Kitchen-Kollections

Mushroom dishes are quite easy to make and they taste really good. Its my husband’s favourite dish (mine too..) and he is quite an expert in making yummy stir fry dishes. He makes mouthwatering portbello mushrooms sandwich which are definetly out of this world mmmm..well..here is the quick recipe of Mushroom stir fry with pearl onions. Its a tasty starter or snack..it goes quite well with fruit juice!! Pearl onions are available in any grocery store..i have used white ones in this recipe.

This is going to be my entry for JFI- February Onions

Mushroom Stir fry with pearl onions

Ingredients

1 pack of mushrooms

half cup pearl onions

Sweet red and yellow bell peppers (1/2 cup each)

Green chillies(split long)

Chilli powder

salt to taste

seasoned salt

Coriandar leaves (1 cup)

Balasmic vinegar (1 tbs)

Method

Cut the mushrooms and wipe them clean with a wet cloth or paper towel.  Add two tablespoon oil in a pan. Heat it and fry the onions and Pepper. Keep stirring them so that they are properly fried. Add Salt and Chilli powder.Add the Pearl onions and fry for 5 mins then add Mushrooms and fry for few more minutes. Now add half table spoon of Balsamic vinegar, one tbs of Hot and chilli Sauce(tomato ketchup). On medium heat fry for 10more minutes. Add a little seasoned salt and garnish with coriandar leaves……………..YUMMYYYYY its ready to eat!!!!!!

Dondakai Curry or Tindora curry

Ingredients

2 Pounds Dondakai
2 tsp Popula karam
2 tbsp Oil

Method

• Chop dondakai in long thin slices.
• Add 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot enough add all the chopped dondakai. Keep mixing and stirring the curry pieces. After the pieces begin to soften add salt to taste. Do not cover with a lid if you like a fried taste 
• After about 20-25 minutes the pieces would soften and now you can add chilli powder and popula karam.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and curryleaves.  Mix and leave it on for a while.
• This can be served with rice or chapattis.

Popula Karam 
 

Ingredients

1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp urad dal
1tbsp chana dal
1/4 tbsp mustard seeds
1/4 tbsp jeera seeds
6-8 menthulu
tamarind -size of half a lemon
3 tbsp groundnuts
4 pinches HIng (Asefotida)
10 Red chillies

Method

• Take a medium depth pan and add  1/2 tsp of vegetable oil.  Roast urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, jeera seeds , menthulu, hing, tamarind, and red chillies. Roast this mixture till the seeds start to turn light brown.
• While this is going on, take another pan and dry roast the peanuts [make sure that they are roasted well and are dry and are not too oily.
• Once both the above steps are complete keep them aside to cool.  Grind them into coarsee powder.
• Store the powder in airtight container.  This powder can be used for most fried version of almost all vegetables. Mostly I use it for potato , dondakai, bhindi, egg plant , cauliflower….

Well..its beautiful weather outside..its raining! I feel..something is definetly different about the way it rains in India..i dont know why. May be because of the sweet smell of wet earth or the way everybody patiently waits for rains! In some places..people celebrate when it rains..specially the first rain of the monsoon season. Best thing about delhi weather (coz i lived in new delhi) is i think its predictable. nov to feb its sure shot cold winter..feb to april its spring..april till july its hot hot summer..july to september its raining season or you can say autumn..october is festival season hahaha you know whats going to happen in each month. Here in US..it rains in every season..haha its funny how i am comparing..may be I still have not got used to this climate. Now i will stop talking about weather..lets talk about our onion pakoras…indians love eating endless plates of pakoras..rain plus pakoras plus hot tea..thats it. its a perfect combination! One can easily make all these in a jiffy. So here is the recipe..

Onion Fritters or Onion pakoras

1 cup gram flour or besan

2 tbsp corn flour

2 sliced onions

4 to 5 slit green chillies

A bunch of curry leaves

1 tsp jeera or fennel

1 tsp red chilli powder

a pinch of turmeric

salt to taste

oil

Method

Sieve gram flour and corn flour and mix it with all the ingredients. Add little water and keep mixing it so that there are no lumps. It should have smooth consistency. The more chillies you add..the more spicy it will be..so adjust accordingly. After you have mixed it..keep it covered for 10 minutes. Take a deep pan and add oil to it and heat it on medium. With the help of a spoon, take a spoonful of the batter and deep fry it in the oil. When the pieces are properly friend or become brown in color, take them out and put them on some absorbent paper. Serve hot with dhaniya pudina chutney or hot chilli sauce!

Carrot Coconut curry is another curry which is quite easy to make and very nutritious. This is one of the typical andhra recipe..you will find this curry being served in marriages..its quite common there in india. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups grated carrot

1 cup grated coconut

2 green chillies

salt to taste

Popu or tadka

1 tspn urad dal

1 tsp chana dal

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp jeera

2 or 3 red chillies

a bunch of curry leaves

Coriandar leaves for garnishing

Method

Pour 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan. Heat should be on medium. Add the tadka ingredients and keep stirring. Add green chillies and carrot and saute well. Add salt to taste. Put a lid on the pan so that it is properly cooked. After almost 10 to 15 min, add the grated coconut and mix it well. Again put the lid and let it cook. It takes approximately 20 to 25 min to make this curry. In the end, add coriandar leaves on top. Serve hot with chapati aur rice.

Today’s special recipe is brinjal or vankai pacchadi. I remember whenever my mom used to make this chutney in the kitchen..i could recognize the smell from the distance..and i used to just pick a plate..put some rice and thats it..wait wait till the chutney is complete. Best thing about this chutney is the lemon flavour and that tantilising taste of roasted brinjal. 

Basic ingredients are big oval shaped brinjal ,green chillies, dry red chillies,urad dal,mustard seeds
jeera, methi seeds,hing powder, a pinch of turmeric

For more detailed recipe, please email at saroja@kitchen-kollections.com

Cauliflower is identified by its edible, rounded mass of curds. These curds are often mistakenly referred to as florets, but are actually undeveloped shoot tips. White cauliflower is the most commonly grown, but there are also cultivators with purple, green and even pink curds.

The best way to prepare your cauliflower is to simply wash it in cold preferably salted water. Cut away most of the out side leaves so that the cauliflower stands upright. If you make a cross in the base or cut out the first 2cm of the stalk this will ensure that it cooks quickly. It is recommended to soak your cauliflower for 10mins in salted water to draw out any insects hiding away inside.

Here is another simple recipe ..cauliflower fry.

Cauliflower fry

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

1 medium size onion
1 medium size cauliflower
1/2 lemon

Method:

1. Wash cauliflower in hot water [you can optionally place the whole flower in hot water with pinch of salt for about 5 mins]

2. Chop onions lengthwise and keep them aside.

3. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan.

4. Put some jeera and dhania seeds. when they splutter , add the onions and add a pinch of turmeric. Remember to always cook at medium heat setting. High heat only dehydrates food and hence burns it faster. While the onions are frying, you can cut cauliflower into small florets. you dont really need to chop it fine. Just need to separte big florets or curds into smaller ones. so once they cook they would still retain their shape rather than become pulpy.

5. Once the onions are pinkish brown in color, add the florets. The trick to not making a pulp is this—add in 4 batches, each time mixing so all the onions and pieces mix evenly.

6. Once you are done with adding the florets, add salt to taste. Note: if you put a lid on your pan then all you would get is pulp, not fry. So if you want to see cauliflower florets retain their shape, don’t use lid until much later as I suggest in my next step.

7. Cauliflowers generally cook fast so it will take about 15 mins for the pieces to soften. If you want you can add lid for about a min or 2 [just before removing from heat] on sim heat.

9. Before removing from heat, add chilli powder and popula karam [recipe provided below] and mix well. You can even garnish it with lemon or coriander leaves.