Potato Onion Poha

Potato-onion poha is a traditional gujarati dish - relished as an appetizer or a main meal too (yes I love it so much!). It is made from flattened rice - the thicker kind. It is very quick easy to make this poha... Go into your kitchen and give it a try!

 

Ingredients:

• 4 cup thick poha/thick flattened rice
• 2 medium potatoes - finely diced
• 2 medium onions - finely diced
• 1 medium tomato - finely diced
• ¹/₂ tsp ginger paste
• ¹/₂ tsp garlic paste
• 2 tsp serrano pepper - finely chopped
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• ¹/₄ tsp asafoetida
• 6-7 curry leaves
• 2 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts - coarsely crushed
• ¹/₄ tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tsp lime juice
• ¹/₄ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• Salt - to taste
• Garnishing
• 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro 
• Fine sev

Method

•  Wash the poha in a colander and set it aside. The poha will puff soaking the water that it has retained in the colander while you washed it. Remember, do not soak the poha in water - this will make your end product very mushy.
• In a pan, heat the oil on medium-high heat and add mustard seeds; allow them to crackle. When the mustard seeds start crackling, add sesame seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. Add serrano pepper, ginger paste and garlic paste and saute on medium-low heat for 30 seconds.
• Add the diced onion and potatoes and season them with salt (salt helps reduce cook time), cook covered until onion and potatoes are cooked thru (you can check by splitting a piece of onion and a potato using a saute spoon - it is done if you can feel a soft split). Sprinkle little water if needed.
• Add the poha, turmeric powder, cinnamon powder, peanuts, sugar, salt for the poha's portion; mix well. Let it cook covered for 2-3 minutes. 
• Add diced tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro; mix well one last time and cook for about a minute.
• take it off the heat

Serving suggestion:
Poha can be relished by itself or served with fine sev sprinkled on top.
Enjoy!!

Bow-tie Pasta in Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato flavored Pesto

Pasta for our family is the quick and easy go-to comfort food that is both easy and quick to cook and needs very few ingredients. Quick recipe that can be prepared within 30 min... Who doesn't like that?

The sun-dried tomatoes and marinaded artichoke hearts bring in a lovely tangy flavor to the dish which gets well balanced with the usual basil-pesto flavor. End result is just divine! If you like pesto, I bet you'll like this too.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Bow-tie (Farfalle) pasta
• ³/₄ cup Pine Nuts - roasted
• ¹/₄ cup Walnuts - roasted
• 4 oz. Fresh Basil Leaves (approx. 2 cups)
• 1 - 10 oz. can of Sun-Dried Tomatoes
• 1 ¹/₄ cup Marinaded Artichoke Hearts
• 1 tsp Garlic - minced
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
• Ground Black Pepper - to taste
• Salt - to taste
• 1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano - freshly grated (Traditionally pasta dishes are incomplete without cheese in them but since this was loaded with nuts and olive oil, I didn't use it in my preparation).
• Water - to boil the pasta

Method:

• To make the sauce:
• Add the pine nuts, walnuts, basil leaves, sun-dried tomatoes, marinaded artichoke hearts, garlic, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper (Reserve 4-5 pieces of tomatoes and ¹/₄ cup of artichoke hearts for later use) to a food processor and process until well combined. Make sure you use all the oil from the can of sun-dried tomatoes (you'll not need any extra oil)
• To cook the pasta:
• Boil water in a pot and add a generous amount of salt to it (remember this is the only seasoning opportunity your pasta has and not all salt that you add to the water will get absorbed by the pasta). I also like to add about a tsp of oil to the water while it is boiling - this helps in the pasta not sticking to each other when you drain them.
• Cook the pasta for about 10-12 min (or as per your package's instructions). Our family likes it cooked thru but you can remove it sooner or later depending on your liking.
• Drain the pasta (reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water to use during our final step).
• Dice the reserved tomatoes and artichoke hearts. In a pan, roast the tomatoes and artichoke hearts for about 30 sec. Add the sauce and the drained pasta and half of the reserved pasta water. Stir to combine (add more of the pasta water as required).

Serving Suggestion:

The pasta goes well with nicely toasted garlic bread but can be relished just by itself too! :-)
Enjoy!!

Punjabi Chhole

Punjabi Chhole is a mouth watering curry prepared with Chhole (garbanzo beans) in aromatic onion-tomato sauce/gravy.. Follow this recipe and I assure you this will be the best Chhole you've had so far :-)

Ingredients:

• 3 - 15 oz. cans of Chhole (garbanzo beans) - rinsed (you can alternatively soak the beans overnight and boil the next day if you don't want to use canned ones)
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1¹/₂ tbsp ginger - grated
• 1¹/₂ tbsp garlic - grated
• 3 large onions - puréed
• 5 large tomatoes - puréed
• 5 tbsp chhole/chana masala (I used MTR)
• 1 tbsp chilli powder
• ¹/₄ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp kasuri methi (crushed between your palms)
• ¹/₂ cup tomato purée from can (optional use if your tomatoes are not very red and tangy)
• Water - as needed (I used about 1/4 cup)
• Salt to taste
• Whole masala
• 1-1¹/₂" cinnamon stick
• 4-5 cloves
• 8-10 black peppercorns
• 3 pods cardamom peeled
• To garnish
• Cilantro - 2 tbsp

Method

• Using a mortar pestle coarsely ground the whole masala
• In a frypan, heat the oil and ghee; add the coarsely ground whole masala and sauté for about 30 sec.
• Add grated ginger and garlic and sauté again for 30 sec.
• Add puréed onion and let it cook covered on medium to medium-low heat until the smell of raw onion disappears (add water if necessary - I like to be frugal with water addition)
• Now add the puréed tomatoes and let it cook covered until the oil separates at the edges
• Now add all the masala and mix well
• Let it simmer for a few minutes - this will ensure the masala flavor is infused in the gravy
• Add Chhole and mix well
• Add this mixture to the pressure cooker (add water if the gravy is less) and pressure cook on medium low flame for 1 whistle. Don't be in a hurry to open the pressure cooker, rather let the pressure release on its own.
• Open the pressure cooker and mix well one last time. Remove to a serving bowl and garnish with cilantro

Serving suggestion:

Chhole is traditionally served with bhature; I however prefer the whole wheat paratha :-)

Enjoy!!