Green beans and moong dhal sabzi

Serves 4 as a main dish and 6 as a side dish
In our marriage, T prefers sabjzis and I am happy to have bowls of dhal to eat with rotis or rice. He is not a fussy eater but it has taken a lot of prodding on his part for me to start eating more than the few veggies (read potatoes,, spinach, fenugreek, cauliflower and peas) I have eaten since childhood. When he ate this green beans sabzi at a friend’s house he asked me to get the recipe. Of course I had to tweak it a little by adding some split moong dal* and the result made us both happy.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup split moong dal
1 lbs frozen French cut green beans or 2 cups of fresh green beans, cleaned and chopped
1 tsp black mustard seeds (rai)
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp asafetida powder (hing)
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp Everest sabzi masala
Salt to taste

Method:
Wash the moon dal three times and soak it in double the amount of water for half an hour. The dal should plump up a little. Discard the water and keep aside.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a karahi and add mustard seeds. As they start to pop lower the heat and add cumin seeds, turmeric, asafetida and red chili. Roast it for a few seconds before adding the moong dal. The dal will start to plump up in the oil. Add some salt and roast for about five minutes before adding the green beans. Add the sabzi masala and salt. Mix the dal and beans together, cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes before turning off the heat. Serve with rotis and curry.
*Note: The amount of moong dal can be cut in half or a few tablespoons if you prefer the beans over the dal.
I am sending this off to Susan's brainchild MLLA – 15 being hosted by Sia of Monsoon Spice and to Vikki’s Side dish with chappati event.

Decadent Kheer (Rice Pudding)

For me the mere mention of kheer conjures up delicious bowls of sweetened milk laced with raisins, cashews and pistachios. I remember the sweet smell of the cardamom pods being crushed in my mom’s small mortar and pestle. My siblings and I would hang around the kitchen, waiting for my mom to finish her pooja and “naivaidya” (The first offering for the gods), so we could eat the delicious kheer.
In every Indian household, kheer is a popular dessert that is made during religious occasions, for special guests and sometimes if there is too much left over milk. Out here in the good old USA, I don’t get a lot of occasions to make kheer but when I do, I make the much thicker and decadent version of my mom’s recipe.

Ingredients:

½ cup basmati rice
6 cups of whole milk
1 tbsp ghee
½ cup of sugar
¼ cup raisins (I use gold and dark)
1 tbsp cashew nuts
5 – 6 cardamom pods

Wash the rice thrice under cold water, drain the water and keep aside.
In a heavy bottom pan heat the ghee and toast the rice for a few minutes on medium heat.
Add the milk and bring it to a gentle boil. With the heat on med-low, let the milk simmer and bubble. Keep stirring the pot from time to time to prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
In about 30 minutes the milk should reduce to about half. Add the sugar and raisins and stir. Continue to boil the milk till the kheer thickens, another 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, crush the cardamom pods to a powder.
Take the kheer off the heat once the desired thickness is achieved. I like it super thick.
Sprinkle the cardamom powder on the kheer and stir to combine.
Transfer to a serving dish and chill.
Just before serving, fry whole cashews in ghee till golden and garnish on the kheer.

This recipe goes to Meeta's Monthly Mingle hosted by Nags . This month's theme -- Ravishing Rice.

My Masala Dabba

First a background lesson in Masala Dabba: Every Indian kitchen has at least one masala dabba if not two. The concept is just genius and my hats off to whoever invented it. A MD is usually a round, flat container with a lid and has little containers, usually 6-7, that fit inside it. With the plethora of Indian spices one has to use while cooking, it is handy to have the most commonly used ones within easy reach. My mother-in-law has two dabbas – one for ground spices like turmeric and red chilli powder, and the second one for whole spices like cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon sticks and black peppercorns.

Red Chilli Pwdr, Garam Masala (Everest), Cumin Seeds, Turmeric Pwdr, Mustard Seeds, Cumin Corrainder (Dhana Zeera) Pwdr and in the centre cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon sticks

I have to admit I don’t clean my masala dabba very regularly. I just clean the container that needs refilling before putting it back with the rest of the messy ones. But yesterday, I accidently dropped the MD on the floor, spilling all the spices and ended up not only cleaning all the little containers but also my kitchen floor. Let me admit, while I am at it, the floor too needed a good moping. (Hey, don’t judge me!)
My MD along with my kitchen floor is now sparkly and shiny. When else will I get a chance to photograph it and put it on my blog? Here’s a picture of my masala dabba, all sparkly and clean.

Now only if it could stay this way.

Udipi style aloo sabzi (potato sabzi)

As a singe girl living in Mumbai, India, I used to love to eat in Udipis and Madras Coffee Houses. To the uninitiated, these are restaurants that exclusively serve South Indian cuisine and really good coffee. They used to be relatively inexpensive for the quality and quantity of food they served. It was a favorite hangout for writers and young college students.
The Masala Doa would come with a aloo sabzi stuffed inside, sides of coconut and tomato chutneys and a big bowl of sambhar. In all the cooking adventures I have had, I have never been quite able to duplicate any of the tastes except that of the sabzi. Here is my simplified version of the udipi sabzi.

Ingredients:

4 – 5 medium potatoes
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup of peas
½ tsp mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves (optional)
1tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
½ tsp cumin coriander powder
½ tsp sabzi masala (I use Everest brand)
Salt to taste

Boil the potatoes in the cooker for 2-3 whistles. Once it cools down, peel and chop potatoes in small cubes.
Heat oil in a karahi or wok and add the mustard seeds. As they begin to crackle, add the curry leaves. The leaves have water in them and so they splutter when added to the oil. It is advisable to lower the heat and stand aside while the spluttering subsides.
With the heat still on low add the turmeric powder, red chili powder and chopped onion. Bring up the heat to medium and sauté till onions turn translucent.
Add the remaining spices and stir. The spices should start giving off their aroma in a minute or so. Add the peas and potatoes at this point. Coat the pea and potatoes with the onions and spice mix.
At this point, you can decide to do two things. If you want the sabzi to be dry (sookhi) then just add the salt and mix. Heat it through and serve with a garnish of cilantro.
If on the other hand, you want the sticky, Udipi style sabzi, add salt and ½ cup of water to the karahi. On medium low, let the water bubble and boil while the starch from the potatoes makes delicious, sticky gravy. In about 5-7 minutes you will have the Udipi style aloo sabzi ready. Serve it garnished with chopped corrainder and dosa.

In my household, we eat this sabzi with dosa and toor dal cooked in a cooker.