Navratna Kurma

It can be difficult to come up with something new each time for frequent guests. I don't feel good repeating dishes, and it also gives me an reason to try out something new. So this time I decided to make one of my favorites, Navaratna Kurma. Kurma is generally believed to mean a slowly cooked curry. In the West it is used to mean a mild curry made with cream and dry fruits, but in southern India one can find examples of spicy kurmas. It has a rich creamy taste leaning slightly to the sweeter side, yet nothing you cannot make up for with a raita or dal. Also with the amount of vegetables that go into it, it is rather healthy.

This particular recipe is my version of the dish, and you can find many variations of it elsewhere online.

Ingredients

• 3 medium tomatoes (pureed)
  
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1/2 cup carrots
• 1/2 capsicum (green, red, yellow - whichever you like)
• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1/3 cup green peas
• 1/4 cup of (kasuri) meethi
  
• 1/2 cut paneer
• 1/4 cup of cashews + almonds + raisins
• 1 cup milk
• 2-3 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1-2 tsp red chilli powder (more if you like it spicy)
• t tsp coriander powder
• 1-2 tsp garlic
• 1-2 tsp ginger
• 2-3 cloves
• A pinch of cardamom
• 2-3 small pieces of Cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 3 tbsp oil
• Some coriander
  
• Salt
  

Method

Boil tomatoes till their skin is tender. Peal of skin to make puree. Add a quarter of the onion and some cashews into the mixer while making the puree. Heat oil in a skillet and add the cloves, cardamom, Cinnamon, bay leaf and dry fruits to it. Because the curry is slightly sweet, this mixture gives it the sweet n' spicy flavor without the sweetness. Then add ginger, garlic, coriander powder and turmeric. Fry the remainder of the onions till they are golden brown. Now add the puree and let it cook covered for a couple of minutes.

In another pan shallow fry cubes of paneer and set them aside. Once the puree starts to boil add the milk and let it come to a boil. You can also add some cream to make the curry richer. At this time add the garam masala and red chilli powder. Then add the vegetables. If necessary add some water or milk to help the vegetables cook. You can steam you vegetables in advance, but I like to cook them in the puree so that they take in all the spices and flavors.Once the vegetables are tender and the curry has thickened, add the fried panner and let it cook for another couple of minutes. Add salt to taste. And a pinch of sugar to balance it all.

Sprinkle coriander on the Navaratna Kurma and serve hot with poli, puri or naan.

Naralachi amba wadi

Mangoes are hard to come by in this part of the country, and there are times when you just crave for that divine taste of the Alphonso mango. So when we spotted a can of Alphonso mango pulp it was hard to resist. And from there began the quest to make the perfect Amba wadi. But then we could not find any khava, and making some at home even with (cow's) whole milk would have been difficult. Hence the improvised Naralachi Amba Wadi for those of us who want the taste, but cannot find all the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 cups mango pulp
• 2 cups grated coconut (as finely grated as possible)
  
• 1/4 cup condensed milk
  
• 1 small potato (mashed)
  
• 2-3 tbs ghee
• A pinch of cardamom
  

Method

Heat 2-3 tbs of ghee in a skillet and add a pinch of cardamom to it. Then add 2 cups of grated coconut and fry it for a minute. Add the mango pulp and condensed milk and mix it in well. The condensed milk gives the wadi a semblance of khava, and is an attempt to fool the senses. Now add the mashed potato and fold it in. The potato will act as a base to hold the wadi together which has a lot of liquid in the form of mango pulp. Since the mango pulp and condensed milk are usually sweetened, it is not necessary to add any more sugar to the wadi.

Keep stirring continuously on medium heat to keep it from sticking to the skillet and speeding the drying process. The mixture needs to be reduced until the spatula stands in it. You can feel the mixture getting heavier and difficult to stir as it thickens.

Now spread out the mixture on a greased cookie tray or plate. I like to line the tray with aluminium foil to avoid greasing, and also because it makes cleaning so much more easier. Spread out the mixture evenly while it is still warm and allow it to cool down completely before cutting. Cut the mixture into squares of your desired serving size. Always store the wadi in a fridge. The wadi, especially straight out of the fridge, makes an extremely satisfying snack or mini dessert.

Puran Poli

There are very few people who can resist piping hot Puranpoli with ghee. That incredible aroma is one of festivities, of happiness and memories. It is the smell of sheer bliss of being with your family, people you love. And when you are trying to create a home away from home, that smell can work wonders.

So it was about time I made the Puranpoli myself. The idea was scary at first considering that it had to match up to my mom's Puranpoli for me to be satisfied. And in spite of using the same recipe it isn't really the same. I guess it can never be!


Anyhow. The recipe is considerably time consuming and tiring, but totally worth it.

Ingredients

For the Puran

• 2 cups chana/harbara dal
• 4 1/2 cups water
  
• 2 cups jaggery
• 1/6 to 1/5 cup sugar
• A pinch of turmeric
• 1 tabelspoon oil
  
• Nutmeg for seasoning

For the covering

• 1 1/2 cups wheat flour
• 1/6 cup all purpose flour/maida
• A pinch of salt
• Oil
  

Method

Pressure cook 2 cups chana dal with 4 1/2 cups of water. Add a pinch of turmeric and oil while cooking it. Take 3-4 whistles or as many as are needed to cook the dal well. Strain the dal so that no water remains. Retain the water as it can be used to make katachi amti. Mash the dal to as fine a paste as possible. I do this as I do not have a puranyantra here, and the mixer does not do the job. The puranyantra is used after you have added the jaggery, but since it is difficult to get all the equipment outside of India I mash the dal and then knead it at the end too.

Now heat some ghee in a skillet and add the mashed dal to it. Also add the jaggery and sugar and stir continuously. Make sure that the mixture does not stick to the bottom as the burnt smell will spoil the desired aroma. Keep stirring till the Puran is dry and thick. Also add some nutmeg to it. Let the puran cool. Knead it upon cooling so that it does not have any hard parts in it. The puran has to be consistently soft, as any hard part can tear the covering.

For the covering mix the wheat and all purpose flour with water and oil. Knead the so that it is soft and almost sticky. Use oil generously when kneading the dough and let it rest for at least an hour. The more the dough rests the better.

When making the actual poli take a small portion of the dough and knead it again. Roll it out in a small circle. Take a bigger portion of the puran and close it inside the dough as if wrapping a ball. Close the dough so that the puran does not comes out from anywhere. Now roll out the ball gently into thin roti using rice flour. It is important to roll gently as the puran can come out due to excess pressure. It is common that the poli tears when we are new at it.

Heat a griddle and roast the puranpoli on medium flame until it is golden brown on both sides. Serve with ghee and experience bliss!

Sheera

If there was dish that my whole family loved, sheera would win hands down. It is a delicious quick fix to warm your winter evenings, sunday mornings or anytime you like.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rava/soji
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoon ghee or oil
• A pinch of salt
  
• Some cardamon
  
• Raisins and/or cashews to garnish (optional)
  

Method

Heat ghee or oil in a skillet. Add some cardamom seeds and cashews to it and let it fry till light brown. Then add the rava and fry on low flame till it is light pinkish brown. Add a pinch of salt to it too. At the same time bring two cups of water and milk to boil together. You could add the raisins to the mixture, or add them to the sheera later.

Once the rava is light brown and the water-milk mixture is boiled, pour the mixture into the rava and stir continuously. Make sure that no lumps remain. Be careful while stirring the mixture as the boiling rava can jump out on your hand. Then add the sugar and continue to stir till the mixture starts drying up. Cover the skillet and let it steam on low flame for a minute. Serve the sheera with lemon pickel and a nice hot cup of tea.

Kasuri methi paratha

There is a couplet in Marathi with begins with "Bhajit bhaji methichi..." And methi or fenugreek is a difficult vegetable to deal with. It takes a lot of time to clean and shrinks dramatically when you cook it. But it also extremely healthy, filled with potassium, calcium, iron and said to protect against some cancers.

One of my favorite fenugreek recipes is the methi paratha. While fresh methi would be ideal, since I hate the cleaning part in it I prefer using Kasuri Methi. This is nothing but dried fenugreek leaves. They are easily available in any Indian grocery store and smell as good as the fresh ones.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Kasuri methi
  
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon Ajwain
  
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Salt to taste
• Red chili powder to taste (optional)

Method

Soak the methi for 30-40 minutes. Mix the flour, methi, garlic, ajwain, turmeric and salt into a dough. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Roll out the dough evenly in small circles making sure that the edges are not too thick. Fry the parathas on a pre-heated griddle/tava. While you can brush some oil on the paratha, I prefer to use ghee or butter after taking it off the tava instead of using it while on the tava. This also helps them stay soft longer. Serve the parathas with yogurt or pickel.

In search of the perfect kadhai

Since our only kadhai retired, we have searched stores online and off for a replacement. But nothing seems to fit the bill (and the couple that did, didn't fit the pocket). I doubt we would have to think about buying a kadhai for more than a minute in India.

Anyhow. The problem is that I need something for deep frying, the Indian way. The other skillets in my kitchen are good for everything else, including shallow pan frying. The bottom is an issue. I would like a round bottom kadhai, something that makes the deep frying more convenient. And non non-stick. But then I am skeptical of those steel skillets in the market, or the woks used for Asian cooking. The woks don't seem thick enough for frying level temperatures, and at the same time rather bulky in terms of balance.

So if you can tell me where I can get the kadhai for purposes of Indian cooking, particularly deep frying that would be a lot of help. It could be a store in the U.S. or somewhere online. Looking forward to some insights.

Kakatcurry

Until I left Pune more than two years ago, I hardly ever cooked anything by myself. With my mom and elder sister around I did not have to bother with cooking anything substantial. All I did was 'help' my mom cook, either cutting veggies, making raitas or some such stuff.

With my sister's wedding I finally ended up cooking any significant amount of food. And to my surprise I was a decent enough cook. Over the last two years I have developed my skills experimenting successfully with different types of food. With my husband as a foodie and an excellent cook, we have tasted some of the finest foods between home and restaurants (and put on a few calories too!)

This blog is a chronicle of my experiments, a diary of my recipes. I guess I could hand it over to my grandchildren someday ;)