Hint of Saffron — Tasty Cuisines with Indian Spices

Palak Paneer (Spinach with Indian Cheese)

February 3rd, 2010 · Entree, Vegetarian

In case you were wondering what happened to me, especially, since it has been weeks since I posted a recipe. Well, I am safe and sound. There has been too much going on in our lives. We are going to be selling our house and due to that, my cooking has taken a backseat temporarily. We have been prepping our house for the sale. Finally, we are at a point, where the house is ready to go on the market. Once we put our house on the market, the last thing I want to do is make the house smell like spices. Some prospective buyers might like and some might not like spices. So the plan is to make 3-4 recipes so that I can blog about it for the next several weeks. What will I do after that? Not sure. I will think of someway to cook after that. Maybe cook at my friend’s place since they let me know that they are okay with being used as guinea pigs for my recipes! I will let you know how that goes.

…continue reading Palak Paneer (Spinach with Indian Cheese)

→ 1 CommentTags: Entree · Vegetarian

Punjabi Chana Masala Dal (Lentil)

January 14th, 2010 · Dal, Entree

Whenever we used to travel around India, my dad used to rent a car or a van with a hired driver. We used to travel with a few of our relatives and we would all fit ourselves in 2 cars. It you can tolerate the traffic on Indian 2 lane highways (one lane in each direction) going at 90-100 miles per hour, I don’t think you will ever need to go to Disneyland! That is how crazy the driving there is.

So there was this one incident where the driver was going at a speed of 90 miles an hour. There was a car in front of our car and a bus in front of the other car. There was a truck approaching from the opposite direction. I was sitting in the front seat watching and recording on video all this for posterity in case we die! Our driver decided to overtake the car and bus that was about to overtake the bus. The truck from the opposite direction was approaching fast and we had to overtake the bus and the car that was overtaking the bus. My wife, who is not Indian and was on her first trip to India was sitting at the back sweating looking at the unfolding drama. She was telling my parents to tell the driver to slow down and my parents consoled her by saying to look out the side window! She was hysterical. While this was going on, the driver had successfully overtaken the bus and the car and just made it in the nick of time before the truck from the opposite end approached us. Whew! That was a really really close one.

…continue reading Punjabi Chana Masala Dal (Lentil)

→ 6 CommentsTags: Dal · Entree

Spicy Vegetable Cutlet

January 4th, 2010 · Appetizer, Snack, Vegan

Over the holidays, I experimented with lots of dishes using various ingredients and vegetables. One of the pending tasks on my list was to use the recipes that my mom had left for me when she visitited us 2 years ago. There were quite a few recipes as she used to teach cooking classes in India. As I was going through them, I realized the measurements and instructions were very confusing. Also, what made it more complicated was the measurements were in metric. But it is not the metric system that confused me (since metric units are much simpler) but the directions and quantities used. I had to make quite a few adjustments to the recipe in order for it to come out tasting the way it is supposed to taste. Even after that I messed up quite a few dishes. One of the ones that I messed up was a dish that used Tapioca.

…continue reading Spicy Vegetable Cutlet

→ 12 CommentsTags: Appetizer · Snack · Vegan

Murmura (Spicy Puffed Rice Snack)

December 27th, 2009 · Gluten-free, Snack

In the last recipe, I had talked about making masala popcorn. This weekend, I have been craving for snacks that I used to eat in India. So I decided to make another of my favorite snacks. It is very easy to make and is made with puffed rice. The Indian name for it is Murmura. Puffed rice by itself is bland but when combined with various spices and peanuts, transforms it into a tasty snack. Puffed rice is a form of rice in which the rice grains are expanded to a volume that is several times larger than their original size. In Indian cooking there are various other dishes that are made with puffed rice – chaat (spicy melange of various vegetables and spices), sweets (puffed rice dessert made with Jaggery or sugar and ghee) and various other dishes.

Another important ingredient for this recipe is good quality peanuts. The roasted and salted Spanish peanuts that they sell at PCC Natural Market in Seattle, Washington is my favorite.

…continue reading Murmura (Spicy Puffed Rice Snack)

→ 2 CommentsTags: Gluten-free · Snack

Masala Popcorn

December 27th, 2009 · Gluten-free, Snack

Indians are crazy about Bollywood movies in India. If the movie is highly anticipated and has a big star, there is a frenzy to see the movie on the day it is released. The lines for getting the ticket to the movie are long and you have to wait a few hours before the show to get a good seat. Everyone has to see the movie the first day or they will not be able to sleep in peace. I am being sarcastic but it’s true. Due to the popularity of some Bollywood stars, their movie tickets are sold in the black market for 10-20 times the price of a ticket. And if you take the whole family of 4-6 people, good luck getting that many tickets. That is when you buy the tickets in the black market (usually from a guy who has connections to the clerk in the ticketing office and has bought a few tickets in advance). When you buy it for the whole family, you end up spending 10-20 times the cost of the ticket times 4 or 6 people! Talk about crazy! In case you are wondering, yes, I was one of the crazy people on occasions paying that much for a movie. This was, of course, when I used to live in India and I would look forward to the movies from a few of my favorite stars.