Monthly Archives: February 2020

The best rajma

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Rajma is every North Indian’s favorite comfort food- so tinkering with the recipe is akin to sacrilege. This one is very good though and is probably worth the criticism from all the Indian nanis.

Rick Martinez’s pupusa recipe for BA (which is also on this blog) starts with charring onions till they are almost black and then purée-ing them with pinto beans. This rajma recipe starts the same way. It’s the butter and the charred onion together that gives this 10 minute rajma recipe it’s deep deep flavor. This is a no-recipe recipe.

You have to use pressure cooked (I use my Cuisinart) red kidney beans for this one. The liquid is essential. You also have to pre-soak the beans – you can get the beans soft without soaking in the pressure cooker but they don’t taste anywhere as good.

Heat 2 tbsp of butter- add 1 tsp of cumin seeds and 1 small diced onion on high heat with some salt and red pepper flakes. Stir frequently till onion is charred in places (takes about 5 minutes). Add 2-4 cloves of garlic(minced) and 1 tbsp of tomato paste. Stir for 30 sec or so. Add rajma with liquid. Add 1 tsp of cumin powder and 1 tsp of coriander powder. Boil for 2-3 minutes and taste for salt. Serve on rice!

Potato sagu

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I’ve been on a quest for years for the perfect sagu recipe – the kind served with rava idli and ghee at the udupi restaurant in Bangalore. I think this might be it. The trick is to thicken the potato curry with ground roasted chana dal – it’s delicious with rice, dosa, roti or Malaysian parantha (a store bought treat – sadly too unhealthy for daily eats)

Step 1: roast and grind 1/4 cup chana dal and make a slurry with about 1/4 cup of water

Step 2: routine South Indian tampering or tadka – heat 1-2 tbsp of oil, add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds, once they start sputtering add 1/2 tsp each of cumin seeds and turmeric, add a pinch of asafetida, 2-4 curry leaves and 1-2 dried red chilies. Add 1 tbsp of ginger and 1 tbsp of garlic and roast for 30 sec or so.

Step 3: add 2-3 peeled and chopped (into inch cubes) potatoes and salt. Cover potatoes with water and boil for 10 minutes till potatoes are cooked

Step 4: add chana dal slurry and boil for 5-10 minutes. Remove off heat. Adjust salt, squeeze a lemon to taste and garnish with cilantro and roasted cashews.

This one is easy. Knife work involves peeling and chopping the potatoes and ginger and garlic and cilantro (about 10 min). Other prep work is the chana dal powder (5 minutes). Cooking time is around 20-30 minutes but with minimal involvement after the tadka. Yep- a good week-night meal.

Grits with blistered vegetables

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This is one of my simplest weekday meals. Prep work consists of smashing 2-3 cloves of garlic. It is delicious every time – top it with cheese, sausage, veggies, fried egg – it’s a very comforting dinner when you’ve had an extremely annoying day at work.

Grits: I use Alton’s foolproof recipe. Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of whole milk. Add one cup of grits (stone ground is best) and 2-3 crushed whole garlic cloves while whisking continuously. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes while whisking every 4-5 minutes especially in the corners. Add salt and 4 tbsp of butter.

Blistered haricot beans and corn: heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil toll smoking. Add frozen beans and corn- cover for 5 minutes. Once blistered, add lots of pepper and 1 tbsp of butter.

Add veggies to beans and top with some gochugaru pepper or not 🙂