Last night Aloo Mutter was one of the dishes on our dinner menu and there was a fair amount of it leftover. This morning as I was deciding what I should carry with me the office for lunch, a quick peek into the fridge showed that there was Aloo Mutter and rice leftover from last night, along with a few other things.

Being a hot summer day, I thought I would use the leftovers to create a tasty palao, which accompanied by onion, tomato raita would be a perfect meal for a working day.

Ingredients
Leftover rice
Leftover Aloo Mutter Bhaji
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
Few curry leaves
1/2 tsp jeera cummin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
Few coriander leaves finely chopped
2 Boiled eggs (optional)

Procedure
In a thick-bottomed kadai or pan, heat 4 tsps oil. When hot add cummin seeds. Allow to splutter, reduce flame and add ginger, green chilli and curry leaves. Turn around for a minute and add the aloo mutter bhaji. Stir for a minute or two and add the leftover rice. Mix well. Add half cup of water and coriander leaves and cook on very slow flame for 5 to 7 minutes till the rice is well-steamed. Serve hot with onion-tomato raita, papad and pickle. You can also serve the palao with boiled eggs cut into halves.

Cool Raitas for Hot Summers

Yoghurt or Dahi is something we all love with an Indian meal and more so to cool our stomachs in the hot summer months. To make yoghurt more interesting and tasty keeping the hot weather in mind, one can add a number of fruits and vegetables like cucumber, mint, onion-tomato, potato, pineapple, apple-ginger. I am sharing below the recipes for cucumber raita(you can follow the same for mint, replacing mint for cucumber), apple-ginger, onion-tomato, potato. You can now enjoy a delicious new raita everyday of the week this summer.

Cucumber Raita
Ingredients:
• 1 medium sized bowl of yoghurt
• One cucumber peeled and finely chopped
• Red chillie powder (optional)
• A few chopped coriander leaves finely chopped, if available
• Salt, Pepper and Cummin seed powder to taste
Procedure:
Empty the yoghurt in a bigger bowl. Blend yoghurt with a spoon or beater, till smooth. Add chopped cucumber and salt and mix well. Sprinkle pepper and cummin powder and red chilli powder (optional). Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Potato Raita
Ingredients:
All ingredients same as in Cucumber Raita except that you need to replace the cucumber with 1 medium sized potato boiled, peeled and cut into small pieces.
Procedure:
Exactly the same as in cucumber raita.


Tomato Onion Raita
Ingredients:
• 1 medium sized bowl of yoghurt
• One medium sized tomato finely chopped
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 green chillie finely chopped
• A few coriander leaves finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste
Procedure:
Empty the yoghurt in a big bowl. Blend yoghurt with a spoon or beater, till smooth. Add chopped tomatoes, onion, green chilli and salt and mix well. Sprinkle pepper on top. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve chilled.

Delicious Home-made Mango Ice-Cream

Ingredients
1 litre milk
10 tsps sugar
1 big Alphonso mango
1 tbsp custard powder (mango flavour)

Procedure
Add sugar to milk and thicken in a thick-bottomed pan to about 3/4 quantity. Mix custard powder in a little cold milk and add to the boiling milk. Stir for a minute or two till it thickens and then put off the flame. Allow to cool. Peel and cut the mango and blend in a blender to puree. When the milk cools to room temperature add to the mango puree, blend for few seconds and pour out into a stainless steel / aluminium container with tight-fitting lid. Put in deep freeze and allow to set.

In a few hours you will have delicious ice cream ready to cool you on the hot weekend.

While serving scoop out from the container into glass bowls and top it with a few pieces of fresh mango and a cherry to add a dash of colour.

Sweet, Sour and Hot Chutney (3-in-1)

Very often many of us think of having a chaat party at home, but put it off because we feel that making the many chutneys needed (hot, sweet and sour) is very cumbersome and time-consuming. So here's a easy recipe for a 3-in-1 chutney which you can use for sev puri, bhel puri, dahi puri, ragda pattice etc.

Ingredients
100 gms dates (deseeded and cut into small pieces)
1 small bunch of coriander leaves (finely chopped)
1 inch piece ginger
2 green chillies
1 tbsp jeera (cummin seeds)
3/4 cup tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup water
Salt to taste

Procedure
Boil the chopped dates in a little water for 5-7 minutes till they are soft and pulpy. Grind dates, coriander and all other spices except tamarind in the mixer to a smooth consistency. Empty the contents in a bowl, add salt and thick tamarind water (strained). Mix well and your chutney is ready. If too thick, you can dilute it with a little Bisleri water.

Washington Apple Jam

A couple of days ago a friend sent me a hamper of Washington Apples and I fascinated to see the multi-coloured, firm apples, beautifully packaged with an interesting note explaining the major varieties of Washington Apples. The broad categories cover red delicious, which is the most widely grown apple in the world. It's heart-shaped bright red in colour and sometimes striped. Its crunchy and has a mildly sweet flavour, great for eating or in salads. Golden delicious, mellow and sweet, the flesh stays white longer than other apples. Granny Smith, green, extremely tart, juicy, excellent for snacking. Gala, pinkish-organge stripes over a yellow background, again great for snacking and salads. Fuji, holds its texture when baked and is known for its syrupy sweetness.

While I cut up the Fuji and Red Delicious apple, the day I got the hamper, I decided to use the Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Gala to make apple Jam and here's what I did....

Ingredients

Three Apples peeled and grated
1 1/2 cups sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp of cinnammon powder
1 drop / pinch of cooking colour (red)(optional)

Procedure
Mix sugar and grated apples in a thick-bottomed pan and place on flame. Cook over low flame, stirring occasionally till the mixture is well-cooked and homogenious and has jam-like consistancy. Will take about 15-20 minutes. Add cinnammon powder and lemon juice, cooking colour and stir for a minute or two. Remove from flame, cool and store in glass jar. Since no preseervatives are added, keep refigerated.

Apple Jam tastes great on hot buttered toast, spread and rolled on hot buttered chappatti, with hot puri. Can also make an interesting snack / desert by putting on Britannia GoodDay cookies and topping it with a little fresh cream and nuts.

Kali Miri Puri aur Dahi

Summer is upon us and all of us want to eat tasty, easy to make and cooling foods, while spending as little time in the kitchen as possible. I'd like to share an age-old recipe of delicious Puris that make a yummy, holiday breakfast and are a great accompaniment at lunch or dinner, especially when you have guest over. So try it out this weekend....

Ingredients:
• 2 Cups wheat flour
• 1 tbsp pure ghee
• ½ tsp pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying
Procedure:
Add ghee salt and pepper to the flour and knead into a soft dough with water. Make small balls of the dough and roll out each into a small round Puri. Deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. Serve hot with Dahi, pickle, chutney and fried / roasted papads.
For a more filling meal, you can serve these Puris with Aloo Bhaji or vegetable either dry or with gravy.