Tangy, Spicy Chickpeas - Kadai Chole

Its a rainy day here today, its been raining since last night. I love rainy days, back home it would be tea, spicy potato fritters for evening snacks. I'd fill up on the evening snacks and skip my dinner. Now I wish someone else could make it and I could curl up on the sofa and eat. Pitfalls of growing up you are THAT someone making it :0

 

Todays dinner is spicy chickpeas with methi parathas. Oh so Yumm!

 

 

Prep Time - 10mins  | Cooking Time  - 15mins 

 

Ingredients

• 2 Garbanzo beans cans
• 2 tblsp Tea leaves, or 2 Tea bags
• 5 tblsp cooking oil
• 1 large Onion
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 tblsp coriander powder
• 1 tblsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tblsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2-3 Green Chillies slit and deseeded

 

 

Chana Masala

• 1 tblsp Pomegranate seeds (Anardana)
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tblsp coriander seeds
• 7 Black Pepper corns
• 2 Whole dried red chillies

 

Drain the water from the garbanzo cans. In a pan, add the chickpeas with one cup of water. If you are using tea bags just drop them in the middle of the pan. If you are using loose tea leaves you can either use a diffuser or tie up tea leaves in a small muslin cloth make a potli and drop it in the middle of the pan. B.T.B (Bring to boil) until the color of the garbanzo beans turn dark brown/black. Discard the tea bags/potli.

 

Heat three tablespoons of oil in an iron kadai (cast iron pan) and add cumin seeds. When they begin to change colour, add onion and sauté till pink. Add ginger and garlic pastes, powdered chana masala, coriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and half of the cumin powder. Add boiled chana with cooking liquor, salt, garam masala powder and let it cook for five to six minutes. In another pan, heat two tablespoons of oil, add slit green chillies, remaining cumin powder and tomatoes. Cook for a minute and transfer the mixture into the kadai. Stir and allow it cook on low heat till almost dry. Serve hot.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Mushrooms yum, mushroom stuffed with cheese heaven. One of the things I ate during my first visit to the US was cheese stuffed mushrooms. One bite and heaven! Back home mushrooms were sparingly used in pizzas and to my knowledge everyone grabbed for the slice with the most mushroom and olives.

 

Its been a quiet sunday for M and I, watched the awesome '24' on netflix. The weather was pretty cool, and I was in the mood for something with cheese and the thought of stuffed mushrooms was very tempting. Once I was done with the mushrooms, with the leftover stuffing I made stuffed jalapenos. They were oh so good...I'm adding another post with the recipe for that one...

 

 

Prep Time - 10mins   | Cooking Time - 30mins   |  Serves  - 2

 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino romano
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 2 tblsp chopped cilantro
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 14 large white mushroom stemmed
• 1/3 cup olive oil

 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. 

 

Stir bread crumbs, pecorino romano, garlic, salt pepper, cilantro and 2 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl. Drizzle and coat a baking sheet with olive oil. Spoon the filling into the cavity of the mushroom and arrange on the baking sheet. Drizzle remaining oil over the filling of each mushroom. Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the stuffing is golden on top, about 25mins. Serve. 

 

PS : I additionally topped mine with some extra grated cheese.

Stuffed Jalapeno

I just used the leftover stuffing from my stuffed mushroom post for this recipe.

 

 

 

 

Prep time - 5mins   | Cooking time 25mins

 

Ingredients

• 9 Jalapenos cut in half and remove seeds
• Same ingredients as stuffed mushrooms

 

Pre-heat oven 400 degree F. Use recipe for stuffing from here. Stuff the jalapenos and bake for 25mins. Serve.

 

Spicy Potato Subji

A spicy potato dry dish good to be eaten with chapatti or yogurt rice. I made a mild yogurt rice with very little spice and ate this sabji with it.

 

 

 

Prep Time - 5mins  | Cooking Time - 10mins  | Serves - 2

 

Ingredients

 

• 2 Medium potatoes diced
• 1 Medium sized potatoes
• 1 tblsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tblsp Cooking oil
• 2 dried red chillied (I use Byadagi)
• 1 tsp Deeghi Mirch (MDH brand) Im going to give a listing of the different chilli powders you can use in another post and how they affect the taste of the food.
• 1 tblspn finely chopped cilantro
• Salt for taste

 

Heat oil in a non stick pan add cumin seeds, dried chillies and fry. Add the onions and saute until golden brown. Now add the potatoes cover and cook for a minute. Now add the chilli powder, salt ans cilantro mix throughly cover and cook until potato is tender.

Tamrind Rice/Puliyogare

This is a southindian dish a easy way to add zest to good old white rice. I simply love tamrind rice and I totally cheat on this recipe. My mother used to make the paste/powder from scratch. I simply buy mine from the indian grocery store. Ive tried several brands for this recipe (MTR, Aachi, Mother's recipe) and Ive always end up liking MTR puliyogare paste. I personally prefer the paste to the powder mixes easily and gives an extra tanginess of the tamrind.

 

 

 

 

Prep Time - 1 Min  | Cooking Time - 10 Mins (Including the rice) | Serves - 4

 

Ingredients

• 2 Cups cooked rice
• 3 tblspn of MTR Puliyogare mix.

 

Heat pan on low, add mix and fry. Add cooked rice usually doesnt require salt but add a little if you need it. Serve hot.

Lemon Rice/Chitranna

This is a quick and easy recipe on a busy day. My brother-in-law's garden yielded about 200 lemons, we took home about 60 of them shared some with friends and I still have 35 left. Now these are not your regular lemons, they are the size of an orange, easily squeezable, juicy and perfect. I used about 10 to make spicy hot pickle recipe coming soon...Today's recipe if for Lemon rice or Chitranna (Kannada) a breakfast item in Karnataka. Also a good lunch box item with leftover rice, you can cook up in 5mins.

 

Prep Time - 5mins   | cooking time - 10mins | Serves - 2

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 3 green chillies split and deseeded
• 1 cup peanuts with skin
• 1 tblsp mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 2-3 dried chillies (I personally use Byadgi, they give good flavor and color)
• 1 tblsp chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 tblsp cooking oil
• Salt to Taste

 

Heat oil in a deep pan, add mustard seeds let it splutter. Add the dried red chillies and peanuts and fry a bit. Once the peanuts change color (turn crimson) add the green chillies and onion fry until translucent. Add the turmeric powder and fry. Turn off the gas and now add the lemon juice. Mix the cooked white rice mixing gently sprinkle cilantro leaves. Serve hot.

Potato Bhaji

Today both M and I were craving for some simple homemade food. We usually go out with friends for dinner on friday but today we just decided on eating at home and watch a movie.

 

M loves everything with potatoes. I made a simple dal, rice and aloo sabji. I added ground peanuts to the recipe just before serving, it adds just that extra flavour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prep Time - 5mins | Cooking Time - 15mins  | Serves - 4 | Calories

 

Ingredients

 

• 4 medium sized potatoes cubed
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 3 green chillies slit and deseeded
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• Ground Peanuts (No skin)
• 2 tblspn cooking oil
• Salt to taste

 

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and saute cumin seeds till they start to sizzle. Add onions and fry till brown
.
Add turmeric powder, and then throw in potatoes, stirring well to coat with spices. Add salt and let potatoes fry for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

Add the ground peanuts just before serving
SERVE warm.