Why I started making random dishes!

Cooking random dishes has become a destressing activity for me, to my utter disbelief! I cook because I need to eat, I have never loved cooking as such. Past couple of months, mother in law has been unwell, and in a lot of pain, in and out of hospitals; and that's when I found myself in the kitchen making pickles, or chutneys, or dishes that are not part of the usual meals in the house. 

Today I got a big bunch of fresh mint leaves, cleaned them, washed and they are left for drying! I wonder what made me do that. Nobody is a fan of mint at home but I was like, "Oh, mint season will get over soon, so let me dry some and store in the fridge!" Same with fresh green garlic. I got that too and made a chutney of mint, coriander, garlic. I have made at least 5 pickles in last two months, three with lime and two with fresh turmeric and amla. Again, the same feeling of using up the winter vegetables and also the Sun!

This was dinner tonight.

Paneer parathas, leftover from lunch. I grated the paneer. Added fresh coriander, some dry mint leaves, salt, green chilies, Punjabi Masala that I procured from an old shop in Bhuleshwar some days back. Mixed everything using a bit of force and then added wheat flour. Added some curd as the mixture wasn't quite soft. Kneaded a soft dough and made parathas. Stuffed parathas has never been my thing.

I love carrot-radish combination, the carrot kind of softens the sharp taste of the radish. I used some fresh radish leaves too. Added salt, sugar, lemon juice. I love a tadka of oil, mustard, asaphoetada but didn't add it today. I needed the crunch.

The white green chutney is what we call as TikhTi तिखटी. It's sort of a garlic-coriander-chili dip. I roasted 3 chilies on flame. Then pounded the chilies with some garlic and salt in the Sil-batta. Removed this mixture in a bowl, added fresh coriander, and some cream/Malai that I store to make butter - ghee. If you don't have cream, use fresh curd/hung curd. Mixed everything well. It perks up khichdi, thalipeeth, bhakri, chila, anything.

The paneer pieces that were left over after making parathas had to be used up, so just added salt and red chili powder and turmeric and shallow fried.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

पडू आजारी

Image
रुग्णालयात दाखल असणाऱ्या, विशेषकरून वयस्कर व्यक्तींना, देता येतील असे काही पदार्थ नोंदवते आहे. सध्या या अनुभवातून जाते आहे. म्हणून लिहावंसं वाटलं.   रुग्णालयात असताना अनेकदा औषधांमुळे मळमळतं किंवा झोपून राहिल्यामुळे भूक लागत नाही. एका वेळी नेहमीइतकं खाल्लं जात नाही. तसंच वयस्कर व्यक्तींना दात नसले किंवा कवळी आहे पण लावायचा कंटाळा असेल तर काही पदार्थ चावता येत नाहीत. उदा. कांदेपोहे. पोहे जरा गार झाले की सहसा कोरडे पडतात. अशा लोकांना उपमा, सांजा, इडली, मऊ डोसा, मऊ भात, भाताची पेज, कण्हेरी असे पदार्थ असले तर खायला सोपे पडतात. तसंच उपमा, सांजा करताना त्यात भाज्या घालता येतात. मऊ भात किंवा कण्हेरी करताना त्यात तांदळाबरोबरच मुगाची डाळ घालावी, प्रथिनं मिळतात त्यातून. मी डाळतांदूळ धुऊन थोडे वाळवून लोखंडाच्या कढईत भाजून घेते. गार झाल्यावर मिक्सरला लावते. कण्हेरी करताना दोन मोठे चमचे ही पूड, वाटीभर पाणी, मीठ, हळद, चवीपुरतं तिखट आणि गाजर/भोपळा/दुधी/बीट किसून किंवा एखादी पालेभाजी घालून कुकरला दोन शिट्या काढते. खायला देताना पातळ हवं असेल तर पाणी घालता येतं. सूप, किंवा स्टाॅक किंवा वरणाच...
Read more

Winter special pickles

Image
December is the month when juicy lemons are available cheap, so it's mandatory to make pickle. So are green chilies. Chili pickle This recipe is from a book called 'Hamkhas Paaksiddhi' by Jayashree Deshpande which was gifted to me by my Aai when my daughter was born. I often refer to this book. I took 250 gram green chilies, the normal ones, not the very hot ones. Washed, dried them and then chopped into small pieces. Heat a small tadka pan, take 2 tbs of oil, add one tbsp methi seeds, remove, then switch off the flame. Add 2 tbsp asafoetida powder to the oil and stir well. Heat half a cup of water and let it cool. Also heat half a cup of oil and let it cool. Add 1/4 cup mustard dal or split mustard, 1 tbsp turmeric powder and 1/4 cup of lemon juice in the mixer jar and make a paste. Keep adding the cooled water gradually and keep running the mixer. Stop when you get the heady smell of the mustard and the mixture has turned frothy and light. Add this to the lemon pie...
Read more

Sanja

Image
Sanja This is a simple breakfast dish in Maharashtra, with just a few ingredients. All it needs is rawa/suji/semolina, salt, lemon juice, onion, green chili, curry leaves, salt, water, oil. You can add potatoes, sweet corn, green peas if you have to enhance the flavors and nutrition value. I didn't have any today. It might look similar to Upma, but the taste is quite different. In my household, upma has tomatoes, red chili and no turmeric. Sanja is yellow, has green chili, no tomatoes. Roast one cup rawa. (In many Maharashtrian households, roasted rawa, grated dry coconut, roasted groundnuts, groundnut powder is always kept ready to be used.) Boil 2 cups water. Make a tadka of oil, jeera, mustard, asafoetida, turmeric and add onion, chilies, curry leaves. Add groundnuts if you like. Let it cook. Then add rawa, add salt, a little sugar and mix well. Add water, mix well and cover. After 2 minutes, stir once, add a spoonful of ghee on the sides, cover again. Check after 2-3 minu...
Read more