Tag: quick and easy

Imli Aloo

3 Comments

BM #110 : Week 4, Day 3
Theme : A to Z theme – Curries

I had planned to make Ivy gourd curry for the alphabet‘I’ in this A-Z theme. But I forgot to buy the vegetable and my google search for an alternate dish took me to this Imli aloo recipe from Priya’s space. She had served the tangy potatoes with Horse gram curry. So that’s how I got the recipe for yesterday’s post :-).

Coming to the recipe here, it has cooked potatoes sautéed with the usual masalas, you can change according to your preference. Basically it’s a combination of salt, spice and tangy flavors because of the tamarind. Earlier when I used to squeeze tamarind pulp the traditional way, I used to always end up with multiple small cuts in my hand. It took me awhile to understand that tamarind was the culprit and once I realized that, I switched to the paste version and haven’t had any problems since then. Lemon also does the same thing to me sometimes, if I squeeze too much lemon, the next day it would be like someone nicked my knuckles with a teeny tiny blade.

Anyway, here is the recipe for tangy potatoes. These pair very well with rice and a gravy. Rice and yogurt with potatoes in the side is an excellent combination, my younger brother survived on that diet for the first 20 years of his life (don’t ask me how though, he was a picky eater and we just let him be!)

Ingredients:

  • 3 big potatoes, cooked
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon jeera seeds
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1 teaspoon coriander powder
  • 2 teaspoons tamarind Paste
  • Salt as needed

Method:

  1. Wash and Cook potatoes. I pressure cook them in Instant Pot for 1 minute in Manual Mode. Let the pressure release naturally and let the potatoes cool down. Once cool, peel the skin and dice it. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds to it. Once it finishes popping, add jeera seeds and let it crackle. Add the masalas now to the oil, and the tamarind paste too. Mix everything well and tip in the potatoes. Mix carefully so that the masalas coat the potatoes evenly.
  3. Turn the heat down and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. Carefully turn the potatoes over without breaking it and let it cook for another couple of minutes. Take off the heat and serve with rice and yogurt or a curry of your choice.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week.

Muhammara – Roasted red pepper dip

5 Comments

BM #110 : Week 2, Day 2
Theme : Middle Eastern recipes

Muhammara is a dip made with roasted red peppers. This is an easy dip to make if you have all the ingredients. I have used readymade peppers here, but it’s not difficult to make roasted peppers at home over stovetop or oven. I have even taken the microwave method where I rub a little oil over the pepper, poke it a couple of times with a fork and then cook for 2-3 minutes until it’s cooked and soft.

Pomegranate molasses can be made at home by cooking pomegranate juice until it thickens. But you can check out these substitutes too. I have used sweet tamarind chutney as a substitute. The flavors need some time to mingle, so it’s a good idea to make it a couple of hours ahead of serving.

Read on for the recipe.

Recipe Source : All recipes

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 cup chopped roasted red peppers
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
  • 1 teaspoon paprika/chili powder/pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • Salt as needed

Method:

  1. The walnuts and breadcrumbs need to be toasted. For this, Add a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan. Roast the walnuts first until lightly browned and fragrant. Remove to a bowl. In the same pan, add another spoonful of olive oil and toast the breadcrumbs till done. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a food processor, add the drained and chopped roasted pepppers, garlic cloves, cumin, lemon juice, chili flakes, pomegranate molasses, remaining olive oil, salt, roasted walnuts and breadcrumbs. Pulse to get a not too smooth paste. Refrigerate until the time of serving. Serve as a dip with chopped parsley on top.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week.

Strawberry Jam Butter

4 Comments

BM #109 : Week 4, Day 3
Theme : Dips and Spreads

During the holidays, we had been to a gourmet shop and came home with some interesting items – Jalapeño spiced honey, ginger flavored mustard which is great in salads and raspberry butter, which was absolutely delicious with bread! So when I was using the spiced honey for yesterday‘s chia jam, I remembered the raspberry butter and decided to make a strawberry version.

You can hardly call this a recipe, it is just mixing softened butter and jam of your choice with a whisk or a fork. To keep the emulsion smooth, make sure that everything is at room temperature or else the butter might harden and will look like it’s curdling. If that happens, you might have to heat the bowl for a few seconds until the butter is softened again and turns smooth.

Just like ghee, butter can survive a few days outside the fridge if the kitchen is not too hot. So if you are making a small batch of jam butter, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated. But this is your personal choice, if you are not comfortable leaving this outside, it can stay in the fridge. You might have to warm it up a bit before you spread it on the toast.

Read on for the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup, ~50 gms), softened
  • 3 tablespoons strawberry jam (or per your taste), at room temperature

Method:

    Using a fork or a hand mixer, beat in the jam with the butter.
    The jam and the butter has to be at room temperature for the mixture to be smooth. If it’s straight from the fridge, the mixture might look curdled. You can heat the bowl for a couple of seconds or use a hair dryer to warm it up and then beat again to get a smooth paste.
    Serve on buttered toast.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week

Pineapple Chia Jam

4 Comments

BM #109 : Week 4, Day 2
Theme : Dips and Spreads

For Day 2, this is a simple fruit based jam recipe with chia seeds. I saw the recipe on Gimme Some Oven and ended up making a small batch with some leftover canned pineapple. This jam can be made with any kind of fruit– fresh or frozen. All that you need to do is to cook the fruit until it’s mushy and done, then add the chia seeds and honey. Wait for the jam to cool down and thicken a bit and transfer it into a jar and refrigerate for a 3-5 days. Mine got over by dinner time, so no storing issues for me :-). It’s a no fuss recipe with minimal ingredients and a healthy one.

For the sweetener, I used some jalapeño flavored honey that I bought from a store during the holiday season. The jalapeño flavor added a little kick to the jam. I am definitely planning to make this jam again with some other fruits.

Read on for this easy recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup canned pineapple, drained
  • 1 tablespoon syrup from the canned pineapple
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1 tablespoon honey (I used jalapeño honey)

Method:

  1. If using fresh pineapple, peel, dice and chop it into smaller pieces. Pulse the pieces (canned or fresh) in a blender to get a rough coarse paste.
  2. Transfer the purée into a pan along with the reserved syrup and bring it to a slow boil stirring in between. If using fresh pineapple, cook until the puree is not raw anymore. Add the chia seeds and honey and mix it in. Turn off the heat. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Transfer into a jar once it’s cold. Serve with bread.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week