ALOO-GAJAR REZALA, RAJGARO-ALOO POORIS, SWEET POTATO FOSTER ON CHOCOLATE Crêpe!

Aloo-Gajar Rezala and Rajgaro-Aloo Pooris are my two contributions to Supriya from "Monsoon Spice" blog's event. As a part of celebrating the "International Year of Potato" in 2008, she is hosting a "Ode to Potato" event this month.Thanks for hosting Sia!:)
The potato originated in the area of Peru and Bolivia, now there are thousands of varieties grown all over the World. In recent years, China has become the world's largest potato producer, followed by India.The potato is also popularly associated with Idaho in US. Potatoes are rich in Vitamin C, Potassium and also high in Carbohydrates, not exactly a "diet" food. Regular potatoes turned green are said to be toxic, so we are better off avoiding those! (Info from WIKI)

Potato-Carrot-Mushroom Rezala with Rajgaro-Potato Poori:
Rezala is a "shahi" (royal) dish originated in Bengal in India and in Bangladesh as well. Rezala is usually made with Chicken, Mutton and is always a non-veg dish. Well....who says you "always" have to follow the rules, right? :D

I added Potatoes, chunky sweet Carrots and whole Button Mushrooms to the same Rezala gravy as in the recipe from one of the cookbook I have! It tastes fabulous and smells like royal dish with the addition of Rose water or can use Kewra(Camphor) water as well. A wonderful Sunday lunch for us served with Rajgaro pooris, cucumber slices,red onion rings and tomato slices with a slice of Lemon on the side which I forgot to add in the photo! :)

Aloo-Gajar Rezala:

To make Rezala, you need:
Vegetables:
2 large Yukon Gold or any firm waxy Potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into large chunks, 2 sweet Carrots, cut into large rounds, Microwave with little water until halfway cooked, drain, about 10-15 small round Mushrooms, cook a little in the MW, drain the water. Mix these 3 and keep aside.
Season with:
2 tbsp Butter ad 1 tbsp oil,
2 Bay leaves.
Grind these to paste:
1 large onion, finely minced or coarsely ground separately,
2 large Garlic and 1" Ginger, ground to paste together.
Powder these:
1 black Cardamom (badi elachi) or 2 green Cardamoms, use only the seeds,
1 small piece of Mace,
1 tsp roasted Cumin seeds powder,
1 tsp roasted Coriander seeds powder,
3 cloves,
1" Cinnamon, (Dalchini),
pinch of Saffron strands,
1 tsp mild Kashmiri or any bright red chilli powder.
For fragrant sauce:
4 tbsp Yogurt or Sour Cream
1 tsp Paprika for color,
Salt,
1/2 to 1 cup water,
1-2 tsp Sugar.
1/2 tsp Rose water or Kewra (Camphor) water.
2 tbsp Walnuts or Almonds, ground separately to a smooth paste with 2-3 tbsp milk or cream.

How to:
1. Heat butter and oil in a deep wide dish, add bay leaves. Pour in ground or minced onion, 1/2 tsp salt, fry for 3 mins, just until it becomes truculent but not brown.
2. Add ground ginger and garlic paste, stir fry for 2 mins, until raw smell of ginger disappears.
3. Now, add 1 tbsp cold water to cool the sauce, add in sour cream or yogurt 1 tbsp at time, stir until sauce thickens and oil shows on top. Add paprika, chilli pd, mix.
4. Add the veggies, 1/2 cup or more water, let it simmer. Add Powdered masala, Rose or Kewra water, enough salt, sugar, let it simmer gently.
5. when you get delcious aroma and you can see the sauce thicken slightly, turn down the heat.
6. Add Walnut or Almond paste, mix well with sauce. Simmer for 5 mins. Make sure veggies are cooked and then take off the heat. Garnishing with Cilantro is optional.
Tastes best the next day and that beautiful color comes mainly from the Paprika. Balance the sweet, sour and heat by adjusting the spices. Serve with Parathas, Pulao, Baturas or Pooris. I added Rose water. At first, dish does smell like Rose or flowery but after sometime it disappears as you cook and you are left with a very subtle flavor and aroma. That's what makes this dish wonderfully "shahi"! :)

Rajgaro-Aloo Pooris:
When I made Thalipeeth at Aroma with Rajgaro/Rajgiri flour, Smita told me that Rajgaro flour is made of Amaranth grains. Rajgaro flour is easily available in Indian stores or here at Amazon. Vimmi suggested that I could also make Pooris with this flour and mashed aloo as her mom makes them in India. So here is how I made these delicious Rajgaro pooris. I added some plain flour too so it's easy for me roll them out. They tastes wonderful and soft. My thanks to Vimmi and Smita!:)

To make these you need:
1. Mix and knead 1 cup Rajgaro flour, 1 cooked and mashed Potato or 1/2 cup Potato flakes softened with hot water, 1/4 cup plain flour and 1 tsp salt to a firm dough. Cover and rest for 15 mins.
2. Heat oil to deep fry the Pooris. Make small golf ball sized rounds out of the dough, roll out to 4" circles and deep fry until they are puffed and golden both sides. Drain on paper towels.
3. Serve with Aloo-Gajar Rezala. These pooris are very soft and do not absorb much oil and tastes wonderful. Hope you try.
Note: If you don't have Rajgaro flour, skip it and use whole wheat flour to replace.

Here are some more spuddy posts:
Potatoes Galore!
Aloo Batura
Latke
Potato-Sour Cream soup

Dessert anyone? :)


I am sending Sweet Potato Foster dessert served with Chocolate Crepe and Vanilla Ice Cream as my second entry to Dhivya K from "Culinary Bazaar" blog. My first entry I sent to her was Rosti for the "Potato Feast" event. Enjoy this too DK!:)


Sweet potato Foster with Vanilla Ice cream piled up on Chocolate crêpe:
Banana Foster is a typical New Orleans and Caribbean dessert, in which Rum is added and set on fire! (Flambe`) I used Sweet potato instead of Bananas and didn't really Flambe` to save my eyebrows!:D
This dessert is always served hot on cold Vanilla Ice cream but I made a few Chocolate crêpes to serve on, which are thin French pancakes. You can see my well used French crêpe pan in the collage. I bought this in World Market and pan is made in France, specially used to make these crêpes!:)



To make sweet Potato Foster:

You need: 2 tbsp Butter, 1/4 cup Brown sugar, 2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed to 1" piece, 2 tbsp Rum, 1 tsp sweet Cinnamon pd or Vanilla essence.
Scoops of Vanilla Ice Creme and few Chocolate crêpes to serve on.
How to: 1. Heat butter in a non-stick pan. Add sugar, sweet potatoes and stir until it cooked but mashed.
2. Add Rum, let it cook for a minute and add essence or cinnamon pd, mix and keep aside.
To make crêpes: 1. Whisk 1/2 cup plain flour, 1 egg (optional), 2 tbsp good quality Cocoa pd, 2 tbsp powdered sugar, 2 tsp melted butter, enough milk to make a thinnish batter, 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence well and let it rest for 5 mins.
2. Heat the crêpe pan or any non-stick pan, spray no-stick oil. Pour a ladle full of batter in the middle, pick up pan and swirl to spread the batter to circle quickly, cook and flip.
3. When both sides are cooked, fold into triangles, place them on a plate.
To assemble the dessert:
1. Place a Chocolate crêpe on a serving plate, top with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and top that with warm or hot sweet Potato Foster.
2. Dust with Cocoa powder and serve immediately! YUM!

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Awards time again!!:)


Recently, I was bestowed with "Excellent blog" and "Nice matters" (you can see the other logos on my side bar) awards by Pravs, Daagh, Kribha, Cham, Bharathy, Pragyan, Sig, Maya, Mona, Dhivya K, Dhivya Vikram,Purnima and Meera. Gattina gave me the "friends for forever" ball last week as well. Hope I didn't forget anybody else who awarded me, remind me if I did. Thank you so much girls, I appreciate it. Being a fellow blogger along with you all is a privilege to me, thanks again!:)


I know most of the bloggers I know have these awards already and it's very very hard for me to choose a few since you all have excellent blogs! I would like to pass the "Excellent Blog" award to sra, Indosungod, Sig, Gattina and shn. Although these girls and their excellent blogs don't need my award to be shining stars on their own, I appreciate your loyal support to me and my blogs as well! Thanks buddies, hugs to you. Be proud and stay proud!:))

Book I read:

"Video" by Meera Nair.
It's her debut book with ten short stories, a beautifully written, very humorous err...hilarious stories. First story is too funny to review it here, you need to read the book. (Okay, a sneak peek: Naseer visits his cousin Khaleel and watches a "forbidden movie accidentally" and Rashida, his wife is very angry at his request and all that entails which involves neighborhood women too eventually! ;P)
Hope you read it, does have pretty good stories.

I didn't have time to watch any movies this week though, been Spring cleaning the house a bit early! My allergy season is almost here too!! AHH! :D

Srivalli's Potato Kurma:
Even my kids loved this yummy vegetarian side dish! They do love potatoes but not the spicy gravy usually, but they enjoyed this Kurma. It tasted even better the next day with Parathas, has a great flavor of fennel seeds. Thanks for the recipe Sri!:))


Have a great weekend folks!:)