Spinach

Life has gotten so busy for me with a full time job and two little kids. Somedays I find it very hard to cook anything. I have been freezing food a lot, whenever I cook, I make the double the quantity and freeze half. So these become my weekday dinners. But once in a while – atleast once or twice a week, I make something different. It is my way to enjoy my favorite thing – cooking. Few days back, I prepared this delicious spinach cashew chicken curry.

I make this same dish with paneer or eggs instead of chicken sometimes. Black cardamom gives it a great aroma. Spinach base gives a healthy thick consistency. It goes so well with chapatis or rice.

Pictorial:

Spinach-Cashew Chicken

Ingredients

• For the paste:
• 3 cloves
• 2 " cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
• 1/2 tea spn fennel seeds badishep
• 1/2 cup onions
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup tomato
• 1 tea spn garam masala
• For marinade
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves
• 3-4 green chillies
• 1 tea spn chopped ginger
• 1 tea spn chopped garlic
• 1 tbl spn plain yogurt curd
• Other ingredients
• 1 lb 1/2 kg chicken
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/2 cup onions
• 2-3 black cardamom moti elaichi
• Oil
• Salt

Instructions

• Marinate chicken :
• Make a paste of coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger, garlic.
• Add the paste, yogurt(curd) and little salt to chicken pieces and leave it aside for about 30mins.
• Make the masala paste:
• Heat oil and add cumin, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds.
• Fry a bit and then add onion and fry till they are translucent.
• Add garam masala and fry for few mins.
• Then add tomatoes and cook till they are soft.
• Add spinach leaves and a let them wilt a bit.
• Make it into a smooth paste.
• Make the curry
• Heat oil in same pan and add black cardamom and onions.
• Add cashews, followed by marinated chicken.
• Fry for few minutes and then add the masala paste, salt.
• Cover and cook till chicken is done.
• Serve hot with chapatis/rotis or rice.

Spinach-Cashew Chicken

Ingredients

• For the paste:
• 3 cloves
• 2 " cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
• 1/2 tea spn fennel seeds badishep
• 1/2 cup onions
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup tomato
• 1 tea spn garam masala
• For marinade
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves
• 3-4 green chillies
• 1 tea spn chopped ginger
• 1 tea spn chopped garlic
• 1 tbl spn plain yogurt curd
• Other ingredients
• 1 lb 1/2 kg chicken
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/2 cup onions
• 2-3 black cardamom moti elaichi
• Oil
• Salt

Instructions

• Marinate chicken :
• Make a paste of coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger, garlic.
• Add the paste, yogurt(curd) and little salt to chicken pieces and leave it aside for about 30mins.
• Make the masala paste:
• Heat oil and add cumin, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds.
• Fry a bit and then add onion and fry till they are translucent.
• Add garam masala and fry for few mins.
• Then add tomatoes and cook till they are soft.
• Add spinach leaves and a let them wilt a bit.
• Make it into a smooth paste.
• Make the curry
• Heat oil in same pan and add black cardamom and onions.
• Add cashews, followed by marinated chicken.
• Fry for few minutes and then add the masala paste, salt.
• Cover and cook till chicken is done.
• Serve hot with chapatis/rotis or rice.

I planted some tomatoes in our backyard this year. I was not sure what would be the yield, so in the small vegetable patch, I planted 8 plants. They grew so big and soon filled with tomatoes. I planted mostly cherry tomatoes of different kind, along with 1 bigger variety, since Ishaan loves the tiny juicy cherry tomatoes. I have not bought any cherry tomatoes in last 4-5 months. Last week we had to do some lawn work and I had to cut down the low hanging branches. When I did that, I got almost 3 kgs (around 6lbs) of tomatoes, most of which were still green. I was sure I couldn’t use them all, so I wanted to make green tomato pickle. When I googled, I found this recipe by indosungod . I mostly followed that recipe but I thought ginger would give it some extra flavor. So I used some steps from my aayi’s avale hinDi . The pickle came out so good. I think I will be making this again in future.

Pictorial: Make the spice powder by frying mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and powdering them. Cut the tomatoes. Fry chillies, curry leaves, ginger and then add tomatoes. Add the masalas when the tomatoes have softened. Add the lemon juice and cook.

For some extra aroma, add a seasoning of curry leaves at the end.

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 kgs green tomatoes
• 6-7 green chillies
• 1 tbl spn chopped ginger
• 1 tea spn mustard seeds
• 1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
• A small pea sized asafoetida stone or 1/2 tea spn powder
• 1/2 tea spn methi fenugreek seeds
• 3 tbl spn red chilli powder
• 10 curry leaves
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• 1/8 cup + 1 tbl spn oil
• 1/8 cup salt

Instructions

• Clean green tomatoes.
• I cut half of them to pieces to have some chunks and remaining half I added to food processor and pulsed them.
• In a dry small kadai, heat a tea spoon oil and add asafoetida.
• When a nice aroma comes out, add mustard and fenugreek seeds.
• Take it on a clean mortar or a spice blender.
• Switch off heat, when the pan is still warm, add chilli powder and turmeric, keep mixing.
• When it cools down to room temperature, grind it to a powder (I use my mortar and pestle to powder).
• In a big thick bottomed pan, Heat remaining oil.
• Add ginger, half curry leaves, green chillies pieces, salt.
• When a nice aroma comes out, add tomatoes.
• Cover the lid and let it cook for about 30mins.
• Add the chilli powder, ground powder, lemon juice, cook for another 10mins.
• Switch off the heat.
• In the kadai that was used to make the powder, heat little oil and add remaining curry leaves.
• Pour this over the pickle.
• Put the pickle in clean dry bottles.
• Close the lid tightly. When it cools down to room temperature, store in fridge.
• It remains good for few months.