Njandu / Crab Coconut Masala

How about a nice crab coconut masala to go with rice ? Now in this recipe the coconut is not dry roasted before grinding. Crab is coated with the coconut masala when you bite into it. This is more of a dry preparation with little gravy, that coats the crab.

Ingredients

10 - Big Crab, wash & cleaned
1/2 cup - Shallots, chopped
2 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center
5 flakes - Garlic, make a paste
1'' piece - Ginger, make a paste
3 pieces - Kudampuli, Wash & clean
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
3 sprigs - Curry leaves
1 tsp - Mustard seeds
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

2 flakes - Garlic
5 - Shallots /Small onion
5 - Dry red chili
1/2 tsp - Fennel seed
4 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut

Method

1 ) Heat coconut oil in a manchatty / earthen pot, add mustard seed and let it pop. Then add shallot, green chili, curry leaves, fry for a minute. Then add ginger and garlic paste and fry till it browns lightly.

2 ) Now add turmeric powder, kudampuli and the ground coconut masala paste, fry for a minute. Then add little water for gravy, salt to taste and the cleaned crab pieces. Bring to a boil, simmer and cook till crab is cooked. Finally add some curry leaves and coconut oil on top. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve hot with rice.

Masoor - Ma - Gosh

A parsi delicacy, that is cooked with masoor dal and mutton. The combination brings out a delightful taste, with the help of the spices cooked along with it. Makes the dish more healthy with the use of whole masoor dal. A dish that you can enjoy, served hot with roti.

Ingredients

3/4 cup - Whole masoor dal
1/2 kilo - Mutton, Use leg or shoulder cut pieces
2 - Onions, chopped
1 big - Tomato, chopped
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Jeera
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Grind to a paste with vinegar

6 - Red chilies
4 medium - Green chilies
1 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1 big flake - Garlic
1'' piece - Ginger
1 to 1.5 tbsp - Vinegar

Method

1 ) Wash and soak masoor dal in water for an hour. Put into a pressure cooker along with mutton pieces, salt, turmeric powder, jeera and salt to taste. Add 2 to 3 cups of water and pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles.

2 ) Heat oil in a pan, add onion, curry leaves and fry the onion till it turns golden brown in color. Now add the ground masala and fry till the oil separates. Add tomato, fry and cook till it is soft on low heat.

3 ) Once tomato is done, add cooked masoor and mutton mixture to the pan, simmer and cook till the flavors blend in.

Serve hot with chapathi /roti.

Stuffed Bread Pakoda

There are varieties of pakoda's made with different vegetables and even with chicken and fish. This bread pakoda is stuffed with mashed potato, then dipped in besan batter and fried. Stuffing make this pakoda, interesting. But then you can even make a plain bread pakoda, just by dipping in the besan batter without the stuffing too. So you can go either ways. When you feel lazy to make the stuffing, just go plain.

Ingredients

10 to 12 - Bread slices

For stuffing

3 medium size - Potato, boiled
1 to 2 - Green chili, finely chopped
A small piece - Ginger, finely grated
2 to 3 tbsp - Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/8 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Besan Batter

1 cup - Besan / gram flour, shifted
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Coriander powder
1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
1/4 tsp - Ajwain
1/4 tsp - Amchoor powder / dry mango powder
1/8 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Trim the edges of the bread ( if you prefer it ) Cut it into a triangle and again cut that triangle to a smaller triangle and set aside. You can cut the bread into a round or small square pieces, whatever shape and size you prefer.

2 ) Mash the boiled potato very well, with no lumps. Then add turmeric powder, green chili, ginger, coriander leaves, salt to taste and mix ingredients well. If you prefer you can lightly fry the chili, ginger in oil, then add turmeric powder, coriander leaves, stir and take off stove, then add to the potato and mix to make the stuffing.

3 ) Make the besan batter, by adding all the powders listed with besan and add a cup of water to make a loose batter. Add salt to taste.

4 ) Keep a plate with little water to dip the bread pieces. Now take one bread triangle piece at a time, dip in water on both side quickly and then press with both your palms to squeeze off excess water out. Now spread a little potato stuffing on the bread slice, then dip another triangle piece in water and squeeze off excess water and then place on the stuffed piece. Press and seal the sides lightly. Make use of all the triangle pieces to make similar stuffed bread pieces and keep ready to dip in batter and fry.

5 ) Heat enough oil in a kadai / wok. When the oil is hot enough, reduce heat to medium, then dip one stuffed bread piece at a time in the besan batter and then slide into the hot oil. Fry on both sides to golden brown color. Drain off the oil and transfer to a paper towel.

6 ) To make plain bread pakoda - cut the bread slices to desired shape and size and then dip in the above given besan batter and fry in oil.

Serve with tomato ketchup and have along with tea.

Paneer Paratha

I boiled 2 litres of milk and i hear some strange sound coming from the milk pot. Having a look i see the milk has curdled ! OMG ! now what do i do ? I phoned my friends around and asked what to do with spoiled milk. Just throw it out said one friend and some had no clue if i could make something out of the spoiled milk. Then i asked my maid, if i can salvage this and make anything out of it. She told me, anyways you curdle milk to make paneer and from the 2 litres i had good amount of paneer formed. So go ahead and make some paneer dish out of it. So i drained out all the whey and collected the paneer into a muslin cloth and hung it to drain out all the water. It took a while and i got all the whey out of the paneer. And then i thought of making paneer paratha out of it. Paratha's turned out well. It tasted like i had stuffed scrambled eggs inside the paratha. Anyways, any of you trying out this recipe can make paneer from fresh milk and curdle it with vinegar or lemon juice to make fresh paneer.

Ingredients

3 cups - Wheat flour
1 tbsp - Ghee / Oil
Water to knead the dough
Salt to taste

Instead of ghee or oil, i used 1/4 cup - crumbled paneer, freshly made. ( This helps in making paratha soft)

For Stuffing

1.5 cup - Fresh crumbled paneer
1 medium - Onion, very finely chopped
2 to 3 - Green chili, very finely chopped
1 small piece - Ginger, grated ( optional )
1/2 cup - Coriander leaves, very finely chopped
1/2 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Amchoor powder /dry mango powder
1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder
1/2 tsp - Roasted jeera powder / Roasted cumin powder
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) To make stuffing - Its important that all the water is drained out of the paneer. Coriander leaves has to be washed, cleaned, dried and chopped. There should not be any water in the stuffing. Now mix all the ingredients listed for stuffing together and keep aside.

2 ) To make the dough - Mix wheat flour, oil and salt. Mix and rub the flour to get oil and salt well mixed. Then add water little by little, knead and make a stiff dough. Rest the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. Cover with wet towel, so that dough doesn't dry out. Then again knead the dough to get a soft workable dough.

3 ) Make small key lime size balls of the dough. To make one paratha, roll out 2 dough balls. In one rolled out dough, spread the filling. Place the other rolled out dough on top of the filled dough. Press the edges to seal in. Dust with flour and roll out the paratha.

4 ) Heat a tawa or a nonstick pan, on medium heat and place the paratha in it. Smear some ghee / oil on top and around the paratha. Flip and cook evenly on both sides, till it's golden brown in colour on both sides.

Serve hot with raita and pickle.

Check out other Parantha's with detailed pictures -

Aloo Paratha
Green Peas Paratha
Chana Dal Paratha

Mooli Paratha

Parsely Paratha

Carrot Thoran / Upperi

Stir fry with fresh carrots, brings out a touch of sweetness of the carrot and then a spicy taste from the spices combined to make a good side dish to have with rice or roti. I always liked this upperi with rice and meen /fish curry. Easy to make, just leaving the part of cutting the carrots to small bits. It's simple in taste and easy to put together.

Ingredients

5 medium - Carrots, cleaned & cut to small pieces
1 medium - Red onion Or 6 to 7 big , shallots, diced
1/2 to 1 tsp - Red chili flakes
1/4 ts - Turmeric powder
1/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut
Coconut oil

Seasoning

1 to 2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a kadai or a wok. Add mustard and let it pop. Then add carrot, onion, curry leaves, chili flakes, turmeric powder, salt to taste and stir in well to combine all the ingredients. Then sprinkle some water and close with a lid and cook on a very low heat till the carrot is cooked.

2 ) Add coconut and stir in. Add little coconut oil and fry for a minute to take off any moisture.

Serve hot with rice or roti.

Methi Paneer

Methi or the fenugreek leaves, for all you care, is bitter in taste; but then is a part and parcel of Indian cooking. It's known for its medicinal values, used as home remedies. Cooking with methi leaves, here is a combination of methi and paneer. When cooked, paneer balances the bitterness of methi and you get this wonderful dish, that will go well with roti/ chapati or basmati rice.

Ingredients

1 big bunch - Fresh Methi leaves
200 gram - Paneer, cubed
1 big - Tomato, pureed
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds

Masala Paste - Grind to smooth paste

2 to 3 - Green chili
7 big flakes - Garlic
2 '' piece - Ginger
8 - Black pepper corns
2 - Cardamom seeds, powdered

Garnish

1/2 Cup Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) Pick methi leaves from the stem and wash very well. Drain and set aside.

2 ) Heat oil in a kadai/ wok. When oil is hot, add paneer cubes in batches and fry to a light brown color. Drain and set aside.

3 ) In the remaining oil, add cumin seeds, when it splutters add ground masala paste, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Fry well for 2 to 3 minutes on low heat. Now add coriander powder and fry for a few seconds. Then add tomato puree and cook till oil separates on low heat. Add fenugreek leaves, saute for a few minutes, till the leaves are cooked.

4 ) Now add paneer cubes and mix in well. Let the paneer suck in the masala flavors. Add one or two tablespoon of water, cover and cook for a minute or two. Open and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with roti or basmati rice.

Varutharacha Mathi / Sardine Curry

This is the time of the year you start getting fatty oily sardines. Oil oozing out of the oily sardine float on top of the prepared curry. Eating these oily sardines have many health benefits and tastes good too.
In this preparation, the ingredients are roasted and ground to a paste. The fish is cooked in this roasted masala and you get a rich and oily gravy once the masala is cooked with the fish.

Ingredients

About 15 - Big Sardines / Mathi, cleaned
A big lime size - Tamarind
4 to 5 sprigs - Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Coconut oil

To Roast

3/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut
6 to 8 - Dry whole red chili
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1.5 tbsp - Coriander powder
7 big - Shallots/ Small onion
1/8 tsp - Fenugreek seeds /Uluva
1/2 to 1 tsp - Black peppercorns
2 to 3 sprigs -Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Heat oil in pan, lower heat, add fenugreek seeds, peppercorn, dry red chili, curry leaves, small onions and fry for few seconds. Then add coconut , turmeric powder, coriander powder and roast on low heat till coconut turns brown in color. Take off the stove and cool. Transfer to a blender and grind to a smooth paste with little water.

2 ) Pour this masala into a manchatty / earthern pot. Extract tamarind juice adding enough water to the tamarind. Add tamarind extract to the pot, then add fish, salt to taste and more water if needed for the gravy. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook covered till the fish is cooked well. Now pour little coconut oil on top of the curry, some fresh curry leaves. Take off the stove and serve hot.

Serve hot with rice, will make a delicious meal.

Chivda

Diwali / Deepavali ( festival of lights) was here and neighbors brought in a sweets and snacks. Chivda was one among other snacks that is made for diwali and shared with friends and neighbors . This is a traditional maharastrian snack, made during festive times. Even otherwise you can make chivda, store it in air tight containers and snack on it, when ever you want to.

Ingredients

6 cups - Thin Poha / Rice flakes
1/2 cup - Roasted unsalted ground nuts
1/2 cups - Roasted dalia / puttukadalai
2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 tsp - Coriander seeds
2 tsp - Fennel seeds
1 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
6 to 8 - Green chilies, chopped
1/4 cup - Curry leaves
1/2 to 3/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 to 1.5 tbsp - Sugar
About 1/2 cup - Vegetable oil
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In a big kadai / wok, dry roast rice flakes in batches on medium heat. Rice flakes will start curling up a bit and will get crisp. Take off kadai and transfer into a big plate. If the ground nuts are not roasted then dry roast ground nuts till done and transfer to another plate to cool. Now add puttukadai into the kadai and lightly warm it. Transfer to the same plate ground nut is in.

2 ) Now heat oil in the kadai, add mustard and allow it to pop, then add coriander seeds, fennel, jeera, green chili, curry leaves and let the coriander seed brown lightly. Then add ground nut, puttukadalai, turmeric powder and stir for a second on low heat. Then add salt to taste and mix in well in oil, then add rice flakes and stir in well from all sides and mix all the ingredients well.Turn the stove off, then add sugar and mix in well.

Serve with tea and snack on some chivda.

Note - You can add dried coconut /copra flakes to this mixture, after lightly roasting it. Also sev can be mixed after the chivda is made.

Go easy , when adding salt..too much of salt will spoil the taste.

Matar Pulao - Green Peas Pulao

Flavorful and Aromatic pea pulao is easy to put together. Get hold of some frozen peas from your freezer, of course defrost it and cook along with basmati rice and spices. Serve along with any meat gravy, raita and pappad.

Ingredients

2 cups - Basmati rice
4 cups - Water
1 cup - Green peas
2 - Black cardamom
5 - Black peppercorns
3 - Cloves
1/2 tsp - Cumin / jeera seeds
1.5 tsp - Fresh ginger paste
2 tsp - Fresh garlic paste
1 small - Onion, chopped
Salt to taste
Ghee Or vegetable oil

Garnishing

1 tbsp - Unsalted cashew nuts
2 large - Onions, thinly sliced

Method

1 ) Wash rice well then soak in water for 20 minutes. Drain and set aside to drain out well.

2 ) Heat oil in large pan, add sliced onions for garnishing into it and medium heat fry till onion turns brown and crisp. Drain off the oil and transfer to paper towel. Then in remaining oil, fry cashew nuts until golden brown. Drain and set side on the paper towel.

3 ) Add more oil if needed, then add black cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, cumin to the oil and fry for a few seconds. Then add ginger, garlic paste and fry for a few seconds, then add onion and fry till onion turns lightly brown. Now add peas and drained rice and saute for 5 minutes.

4 ) Add water and salt to taste and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to very low, cover and cook till all the water is used up. Turn stove off and let the rice remain on stove with lid for 5 to 10 minutes. Open and fluff rice gently with a fork. Serve on a severing platter. Garnish with fried onions and cashew nut.


Serve hot with raita and chicken curry.

Diwali And Blog Anniversary

If there is someone still out there, checking my new posts, thanks for reading. It's been 3 years and 'Simply Spicy' is 3 years old.

I take this opportunity to wish every one a ' Happy Diwali '

Marathi - Batata Baingan Bhaji ( Sabzi )

Brinjal and potato is cooked with spices and flavored with coarsely powdered peanut powder, which makes this dish interesting. A dry vegetable preparation, that will go well with roti, jowar bakri and like rotis.

Ingredients

3 to 4 - Green long variety brinjal, cubed
1 big - Potato, cubed
1 medium - Onion, diced
1/8 tsp - Hing / Asafoetida powder
1/2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/8 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
1 tbsp - Coarsely powdered roasted peanuts
Salt to taste

Garnish

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Soak chopped brinjal and potato cubes, till you have to add them to the pan, to avoid oxidisation.

2 ) Heat oil in a kadai / wok, add mustard seeds and pop them. Then add onion, curry leaves and fry till onion is reddish. Then add brinjal and potato pieces, drained from the water. Give a good stir and fry for a minute, then add the powders - hing, red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt to taste, stir well and close with a tight lid and cook on very low heat, till potato and brinjal gets cooked. Sprinkle some water if the vegetables are sticking to the pan.

3 ) Once the vegetables are cooked, add little oil and stir and fry for a minute. Turn off the stove, then sprinkle peanut powder and mix in well.

Serve hot. This will go very well with roti/ bakri

Note - Can add one tomato and cook along with brinjal and potato. Other than green brinjal, small purple one can be used too.

Coconut - Lasun / Garlic Chutney

A combination of coconut and raw garlic, with red chili and tamarind, gives a rustic taste to this condiment, that is very popular Marathi chutney preparation. Whenever i shopped for groceries, i would come across this chutney in packets to be sold. Most of the times i would buy it and have along with dosa. Once i had this chutney served along with batata vada in a function and it had strong garlic taste to it. You will need an after mint after having this chutney, since raw garlic is used to make this chutney.

Ingredients

1/2 shell - Coconut, freshly grated
10 to 12 - Dry whole red chili, (or as to one's taste )
10 to 12 flakes - Garlic
Small marble size - Tamarind
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In a kadai, dry roast, red chilies on very low heat. Once the chilies are roasted (take care not to burn it ), transfer to a plate. Then add coconut and dry roast on low heat till coconut, starts getting the light brown tint. Take oof stove and transfer to a plate to cool.

2 ) In to a blender/grinder, add garlic, tamarind pulp and make a paste of it. Then add red chili and run the blender to powder it. Then add coconut, salt and run the blender to combine all the ingredients together. Don't have to make the chutney too smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Serve with dosa, roti or with rice.

Tangy Bengali Prawn Curry

As my dear friend subi said i am on a roll trying out new cuisines. After trying out Bengali coconut prawns curry recently, am too eager to taste more of Bengali cuisine. Here is yet another prawns curry, Bengali style. It's too very delicious and yum with rice. I should say mustard oil, indeed imparts special flavors and gives a unique flavor to bengali cuisine. Those you have not cooked with mustard oil, do try this curry and you will love it.

Ingredients

To marinate prawns

2 cups - Prawns / shrimp, cleaned
1 - Lemon
Salt to taste

For gravy

2 medium - Onion, chopped
1 tbsp - Fresh Garlic paste
2 tsp - Fresh ginger paste
1 tsp - Red chili powder
2 tsp - Coriander powder
4 medium - Tomato, pureed
2 tsp - Tamarind pulp
4 to 5 tbsp - Mustard oil
Salt to taste

Garnish

2 - Green chilies, split in center
1 tbsp - Coriander leaves

Method

1 ) Drain prawns well off any water, then marinate prawns in lime juice and salt to taste for 30 minutes.

2 ) Heat a kadai / wok, add mustard oil and heat the oil till it turns smoking hot. Take off from the fire and cool the oil slightly. Place the kadai back on stove add prawns and fry until half cooked. Remove prawns from kadai and transfer to another utensil.

3 ) In the same remaining oil ( if you have run out of oil, then again add mustard oil and bring to a smoking hot, then cool a bit and proceed with next step ) add onion and fry till the onion turns golden brown. Add ginger- garlic paste, chili powder, coriander powder and salt to taste. Stir and fry well for 5 minutes on medium heat.

4 ) Then add tomato puree and cook till oil rises to the surface on medium heat. Add little water if the mixture is sticking to the pan . Now add the fried prawns back to the kadai, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Sharpen the tangy taste with tamarind pulp and stir in well. Garnish with green chili and coriander leaves.


Serve hot with rice.