Jalapeno and olive pasta sauce

This is my twist on the regular red sauce that I make to go with pasta. Makes it spicier and yummier.

You need:

• Tomatoes - 4 medium (make sure they are red to give that beautiful color to the sauce)


• Garlic - 10-12 cloves (believe me.. more garlic.. more yumminess)


• Jalapenos - 2 ( I got it out of the can.. so I took 5 pieces)


• Black olives (or green ones or mix both) - a handful (again out of the can here)


• One green chilly (optional)


• A handful of fresh coriander leaves


• Onions - 3 medium - finely chopped


• Olive oil - 1/2 cup (GOOD FOR HEALTH)


• Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp


• Chilly flakes - 2 tsp


• Oregano - 2 tsp


• Salt to taste

How to:

• Put green chilly, tomatoes, and garlic in a mixer and grind to a paste


• In this put in the olives, jalapenos and fresh coriander and just give one turn in the mixer. The paste should be coarse and grainy


• Heat the oil in a pan and saute the chopped onions till they are slightly golden


• Add the tomato paste to it, cover and cook for 5 minutes


• Add the chilly powder, chilly flakes, oregano and salt to it and cook till the oil leaves sides.

Toss in any pasta and serve hot :)

Tri-color pulav

Ok.. this is something that i tried today and it came out really well.. Hence the post :)
You need:

• Long grained basmati rice - 2 cups


• Ghee - 1/2 cup (sorry folks.. i know its too much.. but gotta be done)


• Cashew nuts - a fistful


• raisins - 4-5


• Onions - 3 (Julienne one and finely chop the other 2)


• green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)


• ginger - 1" piece (finely chopped)


• Mixed veg (peas/diced carrots/corn/chopped beans) - total 1 cup.. maxx 1/2 cup


• tejpatta - 1 leaf


• cloves - 2-3


• Badi ilaichi - 1


• cumin seeds - 1 tsp


• juice of 1/2 lemon


• salt to taste


• turmeric powder - 2 tsp


• red food color - 1 tsp

How to (this is my shortcut method so a little unorthodox)

In a pressure cooker add the washed rice and the mixed vegetables. Add salt and 1 1/2 cup of water. Close the cooker and cook on a high flame for one whistle. Immediately remove from flame and let out all the steam. Open the cooker and drain out all the remaining water from the rice.

From this semi cooked rice take a little less than 1/4 quantity in a separate bowl. Add the red food color and mix well. Similarly take another bowl and take out less than 1/4 of rice in that, add turmeric and mix well. Let the remaining rice be white.

In a deep pan, heat the ghee. Add tejpatta, ilaichi, cloves, and cumin seeds. Add the julienned onion and cook till brown. Add the finely chopped onions, cashews, green chillies and ginger and cook till brown.

While the onions are browning.. wash off the colored rice. I.e. add water to the rice where you had added the red food color and the turmeric and wash out all the color. Once all color is washed off.. mix it with the white rice. Add this mixed rice to the browning onions and mix well. Add some salt if needed. Add the raisins. Cover and cook till the rice is tender.

Just before serving sprinkle the lemon juice and mix well.

Tawa Sabzi

Quite high calorie (sorry my low fat diet friends) but awesomely delicious..
What you need:

• Assorted vegetables: Ladyfinger (Bhindi), Bitter gourd (Karela), Mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, beans, baby corn, onions - pick any that interests you or is available


• 4 big tomatoes


• 2 big onions


• 1 green chilly


• 1/2 " piece of ginger


• 2-3 cloves garlic (optional)


• 1/4 cup thick curd


• red chilly powder - 2 tsp


• turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp


• coriander powder - 2 tsp


• garam masala - 1 tsp


• salt to taste


• Oil for frying

How to:

• Grind tomatoes, onions, green chilly, ginger and garlic into a paste


• Heat 2 tbsp oil and add the paste. Cook till oil starts to leaves sides. Add all the masala and


• Clean the vegetables and slice horizontally into 1/2 inch thick slices. Deep fry these slices till tender


• Just before serving, heat a griddle (tawa) and add 1 tsp oil to it. Add the tomato paste and fry for a while. Add the vegetables and keep cooking then arrange the vegetables on the sides to keep hot.


• While serving take a portion of the veggies in the center of the griddle and add a little curd to it. Fry for a few seconds and serve hot.

Gatte ki Sabzi (gram flour dumplings in a spicy sauce)

This is a traditional rajasthani dish prepared in a variety of ways. You can alter it to make multiple versions and i've added optional ingredients for your convenience.
For the gatte (dumplings) you need:

• Besan (gram flour) - 1 1/2 cup


• Oil - 3 tbsp


• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp


• Heeng (asafoetida) - 1 pinch


• Red chilly powder - 1 tsp (alter as per taste)


• Salt to taste


• 2 peppercorns, 2 cloves - thickly crushed

For the gravy you need:

• Curd - 1/2 cup


• 2 onions - finely chopped (optional)


• 4 cloves of garlic - crushed (optional)


• Ginger - 1" piece julienned


• 2 green chillies - finely chopped


• Red chilly powder - 1 tsp


• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp


• Coriander powder - 2 tbsp


• salt to taste


• Oil/ghee - 3 tbsp

How to: Dumplings

Put all ingredients for the dumplings in a bowl and knead into a dough that shapes well. Add little water to knead it as required.
Once the dough is ready shape it like sausages. This will make around 4-5 sausages.
Heat 4 cups of water in a pan. Once it boils add the dumplings to it and boil for 10 minutes or till cooked.
Drain out the water (save it for the gravy) and let the dumplings cool
Cut into 1/2 inch long pieces once cool

How to: gravy
Heat the oil/ghee in a pan and saute onions till translucent. Add the ginger, garlic and green chilly and cook for 2 minutes.

Add red chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt in the curd and mix well. Add this paste to the cooking onions and stir well till the oil leaves sides.

Add the dumplings and 3 cups of the saved water to this gravy and cook till it attains a thick consistency.

Ready to eat with hot rotis :)

Alu Matar Dry

Boiled potatoes - 4
Peas - 1 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
Asafoetida (heeng) – 1 pinch optional
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Red chilly pd - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Chopped green chilly - 2
Dry Mango Powder (amchur) – optional - 1 tsp

Temper asafoetida and cumin seeds in hot oil. Add peas and cook till soft. Cube the boiled potatoes and mix all the masala with the potatoes except amchur. Add these masala potatoes to the peas and cook till oil slightly leaves sides. Add amchur and mix well.

Dahi Vada

This is a tasty and healthy accompaniment to meals and quite easy to make :)

You need:
urad dal - 1 cup
salt - to taste
Thick curd - 4 cups
Buttermilk - optional - 2 cups
Oil for frying

To garnish
Sweet and sour tamarind chutney
Green coriander chutney
Fresh coriander leaves
red chilly pwder
roasted cumin powder
salt

How to:
Soak urad dal in water 2 hours in advance. Drain the water and grind the dal to a thick paste adding minimal water. Beat this paste with your hands till fluffy.

Heat oil in a pan. Add salt to the dal paste. Fry the dal paste as small round balls (vada) in the hot oil till golden brown. Remove from flame and dip in a bowl of buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, dip the vada in warm water.

Once the vada is thouroughly soaked, press it to remove excess water/ buttermilk.

To serve, keep 2 vadas in a bowl, top it generously with thick curd. Garnish with all the garnish ingredients listed above.

Quick fix sandwich

This is a variant of a snack that my roomie used to make for us... and I love it! Easy no nonsense healthy snack.. sometimes good enough for lunch :)

You need:

• 4 Slices of brown bread


• 2 thin slices of fresh paneer (cottage cheese) slightly smaller than the bread slices. Make sure the paneer is fresh and elastic and does not crumble


• 4 tbsp of thick dahi (curd)


• 1 green chilly - finely chopped (optional)


• 1 cup of finely chopped capsicum, onion and tomato


• red chilly powder - 1 tsp


• mustard powder - 1 tsp (alternatively use mustard sauce)


• salt to taste


• Butter to toast

How to:

• Put the curd, red chilly powder, mustard powder, salt in a small plate with edges and mix well.


• Marinate the vegetables and paneer in this mix for 30 minutes


• Take a slice of bread and place the marinated paneer on it. Add some vegetables from the marinate and cover with the second slice. Press lightly to seal it


• Heat a griddle and add some butter. Place the sandwich on the griddle and toast till golden brown. Turn to the other side and toast again.


• Repeat with the other 2 slices and the leftover mixture


• Serve hot with ketchup