Soyabean Keema Kofta Curry - For the healthy veggie lover !!

In my last post, I realized that I am not writing difficulty enough recipes so that the blog will look nice... Well.. the problem is I AM LAZY.. so I keep looking for quicker options.. But, sometimes, I do cook nice things for the family... which consists of my husband only right now.. :)

Here goes the recipe for a soybean keema kofta curry which I made and we loved to eat with roti. I am sure you'll like it too.

• Soak Soyabean (I use the Nutrela brand from the Indian store) nuggets in water and microwave on high for 6 -8 mins. Ensure that the water does not spill off, else the whole microwave cleaning will take a lot of time.
• Squeeze excess water (not need to make it super dry) and put the nuggets in the blender to chop them off into soyabean keema.
• You can also get Nutrela's Soyabean keema as well. Ensure that you wash them super properly else even a little bit of sand kind stuff will hamper you tongue.
• Now its keema cooking time... heat oil and when its hot splutter 1 tea spoon jeera.
• Add chopped onions and fry until browned.
• No tomatoes for keema. When onions are brown, add 1.5 tea spoons garam masala + 2 tea spoon red chilli powder + 1 tea spoon each jeera powder & coriander powder + 1/2 tea spoon aamchur powder. If you don't have amchur, a little bit of lemon juice is fine too. Its only for a sour taste.
• Once masala is fried, add the soyabean keema and fry and fry and fry until water is gone and soyabean starts to look like mutton keema :)
• Add salt and pepper powder only after the keema has been fried up. Salt will release water and thus will keep the keema mixture moist for the kofta.
• Remove the mixture from stove and allow to cool.
• Now, boil two medium potatoes and mash them up real smooth and nice.
• Add 4 table spoons corn starch powder to the same and a little more red chilli powder just for the sake of my spice-loving friends.
• Once keema is cooled down, mix keema + potatoes+corn starch+red chilli powder and make small round balls.
• Now, you can either deep fry them or shallow fry them in a non-stick pan. Either way they taste very good.

For the gravy you need two different masala pastes.

1. With tomatoes + onions

• Slice onions and fry them in hot oil till they are brown. Cool and put in the blender
• Dice 2 medium tomatoes and add to the blender
• Whole garam masala (the regular cinnamon stick + cardamoms + cloves + bay leaf + mace)
• 2 tea spoon ginger-garlic paste
• Blend them all together and keep aside.

2. With poppy seeds + cashew nuts

• Soak 1 table spoon poppy seeds in warm milk for 15-20 mins in the blender
• Add 10-12 whole cashews to that
• 2 spoons water and blend.

Start the gravy cooking...similar process like we always do..

• Heat oil and when steamy hot, add chopped onions + green chillies.
• Fry till onion is brown
• Then add the masala pastes + kasoori methi + coriander powder + whole milk or whipping cream + red chili powder + salt and fry till you see oil seeping from the sides.
• After the masala is nice orange color, add a little water and bring it to a boil.
• Add the koftas and let it sit on the shut down stove for a while.

Kundru Bhaja ... Again a "pakhala" saathi !!

Come summer and its always "pakhala bhata" for lunch. What can we do? We Odiyas are crazy about pakhala, the poor man's staple food. Hee Hee Hee.. thats such a big joke now, because big restaurants like Grand Hotel in Puri (Puri Jagannath) also serve Pakhala with delicacies that we dream of...

Here is one more bhaja (or hash as we say it in English) which goes very well with Pakhala bhata. Add some dahi into the rice+water mix and enjoy with this quick and easy bhaja.

PS: Now that I think of, all my recipes are either quick or easy or both. How lazy am I ??

Anyways, here are the ingredients (shortest list on earth)

• Kundru (1/2 Lb) cut into longitudinal slices.
• 1 tea spoon Panch shoran
• 1 tea spoon turmeric
• 1 tea spoon red chill powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon Mustard paste {mustard seeds + garlic + green chilies}
• Oil (as needed)

How you do it?

• Heat oil and add turmeric.
• When oil is hot, add the panch phoran and let it splutter.
• Then add the kundru slices + salt and cook with the cover on. Fry regularly so that the veggies do not stick to the pan.
• After the veggies are a little tender, add the mustard paste + red chilly powder and cover again.
• Fry for 10 -15 mins or until the veggies are done.
• Garnish with chopped green coriander leaves and serve with pakhala. 

If you are not a pakhala eater (which probably means you are not Odiya) this dish can be eaten with Roti/Paratha or Dal+Rice. Latter being the better choice. 

Dahi Baigana ... Refreshingly Homey !!

Whenever there is a potluck, the most lazy person picks the yoghurt accompaniment called Raita. :)

At least thats what my friends think. So I decided to make a better yoghurt dish and prove that bringing Raita to a potluck does not mean you are lazy. Just means, there are more things that can be done with Yoghurt and Egg Plant. LOL.

Dahi Baigana, is a favorite Odiya dish. Its always made at weddings and summer lunches where there is fried rice and mutton curry. Yoghurt is very cooling, so having this dish with rich food is good for the food-intaker (thats you..silly !!).

Here is what we use...

• Egg-Plant (the longer ones taste the best.. according to me) cut into long pieces
• 1 small red onion sliced thin
• Few curry leaves
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 1 tea spoon sugar
• 3-4 green chillies slit through length
• salt to taste
• Oil for frying the egg-plants

Here's how we make it...

• Deep fry the egg-plant and keep them aside. While frying, ensure that it does not get burnt. Fry on low flame.
• If you are worried about deep fried stuff.. lay the fried egg-plants on tissue paper.
• Now, add yoghurt, a little water, sugar, salt and mix well.
• In a small pan, heat some oil (may be 1 or 2 tea spoons).
• When oil is hot, splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves and then add the onions.
• Fry the onions till they are pink and translucent. Take care that they do not turn brown. They should still look crunchy.
• Now add the onions into the yoghurt mixture and mix well.
• Finally add the egg-plants to the yoghurt mixture and mix everything well.
• Note that we do not cook the yoghurt. Just mix and serve. :)

Enjoy !!

Simple Ramblings.. Quickie Egg Curry

I am not sure about others, but there are days when my heart (and tummy) craves for spicy eggs and white rice. I am yet not sure why would that be, because egg is not may favorite. So all I do is boil some eggs and make Egg Curry. This is probably a life saver when guests some in to our house and we do not have decent vegetables or fish in the fridge to serve lunch or dinner. Egg curry serves the purpose to the best of extent. Every Odiya loves eggs and egg curry on a warm winter night is till date the favorite of students I think.

What you need:

• 5 Medium eggs (hard boiled)
• 1 medium onion
• 3-4 green chillies chopped.
• 2 small tomatoes (or 1 medium tomato)
• 1 tea spoon jeera seeds
• 1 tbl. spoon ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 tea spoon garam masala
• 1/2 tea spoon red chili powder
• 1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• Fresh green coriander to garnish
• Oil for cooking

Start cooking...

Start with hard boiling the eggs, peel them off and make small cuts with knife.

Now, heat a wee bit of oil in a hot pan and add a pinch of turmeric in it. This helps give a beautiful color to the eggs and also saves the oil from spluttering. Its a well known tip.. I guess !!

Add the eggs and fry them on high until they get coated with a nice yellow-orange color. Take them off and keep aside.

To the same pan, add some more oil and heat again. Now add the jeera seeds and watch them splutter. Once they are brown, add the onions and green chillies. Fry them until the onions are brownish.. you know the drill. Now, add the ginger garlic paste and fry with small amounts of water (very small amounts). It helps to cook the masala faster and well done. Once the raw garlic smell goes away, add the tomatoes and salt + turmeric + red chili powder + garam masala powder. Fry until the masala leaves oil. Do not burn. This masala tends to burn away. 

Once the masala is done, add hot water to it (microwave some drinking water and add that) and let it boil. Once the grave boils, add the eggs and cover. 

The gravy should be thick with eggs coated with masala all over.. YUMMY !!