新年快乐 - With a Chicken Curry Bowl

“May this New Year bring your way all that is the very best for you and your dear ones. “

In Santa Barbara, my husband and I had this hole in the wall curry shop  where we used to get our lunch almost everyday and our order was Chicken Curry over rice. We would walk over to the beach sit there for a few minutes and eat while we got a couple minutes breather from customer escalations and roadmap meetings. 

We were addicted to this dish and when we moved to the Bay Area we discovered yet another hole in the wall place near our house that made the dish the exact same way and the magic continued....about 4-5 years back I discovered that the secret to this curry were these  curry cubes. Honestly, there has been no looking back for me - I have made this recipe very successfully in my slow cooker in the past but for the past two years I have been making it in my Instant Pot (in about 25 minutes).

Chicken Curry Bowl

What you need?

1. 1 tablespoon oil
2. 1 tablespoon garlic
3. 1 tablespoon minced ginger
4. 1.25 pounds frozen skinless chicken thighs (boneless)
5. 1.5 cups onion sliced thick
6. 5 red potatoes halved
7. 3  Large carrots chopped thick
8. 1.5 cups water
9. Frozen Peas
10. 1/2 Package Vemont Curry Cubes (6-7 squares)

Optional (but highly recommended)

• Liquid Aminos - 2 tsp (or Soy Sauce)
• 2 tsp Ketchup 

How to make it?

1. Turn the Saute function on in your IP
2. Add the oil - when it is hot, add the ginger, garlic and onions
3. Cook till the Onions are lightly brown
4. Add in the frozen chicken (if the chicken is fresh, then you can use the poultry setting, I added 5 minutes more to allow for thawing the frozen chicken)
5. Now add the carrots, potatoes , water and the Curry Cubes
6. Set the IP on Poultry mode, no release (+ 5 minutes if it's frozen chicken)
7. When all the pressure has released naturally, put the curry on Saute and add the peas (this step is totally optional but my two boys love peas) and the liquid aminos or soy sauce and ketchup.
8. Taste for Salt (usually it should taste great by now or mine does 😋) - if not feel free to add salt to taste

Enjoy with rice, quinoa (not recommended) or Noodles and wish your friends and family a happy lunar new year! Any plans for the long weekend - I don't have any other than helping my son a bit with his science project, read a couple books, cook a bit and watch black panther....bliss!

Ande Ka Funda...

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

                                                                                                  --Samuel Butler

My son detested eggs till age 3 and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why...then I started taking him to the farmer's market and he warmed up to Ron our local poultry farmer and who has been my source of eggs for almost a decade and some years...he expanded Krish's egg horizon from chicken eggs to quail, duck, goose and once even Ostrich...by age 4, he loved eggs and I was a happy mama. Why wouldn't I be - Eggs are an extremely nutritious food - high in protein, vitamin b12, vitamin A, folate, phosphorous, selenium - and yes! eggs got a bad rap for high cholestrol but there are studies which show that eggs do not adversely affect blood cholestrol - this was confirmed by my husband's primary care physician who has written the book - The South Asian Health Solution ( I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to reduce or control cholestrol, diabetes or just trying to get healthy!)

So Eggs are a staple part of our diet, we don't overdo it but try to add 5-7 cage free organic eggs in a week to our diet. I remember singing the song - Ande ka Funda to my son when he was 5 years old, he would stare at me like I had lost it...I showed him the video (below) of Govinda and Sunjay Dutt in Jodi No.1 singing the song...and he found folks who seemed more crazy than his mumma 😜

My favorite way to eat Eggs are Indian Style Anda Bhurji, I am sure I have that recipe on my blog some place...a cup of adrak chai, a whole wheat English muffin and Anda Bhurji with an interesting chick-lit is honestly my idea of heaven...but I digress...I had to share with you this easy recipe for Anda Curry.

Anda Curry

What you need?

1. 4 tablespoons Mother Sauce
2.  1 table spoon Punjabi Garam Masala ( I use Roopak, but go with your favorite brand)
3. 8 Eggs ( I boiled them in the IP with the potatoes)
4. 1/2 Lb of boiled, peeled and quartered potatoes 
5. Ketchup, Cinnamon  (optional but makes a difference in taste)
6. Salt to taste
7. Chopped Cilantro to drizzle on later

How to make it?

1. Boil the Eggs and Potatoes in the IP ( I put it on manual for 4 minutes - people have mentioned 5 minutes, but 5 minutes gave me exploding eggs and mushy potatoes...so you have to see what works for you) - you can do this step in the morning and assemble the curry in the evening  which is what I did 😁
2. Turn your instant pot to Saute
3. Add 1 through 4 and mix well ( about 1/2 minute)
4. Add about 1/2 cup of water
5. Turn on the pressure on manual 3 minutes, no release
6. Open and now add Salt, Ketchup and Cinnamon to taste
7. Add the chopped cilantro
8. Enjoy with Rotis/Brown Rice/ quinoa.

When I was about my son's age the TV always played this Anda Ad....do you remember it 😂

Would love to hear how this recipe turned out for you....

My Beautiful House...

"What I love most about my beautiful house, is who I share it with"

Let me tell you a secret - my house didn't look like this last week - it was a weird orangey brown, that I had kinda sorta gotten used to. When it came time to paint it, I was ready to go with status quo- honestly who wants to go through the hassle of deciding on a different color palette - definitely not this girl...and I had my hands full with work and home already to add in yet another layer of complexity. The husband put his foot down and said he couldn't live with status quo and we decided that plagarism was the best compliment we could offer our wonderful neighbor (she lives on the same lane) and had just re-painted her house and we decided to go with her palette - let me tell you we didn't know about approvals et.all from HOA etc...and thus began our HOA horror story. It's all fixed now, our house is a shade different from our neighbor's and our color palette was retro-actively approved by the HOA but here are some learnings from the experience that I wanted to share with you. If you live in an HOA community, this would be particularly of interest to you .

1. If you are going with your existing color palette, all you have to do is find the right painter for painting your exterior - do try to get 2-4 paint quotes and recommendations from your neighbors. We went with a local painter on recommendations from our neighbor and couldn't be more happier with his work. 
2. If you are planning on changing the color of your house - get the approved color palette from your HOA, then submit an architectural change request, only start the painting after you have approvals from your HOA in writing ( be ready that you could get a denial if your color is too close to your  neighbor's and have an alternate color palette selection). If you do not follow this process you might be asked to repaint your house (works out anywhere from $8000-10,000) or fined a penalty.
3. Once you have approval and have painted your house - Enjoy your beautiful house! Your exterior paint lasts anywhere from 7-10 years! So pat yourself on the back on a job well done.

Two weeks back -  I had posted a blog post on one of my cooking hacks - my Indian ( life-saving) Mother Sauce. I make this by the truck load in my Instant Pot. I had a number of notes and private messages on what I used this mother sauce for - so today I am going to post my son's favorite recipe - Aloo Matar Paneer. I have a friend AB who said she has never ever made the combination - she has made Aloo Matar and Matar Paneer BUT never the three together...I gave her a wink and smile and said...do you like the two...she said - Yes...so  I said - why not think outside the box 😜

Aloo Matar Paneer

What you need?

1. 4-6 tablespoons Mother Sauce
2.  1 table spoon Punjabi Garam Masala ( I use Roopak, but go with your favorite brand)
3. 1 lb Paneer (cottage cheese, I used the Nanak Brand)
4. 1/4 lb Peas ( Trader Joe's)
5. 1/2 Lb of boiled, peeled and quartered potatoes ( I used the red ones from my farmer market haul)
6. Ketchup, Cinnamon  (optional but makes a difference in taste)
7. Salt to taste
8. Chopped Cilantro to drizzle on later

How to make it?

1. Turn your instant pot to Saute
2. Add the Mother Sauce 
3. Add 1 through 5 and mix well ( about 1/2 minute)
4. Add about 1/2 cup of water
5. Turn on the pressure on manual 3 minutes, no release
6. Open and now add Salt, Ketchup and Cinnamon to taste
7. Add the chopped cilantro
8. Enjoy with Rotis/Brown Rice/ quinoa.

Would love to hear how this recipe turned out for you....or about your HOA adventures.