Cooking is something I find very enjoyable, relaxing and satisfying. In spite of a full time career, that involves long working hours and travel, I find time to cook for family and friends and experiment with new recipes. A self taught cook, I like to make traditional as well as modern dishes, both vegetarian and non vegetarian. I have learnt what I know by watching elders in the family and others and also by trying to figure out ingredients and the method of making a dish by analysing the taste. Being a Sindhi, authentic Sindhi food finds a prominent place on my menu.

Over the years, I have realised that that you may travel around the world and try out the most exotic and diverse cuisines and enjoy them, but eventually the pleasure of having a simple, home-cooked,tasty, light and nutritious meal is to die for. And putting together such a meal is not really laborious or time consuming. With a little planning you can dish up an appetising meal in less than an hour; and with some imagination make a completely different offering out of it, if there are any leftovers!

Through this blog, I would like to share easy to make, tasty recipes and trivia with food lovers and learn more about their experiences in the wonderful world of food flavours.

Cheers,
Veena Gidwani

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

· ¾ kg tomato chopped
· 2 onions grated
· 2 carrots grated
· 1 tablespoon yellow Moong Dal
· 1 tablespoon gram flour
· 1 tablespoon butter
· Salt, Pepper & sugar to taste

Procedure:

Put tomatoes, onions, carrots, dal and 5 cups water in a pressure cooker and cook for about 15 minutes over medium flame. Remove and strain through soup strainer, sieving as much as pulp as possible.

In a pan heat butter, add gram flour and stir on a slow flame for a minute or two. Add salt, pepper and sugar and bring to boil. Serve garnished with fried bread croutons / bread rolls.

Aloo Tikiya

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized potatoes
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• ½ tsp. cummin seeds
• ¼ tsp. red chillie powder
• 4 small slices of bread or one Pav bread
• Few coriander leaves finely chopped
• Few tbsps. oil for frying
• Salt to taste

Procedure:

Put potatoes in a pressure cooker, add three cups of water, close and pressure cook for ten minutes after the first whistle has gone off. They should be boiled well by then.

After a few minutes, remove potatoes from the cooker. While still warm peel and mash them with a fork and ensure that there are no lumps. Add cummin seeds, green chillies, coriander leaves and chillie powder. Soak the bread in a bowl of water for a minute or two. Squeeze out water and add to potato mixture. Add salt and mix well, so that there are no lumps and you have a smooth dough like mixture.

Rub a little oil on your hands and on the mixture. Divide into 10-12 portions. Flatten each portion into a round cutlet.

Heat a non-stick pan with a little oil. When hot put 4 to 6 tikiyas/cutlets at a time and fry on medium flame, turning over till both sides are golden brown. Alternatively, the tikiyas can be deep fried in a kadai with oil filling about a third of the kadai. If you decide to deep fry them do so on high flame and put in the tikiyas when the oil is really hot.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup, green chutney or pickle and bread.

Makhani Dal

Makhni Dal

Ingredients:
· 1 cup yellow moong dal
· ½ “ piece ginger and 1 green chillie (finely chopped or ground)
· ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
· ¼ tsp pepper powder
· ¼ tsp. coriander powder
· ¼ tsp. red chillie powder
· ¼ tsp. Amchoor powder (mango)
· 2 tbsps. melted pure ghee or butter
· Salt to taste
· Few coriander leaves

Procedure:
Wash and soak dal with water in a thick-bottomed pan for 15-20 minutes. Add green chillies, ginger, turmeric powder and 2-3 cups of water and cook on medium flame for 10-15 minutes. When the dal is soft and done, blend / mix dal into a smooth puree like consistency with a wooden blender / beater. Add salt. Bring out dal in a serving bowl.. Sprinkle all the dry masalas on top one by one till dal is evenly covered with all masalas. Now heat ghee / butter in a Fodni Kadai. When it is really hot pour the hot ghee / butter on the dal. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Kheema Pav

Ingredients:

· 250 gms. Mince meat (kheema)
· 2 medium sized onions finely chopped
· ½ tsp. Garam masala powder
· 2 large tomatoes
· 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste
· 1 tsp. Coriander powder
· ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
· 4 tbsps. oil
· A few coriander leaves chopped
· 1 small onion cut into rings
· 1 lemon
· Salt to taste
· 6 fresh Pav breads / slices of sandwich bread

Procedure:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add green chillies, ginger-garlic and stir for a minute. Add chopped onions and brown on low flame till light brown. Now add Kheema that has been washed well. Add dry spices and chopped tomatoes, salt and half the coriander leaves. Cook on medium flame while stirring now and again till the mixture is golden brown and tomatoes are blended. Add one glass of hot water, close the pressure cooker and cook for 10-15 minutes on slow flame.

Serve hot with onion rings, garnished with balance coriander leaves and lemon slices alongwith fresh bread.

Caramel Custard

Ingredients:

· ½ litre milk
· 2 eggs
· 8 tsps sugar
· 4-6 cardamoms (Elaichi)

Procedure:

Boil milk in a thick bottomed pan with 6 tsps sugar and cardamom seeds (after removing skin).When it boils, reduce flame and let it thicken for about 10 minutes. The milk should reduce to about 2/3 of original quantity. Turn off the flame and allow milk to cool.

When the milk is lukewarm or at room temperature take a stainless steel or other metal dabba / container that has a well fitting lid. Add 2 tsps sugar and slowly caramelise the sugar on low flame, by turning the container on all sides. The sugar will melt and in a couple of minutes turn golden brown. Gently turn the container around, holding it over the flame so that the melted sugar is evenly spread on the base of the container. Remove from flame. The sugar will harden in a minute.

Beat the eggs well in a bowl and add to the cool milk. Mix well. Now pour the milk /egg
mixture into the container and cover with tight fitting lid. In a pressure cooker, place grill at the bottom, add 2 to 3 cups of water and place the container on the grill. Close the cooker and pressure cook for 15 minutes on low flame after first whistle. When the cooker cools, open and remove container. Open the lid of the container and allow the caramel custard to cool. When cool, keep in the fridge.

When you want to serve the pudding, take a knife and evenly pass it around the side wall of the container, so you free the pudding. Cover container with a flat serving tray or plate
and holding both plate and container tight, turn the container upside down. The caramel custard will come out easily with the golden brown side on the top. Cut into pieces and serve.