Yogurt n Squash Curry

I am just praying for summer to get over, as I hate this unbearable heat. But at the same time I should be thankful to summer as I am discovering some dishes, which cools, down our body. Like my cucumber soup the other day and today my yogurt n squash curry, which is popularly, know as “Majjige Huli” in south India.

Somehow my kitchen was way far from this very tasty vegetable for a long time. Recently I was delighted by the taste of Majjige Huli made out of squash that I had it in India. My MIL is an awesome cook and one day she made this for lunch. Every time we go to India, she will ask what do we like to have for breakfast, lunch or dinner. She enjoys cooking and her only aim is to make us eat all three times with tastiest food. Oh god when we go to India we just cannot resist ourselves as food is so tasty. So on a Sunday after having yummy breakfast, my MIL walks up to me and says today for lunch I will make majjige huli, which is simple and healthy for summer. I thought I would have it very little, but I was so wrong I served rice couple of times and enjoyed majjige huli. The minute I finished lunch, I grabbed a paper and pen to write down the recipe. My MIL was very sweet to share the recipe and she wondered if I get squash (pumpkin) in US!!

Well you get fresh squash almost all the time of the year here in US. People here celebrate Halloween with different varieties of squash. New entry for my kitchen this year is squash. Today I made this Majjige Huli, which I named it, Yogurt n Squash curry. It came out very well and thanks to my MIL.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon mustard

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 pound squash (green pumpkin)

2 teaspoons of salt

500 grams of plain yogurt

10 to 12 curry leaves

4 to 5 green chilies

2 red chilies

Pinch of asafetida

2 teaspoons of oil

-Grind coconut, mustard, green chilies, and curry leaves into smooth paste by adding little water.

-Cook the squash cut into big cubes in pressure cooker with little salt. (Just one whistle, don’t over cook squash)

-Heat a pan and add oil, once the oil is hot add asafetida, mustard, red chilies, curry leaves.

-Once they splutter add the paste and cook until it leaves out the raw smell (As you would have put all the ingredients raw).

-Add cooked cubes of squash and mix well with the paste.

- Leave it for a while until it gets cool down.

-Now mix the thick yogurt and additional salt if required in a bowl and then add it to the pan.

- Mix yogurt slowly with squash such that squash doesn’t break.

(You can add yogurt depending on what thickness you would want the curry)

Serve it cold with rice or even hot chapathi’s.

Chilly Mushroom

August month is almost getting over; this year has been going really fast. I feel the year just began yesterday; In January we celebrated New Year in San José with our BFF, in February I left to India with a mission, in March I celebrated my success with all my new friends, Last day of April getting back home, my second trip to DC in may, 15th of June, the day I started to write my blog, End of July which was joy of my life on getting my new car!!!

I cooked mushrooms for the first time. Chilly mushroom was a mix of too many recipes picked up from the net and but at the end created my own with some additional ingredients. I used more of garlic that added very nice aroma and gave delicious flavor to the mushrooms. You can actually use any type of mushroom for this dish. I used Portobello mushrooms, as those are my favorite.

Well most important is mushroom contains good amount of Vitamin D and it really tastes good. I like this, as it will go well as an appetizer especially with wine. The key point is you shouldn’t add water when you cook mushrooms and drain out water completely when you wash them.

I made this Chilly Mushroom on a Sunday to celebrate the arrival of my new car :). It came out really spicy and yummy. Me, V and KJ enjoyed Chilly Mushroom in the patio with a glass of wine and candlelight.

Ingredients:

1 pack of Mushrooms

3 to 4 green chilly’s

2 teaspoons of finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

1 onion finely chopped

1 green bell pepper cut into cubes

2 teaspoons of tomato sauce (I used hot and spicy Indian tomato sauce)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of crushed pepper

1-½ teaspoons of Olive oil

-Heat the pan and add olive oil, then add garlic, ginger and green chilly’s.

- Once you get the aroma of garlic being roasted, add onions and sauté it until onion gets golden brown.

-Add mushroom cut into cubes and sauté it until mushroom leaves out the water.

-Add bell pepper at the end when you see mushrooms are cooked well, so that bell pepper will be crispy and tastes good.

-Add salt, pepper and tomato sauce and mix it well.

Serve it hot as appetizer with wine or any other choice of drink.

Dessert Time!!!

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged as I was little sick and lazy.  Today I am feeling good, so thought about sharing one of my favorite dessert recipe with you all. There is a story behind me learning this dessert. I learnt this recipe from a very wonderful friend of mine.

She was expert in making this dessert and we all used to enjoy it whenever she got it for us at work. She taught me how to make this dessert with a perfection that makes mouth watering even today. I think I had the best time of my life with her at work either in our cubical or drinking tea in the pantry. We had our share of long walks after lunch at work. We rode bikes together, got stuck in traffic jams, discovered new roads, we even got drenched in the rain. In the evening we used to relish the melting Idly vada, or sometimes Bhel puri at our favorite food joints coming back from work. We enjoyed sharing pizza, fries, corn and a softy. We had a ball shopping together. We had our fun days for almost 3 years and things changed. Now I only wish wherever she is, may GOD give her all the happiness in life and some day if she happens to read this blog, she will know that even today I remember her deep in my heart. And her friendship meant a lot to me.

After meeting V, I got to know that this is one of his favorite desserts. So I was glad that I knew how to make it and thanks to you my dear friend :)

So this dessert is for all the sweet people whom I have met in my life and for all those friends who are with me in all my good and bad times in life.

This is made of highly nutritious Carrot roasted in ghee, melted in sugar, cooked in milk and garnished with all dry fruits… which I call it, CARROT HALWA :)

Ingredients:

2 cups of grated carrot

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

1 cup mixed dry fruit: cashew, raisin, and almond

2 teaspoons ghee

-Heat the pan, add carrot and roast it until you get the aroma of cooked carrot.
-Add few drops of ghee and roast it well.
-Add sugar and stir it well, so that it mixes well with carrot.
(You can add more sugar if required)
-Add milk and keep stirring for 6 to 8 mins with a low flame.
-Heat another pan separately, add ghee and roast the dry fruits.
-Add the dry fruits into the carrot mixture and mix well.
 

Serve it hot as dessert with Ice cream.