Category Archives: Dinner

Paneer Kottu

This week features my favourite kottu under the kottu series – paneer kottu, which I am bringing to Fiesta Friday #30.
DSC01294Today’s A.R.Rahman songs are from his most recent movie work. The first clip is an excerpt from the concert in Mumbai promoting Imtiaz Ali’s movie Rockstar (2011) starring Ranbir Kapoor. The singers in this Hindi song clip are Mohit Chauhan, A.R.Rahman and his team together with Ranbir Kapoor.

The second song is a clip from MTV Unplugged.  The Tamil song is from Mani Ratnam’s movie Kadal (translation: Sea, 2013) with playback singer Shakthishree Gopalan.

The last song clip is from Imtiaz Ali’s movie Highway (2014) starring Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda. The playback singers of this Punjabi song are Sultana Nooran and Jyoti Nooran.

Hope you enjoyed the most recent of A.R.Rahman’s music! I am sure you will also enjoy this paneer kottu!
DSC01296

Paneer Kottu

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Atta roti – 2, chopped
  • Paneer – ½ cup, chopped
  • Onion – ½
  • Green chilli – 1
  • Ginger – 1 tsp, chopped
  • Garlic – 1 tsp, chopped
  • Tomato – 1, chopped
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the onion, ginger and garlic for 2 mins.
  2. Then add the chopped tomato and continue frying for another 2 mins.
  3. Add 1 tsp curry powder and a little water. Cook for a min.
  4. Remove from heat and transfer pan contents to a blender. Blend the mix and then return the spiced tomato puree to the pan. Re-heat.
  5. Add the paneer cubes and cook for 2 mins.
  6. Finally, add the chopped atta roti to the pan.  Mix well and cook for 2 mins.
  7. Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Bread Kottu

In my mother’s kottu series, I am including one of her dishes she calls the ‘bread kottu.’ Home-baked bread, when leftover the next day or two, never tastes as good as it does fresh. So, when we do end up with a few slices of such bread, my mother makes this kottu dish. I am sharing this at the Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck #8 as well as bringing a second kottu dish late to Fiesta Friday #29.

I received an interesting email a couple of days ago from Ellie Priestman, a researcher at Studio Lambert. After reading the email, I agreed to share the gist of it here on my blog. According to Ellie, Studio Lambert is an independent television production company based in London and “have produced a number of observational documentary and factual entertainment series including Undercover Boss, The Great Interior Design Challenge and the BAFTA award winning series Gogglebox. (More information about the company can be found at www.studiolambert.com).” They are currently planning a production for BBC2 and are “looking for lively and outgoing couples and families who will be happy to show us what happens in their kitchens and around their dinner tables. The series will very much be a celebration of food and family – so we’re looking for people who are passionate about cooking (and eating!) together.” So, if anyone reading this and living in the UK is interested, please get in touch with Ellie via email:  getintouch@studiolambert.com or phone on 0203 040 6875.

DSC01255For today’s music as part of the A.R.Rahman series, I decided to select a few of his collaborative work with other international musicians to share here.

The first song is an excerpt from the self-titled album SuperHeavy (2011) of the five member group of Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, A.R.Rahman, Damian Marley and Joss Stone.

The second song is a collaborative work with Persian American music group, Niyaz, from their album Sumud (2012). This song is their interpretation of an Afghan folk song.

The last song for today is an interesting one from MTV’s Coke Studio (2013), fusing Buddhist chants with traditional Arabic tunes and Indian music. A fan of Ani Choying, I love it the way she calmly sits in the midst of all the sounds breaking out wildly around her and continues her chant.

Hope you enjoyed the collaborative music of A.R.Rahman and the other musicians today as much as I did! Let me know if you try out this bread kottu recipe.
DSC01260

Bread Kottu

  • Servings: 5
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Bread – 2 cups, chopped
  • Green peas – ½ cup
  • Carrots – ½ cup, chopped
  • Cabbage – ½ cup, chopped
  • Olive oil – 2 tbsp
  • Turmeric – ½ tsp
  • Pepper and salt, to taste
  • Tamarind juice – ¼ cup
  • Coconut milk – ¼ cup
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Chopped coriander leaves, for garnish

Method:

  1. Make the sauce first by cooking the tamarind juice, coconut milk, curry powder and salt to taste for about five minutes till the gravy thickens. Remove from heat and keep aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the vegetables and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
  3. Season with turmeric powder, pepper and salt.
  4. Add the chopped bread to the pan and continue to stir-fry.
  5. Just before removing from heat, add the sauce to the pan and mix well.
  6. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Bean Curd Kottu

In this month’s Kottu series of my mother, I am sharing her bean curd kottu at both the Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck and Fiesta Friday.
DSC01280For the third week of the A.R.Rahman month, I wish to share three beautiful Hindi songs from movies. The first two movies are among my all-time favourites.

The first clip is from Deepa Mehta’s acclaimed movie Water (2005) starring Sarala Kariyawasam, Lisa Ray and John Abraham. The movie was filmed in Sri Lanka and the cast includes Sri Lankan child actress Sarala.

The second song is from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s movie Rang De Basanti (translation: Colour it saffron, 2006) starring Aamir Khan, Siddharth Narayan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni and Alice Patten. This song is sung by Naresh Iyer (who won the national award for best male playback singer that year for this song) and A.R.Rahman.

The last song clip is from the movie Rockstar (2011) starring Ranbir Kapoor. This clip is a lovely qawwali song filmed at Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, one of the most venerated Sufi shrines in Delhi. The singers are A.R.Rahman, Javed Ali, Mohit Chauhan and the Nizami brothers (whose family traditionally has sung at the Dargah for centuries).

Hope you enjoyed today’s music choice of A.R.Rahman and the bean curd kottu!
DSC01281

Bean Curd Kottu

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Coconut Roti – 1 cup, chopped
  • Bean curd – ½ cup, lightly fried cubes
  • Onion – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Ginger – ½ tsp, finely chopped
  • Garlic – 1 tsp, chopped, finely chopped
  • Fennel – pinch
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Oil – 1 tbsp
  • Soya sauce – 1 tbsp
  • Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp or Pepper – ¼ tsp
  • Sliced tomato and chopped coriander, for garnish (optional)

Method:

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Fry the onion, ginger, fennel and curry leaves.
  2. Mix in chopped bean curd.
  3. Add the soya and tomato sauce to the pan as well as the crushed chillies or pepper. Stir-fry for about 2 mins.
  4. Add the chopped roti and salt to taste and continue to stir-fry for a couple of minutes.
  5. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with sliced tomato and chopped coriander.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Egg Kottu

Today’s kottu recipe is Egg Kottu, which I am bringing to Fiesta Friday#28.
DSC01269This week’s A.R.Rahman feature starts with Rajiv Menon’s movie Kandu Kondain Kandu Kondain (translation: I have seen, 2000) based on the Jane Austen novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and starring Tabu, Aishwarya Rai, Ajith Kumar, Mammooty and Abbas. The playback singer is Shankar Mahadevan who won a national award for this song.

The second song is from Ashutosh Gowariker’s acclaimed movie Lagaan (translation: Land tax, 2001) starring Aamir Khan. This song is sung by playback singers Asha Bhosle, Udit Narayan and Vaishali Samant.

The last song clip is from K.Balachander’s movie Paarthale Paravasam (translation: Ecstatic over a glance, 2001) starring Madhavan and Simran. The playback singers are Srinivas and Sadhana Sargam.

Hope you enjoy the music as well as the kottu!
DSC01270

Egg Kottu

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Atta roti/paratha – 1 or 2, chopped
  • Mysore dhal – 4 tbsp
  • Egg – 1
  • Green peas – 3 tbsp
  • Carrot – 3 tbsp, chopped
  • Onion – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • Potato – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Gingelly oil – 1 tbsp
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig (optional)

Method:

  1. Mix a little salt to the finely chopped carrot, onion, potato and green peas.
  2. Heat oil in a pan and lightly fry chopped and salted vegetables for 2-3 mins.
  3. Whisk egg and add it to the pan. Cook it before removing it from heat and keep aside.
  4. Cook 4 tbsp mysore dhal with water. Add 1 tsp crushed chillies, salt, ½ tsp pepper to the dhal.
  5. While the dhal cooks, chop up the paratha and the vegetable omelette.
  6. Once dhal is cooked, add the chopped roti/ paratha and the omelette to the pan and mix it well.
  7. Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vegetable Kottu Roti

Kottu roti is a street food that has its origins in Batticaloa, in the east of Sri Lanka. It quickly became a very popular street food across the country. While there are many popular Sri Lankan dishes that have its origins in South India, this meal  is one of the rare Sri Lankan meals that has become popular and localized in South India. If you walk around Colombo in the evenings, you are bound to hear a kottu vendor at some point or other. The noisy clang of the double cleavers that the kottu maker wields on a large roti pan and the smell and sight of the roti/ paratha and vegetables being chopped and cooked right in front of you is a treat. Check out this video clip of Mark Wiens for a visual of what I described above – the making of a kottu roti on the street.

When my mother has leftover roti or other dishes from the previous day, she sometimes attempts to recreate this popular Sri Lankan street food at home. While she does not chop the roti up with a cleaver nor is the mixing and cooking all simultaneously done on the pan, I do like the results. My mother wished to share her kottu series on this blog this month so I will be celebrating this blog’s first anniversary by bringing her vegetable kottu roti to my favourite weekly party over at The Novice Gardener‘s space.

DSC01265I have enjoyed sharing music clips together with the recipes on this blog. As I started featuring Indian movie songs with the music of one of south India’s influential music composers, Ilayaraja, I wanted to wrap up the playback singers and composers theme by featuring the other most influential composer of South India and beyond. This August, I will share the music of A.R.Rahman that I have enjoyed over the years. To kick-off the A.R.Rahman month, I would like to share today three songs that moved me and made me a fan from his early years as a music composer. The beautiful lyrics of all three were written by Vairamuthu.

The first song is from Mani Ratnam’s movie Thiruda Thiruda (translation: Thief Thief, 1993). The playback singers are K.S.Chitra and Mano. I remember enjoying watching this fun movie and this is one of the few songs for which I remember most of the lyrics.

The second song is from Bharathiraja’s movie Karuthamma (1994). The playback singer, Swarnalatha, won a national award for this sad song at the age of 21. There is an old youtube clip of an interview with the late singer where she talks of having been very much moved by the song that she was crying by the time she had finished the recording. Swarnalatha was particularly good at conveying emotions in folk tunes and won several state awards in her short career and life.

The last clip is from Suhasini Mani Ratnam’s movie Indira (1995). The playback singers are Anuradha Sriram, Sujatha Mohan, Shweta Mohan, G.V. Prakash Kumar, Esther and Sha. I get goose bumps each time I listen towards the end of the song, approximately the last 75 seconds of this meaningful song.

Hope you enjoy these special songs as you try out your own version of kottu roti!

DSC01262

DSC01264

Vegetable Kottu Roti

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • All-purpose flour – ½ cup
  • Warm water and salt, to taste
  • Onion – ½, chopped
  • Garlic – 1 tsp, chopped
  • Ginger – chopped
  • Tomato – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Kesari or turmeric
  • Potato – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Carrot – 2 tbsp
  • Beans – 2 tbsp
  • Leeks – 1 tbsp
  • Oil – 1 tbsp (for dough) + 1 tsp + 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. You can either use leftover roti or prepare fresh ones.
  2. For fresh roti, prepare the dough by mixing the flour, warm water and salt. Let it rest for an hour.
  3. Roll out the dough into one or two roti. Cook the roti until browned on both sides.
  4. Chop the roti up into thin strips.
  5. Heat 1 tsp oil in pan and fry the ginger, garlic and onion.
  6. Add chopped tomato, crushed chillies, turmeric and salt to the pan and continue to lightly fry for 2 – 3 mins.
  7. Transfer the pan contents to a blender, add a little water and puree it so that it makes ¼ cup.
  8. In a pan, fry 1 tbsp oil and add the chopped potato, carrot, beans and leeks. Mix in the puree.
  9. Add the chopped roti.
  10. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and transfer to serving dish.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Wheat Kanji

Last week, I went for an Iftar with some friends. Each of us took a dish or two. I made the vegetarian version of Linda’s Chorba M’katfa and Amal’s Basbousa which turned out nicely. The hostess, Hafsa, had made a delicious pot of wheat kanji which she said was a staple she made during the Ramadan season for her family. I requested her to share her recipe on this blog. So, here is the wheat kanji recipe of Hafsa Farook which I am bringing to Angie’s Fiesta Friday #26 co-hosted by lovely bloggers Prudy and Jess. Hafsa did mention that people who were not fond of wheat could substitute the wheat with rice or use half and half of each.
Kanji
For today’s music feature, I decided to share some Punjabi music, composed by Pritam Chakraborty, from three fun Hindi movies that will be sure to get you on your feet and dancing. 🙂

The first song is from Anurag Singh’s movie Dil Bole Hadibba (translation: Heart says Hadibba/ hurray, 2009) starring Rani Mukerji and Shahid Kapoor and sung by playback singers, Mika Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan.

The second song is from Imtiaz Ali’s movie Jab We Met (translation: When we met, 2007) starring Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor and sung by Sonu Nigam and Javed Ali.

The last song clip is from Ayan Mukerji’s movie Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (translation: This youth is crazy, 2013) starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone and sung by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Enjoy the music and the kanji! 🙂
Kanji2

Wheat Kanji

  • Servings: 12 - 15
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Wheat – 2 cups
  • Onion – 1 large
  • Ground ginger and garlic
  • Cinnamon – piece
  • Rampe/ pandan leaf – a piece
  • Curry leaves – 1 or 2 sprigs
  • Ground cumin seeds
  • Tomato – 1
  • Chilli powder, to taste
  • Corn kernels – 1 can
  • Mushroom – 1 can
  • Coconut milk – 1 cup (thin consistency) and ½ cup (thick consistency)
  • Fresh coriander – a small bunch
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil, for sautéing

Method:

  1. Soak wheat for at least 5 hours.
  2. Chop up the onion.
  3. Heat oil and fry the chopped onions, ground ginger garlic, piece of cinnamon, rampe and curry leaves. Sauté until it becomes golden brown.
  4. Add ground cumin seeds.
  5. Grate a tomato and add to the pan. Add a little chilli powder and cook for a while.
  6. Drain the soaked wheat and add to the sauté pan together with at least three cups of water. Add more water if the liquid dries up before the wheat is cooked. When cooked, the wheat should not be transparent.
  7. The corn kernels can be added now along with chopped mushrooms. Add a little water if the liquid dries up. Cook for a few minutes.
  8. Add 1 cup of thin coconut milk and ½ cup thick coconut milk to the pan and cook.
  9. Just before removing from heat, add the chopped coriander and salt to taste and cook for a few minutes.
  10. Serve warm.

Recipe source: Hafsa Farook.

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

Re-blogging Indu’s Sri Lankan chicken curry post. Thanks for sharing it on your blog, Indu!

Indu's International Kitchen


IMG_5109


Chicken Curry is one dish that I never get tired of trying out new recipes for!  Chicken is in fact a very safe thing to experiment on – since you can never go wrong with chicken! Any which way you cook it, it always turns out delicious! And those of you who think that ‘a curry is a curry is a curry…’, sorry but I beg to differ!   The different blend of spices as well as the proportion of those spices that goes in a curry is very important and gives the curry its own unique flavor.  And hence Kamala aunty’s chicken curry is so delicious but yet different from grandma’s chicken curry! That is the reason I am always asking folks for their chicken curry recipes! – Hey there is no shame in asking! 🙂

And I thought that there could be so many variations of chicken curry only all across…

View original post 236 more words

Chicken with Broccoli

The recipe for today has been sent in by Trevor Martil and I am sharing it at Fiesta Friday. I shared his mother’s savoury rice dish recipe last week.

I also felt like sharing some lovely Hindi movie music today from movies released within this decade but set in decades past. The first clip is from V.V.Chopra’s movie Parineeta (translation: The married woman, 2005), an adaptation of a 1914 Bengali novella starring Vidya Balan and Saif Ali Khan. The music was composed by Shantanu Moitra and the playback singers of this song are Sonu Nigam and Shreyal Ghoshal.

The second clip is from Anurag Basu’s movie Barfi! (2012), starring Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D’Cruz. Set in the 70s, the music was composed by Pritam and this particular song has been sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali.

The last clip is from V.Motwane’s movie Lootera (translation: Robber, 2013), set in the 50s and based on O.Henry’s 1907 short story ‘The last leaf,’ starring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha. The music for this song has been composed and sung by Amit Trivedi.

Hope you enjoyed the lovely songs and do let me know if you try out this recipe!

Chicken with Broccoli and Spinach

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 1 chicken breast
  • 150g broccoli
  • 100g spinach leaves
  • onions
  • ginger paste and garlic paste (Trevor’s mother prefers using the Sri Lankan MD brand)
  • 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (Again, Trevor’s mother has mentioned the MD brand)
  • oil, for tempering
  • chili powder
  • turmeric
  • cumin seeds
  • fresh ginger and garlic, to taste
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

  1. Grind the cumin seeds, ginger, garlic and 50g spinach leaves to a paste. Keep aside.
  2. Cut chicken into large pieces, marinate in ginger and garlic paste and sauce for 30 minutes.
  3. Allow to cook in own juice.
  4. Add oil and stir-fry, adding the chopped onions.
  5. Add ground ingredients, the remaining spinach and the broccoli.
  6. Add 1/2 cup milk together with chili powder and turmeric as per your taste. Allow to simmer.
  7. Serve with steamed rice.

Recipe source: Trevor Martil.

Savoury Rice

I had tried to get hold of some of the Sri Lankan Burgher cuisine recipes for some time now. While some of the dishes such as lamprais, frikkadels and some kinds of specialty cakes around Christmas time are very popular and are recreated by cafes and bakeries around the country, I was more interested in the home-cooking of Burgher families. Besides Refinceyaa who shared her aunt’s recipe for capsicum with eggs on this blog, I had also asked Trevor Martil who is another of my former colleagues. He recently sent me some of his mother’s favourite recipes. Today’s recipe is one such dish, which Trevor’s mother calls ‘savoury rice with a difference.’ This rice recipe (providing both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options) is what I am sharing at Fiesta Friday together with some special music clips.

The special song clip for today is a rendition, by Amitabh Bachchan, of renowned poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s beautiful Bengali poem Ekla Cholo Re written in 1905. This song is from Sujoy Ghosh’s acclaimed Hindi movie Kahaani (translation: Story, 2012) starring Vidya Balan. Translation of the lyrics can be found on Wikipedia.

The next song clip is from Aamir Khan’s talk show Satyamev Jayate (translation: Truth alone prevails). Composed by Ram Sampath for the lyrics written by Swanand Kirkire, Meenal Jain sings the beautiful Hindi song ‘Sakhi’ at the end of the episode on domestic violence. I think I must have watched all the episodes of the first season in 2012.

Hope you enjoyed the songs and do let me know if you tried out the recipe today!

Savoury Rice

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: average
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 250g cooked rice
  • 150g chicken (vegetarians can substitute this with tofu or mushroom)
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 capsicum chili
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon soya sauce (Trevor’s mother prefers to use Sri Lankan MD brand)
  • turmeric
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • chili powder
  • ginger paste and garlic paste (Again, Trevor’s mother prefers the ready-made MD brand)
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 30g green peas
  • 2 eggs
  • cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise
  • curry leaves
  • 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock (vegetarians can substitute this with vegetable stock)
  • parsley
  • coriander leaves

Method:

  1. Temper spices, star anise, onions, curry leaves.
  2. Add cooked rice, 1/4 cup milk, turmeric. Allow to simmer.
  3. Add green peas, eggs and stir in a tablespoon of butter.
  4. Serve and keep aside.
  5. Cut chicken into small pieces, marinate in soya sauce, and place in a pan.
  6. Cook till water is absorbed.
  7. Add oil and stir-fry adding all vegetables, onions, ginger, garlic sauces and 1/2 cup chicken stock.
  8. Cook and take off heat with gravy.
  9. Pour over rice.
  10. Sprinkle parsley and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Recipe source: Trevor Martil