Aaloo Methi Fry (Giving an Old Post a New Look)

This is the first time I have repeated a post on my blog. The first time I posted this was sometime last year when my blog was still in its infancy stage and I did not have many readers. I did not even have a decent photo to go with it. So when I recently cooked it I took some shots. This dish definitely deserves to have more accolades than it previously did. I am sure you will agree with me when you try it out. When one of my friends cooked this for the first time after taking the recipe from me, the compliment she recieved from her husband was, "I feel as if I am having a meal in a very fine indian restaurant." This dish has the much liked punjabi flavour to it without going over the top with the spices. So do give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

8 Baby Potatoes

2 tblspns Kasoori Methi

1 large tomato pureed

1 onion chopped

2 tspn cumin seeds (jeera)

2tspn Dhana jeera powder (cumin and coriander powders)

1/2 tspn garam masala

3-4 tblspns oil

Procedure:

1.Peel the potatoes, prick them with a fork and boil them in salted water until cooked but firm. Drain the water and keep the potatoes aside.

2.Heat the oil in a pan (Kadhai), add the jeera and fry for few seconds.

3.Then add the chopped onion. Fry the onion till golden brown.

4.Next add the kasoori methi and fry again for a few minutes.

5.Now add the tomato puree and fry till the oil separates. Add to this the garam masala, the dhana-jeera powder and chilli powder.

6.Mix the masala and the spice powders well and again fry for one minute.

7.Lastly add the boiled potatoes and the peas to the mixture and stir them in gently until all the potatoes are thickly coated with the masala. As the potatoes are boiled in salted water check the taste before adding more salt.

8. Garnish with chopped coriander and small cherry tomatoes for that special touch.

Simple ,Beautiful and Healthy Too (Soft Boiled Egg with Toasted Soldiers)

I have spent the last few weeks thinking hard about what would be the next dish that I would blog about. I kept thinking of all kinds of complex dishes that I could make. But thinking is as far as I got. I just could not gather the enthusiasm to cook any single one of them. I have been desperate to blog and the response and encouragement I have got from you guys and also from some of my friends here has been overwhelming, but I just kept drawing a blank.

But then it hit me. I mean it was right there staring me in the face and I had not seen it. Its food at its simplest and yet tastiest definitely worth blogging about. I made this soft boil egg and toast combo a few days back and it was fun to eat ordinary egg and toast in this way. The simple act of dipping the toasted soldier in the soft gooey yellow of the egg is fun.

Its a fun breakfast when you have the time and you can really take linger at the breakfast table.

Now for how to do it:

• There is actually nothing to it as we all know how to boil an egg. For those who have doubts :

• Place the egg /s in a suacepan of cold water with enough water to cover the eggs and bring to the boil. Once the water begins to boil ,its crucial that you boil it further for exactly two and a half mins and no more. Switch off the heat and plunge the eggs in cold water for about 10 secs.
• Place the egg then in an egg cup and with a sharp knife just cut away the top part of the shell so you have a nice opening on top of the egg to dip the toast in leaving the rest of the egg intact.
• Toast some bread slices and butter them and then cut into thin strips. There you have your toasted soldiers. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the egg and getting dipping.

An idea by Nigella Lawson:As an alternative to toast you could also dip asparagus tips in the soft egg. Its delicious.

Finally I am blogging again.

Yeah! I have finally managed to get myself into the mood for blogging. After my 3 week break I was feeling a bit lazy and to accompany that I fell ill as soon as I got back to UK. Nothing serious just that the cold weather came as a shock after the mild temperatures in Pune. Well I am OK now and almost feel human again. It was very sweet of all of you to enquire about my health and thanks for all the " Get Well Soons" that I recieved. I think it has also intrigued some of you when I mentioned that my holiday turned out to be Medical Tourism. Well let me quickly explain why I said that. I won't go into too much detail as we do have so many other pleasant things to talk about ,don't we?

Well here goes. When I went to India I had a fair enough idea about what I needed to get done on a high priority basis and that was a small surgery that my son needed . It was something similar to removal of tonsils. So as soon as we got there we started the rounds of ENT specialists. Then came the x-rays ,the blood tests, the courses of antibiotics before the surgery,getting acquainted with hospital procedures and a hundred other things. The only comforting part was that my little one was the bravest little boy I have ever known. Not a single tear was shed through the entire process. After we got past that surgery , I had to visit the dentist for a week which needless to say was not a very pleasant experience. So most of the 3 weeks were spent in visiting doctors, lab-technicians, radiologists and chemists. So you see thats the reason why I call it medical tourism. All said and done I was thoroughly impressed with the medical facilities we got back home and the amount of things we managed to get done in such a short time. Hats off to our medical industry.

Well now its been a week since I got back and I haven't yet cooked anything thats worth blogging about. But I thought I would use this opprtunity to post a few photos of food that I have cooked in the past inspired from other blogs. I have meaning to post these photos for some time now, but there was always some or the other recipe that I wanted to blog about first.


Well the first one is Crispy Dosa that I made by following a recipe posted on Saroj's Cookbook. The dosa's were fab.

The second creation is my all -time favourite Sabudana Khichadi which I was inspired to make after seeing a fantastic photo of Khichadi posted by Jyotsna on her blog Cook's Cottage. Thank you Jyotsna.

The third is not cooked food but its this delicious fruit called Persimmon or Sharon Fruit which I bought and ate for the first time this autumn. It is the most delicious fruit I have eaten after alphonso mangoes. To this I thank three people 1. Vaishali of Happy Burp for having ones mentioned it to me and encouraged me to try it. 2. Ashwini of Food For Thought for creating a post called Fruit of The Fall. and thirdly 3. Meeta of Whats for Lunch Honey for her post of Persimmon Spice Cake. Thanks all of you

And last but definitely not the least are these yummilicious Coconut Pineapple Fairy Cakes I made following a recipe posted by Vaishali on Happy Burp. Its unbelievable that such delicious cakes can be made by following a recipe on the back of a sugar pack. We must start taking these recipes more seriously.

I AM BACK PEOPLE...... BUT NOT QUITE.

Hi to all my bloggo-buddies. I am back from my holiday in India. It was more like medical tourism that anything else. And I am still a little under the weather. I will probably start active blogging from next week. Did you miss me? Well let me know.