Doi Maach, Fish in Curd, A recipe from Bengal

My mother often makes this curry at her home in Delhi. The CR Park fish market is a 10 minute walk away and the fish used for this curry called "rahu" is always available.

There are so many ways to make doi maach but this is Chitra Ghose's recipe and my favourite one so far.

1/2 kg pieces of Rahu
1/2 Tablespoon mustard oil for frying the fish
1/2 teaspoon each of red chilli powder, turmeric and salt to rub on fish pieces.

2 tablespoons ghee
1 bay leaf
2 cloves, 2 green cardamom, 1 small piece cinnamon coarsely ground in a mortar pestle
1 medium onion chopped fine
2 medium onions blended into a paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
1/2 cup curd blended with 1 cup water at room temperature
salt
pinch of sugar
6-8 slit green chillies

Method

Rub the fish pieces with a little red chilli, turmeric and salt. Set aside 10-15 minutes.
Fry them in hot mustard oil till slightly brown.
Drain and keep aside.

Heat ghee, add bay leaves and the coarsely ground whole spices- cloves, cinnamon and cardamom
Immediately, add the sliced onions and fry till soft and a bit brown.
Add the onion paste, ginger and garlic pastes and fry for 5-6 minutes. Sprinkle water if the masala catches.
Pour the blended curd into the pan and stir. Add salt and a pinch of sugar.
Add slit green chillies.
Layer the fish gently into pan and simmer for 10-12 minutes or till fish is done and oil comes to the top.

Best eaten with hot rice and baingan and/or kaddu bhaja ( grilled brinjal and pumpkin)

Mutton Curry with Coconut Milk, A recipe from Tamil Nadu

This recipe is from one of my favourite recipe books called Aharam, Traditional Cuisine of Tamil Nadu, by Sabita Radhakrishna. I have featured another recipe from this book here.
While freshly made coconut milk will always work best, I have used Dabur coconut milk tetrapacks the thin milk, I use half the required quantity diluted with warm water. You can also make this recipe with chicken.

1 Kg mutton
1 cup curd
2 large coconuts/ 2 packets Dabur coconut milk

2 Tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter
5 cloves
5 green cardamoms
2 (1" piece cinnamon)
3 large onions chopped fine
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
salt to taste

Clean and wash mutton. Marinate with cup beaten curd.
Grate the coconuts and extract 2 cups thick milk and 1 1/2 cups thin milk
Heat the ghee and oil together in a pressure cooker. Add the whole spices coarsely crushed in a mortar and pestle.
Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli -coriander-turmeric powders and fry together on a low heat for 5-8 minutes.
Add the marinated meat and fry till the oil rises to the top.
Add the thin coconut milk or diluted dabur coconut milk to the meat and the salt and pressure for 15 minutes.
After the pressure cools add the thick milk and simmer till the curry becomes thick and golden coloured.

Horse Gram Lentil Soup

This recipe is my version of a simple horse gram lentil soup and not the traditional Andhra recipe known as Ulava Chaaru. Horse Gram is rated as one of the most nutritious lentils known for its low glycemic index and positive effects on people with high blood pressure. I first ate a version of this soup made by Aji Joseph, a chef who works in Chennai.

Ingredients
1 cup horse gram lentils
3 cups water
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped beans
salt to taste
2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped

Method
1. Wash and boil lentils with salt in a pressure cooker on a medium to high flame. I have a small pressure cooker and gave the lentils 5 whistles and this took 20 minutes
2. In a separate pan, heat oil, add garlic and onions and stir.
3. Add carrots, beans and then the tomatoes. Add the lentils and all the water to the pan.
4. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or till desired consistency.

Some other vegetables that will be nice for this soup are pumpkin, cabbage, and turnips.

A Simple Mutton Curry

I made this dish the other day for my brother Rishad who loves mutton curry. He calls this kind of a curry - "dark brown mutton curry from Delhi". Its a very North Indian way of cooking mutton and best with hot chapatis (which are a whole wheat unleavened bread from India).

750 grams-1Kg meat
4 Tablespoons beaten curd/ yoghurt/dahi
1 Tablespoon kashmiri red chilli *
1 teaspoon cumin/jeera seeds
4 Bay leaves/ Tej patta
4 black cardamoms
2 inch piece of cinnamon
5 cloves
salt to taste
3 tomatoes grated or blanched and chopped with the skin removed
2 tablespoons oil
Fresh coriander leaves

Grind together:
4 medium onions
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon garlic

Whisk curd and mix in the kashmiri dry red chilli. Marinate the meat in this curd mixture for 3-4 hours.
Coarsely grind the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin seeds in a mortar pestle.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan, add the coarsely ground whole spices mentioned above. Add the onion-ginger-garlic mixture.Fry till brown.
Add the marinated meat and salt to taste, and fry till the meat changes colour and the marinade liquid dries up.
Add tomatoes and cook. Once the tomatoes have fried well, add 3 cups of hot water if you want a gravy for rice and 2 cups if you want slightly thick gravy to eat with chapatis/rotis .
Once the hot water is added, put the pressure on and cook for 15 minutes.
Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

* Kashmiri red chilli is easily available in stores. It adds a deep red colour and is proportionately less chilli hot than other red chilli powders available.

Shami Kababs

The past week has been a shami kabab bonanza, with birthdays and parties where this is a favourite appetizer. I try and keep a bunch in the fridge to eat with rice and dal sometimes too.
Some shami kabab recipes will have a filling in the centre of chopped onions, green mint and coriander and other condiments but this is an easier version with everything thrown in to the minced meat mixture- just as delicious !

1/2 kg mince meat
1 cup chana dal/split bengal gram lentils
4 cloves
3 cardamom
1 stick cinnamon
4 dry red chillies
4-6 peppercorns
1 onion sliced
1 heaped teaspoon garlic
1 heaped teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric / haldi
1/2 teaspoon coriander/dhania powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin/jeera powder
salt to taste
2 tablespoons approximately of chopped coriander/dhania leaves
2 Tablespoons of chopped mint/pudina leaves
3 chopped green chillies
juice of half a lime
1 egg

1. Wash and soak the chana dal for 15 minutes. Wash and strain mince. Put it in a heavy bottomed vessel and add the chana dal and 2 cups of water.
2. Add the sliced onions, garlic, ginger, cloves, red chillies, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, salt to taste.
3. Cook covered on a medium flame for 30 minutes, keep stirring every now and then.
4. Cook further till the water dries up and the meat leaves a little of its natural oil. Lower flame and keep stirring so that the meat mixture doesn't stick.
5. Turn off and leave to cool. Grind the mixture in batches. Add finely chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, and green chillies. Add lemon juice and one egg and mix it all up.
6. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
7. Shape into small patties, and shallow fry in hot oil leaving them at least a minute on one side in frying pan on medium heat.

Chicken Stew

I made this chicken stew to eat with Italian Foccacia bread I have just learned to make- the recipe of which I will post later. This simple stew with vegetables and herbs tasted wonderful as I used home made stock made by my friend SS who shared some with me. It makes all the difference to add home made stock compared to soup cubes.
You can make this stew without the meat and only veggies as an alternative.
Serve with rice or bread ! I used my habanero chilli oil as a base, you could use any other oil of your choice


500 gms of chicken pieces
1 tablespoon habanero chilli oil
2 onions sliced
1 teaspoon freshly ground garlic
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup stock
2 potatoes cubed
4 carrots chopped into large chunks
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Heat oil and brown the chicken pieces well on all sides in the hot oil on a high flame.
Lower heat, add onions to the browned chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes, add garlic paste, salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Cook for 10 minutes or so on a low heat, covered.
Add the potatoes and carrots and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, simmer and cover and cook till vegetables and chicken are cooked.
Add the milk and keep stirring occasionally.
Add oregano and keep stirring till the gravy is of desired thickness. I didn't add any cornflour but you can if you like a thicker stew.

Olan- Black-eyed Beans and Ash Gourd. A recipe from Kerala

Many vegetarian dishes from Kerala combine lentils/legumes and vegetables in the same dish. I really like this as a concept and am also quite crazy about how these dishes taste as well! I used my black pottery kitchenware to make the olan, which is featured here.

Ingredients
1 cup black eyed beans. This is the small red coloured black-eyed bean as opposed to the white one
4 cups water
pinch of turmeric
3 cups chopped ash gourd
6 green chillies slit in half
1 cup thick coconut milk
a few curry leaves
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Method
1. Pressure cook the black eyed beans in water with a pinch of turmeric. Two whistles on a high flame and 12-15 minutes on a low flame should do the trick. Wait till the pressure goes down before opening the pressure cooker.
2. Meanwhile in another pot, cook the ash gourd green chillies salt in a cup of water.
3. Add the cooked beans to the ash gourd, and simmer together for 15 minutes. Keep stirring.
4. Add the coconut milk and curry leaves last when you're sure the beans are tender.
5. Lace with coconut oil.

Baingan and Kaddu Bhaja- Grilled Brinjal and Pumpkin Slices. A recipe from Bengal

Bengalis will often lightly grill slices of brinjal and red pumpkin as an accompanying dish. Just chop the vegetable into large rounds or squares, rub a mixture of turmeric, red chilli powder and salt and keep it aside for 15 minutes. Heat a little oil in a frying pan or griddle and fry on each side till it browns nicely. This is an easy way to make these veggies, and because they're so lightly spiced and lightly grilled its probably a very nutritious way to eat them too !

Spinach Thoran-A recipe from Kerala

I used 2 bunches of the red leafy spinach to make this thoran but you can use any. A mix of green leaf and red leaf spinach works well too and gives an interesting taste to the dish.

Grind coarsely - 4 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup grated fresh coconut, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder. Keep aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, when hot splutter 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard seeds, a few curry leaves, add one dry red chilli, broken in half.

Add chopped spinach , and 2 green chillies chopped finely. Add salt, cover and cook for 5 minutes or till the steam rises.
Add the ground masala, stir, cover and cook again for 5-8 minutes on a low flame till spinach is cooked. Open pan and stir till the water dries.

Tomato Curry

I have often eaten tomato chutneys and pickles but never an all tomato curry. This is a nice curry on the table for when you have a dry meat/fish, and vegetable on the side. Its also great when you have both vegetarians and non vegetarians over for a meal and don't want two curries on the table.

1. Grate 6 medium tomatoes, or blanch and peel and chop them up small.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil. When hot add 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds and 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
3. When they crackle add 2 slit green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped ginger, a few curry leaves and 2-3 finely chopped small red onions. Stir
4. Add the grated tomato and stir.
5. Put a pinch of turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder, 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder, 1/4 teaspoon garam masala in a little water and make a paste. Add this paste to the cooking tomatoes. Add salt to taste.
6. Simmer and cover and stir occasionally. When the oil leaves the masala, add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk mixed with 1/2 a cup of water. Bring to a boil, simmer till gravy is of the desired consistency.

Tastes great with plain boiled rice and fried fish !

Bhindi Masala/ Spicy Okra

I have a new found love for bhindi, a vegetable I mostly ignored in the past and now quite like. Here's a simple way to make it as I learned recently from Lizy, my sister in law.

Wash the bhindi whole and wipe dry with a clean cloth. Chop.
Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder or 1/2 teaspoon if you desire less spice, 1/2 teaspoon Amchur (dry mango powder). Set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Method
Heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. When hot add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add one slit green chilli. Add the bhindi and fry. Keep stirring frequently on a medium- high flame. The vegetable becomes sticky initially and you have to keep frying it evenly till it goes, and the bhindi cooks and lightly browns. I cook it till the stickiness leaves and the bhindi is only slightly browned but not too crisp, as I like the bright green colour to remain. We ate this today with red rice and tomato curry.

Black Pottery from Nagaland

I've cooked a few dishes in this beautiful black pottery vessel made of clay and stone. The clay pot is unique to Manipur and Nagaland where this age old tradition of making black pottery is still being practiced by some communities. Serpentine and weather rock is mixed in the ratio of 3:2 to make the clay for this hand moulded pottery and it is heated for over 10 hours before giving it the rich black colour which comes from a local plant called Chiron-na. The pot retains heat very efficiently and the food gets a lovely smoky earthy taste to it too.

At the Dastakar Nature Bazaar fair in Bangalore I bought another small sized pot in a similar shape and was lucky to meet N.A Shimray who runs a shop in Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi called NORTHEASTERN where she sells this beautiful pottery and Naga bead jewellery.

Green Mango Chutney, Bengali recipe

Its easy to make this green mango chutney, which is almost curry like. We made this almost every day during the hot and humid Delhi summer days while I was there. This tasty and tangy chutney goes well with practically every Indian meal.
Ingredients
2 green mangoes
pinch of asafatida
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon paanch phoran ( bengali 5 spice)
1 bay leaf
pinch of sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Peel and slice the raw mangoes, keep the seeds, slice the fruit
2. Add 2 cups of water and boil mango slices and the seeds together till slices are softened.
3. In a teaspoon of oil, splutter the paanch phoran, bay leaf, add the turmeric and red chilli powder
4. Add the pinch of sugar and salt to taste.

Chitra Ghose's Bengali Food

Meet Chitra Ghose, one of Delhi's renowned Bengali food caterers who also happens to consult with the ITC group for their Bengali cuisine. She made a fabulous meal for me recently in Delhi and while I don't have the recipes with me I thought I should feature some of the things I ate.

That evening she made small karelas fried with onions and very little masala, Lau Bori ( Lauki with urad dal baris), baked bekti with mustard sauce, Moori Ghonto (fish head); all this eaten withsteaming hot plain rice. We ended the meal with delicious mishti dohi from C R park market.

To order food from Chitra Ghose, you can contact her at
Tel: 011 29240213, or Mobile: 98106 78663











Fish Head











Baked Bekti with mustard sauce












Lauki cooked with Baris

Chilli Con Carne

I don't make this too often, but whenever I do, I always wish I made it oftener. There's something very comforting about a meal of chili con carne. Its a one dish meal, with meat and veggies and can be eaten with rice and plain or toasted bread. I try and make a lot so there's always leftovers for the next day's breakfast and hopefully, also for the next meal.
You can also make this with any other minced meat, like with mutton or chicken. Or you can use half mince and half soya flakes if you're interested in making this a more healthy dish. I recently saw a Nigella Lawson episode on TV where she made cornbread topped chili con carne.
It looked fantastic !

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Ingredients
1/2 kg minced beef/mutton/chicken
2 large onions chopped small
2 red peppers chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 cup red kidney beans, soaked overnight
2 tablespoons garlic paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coarsely crushed black pepper
6 tomatoes blanched, skinned and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato puree
salt to taste

Method
Heat olive oil, add onions and garlic. Stir for 5 minutes. Add all the powdered spices, black pepper and stir well.
Add red peppers, carrots, salt and stir further.
Add mince and break it up so that there are no lumps.
Add tomatoes chopped, tomato puree and the kidney beans.
Add a cup of water and cover and cook for 30-45 minutes till kidney beans are soft and the meat cooked.

Poha for Breakfast

I love breakfast and I love rice poha! I recently came across a fabulous blog called The Kitchen where there's a nicely written post about poha.

Here's my simple poha recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup flat rice poha
1 medium sized onion chopped
1/2 tablespoon oil
pinch of asafatida
3 green chillies chopped
1 medium sized potato chopped small
a few curry leaves washed and chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
a few fresh coriander leaves chopped
Lemon juice

Method
Heat the oil, add asafatida, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and let them crackle.
Add green chillies, curry leaves, onions and potatoes. Add salt and turmeric. Stir and cover.
The potatoes should cook after 5-6 minutes, if not and the masala is sticking to pan, sprinkle some water and cover again.
When potatoes are done, lightly wet the rice poha in a colander. Do not soak it or it will become a complete mush.
Add to the masala, stir till the poha gets completely coated. Cover and cook for a minute.
Add juice from half a lemon and fresh coriander leaves chopped.

3 Potato Recipes

Here are three potato recipes I sent in to the Bangalore based magazine The Bengaluru Pages. This year 2008 has been declared as the year of the potato by the United Nations and you can read all about it here.

Potatoes with poppy seeds/ Aloo Posto
Recipe from Bengal

Poppy seeds add a wonderful nutty flavour to food. Bengalis use a lot of poppy seed in their cooking.

6 firm medium sized potatoes
4 tablespoons oil
3 whole dry red chiiles
½ a cup of white poppy seeds ground as finely as possible
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
4 green chillies
Salt to taste

Peel the potatoes and cut them into small pieces – 2 cm
Heat oil, lower heat, add potatoes and fry till they are golden brown and just half cooked.
Remove with a slotted spoon.
Add the whole red chillies to oil. Once they darken, add ground poppy seeds and 2 tablespoons of warm water
Stir and sauté this paste ill it's a medium brown colour.
Add potatoes, ¾ cup warm water, turmeric, red chili powder, salt and slit green chillies.
Stir to mix and then cover and cook for 10 minutes till the potatoes are done and most of the water absorbed.

Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time – 30 minutes



Potatoes with Cumin/ Batata Nu Shaak
Recipe from Gujarat

½ kilo to 700 gms of new potatoes with their skins on (scrubbed but not peeled)
3 tablespoons oil
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
Pinch of ground asafetida
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Juice of half a lime


Cut the new potatoes with skin on into halves
Heat oil, add asafetida, mustard and cumin seeds and let them crackle
Add potatoes and stir for 2-3 minutes on a high heat.
Add turmeric powder, stir every now and then when the potatoes are almost done add coriander, cumin and red chilli powder. Add salt to taste and stir till masalas coat the potatoes nicely.
Sprinkle with lemon juice to make it tangy.

Preperation Time- 10 minutes
Cooking time- 20 minutes


Potato Curry/ Aloo Korma
Recipe from Hyderabad

½ kg large sized potatoes
½ teaspoon turmeric1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 inch piece of ginger
1 teaspoon ground garlic paste
6 cashew nuts
½ dry coconut (kopra)
3 tablespoons oil
2 green cardamoms
2" stick cinnamon
2 cloves
6 green chillies
2 teaspoon coriander powder
4 tomatoes chopped
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
1 cup whisked curd
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves
Juice of 1 lime

Peel potatoes, and cut lengthwise into half. Make 4 long slices with each half.
Boil potato slices in water with turmeric till tender.
Grind poppy seeds, ginger, garlic, cashews and coconut together.
Heat oil, fry cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves, and green chillies, add ground paste and coriander powder. Fry well together for 6-8 minutes and till the raw aroma goes.
Add chopped tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes.
Add boiled potatoes and stir gently.
Add salt, chilly powder, whicked curd and simmer.
Add chopped coriander and lemon juice at the end

Preparation Time- 15 minutes
Cooking Time 30 minutes

Florentine, A restaurant in Saligaon-Goa

We've been in fabulous Goa for the past two weeks. Goa is beautiful in the monsoons, even if sometimes very inconvenient. We ate many meals at a memorable restaurant called Florentine, in Saligao, thanks to PB and M who told us about it. Its where the Goans eat and Chicken Cafreal seems to be a favourite for everyone. Not many people travel all the way to Goa to eat chicken, but if its the chicken cafreal at florentine's, believe me you'll go back for more. Its served with Pui, a delicious bread that you see on the plate below the cafreal. I have a recipe for cafreal. I can't promise it will taste as fabulous as the one at Florentine, but try it !
Chicken Cafreal

1 full chicken with skin, cut in large pieces
salt to taste
Juice of 1 lime
50 grams butter

Finely Grind:
6 dry red kashmiri chillies
1 1/2 cup fresh green coriander leaves
6 peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 inch piece cinnamon
1 blade mace
1 pod garlic
2 inch piece of ginger

1. Marinate chicken pieces in salt, lime, and
ground spices for an hour at least. Marinating it overnight is best.
2. Baste the chicken with butter and seer it on either side first on high heat so that it browns
3. Either cook covered on stove top in a heavy bottomed pan or in the oven in a roasting tray covered with foil.
4. Keep turning the pieces and basting with butter

Home made Paneer and Capsicum

First make the home made paneer. I use Suvir Saran's method.
* 10 cups whole milk
* 1/2 cup buttermilk / yogurt (more maybe needed, so keep some extra)
In a large heavy bottomed pan, bring the milk to a boil over medium heat. Stir often to ensure that the milk is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
When milk starts to boil, lower heat and add the buttermilk and stir until the milk starts to separate into curds.
Remove from heat as soon as this happens. You can even add a few ice cubes to the curd-whey mix. The heat will make the protein tougher. Hence the need to expose the cheese to as little heat as possible.
If the curds are not forming, add a little more buttermilk and cook for a couple of minutes more. And do the above as soon as the curds form.
Pour the curds-whey mix into a collander lined with several layers of cheese cloth or even a layer of muslin, draining onto a dish that will collect the whey.
Collect the sides of the cheesecloth or muslin and tie them up together and twist gently to help drain the whey from the curds.
Place the bundled curds on a tray and press this bundle with a heavy pan/container or obejct. Make sure this heavy weight covers the bundle fully.
To make cheese for dessert recipes or for koftas or even a bhujia, weight it down for no more than a half hour.
For recipes where cheese cubes are used, weight the bundle down for an hour or more. This will make the cheese form a firm mass that can be cut into neat cubes.

Note: I use buttermilk as it makes for cheese that has very little sour flavor. People use lemon or vinegar, these curdle the milk quickly but leave a strong aftertaste. This aftertaste is not nice when making desserts with cheese.

Try and use the cheese the same day as you make it. The more time it is kept the dryer it becomes and the harder it will be. When making soft cheese for desserts. Weight it down for a shorter time as I write above. You can leave more moisture in, if you know you will not use it till the next day. The cheese will get dryer in refrigeration.

For the firm cheese, you can make the firm cube and store it overnight in chilled water. But you cannot put the cheese in water until a firm cake, with all the whey drained is formed. So, first make your cheese cube, and if you are not using it the same day, immerse it in a container of water, seal with a cover and cut only when ready to use into smaller cubes.

Ingredients
paneer from 1 litre of milk / 1 cup curd
2 green capsicums, chopped small
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
4 small madras onions chopped
3 green chillies chopped
3 teaspoon oil
pinch of asoefatida (hing)
salt
fresh green coriander
Method
Heat the oil, add asoefatida, cumin seeds.
When they crackle add the green chillies and onions, stir.
Add the crumbly paneer and the capsicum, add the salt.
Cover and lower flame
Keep stirring
Cook for 10 minutes or thereabouts. The green capsicum should retain some of its fresh green colour.
Add the green coriander leaves.

Sprouted Green Moong Dal Salad

Read all about the benefits of sprouts here.
Its easy to sprout seeds and lentils at home as long as you remember to eat them up within a few days. They're great in salads, sandwich fillings, or even dunked in yoghurt as a raita.

Ingredients
1 cup green moong dal
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of turmeric
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
fresh coriander leaves chopped
1 tomato chopped small

Method
Soak whole green moong dal overnight. Sprout the dal in a sprouting dish, or keep it in
a sieve wrapped in a mist muslin cloth for sprouting.

Heat a teaspoon of oil, splutter the cumin seeds, add the sprouts, turmeric,
red chilli powder and salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Cool, and then add fresh coriander, chopped tomatoes and lemon juice.

An excellent salad to eat on its own or as a side dish.