Capsicum Curry With Peanuts And Sesame Seeds

          As I have mentioned so many times, capsicum is one vegetable, that I always have in my fridge, it is a very versatile vegetable and so many dishes can be made with it. It pairs beautifully with so many vegetables, it takes less time to cook and most importantly, can be chopped in minutes. For today's curry I have cooked the capsicums with some roasted peanut and sesame seeds powder which gives a nice taste and flavor to it. It's again an easy one, very ideal for those busy weekdays and goes well with both rice and rotis..

Microwave Apple Jam

          Homemade jams are always more special than the store bought ones and I had always wanted to make some, but kept putting it off since my family is not the 'jam' kind, they like savory sandwiches better. But this time I had so much apples at home, I had bought some and then a visiting friend had got some more, and I knew I had to do something with it. This apple jam, it's from a cook book that came with my microwave oven. It's such an easy method, I followed the original recipe, except for the amount of sugar and I added some ginger which gave a nice flavor and taste to the jam. My daughter who's not a big fan of jelly sandwiches, loved this jam and I was so happy, that my maiden attempt at jam making was a success..

Potato And Lentils, Aloo Dal

          On weekdays, when I pack lunch, and when it's rotis, I try to make some side dish that has some protein in it, usually by adding some dal/ lentils or some form of soy, so that it's filling and doesn't make you hungry very soon. Today's dish is one such, I have cooked moong dal along with potatoes, and I have added kasuri methi which gives the dal a nice flavor. This is so easy to make, you have to only dice the potatoes and tomatoes and the entire cooking can be done in the pressure pan. This dal goes very well with pilafs, rotis or even with dosas..

Potol Posto, Parwal/ Pointed Gourd In Poppy Seed Paste

         When I was back in the US, I used to see this vegetable called as Potol/ Parwal/ Pointed Gourd at the Indian grocery stores, it looked similar to tindora/ kovakkai/ gherkins, but a little plumpy. I had no idea where to use this vegetable or how to cook it or how it tasted once cooked. Then after moving to Chennai, I didn't see it, but now in Bangalore, I am seeing this vegetable everywhere, but I still didn't buy it till a couple of weeks back. I had bought this Bengali cook book called Bangla Ranna, while browsing through it, I saw that this vegetable is widely used in Bengali cooking. I have tasted posto a couple of times, which is basically a vegetable dish, in which the chosen vegetable ( usually potato, potol and even ridge gourd ) is cooked in a poppy seeds gravy. I checked a couple of other Bengali food sites and then made this, reduced the amount of poppy seeds and of course I haven't used mustard oil. This dish goes very well with rice, even if you don't find or don't want to try parwal/ potol, try this curry once with the common potatoes..