Vegetable Kurma

This  is one of my hubby's favorite dishes. So I prefer making this for the weekend. We can have this with rice/roti. It tastes so good and its full of nutrients with all the veggies present in it. You can add in any vegetables of your choice. Here I have used carrot, cauliflower and potato. You can even add peas, beans. It is not time consuming except that the veggies should be cooked well enough.

Ingredients:

Vegetables:
Cauliflower -  cup
Potato - 1 cup
Carrot -1/2 cup
(Chop them into medium sized pieces)

For seasoning:

Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 2 sticks
Chopped onions - 2 tsp
Chopped tomato - 2 tsp
Salt - as needed
Chilly powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Grind to a smooth paste:

Shredded Coconut   - 3 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Chopped ginger - 1 tsp
Chopped garlic - 1 tsp
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 stick
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 2 tsp

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add mustard, fennel seeds, cinnamon. When they crackle add onions fry till they become pink. Add tomatoes and salt. Fry well.
• Add all the veggies with 1-2 cups water and cook in a medium flame till they become tender.
• Now add in the dry powders, stir well and add the ground paste.
• Let the whole mixture boil for 7-8 mins until the raw smell of masala goes off.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Server hot.
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Tofu Stir Fry

Tofu has become my favorite after coming to the US. We always loved the stir fry since it is very easy to make and tasty too. In a hurry after returning home from shopping, I could make this in 10-15 mins. I always buy extra firm tofu(heard it has more health values than firm tofu) which comes in a packet of already chopped cubes so that I need not chop the tofu too :)..

Ingredients:

Tofu - 2 cups - chopped into cubes
Tomato - 1 medium size - chopped to small pieces
Oil - 2 spoons
Mustard seeds - 1/4 spoon(optional)
Coriander leaves - few
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Chilly powder - 1 spoon
Coriander powder - 1 spoon
Turmeric - 1/4 spoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1/4 spoon(optional)
Salt - as needed

Preparation:

• Mix chilly, coriander & turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste with little water to make a paste and keep aside
• Heat a pan, add oil, once hot, add mustard & cumin seeds. when they crackle, add tomatoes and fry.
• When tomatoes are half cooked, add the paste made and fry till it leaves the oil in the sides or till the raw smell goes off.
• Now add the tofu, mix well. Close the pan and cook for 10 more mins until it becomes golden brown on both sides.(Stir in between opening the pan every 3 mins)
• Atlast add salt, coriander leaves and give a mix, fry for a min. & switch off the pan

Posting this for the event - Food Palette White -- by Torview

You can have this with white rice & ghee/as a side dish...

Nutrela fry

Ingredients:

mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon

onions - needed amount for the curry (cut to small pieces)

tomato - 1/2 (cut to small pieces)

turmeric - pinch

Nutrela (also known as Meal Maker) - few pieces for the curry

Garam Masala - 1/4 spoon

Coriander powder - 1/2 spoon

Chilli Powder - 1 spoon

salt - as needed

oil - 2 spoons

Preparation:

• Soak the Meal Maker pieces in warm water for 7-10 mins so that it becomes soft and little bigger in size. Drain the water and keep it aside.
• In a Tava, add oil and mustard seeds...wait till it splatters..
• Add the onion and fry it till it becomes golden brown in color... then add tomatoes...cook this for another 3 mins until tomatoes are well cooked..
• Now add turmeric, chilly, coriander powder,garam masala..
• Add the soaked nutrela pieces along with needed salt..
• Cook the above mixture for another 12-15 mins adding little amount of water then and there... until the whole curry is finely cooked..

Points to be noted about Nutrela:

• Since nutrela is made up of soy beans, it is high in protein..
• It can also be added while preparing Briyanis... :)
• Turmeric can be added in every other south indian dish, since it acts as a disinfectant.... avoiding diseases like jaundice, cancer etc

try this n see :)....your comments are welcome...