Tofu Bhurji

Its been one of those crazy days following an equally crazy busy spring break! To tell you the truth, when the spring break started, was kind of dreading it and wondering what I am going to do with my little one for 10 whole days. But the days just whizzed past full of activities and fun, get-togethers, picnics, a visit to the Barclay's Center to watch a basket ball match, a day devoted to exploring and learning science at the Liberty Science Center and so on and so forth!

Once the break was over and everything was back to routine, I thought things would begin to calm down, but no! Something or the other has been keeping me on my toes. Add to that a whole lot of pigging out and no exercise for all this time, followed by an attempt at being regular at the gym is leaving me sore and tired every night. Hopefully things will get better by next week...

Today kind of topped it all - a major grocery trip took up most of my morning. Add to that the usual chores and workout as well as kiddo's school and extra curricular activities - all in a day's work. But the cherry on the top - some problem with the water supply left us with no water to cook! The repair was done by evening, but the day was beautiful. I mean, after all these months cooped up due to the cold weather, no way was I giving up the chance to let myself and the little one soak up some much needed Vitamin - D with the unusually warm temperature. Finally, was left with 30 minutes to prepare dinner - 30 minutes when I was already tired, hungry - exhausted!

The pressure cooker took care of rice and a simple dal tadka. Fortunately, I had prepared sufficient chapathi dough for the night when I packed my son's lunch in the morning. For the side dish, I opted for Tofu Bhurji.

Wait - don't react to the name. Just try it once - I assure you, it is as good as egg bhurji and paneer bhurji. Infact, if you don't like the smell of egg, this is perfect. No egg smell, yet the wonderful bhurji taste! The best part? Bare minimal vegetable cutting and a quick fix dish!

Preparation & Cooking: 20 minutes          Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

Tofu - 1 14 oz package
Scallions - 4-5, green and white parts sliced seperately

Tomatoes - 2, diced fine


Capsicum - 1 small, diced
Coriander/Dhania Powder - ½ teaspoon
Cumin/Jeera Powder - ½ teaspoon
Red Chilli Powder - ¼ teaspoon
Sabzi Masala - 1 teaspoon
Jeera/Cumin Seeds -  ½ teaspoon
Ginger Garlic Paste -1 teaspoon
Turmeric/Haldi Powder - ½ teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil -  tablespoon

Method:

1. Heat oil and add the cumin seeds.
2. When the cumin seeds start crackling, add the white part of the scallions along with the ginger garlic paste.
3. When the scallions turn a golden brown, add in the tomatoes, capsicum, turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder, cumin powder and red chilli powder.
4. Let these cook for about 5 minutes. Now break the tofu and add it.
5. Add the sabzi masala and cook stirring constantly till all the moisture from the tofu evaporates about 4-5 minutes.

Garnish with the green parts of the scallion and serve hot with phulkas.

Flavored Basmati Rice

There are days when dinner is a simple dal and rice with may be some salad or papad as a side. Tonight's dinner was one such simple affair. I was too lazy to even make a salad! So, I just added some vegetables while pressure cooking the dal. But when it came to rice, I did not want to just cook plain rice.

Instead I used some whole spices to add flavor to the dish and cooked it with some vegetable bouillon and some cilantro seasoning cubes. This was very similar to jeera fried rice, except that I added more spices than just cumin. You could omit the vegetable bouillon and cilantro seasoning cubes, but I just felt that it enhanced the flavors.

This is a very simple recipe, but the flavors and aroma made it seem like an elaborate preparation!

Rice Soaking Time: 15 minutes       Cooking Time: 12 minutes            Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Black Cumin/Kala Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Bay Leaves - 2-3
Cinnamon Sticks - 2
Green Cardamom Pods - 4
Cloves - 4
Star Anise - 2
Mace - 2-3
Roasted Jeera/Cumin Powder - 1 teaspoon
Vegetable Bouillon - 1 cube
Cilantro Seasoning - 2 cubes
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1 tablespoon (I used Olive Oil)
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Rinse and soak rice in water for 15 minutes.
• Heat the ghee and oil in a sauce pan and add all the whole spices to it. Saute this for a minute.

• Add in the cumin powder and soaked rice, after draining out the water. Give this a good stir.

• Now add in the salt,vegetable bouillon, cilantro seasoning cubes and water and bring it to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the flame, cover the rice and let it simmer for around 10 minutes.
• By this time the water should have evaporated and the rice will be cooked. Spread the rice out on a a tray or cookie sheet so that the grains or rice don't stick to each other, but remain separate.

• After the rice cools down completely, remove and discard the whole spices.

Heat it again before serving. This rice goes well with dal or any other gravy based vegetable.

Kadhai Paneer

My husband and me belong to the rare breed of species who don't like Paneer! Pretty much everyone I know loves it, so I was really surprised when I heard my husband say for the first time, lets not order any paneer dish, I am not a big fan of it! My sister is crazy about paneer. Growing up she was really glad that I did not like it as I would simply pick out the pieces from my plate and pass it on to her! Nowadays though, I eat it, but am not exactly excited about eating it!

My little one, I can't really say anything. There was a time when he loved paneer and was ready to eat a paneer dish everyday. Now, he hates it. I think this is also a passing phase and he'll be back to his "I want paneer" days very soon.

All said and done, whenever I have people over for dinner, I try and include a paneer dish on the menu, because it something that people love eating, and also because its easier to cook as a side dish when you need something in a larger quantity - cubing paneer any day beats chopping up a ton of veggies!

This weekend we had guests over for dinner and I made kadhai paneer. This is a simple and quick dish well liked by most people.

Preparation & Cooking: 20 minutes               Serves:5-6
Ingredients:
Paneer - 2 cups, cubed
Capsicum/Green Bell Pepper - 3, medium, diced into big pieces
Tomatoes - 4 large, pureed
Tomato Paste - 2 heaped tablespoons
Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Ginger - 1 teaspoon, minced
Haldi/Turmeric Powder - ¼ teaspoon
Red Chilli Powder - ½ teaspoon
Coriander Powder - 2 teaspoons
Cumin Powder - 1 teaspoon
Kasuri Methi/Dried Fenugreek Leaves - 2 tablespoons, crushed
Salt - to taste
Sugar - a pinch
Cilantro Leaves - for garnish
Oil

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan and fry the paneer and capsicum separately till they begin to brown. Set aside on a paper towel. Frying paneer is optional, you could directly use it as well.

• In the same pan, reserve one tablespoon of oil and add the cumin seeds to it.
• When the cumin seeds crackle, add the minced ginger and give it a good stir.
• Now add in the tomato puree, tomato paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar and kasuri methi and cook till the oil begins to separate and ooze out, about 8-10 minutes.

• Finally add in the paneer and capsicum and cook for another minute.

Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with phulkas.

Potato & Kale Curry

 I like to include a lot of green leafy vegetables in my diet. Spinach of course comes into use quite often. But I am also looking at all the other leafy vegetables available at the grocery store.

One such vegetable is kale. I have eaten and liked ready made kale chips. I have also included it in my salads. But I wanted to make a typical Indian side dish using it. When it comes to trying out something new, I try to incorporate it with some other known ingredient that I know will save the dish even if things go a bit wrong. So, in this case, I decided to combine kale with potatoes.

I love jeera aloo, so I decided to make that dish with the addition of chopped kale to it. It turned out really good and went well with chapathis.

Preparation & Cooking: 20 minutes                                                                     Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Potatoes - 3 medium, cubed
Kale - 2 cups, chopped
Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch
Haldi/Turmeric Powder - ½ teaspoon
Cumin/Jeera Powder - 2 teaspoons
Red Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tablespoons

Method:

• Take the cubed potatoes in a microwave safe bowl drizzle some oil over it. Microwave for about 5 minutes.

• In the meantime, heat the remaining oil and add the cumin seeds and asafoetida to it. 
• When the seeds crackle, add this tempering to the microwaved potatoes along with the rest of the ingredients. Microwave this for another 8-10 minutes.

• Remove it from the microwave, give it a good stir and serve it hot with phulkas.

Moong Dal With Spinach

 We are a big fan of spinach in my house. I try to cook spinach every week in some form or the other. As my son is a very poor eater, I try and include a lot of vegetables in our diet - not just as the dry sabzi but also in the protein part of our meal. Dal is something that is very easy to make and I make it every day. So, using spinach while making dal is one of my favorite ways to include this leafy vegetable in our diet. Another point in its favor is that my son loves eating dal rice with ghee in it! Add in the spinach there and I have a wholesome meal, one that my little one enjoys!

I usually make spinach with split moong dal or with masoor dal. I was looking for an alternative, when I came across this recipe in Manjula's Kitchen. The fact that it has no onions also helped me out as I was out of onions today. This recipe uses split moong dal with skin. It turned out pretty delicious and provided a nice variation in taste from my usual dals. Just a simple difference as using the dal with its skin made a lot of difference in flavor from using split moong dal without its skin!

Soaking Time: 30 minutes       Preparation & Cooking: 10 minutes       Serves:4
Ingredients:
Split Moong Dal with skin - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 cup, chopped fine
Ginger - 1 teaspoon, minced
Turmeric/Haldi Powder - ½ teaspoon
Garam Masala - ½ teaspoon
Lemon Juice - 2 tablespoons
Salt - to taste
For Tempering:
Clarified Butter/Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida/Hing - a pinch
Whole Red Chillies - 2
Red Chilli Powder - ½ teaspoon

Method:

• Soak the moong dal in water for about 30 minutes. Rinse and drain.

•  Pressure cook this dal with spinach, turmeric powder, salt and minced ginger till the dal softens and is a bit mushy.
• Once the steam is let out, open the pressure cooker, mix in the garam masala and lemon juice.

• In a tempering pan/vessel, heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds. When the crackle all the rest of the tempering ingredients and give it a good stir.Then add about a teaspoon of water so that the red chilli powder does not burn. Pour this tempering over the dal.

Moong dal with spinach is ready to be served. It serves well with rice as well as rotis.