Whats Cooking!!!!

Here is another dish that adds to the list of my love for flavored rice dish. Ingredients: Marination of prawns: Prawns: 15-20 shelled and deveined  Garlic paste: 1 1/2 tsp  Ginger paste: 3/4 tsp  Turmeric powder:1/2 tsp t Chilli powder: 3/4 tsp  Vegetable oil: 2-3 tsp  Salt: 1 tsp For the pulao masala: Vegetable oil: 2 tbsp  Green cardamoms: 4 Cinnamon sticks: 2  Nutmeg: 1tsp  Star Anish: 2 Cloves: 10 Onion: 1 large thinly sliced Green chillies: 2-4 sliced ( adjust as per your taste) Garlic paste:2 1/2 tsp  Ginger paste: 2 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder: 3/4 tsp Coriander powder: 1 Tbsp  Tomatoes: 1 large chopped Basmati rice : 2 cups washed and soaked for half an hour Water: 4-5 cups Mint leaves: finely chopped 2 tbsp Coriander leaves: finely chopped 2 tbsp Salt to taste Procedure: Mix all the marinade ingredients.  Coat the prawns well with the marinade and let it marinat...

Its been long since I have posted something. With a new born its really difficult to cook something blog worthy and on top of it take pics and write about it. But finally I said to myself, its enough and decided to give some importance to my blog. Bombay biryani is a milder version of biryani  and incorporates potatoes in it. Ingredients: Chicken : 2 lbs ( I used 10 leg pieces but you can use the pieces you desire) Basmati Rice: 3 cups Potatoes: 2 large peeled and quartered Onion: 2 large thinly sliced Tomato: 2 large diced ( adjust according to the sourness of tomatoes you have ) Ginger garlic paste: 2 tbsp Yogurt: 1 cup Bombay Biryani Mix : 1 pack ( I used shan brand) Oil: 1 cup Procedure: Clean the chicken and make sure you drain as much as water possible. In a bowl mix together yogurt, ginger garlic paste, Biryani mix and marinate the chicken and potatoes in the mix for about 1 hr. In the mean while in a  pot heat oil and fry onions with a pinch of sa...

This year my pudina(mint) plant is flourishing like crazy. Its every where and is trying to take over my whole vegetable garden. So I have been trying to make more and more recipes with it. Mint is really good for you but the thing with it is, it over powers very other taste very easily, so u cannot use it too much.  So you might see more than a few recipes using mint soon. Here is my first one. Ingredients  For the pudina juice Pudina(Mint)leaves  - 1 cup loosely packed Coriander leaves- Half a bunch Grated coconut-Half a cup       Cinnamon-1 big Cloves- 4-5 Bay leaf-1 Green chillies- 2  or (as required) Ginger: 1/2 a inch Garlic – 2 cloves For Pulao: Basmati Rice- 1 cup Onions – 1 large thinly sliced Carrot -1 big cubed Fresh peas- Half a cup Beans- 10 -12 in number cut into 1/2 inch  Ghee-1 tbsp Oil- 1 tbsp Jeera-1 tsp Water- one cup (Water has to be adjusted with the amount of pundina juice obtained) Salt t...

Saffron rice is a dish made from saffron, white rice. Saffron rice is found in the cuisines of many countries. The recipe is similar to Plain cooked rice with addition of ingredients. Indian saffron is richer, darker in its red-orange color then the Spanish or Italian, and gives a better flavor to rice.  Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup Powdered saffron:  1/8 tsp Boiling water:  2 cups Butter:  2 tsp Salt:  1 tsp Procedure: Steep the saffron in 1/2 cup boiling water. In a skillet melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Stir in the rice and salt.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the rice begins to absorb the butter and becomes opaque, but do not brown the rice. Transfer the rice into rice cooker. Pour in the remaining 1 1/2 cups boiling water along with the saffron water. Close the lid and cook on white rice mode. Once the rice is done let the cover on for another 2-4 mins. I served it with the side of yummy and ric...

Last week we celebrated our 4th anniversary. I decided to make a yummy dinner for Tanmaya but he loves when I prepare something new and I was running out of ideas so I decided to give a try to coriander rice. It goes great with raita and any masaledar curry. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup Onion: 1 small thinly sliced Cardamom : 2 Javitri : 1 Cumin Seeds: 1/2 tsp Green Chillies: 2-3 ( adjust as per your taste) Coriander Leave: 1 bunch Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp Ginger: 1/2 a inch Coriandre Powder: 1 tbsp Cumin Powder: 1 tsp Salt as per taste. Fried Onion: 1/2 cup Oil: 2 tbsp Procedure: Make a fine paste of with coriander leaves, green chillis and ginger. Cook the rice with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker or any way you prefer. In a kadhai heat the oil, add the Cumin seeds, cardamom and javitri. As the cumin stops spluttering add the sliced onions with a pinch of salt and cook till onions are translucent. Add the coriander, green chili and ginger paste...

Mushroom Pulao is a delicious North Indian rice recipe. Its easy and quick  to prepare. It tastes great with a spicy chicken curry or even dum aloo and raita. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup Water: 2 cup Mushroom: 20 cut into quarters Onions: 1 large thinly sliced Green chilly: 2-4 depending on how spicy you like, slit into 2  Mint Leaves: chopped 1/2 cup Green Peas: 1/2 cup Coriander Leaves: chopped 1/2 cup Cumin seeds: 1 tsp Ghee: 2 tbs Bay leaves: 2  Cinnamon Stick : 1/2 inch Cardamon: 2  Cashew nuts: a hand full Fried Onion: 1/2 cup Procedure: Heat ghee in a pan add bay leaves, whole garam masala, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, sauté it and add cashew nuts cook it till cashew nuts are brown in color. Add slice onions, mushrooms, salt, green chilly, green peas, coriander leaves and mint and fry for a minute or so. From here you can go 2 ways: 1st procedure: Add 1 cup of washed rice into the pan and fry for 2 mins. Transfer...

I started cooking during my stay in Delhi, and slowly I graduated from a single stove kitchen to a full fledged kitchen. But there were times when I would run out of gas and the gas guy won't deliver for a day or two. So the alternative would be eating at office cafe, but this option won't help over the weekend, so I would order food delivery from this restaurant that I have never seen in person, but I would always order the same menu, zeera rice, dal fry and chilli chicken. This made the best zeera rice and dal fry, chilli chicken was ok. But the rice and dal was out of the world. So I keep going to zeera rice every time I crave something really decadent  and easy. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup cooked Onion: 1 medium thinly sliced Green Chilli: 2-3 sliced Zeera ( cumin): 1 tbsp Oil: 1 tbsp Salt to taste. Procedure: In a kadhai heat oil. As the oil heats up add the cumin seeds and as they stop spluttering add the green chilli and onion slices with a pinch...

An authentic Oriya cuisine, Pakhala Bhata is a traditional food that originated in the temples of Lord Jagannath. A widely consumed dish in Orissa, Pakhala consists of cooked rice fermented in water. It is such a relief in hot Orissa Summer. My mom's day does not start till she had some pakahala with fish or saga bhaja. It provides relief from heat stroke in summer.  There are a few versions of this :  Dahi Pakhala Zeera Pakhala Garam Pakhala Basi Pakhala My favourite being the dahi pakhala. Garam pakhala provides relief in case of dry cough.  Here is the recipe for Dahi Pakhala Bhata Ingredients: Rice: 1 cup Cooked Water: 1 bottle filtered and chilled  Curd:1/2 cup Salt as per taste Cucumber: 1 peeled and cubed Green Chilli: 2 crushed Procedure: Add chilled drinkable water to the rice enough to soak it completely. Let it cool down completely. Add curd to the rice and water. You can always adjust the quantity as per your taste. ...

Last weekend we went to a Indian restaurant named Aachi Aappakadai and after a long time I tasted some real good food. We have been to a lot of restaurants but only few serve real great food. If you love non-veg as much we do, this is a great place to get some. Spice alert though, the food is really spicy, specially the Chilli Chicken. We also had some yummy chicken chettinad, chef special shrimp and mutton biryani. I would be trying to prepare the chicken chettinad soon. But I didn't, rather I should say I couldn't wait to try and prepare it. So I went ahead and tried it and should I dare to say it turned out great. Ingredients: Mutton: 8-10 pieces with bone  Basmati Rice: 2 cups Curd: 2 cups Ginger Garlic Paste: 2 tbsp Coriander Powder: 1tbsp Cumin Powder: 1tbsp Red Chilli Powder: 2tbsp (adjust as per taste) Green Chilli:2-3 Slit Salt: As per taste Mint Leaves: 1/2 cup chopped Coriander Leaves: 1/2 cup chopped Fried Onion: 2cups Cloves: 4 Cardamon: 4 Sa...

Egg and rice is  a great combination, at least from my point of view. So the other day for dinner I wanted to make something that was easy and quick and didnot need me to do a lot of chopping and cutting. So I decided to go with a egg fired rice but with a twist and it ended up with this recipe and its good :) Ingredients: Eggs - 4 Rice- 2 cup cooked Onion- 1 large finely chopped Tomato - 2 chopped Green chilly- 2 Turmeric pwd- ¼ tsp Red chilly pwd- 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp Mint Leaves: 2 tbsp chopped Biryani Masala: 1 tsp Oil - 3 tbsp Garam masala pwd- ½ tbsp Coriander leaves - handful Salt to taste Procedure: Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Heat oil in a fry pan, add onion, green chilly with a pinch of salt and let it cook till onions are translucent. Add the chopped tomato and toss it, cover and cook. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add turmeric pwd, red chilly pwd, ginger garlic paste, garam masala pwd and salt. Cook till it turn...

Egg fried rice was my Mom's go to lunch box item. Its quick and easy to make and honestly me and my brother loved it. You can make it with fresh cooked rice or with left over rice. Ingredients: Long Grain Rice:1/2 cup Cooked  Eggs: 2 beaten Vegetable Oil: 2 tbsp Garlic: 2 cloves crushed Onion: 1 small chopped Peas: 1/4 cup  Soy Sauce: 1 tbsp Salt: 1 pinch Spring Onions: for garnish Procedure: Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok. When the oil is hot add the beaten eggs into the wok and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until softly scrambled. Remove the eggs from the heat and set aside. Heat the wok over a medium heat. Add rest of the oil and swirl it around to coat the sides of the wok. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, onion and peas and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes. Stir the rice into the mixture in the wok, mixing to combine and stir to mix in the eggs thoroughly. Transfer to serving dishes and serve garnis...

It was Ganesh Puja yesterday and I was taken back to the my childhood days when it used to be a one of my favorite holidays. With Mandaps in every lane, music, incense sticks and smell of fruits and sweets flooding the air, kids running around wearing new cloths, its a scene to see. The 2 best part of the day were no studies and my moms famous meal. Every year my God Parents wold arrange the puja at their place and my Mom would prepare a feast for every body. It would generally have Vegetable pulao, bhog ki dal, tomato khata, Potala Rasa, kheer and salad. The whole family would sit together and the feast would be served in banana leaves freshly cut from our garden.  I wanted to live that moment but its not possible so I just tried to prepare a special meal for Tanmaya with as many items as I could prepare from my Moms menu. But unfortunately I could not find any Potala (pointed guard/parwal) so I prepared Posto Dum Aloo. So the menu was: Vegetable Pulao Posto Dum Aloo Tomat...

Kichdi is such a simple, quick, delicious and healthy meal to enjoy. I call it a meal rather than a dish just  because it has all in one, the rice, dal, veggies, the taste everything. You really don't  need a side with it but if you have time you can always make a side or just serve it with little pickle. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1/2 cup Moong Dal: 1/2 cup Onion: 1 small thinly sliced ( you can skip onion if making this for a pooja) Green chilli: 1-2 slit in the middle Potato: 1 medium cut into cubes Carrot: 1 medium cut into cubes Green Peas: 1/2 cup  Cauliflower: 4-5 large florets cut into smaller florets Tomato: 1 medium cut into chunls Turmeric Powder: 2 tsp Salt: as per taste Sugar: 1 tsp Asafetida: 1tsp Oil: 1 tbsp Coriander Leaves: for garnish Ghee: 1/2 tbsp( adjust as per your taste) Procedure: Soak rice and dal together for 10-15 mins In a pressure cooker heat oil. Add the asafetida powder to the oil. Add onion and cook till ...

When ever we have potlucks the concentration is on good food, great booze and loads of fun. If you ask the guys in the group what do you want for main course it would never be a vegetarian item and we end up making variety of non veg. But Sunita is  our one and only vegetarian groupie and every time she is the one who would prepare some thing vegetarian. So this post is dedicated to her, as she introduced me to tawa pulao and makes its real good. I am not sure if its the actual receipt for tawa pulao or not but this is how I make it. Sunita correct me if I  am wrong :) Ingredients: Rice: 1 cup Onion: 1 medium thinly sliced Green chilli: 2 slit Green peas: 1/2 cup Carrot: 1 medium chopped Button Mushroom: 10cut into half Tomato: 1 small chopped Paneer: few cubes fried Salt: as per taste Cumin seed: 1 tsp Pao Bhaji Masala: 1 tsp Red chilli Powder: 1tsp Oil: 2 tsp Water: 2 cups Procedure: In a rice cooker cook the rice with 2 cups of water. In a pan he...

Continuing with my obsession with flavored rice, here is another one "Paneer Tikka Biryani". As I have mentioned in my previous post paneer tikka is one of the most sot after appetizers for vegetarians, here is another variation that changes it into a great main dish which is great for parties. Ingredients: Paneer Tikka: Paneer : albs cut into cubes Onion : 2 cut into large chunks Thick Curd : 1 cup Red Chili Powder: 1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste : 1 tbsp Kastoori Methi : 1 tbsp Lime Juice : of 1/2 a lemon Oil : 2 Tbsp Salt: 1 tsp Orange Food color: few drops(Optional) Biryani:  Basmati Rice: 1 cup soaked for  30 mins Whole Garam Masala: 2 cloves, 2 cardamon, 2 Javitri Sahi Zeera: 1 tsp Mint Leaves: 1/2 cup chopped Coriander Leaves: 1/2 cup chopped Green Chili: 2-3 sliced Salt : 1/2 tsp Oil: 1 tsp Fried Onion: 1 cup Biryani Masala: 1 tsp Food color: few drops (Optional) Procedure: Lets start with the paneer tikka first.  Take a bow...

Tomato rice is one of the easiest rice recipes. I am huge fan of flavored rice and my friends would defiantly back me up on this. On days when we would plain rice and some curry in our hostel, my friends would have to force me to eat and I would always find some excuse to eat as little as possible, but when it came to flavored rice they won't have to struggle that much. So after marriage when I became the soul owner of the kitchen, we would have some kind of flavored rice at least twice every week. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup Onions: 1 large thinly sliced Tomato : 1 cup pureed Cumin seeds: 1 tsp Mustard seeds: 1 tsp Red chilly powder: 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder : 1/4 tsp Curry leaves: 4-6 Salt to taste Green chili: 2 Asafetida: a pinch Oil : 1 tbsp Water : 2 cups Procedure: Cook the rice in a cooker with 2 cups of water. In a pan heat oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, asafetida, green chili and curry leaves. As all the spices sto...

This is a sweet pulao, which one of the 56 dishes that are cooked as prasad everyday for Lord Jaganath, Puri. This one of those dishes that reminds me of my childhood days when all our dear friends and family would gather for festivals like Karthik Poornima and mom would prepare this awesome dish along with many more lovely dishes. Ingredients: Basmati Rice: 1 cup Water: 2 cup Jeera: 1tbsp Tej Pata: 1 Turmeric Powder: 1tsp Salt: 1 pinch Sugar: 1 cup Dry Red Chili: 1 Ginger: 1 inch grated Ghee: 2 tbsp Procedure: Soak the rice in water for 30 mins Heat Ghee in a pressure cooker and add jeer , Tej pata and dried red chili to it.  Add the grated ginger.  Drain and add the rice to the ghee. Fry till the raw smell is gone. Add 2 cups of warm water to the rice. Add the turmeric, salt and sugar. Cover and cook till 1 whistle and the rice is done. If you have a electric rice cooker you can fry all the ingredients in a  pan and then move i...