Kitchen kraziness

As I mentioned early this year, I've started to spend some quality time in kitchen and it's been a lot of fun.

This is to point out that the food-lover in you might want to stop by at Our Cooking Experiments for some good healthy ghaas-phus type foods and to witness some kitchen kraziness.

Sitting around this Saturday afternoon, I was getting all philosophical about it so decided to share with you what all I learned that from these recent adventures. I've learned that:

• cooking is an art to be mastered.
  
• what you give is what you get; similarly what you put in is what you make.
  
• patience is a virtue and good dishes take good time.
  
• efficiency and speed are very important and can only be achieved by practice.
  
• it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them.
  
• taking a shortcut isn't always a good thing.
  
• the word laziness has got to go from our dictionary.
  
• sharing the knowledge only helps us than being secretive about it.
  
• the happiness that comes from making delicious food and feeding people is unbelievable.
  
• last but not least, as Jamba Juice slogan says, this body is a temple, don't litter in it.
  

So are you ready to drool some? If yes, then let the drooling begin... :)

Happy New Year 2010 & My Cooking Experiments...

Happy New Year 2010 everyone!

These days I'm trying to spend some time in kitchen experimenting around. Here comes one of the recent experiments.

Btw, I'm also learning a lot of the names of items in English so if I can't find the English word, I'll put in the Indian (Gujarati/Hindi) word for it until I find the English one. Here's a useful link in case you're interested in learning more vocabulary.

Hopefully, this label will get more than one post. *fingers crossed* :P

Disclaimer: Instructions are from an amateur. Please try these methods at your own risk. No guarantee of anything. Don't forget to enjoy!!!


Sambhar Recipe


Items:
1½ cup pigeon peas/tuvar daal
6-7 tsp oil (or as needed)

3 tsp white lentil/urad/adad daal
2 tsp fenugreek/methi seeds
2 tsp chickpeas/chana daal (optional)
1 tsp cumin/jeeru
1 tsp black mustard seeds/rai
2 big dry red chili peppers (cut into halves)
½ tsp asafoetida/hing
10-12 leaves curry leaves/meetho limbdo

4 tsp cumin-coriander blend/dhana jeeru
2 tsp red chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp sambhar masala

2 tomatoes chopped
¼ cup tamarind/imli/aambli
1 tbsp grated coconut (optional)
water (as needed)
cilandro/dhana (to garnish)


Method:
Boil the tuvar daal in pressure cooker until it’s well cooked. It’s okay if it’s a little over cooked (not burned, but more liquidy). Mix the cooked daal well with water and set aside.

Boil the dry tamarind in one cup water and after mixing it well, strain it. Set aside.

In a big pot, heat the oil and add mustard seeds, urad daal, methi, chana daal, red chili peppers, jeeru, meetho limbdo and hing. Once the urad daal turns light pink, add about 5-6 cups of water. After the water starts boiling add the following: salt, red pepper powder, turmeric, sambhar masala, dhana jeeru. Keep stirring in between to mix well. Let the liquid boil some more and add the daal that we set aside earlier. Add tomatoes, tamarind liquid, and grated coconut. Stir well and let it boil at medium heat.


Preparing sambhar
Originally uploaded by kananj


Veggies: (for Vegetable sambhar)
Note: This is optional, but I add it because it makes sambhar healthier. You can add/remove any of the veggies as you please.

½ cup chopped onions
½ cup chopped bottle gourd/dudhi/lauki
½ cup chopped ivy gourd/tindora
½ cup chopped potatoes
½ cup chopped eggplant
½ cup chopped okra/bhindi
¼ cup chopped carrots
2 tsp oil

Method:
While the sambhar is boiling, in another pot, heat the oil and add the onions, once the onions turn light pink transparent then add rest of the vegetables and cook at medium heat for 10 mins.

Add these cooked veggies to the sambhar mix. Don't just dump it in as it might make the sambhar splatter all over the place. Instead use a big spoon to move it from one pot to the other. Alternatively, you can put a little bit of sambhar in the pot with veggies and pour it all back into the bigger pan.

Let it boil some more so that the veggies are well soaked in the sambhar. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with idli or rice or just as soup.

Feeds: 8-10 people


Sambhar
Originally uploaded by kananj