The Recipe Room

This tasty vegetarian Peas Pulao can be served for lunch or dinner, as the main meal, or even as a side dish. The rice and peas make it quite substantial, so I usually serve it as the main course. (Also try this chicken risotto with green peas.)

According to my mother, who taught me how to cook this dish, the secret to preparing an unforgettable Peas Pulao is getting the right balance of spices. Not everyone puts garlic in their Peas Pulao, but my mother insists on it. She says it balances out the rice nicely. My personal favourite spice to go with basmati rice is ginger. To me there is just nothing like the aroma that ginger can add to an Indian rice dish.

If you have time to let it sit for about 30 minutes, covered, before serving, the flavours will blend together even better and it will taste even stronger. It is one of those dishes that in fact tastes better the next day.

You can prepare this lovely recipe with regular butter, but I use ghee because it provides a unique flavour.

Sarkarai Pongal is a traditional sweet dish from South India. It is made during the Pongal festival, and symbolically offered to the sun god before being eaten. But you don’t have to go all the way to South India during the Pongal festival to enjoy this tasty treat. I’m going to teach you how to prepare it from the comfort of your own home.

This recipe calls for mung daal, which are mung beans that have been stripped of their hulls. These healthy legumes can be found in speciality vegetarian shops or speciality Indian shops.

You will also need to buy jaggery, a healthy natural sugar, to prepare this dessert properly. The refined white sugar you buy at the supermarket has been heavily processed with many chemicals. Jaggery, however, is naturally processed from sap, without any added stuff. This means it retains all its natural properties and minerals. And apart from being much healthier, it has a richer taste. Jaggery is a bit like buttery molasses.

Preparing Sarkarai Pongal with this sweet substitute will add authenticity to the dish, so it is well worth buying. And, as always, the ghee in this dessert can be substituted for regular butter.

To scoop up all the gooey sweetness in my recipe, I recommend this raisin bread.

Malai Kofta is a traditional dish and is the vegetarian alternative to meatballs. It is most often eaten on special occassions. The koftas are little fried potato dumplings in a rich, heavy gravy. (Sort of like my aloo bonda snacks, except those don’t have the delicious gravy.) Needless to say this is not a low-fat recipe!

An essential ingredient for Mailai Kofta is paneer, a fresh Indian cheese. It tastes a bit like cottage cheese, so you can substitute cottage cheese if you are not able to find paneer in your local Indian grocery store. But if you can find it, I strongly suggest you buy it. It is quite delicious and will give this recipe a more authentic taste.

Malai kofta is a delicious savoury dish of Moghlai origin; it is a north Indian speciality, and they go very well served with tasty Naan bread and/or basmati rice. There are lots of varieties; in fact, in Pakistan and Iran, koftas are usually made of beef and chicken, and in Bengal, a region of eastern India, koftas are made with prawns, fish, green bananas, cabbage, as well as minced goat meat.

Honestly, it’s not a short or easy recipe, but it’s all worth it in the end – trust me.

Pear and Mango Chutney is a very sweet, mild chutney that goes well with my Bhaturas or vegetable samosas. Spread it on the Bhaturas, which are puffy fried breads, for a delicious afternoon snack, or a sugary breakfast.

You could also try this sweet chutney spread over a meat or fish dish. Try it over these chicken and pear burgers, since they already have a hint of pear flavour inside the burger. My chutney would be the perfect complement.

Like most chutneys, you can store this one in Tupperware or a glass container, and it will be fine for at least a month.

Ingredients:

• 1 large raw Mango
• 3 medium Pears
• 450g Sugar
• 10 almonds, finely chopped
• 10 cashews, finely chopped
• 2tbsp. raisins, mashed
• 5 cloves, ground
• 2tsp. Cinnamon Powder
• 4tsp vegetable oil
• 400ml water
• 1tsp. salt

Preparation Method:

1. Peel the large mango and the pears. It will be no problem if you use a normal peeler to do this.
2. Chop both the mango and pears very finely and put them both into one bowl. Set the bowl aside.
3. Heat the vegetable oil on a medium flame in a pot or a deep pan.
4. Lower the flame and add just 2 tablespoons of sugar to the oil. Slowly stir the sugar, until it turns light brown.
5. Now add the water.
6. Raise the heat to high and bring the water to the boil.
7. After 3 minutes of boiling, add in the rest of the sugar and allow it to come to the boil again.
8. Chop the cashews and almonds very finely. Add them to the pot and stir.
9. With a fork, mash the raisins in a separate bowl.
10. Place the raisins to the pot and stir.
11. Grind the 5 cloves in a mortar with a pestle. Now add them to the pot and mix slowly.
12. Add the cinnamon to the pot and stir.
13. Add a pinch of salt. I know this is a sweet chutney, but salt actually brings out the favour of sweet foods. Add just a pinch, and you will see that the flavours will become more intense.
14. Now add the mango and pear.
15. Cover the pot and lower the heat. Let simmer for about an hour.
16. Remove from the pot and let cool.

Makes: 2kg of Pear and Mango Chutney
Takes: 2 hours

This is a delicious recipe that goes great with the deep-fried puffy breads known as Bhatura. Channa Masala is a chickpea stew that my mum taught me to make when I was a teenager. It is a very filling vegetarian dish, and because of the chickpeas, it has plenty of protein. But the best part is that it is not very fattening at all! (For more chickpea goodness, try this Moroccan hummus.)

Ingredients:

• 400g Chickpeas
• 5 Tea Leaves
• 2 tsp. Cumin Seeds
• 2 tsp. Garam Masala
• ½ tsp. Cardamom
• ½ tsp. Cinnamon
• 2 tsp. Ginger Powder
• 3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large Onion
• 2 medium Tomatoes
• 250ml Water
• 2 tbsp. Amchur Powder (dried mango powder)
• Juice of 2 Lemons
• 1 tbsp. chopped Coriander
• Vegetable Oil
• Pinch of Salt

Preparation Method:

1. Rinse the chickpeas. Put them in a bowl, cover them with water, add the tea leaves, and soak them overnight or for a minimum of 8 hours. Soaking the chickpeas with tea leaves will give it a distinctive flavour.
2. The next morning, remove the tea leaves, drain the chickpeas and cook them in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes.
3. Remove the chickpeas and set them aside.
4. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan.
5. Add cumin seeds and fry. Careful! They will crackle a bit.
6. Add garam masala, cardamom and cinnamon. Fry on medium heat.
7. Add the ginger and garlic and fry.
8. Chop the onion very finely.
9. Put the chopped onion in the pan and fry while quickly mixing. It helps to add a bit of salt at this point, as the salt will make the onion “sweat,” and it will cook faster.
10. Chop the tomatoes very finely.
11. Add the tomatoes to the pan. Stir slowly. Give the tomatoes time to get soft and mushy.
12. Add the cooked chickpeas.
13. Add the water.
14. Stir slowly on a low heat. You will see it start to form a thick gravy. This will take about 8-9 minutes.
15. Stir in the amchur and coriander slowly.
16. Add a bit more salt to taste. The gravy should be getting quite thick.
17. Drizzle a bit of lemon juice and stir for 30 seconds more.
18. Remove from heat and serve hot.

Makes: Enough for 4 servings.
Takes: 40 minutes (plus 8 hours to soak the chickpeas)