Green Peas Pulav with Toor Dal for Taste & Create

Dear All, First of all, here's wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi, may lord ganesha bring happiness and wealth to everyone!

For this month's Taste & Create I was paired up with the very talented Shaista Tabrez from MixCalculations. She has some really good collection of recipes so do check out her blog. I chose to make Green Peas Pulav and Toor Dal from here blog and I am so glad both turned out fantastic. It was a perfect sunday night dinner for me and so simple to make! I did make few changes to the original recipe like omotting garlic in the pulav and addition of jaggery in dal. The recipe below will serve 4. This entry is off to Taste&Create event started by Nicole of ForTheLoveOfFood and is hosted by Min of BadGirlsKitchen Green Peas Pulav is also off to Chaitra's RiceFeast event and Toor Dal is off to MyLegumeLoveAffair-14 hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. Nandini and Ammu both have passed the below awards to me, thank you dears, thats very sweet of you gals. Ingredients for Peas Pulav: 1 cup basmati rice soaked in water for 30 mins 1/2 frozen cup green peas 1 medium onion thinly sliced 2 green chillies slit 2 Bay Leaf 1 cinnamon stick 2 whole star anise 2 tbsp cashewnuts 3 cardamon pods 3 cloves 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp butter 1 tsp oil

Salt to taste 2 cups water Procedure for Peas Pulav:

• In a heavy bottom pan heat together butter and oil, add in cashews and sliced onions.
• Fry them for 3-4 mins until golden brown. Remove them and keep aside.
• In the same pan add in cardamon pods, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and slit green chillies. Saute for 2 mins.
• Now add in the rice, green peas, salt and water.
• Cover and cook until the rice is cooked properly.
• Garnish with brown onions and cashews.
• Serve hot with dal or raita.

Ingredients for Toor Dal: 1 cup toor dal (Yellow pigeon peas) 2 medium onions finely chopped 2 tsp ghee (clarified butter) 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp mustard seeds 2 cloves 2 green chillies slit 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp jaggery Salt to taste Procedure to make Toor Dal:

• Pressure cook toor dal along with turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder. Add enough water about 2 cups.
• In a vessel, heat ghee, add in cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cloves , split green chillies, ginger paste and onions.
• Saute onions for 3 to 4 mins, until they are lightly browned.
• Now add in the cooked toor dal and jaggery along with little water if the dal is too thick. Simmer on medium heat for another 5 to 6 mins.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.
• I had some left over onions and cashews so i used the same for garnishing.

Sun Dried Tomato, Basil and Cashewnut Pesto with Pasta

Dear All,

It has been a long and rather stressful week at work not that I am complaining, i like to keep my self busy but not that long where i start missing on my lunch and dinner. Dont you all think we should work 4 days a week and get 3 days off? Sometime back we were having this discussion in the office and everybody agreed that we should follow 4 days work rule but the problem here is though everyone agrees on this no one takes any action!

Now after a long day's work i was feeling lazy to cook so settled for something quick , easy and fulfilling. What better than jazzing up some pesto with pasta! It was ready in less than 30 mins and personally i love the flavors of tomatoes and fresh basil, one of my favorite combinations. I have used cashewnuts here to enhance the richness of the dish, you can use any of your favorite nuts like walnuts, almonds or pine nuts.

As you can see I have changed my blog layout as well. I was in search of a new layout from a very long time and finally found one! I am planning to make few changes as well so do watch out! Do let me know how do like my new layout and if you have any suggestions to make it more user friendly :)

Sending this to Presto Pasta Nights guest hosted this week by Helen of Fuss Free Flavors, started by Ruth of Once Upon A Feast

Its been raining awards in our blogosphere and of course I am drenched too :) Sushma, Pinky, Faiza Ali, Priya, Shri and Shabs all have passed these wonderful awards to me. Thank you all for your wonderful gestures, you all have made my day! Padma has tagged me to share my ABCs....hmmm suddenly my mind is now remembering the abc nursery rhyme...let me see if i remember it all :)

The Rules: 1. Link the person who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Share the ABCs of you. 4. Tag 4 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. 5. Let the 4 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. 6. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag. The Tag: 1. A – Available/Single? Huh? 2. B – Best friend? Many 3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake 4. D – Drink of choice? Buttermilk 5. E – Essential item you use every day? Laptop, Phone and Sunscreen lotion 6. F – Favorite color? Sky Blue 7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? Loved Gummy Bear Cartoon on disney :) 8. H – Hometown? Aamchi Mumbai 9. I – Indulgence? Lots - chocolates, ice creams, chaats etc 10. J – January or February? hm....January thats close to my birthday :) 11. K – Kids & their names? Not Applicable 12. L – Life is incomplete without? My Family and friends 13. M – Marriage date? Not Applicable 14. N – Number of siblings? 2 - 1 sister, 1 brother 15. O – Oranges or Apples? Oranges 16. P – Phobias/Fears? Insects....cant stand them 17. Q – Quote for today? Whatever Happens, Happens for the Best 18. R – Reason to smile? Many - Old memories, appreciation, when i see a small baby etc 19. S – Season? Rainy in India, Spring outside India .20. T – Tag 3 People? Just 3? 21. U – Unknown fact about me? I still have to discover myself :) 22. V – Vegetable you don't like? Bitter Gourd 23. W – Worst habit? Speak tooo fast, trying to change 24. X – X-rays you've had? Many... 25. Y – Your favorite food? Lots..food made by my mom, right now craving for pani puri 26. Z – Zodiac sign? Capricorn Friends I would like to Tag are Nithya, Lone Acorn, Lena and Rekha Ingredients: 1 cup pasta boiled of your choice (I used spagetthi) 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes 12 - 15 cashewnuts 1 big tomato chopped 1/4 cup olive oil (I used from the sundried tomatoes) 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves 1/2 paprika flakes (optional) Salt and Pepper to taste Procedure:

• Roast cashewnuts lightly in oven for 5 mins. We donot want some golden brown.
• In a pan saute the tomatoes with very little oil for about 2 mins, until soft.
• Grind together sundried tomatoes, basil, chopped tomatoes, cashewnuts, paprika flakes and oil together into smooth paste.
• Season the pesto with salt and pepper according to your taste.

Serving Suggestions: Pesto goes very well with pasta or you can serve them with crackers and bread sticks, makes wonderful appetizers! I know its been a long post, signing off here, have a wonderful and fun filled weekend !!!

Luv,

Badami Hariyali

Last weekend we had a farewell party for one of our close friends. It was a potluck party and i took kesar pista rasmalai and this deliciously sinful curry. Initially i thought of making Methi Malai Mutter as its a breeze to make and tastes rich but as i started making i realized i was out of cashews which is the key to make the curry rich and creamy. In such crisis what does one do? Think out of the box..so i put on my thinking cap and thought of various alternatives, after all it was question of 20 empty stomachs :) Few years earlier at one of our family gatherings i had tasted a mix veg curry made with almond paste and it was pretty darn good. So I made few changes to my methi malai mutter and came up with Badami Hariyali. You must have guessed why the name badami, the gravy is made with skinned almonds with onions and as i have used only green vegetables so the word hariyali :)

Verdict? It was fantastic, everybody loved it, few of them also asked me for the recipe and it was over in no time! I would consider this as a BIG hit. Its perfect with naan and phulkas or you can even enjoy it with pulav or jeera rice, whichever way you choose you will surely crave for more!

This is my entry to OriginalRecipes event by Lori.

Ingredients:

5 big white onions, quatered

3-4 green chillies

1/2 cup almonds skinned

2 tsp ginger paste

1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

1/2 cup methi leaves finely chopped (I used dried ones)

1 cup green beans, chopped boiled

1 cup frozen green peas

2 tbsp fresh cream

2-3 tsp sugar

1 tsp cumin powder

2 bay leaf

2 whole star anise

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

Some fresh crumbled paneer for garnishing

Procedure:

• Grind together almonds, onions, coriander leaves, green chillies and ginger paste with little water into a smooth fine paste.
• In a big vessel heat oil along with star anise and bay leaf for about a min.
• Now add in the onion and almond paste and fry for 2 to 3 mins until the raw onion smell disappears.
• Now add in methi leaves, green peas, salt, sugar and cumin powder and cook for 7 to 8 mins.
• Add the boiled green beans with fresh cream and cook for another 2 to 3 mins.
• Adjust salt and sugar as required.
• Drizzle little cream on top and garnish with fresh crumbled paneer.
• Serve hot with naan and enjoy this creamy and rich goodness!

Luv