - 1/2 cup
* Flour (I use whole wheat flour, not Maida or refined flour) - 1 tbsp
* Tomato puree - 1/2 cup (soak tomatoes in a covered pan with hot water till the skin of tomatoes come out. Then roughly chop the de-skinned  tomatoes and puree them in a blender. Alternative: buy readymade tomato puree from shops)
* Basil leaves - handful (you can use any other seasoning like oregano etc)
* Sun dried tomatoes (optional) - handful
* Salt, Pepper - to taste

Procedure:
1. In an oak/kadai, heat the butter. Add the flour and fry in low heat.
2. Slowly add the milk and keep stirring continuously. This will prepare the while sauce. keep the sauce aside.
3. Heat olive oil in the kadai/oak. Add garlic and fry till light brown.
4. Add the veggies and saute till almost soft
5. Add the tomato puree. and fry a bit
6. Add the boiled pasta and the seasoning while stirring continuously.
7. Add the white sauce slowly.
8. Cook open for 2 minutes and switch of the heat.
9. Serve hot with toasted brown bread.

Wheat-a-Meal

On a cold and lazy evening, this serves as a fast, tasty and wholesome dinner. This makes a ideal meal for fussy kids as well as the weight watchers.

Ingredients:
* Wheat Dalia (broken wheat) - 1/2 cup, lightly roasted and kept aside (you can also buy roasted Dalia)
* Moong dal - 1/2 cup
* Chopped chunky vegetables (carrot, potato, beans, capsicum, peas, cauliflower, zuchini) - 1 cup
* Chopped onion - 1
* Finely chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies - 2 tea spoon
* Finely chopped tomatoes - 2
* Turmeric powder: 1/4th tea spoon
* Salt to taste
* Water - 1.5 cups
* Ghee (optional) - 1 tbsp

Procedure:
1. Bring water and salt to boil in a pressure cooker
2. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and continue boiling for 1 min
3. Add the onion and continue boiling for 1 min
4. Add the Dal and continue boiling for 1 min
5. Add the Dalia and continue boiling for 1 min
6. Add tomatoes and continue boiling for 1 min
7. Close the cooker lid and wait till the first whistle.
8. Lower (sim) the gas
9. Cook in the cooker for 10 min with low heat
10. Turn of the cooker
11. After the pressure is released, open the lid and serve hot with yoghurt and roasted papad.
12. I also serve this with hot mango pickles.

Besan Laddu

Ingredients

4 Cups Besan with a handful of semolina (suji).
3 Cups sugar, powdered
1 Cup ghee
Few cardamoms - powdered
Powdered cashews and other nuts as you wish.

4 tablespoon warm milk

Procedure

1. Sieve besan. Roast it a bit and keep aside. 

2. Heat ghee and add besan to it and mix well. Cook till the cooked smell comes. 

3. Sprinkle a little warm milk into the mixture and see the foam rising up. Mix throughly.

4. Add the cardamoms and powdered cashews and other nuts. 

5. Let it cool down completely to the room temperature.

6. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. 

7. Transfer into another vessel and let it cool just so much that you can shape it. Grease your palms with a little ghee while shaping into balls.

Basil mushroom risotto

We have a restaurant very near to the house. There we tasted this first. My husband and I immediately fell for it. In fact Basil Mushroom Risotto has become a motivation for my brother to visit us! I tried to reverse engineer the recipe and the experiment was successful in the first attempt!


Ingredients:
1. One cup rice with thick grains (for the perfectionists, buy risotto rice)
2. 250 ml milk
3. 500 gms mushroom, finely chopped
4. 6 table spoon grated cheese
5. Sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
6. Basil leaves
7. Salt, pepper to taste
8. 1 table spoon flour (I use wheat atta, you can use maida)
Procedure:
1. Make cream of mushroom soup. Here is the recipe for that:
   1.1 Heat oil in a pan, fry onion with some salt till just brown
   1.2 add 250 gms of chopped mushrooms, fry till it shrinks in size
   1.3 add the flour while stirring continuously
   1.4 slowly add half of the milk and equal amount of water
   1.5 wait till the mixture cools down a bit. Then blend it to soup consistency using liquidiser/mixer.


2. Heat olive oil in a pan and stir fry 250 gms mushrooms in high flame. Keep aside
3. Half cook rice. Lower the heat. Slowly add the mushroom soup and milk till rice is fully cooked
4. Add basil leaves, grated cheese, fried mushroom and sun-dried tomatoes while stirring continuously
5. Switch off the stove and keep it covered for 2-3 mins.
6. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve hot with toasted garlic bread

Spanish omlette

Ingredients

1. 3 eggs (serves 2-3 people)

2. 1 medium size onion finely chopped

3. 1/2 capsicum finely chopped

4. 3 table spoons of grated carrot
5. 3 table spoons of grated carrot

6. 2 table spoon grated cheese

7. 1/2 tomato finely chopped

8. salt, pepper to taste

9. oil/butter

10. finely chopped coriander leaves

Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients with an egg beater.

2. Heat 2 tsp oil on the non-stick fry pan

3. Pour the mixture

4. Lower the heat and cover till you can lift the entire omlette with a wooden spatula

5. Turn the omlette and fry slightly.

6. Sprinkle pepper powder and serve hot with toasted brown bread

Fresh papaya and orange jam

I made this jam in the morning. It was an instant hit with my kids. We do not need to buy and store jam. Just make it in one morning and it gets over by in just 2-3 days of breakfast. Enjoy with your family!

Ingredients:

6 cups (1 kg) papaya
1.5 cup (275 g) sugar
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
1/2 cup orange/grapefruit/lemon juice (optional)

Procedure
1. Peel the papaya, remove the seeds and cut it into small pieces.
2. Add sugar to it and mash the papaya pieces well.
3. Add the orange juice
4. Cook the mash on a low heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.
5. Cook until papaya is well cooked and the liquid has reduced.
6. Stir this into the papaya puree and simmer for about 7 minutes.
7. Fill the hot jam in sterilized pots. Close and refrigerate when cool.