Priya's Kitchen

Pazham Pori - Plantain Fritters

2007-08-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Pazham Pori is a sweet dish made with ripe plantains dipped in flour mixed with sugar. This is a popular dish in Kerala, usually sold in road side tea-shops. It is easy to prepare and it goes well with a cup of tea. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

1 ripe plantain (Nendra Pazham)
1 cup plain flour/ all- purpose flour/ Maida
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp turmeric
Pinch of salt
½ cup water and oil to fry

Method

Peel plantains, cut is two halves, and slice each halves into four to six slices. One plantain yielded 12 pieces for me.
Mix flour with ½ cup water to make a smooth batter, mix in sugar, turmeric, and salt.
Heat oil in a pan; dip plantain slices in batter and deep fry till golden brown. Drain and serve hot with tea.

Fruit Cake

2007-06-09T22:12:00.001-07:00

Hi Guys, here I am back to blogging. There is no reason for me not blogging apart from saying that I have become bit lazy these days. My friend had recently been to her home town, Kerala, and guess what she got for me? Bakery items, what else I could ask for than eatables like jackfruit halwa, plum cake, jackfruit chips etc. The plum cake got all my attention and droved me to search the recipes at Google. Still I do not know the difference between a plum cake and a fruit cake because the ingredients are almost the same, expect the plum cake has more of plums, for me, both tastes the same. So as I was searching at Google I came across RP’s fruit cake and here , I ended up following the method of RP’s recipe and here goes the method!!

Method

Step 1- Caramel stage: For this you will need ¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp water, ¼ cup warm water, and 1tsp vanilla extract.

In medium heat, heat ¼ cup of sugar with 1 tbsp of water and keep stirring until the color changes from light brown to dark brown. This would take minimum 15 minutes. Once the color becomes darker, remove the pan and pour ¼ cup warm water. To this add the 1tsp vanilla extract.

Step 2- First Mixing: Bring 1 cup sugar, ¼ lb butter (room temperature), 3 eggs. Blend sugar and butter by adding the eggs one by one.

Step 3- Second Mixing: In a mixing bowl, add 1 cup all- purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder , ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp spice powders (cinnamon powder, ginger powder, cloves powder, and nut mug powder).

Step 4: Bringing Step 1, 2, and 3 together. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, spice powders, add caramel water and blend well, and add the sugar, butter egg mixture and blend them together.

Step 5: Bringing the nuts and dry fruits together. To the above, add 1 cup of dried fruits (apricots, dates, raisins, cherries, currants, plums, tutty-fruity, etc) and ½ cup of nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts, etc). Add the fruits to the mixture and add ¼ tsp grated orange or lemon zest.

Step 6: Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan, and bake at 350F for 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Once done, remove the cake and keep in a cooling rack and allow it cool and store in a air tight container.

Notes:

I did not use Rum or Brandy, still the taste was unbelievable. You can try with or without alcohol for this recipe.
In the caramel stage, be careful, while pouring the warm water into the hot content, it might splatter.
This proportion yields about 20 small pieces.

Sauteed Spinach with Dal

2007-04-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Sautéed spinach with dal is an easy recipe to make and this can be had with rice, chapattis, or it can be served as a side dish. This is my entry for JFI: WBB-Greens

Method

Heat the pan with oil, season with mustard, cumin, curry leaves, 4 green chilies finely chopped, 2 broken red chilies, and 4 pods of sliced garlic.

Add 5- 6 chopped pearl onions, sauté them until it turns into light brown.

Add a bunch of chopped spinach leaves and sauté them. Cover cook for 5 minutes in low-heat. Once the spinach is cooked add 4 to 5 tbsp of mashed toor dal and cook for few more minutes.

Serve it with rice or chapattis!!!

Thayir Vadai

2007-04-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

This morning all of a sudden I thought about the RCI event and thought I would contribute some recipe for the event and came up with Thayir vadai aka Dahi vada. Here goes the recipe!!!!

Making Vadai

Soak 1 cup of Urad dal in water for 4 hours or overnight. Grind the Urad dal to a smooth paste without water with 1tsp of ginger, 3 green chilies, 1tbsp rice flour, little asafoetida, and salt.

Frying Process

Heat the oil in a pan, place a plastic sheet (zip lock works best) in your palm and wet the plastic sheet with little water.

Place a spoon of urad dal batter on the plastic sheet and press into a flat shape with help of your hand and make a small hole in the middle (just like a doughnut)

Drop the vada’s into the oil and deep fry them until it turns light brown. Arrange the vada’s in a flat tray.

Making Thayir/Dahi

Beat 2 cups of curd with little salt to a smooth liquid, if the curd is too thick you can add little water. Pour the curd over the vada’s and cover them completely. Refrigerate the soaked vada’s for 3- 4 hrs. While serving garnish with chopped cilantro, carrots, boondi, chat masala or red chili powder as per your taste.

This is my entry for RCI - Tamil Cuisine Event.

Roasted Asparagus

2007-04-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

If you were like me who wants to try asparagus, but afraid about how the recipe is going to turn out and not tried at all? I guess now is the time to try out for the people who are afraid about this veggie. There are few programs I watch at food network; shows of Giada’s, Rachel Ray, Sandra lee, and recently I started to watch Barefoot Contessa shows and that’s how I got this recipe. It was quite simple and easy to cook and less work for me. May be you also like to know how this recipe tastes? - It tastes like boiled peanuts. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Break off the tough ends of the asparagus and peel them. Brush the baking sheet with olive oil and place the asparagus.
Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt and ground pepper and coat them completely. Bake them for 15 – 20 minutes until the asparagus is tender and crisp.
Take it out and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of Parmesan and return to the oven for another minute.

Serve with lemon wedges

Notes:

You can skip parmesan part, and you can try this recipe directly on the stove top.

Palada Pradhaman

2007-04-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Palada pradhaman is a sweet dish made of flakes of cooked rice, milk, and sugar. A Sadhya means “big feast” in Malayalam is not completed without a dessert. Since “Vishu” (Malayalam New Year day) is nearing I decided to make palada pradhaman. Anyone who visits Guruvayoor temple wouldn’t miss this dessert. Ready made rice ada is available in all Kerala grocery stores, and it is pretty easy to make this recipe.

Ingredients (Recipe for two)

Rice ada ½ cup
Milk 2 ½ cups
Sugar ½ cup
Ghee 2 tsp
Cardamom powder ¼ tsp
Cashews 1tbsp

Method

Soak rice ada in boiling hot water for 10 minutes and rinse them in cold water.

(Rice ada- available at Kerala Grocery stores)

In a pressure cooker, add milk, rice ada, sugar, and cardamom powder and cook in medium heat until the cooker releases the first whistle. Turn off the heat and let it remain in the same stove top for 10 -15 minutes.
Remove the lid, milk and ada turns to a light pink color.
Transfer the mixture to another vessel and cook the mixture in medium heat for another 20 minutes until the consistency becomes thick.
Once the mixture becomes thick turn off the heat. In another pan, add 2 tsp of ghee and fry the cashews and add to the mixture.

Serve hot or cold.

Notes

You can make Palada prathaman in a traditional way by skipping the cooker method. Instead of making it in a cooker, you can heat milk, sugar, rice ada, cardamom and cook until the consistency becomes thick. This will take minimum 1 hr to 1 ½ hrs, and follow rest of the seasoning process as above.
Preparing pradhaman by cooker method saves time and the results are the same. The cooker method helps to cook the rice ada fast.

Ellavarkum ente Vishu Ashamsakal - Wishing everyone a very happy New Year:)
Vishukani
Vishu sadya
Simple sadya (pappadam, manga achaar, puli inji, avial, pachadi, cabbage thoran, vazhakka thoran, rice, kerala sambhar, palada pradhaman)

Potato Bonda

2007-04-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes some recipes go off your mind for a while and suddenly you start to crave for it. One of the recipes was bonda to me- spiced potato balls dipped in gram flour batter and deep fried in oil. This appetizer is scrumptious and you can have anytime, but for me its a perfect tea time snack. You can try this recipe with tapioca, sweet potato, boiled egg, or with minced meat. Here goes the recipe!!!

Method

Peel 3 potatoes and cut into small chunks; arrange them in a microwave safe dish and sprinkle 2tbsp of water and cover cook for 4-5 minutes. Once done, smash the potatoes before it becomes cold.

In a pan, add 2 tsp of olive oil, cumin seeds, curry leaves, ½ onion chopped finely, 2 green chilies finely chopped, 1tsp of ginger paste or ginger chopped, and finally add the smashed potatoes, little turmeric and salt to taste, saute them well and turn off the heat.

Allow them to cool and make small balls with your hands.

For the batter

Take 1 cup of gram flour (chickpea flour), 1tsp chili powder, 1tbsp rice flour, little asafetida, and salt to taste. Mix all the ingredients to a thick paste with the required amount of water. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes

Last step

Heat oil, dip the balls into the batter and deep fry them.

Serve hot with chutneys or tomato sauce.

Baked Potato with Eggplant

2007-03-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

When you are hungry and want to fix a quick meal, I would go for this recipe, which is easy to prepare and you can fix it less than 30 minutes!! I usually bake meat and fish- recently tried the same thing with veggies. Nowadays I bake most of the veggies instead of doing it on a stove top. It saves a lot of time, less oil, and I can cook some other dish in the stove top. This goes for the people who does multitasking and who are lazy to cook!! just like me...ha ha

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.

Cut the potatoes and egg plants length wise with a knife or by using a Mandolins Slicer. Arrange the potatoes alone evenly in a microwave safe dish and cook for one minute.

Take an oven safe dish and brush the pan with olive oil, place the potatoes and egg plants and bake for 10 minutes. Once done, take it out and allow them to cool for few minutes. Mix the cut veggies with 1 tbsp olive oil, red chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and ¼ tsp turmeric. You can add spices according to your taste.

Preheat the broiler, Place the veggies about 4 inches from the broiler and cook until golden brown, this should take less than 5 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully, as it may take only couple minutes to cook. I remove the pan in between to turn the veggies over for more crispness on all sides.

Serve with rice or chapattis :)

Notes:
Pototoes need more time to bake, so I cooked in microwave for 1 minute and baked them, if you are baking only pototoes you can avoid the microwave step and bake for 15 minutes.

Veggie Pizza: Jalapeno peppers and Olives

2007-02-05T00:04:00.000-08:00

Hi there!!! Yes I am alive and breathing here. Before I start with my stories of me not blogging, I want to thank all the bloggers who enquired about me and my apologies for me not replying for the comments, since it was not intentional.

So where was I all these days?

I and my husband took a small vacation to Hawaii, and then I joined for the winter classes. Hawaii trip was breath taking and I felt pretty much at home at because of the tropical weather, sugarcane fields, the tropical rain forest all reminded me of Kerala. It was a seven days trip to Maui and we did one day hop to the Big Island. This winter I took four classes which was a mistake I did :( before I could realize I missed the last day to drop with a full refund- ha ha. I am hardly cooking these days and that’s why I am not blogging. Hope to be back with full swing from April first week.

Coming to the recipe now, I have already made pizza and this one is no different from the previous one except for the toppings. I made this pizza last Sunday while my husband was watching the Super bowl. Here goes the recipe!!!

Ingredients

¾ to 1-cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp quick-rise active dry yeast
1 ½ tsp dried basil leaves or pizza seasoning
1tbsp olive oil or regular oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp yellow cornmeal
½ cup warm water
½ cup tomato sauce
1 cup sliced ripe olives
½ cup Jalapeno peppers chopped
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Salt to taste

Method

Combine ½ cup all- purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, yeast, pizza seasoning or basil leaves and salt. Blend oil with garlic; stir into flour mixture with water. Stir in ¼ cup of all- purpose flour until soft, slightly sticky dough forms, adding remaining ¼ cup all-purpose flour to prevent sticking if necessary. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with in container or paper towel; let it rest for 10-20 minutes

Place oven rack in lowest position; preheat oven to 400F. Spray 12-inch pizza pan or baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray; sprinkle with cornmeal and set aside. If you have a non- stick pan spray is not needed, corn meal alone is fine.

Roll dough into large circle on lightly floured surface. (Too much rolling makes the crust heavy and dense; stretching dough to fit pan is best.

Blend tomato sauce with ½ tsp of pizza seasoning or basil leaves in small bowl; spread evenly over crust.

Top with Jalapeno peppers, olives, parmesan cheese; sprinkle crushed red pepper on top.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.

ENJOY!!!!!!!

Minestrone Soup ( Italian Vegetable Soup)

2006-12-19T18:38:00.000-08:00

The temperature is dropping day by day and you feel like having something hot which makes you feel better. When winter nears all I could think of is a soup to make me feel warmth in the evening. This one recipe you can always make with the available things from the pantry and guess what you can cook this soup in 30 minutes. This is vegetable minestrone, yes there is no bacon :( but you can always add bacon and replace the vegetable stock with chicken stock. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

2 tbsp of olive oil
1 garlic finely chopped
½ cup onion chopped
Handful of chopped carrots, potato, celery with leaves, cabbage
Handful of garbanzo beans or green beans, or any beans of your choice. I used garbanzo beans
½ cup – 1 cup of tomato sauce or tomato paste or fresh tomato. I used 1 cup of tomato sauce
1 ½ - 2 cups of vegetable broth or water, I used the stock
¼ cup or handful of short pasta, I used elbow macaroni
Salt and pepper for taste
1 tsp of Italian seasoning
Grated parmesan cheese as per your choice, I added a tsp of cheese while serving

Method

In a pan add olive oil, garlic, chopped onions, and sprinkle little salt and saute.

Add the chopped carrots, potatoes, celery, cabbage, and saute them.

Add the garbanzo beans, and tomato sauce, and saute the mixture

Add the vegetable stock, elbow macaroni, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and cover cook for 15 minutes in medium heat.

Cook another 10 mintues in low-medium heat.

Serve the soup with grated parmesan cheese

Coconut Burfi

2006-12-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

It’s been quite sometime that I participated in blog events. When I read Ashwini’s JFI for coconut , and VKN’s You Can Cook for FAHC Campaign I thought of posting this treasured recipe. I learnt this recipe from my mom, which is quite simple to make and is a delicious dessert. This recipe requires little bit of patience and the end result is worth mentioning. Here goes the recipe!!!

Ingredients

2 cups of coconut scrapped
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of water
2-3 cardamom crushed to powder
1tbsp of ghee or butter to grease the pan or you can use the foil to avoid ghee or butter

Method

Add water and sugar and cook in medium heat for 18- 20 minutes until the sugar syrup thickens.

Add the scrapped coconut mixed with cardamom powder to the sugar syrup and cook in medium heat. Cook until the consistency becomes thick and proportion is reduced. This will take 15- 18 minutes.

Grease a flat pan with ghee or spread the aluminum foil in a flat pan and pour the mixture and level it using a spatula. After 5 minutes cut them into shapes and allow them to cool for 1 – 2 hours.

Once the burfi cools down and becomes little harder, you can cut them into pieces and store them in a container.

Notes:

Try to use fresh coconut since the end result will be great

Sugar can vary according to preference, I used one cup, you can add 1 ¼ cup or more.

For more shelf life, store in the refrigerator.

I used aluminum foil, to avoid ghee, and cleaning :)

My contribution to VCC Q4 2006 - You Can Cook for FAHC Campaign

and JFI for coconut

Cheera Thoran/Red Spinach Thoran

2006-11-18T22:40:00.000-08:00

After a long break I am posting this recipe. I am reading all your blogs but I don’t get enough time to comment or post recipes. For next one month I will be tied up with my studies, by late December I will be back with full energy to blogging. I guess there are lots of events happening around, happy to see all the bogglers’ enthusiasm in posting recipes. I have bookmarked so many recipes to try and my book mark has become a monster list. Coming back to the recipe, this recipe is made with red spinach; it can be also made with any green leaves or spinach. I learnt this recipe from my mom. I like spinach but hate the process of cleaning. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Clean the spinach leaves and chop them finely

Heat oil in the pan; splutter a tsp of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, and few curry leaves.

To this add 3-4 pearl/shallots chopped finely, 2-3 red chilies, 2-3 finely chopped garlic, slit 2 green chilies length wise and saute them.

Add the chopped spinach, ¼ tsp turmeric, little asafetida, salt for taste, and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add ¼ cup grated coconut and cover cook for another 3-4 minutes. Try not to over cook them.

Serve with rice.

Bhel Puri

2006-10-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

I guess its time for me to post some recipes!! This is one of my favorite snacks and took some time to learn this recipe. If you are a creative person you can add stuffs which you like from the pantry, still it would be a perfect snack. Every time I make this recipe I keep adding different ingredients to it and the process never ends. You can add boiled potato, cooked chana (garbanzo beans), roasted peanuts, cucumber, chopped tomato, raw mango, spring onions, carrots, sprouts, any cooked beans like black eye bean, kidney beans, lima beans blah blah and the list goes on and on. So just be creative and add what you like :) Here goes the recipe!!!!

For the bhel

2 cups of puffed rice
½ cup sev
½ cup of papadi’s broken
1 onion finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup boiled chopped potatoes
1/4 cup boiled chana
2 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
salt to taste

Green Chutney

2 cups coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
5-6 green chilies
1 tbs lime juice
Salt to taste

Grind the above items to a fine paste by adding required water

Tamarind Chutney

3/4 cup tamarind water (lemon size tamarind soaked in water)
1/2 cup dates deseeded
3/4 cup jaggery (brown sugar )
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp salt

In a pan add the tamarind water, seedless dates, jaggery, cumin powder, and salt. Bring them to boil and cook for 8- 10 minutes until the mixture reduce to a thick liquid. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool, and grind to a smooth paste.

Method

Mix puffed rice, sev, and broken papadi in a large bowl. Add onions, tomato, cooked chana, boiled potato, add required green and tamarind chutney. Mix well and garnish with sev and cilantro leaves. Serve immediately :)

Notes

You can store these chutneys in a container and keep refrigerated.

Add ingredients of your choice to the bhel puri.

Bombay Bhel puri mix is available in the stores, just buy that and add chutneys and ingredients of your choice.

Murukku

2006-10-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Back home Diwali was never celebrated in big way, and I always envied seeing others. Diwali celebrations in Kerala are on the low keys and my family adopted the same. It was always Onam and Vishu (Kerala New year) was celebrated in a big way at my place though I was brought up at Coimbatore. Slowly after many years my mom started making this snack (murukku) for Diwali. My memories of Diwali would be just this delicious snack, which my mom makes for us. Seeing all the blogs with the delicious sweets and savories I thought I would post this snack for Diwali. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

4cups of rice flour
1 cup of roasted chana (made into a powder) or Gram flour or chickpeas flour
3 tablespoon butter
Handful of sesame seeds
6tsp of red chili powder
1 tsp of cumin seeds, and ajwain seeds
Salt for taste and water to knead

Method

Mix rice flour, roasted chana powder, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, ajwain seeds, red chili powder, sesame seeds and salt. Soften the butter and work into the mixture to form a crumbly mixture. Add water into small quantities and knead into soft dough.

Use murukku maker, place in a lump of dough and pipe out the patterns, forming circles. I placed the patterns in the plate first.

Heat oil under medium high heat. Use sufficient quantity of oil to submerge all frying murukkus without touching each other. Transfer the murukkus from the plate to the hot oil.

Fry to light golden brown color.

Remove the murukku from oil and place on a paper towel to drain the surplus oil.

Allow them to cool and store them in a container.

My contribution to Vee of Past, Present and Me for JFI-Diwali Treats.

Wishing you all a Happy Diwali:)

Padavalanga Elisseri- Snake gourd Curry

2006-10-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

I called up my mother to get the recipe for Erriseri and she gave the recipe for Elisseri because both sounds little similar when you pronounce it. Elisseri is similar to Koottu curry; the only difference is in koottu curry it has many vegetables with beans or dals. I made Elisseri with toor dal; it can be made with any dal or beans of your choice. This is one of my hubby’s favorite recipes I would say, and I pack this for chapattis. I love the flavor of the coconut and it is super delicious with rice and pappadam. Here goes the recipe!!!

Method

Pressure cook ½ cup of toor dal, 1 snake gourd finely chopped, ½ tsp turmeric, and salt. Cook until it releases 2- 3 whistles and turn off the heat.

Once the heat releases out, open the lid and add the paste (Grind to a paste: ¼ cup coconut, 2-3 red chilies, and 1 tsp cumin seeds ) and close the lid and allow to sit for few minutes.

Heat the pan with 1-2 tsp of oil, add mustard, cumin seeds, curry leaves, 1 broken red chili, 2 tsp of pearl onions, 2 tsp shredded coconut, and saute them .

Pour the snake gourd mixture to the seasoning and blend the mixture and turn off the heat.

Serve with rice and pappadam.

Almond Cookies

2006-10-07T21:53:00.001-07:00

Lately I am getting attracted to sweets :(, which is definitely not a good sign. I always admire the sweet recipes in the blog and never had the interest to try it, since me and my hubby are not fond of cookies or cakes. Consuming little sugar in a day is not that bad….so I made up my mind to explore my expertise in baking cookies, cakes, and so on. This recipe I got from sugar and spice and it was originally from here chocolate and Zucchini. The best things about these cookies are – it takes less time to make, few ingredients, and it is yummy. What else you need when the making and out come process is so simple and delicious. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Pre heat the oven to 350 F

Mix two eggs and 1 cup of sugar in a blender/ mixer and blend them until it turns fluffy.

Add ¼ cup oil, 1 tsp rum, 2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt and blend well with the mixture.

Add all-purpose flour 1 ¾ cup little by little to the liquid mixture and blend well to a thick proportion.

Pour this to an oven safe dish greased or lined with parchment paper. Even out the mixture.

Now place almond or pecans or nuts of your choice on the surface, each with distance of 3cm.

Bake 20-25 minutes until they turn light golden color. Check them with a toothpick to see whether it is baked. Take out and keep it aside for 5 minutes.

Cut them into small squares and arrange them in a foil sheet.Keep inside the (turned off) oven for 25- 30 minutes. It will become crunchy:)

Serve with coffee or tea :)

Notes: You can try this recipe without Rum, but adding a tsp of Rum did make a difference in the taste and the aroma , which I loved in this recipe :)

Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney

2006-10-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

I: Can you guess this Chutney

He: Is it Coriander chutney?

I: No

He: Mint Chutney?

I: Nope

He: I don’t know :(

I: This chutney is made from ridge gourd peels.

He: Really!! It tastes similar to coriander chutney!!

When I make something different or something new I usually ask my husband to guess the recipe. He can be the worst guesser in this world when it comes to food, still I ask for my satisfaction. Hope he doesn’t read this: D. This chutney I learnt from my mom and she got it from her friend. When I buy ridge gourd I usually save the skin and put in a zip locker or storage box and use it later for making chutney. This can be handy when you run out of cilantro leaves or mint leaves to make chutneys. The recipe is quite simple and saves lot of your time. Here goes the recipe!!!

Ridgegourd peels

Method

Heat pan with 1-2 tsp of oil, add 1 tsp of urad dal, cumin seeds, chana dal, few curry leaves, 3-4 red chilies and saute them.

Add the peels and saute them for 4-5 minutes until it turns little soft.

Add ¼ cup of coconut or 3-4 tsp of shredded coconut and saute for 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep aside.

Once it cools down, grind the mixture with marble size tamarind and salt.

Serve with dosa or ildy.

Notes: You can avoid coconut to make this chutney. You can also season it with mustard, cumin and curry leaves.

Moist Chocolate Cake

2006-09-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

Back to square one from this week. My college has started and finding no time to sit in front of the computer. I took a break from my assignments to post a recipe. For a long time I wanted to bake a cake. I and my hubby are not sweet lovers, so I don’t get motivated to make cakes or any sweet dishes. After seeing Sudha’s chocolate cake I was all interested to bake a cake. I was crazy to bake the cake in the middle of the night around 12 a.m. and kept in the fridge after baking. I know that’s crazy thing to do...well that’s me. I got this recipe from Chow time’s blog and just followed her steps. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Sift 3 cups of flour, 6 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 2 tsp of baking soda, ½ tsp salt.

Whisk 2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp vinegar, ½ cup oil. Whisk until the sugar gets dissolved.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well with help of hand mixer. Pour the batter into a greased oven pan or parchment paper lined. I used parchment paper since it is easy to clean.

Pre- heat the oven to 350 F and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Keep checking once in a while, and insert a tooth pick into the cake, if the tooth pick comes out without sticky of cakes, you are all set. Take the pan from the oven.

Let it cool and keep in the fridge. Serve it cold.

Lentil dumplings in coconut curry

2006-09-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

I got to taste this curry for the first time during my recent visit to India. That time I never bothered to get the recipe for this curry. Few weeks back I went to my friends place and we got to talk about this recipe and she said she makes it in different ways. I know this recipe needs only lentils and coconut so I mailed her asking for the recipe as I was running out of veggies. She promptly replied my mail and that’s how I tried this recipe today. This looks like malai kofta but this curry is made of lentils steamed and cooked in coconut curry sauce. Here goes the recipe!!!

Method to make the lentil dumplings

Soak ½ cup chana dal & ½ cup toor dal in water for 2- 3 hours.

Grind the dals with 2-3 red chilies, 1 tsp cumin seeds, and salt without adding water. Grind to a coarse paste and not to a thick paste.

To the ground paste add ½ big onion finely chopped and mix with the paste. Make lemon size balls with your hands.

Arrange the balls on idly moulds and steam cook for 9- 10 minutes until the ball gets cooked.

Making lentil dumpling with coconut curry

For the curry heat the pan with 2-3 tsp oil, add mustard, cumin, and curry leaves and saute for few minutes.

Add ½ big onion finely chopped, 1 tomato finely chopped, ¼ tsp fenugreek powder, and pinch of asafetida and saute them well.

Add 1 ½ tsp chili powder, 3 ½ tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder, lemon size tamarind soaked in 1 cup of water, and salt. Mix everything and cook on low-medium heat for few minutes.

Grind ½ - ¾ cup of coconut and pour it to the curry and cook for another few minutes.

Slowly drop the lentil dumplings to the curry and cook for another few minutes.

Serve hot with rice :)

See Priya's lentil dumpling curry, Sudha's lentil dumplings in Yogurt sauce
and Manpasand's Lentil soup

Chilli Paratha: Baked and Broiled

2006-09-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

Until this evening I was in no mood to cook something delicious for dinner. I thought of just making dosa and eat with left over chutneys. Since I dint have much plans for dinner I called my friend and was chatting for while about food blogs. She listed the food she tried and how well it turned out be... so as we were talking Archana’s Chilly crepes came into our topic. She suggested me to give a try since it was a hit at her place. I had tried Archana’s Naan which turned out so delicious, so I gave a try to her chilly crepes. I dint have all the ingredients which she used, so I cooked with the available ingredients and made some changes to recipe. I also broiled at the end to give a crispy texture for the parathas. So those who haven’t tried this recipe do give a try because it is super delicious. I made spicier version by adding masalas. Here goes the recipe!!!!

Method for making Parathas

Mix 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, required amount of water to form a thick batter. Leave it for 10- 15 minutes.
Heat a flat pan, pour a ladle full of batter on the pan and spread it evenly like a circle. Spray or apply oil at the edges of the batter. Heat for about a minute and flip to the other side and cook for another minute. For step by step instruction see here. Keep aside and allow them to cool.
Cut them into square pieces, I used scissors to cut them into small pieces. Take an oven safe flat pan and put the aluminum foil. Arrange the pieces evenly.

Bake at 300 F for 10-12 minutes and broil at high for 3-4 minutes. While broiling keep an eye on the pieces, once it turns little crisper take it out and keep aside.

Method for making Chili Parathas

Heat non-stick pan with oil, add 1 onion cut into small pieces, few curry leaves, 1 tsp of ginger, 1 tsp of garlic, 2 green chilies finely chopped, ½ tsp chili powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, ¼ tsp garam masala and sauté them for a minute.
Now add 1 green bell pepper finely chopped or chopped length wise. Sauté them for another one minutes until it turns soft.
Add 1 big tomato grinded into a paste with ½ tsp soya sauce into the mixture and cook for another one minute.
Add the baked and broiled pieces into the mixture and saute them until all the spice covered with pieces.

Serve them hot with raita. I made raita very bland since the chili parathas were spicy. Just added onion, cilantro leaves, yogurt, salt, and mixed them together.

Potato & Peas Cups

2006-09-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

What should I call this Snack? Mini Puffs? Samosa? When I served this dish to my hubby this evening he asked me for the recipe name. I told him different names and he was confused and didn’t bother to ask me more about it and ate the snack quitely. So I quickly went and took the Puff pastry from the freezer and saw the recipe name; it had the recipe for Chocolate peanut butter cups and I replaced them as Potato- Peas cups. So that’s how I came up with this name. I just followed the instruction of the pack and just changed the filling. I served this with sweet and sour chutney. Here goes the recipe!!!

For Filling

Mash 1 boiled potato with ¼ cup frozen green peas, 1tsp garam masala, 1tsp of crushed cumin and coriander seeds, and salt. You can add any filling of your choice.

Method

Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 30-40 min. Preheat oven to 400°F. I used Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets.

Unfold pastry sheet on lightly floured surface. Cut the pastry sheets into squares about 3 inches. Press squares into bottoms of muffin-pan cups.

Place about 1 tbsp. filling in center of each squares and bake 15-18 min or until it turns into a golden color.

Sweet and Sour Chutney

Heat pan with ½ cup of water; add ½ -1 tsp tamarind paste, 5-6 finely chopped dates, ¼ tsp salt, and 3-4 tsp jaggery or brown sugar. Boil them until it reduces to a semi-thick paste. Allow them to cool.

Grind the paste with few cilantro, few mint leaves, and 4-5 green chilies. Add water, salt, and sugar according to your taste.

This chutney can be served for any snack. You can use this for bhel puri

See fellow bloggers recipes using pastry sheets: Samosas, Vegetable Puffs, Vegetable puff.

Onion-Tomato Chutney

2006-09-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what to call this chutney- it has equal proportion of onions as well as tomatoes, so I call this chutney as Onion-Tomato chutney. I learnt this recipe from my sister in law and its one the easiest chutneys you can make when you are hurry to make something or lazy to cook. Here goes the recipe!!!

Method

Heat the pan with oil, add 5-6 red chilies, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 5-6 flakes of garlic, 1 spring of curry leaves, few cilantro leaves, and salt.
Sauté everything for few minutes until the onion turns light brown and tomato becomes soft.
Turn off the heat and allow them to cool..
Grind to a smooth paste and serve with idlies or dosas.

Rasmalai

2006-09-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today I just took a walk from my house and ended up going to the grocery stores. As I was window shopping I was all interested to make rasmali. So I picked ricotta cheese and half and half from the store. I was introduced to this sweet in my school days by my friends. Most of my friends were from North and this sweet is quite famous out there. When I came to the US everyone told me that this sweet is so easy to make. And believe me this is one of the easiest recipe I came across which is also versatile for its own name. I got this recipe from my friend who directed me today step by step through phone conversation. Here goes the recipe!!!

What you need

15 oz Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
1 ¼ cup Sugar
One pint (473ml) Fat Free Half and Half Milk
A pinch of saffron
¼ tsp crushed cardamom seeds
½ tsp rose water (optional)
3-4 tsp blanched almonds
2 tbsp crushed pistachios

To make the syrup or Ras

Thicken the half and half by simmering over low heat for few minutes.
Add 1 cup sugar, cardamom, rose water, saffron strands, to the half and half. Heat for a few minutes and allow them cool.

Method

Mix ¼ cup of sugar with the Ricotta cheese by using a spatula or hand mixer.

Spread on the oven safe dish- I used muffin pan. I added 2 spoons of cheese mixture in each cups. To spread evenly in the cups—place the bottom of glass in the cheese mixture or level it with the spoon.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35- 40 minutes or until it sets or until it turns light brown. You can also check with help of a tooth pick. Insert the tooth pick into the cheese- if the tooth pick doesn’t come out sticky with cheese it means you are all set to take the tray out from the oven :)

Remove from oven, cool at room temperature. Remove the shapes with help of your hand and place in the dessert bowl.

Add the cooked balls to the half and half and decorate with Pistachios and Almonds.

Let it stay immersed for about an hour. You can either serve it cold or warm. I usually keep in the fridge for few hours and serve cold:)

See fellow bloggers recipes: Asha's Basundi
and RP's Rasmalai

Gobi Manchurian

2006-09-12T18:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to try out something different with cauliflower and ended up making my favorite dish to comfort me. I love this dish which can be eaten as snack as well as side dish. It goes well with fried rice....well that’s my combo!! Here goes the recipe!!!

What you need

Cauliflower florets
3-4 tsp of corn flour
1-2 tsp red chili powder
1tsp ginger-garlic paste
1tsp salt

For seasoning: 4-5 tsp tomato sauce, 1-2 tsp Soya sauce, onions, green bell pepper, green chilies, few cilantro.

Method

Mix cauliflower florets with corn flour, red chili powder, ginger-garlic paste, and salt with 1- 2 tsp of water.
Deep fry the florets coated with corn flour and fry them until it gets cooked. Once it is cooked, keep them in the cloth tissue and drain the oil.
Heat oil in pan, add onions, slit green chilies, green bell pepper (I dint use bell pepper since I was running out of it), tomato sauce, soya sauce and add the florets and mix them well. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Serve hot as a snack or as a side dish.
See fellow bloggers recipes:
Gobi Manchurian
Gobi 65
Gobi Manchurian

Carrot Halwa - Gajar Ka Halwa

2006-09-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today I was in a good mood and wanted to do something except sitting in front of the computer and wasting my time. Sometimes computer can be an addiction for me. Once my hubby leaves I sit in front of the computer until he arrives back. So today I wanted to take a break from my normal routine and do something different. I and my husband don’t have sweet tooth but still like this particular dish- Carrot Halwa. So here goes the recipe!!!

What you need

1 cup grated carrot, 2 cups of milk, ¾ - 1 cup of sugar, cardamom, 1- 2 tsp of ghee, few nuts of your choice, and pinch of saffron strands.

Method

Bring grated carrot and milk together in a big pot and cook them in low medium heat. Try to do this when you have something to cook for dinner or lunch since this would take 1 hour to complete the whole process.
Keep stirring now and then, and cook until it becomes a thick consistency.
Once it becomes thick add sugar, crushed cardamom, saffron strands,and ghee.
Keep stirring until the milk evaporates and the mixture form to a solid structure.
Remove from heat and decorate with the nuts you like.

Have it cold or hot:)

Vellarikka Pachadi / Cucumber Raita

2006-09-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t take the pictures of all the dishes I made for Onam, yet managed to take some pictures of the recipes. Kichadi/Pachadi prepared from vegetables such as pine apple, cucumber (vellarikka), ladies finger (vendakka) , bitter gourd (pavayka) or similar, using yoghurt mixed with ground coconut, mustard etc. as masala. Cooked dish will be seasoned with mustard seeds spluttered in coconut oil. Taste of kichadi / pachadi is related to the vegetable ingredient- like the pine apple will be sweet and bitter gourd will be sour etc. I am still not sure of what are Pachadi and Kichadi. I think for Pachadi we grind mustard along with coconut and for Kichadi we just season with mustard with the other ingredients. I made Vellarikka Pachadi for Onam. Vellarikka is kept for Kerala New year (Vishu Kani) and pachadi is made for Sadhya (feast). I don’t see this veggie often at stores, but this time it was available during Onam. So here goes the recipe!!

Things you need

Peel the skin of Cucumber and finely chop them.
Grind (½ cup coconut, 3 green chilies, 1tsp mustard, and ½ tsp cumin seeds)
½ cup - 1 cup curd or yogurt.

Method

Heat pan with little oil, and add the cucumber with 2-3 tsp of water and salt and cover cook for few minutes until the cucumber gets cooked.

Add the ground paste to it and cook in medium heat. You can add little water if you need --the mixture should be thick.

Mean while- heat oil in another pan, splutter mustard seeds, 2-3 red chilies, and curry leaves. Add the above seasoning to the cucumber mixture and switch off the heat.

Allow the mixture to cool and add ½ to 1 cup of beaten curd or yogurt to the mixture.

Have with rice or as a side dish.

See fellow bloggers pachadi’s: Beetroot Pachadi, Cucumber Kichadi / Pachadi, Pineapple Pachadi, Mango pachadi, and Green Banana Pachadi.

Meme - ABOUT ME, ME AND ONLY ME!

2006-09-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks Sudha for tagging me :) Meme is the one I like to do when I am lazy to post some recipes and Sudha tagged me at the right time..... Here goes my list!!!

I am thinking about: what to do after dinner
I said: Sudha had tagged me for the meme and I have to do it today without delaying!!!
I want to: have a house near the backwaters in Kerala
I wish: to talk less
I regret: receiving this questionnaire:)
I hear: vehicle noise through my window
I am: Priya :)
I dance: when I accidentally step on a cockroach:)
I sing: horrible
I cry: when I cut onions and while watching movies:)
I am not: away from my computer
I am: always in front of the computer
I write: shopping list
I confuse: everyone :)
I need: To learn to control my stress

Tagging bloggers is the easiest part and I like it--- so let me keep it to three... I tag Tasty Cooks, Menaka, and Deepa.

Silver Pomfret Fry ( Avoli Porichathu )

2006-09-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

Recently while talking to my friend I came to know that pomfrets are available at Ranch Market. Usually I buy fish from the American grocery stores and I always end up buying salmon, cat fish, prawns, and shrimp. Pomfrets are one of my favorites and my dad use to make this at least once in a month. This fish were not available in the hometown where I lived back in India. So my dad used to drive to the market and buy these fish and they used to be very expensive :( I went crazy seeing them at Ranch market and picked few to make this week. Here goes the recipe!!!

To Marinate

Mix 3- 4 tsp of ginger –garlic paste, 1-2 tsp red chili powder, ½ tsp turmeric, ½ pepper powder, 1tsp fish masala (optional), and 1-2 tsp salt. Mix everything to a paste.

Clean the pomfret by making a slit at the side and take out the intestines. Wash with salt and turmeric. Make few slits on both sides of the fish with knife. Apply the paste all over the fish and allow to marinate for 1 hr in the fridge.

Method

Heat the pan at low heat with 5-6 tsp of oil.
Once the oil gets hot add the fish and let it cook for 5 minutes. Turn the fish to the other side and let to cook for another 5 minutes. Do the process twice for each side and cook for about 20 minutes covered.
Be very careful while turning the fish, the fish can easily break into pieces, so handle with care.

Serve hot with rice :)

See fellow blogger recipes of Pomfret Fry

Happy Onam

2006-09-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ellavarkkum hridhyam niranja Onaamshasakal:) Wishing everyone and their family a very Happy Onam:)

Kerala Style Sambar

2006-08-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sambar is a lentil based dish common in South India. In Kerala the Sambar would contain different vegetables, which is similar to avial recipe. During one of our potlucks, one of my friend made this recipe and it tasted something similar to my mom makes. So instead of making an ISD call to get the recipe, I got the recipe from my friend. Here goes the recipe!!

What you need

Vegetables: Cooked potatoes, egg plant, drumstick, okra, and carrot (You can add any veggies you like)
Lime Size tamarind soaked in warm water
1 cup toor dal pressure cooked with turmeric, mash the dal to a smooth paste.

Sambar Masala

Sauté handful of coriander seeds (4-5 tsp of coriander seeds), asafetida, and 4-5 red chilies in a pan without oil and keep aside. In the same pan sauté 4-5 tsp of shredded coconut until it turns to brown color.
Grind coriander seeds, asafetida, red chilies, coconut, and 1 tomato into a paste.

Method

In a pan add oil; sauté mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and curry leaves.
Add handful of chopped shallots or pearl onions and sauté until it turns translucent.
Add the vegetable and little water and cover cook them for few minutes .Add the tamarind water and cook for few minutes.
Add the boiled potatoes, cooked dal, and sambar masala paste.
Mix everything and add required salt for taste. Cook in Medium heat for another 10 minutes and turn off the heat.
You can also add red chili powder as per your taste before cooking.

Serve hot with rice, idly, and dosa.

Idiyappam (Rice Noodles)

2006-08-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Idiyappam is one dish I make quite often at home for breakfast or dinner. It takes less time to make and very tasty to eat. Idiyappam and Stew or Idiyappam and Chicken curry are the best combo for me. My mom makes Idiyappam in a hard way; she soaks rice in water for some hours then dries it, then grinds it to make fine powder. Since we are comforted with all the flours why to do the hard way!! Here goes the recipe :)

Method

Mix 1 cup of rice flour with required warm water and salt.
Knead into smooth dough. Apply little oil over the dough and insert into the cooking press.
Put a small quantity of dough into the “cooking press" and press it on the idly moulds greased with oil. Add grated coconut on top of the idiyappam.
Steam the idly cooker for 8-10 minutes.

Serve hot with the curry you like:) I had it with Vegetable Kurma.

This is my entry for Weekend Breakfast Blogging #4 hosted by Pavani

Look for Idiyappam recipes from fellow bloggers
Tastycooks
Towards a Better Tomorrow
Salt and Pepper

Modakam ( steam-cooked rice dumplings)

2006-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sweet and Spicy Modakams

The modakas (Kozhakatta -sweet as well as spicy) are prepared and placed in front of Ganesh idols/photo in the house. Modak is a ritual sweet dish, specially prepared on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Today I made sweet as well as spicy modakam for Lord Ganesh. I think the shape of the modakam looks different like a cone and I made shapes which looks like a ball. The sweet Modakam is made of coconut and jaggery (brown sugar) but I tried the filling with chana dal and jaggery. Here goes the recipe!!!

Sweet Filling

Sauté 1 cup of rice flour in a pan without oil for few minutes.
Allow the flour to cool down. Add warm water with salt to the rice flour and make into mini balls.

For the Filling

Pressure cook 1cup of chana dal with ½ cup of water. Switch off after 2 whistles. Drain the chana dal and use the water for making the rice dough.
I used chana dal water to make the rice dough. Grind the chana dal and 1 cup jaggery in a mixie/blender to a smooth paste with few cardamoms.

Chana dal, Rice dough, and Jaggery

Chana dal and Jaggery grinded into a paste

To make sweet dumplings

With help of your hand press the mini rice balls into flat surface like puris.
In the center of the rice dough add a tsp of chana dal filling and bring the rice dough together and make a ball.
Roll it nicely and make nice shapes of balls with help of your palm. You might need oil—so have little oil while making these balls.
Steam cook the sweet dumplings. I used idly moulds to steam cook the modakams.

Spicy Modakams

Heat the pan with oil; add mustard, urad dal, chana dal, few broken red chilies, and curry leaves.
Add half cup of water, salt, and allow it to boil. Add 1 cup of rice flour and make to a thick paste. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool.
Make them into mini balls (if it is dry, add some warm water to it to make balls) with help of your hand, and steam cook the spicy modakam’s.

It also serves as a good snack for the evening Tea or Coffee.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

2006-08-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

Wishing everyone a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi !!

Padavalanga Thoran ( Snake Gourd Fry )

2006-08-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

I don’t see snake gourd often at the grocery stores, usually it comes during the summer season. Whenever I see snake gourd I try to pick them and make some dish with it. I am not a big fan of snake gourd, but I see this vegetable only on certain seasons so I buy them. This recipe I learned from my mom and here goes the recipe!!

Method

To Grind: ¼ cup coconut, 3 green chilies, 2 garlic pod, ½ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp cumin, and few curry leaves.

Clean the snake gourd and finely chop them into small pieces. ( I used 1 snake gourd to make this recipe)

Heat oil in a non-stick pan; splutter mustard seeds, cumin seeds, 2 dry chilies, and few curry leaves. Add the chopped snake gourd and cover cook for few minutes. Once it is half cooked add the ground paste and salt; mix everything together and cook for another 3 minutes uncovered. Once it is cooked, turn off heat and serve hot with rice :)

Also look at Ingi’s Padavalangha thoran

Kozhi Porichathu (Fried Chicken)

2006-08-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

Kozhi Porichathu or Fired chicken is another popular food among Keralites; the chicken is marinated with red chili paste, rice flour, and fired in oil. I fried and broiled in the oven for sometime for more crispiness. I learned this recipe from my dad who is a great cook when it comes to non-vegetarian recipes. My dad had hard time managing me and my sister when it comes to cooking chicken legs. I always wanted chicken legs to be deep fried and more crisper. My sister always wanted the chicken legs to be cooked well and she hates deep frying and crispiness. Most of the time my dad always cooked the way I wanted and my sister always felt that my dad is partial to me though I fail in all the exams. My sister has always been the outstanding student in her studies and me on the other side, I hate books and school :( but still I am the dad’s child. I would say it is an ever lasting fight even now, she always feel my dad pets me a lot compared to her. Well these things started from such small issues and she takes it serious! When I make such recipes I go back to the treasured moments of our childhood and feel happy about it :) oops!!! I think I am getting emotional now- let me go on to recipe :)

To marinate the chicken

Wash the chicken with salt thoroughly and add ½ tsp of turmeric powder and keep it aside for 10 minutes.

Add 3- 4 tsp of ginger-garlic paste, 2 tsp red chili powder, salt for taste, ½ turmeric, ½ tsp pepper powder, and 1tsp tandoori masala (optional), 1 tsp rice flour and marinate overnight or for 1 hr in the refrigerator.

Method

Heat the non-stick pan at medium heat and add 4- 5 tsp of oil. Add the chicken drumsticks one by one and cover the lid. Cook for 25- 30 minutes by flipping the chicken legs now and then every few minutes for the chicken to cook thoroughly.

Broil the oven at high and broil for 4 minutes one side and again broil the other side of the chicken for another 4 minutes.

Serve hot with rice or have as starters :)

Vegetable Cutlet

2006-08-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

I did some changes to my template to give a new look. I here means (my friend) who helped me to do the changes in my blog, and I thank her so much for taking time to work on my blog. Last weekend we had potluck in my friends place and guess what we had for the menu? We decided to have a simple potluck and planned to go with Tiffin varieties. The menu went like this: Cutlet as starters, Masala dosa, Pongal, Sambhar, Tomato chutney, and Ela ada. We just wanted to take a break from the normal routines like Pulav’s, chapattis, desserts and so on. After a long time I felt more like eating at home :) and was more relaxing for all of us. I decided to make Vegetable Cutlet and Ela ada; here goes the recipe for Cutlet!!!

What you need

Vegetables of your liking

Breadcrumbs

For dipping the cutlets: 1 tsp All-purpose flour or Maida mixed in warm water or egg white.

How to make

Choose vegetable of your liking, I chose 2 big potatoes, 1 raw banana, 1 carrot, few beans, handful of green peas. Boil all the vegetables in microwave and allow it to cool.

Mash the vegetables in a whisk or with your hand. Add a tsp of ginger-garlic paste, 3-4 chopped green chilies, ½ tsp of garam masala, ½ tsp red chili powder, and salt for taste. Mix everything together and make into small shapes.

Mean while make breadcrumbs. Toast the bread and grind the bread with help of a mixer or blender.

Dip the cutlet shapes into the flour water. Mix a tsp of maida or all-purpose flour in 5-6 tsp of water. You can also use egg white instead of flour mix.

Coat the cutlet with breadcrumbs and fry in a non-stick pan with little oil.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Ribbon Pakoda : Savoury Snack

2006-08-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend about Shree Krishna Jayanthi. As we were discussing, the topic went to the dishes we make for the festivals. She mentioned about Ribbon Pakoda, which they make for the festivals. I was all interested to know about it and got the recipe from her. I was enlightened by the recipe, since we have to use only rice flour and besan flour. The recipe was very simple to make, hence I decided to make for the evening snack. Here goes the recipe!!!

What we need:

2 cups of Rice flour, 1cup of Besan flour (Chickpeas flour), 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (optional), 2 tsp red chili powder, 2tsp sesame seeds, 1 tsp hot oil, salt for taste, and water to mix the flour.

How to make the dough:

Combine rice flour, besan flour, ginger-garlic paste, sesame seeds, red chili powder, 1 tsp hot oil, and salt. Add required amount of water and make dough. Keep it aside.

Take small quantity of dough and insert into the cooking press and fry them in hot oil. Do this batch by batch and store it in a container. The oil should be hot when you are deep frying the pakoda.

This is my entry for weekend curry mela of Anthonys Kitchen

Ashtami Rohini/Shree Krishna Jayanthi: Palpayasam

2006-08-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ashtami Rohini also known as Gokulashtami or Sri Krishna Jayanti or Janmashtami, is the birthday of Lord Krishna. The birthday of Lord Krishna is celebrated with great importance on this day. It is held in the month of Chingam (Aug- Sept). Devotees visit the Krishna temples where special Pooja and cultural programs are held. Appam and Palpayasam (cakes of rice paste and jaggery) are considered to be Lord's favorite food .The houses are also decorated with special care. Patterns of small feet, drawn with rice flour are made, leading from the house entrance to the puja room, where the idol of Lord Krishna is kept. This symbolizes the baby Krishna coming to his devotees' house to bless them and leaving behind his footsteps. Today I made Palpayasam for the Guruvayurappan :) This is also my entry for JFI # 5 - Milk and Milk Products- Vineela’s Cuisine. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Add 3 cups of Whole milk to a vessel (avoid non-stick pan) and bring to boil. To this add ¾ cup of sugar and bring to boil. Now add ½ cup of red rice or raw rice washed into the milk. Add crushed cardamom to it and mix it well. Cook in a medium heat until the rice is cooked. It will take 30- 40 minutes, so be patient and keep mixing once in few minutes, the end results are worth waiting. When it is almost cooked, take a small pan, add 4- 5tsp of ghee and sauté cashews and raisins and add them to the payasam. Once the rice is cooked turn off heat and serve hot.

Pooja at Home

Look at Ingi Pennu's Palpayasam

Happy Independence Day

2006-08-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wishing you all a Happy Independence Day!!

Ela Ada: Steamed Sweet Coconut in Rice Flat Cakes

2006-08-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

I first thank Suryafor giving the idea to use parchment paper instead of banana leaves to make this dish. For a long time I was craving for this dish after coming to the U.S. I used to check the grocery stores for the arrival of banana leaves for some occasion and so far I have never seen banana leaf’s in the Indian grocery stores. When I saw the recipe recently inSurya blog I was so happy because I got a way to make this dish in the U.S. using parchment paper.Ela Ada is a traditional Kerala recipe and we eat this for break fast.It is made of coconut and brown sugar (jaggery), which is layered inside the rice paste. Later the paste is folded with the banana leaf and steam cooked in an earthen pot or idly mould vessel.Ela ada can be made in wheat and rice flour. My mom makes with rice flour and she fills it with coconut and jaggery and also one filling just with coconut which is also called as “Poovada”. Since our family size was big and my mom had to manage work and family life, she makes this recipe on special occasions. She had to soak the rice, dry them and grind them to make this recipe, nowadays we are blessed with the ready made flours. I used rice flour to make this recipe and it is pretty easy to make. I always had a nostalgic feeling to this recipe and here it goes!!

Making the rice dough
In a pan slightly roast 1 cup of rice flour and keep it aside. Once it is cooled down, add required warm water with salt to make nice dough. Remember it should be in the form of dough and not a batter or watery consistency.

Filling
In a skillet, melt the brown sugar with a tablespoon of water and add the grated coconut. Cook for 5- 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the mixture starts to thicken, remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

How to make Ela ada
Cut parchment paper into small sizes.
Spread a ladleful of rice dough evenly on the parchment paper; use your hands to spread the rice dough. Place a tablespoon of sweetened coconut over this and spread it evenly. Fold the parchment paper in the middle and press the sides with to close it well.

Place the parchment paper flat in a steamer and steam the packets for 15 to 20 minutes. I used idly moulds to steam the Ela ada

Remove them from the steamer, peel off the parchment paper, and serve hot with tea.

This is my entry for the Independence day food parade by Indira

Supereasy Pulav: Potato and Peas Pulav

2006-08-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

When I go to college I try to eat in the Cafeteria because of the live ness. Few weeks back I happen to make few friends in the cafeteria. So we started to meet everyday for lunch and started to share about classes, teachers and on. We were a group of three; one was from Japan. For the last day of the class we all decided to meet early so that we can share our email ids, phone numbers and talk for sometime. One buddy had potluck in her class on the last day of class and decided to bring pulav. Usually many teachers organize potluck on the last day of class, which is more fun and I like it. So my buddy brought pulav to everyone and it tasted yummy. So me, and the girl from Japan started to write down the recipe and were surprised to see that the recipe was so simple to make, yet it tasted delicious. As soon as I came home I made this pulav with Kurma. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Heat the rice cooker pan with oil, 1tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp sweet cumin (saunf), 2-3 cinnamon sticks, 2 cloves, and 2-3 bay leafs. Sauté them and add 1 Onion finely copped, ½ cup green peas, 1 chopped potato, ¼ tsp red chili powder, and 1tsp garam masala. Sauté everything together; add salt and 1 cup of Basmati rice and 1 ¾- 2 cup of water and plug on the rice cooker. I added few mint leaves (optional); I like the aroma and flavor of mint leaves.
Serve hot with Kurma (curry) and raita.

Kaalan: Bottle gourd (Churakka ) Curry

2006-08-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Kaalan is a Keralite dish made of yogurt and coconut with vegetable like nendraphalazam (plantain), raw banana (paccha Kai) or chena (yam). After seeing the recipe on Mahanadi- Bottle Gourd in Yogurt I was so tempted to have this curry with bottle gourd. Kaalan is thick gravy and it tastes sour, and it is served as part of Ona Sadhya. The end result of this recipe is mouth watering and it goes well rice and pappadam.

Method

Grind the mixture: ½ cup coconut, 1tsp cumin seeds and 4 green chilies

Heat the pan with oil; add 1 cup of finely chopped bottle gourd, ½ tsp turmeric and cover cook for 5 minutes until the bottle gourd gets cooked. Add little water while cooking.

Once the bottle gourd is cooked, add the ground paste and 1 – 1 ½ cup of sour thick buttermilk to this vegetable. Add salt and cook for another four to five minutes. Once it is cooked turn off the heat.

In another pan, heat a tsp of coconut oil, mustard seeds, red chilies, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and sauté them. Once the mustard starts to splutter add this to the curry and keep it covered to absorb the flavor.

Serve with rice and pappadam

Dal Spinach Curry

2006-07-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

Spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron. A good many green vegetable contain less than 1 mg of iron for an equivalent serving. Hence spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron for a vegetable. I buy spinach every week; it is part of my weekly shopping. This recipe is simple and easy to make, and it is one my favorites. I made this curry with dal (lentils).The dal prices are skyrocketing in every place, as Indians our only source of proteins is lentils:( Hope everything becomes normal soon. Here goes the recipe:)

Method

Pressure cook ½ cup of dal with ½ tsp turmeric, and 1 cup of water. Once it is cooked mash the dal and keep it aside.

Heat the pan with oil, season with mustard, cumin, curry leaves, 4 green chilies, and 4 pods of sliced garlic.

Add 5- 6 chopped pearl onions, sauté them until it turns into light brown. Add ½ tomato chopped and sauté them.

Add a bunch of chopped spinach leaves and sauté them. Cover cook for 5 minutes in low-heat. Once the spinach is cooked add the mashed dal. Add ¼ cup of water, salt and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered and turn off the heat.

Keep it covered to absorb the flavor, serve with rice and pappad.

Uniappam ( Mini Pancakes)

2006-07-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

I am just waiting for my summer classes to get over, so that I can devote all my time to blogging. I will be done with my classes by August 10th and I will have all my time to read blogs. Coming to the recipe now, Appam comes in different varieties, from the noodles idiappam to the ultra-sweet uniappam. My mom makes uniappam in different ways - with rice flour, rava flour, and wheat flour. During my school and college days, this was one recipe I yearn to eat after classes. My mom makes this snack quite often, for one reason it is very easy to make:) I usually make uniappam with wheat rava and rice flour. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

Take 1 cup of wheat rava, ½ cup of rice flour, ½ cup of jaggery/brown sugar, and 2 cardamoms, 1 ripe banana. Grind everything to a paste by adding ½ cup of water, or you can mix everything with help of your hand to a paste or to a batter consistency.

Heat the uniappam kal/paniyaram kal (and apply oil in each slot (cast-iron surface heats slowly and it will take some time) once the cast iron is heated, pour the batter into the slot and let it get cooked. Do not cover the cast iron. Once it is cooked, flip over to the other side and cook for few more minutes. Serve hot with tea:) you can also store uniappam in a container for few days.

My Entries to
Santhi’s JFIFlour and Revathi’s FMR Comfort Foods

Kerala Fried Fish

2006-07-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

I have been little busy with my summer classes, and I thank Annita for enquiring about it:) Let me get it into the dish and not bore you guys with my stories. For frying Kerala cooks prefer a flat, white-fleshed sea fish called pomfret because of its firm texture. They usually coat the fish pieces with ground coriander and red chili, fry them until crisp, and serve them with curries and rice. Since pomfret is hard to find in the U.S., I substituted with salmon:) and tried to bake because it consumes very less oil. Here it goes:)

How to prepare

Combine 2tsp of grated pearl onion, 1tsp of coriander powder, 2tsp of red chili powder, ½ tsp of black pepper powder, 1 tsp of grated garlic and ginger, ¼ tsp turmeric, and tsp oil to form a paste. Smear paste over fish fillets to cover completely. Refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour.

How to bake

Once it is ready to be cooked, add 1tsp of oil and arrange fish fillets side-by-side into an oven-safe dish.

Preheat oven to 350°F [180°C].

Bake into preheated oven for 15 minutes and broil for 3 to 4 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown, or you can directly broil the fish in medium heat for 10 minutes. While broiling ensure the fish pieces are not too big, it may not cook well if the size is big. I broil for 10 minutes front side and again broil for 5 minutes the back side of the fillet to ensure the fillets are cooked properly.

Enjoy the fried fish with rice.

Peas Curry with Coconut

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Green peas have more nutrients and it provides a good amount of protein, fiber and vitamins. Green peas are important for maintaining bone health. They are a very good source of Vitamin K1. Green peas also serve as a very good source of folic acid and a good source of Vitamin B6 . Frozen peas are preferable to canned peas as they retain their flavor and have lower sodium content. I use both frozen as well as the dried green peas. This recipe I learnt from amma and this is goes well with rice, idly, dosa and chapattis. Here it goes:)

Ingredients

1 Cup of Green Peas ( Frozen peas or pressure cook the green peas)
To Fry and grind to a paste: ½ onion cut into big chunks, 1 big tomato cut into big chunks, ½ cup shredded coconut, 2 pods of garlic, a small piece of ginger, 1tsp cilantro, 1tsp roasted gram, 1tsp coriander seeds, 1tsp cumin and 2 red chilies.
For seasoning: ½ onion cut into small pieces, 2 cloves, 2 pieces of cinnamon stick, ½ tsp fennel seeds, 2tsp of cilantro.

Method

In a pan add oil and Sauté the cloves, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds and onions. Sauté until the onions turn brown. Add the ground masala and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the cooked or frozen peas and ½ cup of water and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add salt for taste.

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot

Confessions in groups of five Meme

2006-06-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by Pushpa of Pusiva's Culinary Studio for the meme. Thanks Pushpa for tagging me:)

5 items in my freezer

Curry and mint leaves
Pepperidge farm pastry dough
A packet of stir fry vegetables
Ice creams – Vanilla, Pistachio, Almonds, and chocolate
Bags of Lime beans, coconut, and Drumsticks

5 items in my closet

My clothes
Lots of handbags( I don’t use any of them )
4 big luggage bags which fills my closet
Camera stand
2 boxes of photo albums and miscellaneous stuffs

5 Items in My Car

I don’t have a car personally, I shall consider my husbands car as mine for now:)

Lots of road maps
A small trash box- often I find our car to be messy with gasoline and grocery bills, so I placed a trash box to solve the problem:)
Sunglasses
2 water bottles
CD ‘s

5 Items in My Purse

Credit and Debit cards
Shopping and Library cards
Picture of my hubby dear
Dollar bills and some coins
Driver’s license and Insurance cards.

I would like to tag Sowjanya of Andhra Recipes and Neelu of Crossroads:)

Bell Pepper Curry

2006-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Bell peppers are rich in Vitamin C and you can find them in different colors. I like green peppers, which are unripe, while the others all are ripe- red, yellow, and orange. The green peppers are less sweet and slightly more bitter than the other colored peppers. I think it all tastes similar. This curry I learnt from my sister in law and it goes well with rice and chapattis. It is very easy to make and tastes good. Here it goes:)

Ingredients

2 bell peppers finely chopped
Handful of pearl onions
½ tomato finely chopped
6-7 red chilies
Little tamarind piece soaked in ½ cup water (¼ size of a lemon)

Method

Heat oil in pan, add mustard, cumin, red chilies, curry leaves and sauté them.

Add the pearl onions and sauté until it turns to light brown, and add the tomato and sauté until it becomes soft and tender.

Add the tamarind water and allow it to cook for 5 minutes.

Add the finely chopped bell pepper and salt and cover cook for 15 minutes and sauté them in between in order to avoid over heating the pan.

Turn of heat and mash the mixture with the wood masher and serve hot with rice or chapattis.

10 Things I miss about my Mom's cooking

2006-06-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Garam Masala for coming up with such a thoughtful Theme and Spicehut for tagging to this meme. I would like to write about what I miss about my mom and her recipes.

Her dedication: My mom was a workingwoman and she raised three kids. I appreciate her dedication to her work life and family. She was able to balance both with no compromises. She gets up at 4 a.m. in the morning to cook for us and she goes to work. I doubt whether I can do that?
Cleanliness: She is extremely obsessed when it comes to keeping the cooking area clean. Most of the time I observed her in the kitchen cleaning some stuffs.
Kadala curry: Though I make this recipe in her style, her way of cooking and taste doesn’t match with mine.
Shrimp podi: She makes yummy shrimp podi. She dries the shrimp, fries it and grinds it with tamarind, coconut, red chilies and shrimps. All time favorite:)
Appam
Ela Ada: Sweetened coconut flakes are encased in a layer of rice paste spread on toasted banana leaves and then steam-cooked to make these delicate flat cakes. As it cooks, the Ela Ada absorbs the earthy aroma of the toasted banana leaves.
Biriyani: She makes chicken, mutton, and prawns biriyani and it is heaven:)
Parippu Payasam: Made of moong dal, jaggery, and coconut milk.
Erissery: Made with green bananas, coconut, and other spices
Fish curry

I would like to tag Bhakshanam, Sugar and Spice, Ginger& Mango ,and My workshop.

Moru Kutan ( Butter milk curry )

2006-06-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

This spring quarter I took some courses to keep myself occupied. Lately I started to realize that it has become too hectic for me and I hardly get time for myself. I love blogging and reading blogs, which I couldn’t do for past one month. I am just waiting for this quarter to get over and take a break:) .This recipe I learnt my mother-n-law and I like the way she makes this recipe. Moru curry can be made with okra, ash gourd, plantain and yam. I made this recipe with ash gourd (white pumpkin). Here it goes:)

Ingredients

1 cup of ash gourd finely chopped
2cups of butter milk
¼ cup water
½ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Grind

2tsp rice
1tsp mustard
1tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp chana dal
5-6 seeds of coriander
Green chilies 4-5
½ cup coconut

Seasoning

Oil, mustard, ½ tsp fenugreek seeds, red chilies, and curry leaves

Method

Marinate rice, mustard, cumin, chana dal, and coriander seeds for 30 minutes in water.

Grind green chilies, coconut, rice, mustard, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and chana dal in a mixer or blender to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, red chilies, fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves.

Add the ash gourd pieces, water, turmeric and salt and cover cook for few minutes until the veggie gets cooked.

Add the ground paste and cook for few minutes.

Add the butter milk and mix along with the mixture. Cook in low heat for few more minutes until the form appears. Do not allow it to boil.

Serve hot with rice and pappad.

Our Anniversary trip to Mt Shasta & Crater Lake

2006-06-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

We had been to Mt Shasta and Carter Lake for our Anniversary. We were all prepared for summer and were surprised to see snow at Mt Shasta and Crater Lake. Most of the roads were closed at the National Parks due to snow:( We could see some part of the National parks:) Here are some pictures of our Trip:)

Mt Shasta, Redding

Sulphur Works Thermal Area at Lassen Volcanic Nationa Park, Redding

Sundial Bridge, Redding

Pavement built with glass:)

McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, Redding

Castle Crags State Park, Redding

Shasta Lake, Redding

Shasta Dam, Redding

On our way to Crater lake, Rogue River, Oregon

Moss walled canyons at Rogue River Gorge, Oregon

Driving to Crater Lake, Snow covered everywhere:)

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon - Covered with fog:)

Adai ( Lentil Pancakes )

2006-05-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

Adai brings back the memories of my childhood. I like the combo of adai with butter; the mix of spiciness and butter really tastes good. I think each family has their own proportions to make this recipe. I learnt this recipe from my mother. This recipe is also healthy, since it is made of different lentils. Here it goes:)

Ingredients

2 cups rice
¾ cup toor dal
¾ cup chana dal
1tsp of urad dal
2 red chilies
¼ tsp asafetida
10 pearl onions finely chopped
½ turmeric
½ tsp ginger
2 green chilies finely chopped
Handful of Drumstick leaves ( I replaced with cilantro leaves)
Few curry leaves
2 tsp of coconut
½ tsp fennel seeds
Salt to taste

Method

Soak rice, chana dal, toor dal and urad dal for about 2 hrs
Grind the soaked items coarsely with red chilies, salt, and asafetida. Do not grind to a fine paste
Transfer the grinded mixture to a vessel and add pearl onions, turmeric, ginger, green chilies, cilantro or drumstick leaves, curry leaves, grated coconut, and fennel seeds. If the consistency is too thick dilute with little water.
Heat the griddle with oil and apply the oil evenly; take a ladle of mixture and pour in the centre of the griddle and spread evenly like a circle.

Add ½ tsp oil around the corners for the adai. Once the adai is cooked one side, turn over to the other side and let it get cooked.

Serve hot with butter or jaggery or coconut chutney:)

Tamarind Rice ( Puliyodharai)

2006-05-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

This recipe I learnt from my mother-in-law. I like this recipe for its spiciness and it has a sour taste. The recipe can be stored for more days in the refrigerator if cooked with proper care. I like this recipe cooked with gingili oil than the other normal oils. It adds flavor to the recipe. Here it goes!

Ingredients

1 cup rice (Sona Masoori)
Lemon size tamarind
A pinch of asafoetida
4-5 dried red chilies
2 tsp of roasted peanuts
3-4 tsp gingili oil
Salt for taste

Dry roast powder

½ tsp of mustard and methi seeds, dry roast and powdered.

For seasoning

Mustard, Chana dal, urad dal, and curry leaves

Method

Cook rice and allow them to cool
Soak tamarind in two to three cups of warm water and extract the juice from it. The consistent should be thick.
Heat oil in pan, add mustard, chana dal, urad dal, peanuts, red chilies and curry leaves and sauté them.
Add the dry roasted powder and sauté them with the mixture.
Add tamarind extract, pinch of asafoetida and salt. Keep stirring constantly till the tamarind extract reduces its volume and becomes to a thick pulp.
Add the gravy to the rice and mix well. You can keep the rest of the gravy in the refrigerator. It will stay in the refrigerator for more than 20 days if cooked properly.

Serve rice with papad and curd.

Potato Fry

2006-05-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

I think most of them like potatoes. I love potatoes cooked in any form. I learnt this recipe from my Sister-in-law. I found this method of cooking potatoes is the healthiest and easy to cook. All you need is to boil the potatoes and season it with onions and other spices. Here goes the recipe!

Ingredients

2 -3 potatoes
½ onion or 5–6 pearl onions finely chopped
1tsp red chili powder
¼ tsp turmeric
Salt for taste

For seasoning: Mustard, Cumin, Urad dal and curry leaves

Method

Boil the potatoes and cut them into small pieces.
In a pan, add some oil and season the oil with mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, and curry leaves.
When the mustard starts to crackle, add the chopped onions. Stir fry until the onions turn to golden brown in color.
Add turmeric powder, chili powder, salt and stir fry so that the onions absorb the flavor.
Add the boiled potatoes. Mix the potatoes with the onions and let it cook for 5 minutes.
Once the potatoes absorbed the flavor, turn off the heat and garnish with cilantro leaves.

Eggplant Curry ( Kathrika Gotsu )

2006-05-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

I learnt this recipe from my mom. We call this recipe , “Kathrika Sabji”. After coming to the U.S., I heard from my friends there is another name for this recipe. It is often called “Kathrika Gotsu”. This recipe is the best accompaniment with idlys and dosas. I like this recipe for the tangy flavor. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

3-4 Eggplants
1 Onion or 10 pearl onions finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
4-5 red chilies
1tsp of ginger-garlic paste
¼ cup tamarind extract
½ tsp turmeric
Salt for taste

For seasoning: Mustard, Cumin, cloves, cinnamon stick and curry leaves.

Method

Chop the eggplant to small pieces and place them in water adding salt to prevent discoloration.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, cumin, cloves, cinnamon stick and curry leaves.

Add onions and ginger- garlic paste to this and sauté until the onions become translucent. Add tomatoes and turmeric and cook for few minutes until the tomato becomes soft and tender.

To this add the eggplants, sauté them with the mixture to absorb the flavors. Add the tamarind extract and salt.

Cover cook for 15 minutes in medium heat until the eggplant becomes really soft.

Turn off heat and mash the mixture with the whisk or wood masher.

Serve hot with idly, dosa or pongal.

Shrimp Curry

2006-04-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Tomato Rice

2006-04-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

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:

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:)

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

I found the below blogs from Indira's blog list

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

Stuffed Gobi Paratha

2006-04-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

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 )

2006-04-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Hariyali Tikki

2006-03-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

I came across this recipe from the Indian magazine Woman’s era. I happened to get this magazine while I was returning to the US. After two years I am reading this magazine and I noticed it has lot of contribution towards cooking. There were around 10 pages concentrating on Indian snack items. I am going to try one by one and share it with you all. So here is the first recipe I am sharing with you all “Hariyali Tikki”.

Ingredients

1 cup boiled mashed potatoes
1 cup green peas
1 tsp whole coriander seeds broken
1 tsp paste of ginger and green chilies
1 tsp sesame seeds
½ tsp red chili powder
2 tsp besan
Oil for frying and salt to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients nicely without water. Take a small portion in your hand and make into round shapes and press it. Make all the tikkis in round shapes and keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pan and fry the tikkis till it becomes crispy.
Serve hot with chutney or tomato sauce

I am back!!

2006-03-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hello all, I got back last week and still recovering from jet lag. I think I should be better in few days. I sleep in day hours and most of the time awake during the night. I am happy to see many cooking blogs which has come up in the last two months. My hours on reading blogs are more than spending time on something else. My visit to India was great! It was more of a reunion towards my family. Me and karthik went to kovalam and visited few temples in kerala and Trichy. I was able to do a 7 day course on art of living which is related to yoga and meditation. Overall the trip was fun with happy memories. Pictures of the place we visited.

Meenmutty Falls at Kallar, Trivandrum

Padmanabhapuram Palace Trivandrum

Sankhumugham Beach Trivandrum

Veli Lake Trivandrum

Kanyakumari

Adjacent to the Vivekananda memorial stands a 133ft statue of Thiruvalluvar

In a rocky island, stands a memorial dedicated to Swami Vivekananda

Cauvery river- Trichy

Bragatheeswarar Temple- Tanjore

Off to India

2006-01-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

Finally we decided to take a break and are off to India on vacation. Karthik and I spent the last few days shopping and packing for India trip. I am leaving tomorrow. We are taking the flight from San Francisco and landing in Chennai. I will be visiting my hometown, the god’s own country, Kerala. I will be back by March end. I will be reading all your blogs but I may not be able to post regularly.

Happy Blogging:)

Puttu

2006-01-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

Puttu is another common breakfast in Kerala. It is made out of rice flour and is cylindrical in shape. Puttu is made with the help of a Puttu maker. Puttu maker is a steamer which is cylindrical in shape. These are available in the Indian grocery stores. Many people use idly moulds also to make puttu recipe. Nowadays Instant puttu mix is available in Indian grocery stores. The dish has to be made with lot of coconut. I make this recipe to recall the memories of my home. Puttu has kadala curry as its accompaniment. This is my contribution to Meena's blog Hooked on Heat for "From my Rasoi - Breakfast".

Ingredients : Recipe for two

2 cups of raw rice
1 cup of coconut
Salt to taste

Method
Soak the rice for two hours and strain it. Spread the rice in a cloth or a plate and allow them to dry. Grind the dried raw rice to a fine powder in the mixer. Mix salt in water and add the water little by little to the rice flour and mix it. You should be careful while mixing the water to the rice flour. It should not change to dough. It should be in a powdered form wet enough for steaming.

Now add a fistful full of grated coconut in the puttu maker and then add the rice flour till half, then add another handful of coconut. This is done till you reach the top of the cylindrical shape.

Close the lid and steam for 4-5minutes.

Serve hot with kadala curry.

Theeyal Curry

2006-01-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

This week I ended up making lot of Kerala dishes. Theeyal is a Kerala dish and it is very delicious with rice. It goes well with idly, dosa, appam and chapattis. This is one of my favorite dishes. The recipe can be made with vegetables like yam, snake gourd, egg plant and bitter gourd. I made it simple by using only the baby onions.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 cup of baby onions finely chopped
½ cup coconut
1tsp tamarind paste
A pinch of asafoetida
4-5 red chilies
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
5-6 pepper corns
¼ tsp turmeric
4-5 curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
Salt to taste

Method

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and sauté the coconut until it turns light brown. Add the red chilies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, pepper corns and sauté for a minute. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool. Grind the mixture to a fine paste.
Heat 2tsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida and onions. Sauté the onions until it turn into transparent. Add the ground masala and cook for few seconds. Add ½ cup water, tamarind paste, salt and bring to boil.
Serve hot with rice.

Potato Stew (Ishtu)

2006-01-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

Another traditional Keralite dish called “Ishtu” in Malayalam and Potato Stew in English. This is simple to prepare and at the same time very tasty. This dish is idle for appam, idly and dosa.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 big potato cut into big chunks
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup of coconut paste or milk
1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
3-4 green chilies
4 curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method

In a pressure cooker add 2 tsp of oil. Add the onions, green chilies, ginger and sauté until the onions gets transparent. Don’t allow the onions to change color. It should be transparent. Now add the potatoes, ½ cup of water and salt. Pressure cook for 2 whistles.Once the potatoes are cooked, mash some of the potatoes to get a thick gravy.
Heat the pan and add the potato gravy and 1 cup of coconut milk or paste. Let the mixture boil for 2 minutes and turn off the heat.
Garnish with curry leaves and 1tsp of coconut oil.

Kuska Biriyani

2006-01-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

I had this recipe in my friend’s house. I learned this recipe from her. Some people use tomato to enhance the taste. You can try this recipe using coconut milk also to make it delicious. Kuska rice is similar to Ghee rice. This recipe is bland and easy to make. I had kuska rice with Gobi masala was a great accompaniment.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 cup Basmati Rice
1tsp cumin seeds
2 pieces of cinnamon sticks
2-3 bay leaves
2-3 cloves
3 pods of garlic finely chopped
4 green chilies
½ cup of mint leaves
Salt for taste

Method

Heat 3 tsp of ghee and 2tsp of regular oil in the rice cooker pan. Sauté cumin seeds, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves. Add the garlic and green chilies and sauté until the raw flavor goes off. Add the mint leaves and sauté for 2 minutes and add the basmati rice, 2 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer to the rice cooker and plug on the cooker. Serve with any kurma or onion raita.

Cauliflower Curry (Gobi Masala)

2006-01-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

I had this cauliflower sitting in my fridge for a week. Many recipes came to my mind while thinking about the cauliflower. At last I made up my mind to do Gobi masala which will go well for the rice as well as chapattis.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 cup of cauliflower florets
1 ½ onion finely chopped
1 ½ tomato finely chopped
2tsp cilantro
2tsp yogurt
Spice Powder: 1 tsp of Red chili powder and Coriander powder.½ tsp of turmeric and cumin powder.
Grind: 1 tsp poppy seeds and 2 tsp of cashews grind to a fine paste
Grind: 3 pods of Garlic, 2 green chilies and a small piece of ginger grind to a fine paste
Salt for taste

Method

Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions and sauté till golden brown.

Add ginger, garlic, green chili paste and sauté them. Add the chopped tomatoes and sauté for 2 minutes. Add all the spice powders red chili powders, coriander powder, turmeric a, cumin powder, salt and cook till the tomatoes absorbs the flavor.

Add the yogurt and sauté till the yogurt is well blended. Now add the cauliflower florets and sauté them well turning all sides to coat the masala and cook them covered for 2 minutes.

Add the cashew poppy seed paste and ½ cup of water. Cook them covered for 5-6 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot.

Happy New Year 2006

2005-12-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

Wishing you and your family a Happy and a Prosperous New Year 2006 :)

Kadala Curry

2005-12-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

Kadala curry is another traditional dishes of Kerala. Kadala curry and Puttu is the best accompaniment. Kadala curry goes well with Appam, Dosa, Idly and Chapattis. I usually make Kadala curry for Appam and Puttu.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 Cup of Black Chana
To Fry: ½ onion cut into big chunks, 1 big tomato cut into big chunks, ¼ cup shredded coconut, 2 pods of garlic, a small piece of ginger, 1tsp cilantro, 1tsp roasted gram, 1tsp coriander seeds, 1tsp cumin and 2 red chilies.
For seasoning: ½ onion cut into small pieces, 2 cloves, 2 pieces of cinnamon stick, ½ tsp fennel seeds, 2tsp of cilantro.

Method

Pressure-cook the black chana with salt and two green chilies.

Sauté the cumin, coriander, roasted gram, red chilies, ginger, garlic, onion, tomatoes, cilantro and coconut. Allow them to cool and grind the mixture to a fine paste.

Sauté the cloves, cinnamon stick, fennel seeds and onions. Sauté until the onions turn brown. Add the ground masala and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the cooked black chana and ½ cup of water and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add salt for taste.

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot.

Poha (Avil)

2005-12-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

Poha(Avil) is good for a snack any time. Poha is also eaten for breakfast. I never forget to buy poha when I visit the Indian grocery stores. Poha always serves as a handy snack for me in the evenings. Poha can be made as a sweet dish or spicy dish. If you want to have a quick spicy snack you can follow my recipe.
Ingredients: Recipe for two

2 cups Thick Avil (flaked rice)
½ onions finely chopped
2 green chilies finely chopped
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
2 curry leaves
1tsp cilantro finely chopped
Salt to taste
For seasoning: 1tsp of mustard, cumin, chana dal and urad dal.

Method

Wash poha and drain water completely. Add salt to the poha and leave aside for 5 – 10 minutes.

Heat oil in pan, add mustard, cumin, chana dal, urad dal, curry leaves and fry until they crackle. Add the ginger, green chilies and onion and sauté until the onions turn into brown color. Now add the poha and mix them gently and cook for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot.

Veggie Balls - Appetizer

2005-12-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

After seeing VKN’s kheema vada recipe from “My dhaba“ I was tempted to make something with vegetables instead of meat. Since my husband is a vegetarian, I wanted to try out something with vegetables. I tried veggie balls with the available veggies at home, which is similar to Vkn’s recipe Kheema vadai aka croquette.

Ingredients: Recipe for two

1 Big Potato, 1 Carrot, Few florets of broccoli
½ onion chopped into small pieces
½ cup of celantro finely chopped
4-5 mint leaves finely chopped (optional)
1tsp ginger garlic paste
3 Green chilies finely chopped
½ tsp red chili powder
½ tsp pepper powder
A pinch of turmeric
1 cup of Breadcrumbs
Salt for taste

Method

Cook the potato, carrot and broccoli in a pressure cooker or microwave. You can use any vegetables as per your taste.

Heat 1tsp of oil in a frying pan, add the onions, ginger garlic paste and sauté them until the onion becomes brown color. Now add the potatoes, carrot, broccoli, green chilies, turmeric, red chili powder, pepper powder and salt and cook them for 2 – 3 minutes until the vegetable absorbs the flavor. Allow them to cool.

In a bowl put the above ingredients and add the finely chopped cilantro and mint leaves and mash all the ingredients.

Make small round balls from this mixture. Roll the veggie balls over the breadcrumbs.

Heat 2 inches of oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Fry the balls until it becomes golden brown.

Serve the veggie balls hot with tomato ketchup.

Appam ( Rice pan cake )

2005-12-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

Appam is one the traditional dishes of Kerala. Appam is often served with kadala (kala chana) curry, vegetable stew or coconut milk. For Christmas I made appam with kadala curry which is one of my favorites. The proportions vary from household to household. I learned this recipe from my mom. In my family we made appam almost every week in the morning for break fast. I can still remember my hostel days in Trivandrum. Appam was usally served for breakfast. Those days I didn't like appam so much, but now I like it. I will post the kadala curry soon.

Ingredients

3 cups idly rice or raw rice
1 cup of shredded coconut
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1tsp Urad dal
A pinch of Baking soda
Salt for taste

Method

Soak the rice, fenugreek and urad dal for about 4-5hrs.

Drain the soaked rice and grind along with coconut to a thick paste. Keep the batter for 8hrs for fermentation. Once the batter is fermented add the baking soda and salt to the batter and mix the batter.

Heat a small non-stick pan which is shallow. In a spoon take the batter and pour the batter gently to the non-stick pan. Gently swirl the pan around so that a thin layer of batter covers the sides and thick layer collects at the bottom. Cover the lid and cook for 1 minute till the edges become golden crisp and centre is soft. It is only required to cook on one side of the appam.

Serve hot with kadala curry.

Thin- Crust Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza

2005-12-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

Who doesn’t love pizza? I tried a healthy version of pizza, which contains whole grains, veggies and protein. Mozzarella cheese is commonly used for the pizza. You can use different toppings as per your taste. For herbs, I wanted to use the basil but I went with pizza seasoning which has all the spices. I chose bell pepper, olives, zucchinis and onions for the toppings. I made the crust with garlic and pizza seasoning. Here is the simple and home made pizza for you all.

Ingredients

¾ to 1-cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp quick-rise active dry yeast
1 ½ tsp dried basil leaves or pizza seasoning
1tsp olive oil or regular oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp yellow cornmeal
½ cup warm water
½ cup no- salt added tomato sauce
½ cup sliced ripe olives
½ cup sliced zucchini
1/3-cup onions or green onions
1 large roasted red bell pepper, * cut lengthwise into thin strips or ¾ cup sliced, drained, bottled roasted red peppers
1cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Salt to taste

Method

Combine ½ cup all- purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, yeast, pizza seasoning or basil leaves and salt. Blend oil with garlic; stir into flour mixture with water. Stir in ¼ cup all- purpose flour until, soft slightly sticky dough forms, adding remaining ¼ cup all-purpose flour to prevent sticking if necessary. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with in container or paper towel; let it rest for 10-20 minutes

Place oven rack in lowest position; preheat oven to 400F. Spray 12-inch pizza pan or baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray; sprinkle with cornmeal and set aside. If you have a non- stick pan spary is not needed, corn meal alone is fine.

Roll dough into large circle on lightly floured surface. (Too much rolling makes crust heavy and dense; stretching dough to fit pan is best.

Blend tomato sauce with ½ tsp of pizza seasoning or basil leaves in small bowl; spread evenly over crust. Top with zucchini, olives, onions, roasted bell pepper and mozzarella; sprinkle crushed red pepper on top.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.

* To roast bell pepper, cut length wise into halves; remove stem, membrane and seeds. Broil 3 inches from heat, skin side up, until skin is blackened and blistered. Place halves in storage bag and seal it; set aside 15 minutes. Remove pepper from bag. Peel off skin; drain on paper towel.

Muruku ( Snack )

2005-12-19T22:53:00.000-08:00

I was just waiting for the college break to make muruku. My husband karthik was nagging me for a long time for this snack. To make muruku you need to have lots of patience. It consumes our time. It’s more of a physical activity. I always wonder what they call murukku in English. Is it snack twisters or crispies? Let me know if anyone knows the English name for muruku. Today I got myself free to make this snack.

Ingredients

2 cups Rice flour, ½ cup Urad flour, ½ cup Besan flour
½ cup Butter
1-1 ½ cup water to knead
2tsp red chili powder, 1tsp cumin seeds, a fistful of sesame seeds
Salt for taste

Method

Mix rice flour, urad flour, besan flour, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, red chili powder, sesame seeds and salt. Soften the butter and work into the mixture to form a crumbly mixture. Add water into small quantities and knead into soft dough.

Use murukku maker, place in a lump of dough and pipe out the patterns, forming circles. I make the patterns in a plate first

Heat oil under medium high heat. Use sufficient quantity of oil to submerge all frying murukkus without touching each other. Transfer the murukkus from the plate to the hot oil.

Fry to light golden brown color.

Remove the murukku in a spoon and place on a kitchen paper towel to drain surplus oil.

Allow to cool and keep in dry container.

Chicken Fry

2005-12-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

In non- vegetarian food, chicken and sea food are my favorites. I love to try different ways to make the chicken recipe. This time I tried chicken fry with tandoori masala and cilantro. After seeing lots of chicken recipes in my dhaba by VKN, I was tempted to make chicken fry.

Ingredients

1 lb boneless chicken
2-3 tsp of ginger garlic paste
¼ tsp turmeric, 2tsp red chili powder, 2tsp tandoori masala or garam masala
A fistful of cilantro
Half onion, 2 green chilies, and 4 curry leaves
Salt for taste

Method:

Wash the chicken thoroughly and cut them into small pieces.

Add ginger garlic paste, chili powder, turmeric, tandoori masala and salt to the chicken and mix them .You can use any masala, for a change I used tandoori masala. I usually add garam masala. Marinate the chicken for 4hrs in the refrigerator or you can marinate over night in the refrigerator.

In a pan heat oil and sauté green chilies, curry leaves and onion. Sauté until the onions change into brown color. Add the chicken and fry them for about 10 minutes and add the cilantro and mix them well. Cook them covered for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and fry them until it turns into brown color.

Serve hot with onion and lime wedges.

Cilantro Rice

2005-12-15T14:39:00.000-08:00

Cilantro is also referred as coriander. It is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking. In Tamil it is called kottamalli and in Malayalam malli ila. I make cilantro chutney once in a week. This week when I shopped for the veggies, I saw 4 bunches of cilantro for just 99 cents. That was a good deal. I made cilantro rice like pulav with peas and potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati rice
(1tsp cashews, 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
1 tomato
1 small potato cut into small pieces
A fistful of peas
2- 3 tsp oil
Salt to taste

To grind:

1 Bunch cilantro
1tsp ginger
2 pods of garlic
4 green chilies
½ tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coconut

Method:

Wash and soak rice for 5-10 minutes
Heat oil in pressure cooker or rice cooker pan and fry cashews, cinnamons stick, cloves, Cardamom, funnel seeds (saunf) and bay leaves. Add onions fry until they are brown, add tomatoes and fry till it becomes soft. Now add potatoes, green peas and fry for few minutes.
Mix the grinded items and fry in medium low heat till good smell comes. When the moisture is absorbed, add the soaked rice and fry for few more minutes. Add 1tsp salt and two cups of water. Close the lid if you cooking in the pressure cooker. 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.

Squeeze lime to the rice and mix them together and sever hot with raita and pappad.

Spicy Roasted Chick -Peas

2005-12-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

According to the wikipedia, the name "chickpea" derives eventually from the Latin name cicer through the French chiche. The name Cicero is derived from this plant. "Garbanzo" is from the Spanish language. It is also called chana dhal.

This recipe is one of my husband’s favorite. This recipe came to my mind after meena reminding me about her “From My Rasoi” event from Hooked-on-Heat blog. I thought this recipe would be perfect since it is spicy and it’s a good snack for the winter. The roasted chickpeas can be stored and kept in a container. I do this snack often in more quantity. The roasted chickpeas cost about 3 dollars in the Indian stores. This recipe goes for meena for her event..

Ingredients:

1 can chick- peas
3 tsp olive oil or (regular oil)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder (to taste)
1 Lime cut into wedges

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F. Rinse and drain the chick- peas thoroughly in colander under plenty of running water. Shake until fairly dry. You can use the normal dry chickpeas too. Soak chickpeas overnight and cook them in microwave for about 10 mins. The chickpeas should not be over cooked. Dry the chickpeas in a cloth or paper towel. Do not pressure cook the chickpeas.
Combine chickpeas, olive oil or (regular oil) salt, black pepper and chili powder in a large baking pan that will hold chickpeas in single layer.
Bake 15minutes or until chick peas begin to brown, shaking pan twice to brown evenly.
Remove pan and season with chili powder, black pepper and salt for taste. Bake on additional 5 minutes until dark golden red.

Serve with lime wedges.

Hot Pepper Rasam( South Indian Soup)

2005-12-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

Rasam normally forms the second course in a traditional south Indian menu. There are various way of preparing it. It is normally mixed with plain cooked rice and eaten with different side dish. It makes for a very good appetizer or soup also when taken all by itself. Rasam has many spices and is considered to be good for health. During winter season pepper rasam is common at my home. You can also add lentils to it if you don’t want it to be spicy.
Ingredients:

Tomato 1
Tamarind paste 1tps
Garlic 2 pods
Dry red pepper 1
Curry leaves 4-5
Cilantro 2tsp
Asaefoetida
Mustard 1tsp
Salt to taste

To Grind:

Toor dhal 1tsp
Cumin seeds 1tsp
Pepper corns 1tsp

Method:

Grind whole pepper, toor dhal, and cumin seeds. Cut the tomatoes and make into a paste. Mash the garlic with a whisk.

Add 1 cup of water to the tomato paste and mix well. Add the tamarind paste, grinded items, garlic’s, a pinch of asaefoetida and salt. Cook them for about 10-15 mins. Don’t allow them to boil, turn off the heat once the form appears.

Meanwhile heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Let mustard and cumin seeds splutter, add the dry red pepper and curry leaves. Pour it over the tomatoes. Now add some cilantros for the aromatic rasam

Serve hot with rice.

Idly

2005-12-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

The simplest and healthiest, and most basic food in South India is Idly. Idly is a popular food for break fast. I learned this recipe from my mom. I make idly quite often for dinner.
Ingredients:

Idly rice 4cups
Urad dal 1cup
Fenugreek seeds (Methi) 2 tsp
Salt 1tsp

Method:
Soak idly rice in the water for about 5-6 hrs. Soak urad dal and fenugreek seeds together in the water for about 5-6hrs. Grind the rice first in the stone grinder for about 20-25 mins adding required quantity of water until it becomes a thick batter. Pour the rice batter into a vessel. Now grind the urad dal and fenugreek seeds for about 30-35 mins adding required quantity of water until it becomes a thick batter. Urad dal requires more water to grind than the rice. I add water every 5 minutes when the urad dal is grinding. Now add the urad dal batter into the rice batter and mix well by adding salt. Cover and keep aside for 7- 8 hrs, undisturbed to ferment. This varies from place to place. In California, it takes only about 10 hrs to ferment in summer days. Winter days it usually takes about 16-18hrs to ferment.
To make idly, mix the batter well before making idly. Take the idly mould and apply little oil in the moulds. You can do this with your fingers. The oil helps the idlis to be soft. Pour the batter to the idly moulds and steam for about 10 – 15 mins. To check whether the idly is being cooked, insert a tooth pick into the idly. The tooth pick should come out clean if the idlis are done. Serve hot with sambhar or chutney or idly podi.

Spinach and Potato Curry ( Aloo Palak )

2005-12-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

Spinach is a rich source of iron and it also contains more protein than most vegetables.Spinach is always part of my grocery list when I do my weekly shopping. Today I made Aloo palak which is one my favorite dish. I love eating with chapattis and parathas.

Ingredients:

Spinach 1 bunch
2 potatoes
1 Onion cut into small pieces
3-4 garlic pods
Small piece of ginger
3-4 green chilies
½ tsp red chili powder
1tsp of coriander powder, cumin powder
1tsp of garam masala
1tsp of cumin and turmeric
Salt to taste

Method:

In a pan, add the garlic, ginger, green chilies, onions with tsp of oil and sauté them. Add the spinach and cook them. Turn off the heat. After it cools down run into a mixer or a blender.

Boil the potatoes and cut into cubes. Add turmeric, salt and mix them.

Take 1tsp of oil in a pan and sauté the cumin seeds. Once the cumin splutters add the spinach paste and let it boil for few minutes. Now add the boiled potatoes, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, and salt for taste. Add water only if it is needed. Cook for 5-10 mins covered until the potato absorbs the flavor.

Serve hot with chapattis.

Tomato Curry

2005-12-07T21:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make something simple and easy for dinner. I thought of making tomato curry which goes well with idly and dosa. This recipe I learned from my mom. I make this recipe quite often at home in order to finish the tomatoes. This recipe can be made in different ways. You can add potatoes, peas, carrots, cauliflower or eggs. I always make this simple just adding tomatoes and onions.
Ingredients: Recipe for two

2 tomatoes cut into small chunks
1 onion cut the onion length wise
4 green chilies
10-15 roasted gram
2 garlic pods
Small piece ginger
½ tsp sweet cumin
½ tsp poppy seeds
½ tsp turmeric
2 cloves
2 pieces of cinnamon stick
2 tsp shredded coconut
4 curry leaves
2tsp cilantro
1tsp salt

Method:
Grind tomatoes, green chilies, roasted gram, garlic, ginger, poppy seeds, turmeric, coconut, curry leaves and salt in a blender or a mixer.

In a pan, sauté cloves, cinnamon stick and sweet cumin with a tsp of oil, add the onions and sauté them until it turns golden brown. Now add the grinded paste in the pan and cook them covered for 10-15 mins in a medium heat. Turn off the heat and add the cilantro.

Serve the tomato curry with idly, dosa or chapattis.

Moong Dal Curry

2005-12-06T14:58:00.000-08:00

Today I made green beans (moong dal) curry for lunch. This is called pachai payir in Tamilnadu. I love green beans since it is healthy and it has lots of proteins. This recipe I learnt from my mom. This recipe goes well with rice and chapathi.

Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal
½ onion chopped into small pieces
1 ripe tomato cut into small pieces
2 pods of garlic cut into small pieces
1tsp ginger
4 green chilies
4 curry leaves
1tsp cumin
½ tsp turmeric
1tsp mustard
1tsp salt

Method:

Soak the moong dal overnight. Cook the moong dal with turmeric in a vessel or in a pressure cooker. For 1 cup moong dal, add two glasses of water. I cooked the moong dal in a pressure cooker. Wait for three whistles to come up in the cooker and release the weight and mash them lightly with a spoon.

In a pan, add 2 tsp of oil, mustard, cumin, curry leaves, green chilies, garlic and ginger and sauté them for a minute. Add onions and sauté them until it turns brown. Add the tomato pieces, sauté them until they become soft. Now add the cooked moong dal, salt and ¼ cup of water. Cook them covered for about 10-15 mins.

Serve with rice and pappad or chapathi

Venn Pongal

2005-12-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

I haven’t made pongal for a long time. Thinking of what to do for dinner? Takes away most of my time. Most of the time I end up making Dosa or Idly. For change I made pongal for dinner. I learned this recipe from my mom.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice
1 cup Moong Dal
1tsp Ginger
1tsp Cumin
1 tsp Pepper corns
4-5 Curry leaves
Ghee 2tsp
31/2 cup Water
2-3 tsp Cashews
1 tsp Salt

Method:
Clean and wash the moongdal and rice. In a pressure cooker, add 2-3tsp of oil, cumin, pepper corns, cashews and sauté them for a minute. Now add the ginger, curry leaves and sauté them altogether. Add the rice, moongdal, water and salt to the cooker. In a medium heat, cook until 1 whistle comes up. Remove from the heat after 1 whistle. Wait until release of the pressure of the cooker. Open the pressure cooker, add the ghee and mix them together. Serve hot with smabhar and chutney.