Spicyandhra

Another un complicated dish for the weekend brunch after a great nightout, Eating at a famous Mexican restaurant and with those Divine Jugs of Sangria and Pink Punch, I had to plump for a effortless meal the very next day as I was still slothful to get up.
After cosily curled in the sofa with a cup of steaming filter coffee at 11:30 in the morning thinking of what to make I languidly reached kitchen and saw these gorgeous sweet peppers lying in my vegetable rack and so immediately dished up this simple meal along with couscous, my usual simple weekend brunch!!!

This recipe was passed onto me from one of my friends, Sangeeta. I added the red peppers to make it even more tastier.

Here is the recipe: Take a large baking tray, add new potatoes and sliced peppers. Season with salt, pepper and drizzle a good amount of extra virgin olive oil and bake them in the oven for atleast 30 minutes. Poke a skewer into the potatoes to see if its cooked or else bake them for 10 more minutes.

Now the mix to go with baked veggies:

Tomato ketchup: 3 tbsp

Coriander: a small bunch, coarsely chopped

Green chillies: finely chopped

Red chilli flakes: 2 tsp

Black peppercorns: 1tsp( crushed freshly in a mortar n pestle)

Mix all these ingredients into baked potatoes and peppers and serve hot or cold after 1/hr so that the potatoes absorb all the flavours when hot.

The most simple and yet so refreshingly remarkable dish is prepared to serve as a starter or as a brunch .

Here is my dish, 3 chilli potato and pepper salad which is going to enthrall JFI-Chillies hosted by Lovely Nandita.

The last couple of days were absolutely amazing as I had some relaxing time at home So I decided to cook our favourites which we missed having when I was commuting to london everyday, I was too tired so used to dish up something or the other which is simple to make and the other day, Noel came over n asked when can he have some idlis as its been really ages I made some so decided to make Noel’s and Rocky’s favourite this week, first it was puris and potato curry, then Idlis with Sambhar and Coconut Chutney and today planning to surprise my hubby with his favourite Gongura Lamb before rushing off to a mexican restaurant with my friends.

We are going on a short trip to India in couple of weeks so so many things to sort out before we are off and not to mention, shopping!!
I really dread this bit as to see what to buy for family and friends and not repeating the same gifts again so It is quite a job for me and for rocky as well.
We decided to finish shopping this weekend as we will be quite busy next couple of weeks with trips to london on work front and on personal front, deadlines to meet before I am off to India. Hope I won’t be too stressed.
Now coming back to my puris and potato curry, this delicious and puffy puris goes so well with my amazing potato curry which is so simple to make and with that gram flour in the curry makes it different to the normal potato curry n its just heavenly and I was so sure that Noel will ask for seconds and even thirds when it comes to this dish and he indeed asked!!

Potato Curry:
Potatoes: 3( peeled and cut into cubes)
Red Onion: 1 large
Green Chillies: 2
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs
Gram flour: 2 tbsp
turmeric: 1 tsp
Chilli powder: 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Take a saucepan and add potatoes, onions, chillies, chilli powder, salt and turmeric and 2 glasses of water.let it boil for 10 minutes and by this time, the potatoes should be just cooked(take care not to overcook them) as soon as the potatoes are cooked, add gram flour paste( 2 tbsp in 4 tbsp water)continuously stirring and make sure of no lumps and simmer for 5 minutes and switch off.

For tempering: take 1 tsp of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, split peas, blackgram lentils, jeera 1 tsp each and as soon as mustard seeds start spluttering add chopped coriander leaves(optional), curry leaves and then add this to the potatoes. Serve hot with Puris or Chapathis

I know the title sounds cliché but as I am still struggling to find time to post, I thought why not I try to post few recipes together. There are so many wonderful events which are drawing my attention n testing my culinary skills n most importantly my time. I would have loved to send my recipes to every event but I guess that can never happen right.

Here I am trying to post few wonderful recipes which I made through out last week. As I thought my cooking saga on TV has ended, I get a call again from the same event organiser and they wanted to film me at work and at home with close friends.

First it didn’t appeal to me at all as I lost in the finals and didn’t have a zeal to do it on the same programme But then again you don’t get opportunites like this so often and when someone is really interested to know my world, it did make me feel privilaged to let the cameras rolling at home and the interesting thing was when I came to know that they are covering me and the winner on the same day n last day of filming for that programme.

So again I braced myself, this time with my wonderful friends and family who readily agreed to be a part of this event at home as they know how much it means to me if they are there. So my five close friends were there along with Rocky n Noel yesterday. I was like a Pro, telling them what happens and how to face the camera n all. Ben came over at 7:00 to film us for an hour and to wind up everything as it’s the last day before the whole editing process starts. And did we have fun or what!!! The most amazing time we had, laughing and joking all the way and enjoyed being filmed as it adds a glamorous touch to the whole event. We had to do the hi and byes again n again to get them right and all those wonderful compliments again n again n again which made the whole event enjoyable as we were chatting away, eating away n Ben who came to film us for an hour ended up enjoying, filming with us till 10:00.

What an eventful day!! Now everyone is waiting for the show to start is September to see how they will look and how it will all be on TV. I still need to do the cleaning up, but one of the best days of my life with friends n family and this day will be quite a memorable one who thought its important to be there for me and enjoy!! So gals thank you once again. Here’s a pictureof us having fun:

Now what did I cook, I made brinjal bajjis with tamarind chutney, potato tikkis were my starters. Prawns curry, chicken curry with Mint rice, my main dish and to end the wonderful day we had chocolate fudge cake with chocolate dipped strawberries as dessert and the recipes will follow soon.

I made these wonderful Naans with Paneer masala the other day for the great event hosted by Richa of As Dear As Salt.

How to make these lovely Naans: Take a bowl and add flour, salt, sugar and ghee,yeast mixture., yoghurt.Mix until the dough doesn’t stick to the sides,Now out the dough in a greased surface, oil your hands and knead it for 5 minutes.

Keep it covered for at least two hours. Knead the dough and make them into lemon sized balls, roll each one into a shape of Naan with 1/2 inch thickness. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees centigrade, place these naans on a greased baking tray and bake them for 5 to 10 minutes.Serve them immediately with paneer masala or any curry you fancy.