Preserving / freezing / Long term Storage Garden Produce - Green Chillies

 

Here I show all the ways I use to preserve / freeze green chillies and jalapeños for. Long term storage. I made chilli powder , chilli pastes from cayenne pepper and also made condiments like picked jalapeños and Chicago giardiniera and much more

Store Green Chutney for upto 3 Months - Working Woman Tips

Video about how to store Green Chutney for upto 3 months. This also contains how to use the frozen Cubes and shows method to create stock from Coriander Stalk.

Hope you like it.

Alu Jhinga Posto with Quick Cooking Tip

Easy Alu Jhinga Posto with a quick cooking tip for busy days - Hope you find it helpful.

How to store Dosa Batter for a month - Working Woman Tips

Hope you find the video useful

Weekly Indian Meal Planning/Preparation for Working Women - Week 1

I am making a post after a long time, been busy with work and kids and hence finding no time for blogging.


I will restart the blog by writing about the weekend meal prep I do for upcoming week to make it as smooth as possible.


This is going to be a multi part series because I do not prep the same thing every week. We do not buy same kind of vegetables every week not we eat the same food every week, so my meal prep every week is dependent on what I buy that week or what we plan to eat that week.


I do not designate a particular time for meal prep on the weekend but I do little bits through out the weekend  mostly when I am in kitchen and cooking. Weekend cooking is quite elaborate at my home , so I use that time to get a head start for the coming week.

My prep starts on Friday , while coming back from work, I stop at Sam's Club to get milk , fruits , eggs etc . Usually I soak any Rice/Dal for batter on Friday morning so I could get it done by Friday evening. But this week, I could only soak rice and dal on Friday evening.

Saturday Morning:


- When I start morning tea, I also started heating a gallon of full fat milk which I will use for Curd and to make Paneer. I am having guests this week , so was planning to make egg curry for Saturday night, so started boiling all the eggs I had in Fridge. We consume eggs daily so the remaining eggs will be used during the week.

- I also did a batch of batter and kept it for fermentation

- I also soaked all available poppy seeds and some mustard seeds in hot water , this will be used in today's lunch and for freezing for future use.

- Also made Curd from some portion of milk and made Paneer from rest of the portion.

Saturday Afternoon : After breakfast , We went to Indian store and got the Vegetables.

We are having Shukto (Shukto Recipe Here ) for lunch and Egg curry for dinner as we were having some guests.

- We need quite a lot of vegetables for Shukto in small quantities, so cut the vegetables accordingly.

- I had Raw banana which was cut , roasted and freezed earlier, so I took those out for thawing along with frozen peas and frozen drumsticks, frozen pumpkin

- I had to use Ridge guard and Bitter guard in this preparation, so I cut all of Ridge Gourd and Bitter Gourd I had, some to be used now and rest for the coming week. It only takes few more minutes but I had two vegetables prepped and ready to go.

- Made the paste of poppy seeds and Mustard seeds, Took out the portion to be used for today's cooking, Rest I put in Ice Cube maker to make cubes of this paste to be used later.

- Made Peanut chutney for Idli/Dosa's

- I used my food processor to slice onions as I had to slice quite a lot of onions as I was making Egg curry. I sliced some extra to be used in Sunday's breakfast.

- Now , I bagged the Ridge Gourd and  boxed the Bitter Gourd and extra Onion to put away, Removed the excess eggs and placed them in the egg container to be used later, Put the Poppy seeds and Mustard seeds paste in Ice Cube maker to go into freezer. All this was when I was preparing Shukto and preparing the egg curry.

- Eggs, Ridge Gourd, Bitter Gourd and onion went into fridge section. The Ice Cube maker with poppy seeds and Mustard seeds with an Aluminum foil on top went into freezer.

- This was end of afternoon prep and finished cooking Shukto, Rice and egg curry for dinner.

Saturday Evening :

- I took around minutes to fry the Paneer little bit before storing it in a box with an Aluminum foil

- I took the fermented batter and put it in container, I will leave two in the freezer and 1 in fridge for immediate consumption.

- I took out the ice cube maker with poppy seed and mustard pastes , transferred the cubes to Zip-loc and stored away in the freezer

- Shukto is usually made in large quantity in my house as it uses quite a bit of vegetables  and we wont be able to complete the entire quantity immediately, So I took a portion of it immediately after cooking , cooled it and put it away in freezer for use in next couple of weeks.

- Curd is ready and it will be used for good part of the week in daily meal and also in smoothies, if required i do a batch more during week.

and also soaked beans for making Quesadillas in coming week for the kids and guests.

Sunday Morning :

We had Poori (from Atta prepared on Friday  Night , Alu and Mango Pulp). Used the excess onions I prepped yesterday in the Alu curry.

-  We had one more batch of batter made in the morning as I guests this week

-  We planned to have Chicken curry, so started my food processor and sliced onions for the chicken and also extra for the coming week.

- While I was preparing Chicken Curry and Rice for lunch, I put the beans in pressure cooker and put it to boil.

- While the chicken and rest are getting cooked, I used my processor and started slicing Green Beans and Tindora , Lauki .

- Once the beans are cooled, I minced half of beans in the processor to make re-fried beans Quesadillas and rest is ready to go into freezer for future use.

- After this, I rinse the processor and put it in dish washer for wash

- Here are three vegetables (Green beans, Tindora and two cuts of Lauki, I sliced half in half moon shape to use in samber , the other half I cut by hand to use it in Chana Dal Lauki).

- Green Beans, Tindora , Excess Onion , Beans mince will go into Fridge.

- Rest of pressure cooked beans will go into freezer to be used in next couple of weeks to make a quick curry for Roti's.

- Two cuts of Lauki will go into freezer. I always freeze Lauki as I feel the inner portion of Lauki gets dis colored quickly in Fridge and this is one vegetable which freezes well and does not loose its flavour when you use it in Sambar, Curry, or dal.

- I also cleaned  Green Chillies, Removed the stem , ready to use.

- I removed the stems of Coriander and wrapped it in paper towel to keep it fresh for long. I don't wash it at this time. I take the stalks when I need it , wash it and cut it at that time.

- During Tea time, I packed the fermented batter in containers to go into freezer. Combined with yesterdays batter , this will last at least two if not three weeks in my home even with guests. I just take the container and leave it outside on counter the night before i need to use, you will fresh batter ready by morning. This helps me in saving time next couple of weeks where I will prep something else and not batter.

It may seem like lot of time in prepping through out the weekend, but the actual consumed is only when I am in kitchen cooking and few minutes in the evening to put it away. Cutting few vegetables when you are in kitchen by hand will also not take more time, but this simple prep will help us in upcoming week when we are in rush.

Hope it helps the readers in managing the prep over the weekend.

Veg Yakhni Pulao

I have been following Sanjeev Kapoor Kitchen Khiladi now a days and I found Veg Yakhni Pulao by Tripti Khan very interesting , so I made it and it turned out fabulous. I have done minor changes to recipe like masala ingredients according what is had and also changed measurements. You can watch the original recipe on 13 Dec 2013 episode.I used Kali Jeera rice which is very fragnant and is used in West Bengal.

Veg Yakhni Pulao :

Ingredients :

1/2 Floret Cauliflower

1Large Potato
1 Carrot
1/4 Cup Peas

1 Medium onions
1/2 Cup Curd

Ginger Garlic Chili Paste ( Made from 1 inch Ginger, 6 cloves of Garlic pods , 3 small Green Chili)

1 Tsp Garam Masala Powder

2 Bay leaves

6 Cloves

1 Big Cardamom
2 Green Cardamom

2 - 1 Inch Dalchini(Cinnamon stick )

2 Tbsp oil

Salt to taste

2 Cups Kali Jeera rice or Basmati Rice
3 Cups stock

Stock :

1/2 Floret Cauliflower

1 Big Carrot

1/4 cup Peas

10 Peppercorns
2 Dalchini (Cinnamon) 1 inch pieces
1 Big Cardamom
2 Small Green Cardamom
1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
6 Cloves
1 bay Leaf
2 Tbsp Whole Coriander seeds
2 Tbsp Whole Fennel Seeds

4 cups water

Method for Stock Preparation:
 

Cut Cauliflower, Carrot into medium pieces . Add Cauliflower florists, Carrot and Peas to a pan, Add water, add all the dry spices ( you can tie these into a Muslim cloth and place in the pan if you like) . Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes till vegetables are soft. Use a sieve to strain the stock. This should give you 3 cups of water.

Method for Pulao Preparation:

 

Cut Cauliflower into big florets, cut Carrot into thin slices, cut potato into big pieces. Soak rice in water for 15 minutes and strain.

Add Ghee to a Pan, add Bay leaf, Cardamom, Cinnamon,Cloves and saute the spices. Add chopped Onion , fry till light brown,  add ginger-garlic-green chili paste ,Garam Masala powder and saute for 2 minutes. Add Curd , vegetables , rice and saute for two minutes. Add stock ,salt, bring it to a boil, cover tightly and cook on very slow flame for 15 minutes.

 

Once done , Serve hot with Curd Chutney.

Jhinghe, Alu Diye Chingri Maach

This is a very tasty Bengali Prawn dish with Ridge Guard and Potato . Recipe courtesy my Mom in Law. Worth trying.

Jhinge,Alu Diye Chingri  Maach 

Ingredients :
1/2 Lb Cooked Jumbo Prawns/Shrimp
1 Big Jhinga (Ridge Guard)
2 Big Potatoes

1 Medium Onion
1 Tsp Ginger Paste
2 Bay leaf

1 Tsp Panch Poron (Spice Mixture of Onion Seeds, Fengreek Seeds, Mustard Seeds, Whole Cumin , Fennel Seeds)

3 Dried Red Chillies

1 Tsp turmeric Powder

1 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 Tsp Coriander Powder

Salt to taste

2 Tbsp Oil (Use Mustard Oil if you like)

2 Cups water
 

Preparation

 

Fried Prawns:
Mix salt and turmeric to prawns and leave for few minutes. Put oil in a pan and fry the prawns till slightly.

Cooking Method :

In the remaining oil which was used to fry the Prawns, Add Bay leaf, Panch Poron, Dried  Red Chillies , Let it splutter. Add finely cut onion , ginger paste and fry till pink. Add Red Haldi, Red Chilli Powder, Coriander Powder and saute it till it leaves oil on the side, Sprinkle some water if needed. Cut Ridge Guard ,Potato in 1 1/2 inch pieces and add to the masala , Let it cook for some time.  Add Water, Salt  and let it boil till the vegetables are well cooked. Add prawns , Cook for 5 minutes and take it out of the flame.

Serve with hot rice.