Indian Aloo Matar with Gravy Recipe

I’m sure most of the readers heard or know about Aloo Matar. It’s very simple to make yet very satisfying and goes well with even simple plain rice or roti, paratha. If you can make a bowl of plain rice I encourage you to make this gravy at least once. You’ll be hooked that I’m sure. Dhaba is a Punjabi name to roadside food restaurants in India, serves you heavy and spicy food.

I have eaten this dish all trough-out my life and this is surely 1 of my fav's, plus, its not too difficult to make either. 

Total Time Taken

Prep time 10 mins

Cook time 20 mins

Total time 30 mins

Note

Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients

For the gravy

• 2 tsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/ jeera
• 1 tsp ginger, freshly minced + 1 Tbsp garlic, freshly minced
• 1 medium onion, grated using big hole grater
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped finely or ½ can (use half of 400 gm can) with juice
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp red chili powder

For the subji/curry

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds/rai
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• a pinch of asafoetida
• 5-6 curry leaves, chopped finely
• 3 medium potatoes, chopped in big bite size chunks
• ½ cup fresh or frozen peas
• 2 tbsp any greens (spinach, kale or any greens), chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh fenugreek leaves, chopped or 1 tsp crushed kasuri methi
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp red chili powder (adjust acc to taste)
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• salt to taste
• water – as needed
• cilantro, finely chopped – for garnishing

Instuctions

Preparing onion-tomato gravy

1. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Let it crackle for few seconds until golden brown. Add ginger+garlic paste and fry for few seconds until the raw smell goes away. Add into onion and sprinkle little salt over it. Cook till light brown colour – about 2 mins.
2. Mix into chopped (canned) tomatoes and red chili powder. Cook for few more minutes until all gravy combined and oil starts to leave the sides. Keep it aside.

Preparing subji/curry

1. Heat the oil another wide pan add mustard seeds first followed by cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add curry leaves and stir. Add chopped potatoes. Add into salt to taste and add ½ cup water. Stir. Cover the lid and cook on slow-medium heat.
2. Cook for about 8-10 minutes. The potatoes should be cooked till fork tender but still holding their shape.Add now with all chopped greens. Season with all spices. Give it a stir.
3. Add the prepared gravy and mix it well. Adjust the consistency, not too thick or runny. Add few tablespoons more water if needed. Throw into the frozen peas now. Mix into sugar. Check the salt and seasoning and adjust. Cover the lid and cook for 5 minutes more. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
4. Your dhaba style Aloo Matar is ready to serve! Enjoy with paratha, roti or rice.

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Indian Aloo Gobhi Recipe

An all time favourite combination, in an all time favourite form! potato and cauliflower feature in a traditional curry seasoned with typical Indian spices and spruced up with common ingredients like ginger, green chillies and garlic. 

The magic of the garam masala and the dry mango powder is evident in Aloo gobi, as these spice powders really perk up the flavour of the Vegetable

This recipe has been tried by me myself millions of times, and I am not going to stop eating this now.

Time Taken 

Preparation Time: 15 mins   

Cooking Time: 11 mins    

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients

1 cup roughly chopped potatoes
1 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)
2 whole dry kashmiri red chillies , broken into pieces
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (adrak)
1 tsp finely chopped garlic (lehsun)
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
salt to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp dried mango powder (amchur)

For The Garnish

a sprig of coriander (dhania)

For Serving

parathas / rotis

Method 

1. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick kadhai, and add the cumin seed and asafoetida.
2. When the seeds crackle, add the dry red chillies, ginger, garlic and green chillies and sauté on a medium flame or a few seconds.
3. Add the potatoes, mix well and cover and cook on a medium flame for 3 to 4 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
4. Add the cauliflower, salt and 1 tbsp of water, mix well and cover and cook on a medium flame for 5 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
5. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala and dried mango powder, mix well and cook on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
6. Garnish with a sprig of coriander and serve hot with parathas or rotis.

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Simple Idli Recipe From South India

These soft, spongy and savory rice cakes are made by making a batter of rice and black lentils, fermenting the batter and steaming it in special idli moulds. This is a very common breakfast in South India. It is also served in weddings or other special occasions with sambhar, chutney or idli milagai podi. It also goes very well with non veg gravies like chicken curry, egg curry etc and veg kurmas. Due to its soft texture it is given to kids as early as 6 months. It is also commonly given to ailing patients and old people as it gets easily digested.

Ingredients

• Idli rice - 1 3/4 cup
• Black gram - 1/2 cup
• Fennugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tbsp

Method 

1. Soak rice and black gram separately in water for at least 1 hour. Soaking overnight can be done too. Add fenugreek seeds to black gram.
2. Drain the water and grind the black gram to a silky soft texture.
3. Next grind the rice coarsely. Mix it with black gram batter along with salt.
4. Now leave the batter to rest and ferment for at least 6 hours till the batter rises to almost double the size.
5. Grease the idli plates with few drops of oil and fill with idli batter.
    
6. Steam them for about 10 minutes till they rise and become firm. (If you do not have idli stand, grease stainless steel tumblers,  fill it with batter and steam it as shown in the picture.)
    
7. Switch off the stove and let it rest for a minute or 2. After that use a wet spoon to remove the idlis from the idli plate.
    

Serving Suggestion

• Idlis with piping hot sambhar, coconut chutney and vada is an excellent combination.
• Idlis are also served with different types of chutneys, chicken curry, vada curry, tomato curry or some other curries.  
• Idli is one versatile dish that goes well with any curry. My favorite is with carrot chutney.

Idli with Carrot Chutney

Idli with Coconut Chutney, Sambar and Podi

Tips

• During winters, if the batter does not puff up, pre-heat the oven to 250 F , switch it off and put the batter inside.
• 1 Tbsp of cooked rice can be added to the rice while grinding to get fluffy idlis.
• You can use the leftover idlis to make sambhar idli, curd idli, fried idli, masala idli, chilly idli or idli upma.

Variation

• Instead of idli mould, you can use ever silver tumblers to make tumbler idli. It tastes the same as idli cooked in mould, but with the shape of the tumbler.

Tumbler Idli (Glass Idli)

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Whole Wheat Pita Bread Indian Recipe

Pita is an Arabic bread that is very soft. It is often used to make sandwiches, gyros etc. It is widely used in Arabic, Syrian and Greek recipes.

These days you get pita bread in stores but the taste of fresh homemade warm pita is far better. It is also quite simple to make. Once you start making homemade pita, you will never again go back to the store bought ones.

Pita bread starts with making a dough which is very similar to the basic bread dough. The dough is then rested giving time for the yeast to activate and do its job. Then the flatbreads are rolled out and cooked. These breads can be cooked in the conventional oven or on stove top. Using the conventional oven, you can make 4-6 pitas at a time. It stays white in color with no brown spots. When cooked on stove top, you get some brown spots. It’s your personal preference.

Pita bread is traditionally made only with all-purpose flour (maida). To make it healthier, I prefer making with whole wheat flour. You can use both flours 50-50 or make with either one of the flour. The following method and ratio is what I follow. Do try it out.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes: 10-12 pita

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour – 1.5 cups
• All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1/2 cup
• Luke warm water – ¾ cup
• Yeast – 1 tsp
• Sugar – 1 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Oil – 1 tbsp

Method

1. Take the yeast, lukewarm water, oil and sugar in a bowl. Wait for 5-10 minutes till the yeast gets activated and the mixture gets frothy.
2. Add the wheat flour, maida (All-purpose flour) and salt. Knead to form a soft and sticky dough. Add extra water if needed. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
    
3. Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 1 hour.
    
4. Apply some oil in your palms and make small balls with it. It should be about the size of a big lemon.
   
5. Using a rolling pin or with your palm, roll out each ball into a circle. It should be approximately 6” in diameter and about ½” thick. I prefer using some all-purpose flour (maida) for dusting while rolling.
    
6. Heat a griddle and cook the rolled out dough on medium high heat. After about 30 seconds on one side, you will see small bubbles. Flip it and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. This time the lower side would have got a few brown spots. You do not have to add oil.
    
7. Flip once again and cook for another 30 seconds. This time it will start puffing up separating the 2 layers. Press with the back of the spatula or with a clean kitchen towel to help it puff evenly. Your pita with pocket is ready to serve. (Note : Sometime, it may not puff up all around. These are called pocket-less pitas. Remove them once both side are cooked.)
    
8. To make in the conventional oven, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C). Place a baking stone or cookie sheet also to get preheated. Place the rolled out dough on the hot cookie sheet and bake for about 2- 3 minutes till it puffs up. Here I have shown my small convection oven in which only one could be made at a time.
    
9. Remove from stove. After it cools a bit, cut into two halves to stuff.
   

Serving Suggestion

• Pita bread can be served with some yogurt dipping sauce.
• Pitas with pocket can be stuffed with some meat or vegetable patties or falafal to make tasty pita sandwich.
• Pockt-less pitas can be cut into pieces and baked to make pita chips. These can also be used to make wraps.

Tips

• You can refrigerate prepared pita dough and use it when needed to make fresh pitas. It stays good for up to a week. I prefer to do it this way. The other option is to make the pitas and freeze it. You can warm it when required. Frozen pitas stay good for 2-3 months.

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