Bok Choy Stir fry - Indian Style

Thanks to my mom's awesome cooking skills, I am one of those few people who say 'I love greens'. And in South India, you get a whole variety of greens, which means, a whole different variety of dishes and different tastes. Here in Canada, you don't get any of the Indian greens, and those that are available at the Indian groceries stores are not fresh enough to eat.  So I turned to what is available and fresh. Bok Choy is a variety of Chinese Cabbage, mostly used in soups and stir frys. So I decided to give it a try the Indian way. 

Cleaning and Chopping a Bok Choy:

• Remove each stock or leaf from the base and wash well. There is usually mud inbetween the leaves at the base (in the white portion).
• Cut off the white portion and green portion and chop them seperately, as shown in the pictures.
• The white stem part needs to cook slightly longer than the green leafy part.

Ingredients:

• Bok Choy - 1 bunch, chopped.
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Mustart seeds - 1 tspn
• Dry Red Chillies - 2 to 3 broken 
• Urad dal - 1 tspn
• Onion - 1 small or 1/2 of big, chopped
• Garlic - 3 cloves, finely chopped
• Coriander Powder - 1 tspn
• Chilli Powder - 1 tsn or to taste
• Salt - 1tspn
• Water - enough to sprinkle
• Coconut (Fresh or dry) - handful, shredded or grated 

Steps:

• In a wok, heat the oil. When oil is hot add the mustard seeds. Once they crack, add the dry red chillies, Urad dal, onion and garlic and saute well. 
• When onions turn color slightly add the chopped white part of the bok choy and stir well. Add salt, coriander powder and chilli powder and saute well till the raw smell of the powders are gone.
• Now sprinkle some water and close the wok with a lid. Lower the heat to medium high and it cook for about 7- 10 mins or until the whit bok choy changes color and is translucent. 
• Remove the lid and add the green leafy part. Saute well and the cover again and cook for 3 - 5mins, till the green leaf wilts.
• Open lid, if there is any water left, let it dry and then add the grated coconut and stir well. Switch off heat. 

Kerala Beef fry

First off let me tell you, this is my version of the Kerala Nadan style beef fry. This is not an authentic recipe, but is simple and tastes great.

Ingredients:

• Stew beef - 400 grams, cut into bite size pieces
• Onion - 1, chopped 
• Garlic - 3 -4 cloves grated
• Ginger - 1/2 inch piece, grated (Or, use 1 tblspn ginger garlic paste)
• Salt - 1tspn
• Coriander powder - 2 tspn
• Turmeric powder - 1 tspn
• Chilli powder - 1 tspn or to taste
• Garam masala Powder - 1 1/2 tblspn
•  Grated coconut - fresh/ dry, 1 handful, I used dry
• Vinegar - 2 tspn
• Water - 2 tblspn
• Black Pepper powder - 1tspn or to taste
• Coconut oil - 1tsp
• Reular cooking oil of your choice - 1 tblspn
• Curry leaves or Coriander leaves

Steps:

• In a small pressure cooker, add little cooking oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
• Then add, half of the chopped onion, grated ginger and garlic, coriander powder, chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder, garam masala,vinegar and the grated coconut. Mix well with a spoon.
• Add the meat and water and mix well, so that all the pieces are coated with  the spice mix.
• Close the pressure cooker and cook till meat is done (I cooked for 20 to 25 mins.  First 10 mins on high and then on medium heat). 

Note: Since its a dry dish, we are using only 2 tbln of water. So, it will catch on the bottom of your pressure cooker. It all adds to the flavour of the dish, if you want to avoid this, you can add more water. If there is any water left, after pressure cooking, boil till the water evaporates.

•  Heat oil in a pan/wok and saute the rest of the onions, till it becomes golden brown. Add the cooked beef, curry leaves and pepper powder and more salt if needed. Mix well and drizzle coconut oil, stir until well roasted.

Cabbage & Coconut Brown Rice

Brown rice is considered to be healthier than white, and that's about all the compliment I can give for it. Taste wise, white rice wins hands down any day. Brown rice is chewy and simply can't be substituted for white rice in all dishes. Trust me, I had the genius idea to make dum biriyani with it - What an epic fail!.. I know, I get over ambitious sometimes. So my next couple of posts are going to be my success stories, how I made brown rice flavourful and delicious. 

I have always enjoyed cabbage poriyal (stir fry) and white rice, I would start eating before my mom poured any curry over my rice.  So I thought, why not improvise and make a one pot dish. A good thing about this recipe is that the rice to cabbage ratio is less, meaning, there is less rice and more cabbage. So you can eat without worrying about your calorie intake, and moreover your getting all the health benefits of brown rice. This recipe turned out really good for me, I hope it does for you too. 

Ingredients:

• Brown rice -1 cup ( I used brown basmati rice) 
• Water - 2.5 cups for cooking the rice and little more for cooking cabbage
• Cabbage - 1 (small sized), chopped (about 2-3cups chopped) 
• Onion - 1, chopped
• Garlic - 4 pods, finely chopped
• Green chillies -3, slit 
• Oil - 1 tblspn 
• Mustard seeds -1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Biriyani masala - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - to taste
• Salt - to taste
• Desiccated or shredded coconut - 2 handfuls 

Steps:

• Wash the brown rice and cook it in 2.5 cups of water (or as directed in the package). 
• Heat the oil in a pan, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
• Slightly lower the heat and add the cumin seeds, chopped onion, garlic and green chillies and sauté.
• Once the onion turns colour, add the coriander powder, biriyani masala powder  chilli powder and salt (some biriyani masala powder has salt added, so taste and add the necessary amount of salt).  Sauté well. Add little extra oil if you feel the mixture is too dry.
• Now add the cabbage and mix well with the onion and spice mixture. 
• Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of water and close the pan. Let the cabbage cook on medium heat. Stir occasionally.
• Once the cabbage is cooked, add the coconut and stir well. Cover for a minute.
• Open the lid, turn the heat up and add the cooked brown rice and mix well.
• Taste, add salt if needed. Turn off the heat, cover with lid.  Wait for few minutes before serving. 

Apple Banana Cake

What do you do when you have over ripe bananas, not fit to eat?  - You bake a Banana Bread. And in Fall here in Canada, apples are galore everywhere, so I decided to bake an Apple- Banana cake. I combined couple of recipes i found online to make it real simple. 

Ingredients

• Grated Apples - 4 cups of peeled n cored
• Bananas - 2 mashed
• Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon
• Oil - 1/2 cup 
• Eggs - 2
• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Whole wheat flour - 1Cup
• Brown sugar - 1.5 cups
• Baking Soda - 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Salt -1/2 teaspoon 
• Cinnamon powder - 1  teaspoon
• Powdered sugar - For dusting on top (Optional)

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• Beat the oil, egg, vanilla and sugar together in a bowl. Mix in the grated apples and mashed banana. 
• Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix well.

• Add the dry mixture to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

• Pour into a pan and bake for 50 min or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

I browse through the DIY section of Pinterest when I cannot fall asleep at night, sometimes I come across recipes too in the DIY section, and tell myself, one day I will try them. Well, finally I got around to trying one, and am glad I did. I tweaked the recipe a little to suit my needs. Garlic- Parmesan roasted potatoes are super easy and delicious, they are a perfect snack or a side to any entrée.

Ingredients:

• Small Red Potatoes (or any kind) - 10, cut into halves or quarters
• Salt - 1/2 tsp or more, to taste
• Black Pepper, ground - 1/2 tspn or more,  to taste
• Garlic - 5 pods, finely chopped
• Olive oil - 1 1/2 tblspn 
• Dry Basil - 1/2tspn
• Dry Thyme - 1/2 tspn
• Dry Rosemary - 1/4 tspn
• Parmesan cheese - 1/3 cup, grated or finely chopped
• Coriander leaves - a handful, finely chopped 

You may wanna try the Easy Roast Potatoes, if you do not have the herbs or cheese at home.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• In a bowl mix all the ingredients together, except the potatoes and coriander leaves. 
• Taste the mix to see if it needs more salt or pepper. Once you're happy with the taste, add the potatoes and toss them well, until all the pieces are coated with the mixture.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Empty the contents on it and place the potatoes pieces skin side down.  
• Bake for 25-30 mins or until potatoes are golden brown. A knife put through a piece will go through smoothly when cooked.
• Remove from oven, place in a serving dish and sprinkle the coriander leaves. Viola! 

You may wanna try the Easy Roast Potatoes, if you do not have the herbs or cheese at home.

Quick Chilli Fish - Tilapia cooked Hakka style

Thanks to Costco, Tilapia (fish) has become a regular at dinner time at home. I was bored of eating oven baked and grilled tilapia and decided to do something different with it. Since I always loved hakka cuisine I decided to try making chilli fish, my way. This recipe is  super easy and quick. I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

• Tilapia or any firm white fish, skinned - 1 fillet
• Cornstarch (corn flour) - 1 Tblspn or more
• Salt- 1 tsp + 2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tblspn
• Onion - 1, half of it finely chopped and half cubed
• Ginger - 1/2 inch, finely chopped
• Garlic - 3 cloves, finely chopped
• Light Soy sauce - 1 Tblspn
• Chilli Sauce - 1 Tblspn (or to taste)
• Ketchup (Tomato sauce) - 1 Tblspn (Or more)
• Green Peppers (Capsicum) - 1/2, chopped (optional, in these pictures I have not used them.)

Steps:

• Wash, dry and cut the fish into 1 inch pieces.
• Mix together the cornstarch and salt. Add the fish pieces to this mixture, make sure all the pieces are coated. Since we are not deep frying, the fish only needs to be lightly coated. Add more cornstarch if needed.  
• Now, heat oil in a pan or wok. When the oil is hot add the fish pieces. Cook a minute or 2 on each side. Or until they turn golden brown on both sides. 
• Remove the fish from the pan. Let the oil remain in the pan. 
• In the same pan, add the chopped ginger and garlic, saute for few seconds and then add the soy sauce. Let the sauce cook for a minute and then add the chopped onions (ans also the green peppers) and saute.
• When the onions turn color, add the chili sauce, saute and then add the ketchup and saute for couple of mins until the raw smell of the chili sauce is gone. 
• Mix 1 tsp cornstarch with half cup of water and the mixture to the pan. Stir and let if come to a boil. This will give a sheen and add body to the dish. 
• Once the sauce thickens, add another 1/2 cup water (or more if you need a lot of gravy). Add the fried fish pieces to the sauce and bring it to a boil. And then simmer for couple of mins. 
• You're done. The consistency of the dish is totally your choice. If you like your dish to be dry for an appetizer let it simmer a while, till you reach your desired consistency. And if you'd like a gravy, add more water and bring to a boil.  

Mango-Chickpeas Salad

I like chickpeas, so the other day I cooked some chickpeas for evening tea and wanted to do something other than the usual Chickpeas sundal. As I was gazing through my refrigerator looking for inspiration to add to my chickpeas, a bag of frozen mangoes caught my eyes. The poor thing has been sitting in the freezer since last summer and I decided to give it a try with my chickpeas. The result was great. Hope you like this simple, healthy and refreshing salad. 

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1 cup, diced. (Fresh or frozen. Thaw frozen mango before using)
• Chickpeas - 1 1/2 cups cooked (Add a little salt while cooking the chickpeas)
• Onion - 1/2, diced
• Red pepper (capsicum) - 1/2 diced
• lemon juice - from 1/2
• Salt -1/2 tsp or to taste. 
• Dry red chili flakes - to taste

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients together.
• Add salt carefully as the cooked chickpeas has salt already added. 
• Refrigerate for a while before serving.
• You can always add more or less of each ingredient to your liking.