Dried green peas are one of my favorite dried beans, they taste quite different than the fresh/frozen green peas. I like to sneak them in wherever possible. This time when I had a bunch of soaked peas, I thought of mixing them with rice to make a one pot dish. I added eggs to it as we love eggs, but this is fully optional. Fennel seeds give a very strong and nice flavor to this dish.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup dried green peas (soak overnight and pressure cook) 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 5 eggs (boiled, peeled and cut into pieces) (Optional) Ghee 2 Bay leaves 2 cardamom Salt
Paste – 4 cloves 1″ cinnamon 1/2 tea spn fennel seeds (badishepi/saunf) 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 4-5 red chillies 1 tea spn garlic 1 tea spn ginger 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup tomato Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, onion, ginger, garlic and fry for few minutes. Add tomato, little salt and let it cook till tomato becomes slightly mushy. Add chillies and mix again. Grind it to a paste (I left it a little coarse, make a smooth paste if desired). Heat ghee and add cardamom and bay leaf. Add washed rice and fry for few minutes. Add paste, mix. Add salt, cooked peas and eggs (if using). Pour in about 3 cups water (be careful while adding water, if cooked peas have a lot of water, modify the water added at this step). Cook till done. Serve hot on its own or with raita.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 50mins
Pictorial:
I started using almonds in my cooking few days ago. I had used it to make pesto because I did not have the nuts required for it. So I thought I could use it in Indian dishes too. The first time I tried it in place of coconut, it worked very well. Unlike peanuts, they don’t give any distinct flavor to the dish. I used to put peanuts in many dishes before and now, I have started using almonds.
So last week I tried this beetroot kurma with almond paste instead of coconut. It turned out great. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients: 2 cups beetroot pieces 1 tea spn mustard seeds 5 curry leaves 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract Salt
Almond powder- Heat oil, fry all the below ingredients and powder them 1 tea spn chana dal 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1 tea spn urad dal A pinch asafoetida 2 tbl spn almonds (Use coconut if you don’t have almonds) 4 red chillies Oil
Method: Cook beetroot in pressure cooker. Peel it and cut into small pieces. Heat oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves. Add beetroot, salt, tamarind, spice powder, a little water. Mix well. Cover and cook for 2-3mins. Serve hot with rice or chapati.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins
