Tangy Paneer

Ingredients:

• Paneer – Approx 14 oz, cut into strips
• Tomatoes – 4-5 medium (1 lb), chopped finely
• Green Bell Pepper – 1 large, cut into strips
• Oil – 2 Tbsp
• Mustard Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Onion Seeds (Kalonji) – 1 tsp
• Fennel Seeds (Saunf) – 1 tsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp
• Ginger – 1 Tbsp, minced
• Garlic – 1 Tbsp, minced
• Green Chilies – to taste, finely chopped
• Salt – to taste
• Red Chili Powder – to taste
• Dry Mango Powder (Amchur) – to taste, optional
• Cilantro – finely chopped for garnishing

Directions:

1. Heat Oil in a medium non-stick pan on medium heat.
2. Add Mustard Seeds and allow them to pop.
3. Add Cumin Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Onion Seeds and allow them to sizzle.
4. Add Turmeric Powder, Ginger, Garlic, Green Chilies and cook for 20-30 seconds.
5. Add Tomatoes and a little salt and cook covered (stirring frequently) until the Oil starts to separate from the mixture and tomatoes have cooked down completely.
6. Add Red Chili Powder and mix well.
7. Add Paneer and carefully mix until all the pieces are well coated. Additional Salt can be added at this time.
8. Add Bell Pepper, mix well, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes until bell pepper is cooked but not mushy.
9. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with chapati or roti.

Dear Reader,

This Website is dedicated to all those Educated and very worthy women who are sitting at home to either take care of their Kids, Parents, In- Laws or other House-hold affairs.

Posts published on this website have been just compiled together form other Sites that I have liked. You can be be Rest assured that everything here is tried and tested. Only when I have recieved lots of Compliment, I thought of maintaining a recipe or some tips and tricks diary. I had seen my mother, Buas and mausis having diary of their time. It would have all recipes and tips and tricks that they would jot down while watching any TV Program , Neighbours recipe, Books, Newspaper Cutting, Indian Hindi magazine like Sarita and Manorama. etc.

I thought of maintaining it Online as in this fast moving world, Hard copies cannot be carried everywhere.

Some Resources for mothers with toddlers are here. Those are just something that I had to jot down to remember it for myself.

If you have any suggestions, just drop me a line. The Blog might Not look very Organized as I have to take care of 2 kids who are more interested in My Laptop than their Toys.

In Due course of time, I shall work more on maintaing and organizing this blog. Plz bear with me till then.

I want to thank all my Readers and the owners of non ending list of sites from where these posts are compiled from.

Be Loved Forever,

Soumya

Farrah ( Gojhah in Bhojpuri )

Farrah, also called as Gojhah in Bhojpuri.
Is usually made on Bhaiya Dhooj day.

Ingredients:

For the Filling:
500 gm Channa dal
Black Pepper
Garlic
Ginger
Green chilly
Coriander seeds
Cummin / Jeera
Turmeric
Amchur powder
Salt
Curry leaves

Soak 1/2 kg Channa daal for 6-8 hours.
Mix all & blend in mixer to coarse paste.

For the cover:
Rice flour 
Hot water

Directions:

Make rice flour dough with very hot water.
You can also do this by boiling water & adding rice flour in it. Keep stirring till no lumps. And then make dough with hands.

For Farrah:
Roll tiny rotis of rice dough.
Add a spoonful of daal mixture and fold flat.
Daal mix should not flow out.
You can seal the rice roti with water.
Stem these Farrah's for 15-20 minutes. You can use the Idli steamer.

Tempering:
Ghee
Onions - chopped
Curry leaves

Heat few spoons of Ghee in kadai.
Add chopped onions & bunch of curry leaves.
Heat till onions turn crisp brown.
Add the steamed Farrah's and mix till all are covered. Be careful so they dont break. Or if the Farrah's are too large, they can be cut into half before tempering.
You can leave it on heat till the Farrah cover gets a crisp brown shade.

Chicken Curry Home Style ( Simple but Delicious )

Ingredients:

• Chicken – 2 lbs, thighs and legs (cleaned, skinned and halved)
• Oil – 2 tbsp
• Onions – 2 medium, sliced
• Tomatoes – 3 medium, chopped
• Cinnamon – 1” stick
• Black Cardamom – 1
• Peppercorns – 4, whole
• Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
• Garlic – ½ tbsp, finely chopped
• Ginger – ½ tsp, grated
• Garam Masala – 1 tsp
• Chili Powder – to taste
• Salt – to taste
• Yogurt – ½ cup, well beaten
• Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
• Cilantro- 5 sprigs, finely chopped for garnishing
• Green Chili – 1, finely chopped for garnishing

Method:

1. In a medium non-stick wok, heat Oil on medium to high flame.
2. Add Cumin seeds and allow them to splutter
3. Then we add Whole Spices i.e. Cinnamon, Cardamom, Peppercorn and cook for 15 seconds.
4. Add in Onions and allow them to cook and become translucent and then, Ginger and Garlic is next – mix.
5. Once the onions are golden brown, add in the tomatoes and mix well.
6. Now add your powdered spices - Garam Masala, Red Chili Powder and Salt. Reduce flame to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Add cleaned Chicken, mix well cook for 6-7 minutes.
8. Add yogurt and mix it gently into the chicken.
9. Reduce heat a little, cover the wok with tight lid and cook for 10 minutes.
10. Check on the Chicken and stir once in-between to make sure it is not burning at the bottom.
11. Remove Chicken from heat and add Lemon Juice. Give it a final mix and serve with Cilantro and Green Chili as garnishing.
12. Serves 4-6.

Spelling: when to double a consonant before adding -ed or -ing to a verb

We add -ing to a verb to form its present participle, and -ed to regular verbs to form the past simple. When doing this, we sometimes double the last letter of the verb, as in these examples:

• stop ⇒ stopped, stopping
  stoped
  stoping
• refer ⇒ referred, referring
  refered
  refering

Sometimes, however, we don’t double the last letter, as with the verb visit:

• visit ⇒ visited, visiting
  visitted
  visitting

To understand this spelling rule, it’s first necessary to know the meaning of vowel andconsonant:

vowels = a  e  i  o  u
consonants are all other letters (b  c  d  f  g, etc).

Here’s the rule:

When to double a consonant before adding -ed and -ing to a verb
We double the final letter when a one-syllable verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant.*	stop, rob, sit	stopping, stopped, robbing, robbed, sitting
We double the final letter when a word has more than one syllable, and when the final syllable is stressed in speech.	beGIN, preFER	beginning, preferring, preferred
If the final syllable is not stressed, we donot double the final letter.	LISten, HAPpen	listening, listened, happening, happened

In British English, travel and cancel are exceptions to this rule: 

travel, travelling, travelled; cancel, cancelling, cancelled. 

* We do not double the final letter when a word ends in two consonants (-rt, -rn, etc.): 
start – starting, started; burn - burn, burned. 

* We do not double the final letter when two vowels come directly before it:
remain – remaining, remained. 

* We do not double w or y at the end of words:
play – playing, played; snow - snowing, snowed.

Aloo ki Raswali Subzi without Onion and Garlic

Ingredients:

• 2-3 large boiled potatoes
• 2 dry red chilies
• 2 green cardamoms
• 15 cloves 
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds 
• 1 tsp black pepper corns
• an inch stick of cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-3 green chilies broken
• 2 black cardamoms
• 2 tsp of everyday curry masala
• 1 tsp turmeric powder 
• 2 tsp mustard oil
• a pinch of asafoetida
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Peel and cube the potatoes, keep aside. 
2. Heat oil in a kadai and throw in the asafoetida, followed quickly by all the spices except those typed in bold. 
3. Add the spices typed in bold and quickly add the potatoes mashing them while adding to the pan . Thrash with a spatula and mix well. 
4. Add Finely Chopped coriander Leaves. 
5. Add enough water to cover the mix and some more to make the curry almost watery... or as thin or thick you like it. 
6. Add salt to taste and let the curry cook on low flame till a nice cloves aroma wafts through the kitchen. The curry is watery, the way I like it. With a gentle aroma of green coriander.