Zaiqa

I had received these lovely gifts from Mallugirl from Malabar Spices a few weeks back as part of the Arusuvai Friendship Chain..

The day she informed me that she was going to send me a surprise ingredient, I was thrilled. From that day till I received the package, I wondered every moment what the surprise ingredient might be. When I received it I tasted the surprise powder ingredient and guessed it might be something with ground Cinnamon as it had a pleasantly sweetish aroma. Mallugirl then told me that it was the Biryani Garam Masala. I also loved the fiery red hot dried chillies she sent me along. I used them in my cooking for the Baghaar (tempering), even planted the seeds from a dried chilli and the plants are doing very good. Mallu girl, I really enjoyed the yuummy chocolates and delicious other ingredients.

Aloo Gosht – Lamb meat and Potato Curry 

I used the Biryani Garam masala to prepare Gosht Ki Biryani and also prepared Aloo Gosht a few days ago using the Biryani Masala and it turned out quite delicious.

Aloo Gosht – Lamb meat and Potato Curry

Ingredients:

• Canola Oil – 1/2 cup
• Yellow Onions – 3, large, finely chopped
• Lamb/Veal Meat – 300 gms, washed, cubed and drained
• Yogurt/Dahi – 2 cups, lightly whisked
• Salt – as per taste
• Red Chilli powder – 3 tsp
• Lemon Juice – 2 tbsp
• Green Beans/Binees Ki Phalli – 20 to 30 ,fresh, each sliced at an angle into 3 pieces
• Potato/Aloo – 2, medium, peeled and quarted
• Dried Fenugreek leaves/Kasuri Methi – 1 tbsp
• Biryani Garam Masala – 2 tsp

Method:

• In a medium sized pressure-cooker at medium heat, pour oil and as soon as it gets warm add the finely chopped onions and let them fry till they are nicely browned. Keep stirring them frequently.
• Add the cubed meat and let it cook along the onions for 4-5 minutes. Pour in the whisked yogurt and salt and mix well. Let it cook for 5 minutes.
• Close the lid of the pressure cooker and let it cook till the meat is tender. Keep an eye on it.
• During this time, in a seperate frying pan, pour little oil and stir fry the french beans and the quartered potatoes seperately for 5-8 minutes each. Drain and keep aside.
• Add red chilli powder, lemon juice, Kasuri methi, Biryani Garam Masala, quartered potatoes and water (around 5 cups or according to your wish as per the consistency of the gravy you desire) and let it cook till the oil has seperated and the potatoes are soft and nicely done. Serve hot.

Suggested Accompaniments: Serve hot with warm Naan, Afghani Roti or Parathas..

I will be sending my surprise ingredient to Trupti of The Spice Who Loved Me very soon.

Luv,
Mona

I will never forget what I went through on April 30, 2008, those moments of acute angst!

It was one of the most dreadful days I had ever faced. Like everyday when I had logged into my wordpress account (I was posting an entry to Click-Au Naturel!) I noticed there were so many error messages saying that my ‘wp-posts’ and ‘wp-categories’ table has somehow suddenly crashed and they were all nothing but Greek and Latin to me. That gave me moments of panic and fearfulness, I was not able to post anything, my ‘entire blog’ had crashed and I had no idea how I would rectify the mess. It was all horrible. I quickly mailed some of my contacts including couple of bloggers and the company which hosts my blog and WordPress for help. Everyone was with me supporting me and asked me to have faith. I had given up my hopes and thought I had lost it all, my blog, which I had built with deep and ardent affection.. all my love..

My hubby too was upset for me and he tried to help me by every possible way. At around evening, he opened my blog on a browser window and voila! my blog was all alive, and everything was working. When I saw that, my happiness knew no bounds and I was so happy, thrilled and relieved. I was all in tears and very gratuful to those who quickly worked on my blog. I pray and hope that no blogger has to face this ever in their life!

Right now I am so much more in love with my blog. I have put in so much effort to build up this website, which sort of defines me and is a medium to express my love for cooking with the world I live in. This is when I was thinking of the precautionary methods we all bloggers should be ready with every moment for situations like these and I found some very informative posts here, here and here. I request all the bloggers to always maintain a backup of their entire blog, a database backup and a backup of their actual blog on a very rugular basis, may that be daily, weekly, or monthly or after every new post they publish.

Anyways, Life is back to normal again, and I thank my God immensely. I had been to the grocery mart a few days back and saw these very beautiful looking Bottle Gourds and I quickly bought them home. I had not ever before seen such cute little brightly colored bottle gourds in my life. I was sending these to the Click – Au Natural Event yesterday when it all happened!

Two Kaddu or Bottle Gourds 

I was in the mood of experimenting in my kitchen and I searched my refrigerator for ingredients. I found some Halal Chicken Sausages, Frozen peas ..  and I quicky came up with this idea and it was one brightly colored and appealingly delicious curry. We had it along with Roti.

Khush-Rang Kaddu Ka Saalan – Bright Colored Bottle Gourd Curry 

Ingredients:

• Bottle Gourd – 1, approx 400 gms, peeled and cut into quarters
• Chicken Sausages – 4
• Frozen peas – 2 cups
• Canola Oil – 2 tbsp
• Dried or Fresh Curry leaves – 4-5
• Ginger – 1 inch, finely chopped
• Yellow Onion – 1, large, sliced thin
• Salt – 1 1/2 tsp
• Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
• Turmeric – 1/3 tsp

Khush-Rang Kaddu Ka Saalan – Bright Colored Bottle Gourd Curry 

Method:

• Pour oil into a saucepan at medium high heat and as soon as it warms up, throw in the sliced onion, as they begin to brown up, add the chopped garlic and chopped chicken sausage and curry leaves and stir fry it for a minute more.
• Add the quartered bottle gourd, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and pour in some water and cover the lid. Let it cook until the bottle gourd is tender (You can add more water if needed, but do not add too much water, the curry should be pretty dry when done).
• Open the lid and add the frozen peas and let it cook for 5 minutes more. Taste and check it if the spices are adequate for your taste and add more if needed. Remove it from heat and Serve it warm.

Suggested Accompaniments: You can have these with any kind Rotis for a filling meal and a cup of flavored yoghurt.

I’m glad I got my entire blog back and am very very thankful to my hosting company who worked on retrieving my blog and bringing it back to life and in action again! I’m thrilled!! 

Luv,
Mona

Home-Made Mango Pickles are my favorite. And among all the kinds, I realy love this pickle a lot. It is so simple to prepare, hot as a pickle should be and absolutely delicious.

The first time I had this pickle was at my Aunt’s-Khala’s house I fell in love with it the moment I had tasted it at her place. And used to have it like a curry along with Chawal or Parathas.

Unripe green mangoes ~ Kairi

I love blog hopping, and a few days back, on Priya’s blog, I had seen this pickle, which reminded me so much of Rishte Ka Achaar that my mouth was watering, and I was so much craving for it, just like a pregnant lady would! Somedays ago, I had been to an Indian store where I saw some very young and large sized Raw Sour and Green Pickle Mangoes, and I quickly bought three of them, came home and prepared this pickle. I was so happy.

Rishte Ka Achaar – Mango Pickle

I do not have any idea why this pickle is named as ‘Rishte Ka Achaar’. I have no clue. But it is called so by everyone in my contacts, and even they do not have any idea about this. If anyone of you know why it is called so, please let me know. I will be very happy to come to know about it from my dearest Readers.

Try and get some very sour raw green mangoes for this pickle. And do not use the green mangoes for this pickle if they are not very sour.

Rishte Ka Achaar – Mango Pickle

Ingredients:

Unripe and Sour Green Pickle Mangoes – 3, large
Dry Roasted Black Cumin Seed Powder – 1 1/2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 1/2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds – 2 tsp
Dry Red Chillies – 4
Turmeric – 1/3 tsp
Curry leaves (fresh) – 6
Green Chillies – as per your taste, chopped or slit (optional)
Canola oil – 3 tbsp

Rishte ka achar

Method:

1. With a damp towel, wipe the raw green mangoes clean and dry them with a paper towel throughly. Throughly dry your hands and knife. Carefully, peel the skin, deseed them and cut into very small pieces.
2. In a flat glass container with a tight lid, put the cut raw mango pieces and add salt and turmeric and mix well. Cover the lid tightly and put the container aside for 24 hours in a cool dark place.
3. The next day, you will see that the mango pieces have released a lot of juice. In a pan on medium high heat, pour oil and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry red chillies. As soon as they begin to pop, remove from heat. Let it cool completely. This is the tempering/baghaar.
4. After the baghaar has cooled off completely, pour it into the container with mango pieces, and also add red chilli powder, black cumin seeds powder and green chillies, if using, and mix well. Adjust the salt and red chilli powder according to your tastes. The Achaar is ready. You can now relish upon it.

Store it in a glass jar with an air tight lid. It keeps very weel if kept away from water. Always use a dry spoon when you have it and keep it covered and refrigerated.

Tip: After you have cut the mango into small pieces and deseeded it, do not throw away the seed, use it in Khatti Dal instead of using the tamaring or lemon as the souring agent. It makes your Dal khatti/sour and gives a very good flavor to it.

Luv,
Mona

Khadi Masoor Ki Dal reminds me of those beautiful sunny and summery Indian breakfasts, that consisted of warm Parathas and Khadi Masoor ki Dal. My Aunt-Mami used to prepare the best Khadi Dal. I always used to request some of it whenever I would go to visit her.

Khadi Masoor Ki Dal, served along with Afghani Roti

Khadi Dal is one very easy side dish that goes well along with Mirchi Ka Salan or Mahekhalya or Andey Ka Khatta Salan, Baghare Baingan and Basmati Chawal for a meal, or just with Parathas for a breakfast or brunch. This recipe is so quick to prepare that it is one of the very first dishes one learns when he/she starts to experiment in kitchen discovering their culinary skills.

You can garnish it with finely chopped cilantro/dhaniya and mint/pudina, or with finely chopped fresh dill/Suvabhaji. It tastes best along with chopped dill, but if unavailable you can also go by the cilantro and mint.

Khadi Masoor Ki Dal – Red Lentils curry
Serves – 4-6

Ingredients:

Split Red Lentils/Masoor Dal – 1 cup
Canola Oil/Sunflower Oil – 2 tbsp
Yellow Onion – 1, small sized, finely sliced
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Tomatoes – 1, large, finely chopped
Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp or to taste
Warm Water – 1 cup, to cook
Warm Water – 2 cups, to soak

for garnish:
Finely chopped Cilantro and Mint – 1 tbsp (or) Finely chopped Dill/Suvabhaji – 1 tbsp

Khadi Masoor Ki Dal – Dry Red Lentils

Method:

• Wash the lentils well in a strainer till water runs clean and soak them in a bowl of warm water-to soak for about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile in a pan on medium high heat, pour in oil and as soon it warms up add the sliced onions and stir fry them till they are golden brown in color.
• During this time, drain the soaking dal and throw away the water.
• Lower the heat and add ginger garlic paste, fry for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well. Add the drained dal and mix it well with a spoon. Pour in the warm water to cook and give it a stir. Cover the lid of the pan and let it cook on medium heat till a nice steam has formed inside. Keep an eye on it as soon as the dal is done remove it from heat (You can add a few drops of water and stir to mix gently if needed if the dal is still undone)
• Garnish it with fresh finely chopped dill(Suvabhaji) or fresh finely chopped cilantro and mint. Serve immediately.

Suggested Accompaniments: Mahekhalya or Andey Ka Khatta Salan or Baghare Baingan or Mirchi Ka Salan and Basmati Chawal, or Parathas..

This delicious dal is my entry to the event ‘Delicious Dals from India’ being hosted by Suma at her blog Veggie Platter.

Luv,
Mona

Today is the first official day of Spring here and the forecast nowhere shows such signs. It will be remaining cloudy with a few showers of snow and the temperatures remaining in ‘minus’ for some more time. There are a few signs of sun only the next week, which again are not very consistent. I hope Spring arrives very soon. Winter has been too beautiful, loved it so much, but i admit it gave many problems to my dear hubby.. the shoveling, the problem with car and snow troubled him a lot. I am waiting for spring, then summer, mainly because i can take my grill out, and also plant a little vegetable garden inshallah. So looking forward to it..

Speaking about planting your backyard with plants and herbs, ginger is the simplest. Whenever i see some rhizomes with buds, i just plant them in a pot, keep it well watered, and in some time i see the pot full of ginger rhizome. It comes very useful to me, and it keeps fresh in the soil.

Adraki Murgh – Ginger Chicken

I prepared this dish with these fresh ginger rhizomes. And it is also one of the quick non-vegetarian dishes that i prepare quite often in my house. Today i share with you the procedure of how i prepare Ginger Chicken. I believe the flavor of chicken goes very well along with ginger. They are made for one another. The sharp pungent taste of ginger, the sweet flavor of onion, and chicken is this dish is perfectly delectable. Irf loves this dish.

Adraki Murgh – Ginger Chicken

Serves:6-8

Ingredients:

To Marinate-

• Chicken Boneless Breast Meat/Murgh – 800 gms, washed, pat dried and cubed into bite size pieces
• Ginger juliennes – 3 tbsp
• Garam Masala – 2 tsp
• Yogurt/Dahi – 3 tbsp
• Red Chilli Powder/Lal Mirch Powder – 2 tsp
• Salt/Namak – 2 tsp
• Turmeric/Haldi – 1/3 tsp

Other Components-

• Cloves/Laung – 3
• Canola/Sunflower Oil – 3 tbsp
• Curry leaves (fresh) – 6-8
• Yellow Onion – 1, large, thinly sliced
• Scallions/Hari Pyaz – chopped, for garnishing
• Ginger juliennes – 1 tbsp

Method:

• In a bowl or a resealable plastic bag, marinate the chicken with the ingredients under the heading ‘To Marinate’. Let the chicken marinate for about 2-4 hours in the refrigerator. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature atleast an hour befor you plan to cook it. (Remember this always)
• Later, heat oil in a non-stick heavy bottomed pan at medium high heat and throw in the cloves and thinly sliced onions. Stir fry it till the onion is lightly browned. Add the curry leaves and saute it for just a minute more.
• Add the marinated chicken and mix it well with the sauteed onion mixture. Close the lid for about 15 minutes. Later, open the lid and stir it gently, being careful not to break the tender chicken pieces.
• Let it cook uncovered for a little more time, till it is quite dry. Garnish with the ginger juliennes and spring onions.

Suggested Accompaniments: Parathas or Naan or Pulao..

Luv,
Mona