Shrimp Curry

I got the recipe from my sister to make shrimp curry. My sister makes yummy shrimp curry. I like sea foods compared to the other meats. When I went for shopping this week to Albertsons store, I saw these baby shrimps to be very fresh. I grabbed some to cook for this week. I like shrimps made in any form. It tastes good and good for health. Here the recipe goes!!

Ingredients

• Shrimps/ Prawns required quantity
• 4 -5 green chilies finely chopped
• 1 Onion finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped
• 4-5 garlic cloves (smashed)
• 4-5 tsp of tamarind extract
• ½ tsp garam masala
• 1tsp cumin powder
• 1tsp coriander powder
• ½ cumin seeds
• Few curry leaves
• Salt to taste
• Oil for cooking

Method

• Heat the pan with oil, add cumin seeds, green chilies, garlic sauté them. Add the onions and leave it go brown. Cook in medium heat.

• Add tomatoes. Let the tomatoes merge with the onions and boil in simmering heat.

• Add the tamarind extract to get a tangy flavor. Let it cook for 5 minutes and absorb the flavor.

• Add the garam masala, cumin powder and coriander powder and allow them to blend with the mixture.

• Add the shrimps/prawns and salt. Blend it well so that the curry mixes with the skin.

• Close the lid and cook for 15 minutes. Once it is cooked turn off the heat. Let it cool and absorb the flavor. Garnish with cilantro leaves

• Serve hot with rice
  

Stir Fry Vegetable Noodles

I am always fond of noodles. It is easy to cook and less time consuming. For a long time I was sticking with Maggie noodles from the Indian grocery stores. I was quite happy with Maggie and it gives the childhood memories. Recently I visited my friend’s house for lunch and happened to discuss about noodles. She said about her way of cooking noodles and it was very exciting for me. I immediately tried it and it turned out to be a very tasty noodles. I am no more getting Maggie noodles from the Indian grocery stores. I got stir fry noodles from Trader Joe’s. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

• 1 packet of stir fry noodles
• Vegetables (as per your choice & quantity). I used the stir fry vegetables.
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1tsp paprika
• 1tsp Soya sauce
• 1tsp sugar
• Salt for taste
  

Method

• Boil the water and soak the noodles in the water by adding a little salt. Drain the noodles once it becomes soft. It is the same process of pasta.
  

• In a pan, add the garlic powder, paprika ,stir fry vegetables, a little water and cover cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables gets cooked.

• Add the drained noodles, sugar, soya sauce and salt. When you are adding soya sauce try to add little salt since soya sauce already has a sour taste. Cook and stir over high heat for 2 – 3 minutes or until the noodles are soft and most of liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat.
  

• Serve hot with tomato sauce

Kovakka ( Ivy Gourd ) Curry

I never had a liking for Kovakka since I never tried it out. I picked this veggie to try something new for the week. My friend is fond of kovakka and I got this recipe from her. I thanked her so much for sharing this recipe since it turned out to be a very tasty dish. It goes well with rice as well as chapatti. Here it goes!!

Ingredients

• Kovakka (required quantity)
• ½ cup Onions finely chopped
• ½ cup tomato finely chopped
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• Salt for taste

For tempering: Mustard, cumin and curry leaves

Method

Cut the kovakka into round or lengthwise.

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves to it. When the mustard starts to sputter add the onions and sauté until it turns to light brown color. Now add the tomato's and sauté for few minutes.

Add turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder, salt and kovakka. Mix well and add required water and cover cook for 15 minutes.

Once the kovakka gets cooked and absorbed the flavor, cook uncovered for 2 minutes.

Serve hot with rice or chapatti.

Happy Vishu

Wishing you all a Happy New Year

Vishu is celabrated as a New Year in Kerala in the Month of April. The main ritual on this day is Vishukkani. It is believed that the first objects which one sees on the morning of Vishu determine the prosperity experienced in the coming year. As a result, people make it a point to see all the auspicious things as soon as they wake up. A special ritual arrangement of auspicious articles like raw rice is put in a circular bell-metal vessel known as 'Uruli' and over it a folded newly washed cloth is spread. A golden coloured cucumber, betel leaves, betel nuts, metal mirror, yellow flowers of Konna tree (cassia fistula), a few gold coins are then placed over the cloth in the vessel. Then some oil is put into two coconut halves, a few wicks are lit and this illuminates the goodies inside. A bell metal lamp called nilavilakku is lighted near it.

The morning the Vishu is about 5 O'clock, one of the members of the house, usually the eldest female member, not surprisingly, lights the lamp and looks at ‘Kani’. She wakes up the other members, one after another and the Kani is shown to every one of them, taking particular care not to allow anyone to look by chance at other things. My mom closes my eyes with her hand and makes me walk till the pooja room to see the "Kani" in the early morning. She does this one by one to all of them in my family. Its is our turn now to start the process:)

The next important thing is kaineettam a token amount of money. The old members of the family give kaineettam to the youngsters as part of celebaration. When vishu nears, all I think of is money in my childhood. This time I got it from my hubby dear. Later in the day, a feast is prepared at home called " Sadya" and the whole family enjoys having lunch together. That’s a little information on what we do on “ Vishu”.

Wishing you all a Happy Vishu.

Onion Samosa

Samosa is a tasty snack and is very popular in India. When I think about samosa, it reminds me of the cinema theatres in India. I love samosa in the theatres. Today the weather was really good; it was raining now and then. I thought a hot spicy snack would go for the evening and it reminded me about the samosa. I was running out of potatoes and ended up making onion samosa .This is my entry VKN' Virtual Cooking competition . This is my own recipe and this how it goes!!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of onion ( cut into lengthwise)
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• ¼ tsp pepper powder
• ½ coriander powder
• A pinch of turmeric
  
• Salt for taste
• Pastry sheets
  

Onion stuffing

• Heat 1tsp oil in a pan and fry the onion with all the powders for about 10 minutes until all the onions absorbs the flavor. Keep aside and set it cool.

Method to make samosa

• Thaw the required pastry sheets at a room temperature for 30-40 minutes before using. I used Pepperidge farm pastry sheets.
  

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. While the oven is pre-heating, unfold the pastry sheets and cut into to triangle shapes. You can do any shapes with this dough, just play with it.
  

• Stuff the onions mixture on the triangle shapes and bring another triangle shape and close the edges with your hands. Do this for all the samosa.
  

• In a flat ungreased pan, arrange the samosa’s and bake the samosa's at 400 degrees F for about 10- 12 minutes. I used the foil on the pan so that I can escape from cleaning. Check the samosa's in between while it is in the oven to avoid over frying.Take it out when it becomes crispy and color changes to golden brown.
  

• Serve hot with tomato sauce.
  

Sabudana Upma

This is the first time I am preparing sabudana upma. I have eaten sago made in sweet but this is the first time experiencing savory dish. I got this recipe from my friend and she makes sago upma very well. It tasted similar to pasta. I liked the taste. I made this for dinner and we both relished it. You can have with chutney‘s or Sāmbhar as a side dish for this sago upma. Here the recipe goes!!

Ingredients

• 1 cup sabudana
• 4-5 pearl onions finely chopped
• 2-3 green chilies finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp ginger finely chopped
• 2 tsp shredded coconut
• 2 tsp of peanuts
• A pinch of turmeric
• 1tsp lemon juice
• salt for taste

For tempering: 1tsp mustard, 1tsp cumin and few curry leaves>

Method

• Rinse the sabudana thoroughly and soak them for about 4-5 hrs. Add required water for soaking the sabudana. Before cooking drain the sabudana completely.
  

• Dry roast the peanuts till light brown. Remove the skin and grind them coarsely in a blender.
  

• Heat oil and season with mustard, cumin, curry leaves. Add the turmeric, onions, ginger, green chilies and sauté them. Add the sabudana which is already drained. Sauté the sabudana with the other seasonings.
  

• Finally add the coarsely grounded peanuts, shredded coconut, salt and little of lime juice and mix well. Cook for 4-5 mins and garnish with cilantro.
  

Tomato Rice

Tomato rice is one of my favorites. This rice brings back the memories of my home. During my school days, I use to take tomato rice for lunch with pickle. I learned this recipe from my mom. Today I was little lazy to cook and ended my making rice for dinner. We had this rice with potato fry and vadagam. Those are my favorite side dishes for the tomato rice. So here the recipe goes!!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• (1 inch piece cinnamons stick, 2 cloves, ¼ tsp funnel seeds (saunf) , 2- 3 bay leaves, 1 cardamom )
• 1 small onion cut into length wise
• 2 tomato cut into length wise
• 4-5 Mint leaves
• A pinch of turmeric
• 2- 3 tsp oil
• Salt to taste
  

To grind:

• 2 tsp of cilantro
• 1tsp ginger
• 2 pods of garlic
• 3 green chilies
  

Method:

• Wash and soak rice for 5- 10 minutes

• Heat oil in a pressure cooker or in a rice cooker. Sauté cinnamons stick, cloves, cardamom, funnel seeds (saunf) and bay leaves. Add onions, fry until they are brown, add tomatoes and fry until it becomes soft.
  

• Mix the grinded items and fry in medium low heat till the raw smell goes off. When the moisture is absorbed, add the soaked rice, mint leaves and fry for few more minutes. Add 1tsp salt and two cups of water. Close the lid if you cooking in the pressure cooker and pressure cook for 10 minutes in low heat until 1 whistle and turn off the heat. If you are cooking in the rice cooker pan, remove the pan from the heat and transfer to the rice cooker and plug in.
  

• Once the rice is cooked, check for salt and add accordingly.

Sever hot with raita and pappad.

A Foodblogger’s Meme Around the World

Priya of sugar and spice has tagged me with meme. This is the first time I am contributing towards meme and it is great fun to do meme!! Here it goes:)


1. Please list three recipes you have recently bookmarked from foodblogs to try:

• Luv2cook's Bottlegourd curry
• Puspa's Fish Curry
• KarthikKannan's Tomato Pickle

I have bookmarked many recipes apart from the above three.

2. A foodblog in your vicinity:

• The Green Jackfruit

3. A foodblog (or more) located far from you:

Lots are there to mention, Just picked two from my mind:)

• Food, in the main
• Sailu's Food

4. A foodblog (or several) you have discovered recently (where did you find it?):

I found the below blogs from Indira's blog list

• Me and My kitchen
• Samyal
• Aayi's recipes
• Sugar and Spice
• Kitchenmate
• Kodalis Kitchen
• Spicehut
• Luv to cook
• My treasure My Pleasure
  
• Vineela's Cooking

5. Any people or bloggers you want to tag with this meme?

• Towards better tomorrow - Kay
• Cooking Medley - Luv2cook
• Hooked on heat - Meena
• Food For Thought - Ashwini
• MyriadTaste - Lera
  

Stuffed Gobi Paratha

This recipe I learned from my friend Anita. I got to talk to her in yahoo messenger this week. We happened to talk about cooking and she came up with this recipe. It sounded very interesting to me, since I never tried paratha’s so far. I immediately wrote the recipe in my cook book. This recipe turned out very tasty. I made Indira’s "methi chutney" which turned out very well and it was a good accompaniment with the Gobi paratha’s. After trying paratha’s for first time, I am now motivated to try more paratha’s in the future :)

Ingredients: Recipe for two

• Cauliflower florets: 8-9 florets cut into small pieces.
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1tsp red chili powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 2 cups of wheat flour
• 1tsp of oil
• Salt for taste

Method to make Gobi for stuffing:

• Finely chop the cauliflower florets into small pieces.

• Heat oil in a pan, sauté the cumin seeds. Add the florets, red chili powder, turmeric and salt and sauté until it gets cooked.

Method to make Gobi Paratha:

• Mix the wheat flour with salt and knead the dough by adding warm water. Keep the dough aside for 20 mins covered in a container.
  

• Divide the dough to small balls as you make for chapattis. Now split the ball into two sizes so that you can make two layers of chapatti’s and stuff the Gobi’s. Roll the divided balls to a thin chapatti’s.
  

• Now stuff the first layer of chapatti with the cauliflower. Bring the second layer of chapatti and attach to the first layer of chapatti. With your hand, close the edges of the two layers and roll the paratha carefully.

• You can cut into different shapes before frying. Ensure to close the edges before frying once you made into shapes.
  

• Heat an iron plate or skillet, add 1tsp of oil and place the paratha on the skillet.
  

• Keep the paratha on the skillet until it becomes brown on both sides by repeatedly changing the sides.

Paruppu Thuvaiyal ( Dal Chutney )

Paruppu thuvaiyal is made of lentils and coconut, serves as a good accompaniment for rice. I think this is quite common in South India for lunch. I learned this recipe from my mother-in-law. This is easy to make and can be stored in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1 cup toor dal
• ½ cup coconut
• 2 pods of garlic
• 4 red chilies
• Salt for taste
  

Method:

• In a pan dry roast the toor dal on a low medium heat until a nice aroma comes out of the toor dal. Keep aside.

• In the same pan, dry roast the garlic, red chilies and the coconut. Keep aside.
  

• Allow everything to cool and grind all together with salt in a mixi or a blender. Add required water and grind them coarsely.
  

Serve as a side dish for the rice.