Esculent Cuisine

Tandoori Chicken and an award

2008-07-19T18:23:00.003+01:00

Yaaaawwwwnnnnnnn! I'm still existing......cooking twice, eating 5 meals and sleeping for more than 8hrs a day...everything is perfectly normal, but somehow I lost interest in food blogging and hence didn't post any recipes for the past couple of months...This Tandoori chicken recipe, one of my friend Vani told me when we visited their home last month...I made it 5 times at home and suprisingly I got it right for the first time itself......yaaaaayyyyyy! This recipe doesn't require any oil and that's the reason why I liked it so much...I've been making it on every sunday for the past 4 weeks :D Didn't get bored yet...

Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Chicken legs - 8

Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1tsp (adjust)

Red Chillie powder - 1tsp (adjust)

Garam Masala powder - 2tsp (adjust)

Ginger-garlic paste - 2tsp

Method:

1. Clean the chicken legs and using a fork make slits across.

2. Mix all the above ingedients and marinade for atleast 4 hrs (Overnight would be fantastic)

3. Preheat the Oven to 220C

4. Take a baking tray, place an aluminium foil and neatly arrange all the legs side by side.

5. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 45min. In between turn the legs once.

6. Check if the chicken is properly cooked. If not bake till done. Don't let it burn.

7. Serve as a starter with salad or as a sidedish. We normally eat with rasam or sambar and rice :)

And now coming to the award, I've been given "Yummy Blog Award" by one of our dear friend of Andhra Flavors....I do not know if I really deserve this, being a lazy and irregular food blogger...it's so kind of her to think of me....Many many thanks for passing this award to me dear :) Sorry I've acknowledged this very late...

I'm now passing this award to Amu, Priya, Usha and Shruthi

Coco Chicken :)

2008-05-26T10:06:00.005+01:00

Couldn't come up with a better name than this :D..Coco chicken is a type of chicken curry made with Coconut and coriander paste...creamy,yummy easy to make chicken curry...here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

For marinade,

Chicken - 500gm (Clean and cut into pieces)

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 large pinch

Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

Salt - as required

For Coco paste,

Freshly grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Coriander - 1 bunch (clean and chop finely)

Cashews - 1 tbsp

Khuskhus seeds - 1.5 tsp

Milk - 1 small cup

Onion - 1 (sliced)

Green chillies - 6-7 (chopped)

Oil - 2-3 tsp

For the curry,

Onion - 2 (sliced)

Salt - as required

Garam masala powder - as required

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coriander - for garnish

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken pieces with all the ingredients listed under marinade for 30min.

2. Meanwhile prepare the paste with all the ingredients listed under coco paste as follows.

3. Soak cashews and khuskhus seeds in warm milk for 5min

4. Heat 2-3 tsp oil in a kadai. Add the onions and green chillies.

5. Saute until the onions turn transperent. Remove from heat and let it cool.

6. Take this sauted mixture, soaked cashews and khuskhus along with the milk, grated coconut and chopped coriander intlo a blender and grind into a smooth paste. Set this paste aside.

7. Now for the final curry preparation heat 1 tbsp of oil in a thick bottomed kadai.

8. Add the sliced onions and saute till transperent.

9. Add the marinated chicken, coco paste and mix well.

10. Adjust salt and garam masala powder if required.

11. Cover and cook on medium flame for 15-20min mixing occassionally.

12. Finally garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve hot with roti or rice.

Tofu in Tomato Onion Gravy

2008-05-11T12:42:00.003+01:00

This recipe is a close replica to our yummy paneer butter masala.

The recipe is quite simple and easy. Doesn’t take more than 30 min from scratch.

Preparation time: 5min
Cooling time: 5min
Cooking time: 10+10min

This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients:

1.Cashew nuts – 10
2.Water – 100ml (lukewarm)
3.Oil – 30ml (2 small tbsp)
4.Onions – 2 (medium sized) – Chopped
5.Green Chillies – 6 (adjust to taste) – Chopped
6.Tomatoes – 500gm (cut into chunks)
7.Cinnamon stick – 1 inch piece (break into pieces)
8.Cloves – 5
9.Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
10.Salt – 1.5 tsp (adjust to taste)
11.Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
12.Paprika powder – ½ tsp
13.Semi-skimmed milk – 150ml
14.Tofu – 350gm (cubed)
15.Coriander – 1 tablespoon (chopped finely) – to garnish

Method:

1.Soak the cashew nuts in a 100ml of warm water.
2.Meanwhile heat a kadai and add 1 small tbsp of oil.
3.When the oil is heated up, add the chopped onions and green chillies.
4.Saute for 3-4 min until the onions turn transparent.
5.Now add the tomato chunks and cook for few min, until the tomatoes turn soft.
6.Turn off the heat and cool for 5min.
7.Take this mixture in a blender, add the soaked cashews along with the water and grind to a paste.
8.Clean the kadai and wipe off with a towel. Place it on the stove and add 1 small tbsp of oil.
9.When the oil is heated up, add cinnamon pieces, cloves, ginger garlic paste and roast until the raw smell leaves.
10.Now add the ground paste, salt, garam masala, paprika powder and milk, bring to boil.
11.Finally add the tofu cubes and cook for 2min and turn off the heat.
12.Garnish with chopped coriander

Serving Suggestion:

Serve hot with rotis/parathas/rice/Jeera rice.

Spicy Rosemetta Rice

2008-05-05T13:42:00.003+01:00

I brought home some oregano for baking and was left with some more of it. So tried this simple recipe and it turned out very fragnant, yummy and appealing...I've used Rosemetta rice, but this can be made with normal sona masoori or basmati rice too...

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

Rosemetta Rice - 1 cup (wash and soak in 4 cups of water)

Oregano - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Black peppercorns - 1/2 tsp

Green chillies - 2 (finely chopped)

Coriander - 2 tsp (chopped)

Salt - as required

Ghee - 2 tsp

Procedure:

1. Take the Rosemetta rice along with the soaked water in a deep bottomed vessel. Cover and bring to boil.

2. When the rice starts to boil, add some salt and cook on medium for 10-12min.

3. Drain the water and spread the boiled rice in a plate (grains should be seperate).

4. In a small kadai, heat the Ghee.

5. Add cumin seeds, peppercorns, green chillies and saute for abt 2min.

6. Add the oregano and chopped coriander, mix well. Cook for about 1min.

7. Turn off the heat and add this mixture to the cooked rice.

8. Mix well and serve with any curry or on its own.

Palak Paneer

2008-04-25T21:59:00.008+01:00

This is one of my favourite items in the restaurant menu...I've tried it few times before, but could never make it to my satisfaction...few weeks back I tried this again, this time I've added some paprika and milk and the taste, texture, consistency was so good..I do not prefer to grind the palak to a paste, hence this looks a bit different from the one we get in hotels..Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients: (for 3 people)

1. Spinach - 3 cups (finely chopped)

2. Paneer cubes - 250gm

3. Onion - 1 (Sliced)

4. Tomatoes - 2 small (cut into chunks)

5. Green chillies - 6 (chopped)

6. Ginger garlic paste - 2tsp

7. Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

8. Salt - as per taste

9. Paprika powder - 1/2 tsp

10. Cashew nuts - 1 table spoon (soaked in warm water for 5min)

11. Oil - 2 tbsp

12. Ghee - 2 tsp

13. Milk - 150ml

14. Cinnamon stick - 1 inch long (break into pieces)

15. Cloves - 4

Procedure:

1. Take a wide bottomed kadai and heat 1 tbsp of oil.

2. Add the cinnamon pieces, cloves and fry for 30 sec.

3. Now add the onions, green chillies and saute until the onions are transperent.

4. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw smell leaves.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes turn soft.

6. Turn off the heat and let this mixture cool.

7. Take this mixture in a blender. Add the soaked cashew nuts and grind to a smooth paste. Set this paste aside.

8. Now in a kadai (you can use the same original one) heat the remaining 1 tbsp of oil.

9. Add the chopped spinach and fry until the raw smell leaves (takes about 5min)

10. Now add the grinded paste to this roasted spinach.

11. Add salt, garam masala powder, paprika powder, milk and cook on medium for 5min. Add water if required.

12. Take 2 tsps of ghee in small kadai and heat it.

13. Fry the paneer cubes until golden brown.

14. Tranfer the paneer cubes into the gravy, mix well.

15. Cook on low for 2 more min and turn off the heat.

Serve hot with rotis/parathas.

Biscuit Brittle!!!

2008-04-19T17:42:00.011+01:00

How does the title sound? Last time, during my visit to Hyderabad, attamma made this extremely easy to make, tasty dessert and me being a person with a sweet tooth, immediately fell in love with these cute biscuit brittles...I also found these on Nags Blog, attamma avoided cocoa powder, but I added this and followed Nags' recipe coz I loved to have chacolate color for my preparation.

Recipe is extremely easy, even kids can prepare this :D

Ingredients: (for 2 Bsicuit Brittles)

1. Marie Biscuits (I used rich tea biscuits) - 8

2. Milk - 1/2 cup

3. Coffee powder - 1 tsp

4. Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp

5. Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp (you can add more for extra sweetness)

6. Cocoa powder - 1tsp

Procedure:

1. Warm up the milk in Microwave and mix the coffee powder.

2. Now dip each Biscuit in this milk and stack 4 of them one above the other in a plate.

3. Make 2 such stacks.

4. In a bowl take the butter and warm up for about 30sec in the microwave.

5. Mix powdered sugar, cocoa powder with the butter and make a thick liquid like paste.

6. Pour this liquid over the 2 biscuit stacks and see that this paste covers all the stack uniformly.

7. Place the plate in the freezer for 1hr.

8. Break into 2 or more pieces and enjoy.

Store them in the normal refrigerator to consume later. Do not freeze them for more than an hr, orelse you'll have to test your teeth later :)

Baby Corn - Aloo Mughlai Curry

2008-04-13T20:18:00.004+01:00

I've made this dish following a Khaana Khazaana kind of program - Aha Emi Ruchi in Mana Telugu TV channel. Tasted so good with rotis, so can't wait anymore to post this here. Thanks to Vijaya Rao (the lady who shares these recipes)...Here goes the recipe (I've used baby corn instead of paneer)

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - 2 (Peel cut into cubes)

2. Baby Corn - 400gm (I used canned babycorn)

3. Onion - 1 large (chopped)

4. Tomatoes - 2 (cut into chunks)

5. Green/Red long chillies - 4 (sliced length-wise)

6. Milk - One cup

7. Garam masala - 1 tsp

8. Salt - to taste

9. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

10. Cinnamon stick - 1 inch (break into tiny pieces)

11. Black Peppercorn - 10 (optional)

12. Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Take water in pan, add the potato cubes and boil for about 5min. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a wide bottomed kadai. Fry these boiled potato cubes for 5-6min until they turn to light brown in color. Remove the potato cubes and set aside.

3. In the same oil add the baby corn and fry for about 2-3min (you can skip this step). Remove from oil and set aside.

4. Now add the cumin seeds, cinnamon pieces, peppercorn. After 30sec add the onion and chilli pieces.

5. Saute until the onions turn transperent.

6. Now add the tomatoes, salt, garam masala powder and milk.

7. Cover and cook for 5min, till the tomatoes turn soft.

8. Remove the lid and add fried potatoes, baby corn and mix well.

9. Cook for another 2min and turn off the heat

10. Serve hot with Rotis/chapathis

Chinese Egg Fried Rice

2008-04-09T21:17:00.004+01:00

I haven't been updating this blog since a while...lots n lots of other avagations are keeping me busy all these days..anyways I made few tasty dishes over the previous couple of months, took photographs and saved them in my lappy...I'll try to post them one by one over the next few days..this chinese egg fried rice turned out so good that hubby dear carried all the rice I made, to his work place to share with his colleagues...Recipe is simple..

Ingredients:

Rice - 4 cups (pre-cooked and refregirated for 2 hrs - cold rice doesn't stick and hence is good for fried rice items)

Eggs - 4

Grated Carrot - 2 table spoons

Boiled Peas - 1/2 Cup (Frozen will do - soak them in warm water for 10min)

Onion - 1 (sliced length-wise)

Salt - to taste

Pepper powder - to taste

Soy Sauce - 1 table spoon

Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Heat a wok and add a teaspoon of oil.

2. Break the eggs into the wok, stir well. Fry for about 2min and set this scramble aside.

3. Heat the remaining oil in the same wok, add the sliced onions and saute for about 3-4min.

4. Now add the grated carrot and peas. Fry until the raw smell leaves.

5. Add the Soy sauce and mix well.

6. Now add the cold rice and egg scramble and mix thoroughly.

7. Finally season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.

My other version of Egg fried rice is here

Sorakaya Garelu - Bottle gourd cutlets

2008-02-09T17:22:00.000Z

I learnt this recipe from my dear friend Swathi...This's so easy to make and tastes so good...I made it for breakfast today...it took only 30min to prepare this from scratch..Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

Sorakaya/Lauki/Bottle gourd - 1 cup (grated)

Rice flour - 1 cup

Onion - 1 small (finely chopped)

Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)

Grated ginger - 1 tsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp (soak in hot boiling water for 5min)

Salt - to taste

Oil - 2 cups (to deep fry)

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a deep bottomed frying pan.

2. While the oil gets heated up, prepare the mix.

3. Take a mixing bowl, add rice flour, grated lauki, onion,green chillies, ginger, chana dal and salt.

4. Mix well to make a thick dough. DO NOT add water. Lauki itself has lots of water in it.

5. Make 10 lemon sized balls with the dough.

6. Reduce the flame to medium, wet your palms with oil and press the dough to the shape of a small pattie.

7. Carefully slide the patties into the pan.

8. Fry all the patties in batches on medium until the color turns golden brown.

9. Drain the excess oil with a tissue paper.

10. Serve hot with any chutney, they taste good on their own too.

I guess we can add grated carrot too for extra nutrition.

Chicken Curry

2008-02-03T15:50:00.000Z

There are too many versions of chicken curry on the net. S and me cook this curry in our own versions. S uses the readymade garam masala powder and he also uses yogurt to marinate. I make my own masala with whatever ingredients I find in my Non-veg Masala cabinet. Today I wanted to make the masala with dhania seeds, poppy seeds, ginger,garlic and coriander leaves. I normally prefer fresh ground masala over the readymade one expecially when it comes to cooking non-veg and that too on a relaxing sunday...recipe follows,

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1kg (wash and cut into medium sized pieces)

Onions - 2 (grind into a smooth paste)

Salt - to taste

Red Chilli powder - 2 tsp (adjust)

Turmeric powder - 1 generous pinch

Oil - 2tbsp

For masala paste,

Poppy seeds - 2 tbsp (soak in warm water for 10min)

Dhania seeds - 1 tbsp (dry roasted)

Ginger - 1 piece

Garlic - 5-6 pods

Coriander leaves - 10 stems (chopped)

For garnishing,

Green chillies - 5 (cut lengthwise)

Curry leaves - 10

Chopped coriander - 1 tbsp

Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Make a smooth paste with Dhania seeds, poppy seeds, ginger garlic pieces and coriander leaves by adding little water.

2. Take a large mixing bowl. Add the chicken pieces, Onion paste, masala paste, turmeric powder and salt, mix well and marinate it for 30min.

3. After 30min boil the chicken mix on high until all the water evaporates. Chicken should be soft n almost cooked.

4. Take oil in a frying pan, add the cooked chicken mix, red chilli powder and fry for about 15min. Switch off the heat when the color starts changing to brown.

5.For garnishing heat oil in a small pan, fry the green chillies, curry leaves and garlic pieces until the curry leaves turn crisp.

6. Take the cooked chicken curry into a serving dish and garnish with the roasted green chilli mix and fresh coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Mushroom Pulao

2008-02-03T15:30:00.000Z

I haven't been posting any of my recipes for the past 3 months...Well, I was busy during November...went to India for a holiday in December..I've come back to the UK in January but wasn't interested to try anything new in my kitchen....yesterday after so many weeks I tried to make pulao....Suprisingly it turned out so easy and tasty too...so I couldn't resist myself from posting this...Among the veggies my most favourite ingredients for rice items are mushrooms, capsicum and green peas....I had few mushrooms in my pantry and hence I made mushroom pulao for our lunch..Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 3 cups (Wash and soak)

Mushrooms - 250gm (Cut into halves and boil in hot water with salt n turmeric for 10min. Set aside)

Red Onions - 2 (sliced lengthwise)

Green chillies - 4 (cut into pieces)

Coconut milk - 150ml

Egg - 1 (Optional)

Salt - to taste

Ginger garlic paste - 2tsp

Garam Masala powder - 2tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Drain the rice and add 6 cups of water and cook till 3/4th done in the cooker/rice cooker.

2. In a large frying pan heat the oil. Saute the onions and green chillies till onions turn soft.

3. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for about 3min.

4. Add salt and garam masala powder and mix well.

5. Add the boiled and drained mushrooms and cook for 3-4min.

6. Now break the egg(if you are using) into the pan and stir well till the egg gets cooked.

7. Now add the coconut milk and bring to boil.

8. Once the mixture is cooked well, add the 3/4th cooked rice to the pan and mix well.

9. Close the pan and cook on medium for 10min or till the rice is done.

Serve hot .Coconut milk adds a nice flavour to the rice. Tastes well with korma/gravy curries or just raitha.

Semya Payasam - My favourite Dessert

2007-11-11T11:01:00.000Z

My all time favourite Sweet is Gulab Jamoon...not the one made out of flour, instant mix etc etc...Ammamma makes Gulab Jamoon in a different style..She first makes Pala kova (peda)..it's a very loooooong process...Boiling the milk in a large pot, then adding sugar to that...and then stirring it continously for about 2hrs on medium flame until it thickens...and that's her Kova...which tastes heavenly...and then using this kova she makes the Gulab Jamoon...it totally takes about half a day to prepare Gulab Jamoon from Scratch...So I never even tried to make this by myself...

Next to Gulab Jamoon, I love Kheer...Payasam with Sago seeds, Vermicelli or using both...simply love it...not just becoz of the taste, its so so easy for me to prepare a neivedyam during weekdays for festivals before leaving to work...I've tried Kheer with Jaggery, rice flour, moong dal, Chana dal from various recipe sources..all of them tasted good and loved all the versions...However when it comes to choosing the favourite version of Kheer I opt the basic recipe of Sago/Vermicelli Kheer....So here's my version..

Ingredients:

Vermicelli/Semya - 1 cup (I do not know the exact way to measure this, but when broken and measured in a cup, 1 cup of raw vermicelli would serve 2 people)

Milk - 3 cups

Sugar (powdered) - 3/4th-1 cup (adjust to taste)

Ghee - 1 table spoon

Cardamom powder - 1 generous pinch

Cashews/Almonds/Raisins - 5 each (adjust acc to your preference n availability)

Saffron - one small pinch (optional)

Procedure:

1. Heat the Ghee in a pan and roast the cashews/almonds/raisins for about 2min. Remove and set aside.

2. In the same Ghee add the broken Vermicelli/Semya and roast until they start turning brown. Take care not to burn.

3. In a Milk Pan, heat the milk. When the milk starts to boil add the roasted vermicelli.

4. Cook for 4-5min or until the vermicelli is soft and well cooked. The mixture starts thickening.

5. Add the Cardamom powder and mix well.

6. Turn off the heat and add the powdered sugar. Mix well until the sugar dissolves.

7. Add saffron if you are using.

8. Garnish with roasted nuts and raisins.

Tastes great either hot or chilled...

This's my entry to WYF-Dessert event hosted by dear Hima of SnackORama.

Image courtesy - Google Search

Chowmein - express lunch

2007-11-10T18:22:00.001Z

S doesn't like noodles how so ever they are cooked...So I never make noodles at home...But today I've been to Tesco and happened to see "Amoy - Noodles Straight into the Wok"...seemed to be interesting, so purchased a pack and returned home...The pack says "These precooked noodles can be directly added to your Stir-Fry vegetables and delicious chow mein would be ready in minutes...S was not there for lunch today, So I thought it's the best time for me to enjoy an express lunch with noodles...recipe is so simple...

Ingredients:

Noodles - 1 cup (pre-cooked according to instructions or store bought cooked noodles)

Grated Carrot - 2 table spoons

Green peas - 1 fistfull (frozen) - Soak in hot water for 3-5min.

Onion - 1/2 thinly sliced

Grated ginger - 1 tsp

Crushed garlic - 1 tsp

Ground black pepper - 1/2 tsp

Soy sauce - 2-3 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp

Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the crushed ginger and garlic. Saute for 1min.

2. Add the onions and saute for 2-3min.

3. Now add the grated carrot and green peas (without the water). Cook for 2-3min until the raw smell disappears.

4. Now add salt and ground black pepper powder, soy sauce and stir well.

5. Finally add the cooked noodles and stir well. Cook for 3-4min and turn off the heat.

6.Serve hot.

I could not do much experimenting with the photographs as I was so tired today...I know this's not a perfect entry for an event based on photgraphy, but still I'ld like to send this as my entry to Bee n Jai's CLICK EVENT, this month's theme being Noodles...

Wholemeal Burfi

2007-11-03T18:08:00.000Z

It seems like I can blog my recipes only over the weekend....weekdays I am being damn busy...tuesday 30th of Oct was my birthday and I had no time even to pamper myself with my favourite food item atleast..added to this I had to start off to work at 5.30AM that day...I've booked my holidays in December and 'm counting days...huhhh!

Anyways coming to the recipe I was craving for some festive sweets for the past few days....I just made pulihora for Dasara and did no rituals...Even for Diwali I don't think I can perform the pooja bcoz it's on Friday and fridays are the most busiest for me now a days...So I made my Diwali sweet today itself...coconut burfi, besan burfi are the normal versions of Burfi I make..but this time I wanted to try something else...and there were few left over bread slices...recently I've come across the procedure to make bread crumbs on video jug....So I decided to make bread burfi..I just followed the traditional version of besan burfi made by my mom, just replaced besan with finely ground bread crumbs...The taste was delicious especially I loved the color....I used wholemeal bread and hence I've got a dark brown color to the burfi...

So here's my Diwali treat to my blog buddies...

Ingredients:

Bread Slices (white/brown) - 6 - maked about 2 cups of fine crumbs

Sugar - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Water - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 table spoon

Elachi powder (cardamom powder) - 1 large pinch

Almonds - 10

Procedure:

1. Place the bread slices on a baking tray and bake in a oven at 120C for 30min. Do not bake at higher temperatures orelse the bread slices will get burnt. After 30min the breadslices turn very crispy.

2. Break these crispy slices into chunks and grind them to a fine powder. Set this powder aside.

3. In a wide pan heat the Ghee and roast the almonds for a couple of minutes and set aside.

4. In the same ghee add the finely ground bread crumbs and roast for 2-3 minutes. Take this roasted crumbs powder in a bowl.

5. Now in the same pan add one cup of water and bring to boil.

6. When the water starts boiling add the sugar and keep stirring.

7. The sugar syrup starts thickening after a few minutes. At this stage quickly add the bread crumbs flour and keep stirring to avoid forming lumps.

8. Add the milk and elachi powder to this and keep stirring for 3-5min.

9. When the mixture starts thickening remove from heat.

10. Grease a plate with ghee and pour this mixture into the plate. Level the top with a spatula.

11. Let it cool for 2hrs. Cut into desired shapes and garnish with roasted almonds.

Note: If the mixture doesn't get hard enough put it in a freezer for 30min to cut into desired shapes.

This' my entry to (Jihva Special Edition: The Festive Series) JFS:Diwali hosted by dear Vee of Past Present and Me

A successful remake and a MEME

2007-10-26T21:29:00.000+01:00

Long long back I heard that Pulihora can be made out of a readymade mix in a jiffy....and recently I've come across the recipe for pulihora powder in Sirisha's blog (U need to scroll down till the end passing all the mouthwatering pictures to reach the pulihora recipe)...From that day I have been procastinating and finally tried it out on the day of Vijayadasami for Neivedyam and it was a huge success....it was almost like the Pulihora we get in temples as prasadam (in a very lil quantity)....There are some occassions during which I used to visit the temple only for the delicious prasadam..Now that I understood how to make it at home, I can now concentrate on my prayers to the God at the temples....Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea Sirisha....

And then the fantastic four MEME....I was tagged by this wonderful girl Sirisha, initially I knew that she was into scientific research in ISRO, lately realised that she is a fantastic kicthen scientist too through her blog "Ambrosia Flavours". I love this idea of tagging the co-bloggers to share their tidbits, I have no idea who has initiated this concept, but I appreciate them for coming up with such a nice concept..and here goes my MEME,

4 Places I have lived

1. Swansea (United Kingdom) - after marriage

2. Salt Lake City, Utah (USA) - During my Masters

3. Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (India) - During my Engineering

4. Nellore, Andhra Pradesh (India) - I was brought up here.

4 Jobs I have had

1. Product Engineer - This's my present job...At our company, we design and make light engines for architectural lighting, medical equipment (UVA,NIR exposers to infants) using semiconductor based LEDs....it's all about electrons, diodes and light...:D

2. NPI (New Product Introduction) Engineer @ LG Electronics, UK - This was my first job in UK. It's a huge LCD monitor and TV manufacturing unit where my job was to deal with the introduction of a new model into the huge scale manufacturing...

3. Design Engineer - Moschip Semiconductors, India...Verification and validation of Digital and Analog VLSI circuit designs using Cadence...

4. Research Assistant - University of Utah, USA..This was my very first job....I worked with a Cosmic Ray detection group known as HiRes in the dept of Physics...The most interesting part of this job was our onsite visits in the Utah desert. We (our team) had to spend a whole night in the desert to detect the cosmic rays (they are most powerful only during nights) for ou data analysis...very much exciting experience....

4 Favorite places I have holidayed

1. Switzerland, Europe (2007) - A must see to everyone...Heaven on Earth

2. London, United Kingdom (2006) - loved the mixed culture here and the historic places all around.

3. Los Angeles and Las Vegas, USA (2003) - Out of all the places I visited in USA, I loved these most.

4. Karatampadu, Nellore Dt, India - Ammamma's place where I spent all my summer holidays during my childhood....No matter how many places I visited outside India, ammamma's place is the best.

4 Favorite foods

1. Omelet

2. Pineapple pastry

3. Mom's Chilli Chicken

4. Ammamma's gulab Jamoon

Can I add few(????) more :D

4 Favorite places I would rather be

1. Nellore - close to my parents.

2. Zurich - Switzerland, I fell in love head over heels with this City...Very advanced technically and beautiful too.

3. Dallas, TX, USA - loved the desi junta and India like weather here.

4. Swansea,UK - the place where we live now...can be called as UK's Goa....our house is by the sea-coast and I love the view of the waterfront from our living room, pleasure being here away from the busy busy cities...

4 Bloggers I like to tag

1. Spandana of Cinnamon Trail

2. Shanthi of My recipe world

3. Seena of Simple and Delicious

4. Nags of For the Cook In Me

Sayonaara Blog buddies....catch you later with a sweet recipe next time, 'm craving for some festive sweets now...

Omelette Pulusu - Curried Omelette

2007-10-21T16:56:00.000+01:00

Eggs in any form other than Raw are acceptable by us...When I have got no veggies to cook, eggs would be my first choice where as my hubby opts for Rasam, Pappu Charu, Majjiga pulusu like dishes...I lived in banglore for a couple of months in 2004. Deepthi, my roomate introduced me to this new way of cooking eggs...They call it Omelette Pulusu, Omlettes soaked in cooked tamarind sauce...I sometimes make it like a pulusu with tamarind juice and water and sometimes just like a normal curry with tomatoes and onions.

My hubby makes pulusu with boiled eggs and half boiled eggs, while I always make it with Omelettes.

Ingredients:

For Omlettes,

Eggs - 4

Onion - 1 (finely chopped)

Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)

Salt - 1/4th tsp (adjust)

Oil - 2 tsp

For the curry,

Onions - 2 (finely sliced)

Tomatoes - 2 (cut into chunks)

Tamarind - lemon sized ball (soak in water and extract the juice)

Salt - to taste

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (adjust)

Oil - 1 Tbspn

Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds - 1 tsp each

Curry leaves - 10

Red Chillies - 2

Method:

1. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat thoroughly. Add the onions, green chillies, salt and Mix well.

2. Heat oil in an Omelette pan and make an Omlette with this mixture. Cook well and turn off the heat.

3. Cut the Omlette into wedges and keep them aside.

4. Now in a wide bottomed pan heat the oil.

5. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chillies.

6. When the seeds start spluttering, add the onions and saute until they turn soft.

7. Add the tomato chunks, salt and Red chillie powder and cook for 3-4min.

8. When the tomatoes start turning soft, add the tamarind juice and 2 cups of water.

9. Close the pan and cook on medium for 8-10min.

10. Add the omelette wedges and turn off the heat.

11. Let the pieces soak well for 30min before serving.

12. Serve with Rice.

I have recently come across a similar recipe somewhere in the blog sphere, but don't remeber the name of the blog..Her post was an inspiration to me to cook this dish...I've been planning to make this since long, but when I've seen her post I immediately made my version...Thanks to her...

Cooked veggies in Yogurt - My diet meal

2007-10-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

After I made my Peas and Corn Frittata, I had some peas and corn kernels left after breakfast. Since we had a heavy breakfast that morning with bread and Frittata, I decided to have something light for my lunch..Flavoured yogurts were always my favourite quick fix snacks...Now a days I started relishing the taste of yogurt with cooked veggies/beans too...chickpeas, rajma and onions sauted in lil olive oil and then mixed with yogurt n salt/pepper is one of my favourite diet meal...Carbs from yogurt, proteins frm rajma, healthy fat frm olive oil everything in a single bowl...This time I tried with peas and corn and it tasted equally delicious...

Ingredients:

Fat free yogurt - 1 cup

Boiled peas - 1/4th cup

Corn kernels - 1/4th cup

Onion - half (chopped finely)

Green chilli - 1 (chopped finely)

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Chopped coriander - 1 large tsp

Olive oil - 2 small tsp

Method:

1. Heat oil in pan. Add the onion and green chilli peices. Saute for 2min.

2. Add the boiled peas and corn. Cook for a couple of min.

3. Add the salt, chopped coriander and mix well. Turn off the heat.

4. Add this cooked mixture to the yogurt and mix well.

5. Serve with lemon juice on top if you like.

This can be served on its own and also goes well with rotis. This's my entry to WYF - What's Your Favourite - Diet Food, an event organised by dear Hima of SnackORama

Peas and Corn Frittata - Indianized

2007-10-21T14:44:00.000+01:00

I did not even get a chance to log on into blogger for a while last week...busy was not the word for me...haven't been in touch with anyone at home, a lil bit disturbed with my work at the moment..Have been carrying out just ONE process all the time in the lab...enviromental cycling....cycling the product between extreme temperatures and analysing the behavior of the circuit....Yeekkkk....totally technical...I was warned in the first week of October itself that this month is gonna be one of the toughest months with so many new product launches lined up...But that doesn't seem to be restricting my participation in my fav food blog events...:D, 've been cooking many dishes, taking pictures but I didn't find time to blog the recipes...so on this sunday I would like to blog few of my recipes which I tried in the last couple of weeks...

First one is this Pean and Corn Frittata - for WBB 16. I found the recipe here, but Indianized the recipe to suit our tastes.

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4
Peas - 1/4 cup (boiled)
Corn Kernels - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 (finely chopped)
Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)
Crushed Garlic - 1/2 tsp
Crushed Ginger - 1/2 tsp
Coriander - 2 strings (chopped)
Cumin and Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 Big Tsps

Method:

1. Heat one Tsp of oil in a pan. Add onions, green chillies, crushed ginger and garlic. Roast until the raw smell leaves.
2. Add the boiled peas and corn and cook for 2-3min. Turn of the heat and take this mixture into a bowl.
3. Take another bowl break the eggs and beat thoroughly. Add salt and Garam masala powder, Mix well.
4. Fold in the cooked vegetables into the egg mixture and mix. Do not overmix.
5. In the same pan heat the remaining one Tsp of oil. Pour the Egg-Vegetable mix and spread the chopped coriander on top.
6. Cover the pan and cook on low flame for 6-8 min.
7. Carefully turn to the other side and cook for 3min. Turn off the heat.
8. Cut into wedges and serve hot with ketchup and your favourite bread.

This is my entry to WBB 16, an event hosted by dear Kanchana this October which is created by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

Bell Pepper Kurma in Milk

2007-10-13T10:39:00.001+01:00

Kurma in Milk....Errrrrr! Does this sound weird? Well, it's not weird in taste....Last week I was making drumstick curry with milk (mulakkayya palu koora). Drumsticks, Bottle gourds, Cucumbers taste good when cooked with milk..So I thought why not try other veggies....I'm in love with Bell Peppers now and hence I wanted to cook them this way...I make bell pepper/potato kurma with sour yogurt to go with Rotis and Parathas...For this recipe I used milk instead of yogurt.....It tasted so yumm...My milk mania had no leaps n bounds since then...I cooked mushrooms and eggs in milk and that turned out yummier...'ll post that recipe soon..

For the Bell Pepper Kurma here's the recipe,

Ingredients:

Bell peppers - 3 (wash n cut into chunks)

Potato - 1 (wash, peel and cut into cubes)

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Green chillies - 5 (chopped) - adjust to taste

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Turmeric - 1 pinch

Milk - 2 cups

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coriander - to garnish

Method:

1. Take water in a pan and add cubed potatoes. Add salt and a pinch of turmeric and bring to boil. Do not over boil. 5min on high would be sufficient. Drain the water and set the potato cubes aside.

2. Heat oil in a wide bottomed pan. Add the chopped onions, green chillies, ginger garlic paste and roast until the raw smells goes off.

3. Now add the bell pepper/capsicum chunks, sprinkle some water and cover the pan. Cook on medium for 5min. Capsicum starts turning soft.

4. Remove the lid, add salt, coriander powder, cumin powder. Mix well.

5. Add the boiled potato cubes, milk and cover the pan.

6. Cook on medium for 10min and turn off the heat when the gravy starts thickening.

7. Garnish with coriander and serve with Rotis.

Microwave Puffed Rice Chat

2007-10-07T18:19:00.000+01:00

This is similar to the Puffed Rice Upma (Maramaraalu Upma), just the Maramaraalu in this chat will be crispy where as in Upma they are made soft by soaking in water...I make this very often as an evening snack after I return from work..Can be made in a jiffy...

Ingredients:

Puffed Rice - 3 cups

Onion - 1/2 chopped finely

Green chillie - 1 chopped finely

Chana Dal - 1 tsp

Peanuts - 3 tsps

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Curry leaves - 5

Oil - 2 tsps

Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Take a microwave safe bowl. Add the oil and heat for 1 min on high.

2. Now add cumin, mustard seeds, chana dal, peanuts, curry leaves and microwave on MEDIUM for 2-3min.

3. Add the onions and Green chillies, Microwave on high for 2-3min. Onions start turning soft at this stage.

4. Add salt and puffed rice, Mix well and Serve.

You can spray lemon juice on top if you like

Note: Timings in the Microwave vary with its power specs.

This is my entry to Microwave Easy Cooking - Snacks Event hosted by Srivalli of Cooking4allseasons.

Ridge gourd-Chana dal Curry : Beerakaya-senagapappu masala

2007-10-07T16:59:00.000+01:00

We do not use Chana dal often in our curries when compared to toor dal and moong dal, except for the tempering/popu/tadka.....This Chana dal curry tastes so delicious and yummy...I learnt this from my mom...I do not know if this can be cooked with any other vegetable other than Ridge gourd...Other than the normal Ridge gourd chutney, Ridge gourd Dal with Toor Dal or Moong Dal and curry with mik, this is one more variety of Ridge gourd based curries...Ginger garlic paste and cumin powder adds a spicy masala flavour to this curry..

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd/Turai/Beerakaya - 1 medium sized (wash, and cut into 1 inch cubes)

Chana Dal - 1 cup (washed)

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Green chillies - 4-5 (chopped) - adjust to taste

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Red chillies - 1 (broken)

Curry leaves - 6-8

Method:

1. Take Chana Dal in a pressure cooker, add 2 cups of water and cook for 3 whistles. Dal should be seperate and not to be mashed. Drain the water and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a wide bottomed pan, add the mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.

3. When the seeds start spluttering add the onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste.

4. Saute until the onions turn soft and transperent.

5. Now add the ridge gourd pieces, salt and cumin powder and 1/2 cup of water. Mix well.

6. Close the pan and allow to cook on medium flame for about 10min. The Ridge gourd pieces turn soft at this stage.

7. Stir in the Chana dal now, cover and cook for 5 min. Remove from heat.

Serve with Rice or Rotis.

Kesari Pulao with Paneer and Peas - Over Garnished

2007-10-06T17:15:00.000+01:00

Don't you think this dish is a lil bit over decorated for the event...we both did..whatever I cook, I am thinking of an event and trying to get the best pic of the dish, hence this decorations...I think my decorations over powered the saffron in the dish..:(

Saffron/Kesari - All I knew abt this ingredient was only from movies...whenever a girl (here a Heroine) gets pregnant, her parents send this to her and the hubbie(here the Hero) dear dumps all the box of Kesari into the milk in one single day (that saffron box was supposed to last for more and makes the Heroine drink the milk..end of the story..

So when Sunita announced this month's spice event with saffron, I thought I shld do a lil research on this ingredient (because I did not know that this saffron can be used in so many recipes other than milk and puddings)...More about this ingredient is in Sunita's post...

I was craving for some paneer based dish for the past few days...So I finally decided to make Saffron Pulao with Paneer and Peas (I used peas just to make the dish colorful, not being health-concious :p)...Recipe is here. I replaced coconut with paneer pieces and avoided Sugar...S doesn't like sweet flavour in rice items..So I added some onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste...to be concise I modified the whole recipe..:D according to our tastes....

Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups (Raw)

Paneer - 100gm (home made or store bought) - Cut into 1 inch pieces.

Peas - 1 table spoon (boiled)

Onion - 1 sliced

Green Chillies - 3 chopped

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Almonds - 6 sliced

Raisins - 10

Salt - 2 tsp

Milk - 1 cup

Saffron - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash the rice, add 4 cups of water, salt and a tsp of ghee. Cook till 3/4th done. Remove and set aside.

2. Warm up the milk and soak the saffron strands for about 5min. Mix well.

3. Mix half of this milk with the cooked rice.

4. Heat Ghee in a pan, fry the paneer pieces and remove.

5. Soak these paneer pieces in the remaining saffron milk so that they become soft.

6. In the same pan with the Ghee, roast the almonds and raisins. Remove and keep aside.

7. Again in the same pan add the onions, green chillies and Ginger garlic paste. Saute for about 5min till the onions turn transperent.

8. Add the boiled peas, cooked rice and cover.

9. Cook for 10min on low flame till the rice is completely done.

10. Finally add the paneer pieces with the soaked saffron milk and garnish with almonds and raisins.

So this is my entry to Think Spice-Think Saffron Event of this month, hosted by Sunita.

Clickooo Clickoooo - A Colorful Egg Platter

2007-10-02T20:45:00.000+01:00

I've been waiting for a bright day to click the pics for the event Click hosted by dear Bee n Jai of Jugalbandi...I wanted to take the pic in natural light...But unfortunately I haven't seen Sun for the past few days...Weather is so damn dark during the time I stay at home...And my colorful peppers were restlessly waiting to team up with the eggs and be a part in the picture...the weather forecast for the weekend is also not bright enough, So I decided to take the pics today...

I haven't had any particular concept in my mind, all I planned was to make the pic as colorful as I can...So this is what I came up with...

Revival - Pongal Celebrations - For RCI

2007-09-29T12:10:00.000+01:00

When Viji of Vcuisine announced this month's RCI event is related to Tamilnadu Festival Foods, the first thought that came into my mind is Pongal. The reason being, this is my most favourite festival which I celebrate with all my family members.

"May the pot of prosperity boil over

May the Pongal that we cook,

the fragrance of turmeric

the taste of sugarcane, ginger and honey

Bring the joy of Pongal into our homes

May the blessings of the Sun God flood our lives "

Poem source : Malini Bisen

Pongal is a Harvest Festival, mostly celebrated in south India. Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over." Traditionally celebrated at harvest time, it is a celebration of the prosperity associated with the harvest. Pongal is celebrated by the Indian state of Tamil Nadu as well as Tamils worldwide, including those in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. The festival has been in practice for some 5,000 years.

While Pongal is predominantly a Tamil festival, it is also celebrated in several other provinces with different names. In Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka, the harvest festival Sankranthi is celebrated. In northern India, Pongal is called Makara Sankranthi. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, it is celebrated on the date of the annual kite flying day, Uttarayan. It also coincides with the bonfire and harvest festival in Punjab and Haryana, known as Lohri. People of all relegion celebrate pongal festival in India.

Source: Wikipedia

You can find a lot of information about this festival here.

But I'ld also like to explain it in my own words too. No matter how busy we are, all my family members (mom's side) meet at our native place in Nellore district in Andhra on 14th of January. And on 15th of January we meet our paternal relatives and family members at our Dad's native place in Kurnool District in Andhra. My mom n dad often argues about where to spend these 4 days. So finally we ended up staying at both the places. The pictures below were taken during our family get togethers on the occasion of Pongal. The old one (you can easily guess where I am, I was the only girl child then) was in 1987 at my mom's native and the recent ones were taken in 2007 January at my parents’ native places. Until I stepped out of India, I did not miss even one year to attend this festival. Both my mom and dad hail from an agriculture based families and hence we all celebrate this festival in the most traditional way.

It's a festival related to Sun God…Celebrated for 4 days…From the 15 th of Dec to the 15th of January we call it as Dhanurmasam and we decorate our entrances with beautiful Rangolis/kolam/Rangavalli….I don't say am an expert in Rangolis, but I can design and I love putting down Rangolis….We also place Gobbemmalu (cow-dung balls with flowers) on the Rangoli and sing various songs. It was fun comparing and competing for the biggest Rangoli in the village during the festive season…My mama and ammamma love me a lot for putting down these Rangolis staying awake till late night or waking up early in the morning to put these.

The first day is known as Bhogi…..At about 5AM-6AM ammamma wakes us up and we all gather infront of our main entrance and put the Bhogi manta ….Fire with dried palm leaves…Today Indra (Bhogan or Bhogi) is worshiped for providing rain for harvest….Payasam/Kheer is offered to God….today we eat non-veg so our staple breakfast for this day would be Dosa with Chicken curry. In the evening if there are kids at home, we do the Bhogi pallu custom….All the elders at home bless the kid by showering a mixture of diced sugarcane, Akshinthalu (holy-rice), regu pallu (a kind of sour/red fruits..look like berries) and money coins……

The second day is the main day of the festival..known as Sankranthi. We worship the Sun God today and strictly stay away from non-veg… Traditional sweet pongal is cooked on stove with stones using wood for fuel in a holy vessel (mud pot decorated with turmeric and saffron) in an open courtyard…This is offered to God …Staple breakfast today would be Gaarelu/Vada with pappu/dal…. Today we remember our ancestors who are expired…In the evening we go to their tombs and offer coconut, pongal, flowers and worship their tombs.

The third day is known as Mattu Pongal or Kanuma…today we worship the cattle, cows for giving milk and oxes for ploughing and tools (plough etc)…We decorate the cattle with bells and flowers and take blessings from them…we thus honour their hardwork. On this day Mutton based curries are cooked…Chariott Rangoli is layed down today…

4th day is known as Mukkanuma and it is dedicated for outdoor celebrations and excursions.

All the first 3 days our family dhobi, hair cutter and other employees who served our ancestors for generations together (their grand children or someone frm their families) come home and we offer them food, money and clothes, thus honouring their services….Haridasu comes to every house in the village and he's also honoured….Budabukkalu saint also comes with this Gangireddu…I am not good at explaining about these concepts…But the pictures below can give you an idea who they are…

Image Source: Hinduimages

And now coming to the food section as the name itself indicates Pongal is the most common food offered to God. Other than this we also prepare arisalu/nippattlu, Murukku, regu vadalu for snacks…I don't have murukku making equipment and we also do not find regupallu here…So I am posting a couple of pongal recipes…. After penning down all these, I am really feeling nostalgic…missing all my family members..:(

Ok coming to the recipes these are easy to prepare.

Recipe for Sakkarai Pongal/Bellappongali/Jaggery rice pudding:

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup

Moong dal - 1/2 cup

Milk - 2 cups Jaggery - 1 cup (adjust)

Cardamom - 4 pods (seeds powdered)

Cashews - 10

Raisins - 10

Almonds - 5

Ghee - 1-1.5 tbsp

Method:

1. Dry roast the moong dal in an iron skillet and cool (you can avoid this step)

2. Wash the rice. Take the rice, moong dal, milk in a pressure cooker.

3. Add 1.5 cups of water and cook for 3 whistles. Let it cool until the pressure is released.

4. Take a saucepan, add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of jaggery and bring to boil.

5. Add this jaggery syrup to the rice mixture.

6. Put on medium flame and keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Add the cardamom powder and mix well. Turn off the flame.

7. Heat the Ghee in small pan and roast the almonds, cashews and raisins until the cashews turn golden brown.

8. Add these roasted nuts along with the ghee to the pongal and mix well.

Recipe for Ven Pongal/Katte Pongal/Pulagam:

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup

Moong Dal - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Black peppercorns - 8

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves - 8

Ghee - 1.5 tbsp

Cashews - 10

Method:

1. Wash the rice and moong dal (moong dal can be dry roasted too)

2. In a pressure cooker take the washed rice, moong dal, milk and add 2.5 cups of water.

3. Cook for 3 whistles. Let it cool until the pressure is released.

4. Open the lid, add salt and mix well.

5. In a pan heat the Ghee. Roast the cumin, pepper corns, curry leaves and cashews.

6. Add this mixture to the rice pongal and mix well.

These are my entries to RCI , an event started by Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine and hosted by Viji of Vcuisine this month with Tamil Festivals as the theme.

Sorry if you guys felt this description more like that of a family event and got bored...:)

Aloo Mutter in Coconut gravy

2007-09-27T20:02:00.000+01:00

I came home craving for some Paneer based curry after seeing Cinnamon's Paneer Butter Masala....But then my hubby asked me for Aloo Korma.....So I postponed the paneer concept and decided to make Aloo Mutter....This curry is normally made with yogurt, tomatoes...today I tried it with coconut and khus-khus gravy..turned out so yummyyyyy and delicious..Hubby dear ended up licking his fingers...:D...

Here's the recipe,

Ingredients:

Potatoes/Aloo - 3 (washed, peeled and cut into cubes)

Green peas - 1 cup (boiled) - I used frozen peas

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Khus-Khus - 1 tbsp (soaked in hot water for 10min)

Desicated coconut - 2 tbsp

Coriander (dhania) powder - 1tsp

Cumin powder - 1tsp

Salt - as per taste

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp

Coriander - 1tbsp (chopped)

Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Take water in a saucepan and put the potato cubes in it. Boil for about 10min. Drain the water and keep the potatoes aside.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the chopped onions and saute until the onions become transperent.

3. Now add the soaked khus-khus seeds and grated coconut. Saute for 2min.

4. Turn off heat and let it cool. Take this mixture in a blender and grind to a smooth paste adding water.

5. Heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in the same kadai and add the ginger garlic paste. Roast for 2min.

6. Add the ground onion/coconut/khus-khus paste to the kadai and fry for 3-4min.

7. When the paste starts turning brown add the salt, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander(dhania) powder. Mix well.

8. Add 200ml of water and let the gravy come to boil.

9. Add the boiled potato cubes and green peas and stir well.

10. Cook for 2 min and turn off the heat.

11. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with Rotis.

Carrot-Egg Fried Rice

2007-09-25T18:29:00.000+01:00

No..this is not for an event..this is for me n my hubby dear...Carrots...Huhhhhh...Apart from Carrot Halwa, this fried rice is the only way thru which my mom was able to stuff this healthy veg into my diet...I had a couple of left over carrots and some rice from previous day..So I decided to make this dish on my own now....I never take an initiative to cook carrots....anything with carrot...Suman has to do that....

Coming to the recipe, it's simple n easy...

Ingredients:

Left over rice - 2 cups

Carrots - 2 grated

Peas - 1/2 cup boiled (optional)

Green chillies - 3 chopped

Cumin - 1 tsp

Eggs - 2

Oil - 4tsp

Salt

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Coriander - 2 strips chopped

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds and chopped green chillies. Roast for 1min.

2. Add the grated carrot and boiled green peas. Roast for 3-4 min.

3. Break the eggs and drop over. Mix well and roast for another 5min.

4. Add salt, pepper powder and mix well.

5. Finally add the rice and let it cook for 2-4min. Remove from heat.

6. Garnish with coriander and serve.

Soft Raisin Cookies for AFAM

2007-09-23T09:01:00.000+01:00

Sunmaid raisins are my favourite snack pack for lunch whilst @ work....My foodie draw in my desk will be full of these packs always....So when I've seen Grapes as ingredients for AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad, Raisins first came into my mind....I had no other thought other than my alltime favourite raisin cookies...I normally buy them at stores, but now I thought I'ld bake them at home...

Then for the recipe Videojug came to my rescue...The original recipe here is for Rosemary-Raisin cookies...I've used honey in my recipe...The taste was so delicious...I made 16 cookies...and my hubby packed 12 of them to share with his colleagues...He ate 2 at home and poor me..:( was left with 2 cookies (that too shaped out ones)......takes only 20min to prepare and bake...and less than 2 min to gulp...:P

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 500gm

Raisins - 100gm
Honey - 2 tbsp

Butter - 200gm (cubed)

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 2 tbsp

Milk - 200ml

Procedure:

1. Soak the raisins in honey for 5min

2. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F

3. In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder and mix well.

4. Add the butter cubes and mix well.

5. Now add the raisins with honey and make the dough using the milk. Dough should be thick.

6. Roll out the dough into a circle of 1cm thickness and 30cm diameter.

7. Using a bottle cap or a cookie cutter, cut the large circle into small circles.

8. Grease a baking tray with little butter and place these small circles on it.

9. Bake for 5-8min. Cookies should be golden brown in color.

10. Serve with Tea

Note: The original recipe says the baking time is 15min. But my cookies were done in 6min.

So this's my entry to AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad

Crispy Chicken Nuggets with Tomato Soup

2007-09-22T12:44:00.000+01:00

I missed a Barbeque party yesterday...It was arranged to celebrate our Company summer event...The venue was so far from our home and all sorts of games conducted there..'ve got no clue of them..like quad biking, Archery etc etc...and after the event there was a drink party at cardiff bay..none of these were of interest to me...So I decided to stay at home..The weather was not that good for a barbeque yesterday...So dark n gloomy...we haven't had much summer this year...and we felt very chilly all this week...looks like winter gave an early entry...hmmm

So I've got a long weekend this week...my hubby was working yesterday So I was all alone at home...whatelse other than food comes into my mind then? I wanted to make something very very hot..like a soup...I had loads of tomatoes in the fridge which were on the verge of getting soft and damaged...So my choice was tomato soup...

I make tomato soup in three different ways..One to accompany veg based fry items (Tomato soup with rasam powder), One to be served on its own (simple version with ground pepper) and the last one to accompany non-veg fried dishes (Soup with Masala spices)....I've recently come across a simple recipe for chicken nuggets on videojug...so decided to try them....

Though it was the first time I tried these nuggets, I was so happy that they tasted similar to the Mc Donalds nuggets which are one of my favourite snack items...The link to the video is here

Recipe for Tomato Soup:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 8 (wash and cut into chunks)

Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Cinnamon stick - 1 inch broken into pieces

Cloves - 5

Pepper corns - 5

Elachi powder - 1 pinch

Salt as per taste

Ghee - 1tbsp (It tastes good only with Ghee and NOT oil)

Coriander - 2 stems

Method:

1. Boil the tomatoes in 500ml of water until soft and cool.

2. Blend the tomatoes into a puree

3. Take this puree in a pan and put it on the flame.

4. Add salt and let it come to boil.

5. In a small pan heat Ghee and toss the broken cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper corns. Add the elachi powder and ginger garlic paste and rast for 3-4min.

6. Add this mix to the boiling soup and remove from heat.

7. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with rice and any fried item.

Recipe for Chicken Nuggets:

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts - 2 (slice off any bones, fat n skin)

All purpose flour - 2 tbsp

Eggs - 2

Bread crumbs - 2 tbsp

Salt - as per taste

Pepper - 2 tsp

Dried Basil - 2 tsp

Oil - 100ml

Method:

1. Clean and cut the chicken breasts into chunks.

2. Take these chunks into a blender and add the salt and spices (basil and pepper). Blend for a few sec until the chunks are roughly chopped.

3.Break the eggs into a bowl and beat.

4. Shape the chicken mix into small balls. Roll them in the flour

5. Dip into the egg mix.

6. Coat with bread crumbs finally.

7. Heat oil in a pan to medium hot and fry these nuggets on both sides until brown for abt 5min, turning them frequently so that they don't get burnt.

8. Serve hot.

These chicken nuggets are my favourite snacks and hence this is my entry to What's your Favourite Snack, WYF event hosted by Hima of SnackORama

Banana Pancakes

2007-09-21T10:47:00.000+01:00

I wanted to make my favourite dish Banana Bread for JFI-Banana...But then my friend Srividya shared this recipe of Banana pancakes..this seemed to be easy, so I decided to try this for breakfast today.....so yummy...can be prepared in less than 20min...'ve made few alterations in the procedure....Thanks for the wonderful idea Vidya...

Here's the recipe,

Ingredients:

Bananas - 2 (ripe, mashed)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Eggs - 2
Milk - 200ml
Baking powder - 1tsp
Butter - 2 tbsp (unsalted)
Honey - to serve with

Procedure:

1. Blend the milk, mashed Bananas, eggs into a smooth consistency.
2. Add the flour and baking powder and make a thin batter.
3. Grease a pan with butter and Heat.
4. Pour a ladle full of batter. Spead a little to make a circle of 8cm diameter.
5. Cook until the pancake turns brown on both sides (2min each side).
6. Serve hot with honey spread on top.

This is my entry for JFI-Banana, an event started by Indira of Mahanandi, hosted by Mandira of ahaar

Potato Onion Palya - Majjige Huli

2007-09-15T20:27:00.000+01:00

I never tried out any other South Indian recipes (other than Andhra) till date. I made akki rotis and masala vada before, but they are often made in andhra kitchen too..So I was not very sure about their origins...when I came cross the RCI - Karnataka Event hosted by Asha this month, I decided to give a try in Karnataka cuisine seriously this time....I googled, googled n googled for days together and finally decided to try out these two dishes..the recipes were adopted from Payaswini's cookbook

Both the recipes turned out be successful and my hubby is happy to get back to his undergrad memories of tasting authentic karnataka recipes at his University hostel in Shimoga..He's still on his way emptying the plates...:D

Potato Onion Palya - Original Recipe is here

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 3 (boiled, peeled and cut into cubes)

Onions - 2 (chopped)

Green or Red chillies - 4 (chopped)

Oil - 1tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Chana Dal - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 10

Turmeric powder - 1/4th tsp

Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Grated coconut - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, urad dal and Chana dal.

2. When the seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves, chillies, onions and turmeric.

3. Saute for 5min or until the onions turn transperent.

4. Add salt, grated coconut and mix well.

5. Finally add the cubed potatoes and cook for 3-4min.

6. Take off from heat and sprinkle the lemon juice on top.

Majjige Huli - Original Recipe is here

Ingredients:

Thick Buttermilk - 3 cups

Spinach - 3 cups (cleaned and chopped)

Salt - to taste

Oil - 2 tsp

For Tempering

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 5-6

For masala

Chana Dal - 1/2 cup (soaked in hot water for 20min)

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Coriander seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4th tsp

Black pepper corns - 3-4

Green/Red chillies - 4 (chopped)

Ginger - 1 tsp (grated)

Turmeric powder - 1/4th tsp

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Curry leaves - 8-10

Procedure:

1. Boil the spinach in water for abt 8-10 min and drain the water.

2. Take all the ingredients for masala and grind to a smooth paste using little water.

3. In a pan heat oil, add spinach saute for 2-3min, add salt and the ground masala paste, mix well.

4. Add a cup of water and bring to boil.

5. Remove from heat and add the buttermilk. Stir well.

6. Heat oil in a small pan, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds start to splutter add the curry leaves and remove from heat.

7. Add this seasoning to the Majjige Huli. Garnish with Majjiga mirapakayalu(optional)

Serve warm with Rice.

So this is my entry to RCI Karnataka Event hosted by Asha of Foodies Hope

Note: Majjige Huli can be prepared with cucumber or okra too. I used spinach instead.

Whole Wheat Bread Baking from Basics

2007-09-15T13:12:00.000+01:00

I'm back on to my baking spree this weekend...I've come across the Monthly Blog Patrolling Event MBP organised by Coffee of The Spice Cafe...loved the concept..so decided to do some bread baking from a recipe of a co-blogger...I never made bread at home..So I wanted to start off with a very simple n basic recipe...

Prepared both rolls and a loaf from the dough...took almost 4hrs :o for the entire process...The baking time was only 15min, but the preparation took so long than I've expected...

I've adopted the recipe from Bakingbites. The Original recipe is here. Made some changes according to my taste preferences.

Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - 500gm

Yeast (active dry) - 4tsp

Brown Sugar - 1 tbsp

Salt - 2 tsp

Warm water - 2 cups (350ml)

Oil - 1 tbsp

Dried Basil - 2 tsp

Dried red chillie flakes - 1 tsp

I've skipped wheat bran and added dried basil and rec chillie flakes to the original version. I used oil for the manageability of the dough.

Procedure:

1. Divide the wheat flour into two equal portions. Set aside 1 tbsp flour for dusting.

2. Take one portion of the wheat flour in a bowl, add the yeast and warm water and stir well.

3. Cover the bowl and set aside for 1-2hrs until bubbles appear.

4. Now add the other portion of the flour, brown sugar, salt, dried basil and red chillie flakes to the mix and knead into a dough. Use oil and extra flour for manageability.

5. Knead the dough for 8-10min until soft into a ball shape and cover with a plastic wrap.

6. Leave it aside for 1-2hrs until the size doubles.

7. Divide the dough into two equal parts.

7. Make 5 equal sized rolls (flattened) from one portion of the dough and place them on a greased baking sheet.

8. Place the other portion of the dough in a greased loaf tin.

9. Cover both the rolls and loaf dough with a clean dishtowel and leave to rise for 45min.

10. Preheat the oven to 210F and place the baking tray and loaf tin inside the oven.

11. Bake for 15min or until the outer crust turns golden brown.

The outer crust was so crispy and the inner part was so soft. Tasted great with tomato pickle on the slices and the rolls served with Beans soup.

This recipe is my entry to the MBP event hosted by Coffee

Oops..I forgot to post my favourite kitchen smell/odour..the list goes endless, but to name a few I love,

1. Tadka smell with ginger and curry leaves.

2. Home made ground poppy seed/coconut/coriander seeds masala for non-veg curries

3. Flavour of fresh made coffee every morning (Especially Nescafe..mmmmuuuuaaaaaahhhh)

Curried Chapathi for Breakfast

2007-09-08T10:09:00.000+01:00

I had a couple of left over chapathis from last night's dinner. I did not feel like throwing them away. I found a breakfast recipe posted by a friend Srividya in one of the discussion forums on orkut. So I decided to prepare it for my breakfast today. I loved the recipe a lot, delicious when served hot...Thanks for the idea Srividya..

A very simple n quickie recipe...

Ingredients:

Leftover Chapathis - 2 (tear into 2 inch size pieces)

Onion - 1 chopped

Green chillies - 2 chopped

Tomato - 1 cut into chunks

Grated coconut - 2 tsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp - adjust

Garam Masala - 1/4th tsp

Oil - 4tsp

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a pan.

2. Add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds.

3. Then add the onions and green chillies. Saute for 3-4min

4. Add the tomatoes, salt and garam masala powder and 1 cup of water. Mix well

5. When the water starts to boil add the grated coconut and chapathi pieces. Mix well and cook for 2-3 min.

Serve Hot. Doesn't taste good when cold.

This is my entry to WBB event hosted by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

Veggie Omelet

2007-09-06T20:57:00.000+01:00

I've been trying to access blogger since 3 lonnnngggggg hrs to post my new creation today...None of my google services were working...Atlast after 3hrs I am able to logon to my account....

I had a hectic schedule at work today...I had no enthu to cook something for dinner...thought of making an omelet and eat it with rice n pickle...I love eggs a lot...the moment I decided to eat eggs today, all my tiredness was gone...The cook inside me woke up...why always a normal omelet..why not something new? Searched on the internet for nearly half hr for omelet recipes, but all of them had cheese, mushrooms, bacon etc etc on them...a complete vegetarian omelet recipe had gram flour (besan) and vegetables in it...but I wanted to eat eggs..So I added little quantities of veggies and made the omelet..It turned out so delicious and colorful..the moment I captured the images, I was longing to post it here and show off my new experiment...I made many alterations and finally came up with this recipe...

Ingredients:

Eggs - 2
All purpose Flour - 2 teaspoons
Milk - 75-100ml (I didn't measure the quantity)
Grated carrot - 2 teaspoons
Chopped onion - 2 teaspoons
Chopped Green chillies - 1 teaspoon
Chopped Green Onions - 2 teaspoons
Tomato - 1 medium (cut into tiny pieces)
Salt - as per taste
Butter - 2 tsp (unsalted) - Oil can be used too

Procedure:

1.Break the eggs in a bowl. Add all the ingredients except tomato and butter to this egg mixture and beat thoroughly.

2.Place a pan on the burner and add the butter. When the butter starts melting spread it to all over the pan.
3.Pour this egg/veggies mixture onto the pan. Rotate the Pan so that this mixture spreads to all directions and evenly layered.

4.Cover the pan with a lid and cook on medium flame for 3min (Take care not to burn it)

5.After 3min using a sharp edged long spoon carefully reverse the omelet. Cook for 1 min and remove from the pan.

Spread the chopped tomatoes and Serve hot OR Spread some pickle on a roti/chapathi. Place this veggie omelet on the rot and roll it into a wrap and serve.

Pappulusu..Moong Dal Lemon Soup

2007-09-05T19:55:00.000+01:00

For those who are familiar with stories written in telugu with a village backdrop, the popular combo pappu charu - uppu chepa (Toor Dal Rasam and Fish fry) doesn't need any further explaination...This's a famous village dinner menu in Andhra Paradesh..In my hometown Nellore, Pappu charu is not made very often..Instead we make Pappulusu (Moong dal rasam with lemon flavour) and serve it with non-veg dry items...Fish is the most common mate to this Pappulsu...

So on one fine sunday mid-morning my hubby reminded me of this combo and hence I decided to cook that for lunch...I started making fish fry, but with my cooking skills all I could do is to transform fish fry to a gravy like fish curry..The saga of how this happened is another story...

But it's soulmate Moong Dal Rasam turned out to be a success. This's a very easy recipe..with the most common n simple ingredients...goes well with any dry curries...aloo fry, okra fry or any non-veg dry curry...Here goes the recipe for pappulusu,

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup (dry roast them in an Iron Skillet until sligh brownish color, set aside to cool - you can even skip this step)

Onion - 1 small - sliced

Green chillies - 2 chopped

Garlic - 2 pods - crushed

Lemon juice - 1-2 table spoons (adjust)

Salt - as per taste (you can reduce the salt amount, since lemon flavour is already there)

For tadka or popu - Cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad dal - 1/2 tsp each, curry leaves -10, dried red chillies - 2, oil - 2 tsp

Procedure:

1. In a pressure cooker take the roasted moong dal, onion slices, green chillies and crushed garlic.

2. Add 2 cups of water and cook until 3 whistles. When all the pressure is gone, open the cooker, mash tha dal and mix well.
3. Again turn on the flame and place the cooker. Add 1-1.5 cups of water.
4. When the rasam starts boiling add the salt and lemon juice. Turn off the flame.
5. Do the popu seperately in a small pan and add it to the moong dal rasam.

Serve hot with rice and any dry item.

Chilli Paneer - Indian cottage cheese cooked in Soy sauce

2007-09-03T19:27:00.000+01:00

I prepared some Paneer a couple of weeks back for Palak Paneer and stored the left over paneer in the freezer and totally forgot abt it..I was cleaning up the refrigerator and found this paneer slab lying in the corner...so thought of preparing some paneer curry...I normally make palak paneer and paneer butter masala with paneer..This time I wanted to try a different curry...googled for paneer recipes and found the recipe for chilli paneer here...The recipe to make Paneer at home can be found here...

Turned out so delicious that I ended up without the necessity to clean the vessel or the plate :D..I made some changes to the original recipe..Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Paneer - 250gm (cut into cubes)
Onion - 1 large (chopped finely)
Green chillies - 4-5 (chopped)
Grated Ginger - 1 tsp
Grated garlic - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 3 tsp
Salt - to taste
Corn flour - 1 table spoon (you can use maida flour too)
Oil - 2 table spoons to roast

Procedure:

1. Dissolve the corn flour in 300ml of water and keep aside.
2. In a thick bottomed pan, heat the oil and fry the paneer cubes until slight brownish color.
3. Soak these fried paneer cubes in warm water for 10min and remove. Keep these aside (If you avoid this step, the paneer cubes in the curry become very hard)
4. Now to the same oil, add the grated ginger and garlic and fry for a min
5. Add the chopped green chillies and onions and fry until the onions turn transperent.
6. Now add the salt, black powder powder, soy sauce and mix well.
7. Add the water mixed with cornflour.
8. Cook for 2-3 min. At this stage the gravy starts thickening.
9. Now add the paneer pieces and cook on low for 5 min.
10. Garnish with coriander/sliced n deseeded green chillies/green onions

Serve hot with Rotis. I had them with methi rotis (they are just like the normal rotis with dried fenugreek leaves added to the wheat flour while mixing)

Wheat Crackers/Biscuits whatever...

2007-09-01T23:08:00.000+01:00

I love the sleek, round, flavoured crackers/savoury biscuits we see in the super markets...onion,garlic,chilli flavours and many more...I'm not sure how they are made..But I happened to see a pack labelled as baked wheat crackers...They tasted sooooooo good...I googled for a recipe and found a very similar one he re

The Original version appeared to be very simple and the pictures were damn perfect..Please don't compare my pics with those..:(...I was on the phone with one of my friends in India and ended up with not so nice looking crackers..But I loved the taste...I slightly made some modifications according to the ingredient availability...fiber filled, low fat evening snack...Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 1.5 cups
All purpose flour - 0.5 cup
Onion - 1 medium sized - chopped
Green chillies - 4 - chopped
Garlic - 2 pods - crushed
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp - adjust
Oil - 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Take the chopped onions, green chillies, crushed garlic in a blender and grind to a paste without adding water.
2. Add the salt to this mixture and set aside for a few min.
3. Mix the wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cumin seeds and the onion/chilli/garlic paste and make a dough. Water released from onions is sufficient to prepare the dough. Do not add extra water.
4. Pat some oil on the dough and set aside for 30min
5. Make thin chapathi like circles with the dough using a rolling pin.
6. Cut these circles into desired shapes. I used the cap of a pickle bottle to cut.
7. Make dimples on the crackers using a fork.
8. Grease a baking sheet with oil and place these crackers on the sheet.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 250C
10. Bake for 8min in the oven and then turn the crackers to the other side.
11. Bake for another 5min.
12. Enjoy with your favourite beverage. I had them with ginger tea :D

Coconut-Poppyseed Kheer-- Kobbari gasaalu paayasam

2007-09-01T22:31:00.000+01:00

This is my first post after my blog reconstruction. Now since this blog will have only recipes, 'll have to take extra care whilst posting the recipes [:(]...I've moved my microcosm to Here

Ok, coming to the recipe..I always wanted to experiment different types of kheer/payasam for the Naivedyam...Sago seeds, moong dal, chana dal, vermicelli..I made payasam with all these ingredients..but never tried the holy ingredient coconut...Coconut is used in many naivedyam recipes, why not in Kheer...So I decided to give it a try...I added poppy seeds because excess of coconut can cause throat pain, so I used half n half (coconut and poppyseeds both give a rich texture to the payasam)...

Ingredients:

Milk - 300ml
Dessicated coconut - 2 table spoons
Poppy seeds - 2 table spoons (soak in warm water for 10min and drain)
Sugar - 4 table spoons ( I used brown sugar) - adjust according to taste
Ghee - 1 table spoon
Cashew nuts - 8 (roasted in Ghee)

Procedure:

1. In a tava, heat the Ghee and fry the dessicated coconut for 3-4min. Set this aside.
2. Take the milk in a pan and Heat. Bring to boil and then add the sugar and soaked n drained poppy seeds.
3. Stir continously and add the fried dessicated coconut.
4. Reduce the flame and simmer for 5min until the kheer starts to thicken.
5. Decorate with roasted cashews
6. Serve warm.

Cabbage Moong dal Fry

2007-08-30T21:18:00.000+01:00

I haven't been cooking for the past 4 days..I made a huge pan of sambar on Sunday and 've been eating it with rice and omlet/crisps/papads for dinner...and junk for lunch @ work..so today while coming home I decided to cook something fresh..Came home opened my fridge and found a chunk of cabbage lying alone...It was looking so dull and dipressed..I felt as if it was asking me "Why did you leave me alone? Comeon...do something..'m sick of being cut and stored for days together"...hmmm...but then I don't cook cabbage alone...I hate the raw smell and the bland taste of cabbage...

My cabbage recipe index is cabbage-grated coconut stir fry, cabbage-potato curry, cabbage-spinach and last but not the least..cabbage-moong dal fry...I also make cabbage upma (substitute onions with chopped cabbage...idea adopted frm my friend Praveena who's a great devotee of Iskon)

No potatoes, no coconut and no spinach at home..So I had to make the dal fry...I tasted this recipe during a feast at one of our cousin's marriage...But it was mashed moong dal cooked with cabbage..that's cabbage pappu...My aunt alters this recipe and prepares a dry curry....

Hmmm....long introduction to a short recipe....for those moon dal lovers, here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 2 cups (chopped finely)

Moong dal - 1 cup

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Green chillies - 4 (chopped)

Ginger - 1 tsp (grated)

Garlic - 1 tsp (crushed)

Curry leaves - 8-10

Turmeric - 1/4th tsp

Salt - to taste

For tadka/popu - Cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal - 1 tsp each

Oil - 1 table spoon

Procedure:

1. Wash the moong dal. Boil water in a sauce pan and add this moong dal.Let it boil for 5min and then remove from heat and let it stand for about 10min. Drain the water and set the dal aside. The texture of the dal should be seperate.

2. Take the chopped cabbage in a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle some water and microwave on high for 5min.

3. Heat oil in a curry pan. Add the popu ingredients and the curry leaves.

4. When the seeds start spluttering, add the ginger and garlic pieces.

5. Fry for 30 sec and add the green chillies and onions. Saute till onions turn transperent.

6. Now add the turmeric powder, salt and mix well.

7. Add the boiled moong dal and roast for about 4-5min.

8. Finally add the microwaved cabbage, close the lid and simmer for 5min.

9. Remove from heat and serve.

This curry tastes well both with rice and rotis.

Stuffed Green Chillies/Mirapakaya Bajji with heavenly Tulsi/Basil Tea

2007-08-29T20:40:00.000+01:00

If I recollect the golden era of my college days in Vijayawada and try to post them, Mirapakaya Bajjis and Punugulu (Urad dal dumpings) must and shld be dedicated a seperate post... We were a group of 7 girls in our hostel...we used to call ourselves as 7 stars or Dhruvatharalu...kikiki....

Chandu - Bakki n Beauty
Swapna and Me - Gundoos and foodie buffs
Jyothi - Would be Gundoo n Calm
Anitha - Our Heroine
Basu - Monkey
Malathi - Silent n Strict..

Every evening we used to take turns (2 girls on each day)and go to the nearby snacks centre directly from the classes and buy all these stuff.....Mirchi bajji, egg bonda, punugulu and pappundalu (peanut balls)...the other 5 will be eagerly waiting in the hostel...we all then share our qunatities (obviously lion's share to the foodie buffs in the batch) and relish every bite of it, whilst gossipping about the lecturers, guys, movies what not? I wish we all could meet after 10 or more years at some place and share these precious moments again....Miss you all darlings...These bajjis are for you (naaluge chesaanu 7 members ki ela ani already doubt vachesindi kadaa...kikiki...share chesukundamle)

Ok coming to the present...as soon as Suman left to India I started roaming in the city centre...I bid him send off in the bus station and without returning to home I went to the city centre to do some bewaars (useless) shopping...I found the long green chillies (for stuffing) in Tesco....So I thought I'ld make these bajjis...The recipe is very simple...I followed our Hyderabadi girl Cinnamon's Recipe, except that I added sesame seeds and dessicated coconut for stuffing...avoided boiling of green chillies too...Mrs Lazy Bones...that's me...hehehehe..

Ingredients:

Besan/Gram Flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 tsp
Green chillies - 4 (make a slit length-wise and carefully remove the seeds, if you don't you'll have to enjoy the pleasure of burning your tongue :P)
Baking Soda - 1 pinch
Salt - to taste
Ajwain seeds - 1/2 tsp
Peanuts - 1 table spoon (dry roast them and grind to a smooth powder)
Sesame seeds - 1 table spoon (dry roast and grind to a smooth powder)
Dessicated coconut - 1 table spoon
Tamarind juice - 1 table spoon
Oil - for frying
Onion - 1 small - chopped finely
Lemon slices - 2

Procedure:

1. Mix the Gram flour, rice flour, ajwain seeds, salt and baking soda in a bowl using water to make a smooth batter. Should be of thick consistency
2. Mix the peanut powder, sesame seeds powder, dessicated coconut, salt with tamarind juice and make a thick paste.
3. Stuff the green chillies with this paste.
4. Heat Oil in a deep bottomed Pan and when the oil is piping hot, turn the flame to medium.
5. Dip this stuffed chillies in the flour batter and drop carefully in the Oil.
6. Fry them until golden brown and place on a tissue to absorb the excess oil.
7. Again make a slit length-wise on these bajjis and stuff the onion pieces and sprinkle some lemon juice.
8. Serve HOT

Tulsi/Basil Tea:

I learned to make this tea from my Aunt in Hyderabad..Very aromatic and tasty beverage.All you need to do is immerse a tea bag and few fresh basil leaves in boiling water and leave for a min. Remove the leaves n tea bag and add a few drops of lemon juice and honey. Mix well and enjoy it with your favourite evening snack.

Vangi Bath - Baby Augberine Rice

2007-08-19T15:25:00.000+01:00

I dunno where this recipe had its origin...But my hubby told me that they used to have it for mid-morning meal in Shimoga (Karnataka) where he did his engineering...He is a big fan of Brinjal/Egg Plant/Augberines...Though I do not like this vegetable a lot, I use it frequently in my kitchen to satiate my hubby's palate...It's a bit painstaking, but for those who love this vegetable, this recipe would be a perfect main dish in their meal.

Ingredients:

For the spice powder,

Cumin seeds - 2 teaspoon

Dhania (Coriander seeds) - 1 teaspoon

Blackgram dal - 3 teaspoon

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Red chillies - 4 small

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick broken into tiny pieces

Cloves - 3-4

Oil - 2 teaspoons

Heat the oil in a skillet and roast all the above ingredients. Take care not to burn them. Cool the mixture and grind into a smooth powder in a mill. Set this aside.

Ingredients for the Vangi Bath:

Basmati Rice - 4 cups (Cooked)

Spice powder - 2 table spoons
Baby Augberines/vankayalu/Brinjals/Baby eggplants - 500gm - cleaned and cut into chunks

Onions - 1 large (sliced)
Green chillies - 5 chopped

Tamarind juice - 1 table spoon

Jaggery - 1 teaspoon (grated)
Turmeric - 1/4th teaspoon
Cashews - 10-12 (dry roasted)

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves - 10

Chana Dal - 1 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Oil - 100ml

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a wide bottomed pan. When the oil get hot, add the chana dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

2. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the green chillies and onion pieces and saute until onions turn transperent.

3. Now add the turmeric and brinjal pieces and close the pan with a lid cook on medium flame for about 5-7min.

4. When the brinjal pieces start turning soft add the tamarind juice, salt, spice powder and grated jaggery and mix well. Add little water if the mixture is too dry. Cook on medium flame for 3-4min.

5. Now add the cooked Basmati Rice and mix thoroughly.

6. Garnish with roasted cashews.

Serve warm with raitha or any low-spice leveled chutney (like coconut chutney). Can be consumed on its own too...

You can add dessicated coconut as a supplement.

I would like to submit this as an entry to the JFI event for August hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam.

Watermelon Halwa

2007-08-19T14:25:00.000+01:00

This's one of my recent cooking experiments...I found these watermelons at a very low price in the local farmer's market and hence purchased one and brought home...I carried it all the way home by walk...And then came up the question..What do I do with it...We both ate few slices each (3-4), but still there was so much left to be stored in the fridge...I made some juice, bottled it up and stored....But still I had 2 large slices left...hmm then I wanted to try some new recipe with watermelon...

My ammamma used to make pumkin halwa...So I started to make something similar with watermelon...Both of them look alike, but there's lot of difference in the inner texture of both these fruits...I realised that I cannot just replace the pumpkin with watermelon to make the halwa..But by then I already started so wanted to go ahead..Finally it came out with a nice color and texture...Taste was lil bit different...It was for sure eatable...Here's the recipe..

Ingredients:

Watermelon pieces - 2 cups (cut into chunks)
Suji/Semolina - 1 cup (roast it in a table spoon of Ghee and set aside)
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4th cup
Cardamon powder - 1 pinch
Cashews - 5 (roast in ghee and set aside)
Raisins -5 (roast in ghee and set aside)

Procedure:

1. Crush the watermelon pieces and mix the sugar. Take this mixture in a sauce pan and simmer it for abt 3-4min. Do not add water. Set this mixture aside.
2. In a heavy bottomed vessel heat the milk and bring to boil.
3. When the milk starts to boil reduce the flame to low, add the cardamon powder and roasted suji. Stir continously to avoid any lumps.
4. After 1-2min, when the contents start to thicken add the watermelon and sugar mixture to this and mix thoroughly.
5. Decorate with roasted cashews and raisins.
6. Let it cool for 30-40min.

This Halwa can be consumed as it is or can be shaped n cut into thick slices after cooling.

Bell Pepper - Potato Sticks Fry

2007-08-19T13:43:00.000+01:00

I fell in love with these colorful Bell Peppers/Capsicum after I stepped out of India...They were not very frequently seen in the local market whilst I was a child...So I didn't taste them for many years...It's only in Hyderbad at my Uncle's house I tasted the capsicum curry for the first time...Attamma used to make capsicum curry mixed with peanuts powder...and they were only green bell peppers...

After I started my own cooking I tried these red/yellow/green peppers in many veggie curries...I love them in salads, chutneys, curries, frys, stuffed recipes...Especially when cooked together with potatoes I simply love that combination...I make this fry very often...not only a feast to the tummy, but with its colorful appearance it's a feast to our eyes too...Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Bell Pepper - 2 (1 Green, 1 Red) - Cut intlo long chunks
Potatoes - 2 - washed,peeled and cut into long sticks
Red Onion - 1 - sliced
Green chillies - 3 - chopped
Salt - to taste
Turmeric - 1/4th teaspoon
Oil - 1 table spoon
For Tadka/popu - cumin, mustard, urad dal - 1/2 teaspoon each and red chillies - 2

Procedure:

1. In a saucepan bring water to boil. Add the turmeric powder to the water and some salt. Then add the potato sticks. Leave for 3-4min. Do not over boil the potatoes. Drain the water and keep the potato sticks aside.
2. Heat oil in a Pan and add the urad dal, cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Add the red chillies too.
3. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add the green chillies and onions. Saute them till onions turn soft.
4. Now add the capsicum chunks, salt and mix well. Cook for abt 3-4min.
5. When the capsicum turns soft add the potato sticks and mix thoroughly. Cook for 3-4min and turn off the flame.

Serve hot with rice or chapathis.

Tricolor Fusilli for Independence Day

2007-08-12T09:47:00.000+01:00

Every year on August 15th my mom used to make Rangeela Pooris (Poori with spinach and carrot to get the Red/Green/Cream (white) colors as in our Indian Flag)...We used to call it as India Puri...

I wanted to cook something colorful this weekend...I selected my Fav Italian dish - Pasta...I found pasta spirals in three different colors at Tesco...Red/Green/Cream...I made white sauce at home and cooked these pasta sprials in salted water and mixed with the white sauce. I also added green peas and carrots for nutrients...

Ingdredients:

Fusilli - 2 cups (Boiled in salted water for 10min and drained)
White sauce - 300ml (you can find the recipe here or in my previous post)
Green peas - 1/2 cup (boiled)
Grated carrot - 1/2 cup
Salt n Pepper - To taste

Procedure:

1. After preparing the white sauce with milk, flour,butter, salt n pepper, turn down the flame to low and add the grated carrot and boiled green peas.
2. Finally add the pre-boiled Fusilli and cook for 3-4min on low.

Serve warm...You can make it spicy by adding chilli powder, crushed garlic...with just salt n pepper this tastes less spicy (my preference in pasta cooking)

Masala Vada...Left overs can be converted to a delicious curry

2007-08-11T14:56:00.000+01:00

Masala Vada/Gaare...when you look at this name what do you think of? Well, before I tasted them, I used to imagine that they are normal Garelu with some masala paste added to them...But this recipe is like our Mysore Bonda with no Mysore in it...:D...It has no ingredients other than ginger to be called as Masala......then where did this name come from?????
I dunno....:(...Masala vada is a famous evening snack in Nellore, my hometown, which is very close to Tamilnadu...and this recipe has been adapted from TamilNadu cuisine(Source of info - Nellore VRC centre daggara mobile-canteen vala)...Just like the punugulu in Krishna Dt, Mirchi Bajji in Hyderabad, So is the Masala vada in Nellore...

Also from Sharmi's first post, I came to know its Tamil name - Parupu Vadai (Parupu is pappu I guess, since we make it with Chana dal pappu, it might have been named like that)..Sharmi, please if you happen to see this post let me know if I am wrong in interpreting its meaning...

Ok then..without much story telling I'll post the recipe..But haaa...I have one more thing to say...In Nellore you'll also find a recipe called Masala vadalu pulusu...these Masala vadalu cooked in tamarind sauce...My mom never made this, but I tasted it in many of my friends' houses...Left over masala vadalu can be used for this recipe...Ok now...end of introduction...

Ingredients:

Chana Dal - 2 cups (soak in hot water for 30min and drain)
Onion pieces - 1/2 cup
Green Chillies - 4 (chopped)
Ginger - 1 inch piece (chopped)
Curry leaves - 6-8
Salt - as per taste
Oil - to fry

Procedure:

1. Grind the Chana dal to a semi-ground textured paste (do not add water, if at all it is difficult to grind, add little water)
2. Now add the onion pieces, chopped green chillies, ginger pieces, curry leaves and salt and grind for just 2-4sec. Do not grind them for long.
3. Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai. When oil is piping hot, reduce the flame to medium high
4. Make patties with the ground paste on your palm and drop them carefully in the oil.
5. Deep fry them and place on a tissue for the excess oil to be absorbed.

Serve hot/warm/cold however you like...crispy, tasty masala vadalu ready....:D.....you do not need any chutney with this...they taste well on their own...

The story doesn't end here. As I told you, the left overs can be used for a gravy curry...

Ingredients:

Masala vadalu - 6-8 (left overs)
Onion - 1 sliced
Tomato - 1 cut into chunks
Tamarind pulp - 1 table spoon
Water - 2 cups
Salt - as per taste
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

For tadka/popu,

Oil - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5-8

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a wide pan, when the oil is hot add fenugreek, cumin and mustard seeds.
2. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add the curry leaves
3. Now add the onions and saute them till transperent
4. Add the turmeric powder and mix well
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2min.
6. Add the salt and Red chilli powder and mix well.
7. Now add the tamarind paste and water and stir well.
8. Cook on medium flame until the gravy/sauce starts to boil.
9. Then add the masala vadalu and simmer for 3-5min.
10. Switch off and close the pan with a lid. Let the masala vadalu soak well (30min) and absorb the tamarind flavour before serving.

Serve warm with hot steamed rice.

Penne in Mushroom n Basil White Sauce

2007-08-11T14:20:00.000+01:00

After Indian n Mexican cuisines I like Italian food a lot...especially I get attracted to the creamy texture of few pasta recipes...After seeing Cinnamon's Penne recipe, I wanted to try it with my favourite mushroom n Basil Combo...Since this's the first time I was cooking Pasta at home, I searched for a simple, quick way of preparing the pasta sauce...and I found it here

I followed the white sauce recipe as it is, added crushed garlic pods, dried basil and mushroom mix to the sauce and then the pre-cooked Penne..Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

Penne - 2 cups (cooked in lightly salted boiling water for 10min and drained)

Milk - 400ml

Plain flour - 1 table spoon

Butter (unsalted) - 1 table spoon

Salt and Pepper - as per taste

Crushed garlic - 1/2 tsp

Basil and Mushroom mix - 1 table spoon (dried) - fresh cut basil and boiled mushroom pieces can be substituted

Procedure:

1. Take a deep bottomed sauce pan, heat the butter in the pan and when it melts add flour and mix well. Cook for 1-2min

2. Now slowly add the milk whilst stirring continously. Let it come to boil.

3. Add the crushed garlic and mix

4. Cook on medium flame for 5-7 min, until the sauce thickens.

5. Add salt and pepper and then the dried basil n mushroom mix to this sauce. Stir continously.

6. Finally add the cooked penne, mix well and simmer for 3-5min.

Tastes great when served hot. I purchased Penne made of durum wheat which has Low GI (Glyceamic Index) and hence good for health....

Protein Punch - Bean Burgers

2007-08-04T18:22:00.000+01:00

I don't remember how I fell in love with North Indian recipes..But whenever we go to a restaurant, all others who accompany me 'll be looking at the South Indian dishes in the menu, but I always used to select some North Indian dish...Rajma (kidney beans) is one of my favourite ingredient...I used to make Rajma pulav during my stay in US...My roomies also loved Rajma so I used to cook it almost 2-3 times in a month...But after getting married I hardly cook Rajma...the reasons are obvious..My hubby has a bitter aversion towards any kind of beans/peas...Kidney beans, Chick peas (Gorbanzo beans), Butter beans, Lima beans...A big NO to all of them....

I purchased Rajma, Chick peas and Green peas last month...I somehow wanted to make him eat these...But the moment he observes me cooking any of these he'ld say that he's not hungry and he'll have just some curd rice...So I decided to cook them without his notice...Yesterday I came back home early and soaked all these together...This morning he was a lion as usual, while I made burgers out of these beans and served them for breakfast...He asked me what burgers are those, I replied him "Veggie Burgers"...He might have taken it fot granted that they were made out of potato/corn flour...the usual veggie burger stuff...He had a bite and then asked me what are these...I again repeated "Veggie Burgers, Veggie Burgers, Veggie Burgers"...He ate silently and after his breakfast asked me how I made them..I explained....He said he liked the taste, but that he cannot eat them very frequently (he thought I'ld use this trick every week now)and no more comments from his side...

I liked the taste a lot, no starchy ingredients, less oil, less fuss...We had them sandwiched with rotis and tomato sauce...They just look like normal veggie burgers, can be served within a burger bun as usual...

Ingredients:

Rajma (kidney beans) - 1 cup
Chick peas (Gorbanzo beans) - 1/2 cup
Green Peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 large - sliced
Green Chillies - 5 - chopped
Coriander - 3 to strips - cleaned and cut
Salt - as per taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Oil - To pan fry the burgers

Procedure:

1. Soak the kidney beans, chick peas, green peas together over night.
2. Pressure cook with water and salt. Let them cool. Drain all the water.
3. Take the onion slices, green chillies and coriander, turmeric powder into a blender and make a paste.
4. Now add these drained beans,peas and blend together.
5. Add cornflour to this mixture to make a thick paste.
6. Heat a pan and take a spoon full of this paste and spread like a burger pattie.
7. Add few drops around the pattie and roast for about 3-5min on each side. You can cook 2-4 patties at a time depending on the size of the pan. Take care that it's cooked well inside too.

Serve them with burger buns, salad and ketch up/mayo....can be served with chapatis too..my preference (as I love chapatis a lotttttt)....

Custard-Dates Cake

2007-08-04T17:16:00.000+01:00

I'm back on to my baking spree...From 14th of august we enter into Sravana Masam which's considered very auspicious and many poojas are performed on the tuesdays and fridays of the whole month...we offer authentic Indian Naivedyam (sweets like paramannam, pongali, pulagam etc etc) to God...I'll be cooking (experimenting would be a better word) many of these dishes all thru the month for my poojas...So I thought I'ld bake a cake today and then start off with my Indian sweet dishes in the coming few weeks...

I never tasted the combo of cake n custard until I came to the UK. Chacolate cake topped with custard used to be our staple dessert in thursday's menu at the canteen in LG. I liked the taste a lot...So I decided to try it at home today...But Suman doesn't like chacolate flavour..He's a vanilla lover..So I made a vanilla sponge cake, topped it with whipped cream, custard and dates...Very easy to prepare and tasty too...Here goes the recipe..

For the Custard,

I used readymade custard powder (Bird's Eye). All we need to do is dissolve this powder in hot water, stir continously to remove any lumps, let the mix cool and refrigerate it for a couple of Hrs. The final outcome should be a custard mix of thick consistency (like Jam).

For Sponge Cake,

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1 cup (melted)
Sugar - 1/2 cup (powdered) - I used brown Sugar
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1 pinch
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 200C
2. Sift flour and sugar together.
3. Take a bowl, add the milk and break the egg into the bowl. Beat thoroughly. Now add the butter to this and beat well.
4. Mix the flour/sugar into this mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence,baking soda and baking powder and mix thoroughly.
6. Take a baking tray (cake pan), grease the bottom with some butter and dust the tray with some flour.
7. Pour the cake mix and see that it's evenly leveled.
8. Bake this mix for about 20min or until the cake is done.
9. Cool on a wire rack. Cake should be completely cooled.
10. Invert this cake pan onto a plate and carefully seperate the cake from the pan. Set aside.

Now take the custard mix and spread it on the top of the cake. Decorate it with whipped cream and Dates(Sliced). Refrigerate for about 30min for the custard to set. Slice the Cake and Serve.

I haven't done much to prepare this.....Luckily the cake turned out very well and hence the taste was good.

Can someone name these?...Bobbattlu???

2007-07-29T17:32:00.001+01:00

There's an age old idiom in telugu "Ayyavaari vigraham cheyabothe adi pilli ayindi"...That's what happened today...

I wanted to make coconut jaggery sweet...the famous kobbari louju...but it turned out to be something like bobbatlu (Puran poli), with a different stuffing....

I chose kobbari louju because it's a very easy recipe...Dissolve grated jaggery in water, boil it to a thick consistency (theega pakam), add freshly grated coconut and cardamon powder, mix well..cool and spread it evenly on a greased plate, cut into pieces with a knife when it solidifies...so easy...

So Get set go..I started with boiling the water with Jaggery...I think I've added too much water and hence I was not able to get that consistency (theega pakam)....hmmm I had no more jaggery left to add so that I can get the required consistency...Then I decided to add something else...I found dalia (fried chick peas)..I quickly measured a cup full of dalia and blended them to a smooth powder using the mill.

I then added this powder to the jaggery mixture...hmmm, now I got the required thickness...Then I added the fresh grated coconut and mixed well...Put off the flame..cooled down and made lemon sized balls like laddus....I thought "Hammayya, it's not a failure atlast"..

Suman returned back home from his sunday cricket practice...I proudly showed him my new creation....I didn't tell him about the addition of dalia powder..Just told him that I made kobbari louju....He was so delighted...Tasted it and said.."It's something different but good, what did u do papa?"....

Then with my trade mark wicked smile I told him about the recipe....He sighed n said..."Hmmm another experiment...but this's good, it tastes like the mix inside our bobbattlu"....

Haayyyyyyy....he unintentionally used the term bobbattlu...Then I jumped into the kitchen and started making the flour for bobbattlu...He screamed "Ippude ga chesaav, malli em chesthunnav?"..I told him that I was making bobbattlu...

He's totally puzzled...I couldn't explain his facial expressions, but his inane feeling was "Ee pillatho nenu ela vegaali devudaa..God how do I tolerate this girl?"

He was just yelling, but I continued...mixed a cup of all purpose flour with ghee and water and made rotis with that dough...stuffed that kobbari louju(???) into these rotis and made bobbattlu...

They tasted good, very different from normal bobbattlu because of the stuffing I used....Normal bobbattlu contain boiled chana dal, jaggery ground to a paste...My recipe contained dalia (very close to chana dal), jaggery and haa grated coconut is an addittion...so what...coconut tastes good when cooked with jaggery...all that matters is the taste..Isn't it?

Now my hubby wants me to make some more bobbattlu so that we can take them to our friends' home who invited us for dinner today...well, that explains a lot..that my new experiment isn't a fiasco...

For those brave souls who want to try this recipe here are the measurements...

Grated Jaggery - One cup

Grated coconut - One cup

Dalia/Roasted chick peas/Putnalu pappu - One cup (powdered)

All purpose flour - One cup

Water

Ghee

Cardamon powder - 1 pinch

They taste well when topped with a drop of Ghee and served hot..Just as the normal bobbattlu

Dibba Rotti (Rice Flour Roti) - Akki Roti

2007-07-29T13:40:00.000+01:00

I've been making these for the past one year, but never knew that the recipe is from Karnataka cuisine and was known as Akki Roti. I always called it as dibba rotti (sounds odd..isn't it?)...People tend to comment those who are little plumpy as Dibba Rottis...the reason being these Rottis are little thick....I've recently come across a wonderful blog of Padma where she posted her version of rice flour rotis. It was then I noticed that this recipe was from Karnataka...Thanks for sharing Padma..

My recipe is slightly different..By now, you might have got used to my way of using ingredients...I just tend to mix whatever I feel like and try my level best to avoid as many ingredients as possible from the original version according to my convinience...If it comes out tasty well and good...If not, lite theesko tendency....

I love these akki rotis (no more addressing them as dibba rottis...akki rotis sounds good) for they are very easy to make and doesn't need any prior soaking, grinding, fermenting bla bla bla stuff. Here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups

Onions - 1 - Finely chopped

Green chillies - 4 - Finely chopped

Chana dal - 1 table spoon (soak in hot water and drain)

Cumin - 1 tsp

Salt - as per taste

Warm water to mix

Oil to roast

Procedure:

1. Mix all the above ingredients except water. Pour warm water gradually and mix to a thick batter consistency.

2. Take a Tava (dosa pan) and grease the surface with oil. Pour a ladle full of the above batter and spread using your hand into a circular shape (you cannot spread it like normal dosa batter because of its different texture and consistency).

3. Now swtich on the stove and add 1/2 tsp oil around the edges of the roti.

4. Cover the pan with a lid (atleast the portion of the pan with roti). Cook for 2-4min.

5. Turn to the other side carefully and cook for another 2min (No need to close with the lid now).

6. Make sure the roti is roasted well on both the sides and remove from the pan.

7. Run cold water on the bottom of the pan to let it cool and repeat the procedure for remaining rotis.

Serve with any chutney. We eat with peanut chutney/coconut-roasted chickpeas chutney.

Egg Cutlets with Pappu Charu (Toor dal rasam)

2007-07-29T13:03:00.000+01:00

I lately realised that I'd completed my half century of posts..Time really flies...I never expected myself to be a regular blogger...

Well, for ppl who've gone thru my previous suthi post might be wondering why I blabbered a lot abt Eggs...becoz I made Egg cutlets on Friday...One of my favourite recipes with Eggs...They can be served as a starter or an accomplishment to a main meal...I also made Toor Dal Rasam (Pappu charu) which goes well with these cutlets....

Recipe For Egg Cutlet:

Ingredients:

For cutlet,
Eggs - 3
Milk - 50ml
Ginger/Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Onions - finely chopped - 1 table spoon
Green chillies - finely chopped - 1 Tsp (2 chillies)
Salt - 1/2 - 1 tsp (adjust)

For roasting,
Oil - 1 table spoon
Onions - 1- Sliced
Garam masala (or coriander/cumin powder) - 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Mix all the ingredients for cutlet in a bowl thoroughly.

2. Steam cook this mixture in a pressure cooker until 3 whistles. You'll get a cake like structure. You'll have to cut into pieces. Alternately you can put this mixture in idli plates (greased) and cook them like normal Idlis.

3. Keep these cutlets aside.

4. In a pan heat oil and saute the onions till they turn transperent. Add the garam masala powder and mix well.

5. Place these cutlets in the pan and cook them for about 5 min. Make sure that both the sides get cooked well(switch off the stove when they start turning brown).

Recipe for Toor Dal Rasam (Pappu Charu):

Ingredients:
Toor Dal - 1 cup (washed)
Onion - 1 sliced
Green Chillies - 3 sliced and cut
Tomatoes - 1 cut into chunks
Tamarind juice - Extract from one lemon sized ball of tamarind
Water - 3-4 cups

Procedure:

1. Take all the above ingrdients in a pressure cooker and cook until 3 whistles.

2. After the pressure is released open the lid and slightly mash the dal

3. Add salt and mix well.

4. Make the popu (tadka) - Heat a tsp oil in kadai and add cumin, mustard, urad dal (1/2 tsp each) , 2 dried red chillies and garlic flakes. Curry leaves can be added too.

5. Add this popu to the toor dal rasam.

Serve the egg cutlets and pappu charu with rice.

Capsicum-Coconut Rice

2007-07-22T13:14:00.000+01:00

It's sunday today, raining cats and dogs since morning....Our typical sunday menu would be some variety of dosa for the breakfast, a nov-veg curry + a dessert for the lunch, Rotis with left over curry for the dinner...we normally prefer to buy meat/fish the day we cook them...There's an Asian Halal shop very close to our house and hence we buy the meat on Sunday itself and cook immediately....

But today Suman's been a lion till mid morning...I was not that keen to walk to the shop getting myself drenched in the rain...So I decided on a veggie meal for the lunch....It's a very common practice in our houses back in India to have non-veg on sundays...No hurry burry packing for lunch boxes, so mom could liesurely cook nv items which normally take longer time. If at all someone visits our home in between 10AM-12Noon on a Sunday morning, he/she'll for sure enjoy the aroma from our kitchen (this emanates while our amma grinds kuskus, dry coconut flakes, cinnamon, cloves with ginger and garlic)...You'll have to take my word abt this...Even today amma, attamma would have made the same masala for the curry....

From my yesterday's pizza preparation I had some left over sliced capsicum and mushrooms in the fridge. So I thought of making some fried rice kind of recipe...I generally don't prefer to use readymade garam masala powders for any of my recipes...that too on a weekend..'ll have plenty of time to prepare the masala powder by myself.....I add whatever I find in my kitchen cup-boards, take no measurements add whatever amount I feel like (depending upon my choice of spiciness for that dish), dry roast them and grind them in a mill...I take all the liberty under the sun to try each n every ingredient with different permutations and combinations..please excuse my grammatical mathematics....

Too much introduction for a recipe....hmmmm...'ll stop here...Here's the recipe I followed..

Ingredients:

Rice - 3 cups (cooked)

Onion - 1 sliced

Green chillies - 4 sliced

Capsicum - 2 sliced

Mushrooms - 1/2 cup sliced

Dessicated dry coconut - 1 table spoon (I used readymade coconut powder)

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tea spoon

Salt - as per taste

Oil - 1 tablespoon

For the powder,

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece (broken into tiny pieces)

Cloves - 4

Cardamon pods - 3

Black peppercorn (miriyalu) - 10

Khuskhus (gasagasalu) - 1 table spoon

Procedure:

1. Dry roast the 5 ingredients (listed for powder) in a pan, let the mixture to cool down and grind into a coarse powder in a mill.

2. Heat Oil in a pan, add the ginger garlic paste and roast for 30 sec.

3. Add the green chillies, onion pieces and saute till onions turn transparent.

4. Add the coconut powder and mix well.

5. Now add the spices powder and then the vegetables (capsicum and mushrooms)

6. Add salt to this and mix well. Cover with a lid and cook for 5min on medium flame.

7. Finally add the rice and mix thoroughly. Cook for 3-5 min on low flame and turn off the flame.

Serve with raita. Tastes good on its own too....Roasted cashews can be added for garnishing.

Final Note: I hereby promise all the readers of my blog that this would be my last recipe for this weekend..No more torturing...'m bored too...:(

Home made Veggie Pizza

2007-07-21T18:20:00.000+01:00

I've tasted pizza for the first time during my college days in India...I've done my engg in a city called Vijayawada in AP...It was a hub for many educational institutions and hence was then one of the very rapidly developing cities...We were 7 girls in the hostel as a group...Among us me, chandu, swapna n jyothi were kind of foodie freaks...There were times when we even used to bunk the classes to go to Hot Breads, Sweet Magic (Food corners) in Bunder Road...hmmmm I'm getting nostalgic now..Miss u all dearies...

Ok coming back to today's cooking saaga, I wanted to try something which's not from the Indian cuisine...I've recently came across a website describing the preparation of pizza dough...From that moment I wanted to try it at home...Somehow I don't prefer non-veg versions of West (I like non-veg items only when cooked with Indian Masalas), so I opted for a veggie version...Suman normally doesn't like any western food, but pizza is kind of OK to him...It came out very well as per taste, but the appearance was not that good...I need to improve on setting the Baking time in the Oven (slightly over baked it)..Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

For base,

Self-raising flour - 1 cup

Dried yeast - 1 tea spoon

Warm water - 1/2 cup (should not be luke warm or too hot, shld be able to touch)

Brown Sugar - 1/2 tea spoon (honey or normal sugar can be used too)

Salt - 1/4th tea spoon

Oil - to rub onto the base

For topping,

Tomatoes - 1 cup - sliced (I used tinned tomatoes, but fresh cut tomatoes are a good choice)

Capsicum/Bell Pepper - 2 - sliced (preferably of two different colors)

Red Onion - 1 - sliced

Green Chillies - 2 - sliced (Jalapeno peppers also can be used)

Mushrooms - 1/2 cup - washed and sliced

Cheese - 1/2 cup to 1 cup (your choice)- grated (I used cubes, but grated cheese would be a better option)

Any other toppings can also be added..like olives etc

Procedure:

1. Mix the flour, brown sugar, yeast and salt with warm water and make a dough. You can refer to the link below for a more clear picture.

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/breads/yeast/pizzadough.html

2. Now take a baking tray and grease it with some oil or butter. Dust it with some flour. Now, rub a lil oil onto your palm and spread this dough evenly onto the tray. Level the surface properly.

3. Top it with all the veggies first and then cheese on the top. I first topped it with tomatoes, then onions, green chillies and then bell pepper and finally mushroom. Spread the cheese evenly on the top.

4. If you think you need to add more salt you can sprinkle some salt on the top now.

5. Put this tray in a pre-heated oven to 200C and bake for about 15-20min or until the crust is crispy.

Aahaaa....finally a yummy yummy weekend treat to my love with love, Home made veggie pizza served with tomato sauce and accompanied by a glass of mango juice topped with cream....I made 4 pieces and none's left now....me a pizza cook..hahahaha....'m on cloud nine...

Nethi-Karam Dosa - Ghee dosa with Onion chutney and fried lentil-spice powder

2007-07-21T11:34:00.000+01:00

Dosa with erra kaaram and pappula podi combo drizzled with Ghee is one of my favourite breakfast items...In our hometown there's a hotel called Venkatramana Vilas which is well known for its Nethi dosa...yummy yummy..hot n spicy melts in your mouth...there are many versions of kaaram dosa..this's one among them...

1. Make dosa batter (Soak 3:1 ratio of rice and urad dal over night, grind to a thick batter consistency adding little water in a blender, add required salt and a pinch of baking soda, keep it aside for 3hrs)

2. Errakaram - Blend one onion, 2 garlic flakes, 4 dried red chillies with salt and water (very little) to a smooth paste

3. Pappula Podi - Grind a cup of fried gram (putnala pappu/ dalia)with 3 garlic flakes, 5 red chillies, 1/2 tea spoon cumin seeds and salt to a smooth powder in a mill.

Final Procedure

Heat a pan and rub with a half-cut onion.

Take a spoon full of dosa batter (1) and pour in the centre using a ladle. Rotate the back end of the ladle and spread the batter to a circular shape of 10-15cm diameter.

Add few drops of ghee around the ends of the dosa. After 20 sec turn to the other side. Let it cook for 5 sec and turn back again.

Now take a 1/2 tea spoon full of erra karam (2) and spread on the Dosa

Spread a 1/2 tea spoon full of pappula podi (3) over the dosa

Add few drops of Ghee onto the top, fold the dosa and take it off from the pan.

Delicious when served hot.

Coco-Jag-wheat pancakes - Theepi atlu

2007-07-01T13:52:00.000+01:00

I made wheat dosa with Jaggery and coconut last weekend. I dunno how to name it....It tasted good and was a very quick n easy recipe.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1-2 table spoons (grated) - adjust according to your taste

Coconut - 1 table spoon (grated)

Cardamon Pods - 2 (make fine powder frm the seeds)

Water

Oil - 1 tea spoon

Method:

Apart from the oil, mix all the above ingredients to a batter consistency. Heat Pan and pour one ladle full of batter on the pan. Spread it to 10-15cm diameter on the pan with the back of ladle. Add few drops of oil to the ends of the pancake/dosa. Once it gets heated turn over and heat the other side too. Serve warm.

Tripple Dhamaka with Sweetcorn

2007-07-01T13:09:00.000+01:00

It's my turn now...I chose sweetcorn for today's cooking...I made a paste with sweetcorn, ginger, garlic and green chillies and made 3 different kinds of recipes...

Ingredients for the paste:

Sweetcorn - 750gm

Ginger - 3/4th inch piece

Garlic - 4 pods

Salt - 1 tea spoon

Green chillies - 3-4

Method:

Take all the above ingredients in a blender and grind it to a smooth paste. Do not add water. The paste looks like this.

Recipe 1 : Sweetcorn cutlets - Mokkajonna chitti garelu

Take a plastic sheet, wet your hands with little oil and make small lemon sized balls with the above paste and shape them into small cutlets. Heat Oil in a wok and when the oil is hot enough, turn to low flame and fry these cutlets until golden brown. Place on a tissue paper so that the excess oil gets absorbed. Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Recipe 2: Sweetcorn-onion fritters - Mokkajonna Ulli Pakodi

Slice one onion length-wise and mix the onion pieces in the above sweetcorn paste. Once the onion pieces are well coated with the paste fry them on medium flame in the oil. Serve hot with tea as a snack.

Recipe 3: Sweetcorn Roti - Mokkajonna chapathi

Mix the above paste with one tablespoon wheat flour and make the dough. Make lemon sized balls out of this dough and using a rolling pin, make the rotis. Heat the pan. Coat these rotis with few drops of oil and cook them on the pan until brown spots appear. These rotis have a subtle sweet taste because of the sweetcorn. They can be served on their own or accompained by any curry.

Here ends my sweetcorn saga...My next dhamaka ingredient would be green peas..hehehehe...I'll come up with those recipes in a few weeks time...

Pappu Chekkalu...grandma's recipe

2007-06-14T16:09:00.000+01:00

My grandmother is from a place called diviseema in Krishna Dt. As far as I know people of the coastal Andhra are great food lovers and we are no exception to this. Granny used to make loads and loads of sweets and savoury snacks for us when we visited her during our summer holidays. Not only during the holidays, whenever a person from her village comes to our hometown Nellore, she sends two jute bags fully filled with these food items. Now even at the age of 80years, she tries to cook many of these items and send to her children n grandchildren. God knows where all the energy comes from...

I can never ever compete with her cooking skills, but I often try this recipe of pappu chekkalu at home. Surprisingly, they usually come out very well. This is the only recipe out of her list that I can make well. I do not make them in large scale. Just 10 or 20 is the max count.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 cups

Besan (split peas flour) - 1 table spoon

Chana dal - 1 table spoon (Soak in hot water for 10min and drain)

Onion - 1 small (cut into tiny pieces)

Green chillies - 5 (chopped)

Cumin seeds - 2 tea spoons

Ghee - 2 table spoons

Salt

Oil (for deep frying)

Method:

Except the oil (for deep frying) mix all the above ingredients and make a dough. Cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel and set aside for 30min. Take a plastic sheet rub oil into the hands. Make lemon sized balls out of the dough and flatten with the fingers as shown in the picture. Heat Oil in a deep frying pan. When the oil is piping hot fry these flattened pieces in batches until crisp/gold brown. After frying them place on a tissue paper to absorb the oil. These can be stored in an air tight container for 3-4 days.

Ghee, oil, deep fry..these words are alarming, but less alarming when compared to the junike fries and fast food ;).

Bottle gourd in Butter milk (sorakaya majjiga pulusu)

2007-06-10T13:04:00.000+01:00

Majjiga pulsu (onions/green chillies sauted in oil with tadka/spices soaked in buttermilk) is one of my favourite items. My dad and suman are fans as well. When I was staying in US, one of my batchmates who was from Karnataka used to prepare an item called Majjige Holli (I don't excatly remember the name) with butter milk and bottle gourd. It's similar to our traditional Majjiga pulsu. I altered her (friend in US) recipe according to my convinience. Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd pieces - 1 Cup

Butter milk - 2 cups

Onions - 1 (slice into small pieces)

Green chillis - 4 (chopped)

Garlic - 1 clove

Curry leaves - 8

Turmeric - 1/2 tspn

Salt - 2 tspn

Oil - 3 tspns

Popu/Tadka - Cumin/mustard/chana dal/urad dal - 1 tspn each ; Red chillis - 1 (tear into pieces)

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and add the tadka/popu ingredients. Add garlic clove(cut into pieces) and curry leaves. Add green chillis, onions and saute them for a while. Add turmeric, mix well. After a few min add the bottle gourd pieces and salt. Cover the vessel with a lid and cook on low for 4-5 min. Bottle gourd can cook on its own mositure, so no need to add water at this stage. When the bottle gourd pieces turns soft add the butter milk and mix well. Swtich off the flame and let it stand for 20-30min. Serve warm with Rice.

Biscova...my new experiment

2007-06-10T11:57:00.000+01:00

Last weekend when we were out for Grocery Shopping I happened to see a condensed milk tin in Tesco...I've been hearing about it that it's already sweetened and can be used in various sweets. The tin seemed so attractive with a recipe printed on it (Bannofi Pie)...So I thought I'ld make it and hence purchased the tin.

Yesterday when I wanted to make the Bannofi Pie, one of the cheif ingredients for that, 'BANANA' was missing at home...Huhhhh...I thought I shld have read the recipe there in Tesco so that I could check for the ingredients and purchase...hmmm lesson learnt...

Never mind, there are loads of recipes on the net with condensed milk...So I was browsing and came across a recipe called Kalakand (microwave version) with very few ingredients (Condensed milk,Yogurt and ghee)...Hehehehe...seemed to simple (Thanks to Prathibha for this quickie, It's on http://www.indiaparenting.com/cookingclub/mainrecipe.cgi?recipe_id=929&cuisine_id=10)

So I started to make this...While I was searching for my ghee tin, I came across a pack of McVities Tea biscuits...Poor biskies, they were there since one month...ehahahaha...I had a cruel smile, with a raised eyebrow...I had a thought "what if I crush these poor biskies to a powder and mix with the kalakand"...Afterall it's my experiment and I am the one who has to taste it..Ofcourse Suman as well...But he never complains abt my cooking..So I've altered the kalakand recipe and ended up doing a cake shaped sweet with biscuits n Kova (kalakand)

Biscuits + Kova - Biscova....Hehehehehe...I could name this on my own...I googled if there is anyword like Biscova. I found in some other language..[:o] definitely not in English...So please dont take me wrong if it means something weird in that language.

It's very easy n simple. So I'm posting the recipe I followed here,

Ingredients:

Condensed milk - 1 tin (400gm)

Yogurt - 2 table spoons

Elachi powder - from 5 pods

Cashews - 10-15 (roasted in Ghee)

Ghee - 1 tea spoon

Biscuits - 6 ( I used tea biscuits) - Grind them into a powder.

Method:

In a microwave safe bowl pour the condensed milk, add yogurt and mix well. Microwave on high for 2 min. After 2 min take out the bowl and mix well. Put it back on high for 2 min. Take it out and mix elachi powder and put it back for 4 min. Now the mix turns to slight brown color. At this stage remove the bowl from microwave. (If it doesn't turn brown cook for further 2min sessions until done). Let it cool. Now add the biscuits powder and mix well thoroughly. I shld be like a paste. Now grease a plate with Ghee and pour this mixture. Make cuts with a knife and put it in the freezer for 1-2hr. Cut across the lines and garnish with roasted cashews at the end.

This shld be eaten within a day or so I think. I made only 6 slices, we both liked the recipe so we finished them in 24hrs.

Omlet - Silly experiment

2007-06-07T20:14:00.000+01:00

People who visited my blog left their comments that the recipes look very tempting and few of them even praised my cooking skills...Phewwwwww! Me a cook???? hehehehe...Most of my cooking experiments turn out to be disasters. If I keep posting only my successful recipes, my blog may end up as one of the many recipe blogs on the net. All those bloggers are genuinely good at cooking, but not me...So just to keep myself apart from such great cooks, I thought I'ld start posting my failures too...This microwave omlet is one among them...Not a disaster, but definitely not a good one.

Method: Mix two eggs, 2 tea spoons onion pieces, two green chillies cut into pieces, salt in a bowl just as you do for a normal omlet. Pour this mixture onto a microwavable plate and microwave it for abt 1min . After one min take the plate out and carefully reverse the omlet and put it back into the oven for one more min (depends on the power level - I did it for a total time of 2min on a 750W oven on High).

I didn't add any oil to this. May be that's the reason why it didn't taste as good as the stove top cooked omlet. For those who started wondering why this girl opted for a microwave version, I found this version in a telugu news paper and wanted to give a try. But somehow it was not tasty....:(

Mixed Vegetable Korma in Home made Sauce

2007-06-06T21:01:00.000+01:00

I prepare this recipe when we have sudden guests at home and I have bits and pieces of veggies in the fridge. It's a little lengthy process, but the taste comes out too good...Just because of the sauce I think...

Ingredients for Sauce:

Onions - 1 onion cut into small pieces

Coconut pieces - 1/2 cup (frm fresh coconut)

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (cut into small pieces)

Garlic - 3 cloves

Almonds/cashews - 1 table spoon (roasted)

Coriander seeds - 1/2 tea spoon (roasted)

Red chillies - 2 (tear into pieces)

Salt - 1 tea spoon

Ghee/Oil - 2-3 tea spoons

Yogurt - 1 table spoon

Lemon Juice - 1 tea spoon (optional)

Preparation - Heat Ghee/Oil in a pan and add red chillie pieces, ginger, garlic pieces and then the onions..saute them for abt 3-4min. Take these into a blender. Add roasted corainder seeds, almonds/cashews, coconut pieces, salt and yogurt. Make a smooth paste (add littile water if required). Add lemon juice to this paste if you want to and mix well. Put it aside

Ingredients for Korma:

Sauce prepared by the above process - 1 large cup.

Onions - 2 (sliced into pieces)

Green chillies - 6 (cut/sliced into small pieces)

Vegetables - Of your choice (cauliflower florets boiled in water, Potato peeled and cut into cubes, Tomatoes cut into pieces, capsicum cut into small pieces, beans/carrots/peas also can be used)

Oil - 1 Table spoon

Salt - to taste

Method:

Heat Oil in a large pan, add onions and green chillies..Roast until onions are soft add all the vegetables and sauce. Add required amount of salt and mix well. Cover the pan and cook on medium flame for 10-12 minutes. Serve hot with Roti or Rice.

Note:

If you feel like the curry is not spicy enough, add garam masala powder at the end.

Chikkudukaya (Beans) curry

2007-06-05T20:34:00.000+01:00

The only recipe I knew of these Beans is the normal fry. Whenever I make this fry recipe Suman complains...He doesn't like any vegetable from the Beans family. So today I wanted to try a different version. He loves gravy curries a lot so I decided to cook these beans in the gravy/sauce/powder. Now comes the question..What do I use to make this Powder? I opened my kitchen shelf and found peanuts and chanadal newly purchased....Couldn't even give a second thought..decided on them...and the curry came out very well...

Ingredients:

Peanuts - 1 table spoon

Chana Dal - 1 table spoon

Red Chillies - 4 or 5

Coriander seeds - 1 tea spoon

(Dry roast all the above ingredients and grind them into a fine powder)

Beans - 2 cups (cut into pieces and pressure cook them in water until 3 whistles and drain)

Onions - 1 large (Sliced into thin pieces)

For Popu/tampering - Jeera/Cumin - 1 tea spoon, Urad dal - 1 tea spoon, mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon, Curry leaves - 10

Oil - 3-4 tea spoons

Salt - as per taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add the popu ingredients. Once the popu is done add onions and saute them for about 5min. Then add salt and the ground spice powder. Mix well and add the beans, cover with a lid and cook on medium flame for abt 5-8 min. Serve hot with Rice.

Chapathi with Aloo/Potato Curry

2007-06-03T18:06:00.000+01:00

This's my fav dish. Aloo curry with rotis..I can live on this alone for ages. As I already mentioned, I'm Mrs Lazy Bones...I try to cut down the effort to prepare any recipe and this's not an exception.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 3 (cleaned, peeled and cut into small cubes)

Onions - 2 (sliced into pieces)

Green chilli - 5 (sliced into small pieces)

Salt

Turmeric - 2 pinches

Oil - 2 large tea spoons

Water - 3 small cups

For Popu/tampering- Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, Urad dal , Chana dal - 1 tea spoon each ; curry leaves - 5 and Garlic cloves - 2

Method:

Put a pressure cooker on the hob, heat the oil and do the popu/tampering. Once the popu is done add green chilli pieces and Onions and saute them for 2 min. Add the turmeric powder and then the potato cubes. Add water and mix sufficient amout of salt. Close the pressure cooker and cook it for until 3 whistles. Let it cool. Open the lid, mix well and Serve hot with Rotis or Puris.

Rava Dosa

2007-06-03T12:39:00.000+01:00

This is my instant breakfast recipe....I generally dont prefer to skip my breakfast. Suman often does it during weekdays, which I don't want him to do...I cannot eat bread,cereals for more than once in a week. So I normally store dosa or idli batter in the fridge, which I prepare during the weekends and make dosas or idlis everyday for our breakfast. I've to start for my work place at around 8.30AM, So I'll have ample time during the morning to prepare breakfast.

But at times I feel very lazy to prepare these batters before. So whenever I feel like having a full fledged Indian breakfast and if I dont have any dosa/idli batter I prepare this Rava Dosa. It's very simple and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

Semolina (Souji) - 2 cups

Curd - 2 table spoons

Ginger/Green chilli paste - 1 small tea spoon

Salt

Water

Method:

Dry roast souji rava in a hot skillet. Take it in a bowl and mix the curd, ginger/green chilli paste and salt. Add water and mix well into a batter of loose consistency. It should be slightly watery when compared to normal Dosa batter. Heat the Dosa pan and put few drops of oil and rub with half-cut onion with its flat surface on the Pan. Take a spoon full of batter and pour it onto the pan into a dosa shape of 10-15 inch diameter. We shouldn't rub this batter from the centre as we do it for a normal dosa. Add a few drops of oil around the dosa and turn it over after a min. Remove it from the pan once the dosa is done.

This tastes good with sambar or peanut/coconut chutney. But I generally prepare this whilst 'm very busy and hence 'll eat it with Coconut-chilli powder (kobbari karam) prepared beforehand with a drop of ghee.

Rava Pongal

2007-06-02T10:50:00.000+01:00

I'm not a great cook, not even a moderate cook...'m just a beginner...Some recipes of mine turn out to be very delicious, while some turn out to be disasters. I generally look for a recipe over the net and make some changes to that, so as to minimise the work and sometimes I succeed, and today luckily my Rava pongal came out to be very good.

For a traditional Rava pongal, moong dal is boiled in a pressure cooker seperately, but that adds another vessel for me to clean....kikiki...I can be called as LAZY BONES when it comes to cooking. So I made a lil change to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Moong dal - 1/2 Cup (wash and soak in hot water for 20min) - I've done this becoz I didn't pressure cook the moong dal.

Semolina - 1 cup

Peppercorns (Miriyalu) - 1 tea spoon

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Red chilli - 2 (tear into pieces)

Cashews - 10

Ghee - 1 small table spoon

Salt - as per taste

Water - 3 and half cups

Method:

In a pressure cooker take Ghee and heat it. Add mustard seeds, Cumin, Peppercorns, red chillie pieces. When the tadka is done add cashew nuts and roast for a while. Then drain the soaked moong dal and add it to the cooker. Roast it for 2-3 min and now add semolina and mix well and roast for 2min. Add 3 and half cups of water and salt. Mix well and close the lid. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles. Let it cool and mix well. Enjoy it hot by itself or with Coconut chutney or sambar.

Since I didn't pressure cook the moong dal seperately, dal was seperate and appeared to be more appealing, I didn't have curry leaves at home. Also I was reluctant to add ginger pieces. I think adding curry leaves and ginger pieces to the tadka would have been even better. I also feel like replacing the red chilli with a green chilli. 'll try it next time.

Banana and Dates Cake

2007-06-02T08:22:00.000+01:00

My colleague's wife makes delicious Banana bread and the moment I tasted it, I wanted to learn the recipe and make it at home. I didn't have a loaf mould at home and hence I used my cake mould to make a banana cake. I also added dates to the recipe. This was my second baking trial..

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Bananas - 2 (Ripe) - Mash them to a smooth paste

Dates - 5-6 (make small pieces)

Melted Unstalted Butter - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Baking Powder - 1 Tea spoon

Baking soda - 1 pinch

Method:

Mix all the ingredients (solids first and then liquids(butter, milk) thoroughly to a batter consistency, grease a baking mould with butter sprinkle some flour and pour this batter into the mould and bake it in a pre-heated oven to 200C for about 20 min or until cake is well done. Insert a knife into the cake and pull it. If the knife comes out clean, cake is done. Cool on a wire rack. Reverse the mould onto a plate to seperate plate. I did not do any decorations for I wanted to enjoy it alone without any added flavours.

My Baking Spree

2007-06-02T07:57:00.000+01:00

A couple of months back, I was head over heels in love with cakes...I didn't prefer to buy a cake off the shelf frm Tesco..I wanted to bake it myself...So on one saturday when Suman was not at home I've started experimenting..here goes my baking spree...

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Unsalted melted butter - 1 cup

Semi-skimmed milk - 1 cup (I preferred this cup measurement because it was easy to remember)

Egg - 1

Vanilla Essence - 1 tea spoon

Baking soda - 2 pinches

Baking powder - 1 tea spoon

For decoration - Whipped cream, chacolate curls, Strawberry flakes and a colored cream cone.

Method:

In a bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar powder thoroughly. In a seperate bowl add milk, egg, vanilla essence and butter and whisk them together. Add this mix to the flour mix and beat thoroughly to a batter consistency. Pour this batter onto a baking mould (greased with butter and little amount of flour sprinkeled) and place it in a pre-heated oven to 200C, bake it for about 20min or until cake is well done (You can check this by inserting a knife into the cake, if the knife comes out clean, cake is done). Cool on a wire rack and reverse the mould onto a plate to seperate the cake. Decorate it with the whipped cream first and then colored cream, decorate with chacolate curls and strawberry flakes.

Start decorating the cake only when it is fully cooled. Orelse the whipped cream loses its nice texture.

Mangoes

2007-05-28T16:56:00.000+01:00

I always love food. I never ever had any aversion towards any food items. Be it road side corn cobs cooked on coal kumpati, regi pallu, Palm seeds (thati munjulu), I miss everything here. I've been away from India since 2002. So whenever Summer begins in India, I keep asking my parents on phone "Are you eating mangoes, I'm missing them Waaaaaahhhhhh". This would be my starting point of conversation with anyone in India on phone during summer. I did eat mangoes while I was in USA, and also in the UK, but never found the famous Indian (esp Andhra) banginapalli variety where I lived.

So when my friend told me that they found these Banginapalli variety in Birmingam market, I started pesting my hubby to take me to that place. Atlast this weekend we went to our friends' place which was near Birmingham and I bought my favourite mango variety frm the local market there. So nearly after 5 years I'm tasting these....

Nellore Chepala Pulusu (Fish curry in Tamarind Sauce)

2007-05-28T15:14:00.000+01:00

I was born n brought up in Nellore dist, in Andhra Pradesh. Nellore is very famous for its authentic Chepala Pulsu recipe. In AP, most of the cities and towns will definetly be having a Nellore Mess which serves this curry. This is prepared without any masala (ginger,garlic,garam masala).

My mom is an expert in making this Fish curry. So I exactly copied her recipe (added raw mango for extra flavour)and it cameout very well. S liked it a Lottttttttttttttt! Whenever his friends come home he asks me to cook this item, and everyone who tasted my recipe liked it a lot. So I'm confident enough to post this recipe on my Blog.

Ingredients:

Fish steaks – 5 (salmon, rainbow trout, mackerel or catfish can be used. I used rainbow trout)
Red Onions – 1 large (sliced)
Tomatoes – 2 (Sliced)
Raw Mango – 4-5 pieces (optional)
Tamarind – lemon sized ball
Lemon – 1
Red chilli powder – 2 tea spoons (adjust)
Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon
Salt – to taste

Mustard seeds – 1 table spoon
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tea spoon
Dried red chillis - 3
Curry leaves – 10
Oil – 2 table spoons
Water

Method:

Squeeze the juice from lemon. Mix the lemon juice with 1 tea spoon salt , 1 tea spoon red chilli powder and ½ tea spoon turmeric powder into a paste. Clean the fish steaks and coat this paste to them. Set them aside for 20min. Make thick tamarind pulp with water and tamarind ball.

Meanwhile heat a pan and add oil. When the oil is heated add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chillis and the curry leaves. When the mustard seeds start spluttering add the onions pieces and saute them till soft. Then add the tomato pieces and the raw mango pieces. Cook for about 3min. Add the tamarind pulp and 2 cups of water. Close the lid and let it come to boil. Then add salt and 1 tea spoon Red chilli powder and mix well. Now add the coated fish pieces to the gravy and close the lid. Cook on high flame for 10min. After 10min open the lid, carefully turn the fish pieces and cook for another 15min on medium flame. Switch off the stove.

Serve with Hot steamed rice. This curry tastes better the next day. Because by then the fish pieces fully absorb the tamarind flavour.