Potato saagu

Saturday, 11 AM. My struggle with my daughter's breakfast feeding is not yet over. But I have to get started with lunch preparation. Hubby dear shares in my predicament too and tries to get my daughter to drink atleast a few ounces of milk. Nothing works. I finally decide to let go and start making lunch, with the hopes that she will eat her second meal atleast properly. I open the refrigerator and a shocker awaits. There are no vegetables, except tomatoes. Then it hits me... Yes vegetable and fruit shopping is due and I had absolutely forgotten. Too late to send hubby dear for this. I hunt in the kitchen cabinets for onions and potatoes. Yes, check. Hunt in the freezer for frozen green peas. Check. We're good so far. Spices are always there, so check. Papads, check.

I make plain rice and tomato rasam. My little angel already told me when I was laying out food choices in the morning, that she wants to eat "ratham buuva". I just had to make this potato and peas saagu for us.

Here is what I did:

Ingredients: 

Potatoes (large) - 2

Onion (large) -1

Green Peas - 3/4 cup

Saunf powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsbp

Salt - to taste

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

Ginger paste - 1 tsp

Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing

Slice the onions coarsely and dice the potatoes.

Heat the oil in a cooker and cumin seeds. When they start to splutter, add the onions and fry. Add the saunf and cumin powders. Add the ginger and garlic paste along with the garam masala. Finally add the potatoes and peas and fry for a few minutes. Add the chilli powder and salt and pour about 300 ml of water and close the cooker. Allow two whistles and turn off the flame. Open the cooker and mash most of the potato pieces to make a slightly thick curry.

Garnish with coriander and curry leaves and serve hot with jeera rice/peas pulav or even plain white rice.

Verdict:Potatoes and frozen green peas are a boon, when we are running short of vegetables and we do not want to bore the household with eggs once again ;). I go that route very often. But this saagu is traditionally made a little thick and served with Rava idli/dosa or even upma. But I made it watery to go with rice. This can be had with dosa/roti as well. This one is definitely a winner.                                                                                             
 

Vegetable Stew

I love mixed vegetable gravies. I have quite a few variations of mixed vegetable gravies that I dish up from time to time. Here is my version of the Vegetable Stew.

Ingredients:

Carrots (diced) - 1/2 cup

Beans (chopped) - 1/2 cup

Potatoes (diced) - 1/2 cup

Grean Peas - 1/2 cup

Onions (large) - 1 (sliced lengthwise)

Green Chillies (sliced lengthwise) - 2

Salt - to taste

Ginger paste - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 pinch

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Method: 

Heat the oil in a cooker vessel. Add the sliced onions and fry for a few minutes until pink. Add ginger paste, green chillies and garam masala and fry for a few seconds. Add all the vegetables and continue frying until the raw smell is gone and there is good aroma. Add very little water and cook the vegetables until soft. Add the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for a few minutes and turn off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with Chapatis or Appam.

Verdict: This one is a winner every single time at home. You cannot go wrong with this simple yet tasty dish.

Whole Wheat Indian Biscuit

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I started baking cookies and cakes mainly for my daughter. I found these Nankhatais or Indian Biscuits quite rich for a quick snack for children. I had often baked the Maida version of these biscuits. I came across this post for Atta Nankhatais on Divya's blog and I decided to try out the healthier version :).

Atta Nankhatai (Recipe adapted from Divya's Blog)

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour/Atta – 1 ¼ cup
Rava/Semolina – ½ cup (I used the Chirotti Rava)
Ghee – ½ cup
Powdered sugar – ½ cup (I used granulated sugar)
Crushed cardamom seeds – of 2 cardamom
Baking soda – a pinch

Method
Preheat oven to 150*C.
Sift together atta,rava,cardamom seeds and baking soda.
Cream ghee and powdered sugar with a spoon.
Add the sifted ingredients little by little to make a dough.
Make small balls of the dough and flatten a little.

 

Arrange on a greased baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or till the nankhatai turns golden in colour. I prepared two baking sheets and set the time to 30 minutes. The first batch was done in just 15 minutes and the second sheet was ready to go into the oven without any need to preheat. 

 

Verdict: These biscuits are so wonderfully rich and have a great melt-in-the-mouth texture. I used granulated sugar as my daughter was asleep and I did not want to wake her up by turning on the blender to powder sugar. But nevertheless the biscuits turned out great :). They were cooling down when she got up and she immediately stuffed herself with two biscuits!