Lasooni Dal Palak

One of my favourite recipes and best compliments with jeera rice or chapathi. On a lazy cold winter day you will definitely relish this. That doesnt mean you cannot eat it now :) So, here are the ingredients...

Ingredients:

Toor dal - 1 cup

Palak (spinach) - 1 large bunch ( two cups chopped)

Garlic - 3 to 4 pods

Onion - 1 small

Jeera (cumin seeds) -  1 tsp

Green chillies - 3 to 4

Butter - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice - 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook the toor dal for three whistles. Heat butter in a pan. Add oil to it.  When it is hot, add jeera. Once the jeera splutters, split the green chillies length wise and add to it. Now add garlic and and chopped onion to the pan.

Once the onion turns translucent, add palak to it. Fry for a minute, till the palak reduces in size. Add little water to it just enough to cover the palak. Cook for a minute or two.

Now add the cooked dal to it. Mix well. Add salt and all the dry masala powders to it. Mix well. 

Reduce the flame and cook for a minute. Switch off the flame and add lemon juice to it. 

Serve hot rice or chapathi..

Enjoy Cooking !!!!

Jeera Rice

     The most easiest dish made with basmati rice. U can make it with other rice varieties too, but i like it with basmati rice. On the days when you feel like eating basmati, but bored of cutting vegetables to make biryani or pulao, jeera rice comes to your rescue. Team it up with paneer curry that i posted earlier and you are ready for a delicious meal.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice (cooked) - 1 cup

Jeera - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2 to 4 (slit length wise)

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Cashewnuts - 8 to 10

Curry leaves - 1 tbsp

Coriander chopped - for garnishing

Butter - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

           Heat a tbsp of oil in a large pan and fry the cashewnuts. Keep it aside. In the same pan, add butter and let it heat. Now add jeera. Once it splutters, add curry leaves.

            Now add green chillies and onion and fry till onions are translucent. Add the cooked basmati rice and mix well.

            Add the fried cashews and salt. Mix well. Lower the flame. Close the lid and turn off the flame. Keep the lid closed for a minute or two. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with any side dish of your choice or dal.

Enjoy cooking.... :)

Simple Paneer Curry

   This is the recipe that you actually do when you are really bored to cook and want to make something very quick and tasty...

    Paneer curry will serve as a very good side dish for chapathi, roti and jeera rice.

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes - 1 cup

Tomato - 2

Onion - 1 large

Garlic - 2 to 3 pods

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

   Chop onion, garlic and tomatoes finely. Heat oil in a pan and add the veggies. Fry them till they turn soft. 

    Add turmeric and chilli powder to it. Mix well. Take the mix into blender and grind well. 

     Heat another tsp oil in pan and add paneer cubes to it. Fry for minute. Add the tomato gravy to it. Add salt, sugar and garam masala. Cook well till gravy thickens and oil separates. 

         Serve hot with roti or rice.

Enjoy Cooking :)

Holige / Obbattu

   Finally, I am back to doing my favourite job of writing my blog. I was not able to update it for quite a long time since I was busy with my little one. Now i have decided to do some justice to my passion.

    Here is the recipe of one of the most loved sweet dishes of South Indian families and thats Holige. Its prepared on Ugadi (the new year of Kannadigas). We celebrated it just two days back with our families. People love to have it with milk and ghee. 

     There are various forms of Holige made with coconut, sugar etc. Here is the recipe for holige made with toor dal.

Ingredients:

Toor dal - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 and 1/4 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Maida - 1 cup

Wheat flour - 2 tbsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Oil -1/2 cup

Ghee - 1/2 cup

Method:

            Take  a bowl and mix maida, wheat flour, turmeric and salt. Add sufficient water and make very soft dough.  Pour oil over dough and allow it to rest in oil for around two hours.

             Now cook the toor dal in the cooker for around two whistles. Blend the toor dal after removing the extra water from it. 

             Heat a heavy bottom pan and add a tsp of ghee to it. Add the ground dal to it. Powder the jaggery and add to it. Cook on low flame till the mix thickens and forms a thick paste consistency. Reduce the flame and add the cardamom powder to it. Mix well and switch off the flame. Allow the mix to cool down.

        Make balls out of dal mixture and keep this aside. This forms the filling. Take small quantity of dough mix and flatten it in your hands. Place the filling in it and close properly. Roll the dough as thin as possible. Heat a flat pan. Place the flattened dough on it and roast on both sides. Apply little ghee on both sides. Serve hot with ghee and milk.

Note:

     You can also mix both channa and toor dal for the stuffing.

Enjoy Cooking :)