Capsisum Paneer (No onion or No garlic)

I am trying to avoid onion or garlic or any garam masala's on Friday's (if I cook). Whenever I have guests that will be a problem (for me) on having that constraint. So last week when I had guests I experimented this dish and turned out to be good one. Hopefully you will like it too.....

Ingredients
Paneer (scrambled)
Green capsicum
Orange capsicum

Tomatos
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Red chilli powder
Salt
Oil
Cumin seeds

Method of preparation
Take a kadai and add oil to it. once the oil is heated add cumin seeds. Add onions and stir until they become translucent. Add both capsicums, Tomato's and Salt and cook for couple of minutes until they are done. Add also the remaining masala's (coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, tumeric - optional). Once the veggies are almost cooked add the scrambled paneer and mix properly. Transfer it to the serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves.

Grape Tomato Besan Curry

I love cooking with Tomatos. If tomatos are not at home then it is hard for me to decide what to cook. Although I do not use them daily, but I just need there for my personal satisfaction. This tomato's I am talking about are Grape tomato's (smaller version of tomato's). I made this curry as an experiment to go with the plain rice and dal and it came out tasty. This recipe sounds like pitlai but tastes yummy and sour because of the tomatos. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
Grape Tomatos - Chopped into half
Onions (I prefer red onions) - 2 chopped finely
Besan (senagapindi)
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste ( 1 and 1/2 spoon)
Oil - 2-3 spoons
Cumin seeds -  1/2 tea spoon
Chana dal - 1 spoon (can add more if you want crunchiness in between)

Method of preparation
Take a kadai and add oil to it. Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and chana dal. Now add onion pieces. Once onion pieces are nicely fried add tomatos to it. Do not mix more because it can crush the small tomatos. Gently mix in between until you feel the tomatos are cooked (this might take 2-3 minutes). Now add turmeric, red chilli powder, salt to taste. Mix all of them. Add besan slowly to it. because of the water in the tomatos this will immediately become like the curry shown below. But if you feel that the water in tomatos has evoparated, then add 2-3 spoons of water also. Add coriander leaves at the end and transfer it to the serving bowl. Serve hot with rice and dal or just rice or roti too.

Strawberry Banana Milk Shake

Ingredients
Strawberry

Banana
Milk
Cashews (handful or less)
Ice-cream (preferably Vanilla or strawberry ) - optional
Sugar/Honey

Method of preparation

Grind all the above ingredients in a juicer/blender. Serve chilled.

Paneer Bhurji/ Crumbled Paneer

After an unsucessful attempt to get this, I attempted it this week and it was successful. It was too tempting that I made this for two days (first day - just small quantity along with regular menu and next day with roti's). When I made this the first time, it came out too dry and the paneer was almost coming out like dried coconut (flaky) kind of. So this time I added tomatos and a couple of spoons of water and that made all the difference and tasted good. I have added this to both the simple and special curries because it does not take much effort to cook it as a regular cooking to be part of simple cooking and even for special occasions it tastes good too. I want to try this recipe with grated potatos and see how it turns out. So wait and see for that trial of mine. I know most of you already know the recipe of paneer bhurji but here is how I did it:

Ingredients
Paneer - I bought store one and grated almost 3/4 of it
Onions - 1 or 2 chopped finely (depends on your liking on onions)
Tomatos - 1 big chopped finely
Red chilli powder - 1 table spoon
Garam Masala - 1 table spoon
Salt - 1 and 1/2 table spoon
Oil - 3 table spoons
Jeera (Cumin Seeds) - 1/2 tea spoon
Coriander leaves (kothimeeru, hara dhania) - small cup - Optional

Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai and add oil to it. Once the oil is heated add jeera and then add chopped onions to it.
2) After onions turns translucent or pink then add the tomatos and rest of ingredients except paneer and kothimeeru (Coriander leaves).
3) After the mixture is cooked well add a couple of table spoons of water to it, for not drying out paneer. This step is optional if you feel that paneer is good or if you want the curry to be dry.
4) Add the crumbled/grated paneer to it and coriander leaves too. Mix thoroughly and then turn off stove after couple of minutes.

As mentioned you can have this with rice or roti. 

Onion Tomato Salad

I am so tempted so try this at home that I made it twice in a span of two weeks. Well very easy to make, tasty and yet another side dish ready in few seconds. My grandfather used to make this when I was staying with him while studying my bachelor's. So here goes the recipe:    

Ingredients

Onion - 1/2 chopped finely

Tomatos - 2 chopped finely

Oil - 1-2 table spoons

Salt to taste (I used 1 and 1/2 spoon)

Red chilli powder - 1 table spoon (you can adjust this according to your taste buds)

Jeera powder - 1/2 tea spoon (optional)

Coriander leaves - as many as you like (finely chopped)

Method of preparation

1)  Mix onions and tomatos finely chopped. Add red chilli powder, salt (Jeera powder) to above along with coriander leaves and mix thoroughly either with hand  or spatula.

2) Do tadka in a bowl. Add oil to it. Once oil is heated add mustard seeds and then  urad dal to it. You can add some red chillis to this if needed. Add asafoetida and turn off the heat. Cool it and add it to the onion tomato mixture. Your side dish is ready. This goes well with rice but can have it with roti also if you are like me. Enjoy !!   

April 2020 - Made this again recently and here is it. I did not add the Jeera powder this time. 

Dum Aloo (with no Onion or Garlic)

This curry is made by my co-sister on Monday and the credit totally goes to her. The taste was awesome and made in few minutes only. People who love tomatos and potatos will very well love this curry. Another nice thing about this curry is that, it does not have any big masala's and no onion or garlic to it. I loved both parts of it because, I can make this curry on a festival day and offer it to god without compromising on the favor and taste. So god get to have this yummy food too ..... cool isn't it. I am so tempted to add it to blog. OK...No more talking... here goes the recipe

Ingredients
Potatos - 5
Tomatos - 3 - chopped any size
Coriander powder
Oil
Mustard seeds
Jeera (Cumin seeds)
Turmeric
Red chilli powder
Salt

Method of preparation
1)Boil the potatos and chop it into big chunks. Alternatively you can use the baby potatos and use fork to prick it after removing the top layer of them. (I used microwave to boil potatos than traditional way, saved me time/vessel cleaning/stove time). :).
2) Take a kadai on stove top and add little oil to it. Now add mustard seeds (after oil is heated). After mustard seeds splutter add jeera (cumin seeds) to it. Add chopped tomatos and let it cook thoroughly. Mix the tomato in between.
3) Add turmeric, salt and red chilli powder to the above. After tomato is cooked properly, allow it to cool and then grind the mixture in a blender.
4) Take kadai (either same cleaned one or different one) and very little oil (may be 1-2 spoons) and add the tomato paste to it. Add some water to it and let it cook until the mixture thickens a little bit. Now add the boiled potatos to it.
5) cover and cook for 5 mintues or some time until the potatos have the gravy taste to it. Turn off stove and transfer the curry in serving bowl. Garnish with Coriander and it is ready to be served with either chapati or rice. Enjoy!!