Recipes: Shahi Aloo Matar

Posted on by
Reply

Another no onion, no garlic recipe, this time the classic aloo matar (potato and peas) curry reimagined without onions or garlic and made royal with the addition of some dry fruits and sesame seeds. It was super yummy and the addition of milk and yoghurt balanced the tartness of the tomatoes and also gives a slight sweetness to the recipe.

Shahi Aloo Matar

Ingredients:

  • 3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
  • 1 cup frozen or fresh green peas
  • 3 large tomatoes, chopped roughly
  • 1/2 cup skimmed milk
  • 1/2 cup plain yoghurt
  • 6 cashew nuts
  • 6 almonds
  • 1 inch piece of cinnamon
  • 3-4 cardamom pods
  • 3-4 cloves
  • 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
  • 1 tsp white sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala powder
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

  • Peel and chop the potatoes into bite-sized pieces and keep aside.
  • Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add 1 tsp cumin seeds and let them pop. Then add the fennel seeds. Next add the sesame seeds, cloves, cardamon, bay leaf and cinamon one at a time and stir for a few seconds before adding the next ingredient.
  • Next add the cashewnuts and almonds and stir till the nuts are slightly brown. Now add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt and let the tomatoes cook and become mushy. Remove, let it cool completely and grind it to a smooth paste with the yoghurt.
  • Heat the balance oil and add the balance cumin seeds. When the seeds splutter, add the asafoetida and turmeric powder and stir for 2 seconds.
  • Then add the chopped potatoes and let them cook for about 5 mins, or until they are half cooked.
  • At this point, add the frozen peas and salt and let the potatoes and peas cook till they are around 75-80% cooked. Remove from the flame and keep aside.
  • In a new pan, add the ground paste and stir well. Add the dry spice powders – chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and cook covered till the oil leaves the sides of the pan and the raw smell disappears. This should take around 7-10 minutes.
  • Now add the cooked potaotes and peas to this paste and stir well. Add the milk and let it come to the consistency you need. You can also add some water or more milk if it is still thick. Simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mix together. Check for seasoning and garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.
  • This goes very well with any Indian flatbread or even a jeera rice or pulao.

2019 Week 51 Update

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve completed two weeks in Mumbai and have started week 3 here now.

So far, other than eating and shopping, we’ve managed to do some sightseeing also. Some of these have been places I haven’t visited at all, or not seen in decades!

This week, we go down south on a religious trip and also to meet my grandmother. It’s a trip I am really excited about.

I also realised that I have some medical issues, which cropped up when I had some blood work done and so need to show the results to my GP once I am back home. I am glad I did this so at least now I am more aware of what is happening internally.

Have a greak week people, especially since we are counting down to a new year and a new decade in a couple of weeks time!

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks

15931

A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn’t understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever.

Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories…until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.

Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.

Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.”

And so begins one of the most poignant and compelling love stories you will ever read…The Notebook

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Mango Season – Amulya Malladi

101384

Every young Indian leaving the homeland for the United States is given the following orders by their parents: Don’t eat any cow (It’s still sacred!), don’t go out too much, save (and save, and save) your money, and most important, do not marry a foreigner.

Priya Rao left India when she was twenty to study in the U.S., and she’s never been back. Now, seven years later, she’s out of excuses. She has to return and give her family the news: She’s engaged to Nick Collins, a kind, loving American man. It’s going to break their hearts.

Returning to India is an overwhelming experience for Priya. When she was growing up, summer was all about mangoes – ripe, sweet mangoes, bursting with juices that dripped down your chin, hands, and neck. But after years away, she sweats as if she’s never been through an Indian summer before. Everything looks dirtier than she remembered. And things that used to seem natural (a buffalo strolling down a newly laid asphalt road, for example) now feel totally chaotic.

But Priya’s relatives remain the same. Her mother and father insist that it’s time they arranged her marriage to a “nice Indian boy.” Her extended family talks of nothing but marriage?particularly the marriage of her uncle Anand, which still has them reeling. Not only did Anand marry a woman from another Indian state, but he also married for love. Happiness and love are not the point of her grandparents’ or her parents’ union. In her family’s rule book, duty is at the top of the list.Just as Priya begins to feel she can’t possibly tell her family that she’s engaged to an American, a secret is revealed that leaves her stunned and off-balance. Now she is forced to choose between the love of her family and Nick, the love of her life.