Eggplant Cabbage curry

Sometimes when I open my fridge, I see some vegetables that are not good enough to make one dish so I had to mix and match some veggies and try out various combinations to make something edible. Today was one of the days when I opened my fridge and saw a small piece of cabbage begging to be used up and so I had pair it up with some eggplants and edamame soy beans and the resulting curry was really delicious. You could use green peas instead of edamame beans, but lately I have been using edamame beans a lot because of their rich protein content and I like that they are firm compared to peas which become very soft when cooked. But you can try either one of them as long as you put enough masalas.

Ingredients:
Eggplant - 5 washed, cut into slices and soaked in salt water to retain the color
Cabbage - 1 cup chopped finely
Edamame soy beans - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp(or according to taste, remember I eat spicy)
Dhaniya powder - 1 tsp
Jeerapowder - 1/2 tsp
Saunf powder - 1/2 tsp(optional, I like the slight taste of it in the curry)
Fresh/frozen coconut - 1 tbsp
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Jeera seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
turmeric - a pinch
oil - 2 tsp
salt - to taste



Method:
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, jeera, chana dal, let the chana dal become light golden, add hing, turmeric powder, eggplant pieces and fry for sometime till the eggplant gets soft. Now add cabbage and edamame beans, mix well and let it cook for about 2 minutes. When the cabbage gets a little soft, add salt, chilli powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, saunf powder, lemon juice, coconut and mix well. Let it cook on low flame for about a minute and then just enjoy the vegetable with chapathi or puri.

Eggplant chutney (Vankaya Pachadi)

I have to make some or other kind of chutney once in two days to stop hubby from eating too much pickle. So this is a variety of chutney I often make, I got the recipe from one of the andhra food site and I modified a bit of it....enjoy! I usually use the indian eggplant as it doesn't mash up into a paste when I grind the chutney, but if you can't get the indian eggplant, feel free to use the japanese eggplant or the american purple eggplant. But remember to blend all the blending ingredients and add the eggplant in the end and just pulse a little bit.














Ingredients:
Round Indian eggplant - 4 washed, chopped and soaked in salt water
Green chillies - 7-8(I like it very spicy, so adjust according to your taste)
Garlic - 3-4 cloves, chopped
Ginger - 1" piece, washed, peeled and chopped
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Tamarind - 4-5 leaves, washed or tamarind paste - 1 tsp
Red onion/White onion - 1 small or 1/2 medium, finely chopped
salt - to taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1 pinch
oil - for frying
Coriander leaves - finely chopped for garnish



Method:
In a frying pan, heat about 1 tsp oil and add eggplant pieces and green chillies, cover and let cook till the eggplants start browning and the chillies are soft. Let it cool down a bit. In a blender add garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, tamarind leaves/paste, salt, fried eggplant and chillies and blend into a coarse paste. Take out in a bowl and add raw onions, mix well. In a small frying pan take about 1 tsp oil, when hot add mustard seeds and turmeric and pour onto the chutney, mix well and garnish with coriander. Enjoy!

Vegetable pasta

Lately my little one has taken a deep liking to olives, and she wants olives in everything. And if her lunch box has olives, she'll finish the whole thing. The other day I made her pasta with olives and some other veggies(for her other veggies doesn't matter as long as she can see the olives, but she'll finish them anyway).

Ingredients:
Rotini Pasta(any kind will do) - 1 cup
Garlic - 2-3 cloves, finely chopped
Carrot - 1 medium, peeled and cut into bite size
Green Pepper - medium half, chopped
Corn(frozen or fresh) - 1/2 cup
Olives - 1/4 cup chopped
oil - 1/2 tbsp
salt - to taste
Black pepper - to taste
















Method: Boil water in a pot, when the water is boiling add the pasta to it and let it simmer for about 5-10 min depending on how firm or how soft you want your pasta. I like mine firm so I boil for about 5-6 min, drain and keep aside. In another frying pan, add oil, when hot add garlic fry a minute, add carrot, green pepper and corn and let the carrot get a little soft, add olives and stir for a minute. Now add pasta, salt and pepper and mix well. Your vegetable pasta is ready to go, you may add some freshly grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Cauliflower-Aloo Masala

Hello everybody!
I always try to find recipes with a little bit of gravy, since my little one loves chapathis, I need to find something to go with it, and a gravy vegetable helps so I can skip making the dal that day. Anyway recently I found this recipe on one of the sites I was visiting, I did a little bit of modification to suit my palate, and trust me it came out so gud, my hubby wondered if i got it from any restaurant(though we don't have any indian restaurants where we live). And the best thing is my little one just lopped up all the vegetables and the gravy. So here we go.

Ingredients:
Vegetables -
Cauliflower - 1 small or 1/2 medium, trimmed, washed and florets cut
Potato - 1 medium, washed and cut into bite-size cubes(I leave the skin on the potato)
Carrot - 1 medium, washed, peeled and cut into bite-size cubes
Onion - 1 sliced lengh-wise
Tomatoes - 4 chopped
Peas - 1/4 cup(or any other beans soaked and cooked)
Salt - to taste
Oil- 1 tbsp
Whipping Cream - 1/4 cup

For the masala:
Coconut powder(dry or fresh) - 4 tbsp
Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon - 2"
Cloves - 4
Ginger - 1"
Garlic - 2 cloves
Cilantro - few sprigs
Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp(or to taste)
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Take all the above masala ingredients in a blender and make a smooth paste, adding little water as needed.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large wide pot. When hot add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, add onion and fry till goldern, then add tomatoes and cook for a min. Now add potatoes and carrot and cover and cook till potatoes are just soft, now add cauliflower and peas, cook for a min and add the masala paste, salt and half a cup of water. Cover and simmer for 5 min, when the curry is boiling add cream and stir well and turn off the heat. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

Bendekayi majjige huli ( Bhindi Kadhi)

Hello Friends,
Its been a while since I added anything to the blog. Well things were pretty busy for the past one year, but now I'm back with more recipes for you all. I've been thinking what should I add for my comeback recipe. And then I was thinking of the one thing my mom used to make when we were tired of eating dal and that's Kadhi(we call it Majjige Huli in Karnatka). So here comes the simple recipe for bendekayi majjige huli.
Majjige huli is made out of sour curd or sour buttermilk. Usually when there is a big batch of curd or buttermilk that has become too sour to eat, we used to make this majjige huli with vegetables, but bhindi tastes great with this. Its a very simple dish and tastes great with hot rice and ghee. My little one loves this dish and just keeps drinking this.

Ingredients:
Sour curd - 2 cups
Besan(chickpea flour) - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 medium cut into thin slices
Bhindi - washed, dried and cut into big pieces
salt - to taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1 pinch
curry leaves - 8-10
Oil - 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves - for garnish

Make a paste:
Green chillies - 3-4
Ginger - 1"
Coriander leaves - 4-5 stalks
cumin seeds(jeera) - 1tsp

Method:
Mix sour curd or buttermilk, besan and the green chilli paste in a large bowl and beat well, so there are no lumps in the mixture.
In a big frying pan add oil, when the oil is hot add mustard leaves, when the seeds splutter, add curry leaves, turmeric and the onion and fry till the onions are light brown, now add bhindi and keep frying till the bhindi becomes dry and little crispy, now add the curd mixture and keep stirring. Stir well till the kadhi starts to boil, if you do now keep stirring, the mixture may just curdle and the water will separate out and the kadhi becomes too watery. Hence its very important to keep stirring till the kadhi gets to the boiling point. Once it starts boiling lower the flame or the heat on the stove, add salt and boil for another 5 min. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice and ghee.