Vegetable Curry

 My invention

Sometimes when you are really in the mood to experiment and try out something new using your instincts, you might luckily come up with something extraordinary. The satisfaction and confidence you get out it is amazing. This is one such dish I prepared and everyone liked a lot, even those who dislike vegetarian dishes. If you adamantly follow only traditional recipes and methods of cooking, trust me, cooking will turn out to be really boring.. Be creative and be a little adventurous, you never know, what could become a super hit..

This is a balanced vegetable curry.  It has the benefits of vegetables, the proteins from lentils, the flavours and goodness of spices and herbs and the nourishment from coconut milk, making it an all-in-one curry, easy to make and yummy. It goes well with plain or flavoured rice, pulao, roties and chapattis too. I have even tried pouring some into plain noodles and it tastes really yummy. Try it. My husband literally drinks this curry like a soup.

Ingredients :
Lentils (Mung dal - cooked)	-		1 cup
Oil	-		2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds	-		1 teaspoon
Curry leaves	-		2-3 stems
Cumin seeds	-		1 teaspoon
Dried red chillies	-		5-6 nos.
Onion (coarsely sliced)	-		1 large
Green chillies (slit)	-		1 or 2 nos.
Garlic	-		3-4 nos. or more
Ginger	-		5cm piece
Kashmiri Chilli powder	-		1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seed powder	-		3/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	-		1/2 teaspoon
Garam masala	-		1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder	-		1 teaspoon full
Black pepper powder	-		3/4 teaspoon
Vegetables of your choice (I'd prefer)*
Egg plant/Brinjal (cut into cubes)	-		1 cup
Carrots	-		1 cup
Beans	-		1 cup
Koosa or any other squashes	-		1 cup
Warm water	-		1 cup
Thick Coconut milk**	-		3/4 cup
Tomatoes	-		1 large
Coriander leaves / Cilantro	-		a small handful
Salt	-		To taste.

* You can choose vegetables of your own choice. But, try following the recipe exactly with exact ingredients for desired results :) However, close substitutes like green peas and cauliflower can also be used.

** For coconut milk - If you are using fresh coconut milk, then, blend fresh grated coconut in a blender adding 1 cup of lukewarm water for 15 seconds. Pour into a strainer and extract out the milk. Press down completely and squeeze out all the milk from the coconut.

You can also use coconut milk powder. In that case, into 3/4 cup of lukewarm water add 4-5 heaped tablespoons of coconut milk powder and whisk well.

Preparation Method : Wash and drain the Mung dal and cook it in 2 cups of water until it has cooked well.

In a wok, heat the coconut oil and crackle the mustard seeds. Tip : To avoid Sputtering and having a messy kitchen, close with lid while you do this. Throw in the curry leaves. then add the cumin seeds and dried red chilies. Once the tempering is done, add the green chili, onion, garlic and ginger and sauté for 2 minutes on medium flame. When the garlic and ginger has infused its flavour into the oil, add the powdered spices and sauté for not more than a minute. Quickly add the vegetables, add some salt to retain colour of veggies and stir well to coat the vegetables well with the masala. Slowly raise the flame to high. Pour in a cup of warm water, combine everything well and cover with a lid and allow to simmer on high for 5 minutes. Then add the cooked mung dal along with its water  and combine everything well. Pour in the coconut milk and again combine well and bring the curry to a complete boil. Then add the tomato, add the cilantro/coriander leaves. Cover and cook on low flame for 10-15 minutes. Like how I mentioned in the sambar recipe, if you are a working woman or a bachelor, and you find it hard to cook every day, then you can make a pot full of this vegetable curry as well and freeze for couple of days, by pouring into small freezer proof/microwave oven proof clean and dried containers and allowing it to cool. Once cooled cover with lids and pop into your freezer. If you have prepared this curry in good hygiene, you can save it in the freezer for almost a month. I shall soon be posting tips on how to freeze curries. Give this curry a try.. You and your family will love it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Version

Easy chocolaty, crunchy, chewy, irresistible and yummy cookies for kids and chocolate lovers. I've mentioned earlier that my first experiments with cooking began with baking. Baking is lot of fun, especially for kids. Though your kitchen might get a bit messy initially, you can teach them a lot with a mere participation, like educating them on measures and calculations, introducing them to new ingredients, helping them in understanding and practicing basic kitchen sanitation and safety, inculcating in them an interest towards home-made fresh food etc.. Hmm.. Thanks to my mom :) I learnt a lot of the basics from her. She was indeed a great teacher. I grew up as the only child and used to feel a bit lonely. My mom used to try hard to bring me out of that lonesome feel by being there for me. She's the one who brought out the artist in me. I used to always hang around with her and observe her while she was cooking, cleaning, gardening, stitching, arranging etc. She'd play with me, read me stories and other informative articles, encourage me to do lot of craft works, fabric/glass/pot paintings, ceramic flower and decor making etc.. She's played a very crucial role in moulding me to whatever I am today :) I honour her and feel so blessed to have been sent to such an amazing mother :) All Thanks to the Almighty!

Well, that's exactly where I was taking you to :) If you are a mother, you can do so much to mould your kids and bring out their hidden instincts and talents. You might think, "I'm not sending them to culinary school anyway, then why waste time encouraging  them to cook.." Well, it's not about cooking, but, it's about educating them with basic life skills, which eventually develops thinking, understanding, creativity, attitude etc.. Just give it a try if you still haven't! :)

Back to the cookies.. :) This recipe is also from my childhood collections, from a baking book from the school library, recreated with a few improvisations. Lets bake! :)

Dry Ingredients :
Plain Flour	-		150 g
Caster Sugar	-		100 g
Soft Brown Sugar	-		75 g
Coco powder	-		30 g
Baking soda	-		1 teaspoon
Salt	-		1/2 teaspoon
Milk Chocolate chips	-		200 g
Desiccated Coconut	-		1/2 cup
Dry Ingredients :
Egg	-		1 no.
Unsalted butter	-		125 g
Milk / Dark Chocolate bar	-		125 g
Vanilla essence	-		1 tablespoon

Preparation Method :

Mix all the dry ingredients well except the chocolate chips and desiccated coconut. Next, combine the wet ingredients - In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they fluff up. Bring butter down to room temperature and whisk into the egg. Add the vanilla essence. Chop the chocolate into chunks. I've mixed milk and dark chocolate to give the cookies a little sweet and bitter taste. Place into a Pyrex dish and microwave for 1 and half minutes. Remove and stir and again microwave for 50 seconds and blend until the chocolate pieces melt completely. If you haven't refrigerated the chocolate bar, you do not need too long to melt it. Pour the chocolate into the egg, butter and vanilla mix and whip well into a fine chocolaty texture. Slowly whisk in the dry ingredient and combine well. Then add the chocolate chips and the desiccated coconut and combine well. Scoop out the cookie mix onto an oven tray . Make sure you leave enough space between each scoop. Do not press it down. It will melt down on its own. Preheat your oven to 170 degree centigrade and bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes. Do not place the oven tray too close to the flame. It will burn the base of the cookies. Remove from the oven, and the cookies will still be moist and soft. Don't worry, that's exactly how it should be. Allow the cookies to cool completely. Do not touch or try to remove from the tray, it will break. Once, the cookies have cooled completely and has started to firm, slowly remove them and place onto a cooling rack or kitchen towels. Allow it to set completely. The more it cools the better, it's good to go only after a day.   You can store the cookies in air tight jars or containers. Enjoy your chocolaty, crunchy, chewy, irresistible and yummy cookies :) Do share your experience as a  Comment or share it on  Facebook.

Kitchen Conversion Metrics

I have been receiving quite a few mails asking me for alternative measures for those who do not have measuring equipment. Given below is a guide to making metrics easy for measures referred in my recipes.

Butter/Shortenings /Ghee	100 g	8 tablespoons
	225 g	1 cup
Flour	115 g	1 cup
Liquids	225 ml	1 cup
Liquids with syrupy consistency	350 g	1 cup
Caster sugar	225 g	1 cup
Moist brown sugar	200 g	1 cup
Icing Sugar	125 g	1 cup
Lentils	225 g	1 cup
Big beans like kidney beans	300 g	1 cup
Uncooked rice	200 g	1 cup
Whole almonds	150 g	1 cup
Almond flakes	115 g	1 cup
Walnuts	115 g	1 cup
Chopped nuts	115 g	1 cup
Ground nuts	115 g	1 cup

Spoon and Cup Measurements :
1 tablespoon	=	15 ml
1 teaspoon	=	5 ml
1 pinch	=	1/8 teaspoon
1 cup	=	250 ml
3/4 cup	=	188 ml
1/2 cup	=	125 ml
1/3 cup	=	83 ml
1/4 cup	=	63 ml

Notes :

While following recipes of cakes, cookies, biscuits and desserts, try to stick to the exact measures given in each recipe. Making variations in proportions may not fetch you desired results.

Invest in good measuring equipment :

1. Measuring spoons: 

This includes a set of four spoons of 1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, ½ teaspoon and ¼ teaspoon measures. Some sets may consist of ½ tablespoon, ¾ teaspoon and 1/8 teaspoon measures. They are used to measure both dry and wet ingredients.

2. Dry measuring cups : 

You will find them in a set of 1 cup, ½ cup, 1/3 cup and ¼ cup measures. Some sets may also consist 3/4 cup, 2/3 cup and 1/8 cup measures. They are usually used to measure dry ingredients like flour, sugar, rice, and solids like butter, ghee, shortenings etc.

Note: You might notice that in some photographs I pour out liquids from dry measuring cups. It is only for a convenience of photographing.

3. Liquid Measuring cups : It comes in both Pyrex and plastic.

4. Kitchen Scales : It is used in measuring the weight of ingredients. You will find Spring based  kitchen scales and Digital kitchen scales.

While using dry ingredients, fill the ingredients into the cup, tap the cup and level the excess off the surface along the rim of the cup. Similarly while measuring in a spoon, level the excess off the surface along the rim of the spoon. I have mentioned 'spoonful' in some places, which means a heaped spoon and do not level the excess off the surface. 

Hope this section helps. If you still have any queries or feel I've gone wrong somewhere, please Comment or write to me on Facebook .