SPICE-LIOUS WINTER STEW

While I wish when I wake up tomorrow I don't have to wear my winter jacket, winter boots or get static electricity shocks every now and then, that I know is not going to happen. So I'm going to do what a good friend of mine tells me "Suck it up buttercup". It's snowing outside again and that makes me crave for some wintery stews and soups. So today I am going to share one of my mom's recipe. Even though it is not a typical Odia recipe but I can assure you that it will bring the same warmth and homeliness :) 

Odisha is hot almost all year round, so winter is when we have access to fresh vegetables. Keep in mind that I am talking about a time when frozen fruits and vegetables were not easily accessible, so vegetables like bell peppers, carrots etc would be fresher in winter than in summer. 

This stew has lots of spices that makes it the perfect winter weekday dinner, calming, soothing and invigorating at the same time. Hope you enjoy making it. Here goes:

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
10 minutes	20 minutes	4 - 5

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Assorted Vegetables (select your favourite vegetables) I used carrots, green beans, zucchini, broccoli	3 - 4 cups (the more the merrier)
Onions	1 medium sized
Tomato	1 medium sized
Green chillies	2 - 3
Bay leaves	a pinch
Whole Black pepper	4 - 5 (add more to make the stew more spicy)
Cloves	4 - 5
Cinnamon	1 stick ( you can use cinnamon powder as well )
Vegetable broth (optional)	1 small mason jar / 1 and half cup
Water	1 small mason jar / 1 and half cup
Oil	2 Tablespoons (I use vegetable oil but you can use olive oil or butter)
Mung beans	1/2 cup
Salt	To taste

PREP

• Wash all the vegetables thoroughly and dice them into small pieces, don't make them too small because we want a chunky stew.
• Dice the onions and tomatoes
• Cut the green chillies into small pieces 

• Pressure cook the mung beans. If you don't want to use mung beans or don't have them ready, you can always use chickpeas or canned kidney beans. Mung beans add the protein to this dish. 

PROCEDURE

• Heat your soup pot on medium heat and add oil
• Now add the bay leaves. cloves, whole black peppers and the cinnamon stick
• You'll start getting a really sweet aroma from all the spices, make sure not to burn them and always maintain medium heat

• Add the green chillies 
• Add the diced onions and fry them

• Add the hard to cook vegetables first, I added the green beans and carrots first. Cook for about 5 minutes and add the easy to cook vegetables, I added zucchini and broccoli

• Add salt and stir fry the vegetables for around 5 minutes more and then add the lentils or beans 
• Now add the vegetable stock and equal amount of water
• The last step is to add the tomatoes 

• Cover and cook until vegetables are done

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve hot with a bread or you can have it all by itself.

Feedback and comments always welcome! 

BAIGANA BHAJA (PAN SEARED EGGPLANT)

A typical vegetarian odia meal usually consists of rice, daal (lentils), paga (a deliciously tangy mixture that can be made of a variety of ingredients) and bhaja (pan seared or stir fried vegetables). Bhaja is the generic term that applies to different kinds of stir fried or pan seared side dishes. 

Baigana bhaja (pan seared eggplant) has been an all time favourite of mine. It is an easy to make side dish that goes well with the rice and daal combination or even with chapatis/rotis. 

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
5 minutes	10 minutes	3 - 4

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Eggplant	1 big or medium
Rice Flour	2 Tablespoons
Turmeric	1 teaspoon
Ginger paste	1 teaspoon
Oil	2 teaspoon
Salt	To taste

PREP

1. Wash the eggplant thoroughly and cut it into circular pieces
2. In a bowl make a watery mixture of rice flour, turmeric, ginger paste and salt
3. Marinate the eggplant slices in the mixture coating them evenly, let it rest for 15 - 20 minutes

PROCEDURE 

1. Heat a flat pan 
2. When the pan is hot add 1 teaspoon of oil and the marinated eggplant slices
3. Roast equally on both sides until done

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve hot with rice and daal or chapatis. My husband is a big fan of yoghurt and rice, baigana bhaja goes well with that too. My grandma puts a little bit of tomato ketchup on it and that tastes awesome too. 

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THESE INGREDIENTS

If you are not in India, you can easily find all the ingredients at any Indian Grocery store. In Canada I know that Loblaws, Food Basics, Freshco and Farmboy carry almost all of these ingredients. 

Feedback and comments always welcome! 

TOMATO PAGA (ROASTED TOMATO SIDE DISH)

Paga is the term that we odias apply to the genre of tangy mixtures that we eat with rice and daal. Rice and daal can be pretty bland on their own, paga adds the zing to the plate. "Paga" does not have a fixed recipe, you can create your own combination of ingredients that make most sense to you. Paga can be made with tomatos, potatoes, eggplants, yoghurt, make it tangy and zingy and you have your own paga recipe. 

The Tomato paga recipe that I will share today is a really simple one with just 4 major ingredients. 

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
20 minutes	5 minutes	2 - 3

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Tomato	1 big or medium
Oil	1 teaspoon
Onions	1/4 medium sized
Coriander leaves	a tiny bunch
Lemon	2 Tablespoon
Salt	To taste

PREP

1. Wash the tomato thoroughly.
2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Coat your baking tray with oil and place the tomato in it.
4. Roast the tomato for around 15 - 20 minutes such that you can take the skin off the tomato easily. For the last 3 minute put your oven on broil. 
5. If you have access to a gas stove or a barbecue machine you can roast the tomato directly on it. 
6. Finely chop onions and coriander leaves

PROCEDURE 

• Once the tomato is roasted transfer it to a bowl and use your hands to mash it

• Add lemon, chopped onions, coriander leaves and salt to taste

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve with rice and daal. They also go really well with pakhala, I'll save that recipe for summer. ;)

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THESE INGREDIENTS

If you are not in India, you can easily find all the ingredients at any Indian Grocery store. In Canada I know that Loblaws, Food Basics, Freshco and Farmboy carry almost all of these ingredients. 

Feedback and comments always welcome! 

NADIA BARA (Coconut Cutlets)

Orissa (Odisha now) has a huge coastline stretched across Bay of Bengal on it's east and hence is privileged to a tropical weather almost all year round. Tropical climate = loads of coconut trees. As a child, I had instant access to coconut in all forms, tender coconut, coconut water, desiccated coconut etc. We had coconut trees in our house and coconut delicacies were a popular thing. So today I'll share a recipe which is deliciously coconuty. 

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	MAKES
20 minutes	20 minutes	15-16 medium sized cutlets

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Fresh Shredded Coconut/ Small pieces of coconut	1 cup
Boiled Potatoes	1 cup
Chickpea Flour	3 Tablespoon
Ginger	a small piece
Green Chillies	4 - 5
*Amchur powder (Dry Mango powder)	2 teaspoon
Soaked Chana Daal (Yellow split lentil)	3 - 4 Tablespoon
Salt	To taste

* If you don't have easy access to Amchur powder (dry mango powder), no need to panic :) substitute with 
drops of lemon/lime juice. 

PREP

1. Soak the chana dal in water for around an hour before you make the cutlets.  If you forget to soak the lentils, soaking them in hot water will help hasten the process. If you able to break them with your fingers, they are done.If you don't have easy access to this ingredient, don't worry your cutlets will still be super tasty.
2. Boil potatoes like you would make mashed potatoes

PROCEDURE 

• Make a slightly grainy paste of the soaked chana dal (yellow split pea), ginger, coconut pieces and chillies in a grinder or food processor. 

• Add little water if your food processor does not cooperate. Mine always needs a little water for it to run.
• Transfer this paste into a bowl, add potatoes, chickpea flour, amchur powder, you'll get a very fluffy mixture. Add salt to taste.
• Heat a flat pan (the kind you use for making crepes or rotis) on medium heat
• Now make small patties of the mixture. Put a little water in your hands and roll the mixture into balls, put the balls directly on the pan and flatten them with your hands.

• Roast them equally on both sides until they become golden brown. Add a little oil to prevent them from drying up too much.
• Serve hot with green chutney/Sriracha or any hot/sweet sauce. 

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THESE INGREDIENTS

If you are not in India, you can easily find all the ingredients at any Indian Grocery store. In Canada I do know that Loblaws, Food Basics, Freshco and even Farmboy carry almost all of these ingredients. 

Feedback and comments always welcome! 

RAM RUCHI

Since this is the first post on my blog, I want to start off with something that reminds me of my childhood and especially my grandfather. Ram ruchi was a name given by my grandfather to this chickpea dish. The dish is a gravy with potatoes and steamed chickpea flour squares. It tastes great with rice as well as rotis/naan bread. 

So here goes. 

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
10-12 minutes	30 minutes	2-3

PROCEDURE

Chickpea (Squares) squares

Ingredients (for chickpea squares)	Quantity
Chickpea Flour	7-8 tablespoons
Coriander powder	1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder	1 teaspoon
Lemon juice	from half a lemon
Salt	a pinch
Water	as required

• In a small bowl mix all the dry ingredients above and lemon juice. 
• Now add water to make a slightly heavy paste such that when you lift your fingers from the mixture it does not fall off from your hands

• We need to steam this mixture and make squares out of them. I have a steamer so I used that to steam the mixture. If you don't have anything to steam, make small round balls of the mixture and deep fry them. 
• My steamer has a bowl to make rice so I spread the mixture on it and steamed for around 15-20 minutes. 
• While the steamer is at work, you can start making the gravy. (see ingredients and procedure below)
• After it is ready, let it cool and then cut them up into square (or any shape you like, you can even use a cookie cutter and get creative)

Potato gravy 

Ingredients (for Potato Gravy)	Quantity
Boiled Potatoes	2
Onion	1 medium sized
Tomato	1 medium sized
Chillies	2 -3
Ginger	a small piece
Garlic (optional)	2 cloves
Dhania powder (Coriander Powder)	1 teaspoon
Jeera powder (Cumin Powder)	1 teaspoon
Haldi (Turmeric Powder)	1/2 teaspoon
Jeera (Cumin Seeds)	1/2
Garam Masala	1 teaspoon
Garlic (optional)	2 cloves
Oil	2 tablespoons

• Create a puree of the tomatoes, ginger, chillies and garlic (if using)

• In a pot, add oil and when the oil is hot add the cumin seeds and when they start fluttering add the onions 

• When the onions turn golden brown, add the tomato puree 
• Add a little bit of salt to quicken up the cooking process
• Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala
• Cook on medium flame for 10 minutes or until the mixture is cooked well
• When the mixture is cooked add the boiled potatoes (cut into squares) and the chickpea flour squares. Cook for 2 minutes and then add sufficient water to make it quite watery. Add salt to taste (If you added salt to the tomato puree, be careful not to make it overly salty)
• Let the curry cook covered for 10 minutes or until the gravy thickens. 
• Serve hot with rice or chapatis.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THESE INGREDIENTS

If you are not in India, you can easily find all the ingredients at any Indian Grocery store. In Canada I do know that Loblaws, Food Basics, Freshco and even Farmboy carry almost all of these ingredients. 

Feedback and comments always welcome!