Good food definitely lifts up your mood.The icing on the cake is when it’s good food cooked by you.
The weather is definitely competing against itself to outdo the temperatures every day. With the weather being hot and humid you end up craving for yummy yet simple food.
I knew I had paneer (cottage cheese), jalapeno poppers and dry grated coconut with me. Since I am trying to cut down on my rice intake, I try and ensure I consume rotis( flatbflatbread made out of wheat flour) for one meal atleast.
I ended up cooking rotis made out of paneer, jalapeno poppers curry, Mixed Dal (lentils/pulses) with Spinach and of course some rice for the little one.
Here is the detailed recipe for each one
Paneer roti ( Flatbread made out of cottage cheese)
In a large vessel or a container, add 100gms grated paneer, 1/2tsp chilli powder, 1/2 turmeric powder, salt as per taste and 1 tsp cumin powder.I also added some freshly plucked herbs from my kitchen garden which included oregano leaves, thyme and mint.Add the wheat flour, I added 2 cups of it.Knead it into a soft dough using water. Make small balls out of it and roll it into a Roti.Cook it on the griddle using some oil or ghee. Tada!! your paneer roti is ready.It goes well with anything.
Jalapeno Popper Curry.
For this you will need about 7-8 Jalapeno poppers, dry coconut powder, a big onion thinly sliced, 2 whole dry red chillies, 2 medium tomatoes roughly chopped.
You will also need some cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fennel seeds.
Heat oil in a pan, add in the cumin, mustard and fennel seeds. Once they start popping, add in the dry chillies and onions, add ginger garlic paste and stir.Fry the onions until they turn slightly brown.Now add 2 spoons of coconut powder.Give it a good stir and switch off the gas. Once this cools down grind it along with the tomatoes to make a fine puree.
Heat oil and fry the ground puree till oil leaves the sides, now add in the jalapeno poppers and stir them well.Add some water, cover it and cook for 15mins.Make sure to stir in between.
Garnish with some coriander leaves.This curry goes well with rice, rotis and parathas.
Mixed Dal with spinach.(mixed lentils with spinach)
Clean and wash the dal.Soak it for 15mins or so.Heat oil in a cooker, add cumin and mustard seeds, once they splutter , add chopped garlic. Once the garligarlic turns brown, add roughly sliced tomatoes, now add turmeric and chilli powder, add half a tsp of coriander powder too.Mix well.Once the tomatoes start to leave oil, add a cup full of chopped spinached.Now add the soaked and washed dal. Add water and close the lid of the cooker.Cook till 3 whistles.
Once the cooker has cooked down, take of the lid.Add water and mix well.The dal should get mashed completely.Adjust the consistency of the dal.Add salt.Once the dal comes to a book, squeeze in half a lemon.Temper it with sliced onions fried in oil or ghee.
This goes well with rice and roti both.
Rice is cooked differently in each household, hence I am not adding the recipe for rice.
Here is what the final outcome looked like
The thing that looks like fried noodles, is sev.Sev is a famous Indori delicacy made out of gram flour. Well it is almost like fried gram flour noodles seasoned with spices.
Nothing comforts my soul like a well cooked food.
#lunchideas
#desilunch
