Moringa masala

Hi all,

This is the first time i'm cooking with Moringa (Drumstick) leaves. The very smell of moringa says that it is so healthy food. I feel great when i pluck the branches of moringa in my farm as if the plant is offering itself to me with whole heart.

One thing about moringa leaves is that they start detaching from the branch within 2-3 hours as they are drying. There are many recipes made of drumstick leaves powder and it is used as children supplement also.

Coming back to our recipe, well it's too simple.

Ingredients:

Moringa leaves - 150-200 gms.
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
Red chillies - 2 nos.
Garlic - 1 bulb (please note that i have used Desi garlic which is more strong and excellent in taste)
Ginger - a small piece
pepper corns - 2-3
Ajwain (ajowan caraway) - 1 leaf.
Cocunt grated - a handful.
Tur dal - one cup, boiled.



First boil tur dal, mash it and keep aside.

Chop onion in small and keep aside.

Put grated coconut, cut tomatoes, garlic, ginger, ajwain leaf, red chilli, pepper corns in a mixer and grind them to paste by adding water.

Take a kadhai, put some oil (we use rice bran oil for cooking). Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves as usual.


Put chopped onion, sauté for 2 mins. Then add cut moringa leaves, stir for another 2 mins till the moringa leaves shrink completely and leave a nice aroma. Add turmeric powder and mix.

Add the paste and stir for another 2 mins.


Add mashed tur dal. Add a spoon of chilli powder, salt to taste and some home masala + kitchen king masala. Add some water and cook for 5 mins in slow flame.


I put 3-4 drops of virgin coconut oil. Definitely this was the magic ingredient that added to taste.

Your Moringa masala is ready. If you put more water, it can become sambar. If it's thick, can be eaten as side dish for chapathi/paratha.

Mogra Karela

Namaste.

Bitter gourd is my most favourite vegetable. I used to hate it as a child but I clearly remember, once in a Mumbai restaurant, just to take revenge on myself for some reason, i had ordered Karela masala. To my astonishment, I just loved the dish! Ever since I've become addicted to it. We cook karela at least 3 times a week.

I and my wife together have learnt many recipes of Karela. Today's is fresh one. Here it is..

For better results, use only naturally grown vegetables. (For me, thanks to Ground to Earth)

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd - 3 to 4

Grated Coconut - half portion. 

Ground nuts - half a fistful. 

Green chilli - 3

Coriander leaves.

Curry leaves.

Coconut oil - 3-4 spoons.

Recipe is pretty simple. 

Cut Bitter gourd in bigger sections, take out the centre portion and keep only the thick skin part. Grind it along with raw ground nuts to a very coarse powder. 

In a pan, put coconut oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Allow them to splutter in their respective time period.

Cut green chilli in frustum shape small sizes. Add green chilli in to the oil and saute a bit.

Now add ground karela in to it. Add asafoetida about 3 pinches. Stir well in high flame.

Add a little coriander and fenugreek powder. Add salt to taste, stir well.

Cook for about 3-5 mins. Squeeze lemon in to it. Add a pinch of sugar. Add coriander leaves.

Serve hot or cold, it tastes good anyway. :)

Bye the way I called it as Mogra Karela because the white grated coconut looked like jasmine flowers in the bush to me. 

Savji Gavar

Namaskar.

I had these beautiful looking, smaller than usual size, native variety of Cluster Beans, brought from our farm - Ground To Earth (https://www.facebook.com/Groundtoearth/)

I have always been a fan of jawari variety (what we call for native variety) of vegetables against hybrid variety. Reasons being, greater taste, free from pesticides and adulteration.

So here is what i tried, combining what i have learnt listening to various Savji food cooks at my native place and this humble vegetable.

Ingredients:

Cluster beans - 250 gms.
Grated Coconut - half portion.
Onion - 1 1/2
Garlic - 4-5 cloves.
Coriander leaves - a fistful.
Green chilli - 1

For dry masala:
Dry roast - rock flower(1), fennel seeds(1/2 spoon), bay leaf(1/2), cumin seeds (1/2 spoon) coriander seeds (1Spoon), clove(3), cardamom(2), cinnamon(1/2), pepper corns (7-8), dry red chilli (3) together in low flame, grind it to powder and keep aside.

Cut onions in big cubes, sauté in oil along with garlic for a minute till golden in colour, allow to cool. Grind to smooth paste.

Grind tomatoes + grated coconut together to make a fine paste.

Boil washed cluster beans, cut in to 2-3 smaller pieces, in water separately. I didn't use cooker as I feel it sucks away all the nutrients. Boiling outside will retain the crunchiness of the skin i believe. Keep aside.

In a pan, put oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and green chilli cut in slightly bigger pieces. This is only for the aroma of the green chilli.

Now add onion paste and saute for a while. Then add tomato paste and saute even more.

Add dry fresh masala, half spoon of garam masala, half spoon of kashmiri red chilli powder, salt to taste and mix well.

Pour lots of water and allow it to boil. Reduce the flame and cook more. If the water evaporates, add more water again. The crux of Savji food's taste is in it's boiling.

After 7-10 mins, add pre boiled cluster beans and cook for another 5-6 minutes.

Add a pinch of sugar and red chilli powder on the top. This will give extra colour and spice to the dish.

Close the lid for few minutes to allow the aroma to settle in.

Serve hot.

I prepared it today and it was very tasty.

Desi Coriander Pesto

Hi,

I had lot of coriander leaves left at home. Didn't want to let it go dry and waste. So searched for some recipes of coriander leaves and Pesto recipe attracted my attention. But how would I continue without adding my own ingredients in this to make it a desi one? So here it is..

Ingredients:

Coriander leaves - a bunch.
Green Chilli - 3
Ginger - a small cube.
Sesame seeds - around half a spoon.
Garlic cloves - 3 to 4.
Mustard oil - 3 to 4 spoons.
Mint leaves - if you have.

Chop coriander leaves after washing and after removing the stems.

Add a little oil in a pan, heat it. Add sesame seeds and stir for half a minute.

Add green chillies, garlic, ginger and sauté for half a minute.

Quickly add coriander leaves and don't fry for much time. Just about 20-25 seconds and remove it from the flame.

Let it cool.

Now in a grinder, add all the above and add mustard oil. (you may add olive oil also) Add salt to taste.

Grind to thick or thin paste depending on your choice, by adding more oil.

Yummy desi pesto is ready!

(No pic available :(  )

Protein stuffed ridge gourd

Hello all,

This week we had lot of ridge gourd and beans at home. Didn't want to waste them and couldn't find a recipe on the net to cook them together. So here I am, made my own.

This is called by me as Protein stuffed ridge gourd. What is this is nothing but beans ground and filled in ridge gourd and cooked. Did I spill the beans so fast? Read on further...

Ingredients:

Beans : around 200 gms.
Ridge gourd: 1 or 2, enough to make cylindrical shape of 2-3 inches long.
Ground nuts - around 50 gms.
Red chilli - 3
Pepper corns - 7-8
Carrot - 2
Tomatoes - 2
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves

I have made this food without onion and garlic. So you may call it as Jain food. :)

Peel ridge gourd off it's edges on the skin, cut in to cylindrical shapes of 2-3 inches long. Remove the seeds inside and make it hollow. But don't remove too much as much of its nutrition value is in it's core.

In a grinder, grind these together:- Red chilli, Beans -washed and chopped coarsely,  pepper corn, ground nuts (we haven't roasted them here), coriander. little masala powder Let this be a paste, not too smooth, not too coarse.

Fill the above paste in to the ridge gourd cylinders.

Chop tomatoes finely.

Grind carrot and some more groundnuts together and make a powder. This gives great colour to the dish along with tomatoes and red chilli powder.

In a pressure cooker, pour 3-4 spoons of oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves, as per the custom. Add chopped tomatoes and stir for a while. Add Carrot powder and stir.

Add a pinch each of coriander powder and fenugreek powder. Add a spoon of garam masala and a spoon of red chilli powder. Add Salt as per taste.

Now place the filled ridge gourd in to the pressure cooker. Close the lid and let it whistle two times.

Your protein stuffed ridge gourd is ready!

Saag marswala

Red saag sabzi recipe:

For those who do not know what to do with red saag, here's a new recipe I have tried. In bonus, there's a red saag sharbat also comes free!!

Ingredients:
Green chilies-3-4
Red dry chillies-2
Ginger
Coriander
Pepper corns
Tamarind
Red saag
Fresh cream

Take out the leaves of saag, wash and dry them, chop them coarsely.

Soak tamarind in water.

In a vessel, boil water and boil red saag in the water for about 5 mins till it's tender and leaves an aroma.

Filter the red saag and don't throw the red water.

Grind boiled red saag, coriander leaves, ginger, paper corns together in a grinder.

(I haven't used onion and garlic here. If you want, you can grind raw onion and garlic separately, to be added in the tadka later on)

In a pan, take little oil, put mustard, cumin seeds, curry leaves and red chillies. If you want, you can put either chana daal a little or pre soaked toor dal (just a little). Add urad daal to tadka. Add asafoetida and turmeric, saute for a minute. Add a little coriander powder.

Add boiled red saag, a little, very little garam masala, salt to taste and mix. Cook for 2 mins and add tamarind water. Cook for another 2 mins, adding some water.

Finally add fresh cream a little.

Great smelling red saag sabzi is ready!

I call it Saag marswala. :P

By the way, the red water that you had kept aside, boil it again with dry 2-3 kokam fruits and adding sugar to it. Put some cardamom if you want. Boil for 3-4 mins and allow it to cool. Keep in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Healthy and yummy red saag sharbat is ready!

Aam ke aam, gutliyonke bhi daam!

Thanks for reading.