Gobi Masala

Everytime we got gobi home, we would end up making aloo gobi. There was another familiar way of making gobi but it always so happened that we did not have the necessary ingredients for it. This time, after finding the gobi of the optimum size, we made sure that we picked up all the other raw materials for the gobi masala recipe.

You would need:
One medium sized cauliflower- cut into florets.
One Onion- finely chopped
One tomato- finely chopped
Turmeric
Jaggery and salt to taste
Coriander, for garnising
Ghee

For paste:

Cinnamon- one stick
Moggu- One
A fistful of cashewnuts
Jeera, pepper, poppy seeds- one teaspoon each
Red chillies- three to four
Tamarind paste- half teaspoon
Coconut- grated- three tablespoons

Boil cauliflower in salt and turmeric. Close and keep it aside.
Soak the poppy seeds for ten minutes in water.
Grind the paste ingredients into a fine paste.
In a pan, add ghee.
Fry the onions till they turn pink. Now add tomatoes and fry until it becomes mushy.
Add the ground paste and fry until the raw smell in it goes.
Now add some water to obtain gravy consistency.
Add in the cauliflower and add salt to taste.
Jaggery can be added if you like the gravy a little sweet.
Now let all the ingredients come together well by frying it for a few minutes.
Garnish with coriander and serve hot with chapathis/ phulkas

Carrot Halwa: For our sweet tooth

So yes, we do prepare sweets also once in a while ;). And what easier sweet than the good old gajar ka halwa? There was ice cream in the freezer that was waiting to be eaten. And almost one kilo of carrots in the vegetable box. And two perpetually hungry people with really sweet tooth (can i say teeth? cause one tooth does not do justice to our liking of sweets :) )
Anyway, to make carrot halwa for two people,

Two large carrots, grated well
Milk , about 200 ml
ghee, 3 tablespoons
Sugar, 6 tablespoons
cashewnuts, a handful

In a cooker, add the grated carrot along with the milk and cook it until two-three whistles. After the pressure is released, stir the carrot on low flame until the milk gets condensed. Now add to it sugar and ghee and keep stirring it until the halwa gets a glazed look.
Roast the cashewnuts in ghee and garnish the halwa with it. Bisi bisi halwa with Ice cream. Sinful pleasure!

Pasta Exotica!

For starters, there may not be anything exotic about this pasta for people familiar with Italian food. Just that, we visited the local grocer and found that he had a batch of broccoli, red and yellow bell peppers and parsley and celery, all of which come under exotic vegetables category for us cause its not everyday that we buy and cook them.

So when we spotted the vegetables, we picked them all up and the only recipe that came to mind to put all of them to use was, well, our almost staple food- pasta!

Ingredients:

Red and yellow bell peppers- chopped into inch sized pieces
Broccoli - 1 medium sized, split into florets
Garlic- A few pods, finely chopped
Parsley- One small bunch, finely chopped
Pasta of your choice- cooked Al Dente
Milk- one cup
Cheese- two heaped tablespoons
Olive oil- two spoonfuls
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

In some olive oil, toss in the chopped garlic and fry for a minute. Add the chopped peppers and fry until they are tender. In parallel, boil the broccoli in water until it is cooked and add it to he peppers. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Now, in a pan, add the cooked pasta, milk, some salt and a spoonful of sugar and bring it to a boil. Stir in the cheese. Now add the cooked vegetables into the pasta and toss it well. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve it hot!