Stir Fried Onion & Zucchini Raita/Dip

Long lazy summer afternoons, cold moisture sweating glass of iced lemonade, carressing sun peeping randomly from behind the curtains, all the while spread lazily on sofa and in hand kindle displaying pages after pages of  lovely fictional historical "whodunit?" mystery book. Yeap, thats me this afternoon, enjoying Patricia B Ryan's new historical series "Still life with Murder", great read in all, with a bit of drama, wit and hints of romance, not to forget a good suspense and nice revelations at good intervals. Clock strikes 3:30 pm and its already time to cook our early dinner, now thats a bit unfair for such a good lazy afternoon isn't it?!! But then I remembered I did'nt have to cook much coz peas pulav was sitting ready in refridgerator along with maa-choleyaan di dal and mix-veg curry, all leftovers from last evening's dinner and quantity more than enough to serve 2 very hungry food loving monsters, P & Me. So I carried on with my lazy affairs and completed the mystery novel at precisely 4:17 pm, happy and elated with the conclusion that it offered, my mind was filled with images of how would this story playout if made into a movie kinda thing, funny but I do that a lot. :)
Being happy enough I decided to whip up something freshly cooked, again remembered the amount of food stored in fridge, I decided to prepare raita which would not levy extra burden on already copious amount of food I had in hand.

I coarsely grated 2 medium sized zucchini, chopped 1 medium sized red onion, chopped two green chillies, heated 1 tbs of canola oil in a pan, added 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds added chopped green chillies and onions and stir & sauteed it for 2 mins. Removed excess water from zucchini and added that to the pan.
Threw in 1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes and salt to taste and sauteed for another 2 mins or so. Turned off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Added 200 to 250 gms yoghurt, mixed well and garnished it with few coriander/cilantro leaves. I knew at this point that this will be a hit with pulav.
Happy with the outcome I again laid on my sofa, going through my beloved kindle in search of another mystery/suspense novel to devour. :)

Wishing you all same happy lazy afternoons too!!!

Foul/Ful - Egyptian Fava Bean Dip

Foul/Ful, pronounced as Fool, is an ancient middle-eastern dish, which I fell head over heals in love with, after coming to Saudi Arabia. This dish is prepared from Fava Beans aka. Broad Beans. This is staple food in Egypt and is equally popular in Saudi Arabia along with Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia etc. Prepared in various versions using lemon, garlic, sumac, cumin, green chillies, tomatoes, onion and olive oil, there are so many combinations of preparing this dish, some prefer it chunky I on otherhand, prefer it smooth and buttery. In Syria this dish is prepared using special Aleppo pepper and tahini (sesame seed paste).

There is this place in Riyadh which is very popular for its Afghani Foul, P mentioned it many times when I was just new in Riyadh, come next weekend and he brought this heavenly dish called foul (I know I used to get a kick out of it just hearing it, it made me think of something which would be very silly to eat) along with khubz (pita) and hummus for breakfast and I have to admit Foul rocked my world, it has such a lovely taste, texture and flavour that I just couldn't stop licking my plate clean after finishing.

It is said that foul is the dish of Pharoahs and I say Amen. Mentionable quantities of fava beans have been found in Egyptian Tombs. This beans are mentioned not only in Bible but also in other ancient texts, what more can be said about this beans?! Not to forget the lovely nutritional value they provide other than being food for Pharoahs.

So as I said some prefer chunky kinda foul but I prefer smooth and buttery texture which is the way it is prepared in that Riyadh's famous Afghani foul shop, so here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup medium sized Egyptian Fava Beans (dry, overnight soak in water along with 2 pinches of soda-bicarb)
6 tbs olive oil, I used extra virgin.
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin powder
3 cloves of garlic, grated
2 tbs tomato paste, you can used fresh tomatoes too, 2-3 medium sized and skin removed would suffice.
Salt to taste

For garnish:
2-3 tbs lemon juice
chopped onions, tomatoes and/or hard boiled egg chopped finely.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

Soak beans overnight in water along with 2 pinches of soda-bicarb, in the morning drain them and wash them with plain water. Pressure cook beans in plain water for upto 8-10 whistles, these beans are bigger than any other usual beans so it takes time for them to get well cooked. Remember we want a very well cooked bean, cooked to a point that its skin is a bit torn and bean itself is mushy.

Drain the beans and reserve the water, it shall be used in cooking later. Let the cooked beans cool off a bit and then start removing their skin, its very easy as we have cooked them to a mushy point, just one pinch and the bean shall pop out.

Using a blender, make a puree of the beans.

In a heavy bottom pan add 1 tbs olive oil and garlic and fry for 10 seconds on medium heat, add beans puree and all other ingredients mentioned above along with olive oil. It is important to add olive oil only after adding puree to the heated pan because we want the flavour of olive oil to stay intact. Add around 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water.
Let this simmer over a low heat for around 30-45 mins. The more this simmers, dish will have more intense flavours. Keep adjusting the consistency of this dish by adding a bit more water if you want as simmer vapourises water and beans puree does have tendency to thicken quite a bit. (I ended up adding 2 1/4 cups of water in all)

Turn off the heat and ladle it into a bowl, garnish it with dash of lemon juice, chopped onions, tomatoes or grated or chopped hard boiled egg.
Serve it with Pita or khubz.

I prefer my foul with a dash of olive oil, a dash of lemon juice and chopped onions on side.

Note:
Soaking beans in soda bicarb water is a must. But remember to cook the beans in plain water after thorough wash.

Enjoy.

Mayonnaise-Easiest Homemade Recipe

Internet is a funny thing to browse, today while searching for a homemade deep conditioning hair pack I came along a website rather a group/forum named long hair community which intrigued me, as I myself have tailbone length hair I had to see what people with long hair do, to take care of their long mane, few of them had mentioned using mayonnaise as deep conditioning hair pack. What, did I read something about food?!! and the foodie spirit rose, so do hell with hair care I was now searching for easy homemade tasty mayonnaise.

Previously P had tried to experiment with Mayo making and had failed drastically, he was following a recipe told by one of a very dear friend of his and somehow, don't know how he blotched it up ... (giggles) and was sad that whole weekend for his experiment gone wrong... (more giggles). By the way Salah, you were right its really easy and P you really did something wrong. So since then we stuck to the store bought Mayo all this time, until today.
Being haunted by the last experiment, this time I watched a few videos before trying out another blotched batch of dreaded mayo.There was a slight fear of embarrasment on "what if P has nice amusement at the cost my failed experiment", but sorry P you won't have that privilege now that my mayo is successful, but ya you can enjoy it with your chips if you want... (many more giggles).
Found some nice YouTube videos to whip up mayonnaise in no time, here is a sample of it.

I wanted to master the basic recipe first then try and learn more about flavoured mayo so tried a very basic version of mayo. Here goes my very simple "how to whip mayo at home" recipe.

Crack two fresh eggs in a deep narrow container, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp vinegar, whip it using a hand held/stick blender for about 10 seconds.
Keep the blender running and start pouring 1 cup sunflower oil/vegetable oil/olive oil/mix of those in a very thin steady stream. At no point should you switch off the blender.
And there you go, within no time shall you see the lovely mayo forming with a nice creamy texture. Whip it till you feel the consistency is right.
Add freshly crushed pepper if you like.
Store it in a jar and refrigerate it.


Remember if you like a more thick mayo add a little more oil about 20-30 ml.

As simple as that. Here are a few more snaps of the process.

Its hard to multitask here with blender buzzing in one hand and camera on another, so could not snap the pouring of oil at this stage.

Checking for the right consistency. Could not resist the temptation of licking off the spoon.:)

Ringan Nu Bhartu/Baingan Ka Dahiwala Bharta/Eggplant & Yogurt Dip With Fresh Spices

Baingan ka bharta is a predominantly Punjabi dish made from eggplant/baingan, grilled over charcoal or direct fire to impart a smoky flavour to the flesh of the eggplant and then cooked with spices and vegetables and served with variety of breads or as a side dish.
But today I shall be making an another version of it, this has a shades of Middle eastern dish called Baba Ghanoush but nevertheless is authentic to Western Indian Cuisine.
P loves this dish and devours every bit of it every time we have it for lunch/dinner. It has sweetness of eggplant, tangy taste from yogurt and green chillies give it a kick of hot and onion is added for its ability to enhance flavors of other fellow ingredients. This dip/side dish is especially prepared during summer time when the sun is blazing hot; yogurt has cooling effect and onion helps combat sun stroke; not to forget that this dish is very light and friendly to our digestive track. This is the only eggplant dish that I prefer eating wholeheartedly, as unlike P I'm a very picky vegetable eater. :)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place 1 large eggplant/baingan on a baking sheet and bake 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat, cool, peel, and crush.
OR
Pressure cook the eggplant, cool, peel and crush.
Add 1 large onion chopped finely.
300 gms yogurt
2 green chillies chopped finely.
handful of finely chopped coriander leaves/cilantro
salt to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground peppercorns/kali mirch powder
Mix well and refrigerate it for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Serve it as side dish with any meal of your choice or along with any bread of your choice, tastes lovely with pita and/or paratha.

Tomato-Onion Raita

Which Indian meal is complete without a raita?!!! well none. For this raita just toss in a small well chopped onion and tomato, garnish it with loads of cilantro/fresh coriander leaves and a small green chilli into a cup of yogurt. Season it with salt, pepper and 1/4th tsp of red chilli powder or 1/2 tsp of fresh ground cumin seeds/jeera (if you prefer less spicy version of raita). Mix it well and refrigerate it. Serve it cooled. Done.

Gajar-Kakdi ka raita

Indian food platter is never complete without raita of some sort, may it be plain boondi raita or coriander mint raitha. Raita is a yogurt based dip served with kebabs or paapadums or biryani etc. It is specially served with spicy food so that this yogurt dip foils the effect of all those spices. Raita, in gujarat, is prepared in many different ways using either or combination of cucumber, mint, raw papaya, pineapple, onion, tomato, capsicum and even eggplants. Further dressed to perfection adding salt, pepper, cumin and other condiments of one's choice

Today I'm posting this simple Gajar-Kakdi raita recipe which I had prepared a few days back but hadn't been able to download the snaps, which delayed its posting.

In a large bowl I mixed in 1 medium sized grated carrot along with 1 medium sized chopped cucumber, 1 green chilli chopped and 2 tbs of chopped coriander leaves. Add 180gms of yogurt and added salt, freshly ground pepper corns and freshly ground cumin seeds/jeera.

Mixed well and refrigerated it for about an hour before serving it.
This raita tastes best when refrigerated for atleast 30 mins to one hour before serving.

I sometimes like to play up with the dressing and add 2-3 pinches of red chilli powder or 1/4th tsp of chilli flakes. Also sometimes I toss in a few chopped mint leaves, gives nice aroma.
So as I said play up with it and enjoy.

Hari Chutney

Hari Chutney or dhania chutney is the most versatile chutney, used in sandwiches, chaats like bhel, sev dahi batata puri, etc etc etc. It goes nice with aloo paratha or any kinda paratha or dosa and gives nice twist to any bland meal.
I usually prepare this chutney in large bulk, almost 2 cups or more at a time and freeze it in small portions ie in 4 small Tupperware containers which makes it easy to thaw and use only the required quantity of chutney while keeping rest of the batch untouched. Usually if you prepare chutney and refrigerate it, it will change from lovely green to darker green and then to blackish green changing along with it the flavor and taste too. Freezing chutney helps it to maintain its taste, flavor and lovely green colour even after a month of preparing and freezing it.

Prepares 1 cup
Ingredients:

2 cups packed green coriander leaves chopped and washed
8-10 green chillies
2 inches ginger
3 tbs lime juice
2 tsp cumin/jeera seeds
2 tbs sesame seeds/ til
salt to taste

Blend all the ingredients using a food processor or a blender to a fine paste, add a little water if required.
Tip: add salt towards the end of blending process this prevents chutney going all salty.
you can also add 2-3 tbs of fresh coconut to get nice "coastal taste" to this chutney.

Today I'm planning to prepare Chutney Cheese Sandwich. Will Jot down that recipe too later on.