Dil Se..: December 2010

Dec 31, 2010

Veggie/Fruit of the month : Potato

This event was started by Priya and is all about veggies and fruits. Every month a veggie or fruit will be features and you could share your delicious recipes made out of the star ingredient. Thanks Priya, for the opportunity to host this lovely event. The star vegetable chosen for this month is Potato.

Who does not like potato right? We have countless recipes using the humble potatoes and countless varieties of potatoes - Baby Potatoes, fingerling Potatoes, Red potatoes. Purple Potatoes and the list goes on.. The potato is a versatile vegetable that is available in almost every country and all through the year.

Here are some guidelines for the event..

Cook any dish featuring POTATO. It could be a breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. It could be any course of the meal. But the main ingredient has to be potato. It can be cooked in any way or it can even be in raw form.

The recipe has to be vegetarian. Eggs are allowed.

You HAVE to make new recipes for this event. Archived posts are not allowed.

Please send in your entries by January 31st, 2011 to divyablogs[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the following details.

Name:
Recipe URL:
Picture attached:

Please link you blog post to the original event post along with this event announcement page.

Link your post to the original event post along with a link to this announcement page.

Feel free to use the logo.

Non bloggers can also email me your entry with a picture of the dish.

Happy cooking and have a great New Year!!

picture source: www.disney.com

Dec 21, 2010

Aloo Paratha with purple baby potatoes

Aloo Parathas are our favorite kind of stuffed parathas. I make parathas often for dinner with different kinds of stuffings. I tried these aloo parathas with baby purple potatoes. They were equally delicious as the normal aloo parathas. The potatoes quick really quick and I made these real quick. I mildly spiced the filling and they tasted great all by themselves. We had them with some yogurt, dal and pickle.

Ingredients (Makes 6 parathas)
Atta/ Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Water to knead the dough

For the filling:
Baby purple potatoes - 6
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Fresh coriander leaves/Cilantro - 2 tablespoons finely chopped
Salt to taste

Directions

Knead the dough with enough salt and water. The dough should be soft and pliable. Leave it aside for atleast 30 minutes.

Boil the potatoes until they turn real soft. Since I used the quick cooking baby potatoes, they got ready in less than ten minutes. Peel the potatoes and mash them well. Add the red chilli powder, garam masala, salt and the freshly chopped coriander leaves to the potato and mix well.

Make small lemon sized balls of the dough. Flatten it into a small circular disc using a rolling pin. It should be rolled out such that the ends are thinner than the center, so that the filling does not ooze out. Take a tablespoon of the potato mixture and place it in the middle of the rolled out dough. Grab the four sides of the dough and seal them well in the center to cover the filling. Dip the dough in some dry flour and roll it out carefully using a rolling pin taking care that the filling doesn't come out.

For step by step pictures of how to make the paratha check here

Heat a tawa/saucepan. Place the rolled out paratha on the tawa and drizzle some oil/ghee. Cook on both sides until you get golden brown spots. Add a dollop of ghee if you like :)

Serve warm with yogurt and pickle/ketchup.

Dec 15, 2010

Kashmiri Dum Aloo for ICC

This is one delicious curry I prepared for the Indian Cooking Challenge. It goes well with any dish - pulao, plain white rice, chapati, naan roti etc. I loved the tanginess of the curry due to the addition of yogurt. It is a different version of the normal curries prepared at my home. The spices filled my house with aroma and was so appetizing. I made my curry with purple baby potatoes and I shallow fried them instead of deep frying them as the recipe called for. This recipe is a keeper for sure.

Ingredients
(Recipe adapted from Indian Food)

Baby potatoes (I used the purple ones) - 8 or 9 in number
Cumin seeds (roasted and powdered) - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Kashmiri red chillies (roasted and powdered) - 3-4 (or) Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Fresh yogurt - 2 1/2 cups (must not be sour)
Ground Ginger powder - 1 teaspoon
Fennel/aniseed powder - 1 tablespoon
Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Mustard oil - 4 tablespoons
Cloves roasted and powdered - 6
A pinch of asafoetida/hing
Cooking oil to deep fry potatoes( I shallow fried the potatoes in 3 spoons oil)
Salt to taste
A cup of firm dough made from flour and water

Directions
Wash the potatoes and prick all over with a fork. Soak them in water for about 20 minutes.

Heat a pan and add 3 to 4 spoons of cooking oil. Shallow fry the potatoes for about 5 minutes till the skin turns its color. Drain on paper towels.

Make a paste of yogurt, chili powder, ground ginger, cardamom and fennel powders. Then add the potatoes well with this paste and keep it aside.

Heat the mustard oil in another pan, add the clove powder and asafoetida. Add about half a cup of hot water and salt to taste and bring to a boil. To this, add in the potato-yoghurt marinade, stir thoroughly and cover the pan.

To do the dum, seal the edges of the pan's cover with the dough made with flour and water to ensure no steam can escape. Alternatively, you could just cover the pan with a lid. Put on the stove, cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.

Switch off the flame, remove the cover and add the cumin powder and garam masala. Cover and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.

Serve warm with any dish. Tastes great with some peas pulao.

Dec 9, 2010

Cranberry Blackberry Crumble

I was supposed to post this crumble two days back for the 'Sweet Punch' baking series, and here I am late again. Better late than never right? I had a hell lot of cranberries lying in my fridge waiting to be used in some dish. I also had some blackberries with which I usually make smoothies lying my freezer. I also used chocolate chips and walnuts in the topping. The original recipe actually called for pear, chocolate and walnuts, but I modified the ingredients and used cranberry, blackberry and walnuts. They made a delightful crumble. I never knew it was so so easy to make crumbles. They taste great with some vanilla bean ice cream!

Ingredients (makes crumble in 4 ramekins)

Cranberries - 1/2 cup
Blackberries - 1/2 cup
Light brown soft sugar - 3 tablespoons
Lemon juice - 2 spoons
Lemon zest - 1/2 teaspoon

For the crumble
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Light brown soft sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter at room temperature - 1/2 cup
Walnuts(toasted) - 1/2 cup chopped roughly

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 4 ovenproof teacups or ramekins. In a medium bowl, mix together the cranberries,blackberries, brown sugar, lemon zest and juice. Divide the mixture between the teacups or ramekins, spooning over any juice.

To make the crumble, place the flour and butter in a medium bowl and, with your fingertips, rub together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, walnuts and chocolate.

Spoon the crumble over the pears and press down lightly. Place the crumbles on a baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with a scoop of good vanilla ice-cream.

It is that simple! Thanks for choosing this recipe Divya. We really enjoyed it.

Dec 6, 2010

Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies

My favorite way of having Peanut Butter is in the form of these cookies. I wanted to make something for the lovely ladies I was going to meet Priya, Anu, Shubha and Hetal at the LA Foodies meet. I decided to make an eggless version of these Peanut Butter Cookies. They came out crispy and were ready in less than an hour. We had an amazing time over some amazing food at Rajdhani, Artesia. Anu was so sweet to bring us a cute little bamboo cutting board along with some minty chocolatey goodness. Looking forward to meet more bloggers in future!

Moving on to the recipe for eggless peanut butter cookies..

Ingredients
Creamy unsalted Peanut Butter - 1 cup
Shortening - 1 cup
Granulated white sugar - 1 cup
Brown sugar - 1 cup packed
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour/ Maida - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degree F.
In a bowl, cream together the shortening, peanut butter, granulated white sugar, brown sugar and buttermilk until creamy and mixed thoroughly.
Now add the dry ingredients - baking soda, salt, baking powder and all purpose flour.
Mix together until just combined.
In a greased cookie sheet, drop a spoonful of cookie dough. You could either make a small ball between your palms and place them on the cookie sheet or just drop with a teaspoon or icecream scoop. Then flatten slightly with a fork.
Bake for around 10 to 12 minutes. When removing the cookie sheet from the oven, the cookies might be soft. But once they cool, they tend to become crispy.
Once cooled, store in an airtight container.

Look at the amazing gift Anu got for us!

Any food bloggers in and around LA? Check out this blog. You are more than welcome to join us in our next meet!

Dec 4, 2010

Show Me Your Curry Roundup

Hello friends,
I am finally here with the roundup of "Show Me The Curry" event. I am so thankful to everyone who sent in their amazing entries. I received a whopping 119 entries and it took a while to post the roundup and I apologize for the delay. Hope you enjoy the roundup!

Also do check out the current event - Show Me Your Cookbook!

Sunitha - Carrot kofta curry
Sunitha - Chickpea Curry