Curry in a Hurry

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

What we need:

• 2 Eggs
• Pinch of Salt
• Pinch of Red Chilli Powder
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 Onion, cut long
• 1 piece Ginger
• 1 Green Chilli, cut fine

What we do:

• Beat the eggs after breaking and mix with salt and chilli powder.
• Heat oil in a dry saucepan.
• Fry onions, ginger and chillies.
• When onions turn pink, add the beaten eggs mix.
• Swirl the pan and cook until the top is not runny.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

What we need:

• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 6 slices of Bread
• 1 tbsp Sugar

What we do:

• Beat the eggs and milk. Add sugar to the mix.
• Put butter/margarine on the bread and dip it in the mix prepared above.
• Cook over medium flame in a greased/oiled pan.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

What we need:

• 2 Eggs (beaten)
• 1 Onion, cut long
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 Green Chilly, chopped fine
• 1 tbsp Turmeric
• Salt (to Taste)
• Red Chilli Powder (to Taste)

What we do:

• Heat Oil in a pan.
• Fry onions and green chilli.
• When onions turn pink, add beaten eggs, turmeric, salt and chilli powder.
• Stir until it is scrambled.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

What we need:

• 1 Cup Basmati Rice
• 2 tbsp Jeera
• 1” Chopped Ginger
• 1 Minced Green Chilly
• Salt (to Taste)
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 Chopped Onion
• 2 tbsp Chopped Coriander

What we do:

• Cook the rice. See this.
• In a sauce pan heat the oil.
• When the oil is hot, fry the ginger and the jeera.
• Then add the chopped onion and the chilly and fry for some time.
• Now add the cooked rice and cook for a few minutes.
• Garnish with the chopped coriander.
• You are now done. Suggestion: try it with curd.

So, anonymous_puppeteer from reddit was enthusiastic enough to provide quite a few delicious South Indian recipes. From the simple Jeera Rice to the more complicated Payasam - a fine collection. Enjoy!

Now there are many ways of preparing Poha. There are intricate recipes involving peanuts, fried onions and what not. Not that I dislike such recipes, but the years spent at home have made me accustomed to this simple poha that my mom prepared for breakfast. Just some chiwda (poha) and tomatoes. Nothing fancy. And this is how I like it. :)

Poha, for those who don’t know it (and that includes me - I had to google this bit) is called poached rice in the Queen’s language and is also known as rice flakes or flattened rice.

So, now for the recipe.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

What we need:

• Poha (Chiwda) - please head to your nearest Indian store to get this
• Rai (Black mustard seeds) (1 teaspoon)
• Cooking Oil / Desi Ghee
• Salt (to taste)
• Sugar (to taste)
• Lemon (1)
• Haldi (Turmeric) (1/2 teaspoon)
• Tomatoes (2)

What we do:

• Wash the poha in a strainer. Take care to not wash it with too much water else it will form lumps and would be no fun to eat. The strainer will automatically take care of draining the unneeded water.
• Add sugar, salt, turmeric and the lemon juice on the poha. Mix it well.
• Now heat the oil in a pan.
• When the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds. Wait till they start crackling. Now add the poha.
• Mix and stir for some time so that the spices are distributed evenly. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
• Now take out the poha and add fresh cut tomatoes to it.
• This is it, you have a very simple poha dish ready to enjoy. Excellent for a light breakfast.

When it comes to vegetables, Gobhi (Cauliflower) is definitely right up there as one of my favourite. Aloo Gobhi (Potatoes and Cauliflower) is a very common and popular Indian dish, so I am just sharing a simple recipe here.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

What we need:

• Cauliflower (1 small)
• Potatoes (3-4)
• Onion (1)
• Coriander Powder (1 teaspoon)
• Hing (a small pinch)
• Jeera (1 tbsp)
• Red Chilli Powder (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Turmeric Powder (1 teaspoon)
• Garam Masala (1 teaspoon)
• Cooking Oil

What we do:

• Cut the cauliflower into florets. Here is an excellent link on how to do that.
• Cut the potatoes in cubes.
• Chop the onion finely.
• Heat the oil in a pan.
• When the oil is warm, add the jeera.
• When the jeera add crackling add hing.
• After a few seconds, add the chopped onion.
• Cook till the onions turn golden brown. Then add all the spices (Salt, Garam Masala, Chilli Powder, Turmeric Powder and the Coriander Powder).
• Mix well and then add the cut cauliflower and potatoes.
• Again mix well, so that the spices get distributed evenly on the cauliflower and potatoes.
• Cook on medium flame till the potatoes are tender. Keep mixing the vegetables periodically so that they don’t stick to the bottom of your cooking utensil.
• That is it, you are done.

Dal … what is dal? To state statistically, it is the staple diet of almost 1.5 billion people in the world. But that does not do it justice. Let me tell you what Dal is. Imagine a dry and dusty day, you are on the road (driving or walking in a city far far away from home). You are hungry, and a roadside shack is all that is there in sight. You approach it, not sure of what to expect. The man standing behind the earthen counter serves you this bowl of steaming hot yellow soup along with rice. You pour some of the soup (that is when you notice those little round lentils swimming in there) on the rice, mixing it nicely. The green coriander leaves stand out in the yellow mixture. The tinge of red tells you that it has the right amount of mirchi (chilli) in it. You put a spoonful in your mouth … and you know you are in heaven.

So, moving away from my ramblings, the important question that we must ask ourselves is how do we make dal? Let us just say that this is one of the easiest recipes and quite easy to get right in your first try. Let’s get cracking then, shall we? I feel the enthusiasm, good. :)

Preparation time: 30 minutes

What we need:

• Dal (Chana, Arhar, Moong - basically any yellow dal) (about 250g)
• A small onion
• Couple of tomatoes
• Hing (a small pinch)
• Jeera (1 teaspoon)
• Desi Ghee (you will get this in any Indian store, else use butter)
• Red chilli powder (to taste - go easy on it if you are not used to hot food)
• Salt (to taste)
• Turmeric (1 teaspoon)
• Garam Masala (1 teaspoon)
• Coriander Leaves.

What we do:

• Wash and soak the dal in water for a couple of hours before you boil it.
• Put the dal and water (make sure that there is enough water to cover the dal and some to spare) along with salt and turmeric in a pressure cooker. (Tip: It is better to have more water than less. The excess water can be taken out after the dal is boiled. If there is not sufficient water in the pressure cooker, the dal will stick to the bottom of the pressure cooker.)
• Pressure cook for around 25 minutes (this includes the time required to heat the pressure cooker).
• Meanwhile, chop up the onions and tomatoes in very small pieces.
• Heat the ghee (or butter) in a pan.
• When it is sufficiently hot, add the jeera.
• When the jeera starts crackling, add a pinch of hing.
• Now add the chopped onions. Wait till the onions start turning golden brown.
• Now add the chiili powder, salt and garam masala.
• Mix up the onions and spices nicely.
• Then add the chopped tomatoes to this mixture.
• Cook till you have achieved the consistency of a watery paste.
• The dal is probably done by now. Let the steam out of the pressure cooker. Make sure that the dal is done by tasting a spoonful. It should be really soft. You should not need to really bite the lentil pieces to break them.
• Check the amount of dal and water in the pressure cooker. If you feel there is too much water, take out some of it.
• Now add the tomato paste that you have prepared to the dal and water in the pressure cooker. Mix thoroughly.
• Add some coriander leaves for garnishing.
• And this is it. You are done.

Enjoy the food.

For most of us from South Asia rice it is imperative that we get our helping of Basmati Rice at least once a day. I have noticed that people from Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, China and Japan also swear by rice, though I am not aware of their preferred variety of rice. Cooking rice is ridiculously easy, however it is also ridiculously easy to mess up. I usually cook rice in the microwave and sometimes in a pressure cooker. Both methods are easy, and more importantly quite fast. Within 15 minutes you would have perfectly cooked rice.

Pre-instructions:

Wash the rice in cold water. This will remove the excess starch. Now use a strainer or a sieve to remove all the water. If you do have some excess water left over, adjust the ratios of water and rice in the next step accordingly.

Method 1: Microwave

• Keep the ratio of rice and water to 1:2. Add a teaspoon of salt as well. Add the rice and water (along with the salt) to a microwave safe container and cover it with a lid (with a hole to allow the steam to escape).
• Heat for 10-12 minutes (800-1000 W) and then take out the pan. (Alternate method: At half-time take out the pan, stir the rice and remaining water with a fork and then put it in again.)
• Take out the container. Leave for 3-5 minutes.
• Open the lid and enjoy the rice.

Method 2: Pressure Cooker

• Keep the ratio of rice and water to 1:1.25. Again add a teaspoon of salt. Add this mixture to your pressure cooker and close the lid.
• Pressure cook for 4-6 minutes under full pressure.
• Then cool the pressure cooker quickly by keeping it under cold running water taking care to ensure that the water does not enter the pressure cooker. This is done to ensure that the rice does not keep on cooking.
• Open the pressure cooker and enjoy.

My preferred method is to use the microwave. Less hassle and I can use the pressure cooker for cooking lentils or beans while the rice is being made.

The last post contained a rather extensive list of the ingredients that I usually use when I am cooking. Some of the stuff might be foreign to you (or not) and you must be wondering whether it is even possible to get this stuff outside India. Don’t worry, it is pretty easy to get this sort of stuff in most countries.

Let’s start. Print the table of spices from the previous post. Then visit your preferred mall and tick all the stuff that is available in there. (Protip: If you are shopping at a German or a Swiss mall, please don’t bother with the Curry Masala or the Chilli Powder. I have found them to be quite ineffective.)

Next take a look at all the stuff that you still have not managed to obtain. Chances are that your local mall (if it is not in India) will not stock Garam Masala, Hing, Amchur and other such very specific Indian (South Asian) spices. What to do then? Easy. Fire up google maps and discover an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi store near your place. Or ask around, most places have an Indian store these days. (If you are in the UK or the US, then you probably have a lot of these stores.) Get all the other spices from there. (Protip: I usually prefer to buy vegetables and fruits from the local mall. I have found the quality to be better.) Another item of note, stock yourself with basmati rice and various pulses and beans of your choice from the Indian store, do not bother looking at the local mall for these. Even if they are there, you would find the prices to be better at the Indian stores.

So, that is it then. We are almost ready to get cracking. Enjoy the lovely meals that you shall soon be preparing.