I am on a roll these days as far as cooking goes. Here are the some of the new recipes that I have tried in the past few days:
French beans is not one of my favorite ingredients unless chunks of it are smothered in soya sauce, chilli sauce and vinegar (for veg fried rice) or in barbeque sauce (for veg barbeque). But I was getting tired of Chinese dishes (the Chinese haven't exactly been helpful - what with their trespasses across the border!) and so was in search of a new way of cooking it the Indian way. That's how I stumbled across
Carrot Beans Vepudu in Sailu's Kitchen. For the record, I cooked the recipe in a very small quantity because eating something which hasn't turned out well is not an easy task. But I need not have worried - the Vepudu was excellent. Agreed, it is too dry to be eaten with a chapati or roti. But it will do wonders as a side dish along with a plate of plain white rice and sambar/rasam.
Next, I tried
Poondu Kozhambu from Sanjeev Kapoor's site. The very first ingredient made me do a double take. What? 1 cup (55-60 cloves) of garlic? Is this from some episode of The Vampire Diaries? No way I wanted others to smell garlic on my breath for the next week or so. So I reduced the quantity of garlic to 10-11 cloves and increased the Split pigeon pea quantity from 2 tsps to about 6 tsps - little knowing that it, along with 1tsp of rice flour, will make the curry thick enough to be cut with a knife. :-) So next time it is going to be just 2 tsps of Split pigeon pea. "Next time?" you say? Yeah, the taste was good so I will be making it again in future for sure.
Cabbage is another vegetable I would do anything possible (and legal!) in this world to avoid eating. :-) But since no new vegetables are being invented, sadly, we have to make do with whatever the local vendors (and supermarkets!) sell. So cabbage it is! The search for a new cabbage recipe landed me at Padhus Kitchen for her
Cabbage Kootu recipe. Here, I have a confession to make. In a bid to use whatever cabbage was languishing at the bottom of the fridge, I broke my Golden Rule of always trying out new recipes in small quantities. The result was a panful of kootu which had to be eaten over 2 days. Even though it tasted great (because you could hardly taste cabbage in it!), I was in danger of developing a serious allergy to cabbage by the time the last spoonful was eaten. Next time, I am going to keep it to half a cup of cabbage, even though it wilts considerbaly on being cooked. Oh, and I did leave out the white channa - it is mentioned as optional anyways.
The last recipe that I tried was
Dahi Bhindi - again from Sanjeev Kapoor's site. If you look at the picture accompanying the recipe on this site, you will notice that the curd is of a very creamy consistency. But when I tried my hand at this dish, the curd, though very well-beaten (to the point of inducing cramp in my wrist!) split spectacularly when cooked. Mind you, I had kept the heat low as advised. Though the dish tasted well, I am not going to attempt again, unless I can figure out a way to prevent the curd from splitting. Any tips, Mr. Chef?
The failure of the last dish hasn't in any way dampened my enthusiasm. Next on the list are a dish made from boiled corn, another dish of boiled baby potatoes and one more containing chicken as the main ingredient. After all, as the title of a cookery show on NDTV Good Times channel goes, Cooking Isn't Rocket Science :-)
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