Vidya's kitchen

Paal Poli

2011-01-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

Back again in the New Year!
Starting off this wonderful year with a conventional sweet - Paal Poli
This is yummy and very easy to make; quick too.
Some people also call this Paal Puri

Paal Poli - Milk Pancakes are nothing but maida puris soaked in warm thickened milk, delicately flavored with saffron, stunningly delicious!

Ingredients & Method:

For the milk

Full cream milk - About 1 litre(Used organic whole milk I didn't measure mine. Just an approximate figure. )

Sugar - About half a cup (To make the milk sweet enough)

Condensed milk (optional. If it's sweetened, keep an eye on the sugar, you add)

Cashew/Almond Paste(Again optional - I used a handful of them; Remove the almond skin before making the paste)

Saffron - a few strands

Boil the milk till sightly thick. Mix the sugar, condensed milk, almond cashew paste.

Boil for a minute

Soak the saffron in a little warm milk and mix it together.

For the Puri:

Maida - 1 cup

Rava - 1/4 cup

Ghee - 2tsp

Water - to make a firm dough

Oil - to fry

Knead the above ingredients (excluding oil of course) and make a firm dough. Let it rest for 15 min giving some time for rawa to become soft.

Make marble sized balls, roll it into fairly thin puris and deep fry.

The oil should be medium hot.

Transfer the puris to a paper towel

Tips:
You can also cut the puris into half before frying or fry and then fold the puris before soaking in milk or leave it as such :)

While rolling out, you can fold the puris once or twice and then again roll it out. This will result in layered puris which on soaking in milk will be spongier. If you are lazy, skip this. No harm.

For serving:

Soak the puris in the prepared milk when it's warm.

Serve after 15 minutes.

The more you soak, better it is.

Serve it warm/chilled

Have a great '11!

Upma Kozhakattai

2010-06-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Back to blogging :) I was away from blogging for a while but definitely not from cooking.

Upma kozhakattai is steamed dumplings of rice upma. You can just make this as arisi upma in a crumbled form or make neat balls. In the former case, I follow a slightly diff list of ingredients/ method and make it more spicy and flavourful. This is a simple and standard dish made at home and fits as anytime meal. I like it a bit spicy with addition of chillies. I specially love to eat the upma that gets into the broken red chillies and comes out red :)
Tomato/cilantro/pudhina thokku or sambar is a classic combination. I will post the recipe for tomato thokku, soon.

Ingredients:
Coarsely Broken rice (Wash the rice, dry in a paper towel and quickly pulse in a blender/mixie) - 1.25 cups
Grated Coconut - 1.5 tablespoon (or even 2 if you want it rich and flavourful)
Finely chopped green chillies - 2 to 3
To Season:
Channa dal, urad dal - a tsp each (optional - The authentic method doesnt need this)
Dry red chillies - 1
Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a handful
Oil - a tsp or 2 (You can also use coconut oil if you like the flavour)
(You can reduce the chillies. The original recipe has the coconut, dominating and less spicy)

Method:
1. Heat the oil, add the dal, hing, red chilli and mustard. When the mustard pops, add curry leaves, green chillies and coconut. Saute for 10 seconds.
2. Add 3.75 cups water( 3 times that of rice). Bring it to a boil and add salt to taste.
3. Slowly mix the rice rava without any lumps. Cover and cook till almost all the water is absorbed and rava gets cooked.(Retain a little moisture to help make the balls)
4. Set this aside for sometime to cool down. However, it should have a little heat left to make the balls. Taste once for the salt content and adjust. Rice rava might require a little more than normal rava.
5. Now make elliptical balls and steam in a pressure cooker at medium heat for 10 to 15 min. Don't use the weight.
Serve hot with pudina/cilantro/tomato chutney or sambar.

Tips:
1. You can make the rice rawa and store it. If you are planning to store the rawa, the rice should be completely dried. Alternatively, you can use the readymade idly rawa. It's good enough.
2. You can add some grated carrot as a variation to make it colorful.

Moong Dhall Halwa ~ ICC Dec 2009

2010-01-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

This month's challenge is Moong Dhall Halwa. Though I haven't tasted this, I have heard that, this is a famous dish in North Indian weddings. I felt the taste resembled sakkarai pongal with the presence of moong dhall, ghee and nuts.

Thanks to Simran for the recipe and Lataji for her notes on the recipe. Of course, Srivalli, for all her efforts.

I have pasted below, both the methods for halwa. I also did a little change to the recipe.

My update: Since I didn't have khoa handy, I decided to add some sweetened condensed milk. I also added saffron for the delicate flavour it renders. The sweet turned out lip smacking, more like Badam Halwa.

Moong Dal Halwa

Soaking Time : Overnight

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 - 45 mins

Recipe 1 with khoya

Ingredients Needed:

Split (Yellow) Moong dal - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup - 1 cup (depending on your preference)

Clarified Butter / Ghee - 1/2 cup

Khoya - 1/2 cup

Cashew nuts and raisins for garnish

You can make any quantity with this as long as you keep this ratio constant : equal amounts of dal and sugar, half the ghee and khoya.

Method to prepare:

Lightly roast the 1 cup of moong dal, wash, soak overnight and be ground to a fine paste adding very little water.

Take a thick bottom pan, heat 1/2 cup ghee and fry the moong dal paste till it turns brownish and releases the ghee. Add sugar and khoya.

Stir fry until both the sugar and khoya are well absorbed. Turn off the heat, then mix in cashew nuts and raisins.

Recipe 2 with just the dal

Split (Yellow) Moong dhal - 1 cup

Ghee - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cups to 1 cup (as per required sweetness)

Milk - 1/2 cup (Notes from Lataji - instead of water for the sugar, this gives the khoya added taste, Simran's recipe asked for water)

Cashews/ raisins roasted in ghee for garnish.

Method to Prepare:

Soak 1 cup moong dal overnight. Next morning, grind to a paste.

Heat a heavy Kadai, take initially only 1/2 of the ghee and heat it.

Add the dhal and stir continuously, not allowing lumps to form. This part is very tricky as the dhal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee.

Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dhal becomes thick.

Add the rest of the ghee intermittently and cook the dhal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.

Meanwhile mix the sugar with water/ milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dhal.

Keep the fir low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding the sugar and water/ milk mix.

Cook until the ghee surfaces.

Garnish with cashews and raisins.

Notes :

Use a thick bottom pan or better nonstick pan

Don't leave the halwa unattended. The dal can stick and it can go from just done to burnt in a second so keep stirring as much as possible. You should remember to keep stirring to prevent dhal from sticking irrespective of the ghee added.

You aren't looking for the halwa to get too thick when you turn off the heat. It was thicken as it cools.

Cook until ghee surfaces on the sides and the halwa attains a very nice shine.

Initially, it may appear that all the ghee is being used up. But as the dhal cooks the ghee separates. So the ghee measure is sufficient.

In both recipes depending on how you got the moong dal paste, you may require slightly more ghee to get the texture

Though original recipe didn't call for roasting the dhal before soaking, Lataji felt roasting it a bit gives more fragrance.

Pongal Wishes!

2010-01-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

A very happy pongal to all. Wishing you lot of sunshine and happiness.

I made some Sakkarai Pongal and Ven Pongal, today. Hope you had your share too.

Check the recipe for sweet pongal here. This time I added twice the amount of jaggery to rice and reduced the dal to quarter cup.

My Blog Turns One!

2010-01-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hurray! Today is my blog's first anniversary. Yes, I posted my first recipe, same day, last year. Time does run fast. Maybe, because when we were in school/college, we would move to the next academic year and there was a demarcation between years. Now that, we don't have any such thing, days seem to move at lightning speed. Is it just me or you also think so?

This post is to revisit, what I did on the blogging front, last year. Well, I know you might not be interested, but I very much wanted to do it for myself. So, here it comes.

Bye Bye to all those who leave the post, here ;)

How did I step into cooking and blogging

When I moved to US after wedding, I had no clue that I had so much passion for cooking. May be my passion for good food and the fact that we don't have fine Indian dining here, got me cooking.

Whatever be the reason, I absolutely love doing it. After about 6 months of cooking, I started my blog, inspired by fellow food bloggers. I thought it is a great idea to record my recipes which I can refer at any time in the future. Every time, I see someone landing on my blog in search of a recipe, it feels even better. Little did I think, I will make so many friends through my blog. Every comment on my blog makes me glad. I started typing names of my blogger friends and later thought it is not a good idea to do so, only due to the fear that I might miss some one in the process. So, thanks to all those who cared to go through my recipes along with my ramblings and also, leave a feedback.

Of late, I have started trying my hand at baking. So, might post some entries on that, too.

My Blogging Goals

When I started this blog, I had no goals in terms of number of recipes, I wanted to post. I didn't want to pressure myself doing that and posted only when I felt like doing it. I just wanted to be regular here and keep it going. I am happy that I was able to do it.

Events & Challenge

I love to participate in the events that are organised by my fellow bloggers. It was so much fun and I am really amazed by the amount of work that gets into organizing them. Hats off to all the hosts.

I am also happy that I am part of the Indian Cooking Challenge initiated by Srivalli. It has made me try few dishes which I would not have done, otherwise. Thanks to her.

You can check the current events and roundups of past events, here.

Lubna of Kitchen Flavours had featured my blog on her Rendezvous series, through which I got introduced to fellow bloggers. Thanks, Lubna.

Awards & Encouragement:(updated)

Passing on cute awards is lot of fun in blogging. It also carries lot of meaning in terms of encouragement and bonding.

Sangi gave the first one, the kreative blogger award. Thereafter I got many cute awards from Shama, Lataji, Sanghi, Brinda, Rohini, Kitchen Queen, Sandhya & Sangi herself.

Thanks for the lovely awards and encouragement. They sure mean a lot to me.

A peek into my recipes

Take a look into my recipes, here. I have not managed to cover all my recipes, but few of them.

You can always check them from the drop-down in the right pane.

Snacks/Chaats
Veg Cutlet, Pani Puri, Kaman Dhokla, Idly Manchurian, Veg Samosas, Paneer Bhurji, Pav Bhaji, Bird's Nest Gravies/Curries
Aloo 65,Chole Masala,Paneer Butter Masala, Baingan Ka Bartha, Kadai Paneer, Kala Channa Masala, Dum Aloo, Baghare Baingan, Aloo Gobi, Shahi Paneer

Sweets

Paal Payasam, Rasmalai, Sakkarai Pongal, Moong Dhall Burfi, Carrot Halwa, Badam Kheer, Badam Halwa, Ash Guord Halwa, Gulab Jamun

Rice Varieties

Coconut Milk Pulav, Mushroom Pulav, Schezwan Fried Rice, Veg Fried Rice, Veg Biriyani, Peas Pulav,Jeera Pulav

I also started posting some Kwik Fix recipes to try when you do not have the time and energy to cook anything elaborate.

Feels good to see that I could make so many dishes, given the fact that I am a novice cook. All in all, I had a great blogging experience, so far.

Thanks for reading through.

Update: Sorry, I forgot to mention about the cute awards, my blogger friends passed on to me, in my previous post. I was meaning to do that but it some how slipped off. I have updated.

Beetroot Curry

2010-01-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

A simple stir fry - nothing more. I have seen a lot of people disliking beetroot. This is my attempt to make it interesting by adding a lot of seasoning, without losing the nutritional value.

I have added some rasam powder for a zing.

I love this stir fry alongside sambar rice.

Ingredients:

Beetroot(I used one small & one medium)

Grated Coconut - a handful or two

Rasam Powder half a tsp (optional I use Sakthi Masala Rasam Powder which is really nice to add zing to any South Indian Prep)

Salt to taste

Seasoning:

Channa Dal - 1 tsp

Urad Dal - 1 tsp

Curry leaves a few

Slit Green Chilli or Red chilli - 1

Oil - 1 tsp( I use coconut oil)

Mustard- 1 tsp

Cumin - 1 tsp

Hing - a pinch

Method:

1. Chop the beetroot roughly and pressure cook till soft. It really needs to be cooked for a long time to make it soft. Chopping beetroot is really tough and takes time. So, one tip I follow is first cook it till half done, peel the skin and chop. If you do not like to cook it with the skin on, you can quickly remove the skin and cook the whole beets. It is better to chop semi cooked beetroot.

2.Heat oil, add the dal,chillies,hing,mustard and cumin in that order. When the mustard pops, add the curry leaves and chopped beetroot. Add the rasam powder,salt. If you think it is cooked, add the coconut. Otherwise sprinkle a little water and cook to perfection. Now, add coconut and fry together for a min or two.

Serve hot.

Chocolate Cake with Butter Cream Icing

2010-01-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Wish you all, a very happy new year. May you all have a healthy, prosperous & peaceful life.

This is my first post for the year and thought let me start it with the yummy choco cake, I baked for Christmas.

I am a novice when it comes to baking and this is the second time, I am baking a cake; first attempt at icing. We had some friends come over on the Christmas day and they liked it. Hope it's not a white lie :)

Come to think of it, I added chocolate syrup,butter,condensed milk and whatnot. So it did taste great and it was a decent attempt. I had never thought I would venture out baking a cake. Leave alone baking, not even in my wildest dreams, I have seen myself getting passionate about cooking & blogging. Life definitely is a magical journey and such unexpected twists & turns make it worthwhile.

This attempt has also enlightened me on the amount of calories that goes into a piece of cake. Now, I will think twice before eating it.

On to the recipe, I have adapted this from Sandhya's Swirly Chocolate Walnut Cake .

I didn't use walnuts in my cake and added choco syrup instead of cocoa powder. Otherwise, it is pretty much the same, except for the swirling effect. I made this as a single cake.

She, in turn had mentioned in her post that she referred to Divya's Zebra Cake. So, thanks to Sandhya & Divya.

I got the icing recipe from net. After doing the icing, I thought why not decorate it with some choco shavings to make it richer. So, did that.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Hershey's chocolate syrup - 2.5 tablespoon (I used generously for a rich chocolate taste)

Wet Ingredients:

Eggs : 2 (You can use even3)

Sugar : 1.25 cups (I added a little more since the chocolate syrup might make the cake bitter)

Sweet cream butter unsalted - 3/4 th cup + a little to grease the pan

Sweetened Condensed milk - 3/4 cup (Remember it should be sweetened or else you got to add extra sugar)

Milk - 1/2 cup

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Method:

1) Sift together the flour and baking powder.

2) Beat the egg in a mixing bowl. Then mix the sugar and beat together till frothy. Use an electric mixer for the best result.

3) Add the condensed milk, vanilla extract and beat well. Add the butter, milk,chocolate syrup and mix well.

4) Add the dry ingredients and beat everything together without any lumps.

The cake batter is ready. It should be of pouring consistency. If you find it thick, you can mix a little milk. Fill it in a square/circular pan and bake in a preheated oven at 325 F for an hour.

Check with a toothpick.

The cake pan should be filled up to half its depth since the cake will rise.

Icing:

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 cup

Confectioner's Sugar - 3 cups

Chocolate Syrup - 1 tablespoon

Mix everything using a whisker. If you find it hard, mix a little milk/cream.

Decoration:

Chocolate shavings (grated some hershey's chocolate) and sprinkles

Setting up the cake:

Wait for the cake to cool down.

Carefully cut across the middle of the cake using a cake knife.

Place the bottom layer in a cake tray/plate. Apply the icing using the cake knife just as you butter a bread. Make it a thick layer. Place the other piece of the cake such that the icing is sandwiched.

Now start applying the icing all over the cake. For an even finish, I dipped the knife in a cup of water, now and then. But not too much water.

Now decorate with the chocolate shaving and sprinkles.

I'm sharing my cake with all of you.

Update:

Sending this to Divya's Show Me Your Cake event.

Also, to Mahimaa's Cakes and Cookies event.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of you.

Take a peek at our christmas tree and the cake we baked.

My first attempt at icing a cake.My second attempt at baking a cake. I am pretty satisfied and can have a peaceful sleep, after a long day.

Have a great holiday season!

Jeera Pulav with Rajma

2009-12-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

Though I am a South Indian, born and brought up in Chennai and the Northern most part of India I have seen is Mumbai :) , when it comes to comfort food, my mind, rather tongue doesn't just stop with South Indian food. I might say avial, rasam are my comfort foods but that doesn't exclude rotis/pulav. With grey weathers in this part of the world, people tend to crave for comfort food rather than a rich/exotic diet. On one such cold day, I thought how would it feel to have some jeera pulav with rajma. When it comes to food, I have no second thoughts and went ahead soaking some rajma for dinner. Good that I had the craving early in the day giving me sufficient time for soaking the rajma. Talk about planning and foresightedness! That always works well between me and my food.

So, here I present to you, my comfort food that is sure to please your palates as well.

One great thing about this is you can finish both in 30 - 45 minutes time.

This is how I do it!

Soak the rice. Quickly slice the onions. Fry them. While it gets cooled, blanch the tomatoes. Grind and fry the paste. While the paste gets fried, puree the tomatoes. Add everything, close the pressure pan and come back to rice and finish it. By this method, you can finish both quickly.

Jeera Pulav:

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 cup soaked in 1.5 cups water for 15 to 30 min

Jeera - 1.5 tablespoon ( A little less if you do not like too much jeera and just need some flavour)

Ghee - 3 tsp

oil - 1 tsp

Slit green chillis - 2

Cloves, Cardamom - 2 each

Cinnamon - a small piece (I am not fond of this flavour. May be you can add a little more if you like it)

Salt to taste

Method:

1) Add 2 tsp of butter/ghee/oil (a combination of this or just one), add 3C(clove,cinnamon,cardamom) and fry for 15 sec.

2) Add jeera, green chillies and fry for 10 sec. (You can also add onions, sliced lengthwise)

3) Add the rice and fry for a min. Now pour the water in which you soaked the rice. Cover the pan and cook for 3 min. When the water boils, add salt.

4) Cover again and cook till the water is absorbed and the rice gets cooked. (will not take more than 10 min over medium flame) Switch off the flame.

5) Add a little ghee. Wait for some time and mix well without breaking the rice.

You can garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve hot with rajma or any gravy of your choice. Plain curd will also suffice.

Rajma:

Ingredients:

Rajma 1 cup soaked overnight

Onions 2

Tomatoes - 4 (blanched and pureed)

Garlic 2 pods

Ginger a small piece

Green chillies 4

Cinnamon stick a small piece

Cloves,cardamom 2 each

Cumin - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder, Chilli powder, Dhania powder - 1 to 2 tsp each

Water 3 cups

Ghee/ Oil for frying (a combination would be nice)

Salt to taste

Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Add a little oil. Fry cloves, cardamom, cinnamon. Add sliced onions and fry till dark brown.

Grind this with ginger, green chillies and garlic. I am frying the onions to get rid of the bitter taste. If you are confident that your raw onions will not turn bitter on grinding, you can simply grind and skip frying. While grinding make sure that you get a smooth paste. The cardomom and cloves should be ground properly. If you have bits of those while eating, it can be really irritating.

Alternatively, fry the spices separately, make a fine powder and add it to the gravy at the end.

2) Now, heat ghee & oil in a pressure pan, season with jeera and add the ground paste. Fry well. The frying time will vary between raw onion and fried onion paste. Once it turns golden brown, add the tomato puree.

3) Add turmeric, dhania powder and chilli powder. Now add rajma with water and pressure cook for 6 to 8 whistles.

4) Add salt. If you have the spice powder, add it now. You can also add a little garam masala if you like. In case any case, boil for 2 min. You can add more water if you think you need it. In that case boil till everything comes together.

5) Garnish with chopped cilantro and fresh cream.

Serve hot with rotis/ pulav varieties. Tastes heavenly with jeera pulav.

Though the method appears big, this is quite simple to make.

I have a secret to share! I just added a handful of black urad dhal to my rajma. Got inspired from dal makhani.

Sending this to My Legume Affair- Eighteenth Helping @ Srivalli's blog.

This event is initiated by Susan, The well-seasoned cook.

Chegodilu (murukku) ~ ICC Nov 2009

2009-12-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

This month's challenge is chegodilu (murukku) which is a famous snack in Andhra.

I have never tasted this and I had no clue how it looks like while going through the recipe.

But the recipe was very clear and hence I could make this yummy yummy snack with ease.

Thanks, Srivalli for letting me know that such a snack exists.

Here is the recipe as given by Srivalli.

Changes I made: I used store bought flour and it required a little more water.

I also added a pinch of hing and 2 tsp margarine while kneading the dough.

Ingredients Needed:

Rice Flour - 1 cup

Water - 1 cup

Split Yellow Moong dal / Pesara pappu / Mung Dal / Pasiparuppu - 1 1/2 - 2 tblsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Sesame Seeds - 1 tsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Ghee or oil - 1 tblsp

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method to prepare:

Making the dough:

Soak moong dal in water for half hour to 1 hour.

In a deep bottom pan, boil water, then add salt, ghee and moong dal. Bring it to boil, simmer and slowly add the rice flour. Using a rolling pin or the ladle, mix the flour with water by stirring it well. When the flour is mixed and done, turn off the heat immediately. Cover with lid and keep aside for 10 to 15 mins.

Once the dough is cool, add chilli powder, sesame seeds, cumin seeds and mix well. Knead till you get a smooth dough. Adjust the salt and spice depending on your preference.

Frying the Chokodi:

Heat a pan with oil, enough to fry 3 -4 at time, if you conscious of not using too much oil. Simmer once it gets hot. The temperature should not be smoking hot.

Grease your fingers with oil and pinch out a small lemon size ball and roll between your palms to form a thick rope. Bring the two ends to together and press to form a rope. Ensure the ends are firmed pressed as not to give out during frying.

Continue with the rest of the dough until you are done with the entire batch. You can either cover it with a plate or a cloth to prevent the dough from getting dried.

Check if the oil is in the correct temperature, by dropping a tiny bit into the oil. Then gently slide the rings or the chakodis in batches of 4 -5. The flame has to be on high until the chakodis come up to the surface, then lower the flame to medium and cook till you get a golden colour on the chakodis.

When the chakodis are golden all over, using a slotted ladle, remove to a kitchen towel and cool. Store in an air tight container for longer shelf life.

Notes: Remember to turn the heat to medium to high and high to medium for getting the chakodis to golden colour and also to be cooked evenly. Only this way you get crispy chakodis. These should not be cooked on low flame as they will absorb more oil and can turn soggy also at times.

Variation: Instead of Cumin and Sesame seeds, 1 tsp of Ajwain or Omam can be used along with chili powder.

Rasmalai - 100th post

2009-12-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Rasmalai is a Bengali sweet made of cheese dumplings soaked in thick sweetened milk. Addition of saffron strands adds a delicate flavour and I am a fan of saffron. I particularly like saffron in almond dishes like badam kheer/ badam halwa.

This is a quick version of rasmalai using ready-made paneer. The end result was outstanding and I got perfect rasmalai. You can try this as a quick yet rich dessert. Disclaimer : This is a short- cut method and not the authentic way of doing rasmalai.

This post happens to be a milestone for my blog - yeah this marks the 100th post. The journey has been exciting so far and I have made some great friends, explored yummy food blogs, participated in cookery events/challenges and the best of all - discovered the chef in me.

I had always thought cooking is an ordeal but after I entered the kitchen, I realized it indeed is a joyful experience. The most exciting part of it is, after all the fun, you end-up with some great food to relish. The more you enjoy cooking, tastier is the food. Blogging my recipes has really helped me in terms of perfecting recipes, honing my culinary skills and of course, letting the world know that I can cook! Whenever I see someone hopping into my blog searching for a recipe, it gives a sense of contentment. I take this opportunity to thank every one of you, who cared to take a peek at my page.

Here's a little treat to celebrate the milestone!

Ingredients:
Paneer - 250 g (I used ready-made paneer from Indian stores)

Water - 5 cups
Sugar - 2.5 cups
Milk - 1 litre
Saffron strands a few
yellow color - a pinch (optional)
blanched almond slivers and pistachios to garnish

Method:

1) Mash the paneer and make a dough. My paneer was a little dry and I was not able to get a soft dough. So I quickly whipped it in a blender just for 5 to 10 seconds and voila I got wet/oily paneer.

If your paneer is fresh you can skip this whipping step. Make small balls out of the dough. Gently press in the center and shape it into patties.

2) Boil the water with 1.5 cups sugar. When the water starts boiling, slide in the patties, gently.

Cover the pan partially and cook for 10 to 15 min over medium flame till the size doubles.

3) Meanwhile, boil the milk till a little thick, mix sugar. Add the saffron and color.

4) Gently drop the cooked patties in the prepared milk. Garnish with almond slivers and pistachios.

5) Refrigerate and serve cool.

While I was about to post this entry, I came to know of this event happening @ chef in you.

Without even the slightest idea of the event, I expressed my liking for saffron in my post. Coincidence!

Needless to say, my rasmalai is off to JFI - Saffron.

Potato Podimas

2009-11-29T22:12:00.001-08:00

Looks like potatoes featured the maximum number of times in my blog posts. Not surprising though, owing to its versatility. Whenever we are confused as to what to cook; we end up making potato curry or aloo paranthas or sandwich, well most times. Potatoes are sure to lend a helping hand to entertain your surprise guests or make a quick meal.

This potato podimas(mashed potatoes) is a mildly flavored curry to go with hot & spicy sambar rice. This is a twist to the normal potato fry made with chilli powder and lots of oil.

A very simple, easy to make recipe!

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 4 medium (boiled, peeled and mashed)

Green chillies - 2 finely chopped

Ginger a small piece finely chopped

Lemon - 1

Curry leaves - a few

Oil,mustard,urad dhall, channa dhall - a tsp or 2 each for seasoning

Turmeric - 1 tsp (optional)

Grated coconut - 2 tsp (optional)

Hing - a pinch

salt to taste

Method:

1) Heat oil, season with the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add hing and turmeric.

2) Reduce the flame, add chillies, curry leaves, ginger, mashed potato and salt.

3) Add the grated coconut if you wish to, fry everything together for a while.

3) Switch off, squeeze the lime juice and serve hot with rice. Tastes great with sambar rice.

Radish Sambar

2009-11-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Hope all my blogger friends are doing fine. It has been a real long gap and I thought I should break the silence at least today. Once there is a gap in blogging, it takes lot of effort to come out of the block. Anything in life, for that matter.

I am back with a recipe for sambar. I am a kind of person who really gets bored of cooking the same dishes again & again. I always love to try out new recipes. But being a south Indian, it so happens that I cook sambar & rasam frequently(at least twice per week). That's my comfort food. As I said earlier, I get bored of following the same recipes and would love to experiment.

So, I came up with this recipe for sambar and I should say, the result was outstanding. The addition of spice powder and cumin did the magic and sure to give any hotel, a run for money.

Try out the magical sambar!

Ingredients:

Radish - (sliced into thin rounds) handful or depending on your taste

(Substitute radish with drumsticks/carrots or anything you wish)

Tamarind paste - 1.5 tsp or equivalent pulp extracted

Sambar Powder - 1 tablespoon

Spice powder (check the recipe here) - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Salt to taste

For pressure cooking:

Toor dhall - 1 cup

Onion - 1 chopped thin lengthwise or chopped fine

Tomato - 1 finely chopped

Slit green chillies - 2

Turmeric powder - 1.5 tsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning:

Mustard - 1.5 tsp

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp

For garnishing:

Curry leaves, cilantro & a dollop of ghee(optional)

Method:

1. Pressure cook the ingredients listed for pressure cooking with 2.5 cups of water for 4 whistles.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil, season with the seasoning ingredients. Add radish and fry well. Add a little water and boil till the radish gets cooked. Radish takes a bit longer time for getting cooked and make sure that it is cooked to perfection before adding the tamarind paste.

Now add the tamarind paste and a little water. Boil well.

3. Mash the pressure cooked ingredients and add to the boiling sambar. Add sambar powder, spice powder and salt. Bring to a boil.

Garnish with curry leaves (you can also add this with the seasoning. I like it raw), cilantro and a dollop of ghee.

Serve with rice/idli/dosa or vada. Sure to taste heavenly.

Sangi of simple delicious has passed the above award. Thanks Sangi. You have always been generous with me.

Rohini of Curries and spices has passed on this encouraging award.
Thanks, dear.

Passing these awards to Chitra,Sandhya,Priya

My hearty thanks to you guys and all those who checked with me, if everything's fine.

I would also like to thank everyone who visits my blog and take pains to leave comments. You all make my day!

For the folks in US, have a great weekend!

Kadai Paneer

2009-11-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

Kadai Paneer is a Punjabi curry with fried paneer & bell peppers simmered in freshly ground masala. Addition of kasoori methi renders a magical flavor & aroma to any punjabi curry specially, the paneer ones. This is a dry curry suitable for rotis. Kadai means wok and the curry is typically served in a kadai. I love the way in which Indian curries are served in a cute copper kadai in restaurants. Getting one such kadai, tops my list of to-buy items during my next visit to India.

I would like to cook up a Punjabi curry, fill-up the kadai and click a nice picture for my blog.

Hope my dream gets realized.

See, what all dreams a foodie can have!

Ingredients:

Bell peppers 2 cut into cubes(Diff colors)
onions 2 finely chopped
tomatoes 3 (blanched, skin peeled and made into a puree)
curd 1 cup
paneer 1 cup or 250 g cut into cubes
butter or oil 1 tbsp
bay leaves 2
chilli powder 2 tsp
Garam masala powder 1 tsp
dhania powder 2 tsp
salt to taste
kasoori methi 1 tsp
prepared kadai paneer masala 2 tsp

Kadai Paneer Masala:

Dhania seeds 1 tbsp
pepper 1/2 tsp
red chillies 6
methi 1/2 tsp
cinnamon 2 tsp
jeera 1/2 tsp

Dry roast in a tawa, powder and keep aside.

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter and fry onions till brown, adding sliced garlic (1/2 tsp) and bay leaves.
2. Now add the ginger garlic paste and fry well.
3. Add the dry powder and fry. Add salt.
4. Add the tomatoes
5. Fry the paneer and capsicum and keep aside
6. Let the tomatoes boil and leave out the oil.
7. Add the curd and boil for sometime.
8. Now add the paneer and capsicum
9. Lastly add the finely chopped coriander and methi(fresh) or kasoori methi

Serve hot with rotis

Aloo 65

2009-11-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Aloo 65 is a spicy curry with the versatile potato. You can deep fry the potatoes to serve as a starter. I chose to shallow fry it to pair up with rice, also saving oil. The curry was perfectly spicy for a cold winter night.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes - half a kg

Curd - 1 cup

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 2 tsp

Garam Masala - 2 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 3 tsp

Tandoori Color - optional (I didn't use it)

Salt to taste

For Seasoning:

Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - handful

Cilantro for garnishing

Method:

1. Pressure cook the potatoes. Peel the skin and prick roughly using a fork.

2. Mix the dry powders, ginger garlic paste in the curd. Soak the potatoes in this mixture for 2 hrs.

3. Heat oil, season with mustard and jeera. Add the potatoes along with the mixture. Roast over slow flame till golden. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice.

You can follow the same recipe for paneer 65 and Gobi 65. Both will taste good when deep fried.

Before deep frying, coat with corn flour batter.

Check out my other potato delicacies - Dum Aloo fry, Fiery hot potato fry, Dum Aloo Gravy

Rohini of curries & spices has passed on this beautiful award. Thanks Dear.

Idli Milagai Podi

2009-11-03T17:52:00.001-08:00

After the sinfully sweet gulab jamuns, here comes an aromatic spice powder - Idli Milagai Podi.

This together with sesame oil makes a tasty and ready made dip for idli, dosa and like.

I don't see the presence of sesame seeds in the shop brought ones. The magic of an aromatic milagai podi lies in the addition of sesame and ellu(sesame) milagai podi is absolutely divine.

Idli(s) coated with milagi podi make a great candidate for travel lunch boxes.

Ingredients:

Channa dal - 4 tablespoon

Urad dal - 3 tablespoon

Red Chillies (long ones) - 10 to 12 (If you are making this for kids, reduce the chillies)

Black sesame seeds - 1 to 1.5 tablespoon(Black sesame seeds give a nice smoky flavour. If you do not like the smoky taste and dark color, go for white sesame seeds. If you are using white, you can go for a little more)

Salt to taste

Asafoetida half a tsp

Method:

1. Dry roast the dal(s) along with red chillies on a low flame. You can add a little salt to avoid the pungent smell of red chillies. When the dal starts changing color, add the sesame seeds. Roast till the sesame seeds start popping. Add the hing.(Take care that the ingredients don't char)

2. Cool and grind into a coarse powder with salt.

Serving tip:

Take 1 tsp of the spice powder in a plate. Make a well in the center. Add sesame oil(highly recommended) and mix well.

Serve with idli/dosa

Idli coated with milagi podi tastes great for travel.

Gulab Jamun ~ ICC October 2009

2009-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

A warm hello to all my blogger friends & readers. I am posting a blog entry after quite some time. I was a little busy with certain priorities and blogging took a back seat.Hope I will be regular here after.

The recipe for today is sinfully delicious gulab jamuns which is a famous dessert in India. Unlike other sweets, this is popular through out India. For those of you, who are unfamiliar with the sweet, Gulab jamuns are milk dumplings fried in oil and soaked in rose flavoured sugar syrup.

The sweet can be made in a jiffy if you are making it with MTR gulab jamun mix. Trust me, it is so simple and one can make it perfect in the very first attempt.

For october's challenge, it is going to be 'Gulab Jamuns'. Do you wonder what is the challenge?

Here comes the catch. You got to make it from the scratch, meaning no ready made mix. You got to make the khoa, all by yourself which forms the base for the sweet.

This needs lot of patience since the process can take any where between 1.5 to 3 hrs depending on the amount of khoa. It was also a bit tricky since I didn't have a heavy vessel. I was on a look out for a heavy vessel and finally decided to use my pressure cooker's bottom. The cooker is a small one with 3 litres capacity. So I had to do it with all the more patience, by adding milk little by little. I first sterilized my cooker with hot water to avoid my curdling of milk.

What is a challenge, without such testing tasks?

Once you are done with the khoa, it is really easy. I made the khoa with a little less than solid consistency since I intended to make the jamuns, the next day. By the time I got down making it, the khoa was in a perfect shape.

With no further ado, let's get into business. Srivalli had posted 3 different recipes. I have given below whatever I tried.

To make Khoa: (from Indo)

In a wide mouthed heavy bottom pan add the milk and heat it in a medium flame (add a couple of stainless steel spoons into the milk to avoid burning)

Reduce the milk for 3-4 hours till the milk solidifies and becomes thick.

(6 cups of milk (1 & 1/2 litre) might come to 250grams of unsweetened Khova.)

(The following recipe is from Alka)

The recipe is divided in two parts, one is making the Jamuns and frying them. The other is making sugar syrup.

For sugar syrup:

Ingredients:

Sugar - 500 gms (This can be reduced as per taste)

Water - 1 & 1/2 cup (bit more or less)

Cardamom - 2-3

One spoon of milk (optional)

Few threads of saffron (optional)

2-3 drops of rosewater (optional but highly recommended)

Method:

Mix about 500 gms of white sugar in one and half cup water and keep it for boiling.

Add a spoonful of milk to remove the impurities (impurities if any, will form a scum on surface)

Add 2-3 green cardamoms also in syrup for strong flavor, and a tad of saffron strings (optional)

Boil until you get just a tad sticky syrup. Gulab Jamun syrup is not very dense nor too dilute as in Rasgulla

Strain the syrup, add rosewater when syrup is slightly cooled.

Always remember two things while using rose water, do not add it while syrup is bubbling hot or on fire, and be particular about the quantity mentioned in every recipe, since even few drops of excess rosewater could lend a bitter taste to the final product.

For Gulab Jamun:

Ingredients:

Unsweetened Maawa* - 250 gms

All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 - 2 tsp

Cornflour - 1 tsp

Green cardamom - 1-2 crushed

Oil for shallow frying

* (khoya-the condensed milk thickened till it turns into moist dough, preferably made from cow’s milk, also known as Hariyali mawa)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a wide mixing bowl until soft textured dough is obtained (keep mixing until it is really soft)

Make very small sized balls (bit larger than pebbles) as they swell up after frying and soaking in syrup

Make sure that the surface of dough balls is really smooth without any cracks. In case the cracks refuse to go away, slightly wet your palms with water and roll the flour till absolutely smooth.

Now take little oil for frying in preferably flat bottomed pan, and heat the oil. But gulab jamuns are to be fried on LOW FLAME or else the surface will be browned while the core will remain uncooked. Some prefer to place an unsalted pistachio in the center of every gulab jamun while making balls, that way the core of gulab jamun is not left uncooked .

Fry one or 2 gulab jamuns at a time and always remember to STIR THE OIL with slotted spoon AND NOT TO TOUCH GULABJAMUNS, which means keep swirling the oil without tossing or turning gulab jamun.

Fry till light brown in colour, remove on tissue paper and repeat the procedure with rest of dough.

Now soak these in COOL syrup for few hours. They will surely swell up

These can be stored in the same syrup till consumed

If there are cracks in the balls before frying it will burst open while frying, in that case adding a bit of cornflour will surely help

You can enjoy it hot or cold ,either way it is delicious

Verdict: I survived the challenge and the result was sinfully delicious, melt in the mouth jamuns.

Time for me to gobble one more jamun. :)

To my blogger friends: Sorry for not staying in touch. Will hop into your blog, shortly.

Awards from Sanghi

2009-10-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sanghi of Food Delights has passed on the following awards. Thanks Sanghi for the lovely awards.

Rules of the award:

* You must thank the person who has given you the award.
* Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
* Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
* Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
* Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
* Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
* Leave a comment in the nominated blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

7 things about me:(I have already done the tag here)

1. I am so much addicted to filter coffee that I open my eyes properly only after a dose of it, every morning.

2. I love the taste of raw onions, tomato and cilantro mixed together which makes masala pappad & masala kadalai (boiled peanuts chaat & not the fried ones) my favourite food. I generally love chaats for the same reason. Gangotri in Chennai & a chaat shop at Spencers are my fav spots.

3. I am a staunch vegetarian and don't eat even eggs. However I eat cakes since I developed a taste for it even before I knew it had eggs. But dislike it in all other forms. I love all vegetables including bitter guord and greens. I can survive on just boiled veggies. But, I do make a proper meal everyday.

4. I love to read books ( a lot of magazines & fiction), listen to good songs particularly maestro Ilayaraja's songs, mind games and solving puzzles. I love to read culinary books & blogs and one good thing is once I read a recipe, I quickly put it into my mind and don't have to see it again.(well, most times).

5. My favourite place is my hometown - Chennai. I love everything about the city and miss it. My favourite road is Sardar Patel road that runs from Raj Bhavan to Adyar. That is where my college is located.

6. Few of my favourite smells -fresh jasmine, freshly brewed filter coffee or ground coffee powder, muddy smell of rains, tempering of upma, cilantro...

7. I love to travel and see a lot of places. My long term goal is to visit as many countries as possible.

Passing these lovely awards to Subha, Jeyashri, Vidhas.

Kala Channa Masala

2009-10-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Another Punjabi treat! I had a lot of kala channa (black chickpeas) in my pantry and wanted to use it, quickly. So, decided to make kala channa masala in the same line as chole masala that's made with kabuli channa. It did taste yummy and a bit different from the normal gravy. This would taste great with idiyappam too.

Let's quickly get into the recipe.

Ingredients:

kala channa (black chickpeas) - 1.5 cups (soaked overnight and cooked)

Potatoes - 2 medium, diced

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Onion - 1 big, finely chopped

Slit green chillies - 2

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1.5 tsp

Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp

Dhania Powder - 2 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Chole Masala - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Chopped cilantro to garnish

Ghee - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil, season with jeera. Add the chopped onions,green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Fry till dark brown.

2. Add the diced potatoes. Sprinkle a little water and cover till half cooked. Add chopped tomatoes.

3. When the tomatoes turn soft, add turmeric, chilli powder, dhania powder, cumin powder and salt. Add the cooked channa and a cup of water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add chole masala, garam masala, cover and cook till oil separates.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, add the ghee and serve hot with puris/rotis/pulav varieties.

Sending this to My legume Love Affair 16 th helping @ cook sister originating from Susan's blog.

Happy Deepavali!

2009-10-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

A very Happy Deepavali to all of you. Have a sparkling year!

Moong Dhall Burfi

2009-10-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

Deepavali time again! I am sure everyone of us would become nostalgic and travel back to the wonderful deepavali(s) as a child. New dress that reflects the fashion(I still remember how much I was thrilled to get my rangeela midi), crackers, special tv shows and the best part - sweets and savories. I am reminded of those fun days and pretty sure that festivals as a child is more joyful. At the risk of sounding a pessimist, I am sure we are never gonna get back those wonderful days. The optimist in me says we will see them again when our kids enjoy as much as we did.

I am sure all of you are ready to celebrate deepavali with an array of delicacies.

Moong dhall burfi is a real easy breezy sweet to make. I was planning to make payathan urundai (moong dhall ladoo) but finally an idea struck and decided to make it as a burfi. This tastes great in any form.

I had lined up moong dhall burfi, badam halwa, thenguzhal and omapodi. Eager to hear from you about your diwali sweets.

Happy Deepavali!

Ingredients:
Moong dhall flour - 1 cup (Roast moong dhall and powder it. Roasting is must)
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup
Molten ghee - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
broken Cashews fried in ghee

Method:
1)Mix the sugar, dhaal flour, cashews and cardamom in a bowl.
2)Melt the ghee in a pan, switch off the gas. With the pan still on stove, add the flour mixture and mix well.
3)You can even choose to make ladoos with the mixture.But the mixture should be hot. Make them into balls of desired size and allow it to set for sometime.
For the burfi, transfer the mixture into a greased plate,level by pressing with a ladle,store in the fridge for 15 min and cut into desired shapes.

Pani Puri / Gol Gappa

2009-10-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Pani puri! I am sure the very mention of it would make you drool, just as I do. It is an evening snack falling under the chaat category, which originated from Uttar pradesh. But, it has now touched every part of India and most Indians would have relished the snack.

The crisp puris are filled with a potato or sprouts filling, dipped in a pot of spicy/sweet pani(water) and gulped, all at once. That instant, you get transported to heaven.

My association with pani puris started when I was six. My brother and me used to have a plate of pani puris frequently, near Secunderabad station, on our way back home from school. There used to be lot of pani puri walahs selling in carts on the roadside. The taste till lingers on my taste buds and I have not tasted better ones, till date. After moving to Chennai, I didn't have much chance to try this, till my school final. Pani puris were not very common in Chennai, those times. Pani puris sold in street side shops are the best; but now a days, we can't risk to have it there due to hygiene reasons.

In the recent years, I used to frequent the chaat stall outside nilgiris super market, Velachery, while returning from work. The one outside krishna collection in Pondy Bazaar also serves excellent chaats. However, Gangotri is my favourite hangout.

I do not like to have it in restaurants where they are served together as a plate. In a typical chaat stall, each customer would be given a plate or bowl, the chaat walah would fill the puri with paani from a clay pot and serve it to the customers in a round-robin fashion. We need to be really quick in gobbling the puris to keep the pace. I am amazed on how the server keeps the count of puris. He also remembers the client requirements/ customization and serves according to that. There are 2 kinds of paani; one sweet and another spicy.

I have given the recipe for the spicy paani as it is my choice of taste. I am not sure how the authentic paani is made but I like it this way.

I have used the ready made puris purchased from the Indian groceries and didn't wanna make it as the puris were really fresh. I will post the recipe for puris, once I try it.

For the pani:
Cilantro - half a bunch

Mint leaves - a handful

Tamarind Paste - 1.5 tsp

Green Chillies - 2 medium

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Black salt - 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp

Jal Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Chaat masala - a pinch

Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Jaggery - 1/2 tsp

A dash of lime juice

2 to 3 cups water

Grind cilantro, mint, tamarind paste and green chillies into a smooth paste. Add rest of the ingredients, water and refrigerate for 3 hrs. Alternately, add ice water. Adjust salt.

For the filling:

Boiled and mashed potatoes 2 medium

Soaked and cooked black channa (You can use kabuli channa, as well. I like it with kala channa)

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Chopped green chillies - 1 medium

Garam masala - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Chopped cilantro

Salt to taste

(You can also fill the puri with whole moong dhall sprouts.)

Mix everything well. I microwaved for 30 seconds to get rid of the raw smell of chilli powder and garam masala. You can also break 2 puris and mix, as they do in the street shops.

Break the top of the puri using your thumb, fill with the potato mixture, dip it in the paani and enjoy!

Awards time again!

2009-10-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Brinda has passed 4 awards to me, out of which one is designed by herself. Great job Brinda!

Thanks for your nice words.

I am really overwhelmed with joy on receiving so much love from my fellow bloggers.

Sangi has also passed on the above award to me. Thanks Sangi. The award comes with the following tag. Sangi says, it should be answered with single word. But, Brinda's tag didn't have a rule like that. For a talkative person like me, answering in a single word is near impossible. Moreover, tags are after all to know more about our fellow bloggers. Being a sweet person that Sangi is, I know she won't mind me breaking the rule. What say, Sangi?

Now, for the tag.

1. Where is your cell phone: no mobile. cordless on the couch

2. Your hair: Black

3. Your mother: Retd. bank emp

4. Your father: no more

5. Your favorite food: Indian

6. Your dream last night: a funny one. I went to 'Seattle saravana bhavan' in Chennai where they had only fish on the menu :D Hope saravana bhavan does not sue me

7. Your favorite drink: Filter coffee

8. Your dream/goal: Own and run a shopping complex which sells A-Z goods for women & kids. Well, soon extend that to men as well.

9. What room are you in: Living room

10. Your hobby: Trying out new recipes, blogging about it, reading books, travelling, listening to music, shopping in a complex, mentioned in point 8.

11. Your fear: reptiles, eating veg food in a hotel which also serves non-veg(specially in India. I'm sure they mix up both)

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years: Chennai realizing my dream/goal

13. Where were you last night: Home

14. Something you aren’t: Causing damage to public properties like littering on roads and jumping lines. Any such unethical activities which an average Indian does. I am not trying to boast. I try my best to follow this.

15. Muffins: Orange

16. Wish list item: A lot of money to buy the other things in my wish list ;)

17. Where did you grow up: Chennai

18. Last thing you did: Watched a TV show

19. What are you wearing: T shirt & pants

20. Your TV: Off

21. Your pets: I hate pets

22. Your friends: As I said in my earlier tag, I don't wanna mention names. I love all of them equally

23. Your life: Something great is in store for me

24. Your mood: Great after a sound afternoon nap and heavy dinner

25. Missing someone: Family and Chennai

26. Vehicle: Camry

27. Something you’re not wearing: bangles,watch

28. Your favorite store: Westside

29. Your favorite color (s): All colors

30. When was the last time you laughed: After my yesterday's funny dream

31. Last time you cried: embarrassing question.

32. Your best friend: my mother. She knows everything about me and my life. I owe her a lot.

33. One place that I go over and over: spencer plaza,pondy bazaar

34. One person who emails me regularly: facebook :D I

35. Favorite place to eat: To mention, top 2 :Saravana Bhavan,Gangotri (I can go endless. I have one best eat-out for every dish. I am a foodie!)

This award is the best of the lot since it is designed by our very own, creative, Brinda. Good job, Bittu!

Passing these awards to Lata,Rohini,Sangi,Chitra,Priya,Divya
Pass these awards to 6 blogger friends. I would like to give an option. You can choose to post the awards, which you have not received till date.

Thanks friends, for being with me.

Hey did you guys notice the change in my blog design? I slogged for a couple of days to come up with this design.

As Lata rightly pointed out, I feel this design is more spread out and readability is better.

Pour in your thoughts!

Update: As Rohini pointed out, my blog header picture does not get loaded in IE. It comes up well in firefox and chrome. I stopped using IE, for a long time now. The picture size is 70 KB and I don't know why the heck it doesn't appear on IE. Any inputs?

Kwik Fix Series # 9 - Okra hot & sour gravy

2009-10-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

Don't get perplexed by the post title. The recipe is 100% South-Indian and I have just renamed vendaikka(okra) puli(sour/tamarind) kozhambu (soup/gravy), thus for the benefit of non-Tamils.

This is a real hot and tangy kozhambu to go with hot-hot rice and a papad/quick curry. Ideal for the people in Northern hemisphere, now, with the advent of winter. This is a such a quick recipe and bachelor friendly meaning, it uses common ingredients from your kitchen and does not require any special kitchen appliance including mixer/blender.

The typical iyer vetha kozhambu is also prepared in the similar way except that, there are no tomatoes/onions in a typical vetha kozhambu and we add some sun-dried fries like sun-berries.
You can also make it with just drumstick/onion/egg plant/bitter gourd. Sometimes, a teaspoon of toor dhall is added while seasoning to compensate for the lack of lentils ( like in sambar).

Kara kozhambu is also similar to this and a little coconut milk is added as a last step and boiled for a min.

Puli kozhambu/vetha kozhambu/kara kozhambu, all refers to this simple gravy sans lentils.

I have added onions, tomatoes and okra in my kozhambu.
You can add brinjals in the place of okra, shallots in place of normal onions or replace everything by just drumsticks. Really lip smacking for cold weathers.

Ingredients:

Onions - cut length wise, a handful
Tomato - 1, blanched, skin removed and mashed. Or, you can simply chop them, fine.
Okra- cut into 1.5 '' pieces
Tamarind pulp extracted from lemon size tamarind or 2 tsp tamarind paste dissolved in 1 cup water.
Red chilli powder or sambar powder - 1 tsp ( I used kashmiri chilli powder for a bright color)
Red chillies 2 broken into pieces
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste

For seasoning:
Fenugreek/vendayam/methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Sesame oil 1 tablespoon (Tastes best with sesame oil)
Hing a pinch

Method:
1) Take a thick bottomed vessel, heat the oil, season the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add onions and red chillies. Fry till light brown.
2) Add okra and fry for 2 min. Add the tomato pulp or chopped tomatoes.
3) Cook for a min and add the tamarind extract. Add salt, chilli powder and curry leaves.
4) Boil till the oil separates and serve hot with rice.

Tips:
1. If you think it is watery, mix a little rice flour in a tsp of water and add to the kozhambu.
2. If you wish to add coconut milk, add as a final step and boil for less than a minute.
3. This gravy has a way too much oil, chillies and tamarind which is not a very healthy option.
So, don't eat this often due to the simplicity of the recipe. As a healthier variation, you can cut down the tamarind paste a bit and add a little lime juice at the end.

Raining awards again!

2009-10-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sandhya has given me a warm bear hug.

Kitchen Queen has awarded my blog as

Thanks girls, for making my day.

Cauliflower Paneer Pepper Curry

2009-10-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

I made this simple curry to go with my veg fried rice.

I was making fried rice for quick Sunday brunch and decide to eat it with ketchup. Then I got reminded of the fresh cauliflower, I picked up the previous day. So decided to use it for a simple hot fry. This recipe is nothing special; just a normal one. But the idea to combine paneer and cauliflower worked out well and gave a new dimension to the curry. Started making this, when I was half way through my fried rice and both got ready together.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower - cleaned(Immerse in salted cold water for 10 min) and broken into pieces - 1 cup
Paneer cubes - a few
Chopped Onions - a handful
Pepper powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tsp

Method:
1) Heat oil, add the onions. Fry a bit and add cauliflower.
2) Cover and cook for 5 min.
3) Add salt and paneer cubes. Fry well.
4) Mix cumin and pepper.

Serve hot with fried rice

Veg Fried Rice ~ Version 2

2009-10-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Veg fried rice, made the Chinese way, is my all time favorite. I have already posted the recipe for Chinese Fried Rice here. This recipe is a slight variation. Not sure if eating same kind of food bores people but definitely stereotyped cooking disinterests me. I love to tweak recipes; many a times, rebuild my own recipes during each attempt. I would never make a dish, the same way. Well, mostly. For some recipes, I have done a code freeze and don't intend to change it.I have made Chinese Fried rice in several ways and this is one such method. This is the first ever dish, I cooked on my own. That happened during my college days. I have always helped my mother in kitchen but never attempted to make a complete dish, all by myself. So definitely this is a memorable recipe.

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 1.5 cups (1.5 times the amount of vegetables you use) I used the normal raw rice this time. You can also use basmathi or long grained rice.
Onions - 1 medium chopped thin, lengthwise
Carrots, beans finely chopped and microwaved for a min by sprinkling a little water - 1 cup (This is to retain the color. If you do not have a microwave, you can skip this and fry a bit extra later)
Spring onions to garnish (Save the onions)
Green chilles - shredded 2 medium
Celery sticks - half a stick chopped
Sugar 1 tsp
White pepper powder 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Garlic - chopped fine - 2 pods
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

Method:
1. Heat the oil, add the sugar. Wait for 30 seconds and add the garlic. Fry and add onions, green chillies. Then add the onions from the bottom portion of spring onions, celery sticks.
2. Add carrots, beans. Fry over high flame for a min or two. Add salt, soy sauce.
3. Switch off and mix the cooked rice. Adjust the salt, mix white pepper. Reheat, fry over high flame for a min.
4. Garnish with spring onions and serve with gobi manchurian.

This time I served the rice with a simple cauliflower & paneer curry. Will post the recipe soon.

A Giant Bear Hug

2009-10-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks a lot Rohini for the award. Very sweet of you. We just started interacting and you gave me a bear hug. It is wonderful getting in touch with you. The way you write, sure reaches the heart of the readers. Keep blogging!

I would like to pass on this award to Sandhya, Brinda, Divya, Lata, Sushma, kitchen queen, Jeyashri, Priya, Shama, Vidhas, Subha,Sangi

I tried to include as many names as possible but I am sure I left behind a few blogger friends. I sincerely apologize and would like to pass this award to all my blogger friends & readers.

I would like to give a hug back to Rohini. Generally, the blog awards are only passed on, but this is a real sweet one and let this be an exception.

Kwik Fix Series # 8 - Grilled Paneer & Carrot Sandwich

2009-10-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

The weather is getting colder here and I had no mood to cook anything elaborate for lunch, today. As you all know, that is when a recipe for my kwik fix series originates. Normally, I am a person who is least interested in eating bread. I always try to add an Indian touch to it. Just yesterday, checked the round-up of snacks with bread at Priya's blog, here. Inspired, here I come up with my own version of sandwich. One good thing about this is, you can serve this any time of the day. Will taste good even for lunch boxes. You can also use your left over curries from lunch/dinner. Another great thing is, the filling is concealed and hence people can enjoy the sandwich without the feeling of what went into it. That ofkors excludes us, the cook who knows what all went into it. ;) But anyway, we are foodies and we don't say no to anything. :D

As I said earlier, you can use your leftover curries as a filling for your sandwiches. If you have leftover filling after making this sandwich, you can use it up as a stuffing for your parathas.

Ingredients:
Bread - 4 slices
Grated Paneer & Grated carrot - equal parts - about 1 cup
Chopped Onion - a handful
Chopped green chillies - 2
Green Chutney - 4 tsp (I used my leftover mint- coriander chutney)
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder & chilli powder - 1/2 tsp each
Chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
Butter - 1 tsp plus a little to spread on the slices

Method:
1) Heat 1 tsp butter, season with jeera. Fry the onions and green chillies till tender. Add the grated paneer and carrots. Saute well. Add salt, turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for a min, switch off and add cilantro.

2) Cut the corners of the bread. Apply a little butter on one slice. Apply green chutney and place a little paneer filling. Spread it evenly. Do the same for another slice. Place one slice on top of another such that the paneer filling is sandwiched in between the slices. Repeat the same for another set. Apply a very little butter on top and bottom of the sandwich.

3) Grill the sandwiches in a toaster or cook both the sides on a tawa. Grilling on a toaster gives a better effect since the edges are effectively sealed.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup and potato wafers.

Variation:
1) If you want to reduce the calories, replace paneer with grated cabbage or cauliflower.
2) Substitute paneer with boiled and mashed potatoes.
3) You can used ground spinach for green chutney. Grind a handful of spinach with a green chilli and spread it over the bread. Spinach requires very little/no cooking time.
4) Can use any leftover curry from lunch. If you don't have time to make a green chutney, spread a little maggi masala ketchup.

You can come up with umpteen variations depending on the time of the day and the end-users (kids or adults) (:D)

Sending this to kid's delight event at Srivalli's blog.

Murukku ~ Indian Cooking Challenge September 2009

2009-09-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

This month's challenge is murukku. This is not the first time I am making this. I have already made murukku using rice flour and besan. That, we call as magizhampoo.

This recipe makes use of rice flour and urad dhall flour and we call this as thenguzhal.

Before I started cooking, I used to think making murukku needs lot of skill and practice. I have not even seen some one making it and had no idea about the procedure.

After coming here to US, chances of getting good quality snacks is less, rather zero and only then, I decided to invest in a murukku press. I was quite hesitant to try making it. But to my surprise, the result was awesome. I got perfect, oil free, melt-in-the-mouth murukkus in the very first attempt. I even managed to send a pack of them to one of my friends in a different state.

This time, I followed the exact recipe as given by Srivalli and was a great success.

Preparation time - 20 to 30 mins
Cooking time - 20 to 30 mins
makes: approximately 250g of murukku
Cuisine: Andhra & Tamil Nadu
Utensils needed:
Muruku/ chakli press
Kadai

Ingredients needed:
Raw Rice 4 cups
urad dhal 1 cup
Water app 1/2 cup or more

For seasoning:
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 75 g

Method to prepare:

Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr. Dry roast the Urad dal to light brown. Allow it to cool.

If you are using more quantity, you can get it ground in rice mil, else use your mixie to grind both Rice and Urad dal.

First grind rice into a fine flour, keep it aside. then grind the urad dal to fine powder.

In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.

Whether you use Asafetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.

Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter. Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture. Now slowly add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.

Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.
Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls. Fill the Muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flames or press over a paper and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.

Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour. You will know by seeing the colour that its cooked. Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

This normally stays good for weeks, provided you forget about these which hardly happens!

Notes:

Things to remember for not making your muruku break into pieces. Its important to roast the Urad dal to just brown and not very brown.

Rice used should have some starch to hold the shape, else it might crumble down.

Adding too much butter can also result in the fried murukus to break. You can start with half and slowly increase by feel the dough. The dough with the right amount of butter, will be soft but not very soft.

If you don't have a muruku aachu, you can use a plastic cover/ ziplock cover with thin hole to press out the dough or even icing bags with different heads can be thought of.

Sweet Corn Mushroom Soup

2009-09-24T13:41:00.001-07:00

One more heart warming soup from my kitchen!

I have combined 4 colors of vegetables and protein packed, low calorie mushrooms in my soup. Don't ask me why I added yellow pumpkin to this soup. Yeah, there is a Thai special yellow pumpkin soup but this method is totally different. I was on a look out for vegetables to add to my healthy soup and that is when I saw the yellow pumpkin sitting in the comforts of my fridge, (yeah! It's damn hot outside and I don't have an ac for myself) staring at me. So added a piece of it too.

Generally, it is good to include as many colors in your diet err.. I mean different colored vegetables and not a pack of gems. I have already spoken enough about goodness of vegetables and my fervor for them. This time around, I reduced the amount of butter and milk making the soup totally healthy. I should admit, this is the best of all soups I have made till date.

Ingredients:

Mix of vegetables - I used carrot, beans, cabbage, celery, sweet corn,yellow pumpkin, Used 4 diff colored vegetables)- 1 cup
Green Chillies - 2
Mushroom - half a cup
Corn flour - 1 tablespoon
Milk - half a cup
Butter - 2 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Pressure cook the vegetables and green chillies with water.
2. Cook the mushrooms separately (just sprinkle a little water and cook in a open pan till all water from mushroom oozes out). Add the ghee and fry the mushrooms crisp. Set aside.
3. Extract the veg stock from the cooked vegetables and extract the pulp using a soup extractor. Since I do not have one, I just put them in a blender and made a paste.
4. Heat butter in a pan, fry the corn flour till golden yellow. Add milk and cook till it forms a paste. (You can skip this if you do not want to have butter and milk)
5. Add the veg stock and pulp. Add more water depending on the consistency. Add salt and bring it to a boil.
6. Add the fried mushrooms to the soup and serve hot with salt & pepper.

Kwik Fix Series # 7 - Lemon Rice

2009-09-23T13:53:00.001-07:00

Next recipe that gets to feature in my kwik fix series is Lemon Rice. It is so basic for a South Indian that I can hear some of you exclaiming "huh! recipe for lemon rice!". It is such an easy breezy recipe and I would like to post it in my space for the benefit of those who have not heard of it , so far. If you perform a survey on South Indian lunch boxes on any given day, I am positive that every alternate box would carry lemon rice. Okay! If not 50% at least 25%; trust me. As a child, I was always thrilled to carry this with potato fry.

If you have leftover rice, you can make this in a jiffy. Season the rice and squeeze in some lemon juice, you are ready to go!

Though I call it a simple recipe, I feel it needs utmost perfection. I don't like my rice oily or with a dark yellow color. I have added minimal oil, just right amount of turmeric for the perfect bright yellow color and as an end result got a juicy lemon rice. Perfect for lunch boxes!

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 1 cup (Bring down the rice to room temperature, spread the rice without sticking to each other)
Green chillies - 2 medium chopped
Curry leaves - 5
Mustard - 2 tsp
Channa dhal - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - half to one tsp
Lemon - 1
Salt to taste
Hing a pinch

Method:

1) Take a small seasoning pan, heat the oil. Add hing, channa dhal, urad dhall and mustard. When the mustard pops, switch off the gas.
2) Remove the pan, add chillies, turmeric and curry leaves in that order. The heat in the pan is enough to cook the chillies.
3) Add salt to the rice and pour the seasoning. Mix well.
4) Squeeze in the lemon juice, without the seeds. Have a check on the amount of juice. If you are using a real juicy one, squeeze in half a lemon, taste once and then add more juice to taste.
5) Close the rice for half an hour for the juices to blend.
Serve with potato wafers or my fiery hot potato fry. Any spicy curry will go well with this rice.

Tip: You can add peanuts or cashews with the seasoning.

I have seen people making this in a different way. After seasoning, add the rice to the pan with the heat still on, mix well, switch off and then squeeze in the juice.

My Custom Domain

2009-09-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

My own domain is up at http://www.vidyasrecipes.com
Since it takes time for this new address to be available all over the Internet, you can still get to my recipes at http://vidyasrecipes.blogspot.com.
My blog is in transition. Afterwards, readers will be automatically redirected to my new address.
Feels great!

Aloo Gobi Masala

2009-09-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Aloo Gobi - another lip smacking authentic Punjabi curry . Slurp! I am addicted to Punjabi Khaana as much I am to my very own south Indian delicacies. Every time I think about Indian food varieties, I am flabbergasted. I would best describe India as 'foodie's paradise'.

Aloo gobi would top my Punjabi favorites list. This is the first ever North Indian gravy I had, as far as I remember. Naan and Aloo Gobi would be my standard order, on our occasional restaurant visits, in early 90's. Those times, I used to be a fussy eater and I never had it in me to try paneer or mushroom. Not anymore! I never even wanted to try brinjal or Bindi in restaurants. Going all the way to a restaurant, I didn't want to try the usual vegetables that are used in south Indian cooking. Gobi was a rare, rather a no-no at our home then, fearing that it might contain worms. Well, it was actually true those days. Now a days I feel they are better; may be owing to the proper usage of pesticides. Hoping that they just make proper use!

The bottom line is gobi was, is and will be my favorite and I just am addicted to aloo gobi masala. Even now, If I have no clue what to order, I end up ordering this. So far, no restaurant has disappointed me.

If you have not tasted this yummy dish so far, please grab a plate and see for yourself, the greatness of it.
I have not added onions in my recipe. It's my personal choice and you can add sliced onions after seasoning with jeera. But, no tomatoes please for the authentic taste.

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower
3 medium potatoes
Turmeric powder - 1.5 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder - 1.5 tsp (If you using red chilli powder, use slightly less quantity)
Dhaniya Powder - 2 tsp
Slit Green Chillies - 2 medium
Jeera - 2 tsp
Crushed ginger - a small piece
Amchur - 1 tsp
Chopped cilantro to garnish
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Method:

1) Break the cauliflower and cut the florets into uniform medium sized pieces. The flowers should retain the shape on cooking. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
2) To the crushed ginger, add dhaniya powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder, a little water and mix everything well. This is to ensure uniform absorption of masala by the vegetables. If you add dry powders directly, it might stick to the florets unevenly.
3)Heat the oil, season with jeera. Add the green chillies. Then add the above mixture and wait for less than a minute till the oil separates.
4) Add the cauliflower and potatoes. Cover and cook till half done. (10 minutes on low to medium flame) Stir once carefully without breaking the florets. Add salt and cook till done.
5) Mix in the amchur powder and cook for a min.

Switch off and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with rotis / pulav varieties. This time, I served with mushroom pulav.

Tip:In step 4, instead of adding raw potatoes and cauliflower, you can fry each of them separately till light/golden brown in a separate pan before hand and add it. This gives a better taste.

Baked Brinjal Chutney

2009-09-19T19:43:00.001-07:00

This baked or smoked brinjal(eggplant) thogaiyal (chutney) is an heirloom recipe. This is a south Indian version of Baingan ka Bhartha in the sense that both the dishes have smoked brinjal as base. Makes a great meal when mixed with hot rice , sesame oil and served with papad. This can also be served as a side-dish for idli/dosa

Ingredients:
1 big eggplant
Urad dhall - 1 table spoon
Red chillies - 3 medium
Tamarind - lime size ball
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Hing a pinch

Method:
1. Polish the brinjal with sesame oil. Bake the brinjal at 400 degrees for 20 min. Turn the brinjal upside down in between for even cooking. Check if the brinjal is cooked thorougly with the skin easy to peel off and place in cold water. If not, cook for some more time. The cooking time might vary with size of brinjal.

Alternately, cook on low flame till done with the help of tongs, if you do not have an oven.

2. Meanwhile, heat a tsp of oil and fry urad dhall till light brown. Add tamarind and red chillies. Fry everything till the dhall turns golden brown and chillis turn crisp. Lastly, add hing. Allow to cool.
3. Peel off the skin of brinjal and break roughly into pieces. Wait till it cools down. Grind together with the ingredients in point 2 and salt into a smooth paste.
4. Season with mustard,hing and urad dhall. You can even heat a little oil and fry the chutney till oil separates for better taste and shelf life.

Idly Manchurian ~ Fried Idly

2009-09-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

This recipe has been residing in my drafts for a long time now; finally getting down to post it. Took a little break from blogging. I made this for dinner with the leftover breakfast idlis. I have tasted this in several restaurants at Chennai and completely love this. It has different names in different restaurants ; to name a few - idly manchurian, fried idly, kaima idly, chilly idly. I had some colourful bell peppers sitting in my fridge and wanted to use it in a manchurian. So combined everything with the leftover idlis, added a little of each masala and came up with this yummy dish in minutes.

I didn't want to deep fry the idlis. So resorted to shallow frying and saved oil. But you need lot of patience to fry them thoroughly.

Ingredients:
Idlis - 4 to 6 (medium size)
Bell peppers (diff colors) - a little of each amounting to half a cup
Slit Green Chillies - 2
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Idly chilli powder (optional) - half to 1 tsp
Onions - 1 small cut into cubes
Oil to fry (I did shallow frying. so 1 to 2 tablespoon is enough)
salt to taste
Cilantro to garnish

Method:
1) Cut the idlis into small pieces and fry till golden brown in oil. I did shallow frying which requires patience. You should fry all sides. If you want it quick, do deep frying.Set the fried idlis aside in a paper towel for the oil to drain.
2)Add a little oil and fry the onions, green chillies. Then add the bell peppers and fry.
3)Add chilli powder,idly chilli powder and salt, sprinkle a little water and cook well.
4)Mix the fried idlis and fry everything together for a min.
5)Garnish with cilantro and serve with curd or onion raitha.

Variation: You can mix boiled channa or other veggies like carrot,peas.

Award and a tag!

2009-09-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks Latha, for passing this award to me. I am really sorry for this delayed post. Had to catch up with lot of other things and couldn't log in to the blogger. So nice of you. I am really amazed by the pace you post your entries.

This award comes with the following rules:

I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it

I must list 10 honest things about myself

I must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog.I must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers & list their links

I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

10 Honest things about me:

1. I love to compliment people a lot. I believe, that means a lot to them and that gives us a sense of satisfaction. I really hate few people who try to discourage others. My policy is 'If you can't do something nice, better be quiet.'

2. I love filter coffee.

3. Reading books & listening to good music are my fav pastimes.

4. I am a late riser. I hate getting up early.

5. A chatter-box. But some people turn me off and I can transform to the other extreme in their company. I prefer being quiet in such cases.

6. Till, I went to college, I used to be a fussy-eater. It is a total transformation from a fussy eater to a total foodie. I live to eat. But I don't eat too much of anything.

7. I love thrill rides. Well, life is the most exciting thrill ride.

8. Chennai holds a special place in my heart. I am crazy about the city.

9. I like solving puzzles and brain teasers.

10. My short term goal is to learn driving and long term goal, to run a business.

It's really difficult mentioning names and hence tagging all my blogger friends. Latha, please excuse me on that.

Tagged!

2009-09-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

Sandhya of Sandhya's Kitchen has tagged me. I got busy over the long weekend and hence this post got delayed. Thanks Sandhya for tagging me. This tag is fun.

The Rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share the ABCs of you.
4. Tag 4 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let the 4 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.

The Tag:
1. A – Available/Single? Married
2. B – Best friend? Love all my friends. Don't wanna mention names
3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake
4. D – Drink of choice? Filter coffee anyday
5. E – Essential item you use every day? Toothpaste & brush
6. F – Favorite color? All bright colors. I always go for good combination of colors rather than falling for a single favourite color.
7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? Nil
8. H – Hometown? Singara Chennai
9. I – Indulgence? Good food & a sound sleep
10. J – January or February? Jan & Feb :)
11. K – Kids & their names? No kids as of now
12. L – Life is incomplete without? finding your latent talent. Identifying and following your passion makes life worthwhile.
13. M – Marriage date? 6/6 (No date format confusion :D)
14. N – Number of siblings? One elder brother
15. O – Oranges or Apples? Both
16. P – Phobias/Fears? Fears
17. Q – Quote for today? It is your attitude and not your aptitude that decides your altitude.
18. R – Reason to smile? Do you need a reason to smile?
19. S – Season? Nature's work; so love all seasons.
20. T – Tag 4 People? Brinda,Chitra, Srivalli, Lubna (Many people have completed this tag already. Love all my blogger friends and tagging everyone who had not taken this before)
21. U – Unknown fact about me? I am a genius ;)
22. V – Vegetable you don't like ? Absolutely love all the vegetables. But should be cooked to my taste

23. W - Worst habit - Never accepting that I have one such habit;)
24. X – X-rays you've had? First one, for the elbow fracture I suffered in 5th std.
25. Y – Your favorite food? Anything cooked by me. Now, I call that ' self confidence'. I love any food that is cooked with love and care.
26. Z – Zodiac sign? Leo ;All my user ids are leovidya.

Have tagged 4 people. Check point 20

Kashi Halwa ~ Ashguord Halwa

2009-09-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Kashi phul in Hindi means Ashguord and hence the name. This is a famous dish in Tamil wedding feast. The authentic recipe calls for removing the water secreted from the pumpkin. To an extent that the grated pumpkin is tied tight in a cloth and the water extracted. I didn't want to remove the juice and decided to use it. The recipe doesn't require khoa too. I just added as a variation.

The halwa tasted awesome. But I have decided to omit khoa in my next attempt since I want to have the original taste of the vegetable. The halwa had both the flavours of pumpkin & khoa blended and it is up to you to decide how much khoa to add. Adjust the sugar content accordingly.

Also, use the food color sparingly. I am planning to omit even the colour next time since it is not so good for health. However, it is added in the authentic recipe.

Ingredients:

Grated Ashguord (white pumpkin) - 2 cups
Milk - half a cup
Unsweetened Khoa - 1 cup
Sugar - 1.5 cups
Ghee - 2 tablespoon
Saffron color - a pinch
Cardamom - 1 pinch
Cashewnuts to garnish

Method:

1) Grate the pumpkin and cook it along with milk. Traditionally, the water that the pumpkin oozes out is removed. But I decided to use it. Either pressure cook or simmer till the water and milk gets evoporated and the pumpkin becomes soft.

2) Add the sugar,khoa (updated) and mix well. Mix the color in a little milk or water and add it.

3) Add the cardomom powder and ghee. Stir till the halwa leaves the sides of the vessel and garnish with cashews fried in ghee.

Sending this to FIC - Zodiac signs at Ashwini's Spicy Cuisine. Food in Colour is an event started by Sunshine mom of Tongue Ticklers to emphasis the importance of colour in food.

My Zodiac is Leo and the Zodiac colour is orange/gold. Here, I present my food in orange colour to the event.

Update: Add the khoa in step 2. Missed it. Thanks Kals, for pointing out.

Chocolate Milk Shake

2009-09-01T17:43:00.001-07:00

A sinfully delicious shake for the chocoholics. Though, I am not a great chocolate lover, there are days when I suddenly crave for chocolates. I don't generally eat chocolates frequently or on a regular basis. But, once I start eating it, I would pounce on it with full vigour and compensate for the choco-less days. This sinfully delicious shake is the outcome of one such choco craving. Generally, when I crave for something, I just go ahead and make it right away without even the slightest tinge of laziness. That's the only time, I can defy my laziness! How can I call myself a foodie, otherwise?

I tried and included as many things possible to make it rich & creamy. Forget about the calories and enjoy the drink. Here's a toast to all chocoholics out there!

Ingredients:
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 2 tsp
Condensed Milk - 2 tsp
Hersheys Chocolate Syrup - 2 to 3 tablespoons
Vanilla icecream - 1 scoop
Chocolate icecream - 3 scoops
Ice (optional)
Whipped cream and chocolate syrup to garnish

Method:
1.First run the milk, sugar, chocolate syrup and condensed milk in a processor/ juicer
2.Then add the ice cubes, 1 scoop of each icecream and blend again till thick and frothy.

Serving tip:
Add one scoop of chocolate icecream to a serving glass and pour the milk shake on top.
Garnish with whipped cream & choco syrup.Can also add choco chips or choco shavings. In that case omit the choco syrup. (just for garnishing)

Sending this to CFK- Chocolate event at Hema's salt to taste blog initiated by Sharmi of Neivedyam

Modaks & Sesame Ladoo ~ Indian Cooking Challenge August 2009

2009-08-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

This month's challenge comes as a festival special - Ganesha Chathurthi special. There were 6 recipes chosen and I selected 2 of them to try.

I chose to make Modak from Maharashtra since I have already made the Tamil Nadu version. Just a slight difference between the two. Modaks have poppy seeds added and it gave an interesting flavour.

Modaks from Maharashtra

Stuffing -

2 cups freshly grated coconut (can use frozen unsweetened coconut)

1 cup jaggery (grated)

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp cardamom powder

one pinch nutmeg (optional)

2 tbsp water (mom uses milk)

Cover -

1 cup rice flour

1.25 cup water

pinch of salt

1 tbsp oil

Preparation for Stuffing -

Roast poppy seeds in a small skillet and let it cool down. Grind it coarsely and keep it aside.

In a heavy bottom kadhai mix all the ingredients for stuffing except poppy seed powder and let it sit for 15 min. Now start heating the mixture over medium heat. In about 10-12 minutes, the mixture starts boiling and stuffing will turn yellowish brown and will be sticky. Take the kadhai off the heat, add poppy seeds powder and mix well. Set it aside to cool down.

Preparation for cover -

Take vessel that has tight fitting cover. Start boiling water in that vessel, add salt and oil. When water starts boiling, lower the heat and slowely add rice flour. Please do now dump everything at once. Start mixing vigourously with a heavy spoon. Now close the lid and take the pot off the heat. Let the covered pot cool down for 15 minutes or so. Then with wet hands, mix the dough properly. It will warm so be careful and use cold water to keep your hands from burning but do not use too much water. if you think the dough is little sticky, I will suggest add 1-2 tbsp maida to it and make the dough.

Making Modak (Final Product) -

Start boiling water in a large vessel that can fit a steamer. I use a stainless steel steamer that fits on a pressure cooker and water doesnt touch the steamer and use stainless steel plate to cover it. Oil the steamer and set it aside.

Make about 20 balls of the dough and 20 parts of the stuffing. Start making small puri with the dough ball on a oiled paper/aluminum foil. Keep one part of stuffing in the middle of the puri and gather the puri gently to make shape like modak. You will have to handle the dough very gently. Follow the step to make remaining modaks. Now dip each modak in cold water and put it in the steamer. Put the steamer on boiling water and cover it. Let the modaks steam for 20 minutes on medium to high heat. Take the steamer off the vessel and let it sit for 5 minutes before removing moodakd from steamer.

Traditionally, modaks are served with ghee but it can be served with coconut milk.

Second recipe is sesame ladoo (Nugul untallu) from Andhra.

(Reproduced from Srivalli's blog)

This is traditionally prepared with the black seeds with the skin on. Wash them well and dry them under sun. Dry roast them in a tawa and let them cool. Once they are cool, take about 2 - 3tbsp of grated or powdered jaggery and run in a mixie. The amount of jaggery normally depends on the formation of laddoo. When you make a laddoo, it should stay in shape. Then you know the amount is enough. Also it depends on the fineness of the sesame powder. When you run in mixie, it becomes little oily which will help in holding the laddo shape. For about 100 gms of Sesame seeds, I must've used some 3 tbsp of Jaggery.

Kwik Fix Series # 6 - Bread Peas Masala

2009-08-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how to make use of the leftover bread? After having bread toasts & sandwiches, you might still be left with half a pack and got sick of the usual recipes. You can make the best out of it and add an Indian touch to come up with a lip-smacking snack. If you have frozen green peas ready, you can make this under 30 minutes. Quick, easy, healthy & also helps to clear the leftover bread - what more do you need? I am sure you will go for a fresh loaf just to make this. Adding this recipe to my kwik fix series.

Ingredients:
Green peas (fresh/frozen) - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium chopped
Tomato - 1 medium
Cinnamon, Clove - 1 each
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhania powder - 2 tsp
Jeera - 2 tsp
Green Chillies slit - 1 or 2
Oil - 3 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Cilantro,chopped onions, tomato ring & lemon wedge - to garnish

Method:
1) If you are using fresh peas, pressure cook separately. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
2) Add oil, season with jeera, cinnamon, clove and green chillies. Add the chopped onions and fry well. Add the chopped tomatoes. Cook and add the dry powders & salt.
3) Add the frozen peas/cooked peas. Add a little water about half to one cup. Cook well and till the water gets absorbed.
4) Add the ghee and switch off.
5) Cut the corners of bread, pour the peas masala on top. Garnish and serve hot.

Tips & Variation:

1.Just like Bread peas masala, you can make bread channa by pouring chole masala on top of the bread.

2. Or you can toast the bread just like toasting pav bun and serve as Bread Bhaji. Check Pav Bhaji recipe here.

Sending this entry to Susan's My Legume Love Affair 14.

Update: Sending this to CFK- Evening Snacks hosted by Divya started by Sharmi of Neivedyam. Thanks Divya for leaving a comment and letting me know of the event.

Badam Kheer

2009-08-24T19:54:00.001-07:00

This is an awesome dessert made by simmering almond paste in milk & sugar. It has a different consistency from the normal payasam/kheer varieties and is served as a drink. You can serve it hot or cold. For the amount of almonds I have used, you can also increase the amount of milk. I wanted the almond flavour to dominate and hence used a little less milk. You can make this in less than half an hour to serve your surprise guests. Or even prepare in advance and store it in the fridge for planned parties. That way you could finish off one yummy dish, a day before.

Ingredients:
Almonds - 35 to 40 soaked in hot water
Milk - 3 cups
Sugar - half a cup
Saffron - few strands
Cashew nuts - 10 soaked in water (optional)

Method:
1) Peel the skin of almonds and grind along with cashews and a little milk.
2) Boil the milk and add the almond cashew paste. (Mix it with a little milk and add carefully avoiding lumps) Boil till the paste gets cooked. (You can also add some almond slivers)
3) Mix the sugar and simmer. Garnish with saffron

Refrigerate and serve cold. It tastes yummy when hot too. But serve after sometime for the flavours to blend well.

Adai Avial

2009-08-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Adai is a protein rich food made of lentils. I also add greens to my adai as an enrichment. It is traditionally served with avial (a vegetable stew), jaggery and butter. The protein rich adai with vitamin rich avial, iron rich jaggery and fatty butter makes a balanced diet. Iron is best absorbed along with proteins and I wonder how the elders arrived at this combination.

When it comes to variation with the recipe, the options are unlimited. Sometimes, I add spinach or drumstick leaves, sometimes, shredded cabbage and so on.

Normally, channa dal, urad dal & rice are added to the batter. However, I add toor dal and moong dal also. This time I have used black urad dal which is more nutritious than the skinless urad dal. You can include any kind of lentil to the batter and the dish tastes yummy with just anything. This is a healthy, balanced diet for kids and can be served as a rich evening snack or an early dinner.

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 medium chopped
Spinach - a few leaves (optional) or shredded cabbage (optional)
Oil - 2 tsp/adai to cook & grease the adai (You can reduce it to 1 tsp. I use sesame oil)

For the batter:
A bowl of lentils & rice(Channa dal, rice, urad dal, toor dal, moong dal) - I use equal proportion of the dal varieties and a handful of rice. This time I used black urad dal and used a little less than normal.
Shallots or sambar onions - 5 to 10
Cilantro - 1/4 bunch
Red Chillies - 4
Green Chillies - 1
Ginger - a medium piece
Curry leaves - 10 to 15
Salt to taste
Hing a pinch

Method:
1) Soak the lentils, rice and red chillies for 2 to 3 hrs. Add the rest of the ingredients and grind them to a coarse paste adding water. It should be coarse to get crispy adai. Just whip once or twice.

2) Mix the chopped onions to the batter. Add a little water. It should be of dropping consistency; not so watery.
3) Heat a griddle, drizzle a little oil. Pour the batter using a ladle and spread it to make a perfect round. Don't make it very thin like dosa. After pouring a batter, just spread a little using the ladle. Drizzle oil and cook on both the sides till golden brown. This take a slightly higher cooking time than dosa. So be patient.

Serve hot with avial, jaggery (optional) & a dash of butter on the adai (optional).

Check out the avial recipe here.
I served adai with avial, capsicum chutney, butter & jaggery.

Variation: You can add a handful of shredded cabbage or chopped spinach ( 5 leaves) to the batter. In that case, add just before pouring on the tawa.

Sending this to Susan's My Legume Love Affair 14

Awards Again!

2009-08-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Shama has passed the above awards to me. Thanks Shama. You made my day.

I have already done the tag here. I am passing the awards to all my blogger friends and whoever wish to do the tag, please go ahead & haffun.

Plantain curry

2009-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

A simple stir fry to go with South Indian main course. I was craving for this simple curry and only recently, I saw a fresh stock of plantain in the Indian store. Overexcited, I picked up 2 long ones. My mother used to make plantain curry in 3 forms; either adding coconut & green chilly or curry powder or tamarind & spices. I combined all the methods to come up with this yummy curry. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Plantain (Raw banana) - 1 big or 2 medium
Tamarind Paste - 1/4 tsp or equivalent juice extracted
Curry Powder (Recipe here) - 1.5 tsp
Grated Coconut - half a tablespoon
Salt to taste
For seasoning :
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Red Chilli - 1 broken into 2 pieces
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - 5
Mustard - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp

Method:
1) Chop the plantain into small cubes, boil with a little water and cook covered till half done. Add the tamarind paste and salt and cook till done. It should retain its shape and not become mushy.
2) Heat oil, add the dal for seasoning. When they turn light brown, add the mustard and red chilli. When the mustard pops, add hing and curry leaves.
3) Add the cooked plantain. Sprinkle the curry powder, coconut and fry together for 2 min.
Serve hot with rice & a South Indian gravy
Tip: You can add a tsp of coconut oil finally or even use it for seasoning in the second step. I love the flavour.

Thanx Sangi for the lovely gift!

Capsicum Chutney

2009-08-13T22:47:00.001-07:00

A couple of days back, I was on a lookout for a dip, to go with my dosa and checked my fridge for tomatoes. I just had one tomato and knew for sure, I can't make a chutney to serve two people. So started evaluvating other options and only then did these colorful bell peppers caught my attention. Decided to make a yummy chutney out of them.

Bell peppers are rich in vitamins and minerals. They are good antioxidants and help fight against heart disease. I understand, the red ones have better nutritive value than the green ones. Google for the detailed nutrition chart.

This chutney is one great way of including them in your diet. It turned out lip smacking and a great dip for idli/dosa. I am sure this recipe is gonna be regular on my menu.

Ingredients:

Chopped capsicum (yellow,red,orange.You can also use a single colour ) - 1 bowl (Used 60% of each capsicum)

Urad dhall - 4 tsp
Red chillies - 3
Hing - 1 pinch
Tamarind - a tiny piece or 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
Sesame oil (preferred) - 5 tsp
Onion - a small bit (optional. Since I had a little chopped onion left, I made use of it)
Cilantro - a handful
Salt to taste
For seasoning : Mustard - 2 tsp and urad dhall - 1 tsp

Method:

1) Heat a tsp of oil, add the urad dhall and fry till the color changes a bit. Now add chillies. Fry till the chillies turn crisp and dhall turns rosy. Dont make it very brown. Do everything over low - medium flame. Switch of the gas and add the tamarind and hing. Keep aside.
2) Add another tsp of oil, fry the onions and keep aside. Similarly fry the capsicums till 3/4 th cooked. I wanted to retain the juice and didn't cook it fully.
3) Grind everything into a smooth paste along with cilantro and salt.
4) Heat the remaining oil, season with mustard and urad dhall. Add the paste and cook for less than a minute till oil separates. You can add more oil if you wish to.

Three Awards & A Tag

2009-08-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Thanx Sangi, for passing these awards to me. You are very generous in showering them on me.

What is your current obsession?
Collecting cook books.
What are you wearing today?
Pants & top
What's for dinner?
Dosa
What is the last thing you brought?
Milk
What are you listening to right now?
Nothing
What do you think about the person who tagged you?
A great cook and a nice & encouraging person - Sangi.
If you have a house totally paid for,fully furnished any where in the world,where would you like it to be?
Chennai
What are your must have pieces for summer?
Cotton dresses, lots of water, curd rice
Which language you want to learn?
French
Who do u want to meet now?
My family in India
What is your favourite colour?
All bright colours
What do you try to cook when you have cooking blues(when you feel real lazy to cook something)?
Upma
What are the cosmetics/make-up/perfumes that you can't live without?
Hair oil, soap & face wash
What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?
Everything inside otherwise I wouldn't have got it.
What is your favourite magazine?
Vikatan. I love to browse through any magazine that has an interesting cover.
If you had $100 now,what would you spend it on?
If the 100 $ rightfully belongs to me, I would gift clothes to Roshan.
Who are your style icons?
None. But during my childhood days I was a crazy fan of Nathiya. Would love to dress up like her.
Describe your personal style?
hehe don't think I have any
What are your favourite movies?
Nothing comes to my mind right now.
Give us three styling tips that always work for you?
I like to dress up in bright colours, salwars being my fav attire. Whether it works or not, I don't care.
Coffe or tea?
Coffee.
What inspires you?
Challenges that require my brain to work smart & the recognition I get at the end of it.
Which other blogs you love visiting?
Food blogs & personal blogs with humour & wit. I don't have the patience to go through travelogues. I even tried my hand at it but got bored after doing one. I feel it is better to cherish the memories as pictures in mind rather than putting it into words; diluting the essence.
Favourite dessert/sweet?
Mysore pak. My mouth waters with the very mention of it. Thankfully I have it in my home, now.
Favourite season?
Summer in Chennai err.. I mean the peak summer in april/may. I love the smell of jasmine & mangoes in the air. Every year, it reminds me of the wonderful summer vacation I had during the school days. I walk down the memory lane reliving those awesome summer games, curd rice with mangoes, afternoon nap.
Which is your dream destination?
A trip to Europe
Which is your favourite international cuisine?
Indo - Chinese (Can't eat authentic Chinese. When it comes to cuisine, I never enjoy anything other than Indian. I can survive with other things but can never say anything fav)
Who is your favourite singer?
SPB, Shreya Goshal

The rules are:
Respond and rework-answer the questions on your blog,replace one question that u dislike with a question of yourown invention,and add one more question of your own.

My question: What do you like about Chennai?

Passing these awards to all my blogger friends.
I wish to pass this tag to all and those of you who have not done it so far, take up!
Update: Updated the no. of awards from two to three. Got a bit confused since I got the kreative blogger award from Sangi,already.

Cream of Veg Soup

2009-08-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

Till a week back, sun was scorching and the temp soared to 100 odd F. To make it worse, there was no AC at home. Read my rambling about the hot weather here. I started longing for colder climate and opted to have juices/shakes which is quite unlikely for a coffee lover like me. And now, out of the blue, the blue & bright sky has turned dark & gloomy. As of now, I am not cribbing about the weather since I remember the bad times. But soon I might. When summer comes, we say this year is the hottest and come winter, we say it's the worst. Talk about human nature! Actually, the weather is nice and pleasant and colder days are yet to come.

This afternoon, I was craving for something hot and I made this soup. I had this for lunch cutting off my usual bowl of rice. It was a nice change. Planning to try different soup varieties in the days to come.

Usually, soups are made using stocks. The vegetables are chopped fine and boiled for a long time. Since I wanted to make it quick and short, I just blended the vegetables into a paste. Moreover, I don't like the idea of leaving behind a portion of veg by extracting just the juice. You might go for the eloborate method if you wish to.

Ingredients:

Mix of veg of your choice (I used French beans, carrots, corn and green peas) - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 2
Corn flour,Butter & milk for the white sauce ( Check the measurement and method here)
Garlic - a small piece
Salt to taste
Onions - a quarter or half finely chopped (optional)
Butter - 1 tsp and ghee half a tsp

Method:
1) Microwave the veggies along with the green chillies or pressure cook them.
2) Prepare the white sauce and keep aside.

3) Blend the boiled veggies along with garlic in a mixer into a smooth paste.

4) Heat the butter and ghee in a pan. Add the onions and fry till pink.
5) Add the veggie paste and a little water. Add salt to taste and bring it to a boil.
6) Now, add the prepared white sauce and enough water to bring it to soup consistency. Add more salt if required and boil together.
Serve hot with pepper. I had it with fryums.

Variation: You can add fried mushrooms to make cream of mushroom soup or sweet corn to make sweet corn veg soup.

Fiery Hot Potato Fry

2009-08-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

This is a simple Potato fry ; simple to make but a powerful & delicious curry. I think for the South-Indian vegetarians specially tamils, onion sambar and potato fry is an heavenly combo. This is a must-have in most lunch feasts. I am calling it fiery hot just for the colour. Otherwise, for the spices I have used, it is not too spicy; just moderate. (In the Indian standards) If you are particular in having less spicy food, add a little powder at a time and check for yourself. An abundant caution! I have used a little more oil than I usually do, to make this fry tastier. I don't always use so much oil and it is an occasional indulgence. Better be watchful!

You can make this curry, mix with hot rice and add 2 tsp of spice powder & a little extra salt to come up with the potato rice, I was talking about in my recipe for tomato rice. This tastes great for lunch boxes and go less on the spice content , if you are making it for kids. For the rice, I cut the potatoes even smaller in order to get more chunks of it in a uniform manner.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 4 medium (Boiled, peeled and diced into small cubes or alternatively raw potatoes diced)
Onion - half or one, finely chopped
Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp to 2 tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1.5 tablespoon
Mustard - 1 tsp
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat half a tablespoon oil, add mustard and wait till it pops. Add the hing, curry leaves and onions. Fry till the onion turns brown and crispy.
2. Add the diced potatoes. If you are using raw ones, sprinkle little water and cook covered till done.
3. Sprinkle the spice powders and salt such a way that almost all the pieces are covered. Pour the remaining oil on top and fry(uncovered) till the potatoes get nicely roasted and coated with the masala.

Serve hot with rice. This curry is versatile & tastes great with all - sambar, rasam and curd. You can also fill this in dosa and serve it as masala dosa. But point to be noted is the potato masala used for authentic masala dosa is different.

Tip: For any roast curry, don't add all the oil in the beginning. Add a little by little from time to time and fry well ; more so, when you are adding raw vegetables. This way you get crispier curries with comparitively less oil. You also don't have the risk of adding excess oil due to lack of proper judgement.

Check one more kind of aloo fry here.

Podalangai (snake guord) Poricha Kootu

2009-08-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

This is one more kind of kootu from the Iyer cuisine. Like any other type, this is also rich in proteins from dal and the nutrition from the veg used. With these kind of dishes, you can enjoy the full advantage of the veg, without any loss of nutrients resulting from frying in oil. Check another recipe for kootu(molagootal) here. Ironically molagootal (molagu or milagu means pepper in tamil) doesn't have pepper while poricha kootu has the flavour of pepper imbibed. This makes poricha kootu spicier than its counterpart. In my humble opinion, podalangai tastes better when made as poricha kootu. So normally I make use of it for this recipe. You can also make use of chow-chow or a mix of veg like carrot, beans, avaraikkai (flat beans), raw plantain etc. to make this delicacy.

Ingredients:

Podalangai (snake guord) - 2 cups
Moong dhall - 1/2 cup
Thoor dhall - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric a pinch
Salt to taste
For paste:
Urad dhall - 3 tsp
Channa dhall - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Grated coconut - 1 tablespoon
Pepper - 1 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
For seasoning:
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Red chilli - half or 1
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - a few

Method:
1.Pressure cook the veg and dhall with a little water and turmeric(optional) for 2 whistles.
2. For paste: Heat oil , add urad dhall & red chillies. Fry till the dhall turns light brown. Add pepper, jeera and coconut. Fry everything till the coconut becomes dry. Cool and grind into a fine paste.

3. Mix the ground paste with the boiled veg. Add a little water if it is very thick. Heat this till frothy.
4. Heat the coconut oil, add urad dhall, mustard & red chilli. When the mustard pops, switch off the gas and add the curry leaves, hing. Pour over the prepared kootu.

Tastes great with rice and papad. I love to have this with rice & lemon pickle.

Khaman Dhokla ~ Indian Cooking Challenge July 2009

2009-07-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

First, let me brief about the Indian Cooking Challenge, a monthly event initiated by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons. As she rightly points out, many of us do not venture out cooking authentic & traditional recipes. Though, it can conveniently be attributed to lack of time in the fast pace of modern life, only a part of it is true. Now a days, we get a lot of good quality, authentic dishes from various shops at quite affordable (though that's a relative term, the flourishing catering business evinces it ) prices and so we do not want to put in that extra effort. Well, even this is only partly true. One more factor is, we might not want to cook out of our comfort zone (the roti-rice routine with occasional easy to make sweets) and daringly try out the traditional family recipes particularly so when it involves lot of time, effort or utmost perfection. For eg., you can make mysore pak or rasgullas in less than an hour but you should know the tips & tricks of the trade. Calling myself a foodie & a passionate cook, it is not fair to keep away from authentic recipes by quoting the above factors. By naming it a challenge, Srivalli kindles my interest further more. So, I am game for it!

This is how it works. Srivalli had already conducted a poll and finalised a list of recipes. She will announce a dish for the month and post a tried & tested recipe. We will have to try it out and post it end of the month. It can't get easier for me! Thanks to her for all the effort she puts in. For more info, visit her announcement. I have posted the logo on my blog's side bar.

The challenge for July is Khaman Dhokla. This is a food from Gujarat and made of fermented chickpeas batter. Chickpeas is soaked overnight and ground to a batter. But we can alternatively use besan and make perfect dhoklas. The batter is spiced up with chillies, sugar, steamed and seasoned. I have tried eating dhoklas in Saravana Bhavan's Gujarathi restaurant and few other eat-outs. I wouldn't term it as my fav food but still I love to have it occasionally. I am posting the recipe here as exactly given by her.

Updates: The changes I did are, I added a little salt to the batter, I used a non-stick tawa to steam the batter (removed the handle and placed it in the cooker just as a plate) since I didn't have a thali plate and reduced the sesame seeds. I overturned the dhokla plates before seasoning. No big alterations and it turned out great. All praises to Srivalli!

Makes 20 medium sized pieces
Ingredients:
For Batter:

Bengal Gram flour / Besan - 250 gms (1 & 1/2 cup)
Curd - 1/2 cup (not very sour)
Water - 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning to be mixed to the batter (to be added just before cooking)
Oil - 1 tbsp
Turmeric a pinch
G. Chili paste - 1 - 2 long (as per taste)
Sugar - 1 tsp
Citric acid - quarter tsp
Eno - 1 packet (green colour fruit lime) + sprinkle or dust few bits on the plate

For tempering

Sesame seeds
Mustard Seeds
Curry leaves
Grated coconut
Coriander leaves
Little water + Oil to be topped on dhoklas

Method to prepare:
Mix first 1/2 cup curds with 1/2 water. To this add the besan and mix well to get a lump less batter, the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency. Slowly add more water if needed else, add the soda. Keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.

If you are using a pressure cooker, fill the pan with water, place a plate over which you will have use a plate for steaming the dhoklas. Thali plate can be used for steaming
To the batter mix in the citric acid, oil, salt, sugar, green chili paste and turmeric powder. Mix well. This has to be done just before pouring to the plate.

Meanwhile have the pan on stove, and let the water start boiling. When the water reaches the rolling stage, you can mix the eno to the batter (Save little of eno for dusting on the plate), mix gently, you will see bubbles coming out.

Dust or sprinkle the plate with eno. Then immediately pour the batter to the plate. Place the plate carefully inside the pressure pan and cover with lid. You need not use the whistle. After covering you will find steam coming out of the outlet, simmer and don't disturb for almost 5 -7 minutes.

After 5 -7 minutes, remove the lid and proof it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and does not have any batter sticking, then its done. Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it for 5 minutes.
In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil

Remove the plate from the pan, pour the water and oil mix over the top.

For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla

Points to Ponder:

The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. After adding eno the batter should not rest. Amount of sugar can be increased on preference.

If you want perfect shaped ones and not the crumbling, cut and handle gently

Dhokla can also be steamed in kadai filled with water and a plated titled over it.

Green chutney
Ingredients:

Green chili - 4-5 no
coconut - 4- 5 pieces
coriander - bunch
few mint leaves
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Lime -1 big
Salt to taste

Take all the ingredients except coriander in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste.

Then add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

Srivalli's replies to doubts posted by readers:

Lemon can be used instead of citric acid. Citric acid is basically used for giving the sourness. I confirmed with Aunty that we can replace this by adding lemon juice or sour curds.

Eno is normally not replaced with anything else. This is added to give the spongy texture. She said we can try using baking soda, but is not sure of the measurement.
She normally uses the Eno sachet which is app 5 gms,

Rolling stage is when the water starts boiling and reaches peek.

Water and oil (at room tempt) is just mixed together and added to the cooked dhoklas immediately after removing from pan, Since the dhoklas will be hot and this mixture will make it more soft and spongy. This is just to prevent the surface from getting dry. So the oil need not be hot.

Another way is to temper the mustard, curry leaves, remove the pan from heat, add water to that and pour over the dhoklas..either way is fine.
Chutney is not mandatory...I asked aunty her version so that we make both the dishes traditionally

Any small plate also can be used, but to be filled to only half..

You can use idly cooker too.. the vessel used for cooking is left to the member's choice, only thing is you should steam the dhoklas...Nowadays we get steamers for dholkas too.

Verdict: Perfect dhoklas & Roshan loved it. I survived the challenge! Looking forward to the next month's challenge.

Kreative Blogger Award

2009-07-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

This award is passed to me by Sangi of Simply...Delicious... . Thanks Sangi for your encouragement. She regularly visits my blog and leaves her awfully sweet comments.

The Kreative Blogger Award comes with some rules :-

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

7 things about myself:

1. I am so much addicted to filter coffee that I open my eyes properly only after a dose of it, every morning.

6. Few of my favourite smells -fresh jasmine, freshly brewed filter coffee or ground coffee powder, muddy smell of rains, tempering of upma, cilantro...

7. I love to travel and see a lot of places. My long term goal is to visit as many countries as possible.

Lubna of Kitchen flavours had featured my blog on her Rendezvous with Kitchen Flavours couple of months back. Thought it is relevant to the current topic. Read it here.

I am passing this award to Ramya Vijaykumar, Divya Vikram, Chitra, Nithya, Lubna, Aquadaze & Brinda.

Click : Bi-Colour

2009-07-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

Sending this entry to Click : July 2009 (Bi-Colour).

Paal Payasam

2009-07-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Payasam/kheer is a traditional Indian sweet. Particularly, in South India, no feast is complete without a bowl of payasam. Be it Onam sadya or Krishna Jayanthi, you can spot this lovely dessert/sweet on the banana leaf. (Yes, that's how food is served in South India for special occasions) There are actually numerous payasam varieties. At a basic level, it can be a combination of milk/rice, rice/jaggery/coconut milk or even dhall/jaggery. The creativity of Indians, specially in culinary area is unlimited and there are further varieties like semia (vermicilli) payasam, Ada(rice flakes) pradhaman, javarisi(sagoo) payasam.. phew! it deserves a separate blog. Good that I finally got into posting a payasam recipe.

Talk of the day is Paal(milk) Payasam which is the queen of payasam(s). Most variety has milk in it but the one cooked with rice and milk is particularly called so. The beauty of this item is its glossy pink shade & condensed milk which is obtained by slow cooking of milk. My mother has told me that in the olden days, they used to boil milk in a thick bottomed vessel for hours together along with a lot of stirring to avoid the milk sticking to the bottom and char. Only then, they could get the authentic pink colored payasam. But a few years back, I have heard this recipe from someone and found it simple and doable. Honestly, I didn't venture out doing this so far and only today I got into action. I am elated with the results and so badly wanted to post it immediately. The idea is to pressure cook the milk along with rice and sugar over slow fire for about 30 min. You don't have to keep stirring or stand near the stove watchfully. Just put it on the stove and relax. Come back and have the wonderful delicacy. This method will be particularly helpful when you got to make a dessert for a number of guests effortlessly. You can concentrate and finish off the other items while this gets ready.

Ingredients:

Milk - 3 to 4 cups (I used 2% milk.)

Rice (Raw rice or basmathi rice) - 1 tablespoon ( I have heard of Kerala's payasa arisi. I didn't get a chance to use it so far. You might try it as well for the authentic Kerala Paal Payasam)

Sugar - 1.5 tablespoon (twice that of rice; but I added sweetened condensed milk and lessened the sugar)

1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk (optional)

1 clean stainless steel spoon (yeah)

To garnish (optional) - Cashewnuts, raisins fried in ghee; 3 strands saffron, 1/4 tsp cardomom powder
(Actually the payasam doesn't require any garnishing)

Method:

1. Add the rice to a pressure cooker. The capacity of the cooker should be atleast twice than that of the milk you use. Add milk and put on the lid. Don't forget to put in the teaspoon.(It prevents milk from leaking out)
2. Cook for 10 min in medium flame and add sugar & condensed milk. Put on the whistle.
3. Cook on low flame with the whistle on for 30 min. (I have hot plate at home and kept the heat on 2)
4. Switch off and leave it for 10 min.

Now your pink coloured payasam is ready to garnish and serve. (Ofkors remove the spoon :))

This worked perfectly for me. If you find your payasam still white in color, you can close it again and cook for some more time. (10 to 15 min)

You can even serve this chilled. However, I like my payasam hot-hot.

Update: sterilise the cooker(all parts including weight) by cleaning with hot water to avoid the milk from breaking.
You might have used the cooker to make other dishes and that might cause the milk to break.

Channa Pulav

2009-07-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is a protein packed pulav cooked with spices and greens. I had a sudden craving for channa and wanted to make something different from usual. Till i got down to make this, I had no definite recipe in mind. :) Lemme brief how I decided on the recipe.

Just raided my fridge and found mint,cilantro and tomatoes. So decided to use them in my recipe. Jeera and ghee are must-adds for any pulav. I just love the aroma while seasoning jeera in ghee and frying lengthwise chopped onions along with green chillies. I didn't want the chopped tomatoes in my pulav and so decided to grind them. When I pressure cooked the channa, I got reminded of the fresh potatoes which I bought the day before and decided to add them too. Sometimes, I add boiled potatoes in my chole masala and I love the combination. Actually I don't like to have a lot of mint in my food since it has a pungent smell. So I just added 5 to 10 leaves.
Coming to spices, I always prefer red chillies to green chillies and not particularly like the flavour of cinnamon. So just added cloves. When I opened my fridge to take out the curd, chole masala got my attention. An idea struck and I decided to add it too. Thus, originated the recipe.

Now, for the verdict. The pulav tasted sooooo tasty. I should mention something here. Normally, when I cook with no definite recipe in mind and just keep adding on the ingredients, the outcome is better than religiously following an authentic recipe. Hope, you don't conclude that I have a poor grasping power! Instead, I would be more than glad if you acknowledge my creative power :D Well, I am trying to be defensive here.

Ingredients:

Basmathi Rice - 1 cup
Boiled Channa - 1/2 to 1 cup (Soak Kabuli Channa overnight and pressure cook with water and turmeric)
1 boiled potato (Peel the skin and cut into small cubes)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 medium chopped lengthwise
Jeera - 2 tsp
Slit green chilli - 1
Chole Masala - 1.5 tsp
Ghee - 3 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Salt to taste
To grind into a smooth paste
Tomato - 1
Mint leaves - 5 to 10
Cilantro - a handful or more if you like
Red Chillies - 2
Cloves - 2
Garlic - 2 pods

Method:

1. Soak the rice with 1.5times water for 10 min. Heat 1 tsp ghee in a pan, fry the rice without breaking it and cook with the soaked water under a lid. Add salt when half cooked and cook till done.
2. When the rice gets cooked, get ready with the ground paste, chopped onions, cut potatos and channa.
3. Spread the cooked rice in a plate.
4. Heat the remaining ghee and oil in a pan, season with jeera. Fry the onions and green chillies.
5. Add the ground paste and cook well.
6. Add potatos, channa and a little water. Add salt (salt is already added to rice) and chole masala.
7. Let the water and masala get absorbed by the channa. Switch off and cool a bit.
8. Mix the rice and reheat once.
9. Garnish with tomato ring and chopped coriander.

Serve hot with curd/raitha.

Vendaikka (Okra) Sambar ~ Simple Dal Sambar

2009-07-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sambar is an integral part of South Indian cuisine. What dal fry is to rotis, sambar is to rice. This is the south Indian way of consuming proteins in the form of dal. A south Indian meal is never complete without sambar.

Though, I made it sound like a generic dish so far, every state (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala & Tamil Nadu) has its own version of sambar. Well, there are umpteen variations even within regions and it also varies with each house hold. You can make a simple sambar with a ready made sambar powder or arachuvitta sambar (sambar with fresh ground spices).

Again, what goes into the sambar powder varies with each household; some add pepper, some add spices like cinnamon. The Karnataka sambar has cinnamon in it. (MTR sambar powder) I always go for the 777 Madras sambar powder for the authentic tamil sambar. You can also make it at home. I will post the recipe soon. Dhania seeds, red chillies, turmeric, channa dhall are must-adds for any sambar powder. Further tweaking is done based on personal/regional taste. It is surprising that I have not posted sambar recipe so far. It is so basic for a south Indian that I was never thrilled enough getting down to record the recipe.

We can make sambar with different vegetables and sometimes with a mix of vegetables too. But generally, the amount of veg in a sambar is less and the gravy is more. This time, I made sambar with okra. You can make with carrot, tomato, drumsticks, potato, brinjal, raddish, shallots or even normal onions. Well, the choice is not limited. You can use any vegetable you wish to.

Ingredients:

Okra - 8 chopped into 2'' pieces
Toor dhall - 1 cup cooked with twice the amount water, a pinch of turmeric and a tsp of oil (You can cook with more water and save the water for Rasam)
Tamarind - 1 lime size
Sambar powder - 4 tsp (I normally use 777 brand to get the authentic madras sambar. I also have limited stock of homemade powder. So mix both and use)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Hing - 1 pinch
Curry leaves - a few
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chopped Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Soak the tamarind in warm water for 10 min and extract the juice.
2) Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard, fenugreek & hing.
3) Add okra and fry. Add the turmeric powder and fry for one more min.
4) Add the tamarind water and cook for 2 min.
5) Add sambar powder, chilli powder and salt. Bring everything to boil.
6) Add mashed dhall and a little water if the sambar is too thick. Boil till frothy.
7) Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice and a south Indian curry or papad or potato wafers.

I made tindora fry to go with this. I made it as a normal fry curry with oil, salt and chilli powder.

Click here for variations of tindora curry.

Arbi / Sepankizhangu Fry

2009-07-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Arbi/ Sepankizhangu / Taro root - I am quite familiar with this root vegetable right from my childhood days. Though it was not cooked very frequently like weekly once, it was made atleast once per month. The vegetable as such do not have a characteristic taste (or so it is to me) but can be cooked tastefully to make an altogether yummy dish. It took various forms in my home like sambar, more kuzhambu, masiyal and the ultimate roast curry.

The problem with arbi is, it tends to get gooey on overcooking. So you got to be perfect in cooking it to the right level. I generally fill enough water in a pressure cooker, immerse the veg and cook without the whistle on for 10 to 15 min. I have added rasam powder in my recipe just for the extra zing. The brand I use(sakthi masala) adds a great flavour to the curry. Check on the flavour of your rasam powder and add to taste. Or, you can conveniently omit both rasam and sambar powder and go for an extra spoon of chilli powder. I like experimenting with various ingredients and it proves fruitful. This roast is good to go with any south Indian main course and best had straight from the stove.

Ingredients:

Sepangizhangu/arbi/taro root - 8 to 10 pieces
Besan /gram flour - 2 tablespoon
Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Rasam powder - 1 tsp (I used sakthi masala)
Oil 1 tablespoon or more (I am very stingy when it comes to oil)
Mustard - 1.5 tsp
Urad dhall - 1.5 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cook the arbi in a pressure cooker with enough water to immerse, till 3/4 th done. Maybe, you can check it after 10 min and cook it more if required. Don't overcook.
2) Peel off the skin and slice them thin.
3) Mix Besan, chilli powder, sambar powder, rasam powder and salt. Coat the sliced pieces with this mixture.
4) Heat oil, season with mustard, urad dhall and hing. Add the coated pieces all together and fry till golden brown.
You can also resort to deep frying the pieces. You can omit the seasoning part then.
I prefer it this way.

The fry is ready to serve. Have it straight from stove. On packing this, the fry loses the crispiness.

Karamani Curry

2009-07-16T19:16:00.001-07:00

Karamani or string beans is one of my favourite vegetables. Actually I love all veggies, but this is something which may not be the fav of many. Infact, I think many are not even aware of its very existence. People might know the other karamani (black eyes peas) but not as a fresh green vegetable. I love this simple curry a lot and I really didn't expect to catch them fresh; why even say fresh, I didn't anticipate to see them in the first place here in US. But much to my surprise, I see them a lot here. It so happens that even in Chennai, I haven't seen them so fresh and tender. Most times it used to be dry. Nothing more to fascinate me. Though I'm pouring in so much enthusiasm, the recipe here is quite simple and basic. Anyone who knows to cook a South Indian meal, would know this. But still, there are days when you really dont feel like eating any complicated or time consuming dish; more so when you got to cook your own meal. :D You will long for that simple rasam and a plain veg curry. There are also days, when you feel like updating your blog but do not want to post an elaborate recipe and keep it simple, short and sweet. Today is such a day for me.

Actually in the iyer cuisine, we divide the curries (poriyal) as two kinds - coconut based like beans, cabbage etc or roast curries like potato, arbi etc. This is of the first type. I haven't used green chillies in my curry. Just seasoned a red chilli. Normally, a green chilli is shredded and added in the curry. You can also coarse grind chilli and coconut and add it. If you want to keep it simple, just follow my recipe.

Ingredients:

Chopped String beans - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1 table spoon or even half will do if you wanna cut down calories.
To season: Mustard, red chillies, urad dhall, curry leaves and coconut oil
Salt to taste.

Method:
1) Heat oil, season and when the mustard pops, add the chopped beans.
2) Sprinkle water, cook till done, add salt and coconut. Stir for a min and serve hot with rice.
If you want it quicker, microwave the veggies for 3 min with a little water, mix coconut and microwave for 30 sec and season. The cooking time depends on the power of your microwave. So for the first time, check the time and cook accordingly.
You can make cabbage, beans, beetroot, carrot etc. on the similar lines.

Cauliflower Kurma

2009-07-14T18:50:00.001-07:00

Cauliflower is a versatile vegetable just like potato; it can be used for making chaats in the form of cutlet or pav bhaji, north Indian gravies, south Indian curries and even Indo Chinese food like manchurian.
It's the favourite of most people and a very few people dislike it fearing it might contain worms. But now a days, I see only clean cauliflower with absolutely no worms. So better to consume this nutritious vegetable. This is low in fat, high in fibre and has anti cancer properties. I try to include this in diet weekly once.
This cauliflower kurma is also versatile just like the veg; can be had with rotis, puris, pulav/biriyani varieties or idiyappam.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 medium
Boiled Green peas - 1/2 a cup (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Butter or oil or mix both - 1 tablespoon
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Cilantro to garnish
Paste 1: 1 big onion, 2 to 3 medium green chillies, 3 garlic pods, A small piece of ginger
Paste 2 : Tomato puree
Paste 3: Cashews soaked in water for 10 min, Khus Khus 1 tsp, 1 cardomom, 2 cloves, a small piece of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon grated coconut, 1 red chilli

Method:

1. Clean the cauliflower by putting it in luke warm water along with salt. Wash it and boil it with a little water and turmeric. Add salt when half done. Cook it 3/4 th and keep it aside.
2. Heat the butter, season with fennel seeds and add paste 1. Fry till light brown. Check if the raw smell of onions is gone. Otherwise the paste will be bitter. If you use yellow onions, do not grind it. Just add chopped onions. Click here to know why.
3. Add the tomato puree and cook till the oil separates. Add salt and chilli powder. Remember, you already added salt to cauliflower.
4. Add cauliflower and boiled green peas.
5. Add paste 3. Add a little water depending on the consistency you require.
6. Cook till frothy and garnish with cilantro.

Serve hot with rice/rotis/idiyappam/puris

Check out another interesting kurma here - Veg Kurma

Keerai Masiyal (Mashed Spinach)

2009-07-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

This is a very simple and modest dish which belongs to the traditional iyer cuisine. I have heard of keerai masiyal in other forms too; most of them have onions or tomatoes or both. The speciality of iyer cuisine is, there is minimal or no addition of onions and garlic. I have seen my mother adding onions only to potato curry. Somehow, I can't digest the idea of adding onions to beans or any other kind of curry. I feel the flavour of the main ingredient is lost and you feel the taste of onions prominently. Anybody who enjoys eating iyer cuisine would agree with me. It's just my choice of food and nothing to hurt anyone's sentiments.

Coming back to the keerai masiyal, back home it is done using amarnath leaves. Due to the unavailability of different kinds of greens, I have used spinach. This dish is simple and easy to make. With spinach, it is lot simpler since it gets cooked faster. Specially in US, we have spinach in microwaveable bags and doesnt require any cleaning at all. Yet, I wash it once for my satisfaction. This is an ideal side dish for vetha kozhambu though you can have this with anything you please. I have added coconut in my recipe since I love to bite into the crunchy pieces amidst the otherwise smooth gravy. You might avoid it if you don't relish the idea ; literally. :)

Ingredients:

Cleaned and chopped spinach - 1 cup
Coconut pieces finely chopped - a handful (optional)
Coconut oil - 1 or 2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Dry red chilli - a small piece
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cook the spinach thoroughly and mash it with salt. You can even use a blender.
2) Heat coconut oil, fry the coconut pieces till light brown. Add rest of the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add the seasoning to already cooked spinach and enjoy.

Olan

2009-07-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

Olan is an authentic Kerala dish. It is a must for onam sadya. With my roots in Kerala, I am quite familiar with this dish right from my childhood. This is such a simple dish with not much spices. Rice, olan and pappadam makes a mouth watering meal. Black eyes cowpeas is included in the actual recipe which I omitted in my preparation this time. I suddenly decided on the menu and didn't have the soaked cowpeas ready. So if you are planning ahead, soak the cowpeas overnight and pressure cook.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

White pumpkin - Chopped 2 cups
Cooked cowpeas - a handful
Thick Coconut milk - 1.5 tablespoons
Slit green chillies - 1 or 2
Curry leaves to garnish
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 2 to 3 tsp

Method:
1) Cook the pumpkin with 1 cup water till tender along with slit green chillies.
2) Mix the cooked cowpeas, salt and coconut milk. Heat for a min till everything blends.
3) Switch off the flame. Season with coconut oil and curry leaves.

Serve hot with rice and pappadam.

Kwik Fix Series # 5 - Tomato Rice

2009-07-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Tomato Rice used to be a regular candidate for my lunch box way back in school. I have seen this featuring in lot of my friends' box too. However, the recipe varies with each household and to me, the best is my mom's recipe. Well, that's quite natural. She used to have the curry powder ready to make any variety rice in a jiffy. As iyers, we are not used to adding onions to everything and my mother typically doesn't add onions to this dish. Going by the tradition, I don't normally add it to mine too. But this time, I made onion raitha to go with the rice and reserved a handful of onions for the rice too. It was not at all bad. Rather, I should say it tasted good. I added a handful of chopped onions and a tsp of fennel seeds to make it taste hotel-like and it did taste alike! This recipe came as a saviour when I had no idea what to cook for dinner, few days back. I got into action, the moment I decided to make this and it got ready very quickly.

Ingredients:

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Chopped onions - a handful
Chopped tomatoes - 2
Boiled peas - a handful (optional)
Slit green chillies - 1
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder or chilli powder - 1 tsp
Curry Powder - 2 to 3 tsp
Mustard, channa dal 1 tsp each to season
Salt to taste
Oil 3 tsp
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Heat the oil, season with mustard, channa dal and fennel seeds.
2) Fry the onions and green chillies till tender.
3) Add the tomatoes and cook till soft.
4) Add the dry powders except the curry powder. Cook well.
5) Keep the flame at low, mix the rice and curry powder. Keep on stove for a min.

Garnish and serve hot with potato wafers and onion raitha.

Click here for the curry powder recipe.

Tips: You can use finely chopped potatoes or brinjal or okra in place of tomatoes. For brinjal and okra rice , don't add onions. (As you like it) Don't add fennel seeds for any of these.

Curry Powder for Variety rice

2009-07-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the recipe to make curry powder which I use to flavour variety rice like tomato rice, brinjal rice or potato rice. Why I am mentioning these 3 varieties is, these were the standard ones packed by my mom for lunch boxes. Potato rice is not common and it was invented by my mother in order to make a quick one pot meal for boxes. You can be creative and make use of the powder to flavour any rice, like you can even try okra rice. Well, I wouldn't say it is too much creativity because you are gonna just mix this powder with any veg to come out with a delicious variety rice. But cooking is all about what to mix with what and your creativity should not end up as a disaster. So better be careful. I will just give the recipe for the spice powder and will post a variety rice using the powder as a separate entry.

Ingredients:

Urad dhall - 3 tsp
Channa dhall - 3 tsp
Dhania seeds - 2 tsp
Dry red chilllies - 2 to 3

Dry roast the ingredients one by one and powder them together.

Tip: You can also include a piece of cinnamon, 2 cloves and a cardomom if you like it spicy.

Kwik Fix Series # 4 - Spinach Cashew Pakoda

2009-07-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is an ideal snack for a cloudy evening or a rich starter for a party. Both preparation time and cooking time is less and hence qualifies for the kwik fix series. You got to just put together the stored ingredients and the pakoda is ready in a jiffy. No soaking, no grinding and no standing in the kitchen for long! I was actually quite bored of the usual onion pakoda and tried this as a variation. It was ready in just 20 min. Try it!

Ingredients:

Besan - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 table spoon
chopped onion - 1
Chopped spinach - few leaves
Cashews - 15 (I used fried cashews available in tin)
Curry leaves - 5
Chopped coriander - a handful
Chopped green chillies - 3
Chopped ginger - a small piece
Asafoetida - 2 pinch
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Method:

1) Heat oil in a deep frying pan. The heat should be medium.
2) Mix all the other ingredients including salt, sprinkle a little water to bind them together. Beware it should not be sticky.
3) Make into small balls and fry in oil till golden brown. Serve hot.

Tips:

1) Start mixing after the oil becomes hot. This way it will consume less oil. Also, mix a tsp of hot oil to the flour base.
2) Oil should be medium hot for the pakodas to cook evenly and crispy outside.
3) Just sprinkle enough water to bind the ingredients and do not make it sticky.

Sending this to EC's fried snack event. Thanks Chitra, for letting me know about the event.

Rainbow Chard Curry

2009-06-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Back to blogging after a long time. Last few days kept me busy in moving to the west coast. Yes! We have moved to Redmond, WA. I wouldn't say we got settled already; our things are yet to arrive. I just have my kitchen ready with groceries and minimal utensils to keep us going. Hope our routine will be back by this weekend. I heard from lot of people about the Seattle rains and got mentally prepared to face them. I always hate rains as it makes roads wet and dirty making us immobile. But still, dry weather with no greenery also irritates me equally. I should say the city looks pretty green owing to the excessive rains. I love the Emerald city. Luckily, so far the weather is sunny and bright. Moving further north from Boston, we have daylight till 9:30 PM. But it is obvious that we are gonna have less of light in the fall. Well, it is good to see places.

I badly wanted to update my blog and actually I started cooking right from the day we moved into our new apartment. I should say cooking keeps me occupied and if I don't cook for more than a couple of days, I feel depressed. Lately, I discovered that I can never do without a kitchen. Enough rambling and lemme break the inactivity in blogging by a simple recipe - rainbow chard curry.

For those of you who do not know what it is, I should admit that even I was unaware of it till a few days back. I ran into this bunch of leaves that have brilliantly colored stalks at the whole foods market.

These glossy green leaves along with their red, golden and white stalks is aptly called rainbow chard and as you all know my craze for greens and colors, I fell in love with it at the very first sight. Needless to say, it went straight into my cart. To me, it looked like beet leaves and I had no idea what to cook with it. Bored of eating just spinach all this while, the new set of greens thrilled me. I used to love eating the dry curry made out of raddish leaves back home and thought why not implement the same formula. You can make use of any variety of chard. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Finely chopped chard - 1 bunch
Coconut - 1 tablespoon or few pieces
Green chillies - 2 small
Coconut oil - 2 tsp
Mustard and urad dhall to temper.

Method:

1. Clean the chard well several times using water to get rid of mud and dirt.
2. Heat the oil, season with mustard and urad dhall.
3. Add the greens and little water. Cook till done. This takes longer time than spinach. If you want to save time, try using microwave to boil the greens.
4. Add salt. Grind the coconut and green chillies into a smooth paste and mix with the curry.
Serve hot with rice.

Tip: You can also try making molagootal using chard.

Bye Bye Boston Party :)

2009-06-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post something related to food and actually didn't want it to be a recipe as always. I thought I could share a picture of my dinner table taken during a family get-together. Two families came over for dinner with their naughty and energetic kids. Should I even mention that my house was in a totally excited state with 4 high energy boys? The get-together turned into a farewell party since we are leaving Boston this weekend. One other family (Bala and Suba) is also leaving Boston soon. It was total fun and the kids had a gala time.

Now coming to the major part; food, I had lined up Pav bhaji, Mushroom pulav, Onion Raitha, Rice, Sambar and Beetroot Halwa for the dinner. For beetroot halwa, I used the same recipe as carrot halwa except that I reduced the amount of sugar to half. I will post the recipe of sambar soon. Roshan served the welcome drink (Mango juice) and dessert(icecream). He was also running behind the kids with a cam, to click them in action.

Though it was not planned as a pot luck, my guests were kind enough to bring some starters. Suba also bought some rasam which all of us enjoyed. Thanks Suba, Bala ,Reshma & Rajiv for making it happen. Special mention to all the lovely kids who made it memorable. One helluva party!

Bye Bye Boston :)

Kwik Fix Series # 3 - Peas Pulav

2009-06-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

Back after a short break! Actually we are about to move to a new city and at the verge of winding up things here. So I should say, I'm missing the enthu to try out new recipes. But that's never going to keep me away from my blog and will try to update with some simple recipes.

It's gonna be really hectic till we move and set up our new home. But still, it's lot of fun. New place and new friends. Looking forward to it and if we get settled in a place for a long time, it would start boring after a while; specially when it is not your native place. It is like, we are changing home every 6 months! I started loving to go around and look for new communities and it is altogether a great hobby ;) Better to look at it this way!

This is one more addition to my kwik fix series and it is really quick and easy. If you do not have the time for a side dish, you can have it with plain curd. I normally serve it with a north Indian gravy. I would say there are 100 different ways of making a pulav and each method gives one new taste. This is one such version and I would post variations in the time to come.

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 cup
Peas - 1/2 to 1 cup
Jeera - 2 tsp
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Cloves - 3
Cardomom - 1
Slit green chillies - 3
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak the rice in 1.5 cups water for 5 to 10 min and cook.
2. Microwave the peas until done; if you do not have a microwave, cook it on stove top till done.
3. Heat ghee, add jeera, cloves, cardomom and green chillies. Fry a bit and mix peas.
4. Cool the rice a bit and mix with peas. Reheat and serve hot. Jeera, ghee and peas adds a great flavour and this simple dish is sure to impress everyone.

Baghare Baingan

2009-06-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Baghare Baingan is a rich Hyderabadi cuisine. Owing to its Moghalai and Persian heritage, Hyderabadi food has the royal Nizami style imbibed in it. This dish has shallow fried brinjals simmered in coconut-peanut gravy. It has the addition of lot of oil secreting ingredients - sesame, peanut, coconut plus khus khus and cashews making it rich, delicious but at the same time heavy in calories. But occassional indulgence of such a delectable dish should not be counted as a sin. Right na?

Ingredients:

Brinjals(small violet ones) - 4
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoon
Dhania seeds - 2 tsp
White sesame seeds - 3 tsp
Khus Khus - 1/2 tsp
Peanuts - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 3 tsp
Tamarind Paste - 2 tsp
Cashews soaked in water - 5 to 10
Onion - 1 big
Ginger Garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Coriander to garnish

Method:

1) Heat a tsp of oil and fry the chopped onions till dark brown. Set aside. Fry dhania,sesame,khus khus,peanuts and coconut one by one. Grind all this together including onions and cashews into a smooth paste. Mix tamarind paste, turmeric and chilli powder with this.
2)Slit the brinjal like + at the base.Retain the stem if you like it or have it cut.
3)Heat oil in a pan and arrange the brinjals. Turn occasionally and cook all the sides. Keep aside.
4)Heat the remaining oil, season with jeera and dry chillies.Fry the ginger garlic paste. Add the ground coconut paste and cook for 2 min.
5)Add 1 to 2 cups water, salt and bring it to boil. Add the brinjals and cook for a while till the masala gets into the brinjal.
6)Garnish with coriander and serve hot with roti or rice.

I served it with peas pulav, which would be my next entry for kwik fix series. So, look forward to it.

Kwik Fix Series # 2 - Schezwan Fried Rice

2009-06-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Do you believe in love at first sight? No, I am not up to a romantic story. I am quite aware that this is a food blog and I must ideally post culinary related stuff. I am actually talking about a dish with which I fell in love at the first sight. I have written enough about my fervour for Chinese food.

I remember having Schezwan Fried Rice in a Singaporean restaurant at Chennai about a decade back. Till then, I never knew such a dish existed. It looked colorful and I loved the tangy and spicy taste of the dish. It's a fiery hot dish for spice lovers like me. From then on, I got hooked to it.

This is actually a quick dish to make and you can accomplish a great meal in limited time frame. Easy for even a novice cook. So, here comes my second recipe under the kwik fix series.

I haven't used readymade Schezwan sauce for the recipe. I made my own spice mix and if you don't have a food processer, you can use the ready sauce; that way making it bachelor friendly. For any Chinese food, fry the vegetables on high flame till crispy for a short time.

Ingredients:
Basmathi rice - 1 cup
Carrots, Beans, Cabbage finely chopped - 3/4 cup
Spring Onions - a few
Soya sauce - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Oil 1 tablespoon
Grind to a paste
3-4 redchillies soaked in water for 15 min, half garlic

Method:

1. Soak the rice in water fo 10 min and cook with double the amount of water in an electric rice cooker. If you are using a pressure cooker, use 1.5 times water.
2. Heat the oil and melt the sugar. Add a red chilli broken into two. Finely chop the bottom thick portion of the spring onions and fry it in the oil. Reserve the top portion for garnishing. Add the ground paste and fry a little
3. Add the veggies and fry on high flame. Mix the soya sauce and salt and fry till the veggies are crisp and cooked.
4. Switch off and mix the rice. Reheat and garnish with spring onion.

Serve hot. You can make this in 30 min. By the time the rice is cooked, you can finish the frying part and do the mixing.

Sending this off to Monthly Mingle - Ravishing Rice hosted by Nags of Edible garden originating from Meeta's blog.

Kothamalli Thokku

2009-05-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Kothamalli (Tamil) or Cilantro is low in cholesterol and a rich source of vitamins and minerals. It also aids in digestion.

I just love the aroma of cilantro and include it in every possible dish I cook. That really adds great flavour to any food and gives a fresh look. It is a brilliant garnishing ingredient. Not only for garnishing, it can be also used as a main ingredient to cook a variety of dishes. You can make pickles, chutnies or even a wonderful pulav.

This thokku is a great accompaniment for idly/dosa varieties and you can even mix it with hot rice for a kwik fix meal.

Ingredients:

Cleaned and chopped cilantro - 2 cups
Red Chillies - 10
Tamarind Paste - 1 tsp or lemon sized ball
Gingelly oil - 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Asafoetida - a pinch
Mustard - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Grind the cilantro, red chillies and tamarind
2. Heat the oil, season with mustard and asafoetida, add the ground paste
3. Mix the salt and cook till oil separates.

Sending this to SWC - Cooking With Greens event hosted by Soumya.

Carrot Halwa

2009-05-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Halwa is a traditional sweet introduced to Indians by the Moghuls. But, it is the creativity of Indians to use various vegetables for making halwa. When it comes to food and food varieties, Indians top the list with so many states, culture and eating habits.

Halwa is actually a wide spectrum and can be in various forms; gelatinous, translucent, viscous, crumbly, dry etc.. It can be hard with definite shapes or soft and crumbled.

This particular form of halwa is famous among sikhs of Punjab and they call it Gajar (carrot) ka halwa. I feel this halwa tastes better when hot or warm rather than setting it cold. Icecream and warm carrot halwa makes a heavenly dessert. This is found in most Punjabi Dhabas. If you could spot the red Delhi carrots, make use of it. I have heard that gives the best taste.

This is also an easy sweet and you can never go wrong. Ideal recipe, when you are inviting guests. You can simmer the carrots and milk on one stove and by the time you are done with other items, this will be ready for the final touches. If you feel the grating part is tiresome, get hold of your husband/brother/son to do the job, just as I do ;)

Ingredients:

Grated Carrot - 3 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Condensed milk - 1 tablespoon
Khoa - 1 tablespoon
Milk - 1 1/2 cups
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Cashewnuts and raisins fried in ghee - a handful

Method:

1. Fry the grated carrots in a tsp of ghee.
2. Add the milk and simmer the carrot for about an hr (Cook over low flame)
3. Mix the condensed milk, khoa and sugar. Keep stirring till the sugar melts and blends with the rest.
4. Add the ghee and when the halwa becomes thick and leaves the sides of the vessel, remove and garnish with nuts.

Tips:

1. Frying the carrot in ghee is to get rid of the muddy flavor. It gives a nice aroma and taste.
2. If you run short of time, pressure cook the carrots with milk. I prefer simmering and the taste is awesome.
3. Condensed milk and khoa are optional. Use them for extra flavor. If you do not have both or one of the two, add extra sugar. I used unsweetened khoa.

Palak Paneer

2009-05-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have spoken enough about my affinity towards greens. I consume a lot of spinach in various forms and I can beat popeye handsdown, if at all there is a competetion. Needless to say, it is highly nutritious and helps boosting your iron levels. If you are anaemic, include spinach in your every day diet or rather alternate days. I feel it is not good to have anything overdose. But this is a good source of calcium and iron and do remember to include this on a regular basis.

Palak Paneer is an interesting dish and a good way to consume spinach. It is a traditional north Indian dish where spinach is cooked in an onion-tomato gravy. It has a rich, creamy and smoothy texture sure to impress anyone. Try this melt-in-the-mouth recipe sometime.

Ingredients:
Palak - 2 bunches
Grated tomatoes - 2 medium
Oil for frying - 1 tablespoon
Panner cubes - 10
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Grind to a paste
Jeera - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 big piece
Garlic - 3 pods
Red Chillies - 3
Onions - 1 big
Cinnamon 1 small stick
Cardomom - 2

Method:
1. Fry the paneer and immerse in hot water
2. Heat the oil and season with jeera
3. Add the ground paste and fry well
4. Add chilli powder, turmeric, salt and tomato pulp. Fry till the oil oozes out
5. Cook the palak separately and make into a fine paste after squeezing the cooked water
6. Add the palak and cooked water to the tomato gravy and cook till oil separates
7. Add the fried paneer and cook for 5 more minutes

Serve hot with roti.

Tip: If you are using yellow onions, do not grind it raw. Chop it, boil with palak and grind it together with palak. If you want to know why, click here

Sending this to SWC -Cooking With Greens hosted by Soumya.

More kuzhambu

2009-05-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

is loosely translated to yoghurt gravy and is popular among iyers.

I am updating my blog after a long break (a week) mainly because I was away on a vacation. I returned two days back but certain amount of laziness crept in and I was in a laid back mood. My own blog seems unfamiliar after the break and I had to try really hard to defy my laziness and break the silence. That explains how hard I work to get myself active. :)

Had an awesome holiday. Everything went on fine except for the awfully bad food. Being a vegetarian, I had to resort to cheese pizza and fries all the time. The cheese and potato made me really sick. Sick enough to transform me from a potato lover to a staunch hater of it. I despise the very sight of potatoes. Hope I will get back to the normal self after a week or so. I just wanted to gain access to my own sweet kitchen and started craving for healthy home food. I really wonder how some Indians could change their food habits and thrive on pizzas and like. It's never an healthy option and I think I can never change my food habits anytime anywhere. Infact, I am really proud of Indian food varieties. I see non-Indians falling crazy for Indian food and that explains the goodness of our food culture.

But being a foodie, I like trying diff varieties now and then. I started loving mexican food since it offers more choice for even veggies like me.

Coming back to the post, this is a typical south Indian food made regularly at home. I made it this time with lady's finger. You can even use pumpkin, taro (arbi) or chayote squash(chow chow).

I have given two methods though I posted the pic for the first method only. First is the Tanjore style and second, Kerala style.
Finally, my blog looks updated and I am glad for getting back on track.

Ingredients:

Okra - 5 chopped
Thin Yoghurt or sour butter milk.(If the yoghurt is not sour, mix half a tsp tamarind paste)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
For Paste
Coconut - 1.5 tablespoon
Red chillies - 2 medium sized
Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
Soaked thoor dhall - 2 tsp
Channa dhall - 2 tsp
Dhania - 1 tsp
Fry the channa dhall, dhania, red chillies and fenugreek till light brown in a tsp of oil and grind together with coconut and thoor dhall.
Seasoning: Curry leaves, mustard, fenugreek 1/2 tsp, coconut oil or sesame oil or mix both.
salt to taste

Method:
1. Fry the okra in oil till crisp. Generally it is deep fried, but suddenly I turn calorie conscious and hence used a little oil to fry. Mix a little salt and keep aside.
2. Mix yoghurt, turmeric, hing, salt and ground paste.
3. Season the ingredients under seasoning, mix the curd and okra. Simmer a little and don't boil; otherwise the curd might break. That's the standing instruction for anything cooked with yoghurt.
Your gravy is ready to serve. Good to go with rice.

Method 2: Grind coconut, 1 tsp of cumin, 3 green chillies and use the paste in the similar way as method 1.

PS: For veggies other than okra, just boil and add. Don't fry.

Baingan Ka Bartha

2009-05-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Baingan(brinjal/eggplant/aubergine) is a vegetable despised by most people. Infact I too hated it as a kid. Later on, when I tasted dishes like enna kathrika and brinjal chutney, I thought its not bad after all ; well, going a step further I concluded it's also another yummy veg. For that matter, any food can taste yummy if you only cook it right. One might do wonders with brinjal or even end up making a disastarous potato meal (potatoes are supposed to taste yummy in any form). Cooking is all about what you add when. If you add the right ingredient at the right time, you can make delicious meal with just anything. You know I am a foodie and don't get surprised when I occasionally throw such words of wisdom :)

Coming to the brinjal story, I got hooked to it when I first tasted brinjal chutney. It is usually made with smoked brinjal and smoking adds a great flavour to the otherwise boring brinjal. The north Indian version of it is today's hero - Baingan Ka Bartha. It is a punjabi dish made with smoked brinjals cooked in Indian spices. It is traditionally made in a charcoal stove and since I couldn't get hold of one, I managed with my electric stove. The idea is to char the brinjal and add a smoky flavour. You can even make use of your conventional oven. This is the first ever time I am trying this and I should say I'm impressed with the results. I haven't even tasted this in hotels for the mere fact that I didn't wanna order brinjal when there are umpteen yummy dishes. This time when I saw those big eggplants in the produce section, I wanted to make the best out of it.

I have added peanuts to the recipe since peanuts and brinjal make a lovely pair. I don't think it is added in the authentic recipe. This goes well with both rice and rotis. One warning here is, the chance that you might like this dish is remote due to the smoky flavour. Try at your own risk!

Ingredients:

Big eggplant - 1
Onion finely chopped - 1
Tomatoes finely chopped - 2
Jeera - 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste(or crushed ginger and garlic) - 1 tsp
Small green chillies - 3 finely chopped
Peanuts- a few
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Dhania powder - 1 tsp
Finely chopped coriander, onion and tomato to garnish
salt to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Lemon juice - 1 tsp(optional)

Method:

1. Smoke the eggplant thoroughly over the stove or by using oven.
2. Remove the skin and mash it.
3. Heat oil, season with jeera and fry onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic.
4. Add tomatoes and peanuts; when cooked, add the dry powders.
5. Add the mashed eggplant and cook till dry.
6. Mix the lime juice and garnish with the ingredients mentioned.

Avial - My Comfort Food

2009-05-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Avial - an amazing yet simple dish from God's own country - Kerala. I got introduced to this lovely dish, way back, when I was a child and so I call it my comfort food. This made our standard sunday lunch - we would have rice, avial and pappad for lunch. Infact, I would go for a second round and have a bowl of avial, just like tat. Whenever, I make or eat this, I get transported to those lovely days. I would say it is a family favourite. Nutritious and yummy. Though cooking avial is easy, preparation time is more since we got to cut a lot of veggies. After some yrs, when I grew up, I took the job of buying the fresh veg and cutting it down. I, being a vegetable lover, would happily venture out selecting diff veg for avial. I wouldn't even mind a long walk to the veg market. Just the sight of the fresh veg would help me unwind. I would even try to be creative by getting bajji milaga (banana peppers) or tindora to add to the curry. I'm totally crazy about fresh veg. You got the idea, right?

I can offer you a tip here. If you are that kind of a person, who feels cutting a lot of vegetables is tedious, try to save the veg you cut during the course of the week.You can save time and effort that way. But take care that you cut them into thin slices suitable for avial and that too, of uniform size. This way you can store cut carrots, pumpkin, yam and beans in the fridge. But as far as I'm concerned, I like to cut them fresh just before cooking. I never use frozen veg that are available in the market. (except for peas) So, you decide the best.

White pumpkin is the major ingredient of avial and try not to omit it. But, in my opinion, nothing is mandatory and use up all vegetables you can. (However, avoid brinjal or okra)
If you do not have any other veg, you can make a simple avial with just white pumpkin. The combination of white pumpkin, coconut, green chillies and coconut oil is just awesome.

If you are such a perfectionist and have lot of patience, boil each veg separately or group them depending on the cooking time they require. I generally mix everything , add salt and pressure cook. I don't see any major problems. However, I do not pressure cook the drumsticks since they might break into sticks on overcooking. I will microwave it separately and mix with the rest. Coconut oil is mandatory and don't substitute it.

Ingredients:
Carrot - 1
Beans - 10
Chow Chow (Chayote squash) - 1
White pumpkin (must)- a small piece
Yellow pumpkin - a small piece
Raw banana - 1 small
Raw mango - a small bit (optional, add if you really like it)
Yam - a small piece (I dont add it, since I get only frozen yam)
Potato - 1
Peas - 1/4 cup
Drumstick - 1
Curd - 1 cup (I do not like using sour curd, if you like the taste, go ahead and use it)
Coconut - 1/2 a cup
Cumin - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 5 to 7
Turmeric - a pinch (I like white avial so I do not add it)
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 1 tablespoon (If you are health conscious add a little for taste. But this is mandatory)
Curry leaves - to garnish

Method:

1. Pressure cook the veg with a little water. When half cooked, mix the salt and cook again till done. Don't overcook, you should be able to see every veg in its original form.

2. Grind coconut, green chillies and cumin. Add this paste to the curd and mix well.

3.Add the curd mixture to the cooked veg and heat for a while. Just till everything blends. Too much heat will break the curd.

4. Switch off the gas, add the coconut oil and garnish with curry leaves.

Serve hot with rice and pappad. I like to eat this with bisibela bath.

Kwik Fix Series # 1 - Mixed Veg Parotta

2009-05-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have decided to post some quick recipes under the label Kwik Fix Series. These recipes might come handy when you feel bored to put in that extra effort or when you really do not have time to accomplish an eloborate meal. Or, you can make use of this while hosting a party or inviting people home, to entertain your guests with an additional food item or to feed surprise guests.

I got a few disclaimers or let me put it as 'pre-requisites'. I might use frozen foods as the base like the way I used frozen parottas here or ready to eat items like sevai or bread etc. or some kitchen appliances like mixie which bachelors might not have. But I swear I will make something tasty, easy and quick. Most will be under 30 minutes recipe. If you could get all the ingredients together, I guarantee a kwik fix meal. Well ,the idea is you can plan and store certain things during the weekend to make a quick dish during the course of the week. Frozen foods are not healthy and so limit the consumption and use your discretion. One more thing, there are lot of ready to eat food here in US compared to India and some recipes might be useful only to ppl who stay here. For eg, I don't know if you get frozen parotta in India which is good enough for consumption. So keep all this in mind before you try out my recipes under Kwik Fix.

Now, for the recipe.

Ingredients:

Broken parotta pieces - 1 cup (Mind it, its not paratha, its parotta, the ceylon style parotta which is famous in chennai street shops)
Sliced Onion - 1
Chopped Tomato - 1
Chopped Carrot - 1
Peas - half a cup
Green Chillies slitted - 3
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 1 tsp
Pav Bhaji Masala - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Jeera - 2 tsp
Chopped Coriander to garnish

Method:

1. Thaw the frozen parotta pieces using microwave or by frying on a hot tawa. Even if you are using fresh parotta, fry it for a while (2 min). Keep aside.
2. Heat oil, season jeera, fry the onions and chillies.(Reserve some for the raitha)
3. Add tomato and cook till soft. Add carrot and peas. If you have microwave, boil the carrot and peas, while frying onions and add it. If you haven't boiled already, sprinkle water and boil for a while.
4. Add the parotta pieces and sprinkle little water. Add the dry powders and fry till everything blends and becomes a little crispy. Meanwhile, mix the onions with curd for raitha.
5. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with raitha.

Tips: 1. If you have boiled chickpeas(channa) or the tinned ones, you can include it to enhance taste and nutrition.
2. In case you are not able to get parottas, use roti by breaking into pieces. I'm sure you would get atleast rotis.

Sending this to 15 minute cooking event hosted by Mahimaa.

Also, sending this to the Srilankan food event at Siri's corner originating from DK's blog. Thanx Ramya for letting me know.

Dal Fry

2009-05-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dal is also a staple diet of Indians, in addition to rice and wheat. It is a mainstay cuisine in India and consumed with equal weightage across all parts of the nation. North Indians have it with rotis while South Indians mix it with rice directly or eat in the form of sambar/rasam. There are different types of dal like channa dal, thuvar dal, moong dal, masoor dal, urad dal and they are included in every day Indian cooking. Any kind of dal is a protein power house and that's the major source of proteins for vegetarians like me. Rice, ghee and tuvar dal makes the lunch for most Indian kiddos. Infact, I relish a plate of paruppu sadham(rice and dal) even now, just as a kid would. Here I give the recipe for a basic dal fry which makes an awesome combo with rotis or rice. I have mixed tuvar dal and moong dal in my recipe and there are recipes which use masoor dal and channa dal also. So, you might give it a try. I have used butter to season, since it adds a nice flavour to the dish. If you are calorie conscious, omit the butter and add a tsp of oil.

The above picture was taken at the US botanical garden, Washington DC. Got excited on seeing something from India and clicked it. Felt its apt for this post.

Ingredients:

Moong dal - 1 cup

Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Tomato - 2 finely chopped

Butter - 1 tablespoon

Jeera - 2 tsp

Green chillies - 2 finely chopped

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Crushed ginger and garlic - 1 tsp

Chopped coriander to garnish

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Mix both the dal, wash and soak in 3 cups water for 15 min. Pressure cook till 3/4 th done.

2. Heat butter, season with jeera and fry the onions, ginger and garlic.

3. Add the green chillies, fry for a minute and then add the tomatoes.

4. When the tomatoes become soft, add the cooked dal and dry powders. Add enough water to get the required consistency and boil. Dal will get thick after a while. So keep that in mind while adding water.

5. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with rotis or rice.

Chole Masala

2009-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

It's time for some authentic Punjabi food. Are you looking for the recipe of the famous Chole Masala? You have landed, rightly here! I have seen several versions of the recipe using tea for inducing black colour. I sort of, don't like the idea and omitted it conveniently.Well,convenience both in terms of cooking and eating.

When did I actually fell in love with the dish? The best channa masala I have had till date, surprisingly does not come from a dhaba. It is indeed from my fav Saravana Bhavan. However, I have had it in the hotel's Chennai branches a couple of years back and not sure whether it is the same now. During my college days, I used to have a plate of cutlet channa from the restaurant atleast once a week, while walking back home from the bus stop. The plate was served, garnished with a chilli, slices of onion, a ring of tomato, a wedge of lemon and chopped coriander. Nothing to beat the taste. In an effort to recreate the magic, I tried this recipe and I should say, it tasted different yet wonderful. Mine is closer to the Dhabha taste and therfore I can rightfully claim that it is authentic chole masala. May be, the dish at Saravana Bhavan was tweaked a bit to be able to go as a chaat.

Kabuli channa is rich in proteins and that makes this a nutritious food. You can have this with batura, poori, roti or even with bread or cutlet as chaat. Garnishing with onions and lemon really does the trick and enhances the taste.

Ingredients:
Boiled channa - 3 or 4 cups(Soak the channa overnight and pressure cook till completely done)
Onion - 1 big
Tomatoes - 2 Medium
Cilantro - Handful
Green chillies - 3 medium
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhania powder - 1 tsp
Chole masala - 1 tsp
Ginger and garlic - just enough to make a teaspoon of paste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Kasoori methi - 1 tsp(Optional)
To garnish: Chopped coriander, sliced onions, Lemon wedge

Method:

Paste 1: Onions(Optional), ginger and garlic. (Read this if you are grinding onions)
Paste 2: Cilantro, green chillies and tomato
Paste 3: Grind a handful of boiled channa

1. Heat the oil and season with Jeera.
2. Add paste 1 and fry till light brown. If you are not grinding onions, add chopped onions and fry. Now a days, I have resorted to chopping onions.
3. Add paste 2, turmeric, dhania powder and chilli powder. Cook till done.
4. Add the cooked channa and a little water. Add salt, chole masala, kasoori methi and boil. Mix Paste 3.
5. Serve hot with pooris, bhatura or rotis. Don't forget to garnish with onions and lime.

Tip: Add half a tsp of chaat masala if you are serving as bread channa or cutlet channa.

Sending this to Sunday Snacks - Chaats hosted by Pallavi.

Badam Halwa

2009-05-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

hmmm... slurp! I just can't take my eyes off the picture and the flavor still lingers in my taste buds. Badam Halwa is a rich and delicious dessert with the base as pureed almonds combined with the sweetness of sugar, goodness of ghee and the delicate flavour of saffron. I would say saffron is a must-add ingredient as it brings out an all-new taste for the sweet and both of them are made for each other. My memories of badam halwa go a long way back and this is one regular sweet which is favourite to everyone at home. The recipe is quite simple and you can never go wrong. It is not as tricky as a mysorepak and you can have it in any consistency - hard or soft and name it conveniently as burfi or halwa. Easy, quick, universally acclaimed and at the end of the day, you can convince people that you are a great chef. What more do u need?

Ingredients:

Almonds (soaked over night & peeled) 1 cup
Sugar 1 to 1 1/2 cups (Adjust to suit your taste)
Ghee - 1/4 cup(You may add more if you want it richer)
Milk - 1 cup
Yellow color - a pinch(optional)
Saffron to decorate

Method:

1. Grind the almonds with milk into a smooth paste. Mix the yellow color.
2. Cook the paste with the remaining milk in a tawa and add the sugar.
3. Keep stirring until the sugar blends and add the ghee little by little.
4. When the paste becomes thick and leaves the side of the vessel without sticking to the bottom, halwa is ready.
5. Decorate with saffron

Tip: Soak the almonds in hot water to easily remove the skin. You can even microwave quickly for the same effect.

Sending this to Mithai Mela event hosted by Srivalli.

Bindi fry

2009-04-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

Vendaikka(Bindi or okra) is one of my favourite vegetables. I always love it and it is one vegetable which I readily ate even while I used to be a fussy eater. Well, even after evolving from a fussy eater to a complete foodie, I haven't lost my charm for it. A simple vendaikka curry is sure to impress me anytime and I would say that comes as a saviour when you are short of ideas or time. On a sunny afternoon, I had ample time for ideas to emerge and hence decided to make something different from the normal south Indian preparation. So I gave it a thought, ended up making it in north Indian style and hence named it Bindi fry.(Title justified)
I was not sure how the famous bindi masala is done. I didn't even bother to google for it. I just added ingredients that struck my mind, to make it north Indian-ish and it served the purpose well.

Ingredients:
Vendaikka - 500 g
Chopped or pureed tomatoes - 1
Amchur powder -2 tsp
Besan - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 2 tsp
Jeera - 3 tsp
Oil - 1 tablespoon
salt to taste

Method:
1. Chop the veg into slightly big pieces.
2. Heat the oil, season with jeera and add the veg.
3. When the veg gets cooked, add the dry powders. Fry till crispy and add the chopped tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes become soft and blends with the rest. Serve with rice or roti.

Variation: Chop an onion and fry till golden brown before adding the veg.

Sending this to WYF - side dish event hosted by EC.

Keerai (greens) molagootal

2009-04-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

This is a traditional Palakkad iyer dish which is quite famous at my home. One irony about the dish is, though it is called molagootal, we don't add any molagu(pepper corns)to it. I see lot of people mentioning about pepper in their molagootal recipes. But the authentic recipe doesn't have any pepper and this is highly nutritious, non-spicy food, good for everyone.Molagootal is made using ara keerai and since I get only spinach here, I made use of it. Other famous molagootals are cabbage,mixed veg(raw banana,carrot,yam,potato,chow-chow), just chayote squash(chow-chow), yellow pumpkin and you can always be creative and come up with your own combination. I'm tired today to post anything eloborate and so limiting myself to a simple recipe. This can be made in a jiffy specially with the kind of spinach you get here. It's so clean and fresh unlike Chennai where we got to spend a lot of time in cleaning up greens. But of kors, you don't get so many Indian varieties here. That's a trade-off and I am actually quite happy that I get a lot of Indian veggies here. I never expected so much.Spinach is a great source of iron,vitamin A,B and C and this is one great way to consume it without losing the nutrition. This has spinach,dal and coconut making it tasty,healthy and nutritious. Now let us get cooking.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 2 cups finely chopped

Thoor dhall - half a cup cooked

coconut - 1 to 2 table spoons

Red chillies- 2 medium

jeera - 2tsp

urad dhall - 2 tsp

Mustard - 2 tsp

coconut oil - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:

1. Cook the spinach and mix the cooked dhall.

2. Grind coconut,chillies and jeera into a paste and add to spinach.

3. Boil till frothy and season with urad dhall, mustard, asafoetida in coconut oil base.

Use the same method to make any molagootal substituting spinach with a diff veggie.

Goes well with vetha kozhambu or rasam rice. Also, plain rice and pickle makes a good combo to spice up this non-spicy dish.

Monthly Mingle - Kid's Lunch Round up

2009-04-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Read the MM round up here.
This is the first ever event I participated since I joined the blogosphere. So something special to me and it is thrilling to read the round up featuring my recipes. Here is an extract from the post.

Then we have Sree Vidya bringing in multiple choice for us to choose and each of them sound more interesting than the other. Am sure it would not be chore getting the kids eat these delicious Gobi Manchurian or the fancy Kathi roll.Her Macaroni hot pot is something to get done in jiffy not to mention the Paneer bhurji that can save your day anytime.

But lets start it all with her Nutty n Creamy Veg Soup, it sure to make anybody crave for more. She adds in nuts along with veggies, which makes it a ideal wholesome food for kids! Even if you can't pack it regularly, am sure you will find a way to send this along if your kid gets to fancy this!

Or this yummy Coconut Milk Pulav, which am sure any kid will fancy. So that's a great idea to share with other mommies right. This pulao is mild and is quite easy to get the kids take this!

Read the rest here and it's a great pleasure to go through other entries. Thanks for your nice words Srivalli and it is very encouraging.You are putting in a lot of effort to host such wonderful events and it is simply amazing!