Taking it easy…

When it comes to cooking a fulfilling dinner on weeknights, my keyword, or should I say keywords, are QUICK and SIMPLE! I have many a times blogged on how much I love easy recipes that hardly take any of my time and effort and yet seem to please our over-demanding palates.

Truly, coming home at seven in the evening after a long and tiring day at school doesn’t leave me even in the slightest mood to cook anything. But eat we must and that’s where I make use of my instincts. A little bit of this, a splash of that, and dinner is on the table!

I always wonder why people look at cooking Indian food with such disdain. According to so many non-Indians I’ve come accross, they all have the same thing to say - It takes a lot of time and many more ingredients to cook a traditional Indian meal! Well, all I can say yet again is that you, my dear are mistaken! Now, if you are one of those who thinks that the traditional Indian meal comprises of exotic dishes such as, Briyani, Butter Chicken, Dal Makhani and Naans, then, well, I think you need to invite yourself to an Indian home for a simple dinner.

When it comes to food, we Indians know how to make a gala of the mere act of eating. But at the same time, we have our home-grown secrets of making a simple “Dal-Chawal” meal seem fit for a King, or Queen ofcourse!

One look at my long list of recipes and you can easily see that many of them are simple to the touch. Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook. Infact, I am known to spend an entire day in the kitchen cooking for parties a day in advance. But sometimes, I just want to take it easy. Afterall, even the greatest rulers of all-time needed to take a break!

Alu-Pyaaz Fry (Fried Potatoes with Onions)

Ingredients:

7-8 red baby potatoes, boiled and sliced with skins left on 1 medium-sized onion, sliced into rings 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder salt, to taste 2 tbsp cooking oil 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves

Method:

1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and saute cumin seeds till it starts to sizzle.
2. Add potato slices and fry till they begin to crisp on the edges.
3. Add salt, chili powder, turmeric and onions, and fry for a few minutes till spices mix well and onions turn tender and transparent.
4. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with a ice helping of Rice and Dal.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 18th, 2006 at 11:39 am and is filed under Recipes: Vegan, Recipes: Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.