Curd Rice

Curd Rice (yogurt rice) as its famously know in the south of India. I learnt this very humble and simple dish while we used to live in the Silicon Valley of India. A south Indian`s meal is never complete without a serving of this dish. They will always end their meal either with natural yogurt and a bit of white rice or this curd rice. 

The base of this recipe is always leftover white rice. You can make it with fresh rice too but its one of the best ways to use the leftover rice and give it a new avatar. Its a great dish for summers too as its cooling and you can take it for work or school and it doest need a lot of time to prepare. Sometimes I also add some soaked raw peanuts for some extra protein. 

Here is what yo will need (for 2 people)

- two cups of leftover rice

- two cups of natural yogurt

- a glog of milk 

- 1/2 salt or to taste

- pinch of red chili powder

- 1/4 tsp of mustard seeds

- 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds

- few leaves of fresh or dried curry leaves

- half a dozen cherry tomatoes halved or two normal tomatoes chopped optional

- 1 tsp of Ghee

- fresh coriander to garnish. 

Method: 

1. Take the rice in a bowl, add the yogurt and half of the salt to it, mix it all well and let it soak while you prepare the seasoning. 

2. Take a small pan, add the ghee to it. When the ghee starts to smoke, reduce the heat and add the cumin and the mustard to it. Let it crackle. 

3. Now add the curry leaves and the tomatoes. Add the remaining salt and the chili powder to it, mix it all well and cook for a minute. Close the heat. 

4. Pour the seasoning over the rice, mix it all well. Sprinkle it with fresh herbs. Top it with the soaked nuts if you are giving for a lunch box. Serve cold. 

Tip: See how does your rice look after you have soaked it into the yogurt, if the rice has absorbed all the liquid and it looks a bit dry then add the glog of milk/water to it.

Ghee

Ghee comes from a Sanskrit wod "Ghrit" घ्र त so it is Ghee in Hindi or clarified Butter in English. Ghee is a key ingredient in Indian cooking. It has been used in India for thousands of years.  Back home in India I grew up with cows in my backyard.  My father bought a big beautiful Jersey Cow, my grandma and mom used to milk it. She had to be milked thrice a day and it gave around 7-9 litres of milk. I grew up with fresh milk, home made Yogurt, buttermilk  butter, and of course Ghee.

There are three ways that you can make butter out of the creme :

1. The easiest and the simplest one is to take out the creme from the raw milk and then beat it with a beater until butter comes out of the creme and the water separates. Add some ice cubes to the bowl after you see the butter about to come, this way the butter collects itself and gets together.
2. The second version what my mother in law used to do is, keep collecting the cooked Malai/creme in a pot and after 2-3 days when you have enough, beat it until butter comes out and the rest is water.
3. The third which my family used to do is to make Yogurt with the milk and the creme too and in the morning my Mom had this big mixer, so she used to churn the Yogurt and then you will get a very creamy butter and what is left if the most delicious tasting butter milk you would have ever tasted. I guess this is old school now, not many people have cows at home and neither butter is made this way. But till date, making Yogurt at home is a very common practise in India, I guess the temperature helps too.

So, now you know a little bit about the old ways of preserving milk fat. I think the use of Ghee is in practise in the Indian kitchen goes for years and years. Ghee has a special flavour which enhances the dish and makes it flavourful. It is also used in Ayurveda as a medicine. It is considered auspicious too and it is used to light Diyas for the God (light/candle)with a cotton wick and it is also used in Vedic Yajan or Homas (Hawan)

Now we see how easy it is to make Ghee in today`s times. You just need a few things to make Ghee at home

Here is what you will need.

- a bar of unsalted butter

- a heavy bottomed pan

- a glass bottle

- a metal sieve

Method:

1. Take the bar of unsalted butter and keep it in the pan.
2. Heat the pan and after 2-3 minutes, reduce the heat from middle to low and cook it for further 7-10 minutes, checking on it every now and then.
3. First the butter will melt, then you will some it becomes frothy and slowly all the whey which is in the butter will get evaporated and the residue will become brown and stick at the bottom of the pan.
4. This time you should be able to see a beautiful golden colour liquid, make sure there is no whey or anything fresh in the Ghee.
5. If its completely clear, then close the gas, let is cool for a few minutes, then sieve it in a glass bottle through a fine metal sieve.
6. Keep it closed at room temperature.

Keep an eye on the ghee while cooking, because it can BURN, to coal black too. We cannot cook it on a high flame as it tends to bubble and jump around, so its not safe. It does not have to be refrigerated, it stays good at room temperature. It do gets a bit solid in the winter months but not like stone hard, its gets kind of semi-solid. Use it to make Rice, Daal, Indian sweets and about anything you fancy. 

Bombay Pav Bhagi

Pav पाव  Bhagi भाजी, Pav means bread and Bhagi means Vegetable so this is a dish of bread/buns served with vegetable cooked in a tangy tomato sauce. It is a famous Street food in India. It comes originally from Mumbai then Bombay but today it is famous all over India. Kids as well as adults love it. Now this recipe of mine is inspired by an authentic Bombay Pav Bhagi which is made mostly with boiled potatoes, peas, capsicum and tomatoes.

So here is what you will need: (for 4 People)

For the Bhagi:

- 500 gms boiled potatoes

- 1 red capsicum, chopped

- 3-4 red tomatoes, chopped

- 2 red onions, finely chopped

- 1 cup of frozen peas

- 1 green chili, finely chopped

- an inch piece of ginger, finely grated

- salt to taste

- 1 tsp of red chili powder

- 1 tbsp of pav bhagi masala if available or else Garam masala

- 1 tsp of amchoor powder/dried mango powder/dried Amla(gooseberry) powder

- Butter and oil to cook. 

Method: 

1. Boil the potatoes with skin and keep them aside to cool. 

2. Chop all the other vegetables and peel the potatoes. 

3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in pan, add the onions and cook until they are translucent. Now add the ginger and green chili, saute for half a minute. Now add the tomatoes, capsicum and all the spices except Amchoor powder. 

4. Mix it all well and let it cook until the capsicum is a bit soft and the tomatoes gets cooked and and the whole mix looks a bit shiny. 

5. Now add the peas and crush the boiled potatoes and add them as well. 

6. Mix all the things well and add half a cup of water. Let it cook on the medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. With the help of a hand masher, mash the veggies a bit so that they become homogeneous.

7. Add half a tablespoon of butter to the Bhagi and mix it all well. Now simmer and cook for further 3-4 minutes.Mix again with the masher.

8. Add another half cup of water and mix it all well. Now add the Amchoor powder and cook further on low heat for a minute or two. Close the heat and let it sit covered for 2-3 minutes and in this time make the Pavs ready.

Other Ingredients:

• Pavor any bread of your choice ( 8 pieces)
• chopped onions
• chopped red or green chili
• chopped coriander
• wedge of lime. 

Preparing the Pavs:

1. Heat a Crepe pan or a flat gridle add some butter to it and heat the pav/bread on the pan on both sides, now I honestly think this is a must but its entirely your choice to warm the bread or not. Another option would be to heat the bread with butter in an oven.
2. Serve the bhagi and top it with a small cube of butter and garnish it with chopped onions, chilies, coriander and a wedge of Lime. Serve it warm.

Tip: Pav is a soft bun but you can take any bread of your choice. If you see in the picture you can see I have taken small sandwich buns. You can also take brown bread or a baguette or anything you fancy. 

You could also take vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, types of capsicum, corn, sweet potato etc. 

  

Red Bean Burgers

Who doesn't love Burgers! Everyone does! Its that kind of Junk food but which can be fun and healthy food if we take a good bean and make them bean burgers. You could also opt for a whole meal bread instead of these burger buns to make them even more versatile.These ones here are packed with super good things and that makes them in the healthy category. They are made with sprouted red kidney beans/rajma(hindi) and veggies.

So here is what you will need.

Ingredients for 8 burgers 

• 3 cups of kidney beans, cooked soft
• 1 grated zucchini/pressed to remove the water
• half grated carrot
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 green chili, finely chopped or to taste
• big handful of fresh coriander/parsely chopped 
•  2 tbsp fine oats
• 1 tbsp oil 
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp of red chili powder
• salt to taste
• black pepper

Method: To make burgers

1. Cook the beans in a pressure cooker for about 15-20 minutes and let them sit to cool
2. Drain them in a sieve until all the liquid is drained and while they are still warm mash them with a potato masher and add all the other ingredients mentioned above.
3. Bind the whole mixture with hands and form them into 8 or 10 burgers as per your choice.
4. Heat oil or Ghee in a pan and roast the burgers from both the sides. You will find these burgers are quite soft because of the beans and we haven't put any binding stuff like arrowroot, or a slice of bread or even potatoes, but I must say, they tasted good.

Ingredients for fixing the Burger:

• 8 burgers
• cheese slices
• 1-2 tomatoes, cut into slice
• lettuce
• mustard
• tomato ketchup
• cornichons, sliced ones

Fixing the Burger:

1. After all the burger are cooked put them aside and on the hot pan put the burger buns and heat them on low heat, turning both the sides. By doing this you will see the burgers open themselves up and you don't even have to cut them into two. 
2. Now as per your choice and wish put layers of stuff and make your burger. 

 

Tip: As I wrote earlier, I made sprouts of red beans but you can just soak them overnight and cook them or if you like you can very well use the can ones. While cooking the beans in a pressure cooker adding a bit of salt, small piece of ginger, half a tea spoon of cumin seeds and half green chili.  By adding these little spices and salt, the beans doenst taste very dull but flavourful, discard the ginger and the green chili afterwards.

Misal/ Moong or Mooth Sprout Curry

 

Misal is a delicacy from the Central part of India, and is very famous in Mumbai. It is a hot, spicy and pungent curry made with Moong or Mooth Sprouts cooked with onions, garlic, chillies and tomatoes in a gravy. It is served with Coriander/mint chutney, natural yogurt, Bombay mix/Varsaan and with a local bread called as Pav on the side. It is one of the most commonly eaten breakfasts in the central parts of India but it also makes a great anytime snack. This humble dish Misal Pav was awarded the worlds tastiest vegetarian dish from the Foodie hub Global Award of 2015 in London.