Sara Dhanani

Archive for the ‘Vegetarian’ Category


A traditional Pakistani breakfast

In Breakfast/Brunch, Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian on May 27, 2012 at 5:35 pm

 

The warm summer sun is ablaze in Phoenix! Over the long weekend, rather than barbequeing we were craving halwa puri. From Boat Basin, thin puri’s packaged in oil soaked newspaper, haldi yellow alu and fiery cholay with a thin layer of oil, that would make my mama shudder every time. And the gorgeous orange halwa, super sweet with tangy achaar.. makes me salivate first and then remember the heart burn!

So with bitter sweet memories I looked up a recipe from a pakistani cooking show (which was painfully entertaining!), and we had halwa puri for brunch. Delicious!! Without the heavy, artery clogging feeling after. Surprisingly the recipes are very hands off, basically dumping all the spices with the beans or potatoes and cooking till the curry forms. I peeked in on them periodically and gave a stir, adding water is needed, so feel free to adapt to your liking. The key is not to fry the spices separately but rather allow everything to cook together. I fried tortillas instead of making puri’s from scratch. It works in a pinch, but fresh puri’s would have been incredible!

Halwa:
One Third cup sooji (Semolina flour)

Half a cup ghee

One cup sugar

Two cups water

One teaspoon orange food coloring ( I had yellow at home)

5 cardamom pods (opened up)

Method:

Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Fry the suji in the ghee for 4-5 minutes till it looks lacey. It has a beautiful nutty aroma. Add the cardamom. Remove from heat. In another pan heat water and sugar till the sugar dissolves (chashni). Add the food coloring. Now stir in the cooked sooji and continue cooked on a medium low heat till its thick (if you stir a spoon it should leave tracks). It will thicken more as it cools.

 

Cholay:

Two cups Garbanzo beans soaked overnight in water

1 medium sided onion grated

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon soonf

1 teaspoon cayanne pepper (powdered)

1 tablespoon red chilli flakes

1/4 teaspoon haldi

1/2 teaspoon corriander powder

salt to taste

1/3 cup oil

Method:

Boil in 5 cups of water, the soaked garbanzo beans till mostly soft. Drain most of the water saving approximately 2 cups of water. Add the grated onion to the garbanzo beans and water and boil further till soft. Add all the spices and the oil and continue cooking for 30 minutes till a thick curry is formed. Garnish with chopped corriander.

Alu Ki Tarkari:
Five – Six medium sized Russet Potatoes, peeled

One teaspoon Crushed red pepper

One Fourth teaspoon Haldi

One teaspoon kalonji

One teaspoon cumin powder

Two tablespoons oil

One – 1.5 cup water

One teaspoon achaar (optional)

Method:

Chop the peeled potato’s into 2 -3 inch cubes. Add water with all the spices and oil (except the achaar) and cook on medium high heat till a thick curry forms. You may want to mash a few tablespoons of the potato while they’re cooking to facilitate the curry. Mix in achaar in the end.( I preferred the taste without the achaar)

 

Mirchon ka Salan

In Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian, Week night meals on July 22, 2011 at 2:15 am

I first had this curry at one of my dearest friends home 12 years ago. I loved it!

This recipe does require quite a bit of prep time, but its worth the effort! The husband won’t touch it, to him this is “girly food”, kinda in the same category as Quiche :).  This hasn’t been a problem since mirchon ka salan has become one of my favorite foods!

I got this recipe from Zaiqa.net. I tweaked it a bit keeping in mind things I had on hand:

Ingredients:

Green chillies – approximately 12-14

For masala

Sesame Seeds – 1/2 cup

Cashews or peanuts– 1/2 cup

Dry desiccated Coconut – 3/4 cup

Whole garam masala – 1 tablespoon

For gravy:

Coconut oil – 1/4 cup

Onions – 3, chopped

Ginger & Garlic paste– 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tbsp

Turmeric/haldi – 1/2 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Cilantro – 3 tbsp, finely chopped

Tamarind paste – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Slit the green chillies and take out the seeds (maybe a good idea to use gloves).  Keep aside.
2. Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Place the desiccated coconut, sesame seeds, nuts, garam masala in a thin layer on a cookie sheet. It wont take long for the coconut, nuts and seed to brown, so please keep checking every minute or before. Once there is an aroma from them, remove from the broiler and let cool. Grind them all in a food processor to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Gravy:

Heat a large sauce pan at medium high heat, add 1/8 cup of coconut oil. Once the oil is warm, add the chopped onions. Let the onions sweat and keep stirring them until they are just starting to brown up in color. Once the onions are soft and lightly browned in color,  remove from heat and keep aside. Once the dry roasted onions are cool, puree them in a grinder until smooth. Keep aside.
4. Pour remaining oil in the saucepan and once hot add the green chillies. Cover with lid. Stir fry them till blisters form on the skins.

5. Fry the onion and ginger garlic paste in the leftover oil from the chillies. Add the desiccated coconut, sesame seed and nut paste and stir fry it for 2-5 minutes or until you see that the mixture comes together and starts leaving oil. Now add 1 teaspoon of the cumin powder and the turmeric powder. Mix well and keep stir frying it for a further 2 minutes on medium low heat. Now add the chopped cilantro and mix well.

6. Next, pour in 3 cups warm water and the tamarind paste. Mix well. Finally add the fried green chillies . Cover with a lid and let cook on simmer for 15 minutes while stirring frequently, until all the oil has separated.

It does have a lot of steps, but is a lovely dish. You can use the same curry with eggplant or fish and chicken.

 

 

Palak Paneer

In Curries, Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian, Week night meals on July 18, 2011 at 1:47 am

Palak Paneer. I have never made Palak Paneer until today. Inspired by my toddlers “I’ll eat anything green”, I decided to give this vegetarian curry a try. Palak Paneer is as green as it gets. My puppy girl loved the saag! I adapted this recipe from Indian Simmer by Prerna. I love her simple indian cooking and this recipe was easy to follow.

Here’s my adapted version of her recipe.

Ingredients:

Frozen spinach – approximately 4 cups

1/4 cup frozen methi

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

8 oz packet of paneer cut into cubes

1/2 cup red chopped onion

1 /2 cup crushed tomato

1 tablespoon ginger & garlic paste

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 – 2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala

2 tbsp coconut oil

Salt

Method:

Paneer:

Cut Paneer into cubes. Boil water with 1 teaspoon salt. Once it has come to a boil, turn off heat and place the cut paneer in the hot water.

Spinach:

Simmer spinach in a saucepan with cilantro and methi. Once it is soft, turn off heat. Let it cool and then blend it. You may need to add water to make a thick paste.
Saute onion, ginger & garlic paste with cumin and garam masala in the coconut oil.
Cook till it is fragrant and translucent and then add the crushed tomato. Add this to the blended spinach and give it another whirl.

Return the contents of the blender to your sauce pan and heat till the curry simmers. Now add the heavy cream and drained paneer to the spinach. Cover it with a lid for 5 mins. If you think the gravy is too thick, add a bit of water.

Serve with hot chapati or rice.

Aloo Samosa’s

In Appetizers, Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian on June 19, 2011 at 1:45 pm

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Spending an afternoon listening to the rain with a cup of hot milky tea and samosa’s. This was a frequent treat in our home which I’ve realized my 15 month old will devour. This recipe is not spiced heavily – perfect for young ones developing their palate. A couple of cheats to make great samosa is to make sure the mixture is not oily. Cooking the onions makes the flavor mellow and not overpowering in these delicate little parcels.

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Aloo Samosa

makes 8 – 10

Ingredients:

Two medium-sized baked potato’s

Half of an onion

Two garlic cloves

fresh or frozen pea’s 1/4 cup

Few leaves of cilantro

1 tsp cumin

salt to taste

Method:

Dice onions finely and saute till translucent, add chopped garlic to he onion. Then add the pea’s. Cook for 1 – 2 minute till fragrant, set aside.

Chop potatoes into 1/4th inch cubes or alternatively use a potato press. Chop cilantro. Add the onion garlic mixture to the chopped potato. (You don’t want the filling to be oily).

Make samosa’s folding spring roll wrappers into a triangular pocket, filling the pocket with the aloo. You can use a slurry of flour and water to seal the edges. Fry in hot oil.

My little girl gobbles them up with ketchup 🙂