Peanut butter karela

There are two kinds of people, one who hate karela and second, whose favourite happens to be karela. Believe it or not, there is no middle way! Either you cant bear the sight of it or you love it to the point that they are your “favouritesttt”! I fall in the latter category. I love it in any form and so I keep experimenting with more and more flavours to go with it.

On most days, I hop my way around in the kitchen because of two little hands holding onto my legs so tight ensuring I don’t get to move much. This is why I have come up with the quickest way to satiate my want for Karela. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
250 gms tender karela (Bitter gourd)
2 heaped tsps peanut butter
Turmeric
5 garlic cloves minced
Salt to taste
5 curry leaves
2 tsp oil

Method
Finely chop karela, add a pinch of turmeric and salt. Boil it for one whistle in pressure cooker.
Let it cool down completely and then squeeze excess water.
Heat oil in a kadai, add curry leaves and garlic. Saute till garlic turns light brown.
Add karela and mix. Saute for 5 minutes and add peanut butter. Mix thoroughly. Check salt and add chilli powder if you wish to.

Saute for another 5 minutes and turn off the gas.

Enjoy peanut buttery karela (bitter gourd) with rice or chapati !!

ps – This is a great way to introduce karela to your kids too 🙂

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Egg Masala with a twist

There are probably a thousand ways of cooking eggs and every family has its special egg recipe, well here is mine.

Unlike preparing the masala and breaking eggs in it, chop boiled eggs to pieces and add to the masala. Trust me, the same masala will taste different in both versions! So you can alternate between these two styles of cooking eggs.

Ingredients (serves two)

4 hard boiled eggs
3 onions finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1/4 tsp sonth (Dry ginger powder)
1 tsp chinna ullipaya karam ( okay okay! don’t give me that look!! it is roasted red chillies crushed with garlic pods and some jeera!! there is no fixed proportion, just try it with whatever proportion you like.)
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup finely chopped coriander
2 tbsp +1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Okay, so as the picture on the right suggests, heat oil in a pan and add onions. When onions turn transparent, add tomatoes and simmer the flame.

When oil separates, add all the masalas along with lemon juice and mix well. Cover with lid for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tsp oil in a separate pan and fry the eggs as is till they turn golden brown. Now chop them into big chunks and add to the pan with masalas. Mix gently and sprinkle salt.

You are done! 

If you like, sprinkle some coriander at the time of serving. Serve with hot rotis/parathas 🙂 

Chicken Keema

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-36452076-1’]); _gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); A quintessential non veg dish that everyone should and must know in order to grow as a non veg cook, keema.

There are several ways of preparing keema and all are equally good and distinctive in taste. Here is one of the keema recipes..

Chicken keema reminds me of a movie called, “Chicken Khurana” , there was a dialog in the film, where curious Gyaani ji asks the retired chef about the secret behind his famous preparation, which I absolutely loved!

“Bata na Zaalim … kya daalta tha.. tu chicken khurana mein” 

hahaha 🙂

by the way, do you know what was the secret ingredient?? well I wouldn’t kill the suspense for you, watch the film to find out! very interesting I must say.

Lets jump to Chicken Keema now..

Ingredients
250 gms chicken keema
1/2 cup curd
1 onion finely chopped
3 spring onions finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
4 green chilly
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
8 garlic pods finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala

[Preferably, Shaan’s]

Salt to taste

Heat oil in a kadai. Add onions and fry till transparent, add ginger garlic paste and fry for few seconds. Add spring onions and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and simmer the flame, mix and cover with lid. After tomato is cooked,add the keema and mix well. Sprinkle salt and mix well. Cover the kadai with lid and wait till oil separates. Now add curd and mix well, cover with lid and let it look for 5 minutes.

Before turning off the gas, add garam masala and chopped coriander and mix well. Remember not to cook after adding garam masala, just cover with lid and leave it for another 5 minutes.


 Serve hot with rice/roti.
Another recipe that follows keema is chicken keema paratha

Hope you liked the recipe.. please do leave a comment, would love to hear from you 🙂

Cabbage Moong dal

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Simple and delicious cabbage in moong dal sabzi to go with rotis.

Ingredients (serves 2)

250 grams chopped cabbage

3/4 cup split moong dal

1/4 cup coconut cut into small pieces

5-6 garlic cloves

1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds)

Pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)

3 green chillies finely chopped

1/4 tsp rai (mustard seeds)

6 kadi patta (curry leaves)

1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander

Pinch of haldi 

2 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Boil cabbage in microwave cooker/ vegetable steamer/ pressure cooker 

[A microwave smart cooker is one in which there is no need to add water to the ingredient that has to be boiled. You need to add a little water in the outer container and the vegetable cooks in steam.

You should not add water to the vegetable for boiling unless you are going to use the stock also. Instead steam the vegetable with little bit salt.]

Half boil split moong dal. It should be bite like and not complete paste.

Grind coconut, garlic and jeera in a mixer. (Coarse grind) 

In a wok, add oil, when its hot, add rai, when it starts to splutter , add hing, curry leaves and green chillies.

Fry for 5 seconds and add coconut paste. Stir well and fry for 2 minutes.

Add boiled cabbage and fry on high flame for 5 minutes.

Add boiled moong dal and simmer the flame and cook covered for 5 minutes.

Now, in high flame, fry for 2 minutes. 

Turn off the flame, sprinkle coriander.

Serve hot with roti or dal chawal.