Rashmi's Dal Bukhara and Tandoori Roti

Welcome back Rashmi and thanks for bringing me back!! I have no excuse but laziness for being away and slipping back into silent blog hopping.... today when I read your post about Dal bukhara and tandoori roti, I was like I have to definitely try this sometime! I go home, look into the fridge and see my 2 day old atta and go.. well why not now? After checking the recipe I saw that unlike the usual dal makhani recipes, this one didn't need soaking the urad dal overnight.. So here you go.. My version of Dal Bukhara and Tandoori Roti.


I followed your recipe to the T and the result was fantastic! I've made Dal makhani before but it never tasted as good as this! And this was the first time ever I tried my hands at making Tandoori Roti. I was so thrilled when I actually saw the first roti fluff up and get brown, that too without getting burnt ;) !! G. was pretty happy with the result too.. Infact he wouldn't even let me take a picture! he was so impatient to have it... Somehow I managed to get this one before it got gobbled up!

Thanks again Rashmi for the great step-by-step recipe! Let me tell you this is a first for me that I tried out a recipe and even blogged about it the very same day as it was posted!! Well, I had to come back and share my result with you! :)

Palak Paneer

Here is my last minute entry to the Fortune Cooking event being hosted at SpicyTasty. I have chosen Sagittarius as the zodiac sign and Spinach as my ingredient. My hubby G. is a Saggi and he simply loves Palak Paneer! I take so long (well at least half hr) to make it and he laps it up in less than 5 mins! So this recipe totally fits the bill for the fortune cooking contest!

Here's a little something about Sagittarius from Wikipedia - Sagittarius folks are supposed to be highly free-spirited, optimistic, adventurous and energetic people who love to travel! All of these hold true for G. He is so much fun to be around, has a great sense of humor and hardly gets bothered by small details (unlike the Leo me!). We both, however, share the love for travel and have been to several great trips all around the world, with many more to come I am sure!

In any case, without further ado, here's the recipe for Palak Paneer


Ingredients
1 bunch fresh Spinach - chopped (or 1 packet chopped frozen Spinach)
250 gm Paneer - cubed
1 medium Onion - chopped
1 Tomato - chopped
1 inch Ginger - grated
2-3 Green Chillies - chopped
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
Salt to taste
1-2 tbsp Oil

Method
1. Cook chopped spinach with green chillies in 1/2 cup of water till it wilts and turns soft. (Thaw frozen spinach before cooking).
2. Heat the oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
3. Add grated ginger and roast for 1 min.
4. Add chopped onion and cook it till it turns transparent
5. Once the onion is done, add chopped tomato. Cook it till it turns mushy.
6. Turn off the heat. Add cooked spinach and mix well
7. Now use a hand blender and blend the mixture to a smooth paste
8. Add salt and cook this mixture covered for 5-10 minutes more
9. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan and add Paneer cubes to it
10. Shallow fry them for a few minutes till they turn golden brown.
(If using frozen paneer, then thaw the paneer, cube it and microwave it in some water for 5 mins to make it soft. I don't shallow fry the paneer then.. it can be added straight to the spinach.)
11. Add fried Paneer cubes to the cooked spinach mixture and cook covered for another 5 mins
12. Palak paneer is done! Serve hot with rotis or parathas

Gatte ki sabji

I got introduced to Rajasthani food at a very early age of 6. Our upstairs neighbors in Delhi were from Rajasthan and from them I got to taste some spiciest home-cooked Rajasthani food ever. Once we moved to Pune, we lost touch with them and rajasthani food. But recently several rajasthani restaurants and speciality outdoor "villages" like "Chokhi Dhani" and "Sanskriti" have come up around Pune getting us closer to the taste of Rajasthan once again. Now, no trip of ours to Pune is complete without a visit to Sanskriti! And in our last trip to India, we took some extra days off and visited the real Rajasthan!! Starting from Jaipur, we made it via a long train journey to Jaisalmer where we got to taste some real authentic jaisalmeri food straight from the kitchen of an 80 yr old lady!

We avoided touristy places and visited as many "local" restaurants as possible. Daal-bati-churma, Ker Sangri, jaisalmeri chane, Gatte, kadhi, bajre ki roti.. you name it.. we had it all :) Even now as I write this, my mouth starts watering! Take a look at a thali we had there. We visited Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ranakpur and Mt. Abu as well after that. And the only place where the food came close to that thali in Jaisalmer was the Gujarati food we had in the dharamshala of Ranakpur.

One dish I liked the most was Gatte ki Sabji. I have tried making it at home before with varying results ;) . Now, with the deadline for RCI Rajasthan coming close, I made it again.. this time with excellent results!


Here's how I made it..

Ingredients
For Gattas:
1.5 cup besan
1/2 cup fresh methi leaves chopped
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
2-3 tsp oil

For curry:
1 onion chopped fine
2 tomatoes pureed
2-3 green chillis chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
oil for tempering
little milk

Method

Gattas:
1. Mix besan with chilli pwd, garam masala, salt and 1 tsp oil.
2. Knead it well adding little water as necessary.
3. Now divide the dough in 3 equal portions and roll them into cylinders like this

4. Boil some water in a big bowl.
5. Once the water is boiling, put the above cylinders in it and boil them for 15-20 minutes (They will start floating on the top)
6. Take the cylinders out (save the water for later) and cool for sometime
7. Cut them in 1/2 inch pieces.
8. Now heat some oil in a non-stick pan and roast the gattas on both sides

These crunchy gattas could be eaten as is. But we're making a sabji here!

Curry:
1. Heat some oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, put the cumin seeds in it.
2. Once the cumin seeds are roasted, add chopped onions and fry them till they become transparent.
3. Add the tomato puree and green chillies next and roast till oil separates
4. Add the masalas now and some of the water used for boiling gattas.
5. Boil the gravy for 5-10 minutes. Add some milk to make it creamy.
6. Now add the gattas to the gravy and boil for some more time

Gatte ki sabji is ready! Serve with hot parathas


This is my first entry for an RCI event!! I am submitting it to RCI: Rajasthan hosted by Padmaja