Prepared Bitter Gourd In Pressure Cooker

 Inspired by KanchanAhuja, I cooked Bitter gourd. I followed her recipe..

 

I rarely use pressure cooker unless I am cooking mutton, or lentils. But cooking normal vegetables? It is unthinkable for me.  I always prefer slow cooking. I understand that using pressure cooker is quick but I always add water. Never before have I ever cooked anything without water in a pressure cooker. But then, there is always first time. Yesterday I attended live cooking session of KanchanAhuja and she demonstrated three quick recipes. It seemed so easy. I decided to try her technique for cooking bitter gourd (although she had used Okra)

 

I was nervous throughout the cooking procedure..(what if there is sudden explosion without water)..What if it gets burnt? The only solace was that I had watched Kanchan do it, so I was getting a bit courageous. I waited eagerly for 2 whistles.(staring at the gas with  eyes wide open)…I was tempted to quit (was I taking risk?) and phew.when the whistle finally sounded, I was relieved. .It was success. It was good 

 

The trick is in layer cooking with juices extracted from onion and tomatoes mixture

 

This is how I cooked it….

Layer the pressure cooker in this order

Layer one 

2tbsp oil

Layer two..

spread 2 finely chopped onions

Layer three..

spread 2 finely chopped tomatoes

Layer four..

add deep fried 250gms of bittergroud (i have salted the BG with salt for few hours..then squeezed out the water and deep fried it)

Layer five..

add 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp coriander powder

Layer six..

add green masala (1small bunch of coriander leaves, 1 inch ginger, 5cloves of garlic, 4green chilies)

Layer seven:

Add salt

Cover and pressure cook for 2 whistles

Release the pressure

Mix it well and serve.

Multigrain Bread and Pickled Mushrooms

I have always wanted to bake bread. Each time I went to a super store, I would see range of different kinds of breads and most of them were made by home chefs, and I would think, someday I will bake it too.

 Many times I had even bought yeast, waiting for my moods, the yeast aged and I had to throw it away. Then this lockdown happened, I was not able to go to the store to select the loaf of bread that took my fancy, that’s when I decided that I would bake it.

 

The first one I tried was with just plain flour. I watched about twenty different videos on U tube, to understand the techniques. Baked the first one, it took me about five hours, it did come out good but plain flour bread is not my liking.

 

Then I decided to make multigrain bread and voila! It was just the type I wanted.

 

 

So, before I forget the recipe, I decided to write it down.

 

Just soaked 1 tbsp dry yeast with salt and sugar in warm water for 10 minutes for it to ferment

 

Meanwhile take 1 cup plain flour, plus 1/4 cup Wheat flour plus 1/4 cup Rajgira flour

 

Add 1 tsp of Fennel seeds, 1tsp Poppy seeds, 1tsp Cumin seeds,  1tsp Sesame seeds and a pinch of Baking powder

 

Mix it well and add the fermented yeast

 

Mix it well, it should be wet and sticky, transfer to the greased silicon baking dish...smoothen it with wet hands

 

Cover the dough with mixture of crushed almonds walnuts n pistachio.

 

Keep it for one hour..

 

It will rise to double its size

 

Bake it for 30 minutes, cool and cut into slices..store it in the freezer..

 

Although the bread tasted very good but I decided to make Mushroom pickle too so that I could toast this slice of bread and have it with mushroom pickle.

 

This is how I pickled it

 

Clean and blanch the mushroom and chop into thin slices.

Add crushed garlic, chilies, finely chopped dry fruits like walnuts almonds pistachio, veg cube, lime juice. Pour olive oil and keep it bottled for 2 days.

 

Mushroom pickle can be stored in fridge for 15days and I use it for topping pizzas, or add in fry rice or even with pastas. One spoon should be enough for one serving…

 

Better to pickle it rather than to let it go bad with neglect.