Cabbage Khichuri (Lentil Rice with Cabbage)

I prepared this in June and took photos but I have the time to post it now.
It is important for me to ensure that I don't spend long time in the kitchen and still have a balanced diet.
So, I often prepare an one-pot dish.

To make this cabbage Khichuri, I cut potato in small cubes and shred the cabbage manually.
I soaked rice, mug (yellow) Dal and musur Dal (red rentil) for about half an hour. You can soak it for a longer time. This yellow lentil is very special. We call it sona mug, a very tiny type of moong, of golden yellow colour. "Sona" in Bangla (Bengali) means "gold". It is not available outside Bengal, at least not easily available. I bring it from Kolkata.

I sautéed the potatoes and then added thinly sliced onions, cumin seeds, one or two dried chillies removing the seeds.

I added the cabbage and let it cook for a few minutes. I then added the spices: turmeric-, cumin- and coriander powder and mixed everything well. It's required to stir from time to time and let it cook without adding water. If you want it a little spicy, you can add a little chilly powder.
Now I added some peas. I get frozen peas from the supermarket near my house.

I have mentioned above that I soaked rice and lentils. Now I drained the water and added it all. Just like earlier, I stirred and mixe everything. And then I added salt and water. I cooked this in pressure cooker. I closed the lid and after six whistles I turned off the flame.
I was very hungry. So, I let the steam out by lifting the pressure. But usually I wait for quite some time and then open the cooker. In the meantime it completely stops sizzling and there is no air pressure inside. You should never try to open the lid of a pressure cooker immediately after removing it from the flame.  If you don't use pressure cooker, you can check progress from time to time and cook till everything is thoroughly cooked.

When I opened the cooker it looked like this from above. Under this upper most layer it wasas really soft.

Pointed Gourd with Coconut

Pointed gourd is not available in every part of India. In Bangalore  and in Pune I rarely found it. In Mumbai I get a smaller type of it and it is always very costly. So, I don't prepare this often. In Bengal we make a number of dishes withis vegetable: light fish curry with poipted gourd, patol posto (pointed gourd with poppy seed paste, pinted gourd with potato in light watery gravy etc. Most of the time we add a little potato also. I prepared this dish on the 12th of June. Finally I have the time to write about it.

I peeled the vegetables and cut them into pieces as they are in the pictures at the end of this post.
This is how we commonly cut them for many dishes but not for all preparations.
I heated mustard oil and added cumin seeds and dried red chillies for seasoning. I took the seeds of the chillies out so the curry didn't become too hot. UsuallyI add beat leaves, too, but I hadn't any. Also, my mother usually adds a little grated ginger which I didn't use either.
I added the vegetables into the oil with the seasoning and stirred well. I let the vegetables sautéed for a few minutes. Then I added turmeric-, cumin-, coriander-, and red chilli powder. Red chilli powder is optional and I added just a little. I mixed everything well and let it cook for a few more minutes. I added finely grated (and dried) coconut now. I buy this from the supermarket. Now I added salt. Mixing everything well, I added water and I let it boil until the vegetables were thoroughly cooked. Now I added garam masala. I let it cook a little longer to reduce the water. I wanted the curry near dry.
I had it with steamed rice.

Day before yesterday my Mom prepared a curry with coming and bay leaf seasoning. I made the vegetables ready for cooking and then I took these photos to show you how the fresh vegetable looks like.

Ghugni -- a popular Bengali Dish of Garbanzo beans

We call garbanzo beans "kabuli chhola" ". Interestingly "chhola" is "gram" and "kabuli" in Bangla (Bengali) is the adjective of Kabul, the city in Afghanistan and so, means "something related to Kabul/something from Kabul". So, literally, it means, Gram from Kabul. I don't know if garbanzo beans came to us from Afghanistan but it is not the only bean we use to prepare this popular dish, ghugni; we also use Bengal gram, the darker and smaller sister of Garbanzo bean and also, dried peas.
The photo above is the breakfast my mother made yesterday. (I am at my mom's house because my father is undergoing a surgery.) My mother makes this quite often and serves with handmade ruti (the hindi word "phulka" or "phulka Rori" may be familiar to some of you!).

To prepare it, soak the beans overnight and then boil them until thoroughly cooked. Add salt in this process. We use a pressure cooker for this purpose.
Cut potato in small cubes. You can also prepare it without potato.
Heat oil of your choice and  add the potato cubes. Let them fry till they turn brown. Now add the seasoning: dried bay leaves (one or two), sliced green chilies (two to three), half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, finely chopped onion and crushed garlic. Stir everything well and let it dry till the onions turn golden. Now add turmeric- and cumin powder. (IIadd a little confused oriander powder, too, but that's optional). Stir well to mix. If you want tomatoes in this dish, add some, finely chopped, now (yesterday my mother didn't because my father is not suppsed to eat tomato but we sometimes do). If you add tomatoes, now let it cook for some time.
Add the boiled garbanzo beans now. Mix well. You might need to add a little more salt. Add water. Let it boil for some time and let the water reduce. You can also add a little garam masala powder towards the end.

Some like it really hot and spicy. They add some red chilli powder with the other spices. I don't prefer that.

Jhaal Suji -- Spicy Semolina

I often cook a dish and take its photo and upload it here and even then I don't post the recipe because I don't have time. I cooked this a few weeks ago, if not months, and then it remained in the draft status forever.
Finally I am writing again and here is how you can prepare it.
Heat oil and sautée small pieces of potato in it. When they turn golden add shredded onion. You can also use carrots and beans and completely get rid of potato as an ingredient. It is a very versatile dish and you have a lot of freedom as a cook. Only sautée the vegetables in the beginning.
After the onion is glazed, add green chilies, red chilli if you want, cumin seeds and stir and mix. You can add a bay leaf to the seasoning, too. My mother always use it. I also do, if I have it. But it is not always available where I live.
Add a little turmeric powder, salt and a little cumin powder to the vegetables and mix well. Now add wayer. After adding water I add some frozen peas and some ground nuts that I have already soaked for hours. But as I have already mentioned, you can use ingredients of your choice. Use something you can eat without any problems.
As the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, add the semolina. There should be some water left at this point. The vegetables should not be totally dry. After you add the semolina, stir constantly while it gets cooked. It cooks really quickly. Stirring is required to ensure that everything is mixed well and the semolina is not stuck to the bottom of the container.
It is an easy and filling dish.

Note: Today (20/7/2018) I again prepared this for breakfast for my parents and myself. So, I am uploading some more photos here.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

It had been raining in Mumbai for days. I didn't have vegetables left in my kitchen. But my umbrella was broken. And it was not possible to dry clothes, so I didn't want to get out on the road. (In India we don't often use a drying machine and our hostel doesn't have any.) So, for a long time, as long as a whole week, I was eating mainly rice, different types of lentils and onion fritters (because I had some onions left.) So, I was clearly not having a balanced diet for many days.

Onion Fritters and Red Lentil Soup to go with Steamed Rice

Rice-Lentils-Chowli Beans Khichuri and Fried Potato

Eating some green vegetables became urgent. I asked my flatmate if I could borrow her umbrella and my list of vegetables started with "umbrella"! While leaving home for the market, I discovered that my flatmate wasn't there. She had to go out. Started walking in the rain, I got totally drenched as I reached my destination. It goes without saying that the first thing I bought was an umbrella. Then I bought vegetables enough for a week because I was planning a surprise visit to home.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

I made an easy but delicious eggplant and potato curry to have with steamed rice.
Heating up some mustard oil, I added the pieces of potato first. Make sure that the potato is cut into small pieces, much smaller than the eggplant because eggplant is a softer vegetable and cooks faster than potato. After the potatoes turned golden, I added shredded onion and a little green chilies. If you like it hot and spicy, you can use for seaoning dried red chilli, too; in addition, you can also use cumin seeds.
After the onion was glazed, I added finely chopped tomatoes and turmeric-, cumin-, coriander-, and a little red chilli powder. I also added a little 'goda masala' which is a Marathi traditional combination of spices. I added the eggplant now, after everything else. I usually cut them in bigger pieces, bigger than the potato. I stirred and mixed everything well. Finally I added water and covered it with a lid and let it cook for about twt minutes. At this point you should lower the flame. But in our kitchen the flame is always low, thanks to no regular servicing for the oven in spite of several requests from us.
In about ten minutes it was cooked and the quantity of water reduced. I had it with steamed rice.

Cauliflower in Coconut Gravy

It's a vey easy and quick recipe. I prepared  this in a pressure cooker. I heated some mustard oil and then added some small pieces of potatoes into it. After those turned golden I added the cauliflower pieces. I stirred from time to time to make sure all the sides of the cauliflowers get sautéed a little bit. Then I added finely chopped tomatoes, let all cook stirring every now and then. Then  I added cuminn powder, turmeric,  coriander powder, goda masala, stirred and mixed well. Use garam masala instead of goda masala because today masala is not available everywhere. I added a little red chilli powder for colour but it is optional. Added coconut powder (bought it from the local supermarket) and salt. Stirred and mixed everything very well, added water and  closed the lid. After two whistles I turned off the flame. You can cook it in any type of container. After adding water cook till the vegetables reach the tenderness you want. I had it with steamed rice.

Rice with Peas

I had a difficult day today. Didn't sleep last night well. There is a rat inside the room. Agghh..! Disgusting! As usual, got up very early today when my roomate was getting ready and tried to sleep as soon as she left at about 06:30 a.m. but woke up again and about 08:30. Was half asleep lying lazy till about 11:30 and then got wide awake when I realised that the air conditioner was no longer working and I started sewating profusely. it is already close to 40 degree celcius here. There was no electricity. So, there was no wifi, no drinking water, no lights, no way to charge the phone and call the landlord. And there was no motivation to cook.
 I left the house frustrated, walked up to our ladlord's office a few hundred metres away, paid the rent and informed him about the power cut.
 Then I left for some work. On my way home later in the evening I picked some frozen peas -- for a change because I always buy the fresh ones from the local market --  as I went to the supermarket to get a particular brand of mustard oil and some rice. While entering our building, I enquired with a neighbour and found out that they had electricity.                              Tired, hungry having eaten not a single grain of rice since my dinner last night, drenched in sweat and exhausted in this merciless Indian summer, I made this super quick, super easy one pot rice dish to rescue myself from starvation and collapsing.       

      I poured some frozen peas in luke warm water in a big bowl and chopped one tomato. I heated some mustard oil in my pressure cooker until it reached its smoking point and added about a half of a teaspoon cumin seeds and 4 small dried red chilies into it. This is my seasoning. I removed the seeds of those chillies. I always do that. Now I added the tomato into the oil and stirred a little. I added the peas now and then, a little turmeric powder, goda masala powder (optional), coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala powder and stirred to mix well. I added salt now and let it cook on a low flame. In the meantime I quickly rinsed basmati rice with filtered water and then added that too. When I have time, I always soak the rice for about half an hour.                                                                   I mixed all the ingredients together and now added coconut milk in it. No recipe of peas pulao /peas-fried-rice really asks you to add coconut milk but recently I have got so fascinated by it, after cooking caulCaulifl with it recently, the recipe of which I am going to post soon, that I wanted it in my rice too. But it is completely optional. I added a little jaggery (I have stopped eating sugar a few years ago.) And closed the lid. After eight whistles, my meal, my first meal of the day, was ready. I had it at 18:37 p.m. Electricity came back in the meantime. The caretaker told us over phone that somebody turned off the main switch. I don't know how that is even possible because the main switch cannot be so easily accessible. I was however, too tired to check it personally. Will do that tomorrow, but not before having the left-over rice as breakfast.