Khara Biscuit/Spicy biscuits

Khara biscuit is 1 of those tasty, forever existing items in those bangalore bakery glass containers :). Khara in kannada means spicy. These cookies along with a tinge of mint and coriander brings out a nice flavour which is perfect with a cuppa coffee!

We badly needed a break from the same tea time cookies here - now heres a reason for me to get skilled though not to the bakery level but atleast to satify our cravings :). Again this recipe is from my mom's dairy, she preserved this from her samaja bakery classes or a ladies club that she used to attend when we were kids.

Here goes the recipe for khara biscuit/ Spicy biscuits

Makes around 20 biscuits
Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Margarine at room temperature - 75gms
Castor sugar - 2tsp
Salt - 1tsp
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Green chillies finely chopped - 4 (medium spice)
Plain yogurt - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves chopped - 10
Grater ginger - 1/2 inch
Mint leaves finely chopped - 6 to 8
Ajwain - 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. Sieve the flour, baking powder and castor sugar in a large plate or a bowl.
2. Beat the margarine with an electric mixer for about 3min.
3. Next stir in the chillies, curry leaves, mint, ginger , ajwain, salt and yogurt. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix well.Transfer this to a lightly floured surface and knead well till it becomes a smooth ball.
4. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and with a biscuit cutter cut the dough into as many biscuits as possible. Lift the biscuits and keep on a baking sheet. Bring together the remaining dough, repeat the procedure of knead-roll-cut.
5. Next place these biscuits on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15min till light brown on the edges.

Hot hot khara biscuits/Spicy biscuits are ready to be served with drink of your choice :)!!

Have a nice weekend!!!

Coconut-mint chutney

‘Chutney’ is a term used to describe a dip or a spread. Chutneys come in variety of flavours as well as texture - sweet, spicy, fruity....some r wet and fine and some are dry and coarse. So it depends on your liking and willingness to choose:).

Last week I posted Masal dose’s palya and this week I would be sharing chutney. Generally Masala dosa is served with coconut chutney. But I prefer a tinge of mint in coco chutney – due to the color and also the tangy taste ;). You can make the coconut chutney by following the same method but eliminating the mint leaves. So here’s coconut-mint chutney which goes together with dosa, idli, gundpongalu, rotti, shavige uppittu or many a times we use it as a spread for cucumber+tomato SW as well :)!!

Ingredients

Fresh grated coconut – 1 cup
Mint leaves – 5tbsp
Oil – 1tsp
Green chillies – 3 to4
Tamarind – 1 tbsp (with the seeds removed)Putani/hurgadle/roasted Bengal gram – 2tbsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Jaggery – 1tsp
Cilantro – ½ cup
Salt to taste

For tempering/tadka
Oil – 1tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2tsp
Chanadal – 1/2tsp
Urad dal – 1/2tspPinch of turmeric powder and asafoetida
Curry leaves – 6 to 8

Method

1. Heat oil in a small pan, fry green chillies & tamarind till the tamarind becomes soft. Then add mint leaves and further fry for a min.
2. Next grind this with rest of the ingredients to make a smooth paste. Add little water while grinding to get the desired consistency. Keep this mixture in a bowl.
3. Next to make the tadka, heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Then add chanadal, uradal dal, asafoetida, turmeric and lastly curry leaves and take it off the heat to top the chutney!

Aloogadde eerulli palya/Potato-onion curry

Who will not like to have masala dosa for breakfast on a hassle-free Sunday morning......Am sure most of us would luv to snuggle there and end up in a brunch on sundays :). Yep we generally feast on masala dose Ummmmm yum yumm.

Masal dose, as it’s commonly known is a speciality of South india. Dosa is something similar to crepe but rice and lenthil being the main ingredient. There are varieties of doses like khali dose, paper dose, set dose; recently I also heard from my SIL that they tasted chocolate dosa @ dubai - modern twist ;).

Anyways I think the basic dough remains the same for most of the dosa types. What makes the difference is, the side dishes along with the dosa – chutney, sambar, playa, sagu.......

Today I would be sharing the aloogadde-eerulli playa or the potato-onion curry i.e the masala that is kept on one side of the dose and the other side is rolled over this masala to form the delectable ‘Masala Dosa’

Ingredients

Serves: 2

Potatoes - 3
Onions finely chopped – 2

Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Chana dal – ½ tsp
Blackgram dal – 1tsp
Turmeric powder – 1tsp
Asafoetida – 1/4tsp
Green chilli – 1
Curry leaves – 5 to 6
Ginger grated – 1tsp
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro or grated carrot and lemon juice for garnishing

Method

• Cut potato into 4 pieces and cook them in boiling water till they are soft but not mushy. Once done, drain the water, let it cool & then peel the skin and keep them aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, chana dal, black gram dal, hing, curry leaves, green chillies and grated ginger. Fry them for few seconds and then add turmeric powder and sauté the onions.
• Next slightly mash the potatoes and add to this, add salt and mix well. (At this stage if you feel that the curry looks too dry, you could probably add few spoons of water and mix)
• Garnish with coriander leaves or grated carrot. Give it a dash of lemon juice & this is ready to go inside the fold now.

Enjoy your own home made masal dose in Vidyarthi bhavan style or CTR Benne masale with a dollop of butter on the top!!!

Ragi Rotti

Finger millet in kannada is known as ragi. Ragi is a highly nutritious grain. Ragi is probably the only grain that can be stored for many days without any risk of insect attacks or fungus. The powdered ragi is consumed in various forms like pancakes, flatbread, porridge, ragi balls...Ragi malt, an infant food is quite popular in south Indian families.

Ragi balls is the staple food of rural Karnataka people who mainly work in farms. Ragi mudde with soppina huli is a classic combination which forms a satisfying meal for the hardworking farmer with all the nutrition as well. My uncle, being a diabetic patient used to have ragi mudde regularly instead of rice – doctors recommend this as its rich in iron and low in fat. I am in the process of learning this recipe, once i succeed wud post the details here soon...

Some years ago, eating ragi mudde or ragi rotti was considered as low status but now, it will not be wrong if I say it’s in trend! Yes I noticed so many ragi mudde mess or ragi doses available all over Bangalore during our recent trip to India. People have become so conscious about their health that I saw so many of them even eating that unattractive brown rice for their 3 meals uffff unbelievable......
This time around we got ragi flour from my FIL’s village where it’s grown in their own farm and we tried making ragi rotti – it tasted yummy with spicy touch of onions and green chillies.
Ragi rotti which means finger millet pancake is a famous breakfast item in Karnataka and served with chutney. We had it with chutney pudi and yogurt and remembered an old kannada song- ragi rotti uchellu chutney tinno nan magane.......... mugina matta jadidu malago kal nan magne......Here goes the recipe for ragi rotti

Ingredients

Makes around 6 rottis

Ragi flour sieved – 2 cups
Onions finely chopped – 1 cup
Cumin seeds – 1Tsp
Green chilly finely chopped – 1 (this is for medium spice)
Cilantro finely chopped – ¼ cup
Curry leaves finely chopped – 2 sticks
Fresh coconut grated – ½ cup
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Place all the above ingredients in a thali or a large bowl, mix well with hand first. Then add water little at a time and mix to form smooth-firm dough.

• Grease the tava/griddle and take lemon sized dough and pat it evenly on the griddle to a thin pancake. Make few holes on the dough so that you can pour the oil in them and rotti gets cooked consistently.

• Keep this griddle on the medium heat; pour some oil in the holes and cool till it becomes slightly brown in colour. Then turn over the rotti and continue cooking for about a minute or so.

Rotti is ready to be served

Serving suggestions: Ragi rotti is served with uchellu chutney i.e sesame seed chutney or we also enjoy it with chutney pudi + yogurt or pickle + yogurt yummmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Variations: Some of them like making ½ & ½ i.e mixture of ragi + rice flour rotti while rest of the ingredients remain the same.

Have a nice day:)!!!

Celebrations!!!

1 year ago I posted my first entry on this blog....time just flies I just can’t believe that it’s been 1 year now that abhi-ruchi has been a part of our life:)!

My desire to collect good recipes and share it with friends was actually started off as a hobby but within few days with all your encouraging comments it became a serious affair for me :D. I started doing things quite competently. During this time, I met many wonderful foodies, learnt a lot of new stuff and certainly improved my cooking skills. And as well, have found a new love – photography ;).

On this occasion I would like to appreciate my friend S for stimulating my brain. Thanks to all of them who read and comment regularly, they mean a lot to me. Thanks to my mom and MIL for all those traditional recipes and last but not the least special thanks to my DH for being with me through all my experimentation & execution:).

To celebrate this lovely day, I made a south indian sweet dish – Kobbari mithai or coconut barfi.
Here’s the recipe for Kobbari Mithai

Ingredients

Makes around 15pieces

Freshly grated coconut – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 cups
Elachi– 3 crushed
Milk – ¼ cup
Ghee– 2 tsp

Method

• Mix freshly grated coconut and sugar in a large bowl and let it sit for 20-30min. Meanwhile grease a plate and keep it aside.
• Transfer the coco-sugar mixture into a pan, add milk and bring it to boil on medium flame. Make sure you stir it continuously so that it doesn’t catch the bottom.
• You need to do this until all the sugar is melted and the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan. Next add the elachi powder and mix well.
• Transfer the mixture immediately to the greased plate and spread evenly quickly. Let it cool for a min or two and then with the help of a knife cut into desired shape, garnish with dry fruits. Kobbari mithai can be stored in air tight containers for upto 10days

All in all I feel recipe writing is a skilled task and theres no bigger reward than the thought that something I have written is being enjoyed by others in the same spirit as I write!!!

Thanks for visiting and making this year fantastic for me!

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year to all readers, regular visitors of abhi-ruchi and also blogger friends of abhi-ruchi :)!!!!

Cheers and Wishing you all many more happy days, good health/wealth and good luck!!!!