Pigeon Peas/ Gunga Peas or Lilva Tuvar Curry

Pigeon Peas is also called Gunga peas or Lilva tuvar gungo and come in various forms. When they are fresh and green, they can be peeled like fresh peas. You can get fresh, frozen or tinned varieties of pigeon peas in most Asian supermarkets.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Cooking time : 20 minutes

2 cups of boiled pigeon peas
½ a can of crushed tomatoes ( you can used fresh tomatoes or passata too)
2 tablespoon cooking oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 teaspoon dry cumin seeds,
2 small pieces of cinnamon,
3 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
½ teaspoon of garam masala
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoons jaggery or brown sugar (optional)
1 small bunch of coriander and some curry leaves.
1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
2 fresh green chillies

Method:

1 Heat the 2 tablespoons cooking oil and add the cumin seeds, cloves and cinnamon. The cloves will pop and the cumin needs to cook until it goes dark.

3. Add the garlic, curry leaves and tomatoes to the mixture and stir.

4. Add all the spices, lemon and jaggery to the tomato mixture.

5. Cook all the ingredients until the tomatoes go soft and homogenous.

6. Add the boiled pigeon peas to the mixture and cook for a further 10 minutes on a medium heat.

7. Add the garam masala and remove the pigeon peas curry to a serving dish and sprinkle it with some chopped green chillies, desiccated coconut and coriander.

8. This curry should be served hot with rice or any of the Indian breads.

I served this with coriander and green chilly flavoured parathas (recipe to follow)..

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Onion Bhajias

These onion bhajias are my favourite. They are simple, easy and very quick to make.  They are a perfect snack to have with an ice cold coke.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

2 Medium Onions
1 cup chick pea flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ajwain (Carom seeds)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of soda bicarbonate
Very small bunch of finely chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of a mixture of minced green chillies and ginger (optional)

Method:

1. Peel and slice the onions. My onion grater has 2 sizes and I chose the thicker slices.

2. Mix the coriander, chillies and ginger mixture salt, pepper, ajwain and turmeric with the chick pea flour.

3. Add a quarter cup of water to this mixture and stir it well. The bhajia batter should be thick at this stage. You can always add add more water if you feel that the batter is too thick.

4. Keep this mixture aside 30 minutes.

5. Start to heat some oil in a wok. Turn the heat high, once the oil has heated, lower the heat. Check that the oil is hot by dropping a couple of drops of the batter in oil. If the batter rises quickly, the oil is ready.

6. Add the bicarbonate of soda, together with a teaspoon of hot oil from the wok to the batter and stir well. If the batter feels too thick – you can add a couple of tablespoons of water to the batter.

7. Dip one onion slice at a time into the bhajia batter and fry these onion bhajias at medium heat to allow them to cook well.

8. Enjoy them with any chutney.

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Quorn Mince: Quorn Spaghetti Bolognese

Let me first tell you a bit about Quorn as I am not sure how popular it is out of the UK.  Quorn' is the brand name for a range of meat-free ingredients and meals available in all UK supermarkets.    Quorn is  versatile and quick to cook.  The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, which is grown in large fermentation vats.

Quorn is produced as both a cooking ingredient and a range of ready meals. It is sold as a health food and an alternative to meat, especially for vegetarians.  They are sold in the chilled and freezer food section of supermarkets.   The binding agent for Quorn is egg .  Please checkout www.quorn.co.uk for more information and the range of products they make.

All my Quorn recipes have been posted especially for my sons and all young students who love Quorn and are looking for quick recipe ideas.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

3 cups of Quorn Mince
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 cups or Passata or  tinned chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon of coriander and cumin powder
3-4 cups of  fettucini (you can use spaghetti too)
Grated cheddar cheese

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the tomatoes (passata ot chopped tomatoes)

2.  Add the garlic, salt, pepper and cumin/coriander powder.

3.  Add the Quorn mince.  You can add mixed vegetables to this as well  if you wish to..


4.  Add half a cup of water to the mixture and allow it to simmer for 20 -25 minutes.  This enables the mince to absorb all the flavours.

5.  In the meantime, heat some hot water ready to cook the fettuccine or spaghetti as per the instruction on the packet.

6.  Serve the fettuccine hot topped with the Quorn Bolognese and cheese.

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Multi-grain Rolls with garlic, green chillies and coriander

Making bread is quite easy as long as you follow the recipe!!  Well nearly...I decided to make some fresh bread to go with my soup.  However, I fancied something spicy with my soup so decided to spice up my bread rolls.

Ingredients for 14 Rolls:

500grams of ready bread mix ( this saves you having to add yeast to the bread flour)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons butter

300 mls of warm water

1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds

you can also use poppy seeds, oats or pumpkin seeds.

A mixture of chopped garlic (3 cloves), 2 green chillies and a small bunch of coriander

2 tablespoons of milk

Method:

1.   Add the butter and salt to the bread dough and add the lukewarm water to it to make a dough.  Using your palm, knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes.  

2.   Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with a clean tea cloth.  Leave it in a warm place for 2 hours.

3.  After 2 hours, the dough will double in size.

4.  Transfer the dough on to a floured work top.

5. Knead it gently for 2 minutes.

6.  Divide the dough into 2.

7.  To one half of the dough, add the ginger, chillies and coriander mix and leave the second batch as plain bread rolls.

8.  Divide both the halves into 7 equal pieces making 14 rolls.

9.  Ensure that each roll is a round ball.

10.  Arrange the rolls on a greased baking tray by arranging 6 rolls around one central roll so that they are almost touching.

11.   Brush each roll with milk and top each roll with the different seeds like sesame, sunflower etc.

12.  Leave the rolls in  a warm kitchen for 20 minutes.

13.  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

14.  Place the bread rolls in the top half of the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

15.  Serve the warm rolls with soup or any other rasams.  These are great with pav bhaji too.  The spicy rolls were a great favourite with my family.


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www.givemesomespice.com

Bhakhri - A biscuit like Indian bread

Bhakhri is a crispy slightly salty almost biscuit like Indian bread which can be eaten with any curry. It's a traditional Gujarati bread. Most Gujarati's make chappatis (or rotlis) for lunch but will make a different Indian bread with their evening meal. Bhakhri is one of the dishes they would make with a light curry and often serve it with khichedi too. It's salty and crispy and tastes good hot or cold.

INGREDIENTS

2 Cups of wheat flour (chappati flour)
200 grams of salted butter.
a pinch of turmeric.
1 cup of warm milk
1 teaspoon of Ajwain (caroway seeds) or whole cumin can also be added as an option. I didn't in my recipe.

METHOD


1. Sieve the flour in a mixing bowl.

2. Warm the butter slightly (10-15 seconds in the microwave) and add it to the flour. As the butter is salty, there is no need to add salt to the flour.

3. Warm the milk - 1 minute in the microwave.

4. Using the warm milk, knead the dough to form a very firm dough. You can use warm water to finish kneading the flour if you run out of milk. Once the dough is ready - keep it covered for 20-30 minutes.

5. Divide into 8-10 small balls similar to the size of a golf ball.

6.   Roll out each portion into a 100 mm. (4") diameter round.    The bhakhris are made fairly small and left a bit thick. Using a butter knife, make small cuts in the bhakhri as shown below.  These cuts stop the bhakhri rising.

7.    Roast each round on both sides on a griddle (tava)  till golden brown.  You have to cook the bhakhri on a low heat and apply pressure to it  using a kitchen napkin to enable the bhakhri to cook properly.

8.   Butter the bhakhri and serve it hot with toor dall khichedi or  mung dall khichedi and any curry.

9.   Bhakhri's taste very good when they are hot but they taste just as nice when they are cold because they are crispy and taste almost like a salty crackers.

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CAULIFLOWER CURRY

Cauliflower can be cooked on its own or with potato (aloo gobi) with peas (mutter gobi) or potatoes (alu gobi)


Ingredients for cauliflower curry (serves 4):

One medium cauliflower - washed and cut into small pieces.
2 or 3 tablespoons oil (Most cooking oils are fine but try and use one which is low in saturated fats and trans fats)
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
Salt and chilly powder as required to your taste.
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin (jeera) powder.
One cup of fresh or tinned tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
small piece of ginger - grated finely
One small onion chopped and diced finely.
A small bunch of fresh coriander.

Method:

1. Warm the oil in a saucepan.

2. Add the mustard seeds. They should start popping - if not, stir them with a wooden spoon and wait for them to pop.

3. Add the diced onions,ginger and garlic. Stir them in the oil.

4. Add the salt, turmeric and chilly powder and keep stirring until the onions look golden brown.

5. Add the chopped cauliflower to this mixture and cover.

6. Let this cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat.

7. Check to see if the cauliflower has softened. If not allow a further 5 or 10 minutes.

8. Once the cauliflower feels soft, add the tomatoes and cumin powder and let it cook for 5 more minutes or until it looks dry.

9. Sprinkled with fresh coriander and serve with any Indian bread.

For Aloo Gobi:

Follow the same recipe and add the cauliflower and potato to the onion and garlic sauce .  Reduce the quantity of cauliflower to enable you to make the same quantity.

For Mutter Gobi:

Follow the same recipe and add the cauliflower and peas to the onion and garlic sauce. Reduce the quantity of cauliflower to enable you to make the same quantity


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