Ridge gourd onion chutney spiced with pepper and tamarind. Add a spark to a simple Indian meal with this chutney on the side.
Pepper
Sooji Cheela: Savory Semolina Pancakes
Sooji or semolina, as Wikipedia tells us, is
the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, breakfast cereals, puddings, and couscous.
That description covers wide ground, taking in its span popular Indian dishes like halwa and upma – versions of pudding/breakfast cereal made of semolina.
Cooking sooji as a cheela (pancake) is a relatively unusual way of using the flour, but once you try it, you’ll definitely want to do frequent repeats.
Carrot Poha
A vitamin-filled start to the day with carrot poha: flattened rice cooked crisp with grated carrot and pepper.
Spice-Lined Long Green Eggplant Curry
When you have really fresh long green eggplant on hand, capitalize on the goodness of its insides. Cook it in a way that retains its juices. Ditch chopping and cubing, go for slitting and spicing. This recipe of spice-lined long green eggplant curry shows how.
Dahi Bhindi: Indian Okra in Ginger Pepper Yogurt Sauce
Okra / bhindi – one of the most versatile vegetables in Indian cuisine. I cook it with onions or without, season it with Indian spices, or sometimes look westwards for inspiration.
Despite the same core ingredient, each of these okra dishes tastes worlds apart. Dahi bhindi (okra cooked in a yogurt-based gravy) is one such unique preparation. The recipe includes besan (gram flour) which adds body to the gravy, and a freshly prepared ginger-pepper blend which gives it a distinct, sharp kick.
Here’s how to make dahi bhindi.
Besan Ka Cheela: Savory Gram Flour Pancakes
Today’s post is about a much-loved breakfast dish in India – besan ka cheela. For the uninitiated, besan is flour made from Bengal gram (chana dal), used in Indian cuisine in a variety of dishes such as kadhi, jhunka and pakoras.
In cheela, batter is made out of besan and other ingredients, shallow-fried like pancakes on an skillet/tava and served hot.
Coriander Parsley Pesto
Parsley isn’t too easily accessible where I live in India, nor is it integral to Indian cooking. And so when I’m using it, I’m a little outside my comfort zone. It gives a special high when we get things right outside our comfort zones, doesn’t it?