In the mood for some Thai?

I love thai red curry with some steamed rice..it is heaven. Haven't yet tried the yellow or green Thai curries. Will do sometime soon.

I am a lazy bum..most of you know that(those who didn't, now you know). If there is a way with a short cut, I will do it. So also with this recipe, I don't make the curry paste. I have a box of ready made curry paste, also don't bother extracting coconut milk..cartons or dehydrated powders to the rescue. There are several traditionalists who believe that everything done from a scratch gives you the best taste..I fully agree, so the next time you make something from a scratch, call me..I'll come over for a bite...As for me..I still love my shortcuts!

I had been over to Pune, to meet my in-law cousins..and there is a very famous shop over there..Dorabjee's. Went hunting there for some herbs, sauces and brought the Pantai Red Curry paste . Its superb. I've had no complaints so far...

Whenever H comes home grinning having spotted a perfect packet of white mushrooms, I know next day it is going to be Thai Red Curry with rice. And he slurps over every last bit of gravy...

If you have the short-cuts ready, this dish is ready in flat 15 mins..no more...

I'm giving you a recipe for Red curry paste for the ones who love making it at home..(its from a nita-mehta book..I've tried it once!)

Thai Red Curry

For the red curry paste

4-5 Kashmiri Red chillies - soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water for 10 min
1/2 onion - chopped
8-10 garlic flakes - peeled
1 1/2 slice ginger - sliced
1 stalk lemon grass or rind of 1 lemon
3-5 stalks of coriander
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin
6 peppercorns
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vinegar

Vegetables
6-8 babycorn - slit lengthwise
1 medium broccoli- cut into florets
5-6 mushrooms - sliced
1/2 red, yellow, green capsicum - cubed 1"
2 small brinjals - sliced (optional)

Other ingredients
3 cups coconut milk mixed with 1 Tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp soya sauce
10 basil leaves - chopped or use coriander leaves
salt to taste
1/2 tsp brown sugar/ regular sugar

Method
Grind all the ingredients of the red curry paste along with the water in which you've soaked red
chillies. Grind it to as fine paste as you can.

1. Heat a non-stick pan, add about 1Tbsp oil, add the paste, fry for a few seconds on low heat.
( you can make this oil-free by omitting the oil and adding the paste straight into the pan..no difference in taste). Since I use the ready-made paste, I add about 2 Tbsp of the paste..I like it a bit on the hotter side..

2. Add 3-4 Tbsp of coconut milk (can use fresh coconut milk, straight from the carton or mix water and dried coconut powder-Maggi). Add vegetables and cook for 3-4 minutes.

(Love the green color of broccoli in this...and the crunch..yumm..Thank God broccoli is cheap now.)

3. Add the rest of the coconut milk, soya sauce, chopped basil leaves.

4. Cover and simmer on low heat for 5-8 min, till the vegetable are tender (Do not over cook them, they should still have a crunch)

5. Add salt and sugar to taste. Bring to a boil, let it boil for 1-2 min. Take off the heat and serve hot with steamed rice.



These days, this recipe is not so frequent. With the temperatures hitting the 40C mark, its tough to work in the kitchen. So most days food is something cold- Curd Rice, Dahi Vada - which I learnt from Arundati's..made in an appam patra..sometimes its cold pani-puri..some cold salads..

Still searching for some cold foods to make.

Mushroom Capsicum

One fine day, H came home with a big grin on his face. And then proudly showed me what he got. A packet of button mushrooms. Make something nice for me baby, he croons. I’ve never liked mushrooms and at my mom’s place we never even bought mushrooms. And in this one year of marriage, I’ve had to dig through the net and search and search for recipes. So then I found this one by Nita Mehta. 7am, and I’m digging through my recipe books for a recipe. Confirm that I have all the ingredients and then set out to prepare this for the first time to give it to him in his tiffin.

I applauded my own guts, what if it wasn’t good enough? More on that later.

Here’s how it goes,

Ingredients

A cup full of mushroom- wash, dry and cut into thick slices.
1 big onion- finely chopped
3-4 garlic flakes- crushed
1 green chilli- finely chopped
1” ginger-shredded
2 tomatoes-blanched, peeled and then finely chopped
1 capsicum- cut into thin long strips
1 Tbsp tomato ketchup
¼ tsp chilli pwd
Salt to taste
1Tbsp oil
½ tsp ajwain (carom seeds) can use oregano too.

Heat oil, lower the flame and add ajwain.
Add onion and cook till slightly transluscent.
Add garlic, stir.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chilli and ginger.
Cook on low flame till tomatoes are dry (takes about 5-8 min)
Add mushroom, salt and chilli pwd. Cook till mushrooms are done.
Add capsicums just before the mushrooms are done.
Cook for a few minutes and you’re done.



Things I learned during this process, mushrooms shrink if cooked for too long. My 1” mushrooms became so tiny, I had to search for them. Let the tomato gravy cook well and then add mushrooms.

And then during his lunchtime, H texts me " just had one bite and I love it. "
So much for risk taking at 7 am, It worked. And when the tiffin box came home in the evening, H had practically licked the tiffin clean. I wondered if he’d washed it and brought it back!!

It was the best compliment he gave me, besides some obnoxious loud belches on the phone.

Mushroom Matar Malai

H loves mushrooms and I can't stand them. But Ido my best to make some for him. Scouring the net, the books for something to make for him. Recently my MIL had bought a book by Nita mehta. Saw something interesting and so decided to make it for him.

And on a completely different note, I'm meeting a fellow food blogger Arundati of Escapades in Ahmedabad. will let you know how the madness goes. Talking food and shopping .. what could be a better combination.
The weather is losing its chill now..last few days before we can savor hot soups, hot biryani's before the heat becomes unbearable. And then it shall be time for cold curd rice, cold soups.

Getting ready for some more food. My younger brother's wedding is in two weeks. Food and more sweets..outfits for me are going to be re-cycled. I've just worn my wedding outfits once, that too just a year back..so why waste money on something new. Its the age of recession, the age of spending wisely. Will def post some photos of that..

Here's the richest recipe for mushrooms..with butter, cashews, cream and some more cream...good for when you want something rich once in a while..




you will need :

200 gm small mushrooms
1 cup peas - boiled or frozed
4Tbsp kasoori methi (this is a must, gives it fabulous flavor)
1tsp ginger-garlic paste
pinch of pepper
1 Tbsp butter (I used one tsp)
2 onions - ground to a paste
1/4 cup malai -mix with 1/4 cup milk and blend or 1/2 cup thin cream
salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli pwd
1/2 tsp garam masala
pinch of dry mango powder (amchoor)
1/2 cup milk (use as needed)

Dry masala
1/2 stick cinnamon
seeds of 2-3 green cardamom (chhoti elaichi)
3-4 cloves
4-5 pepper corns
2 tsp roasted cashew nuts

Method

Trim the stem of mushroom. If they are big, cut into two, else leave them whole.
heat 1Tbsp butter in a kadhai and add mushrooms. Stir fry on high flame till mushrooms are dry and golden. Add 1tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1/2 tsp salt and pinch of black pepper. stir for another minute and remove from flame. Keep them aside

Grind all the ingredients of the dry fragrant masala to a powder in a mixer..

Heat 3 tbsp of oil, add the onion paste and cook on low heat till oil seperates. Don't brown the onions.

Add the ground masala powder. cook for a few seconds.

Add kasori methi and malai and cook for 2-3 minutes till malai dries. keep on low heat.

Add salt, chilli powder, garam masala, dry mango powder. stir for a minute.

Add the boiled peas and mushrooms.

Add 1/2 cup milk to get a thick gravy. Add few tbsp of water if the gravy is too thick. Boil for 2-3 minutes and serve hot.

If you omit the mushrooms, and add more kasoori methi and increase the amount of peas, you can make matar methi malai. Tastes great..

More later about when Tejalcooks met Escapedes...

Paneer in Yogurt gravy

As soon as I read that JFI for Nov was Paneer, I was elated. I'm not an accomplished cook, but I love to experiment with whatever ingredients that I have. An paneer is something I love. DH loves it.
Besides, paneer is the vegetarian's meat. If you go to any restaurant that serves non-veg food, the veg menu will have paneer in the largest number. Sure, they can make 20 dishes with meat, but in veg there is only paneer. Did all the vegetables rot in their kitchen?

I love reading cookbooks, and trying stuff from them. Sometimes, they're even under my pillow coz I fall asleep while reading them. My DH can't figure out why I read mini cookbooks as bed time reading!

Here's a recipe I made last week. It was one of my nightime readings that made me notice this. It turned out to be a nice one...in spite of the milk and yogurt, there is the zing of green chillies and ginger, and kasoori methi. I think its from nita mehta's book. I need to find some more cook-books...suggest some good traditional ones if you can. I'm a gujju by birth but andhraite by palate.




Here's the recipe for Paneer in yogurt gravy.

Ingredients
200 gm paneer - 1x1" pieces
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp shahi jeera (black cumin)
1/4 tsp red chilli pwd, salt to taste
1 1/4 cups milk
ginger and coriander to garnish

For the yogurt paste
1 large onion
1 tomato
2 green chillies
2" ginger
3/4 cup yogurt
2 Tbsp kasoori methi

The how-to
put all the ingredients of the yogurt paste into a mixer and grind to a smooth paste. as smooth as you can get it.

Heat oil in a vessel, add shahi jeera. Let it release the flavor. then add yogurt paste and cook till the water from the yogurt evaporates. the masala should thicken slightly and oil starts leaving the paste.

add salt and chilli pwd, stir well. At this point, take the vessel off the fire. add just about 1/4 cup milk and mix well. also all the paneer pieces and stir so that the masala coats the paneer.

Return the vessel to the fire and on low heat add the remaining milk. Keep stirring continuously till it comes to a boil. Continue cooking on low heat till the gravy is to the consitency of your liking.

serve with ginger juliennes and fresh cut coriander.



This is my first ever entry into any event. This goes to JFI with the theme Paneer, hosted by The spice who loved me.

This event was started by Indira of Mahanandi, and it has been 3 yrs since she started this event.

Stir Fried Veggies With Rice.

I am an ardent fan of Tarla dalal and Nita Mehta's recipes. I have a lot of their mini books to help me decide what to try today. And whenever H takes me to a bookstore, he has no fear of me getting lost. He always ends up finding me at the cookery section. I do admit, I've never ventured beyond Indian authors when it comes to cooking. I mean, Indian authors will know the best Indian food, right?
But I've read a lot of other food-blog writers refer to a lot of foreign authors and I'm willing to give it a try. So if you've got any awesome cook books that you think I should delve into, please leave a comment for me. I'd love to try.

This is my H's fav. He loves Chinese, not the authentic Chinese but the Indian-Chinese, where most of the recipe is indianised to suit our palate.

This recipe calls for a lot of veggies, but i only had babycorn, onions, and capsicums, and spring onion. So that's what i used. Feel free to try out other veggies.
This is a recipe from Nita Mehta's book.




Stir Fried Veggies on Rice.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 1/4 cups rice
1 small carrot- cubed
1/4 cup cauliflower or broccoli - small florets
1 small onion - cut into 4 pieces and separated
4-5 mushrooms
4-8 baby corn -cut into half lengthwise.
1 capsicum- cubed
2 dried red chillies- broken into small pieces
8-10 flakes garlic - crushed

1 Tbsp soya sauce(dark is better)
2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 tsp Tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp salt or to taste
a pinch ajinomoto (optional, I generally don't use it)
3 Tbsp cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water
2-3 Tbsp oil


Method

Boil the washed rice in 4-5 cups of salted water. Drain after it gets cooked. Cover and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok, when the oil gets hot, take it off the flame and add broken red chillies and garlic (add it off the fire, since these two tend to burn quickly)

Stir for a few seconds, till the garlic gives out its aroma, and add babycorns, carrots, broccoli, onions and mushrooms. Stir for 2-3 minutes and then add capsicum.

Add salt and pepper. ( at this stage, add less salt, since the sauces will have salt of their own. Later on taste and add more salt if necessary. Experience speaks, I've over-salted it twice before learning this)

Add tomato sauce, soya sauce, and vinegar. Pour 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add cornflour slurry and cook till veggies get done, and the sauce becomes thick.

To serve

Spread the rice on a serving plate and pour hot veggies over the rice and serve hot.