Kitchen-Kollections

 This one is another from my MIL recipes…i ate this chutney for the first time..and it really tasted good. Try this out and let me know how it came out!

Ingredients

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp minapapappu
2 dry red chillies
A pinch of turmeric
8 slit brinjals or vankaya
1/4 cup water
Salt to taste
2 green chilli
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 tbs Roasted mustard powder
2 cups curd
Chopped coriandar for garnishing
2 tbs oil

Method

•  Wash and slit brinjals vertically. Keep them in salt water for 20 min and then wash them again.
•  Take a deep pan and add oil, mustard seeds, jeera, minapapappu, dry red chilli, turmeric. Once mustard seeds start spluttering add chopped green chilli and onion. Fry till onion turn translucent.
•  Add brinjal pieces and add salt. Mix it well and let it cook for 15 minutes. Add water also.
• Once the brinjals are properly cooked, take them out in a dish and let it cool.

• Once the brinjals are completely cooled, add curd and coriandar and mix it well. Add 3 tbs roasted mustard powder and again mix it well. It goes very well with hot steaming rice.

There are many ways of making french beans curry  like the most common one – french beans with tomato. But this time i tried with besan or gram flour. It came out very well. Try this recipe and let me know how it came out!

Ingredients

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Jeera
1 tsp Ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya powder
2 cups chopped beans
1/4th cup chopped onions
3 tbs senagapindi/besan
Chopped coriandar for garnishing
3 tbs oil

Method

•  Wash and chop beans. Take a deep pan and add oil. Add mustard seeds and jeera. Once mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste, dhaniya powder and turmeric.
•  Add beans and salt. Cover with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes. Lots of water will come out. Now remove the lid and start frying so that water gets evaporated.
• The last step is adding besan or sanagapindi. Mix it well so that beans are well coated with the powder. Fry for 10 more min.
• Garnish with chopped coriandar and serve hot with either chapatis or steaming rice.

This recipe is one of the many vankai recipes in my MIL recipe treasure.  For this recipe, there is a special powder which has be grinded seperately.  Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Menthi powder to be roasted and grinded
1/2 tsp methi seeds
1/4 cup dhaniya
1/4 cup minapapappu
1/4 cup sanagapappu
8 red chillies
1/4 tsp inguva
Salt to taste

3 tbs oil
6 methi seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 cup chopped onion
2 chopped tomatoes
20 vankai – slit vertically on both sides- should make a plus sign. soak for 30 min in salt water and wash them.
Method

• Take a deep pan and add oil. Add methi seeds. Once they turn light brown add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add turmeric and add  vankai and mix well so that pieces are well coated with oil. Add salt as per your taste. Cover with lid.

• After the brinjals are half cooked, add tomatoes and again mix it well.

• Add 6 spoons of the powder and mix well. Cook for 15 more minutes.

This recipe is from my MIL treasure of secret recipes. I never thought that adding curd in the curry would increase the taste manifold! I ate this curry two or three times and I was ready to share it with everyone. I don’t know think anyone has heard of orange chutney..at least not me. I heard of orange marmalade..orange jam but chutney!!! That would be my next recipe and guess what this recipe is also from my MIL treasure!! So here goes the recipe…

Surakaya kura/Bottlegourd Curry

Ingredients

2 cups anapkaya/bottlegourd pieces
1 cup chopped onion
2 tbs curd
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbs tamarind paste
salt to taste
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
1/2 tsp Dhaniya powder
Curry leaves

For tempering
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp  mustard seeds
2 Methi seeds
1 clove
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 illiachi

For garnishing
Finely chopped coriandar

Method

• With a sharp knife, poke the entire surface of the vegetable. This is to make sure that the curry flavor goes into the pieces.
• Take a deep pan, add 1 tbs oil, add mustard seeds, jeera, methi seeds, clove, cinnamon stick, one green illiachi.
  After mustard seeds starts spluttering, add chopped onion, green chilli and curry leaves. Fry till onion turn translucent.
• Add the chopped pieces and add salt, red chilli powder and coriandar powder. Add the curd and mix it well.
• When the pieces are 3/4th cooked, add the tamarind paste mixed with 1 tbs of water. Cook for 15 min more and keep stirring in between. Garnish with chopped coriandar. Serve hot with either phulkas or rice.

There are quite a few people who don’t like bittergourd even a bit!! At one point of time, i was one of them..but now i have turned into a big fan of Bittergourd. Why? because of simple reasons..its good for me..it is a rich source of iron. And if cooked properly, it tastes really awesome. There are quite a number of Bittergourd fry curries but one of my favourite version is with gram flour. The curry comes out a bit dry but it tastes yummy with hot rice. This curry takes a lot of time because of the soaking time. But its worth the effort and the wait!! Try it out this recipe.

Ingredients

Bittergourd peeled and slit in the center
1 cup chopped onion
A bunch of curry leaves
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 tsp Jeera
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbs Gram flour
Oil

Method

• First wash the bittergourd, peel the skin off and make a slit in the center. Sprinkle salt and turmeric and keep aside for 1 hr.
• After 1 hr, squeeze the juice out of the pieces and keep them aside.
• Microwave on high for two minutes so that the pieces dry off a bit.
• Take a deep pan and add 1 tbs oil. Add mustard seeds and jeera. After the mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onions,curry leaves and fry till onions turn translucent.
• Add the bittergourd pieces and fry for a while. Add salt and red chilli powder.Cook for 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle gram flour and mix it well. Cook for 5 more min.

Thats it! curry is done…try it out with hot steaming rice and it will surely taste delicious.

Hi all….i know its been a long time since i posted here…i was busy in packing up stuff and shifting,..so could not get any time…my MIL belongs to telengana part of Andhra Pradesh. She is one amazing cook…she knows more than 20 varieties of brinjal curry alone !!! And what to talk about the mouth watering chutneys! This time i decided to jot down one of her recipe of Bendakaya Charu. It is so simple that I kept wondering that there must be something more to it..but when I ate it..it was just the taste I was looking for. In my own MIL words – “Telengana charu swarganiki tolli mettulu”  which means its so tasty that its almost like the entrance of Heaven. So we made a joke out of it..that if you eat it once..you will definetly go high!!!! Anyhow…here is the recipe of Bendakaya Charu

Ingredients

3 cups tamarind water
1/4th cup chopped onion
2 sliced green chillies
4 bendakaya or ladyfinger(sliced in the middle)
2 sprig curry leaves
A pinch of Aseofatida
salt to taste
A pinch of methi powder
1/2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
4 methi seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/fennel seeds
Chopped coriandar for garnishing

Method

• Take tamarind almost lemon size tamarind. Add some water and microwave it for 30 seconds. Mash it well and squeeze the juice out of it. Add 3 cups of water to it and stir.
• Add chopped onion, green chilli, curry leaves, ladyfinger and salt and mix it well.
• Now take another pan, add oil and add mustard seeds, methi seeds and fennel seeds and aseofatida.
• Add the tamarind extract and methi powder. Mix it well.
• Now boil it at high for at least 30 min till the ladyfinger or bendakaya is properly cooked. Add chopped coriandar and simmer till a nice aroma comes.

This amazing aromatic charu goes well with hot rice. So enjoy this treat!!