Avocado Chutney

I have adapted this recipe from Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries. I loved the fusion of Indian and Mexican flavors in this chutney.

Here's how I make it:

2 avocados - chopped
1/4 red or sweet onion - finely chopped
1 tomato - finely chopped
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp salt
1 green chile - deseeded and deribbed for lesser heat - chopped
1/2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves - finely chopped

Mix the avocados, onions, tomatoes, tamarind and salt in a bowl.

Heat the oil in a small pan, add the mustard seeds. When they stop spluttering, add the chiles and curry leaves. Take off heat and add to the avocado mix.

Mash lightly with a fork.

Serve this Avocado Chutney as part of an Indian meal or as a filling for wraps or alongside veggie quesadillas or any other way you can think of. Today we made a totally fusion meal out of this - I had some leftover rotis and cabbage-peas subji. I made "quesadillas" with these and we had the Avocado Chutney along with them.

This Avocado Chutney goes to Srivalli's Condiment Mela.

This Avocado Chutney also goes to the Life is Green event at Yummilicious Food.

Lasun Tikhat (Dry Garlic Chutney)

Lasun Tikhat is a great accompaniment to the everyday poli-bhaji (roti-subji) or varan-bhaat (dal-rice) as it adds a kick to any ordinary meal. You can also use it innovatively like atop butterred toast, in wraps, in vada-pav etc.This dry garlic chutney can be stored in an airtight container for 2 weeks at room temperature or even longer if you keep it in the fridge.

The dry garlic chutney, also called gun powder, available in stores is too spicy for our taste, this version suits our everyday needs better as it has a good balance of heat, salt and tang and a lot of flavor.

Here's how I make it:

1/2 cup dry shredded coconut
5 big cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chilli pwd
betel-nut size ball of tamarind (seeds and husk removed)

Roast the dry shredded coconut in a pan on medium low heat until lightly browned. Cool completely. Add all the other ingredients and grind in a dry grinder or coffee grinder.

Store in an airtight container.

This will make about 1 cup of Lasun Tikhat.

This Lasun Tikhat goes to Srivalli's Condiment Mela.

Dahi Chutney (Chutney with yogurt)

I usually make this on upaas/vrat days. Here's how I make it:

1/4 cup roasted peanuts

1/4 cup frozen or fresh shredded coconut

1/2 cup yogurt

1 - 2 green chillies per heat level desired

4 - 5 sprigs of cilantro

Salt & Sugar to taste

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp lemon juice

Blend all the ingredients until smooth. No additional water is needed, unless you want to make a runnier chutney.

We had this chutney with bhajani thalipeeth for breakfast on Saturday.

This Dahi Chutney goes to the CMT - Chutney event at Joy of Cooking.

Vangyache Kaap (Eggplant Fritters)

These are shallow fried eggplant fritters. My daughter loves them. Here's how I make them:

1 eggplant - sliced horizontally into 1/2 inch thick slabs
3 heaped tbsp rice flour
1 tsp red chilli pwd
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin pwd
pinch of asafotida
Few tbsp oil for shallow frying

Rub the eggplant slices with 1/2 the red chilli pwd and salt and rest for 15 mins. They will ooze some water. In the meanwhile, mix the rice flour with the remaining chilli pwd, salt, cumin pwd and asafotida. Dip the eggplant slices in the rice flour mix to coat on both sides. Shallow fry on both sides in a non-stick pan using oil as needed.

Serve warm with rice and dal. We love to eat them with varan-bhaat.

These Vangyache Kaap go to the Side Dish event at Veggie Platter.

These also go to the Jay Ho Brinjal event at JayZ Kitchen.

Pomodoro Sauce

This sauce can be used for Pizza, Pasta etc. The original recipe is from Parade magazine. Here's now I make it:

8 Roma tomatoes - chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 tsp dried basil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients and cook on medium heat for atleast 40 mins.

Here the sauce is cooking down. If you love garlic and basil, you will love the wonderful aroma that fills your kitchen while this is cooking. Stir occassionally.

For using as a pasta sauce, you can leave it a bit juicy.

Today I made it for my pizza, hence I cooked it for about 1 hour till all the juice had evaporated.

This makes about 1.5 cups of the cooked down sauce.

This Pomodoro Sauce goes to the Healing Foods - Tomato event at Seduce Your Tastebuds. This event was started by Siri.

Here is a picture of my pizza. I used Trader Joe's Wheat Pizza dough. For toppings, I used onions, mushrooms, colored bell peppers and brocolli.

 

Raita

We had a couple of 90+ degree days in Seattle last week and I made this cool, refreshing raita then. Its really very simple to put together and goes well with pulav/biryani or parathas. It is also a good picnic food if you can carry it in an ice box.

Here's how I make it:

1 cup yogurt

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper pwd

2 tsp peanut powder

1 cup finely chopped veggies - onion, tomato, cucumber and carrot

Cilantro to garnish

Whisk the yogurt with the salt, sugar, pepper and peanuts. Add the chopped veggies. Garnish with cilantro.

Thats it!

This cool raita goes to the Side Dish event at Veggie Platter.

Kelyache kaap (Raw banana fritters)

I'm back after a long gap with a simple side dish - raw banana shallow fried fritters (or kelyache kaap in Marathi). They can be eaten as a snack or with dal-rice (varan-bhaat). Here's how I make them:

1 big raw banana - skinned and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
2 heaped tbsp rie flour
Salt, red chilli pwd, asafotida, cumin pwd - to taste, turmeric pwd - pinch
Oil to shallow fry

Rub the banana slices with salt and red chilli pwd. Set aside for 15 mins. In the meanwhile mix salt, asafotida, turmeric and cumin pwd per taste with the rice flour. Dip the banana slices in this mixture and shallow fry several at a time on a non-stick pan with a few drops of oil until golden on each side (about 1-2 mins on medium to medium high heat).

Thats it - tasty banana fritters are ready.

Dahi vadas

I recently found an interesting version of Dahi Vada on Manjula's Kitchen, where she mixed mung dal with udad dal to make the vadas. I immediately tried these @ home and was very happy with the results - melt-in-your-mouth dahi vadas. I know the above picture doesn't do justice to the ultimate dish, but don't let that put you off.

Here's how I made them:

For the vadas (about 20 - 25 pearl onion sized ones) -

1/3 cup udad dal

1 tbsp mung dal

Salt, pepper to taste

Soak the dals separately in water overnight. Next morning, mix and grind them together with 2 tsp of water (use water in which they were soaked). Take the batter in a mixing bowl. Whip it in a circular motion with a spoon for about 5 mins. The batter turns noticeable light and fluffy. If you drop a bit of it in a bowl of water, it will immediately float up. This means its really to fry. Add salt and pepper. Chopped green chillies and grated ginger can also be added if desired. I usually do not, in order to keep them kid friendly. Drop spponfuls of batter in medium hot oil and fry till light brown. Drain on paper towels. Next you can soak these vadas in warm salted water if desired, but I usually skip this step.

To make the dahi vadas, whip about 1.5 cups dahi with some water till smooth. Add salt, sugar. Pour over the vadas. Garnish with red chilli pwd and cumin pwd to taste. Top with chopped cilantro. You can also add some green chilli chutney and tamarind chutney to spice up these vadas.

Panchratna spinach dal & onion-pudina rotis

Recently, I am going thru a phase where I want to cook everything in my pressure pan...its not even new! But it does make a lot of good sense, as it cuts cooking time & effort down. Last weekend, I made this panchratna dal.

The panchratnas (five jewels) I used were - 1/3 cup each of moong, tur, udad, chana and masoor dals. I washed and soaked these together for about 2-3 hrs.

1 onion- sliced

1 tomato - chopped

2 cloves garlic - chopped

1 tsp grated ginger

2 cups chopped spinach

1 tsp cumin pwd

1 tsp coriander pwd

1/2 tsp red chilli pwd

1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

1 tsp lemon juice

1-2 tsp oil

Heat oil in the pressure pan. Saute the onions in it for 5 mins. Add the garlic & ginger, saute 2 mins. Add the tomatoes and spinach, saute another 2 mins. Add the cumin & coriander pwds & the red chilli pwd. Fry them till the mixture turn a rich brown. You can add 1-2 tsp water if the spices start burning. Then add the dals, cover and cook for 2 whistles. When cool, open the lid, add the salt, garam masala & lemon juice. Mix and serve hot with rice or rotis.

This Panchratna dal goes to My Legume Love Affair being hosted by Srivalli.

This event is the brain child of Susan of the Well-Seasoned Cook.

I served my panchratna spinach dal with these onion-pudina rotis.

Here's how I made them.
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 onion - chopped fine
1/2 cup pudina (mint) - finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds (ova)
1 tsp oil
Water to knead
Mix all the above (except oil) and knead to a soft dough. Oil your palm and knead 1-2 mins further. Do not keep this dough for too long as it will soften and become difficult to roll into rotis. After about 15 mins, you can roll out the rotis and cook them on a pan until brown spots appear on both sides. Spread some butter or ghee before serving.

Roasted veggies & pasta

I got this recipe from a co-worker. She is a very, very enthusiastic cook and has a vast collection of cookbooks. When she realized I also had similar interests, she started lending me a few of those at a time. This recipe if from a cookbook published by the Moosewood restaurant. The use of fennel seeds and the combination of veggies was what attracted me to this dish.

Here's how I made it.

1 cup chopped onions
2 cups chopped peppers - I used a combination of green, red, yellow and orange ones (See note)
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/8th cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic - minced
1.5 tsp ground fennel
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup uncooked small-shaped pasta (I used star-shaped pasta, orzo is also a good choice)

Preheat oven to 400F.
Place the chopped veggies in a large mixing bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic, fennel pwd, salt, pepper and pour over the veggies. Toss to coat well.
Spread the veggies in a single layer on a nonreactive baking sheet. Roast for 15 mins. Remove from the oven, stir in the basil and return to the oven. Roast another 10 mins, stir and continue to roast for about 5 more mins.
While the veggies are roasting, cook the pasta in boiling, salted water till al dente.
Drain the pasta and mix with the veggies to serve.

We had this as a light Sunday lunch, but I think it would make a great side to a larger meal... perhaps a non-traditional dish for a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, especially if you have some vegetarian friends or family members at your table. Hence it is off to the Monthly Mingle - Sensational Sides event at Ruth's Kitchen. This event is the brain child of Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey?

Note - The original recipe also calls for zucchinis & mushrooms, but I did not have these on hand, so I replaced them with extra peppers. I would highly recommend using these as they take the dish up a whole new level. Hubby did the grocery shopping this weekend & despite having my list of items, he just bought a lot of colored peppers as they were on sale!