A successful remake and a MEME

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

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

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

Bell Pepper Kurma in Milk

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

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

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

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.