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Paneer Biryani

by 11 Comments

paneerbiryaniname

This is a treat for the vegetarians. Aromatic and flavorful one pot meal!

I usually do biryanis on weekends. I had half of the paneer left over from paneer burji. So wanted to do something with paneer for weekend. And i asked my friend for paneer recipe ideas 🙂 and she did say me few amazing ones but more of sweets :)! I did not want to make a lunch and also sweet. So, wanted to cook quickly but a heavy happy sunday lunch. And 🙂 I did this lovely paneer biryani. I have had paneer biryani only once in my life. But as I always say Paneer is my favorite. If you say “Paneer”, I am in! There are a lot of ways to do a biryani. You can do layering like this “vegetable Biryani“, or boil the meat and then do layering like this “lamb biryani” or just marinate overnight and cook the biryani like this “shrimp biryani“. For all the above recipes I cooked the rice separately. This time for the paneer briyani, I blended the masala and all ingredients and then cooked the rice and masala together. It was just lovely.

I have few other paneer recipes 🙂 here and I loved every single recipe!!! 🙂 – Cashew paneer, paneer Makhanwala, Malai Methi paneer , Matar Paneer, how to make paneer at home

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5.0 from 1 reviews
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Paneer Biryani
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Oil – 1tbsp
  • Bay leaf – ½
  • Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
  • Cloves – 3
  • Cardamom pods -2
  • Yogurt – 2 tbsp
  • Basmati Rice – 3 cups
  • Biryani Masala – 1 tbsp
  • Red chilli powder – 1 tsp


  • for garnish:
  • Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
  • Ghee – 2 tbsp
  • Mint – 2 tbsp finely chopped (to garnish)

    For the paneer masala:
  • Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
  • Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
  • Black pepper powder – ½ tsp
  • Besan flour- 1 tbsp
  • Salt – 2 tsp
  • Paneer cubes – ½ cup

    For fried onions:
  • Onions – 2 small onions, ½ cup, sliced thinly
  • Cashewnuts – 6
  • Oil – to fry (3 - 4 tbsp)

    For rice masala:
  • Cashew nuts – 6
  • Khus khus (white poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
  • Cumin seeds/ jeera – ½ tbsp
  • Fennel seeds – ½ tbsp.
  • Coconut – 2 tbsp
  • Garlic – 4 pods
  • Ginger – 1 inch
  • Green chilli – 4
  • Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
  • Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped finely.
Instructions
  1. Wash and soak rice for atleast 30 -40 minutes.

    For Fried onions:
  2. Heat a pan with oil, add the sliced onions and cook in medium heat till turn golden brown. Add cashews in the end and fry too. Stir in the middle so that it does not stick to the bottom. Set aside.


    for paneer:
  3. Mix all the ingredients under “paneer masala” and add the paneer cubes. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of butter. Now add the marinated paneer and coat till the paneer gets golden brown.


  4. For masala:
  5. Grind the garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, cashews,coconut(optional), poppy seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, chillis with two tbsp. of water into a smooth paste.
  6. Now take a big pan, add oil or ghee in medium heat, add the spices (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves), and then add the tomatoes and grinded paste and sauté them till the tomatoes are not raw and little mushy.
  7. Now add the yogurt, chilli powder, biryani powder and mix well. I always move the skillet away from the heat when adding yogurt which prevents it from curdling.
  8. Now after returning the skillet back to the stove, add the rice and salt and water. ( Quantity of water to be added is for one cup of rice , it is 1.5 cups of water). Mix well and close the lid tight and keep it in medium heat for 10 minutes. Now add the marinated paneer, fried onions and chopped mint for garnish and keep it in low for 5 minutes.
  9. Drizzle the saffron and milk over the rice and Switch off, and keep it closed for another 5 minutes.They will help the paneer get the masala flavors from rice and vice versa.
Notes
1. You can skip the paneer marination and add paneer directly.
2. You can skip coconut while grinding and add coconut instead of water while boiling.
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Serve with garlic raita/ cucumber raita or Mirchi ka salan.

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Spinach Garlic Curry

by 54 Comments

SpinachGarlicCurry

A simple garlic spinach curry, uniquely flavored with milk. I’ll place this right up with my most-loved comfort foods.

To be frank, when I really feel like having comfort home food, I have few recipes that I would like to make –  vengaya kuzhambu, rasam, mor kuzhambu, potato roast and there comes this recipe “spinach garlic curry”. I just love this recipe. This makes me feel good after having it 🙂 I am not exaggerating. I feel so! I always make this spinach curry with potato roast and basmati rice. I really like the flavors of spinach curry and basmati rice and with sides I need my potato roast. You should try this combo! It is just awesome! You can even have this as sides to roti or just plain rice. It can be made as vegan by adding coconut milk or soy milk. I came to know about this recipe from my friend Priyanka. She used to make it for us 🙂 I just adapted this recipe from that. Before having this, I was wondering spinach and milk combination, it did not feel good 🙂 Now I am in love with this! Thank you Priyanka :)!!!!

Vegan Note – . You can use coconut milk/ soy milk instead of milk to make it completely vegan.

Spinach-2

4.7 from 14 reviews
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Spinach Garlic Curry
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • • Cumin seeds (jeera) – 2 tsp
  • • Garlic – 8, chopped finely
  • • Onion – 1, chopped finely
  • • Green chilli – 1, chopped finely
  • • Tomato – ½, chopped finely
  • • Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
  • • Spinach – 3 cups, chopped or whole
  • • Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
  • • Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
  • • Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
  • • Milk – ½ cup
  • • Oil – 2 tbsp
  • • Salt – as needed
  • • Coriander leaves – For garnish
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed non-stick skillet over medium heat, add jeera, garlic and add the onions and chillies and fry until they are golden brown.
  2. Now add the tomatoes, salt and turmeric and fry until golden brown.
  3. Now stir in the chopped spinach to this and add 2 tbsp of water and close the lid. Simmer it for few minutes till the spinach leaves shrink.
  4. Now add the chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Fry this for a minute.
  5. Now add milk and Stir in the mixture few times and the milk should evaporate 90%.
  6. Now switch off and Garnish with coriander leaves.
Notes
1. You can use coconut milk/ soy milk instead of milk to make it completely vegan.
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Parmesan oven baked potato wedges with mint dip

by 4 Comments

PotatoWedges-5
Crispy oven baked potatoes coated with freshly grated parmesan and a generous dose of garlic! They are crispy, flavorful and delicious!They are simple and perfect every time i make them. Crispy on outside and soft on inside. They are irresistible all over. 
I made this yesterday with a nutella mug cake for brunch. Perfect for one 🙂 I just loved it! Finished it and was not hungry till night. I usually like to cook good on the weekends but yesterday I was super lazy so just was thinking loads of recipes. My only criteria was it should be quick. so made these both and was amazing!!
I do these potato wedges always and it is always perfect the every time i make. It has never failed me. But be careful about the salt. Parmesan has salty taste so do not add more salt to the potatoes. You don’t want your potatoes to be salty. you can even make these without parmesan.
PotatoWedges-3
 
 
5.0 from 1 reviews
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Parmesan oven baked potato wedges
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • Potatoes – 5
  • Red Onion – ½
  • Sea salt – ¼ cup
  • Garlic - 1 tbsp, minced
  • Dried basil – ¼ tsp
  • Paprika/Chilli powder – ¼ tsp
  • Black pepper – ¼ tsp
  • sugar – 1 tsp
  • Oil – 2 tbsp
  • parsley – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Parmesan Cheese – ¼ cup
    Cream Cheese Mint Dip:
  • Cream Cheese/sour cream/yogurt - 2 tbsp
  • Pepper - 1 tsp
  • Mint - 2 tsp
  • lime juice - 1 tsp
Instructions
  1. Wash & cut potatoes into wedges by cutting lengthwise in half then slice each half into 3 slices.
  2. Place the potatoes in a bowl of water with two cups of cold water. Let them stand for 30 mins. Then pat dry with paper towels.
  3. Preheat oven to 450˚F
  4. In a bowl, mix the salt, garlic, chilli powder, pepper powder, sugar, dried basil and 1 tbsp of oil. . And toss the rest of the mixture with the dry potatoes in it.
  5. Take a baking sheet and place the tossed potatoes.
  6. Put them in oven and cook potatoes after 30 mins until the potatoes are cooked through, browned and crispy.
  7. Toss the potatoes and onions with the chopped parsley and grated Parmesan.
  8. Mix the ingredients under cream cheese mint dip. You can even use yogurt or sour cream instead of cream cheese.
Notes
1. You can use the parchment paper to line in the baking sheet.
2. Coriander can be used instead of parsley to garnish
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Restaurant Style Lamb Biryani

by 7 Comments

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Rich and delicious biryani made with lamb. It is surely a festive dish and this is perfect to cook when you have guests over or make it for dinner parties. You are going to love this rice flavorful rice. This is an exotic Indian lamb biryani in a restaurant style. Each and every time when I make lamb biryani, I try different methods 🙂 just to differentiate and have different taste each time.


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There are varieties of biryani are prepared like Hyderabadi biryani, Mughal biryani, chettinadu biryani, Kashmiri biryani. The style of preparation and the rice used to make this biryani gives a unique delicious taste. In lamb biryani, the main thing is that the lamb has to be cooked for long or have to be in whistles. Even you can use meat tenderizer. But I personally boil them for long or put in pressure cooker for 5 – 6 whistles to make the lamb perfectly cooked.

LAmbBiryani-2

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Restaurant Style Lamb Biryani
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 5
 
Ingredients
  • For the masala:
  • • Cashew nuts – 6
  • • Khus khus (White poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
  • • Cumin seeds/ Jeera – ½ tbsp.

    For fried onions:
  • • Onions – 1 cup, 2 onions, sliced thinly
  • • Cashewnuts - 6
  • • Oil – to fry

    For layering:
  • • Mint leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • • Cilantro Leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • • Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
  • • Ghee – 2 tbsp

    For the rice:
  • • Basmati rice – 2 cups
  • • Salt – 2 tbsps
  • • Cumin Seeds/ Jeera – 1 tbsp

    For the lamb:
  • • Oil – 1 tbsp
  • • Bay leaf – ½
  • • Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
  • • Cloves – 3
  • • Cardamom pods – 2
  • • Onion – 1, sliced thinly
  • • Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
  • • Full fat yogurt – ½ cup
  • • Garlic – 4 whole
  • • Green chilli – 5, slit
  • • Tomato – 1, sliced thinly
  • • Biryani masala – 1 tbsp
  • • Red Chilli powder –1 tsp
  • • Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
  • • Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped finely
  • • Lamb – 1 lb
Instructions
  1. Grind the cashew, poppy seeds and cumin seeds into a smooth paste, using as little water as possible. Set aside.
  2. Deep fry the sliced onions when it is hot. Don’t overcrowd the oil. When the onions turn light brown, remove from oil and drain on paper towel. The fried onion will crisp up as it drains. Also fry the cashewnuts till golden brown. Set aside.
  3. Wash the rice and soak in water for twenty minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, take a big wide pan, add oil in medium heat, add the sliced onions, add the blended paste, to it add the green chillies, ginger garlic paste and garlic and fry for a minute.
  5. Then add the tomatoes and sauté them well till they are cooked and not mushy.
  6. Then to it add the red chilli powder, biryani powder, mint, coriander leaves and sauté them well.
  7. Add the yogurt and mix well. I always move the skillet away from the heat when adding yogurt which prevents it from curdling.
  8. Now after returning the skillet back to the stove, add the washed lamb and salt and ½ cup water and mix well. Cook for 1 hour and cook it covered in medium low heat or put it in a pressure cooker for 6 whistles. If the water is not drained totally, heat it by keeping it open.
  9. Take another big pan, add thrice the cup of rice you use, and boil it. When it is boiling high, add the rice, salt and jeera and mix well. After 7 minutes exact or when the rice is 80% done. Switch off and drain the rice.
  10. Now, the layering starts. To the lamb, pat and level it. Add the drained hot rice on the top of it. Garnish with fried onions, ghee, mint, coriander leaves and saffron dissolved in milk.
  11. Cover the dish and bake in a 350f oven for 15 minutes or till the cooked but not mushy. Or cook in the stove medium heat for 12 minutes and lowest heat for 5 minutes. And switch off. Mix and serve hot!
Notes
1. If you are cooking in oven, do make sure to cook in a big oven safe pan and cover it tight and then keep in oven for the final step.
2. You can skip biryani masala if you don’t have and add just garam masala (1 tsp and red chilli powder – 3 tsp instead of 1 tsp)
3. If it is spicy in the end, squeeze some lemon, it will reduce the heat and enhance the flavors also.
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Taste perfect with raita or mirchi ka salan. Even having it plain is delicious.

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Mumbai Style Egg Bhurji

by 10 Comments

EggBhurji_nameIndian scrambled eggs, spicy and loaded with veggies. Perfect for a healthy breakfast or pairs well with rotis or a sandwich filling.

I would say it is one of the Mumbai’s famous and fast selling foods when it comes to street corners and food stalls. It is also called as Anda bhurji, scrambled eggs, Bhurji pav. This will stand out of all the dishes on your dining table. I used colorful peppers to make it look more beautiful.

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It has onions, ginger, tomato, green chillis and green red peppers. You can even use peas in these. I have used pav bhaji masala in this recipe. Pav bhaji is a popular Indian chat food in India and this masala is used in this recipe. You can get this masala at any Indian grocery stores. You can replace 2 tsp of pav bhaji masala with 1:1 Red chilli powder and garam masala powder.

It is so easy to make these. And as I always say, eggs are saviors if you don’t have anything or lazy to make a time consuming dinner. They serve best when had in the breakfast. Very healthy! You can also have them with rice and some curry. Or just have it as a snack in the evening with some tea. You can also place them in pita or taco or have it in a sandwich filling.

4.0 from 1 reviews
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Mumbai Style Egg Bhurji
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Eggs – 3 large.
  • Onion – 1 small, finely chopped
  • Green chillies – 2, finely chopped
  • Green capsicum – 1, finely chopped ( I added green and red half and half)
  • Grated ginger – 1 tsp
  • Tomato – 1 small, finely chopped
  • Pav bhaji masala – 2 tsp ( or 1 tsp chilli powder and 1 tsp garam masala)
  • Pepper powder – ½ tsp
  • Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
  • Butter – 1 dollop
  • Coriander leaves – 3 tbsp, finely chopped
  • Milk – 2 tsp
  • Salt – 1 tbsp
  • Oil – 2 tsp
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, break one egg at a time and whisk the egg yolks and whites together until light and fluffy.
  2. To the egg mixture, add the salt, turmeric powder, pav bhaji masala and pepper powder. Whisk well till they all combine well.
  3. Take a wok/ pan on medium heat and add 2 tsp of oil, add the grated ginger, the chopped onions, the finely chopped bell peppers and the green chillies. Sauté those until the onions and peppers are soft and tender.
  4. Now add the chopped tomatoes to it, and then sauté those until the tomatoes are lightly softened but not very mushy.
  5. Now add the egg mixture to it, keep stirring the mixture continuously until you begin the eggs coming together. And also they should have the crumbly texture. Keep stirring or else it may stick to the pan.
  6. When they have cooked completely, add the butter and milk and stir well.
  7. Switch off and Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
Notes
1. Adding milk makes it not dry.
2. reduce the green chilli if you like it not spicy.
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Serve these delicious egg bhurji with bread for breakfast or make it as side dish for any curry and rice or make this dish for tea time snack.

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Almond Cranberry Orange Biscotti

by 2 Comments

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Traditional biscotti with almonds and cranberries infused with orange flavor. It is moist and rich.

They have lower fat content than most cookies as the biscotti are baked twice for an extra crunchy texture. Without the egg yolks, they have no extra fat at all.  You can replace the almons with pistachiods,walnut,pcecans and what not! 😀 When you are having tea or coffee, it is a perfect light dessert to serve with.  I made them in loads and stored in an airtight container. And also they are perfect gifts!

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I usually like to make every small thing at home. After making these, I thought I should never buy them at stores. Most times it is hard, dry and too bland. My sister has the store bought ones 😉 but I liked them. It is not always same. Whenever I go to her house, she has wheat bread or oats for the morning 🙂 I will be in vacation mode, so she always gets me loads of junks for me to have! 🙂 She will keep them on the top of her refrigerator, I will go bring the box and start muching from the time I wake up 🙂 Sisters are so good and my sister is even more special to me!!! 🙂 She is always been there for me from the day I was born. Never jealous, we have never had even small fights :)! She is that sweet!!!

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Almond Cranberry Orange Biscotti
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 50
 
Ingredients
  • All purpose flour – 2 cups
  • Baking powder – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 cup
  • Vanilla – ½ tsp
  • Vegetable oil – 5 tbsp
  • Orange Zest –from 1 orange
  • Orange juice – 3 tbsp
  • Salt – ½ tsp
  • Eggs – 2, large
  • Flaked Almonds – ¾ cup
  • Dried cranberries -3/4 cup
Instructions
  1. Keep oven racks in the middle and top of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder to combine. Take ¼ cup of the flour mixture; toss the orange zest, almonds and cranberries. Mix well and make sure there are no lumps. Take this and mix into the big bowl of the flour mixture.
  4. Beat the eggs, oil and juice and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix but do not over mix.
  5. It will be kind of sticky dough, dump dough onto a heavily floured board or cleaned floured tile and divide in to 4 equal portions.
  6. Roll each piece into a log that’s about 12 inches long, and set the logs about 3 inches apart into the baking sheet. Press to flatten each log so that they are 2 inches wide.
  7. Bake them now till they are golden and firm near the center. I rotated my baking sheets half way through to insure even baking. It took me about 25-28 minutes.
  8. Let the logs cool for another 20 minutes. Slice them in a cutting board, cut them diagonally into ½ inch slices.
  9. Arrange the slices on the baking sheets, laying the cut side down. Return to oven and bake for 8 minutes. Turn the cookies and rotate the baking sheets and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden and lightly browned.
  10. Let it cool on baking sheets for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  11. Store it in an airtight container and use for months
Notes
1. Until cooled completely, it would not be perfect.
2. Do rotate the baking sheets in step 7 and step 9 to cook it venly.
3. You can replace almonds with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or so on And also cranberries with raisins.
4. Avoid back and forth motion so you don’t shatter the loaf when you cut the biscotti. Cut it in one go.
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Strawberry Lemon Milkshake

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Strawberry Lemon Milkshake-2

Milkshakes are great addiction to me. These are my favorite snacks after work, especially on a summer. It is something simple, fresh, and sweet and refreshing. It makes me moving. I don’t personally like to have bananas plain but smoothies without bananas are sure a big NO to me. Sometimes I add different fruits to the banana base. Strawberries and blue berries are my favorite. I used milk for this. I did not want to feel guilty doing it with ice-cream you can very well use Greek yogurt or ice-cream. If you don’t get fresh strawberries, you can use the frozen ones and forget about the ice. It gives exactly the same taste, color and texture. Try to adjust the consistency of the milkshake by adding milk. 

Strawberry Lemon Milkshake-4

Strawberry Lemon Milkshake 

5.0 from 1 reviews
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STRAWBERRY LEMON MILKSHAKE
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 
Ingredients
  • Fresh strawberries -10
  • Fresh banana -1
  • Milk/ greek flavoured yogurt/ vanilla icecream – 1 cup
  • Ice cubes - 5
  • Lemon zest
  • Extras:
  • Lemon Zest
  • Sugar
  • Strawberries - 2
Instructions
  1. Mix some sugar and lemon zest together. Keep it aside.
  2. Blend 10 strawberries, 1 banana, ice cubes and milk together until smooth.
  3. Top it with some lemon zest
  4. Take a strawberry and dip in the sugar-lemon zest.
  5. Serve the shake with the lemon-sugar rimmed glass.
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Curd Rice/ Thayir Sadham Recipe

by 4 Comments

CurdRice-2nameA perfect South Indian Style one pot meal with tips for making it for lunch box and parties.

I am sure many would be wondering if a recipe is needed for curd rice as many would be having it on daily basis. But I guess there would be people who have no idea how to make curd rice or may be perfect curd rice for parties. And also it’s almost my day to day basis food, so wanted to share it here in my space 🙂 It uses the simplest ingredients to create a quick, refreshing and comfort meal. It is great to have when your stomach has not been well. And best to have in summer because of its soothing and cooling properties. And it is easily digestible. 😉 And many days 😉 we will be like “no mood to cook!”, so this is my savior 😀 or sometimes upma or even egg rice would do if you can have eggs.

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I almost end most of my south Indian meals with curd rice. I would just eat plain rice with buttermilk. But if I wanted to make it for lunch boxes or for parties, I prefer with seasonings.  You can always use your left over rice for making this 🙂

I have prepared the recipe to have immediately, so if you want to make it for lunchbox or parties change the quantity of milk and curd as mentioned in the tips section.

Tips for lunch Box and parties:

  1. If you are making for lunch box or parties, for having 8 hours in advance I mean, add 1.25 cups of milk for 1/2 cup of rice. And 1 tbsp of yogurt should do the job. Bring it to a loose consistency.
  2. Never use hand for mixing if you are preparing this to have later.
  3. Never add curd to the hot rice. It will leave some water. That is the reason that you might see your lunchbox to leak and when you open the box, you will see the rice and curd separate.
  4. And add hot or warm milk to the rice immediately after mashing the rice.
  5. You can also fine chopped mango slices with carrots, nuts, grapes 🙂
  6. It is perfect if the rice is little mashed. So if you are making fresh rice, add some extra water and give two –three whistles extra. Or if you are making with leftover rice, add some water to it and keep it in cooker for another 2 whistles. Or in rice cooker, add some water and it will boil for more minutes and it would be perfect.
  7. Before adding curd, ensure the rice is cooled down, because adding curd to hot rice will kill the live cultures in the curd and it is not good for your stomach.

Curd rice taste great with some potato roast and pickle or okra garlic fry.

CurdRice

5.0 from 2 reviews
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Curd Rice/ Thayir Sadham Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 cup
 
Ingredients
  • Raw rice – ½ cup
  • Plain yogurt/Curd – ½ cup
  • Milk – ½ cup
  • Butter – 1 tsp (Optional)
  • Cucumber – 2 tbsp (Finely Chopped)
  • Carrot – 1 tbsp (Finely Chopped)
  • Mango – 2 tbsp (Finely chopped)

    To temper:
  • Oil – 2 tsp
  • Mustard – 1 tsp
  • Urad Dal – 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida – a generous pinch
  • Red chilli - 1, broken
  • Ginger – 1 tsp (Finely chopped)
  • Green chilli – 1, (finely chopped)
  • Curry Leaves – 1 sprig
  • Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped
Instructions
  1. Wash the rice well and pressure cook with 2 cups of water for 5 whistles in medium flame. Once done, mash the rice well. Pour the hot milk and add butter at this stage and mix well.
  2. Let it cool down fully. Add the curd/yogurt and mix well.
  3. Now add the carrot, cucumber, salt and mango and mix well.
  4. Lastly temper with the items under “to temper” table in the same order and mix well with the rice mixture.
Notes
1. Adjust curd, milk and water according to your consistency.
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 CurdRice

Roasted Tomato Garlic Raita / Tomato Garlic Yogurt dipping :

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GarlicRaita-2nameA must try to give a different flavor to your plain raita! This is a unique combo and that sautéed garlic in yogurt gives great flavor. I always had loved raitas and it is perfect as a side dish or as a dipping sauce for many appetizers, salad dressing and also perfect topping for many tacos :)!

Garlic Raita is famous in Hyderabad and they make it as a side for biryani. I did this for biryani too. And it was perfect! It took my vegetable biryani to another level.  Raita is an Indian side dish where the creamy yogurt is mixed with any kind of vegetable or fruit and a bit of spice. I have my raitas even plain without asking for rice 😉 It is a perfect cooling agent. And whenever I call someone who is not Indian, I make sure I prepare some raita. If they find the food spicy, they can have it with raita.

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I know many might think why to take extra step of sautéing the tomatoes and garlic, instead just add the tomatoes and garlic plain! 🙂 Garlic gives strong flavor if added plain and I wanted to give that tomato color and easy for kids to have if they don’t have big chunks. I usually make cucumber raita, carrot raita, cucumber carrot raita, onion raita, onion tomato raita, okra raita J You can pretty much make raita with any fruits and veggies you fancy!

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Roasted Tomato Garlic Raita / Tomato Garlic Yogurt dipping :
Author: 
Recipe type: Side
Cuisine: Indian
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Thick Yoghurt – 1 cups (You could use even greek yogurt)
  • Oil – 2 tsp
  • Tomato – 1 cup, chopped finely
  • Green chilli – 1 Finely Chopped
  • Ground cumin – ½ tsp
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Garlic – 2, Minced
  • Garlic – 4 , sliced thin
  • Red chilli flakes – ¼ tsp, garnish
  • Fresh cilantro – 1 tbsp, finely Chopped
Instructions
  1. Take a small pan; add the oil and sliced garlic and roast till golden. Keep aside.
  2. In the same pan, add the chopped tomatoes and minced garlic and salt and sauté well. And keep aside.
  3. Combine the yogurt with the sauted tomatoes and cumin powder. Mix well.
  4. Garnish with red chilli flakes, sliced garlic and coriander leaves.
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Serve it chill with some spicy dish like pulao or biryani or with parathas or serve it as a dressing for salad or taco.!

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Restaurant Style Vegetable Biryani Recipe

by 41 Comments

Vegbiryanititle

 This delicious layered biryani is fragrant, flavorful, and filling. Carrot, beans, peas and potatoes cooked in gravy of spicy yogurt and served with basmati rice topped with cashews and fried onions.

 If you think biryani is hard to make, I will surely say NO. It surely takes a bit of time. But all the hard work in the kitchen will be well worth the end result.  An authentic vegetable biryani is always slow cooked on “dum”. It is an ancient technique of cooking on dum as they believe it brings out its uniqueness and originality. This is done by cooking in steam by not allowing the steam to pass. The food gets cooked on its own steam and juices on slow fire and infuses the flavors and aroma of the herbs and spices in the food.

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It is a perfect Sunday lunch idea. I made this for the weekend and I just loved it. I usually like to make veg biryanis on a weekend for the time it takes and also 😉 it makes my weekend complete after having a meal like this 🙂 I made veg biryani, garlic tomato raita, curd rice and papad. I love to have biryanis with mirchi ka salan. It feels like you are in India if you have so :). The last time I had restaurant biryani was before three years in India. I am very choosy. If I don’t like it, I really don’t go to that place again. I loved the kailash parbat biryani 🙂 I am drooling as I type! :D! Actually I am drooling at my biryani 😉 picture and want to make it again 😉 even though I had it only yesterday 😀 There will be no one saying  No to biryanis, let it be vegetable biryani, chicken biryani, shrimp biryani, palak biryani ,chickpea briyani, potato biryani and so on!  My favorite is this :)!

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5.0 from 8 reviews
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Restaurant Style Vegetable Biryani Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 5 or 6
 
Ingredients
  • For the masala:
  • Cashew nuts – 6
  • Khus khus (White poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
  • Cumin seeds/ Jeera – ½ tbsp.[


    For fried onions:
  • Onions – ½ cup, 2 small onions, sliced thinly
  • Cashewnuts - 6
  • Oil – to fry


    For layering:
  • Mint leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • Coriander Leaves – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
  • Ghee – 2 tbsp


    For the rice:
  • Basmati rice – 2 cups
  • Salt – 2 tbsps
  • Cumin Seeds/ Jeera – 1 tbsp


    For the vegetables:
  • Oil – 1 tbsp
  • Bay leaf – ½
  • Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
  • Cloves – 3
  • Cardamom pods – 2
  • Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
  • Full fat yogurt – ½ cup
  • Garlic – 4 whole
  • Green chilli – 2, slit
  • Biryani masala – 1 tbsp
  • Red Chilli powder –1 tsp
  • Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
  • Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped finely
  • Fresh beans – ½ cup, Chopped 1 inch thin
  • Carrot – 1 cup, chopped 1 inch thin
  • Peas – ½ cup
  • Potato – 2, chopped as cubes
Instructions
  1. Grind the cashew, poppy seeds and cumin seeds into a smooth paste, using as little water as possible. Set aside.
  2. Deep fry the sliced onions when it is hot. Don’t overcrowd the oil. When the onions turn light brown, remove from oil and drain on paper towel. The fried onion will crisp up as it drains. Also fry the cashewnuts till golden brown. Set aside.
  3. Wash the rice and soak in water for twenty minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, take a big wide pan, add oil in medium heat, add the spices like Bay leaf ,
  5. Cinnamon,Cloves,Cardamom pods ,sauté for a minute.Add the blended paste, to it add the green chillies, ginger garlic paste and garlic and fry for a minute.
  6. Then to it add the red chilli powder, biryani powder, mint, coriander leaves and sauté them well.
  7. Add the yogurt and mix well. I always move the skillet away from the heat when adding yogurt which prevents it from curdling.
  8. Now after returning the skillet back to the stove, add the vegetables and salt and ½ cup water and mix well. Cook for 10 minutes.
  9. When you do the seventh step, take another big pan, add thrice the cup of rice you use, and boil it. When it is boiling high, add the rice, salt and jeera and mix well. After 7 minutes exact or when the rice is 80% done. Switch off and drain the rice.
  10. The vegetables would have cooked by now and water would have drained.
  11. Now, the layering starts. To the vegetables, pat and level it. Add the drained hot rice on the top of it. Garnish with fried onions, ghee, mint, coriander leaves and saffron dissolved in milk.
  12. Cover the dish and bake in a 350f oven for 15 minutes or till the cooked but not mushy. Or cook in the stove medium heat for 12 minutes and lowest heat for 5 minutes. And switch off. Mix and serve hot!
Notes
1. If you are cooking in oven, do make sure to cook in a big oven safe pan and cover it tight and then keep in oven for the final step.
2. You can skip biryani masala if you don’t have and add just garam masala (1 tsp and red chilli powder – 3 tsp instead of 1 tsp)
3. If it is spicy in the end, squeeze some lemon, it will reduce the heat and enhance the flavors also.
4. Vegans can leave the ghee and replace yogurt with coconut milk
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Taste perfect with raita or mirchi ka salan. Even having it plain is delicious.

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Mango Pickle

by 1 Comment

mangoPickle-5Mango pickle made with homemade pickle powder.

It is prepared with spices like mustard powder, red chili powder and salt. It is known for its spiciness 🙂 you can enjoy the goodness of raw mango like this. Mango pickles are my favorite of all the pickles. To be frank, I love all pickles 😉

In India, my mom used to make pickles in summers. She used to make in bulk and store them in jars. They will last almost 6 -8 months! I pretty much have pickles with everything. Especially with parathas, dal and rice, and with of course curd rice. Later, it was more stores bought. But I always would prefer pickles made at home. My boyfriend does not like pickle much, so never felt like making it. But this time, it was more for me! 😉

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The combinations of mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds are perfect that it will give you the flavor of store bought pickle. You can use sesame oil or mustard oil. It is just, we need to heat and add the mustard oil and sesame oil can be added directly. If you do not have split mustard seeds or fenugreek seeds, just coarsely blend and add them (like pulse and grind)

 

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Mango Pickle
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Mangoes – 5 small, or 3 big, or 3 cups , chop with skin
  • Turmeric powder - 2tsp
  • Asafoetida powder – 1 tsp
  • Split Fenugreek seeds – 2 tbsp (methi kuria ), you can use whole fenugreek seeds
  • Broken Mustard seeds – 2 tbsp (rai kuria), you can use whole mustard seeds
  • Red chilli powder – ¼ cup
  • Red chilli – 3
  • Nigella seeds (Kalonji) – 1 tbsp
  • Fennel seeds, coarsely powdered – 1 tbsp
  • Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
  • Mustard oil – ½ cup, (or sesame oil, but do not heat if sesame oil)
  • Garlic – 4 (Remove the extra outer layers of garlic and keep just one thin layer intact with the pod.)
  • Salt – ¼ cup
Instructions
  1. Wash mangoes and dry them completely. You are doing this to make sure there is no moisture or dust left there.
  2. Cut the mangoes in half, deseed them and cut them into 1 inch pieces.
  3. Take a bowl, combine 1 tbsp salt, turmeric powder and cut mangoes. And soak them overnight or 6 hours until the mangoes release a large quantity of water.
  4. Drain the mangoes and place in a clean cloth/tissue for 2 hours.
  5. Heat a pan, roast the coriander seeds, red chilli for a min. Turn off the heat, cool it and blend them coarsely.
  6. Heat oil in a pan and keep aside till it cools down.
  7. In a bowl which is completely dry, combine the mangoes, salt, oil and other ingredients. Mix well Store it in a container for a week or two till they completely get the flavor and tenderness in the pickle. And they are ready to use
Notes
1. You can use whole fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds and grind them.
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Storage instructions:

  1. First and foremost step is to remove moisture. Moisture is the worst thing for pickles, so store them in refrigerator.
  2. Make sure to use clean spoon, clean jar to store without no moisture.
  3. Always make sure the lid is closed tight.
  4. I stored in few jars like this to use when I can. You can store them up to 4 months.

 

This taste perfect with plan rice or dal.

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Potato Roast

by 4 Comments

PotatoCurry2Perfectly roasted spicy potatoes with caramelized onions!

This recipe is my Mom’s recipe. She always make this for me J whenever there is garlic rasam or onion kuzhambu, she makes sure she prepares this. I missed it so I prepared this for myself  :D! I love to eat them always. It reminds me of my childhood. 🙂 I am sure she will be happy if she checks this recipe here. I am sure this is a bachelors cooking recipe, as we can make it easily in no time.

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All you need to do is to boil the potatoes and roast them with the spice powers and onions. If you don’t have sambar powder just makes the recipe with red chilli powder and turmeric powder.

PotatoCurry

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Roasted Potato Curry
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • Oil – 1 tbsp
  • Mustard – 1 tsp
  • Urad dal – 1 tsp
  • Curry leaves – 1 Sprig
  • Onion – 1, lengthwise cut (sliced)
  • Chilli powder – 1 tsp
  • Sambar powder – 2 tsp
  • Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
  • Potato – 3 Large
  • Salt -1 tbsp
Instructions
  1. Cut each potatoes into four and pressure cook for three whistles or microwave for 12 minutes. Cool it down, peel off the skin, cut each piece into two or three.
  2. Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil, and temper with mustard seeds. When it crackles, add urad dal and when it turns golden brown , add the curry leaves and onion and fry till it becomes golden brown.
  3. Add salt, sambar powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder and the cubed potatoes. Add a tbsp. of water and mix well.
  4. Cook in low to medium flame for ten minutes, you don’t want to mash them, It has to be perfectly shaped and roasted. So turn carefully every 2-3 minutes. Cook until golden roasted evenly.
Notes
1. If you think the potatoes are getting stuck to the pan or getting brunt , just add more oil while turning.
2. You can garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
3. You can replace the sambar powder with chilli powder.
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