Palak Kofta Curry (Spinach Kofta Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 24: Day 3
Theme: Cooking from Restaurant Menu
Dish: Palak Kofta

For the last day of this month's BM, I made Palak Kofta from the "Hamari Pasand" section of India House Restaurant menu. This recipe is from one of the cooking shows that I have started to watch with my mom on an Indian channel. As if I don't have enough bookmarks of recipes I want to make, I have started to note more recipes from Telugu cooking channels. I think I need 2 lifetimes to make all the recipes on my bookmarks.

 

Navratan Kurma

Blogging Marathon # 24: Day 2
Theme: Cooking from Restaurant Menu
Dish: Navratna Kurma (Navratan Kurma)

For Day 2 of BM# 24 from Indian House Restaurant menu, I chose to make the famous Navratan Kurma. To be honest, Navratan kurma is not something I would order at a restaurant because of a dreadful experience I had with this dish in the past. I don't even remember how long ago this happened, but when I think about Navratan kurma, all I can think of is this really sweet curry with wimpy vegetables and ton of oil floating on top. What really got me was the sweetness that didn't really wasn't supposed to be there, so for years I avoided ordering it in the restaurants. I think I was too emotionally moved to even try at home.

Chole-Bhatura

Blogging Marathon #24: Day 1

Theme: Cooking from Restaurant Menus

Dish: Chole-Bhatura

For this month's final week of Blogging marathon, I chose a very interesting theme, "Cooking from Restaurant Menus". Valli gave us quite a few menus to choose from and I chose "India House Vegetarian Restaurant". 

Easy Cheese Sandwich

Today's recipe is a quick and easy sandwich that my son loves in his lunchbox. So it's a win-win situation for both mom and the kiddo. I repinned this recipe on Pinterest and I have been making it ever since. If you had asked me about pinning or repinning or even pinterest about 5-6 months ago, I would have had no idea. But recently I have started using pinterest frequently and have pinned quite a few dishes.

Creamy Tomato Soup with Egg Noodles

For Day 2 of BM# 24 under the theme for Kids Delight - Lunchbox Meals, I made this creamy tomato soup with egg noodles. This soup is perfect when eaten hot in this chilly weather, but it tastes equally good when eaten at room temperature. So I thought it is perfect for my 5 year old's lunch box.

Meatless Meatballs with Soy Crumbles

My theme for this week's Blogging Marathon is "Lunchbox Recipes for Kids". Now this is a very challenging theme for me because of 2 reasons: One: my 5 year old has become a very picky eater and packing his lunch is quite a challenge most of the times. Two: Schools don't have microwaves to reheat the lunch, so whatever we pack has to taste good even at room temperature.

When my son was in kindergarten, his daycare had a very good lunch program. He had a vegetarian option everyday and the food was served hot. But now in kindergarten, school lunch menu has hot food everyday, but there are hardly any vegetarian options and so we have to pack him lunch. One thing we figured out is rice gets too cold and is tough to eat by lunch time, especially in winter. 

Paneer Stuffed Kulcha

Today's stuffed bread in a restaurant style "Paneer stuffed Kulcha". Kulchas are leavened with baking powder and baking soda. All purpose flour or maida is usually used to make these flatbreads, but I had half a bag of spelt flour in the fridge that is begging to be used, so I used a combination of spelt flour and all-purpose flour to make my kulchas.

Kulchas can be made either on the stove top or in the oven. Today I made them under the broiler. One thing I learnt when using the oven is that you cannot take your eye off of the oven even for a single minute. Kulchas go from perfect to burnt in matter of seconds.

 

Broccoli & Corn Stuffed Parathas

Under the theme, "Stuffed Breads", Valli wanted us to make a stuffed roti/ paratha with a twist. The twist can be the use of a vegetable or a spice that is not usually used in the parathas. So my twist is the use of broccoli and corn in the stuffing.

Vegetarian Wholewheat Calzones

Today we begin the 2nd week of Blogging Marathon, my theme for this week is "Stuffed Breads". To make the theme challenging Valli wants us to make very specific stuffed breads: Stuffed Yeast bread, Stuffed Roti/ Paratha & Stuffed Naan/ Kulcha. 

So for the "Stuffed Yeast Bread", I made a "Calzone". Calzone is nothing but a folded pizza, all the gooey and yummy goodness of pizza in a portable turnover form. After tasting her first calzone ever, my mom commented that this is better than pizza because your fingers are clean when eating and there are less chances of toppings falling off. I have to agree with that. Calzones are easier to carry and cleaner to eat.

Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Homemade Cheesy Burger Buns

As I was thinking about the theme for this week, "Cooking with Appliance", one appliance I use a lot after my blender is my oven. Here in the US, ovens are standard in every house, even rental apartments come with a standard size oven. For today's recipes I've used the stand mixer and the oven to make a complete meal.

Coconut Chutney & Eggplant Curry

Blender/ Grinder is a very important appliance in my kitchen, I'm sure it is the same in most of the Indian kitchens. I can't imagine idlis, dosas, chutneys or even ground masala for curries without a good blender/ grinder. 

My mom bought me an Indian blender when I got married almost 8 years ago, which has served us well all through these years. But it is slowly losing its power and we are thinking if it's a better deal to buy a Vitamix or Blendtec blenders here in the US or get another Indian brand from back home. I would love to hear from people who own one of these powerful blenders: are they worth the cost and do they serve our Indian grinding needs?

Vegetable Biryani in Slow Cooker

Wish you All a very Happy & Prosperous New Year 2013!!

I don't usually make any resolutions, I believe that if something needs to be changed, it has to be changed right away and there's no need to wait for a new year. But I do have couple of resolutions for this year, to eat as healthy as possible and waste as little as possible. One more resolution for the blog is to try and post as many new recipes as possible.

Today, we begin the 24th edition of Blogging Marathon. Valli came up with some very interesting and challenging themes and for the next 4 weeks I have some delicious recipes coming up.