North Indian Spice Masala

This spice mix is amazingly delicious. I have used it occasionally and everytime I have used it I have had rave reviews. Just try it.

North Indian Spice Masala

Recipe Source: CinnamonNspice

Ingredients:

4 tbsp saunf /fennel seeds

2 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp kalonji /nigella seeds

2 cloves

2 black cardamom

4-6 green elichi/cardamom

Method:

Dry roast all the masala ingredients and grind them to a powder.

Store in a air-tight container and use a dry spoon to scoop out the required quantity.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Baharat ~ A Spice Powder from Middle East

Let's make Baharat a spice mix, we Indians never seem to get enough of  spice mixtures ;).

According to Wikipedia,

 "Bahārāt   is a spice mixture or blend used in Arab cuisine, especially in the Mashriq area, as well as in Turkish and Iranian cuisine. 

Bahārāt is the Arabic word for 'spices' (the plural form of bahār'spice'). The mixture of finely ground spices is often used to season lamb, fish, chicken, beef, and soups and may be used as a condiment."

I loved the aroma of the spices in it. 

Baharat

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Recipe Source: The Daring Gourmet

Ingredients:

• 1 tblspn kali mirch/ pepper corns
• 1 tblspn jeera/cumin seeds
• 2 tsp dhania/ coriander seeds
• 1 tsp laung/cloves
• ½ tsp elichi/cardamom seeds
• 1½ tblspn chilli powder
• 1 tsp dalchini/cinnamon, ground
• ¼ tsp jaiphal/nutmeg, ground

Method:

• Heat a small kadhai/wok over low  heat and dry roast stirring   the pepper, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, cardamom  till  you get a delicious aroma.( technically the stirring has to be occasionally but I prefer to do it continuously).
•  Once you switch off the gas add the dry powders and let the mixture stand till the spices cool completely.
• Grind in the chutney bowl of the mixer or spice or coffee grinder to a fine powder.
• Store in an airtight glass jar.

This goes for the August Week 3, Cooking from Cookbook Challenge  Group

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Instant Gratification~~Maggi Noodles

 My girls are big fans of noodles especially the instant kind. The other day as I was bringing back the kid no 2 from her classes in the evening she kept on telling me that she was hungry and she wanted something warm, hinting hugely at the packet of magi noodles I had brought.

 Normally the packet is for the days I am not around and they come back from hungry and my cupboards are bare (which is the happening too often these days). Finally instead of facing the uphill task of convincing her to have something else I made the stuff.

As I went on making it and adding stuff to it I could not help but remember my days in hostel.

The day we had lunch with sweets the mess was closed and my roommate and I made Maggi. Of course we did not add any veggies to it as we never had any in the room and neither of us went doing regular shopping for fruits or vegetables “Kon buy karega?” in fact as we did not want to maintain separate bottles (they were glass bottles then) of oil for cooking and hair oil we used the same coconut oil for cooking.  Eeek! How could we?  But back then we were happy with our solution.

 As I started making Maggi noodles I could help but think how much I have changed now. I want my kids to eat healthy even instant noodles. Here is what I did.

Initially I stared out with 2 blocks of Maggi and 3 cups of water but even after the requisite 2 minutes ticked away to 5 the water level was not coming down. My elder daughter came in and told me more the water should have been just 2 cups and not 3!!

Ingredients:

3 blocks of maggi noodles with the taste maker

Water as needed

½ cup corn kernels, boiled

1 cube cheese

1 tbsp sambhar masala (adjust as per taste)

¼ tsp kolhapuri masala (optional but recommended)

Coriander to garnish

Method:

1.     Bring the water to boil with the tastemakers and the cheese.

2.    Add corn kernels, masala.

3.    Add the noodle blocks cook stirring occasionally.

4.    Once the water evaporates transfer to a bowl , garnish. Kid wanted a butter on hers.

5.    And ENJOY!

Sending this to Shama’s Fast food Noodles Series.

Gayatri's WTML event guest hosted by me.

All rights reserved on photographs and written content are copy-written @The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen!! unless mentioned. Please Ask First
 

Radish Leaves Pulao BM #13, Day 2

How super excited I am for I am a part of Blogging Marathon #13 started by Srivalli.

I have chosen my theme as Rice.

Yesterday I wrote about making palak pulao. Today since my kids kept on pressing me to make it again I decided to hoodwink them. I made Radish Leaves Pulao and presented it as Palak Pulao!!

 Basically this is same recipe as yesterday I will generally do not like to topple the apple cart when I have hit on a winner of a recipe. Just a few changes like adding flax seed powder for I want them to get the goodness of flax seed also without them tasting it.

Palak Pulao

How super excited I am for I am a part of BloggingMarathon #13  and today is Day#1

I have chosen my theme as Rice.

Cool, yes well it is, till you try to feed your kids everyday rice, which does not happen in my place, but wait it has to be kid friendly and needs to ready in 20 minutes flat. And I am bombarded with suggestions. So there are lovely inputs that I have.

 Let’s begin at the very beginning

 1.I had made this spinach and garlic onion stir fry as a stuffing for lasagne. It did not happen poor thing was lying in the fridge quite lonesome.

2. Then I don’t know why I made a big batch of rice.

 3. Thanks to Raksha's post that I read here and this is how the idea cascaded into this lovely dish.

And was it appreciated? Serve it with paneer Manchurian and be labelled as the “besttest Mamma”!  

So we here it is   Palak Pulao as our entry for the first day of blogging marathon.

Biryani Masala

I am definitely in love with this masala.

 I do not know the name of the author of this post nor the site that I have downloaded this as it was something I did ages ago.  In case you know whose post this was please let me know so that I can link it back.

It is called Mutta/Egg Biryani-Malbar Style. I will post the biryani recipe eventually as in the recent reformatting I have lost all my drafts and have no desire to start typing all over the same stuff again.

As it is I have got my younger kid to volunteer typing out the ingredients and method.

Ingredients:

½ tsp fennel seeds( saunf)

½ tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp shajeera/caraway seeds

4 cloves

1 cardamom

1 flat cinnamon (1 inch length)

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

1 whole mace

Method:

The recipe says grind everything to fine powder but I have found slightly roasting it give a delicious aroma. The yield is two tea spoons.

Archana

Alsande Usal

I am thrilled my post Corn Dhokla has given me maximum hits of 1072 in one single day! This I thought was the end of the story but yesterday  I read   Umm Mymoonah post and   she has selected mine. My cup of joy is overflowing!!

Thanks dear !

  

 Now coming to today’s post…

Alsande or I believe they are called Cow Chick Peas are cooked regularly in Goa. In the month of May they are purchased in bulk, sunned and stored for consumption during the year.

The most common dish made out of these highly nutritious beans is Alsande che tonak. A beautiful blend of spices, coconut and beans tastes great with pao or une.

 But I am repeating myself. Why? Because I love this quintessential dish which makes its appearance in every Goan marriage or munj.

But today I have made this as a simple Usal. The ingredients are very few and the taste is normal everyday comfort food.

 I am sorry I did not think of clicking a picture of the alsande before boiling them or soaking them I have tried to click them after boiling but they were not easy to handle.

Ingredients:

1 cup alsande

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 green chilli

 A few springs of coriander

½ tsp red chilli powder (adjust as per taste)

½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp goda masala

A small ball of tamarind

A small piece of jaggery (optional)

For Tempering:

Oil

 Mustard

Method:

1.      Soak the alsande after washing them in sufficient water overnight.

2.    Soak the tamarind in water and extract thick juice.

3.        In the morning add a little salt and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Let the pressure come down by itself.

4.         In the meanwhile coarse grind the onion, coconut, garlic and the dry masala & coriander in the mixer.

5.        In a separate kadhai/wok heat oil. Splutter mustard.

6.      Add the ground masala and stir fry till the onion is translucent.

7.    Add the boiled alsande.

8.     Add the tamarind paste and jaggery if using. Adjust the seasonings & bring to a boil.

9.    Serve hot with Jowari roti or chapatti. I love it with plain white rice.

   

 Sending this to my legume love  affair 39   which is Susan's brain child

Archana

Pickle Masala

My friend’s MIL makes excellent Mango Pickle and we eat it everyday. Finally last year  when I purchased the mangoes I requested her for the recipe.   I followed the recipe (for once) and waded through the masala very quickly and forgot that it is almost over.

Then one day  since I had promised one of  my friend’s some pickle I found that I was running short of the masala! So, the Mad Scientist that I am, I added one more pickle masala, this time Shanta’s,  which was lying in the freezer.

To my surprise the first person who came to tell me that the pickle was suuuperbbbbbbbbb,  was my elder daughter, Apeksha. So this time I have made the masala by mixing both the masalas.

The best part of this masala is you can save in an airtight container throughout the year.

Ingredients:

½ kg chilli powder ( I used 1/2 kashmiri and 1/2 badgi chilli powder)

½ cup (heaped) red mustard

2.5 grms Shankar chaap hing/asafoetida

1 level tsp methi/fenugreek

1 ½  level tsp  pepper

A little oil  

½ tsp haldi/turmeric powder

Method:

1.       Heat the oil and fry the hing/asafoetida till you get a nice aroma. Drain well and remove from  the kadhai.

2.       Next fry the methi/fenugreek taking care that they do not turn brown. Drain and remove from the kadhai.

3.       Fry the pepper till you get an aroma, again drain and  remove.

4.        Put the mustard in the mixer and pulse.

5.        Add all the other fried ingredients  and grind with a little salt fine powder.

6.       Mix the  powder with chilli powder and haldi/turmeric.

7.       Store .

Here I have made carrot pickle where in I have grated carrots, added masala, salt, lime and a little oil  in which mustard spluttered.

Kaccha Masala

Kaccha Masala

1 cup coriander seeds
1/2 cup jeera seeds
1 tbsp shahjeera
some cloves
some pepper seeds
dalchini
4-5 masala velchi

Dry roast all the ingredients and make a powder. A little variation from the usual dhania-jeera powder that we make. Can be used as masala instead of the garam masala or the goda masal that we usually add.

Saar or Rasam Powder

Ingredients:

1 cup coriander seeds

1 small rock of hing/1tblsp powder

1 tblspn methi

1/3 cup pepper

1/3 cup jeera

1½ tsp mustard

45 red badgi chillies (about 50grms)

10-12 springs curry leaves

Method:

1. In a little oil fry hing remove from oil
2. add methi remove from oil
3. Fry pepper, mustard, and jeera.
4. In the coriander seeds add red chillies, curry leaves and fry till crisp.
5. Cool and dry grind.

Sambar Masala

This is my mother’s sambhar masala. I try out new masalas that I get from my friends but I seem to always come back to this one. Please note that the dagadphool is not star aniseed which has a pungent aroma, this is more like black and white stands, smells mild.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup dhania(coriander seeds)

1 1/2 tbsps chanadal

1 1/2 tsps urid dal

1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)

1 1/2 tsps jeera

8 seeds methi(fenugreek)

1/4 cup dry grated coconut

8 byadgi red chillies (you can use any kind but then adjust the number for pungent you need)

3 sticks of dalchini (cinnamon) 1 inch each

dagadfool 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

1) Roast grated coconut

2) Roast dhania and red chillies with a liitle oil

3) Roast rest of the ingredients individually with a liitle oil

4) Cool and dry grind

PS Roast on low flame till you get a fragrance.