Ghar Ka Khana in English means home-style Indian food. The kind of food that I enjoy eating is almost always nothing grand or fancy. Healthy, nourishing, simple and delicious homemade food prepared with love in the kitchen for very special people like you and me. You may enjoy dining out and all the ridiculously priced yums at expensive restaurants, but I hope at the end of the day, you do share the same sentiment as me that the best foods are the simple dishes our mothers cook over the years for us.

It is this unspeakable but taste-able kind of love only mama ji is able to churn out in every dish you taste. That to me is what I hope to achieve and pass down to the younger ones if God is willing. Ha-ha.

My parents hardly cook on weekdays and they do not have the time to come home for a quick dinner too. So weekday dinners are cook very simply at home. It is often a one dish meal like pasta or fried rice. I love Indian food and there is something very wholesome to home-style Indian food. When I think of ghar ka khana, I think of roti, dal and sabzi (vegetables). Enjoy this simple meal with lassi and I’m in bliss!

For today’s dinner, I managed to cook everything in less than 30 minutes. Roti or chapatti is very easy to make but to save time, I always have a packet of already rolled out frozen roti which is seriously just as good and not compromising on taste and nutrition at all.

Paneer (Indian-style homemade cheese) is a huge favorite of mine! I can throw meats out of the window, but milk, cheese and eggs will always stay firmly as staples in my diet. Paneer and legumes are also good source of protein and are regard as superfoods. My dal paneer is very easy to cook and all you have to do is use your roti and mop up all the dal and paneer with your hand please. So delicious. So simple.

Chelley’s Dal Paneer

Ingredients:

¼ cup masoor dal

¼ cup moong dal

¼ tsp turmeric powder

3 to 4 cups of water or chicken stock

½ tsp chicken stock powder, if not using chicken stock

A big handful of fresh baby spinach leaves, washed

200g paneer, break into small chunks by hands

1 tbs cooking oil or ghee

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp mustard seeds

1 heaped tbs sambhar powder

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 inch ginger, bruised

1 small Bombay onion, chopped

1 large green chilli, keep it whole or cut into half

1 fresh tomato, roughly chopped

Salt to taste

Fresh coriander leaves to serve

Method:

1)      Rinse the legumes twice with water and fill pot with water or chicken stock. Bring it to a boil and remove any scum you see.

2)      Turn flame to small and add in turmeric powder. Cover the pot and cook dal gently for about 10 to 15 minutes.

3)      In a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add in oil when the pan is heated. Wait for a minute and add in cumin and mustard seeds. In a matter of seconds, add in chopped onions and green chilli. Sweat onion until soft for about 2 to 3 minutes.

4)      Add in garlic, ginger, tomato, paneer and sambhar powder. Fry briefly for about 2 minutes and pour the masala ingredients into the pot of dal.

5)      Give the dal a good stir and if need be, add more chicken stock or salt to taste at this stage. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until the preferred consistency. Add in a big handful of baby spinach leaves just before it is ready to serve. Off the flame.

6)      Garnish dal with fresh corianders leaves and it is ready to serve.

Cooking Tips:

-         How much water or chicken stock to add depends on the dal consistency you like. Some people prefer a chunky dal consistency whilst others prefer a smooth soupy consistency. You be the judge of your palate.

-         If you are using package chicken stock, get the 1L pack. If you are using water, you may choose to add the chicken stock powder for taste enhancement or leave it out and further flavor it with sambhar powder. It depends what you prefer. I don’t think mama ji likes the idea of chicken stock powder, yes? So go ahead, tweak it and make it yours.

-         If you prefer a smoother consistency, cook dal for about 10 minutes and it is time to pour in masala ingredients. If you prefer a chunky dal texture, cook dal for about 15 to 20 minutes before you add in the masala ingredients.

-         When it comes to cooking Indian food, it is entirely about food preparation. Make sure you have the spices measured and all ready. Cumin and mustard seeds pop in a matter of seconds and they do get burn easily, so do take note of this.

Please also see related posts:
Let's talk about my roots, sayang..
家常菜 / 私房菜 Chinese Home Cooking
Teochew Muay: Mama Lee's Chai Por Pork
Chinese soup for the soul

Promfret is often use for Teochew style steamed fish 潮州蒸鱼, and at home, we usually use promfret or red snapper for this healthy and nourishing dish. Teochew Style Steamed Fish has a distinctive clear broth, seasoned and steamed with pickled sour plum, preserved salted vegetables, shitake mushrooms, tomatoes and sometimes tofu. Ginger and fresh coriander leaves can also be added for aroma and color to complete the dish. We prepare Teochew Style Steamed Fish at least twice a week and enjoy it with rice porridge along with other delicious accompaniments when we have Teochew Muay.

We like to keep this dish very simple for everyday cooking and eating at home. Enjoy this dish with rice porridge or steamed jasmine rice, quick stir-fried Chinese vegetables, Chinese soup and your weekday dinner is ready.

Teochew Style Steamed Fish 潮州蒸鱼

Ingredients:

1 large promfret or red snapper

8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup water

1 pickled sour plum, mash it and put into the mushroom water

50g salted vegetables, washed and soaked in water

2 fresh whole tomatoes, cut into quarters

2 to 3 fresh red chillies, cut into strips

1 inch ginger, cut into julienne strips

1 TBS Chinese wine

½ to 1 TBS cooking oil

Spring onions and fresh corianders, to garnish

Method:
1) Soak salted vegetables in water for 20 minutes. Discard water and rinse salted vegetables twice and cut into strips.

2) Make 2 to 3 cuts on each side of the fish and place it on a large steaming plate.

3) Now comes the fun part. Place mushrooms, salted vegetables, tomatoes, chillies, ginger strips on top of the fish.

4) Add seasonings, mushroom water and sour plum which has been mashed up in mushroom water.

5) Steam fish over rapidly boiling water for 12 minutes.

6) Off fire, and garnish fish with spring onions and coriander. Cover for another minute and serve immediately.  

Cooking Tips: 

-         The most delicious steamed fish will not come from your freezer, so if you can, do buy your fish from the wet market on the day you want to have steamed fish. Clean the fish, cover with a cling wrap and keep in the fridge until it is time to cook.

-         When it comes to steaming, it is all about Temperature and Time. Make sure you have lots of water in the steamer, wait till it is boiling rapidly, before you steam the whole fish for 12 minutes.

-         If you have no time to soak the salted vegetables, put salted vegetables and water into a pot, bring it to a boil and rinse it with water before slicing the vegetables.

I was marveling at my very good friend, Kim's home-cooked meals yesterday and her grilled dinners looked nothing less than fantastic!! Finished school earlier today so I went to the supermarket and picked up some chicken breast, button mushrooms and russet potatoes. I must have grilled chicken for dinner! I am the sort who do not care too much if I am only cooking for myself. Anything goes as long as it is delicious and easy to cook. Organic chicken is very expensive in Singapore. I can't find any free range chicken in my local supermarket either, so my next best choice is halal chicken which often looks fresher. As you already know, I don't really eat steaks and chicken breast is what I truly like and often go for. It is also the part of a chicken that most people do not like to eat, but it is okay, I love it. I am surprised how tender the chicken breast actually tasted considering it is the less juicy part of a chicken. My reasons for this: Halal, fresh meat and I marinated the meat with some oil, cajun spice, garlic and mixed Italian herbs. Just a wee bit of everything.

I have some frozen spinach in the freezer, so once it has been thawed, I heat up some butter in a pan, add in freshly crushed garlic and throw in the button mushrooms and spinach. Seasoned with salt and pepper. My russet potato was boiled for 25 minutes before I grilled them a few more minutes on my grill griddle.

My dinner

My spices

With my gorgeous Kim at her wedding - 28th June 2009

Please hop over to Kim's weblog for heaps of her home-cooked yummies which she prepares lovingly for herself and hubby, myjojo! This gorgeous yummy wifey is so good at plating her food! If you love fresh, healthy and delicious quick meals, you are in for some great visual treats! Get ready to be inspired to eat well and get cooking in your kitchen!

Michelle Lee was born in Malacca, Malaysia but was raised in Singapore. Her love for food was developed at an early age, in a somewhat clichéd way: by playing “masak masak” (Malay for cooking) and by making a small nuisance of herself in her late grandmother’s kitchen. Having been brought up in a home with Straits Chinese roots, her palate was exposed to cultural culinary diversity from the very beginning. 

However, it was in her time as a student in Australia that her interest, passion and abilities really developed. The 4 years Michelle spent there presented her opportunities to recreate dishes such as Char Kway Teow, Nonya Dumplings and Hainanese Chicken Rice, whenever her cravings, and those of her Singaporean friends, struck. For her friends, it was a welcomed change from the usual student staples of instant noodles and pasta topped with bottled sauce.

Michelle enjoys food the most in a home setting because she believes food brings people closer together. It melds cultures and broadens social understanding at the dinner table through aroma, taste and sight. What is a better way to enjoy food than at a casual and relaxed setting in the comfort of your own home?

Much of her family recipes are comfort foods her extended family in Malacca still eat and enjoy today. The recipes are also a result of her tried and tested experimentations in the kitchen after perusing through cookbooks, internet and food magazines. Her personal repertoire now includes Indian, Chinese, Italian and Japanese home-cooked meals.

Michelle graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Public Relations from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.

When Michelle is not in the kitchen, you will find her at the supermarket doing grocery shopping for the next meal and surfing the internet for recipe ideas. She believes anyone can cook and is able to churn out a spread of home-cooked meal on the dinner table with style and pride to share with the loved ones. She is also a fan of Bollywood movies and loves indoor cycling whilst watching Nigella Lawson whips up sexy foods on telly.