Thai Red Vegetable Curry and off to Thailand for 2 weeks!!!

I am about to leave for our much awaited holiday to Thailand. What better than sharing a curry recipe from that region to kick off the vacation? This recipe is also from my drafts treasure...

Well, this is my take on the traditional Red Thai Curry. I have made this curry a number of times and have never been dissapointed. Hope you like it too.

I am looking forward to this trip and hoping to have wonderful culinary experiences, which I promise to share with you guys. 

Ingredients

For the paste 
2 piece - dry red whole chillies, deseeded
4 inch piece - ginger, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp - olive oil and very little water

To be boiled together
1 - carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup - french beans, thinly sliced
1/3 cup - babycorn, thinly sliced

Rest of the ingredients for the curry
1/2 cup - red or orange bell pepper
1/3 cup - pineapple, cut into small pieces
2-3 kaffir lime leaves
1 lemongrass, thinly sliced, (see here how to use lemongrass)
zest of a lemon
350 ml - coconut milk
salt to taste
3 tbsp - palm fat or any oil
1/4 cup - roasted peanuts
handfull of coriander leaves, finely chopped 


To garnish
coriander leaves and chives, finely chopped

Serve the curry with rice. I added the remaining lemongrass (upper stalk) to the rice while cooking and removed just before serving. It gives a very nice lemony flavour to the rice.

Method

1. Heat the palm fat in a non-stick pan and add the paste to the pan and saute on medium heat until the raw smell vanishes.
2. Add the peppers and lemongrass and cook again for a couple of minutes on medium heat. 
3. Add the boiled veggies and mix. 
4. Add the coconut milk, lime leaves, salt, lemon zest, 1/8 cup of the roasted peanuts and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionaly. 
5. Add the pineapples and coriander leaves and mix. 
6. Remove the curry from the heat, garnish it with the rest of the roasted peanuts, chives, coriander leaves and serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Pear Ginger Ravioli in Butter Sage Sauce

There are a lot of recipes lying in my drafts, waiting to be posted. I have promised myself not to create new ones before I post all what I have in the draft. This pasta dish is one such recipe which has been waiting long to see the light of day. What I remember vaguely is that the inspiration for this dish came from a local neighborhood Italian restaurant. My hubby went for a dinner with some colleagues and had this dish. The first thing he said after coming home, was "let's try making ravioli" Hence this recipe was born.

I have added semolina to the pasta dough, which gives the ravioli a very nice texture and slight crunch. This is quiet a rich pasta dish with all that butter sage sauce, so of course it tasted really good.

Ingredients

For the Ravioli

1 cup - all purpose flour 

1/4 cup - semolina (suji)

1/2 tsp - salt

4 tbsp - olive oil

water to knead 

Mix the flour and the semolina with the salt, the olive oil and enough water so that the dough is neither too soft nor too hard. Knead well. Cover with a wet piece of muslin cloth and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. The semolina should have soaked up most of the water, making the dough hard - so sprinkle a few drops of water and knead the dough lightly.

Divide the dough into 4 parts and flatten it out with your hand.Sprinkle some flour on the dough. Feed the flattened dough into the pasta machine at the thickest setting and roll it out 2-3 times until the dough is smooth. Take care to keep pulling the dough sheets form the machine at the same rate you are feeding it in. Change to a medium thickness and repeat another 2-3 times.

Finally, change to a thin / fine setting and let the dough pass through the pasta machine another 2-3 times. The dough should be a thin sheet by now. Do not worry if its irregular in shape or is broken in places.

Take a cookie cutter or a bowl with a sharp edge and cut out rounds from the dough. The dough left over form the corners can be kneaded and put through the machine again.

For the Filling

1 - pear, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped

2 tbsp - finely chopped candied ginger

1/2 tsp - butter

2 tsp - mascarpone cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pear pieces in the butter until slightly soft. Add in the mascarpone cheese, finely chopped candied ginger, salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat.

Take the filling, lay it out on the center of a raviolo sheet, leaving an approx. 2 cm edge all around. Take another raviolo sheet, wet the edges with some water and press this sheet onto the sheet with the filling. Impress the edges with fork tines to make the sheets stick better as well as to give it a classic ravioli look.

Boil some water. Carefully lower the Ravioli into the boiling water. Let boil until the ravioli start floating (around 4-5 minutes for medium sized ones, slightly longer for bigger / thicker ones).

For the Sauce

50 grams (or more if you like) - butter

10 -12 pieces - sage leaves

a pinch of salt

parmesan cheese and pepper to garnish

 Put the butter and the sage leaves into a pan and heat until the butter melts completely (do not bring the butter to boil). Add a pinch of salt. Pour while still warm on the ravioli and garnish with grated parmesan and pepper. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Spicy Rice Starch-Tamarind Soup Mandiya - A traditional Rajasthani Dish

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had a very relaxing and lazy weekend - watched a couple of movies, indulged in good food and it was simply amazing.

On Sunday, I made this very traditional Rajasthani dish: kaatha dal chawal-maandiya, literally translated, Thick Lentils and rice with this spicy tangy tamarind, rice starch Soup.

The Mandiya is lovely as a spicy soup or in a more traditional combination, as we had it, with the rice and the lentils- which makes a filling and very delicious meal. We normally mix 1/3rd thick dal and 2/3rd rice, with a generous helping of ghee and dip each spoonful in a bowl of the mandiya.

The lentils needs to be cooked in a little water with a couple of cloves, cardamom and cinnamon sticks, a bay leaf, a pinch of turmeric powder, salt and a tsp of ghee. The consistency of the lentils needs to be thick. If it is not, let the dal simmer in the pressure cooker without the lid and, after a couple of minutes, carefully remove the watery part from the top. (you can put this lentil water in the mandiya, instead of water)

Ingredients for the mandiya

1 tbsp - ghee 

2 - red whole chilli or according to your taste

2 pieces - bayleaf

a generous pinch of asafoetida, (hing)

2 pieces of green cardamom

2 pieces of clove

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp - mustard seeds

1/8tsp - cumin seeds

6-8 pieces of curry leaves

1/8 tsp - turmeric powder

1/4 tsp - red chilli powder, more or less

50 grams - tamarind soaked in 3/4 cup of warm water

450 ml - rice starch water (maand)

1 cup - water

2 tbsp - thick cooked lentils/daal (I used split pigeon peas/toor daal)

salt to taste

2 tsp - sugar

Method

1. Mash the soaked tamarind. Sieve the extract and use 1/2 cup for this recipe. (if kept in the fridge, tamarind pulp stays good for 4-5 days)
2. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red whole chili, asafoetida / hing, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick and let the seeds crackle. Add the curry leaves, turmeric powder and chilli powder, and cook for a few seconds. Add the tamarind extract and cook for a minute, stirring continuously.
3. Add the rice starch water, lentil water or normal water, 2 tbsp of the cooked thick lentils and salt to taste. Cook for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lastly add the sugar and cook again for a couple of minutes. Serve piping hot.

This is one of my favourite Rajasthani dishes and I can never have enough of it. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Coconut Cinnamon Cookies

Whenever I am upset or in a foul mood, I eat chocolate and it makes me happy and when I am happy, I make a chocolate dish :-) It's something like a virtuous circle.

After a long wait and struggle and putting in a lot of effort, a problem I had been facing for some time now saw a ray of sunshine and it definitely makes me ecstatic. I wanted to share my joy with you all and baked these flavourful, scrumptious cookies. They are awfully easy to bake and taste simply great.

The smell that emanates from the oven, still wafting through the apartment, as I am writing with a big smile on my face now :-) Go and indulge in some happiness!

Ingredients

1/2 cup - all purpose flour (maida)

1/8 tsp - baking powder

a generous pinch of bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp - dessicated coconut

1/2 tbsp - dark cocoa powder

a generous pinch of cinnamon powder

handful of dark chocolate chips

3 tbsp - sugar

4 tbsp - sunflower oil

1/8 cup - low fat milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a baking tray with a baking paper.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, mix together the oil and milk.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop up 1 tbsp of the mixture and shape into balls. Place them on the lined tray, spread well apart, and flatten them slightly.
6. Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for approx 12-13 minutes.
7. Leave to cool in the baking tray for a couple of minutes minutes, then transfer the cookies to the wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Bhapa Doi: Traditional Bengali Dessert in 2 exotic flavours: Masala Chai and Chocolate Orange

Bhapa Doi is a very traditional Bengali delicacy, and means, literally translated, steamed yogurt. Also known as Indian cheesecake due to its texture and taste. 

Though I have spent a good number of years in Kolkata and have tasted a load of Bengali sweets, I must admit that I had never tasted Bhapa Doi. I have seen this recipe on a number of blogs but seeing this recipe at Jyoti's blog actually rang a bell. I wondered why haven't I tried out this recipe yet. The simplicity of this Bengal delicacy is it's highlight.

I have (matter of bad habit) played with the recipe a little and tried out 2 new flavours to the steamed yogurt. One of course has to be my all time favourite Chocolate and this time around I have combined it with orange and almonds. And, the second flavour is Chai Masala (Indian Tea spice powder).

This one is especially for my dear sister - enjoy, and go out and get a bowl from the neighborhood sweet shop!

Ingredients

160 grams - sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup - greek yogurt 10% fat

1/2 cup - milk

30 grams - dark orange almond chocolate, melted and cooled

1/4 tsp - zest of an orange + to garnish

1/2 tbsp - blanched almond slivers, roasted, to garnish

1/8 tsp  - cardamom powder

1/8 tsp - clove powder

1/8 tsp - dried ginger powder (saunth)

1/8 tsp - cinnamon powder

a generous pinch of nutmeg powder

a generous pinch of balck pepper powder

a couple of cinnamon sticks, green cardamom and cloves to garnish (optional)

a couple of fresh orange pieces to garnish (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C
2. Mix the yogurt, milk and condensed milk together until smooth.Divide it equally into bowls.
3. Add the melted and cooled chocolate and orange zest into one bowl and mix well. Fill this mixture into 2 oven proof bowls/ramekins.
4. Add the powdered spices to the another bowl and mix well. I sieved the mixture and filled it into 2 oven proof bowls/ramekins.
5. Place the bowls/ramekins in a large baking tray. Fill the tray with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins or dish.Place the tray in the centre of the oven and bake for 35 minutes.(If you are using a large baking dish, it may take longer)
6. I switched off the oven after 35 minutes and left the yogurt in the oven until the oven was cool. Take the bowls out of the oven and cool to room temperature and then let it chill in the fridge. 
7. Garnish the chocolate yogurt with fresh orange pieces, orange rind and roasted almond slivers and the Chai Yogurt with the cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods and cloves and serve.

Note

1. Do not cover the bowls/ramekins/baking dish while baking the yogurt.
2. Traditionally this yogurt is steamed. One can also steam it in a double boiler or a pressure cooker. 
3. Instead of greek yogurt one can also use thick yogurt or, traditionally, hung plain yogurt.
4. Of course, one can add any flavour to this yogurt- fruits, exotic spices, coffee... it's upto your imagination. 

Serves - 4

Cheers!