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Brinjal Salan/ Baby Eggplant Spicy curry

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Brinjal SalanIt’s a popular dish made with fried baby eggplant, peanut, sesame seeds and coconut. The curry goes well with biryani.

I came to know about this dish when I stayed in Hyderabad for few months. This dish really stood out to me, I say that because it’s been 10 years but I still remember this dish very much with other beautiful memories. It goes really well with hyderabadi biryani. It’s light spiced, creamy and tangy. It looks really simple and normal dish but it is bursting with flavors. This goes well with jeera rice, roti,naan or phulka.

This recipe was shared by my bestie and I shared in my instagram recently. Too many people wanted the recipe so here I am posting it. Recipe that I had to type to share with everyone and I made this with mushroom biryani.

Other salan recipes: Mirchi ka salan, Mushroom salan, Bhindi ka salan

Brinjal Salan

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Brinjal/Baby Eggplant Salan
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • Nuts Paste:
  • • Peanuts – 1tbsp
  • • Grated coconut – 1 tbsp
  • • Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
  • • Khus Khus/ poppy seeds/ kasa kasa – 1 tbsp
  • • Cloves – 3
  • • Cardamom – 3
  • • Cinnamon – 1 inch
  • • Chilli powder – 1 tsp
  • • Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
  • Fry:
  • • Oil – 3 tbsp
  • • Star anise – 1 tsp
  • • Baby Eggplant – 8, sliced.
  • • Green chilly – 5, slit here and there
  • Curry:
  • • Oil – 1.5 tbsp
  • • Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
  • • Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
  • • Dried Red chilli – 2, broken.
  • • Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
  • • Curry leaves – 7
  • • Onions – 1, sliced.
  • • Tomato – ½ , sliced
  • • Turmeric – 1 tsp
  • • Salt – 2 tsp
  • • Tamarind juice – 3 tbsp
  • • Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp,
Instructions
  1. Wash the eggplants, pat them dry and slit into 4 keeping the stem intact.
  2. Add oil to a pan and fry the slit baby eggplants. Keep it aside on a paper towel to soak extra oil. Add green chilli and fry them too. It might pop out or crackle a bit more so be careful. Fry for few seconds.
  3. Take a pan in medium heat, dry roast all the ingredients under ‘nuts paste’ in medium heat for 4 minutes. Once cooled down,grind to make a smooth paste with these roasted ingredients using ½ cup water.
  4. In the same pan, add the oil under ‘curry’.
  5. After the oil heats up, add mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds crackle, add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves and mix them well.
  6. Add sliced onions with 1 tsp of salt. Saute till the onions get brown.
  7. Add tomatoes and turmeric powder. Saute them for 2 minutes.
  8. Add the above paste and fry for 2 mins till oil oozes out.
  9. Add the tamarind juice and boil for 2 minutes with 1 tsp of salt.
  10. Add baby eggplant and green chilli with the fried oil (12 tsp) to it. Add ½ cup of water and let it simmer in medium – low heat for 2 minutes.
  11. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
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Brinjal Salan

Kashmiri Chaman kaliya/ Paneer in spicy milk gravy

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ChamanQaliyaChaman Kaliya is a creamy cottage cheese curry flavoured with saffron and cardamom. It is cooked in milk and kashmiri spices gravy.

As I always say, Paneer is one of my favourite party recipes. If I wanted to do something fun for a lunch, I always include paneer to it. If its south Indian, it would be a Thali(big lunch plate) meal. Anything with paneer is a definite win. I have tried kashmiri saffron rice before so this time I wanted to try something different from kashmiri cuisine.

I made this with some peas pulao and it tasted perfect. I am sure it taste great with some Indian breads like roti, naan or paratha.

ChamanQaliya-2

I have collection of paneer & tofu recipes collection with all my paneer tofu recipes that you should look at.

Vegan note: Replace paneer with tofu. Use coconut milk instead of milk.

Other favorite Paneer Recipes: Paneer Makhanwala, Paneer peas masala, Palak Paneer, Paneer sandwich,pepper paneer do pyaza,spicy garlic tofu in 10 minutes,malai methi paneer

4.0 from 3 reviews
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Kashmiri Chaman kaliya/ Paneer in spicy milk gravy
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • • Paneer – 300gms
  • • Onion – 1 medium sized, cubed
  • • Garlic – 4
  • • Ginger – 1inch
  • • Butter - 1 tbsp
  • • Oil – 2 tbsp
  • • Cardamom – 3
  • • Cloves – 2
  • • Bay leaf – 1
  • • Cinnamon – ½ stick
  • • Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
  • • Fennel seeds powder – 1 tsp
  • • Pepper powder – 1 tsp
  • • Chilli powder – 2 tsp
  • • Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
  • • Coriander powder – 1 tsp
  • • Dry Fenugreek/Methi leaves – 1 tsp, crushed
  • • Milk – 1 cup
  • • Saffron – 1 tsp
  • • Sugar – a pinch
  • • Salt – to taste

    Garnish:
  • • Paneer – 1 tbsp, grated
  • • Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, grated
Instructions
  1. • Cut paneer into cubes. Take 1 tbsp of butter in a pan, place the paneer cubes and fry for a minute in each side till they become crispy golden. Keep it aside. (Optional step). Add the paneer cubes to the water in 10 mins, to make it soft.
  2. • Add the onion cubes, garlic and ginger into a blender, blend into a smooth paste.
  3. • In a small pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot, add cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon, bay leaf, and cumin seeds.
  4. • When cumin seeds turn brown, add onion garlic ginger paste, add salt to taste.
  5. • When sautéed well for a minute, add turmeric powder, pepper powder, fennel powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Mix them well.
  6. • Sauté in medium – low heat, till it oozes out little oil.
  7. • Add Paneer pieces, milk, sugar and saffron and cook until the milk starts boiling.
  8. • Once the milk starts bubbling, cook undisturbed until the paneer becomes soft and creamy.
  9. • Have to ensure not to overcook as paneer might melt in the curry. Taste for salt or add if needed.
  10. • Switch off the flame and finish it off with grated paneer and coriander leaves.
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ChamanQaliya-3

Mushrooms in peanut sesame gravy / Mushroom Salan

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mushroompeanutgravy-3They are made from healthy ingredients – sesame seeds, peanuts, yogurt and coconut. It is light spiced, creamy and tangy!

This dish involves a lot more of ingredients than an average dish. But it is worth doing and tasting it. Making a Salan is not the quickest thing you can do and it does involve a lot more ingredients than the average dish. But trust me when I say, it’s worth it. I have made many a times and it has never failed. when it comes to parties, there are lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes, so it is a perfect dinner recipes.

Salan means gravy here and I have used mushrooms here. You can also do them with capsicum, potatoes or mixed veggies. It tastes great with simple jeera rice, peas pulao or even plain rice. It is perfect with Indian breads like roti,chana dal paratha, parotta and so on. I made this with parotta and it was scrumptious. Usually salan is something that goes well with biryani. I usually make salan for biryani but this time I wanted to try something else and did this. I adapted the idea from Vahchef and then made my twist and turns. After a long time, posting a recipe just after making them, this means it was really good and I have some time.

I am a vegetarian and I love paneer & mushrooms. I cook mushrooms at least twice a week. I have a collection of my favorite mushroom recipes. Few I would mention are Paneer Mushroom bell pepper gravy, Garlic Creamy mushroom spaghetti and mushroom cutlets

veg thali mushroom curry

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Mushrooms in peanut sesame gravy / Mushroom Salan
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • To roast & grind:
  • • Peanuts –2 tbsp
  • • Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
  • • Coconut – 1 tbsp
  • • Fennel – 1 tsp
  • • Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
  • • Red chilli – 2 broken
  • • Pepper balls – ½ tsp

    For gravy:
  • • Mushrooms – 10-12, sliced or chopped into 4
  • • Oil – 1 tbsp
  • • Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
  • • Fenugreek – 1 tsp
  • • Curry leaves – 6-8 leaves
  • • Green Chillies – 1, slit
  • • Hing - a pinch
  • • Onions – 1 large, sliced, 1 cup
  • • Tomatoes – ½ cup, chopped
  • • Salt – as needed
  • • Turmeric – 1 tsp
  • • Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp. or finely chopped garlic – 5, ginger – 1 inch
  • • Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
  • • Coriander powder – ½ tbsp
  • • Mint – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
  • • Coriander – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
  • • Yogurt – 2 tbsp beaten
Instructions
  1. • Dry roasts the ingredients under “to roast & grind” in a medium flame without coconut. When the peanuts are roasted, add the coconut and blend them with little water into a fine paste.

  2. • Now add the oil in the pan and when the oil is hot, add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds.

  3. • Now add the curry leaves, onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, hing and little salt. Cook the onions till they are golden brown, add tomatoes and turmeric, wait till they get sautéed well.

  4. • Add the blended mixture, red chilli powder, chopped mint, coriander and coriander powder to the mixture. Fry for two minute and add some water to it. Cook for 8-9 minutes in medium to low flame. Stir in between till the oil oozes out nicely.

  5. • add the mushrooms, beaten yogurt and simmer for another 8 minutes. When it oozes out oil again, mix well and garnish with coriander
Notes
1. Roast the peanuts in medium flame as it gets roasted quickly.
2. If you think, this might be spicy for you, cut down the red chillies when roasting.
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Taste great with Vegetable Biryani or Shrimp Biryani, peas pulao, parotta, chana dal paratha or simple jeera rice.

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Baked Spicy Potato Peas Samosa

by 9 Comments

samosabaked-7

Crispy on the outside and filled with spicy little potatoes and peas, baked on a mug.!

You can also bake in a big corning ware.They are the quintessential Indian tea-time snack. Whenever you think of Indian snacks and the first thing that pops up is Samosa. After coming here, I understood that it has got a big name in the foreign world. Many of my colleagues have told me that they love samosas but never got a chance to make it for them. You can just use the samosa with potato filling or with something else like chicken, lamb, cheese or mushroom. But I am using both potato and peas filling. You can ditch this and use chicken potato filling or potato cheese filling and so on.

Whenever there are some parties or dinner gatherings, these are perfect! I was so scared to make them, not because it is hard to make . I should accept the fact that they are time consuming if fried but baking it makes it health and takes less time to stand in the kitchen before oil.You can make the dough yourself using wheat flour/all-purpose flour or use the samosa pastry.

I got this idea of baking in meal mugs when I received these corningware meal mugs. These are not the usual ordinary mugs. They are supersized at 20 ounces. They are made of a durable stoneware material, the meal mugs are dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, microwave and preheated oven safe (meaning, do not put it in when the oven is cold, only once it’s been pre-heated for even cooking; this also prevents damage if it heats up unevenly). I have never seen a mug that can be kept in oven. So these are perfect one meal mugs. You can make a lot of things in this one meal mug like just biryani or pasta or any meal just for one. You can purchase your own Meal Mugs in Canada at your local Walmart, Loblaws, Home Outfitters, or London Drugs. Or, you can buy them online at Amazon or World Kitchen. The patented vented lids are BPA-free, microwave and top-rack dishwasher safe (please, don’t put the lids in the oven though).

My Other Favorite snacks/appetizers: Jalepeno Herbs cheese muffins, Indian spiced kale chips, Potato Garlic Tikka.

samosabaked

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Baked Spicy Potato Peas Samosa
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • • Potatoes - 3 big
  • • Peas - 15 - Boiled
  • • Oil - 2 tsp
  • • Jeera - 1 tsp
  • • Onion - 1, chopped finely
  • • Green chilli - 2, chopped finely
  • • Red chilli - 1, broken
  • • Hing - a pinch
  • • Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
  • • Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
  • • Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
  • • Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
  • • Amchur powder/ chaat masala - ½ tsp (optional)
  • • Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp, finely chopped
  • • Spring roll pastry sheet - 3 or
  • • Maida/ all-purpose flour - 2 tbsp & ajwain seeds - 1 tsp and salt for taste
  • • Salt - 1 1 /2 tbsp
Instructions
  1. Pre steps:
  2. Keep pastry sheet at room temperature for 20 mins before preparing the samosa. or make the dough by mixing the all purpose flour, ajwain seeds ,sat and knead well with water. Keep aside for twenty minutes.

  3. Boil the little potatoes for 15 minutes, mash and keep aside.

  4. Boil the peas for 5-7 minutes and keep aside
  5. Crush the fennel seeds and corainder seeds coarsely and keep aside.
  6. Mix maids with water to make it a paste and keep aside.

    Steps:Potato masala:
  7. Heat a pan with oil and temper with jeera, broken red chilli and hing. Now add the chopped onions and green chilli and sauté till golden brown.

  8. Now throw the boiled mashed potatoes, peas, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, crushed fennel and coriander seeds powder and amchur powder with salt and sprinkle a tbsp of water.
  9. Mix well and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame, finally add coriander leaves, mix well and switch off. Keep it aside.



    Samosas:
  10. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease the mug.
  11. Place the samosa sheet in the mug like we keep a pie sheet. Cover the inside of the mug with the dough. Fill the inside with samosa filling and and cover again with the dough like forming a cone.

  12. Place the mug inside oven without the lid and bake for 30 mins till the outer layer is crispy. Take it from oven and serve it.
Notes
If you do not have spring roll pastry sheets, you can do the same with all-purpose flour, Make stiff dough with 1 cup all-purpose flour, a tbsp of oil, salt and water, keep aside for 30 minutes, knead and make equal sized balls. Roll as thin as possible and cut into square. Use more oil to roll it easily.
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Disclaimer: Corningware sponsored this post, I was given this beautiful four-piece set of Corningware baking mugs to try and I’ve been compensated monetarily for this recipe. However, all opinions are my own as always.

Drumstick Masala/ Murungakkai Masala

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Drumstickcurry-9A south Indian vegan gourmet stir fry made with simple ingredients.

Drumstick/ Moringa/ Murungakkai is a long, green slender vegetable which is commonly found in Indian shops. The flower, the leaves and the whole vegetable is edible and it is been in south Indian for years. When you cook the whole vegetable by boiling in a curry, it remains particularly high in vitamin C (which may be degraded variably by cooking). And also it is a good source of  potassium, dietary fiber and magnesium. The leaves can be used like any other green leaves (like spinach). When you cook the vegetable, chop the ends and trash it. Cut the vegetable, cook them and when you eat it, chew the entire piece, extract pulp and juice while chewing, omitting the fibrous part.  Or you can boil them, use the inside juicy pulpy part in your cooking directly. Let me know if you have questions. The vegetable as a whole is very flavorful, tasty, gives great aroma and you can use them in your favorite part of curry. I made this with as a side dish for rasam and dal. I usually don’t get them anywhere near, have to travel bit to get it in Indian store. Once my sister gave it to me from Toronto and I made this. It’s been really long since I made these, but posting it for you 🙂 as I really don’t want to miss this delicious healthy Indian stir fry.




For Other Indian Stir fry recipes : Carrot stir fry, Beans stir fry, baby potato stir fry, cauliflower stir fry, eggplant stir fry, Bitter gourd stir fry, okra/ladys finger stir fry.

Drumstickcurry-14

5.0 from 2 reviews
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Drumstick Masala/ Murungakkai Masala
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Ingredients
  • Oil – 2 tsp
  • Cinnamon – 1/ 2 inch piece, 1
  • Cloves – 2
  • Cardamom – 2
  • Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Drumstick – 4
  • Garlic – 3 chopped
  • Big Onion – 1 finely chopped
  • Tomato – 1 small, finely chopped
  • Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
  • Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
  • Coriander powder – 2 tsp
  • Jaggery – a pinch
  • Salt – to taste

    To grind:
  • Coconut – 2 tbsp, grated
  • Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Garlic – 3
  • Ginger – 1 inch
Instructions
  1. Trim the ends of the drumstick, cut it into 1.5 inch long and set aside.
  2. Grind the ingredients under “to grind”. And set aside.

  3. Heat oil in medium heat, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and sauté for few seconds. Then add the mustard seeds, when it crackles, add the curry leaves and sauté well.

  4. Now add the garlic, onions, little salt and fry till golden brown. Add tomato and turmeric powder, and sauté well till it becomes soft and pulpy.

  5. Add drumstick, red chilli powder, coriander powder, little salt, ½ cup of water and cover and cook for few minutes until the drumstick turns tender. It took around 8 mins.(medium to low heat).

  6. When it cooked soft and has little water left inside, add the blended paste, jaggery and with little water if it is already dry. Or just add the blended paste with no water. (check salt at this stage)
  7. Let it cook till it becomes semi dry. Switch it off and garnish with some chopped coriander leaves.
Notes
1. You can replace with red chilli powder with coriander powder.
2. You can cook little more and make it super dry, it totally depends on the consistency you want.
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Serve it with some rice and dal/rasam/sambar.

Palak Paneer/Spinach with Indian Cheese

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PalakPaneer-7nameDelicious creamy Indian spinach with cubes of cheese – takes only 30 minutes to make.

A scrumptious curry where Paneer is immersed in a thick sauce based on pureed spinach, garlic and ginger. Do you know the difference between saag paneer and palak paneer. Saag is a generic name for cooked and pureed greeny leafy vegetables like mustard greens( mainly used for saag ), fenugreek leaves, kale, spinach, mint leaves and so on. Palak means just palak, I mean spinach :D. saag will give a strong pungent flavor and some what bitter taste. Many people and many resturants confuses with palak and saag. Its hard to get saag here , so I made this palak paneer.

PalakPaneer-8

Spinach and cream goes really well. I add spinach,garlic and cream to my pasta and it will just change your life. You can even use-frozen spinach or fresh ones. Or you can use half fresh and half frozen. Paneer is one of my favorite recipes as I always say. It’s a treat to vegetarians when it comes to Indian food.

Get yourself naan, paratha, parotta or some basmati rice.

Other Paneer recipes: Methi malai Paneer, Paneer Makhanwala, How to make homemade paneer, Paneer Biryani, Matar Paneer, cashew paneer

Vegan note: Replace paneer with tofu, ghee/butter with oil and cream with yogurt.

PalakPaneer-9

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Palak Paneer/Spinach with Indian Cheese
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3 cups
 
Ingredients
  • • Cinnamon – 1 small stick
  • • Cardamom - 3
  • • Bay leaf – 1 small
  • • Cumin seeds/Jeera – 1 tsp
  • • Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
  • • Chilli powder – 1 tsp
  • • Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
  • • Tomato – 1 medium, finely chopped
  • • Cilantro – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • • Green chillies – 5
  • • Garlic – 5
  • • Ginger – 1 inch
  • • Fresh spinach – 250 grams
  • • Paneer – 250 grams
  • • Cream – 3 tbsp
  • • Oil or ghee or unsalted butter – 2 tbsp
  • • Kasuri methi leaves – 1 tbsp, crushed
  • • Garam masala powder – ½ tsp

    To garnish:
  • • Cilantro – 1 tsp
  • • Cream – 1 tsp
  • • Garam Masala - a pinch
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom and cumin seeds. When their color changes, add the onions, garlic, ginger, chillies and sauté them until soft.
  2. Then add the tomatoes, salt, turmeric powder and sauté until everything is well mixed and it is mushy. It takes about 5 -7 minutes

  3. Wash the spinach, cilantro and add to it and sauté for 3-5 minutes till they shrink.
  4. Remove the bay leaves. Transfer the mixture to a blender and pulse it few times till they are smooth but not pureed.

  5. Add a tbsp. of butter (if vegans add oil), return the mixture to the skillet, and add the garam masala, crushed methi leaves and chilli powder and sauté well. And add the cream and water to it.
  6. Now add the paneer and cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes till the flavors get into the paneer.
  7. Switch off and Garnish with coriander leaves, garam masala and cream.
Notes
1. You can fry the paneer lightly on butter.

2. You can even use the frozen spinach for this recipe.
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Goes really well with peas pulao, veg fried rice, naan,paratha or parotta.

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