Su's cooking corner

Palak Paneer (Spinach with cottage cheese)

2010-12-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

I love paneer and usually enjoy any paneer sabzi. Paneer butter masala and Paneer tikka masala are two of my favorite! Replace paneer with chicken and you get two more of my fav dishes!! But for some reason, I never liked Palak Paneer. Any restaurant I went to, I would never order the Palak Paneer nor did I ever think of making it myself, until I came across this recipe at Indira's cooking blog.
The recipe in itself is so simple, easy to make and so delicious that it changed my opinion about Palak Paneer forever. Now I make it quite often and am so glad that I came across this wonderful recipe. Most of the times I follow Indira's recipe quite religiously, but I also make quick alterations when I am short of time.
In addition to sharing this recipe, I am also posting it as an entry to Nupur's Holiday Buffet. This is my first entry to any blogging event and am pretty excited!

Ingredients

Two cups of paneer - cubed
Two cups of chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)
One medium size tomato (or 2-3 tbsps of tomato paste)
One small onion - chopped
3-4 green chillies - slit (depending on your tolerance level)
A handful of almonds or cashews (optional)
One tsp of ginger - garlic paste
Half a tsp of turmeric powder
One tsp of cumin - coriander powder
Half a tsp of chilli powder (optional)
Oil for cooking
Salt as per taste

Method

First saute the spinach and the green chillies in one tsp of oil in a kadai (skillet). Saute until the spinach shrinks and then allow it to cool a bit. Blend the spinach-chillies along with the almonds/cashews into a paste in a blender.
There are a few ways to use the tomato in this dish. You can either microwave the tomato in water. Peel it's skin and mash the tomato into a pulp. This is mentioned in Indira's recipe. I have also tried blending chopped tomatoes along with the spinach.

In the same kadai, heat 2 tsps of oil and saute the chopped onions until translucent. Add the ginger - garlic paste, turmeric, cumin - coriander powder and saute for a few minutes. (If you are using tomato paste, you should add it now and let it cook for about 5 mins. Add just a few tsps of water if you think the paste is too dry.)
Now add the spinach puree, salt into the kadai. Cover and cook well for about 5 to 8 minutes. If you want you can add a bit of chilli powder now to increase the spice level. The last addition is the panner cubes. Simmer for a few minutes and let it blend well with the spinach and the masalas. Your delicious palak paneer is ready!! :)

Kale and Mushroom Spaghetti

2010-12-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

I recently used a Groupon to get some some fruits & veggies delivered to my place. It saved me atleast two trips to the grocery store in Chicago's windy winter. I did not know what was to come in the package before hand and I was excited about this opportunity to try some new veggies and recipes. One of the items from the magic box, that I had never tried before was Kale. After some research (read Wiki) , I found that it belongs to the same family as cauliflower & broccoli and is extremely nutritious. I had no idea what to make from it. After some more research, I came across a pretty simple recipe and decided to give it a shot.

I did not time my cooking to see if it was actually done within 16 mins, but it was extremely simple and luckily I had almost all of the ingredients in my kitchen..yay!

My version: I followed the recipe quite religiously, but used vegetable broth instead of chicken. I also had very little of eggplant marinara sauce, so decided to add that towards the end as well. It was really delicious, but I felt it was missing something, maybe the parmesan cheese which I did not have. :( But at the end of it, I was extremely happy to have tried a new recipe!

Updated 12/24/2010: I am sending this blog post as an entry to Nupur's Holiday Buffet.

Tingalaore randai (Navy beans sabzi)

2010-12-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

Wow!! It took me over three months to write my next entry in this cooking blog! Instead of giving some lame excuse as to why I was not active, I shall get down to the recipe. Hopefully, the readers will like it. :)
I am not sure how common tingalaore (Navy beans) randai (sabzi) is among konkanis, but tingalaore ghashi (sabzi made in thick coconut curry..slurp!) is surely popular! I think we like any kind of ghashi; with rice it makes a perfect meal! This recipe is quite similar to the baked beans from the 'baked beans on toast' breakfast item and that is why this recipe is dedicated to my dear friend Varun, who is a great cook and a food enthusiast! I have tried his version of 'baked beans on toast' and they were absolutely delicious! I am yet to make them myself!

Total cooking time: About 30 mins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup of navy beans (soaked overnight)
1 medium onion (cubes)
2 medium tomatoes (cubes)
1 tsp turmeric powder
2-3 tsp cooking oil
1 to 2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp MTR garam masala powder
salt to taste
chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Method
First pressure cook the soaked beans. They should be soft and cooked well. You can even mash it a bit, this will make the beans cook well with the onion-tomato puree (described below) and help in thickening the gravy.
Heat oil in a kadai and add the chopped onions. Once they are a bit translucent, add the chopped tomatoes as well and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes lose their water and are mashed. Let this mixture cool a bit and then grind it in a food processor.
In the same kadai, heat this onion-tomato puree in oil for about 5 minutes and then add the turmeric, chilli powder and cook for another few minutes. Now add the cooked navy beans, water and salt to taste. You can add the same water in which you cooked the beans to the mixture. Close the kadai and let it cook for about 10 mins on a low flame, while constantly stirring. You can add more chilli powder if you want it to be spicy. Once navy beans and tomato puree have cooked nicely, mix the garam masala powder as well. Turn off the stove and garnish with the coriander leaves.

Your navy beans sazi is ready!Quick notes: You can use canned navy beans that are already cooked to save loads of time. Just make sure to wash the beans well in running water before using them. You can also substitute the onion-tomato puree with some finely chopped onions and a few tbspns of ready made tomato paste/sauce. But the onion-tomato puree surely adds some additional taste to it. Enjoy the dish with rice, bread or rotis!

Batate Saung (Spicy potato sabzi)

2010-08-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

I think I am going to take back my words from the previous post where I said the blog was all about food and recipes and not about me. It is of course about me and mainly my experience with food and cooking. Just giving a heads up!
Here is my first recipe (rather my mom's recipe) , a very common konkani dish - batate saung. Saung in konkani, generally means a spicy, thick gravy and in this case it's a spicy potato gravy.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients:
2 -3 medium sized potatoes - peeled and cut into small cubes
1 medium sized onion - half cut into cubes and the other half chopped
2 tsp oil
quarter tsp tamrind paste diluted in water or a small piece of tamrind that has been soaked in water
1 to 2 tsp chilli powder (as per spice level)
salt as per taste

Method:
First pressure cook the potatoes and the first half of onions together with just enough water for about 2 -3 whistles. Let them cool down.

In a kadai, saute the chopped onions till they become soft. Add the chilli powder and saute for a few seconds. Now add the cooked potato-onion in the kadai and cook on a medium flame. Add the tamrind paste (or the squeezed tamrind juice), salt and mix it well into the sabzi. Cover and cook on a low flame for a few minutes until the gravy thickens a bit. Your batate saung is ready!

This sabzi is super easy and super quick to make. If you want to save time, you can just microwave the potatoes, mash it into medium sized lumps, chop all the onions together and follow the same procedure. The reason the onions are also cooked along with the potatoes are so they form a nice, thick gravy while cooking.

The sabzi goes well with rice, rotis or even as a side dish for idlis or dosas. Today I had it with pita bread but one of my favorite combinations is rice, simple dal with batate saung.

Finally the cooking blog is here...

2010-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Like the title reads..my cooking blog is finally here! I had been thinking of starting a cooking blog for a long time, but since procrastination is my middle name, I never got to it until today. :) But now that the beautiful summer is almost coming to an end, I started thinking of things to do during the winter to keep me busy and not be affected by the dark and cold that lies outside. (Chicago winters can never be taken lightly.. :( ). One of the ideas was to finally start this blog..and since I got soo excited about that thought, I decided not to wait till the days get shorter and the trees shed their leaves..but to get started immediately!

My blog will serve as a dairy of my recipes, so I can refer to them real quick and to anybody else who is interested in taking a look at it! I am not much of an experimenter when it comes to cooking, I usually like to follow the tried and tested ways with a bit of my own twist. (I guess I am contradicting myself over here..!!) So, most of the recipes will be the ones I learnt from my mom. Whenever I mention a recipe I found on somebody else's blog, I promise to give them due credit and refer you directly to their kitchen.. (read blog).

Well, this post was just an introduction..none of the other posts will talk so much about me and I will let the recipes do all the talking. :D

So, stay tuned at Su's cooking corner...