Punjabi dum aloo

Flavours from North India

Dum aloo is my favourite. I like Kashmiri dum aloo which is bit spicy and punjabi dum aloo which is tangy. Today I made Punjabi dum aloo. 



Ingredients

Baby potato - 1/2 kg
onion - 1
Tomato - 2
Ginger - one large piece
Green chilli - 2
milk - 1/4 cup
fresh home made cream - 1 tbsp
coriander leaves - 1/2 tsp chopped

For dry roast masala

Saunf - 1 tsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
jeera - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 1 broken
elachi /cardamom - 3
cinnamon - a small piece

Method of Preparation

* Wash and cook baby potato in medium flame in pressure cooker till soft. Peel the skin and poke the baby potatoes with a toothpick. In a kadai pour two table spoon of oil/ghee and roast potatoes by adding turmeric and salt till golden brown.

*Roast saunf,coriander,jeera,red chilli, elachi and cinnamon, Make a coarse powder using a mixer or morter and piston.

* In little water add chopped oonion, tomato, ginger and green chilli and keep in slow fire.  Once onion becomes translucent remove from water and grind to a smooth onion and tomato paste. Preserve the cooked water. 

*Pour oil in a large pan Add onion tomato paste, Allow it to further cook by adding roasted masala. You can add preserved water as this stage and keep it in slow flame. Once the gravy becomes thick add roasted potato and mix well. Allow potato to absorb the juicy masala. At this stage add fresh cream and 1/4 cup milk and allow it to mix well with aloo dum. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with roti, kulcha, naan or rice.

Variation : Instead of milk you can add yogurt/lemon juice. I have not added yougurt today as the tomatoes were ripe and tangy just right for tangy punjabi dum aloo. 

Optional : Soak about 10 to 12 whole cashew nuts and make gravy out of it. Add this gravy once dum aloo absorbs all masala. I have skipped this step as cashew make dum aloo gravy very rich and bit sweet too. I wanted Punjabi aloo dum to be tangy this time. 

Mathan/Yellow Pumpkin ericheri

Mathan is a very tasty vegetable. You can make many different dishes with mathan. In south we use mathan for making mathan poduthuval, mathan ericheri, in aviyal, mathan bajji, mathan chena/yam curry.  The mathan seeds are very delicious when roasted with little salt in micro wave or on top of heated dosa tawa. In olden days we used to get mathan which is ripe and the seeds are ready for roasting. But now a days farmers pluck the mathan fairly young. 

 In European cuisine I have seen quite a number of dishes like Pumpkin pie, Pumpkin pan cake, Pumpkin cake, Pumpkin soup. The list is endless. 

Today I will share with you Mathan ericheri. Its a side dish for rice. 

Ingredients

Mathan/Yellow Pumpkin - 1/2 kg

Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup (pressure cooked)

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

red chilli - 1 (broken)

curry leaves - a few

hing - 1/4 tsp

salt as required

Method of Preparation

* Wash peel, deseed and cut mathan into large cubes. 

* Pressure cook tuvar dal in a cup of water. Keep aside

*In a pan pour coconut oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, broken red chilli, hing and curry leaves Once mustard crackle add grated coconut and roast till golden brown in medium flame.

*In an earthen pot/Kalchatti add water  mathan cubes and salt. Cook till tender. Now add cooked tuvar dal. Garnish with roasted coconut. Serve as a side dish with freshly cooked rice. 

Garlic Naan

Yet another flat bread - Naan. This is also prepared in tadoor. So we will make it on pressure cooker/iron kadai at home. Let me share with you garlic naan recipe.

Ingredients

Maida - 2 cup

Yeast - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

salt as required

Ghee/ Oil for greasing and brushing

For the topping 

Garlic crushed - 3 tbsp

Jeera - 2 tsp

Green chillies - 4 finely chopped

Sugar - 2 tsp

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

* Add all these ingredients and make a coarse 

paste.

* In a small bowl add yeast and sugar mix it with 4 

tablespoon lukewarm water. Allow it to ferment for 

about 8 minutes.

Make a soft dough using rest of the ingredients add

 even the ground paste. Add sufficient water knead it

 till it become soft and smooth and elastic. For about

 10 minutes.

* Cover it with a soft muslin cloth and keep aside till 

the dough doubles its quantity. For about 30 minutes

*Gently press the dough and remove excess air.

* Make a big lemon sized ball and roll out naan. You 

can shape it like roti or like little long restaurant style

naan by gently pulling the sides of the roti to make 

oval shape. 


* Grease a pressure cooker/iron kadai with oil. Keep

 it upside down over open flame. Carefully apply

 little water on each naan and stick the wet side of 

naan around the inside of the cooker/iron kadai.

Place the cooker upside down directly on the flame 

and cook till both side are golden brown. If you are 

using a pressure cooker you can make 2 or 3 naans 

at a time. ( This step need little practice)

Remove naan and apply butter before serving.  Serve

 hot with Kadai vegetables, Dahl Makhani and raitha.



* Variation : Instead of garlic you can use roasted 

pudina leaves. Before serving gently sprinkle coarsely

powdered pudina leaves. 

Kulcha

Today I thought of sharing Kulcha recipe. Its from Punjab. 

Stuff Kulcha with Aloo/ Paneer/Peas Masala.  Its taste great as breakfast or at dinner time. Traditionally Kulchas are made in tandoor.  But at home you can make it on tawa. 

Let me share with you recipe for Plain Kulcha

Ingredients

Maida/ Whole wheat atta - 250 grams
Rice flour - 1 tablespoon
Curd as required
Salt as required
Cooking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Method of Preparation

* Mix maida/whole wheat atta and rice flour and sieve them together with cooking soda and salt.

*In a bowl add all ingredients and use sufficient curd to make a soft dough. Keep aside for two hours. 

Make small lemon sized balls and roll out roti out of it. On a heated tawa roast both sides. You can apply butter and serve hot with paneer burji ,  Aloo jeera, and Raitha










*

Whole moong dahl/Green gram dahl

Hello,

Indian food is extremely nutritious and we use a lot of combination of different masalas. North Indian masalas are different from South Indian masalas. I will write about different spices used in vegetarian cuisine. Gujrati, Punjabi and Rajastani cuisine is considered to be the most interesting and tasty cuisine. I will write about it soon. 

I think my readers are now familiar with palghat iyer cooking. Let us go for a journey to the North and explore the vibrant cuisine. Yes you guessed it right I do wish to travel to Gujrat, Rajastan and North East India is in my wish list.  

Let me share with you a simple green gram dahl recipe. It taste great with Naan, Roti and Kulcha. With plain rice too!!


Whole moong dahl/Green gram dahl

Ingredients

Green gram - 200 grams
Tomato - 1(finely chopped
Onion - 1 small(finely chopped)
Ginger - a small piece( finely chopped)
Green chilli - 2(finely chopped)
Coriander powder -  1 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp
ghee - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1 tsp(wash and chop finely)


Method of Preparation

*Soak whole green gram for about 3 hours.

* Pressure cook green gram by adding 3 glasses of water for 2 whistles in medium or low flame.

 In a heated pan pour ghee/oil add chopped onion, green chilli and ginger saute for a while. Now add tomato. Let it cook for a while. You will notice now the oil is separated from the onion and onions are turning into golden brown. Its time to add jeera powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder. Mix well add this to the cooked green gram. Adjust salt and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. 

Roasted rice rawa kozhakattai/rice dumpling with coconut chutney

Roasted Raw rice kozhakattai/rice dumpling with coconut chutney

Ingredients

Roasted rice rawa - One cup
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Gingly oil - 1 tsp
Hing - one pinch
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 1 broken
Hot water - 2 1/2 cups
salt as required


Method of Preparation


In a heated Kadai pour a table spoon of gingley oil, 1

tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp urad dal and a pinch of hing, one 

red chilly broken. Allow the mustard to crackle. 

Now add roasted rice rawa.salt and 2 1/4 cup boiled water

mix well. Add coconut and allow everything to mix well. Allow

it to cook in low flame. Off the stove. Make small balls. 

Steam it for about 10 minutes. Serve with coconut chutney.


Coconut chutney 

Ingredients

Grated coconut - 1 cup
green chilli - 3 nos.
puffed bengal gram(pottu kadala) - 1 table spoon
ginger - 1 small piece
salt - as required

For the tadka

Oil - 1 2 tsp
mustard seed - 1/4 tsp
red dry chilli - 2 nos.

Method of Preparation 

Add all the ingredients and ground by adding just enough water. Grind coarsely. Remove from mixer and add little more water if required for pouring consistency. In a small pan add oil and add mustard and red chilli. Allow it to splutter. Pour in top of the chutney. Serve with hot kozhakattai/rice dumpling.

Tamarind Chutney and Mint/Pudina Chutney

Time for few chutney. In Indian cuisine chutney play an important role. Especially when we make chats. I will share with you two of the most important chutneys we usually make while serving chats.

Tamarind Chutney

Ingredients

Tamarind extrat - 1cup (from 100 grams tamarind )
Dates - 25
Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Kala namak/Black salt - 1 tsp
Jeera powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 100 grams
Salt as required

Method of Preparation

*Soak tamarind in hot water for about an hour and exgtract pulp. 

*Soak dates in warm water (just enough water for the dates to soak) for about an hour. In a mixer put the dates and use the same water and make a smooth paste out of it.  

Boil tamarind pulp and jaggery for about 7 minutes. Strain the liquid using a strainer for any impurities. Now add the dates paste to the tamarind and jaggery. Add rest of the dry masalas and boil further for about 3 to 4 minutes. Adjust salt and allow the tamarind chutney to reach room temperature. Store in a small glass jar. Serve it along with dahi vada, dahi pappadi chat, samosa and a number of Indian chats. 

Mint Chutney

Ingredients

Mint leaves - 1 bunch
coriander leaves - 1 bunch
Green chilli - 4
Lemon - 1 (extract juice)
Sugar - 1 tsp
salt as required
Onion - 1 chopped
Garlic - 1 pod crushed

Method of Preparation

Wash and trim the mint leaves and coriander leaves. We are going to use only the leaves. If the coriander leaves stem is soft chop it and use it. 

In a mixer put all the ingredients and grind to a fine paste. If needed add a little water. Adjust salt. This yummy chutney can be served with many starters. Taste great when freshly made.