Spinach & Indian cheese ( Palak Paneer) curry

Spinach & Indian cheese ( Palak Paneer) curry

Ingredients

Fresh Spinach – 1 bunch ( just leaves)

Paneer cubes – 2 cups

Chopped onions – 1 cup

Chopped green chillies / jalapeno – 1 ½ tbsp

Finely Chopped tomatoes( Roma tomatoes) – 1 cup

Fenugreek leaves (Indian name – Methi leaves) – chopped – ¼ cup ( optional)

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp

Crushed Cloves - 2

Salt – ¾ tsp ( according to taste)

Garlic paste – 1 tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Method

Boil spinach leaves in water for 3 minutes and transfer leaves to cold water immediately.

Grind the spinach leaves with green chillies to a paste. Do not add extra water

Heat oil in a wide sauce pan, add crushes cloves, garlic paste and onions. Sauté them till onions are golden brown and add the cumin, coriander and cinnamon powders. Add turmeric, fenugreek leaves and chilli powder and stir them for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, salt and cook them in medium flame, lid closed … sometimes stirring constantly till oil separates out in the paste. Now add the Spinach paste on low flame and stir constantly , until both pastes are blended well. It takes about 5 minutes. Make sure to stir constantly to avoid any sticking at bottom, add little water if needed. Add cheese cubes to this gravy and cook for 2 minutes with lid closed on medium flame. Remove from heat after two minutes.

Serve Hot with Heavy cream ( if you like it as is  ) . Also can serve hot with Flour Tortillas or Steamed white Rice.

Spinach curry

Spinach curry

Ingredients

Fresh Spinach – 1 bunch – finely chopped

Chopped onions – ½ cup

Chopped green chillies / jalapeno – 1 tbsp

Fenugreek leaves (Indian name – Methi leaves) – chopped - ½ cup ( optional)

Mustard seeds - ½ tsp (optional)

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp (optional)

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Salt – ¾ tsp ( according to taste)

Chopped Garlic (not minced) – 1 tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Method

Heat oil in a sauce pan and add mustard and cumin seeds (optional ingredients). When they start to splutter , add chopped garlic and chopped Onions. Sauté them for 2 minutes or till golden brown. Add turmeric, chopped green chillies, and fenugreek leaves. Stir them for 3 minutes and add chopped spinach. Stir it well till the oil is coated to all leaves. Reduce the flame to medium , close the lid and cook for 5 minutes. Spinach would be losing the water and cooking in its water. Add salt and red chilli powder, cook for 5 minutes and remove from heat.

Serve hot with Flour tortillas or White steamed rice. Add sour cream or heavy cream on top, if you like it.

Chicken Curry ( includes tomatoes)

I make different varieties of Chicken Curries. Luckily all turn out well. I do not prefer to go through one specific recipe, if you will. It depends mostly upon the ingrediants I have at home, the time I am about to cook, if I have the basic ingrediants then I can start off with. However, if I have some more ingrediants, I try to incorporate them in the curry according to the occasion or number of people or even how many times we would consume this dish. All it matters is, the curry should turn out tasty and everyone should relish.

Here is one such recipe, which I recently made and shared with my co-workers too.

Ingrediants

Whole Chicken cut - 2 lbs
Onions - 3 count - chopped
Green chillies -4 count chopped
Tomato paste - 2 tbsps
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Indian curd - 1 cup
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp - according to taste
Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch broken
Cloves - 4 count
Shahi Jeera - 1 tsp
Star Anise - 1 count
Mint Leaves - 1/2 bunch - finely chopped
Cilantro leaves - 1/2 bunch finely chopped
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method
Mix Curd, Salt, Red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste and 1/2 of coriander powder in a large bowl.
Add Chicken to it and coat all pieces well, and marinate this for 30 - 60 minutes.

Heat Oil in a big pan, add Cinnamon, cloves, shahi jeera, star anise.
Add chopped Onions and green chillies. Saute them until onions are golden brown.
Add Garam Masala, Stir and cook for 3 minutes.
Add mint leaves and marinated chicken.
Stir and cook for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
Add tomato paste, stir and cook for 5 more minutes.
Remove from heat and add coriander powder and leaves at the end.
Serve hot with Fried rice or White Rice.

Gobi Manchurian

Ingredients
1 cauli flower
1 tbsp corn starch( if not there replace with 1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 1 tbsp maida)
1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1tsp red colorin
For base curry:
1 tsp Ginger garlicpaste
2 onions big cut
1/4 green capsicum big cut
1/4 red capsicum big cut
1/4 yellow capsicum big cut
3 green chillies
1tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp red chilli paste
1 tsp sweet & sour sauce
2 tbsp green onion

Method
Mix salt, pepper, gg paste, redcolor, corn starch and coat to big cut & washed pieces of cauli flower
Deep fry gobi pieces and place on paper towel
In a hot skillet add 2 tbsp oil
Add onion and small cut green chillies and stir till light brown
Add all capsicum pieces
Add soya sauce, chilli paste, sweet& sour sauce
Cook till capsicum is lil soft and add fried gobi till all coated
Add green onions and cook for 2min

Lamb bone soup

Lamb leg bones 10 to 15
Onions 2
Salt - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1.5 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Method-
Clean bones with salt and water
Drain them well
Cook bones with big cut chopped onions and 2 glasses of water - all in pressure cooker for 10 min or 5 whistles
Remove from heat and add salt, red chilli powder , gg paste, turmeric, coriander powder and oil
Mix well and cook in pressure cooker for 5 min or 3 more whistles
Remove from heat and add chopped coriander leaves

Rava Laddu

Ingrediants
Rava (soji / upma rava / Indian wheat semolina) - 2 cups
Coconut powder - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 and half cup
Milk - half cup
Elaichi ( cardomon ) powder - 1 tsp
Ghee / Dalda - 1 tbsp
Kaju (cashew nuts) - chopped - half cup
Raisins -quarter cup

Method

1. Melt ghee or dalda in a wide pan, and add Rava.
2. stir constantly so it does not stick at the bottom, or form lumps... stir till it starts to change color to golden brown
3. Add Coconut powder and stir constantly for 5 minutes
4. Add Sugar and cardomon powder and stir till the sugar melts.
5. Add kaju and raisins and stir for 5 minutes
6. Remove from heat.
7. With little ghee in hand, take some rava mixture and make balls ....

Ravva Laddu Ready!!!
ENJOY !!


Note : make balls when the mixture is hot, otherwise the sugar gets hardened and becomes difficult to make balls.

All Indian States specialities

Well, my sister forwarded me an interesting email. It had the India map with states and their speciality recipes. It is hard to find such a map, let alone try to even do it. I am sure someone would have lots of research to put this together. I did not want to keep searching it again, so putting it my Blog :)