Tradidional north Indian Cuisine Archives

Baingan, saim ke beej aur mooli ki sabzi

Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabji (mix vegetable of brinjal, seeds of flattened beans and radish) might sound a little different combo of veggies but trust me, this combo rocks! Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabzi is completely my mother’s invention. Whenever we used to get bored during winters, she used to prepare this three mixed vegetables combo.

The best part was that all three vegetables used to be from our kitchen garden. Whenever we used to pluck beans from the vines, there were always some extra beans which had big ripened seeds. These beans couldn’t be used for normal Flattened beans with potatoes sabzi – so my mother used the bean seeds with radish and brinjal and an excellent mixed sabzi was invented!

Though this sabzi can be prepared without onions too, but If you are not against using onions then I would strongly suggest you to add them. Onions enhance the flavour significantly!

Ingredients:

Seeds of flattened beans 100 gms
Brinjal (small size) 4
Radish (medium size) 2
Green chilies, chopped 3-4
Onion (big size) 1
Oil 5 tbsp
Small mustard seeds (rai) 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) , a pinch
Coriander powder 2 tbsp
Red chili powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Water 4 tbsp

Process:

Take out the seeds from ripened flattened beans. Peel and cut radish into small pieces and wash both of them.

Chop onion and roast it in a wok with 1 tbsp oil till they are brown in colour. Keep them separate.

Heat 4 tbsp oil in the wok and crackle hing, rai and jeera. Add seeds of flattened beans, radish and chopped brinjals. Always cut brinjal just before adding in the wok. if we cut brinjal beforehand with other vegetables, they start turning black and their taste changes.

Add rest of the spices along with chopped green chilies followed by two tbsp water.

Mix everything well, cover the pan and let the sabzi cook on sim heat till all three veggies turn soft.

In between, keep turning them upside-down for even cooking and if you feel that sabzi is sticking to the bottom, add 2 tbsp more water and cover it.

When sabzi is cooked completely, add roasted onions and serve with roti, parathe or as a side dish to rice.

October 3, 2020

Deeksha Pathak86 Comments

Mooli ki bhujiya (sabzi)

Mooli ki Bhujiya sounds as if we are talking about a snack recipe. But when we add leaves and roots of radish together and prepare vegetable (sabzi), it is called Mooli ki bhujiya (sabzi). In North India, radish is available only during winters. But, here in Bangalore, good quality radish is available during summers too.

Initially, around 16 years back when we shifted to Bangalore, it was really difficult to find radish with leaves. Leaves used to be cut and thrown away from radish by the vegetable shop owners. But now in front of my apartment a vegetable vendor sells radish with all the leaves. In fact, whenever I show interest to buy leaves too, the sellers are amused and give me plenty of leaves free of cost. Probably they are relieved that their garbage is being cleaned up by customers!!

This sabzi requires raw radish – so be careful while choosing. Radish will not remain tender when it starts ripening and will not taste good. Remove the stems if they are too thick and attached with the leaves. Use soft leaves and soft raw radish.

I have one more recipe with radish in the blog – if you are interested can take a look…Mooli ka paratha (wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish)

There are a few more posts on different vegetables in the blog. You can check this link to look at them Vegetables (Curries).

Ingredients

Radish with leaves

Oil 2 tbsp
Tiny mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida 1/8 tsp

Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 +1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Green chillies chopped 2
Salt as per your taste

Process :

Take radish and leaves, wash them nicely in the running water and chop them separately.

Heat oil in a wok and crackle tiny mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Add chopped radish and leaves along with all spices except salt – mix this nicely and cover for 5 minutes.

When we prepare leafy vegetables, their volume gives an impression of large quantity. But leaves shrink while cooking – so always add salt once the leaves settle down after 5 minutes of cooking.

Now add salt – mix it well and again cover the wok.

Keep on stirring sabzi continually till radish becomes tender and all moisture dries out. Mooli ki Bhujiya (sabzi) is ready!

June 22, 2020June 23, 2020

Deeksha Pathak71 Comments

Aaloo ka bharva Paratha

Have you ever tried Aaloo ka bharva paratha ( wheat flour stuffed bread with spicy potatoes stuffing) for breakfast?

Stuffed Paratha or plain paratha is a very popular breakfast in North India. During my school days, I used to take two parathas daily in my lunch box, sometimes with veggies and sometimes with different kinds of pickles. After finishing lunch also, we used to keep on licking mango pickle piece.😋😋😋😋 My mother used to prepare different varieties of homemade pickles, specifically for our lunch box. And when mango pickle jar was about to get empty, she used to prepare paratha with the remaining oil of pickle. It used to give such a nice tangy and spicy taste to paratha that one could just roll paratha and keep on taking bites with hot tea!!!!!

In UP there was a tradition to prepare plain parathas compulsorily for dinner with dry veggies and curd. Slowly, because of health consciousness, people have shifted to rotis.

Punjabi moms and grannys pour their heart and love in parathas serving you in breakfast with dollaps of butter….

At my parent’s house in Jaipur during winter, once in a week, we used to have dinner with Aaloo ka bharva Paratha, Gobhi ka paratha or Methi ka paratha with green Coriander Chutney. My mother used to prepare garam garam parathe and we all, along with my sisters, brother and father used to eat in kitchen only. It used to be very cozy, warm and intimate dinner while exchanging sharing our day’s activities. After dinner having a small piece of jaggery was must during winter season…
Good old days of childhood!!!!!!!!

After marriage I was introduced with the idea of having any kind of paratha, either plain or stuffed only in breakfast. Here Sunday special used to be aaloo ka bharva paratha! So I also followed the same tradition of having stuffed parathas in breakfast only.

Apoorva and Manish both like aaloo ka paratha a lot, so I end up preparing once in a week…

Ingredients :

Boiled potatoes
Kneaded wheat flour dough
Dry wheat flour
Oil/ghee

Spices:

Salt, dry mango powder(amchoor), garam masala, asafoetida(hing), red chilli powder, finely chopped green chillies and if you want, can add finely chopped green coriander leaves also, but make sure that after washing coriander leaves, water completely dries out, otherwise aaloo masala will be soggy and it will be very difficult to roll paratha.
I am not giving any fixed quantity for spices as every individual has different taste buds. Some prefer very spicy and others might prefer moderate or balanced.

Process :

Peel and mash boiled potatoes. Mash them nicely otherwise big chunks will be a problem while rolling paratha. Add above mentioned spices as per your taste.

Heat tawa on gas stove. Keep the flame on medium.

Now take a small portion of dough, probably size of a tennis ball, roll it between your palms, roll it into dry flour and roll it on clean kitchen counter with rolling pin in a small round shape.

Place a small amount of ready aaloo masala in it.

Hold the edges together by pinching – close neatly and press the mould softly.

Again roll this in dry flour so that while rolling, dough should not be sticking on the kitchen counter.

Now roll it with rolling pin in round shape slowly and carefully so that masala stays inside the paratha.

Flip again carefully and touch both sides to the dry flour.

Roll it again, but be careful that it does not become very thin.

Now heat tawa on gas stove. We don’t want very hot tawa – it should be medium hot (make sure that tawa is completely neat and clean).

Carefully place rolled paratha on tawa with the help of your palm.

Once it gets roasted little bit from one side (tiny bubbles are the sign to flip), flip it to the other side with the help of flat laddle.

Apply oil/ghee on slightly roasted side and again flip.

Apply oil/ghee to this side too.

Keep on flipping paratha and keep pressing it lightly with the laddle until it is brown and crisp from both sides.

Serve with butter, Coriander Chutney, Stuffed chillies , plain curd, raita or pickle.

Delicious lip smacking breakfast is ready!!!

March 26, 2018April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak12 Comments

Kheer with white rice (chaawal ki kheer)

Kheer with white rice (chaawal ki kheer) is very common in India. Some people prefer to have it along with their meals and some enjoy it as dessert. When I was a kid, I used to finish one full bowl of kheer with white rice before starting the lunch, so that I shouldn’t repent later that I couldn’t eat much😋😋.

After my marriage when I prepared chaawal ki kheer Manish didn’t like it much because it was kind of very thick kheer and he preferred white rice kheer with thin consistency but at the same time it should be creamy also. He told that his mother prepares the best kheer and whenever possible, I should learn from her. So during my trip to Jaipur I carefully observed, while my mother in law prepared her famous kheer. It was definitely lip smacking dessert 😝!!!!! And best part was that it was not prepared with full fat milk; she had prepared with low fat milk and yet it was creamy and delicious.
After a very long time I prepared white rice kheer at the occasion of Sharad Poornima. Total cooking time for kheer is slightly more than usual, so don’t loose patience – the end result will be extremely yummilicious.

Tips:
1- Correct ratio of rice and milk is very important in kheer. My simple formula is to take one fistful of rice for one litre milk. It gives perfect consistency of thickness in kheer.

2- Don’t take whole rice grains for kheer. Whole rice makes kheer very thick. Instead select broken rice of any quality of your choice. My preference is broken basmati rice, which is commonly known as “basmati ki kinki”.
3- Full fat milk starts becoming thick very soon and you have to add water in between to turn it thin. With low fat milk you can comfortably cook kheer on slow flame and it will retain correct consistency.
4- Instead of adding chopped dry fruits, grind them coarsely and mix half the quantity in kheer once it is done. Dry fruits flavor will enhance the taste of kheer.

There are a few more varieties of kheer recipes in the blog. If you are interested, can take a look:

Carrot kheer

Dry fruits kheer

Ingredients :
Rice 1+1/2 fistful (3o/35 gm)
Milk(low fat) 1+1/2 litre
Sugar 1cup minus 2tbsp
Cardamom powder and coarsely grinded mixed dry fruits.
Some strands of saffron for garnishing.

Process:
Take rice, wash it twice and soak it for half an hour.

Take a heavy bottom pan and pour milk in it to boil. Heavy bottomed pan is must to avoid the milk getting burnt at the bottom.

Add rice to the milk the moment it starts boiling.

Now you have to keep on stirring milk till rice grains start boiling along with the milk. Turn the gas on sim and stir for 2-3 more minutes and let it boil.

It will take almost two hours for kheer to be ready.

In between, from time to time keep on stirring and scraping the sides of the pan. The color of milk will change and kheer will be thick.

Add sugar, stir it till sugar completely dissolves and switch off the gas. Once sugar melts down, consistency of kheer will be thin. I prefer it like this – but if you want you can boil it for 4-5 minutes more to get thicker consistency and then switch off the gas. Add half of the coarsely grinded dry fruits in kheer.

Transfer chaawal ki kheer into serving bowl and garnish with rest of the dry fruits and saffron strands. Once it cools down, keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours and serve it chilled.

October 8, 2017November 2, 2021

Deeksha Pathak5 Comments