Banarasi Dum Aloo Recipe

If I see a bag of baby potatoes when I head to the supermarket near my place, I pick it up. Always. Good things always come out of having a bag of baby potatoes in your kitchen. You will see. 

Earlier last week, I was telling myself how inefficient and wasteful I am being. I almost always turn online if I want a recipe but love to buy cookbooks and stack them up in the kitchen shelf. In my new kitchen, all the books are out and neatly arranged so I really have no excuse for not using them more. 

So armed with about 15 baby potatoes, I turned to one of those small Tarla Dalal booklets, simply and efficiently called "Potatoes". There were some really great looking recipes in there but I had to zero in on Banarasi Dum Aloo because that's what I had all the ingredients for.

Since this is a cuisine I am not familiar with at all, I decided to not meddle with the original recipe and follow it to the T. This meant frying up the entire batch of baby potatoes but all I did was gulp once before going head and doing it. 

Banarasi Dum Aloo

Serves 2-3 as a side

Total cooking time: 45 mins

Source: Tarla Dalal's Potatoes

Ingredients:

12 to 15 baby potatoes
oil for deep-frying

1/2 tsp powdered cardamom (about 8 pods)

1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

3 tbsp cream (or 1/4 cup plain curd)

A small bunch chopped coriander for garnish

2 tsp butter

Salt to taste

For the gravy:
2 cups roughly chopped tomatoes (2 large ripe tomatoes)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
3-4 dry red chillies (use dry Kashmiri red chillies for added colour)
2 tbsp broken cashew nuts
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
2 1/2 cups water

How I Made It:

1. Wash and dry the baby potatoes. Pierce each potato all around with a fork and deep fry in hot oil, with the skin on, till the potatoes are cooked and golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.

2. Combine all the ingredients together under the "gravy list". I know this sounds weird but trust me on this. Dunk all the ingredients together along with the water and cook on a low flame for around 15 mins or until the tomatoes have turned mushy and soft. Cool and blend to a smooth paste. If you have one of those soup blenders like me, just go ahead and whip it up hot. Saves a lot of time.

3. Heat the butter in a pan and add the powdered cardamom and gravy paste and allow it to come to a boil. Simmer till the oil separates form the gravy. This will take about 12-15 mins. Keep the fire on simmer throughout and be prepared for a slight mess if you don't use a deep pan. The tomato gravy will bubble up all over your stovetop.

4. When the gravy is ready, add the potatoes, kasuri methi, and salt and simmer for another 3-4 mins. Finally, add the cream and coriander and serve hot with jeera pulao or rotis.

Notes:

- I like to use powdered cardamom because its not pleasant to bite into the pods when you are eating. 

- The original recipe also called for 1 tbsp honey but I omitted this because we were not in a mood for a sweet-ish dish. I think this is meant to be hot and sweet so add that in if you want to get more of an authentic Banarasi Dum Aloo. 

- You can boil and add the potatoes to the gravy if you want a healthier version. Adding cubed, fried regular potatoes will also taste brilliant, I am sure. 

- Banarasi Dum Aloo does not use dahi or curd as normal dum aloo does so use cream if you have it. Substitute with curd as a last option. 

- The gravy gets thick on sitting for a while so if you are reheating leftovers, add a little bit of curd of water before heating it up. Don't add more cashews than what's mentioned, it will make the gravy even thicker.

- As you can clearly see, I was out of coriander leaves :)

Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala - Step by Step Recipe

I have been posting way too many dessert recipes of late so here's something to offset that. I have talked about my dislike towards the sliminess of Okra in my Okra Fry with Peanuts recipe post so you can rest assured that if I use Okra, the final dish will show no signs of sliminess. This is another one of them.



Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala
Source: Monsoon Spice
Serves: 2 - 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
3 cups Bhindi/Okra, washed, dried and cut into small pieces
8 shallots, sliced fine (or use 1 large onion)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped (or 1 tbsp tomato paste)
1 tsp ginger garlic Paste
A pinch of sugar (optional)
1 cup yogurt, beaten
1 tbsp grated coconut, fresh/frozen
8 cashew nuts, soaked in warm milk for at least 10 mins
A generous pinch of kasuri methi / dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp garam masala
½ -1 tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp amchur / dry mango powder
1 tsp coriander powder / malli podi
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal/Split Black Lentils
2-3 Dry Red Chillies, halved
A Pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
Few Curry Leaves
1 tbsp Oil

How I Made It:

1. Sia's tip: Sprinkle little salt to okra pieces and mix well. Keep it aside for half an hour. This helps in reducing the sliminess while frying the okra. I did this and it worked!

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and add okra pieces to it. Fry them continuously at high flame till they turn brown retaining their crispiness, about 7-10 mins. Alternatively you can also deep fry them. Transfer these fried okras to a plate lined with kitchen/paper towel and set aside.

3. Grind soaked cashews and coconut to smooth paste adding the milk used for soaking. Set aside.

4. Heat oil for tempering in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When they pop, add cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chillies, hing and curry leaves and sauté it for a minute till the dal turns golden brown in colour.

5. Now add finely chopped onions and fry till they turn light golden. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for another minute. Add all the dry masalas - garam masala, red chilli powder, amchur, turmeric and coriander powder - along with kasuri methi and fry for a minute in sim.



6. Mix in finely chopped tomatoes (if using) and sauté till they turn pulpy and release their juice, about 2 minutes (or add the tomato paste at this stage). Now add ground cashew-coconut paste and mix well. Keep stirring for a minute.



7. Add yogurt, sugar and salt to taste and stir well. Depending on the consistency of gravy required, add ½-1 cup of water and mix well. Simmer the gravy and let it cook uncovered for another 5 minutes.



8. Mix in fried okra and adjust salt. Add little more water if you think the gravy is too thick and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.



9. Done! Serve with rotis or any mixed rice.

Navratan Korma / Navaratna Kurma Recipe - Step by Step

I love kurmas (or kormas, for those of you who feel that's the way it should be spelled). The ones I grew up eating had lots of coconut or coconut milk in them as you would expect, since the growing up happened in Kerala.

A bit about Navratna Korma although I don't usually like doing yada yada (get to the recipe already!), but this dish is seriously interesting. Navratan means nine jewels and this dish is supposed to contain a mix of 9 fruits, vegetables and fried nuts. In true Mughlai cuisine fashion, cream (or cashew nut paste) is added to form the gravy.

I have seen quite a few variations in the 9 items used by different restaurants. TH is quite the spoilsport, he doesn't like it when sweet stuff is mixed with spicy (Ok, I admit, I am like that too, there's a reason why I married that guy) so I didn't add pineapple to my version, which is quite a popular "ratna" to add to Navratan Korma. Since we also don't like biting into raisins in our curries, and I really couldn't omit all the sweet stuff, I ground it into the paste. Genius, eh?



Navratan Korma / Navaratna Kurma Recipe
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 cups of diced, mixed vegetables - I used carrot, beans, peas, corn and potato (cauliflower will be nice too!)
A few cubes of paneer
10 cashew nuts and 10 raisins soaked in warm water, drained and ground to a paste
1 large onion, minced
1 tomato, quartered and pureed
3 green chillies
1" piece of ginger
4 garlic cloves (or use 1 tsp ginger garlic paste)
1 tsp tomato paste (or use another pureed tomato)
1 cup milk
1 tbsp butter (or ghee)
Salt to taste

The Spice Powders:
2 tsp garam masala (or use 1 tsp freshly ground masala like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp jeera



Sidenote: I got these blue flexible chopping boards from IKEA the other day and totally love them. Yeah they scratch easily but don't they make awesome  background for the 'ingredients picture'?

How I Made It:


1. Heat the butter or ghee in a kadai / pan.


2. Add minced onions and fry until pink and transparent.


3. Grind the green chillies with the ginger and garlic and add to the onions. If using ginger garlic paste, just crush the chillies and add along with it. Fry for 30 seconds.


4. Add all the spice powders. Fry for a minute.


5. In go the pureed tomato and the tomato paste


6. Mix well and let it cook until the butter appears on the sides (about 4-5 mins)


7. Add milk and about 1/2 cup of water, more or less.


8. Add the chopped vegetables. Mix well an cook covered for another 5 mins or so, until the vegetables are cooked, yet firm.


9. Add the cashew nut-raising paste and mix well. Add salt and paneer cubes. Cook open for another 5 minutes until the gravy thickens and comes together.



Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati, nan, roti, or pulao. This is a guest-wower recipe, btw.

I am sending this to Divya's Show Me Your Curry event.
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On a very unrelated note, Sig is having a giveaway on her blog so hope on by if you are interested to learn more.

Sharjah Shake: Step by Step Recipe

Sharjah shakes were all the rage when I was in college. Although it feels like just yesterday that I was in college, sadly, its been a while.

That's the time when milk shake parlors sprang up all over town and people of all ages dropped by for a quick relief from the heat and humidity that's almost always present in Kerala.

Amma and I have shared countless number of sharjah shakes in these parlors during our almost-everyday town visits, leaving with a full stomach and numb tongues. Ah, the good old days.

As if having a Sharjah shake almost every time we stepped out of the house wasn't enough, we used to make it at home too. "Packet milk" was bought and chilled especially for this purpose as the milk we used normally came from a neighbour with a cow (this milk was boiled in a milk cooker, cream extracted and stored away for churning butter that would later be made into ghee.. phew!)

Back to Sharjah Shake. Here's how we used to make it. I am sure there are countless variations out there trying to mimic the milk shake parlour versions. This is ours and its very flexible.

Sharjah Shake Recipe
Serves 2

1. Chop up one ripe banana straight into your blender.

2. Throw in 4-5 whole raw cashewnuts or almonds.

3. Add 1 tbsp bournvita / maltova / chocolate horlicks / ovaltine to this. We have tried even regular horlicks and that tastes good too.

4. Top up with about 2 cups frozen chunks of milk. I used chilled milk here because I was having this for breakfast. To get the authentic milk shake parlour version, freeze milk (in ice trays if you can) and break it up with a strong knife into chunks and then add it in. This will give a crushed ice texture to the drink. Also, using whole milk will enhance the taste (but of course!).

5. Pour and... go on! Bottoms Up!

Note:

Adding sugar is optional since the chocolate drink powder and banana will lend some sweetness to the drink. You can add one date or 2tsp honey if you like the flavour. We usually stick with sugar if needed but taste first.

This goes to the "Serve me Some…Juices, Shakes, Smoothies" event at Cook Curry Nook.

Dates and Butter Dessert Bar

When I saw this, I knew I had to make it. I mean, look at all that butter. And dates. Dates are meant to be baked. Oh and also to be pitted and the seed replaced with a whole cashewnut before eating. These are the only two ways dates are meant to be used, really.

I did some adjustments to the quantity of ingredients based on my taste. I also think I under-cooked the bar but that's fine. One can always increase the baking time by 5-10 next time, no reason to hate the recipe for that.

Here's what we need.

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped into small pieces
2 cups all purpose flour / maida
1.5 cups butter at room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (or just use white sugar again in case you don't have this)
4 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (I used walnuts and about 2-3 tbsp of cashew nuts that I happened to have)
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Here's how to make the bars:

1. Melt butter in a pan over very low heat or in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

2. Chop up the dates and nuts and set aside.

3. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add about 1/4 cup of this into the chopped dates and nuts mixture and mix (dredge) well to coat the sticky parts of the dates. Set aside.

4. Mix butter and sugar and beat lightly for 2 mins until well incorporated. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. Finally add the vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Fold in the flour-salt-baking powder mixture to the above gently until just mixed and no lumps remain. Then add the dredged dates and flour mixture continuing to fold in gently. This will form a thick batter.

6. Pour into a greased cake or brownie pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350F/180C for 35-40 mins. The original recipe says 30 mins but mine were a bit under-baked so adjust according to your oven.

Cut and serve warm with ice cream for an indulgent treat. I stored mine in the refrigerator for 4 days.

Here's an example of a pic where the white balance is all off :D

Pacha Andi / Raw Cashewnuts Aviyal Recipe

I am running out of recipes in draft! Although I have a zillion recipes bookmarked and ingredients for some of them, I am just not in the groove yet. In laws are visiting for a week so hopefully I can get some nice recipes from the MIL.

Anyway, this one is from my trip to Kottayam in August. The pics were hiding in my "Kottayam Holiday" folder so went totally unnoticed.

Pacha andi, or raw cashewnuts are not easily available and from what I know, are seasonal, in addition to being quite expensive. We have a man who delivers this to all our relatives' houses in Kerala, he has a thick moustache and a gruff voice. Last time I asked amma, she said he is getting old and obviously his son doesn't want to get into the "family business". When I was a kid, raw cashewnuts used to be 200 rupees for one kilo. Now they are about 290-300rs.

They are quite nice to eat as is, crunchy and fresh. When cooked, they turn a bit mushy and pasty (in a good way).

The only thing we ever make with this is aviyal. The recipe is exactly same as amma's Chakkakkuru Aviyal Recipe. The two changes you need to make are, since the cashewnuts cook quicker, you may only need about 5 mins boiling time. Also, add an extra 1/2 tsp red chilli powder since these are slightly sweet.

Oh and also, if you are unable to get your hands on some raw cashewnuts, soak some dried ones in water for atleast 2 hours and follow the same recipe :)

Mom's Delight : Step By Step Recipe

I have posted the recipe for Mom's delight ages ago but although its actually much tastier than the Marie Biscuit Chocolate Logs, its not as popular. This could be because the name is not popular, in fact I think I made it up when I was 12, I can't remember! Or because the picture is really not tempting. Anyway, anything to do with Marie biscuits and chocolate is totally my thing, I mean, you can't go wrong with that combination - its like crackers and cheese!

So, I am reposting the recipe, but this time, with step by step pictures to give you a not-so-gentle push towards making it this holiday. How about that? I am nothing if not persistent ;)

Here's most of the stuff you'll need. Cocoa powder or bittersweet chocolate, Marie biscuits or digestive biscuits (clearly the recipe is very forgiving!), about 1 tbsp butter to grease the tray or ramekins, condensed milk (low fat if you are in denial like me and think that actually makes this dessert guilt-free), and some chopped nuts (its not in the picture, there's nothing wrong with your eyes).

I used ramekins this time but you can use pretty much any cake tray that you have in hand.

Grease the ramekins with some butter.

Powder the biscuits and lay it in the ramekins, about 1" thick. Gently press down with a spoon. You can also mix the biscuit crumbs with some butter, make it bread crumb like and then press it down, only, you'll be using up much more butter if you do that.

Now we have the condensed milk. Ahhh... the best part. Pour it in, about 1/2" thick. Go on, trust me on this one.

Ok now comes chocolate, the best part! What, I said, condensed milk is the best part? Hmm.. well they are like two sides of the same coin, very complementary :D

You can either use shaved bittersweet chocolate OR..

About 1 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Layer the chocolate over the condensed milk.

Top this off with a layer of chopped cashewnuts.

Bake in a 180C oven for about 20 mins. The condensed milk will bubble up so make sure this is nicely browned and then we are done. That's them just out of the oven. Remember my oven?

Now we are done. Scoop it out and dig in.

For complete recipe with measurements, check out the Mom's Delight Recipe here.

Note: you can use some grated coconut as a layer after the condensed milk if you have any handy. Also, if you want to cut these into squares (I prefer it squiggly and loose so that I can scoop it out), then mix the powdered biscuits with about 2 tbsp butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Layer this at the bottom of the tray or ramekin and gently press down. This should give you a good solid base so that its easy to cut into squares once baked and cooled. Make sure this base is 1" thick. My mom makes it this way to it works.