Vermicelli Upma (शेवयांचा उपमा)

Ingredients:
1 cup vermicelli/shevaya, dry roasted MTR packet
1 medium sized onion, diced fine
3 inches carrot, sliced in long thin strips
2 -3 green chillies, coarsely cut
1/2 cm finely diced ginger
8-10 cashew nuts, halved
1 1/2 cup of boiling water
salt as per taste
1/2 tsp of sugar
coriander leaves for garnish
freshly grated coconut for garnish
lemon juice for garnish

For Seasoning:
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of asafoetida
7-8 fenugreek seeds
8-10 curry leaves

Servings:
3 people

Heat kadhai on gas stove. Add oil to the kadhai and do the regular seasoning with mustard seeds, asafoetida and fenugreek seeds. Next add curry leaves, ginger and chillies. Add cashew nuts and roast them lightly. After the nuts are roasted well, add onion. Roast onion till it turns golden brown. Once the onion turns golden brown, roast carrot strips. To this mixture, add vermicelli and stir for 2-3 minutes. On another gas stove, heat 1 1/2 cup of water to the boiling point. Add boiling water to the kadhai. Add salt and sugar to the kadhai. Stir well and cover it with lid. Let it cook on high flame till the water is reduced and vermicelli is cooked well. Once the water in the kadhai has reduced, let it simmer for a minute. Turn the heat off. Add lemon juice and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves and grated coconut and serve.

Cabbage Salad (कोबी गाजराची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/4 cup finely sliced or grated carrot
1 tbsp pomegranate seeds
coriander leaves for garnish
raisins for added flavor

For Seasoning:
2 tsp lemon juice
salt
black pepper powder or chilli flakes
olive oil

Take a bowl and mix all the seasoning ingredients. Add shredded cabbage, grated carrot, pomegranate seeds, raisins and coriander leaves. Toss slightly and serve.

Gram flour curry (Pithale) (पीठले)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup gram flour or besan
1 medium sized onion
3-4 cloves of garlic

2-3 kokam or aamsul pieces
finely cut coriander leaves  for garnish
freshly grated coconut for garnish
1 1/2 cup of boiled water
salt
sugar (optional, as per taste)

For seasoning:
oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric
7-8 curry leaves
2-3 cut pieces of green chillies (or as per taste)

Servings:
3 people

Heat oil in kadhai. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, chillies and turmeric to the oil. Next add vertically sliced pieces of onion. Fry till slightly golden brown. In the meantime, add gram flour and just enough water to mix gram flour. Dissolve lumps of flour, if any. It should form a thick batter.
Once the onion is fried, add boiled water to the kadhai. Drop kokam pieces in the boiling water. Season it with salt and sugar. Now slowly pour the gram flour batter into the kadhai, stirring continuously to avoid any lumps. The mixture thickens quickly. Keep stirring till flour batter is mixed well in the curry. Keep the lid on and simmer for a minute. Turn off the heat. Garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves.

This curry is served with Jowar or Bajra or Raagi Bhakri. It also tastes well with hot steaming rice.

French Beans vegetable (फरसबीची भाजी)

Ingredients:
1/4 kg french beans, cleaned and chopped
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp chilli powder (or as per taste)
salt
jaggery
1 tbsp groundnut powder

For seasoning:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
1/2 tsp of jeera
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

In a kadhai, heat oil. Add mustard seeds to the oil. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add a pinch of asafoetida, jeera and turmeric powder. Now add the cut pieces of french beans. Stir well and cover it with lid. After 2 minutes, the beans will soften a bit. Next add garam masala and chilli powder, stir well. Add little water to cook the beans. Cover with lid. After 5 minutes, the beans will be cooked well. Season with salt and jaggery and stir well. Cover again with lid. After 2-3 minutes, add groundnut powder and mix well. Let it simmer for a minute. Turn the heater off. Garnish with freshly grated coconut and/or coriander leaves.

You can optionally add potato to this vegetable. Add cut potato to the kadhai after the seasoning, and before adding french beans.

Red Radish salad (लाल मुळ्याची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
2 small red radish
1 medium sized cucumber
1 medium sized tomato
Lettuce leaves

For dressing:
salt
freshly ground pepper
lemon
olive oil

Make thin circular slices of radish, cucumber and tomato. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for dressing. To this, add slices of radish, cucumber, tomato and lettuce leaves. Mix lightly and serve.

Jowar flour dhirde (ज्वारीच्या पीठाचे धिरडे)

My daughter is fussy about eating vegetables. I make dhirde with grated or finely chopped vegetables to ensure she eats her vegetables.  She enjoys Dhirde with ghee and sugar or with a cheese slice.

Ingredients:
1 cup Jowar flour (jwari)
1/2 cup gram flour (besan)
1/4 cup Raagi or nachni flour (optional)
1 tbsp of semolina
1/2 cup finely cut coriander leaves
1/2 cup curd
1 1/2 cup water
salt to taste
1 tsp chilli powder

Servings:
Makes about 5, sufficient for 2 people

Mix all the ingredients and mix well to break any lumps of flour. The batter has to be that of thick dosa consistency. Heat pan and apply little oil over the pan. Take a ladle full of batter and spread uniformly at the centre of the pan. Cover with lid. Turn the heat on medium. After about 1 minute or once the bottom side is brown and netted, flip to fry the other side. Cover again with lid. Once both sides are fried properly, take dhirde off the heat.

Serve with any chutney of your choice. Dhirde are super easy to make and are usually made as breakfast recipe.

Note:
Any vegetable of your choice or a combination of vegetables like beetroot and carrot can be added to the batter.

Stuffed Eggplant (भरली वांगी)

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetable. My mother makes really good stuffed eggplant. I learnt this recipe from her.

Ingredients:
250 gm small eggplants
 1 tsp of mustard for seasoning
asafoetida for seasoning
curry leaves for seasoning
turmeric for seasoning
freshly grated coconut for garnish
freshly cut coriander leaves for garnish

Masala for stuffing:
1/4 cup of roasted peanut powder
1/2 cup of freshly grated coconut
2-3 red chillies
2 tbsp of coriander seeds (dhane)
1 tbsp of jeera
1 tbsp of tamarind, cleaned and soaked in water
1/4 cup of freshly cut coriander leaves
jaggery as per taste
salt as per taste

Serving:
3-4 persons

Wash the eggplants thoroughly. Discard the stem of the eggplant. Make 2 vertical slits to each eggplant, about 3/4th deep, making about 4 wedges. Don't cut it all the way through. Soak the eggplants in water so that they don't turn brown. Heat oil in a flat pan and dry roast jeera, coriander seeds, red chillies and coconut, one by one. After it cools down, grind in the mixer together with other ingredients mentioned under masala for stuffing. Add water to make a fine paste; the paste should have thick chutney like consistency. Now stuff this paste in the slit eggplants and keep aside.

In the same flat pan, add oil and do a regular mustard seasoning with asafoetida, curry leaves and turmeric. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add the stuffed eggplants to the pan coating each eggplant with seasoning oil. Make sure that the eggplants are added to the pan in vertical position with open slit facing up. Coat all the eggplants well with oil/seasoning, cover the lid and let it steam for a minute. Next add the remaining stuffing masala to the pan and mix well. Add adequate amount of water and adjust salt as required. Cover with lid and let it simmer for few minutes. Turn the heat off after the eggplants are cooked well and have turned soft. Garnish with freshly grated coconut and cut coriander leaves.

Stuffed Eggplant goes very well with any type of Bhakri, chapati.

Amla pickle (आवळ्याचे लोणचे)

I have learnt this recipe from my mother. This pickle is very easy to make and requires no standard pickle masala. Instead we will use mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and pepper for seasoning.

You can make this pickle with just amla, ginger and lemon. Optionally you can add fresh turmeric (oli halad), green chillies and/or raw black pepper spikes to it for added flavor.

Ingredients:
8-10 amlas,
5-6 lemons
1/2 cup of finely cut ginger
1/2 cup of finely chopped green chillies (optional)
1/2 cup of fresh turmeric, peeled and finely chopped (optional)


For pickle masala:
2 tbsp of mustard
1/2 tbsp of fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp of freshly ground pepper (or as per taste)
2-3 tbsp salt

For seasoning:
1 cup of vegetable oil
2-3 tsp of mustard seeds
1/2 tsp of asafoetida

Servings:
Makes about 1/2 kg of pickle

Wash all the ingredients thoroughly and dry them. Cut amlas into small chunks, take the seed out. Next squeeze the juice out of lemons and keep it aside. Cut the squeezed lemons into small pieces. Similarly cut ginger and fresh turmeric (oli halad) into fine pieces. Slit and cut chillies into small pieces, lengthwise. Chillies and fresh turmeric enhance the taste of the pickle, however they are optional ingredients and can be skipped.

Take a clean and dry jar and transfer all the cut ingredients into the jar. Add the lemon juice that was kept aside while cutting lemons. Add about 2-3 tbsp of salt and mix well. Instead of regular table salt, you can use rock salt and table salt combination. Leave it overnight. This will release juices from the ingredients and the volume of the mixture will be slightly compressed. 

In a kadhai, dry roast pickle masala ingredients, one by one. In case you are using chillies, adjust the quantity of the pepper to avoid making the pickle extra hot. After cooling down the roasted ingredients, grind it in a mixer. Make sure the mixer is dry and no trace of water is present in the mixer. Add this dry powder to the jar and mix well.

In a seasoning pan, add about 1 cup of vegetable oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and asafoetida. Once the mustard seeds start popping, turn the heat off and let it cool. Once the oil is completely cooled down, pour it into the jar and mix well.

This pickle is ready to serve. Refrigerate the pickle. It can last for over a month in the refrigerator.

Note:
You can add 8-10 raw black pepper spikes to the pickle optionally. The pepper is very hot, hence adjust the chillies and pepper powder in the pickle masala.

Methi Matar Paneer (मेथी मटार पनीर)

Ingredients:
200 gms of Paneer, cubed
1/2 cup of chopped Fenugreek (methi) leaves
1 cup of Peas
1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp of garam masala
1/2 tsp of chilli powder (or as per taste)
salt as per taste
1 tbsp of fresh cream (optional)

For seasoning:
1/2 tsp of mustard
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1/2 tsp of jeera

Serving:
3-4 people

Heat oil in a kadhai and shallow fry paneer cubes. Take them off the heat once they are lightly browned. In the same kadhai, add mustard seeds. Once they start to pop, add a pinch of asafoetida and jeera. Now add ginger garlic paste to the kadhai. Once it is fried, after about a minute, add chopped methi leaves and stir them for a minute. Now add peas and mix well. Cover the kadhai with a lid and add 1 cup of water after about a minute. Once the water starts boiling, add garam masala and chilli powder. Next add fried paneer cubes. Mix it well and simmer for a minute. Lastly add fresh cream. Turn the heat off after 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Peanut Flax Seed Ladoo (जवस शेंगदाण्याचे लाडू)

I make these laddoos very often. They are good substitute for cereal bars. Ever since I read about goodiness of flax seed, I was searching for recipes that include flax seed. I found the laddoo recipe on this website. I have modified the recipe a bit to include more dry fruits like pistachios, almonds, cashew nuts. These laddoos are easy to make and are ideal for travel food and/or office snack.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup peanuts
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
2 tbsp Flax seeds
8-10 Pistachios
7-8 Almonds
3/4 cup Jaggery (as per taste)
1 tsp cardamom powder
A pinch of salt

Servings:
Makes about 25 small laddoos.

Dry roast peanuts in a kadhai on medium flame. When they are fully roasted, they turn slightly brown and give a nice aroma. Transfer peanuts to another bowl. Now in the same kadhai, roast sesame seeds. Stir continuously to prevent sesame seeds from burning. They roast quickly in about a minute or two. Take it out and add flax seeds to the pan. Stir them and cover the kadhai with a lid as flax seeds start cracking once heated. Take the flax seeds off the heat and next roast pistachios for about 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously. Lastly roast almonds in the kadhai for 1-2 minutes. Once all the ingredients are cooled down, grind them together with jaggery and cardamom powder and salt. I did not grind the powder very fine; instead I prefer coarse powder.

These laddoos do not need any ghee for binding. The oils from flax seeds, peanuts serve as binding agents. I add other dry fruits like cashew nut powder, dry date powder (Kharik) etc for added flavour and nutrition.

Moong Dal Chilla (मूगाच्या डाळीचे चिला)

Moong dal is very popular in diet meals. Moong Dal Chilla makes for a perfect breakfast dish. I followed this recipe for Moong Dal chilla. Food For Thought is a well organised blog, with tasty recipes and equally appetizing pictures. I stumbled upon it some time ago searching for a recipe on internet. I refer to it, especially for Konkani cuisines.

Ingredients:
2 cups of split yellow moong dal, soaked overnight
4-5 garlic cloves
2-3 green chillies
1/4th cup of boiled green peas (optional)
A small piece of ginger

1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
Coriander leaves, finely chopped
Salt as per taste

Serves:
2 people, makes about 5 medium sized Chillas

Grind together soaked yellow moong dal, garlic cloves, ginger and green chillies. The mixture should have same consistency as Dosa batter. To this, add boiled green peas, finely chopped onion, coriander leaves and salt. Mix well. Adjust the consistency of the batter by adding little bit of water. Heat non-stick pan and pour about 2 ladles of batter on it. Spread slightly to form a thick Chilla, like Uttappa. Cover with a lid. Keep the gas stove on medium to simmer. After about 2-3 minutes or once the pan side of the Chilla is browned a bit, flip it and cook for another minute or so. Serve Chilla with plain coriander coconut chutney, sauce or any other chutney of your choice.

Banana Sheera (केळ्याचा शिरा)

Banana Sheera is a quick and delicious sweet dish recipe. I had some overripe bananas at home. Today I made this recipe for breakfast.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup semolina
2 ripe medium sized bananas, finely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup of boiled water
7-8 strands of saffron
Ghee for  roasting
Pistachios and raisins for garnish
Cardamom powder for garnish


Serves:
2 people

Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a kadhai. Keep the gas stove on simmer. Roast semolina until it turns slight brown and gives a nice aroma. It takes about 5 minutes to roast semolina. Now take out the semolina from the kadhai and add 1 tsp of ghee and finely chopped bananas and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add saffron strands while roasting banana. Now add roasted semolina to the kadhai. Mix well, stir for a minute and slowly add boiling water to it. Stir well, making sure that no lumps of semolina are formed. The semolina gets cooked quickly. Once the semolina is cooked, add sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, turn the heat off. Stir well and cover it with lid. Garnish sheera with chopped pistachios, raisins and cardamom powder.

Paneer butter masala (पनीर बटर मसाला)

This is my daughter's favourite dish. Every time I get paneer from the store, she asks me to make this dish. I found a simple recipe for paneer butter masala at this site. It is quick and easy.

Ingredients:
200 gms of paneer cubed
3 medium sized tomatoes pureed
1 1/2 tsp of ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup cashewnuts soaked
1 tsp of garam masala
1/2 tsp of chilli powder
1/2 tsp of butter and oil for frying
coriander leaves for garnish
fresh cream for garnish (optional)
Salt as per taste

Serves:
3 people

Add butter and oil to the kadhai. Add 1-2 bay leaves and shallow fry paneer cubes. Keep them aside once done. In the same kadhai, fry ginger garlic paste. Next add tomato puree and stir fry until it leaves oil from the side. Now add red chilli powder and garam masala. Grind the soaked cashew nuts to form a paste. Add this paste to the kadhai and stir fry for 1-2 minutes until it leaves oil from the side. Now add about 1 cup of water to the curry. Add sale and stir the curry well. Let it simmer for some time till the curry thickens a bit. Finally add fried paneer cubes and simmer for a minute. Garnish with fresh cream and chopped coriander leaves.

Spinach soup (पालकाचे सूप)

Ingredients:
1 cup of blanched spinach leaves
1 medium sized onion
6-8 florets of cauliflower
1/2 cup green peas
1-2 green chillies (as per taste)
oil for seasoning
salt
1 tsp of cream for garnish

Servings:
2-3 people

Blend together spinach leaves and onion in the mixer to form a fine puree. Heat oil in a kadhai and stir fry cauliflower and peas for about 2 minutes. Now add the puree and salt and stir for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for some time. Transfer the soup into a soup bowl and garnish with cream.

Yellow Moong Dal Ladoo (मूग डाळीच्या पीठाचे लाडू)

There was a packet of yellow moong dal powder sitting in my kitchen shelf for some time. I had bought it to make dhirde or ghavan (instant flat bread). I wanted to make something sweet today, so I decided to make moong dal ladoos.

Ingredients:
2 cups of yellow moong dal powder
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
3/4 cup of melted ghee (approximately)
20-25 raisins for garnish
10-12 roasted cashew nuts for garnish (cut in half lengthwise)
cardamom powder

Serves:
25 medium sized ladoos

First you will need to roast the moong dal powder in ghee.  For this step, heat ghee in a kadhai. Add dal powder once the ghee is hot. Mix it well and stir continuously to avoid burning. Initially, the powder will absorb all the ghee and mixture will turn lumpy and dry. Keep the gas stove on simmer throughout roasting process. After about 20-25 minutes, the color of the mixture changes from yellow to brown and the kitchen is filled with a nice aroma of roasted dal powder. Turn the stove off and sprinkle some milk on the mixture and give it a good stir. Let it rest for sometime. Once the mixture is cooled, add powdered sugar, cardamom powder, raisins and cashew nuts and mix well with hands. Now roll medium sized ladoos of this mixture.

Radish Green Salad (मुळ्याच्या पानांची पचडी)

Radish due to its strong smell, is not a favourite vegetable in our house. Whenever we buy radish from the vegetable vendor, he generally snips off the greens. I always ask the vendor to keep the radish greens. I decided to make a salad out of these greens today.

I remember my mother making this pachadi with little variation. She used to add soaked yellow moong dal to the salad. I did not have soaked moong dal so I modified it a bit. I found this recipe here. A minor change to the original recipe is I did not use olive oil, used just lemon juice for seasoning.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of radish greens finely chopped
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of cucumber finely chopped

salt
freshly ground pepper
lemon juice for seasoning
roasted sesame seeds for garnish

 Mix all the ingredients together except sesame seeds and toss lightly. Refrigerate for some time and add sesame seeds just before serving the dish. Enjoy the crunchy radish green salad.

Tip: You can add raisins or roasted almonds for additional flavour.

Spinach Corn Bhajji (पालक कॉर्न भजी)

Sunday Menu:

Weekend is the only time when all of us are at home, relaxed and enjoy meals together. For lunch, we had nachni (ragi) bhakri with cauliflower rassa (gravy), pumpkin vegetable, spinach corn bhajji (fritters), sheera (semolina sweet) and mattha (spiced buttermilk).

Here is a snapshot of my plate.

Spinach corn combination is always tasty. I had tried making regular bhaji (vegetable) and spinach corn sandwich with loads of cheese. This time I decided to make pakodas or bhajji (fritters) with this combination. I found the recipe on this blog post. I modified it a bit - used corn flour instead of rice flour and instead of chillies used red chilli powder.

Ingredients:
1 corn kernel (I used sweet corn)
1 1/2 cup of finely chopped spinach leaves
1 medium onion
corn flour for binding
a small piece of ginger
salt for seasoning
red chilli powder or green chillies
coriander leaves

Grind together corn, ginger and chilli powder to form a coarse paste. Now to this mixture, add the remaining ingredients other than corn flour and mix well. Depending on the composure of the mix, add corn flour to bind it together. My mix had become a bit runny as I had used fresh sweet corn. Heat oil and fry the bhajjis until light brown. The onions give it a nice crisp flavor.