Tandoori Aloo & Tandoori Broccoli [no tandoor required]

Let me start by saying that I don't have a tandoor. When I moved into a home with a little garden, I did have this wild idea of building my own tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven used for baking / cooking heated by burning coals inside it). I can't say I have completely abandoned that idea but this tandoori recipe doesn't need a 'tandoor'. If you have a microwave oven with a grill or the grill function in a regular convection oven, that's great. If you don't have either ovens, you can use a non stick skillet to grill these.  

The best part about this recipe is you can make perfectly delicious appetisers using minimal or no oil. Use a low-carb vegetable like broccoli, cauliflower or bell peppers (stuffed or as it is), and you have a perfect low carb vegetarian side dish. For any vegetable, the basic steps are the same. 

Step one: Clean and partly cook the vegetable.

Step two: Marinate the vegetable

Step three: Grill

I use the same marinade for both recipes, mostly eye-balling the ingredients to make roughly over a cup of marinade.

Tandoori Marinade

3/4 cup thick yogurt

2 tsp chickpea flour

1 tbsp kasoori methi* (key ingredient, do not omit. Crush between finger tips to a coarse powder and then add)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2 cloves garlic, grated

2 tsp oil (optional)

In a large bowl, mix all of the above. Cover and refrigerate until use.

For Tandoori Aloo

Parboil 2 dozen baby potatoes with the skins. Either boiling in water for 3-4 minutes or pressure cook for two whistles. Remove, drain well and poke 3-4 holes per potato with the skewer. This is so that the flavours of the marinade can go inside the potatoes.

Immerse the skewer sticks in water for 2-3 hours. 

Marinade the par-cooked potatoes with skins in the prepared mix. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, skewer them and place on a grill safe plate. Grill for 5 minutes. Turn to the other side and grill another 5 minutes. Serve with tamarind chutney and green chutney.

For Tandoori Broccoli

Break a broccoli into medium sized florets (around 2 dozen florets). Immerse in a bowl of salted water for 10 minutes. Wash thoroughly. Place them in a microwave safe bowl with lid, add 2 tsp water and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes until partially cooked. Once slightly cool, place in marinade for 30 minutes (refrigerated).

Either skewer them or place them in a single later on a grill safe plate and grill for 5-7 minutes.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon along with a hung yogurt dip or mint chutney

[inspiration for tandoori broccoli came from the brilliant dinner we had at Blue Terrain where this was one of the dishes served]

*Kasoori / Kasuri methi is just dried fenugreek leaves, which when crushed and used in any dish gives a very distinct fragrance and flavour. You cannot use fresh fenugreek leaves or fenugreek seeds instead of this. This can be found in the spice aisle of most supermarkets in India or Indian supermarkets abroad.

Feedback from people who tried this recipe

Tandoori cauliflower for lunch! Thanks @saffrontrail for posting this simple, healthy and delicious recipe :-) twitter.com/Ayeshazh/statu…

— Ayesha (@Ayeshazh) March 2, 2013

Grilled veggies, inspired by @saffrontrail good fun only twitter.com/maxdavinci/sta…

— maxdavinci (@maxdavinci) March 2, 2013

Read More...

Dry capsicum subzi / Bell pepper curry

Whoa, it is a month into 2011 and I have already fallen back on my resolution to make 2011 the year with maximum posts on the blog.

However, I must share with you the menu for the year end dinner I hosted for friends, a completely vegetarian Lebanese Menu. Details and links to the recipes here.

Most of Jan was spent outside of home, partly visiting family and then a small vacation to Hong Kong. Being vegetarians, finding good vegetarian food in HK turns into a mini-adventure by itself. I must write about some of the good stuff we tried there, in a different post.

I have a blog-plan in place for this month. It's going to be the month of simple recipes, beginner-friendly even, all of February. The first in this series is a dry capsicum curry, which can be had with rotis or even to spice up a basic dal-rice menu.

I use green capsicums for this as it does not have the sweetness of the red or yellow variety. If you like that taste, then go ahead and substitute this with that, or even use a medley of colours to make the dish look pretty.

Dry capsicum subzi / Bell pepper curry
Serves 2-3
Time taken - Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
4 medium sized green capsicums or 2 large ones
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp each - fennel seeds, Nigella seeds (kalonji), fenugreek seeds (methi), mustard seeds (rai)

In a small bowl, mix together-
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp amchoor powder (dried mango powder)
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp salt or as per taste

Directions
Wash and cut the capsicums to a medium dice, removing the membranes and seeds.
Heat the oil in a non-stick wok and splutter the fennel, nigella, fenugreek and mustard seeds.
Add the diced capsicum to this, toss on high flame for a few seconds, reduce the flame to medium and cook for 6-8 minutes, till nearly softened.
To this add the mixed spice powders and toss well to coat evenly. On a low flame, let this cook for another 5 minutes until the raw smell of the spice powders is gone.
Using a non-stick pan makes it very easy to prepare this, as on a regular wok, the spice powders will stick and burn as we are not using too much oil.
Remove from wok and serve hot with rotis or rice.

Variations
You could also add a handful of frozen sweet corn, peas or boiled and diced potatoes to this dish.

Read More...

Baked Cauliflower in Tomato sauce

Okay, so there are people who don't like cauliflower and some who don't like me posting recipes with cauliflower in them ;) If you are reading this, you'll know this is for you!

Winter is officially over in Hyd with temperatures raring to touch 40 C. At such times, I still find spotlessly white head of cauliflower waiting to be picked up and used, so what else can I do but that? The idea for this dish comes a recipe I found in the book- From Bengal to Punjab : the cuisines of India by Smita Chandra - which has a very interesting collection of recipes and most of them are available on preview in the link above.

I've tried the recipe Gobhi Mazedar from this book, which turned out superb. In fact, the hubby and me ate off the stuff from the baking dish and that was our dinner that night.

This time to pair with the pasta, I tried an Italian version of this dish - which turned out as good. In fact if you have a good loaf of bread on hand, you can dish out an excellent meal with just the bread and this baked cauliflower dish. There are two ways to do the dish - either deal with the cauliflower whole or break into large florets which will cook / bake faster if you are short of time.

---------------------------------------

Baked cauliflower in tomato sauce

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower roughly 750 grams - very fresh

10 medium tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil

3 medium onions

8 cloves of garlic

2 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp dried basil

salt and pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated cheese of your choice (optional)

The Cauliflower

Remove the stalks of the cauliflower. Discard or reserve for another use.

If you have a pot big enough to hold the whole flower, then fill it with around 2L water. Add 2 tsp salt. Let it come to a boil. Meanwhile keep the cauliflower immersed in a large pot of salted water to remove any worms if present.

If you dont have a pot big enough or not enough time on hand, then break the cauliflower into big florets and keep immersed in salted water, until a pot of water comes to a boil.

When the water starts to boil, remove the cauliflower from the salted water and place it in the pot bottom down (if using whole). Cover and cook for around 10-12 minutes, checking until almost done. The florets will take shorter time, around 6-7 minutes, so keep a watch. Don't let them turn too soft.

Once this is done, drain, wipe thoroughly with tea towel and keep aside.

The sauce

Wash tomatoes well. Halve them and throw them in a pot. Let them cook in their own juices on medium heat. No need to add water. Stir around occasionally until they get mashed to a pulp. At this stage you could pass them through a strainer to remove the skins or keep it as it is (which is what I did). Remove and cool.

In a saucepan, heat 2 tsp olive oil. Add the cruches garlic cloves and sliced onions, stir until the garlic is light golden and onion is soft.

In a blender, place the cooled tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper - whir to a very smooth sauce. If you find this runny, which could happen if your tomatoes were very juicy, take this back in the saucepan and thicken with a slurry made from 1 tbsp flour and 1/4 cup water, simmer till thick and then proceed with recipe.

Assembling

Grease a 9" round baking dish. Place the cauliflower in it. Reserve 1/2 cup sauce to use while serving. For whole cauliflower, spoon the sauce between all the florets and whatever sauce remains, pour it and rub it over the top, so the flavours enter every nook and cranny.

For the florets, arrange the florets stem down - neatly in a baking dish that accommodates it all - pour the tomato sauce (reserving 1/2 cup) all over and around the florets, pressing well.

The dish can be prepared up to this stage, covered well and refrigerated for a day or two, to be removed and baked just before serving.

Baking

Cover the top of the dish with bread crumbs, cheese, extra herbs, pepper and bake in a 180 C oven for around 30 minutes, unthttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=23919567il cheese is melted and golden.

Serve hot along with a simple pasta (preferably not in a tomato sauce) or with slices of bread.

Please do try the original recipe Gobhi Mazedar. You'll enjoy browsing that cookbook online, it has a fantastic collection of recipes. Better still if you can lay your hands on it in your bookshop / library, you can see the book in its entirety. If the link does not work, you can try searching in Google ebooks for 'Smita Chandra Gobhi Mazedar'.

This is a very hearty flavoursome dish which will make a great addition to your menu for an Italian party. I served this with Penne in Spinach sauce and the green and red complemented each other beautifully.

Read More...

'Souper' supper - Simple Mushroom Soup

Dinner last night was a very light one in preparation for the inevitable hogging that happens on weekends. Whole wheat toasts dunked in some hot soup make a comforting meal, even if it is too hot here nowadays. Like most other stuff I post here, this one too is a quick meal made from a few ingredients. The mainstay as the name suggests is mushrooms - with some onions and spinach to add flavour and body to the recipe. Made thicker, this will serve as a nice sauce for pasta too.

Simple mushroom soup
Makes two large bowls
Time taken - Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic - peeled
1/2 cup sliced onions
200 grams button mushrooms - cleaned, roughly sliced
1 cup spinach leaves
2 cups water

1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt or to taste

Directions
Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Saute the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the onion slices and saute for 2-3 minutes. Next throw in mushroom slices and spinach and stir on high flame till spinach wilts. Add 2 cups water to this and pressure cook* for 5 minutes (keep on sim for 5 min after two whistles). Remove and cool. [You can make this in advance up to this point and keep in refrigerator for a quick supper after a long workday.]
Blend this to a chunky consistency once cooled. We like it this way, as it gives a lot of texture. Remove to a saucepan, bring to a simmer. Add seasonings. Check for salt. Add milk towards the end, bring it to a simmer once again. Remove from flame, serve hot with croutons or whole wheat toasts.
*If you don't use a pressure cooker, then boil the mushroom, onion and spinach with some water in a pan with a lid for around 10 minutes till mushrooms are soft.

This makes a good low-fat, low-carb supper (minus the toasts of course) . But even with the bit of carbs, it is an excellent option for those who are looking at shedding some pounds.

Another incredibly simple mushroom recipe coming your way soon!

Read More...