Ujwal's Kitchlab

Capsicum-Cumin Rice with Saffron

2011-07-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

I love the variation in rice dishes.They are so easy to make plus, healthy and most of the times require no side dishes and can be made in jiffy with minimum utensils to be cleaned. This is one such dish that I was recommended by my SIL. I love Shilpa's site for the simple dishes and clear instructions. This is one such no fail recipe that tastes great on its own or even good with some spicy side dish. I had made this on my mom's birthday as she loves capsicum but never got time to post it until today. This has been in my drafts for really long time.
I almost followed the recipe but made very minor negligible changes. Click here to view the original recipe from Aayi's recipes.

What's needed:
2 cups basmati rice washed and soaked for 30 mins
2 tsp cumin seeds/Jeera
few strands saffron soaked in 1 tblsp milk
2 capsicum chopped (I used green as I had that it hand)
A pinch turmeric (I forgot to add it)
4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
2 onions sliced
5-6 cloves
5-6 green cardamom
1" cinnamon
2 bay leaves ( Not in the original recipe)
6 green chillies slit
Oil
Salt to taste

Procedure:
1) Heat oil add jeera when it splutters add the spices and onion, garlic and fry until golden.
2) Add capsicum and fry for a while. Add rice and green chillies. Fry and add 4 cups of water and salt to taste. After one boil lower the flame and cook covered.
3) When 3/4th done open and add the saffron milk and cook further till done. Fluff with fork and serve hot.

We had with Dal fry.

Aloo Paratha

2011-07-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Rainy season makes you crave for something hot and spicy . Regular rice and curry takes a backseat. I am more of a chapathi/Phulka person. I love paratha's too. My mom makes awesome masala chapathi which is South Indian take on stuffed aloo paratha. I make both the versions. This is my version of aloo paratha a little spicy and little tangy.

Here is what's needed:
(For outer dough)
2 cups atta / whole wheat flour
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
sugar to taste
2 tsp oil or ghee

(For the Filling)
2 medium sized potatoes
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp red chilli powder - increase/decrease as per your taste
1/2 tsp each cumin and coriander powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp Kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp amchur powder
salt to taste
A handful of coriander leaves chopped

Oil/ghee/butter to shallow fry the paratha's

Procedure:
1) I prefer to use warm water to knead my dough as it makes softer roti's. Mix all the ingredients for the outer dough and knead into a smooth and elastic dough. It should not be sticky. Add more water or atta as per your preference.
2) Boil, peel and mash the potatoes making sure that there are no lumps. Heat little oil and fry the onions till they turn slightly pinkish. Add in all the masala's and fry for a few seconds. Add the mashed potato and turn off the flame. Add salt to taste and add the coriander leaves. Let it cool.
You can also skip frying the onions and use them raw too. I prefer this one than raw onions or skip onions completely. Incase you dont want to add onions just mix all the ingredients listed under the filling. Adjust seasoning according to your taste.
3) Make small balls out of the dough and same size balls with the filling. Out of the atta dough, roll a small puri and keep the filling at the center and cover it completely by gathering the puri over the filling. Roll it into slightly thick paratha by dusting it with sufficient atta to prevent sticking to the rolling board.
4) Transfer to a hot griddle and fry both the sides until golden brown by spraying oil, ghee or butter. Repeat with rest of the dough and serve hot with curds or curry of your choice.

Babycorn masala

2011-07-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Rains are in full swing here and Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rains but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. Hence going out in this rains needs a lot of planning. We avoid taking the little one out in this weather. This is also the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftover veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. I had picked this up randomly during my recent grocery shopping. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.

Rains are in full swing here.Little A is enjoying the weather. He loves to watch the rians but misses his evening outing. In Mangalore, it rains continuously at times and for days together. This is the time to experiment on spicy foods, fries and soups. Here is one such dish that I just made up with leftvoer veggies and it came out really good. I used a different masala this time called sabzi masala and the gravy came out really tasty. When the curry was cooking the house smelled heavenly. Pair it up with some hot rice or chapthis and make a meal out of it.
Here is what's needed

a pack of freshly peeled baby corns, slit lengthwise and chopped into two
2 medium tomatoes blanched
3 medium onions cubed
1 capsicum cubed
handful of mushrooms quartered
10 cashews soaked
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp Sabzi masala
1 tsp garam masala
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
salt to taste
oil
coriander leaves chopped to garnish

Procedure:
1) Grind the blanched tomatoes, cashews to a smooth paste with required quantity of water.
2) Cook the baby corn in sufficient water till almost done.
3) Heat oil, add bay leaf. After few seconds add in the Onions and fry till translucent. Add ginger garlic paste capsicum and mushroom. Fry until capsicum can be broken using a spoon and mushrooms have wilted.Add in the masala powders and fry till oil separates.
4) Add the tomato paste and cook further. Mix in the babycorn and give it a good rolling boil. Add in the kasuri methi and salt. Mix well, add sufficient water and check for seasoning adding any if required. Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: To enhance the taste of this curry milk or cream could be used. I skipped this completely as I am not too fond of cream based gravies. This curry came out so good that I see myself using this base gravy with many more vegetables.
We enjoyed it with hot chapathis.

Paneer Masala dosa

2011-06-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

After a long time I have been able to click pics for the food blog. I have been experimenting a lot with food. Days are busier as I have just enrolled in a teaching course which I am loving a lot. At times I feel that days are flying ahead with wings! Little A is growing up fast too and getting naughtier. Keeps us all busy with his antics. I am loving every moment spent with him.
Coming back to food, whenever we are eating out I prefer to have outside food for lunch or dinner but breakfast I love homemade. I am not big fan of hotel idli's. But if I have to have then I prefer plain paper dosa. I find the other dosa's too oily. For masala dosa's I like the onions in bhaji to be cooked slightly. But I love the colour of hotel dosa's. Thanks to Niya, I can now make such good looking and healthy dosa at home too with much less oil.

Here is what's needed:
1 cup urad dal
2 cups rice
a fistful of cooked rice
1 tsp methi seeds
Salt & sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, urad dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours. Grind the soaked rice and dal along with cooked rice to a smooth batter adding sufficient water.
2) Add salt to taste. Let it ferment overnight. Next morning add a tsp or two of sugar. Mix well.
3) Heat a tawa and pour a ladle full of batter. Spread uniformly. Roast on one side by adding a little oil.Serve hot with chutney of your choice.

With the left over batter I made some Paneer dosa for us.It is very simple to make and tastes great. A change from the regular potato masala dosa.

Here is what's needed for the masala:
200 gms paneer chopped into small cubes
1 capsicum chopped
2 onions chopped
1 tomato chopped
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp garam masala and kitchen king masala
a pinch of turmeric powder
11/2 tsp red chilli powder
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1) Heat oil. Add cumin seeds when they splutter add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Fry well until transparent.
2) Add chopped capsicum and cook. Add chopped tomatoes and cook further.
3) Add in the spice powders one by one. Add salt, chopped paneer pieces and cook further until all the paneer pieces are uniformly coated with the masala. Add kasuri methi. Mix well. Switch off the flame and garnish with corainder leaves.

This can be served with chapathi or with dosa's too.

To make Paneer masala dosa:
1) Spread the dosa batter on the tawa. When it is cooked slightly place a spoon full of masala in the center, lengthwise and cook further until dosa is done. Fold and serve immediately.

Avnaas ambe sasam ~ Mixed fruit curry in mustard and coconut sauce

2011-06-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

(Thali ~ Salt, Amla pickle, Mixed veg sambar, Avnas ambe sasam, rice, papad , buttermilk and wheat halwa)

Sunday meals were always special at our household. That was the only day when we would all sit and have an afternoon meal together. Amma always made something special for us on that day of the week. This thali is one of our simple sunday meal. With mango being in season and having a basket full of it we decided to make a curry with it. This is one of the traditional GSB dishes. I love this so much that whenever we attend some functions during summer I look out for this and reach for second helping too. This is basically a sweet curry and is served cold. Traditionally, Pineapple and mango is used to make this but these day mixed fruits are also used. We had an apple and few banana's left, not wanting to make fruit salad opted to use it in this curry. Tasted delicious.

Here is what's needed:

1/2 cup pineapple cubed

5 ripe mangoes cubed

1 apple cubed (Optional)

4 small banana's cubed (Optional)

4 tbsp dry grapes soaked for an hour (Optional - but tastes great)

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1/2 coconut grated

5 dry red chillies

1 cup Jaggery scraped or as per taste

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Cook pineapple pieces till done. If it is not very sweet add a little bit of jaggery. Cool it.

2) Dry roast mustard seeds for few seconds. Remove and in a little oil fry the red chilies.

3) Grind grated coconut, mustard seeds,salt and red chilies to coarse paste. Add jaggery and grind further.

4) Mix the fruits and paste together and refrigerate until the time of serving chilled.

Spicy garlicky noodles

2011-06-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

Indian Chinese is one the popular cuisines in India. This cuisine is our take on the Chinese cuisine. When we first moved to Shanghai my relatives had so much to question about Chinese food. Manchurian, Manchow soup etc which are easily available here was not available there. They had the notion that for me as a vegetarian eating out was easy like in Indian Chinese joints. Initially, I used to avoid going out for dinner as it was difficult to get some decent vegetarian food. Plus, I was scared of chopsticks. I did not want to use spoon and fork as it would make me the center of attraction.
One day when we had decided to go out for sightseeing on a weekend, hubby decided to teach me how to use chopsticks. Thinking that I would get some noodles I made maggi for dinner and learnt the art of using chopsticks. In my mind I had the visualized that if I order noodles I would be getting non spicy version of dry noodles but when we actually ordered it we got a huge pot of noodles with lot of soup in it. The noodles were so slippery and the broth was so hot that I did not have the courage to dig in with chopsticks. To my bad luck I had not carried forks from home and all I had was disposable spoons. The hotel too did not have any fork. Finally I manged to drink some soup and fish out some noodles from it. And had some rice too with broccoli. I remember the experience very well as after dinner my table was completely. After some practice sessions with my hubby, now I can comfortably eat rice, vegetables, noodles and even pick groundnuts using chopsticks and also enjoy Chinese cuisine.

Noodles is one of our favorite Indo-Chinese dish. I make a spicy version of it. It can be had on its own or with some hot & sour vegetables.

Here is what's needed:

200 grams chow noodles

2 tbsp oil

3 dry red chillies - torn to bits

2 tsp red chilli powder

8 flakes of garlic finely chopped

2 tsp soya sauce

2 tsp vinegar

1 tsp Tomato ketchup

2 capsicum shredded

2 carrots shredded

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

2 Onions sliced

small bunch of spring onions chopped (Reserve the greens for garnishing)

2 tsp pepper powder

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Boil water in big vessel. Add noodles and cook until the noodles are just cooked through. Do not overcook as it can make the noodles mushy. Drain the noodles and rinse it with cold water. Add a tbsp of oil and keep aside to cool.

2) Prepare seasoning by heating oil. Add chopped garlic and red chilles. Cook for 1/2 minute. Add vegetables - Onions, capsicum, carrot and cabbage. Saute on high flame until done yet the vegetables are crispy Add chilli powder, pepper powder, soya sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, salt. Saute for a minute.

3) Add the noodles and mix well until well incorporated and garnish with spring onion greens.

Serve hot. Wanna have some?

Bhindi Do Pyaaza ~ Tried & Tasted

2011-06-02T01:47:00.000-07:00

It is truly said that things that are easily available to us are the one's that we ignore the most. One such instance is that of this vegetable. I never cared much for Bhindi during my growing years. It was always there at our dinner table but was never special to me until I got married and we moved to Shanghai. Bhindi was not easily available. Even in summer we had to travel by metro, four station across to a farmer's market but it would get sold out easily. It was available at Thai stores but was very very expensive. Suddenly my love for bhindi increased and everytime I would search for bhindi on Indian restaurant's menu card. During one such visit I fell in love with Bhindi Do Pyaaza. I wanted to make it at home but as always I kept pushing it forward until next time. Yesterday when we got some fresh bhindi I decided to make it. I searched for the recipe and reached at Sailu's food.I was bowled over by her great pictures and immediately decided to do it. Thank you Sailu it turned out to be wonderful and was loved by everyone at home. I just modified the recipe a little. To view the original recipe click here.
Here is how I made it.

What's needed:
1/2 Kg Bhindi/Okra - washed and dried
6 medium Onions sliced
2 Tomatoes chopped
2-3 tbsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1/4 tsp Ginger & Garlic paste
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
1/2 tsp Corainder powder
1/4 tsp Amchur powder
a generous pinch of Kasuri methi
a pinch of Asafoetida
1/2 tsp Sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:
1) Trim the edges of bhindi and chop into bite sized pieces.
2) Heat 1 tsp oil and fry bhindi until it is just done yet crunchy. Keep aside.
3) Heat oil,add cumin seeds. When it splutters add sliced onions, ginger paste and fry until they are transparent. Add the spice powders,salt and saute.
4) When done add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they are soft. Add the fried bhindi and cook further until well incorporated.
5) Add the kasuri methi, lemon juice and sugar. Mix well.
6) Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Thanks Sailu, We too reached out for second helping of this wonderful dish. This recipe is a keeper :) I added Amchur powder and avoided curds.

Rajma Chaval

2011-05-27T08:06:00.001-07:00

Blogging has definitely taken a backseat with the little one around. I have been cooking a lot lately but most of the dishes are what we make at home on everyday basis.

This is one of my favorite combi meal. My sister R often used to make Rajma curry with ghee rice. I still remember the taste that she used to make :) This is somewhere close to how she makes it but not entirely the same.

This is not an authentic recipe and it is how we make it at home. We had the curry with jeera rice. I used Maggi bhuna masala as I had a packet of it :) You can substitute this with tomato-onion paste.

For the Rajma masala:

1 cup Rajma beans (Soaked for at least 6hrs and cooked until soft)

1 big tomato (blanched and pureed)

3 medium Onions (chopped fine)

1 packet maggi bhuna masala

fry 2 medium onions and 2 tomatoes with ginger garlic paste and puree

2 bay leaf

2 tbsp red chilli powder (increase according to your taste)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

a big pinch kasuri methi

1/4 tsp amchur powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp garam masala powder

oil/ghee

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Heat oil. Add bay leaf. Add chopped onions and fry until golden.

2) Add tomato puree & maggi bhuna masala. Fry well.

3) Add the spice powders and fry till oil seprates.

4) Add rajma. Reserve 2 tbsp of rajma and puree it. Add salt to taste and rajma puree & water(Use the water used to cook rajma).

5) When it boils add kasuri methi and cook till done. When done garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice and salad.

Jeera rice:

I have already posted a recipe for jeera rice. This is another method making jeera rice in jiffy using pressure cooker. I have used plain sona masuri rice and this gets done in flat 10 mins.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Sona masuri rice washed

2 onions sliced

2 tbsp oil/ghee

1 tbsp Cumin seeds/jeera

1 bay leaf

4 cloves

4 green cardamoms

1" Cinnamon stick

salt to taste

Coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:

1) Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add jeera when it splutters add the whole spices.

2) Add sliced onions and fry till golden.

3) Add rice and fry for a while. Add 2 cups of water, salt to taste and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

4) When done fluff with a fork, garnish with coriander leaves.

We washed this down with a glass of mango milkshake topped with yummy vanilla ice cream.

For the milk shake i just blended ripe mango slices with sugar & chilled milk. Served it with vanilla ice cream.

Instant Shevai ~ Instant Rice noodles

2011-03-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

Shevai or rice noodles is one of the most common breakfast in GSB household.

It seems in earlier days when guests used to stay longer than hosts expected to shevai was prepared. Since shevai is made by pressing into the the maker and pushing it out guests were also given a hint that it was time for them to push themselves out. We still laugh on this when we make shevai at home.

Normally shevai is made by soaking rice and then grinding it along with freshly grated coconut. The mixture is then stirred continuously on medium flame until it turns into solid mass until it is non sticky. I will share the traditional recipe next time. Here is an instant version of Shevai that my sister-in-law's mom shared with us. She is an excellent cook who loves to try a variety of dishes and always has something new to share. This version of shevai does not call for soaking rice or grated coconut.

Here is what's needed:

2 measure Rice Rava (Readily available in stores also known as idli rava)

21/2 measure water(Ratio of 1:11/4 - rice rava:water)

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix all the ingredients in a thick bottomed kadhai or vessel. Keep on medium flame and keep stirring continuously it thickens. To check if it is done dip your finger into cool water and touch the mixture. If it does not stick to your hand then it is ready. Switch off.

2) When hot make balls of the size of an orange and steam it. Once done fork inserted should come out clean.

3) Add 1 or 2 balls (as per the capacity of your shevai press) and press onto a clean plate. Transfer to a bigger tray lined with wet clean muslin cloth. This is to prevent the shevai from drying up. Repeat until all the balls are used up.

Serving suggestions:

1) Shevai can be served with pickle and coconut oil. (I used tender jackfruit pickle in the picture above and coconut oil).

2) Kids love powdered shevai ( slightly crush using your hands) with ghee and sugar.

3) It can also be served with daLithoy.

4) Goes well with Potato song or any spicy side dish.

5) Upma can be made with leftover shevai.

Poha Chivda

2011-02-08T01:30:00.000-08:00

I am huge fan of cookery shows and cookbooks. Whenever I find some recipe interesting I generally note it down. This is one such recipe that I saw in a regional cookery show called Bombaat Bhojana. This is a simple poha chivda recipe. I made slight changes as per our taste.

Here is what's needed:

6 cups Poha/Beaten rice (* Sun dry poha for a day to become crisp)

1/2 cup Kopra ( dried coconut) thinly sliced

1 cup unsalted Peanuts

1/2 cup Fried gram

2 tsp Jeera/Cumin seeds

2 tsp Mustard Seeds

8 dried Red chillies

6 sprigs of Curry leaves

1 tsp Turmeric powder/Haldi

3 tbsp powdered Sugar

2 tbsp powdered Fried gram

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Prepare seasoning by heating oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add cumin seeds. When they sizzle add Kopra pieces and peanuts.

2) When the peanuts turn golden add torn red chilli, fried gram, curry leaves. Fry well. Add haldi.

3) Keeping the flame on medium add Poha. Mix well. Add fried gram powder. Mix well. Add salt and sugar. Mix and turn off the flame. Cover and let it cool. Store in a clean dried air tight container.

* If you are unable to sun dry it then you can add poha and fry it on low flame until crispy.

Serving Suggestions:

This can be serve on its own. You can add grated coconut at the time of serving or add chopped onions, coriander leaves and grated coconut at the time of serving.

Dosa ~ Mushti PoLo

2011-02-08T01:09:00.000-08:00

Dosa's are the most common breakfast item in our kitchen. I love making dosa's as most of the preparations can be made the previous day. This is one of our fav dosa. We normally serve this dosa with chutney but on makar sankranthi day we make it with sweet khichidi.

These dosa's are generally made thicker than other dosa's and it is actually roasted on one side. But at my place we like it a little thin and roasted on both the sides. These are soft and fluffy dosas.

Mushti PoLo uses measurement according to our fist size hence the name Mushti ( which means fist in Konkani) PoLo (Dosa in konkani).

Here is what's needed:

1 measure Dosa rice

1 fistful Urad Dal

2 fistful Poha (Beaten rice)/Puffed Rice ( You can use either of them)

1 tsp Methi(Fenugreek seeds)

2 tsp Sugar

a pinch of Baking soda

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Soak rice + dal + methi seeds for 4-6 hours.

2) Wash poha/puffed rice. Grind soaked rice + dal + poha/puffed rice. Let it ferment overnight.

3) Next day add sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix well.

4) Heat a griddle. Add 1/2 tsp oil. Spread the batter in circular motion. Let the dosa be a little thick. Cover and cook on medium flame until the dosa is cooked. You can flip the dosa and cook the other side if desired.

Serve hot with chutney or khichidi.

Happy Makara Sankranthi

2011-01-14T01:01:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very happy Makara Sankranthi. We normally prepare Dosa and Khichidi (Sweet) during sankranthi.

The khichidi that I am referring to is a sweet dish. It is made with lentils and rice or lentils and broken wheat. It can be made with sugar or jaggery too. I love the one with sugar in it. But will soon update the next version with jaggery too :)

Here is what's needed:

3/4 cup Chana Dal

1/4 cup broken wheat

1 1/4 cup Sugar

2 cups grated Coconut

3-4 tbsp of ghee

1 tbsp each broken cashews and raisins

1 tsp Cardamom powder

Procedure:

1) Dry roast chana dal until it gives a nice aroma. When cooled wash it well and pressure cook along with broken wheat and water until done.

2) Add sugar to the dal mixture and give it a good boil stirring in between.

3) Add the grated coconut, 3 tbsp ghee and keep stirring until it comes to a rolling boil. Add water if the mixture seems to be too dry. Make sure that mixture comes to a boil if water is added.

4) Heat 1 tbsp of ghee , add cashews and fry till golden. Remove them and add raisins to the same ghee and fry till they are fluffy. Add the cashews, raisins and cardamom powder to the sweet and switch off.

Serve hot.

P.S: Fully ripe banana can also be added to the same. If adding, finely slice it and add after you switch off the gas. Also note that if banana is added the sweet turns stale the next day. So make sure to add to a small portion that you can finish. It tastes delicious with chopped banana.

Some also add finely chopped dates along with banana slices. Tastes wonderful. Both are optional.

Ending the year on a sweet note

2010-12-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

The year 2010 has been a roller coaster ride for us. I had been very slow in terms of blogging and my personal life was racing ahead. We made new friends, shifted from Shanghai to my hometown for good, caught up with a lot of relatives and friends, welcomed a cute little boy into our lives.... There are so many reasons for which I have to be thankful to the year that will soon pass by. I am very much looking forward to the new year. Here is wishing everyone "A very happy and prosperous new year". Hope this brings a lot of joy, peace and happiness with good health and wealth to all of them. Ending this year on a sweet note with a sweet and simple dish.

This dish is usually made with ripe (over ripe) nenthrapazham banana. It goes well with puri's, chapathi etc. The recipe is similar to making Banana halwa which is a delicacy Mangalore is famous for. For banana halwa it needs to be cooked further until it reaches halwa stage.

Here is what's needed:

4 ripe nenthrapazham banana chopped

1/4 cup sugar increase if you like sweeter)

4 tbsp ghee

a pinch of cardamom powder

Procedure:

1) In a thick bottomed kadai add the banana pieces, ghee and sugar. Keep the flame on medium.

2) Cook the mixture by stirring until the banana turns soft and mushy. Let few pieces be still in shape as it gives a nice texture to the finished product.

3) Add cardamom powder, mix well and put off the flame.

Serve hot with fluffy puris, Chapathi or on its own. We like ours to be mildly sweet with few pieces to bite in between. Kids love to have this with dosa's too.

Plain Dosa/ Paper Dosa

2010-12-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

Thank you dear friends for your wonderful wishes and blessings to the little boy. Time surely flies by and very soon li'l munchkin will be two months old. I am enjoying my time with the little one.

I have been trying to get back to cooking ( and blogging), but being at my mother's place there is hardly any need to do so. I have been enjoying her cooking and when time permits I experiment.

Here is one of my favourite breakfast item "Plain dosa or Paper dosa". I love crispy thin dosa's than the thick ones. This dosa must be relished hot and crispy as it loses its texture when cooled. I use my Futura Tawa for this dosa as I can spread them big and thin with little oil. I have been a big fan of this Tawa and have been using it for almost 2 years now. This is similar to the Urad-Rice dosa but the Urad propertion is less than normally used.

Here is what's needed:
4 cups rice
1 cup Urad dal
1/4 tsp Methi seeds
Salt and Sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, Urad Dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours and grind to a smooth paste with suffecient water. Add salt and let it ferment overnight.
2) Next day mix it well and add sugar to taste. You may add little water if the batter is too thick.
3) Heat a tawa.
4) Spread a ladle full of batter in circular motion until it forms a uniform circle. Roast it with little oil/ghee in medium flame.
5) (Optional)When it turns to slightly golden colour flip it over and roast the other side for few seconds.
6) Repeat 4 and 5 until all batter is used up.

Note: Always sprinkle water over the tawa before spreading batter again to bring down the temperature of tawa. If the tawa is too hot you will not be able to spread it well as the batter gets cooked fast and will stick to ladle.

Serve hot with Chutney and sambar.

You may also fold it like you would do for masala dosa to make it paper dosa and serve it with a dollop of butter on top.

Back with a good news

2010-11-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I have been missing from the blogosphere for quite some time now. I have some good news to share. We are now proud parents of a little boy. Our son is 4 weeks old :)

I was busy with my pregnancy, my brother's wedding and shifting back toIndia for good. At present I am enjoying motherhood completely.

I have not updated this space for quite some time as I had severe aversion towards food and also since I have not been cooking regularly too ( Since my mom is doing all the cooking and I am enjoying eating them :P).

Now coming back to cooking, This dish was prepared by my sister-in-law during her recent visit home. It was so simple and tasty that I had to share it. She made use of ready to use Chicken - 65 masala powder. (Even Kebab masala powder works fine) This serves as a great starter dish.

Baby corn Rava fry

Ingredients:

Baby corn 200 gms

Ginger & Garlic paste : 1tbsp

Chicken 65 masala powder : 2-3 tbsp

Salt & Chilli powder to taste

Fine Rava ( enough to coat all the pieces)

Procedure:

1) Cut baby corn into 2-3 pieces.

2) Marinate baby corn with ginger garlic paste and set aside for 30 mins.

3) Add the powders and salt to taste. Add little water.

4) Add enough rava to coat all the baby corn pieces. Deep fry in hot oil.

Drain and serve hot.

Hot Cross Buns...

2010-02-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

The buns that I am mentioning is not the plural form of bun but a very famous breakfast item that can be found in most of the homes and restaurants in Mangalore. This is basically a deep fried Indian bread that is usually served with either chutney or dalithoy. At our place we usually have it without any side dishes. As kids we used to dunk it in hot coffee and eat :) I know its a little wierd.

This is slightly sweet due to the addition of banana and sugar If you are not fond of the sweetness you may serve it with some spicy coriander leaves chutney or any other chutney of your choice.

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Maida (All purpose flour)

1 cup Atta (Whole wheat flour)

1 pinch Baking soda

2 medium sized Ripe banana

1/2 cup Curds

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tbsp oil + extra to deep fry

Procedure:

1) Mix sugar and curds and let it sit for 10-15 mins.

2) Add mashed banana,cumin seeds to the sugar - curd mixture and mix well.

3) Sieve the flours and soda. Add it to the mixture and knead it. It will be a sticky mixture. Resist the urge to add more water or curds. The liquid from curds and banana is sufficient to knead the dough.

4) Heat a tbsp of oil until hot and pour it over the dough and let it rest overnight or at least 8-10 hrs.

5) Knead the dough again incorporating the oil. Make small balls and roll it using a rolling pin. The rolled out disc should be slight thick.

6) Deep fry in hot oil and drain it on a tissue paper.

Serve hot.

P.S: Often the top of the Buns tend to crack up in oil causing oil to splutter a little. So make sure that you are careful when you flip the Buns in oil.

Capsicum and Potato side dish (2 Variation)

2010-02-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

This is another variation of using capsicum and Potato. You can check my previous version here. I got this recipe from my dear friend R who is a Rajasthani. I have already made it twice and every one who has tried this recipe have loved it a lot. I normally look for different varieties of side dishes as I get bored pretty easily. R makes these only with capsicum and I added Potato as the day I made it for the first time I had just one capsicum in hand. But we loved addition of it (who does not love potato). This is going to feature regularly in my hubby's lunch box :) I have started making phulka's regularly along with rice and some curry. Hence I have to come up with new side dishes everyday :)

Here's what's needed:

1 large Capsicum deseeded and cubed

1 large Potato peeled and cubed (Store in water until the time of use)

1/2 tsp each Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds

2 tbsp Chickpea flour (Besan)

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)

1-2 tsp red Chilli powder

1/4 tsp Garam masala powder

a small pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)

Salt to taste

Oil

Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil. Add in mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add Cumin seeds and when they splutter add hing and saute for a while.

2) Drain the potato's and fry for a 3-4 mins,until slightly soft. Add in all the spice powders and saute it well.

3) Add in cubed capsicum and fry. Add salt and cook covered. Make sure that the flame is always on medium. When capsicum is slightly soft i.e it breaks easily add the besan. Fry until the raw taste goes away.

4) Add little water to prevent the mixture from getting completely dry and cover for 2-4 mins. Check for seasoning and add any if desired. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with Phulka.

I love this curry as it does use any ginger garlic paste or onion to be sliced. Easy breezy recipe and tastes great.

P.S: I have been working out with some changes in this blog and by this month end I am hoping to come out with the changes. So may not blog regularly but will definitely come over to your blog.

Paneer kati rolls

2010-01-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year. I know its late but we had taken a small break and had been to a place called Sun Island which is 80 km from Shanghai. Along with 13 other friends we had a great time. We did the new year countdown, played games like crazy, did go karting, archery, speed boat ride and what not. Definitely a great start to the wonderful year ahead. Thanks to all our friends who made it really special for us. Hope that this year brings in lot of luck, love and peace to all of us. Once we were back we were a bit a busy with one of our very good friend's family moving to India.

Well resolutions are a part of the New year.. though we do not believe in new year resolutions this year we decided to make some. Hoping that we will be able to keep it up :)

We have decided that we will make more healthy choices starting from this year and try to be more active and fit. I have even thought of giving more time to this blog and update this tiny space of mine regularly. I just hope I will be able to do it.

Now back with the recipe for the day. I made these kati rolls at the last minute when I realised that we were going to have guests for dinner. Luckily the previous day I had just made paneer for another dish and ended up using in this.

I am a big and ardent lover of rolls and wraps. Though I am not a very fond of Paneer I do make it twice in a month and every time I did I try a new recipe. This is one such. This is not the original kati roll recipe. Normally chapati's made of maida is used. I prefered to use our normal phulka's and we liked it. I had coloured bell pepper's at home so used them up too. The end result was yummy and our guests too liked them. I have just added spices randomly feel free to change.

For filling :

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Paneer cubed (I made mine at home)

1 small Green bell pepper cubed

1 small Red bell pepper cubed

1/2 Onion chopped

1 small Tomato chopped

1 tsp Red chilli powder (adjust as per your liking)

1/4 tsp Kitchen King Masala

1/4 tsp Garam masala

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

Chat masala to taste

Kasuri methi a generous pinch

juice of 1/2 lemon

Oil 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Fresh Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Heat oil and saute onions and bell peppers on high flame for a min or 2. Add Ginger garlic paste and spice powders and saute. Add in cubed paneer,tomato, kasuri methi and salt. Saute for 2-3 mins and switch off. Squeeze lime juice and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Prepare phulka or roti as usual and place the filling in the center and roll it to form a wrap. Serve with mint chutney and sweet chutney.

P.S: You can add some sliced onion, cucumber and lettuce over the filling to make it even more tastier.

Eggless Banana bread

2009-12-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

I had always wanted to bakes cakes and bread at home. Cakes and muffins I usually do but bread baking will take some more time I guess. I am scared of Mr.Yeast (or is it Ms). Anyways, the point is I tried making some Pizza last time with Active Dry yeast and the dough did rise well and the Pizza was deliciously soft. But it had some peculiar smell. The product had not expired and I still do not know what was the issue. My blogger friends suggested me to use fresh yeast but I have no idea where to look for here.. So bread baking is still a dream for me. I am on baking spree and chance upon every occasion to bake something. It makes the kitchen warm in this harsh winter and also the wonderful aroma of cake makes me happy. I have some good friends who are ready to try out any cake at any point of time :D which is another advantage for me.

I had wanted to try making Banana bread at home and my search took me to Mansi's site. I wanted an eggless one as my friend's mom does not eat eggs. Her recipe was simple, straight forward and I decided to try it out. I bought banana's and waited for them to ripen :D.

I just added some almond bits on top for crunch and did not make any changes to the recipe. The result was too good and my friend's mom loved it. Thanks Mansi for sharing this wonderful recipe with us. I will surely make it again.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-12-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

Recently when I went shopping, I found a small batch of fresh blueberries. I had never tasted blueberries nor used them. We enjoyed few of them by itself and I wanted to bake with the rest. After a lot of google search I zeroed on Maria's recipe. The recipe was simple and I was bowled over by the photograph. I did not make any changes to the recipe. I just halved it and got 7 jumbo muffins out of it. The house smelled divine and the outcome was perfect. Thanks Maria for a keeper recipe. I am going to make it often now. Please click here to view Maria's recipe.

Just sink your teeth into it and enjoy the divine taste of soft and moist muffins :)

Capsicum and Potato side dish ~ Quick side dish

2009-12-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

I just love capsicum. It lends a complete different flavor to simple dishes. This is one such dish that can be made on a weekday with no much effort, yet a tasty option. Have it with Chapathi or simple rice and dal :) I learnt this from my dear friend S. If you love capsicum then this dish is for you. There is no exact measurements for this dish just play with flavours as you wish :)

Here is what's needed :

2 medium green Capsicums thinly sliced

2 medium Potatoes thinly sliced

1 medium Onions thinly sliced

2 medium Tomatoes roughly chopped

1/4 tsp jeera

1 tbsp ginger garlic finely chopped and crushed

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Red chilli powder, Garam masala powder and Kitchen king masala to taste

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat oil. Add jeera. When it splutters add onion and fry until done.

2) Add the powders,capsicum and potato. Fry well for 2-3 mins.

3) Add chopped tomato and salt. Mix well, cover and cook till done without adding water.

4) Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Celebrations ~ Milk burfi

2009-12-03T05:14:00.000-08:00

Pardon me for my sudden absence from this space...I just got back from my 2 weeks trip to Mangalore. It was all of a sudden and the tickets were surprise gift for me from my hubby dear on my birthday.. My brother Uttam got engaged on 15th nov and I had gone to Bangalore to attend the function. It was really good meeting my friends and relatives.

Aparna who is my very good friend is my blogger friend too.. She and her hubby too made it to the engagement. I also go tot meet my rakhi bro Sandeshanna and Durga vanni.They also came home and we had pretty good time talking about our good old days. You guys really made our evening memorable :)

I also got to meet Suma and her cute little kid Smera... In spite of such short notice I am really happy that we could meet..She is really sweet. Her kid is very friendly and easy to get along..We had a really good time. I am already looking forward to meet her next time. Thanks Aparna and Suma for making my trip memorable.

This trip was pretty pleasant and hectic. First it was bro's engagement. I am really lucky to have such a sweet and cute Vanni (sister-in-law). I was able to make it to temple functions with my Father-in-law and parents ( I really miss going to temple here.. :(). I even got my results of MSc(IT).. I cleared my fourth sem.. and now I am a masters degree holder.. I have been really wanting this for quite sometime..

I also celebrated my birthday last month. This was one of my best birthday well planned by my hubby. He invited all my friends and at sharp 12 I cut 2 cakes. One on account of my birthday and second on account of our engagement day. Yes, We got engaged on my birthday :D hubby arranged cakes, chips, coke etc for party and it was really fun to have everyone around in-spite of it being a week day.

Anyways with so many good news it will be unfair if I don't share sweets with you all.. What if it is virtual!! Here is my MIL's famous Milk burfi. It is really simple and if done with patience turns excellent. She gets request from young and old alike to make this sweet and it gets over in no time.. This time I told her that I wanted to learn it from her and also told her that I wanted to post it on my blog . My FIL too helped us with this and made neat pieces of burfi :) We had fun time making this together. My batch from India is already getting empty and all my friends have asked me for recipe... I need to make it again :D

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Milk

3 cups Sugar

1/4 cup Besan/Chickpea flour

1/4 cup Sooji/Semolina

1/4 cup ghee

Cardamom powder to taste (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Fry besan with little ghee until frangrant and colour changes slightly. Cool it completely.

2) Add milk(cold need not be boiled) and mix. Make sure that there are no lumps.

3) Add sooji and sugar and mix well.

4) Keep it on the gas on medium and keep stirring often.

5) The mixture tends to thicken and starts leaving edges. Add cardamom powder if using. There is actually no need to use as this sweet has its own fragrance from ghee and milk. To test if done take a small lump of mixture and cool it. If it hardens then it is done. Takes about 50 mins to 1 hr. Inspite of that if it is not done then add 2 fistful of powdered sugar and mix well. Check again.

6) When done, spread it on a greased plate and level it with a glass whose bottom is smeared with ghee to prevent it from sticking. Cut into desired pieces and store it in jar when completely cooled.

Tried and Tasted ~ Gajar ka halwa

2009-11-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

Carrot halwa the famous sweet is one of our fav. I love to have this warm with vanilla ice cream. I love combination of sweets (Yes.. that makes it double pleasure and also double calories..:P ). My pacchi make yummy carrot halwa with the red carrots. I love those carrots but since they are not available here I used the normal carrots. This sweet was not a very common one at our household. I did not know the recipe that my pacchi used but I remember her using milk to make it tastier. When I was browsing through recipes at Manasi's Acook@heart I found this and bookmarked it. Thank you Manasi for the wonderful recipe. Please hop over to her blog to find some more interesting recipes.

A treat!

2009-10-26T21:53:00.001-07:00

My hubby celebrated his birthday early this month. In between with Diwali and our vacation I was unable to post it here. I planned a surprise birthday party for him and invited all his friend's home for dinner. Hubby was not aware of my plan and when he was back from office the house was decorated with balloons and ribbons. Friend's helped me out to carry on with the plan perfectly and it was the best birthday party. I baked a blackforest cake from Nita Mehta's book. The icing was melting at rapid speed and I was not sure of it so I rushed to the nearest bakery and got a mocha cake. Hubby had two cakes to be cut.

We had a dinner menu consisting of all my hubby's fav. Green salad, Puri, Chole, Idli, Sambar, Biryani and potato masala. My friend and her mother made Biryani and Potato masala. I need to learn the recipe from aunty. She is a wonderful cook. I was not able to get all the pics. Hence few of them to share with you.

You can find idli recipe here. I used ready made sambar powder to make sambar.

For chhole:

1 cup Chickpeas (soaked overnight and pressure cooked until soft)

2 Onions finely chopped

2 Tomatoes

1 tbsp finely chopped and crushed Ginger & Garlic

1 Bay leaf

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Chat masala

1/4 tsp Amchoor powder

1-2 tbsp Everest chhole masala powder

1 tbsp or more Red chilli powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

a generous pinch of kasuri methi

1 tbsp Tomato ketchup

1/2 tsp Coriander cumin powder (Optional)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Oil

Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Pressure cook the chickpeas until soft. Drain and reserve the liquid. Blanch the tomato in hot water. Peel and puree.

2) Heat oil add Cumin seeds and bay leaf. When they splutter and chopped onion and ginger garlic paste. When Onions turns pinkish add Tomato puree and cook until the raw smell goes off.

3) Add in all the masala powders and stir for a min or two.

4) Add in cooked chana with little water (from boiled chickpeas) and salt. Let it boil. Add a tbsp of tomato ketchup and kasuri methi and give it a quick boil. (I read in some blog that adding tomato ketchup gives it the dhaba taste. From then on I have been using it regularly and everyone has liked the taste of chhole. I am not able to get the blog name. If anyone has an idea please suggest. I would like to give the credit to the blogger) Mash few chickpeas to get a thicker gravy. Taste the gravy and add any seasoning if needed. Let it boil until you get desired consistency.

5) Switch off. garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with Puri accompanied with freshly chopped onion and lemon.

Diwali Special

2009-10-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

I am sure everyone must have enjoyed a lot this Diwali. I wanted to make this post right before Diwali but due to some issue with connectivity and lack of time I was unable to do so. Anyways my warm wishes to everyone.

We had a good time this Diwali. Visiting friends, bursting fire crackers everything made it so special.

Thanks to the wonderful bloggers I tried my hand at making Chakkuli's (Murukku), Sev etc. It seemed so simple and tasty that I will not have to look out for store brought one's here after.

From Surpiya's Home spices blog I tried Kashi halwa (Wintermelon/Ash gourd halwa) and Chakkuli. Both were a big hit. Thank you Supriya :). I made Sev using Chakali blog. I have bookmarked a lot of dishes from this site. Do visit the sites for the original recipe. Sorry for the poor picture of halwa as we clicked it at the last moment before leaving for the party :)

A quick fix dinner ~ MW Carrot Pepper Rice

2009-09-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

We have no routine or timing for a weekend! We wake up around 7-8. Then look for options for breakfast. Eat at 10 or so. Clean the house a bit. If the weather is good we normally go cycling or go to play badminton. Lunch we eat outside or finish the breakfast leftovers!. Go grocery shopping or watch movie or visit places... It just goes on. It was one such day on Sunday.. We had gone to a nearby place as the weather was pleasant in the evening and then had some grocery shopping to do. After coming home I was not in mood to cook elaborate but neither did I want to eat outside. Was just flipping through Nita Mehta's MW cookbook and got the carrot pepper rice. As it is I love carrot and bell pepper's are my fav too. The recipe was also very simple without wasting time I made it. I really loved the simple flavored rice. We had some leftover curry that we polished off with this rice.

Serves 4

1 cup rice - soaked for 15-20 mins

3 tbsp oil

1 onion sliced

1 capsicum chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 tsp salt (increase as per your taste)

1/2 tsp freshly crushed pepper ( I used 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp soya sauce

Procedure:

1) Mix Oil,onion,carrot and capsicum in a big microwave proof dish and microwave for 3 mins.

2) Add rice, 2 cups water, salt, pepper and soya sauce. Microwave for 13 mins. Stir once in between and add more salt or pepper powder as required. Serve after 5 mins.

It did not take long for me to make this. While the rice was soaking I and hubby did with the chopping and within twenty five mins the dinner was ready to be served.

Patholi ~ steamed rice cakes with jaggery stuffing

2009-09-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Patholi is a sweet dish that is prepared on NagarPanchami, Ganapathi Chowthi etc. This sweet is wrapped in fresh tumeric leaves and steam cooked. Tastes best when served hot with a dollop of homemade ghee.

I wanted to make a complete tutorial of this but was unable to do it. But next time I make it will surely update this post. I had brought some turmeric leaves from my uncle's garden during my recent trip to India. While hubby was on vacation we could not prepare it hence I got these leaves with me and made it. If you do not get turmeric leaves you can even make it with Banana leaves.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Idli rice (Any rice will do. I use idli rice as this is the only one available. At home we use sona masuri) soaked for 4-6 hrs

2 tbsp grated coconut

salt to taste

P.S: Some add a small amount of jaggery about a tbsp or two to the outer batter. It tastes better. I avoided as I wanted to use the leftover batter if any for dosa.

Filling:

1 cup grated coconut

1/2 - 3/4 cup jaggery

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 fistful Poha roasted lightly and powdered

Procedure:

1) Grind soaked rice, grated coconut and salt with little water to smooth paste. Keep the consistency of the batter thick.

2) Heat 2 tbsp of water and add jaggery. When jaggery has melted and the syrup is slightly thicker add cardamom powder and switch it off. When it has cooled slightly mix the grated coconut and poha powder. Poha powder is optional. I used it as it acts as a binding agent. [Even

Laayi pitto can be used instead of poha]

How to assemble it:

1) Clean and pat dry all the leaves and trim its edges. (Do not discard them. It can be used to make cheppi kheeri..Coming up soon!)

2) With a spoon spread the prepared batter evenly leaving the edges.

3) Take a tbsp of filling and spread it lengthwise along the center.

4) Fold the leaf along the center. Repeat it with the remaining batter. Cook the patholi in a steamer for about 15 mins. When they are done the leaves change the colour and kitchen is filled with wonderful aroma of turmeric leaves.

Remove the leaf and serve the steamed patholi with a some ghee.

Note:If the outer batter remains then you can simply make Panpolo out of it. The inner filling also called the choornu can be served along with panpolo. It is one of the famous combi breakfast in our hometown.

Tried and Tasted ~ Simple Vanilla Tea Cake

2009-09-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

With lot of minor hiccups I had kept my baby steps in baking. After taking help from most of the wonderful bloggers I was finally able to bake a neat cake. All the while I was making a big mistake with the size of the cake tin. Now that has been resolved and I am looking forward to bake more.

I had few of hubby's friends coming over for tea. Along with Tea and some hot pakoda I decided to serve some simple cake. When I was looking for a small and simple cake I reached Divya's blog. Her Vanilla cake attracted me. I had all the ingredients at hand so went about with it. It came out really good and everyone loved it. Than you Divya for sharing your tried and tested recipe :)

Aps has been really sweet and is showering me with awards constantly. Thank you Aps for making my day.

Requirements:

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

I must list 10 honest things about myselfI 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.

Ten honest things about me:

1) I am very emotional and family means the world to me. I cannot bear the fact that someone hates me.

2) I love chocolates and Ice creams. If not for the calories I would have had them for breakfast,Lunch and dinner!

3) I love travelling a lot.

4) I am a chatter box. As a kid every aunt in my neighborhood knew me! And Aps my dad used to also say the same thing that I could talk to street lamp too!!

5) I love to shop veggies from fresh market. The sight of fresh and green veggies makes me buy them. I often buy them without having any particular dish or item in mind.

6) I hate milk and its products like Curds, Butter, Ghee. I can eat Paneer but not over a certain limit. I prefer sweets made with coconut milk than with milk. I drink milk only if it is flavoured.

7) I love to listen to music and read books. I prefer slow classic melodies with good lyrics than heavy metal music. I prefer reading books to watching TV.

8) I easily mingle with people but I also enjoy spending time alone.

9) I am particular about cleanliness. I cannot cook without washing my hands n number of items. I do not like my kitchen messed up and my dress dirty.

10) The best way to lift up my mood is to either talk to my mom/ hubby / my friends or take a walk or play with kids. I enjoy playing with kids than participating in a gossip.

Well, that's about me girls now I am tagging few of my friends for the same:

1) Parita

2) Suma

3) Happy Cook

4) Divya

5) Archana Pritish

6) Curry Leaf

7) Raaga

Gobi ke parathe

2009-09-07T02:42:00.000-07:00

Paratha's were not a very common item at our home. The only paratha that I was aware of was the Masala chapathi and we never ate chapathi/Phulka's for lunch. It was a breakfast item. I was introduced to lovely paratha's by my best friend H and during our vacation to North India. From the time I have had these I have loved them. I was not very good at making paratha's initially and my paratha's had stuffing oozing out all over. With practice and patience am now able to make better paratha's but there still needs some improvisation. I was not aware of gobi paratha's until a year back, but once I tasted it I have fallen in love with it. Paratha's can be served with pickle and masala dahi or if you are like me have it with tomato ketchup. I know sounds silly but that is how I have loved to have them :D

Here is what's needed:

For the outer dough:

2 cups whole wheat flour or atta

1 cup All Purpose flour or maida ( I normally do not add maida but a friend suggested me to try this. Hence I added it this time. I prefer not to add maida due to health reasons)

1 tbsp kasuri methi soaked in warm water for 5 mins

salt to taste

For the filling:

1 small cauliflower cleaned throughly and grated.Discard the stems.

3 green chillies chopped fine

1/2 " ginger chopped fine

a small pinch turmeric powder

1/4 tsp amchur powder

1/4 tsp kitchen king masala

red chilli powder & salt to taste

chopped coriander leaves to garnish

1 tsp lemon juice

Procedure:

1) Heat little oil and add in the ginger and green chillies. Fry for a min. Add in the grated cauliflower and all the masala powders and fry for 4-5 mins until it turns dry. Garnish with coriander leaves and add in the lemon juice. Let it cool.

2) Make a dough using whole wheat flour, maida, salt, kasuri methi and water as required. If the dough is sticky you can add a little bit of oil. Let it rest covered for 15 to 20 mins.

3)To make Paratha's. Pinch a lemon sized ball from the dough and roll into a small circle. Place 1 tbsp of filling in the center and gather everything together. Dust and roll it carefully into a paratha that is thicker than normal roti. If the filling spills out dust with more flour and continue.

4) Shallow fry with tad bit of oil or ghee until golden. Serve hot with Masala Dahi and pickles.

Microwave Peas Pulao

2009-09-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

Finally completely settled back and back to blogging which I have missed dearly. Aps has been sweet enough to share a lot of awards with me. Thank you Aps. It means a lot to me :)

I am crazy about collecting cookbooks. I have a decent collection of them and am always in hunt for more. This time during my Mangalore visit I picked some books of Nita Mehta. I personally like her books as the recipes that I have tried so far has always been a hit with us. The following pulao too is from her book. This Pulao is mildly spiced and goes well with any simple raita. Microwave cooking was something I had not ventured into but was always interested. I feel it is non messy and also quick. I will definitely explore more on microwave cooking as it reduces cooking time and does not require to be in front of the stove. I followed the recipe to T and it was perfect.

Here is the recipe that I followed:

Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati rice - soaked for an hour

1 cup shelled peas

1/2 " piece ginger - grated

1 large onions- sliced finely

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp Garam masala powder

2-3 cloves

2 green chillies

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 firm tomato - cut into strips & pulp removed

3 tbsp oil

Procedure:

1) Microwave oil in a large dish for 2 mins.

2) Add peas, sliced onions, salt, chilli powder,garam masala and cloves. Microwave for 3 minutes. I felt this was not enough hence increased time by two more mins after giving a stir at 3 mins.

3) Add the rice and 2 cups of water. Add green chillies, coriander leaves and tomato strips.

4)Microwave covered for 11 mins. Stir once after 5 mins.

5) Let it stand for 2 mins. Fluff in up with a fork to separate grains. Serve hot with raita.

You can check my other version of peas pulao here

Almost everyone I know have received this award. Will Pass it on when I find someone who has not yet received it.

Murmura Upma

2009-08-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

After a long gap it feels great to be back to the place I belong to.. to my very own Food blog.. I have decided not to take any more breaks and be active here. I have learnt a lot of recipes during my stay back here and wish to share them all with you. For now it is simple Murmura upma that can be fixed in jiffy. I learnt this from a very good friend of mine in Shanghai, Swapna. This can be a breakfast item or a quick evening snack.
Ingredients:
4 cups Murmura
1 medium sized Onion chopped
2 green Chillies slit
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
Oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves chopped finely for garnishing
Procedure:
1) Keep the murmura in a big vessel. Heat a kadhai with little oil. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add in the onions and fry until done. Add turmeric powder and salt.
2) Pour little water over the murmura and squeeze it all and add the Murmura quickly. Make sure not to add too much water as it will make the murmura soggy. Mix well. Garnish with corriander leaves and serve hot.

Long time no see

2009-08-13T20:24:00.001-07:00

I know its been ages since I have blogged on this site. Initially I had to stop as blogger has been blocked in China. I decided that I would resume my blogging from India (Yes! I am in India for the past 2 months on vacation. Will be going to Shanghai next week :D) A lot has been happening here and that left me with no time to blog.. Will be back to blogging soon :)
Take care.. See you soon

Left Over magic ~ Idli usli and Photos :)

2009-05-13T00:53:00.000-07:00

After almost a month I am back to blogging.. This break was not intended but was busy with quite a few things and could not blog for a while. Here are few pics of the Lupu Bridge. We had been there on our anniversary :) These were long due.

The magnifiecient Lupu Bridge. For more info click here

367 steps all the way up :)

Us at the top of the world's longest arch bridge.

The HuangPu River ~ View from the top.

Coming back to today's post it is simple recipe to use up leftover idli. Idli is the most common breakfast item at our place. Though I am not very fond of idli I love its variations. This is one of the simplest way of using it up.

What's needed:

10-12 Idli's

2-3 green Chilli's slit

3-4 Curry leaves

a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing

Salt and Sugar to taste

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

few Urad Dal

Oil

2 tbsp grated Coconut to garnish

Procedure:

1) Finely crush the idli's with hand to resemble rava. Mix salt and sugar.

2) Heat oil. Add in the mustard seeds. When they splutter add the urad dal and curry leaves and fry until urad dal turns pinkish. Add green chilli's,hing and fry for a min.

3) Add the idli and mix well so that it is uniformly distributed.

4) Garnish with grated coconut and serve hot.

On another note, I have recieved a lot of awards from my dear friend Aparna. Thank you dear. I have added them in my side bar. This is for all my dear friends who support me with kind comments and suggestions :) Thank you everyone.

Bibbe Sagle

2009-04-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your wishes on our anniversary. It really felt good to see your warm wishes. We had a very nice day. We visited Lupu Bridge, which is the world largest arch bridge. For more info you can check here. We climbed up all through the arch bridge and got a panoramic view of Shanghai. It was a wonderful day which ended with a nice dinner at the Revolving Restaurant in the Oriental T.V Tower (Pearl tower). Will post few pics in my next post.

Coming to the today's post Bibbo is "Tender cashewnut" in Konkani. Any dish made out of this is considered royal. When in season a lot of dishes are made out of this. It is even thoroughly sun dried and preserved to enjoy all through the year. At home, one of the more popular item at breakfast was Poori and bibbe upkari. I know its a strange combination but we love it a lot. Festive meal usually includes some dish made out of bibbo. I made this for Ugadi this year.

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Tender Cashews

1/2 boiled Potato

1 cup grated Coconut

1 tbsp Asafoetida water

6-7 Red chillies

a small gooseberry sized Tamarind

Salt to taste

Coconut oil to drizzle

Procedure:

1) Soak the tender cashews in water previous night and remove its skin off. Since I used dried tender cashews I pressure cooked it with cubed potato's for 2 whistles. If using fresh you can omit this step and boil it with little water on stove top until soft.

2) Fry the red chillies in little oil until crisp. Take care not to burn it.

3) Make a masala by grinding grated coconut, tamarind, red chillies and salt. Add little water to make it into smooth paste. Just before taking out the masala add the asafoetida and give it a quick grind. I use the gum variety of it so add it in the final step of grinding. You can also dilute with water and add in to the prepared masala.

4) Add the masala to the cooked cashew and potato. Add water to bring it to desired consistency. Give it a rolling boil. Adjust salt. The mixture should have a nice aroma of asafoetida. Drizzle few drops of coconut oil and serve hot with plain white rice and papad.

Celebrating 2 years of togetherness

2009-04-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my hubby who is my best friend and my soul mate. He is the person behind this blog and also the photgrabber ;). When I was looking out for nice quotes I landed up here and found this very nice quote

"Love brought you together

As husband and wife

And gave each of you

A best friend for life"

Happy wedding anniversary dear.. May we share many more years of joy together.

Will update the post with my hubby's fav sweet "Kesribhath" . For now the picture will do :D

Update: Thank you all for your wishes. Here is the recipe as promised. Kesribhath in Mangalore is made out of rice and not with semolina.

What's needed:

1 cup Basmati rice

2 tbsp Ghee

1 cup Sugar

2 cups Water

few Cashews and Raisins

a generous pinch of Kesar

1/4 tsp powdered Cardamom

Procedure:

1) Heat 1 tbsp of ghee. Fry cashews until golden and raisins until fluffy. Keep aside.

2) In the same pan fry washed rice for 4-5 mins.

3) Add 2 cups of hot water and cook until done. Make sure that rice is fully cooked as it will not cook further after adding sugar. Add more water if necessary.

4) Add remaining ghee and mix well. Add sugar. Add kesar strands in warm milk and pour this into the rice. Mix gently and cook until sugar is completly absorbed. Add in the cardamom powder, cashews and raisins.

Dill Roti with Bhindi Masala

2009-04-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

I first tasted Dill leaves in my hubby's aunt's house. She had added it to normal Dal vada along with onions. It tasted great. Though Bangaloreans use dill leaves a lot in cooking it was new for me. My MIL uses dill leaves whenever it is available. One day while just shopping I found a batch of nice green dill leaves which were inviting me to pick them up. I just bought them without having any particular dish in my mind. After coming home, I went through my bookmarks and saw Asha's dill paratha's and decided to go ahead with it. Since I did not have lot of ingredients in hand I altered it as per my availibility of ingredients. To go with the paratha's I made simple bhindi masala.

To make Dill paratha's :

1.5 cups Wheat flour

1/2 cup chopped Dill leaves

1/4 cup Milk

1/2 tbsp Ajwain

1/2 tsp Jeera and Coriander powder

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix all the ingredients together to form a non sticky dough. Add water if required. Let the dough rest for sometime.

2) I rolled them as per directions given in Asha's blog.

Served them hot with bhindi masala.

Bhindi's are not usually available here. If we are lucky we get few tender bhindi from the imported section. When ever I buy bhindi I make only my tried and tested recipe so as to not to fail. This time I decided to make something other than my usual recipe and made this. I just added ingredients as I felt like with no specific recipe in mind and the outcome was really good.

Here is what's needed:

Fresh tender okra -20

2 medium Onion - Sliced

1 medium Tomato - chopped

1/2 tsp jeera

1/2 tsp Cumin and Coriander powder

1 tsp red Chilli powder

1/4 tsp Amchur powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Garam masala

Salt to taste

Oil 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1) Wash and pat dry the okra. Slice the okra into long pieces.

2) Heat oil and shallow fry the okra until brownish and crisp. Keep it aside. This prevents the end result from turning into gooey mixture.

3) In the same pan heat 1 tsp oil. Add cumin seeds when they splutter add in the onions. Fry until they turn gloden brown. Add in tomato's and cook until mushy.

4) Add in all the powders and stir for a minute before adding the fried bhindi. Saute well until masala is uniformly distributed.

5) Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Chow Chow Bhath

2009-03-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Chow Chow bhath is a famous Kannadiga breakfast. It is actually a combination of khara bhath and kesari bhath. Kesari Bhath in Bangalore is actually made out of rava and not out of rice as in Mangalore. After Idli sambar this is the most popular combi breakfast in Bangalore. I made Pineapple sheera for Ugadi. The next morning being a weekend I was too lazy to make something elaborate so made upma and served it with sheera to make it look special :D

Pineapple sheera is also known as pineapple pudding in Mangalore. This is one of my fav sweet. I have always had this at weddings but it would be dripping with ghee. When I made this at home I reduced the amount of ghee but still it came out very tasty. I forgot to add cashews and raisins this time but it tastes definitely better if added.

Here is how I made Pineapple sheera:

1 cup Semolina/Sooji

2 tbsp Ghee

1/2 cup chopped Pineapple

1 cup Sugar ( reduce depending on the sweetness of the sugar or taste)

2 cups water

1/2 tsp Pineapple essence

1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder

saffron strands 6-7 or yellow food colour

Cashews and Raisins to garnish

1) Heat a tbsp of ghee and fry cashews till golden brown. Remove it and add raisins to the same and fry until it turns fluffy. Remove it and keep it aside. microwave or boil the pineapple until soft.

2) Heat the remaining ghee in the same pan and fry until rava turns golden. Add 2 cups of boiled water to it and mix well. Make sure that there are no lumps.

3) Keep stirring once the mixture turns dry add in the sugar and boiled pineapple pieces. Add

Kesar mixed in warm milk or yellow food colour and pineapple essence. Cook until dry and add in the cashews and raisins along with cardamom powder. Serve hot.

Upma: Upma is one of those breakfast items that I am not very fond of. I make it once in a while as it happens to be my hubby's fav. I cannot have plain upma. I like the one with veggies or with onion and tomato. I made this simple version of upma with tomato and onions.

What's needed:

1 cup Rava/Semolina

2 cups Water

1 medium onion and tomato chopped

2 Green chilli's sliced

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Urad dal

Salt to taste

Oil

Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Dry roast rava until slightly golden and aromatic.

2) Heat oil and add in mustard seeds. When they splutter add in the urad dal and fry until pink. Add green chillis fry for a min.Add in the onions and fry until golden.

3) Add chopped tomato and cook until soft. Add turmeric powder and rava. Mix well and add in boiling water and salt to taste. Cook until dry.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot!

Melting moments

2009-03-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

When I first tasted Strawberry in Mangalore I had lot of expectations from the fruit. The first bite and I was disappointed. I was wondering why people pay such heavy price to this friut which was only tangy with no hint of sweetness. After that, I never bought it until I came here. It was strawberry season then but after the first experience I was not prepared to give it a try though I loved strawberry flavoured drinks and icecreams. It was that time when I was blog hopping I came to this wonderful blog. The name of the blog promised a variety of desserts. I zeroed on strawberry icecream but unfortunately the strawberries were not available then. I bookmarked this recipe and waited for a year to try this with fresh strawberries. I could never believe that I could get creamy and good results without an Icecream maker. I made a very small batch and it got over in no time. Thank you JZ for the wonderful recipe. Now not having an ice cream maker is not a reason to refrain from making icecreams at home. Please hop on to JZ's blog for more treats.

Sending this Pinky treat over to Priya who is guest hosting FIC Event for Sunshinemom and has selected her colour for the month as Pink.

I have reduced my frequency of blogging since quite some time. We have just shifted to a new house and am still in the process of getting adjusted to the new house. Here are few photos of our new home.

Indo-Chinese Noodles

2009-03-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

During our frequent trips outside Shanghai, I was exposed to authentic Chinese food. The first time we had it I was not sure if I iked it. The food was quite bland and had just two flavours that I could recognize one was of garlic and the other salt. There were no other spices. Slowly I started liking it and but with very little knowledge of the names of veggies in Chinese our food was limited to just stir fried beans, Potato, Bok-Choy (Pak-choy) and Eggplant. Noodles that I have tasted here were always in soup. The Sichuanese cuisine is the spiciest among all the Chinese cuisine that we have tried. It comes close to our Indo-Chinese Food with lots of ginger & garlic, onion and thai red chilli's. I have developed a liking for Eggplant based dishes after coming here.

With so many varieties of noodles available here, I thought I would be able to experiment with a variety of noodles. But was disappointed that the noodles that were eggless were too thin to handle. These were perfect to be boiled with broth and had as a soup. One fo my friend here suggested that I try my hand at a variety of noodle that was coiled and eggless. This tasted almost like Hakka noodles.

Here is what's needed:

3-4 coils of noodles or 1 packet hakka noodles

2 Capsicum sliced

a small bunch of Spring onion and green Garlic

1 Onion sliced

1 big Carrot Sliced

1/4 cup cabbage shredded

1 tsp Vinegar

1/2 tsp light Soy sauce

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Boil noodles as per the instructions on the packet. Add 1/2 of salt and oil each and cook until al dente. Drain completely and let it cool. Add a tsp of oil to prevent them from sticking to each other. Cold water wash is also beneficial.

2) Chop spring onion and garlic bulbs. Reserve few of the greens from spring onion to garnish.

3) In a Wok, Heat oil. Add spring garlic & onion. Reserve few greens from spring onion to garnish.

4)Sauté for few seconds and add in the onions. Sauté until golden on high flame. Throw in the vegetables and sauté for 2-3 mins. Do not let them turn soft or soggy.

5) Add in the soy sauce, salt, vinegar and pepper powder. Mix well. Add the noodles and mix well until incorporated. Adjust the seasonings as per taste. If desired a tablespoon of tomato ketchup can be added.

Garnish with spring onion tops and serve hot.

For fried rice I add cooked Long grain rice (again do not boil the rice completely else it will turn mushy) instead of noodles and chop the vegetables fine. I do not add ketchup for fried rice. Leftover rice from previous day or cooked rice refridgerated works best for this. Adding a pinch of Ajinomoto enhances the taste, I am not comfortable in using them in my cooking so leave it out.

This is my entry to Think Spice..Think Pepper event guest hosted by Divya of Dil Se. This event was started by Sunita.

Tried and Tasted ~ Chirote Payasa/ Appi Payasa

2009-03-12T18:09:00.001-07:00

Appi payasa/ Chirote payasa is one of the dish served at Udupi Brahmin's wedding. This was never made at our house but we had tasted this in a lot of wedding's. I made this long time back but never got around posting it.

Near our house back in Mangalore there is a small sweet shop. The owner of the shop makes sweets and snacks at home and has a very huge demand. One of the speciality is "Phenori". It is a maida based layered roti kind of which is deep fried and dunked in sugar syrup. Tastes best when had warm. I was never a fan of sweets until I came here. Since the availability is very very limited I started missing eating sweet. It was then that I decided to try learning to make most of the sweet dishes at home. While searching for the recipe to make Phenori I landed at Bhaatukli's blog. Her recipe of chirote was similar to our Phenori and with step by step instructions it made my job easy.

When I first made Phenori all of them were polished off and I did not get time to click snaps. When I made the second batch I decided not to dunk them in sugar syrup but make Appey payasa as she has suggested in her blog. Both were a hit with us and our friend's. I am going to keep making this often. Thank you Tee for this wonderful recipe. Please click here for the recipe.

Peas Pulao

2009-03-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Rice items play an important part in menu planning especially when you have guests over for lunch or dinner. I usually prefer to make phulka and one rice dish so that people can have a choice. I prefer making one pot rice dish as it saves energy and time without compromising on taste. Pair it with simple raita, dal or any side dish of your choice and it is ready to go. I love to experiment with different veggies and spices. It was during one of the experiment that I landed up with this recipe. It is very simple to make yet aromatic due to the use of whole spices.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Basmati rice

1/4 cup frozen Green peas

1 medium Onion sliced

1" Cinnamon stick

3-4 whole Peppercorns

4 green Cardamom

1 Star anise

1 Bay leaf

1 tbsp split cashews

1 tbsp Ghee or Oil

Salt to taste

few strands of Coriander leaves finely chopped

Procedure:

1) Wash basmati rice until clean and soak in water for 10 mins. Drain. Slightly crush the whole spices. Defrost the green peas and keep aside.

2) Heat ghee/oil. Add roast cashews until golden. Remove and keep aside.

3) In the same pan add more ghee/oil if needed. Once heated add the whole spices. Add Onions and sauté until slightly golden. Add the drained rice and green peas. Fry for just a minute.

4) Add 2 cups of water , salt to taste and chopped coriander leaves. Give it a rolling boil and reduce the flame to medium. Cook covered until done. Fluff and serve hot.

Poori Saagu -2

2009-03-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

Poori saagu is a an all time favourite at our place. Though I had tasted this many times in Bangalore I had never made it on my own. Last year I had got the recipe from Asha's Blog. The other day whle I was just blog hopping I landed at Supriya's blog and saw her version of Poori Saagu. The picture of the dish was mouth watering and instantly I decided that I was going to make this for breakfast :D. I have made some changes in the recipe. Both the recipe's are keepers and do try them if you love saagu. They taste great with puri and also with Phulka or chapathi. Here is the recipe that I followed.

What's needed:

1-1/2 cups chopped vegetables (green beans, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and peas)

1 medium Onion chopped

1 medium ripe Tomato chopped

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tbsp Oil

5-6 Curry leaves (I left out as I did not have it)

a pinch of Asafoetida

Coriander leaves for garnish (I grinded it)

Salt to taste

To grind together:

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2 tsp Coriander seeds ( I used 1 tsp)

¾ cup grated coconut

2 tsp poppy seeds (I did not have so used 1 tbsp of cashews soaked for 5 mins in warm water)

2 Tbsp whole split peas (hurgadle, putani)

5-6 green chillies

3 garlic pods

small piece of Tamarind

Salt to taste

In addition to this I used:

a small piece of Cinnamon, Star anise, 2 Cloves ,4 Peppercorns and small bunch of Coriander leaves.

Method:

1) Grind all the ingredients under "To grind together" with suffecient water to a smooth paste.

2) Pressure cook or microwave the vegetables with little salt until done.

3) Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add the curry leaves, asafoetida and chopped onions. Sauté the onion till transparent. Add in the chopped tomato and cook until mushy.

4) Add the ground masala and fry until the raw smell goes off. Add the boiled vegetables and salt to taste. Add water to bring it to desired consistency. Give it a rolling boil and switch off.

Serve hot with Puri or phulka's.

Kaali tori Bendi

2009-03-02T17:11:00.000-08:00

Kaali tori means Black Toor (Pigeon pea) not the dal but the whole. There are two varieties of pigeon pea the white and black. These cannot be used directly as we use the split pigeon pea or dal. These must be soaked well in advance(overnight) and then pressure cooked until soft. Takes about 3-4 whistles in my Prestige Cooker. The whole Toor tastes slightly different from split ones. We use the split dal for dosa or daalithoy and the whole ones are used in masala gravies. I normally avoid using coconut in my daily cooking but once in a while we do indulge.

Kaali tori bendi is signature dish of my mhaav (Elder aunt). She adds green jackfruit when in season and it is had with steaming hot boiled rice. It tastes equally good even with rice noodles or dosa.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup black Pigeon pea

a small piece of peeled and chopped Potato/ Elephant foot Yam (Suran)(Optional)

1/2 cup grated Coconut

5-6 fried Red chilli

a small marble sized Tamarind

Salt to taste

For seasoning

6-8 Garlic pods

Oil

Procedure:

1) Soak the Pigeon peas overnight and pressure cook along with potato or suran if using until done.

2) Grind grated coconut,red chillis, tamarind and salt with water to smooth paste.

3) Add the ground masala to the boiled peas and give it a rolling boil before switiching it off.

4) Prepare seasoning. Slightly crush the garlic. Heat oil and add the crushed garlic to it and fry until golden. Make sure that each of the garlic is crushed else it may start spluttering. Pour the seasoning over the gravy. Mix and keep covered. The gravy tastes better as time passes by. While serving re-heat and serve hot.

P.S: People who do not prefer garlic can substitute it in the seasoning with mustard seeds and curry leaf. When garlic seasoning is used it is called bendi/koddel and if mustard & curry leaf is used it is called ghashi.

Year of the Ox

2009-02-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share few pictures of the Chinese New year. Chinese New year is popularly known as "Spring Festival" and it is marked by family re-unions at ancestoral homes. It is celeberated with a festive dinner on the eve of Spring Festival and bursting of fire crackers. This Spring festival concludes with the Lantern Festival. The celebrations last for 15 days. The schools,banks & offices remain closed for a whole week. The places of tourist interest are thronged with visitors. Chinese have 12 animals representing each year. This year was the year of Ox and ox dominated all the decorations. This year it was celebrated on 26th January. For more information about Chinese New year click here and for Lantern Festival click here.

Jeera rice

2009-02-22T17:09:00.001-08:00

Rice plays an important part in our diet. I keep looking out for new rice dishes to pack for my hubby's lunch box. We usually eat roti one time and one time rice. I prefer to make one pot meal as it saves my time and energy when we are in hurry to fix some thing simple yet tasty. One of such dishes that I make regularly is Jeera rice. It is simple to make and tastes great too. I prefer rice made this way than the one we get it restaurants.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Basmati rice washed well and soaked for 10-15 mins

1 tbsp Jeera

1 big onion sliced thin

5-6 cashews split (Optional)

a small bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped

1tbsp Oil/Ghee (Ghee tastes better though!)

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Heat ghee/oil and fry cashews if using. Keep aside. Add Jeera and fry until its golden. Add onions and sauté until slightly browned.

2) Drain the rice and add it to the onions. Fry for a min. ( I read in Neeta Mehta's book that soaked rice should not fried for long as it tends to break)

3) Add 2 cups of water and salt. Give it a good boil. Add chopped coriander leaves and mix once. Lower the heat to medium and cook covered till done. Let it stand for 5 mins. Fluff with the fork to let the steam escape. Garnish with fried cashew and serve with raita or Dal fry.

P.S : Do not mix the rice while it is cooking. This prevents it from breaking.

Crispy Onion Pakoda ~ a winter treat!

2009-02-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

The weather last week had suddenly turned bad and it started raining all through the day. The temperature too came down to 2 C and we both were craving for some spicy snack to enjoy with a hot cup of coffee.

Here is what's needed:

2 big Onions sliced

1 tsp Coriander seeds roasted slightly and crushed coarsely

1 small bunch of Coriander leaves chopped fine

2 tbsp Rice flour

Chickpea flour (Besan) as needed

Salt and Chilli powder to taste

Oil to deep fry

Procedure:

1) In a vessel add onions, crushed coriander seeds, chopped coriander leaves, salt and chilli powder. Mix well with hand.

2) Add rice flour and chickpea flour (add enough to cover all the pieces of Onion). Mix well. Keep it for five minutes. When salt is added onions release its juice. Use the same to make the batter. If needed you can add little water so as to cover the onions with flour evenly. The mixture should not turn watery but should be semi-dry.

3) Heat oil. Do not bring it to smoking hot. Drop in spoonful of batter and fry till golden and crispy on medium flame.

Serve hot with a cup of tea or coffee.

Stuffed Capsicum ~ Amchi style

2009-02-19T19:58:00.000-08:00

Our cuisine is mainly dominated by coconuts. Though I love traditional food I try to avoid the use of coconuts as they are not easily available here and for health reasons too. So once in a week or twice I make dishes with coconut. This is one of my mom's signature dish. I had almost forgotten this dish as I had not made it for almost a year. The other day when I was chatting with amma I was asking her for idea's for dinner. It was then she suggested this dish. We love capsicums in any form so I decided to make this for dinner. This can either be served with plain rice and Daalithoy or with phulka, dosa.

Here is what's needed:

3 small green Capsicums

2 large Onions chopped

1.5 cups grated coconut

6-8 red chilli's

a small piece of Tamarind

1 tbsp Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

1 tsp Mustard seeds

6-8 Curry leaves

Procedure:

1) Wash the capsicum well and pat dry. Cut off the top. Keep aside.

2) Heat 1 tbsp oil. Fry coriander seeds and Fenugreek seeds until they turn pinkish. Remove and keep aside. In the same pan fry the red chilli's until slightly crisp. Take care not to burn any spices.

3) Grind grated coconut + red chilli's + coriander seeds + fenugreek seeds + tamarind + salt with little water until it forms a smooth paste.

4) Add 1/2 of the chopped onions to the ground masala.

5) Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add curry leaves and fry for few seconds. Add the rest of the chopped onions with little salt and fry until golden.

6) Meanwhile fill the capsicums with the ground masala. Reserve the remaining masala. (I had large capsicums in hand so I cut them and filled).

7) Slide the stuffed capsicums into the Onions. Keep the heat on low. Add the remaining masala and water. Mix slightly and let it cook covered till done. The capsicums taste good when they are done but still crunchy. Do not overcook it.

Tried & tasted ;)

2009-02-15T04:04:00.000-08:00

I am always in constant search for new recipes. In this process I have reached several blogs, bookmarked several dishes and recreated a few in my lab successfully. I plan to note down the recipes here just in case the site becomes inaccessible to me. (A lot of sites that I used to visit before are not easily accessible these days) I prefer to try recipes from blogs as the picture gives us a clear idea about how the final product will look likeand also over every recipe is tried and tested. The comments too gives a fair idea. Last week I made 2 dishes from different blogs a snack and another a dessert. Both came out really good.

Idli and Vada make a great pair. When I had made idli's last week hubby dear asked for Vada's. Now Vada was something we always had in hotels. I did not have the confidence to make them inspite of seeing them in so many blogs. I avoid deep fried food too. But when I saw neat vada's at Asha's blog I could not resist. The same day I made them and it came out perfect and crispy. I could not shape them as the mixie that I have here could not grind it into smooth paste without water. I added few more ingredients to make it more tasty. Please click here for the original recipe and drool worthy pics.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Urad Dal

1 tbsp Rice (I used Basmati)

2 pinches of Baking soda

1 tbsp finely chopped Coconut

5-6 Curry leaves roughly chopped

small piece of Ginger finely chopped

1 Green chilli sliced into rings

Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Procedure:

1) Wash and soak urad dal with rice. Keep it refridgerated. I soaked them for 6 hrs as I did not have much time.

2) Grind it to a smooth paste. Avoid using water. I added more water hence could not shape them.

3) Add salt and soda. Add in the chopped chilli, curry leaves, ginger & coconut. Mix well.

4) Heat oil and pour a spoon full of batter into oil and fry on medium flame until crisp and golden.

Serve them dunked in Rasam or with Chutney of your choice.

Next time I plan to add some finely chopped onions too to the batter. Thank you Asha for an easy and wonderful recipe.

When I first saw this cake at Deeba's blog I was hooked on to it. I had bookmarked to try but having wanted to try Zebra cake first this was forgotten, The next time I saw it again in Divya's blog and finally decided to bake it. It came out really good. I did not make many changes to the recipe other than the amount of sugar and skipping out Coffee extract. I added 1/2 cup of sugar more than the recipe called for as the sugar that we get here is not at very sweet. In spite of the change in amount of sugar it tasted just right. Not too sweet. Thank you Deeba for a such a keeper recipe. Please click here for the original recipe.

I am noting the recipe here with the changes that I made.

Here is what's needed:

Flour - 1 1/2 cups

Wholewheat flour -1/2 cup

Cocoa - 2/3 cup

Instant Coffee - 2 tbsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Pinch of salt

Butter - 1/2 cup; at room temperature (I used a little more than 1/4th cup)

Sugar - 1 1/2 cup (Original recipe called for 1 cup)

Eggs - 2

Yogurt - 1 1/2 cups

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Coffee Extract - 1 tsp (I skipped this)

Procedure:

1) I did not have a bundt tin so used a greased disposable foil tin. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2) Sift the flours + baking powder + baking soda + cocoa. Keep aside.I sifted it twice.

3) Beat the butter & sugar. Add eggs & beat again. Add the vanilla extract, Instant coffee & beat.

4) Add the flour mix & yogurt alternatively and keep mixing it until well incorporated. Don't over mix.

5)Turn into prepared pan, level out & bake until skewer insterted comes out clean. For me it took 55 mins. I covered it loosely with aluminuim foil as the top was browning very soon.

The only problem that I faced while baking was that after 7 mins of baking The batter started oozing out from sides. The top of the cake slided a bit downwards as if it was sinking. Was it that I had filled too much in my tin? Any suggestions are welcome.

I am feeling much confident now in terms of baking. Thanks to all of you who took time to comment and give valuable suggestions when I last made Zebra cake. It actually helped me and I avoided doing the common mistakes like opening the oven door within 10 minutes of baking cake etc. There is still so much to learn.

Idli

2009-02-12T05:24:00.000-08:00

Idli a favourite among many people, unfortunately was always hated by me. I also believed that I would never make idli's at home. The day we had idli for breakfast I would always look out for some other options for breakfast. Such was my hatred towards these white beauties. After marriage I was in surprise when I found that my in-laws and hubby loved idli. I slowly started eating Idli but was still not fond of it. I would just eat to fill my tummy or my MIL would make something else for me when it was idli for breakfast. It all changed when I came here. I did not even think of buying idli stand but hubby dear who came here before me (I joined him 3 months later) was craving for homemade food and steaming hot idli's. I did not have even pressure cooker or steamer. Finally, when we saw a steamer we bought it. I called up amma to ask her how to make idli's. Then finally on the D day we made idli's in deep steel plates and we got square idli's instead of round ones. But I liked the taste. I never imagined that I would make idli successfully and also like it. It was not that I loved it but I was and still am comfortable with having them for breakfast or dinner occasionally. During my last visit to India, I bought an idli stand. From then on, we regularly made idli's until the winter made its appearance. I had made idli when the winter was first making its appearance and my idli's were rock hard. I had to take care that it would not fall on my leg and hurt me (Ok.. not that hard ;) ). We were disappointed and I vowed that I would not make idli until winter was over. But one fine day both me and hubby felt that we were missing idli. So finally I googled and got a lot of suggestions. One suggestion said to use poha and it actually worked. So here is what I did for soft and fluffy idli's.

Idli rice - 2 cup

Urad Dal - 1 cup

A generous fistful of poha

1 tsp of Jeera (Optional)

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1)Wash and soak urad overnight. In another vessel soak poha and rice overnight.

2)Next morning grind urad to a fine paste with sufficient water until smooth and frothy. Do not add too much water. Add only if required. Keep aside. Grind rice and poha until rice becomes like coarse rava.

3) Mix ground Urad dal and rice. Add salt to taste. Let it ferment for 8-12 hrs. In winter I heat water in microwave for a min and keep the batter inside it. It takes more than 12 hours for me (some times 18-20 hrs).

4) Before making idli's I add Jeera to the batter. Since Urad dal creates gas in tummy, jeera is used to nullify the effect. Grease idli moulds and pour batter till 3/4. I usually fill little water in my cooker and pressure cook without whistle for 8-10 mins.

Cool for a min or two before removing them from mould sand serve with Chutney or piping hot sambar. I use readymade sambar powder from Udupi Diana hotel.

Pani Puri

2009-02-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

Chats happen to be one of my favourite. During my school days, every year we used to go to Mumbai during Ganapathi. I have my cousin's, uncles and aunts over there. My pacchi [Referred to Younger uncle's wife or mom's younger sister. Here it is my uncle's wife] used to make a lot of snacks like Ragda Pattis, Pani Puni, Bhel Puri at home. She was the first person who taught us how to make Pani Puri. When she came to our house from Mumbai she would make something for us kids and all my cousin's were invited. Infact, I first tasted Pizza at home. When I was 7th My bappi had come for some training. We got some ready Pizza bases. He made the topping and generously poured tomato ketchup and grated Amul Cheese. Since then I have been hooked onto it. My pacchi has taught me quite a few recipes and infact she had also got me few recipes of Shahi paneer, Malai kofta etc handwritten by my cousin sister,Shruthika. I still have that book back at home :). This time when I was in mumbai for 2 days I made it a point to have Vada Pav( near my pacchi's house in Chembur, there is a vendor who makes awesome Vada pav. I had them for dinner :P).

Anyway's coming to this post this has been long due since Deepawali. It was during that time, I along with my friend Smitha made Pani Puri. There were lot of hurdles when we started doing this. But final outcome was good and all of us were happy with the results. This recipe has been done with minimum ingredients that is available in everyone's pantry yet with satisfying results.

For the Puri:

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour/Atta

1/2 cup Semolina

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix atta, semolina and salt well. Add enough water to make a stiff dough. It should be made like puri dough. Pinch a tennis sized ball and roll into a big chapathi. Using a cookie cutter cut rounds and deep fry in oil until crisp. Do not add to very hot oil as this will lead to browning.

For Paani:

When making pani puri we realised that we did not have chat masala or kaala namak. So we decided to make it with what we had in hand. We ground corriander leaves with few mint leaves, green chilli & salt. Added jeera-corriander powder. Added few Boondi's to the water. Tastes good when chilled.

For Tamarind Chutney:

Soaked equal parts of tamarind and jaggery together in little water for 1/2 an hour. Squeezed the tamarind out. Added salt and chilli powder to taste.

For Filling:

Sprouted moong (Green gram) partially boiled with salt to taste.

Assembling:

Make a small hole in the puri. Fill it partially with little boiled sprouts. Add Tamarind chutney and fill the puri with paani and eat immediately before it gets soggy.

Along with Pani puri we had also made Masala Puri. For making the masala I followed my Ragda recipe. Place roughly crushed puri's on plate. Pour the gravy. Add chopped onions, Tamarind and sev on top. Serve with chopped coriander leaves and curd if desired.

Akki Rotti

2009-02-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

During the final semester of my Bachelor degree, I along with my best friend, Harusha were in Bangalore for our project work. We were lucky enough to stay with Harusha's grandparent's. We never missed home and were given a lot of love and attention by her grandparents and cousins. During those days I got to taste a number of Bangalore dishes and Akki rotti was one among them. I first had them for lunch at a Darshini (Vegetarian Fast Food center in Bangalore). It was right hot out of tava served on banana leaf with chutney. This was not the regular item at our place and I loved its taste. Once back to my own place I forgot completely about it. Until few days back when my friend Smitha reminded me. I was quite hesitant to try it as I was not sure about the consistency of the batter and also the style of making it. One day, when I was at her place she made this and both of us were hooked on to it. I noted her recipe and from then on this has been a regular item for lazy weekend breakfast. It is quick and tastes delicious too.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Rice flour

1/2 cup grated Coconut

1 medium Onion finely chopped

1 tsp Jeera

2 Green chilli's chopped

few strands of coriander leaves finely chopped

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix all the ingredients well. Add water and mix well. The dough should not be like regular dosa dough. But is little softer than chapathi dough.

2) Heat a tawa. Take small amount of dough and pat it on either greased plastic sheet or aluminum foil. Transfer this on to the tawa. Fry on medium on both the sides by applying little oil.

Serve hot with chutney or pickles. I still need to work on patting them still thinner.

The version with grated carrots or dill leaves too taste great.

Ragda Patties with a twist!

2009-01-29T07:42:00.001-08:00

I have spoken about my love for Mumbai and its food in my previous post. Ragda patties is one such dish that I first tasted in my house in Mangalore when my pacchi visited us. It was during one of her visits during our vacations that she made this speically for us. Until then we did not know about this wonderful dish. Once I tasted it..I was hooked on to it. The procedure too was very simple. Though I had eaten it many times at roadside vendors, I had never attempted to prepare it at home until I came here. Since we have a week long off here due to the Chinese New year (Spring festival) I get a lot of time to cook and enjoy with the company of my hubby. It was on one such day that I made this. I did not have dried yellow peas so I used Chickpeas, hence the twist in the tale :D I followed the recipe that I remembered how my aunt prepared some 13 years ago ;) and the taste was wonderful :D

Here is what's needed:

For Ragda

1 cup Chickpea (Soaked overnight and pressure cooked until soft)

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp roasted Cumin and Coriander powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil in a pan and add in jeera. When it starts spluttering pour the cooked chickpeas, spice powder and salt to taste.

2) Mash few chickpeas to make the gravy thicker. Add water to bring the curry to pouring consistency. Give a rolling boil and switch off.

P.S: If you like your ragda to be spicy you can add chilli powder.

For Patties:

3-4 boiled Potatoes

1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp Chat masala

finely chopped coriander leaves

salt to taste

Oil

Breadcrumbs (optional)

Procedure:

1) Mash Potatoes and mix well all the ingredients given for Patties except oil and breadcrumbs.

2) Heat a tava. Make small balls of the patties mixture. Roll them into breadcrumbs slightly and flatten them. Place the patties on tava and shallow fry until done.

I did not have breadcrumbs in hand so directly shallow fried the patties on tava with little oil.

Sweet Chutney/Tamarind Chutney:

I just soaked equal parts of tamarind and jaggery together in little water for 1/2 an hour. Squeezed the tamarind out. Added salt and chilli powder to taste. We do not get dates here so skipped it :)

To Serve:

Place 2 patties on a plate. Pour a ladle full of ragda. Top up with little tamarind chutney, finely chopped onion & corinader leaves. Sprinkle some sev on top and serve immediately.

Sending this Yellow dish over to Harini who is hosting FIC Yellow.

Also sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting My Legume Love Affair - Seventh Helping

which is the brain child of Susan of The Well - Seasoned Cook. Finally this goes to JFI-Chickpea hosted at Sometime foodie the brain child of Indira of Mahanandi.

A delicious and simple lunch!

2009-01-25T01:18:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks have been hectic for us here. First it was me who fell sick and then hubby caught the virus from me! I had not cooked for almost 2 weeks as I was too weak to eat and leave alone cook. I did not have the interest nor the energy to cook. Initially, I had fever and cold. Then the cough appeared. The cough syrups did not give relief neither did any of my home remedies. After few sleepless nigts rushed to the doc who gave some syrup and tabs. Within two days it worsened and again we met the doc and this time after taking an X-ray he put me on anitbiotics. Finally with medicines and home made remidies I am doing much better. In the mean time hubby dear caught cold and fever! both of us were coughing together. Luckily he has a week long holidays for the Chinese New year.. which starts from tomo. I will make a post on Chinese new year soon.

Yesterday I was longing for something simple and quick along with some fries. My taste buds had gone really bland and were craving for something deep fried. It had been ages since I had fried anything. Thus decided to make a simple meal of rice, horse gram stir fry and horse gram saaru with cauliflower fry!

I am sending the horse gram stir fry over to Srivalli who is hosting My Legume Love Affair - Seventh helping which the brain child of Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Horse gram happens to be one of my fav lentil. It has a very funny story behind. Growing up, I used to always fall every now and then. I dont remember even a single year when I have not fallen! Be it inside the house, school playground or even temple! Whenever I used to come home after falling my mom used to joke and ask me "paay ponu ailie ve?" meaning Did you bow and come?!! After coming to Shanghai until my parents visit I had not fallen. I was mighty proud and told them one day. The same day we were just planning to go for walk and I was walking over the foot path and suddenly my ankle twisted and I was just about to fall but some how I didn't! Mind you I was not even wearing heeled shoes.. it was simple running shoes that I was in. You can imagine the look on my parent's face!! Anyway's due to this my elder brother always made fun of me and told mom to feed me Horse gram everyday so that my legs would becomes strong! Usually horse is fed horse gram and it is said that due to this it has strong legs and can run fast!

Such is the link between me and horse gram!

Anyways, here is the recipe:

Kulitha upkari

3/4 cup horse gram

2 Green chilli's slit

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

oil

a generous pinch of hing/asafoetida

2 tbsp freshly grated coconut

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Pressure cook horse gram with lots of water until soft. Strain and reserve both the horse gram and the water.

2) Heat Oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the cooked horse gram, salt, green chillis and hing. You can little water too so that the salt is uniformly distributed.

3) When done garnish with freshly grated coconut and serve hot.

To make kulitha Saaru, Boil the reserved liquid from cooking horse gram. Add two slit green chilli's and salt to taste. Give it a rolling boil. Prepare a seasoning by heating little oil and adding 4-5 crushed garlic cloves. Fry them until nicely browned and pour this over the Saaru. Enjoy with steamed rice :)

This is slightly different way to make the cauliflower bhajji's. I learnt this from my uncle who is a very good cook. His recipe is an all time hit in our family. I have blogged about his cooking in one of my earlier post. I cannot give you the exact measure to make this as I just add the ingredients as and when necessary. I love this method of frying since it does not absorb a lot of oil and tend to become very crunchy.

I usually soak the bite sized cauliflower in salt and turmeric water to remove any dirt of worms. Ater 10 mins wash them well. In a bowl, add in the washed cauliflower pieces, red chilli powder,salt, jeera, besan, around 2 tbsp of rice flour and hing powder. Do not add any water at this stage. Mix well. The water from cauliflower usually helps to form the paste. After mixing if needed add little water (do not add much to make a paste) and besan as required until the florets are well coated with the mixture. Let it sit for 10 mins. Then Heat oil. While heating oil my uncle usually suggests to keep stirring the oil and when it turns hot deep fry the florets in batches on medium flame until crisp and golden. Enjoy hot.

I made a very small batch of the bhajji's and we enjoyed it with rice, kulitha upkari and saaru. The meal was perfect for the -6C weather we had yesterday. Will start blog hopping soon.. :)

Keerlayile Mooga Usli

2009-01-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

I have always loved legumes more then veggies..I love them in their simplest form such as saarupkari which does not need any fancy ingredients.. and occasional indulgence in coconut based dishes. We amchi's eat a lot of coconut based dishes. We do add a little bit of freshly grated coconut to anything and everything! I am not very fond of coconut but when I make coconut based dishes I make sure to make them with the amount of coconut required than skimping on it! These days we have cut down our intake in terms of coconut and decided to stick to keeping it to minimum.

When we first came here, I was disappointed that the Indian stores did not have the variety of legumes that we eat back home. I found only moong,Rajma,Chickpeas both variety. I miss horse gram, whole toor, White beans a lot. Back home I used to cook with beans and veggies alternatively. However, we do get excellent green moong and Rajma in local markets along with soybean.

This is a simple yet healthy breakfast which we make regularly.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup sprouted Moong (green gram)

2 green chilli's slit

a small piece of Ginger chopped fine

a pinch of Hing/Asafoetida

a very small piece of Jaggery (Optional)

Salt to taste

oil

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

Procedure:

1) Heat oil. Add in mustard seeds, when they splutter add in the green chilli & sprouts.(You need not remove the skin. I had removed them to make this dish. But then realized that the qty was too much so reserved it. However, I have noticed that most of the times, the skin tends to float in water when being cooked. In such cases I just remove them and discard)

2) Add suffecient water, salt, chopped ginger and jaggery if using.

3) When it is 3/4 th done add the hing and mix well. Cook covered until done on medium flame.

When done the moong should be able to hold its shape and yet be cooked. You can garnish this with grated coconut to enhance its taste. Serve hot.

It can be served for breakfast or as a side dish with rice. We had this for breakfast with banana milkshake. Usually this is combined with Poha but we love to have it as it is.

P.S: In place of the moong you can even use moong dal.

Update: I am sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting My Legume Love Affair, Seventh helping which is the brain child of Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook. Thank you Srivalli, Susan for this event. Thank you Asha, Namrata for reminding me to send this across.

Batate Bhajjun Upkari ~ Simple Potato Side dish

2009-01-15T02:29:00.001-08:00

Batate Bhajjun upkari is simple Potato side dish. This was one of the dishes that amma resorted to when there were not many veggies or during the days when she observed fast. Me and anna always looked forward to this meal. Whenever she made this we were sure that we would have steaming hot white rice and daalithoy. The combination of the these three is heaven for us. Even today when we are at home she makes sure that she makes this atleast once. When amma makes this she generously uses oil and believe me it tastes much better than the way I do it as I always reduce the oil and try cooking with one tsp of oil.

Here is what's needed:

4 medium sized Potato washed thoroughly, peeled roughly and chopped into small thin pieces and soaked in cold water until used.

Oil 2 tsp

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

2-3 red Chilli torn

salt to taste

Procedure:

Heat oil. (I normally use 2tsp for this dish but it needs more than that to get a very good crispy taste) Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add in the urad dal and fry until slightly golden. Throw in the torn red chilli and after 20 secs add the drained potato pieces and salt to taste. Cook covered on medium flame until crispy and done. You can add little amount of water for the Potato's to be cooked. Tastes best when hot and served with rice and daalithoy!

The Humble Daalithoy!!

2009-01-11T17:24:00.001-08:00

Every Konkani blog in this blogosphere has a recipe for Daalithoy! We amchi's love daalithoy so much that we do not need rice to go with it. We just slurp it like payasa.. Any function is incomplete without daalithoy. A lot of times at functions in Mangalore you will see that we have rice and tomato saaru for the first course and second course rice and daalithoy. Sometimes, people tend to have only daalithoy without rice for second course. Amazed? Most of the amchi houses have daalithoy on everyday basis. People also joke that daalithoy is our KulDevata (Family deity). This also happens to be the first of the recipes that girl's usually cook with and also the first of the food that is introduced to kids when they start with rice.

We love DDT... not Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane.. but Daat DaliThoy (thick daalithoy).

When we were in school, our parents made sure that every year we got to go to different places during our summer holidays. Dad who was then a teacher also got vacations and mom took long off's. We have even taken 45 days long trip within India. We used to pack light and each of us had a suitcase of our own and every suitcase had one set of cloths of every other member. In case any of them happens to lose their bag then they can atleast wear something fresh until new cloths were purchased. We have almost completed the "Theerthyathra" at very young age, i.e when I was in sixth grade. It was during one such trip, that we were out from Mangalore for almost 45 days.We were visiting Mumbai (then Bombay) for my cousin's thread ceremony and from there we had started our trip to Varanasi and covered Badrinath, Kedarnath,Nepal, Kulu,Manali,Shimla,Kolkata(then Calcutta),Delhi,Haridwar, Hrishikesh etc. The first few days we enjoyed eating out and but then it got so boring that we missed home food. We missed the normal simple meal and terribly missed having Daalithoy. On the last day of our trip we had called up my mhaav(Aunt) and when my mom was speaking to her I took the phone and asked her to make rice,Daalithoy and pathrado. I still rememeber the way we hogged food that day!

Now coming back to this recipe there is no approximate measurements for this recipe. It is simple and straight forward. Pressure cook 1/2 cup of Toor Dal with a drop of oil until done. Approximately 3-4 whistles. Mash the dal thoroughly and add salt to taste. Pour water to bring it to desired consistency. Add in 2 slit green chilli's and keep the pot on gas. When it starts to boil add a pinch of asafoetida/hing. Give a rolling boil and switch off. Prepare tempering with heating oil, add in 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds. When they splutter add 4-5 curry leaves and a torn red chilli. Fry for few secs and pour the seasoning over the prepared dal and serve hot with Rice.

There are a lot of varations to make Daalithoy. This is how we make in Mangalore homes and temples. As and when I make different variety will post them here. I also add some chopped corriander leaves for garnishing at times.

This simple dal is off to FIC- Yellow being hosted at Harini's "Tongue Ticklers".

Tomato Gojju

2009-01-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

Some dishes are so simple to make, yet they taste great. One such according to me is this. It does not need too many ingedients and still is full of flavour and aroma. This recipe is from my granny's kitchen. My grandfather was an Ayurvedic pandit and most of the simple health problems were treated with change in diet. This gojju was prepared whenever anyone at home suffered from mouth ulcers. You may find some helpful information here.

I make this gojju when I am bored of making the usual Saaru, Daalithoy or sambar.

What's needed:

2 medium sized Tomato

1 small Potato

1 green Chilli

a pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)

1 tsp grated jaggery

Salt to taste

For Seasoning

Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

5-6 Curry leaves

1 red Chilli torn

finely chopped Corriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:

1) Pressure cook tomato,Potato and green chilli with suffecient water until done. When cooled mash it thoroughly.

2) Add water to bring it to desired consistency. Keep the pot on gas. Add salt, jaggery and hing.

Give it a rolling boil.

3) Prepare seasoning by heating oil and adding mustard seeds in them. When they splutter add

in the curry leaves and red chilli if using. Switch off and pour the seasoning into the gojju. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.

A Healthy beginning ~ Mooga Daali Usli/Bette

2009-01-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

Another year passed... leaving behind its wonderful memories.. 2008 was a special year for me. I quit my job, travelled places, pursued my hobbies,tried new cuisines, spent quality time with my hubby, created my blog and in the process new friends .. All said it was a wonderful year with very few mishaps.. The year flew by in rapid speed and without us realising we were ready to welcome 2009. We celebrated with friend's, Watched the Fire crackers show when the countdown ended, wished all our loved one's and missed them. Hope the year ahead will be wonderful and peaceful.

On the blogging front, I have been "Missing in Action". First started with New year cleaning.. Well if you have not heard of New year cleaning then this is a new one! Then it was bidding good bye to a dear friend of mine who shifted to Pune for good. This did not mean that I did not cook. I did, but was not able to click pics.

I have been thinking of blogging about the places that we have visited in China this year as a record. Let me know what you think about it.

Starting this year's cooking post with a healthy breakfast/dinner item "Moogadaali Usli/Bette". This is very much similar to Pongal with minor changes. Moong Dal is rich in protein and easily digestible. This is comfort food for us and can be fixed easily with no much fuss!

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Moong Dal

1/4 cup Basmati Rice

1 tsp Mustard seeds

5-6 Curry leaves

1/2 tsp Jeera

2-3 green Chilly - slit

a small piece of Ginger finely chopped

2-3 crushed black pepper

Oil

Salt to taste

2 tbsp grated Coconut grated

Water 3-1/2 cup

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add jeera and sauté till golden. Add curry leaves, crushed pepper, slit green chillies and sauté for few seconds.

2) Add water and bring it to a good boil.

3) Add washed moong dal and washed rice. Add salt to taste and ginger pieces. Cook on medium flame until done. (i.e The dal is fully cooked but still holds it's shape. If it is not cooked you can add little hot water and let it cook).

4) Garnish with grated coconut and serve hot.

Harini is hosting FIC-Yellow at her blog, this is my first entry to this event. For more details visit her blog. Harini, This is for you :)

New Year Wishes

2008-12-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

Neer Dosa ~ PanPolo

2008-12-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

PanPolo is one of our regular breakfast item. In my initial days of cooking in China, this was one dosa that I used to hate to make as it would never come out good. The rice that I used was the main reason for the failures. Now I use the Idli rice or Basmati rice, both give me excellent results. Back home, We use the normal Sona masuri rice. There are various dishes that go along well with dosa. Chutney, Jaggery syrup (Ravvo), honey, any veg or non veg gravy that is spicy.. I even love to have this with Mango pickle drizzled with coconut Oil.

The name Neer dosa is because this batter is very thin unlike regular dosa batter and even the dosa comes out very thin and lacy. Unlike regular dosa batter this does not need it to be fermented.

What's needed:

1 cup Idli rice

3-4 tbsp grated Coconut

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Soak rice overnight or for 6 hrs. Grind it to fine paste along with grated coconut.

2) Add suffecient water to bring it to a consistency thinner than the normal dosa batter. Add salt to taste.

3) Heat a Tava. Pour little oil. (Skip if you are using a non stick pan). Pour a ladle of batter and move the tava in circular motion so that the dosa spreads uniformly. It forms a nice lace like structure. Cook one medium flame.

4) The pattern to fold the dosa is to first fold it in to half and then again fold it so that it forms a triangle like structure.

Serve hot with Chutney or any side dish of your choice.

P.S: If using Sona masuri rice you can use 1 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of grated coconut. But since I use Idli rice which makes the dosa very soft I use just 2-3 tbsp of grated coconut and yet the dosa's are soft and fluffy.

A Bowl of Hot Soup ... Anyone?

2008-12-23T16:56:00.001-08:00

The cold wind, the rain, temperature dipping to -2 C made me feel very lazy. I was craving for a hot bowl of soup. Hubby suggested that we go out for dinner , but I did not feel like wearing layers and layers of cloths to just go to a restaurant. I had all the necesary items at home. So decided to make some soup for dinner. I did not have any recipe in mind just tossed few ingredients in hot Olive oil and poured water into it and pressure cooked for sometime. Could it get any easier?? By this time I was feeling warm due to the little cooking and got in the mood to make some Pizza to go with tomato soup. I scanned the pantry and found all items available. I had bookmarked this Pizza from Shilpa's blog. I felt this was very good for beginners and it actually tasted good. I followed the recipe for crust and when the dough rose well, I was very pleased. However, I felt that the smell of the yeast was overpowering. When I asked Harini and Aparna about this they suggested that I try using fresh yeast next time or a new batch of yeast. Thank you both for the suggestion. I will buy a new batch next time. But wanted to post it here for my future reference.

For soup here is what's needed:

2 big tomato's roughly chopped

1 medium carrot roughly chopped

1 medium Onion roughly chopped

4 cloves of Garlic roughly chopped

small piece of Ginger chopped

2 cloves

4 whole black pepper

a generous pinch of Cinnamon powder

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

a pinch of Sugar

1-2 tbsp of Cornflour

Olive oil

Coriander leaves chopped to garnish

Procedure:

1)In the pressure cooker pan, Heat Oil and add ginger,garlic, and slightly crushed whole spices. Sauté it for a min. Add Onions and again sauté it for a min or two. Add in the tomato and cook slightly for a min before adding the carrots. Add in cinnamon powder and salt. Add 1.5 cups of water and pressure cook until done. Let it cool completly before running it through blender. I do not strain it.

2) If preferred, add a tad bit of butter and pour the liquid into it. Add 2-3 cups of Water depending on the quantity of soup. Give it a rolling boil. Take 1/4 cup of water. Add a tbsp of cornflour and mix it well with no lumps. Pour this misture into the boiling soup. Give it a good boil. Add salt, pepper powder and a pinch of sugar. If you feel that the soup is thin you may add more cornflour to water and add it to the soup. Garnish with finely chopped Corinader leaves.

Serve hot with croutons. We had ours with small Pizza topped with Onion and Capsicum. I also used very little amount of grated cheese.

P.S:I did not add any milk or butter to this soup. Potato can also be used in this soup and any fresh herb can be added to this.

Update: Trupti just reminded me that this fit perfectly for her "Winter Treat event". Thank you Trupti :)

Zebra Cake

2008-12-22T05:50:00.001-08:00

I love cooking and baking is my new found interest. I tried baking cakes twice but both times the cake crust came out very crisp. I was using a glass dish to bake. When I left a comment on Divya's blog suggesting my failures, to my surprise she replied with a brief mail stating the probable reasons for these failures. This time while baking I avoided all the mistakes. The texture of the cake for the first time came out well. But again the crust came out crispy and also the centre was the only part that was undercooked. The rest of the cake came out well and spongy with no signs of undercooking! I used the "use and throw tin foils". Followed the recipe to T making no changes at all.

The upper heating element as well as the lower were working. The Oven was pre heated for 10 min. I kept the cake at the lower rack and baked it for about 30 mins before opening it for the first time. When I saw the cake browning too fast, I loosely covered it with Aluminim foil (Thanks Divya, It did really help). By this time its surface was spongy to touch and since it was not completely baked I put it back. At the end of 40 mins the sides were completely done but center was still not done. I tried baking it for additional 6-8 mins but the crust became crispy so dropped the idea completly. The cake did rise in the centre and there were cracks. The batter visible from the cracks were the ones that did not bake. Just a small portion. Can anyone suggest what might have gone wrong with my cake. The oven is realtively new.

I followed Deeba's Recipe for Zebra Cake. The taste was perfect and it is sure Vanilla and chocolate at its best. Thanks Deeba for the wonderful recipe. Once I get to know my mistake will surely make it again as we loved the taste. Please hop on to her wonderful blog to see perfectly striped cake :) and many more cakes which make you drool

DoodhPaak ~ Traditional Rice Kheer

2008-12-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Making sweets was never my cup of tea. I have cooked a lot of dishes but desserts were something I feared to make until recently that is. Whenever we had some Pooja at home it was usually Fruits or dry fruits that I offered! This Diwali I had teamed up with my friend Smitha here and we did cook up a lot of dishes together. They were a big hit with our families. Since then I decided to give a try and learn all the traditional dishes :)

I am usually biased towards Coconut milk + Jaggery based sweets than Sugar based milk sweets. But I do have exception! Doodhpak being one of them. This is one of amma's signature dishes. It is simple to make and the end result is awesome. I prefer eating this cold rather than hot!

Here is what's needed:

1/2 Cup Basmathi rice

2 cups Milk

1.5 cup Water

1 cup Sugar

A fistful of Sabudana

8-10 chopped Cashews

8-10 Almonds peeled and chopped(Soaked in water prev night)

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder

a generous pinch of Saffron

10 dry grapes soaked in water for atleast an hour

Procedure:

1) Wash rice well. In a pot, Add water and 1/2 cup of milk. Bring it to a good boil and add washed rice + cashews + almonds. While the rice is cooking, bring rest of the milk to a good boil and keep aside.

2) When the rice is half done. Add washed sabudana. If the water is not suffecient add more water. Cook till done (sabudana turns transaprent when completely cooked). Keep stirring in between to avoid it form sticking to the bottom.

3) Add sugar and mix well. Let it come to a rolling boil. Keep stirring at regular intervals.

4) Add boiled milk and dry gapes. After a boil, crush saffron lightly between your fingers and add it. One more boil and switch if off. Add cardamom powder mix well.

Serve warm or cold.

P.S: If you feel that it is too dry just add some milk and give it one boil. You can even add 1-2 cloves. It gives a nice aroma to the sweet.

I am sending this over to Lubna of Yummy Food, Who is hosting the FIC White Event, An event started by Harini of Tongueticklers and hosted at Yummy food this month. Thank you Lubna and Harini for this wonderful event.

Maggi ~ Weekend breakfast

2008-12-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

Saturday's always have a strange effect on me. I get super lazy to get up and make something for breakfast. Today morning hubby decided that he would make Maggi for breakfast.

I was introduced to maggi in my school days. We used to have competitions in school sponsored by Maggi and all the participants would get a packet of maggi! Back then my brother used to make it and only I and he ate. My amma has never tasted maggi (though she does enjoy Pizza's, noodles are something that she has never tasted!). Dad too is not very fond of maggi but if I do make Indo-Chinese noodles then he does have it with us. My aunt used to make this with lots of veggies. But when my cousins tasted plain maggi at our place they too stopped eating it with veggies! Growing up,We loved the taste of the veggies in maggi and started adding them in our noodles and our aunt always blamed us for teaching our cousin's to eat without veggies :P

We have a lot of versions of making maggi and it is always made with veggies. Today I was out of stock and had only Onion and frozen green peas.

This is how he made it:

2 packets of maggi (95 gm each) with its taste maker

1 medium Onion sliced

1/4 cup thawed green peas

1 tsp Kitchen King masala or more depending on your taste

Salt to taste

Olive Oil

Water 500 ml

Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Boil water in a vessel. In the mean time, heat Oil and add sliced Onions. Fry until golden brown.

2) Add Kitchen king masala powder and green peas and fry for a min.

3) Pour the water and add in the noodles. When half done add the taste makers and check with the salt. If you prefer a little spicy you may add a little bit of Chilli powder.

4) When completely done dress with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot!

P.S: Adding a small Tomato enhances the taste even further. I also stir fry Capsicum that gives it a nice crunch. Do feel free to add any veggies of your choice.

Update: PJ wants to now "who's gonna cook for me"??. I say hubby!! If you have someone who can cook for you. Please do send the recipes with pics over to PG..More details at her blog.

Keerla Bhaji ~ Bamboo Shoots stir fry

2008-12-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

My MIL has a collection of recipes that are easy to make, yet healthy. This is one such dish that I learnt from her, which does not involve too much work apart from the chopping part. I love to make this on a cold winter night paired with simple rice and Dal or even Phulka. .This dish needs very few ingredients and can be fixed within minutes.

Here is what's needed:

2 cups Bamboo shoots finely chopped

1 medium Onion finely chopped

1 tsp Mustard seeds

Salt,Chilli powder to taste

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Oil

Chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:

1) Wash chopped Bamboo shoots and keep them in water until it is used. Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard seeds.

2) When they splutter, add chopped onion and fry until done. Add turmeric powder,chilli powder and salt. Drain the bamboo shoots and add it with little water and stir fry until done. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

P.S: Do not add to much water as the bamboo shots will lose their crunchiness.

Pav Bhaji ~ Mumbai Style

2008-12-16T16:58:00.001-08:00

Pav-Bhaji happens to be one of my fav food from Mumbai. I still remember the taste at Canon Pav-Bhaji stall. It was amazing. When I was in school we used to visit Mumbai( then it was Bombay) every year during Ganapathi. Most of my cousin's were from Mumbai and thus we used to have great time during these visits. We, Cousin's used to meet during Summer vacations and enjoy :). It was the time, where my cousin, used to take me for a double ride on cycle.. we (me and my sister,Ramyakka) would enter kitchen and try to cook different dishes in the evening and experiment on the entire family not that they used to complain..We would also clean the kitchen you see! Play cricket and what not! It was so much fun. Even to this day when we all cousin's meet we have a great time. The Last time we were together was during my wedding and inspite of the hurry, it was great.

When I was browsing through Nupur's blog I was caught with the title "Bombay Street Food - Pav Bhaji". It interested me and I decided to give it a try. Her recipes never fail for me. I have tried her Sheera and also Bhadang. Both came out perfect. When I glanced through her recipe for Pav Bhaji, I was amazed to find that she did not add any onion to masala. I used to usually chop lot of Onions and fry it well. Good for me I thought (Less work!! I know the lazy me!) and decided to give it a try! The first time I made it a month back we gobbled up in hurry and forgot to take snaps. This time I made it, I made sure to click a snap before it vanishes! Do give this recipe a try and believe me you won't be disappointed. The only modification that I made was to omit butter completely and add a pinch of Kasuri methi. I have seen this being added at one of the restaurants in Mangalore and loved the aroma of it.

Besan Laddu

2008-12-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

Laddoo's were not something that I was not comfortable in making. When I made this laddoo last week and it came out fine I was happy and confident. RC had commented that she liked Churmundo next to Besan laddoo and that she had tried making it in Microwave. I had tasted Besan laddoo once that too it was fron Bikano and it had lots of nuts,cashews etc but home made never. So hopped on to RC's blog to check on her recipe for laddoo. She had referred to Tee's recipe for making laddoo's. Until yesterday I used my Microwave only to reheat food or boil milk or to keep dosa batter to ferment. This was an easier option compared to making the laddoo on stove top.. I made this laddoo as nivedyam for yesterday's Chathurthi Pooja at home and it came out tasty. Thanks Tee for the wonderful recipe and RC for pointing me towards it.

P.S: I could not roll it into ball so added less than a tbsp of milk and it worked wonders :)

Dosa

2008-12-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

When I started cooking, I was comfortable with preparing lunch/dinner, but what I feared the most was making breakfast. I was skeptical about soaking the dal's,rice and grinding it to smooth paste,fermenting them.

As a kid I used to think that making Dosa, idli etc was a very complex thing! Though amma used to always say that she used to enjoy making dosa as it would save her time the next morning! Now I am following her.. I prefer making dosa,idli for breakfast as I do not have to worry in the morning after waking up and think!!

This is one such simple dosa that I have been making every now and then. It is simple and I get the same crispy dosa everytime.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Urad Dal

2 cups Rice (I used Idli rice as this is the only one available. You can use Sona masuri/Ponni rice too)

1/2 tsp Methi seeds

2-3 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Wash rice and dal well and soak them along with methi for 3-4 hours. Grind it to smooth paste with water (Add only required qty of water). Let it ferment Overnight.( I had baked some cookies that night so kept the batter in oven to ferment.)

2) Next day morning, Add Sugar and salt. (Sugar gives a very nice taste to Dosa along with colour). Mix well. Add water if the batter is too thick. Mix well.

3) Heat a tawa, Spread a ladle full of batter in circular motion until it forms a uniform circle. Roast it with little oil in medium flame. When it turns to slightly golden colour flip it over and roast the other side for few seconds. Serve hot with Chutney.

I made "Hinga Chutney" with this Dosa.

For Chutney:

3/4 cup grated Coconut

2-3 fried red chilli

small piece of Tamarind

a generous pinch of hing(Asafoetida)

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves

Procedure:

1) I use the sticky variety of hing. So I heat little oil and put the hing in oil until it fluffs up. Remove it and let it cool.

2) Grind grated coconut + red chilli's+ Tamarind + Salt and little water until it becomes a smooth paste. In the last round of grinding I add the hing and grind it for few more secs.

3) Transfer the chutney to a serving bowl. Heat Oil, Add mustard seeds when they splutter add curry leaves and switch it off. If using hing powder then it is better to add hing directly to the seasoning. Pour the seasoning over the Chutney. Mix well before serving.

Churmundo ~ Wheat Laddoo

2008-12-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

One of the advantages(disadvantages!!) of blog hopping is that I get to know what I have never made in my life for years (now that does not mean I am very Old!!!!!) One such day I hopped to Harini's blog only to find a Laddu staring at me! Now for a person who is away from her hometown this was hard to resist! But having zero experience in making laddoo it was hard to think of.. But mind was constantly thinking only about laddoo. Finally decided to muster up some courage and try my hand at making them at home. Now this laddoo happens to be our fav, so thus it was decided that I would make it. When Amma was online pestered her to give me exact measurements. Now I am sure a lot of you out there will agree with recipes our mom's give us ( I am not complaining but ypou know we need exact measure in Cups,teaspoons!). I ask her "Kithle Tup?" (How much ghee).. her reply would usually be.. "Teh haanv ashi dole andaajeri ghalche!" (That I usually eyeball!!!) and my irritatingly, immediate response .. "tugele dole andaaju makka kashi kalthale???!!!!" (How am I to know your proportion"!!! Finally after she convinced me I wrote it down and kept looking forward for an opportunity to make them.

Yesterday when I felt my sweet tooth needed some treat decided to make this. It was actually simple and was wondering why I never made it all this while! The main reason why I was worried was I had never helped amma with this laddoo. Usually my aunt's used to come over so they helped her whenever we had to do in large quantities. Anyways, it came out good and that is why I am sharing this with you.

Here is what's needed:

1 Cup Wheat flour/Atta

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

1/4 Cup Ghee

1 tsp Fresh Cardamom Powder

Procedure:

1) Heat Ghee in a kadai and add the Wheat flour. Fry on low until the raw smell goes off and gives out a nice aroma. The colour changes to slightly dark brown. Switch off.

2) Add in Sugar and Cardamom Powder and mix well. (Taste the mixture and add more sugar powder if you desire. The measure given above is for semi sweet laddoo) Let it cool until the mixture is easier to handle.

3) Take some mixture in your palm and roll it into a ball. You cannot use both your palms to shape this up as it is crumbly.

I could make 15 small laddoo's using this measure. You may add Cashews and Raisins fried in Ghee. I did not.

I am sending this over to Srilekha, Who is hosting EFM-Sweets. Thank you Srilekha.

Rava Dosa ~ Resturant Style!!!

2008-12-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

Rava Dosa is my hubby's all time fav. Actually it runs in our family (My dad and FIL both love this dosa) and it is the most ordered item whenever we went to restaurants. I always wanted to learn the art of making crispy thin rava dosa at home. But I failed. In search of perfect recipe, I reached Asha's Aroma, The one place where you can get tried and tested recipes which give perfect results everytime. I left a comment on her dosa and was set out to try it. I was surprised when she left a comment suggesting me to try the recipe from Vahchef Sunjay Thumma. The recipe was perfect and we got golden crispy dosa's, The melt in the mouth kind. Thank you Asha for giving us a tried and tested recipe. Thanks to Vahchef too for posting this video on Youtube. Please check the video for exact way to pour the batter.

I used:

1 cup Semolina

1 cup Rice flour

1/2 cup All Purpose flour

2 green Chillies,small peice of Ginger & few Coriander leaves finely chopped

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix all the ingredients with suffecient water to achieve Buttermilk like consistency.

2) Heat a non-stick tava, and sprinkle the batter. It forms a nice lace like pattern. Do not bother to fill them completely.

3) Sprinkle oil and roast it on medium heat until lightly golden.

Serve hot with chutney of your choice!

Batate Song

2008-12-05T01:27:00.000-08:00

Batate Song is a very authentic Konkani dish. Song as pronounced as "English Song", has no relation with it! I still do not have any idea as to why it is called song. If anyone does please let me know.

It is a very spicy dish and pairs well with Rice & Dalithoy. Ofcourse it tastes good even with Dosa's or Chapathi. I make song either from cubed Potato or whole baby Potato's as in pic or also with cauliflower,tender cashews etc etc.

What's needed:

10-12 baby Potato's or 3 medium sized boiled, peeled and chopped Potato. If using baby Potato after peeling them prick them with the fork all over.

2 medium Onions chopped fine

1 big Tomato chopped fine

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 small marble sized Tamarind soaked in warm water

½ tsp crushed Coriander seeds

1-2 tsp Chilli powder (Increase or decrease based on your spice level)

¼ tsp Turmeric powder

Oil

Salt to taste

Chopped Coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:

1)Heat oil and add mustard when it splutters add chopped onions and little salt. Fry until they turn brownish.

2)Add chopped tomatoes and cook until mushy.

3)Add crushed Corainder seeds and other powders and fry for sometime.

4)Add Tamarind juice and stir well.

5)Add little water and let the onions cook until done but yet crunchy.

6)Add chopped/whole Potato and salt. Mix well until Potato gets coated with the masala. I usually add little water and let the Potato's boil so that they absorb the flavour.

7)Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot!

Happala Kismuri

2008-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Kismuri also known as Koshimbir/Kosumbari is often a part of Konkani cuisine. We make kismuri with a Bittergourd (Karathe Kismuri), Carrot, Surnu (Yam) etc. One among such quick fix kismuri is made from Happolu. Happolu is Red coloured Chilli Papad. In earlier days during summer, ladies used to make Papad's from Wheat, Urad Dal, Red chilli and Urad Dal and different types of sandige. This was basically done so that they could preserve this for rainy season when it was difficult to get vegetables easily. We do not make these at home and usually buy from stores. Traditionally happolu is fried on charcoal stove and coconut oil is smeared over it.

Anyways, This kismuri is one of our fav's. It is very simple to make and goes well as a side dish with simple pej (Rice Porridge/Konji) or White rice with some dal.

What's needed:

5-6 Red Happolu deep fried

3/4 cup grated Coconut

1 small Onion chopped fine

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Mix salt + Grated coconut + Onion pieces well. Crush Happolu and add it to the mixture. Serve immediately as the happolu turns soft and soggy after a while.

Pineapple Rasam

2008-12-01T01:52:00.000-08:00

The first time I saw this on their site was actually impressed and made a mental note that I will have to try it next when I get Pineapple. After this I forgot about it for a while and again saw the this rasam making its rounds through the blogosphere. Everytime I saw it I was remembered that this is on my to do list. Finally one day I went ahead and bought the Pineapple and came back home to make it. Thats when I realized that the recipe called for Canned and I had Fresh one!! Yes this is what I do don't read the recipe properly and then continue!

But since I had not planned anything else I as well thought that I will go ahead and give it a shot with fresh Pineapple. It really came out well and hubby dear was impressed :) Happy me.

To see Jai's recipe Click here.

The modifications that I made was to boil Pineapple with water until its colour changed to a lighter shade (or alternatively as my friend, Smitha suggested pressure cook it for one whistle) and while adding crushed Pineapple to Rasam I added jaggery to taste.

This is definitely a change from the usual Rasam or Dal and has a sweet,spicy and tangy taste. Using a canned Pineapple would definitely be an easier way to do but I did not want to wait until I buy one next time. I am definitely going to make this often! Thanks Jai for this wonderful jhatpat recipe.

Grape Sorbet ~ FIC Purple

2008-11-29T19:52:00.001-08:00

Food in Purple and black was a tough choice for me but nevertheless wanting to participate I kept racking my brains. Black foods that I could think of was either Banana Halwa (Don't get the variety of the banana that is required for this recipe) then there were an array of sweets that could have been made but with fever etc going around I decided to just drop my plans. Thats when I saw a Gelato recipe in her blog I felt that even I could try making it. Thanks dear. From her blog I hopped on to David's Blog. After taking a tour of the blog I zeroed on Grape Sorbet. The grapes that I used were not very deep in colour and hence the end result is a very light shade of purple. Hope this qualifies!!

David's site is one of the must to see if you plan to make ice cream's. Every pic makes you drool and have some of it. He also has good tips regarding how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker plus he also makes it a point to specify substitutions if any! I am going to keep visiting him for more recipes. Thanks David!

Coming to this, I have followed his recipe. To view it click here. Only substituions that I made was to use mild flavoured honey instead of Light corn syrup and omitted out the Rose Wine and used a hand held electric mixer. Though the temperature was quite cold for a chilled dessert, we enjoyed it. Please hop on to his blog to see really drool worthy pics.

Thank you Harini for this challenging event. Wating for the next colour!

A Prayer

2008-11-29T04:44:00.001-08:00

Aum Saha Naavavathu Sahanau Bhunaktu

Saha Veeryam Kara Vaavahai

Tejasvi Naavadheetamastu Maa Vidwishaavahai

Aum Shantih Shantih Shantihi

Meaning: May the Lord protect us both, may He nourish us both, may we work together with great vigor (divine strength). May we both acquire brilliance of our intellect through our studies, may we not hate each other. Let there be peace, peace, peace. courtesy Vedic Chants

A Diya, In memory of all the brave martyrs who laid down their lives in protecting several hundred innocent people.Hope the God almighty gives strength and courage to the families of those innocent victims who lost thier lives.

Let us pray together for the welfare of our country.

Jai Hind

Keerla Neeli Sukke ~ Tender Bamboo Shoots and coconut side dishM

2008-11-29T01:22:00.000-08:00

Bamboo Shoots are widely used in Konkani cuisine. Usually during the season when they are available it is put in large clay pots (Called Bharni) with salt so as to preserve them and enjoy throughout the year. When in season a lot of dishes are made from this. The one we get in markets in Mangalore look black from outside. Usually the outer layers are removed and then cut into disk's and preserved. The tender part of the keerlu is mostly used for Keerla neeli sukke (Keerla neeli means tender bamboo shoots) or Keerla Sannapolo (Spicy dosa that is made for lunch) or Keerla Phodi (Deep fried shoots with spicy masala). The one's that are preserved are used by washing repeatedly until it loses the salty taste. They can be added with lentils in Coconut based gravies with garlic seasoning/Koddels (Coming soon). When keerlu is added it gives a distinct taste and aroma (Or smell depends on how you like it) to the dish.

When I first came to Shanghai I was surprised to see these available easily and in large quantities but since I was not very sure of cooking using them I never ventured to buy them. But we had tasted them in few of the Chinese dishes.When my parents came here, we went ahead and bought them and made a lot of dishes using Keerlu. My mother says that the best Keerlu that she has ever eaten were in Shanghai! Keerlu is not available so easily back in Mangalore. We don't even find the need to preserve them as they are available all round the year and that too we get very tender ones!

Coming to this dish, it is usually made with tender bamboo shoots and dried Jackfruit seeds (Bikkand). Since I did not have any Bikkand (Jackfruit is not avaible here ) I substitued it with a very small potato. This dish is mildly sweet and serves as a good side dish with rice.

Here is what's needed:

1.5 cups tender Bamboo shoots chopped fine. (To clean the bamboo shoots, add water until it is slightly above the shoots and 1 tsp of salt. The next day throw the water and add fresh water. It can be used on 3rd day after discarding the water and giving it a rinse. This is supposed to remove the bitterness of bamboo shoots if any)

3/4 cup grated Coconut

a small marble sized Tamarind

2-3 tbsp grated Jaggery (Depends on how sweet you like your dish to be)

1 small Potato peeled and chopped

Salt to taste

To be roasted

1 tbsp Urad dal

1 tsp Coriander seeds

4-5 dried Red Chilli's

For seasoning

1 tsp Mustard seeds

7-8 Curry leaves

Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat 1/2 tsp Oil and add Urad dal. When it turns golden add in the Coriander seeds. Fry for a min and add the dried red Chilli's. Fry for 30 secs. Remove from flame.

2)Heat 1 tsp Oil in a kadai and add Mustard seeds. When they splutter add curry leaves and fry for a few seconds. Add chopped bamboo shoots and Potato along with suffecient water and let it cook covered.

3) Meanwhile, grind grated coconut, Tamarind, roasted ingredients and salt to a smooth paste.

4) When the Potato is 3/4 th boiled add grated jaggery and cook until done. Add in the ground masala and mix well. Check for salt and give it a rolling boil before switching it off. Serve hot as a side dish with rice or Dosa's.

Amma's Vegetable Bhath

2008-11-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

This Bhath recipe is my Mother-in-law's whom I affectionately call amma. She has been making this for many years and everyone who has tasted this has fallen in love with it. It is favourite among our whole family and is made often on demand. She usually makes this for breakfast and when this is made I have it for all meals!! It is very simple to make yet flavourful.

On the day I was to travel from Mangalore to Shanghai, amma invited my parents over for lunch and few of my friends. [My hubby was already in Shanghai and I joined him later as my papers were not done yet]. She asked me what to make and my only request was to make this bhath. My mother and she whipped up all my favs :). My flight was in the in the evening at 6 or so. So I had this for breakfast, lunch and also evening tea!! Such is my love for this.

After coming here hubby too was reminded of this bhath and would always tell me to make "Amma's pulao". One fine day I called her up and got the recipe from her and made it. It was not as perfect as she makes it (probably it was missing her touch!) but was indeed enjoyed by both of us happily.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Basmati Rice or any long grain rice

2 cups chopped vegetables like Cauliflower,Carrot, Beans, Potato

1 small green Capsicum chopped

1 medium Tomato chopped

1 medium Onion chopped

8-10 Cashews broken (Optional)

Salt & Sugar to taste

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

5-8 curry leaves (I do not add as I dont get them easily here)

2 tbps Oil/ Ghee (Ghee definitely tastes better)

To grind:

2 green Cardamoms

2-3 Cloves

1 inch Cinnamon

1/2 cup fresh grated Coconut

2-3 green Chilli's

1 Bay leaf

1 star Anise

1 tsp Poppy seeds

1/3 cup Coriander leaves

3-4 Garlic cloves

1/2 tsp Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 Onion

small piece of Ginger

small piece of Tamarind

Procedure:

1) Cook Rice and drain it. Fluff with fork and let it cool down.

2) Meanwhile make a paste with ingredients mentioned under "To grind" with little water.

3) Heat Oil/Ghee. Add Mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add in the curry leaves if using & broken cashews fry until golden.

4) Add Onion and little salt. Saute until transparent.Add in chopped tomato. Saute for few mins and add the ground masala and continue to saute until the raw smell goes off.

5) Add in the chopped veggies and capsicum and saute it. Sprinkle water if you notice the paste sticking to the bottom of the Pan. It usually happens to me since I add lesser Oil than actually required! Cover and cook until the veggies are done and is still crunchy to bite on.

6) Add Salt and Sugar to taste. Add in the cooked rice and mix well until the rice has nicely blended with the masala. Take care not to break the rice. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 mins.

Serve hot with Tomato-Onion Raita.

I am sending away this Pulao over to Srivalli who is hosting Rice mela. I am also sending Nucchi~ Coconut rice & Undi ~ Steamed Rice Balls over to participate in the mela. Thanks srivalli for this wonderful event.

Nutritious Black Channa Pulao

2008-11-25T05:16:00.000-08:00

Pulao's are one pot dishes that come to rescue when one is not very keen to cook elaborate meal yet want something delicious and tasty. I am always on the look out for easy to make rice dishes as we both love rice items. Hubby dear had gifted me few cookbooks long time back. But then since I was working I would make those which I knew very well and was confident of the results. Very occasionally I would try new recipes from cookbooks.

After coming here the scenario changed. I founda lot of time for myself and also to pursue my hobbies. Though I miss being at work it with friends I am loving this role of being a homemaker too, where there are no deadlines!!

Coming back to this dish I have made it from Nita Mehta's "Different ways with Chawal". There are lot of recipes in this book but I was particularly drawn towards this nutritious pulao. I have always had channa with coconut based gravies or as a side dish like this. When I told amma that I am making this for dinner even she was skeptical and replied pulao with only channa!! I prepared a backup plan of maggi if it turns out a disaster! But I was quite pleased with the result and hubby too gave a thumbs up. Unexpectedly we did have a guest at home for lunch and even the guest loved it. I did not make any major changes to the recipe so jotting down here her recipe.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Rice - soaked for 1 hour

2 tbsp Oil

3/4 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds)

1 Onion sliced

1/2 tsp Ginger paste - 1/2 tsp Garlic paste (I used 1 tsp Ginger garlic paste)

1/2 -1 tsp Garam masala powder

1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder

1/2 tsp Kitchen King masala (my addition,hence optional)

Salt to taste

2 tsp Lemon juice

a few coriander leaves with stalk

Soak together:

1/2 cup black Channa

1 Cinnamon

2-3 Cloves

2 cups Water

1/2 tsp salt (I skipped adding salt as I was told by amma that Channa does not cook well if salt is added at the first stage)

Procedure:

1) Soak Channa's overnight with all the ingredients given under "Soak together" and pressure cook to give 1 whistle, Keep on low flame for 20 mins. Reserve stock.

2) Strain Channa's. Measure stock and add enough water to make it upto 2 cups (double the volume of the rice).

3) Heat Oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add Jeera. When it turns golden add the sliced Onion, Stir fry till they turn transparent.

4) Add Ginger Garlic paste and fry for a min.

5) Add in cooked Channa, Lemon juice, salt, Garam masala, Kitchen King masala (if using), red Chilli powder. Fry for 2 minutes. Add Rice. Mix. Add coriander leaves.

6) Add the measured stock and water mixture. Boil.

7) Cover with towel napkin and then with a well fitting lid. cook on low flame until done.

8) Fluff with fork to let the steam escape so that rice grains do not stick to each other. Serve hot with raita!

I am sending away this Pulao over to Srivalli who is hosting Rice mela.

A 50th Post with Celebration

2008-11-23T17:01:00.001-08:00

Its been a quiet time on my blog for a while now. With posts being added once in a while. First I was caught up with the fever bug and then the body ache and weakness followed. This left me with no mood to cook and even if I did there was very little interest in me to blog about it. Meanwhile we also did a few changes to the blog like a new header, font settings etc..(Thanks to my hubby) Still a lot of them to come soon. I wanted the blog to have a different look and then it was my 50th post too. So decided to make a sweet post about the humble sheera.

Sheera till date happens to be my most favourite sweet. Amma makes sheera using slightly big rava than the normal Semolina and it tastes great. When I was in my sixth std one sunday afternoon I told amma that I wanted to eat sheera. Amma was a working woman and sunday afternoon was the only time she used to get some rest. So she said she will make it for me some other time and also that there was no sufficient sugar at home to make a sweet. But I was not convinced and told her that I would make sheera not only for me but for the whole family. I mentally took note of the recipe that she told me and went ahead to kitchen emerging out every now and then to ask her where the ingredients were. After some time she came in to the Kitchen to check as to what I was doing, she was horrified to see the amount of sheera I had done. She said it was impossible to come up with so much amount with the measures she had given me. Only then did I realise that she mentioned small cup and I used a bigger one and not only that I had also added less sugar than required and ended up making lot of sheera that did not taste like one due to the lack of sugar. Then she came to my rescue, sent my brother to shop to get extra sugar (I used up all the sugar!!!) and some how made it taste like sheera. The sheera was eaten not only by my family but also by all my uncles and cousin's who stayed quite close to our house ;) After that till the time I got married I have never attempted making sheera!!!

Even now I feel that I cannot come up with decent sheera. I know it is one of the easiest sweet to make yet I am not satisfied the way I make it.. Practice I guess!!!

This Sheera was not made by me but my hubby when I was not keeping well. He followed Nupur's recipe and the only modification that he made was while adding extra sugar as the sugar that we use here is not very sweet at all. Thanks Nupur :) we loved it

Duddhya Upkari ~ Pumpkin Stir-fry

2008-11-14T02:16:00.001-08:00

Pumpkin was not one of the vegetables that I loved eating growing up. Until one day I had the upkari made with this at our Venkataramana temple feast. From then on I have been eating this vegetable regularly and love it too. We usually use Pumpkin while making Valval, Sambar etc. When I had been to market here in Shanghai, I was actually surprised to see Pumpkin :) From then on this has been a regular veggie in our kitchen.

This stir-fry is rather easy to make and goes well with steaming hot rice and Dal. Easy to fix during weekday dinner's.

Here is what's needed:

2 cups of Pumpkin chopped into bite sized pieces

2-3 Green Chilli

4 to 5 Curry leaves

2-3 tbsp grated Coconut (Decrease if you do not like it very sweet)

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

a generous pinch of Asafoetida

Salt to taste

1-2 tsp Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil. Add Mustard seeds when they splutter add in the Urad dal and fry until pink.Add Curry leaves and the Green chilli and fry for a min.

2)Add in the Pumpkin pieces, enough water for it to cook along with Salt and Jaggery to taste. Cook covered until 3/4 done.

3) Add Asafoetida and grated Coconut and mix well. Cook until done.

Narayan Katar/ Nankhatai

2008-11-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

Narayan Katar a simple butter biscuit was my favourite since childhood. I had tried making them 2-3 years back with my mhvae's (Aunts) oven. We loved it so much that the whole batch was polished in no seconds. It had been quite a while since we made this. When I got an oven I wanted to try this first as I had some experience in making them. This time I followed Shilpa's recipe to make Nankhatai's. I followed the recipe to T and there is no doubt that the result was perfect! Thanks Shilpa for such a detailed and yet simple recipe. We loved it. Please click here to view her recipe!

Now I plan to haunt all the blog's around to find some easy to make cookies with low fat ofcourse!

Batate Bhajjun Upkari ~ Potato Fry

2008-11-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Last week we had quite bad weather. It was drizzling all day long, fog covered which made the day gloomy and the cold winds outside made it difficult for me to step outside the cozy house. Slowly all the veggies disappeared from the fridge leaving behind very few options for cooking. On one such night I made this Potato Fry. This makes an excellent side dish with Rasam & Rice or Dalithoy & Rice. This is originally Archanakka's (My cousin) mother-in-law's recipe which was passed on to me by my sister during our weekend chat. If you are the one who loves Potato like us then this is the recipe for you.

Here is What's needed:

2 Big Potato's cubed

4-5 small Garlic cloves chopped

1/2 - 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder (Increase if you would like it to be spicy ;) )

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

a generous pinch of Asafoetida

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) In a vessel boil 3-4 cups of water. When it boils well add in the cubed Potato's and switch off the flame. Cover for 5 mins. Drain all the water using a Colander. Let the Potato's cool.

2) Meanwhile, In a Kadai (preferably non-stick) take 1-2 tbsp Oil. Before it heats add chopped Garlic, Red Chilli powder, Turmeric powder & Asafoetida. Fry for a min and add in the drained Potato's. Add Salt. Do not add water. Cook covered if needed. Keep mixing at regular intervals to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Fry until at least 2 sides turn golden brown. Serve hot!

Khandvi

2008-10-31T08:13:00.000-07:00

Khandvi a Gujrathi snack made with Chickpea flour. I had first tasted this when I was in school but after that I never tasted it nor remembered it. It was when I was roaming through the Blogosphere that I remembered this. Hubby dear was not supposed to be back until midnight due to some work at office so I utilised this time to try this dish out. I found the recipe at Asha's Aroma. I trust her because her recipes never fail :) Thanks Asha for this wonderful recipe.

The taste was really good but I spread the batter slightly thicker than I should have done. I did not get the bright yellow colour as I added very little Turmeric powder. Mine was moderately spiced so I did not add Red chilli's to seasoning. Check out Asha's recipe here.

This dish was really easy to make and is ready in minutes. Thanks Asha for the step by step pictures and suggestions. I am going to make them often :)

Diwali Sweets~ Shankarpali & Malpuri

2008-10-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

As Promised I am posting the recipes of the sweets that we made during Diwali. We had made Mysore Pak, Shankarpali and Malpuri. For Shakarpali we followed Vaishali's recipe with no changes and the end result was really good. Everyone loved it. Thanks Vaishali for your wonderful recipe with step by step pictures. It was impossible to mess it up :) Click here to view her recipe

Malpuri is a traditional sweet prepared with maida, Sugar and buttermilk. This is one of my favourite sweet but we had never made it at home. My dad usually buys these from TajMahal Cafe. This was usually made in the morning. When I was learning to drive dad used to take me for a drive on sunday mornings by 5. We used to go for a long drive and at around 6:30 we would reach the market buy fresh vegetables and then go to TajMahal Cafe. Dad would usually buy either Jelebi or Malpuri that are made fresh in the morning. It was great to eat them hot and fresh.

When Smitha, my dear friend suggested that we try our hands at making malpuri both of us were not sure as we had not seen anyone make malpuri. But that did not prevent us from trying it. I made a google search but did not get satisfying recipe. Then we looked upon Our GSB cooking Bible "Oota Upahara" by Jaya V. Shenoy and decided to follow the recipe. We did not get the texture perfect as in Hotels. Though there were crisped edges what we missed was the fluffed up centre. But then the taste was really good and both of us were glad. Well we can always improve!

Here is what's needed:

1 1/2 cup Maida

1 cup Buttermilk

3/4 cup Sugar (Our's was mildly sweet add more if you like it to be sweeter)

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder

Ghee to fry

Procedure:

1) In a large bowl mix Maida + Buttermilk + Sugar well. It should be slightly thicker than dosa batter consistency. If not add little water. Let it sit for 3 hours.

2) After 3 hours add Cardamom powder and mix it well.

3) Heat Ghee in a Kadai. When hot add one tbsp of the batter as if spreading the dosa on tawa. Bring heat to medium. Flip the Malpuri in ghee. Keep it pressed with the spatula and fry until the sides are crisp.

4) After you remove the malpuri from Ghee, press it with another spatula to remove the excess ghee. Let it drain on paper towel. Store once cooled completely.

P.S: Do not leave it without pressing with spatula when it is in Hot ghee. Else it puffs up completely like Puri and the sides do not get crisp. Even the batter needs to be spread as if it is dosa, Initially we just scooped the mixture and it came out like Puri all puffed up. It was then Smitha suggested that we spread it like dosa and keep it pressed. It worked and we got nice Malpuri's. We fried it one at a time so it was time consuming. But the end result was worth the time we spent. I never expected that it was so easy to make :)

I am sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting JFI-Nov 08.

I am sending this over to Sunshinemom who is hosting FIC Brown.

Mysore Pak Again!!

2008-10-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Deepavali to Everyone. We had a very good Deepavali with our friends. When we first came here we had a feeling that we would not have a great time during Deepavali since it would be just two of us. But Thanks to our friend's we really had a good time.

Me and my friend Smitha made a lot of delicacies for Deepavali. We started with Mysore Pak. My earlier attempt did not give the perfect texture but taste was good. This time the outcome was good with very nice texture and it was actually melt in the mouth kind. Ofcourse there is room for imporovement!! It took flat 35 mins for the whole process and you never realise the time because once you start cooking it all happens really fast and there it is done! Thanks Shilpa this is really hit with both our families. Click here f0r Shilpa's recipe that we followed completely with no changes.

Here is how we celebrated Deepawali

On sunday we had a chat special lunch at our place. We made Pani Puri (Puri we made from scratch, Recipe coming up soon), Masala Puri & BhelPuri (Haldiram mix). At the end of the evening we were all stuffed and went shopping. I am really glad that we went out as I got a new Eectric oven which I had always wanted since quite some time. Now that I have all the time in the world I am planning to experiment ofcourse in my Kitchlab.

On monday, Smitha and me made Shankarpali and Malpuri (Recipe coming up soon). Smitha coooked up a yummy traditional dinner for us and we had a good time cooking and laughing for the silliest reasons!

Yesterday we had a small Lakshmi Pooja at home and then we had been to my hubby's office as there was Diwali celebrations at his office. Lots of Indians attired in traditional dresses from various places had gathered at one place. There were firecrackers and food with entertainment.

This was the first time we celebrated Deepawali without our family. But we really had a good time and our friend's filled up the void of our family to a very large extent. The memories that we made, the laughs that we shared, the time that we spent will be cherished for ever. Is this not the true spirit of Deepavali?

Diwali treats that we made:

Karathe Talasani ~ Bittergourd

2008-10-24T07:57:00.001-07:00

Karathe Talasani is a simple Bittergourd stir-fry dish that is usually made with Garlic. Karathe talasani is a mixture of sweet and spice with the right amount of tanginess.

Here is what's needed:

1 medium Bittergourd deseeded and chopped

2 red Chillis torn

6-8 crushed Garlic cloves

2 tbsp grated Jaggery (increase/decrease according to your taste)

a small amla sized Tamarind soaked in water

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Sprinkle Salt on chopped Bittergourd pieces and let it stand for 20-30 mins. Squeeze the juice out. This helps in removing the bitterness from it.

2) Heat oil and add crushed Garlic cloves. Fry until golden and add torn Red Chilli's. Fry for a few seconds and add Bittergourd pieces.

3) Add in the Salt,Jaggery,Tamarind and little water. Cook covered until done.

Sweet Corn Soup

2008-10-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a cold day. It had rained in the morning and all day long it was very cool with strong winds too. This weather prompted me to cook something warm and comforting and thus soup was made. I love Sweet Corn Soup a lot. I picked up this recipe from Nita Mehta's Chinese Vegetarian Cuisine book.

Found this info while I did some googling on Sweet Corn:

Key benefits of sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is a good source of folate. It also helps protect against age-related macular degeneration and helps fight free radicals in the retina. It provides more starch and more calories than most vegetables. It is high in iron and potassium. It is also a good food for steadying blood sugar.

How much sweetcorn should you eat?

Sweetcorn is fairly high in calories. An average portion of 85g a day should be sufficient to derive the benefits from sweetcorn.

Now coming back to the recipe. Here is what's needed:(Serves 3)

2 big whole Corn

3 cups Water

1/2 tsp Ajinomoto (optional. I skipped this yet it was tasty)

1 tbsp Cornflour dissolved in 1 cup water

1/2 - 1 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp White pepper

3/4 tsp White Vinegar

1/4 cup chopped Cabbage (Optional)

1/4 cup chopped Carrot (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Grate Corn. Reserve few corns whole Corns too.

2) Pressure cook grated corn along with whole Corns with 3 cups Water and a tsp of Salt. After the first whistle keep it on medium low for 10-15 mins.

3) Mix Cornflour in a cup of Water and add to the cooked Corn. Add Sugar, Ajinomoto if using and pepper. Mix well. Let it boil for 10 mins. If the soup appears to be too thin you may add some more Cornflour dissolved in water and add to it.

4) If adding vegetables add it at this point and let it boil only for 3 mins. This keeps vegetable crunchy. Serve hot.

This Soup is very filling and if combined with fresh salad will make a complete meal.

Kuvvale Sasam ~ Wintermelon in Mustard Coconut Gravy

2008-10-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

Kuvvale means Wintermelon or Ash gourd and Sasam means mustard seeds. This dish is made by adding boiled Wintermelon in Mustard and coconut gravy. This dish is usually prepared on various auspicious occasions such as Sathyanarayan Pooja, Temple car festival etc. Till date the best of this dish that I have ever tasted is during the Venkatramana temple Car festival.

This dish is not very spicy and goes well with white rice. It is simple to make too.

Here is whats needed:

11/2-2 cups of cubed Winter melon

To grind into coarse paste:

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1 cup grated Coconut

3-4 fried red Chilli's

small piece of Tamarind

Salt to taste

For seasoning:

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

6-7 Curry leaves

Oil

Procedure:

1) Boil Winter melon in suffecient water until they are done. Do not overcook it.

2) Make a masala with grated Coconut + red Chilli's + Tamarind + Salt + Mustard seeds and little water. Do not grind it to a fine paste.

3) Add the ground masala to Winter melon. Add water if needed to bring it to suffecient consistency. Check for salt. Let it come to a good boil before removing it from flame.

4) Prepare seasoning by heating a little Oil (preferably Coconut oil). Add Mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add Curry leaves and pour the seasoning over the gravy. Serve hot.

Vermicelli Pulao

2008-10-21T21:51:00.001-07:00

The first time I tasted this dish was at my Bappa's (Uncle) place. Ever since then this is the one of the dishthat he makes when I visit them. My bappa is an excellent cook. Any tips or traditional recipe he is always ready to share. During my return from last trip to India, my dad had to cancel his tickets at the last minute as he had some meeting. My uncle along with my mom came to see me off till Mumbai. During the train journey I got a lot of recipes from him. His recipes never fail for me. He gives the exact measure and accurate steps. One such was Rava idli. Though it was my first attempt it had come out perfect.

Coming to this Pulao, I have tried a lot of times but could never recreate that dish as he makes it. Last time when I met him he gave me the exact ingredients and it came out perfect. We both loved it. Only change that I made was he makes use of fresh Garam masala but I used store brought one.

Here is what's needed:

1 Cup Vermicelli (I used Bambino)

1/2 cup veggies like Carrot,Beans sliced thin

handful of green Peas (I used frozen)

1 big Onion sliced lengthwise

2-3 green Chilli's slit

1 small Tomato chopped fine

2 Garlic cloves crushed

6-7 Curry Leaves

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Garam masala powder

1" Cinnamon stick

Salt to taste

Oil for seasoning

Finely chopped Coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure:

1) Dry Roast Vermicelli on a medium heat until they turn golden brown and transfer it to a plate. 2) Boil the veggies until 3/4th done. Drain the water to prevent further cooking. Do not throw this water it can be used to cook the vermicelli. Measure the water and add more water if needed to make it 2 cups of water. Keep it to boil.

3) Take some oil in a Kadai. When hot add crushed Garlic, fry for a min. Add chopped Onion with little salt and fry until it turns golden brown. Transfer them to a seperate plate.

4) In the same kadai add little Oil. Add Mustard seeds. When they splutter add Curry leaves + green Chilli + Cinnamon stick . When the colour of green chilli changes add tomato. Fry it well. Add turmeric powder + Garam masala powder+ Salt.

5) Add the roasted Vermicelli and 2 cups of boiled water. Mix in the veggies too and give it quick stir. Check for Salt and cook covered on medium flame until done.

6) Just before you switch it off add fried Onion and chopped Coriander leaves and mix well. Let it sit for min. Switch off and serve hot.

P.S: You can add cashews to enhance the taste. Even Beetroot can be added to make it colourful.

Hinga Tambli

2008-10-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Tambli's come to rescue when you have very little time to fix lunch or dinner. It is absolutely no fuss dish and does not required to be cooked. It is served cold and usually Yogurt is added to it. There are different types of tambli's with onions (Piyava tambli) or with tender Gherkin leaves (Tendle enkre tambli),or pumpkin leaves tambli. However there are few tambli's that do not have yogurt added like Piyava tambli.

Tambli's with yogurt were not featured much at my mom's place since I and my bro both did not like yogurt. If you do not like it you can even replace it with little tamarind. The one that I am mentioning here is Hinga tambli.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup grated Coconut

2 - 3 tbsp Yogurt (increase as per your taste)

2 green Chilli's slit

a generous pinch of Asafoetida/Hing

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil and fry the green Chilli's until they change their colour to light green. Take care while frying as they tend to splutter. Add in the Asafoetida and remove from flame. Add this to grated Coconut.

2) Beat the Yogurt and whisk with little water.

3) Grind grated Coconut + green Chilli's + Asafoetida along with yoghurt and Salt to a smooth paste. Add water if desired to bring it to desired consisitency. Serve cold with rice and some side dish.

An Award :)

2008-10-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

Pavani of Food Lovers passed me this wonderful Butterfly Award. Thank you Pavani :). That was very sweet of you.

As per the rules I am passing it over to

Dershana, Sangeeth, Purva, Sunita, RC, Asha, Divya, Sukanya, Sunshinemom, and Deesha :)

Broccoli Stir-Fry

2008-10-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

I had never tasted Broccoli before I came here. With the advent of Supermarkets though it was available in my home town, I was skeptical to cook with it. I was not sure how to cook it or how it would even taste. When we visited a local resturant here I noticed I did not have much options for vegetarians.. it was stir fried veggies with a bowl of rice.. that's all. And the options of veggies that I had was grated Potato, blanced Spinach and Egg Plant ( Since those were the only veggie names that we knew in chinese ;) )

We had once been to a place called Ningbo. The original attraction to this place was that we wanted to go over the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the longest sea- crossing bridge. We decided to stay overnight in Ningbo and see the places around. We reached there and started with our sightseeing. At lunch time we entered a nice local restaurant. We also had one of my hubby's friend with us who is a pure veggie like me. The staff were not fluent with English so it was difficult for us to communicate with them and even the menu was in Chinese. Later a lady who seemed to be a manager came over and asked us to look at all the dishes. In this place they had a display of all the food that they cook and we have to make our choice and then they would take an order and make fresh batch of food. My hubby and his friend went over and ordered the food. They showed the veggies and told them that we eat this or that (Poiniting to the veggies) and also asked them not to include egg,meat,fish,Chicken. The lady took our order and within few minutes our order was being served. One after the other the dishes appeared on our table. Seven side dishes and a big hot bowl of noodles and three small bowls of rice. It so happened that the lady misunderstood when my hubby and his friend had explained to her the options of veggies that we eat and she thought that we wanted to have all those. She asked the staff to prepare Individual dishes out of those veggies! Though the food was tasty we had lot of leftovers!

That was the first time I ever tried out Broccoli and did I say I loved it. Now it has been one of the regular dishes that we order everytime we go out. I prefer it over the Cauliflower!! This recipe was given by my Cousin sister, Archanakka. I only made a change to her recipe by adding garlic too. Almost all the chinese resturants here add garlic juice to Broccoli stri fry and I love its taste.

Here is what's needed:

1 medium Broccoli cut into florets and cleaned

2-3 garlic cloves minced

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Olive oil

Procedure:

1) Heat Olive oil and add Garlic. Saute it for 30secs.

2) Add Broccoli and stir fry for 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add salt and pepper to taste and Serve hot.

Broccoli's nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A (mostly as beta-carotene), folic acid, calcium, and fiber. Broccoli is an important calcium source for those who don't consume dairy products. For more info on Broccoli click here.

I am sending this diet food over to Divya's Diet Food Event. Thank you Divya for this wonderful event.

Theek Rotti ~ Spicy Puri

2008-10-13T19:26:00.001-07:00

Sunday breakfast at home was always special at home. Amma would make something different than the regular breakfast items. Sunday was reserved for Puri - Kurma/Bhaji, Shevai, Pulav Masala Dosa..etc. Anything other than the normal fare. One such item was this Theek Puri. This is easy to make and can be fixed within minutes and it also does not need any side dishes to go with it. It is also perfect for evening snack with a hot cup of Coffee/Tea.

Here is what's needed:

Wheat flour

1 tsp Chilli powder ( adjust as per taste)

2 tsp Rava/Semolina

1 tsp Asafoetida water/a pinch

Salt to taste

For Seasoning:

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Urad dal

5-6 Curry leaves torn into bits

Water to knead the dough

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

1) Prepare seasoning by heating little oil. Add in Mustard seeds when they crackle add in Urad dal and fry until pink. Add the Curry leaves switch off.

2) Take some warm water in a bowl to knead the dough. Add Salt. Pour the seasoning into it. Add Chilli powder,Semolina and Asafoetida. Mix well.

3) Add Wheat flour as needed and knead it into smooth dough. It should be harder than the Chapathi dough.

4) Make small balls from the dough and roll it into Puri's. Fry the Puri's in hot oil. Serve hot.

About me ~ Meme

2008-10-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Mahimaa Of Indian Vegetarian Kitchen has tagged me for a Meme. Thank you Mahimaa.

Here are the rules for the Meme:-

(a) List these rules on your blog.
(b) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
(c) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

According to it I have to share 7 facts about me. So here it goes:

1) I Love cartoons!! So much that I can sit with a kid and enjoy more than a kid! I enjoy Popeye the Sailor,Tom and Jerry, Dexter's laboratory, etc etc ;)

2) I am crazy about Soft toys.. My hubby and cousins worry that in future when I have a kid there would be a fight between me and my kid for the soft toy!!!

3) Before serving anyone food I have to check for salt and taste. I cannot just cook anything and serve right away without it being tasted. I wonder how our elders could just serve it right away and still it would always be perfect. That's what is called Experience I guess!

4) Chocolates and Ice-creams are my weakness. I can have them at any time of the day.

5) I am scared of water on floor. I have seen a lot of people falling on floor so whenever I see water on floor I have to clean it up!!! It also makes me a cleanliness freak.

6) I am scared about all the creepy and crawling animals/insects.

7) I am scared to try new cuisines. Unless I get someone to vouch that it is good I would not prefer to go for it. When I cook something and it becomes a disaster my mood goes off easily.

It was fun taking this tag. Thanks Mahimaa.Now the next part. I have to tag 7 more people to do this meme.

I tag Dershana, Sripriya, Shreya,Deesha, Pavani,Kitchen Queen, Anudivya.

Do take up the tag if you have time :)

VijayaDashmi Special - Rava Payasam

2008-10-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

As a child,festivals were the time we loved the most. Holiday from school.. special food at home and outing at evenings to temple.. We really looked forward to it. During Navrathri we usually have Ayudha Pooja at home and also "Nave javche" which means eating from new harvest.

Ayudha Pooja is performed at my mom's place every year. The previous day all the vehicles would get washed and polished neatly and get decorated with a flower garland for Pooja. The priest would come early in the morning at around 5:30 or 6 AM to perform the Pooja. Every vehicle would have a tilak of Kumkum.After performing Arati to all the vehicles he would touch a coconut to all the tyres of the vehicles and then hit it to the ground and chant mantras to ward off any forthcoming accidents or problems. A lemon and a piece of Ashgourd would be kept in front of each tyre of the vehicle and after the Pooja the vehicle would be started to pass of by these crushing them. It was fun to watch my dad,uncle (now my hubby too!!!) and brother's to take the vehicle over those as sometimes the vehicle would not just go over it if the piece was too big or the lemon would just roll away without getting Crushed!!

In one of the nine days of Navrathri we would have "Navie javche" at our place. We usually had it on Vijaydashmi. New harvest is brought from Paddy fields or from temple. Along with few vegetables it is kept in front off Tulsi and a pooja is done. The paddy is wrapped in a mango leaf and tied to Rice containers, Rice cooking vessel,Tulsi etc. This is done to celebrate the new harvest. We usually make a sweet out of rice and different traditional items for lunch.

We celebrated "VijayaDashami" and "Nave javche" yesterday. We did a small pooja at home and I made a few traditional items and Rava Payasam for nivedyam. I did not make Rice Payasam as I did not have turmeric leaves which give a nice aroma to the Payasam.

Rava Payasam is a simple dessert to make and eat too (You do not have to bite into it,except for cashews!) :) I personally prefer Jaggery+Coconut milk based Payasams than the milk ones and its healthy too.

Here is what's needed:

1/2 Cup Wheat Rava /Semolina

1/2 - 3/4 cup grated jaggery(adjust as per taste)

10-12 cashews halved & boiled

1 cup thick Coconut milk

1 -1.5 cup Water or thin Coconut milk

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder

Procedure:

1)Dry roast Rava/Semolina until fragrant.

2)Add boiled cashews and thin coconut milk/water to rava and cook until done. Add water if necessary.

3)Add grated Jaggery and stir until jaggery dissolves completely. Add Coconut milk and bring it to a boil it over a moderate heat. Add Cardamom powder and mix well. Take off the flame and serve hot!

The colour of the Payasam depends on the colour of Jaggery. Mine was light brown hence this colour.

I am sending this over to Sunshine mom's - TongueTicklers who is hosting Food in colours event and the choice of her colour is "Brown".

I am also sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting JFI - Nov 08

Update: I am also sending this over to Vaishali who is hosting Sweet Vegan Event. Thanks Vaishali for this wonderful event. Thank you Sunshinemom for reminding me to send this over to Vaishali.