Spicy Kabuli Chana/Chickpeas with Veggies

Kabuli Chana/Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans needs no introduction, it's one popular bean through out the world. Specially in Mediterranean & Indian(to be more specific north Indian) Cuisine it has a lot of importance, 99% of Indian restaurants have Punjabi Chole/Chana Masala on their menu. Kabuli Chanas are white in color & the name Kabuli comes from the city name Kabul(capital of Afghanistan). For very long time Afghanistan was the gateway to Indian sub-continent and it is suppose to be the place from where Kabuli Chana/Chickpeas were introduced in Indian subcontinent. Now, India is the largest producer of Chickpeas in world.

From Indian Cuisine the most popular Chana/Chickpeas dish is Chana Masala or very popularly known as Chole in north Indian households, which goes with the combination of Puri/Bhatura/Kulcha (flat Indian breads). I have already posted Chana Masala/Punjabi Chole recipe here. Today I'm sharing a very healthy but less time consuming recipe and taste wise also it's a hit.

What U need :

• 1 cup of dried uncooked chanas/chickpeas, soaked overnight.
• 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
• 1 med. size onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 3-4 green chillies, chopped finely
• 1 & 1/2 cup of veggies, chopped into small bite size pieces( I used carrot, zucchini & eggplant/baingan)
• salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. dhania/coriander powder
• 1 tsp. jeera/cumin powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• handful of chopped cilantro for garnish
• l & 1/2 tablespoon oil

What U do :

1. Boil the chickpeas with 1 tsp. of salt & 2 bay leaves.
2. Once the chickpeas are cooked, heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Saute garlic for few seconds, add onions, cook till translucent.
3. Add chopped veggies, sprinkle some salt, saute them. Once they are around half done add all the dry spices.
4. Next add tomato paste & little liquid from boiled chickpeas and green chillies. Also add drained chickpeas(see notes) to it and cook it covered till the veggies are done.
5. Garnish with fresh cilantro & serve with roti/naan or with your fav. bread.

If U don't count the time for boiling the chickpeas, this dish hardly takes 20 minutes or so and it's ready for one wholesome meal.

Notes :

1. If U prefer canned chickpeas, drain the liquid & rinse them with fresh water, no need to boil.
2. In case if U r boiling your own chickpeas try to boil them with just enough water as the final dish is dry kind. But if U have extra liquid use it in other dishes or for roti (Indian flat bread)dough.
3. I usually boil some extra chickpeas & keep them handy in the fridge to throw them in different dishes & if nothing else, works good in lentil salad.
4. I use whatever veggies I have on hand , so far I've used celery, parsnip/mooli, cauliflower, Indian bottle gourd/ghiya, spinach, beetroot(careful with this as it'll turn the whole dish into dark pinkish red color, so only if U like it that way).
5. I usually add all the veggies together (except leafy ones if using), that way the veggies which cook quickly like zucchini will get mushed up & U get kind of thick masala(not too much). For leafy veggies I add them once rest of the veggies are half done.

Peaches, Peaches & more Peaches......turned into......Salsa, Preserve & Ice Cream

Chutney, Preserve, Pickle, Salsa these were the few areas I was thinking and making almost a month ago. Many a times when I go for weekly grocery shopping I go overboard with fresh veggies & fruits. So trip to 2 different grocery stores in a day & a trip to peach orchard in the same weekend end result sweet & sour yummy treats. Though I've made quite a few Chutney's & Pickles etc. in the past few days like Mango Chunda/chutney/preserve  but today it's Peach time. Most of them were eaten just like that & few firm ones were turned into Salsa & riped ones were turned into peach preserve & finally over-riped were turned into cold treat peach ice-cream.

Fruit picking is one thing which not only kids enjoy but we as an adult also enjoy it equally. I still remember first time when we took our then 3 yr. old daughter for her first strawberry picking she was excited but Dad was over excited to get the freshest and juiciest fruit that I came back home with almost 15 pounds of fresh strawberries. I prefer to eat fruit just like that but that was the first time I started to make strawberry preserve, since then it's regular in my house. Now some recipes to use up all the juicy peaches no matter whether U picked up yourself  from the orchard or from the local farmers market.

Peach Salsa : I have to say this was among one of the best salsa I make, not only because we adult loved it but my 8 yr. old said she loved the combo I made, when I asked u liked the salsa, she replied whatever u call it(in her world salsa is either red or green) it's tasting good with this chicken tikka & pasta salad(that was the dinner). It's more of a guideline then a recipe U can change the fruit & veggies that goes in as per your taste or availability, also adjust the spices level as per your taste.

 What U need :

• 3 firm peaches, skin removed(see notes)
• 1 small cucumber
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 stalk celery (optional, we like the crunchiness of it, if using make sure to dice it very fine)
• 1/2 green /red bell pepper/capsicum/shimla mirch  (I used 2 Anaheim peppers)
• 3-4 hot green chillies
• 1 tsp. black pepper (kali mirch)
• 1 tsp. roasted cumin powder(jeera powder)
• salt
• handful of cilantro(hara dhaniya), chopped
• juice of 1 lime(nimbu)

What to do : Chop everything into small pieces except lime. Mix it in a big bowl, add black pepper, salt & cumin powder, squeeze the lime juice on to the mix. Mix it, taste it, if needed adjust the seasoning, cover it & keep it in the fridge. I prefer to make fruit salsas on the same day, usually 2-3 hours before I need it. If for some reason you want to make them ahead of time(in case of party or so) don't mix salt, cilantro and lime juice, get everything else ready & keep it in the fridge. When ready to use add salt, lime juice & freshly chopped cilantro.

You can serve it with Tortilla chips. pita chips or as a side for grilled fish or chicken, it goes well with roti(Indian flat bread) & rice also.

Variations : I make same recipe using mangoes also & mixing both fruits peaches as well as mangoes. If u want to make mango version only, try this one 1 mango + 1/2 cup of pineapple & leave the cucumber & tomato out, plus rest of the ingredients from the list, tastes awesome.

Peach Preserve/Chutney :

What U need :

• 3 Large ripe peaches
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar (can use regular one)
• 1 cinnamon stick(dal chini)
• 3-4 cloves(laung)
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. red chilli pepper
• 1 tbsp. white vinegar (can be substituted with lemon juice)

What U do :

1. 
   
   Remove the skin off from the peaches(see notes). Roughly chop them, remove the stone/seed.
2. 
   
   In a non reactive pan add peaches & sugar  let it sit for an hour or so.
3. 
   
   Add all the spices  cook the mixture for 20 minutes or so on med. heat. Check the sugar level U can add more at this point if U like, these peaches were very sweet so I didn't used a lot of sugar.
4. 
   
   Add Vinegar & cook till all the water evaporates around 5 minutes or so.
5. 
   
   We don't like fruit preserves to be very thick. So I cook it to the point where it's still little loose as when it cools off it gonna get thicker. To check that, preserve should coat your spoon but if u take the spoon out preserve should drip like honey.

** I use little pepper & red chili powder as it gives the preserve a nice little kick, as per your taste u can totally leave it out. I did not make the big batch as everyone in house preferred peach salsa(no sugar so he loves it) & peach ice-cream(this got lot of sugar, but when it's ice-cream he don't care...lol!)

Peach Ice-Cream : I didn't took any pics, sorry about that. It's same recipe as Mango Ice-cream we used around 4 large peaches fully riped. Take the skin off(see notes) & remove the seed also. Roughly chop the fruit & sprinkle 2-3 tablespoon of sugar from the total sugar u r using. Leave it for around 2 hours in the fridge. Pulse the fruit pulp in blender making sure it's not fully pureed as we like little bites of fruit here & there in ice cream. Now follow the same directions as we did in my previous ice cream.

Notes :

In case of fully ripe skins, usually u can simply peel the skin off using your fingers(first make a little cut on peach using knife). In case of firm ones boil a pot of water & add few peaches at a time in it for 40-60 seconds then transfer them to ice-cold water for a minute or so & now u can peel the skin off. Enjoy the last bits of summer.

Pumpkin with Spinach

After looking at today's post title those who don't like lauki(bottlegourd), kaddu(pumpkin) kind of vegetables, the vegetables which belong to squash family must be thinking of skipping reading this post. Two days in a row I'm posting veggies from the squash family but let me say one thing, pumpkin is something if you cook it with right spices it can be finger licking good. Like lauki pumpkin is also used for making dessert called kaddu ka halwa but as I said in my last post in my house these vegetables are strictly for savory dishes only. Today's recipe can be made without spinach, that's what I usually use to make but now with the command from His Highness regarding eating spinach everyday, I'm incorporating spinach in many dishes which I never thought will taste good with the addition of any other thing in it, but reality is we all liked it and they taste equally good or sometime even better.

Now before we move to the recipe, let me warn U that there is a long list of whole spices which go into this and which result into really flavorful dish, not ordinary kaddu but flavorful one. To assure it's taste I would like to share this :

Scene from the grocery store, we(me + he) both are doing grocery together:

Me : does this pumpkin look good ?

He : why ? U want to buy pumpkin.....I'm not gonna eat this.

Me : (in my mind) we'll see....anyways I pick one

Scene from the day when pumpkin is the main dish on the dinner table :

Me : khana tyar hai(dinner is ready)

He : helps me set the table, (and here he goes ) U made that kaddu(

Me : yeap, for everybody (he thinks I'm gonna cook something specially for me only, sometimes when he goes for groceries he even buys pumpkin for me, saying that U like it so U make it for yourself...ha..haa)

Scene while having dinner :

He : subzi bari swad bani hai(Veggie is very tasty today...)

Me : yeah....

He : Is there any more???

Me : don't finish all, leave some for me.... I'm serious....

Result : Veggie bowl is finger lick clean....end of the story, no leftovers for tomorrow. If anyone interested about what happens in my house when I make kaddu(pumpkin) in any other form please click here.

What U need :

• 
  around 2 cup of cleaned regular pumpkin, diced into small cubes
• around 2 cups of cleaned, washed, chopped spinach
• 1 large onion thinly sliced
• 2 large tomatoes finely chopped
• 3-4 green hot peppers chopped
• 2 tsp. chopped garlic
• 2 tsp. chopped ginger
• 2 whole dry red chillis
• 2 black cardamons (moti ilaichi)
• 3-4 green cardamons (chotti ilaichi)
• 1 tsp. whole black peppers
• around 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
• 1 tsp. fennel (moti saunf) seeds
• 1/2 tsp. onion seeds (kalonji)
• 1 tsp. black mustard (rai) seeds
• salt
• 1 tsp. degi mirch powder( if not available use paprika)
• 1 tsp. coriander (dhania) powder
• 1 tsp turmeric (haldi)
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• 3 Tblsp. of cooking oil (looks a lot but U need at least this much, if O.k with your diet plan can use even little bit more)

What U Do : 

1. Heat cooking oil in a heavy bottom pan on med. heat, add all the whole spices when aroma starts to come add garlic. After a minute or so add Onions.
2. Once the onions are translucent add ginger & pumpkin cubes. Saute them for 7-8 minutes. Pumpkin will be kind of all glazed & shiny.
3. Add tomatoes, green peppers & all dry spices.
4. Now if U r not using spinach let it cook till the point when pumpkin is cooked but still holding it's shape. DON'T OVERCOOK IT otherwise pumpkin will get all mushy. Whenever it's getting too dry add couple of spoons of water at a time.

      5. If you are planning to use spinach than add spinach and follow the instructions as per #4.

      6. Serve it warm with freshly made roti.

Note : Pumpkin is a vegetable which is sweet in taste, so we like it quite spicy, this kind of preparation gives it sweet & hot taste. Bite into the pumpkin and you feel the sweetness of it and the moment gravy mixture touches your taste buds you get that kick from the hot side of it, wanting you to eat more and more of it. 

Please adjust the level of heat according to your by adjusting the use of dry whole red peppers, green hot peppers & garam masala. As for other spices I'll really suggest to use them to get that aromatic hot & sweet flavor.

As this dish contains fenugreek seeds in it I'm sending it to one of my favorite blogger SE of  Denufood who's  hosting her first blog event "Cooking with Seeds : fenugreek" brainchild of Priya.

Here it's called Stuffing, Back Home it was called Bread Poha

Before we move to today's recipe....what is this Fruit or Vegetable ???

Now for the recipe, nope it's not using the produce from the above pic, but it's the recipe from our thanksgiving dinner, something so important that you can't think of having a turkey dinner without it....it's stuffing.

It's typically made with bread croutons, some veggies, nuts & dry fruits. You can either fill the big bird with it (which I don't like) or another popular way is you cook it separately and serve it as side dish (it's called dressing when cooked separately). This time when I cooked bread stuffing, it reminded me of bread poha my Mom makes with lots of veggies & nuts, though it's not exactly same but has many similarities. I ate the leftovers for the next day breakfast & loved it.

Ingredients :

• 2 cups bread croutons(check notes for making your own)
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped granny smith apple
• 1/4 cup or more roasted & chopped almonds & walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped apricots
• 1/4 cup raisins plus dried cranberries
• 2 Tblsp. of unsalted butter (or U can use all evoo instead)
• 2 Tblsp. of evoo(extra virgin olive oil (or you can use all butter instead)
• 1 Tblsp. of evoo for sauteing the vegetables
• 1/2 cup of vegetable stock or water ( I used turkey stock)
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste
• 1 tsp. dried parsley

Method :

1. Heat butter & oil in a big heavy bottom pan. Add bread croutons to it & toss them to get coating of butter. Cook them on a med. heat for about 5-7 minutes, stir them in between. When they start to turn brown, take them out of the pan. If you don't have big pan do it in two batches using 1 spoon of butter & oil each, for each batch of croutons


2. In the same pan heat 1 Tblsp. of evoo & add celery, carrots & apples. Cover and cook them till they get soft, if needed add little stock or water at a time.


3. Once the veggies are soft add croutons, nuts & dry fruits. Also add salt, black pepper and parsley. Mix everything & add 1/2 cup of stock/water. cover & cook for couple of minutes.


4. Turn of the gas. Let it sit for sometime before serving.


5. This can be served as a side dish or can also be eaten as a snack or breakfast by itself. You can also top it with fresh cilantro(instead of parsley) & sprinkle some lemon/lime juice before serving. If you like you can also add other veggies like peas, bell pepper, green beans etc.. My mom makes bread poha version with some tomatoes in it.

Note : to make your own croutons, take 5 slices of 2-3 day old bread, preferably french bread or any hardy bread. I use whatever kind I have at home. This time I used multi grain bread. Cut the slices into 4 stripes & then further cut each strip into 4 pieces. Spread them onto cookie sheet & toast in the oven 350 degree F for roughly 10 min. or so. Shake them in between, once they turn crispy they are done. Remember if croutons are not crispy stuffing will turn mushy.

For Vegan version instead of butter evoo can be used.

This dish is quite healthy as I used multi grain bread to make croutons plus it has lots of veggies, nuts & dry fruits. Specially with all the other flavours going on kids can't figure out that it has multi grain bread in it(so no complaints). I'm sending this to WYF-Speciality event as I cooked it specially for Thanksgiving dinner and I'm also sending it to Yasmeen's HealthNut Challenge-3 : Healing Foods as it contains all the healthy ingredients from carrots to apples & almonds to cranberries. Last but not the least it goes to Radhika & Sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life : Kids Event.

And yes, before I sign off did you guys guessed what the name of the fruit in above pic is. It's persimmon, known to the ancient Greeks as "fruits of the Gods". Saw it in the local Chinese farmer market, there were two varieties, one was sold in the pack of 6 or 8 that looked more like round tomatoes. The one I got was sold loose, so I got just one to taste, later checked on the wiki it's called "Hachiya". It was too(when I say too I really mean tooooooo) sweet, pulp inside had similar texture like ripe mango pulp but it was too sweet (we, in fact he only ate one bite, ate it just raw) may be I should have made milk shake with it.

Mirchi,Mirchi & more Mirchi

"If life throws you a lemon - make lemonade"

--Joan Collins

But what if DH gets you almost 1 and a 1/2 pound of hot green peppers(Thai chilli peppers) ?? Of course, you make aachar(pickle) and get your daily dose of vitamin C, B, Potassium, Magnesium & Iron from it(Note : this is totally my idea of getting these vitamins thru pepper pickle, do not take this thing into regular practise, heat of peppers may trouble your whole body system in various ways).To get info about medicinal value, culinary & other usages of chili peppers click here.

So, it's raining Mirchi achar(chille/pepper pickle) in my house, I have made 3 different kind still I have enough supply of mirchis(pepper) for another week or so. The kind of pickles I made are quick & instant kind.

Mirchi Achar #1 : Tiranga Achar

This first one is really easy one, no oil needed. Also you can increase or decrease any of the main ingredient as per your taste or availability of ingredients.

Ingredients :

• half cup each green chilli peppers, fresh ginger, fresh turmeric
• juice of 1 lime (or more if it's not very juicy or if they are small variety
• salt as per taste( I used approximately 1&1/4 tsp. for above quantity)

Method :

Peel ginger & turmeric, wash everything & dry it thoroughly, spread it on kitchen towel or paper towel & let it air dry for sometime or just pat dry it. Now, julienne ginger & turmeric & cut peppers length wise. Put it in a clean glass/steel bowl, sprinkle salt & squeeze lime juice on it using a clean dry spoon mix everything & transfer it to clean dry glass jar. It's ready to eat kind of aachar, I usually keep it in the fridge after a day b'coz we r using limited salt & no oil. Give it a shake once in a while. And if ginger is really fresh & young, it'll turn to very pretty pink color after couple of hours or so. As this pickle taste & stays good when it's fresh, say for a week or so, so don't make big batch of this. Here's a picture of fresh turmeric.

As all the ingredients in this pickle chillis, ginger & turmeric are cosidered as health food, I would like to send it to Yasmeen's Health Nut Challenge 3 - Healing foods. And as one of the main ingredient is turmeric so it also goes to "Think Spice : Think Turmeric" event hosted by sudeshna and brainchild of Sunita from sunita's world.

As for the benefits:

Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory, anti-septic & anti-bacterial agent helps in disinfecting cuts & burns.Natural lever detoxifier, natural pain-killer,used in the treatment of arthritis, may prevent & slow the process of Alzheimer's disease. These are only few of it's benefits for more click here.

Ginger helps in morning sickness, cold & flu prevention & treatment, heart burn, menstrual cramps & also believe to have anti-cancer properties.For more info click here.

Note : While working with fresh turmeric you might want to use disposable gloves(food safe variety) as it will turn your hands & work surface yellow, when you work with it.

Also if your hands are sensitive to pepper heat, it's advisable to use gloves while cutting them.

If you decide to leave peppers out of the recipe, you can add 1 tsp. of red chilli powder.

Mirchi ka Aachar(Chilli Pepper Pickle) # 2This is hot one. What you need is wash & dry 1 cup of green chillies & slit them lengthwise & then chop them into 1/2 inch pieces. We don't want big pieces as we are not filling the spice mixture into the chillies. Keep them aside.

Now in a pan heat 1 tblsp. of mustard or vegetable or canola oil. Turn the gas off & add chopped chillies, salt(as per taste, I used around 1& 1/4 tsp.) & coarsely ground 2 tsp. of achar masala(spice mix). Mix everything so the chillies get coating of spice mix. Once it's cool transfer it to clean dry glass jar, shake it once in a while. It's ready to eat but better if you let it sit for a day or so.

For acharMasala(Pickle spice mix) : take equal quantities of mustard seeds, fennel seeds(saunf), fenugreek seeds(methidana), cumin(jeera) & half quantity of onion seeds(kalonji). Dry roast them for a min. or so let them cool add little bit of turmeric(haldi). Grind it & keep it in air tight jar for later use. We are not using any chilli powder as the chilli peppers are really hot.

Note : These are instant kind of pickles not meant to keep for long time, as we are not using excessive salt or sugar or oil or vinegar or lime juices, these things works as preservative for pickles. So I suggest to keep these pickles in the fridge after a day or so of making.

Also never use wet spoon in the jar to take the pickle & always keep pickles in non-reactive utensil(like steel or glass) with the lid closed tightly.

I didn't took the picture of third kind, so whenever I make the next batch I'm gonna post that.

Cranberry Chutney or Sauce - Part 2 also an Update for previous post

Update on Pineapple upside down Cake : Finally I managed to upload the pics, and also I realized that I didn't took the picture of whole cake, I told you, I love this cake so much that only thing I can think of, while sitting in front of this cake is EATING IT. But I surely got some pictures of the whole process, though they are not very clear, but I wanted to share with you all. Also one more thing DH thinks I used too much sugar for caramel but to me it was perfect specially when eaten with whip cream(point to be noted I made that cake for me, after a long time), so I guess sugar for caramel can be further reduced to 3 tblsp. One more thing I wanted to add for vegan version soy butter can be used instead of regular one.

Now let's come to today's post Cranberry chutney/sauce/salsa or whatever you like to call it.

This is my second cranberry chutney, I think it's more like salsa. As I wrote in my previous post the first chutney I made was good but had lot of sugar b'coz of sourness of berries, so I came up with this more healthy option by adding 2 apples to it(so I can eat as much as I want, without any guilty). Apples I used were quite sweet, so try to use sweet varieties, that way you can cut the sugar out of this recipe.Now, little bit on health benefits of these berries(this info is collected from web), some common ones are :

1) treating UTI(urinary tract infections)
2)reduction of Dental Plague
3)anti-cancer activity
4)reducing the risk of heart disease
5)preventing the development of kidney stones
6) provide relief for asthma patients

Now the recipe.

Ingredients :

• half med. size onion chopped
• 2 apples peeled & chopped( i used red delicious)
• 1/2 lb. fresh cranberries(that's half bag)
• 1 tblsp. sugar
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste(optional)
• red chilli powder 1 tsp.(can be left out if making for kids)
• garam masala 1 tsp.
• ginger 2 tblsp. freshly grated
• water/apple juice 4 oz. or more
• little oil

Method :

Heat little oil in a heavy bottom pan, saute onions for 2 min. or so then add rest of the ingredients. At this point only add 4 oz. of water. Mix everything together, cover & let it cook on med. for around 15 min., stir in between.

Add more water according to the consistency you like, I kept this one little loose like salsa kind. Once the apple & cranberries are cooked(they'll be mushy) it's done.

Serve it with with your choice of bread, roti, rice, as chips dip or as a sauce for grilled meat or seafood. I enjoyed it eating just like that, with nothing.So, go and grab these fresh berries before they disappear from store shelfs. As for me, I'm gonna make little extra this time & try to freeze it for later use.

It's very healthy for kids also, with only 1 tblsp. of sugar, which infact can be replaced by honey also. Kids will surely like this fruit sauce, tangy & sweet. I would like to send this recipe to :

1) Radhika & Sudeshna's Food for 7 Stages of Life - Kids(4-14 yrs.) .

2) Yasmeen's Helath Nut Challenge 3 : Healing foods .

3) Sharmi's CFK- Veggies & Fruits.

4) On Sanghi's suggestion I'm sending this cranberry chutney as well as Pineapple upside down cake for her FIL-Fruits event. I'm dedicating the cake to my DD as I love to bake for her, she love cakes and specially after eating this one she said this is the most tasty & soft vanilla cake she ever ate. And as far the cranberry chutney is concerned I dedicate it to my Mom who's the inspiration behind my cooking.

Karonde ki chutney using cranberries

Does it happen to you, somebody talked about some food and now you want to try your hands on it, well it happens to me quite often. In august one of my friend talked about how she makes chutney using cranberries which taste similar to karonde ki chutney.....So I said o.k let the fresh cranberries season come & I'll bother you then. Now, Almost 5 weeks back in wallmart I saw the guy putting cranberries on the shelf and I had to buy. So here I was with cranberries sitting in my fridge, no clue what to do with them, my MIL makes yummy karonda chutney, but she was on some trip....I tried to contact this friend but couldn't get hold of her...time passed(fast forward) nearly 3 weeks(on the pack it says....stays fresh for up to 4 weeks...so I tested that & it's true....). Fast forward 3 more days, no more waiting I had to do something with those berries, I know what you guys are thinking, Google to the rescue, No thanks, last time I googled for something & I ended up making Bagels. So, finally I went to the kitchen & started with my regular recipe I use for making fruit chutney's but with little twist here & there as these berries are quite sour. So here's the recipe, feel free to adjust the measurements according to your taste buds.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 pound fresh cranberries( that's half bag)
• 2-3 red chillies
• 1 tsp. panch puran (it's a whole spice mix : fenugreek, mustard, kalonji, cumin & fennel)
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste
• paprika 1 tsp.
• 1 Tblsp. freshly grated ginger
• around 1/3 cup sugar(I started with 1/4 cup then tasted it little bit & add more acc. to your taste)
• little oil
• water as needed

Method :

1. Heat heavy bottom pan, heat oil add red chillies & panch puran, when seeds start to splutter add cranberries, mix them.


2. They will leave some water, add salt, pepper, sugar & ginger, mix everything. Cover & cook on med. heat for roughly 15 min. or so.


3. Keep stirring it now & then and if getting too dry add a splash of water


4. Taste a little bit to check the flavours if needed add more sugar.

Note : I kept this chutney of little thick consistency, adjust it acc. to your choice. I kept it in the fridge, tasted good even after a week. Serve it with roti or spread it on the toast. It was really yummy & easy but uses a lot of sugar so I had to come up with something which I can eat without any guilt, just with the spoon & nothing else.Do check out my next post for the other version.

What's for dinner...Honey????

Fried rice stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash with

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries.......
(He) :WHAT....???? And you actually want me to eat that whole pumpkin...squash whatever it is....

(She) : I do have some leftovers from the lunch, dal chawal(lentil & rice).

(He) : O.k

Ingredients :

• 1 acorn squash
• 1 cup cooked filling of your choice no liquidy kind(I used fried rice with chicken & veggies)
• salt & pepper as per your taste
• evoo(extra virgin olive oil)
• 2 sweet potatoes

Method :

Cut the squash onto half, clean it from inside, poke it several places with fork. Drizzle some evoo & then sprinkle it with salt & pepper, you might gonna need little more then u think, otherwise squash will be tasting bland. Put it onto greased baking sheet cut side down. Bake it for 20 min. at 350 degree F, take it out now turn them by placing cut side up bake for another 10 minute. Check if squash is soft or not, if not bake it for further 5-10 min. depending on your oven. Once it's cooked( use fork to check if pulp is soft or not) fill it with filling of your choice. Bake for another 8-10 min. so that everything get warm.

For fries, cut sweet potato into half first then lengthwise in fries shape, don't cut them very thin. Put it in a bowl drizzle some evoo, salt & pepper, using your hand mix it so that fries get good coating of everything. Bake it at 350 degree F for 30 minute or so. For x'tra flavours once fries are done put some butter on it & turn the fries in it using spoon or fork(I didn't do it this time).

Both things can be baked at the same time. I in fact baked them in the same tray, took the fries out(they were done) while filling the squash with rice. Serve the squash with the side of fries.

Now, why did I made this thing, don't you think it looks pretty. I bought this squash few times since last season & every time it ended up in some sort of Indian dish. This time I told myself no matter what got to make roasted one, and here I did it, liked it but pulp was still bland for us so had to add more seasoning while eating......and yes he did ate it BUT dinner was finished with one satisfying bowl of dal chawal(lentil & rice).

Lentil Salad

This is one of our favourite salad. Specially dear hubby likes it for lunch in the office. It's quite filling also because the main ingredient is lentils.Though I'm writing the ingredients which I normally use but then agian no restrictions, I always put whatever I have in hand for e.g celery, parsnip, red bell pepper, basically any kind of veg. which you would use in normal salad.

Ingredients :

1. 2 cups of cooked(boiled)* Lentils( I used Red Chorry available at Indian Grocery Stores)
2. 1/2 small onion
3. 1 Large tomato
4. 2 carrots
5. 1/2 cup salad greens of your choice
6. 1 small cucumber
7. green chillies as per taste
8. 1/2 bunch of cilantro
9. handful of raisns
10. handful of toasted nuts of your choice
11. salt as per taste
12. black pepper as per taste
13. juice of 1 lime

Method :

1) Finely chop all the Salad vegetables including green chillies (this is little time consuming, so I usually chop everything a night before & then assemble the salad hour or two before the lunch time).

2) In a big bowl mix drained lentils, chopped veggies, raisins, cilantro, salt, black pepper & lime juice and gently mix up everything.Keep it in the fridge.

3) When ready to eat take it out add roasted chopped nuts mix them well & one healthy lunch is ready. We usually eat it as a lunch but you can have it as a side salad in full meal.

Note : * For boiling the lentils for salad purpose don't use too much of water just enough water to cover them plus one extra cup, and then pressure cook them. Little salt & a bay leaf while boiling enhance the flavours.Water left after draining the boiled lentils can be used to make dough for the chapatis.

Variations : This salad also tastes good with black eye beans or chickpeas.

While we gonna enjoy this colorful & tasty salad today for lunch, I would like to send the same to My Legume Love Affair : the 16th helping event hosted this month by jeanne of CookSister.com, event created and administered by the lovely Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. Also sending this entry to No Croutons Required event, hosted by Jacqueline.

Baingan Ka Bhartha with Matar(Peas)

(Baba Ghanoush-eggplant dip)

This is one of those dishes which me & my dear hubby both likes or I should say love. We can eat it everyday with anything like roti, parantha, bread, rice,salt crackers or just with the spoon yep! to get it’s real taste you just need to eat it by itself. Though the bhartha I make is fairly tasty enough but I still love the taste of bhartha which my mom makes, it use to be in big demand among my colleagues back in India.

I call Bhartha the Indian version of Baba Ghanoush, which is a dish from Middle East & use tahini in its preparation.I know many people who think bhartha is a time consuming dish, but it's not. It's only the roasting part which take some time other than that it's very easy to cook. For roasting baingan(eggplant) you can click here.

Ingredients :

1. Pulp(meat) of 2 Medium size Roasted Eggplants
2. Half a cup frozen sweet Peas
3. One Large Onion diced
4. Two Roma Tomatoes diced
5. Green Chillies chopped 3-4
6. Jeera(cumin seeds) – 1 tsp.
7. Turmeric-1/4 tsp.
8. Red chilli powder-1 tsp.
9. Dhania(coriander) Powder-1& ½ tsp.
10. Garam Masala-1/2 tsp.
11. Salt-as per taste
12. Oil-2 tablespoon
13. Fresh Cilantro-handful

Method :

1. First & the most important step for making bhartha is to roast the baingan aka eggplant. How to roast an eggplant.

2. Once the roasting is done, heat little oil in some heavy Karahi or wok.Add cumin seeds to it & when they start to splutter add onions and sprinkle half a tsp. of salt. Saute them a little bit on med. high flame around 5-7 min.

3. When the onions become translucent add tomatoes and chopped green chillies, stir them.

4. After 5-7 min. when tomatoes become soft add eggplant meat & peas(frozen). Mix everything gently and let it cook for 2-3 min. then add turmeric, chilli powder, dhania powder, garam masala & salt(remember we used the salt on the onions also so please adjust the quantity) mix it & let it cook for around 10 min. covered in med.-low gas( If u are using less oil then u might need to stir it more frequently).

5. Before serving put chopped cilantro on top & serve it warm.

Ratatouille Masaledar

(Indian Style)

For those who are not familiar to the term ratatouille, let me please tell you that it doesn't have anything to do with Rats. Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise(source : wikipedia). I have seen many different versions of it on food tv so there is no hard & fast rule except that it's mainly tomato based dish with zucchini, aubergine(eggplant) & onion as the main vegetables plus some herbs of your choice.So today morning when i woke up thinking in my mind what to cook for lunch & open the cooler box(yes i mean fridge). It was full of vegetables thanks to our love for fresh veggies whenever me & my hubby dear go for groceries together, result is lots & lots of fresh veggies & fruits. So i guess you guessed it that we had a trip to the grocery store yesterday.I didn't wanted to make aloo-baingan, except me no one is very fond of zucchini as a subji with roti in my house but for some reason i wanted to cook these two things. So here comes Ratatouille Masaledar. I hope all of you gonna enjoy it as much as we did.

Ingredient :

1. One medium size Eggplant
2. 2 Green Zucchini
3. 1 med. Size potato
4. 1 white Onion
5. 1 large tomato
6. 2 Carrots
7. ½ cup chopped green beans
8. 4-5 garlic cloves
9. Salt as per taste.
10. Green chillies 3-4
11. Fresh cilantro or parsley chopped a handful
12. Enough oil to saute all the vegetables(preferably Olive Oil)
13. Panch Puran spice mix 2 tsp.
    Panch Puran is a fragrant mix of five whole spices - fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, kalonji (onion) seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. Mainly used in Bengali & Oriya cuisine.

Method :
Chop eggplant,zucchini,potato, onion & tomato into 1 inch cubes. Slice the carrots(not too thick)& chop the garlic too(I like it sliced).

In a heavy bottom pan heat up some oil(enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Add eggplant saute them around 7-8 min. on med. high. When they turn brown from all the sides take them out using a slotted spoon.Now add zucchini to the pan (if needed add little bit more oil)saute it too. Once done take it out of the pan. These 2 vegetables can easily become mushy so be careful not to overcook these, they should be holding there shape & a little bit of crunch too.

Next add little bit more oil to the same pan & shallow fry the potatoes & when potatoes are half way done, move them to the side of the pan & tilt the pan onto one side (by holding it little bit up from the opposite side) & add garlic saute it add panch puran let the spices saute little bit now add carrots & beans(If needed add little bit of oil) . After 2-3 minutes add chopped onion. Let everything cook for roughly 5 min.

It does sound little bit of confusing but the order in which we are adding vegetables is just to make sure that all of them get coating(flavor) of olive oil & believe me sauteing the veggies one by one really adds to the flavours as compared to putting everything together.

Now it's time to add tomatoes & chopped green chillies.Let them cook for 3-4 min. and it's time to return the sauted eggplant & zucchini to the pan. Add the salt too & stir everything together very gently, you don't want to break eggplant & zucchini.Cover it & cook it for another 5 minutes or till the potatoes are done. Before serving add the fresh herb on top.......we had ours with the thinly sliced green onions on top.

Serve with warm roti or naan.