Easy Peas Pulao in ten minutes

Hello friends,

Sweetannu is back with another easy peasy recipe - Peas Pulao. This I stirred up in no time, at the last moment in the afternoon. I was waiting by the window for Sujata to come but when she didn't turn up I gave up. I had no option to cook up something really quickly.

I just cooked up a peas pulao and had it  all by myself. You will love it especially if you are a rice lover like me. Just a papad, pickle or have it with, ketchup, curd or some left over gravy. All these would be great accompaniments with peas pulao. Note the ingredients and method. 

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
½ cup peas 
1 medium sized onion
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
¼ Cup kasturi methi 
1 tbsp Oil
½ inch cinnamon stick
1 medium size tomato
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
Salt to taste


Method

1. First wash and soak rice for so that cooking is faster. Also if you are using frozen peas, soak it water too. 

2. Take a medium size kadai, heat oil,  add a cinnamon stick and thinly sliced onion and fry quickly on medium flame till onions  turn translucent. 

3. Add ginger garlic paste and saute till they lose the rawness.

4. Now add the chopped tomato and dry spices. 

5. Add the peas to this and gently give it a stir for 30 seconds. 

6. Now drain the water from  rice and add to this. Cook on a medium flame till the rice starts to cook and  gives out a nice aroma.

7. Add kasturi methi at this stage. 

8. Add one cup  water such as it covers the rice completely.

9. Cook till rice is done.

10. Cover and cook for best quick results. 

11. Serve it hot with accompaniment of your choice. 

Note - 
For the fastest results Pressure cook on high flame for 4 whistles with two cups water. 

You can use ghee instead of oil.

Assamese style fish with curry leaves

Curry leaves are the leaves of curry plant and are often used in Indian cuisines . Curry leaves are extremely aromatic and are available throughout the year. These leaves also contains many nutritional value as these leaves provide vitamin A, vitamin B, proteins, carbohydrates, amino acids, fiber, calcium etc. Fresh curry leaves can be fried in oil to add depth flavour at the start of cooking. Curry leaves can be consumed as raw by making raw chutney. Fish with curry leaves is an authentic fish curry recipe of Assam. Curry leaves in Assamese known as Narasingha. Here in this recipe I'm using fresh curry leaves paste. We Assamese people use less spices in our cooking. So this fish recipe is cooked without any powdered spices and that's why is a very healthy recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
• 4 pieces of fish (any)
• curry leaves, 1 bunch
• 2-3 green chillies
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1 potato boiled
• 1/2+ 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tomato chopped
• 2-3 tbsp mustard oil
• salt taste

METHOD:

Separate curry leaves from the stems. Wash curry leaves under running water. In a grinder jar take the curry leaves and green chillies. Add 1/2 cup of water and grind it to make a paste. Strain the curry leaves paste through a strainer. Keep the liquid portion in a bowl and discard the remaining. Keep aside.

Peel of the boiled potato and mashed it properly.  Keep aside.

Wash fish pieces under running water and rub with salt and turmeric.

 In a pan heat oil.  Fry fish pieces.  Drain and keep aside.

  In the remaining oil.  Add chopped garlic cloves . Add turmeric. Add chopped  tomatoes and mashed potatoes. Mix well.
Cook for sometimes until oil separates.

Now pour the curry leaves' liquid into the pan.  Mix well.   Add 1 cup of water. Bring to boil.

Add fish pieces. Again cook for few minutes by covering the pan in medium heat.

Remove from heat.

Serve  with rice.

This recipe was originally shared here

*For more similar recipes and other Assamese recipes please visit my blog Rumi's Kitchen

Lovely Omelette Recipe

Hello friends,
                         No trip to Mussoorie is complete without a visit to the little LOVELY Omelette Store, right in the middle of Mall road. This place is owned by Mr. Khurshid Muhammad,he has been serving unique preparations of omelette that various travel magazines acknowledge as the best.
Its truly a Surprise and Delight for Egg-enthhusiasts!

Just got nostalgic about over our recent trip, also craving to eat that delicious Lovely Omelette. I checked out the exact recipe and even tried to replicate it at home. No fancy ingredients in this recipe. The special ones are with cheese, chilies, onions and spices, served with a a slice of bread inside it.  And the most intriguing part is that, if I didn't tell you, your taste buds would never actually know that there was bread in it.






In the video you can check the owner making this delicious Lovely Omelette. 

Ingredients for two omelettes

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 slice of cheese
1 slice of bread
1 tsp chopped coriander leaves 
1 green chilly
salt/pepper
oil to fry
 ( I did not use onion in this version I made, however you can use finely chopped onion to enhance the taste)






Method
( for one basic cheese lovely omelette)

1. Prep is very important before the omelette hits the pan. Take a bowl, break  two eggs it

2. Whisk with a fork, add salt, pepper, half a chopped onion and chilly.

3. Now comes the tricky part. Take a pan and add oil to it, put it on low flame.

4. Once the oil is hot, add the egg mixture and spread it to the rim.

5. Now place the slice of cheese in the middle and the bread slice on the cheese.

6. Fold the parts of omelette over the bread to cover it.

7. Flip it and cook on the other side, press to see if egg is cooked through.

8. Transfer in the plate, cut into squares and serve.

I did well for the first attempt to replicate this Lovely Omelette. It turned out soft, full of cheese, gooey on the inside..melted in your mouth. What else can you ask for???

Yummy Bread Upma for Breakfast.

Hello friends,

Hope you all are all set to enjoy your Sunday with good food just like me. However a  few days back, I decided to cut down refined flour and sweets, while trying to eat light and healthy. And I am happy to announce that it is working out well with me.
But today being Sunday, it's cheat day. And on cheat day you can indulge a wee bit. Isnt it?
When my cook Sujata came home this morning and saw the untouched loaf of bread, she said “Didi today I will make something different for you.”

 She took out loaf of bread from the fridge and powdered it in the food processor, mixed in a few basic spices  and voila, a delicious Bread Upma was  served up for tea time. The secret of a good recipe is less ingredients. It truly enhances taste and brings out flavours of main component used to prepare the dish.

Ingredients

1 medium size onion
6-7 slices of bread
2 green chillies
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Juice of one lime
Salt to taste
Chopped corriander leaves
1 tbsp oil
Pinch of sugar

Method 

1. Chop up the onion, green chilly and corriander leaves.

2.Whiz up the bread in a mixer to a fine powder likes consistency.

3. Take a kadai or non stick pan, heat oil. Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle.

4. Add the cumin seeds, onions and green chilly and cook until onions are transparent.

5. Add  the bread mixture and mix well.

6. Now add salt to taste, pinch of sugar, corriander leaves and lemon juice.

7. Serve hot with tea or coffee.

Options

You can add green peas or carrots to the onion frying stage to enhance nutrient value to the dish.

Vegetarian Dhansak Dal Recipe

Hello friends,

I have been getting many requests from my vegetarian foodie friends to share a veg version of the dhansak daal. So here I am today to cook up an equally tasty vegetarian masala dhansaak dal you can savour with brown rice and cacchumber.

There is alot of nutrition value in the dal due to the added vegetables so don't  strain out the dal after boiling to retain all the fibre.

Ingredients

For Dal 

1 cup tuvar dal
1/2 cup masoor dal
1/2 cup channa dal
1 potato
1/4 doodhi ( bottle gourd)
1 meduim sized brinjal
1 small piece of pumpkin
2 large tomatoes
2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp kasturi methi

Masalas

2 tsp Dhansak masala (Everest or any other brand)
1 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp ghee/oil
2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 chopped onion
Salt to taste
A dash of vinegar and sugar ( optional)

Method

For the dal

1. Wash all the dals and let it soak for an hour minimum.

2. Chop the veggies except onions and add to dal with salt, turmeric powder, green chillies and ginger garlic paste.  Add enough water to let them veggies be soaked.

3. Pressure cooker this for three to four whistles.

4. Let the cooker come to room temperature, open lid and grind all of this to a paste.


For the dhansak dal masala

1. Heat ghee in a pan, add finely chopped onions and saute them till they become transparent.

2. Add the dhansak masala, red chilli powder, garam masala and saute it for 3-4 minutes.

3. Now add the lentils and veggies blended paste mixture.

4. Let it simmer on slow flame for a 5-6 minutes and then add the tamarind paste.

5. Let it thicken, add a dash of vinegar and sugar.

6. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

7. Serve it with a onion/cucumber/ tomato salad and brown dhansak rice.

Surmai fish curry with tamarind and coconut

Hello Friends,


I just realized that I have posted many chicken recipes and hardly any for fish. Actually eating fish is very healthy as its lower in fat content. Some oily fish are a rich source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. It's also packed with protein, vitamin B-12 and selenium. I can go on and on with its health benefits but lets get cooking with Surmai (King fish) and make a spicy sour curry with tamarind and coconut milk. 

 
 

Fish is very delicate and doesn't take time to cook like chicken or mutton. King fish has no scales, is an oily fish with only one bone in the middle. It is indeed a fleshy and tasty fish. Note the ingredients this fish curry needs. It can be achieved in 30 minutes or under.

Fresh King Fish

  Ingredients

·        500 gms Kingfish (you can use pomfret too)

·        2 tbsp grated coconut

·        2 tbsp oil

·        2 chopped onions

·        2  chopped tomatoes

·        1 tsp mustard seeds (rai)

·        ½ tsp turmeric

·        1 tsp red chilli powder 

·        1 sprig curry leaves

·        100 gms coconut milk

·        100 gms tamarind pulp 

·        2 cups water 

·        1 tsp ginger garlic paste

·        1 tsp garam masala 

Method 

For Masala

1. Fry the chopped onions in 1 tbsp oil until lightly golden. Add grated coconut curry leaves, garam masala and chilly powder
2. Add the tomatoes to this. Let it all cook together.  
3. Now when this mixture is cool; blend it in a mixer to make a coarse paste. If needed add 2 tbsp water to blend well.
   
   
   For Curry  
1. Add one tbsp oil to the kadai.To the oil  add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
2. Now add the ground masala mixture to the oil and saute it for 5 minutes. 
3. Now add the ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder to this
4.  Add tamarind pulp and coconut milk with one  cup water. Bring it to a boil. Cook until the oil begins to separate and the gravy thickens a bit.
5.  Place the washed pieces of fish slowly and cook on a medium heat cover and cook for 5 more minutes.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves. 
   

Serve with pride on the dining table with steamed rice, papad, salad..... and. Oh, I missed the pickle in this picture. But you can add a spoonful of pickle on your plate because it will only enhance the taste of the tamarind fish curry  to make it a finger licking experience.

If you have any queries be free to ask me in the comments below.