Tag: yogurt

Methi Kadhi

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BM# 101: Week 2, Day 1
Theme : Cooking with Chickpea flour

Back home, it’s a common practice to boil milk every morning before consuming and at the end of the day, the leftover milk is converted to yogurt. So with freshly prepared yogurt almost every single day, there is frequent appearance of yogurt based recipes at our dining table. In our house, Mor kuzhambu was our comfort food. That’s yogurt with ground coconut paste. Amma used to make it in an earthen pot and that used to make it even more delicious.

In Northern parts of India, instead of coconut, besan or chickpea flour is used to make Kadhi. This yogurt based curry can be thin or thick, depending on the area it’s from. Gujarati Kadhi is more watery than the Punjabi Kadhi. Just like its Southern counterpart, this gravy can be prepared with or without vegetables. Seasonal greens are sometimes added and what we have here is Methi (fenugreek leaves) Kadhi. Here I have served it with mixed vegetable khichdi.

Read on for the recipe.

Serves : 6-8

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup chickpea flour/besan
  • 2 cups yogurt
  • 1″ ginger piece
  • 3 green chilies
  • 2 cups Methi leaves, washed and cleaned
  • 5-6 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • Salt as needed

For tadka:

  • 1 tablespoon ghee
  • a pinch of Asafetida
  • 1 teaspoon jeera
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 2 dried red chilies

Method:

  1. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the ginger and green chilies together. Else chop it finely.
  2. In a medium bowl, add the besan and yogurt. Using a whisk, mix well until it’s lump free.
  3. Heat ghee in a big heavy bottom pan. Add all the items under tadka.
  4. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the crushed ginger and green chilies. Sauté until its fragrant. Add the methi leaves. Sauté for a couple of minutes until it’s wilted a bit.
  5. Add the besan yogurt slurry. Mix well and add 5 cups of water. Add chili powder and keep mixing often to avoid any flour lump from forming. Add salt as needed ( Kadhi needs a fair amount of salt).
  6. Reduce heat to low and let it cook for about half an hour. The more it cooks, the tastier it gets. You might have to add more water (and salt too) if it gets too thick. Keep stirring in between.
  7. At the end of half an hour, taste test and take of the heat. Serve with plain rice or chapati.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the recipe from other Blogging Marathoners.

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Strawberry shrikhand

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BM# 100: Week 2, Day 3
Theme : 3 ingredient Dishes

For Day 3, here is another yogurt based recipe. Strawberry Flavored shrikhand. We had been to a friend’s place for dinner recently. They served us a very generous thali, but it was the shrikhand – puri combination that all of us relished a lot. Surprisingly, my husband who is not a fan of anything sweet, loved it as well.

I decided to make it at home as it’s been ages since I prepared it. I have made plain shrikhand and mango shrikhand before, so this time I decided to make strawberry flavored one. I followed Usha’s recipe here and with just three ingredients to make this fantastic dish, it was perfect for this week’s theme. I love how Usha’s pictures have highlighted the pale pink color of shrikhand, not an easy task to accomplish.

Both my husband and son loved this. I would suggest tasting the shrikhand and making some adjustments while preparing it as the sourness of yogurt and sweetness of strawberries vary vastly. So use this recipe as a guide and tweak it to your taste.

Serves : 3

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups hung yogurt /Greek yogurt
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 cup of strawberry purée

Method:

  1. If using regular yogurt, it needs to be drained well to remove excess water. Layer a clean cotton cloth over a fine mesh strainer. Place the strainer over a large bowl. Pour yogurt into the lined strainer and refrigerate overnight covered with a plate or plastic wrap. An Easier way is to use Greek yogurt.
  2. Purée strawberries to get about a cup of purée. Once the yogurt has drained, add it to a bowl. Add the sugar and the fruit purée in 2-3 batches to the drained yogurt. Mix well using a hand blender or a whisk. Taste test and add more sugar if needed. Refrigerate until the time of serving. If you prefer, you can mix in some chopped strawberries as well. Serve garnished with strawberries or chopped nuts.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#100

Lahsooni kadhi & Begun Bhaja

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I made brownies last week to show off to some friends. It came out rather well (or so they told me).

I made an impressive Mugalai Potato curry and a tasty carrot rice to go with it this weekend when my cousin visited us. Everyone loved it!

And tonight I made rock hard chapatis with a lukewarm curry to go with it.

And thanked god that things are back to normal :))!

But don’t worry, these kadhi and bhaja are not my recipes. You can try them with confidence. These too got me some compliments, though I am yet to learn how to handle that.

For Blogging Marathon 22, I have chosen ‘Dishes from Bengal’ as the theme. Check out the bloggingmarathon page for more themes and more recipes from the participants.

Have a look at this BengaliThali too while you are around!

Recipe Source:Kitchen e Kichu Khonn

Serves:  4

Cooking Time : 15 min

Kadhi Ingredients:

  • Yogurt/Curd                :        1 cup
  • Water                            :        2 cup
  • Besan/Gram Flour     :       1 tbsp, heaped
  • Garlic                             :       5-6 pods
  • Chili Powder               :        1 tsp
  • Turmeric Powder        :       1/4 tsp
  • Salt
  • Oil                                   :       1 tsp
  • Hing/Asafoetida          :       a pinch

Method:

  1. In a big vessel, mix yogurt, besan, chili powder, turmeric powder and water. Whisk thoroughy for a minute ensuring that no dry lumps remain.
  2. Heat a tsp of oil in a deep non stick pan. Add the hing and garlic, saute for half a minute. Add the yogurt mix and salt.
  3. Let it cook in low fire for about 10 -15 minutes. You can turn off the heat when the besan and garlic are cooked completely. The kadhi’s consistency needs to be adjusted according to your preference. You need to add more water if you want it a bit runny, in that case you have to a taste test and add more salt & chili powder. Serve with rice and a vegetable fry like Aloo Bhaja or Brinjal Bhaja. Scroll down for the recipe.

Recipe Source: Bengali Lunch

Serves:  4

Cooking Time : 15-20 min

Begun Bhaja Ingredients:
Brinjal. : 2, baingan ka Bharta kind
Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp
Chili powder. : 1/2 -1 tsp
Salt
Oil. : to shallow fry

 

Method:
Wash and Slice the brinjal into circles. These shouldn’t be too thin. Add the turmeric powder, salt, chili powder and keep aside for at least 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a wide pan and add as many slices as you can without crowding the pan. cook for a couple of minutes. flip over and cook the other side too. It will be good if you can cover the pan while cooking as oil might spatter a bit.
Serve hot with rice and kadhi.

Note : I didn’t get the big purple baingan ka Bharta brinjal. I just used up the ones that were there in the fridge at that time.

Amrakhand

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All nice things have to come to an end and so does another edition of BM. At least for me.

I wont be participating in the coming week and life is going to be very hectic for sometime now. A bed and homemade food has never looked more attractive for me. I have no idea what I am going to pack for the new apartment, but I have already packed the rice and the rice cooker along with my MIL’s trusted pickle.

See ya all in the next edition! Meanwhile, enjoy this cool treat – so perfect to beat the heat outside.

Ingredients:

  • Mango puree                 :               1 cup
  • Thick yogurt                 :               1 cup
  • Sugar                                :                1/3 cup, or more depending on the sweetness of mangoes
  • Cardamom powder    :                to sprinkle on top

Method:

  1. I leave the yogurt in the South Indian coffee filter overnight, to drain off the excess water,you can do this by hanging the yogurt in a muslin cloth for 2-3 hours.
  2. Mix the yogurt with mango puree and add the required amount of sugar. You need to adjust the quantity of sugar depending on the sweetness of mangoes and your personal preference.
  3. Chill for at least two hours before serving.
  4. Serve with puris, chapatis or have them as such. You can make chapati rolls with shrikhand/amrakhand filling.  

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