Keema Matar(Minced meat and peas) with hidden veggies and Upcoming Review

Today I want to share few things with my readers. First of all wonderful people at CSN contacted me again as a preferred blogger back in the month of sep. for review of any product from their stores (I see new gadget coming into my kitchen for a review). I promised them but  never get to blog about it, and now after almost one & a half month when I came back they still have that offer open from me....so they are wonderful, right? Today I was browsing their collection of  Dining Tables and came across this Dining nook set, how I'm wishing I had a little big apartment so I could have something like that in my dining area. Always love that kind of table, give me the feeling of being kid sitting on that bench.

Another thing to share is an award passed to me by one of my favourite blogger Suma of  Cakes and More. No doubt I love her Cakes/Bakes but also like More section of her cooking too. She is a wonderful cook & a Baker too. Thanks Suma, for sharing the award with me and sorry also as it took so long to post this award.

Also sometime back in the month of Oct. it was Spicebuds first blog anniversary, I myself was so busy with the family back in India that I totally forget about it. Now, moving to today's recipe it's very simple & tasty. Everyone in my house loves it, it's perfect for the times when U don't want to spend lot of time in front of the gas but still want all happy faces on the dinner table asking for another helping. Also a very versatile dish....can be served with rice, roti or naan. When U read the recipe you'll see why I love it so much.....it's quite easy to sneak in some extra veggies(see notes at the end) in this meat dish without losing actual taste of keema. This recipe serves 4 hungry tummies.

What U need :

• 2 pound of minced meat of your choice chicken/turkey/lamb (*see notes)
• 7-8 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 3-4 green hot chillies
• 1 med. onion finely chopped
• 2 stalks(branch) of celery, finely chopped
• 3 med. size tomatoes, finely chopped or pureed using blender/food processor
• 1 tblsp. of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup (or more)  peas
• 1 zucchini, finely chopped or very thinly grated.........totally optional
• 2 small carrots very thinly grated(good idea to use food processor here).............totally optional
• handful of fresh cilantro leaves for garnishing
• cooking oil *see notes
• salt
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• 1-2 bay leaves (tej patta)
• 3-4 cloves (laung)
• 1 tsp. cumin (jeera)
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric (haldi)
• 2 tsp. coriander powder (dhania powder)
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala

Notes : Chicken & Turkey keema(minced meat)  comes in many varieties in terms of Fat contents in it. When U look at the packet it says something like 93/7 means 93% fat free & 7% is the fat content. this is what I normally choose as I'm gonna use around 2 tblsp. of oil also for sauteing the garlic, ginger, onions & celery. But there is something like 80/20 also, so U can choose as per your taste & requirement or u can mix  & match.

What U do :

• Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan, add cumin, dry red chillies, bay leaves & cloves. Once they start to splutter which should not take more then 15-20 sec. or so add garlic, saute it.
• Next goes ginger & a sprinkle of salt, which helps ginger not to stick with pan.
• After few seconds, in goes celery & onions, saute till they are soft & onions are translucent. Now add minced meat to the pan & brown it, also break the big lumps of meat using back side of a big spoon. I prefer to do this step on high gas while stirring it, once the meat is brown(it release some fat too) turn the gas to med. & keep stirring it occasionally making sure it doesn't stick let it cook for 5 minutes or so.
• Time to add all the dry spices except garam masala. stir it thoroughly. Add peas, zucchini & carrots, this will add some moisture also. Let it cook for another 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
• Add green chilies, tom. paste & tomatoes. Cover & cook till done, approximately another 15 minutes or so. Check in between to make sure it's not sticking, if needed add water .
• Also toward the last 5 minutes of cooking add water as per the consistency of the final dish U need. We don't like it too liquid kind just little thick gravy kind to go with rice so I usually add around 1/2 cup of water.

Things to Note : If u r using veggies like carrots they gonna add little sweetness to the final dish so U might want to add extra heat by using an extra chilli or chilli powder.

Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro & serve it the way U want or for some extra ideas wait for the next post.

Sweet Saffron Rice and Awards

Sometime for no special reasons & without knowing we forget our traditions. Similar is the story with this dish, till this date I never made Sweet Saffron Rice, not that they are complicated or anything but somehow I never made it. Last week while talking to my Mom she told me that's it's Basant Panchami make sweet yellow rice, that's how we refer it in our family. Basant Panchami is a festival to celebrate the first day of spring(basant) and also celebrates the birthday of  Saraswati : Goddess of knowledge and arts. Yellow color of the energy giving Sun has a lot of importance in regard to this festival, the coming of Spring after a long and arduous winter, the mustard fields in bloom are a bright yellow, exuding the warmth of an imminent season of Basant or Spring. In north India people celebrate this special day with religious activities and also by wearing kesari(yellow/saffron color) clothes and making yellow color foods.

So, here you go Mom I did made sweet yellow rice on the basant panchami for the first time. And the sweet aroma of desi ghee, cardamons and saffron is really incomparable. My mom usually put thin slices of dry coconut(available at Indian grocery stores) for garnish, but I didn't used as I didn't had any.

What U need :

• 1/2 cup basmati rice soaked for around 20-25 minutes.
• 4 Tblsp. of sugar(add more if you like it really sweet).
• 2 green cardamons(elaichi), seeds taken out & crushed.
• 2 pinch of saffron(kesar) soaked in 2 Tblsp. of warm milk.
• handful of raisins(i used dry cranberries).
• handful of slivered almonds, toasted.
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tblsp. of clarified butter(desi ghee)

What to do :

1. Drain rice.
2. Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan, add cardamons and rice. Stir so that rice get coating of ghee.
3. Add raisins, sugar, saffron along with the milk and water.
4. Cover & cook the rice on medium, till all the water evaporates.
5. Garnish with toasted almonds & coconut(if using).

Note : If you don't have saffron, 2-3 drops of yellow food color can be used. Also once the rice are cooked, taste them for the sweetness, if needed add more sugar while they are still warm.

Time for Awards: My first regular visitor on this blog was SE of Denufood, she was the one who passed me my very first award and here are couple of more awards from her, Thanks dear for sharing them and being so nice and regularly not only visiting but taking time out to write few lines on each single post.

Rules for accepting the Kreative Blogger award :

1) Thank the person giving the award
2) Copy the award to your blog
3) Place a link to their blog
4) Name 7 things people don't know about you
5) Nominate 7 bloggers
6) Place a link to those bloggers
7) Leave a comment letting those bloggers know about the award

I would like to share these awards with :

1) Sidhhi of Cooked Dil Se....

2) Sowmya of Creative Saga

3) Sushma of Authentic Food Delights

4) Supriya of Redchillies

5) Sage of  SageCuisine

6) AshKuku  of Asra....Ashaon Ka.....

7) Gulmohar of Collaborative Curry

I just noticed my most of the blogger friends have name starting with "S" and now the list of 7 things people don't know about me :

1) Would love to have my own kitchen garden one day, till then I'm planting my herbs and veggies in the pots.

2) Can't watch T.V without reading some magazine or doing some crochet along with it.

3) Love fried foods, thanks to not properly ventilated kitchens here I don't fry often.

4) Love to start my day by taking all the veggies for the whole day, out of the fridge. Looking at the basket full of fresh veggies(though sometime they r in the fridge for almost a week) makes me happy.

5) Love to end my day doing some crochet/knitting even if it is for 10 minutes.

6) Not a health freak but believe everything in moderation is good.

7) I'm not an environmentalist but do my share in reducing, reusing and recycling. I try to use my own grocery bags but still end up with lot of produce bags as we mainly use fresh produce only. Below is the picture of plastic bag dispenser I made using used produce bags.

                          

Home Made Rice Crispy Treats

Happy New Year to all of you, may the year 2010 brings happiness everywhere.

First week of the year 2010 is already over, kids are back to school in fact dear daughter is going to have her first snow day(no school) of the year 2010 & I'm still not back to my routine. Winter vacations from the school for kids means getting up late in the morning & sleeping late in the night, which means no time for blogging for mom. I remember as a kid when we use to be home during holidays, my Mom would say she can never keep up with her routine work the days we are home and now I realize what she always meant.

Days when the DD is at home I hardly get to do anything on the Internet, in today's life that's what my daily routine is getting up in the morning......checking mail, reading some blogs, checking some news on the web, google some new recipe for the lunch, again google for help : for any queries which might come to mind.............check the mail............play with kids........oh, did I said check the mail, no...no...no..no.....not the postal mail, that only bring bills but the one which bring happiness : e-mail...........and one last thing before going to bed, yeah U got it by now, check the e-mail. And somewhere in between when ever U get some time cook breakfast, lunch, dinner & have some instant healthy options ready for snacks, play with kids, take care of baby, do the dishes, laundry, clean up, fool around.....blah.....blah.....I guess you got my point. Or in short I had relaxed time with no routines to follow & fun spending time with family.

For the first post of 2010 I decide on a cake but then DD suggested to post these home made rice crispy treats, I liked her suggestion, it's sweet, healthy as it's not only home made but uses gur as sweetener & best of all reminds me of my childhood. Near my parents house, a weekly market takes place on every Thursday. As a kid we use to go there regularly to buy some knick knacks, mom would buy fresh veggies & then we get to eat some tasty street food......moth(sprouted lentils), choole bhature, kari chawal to name few. It was like a weekly outing for us, even now also when I'm there at my mom's place & it's thursday I like to go there, not for any kind of shopping but for the food.......Now coming to today's recipe : Rice crispy treats or as we call it Marundas in Delhi, we use to buy these treats from one of the reri-wala bhaiya there, it's very simple thing but we never made it at home but we use to always look for him so that we can buy some. I don't remember exactly but I guess it use to be available starting the Diwali season, kind of a winter treat.

I don't have exact measurements for this recipe as it was more of eye-balling, and just in case if you don't get exact squares don't worry they will still taste yummy.

Ingredients :

• 1-2 tblsp. of water
• around half a cup of chopped jaggery(gur)
• around 4 cups of dry roasted puffed rice(Plain rice crisps/wheat puffs can be used)
• butter or ghee for greasing
  

Method :

Heat water in a heavy bottom pan add jaggery to it & let it melt, stir it. Once it melts let it cook for few seconds it gonna bubble up a bit, add 3 & 1/2 cup of rice puff & mix everything together so that they get coated with jaggery. If you feel there is still some liquid add some more puffed rice or let it cook for few more seconds. Turn the gas off & spread the mixture onto the greased baking sheet. Once cooled it will be hard, cut it into squares or desired shape. Store it in air-tight container, I kept it for around 5 days & I also used some plain wheat puffs in it. I specially love these as they don't contain any processed sugar & DD loves it because they are simply rice crispy treats. I'm sure many of you must have eaten these may be with different name, so whenever you guys have 5 minutes to spare do try these, it's sweet & healthy, to check more benefits of gur(jaggery) click here.

Last month or I should say last year Malar & Ashkuku passed me this wonderful award, thanks to both of you and at the same time I'm sorry I couldn't post it earlier but what could be better than starting the new year with an award. I would like to pass this award to all my blogger friends, please feel free to pick it up.

Before I end this post here's what we did on snow day off.......we crochet the dress & head scarf for the little dolly. Design by DD, crochet by me :

As I'm finishing this post, another snow day is already announced, so we might be adding few more accessories to miss dolly.