Curry In Kadai ~ An Indian Cooking Blog

Happy Pongal everyone!! Hope you guys are busy preparing yummy goodies for the festival. First thing that comes to my mind when i think about Sankranthi are the Rangolis( muggulu ). Just after finishing our Half Early exams at school we get 10 holidays and those days were a great fun start in the new year. The very last day of our exams, we pack our luggage and head to grandma's house. I remember the house would be swamped with people( pinni, babai, atha, mama etc., ) uncles, aunts and cousins. During those ten days we make rangolis( muggulu ) everyday, dress pretty and eat good homemade festive food. Grandma used to make a lot of yummy sweets and savouries, like Ariselu( Sweet rice cakes ), Bobbatlu( Sweet lentil Breads ), KajjiKayalu( Fried Sweet with jaggery and lentils ), Paalakayalu( Crispy spicy small rounds ), Pappu Billalu( Crispy rice fritters ), Vada( crispy lentil fritters ), and of course Pongal along with special curries and rice dishes.

Here's a very well known protein packed festive savoury, Dal Vada with Spinach and Cilantro( Lentil Fritters With Spinach and Cilantro) Palakura Kothimeera Minapa Garelu.


You need:

• 1 cup Urad Dal( Minappappu /Black Gram )
• 1 cup tightly packed chopped spinach
• 1 inch ginger root
• Green chillies
• Cilantro
• Cumin seeds
• Oil for frying

• Soak Urad dal for about 4 hours in water
• Once soaked grind the batter to a paste( need not be very smooth, and do not add too much water, just add enough to grind )
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• To the urad dal batter( lentil batter ) add cumin seeds, chopped ginger, chopped spinach, chopped onions, cilantro and salt to taste.
• Drop into oil with a spoon or to make traditional vada( vadai ), use your palms this way. Take a small amount of batter in a ball shape, flatten lightly with fingers and drop it very gently into oil from the edges of the pan.
• My ammamma makes them in a very perfect shape and she dips her hands into water before making each vadai, and this needs of course some experience. Don't panic if you cant get vadas perfectly, its hard for me too to get them in perfect shape and size.
• Fry these vadas on both sides and drain on to paper napkins to remove any excess oil.

• MLLA - 19th Helping event hosted by EC
• CFK - Cooking For Kids hosted by Sara
  
• Food For Seven Stages Of Life 

Palak Paneer is a popular indian dish orginated from Punjab( North India ). This mildly flavored curry is made with spinach(palak) and indian cottage cheese( paneer ). This is a delicious and super healthy dish. I know there are so many variations for this recipe, but the basic idea is not to overpower the dish with spices. I make palak paneer in 2 types., but this one is the tastier and easier of the two.



Ingredients:

• 1 box chopped frozen boxed spinach
• 2 big onions
• 2 tomatoes
  
• 15 - 20 1 inch paneer cubes
  
• 3 - 4 green chillies( please adjust spice to your taste, as the hotness of the chillies varies )
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tbsp coriander( dhaniya) powder
• 1 tbsp cumin( jeera ) powder
• 1 tbsp curry powder or garam masala
• 1/2 tbsp dried mango powder( amchur powder )
  
• 12 cashews( optional ) or 1/2 cup cream
  
• 1 tbsp red chilli powder( if required )
• 1 cup milk
  

• Cook the frozen spinach in microwave for 5 min
• In a chopper or food processor chop onions with green chilies very finely
• Chop the spinach similarly
• In a microwave blanch tomatoes and puree them
  
• Heat kadai( pan ) with little oil or butter and fry paneer( cheese ) cubes until golden brown
  
• In the same pan add jeera( cumin seeds optional )
  
• Once the cumin seeds are browned, add ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell fades
• Now all the powders and saute for 15 sec.
• Add the chopped onions and fry till the onions are browned
• Add the spinach paste and fry until the oil comes out from paste
• Add tomato puree and cook till the water evaporates
  
• To this add milk and cook stirring occasionally
• You can either add powdered cashew nuts paste or cream at this point
• Cook till done and adjust salt and spice to taste.