Khazana of my favorite recipes..

Stuffed Okras

2012-01-12T17:25:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday season. Like many people, I am not good at keeping up New year resolutions. They are easy to make, but not easy to keep. I recently read that a study shows that the average time most people stick to their New Year’s Resolution is one month. I am one of them. I have tried and given up now. These days, I tend to make commitments anytime in the year, when I really have the spirit to do it. And my simple solution to keep up with commitments is lowering the bar - I try to set realistic goals, yet demanding goals - something that can still give me a satisfaction of Mission accomplished!

With that being said, I certainly do have some things I would like to get better at in 2012. The first and foremost is "Post more often"! I started my previous year with the same goal and have not been good in keeping up with it :) However this year it is more realistic since I will be done with my school in a few months and certainly looking forward to get back my time to do my favorite things. The second one is "Eat a healthy breakfast". I'm not a breakfast person. Except in the weekends and when I am on vacation, I don't really eat breakfast. Although I've started practicing the habit of eating breakfast since last September, I would like to get regular at it and making it more healthier is this year's goal - probably a step ahead. Hoping to keep up with these two as much as I can.

About this recipe, this recipe is adapted from a cookbook. I made it a while back and tweaked a little bit to suit my taste. Okra is something that I get fresh many times during the week in my local grocery store. If I have the patience, I end up collecting fairly tender ones during my visits, although not always - especially when the store is crowded and 3 people plunging their hands into the box at the sametime to get the Okras. I do not prefer shopping during busy times and hate making my way through the aisles when it is crowded. So, I shop when it is dead. One quiet day, I was lucky to see the store keeper dumping some fresh okras in the box right in front of me and obviously I bought a few pounds. This dish came out so good with those tender okras. Definitely worth a try.

Ingredients:

Fresh tender Okras - 15 numbers

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Corriander powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Dry Mango powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Peanut Powder (finely powdered) - 2 tbsps

Ginger / Garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Tomato Ketchup - 1 tsp

Tomatoes - 1 medium (finely chopped)

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Corriander leaves - chopped -a handfull

Salt - as required

Procedure:

Wash the okras, pat dry with a paper towel. Remove the front and back parts. Set aside.

Take a large flat pan, preferably non-stick and heat 2 tsp of oil. Add the full okras and give it a quick toss for 2 -3 mins on high heat. Keep stir-frying continuosly until you see a few brown spots on the okras. Remove from heat and cool for 5 mins.

Meanwhile to prepare the stuffing, mix all the spice powders above with tomato ketchup and salt to a smooth paste. You can add a few drops of water if needed. The paste should be thick and should stay intact within the okras when stuffed.

Slit the Okras in the middle, but not fully. Take a okra, fill it with the paste, tightly close it and wipe off the extra paste outside. You can use a small flat dinner knife if that helps.

Repeat this for all okras and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan, season with cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a min. Then add chopped tomatoes and fry until they become a paste.

Add the stuffed okras and add the remaining stuffing, if any. Give it a good slow stir and and spread the okras individually throughout the pan.

Cook in low heat until the okras are fully cooked. Takes about 20 mins. Keep stirring often every few mins. When done, season with Corriander leaves.

You now have another great side dish for rotis!

Spicy Chicken - Andhra Style

2011-11-06T20:00:00.001-06:00

There are certain recipes I know I just have to try when I hear about them. Any recipe that focuses on authentic Andhra or Chettinad food, I'm ready to take a stab at it. I know it will satisfy my taste buds even if it doesn't turn out to be perfect. Everytime I visit India, I make sure I enjoy both Andhra and Chettinad foods in my favorite restaurants, especially the Andhra meals in a thali.

I am not against those recipes featuring extensive instructions or with ingredient lists spreading across pages, but I am sure I'm not trying one of those on a cold and dark autumn evening like today. With darkness hitting at 6 in the evening today, I'm all settled for a simple dinner and a movie. This is a traditional chicken dish from Andhra Pradesh and goes well with any kind of main dishes like rice or roti. The simple ingredients and quick preparation lets me relish this dish often at home. I have been planning to post this recipe for a long time and finally had time to post it today. Generally, this dish tastes awesome if its made a day before since the spicy flavors are enhanced over time and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 lb (I prefer chicken with bones and a little bit of skin)

Ginger/Garlic paste - 2 tsp

Onions - finely chopped - 1 cup

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

G.chillies - 4

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Corriander leaves - 1/2 cup, chopped

Freshly ground spice powder - 2 tbsp (recipe below)

Procedure:

Pressure cook the chicken pieces along with 2 tbsp chopped onions, ginger/garlic paste, turmeric and salt. Just add enough water to cook the chicken. Since this is not a gravy dish, too much water may alter the texture and taste of the chicken.

Meanwhile, to make the spice powder, shallow fry 1 r.chilly, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tbsp corriander seeds, 2 inch cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 2 cardamoms in a tsp of oil until nice aroma arises. Cool and grind to a fine powder. Set aside. I usually make this extra and store in refregirator for later use. This spice mix can be used for most of the non-veg dishes.

Heat 2 tbs oil in a wide pan, fry the remaining onions, g.chillies and curry leaves until the onions are nicely fried.

Add the pressure cooked chicken along with the stock and mix well. Let it boil until it becomes a thick gravy. Increase the heat, add the prepared spice powder and corriander leaves and stir fry gently until all the gravy dries and the chicken is roasted well. If desired, add 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder at the end after switching off the heat, mix and cover it until served.

A very flavorful chicken dish is ready!

Enjoy Diwali with Sweet Rava Puri and Coconut Burfi

2011-10-26T20:27:00.001-05:00

WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A VERY HAPPY AND SAFE DIWALI!

The happy days of Diwali are here. Sweets, snacks, special food, family, friends, fireworks, new movies, new clothes, jewels, poojas - wow, so many things to look forward to Diwali! I can summarize my earlier remembrance of Diwali in three words - Sweets, Dress and Fireworks. I have always enjoyed celebrating Diwali. Who doesn't? The Diwali fever starts several days earlier and continues for several days after the festival, or until all the sweets are finished :) I end up eating just too much home made snacks & sweets and to add to it, the extra sweets that get sent in by neighbors and relatives. I'm sure I will test high in sugar for several days.

Being in America, I have to agree that the fun has reduced to half. I can barely relate to my Diwali experiences back home. Indeed I do get into the Diwali mood here too when I see desi crowd in Indian stores, the colorful diwali lamps sold at the stores. But there's still so much msising. The sound and smell of fireworks is missing. The shopping experience is not even close to what I'm used to. Shopping for the latest trend, looking for special promotions, shopping with family amidst of the diwali crowd, showing off the dresses to family and friends - there's just so much to experience the culture. I'm the only one excited about Diwali in my family. My daugter has never experienced Diwali in India and says I'm over excited about Diwali. How much ever I explain to her, she doesn't seem to understand what my enthusiassm and fuss is all about. Its still an imaginary world for her.

Alright, hope you all had a great Diwali. Just want to share my recipes that I made today..

Sweet Rava Puri:

Soak 2 cups of Rawa/Sooji with very little amount of water until its fully wet. Its better to keep sprinkling and mixing until its completely wet. You can repeat this in 10 mins intervals as the moisture is absorbed and leave it for 1 hour. If the mixture is too watery, you can add maida to make it thicker. The final consistency should be equal to regular puri dough.

Heat 3 cups of sugar in 2 cups of water and boil for 10 - 15 mins until it becomes a thick syrup. This may take atleast 15 mins in medium heat. Add 2 tsp crushed cardamom and 2 tsp rose water. Mix it well and remove from heat.

Make round puris of the dough, deep fry in oil and drop them in the sugar syrup one by one. Soak for 2 mins, remove and arrange in a plate. Repeat this with the remaining dough. Finally sprinkle saffron and almond slices.

Easy Coconut Burfi:

Mix 2 cups of freshly shredded coconut and 2 cups of sugar in a wide pan. Keep stirring for 10 mins in medium heat. Add crushed cardamom and a pinch of salt. Keep stirring until it becomes thick and starts separating from the vessel. Pour the mixture in a ghee-greased plate. Let it cool and cut into square pieces. You can also add some crushed almond/cashews powder while the mixture is boiling. This adds great flavor.

Jeera Aloo - Cumin roasted potatoes

2011-10-02T19:14:00.002-05:00

I don't know why, but I've been craving for comfort food lately. All I wanted to eat for the last few days was some curd rice with roasted potatoes. That pleases my taste buds and tummy immensely. Especially, I love potatoes in any form. I had a long week and was tired when I came home today. I was feeling lazy to cook, and neither was in a mood to go out for dinner. Since its almost end of the week, I didn't have much stuff in the fridge too except a few baby potatoes.

I bought these potatoes last week when I was roaming around in a grocery store to kill some time while waiting for my daughter's dance class to get over. With my craving for comfort food at its peak, I can't help buying a few pounds of these cute little red baby potatoes. Its been lying in my fridge just because I didn't know what to do with them. After peeking at my recipe list and after a long debate whether to make Dum-aloo or Jeera Aloo, today I settled with Jeera aloo, merely because it was easy to make. Jeera aloo has been in my to-try list for a long time. I know its such a common and popular recipe in many house holds, but yes you read it right, I'm trying it for the first time. It came out delicious as expected.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes - 12

Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Corriander seeds - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Procedure

Pressure cook the potatoes, peel the skin and leave them aside. If they are a little big in size, you can cut them into half. The pieces should be a bit bigger.

Heat a pan, roast the cumin powder without oil and remove separately.

In the same pan, roast the corriander powder and grind them coarsely. No need to powder them too fine.

Heat oil (a bit extra than usual) and season with Cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the potatoes, Chilli, turmeric, corriander and cumin powders, salt and mix well.

Cover and cook for 5 mins in low heat. Now increase the heat and roast them until they turn into a nice brown color.

Ultimate combination with curd rice :)

Mushroom Kurma

2011-09-21T21:52:00.015-05:00

My blog posts are becoming shorter and shorter and less frequent. I'm trying my best to keep my blog active and post recipes as much as I can since my sweet friends are often checking with me about new recipes. I do know people come and check often on my recipes and read my posts and I feel bad disappointing them everytime. As my routine has become more busy lately with my school and office work, my priorities have changed, although in the back of my mind I miss blogging terribly and I just can't wait to come back to my old routine.

Hope you all had a great summer. Sorry for disappearing without notice. Summer just flew away so fast and I had a fabulous time at India. Was excited to be with my entire family for a few weeks and had lots of fun shopping around apparels, jewelry and eating out. This time we tried a lot of new restaurants in Bangalore, including street side dosa stall :) That dosa stall was simply amazing and had some of the best dosas I've ever had. I have a lot to ramble about my India trip but just don't have the time to sit and write. So, jumping to the recipe right away.

Rice and any curry will fit into any meal in my day. My mother-in-law made this yummy kurma when we were in India and it was delicious with plain rice. I'm now totally fond of this curry and have tried out a couple of times after I came back from India. When I grew up in India we hardly cooked mushrooms, but this time I was pleasantly surprised to see mushrooms in almost all grocery stores in India. She said she just tried this recipe on her own, by adjusting to her likes and it just came out delicious. She was right, it was delicious.

Ingredients

Button Mushrooms - chopped or sliced - 2 cups

Potato - 1 medium

Onions - 1 medium

Garlic - 4 cloves

G.chillies - 2 small

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Corriander powder - 3 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup

Cashews - 10 small pieces

Fennel Seeds - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Corriander leaves - a handful

Procedure

Make a thick paste out of shredded coconut, cashews, 1 clove garlic and 1 tsp fennel seeds. Set aside.

Peel the potatoes and chop them into medium size cubes.

Heat a wide pan, season with 1 tsp fennel seeds and curry leaves.

Add onions, g.chillies, garlic, salt and fry for a few mins until the onions become golden brown.

Add tomatoes, chilli, corriander and turmeric powders. Mix well and fry for a few more mins.

Add the chopped potates and mix them well, then add the chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup water and cover and cook in medium heat for about 15 mins. I usually pressure cook this mixture with mushrooms for 2 whistles as its faster.

Now add the coconut paste, a little more water if required and boil for 5 mins.

Remove from heat when the gravy becomes a bit thicker or to your required consistency.

Add lemon juice, mix well and garnish with corriander leaves.

Awesome mushroom kurma is ready. I let it rest for 30 mins before serving with rice.

Keerai Masiyal

2011-07-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, it was super hot today. My car's barometer was reading in 3 digits at 7 pm. I was sitting indoor for my daughter's swimming class, and felt as if I was sitting in a warehouse that has no AC. I was just sweating so much. Its been like this for a few days now, and its getting worse tomorrow. I can't wait for this heat wave to get over. I had plans to go to our local famer's market tomorrow, but I guess I have to drop it. I want to stay indoors as much as possible until it gets a little better outside. Its frustrating when I can't enjoy summer the way I would like to. I absolutely wait for summer because we spend 8 months of the year depressed and stuck inside the house as it is brutally cold outside. I dream of living in Florida and California but I guess if I live there, I will be complaining about the heat just like I complain about the cold.

OK, about this recipe.. I have always been attracted to traditional home made recipes and this is no exception. Simple, Delicious, Satisfying. A lot of people knock spinach, but I really love it. I make this at home often since its my daughter's favorite. Whenever I'm really strapped for time, this turns out to be such a helpful recipe. When mixed with rice or had with rotis, it is equally good.

Ingredients:

Spinach - chopped - 3 cups
White or Red Onions - 1 small
Garlic - 2 cloves
G.chillies - 2 small (or as required)
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Milk - 2 tbsp
Dried red chilli - 1
Asafoetida - a pinch

Procedure:

1. Wash thoroughly and chop the spinach.
2. Heat oil in a pan, season with cumin seeds. Add chopped onions and chopped garlic, fry for a few mins.
3. Add the spinach and salt and mix well. Cover it in low heat for about 10 mins until the spinach is fully cooked. No need to add water.
4. Once its fully cooked, let it cool for a few mins. Add milk and run it in a blender until its a paste.
5.Transfer it to a bowl. Heat some ghee in a pan, add mustard seeds, red chilly and asafoetida. Pour it on top of the spinach.

Tastes awesome with plain rice.

Bagara Baingan - Eggplants in a spicy peanut sauce

2011-07-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Just got back from yet another amazing 3 day camping trip! It was a fantastic weekend. Highlights are awesome food, great company from lovely friends, awesome beach and ofcourse a very enjoyable campfire talk. The downside was it was a lot hotter than anticipated. Now I have a very red nose and forehead and a sunburnt arm. Contradicting the daytime, nights were super cold and the temp dropped down to lower 50s. Luckily we were pretty much equipped for the chill weather and I had a peaceful sleep all three nights. It was pretty windy too sometimes. Just as we were finishing mounting our tents, a HUGE gust of wind blew our unmounted tent rolling it across our campsite several times. We were running behind it (literally) to get hold of it, but it was rolling faster than us until it hit a big bush and stopped. That was quite funny to watch and probably I would remember forever.

Campfires are great just watching and they have a magical way of bringing people together. Sitting around a campfire brings back warm memories. After cleaning up from an awesome dinner, we settled around the campfire and had a hearty laugh for hours. There is a sense of friendly atmosphere and a feeling that we are all one around the campfire. Whether liquor or Smores, those are always good times to enjoy during camping. We had a great time together this year too and its just too hard to get back to work this morning.

After coming back, as usual I long for some warm comfort food. I had emptied my fridge before I left, so had to buy some fresh veggies for dinner today. Found some fresh brinjals at store and decided to make this flavorful recipe. Bagara Baingan is one of my favorites and a friend of mine had also requested recently to post some eggplant recipes. Awesome combination for Briyani and Rotis.

Ingredients:

Indian Eggplants (brinjals) - 10 small sized.
Onion - 1 medium
Ginger / Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Peanuts - 5 tbsp
White Sesame seeds - 3 tbsp
Shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 3 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Tamarind Juice - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1 tbsp (optional)
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
Cloves - 3
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Corriander leaves - to garnish

Procedure:

1. Dry roast the peanuts in a pan (I usually buy the roasted peanuts from stores to avoid this step). Add the sesame seeds to the peanuts and fry until both turn to a golden brown color with a nice aroma. Finally add the shredded coconut and fry for a min. Set aside, cool this mixture and grind them together with all the spice powders and salt to a smooth thick paste. Do not add too much water.

2. Slit the brinjals from the back side (side without stem) into 4 cuts. Do not cut them fully, and leave the cuts until it reaches half or 3/4ths of the vegetable's length.

3. Stuff the spice paste into the brinjals and arrange them in a plate. Leave some leftover of the paste aside.

4. Heat oil in a wide pan, season with cinnamon, cloves, mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

5. Once they splatter, add chopped onions and fry for a min. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 more min.

6. Now add the stuffed brinjals slowly in the pan and mix them until the brinjals are well coated with the onion mixture. If there's some leftover paste, add it now on the eggplants. Simmer the heat and cover for 5 - 10 mins.

7. When the brinjals are almost cooked, add the tamarind juice and jaggery and check for salt. If required, add accordingly. Boil in slow heat for a few more mins until the gravy thickens. Stir the mixture slowly to retain the shape of the brinjals.

8. Garnish with corriander leaves and remove from heat.

Enjoy with hot rotis or briyani!

Watermelon Lemon Chiller - A Summer treat!

2011-06-27T22:52:00.024-05:00

I love watermelon - its my favorite summertime fruit - so refreshing to enjoy it on a hot summer day! The color and the texture just amaze me - one of nature's wonders according to me. I have also read articles recently that this fruit has a lot of health values when consumed regularly. Its quite filling and a few slices are sufficient to compensate a light lunch and contributes to a healthy diet. Yesterday, I picked up two mini locally grown organic melons from a local store and they were just awesome. It pretty much refueled my summer addiction. Everytime I cut this fruit, I go on eating and eating until I force myself to stop and store a few pieces in the fridge for others. Everytime the bowl comes out of the fridge, the madness begins :)

This is a quick summer beverage - Watermelon lemon chiller. Interestingly, a few simple additions to the juice enhance the naturally sweet flavor with a new twist. I've tried different variations like adding mint, lemon, sugar and salt etc to the extracted juice and everytime it comes out good and quite different. My daughter loves this lemon flavored watermelon juice. This summer I've made it a couple of times for her and she loves preparing it with me - A good holiday activity to keep her engaged.

Ingredients:

Seedless Watermelon cut into cubes - 3 cups
Sugar - 2 tbsp (adjust to your taste)
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Mint leaves a few
Sliced Lemon wedges - 2 or 3

Procedure:
Run the watermelon cubes in a blender and filter the juice through a strainer.
Add sugar, mint leaves and lemon juice and mix for 2 or 3 mins.
Take a glass, add crushed ice and fill with the juice. Drop a sliced lemon wedge and mix it well.

Perfect for a hot summer day!

Grilled / Baked Chicken - Get Fired up!

2011-06-20T23:10:00.000-05:00

Its grilling season! Summer is the ultimate season I wait upon. Eventhough its hot as hell, just the feeling its gone before you know it, makes me enjoy the heat as much as I can. There are just so many things to do outside - biking, picnic, camping, grill parties... and many more. Anyway, summer is here finally and its getting gorgeous day by day. Grilling gets good in summer, but actually I enjoy grilling in the spring when the weather is more enjoyable to do - a bit of chill, lots of moisture, warm air from a grill, smoked flavor.. perfect!

Whenever I ride through my neighborhood and smell other people cooking out, I can't help but want to take out my grill or go for a picnic. Now don't get me wrong, I've always loved grilled food, but didn't want to grill ever. I know people who just thoroughly enjoy grilling - no matter how the weather is outside - like my brother-in-law who enjoys grilling even when its snowing outside. With his winter gear and hood on, he grills awesome chicken and says he enjoys grilling. Another friend of mine never gets tired of grilling and has extreme patience and can keep grilling for several hours. There is some magic in his grilling - anything that comes out of his grill is so flavorful and tender. So, I prefer the expert grillers do the job and I just want to enjoy the outcome.

Here is an awesome summertime recipe my sister shared with me. She said she enjoyed it at her friend's place who is an expert in grilling. A yummy recipe that requries very little preparation time, but comes out great from the grill.

Lemon-Oregano Chicken

2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

8 chicken thighs with skin (about 1 3/4 pounds)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Accompaniment: lemon wedges

Procedure:

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, then whisk together with 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Pat chicken dry and coat with lemon-garlic mixture.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter and remaining tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until foam subsides.

Brown chicken in 2 batches, skin side down, until golden and crisp, 5 to 6 minutes (chicken will not be cooked through).

Transfer, skin side up, to a 4-sided sheet pan.Pour off fat (and any small burnt pieces) from skillet.

Add broth and remaining tablespoon lemon juice and boil until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Whisk in remaining tablespoon butter and oregano, then pour over chicken.

Let it sit for sometime and then arrange the pieces on the grill and grill until completely cooked.

Alternatively, you can also roast chicken in oven until cooked through, about 20 minutes in about 450°F with rack in middle.

Season with salt and pepper.

Arai Pulikulambu (Spicy tamarind gravy with green peas and yam)

2011-05-17T20:20:00.008-05:00

Fresh Spring produce has just begun to trickle into markets - I've started spotting my favorite spring fruits like fresh mangoes and berries in my local grocery stores. One other vegetable that I wait for in spring is fresh Green peas in shells - Sweet peas, Pod peas, Green Peas - however you want to call them. Fresh peas are the best and I enjoy the fresh taste of a pod peas which is the only version I have tasted in my chilhood, unlike the frozen and canned peas that are available now. I used to have immense pleasure in popping out the peas from their shells in my younger days because they are so much easier than chopping onions or any other vegetables. Anything easy in the kitchen, I can do it.

This recipe is from my good friend who cooks some amazing dishes. I fall for her authentic south indian dishes that taste awesome and bring those traditional flavors back to my memory. I have got quite a few nice recipes from her which I obviously would love to share in my blog and here comes one of them. This dish is similar to vathal kulambu or kara kulambu, but uses only half of the tamarind quantity of the regular vathal kulambu and hence the name Arai Pulikulambu meaning "light tamarind gravy". It has a unique combination of coconut milk, lentils, peas and yam. Peas can be substituted with chick peas too. I've tried both versions and both are equally tasty. The peas version nicely brings out the mild yet vibrant flavor of peas combined with coconut milk and I fully enjoyed a couple of servings of this gravy with white rice.

Ingredients

1. Peas - 1 cup

2. Yam (Chenaikilangu) - chopped into 1 inch cubes - 1 cup (Frozen is fine)

3. Cooked Tuvar dal - 1 cup

4. Tamarind juice - 1/2 cup (not too thick)

5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

6. Sambar powder - 1 tsp

7. Chana dal - 1 tbsp

8. Dry red chillies - 2

9. Cumin seeds - 2 tsp

10. Coconut Milk (not too thick) - 1 cup

11. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

12. Urad dal - 1 tsp

13. Curry leaves & Corriander leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook the tuvar dal and set aside (cooked dal should be about 1 cup)
2. Take a wide pan and roast the chana dal, cumin seeds and red chillies in medium heat until a nice aroma rises. Cool and grind to a coarse powder.
3. In the same pan, boil together Tamarind juice, Yam, peas, turmeric powder, sambar powder and salt. You can add additional water (about 1 cup) to this mixture and let it boil for 10 - 15 mins or until the vegetables are almost cooked.
4. Now add the cooked dal and the ground powder to this mixture and mix well. Let it boil for a few mins.
5. Add the coconut milk and let it boil.
6. Finally heat oil or 1 tbsp ghee in a separate pan, season with mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add it to the boiling mixture.
7. Mix well and boil it for 2 or 3 mins. Garnish with corriander leaves.

In fact, this dish is best when left overnight and consumed the next day!

Cauliflower Paneer Burji (Stir-fry)

2011-05-03T15:36:00.005-05:00

Here is yet another yummy cauliflower dish. Have you ever heard about Paneer and cauliflower combo? It sounded new to me when I came across this recipe in Tarla Dalal's recipe book. Probably its just my ignorance but I thought this was a less popular combo. I know any paneer fans out there will like this recipe. And anyone like me who is a cauliflower fan will double like it! As mentioned in my previous post, if I had to name my favorite vegetable, cauliflower would be somewhere top in my list. Somehow the delicate taste and intricate florets make me fall for it. So, when I came across this recipe, I knew I would like it no matter how I make it. I did a few modifications from what I saw in the recipe book to suit my taste. Hope you all like it too.

Ingredients

Cauliflower - 1 medium
Paneer - 1 cup (grated)
Onions - chopped finely - 1/2 cup
G.chillies - 2 chopped finely
Ginger and garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Tomato - 1 small
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Amchur powder (optional) - 1/2 tsp
Kasoori methi (crushed) - 1 tsp
Corriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1. Wash the cauliflower florets thoroughly and grate them finely (I usually grate it through a food processor and just takes 5 mins). Set aside.
2. Grate the paneer and set aside. (Use food processor if you have one).
3. Chop the onions, g.chillies and tomatoes very finely. This brings a nice texture to the dish.
4. Heat oil in large shallow pan. Season with Cumin seeds. Once they splutter add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a min.
5. Add onions, fry until they are soft.
6. Add tomotoes, all the spice powders (except kasoori methi) and fry in low heat for about 5 mins.
7. Add grated cauliflower and salt, mix well and cover in low heat for about 5 mins. They get cooked fast as they are grated.
8. Increase the heat, add grated Paneer, Kasoori Methi and keep stir-frying in high heat for about 3 - 5mins.
9. Add corriander leaves and fry for another min or so.

Remove from heat immediately.

Cauliflower Stir-Fry in 3 easy steps

2011-03-29T18:57:00.011-05:00

My fridge always has cauliflower as its one of our all time favorite veggies and its available all year round. Its delightfully fragrant even when tossed with just mild spices. Its disappointing when I hardly find any cauliflower items in an Indian restaurant's menu except Aloo gobi and sometimes Gobi Manchurian. I do try quite a few gravy dishes with cauli, but this one is our most favorite Cauli dish. After getting used to the salads , I now even enjoy them raw. I just love the sculptural beauty itself. But it was saddening when I read recently that newspapers are now reporting that cauliflower has joined the list of least-loved and the sales have also slumped down - because people think its difficult to cook and less interesting when compared to broccoli. I thought that was strange because I think it is a wonderful vegetable and can produce great culinary effects.

Here is a quick and easy recipe with cauliflower. Drizzle some oil, throw in the cauliflower along with salt and a tsp of chilli and corriander powders. Cook in low heat, then raise the heat until brown. There you go! Delicious cauliflower stir-fry is ready. Really, thats all you need to do. Tastes awesome with Rotis as well as any rice dish.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets - 3 cups

Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp

Corriander powder - 1.5 tsp

Salt

Procedure

Heat oil in a wide non-stick pan. Toss in all the ingredients together and fry until they are mixed well.

Add about 3 tbsp of water and cover in low heat until cooked. Open and stir-fry once in a while.

When fully cooked, raise the heat, add 1 tbsp oil and fry until they are browned.

I enjoy this best with rotis.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-03-20T16:39:00.013-05:00

Its the first day of spring! And to celebrate I'm sharing a wonderful recipe that came out delicious from my oven this evening. Since it was raining most of the day today I couldn't finish my outside chores as planned. Stuck at home, I was in a mood to bake some goodies this evening. Baking usually doesn't excite me if it requires more than the minimal effort. But its so good to know that my daughter has a great liking towards baking unlike me. To sustain her interest, I nowadays bake with her frequently and try some easy recipes in oven. Today, we tried this together and she was totally excited and amazed with the outcome.

Since I hadn't eaten any chocolaty dessert in a while, I was inclined towards baking something chocolaty today. After scouring the internet, we decided to try this Chocolate chip muffins as its my daughter's favorite and I also wanted to use the mini non-stick muffin pan I had recently bought. This is a recipe that I found in foodnetwork.com. A very simple recipe that can be put together in a few minutes. I exactly followed the recipe from the below link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-chocolate-chip-muffins-recipe/index.html

Egg and Onions Stir Fry

2011-03-13T20:08:00.015-05:00

The tragedy in Japan is quite disturbing. Though the residents of Japan have already experienced their share of quakes through the years, 8.9 magnitude is quite high and followed by a tsunami is deadly. Its saddening to see the videos during the moment of the quake and the minute the tsunami hit. For the people there, the psychological trauma probably overweighs anything else. Hope the people of Japan bounce back from this tragedy soon.

Well, the weekend is gone already! We headed up to Milwaukee, WI this weekend for a change. It was indeed cold. Yes, it sounds wierd to head north and be in a colder place at this time of the year. But just to get away from our regular weekend routine and driving for 2 hrs, checking in a hotel, enjoying an Irish breakfast early in the morning and visiting the Milwaukee museum -- all these make the weekend totally special. No doubt I enjoy a hot breakfast accompanied by hot coffee on a cold morning. This morning, we were hunting for a good breakfast place and spent almost half-an-hour just driving up and down the downtown streets looking for a traditional breakfast place. When almost ready to give up, we sighted this small corner coffee place which looked ok from outside. We decided to give it a shot and I should say - we had an awesome breakfast! The place was small and cozy with original Irish setup. The people running the restaurant were dressed traditionally like Irish. They had a variety of choices and I made up my mind to try the Brazilian breakfast - a bowl of Vanilla and Strawberry yogurt mixed with fresh berries, granola, raisins and topped with sweet mango slices. Wow - that was super delicious! A simple, healthy and delicious way to get the day started! I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee and was totally charged for the day ahead. The mango sure adds a kick! I'm sure I'm going to try this recipe at home many times in next few weeks.

Alright, coming to this recipe.. This is one of my favorite egg recipes that I have tasted back in India in local restaurants. This was mostly available in road-side eateries that serve Parottas and Chalna and this egg stirfry is served as a side dish. Its called "Muttai Vengaya Varuval" in the menu. After I moved here, this dish was out of my mind until recently I suddenly remembered how much I used to enjoy this dish before. I tried this recipe just from the taste I remember - and surprisingly it came out pretty close to the original. Seems like I still have not forgotten the taste and its been lingering in the back of mind all these years! Another simple yet flavorful egg dish got added to my menu this week!

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4
Shallots or Pearl Onions - 20 to 25 (You can substitute with 2 medium Red Onions)
G.chillies - 4 small (I make it hot, you can adjust to your preference)
Tomato - 1 small
Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Curry leaves - few
Corrainder leaves - a handfull
Salt as required

Procedure

Hard Boil the eggs, remove the shells, cut the eggs into half vertically.
Mix the pepper powder and salt together and apply it to the eggs on the yolk side.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and place the eggs with yolk side down on the pan. Let it brown for a min and gently turn them over to the other side. Brown for a minute. Remove them to a plate.
In the same pan, add 1 tbsp oil, season with mustard seeds, Urad dal and Asafoetida and fry for a min. Add curry leaves.
Then add chopped onions and g.chillies and fry until onions are well fried.
Add chopped tomatoes and fry until they lose shape. Adding more tomatoes changes the texture of the dish. So just 1 small tomato is sufficient to bring the taste.
Add very little salt (the eggs are already roasted with salt) and mix well.
Now add the eggs and gently stir-fry with the mixture until no moisture is left and the dish is completely dry and well fried.
Garnish with corriander leaves.

Enjoy with any rice dish.

Chicken Sliders - A Party Favorite..

2011-03-06T17:45:00.006-06:00

I very much enjoy the free samples given away at the food stores. Those little treats taste so good that sometimes I get too tempted and buy them. But when I make the same dish at home it somehow it doesn't taste the same to me. Especially, burgers. I have tasted mini pieces of veggie and chicken burger patties in the stores and used to love the flavor and juicy texture. I buy them right away but when I try the same product at home, there is something missing. Probably its just my speculation, but there's some magic to the tiny bites given at the store. After several tries, I just gave up buying the patties and just enjoy the samples for a moment and leave the place.

I've never made burgers from scratch at home either as I'm a little intimidated in the process of making the burger patties. But when my brother-in-law made this awesome burger for New year 2011, I realized its not that intimidating and actually its quite fun to make burgers. He really made it with lot of passion giving attention to even minor ingredients and it was all worth it. It came out awesome and was a big hit in our party. The specialty is the unique stuffing insie the patties. It turned out to be very flavorful with a soft and juicy texture. Thanks to him for this delicious recipe! He mentioned that this recipe is a combination of two recipes, the “Inside Out Burger” and the “Jalapeno sliders” from Food Network's website and modified to give an Indian twist.

Ingredients

6 slices turkey bacon, cut into bite size pieces (you can substitue with green bell peppers)
8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 pounds ground chicken or lamb
1 large Shallot, chopped fine
1.5 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
4 ounces Monterey pepper jack, cubed
12 mini burger buns
2 tablespoons olive
2 jalapenos sliced, for serving
1 cup creme fraiche or mayonaise
8-10 curry leaves, chopped fine

Procedure

Place the bacon in a large saute pan and cook until crispy, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat in the pan.
Add the mushrooms and cook until caramelized, about 5 minutes. Set the mushrooms aside to cool in a bowl.
In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, curry leaves, shallot, black pepper, salt, and Worcestershire. Separate the mixture into 10-12 equal portions. Divide each portion into 2 separate patties.
Combine the cheese into the cooled mushrooms and bacon mixture. Take 1 patty and top with a few ounces of the filling.
Place another patty on top and pinch around the edges to make sure that the filling is totally covered. Make the rest of the patties the same way.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Over medium-high heat, heat a large skillet with oil.
Once hot, add the burgers and cook for 2 minutes per side. Place the pan into the oven and cook for 4 to 6 more minutes for medium burgers. Alternately, you could cook the burgers on the skillet itself for 7mins each side or till they are cooked.
Lightly spread creme fraiche on both sides of buns. Place burgers in middle and pick it with a jalapeno.

You can enjoy these mini burgers as appetizers in any party.

Keerai Sadham (Spinach Rice)

2011-02-21T06:55:00.001-06:00

Aah, finally a warm weather this week. It was good to experience a quick winter thaw and get a glimpse of spring in mid-february. As soon as the calendar hits March, my mind automatically resets to Spring and its hard for me to put up with snow and sub-zero temps after that. I enter into what I call as "rejection mode". This week was very refreshing, but it was a busy week at work and I actually couldn't really enjoy the weather much. Most of this week, I was coming up with some quick dinner ideas and hardly had any time to cook anything elaborate.

I'm a spinach lover and due to the abundant availability of organic spinach consistently in my refregirator, I usually keep trying different recipes with spinach. I miss all those varieties of greens that I've enjoyed while growing up. After moving here, its just one spinach always, although after a long time I saw murungai keerai (drumstick leaves) in my local Indian grocery. I got this recipe from my mom at a perfect time while I was already looking for a quick recipe with spinach. This is an all-in-one recipe you can just eat without any accompaniments - may be with raita or pickle if needed. My daughter liked it too and I'm thrilled to add yet another delicious spinach dish to my lunch menu. If you are looking for a new spinach recipe, you are in for a treat.

Ingredients

Chopped Spinach - 2 cups
Uncooked Rice - 1 cup
Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Sambar powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind water - 1 cup
Pearl onions - 10 (or 1 medium onion)
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp

Procedure

Pressure cook the rice, dal, spinach, sambar powder, turmeric powder together.
Grind onions, cumin seeds and coconut together to a coarse paste (no need to be fine).
Heat a pan and add the tamarind water, 1 cup of water, salt and let it boil.
Add the paste. Mix, cover and boil in medium heat for about 10 mins until the sauce thickens a bit to a kuzhambu consistency.
Add this to the pressure cooked ingredients and mix gently.
Finally, heat ghee in a pan separately, season with mustard seeds and urad dal. Add this to the rice mixture and mix gently.

Serve hot. I enjoyed with papad!

Kollu Kulambu (Horsegram Curry with mild spices)

2011-02-13T18:34:00.003-06:00

My blog was about to go extinct when I suddenly got the urge to get back to blogging. Words have desserted me and I still don't seem to have much to write. Although I seem to have gotten the rhythm of posting atleast once a week, I know that my posts are boring nowadays. I'm still trying hard to get back my swing and I definitely need motivation to get back into writing. For now, these short posts are helping me gain my momentum.

But, I have to tell this - the more I start posting, eventhough I realize my posts are dull, I am slowly recovering my lost passion. I recently read somewhere that one way to get back to blogging is to work on changing the look of your blog than actually posting any. Sounds good! Here I am trying to give a new look to my blog. I changed my title banner today, not sure if any of you noticed. Slowly I'll start working on the other areas too. Strangely, while I published my new title banner today, I was feeling a bit odd. Don't know why. You know how we feel when you get a new haircut and feel a bit odd to walk into the office or school the next morning :) I had the same feeling today - well that made me also realize how much I care about my blog!

This is one of my favorite recipes. I enjoy anything made of kollu - I make a spicier version to go with rice, and a milder version to go with Rotis. For rotis you can make horsegram just the same way as Rajma. Here is a bit spicier version that will go well with rice.

Ingredients

Kollu/Horsegram - 1 cup
Onions - chopped finely - 1/2 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
G.Chillies - 3 sliced
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
Tamarind Paste - 1 tsp
Corriander leaves - a handful

Procedure

Soak the dal overnight. Kollu takes a longer time to soak and cook. So, leave it a bit longer than usual.
Wash the soaked dal, pressure cook it with 1 tsp ginger garlic paste, g.chillies and turmeric powder. Leave it a bit longer than usual time. Make sure to add a bit extra water too for the extra time.
After the dal is done, release the steam and drain most of the water into a separate contaier. Set aside.
Mash the dal well with a ladle or masher for a few mins.
Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onions till they change color. Add the remaining Ginger/Garlic paste and fry for a few mins.
Add tomatoes and chilli and corriander powders and fry until the tomatoes lose shape.
Now add the strained water from the dal, add salt, cover and cook in medium heat for 10 mins or until the raw smell goes.
Add the mashed dal to this mixture, add tamarind water and add corriander leaves - boil for 10 more mins in medium to low heat.
Let it sit for atleast 30 mins before serving - to get a better flavor.

Serve with hot plain rice.

Cucumber Kosumbari (Fresh Salad with Cucumbers and Lentils)

2011-02-06T09:28:00.000-06:00

Oh boy, What a storm that was! Our area is still recovering from a monster snow blizzard that brought 3 ft of snow and below-zero temperatures. Thunder snow is something that I've never heard so far, but witnessed this week. The lightning actually reflects on the white layer of snow and causes a purple/pink color all around for a second. That was really amazing to watch - like the special effects in a movie! Though experiencing a snow storm is fascinating to me, the after effect is horrible. Driving on the icy roads, with two lanes changed to one lane, with mountains of snow piled on the side for the next few days is not fun. This week's storm has given snow that will take several weeks to dissolve.

Alright, here is a fresh cucumber salad that I made recently. Though Kosumbari is a common recipe in southern part of India, surprisingly I've never had it until recently. A healthy snack loaded with proteins. I very much enjoyed it when I had it for the first time at my friend's place. Her mom is a very good cook and I always enjoy her dishes. I tried mimicing her recipe, and I was glad it came out pretty close to hers. Thank you aunty for this yummy and healthy recipe!

Ingredients

Yellow Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Cucumber - 1 medium sized or 2 small sized
G.chillies - 2
Curry leaves - a few
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a few pinches
Lemon Juice - 2 tsp
Black Pepper powde r - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Cook the moong dal in a little water until soft, but still in shape. You can also just use raw dal soaked in water for a few mins until soft.
Heat little oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add green chillies and fry for a min and add this mixure to the dal. Mix well. Set aside.
Peel off the skin from the cucumber and chop the cucumber to tiny pieces. Spread it in a cloth or paper towel for 5 to 10 mins so the extra moisture is all absorbed.
Add the chopped cucumber to the dal mixture, add lemon juice, salt and black pepper powder and mix well.
Serve immediately.

You can also use alternatives like raw mango, shredded carrots instead of cucumbers or along with cucumbers.

Vazhakkai Kuzhambu (Spicy Plaintain Curry with Black Eyed Peas)

2011-01-28T18:18:00.010-06:00

Lately I have been seeing fresh green plantains in my local grocery store frequently. Plaintain was one of those "hard-to-find-Indian-vegetables" until a few months back. Years ago, plaintains used to be a comfort vegetable like potatoes - mom made it atleast once a week and my mother-in-law makes a variety of dishes with plantains - Puttu, Poriyal, Podimas, Aviyal - you name it. However, I haven't heard a kuzhambu made of Plantain - a hot and spicy plantain gravy. I came across this recipe in a magazine recently and when got more curious, I googled this recipe. I was surprised to see different variations of kuzhambu recipes with plantain! Hmm, I've been missing this yummy version all these days. I couldn't wait to try this recipe and immensely enjoyed it. Hope you all like it.

Ingredients:

Plaintains - 2 small
Black-eyed peas - 1 cup (soaked overnight or you can use frozen too)
Garlic - 3 cloves - minced
Pearl Onions - 6
Tomatoes - chopped - 1/2 cup
Shredded Coconut - 1/4 cup
Broken cashews - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder any Kuzhambu powder - 1 tsp
Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves and Cilantro - a few
Tamarind Paste - 2 tsp

Procedure:

Peel the skin off the plaintains and chop them into 1 inch cubes. Soak in water, so they retain the color.
Heat oil in a pan and season with mustard and fenugreek seeds and 1 tsp fennel seeds. While they pop, add chopped pearl onions, 2 garlic cloves (retain one for later use) and curry leaves. Fry for a few mins.
Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli/kuzhambu powder and corriander powder and fry in medium heat until the tomatoes lose shape. You should start getting a nice aroma from the spice powders.
Transfer this to a pressure cooker and add the chopped plaintains, black-eyed peas and salt to the mixture. Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistle - just to cook the vegetables. The timings vary based on your pressure cooker.
While this is cooking, make a paste of coconut, garlic, cashews and 1 tsp fennel seeds. Also dissolve the tamarind paste separately in 1 cup of water.
After letting the steam off from the pressure cooker, open the cooker, turn on the heat and add the coconut paste and mix well.
Finally add the tamarind juice and boil for 5 - 7 mins in medium heat.
Garnish with corriander leaves.

You can enjoy this with steaming hot white rice and papad!

Spicy Mutton Curry

2011-01-23T17:12:00.018-06:00

After a long time, I made a mutton dish this weekend. I've been restricting to buy mutton for more than a year now, however this week the local halal store triggered my craving for mutton. I was not intending to post this recipe when I made it, as I was just doing it as a quick toss recipe with very little time. But after seeing the finished gravy and enjoying it with some rice, I couldn't resist taking a picture of what was left and post it.

Though I adapted this recipe from a Andhra recipe book, this is very similar to my mother-in-law's recipe. Honestly, my mother-in-law used to make this dish just for me whenever I visit her place, as no one else is fond of mutton there. I enjoy this dish with idlis and parottas mostly. With a slight variation by adding some coconut paste and bit of tamarind paste at the end, this recipe can also be a converted to a mutton kuzhambu that you can enjoy with briyanis or plain rice.

Ingredients:

Mutton pieces with bones - 1 lb
Cinnamon - 1 inch pieces broken
Cloves - 2
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Corriander powder - 3 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Onions - chopped - a handfull
Curry leaves - a few
Corrinader leaves - a handfull

For Paste1 :

Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 4 medium cloves
G. Chillies - 2
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Cardamom - 1
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

For Paste2:

Onions - 1 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium

Procedure:

Make a coarse paste of all the ingredients under "for paste1". Set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, fry the onions until they change color. Add chopped tomatoes and fry until they lose shape. Cool and make a paste.
Heat a tsp of oil in a pressure cooker, add paste2 and fry for a few mins.
Add paste1 and fry until you get a nice aroma (about 5 mins)
Now add the mutton pieces, chilli, turmeric, corriander and black pepper powders, salt and fry for 5 - 7 more mins.
Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook together until the mutton is soft and cooked. The timings vary depending on the pressure cooker. Cook just about right without overcooking.
Heat oil in another pan, season with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds. Add the handful of chopped onions, curry leaves and corriander leaves and fry until the onion become golden brown.
Add it to the gravy and boil it for a few mins.

Enjoy hot with idlis, rotis or rice.

Red Bell Pepper Chutney

2011-01-17T08:22:00.004-06:00

I always wondered why Red and Yellow peppers are expensive than the green ones. To me, its the same vegetable but just picked at different stages. Then, recently I read an article that had some explaination about it. It said that red and yellow peppers are more fragile and spoil quickly since they are extra ripe, so extra care has to be taken care of them like extra cost to transport etc. Well, that kind of made sense, but still I do not agree that the bell pepper can cost 80 cents per pound while Yellow pepper can cost $2.99 per pound.

Anyway, I like the red bell peppers more than the yellow and green peppers. May be because of that vibrant color and definitely the red one has a different flavor than the other ones. I regularly use this in my pasta, stir-fry noodles etc. Well, here is a yummy chutney recipe made with the red peppers that goes really well with Idlis and Dosas. I enjoy it by spreading this chutney on my dosa along with some gingely oil. Yummy!

Ingredients:

Red Bell Peppers - 2

Onion - 1 medium

Garlic - 2 small cloves

Red Chillies - 2 or 3 (I make little extra hot)

Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp

Roasted Peanuts - 2 tbsp (I sometimes replace this with roasted urad dal)

Tamarind paste - 1/4 tsp (optional)

Salt to taste.

Procedure:

Heat a tsp of oil in a shallow pan, Simmer the heat, fry the Red chillies until they change color.

Now add the onions and garlic cloves and fry until the onions change color and become soft.

Now add the red bell peppers and fry until they lose shape.

Cool them to room temperature and then blend them together with salt, peanuts, tamarind and coconut.

Delicious Red Bell Pepper Chutney is ready! Enjoy with Idlis and Dosas.

Kalkandu Pongal

2011-01-14T14:10:00.012-06:00

Wishing you all a Happy Bhogi, Pongal and Sankaranthi!

This is one of my favorite festival sweets that I relish in my hometown. I've sometimes seen this served in weddings too. The best form of this dish I have ever tasted is in one of my local temples in Madurai as Neivedhyam. This is made with the transparent sugar candy, instead of regular sugar or jaggery. I love the flavor especially when its made with that extra ghee :) You can get the sugar candy packets in many Indian stores. Thought would make it for pongal this year for a change.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup
Moog Dal (Pasi Paruppu) - 1/4 cup
Kalkandu/Sugar Candy - 2 cups
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 3 cups
Cardamom crushed - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1/2 cup (adjust as you want)
Cashews - a handful

Procedure:

Roast the moong dal with a tsp of ghee. Transfer to a pressure cooker, add rice, add 1 cup milk, 3 cups water and pressure cook well.
Meanwhile, add a cup of water, add the kalkandu and dissolve in low heat. I usually leave it in stove in minimum heat for the entire time the rice and dal are cooking. Once completely dissolved, it will start thickening a bit. Thats fine, just keep stirring occasionally in low heat.
Once the pressure cooker is done, mash the rice and dal together with a pinch of salt.
Turn on the heat, add the sugar syrup to the rice and dal mixture, add crushed cardamom and continue stirring in low heat until the mixture becomes thick to a pongal consistency.
Heat ghee in a separate pan, roast the cashews and pour it over the pongal. Stir for a few more mins and remove from heat.

Serve hot.

Vegetable Kadai

2011-01-09T17:19:00.008-06:00

I seem to have run out of words, and my thought flow is gone. I've been trying hard to contribute something to this space, but have been postponing it continously. I know I've been disappointing my good friends by deserting my blog for several months now inspite of receiving several requests and reminders for recipes. So, yet nother try to get started again, a short post just with a recipe - may be thats what can help me get back to my pace.

Here is a recipe I made today - Vegetable Kadai - an all in one side dish for rotis. A traditional Punjabi dish with a nice blend of spices giving that unique flavor. I used to enjoy this dish back in India in restaurants, although its usually floating on oil. We get a decent version of this dish in our local restaurants here as well, but I can't match it with the taste in India. I got this recipe from a cooking show a few years back, and have tried it at home too a few times now, ofcourse a low calorie version. You can modify it as you want.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets - 1 cup
Peas - 1/2 cup
Carrots/Beans - chopped - 1 cup total
Capsicum - chopped into squares - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 medium - chopped into squared petals
Onion - 1 medium - chopped finely
Tomato Puree - 1/2 cup (I make them fresh - boil 2 medium tomatoes for 5 mins, cool and peel the skin, puree it in a blender)
Ginger/Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Cashews - 10
Corriander seeds - 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Red Chillies - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
Corriander leaves - to garnish

Procedure:

Soak the cashews in warm water for 10 mins. Then grind and make a smooth paste. Set aside.
Heat a pan, Dry roast Redchillies, Cumin and Corriander seeds until you get the nice aroma. Cool and powder them.
Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Fry the capsicum and the onions petals until they start browning a bit. Remove from heat and set aside.
In the same pan, add 1/2 of the corriander/cumin/chilli powder and fry for a min.
Add ginger/garlic paste and saute well. Then add the chopped onions and fry until onions change color.
Add tomato puree, garam masala and salt and boil it for 3 mins.
Now add the vegetables, 1 cup water, mix well and cover until they are almost cooked. Don't fully cook them yet.
Add the cashew paste and mix well, add the fried capsicum and onion petals, mix and boil for a few more mins until veggies are fully done.
Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with corriander leaves and finally add the remaining corriander/cumin/Chilli powder on the top and immediately cover it.
Just before serving, mix the spices and corriander leaves together to the gravy. This gives a nice and fresh aroma while serving. Serve hot.

Enjoy with Naan, Rotis or White rice.

Diwali wishes with Jangiri and Badam Somas

2010-11-07T16:13:00.004-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali!

Spicy Avarakkai (Broad Beans) Fry

2010-10-01T15:40:00.013-05:00

Up until a few years ago, Avarakkai (Indian Broad Beans) was not in my favorite list of vegetables. There are some vegetables that I used to take it for granted while growing up - the vegetables that I used to see cooked regularly at households. Beans, Avarakkai, Brinjal etc are few of them (Potatoes are exceptions!). Plainly, a simple poriyal (stir-fry) of any vegetable seemed to be so ordinary and did not excite me. So, when I moved to the US, I did not miss those vegetables much. With the years passing by, I had developed a true interest in dining out and exploring variety of cuisines - to learn about new spices, new cooking methods and mainly, to get a break from the kitchen. In fact, I had forgotten about those traditional vegetables altogether. Also, I loved the fact that I found some of my favorite vegetables in abundance here. Cauliflower, beets, Green Peas, Mushrooms enthuse me to cook often.

Well, that all changed after a few years and I started relishing all those simple yet flavorful vegetable dishes all of a sudden. Whenever I visited India for vacation, those vibrant traditional home-made vegetable recipes sparked my liking towards them and I realized nothing can beat this traditional taste. Now, any poriyal is my my favorite and avarakkai poriyal is my first choice! I must say, nothing will never replace the taste of a homemade traditional meal. Thankfully, some of the local Indian groceries here sell these wonderful vegetables on a regular basis. This recipe has a vibrant flavor, and best of all, an easy recipe anyone can make it. Its simple taste practically goes with anything.

Ingredients:

Avarakkai (Indian Broad beans) - chopped - 2 cups

Onions - chopped - 1/2 cup (1 small sized onion chopped)

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Corriander seeds - 2 tsps

Black Pepper corns - 1 tsp

Red Chilly - 1

Fresh shredded Coconut - 2 tbsps (optional). If you don't have coconut you can use 4 or 5 cashewnuts.

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - a hand full.

Procedure:

Grind the coconut, corriander seeds, pepper corn and red chilly to a fine paste, by adding a little water. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.

Once they splatter, add chopped onions and fry for a few mins until onions are well fried.

Add chopped avarakkai, turmeric, salt and fry for a min. Add some water, cover and cook in low heat until the vegetable is tender.

Now add the paste and mix it well. Simmer and let it boil for a few more mins.

Increase the heat and stir until the mixture becomes thicker and dark colored (roasted).

Serve hot with Rice and Dal.

Paneer Koftas in a Coconut gravy

2010-09-21T22:06:00.022-05:00

Paneer is becoming a staple food in my household nowadays. I used to love Paneer in any form. But not anymore. I have been making Paneer dishes atleast once a week since my daughter loves it, and at one time it was colossally boring for me to make the same paneer dish again and again. Its everywhere. Whether its a party, or a Indian restaurant, a Paneer dish ends up on our plate certainly. Any Indian Restaurant menu has majority of dishes under Vegetarian made with paneer. Nowadays I repeatedly choose a paneer dish to prepare for a potluck party, so I can be sure my daughter will eat something.

However, I love to cook Paneer dishes regularly, because a good thing about Paneer is, its so versatile that it can be used with any combination of spices to give a delectable dish. I think, my blog itself has quite a few paneer recipes with different variations, and there's quite a few sitting in my drafts waiting to be posted.

Well, here is one of them - a Paneer dish with a different twist. Paneer Koftas soaked in a creamy coconut gravy. Koftas are usually combined with a thick and rich creamy gravy, primarily using fresh cream for thickening. This dish goes much like the usual gravy, but mostly uses coconut milk instead of fresh cream. I used 75% coconut milk and 25% fresh cream. I followed this recipe from different sources and I think vahrevah video cooking was very helpful to make the Koftas. Overall, this dish came out quite well and gave a completely new and different flavor.

Ingredients:

For Koftas:

Grated Paneer - 1 cup (I run the fresh paneer cubes in a food processor or you can also grate the paneer)
Boiled and Mashed Potatoes - 1 cup
Boiled and mashed peas and carrots (don't mash the vegetables too much) - 1 cup
Raisins - a few
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Corriander powder - 1 tsp
Grated Ginger - 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour or Corn flour - to dust the Kofta balls
Chopped corriander leaves - a hand full.
Salt as required

For Gravy:

Onions - 1 medium
Tomatoes - 1 large - diced
Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tsp
G.chillies - 2
Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Crushed paneer - 1 tbsp
Broken Cashews - 2 tbsp
Cream - 1/4 cup
Coconut milk (light coconut milk is better) - 1 cup
Chopped corriander leaves - a hand full.

Procedure:

For Koftas:

Combine the crushed paneer, mashed potatoes in a wide bowl.
Squeeze the water out of the boiled vegetables (you can use this water for the gravy), and mash the vegetables until they lose shape (don't make it a paste). Add this to the paneer and potatoes.
Add Chilli powder, corriander powder, ginger, salt and corriander leaves. Mix well.
Make a small balls from this mixture, pat it a bit flat, place 2 raisins in the middle, and roll it back to a ball. Adding raisins is completly optional, I make it this way as my daughter enjoys it and also definitely adds a kick to the koftas. You can certainly make just a plain ball.
Roll over these balls on the flour (I use all-purpose flour). Set aside.
Deep fry the Koftas in oil. Set aside.

Tip: To get perfect Koftas, all the ingredients should be free from water as much as possible. I remove the potatoes from water as soon as they are cooked and let it dry for 5 mins before I mash them. I also drain the water from the vegetables as soon as they are cooked.

Try to deep fry only one first. If it breaks, add some Rava or bread crumbs to the mixture and mix well. This may absorb that extra moisture.

For Gravy:

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onions until they trun color, then add ginger/garlic paste and tomatoes and fry again.
Add turmeric, chilli powder and corriander powder. Add salt and fry for a few mins until the tomatoes are well cooked. Let this cool, add cashews and grind this mixture to a paste.
Heat a little oil in the pan again, and add this blended mixture. Fry for a min or two and add the squeezed vegetable water. Cover and cook for 5 mins.
Now add the crushed paneer, boil it for a min.
Finally add the coconut milk and fresh cream. Boil for 2 mins. If required add some water.
Add the Koftas and remove from heat immediately. Garnish with corriander leaves. The Koftas will absorb the gravy quickly. So the gravy should not be too thick.

Serve hot with Rotis/Parathas.

Pal Kozhukattai (Dumplings in Coconut milk)

2010-09-10T10:28:00.015-05:00

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi!

I'm back from a extra-long summer break.. Hope everyone had a wonderful summer! I was at India for the majority of this summer and time just flew away. I know I missed a lot of yummy recipes from my blogging world here, but actually I've also been checking some blogs now and then and have bookmarked some interesting recipes too. Though it feels good to blog after a long time, I have to say that my brain is completely blank now. In fact, a few minutes back, I felt like I have plenty to ramble, but as I sat down to write this post I feel as if there is nothing to write. I can't seem to form rational sentences, and have seem to lost touch in my usual scrawling. Hope to get back to my regular blogging mind set soon.

Well, Today is Ganesh Chathurthi and I cooked a traditional lunch special after a long time - ofcourse with our Ganesh Chathurthi special Kozhukattai too. I always relate our traditional Kozhukattai (Modak) to the Japanese dumplings called Mochi. Somehow, the basic concept seems to be the same, although the ingredients are slightly different. Actually, there are quite a bit of our traditional dishes that I can relate to the dishes across the border, but this one I feel is closely tied to the Japanese dumplings. The sweet filling, rice flour base, steamin process etc. sound so similar to each other. Ofcourse, me and my family enjoy the Indian Kozhukattai more, as we all grew up enjoying that version.

Though I had prepared the regular steamed Kozhukattai for puja and lunch, interestingly during lunch time, my daughter asked me why this time I did not make the Pal Kozhukattai which she enjoys more! It didn't strike me until then, that I missed making her favorite. But as I had some left over rice flour, I decided to prepare this sweet just for her in the evening. Glad I was in a cooking mood yesterday!

Ingredients:

Fresh Shredded coconut - 2 cups

Regular milk - 1/2 cup

Rice Flour - 1.5 cups

Cardamom powder (or crushed cardamom) - 1.5 tsp

Sugar - 1.5 cups (or as required)

Raisins - a few for garnishing

Procedure:

1. Add 2 cups water and 1.5 cups of shredded coconut in a blender. Strain the milk using a strainer and then squeeze out the milk from the coconut remains. This will be a thicker version of coconut milk. Set aside.

2. Repeat this process with the squeezed coconut and the remaining 0.5 cup of shredded coconut and strain the milk one more time. This will be the lighter version (diluted) of coconut milk. Set this aside too.

3. Take the rice flour in a large pan. Add salt and mix well with the rice flour.

4. Boil 4 cups water in a pan and pour this in the rice flour slowly. Mix the flour rapidly with the back side of a wooden ladle and keep mixing until it becomes a thick dough (like chapathi dough). Pour only the required amount of water so the dough is in the right consistency.

5. In a thick bottomed pan, pour the lighter version of coconut milk, add sugar, cardamom powder and the regular milk and mix well. Bring it to boil, then simmer the heat and let it boil continuously.

6. Make small balls with the prepared dough and drop them in the boiling coconut milk. Once the balls are cooked, they come up to the surface of the milk (float).

7. Once all the balls are cooked well, add the thicker version of coconut milk, mix well and remove from heat immediately. Garnish with raisins.

You can enjoy this either warm or cold.

Omlettes in a spicy gravy!

2010-02-04T21:24:00.007-06:00

Its February already! Before I realized, January is gone. And February usually goes by fast too, since its a shorter month. Overall, it feels like winter is going super fast this year! By march, the hope for Spring starts, and its manageable even if its cold now and then. I can't wait for Spring already. I haven't been in an elaborative cooking mood lately. One reason, I've been busy finishing up my school assignments for the term and I just had the time to manage with simple dinners for a couple of weeks. Another reason, with the depressed spirits of winter, I'm less energized when I get home with no mood to prepare an elaborative dinner. I actually made this dish a while back, I took the picture and had even started writing a post on it, and then I had almost forgotten this recipe in the last few weeks.

I like eggs and they have a respectable place in my cooking :) They are universal and can be part of any menu -- from breakfast to dinner or desserts. Obviously there are numerous egg recipes in Indian cooking too, and I personally enjoy preparing egg dishes at home the Indian way. It's a time-saver whenever I run out of veggies in my fridge. With just a few regular ingredients, I can quickly put together a simple and glorious dish which can be enjoyed with any main dish like rice, rotis, idlis,dosas etc. Here's one recipe that I've grown up with. Omlettes infused with a spicy coconut gravy. Mom use to make this quite often and I still love it to this day. Though she makes quite a few egg curries, this one tops the list. I don't know where she got this recipe from, but this dish has been always there ever since I was a kid.

The fun part is making the mini omlettes. I can enjoy them just like that :) I make a few omlettes separately for my daughter without the chillies and she enjoys them too.

Ingredients:

For Omlettes:

Eggs: 4
Onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
G.chillies - 3 small (finely chopped)
Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

For Gravy:

Onion - 1 medium
Garlic - 4 cloves (medium sized)
Tomato - 1 medium
Kulambu powder - 1.5 tbsp (you can substitute with 1 tsp chilli powder and 3 tsps of corriander powder)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Shredded Coconut (fresh/frozen) - 1/2 cup
Cashews - 1 tbsp
Poppy seeds (kasakasa) - 1 tsp
Tamarind juice - 1 cup (or Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp)
Curry leaves and Corriander leaves - as required.

Procedure:

Soak the cashews and poppy seeds in water for 5 mins.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt until the eggs lose shape and the salt is well mixed.
Heat 2 tsps of oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions, green chillies, corriander leaves and salt, fry until the onions turn transparent.
Add this mixture to the beaten eggs. Now make mini omlettes from this egg mixture. I use my paniyaram pan which has cup shaped dents, so I can make mini omlette balls. If you don't have this pan, you can make mini flat omlettes in a regular pan.
Cook the omlettes by turning over both sides until they are well cooked. Set them aside.
Make a smooth paste of the following - Coconut, 1 tsp fennel seeds, soaked cashews and poppy seeds, 1 clove garlic. Set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds , 1 tsp of fennel seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onion, chopped garlic and curry leaves. Fry for 2-3 mins.
Add chopped tomatoes, kulambu powder and salt, and saute until tomatoes lose shape.
Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook the mixture for about 1 whistle. You can also cover and cook in the pan itself for about 12-15 mins until the raw spice smell goes away.
Now add the coconut paste and tamarind juice. Let it boil for 5 mins.
Finally add the omlettes and boil in low heat for 5 more mins.
Garnish with corriander leaves.
Let it rest for atleast 30 mins before serving.

Enjoy with steaming white rice!

Onion Pakoras - Onions at its best!

2010-01-31T18:27:00.006-06:00

I would say street cooks are magicians. With just a few basic cooking essentials like a griddle and a deep-fryer they come-up with delicious meals or snacks! Its interesting to me when I watch them assemble their mobile kitchens, and within a few mins they are all set for making some of the best street foods. Street foods give identity to any place. My home town Madurai is also famous for street foods as I had mentioned in this post.

No one wants to get sick, but avoiding street food means denying yourself an essential part of the food experience :) Onions Pakoras are one of those street-side snacks that I enjoy anytime. While I was working in India, there used to be a few road side tea-stalls closer to my office. Many evenings we used to take a walk to those stalls to hang out with friends and enjoy these hot & crispy onion pakoras with a glass of tea. Sometimes I take masala vadas, but mostly would stick on to onion pakoras. They are served in banana-leaf over a plate with coconut chutney on the side. Hmm, yummy! Especially on a rainy day! Those are some of the nice-to-remember days, athough now I can't believe that I never fell sick eating those street side foods that often!

With that said, ironically, I rarely try making onion pakoras (though I make onion bhajjis often) at home until recently, when I thought I will give this a try. I searched for the recipe through various sources and finally came up with this recipe from mixing different steps from different recipes for onion pakoras. It was perfect and came out very close to those road-side pakodas. So easy and simple!

Ingredients:

Sliced red onions - 2 cups
Grated ginger - 1 tbsp
Soaked cashews (soak for 5 mins) - 2 tbsp
Chopped curry leaves - 1 tbsp
Finely chopped cilantro - 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)
Gram flour/Besan - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Oil - to deep fry

Procedure:

Mix the sliced onions, ginger, cashews, lemon juice, a little bit of salt, chopped curry leaves and corriander leaves in a bowl. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix the gram flour, rice flour, chilli powder, baking powder, the remaining salt and 1 tbsp oil.
This recipe hardly requires any water to mix, as the onions release a lot of moisture when mixed with salt in the first step, and also because we are adding some oil in the second step.
Now add the onion mixture to the flour mixture and sprinkle little bit of water to make the mixture to a binding consistency. The consistency should be in such a way that the mixture can bind and stay together if we make balls. This is different than bhajji consistency.
Take a portion of the mixture and drop it bit by bit in the oil - don't have to make them in round shape.
Drain them and place them in a paper napkin.

Serve hot with green chutney or sweet chutney!

Kadai Matar - Spicy Green Peas Curry

2010-01-10T22:17:00.006-06:00

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great New Year! Sorry for being so slack with the posting. Time passes by me super fast these days, and other things have taken more priority too. We were out of town for the holidays and I took my own sweet time to get back to routine. It’s been a cold and snowy winter so far around our area, and I just prefer to cuddle on my couch during the weekends. This weekend for a change, I had the urge to be active in the kitchen and ended up with some new dishes.

This is one of those recipes I tried just in the spur of the moment. I was just flipping through some green-peas recipes a few hours ago, since a friend of mine had just then called up and had asked for a recipe primarily with green peas. She wanted to make use of a few packets of frozen peas stuck in her freezer. Green peas is one such vegetable that usually gets tossed in along with a bunch of other vegetables, and honestly I hardly make such a dish just with green peas. Of all the recipes I stumbled on, I liked this delicious looking recipe in a Punjabi cookbook I had purchased quite a while back. I decided to pass this on to my friend right away. It looked super-simple with hardly any chopping, with an elegantly styled photo along with the recipe. I was totally motivated and wanted to try my hand at this recipe, before passing it on to my friend, as it was dinner time anyway.

I think it makes a great dish - certainly better than pairing it up with another heavy feeling ingredient like paneer or potatoes. I should thank my friend in giving me a chance to try this new and yummy dish! Certain recipes are all about assembling the right ingredients together with right proportions, and this is one of them. Hope you all enjoy it as well!

Ingredients:

Frozen Peas - 2 cups
Ginger/Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Tomatoes - 2 medium (ripen)
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red Chillies - 2
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp (optional)
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 3 tbsp
Garam Masala - 3/4 tsp
Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp
Corriander Powder - 1.5 tsp
Cardamom 2 - crushed
Kasoori Methi - 1 tbsp (crushed)
Corriander leaves - a hand full

Procedure:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and season with fenugreek seeds and red chillies.
Add ginger/garlic paste and saute for about 2 mins.
Add garam masala, chilli powder and corriander powder one by one and saute in medium heat. (Have enough oil to fry these powders. If using less oil, be cautious in frying the powders as they may get burnt without oil.)
Add Lemon juice and tomatoes and saute for about 5 - 7 mins until tomatoes get well blended and soft.
Add the washed peas and mix well. Add milk, sugar and salt and cover and cook for 5 mins or until the peas is completely cooked.
Finally add crushed cardamom, Kasoori methi and corriander leaves and mix well. Let it boil for a min and remove from heat.

Enjoy it with chapathis and [whispering] I actually enjoyed it with curd rice much better :)

Fish Curry - Chettinad Style..

2009-12-16T20:53:00.006-06:00

Chettinad recipes are my favorites as many of you. My perception to Chettinad Cuisine has changed a lot in the last several years. Until I was in India, though I used to hear a lot about Chettinad cuisine and its specialities, I had no idea how to distinguish a Chettinad dish with other dishes, especially Non-vegetarian items. I hardly recall any restaurants specializing just in Chettinad Cuisine when I grew up. To me, all chicken curries seemed to be the same while dining in restaurants in India. But after coming here to the US, its overwhelming to come across so many variations from the regular dishes that I grew up with, including Chettinad dishes. The more I tried and tested some of the chettinad delicacies in my kitchen, the more I started appreciating the taste and also could relate to the dishes that I enjoyed back home. I absolutely love the fun of learning and enjoying the meals from different regions, and I totally agree and believe that Chettinad dishes are one of the most spicy and aromatic dishes in Indian cuisine. One needs to experience the unique addition of different spices and the elaborate preparation method to appreciate the cuisine.

This is the first time I'm trying Chettinad recipe with fish - Thanks to a friend who requested this recipe. Chettinad fish curry is something new to me. Don't know why, but somehow I've never tried Fish curry in the Chettinad style. Mom's fish curry is the only one I know of, which is pretty straightforward. When I got this request from my friend, I became anxious to try it with a spin of chettinad flavors, and made it at once. I found this recipe from my old collection - god knows when I printed it and where I printed it from. Since this is the first time I'm trying it, I decided to make it with extra attention and give some special touches here and there. It came out exceptionally flavorful and actually tasted excellent the next day.

Ingredients:

Notes: I usually like to make fish curry a little extra spicy, and I have given my measurements. You can adjust according to your taste.

Also, I prefer using Laxmi brand tamarind paste which is more natural and light brown in color, instead of Tamicon, the dark colored one. If you use Tamicon, you can reduce the qty to half of what I've given below).

Pomphret - 2 big (yields about 8 medium size pieces. You can use any fish of your choice, but it tasted great with Pomphret)
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
Garlic - 5 cloves
Ginger - 2 inches
G.Chillies - 2 small
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Tamarind Paste - 3 tbsp (mix it with 3 cups of water)
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Corriander leaves - 1/2 cup (chopped)

For the Paste:

Peppercorn - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 2
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Corriander seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Thuvar Dal - 1 tsp
Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

Cut the fish, clean it thoroughly with running water. Rub some salt over the fish pieces and wash it one more time. Set aside.
Make the ginger, garlic and g.chillies to a paste. Set aside.
Roast the ingredients for the paste with 1 tsp oil (add red chillies first, then spices and then add the coconut at the end) , cool and make them to a fine paste by adding little water. Set aside.
Heat oil (add a little extra oil), season with mustard seeds and fennel seeds.
Add the ginger/garlic/g.chillies paste and fry for a min.
Add onions and curry leaves, fry for a few mins until onions are nicely fried.
Add tomatoes, chilli powder and turmeric and fry for a few mins, until the tomatoes lose shape and the spices are well blended.
Now add the spice paste and fry for a few mins. Cover and leave it in low heat for 5 mins.
Remove the lid, add salt and tamarind juice and mix well. If required, you can add some extra water.
Bring to a boil and then simmer in low heat for about 15 mins. The gravy should be thickened a bit.
Finally add the fish pieces and boil for 5 mins.
Garnish with corriander leaves.
Switch off the heat, leave the pan covered on the stove for about an hour before serving. This way the fish flavor gets into the gravy and tastes better.

Enjoy with steaming hot white rice!

Hariyali Paneer and a Hundred down!

2009-12-02T21:50:00.005-06:00

Although I have slowed down in my posts, I've been aware in the back of my mind that my 100th post is right around the corner. Ever since I posted my previous one, I was in the urge to post my next one right away to celebrate my 100th post. But I've just not been able to get to my blog. My office work, MBA Classes and house-hold routine is keeping me totally occupied. My late night hours nowadays are taken over by my MBA assignments. I'd been also thinking to celebrate this achievement by making a sweet or a cake, but finally decided to just post one of the recipes sitting in my drafts for quite some time.

After 100 posts, I'm pretty sure that there's still a lot of room for improving my blog, but I should also say thats its been a blast and a great ride so far! Every post has given me an opportunity to learn and improve upon something. When I started this blog, I surely didn't expect I will be touching this magic number 100, ever! Thanks to everyone who have sent a comment, complaint, or correction. Keep them coming as I continue with my next 100 posts!

I think we all agree that adding fresh herbs is a quick way to transform an ordinary dish into an extraordinary dish. This is a recipe that I learned recently with fresh corriander and mint leaves. Well, I've already tasted this dish quite a few times, but I learned the recipe just recently. Corriander and Mint combo is one of the most flavorful combos in Indian cooking. I believe wherever this combo happens, the dish is a hit for sure - It can be in Briyani, Chutneys or Chettinad cuisine. When I first happened to taste this paneer dish in a restaurant, I wondered how I missed this beautiful combo with Paneer! I fell for that minty flavor right away. Here is my version of Hariyali Paneer - modified a bit according to my taste.

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes - 25 (small sized)
Capsicum - 1
Corriander leaves - 1 cup (chopped)
Mint leaves - 5 or 6
Onion - 1 medium
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 3 cloves
G.chillies - 5 (small)
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1
Cashews - 5 numbers
Kasoori Methi (Crushed) - 1 tsp
Cream - 3 tbsps

Procedure:

Blend these to a paste - 1/2 onion (chopped), ginger, garlic, g.chillies, corriander leaves, mint leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cashews. Just add little water to make it to a semi-solid paste.
Chop the capsicum to 1 inch cubes.
Heat oil in a pan, add the remaining 1/2 onions (chopped) and fry for 2 mins.
Add the chopped capsicum and fry for 2 more mins.
Add the paste and 2 tbsps of water fry in medium heat for 4 to 5 mins. The raw smell of corriander and mint should not go away. I cover it for 3 mins and then fry for the last 2 mins.
Add salt, 1 cup water and let the mixture boil until it reaches almost a thick consistency.
Add Kasoori Methi and then Paneer cubes - mix them together and boil for 2 more mins.
Finally add cream and stir together. If you want to lighten the spice level, you can add extra cream.
Remove from heat and leave it for 30 mins before serving.

Goes best with Naan!

Poosanikai Paal Koottu - White Pumpkin in a mild coconut gravy

2009-10-27T21:41:00.002-05:00

Hope you all had a great Diwali!

Fall is here! What are your favorite things in Fall? I like fall, but I hate to see it come because it rings a bell in my mind of whats just around the corner - Winter. But there are still some nice things about Fall. The anticipation of the upcoming Holiday season makes it special to me. The pumpkin flavor is back once again in everything - Donut, Coffee, Soup, Cookies, you name it. If my favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte is available in Starbucks, then I can officially declare its Fall! I am already relishing my Latte for the last couple of weeks, especially on those chilly mornings perfect for a hot drink. Its a delicious blend of pumpkin and traditional fall spice flavors in a coffee. I generally enjoy my early morning commutes with a cup of coffee and my favorite music playing in the car, and with my favorite Latte, I can drive that extra mile!

I'm also enjoying the spectacular colors of fall during my commute. When we lived in the New England area, we had the privilege of watching the fall foliage. Those amazing vibrant colors of maples! Though my current place is not a typical fall-destination for outsiders, it actually gets really pretty for a couple of weeks in october. I don't think any other season brings this beauty. I may sound silly, but I also like wearing a warm, cozy sweater on a crisp morning rather than those heavy jackets. It gives me such a great comfort to my mind and body. May be perhaps it reminds me of my holidays in a hill station like Kodaikanal wearing a light sweater with a thin scarf around my neck. Well, those are some of my fall favorites..

Now, about the recipe, this is one of those traditional handed-down-from-grandma recipes in South India. There may be multiple versions of this dish floating across my home-town region. The reason I want to post it here is surprisingly I couldn't find this recipe online. After a long time I made this dish, and when I wanted to make sure I'm using the right ingredients I searched online for this recipe and after a heavy search I found only a couple of sites with this recipe. I decided to post it in my blog after I make this and here it is. Its again a very simple dish and goes well with Rice and Dal.

Ingredients:

White Pumpkin - chopped - 2 cups
G.chillies - 2
Shallots - chopped - 4 tbsp (you can use regular onions too).
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Red Chilly - 1
Curry leaves - a few
Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Dry roast the cumin seeds for 2 to 3 mins in medium heat and grind to a fine powder. Alternatively you can use 1/2 tsp of readymade cumin powder.
Mix the cumin powder with the coconut milk and set aside.
In a pan, add onions, g.chillies, pumpkin and salt with 1/2 cup water and cook together.
Mash the pumpkins slighlty after they are thoroughly cooked.
Add the coconut milk and jeera powder mixture and let it boil for 2-3 mins until it becomes slightly thicker.
In a separate pan, heat some oil and season with mustard seeds and urad dal. When they splatter add the red chilly and some curry leaves.
Pour this mixture on top of the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Remove from heat.

Serve warm with rice and dal.

Mushrooms and Okras Stir-fry

2009-10-01T23:36:00.001-05:00

Another long and busy month and I'm realizing that I have not posted anything for weeks now! I wonder if there comes a time when you automatically tend to push your blogging aside because of certain other things taking priority in your schedule. No, I'm not telling that I have come to that stage, and I don't see myself ever doing so, but was surprised to learn that I'm at a point where I'm regularly late with my posts after my summer break. Ever since school started for my daughter, I've been postponing all my other activities just to make sure she comfortably settles well with her routine. Actually my morning rat-race hasn't been that bad so far. She's been waking up on time as she is still excited about her 2nd grade. She is prompt in getting ready and finishing her breakfast too, and we've been consistently ready about 10 mins earlier than usual! I hope this excitement continues in her for some more time. Generally she likes school, except waking up early on those cold winter mornings, which I'm sure all of us hate anyway.

With time crunch, cooking also took a step back in my kitchen for the past few weeks. We had boringly repetitive meals, though how much ever harder I tried to be creative in the kitchen. But I was also waiting for last weekend to get organized and set-up my refrigerator and pantry, which I thought may trigger my interest to cook something elaborate in the weekend. Well, I finally spent a couple of hours in re-arranging my pantry over the weekend, which was one of my long pending tasks. As I arranged my pantry, I started unveiling those unused spices I had brought from India. That sense of guilt in not using them for such a long sparked the vigor in me to get productive in the kitchen. In the next few mins, I started to browse my cookbook to figure out an easy and tasty dish, especially using Okras.

Okra is the most prolific plant I managed to grow in my mini vegetable garden this year. I initially thought it would die as the growth was slow, but suddenly one fine morning, I saw several new flower buds popping! Aah that was so exciting! Since then its been a pleasure watching it grow. Now I have a few pounds of okras in my refregirator. I obviously wanted to make something good with my okras. This is a dish I found in my cookbook, I've no idea when I wrote this recipe in my cookbook. I liked it because it was just easy to make! This is the first time I'm making it, and was a big hit in our house.

Ingredients:

Chopped mushrooms - 2 cups
Okras - 10 to 12, medium sized
Onions - chopped (1 cup)
Garlic - 3 medium cloves (finely chopped)
Mint leaves - 10
Corriander leaves - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Mustard and Cumin seeds - 1 tsp each

Procedure:

Wash & dry the okras, and then cut them in round slices (should not be too thin).
Slice the mushrooms and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard and cumin seeds.
Add finely chopped onions and garlic, fry for 2 - 3 mins.
Add the mint and corriander leaves, fry for a few seconds.
Add the okras and stir-fry in low heat for about 3-5 mins, until the stickiness is almost gone.
Now add the spice powders , mushrooms and salt and mix well.
Cover in low heat until the mushrooms become soft.
Then increase the heat, stir-fry until its roasted well and you get a nice brown color.

Goes well with anything as a great side-dish. I enjoy this with Rice and Dal!

Green Tomatoes - A Sweet and Sour Combo

2009-09-03T22:07:00.009-05:00

I'm back from another beautiful vacation! We were up in the Canadian Rocky mountains last week... This is one of those places with exceptional beauty! The natural beauty of those gorgeous glaciers, roaring waterfalls and snowcapped peaks are a treat for the eyes and mind. We took a train ride for 2 days and then drove from Jasper to Banff in Alberta, Canada. This scenic drive is suppose to be one of the top 5 scenic drives in the world! Its a must-take drive.

Well, here I am again after another short break and pretty much all geared up to get back on track with my old routine. After a long time, our lives seem to be back to normal. Its that time of the year again! Fall is just around the corner. Bright and early tuesday morning next week, my daughter will start the new school year! As usual, I still don't quite feel ready for it this year too. Need to setup her room and desk to get her ready for school. Looks like as usual she is quite excited and seems to be all set for her school already!

My routine won't be great for sure, it doesn't allow for a lot of loafing. Waking up at 6 am! I have to act being cheerful and pleasant in order to get my daughter up and ready to school while I am barely functioning. Next is making the lunch box.. Aah, the pain of deciding what to make... is it peanutbutter-jelly, noodles, or pasta.. or... this.. that.. and finally ending-up with whatever I grab from my fridge first. Then comes my commute - mostly glued to my bluetooth and attending office meetings. And what about the homework time and dinner time? aah.. this whole dreaded back-to-school fiasco! I'm not that enthusiastic about it. I know within weeks we'll settle down, but until then its important for me to keep my sanity!

Well, with my parents departure, I'm back in the kitchen all by myself -- that means, I'm back to my old habits of debating everyday what to cook for dinner, recalling my handy quick and easy recipes, managing with leftovers etc. Ever since we came back from vacation, I'm taking it easy by shopping only for necessary items like milk and bread. I'm barely yet to my regular cooking routine. During my regular hunt in my fridge for dinner ideas, I found these raw tomatoes that my friend had given me a couple of weeks back. She has a huge vegetable patch in her backyard with plenty of tomatoes and chillies! I specifically had asked for green raw tomatoes from her to make this special vegetable dish that I really enjoy. This is another of those recipes I tasted from my friend's lunch box and got curious to try it out myself. That special sour and sweet combination goes very well with chapathis and I actually do enjoy this with rice too.

I know you all should be wondering why does it look red when made with green tomatoes. Adding chilli powder and garam masala changes the color of the dish, and I also do avoid turmeric. I also have to admit that I really don't know the difference between these raw green tomatoes and Tomatillos. They look the same to me, but tomatillos taste a bit more sour to me. I tried this same recipe with tomatillos a couple of times, but came out way too sour! So, I just stick on to these raw tomotoes and end up preparing this dish only in summer. If any one can help me out with the difference between these two vegetables, that will be great!

Ingredients :

Green Tomatoes - 5 numbers (medium sized)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tbsp
Peanut Powder (Crushed peanuts) - 2 to 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Corriander leaves - for garnishing

Procedure:

Wash and chop the green tomatoes as shown in the picture.
Heat some oil in a pan, and season with mustard and cumin seeds.
Then add these tomatoes and fry for a few mins.
Add chillipowder, garam masala and some salt and mix well. Cover it for atleast 10 mins or until the tomatoes become soft. You will have to saute the mixture and mash the tomatoes a little bit using spatula a couple of times.
When its just about ready add the jaggery and fry until its completely dissolved with the vegetable.
Finally add the peanut powder, mix well and remove from heat.
Garnish with corriander leaves.

Awesome side dish for rotis!

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Balls with Blue Cheese Dip!

2009-08-16T21:40:00.005-05:00

Knock, Knock.. Is anyone out there?? I'm slowly trying to enter into my blogging world again after a long break! Its like getting into your own house after 2 months. Getting familiarized with whats new around me, what have changed during my absence etc. So, what did I miss these last 2 months? Looks like a quite a few of my blogger friends have also taken a summer break! Hope they are having a great time! Other than that, I think I missed quite a few interesting events hosted by some great cooks, and ofcourse also saw some great posts, lovely recipes with those glorious pictures... hmm, I sure did miss my blogging, and I'm glad to be back!

Hope everyone is having a great summer! Trying to get back to routine after my parents departure, but its so hard for me to come back to blogging after a long break! So many things to talk, so many recipes to post, but hard to jump on to my routine after a break. Trying to catch up with all of your yummy posts as well. It may be slow, but I'll catch up for sure.

I must say that this break has been a much needed break! With family around, its natural to switch to a different routine. Definitely busy, but not as crazy as my regular routine. Didn't have to rush my daughter to school, which is a big relief. Didn't need to rush back from work either to pick her up. I was able to catch up with my long pending movies :-), spent some time with mom shopping around, enjoyed eating a lot of my favorite dishes from mom's cooking, had some great trips to some nearby places and attractions, and yeah, had fun Camping too! Before I could realize, summer is almost gone now. I have one more vacation planned for next week for this summer, which is making me feel better. Just not yet ready to get back to the Fall routine.

When mom was around, kitchen time was shared with her mostly. She made a lot of my favorite dishes and I could smell some of my childhood familiar aromas in my kitchen after a long time. Need to work hard for the next few weeks to get rid of those extra pounds that I absorbed from mom's cooking :) I also learnt quite a few new recipes from her as well, will be posting them one by one soon.

Alright, I think I'm back to the grind. Here is yet another exciting recipe, Buffalo Chicken Cheese Balls! I got this yummy picture from my sister and brother-in-law. They tried it a few weeks back after they watched it in a cooking show and wanted me to give it a shot as they just loved it. I had asked for the photo and recipe from my Brother-in-law, as I thought of posting this great dish here when I actually didn't have time to make my own dish for sharing. And here it is, after a month! I haven't tried this yet, but the picture was so convincing that I'm going to love it no matter what and I can't wait to try these myself. The combination of chicken and cheese sounded so rich and delicious. Oh also, the blue cheese dip sounded like a classic side for the chicken balls. This could be a great appetizer for any parties, I bet. Here are the recipes, If anyone happens to try them before me, don't forget to let me know how they came out!

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Rostierre chicken (1 whole)
Buffalo sauce (1/4 cup)
Grated sharp cheddar cheese (1 and 3/4 cup)
Coarse black pepper ( 1tsp)
Couple bunch of scallions
All-purpose flour (1 cup)
Eggs (3, beaten)
Bread crumbs for crunchiness (2 cups)

Procedure

Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and place it in a bowl
Break the pieces into as small pieces as you can (close to shredding it, but with hand). This is a not a 1 minute thing.
Add a qtr cup hot buffalo sauce, pepper and cheddar cheese Slice the scallions finely. They are for flavor and colorMix all the above.
Make small balls from the mixture. The cheese and the hot sauce will keep them bonded.
Grab 3 dishes, for flour, egg and bread crumbsAdd the balls to the flour to just get a coating (just roll them with your finger tip). Shake off the extra flour Dip the balls in egg and roll them on the bread crumbs to get an even coating.
Deep fry in oil at 350 deg for about 2-3 mins. Remove them when golden brown.

Creamy blue cheese dipping sauce

Ingredients:

Blue cheese (you could use Danish or Maytag too) - 1/2 cup
LemonMayo - 1.5 cup
Black pepper - 1 pinch
Salt - 1 pinch
Diced garlic - 1tsp
Hot sauce - a few drops
Worchestire sauce - a few drops

Procedure

Break the Blue Cheese with your hands if you want.
Add the pepper, salt, garlic to the cheese.
Squeeze a half piece of lemon juice
Add the mayo, and mix well.
Now add a few dashes oh Wochester sauce, and a little hot sauce for some extra heat.
Mix well and you are done!

I'm Back! But still on a break :)

2009-08-04T23:31:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Sorry for disappearing suddenly without any updates! My long disappearance would have made people think that I'm still camping :) I wish I was camping that long :) But in reality, this was an unplanned break. I knew I was going to be busy this summer due to my parents visit and with my vacations planned. But didn't expect it to be this busy! I thought I will squeeze in some time now and then to post something during the summer. But I was wrong! I've been on my toes for the last 2 months with absolutely no time to blog at all :-( I feel so bad for completely ignoring my blog, but on the other hand, I'm having a great time this summer with my parents and family. Summer just flies by at our place and it makes sense to spend time outdoors mostly. I take my parents outside for a walk, to the park, for shopping and to restaurants etc. If we are at home, we either watch a movie or play cards until late night! Believe me, this has been the routine for the last few weeks, until recently I realized that I've been postponing my blogging for a while now! Before it gets too late, I wanted to post something. Though my parents will be here for a few more weeks, I will try to post something over the next couple of weeks whenever I have time.

I have quite a few recipes to post, and WILL be posting them soon.. Stay tuned!

Eating Bangkok - Thai Red Curried Rice!

2009-06-13T07:49:00.000-05:00

Last week was another hard-hitting week at work with continuous meetings and intense discussions for our project planning. By the time my week was over, I felt like taking rest for two more weeks! But as this week progressed, I started gaining my vigor again in a couple of days, and I'm feeling energetic right now! I think I know why. Our camping trip is coming up this weekend! Camping is our all-time summer favorite. We have been doing this for several years now, and everytime I love it. I often ask myself why do I love camping? Is it because I can sleep under the stars? Or is it the party at the campground with friends? Or may be its the food? I still exactly don't know what makes me enjoy camping so much. My camping trip starts from the day I start planning for the trip - what to carry, what to cook, where to hike etc. Last weekend, we got together with our friends and decided on everything, and today I started my shopping and packing too. Hope to have a great time this year too. I already shared my last year's camping experience here, and hopefully I'll have something to share this time too!

Alright, about the recipe.. One of my food resolutions is to learn how to cook Thai food! As much as I love Indian food, I love Thai food as well. I got hooked up to Thai food only in the last few years. As predicted, I've never tasted Thai cuisine until I came to the US. But after coming here, as part of our regular culinary explorations, I happened to try Thai cuisine and started loving it right away. That familiar flavor of coconut milk and the vibrant peanuts flavor often relate to my home made Indian food and make me dribble :) When I started this blog last year, I even had a small poll going on in my blog asking everyone to vote for their favorite cuisine next to Indian. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that majority of the vote was for Thai cuisine! That was so exhilarating!

Whenever I go to Thai restaurants I invariably order either the red or yellow chicken curry and the Thai style fried rice. But recently I've started indulging into the taste of Thai Yellow/Red Curried rice. This is an all-in-one dish thats loaded with flavors and offers an incredibly good curried taste, plus a healthy mix of vegetables! The first time I made this dish, I made it for lunch for myself. It was a rainy day and I felt like making something light yet flavorful. I already had a can of Thai red curry paste in my pantry that I usually use to make Thai curries, and wanted to try the Thai curried rice for myself. This recipe is just my own way of making it after guessing on the ingredients mentally everytime I enjoy it at restaurant :) But I was so pleased with the end-result that it ended up being one of the staple rice dishes that we often enjoy at home.

This rice dish goes to Nag's Ravishing Rice event, started by Meeta.

Ingredients:

Uncooked Basmati rice - 1 cup
Thai Red curry paste - 2 tbsp
Onions - 1 small (sliced)
Baby corns - 6 to 8
Red Bell Pepper - 1 small
Cabbage - 1/2 cup (chopped to 1 inch long strips)
Carrots - sliced round - 10 pieces
Fresh Basil leaves - 5
Low fat coconut milk - 1 can

Procedure:

Chop the vegetables as mentioned above.
Heat oil (preferably olive oil) in a pan, and add the sliced onions. Fry for a min or two.
Add the vegetables and stir fry for a few mins. Then add the basil leaves, saute for a min.
Then add the Red curry paste and fry in medium heat until you feel a nice aroma (this may take about 5 mins).
Add this mixture to the uncooked rice along with salt and 2 cups of low fat coconut milk and cook in an electric rice cooker together. You may also use pressure cooker, but make sure the rice doesn't get overcooked.

Goes well with any curry, but we enjoy the rice just as it is.

Spicy Chicken with Green Chillies

2009-05-28T21:51:00.006-05:00

I haven't posted a chicken dish in a long time, isn't it? My vegetarian friends have to excuse me this time :) However my non-veg friends have been insisting me to post some non-veg recipes as I haven't posted any chicken recipes in a looong time! When I noticed Viki's Potluck Chicken event going on and myself being a chicken lover, I have no excuse not to post them :) So last weekend, I rolled up my sleeves, got into the kitchen and made this fabulous chicken dish, thats long due. There are quite a few chicken dishes ideal for potlucks that I wanted to post, but just haven't had the time to make them, except this one.

I have to say that I love Potlucks! There are several reasons for my liking. First, Potluck is a food-lovers dream. I like the idea of having friends together to chit-chat and share fabulous food! Second, its neither stressful, nor too formal. Hosting a formal dinner requires lots of planning and labor and by the time everything is prepared and ready to be served I'm too tired to enjoy the party. Third, its a great way to share recipes! I love the fact that I actually first try the dish myself before I ask for the recipe and try it myself. This way, I'm familiar with the taste, color, consistency etc. And last but not least, the joy in choosing the dish (perfect time to make that "show-stopper" dish!) and an ideal opportunity to show our creativity skills too. I should say that I've been very lucky to have attended many interesting potlucks over the years. Some with great themes, some with great entertainment, some with just great food! Though we started off by organizing and attending potlucks only for special occassions like Diwali, New year etc, a while later we learnt that it doesn't hurt to try different foods for no special reasons :)

This is a classic potluck chicken recipe - its rich and flavorful. There are certain recipes we know that we just need to try them the very first time we hear about them. Its that certain thing that sticks to my mind and keeps pointing out that this dish should come out great. As the name implies, this recipe doesn't use chilli powder which is commonly used in majority of the Indian Chicken dishes, but uses only green chillies. My sister shared this recipe with me after she watched it in a TV show. I have been drooling over her recipe ever since I heard it, but have been postponing due to the lack of interest of making this dish just for myself (and mere laziness!) because my husband is a vegetarian. So when I saw Viki's Potluck Chicken event, I wanted to try this dish right away. I finally tried it last weekend and I just loved the outcome! Its a little consuming (to me) than my usual dishes, but I thought its worth for a potluck because thats the only dish I'll be making anyway. It tasted creamy, rich and quite different than my regular chicken dishes. Hope you all like it too.

This recipe is on its way to Viki's Potluck Chicken event.

Ingredients:

Boneless/Skinless Chicken thighs - 1 lb
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
G.chillies - 10 - 12 (Adjust to your spice level)
Red/Yellow Onion - 1 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Any Chicken Masala or Garam masala - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Mixed Nuts (Cashews/Almonds/Pistachios) - 4 each (I used just cashews and almonds)
Corriander leaves - a hand full.

Procedure:

Clean the chicken cut into bite size pieces. Marinate with lemon juice, salt and ginger garlic paste for 1 hour.
Heat a pan with oil and shallow fry the chicken until golden brown outside. Set aside.
In the same pan, add a little more oil and fry chopped onions until soft. Make a paste.
In the same oil, fry the green chillies and make a paste.
Drop the tomato in hot water and peel it. Make a puree.
Make a watery paste of turmeric and chicken masala/garam masala.
Make a paste of the nuts along with the milk. 2 or 3 tsps of the paste is good enough.
Heat oil in a pan, add the onion paste and chillies paste; fry until you smell the nice aroma (3-5 mins).
Add the powder paste and fry until cooked. Then add the tomato puree, followed by the fried chicken and fry until the chicken absorbs the masala. If necessary, can leave the pan covered for a few minutes.
Just before turning off the stove add the nuts paste, corriander leaves. Stir and serve.

Tastes awesome with Naan/Parathas.

Quick recipes - for busy days

2009-05-18T23:13:00.001-05:00

I've been so behind in participating in any cooking-events lately. The moment I see an event announcement, I get all geared up and enthusiastic about participating, but my energy plunges down like a torn balloon as days go by. And by the time I realize, its already too late to contribute. This has become my habit in the last several months. I'm sure I missed quite a few interesting events that I could have contributed. So, now I'm into this resolution mood of participating in all cooking events, ok - atleast as much as I can, from now on. Don't know how long this energy will last, but atleast wanted to try.

So, after browsing through some of the great events hosted by some great bloggers, I started sorting by the end date and I noticed Mahimaa's 15 min cooking event is nearing its deadline. Ever since I saw her announcement, I've been thinking about participating in her event, because quick-meals are my preferred meals! So this was a perfect come back for me! But as usual I was delaying for no reason. Finally I'm all set to join the event! Thanks Mahimaa, for hosting this event! Here are some of the easy recipes that can be put together in a few minutes.

Purple Shake!

A perfect summer time shake with vibrant grape flavours and frozen yogurt. Long back I tasted Grape Milk Shake in a restaurant and fell for it right away. I thought the combination was quite unique and best of all, I loved the color. Since then, I've been making it at home. But the recipe has undergone some evolution and has now become a low-calorie version, but still offers the same great taste!

Ingredients (for 2 glasses):

Grape Concentrate (Frozen/Undiluted) - 3 tbsp
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (non-fat) - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Low fat milk - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)

Procedure:

Run all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until they form a nice frozen mixture. Serve immediately in glasses, topped with a scoop of frozen yogurt.

Corriander leaves with Gram flour - A different side dish!

Fresh herbs are a wonder to cook with! Nothing can beat the fresh smelling corriander leaves and their nice zingy color! Given a chance, I would add them to anything I cook. This dish is a dish that contains corriander leaves as the main vegetable iteslf! Quite an interesting recipe that I learnt from my friend, and have been a fan of this dish ever since I tasted it for the first time from her lunch box! After trying a few times I think I'm getting better in matching her taste. The key is to add the right amount of gram flour (besan). A very simple, yet tasty dish.

Ingredients:

Chopped corriander leaves - 2 cups
Garlic - 2 small pods
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Gram Flour - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Chop the corriander leaves and garlic finely. I run both of them together in a food processor for a few mins.
Heat oil in a pan, season with cumin seeds. Once they pop, add chilli powder and salt in the oil. After a few seconds, add the corriander leaves and garlic and mix well.
Add salt, cover and cook for 2-3 mins. Do not add water.
Increase the heat, and add gram flour in batches until the mixture becomes without moisture. Don't add too much flour, or it may spoil the taste. I hope the picture gives an idea on the consistency.

Serve hot with Rice / Rotis.

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Curry

Another of those quick and easy ones that I learnt from my same friend! Again, my first encounter with this dish was from her lunch-box and I've now made it quite a few times. I love pumpkin especially in a sweet form. This is a little different and I love the combination of Sweet and Spicy flavors.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin - 2 cups (cut into cubes)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Jaggery - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard and fenugreek seeds.
Add the pumpkin cubes, chilli powder, garam masala and salt.
Cover and cook for 5 - 7 mins. Pumpkins usually cook faster and release lots of moisture. So, don't add water.
Add the jaggery and cover for a couple more mins. Increase the heat and stir periodically until the water completely evaporates and pumpkins are soft and tender.

I enjoy this with Rice and Sambar.

Spicy Green Buttermilk

Its summer time and I can't ignore buttermilk! I made this over the weekend after a tiring day. If you are a spice lover, this buttermilk version is for you. Ofcourse, you can also make a less spicy version of the same recipe, by altering the spices. I enjoy it as medium spicy.

Ingredients:

Curd / Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - 3 cups
Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 2 pinches
Ginger - 1 inch
G.chillies - 2 small
Curry leaves - 3
Corriander leaves - 1 tbsp (chopped)
Salt - as required.

Procedure:

Grind everything together in a blender except the curd. You can add some water to make it a smooth paste.
Then add the curd, remaining water and blend for a few mins.
Serve chilled, garnished with curry leaves.

All these entries go to Mahimaa's 15 min cooking event and EC's WYF - Quick Meal event.

Mom's Green Cauliflower Masala - A Mother's Day Special!

2009-05-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.

- Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

I'm dedicating this post to my Mom for Mother's Day! There have been a few random thoughts floating around in my head for the last few days, whenever I thought about Mother's day. Those thoughts were mainly about my mom and on what to gift her for Mother's day. The more I thought about it, the more I decided to come up with something original. And then a couple of days back, as I was driving to work, I slowly started wondering why not for this mother's day I dedicate a post for her! Though all mothers deserve recognition and appreciation throughout the year, I thought when there is one such special day created called Mother's day completely dedicated to mothers, I should use this opportunity to write a special post for my mom and make her Speciality-dish to let her know that she is special today! So, this is going be a long post :)

I read this quote somewhere - The moment a child is born, a mother is also born! I undeniably think that a mother's qualities are already built inside a woman, but comes out only when she becomes a mother. From then on, her role of motherhood becomes everlasting. I think mothers make the greatest impact in our lives, especially in girls' lives. No matter how "grown-up" we all claim to be, there is always something that we learn from our mothers in every stage. I'm a mother now, and I can understand how much hard work and dedication is required to raise a family. I've also learnt that being a mother never gets easier, but it just gets different in every stage! Things that didn't make sense a while back, make sense to me now. In today's fast paced world, in spite of having everything that I need in my finger-tips today, and having so many amenities all around me like Cell phones, Internet, Car etc., raising my only child has been a challenge for me everyday. And, I always get amazed how my mom was able to bring-up four kids those days without complaints! She has incredible patience with kids and is a very good listener - she's never tired of listening to our ramblings and daily musings, a good friend to all of us - yet strict when needed! Most of all, she takes interest in our individual activities - whether its education or career, music or dance , cooking or shopping, or even when we have nothing else to do but chit-chat! She's been a part of everything. Even now, she continuously encourages me to sign-up for music, dance and meditation classes that I left back as child. I think she still watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement :)

As I start typing this post, I'm able to recall all her special qualities. My mom has this great determination and inner-strength that makes her very special to all of us within our family. We 4 sisters are hardly 2 to 3 years apart in age, and we all of us pretty much grew up together demanding attention simultaneously. Its amazing when I think how she managed during some of those hard-hitting days when we used to fall sick one after the other, when we all had exams around the same time, and when we relocated frequently due to dad's official demands. To me, taking care of our individual health and education needs, managing the household, while giving the same amount of attention to all of us, is too much to handle. But she did it without flaws and I've often heard her say that she never ever had any regrets in her life that she had to bring-up four girls with very little help and I've always admired her perseverance! This is one thing that I think all mothers need to possess. Oh, I have to share this! My mom is very good looking! We all have heard countless compliments from friends and relatives while growing up and those compliments continue till date :) She is very fair, slim and looks much younger for her age. Believe me, she was named as her college's "Beauty Queen" during one of her college years! She still has her annual magazine that has her name and title :)

Now we all sisters are well educated and established, and have taken different directions in our lives. But I'm sure we all still think about her in the back of our minds and try following her foot-steps in our day-to-day lives knowingly and unknowingly. I'm sure she had given up many things for herself, to make us become who we are now. But after saying all these great qualities of my mom, I'm asking to myself - Do I have all of her qualities ? Frankly, not all of them. I still have a long way to go in some aspects, but I'm also getting better in some aspects. As I work on it everyday, I have a big hope to become a great mother like her one day!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO YOU AMMA AND TO ALL MOTHERS!

Moving to the recipe, today I made this Green cauliflower Curry that is Mom's speciality. Honestly, I've not tasted this dish anywhere else till date. When I think about some dishes that has mom's special touches, this one stands-out for sure. It has an incredible flavour and tastes quite unique than other cauliflower dishes. This is an ideal dish if you are looking for a change from your regular gobi sabjis for Rotis. Green , luscious and the fresh corriander flavor is the highlight in this dish. Hope you all like it too!

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 medium flower
Onion - 1 medium (chopped finely)
Shredded Coconut - 4 tbsp
Green Chillies - 4 small
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Garlic - 1 pod
Curry leaves - about 10 leaves
Corriander leaves - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Cut/break the cauliflower into medium size florets and wash them thoroughly.
Make the following to a smooth paste - Coconut, 1 tbsp of the chopped onions, garlic, curry leaves, corriander leaves, fennel seeds and G.chillies. Set aside.
In a large pan, heat oil and season with cumin seeds. Now add the remaining chopped onions and fry in high heat for 2 mins.
Add the cauliflower and fry for 4 - 5 mins in high heat. Add the paste, salt and 1 cup water and mix well.
Cover and cook in low heat for 10 mins or until the cauliflower is completely cooked. Increase the heat and saute until it becomes thick.

Serve hot with Rotis or Rice.

Spicy Green Beans with Sesame Seeds - Comfort food at its best!

2009-04-30T21:18:00.005-05:00

Every once in a while, I crave for something that I've not eaten in a long time. It doesn't matter what it ends up to be - It could be a dish that mom makes, or a dish that I ate at my friend's place or something that I relished during a dinner at a restaurant. Sometimes, strangely it could even just bring back memories about my vacation somewhere! But once that craving is planted in me, it will ignite and will keep growing until I get that tang of it. Sometimes we end-up hunting for that restaurant that we visited long ago, or sometimes I cook it myself no matter how busy I am. Its that certain thing that sticks in my memory that I can't seem to forget when I crave for it. It may sound ridiculous, but any food lover's craving is very similar to what I said.

This is one such dish that I started having a craving for, since last week. I used to make it often a while back, but don't know why I suddenly discontinued! But after spotting fresh green beans often in my local grocery, I started longing for this spicy dish! I just couldn't resist picking some of them last weekend. How can I not? I had to hunt back for the recipe in my notes and finally made it today!

From a former green beans hater, to making many dishes nowadays with green beans is quite a significant progress for me. I was never fond of green beans. Call me unsophisticated, but I never liked its flavor and texture especially when in its crunchy. Back in India, the only recipe that I am familiar with green beans is the "poriyal". That according to me, in those days, was so bland and lethargic that it didn't attract me. So I lived in ignorance, unaware of the pleasure this vegetable offers when its made spicy! Now I am a convert. Spicy green beans is one of my favourites now. Especially when I make it this way with sesame seeds, its a pleasure to taste it! Pair it with Rice and sambar, its a fulfilling menu! Its interesting to me, the fact that, with just a little thought, and a touch here and there, a basic vegetable can become something exciting!

Ingredients:

Green Beans - chopped to 2 inch pieces - 3 cups
Onions - 1 medium
Garlic - 3 cloves
White or Black Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp (for seasoning)

Procedure:

Boil the chopped green beans with salt until its 3/4 th cooked.
Dry roast the sesame seeds until they turn golden brown. Blend them together with chilli powder and salt to a fine powder. Set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with cumin seeds and sesame seeds.
Fry chopped onions and chopped garlic and saute for 3 mins.
Now add the cooked beans and increase the heat until the water completely evaporates.
Add the sesame seeds powder, mix well, cover and cook for 5 mins.
Once the beans are fully cooked, add the garam masala, saute for a couple of mins, or until the mixture is fully dry.

Serve hot with Rotis or Rice.

Onion Pickle

2009-04-21T10:10:00.012-05:00

A few days ago, I was wondering why do I dislike making Indian pickles at home. Is it because of that time consuming process? Or is it too much effort like -- bulk chopping, drying in sun etc.? Or that endless waiting while it gets soaked in bottles for days? Or because there's no instant gratification and I have to wait patiently for days? Well, may be perhaps its not my style of cooking, which is usually quick fix meals -- Cut this, cut that, add a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little fry or boil -- and out of the kitchen! I'm sure its not as easy as it sounds, but I think you know what I mean.

To avoid all the hassle of making pickles at home, I instead prefer visiting an Indian grocery store, pick-up my favorite pickle and satisfy my craving. I've nothing to do with those recipes that are time consuming or with a long list of ingredients, but I'm not cooking them if I can enjoy an equally delicious store-bought product. In fact, I'm not even a serious pickle fan, I can enjoy my meal without any pickle too, but it unquestionably does add a perk to my meal when I have it! While growing up, none of us were too fond of pickles and mom never made it at home too. But I did like it when I tasted it from my friends' lunch boxes during school/college days. Nowadays the store-bought pickles are as good as home-made ones, except my all time favorite ginger pickle. So far, I've not found anything in store thats comparable to my mother-in-law's home-made ginger pickle. So, I don't mind following her recipe and making ginger pickle at home, but only if my hubby comes forward to take the pain of grating that big bulk of ginger!

While browsing a magazine recently, this onion pickle caught my eye, as it looked super delicious in the picture, and appeared to be very simple to make. I surrender when an interesting recipe comes by like this one. May be its my ignorance, but I have never heard of onion pickle until now. Onions as such being such a staple ingredient in Indian cooking, I wonder how were they ignored for pickling! After glancing through the ingredients and instructions, I knew for sure this would come out good, and it didn't disappoint me! It was divine with Curd-rice, and yesterday I couldn't help having a second round of curd-rice with this tongue tickling pickle!

This will stay in fridge for a couple of months.

Ingredients:

Pearl Onions/Shallots/Sambar Vengayam - about 25 counts
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tbsp (optional)
Tamarind paste - 2 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Gingely oil - 1/2 cup (You can substitute with any vegetable oil)

Procedure:

Peel off the skin from the onions, and chop them to 1 inch pieces. If they are smaller, you can leave them as such without chopping.
Mix the tamarind paste with 2 cups of water.
Dry roast the fenugreek seeds and a hot pan, make a fine powder and set aside.
In the same pan, heat the oil, season with mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the onions and fry in high heat for 3-4 mins.
Add turmeric, chilli powder and salt and fry for a few mins.
Now add the tamarind juice, jaggery and increase the heat until it starts boiling.
Lower the heat and cover for about 20 mins. Once the onions are cooked fully, add the fenugreek powder, increase the heat and keep stirring until it becomes a thick paste.

Enjoy with Idlis/Dosas/Rotis - tastes best with curd rice! Actually, I enjoyed this with plain rice too and it tasted awesome!

Spicy Drumsticks & Brinjal Curry

2009-04-17T15:05:00.001-05:00

Even Spring is not fully here yet, and I can't wait for summer already! I've already started dreaming about our camping trips and beach days, but those still seem to be a looong wait for me. I hate this in-the-middle-of weather, when it seems to be Spring, but not really. My sweaters make frequent visits to my storage box, but also come out with same frequency! Weather keeps fluctuating a lot. Mornings are colder while I cover myself with coats, and the afternoon becomes really warm or vice-versa. And I also get torn between my sandals and shoes.

Alright, without much ramblings today, I'll move on to this recipe. Someone asked me the other day, what was my favorite vegetable during my younger years. Being from India, like many of us, I was stuck with plenty of choices. Obviously, Indian cooking deals with abundant vegetables resulting in a profuse selection of vegetarian dishes. But one thing that stood unique as I thought about it more, was Drumstick! It doesn't take much to please me - Give me a bowl of rice and any drumstick dish, I will be delighted! I'm sure many of you enjoy this vegetable like me! I absolutely drool and enjoy fresh made sambar with drumsticks! Thats a killer for me. I love to scrape off that tender pulpy flesh and enjoy it. More than taste, its fun to eat this vegetable!

This is another of those traditional handed-down-from-mom recipes. But I can't seem to duplicate her taste, and lack that extra whiff that I usually find in her dish. Well, I'm sure it came out pretty well, but my mind automatically seems to compare with hers, everytime I make this. Though this is a tropical vegetable, I make this vegetable round the year, because I do get frozen drumsticks here, and thats the only version I get here :-( Even in severe winter, cooking this vegetable brings summer into my home, because I've grown up eating this vegetable in a warmer weather.

As usual, pretty basic ingredients and not so complicated recipe.

Ingredients:

Drumsticks - 2
Indian Eggplants (smaller ones) - 6
Onions - 2 medium (divided)
Tomato - 1 medium
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - a few pinches
G.Chillies - 2
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

For the paste:

Ginger/Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Shredded Coconut - 3 tbsp

Procedure:

Pressure cook together the following for 2 whistles (depends on your pressure cooker) - Chopped Drumsticks, Chopped Brinjals, 1 medium onion (chopped), chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, turmeric and cumin powder and salt.
Note: You can also use Japanese eggplants instead of Indian Brinjals. But do not pressure cook them, you can chop and fry them separately with 2 tsp oil and cover it for 10 mins until almost cooked. Then add in the curry at the final stage.
Make a smooth paste of the above mentioned ingredients for the paste. Set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with fennel seeds. Once they turn golden brown, add the remaining Onions and then the Green chillies. Cook for some time until the onions turn color.
Now add the pressure cooked ingredients. Increase the heat and then add the paste. Fry and let the mixture boil until the water is almost evaporated.
Now, turn the heat to medium and slow fry for 5 more mins until you get a nice colored thick curry.

Idlis with Onion Ghotsu - Time for Comfort..

2009-04-08T20:11:00.003-05:00

What is your comfort food? Mine is a long list, but the most favorite is Curd rice with spicy potatoes! :) Doesn't it taste divine and soothing, especially with that slurp? :) I'm salivating at the thought of it. I've been having hankering for comfort foods lately. For the past few days I have almost been cooking only my comfort foods and haven't attempted anything new. Sure, trying different cuisines and making variations in everyday food is ofcourse stimulating. However, after a series of new dishes, most of us long for our favorite & familiar taste to comfort ourselves. To me, comfort food is a home-cooked informal meal, that I can sit & eat on the couch, with my feet tucked in under me. These foods are far from gourmet and usually reminds me of home cooking. Something that I am familiar with, and something I know for sure I'll enjoy. Especially after a long stressful day, or after continuous travel, its so comforting.

I've been slammed at work last week, and absolutely no time for elaborate cooking in the kitchen. Not that I ran out of cooking imagination, there is always the interest and inspiration to make good food, but simply because my schedule has been recently busy with my office projects. In times like these, I'm in need of serious comfort. Last week, as I said, we've been living on comfort foods. Idlis/Dosas for 3 days in a row. One day take-out and another couple of days with Lemon rasam and Potatoes, and there goes the week!

During the middle of the week, I made this Onion Ghotsu for Idlis - my hubby's favorite. I learnt that most men really enjoy sitting down to a nice home-cooked meal, especially when it contains some of their all-time favorite food, perhaps it sends the message that they are special! Mine is no exception :) He loves comfort food and is more fond of simple and tasty home-made dishes than spending those big bucks for those few spoons of gourmet food under a dim light. Since last month, he's been asking me to cook a few of his favorites and he thought I had almost forgotten to make them! Ofcourse I did not, and to prove him, I cooked one of his favorites, Onion Ghotsu! I remember enjoying this yummy and simple recipe during my newly-wedded days. Onion Ghotsu is one of the dishes that my hubby's family practically lived on. My mother-in-law used to make varieties of accompaniments for Idlis/Dosas every morning. This was one of those lovely accompaniments for Idlis. Very flavorful and very easy.

Ingredients:

Red Onion - 2 medium (chopped extra fine)
Tomatoes - 2 medium
G.Chillies - 3 small
Turmeric - a few pinches
Chilli powder - 1 tsp (or as required)
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves & Corriander Leaves - a few

For the paste:

Shredded coconut (fresh) - 4 tbsps
Pottu Kadalai/Roasted Chana Dal/Chana Dalia - 2 tbsp
Ginger - 1/2 inch
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
KasaKasa - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Make a smooth paste from the ingredients mentioned above for the paste.
Heat oil, season with cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds. When they pop, add the onions, g.chillies & curry leaves. Fry for a few mins until the onions are fried well.
Add tomatoes, turmeric and chilli powder and fry them until the tomatoes lose shape completely. Mash the mixture with the spatula, add 1 cup water and salt & cover and let it cook for around 10 mins in medium heat.
Now add the ground paste, mix well and cover for another 5 mins. Boil the mixture until it becomes a nice thick gravy.
Garnish with corriander leaves.

BUTTER CHICKEN

2009-03-31T22:03:00.009-05:00

Without my usual ramblings, today's post is just going to be an appreciation post for the Blogger-aid team who are doing an awesome job. They came up with a fund-raising effort of publishing a cookbook with recipe contributions from we all bloggers! How thoughtful! Kudos to those three ladies who came up with this idea. The funds raised from this will be donated to School Meals, a programme of World Food Programme (WFP). Ever since I read this announcement, I've been waiting to contribute to blogger aid. But as usual I had other distractions and I almost missed the deadline. Fairly late in the game, last week I was going through a myriad of recipes from my very own recipe treasure to figure out what to submit. It was tough to pick a original recipe that I have not posted on my blog yet. Well, I finally decided on this Butter Chicken Recipe that mom used to make often. I almost forgot this recipe in the recent years, and it was a pleasant surprise when I saw it in my cookbook.

It was not until I made it today that I remembered how much I had loved it while growing up. Whenever this dish was made there were no leftovers. A vibrant chicken dish with an awesome blend of spices! I thought this may be an ideal dish to contribute for the cookbook. And the interesting part is not to reveal the recipe in my post! I have just posted a couple of pictures of the dish and will leave it to you on guessing the ingredients and recipe :) To see the recipe, you have to purchase the cookbook that will be on sale on Amazon around Nov-Dec 2009 timeframe. I've seen a lot of delicious recipes already been contributed by my blogger friends to Blogger-aid and I can't wait to buy the cookbook!

See you all in my next post with my usual chit-chats and ramblings :)

Rainbow Chapathi - Kids Lunch Box Special!

2009-03-25T20:41:00.023-05:00

I know, I know.. its been 2 weeks since I posted anything. I just can't figure out how two weeks passed so quickly. I was busy doing nothing! You all must have been tired of seeing my Mocha picture for several days when you open my page. I actually sat down to write this post three times last week and everytime there were distractions in some way, but nothing I can remember. My thoughts were cloudy and immature. But I've been blogging in my mind :) One thought leads to another when I'm alone, but I just let it go and can't remember anything when I sit to write. This post has been sitting in my drafts for more than a week now. And, after receiving a yell from my sister today, I finally was able to post it today.

Not too long ago, I received an email asking if I would like to participate in a "Cooking for Kids" contest and my reaction was, boy that's tough! Though I didn't have time to participate, ever since I saw that email, I've been constantly thinking about making something different that can be healthy and nutritious and my daughter can actively participate. Cooking for kids - I realize lot of us have this challenge in our day-to-day life. I pack her lunch box everyday and very often I run out of ideas for her lunch box. So everyday a considerable amount of my time goes for planning my daughter's lunch. If I can't pack just one lunch-box, I sometimes really wonder how mom used to pack 4 lunch boxes, well actually 5 including dad, lunch boxes everyday. Well, I think the answer is quite clear. We were never fussy with food. While growing up, like many of us, we had only two choices - eat or leave. There were never any meals customized for any of us in the family and its usually mom's choice of menu for the day.

But now, whining and complaining in the dining table is a very usual scene in my place. As far as food goes, it takes really hard to please my daughter. Her list of favorite foods is very small. If she likes something, then it has to be *really* good. I can never get her to try new foods and partially I should be blamed too for not being strict as mom, but I keep complaining that she has adopted this fussy nature from her dad! The good news is she's getting better these days and is willing to try some new recipes once in a while. Well, however she is, there's no doubt she brings a bundle of joy to my life. And I adore her as always. No matter what.

So, wanting to try a different lunch dish for her lunch box I tried this rainbow chapathi for my daughter last week. Mild and colorful, this dish naturally appeals to kids and has nutrients bundled in one meal and, most importantly, my little one loved it! This may be a little time-consuming recipe for some of us (for me, it is!), but to save time you can prepare the batter over the weekend and store it in freezer and leave it outside the night before making it.

This recipe also goes to SriValli's Monthly Mingle - Kids Lunches event. The Original Event
was hosted by Meeta.

Ingredients

Spinach - 1/2 cup (tightly packed)
Beetroot - 1/2
Carrot - 1/2
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger/garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chapathi flour - 3 cups
Butter
Whipped cream - Optional

Procedure:

Peel and finely chop the beets and carrots.
Cook the spinach, beets and carrots separately with a pinch of chilli powder, salt and little water. I microwaved each of them for 3 - 5 mins.
When they are completely cooked blend each of them separately to a paste.
To one cup of chapathi flour, add the spinach paste, a little bit of ginger/garlic paste and knead to a soft dough. Add little water if required. Repeat this step with beats and carrots too. You will now have 3 different dough as shown in the picture.

Make each of them to a long string dusting them with flour as shown here:

Cut them in equal sizes (approximately to 3 pieces) and roll them to a flat ball as shown here:

Now make chapathis out of them by frequently dusting them with flour. You will get a colored pattern like this:

Heat a pan and cook the chapathis well by applying little butter on each side. Serve with whipped cream on the top!

Caramel Mocha - A coffee delight

2009-03-12T17:50:00.000-05:00

How many of you are coffee lovers? I'm sipping my hot coffee right now. Can you smell it? There's a fantastic aroma originating from my kitchen now. Its late afternoon, dark outside and raining. Enjoying coffee on a rainy day is one of those simple pleasures of life. I have always noticed myself in an elated state whenever I enjoy my coffee. I am usually an incoherent amoeba until my first cup of coffee. But a dose of caffeine does magic to my mind and body. Complicated things seem to be simplified after a cup of coffee! It gets me going for the day. Fortunately, we both are coffee lovers and my hubby makes coffee much better than me. Since he's an early-morning person, he makes it every morning and I usually wake up smelling the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filling our house. His coffee has been a big hit in our friends circle and parties at our house never end without his yummy coffee.

One of my best experiences every time I visit India is enjoying that wonderful filter coffee at my hometown, I can even taste it when I close my eyes! Especially when I go home after a long time, that familiar coffee smell with which I grew up makes me feel so comfy! Though we still make our traditional filter coffee at home everyday, it didn't take a long time for us to get used to the coffee here. The first time we had coffee after coming to the states was at North Carolina. It was our first week in this country and our friends took us to this coffee shop in our neighborhood. We ordered and after a while, the girl came back with a big white cup (actually, its a bowl!) with a dark liquid in it. It took a few mins for us to realize that was it! It was watery, bitter and had a wierd flavor added to it (we later learnt it was hazelnut!). It was just shocking to know that coffee could be so different from country to country! We couldn't take more than two sips and had to dump the rest. We still feel so sorry for it, as my friends had paid for it. But surprisingly we adapted pretty quickly, perhaps there was no other choice in our work places. Nowadays I enjoy every flavor of it like latte, mocha etc. and I get fascinated with those fancy blended coffee at starbucks.

Well, last weekend I thought I deserved a pat on my back after finishing up my long pending pantry re-arranging project. I wanted coffee but I was also in a mood to prepare something elaborate (just coffee, not dinner!). So I made this Chocolate Caramel Mocha which I always relish. I've made this several times and keep tweaking with some variations everytime. This time I added a pinch of cinnamon powder and it tasted great! If you are a coffee lover, this is a treat for you!

Ingredients: (for 2 cups of Mocha)

Instant Coffee Powder - 2 tsp
Caramel - 1 tbsp
Chocolate Syrup - 1 tbsp
Water - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Hot milk - 1 cup
Whipped cream - Optional.

Procedure:

Heat the water in a pan. When its about to boil, add coffee powder, sugar, caramel, chocolate syrup and cinnamon powder. Stir until everything is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
If you have the patience, whip up the hot milk for a min or two until it forms foam on the top. This just gives that extra kick, but even otherwise it tastes great!
In two serving glasses, fill up half of the glasses with the coffee mixture, then fill the remaining with the hot milk seprating the foam. Top it up with foam and whipped cream. Sprinkle with instant coffee powder and cinnamon powder.

There you go! Delicious Chocolate Caramel Mocha is ready!

Nariyal Puri (Puris with a spicy coconut filling)

2009-03-06T14:12:00.007-06:00

Friends share a lot of things.. news, food, clothes, shoes and ofcourse recipes! Lately, I have been hearing a lot of recipes from my friends outside this blogging world. As if I don't have enough recipe collection obsession (from cookbooks, internet, blogging), I now have another new list of recipes heard from friends, which is also growing rapidly. Looks like if I have to try all these recipes, I have to cook three times a day for several months! But I'm sure thats not going to stop me from exploring new recipes in my kitchen as and when I have time.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you should be knowing by this time that I'm not a big fan of time consuming cooking. I should tell you that a lengthy cooking process and I have a very troubled relationship. While I love to eat and enjoy the end-products that come out after a lengthy cooking process, the mere idea of a prolonged cooking process, chokes me. Don't know why, but I'm too impatient to have frequent walks to the kitchen and watch it like a hawk and wait for a long time between each steps. Those super complicated steps like separating the eggs, folding the whites etc. just haunt me. I really want to be one of those people who can be really patient and innovative and try some slow-cooking recipes and with all those nice decorative & presentation skills, but it just isn't going to happen. After all these years, I know myself pretty well.

So, going back to my long list of recipes-to-try, whenver I decide to pick from my recipe list, my first choice would be to try something rather simple and quick. This is one such easy and yummy recipe that I got from my good friend. She had mentioned that she got it from Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes and that she herself tried it for the first time. If you are reading this, dear friend, thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe and sorry for taking such a long time to try it. I should say this is one of the yummiest snacks I've ever had and I fell in love with this snack the very first time I tasted it. The coconut stuffing was too good and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Ingredients:

Rava - 2 cups (unroasted)
Shredded coconut - 1 cup
Besan/Gram Flour - as required
G.chillies - 4 small
Corriander leaves - a hand full
Oil - for deep frying.

Procedure:

Soak the rava with as little water as possible. You can start with 1 cup of water and mix it, and then keep sprinkling more water until everything is wet. Leave it for 2 hrs.
Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. Mix the shredded coconut (fresh), besan, g.chillies, salt and corrinader leaves until it forms a thick mixture. You should be able to make balls out of it.
After 2 hrs, knead the rava well and make it into a dough. If required, you can add some chapathi flour and make it to a puri dough consistency.
Make small balls with the dough, roll them to small circles, add the stuffing mixture, close the circle and make a ball of it one more time. Roll them into small puris and deep fry in oil.
Before serving, sprinkle some chat masala and a pinch of chilli powder on the top. Serve with green chutney or sweet chutney.

Enjoy!

Tawa Paneer

2009-02-26T21:42:00.012-06:00

As much as I love to cook, I love to laze around as well. Last week was one of the weeks I hardly cooked anything. Not that I had no time or my routine was unusal. But just didn't feel like spending more time in the kitchen. Well, somehow I was managing with some quick and easy comfort food to feed our hungry stomachs. But then today, while I went to drop my daughter for her music class, I could smell this delicious spicy curry from someone's house! Usually my nose is very adept at recognizing my favorite food from a distance, but today I couldn't. I'm still debating if it was chicken or potatoes :) Well, thanks to whoever was making it, that aroma triggered me to make something good in the kitchen today!

With not much left in the fridge, I decided to make this warm, simple and flavorful paneer dish. As I started cooking this dish, I realized how much I was enjoying the cooking. The stirring of the onions, their roasted texture glittering beautifully from the bottom of the pan, and the seductive aroma of those spices... Hmm, I felt so great and rejuvenated! And was glad to be back into my very own kitchen world.. As silly as it sounds, it still true that I can't stay away from my kitchen for a long time :)

My daughter loves Paneer. So do I. But her intensity far surpasses mine. Because of her, I keep trying different recipes with Paneer, and thats one of the few things that she likes. Whenever she comes to the dinner table, if she sees a Paneer dish, she quietly finishes her dinner without her usual whine or groan - a very rare scene in our house. This dish is one of our family's most favorite paneer dishes. I learned this from my very good friend a while back. I fortunately also happened to watch her cook this yummy dish and since then it has taken a permanant place in my recipe book, and ends up in our dinner table frequently. What I like about this dish is the consistency - neither gravy nor dry - a perfect side dish for rotis and naans. I enjoy gravies mostly with rice and for rotis I usually prefer little dry side dishes.

Note: If you have a food processor, this dish is a perfect candidate for it! Use the food processor to chop the paneer and to prepare the tomato mixture given below.

Ingredients:

Paneer - chopped (2 cups)
Onions - 1 medium
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Roma Tomatoes - 2 large
G.chillies - 3
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Kasuri Methi - 2 tsp (crushed)
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1
Ajwain seeds - a pinch (optional)
Cream - 2 or 3 tbsp
Corriander leaves - to garnish

Procedure:

Start with boiling the whole tomatoes for 5 mins. Drop them into cold water and let them rest for a few mins.
Meanwhile give the paneer cubes a quick spin in the food processor. Don't make them too powdery. They should be still in mini bitable chunks. Otherwise, slice or chop them finely using regular knife. It should come to 2 cups after chopping. Set aside.
Chop the onions in food processor too. If no food processor, chop them extra fine.
Peel off the tomato skin, puree in food-processor along with the g.chillies, 1 tsp ginger/garlic paste, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.
Heat oil in a pan, season with Ajwain seeds (if using), add onions and fry in medium heat for 3 mins.
Add the remaining 1tsp Ginger/Garlic paste and fry for a min.
Now add the tomato puree, chilli powder and Kasoori methi and mix well. Add salt and cover and cook for 5-6 mins. You can add 2 tbsp of water if you need.
Finally add the paneer and give it a good stir. Cover for 2 more mins. Add corriander leaves and mix well.
Keep frying the mixture in medium heat until it turns almost dry (Be cautious not to let it too dry).

Mushroom Badami (Mushrooms in Almond gravy)

2009-02-18T16:39:00.002-06:00

Wouldn't it be nice if we cook a new dish everyday? A new recipe with a new twist, and with a new ingredient that gives a new flavor? That would be awesome! I sometimes get amazed seeing those artistic chefs taking part in cooking competitions. I believe their minds have to be constantly thinking about some creative ideas to come-up with a new dish , a new presentaion for a dish, a new mixture of ingredients that can result in a palatable dish - yet not compromising on quality and taste! That sounds complicated to me, and sure does require a lot of dedication and passion.

Once in a while, after watching an inspiring cooking show on TV, with my stomach already growling, my mind gets into this ingenious mood of trying something on my own with some new combination of ingredients that can hopefully result in a master-piece. Whenever I enter into that world of imagination, I roll-up my sleeves right away and with great enthusiasm I open my refregirator. And there I see this pile of left-overs that haunt me right in front! I feel as if they are tapping my head and daunting me, "Attend to me first before starting your innovative cooking project and creating more leftovers". That little tap is all I require to come back to reality! My enthusisam plunges down like a torn balloon. Then with a long face I finish my leftovers for that day. Well, thats my story of Culinary Innovations! Hopefully I'll have a better story to share with you all soon. Failures are Stepping Stones for Success! Aren't they? ;-D

Having said that, today I decided on cooking something new that I've never cooked before. What else could be a better starting point than browsing my long waited bookmarks of yummy recipes from my blogging friends! Trying a recipe that someone has already tried and certified sounds more safer than creating my-own-way recipes. And this, I would love to do it anytime - doesn't matter even if my left-overs haunt me when I open my refregirator :) I knew there were quite a few dishes that I would love to try. So I went through a myriad of recipes - some were super complicated, and some were too simplistic! I was getting a virtual treat from those blogs with those delectable presentations and beautifully written recipes. I liked a few of them, but with my time constraints and with what was available in my veggie tray, I could pick only one. I finally settled on making this wonderful mushroom recipe posted by Harini. You can find her orignal recipe here, but I've made some slight changes to the recipe to suit my taste. Thanks Harini, for sharing such a yummy recipe! It brings a nice rich and creamy taste, and this is one of the best mushroom dishes I've ever tasted!

Ingredients:

Almonds - 10
Buttom Mushrooms - 2 cups (chopped)
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Ginger/garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 3
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Corrinader leaves - a hand full.
Finely chopped almonds (or sliced) - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Soak the almonds in hot water atleast for 15 mins. Then peel off the skin and make a smooth paste with almonds.
Leave the tomatoes in boiling water for 5 mins. Cool them, peel off the skin and puree them along with ginger/garlic paste. (Don't add water)
Chop the mushrooms in either slices or 1/2 inch pieces.
Heat oil and season with Cinnamon, Cloves and cumin seeds. Then add chopped onions and fry for a few mins until they become light brown.
Now add the tomato-ginger-garlic puree and fry for 5 mins in medium heat. I usually cover and leave for 5 mins.
Add all the spice powders, mushrooms and salt and mix well. No need to add water as the mushrooms release lots of moisture. Cover in low heat for 8-10 mins. The mushrooms should have been almost cooked.
Finally add the green peas, corriander leaves and the almond paste, mix well and let it boil for 5 mins.
Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Enjoy with Rotis, Plain rice.

Raddish & Beans curry with Capsicum

2009-02-11T16:02:00.002-06:00

It seems our winter has come to an end, lasting just for two months. I hope! Until last week everyone in our area were trembling in the single digit temperature - bundled up in jackets, scarves and furry boots. And suddenly since last weekend the weather has become quite warmer in the 50's & 60's with nice pleasant breeze unlike the typical february weather. Feels like Spring is here already! Its been like a roller coaster ride - Way down and Way up, Fast!

Though I'm looking forward to Spring, I do like winter in some aspects -- To me, its a time to catch up on some stuffs that I usually neglect in summer -- my closet cleanup, rearrange my kitchen pantry, watch DVDs, cook my favorite soups etc. I love to sit on my couch and have a cup of hot-chocolate while watching the snowfall through my window. Oh, and then one important thing - Food lasts longer in the refregirator during winter, so I don't have to cook everyday..he.. he... I missed some of these things this winter as I spent quite a bit of winter in India this year. Especially, I miss my soups! I've been planning to make them since last week.. but the warmer days change my mind. I know thats ridiculous, but its hard to convince my mind :) I think I still have time to re-arrange my kitchen pantry. Even though my pantry is the cleanest place in my kitchen, ever since I read this article by Mark Bittman on how to wisely organize your pantry, I've gotten some new ideas in re-arranging my pantry and can't wait to see my pantry with a new look. Its still in my to-do tasks for this winter, and hopefully I'll have time to fix it.

Alright, after a tough debate about my dinner, I settled on making this vegetable dish and drumsticks sambar for dinner yesterday. Sometimes just tasting a dish changes my perception of a vegetable. I'm sure this applies to many of us. Raddish is one vegetable that I often tend to ignore during my grocery shopping, inspite of seeing some fresh white raddishes waiting to be picked-up. The reason for my ignorance is just because I don't know a lot of recipes with raddish. I usually add them in sambar, or sometimes use them for stuffing parathas. And thats about it. But this all changed when I tried a couple of excellent radish dishes in India last month. One was Raddish Chutney, which I will be posting soon and the other was this mild vegetable curry with Raddish. A new recipe that I learnt from my mother-in-law. She told she's been cooking this often after watching the recipe in a tv show. I've never cooked raddish this way and I thought its a nice change from my usual radish sambar. I really liked this recipe because it's easy, it's healthy, and it's simple! The ingredients list may seem to be longer, but they're all fairly common ingredients and get tossed in around the same time.

Ingredients:

White Raddish (Sliced into semi cirles) & Chopped Green Beans - 1 cup each
Capsicum - 1
Onions - 1 medium
Ginger/Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Red Chillies - 3 or 4
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Peanut powder - 1 tbsp (optional).
Mustard seeds & Urad dal - 1 tsp each
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Corriander leaves - to garnish.

Procedure:

Start by chopping the raddish to semi-circled slices. Then chop the beans and capsicum to 1 inch long stripes.
Dry roast and powder the peanuts. I usually do this in large quantity and store in the fridge.
Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds and Urad dal, then add the red chillies and asafoetida and fry for a min in medium heat.
Add onions and fry for a few mins. Now add ginger/garlic paste and fry for a few more mins.
Add the chopped raddish and fry for 3-5 mins. Then add the capsicum, beans, turmeric & salt and fry for a few mins. Add 2 tbsps of water, cover and cook for 15 mins in low heat.
Once the vegetables are well cooked, add the garam masala, corriander leaves and peanut powder. Mix well for a min and remove from heat.

Goes well with Rotis and any form of rice.

Rava Fruit Kheer (Ravai Pazha Payasam) and... 1 year of Blogging!

2009-02-01T15:05:00.016-06:00

Its a year, already! My first post on this blog, was exactly one year ago.. Its just incredible to think back my journey in this blogosphere for the past 1 year. What a great year it has been! Though creating this blog was so unplanned, I think this was one of the best spontaneous decisions I've ever made! When I started taking baby steps into my blog, I was a little pessimistic that I may not have time to keep it going after a few posts, but it has far surpassed my expectations, and I can't believe that I've made 77 posts in a year and still managing to maintain the pace! Just the feeling that I could write something atleast a week, in spite of my regular family commitments and routine, keeps my morale high.

Although the original intention for this blog was just share my favorite recipes, this blog now has also become an outlet for me - a space to express all my thoughts through my regular rants and ramblings... about my Excitement and Frustration, Likings and Dislikings, Laziness and Energy.... and ofcourse about my Passion for cooking! Becoming a blogger and blog-reader, has taught me so many things along the way. I've improved my photography and writing skills (atleast a little bit), and ofcourse, I learned a lots of wonderful recipes! Every step along the way has been so much fun.. selecting the blog's name, designing the layout, clicking photos, first post.. and I still remember how much I was excited to see the first comment on my blog! I danced a little after knowing that somebody has taken the time to read my content and is willing to try my recipe!

Embarking into this blogging journey, I had no idea that I will be making so many wonderful and inspiring blogger friends on my way! Its amazing how well I got connected with you all. What something started as a simple recipe site to share just with my family, has now grown into something much beyond, with a wider range of readers and a community of friends! I thank you all for visiting my blog as and when you can and leaving such nice and encouraging words. A special thanks to my family & friends for their support and encouragement. Without you all, I probably wouldn't have come this far.

To celebrate my little blog's first year, I'm posting a dessert today. This is a slight variation from the regular kheer and I first tasted this at my friends place a while ago. I liked this healthy and tasty recipe with the addition of rava which brings a nice consistency to the dish. As usual, a simple and easy party dessert!

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 cup
Water - 3 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Fresh fruits - 1 cup (banana, grapes, apple, cherries etc. Do not use sour fruits like pineapple or orange)
Rava - 2.5 tbsp
Almonds - 12 to15
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp (or) 5 cardamoms crushed finely.

Procedure:

Soak the almonds in hot water for atleast 15 mins.
Dry roast the rava and set aside.
Mix the milk and water and bring it to boil. Simmer for 5 - 10 mins.
Meanwhile, peel off the skin from the almonds and make a paste out of them. Add this to the boiling milk and mix gently. Boil for 2 mins.
Now add the rava little by little and keep stirring so that no lumps are formed. Boil for 5 mins under medium flame while stirring often.
Now add the fruits, sugar and the cardamom powder one by one and mix gently. Boil for 5 more mins in low heat. Remove from heat.

Delicious fruit kheer is ready!

Asparagus Koottu (Asparagus with Lentils)

2009-01-28T19:35:00.005-06:00

Hi, Hey & Hello! I am back.. and I hope everyone is doing great in the New Year! Happy New Year to all of you! I was gone to India for a month and had a great time there! I received emails from many of y'all, asking to come back soon. Thanks so much for remembering and visiting my blog :) I know I would have missed some incredible recipes and great posts from you all, but will sure catch-up soon by checking out your blogs and yummy recipes.

As I always say, the hard part of a great vacation is coming back to routine after that. Especially, visiting India is so exhilarating and tiring that it makes us more harder to get back to normal. We came back last week, and it has taken more than a week for me to get back to my routine. Coming back from a perfect December weather in India to a 1° F is a torture. But it was shocking to hear from my friends here, that it feels like spring now after experiencing a brutally horrible -18°F just a couple of days before. I felt like running back to India. In addition to the weather, the jet-lag etc., setting up the kitchen and loading the fridge, is a torment. Well, finally I'm back to routine.

As usual, we had a great time there! Madurai is still the same nice town. Ofcourse, I may be biased because its my hometown :) Who wouldn't like their hometowns?! Like anyone thinking back of their hometown days, I fondly remember growing up there, and everytime I visit there, I get more drawn-in to my old memories! What I like about Madurai is, its just big enough to have everything we need like a big city, but a lot more peaceful and quieter than a "big" city. Its a great feeling to be in my favorite streets, favorite restaurant, favorite movie theatre, favorite stores etc. And surprisingly, for the most part, they haven't changed. Same appearance, same arrangements and even same people!

There was just so much going on in the last month. We had a couple of family events planned during our visit there. We also visited Kerala and stayed in a hill-resort for a few days. It was a fun trip. After a long time, we all sisters met and had a great time! It was so much fun to wear traditional dresses almost everyday, shopping together, eating at our favorite restaurants and having an upset-stomach next day :) With all of us visiting at the same time, mom and dad were so busy with people and kids always around them. And, now that we all sisters are moms, it was also good to see our kids getting along with each other, having fun together and sometimes clashes too :)

Well, I can go on and on chatting about my India trip, so I better stop here :) There are more stories to share, but will save them for my upcoming posts. Alright, I made this great dish for the first time today, after coming across this recipe in a cookbook in India. Ever since I relished some creamy soups and dips made with Asparagus in a few restaurants, I fell in love with this vegetable. I was always curious to make a Indian version with asparagus, but just didn't know how to pick good quality asparagus from the grocery store. Coincidentally, I came across this kootu recipe while I was glancing through a cookbook at my aunt's place in India. That recipe even had tips on selecting and storing this vegetable. It asked to look for thin and firm stems with deep green closed tips and the bottom end should not be too woody or dry. I had taken a note of it and last weekend, I blindly followed the tips and bought it for the first time. The kootu came out wonderful and it tasted awesome with plain rice and some ghee! Hope you all like it too..

Ingredients

Asparagus - a bunch (about 10-12 stems)
Moong Dal (Pasi Paruppu) - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Ginger/Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Tomato - 1 medium
G.chillies - 2
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Shredded coconut - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Chop off about an inch from the bottom side of the stems and trim a little on the top too. Now chop the stems to about 1 inch length pieces.
Grind the coconut and 1 tsp cumin seeds to a smooth paste.
Pressure cook the asparagus, dal, remaining 1 tsp cumin seeds, g.chillies and a little salt. Just allow the same time you would for cooking just the dal. Asparagus is a tender vegetable and would get cooked fast.
In a pan, heat oil and season with mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the onions and saute for a few mins.
Then add the ginger/garlic paste and fry for a min. Add tomatoes and chilli powder and saute until the tomatoes lose shape. Cover and cook for 5 mins.
Now add the pressure cooked contents, coconut paste and mix well. Mash the vegetable slightly and let it boil for 2 to 3 mins. Remove from heat.

Enjoy with plain rice and sambar, or just with plain rice and ghee.

Happy Holidays! And a short Break...

2008-12-14T12:36:00.008-06:00

I'm all set for leaving to India tomorrow for 4 weeks! Will be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks. I will definitely miss you all, but hopefully I'll get some time from there to read all your yummy recipes and posts from there once in a few days. And hoping to learn some new recipes too from mom and sisters...

Before my vacation, I just wanted to quickly post this pineapple cake that my husband made! I usually stay away from oven and hardly bake any cakes, except making chocolate chip cookies once in a while. Somehow, I enjoy the store-bought cakes rather than making my own :) I prefer stove-top cooking rather than baking. Give me a pan and pressure cooker, I will be happily cooking forever :) I get timid about baking cakes perhaps because of so many careful steps involved like pre-heating, pre-coating the pan, timings, batter consistency etc.. and most likely I'm going to mess up atleast one step :) So, I cheer up myself that I'd rather buy the readymade cakes from stores and enjoy it to the fullest, instead of undergoing the hazzle. But this holiday season, I was seriously tempted to try baking some holiday treats in the oven, after seeing many of my blogger friends rocking with super dishes fresh from the oven. Those soft and yummy looking cakes that I see in many blogs are indeed a lure to me, and they often stare at me as if they are challenging me with my cooking skills :)

Fortunately, my husband is interested in experimenting different cake varieties, and thats his only interest in the kitchen :) While I was debating about my baking "kick-off" this year, my hubby came forward to bake his favorite Pineapple Cake for Christmas and I too didn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen because of my India trip preparation. With that as an excuse, I gave up my baking challenge this time too.. Hopefully someday I'll make it!

We all enjoy his pineapple cake that he makes often and its a hit in our family circle too. This is an easy to bake cake recipe and does not take more that 20 minutes for preparation and about 35 minutes baking time. His American friend once brought it to work and from that time on, it has been one of our favorite cakes. The natural sweetness and juices from the pineapple is what makes it really special.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ( 20 oz. ) can crushed pineapple, un-drained.
1 cup chopped nuts

Procedure:

Beat the eggs
Combine flour, baking soda, sugar, add beaten eggs, crushed pineapple, and nutsand pour into a greased shallow pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes

His Recommendations:

Add another 1/4 cup extra sugar but as mentioned above, sweatness for the cake comes from the pineapple.
Do not bake it over 40 minutes. This helps maintain the juicyness for the cake.
Use only crushed pineapple un-drained (with the juice in the can) and not chopped.
Rest the cake overnight before for the best taste.
Use Parchment Paper to lift this off easily.
While you make it for the second time, you can get creative and add finely chopped dates, raisns and other nuts if you like them.

Enjoy!

Wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Spicy Egg Masala

2008-12-09T22:40:00.001-06:00

I'm going off the grid! Next week, around this time I will be flying to India! My long planned trip is finally around the corner. After booking my tickets what seems like a lifetime ago (actually in June), its now only a week more! I am excited. No matter howmuch ever we blend with the country and life-style here, going to India is always exciting! After all thats where I grew up! I love it when people around me speak the same language I do. That brings a sense of comfort to me. After a long time we all sisters are meeting together and have several things planned during our stay there. Hoping to have some great family time, do lots of shopping, enjoy home-made meals as well as my favorite Street foods!

I've been on my toes this week (shopping and packing) and still have a lot to do before I'm ready to leave. Hence didn't have time to cook anything elaborate in the kitchen and have been managing with some quick meals for dinner this week. Slowly have started emptying the refregirator too. During times like these, eggs are really handy to make a quick meal. A few days before, my sister was asking me for some new spicy egg recipes for a change as she was done trying all the egg recipes from my blog. To be honest, I ran out of egg recipes and I myself have been on the lookout for new recipes already. After my sister's demand, I scoured the internet for recipes, glimpsed through a couple of cookbooks and finally narrowed down a few egg recipes that looked and sounded interesting to me. I have quite a few bookmarked too but finally settled down to make this spicy egg masala that I got from Aayi's recipes, that looked scrumptious and super delicious in the picture. And ofcourse simple too! What I like about this recipe is, the eggs don't require lot of stir-fry because the spice mixture is cooked separately and ground into a paste before it gets stuffed into the eggs. So a quick seasoning and a stir-fry of the stuffed eggs makes it very easy. You can find the original recipe here too.

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4
Onions - 1 medium
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
Cloves - 2
Corriander leaves - hand full.

Procedure:

Boil the eggs, remove the shell and set aside.
Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, season with Cumin, cinnamon, cloves. Once they pop, add corriander seeds. Saute for a few seconds.
Now add, onions, ginger/garlic paste and fry for a couple of mins. Add chilli powder, salt and fry for a min. Cool and grind the above mixture to a smooth paste.
Slit the eggs vertically half-way ( don't cut them fully) and stuff the spice paste in each of the eggs.
In the same pan, heat more oil and season with curry leaves and corriander leaves.
Now add the eggs and the remaining paste, if any, and saute gently until the eggs are coated with the oil properly.
Cover for a few mins in medium to low heat. Then increase heat and stir-fry for a min. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Winter Melon Dosa with Onion-Ginger Chutney

2008-12-04T22:02:00.005-06:00

Is the thanksgiving week over already? It seems like just a day ago I was looking forward to the 4 day weekend with lot of things planned and now can't believe it flew off so fast! Though I was looking forward to this holiday, my excitement for the weekend disappeared after hearing the Mumbai horror. It was heartbreaking to see so many innocent people being killed by some crazy bunch of people. To watch it live on TV was even more terrifying. Would we ever be able to defeat the evil and anti-social element called Terrorism once for all? My thoughts and prayers go for all the victims' families affected in this tragedy and hats off to all those commandos who did a terrific job in saving many lives.

I know I've not posted anything for more than a week now. The downside of a holiday weekend is that it makes it so hard to get back to routine after that. We had our friend's family visiting us last weekend and that kept us busy for all 4 days. We were continously out-of-doors moving around the city and had a hectic, but good time. Well, after the weekend, it has taken me a couple of days to recuperate my mood for my usual schedule. Its hard to keep up any kind of routine during holidays and I've been lazing around for a couple of days even after the holiday was over. I am here finally with yet another of my favorite recipe.

I had big plans for cooking while they were here, but nothing really got accomplished. Sometimes, no matter how well I plan my menu ahead, they all end up in vain and I wind up making my own decisions in the last minute. Especially, when we have outdoor plans, nothing gets executed per schedule. This weekend was like that. In spite of having my well-planned menu (atleast thats what I thought), I hardly followed it. But, one good thing is I learnt some new recipes from my good friend who visited us. She is a great cook and I always loved her healthy and authentic recipes! One of the most exciting moments in the kitchen for me is learning new recipes by watching the experts actually do it! I happened to see quite a few recipes like that and can't wait to try each of them on my own.

Have you ever had Poosanikkai Dosai (Ash gourd Dosai)? If you haven’t, don’t worry. I hadn't either until a few days before. And I don't think I'm overstating when I say that its now become one of my favorite dishes! There are several reasons for liking this dish, first of all the batter doesn't require fermentation and can be used immediately. Second, the fact that we're consuming a vegetable too along with dosa. Third and most important, if I have to like a recipe, it has to be simple :) And this is really a simple dish! I learnt this recipe from my friend over the weekend, and today I tried for the first time on my own. My first instinct when I heard about this dish was a bit of surprise that we could combine Poosanikai with Dosa! All I had known to do before with this vegetable was koottu and sambar. But ever since I heard about this recipe, I couldn't wait to try it eventhough I was a little nervous about the dosa batter consistency etc. Fortunately it turned out very good and crispy. A special thanks to my good friend for sharing such a nice recipe!

Ingredients:

Winter Melon (Vellai Poosani/Ash Gourd) - 2 cups (peeled, deseeded & chopped into 1 inch cubes)
Raw rice - 1.5 cups
Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Methi seeds - 1 tbsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup (if its not sour enough, you need 1 cup)

Procedure

Soak the rice, dal and methi seeds overnight.
First grind the winter melon to a smooth paste along with a little salt. Set aside.
Then grind the soaked ingredients with some more salt and mix it with the melon paste. You can also add the melon paste to this mixture and give it a round in the blender, so that they are now mixed thoroughly. Transfer to a bowl.
Add the yogurt and then sufficient water to make it to a dosa batter consistency. The batter shouldn't be thick nor too thin. You are now ready to start making dosas!

We enjoyed this with a yummy Onion-ginger chutney. I learnt this chutney also from my same friend and the combination was heavenly. Here is the chutney recipe:

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 medium
R.chillies - 4
Ginger - 1 inch
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Heat 2 tsp oil and add mustard seeds first. Once they pop, add the chana dal and fry until it turns light brown.
Add R.chillies, Onions, Ginger, Tamarind paste and Coconut one by one in the specified order and fry each of them for about a min.
Grind the mixture along with salt to a thick paste. Yummy Onion-Ginger chutney is ready!

You can also season with mustard seeds before serving, but thats just optional. Goes well with idlis/dosas.

Kashmiri Pulao - A colorful gourmet

2008-11-24T06:50:00.011-06:00

I don't know how many of you are like me, but I'm happy to be a late-night person rather than an early morning person. Yes, I really am. Early mornings are just too arduous for me. I feel that I can rule the world during late nights, but never in the morning. I get so much work done during late nights - it could be either office work, or some planning for house-hold stuffs or even my favorite blogging! I can go on working while the whole world is sleeping. I feel so calm and peaceful when the house is quiet with zero distractions. Even if I am up early (sometimes I do out of necessity), I end up being so busy that I hardly get any quiet time without upheaval. This may sound ridiculous, but I've to tell that I even postpone somethings to late night though I may have some time during the day, because I know I can certainly do that same task better in the night.

Conversely, my hubby is an early morning person. He gets up before the sun rises (god knows what he does that early) and takes off to work showing up 15 mins early everyday. I wonder how people do that. I've seen people waking up in the dark, jog around in the neighborhood, scaring the birds. They continue to amaze me. My hubby says I'm lazy whenever I tell him that he's being cruel when he tries to wake me up early, and I tell him he's lazy when he liberally yawns every minute at 7 pm :) We know that we both are not lazy or crazy, but just don't fit in the same time zone.

Well, with that been said, today ironically I'm posting this recipe early in the morning :) Not that I've changed suddenly, but it all happened by itself. Its 6.30 am on a working day. Hubby left early for a business meeting and my daughter is still sleeping. Before she gets ready for school, I felt like giving her some more time to sleep as she had a rough night because of her stuffy nose. I woke up seeing a snowy morning today! Its absolutely refreshing to watch those flurries through our windows, and the white snow covering our patio tables, chairs and the little plants in our patio! Its also intimidating to see a snowfall in November which is unusual in my area. But that didn't stop me from enjoying its beauty. In the next few mins, I settled down with a hot cup of coffee and my laptop to draft this post.

Ok, with just a few mins left for my morning routine to start, let me jump to the recipe now. I made this tasty, colorful dish over the weekend. I found it in my treasure book - the collection of recipes that mom had written for me when I got married. I made this for the first time and I still don't know how I missed this incredibly simple yet flavorful rice dish for so many years. The fresh fruits are a great addition and gives a fresh and rich taste to the rice. We all loved it and had a wonderful dinner enjoying this with Paneer Makhani.

This goes for SriValli's Rice Mela.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Saffron - 1 pinch
Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
G. chillies - 4 small
Cashews - 20 pieces
Raisins - as needed
Green Peas - 1/2 cup
Black or Brown seedless grapes - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Pomegranate seeds - 3 tbsps
Cinnamon - half inch pieces - 2
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1
Ghee/oil - 3 tbsps

Procedure:

Cook the Basmati rice and spread it in a large plate or any flat surface to avoid sticking.
Cook the mixed vegetables of your choice (avoid potatoes) separately and set aside. I used only green peas and microwaved it.
In a large wok, heat ghee/oil fry the cashews and raisins and remove them to a plate retaining the oil.
In the same oil, season with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.
When they pop, add onions, g.chillies and saute for a few mins until onions become soft.
Now add the cooked vegetables, saute for a few more mins.
Add cooked rice, saffron, salt and mix well gently for 5 mins. Finally add the fresh fruits, half of the roasted cashews and raisins and mix well. The original recipes says to add 2 - 3 tbsps of cream at this point to make it rich. I didn't, but it still came out perfect.
Turn off heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with the remaining cashews and raisins.

Its definitely a party food, as it has more color as well as flavor and practically goes with any curry!

Colocasia (Seppankilangu) fry

2008-11-18T07:44:00.002-06:00

I somehow believe that strange and interesting coincidences definitely add spice to life. Recently, I've been experiencing this quite frequently :) A few months before, I happened to meet my school friend after 20 years! When I saw her in our local temple, ofcourse I took a few mins to recognize her, but as soon as I recognized her, I couldn't stop myself intruding in her discussion with her friend and ask her if she identified me. Thank goodness she did! It's indeed a great feeling bumping into an old friend several miles away from home after decades! Especially, its a delight to see them married, with kids, and with those extra few pounds :) We had so much to catch-up about our life, spouses, kids etc and it made me go back to the era that I used to treasure. Its definitely exciting to recall those moments with someone who shared those good old days with me..

Then, a day last week.. Since morning, I was thinking to call another friend of mine and say hello to her since it's been a while talking to her. She recently had a baby and hence I wanted to check on the baby especially. I guessed she was probably quite busy with her little one and hence didn't have time for our usual chit-chats. So after a quick dinner, I settled down on the couch to call her. Strangely, when I took the phone to call her, I received a call from her in the same minute! I was surprised and I thought it was really strange and funny. The fact that the same person you are about to call is giving you a call in the same second is something quite mysterious and interesting to me. Don't you all think so too?

Well, Another one today.. (Can you beleive it?!) During my usual debate of what to cook for dinner tonight, I found this colocasia lying in my fridge for about a week and hence settled down to make it today. I remembered this superb dish that my mother-in-law makes. Everybody loves this dish in our family and I somehow think I still can't match her exact taste and typically avoid making it. But today, for some reason I was in a mood to make this adorable dish for dinner (and to my contentment it came out great today) and after dinner I happened to have a casual chat with my mother-in-law over phone. I was surprised to know that she had made the same dish today for lunch! In fact, she also did mention that she actually made it today after quite a few years, because it used to be my hubby's favorite and nowadays she had no interest in making this dish just for herself and my father-in-law. Different minds thinking alike and some interesting coincidences like these astonish me often and make me wonder if that so called "telepathy" really is true.. :)

Alright... coming back from the high realms of ESP and philosophy, this dish is a deep-fry dish that may take a few extra minutes, but I firmly believe that the taste it offers is simple irresistible. After deep-frying, it gets tossed in a simple spice mixture that adds an immense flavor to the dish. May be ideal for a sunday lunch when you have those few extra minutes to spare.

Ingredients:

Colacasia (Seppankilangu) - 6 medium
Onions - 1/2 medium sized, chopped
Tomato - 1 medium
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds and Urad dal - 1/2 tsp each
Curry leaves - a few
Oil - for deep frying.

Procedure:

Pressure cook the colacasia until its well cooked. Please be cautious not to overcook as it may completely mess up this dish. I've done this mistake a few times.
Slice them into round pieces and deep fry in oil in 2 or 3 batches until they become crispy. They may not turn completely crispy but you'll see atleast the outer layer turning golden brown and crispy. Wrap them up in a paper napkin and drain the excess oil.
Remove the oil from the pan retaining just a tsp of hot oil . Season with mustard seeds and urad dal.
Add finely chopped onions and curry leaves and fry for a min.
Then add the tomatoes, chilli powder and salt and fry until the tomatoes lose shape.
Then add the fried colocasia and mix well. Cover for 2 mins and mix one more time.
Remove from heat.

Goes well with any rice dish.

Paneer Malabari

2008-11-10T21:55:00.008-06:00

Though I have a busy schedule throughout the week, I feel there should always be time for delicious food and family meals. Inspite of having diverse activities in the day, I somehow think that eating together at the end of the day is important. Cooking is one of my favorite relaxation therapies and though it may make me tired physically after a long busy day, it definitely rejuvenates me mentally - even if I prepare a quick meal for just 3 of us. I believe that a busy life-style doesn't have anything to compromise on healthy and tasty food. Yes, my busy life too demands quick and easy meals but I can never give up on flavours. I'm personally not fond of bland foods, and have a tendency to spice up any dish by adding my own touches. Well, its just not about adding that extra "chilli" kick to spice it up, but more than that, the flavour is the most wonderful thing that I can anticipate in a dish.

Needless to say, the way we cook food nowadays have also changed dramatically. While growing up, I'm used to watching the home-made masalas ground and prepared fresh for everyday meals. Now its a world of ready-made spice powders and ready-made masala pastes. Yet, I strongly believe that adding a little bit of right spice and making some simple tweaks, can make any dish come out delicious.

I also have to admit that our tastes and likings also change quite a bit in these recent years. Atleast mine have changed a lot. There are several reasons for that - having the opportunity to indulge in different cuisines at restaurants or during travel, developing the interest to try new recipes etc. One of the startling reasons that I feel is, coming across different recipes for the same dish! This is something incredible that always throws me off! I'm sure we all of us have experienced this in our life... It could be through friends during a party, or through internet, blogs etc. Its amazing to learn how a neat little twist to our favorite recipe that we've loved and grew up with, brings a whole new flavor. This actually inspires me to try new flavors at home too and indirectly helps my taste-buds adapt to new flavors.

Well, this is one such dish that adds a whole new twist with paneer. During my childhood, Paneer was a delicacy. Mom used to make it rarely and whenever she made it, there were no leftovers. Though nowadays its no longer a delicacy in our household, I've only made and tasted Paneer with traditional north-indian spices and have never thought it will get along with coconut too. The first time I came across this recipe (I believe from a TV show), I was a little intimidated making it. But it didn't disappoint me and the dish came out incredibly tasty and very unique! The ingredients list may seem to be longer, but all of them are fairly common and are tossed in as a paste.

Ingredients:

Paneer - 25 cubes
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato Puree - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Curd - 1/4 cup
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Raisins - a few
Corriander leaves - a hand full

For the paste

Cashews - 6 full (or 15 broken pieces)
Shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cardamom - 1
Kasakasa - 1 tbsp (soaked in water for 10 mins)
G.Chillies - 2 small
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 3 medium pods

Procedure:

Dry fry Cumin seeds, cardamom. Then add the shredded coconut and dry fry for a few more mins. Grind these together with g.chillies, ginger, garlic, cashews and soaked kasakasa to a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a pan and season with cinnamon, cloves.
Add chopped onions and fry for a few mins.
Add tomato puree and all spice powders. Mix well and cover for 5 mins in medium heat.
Add the ground paste and salt. Fry for 3 - 4 mins or cover for 5 more mins.
Now add paneer cubes, raisins and curd. Stir well and boil for some more time.
Finally add corriander leaves and remove from heat.

Serve hot with Rotis/Parathas.

Spicy SweetPotato Fry, Awards and MEME

2008-11-03T21:22:00.026-06:00

Alright, yet another post without my garrulous and chatty talks. This time I have a long list of awards and MEME's to share. Sorry friends, you all have been so nice in sharing these awards with me, but I know I'm just too late in posting them. I got hooked up in posting the recipes than posting my awards and before I postpone it any further I have to do it today. So, I just want to quickly post a simple yet a flavorful recipe that I made today and move on to my awards and MEMEs.

The first time I read this sweet potato recipe in a magazine, I was a little hesitant to make this as I'd never made any dish with sweet-potatoes by that time. Just out of curiosity I made it and it turned out wonderful! I absolutely loved the blend of sweet flavor mixed with vibrant spice flavours. After a few more trials it has now taken a permanant place in my cookbook. Its light, its flavorful and its simple.

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes - 2 cups (cooked, peeled and chopped into cubes)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal/Ulundham paruppu - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

For the powder: (feel free to adjust the spice level according to your taste)

Corriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Chana dal/kadalai paruppu- 1/2 tbsp
Urad dal/Ulundham paruppu - 1/2 tbsp
Red Chillies - 4 to 5

Procedure:

In a pan, fry the ingredients mentioned for the powder with 1/2 tsp of oil and powder them finely.
Heat more oil in the same pan and season with mustard seeds, urad dal.
Once the mustard seeds pop, add turmeric and asafoetida. Fry for 10 secs.
Add the cooked & cubed sweet potaotes, salt and fry for 2 - 3 mins in medium heat.
Now add the spice powder and mix well. Cover for 2 mins in medium heat and fry for 3 more mins.
Remove from heat.

We enjoy this with dal/rice.

MEME: Its MeMe time! Deesha had tagged me with this 7 facts about myself and here they are Deesha!

Since I've been already talking a lot about my food likings and opinions in my posts regularly, I will stay away from my food facts in this MEME :)

1. I am a chatter box and I never seem to get tired of talking. Hope my friends and family forgive my non-stop dada-dada talks.. But my friends also say that I am quite expressive in my thoughts, both by writing and talking...

2. I am not a big fan of reading books and mostly stay away from big novels, although I like to quickly glance on some of my favorite magazines.

3. I love to be alone once in a while and engross in the world of my own. I think solitude is my best companion many times.

4. I am fond of music, mostly melodies, and have a huge collection of MP3 songs. I enjoy the song lyrics as much as I enjoy the music in the song and surprisingly, I happen to know the lyrics for the majority of these songs! I learnt classical music during my childhood, and after several years, my forgotten passion is back and I'm now learning classical music again from a professional teacher...

5. I'm a shopping freak, especially with apparels. My closet is always full with latest tops, pants, salwars etc. While writing this I am realizing that last two months I haven't been shopping much.. Hmmm, need to catch up!

6. I am not that good when it comes to patience. I quickly run out of patience and need things to happen right away. I am working on it, but I also have to say that my tendency of impatience helps me in winding down things faster without postponing..

7. I'm addicted to Sudoku and have finished almost 3 books (over 300 puzzles) in just 1 month. Don't know how long this addiction will last..

Alright, now awards time!

Bhawana, Kitchen Flavours and JZ have passed me the Brilliante Weblog Award:

Vani and Srilekha passed me the "Beautiful Site Award":

Kitchen Flavours has passed me this "Friendship Blend Award":

Suma and Madhavi have passed me this "Good Job Award".

And last but not least - Vani, Purva, Raaji and Gita have passed me this "Butterfly Award".

Thank you soooo much to each one of you for thinking about me and sharing your award with me. With so many good friends around me in my blogging world, its hard for me to pick only a few people to pass these awards. I'm sure all of you have already recieved it. If you have not received it, feel free to grab them from here.. :)

Having a feast?

2008-10-27T23:11:00.017-05:00

Moong Dal Ladoos, Kalakand ..

Ribbon Pakodas

This is a short and sweet post.. No rambling or blah-blahs this time.. Just extending my previous post and just wanted to quickly post my snacks and sweets that I made for Diwali... I made Moong Dal Ladoos, Kalakand and Savory flat Pakodas. Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali!

Kalakand:

I love this sweet since it tastes very similar to my favorite Paalkova and I was excited to see the recipe for it when Cham posted it in her blog a while before. I decided to try it for Diwali and it just came so good! My hubby loved it and he was complaining that I made too little :) I made Cham's stove top version. Thanks Cham, for posting such a wonderful recipe!

Mix 1 can of condensed milk, equal measure of home made paneer, and 4-5 cardamom pods together. Heat this mixture in a pan and bring it to boil, then reduce the heat and keep stirring for about 10 mins. You will notice that the mixture will start thickening and finally tend to separate from the pan. Pour this in a greased pan and top it with chopped nuts of your choice. Let it cool and cut into your desired shapes.

Moong Dal Laddoos:

Roast 1 cup of moong dal (yellow) in a pan. Let it cool. Meanwhile grind 1/2 cup of sugar and 4-5 cardamom pods to a fine powder. Transfer to a wide bowl. Then grind the roasted moong dal to a fine powder too. Mix it with the sugar powder. Roast some cashews in 1 tsp ghee and add it to the mixture. Then add 1/4 cup of hot ghee and mix well. Make laddoos while the mixture is still warm.

Ribbon Pakkodas:

Mix 2 tbsps of water with 1 tbsp of garlic paste, strain and save the water. Discard the pulp. Then mix 1 cup of besan (gram flour/kadala mavu), 2 tbsp butter, 1 tsp chilli powder, garlic extract and salt with water and make a dough similar to a chapathi flour consistency. Fill the Murukku maker (fix the appropriate lid) with this dough and squeeze small circles into hot oil and deep fry.

Sending these dishes to Priti's Festive Food: Diwali, Srivalli's JFI Festival Food - Diwali.

Paneer Kheer and Diwali Wishes!

2008-10-24T17:21:00.002-05:00

I'm a believer in finding excitement even in trivial stuffs. I keep looking for reasons to celebrate even if there doesn't seem to be one. Actually this is a quality that we all sisters share in our family. We have a good time even if we get together for some time and switch ourselves to a celebration mode. One of the many advantages of growing up with 3 sisters is instant entertainment! Our house was never quiet when we grew up and no one was never alone at home. I remember those lively evenings at hour house, after we come back from school/colleges everyday. Dinner time was the time for all of us to catch up on everyone's news. Each one of us had a story to share from our school and college everyday. And the interesting part was, mom used to actively participate in these conversations! She never gets bored with our silly stories and even with our so called "complains" about school. And in fact, she maintained and still maintains the same kind of relationship with all our friends who visit our place. That's one of the reasons that our home was the regular meeting place for a number of friends.

Now after many years, while everyone has spreaded out from home and live in remote places, I can sense the silence in our house. Mom and dad especially can sense it often and every now and then they express about it when we converse over phone. Diwali is one such occasion that we all miss terribly. Naturally, its wonderful to celebrate Diwali! Wearing new clothes, oil bath, fire crackers, special programs in TV and best of all delicious food and yummy sweets... Hmm, I really wish I was in India for Diwali every year and enjoy as much as possible, but unfortunately, that isn't the case. Its been years since we celebrated Diwali together as a family in India.

Well, change is inevitable and we all know about it. And fortunately that same quality still continues in us and often we catch-up over phone nowadays. We do our three-way/conference calls to get everyone on line and have fun talking about many things. Surprisingly even now, we never get tired of our never ending chitchats. Also, when we visit India everytime we make sure we celebrate every little occassion to make it a pleasurable experience.

A couple of days before I successfully finished a mini home project and I felt that I deserved a pat on my back. Perhaps because of the way I was brought up, I still find reasons to rejoice even in day-to-day minor happenings. So, I made this Paneer Kheer! This kheer is a winner in our family. Especially if my daughter loves it, then it has to be a real winner! I happened to read this recipe from a cookbook recently and I made it for the first time a couple of days before when I had to finish off the left over paneer in my freezer. After a while, I was enjoying this delicious kheer and I just loved it so much that I had 3 servings (yes, I am a dessert freak!) continuously and almost finished it before my hubby and daughter had even tasted it. As a result, I had to make more paneer at home the same night and made this kheer again the next day. All of them loved it as much as I did! I have to tell you its evil and rich :) Quite similar in taste to Basundi, but takes much lesser time than Basundi.

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DEEPAVALI!

Ingredients:

Condensed Milk - 1/2 can
Whole Milk - 3 cups
Grated Paneer - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup (or as required)
Cardamom - crushed - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cashews and raisins - a few

Procedure:

Heat the whole milk in a wide pan and let it boil.
Add the condensed milk and stir well. Let it boil and taste for sugar. If the sweetness from the condensed milk is not enough, you can add 1/2 cup sugar and stir it gently.
Cover and boil in low heat for about 10 - 15 mins.
The mixture should not be too watery and should be like any other kheer texture.
Now add the grated paneer, crushed cardamoms and boil for 10 more mins in low heat.
Finally add Cashews and raisins after roasting in ghee.
Remove from heat and let it rest for an hour.

Serve warm or chilled.

Methi Malai Matar - a green delight

2008-10-20T22:36:00.009-05:00

As much as I love to cook and eat comfort food, I love to cook and enjoy party food as well. Great parties begin with great food, as food is the main spotlight of many parties. Preparing a party food is another form of amusement to me since it gives me an opportunity to try some colourful dishes that look fantastic on the table. It sure also gives me a chance to try those special dishes that can't be prepared on a daily basis, but still certainly deserve a spot on the table for special occasions or even for a casual evening party. But it certainly requires some level of planning, well ahead. I definitely enjoy hosting parties and having some great time with friends, yet can't take any last minute surprises. Everything has to be pre-planned. I prepare the menu atleast a couple of days before, so that I can plan for grocery shopping, if any, as well as manage my cooking time efficiently.

But I have to admit that though I enjoy cooking for a party, it is definitely an exhausting day for me many times. I often recall those days when I grew up in India, and wonder how do they cook such an elaborate south indian feast with very little help and still manage to serve with a smile in their face! I probably would have turned cranky by that time! For that reason, I avoid spending a lot of time in the kitchen on the day of my party and usually finish all my chopping, soaking and my pressure cooking tasks the previous day, so that they are ready to be just seasoned or stir-fried on the party day.

Two kinds of people make any party very special - those who love to cook and those who love to eat! Last weekend, we had some good friends come over to my place for dinner with their families. It was a fabulous evening and I was quite happy that everything went as planned. All of them are in my close knit friends circle, and like me, they are food lovers too :) So we always feel free in each others presence and are unfussy about food as well. And the best part is that we all get inquisitive about good food and happily exchange our secret recipes ;-) Even a slight variation to our regular food could give such a fantastic twist to the entire dish and thats something I'm always willing to learn from others.

Alright, about the recipe.. For the party, one of the veg curries I'd made was Methi malai matar. I often make it at home too whenever I am in the mood for something different. But this recipe undoubtedly looks great on a party table, especially if you can decorate with a twist of cream on the top. Fresh methi leaves are ideal, but you can use kasuri methi (dried methi leaves) as well, and comes out as great as the fresh leaves. I love the slight bitterness of the methi leaves combined with the sweet taste from the peas. Very simple and flavorful recipe.

This entry goes for EasyCrafts "WYF - Party food" event.

Ingredients:

Peas - 1.5 cup
Chopped Methi leaves - 1/2 cup
Curd - 2 tbsp
Cream - 1/2 cup
Onions - 1 medium
Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 2
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Corriander seeds - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp

Procedure:

Grind the ginger, garlic and g.chillies together. Set aside.
Boil the peas with some salt and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with cumin seeds. Crush the corriander seeds slightly and add this to the oil.
Add the chopped onions and fry for a few mins. Then add the ginger, garlic and g.chillies paste and fry well for a couple mins.
Add methi leaves or kasuri methi and fry well for until the methi leaves lose shape.
Add the spice powders, salt and mix well.
Add curd and fry for 2 mins. Cover and let it cook for 3 - 4 mins.
Now add the cooked peas, some water and let it boil for 2 - 3 mins.
Finally add the cream and mix well. Remove from heat.

Serve with rotis.

Fish Pulav

2008-10-14T21:09:00.012-05:00

Well.. October is definitely an Autumn month in my place, but last few days have been quite sunny and pleasant. My sandals and skirts haven't gone into my boxes yet fully, and keep hopping out now and then. I have no complaints about these warm days in Autumn, I'm just saying that weather is so unpredictable these days. Actually I was so thrilled to get back into my summer outfits last week and I had the luxury to enjoy the little summer pleasures like.. taking my daughter for a bike ride, having the windows rolled down in my car while driving, etc. etc. But, its all going to be over in a day or two. Chilly Autumn days are on their way back by the end of this week. But as I said before, I love Autumn too! Every season is special in its own way..

Over the weekend, I had the good luck to get some time to clean up my freezer. I recently realized that my freezer was getting crowded and that it definitely required some sorting, but didn't expect that I will do it right away. Sometimes, just a few minutes is all that is required to put things in order, But we don't realize that until we finish doing it. A pile of paper will soon become a tower of terror for me! Thats even more haunting! Now I've learnt that before even it terrifies me, I better fix it. Thats what forced me to attend to my freezer this weekend :) While cleaning up my freezer, I noticed that there were some Tuna Steaks waiting for my attention. I had bought them a couple of weeks before to make fish curry, but then last week I happened to taste an awesome fish curry from my good friend at her place! That will definitely keep me going for the next few weeks and so I dropped my plan for making fish curry at home. But yet I had to make something with this Tuna before it goes useless and here I am with this fish Pulav!

This is yet another spur of the moment dinner inspired purely by what I had in my freezer. Just a bunch of spices thrown together to make something edible. There are days when you need to improvise and be creative with what you have, but I also have to say that self-tried recipes, many times turn out perfectly to end up in trash. But I knew I cannot mess up with this one because fish can practically go with any spices and ofcourse rice! Yet another simple recipe that uses simple ingredients and can be done in a short time. So, here goes the recipe.. hope you all like it too...

Ingredients:

Cooked rice - 1 cup
Cooked and shredded Tuna - 1/2 cup
Onions - 3 tbsp (minced)
Minced ginger and garlic mixture - 1 tbsp
G.chillies - 2
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Curry leaves a few
Corriander leaves - a hand full

Procedure:

To cook the tuna, I leave it in microwave for 3 mins. Then shred it and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan, season with cinnamon and cloves. Then add onions and g.chillies and fry for a few mins until onion turns to a golden brown color.
Add the chopped ginger and garlic and fry for a few mins.
Add curry leaves and corriander leaves and fry for a few more mins.
Add the shredded tuna, all spice powders and salt and fry in low heat for about 5 mins. I cover for 2 mins and cook so that the raw smell from fish goes away.
Then add the cooked rice, mix gently in low heat.
Cover for a few more mins and mix well once more.

Yummy fish pulav is ready. Serve with Raita.

Banana Sweet Appam

2008-10-10T23:05:00.013-05:00

What happens after a looong tiring two weeks, when you get some spare time, absolutely nothing to do?? Sleep peacefully? Watch a movie? My house was quiet this evening as my hubby and my daughter were off to a birthday party. I didn't feel like joining them as I needed some time for myself after yet another exhausting work week. I relaxed a bit and then I managed to annoy a very good friend of mine over the phone for an hour (hope she forgives me!) as we had a lot to catch up. While I was done with that, what else I can do? Ofcourse, Blogging!

When I was a kid, I was not too thrilled about snacks or sweets. Just the word snacks were good enough to lose my interest. Everyone in my family and friends circle seemed to enjoy all kinds of snacks no matter however they taste. I liked may be one or two sweets, but savory snacks were far from my liking. Sometimes I used to wonder, if snacks were the only food on earth, what would I have chosen? And my answer was always "Laddoo". My only preferred sweet since childhood and my liking still continues. I can enjoy anything and everything that turns out being a laddoo. I am definitely convinced that our taste buds change as we grow. The things I used to dislike before are in my favorites now and some things that I used to love as a child have disappeared from my favorites list long back (ladoos are exceptions, he.. he). I have lately been trying all kinds of snacks and sweet recipes in my kitchen. After moving to this country, the sight of those glamarous desserts ignites that passion for them too. These days desserts are simply irresistible and I just can't seem to get enough of it.

Banana sweet appam is one such dish that I didn't have a great liking for, while growing up. But it seems to be flavoring my kitchen often nowadays - perhaps because it happens to be my hubby's and daughter's favorite snack dish. Also, obviously I can't avoid tasting the dish now and then, while preparing it and may be these factors got me hooked up to this sweet snack. I made this for Vijayadhasami yesterday after coming back from work. A quick and easy one done in 2 steps.

This entry goes for Mythreyee's Deep Fried Sweet Series event as well as Hima's Sunday Snack - Fry it event.

Procedure:

Banana - 1 (mashed)
All purpose flour(Maida) - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Baking soda - 1 pinch
Coconut bits - a few (optional)
Cardamom - 1

Procedure:

Powder the Cardamom and add it to the flour. Add all other ingredients and make it to a thick batter consistency. Add very little water if absolutely needed, as banana releases moisture eventually and may make the batter too watery.
Drop spoons of batter in hot oil and deep fry.

Serve Warm.

Kothamalli Adai

2008-10-05T07:34:00.001-05:00

Hope you all are having a wonderful Navarathiri weekend! It was a pleasure this weekend to visit all my friends' house and see their cute and beautiful Golu bommais. Navarathiri is one of my favorite traditions in our culture as I feel that it gives lots of opportunities to be creative and artistic! And, this is one festival that the kids can also actively participate and show their imaginative skills.

My favorite season fall has officially begun. To me, Spring is the season of a new beginning while Autumn is the season of transition. Eventhough it daunts me that summer is gone, Autumn is still my favorite time of the year for several reasons. Makes me feel excited that its time to celebrate Navarathiri and Diwali with friends and family. I love the warmth tinged with the chill. I love pumpkins... Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Soup - everything pumpkin. I love photography in fall when I capture those lovely colors. I love striding on the carpets of those brown and crispy leaves. To me, fall is about wearing cozy & comfy clothes, but yet not freezing in the wintery bitter cold. I welcome Autumn as it is...

Nowadays, first thing in the morning, I enjoy my coffee in our patio while breathing that cool fresh air. This keeps me fresh enough for the rest of the day. This morning, after nursing my coffee for about 30 mins, I was all geared up to make a good breakfast. I've been thinking about making adai for the past several days, but as usual kept postponing it because of time constraints. Adai is one of my favorites as it can be made instantly. No waiting required for fermenting the batter. I soak it overnight and I grind it just before breakfast. Kothamalli Adai is a recipe that I learnt from a cookbook, its pretty much the same as regular adai except a few ingredients.

This recipe and my Corriander Rice recipe goes to Siri's Herb Mania - Corriander Event.

Ingredients

Tuvar Dal - 1/4 cup
Raw Rice - 1/4 cup
Idli rice (par boiled) - 3/4 cup
Red Chillies - 3 or 4
Fennel Seeds - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 2 pods
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
Cloves - 2
Corriander leaaves - 1 cup (chopped)
Onions - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Curry Leaves - a few

Procedure

Soak the dal and rice overnight. Grind with Red chillies, fennel seeds, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, corriander leaves and salt. Need not be too fine.
Transfer to a bowl and mix it with water to a dosa batter consistency.
Add finely chopped onions and curry leaves.
Pour the batter in a circular shape on a hot pan. Pour a little oil around and turn it over when crisp. Transfer to a plate.

Serve hot with Tomato chutney.

Rava Pongal

2008-09-28T16:58:00.001-05:00

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and wishes you had left in my previous post. I'm doing fine. Yet, I know I'm late for my next post :) But, it was not because of mere laziness or procrastination, but actually I had to travel out of town for official reasons and my kitchen was "officially" closed last week. Though I had some marvelous food during that time, I sure was missing home food and I'm so glad to be back home and enjoy my favorite comfort food.

There's nothing like having the time to sit down and have a good breakfast. I wish I had the time to have a relaxed breakfast every morning. But so far its been just a big daydream for me. My mornings are typically - "take a bite, do this; take another bite, do that" type of mornings. I actually sometimes skip breakfast to avoid morning rush. I hope someday I'll get into the routine of calm and relaxed mornings, may be a BIG hope! But to recompense this, I prefer to have a relaxed breakfast atleast in the weekends. I mostly prepare a proper traditional breakfast atleast for one morning in the weekend, and also often we go out for breakfast too. My day starts fresh when I chit-chat with a cup of coffee and good breakfast.

This weekend we enjoyed our favorite breakfast - Pongal with chutney and sambar. To me, one of the intimidating tasks of getting married is making the food your spouse grew up with. Mom cooks pongal for a little extra time so that the rice and dal are blended well, but my mother-in-law makes a version that's similar to pulav consistency. I like both versions, but prefer mom's way of making pongal, may be because thats the one I loved and grew up with. And my hubby prefers his mom's version, probably for the same reason. I learnt making his mom's version in a hard way. I still remember a day after we landed in the US, and while I was still almost zero in cooking, my hubby once wanted me to cook his mom's version of pongal. He had no idea of what he was getting into :) I made it and it was a disaster. It came out too stiff and no where close to pongal. I managed by adding more water and re-cooking it, but still the consistency was messed up. Well, after a lot of practice I can now say that I'm far better in making pongal, both versions.

Rava pongal is a totally new version of pongal to me. The recipe for this is from a booklet that came with a rava packet! Its interesting to me when these tiny pamphlets have some really delicious recipes and also very unique recipes that are not popular in other cookbooks. I made this the first time this weekend and just loved it. It came out pretty good and I'm sure I will try this often from now on. Goes well with chutney/sambar.

This entry goes for Aparna's WBB:Grains in my breakfast Event.

Ingredients:

Rava - 1 cup
Moong dal (pasi paruppu) - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cashew nuts - 10
Pepper corns -1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch (minced)
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

Pressure cook the dal, strain and save the stock and set aside the dal.
Roast the rava in a tsp of ghee and set aside.
In the same pan, add the remaining ghee and oil and season with pepper corns and cumin seeds.
Then add the cashews, ginger and curry leaves and fry until cashews turn golden brown.
Add two and half cups of the following mixture - water, milk, the strained water from dal.
Add salt and let the mixture boil. Then add the roasted rava and stir in medium heat until the rava is well cooked and reaches a semi solid consistency.
Now add the cooked dal, mix and cover in low heat for 5 mins.
Add some ghee on the top and mix well.

Serve hot with coconut chutney, sambar.

Italian cheese bread

2008-09-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Right after I posted my previous entry, I came down with a nasty cold and cough. Perhaps it was the sudden drop in temperature in our area and obviously a flu season too. Everyone in our family took turns to share their cold with each other. I was glued to the tissues for quite a few days and then passed it on to my daughter as well. Its been an exhausting two weeks. Apologies for not visiting all of your blogs, I'm sure I missed some great recipes. Hoping to catchup slowly in the next few days.

With no energy left, the last thing I wanted to do was cooking, so nothing to post as well. We've been pretty much managing with some simple home-made food and by doing take-outs. Finally, since last weekend I am slowly into my normal routine. This is a quick snack that I made last weekend. Its my daughter's favorite and she loves the cheese in it. I learnt this recipe from an Italian cookbook and I've heard a lot of good comments about this dish whenever I make it for a potluck party as an appetizer. It uses authentic and simple italian ingredients, and doesn't require any visit to a speciality store. I make it often as a tea-time snack for the weekends especially when we are in that "munching" mood.

This entry goes for Meeta's La Cuciana Italiana event , Hima's Sunday Snack Event, Sangeeth's Eat Healthy-Calcium Rich Event as well as EC's WYF - Salad/Starter/Soup event.

Ingredients:

Bread loaf - 1 (I use the italian herbs loaf that also has some poppy seeds on it)
Butter - 2 tsp
Italian herb seasoning - 1 tsp
Mozarella cheese (shredded) - 1 cup
Salt and pepper - as required
Garlic - 3 large cloves minced
Crushed red pepper - 1 tsp (Optional)

Procedure:

Microwave the butter and minced garlic for a min.
Cut the bread loaf into 1 inch slices.
On each slice, first apply the garlic/butter mixture, then sprinkle some salt and pepper above.
Then spread the shredded cheese and finally garnish with the italian herb seasoning. Bake the slices for 5-10 mins in a 350 degrees temp or until you see the top portion turned golden brown.
Serve hot after sprinkling with some crushed red peppers (optional).

Hyderabadi Dalcha

2008-09-12T22:34:00.000-05:00

Whenever I decide to go on diet, something comes and blocks me and makes it impossible to carry on. After feasting heavily for 2 weeks in the cruise, I was determined to diet for the next few weeks. I had all that fresh and energetic enthu going on for the first 2 weeks. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I mentioned that I even began planning my menu for the week ahead. Well, I should say I am still sticking on to my menu plans for most of the part, but dieting "vow" had disappeared long back! This dish is the proof :)

It all started when I happened to taste a mutton fry dish in a restaurant recently and I somehow wasn't that impressed. The spices weren't blending well with the meat. I could smell the raw flavour and plenty of hard-to-bite chunks. I had a feeling that I make a better version of the same dish! Don't get me wrong about my pride, but I believe that making a meat dish is an art by itself. It requires adding the right amount of spices to suppress the raw meat flavor, but at the same time not letting the spices overtake the vibrant meat taste. Balance is the key, and apparently that restaurant dish didn't have that balance. Since then, for some reason, the thought of preparing my favorite mutton dish at home was whirling in my head. May be perhaps I just wanted to get-rid of that restaurant taste that was still lingering in me and replace with any of my favorite dish :) , although I kept postponing it because of my 'dieting' aspiration.

But last week, the moment I spotted some fresh goat meat in the grocery, I knew I was in trouble. Its hard to resist when I see those freshly cut goat meat with nice stewy bones. Moreover the after-effect of my restaurant experience insisted me to buy it right away and there ends my dieting drama!

Alright, moving to the recipe.. I have to admit that I didn't have high hopes when I saw this recipe in a cook-book long before. My first instinct was - Meat and Dal? Really? Then I went on convincing myself - Come on, its a popular dish and its been tasted and approved by many, so it has to be good. And, I was not wrong. I love the unique flavor of lentils and meat and enjoy it more with plain rice than briyani. I've made it quite a few times so far and it gets better everytime! The secret is adding the right amount of dal.

This entry goes for Mona's RCI - Authentic Hyderabadi Cuisine.

Ingredients:

Goat meat - 1/2 lb (with bones)
Chana dal - 3 tbsp
Tuvar dal - 3 tbsp
G.chillies - 4
Onion - 1 medium
Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Tomato - 1 medium
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Tamarind paste - 2 tsp
Corriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Curry leaves - a few
Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom - a few each

Procedure:

Chop the goat meat and remove just the bone pieces separate. Pressure cook the bone pieces with a little ginger/garlic paste, turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp black pepper powder.
Soak the dals for atleast 15 mins and pressure cook them together with some turmeric powder, curry leaves and half of the corriander leaves.
Heat oil in a wide pan, season with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Once they pop, add chopped onions, g.chillies, ginger/garlic paste and fry for a few mins.
Add the remaining corriander leaves and curry leaves and fry for a couple more mins.
Add all the remaining powders along with tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes lose shape.
Add the remaining mutton pieces (raw), salt and fry for 5 mins.
Now add the stock from the cooked bones and let it boil for a few mins.
Finally add the cooked dal and pressure cook the mixture together until the mutton gets cooked completely (time depends on the pressure cooker).
Open the pressure cooker and add the tamarind paste and the cooked bone pieces, some water as required and let it boil for a few mins.
Garnish with chopped corriander leaves.

Serve hot with plain rice or briyani.

Tomato - Green Chilli Thokku

2008-09-08T20:14:00.000-05:00

I've been slammed at work lately. Moved to a new project recently and its keeping me busy. I came home late, so was feeling lazy to cook today, and I didn't have much stuff in the fridge too . Tiredness makes me low on inspiration, so wasn't in a mood to be creative either . But all I knew was that all of us were hungry and I had to cook something to fill our tummies before any of us turn cranky :)

My fridge usually is stuffed when the week begins, but it was odd to see my fridge empty on a monday. I had so much planned to get done for the weekend, but can't remember getting anything significantly done. Saturday kind of evaporated. Don't know how, and I guess we've been just lazing around too much with absolutely no mood for outdoors. Sometimes it happens. No matter how nice the day is or how much ever time I have, I get the feeling of staying indoors and watch tv, browse or even just lie on the couch and simply stare the cieling:) It may sound ridiculous, but for the past 2 days this is how I've been feeling myself. I'm typically not that kind of person and usually would like to keep myself occupied as much as possible. But I think occasionally spoiling ourselves helps regain that energy :)

Well, with nothing much left in the fridge, I had to comeup with something that can be of a quick remedy. I was thinking of having paruppu podi (the readymade one) and potatoes for dinner, but then I remembered the Long-Live-The-Shelf Event hosted by Roma. That convinced me to might as well make something on my own instead of paruppu podi so that I can atleast send the entry for the event. This thokku (pickle/chutney) requires nothing but tomatoes and g.chillies and I had enough of them in the fridge. Another of my mother-in-law's collection. It could be enjoyed by mixing with plain-rice (instant tomato rice), or as a side for curd-rice. It tastes divine with curd-rice!

This entry goes for Roma's Long-Live-Shelf-Event.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes: 5 large
Garlic - 5 cloves (big size) or 8 (medium size)
G.chillies - 7 or 8
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp (add more if the tomatoes aren't that sour)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Asafoetida - 2-3 pinches
Oil - 3 tbsp

Procedure:

Add the tomatoes to boiling water (or microwave for a few seconds) and leave it covered for 5 mins. Peel off the skin, mash them with hands (or puree them in blender).
Mix the mashed tomatoes, tamarind paste, chilli powder, turmeric and salt well, along with a cup of water.
Heat oil, season with mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. Then add chopped garlic and chopped g.chillies and fry until the chillies change color.
Add the tomato mixture and let it boil. Simmer for 10 mins or until the mixture thickens and oil starts separating. Remove from heat after it reaches a thick consistency
Mix it with plain rice to make instant tomato rice OR enjoy with curd rice.

This can stay in fridge for a week to 10 days.

Chicken Fry

2008-09-02T10:38:00.000-05:00

Hope all my US friends had a great labor day weekend! Its hard to believe our last 3 day weekend of the summer just got over and we are getting closer to the end of summer with each day. My daughter's school starts tomorrow. Am I excited?? I seriously don't know. The early morning rat race begins from tomorrow. Starting school after a long, lazy summer could be pretty stressful. But on the flip side, after all for kids what’s summer without crazy bedtimes, endless ice-creams, non-stop biking in the neighborhood, and getting soaked in the pool for hours — and it naturally can be hard to readjust when fall comes. I miss those summer vacations from my school. I wish my job also had a summer break(and still get paid).. he he..

On the other hand, my daughter is all excited about her new school year. She keeps coming up with questions like.. Mom, Who will be my teacher? Where will I sit? Are my friends going to be in my class? She is all set with her new school bag and drags it up and down our living room often in the day. She also pretends to be a teacher and disciplines her imaginary students.. That's her playtime favorite nowadays. I wish I was so enthusiastic like her :) Though fall routine haunts me, it also makes me feel good that my little girl is growing!

This weekend we had no big plans and mostly stayed home. Just planned a few things for the upcoming week and spent a few productive hours in the kitchen. Enjoyed our favorite traditional lunch for 2 days in a row with sambar, rasam, kootu, poriyal etc. Heavenly meal after a long time! And just to make the weekend more special, I made a chicken dish too. This is a very tasty chicken recipe that I learnt from my Mother-in-law. She makes it regularly and its one of her excellent dishes that I enjoy when made by her. After all these years of practice, I've now started almost duplicating her taste. But hers still holds the first place :) The ingredients list may seem to be longer, but the preparation is fairly simple as all of them get tossed in at the same time.

Ingredients

Chicken thighs - 2 lbs ( I switch between boneless and with bones, but both are yummy)
Ginger - 2 inches
Garlic - 3 cloves (medium)
Black Pepper seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Onions - 2 medium
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Corriander leaves - a hand full

Procedure

Coarsely grind (not too fine) 1/2 onion , Ginger, Garlic, Pepper seeds, Cumin seeds and the Fennel seeds. Add this to the chicken, then salt and pressure cook together until the chicken is cooked. (Add just enough water to cook the chicken).
Heat oil in a thick bottom pan, season with 1 tsp fennel seeds, add the remaining chopped onions, curry leaves and corrainder leaves and fry until onion is well fried.
Now add the cooked chicken mixture, all the remaining spice powders, mix well and turn the heat to high until the water from the chicken is almost fully evaporated.
Now turn to medium heat and fry the chicken until its well roasted and turns into a dark brown color. Keep scraping in equal intervals to avoid burning. You can add a little extra oil if required.

Enjoy with Rotis or Rice.

Rava Laddus and a Click

2008-08-29T22:37:00.002-05:00

Its friday.. My mind always gets a little lazy at this time of the week no matter how busy I am. Just the thought of friday makes me feel lethargic and sluggish. So, just in an effort to increase my productivity I decided to manage a few hours in the kitchen today. I knew I had plans to participate in quite a few events and its only a couple of days left but I've no idea what to make. I was glancing through various cookbooks from my shelf and found quite a few interesting recipes. But most of them required ingredients that I don't usually stock in my pantry. It required a mini visit to the grocery store. That was a good reason for me to postpone those dishes for some other time.

Finally after a lot of reasearch and thinking, I decided to close my cookbook and make my own favorite Rava Laddus. It was a good decision:) Laddus came out phenomenal! Sweet and soft with those yummy flavors. I have a liking for laddus since childhood and that liking still continues. Our Deepavali wasn't complete without rava laddus. Grandma used to make it delicious and I've managed to follow her traditional recipe many times. About a few months before, I tasted these laddus from a friend and it had a slightly different flavor, I just loved it! The secret ingredient was coconut! Adding just a little bit of coconut gave it a different twist and I fell for it right away. Since then I've been modifying my grandma's recipe just by adding a little coconut to it. I like all kinds of laddus, but rava laddus are the only ones that I have tried making at home. May be beacuse of the simple ingredients and the straight-forward method.

This recipe goes for Mythreyees's Sweet Series: Chikki and Laddu event.

Ingredients

Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom pods - 5
Cashews - 10
Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Milk - 3 tbsp

Procedure

Heat the pan and dry roast the rava until nice aroma comes. Set aside.
Remove the skins from cardamom and take just the seeds out. Grind them together with sugar to a fine powder. Mix them with the rava.
Heat 1 tsp ghee in a pan and roast the cashews. Add this to the rava mixture.
In the same pan, add another tsp of ghee and fry the coconut until they become golden brown. Add to rava mixture.
Mix together well and start making the laddus by adding a little ghee and warm milk to each laddu while making it so that the ball holds on tight.

I also managed to make Honey Lemonade, a refreshing and healthy drink for summer. I often make this at home as my daughter just loves honey! The recipe is quite simple. Mix 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup honey in a pan. Heat until the honey dissolves fully. Cool and then add 4 cups of cold water, a few ice cubes and a pinch of salt. Mix well and serve chilled.

This entry goes for EC's AFAM:Lemon as well as Jai and Bee's CLICK event.

Honey Lemonade

Pista Kulfi

2008-08-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

We were at home this past weekend catching up with our friends over phone and emails after our vacation. Also finished my groceries and loaded up my fridge for the upcoming week and actually I had some time to cook a traditional lunch after a few weeks! Surprisingly, I also got into this mood of planning the dinner menu for all five working days next week. I normally won't do it, and even if I do, I don't end up maintaining it :) But perhaps, may be my 2 week break is giving me all this enthusiasm! Don't know how long my enthu will last.. But, so far so good! I've been going as per plan for the past 2 days and it helps indeed. Atleast, it lets me drive back home peacefully listening to my favorite music, instead of debating myself about the dinner menu.

This year, for some reason August is cooler than it should be. Don't know why. I know that theoritically there are a few more summer weeks left before all my short sleeve blouses and skirts get replaced with my sweaters and pants in my closet. But oddly I had to sleep with my big blanket last night. I liked it, but mentally not fully ready for fall and winter yet. So still maintaining to cook some thing summery in my kitchen often, just to maintain my summer gusto. Coincidentally, Srilekha's Ice-Creams and Milkshakes event came up at the right time giving me another opportunity to make a summer favorite!

Pista Kulfi has been my family favorite for a long time. Back in my childhood, I remember enjoying kulfi only in "Aavin", a popular dairy store in my place. But about a few years ago I learnt this awesome recipe from one of my friends - actually this recipe is a combination from my sister and my friend. Both had slightly different versions and I combined them to make it my own way. Its been coming out delicious every time and we all thoroughly enjoy it. If you have the right ingredients, its super easy! If you do have those freezer pops, you can make it with ice-cream sticks.. but we just enjoy it in a bowl as well..

Ingredients

Evaporated Milk - 1 cup
Sweetened Condensed mik - 1 cup
Half and Half - 1/2 cup
Cool whip - 1/2 cup (you will find this in the freezer section)
Green food color - 2 drops (optional)
Crushed Cardamom pods - 5
Pista, Walnuts - 1/4 cup

Procedure

Combine and whip all of the above ingredients except nuts in a big bowl for a few mins. Bring the cool whip to room temperature before mixing.
Freeze it for an hour. Remove and now garnish with the nuts. Freeze again overnight.
Leave it outside for 5 mins before serving.

Apple Dal!

2008-08-20T21:24:00.000-05:00

I'm back.. Missed you all for 2 weeks and I'm sure I would have missed reading some fabulous recipes too! We came back last weekend from our 10 day cruise trip to the Carribean Islands. We were a group of 17 people and we had a blast! Friends, I have to tell you.. If you have not done a cruise vacation, do it! Its worth. A very different experience and we all had a great time! It was a mega-ship and we got a room with a balcony. The ocean views and sunset views were just fabulous! What's more appealing is that unlimited top-notch cuisine that was served all day (included in your fare). The food was exceptional and we also were lucky enough to have some fabulous Indian dinner every night due to our speical request.

It was a REAL vacation as we didn't' have to worry about anything and the cruise ship had it all - comfy rooms, plenty of food, pools, casino, movie theater, spa, gym, disco, shopping, library - you name it. Its just like a floating 5 star hotel. Life on the ship is all about being pampered, entertained, fed by culinary yummers at all hours with spectacular desserts. Those were the best desserts I've ever tasted! We docked at a few islands like Bermudas, Peurtorico and enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in those beautiful beaches too! The weather was hot and sunny in every port- but getting into the water made it better, water was perfect! I can't think of anything that I disliked about the cruise except my lousy Rammi playing.. ha ha.. But overall, we had a great time!

Well, its hard to get back to the same old routine after a good break.. But you know what? I'm re-charged completely after reading all your wonderful comments, a few tags and awards waiting in my blog while I was gone and I can't wait to get back to my blogging as well as read thru all your posts. Thank you all for your wishes and great words. Alright, here I am with another of my favorite recipe. After we came back, we sure did have the craving for some home-made comfort food. Nothing can beat that! After doing some basic grocery shopping, I decided to make some quick comfort food yesterday. Apple dal is one of our favorite dal recipes and a very simple recipe too. I make this whenever I need a simple but different dal recipe or whenever I have some extra apples. I like the taste of the sweet and tangy apple mixed with spices. Goes well with rice as well as rotis. Hope you all like it too.

Ingredients:

Green Apple - 1
Cooked Toor Dal - 1.5 cup
Onion - 1 medium
G.Chillies - 2
Tomato - 1 medium
Sambar Powder - 1 tbsp
Mustard and Cumin seeds - 1 tsp each
Asaefotida/Hing - 2 pinches
Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
Corriander and Curry leaves - a few.

Procedure:

Peel and dice the apples into 1 inch cubes and soak in water and the lemon juice atleast for 15 mins.
Puree the tomatoes. Set aside.
Heat oil in a kadai, season with mustard, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add the chopped onions, curry leaves and g.chillies and fry for a few mins.
Add sambar powder and tomato puree and let it boil for 5 mins in medium heat.
Then add the apples, cooked tuvar dal and salt with some water and simmer for 10 more mins or until the apples are soft. Mash the mixture slightly.
Add corriander leaves, mix and remove from heat.

We enjoy it with plain rice. I make it a little spicier since we always have it with rice.