I got up this Sunday morning with a halwa craving, fondly remembering the sooji ka halwa my mom used to make on weekends. There was no sooji (semolina) in the pantry to recreate her recipe, so I turned internet-wards for recourse.

The recipe for gur aur atte ka halwa (jaggery and whole wheat flour halwa) on Divine Taste struck an instant chord: the pictures were mouth-watering, and the key ingredients – whole wheat and jaggery – were healthy substitutes (well, more importantly, available with me!) for semolina and sugar.

Thanks Anushruti for the easy recipe. This is the first time I’ve made halwa (yeah, didn’t I tell you I am not a dessert person?) and in the process I was wondering how it’ll come to look the way it does in her pictures, thick and translucent. I trusted the recipe and bless her – it did indeed come together beautifully. Mine was a shade of brown darker than the original’s, probably because of the color of jaggery used. The halwa was super-tasty.

On to the recipe – it is like the original’s with additional newbie-experience commentary :-P

You Need:

• Atta (whole wheat flour) – 3/4 cup
• Jaggery – 3/4 cup (I used Namdhari’s organic powdered jaggery)
• Water – 1.5 cups
• Ghee – 2 tablespoons
• Cardamom – 2 pods
• Almonds – a few slivers for garnishing

In the picture above: atta (whole wheat flour), cardamom, powdered jaggery, ghee, almonds.

How To:

Heat ghee in a kadhai or skillet. When the ghee has melted, add atta and stir.

Keep roasting the atta, stirring regularly, till the color turns dark and the raw smell disappears (about 10 minutes).

After 10 minutes of roasting:

[This looked like a minuscule amount. 'How will it serve 4 to 6 as promised in the recipe?' was the question foremost on my mind at this stage.]

In another saucepan, mix the jaggery in 1.5 cups of water and heat it till the jaggery dissolves. Don’t boil. This will give you a thin, chocolate-colored liquid. [Don't despair at the runniness of the jaggery syrup. Very soon this liquid will work its magic on the ghee-roasted atta, putting an end to your doubts about both texture and quantity.]

Pour the jaggery syrup into the atta skillet – pour slowly from the sides to avoid splattering. Voilà! In an instant the atta will expand to several times its volume, bubble thickly and there will be no more signs of runniness.

See? If that isn’t Hogwarts-worthy, I don’t know what is.

Add crushed cardamom powder into the mix. Make sure there are no lumps, press with a spatula to break if any. Cook for another minute on low flame, stirring continuously.

In a minute, our dish will have come together in this glowing tempting mass of halwa.

Place gur atte ka halwa into individual bowls. Slice almonds into slivers and sprinkle some over each bowl. Serve hot as dessert after an Indian meal, or as a standalone anytime snack.

The post Gur Atte Ka Halwa: Jaggery and Whole Wheat Flour Halwa appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

As promised in the last post, here comes my recipe for eggplant tomato curry.

I most often use the fat purple eggplant for bharta, but on long workdays the whole roasting process seems too labor-intensive and I want to make a curry that moves from kitchen to dinner table quickly. This no-onion-no-garlic  recipe of eggplant tomato curry is a godsend on such days.

You Need:

• Round purple eggplant – 1, medium
• Tomatoes – 2 large
• Curry leaves – 10
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Jaggery – 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
• Salt – to taste
• Green chilly – 1
• Coarsely ground fenugreek seeds (methi kuria) – 1/3 teaspoon
• Nigella seeds – 1/3 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Peanut oil – 1/2 tablespoon

How To:

Quarter the eggplant lengthwise, then slice it into 1/3cm thin pieces. Chop tomatoes roughly into similar-sized chunks. Chop the green chilly finely.

In a wide shallow dish, submerge eggplant slices in salted water  for 30 minutes. This will remove the eggplant’s bitterness. Drain, rinse the eggplant slices and place on absorbent paper just before they’re ready to cook.

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet. When hot, set heat to low and add mustard seeds, nigella seeds and coarsely ground fenugreek seeds in quick succession. When the mustard seeds have spluttered and fenugreek seeds turned color (this will take just a few seconds) add curry leaves and green chilly. Stir and follow with tomato and eggplant slices.

Mix turmeric powder, salt and cook covered on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add jaggery, continue to cook uncovered till the eggplant is soft to the bite but does not turn mushy.

Serve eggplant tomato curry hot with an Indian meal.

In the picture below: eggplant tomato curry with chapatis and moong dal salad.

The post Eggplant Tomato Curry appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

My first taste of kosambari was at a friend’s wedding in Karnataka. One spoonful and I was sold. That soaked moong dal could be eaten uncooked – and that it could be delicious – was a revelation. Since then I’ve been experimenting with salad made of split pulses and an assortment of vegetables. This raw moong dal salad recipe is the basic, fail-safe version I most often turn to.

You Need:

• Yellow moong dal – 1/2 cup
• Onions – 1
• Tomatoes – 1/2
• Green chillies – 1
• Lime juice – 1 tablespoon
• Salt to taste

How To:

Wash yellow moong dal in several changes of water till the water runs clear. Soak the dal in two cups of water for three hours.

Chop onions, tomatoes and green chillies finely.

Drain and rinse moong dal. Spread over a kitchen towel to absorb excesss moisture.

Mix soaked moong dal with the chopped vegetables. Add salt and lime juice to taste. Mix well and serve immediately.

My meal below: raw moong dal salad, chapatis and eggplant tomato curry.

How do you make eggplant tomato curry, did you ask? I will answer in the next post :-)

Notes:

Kosambari usually contains grated coconut and is topped with a tadka (tempering in hot oil) of mustard seeds and curry leaves, but I find this lighter no-tempering version better.

You could add more finely chopped vegetables to the soaked moong dal salad: carrots, cabbage, capsicum, etc.

The post Raw Moong Dal Salad appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Most Indian curries involve a little extra cooking of the vegetables – we like to keep the crunch for salads; curries are soft to the bite. With capsicum tomato sauté I make a departure from that general rule – here the tomato slices retain their shape, the capsicum remains a bright green (or yellow/red, depending on your choice of pepper).

This is a frequent weekday dinner dish for me, and not just for its ease of chopping and cooking – nothing perks one up at the end of a stress-filled workday as a vibrantly colored curry. :-)

Capsicum tomato sauté pairs well with flatbread spiced Indian style, both  visually as well as gustatorily [ha, I have been looking for a chance to use this word :-)]. That you also get the dish to the dining table in a really short time is an added bonus.

You Need:

• Capsicum (bell peppers) – 2 (use a mix of red, green or yellow. I’ve used green)
• Tomatoes – 2 (pick firm ones)
• Onions – 2
• Ginger – 1/2 inch stick
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Green chilly – 1
• Salt – to taste
• Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Nigella seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Olive oil – 2 teaspoons
• Coriander leaves – for garnishing

How To:

Peel onions, ginger and garlic and grind along with green chilly into paste.

Core, top and slice capsicum into strips of about 3/4cm. Slice tomatoes into similar-sized pieces.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan. When hot, add nigella seeds and let them sizzle. After 20 seconds, add onion-ginger-garlic-chilly paste. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, move the paste around whenever it begins to stick to the pan.

At this stage the onion-ginger-garlic-chilly paste would have turned light golden. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and mix well. Allow to cook another 2 minutes, stirring regularly. Sprinkle a few drops of water if it begins to turn too dry.

Toss in capsicum and tomato slices into the pan. Sauté on high flame, stirring continuously, for 4-5 minutes or till done as you like it.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with parathas.

The post Capsicum Tomato Saute appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Ginger lovers: this one is for you.

A spicy sweet and sour chutney, with ginger as its star.

You Need:

• Ginger – 1/3 cup (when grated)
• Jaggery powder – 1/2 cup
• Tamarind – lemon-sized ball
• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard-fenugreek powder* – 1 teaspoon
• Green chillies – 1 or 2
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Dry red chilly – 1
• Asafoetida – a pinch
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Oil – 2 teaspoons

*To make mustard-fenugreek powder, refer step 1 of recipe: green eggplant in mustard-fenugreek masala.

How To:

Peel and grate ginger. Chop green chillies. Break the dry red chilly into 4-5 pieces.

Place the tamarind in a bowl of warm water, let it stand for 20mins. Extract tamarind pulp, discard the seeds and strands. Add some more water to make it about 2 cups of tamarind juice.

Heat two teaspoons of oil in a pan. When hot, set heat to low, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Follow with dry red chilly pieces and asafoetida. After 30 seconds, add grated ginger, chopped green chillies, turmeric powder and salt. Cook on medium heat till the raw smell of ginger goes away, about 6-7 minutes.

Add roasted mustard-fenugreek powder, jaggery and tamarind extract. Set heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let the chutney bubble and thicken.

When the chutney is slightly thinner than how you want it to be, take it off the heat – it thickens further as it cools. Let it cool naturally to room temperature.

Transfer to a glass jar. Sweet and sour ginger chutney can be stored for a week or so in the refrigerator.

Serving Ideas:

My favourite ways of having sweet and sour ginger chutney:

• Between slices of hot toast – one side buttered, the other side spread with ginger chutney.
• As a side to parathas.
• As an add-on to the paratha dough. The next time you knead the dough for parathas, add to the wheat flour a generous tablespoonful of sweet and sour ginger chutney, chopped coriander leaves, some gram flour and salt. You’ll have everyone guessing what you did to make the parathas taste so special!

The post Sweet and Sour Ginger Chutney appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Masoor dal – the salmon-pink, hulled lentil – is a quick-cooking dal that needs neither prior soaking nor laborious cooking. My masoor dal tadka recipe rides on the pliability of masoor and has the dish ready to serve in a matter of minutes.

In case you’re wondering, tadka is the process of tempering spices in hot oil and pouring them along with the oil into a dish. I use ghee for tadka in this recipe, I love  the body and aroma that ghee adds to the earthy flavor of masoor dal.

Incidentally, masoor dal is said to have the third-highest level of protein, by weight, of any vegetarian food. Plant-based food items with highest and second-highest protein content are soya bean and hemp.

You Need:

• Masoor dal (red lentil) – 1 cup
• Onion – 1
• Tomatoes – 2
• Green chilly – 1
• Ginger – 1-inch stick
• Asafoetida – 1/2 teaspoon
• Red chilly powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste
• Dry red chillies – 1
• Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) – 1 tablespoon
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Ghee – 1 tablespoon

How To:

Measure out a cup of masoor dal in a pressure cooker.

Wash the dal in several changes of water till the water runs clear. In the pressure cooker, add to the washed dal 2 cups of water, 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped tomatoes, chopped green chilly, crushed ginger, turmeric powder and asafoetida powder.

Lock the lid of the cooker. Cook on high flame till one whisle, then on low flame for another 2 whistles. If not using a pressure cooker, cook in a pan covered till the dal has cooked. I like to cook masoor till the point where the dal is soft and mushes when pressed but the individual lentil grains otherwise retain their shape.

Let the pressure cooker release its steam naturally. Take the lid off, check if the thickness of dal is as you like. In case you want it thinner, add some extra water and bring the dal to a boil again.

Add salt and crushed kasoori methi to the cooked masoor dal. I give the dal a vigorous stir at this stage to blend the boiled pieces of onions and tomatoes, but take care not to pulverise my dal into paste.

Do the tadka:

In a tadka ladle, heat a tablespoon of ghee. When hot, turn the heat to low and add cumin seeds. As soon as cumin seeds splutter, turn off the heat. Immediately add a dry red chilly (torn into 4-5 pieces), coriander powder, red chilly powder and a teeny-tiny pinch of salt. Stir the ghee so that the masalas get cooked but don’t burn. After 20 seconds, pour the hot spiced ghee  into the dal.

Serve immediately.  My meal below: masoor dal tadka, crispy plantain and toast [yeah, I was hungry so didn't bother to make chapaties :-)].

Notes:

I add salt to the tadka as the fried red chilly bits in the dal taste delicious with a bit of salty crunch of them. If you are the kind that discards the dried red chillies (and I urge you not to!), you could skip the tadka salting.

If you’re weight-watching, you could reduce the quantity of ghee to half.

The post Masoor Dal Tadka appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Potato and pesto sandwiches for a tasty, leisurely breakfast with a steaming cup of masala chai. Life doesn’t get better than this :-) I had these sandwiches this morning and loved them, they’re a sure addition to my pesto recipe ideas.

You Need:

[per sandwich]

• Brown bread – 2 slices
• Potato slices – 5 or 6, 1-mm thick
• Salt – to taste
• Green olives (sliced) – 1 teaspoon
• Coriander parsley pesto – 2 teaspoons
• Olive oil – for shallow frying potato slices

How To:

For better flavor, prepare the coriander parsley pesto at least a few hours before using it for this recipe.

Peel and slice the potatoes into 1-mm thick slices. For slices of even shape and radius, I use only the centre of the potatoes for these sandwiches. The top and bottom potato halves go into some other potato curry.

In a wide shallow non-stick pan, heat a teaspoon of olive oil. Spread the oil evenly around the pan and place the potato slices in a single layer in the pan. Cook till the side facing down turns golden and then flip the potato slices over. Sprinkle a few more drops of olive oil as required.

Since the slices have been cut thin, cooking the potatoes through will take no more than a couple of minutes.

When the potato slices are golden and crisp, take them off the pan and place them on tissue paper to absorb excess oil. Sprinkle salt and toss.

Toast the bread slices. Place 5-6 potato slices over one bread slice. Spread pesto and a few green olive slices. Top with the second bread slice and press down.

Serve immediately.

Notes:

• You could substitute coriander parsley pesto with any other pesto of your choice.
• You could spread the pesto over each toasted bread slice and place the potatoes between them, but I prefer my method of spreading it over the potatoes as it better locks in the pesto oil between the bread slices.

The post Potato Pesto Sandwiches appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Okra is one of the most versatile vegetables around, isn’t it? I cook it with onions or without, deck it with Indian spices or sometimes look westwards for inspiration. Despite the same core ingredient, each of these okra dishes tastes worlds apart from each other. Dahi bhindi – okra with yogurt – is another such unique recipe.

This dish includes besan (gram flour) which adds body to the gravy, and there is a distinct kick from a ginger-pepper blend added to the dish. I picked up this way of cooking okra from Sanjeev Kapoor’s TV show Khana Khazana and have made a few adaptations to his recipe.

You Need:

• Okra – 300 grams
• Besan (gram flour) – 1 heaped tablespoon
• Ginger – 1-inch stick
• Black peppercorns – 10
• Plain yogurt – 1 cup
• Roasted cumin powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste
• Dry red chillies – 2
• Turmeric – 1/2 teaspoon
• Asafoetida – 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Vegetable oil – 2 teaspoons

How To:

1, Preparing the spices

Roast gram flour on a tava or skillet for 2 mins or till it begins to turn golden and give off a roasted aroma. Keep aside.

Peel, chop and using a mortar and pestle, crush ginger along with black peppercorns.

Bring yogurt to room temperature – keep it outside the fridge for a couple of hours. Whisk it well with a pinch of salt and roasted cumin powder.

2. Preparing the okra

Wash and wipe the moisture off the okra before cutting. Snip off the head, then cut into 1.5-inch long sticks.

In a non-stick pan, heat two teaspoons of oil. To hot oil, add cumin seeds and once the splutter, add broken dry red chillies. As soon as the red chillies turn color, add asafoetida, turmeric powder and okra in quick succession. Stir, cook covered for 6 minutes on medium heat, turning the okra around every other minute. At this stage uncover the pan and move on to adding the gravy masalas.

3. Putting it all together

Add ginger-pepper paste and salt to the pan, and cook uncovered till the okra is nearly done. Stir in roasted besan (gram flour) and continue to cook for 2 minutes, turning the okra pieces around so that they get coated with the besan evenly.

Set the heat to low and gently fold in the yogurt. Another minute of uncovered cooking, 5mins of covered rest – and okra with ginger-pepper yogurt is ready to serve!

My meal today: Ghee rice and dahi bhindi.

The post Dahi Bhindi: Okra with Ginger Pepper Yogurt appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Came across this infographic that lists the top 100 food blogs to follow in 2013, and am thrilled to see The Steaming Pot in the list. Also found delightful new food blogs to follow; I’m sure you too will spot your favorites in there and discover new ones to add to your must-read bookmarks.

Here is the complete listing of 100 food blogs:

[The Steaming Pot is at #65]

An infographic by the team at CouponAudit.

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The post Top 100 Food Blogs To Follow In 2013 appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Green eggplant in mustard-fenugreek masala is for those who turn their noses up at nuts or sugar in their curries, who say no to recipes like bittersweet baingan. The spices in this one are heavier, headier, not for the faint-hearted.

I made this dish with long green eggplant, which is the mildest-tasting variety of eggplant I know of. The eggplant’s blandness gives a nice base to the strong flavors of the spices.

Doesn’t the simple act of slicing vegetables differently make it feel like a whole new recipe?

You Need:

• Long green eggplant – 250 grams
• Salt – to taste
• Yellow mustard seeds – 2 teaspoons
• Fenugreek seeds – 1/3 teaspoon
• Dry mango powder (amchoor) – 1/3 teaspoon
• Red chilly powder – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/3 teaspoon
• Asafoetida – 1/3 teaspoon
• Panch phoron(Bengali five spice mix)* – 1 teaspoon
• Mustard oil – 1 tablespoon

How To:

1. Pre-cooking step: make roasted mustard-fenugreek powder (sarson-methi powder)

Heat a flat tava or skillet and dry roast 1/3 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds and 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard seeds on low heat. When the seeds turn a couple of shades darker, turn off the heat. Allow the seeds to cool to room temperature. Grind them in a blender or using a mortar & pestle.

Mustard-fenugreek powder can be stored in an airtight container for later use, but it tastes most potent when freshly roasted and ground.

2. On to the cooking

Slice green eggplant into four equal halves vertically, then cut them into 1.5-inch long pieces. Soak eggplant slices in cold salted water for 30 minutes. Just before cooking, drain, wash and shake off the water from eggplant slices.

In a non-stick pan, heat a tablespoon of mustard oil to smoking point. Lower heat, add panch phoron and as the fenugreek seeds in it turn dark-brown (this will take a few seconds only), add turmeric, asafoetida and slide in green eggplant slices in quick succession.

Stir so that the oil coats the eggplant slices evenly. Sprinkle salt and mix again. Cook covered on medium heat for 10 minutes, turning the eggplant slices around every other minute. At this stage the eggplant would be nearly done. Sprinkle dry mango powder, red chilly powder, roasted mustard-fenugreek powder and mix. Adjust salt. Cook on low heat for another couple of minutes or till the eggplant slices are ready to eat.

Serve green eggplant in mustard-fenugreek masala with rice/chapatis, dal and raita.

Notes:

*Panch-phoron is a whole spice mix most commonly used in Bengali cuisine. It contains fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds, black mustard seeds and fennel seeds, typically in equal parts.

The post Green Eggplant in Mustard-Fenugreek Masala appeared first on The Steaming Pot.