Category Archives: Entrees

Daal Baati

Daal Baati Churam is a very popular traditional Rajasthani dish. The celebrations like marriage, festival, parties and so on in Rajasthan are incomplete without this traditional dish. Daal Baati Churma is basically three items put together as a meal. I have already shared the recipe of Churma in my earlier blog and in this blog I am sharing the recipe for Daal and Baati. Baati is made from wheat flour balls with lots of deshi ghee. Traditionally, the Baati balls are backed in clay or coal based tandoor which gives a very specific smoky flavor to the recipe. However, I have made the Baati in electric oven and it really came out well. The crispy Baati with desi ghee aroma makes the dish tastes amazing. The Daal for this recipe is mixture of five kinds of daal (pulses) also known as panchmel daal. The daal is cooked with salt, water and turmeric powder however the seasoning with ghee, ginger-garlic and some gram masala brings in the real flavorful taste in Daal. Serve this recipe to your guests and I am sure they would love it.

Sambar Polenta (Cornmeal)

Polenta aka cornmeal is granules of corn available in grocery stores all around. The Polenta is cooked in many ways like it can be baked, grilled or fried. This recipe is prepared using boiled Polenta which is typically simmered in water with salt and ghee or butter. Polenta takes a little long time to cook and creamy texture.You could each boiled Polenta as is or It can be served many different ways. For this recipe we would prepare a sambar to serve with Polenta. Sambar is a south Indian soup which is prepared using mix of vegetables of your choice, toor daal and special sambar masala. In this recipe, I have also added green pigeon peas along with toor dal to get twist in sambar taste. There are varieties of sambar recipes available and you can use anyone if you like or you can use your own sambar recipe. Polenta used to be one of common meal item when I was young and my grand mother use to make it and serve with toor dal and spicy curry. In northern India is it referred as “Makki ka bath”. I literally love Polenta and every time I make it, it bring memories from childhood. Polenta with sambar was an awesome combination and very delicious, you could also try it with rasam.

Tandoori Salmon Masala

Salmon is very tasty protein-rich fish and have less bones. Salman can be used for varieties of recipe mainly steak, fish kabab, grilled salmon salad or curry. I have already shared Tandoori salmon recipe. This recipe is prepared with grilled tandoori salmon which is cooked in onion tomato rich gravy and flavored with Indian spices. I have add beetroot to give red color to the recipe. Tandoori Salmon masala goes well with naan, roti, Paratha or rice.

Dum Aloo

Aloo (Potato) is king of the vegetables. It can be used to prepare variety of dishes like curries, Paratha, fried vegetable, snacks items like aloo tikki, samosa and so on. Tasty dum aloo is a very popular North Indian dish. Dum Aloo is a very simple gravy based dish made using very less ingredients basically boiled baby potatoes which is cooked in tomato gravy and spices. My mom always added freshly grounded garam masala which gives a wonderful aroma and taste to the dum aloo. There are many way to prepare dum aloo, different ingredients gives different taste to it. This recipe is tomato base curry but you can also make it yogurt base dum aloo. We all prefer to eat green vegetables however some time making potato curry gives a little twist to daily routine specially during summer when limited green vegetables are available. Dum aloo goes well with jeera rice, roti, Paratha or poori.

Methi Wheat Garlic Naan (without yeast)

Naan is an Indian flat bread, made with fermented all purpose flour and roasted in clay tandoor or oven. This yummy soft & fluffy bread is famous across India, and varieties of naan are served in Indian restaurants. In my earlier post, I had shared tava garlic naan using all purpose flour. The process to make wheat methi garlic naan recipe is almost similar except for the dough preparation. This recipe is made using wheat flour and fenugreek (methi) leaves and topped with garlic, coriander leaves, kalongi (nigella seeds) and sesame seeds and roasted on stove top on tava. The texture is slightly different but is still soft and fluffy and tastes great. Naan breads generally taste great with paneer or chicken curry. The texture of the wheat naan are very close to the restaurant naan. In this recipe, I have used baking soda and baking powder but you use yeast too.

Peas Masala

Peas masala is a very famous curry in Northern part of India. Usually, peas masala is made for chaats like aloo tikki chaat, papdi chaat, samosa chaat, ragda pattice or so on. This is a very simple recipe which is made using basic ingredients like dry green peas, onion, tomato, ginger-garlic and is flavored with spices. It tastes good when it is little spicy and tangy. Peas masala can also be used as curry and goes well with jeera rice or chapatti.

Achari Gobhi Dry

Gobhi(Cauliflower) is one of popular vegetable and there are various recipes which can be prepared using this. You can make the it either dry or gravy. Achari flavored Gobhi is a dry recipe which is tangy and flavorful. This is my childhood favorite dish which my mom used to prepare for our lunch boxes and would give us either with Poori or Paratha. This is a very easy recipe and you can add other vegetables too like potato or french beans. It tastes awesome and perfect for lunch boxes.

Green Chana Poori

Poori is a deep fried Indian bread which is famous all over India. There are many kind of pooris like a palak & beetroot poori, plain poori, bhatura, stuffed chana daal poori and so on. Delicious green chana poori is made using wheat flour, fresh green chana and palak(spinach) puree and deep fried in oil. Pooris are all time favorite of my kids and they love to eat as lunch in school so I make them very often. During the season when Green Chana is available I make pooris using it. You can find green chana in Indian store or use frozen green chana if not fresh one is not available. There are many recipes which can be prepared using fresh green chana like paratha, kabab, spiced daal, curry or so on. In this recipe I have added spinach to give a nice green color. You can skip spinach if you don’t like and make it only with chana. Green chana poori goes very well with any Indian curry, pickle or dry sabji.