Achari Paneer (Paneer curry with pickle spices)

 am a big fan of Paneer (read: paneer monster lol:) so I am always looking for new and exciting ways to eat and make them. This is my new favorite. Achari paneer is basically a tangy and spicy dry paneer curry flavored with traditional indian pickle masalas. I love the fennel and achari flavor in this dish. It is also always hit with guests, great for potlucks and picnics too, as it tastes great both hot and cold. Goes with almost anything but we like it best with pooris... mmmm! This is ridiculously easy and super fast to make.

This dish tastes like Indian pickle :) so all the pickle and paneer lovers here's a real treat! Enjoy!!

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Palak/Spinach chaat

I vividly remember my first time going back to my mom's place or my "mayeka" from my in-laws place a few days after we were married (funny I started thinking of it as my mom's place as only a few days back I always referred to it as 'my place'). Being the first and the only son-in-law, hubby was being pampered big time with all the best dishes that mom knew that hubby liked. There was festivity, food, people coming to meet us and family sitting together and chatting away till the wee hours of the morning. It was an overload of good food and tons of fun. Among all that, hubby and I always found time to sneak out of the house to go walk around the city streets with the 'newly-married' tag painted all over our faces, shopping, talking about our favorite places and mostly stocking up on street food we knew we were gonna miss so much in a few days. 
The speed with which the local 'chaat walas' prepared their delicious goodies is just amazing. Apart from the regular favorites, there was always something new they had to offer. Spinach chaat was one of them. We both loved it.
Coming to the US, I was excited to see that the Indian restaurants also offered the basic chaat on their menu. Tried it at a few places but was rather disappointed as it did not come even close to the real deal. That is when I decided to do my own. I have posted the more common form of chaat before, the Aloo Tikki Chaat. This past weekend I got reminded of the spinach chaat and hence this post. This is kind of like papdi chat only palak pakoda is used in place of papdi, also it is very easy to make and a lot more healthier. Hope you guys like it as much as I liked making it and we did eating :)

Here goes-

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Achari aloo

This was one of the very first dishes I made for my dear hubby after we got married and I came to the US. He had called a few friends over for dinner and I set everything up on the table (achari aloo, puri, fried rice, malai kofta, raita and kheer... amazing how I still remember). He looked very happy and was mighty impressed, loved it.. so it will always be something very special :) He especially asked me make this achari aloo often.
Achari aloo is basically a tangy and spicy dry potato curry flavored with traditional indian pickle masalas. I love the fennel and achari flavor in this dish. It is also always hit with guests, great for potlucks and picnics too, as it tastes great both hot and cold. Goes with almost anything but we like it best with pooris... mmmm! This is ridiculously easy to make and super fast. I make it with tiny whole red potatoes. Traditionally the recipes calls for deep frying but I skip that to make it healthier so it can be eaten on a regular basis.So here goes my version. 

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Kadhi-pakoda

Kadhi, when classically paired with plain rice or chawal is the ultimate comfort food for me.. and I think many of my fellow Indians will agree with me on that :-) it is a kind of (say) chicken soup for the vegetarians, soulfully delicious, comforting and addictive. I often make it whenever I crave for something homey and simple. On a rainy day kadhi with pakodas and chawal is pure bliss.. it reminds me of mom and home!

It is a blend of yogurt with gramflour pakodas.. which is famous all over india with some differences here and there. Punjabi kadhi and gujarati kadhi are more popular, however there is bihai kadhi as well which is less known, but tastes just as awesome. This is my mom's recipe, do try this and let me know how it came out.

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