VINTAGE RECIPES...

I am a collector of books especially cook books and Interior books.. I have been buying books since the last 15 yrs and have a huge collection of them.. In India as space is always not enough .It becomes a big problem storing these books and it takes me a lot of time and effort to arrange and keep all the books in place.
Its my project this year , to go through all my loose recipes i.e recipes which I have taken copies from old cookbooks and filed . 
I am planning to discard a few of them as I have cooked them before ( I have never ever followed a single recipe from a book as it is , I always make changes , to make it my own and hence I do not need the exact recipe for making a dish ). Its my hobby to collect cookbooks read them and also as they grow older my fondness for them increases which makes it impossible for me to discard them.
But the loose pages which I have either torn from old books or magazines or had taken copies from friends who owned those books these pages are giving away as they are old. The copies have been  taken over a long period of time hence I do not know which books they come from or the source..
So It just passed my mind that I should not let a old recipe go to waste why not share  with like minded friends and then discard it.. Will my friends and  all my readers like it if I do so more often because I have a lot to share.. It would be great if you tell me what you feel .
HERE IS MY FIRST RECIPE OF 

MUSHROOM-CHICKPEA CURRY.

This is a simple curry made with chickpeas and mushrooms 

CLICK ON RECIPE TO ENLARGE.

Each of my recipes are tried and tested unless mentioned but I change them to suit my taste you can do so too ,and if I feel that there are some tips to be given I will share them here at the end of the recipe.

SPICY FISH CURRY

When fish curry is made at home , we have a specific combination or ingredients which go into the coconut gravy for a particular fish.. you cannot make the prawn curry ingredient for the king fish curry or the vice versa...

So when you see that I have made a curry, know that its specifically made for that particular fish so the curries are fish oriented .. sometimes the same gravy can be used for one another type of fish but that's all no more...


Today I am giving you the recipe of a favorite of mine and that's the hot and spicy mackerel fish curry... I love to have it with rice (that's normal in a goan household) but I love it with roti too.. It should be had hot i.e off the stove with nice basmati rice ...you can have a goan papad with it too as an accomplishment...or a side...

INGREDIENTS

1 cup freshly grated coconut

 3 bedgi chilies which give a red ( i.e. orange with haldi ) colour to the curry and spicy

 One inch ginger piece

 Haldi powder ½ tsp

 A small ball tamarind and salt to taste.

A berry called “teffal” is added at the end to give the required specific  flavor to the dish. (I think it’s from the schezwan pepper family)

Mackerels are washed , cleaned and cut into convenient pieces.

METHOD:
In a pan add about ½ cup of water and cook one green chili and a small piece of ginger which is lightly crushed

Grind together coconut, red chilies, turmeric powder, tamarind and ginger.
Put it in a pan and dilute it with water till the required consistency.
Add salt, crushed teffal fruit and cook till mixture boils.
Add the mackerel pieces and cook till the fish is cooked, which takes about 5 mins.
you can adjust  the taste by adding a little tamarind juice if it’s too hot .

I hope you enjoy the curry . Teffal is a very important ingredient in this dish for the flavour it gives which is quite strong so I recommend if you try it for the first time you can leave it out (it tastes great even without it..) ..secondly you might find it very commonly so its better to try this dish without it...

PALAK CHANA-DAL****

Here I have a great vegetable for you which is full of nutrition and easy pizzy to prepare .. Lovely... I love cooking such vegetables which are loaded with goodness and which require minimum efforts to make for those who are not in India this will be easier to prepare with the quality of spinach that is available..

Here in India we have to very careful while cleaning any green vegetables and have to check each leaf for worms or dirt but when you do it its a great vegetable 

PALAK- spinach leaves you can read about the benefits of spinach here

CHANA-DAL split chick peas---  i.e. split Chickpeas without seed-coat. Chana dal is produced by removing the outer layer of Kala chana (black chickpeas) and then splitting the kernel. Although machines can do this, it can be done at home by soaking the whole chickpeas and removing the loose skins by placing the chickpeas between two towels and rubbing with a rolling pin.(info from Wikipedia)

Chana-dal is supposed to have a low glycemic Index and hence good for people with diabetics 

I cook this in my mini pressure cooker, which is a boon ( I do most of my daily vegetable preparations in a cooker ) and It takes less than 15 mins to have the dish piping hot on the table YAY!!! Instant gratification.

INGREDEINTS

2 Bunches spinach

1/2 cup chana dal or split chickpea soaked for about an hour

2 medium onions finely chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 tomato finely chopped

3/4 tsp chilli powder

1/4 tsp haldi powder or turmeric powder

1/2 tsp dhania-jeera powder (coriander cumin powder)

marble size ball of jaggery

salt to taste

coriander for garnish

METHOD:

Take oil in a pan add garlic let it brown..

Add your onion and stir till soft 

Add your tomatoes and stir till the mixture is soft (you can add salt at this point)

Add the powdered spices , jaggery and stir now add the chana dal and cook for 5 mins

Add the chopped spinach, salt and close the lid of the cooker

let it cook for about4-5 whistles

when cooled add the coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis YUM!!!!

MASOOR TONAK.......

This is a typical goan recipe which we call as “TONAK” you can change the main ingredient with the same masala and procedure and the name changes. The taste remains almost the same.
Here I a writing about the veg tonak which can be made tasty and ‘non-veg’ by adding some prawns to it.
INGREDIENTS.

2 cups Masoor (whole not dal)
3 medium sized onions
11/2 cup grated coconut
2 medium sized potatoes cut into cubes (large)
2tsp Garam masala powder
1sp red chili powder
1 tsp dhania jeera powder.
Large marble sized tamarind ball
Salt to taste.

METHOD

Soak masoor in 4 cups water for about 2-3 hours.
Finely chop 2 onions and slice the third onion
Peel and cut potatoes into cubes.
Drain water from the masoor and mix with potatoes
Pressure cook for 1 whistle (be careful as the masoor cooks quickly and may get mashed)
You can cook it without the pressure cooker too but this takes a bit longer.
Take a kadai, heat and add oil
Add the sliced onions, when the oil is hot. Stir till the onions turn brown
Now add the grated coconut, fry till they become nice and brown.
Grind this mixture with the marble sized tamarind.
Take a pan, heat and add oil to it.
Add the finely chopped onions and stir fry don’t let them turn brown.
Add all the masalas and stir
Now add the cooked masoor and potatoes
Add salt and let it cook for sometime.
Finally add the ground coconut and onion paste.
Let it boil for some more time
A tasty masoor masala is ready.


THIS IS A RECIPE FOR MY FRIEND 'NUPUR' from onehotstove.

NEERPHANAS PHODE

I love neerphanas or bread fruit as its called in english when it is cooked in the way i have done in this post and it tastes as great as fried fish.

For those who are new to this fruit you can check out here for details.

I Shallow fry the pieces of the bread fruit just like i would do for fish.

apply salt,chilli powder,haldi powder and a little dhania jeera powder to the bread fruit pieces then roll them in coarsely powdered rice flour . remove the excess flour by tapping it on a plate.

Heat a hot skillet or tava and pour a little oil spread the breadfruit pieces around as shown in the picture and fry on both sides till it is cooked and brown. you can check it by piercing a spoon in it to see that it goes through .

BREADFRUIT PIECES ON THE TAWA

MOTHERS FAVORITE RECIPE-VATANA GOLEE.

Vatanyache golee or usal is a gravy dish with green peas.
This is my mother’s specialty she loves making this vegetable ever since I remember. She makes it at least once a week even now. Whether the peas are in season or not do not matter to her ,she buys frozen peas and does this dish regularly.
Regarding me I seem to have some block in my brain as regards to this dish , I make it rarely although its an extremely simple and delicious dish, secondly every time I make it I seem to forget how I had made it and have to call up my mother to take the recipe. That’s what I did today morning I called her up as soon as the menu for the day was fixed and got the recipe from her with her usual comment “ what’s wrong why do you always forget the recipe for this simple vegetable when you make can cook unusual and much more complicated recipes” now!!!! What am I supposed to tell her or for that matter anyone else.
So now, the next alternatives were to blog about it and have the recipe written and photographed for ever….
Do you agree with me?


INGREDIENTS:

3 cups green peas
1 cup grated coconut
½ tsp pepper corns
marble size piece of jaggery
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp hing or asafoetida
1 tsp haldi powder
oil for bagar


METHOD

Take a pan, add oil when hot put mustard seeds and hing
Add haldi powder and the green peas.
Add water and salt and let them cook till soft.
Grind together coconut, peppercorns ,jaggery and chili powder .
Add this ground mixture to the cooked green peas
Let it cook .
Serve with rotis or chapattis.

POTATO IN A SIMPLE GRAVY.....

POTATO IN A SIMPLE GRAVY.

250 gms potatoes sliced
2 medium onions sliced
2 tomatoes sliced
4 cloves of garlic
pinch of sugar
½ tsp red chili powder or as per taste
½ tsp haldi powder
½ tsp garam masala powder.
Finely chopped coriander.

METHOD:

take oil in a hot pan
add the sliced onions and garlic together.
after the onions turn soft add the tomatoes
let the tomatoes cook and leave oil
then add the rest of the ingredients
let the potatoes cook till soft
if you want more gravy you can mash some of the potatoes in the gravy
add finely chopped coriander leaves.
heat hot with chapattis or bread.

POTATO MAGIC.....

Of all the vegetables I love potatoes the most, as I feel that it’s the most versatile vegetable .It’s a “ FRIEND IN NEED”.
Its one vegetable that I am sure everyone will agree one cannot live without .what do you say to that? you can make almost anything with a potato, it may it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or even evening snacks.


Before I give you my potato recipes let me give you certain facts about a humble potato.

It’s a good source of vitamin C and B6 and potassium and other minerals
an inexpensive ,filling and nutritious starchy food
the skin is a good source of fiber.
there are many varieties of potatoes but sweet potato and yams are not one of them.
potatoes are nutritious and low in calories.
when eaten with their skin they are high in complex carbohydrates and fiber.
many people think that potatoes are fattening but this is true only when they are fried or served with butter and rich sauces.
when preparing potatoes , it is best not to remove the skin because the fiber is in the skin and many of the nutrients are bear the surface, instead scrub them under water with a vegetable brush. If you do peel them try to remove as thin a layer as possible.
baking , steaming or micro waving preserves the maximum amount of nutrients.

Information sourced from the book FOODS HARM FOODS HEAL

DRY POTATO BHAJI (BATATYACHE BHAJI)

250 gms potatoes
for tempering:
oil.
½ tsp Mustard seeds
½ tsp Cumin seeds
½ tsp hing or asafetida
Green chilies
Few curry leaves
Finely chopped coriander leaves.
A pinch of sugar
½ tsp lemon juice.

METHOD:

chop the potatoes into small cubes
take a pan , add oil
add mustard seeds and cumin seeds let them crackle
add hing ,green chilies and curry leaves
put in the potatoes
add salt a pinch of sugar and salt to taste
don’t add water as it spoils the taste of the vegetable
you can cover the pan and keep a little water on the lid so that the potatoes don’t stick to the pan and burn.
after they are cooked add finely chopped coriander leaves.
serve hot with puris.

This is the simplest potato vegetable that one can do and if made in a pressure pan it takes only about 10 mins after the time taken for chopping.

BHENDI MASALA....

Hi
My recipe for bhendi masala is simple and a goan recipe
Bhendi is one vegetable, which I do not eat, as I do not like the slimy feel after it is cooked but it is a favorite vegetable in my family.
I make bhendi in 4 different ways, I would like to share this recipe as it’s a bit different from the ones which is regularly made as the others are common recipes which you might find in every persons house.

ING:
300 gms bhendi
½ cup grated coconut
¼ tsp garam masala powder,
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp haldi powder
Mustard, hing, curryleaves, three green chilies for bagar
Oil
Little jaggery to balance taste


METHOD

· Clean and cut bhendi sideways
· Take oil in a pan. When it gets hot, add mustard seeds after they crackle add hing, curryleaves and green chilies.
· Add the bhendi, which has been cut, to it, add a little water cook.
· Grind together grated coconut, garammasala, chili powder, haldi powder,
· Grind until fine.
· Check the bhendi when cooked pour the ground paste into the bhendi
· Let it cook
· Your bhendi masala goans style, its ready to be enjoyed!!!!!!!!.