Rongi/Lobia/Black eyed kidney bean curry

This is a dish prepared all over India. People in north india call it Rongi and down south it is called lobia. The method of preparation for this dish a little different in different parts of india. This is best serves with lachha parantha but you can also have it with rice. Today i will post it north indian style.
Many people do not like the flavor but i love it the way my mom prepares it. My husband didnt like it much when we got married. So i told him, let me prepare it my way first and still if you don't like it and i will not prepare it for you:-) And as you would predict, he liked it with lachha parantha !! So, now we have it once in a while when i dont have much at home to cook, the grocery day is approaching and i want to wait for the grocery day :-)
Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1C lobia/rongi
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 inch ginger root
2 green chilis
handful of cilantro
1/2 onion
3/4 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala (optional)
salt to taste.
Method:

1) In a bowl of hot boiling water, soak the rongi for about an hour. This will cook it faster. You can also soak it in cold water for about 4-5 hours. Boiling water swells the daals faster. That is my experience. This way you dont need to soak everything overnight.

2) In a pressure cooker, boil the lobia with 4 cups of water and some salt. Wait until a whistle, simmer and let cook for about 15 mins. Turn off the heat and let the steam come out on its own.

3) Meanwhile in a grinder, add onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilis and cilantro. Grind to form a paste or masala.

4) Heat oil in a separate pan, add the masala and let cook until it starts leaving oil. Add salt, chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala and let cook for a few seconds.

5) Pour this masala into the boiled rongi and mix well. Let it come to a boil or cover the cooker to get one more whistle. This way the masala mixes well and if the rongi is not fully boiled , it will get cooked in the last whistle. Add more water if necessary.

6) Serve hot with parantha or rice.

Serves: 3-4

Upside down vegetable pizza

My husband and i both love pizza. The only thing that i dont prefer is getting home delivery for pizza because by the time it is delivered it gets hard! I was watching the Robin miller show one day and she shared a simple recipe of pizza which seemed difficult because it was upside down!!
Anyway , i modified the recipe by adding some more salt and herbs to the dough. Also, i made the vegetarian version, with lesser cheese. It was an instant hit in our house:-)
My husband loved it and we ate the sides too !!! And most of all , it was fresh!!
Here's my version ...
Ingredients:

1C mozzarella cheese, shredded
For the topping:

1/2C bell pepper chopped
1/2C onions, sliced
1/2C mushrooms, sliced (any kind of mushrooms)
1/2C pizza sauce, store bought
1/2C pasta sauce, store bought
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

For the dough:

1 egg
3/4C all purpose flour
3/4C milk
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried italian herbs
Method:

1) In a pan, heat oil and drop in the veggies. Let them cook until they become soft. Add pasta sauce and pasta sauce , salt and pepper. Let them simmer till the sauce comes to a boil. Turn off the heat.

2) In a mixing bowl, crack the egg and beat it. Then add milk, olive oil. Whisk them to mix well. Add the flour , salt and herbs and incorporate in the liquid to form a paste. It has a thin consistency so do not worry.

3) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a baking pan, layer the topping mixture first. Then layer the shredded cheese. Pour the dough over the cheese so that it spreads out all over the topping and cheese.

4) Bake it in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the top becomes light brown.

5) Slice ans serve by flipping the slice upside down :-)

Serves: 2

Tip: you can also add other toppings like tomatoes and olives.

coconut chutney

Coconut chutney is something i liked from the moment i tasted it and i have been making this chutney for years...Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1C fresh or dry grated coconut
1C yoghurt
1 tbsp peanuts
2 tbsp roasted chana
2 green/red chilis
1 tsp rai
1 tsp vegetable oil
salt to taste

Method:

1) Heat oil in a pan, drop in peanuts, chana and green chilis, let them roast until peanuts turn light brown. Add peanuts first because they take time to cook as compared to the chana. Drop in chana afte a min or two the peanuts are in. Add green chilis in the end.

2) In a grinder, add coconut, the fried peanuts, chana and green chili, yoghurt, salt and water if necessary.

3) Grind them together to form a chunky paste.

4) In the remaining oil , add mustard seeds until they splutter. Drop them in the chutney.

5) Store in refrigerator and serve cold with idli or dosa.

Serves:4-5

Tip: If the yoghurt is thick and store bought 1/2C should be enough.

Idli

Although there are a lot brands of readymade idli and dosa batter in the grocery stores these days, i like to make it at home. There is something different about the taste. You can also put a lot of things in the batter to make different style of idlis. For now I am posting the most basic recipe. The key to making soft idlis is that the batter should be fermented properly. Also if you whip the batter a little bit before steaming them they come out to be real soft. There are different ratios of urad daal and idli rava but to me 1:1 ratio works perfectly fine.
Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1C urad daal
1C idli rava (store bought)
oil for greasing the mould
salt to taste


Method:

1) Soak the urad daal and idli rava separately in water for about 6-8 hours.

2) Urad daal will swell a bit after soaking. Drain the water and In a grinder , add urad daal first and grind it to a fine paste. Add water little by little to the grinder to make the consistency of a cake batter.

3) Drain water from the soaked idli rava and add to the grinder. Mix well. Pour the batter into a large bowl so that the batter fills half of it. This is because, when the batter ferments, it doubles in size and the bowl should have enough space.

4) Cover the bowl with a lid and keep covered in towels in a warm place in the kitchen. I usually keep it in the pantry or in a recently used oven.

5) Ferment for about 10 hours. By this time the batter should have formed a lot of small bubbles and it should have doubled in size.

6) If it did not, then you can make dosas with batter or try keeping it for some more time to ferment in a warmer place.

7) Add salt to taste in the batter. Grease the idli mould with little oil and pour the batter in each mould.

8) boil about an inch or two of water in a large pan which can accomodate the mould. Keep the mould in the pan of boiling water and cover the lid so that the steam is trapped and it cooks the idlis.

9) Steam for about 12 mins and they are ready to take out of the mould.

Serves: This amount of batter will make 24 idlis so decide for yourself ;-)