Fatima's Fabulous Kitchen

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Tomato Daal

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Basmati Rice, Tomato Daal, Fried Mutton

 

It saddens me to say that daal is truly underrated and not appreciated enough. After all, ask any desi kid if they’d rather have daal chaaval or a plate of biryani for dinner and see what they say.

With that being said, however, daal is the quintessential indian curry. It is not merely spiced boiled lentils or whatever these Whole Foods people claim it to be. (If you are one of those Whole Foods people, I’m totally kidding.)

Daal is vibrant. Daal is complex. Daal is tangy. Daal is comforting. Daal is culture.

This is what I grew up eating. It’s simple goodness and it pairs up with almost everything – rice, roti, different vegetable curries, meat curries, etc. There are so many different varieties of daals that you can make. But tomato daal has to be my favorite, and the one most often cooked in my household.

To make this daal, I use mysoor lentils  – they’re the little orange variety. I rinse them well, boil them in a pot of water along with some ginger, garlic, chilies, chilli powder, and turmeric. Then I use a hand-held blender to whiz it all up.

Mysoor Lentils

The final step is to temper the spices. I take a few tablespoons of oil in a small pan, add some amazing aromatics and spices – sliced garlic, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, asoefetida, curry leaves, dried red chili, toast them up and add it to the mysoor lentils. This step is traditional in south Asian cooking and really brings out the intensity of all those flavors – not to mention the aroma is incredible.

Spices to be Tempered – Dried Chilies, Curry Leaves, Cumin Seeds, Mustard Seeds

 

And there you have it. It’s a one-pot wonder, a health-food, a traditional food, a side curry, a main curry, and most importantly something that everyone will enjoy.

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Tomato Daal

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1 cup lentils (mysoor variety)
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 11/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste or 4-5 cloves of garlic with a knob of ginger
  • 2 serrano chillies
  • 3.5 cups water
  • 3/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cilantro (for garnish)

Spices/Aromatics to be Tempered:

  • 7-8 curry leaves
  • 3 dried chillies
  • 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 garlic cloves (sliced)
  • pinch of asoefitida
  • 3-4 tbsp oil

Instructions

  1. Rinse lentils thoroughly under cold water.

  2. Roughly chop your onions and tomatoes. If you don't already have ginger-garlic paste on hand, you can just add in 3-4 cloves of garlic and a small knob of ginger (it all gets blended up at the end).

  3. In a pot, add in your lentils, turmeric, chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste, onions, tomatoes and water. Turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil.

  4. Lower heat to medium. Cover loosely with a lid and let simmer until lentils are soft.

  5. Once the lentils are done, add in your salt and turn off the heat. Check for consistency. If daal is too watery for your liking, cook longer until more water evaporates. If daal is too thick, add water. The 3.5 cups of water in the instructions is just a general guideline - add more or less depending on your taste!

  6. Using a hand-held immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food processor blend the daal until it is liquid.


  7.  In a small sauce pan, add in your oil and turn the temperature to high. Allow the pan to get nice and hot.

  8. Add in your garlic slices. Wait 30 seconds. Now add in cumin and mustard seeds.

  9. Your mustard seeds should start to pop. Add in your curry leaves, dried chilies, and asafoetida.

  10. Allow spices to cook in the oil for about a minute or so. Once the garlic is brown and the chillies have darkened, take off the heat right away. Be careful not to burn the garlic!

  11. Add your tempered oil to the daal right away and stir. Garnish with cilantro. Your daal is ready to be served!

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

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My sister asked me to make a cake for her birthday and so I decided to make her this fabulous, fruity and rich, extra moist and sweet, Pineapple Upside-down Cake. As a die-hard Spongebob fan, I thought she would love the concept – after all Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the sea.

Well guess what?

She thought it was lame.

Whatever, I don’t care what she thinks because the cake tasted incredible.

Yeah, I’ve got some recipes on here that are more of my sister’s liking and some that are more to my parent’s taste. And this is more of the latter. I guess a lot of that has to do with the fact that my mom and dad don’t like chocolate (weird, I know) so I often end up making fruity cakes such as this one because it’s is a non-desi dessert they will eat.

There’s only so many ways you can re-invent a classic, so I stuck to the basics with this retro dessert by adding maraschino cherries, pineapple juice, brown sugar, vanilla extract. One slight deviation I did here is that I used coconut oil instead of regular vegetable oil; the coconut flavor is subtle enough, but gives a little something extra in the background that really compliments the pineapple. I also added some almond extract for an extra kick.

This cake is super moist, sweet, and slightly tart. It’s a great way to use fresh pineapple in the spring or summer, but you can also make this in the winter with canned pineapple and I promise you that it will still be delicious!

 

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Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Servings 8

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup coconut oil (solid)
  • one 8 oz can crushed pineapple
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

Bottom of Cake

  • 6-7 slices pineapple (round)
  • 6-8 marachino cherries
  • 1 Tbsp butter melted
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheight.

  2. Melt your coconut oil by popping it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Then allow it to cool to room temp.

  3. In the meantime, grab an 8 inch cake pan and add your melted butter to the bottom of the pan. Spread around. Take two tablespoons of brown sugar and crumble it on top of the butter in an even layer.

  4. Add your pineapple slices in an even layer. If you can't fit all of your slices in the pan, feel free to cut your pineapple slices in half and add them at the edges of the cake.

  5. Add your cherries in the empty hole of each pineapple slice and in between slices. Feel free to add however many cherries you like.

  6. Time to work on the batter. Sift your dry ingredients and add to a bowl.

  7. In a separate bowl, work on your wet ingredients. First cream together your eggs and sugars with a whisk or electric mixer. Add your melted coconut oil to the batter. (Make sure it's cool before mixing.) Lastly add in your pineapple juice and vanilla + almond extracts. Combine everything with a spatula.

  8. Add in half your dry ingredients. Mix. Add the remaining half. Mix.

  9. Add your batter to the pan and place in oven. The cake should take about 45-50 minutes but may take more or less time depending on your oven. Always check by inserting a toothpick into the cake.

  10. Remove cake pan from oven and allow to cool on cooling rack for 30 minutes or so.

  11. Once cake is cooled to room temp., turn the pan upside down onto a cake platter. Your cake is ready to be served!

Lamb Kabuli Pulao

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**I want to make a disclaimer that this is by no means an authentic kabuli pulao recipe. This is my own version of the dish. I hope that you still enjoy it!

Every Eid al-Fitr my mom makes biryani and every Eid-Al Adha, I make Lamb Kabuli Pulao. This is a recent tradition in our household but certainly one that I suspect is sure to stay for generations. There’s a great sense of warmth and comfort in this dish; it’s absolutely perfect for the holidays, a Sunday dinner, or a fabulous get-together.

The first time I had kabuli pulao was in an Afghani restaurant, and I absolutely fell in love with it! Not only is it beautiful with its orange carrots, purple raisins, and toasted brown almonds, but it tastes heavenly.

The word Pulao refers to a rice dish and can often get a bad rep (especially from desis) for being “bland” and “plain”, especially compared to other popular rice dishes such as biryani. But this pulao will make your taste buds explode. It’s got a great balance of sweet and savory, and while it’s not particularly spicy, it is by no means devoid of great taste and seasoning.

First I start off by sauteeing onions until they become nice and caramelized.  In conjunction with the raisins that you top the dish off with later, the caramelization adds an underlying sweetness that compliments the rest of the dish. Then I add in the lamb (marinated in ginger-garlic paste) along with several warm spices and cook it until its tender. I like to add half the raisins at this step; I find that they plump up with the succulent juices of the stew, thus boosting extra flavor.

Lamb Masala – onions, lamb, spices, raisins

Spices -Left ramekin clockwise (chilli powder, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper), Right ramekin clockwise (cumin, fennel, cloves, cardamom, star-anise, cinnamon stick)

Then you cook the rice in boiling water with whole spices such as star anise, cinnamon, fennel seeds, cardamom, black peppercorns.

Basmati Rice

In the meantime, use your handy vegetable peeler to peel the carrots into beautiful shreds and sautee them in some butter along with the remaining raisins.

Ribbons of Carrots

Once all the elements of the dish are ready (the rice, the lamb stew, the carrots and raisins) you’re all set to layer everything into a baking pan. First add a layer of rice to the bottom of the tray, then the meat, and then another layer of rice. Then you cover it with some aluminum foil and bake the dish in the oven at 400 F for about thirty minutes. This allows for all the flavors to really come together and for the rice to finish cooking. Finally  top the dish with some toasted almonds, along with your carrots and raisins. And there you have it. A wholesome, comforting, visually vibrant meat and rice dish that is sure to please!

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Lamb Kabuli Pulao

Course Main Course
Cuisine afghani
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

Meat

  • 1 lb boneless lamb (or 2 lbs bone-in) cut into pieces
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 3/4 tsp chilli powder
  • 1.5 tsp ginger-garlic paste

Masala

  • 3 cups onions sliced
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
  • 1 tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1.5-2 cups water

Rice

  • 2.5 cups basmati rice long-grain
  • 1.5 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 star anise
  • 1 cinammon stick
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 4-5 cardamom pods
  • 3-4 cloves
  • 1/2 tsp fennel seeds

Topped Garnish

  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 3-4 medium carrots
  • 1/2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup almonds and/or pistacchios
  • 2 tbsp oil (for nuts - optional)

Instructions

  1. Take your lamb and add all your marinade spices and aromatics - salt, turmeric, chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste. Combine and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

  2. In the meantime, prep your onions by slicing them into half-moon slices.

  3. Add your oil and butter to a hot pan and sautee your onions until nice and caramelized. (The onions should turn brown.)

  4. Once the onions are caramelized, add in your spices and your lamb. Sautee until the lamb develops color.

  5. Now add in your water and raisins. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Loosely cover the pan/pot with the lid, to allow some steam to escape.

  6. If you are pressed for time, skip the above step and put the masala and meat in a pressure cooker with a cup of water. Secure the lid and allow the lamb to cook for 20 minutes or so, or until tenderized.

  7. While your lamb is cooking, go ahead and prep your rice. Take your rice and rinse thoroughly multiple times until the water comes out clear. Let the rice soak in cold water for about 30 minutes.Once done soaking the rice should be translucent.

  8. While the rice is soaking, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add in your aromatic whole spices and salt. (tip - keep lid on pot while getting water to boil. The process will be faster!)

  9. Once the water is ferociously boiling, add in the rice to the water. Stir around with a slotted spoon. (Leave pot uncovered.)

  10. Drain the rice when it is about 75% of the way cooked. For me, the best way to tell, is to just eat a grain of rice or two. If it's soft with a slight crunch; edible but not really done - then it's perfect at this stage in the process. If the rice is completely cooked, it will end up being mushy at the end because the rice continues to cook in the oven in the juices of the masala. If it's still raw, then it won't finish cooking.

  11. Your masala and rice should both be ready to go. For the masala, make sure that the lamb is tender and that most of the water has evaporated . If should be the consistency of a thick curry.

  12. Set your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large baking dish add half the rice into one bottom layer. Then add all your masala and spread it out into an even layer. Finally add in the rest of your rice as the top layer. If you want the pulao to be a little extra buttery, add another tablespoon of butter (chopped into cubes) and spread around the top.

  13. Cover the dish with foil and let it bake for about 30 minutes.

  14. While the pulao is baking, go ahead and prep your carrots. Shred them into ribbon-like strips with a vegetable peeler.

  15. Sautee the carrots along with the raisins in the oil and butter. Add  in your salt.

  16. Toast your nuts. Feel free to toast in oil/butter if you don't mind the calories.

  17. After the pulao is done baking, remove from the oven. Carefully lift the foil off the baking tray, and slowly mix the dish together with a serving spoon. Add your garnish (carrots, raisins, and nuts) to the top of the dish. And there you have it!