Friday, March 30, 2012

Garlic Pickle


I had to go to my Mom's place for 5days and wanted to make sure I make something for my hubby thereby he gets temped to keep rice in our home. And he suggested me to make Mango pickle for him, so that he can have it with all kinds of rice . So tried my first pickle on the night before I had to travel and that was Mango pickle.  It was damn Yummy as I did not take pictures of it could not post it.

I also brought some to my CBE home and my parents loved the pickle a lot. Hence asked to prepare some more for them. As they do not eat much spiciness I made a different version of pickle and the recipe is given below. They liked it a lot but as it was not very spicy my sissy gave an another name to it, Spicy Idli Melagai podi Grrrrrrrrrrr ;) :).


Ingredients:

200gms Garlic
1 tbs Jaggery
3 tbs Jeera
3 tbs Corriander seeds
25 Red Chillies
2 tbs Methi Seeds
2tbs Mustard
2 Lemon
4tbs Salt
Required Gingely Oil

Method:
  • Peel the Garlic and cut them little small. If your using the small garlic just peel them and keep.
  • In an empty kadai dry roast Jeera, Corriander seed and Red chillies. Allow them to cool before grinding.
  • In the same kadai dry roast Methi seeds separately and keep aside.
  • Powder the first mixture. We like to have it little coarse than a fine powder. Hence powdered them little coarsely. Finely Powder the Methi Powder.
  • To the chilli mixture add the extracted lemon juice and mix well. 
  • In the heavy bottomed kadai, add oil more than quantity of  Garlic. (If you have 1 cup garlic you can add 1 1/2 cup oil )
  • When the oil is hot add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the chilli lemon mixture, salt and garlic. Mix well and within few seconds add mustard powder and add jaggery at the end. 
  • Yummy Garlic pickle ready :)


 Note:
  • Mix well and keep it aside till it cools and then store in Glass vessel Pour extra oil if required on top so that the pickle is immersed in oil well. 
  • It will not be very spice unlike the normal pickle but will have spiciness, sourness, sweetness,bitterness. It can be used for more months if stored properly :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Manathakali Vathakuzhambu



The idle Brahmin dish is vathakuzhambu (spicy sambar) and it is an awesome combination with grilled papad (Sutta appalam). The flavor would be so good that even after you eat u can smell the aroma on your hands ;)
There are many ways and kinds of Vathakuzhambu this is one of the kind to make it.

Ingredients:

1 small lemon sized Tamarind
3tbs Sambar powder
Required Salt
1/4tsp Turmeric Powder

To Temper:

4 tbs Gingely oil
1 tbs  Methi Seeds
1 tbs Mustard
1 tbs Jeera
1 tbs Urad Dal
1 tbs Channa Dal
Few Curry leaves
Handful of Manathakali dried seeds


Method:

  • Soak the Tamrind in hot water for about 15mins. And extract thick juice from it.
  • In a Hot Kadai add to the temper ingredients in order. Once Dried Manathakali seeds are added fry untill they turn black and big.
  • After that add the extracted tamrind water to the kadai
  • Allow it to boil till the raw smell goes off. Once the smell goes add little turmeric, sambar powder and salt. If the mixture is very thick you can add some water and allow it to boil. Once nice aroma comes and the mixture is little thick and oil snoozes out from the sambar it is the right time to switch off the flame.
  • Serve them with hot rice with a spoon of oil. It will be quite spicy but would taste really good.






Saturday, March 24, 2012

Paneer Biryani

My Hubby wanted to have Paneer for a long time. And this was the first time I tried a recipe with Paneer. As my hubby loves biryani a lot thought will make Paneer Biryani.

Inorder to get the ingredients I made my hubby walk in the scotching sun to the nearest super market. But the end result came out really yummy and the paneer were crispy to eat.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup Rice
2 Cloves
1 Small Star Anise
1 Onion
1 Tomato
2 tbs Butter
1 tbs Cumin Powder
1 tbs Coriander Powder
Required Salt
3 tbs curd

To Grind - I:

4 Small Onions
1 inch Ginger
4 Garlic Pods
2 tbs Coconut
3 Green Chillies
2 cloves
1 Small piece Star anise

To Grind II:

Handful Corriander leaves
2 tbs Curd


To Paneer:

2 tbs Butter
1 Cup Paneer
1 tbs Cumin Powder
1 tbs Coriander Powder
1 tbs Red chilli powder
2 tbs Curd
Required Salt
1/4 tsp Turmeric

Method:
  • Cut the onion lengthwise and finely chop the tomato.
  • Except butter add the above said 'To Paneer' ingredients and mix well. Let it rest for another 20mins till the rice gets cooked.
  • In a cooker add 2 tbs of  butter, add the cloves and star anise. Add the onions and tomato and fry till the raw smell goes. Grind the ingredients in 'To Grind - I' and add to the mixture. 
  • Add the cumin and corriander powder.
  • Grind the corriander leaves along with curd, do not add water. After grinding add another 3 tbs of curd and whip thereby the mixture is completely mixed.
  • Add them to the cooker and saute them for a minute.
  • To it add the rice and saute for a minute and add required water, salt.
  • Pressure cook the rice for 3 whistles.
  • In a non stick pan, add butter and the soaked paneer cubes. Fry them till they are golden brown and crispy.
  • Add the panner to the rice and close the lid for a minute, thereby the flavour gets blended. Yummy Briyani ready. Serve with your favorite Raitha.
Note:
  • It takes about 3-4 minutes for the paneer to get crispy. Paneer would taste delicious to have it as such. The paneer will be crispy if added to the rice at the end.
  • You can also add Pudina along with corriander leaves. Try with Basmathi rice, as I was doing it for the first time I did not want to take a risk :). But later felt it would have tasted heavenly with basmati rice.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Pumpkin Milk Kheer


Are you bored of all the usual kheer made??? Do you want to try something different??? Then here goes a sweet recipe which is very tasty... Pumpkin Milk Payasam...

It is easy to make and no one would know secret ingredient which you added to the payasam. Try it out by yourselves and let me know how it was :) :)

Ingredients:

1 cup Pumpkin
1 1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup shredded coconut
8 Almonds
10 Cashews
1 cup Milk
2tbs Ghee
Pinch of Cardamon powder




 
Method:

  • Powder almonds and few cashews.
  • Boil the pumpkin in water and make it a fine paste to that add the sugar and sit well. The sugar should be dissolved well. After it is done, keep this aside.
  • In another pan add ghee, to it add the cashews and coconut. Once the raw smell goes and cashews are golden in color, add the almond mixture. Later add the pumpkin sugar syrup and mix well.
  • Add milk and cardamon powder.
  • Yummy kheer ready :)

 Note:
  • Almond powder was added to make the kheer little thicker in consistency.
  • The sugar can be adjusted based on the sweetness you prefer.

Pumpkin Vada



Ugadi Shubakanshalu.... :) This is my first Ugadi celebration after marriage so I am very happy that I surprised my husband with his favorite dishes :)

As I had more pumpkin in home, I was thinking what to do with them. And learned this recipe from the TV. Modified them according to our taste and it came out crispy and yummy.

You can surprise your guests by giving them this vada as one would not know it is made of pumpkin.

Here is the recipe.,

Ingredients:

2 cup Pumpkin
1/2 cup Shredded coconut
1/2 cup Rice flour
1/4 cup Corn flour
2 tbs Wheat flour
1 tbs All purpose flour
2 tbs Red chilli powder
4 Green chillies
1 inch Ginger
Pinch of Hing
Few curry leaves
Required Salt
Required Oil


Method:

  • Coarsely grind the pumpkin using a blender. Do not add any water to them, it should not be made as paste also.
  • Add all the ingredients except oil. and make it a fine batter as the picture above. If the water from the pumkin is not sufficient enough to make a soft batter add very little oil to it.
  • Apply a tsp of oil in hand and make balls from the batter press them little thin.
  • In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil and deep fry them till golden brown.
  • Crispy pumkin vada is ready. It tasted good as such and can be had with tomato ketchup too. 


Note:
  • Corn flour can be made optional and rice flour can be substituted to it. 
  • Do not add more wheat flour as it would make the vada soft but not crispy. So adjust the flour according to your taste.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Godhumai Paruppu Adai


 Here is an another healthier recipe which came out good... It is Wheat Lentil Adai.. :)

Adai is usually made of rice and lentils batter poured on hot griddle in circular form.
Usually old people/children would not prefer adai much as they would be little thick and would not be crispy. We cannot have more than 3 big adai. And as it is mainly made of dal we should not have more too and would not suit some people's health.

My hubby also do not prefer it much. He requires crispy adai in the form of dosai. So I just tried this recipe where the amount of dal used would be less when compared to the normal recipe and added Godhumai rava to give softness to the batter.

He loved it and really appreciated my efforts in making the adai crispy and healthy.

Ingredients:

1 cup Raw rice
1 cup Sambha godhumai (Wheat)
3/4 cup Thur dal
1/4 cup Channa dal
1/4 cup Urad dal
7 red chillies

To the batter:

1 big Onion
Few Curry leaves
1 inch Ginger
Pinch of Hing
Required Salt
Required Oil

Method:

  • Soak  the lentils together for 30mins. Soak raw rice and Sambha ravai for 20mins.
  • Grind raw rice and sambha ravai together.
  • Grind the lentils and red chillies coarsely. Do not make it a paste.
  • Add both the batter together and add required salt to it. The batter should not be thick nor watery.
  • Add finely chopped onion, ginger and curry leaves to it.
  • Pour a ladle of the batter in a hot gridle or non stick tawa and drizzle oil around the adai.
  • When it is half cooked make small hole on the center of the adai and drizzle little oil in there. It takes time to get cooked than dosa. Let it become litlle crispy and flip the adai. Add some more oil too.
  • Serve with butter and jaggery or avial which is the perfect combo for adai. My hubby likes it with Curd and sugar so I need not worry much on the side dish. It will be good with Sambar too.

Note:
  • You can also grind ginger along with the red chillies instead of adding it separately. We can also add Drumstick leaves to it and it would be still more healthier.
  • Do not be a miser to add oil, it requires little more than dosa and takes some time to get cooked. 
  • Usually Adai batter has to be consumed immediately. But this recipe gets better even if it is used after 8hrs. It becomes more crispier and soft. So even if the batter is more you need not worry about it :)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Moong Dal


 As I have started cooking recently I am just posting easy and delicious recipe which I do in home.

Here is another such simple recipe which would taste heavenly with any Indian bread.


Being health cautious we used to have phulka atleast 4 times in a week for dinner. So obviously need to make nice curry to have it. My husband do not like Indian breads much, he prefers rice for roti. So to make him eat I have to make different kinds of curry each time and should make sure they are not repeated too.

Whenever I feel lazy to prepare a new curry I used to prepare this :) Oops my hus would know it now :P
My mom used to prepare this curry whenever she makes Chapathi. And I would love to have it at any time.
And hubby also enjoys this curry and would ask for extra chappathi  whenever I make this :)

Here goes the simple Lentil curry's recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Moong Dal
1 big onion
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
Required Salt


To Temper:

2 tbs Oil/Ghee
1 tsp Mustard
2 tsp Jeera
3 Red/green Chillies
Few Curry Leaves
Pinch of Hing

Method:
  • Pressure cook the moong dal. I used to make it mushy so that it would taste yummy :)
  • Add the tempering ingredients in a hot kadai. Later add the finely chopped onions and fry until little golden brown. To it add the turmeric powder.
  • Add the cooked Moong dal and water to required consistency. Still well until they get mixed well and nice aroma comes out.
  • Yummy and easy curry ready :)

Note:
  • I did not had green chillies in home hence used red chillies. Green chillies can also be used to give more spice to the curry.
  • I like to add more jeera to this curry as it gives a very nice flavor.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tomato Bath



Tomato bath is the easiest and the yummiest rice. It is an idle lunch box recipe...

I do not like tomato much, so will usually avoid tomato bath in home or in PG. But it is my hubby's favorite dish. Hence I had to do it in home for him. So tried to make it in such a way even I can enjoy the food. Here is the recipe which has a little briyani flavor.

It does not have much masala, but have tastes little different from tomato bath.

Ingredients:

4 Tomato
1 Onion
1tbs Sambar powder
1 tbs Chilli powder
Required Salt
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
4 Garlic pods
1 inch Ginger
1 1/2 Cup of Rice
Few Coriander leaves

To Temper:

2 tbs Ghee/oil
2 Cloves
1 Star Anise (Smaller part)
1 tsp Jeera
1 tsp Urad dal
1 tsp Channa dal

Method:

  • Grind the tomatoes and keep it aside. Cut onion lengthwise.
  • Pressure cook the rice and cool down to make the rice separate. Add little oil so that it will not be sticky.
  • In a heavy bottomed pan add the tempering items and add the finely chopped garlic and ginger.
  • To it add the tomato puree and to it add turmeric, sambar powder, red chilli powder and Salt. Saute them till the raw smells goes and cook till you good aroma.
  • Add coriander leaves and mix the cooked rice to it. Serve with onion raitha.


Note:
  • Instead of grinding the tomato one can also add the cut tomatoes and cook till it becomes mushy.
  • One can also add dry coconut to the rice and would post another variety of tomato rice later.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Onion Pakoda/Bonda


Onion Pakoda remains me of my hostel days in Bangalore... We used to get scheduled food in Pay Guest. I do not like Tuesday's dinner, which is Mooli sambar, rasam and bitter gourd poriyal. We used to have just rasam and Onion Pakoda as side dish.

My friend Karthi and I used to buy this for sure on every tuesday. We even have an agreement that who ever comes to PG first will buy it and only enter PG. The road side shop would have a biiig crowd to buy this pakoda mainly. I used to stand in the shop for more than 15 mins to buy just 4 pakodas. Those were beautiful days which will be always cherished. :)

Do try it out, this would be absolutely yummy during rainy season :)

Ingredients:

1 Big Chopped Onion
3 tbs Rice flour
3 tbs Besan flour
1/2 tbs Corn flour
3/4 tsp Red chilli powder
Pinch of Asfoetida
Required Salt
1tsp Butter/ghee (Optional)
Required Oil for deep frying

Method:

  • Mix all the above ingredients except oil and sprinkle water to make dough. Do not add more water. The dough consistency should be such a way that we can make balls out of it.
  • Make balls and get it deep fried in hot oil.
  • Remove the excess oil using tissue.
  • Serve with tomato sauce. I love to have it as such :)

Pepper Garlic Rasam



Summer season started and my hubby started to have more juices/cold drinks for his thirst...

When there is a season change and intake of cold juices are more obviously one would get attacked by dangerous 'cold'. This rasam is idle recipe for cold and can be done quickly. It would be too good to have in cold weather.

This drooling rasam can be had with hot rice and papad. I like rasam a lot hence always would try varieties of rasam in home. During weekend it becomes one of our default dish and each time hubby expects a different one.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbs Pepper
1 tbs Jeera
1 Red Chilli
6 Garlic pods
1 gooseberry sized Tamrind
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder (Optional)
Required Kothamali
Required Salt

To Temper:

1 tsp ghee
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Jeera
Pinch Asafetida

Method:

  • Soak tamarind and extract the juice and keep it aside
  • Coarsely crush the red chilli, pepper and jeera together. Roughly crush the garlic too.
  • In a kadai add the temper ingredients. After that add garlic and little of the red chilli. pepper, jeera mixture.
  • Add the tamrind extract to the kadai and turmeric.
  • After it boils add the remaining pepper jeera mixture and salt. Do not allow it to boil. Switch off the gas soon.
  • Cut the kothamali and add them to the rasam.


Yummy and easy rasam ready to be served...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Crispy Rava Dosa



Another favorite recipe of mine... Crispy Ravaaa Dosaaa...

Whenever dad used to come to Bangalore to see me we used to go to Krishna cafe or Sukh sagar hotel just to get Rava dosa... How much ever one earn, the food/dresses which is bought by dad and mom are so precious. I used to stay hunger till he comes and would insist to take me to the hotel. The default dish which I order is rava dosa.. It would be damn yummy that I can just live my whole life eating that :)

After I left Bangalore I was very desperate to have dosa in Pune but obviously the dosa did not taste as yummy as we get in South India...

Hence tried the same in home... And it was really delicious... It can be made in a jiffy and one can obviously have more dosa than we eat in hotel ;)

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava
1/2 cup Rice flour
1/4 cup Maida
few broken cashews
1 onion
coarsely powdered Jeera and Pepper
2 cup water
salt to taste



Method:

  • Mix all the above ingredients together and make sure the batter is little watery when compared to normal dosa batter.
  • Allow the batter to rest it for 30mins so that we can get crispy dosa.
  • In hot pan sprinkle little oil. Later pour the batter from outwards and bring it towards the center. Sprinkle the batter if the holes in between are bigger if not do not fill in the gaps. It helps in getting you crispy dosa.
  • Sprinkle oil on the holes and allow it get cooked for about a minute. After a minute turn the dosa around.
  • Crispy rava dosa is ready to be served :)

Friday, March 16, 2012

Diamond Chips

Like our elders say life has both sweetness and sourness.
My first blog being a sweet, I drafted my second blog which is namkeen.

Diamond chips is my all time favorite snack, which we get exclusively from Nella lala shop in Coimbatore. The namkeen would taste so good and one can have it at any time. Whenever I go to CBE, we used to buy it for sure for munching.

I tried to make it too. It did not turn like the one I expected but it was tastier in its own way.

Here goes my recipe...

Ingredients:

2 cup Maida
2 tbsp chilli powder
pinch of Hing
Required cooking oil
Salt to taste
Few curry leaves
Required water

Method:

  • Dry Roast the curry leaves and powder it
  • Mix the ingredients such as maida, curry leaves powder, Hing, salt and water to make soft dough.
  • Take small balls and roll them like chapathi. Using knife draw parallel and diagonal line forming diamond shapes.
  • Place them in tissue paper there by it absorbs the moisture and later deep fry them.
  • Remove the excess oil and store them in an airtight container.
  • Puffy and crispy diamond chips ready :)

They were very yummy that my hubby made sure I divide them into two equal halves for me and him and store them in separate container. If not I would have ate them all by myself.... ;)

Maaladu



Yippeee!! Here goes my first blog....

I realized my love towards cooking when our home was set up in Pune . I felt toooooo good when I had a kitchen on my own where I can mess up and experiment in cooking and the most good part is no one can question me other than my hubby ;) Its quite easy to blabber about the mess to your hubby when compared to MIL and Mom ;)

This being my first post I wanted to start with a sweet recipe.

Maaladu as everyone know its very easy doable and mouthwatering sweet.
To say about it, my hubby have a sentimental feel when it comes to Maaladu.

Whenever he goes home during vacation, my MIL used to prepare this sweet for him so that he can eat whenever he misses home. He is not much home sick but obviously he does misses his mom's cuisines as she is a culinary expert I should say.

He used to preserve them and have it whenever he starts something new or thinks he requires mom's blessing. With the same senti even I thought I will have the same in my first blog.

Here we go...

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup Fried gram/Pottu kadalai
1 cup Sugar
Handful of Almonds (Optional)
Handful of roasted cashews
1 cup Ghee

Method:
  • Powder Fried grams and Almonds finely in a mixer. Powder the sugar as well.
  • Mix all of them along with cashews.
  • Heat ghee in a kadai and add warm ghee to the mixture and shape them into balls.
  • Yummy Maaladu ready :) Enjoy...


Note:
  • If your going to make many maaladu then make sure you add warm ghee to the mixture little by little. It requires some patience as it involves heating the ghee and making the ladoo and again reheating the ghee for making maaladu, the process to be iterated till the mixture is complete.
  • If Ghee is not there adequate in home you can also add little milk along with ghee and make maaldu. But this needs to be consumed soon and cant be preserved longer like the original recipe.
  • My hubby does not like Almonds as such so I used to grind it along with fried gram so he will not get to know ;) It will not be used in the original recipe. You can also omit it.