Lauki (Dudhi) aur Palak ki Sabji/Bhaji
Ingredients
• 500 gm. lauki (1 medium sized lauki)
• A good handful of fresh spinach leaves.
• 1 heaped tsp. grated ginger
• 1 fresh green chilli, sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped finely
• 1 tbs. cooking oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds*
• A large pinch of asafoetida or heeng
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1/6 tsp. or less chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp. Garam Masala powder (use less if using homemade garam masala)
• Salt to taste
Instructions
1. Wash, peel and slice lauki into cubes.
2. Prepare tomatoes, ginger and green chilli.
3. Wash and drain spinach leaves. If leaves are large, chop them roughly.
4. Heat oil in a wok or kadhai. Add cumin seeds and hing/ asafoetida powder and let it
splutter.
5. Add ginger and green chillies, fry for 15-20 seconds. Do not let it burn.
6. Add lauki, chopped tomatoes and all the spices, except garam masala.
7. Stir fry for a few minutes. Then add spinach leaves and mix.
8. Add ½ cup water, bring to boil.
9. Reduce heat and cook covered until tender. If the lauki is fresh, you need to add only a
little bit of water.
10 I cook lauki in a pressure cooker, which gives it a nice, creamy texture. Add 1/4 cup of
. water (to make steam and stop the lauki from sticking to the pan) and cook under full
pressure for 3 minutes.
11
Add garam masala powder and mix.
.
12
Serve hot, garnished with fresh Chapatties.
.
Notes
• *This dish can also be cooked with a South Indian style of tempering or tarka. Use
mustard seeds instead of cumin seeds and add 7-8 curry leaves at step 3
Patta Gobhi ke Kofte
Vinodini Rastogi
This is a delicious vegetable curry. You can make quite a few koftas when cabbages are in
season or surplus in your garden, and freeze them for use later on. Serve 4
Ingredients
• 250 gm, cabbage, finely grated (not coarse)
• 3-4 tbs. gram flour or besan to bind (see step 2 of the recipe)
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 green chillies (adjust to taste), finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp. red chilli powder
• Oil for deep frying.
• 1 tbs. chopped coriander leaves.
• 1/2 tsp. Garam Masala
• Basic Curry Sauce
Instructions
1. Place grated cabbage in a bowl and add salt, chilli powder and green chillies and mix well.
2. Add gram flour and beat it with a spoon/fork, until cabbage is well bound and you get a
dropping consistency. You may need to add a little more gram flour and 1 or 2 tbs. more
of water, specially if cabbage is not fresh.
3. Heat oil to just before smoking.
4. Drop blobs of this mix into the oil, either using your fingers or with a spoon.
5. Fry until deep brown. Drain on an absorbent paper.
6. Add to a Basic Curry Sauce of choice.
7. Heat through.
8. Sprinkle garam masala and garnish with coriander leaves.
9. Serve hot with Chapatti or Plain Paratha
Carrot Milk Pudding
Gajar ki Kheer,
Vinodini Rastogi
This is an easy and quick dessert to make and it tastes delicious. You can make it with
artificial sweetener, instead of sugar, making it suitable for diabetics. Serve 4
Ingredients
• 1/2 litre or 1 pint milk
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated fine
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom powder (green ones)
• 1 tbs. boiled basmati type of rice or 1 tbs. ground rice powder (available in packets from
most supermarkets)
• Sweetener or sugar to taste.
Instructions
1. Boil milk and add carrots. Continue to simmer, until carrots are tender and the mix
thickens a little, approximately 10 minutes.
2. Add rice or rice powder and continue to simmer until it thickens like rice pudding.
3. Turn heat off, add sweetener/sugar and cardamoms and stir.
4. Serve warm.
Hello friends,
My mom makes this bharta/chutney whatever you want to call it and I love it. I was
always skeptical about making mashed eggplants. Now that I did it once by baking
eggplant, I wanted to try this as well. So, here you go another eggplant bharta recipe.
Dahi Baigan Bharta - दही बैगन भरता (Baked
Eggplant in Yogurt Gravy
Ingredients
Baigan (Eggplant) - 1 big one
Dahi (Yogurt) - 2 cups, not very thick, but not even runny
For Tempering
Sabut Lal Mirch (Whole Dry Red Chilli) - 1 broken in pieces
Hari Mirch (Green chilies) - 2
Ajwain (Carom Seeds) - 1 tsp
Rai (Mustard Seeds) - 1 tsp
Urad Dal (Split White Lentils) - 1 tsp
Chana Dal (Split Chick Pea Lentil) - 1 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Oil - 2 tsp
For Garnishing
Dhaniya Patti (Cilantro) - for garnishing
Preparation
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and wipe the eggplant. Make some shallow
slices on eggplant and rub liberal amount of oil on it. Keep eggplant on a sheet
of aluminium foil and let it bake till it's all cooked (it took me about 1.5 hours,
may be depending on the type of the eggplant). Once it is cool enough to
handle, peel the skin and mash the flesh completely.
Now, take a pan and add everything under tempering and let them fry till
seeds are spluttering and nice aroma comes from it.
Mix dahi and baigan in a bowl and add tempering to it, mix well.
Garnish with dhaniya patti before serving.
Serving
Enjoy it with warm rice or roti.
Gajar Ki Launji - ???? ?? ????? (Sweet and Sour Curry of Carrot)
Ingredients
Gajar (Carrots) - 2 cups (chop them in 1 inch squares)
Kalonji (Nigella Seeds) - 1 tsp
Saunf (Fennel Seeds) - 1 tsp
Haldi (Turmeric) - 1/2 tsp
Lal Mirch (Red Chilli) Powder - 1/2 tsp (if you prefer, you can add chopped green chillies
instead of red chilli powder)
Dhaniya (Coriander) Powder - 1/2 tsp
Amchur (Mango Powder) - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Cheeni (Sugar) - 3 tbsp (reduce or increase based on your palette)
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Preparation
Take a pan and heat oil in it.Add both kalonji and saunf in it to splutterAdd chopped and
slightly cooked carrot, haldi, namak, lal mirch powder and dhaniya powder to it fry for 2
min.Add about 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan and let it simmer till carrot is cooked (not
mushy, but cooked).Add amchur, garam masala and cheeni to it and cook till cheeni is nicely
dissolved. Make sure the launji is not runny, so please do not add any more water than
needed. It is not a complete dry curry but not even a gravy curry, somewhere in between. It
should be just that the sauce has coated the carrot pieces and not more than that.Serving
Serve it with either roti/paratha or poori. This can be prepared and stored in refrigerator and
used by warming, whenever needed. It can easily stay up in fridge for 2-3 weeks.
