Chatpata Salad ~ Moong and Veggie

This crunchy & crispy salad was so so crunchy and chatpata. I might incorporate this into our daily meals.
I am not a big salad fan when it comes to mixing all kinds of veggies since I prefer eating them separately any time of the day. But, one salad I love the most is the one that is served in Thai restaurant near my house. Basically the dressing is what that lets you enjoy the salad and they use some kind of sweet cilantro dressing. We go there atleast once in a month and enjoy eating that salad.

I was badly looking for some Indian flavored kind of salads and just then I found some recipes on Hindu Site. There were four recipes all together made in restaurant style and since I had all the ingredients for this, I chose to make this first. I was so apprehensive about the taste but me and my family members enjoyed eating it..

Cabbage, carrot and moong dal salad

Printer Friendly: Moong and Veggie Salad

Ingredients

Cabbage, finely sliced: 1 cup grated
Red carrot, grated: 1 cup
Capsicum, finely sliced: 1/2 cup
Moong dal: 2 tbsp
Lime juice: 1 tbsp
Coriander, chopped: 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Soak the moong dal in water for 2 hours. Immerse all the vegetables in ice cold water for sometime. This retains the crispness of the vegetables. Drain excess water. Mix the vegetables and the soaked moong dal. Add lime juice. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Serve garnished with chopped coriander.

Recipe Source:
www.thehindu.com

Aloo Manchuria

Indo-Chinese: Aloo Manchuria (Aloo: Potato: Aloo Gadda)

Aloo/Potato Manchuria is my sister's favorite dish and she has been making this for quite sometime now and each time she tried she asked me to try and see how it tastes. I told my mom that we should make that and she immediately started cutting potatoes but let me tell you that she hates potatoes big time and she ate only one piece after making it. She says one piece once in a while is ok but not everyday. Btw, Ravi commented on this and said that he found Aloo Manchuria more tastier than any other Manchuria.

Sending this over to A.W.E.D Theme: Chinese

Anyways, coming to the Recipe, here it is..

Printer-Friendly Recipe: Aloo Manchuria

Potatoes-2 (cut into any shape you want)
1 cup each of Maida and Corn flour
1 onion
1 capcisum/green bell pepper
2 tbsp chilli garlic sauce
2 green chillies, chopped (and increase according to your taste)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp pepper
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil for shallow frying
oil for deep frying
ajinomoto, a pinch
half bunch cilantro
spring onions, optional for garnish

1. Add maida, corn flour, salt and pepper to the potatoes and mix well with very little water.


2. Deep fry potatoes in oil and keep aside.


3. Take a wide pan, pour 2 tbsp oil, add green chillies, ginger and garlic pieces and fry for a minute.


4. Increase heat and add onions and green peppers and fry them till until they turn light brown.


5. Add soy sauce, chilli garlic sauce, ajinomoto, pepper, salt and little water. Let that cook for a minute. Add cilantro and mix well.


6. Add fried potatoes and mix until the mixture coats well on all potatoes. Remove and garnish with cilantro or spring onions. Serve hot.
   

Kaju Capsicum

These days my younger sister in India is cooking some special dishes everyday in the evening. And she in turn is sending me the recipes of those dishes that she tried. This is one of the her recipes that I tried and I must say it turned out excellent. It was like a feast for us on July 4th with both kaju capscicum and bagara annam.

You need...

3 capcicums/green peppers, cut into ribbon shapes
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 cup kaju/cashews
1/2 tbsp cumin powder
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp cumin
2 cups yogurt, beaten
1/2 cup coconut
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
4 tbsp oil
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
cilantro for garnishing

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and roast onions, tomatoes. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Remove and blend 3/4th of this mixture along with half cup kaju/cashew.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in the same pan again and add cumin and fry for a minute.
3. Add capsicum and fry until it is cooked. Add the remaining 1/4th onion mixture. To reduce the time in cooking capcisum here, you can cook that in the microwave for 5 mins after chopping.
4. After capsicum is cooked, add the blended gravy, red chilli powder, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder, remaining half cup kaju/cashew and mix everything for a minute.
5. Add yogurt and cook for 10-15 mins under reduced flame. Keep mixing in between.
6. Add salt and cilantro at the end.

Serve hot with either Rice or Chapathi.

Imam Bayildi/Fainted

This is my version of the dish (and not the authentic one). I have seen various different versions of preparing this dish and I picked up few points from each and made this. And I LOVED it so much that I ate that whole brinjal/eggplant piece at one go. Ravi couldn't eat so he took half for the lunch today. After eating this I felt that I should make this often, atleast twice a month.

The changes that I made to this dish are: I added all types of peppers (had in the refrigerator) and instead of only garlic, I added ginger-garlic paste (as I ran out of garlic pods) and then I added bread crumbs at the end and didn't put chilli flakes. Adding bread crumbs made a huge difference and made the dish much more delicious. And I didn't throw the core part, I made bhaingan bartha with it, but could not take pictures of that.

Here is the story why this name was given to this dish (copied from Asha at Foodie's hope)

TURKISH IMAM BAYILDI (The Imam Fainted!): "There are many stories about the origin of the name of this dish. One of them we heard while visiting Ankara, Turkey's capital. A long time ago a Turkish Imam (a muslim clergy man ), known for his love of good food, surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to the young daughter of a wealthy olive-oil merchant. The friends did not know about her ability to cook. But they presumed part of her dowry would include olive oil. They were right. For her father gave the groom twelve jars, each one large enough to hold a person, of the precious oil. After her marriage the bride proved to be an excellent cook and each day prepared a special dish for her epicurean husband. One of them, eggplant cooked in olive oil, became his favorite. And he ordered that his wife prepare it each night for dinner. This she did for twelve consecutive days. On the thirteenth, however, the dish was missing from the meal. Queried about its absence, the bride replied, "Dear husband, I do not have any more olive oil. You will have to purchase some more for me." The lmam was so shocked that he fainted. And since that day, according to the story, his favorite dish has been known as Imam Bayildi, The Imam Fainted!"

You need...

One large eggplant, cut into half and scoop out seeds from the center
1 large red onion, chopped
½ green, yellow and red peppers, chopped (optional-but tastes good when added)
1 or 2 roma tomatoes, chopped in rounds or into small pieces, I wanted to decorate it with tomatoes, so used round ones.
1-2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
½ cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp cumin
a pinch of cinnamon,
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
½ cup oil
cilantro, chopped for garnishing
1-1/2 cup water
salt to taste

1. Heat oil, add onions, peppers and stir fry for 2 mins.
2. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for another minute.
3. Add tomatoes and fry for another minute.
4. Add cumin, cinnamon and salt and remove.
5. To the same pan, add tbsp oil and bread crumbs with ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste and remove after a minute.
6. To arrange, fill the whole cooked mixture from step 4 into those two eggplant slices (by removing tomatoes-can be used for decoration on the top). Add bread crumb mixture on the top, arrange tomatoes and add cilantro all over.
7. Finally drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
8. Arrange these two pieces in oven proof dish. Add water from the sides and cover it tightly and bake at 375 for 30-40 mins.

Very healthy meal and next time I will try to reduce the oil a bit.

Recipe source: From Asha of Foodie'sHope

Capsicum Masala Curry

Just the way we make Stuffed Brinjal, we make this in the same style except we add yogurt to this dish...This goes very well with Bagara Rice or any Pulao or Vegetable Biryani. But, I always liked this with those small capsicums found in India because they are so thin and have fresh taste in them. I don't like the ones found here, but something is better than nothing.

My friend Nandy came back from India and we asked him to come over for dinner. He said he wanted to come by 6.30 pm and I had just 45 mins to make these two dishes. so I quickly made these two dishes for our dinner. My friend like Capsicum Masala very much and kept on praising.

You'll need...

3 capsicums/shimla mirch/green bell peppers, chop each one vertically into 4 or 5 pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
4 tbsp oil or more
1/2 cup each mint and coriander, chopped
1 cup yogurt, beaten
salt to taste
1/4 tbsp turmeric
water

For Masala:
1/2 cup coconut
1/4 cup each of Sesame Seeds, poppy seeds, coriander seeds
1 tbsp jeera

1. Heat oil and fry peppers until light brown. Remove and keep them aside.
2. Fry onions until brown in the same oil and add tomatoes and fry them for 2 mins. Next add green chillies, turmeric and mix.
3. Roast the masala items and blend them with salt and water. Add the masala paste to the above onion mixture and add desired amount of water to get the consistency you want. (Remember if gets thick after cooling down). Keep mixing as it tends to stick to the bottom.
4. Add mint, coriander, yogurt (beat well with little water) and add to the curry and cook for about 10 mins.
5. Add capcisums and salt and cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove and serve hot.

It tastes better the next day, so if you are expecting guests next day, you can make it one day before and store in the refrigerator and reheat it just before serving.

Mixed Veggie Soup

I was trying to make this soup from a long time. My colleague made this for our Women’s network potluck at my work place and this was a hit. Since then, I was thinking of making it but finally I did it today and changed almost 50% of the recipe, so this is not her recipe anymore but the ingredients are still the same. And wow! This was so tasty that I ate 2 bowls of it and on top of that it is nutritious with so many vegetables going into it.

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Ingredients
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1 cup mixed vegetables frozen (carrots, peas, beans, corn)
½ can cooked Rajma/Kidney Beans
1 cup cooked Conchigliette Pasta
3 tbsp EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1 tbsp crushed garlic
½ medium onion
½ medium green peppers
2 or 3 small bell peppers (optional)
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt to taste
3 cups water
1 tbsp Coriander powder
1 small bay leaf

1. Heat the pot, add EVOO and garlic. Let garlic be cooked for a minute and put onions and cook for 3 mins.
2. Add boiled mixed vegetables, green peppers, small bell peppers (I had these in the fridge; I chopped them and added them). You can boil all these in microwave too.
3. Add Italian seasoning (thyme, rosemary, parsley), some coriander powder, a bay leaf (remember to remove it once the cooking is complete), some salt and put about 3 cups of water and bring all to boil.
4. Take a cup of boiled veggies, blend them and put the puree back in the soup, I did this way to get soup little thicker (plus to make my brother eat the veggies, otherwise he throws away some).
5. In the mean time, make tomato puree by boiling tomatoes or get canned tomatoes and add them to the soup.
6. Finally add a spoon of cornflour mixed in water, add cooked Rajma (kidney beans). Let that cook for 10 more minutes, add pasta just before serving. Serve hot.
   
   It tasted even better on the second day too.
   For my soup loving friends out there, please try this when you find time.