Shahi vegetable pulao with nawabi curry

 


Very happy to share with you all this awesomely delicious pulao with you all. Basically, myself and my hubby are a big fans of pulao. So, for me experimenting on this has become a regular and interesting task. The result of one such experiment is this dish, which has become our all time favorite lunch item.

Adding caramelized onions gives an extra taste to this pulao and I recommend you not to skip this step. If you do not have an oven, take a deep bottomed pan or vessel filled with water(1/4th of the vessel should be filled with water), immerse the vessel containing layered pulao in to this pan/vessel containing water. Cook it for 15 to 20 minutes in a slow heat.

Try and let me know your feedback.

Ingredients

For the Nawabi curry

To Grind

• Onions - 2 nos, roughly chopped
• Almonds- 1 tblspn
• Cashews- 1 tblspn
• Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Poppy seeds - 2 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
• Ginger - 1/2 inch pc
• Green chillies - 2
• Kashmiri red chillies - 4 or 5
• Cloves - 2
• Cardamoms- 2

For the curry

• Ghee / oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Tomato puree- 2 tblpsns
• Kitchen king masala / garam masala - 1 tsp
• Cream - 2 tblspns
• Sugar- 2 tsp

For Shahi Pulao

• Long grained basmati rice - 1 cup
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
• Cardamaom - 2 nos
• Cloves - 3 nos
• Star anise - 1/2
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1 big, sliced
• Ginger - garlic paste- 1 tblspn
• Green chillies - 2, chopped finely
• Mixed vegetables (carrot, beans, capsicum, cabbage, boiled green peas) - 1 cup, cut in to medium dices
• Salt - to taste
• Water - 1 cup
• Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Mint leaves - 1/4 cup, finely chopped
• Cashews - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Almonds - 1 tblspn, chopped
• Raisins - 1 tblspn
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Cherries - 3 - 4 , chopped (Optional)
• Pineapple - 1/4 cup, finely chopped(optional)

Caramelized onions

• Onions - 2 big, very thinly sliced
• Oil - 2 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 2 tsp

Other ingredients

• Milk - 1 tblspn
• Coriander leaves - to garnish

Method

For Nawabi curry

To Grind

• Make a smooth paste of items in the "To grind" list in the ingredients section, adding little water

For the Curry

• Heat oil / ghee in a non-stick pan. Add the prepared paste and salt. Saute for 5 minutes until the raw smell is gone from it.
• Now add the tomato puree and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add kitchen king masala, sugar and give a good mix.
• Pour the cream and allow it to cook for  2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
• Nawabi curry is now ready. The curry should be in semi thick consistency. So, adjust water accordingly.

For Shahi pulao

• Wash the rice well and soak in water for about 20 minutes.
• Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. 
• When the spices starts releasing its aroma, add the sliced onions, ginger - garlic paste, green chillies and salt. Cook till onions are translucent.
• Add all the veggies and saute for a minute. Add coriander leaves and mint leaves.
• Drain the water from the rice completely and add in to it. Give a proper mix
• Pour 1 cup of water. Check for salt and adjust accordingly.
• Pressure cook for 1 whistle and then turn off the heat.
• Allow the pressure to release by itself and then open the pressure cooker lid. Fluff it with a fork gently to get each grain of the rice separately, which is an important factor in shahi pulao
• Allow it to cool a bit.
• In a non stick pan, heat ghee and fry cashews and almonds. Fry till it starts getting brown. Then add the raisins. Let it puff up a bit. Keep the flame in medium - low and add sugar. Allow it to melt.
• Add the prepared pulao to it and mix well. Make sure not to break the rice while mixing.
• Turn off the heat. Now add cherries and pineapple. Mix well.
• Shahi pulao is now ready. Keep aside

Caramelized Onions

• Heat oil in a non stick pan and add onions, salt and sugar. 
• Keep stirring occasionally for 10 - 15 minutes until it is fried really well.
• Turn off the heat and keep aside

How to Proceed?

• Take a microwave safe bowl and grease it with oil or non-stick spray.
• Start layering. Put 1/2 portion of shahi pulao. Level it with the back of your spoon.
• Now add the prepared Nawabi curry and level it with the back of the spoon
• Again put the remaining shahi pulao and level it.
• Pour milk over the top. Close a microwave safe plate bake in a pre-heated oven of 180 deg C for about 15 minutes.
• If you are using microwave, microwave it for about 6 - 10 minutes.
• Just before serving, invert it upside down. Garnish with few caramelized onions and coriander leaves.

• Serve hot with any of your favorite raitha.

Vegetable Korma with Spinach

If you are looking for some side dish which is really very healthy, then this is the right page for you. It contains goodness of all varieties of vegetable including green leafy vegetables such as mint, coriander and spinach, which gives an excellent green colour to this dish.

This goes well with any mild flavored pulao, chapathi/roti/naan, set dosa, or even with hot steamed plain rice.

I used 1 cup of mixed vegetable for the preparation. Vegetables such as carrot, capsicum, beans, potato, cauliflower, broccoli, green peas etc are mostly used in this.

Ingredients

For Grinding

• Spinach - 2 cups
• Mint leaves - 1/2 cup
• Coriander leaves - 1 cup
• Ginger - 1" piece
• Cinnamon - 1" piece
• Cloves - 3 nos
• Cardamom - 2 nos
• Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
• Oil- 1/2 tsp
• Green chillies - 3, slit
• Fried gram dal- 1 tblspn
• Fresh coconut - 1/2 cup grated

Other Ingredients

• Mixed vegetables - 1 cup (carrot, beans, potato, peas, cauliflower, capsicum etc).
• Oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Red chillies - 2 , broken
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Onion - 1 cup , sliced or cubed
• Tomato - 1 no
• Salt - to taste
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - to garnish

Method

To Grind

• Boil water in a pan / vessel and and the washed spinach leaves. Let it boil for 5 minutes. Close the lid and keep it aside. Let it cool down completely.
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the green chillies and ginger for a minute.
• Add Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and fennel seeds. Fry for some time until you get a nice aroma from the spices.
• Now add the coriander and mint leaves and cook till they are shrunk. Turn off the heat
• Mix Grated coconut and fried gram dal and fry in the heat of the pan itself.
• Allow the mixture to cool completely and grind along with the blanched spinach (Step 1) into a smooth paste.
• Your Green Paste is now ready.

How to Proceed?

• Cut all the vegetables in equal size and shape for getting even cooking on all veggies. I prefer to dice them. But it is purely up to you. But make sure to have the same type and size of cutting on all veggies.
• Heat oil in a pan and crackle mustard and cumin seeds. Add urad dal and fry till golden brown and then add the broken red chillies. Fry for few seconds.
• Add onions, sugar and salt. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add turmeric
• Add the tomatoes and cook until mushy
• Now add all the veggies and 1 cup of water
• Close the lid and let the vegetable get cooked. It should be cooked, but not too mushy. It should hold its shape.
• Once cooked, add the prepared green paste and give it a good mix until combined. Check the seasoning and add accordingly.
• Pour enough water to adjust the consistency.
• Close the lid and allow it to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.
• Turn off the heat. Transfer to serving dish garnished with coriander leaves.
• Serve with whatever main dish you prepared!! Enjoy

Notes

• I have not added any additional spice powder in this preparation, as myself and my hubby prefer this. But you can add if you wish to. Spice powders like coriander powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder and kitchen king masala are mostly used. But it tastes really good even without all these.
• Chilli powder or additional chillies while grinding may be added according to your spice preference.
• Do not use brinjal or ladies finger for this preparation. It cooks faster. Hence it will become mushy while cooking along with other veggies and spoil the consistency of the dish.

 

Vegetable Manchurian (Non-fried Version)

Ingredients

For the koftas

• Mixed vegetables (carrot, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, capsicum - all grated) - 1 cup
• Bread crumbs - 1/4 cup (for binding. Can replace with maida, corn flour or cooked and mashed rice)
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Corn flour- 1 tblspn, mixed with 1 tblspn water
• Oil - to cook on appe pans

For the kofta sauce

• Oil - 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Garlic - 5 pods, finely chopped
• Ginger - 1 inch , finely chopped
• Green chillies - 3 nos(more or less according to your preference), finely chopped
• Capsicum - 1/2, finely chopped
• Spring onions - 2
• Onions - 1 big, finely chopped
• Salt - according to taste
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Fennel powder - 1 tsp (or can add fennel seeds while tempering)
• Tomato sauce - 3 tsp
• Chilli sauce - 2 tsp
• Soya sauce - 3 tsp
• Mixed herbs - 1 tsp (Optional)
• Finely chopped coriander leaves - to garnish

Method

For the koftas

• Finely chop all the vegetables. To make my job easier, I chopped them using mixer. 

• In a pan, heat oil and add all the veggies. Saute them until it oozes out its water. Add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala powder. Fry them until the vegetables are just cooked and turn off the heat

 

• Add the bread crumbs and mix well. 

 

• Divide them in to portions and make small lime sized balls.

• Repeat the same for all

 

•  Heat your appe pan. Pour few drops of oil in each holes. Dip each ball in corn flour mixture

 

• Place them in your appe pan and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until it becomes crispy.

 

• Flip them over and cook on other side in the same way. drizzle oil over each holes, only if required.

• Once all the sides are cooked and crispy, transfer them to a kitchen towel and drain excess oil, if any.
   Keep aside

 

For the Kofta Sauce

• Heat oil in a pan and add  cumin seeds allow them to splutter. Add ginger, garlic and green chillies. Fry for a minute.
• Add the finely chopped onions, spring onions, salt, sugar and capsicum and cook for 1 minute. The crunchiness in the onion and capsicum should be maintained. It should not be too mushy
• In a bowl combine tomato sauce, chilli sauce, soya sauce and mixed herbs. Add 1 tblspn of water to it and give it a good mix.
• Pour this sauce mixture in to the onion capsicum mixture in the pan and bring this to 1 boil. Adjust the consistancy by adding water, if necessary. Turn off the heat.

How to Proceed?

• Mix the kofta balls in t this mixture and mix well until everything is combined. Do this step just before serving to maintain the crispiness in the koftas.
• Garnish with lot of coriander leaves and some spring onion greens and serve.

Pizza Dosa

Hiiii everybody!!!

Pizza Dosa!! The name itself sounds very interesting, right?? And I am sure kids will love this. If your kids are not fond of any veggies, but if they love pizzas, just try this for them. They will surely come back for this healthy, crispy and tasty dosa again.

Here, I have my own version of tomato chutney to apply on the base. If you feel it is more spicy for kids, you can reduce the red chillies used for this preparation. Not only kids will enjoy this, every 1 will love this flavorful dosa.

Ingredients

• Dosa Batter - 1 ladle full 
• Oil / Butter - 1 tsp
• Carrot - 1 small, grated
• Onion - 1/2, sliced
• Capsicum - 1/4, thinly cut lengthwise
• Tomato - 1/4 , thinly cut lengthwise
• Grated processed cheese - 1 tblspn
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves - Few, finely chopped

For Tomato chutney 

Also called pizza sauce is a preparation using onion, tomato and garlic. I have slightly indiansed it by adding red chillies to enhance the spice level (as my hubby likes this very much). You can add or omit it according to your preference. This is how you make a simple pizza sauce / tomato chutney for this pizza dosa. You need ;

• Onion - 1, roughly chopped (preferably red onions)
• Tomato - 2, roughly chopped
• Garlic - 8 cloves
• Red chillies - 5 (or according to your spice preference)
• Salt -   to taste
• Tomato sauce - 2 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp

Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add garlic, red chillies and onion. Season them with salt and cook until onions become transparent. 
• Add the tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are mushy. Switch off the heat and allow it to cool
• Blend it to a smooth paste adding little water. Transfer to a bowl and mix tomato ketch up. Your pizza sauce is now ready.

Method to prepare dosa

• Heat your tawa and grease it with little oil. Change the heat to medium and spread a ladle full of dosa batter on the tawa. Spread it to a thick dosa. You can even spread it thin in order to get a crispy dosa base. But should consider the risk of getting burnt. Always keep the heat low in that case. Smear some oil to the dosa. Cover and cook for few seconds.

• Change the heat from medium to low and spread a spoon full of pizza sauce / tomato chutney all over the dosa. 

• Now add all the veggies and coriander leaves (Tomato, onion, capsicum, carrot, sweet corn, etc. Any veggies of your choice)

 

• Cover and cook it for another 2 - 3 minutes.

• Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top

• Finally, add some grated cheese. Cover again and cook for 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

• Gently remove the dosa using a spatula to a serving plate.

• Cut your pizza dosa in to pies, using a knife or pizza cutter and serve (or serve as it is ;) )

Fusion Dish!!! Gnocchi with white sauce

Hiii all,

Yes!! Today I am here with a fusion dish. Italian Gnocchi with Indian spices. I had some gnocchi and wanted to try something very different. I have previously prepared pasta with white sauce. So, thought of following the same procedure for gnocchi as well. But still made some alterations by slightly Indianising it!! Instead of just adding the the boiled gnocchi in to the dish, I toasted them in the pan with some idian spices such as coriander powder, chilli powder and garam masala powder. This of course gave an additional flavor to this dish. We were quite happy with the results.

This involves 4 step process.
1. Cooking the gnocchi
2. Toasting the gnocchi
3. Making white sauce
4. Cooking the veggies

1. For cooking the gnocchi

• Gnocchi - 200 gms
• Water - 4 cups

Method

• Bring water to boil
• When it comes to boil, add the gnocchi and cook it it is soft. It will not take much time to cook. Hardly 6 to 10 minutes.
• Drain the water and keep them ready

2. Toasting the Gnocchi

• Cooked gnocchi
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Butter / oil - 2 tsp

Method

• Heat butter / oil in a pan (preferably non stick)  and add gnocchi. Always keep the heat in medium. Toast them until  its slightly brown on all the sides. Keep mixing in order to avoid burning.
• Add salt, chilli powder, coriander powder and garm masala and give it a good toss. Cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and keep it aside.

3. For the white sauce

• Butter - 1 tblspn
• All purpose flour - 1 tblspn
• Milk - 1.5 cups
• Salt - 1.5 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Any processed cheese - 1 tblspn, grated
• Mixed Italian herbs - 1 tsp (Optional - I did not add it. But it will enhance the taste if u add)

Method

• In a saucepan, heat butter and add the all purpose flour. Keep the heat in low. Mix it and add 1/2 cup milk. Mix it well until you see it becomes little thick. 
• Add the remaining milk and increase the heat to medium. Keep mixing vigorously to avoid any lumps. Add salt, pepper and Italian herbs. Add the processed cheese.
• When it starts to thicken, remove from heat and keep aside. 
• Your white sauce is now ready.

4. Cooking the veggies

• Butter / oil - 1 tblspn
• Garlic - 5 - 6 pods, minced
• Green chillies - 3 nos, finely chopped
• Onion - 1 big 
• Veggies of your choice (I added carrot, broccoli, asparagus, bell peppers and mushrooms)
• Pepper powder - 2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped
• Salt - according to taste

Method

•  Heat butter / oil in a pan. Add garlic and green chillies and fry for few seconds. Add onions and saute them for a minute.
• Now add all the vegetables and cook them until they are half done. It will take 5 to 10 minutes. Keep stirring continuously. Do not add water for cooking the veggies.
• Add salt and pepper powder.
• Cook it for another 4 minutes and remove them from heat. Sprinkle some coriander leaves and mix them.

How to proceed

You will need

• grated processed cheese,
•  pan seared cherry tomatoes (Optional) ,

•  finely chopped coriander and spring onions to garnish.

Method

• In a big pan, first add veggies, then white sauce and gnocchi. Add 1/2 cup of water and turn on the heat. Keep the heat low.
• Sprinkle some grated cheese. 
• Cover the lid and let it cook for 5 minutes or until the cheese melts. 
• The mixture might have thickened by this time. 

• Switch off the heat. Transfer them to serving dish. Garnish with spring onion greens, coriander leaves, pan seared cherry tomatoes and grated cheese.

• Dig in right away!!