Broccoli Stir fry

Not everybody likes broccoli. But what if you make pakodas with it? *ding-ding. What if you don’t deep fry but make a sabzi instead, with the same spiced besan mix? *ding-ding-ding-ding. Bingo! 

Broccoli actually doesn't taste as bad as all the kids make it out to be. It goes really well in Indo-Chinese dishes as it tends to take up all the flavors and becomes juicy when stir fried. I was surprised when my daughter kept asking for more and more broccoli from noodles. So I browsed for more broccoli recipes, and I came across this sabzi from showmethecurry. I suppose jhunka is prepared in a similar fashion.

This is an extremely simple recipe, and tastes great - more like a healthy version of pakoda. This would be a great way of introducing broccoli in everyday Indian cooking. Do try! 

Paduvalakai Sihi huLi/ Snakegourd sweet curry

Sihi huli literally means sweet sambar. It is eaten with rice. This is popular in Udupi region. As the name suggests this huLi is more on the sweeter side. Many sambars are made sweet in coastal region and you need a bit of an acquired taste to enjoy these.

This particular huLi is made with paduvalakayi(snake gourd), coconut and jaggery. This is extremely easy to make. 

Do try! 

Matar Paneer

Just like chole, matar paneer is another popular north Indian curry which is loved by everybody. I followed Vah chef’s recipe for this as all his north Indian curries come close to restaurant taste. This curry can be had with both chapathi/poori and fried rice. 

Do try! 

Mint Pulav in InstaPot

Presenting another one-pot/InstaPot dish - mint pulav. 

Advantages of cooking in InstaPot - vegetables were perfectly cooked… onions too. Flavor was retained. 

Instant? Not really! 

Less baby sitting - if you call turning off the cooker on time baby sitting, then yes! I really don’t get this guys! It took me 1 hr from start to finish, how is that instant :)

Anyways, rice bath was flavorful…  Enjoy! 

Aloo Bonda

Anyone for aloo bonda? Hot spicy aloo bonda and coffee… yum! 

Like samosa, aloo bonda is universally loved! 

Making this is little more time consuming than regular pakodas… but if you prepare palya(stuffing) before hand and keep everything ready, you can prepare bondas in no time. 

Do try!  

Vegetable fried rice

Presenting another one of my favorite Indo Chinese recipes - Vegetable fried rice. I was thrilled to find this recipe in one my favorite blogs(link given below). I just tweaked it a little bit - like adding celery, and adding green sauce instead of green chillies. 

Celery, like I mentioned in my last post, definitely enhances flavor. But this recipe has another key ingredient - white pepper powder, which also gives a very unique and authentic flavor to the dish. Do not skip this. 

Overall preparing this is very easy. Comes out extremely tasty. Do try! 

Schezwan Noodles

Noodles are anytime welcome in our house, lunch or dinner. I personally love anything Indo-Chinese and Hakka noodles tops the list. 

To get an extra kick out of plain Hakka noodles, add schezwan chutney, which I found out about in a recipe online(link given below). 

I also followed a tip given by Vah chef, that to take any Indo-Chinese dish to the next level, to get that authentic taste, use celery. Yes, celery definitely enhances the taste, and I would highly recommend it for any Indo-Chinese dish, be it noodles or fried rice. 

Now, one more personal tip - generally you cook noodles and then run them in cold water and then add little oil and use them later. To avoid all these steps, I sauté all vegetables and keep everything ready, then I cook noodles, take them out of water and add them directly to the wok. This saves lot of time and energy :)

Do try!