Kulche Matar

I dont remember if I wrote about this tasty road side food from India ever before, and hey!! is I did write it before let me write it again ;) 

This is matar (white peas) and are traditionally eaten with kulcha (close to Naan) in India. Mostly savoured with friends at a road side dhaba :) this dish is also extensively found across restaurants in India.

So I try and make this very often, not just for taste but also because white peas are a rich source of protein and fibre, and I definitely needed some after the gruelling swimming session of the morning today.

So, I had soaked the white peas overnight (at least 12 hours), and then in the morning I boiled them in a pressure cooker. It is important to get a hang of the pressure cooker that you use as I dont like to overdo these peas. It is best to boil them just enough so that they still retain their shape. I normally wait for 4 whistles and then take the pressure cooker off the flame.

How many peas --> I took close to 2 cups of peas.

Once the peas are boiled, I drain the water and keep the peas aside. For the mix, I took

2 onions - finely chopped
2 tomatoes - finely chopped
2 green chillies - finely chopped
1 lime juice
cilantro (dhania) - finely chopped - 5 table spoons
3/4 tsp - garam masala
2 tsp - chat masala
4 tsp - salt
2 tsp - khatai (dried mango powder)

and mixed all these with the peas. Thats it our matar are ready!!

You can serve these with kulcha and if you dont find these easily in the local market, you can enjoy the matar with bread toasted in butter. Njoy !!

Dum Aaloo (Kashmiri Potatoes)

Dum Aaloo

A blog after a long time, and more importantly a kinda royal touch to food after a long time. After a long time again, I stole some moments out of my own busy afternoon, kept the strategy project work aside and headed to my kitchen. I peeped into the refrigerator and saw small lovely potatoes and instantly felt like making dum aaloo. A perfectly royal and mouth watering dish made with small potatoes. Sometimes cooking feels like freedom and like love. It is such a relaxing feeling in itself :) 

So what I did - I took eight small potatoes out of my refrigerator (yes!! I do keep my onions and potatoes in the refrigerator.. you might think I am crazy but trust me it keeps them fresh and also reduces the wastage by a good amount). So!! eight potatoes washed and cleaned, but not peeled. Next I took a kitchen knife and gently scrapped the skin of potatoes in a way that only part of the skin comes out. Next I pricked the potatoes with a fork nicely on all sides. Then i soaked these potatoes in cold salt water (around 3 cups with 1.5 teaspoon salt) for 2 hours. This was to let the potatoes uniformly soak in salt.

And then I was back to my Integrated Strategy project again :) 

2 hours later !! --> I took out the potatoes, pat dried them with a paper towel and deep fried the potatoes till they are almost deep brown. I tried to occasionally check if my potatoes were cooked even in the middle with a knife while they were frying, however I will strongly advise not to do it as there is always a risk of splashing oil onto yourself :) and I dont want any of you lovely guys to get burnt. So perhaps if you do want to check, then do so after taking them out of the oil. Remember it is not mandatory to cook the potatoes till the centre at this step, as we will let the potatoes cook again in the final gravy so even if they are not completely done, just ensure that they are red-brown and take them out. 

Next I took 2 teaspoon of cumin seeds (jeera) + 4 cloves (laung) + 1.5 teaspoon of fennel seeds (saunf) + 3-4 cardomom's seeds (choti elachi). I roasted all these on a flat pan for 1 min and then ground them into a powder. 

I added this powder to 3 cups of curd (make sure curd is not sour) + 1.5 teaspoon of garam masala and 2 teaspoon of chillies. Then I added the deep fried potatoes in this curd mix and left them to marinate. 

In the meantime, I grated 3 onions and 4 tomatoes. Then i heated 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil in a pan and fried grated onions. When the onions were golden brown, I added 2 teaspoons of ginger-garlic paste to this mixture and kept frying. When the onions were little more brown, I added the grated tomatoes to the pan and fried till the tomatoes started separating from the oil. When the onions and tomatoes were nicely fried, I added the curd-potato marinated mixture to the pan and gave a good stir to the whole thing. Then I added a little water (like half a glass) and added salt to taste. Finally I added 2 teaspoons sugar to this recipe and covered the lid (sugar is not needed if tomatoes are little sweet...mine were very sour...so I added sugar).

I let this dish cook for 20 minutes on low heat. The slower the potatoes cook the better taste they get :) 

Finally I added fresh chopped cilantro (and a lot of it) to the dish and served hot with rice and chapatis. 

:) Njoy!! and see you next time again with something new :)