Stuffed Bitter Gourd / Bharwan Karela

It's almost two weeks break from blogging and I am feeling very lazy to write anything new. But at the same time I want to share this wonderful recipe with you which I believe is the favorite for very few people. :-) Can you guess the vegetable??? It is the Bitter gourd and I just love to eat it. 

This recipe includes stuffing of spices inside the bitter gourd and shallow fry with very less oil. This is similar to the Stuffed Bhindi Recipe with little variations. By this method you can reduce the bitterness of the vegetable and many non-bitter gourd lovers will also love this recipe.

Before filling the spices you have to scrap off the upper skin of Bitter gourd/Karela with a peeler/knife. Clean properly with water and rub some salt and keep it aside. This will reduce the bitterness from the vegetable.

The ingredients required for stuffing is as below.

Karela/Bitter gourd - 4

Chilli Powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 3 tsp

Amchoor Powder - 2 tsp

Garam Masala - 2 tsp

Salt - As required

Twine / Thread - To tie the karela

Onion - 1 Medium

Ajwain - 1 tsp (Optional)

Oil - For frying

Heat oil in a pan and add ajwain seeds and let it splutter. Chop the onions add to the pan and saute till brown in color. 

Mix all the above powders in a wide bowl and add them to the fried onion and saute for two minutes. Grind it in a mixer to get a smooth paste; this step is optional, you can use the mix without grinding also.

Take the karela and slit each one vertically without breaking or cutting into two halves. Now with a spoon, scoop out the seeds and make space for the filling. Take spoon full of the above prepared onion and spices mixture and fill inside the karelas.

Now tie the karelas tightly with a thread to avoid the masala's coming out while pan frying. Repeat the steps and fill all the karelas.

Heat a wide pan with little oil and arrange the stuffed karelas on it. Shallow fry both the sides till the karela become brown or dark in color.

Serve hot with chapathi/Parata. Don't forget to remove the thread before having the tasty stuffed karela.

Paneer Tikka Masala

Today's post is about the delicious paneer tikka masala. I have been planning to write this post from past three days, but just felt lazy to write it down. :) As today is Friday I thought of sharing this so that you get an excellent dish recipe for the weekend... hmmm

I still remember the first time I tasted paneer, it was when I went to Calicut for an exam with my father and I had it at the very famous "The paragon restaurant". Hmm.. I think I just liked it that time. But now I just love paneer dishes and try to prepare as much paneer variety as possible. 

This recipe is a combination of many paneer tikka recipes which I got from the internet. This is really easy to prepare and very tasty also. This is a must try if you are a paneer lover.

Ingredients required for preparing this dish are

Paneer - 200g (Milky Mist Paneer)
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato -1 medium
Capsicum -1 medium

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Garamasala - 1/2 tsp
All Purpose Flour /Maida - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds  - 1 tsp

Lime Juice  - 1 lime
Kasoori Methi - A pinch
Thick  Curd - 3 tbsp
Salt - As required

Tomato Pure - 2 tomatoes
Oil - As required
Water - 2 cup

Onion Chopped - 1 big

Cream Fresh /Milk
Coriander Leaves - optional

Cut Paneer, Onion, tomato and Capsicum in big cubes and keep it aside. Take a bowl with thick curd and add Chilli powder, salt, kasoori methi, lemon juice and oil, mix well. Add the paneer cubes to it and mix well. Now add the onion, tomato and capsicum cubes to this and keep it aside for 15 minutes.

Heat a wide nonstick pan and add very little oil(say 1tbsp) and add the marinated paneer and veggies and fry both sides till done and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds and once they splutter add the chopped onion and saute for a minute. Here we don't need to saute till the onions are brown in color. Add turmeric powder, salt, ginger garlic paste, Maida and saute for two more minutes. 

Add tomato puree followed by coriander powder,cumin powder,red chilli powder and mix well. Let it cook for five more minutes or till you can see the oil gets separate. 

Add enough water and allow it to boil. Add water such that you get enough gravy after you add the paneer and veggies.

Add the cooked paneer and veggies to this gravy and allow to cook for next 3 minutes. Add garam masala powder also to the gravy. Add cream to this gravy as required. I added milk as the cream was not available at home. Now cook this mix for about 3 minutes and switch off the flame. 

Garnish with coriander leaves. The tasty paneer tikka masala is ready :)

Tips:-

While frying paneer, onion , capsicum and tomato; add tomato at the end to avoid it getting overcooked.

This dish goes well with Jeera rice or butter naan.

Bhindi Bharwan / Stuffed Okra

My first attempt to prepare bharwan bhindi and it came out so well that I became a fan of this dish :) Try this out friends, its really an awesome recipe.


Ingredients:-

Okra/Bhindi/Vendakai - 500 gm
Oil - 3 tbsp

Ingredients for Stuffing:-

Dry mango powder  -  1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
Red chili powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Salt  - As required

Preperation

1.  Wash, wipe dry and trim both the ends of the bhindi (okra).

2.  Slit each bhindi vertically without breaking or cutting into two halves.
3.  Mix all the spice powder in a bowl with salt. mix well.
4.  Fill each bhindi with the spice mixture.

5.  Heat oil in a pan. Keep the stuffed bhindi as shown in the picture and cook on low flame till done. Stir in between and turn it and cook both the sides.
6.  Sprinkle garam masala at the end. (This step is optional.)

Serve hot with chapathi or rice.

Tips:-

1. To make this dish is dry and cryspy, wipe the washed bhindi well and there should be no trace of water left. You can dry them with a kitchen napkin and arrange them on a news paper for half an hour to make sure that all the water is absorbed by the paper.

Aloo gobi Gravy / Aloo gobi Rasedar / Cauliflower Potato Curry

This dish comes under the everyday curries list. This is one of the simple and tasty curry you can prepare and have with phulkas, Chapati or rice. This dish is prepared with very less masala and oil. The main advantage of making this dish for dinner is that you can prepare sandwiches for next day breakfast with the left over curry  :-)

Ingredients required:-

Cauliflower – Separated into small florets (handful)

Potatoes – Diced – 2 

Tomatoes chopped – 2

Onion chopped – 1 

Ginger – 1 inch piece

Garlic pods – 3

Coriander powder – 1 tsp 

Green chillies –  1 

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli powder  – 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds – 1 tbsp

Salt As required

Oil

water 1 cup

Preparation:-

1. Chop onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli and make it into a smooth paste using a blender and keep it aside.

2. Chop tomatoes, grind it to puree and keep it aside.

3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add cumin seeds into it.

4. Add ground onion paste to this and saute for 3 minutes.

5. Once the onion turns to light brown color add the pureed tomatoes to this and saute.

6. Saute this for 4 more minutes or till the oil separates.

7. Add turmeric powder, Chilli powder, coriander powder and salt and add little water and allow it to boil. Stir in between and cook till the oil gets separated.

8. Once this masala is ready add the cauliflower and potatoes to this and saute for 3 minutes.

9. Add 1 cup water or enough water to cover the vegetables.

10. Pressure cook it in medium till 2 whistles.

11. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti, parathas or rice.

Tips:-

You can add peas also to this gravy.

Add more chilli powder if you like to make it more spicy. With the above measurement the gravy will come out medium spicy.
Make sure that the cauliflower is cleaned properly. Do wash and clean cauliflower and put it in hot water (add pinch of turmeric also) for sometime.

Pakoda Kadi Recipe / Besan Pakoda kadhi - Gram flour and yogurt curry recipe

Besan pakoda kadhi is and easy and tasty dish made up of gram flour and yogurt. Kadhi and white rice is one of the best combination. 

For Pakode 

 1 cup gram flour /besan

 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

 1 teaspoon chilli powder

 Salt as required

 water as required

For Kadi

 1 cup yogurt, preferably sour

 1 teaspoon Fenugreek / methi seeds

 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

 1 teaspoon chilli powder

 1 red chilli broken into pieces

 curry leaves 1 spring 

 Asafoetida / hing  A pich

 salt to taste

 Oil

For seasoning

 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

 Ghee 2 tsp

Prepare Pakode

Mix gram flour, salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder in a bowl with little water. Mix it well and add water to make it to a thick paste, which requires for making pakode.

Heat kadai with oil (say 6 table spoon) and pour spoonful of batter one by one to the hot oil. Fry until turn into nice and crispy golden brown in color and drain on oil absorbent paper and leave to cool.

Prepare Kadi

Take a bowl with the yogurt and add 1 tbsp of gram flour and mix well. You can mix it using a blender to get a smooth paste. Add 1 cup of water, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder and mix well.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai and add methi seeds, broken red chilli and curry leaves. Saute for few seconds until methi seeds turn to light brown color. 

Add the prepared yogurt mixture to this and stir continuously. If the mix is getting thick add some more water. Boil it for 3 minutes and stir in between. Add a pinch of hing to kadi. Switch off the flame and add the prepared pakodas and keep it covered for 2 minutes.

The kadi becomes thick after you add the pakodas, so make sure to keep a watery consistency before adding pakodas.

For seasoning

Heat a small kadai with ghee and add the cumin seeds to it. Once the cumin seeds splutter add this mix to the kadi and serve hot with rice.

Tips:-

This curry must be served immediately else it will become very thick and mushy.

If you are not serving kadi immediately then do not add the pakodas to the curry. Add pakodas only at the time of serving. Keep 4-5 pakodas in the serving bowl and add the curry on top of that.

Plain Paratha - Daily Indian Flat bread

This "plain paratha" is an advanced version of Chapati :-) I first tasted this dish at my in-laws place Kanpur and I liked it so much that I usually prepare paratha for dinner instead of chapati.

Ingredients:-

Aatta / Chapathi dough
Oil - As required

If you are a beginner in cooking then read my post How to Knead aatta to prepare perfect dough. Once you prepare the dough then prepare small balls of the dough and keep it aside.

Roll the paratha into a disk of 3-4 diameter. Apply oil in half of the disk and fold the paratha as shown in the picture. Now apply again on the half portion and fold again to half to make it a triangular shape.

Now sprinkle some wheat flour on the double folded dough and roll into a triangular or square shaped parathas.

Heat a pan and keep this paratha on the tava. Cook both sides and apply oil on both sides. Once the paratha is done then remove it from tava.

Serve hot with any sabji of your choice.


Tips:-
If you use more oil then the paratha's will come out very soft.
You can replace oil with ghee for better taste. But If you are health conscious then I recommend you to use only refined oil.

Women's day special potluck Recipe - Mutter Paneer

Mutter Paneer is one of the easiest and tasty dish you can prepare for any special occasion. I have made this for a potluck party at office on this women's day.

The ingredients required for making Mutter Paneer are as below. This will serve 8-10 people.

Paneer cubes- 400gm (Used Milky mist paneer)
Mutter - 250gm (Used Safal's frozen green pea's)
Onion chopped - 3 big
Tomato chopped - 2
Garlic pod - 8
Ginger - 2 inch

Salt - As required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 3tsp
Coriander Powder - 2tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp or as required

Garam Masala  :-
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cardomom - 1
Big Elaichi /Big Cardomom - 2
Dry red chilli - 2
pepper - 4
jeera - 1 tsp
cloves - 3
Bay leaves - 1

Coriander leaves - For garnishing

Preparation:-

Grind chopped onion garlic and ginger together in a blender. Make a smooth paste and keep it aside. Grind tomatoes and make it to puree and keep aside.

Heat the cooker and pour oil into it. Add garam masala's such as cinnamon, Elaichi, Big Elaichi, Dry red chilli, pepper, jeera, cloves and bay leaves. Saute it for one minute to get the nice smell of the masala.

Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste into it and saute. Saute till the paste turn color to light brownish and add pureed tomatoes. Stir for 3 more minutes.

Add  turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt into it and stir for a minute. Pour little water into this mix and cover the cooker and cook for sometime. Stir it in between.

Once you see that the oil is getting separated then add the mutter. Saute for 5 minutes and add the paneer cubes. If the gravy is too thick then you can add little more water. Add garam masala.

Pressure cook in low flame for about five minutes or till first whistle. Switch of the flame. The gravy is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Tips:

If you like a little bit creamy taste then add some milk cream on top of the curry before adding coriander leaves.

Fry the paneer cubes in little ghee before mixing with the gravy. This gives a golden color to the paneer and little crispiness also.

For the milk cream just take the malai from the milk. Boil milk and keep it covered for an hour. Now you can see the malai formed on top of that.

Stuffed Capsicum / Bharvaan Shimla Mirch

This is a very delicious side dish for parata or roti. I just love this dish and here I will give you my version of stuffing the Capsicum. You can use any vegetable of your choice and follow this recipe. Soon I am planning to try stuff chicken in Capsicum, will update if it comes out well :)


                                         A snap of the dish we are going to prepare

Now back to the topic, the ingredients I used to stuff the shimla mirch are as below.

Bell Pepper/Capsicum/Shimla Mirch - 2
Green chilli - 2
Ginger chopped - 1 small piece
Garlic cloves chopped - 3
Onion chopped - 1 small
Potato/Aaloo boiled and peeled - 1 Big
Tomato sliced - 1
Carrot chopped into very small pieces - 1 small

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - As required.
Oil - 3 tbsp
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves

Preperation:-

1. Cut the top of the capsicum and scoop out the centers very carefully. Remove al the seeds and clean it with water.

2. Mash the boiled potatoes and keep it aside. Also chop Onion, Green chilli, Tomatoes, Carrot, ginger and garlic.

3. Heat a kadai and add 1 tbsp oil into it. Add fennel seeds and allow it to sputter.

4. Add chopped onion, garlic, green chilli and ginger and saute for 2 minutes.



5. Once the onions are soft add carrot, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, salt, turmeric powder, green chilli powder, coriander powder and stir well. Allow it it cook for 3 minutes and switch off the flame.

5. Add coriander leaves to the prepared masala and allow it to cool for sometime.

6. Now take the cleaned capsicum and start filling the masala mix in it. Don not over fill the masala.

7. Now cover the capsicum with the top which we cut and removed in step 1. Take a thread and tie the top and the filled capsicum together so that the masala wont come out while cooking.

8. Heat a kadai with 2 tbsp oil and keep these stuffed bell peppers in it. Cover the kadai with a lid and cook in low flame for 5 minutes. Now turn the capsicum and cook till all the sides are cooked well. If you see that it is getting stuck in the kadai then add little more oil and cook.

9. Switch off the flame and serve hot with parata or roti.

Tips:-

Try to use small capsicum for this recipe as it will look good when you serve it. Here I have used medium sized as I didn't get small capsicums.

Add green peas, paneer etc to the stuffing to make this dish more tasty.

Methi parata - Fenugreek leaves Parata

You can find methi leaves very easily in this season at any vegetable shop. Here let us see how to prepare healthy methi parata.

Ingredients :-

Methi leaves - 1 bunch
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt - As required
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Water - For kneading the dough
Oil - for making parata

Remove the leave stems and clean and chop methi leaves and keep it aside.

Heat a kadai and add chopped methi leaves, salt and turmeric and let it cook for 3 minutes. Switch off the flame once the leaves get soft and reduce the quantity into half.

Take a wide pan and mix wheat flour and cooked methi leaves into it. Knead the aatta with water. Follow the steps How to knead aatta if you are new to cooking.

Once the dough is ready cover it and keep it for 15 minutes. Now make small ball of dough and start making chapatis out of it. Heat a tava and cook the chapatis in medium heat with little oil.

Serve hot with Curd or Achar or any curry of your choice.

Aaloo Capsicum / Aaloo Shimla Mirch Subzi

Aaloo shimla mirch sabzi is very easy to prepare. This will go well with chapathi/roti/parata. This is an easy side dish which can be prepared on a busy weekday.

Ingredients:-

Aaloo / Potato boiled and peeled - 3
Capsicum / Shimla mirch - 3
Tomato - 2

Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1 tsp
Oil - As required

Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - As required

Boil aaloo in a pressure cooker and once it is done peel it and cut it as shown in the picture.
Clean and cut the capsicum and tomato and keep it aside.

Heat a kadai and pour oil into it. Add cumin seeds, once it splutter add the capsicum and saute for 2 minutes. Now add the aaloo and saute again for a minute.

Now add tomatoes, salt, turmeric, chilli and coriander powder and saute well.

Cover the kadai and cook for five more minutes. Stir in between. Once the capsicum is done switch off the flame and serve hot with chapati or parata.

Paneer Masala

Paneer recipes are favorite for many. We can prepare paneer in different styles. Here I am going to make a simple paneer masala which don't require much effort and can be prepared in 20 minutes if you have the paneer cubes readily available. To make fresh paneer at home follow the recipe "Home made fresh Paneer - Indian cottage cheese"

The ingredients required for making paneer masala are as below.

Paneer cubes- 250gm
Onion chopped - 1 big
Tomato choped - 1
Garlic pod - 3
Ginger - 1 inch
Green chilli - 2
Milk Cream or Malai - 2 tbsp (Optional)
Salt - As required
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2tsp
Coriander Powder - 1tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp or as required
Coriander leaves

Grind chopped onion garlic and ginger together in a blender. Make a smooth paste and keep it aside.

Heat the kadai and pour oil into it. Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and green chilli into it and saute. Saute till the paste turn color to light brownish and add chopped tomatoes. Stir till the tomatoes are soft.

Add  turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt into it and stir for a minute. Pour little water into this mix and cover the kadai and cook for sometime. Stir it in between. Once you see that the oil is getting separated then add the paneer cubes. If the gravy is too thick then you can add little more water. Add garam masala. Cover the kadai and cook in low flame for about five minutes. Switch of the flame and add the milk cream or malai into this gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

The milk cream is optional. If you like a little bit creamy taste then do this else just garnish with coriander leaves.

Tips:

Fry the paneer cubes in little ghee before mixing with the gravy. This gives a golden color to the paneer and little crispiness also.

For the cream just take the malai from the milk. Boil milk and keep it covered for an hour. Now you can see the malai formed on top of that.

The Tasty Tasty Aaloo Parata @ home

I love aaloo parata. I have not seen a single person who don't like aaloo parata in my friends circle. So here is the simple steps to make tasty aaloo parata.

Things you require to prepare aaloo parata is as below.

S. No	Items Required	Quantity
1	Whole wheat/aatta	2 cups
2	Water	1 1/4 cups
3	Salt	as required
4	aaloo	3
5	Green chilli	2
6	Coriander leaves	handful (finely chopped)
7	fennel seeds	1 tsp
8	Cumin Powder	1/2 tsp
9	Coriander powder	1 tsp
10	Salt	as required

Make soft dough same as for chapathi. For more details refer to my post "Beginners guide :- How to knead the perfect dough for chapathi". Make balls of dough similar to the size of a lemon and keep aside.

Pressure cook the potatos until smooth and peel off the skin and mash it in a bowl. Add finely chopped green chilly, salt, coriander leaves, fennal seeds, cumin powder and coriander powder to the mashed aaloo and mix well. Now your stuffing for the parata is ready.

Now take the small balls of dough and make a hole in the middle. Now fill the above stuffing in this and seal it properly. Roll it out very carefully and in between dip the parata to the extra wheat flour to avoid sticking. Make sure that the sealed part is always on the top.

Heat the tawa and keep the paratta on it. When you find small bubbles gets formed on the parata just turned it with the help of a stick and apply oil.

Press the parata with the stick and cook it till its done. Remove from tawa and place it in a kitchen tissue paper. 

Have this tasty aallo parata with curd, achar or sauce according to your taste. So girls, prepare this at home, eat healthy and save money. 

Tips:-

Don't fill too much stuffing in the dough.