Abhi-ruchi

Pistachio Macaroons

2012-01-24T15:05:00.000Z

Well...getting pampered with the London lifestyle with everything available at a blink of an eye, my camera has taken a back seat :d. And of course the range of fun and activities that you get when you live in main land is amazing...Either its visiting some restaurants, theatres, farms, parks, temples, friends, birthday parties or play dates ...........apart from the regular weekend classes of swimming etc. O wish the brit weather was Mediterranean :-p
Anyway, during Xmas sale got hold of amazing books and 1 among them was all about Macaroons. I had fallen in love with these bites in Paris - OMG they look amazingly perfect in their dashing package and these colourful sweets melt in your mouth. Firstly, let me briefly write about Macaroons for all those with the sweet tooth!

Macaroons are delightful sweet treats popular among French. These are nothing but small almond meringues sandwiched together with a flavoured filling. (looks something like a mini burger). These are perfect after dinner treat, a sweet gift or a teatime fancy.

Well...as simple they might look, macaroons could be a little tricky to make - indeed I have read that chefs spend years perfecting the art of macaroons. But this didn't put me off - with my bible (& of course 2 supporters;)) I tried my level best. Well....the resultant may not be the same as a French pastry chef but definitely for the first batch it tasted quite good - most of all the whole process was so pleasurable :)! Hoping to achieve better standards with each flavour ;) (God pls let me be consistent with my workouts too). So here goes the procedure for Pistachio Macaroons -

Makes about 16 Macaroons

Ingredients :
Ground Almonds - 50 g
Ground Pistachio nuts - 25 g + 2 tbsp chopped for decorating
Icing Sugar - 115g
Egg White - 2 large eggs
Castor Sugar - 50 g
Green food colouring

For the filling
Unsalted Butter softened - 55 g
Green food colouring
Icing Sugar - 115 g
Pistachio nuts finely chopped - 2 tbsp

Method

Place the ground Almonds, ground Pistachio nuts and Icing Sugar in a food processor and process for 15 secs. Sift the mixture into a bowl.

Meanwhile line the baking sheets with baking paper.
Place the Egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until soft peaks appear.
Gradually whisk in the Castor Sugar to make a firm glossy meringue.
Whisk enough food colouring to give a pale green colour.
Using a spatula, fold the Almond mixture into the meringue little at a time.
When they are mixed well, continue to cut and fold the mixture until it forms a shiny batter with a ribbon like consistency.

Pour this mixture into a piping bag fitted with 1cm plain nozzle.
Pipe 32 small rounds onto the prepared baking sheet. Tap the baking sheet on a work surface so that the air bubbles are removed.
Sprinkle over the chopped Pistachio. Leave this at room temperature for 30minutes.

Preheat oven to 160Deg. Bake in the pre heated oven for 10-15 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes, then peel the macaroons carefully off the baking paper. Let it cool completely.
To make the filling, beat the Butter and a little food colour in a bowl. Gradually beat in the Icing Sugar until smooth and creamy.
Stir in the Pistachio nuts. Use this to sandwich pairs of macaroons together.

Pistachio Macaroons

Forget the calories and enjoyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

Gobi Manchurian

2011-12-01T12:05:00.000Z

Winter is here and hence the lovely winter vegetables like Cauliflower, Broccoli, Parsnip, Turnip etc are loaded in the supermarket. But it becomes boring to eat the same currys or steamed/ baked veggies. So spiced up the Veggies to get a better look and taste of it :-p...Gobi Manchurian is yummy starter which is liked by many of us - a bit time consuming but worth the effort. We like Tomato Shorba and Gobi Manchurian / Cauliflower Manchurian combination any day (Will be posting the shorba recipe soon). For kids the non spicy version or just before mixing it with the spicy sauce is a perfect way to serve.

You can also make this with Babycorn, Paneer or any firm vegetable of your choice.
Here's what I did to make these tasty fritters -

Ingredients
Cauliflower cut into florets - 1
Maida - 3/4 Cup
Corn Flour - 1 Tbsp
Salt to taste
Green Chillies finely chopped - 1
Ginger grated - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Garlic grated - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Onions finely chopped - 1 Cup
Coriander Leaves or Spring Onions finely chopped for garnishing
Ajinomoto - 1/4 tsp
Soya Sauce - 2 Tbsp
Tomato Ketchup - 3 Tbsp ( i use the chilli one, u cud choose according to your spice levels)
Oil - 2 Tbsp

Method

Boil Cauliflower florets in Water for about 5 minutes. Take care not to cook too much as it might become mushy. Drain the Water and keep the florets aside.
Place the Maida, Cornflour and Salt in a bowl and mix well using Water.
Add a teaspoon of Ginger and Garlic to the above paste and mix well.
Dip the Cauliflower florets in this paste and deep fry them till golden brown and keep it aside.
Heat Oil in another pan, add the remaining Ginger-Garlic paste, Green Chillies and Onions and fry for sometime.
Then add Ajinomoto, Soya sauce, Tomato sauce and mix well.
Add the fried Cauliflowers and mix well until coated.
Garnish with Coriander Leaves or Spring Onions and serve hot!

Happy Winter Cooking!!!

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

2011-11-16T13:21:00.001Z

'Surya' as we all know means 'Sun' - the supreme light. Hindus worship Surya as the visible form of god that one can see everyday. The popular Surya namaskara which is performed at the rising of the Sun is a mode of worship in which ten yogic postures are performed one after the other constituting one namaskara. This same Surya plays such an important role for me here (in this season esp) :-p... OMG never had I worshipped Surya god nor remember reciting his shlokas as much as I do now LOL. Am sure it sounds silly but have realised the importance of Sun now. Alarm goes off in the morning, get ready leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark. Hardly feel the light. P is waiting for those few hours in a day when he can scooter, bicycle or play in the garden. The clothes on the airer which never appears to get into their place :-p. It looks like even Surya wants to rest now :-p... Oh no we are missing out on the Sunshine :(:( .

I was lucky to have Mr.Surya yday almost the whole day as my guest ofcourse ;). Kitchen was sparkling and gleaming and attracted me in :). To my surprise the lazy lady vanished and here comes the culinary queen ;);). The Sunlight feels so good and welcoming - it energises you to accomplish anything you want, believe me! I guess that's the reason facing east is considered good for promising deeds. So I was in a maha mood to spice up our meal. I tried 2-3 dishes and turned out presentable! Here comes my first try out...

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Serves - 4 to 6 Preparation time - 10min Cooking time - 1 hour

Ingredients
For the Napoli Sauce
Olive Oil - 2 Tbsp
Tomatoes chopped - 400 gms
Carrot grated - 1
Parsley chopped few
Celery stick chopped - 1/2
Basil Leaves handful chopped
Garlic clove crushed - 1

For the filling
Spinach chopped and cooked - 500 gms
Ricotta - 300 gms
Egg beaten - 1
Cannelloni tubes
Parmesan grated - 2 Tbsp

Method

Firstly heat Oven to 190C. Heat the Oil in a pan, add the Garlic, Carrot, Parsley, Celery and fry till golden brown.
Then add the Tomatoes and Basil. Add half cup of Water and mix well. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
For the filling, mix the Spinach and Ricotta with the Egg and Parmesan.
Spoon this mixture into the Cannelloni tubes and place in the buttered baking try.
Then add a layer of Napoli Sauce on the top and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes.
Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni is ready to be attacked!!!

Wishing you all lots of Sunshine and warmth :)

Broccoli & Cheese Balls

2011-11-07T12:54:00.001Z

Time has come for Ramanya - as my lil brat says for Ramayana. Ramayana is added to his favourites along with the Peppa Pig, Super why, Jake and Neverland Pirates........ This half term holidays made him inquisitive about the story of Ramayana. With Deepavali around I was trying to explain him about the importance of the festival and the way it is celebrated bla bla bla....like any other parent. I took this opportunity and started telling him the snippets of Ramayana. OMG to my surprise he came up with so many Q, I started smiling so that I could think about the answer ;). Why did Rama go to the forest? How can Sita wear a deer's skin as her dress silly Sita he said....Why is Hanuman's mom face not like monkey face? Jatayu is a bird how can he speak?
Obviously I wanted to convey him only the good part of Ramayana as I felt that was appropriate for a 4yr old kid. Now I too got a bit confused as to should I tweak the Ramayana and say Rama's dad asked him to go and thats why he went and move on.......knowing about bias and so many wives etc might be a bit too much on a pre schooler. Am sure moms with little boys/girls would have had such exp. Please share your views and comments on this so that we all could read and enjoy those innocence....
Here comes one of our trials during holidays - For all those cheese lovers enjoy this yummy dish!

Preparation time : 10 minutes Cooking time : 15 minutes Makes : 15 Balls

Ingredients:

Oil - 1 Tbsp
Onions finely chopped - 1/2 Cup
Garlic grated - 1 tsp
Green Chillies finely chopped - 2 ( optional for kids)
Broccoli finely chopped - 1 Cup
Cornflour - 2 Tbsp
Potatoes peeled, boiled and mashed - 3/4 Cup
Salt to taste
Mozzarella Cheese cut into 1 inch cubes or Paneer cubes - 15 Cubes
Bread Crumbs for rolling
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat Oil in a pan, add the Onions, Garlic and Green Chillies and saute for few minutes.
Add the Broccoli and saute for another 5 minutes till Broccoli is almost cooked.
Take off from flame, add the Cornflour, Potatoes and Salt and mix well.
Divide this mixture into 15 equal parts and shape it into a flat round.
Press a bit in the centre of each round to make a depression, place the Cheese cube in the centre and roll again to form a ball.
Roll these balls in the bread crumbs.
Meanwhile heat Oil in a pan, deep fry these balls till golden brown in colour. Drain them on a Kitchen roll and serve hot!

Kids Birthday Cake!

2011-10-11T20:47:00.003+01:00

We made this cake for my little one's Bday recently who turned 4!!! Yes a Train Cake - This is one of the easiest yet cutest cakes I have ever made. It involves minimal exercise and the decoration can also be done easily with the sweeties you get in any Supermarket. Involving kids in decorating the cake is a challenging job; of-course its up to you to take the call - but slightly older children will definitely like decorating their own cake. Here its just arranging the readily available items to your choice and I think it helps kids to be a bit creative too! But don't be surprised if you run short of smarties or white buttons etc....you know where it would have gone ;)

Here's how we made our Train Cake.

You need
Train shaped Non stick baking tray - 1
Self Raising Flour - 225g
Unsalted Butter at room temperature - 225g
Caster Sugar - 225g
Eggs - 4
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

What you have to do is

Pre heat the Oven to 170C.
Grease the Train Cake baking tray with Butter and then dust it with Flour.
Place the Caster Sugar and Butter into a bowl. Mix together with a an electric blender until it is creamy consistency.
Beat the Eggs in a bowl and then add this to the creamed Butter and Sugar. Continue mixing well.
Now fold in the Flour carefully with a spoon. Add the Vanilla essence and mix well.
Spoon this mixture into the Train Cake baking tray, fill only half the carriage ( the mixture will raise in the Oven)
Place in the centre of the Oven for about 25-30 minutes.
To check if the Cake is done, insert a skewer into the centre of each Cake then remove. If the skewer comes out clean then the Cake is cooked.
Turn out onto a cooling rack. Cake is ready for decorating.

To decorate the Train Cake you can use your imagination and the ingredients available nearby.

Here I have used :
Smarties for the cargo
White Buttons for the steam
Writing Icing tubes for emphasising on the detail
Fruit Leather for tracks
Mixed sweeties for wheels

The fun is making your own which gives immense satisfaction for parents and above all when kids love it - it becomes a super hit!!!

Corn Boondi Bhel

2011-10-04T15:28:00.000+01:00

As we all know that 'we' drool over chaat items irrespective of which part of the globe we are living :-p. For people who doesn't know about Chaat items (poor them) - 'Chaat' is a collective noun used for many spicy Indian snack items like Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Masala Puri, Samosa, Cutlet, Dahi Puri, Papdi Chaat, Sev Puri, Aloo Tikki, Dahi Vada...........now how can anyone resist from this list :-p

Well as I said earlier never will Chaats get boring but still wanted to try something new. Corn Boondi Bhel is one such item which was as tasty as it looks :). Yes its a strange combination of crispy spicy Boondi with fresh Sweet Corn kernels. It might turn out a bit fiery for young kids. In that case, what you can do is skip the Boondi and Chillies then just mix rest of the ingredients with desired spice levels for a nutritious snack ;). This comes in handy for a post school evening snack, when you have flying visitors at home or justwith friends over for tea or even on a sluggish Sunday afternoons :-p....All said and done I don't need to find any reasons to eat Chaat !

Serves : 4 Preparation time : 10 - 15 minutes Cooking time : 0

Ingredients:

Spicy Boondi - 2 Cups

Sweet Corn Kernels boiled and drained - 2 Cups

Red Onions finely chopped - 1 Cup

Cucumber chopped - 1 Cup

Tomato chopped - 1 Cup

Green Chillies finely chopped - 1

Roasted Peanuts - 1/2 Cup ( could be peeled or with the skin)

Chaat Masala to sprinkle

Handful of Coriander Leaves finely chopped

Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp

Sweet Chutney - 1/4 Cup

Salt if required

Method :

Firstly place Onions, Tomato, Cucumber in a large mixing bowl.
Add Corn, Boondi, roasted Peanuts, Green Chillies, Chaat Masala, Coriander Leaves, Lemon Juice and Sweet Chutney (here add some Salt if required).
Mix well and serve immediately.

Enjoy this spicy Sweet Corn Chaat with some hot Tea !!!

Make School Cool

2011-09-28T19:04:00.007+01:00

Back to school and rushing mornings - I think this is a common scene in most of our homes pheww...I really wonder how our elders used to make an elaborate breakfast unlike our cereals / bread toast / fruits (of course we believe in healthy eating now ;)) and lunch in the mornings along with making us ready - do u guys remember if we as kids were so picky, slow, throw tantrums, moody and what were your parents reactions then?( remember not now :-p).........Now that we are parents we tend to behave like 'Super Mom & Dad'.

Is this a natural behaviour or a passing phase for parents?

Here's a quick lunchbox solution from me - nutritiously delicious ;)! Let alone the little one it was irresistible for us too :). Give it a try and see if it works with your family :)

Makes : 4 - 5 Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 30 min

Ingredients

Potatoes par boiled and peeled - 1

Spring Onions finely chopped - About 1/4 Cup

Fenugreek Leaves or Menthya Soppu finely chopped - A handful

Green Chillies finely chopped - 1 (optional)

Cumin Seeds Powder - 1 tsp

Amchur Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Butter - 2 Tbsp

Method

Grate the boiled Potato in a thali.
To this add Onions, Green Chillies, Fenugreek Leaves, Cumin Seeds Powder, Amchur Powder and Salt.
Mix well using your hands so that all the ingredients blends well and knead it to a smooth ball.
Now heat a non stick pan on a medium heat, spread some Butter on it.
Take a handful of the Potato mixture and pat it thick on the Pan like a pancake.
Spread some Butter on the top layer of the pancake.
Flip this several times and cook on low heat till both sides are golden brown in colour.
Aloo - Methi ki Roti is ready to be served with ketchup for kids!This is non messy and tastes equally good when cools down as well - so added this to my lunchbox list!

Get REAL

2011-02-14T16:23:00.003Z

I was reading an article about parenting somewhere last week (afternoon 2hrs of peace is my best ‘ME’ time for me) where I came across this Real parenting revolution. So thought I will share it here.

Well...I am sure for all the parents out here; becoming a parent is one of the happiest moments in life. But with all the wonderful things it has there’s no denying that it can also be tough. With sleepless nights to answering all the Whats, journey becomes more enjoyable when we speak openly with other parents and friends. With so many parenting groups and awareness, think rationally and act. The illusion of perfect parenting is so discouraging many times; just make choices that work out best for you and your family. Thus we can be better, happier parents with happier children!

Get R – Relax and trust yourself
E – Enjoy being a parent
A – Accept each other’s choices
L – Look out for each other

Get ready.....Parents in this part of the globe for the half term holidays ;)
Happy Parenting!!

Here’s another expt with my little chef – Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies. It’s a popular cookie recipe and hard to beat!! Classic because it uses less sugar and more nuts – Makes about 20-24 cookies tasting yum yum :)

Ingredients

Self raising flour – 175g

A pinch of Salt

A good pinch of Baking Soda
Unsalted Butter softened – 115g
Caster Sugar – 60g
Brown Sugar – 60g
Vanilla extract – ½ tsp
Egg lightly beaten – 1
Dark Chocolate chips – 175gWalnut pieces – 75g
Baking sheets greased – 2

Method

Preheat the Oven to 190deg centigrade
Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Drop heaped teaspoon of the mixture onto the prepared sheets, make sure you space them apart as they would be doubling in size.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10minutes or lightly coloured. Leave to cool on the sheets for a couple of minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, store it in an air tight container up to a week or two (if u can resist ;))

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

2011-01-14T20:10:00.004Z

I have always felt Cooking is an art – it just cannot be mugged and reproduced. May it be a kid cooking or an adult there’s always something to learn new in this field.
This xmas holidays my toddler P and me decided to try out some easy recipes. As he was introduced to baking in his nursery, he was keen on helping me in kitchen. With the weather being bad couldn’t venture out much so thought why not make it interesting for him.....

This is when I felt Cooking is also a skill where kids learn to read, do math and organise their work logically. Kids generally hesitate to try new things. But with a little inspiration, we can make food more fun!

We made a Snowman cake and enjoyed watching him emerge as a personality as we decorated him with candy and fruit leather.
What we did was:

Ingredients

Self raising flour – 250gms
Butter – 250gms
Caster Sugar – 250gms
Cocoa Powder – 2 tbsp
A pinch of SaltLarge eggs – 5

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

For decorating

Vanilla frosting – about 1 ½ Cups to 2 Cups
Shredded coconut
Licorice drops black – 2
Large Orange gumdrop/Strawberry – 1 (i replaced the gumdrop with strawberry as i cudnt find it)
Red shoestring licorice
Red fruit leather
Licorice drops red – 3 or 4
Chocolate licorice sticks – 2 ( replaced with green shoestring)

Method

1. Heat the Oven to 180 deg centigrade. Grease and flour two ovenproof glass bowls make sure to use one slightly larger than the other.

2. To make the cake, sift together the Flour, Cocoa Powder and Salt in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl, blend the Butter with Sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Separate the Egg white and yolk. Beat the white till it is stiff and keep it aside.

5. Next add the yolk to the Butter-Sugar mixture and blend well.

6. Then fold the Flour and the Egg Whites alternately until it is mixed well. Add Vanilla extract and mix well.

7. Fill the greased bowls about two thirds full. Bake both the cakes for about 40-50min.

8. Baking actually depends on the Oven – so it’s always good to check with a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

9. Cool the cake in the bowls for about 10min. Then invert onto a large platter so that the cakes resemble a Snowman. Let this cool completely.

10. Ice the cakes with Vanilla frosting, then sprinkle with shredded Coconut. Add licorice drop eyes, insert an Orange gumdrop nose and fashion a broad smile with a shoestring licorice.

11. For the scarf, cut two 2inch wide strips of fruit leather, notch the ends and wrap it around the neck of the snowman. And for the buttons use red gumdrops. Finish the snowman with two chocolate licorice arms!!!Thus you can alter according to the availability and choice!

But remember the Oven is HOT HOT HOT so the Kids step is only reading out the ingredients, measuring and adding the ingredients to the cake batter, and frosting and decorating the cute snowman.

P enjoyed reading all the alphabets to make a word, counted/recognised numbers, arranging the ingredients and pouring 1 by 1 (trying to copy Katie on TV- he pored exactly she does) got to know so many candy available in store :-p. Ofcourse the whole fun was being confident about the result and waiting for it to come on the plate :). And now everyday even after a week he wants only Snowman’s eyes or hands....where do i get so many from?

Hope you all enjoyed the making of our Snowman :)
Have a nice weekend and more toddler recipes to follow....

Wishing You all A Very Happy And A Prosperous New Year!!!!

2011-01-07T16:19:00.004Z

Dear friends,

Firstly, I am extremely sorry for not updating my blog and just disappeared without giving a clue.
Yes, we were in the process of moving places and settling down. Now, I am based out of London. I have started working as a recipe/content writer for a UK based co here.
With all these changes hapapening, just unable to catch up on abhi-ruchi. I would be sharing few new recipes shortly and enjoy my blogging days back :)

Wishing you and your family a very happy new year!!

Have a nice weekend!
Rashmi

Bendekayi Gojju/Okra in tangy sauce

2010-04-09T14:41:00.003+01:00

Okra is known as Bendekayi in kannada and has been my favourite veggie since my childhood:)! Okra in any form grabs my attention and loyalty. Yeah I love bendekayi palya, bendekayi gojju, bendekayi huLi, bendekayi majjige paldya – all these are Karnataka’s delicacies.

There was this dish called ‘Sunheri Bhindi’ (kinda deep fried spicy appetiser) in 1 of the Restaurants in Hyderabad and it used to vanish within few seconds it was brought on to our table – Yummmmmm I really miss all those opulence here ;).

Again this time around our London trip got us some divine veggies :-p and here’s 1 of the preparation from me for this week )!

Serves: 2-4 preparation time: 15min cooking time: 30min

Ingredients

Oil – 2 tsp
Mustard Seed – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Pinch of Turmeric
Few Curry Leaves
Chopped Okra – 2 Cups
Salt to taste
Tamarind Juice – 1 Cup
Grated Jaggery – ½ Cup
Rasam Powder/Sarina Pudi – 4 tsp

Method

Heat Oil in a pan, add Mustard Seeds and allow it to splutter.
Next add Asafoetida, Turmeric, Curry Leaves and Okra in order. Fry Okra for 10-15min or till it kinda shrinks.
Add Tamarind juice, Jaggery, Salt and Rasam Powder in order and mix well. Bring this to boil and simmer it for almost 15-20min or till it becomes slightly thick.
Bendekayi Gojju is ready to be served with hot Rice topped with Ghee!!!

And namma ajji maadida bendekayi gojju used to be the ultimate one – believe it or not finger licking was inevitable :-p

Have a Nice Day)!!!

Valentines Hearts

2010-02-14T20:00:00.008Z

V-day is always exciting to party with lots of yummy dishes and memorable presents from loved ones – well...that’s the way I adore my dear ones:)!

Valentine symbols, cupid- roses- hearts- love birds-love knots are quite famous even to this day and are made so attractive that it’s hard to take away one’s eye from them. But I wonder why cupid was chosen as an icon of Valentine’s Day – Because when I think about romance, a short chubby toddler coming to me with a weapon in his hand would be the last thing that comes on my mind LOL......too ingenious isn’t it ;)...Hmmm anyways....

Well...this time I made a perfect treat for my Valentine, a heart shaped dessert with cream & strawberries sandwiched and topped with chocolaty sugar Ummmmm yum yum!

And a sweet addition for our V-day gifts this time was a red colour heart decorated with lots and lots of glitters was the best from our little valentine -Yep my 28months old toddler came up with this charming heart with the help of his teachers at school, really amazed at those little hands ability:), take a look at it -

Here goes the recipe....

Ingredients

Jus-rol puff pastry sheet – 1
Beaten egg to glaze
Castor sugar for sprinkling
Crème fraiche – 8 to 10 tbspn (you can add according to your choice both crème and strawberries)
Fresh strawberries – 100g
Plain chocolate melted – ½ cup

Method

Preheat oven to 220deg.

Thaw the pastry sheet according to the instructions on the box. Unroll pastry sheet and cut around 8 hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter. (i used medium sized cutter of a set of 3)

Prick each heart with a fork, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle lightly with some sugar.

Place these hearts on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 10min until risen and golden brown in colour. Let it cool.

Slice the strawberries and split the heart horizontally using a sharp knife.

Sandwich the heart together with crème fraiche and sliced strawberries. Drizzle the chocolate and dust some castor sugar over the tops of the heart.

Make your day with this gorgeous Valentines Hearts with few fresh strawberries :)!!!
Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Chocolate Valentine Cookies

Sorekayi Palya/bottle gourd curry

2010-02-08T20:29:00.005Z

Bottle gourd is also known as sorekayi in kannada or lauki in hindi. This is an easily digestible vegetable and can be given for kids as well. Though the appearance is not so inviting to eat, when you know the nutrients of this vegetable sometimes you need to let go on the looks ;).

This veggie is not only highly rich in iron and protein but also in fibre. The more fibre your intake has the more is good for your system (i remember this ‘fibre’ term really was like a bootha sitting on my head throughout my pregnancy). Recently I tried a new style of making sorekayi palya from a book that my dad gifted me and felt it quite interesting with chapathi! Here’s how it goes – for all who have just tried the same monotonous style of lauki subzi, maybe you could give this a try J

Ingredients

Serves: 2

Sorekayi/bottle gourd chopped – 1 ½ cups

Cilantro – ¼ cup

Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp

Oil – 5tsp

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Green chillies – 2 or 3

Ginger – 1 inch piece

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds –1tsp

Asafoetida – ¼ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Plain yogurt ( i prefer onken smooth) – ½ cup

Salt to taste

Method

Grind together coconut, green chillies, fenugreek seeds, ginger, cilantro, mustard seeds and salt to a fine paste.
Heat oil in a pan and make the tempering with cumin seeds, turmeric, and asafoetida. To this add the chopped bottle gourd, cover and cook. Once the pieces are cooked well add the masala paste and yogurt and mix well.
Let this come to boil and then take it off from heat to serve it with hot rice or chapathi!

Bottle Gourd Kofta With Gravy

Heerekai bonda/Ridge gourd fritters

2010-02-05T14:33:00.003Z

The thought of eating ridge gourd makes me feel :-&. I just don’t like the texture when it gets cooked. And the most commonly prepared item in our house is heerekai tovve or dal - I can’t stand the look and feel of it :-p. But I don’t mind eating heerekai bonda or fritters ;) – Yep after all the spice and the smear enhances the flavour of heerekai/ridge gourd.

This heerekai bonda is generally prepared during festivals or any special occasions as 1 of the items. BisibeLebath and heerekayi bonda is an evergreen combo for habbada oota (a festive meal). But I think when it comes to bonda you need not have to wait for any special occasion rather any day is a festive day ;). So come and enjoy Heerekai bonda/ridge gourd fritters with me:)!!!

Ingredients

Makes around 30 bondas

Heerekai – 1
Gram flour – 1 cup
Red chilli powder – 2tsp
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Ajwain – ½ tsp

Pinch of baking soda
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method

Wash and peel the ridge gourd. Then slice them into circles ((gal galiyagi hechuvudu). Heat oil in a pan on medium heat for frying.
Meanwhile, in a bowl mix gram flour, red chilli powder, salt, asafoetida, ajwain and some hot oil. Mix together with water to make a smooth batter (batter consistency should be similar to that of dosa dough).
Dip each heerekai circle into this batter and immdtly lift and drop them in the hot oil. Fry them in batches of 5-6 till they are golden brown in colour. Lift them out of the oil and drain the oil by keeping them on a paper towel.

Delicious hot bondas are ready to be served with the dip of your choice!
Have a nice day:)

HuNasehannu avalakki/Tamarind poha

2010-02-01T15:16:00.008Z

Poha is nothing but another form of rice. Beaten rice is called as Poha in hindi or avalakki in kannada. The rice, after removing the husk is flattened to thin flakes. They come in varieties – thick/thin/medium poha, paper/nylon poha (quite famous in Karnataka). Poha is consumed in many ways – few items are prepared by soaking them in water and then tempering them lightly, few are just seasoned directly and also powdering and then spicing it up!

This last method is 1 of my favourite dish called ‘HuNasehannu avalakki’ or ‘Gojjavalakki’ or ‘HuLi avalakki’. This has an intense uplifting flavour - its yummy with tangy + sweet (huLi huLi + see see) taste and is a very good snack item with evening tea. I adore my Damma’s (aunt) style of making and serving huNasehannu avalakki with some fried sandige – she makes it so lovely with spicy and crunchy effect I just luv them yum yum.......As a kid Iused to go to her house with my mom only to eat this :d

It can be easily carried in a box with spoons (no hassle of hands getting soiled) so we prefer this over anything else for our day trips too and of course with plain yogurtJ!!(a typical south Indian when it comes to yogurt ;))

So if you want to have a huLi huLi- see see effect all you need to do is – follow me ;)

Ingredients

Serves around 2-4 people

Beaten rice/Avalakki – 1 ½ cups

Tamarind juice – ¾ cup (soak seedless tamarind in warm water for few min and squeeze it)

Sarina pudi/Rasam powder – 2tsp

Jaggery – 1 ½ tbsp

Salt to taste

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Oil – 2tbsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Chana dal – 1tsp

Blackgram – 1tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Pinch of asafoetida

Dry red chillies – 2

Groundnuts – 2tbsp

Curry leaves – 6 to8

Finely chopped cilantro – 2 tbsp

Method

First, coarsely grind the poha in a mixer and transfer it to a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix together tamarind juice + sarina pudi/rasam powder + jaggery + salt
Now add this juice mixture to the poha and mix well (i prefer mixing it with hands so that it’s distributed well). Leave this soaked for at least 45min.
Meanwhile make the tempering – heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Next add the grams, turmeric, asafoetida, curry leaves and red chillies. Lastly add the peanuts and fry on low flame till you hear the crackling sound of the nuts (be careful... not to burn the tadka).
After the poha is soaked well, add this tempering along with grated coconut and mix well. Lastly, garnish with cilantro and ready to be served!

Enjoy your huLi huLi – see see ‘HuNasehannu avalakki’ with araLu sandige + seeme akki happaLa and have a sensational week aheadJ!!!

I hope you are enjoying my array of cooking. Any suggestions/feedbacks to perk-up abhi-ruchi are always welcome at abhiruchi_kitchen@yahoo.com

Khara Biscuit/Spicy biscuits

2010-01-29T21:53:00.008Z

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

Preheat oven to 200 C. Sieve the flour, baking powder and castor sugar in a large plate or a bowl.
Beat the margarine with an electric mixer for about 3min.
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.
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.
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

2010-01-25T14:49:00.003Z

‘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

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.
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.
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

2010-01-22T16:12:00.005Z

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

2010-01-18T20:32:00.011Z

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!!!

2010-01-15T22:39:00.008Z

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

2010-01-04T15:13:00.002Z

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!!!!

Mandakki OggaraNe/ Puffed Rice Poha/Soosla

2009-12-02T10:27:00.003Z

Puffed rice is nothing but kadle puri, mandakki or murmura. We enjoy any snack associated with this i.e churmuri, bhel puri, khara hacchida puri or even puri unde i.e puffed rice balls. It’s light and not to worry much about the fatty stuff.

It’s something different than our usual stuff of upma, pasta, burgers etc. This is a combination of sweet and spicy flavours enhanced with zesty lemon.

Am sure by now, regular visitors to my kitchen can depict our dinner style– 1 item that is light, tasty and convenient. Mandakki oggaraNe is a readily suitable item in our family on any days of the weekJ. Here’s a wonderful method that I have adopted from my MILJ!!!

Ingredients

Medium sized onion finely chopped –2

Green chillies finely chopped – 1

Putani/hurgadle/roasted Bengal gram+ Grated dry coconut - less than ¼ cup

Puffed rice – 6 cups

Turmeric powder – ¼ tea spoon

Asafoetida - pinch

Mustard seeds/ sasive – 1tspn

Kadle beLe/ chana dal – 1tspn

Udina bLle/ urad dal – 1tsp

Cumin seeds/ jeera – 1tsp

Oil – 3tbspn

Salt to taste

Lemon juice to taste

Coriander for garnishing

Method

Grind the roasted Bengal gram and dry coconut in a mixie to a fine powder and keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and allow it to sputter. Next add both the grams, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida, green chillies and fry for a second.
Then add chopped onions and sauté for some time.
Later, take a large bowl filled in water. Soak the puffed rice well in the water and remove it in both the hands and squeeze the water completely and add this puffed rice into the pan. Repeat this procedure till all of the puffed rice is over.
Sprinkle some salt and add ground powder and mix well on low flame.
Take it off from the heat to garnish with chopped cilantro and a dash of lemon!

KodubaLe or crispy fried rings

2009-11-25T18:15:00.004Z

Hello everybody! Sorry for an abrupt break from my side. I didn’t have a clue either about my time off until just a day before we boarded the jet. Today I am back with a yummy spicy karum kuram KodubaLe......KodubaLe kodubaLe kaasigondu kodubaLe i remember hearing this kannada song sometime ago.......

KodubaLe is a famous traditional snack of Karnataka, particularly in south india. It’s a spicy fried item that goes well with tea; coffee or now-a-days even with a mug of beer ;). This particular dish originated many years back and I can vouch that grandmas age band used to make the best of the lot – after all the experience, patience and skill required to do it.

It’s fairly easy to prepare but involves persistence and a bit of endeavour:). But once ready, you can keep it in an air tight container for about 15days to 1month and enjoy it whenever you want - as a evening snack with hot hot coffee on a rainy day or just as a nibble while studying for your exams or even just while watching some TV program or just to give some company for your guests......you just need a bahana to take the pleasure of this crunchy snack!

Yesterday along with my mom, I attempted making these kodubaLes and it was really an enjoyment – initially we went on eating kodubaLes while checking if the spice/salt was right proportion and finally got just the right thing in there. Now-a-days all these foods items r so easily accessible in most of the stores which has made the busy city life much simpler but still somehow I fancy homemade ones where you know what all goes into it and of course the flavours does matter :)!
Heres my version of KodubaLe which I have picked up from my mom :)

Ingredients

Rice flour – ½ kg
Red chilli powder – 4tsp
Freshly grated coconut – 1cup
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Maida/Plain flour – 2tsp (dry roasted maida)
Hot oil/Ghee – 2 tbsp
Putani pudi/hurgadle pudi/roasted Bengal gram powder– ½ cup
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method

Grind cumin seeds and coconut in a mixie without adding water to a fine powder. Add all the above ingredients along with the grinded mixture in a thali or a big plate one after the other and mix well with hands.
To this add hot oil or ghee and mix well again with hands. Next add little water at a time and blend with your hands to make smooth firm dough. Knead well and keep it covered.
Take lemon sized dough and roll it smoothly on a flat plate without putting much pressure to form a long thread like structure. Then join this thread end to end to form the ring shape or bangle shape OR you could also make 2 or 3 rounds and keep it aside as show in the picture (You can give the desired shape).

Repeat the same procedure with rest of the dough.
Heat oil in a kadai or a pan, drop around 6-8 of these prepared rings into the oil and deep fry them on a medium flame.
Turn around couple of times and fry them until golden brown in color. Remove them on a paper towel to take off the excess oil.
Now once KodubaLe is cooled, its ready to get into an air tight container and later into our tummy as and when required ;)

Hope you all enjoy my KodubaLes :)! Have a nice day!

Shavige uppittu

2009-11-02T21:19:00.004Z

Shavige in kannada means vermicelli or kind of thin noodles. Most commonly used one is akki shavige which means rice vermicelli. We make different dishes like shavige uppittu or upma or bath, shavige payasa (kheer). Shavige uppittu is served as a breakfast item in most of the houses in south india. I use the shavige/vermicelli that we get in the market. Homemade shavige tastes best and I believe making shavige/rice noodles is an art and 1 has to have lots of patience to achieve good results.

I remember Upahara Darshini was the 1st among the restaurants to serve this scrumptious dish along with chutney and there used to be such heavy rush irrespective of the day/time. It was the fastest way to get a meal nearer to homemade ones.

We prefer Shavige uppittu as our dinner item as its quite healthy and filling with varieties of vegetables of our choice, not oily at all and of course can be made colourful in no time:)!

Ingredients

Shavige/Rice noodles – 100gms
Chopped carrots – 1 cup
Chopped beans – 1 cup
Green Peas – ¼ cup
Grated ginger – 1 tsp
Spring onions cut into circles for garnishing
Chopped green chillies -1
Finely chopped onion – 1
Handful of curry leaves
Oil – 4tspn
Mustard – 1/2tsp
Chanadal/Kadale beLe – 1tsp
Urad dal/ Uddina beLe – 1tsp
Cumin seeds/Jeera – 1tsp
Turmeric powder -1/4tsp
Asafoetida - pinch

Method

Microwave carrot and beans in a MW safe bowl with some amount of water for 3-4min and keep aside.
Cook rice noodles in boiling water for 5min and once done, transfer all of the rice noodles into a colander & run under the tap water (this is a tip to avoid the stickiness of the rice noodles)
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Next add chana dal, urad dal, turmeric, asafoetida, green chillies, grated ginger and curry leaves.
To this add the finely chopped onions and sauté. Then add the boiled vegetables along with green peas and fry for some time. Add salt and mix well.
Next add the cooked shavige or vermicelli to the above vegetable base and mix well on low flame.
Lastly take off from the heat and enhance the freshness with some zesty lemon juice. Generally chopped cilantro or coriander leaves is used for garnishing but I like garnishing with spring onion circles which gives a fiery effect:)!!!

Have a colourful week ahead and ciao all soon!

ChavaLikaayi Maatvadi Palya/Guar or Cluster Beans dry curry

2009-10-27T20:12:00.003Z

Our London trip is always a resultant of many yummy south Indian veggies that we are deprived off here. Yes you have guessed it right. We shop veg like crazy – shaamegedde, tondekayi, menthya soppu, seemebadnekayi, chavalikayi, maavinakayi etc. Many a times I get teased as, I go to London to shop vegetables :-p. Well, I feel we value a thing when it is not amongst usJ.

So this week’s playa is also from London chavaLikaayi ;). ChavaLikaayi/Gorikaayi is also known as guar in hindi or cluster beans in English is a very nutritious vegetable. They are rich in proteins and carbohydrates. I recently came to know that it also produces gum and this guar gum is used as a thickening agent in ice creams, dairy products etc

I think this vegetable is used all over India in fried, steamed or boiled forms. The style of curry that I would be presenting today is a traditional one carried on from grandmas but ofcourse done in a modern way using a grinder instead of pestle & mortal :d. It’s a dry curry, I really wonder what the word ‘maatvadi’ means? Will update this post once I find it J. The combination of chapattis and chavaLikaayi maatvadi playa is a complete protein meal! Here’s what you have to do to achieve good results ;)

Ingredients

ChavaLikaayi/Guar/Cluster beans – 250gms (washed wiped and cut into 1/2inch pieces)

Oil – 2tbspn

Mustard seeds – 1tspn

Kadale beLe/Chanadal – 1tspn

Uddina beLe/Urad dal – 2tspn

Cumin seeds – 1tspn

Turmeric – ½tspn

Asafoetida – 1/4tspn

Lemon juice – 1tspn

For grinding

Dried red chillies – 1 (for medium spice)

Red chilli powder – 4tspn

Chanadal/KadalebeLe soaked in water for 2hrs and drained – 1/2cup

Freshly grated coconut – 1/3 cup

Coriander leaves

Method

Grind the soaked dal along with red chilli powder, salt, red chillies, coconut and coriander leaves into a coarse paste.
Next heat oil in a pan or a kadai and add mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter. Then add the chana dal, urad dal, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, and asafoetida and lastly add chavaLikaayi/cluster beans. Sprinkle some water and cook.
Now add the ground paste along with some salt to the pan and mix well. Keep on low flame for around 15min & cook or till the dal is cooked. Add some amount of oil if required and keep stirring so that it doesn’t catch the bottom. Once both the masala and the beans have blended well, it’s time to take off from the heat.
Mix in the lemon juice & let it cool. Wonderfully tasting dry playa is ready to be served!!!

Serving Suggestions: ChavaLikaayi maatvadi playa can be served with chapathis or even makes a good combo with hot rice + ghee + some fried items like sandige, happala (papad). It can also be served as a side dish with rice + tomato saaru/rasam!

Variations: Cluster beans can be replaced with chopped Menthya soppu/fresh methi leaves. Whenever we make this menthya soppina maatvadi playa, my MIL prepares yummy stuffed pooris with the left over subji as stuffing; we enjoy them with some pickle and yogurt yum yum J

I am so fond of this dish that I end up eating just this by itself after the first round of meal :-p.

Hope you all enjoy this healthy dish! Ciao sooooooooooooon!!!!

Maavinakaayi Chitraanna/Raw Mango rice

2009-10-22T21:59:00.006+01:00

I was off on family trip to london all these days and subsequently couldn't update abhi-ruchi kitchen, sorry for disappearing abruptly. Our trip also was formed in a whiz. Though it was an adventurous trip we had a good time. We celebrated P’s 2^nd year bday with his favourite thomas tank engine cake and a dinner party @ pizza hut. He was thrilled to see an edible thomas :d. Heres a glimpse of my son’s all time choice – Thomas tank engine!

I call it an adventurous trip because the flights got diverted to Malaga which was the nearest city aiport as the visibility got messed up. And we were taken in an airport authority bus to Malaga airport (which took us almost 1.30hrs drive) from where we continued the journey and reached our destination sometime midnight. The 2.30hrs flight transformed into almost 9hrs flight ufffff.

Even the giant Rock of Gibraltar was completely covered with mist and nothing was visible even just outside the window. Yeah weather plays a vital role here wrt landing/taking off the flights. I guess even pilots are highly skilled.

Now let me tell you more about the Gibraltar airport runway in this post.

Gibraltar airport run way is on a reclaimed land. Its in the proximity of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The run way is also used as a road that connects Gibraltar to Spain. If somebody has to drive from Gibraltar to Spain then they have to cross the runway. Yes it sounds a bit strange but this is how it works. The road traffic is stopped with a signal light when there are aircrafts landing or taking off. The security is excellent here.

The airport is distinct in its own way – probably its 1 of the closest airport to the city, i think its just around 500mts to the city centre J. If we are picking up some guests from the airport, we have the privilege of starting from home, only after we have seen the air craft land, from our balcony ;). Best part is many a times we have even walked down to the airport when we are not in a hurry or do not have much bags with us.

Here are few pics showing flights landing on the runway taken from our balcony. These pics are taken initially when i was crazy about watching every flight landing and take off :d. P is happy to see all modes of transport daily in the evenings – bus-car-bikes, boat, air crafts. He even identifies the airlines now ;)

Recently we had a stunning air show performance by the famous Red Arrows and we were lucky to watch the whole presentation. We did manage to capture few of their tricks in our SLR, heres a peek....

Now coming to my foodie talk, today am presenting an easy way of making Mavinakayi chitraanna or raw mango rice. I am not sure if this is a common method, we just tried something different in a jiffy and liked this recipe. Here goes the procedure for making it.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Raw rice – 1 cup

Raw mango grated – 2 medium sized

Fresh coconut grated – ½ cup

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Chana dal/ kadale beLe – 1tsp

Urad dal/ uddina beLe – 1tsp

Cumin seeds/ jeera – 1tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Asafetida – 1/4tsp

Red chillies – 2 (medium spice, u can adjust according to your spice level)

Groundnut – 3tbspn

Handful of curry leaves

Salt to taste

Oil – 3tbspn

Method

Wash the rice till the water is clear and cook it with 2cups of water in an electric cooker. Once the rice is done spread it on a thali or a large plate and let it cool.
Heat oil in a pan/kadai, add all the tempering ingredients one by one i.e mustard, both the dals/lentils, turmeric powder, asafetida, red chillies, curry leaves. Next add groundnut to this and fry for a min or so till you hear some cracking sound.
Then add the grated raw mango and fry for about 2-3min and turn off the heat.
Lastly add this to the rice along with grated coconut, salt and mix well with your hands.

Mavinakayi chitraanna is ready to be served.

As i have shown in my earlier posts, you can also make mavinakayi chitraanna using chutney or even make this way. You can adopt whichever is easy for you. Any variations are welcome. Hope you all liked this week’s shoot & narration.

Happy reading J!!!

Nougat

2009-10-07T19:19:00.002+01:00

Rachel Allen is 1 of my favourite chefs and I really enjoy watching all her popular series. Her charismatic and natural style makes her interesting to watch. I like her way of cooking, as it’s practical, simple yet delicious. I fell in love with this dish called Nougat while watching her Home Cooking series recently and thought why not give it a shot? And here’s the right week to indulge in yummy treats as I have mentioned in my earlier post ;).

Nougat is a term used to describe variety of traditional goodies made with sugar and roasted nuts. There are two types of nougat i.e. white and brown. White nougat is made with beaten egg whites and is soft and brown nougat is made with caramelized sugar and has a crunchy consistency.

Sugar is heated at different temperature before mixing it with the egg white & nuts. I felt this dish is something similar to Chikki , a traditional Indian sweet made from jaggery syrup and nuts. Here goes the recipe for Nougat

Ingredients

Caster sugar – 450g

Powdered glucose – 225g

Water – 150ml

Egg whites – 2

Rice paper – 8sheets, measuring 6x15cm

Almonds, pistachio nuts roughly chopped and toasted – 150g

Candy thermometer

Method

Add the sugar, powdered glucose and water in a pan on a medium heat and bring it to boil. Keep stirring till the time sugar dissolves. Then reduce to the heat to low and simmer without stirring. Keep on low heat until the mixture reaches 121deg Celsius (Dip a sugar thermometer/candy thermometer to measure this). This might take 10-15min.
Next add the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Once the sugar temperature reaches 110deg Celsius begin whisking the egg whites to stiff peaks in an electric food mixer on a low setting. Once the syrup reaches 121deg, pour a quarter of it on a slow, steady stream into the egg white and continue to whisk.
Immediately return the remaining syrup to heat and keep it on heat without stirring till it reaches 149deg Celsius. All the while continue whisking the egg whites on a slow speed. Egg white is used as a whipping agent here.
Once the syrup reaches the required temperature, pour carefully in the same way as u did earlier into the whisking egg whites. Continue to whisk the egg whites for about 30minutes. By then the mixture would be stiff and halved in the volume. Now the nougat mixture is ready. If the mixture sticks to the sides of the bowl, you can scrap down the sides of the bowl with a spatula dipped in boiling water.
Meanwhile, place half the rice paper at the bottom of a cake tin measuring 25x15cm (you can use any rectangle shallow cake tin).
Stir the nuts into fully whisked nougat mixture and mix well. Pour this mixture into the prepared tin and spread quickly using a spatula dipped in boiling water. Place the remaining sheets of the rice paper on the top to cover and press down to stick.
Allow it to cool and then place in the refrigerator overnight or 4-6hrs until set.
Then remove the block of nougat from the baking tin and cut into fingers. This has to be stored in fridge, wrapped individually in parchment paper or cling film.

We are enjoying these delicious candies after every meal :d. Here’s the first look of Nougat after it is set –

Now that I have given the details about Nougat and share it with you all, I think its time for me to have a bar of Nougat; wont you join me ;)?

Boondi Ladoo

2009-10-05T15:07:00.012+01:00

Its festival season around and the fast approaching celebration is Deepavali/Diwali. Besides, this week is our lil ones bday too & his likes and dislikes are also seasonal: d – so the current trend is towards sweetie :d. So thought why not make few of the luxurious sweets and rejoice the whole week. So here’s a ‘sweet week’ from abhi-ruchi as well this timeJ! Hence I would write few of my real-time tryouts which were winners right away……..

First dish of the week would be Boondi Ladoo i.e. an Indian sweet prepared out of gram flour, flavoured sugar syrup and dry fruits which later are formed into balls.

Making boondi ladoos was a nightmare for me. I had just eaten these ladoos in functions like weddings, naming ceremony or in any sweet meat shops. I never had seen or heard people make these ladoos at home for festivals or any celebrations. I came across this lady describing boondi laddo as such a simple and speedy dish which made me curious to do a trial run @ abhiruchi_kitchen J and here is the result. But yes of course the main part in making Boondi Ladoos is to use the right kind of utensil i.e. the perforated ladle or a grater and the consistency of the sugar syrup. Let me try and explain you the whole episode of making of Boondi Ladoo.

Makes around 16-18 Ladoos of the size you see in the pic below.

Ingredients:

Gram flour/ Besan – 2 Cups

Water – 1cup + I added another 2tbsp of it. You can see the consistency and then a

dd if reqd

Sugar – 3 Cups

Water – 2cups

Ghee – 2tbsp

Cashew – 2tbsp

Raisins – 2tbsp

Cardamom powder/ elachi powder – 1 to 2 tspn

Oil for frying

Perforated ladle/Grater

Candy thermometer (this is the easiest way when 1 cannot make out the exact consistency of the syrup)

Method

Add the water and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. When the syrup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and stir to dissolve the sugar. Then let it simmer until the syrup is about half thread consistency or 220 degrees on the candy thermometer.
Next mix the gram flour with water to make a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter consistency should be slightly thicker than dosa (pan-cake) batter.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
Hold the perforated ladle/grater just 1 to 11/2 inches above the oil with 1 hand and with the other hand pour some of the batter onto the grater/ladle such that the batter covers all of the holes.
The batter will start dropping through the holes into the oil. Drop enough boondi into the oil so that they just cover the surface of the oil in a single layer.
Fry them until the sizzling sound stops and the boondis are slightly gold in colour but not crispy. (When you try to break a boondi between your fingers, it should not crack; it should just squeeze in and comeout)
Pick up the boondis with another slotted spoon and put them directly in the warm sugar syrup.
Repeat the process of making boondi and adding to the syrup with rest of the batter. Make sure you wipe clean the ladle/grater after pouring 1 bath of batter. Let the boondis soak in the sugar syrup for few minutes.
Next add the cardamom powder and dry fruits to the syrup.
Boondis soak most of the sugar syrup. Drain off the excess syrup (not much will be there)
Let them sit until they are warm enough to handle. Remember not to let them cool off completely. If the boondis become cold then it will not be possible to form them into ladoos or balls (sugar will crystallize)

To make Ladoos

Reality struck me when I started making the ladoo’s – the fun part of the whole evening was just about starting…..

First take some of the boondi mixture into your palm with a spoon. Gently squeeze the mixture between both the palms (you can refer the pic here) and give a round ball shape. Whilesqueezing some of the syrup might drip, that’s normal.
As you finish making the ladoos go on keeping them on a plate and continue with the next ladoo. As the ladoos cool to room temperature they will become firm but moist.

You can store these Boondi Ladoos in covered container up to 10days and can be refrigerated up to a month.

A long procedure isn’t it? No wonder that we finished the first part of making boondis and the sugar syrup in less than 30 minutes… binding the ladoos together, took more than an hour ufffff. This surely needs a lot of practice and patience. Ultimately we succeeded doing it hurrayyy!!!

Tip: Making Ladoos is not a 1man show – yes it might not be possible for the 1^st try to do everything alone, you might need a helping hand.

Please note that the sugar syrup is at the right temperature, orelse you will not be able to form the ladoos.

Don’t worry if you are not able to make ladoos, you can still enjoy them as “see boondi”or “sweet boondi” or “meethi boondi”

Enjoy life as it comes J! Have a nice day!!

Saagu/Mixed vegetable in spicy coconut gravy

2009-10-02T13:58:00.008+01:00

Saagu is a traditional dish of Karnataka in which the spices are blended with coconut and cooked with varieties of vegetables. It’s a side dish for poori, chapati or even some hotels in south India serve set dose, rave dose along with sagu.

We have a preference of poori-sagu combo during winters on a cold & wet day for 2 reasons i.e. I don’t get prickly and provoked by the time I finish frying the pooris and we can do a good batting and justice to our stomach too ;).

Chopping veggies are a bit time consuming, as the range has to be cut into small pieces. After this part everything gets ready in a zoom. If your kid gets hang of this masala, I think you can add sagu as 1 of the top dish in your list as it’s a good mixture of vegetables in 1 go.

Here goes my style of making Sagu

Ingredients:

Carrot finely chopped – 1Cup

Cauliflower cut into small florets – 1 Cup

Beans finely chopped – 1 Cup

Potato finely chopped – ½ Cup

Green Peas – ½ Cup

Masala to grind:

Cumin seeds/Jeera – 1tsp

Green chilly – 2 or 3

Ginger – 1inch

Poppy seed /Gasgase/ khus khus – 1tsp (sleep-bringing

poppy ;)…..na don’t worry its just 1sp)

Cinnamon – 1inch piece

Roasted chanadal / Putani/– ¼ Cup

Freshly grated coconut – ½ Cup

Onion – ½ (optional, its just that I am ‘irulli priye’;)

Coriander leaves – ½ bunch

Few leaves of curry leaves

For tempering/tadka

Oil –2 tbsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Method

Grind all the masala ingredients into a fine paste by adding little water and keep aside (this looks like a chutney consistency).
Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Then add turmeric and asafetida.
Next add the vegetables that take more time to cook like carrot and cauliflower mix well and cook for sometime. Then add beans, potato and mix well.
After that, add salt, mix well, cover and cook.
Lastly add green peas (this hardly takes a min or 2 to cook so u can add just before adding the masalas). Add the masala paste to this vegetable mixture, mix together and cook. Add water do your desire consistency and bring it to boil. Stir intermittently and make sure that it doesn’t catch the bottom.

Saagu is ready to be served.

Variations: There’s no hard and fast rule with the vegetables to be used here. You can use vegetable of your choice. Sometimes I do use sweet corn kernels to make sweet & spicy style sagu! My mom uses green leafy vegetables also in sagu but am not sure which 1 in particular will ask her and update here soon.

Serving Suggestions: Poori + Sagu is an ideal combination aging from centuries. It can also be served with chapati or rice or even dosa. We luv eating leftover sagu with mosaru anna or curd rice :d.

I hope you are enjoying my array of cooking. Any suggestions/feedbacks to perk-up abhi-ruchi are always welcome at abhiruchi_kitchen@yahoo.com

Have A Nice Day J!!!

Theplas/Methi parathas/Fenugreek flatbread from Gujarat

2009-09-30T13:59:00.002+01:00

I love Gujarati cuisine for all its sweet-spicy taste. Thepla, khandvi, chhundo, khaman dhokla….wow am drooling :d. Thepla or the methi parathas being the famous are 1 of my favorites. This reminds me of our exciting train journey where we used to carry these yummy thelpas with tomato pickle and plain yogurt – it had its own unique charm adding to theplas. I think it’s quite a common practice for any gujarati to carry theplas for their trips/journey for the basic fact that it has shelf life and tastes equally good as it was on the day of preparation.

Though the fenugreek leaves/methi leaves have a distinct bitter taste, this becomes negligible with rest of the spice mix in this particular recipe. I feel this is a terrific way to get our kids eat the greens. Pizza is a magic word for my son so I slice a thepla into 4quarters (something like a regular pizza) and serve each quarter as a pizza ;). I have heard that in areas where you don’t get methi leaves/fenugreek leaves you could also make it with zucchini, carrot, lauki (though I haven’t tried)

Well, many of them use a mixture of gram flour and wheat flour for preparing this dish but as we are not a big fan of gram flour, I have just used wheat flour and also eliminated the usage of ginger garlic paste as in the standard recipe for making this simple parathas.

Here goes the recipe for 10 theplas approximately….

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 2 cups

Methi leaves/fenugreek leaves finely chopped – 1bunch

Cumin powder/ Jeera powder – 1tsp

Red chilly powder – 1/2tsp

Green chilly finely chopped – 1 or 2

Turmeric powder/haldi – 1/2tsp

Pinch of asafoetida

Salt to taste

Water

Oil/ghee

Method

Put all the ingredients except oil in a large mixing bowl or a thali and mix together adding little water at a time. Knead well so that the ingredients blend well together to make soft and smooth dough.
Cover and keep this finished dough aside for about 20-30min to rest.
Make even size balls from the dough. Very lightly flour the rolling board and roll each ball using a rolling pin into round shape say around 6-7” diameter.
Meanwhile heat the griddle, put the rolled thepla on the griddle and do the first flip when you see tiny bubbles rise on the top surface of the thepla. As soon as you flip, spread some oil/ghee on surface of the thepla. Flip again in about 30sec and drizzle oil/ghee on this surface too. The thepla is done when it’s crispy and golden brown on both the sides.

Hot hot theplas are ready to be served with chhundo and yogurt or with your favourite pickle or chutney J

Variations: You can mix the dough with curd instead of water to make soft parathas.

I would like to thank all my readers for taking interest in reading my blog and appreciating all my cooking trails - this is really encouraging me to tryout new things and post more frequently. Thanks a lot for encouraging me!!!

Will be back with another chatpata recipe soon, till then have a fabulous week ahead!!!

Happy Dasara

2009-09-28T16:45:00.016+01:00

Navaratri and Dasara are festivals celebrated over a period of ten days. The first nine days represent Navaratri festival. As the names itself explains – Nava means nine and ratri means night. Dasara, which is the last day and the tenth day, is also celebrated as Vijayadashami (Vijaya in Sanskrit means Victory). The celebrations begin on the first day of the month of Ashvin month or Ashvayuja masa according to the Hindu calendar.

Navaratri generally falls in the month of October; though the exact date differs from year to year. This is the time when we as kids waited for Dasara holidays ;). Though our holiday would be loaded with home works but still enjoyed the freedom.

Just thinking back why we celebrate Navaratri habba/bombe habba/ Dasara/ Durga Pooja/ Garbha etc. So here are a few, that I have come to know from my elders, books, articles…I hope I will be able to give the same cultural heritage and upbringing to my son as well J

The festival of Dasara is celebrated to worship the goddess Durga who is known in various forms i.e chamundeshwari, kali etc. It is celebrated in various versions as Durga Pooja in Bengal and Orissa and as Dasara and Navaratri in other parts of India, celebrating the victory of good over evil.

In Northern India Ramalila ceremony is observed on the dasara day commemorating the victory of Rama over the demon-king Ravana and the rescue of Sita. Gujarat states celebrates it with Garbha.

In southern India, usually Goddess Durga pooje, Saraswathi pooje, Maranavami or aayudha pooje and Vijayadashami is important. Celebrations include display of godess in various forms and toys for the nine days; hence it’s also called as ‘bombe habba’. I remember as a kid, I along with my mom and grandma’s help used to make playground, zoo, cricket field etc for the bombe habba. This used to be a huge step wise arrangement in our drawing room so the sofas, dining table etc would be moved for a couple of days. People who came to see bombe i.e the toy arrangement were given some sweets or candies called 'bombe baagana'.

During Saraswathi pooje, we worship books to symbolize the goddess of knowledge, on aayudha pooje we worship tools like scissors, knives, vehicles or machinery etc and the celebrations conclude with Vijayadashami on the tenth day of the month. Aarthi is performed daily in the evenings along with devotional songs.

On Vijayadashami day it is said that the Goddess Durga also known as Chamundeshwari killed the demon Mahishasura and got the name as Mahishasuramardhini, this event is said to have taken place near Mysore, city of Karnataka state. So event on this day Mysore dasara is very famous and people from all over the world come to see the celebrations. When the city was a princely state, celebrations on this day would include a gran procession of the king of Mysore in a golden ambari (elephant mounted throne) to banni mantapa (a playground) where he would symbolically cut a shami tree. Now with the integration of the princely states into the union of India, the maharaja is replaced by the idol of Godess Chamundeshwari. Variou artists from different fields like classical music, dance, flute, veena etc display their talent in the mysore palace grounds area. People thong to appreciate these performers.

The story of the Shami tree goes like this – The Pandavas had hid their weapons in a Shami tree when they underwent a period of exile. At the end, they returned to that spot and found their weapons intact and so they worshipped with prayers both the shami tree as well as the Godess Durga, deity of strength.

Meanwhile the kauravas got the news of Pandavas arrival and had invaded that area. Hence Pandavas fought the battle and won the fight. The day that all these events took place has been known as “Vijayadashami”. That’s why even to this day, people exchange shami leaves and wish each other victory in their own projects.

Overall, the main idea of Navaratri is the triumph of good over evil.

Wishing you all victorious in all your endeavors with my Shavige payasa/ Vermicelli pudding.

Ingredients

Shavige/ cut vermicelli – 1/3cup

Few cashews and raisins roasted in 1tbsp ghee

Water – 1/2cup

Sugar – 3tsp

Whole milk – 1cup

Cardamom powder/elachi powder – 1/4tsp

Method

Heat 1tbsp of ghee in a pan. Add vermicelli and roast till light brown in color.
Then add water and cook till soft.
To this add sugar and mix well.
Then add milk and bring it to boil. Keep stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t catch the bottom.
Lastly add the dry fruits and elachi powder and mix well.

Shavige Payasa is ready to be served.

Wishing you all a Happy Dasara!!!

Paneer Bhurji

2009-09-25T14:32:00.013+01:00

Bhurji is a name used for dryish kind of a curry. Egg bhurji (something similar to scrambled eggs but with masalas) being the famous form. For people who don’t eat eggs, it can be substituted with Paneer or Indian cheese. This is a quick recipe and comes handy when you are left with no veggies/ minimal veggies or when you don’t want to get into an elaborate dish. Both egg bhurji and paneer bhurji tastes yummy when made with right masalas. I would like to mention that its 1 of our favorites during cold & wet day!

Here goes my version of Paneer bhurji

Ingredients:

Finely chopped onions – 1cup

Finely chopped tomatoes – 1cup

Finely chopped peppers – 1cup

Ginger grated – inch

Green chillies – 3 or 4

Red chilly powder –1tsp

Garam masala – 1/2tsp

Cumin seeds – 1tsp

Turmeric powder – 1/2tsp

Asafetida – ¼ tsp

Paneer grated – 200gm

Salt to taste

Oil – 2tbsp

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and allow it to splutter. Then add turmeric, asafetida, ginger, green chillies and along with this sauté onions.
Next add peppers and fry for sometime.
Then add tomatoes, salt, red chily powder and garam masala and mix well.
Lastly mix together the grated paneer and simmer for few min.
Garnish with cilantro.

Variation: There’s no hard and fast rule to be followed while making this dish. You can add any vegetables of your choice but remember they need to be finely chopped or else it doesn’t blend well with the paneer or egg. Paneer can be substituted with beaten eggs to make egg bhurji. Masalas also can be altered according to your taste.

Serving suggestion: It can be served with hot chapathis, rotis. Some prefer eating with rice and pickle as accompaniment.

Have a nice weekend!!

Vegetable Burger

2009-09-23T22:47:00.005+01:00

Random is kinda becoming our favorite word nowadays :d. With a bubbly toddler, I feel sticking to the same rigid routine to optimize your time kills your ability to enjoy life. More so, imposing the same patterns on our children like filling their precious weekends with classes etc also makes them feel a bit L. So I felt injecting unpredictability and surprises in our lives brings back our zeal! Small things like taking a totally different route for your daily walk or taking kids to the park/zoo after their school instead of heading straight home makes them happy and am sure ‘happy kids means happy moms’ J.

To add this Vegetable burger also was a random pick during the week, when we got a surprise call that our little master’s seat was confirmed in 1 of the best schools here (am sure pple who have experienced in getting admission to schools realize how we feel about our victory). It was time to treat the lil one & of course ourselves too ;)

Pizza, burger, ice creams, chocolates r few of his desired items. As always I was keen on giving him a healthy supper rather than a chocolate filled pudding.

I had a clever idea to make sure nothing gets wasted so decided to make Veg burger – this has good nourishment & also satisfying too. It isn’t difficult at all. Infact we prefer homemade burgers as they are customized ;).

Just follow the simple steps and fail-safe tips, you will master in no time. Thus we felt sometimes spur-of-the moment decisions makes us feel light rather than having everything mapped out.

Treat your little ones too with this versatile dish.

Ingredients:

Boiled and peeled potato – 1

Boiled and peeled sweet potato –1 (I used this keeping my son in mind, as this wud make it a bit sweet and also healthy)

Capsicum finely chopped – ½

Onions finely chopped – 1

Carrot grated –1

Sweet corn – ½ cup

Ginger grated – 1inch

Green chillies –2

Oil – 2tbspn

Amchoor powder/ dry mango powder – 1tspn

Salt to taste

Bread crumps – ½ cup

Burger buns

Salad – Shredded Iceberg lettuce & peppers, Sliced tomatoes & onions, pickled gherkins

Tomato ketchup

Mayonnaise

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Add green chilles, ginger and sauté the onions.
Next add capsicum, sweet corn and fry for sometime.
Then add carrot, salt and mix well.
Lateron mix boiled potatoes, amchoor powder with rest of the ingredients.Take off the heat and let it cool.
Next add the bread crumps with the above and mix well.
Divide the mixture into 6, then using wet hands shape into burgers/patties.

Heat a non-stick skillet; place the burgers for 5mins on each side, until golden and crisp. You can brush them with slight oil.
Meanwhile, warm or toast the buns.
When the burgers are ready, spread each bun with some of the salad and top with the patties, ketchup and mayonnaise. You could also finish with a drizzle of green chutney or chili sauce.

It was quite impressive for our family, hope it works with you all too!

Happy cooking J

Variations: You could also add green peas, finely chopped green beans or any veg finely chopped for the patties, any masalas that you like. Sauces can also be altered to your choice like English mustard or Mexican salsa etc

Aloo Baingan /Potato and Eggplant curry

2009-09-21T16:07:00.004+01:00

Cooking quick, tasty meals to keep our family happy can be a challenging job. Sometimes all planning and hard work just washes out completely. So I just thought why not try making something spur-of-the-moment, believe me it really worked. It had all the authentic flavors to create that fab, unfussy meal at home. I felt it was a brrrrrriliant idea to liven up quick midweek supper. So why not rustle up this classic curry yourself?

Here goes the procedure for it.

Ingredients:

Purple eggplant /baingan, un-peeled, cut into cubes - 1

Potatoes peeled and cut into cubes -2

Tomatoes cut into cubes -4

Chopped cilantro for garnishing

Oil – 1tbspn

Pinch of asafetida

Cumin seed –1tsp

Chopped green chili – 1 (adjust according to your taste)

Ginger paste –1tsp

Coriander powder/dhania powder – 1tbspn

Turmeric – 1/2tsp

Paprika – 1/2tspn

Salt adjust to taste

Water –2tbsp

Oil to fry

Method:

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Fry the potatoes till they are cooked. Take out potatoes with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel. Fry the eggplant pieces same way.
In a small bowl, mix the shredded ginger, green pepper, coriander powder, paprika, turmeric, and water to make a paste.
Heat the 1 tbspn of oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and asafetida after seeds crack add the spice mixture and stir-fry for a minute or until oil start to separate from the spice mixture.
Add chopped tomatoes stir-fry for a minute.
Add fried potatoes and eggplant mix it gently, let it simmer for three to four minutes. Subji should be not very dry if needed add few spoons of water.
Turn off the heat and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Aloo Baingan is ready to be served.

Serving Suggestions: Roti, naan, chapattis make a good combo with aloo baingan. It can also be served with rice.

Have a nice day :)!

Menthya soppina kalsidanna/ Methi rice/ Fenugreek leaves rice

2009-09-18T08:35:00.007+01:00

Fenugreek is used as both an herb as well as a seed. The fresh leaves are used as greens and the dried ones are used to flavor the dishes (kasuri methi). It can also be sprouted. By nature fenugreek seeds tastes bitter but it has very high amount of nutritional value. It is rich in carbohydrates, proteins, Vitamin A and C, iron, calcium and minerals.

It’s also considered as the most beneficial medicinal herb. Due to the cooling and soothing effects of Fenugreek seeds, they are considered beneficial in skin irritation and inflammation. The other benefits of this herb includes solving digestive disorders, anemia, respiratoryinfections, dandruff, prevents blackheads, pimples, and premature ageing.

It also cures the diabetes and lowers the blood pressure. It’s also a strong stimulator of milk production in lactating mothers.

With all the detailed information I have known about methi, I simply can’t stay away from it here. Yes, another item that we are deprived off here is menthya soppu. Our desire for menthya soppina kalsidanna, methi parota, matvadi palya yum yum…led us to grow menthya soppu or methi leaves in our kitchen garden J. Take a peek of our 1^st yield – its so fresh, green & tender and organically grown with healthy looks J.

So this has become our regular activity of sowing the seeds and wait for about 2-3weeks for th

e yield. Then we enjoy our menthya soppu + alugadde +batani kalsidanna thereafter! I thought of sharing this exceptional recipe with you all; hope you all will like it too. This is a dish that can be made just for a simple lunch/brunch or can be included as a side dish in the habbada oota i.e the festive lunch menu. Its quite common as a lunchbox item as well. Easy to prepare and non messy to eat at work J

Ingredients:

Finely chopped menthya soppu/ methi leaves – 1 cup

Peeled and cubed potatoes – 1

Green Peas – ½ cup

Oil – 2 to 3tbsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Pinch of asafetida

Palyada pudi/ vangibath powder/ annadapudi – 1 to 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Dash of lemon juice

Rice ¾ cup washed and cooked (rice to water ratio should be 1:2)

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Next add cumin seeds, turmeric, asafetida and potato. Fry for sometime.
Next add green peas, mix well and cover and cook.
Then add menthya soppu/methi leaves, salt & cover and cook.
Lastly add bath powder and mix well.
Then add the cooked rice and mix up with a dash of lemon.

Menthya soppina kalsidanna is ready to be served.

Serving Suggestions: You can serve menthya soppina kalsida

nna with some papad, sandige, pickle or tastes good even with some raita.

Menthya sopina kalsidanna and mosaru anna (curd rice) makes an excellent combo for a packed lunch.

Ciao sooooooooooooooonnnnnnnn J!

2009-09-11T09:59:00.004+01:00

We are a nation of snack lovers………..

Our summer trips were getting planned and as customary our trips involve many yummy snacks. This time I decided to make something new, which I haven’t tried earlier! We prefer spicy snacks to sweet dishes. So we concluded that we experiment mucchore in my workshop ;) for our Germany trip.

Mucchore is a savoury snack made in homes of Kannada speaking people. It is something similar to chakkuli with a spicy version. Generally this is made during festivals like krishnajanmaasthami, or during weddings and Aarathi ceremony i.e occasion during 7th month of pregnancy.

Many of them prepare it well in advance for their trips or picnic, as it’s easy to carry and to eat. You can have this anytime anywhere doesn’t require any frills like ketchup/chutneys or any serving dish. This can be stored in airtight containers for months.

Mucchore is one of the snacks that tastes best with evening tea or just a munching for that weak moment around 11.30ish or any other time during the day when one feels they need to exercise their mouth or to satisfy all those tindipotaru‘s (slang in kannada for snack lovers) hunger ;)

I think we are a nation of snack lovers. My mom used to make such snacks like kodbale, chakkuli, muchhore, nippatu, khara sev …and store them in a particular container. Whenever I entered the kitchen I knew its there right in that box and it used to be so tempting….. Peek a boooooo and one gone….so this way without anybodys notice or guilt muchhore enters your stream ;). Am sure this is the general trend and not just with me :)

While returning back from my India trip, by chance I carried along with me the chakkuli oralu or the murukku maker, which made my job easier. I got the victory over mucchore hurraayy!!!But yes credit also goes to my public-spirited mom who shares all the recipes and my supporting husband without whom I couldn’t have done so many trial runs/research for a successful release on abhi-ruchi :)!
Heres the recipe I followed for mucchore
Ingredients:
Akki hittu/Rice flour – 3cups
Putani powder/roasted chanadal – 2cups
Om pudi/Ajwain powder– ½ spoon
Red chilly powder – 2tbspn to 3tbspn
Ghee – 2 tspn
Hot oil – 4tbspn
Salt as per taste
Water for mixing the dough
Oil for deep-frying

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a big plate using little water at a time. The dough consistency should resemble that of chapathi dough (As shown in the picture below)
Fill the chakkuli maker till ¾ with the dough and press to make round shape or your desired shape
Deep fry these in oil on medium flame till golden brown & then remove them on a paper towel
They cool and are ready in a minute with your cuppa tea/coffee.
Make sure you store them in airtight containers only after they are cooled.
You all can pickup few from abhi-ruchi and enjoy with your evening tea ;)!
Have a nice day :)!!!

2009-08-28T07:54:00.003+01:00

Mouthwateringly deliciousssss…..

Gojju is a generic term used in kannada for a 3S dish i.e sweet+sour+spicy ;). We make gojju with varieties of vegetable like okra, peppers, onions, tomato, cucumber gojju etc.
Some vegetables are cooked and some are raw. So the gojjus that are made with raw vegetables are called as hasi gojju.

Today I am sharing maavinakaayi hasi gojju or raw mango hasi gojju. Generally the type of raw mango used in this particular dish is giNimoothi maavinakayi , literally means parrot’s beak raw mango – its called so as the mango is shaped like a beak of a parrot.

My granny was an expert in making this dish, ( belong to such pampered category that I didn’t even bother to ask her anything more about the recipe other than gulping it off ;)).
And now, I tried out my own ratio and luckily it turned out to be lip smacking. This dish is packed full of flavour and a doddle to make when you’re short of time – Yes it can be as quick as making maagi noodles ;).

Ingredients
Raw Mangoes (tastes best if it is giNimooti mavinakayi) – 1
Sarina Pudi/Rasam powder – 1tbspn ( you can add it according to your spice level)
Jaggery – 2tbspn
Salt to taste
For tempering
Oil – 1tbspn
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of asafetida

Procedure

Wash and wipe the raw mangoes clean.
Cut the mangoes into small pieces including their skin but discarding their seed
Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and let it sit for 10-15min.
Make the tempering in a kadai and add this to the mango mixture.
Mix well and ready to be served.

This can be refrigerated upto 15days.

Serving suggestions: It can be served with hot rice, chapatis or dosa.

Have a nice weekend :)!!!

Pani Puri

2009-08-14T07:42:00.005+01:00

C for Chaats

Chaat is a plate of savoury snacks typically served at the roadside stalls or carts in India. Aloo tikkis, bhel puri, dahi puri, pani puri, papdi chaat, sev puri etc come under the Chaat category. Chaat specialty varies from city to city.
Chaats are one of the favorites among all ages. I was ready to eat Bangalore chaats anytime of the day :). I really miss standing in front of those small shops or stalls, where we buy coupons and wait for the vendor to prepare and present you some yummy colorful dish. They are easily accessible and customized to individual’s taste like more/less spicy; add more onions, tomatoes etc. And not to mention the car service that the shops offers – my goodness what a serviceeeee…..
Back to college days where we all were treating on our pocket money so this was the best option for all of us – all the items ranged between Rs.10 to Rs.25/-
We made Panipuri, the easiest amongst the lot last week and this reminded me of the C for chaats made in India.
Panipuri or Gol Gappa or Phuchka consists of a round hollow fried puri/sphere, which is filled with potato, onions, chickpeas and spicy water. Sometime ago I remember reading why it is called as Gol gappa - round crisp puris (gol) is placed in the mouth and eaten at once without many bites(gappa).
Let me take you to a virtual world of panipuris ;)
Typically Panipuris are served in 5-10 quantities, which makes a plate. Some shops also offer panipuris pre-prepared in a whole plate. But the most popular way is to be served 1 at a time from a roadside vendor. The customers hold a small bowl (made of dry leaves) and stand around the vendor’s cart. The server then starts preparing 1 puri at a time and gives 1 to each of them. Here the server has to remember each customer’s preferences eg: sweet panipuri or more filling or more onions etc. He also has to keep a count of how many panipuris each person has had. Thus Panipuri vendors are well known for remembering choices and numbers served. Thus he finishes his servings with a cup of pani.
Thus with your aah..aah or water in your nose off in a zoooooooom – Yes its as simple as it sounds :). What r u waiting for?

Ingredients
For filling
Puris/Gol gappas – 1 Pkt ( that u get in any Indian stores)
Finely chopped onions- 1
Grated carrot – 1
Boiled potatoes with skin peeled and mashed – 1
Finely chopped cilantro
Lemon Juice

Pani/Spicy water
Cilantro – ½ bunch
Mint/ Pudina leaves – ½ qty of cilantro
Cumin seeds – 2tsp
Tamarind – 2 lemons sized balls
Jaggery – double the qty of tamarind
Black salt – 2tsp
Garam masala – 1/2tsp
Green chillies – 3 or 4
Peppercorns – 2
Lemon –1
Onion –1
Preparing Pani : Grind cumin seeds, tamarind, jaggery, black salt, garam masala, green chillies, peppercorns, lemon and onions in a mixie to a fine paste.
Later on add mint and cilantro to the above paste and grind together to a smooth paste.Add this paste to 1litre of water and mix well. Pani is ready to be served

Meeta/Sweet chutney
Tamarind – 1 lemon-sized ball
Jaggery – Thrice the tamarind
Preparing Meeta/ sweet chutney: Soak both jaggery and tamarind separately in warm water for sometime. Squeeze all the juice from the tamarind and mix it with jaggery and bring it to boil and then take off from heat and cool. Sweet chutney is ready.

Method of making Panipuri

Take 5puris and make a hole with your hand in the center.
Fill the puris with boiled potatoes,carrot, onions, cilantro
Top it up with some sweet chutney and fill the puris with pani/spicy water and gulp it at 1 shot.Enjoy your panipuris !

Variations: For the filling you could also add boiled green peas along with potatoes, add sprouts or chickpeas.
You can also chill the pani and serve.

Have a nice weekend!

Vegetable Puffs

2009-07-31T07:47:00.007+01:00

Iyengar Bakeries – the wonder, the splendor…..

Bakeries dot every street of our town i.e. Bangalore, more specifically Iyengar bakeries. Sometimes I really wonder how this orthodox sect got into the making of all the English stuff using eggs etc.
Almost every corner in southern Bangalore has an Iyengar bakery.
Bakery’s specialties are the yummy potato bun, the spicy khara bun, really sweet benne biscuit (butter cookies), artistically arranged dilkhush and dilpasand, tasty veg pups (what they call for puffs) and to end with all this a cup of yellow colored badam milk :)! (Wow am drooling writing all these :-p).
I would like to mention that 1 of my buddy is closely associated with these famous Iyengar Bakeries, hence anything newly introduced in the bakery we would be the tasters ;). I was lucky to see few of the bakery’s daily activities – Got to know that earlier on the bakers used to do most of their jobs manually but now a days machines have taken over them.
As a college student I enjoyed these bakeries as our adda ;). The best time to eat bakery stuff was in the afternoons, when the eatables came hot out of the Iyengar ovens.
Iyengar Bakeries no doubt offers a variety of items but each one of them are carb feast, so better watch out. That’s why the Bangaloreans are spoilt/pampered with all the comforts of toast, puffs, alu bun, nippattu… along with the supporting weather.

Well…even after statying away from Bangalore for the last 7yrs, I get nostalgic thinking about the varieties of options that we have back home. I never bothered to try even knowing what flour was used to bake or make, courtesy darshinis & bakeries – seriously they are God’s Gift for the working couples I feel. But today, the urge to eat those delicacies has forced me to learn all those professionally made dishes, which seem to be so easy and interesting. Best part is you find all the required ingredients here in their best quality, which yield the best result when followed according to the instructions – something similar to the Iyengars :)! One such trail was Vegetable Puffs, which becaಮೇ a hit!( Thanks to 1 of my blogger frnds V)

Here is a peek for the dish –

Ingredients:
Puff pastry sheets (the one that you get in super markets in frozen section)
Boiled potatoes – 11/2 cup
Boiled veggies like finely chopped carrot, beans, and green peas – 11/2 cup (make sure all the moisture is removed from the vegetables using a cloth or a tissue)
Finely chopped onions – ¾ cup
Finely chopped cilantro – ½ cup
Finely chopped green chilly – 3 to 4
Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds powder/ Jeera powder – 1 teaspoon
Red chilly powder – 1teaspoon
Black Pepper powder – 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala – 1teaspoon
Chaat Masala – ½ teaspoon
Sauf – ½ teaspoon
Oil – 1 to 2 Tbsp
Salt to taste

Method
To make the masala :

Heat oil in a pan and add sauf, let it splutter and then add onions and fry till golden brown.
To this add the boiled vegetables, mix well and fry for about 2min.
Lastly add all the masalas, salt and cilantro. Mix well and take off the heat.

To make the Puff :

Keep the puff pastry sheet out from the refrigerator for about 1hour till it is thawed completely. (Or just follow the instructions as mentioned on the box becos it might vary from brand to brand)
Unroll the pastry sheet carefully; cut the sheet into rectangular pieces.
Keep the above-prepared masala on one side of this rectangle; apply a little bit of water on all the four edges of the sheet and pull and cover the other side of the rectangle over the masala and seal it well on all the sides.

Bake on an aluminium sheet over 350 – 450 F for 30min.

Hot hot vegetable puff is ready to be attacked

Enjoy the aroma of the Bakeries at the comfort of your home over the weekend and ciao you all again next week!!!

2009-07-24T08:03:00.003+01:00

Spice up your supper

Food becomes more delicious when it is associated with some good memories. And sometimes each one of them brings back many memories and I enjoy the thoughts that flow in my mind :)! I capture few delicious moments to cherish year after year.
I am presenting one such all time favorite item i.e. Mavinakayi chutney.

I had fallen in luv with this chutney sometime ago at 1 of our relatives place in a small town. It was hot summer afternoon when we were traveling by road to our village, where we stopped over for lunch at S place. Invariably during summer every house in India enjoys the most extensively exploited fruit for its juice, flavour, fragrance and colour . Yes we too enjoyed the BaaLe yele oota (banana leaf) with anna-saaru, payasa, chitra anna (rice-rasam, kheer, lemon rice) and ofcourse last but not the least tantalizing mavinakayi chutney. The hospitality & kindness shown by the hosts made it even tastier.

And now with my parents in-law around we are having a feast here – Kadubu, ambode, payasa, dappa menasinakayi chitraanna, usli, hoLige, mavinakayi chutney, mavinakayi chitraanna……..Yes my mil is an expert in making varieties of mavinakayi chutney which can be had with rice, chapathis, dosa, idli or as a spread also. Last week we all enjoyed the mouthwatering chutney made by her. Again it’s quite precious for us, as we don’t get raw mangoes here, so it was a watchful eating ;).

This mavinakayi chutney is a good choice if you fancy comfort food, but don’t want anything too calorific OR if you want something full of flavour & a doddle to make when you are short of time! All you need to do this is –

Ingredients
Menthya / Fenugreek seeds – 2tspn
Grated raw mangoes (skin peeled) – 2 to 3
Red chillies – 3 or 4
Dry coconut – 150g
Jaggery – 25g
Salt to taste

For tempering
Oil – 2tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Pinch of asafetida
Turmeric – 1/4tsp
Few curry leaves

Method

Dry roast methi seeds and powder it. Dry roast the coconut and grind it along with the methi seeds.
Dry roast red chillies & grind it with the above and keep it aside.
Grind grated raw mangoes, salt and jagerry to paste without using water. To this add the methi-coco-red chillies and grind into a smooth paste. (Depending on the sourness of the mangoes you can adjust the quantity of the jaggery)

To make the tadka/tempering
Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds, asafetida and curry leaves. Take off the heat and then add the turmeric to get a good colour.
Now the most tempting Maavinakayi Chutney is ready to attack.

Serving Suggestions: It tastes best when eaten with hot rice and ghee. It can also be served with chapattis, dosa, idli or even can be used as a spread.

Variations: This chutney can be even made with fresh grated coconut but this is to be used within 24hrs of time.
When made with dry coconut, can be refrigerated upto 10-15days. But make sure you use a clean dry spoon to serve.
Chutney tastes equally good when made with the frozen raw mangoes also.

Have a spicy weekend & Ciao u all again next week !!!!

2009-07-19T16:29:00.001+01:00

2009-07-17T08:01:00.003+01:00

Guilt Free and Gorgeous

If you search I hate Pizza, you will be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually hates pizza – even my 21months old brat lovesssssssssssssss pissssssssssssssaaaaaaaa (that’s how he calls it). During our last vacation in June, every dinner you ask him ‘Yen tinnoNa iga naavu’? (Means what shall we have now?) he used to say pissssssssssssaaaa with the unaltered passion towards it J. He happily uses his tigger fork to finish his Green peas topped Margherita, dancing and singing and giving countless hugs and kisses to mama the day she make him a pissssssssaaaaa - so is the power of Pizza :)! I really sometimes feel saaru anna – mosaru anna (rasam rice and curd rice) also had the look and feel of a Pisssssaaa :-p
Well, yesterday we made Supreme Veggie Pizza with a freshly made base. I am not sure if baking the base @ home is common; we always have made this way and enjoyed the thin crust pizzas. The advantages of making a pizza at home is – the base used here is wheat flour, veggies can be added according to our personal preferences and also the availability in that particular region. You could also have a hold on the fat content and enjoy the pizzaaa. Traditionally the base of the pizza is plain, but it can be seasoned with garlic, herbs or even stuffed with cheese.
We concluded that it was a Restaurant quality & budget price. Ahhh…the pleasure of cooking a menu that’s as good as a meal out and satisfyingly cheaper too. The secret of success is Triple tested recipes, a foolproof time plan and the best ingredients.
So why not make your own delicious pizza with this easy to use mix? I suspect it’ll become a firm favorite with you too!
Here goes the procedure to make your own Pizza

Ingredients
Pizza Base Mix – 1Pkt (I use the 1 that we get in morrisons)
Green Peppers chopped – 1
Red Peppers chopped – ½
Tomatoes chopped – 1
Onions chopped – 1
Green chillies finely chopped – 1
Babycorn slit lengthwise – 4 to 5
Jalapenos as per taste (u can add more if u want to have a spicy pizza)
Handful of sweetcorn kernels
Tomato sauce with herbs (I use napolina sauce)
Mozarella cheese
Lukewarm water

Method

Empty one sachet of pizza base mix into a bowl. Add 100ml of lukewarm water, mix to a smooth dough.
Knead for 5min on a floured surface. Roll dough out into a circle of about 10inch diameter & carefully place it on a baking tray for an Italian style pizza or a greased 8inch cake tin for a deep pan pizza.
Leave in a warm place for 15minutes or until well risen.
Mix all the vegetables in a bowl.
Spread the sauce generously on the base and sprinkle some grated cheese.
Add the toppings & cover it up with some more cheese.
Preheat your oven to 200deg centigrade and carefully slide the pizza base onto the stone and bake for about 15-20min or till cheese melts and turns into golden brownish in colour.

Now ready to eat yummy yummy pizzzzzaaaaaaa

Have a colourful weekend!!!

2009-07-10T07:40:00.006+01:00

Its Barbie time!

When the weather is good, why not try & make the most of it by firing up the barbecue?
BBQ are great fun and ideal for low fat cooking – it encourages the fat to drip away from the food. Even the simple ingredients can be transformed into tasty and interesting dishes. You can make varieties ranging from fish steaks and kebabs to roasted veggies & fruit desserts.
Just a note to be careful & make sure that the food is thoroughly cooked and don’t put yourself at risk near the hot equipment.
Try popping something on the Barbie or under the grill. Last weekend we tried Paneer tikka and it was a sizzling success. So thought of sharing it with everyone :)!

Ingredients:
Paneer – 500g (cut into pieces)
Capsicum – 1 Big, diced
Tomato – 1 Big, diced
Onion- 1 Big, diced

For marinade
1Cup-hung curd
1tbsp ground mint leaves
1tbsp ground cilantro
4 green chillies paste
1tsp lemon juice
2tbsp garlic paste
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric powder
1tsp chat masala powder
1tbsp butter/oil
1medium cucumber
Salt to taste

Method

Cut the Paneer and vegetables into big pieces.
Grind all the ingredients of the marinade together and mix it with the paneer and vegetables and refrigerate for a minimum of 30min.
Pre heat the oven for 200deg.
Pierce the paneer along with vegetables to a skewer and place them in the oven.
Reposition the marinated paneer and vegetables frequently and brush with oil and grill for 30min or till golden brown in colour on all sides.

Paneer tikka is ready to be served with cucumber-tomato salad and green chutney.

Have a sizzling weekend!!!

This dish has been submitted in Durga Pooja Food Festival which you can reach by clicking here

2009-07-03T16:23:00.008+01:00

Delicious as it is…..

Summer – its time for a few more simple pleasures! I think berry fruits are best grown in British climate and the season runs from early June through to late August. And I can’t hold myself back from buying those gorgeous looking strawberries every week :d. Strawberries don’t keep well for long, so its best to eat them as soon as you can ;). Benefit is that they are low in cals and packed full of Vitamin C.

It was beginning of summer and the Keukenhof was full of blossoms. We were amazed to know that, the then uncultivated land was transformed into a magical colourful world of flowers. Keukenhof was celebrating its 60th birthday this year.
The tulip Garden organizes various events throughout its opening time. The day we visited the tulip garden it was Traditional costume festival. We were lucky to get a glimpse of Old couples dressed in the checks dresses & high pointed bonnet and of course the most famous part of their costume was the wooden shoes (Farmers & bulb growers from centuries wear these shoes, as they are cheap, long lasting and safe working shoes).

After taking the amazing ‘Walk the fame’ (where many tulips have been named after famous people like Aishwarya Ray -the famous Indian film star, Ferrari, Donald Duck etc), Hudson river in flowers, painting exhibitions by famous Dutch artists, animal paddock (where my son was so exited to see all the farm animals in real) we reached the mill.
It was one of the famous attractions in the Spring Garden. The history of the mill goes back to 1892 when it was used as a polder draining-mill. Later on it was handed over to keukenhof. The mill has been a part of keukenhof for 52years.
We enjoyed the traditional Dutch folksongs and dance in front of this mill amid varieties of flowers, lovely spring weather of Netherlands and of course the best-grown strawberries :)!.
Keukenhof strawberries are the best ones that I have tasted till date. I am not sure whether they are grown somewhere around or they are exported…but they were so juicy and vibrant, the cream combo made it looks even more elegant.
My today’s recipe reminded me of those yummy strawberries and hence some memories of our Amsterdam trip also. Last but not the least, we felt that it was a daylong trip posing with the flowers :)! I would like to share few of my pictures taken during our outing along with this week’s recipe– The feeling of color blindness was set in once we walked out of the Garden :d

So here’s another no cook delicious recipe for the week – Special Strawberry Sundae!

Ingredients
Strawberries – 280g (100g for the puree, rest few chopped and few halved)
Caster sugar – 2tbsp
Double cream – 100ml
Vanilla ice cream

Method

Whizz 100g of strawberries with caster sugar, push through a fine sieve and discard the seeds.
Whip the double cream to soft peaks; fold in 1/3 of strawberry puree until marbled.
Mix remaining puree with 180g strawberries, chopped.
Layer up scoops of vanilla ice cream, the strawberries and the strawberry cream, then top with the halved strawberries.
That’s it, ready in 10min!

Go on treat yourself with the special strawberry sundae and ciao next week!

2009-06-26T14:30:00.012+01:00

Blissssssss……state of mind!

“FUN AND FRESH AIR ARE GOOD FOR YOU – Its Official :)”. Yep we sniffed some fresh Indian mangoes full of juice, flavor, fragrance and colour during our London trip and managed to flip them in our suitcases :). It was ages that I had tasted ‘maavina hannina seerkarne’ ( similar to mango milkshake but this is not completely pureed in a blender) as we always end up in India during off season :-p and today just a little of this gorgeous treat made me feel I was in heaven!

In context I would like to share a piece of writing that I read few days back about ‘Bliss’. It goes like this….
Learning an instrument, appreciating beautiful surroundings and relishing time with friends could be as important to your mental health as eating fruit and vegetables is to your physical well-being. A team of over 400 eminent scientists have identified 5 key areas that can help people lead happier, more fulfilled lives. Physical activity is high on the list, but the other feel good strategies they identify include learning new things, developing strong relationships, being curious and appreciative of the world around you, and doing things to help others…simple changes that could make all the difference to your state of mind…

Eating good and healthy food also elevates the state of mind, which I experienced in our lunch today. Thus, another quick, easy and no cook recipe i.e maavina hannina seekarne

Ingredients:

Mangoes –2
Fresh whole milk – 1 Cup
Elachi/ cardamom powder – ¼ tspn
Sugar is optional

Method

Wash mango, peel the skin and squeeze the whole mango in hand to collect the pulp into a bowl (Do not completely puree the fruit). Discard the seed what we call it as vaate in Kannada.
Add milk and mix well. Next add cardamom powder and mix well with a spoon.
All Set....It couldn’t be any easier :).

Serving suggestions: This is generally served with chapathis. Some of them like to have as an accompaniment with holige/pooran poli.
You could also blend everything and chill it and serve as a drink.

Get into the spirit of season and enjoy the little essentials in life :) !!!

2009-06-12T09:54:00.004+01:00

Seasonal Celebrations!

One of the delights of this time of the year is the range of fresh fruits and vegetables – bursting with flavour, colour and goodness. So we decided to make the most of British-grown produce with some of the inspirational recipes!
Here goes our experimentation with no-churn ice cream and it was fantastic as it looks and a perfect treat for a hot summer day!
This dish is really quick-easy and no-cook…U don’t require any domestic goddess skills either –But yes just hungry kids (Oh & men!) ;)

Recipe for strawberry ice cream
Serves: 6

225g of strawberries
140g golden caster sugar
100ml dessert wine (if you want to have a boozy feeling you could add 200ml)
500ml tub crème fraiche

Method

Scatter two-thirds of the strawberries into a shallow dish. Sprinkle with 50g of the sugar and the wine, and then leave the fruit to macerate while you whisk the crème fraiche.
Pour the rest of the sugar and crème fraiche into a bowl and whisk until thick.
Use a spatula to fold the strawberries and wine into the cream.
Spoon into a rigid container and freeze for at least 4hrs or until scoopable.
Serve in chilled bowls scattered with the remaining strawberries.

This couldn’t be simpler :) - no machine, no churning at all…
Their season maybe short so linger over them now while they are at their best – Enjoyyyyyyy!

2009-06-05T07:47:00.005+01:00

Traditional dish with a modern twist!

We all have our favorite everyday recipes and these recipes have proven to be as quick – easy – nutritious and comforting family choices. But then they become a little tired and boring after a certain time. So why not cook the same dish, substituting a key ingredient or add some new spices or flavorings. I think none of these costs much – in either time or money and yet can give a whole new dimension to the finished dish and your family a totally new culinary delight :).
Thus, I tried transforming one of our traditional dishes into a modern Indian food. It’s just a delicious combination of sweet veggies with tart pieces of bread with minimal spice – yes it just worked though it may not sound much.

Recipe for quick bread & vegetable stir-fry
Serves: 2

3 slices of bread, lightly toasted until hard but not colored, crusts removed
1tbsp natural yogurt (slightly sour if possible) or you can use Greek yogurt
2tbsp oil
1/4tsp mustard seeds
1 onion, finely sliced
1 potato, peeled and chopped into cubes
1 green chili, chopped or slit
1 carrot, peeled and grated into long shreds
¼ red or white cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 tsp ginger paste
1 or 2 tsp of lemon juice
2tbsp of chopped cilantro

Method

Cut each slice of bread into 9 squares. Brush the yogurt on both sides of the toast and leave on a plate in a single layer to dry off a little.
Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add mustard seeds and wait for it to pop.
Add onion and potato and fry over a moderate heat until golden.
Later add green chili, followed by carrot, cabbage, ginger paste and salt. Fry for 5-6min or until they have wilted.
Stir in the lemon juice and bread and cook for another 2mins. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Variations: You could use wholemeal bread to get a nutty flavor.

Happy Weekend :)!!

2009-05-29T08:03:00.010+01:00

Ideas For The Weekend!

Warm, sunny evenings…are we kidding? May weather is not always that reliable, but atleast we can pretend its summer with this fresh take on Bakes – Felt it was perfect for sharing with friends.
Saturday Night is here…….Get into the spirit of the season and spoil your senses with sun – fresh scents of summer – fun filled activities and ofcourse not to forget rich treats filled with ice creams and tray bakes :)!

I was fascinated with UK TV Food and so decided to try out Very berry chocolate tray bake – It was a dish with ‘Wow’ factor. You’ll need a little of this gorgeous rich treat for dessert, but you will be in heaven!

Well….lastly it is calorific and if you’re not a huge fan of chocolate then it might not be the right choice – Go on forget the cals, it’s the weekend!!!

All you need to make Very Berry chocolate tray bake is :

175g self - raising flour
1/2tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
175g butter, at room temp
3 organic free-range eggs, beaten
2-3 tbsp milk
100g white chocolate, cut into chunks
150g raspberries, defrosted if frozen
2 tbsp cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate, cut into chunks

Makes around 9-10 generous pieces

Method:

Heat oven to 180 degree centigrade. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin ( the baking parchment should come up above the tin).
Sieve flour and baking powder into a bowl, and stir in caster sugar.
Add butter and eggs, and beat together using an electric whisk until the mix is light and falls from the beaters. Here you may add 2-3tbspn of milk to get the right consistency.
Spoon half the mix into another bowl and add the white chocolate and 100g of berries; mix until the berries begin to break, then set aside.
Sift the cocoa powder into the remaining plain mixture, then fold in the dark chocolate chunks.
Spoon the mixtures into the prepared tin, alternating colours.
Drag a fork or skewer through the mix to marble the colours, scatter over the remaining berries and lightly press into the mix.
Bake for 30mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (depends on individual oven so best to be checked with a skewer or a knife)
Leave to cool slightly, remove from the tin and slice into portions.

Very Berry Chocolate Tray Bake is ready to be served

Serving Suggestions: Serve warm with whipped cream.

Enjoy with the Life's little essentials :)! Ciao next week....

2009-05-22T08:09:00.002+01:00

Eat Well…Feel Well…Be an inspiration!!

I don’t know how many of us like Broccoli… It is not a common vegetable in our family, in S.India and I think not many Indian dishes also comprise this nourishing veggie. Well…now it’s become 1 of our regular vegetables here. It isn’t all that bad at all when made colorful and delicious.

Looks may not be as impressive but gathered that it is highly nutritious – yes its jam packed with vitamins and minerals. On Vit side it contains Vitamins B1 (Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), B6, B9 (Folate), Vitamin C and A and on minerals side it contains calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.
Added to this I read somewhere that Broccoli actually contains more Vitamin C than many citrus fruits, it has more calcium than an entire glass of milk and that it's an even richer source of fiber than whole wheat bread. (With a Toddler son in hand I tend to behave like a ‘Typical Mom’ now digging all the nutritional value in every bit I can :d)

After getting to know all of the above information I was bent upon getting broccoli to my kitchen as well. As I have mentioned in my earlier posts that I don’t mind indianising few of the Brit veggie too ;). Likewise I tried making Broccoli chutney and turned out to be a hit :)! We use it as a spread as well.

Recipe for Broccoli chutney with mild spice:
Ingredients:

Broccoli florets - 1 Cup
Garlic Cloves - 1
Green Chilies - 2 or 3 (u can adjust according to your spice req)
Cumin seeds – 1tspn
Mustard seeds-1tsp
A pinch of turmeric
A pinch of asafetida
Chana dal/Bengal gram - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal/Black gram - ½ tsp
Curry Leaves – 5to 6leaves
Salt to taste
4 tbsp Oil

Preparation:
Blanch the broccoli. (Add broccoli to boiling water and boil them for 5 minutes).
Fry Broccoli, green chilies, cumin seeds and garlic for 10 minutes with oil.
Add salt to this and grind it to smooth paste.

For the tempering:
Heat oil in a kadai or pan and add mustard seeds, the grams, turmeric, asafetida and lastly curry leaves and take off the heat.
Now add this to the Chutney and enjoy.

Pls note: If you are using it as a spread then do not add the tempering.

Serving suggestions: We like broccoli chutney as an accompaniment with Dosa, akki rotti, idli, and chapattis and use it as a spread for sandwiches :)!!!

Happy Cooking - Be an inspiration!!!

2009-05-15T10:08:00.004+01:00

The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement !

It was peak summer in Hyderabad (1 of the warmest cities in Andhra Pradesh, India) with all the air conditioners, coolers, fans fixed and running in the houses according to our convenience. We just had 1 window ac at that time which was set in the master bedroom and believe me all our activities were moved to that room during summer. Though Kitchen had good ventilation with ample amount of windows and a door with balcony, it used to get heated up the most as it was facing the east. I used to take breaks and run into the bedroom to get a feeling of Antarctica ;)- the temperature used to get that hot during summers.

On such situation we were to receive some guests. They were quite close to our family though were not in constant touch. But I was not okay with this idea as cooking for only both of us itself was a major task for me then and now with extra people no way…we didn’t have much of a choice though…

Now the guests were elderly people so I had to draw a line of limitations in my cooking keeping in mind about their health conditions and also the religious stuff i.e. No garlic- no onions etc etc. Thankfully we had many options back home…sometimes I really wonder what I would have done if something like that happens here with just a few veggies available… hmmm anyways…

I was nervous because the lady who was coming over was a fabulous cook by herself. And me being a novice had to cook her a scrumptious south Indian meal {which was the toughest for me- cos cooking means something to do with onions was my kinda}. Ran to my live support :d yes mommy and googled her all available options and got the results within a blink of an eye. (After all the experience counts). With her encouraging words I opted for an easy- appealing-low fat menu for my guests that can be had with rice. To give a typical touch I also fried some seeme akki happala (saaboodana papad), aralu sandige (fried item with puffed rice), uppachida menasinakayi (fried item with dried and stuffed green chilies) and ofcourse the curd rice.

All together we enjoyed our lunch watching those kannada soaps sitting in our Antartica ;).
Luckily it turned out great for the 1st try and mainly the guests were contented and also appreciated my effort :). Felt the sense of appreciation as a blend of thankfulness, admiration and approval.

The burning summer with exasperation I had all vanished in a minute when I heard those positive words from my guests. So I feel that the saying “The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement” is very true by itself.

This dish, Majjige huLi or majjige paldhya is one of the traditional dishes of Karnataka and is specific to the palate on any feast. There are selective vegetables each of which add a distinct flavor to this wonderful dish. Only a single vegetable is used in this dish.

Well…Majjige huLi might be compared with Punjabi kadi or gujrathi kadi etc given a choice I know where I would always head towards :d. No doubt the later 2 are distinct in their own way. Whenever we get a chance to relish majjige huLi we skip rest of the menu and just stick to this….thus is our undying loyalty towards ‘Majjige HuLi’ or ‘Majjige Paldhya’.

Here goes my version of Bendekayi Majji HuLi

Serves around 5 to 6

Okra or Bendekayi chopped – 500gms
Mustard seeds – 1teaspoon
Green Chilies – 5
Chopped cilantro – 4-6 tbspoons
Asafetida – ¼ teaspoon
Ginger – 1inch
Cumin seeds – 1teaspoon
½ of fresh grated coconut
Kadale Bele or chana dal soaked in water for about an hour – ½ cup
Buttermilk (traditionally sour buttermilk is used) – 250ml
Salt as per taste
Oil for tempering

Method

Heat oil in a kadai/pan, add mustard seeds & wait for it to splutter. Then add chopped okras and fry on medium heat till the color changes.
Grind green chilies, cilantro, ginger, cumin seeds, coconut, chana dal, and asafetida to a fine paste.
Add this paste to the kadai and add salt as per taste and mix well.
Later add the buttermilk, mix well and bring it to boil.

Majjige HuLi is ready to be served with hot rice!!!

Variations: You can replace okra with one of these boodagumbalakayi (ash gourd), seemebadanekayi, sovthekayi (cucumber), dappa menasinakayi (capsicum) and follow rest of the method as it is.

Happy Weekend :)!!!

2009-05-08T08:09:00.003+01:00

Snack attack

I am back from my vacation of colourful world of Tulips to something for bfast-lunch or dinner :)!
Akki Rotti is a speciality of Karnataka. Akki in kannada means rice and rotti is something similar to a thin pancake. It’s generally made as a breakfast item.
Akki rotti is made with rice flour as a main ingredient. Usually akki rotti is made with rice flour mixed with fresh coconut, cumin seeds and some salt. There are varieties of akki rottis made - Avarekalu rotti (hyacinth beans or surti lilva) being the famous and seasonal one holds a good position even to this day.
Akki rotti tastes best when done on a BaaNale (it’s a circular, deep iron vessel similar in shape to a wok). Here as we have a hob where I cannot place a rounded bottom vessel I end up making rottis on a tava or a griddle which tastes equaly good. We enjoy this with chutney pudi + yogurt or just some pickle.
Here goes the procedure for making it…

Makes 6 Akki Rottis

Ingredients

Rice Flour – 2 Cups
Cumin seeds or Jeera – 1tbspn
Chopped onions - 1
Finely chopped Green chillies - 3
Finely chopped coriander leaves – 2 tbspn
Finely chopped curry leaves – 1 tbspn
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Warm water to mix the dough ( I used slightly more than 1 cup )

Method

Take the rice flour in a thali or a big plate, mix together all the other ingredients (excluding oil) with water to make a smooth dough sligthly softer than the chapathi dough.
Now spread a spoon of oil on the griddle, take a lemon sized dough and pat it evenly on the griddle to a thin pan cake. Make few holes on the dough so that you can pour the oil in that & rotti gets cooked consistently.

Keep this griddle on the low to medium heat, drop some oil in the holes and cook till it becomes slightly brown in colour. Turn over the rotti and continue cooking for about a minute or so.
Rotti is ready to be served.

Serving Suggestions: Traditionally rotti is served with coconut chutney, you can serve with any other chutney or just some pickle. We prefer having it with chutney pudi and yogurt.

Variations: You could also make rottis with grated carrot or cucumber, finely chopped methi, dill/eneldo or capsicum, avarekaaLu (hyacinth beans).
Rotti can also be made with ragi which is called as ragi rotti – here instead of rice flour ragi flour is used and all other ingredients remains the same. Generally freshly grated coconut or onions are accompanied to prepare this.

Ciao again next week until then Have a great time!!

2009-04-17T07:33:00.009+01:00

Spur a taste for Life!!!

After a hectic day, fast foods are the best option for dinner item. I think with our changing lifestyles most of the families now prefer food that can be prepared and served quickly for supper, though personally we prefer an Indian fast food to anything else as most of it have veggies and are filling OR sometimes I indianise the western dishes too ;). Our meal style includes variety of items like gojjavalakki (type of poha), mandakki oggarane (puffed rice item), vegetable pasta, veg burgers, cutlets or sometimes just a minestrone soup with garlic bread. Easy to cook and exciting to eat :)! This is 1 such item that we generally prepare for our evening meal – its Pav Bhaji.
Pav Bhaji is a famous maharashtrian food – Mumbai’s Pav Bhaji can set anybody’s taste buds tingling. I first tasted this as a kid in Pune on our visit to my aunt’s place during Summer Vacation & had just luved it :). It is available in most of the metropolitan cities in India and also can be found on the menu of most Indian restaurants abroad.

Pav means bread and Bhaji means the vegetable dish – In simple terms Pav Bhaji consists of a spicy vegetable mix in tomato gravy with bread, garnished with cilantro+ finely chopped raw onions+ lemon juice.

I am sure there are varieties of versions of Pav Bhaji prepared in the same family with different tastes.

Commercially bhaji is made on a flat pan called tava and mixing and mashing of the bhaji is done with a masher rather than a ladle. Then the gravy is allowed to simmer on the pan, this is served hot with a dollop of butter on the top. Pav is also roasted on the same tava with sufficient butter and masala.

My style of preparing Pav Bhaji @ home is here –

Serves 2-3
Spice Level – Mild spicy

Ingredients:
For the Pav:
6 Pav or white soft rolls
Butter – 3 tbsp

For the Bhaji:
Tomatoes - 2
Onions – 2 (1for the puree, 1for sauté)
Finely chopped capsicum -1/2
Green Peas -1/3 cup
Sweet corn - 1/3cup
Finely chopped cauliflower + beans = 1cup
Boiled & mashed potato -1medium size
Butter-2 tbspn
Giner garlic paste- 1tspn
Turmeric (haldi) – ½ tspn
Pinch of asafetida
Pav bhaji masala -1tbspn
Red chilly powder - 1tspn(i prefer using kashmiri mirch as it gives out good color)

For garnishing:
Cilantro – 1tb spn
Lemon – 2 wedges
Finely chopped onion -1

Preparation of Bhaji:

Heat butter in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste, haldi, hing and sauté the chopped onions on a low-medium heat.
Later add chopped capsicum and fry for about 2min.
Next add rest of the vegetables, mix well and cook till tender.
Meanwhile blend tomatoes and onions into a smooth puree and keep aside.
Blend in this puree and mashed potatoes in the pan mixture and cook for about 7-10min on low-medium flame. You can add some water to get the desired consistency (Make sure the mixture doesn’t catch the bottom, keep stirring occasionally).
Using a masher, mash the vegetables slightly. I prefer to have some chunks so I don’t mash it completely.
Then add salt, pav bhaji masala and red chilly powder. Mix well and cook for another 5min or so. Lastly garnish with raw onions + cilantro + lemon juice.
Roasting Pav:
Slit open the pav, apply butter in the inside portion of the pav and roast both sides on the hot skillet till golden brown.

Serving Suggestion:
Serve Pav Bhaji in a plate, bhaji topped with finely chopped raw onions – cilantro, lemon juice and dollop of butter!

Variations:
My SIL, who also enjoys experimenting food suggested that while roasting Pav, you could also add a teaspoon of pav bhaji masala to the melted butter and roast the pav for a spicy flavor.
Outside India it might not be easy to get Pav, in that case you can substitute with white soft rolls or dinner rolls or any other bread.
Generally the bhaji gets excess and enters the fridge for leftovers day – It tastes best when heated the next day and served with rotis or chapattis for a change!

Thus we enjoy Pav Bhaji as a satisfying meal, hope you would do the same. Feel free to suggest any variations or tips or your versions too!

This recipe has been submitted in the Event 'Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods'

2009-04-10T08:50:00.013+01:00

Eat gorgeous & Feel gorgeous :)!!!

My college days were excellent period. Apart from traveling in those heavily crowded BMTC buses…Life was fantastic while we 4 friends sat on a bench chatting, sharing our churmuri packets!

Snacks were available just outside our college gate. Those who have been in B’lore can vouch for a churmuri Gadi/Tela/stall in front of almost every college. And these stalls used to have varieties of snacks like churmuri, tomato masala, bele masala, pineapple masala, nippat masala, sovthekayi masala…that were not available in any of the big shops or restaurants. There was one such Gadi just outside our college gate and an elderly man used to make these snacks so we called it 'Thatha’s Gadi' (thatha in kannada means grandpa). But now heard that he has retired & subsequently his son takes over.

I used to try making few of these at home in the company of my mom & granny and also had the churmuri in the same paper cone (to get that gadi effect ;)) but was never convinced to the Gadi level :d. I always felt that the Thatha used some top secret concoction for his delicious dishes which once our tutor in the class joked about it as, it was his sweat and the hands that he dips in water and the cloth that he uses to wipe his hands bla bla bla. But nothing stopped us 4girls from having those chatpata snacks. Everybody in our class used to tease us saying that we better keep an attendance book near the Thatha’s Gadi also :-p

Chats are one of my favorite snacks, which I can have anytime and every time. I miss those chats I used to have at Bangalore - I tell myself that these are healthy snacks with no oil, no potatoes so that I continue eating them: d. Here goes my simple easy to make 1 plate of nutritious snack.

Tomato Masala

Ingredients

Tomato sliced in round - 1

Onion: 1 small sized finely chopped

Carrot: 1 small grated

Tamarind paste: 1 tbspn (this is a paste of tamarind pulp+jaggery boiled together and cooled)

Green Chutney: 1 tbspn (this is a paste of coriander+green chillies+lemon juice+ginger+cumin seeds+sugar+oil+asafetida+salt)

Lemon juice: 1 tbspn

Sev/fried-spicy groundnut (widely known as congress kadalekaayi beeja): 1/2 cup

Chat masala: 1 tsp

Cilantro: for garnishing

Puffed rice/murmura – 1/4 cup S

Salt to taste

Method:

Mix chopped onions and grated carrot and keep it in a plate before starting the dish.
Primarily, layer the tomato slices with green chutney and tamarind chutney. {Refer the below pic}
Then place some of carrot+onion mixture on each slice. Now sprinkle some salt, chat masala (if req you can add some red chilli powder also) & crown it with sev or any other mixture and cilantro
Finally garnish with puffed rice and dash of lemon juice.

Tomato Masala

And now its time for the faithful to celebrate resurrection of the Savior – Enjoy Easter with chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs….Happy Holidays :)!!

This recipe has been submitted in the Event 'Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods'

2009-04-03T07:39:00.003+01:00

‘Appetizing, Delicious and completely irresistible – As good as it looks’

Lets take a break from elaborate scrumptious meals to our daily routine quick food :).

Paneer (indian cottage cheese) is very precious for me here in Gibraltar. (Only 1 Store gets it for the whole population). Whenever I find those boxes in the aisle, I just grab to pile them up in my freezer :d. And am forced to do this without any consideration, as I am not good at making paneer at home; though sometimes I do have succeeded in it but the shape and the looks of home made paneer is not so attractive as the commercial one :d {well…sometimes I do get tagged as ‘obsessively organized’ with such childish thoughts :d}

Being vegetarians, paneer forms a very good source of proteins for us. I also use it when I am left with no veggies :d. You can make this dish for a festive five-course affair or just a casual meal for two. It’s an effortless-minimal/basic veggie tasty recipe.
Any guesses on this paneer dish…yes its mouthwatering ‘Mutter Paneer’.

I have this habit of browsing the net for recipes, and I found this particular one quite sometime back which now has become 1 of my patent dishes. Till date all my friends and family members admire this ;) including my little explorer. But for him I make a variation by adding ‘palyada pudi’ (1 of the masalas that kannadigas use) as we don’t have the practise of giving young kids strong masalas.
Here goes the ingredients and method for Mutter Paneer.

Serves 2 to 3 people

Spice Level: Mild spicy

Ingredients

Boiled green peas - 2 cups
Butter - 3tspn
Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1tspn
Chopped onion – 1
Chopped Tomatoes – 3
Cardamom – 1
Cloves – 2
Coriander powder – 1tsp
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Garam masala – 1/2tsp
Beaten curds – ¼ cup
Salt to taste
Fried paneer cubes or paneer soaked in warm water for 15min and then cut into cubes – 1 cup

Method

Blend onions, ginger garlic paste, cardamom, cloves, and tomatoes into a smooth paste.
Heat butter in a pan, add cumin seeds and allow it to splutter. Add turmeric, ground paste and cook until light brown on low-medium heat. Mix little water if required.
Add curds while continuously stirring. Then add the dry powders, boiled peas and salt and bring it to boil for 10min.
Add Paneer and simmer for 5-6min. Mouthwatering Mutter Paneer is ready!!

Serving Suggestions: Mutter Paneer tastes great with Roti, Chapatis, Naan and also Jeera rice (Cumin flavored Basmati rice)

Tip: Soaking paneer in warm water makes it soft.

Enjoy your weekend and see you all next friday!!!

2009-03-27T07:51:00.008Z

Ugadi – A New Beginning!!!

“Yuga YugAdi KaLedaru,

YugAdi MaraLi Baruthide

Hosa Varushake, Hosa Harushava

Hosathu Hosathu Tarutide..."

This is part of a famous kannada song of Yugadi by D.R. Bendre (1 of the Jnanapeeth Award winning kannada poet). Meaning of the song is something like this…. “Ages after ages, Yugadi keeps on coming…bringing with it new joy of the New Year…”

Ugadi = Yuga (era) + aadi (beginning), the beginning of an era. The festival marks the New Year day for the people of southern India. Also I think the arrival of spring with new life in flowers-fruits in some way symbolically marks the beginning of existence.

If I remember back home, Ugadi starts with the shopping season much before the actual day of the festival – people throng to markets to buy new clothes, flowers, and sweets and of course home appliances on sale, attractive advts and offers…really captivating!

Ugadi is celebrated as a family event jointly at mom’s place –> all my uncle-aunt’s families get together @ our place to celebrate the festival.
On the actual day of the festival, my aunt used to start off with the main door decorated with fresh mango leaves + neem leaves tied as string (thorana) and the front yards decorated with adorable colorful rangolis (row of colours drawn with finely ground white powder or some colors). Then comes the Abhyanga, where my sis and myself would have been given strict instructions the previsous day itself by my dad to wakeup early in the morning and finish off with a well oiled hair wash and be ready for the Pooja. (We both managed to please our dad :d). Meanwhile the Pooja room’s shining black granite floor would be wiped, rangolied, with all the pooja items arranged for my dad to start off the Pooja. On Ugadi the ‘Panchanga’ (religious almanac) is also kept along with other Gods and worshiped. I remember my dad used to do the pooja with his reference book beside, stumbling on verses and my proud granny being the only spectator of her son and daughter–in-law. Bet you she had all the zeal to stand there and watch the ‘devarapooje’ for almost 1hour and also help my mom in the cooking even at the age of 80. A silver thali with 5 small silver cups consisting of Panchamrata i.e the milk- banana-sugar- honey-mosaru-, 5 varities of fruits, coconut along with its water and the key item of the day i.e. the combo of beevu-bella (literally means neem-jaggery, the combo wud comprise of tender leaves-flowers of neem and jaggery) would be ready for Naivedyam.

‘Bevu(bitterness)+bella(sweetness)’ mixture signifies the fact that our life is a combination of happy and sorrow events and both should be accepted equally. Later during the day this mixture is offered to the known acquaintances.
I simply loved this scene of our Pooja Room with dazzling deepas (lamps) + colorful rangolis and the smell of jasmine flowers.

After the Gods Naivedyam comes our Naivedyam :-p. As my dad gives a finishing touches to the pooja my mom equally would be ready with ‘Habbada Oota’ i.e. the festival food, with a popular menu followed in Karnataka i.e kosambri, bisibelebath, Gasagase payasa (khus khus), hoLige, ambode…to name a few.

In the Evening Panchanga Shravana or listening to the Hindu astrological calendar (yearly calendar) is also an important event of the day. Typically, this happens in a temple with an elderly person or a well-learned scholar refers to the Panchanga pertaining to the coming year (this year it is ‘Virodhi’ samvatsara) and makes a general blessing to all the people present in the gathering. This evokes a scenario where we all used to be infront of the ‘idiot box’ for my granny to pass a standard dialogue: lately with changing times, advent of TV has made people to just switch it on to watch the broadcast of ‘Panchanga Shravana’ recitation at the comfort of their homes :d

Ugadi celebrations also include literary discussions, poetry recitations and also authors being recognized with awards that are conducted at various cultural halls. The best was ‘Harate mallara haasyotsava’ (a humor program televised) munching on hot hot ambodes with tea in the evening Yuuuummmmyyyy :)!

For me now in UK, becomes a vital part, as I would have to inculcate our Indian tradition and culture in my son – it makes me more vigilant and custom bound :). So we did try making the scene something similar to the one mentioned above with the available resources but I think we would be infront of ‘Youtube’ for ‘Panchanga Shravana’ rather than Television ;) {Wish my granny was here to dialogue on this too}

Here goes the recipe for one of the key sweet dishes on this occasion BeLe HoLige or Pooran Poli /Obbattu / Bobbattu in different languages. The recipe I am giving below makes around 20 holiges.

The Making of the HoLige begins with preparing the Hoorna i.e the stuffing
You will need
Togari beLe/Toor dal – 1 ¼ Cup
Kadale beLe/ Chana dal – ¾ Cup
Grated Jaggery – 2 Cups
Cardomom powder – ½ tspn
Water – 4 Cups

Method

Pressure cook both the lentils with water till they are soft. Once the pressure is released, the broth is removed and kept aside. (you can use this broth to make‘hoorna da saaru’ – a nutritious soup)
Add Jaggery to the cooked lentils and mix well and bring it to boil on a low-medium heat.
Now further cook till the mixture thickens and comes to a halwa consistency on low heat as shown in the fig ( you can note that the sides of the vessel starts drying). Make sure you stir the mixture in between as it might catch the bottom.
Next blend cardomom powder to get the additioanl aroma, this constitutes the hoorna.
Take off the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.
Then the stuffing is sieved through a steel utensil made specifically for Hoorna to achieve a smoother consistency. Here I generally grind it in a mixie or a food processor due to the unavailability of the tool.

Next comes preparing the KaNaka i.e the dough
You will need
All purpose flour/ Maida – 1 ½ Cup
Wheat flour – ½ Cup
Pinch of salt
Turmeric – ¼ tspn
Oil – 2Tbspn for mixing and ½ cup for soaking the kanaka

Method
Mix and knead all the ingredients with water to make a smooth dough which is slightly softer than the chapathi dough. Leave this soaked in oil for a few hours.
Keep kneading the dough in between to make it more stretchy. It should be stretchy because HoLige tastes best when the kaNaka(dough) is really thin just to hold the hoorna(stuffing) together, which I feel is the most difficult part.

Now with both hoorna(stuffing) and the kaNaka(dough) HoLige can ge rolled out
Take a small amount of kanaka and pat it to a medium sized circle on your palm.
Place a golf ball size of the hoorna at the centre of this dough and wrap around the hoorna to make a ball ( something similar to what we do for alu paratas) & make sure to close the tip well.
Gently pat to flatten it, then using a rolling pin roll carefully into a large, thin circular pancake shape ( Here I have used 2 thick greased plastic sheets to easen the task – keep the patties in between the sheets and roll it as shown in the fig below).
Meanwhile keep a griddle on medium heat. Transfer the rolled pancake over the hot griddle while reducing the heat to low. Roast it with some ghee, turn over and apply some more ghee. Repeat this till they are golden brownish in color giving out a nice aroma.
HoLige is ready to be eaten now.

These HoLiges can be refrigerated in a air tight container and stored upto 1week or 10days.

Tip : HoLige turns out best when rolled on a greased plantain leaf (baaLe ele). The Plantain leaf is then inverted on the hot griddle, the hoLige tends to adhere to the griddle as it is hot. Using a spatula one of the edge of the hoLige is detained on the griddle, while the plantain leaf is peeled away by hand. This leaves the hoLige on the griddle and thereafter the same procedure is followed as mentioned above.
If the HoLiges are refrigerated they might slightly become firm, then you can microwave it for 5-10secs & top it with ghee just before serving.

Serving Suggestions : HoLige itself is quite sweet and often eaten as such. If you want to eat/serve it in a ‘maduve mane ootada’ style (wedding meal stlyle), then top it with a spoonful of ghee and a cup of warm milk.
Some prefer to eat hoLige with ‘mavina haNNina seekarne’ (squeezed mango pulp+milk+cardomom powder).
People with sweet tooth can top it with some castor sugar and warm milk.

Whether you celebrate Ugadi or not try out new dishes and let Ugadi bring joy and fame to you all!!

Ugadi Shubhashayagalu! Wishing you all a very happy Ugadi and a bright year ahead!

2009-03-20T08:26:00.003Z

Kosambri or Salad

Typical definition of a Kosambri is a salad made from Bengal gram (kadale beLe) and split Mung bean (hesaru beLe) with some seasoning of mustard seeds + green chilies and garnished with coconut + cilantro +lemon. This is prepared on every auspicious occasion and served primarily before all other dishes.

You can also make kosambri with grated raw vegetables (you can either mix vegetables and lentils or just make it with raw vegetables). Perhaps that’s how it became famous as Indian Salad.
Today’s salad would be Carrot Kosambri, VitA veggie. Carrot kosambri being 1 of my favorites used to be a frequent dish accompanied with anna + tomato saaru (rice+ tomato rasam) @ mom’s place & I adore this combo till date. Probably that was the first dish that I learnt as a student and boasted off my cooking skills ;)…. gradually I realized that carrot kosambri was one of the easiest and fastest dish one could make: -p. And now it’s become our preferred salad during the week/ some quick Indian salad for parties/ after a long tiring journey or just a sudden snacking :)!!!
Here goes the ingredients and procedure for making Carrot Kosambri.

You Need:
Grated Carrot – 1 Cup
Grated coconut – 4 Tbspn
Cilantro – 2 Tbspn
Salt to taste
Lemon juice to taste

For seasoning
Oil – 1 Tbspn
Mustard Seeds – ½ tspn
Split chickpeas OR Kadale beLe/ Chana dal – 1tspn
Black gram OR Uddina beLe/ Urad dal – 1tspn
Pinch of Turmeric
Pinch of Asafetida
Curry Leaves chopped – 1tspn
Green Chilies – 1 (u can adjust according to your spice requirement)

Method:

Take grated carrot in a big bowl.
Heat oil in a kadai or pan. To this add mustard seeds, allow it to splutter then add split chickpeas, black gram, turmeric, and asafetida and lastly add curry leaves and green chilies. Mix well and turn off the heat.
Add this seasoning to the grated carrot; mix well with some salt and grated coconut.
You can give finishing touches with a dash of lemon juice and lots of Cilantro.
Carrot kosambri is ready to be relished. Yep it was as fast as u read this procedure….go on
Note: The above picture that I have posted has both the traditional kosambris and the carrot kosambri.

Serving Suggestions: You can serve as a salad or a side dish with phulkas/chapattis. Tastes best with rice and rasam combo.

Variations:
You can replace grated carrot with grated beetroot, sweet corn kernels or finely chopped cucumber.
Try replacing grated coconut with coarsely crushed putani or hurgadle to get a crunchy effect.
Few of them like to mix pre soaked and drained lentils to the veggies to increase the nutritional value.

Hope you all like this simple nourishing recipe. Looking forward to welcome the ‘Hosa Varusha’ (New year) with more and more delectable recipes and memories :)!
Till then have a Gr8 week ahead.

This dish has been submitted in the Durga Puja Food Festival which you can reach by clicking here

2009-03-13T08:22:00.007Z

Sandige Huli/Lentil dumplings in tangy gravy

Sandige huLi reminds me of my cousin’s wedding held in Bangalore recently. The excitement of all cousins getting together under one roof after many days was a good feeling :). Coming from a family with traditional values, was lucky to get a glimpse of conventional kannadiga wedding with a deliciously mouthwatering vegetarian dishes :)! {highlight of the wedding:-p}.

Sandige here refers to dumplings and huLi means a spicy lentil preparation. Sandige huLi typically is prepared on the Devara Samaradhane or Naandi Day (Custom followed to ensure the Blessings of God so that the marriage takes place without any interruptions) of the wedding ceremony. Still many families do follow the authentic dishes being prepared and served during particular occasions like the one I have mentioned above.

Here let me try and explain the scene of our Maduve mane oota (wedding meal)….

A traditional Kannadiga Oota (Kannadiga meal) comprises of the following dishes in the order specified and is served on a banana leaf : 2 types of Kosambari ( protein rich salad), Pickle, 2Palya( vegetables), Gojju(vegetable or fruit preparation with some tamarind and palm sugar and some spice), Raita, Payasa (Kheer), Thovve (yellow dal), Chitranna (lemon rice), Uddina Happala (urad dal papad) Rice and Ghee. After serving the Ghee one may start your meal. Yes, it is a tradition to start your meal with a dessert i.e Paaysa.
Next follows the series of soup like dishes such as Saaru (widely known as rasam), Majjige Huli(vegetable preparation with yogurt and chana dal), sandige huli (lenthil dumplings in tangy gravy) which is eaten with hot rice. Gojju or raita is served next; two or three desserts are served; fried dishes such as Aambode( fried dal item) or Bonda are served next. The meal ends with a serving of curd rice.

Well…am sure you guys must be drooling hehehe…will try and give you a few of our maduve mane (wedding meal) recipes of my version during the coming weeks. My cooking also would be experimental and may not be as perfect as our professional adige avaru i.e the cook :-p. Now the first recipe from me would be Sandige huLi ( lentil dumplings in a tangy gravy) again recipe I got googling my mom :d

Ingredients
For making the sandige (dumplings) : Makes around 15 dumplings depending on the size

Togari beLe/ Toor dal – ¾ cup
KadaLe beLe/Chana dal – 3/4cup {** ¼ cup of both the dals together would be used for the gojju or tangy gravy}
Fresh grated coconut – ¼ cup
Asafetida – pinch
Curry leaves – 4 strands of leaves
Cilantro – ¼ cup
Green Chillies – 3 to 4 ( medium spice)
Ginger – 1tbspn
Salt to taste

For making the Gojju/ tangy gravy

Tamarind – ½ cup of raw tamarind ( extract the juice by soaking in water)
Palm Sugar – ¾ to 1cup ( depending on the tanginess of the tamarind)
Fresh grated coconut –½ cup for the gojju
Mustard seeds – ¼ tspn
Asafetida – pinch
Cilantro – ¼ cup
Dried red Chillies – 4 to 5 (medium spice)
Togari beLe + kadaLe beLe – ¼ cup **
Salt to taste

For Tempering

Oil – 4tspns
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tspn
Pinch of asafetida

Method

Making of Dumplings :

Soak togari beLe (toor dal) and kadaLe beLe (chana dal) for 3hours. Later drain the water and keep aside. {** here remember to save ¼ cup of lentil for gojju/tangy gravy}.
Grind together both the lentils with green chillies, freshly grated coconut, cilantro, ginger, asafetida and salt to a slightly coarse paste. Note that no water should be added to grind the mixture.
Shape this paste into round dumplings and keep aside.

Making Of Gojju/tangy gravy:

Grind the lentils kept aside earlier along with dried red chillies, mustard seeds, freshly grated coconut, cilantro, asafetida and salt to a fine paste.
Mix this paste into the extracted tamarind juice. To this add palm sugar and salt.
Now bring this gravy to boil on low-medium flame. You can add little water if required.
Later on reduce the heat to low and add the prepared dumplings to this gravy slowly. The dumplings settle at the bottom as you drop them.
Let the dumplings be cooked well. (Note that when the dumplings are cooked they tend to float up – this is the indication that they are cooked).
Once this is done, heat oil in a pan and make tempering with mustard seeds and asafetida and add it to the Sandige huLi/ lentil dumplings in tangy gravy.
Now the Sandige huLi/ lentil dumplings in tangy gravy is ready to be served with hot rice and home made ghee :).

Hope the method is clear and created a scene of Maduve Mane Oota yuuuuuuuummmmmmmmyyyyyyyy……..though for me here Sandige huLi tasted gr8 on porcelain plates over BaaLe Ele i.e the banana leaf.
Not to forget that again it’s a wholesome meal with high levels of protiens which makes a well balanced human food!!
Ciao again with another variety next week…Have a cheerful weekend :)!!

2009-03-06T08:07:00.005Z

Hesaru KaaLu Soppina Palya

The common thing in the Cuisine of four southern states of india is the ‘Rice’ as the staple food. Rice eaten with lenthil, use of dried red chillies, green chilies, fresh coconut, tamarind are quite similar in these states. It might just differ in the spiciness of the food.

Karnataka food is considered to be mildest of the lot. Usage of palm sugar is high when compared to red chillies. Majority of them are vegeterians in Karnataka thus benefit Vegans from every meal of the day :)!

Soppu in kannada means leafy vegetable. Under this comes a wide range like menthya soppu, dantina soppu, sabsige soppu, kotambri soppu etc. Hesaru kaaLu in kannada means green gram or mung bean. So together compounds to HesarukaaLu – Soppina Palya.

Leafy vegetables are naturally low in fat, high in protein, fiber, iron and calcium. Along with this green gram or mung bean forms a good combination for a healthy vegetable side dish what we call as Palya in kannada.

Typically this palya is made with dantina soppu {which is known as Amaranthus in English, thandukkeerai or cerikkirai in Tamil and Thotakoora in telgu} with loads of coconut, huli pudi (something similar to sambar powder), palm sugar.

Yes this recipe again downloaded from my mom’s dairy :-p. But here I deviate from dantu to Spinach ( due to unavailability) and coconut to some onions + tomatoes though I stick to huli pudi and palm sugar (here palm sugar is optional but this is 1 of my desired ingredients that u can find in almost all of my typical recipes :-p)

You can serve this as per your taste either with rice or with chapatis.
Here goes the recipe..

Ingridients:
Spinach – 1 Pkt ( I use the one we get here in pkts which is around 300gms)
Hesaru kaalu/ Mung bean – ½ Cup
Onions finely chopped – 1medium size
Tomatoes finely chopped – 1 medium size
Salt as per taste
Palm Sugar – 1tspn
Huli Pudi or you can replace with Sambar powder – 2tspn ( u can adjust according to your taste)
Ginger grated– 1tspn
Mustard seeds – ½ tspn
Cumin seeds – ½ tspn
Turmeric – ¼ tspn
Pinch of asafetida
Oil – 1Tbspn

Method:

Wash and chop the Spinach finely. Heat oil in a pan on high heat, add mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter and then add cumin seeds, ginger, turmeric, and asafetida.
Now add chopped onions and fry on low-medium heat for sometime.
To this add the hesaru kaaLu/ mung bean and add around 1-2cups of water, cover and cook on medium-high heat. Stir occasionally; add some more water if required and cook until the beans are well done. This might take about 15-20min.
Then add chopped spinach and mix well.
To this add salt, huli pudi or sambar powder, and palm sugar; mix well and cook.
Lastly add chopped tomatoes and further cook for a minute and take off the heat to give a dash of lemon.

Traditional cooking involves cooking the mung bean and spinach with rest of the ingredients and then adding freshly grated coconut at the end.

Hope you all like this recipe. Do let me know the results after you guys try out – any variations in the recipes are also welcome :)!
Ciao next week again, Happy Weekend and lucky us we have a long weekend ;)!!

2009-02-27T07:54:00.005Z

Adai Dosa

My MIL makes sure that she cooks almost all our favorite dishes when we meet i.e. either during our India trip or when they visit us here in UK. She makes varities of dosas, idlis, avalakki and ofcourse kurkul tindis :).

During our last trip to India we were expecting our little son. Me being a fan of variety, need range in anything to everything :). At this stage my taste buds were full of life and I wanted attractive and flavorsome dishes. On the other hand I was keen on maintaining a healthy diet as well. This is the time when amma made those delicious and wholesome dosas called Adai Dosa and I quickly noted down the procedure :)!

I like it as it is quite convenient, and you need not have to wait for fermentation. (For me fermentation plays a major role, as the weather here is too cold). You can refrigerate the remaining dough after you have made the dosas.

Adai Dosa is a form of dosa (dosa is something like a pancake) prepared from the combination of dals and rice. Well…maybe you can call it a spicy dosa or green dosa, which is equally high in protein as my earlier 1 i.e. hesarubele payasa.
Here goes the recipe for Adai Dosa.

Ingredients:
Makes around 20 – 25 Adai dosas depending on the size.

1Cup Hesarubele/ Moong dal
½ Cup Uddinabele/ Urad dal
3/4Cup Togaribele/ Toor dal
3/4Cup Kadalebele/ Chana dal
1Cup Rice
Fenugreek seeds – 1tspn
Asafoetida – 1/4tspn
Curry Leaves – 1/4cup
Salt to taste
Ginger – 1inch
Pudina - 1bunch (this is optional)
Cilantro – ½cup
Dried red chilies – 3 or 4
Oil

Method:

Soak all the dals, rice and fenugreek seeds together in water for 4-5hours or overnight.
Drain the water. Grind this with rest of the ingredients leaving oil and salt to make a smooth batter. While blending, add few spoons of water.
Add salt to the batter and mix. Add water as needed. (Actual consistency of the batter should be slighty thicker than the dosa dough. As this is made thicker and crispier than dosa. But if you want to make it thiner and crispier add more water).
Use a non-stick flat skillet on a medium-high heat.
Next pour about 1 cup or large spoon full of batter over center of the skillet and spread uniformly with the back of the spoon. Starting from the center, spiral outwards until it is equally spread.

When batter starts drying, put 1 teaspoon of oil and spread over gently using a spoon. Wait for few seconds flip the dosa with a spatula, just as you would do a pancake.
Let the other side of the dosa cook until golden brown in color.

Serving suggestion: Serve the Adai dosa folded with coconut chutney, tomato chutney, or just with some pickle and plain yogurt.

Variations: Recently 1 of my friends ‘S’gave me an idea of making number Dosa for kids so that they get fascinated in eating, so while trying out for kids you can make dosas in the shapes that your kid likes.

You can also substitue red chillies with green chillies, add cumin seeds…. go on experimenting…. And wait for another healthy recipe from me :)!!

2009-02-20T08:14:00.002Z

Hesarubele Payasa/Moong dal Kheer

Feels proud to be a south Indian – familiar with varieties of dosas, idlis, avalakki, akki rotti etc. Most of them come under healthy dishes that I categorize as less oil and less masalas used.
Both my mom and MIL are south Indian cuisine experts, I was never eager to learn south Indian delicacies from my mom before marriage. Now that we have moved to a place in UK where we don’t have any south Indian restaurants, no traditional south Indian social gathering I mean wedding, namakarana or homas and poojas where u get delicious payasa, chitranna, kosambri, gojjus, maduve mane happala wow many more…. I miss out on all those characteristic authentic south Indian dishes here.
This time with the winter being severe, Flu became our February month’s Family activity :(. So during that time I hunted for Hesarubele payasa and got the recipe.
I felt it’s a very simple and speedy dish. Generally this payasa is prepared during festive season. It provides high quality protein and aided us during those medicinal times. This was a silver lining for us after repeatedly having a boring menu of kattu anna (plain dal in rasam form with some minimal tadka). Yes we had hot steamed idlis with hesaru bele payasa and I was totally impressed with it :). Realisation struck to my mind ‘the importance of Hesarubele payasa and its nutritive value’ that my mom used to tell me always :).

Here goes the components and process for making Hesarubele Payasa.

Components:
Hesarubele/Moong dal – 1/2Cup
Ghee- 1Tbspn
Jaggery – 1/4Cup
Fresh grated coconut – 1/4Cup
Cardamom powder – 1/2tspn
Water – 1Cup
Milk – ½ to 1cup (as desired consistency)
Dry fruits roasted in ghee – cashew, dry grapes

Process:

Roast the hesarubele/moong dal with the ghee in a pan on a medium heat till it gives out a nice aroma and slightly red in color.
Cook dal with water in a pressure cooker. This might become a bit mushy.
Meanwhile grind coconut and jaggery in a mixie to a fine paste.
Add this paste, milk and if required a bit of water to the cooked dal and mix it well and bring it to boil. Make sure you stir it continusouly as it might catch the bottom.
Add the cardamom powder.
Garnish with dry fruits and its ready to be served.

Checkout for another easy and healthy south Indian recipe next Friday, till then have a great week ahead and Happy Shivaratri!!

2009-02-13T13:55:00.005Z

Vegetable Pakoras – An All Time favorite Snack – Perfect For A Rainy Day Or A Cocktail Party!!!

Vegetable Pakoras – kind of fritters, which are yummy with some spice in the batter :). A smack of mint-yogurt dip cools the palate. You can serve with anything u want like sauce, mint chutney, chili sauce etc…. I have tried out with some potatoes, onions, cauliflower, and broccoli. You can also try out with different veggies like sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini etc

Ingredients:

1cup besan (gram flour)
3 tablespoons rice flour (optional- its added to get the crispness)
1 tablespoon of coarsely ground coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1chopped green chilies (u can adjust according to ur taste)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt adjust to taste
3/4 cup of water (Use water as needed)
Oil to fry
Thin slices of – Potato, onions, broccoli, cauliflower as shown in the below picture.

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients together : besan, rice flour, coriander powder, and salt.
Add the water slowly to make a smooth batter – batter consistency should be similar to that of a dosa or a pancake batter.
Next, add the green chilies and cilantro. Mix well.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Dip the vegetable slices in the batter one at a time and drop in the frying pan.
Fry the pakoras in small batches. Fry them until both sides are golden-brown.

Enjoy your crispy delicious Pakoras with a hot cup of chai or as appetizers.

This recipe has been submitted in the Event 'Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods'

2009-02-05T21:07:00.008Z

Baby Corn Masala

How can I miss on my favorite baby corn recipes in my blog? I love trying new recipes and eating new dishes, of course vegetarian. Sometimes I do modify a recipe to my liking.
I was bored making regular dishes with the available vegetables here. Open the fridge to see the same veggies every week, O sometimes it becomes so unexciting to cook, wish we get those avarekalu, tondekayi, shamegedde, boodgumbalakayi…. here too.
Soon I realized I don’t have much of a choice. But yet I wanted to make things interesting u see…so decided to try out my own recipe something tangy and colorful with baby corn and peppers.

Let me not bore u guys with my personal touch in every post ;). So here comes the recipe.

Ingredients

Baby corn- 165gms

Green pepper - 1
Red pepper-1
Ginger garlic paste -1/2tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2tbsp
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of hing
Dhania powder - 1tbsp
Red chili powder (I prefer using Kashmiri mirch powder) - 1/2tbsp
Amchur –1tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice
Coriander leaves finely chopped
Besan-2tbsp {dry roasted on low flame for 2mins or until the raw smell disappears}

Method

Cook the baby corn in pressure cooker or in MW and keep aside. After it has cooled cut baby corn into circles.
Heat oil in a pan on high heat, add cumin seeds and wait for it to crack and then add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, and hing.
To this add both the colors peppers and fry on high flame till the peppers are almost ( but not completely) cooked and then lower to medium heat.
Add the cooked baby corn to this mixture along with salt, dhania powder, red chilly powder and mix well for a min.
Then add besan and mix till it is coated well. Now sprinkle amchur powder, mix it for a min and take off the heat.
Top it with some lemon juice and fresh coriander leaves. Baby corn masala is ready to be served with chapattis.

Enjoyyyy…Will be back next FRI with another new recipe.
Have a colorful weekend!

2009-01-30T22:34:00.004Z

Rasmalai

Bengali cooking is famous for sweets made from cottage cheese or homemade cheese also known as paneer. Every district in Bengal is famous for a special sweet recipe of its own. Sandesh, Rosogolla, Rasmalai, chanar payesh, chum-chum, mishti doi (sweetened curd) are few of the very popular recipes.
K C Das – well known sweetmeat shop famous for its Bengali sweets. As a child I loved eating those mouthwatering rosogollas and mishti doi in the mud pot (that’s how the K C Das packs). I used to collect those empty pots, clean and dry them up for some of my creative works :)!

Here I am going to give the recipe for Rasmalai which I served as a surprise dish during one of the parties and believe me it came out really well for the 1st try.

Rasmalai also pronounced, as Roshomalay in Bengali is a Bengali dish consisting of sugary, cream to yellow colored flattened balls of paneer soaked in creamy saffron flavored milk.

Ingredients for Rasmalai Patties
4 cups milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 1/2 cups water
Pressure cooker

Ingredients for Milk mixture
3 cups of milk
2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar (adjust to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon crushed cardamom
Few strands of saffron
1 tablespoon sliced almonds and pistachios for garnishing

Method
To make Paneer
1. Mix lemon juice in half a cup of hot water and keep aside.
2. Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently making sure milk do not burn on the bottom of the pan.
3. As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice slowly and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.
4. Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth or muslin cloth.
5. Wrap the curd in a muslin cloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.
6. To take out the excess water squeeze the cloth. Taking the right amount of water out of the paneer is the most important part of this recipe.
7. To check if enough water is out of the paneer, take a little piece of paneer on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing the paneer for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
8. If the paneer is too dry, add a few drops of water, using the water squeezed from the paneer.
9. Once the paneer is drained, place on a clean, dry surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until it almost rolls into smooth soft dough.
Soak few strands of saffron in 1/2cup of milk before starting the making of rasmalai so that it gives out good color.

Making the Rasmalai

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.

Mix the sugar and water in a pressure cooker on medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

Add the paneer balls and close the pressure cooker. After the pressure cooker starts steaming, turn the heat to medium and cook for about seven minutes. Make sure the cooker is large enough to accommodate the finished rasgullas, as they will expand to about double the volume while cooking in the syrup!

Turn off the heat and wait for few minutes before opening the pressure cooker (wait until all the pressure is released). Take out the patties from the syrup and squeeze them lightly, and keep aside.

Boil the milk in a frying pan on medium heat until the milk reduces to about 2 cups. Make sure to frequently stir the milk as it may burn easily at the bottom of the pan.

Add the sugar and the Rasmalai patties in milk. Let it cook for few minutes.

Add the cardamom and the saffron milk that was soaked before and mix in. Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios.

Serve the Rasmalai chilled. Yes it’s a bit weighty-dessert but once in a while treats are good ;)!!

This recipe has been submitted in Durga Puja Food festival which you can reach by clicking here.

2009-01-26T19:14:00.009Z

Open Sandwich

The vacation is over and we are back to work, school again, with a demanding routine in place. But still I don’t stop myself from trying the varieties. What’s life without potpourri :)!

Suddenly it was decided to have a potluck at our place and didn’t have much stuff to prepare something interesting. As am quite particular when it comes to cooking and serving didn’t want to just getaway here. Now I wanted an easy-quick-tasty recipe to be the output with the bare minimum inputs :d. So I grabbed my apron & got cooking….tried a dish with some peppers, onions and tomatoes and named it as Open Sandwich :). It became a hit – kids just luv them as they called it Bread Pizza ;) and now it’s one of our accepted Dinner item.
Here goes the recipe for Open Sandwich.

Ingredients

Chopped Bell Peppers (Green, Red, Yellow, Orange) – ½ of each
Chopped Tomatoes – 1
Chopped Onions – 1
Oregano – 1TbSpoon
Frozen sweet corn kernels– ½ to 1cup
Crustless White Bread – 8 Slices
Tomato Sauce with herbs OR any other tomato ketchup
Discovery mozzarella Cheese slices OR mozzarella grated cheese

Method

Preheat oven at the highest and then reduce it to 180deg FAN BAKE
Mix peppers, tomatoes, onions and oregano in a bowl
Place 6 slices of bread on a baking sheet
Apply 1-2 tbspn of tomato sauce on the bread slices with a butter knife
Spread the vegetable mixture evenly over the sauce. Add some sweet corn kernels over the veggie mixture to make it more colourful

Place a cheese slice over this and its ready to go into the oven.
Remember the Oven is Hot Hot Hot.....
Let it cook till the cheese melts or golden brown

Note: You could also add finely chopped green chilies/jalapenos into the Veg mixture provided you are not giving the slices to kids, as it will become spicy for some of the kids to handle.

2009-01-20T21:57:00.009Z

Nippattu

Our Paris trip was finalized within a week’s time. I had to prepare some snacks for our trip what we call kurkul tindi. But with shortage of time had to make something easy, fast, non perishable, easily packable and of course the most important it had to be pleasing to the sense of taste.

Kurkul tindi reminds me of ‘Srinivasa condiments’ well known as ‘Subbammana angadi’ in Gandhi Bazaar (people who have lived in south of bangalore wud definitely be aware of this place). As our family is major fan of kurkul tindi so we are of Subbamana angadi :d. Chakkali, kodbale, avarekalu, and congress kadalekayi wowww and many more mouthwatering snacks are specialities of this angadi. My dad used to always get varieties of fried items and stock them in a box over the fridge. Anybody who comes home was so damn sure that the box would have some kurkul for everybody :).

We were not experts to tryout the varieties of Subbamma’s but were quite capable of trying the easiest amongst the lot. We decided to make Nippattu for our trip.

Nippattu is one of the widely known snacks of Karnataka. It’s a disc shaped crunchy deep fried item. Actually Nippattu is made in different varieties depending on ones taste. I picked on the 1 my mom used to make regularly and found it quite easy and yummy. The main ingredient i.e. the rice flour is mixed with varieties of items like peanuts, hurgadle (roasted Bengal gram dal) etc. They can also be stored for few days in an airtight container.

Ingredients

Rice flour- 1 Cup
All purpose flour or maida – 2 tablespoons
Fine semolina or Chiroti Rave – ½ Cup
Red Chilly Powder – 3 Spoons
Turmeric – ¼ teaspoon
Asafetida – ¼ teaspoon
Sesame seeds or Ellu – 1 teaspoon
Groundnuts + Roasted Bengal gram dal also called putani or hurgadle = 3/4 Cup
Dry coconut grated – 3/4 Cup
Coriander leaves finely chopped – ¼ Cup
Curry Leaves finely chopped – ¼ Cup
Hot oil – 2 Spoons
Ghee – 2 Spoons
Salt as needed
Water as needed
Oil for frying

Method

Dry roast the groundnuts, spread them on a flat plate and rub it with your palms to take their skin off. Coarsely grind this along with roasted Bengal gram dal(hurgadle) in a mixie.
Mix all the ingredients except frying oil. Add the grinded mixture also to this. Hot oil and ghee helps us make the nippattu crispy and crunchy :)!
Add water as needed to make firm dough.
Knead the dough for another minute and divide into equal parts.
Apply some oil to a plastic sheet, place a small ball of the dough and flatten them with your fingers into small discs on plastic sheet.
Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
Fry the discs till they are crispy and both sides are lightly brown. If the Nippattus are fried on high heat, they will be soft.
Nippattu is ready to be served with tea.

What can be better for a freezing weather other than few of these spicy nippattus along with a cup of tea – Just love them! And thus we enjoyed snacking on our nippattu on the top of the Eiffel Tower :)!!!

2009-01-16T20:52:00.007Z

Drop Shortbread

Xmas vacation was interesting with sampling new recipes. With the weather supporting us not to get out of the house made us still fond of trying out new dishes :). We being not so movie freaky guys decided to watch ‘Ghajini’ which had many recommendations.

After Amir Khan’s taare zameen par, everyone had great expectation from Ghajini and I bet Aamir Khan did justice to it. It’s a good actionmovie with hardcore filmi romance with a bunch of songs. Aamir, with his anterograde condition has truly done wonderful when his character is bewildered.

But truly we lost interest in the movie soon as it was too much to digest the overdose of physical violence. And also with Khan pouring out the schoolboy charm at 43, the entire romantic part of the film was so depressingly obvious that it doesn’t work at all, and only served in slowing down the momentum of an action film. Overall we felt the film is impressive in bits, with some terrific sequences, but the romance takes away its thunder. I think both audiences and Aamir seem a little less used to such movies.

Well…its just what we felt about the movie….but people who liked it its your opinion….

Soon we concluded that it’s a film that is not to be enjoyed with mouthful of cola and fistful of popcorns and so moved on to bake the melting cookies. We multi- tasked movie watching and baking and thankfully didn’t mess up things ;)

This recipe I got it from my husband’s friend’s wife :) (long 1 ah…). My husband had all praises for these cookies which once he had tasted when his friend had got them to office and described to me that it was just like our ‘Benne biscuit’. So from then on I was after him to get the recipe for me :). Finally tried it on the Ghajini day but believe me the biscuit was opposite to the violence we saw in the movie. Yes it was tooooooooo soft just dissolved in our mouth.

Now our little taster, yes u guessed it right that was my 15months old toddler, up from his afternoon nap to taste the flowers and butterfly designs I made for him on those lovely cookies. He gulps 3 cookies screaming bikki bikki amma fowo (flowers in his dictionary :)), what more do I need :)?

Here goes the recipe for Drop Shortbread

Ingredients

Cornflour – ½ Cup
Icing Sugar (sift) – ½ Cup
All purpose flour or maida – 1 Cup
Butter at room temperature – 1 Cup

Sliced almonds

Method

Beat butter with an electric blender.
To this add icing sugar, cornflour and flour. Beat for about a min.
Place or drop on a cookie sheet. To get a smooth finish make a small ball and throw it on the cookie sheet. Remember to give spacing between the cookies as it expands while baking.
With a sharp knife make a tic-tac-toe design on the top and place some sliced almonds on each cookie.
Bake it at 170degree centigrade at 10-20min or till slightly brown. (Depends on individual oven so just keep in oven till slightly brown).
And then cool it on a cake cooling rack. The quantity of the cookies depends on the size.

Drop shortbread or as we call benne biscuit is ready to melt in your mouth !!

2009-01-15T21:18:00.009Z

Masala Puri

The most awaited summer holidays have arrived at last :). Free from all the exams, projects, home-works, no more calls from my mom ‘late aayithu YeLe horduu’ - the toughest getting up early in the morning, didn’t even bother to think about the school even once during holidays. I enjoyed the summer holidays the most as the duration would be long and the weather also was gr8 for outings. All our cousins used to meet up at 1 of our uncle’s place where we used to sit and play antakshari, dumb charads, hide&seek, card games etc and of course the post dinner chit chat in the courtyard on the musical swing (there was only 1swing and all of us wanted to sit on that so turn wise we got a chance something similar to a musical chair so the name goes) was the best. Super!! It used to be so funtastic pulling each other legs and proving our smartness by shooting some latest movie dialogues or some advertisement lines :).

Invariably we used to have a feast during our stay at their place. Our all time favorite adda was bandi masala puri. Ofcourse there were many more joints that we liked for their mouthwatering masala dose, akki rotti, bajjis, Gobi manchurian etc, but nothing could beat our old and famous bandi masala puri.

As a youngster with hardly any cooking experience didn’t know much about the ratio and proportion the bandiwala uses for his yummy masala puri but I was very much interested in trying out new dishes at home anything other than what mom makes regularly at home i.e. anna-saaru-palya (though it used to be of the export quality ;). I used to gauge it by just tasting the wonderful puris layered with his spicy peas masala and garnishing (observe him pour the peas masala onto the puris, the style he layers it) that O he must have used this ingredient to get this taste let me also try preparing it at home was my attitude :). The enthu that I used to have before starting the dish wouldn’t last for long as most of the time the dish would turn out to be something else or didn’t taste the same or somewhere something went wrong….
After many tryouts with additions and deletions of the recipe-data I achieved the desired result :).

I would like to post one such recipe today that I tried last weekend which i got from one of my friends and turned out to be a success. Yes it is Masala puri. The quantity I am giving below serves 6-8people. Its very easy-tasty recipe provided you use the below mentioned ingredients with some good planning.

Ingredients
Dry peas (Batani) - 1/2 kg
Small crispy puris or gol guppa (these are available in the market)
Grated carrot - 2
Boiled and mashed potatoes - 1
Chopped Tomatoes – 2
Onions - 2 finely chopped and 1for grinding
Garam Masala – 5 teaspoons
Green chillies - 3or4
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 teaspoon
Coriander chopped -½ cup
Amchur powder – 2teaspoons
Peppercorns - 4or5
Oil - 1 tbsp
Tamarind Chutney
Green Chutney
Thin sev or any other mixture
Chat Masala
Lemon juice
Salt to taste

Method
Soak the dry peas over night. Cook them with some salt and turmeric in a pressure cooker.

Peas masala paste
Grind onion, Ginger garlic paste, one spoon of garam masala, green chillies, peppercorns, coriander, and one cup of the boiled peas to a fine paste.
In a big pan heat some oil. Sauté the above paste for a few minutes till it gives out a nice aroma. Then add the rest of the boiled peas with some salt, amchur powder and 3 spoons of garam masala. Let it boil on a low-medium flame till the paste gets to a thick gravy consistency.
One key tip is the constant boiling of this masala (u must have noticed it on the bandi as well).... If required add little water and start boiling the peas masala at least 15 to 20min before serving the dish.

Now comes the serving part. Actually here the measurement can differ according to your taste.

Crush 5-6 puris in a plate and add some boiled potatoes as shown.

Pour the boiling peas masala liberally covering the puris.

Add chopped tomatoes and onions (quantity as desired)

Put a few spoons of tamarind and green chutney.
Add grated carrot, sprinkle fine sev and dash of lemon if required.
Garnish with coriander leaves and chaat masala.

Serve immediately and enjoyyyyyyyyy.......

This recipe has been submitted in the Event 'Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods'