Vegetable fried rice

This is a great dish which can be made in different forms and patterns. my style is veg fried rice in electric cooker

Main ingredients
Varied veggies- 1 cauliflower,3 carrots cut into slices or thin pieces, 1 cup peas, 1 cup capsicum, i cup springonion
1 cup basmati rice (to serve 2)

Ancillary ingredients
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp chilli powder or 1 tsp chilli sauce,garam masala, corn flour and salt to taste

Description

• In a big kadai add 2 tsp oil ,then ginger garlic paste and add veggies one by one . start with cauliflower, once it gets cooked and becomes lil crispy add capsicum, then carrot and peas
• Add the garam masala, chilli powder and salt and fry the veggies well . Then add soy sauce and chilli sauce and fry again for 3-4 minutes
• Wash the basmati rice and add  it to veggie mix in the electric cooker with correct level of water. ensure that you don't put too much water so that the rice is of good consistency
• Once the veg rice gets cooked add 2 tsp ghee and serve (i know it adds to the calorie content, but the taste would be heavenly)

Baingan Bartha

Usually the south indian brinjal recipe is a brinjal curry cut into slices and fried with salt and chili powder. The Baingan Bharta has provided a new form to the use of brinjal in our house. Here it goes

Main ingredients
Two big brinjal

Ancillary ingredients
1 Onion and 1 tomato cut into thin pieces

1 cup curd
Ginger garlic paste

1 tsp sugar
Garam masala powder
chilli powder-little
salt to taste

Description

• Smear oil (preferably gingelly oil) on all sides of the brinjal
• Smoke/Burn/roast the brinjal using hand directly in the fire. see to that you show all the sides. continue till the brinjal is completely burnt till the skin peels off and the brinjal become soft
• Put the roasted brinjal in cold water.
• Now saute the onion and tomato pieces after putting the ginger garlic paste
• Brinjal's skin in cold water by now would have come out completely
• Mash the two brinjals which would be very easy with the brinjals becoming very soft ; there would be still some hard portions which you can cut into small pieces
• Add the mashed brinjal to the sauted onion
• Now add garam masal powder, salt and chilli powder
• Saute the mixture nicely atleast for 5 minutes , slow cooking preferable
• At the end add the 1 tsp sugar (to take out the brinjal sourness) and the curd (to add richness)
• Nice Bhainghan bharta is ready which can be served with nice rotis

Note: if you do not get the big brinjal, you can use the Small brinjals  (atleast 5-6) and pressure cook the same and mash it after removing the peel but using big brinjal and smoking the same gives a great taste to baingan bharta

Palak Paneer

The authentic north indian food. can be made in a rich, sinful (calorie laden) or in healthy way and i prefer the latter.It was a yummy treat with chappathis\phulka

Main Ingredients
3 bunches of palak
2 Paneer slabs cut into cubes

Anciliary ingredients
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp (this is a must for all north indian dishes)
Thick creamy milk/cream- 1 cup depending upon the consistency required
Garam masala powder- 2 spoons
chilli powder
Gram flour-1 tsp
salt to taste

Directions

• Put 2 tsp oil/ghee in a kadai and fry the paneer cubes till the paneer cubes turns golden brown . keep the paneer cubes aside.if you want to avoid oil/ghee, then shallow fry the paneer cubes slowly but it would take more time to turn golden brown.
• Wash the palak leaves in running water and saute the palak leaves in a kadai till it reduces to half of its volume/ till the palak smell emantes .
• Grind the palak coarsely till it forms a paste. don't make it too liquid
• In a kadai, first put 2 -3 tsp of oil and after it gets heated, put 2 tsp of ginger garlic paste, saute the garlic paste immediately or it would not mix up with the dish easily
• Then put the palak paste in the kadai and after a minute and add -chilli powder, gram flour, salt to taste.
• After a minute of sauteing add the garam masala. Saute nicely for 3-4 minutes till it becomes a proper gravy. You can also close the lid for fast cooking
• Now add the whipped cream or 1 cup thick milk and again saute the gravy nicely for some more minutes
• Add the paneer cubes and close the lid till the paneer cubes properly absorbs the gravy. open the lid on and off to ensue that the gravy doesn't turn too thick.
• Palak paneer is ready to be served with rotis