Carrots, raw mango and green chillies pickle with mustard (raita gajar, marcha & keri)

A lot of you have been emailing me to ask why I haven't posted any recipes recently. I have been spending a lot of my time chasing bloggers and websites owners who have been using my photographs without my permission and passing them off as theirs. One website even copied my recipe word for word!! Anyway, I am glad to say that most of them have removed the "stolen" pictures and recipe.


This has led me to create a facebook page were any blogger can report copy cat bloggers. If any of you have been a victim of plagiarism, do name and shame those bloggers on this Facebook page. This experience has made to realise that I need to add a large watermark right in the middle of  all my photographs. In my early days of blogging, I hadn't realised that other people could copy and use my pictures. I am now updating all my blog recipes and pictures . I have been spending a lot of time cooking using my blog recipes and updating the recipes and changing some of the photographs. In the coming year - I hope to give my blog/website a facelift. 


Now back to my recipe. This dish is made in all Indian homes and served as a condiment in the main thali. It adds to the flavours of the dishes you have in your thali. Indian thali will have fresh chappatis, puri or any similar bread with 2-3 curries, rice, dalls, chutneys, raita and a sweet dish. Each dish tastes different and adding such pickles, chutneys or papadums helps to balance all the flavours. 


Living in the fens, we get really fresh and sweet carrots straight from the farm so I make this pickle nearly every week. We love this fresh and spicy accompaniment in our thali. The recipe for carrot, chilly and mango pickle is simple and can be made with several combinations. The chilly and carrot is the most popular. Adding raw mangoes to the recipe helps to keep the salad fresh for longer. You can also add raw tindora (Indian Ivy gourd) to the pickle . Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the pickle I had made with tindora!! Different families will have their own version of making this dish. Some like to grind the mustard seeds and use the powder, some may not add the oil. My suggestion is to experiment and find a taste that you like. 


Ingredients: 


2-3 medium carrots 
15-20 fresh green chillies 
1-2 raw mangoes (Use the small ones sold as pickle mangoes as these remain nice and crisp) 
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
2 tablespoons of split mustard seeds 
1 -2 teaspoons of salt 
1 teaspoons of turmeric 
2 tablespoons of cooking oil 

Method: 


1. Peel the carrots but leave the skin on the mangoes if it's not marked. 


2. Cut the mangoes and carrots into juliennes and soak them into cold water for 5 minutes. 


3. De stalk the green chillies and slice them into two lengthwise. If the chillies are long, you can cut them into two and soak them in cold water for 5 minutes. Soaking them helps to remove the hot chilly seeds. 


4. Sieve the carrots and mangoes. 


5. For the chillies, remove the chillies using a spoon. This way, any chilly seeds will be at the bottom of the pan and not get added to the pickle. 


6. Transfer all the prepared carrots, mangoes and chillies to a mixing bowl. 


7. Add the salt, turmeric, lemon juice and split mustard seeds and mix well. 

8. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil and allow to cool very slightly so that it doesn't splutter when adding to the mixture. 


9. Add this oil to the mixture and stir well. 


10. Adding the warm oil helps to release the flavours from all the spices and also coats the spices to all the vegetables. 


11. Transfer this pickle to a clean bottle and eat after 24 hours. This freshly made pickle can remain edible for a week if kept in the fridge.

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Carrot soup with a hint of onions, garlic, coriander served up with a bit of sunshine!

Every family has members who have specific tastes in their food and the chef in the family always ends up with the job of planning a meal that will please everyone or cooking several dishes to try and please everyone.   Some families -like mine- also have members who have certain dietary restrictions so there is an added burden of deciding what to cook!!   We have got round this problem by creating a list of foods that is acceptable to all.   We keep adding to this list and I am pleased to say that this carrot soup is in that list now!!   It's winter time in UK and also holiday time so it's nice to be able to cook something that everyone can enjoy.  This dish is lovely to have on it's own as  a lunchtime snack or can even be tarted up to serve as a starter.  It's a quick and easy to make dish too!!

Ingredients for 4 Servings:

2 tablespoons of melted butter
5-6 medium sized carrots
1 onion
3-4 cloves of Garlic
1 litre of vegetable stock ( I used a Knorr cube)
3 tablespoons of rice ( I used American easy to cook rice)
Fresh coriander
2-3 tablespoons of cream or fresh yogurt (I used Yogurt)

Method

1.     Wash and soak the rice in cold water whilst you prepare the vegetables.

2.    Wash and peel the carrots and grate them.  Chop or grate the onions and garlic. (You can chop the carrots into small cubes if you like!)

3.    Melt butter and add the garlic to it.  ( I love the smell of butter and garlic cooking!!)

4.    Add the  carrots and onions and stir.

5.   Add boiling water to the vegetable stock and add to the carrots.

6.   Drain and add the rice.

7.   Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

8.     The soup should now be cooked.  Add the fresh coriander.

9.    Using a food processor, blend the soup.  As this soup has cooked rice, it makes the soup rich and creamy.

10.  If the soup feels too thick, you can add half a cup boiling water.

11.  Just before serving, you can add cream, yogurt or butter if you like.  I added some fresh yogurt and it tasted great.

12.  The carrots I had were really delicious and sweet and did not need any garnishing.   However, you can add salt and pepper or even chilly flakes to the soup depending on your preference.

13.   If you wish to serve the soup as a starter, you can serve them with hot homemade bread rolls.   I made  garlic, green chillies and coriander bread rolls.  Here's a picture of them, just ready to go in the oven. (recipe to follow)

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Carrot Halwa (Gajar Halwa)

Since it was Father's Day, I decided to make carrot Halwa - a dish I have never made before. The recipe was fun to make and I felt good that it turned out great.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

140 grams of freshly grated carrots
1/2 cup milk
1/2 full cream
70 grams sugar ( Try using 60 grams and only add extra if you think the halwa needs to be sweeter.)
4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
6 or 7 almonds sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cardommon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method:

1.   Pour 2-3 tablespoons of melted butter in a saucepan and stirfry the carrot pulp.

2.   Cook for 6-7 minutes.  The carrots should get soft and slightly darker.

3.   Add the milk and cream and cook this on low heat for an hour stirring occassionally.  You van use milk on its own but adding the cream just makes the halwa creamier.   I rotated my cooking on electric mark 1 and then on 2 until the milk got absorbed. Patience is the name of the game.

4.  Now add the sugar and keep stirring the mixture.

5.  Add the ground cardommon, nutmeg and half the sliced almonds.

6.  Add the remaining melted butter and keep stirring until all the liquid have been absorbed and the halwa starts to leave the saucepan sides.

7.  Remove to a serving dish. 

8.  I posted a picture below with no garnishing so you can see how lovely the halwa looks.

9.     Garnish it with the remaining sliced almonds.

10.   Serve warm on its own or with cream or Icecream.

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HEALTHY CARROT JUICE

I've always loved raw carrots since childhood. I was always told that they were good for my teeth and eyes as they were full of vitamins and yes carrots are full of Vitamin A.

Ever since I was given jack lalanne juicer as a present - I have not stopped juicing.  But  I never thought of including the recipes in my blog until recently.  Yesterday, I bought loads of carrots from a farm shop and was also given some from a friends allotment.  They were the sweetest carrots we have ever eaten.  The fresh juice was even nicer.  The best juice is natural carrot juice but you can make the juice  by adding some ginger or coriander to spice it up if you like. 

Ingredients:

1 dozen carrots

Method:

1.  Peel your carrots and wash them well.
2.  Cut them in manageable pieces and keep them soaking in cold water for 10 -15 minutes.

3.  Drain the carrots and put them through your juicer.
4.  Your juice is ready to drink.
5.  I serve it natural but you can jazz it up with a lemon slice or a sprig of mint.
6.  Did you know you can make all kinds of tasty treats from the pulp leftover after juicing.    You can make carrot cake from carrot pulp.  I used the carrot  pulp to make gajar halwa.  The recipe can be found at:
http://www.givemesomespice.com/2010/06/carrot-halwa-or-gajar-halwa.html

In the past, I have used the carrot pulp for adding to handhwa or even muthia (recipes for this are in my blog)

After posting this recipe, I saw that PJ from Seduceyourtastebuds had a vegetable marathon - carrot event so I decided to send this recipe to her. PJ's lovely blog is at: http://seduceyourtastebuds.blogspot.com/

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VEGETARIAN SAMOSAS: THE KING OF SPICY PASTRIES

Samosas are available in most places in the world as little triangle pastries filled with a variety of fillings - but only a few places make them the traditional Indian style. They can be made as vegetarian or non-vegetarian fillings.  They are eaten as a snack with a cup of tea, served as a starter at some meal or served up in a miniature version at posh receptions and serve as canapés.

I spent about an hour looking at videos on YouTube to see if any one made them the way they should really be made and I couldn’t find one. So here’s my recipe for the traditional samosas – the way I was taught by my dad years ago and I follow the same recipe even today. The recipe is not difficult to make but as with most cooking - preparation is the key to making a good product.  Pastry Schools can help you if you want to learn more about proper food preparation and handling.

Ingredients for about the filling:

3 potatoes
3  carrots
One cup of frozen peas
Half yellow pepper (optional)
A handful of frozen soya bean (optional)
I onion
A teaspoon of blended ginger
2 or 3 green chillies (can be reduced or missed out if you do not like hot food)
Small bunch of coriander
Half tea spoon salt
Half tea spoon chilly powder (optional)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon lemon
Half teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon sunflower oil

Please note: Some of the spices can be adjusted to suit your personal taste. Also you do not add tumeric to samosa filling.

For the pastry or samosa pad

1 bowl of plain flour
quarter teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of lemon

Method:

1. Add salt and lemon to the plain flour. Add some warn water to the flour to make a dough. (My photograph will give you and idea of how firm to make the dough). Cover and rest the dough.

2. Dice the potatoes, peppers and carrots. (My photograph will give you an idea of how small to chop the vegetables). Add the peas and soya beans to the mixture. Wash the vegetables and leave them in a colander. Dice the onion finely, chop the green chillies and coriander finely but do not add them to the vegetables.

3. Warm the sunflower oil in a saucepan, add the cumin seeds. Once they start to go golden brown, add the vegetables to the oil. Add in the ginger, salt, chilly powder and sugar. Let this mixture cook gently. Try not to add any water to the mixture. Wash your vegetables just before you add them to the hot oil so that there is enough moisture to enable the vegetables to cook. You can cook the vegetables in the microwave if you are worried that the vegetables may get burnt. When using the microwave, cook them for 5 minutes, stir and cook again for 5 minutes. Repeat this until the vegetables are cooked al dente.

4. Add the lemon juice and cook them for a further 5 minutes.

5. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the onions, green chillies and coriander to the mixture. By adding these items uncooked at the end will give the samosas a nice flavour to the mixture. When you eat the samosas, you'll be able to taste all the spices as well as the onions and chillies.

6. Allow the mixture to start cooling down.

Now make the PASTRY to cover the somasas.:

1. Divide the pastry into small balls as shown in my picture below:

2. Take two balls and roll both of them in a circle with to 3 inch diameter.

3. Lightly oil one of the rolled out pastry.

4. Sprinkle some plain flour to the second rolled out pastry. This will resemble a roti.

5. Put one pastry on top of the other as shown in my picture.

In the meantime – warm the griddle or dry flying pan on a warm setting.
6. Sprinkle some flour to this pastry and roll out the pastry in a circle.

7. Cook the pastry on the griddle for half a minute and turn to the second side.( My photographs below will illustrate this). By lightly cooking the pastry, it gets rid of any air bubbles that might be in the pastry.

8. Remove the pastry on a work top and separate the two rotis.

9. Cover the rotis  into two and  finish making the rest of the rotis.

11. Keep all the rotis covered using a clean tea towel.

Now the rotis are ready to be filled with the samosa mixture. Once you get the hang of making the rotis, you can always prepare them and freeze them for when you wish to use them.  Just remember to defrost them correctly.

However, we need to make some “glue” to enable the mixture to remain in the samosas.

For the glue:

Take 2 or 3 tablespoons of plain white flour and add warm water to the flour. Stir the mixture and the consistency should resemble glue. Please see the photographs below:

To fill the samosa:

1. Take the half roti.

2. Using a teaspoon, add some glue on half the semi circle side.

3. Fold it as shown in my pictures below.

4. Fill with samosa mixture.

5. Seal the samosa using the glue.

6. Allow the samosas to rest for half an hour.  If have managed to make extra, you can freeze them at this stage.

7. Heat the oil.

8. Gently fry the samosas in hot sunflower oil until crispy and very light golden.

9. Serve with sweet chilly sauce or coriander and chilly chutney. Or as I mentioned before, just enjoy them with your favourite dip or a cup of tea.

The reason, I call Samosas the king of all pastries is because it does require a lot of preparations but once you have made them, you will not enjoy any readymade frozen varieties ever. They are the best.

The above is the original recipe for making samosas. The pastry made following my recipe makes the samosa crispier and tastier. The pastry is smooth and not bubbly or crumbly. The samosas remain crispy and taste even better the next day.

Additional suggestions:

Once the filling is cooked, you can add cheese like cheddar or paneer to the mixture to give them a different taste.

You can also used the filo pastry instead of making the roti/pads.One of the blogs I follow has a  recipe for using sprouted peas as samosa filling and also a step by step method on how to use filo pastry.  Please  checkout http://nutritionasnatureintended.blogspot.com/2009/12/samosas.html.

You can make toasted sandwiches using this mixture.  Just put the filling between two slices of bread and pop them into your sandwich maker and enjoy them with chilly sauce.