Baby Potatoes Curry...

When I went for veggie shopping, I spotted small and cute baby potatoes. I knew what I can prepare, so it went straight to my bag.

Clean the potatoes and pressure cook it with 2 whistles, with a pinch of salt, turmeric and oil. We can either peel the potatoes either before or after it cooked

Ingredients:

2 tbspn oil

1 tspn jeera

1 tspn garam masala

1 tspn salt

Blend the below Ingredients:

1 bunch pudina leaves

1/2 bunch coriander leaves

3-4 green chillies

1 md sized onion

1 tbspn ginger garlic paste

Take a kadai, add oil and once it's hot add jeera. Once they crackle, add potatoes and saute them. Add the blended mixture, salt and garam masala and allow it to cook for 10 to 15 mins, in low flame.

Enjoy eating with chapathi or poori.

Matar Paneer..

Deciding on what curry / palya to make with chapati is always a tension.....

With lots of paneer at home, I decided to experiment paneer curry. Just paneer, was a no no...any other vegetable along with paneer, was a big yes...that's where I had my hands of fresh peas..

Ingredients:

1 md cup fresh peas
5-6 cubes paneer, sauted in oil
1 small cup fresh cream
1 tbspn salt
2 tbspn oil
chopped coriander for garnishing

Blend the below ingredients to a fine paste:
1 md sized onion
1 tbspn ginger garlic paste
2 md sized tomatoes
3 green chillies
1/4 tspn turmeric
5-6 cashewnuts

Take a kadai, add oil and once it's hot, add the blended mixture and also add fresh peas and salt. Bring it to a boil and then add the paneer. Mix it completely with the curry. Turn of the flame, add fresh cream, mix slowly. Garnish with chopped coriander

Serve hot with hot chapatis or pooris.

Khara/ Spicy pongal for Sankranthi...

This is generally prepared during Sankranthi.

Ingredients:

1 md cup rice
1 md cup hesar bele
1 md cup avarekallu
1 tbspn jeera
1 tbspn pepper
5 tbspn ghee
1 tbspn salt
1/2 md cup grated coconut
few curry leaves
1 tspn turmuric
5-6 strands of chopped coriander

Wash and pressure cook rice, hesar bele, avare kallu with little jeera and pepper along with turmeric. Now take a kadai, add ghee. Once the ghee melts add jeera, pepper, salt, grated coconut and curry leaves. Add cooked ingredients and mix it thoroughly. Garnish it with coriander and serve hot.

Sweet Pongal for Sankranthi...

I had cooked this for my first Makara Sankranthi festival after marriage and I'm posting the recipes now. Maybe it's too early for the new Sankranthi... 

Spicy and Sweet Pongal is very common for this festival.

Sweet Pongal recipe follows:

 Ingredients:

1 md cup rice

1 md cup hesar bele

4 md cup grated jaggery

cashew, almonds, raisins for garnishing (as desired) 

5 tbspn ghee

3 elachi crushed

3 cloves crushed

2 md cup water

Wash and pressure cook rice and hesar bele together along with 1 elachi and 1 clove. 

Take a kadai and add ghee. Once the ghee melts, add dry fruits and crushed elachi and clove. Now add grated jaggery and also water. Once the jaggery is completely melted, add the cooked rice and hesar bele. 

Mix it throughly and enjoy eating it hot or cold.

Noodles..........

After fried rice, the next day, I cooked noodles.

Ingredients:

Boil water and few drops of oil it it. Now add noodles to it and ensure that the noodles is completely cooked. Now transfer the cooked noodles into cold water for few mins and transfer it to a colander so that excess water is drained out.

Ingredients:

3 tbspn olive oil
1/2 tbspn butter
1 small carrot chopped
2-3 stem of spring onion chopped
2-3 sticks of French beans chopped
1 cup cabbage chopped
1 tspn soya sauce
1 tspn vinegar
1 tspn salt
1 tspn white pepper
1/2 tspn ginger garlic paste

Take a kadai and once it's hot add olive oil. Add ginger garlic paste and all the vegetables. Saute them thoroughly. The vegetables should be crunchy and not completely cooked. Add soya sauce, vinegar, salt and white pepper, keep sautéing while we add noodles to it.

 Enjoy eating it hot...

Fry the Rice....It's Fried Rice...

Cooking our regular cultural dishes at times is boring....I keep trying other cultural recipes as well. This time I wanted to cook fried rice and that was oked by my husband...It''s not that I take his permission each day...but when I want to cook something different either for lunch or dinner, it's better to ask, else I have to cook something else once again.

Ingredients:

1 md cup regular rice cooked and spread across.

3 tbspn olive oil

1/2 tbspn butter

1 small carrot chopped 

3 tbspn fresh peas

2-3 stem of spring onion chopped

2-3 sticks of French beans chopped

1 cup cabbage chopped

1 tspn soya sauce

1 tspn vinegar

1 tspn salt

1 tspn white pepper

1/2 tspn ginger garlic paste

Take a kadai and once it's hot add olive oil. Add ginger garlic paste and all the vegetables. Saute them thoroughly. The vegetables should be crunchy and not completely cooked. Add soya sauce, vinegar, salt and white pepper, keep sautéing while we add rice to it.

 Enjoy eating it hot....

Spring Onion Gojju...

Spring Onion Gojju...

Spring Onions' were seen every where when I went to buy vegetables. The vegetable guy insisted me to buy a bunch and I agreed, without much hesitation. Later while walking home, I kept thinking, what can I cook.

I had seen spring onions used in noodles, fried rice, gobi and baby corn manchurian and that's it. Now where else.

When I reached home, I sorted out the vegetables and kept this right on top, so that it reminds me to cook something each time.

I had used it already in Noodles, Fried rice, Gobi and Baby corn manchurian (will share the recipes) and a small bunch was still remaining.

My mom is just a phone call away and when I told her about spring onion and she quickly shared a nice gojju recipe.

Ingredients:

1 md bunch of chopped spring onion
1/4 cup thick extract of tamarind juice
3-4 curry leaves
salt
1/4 cup grated jaggery
2 tbspn fried white sesame seeds
4 tbspn fried groundnuts
pinch of turmuric
1/2 tspn hing
1 tspn rasam pwdr (mtr rasam pwdr tastes good, but I use what my mom gives it to me)
3 tbspn oil
1 tspn mustard seeds
1/2 cup grated dry coconut (preferably)

Method:

Coarsely grind sesame seeds, groundnuts, hing and dry coconut,

Take a kadai, add oil, once oil is warm, add mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, add curry leaves. Saute them. Now add the chopped spring onions, turmeric and salt. Saute them. Add the tamarind juice, jaggery and rasam pwdr. Bring them to boil in low flame.
Only when they are boiling, add the above grinded mixture and mix them throughly.

Enjoy eating the gojju with hot rice.

Cool the gojju completely and refrigerate for future use.

Gongura leaves se pappu...

If you have eaten meals in Nandhini Hotel (Andhra style), then you would have definitely tasted the pappu they serve, with hot rice and ghee. It's just finger licking good. The first time I had lunch there, I did not hesitate to ask them the recipe.

The guy who was serving us food, was kind enough to get the recipe written for me in Kannada, which I took some time to understand, and prepare it at home.

Gongura leaves is easily available with the soppu vendors, or ask the ones who comes shouting for soppu each morning, in a cycle to get them for you. The stem of the gongura leaves comes in green and maroon color. Take a bunch each.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup togari bele
1/4 cup kadale bele
2 tbspn uddina bele
1/4 cup hesar bele
1 md size tomato chopped
pinch of turmuric
1 tbspn oil
3-4 curry leaves
1 small onion chopped
2 green chillies chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/4 tspn ginger chopped
1 big bunch gongura leaves chopped

Pressure cook the above ingredients, with 1 md cup water. Once it's cooked, transfer it into a kadai. Now, with our hands, gently mix all the ingredients. Add salt and bring it to boil.

For tempering:

Take a kadai, add 1 tbspn ghee, once the ghee melts, add 1 tspn mustard seeds. Once the seeds crackle, turn of the flame, add 1 tspn jeera and hing. Mix them.

Pour the tempered mixture to the pappu and mix.

Serve the pappu with hot rice and ghee.

Dosa Dough se varieties...

My mom makes excellent dosas' and after getting married I really miss eating them.  I can definitely make an attempt to prepare like the way she does and the effort did not go in vain.

My hubby likes paddu (gundapongal) and I knew that it can be prepared using dosa dough. So, the next day's breakfast was also taken care.

When I called my mom, asking for the ratio in adding the ingredients to prepare the dosa dough, I did mention to her that the dough should be sufficient for 3 days for 2 ppl.

1st day.. masala dosa or plain dosa
2nd day...paddu
3rd day..onion dosa.

Don't worry, they will not become sour.

Proportion using the same cup:
4 cups rice
3/4 cup urad dal
1 tbspn kadale bele (md sized onion can also be added)
1/2 tspn methi/ fenugreek seeds
1 cup avalakki/poha


Wash, mix and soak them in the morning. Soak for a min of 8 to 10 hrs. Drain the excess water and grind them with less water. Ensure we have a thick and soft batter.

Note: The above ingredients are basic. We can also add, left over rice and also green pumpkin pulp while grinding. 

I usually dont add salt, because the batter becomes sour for the 2nd and 3rd day use. Urad dal, helps in fermenting the batter naturally. Next day, mix the batter throughly, preferably with our hand.

I take small portions of the batter each time and add required salt to prepare dosas or paddus.

For paddu, we can also add the below ingredients to the batter:

1 md sized onion chopped,
2 chillies chopped,
2-3 strands coriander chopped
1/4 bunch of sapsige soppu (optional)

Mix them throughly and place in paddu kadai and cook.

The same paddu batter can be used to prepare onion dosas, provided we add 1/4 cup chirotti rava and mix it well for soft and crispy onion dosa.

I usually prepare coconut or pudina chutney.

Jeera Pulov with Stuffed paneer chilly

Sundays' as I mentioned earlier, is always special. My hubby reminds me every Sunday morning, without fail, as to what that I'm gonna cook....

Jeera pulov is very simple rice recipe. It's too dull without a chatpata gravy..... As I kept thinking and had a peek inside the fridge, I happened to see the bajji  chillies. So I decided to try a curry out of these chillies, as they not that spicy and at the same time, goes well with the rice as well.

Starting with Jeera Pulov:

1 md cup rice, cooked with 1/2 tbspn jeera and 3-4 curry leaves. This is done, just to get the flavor in the rice. Once the rice is cooked, spread it across, so that they don't stick to each other. Add 3-4 strands of chopped coriander and 2-3 chopped mint leaves.

For tempering/ vagarne:

2 tbspn ghee
3-4 curry leaves
1 1/2 tbspn jeera
salt

Take a kadai and pour ghee to it. Once the ghee is melted, add jeera, curry leaves and salt. Take off the flame and pour it over the rice.

Allow the rice to become warm and then start mixing, else, it's gonna stick to each other and might become a paste.

Now for the Stuffed panner chilly:

Ingredient:
3-4 bajji chillies
100 gm paneer
1 tspn pepper pwdr
1 tspn coriander pwdr
1 tspn amchur pwdr
1 tspn red chilly pwdr
1 tspn salt
1 tspn everest kitchen king masala
1 tspn lemon juice
2-3 strands chopped coriander
2 md sized tomatoes
1 md size onion
2-3 chopped chillies
3 tbspn oil

Method:

Wash and pat dry the chillies. Slit their body, slowly to stuff the paneer mixture into it. If required, remove some seeds within.

In a bowl, take paneer and smash it completely. For this add all the masala pwdr, lemon juice, few coriander leaves and a pinch of salt. Mix them throughly and stuff this paneer mixture inside the chilly slowly. Ensure that the chillies dont break while stuffing. Don't over stuff as well. Because while cooking, the panner will spil out, while the chillies stay empty. Also, ensure that little portion of this paneer mixture is remaining, to add richness to the tomato gravy.

Once the stuffing is done, smear oil, over the chillies and keep it aside. If you feel, you have overstuffed the paneer, then we can take a thread and wrap the over the paneer and chillies.

For the gravy, blend the tomatoes, onion and chillies.

Take a kadai, add oil and the blended mixture. Saute it. Now add the remaining paneer mixture and salt. Place the stuffed paneer-chilly one by one. Give enough place for the chillies, so that they get cooked with the gravy. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Warm up the jeera rice and enjoy eating with the stuffed paneer chilly gravy.

Wafers and Cheeseee dips....

Last time when I had prepared samosa, I had some dough remaining. I kept wondering, what else can be made with it. I thought I'm just gonna fry it in oil and munch it.

The fried wafer tasted very good, but will not go well with any sauce or chutney. That's when I thought I should be preparing a dip, like they serve in pizza outlets, with garlic breads....

Ingredients:

1 md cup maida
1/4 cup chirotti rava
1 tspn om kallu
2 tbspn corn flour
salt
2 tbspn hot oil

Mix the above ingredients and sprinkle water when required to prepare a thick dough.

Roll the dough, like we do for chapathi, cut into any desired shape and deep fry them in oil. Once they turn golden brown, remove them and drain excess oil if any.

Cheese dip:

2 tbspn cheese spread (AMUL has good cheese spreads and they are semi solid)
pinch of salt or can be ignored, as cheese has some salt in them
pinch of pepper
1/4 tspn olive oil (just to loosen the cheese)
crushed thyme and basil (can use dried or fresh leaves)

Mix all of them throughly and enjoy eating with the fried wafers. Serves as a very yummy and lip smacking evening snack.

Samosa....

I had prepared a lot of evening snacks, but samosa was not in the list. I took the recipe from my mom and I prepared it one evening.

Ingredients:

2 md size potatoes, cooked, peeled and smashed

2 md size carrots, chopped
3-4 beans chopped
1 md size knol chopped
5-6 cauliflower florets
1 small cup fresh peas

Cook carrots, beans, florets, knol and peas. Mix with the smashed aloo and add the below ingredients for the inside stuffing.

1 tspn lemon juice
1/2 tspn kitchen king pwdr
4-5 pudina leaves
3-4 strands chopped coriander
salt
1 tspn om kallu

Now to prepare a coat to cover the stuffing, we need to mix the below ingredients:

1 md cup maida
1/4 cup chirotti rava
1 tspn om kallu
2 tbspn corn flour
salt
2 tbspn hot oil

Mix the above ingredients and sprinkle water when required to prepare a thick dough.

Roll the dough, as we do for poories, cut them into halves (1/2 moon) keep 1 tbspn stuffing in the center, and cover the stuffing. Deep fry in oil.

Honestly I never got the samosa shape. So I ended up, making them shapeless.

Serve hot samosa either with pudina chutney or tomato sauce

Channa gravy....

Channa Batura is my hubby favorite. So I decided to prepare it at home one morning for breakfast.

Batura is nothing but poories. The size of the poori is just bigger than normal. So I decided to prepare regular size poori.

Ingredients:

1 md cup Channa, soaked overnight and pressure cooked with 2 whistel.

4-5 strands chopped coriander
3 md sized tomatoes
1 tbspn  ginger-garlic paste
2 tbspn oil

1 md sized onion
2 green chillies
1 tspn amchur pwdr
1 tspn garam masala pwdr
1 tspn coriander pwdr
1 tspn jeera pwdr
1 tspn chilly pwdr

1/2 tspn pepper pwdr (these above pwdrs, can be just replaced by Channa masala pwdr available in the market)
1/2 tspn jeera
salt
pinch of turmeric

Method:

Grind tomatoes, onion and green chillies. Take a kadai, add oil. Once oil is hot, add jeera and the grinded mixture. Saute it, add ginger-garlic paste, the powders (amchur, coriander, jeera, chilly, pepper and turmeric) and salt. Mix them very well and add the cooked Channa. Cook them and bring it to bowl. Garnish with coriander and serve with hot poories.

Savige Kheer

Savige or vermicelli are 2 different names of the same ingredient. Upma and sweet is often prepared with this ingredient. I have earlier shared the upma recipe and now it's the kheer out of it.

http://aadigemane.blogspot.in/2011/11/vermicilly-upma.html

Ingredients:

1 md cup savige
1/4 cup dry fruits (cashew, raisins, badam, pista) coarsely grinded

3 tbspn  ghee
2 tbspn milk maid
2 elachi and 1 clove, coarsely grinded
1/4 cup honey
3 md cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup grated jaggery (i prefer to use jaggery instead of sugar. the taste of any sweet would taste different and yummy)

Method:

Dissolve jaggery in water and mix it with 2 cups of milk. Now add elachi and clove to the milk, along with savige and ensure it gets cooked. If required add remaining milk. See to it that it does not become very thick.

In a different kadai, on a low flame, add ghee and also the dry fruits. Saute them completely. Add this to the above savige mixture.

Once it becomes warm, add honey and milk maid and mix it well with the kheer.

Serve chilled to taste yummy.

Kashmiri Pulov...

Sunday's are special days, as I cook something different and special. I browsed few internet sites and I felt, I have tried most of what was already mentioned except, Kashmiri pulov. 

1 large cup rice
1 cup milk
2 saffron strands
pinch of turmuric
1 tbspn ginger-garlic paste
salt
4 tbspn ghee
1 md cup mixed fruits (green grapes, apple and pineapple)
1 md cup chopped green, red and yellow capsicum
1 tspn rose water
2 tbspn fresh cream
2 tbspn oil
1/2 tspn shahi jeera

Grind all these spices to a fine powder: 3 cloves, 1 small cinnamon stick, 3 elachi, 1 md size bay leaf, 2 strands of mace, 1 md size nutmeg

Method:

Soak saffron with 1 tbspn milk in a small bowl.
 
Cook rice with milk and water. Once rice is almost cooked, add saffron milk and once rice is completely cooked, spread it across for cooling and once rice is cooled, add rose water.

Take a kadai, add ghee, shahi jeers, powdered spices, ginger-garlic, turmuric, salt, chopped capsicum and fruits. Saute them for 5mins. They need to be crunchy and not fully cooked. Turn off the flame and add fresh cream. 

Mix the rice to the above curry and enjoy eating. 

Ragi Dosa..

I wanted to give this type of a dosa a try. I told my hubby that I'm preparing ragi dosa for breakfast and he said, that he feels like eating breakfast outside. :)

I managed to convince him to atleast give it a try and he agreed.

Ingredients:

2 md cup ragi flour
1/2 cup maida
1 md size onion chopped
1 md size carrot grated
1 tspn jeera
3-4 strands coriander chopped
2-3 green chillies chopped
1 tspn salt

Mix all the above ingredients, without lumps, into a good batter.

Prepare hot dosas and enjoy eating with either pudina chutney or coconut chutney.

My hubby liked it and he enjoyed eating it....

Mixed flour dosa...

My mom used to prepare this special dosas for me every Saturday when I was going to school.  Saturday's we had to be in school early and this breakfast can be prepared in few mins.

Ingredients:

1 md cup maida
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup ragi flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn jeera
1 md size onion finely chopped
3-4 strands chopped coriander
2-3 chopped chillies
salt

Mix all the above ingredients, without lumps, into a good batter.

Prepare hot dosas and enjoy eating with either pudina chutney or coconut chutney.

Raw Mango gojju

The king of fruits has arrived and I'm geared up to prepare lots of varieties with it. But I knew only 2 main varieties from it, mango juice (sikarne), mango chutney. But, when I was speaking with my mom, she shared the gojju recipe, which can be preserved and can also be converted to chutneys.

Ingredients:

2 raw mangoes grated, with or without skin...
1 tbspn oil
1/4 tspn mustard seeds
1 md cup grated coconut
3-4 chopped green chillies
curry leaves
salt
hing

Method:

Take a kadai and once it's hot, add oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and after it crackles, add hing, chillies and curry leaves. Saute them and add the grated raw mango and salt. Keep sauteing it till the mango changes color. We will see that the mango will turn light and the water in the mango should get absorbed completely. Now add grated coconut and ensure that it gets mixed with all the ingredients.

Allow the mixture to cool completely and refrigerate in an air tight container.

Musk melon Juice

Ramanavami festival was around the corner and I could see lots and lots of fresh and juicy musk-melon. I picked few riped ones to prepare a sweet drink called panaka at home. But as usual, I wanted to prepare something different.

I never knew what I'm gonna prepare, till I scraped the melon and deseeded it.

Ingredients:

1 md sized musk melon, scraped and deseeded.
2 tbspn honey
2 small ice cubes
1 tbspn fresh cream or milk

Blend all the above ingredients, offer to God and enjoy drinking.

Gobi Paratha....

Gobi paratha is something that I have not tried for a long time at home. My mom makes them very well and I wanted to prepare them at home. 

Take a fresh gobi and clean it completely. Grate the gobi and add 2 large cups of wheat dough. Mix the dough and the gobi throughly, add salt and water accordingly. Keep kneading the gobi and the flour to make a fine dough. If required, add oil and knead the dough to make softer parathas. Set aside for 15 to 20mins.

Make md balls from the dough and roll them, sprinkling dough when required. Cook them with oil, ghee or butter

Enjoy eating the gobi paratha with masala cheese spread or with masala curd raitha.

Broken Wheat Kheer...

Broken wheat is easily available in any provision store. Kichadi and kheer is something that will taste just awesome with this ingredient. It just takes a little longer time to cook.

Ingredients:

1 md cup broken wheat, washed and soaked for atleast 1 hr before cooking. Pressure cook the broken wheat either for kichadi or for kheer.
1 md cup grated jaggery
1 tbspn ghee
2 tbspn honey
2 md cup boiled milk
cashew, dry grapes, pista, badam, coarsely grinded
2 elachi, grinded

Take a kadai, add ghee, add all the dry fruits and saute it. Add the broken wheat and jaggery and mix them. Also add elachi and honey and mix them well, with milk.

Serve the kheer chilled.

Masala Aambode....

This is one of my favorite snacks, which is often prepared during festivals or at times as an evening snack.

Ingredients:

1md cup kadale bele (channa dal or bengal gram), soaked for min 3hrs. Coarsely grinded, with less water
1 md onion finely chopped
4-5 strands of chopped coriander
4-5 strands of chopped mint leaves
1 tspn jeera
1 tspn salt
1 tbspn maida
2-3 chopped chillies
few curry leaves

With the above mixture, we can also add methi leaves or sabsige soppu. Onion is usually avoided while preparing this during festivals.

Mix all the above ingredients and make small balls and deep fry in oil. Enjoy eating with tomato sauce or pudina chutney.

Veg Paratha....

Parathas are quite common in my house. Each time I try to experiment, with the vegetables that can be eaten raw, like carrot, raddish, knol, beetroot, cabbage....

Grate the raw vegetables in any combination and mix them throughly. I have tried, carrot, knol and raddish once and another time beetroot, carrot and knol.

For the mixed grated vegetables, add 2 large cups of wheat dough. Mix the dough and the veggies throughly. Depending on the veggies water content, add salt and water accordingly. Keep kneading the veggies and the flour to make a fine dough. If required, add oil and knead the dough to make softer parathas. Set aside for 15 to 20mins.

Make md balls from the dough and roll them, sprinkling dough when required. Cook them with oil, ghee or butter.
 
I had made masala curd to eat with the parathas.

1md cup thick curd
salt
1/4 tspn chat masala pwdr
1/4 tspn everest kitchen king masala
2-3 strands corriander finely chooped
few leaves of pudina leaves, chopped

Mix all the above ingredients with the curd and enjoy eating it with the veg parathas.

Idly Dough...

Idly would be the last thing that I would prepare, but when I ran out of breakfast options, I had think of preparing it. I took the necessary instructions from my mom.

Ingredients:

1 md cup urad dal
1 1/2 cup avalakki
3 md cup rice

So it's, 1 : 1 1/2  : 3

Wash and soak urad dal and avalakki in one bowl while the rice is also washed and soaked in another bowl. Soak for a min of 12hrs. Before grinding, let's remove excess water from both the bowls.

Urad dal and avalakki has to be grinded first throughly and then rice to the earlier batter. In the end, all 3 has to be grinded together, to a fine paste. If required, while grinding, we can add water when required.

Transfer the grinded mixture into a bigger bowl, add salt and mix it throughly with our hand, so that the batter is ready for overnight fermenting. 

The volume of the batter will be little raised, stir the batter gently, if its properly fermented the batter will be light, airy and fluffy. Next day, take the idly baking set. Pour water to the cooker and smear oil to the idly plates and allow it to steam cook. Insert a tooth pick or a knife to check if it comes out clean, which will ensure if the idly is cooked completely.

Enjoy eating hot idlys with coconut chutney.

Gobi & Baby Corn Manchurian...

It was time to prepare the king of evening snack..... Gobi and baby corn manchurian as a evening snack. I had prepared this many years ago and the recipe was still fresh in my mind. So I ensured I had all the necessary ingredients before I started preparing it.

Ingredients:

1md cauliflower, cut into medium sized flourets
4-5 baby corn, cut into 1/4 sizes
4-5 strands of chopped spring onions,
1 md sized onion finely chopped
1 md sized green capsicum, cut into cubes
1 tbspn ginger-garlic paste
1 tbspn soya sauce
3 tbspn tomato sauce
1 tbspn chilly sauce
salt to taste
4-5 strands chopped coriander

For batter:

1 small cup maida
1 small cup corn flour
pinch of baking soda
pinch of turmuric
Oil for frying.

Preparation Method:

Mix maida, turmuric, salt, cornflour, 1/2 tbspn ginger-garlic paste and soda, with water, making it a thick batter. Deep fry the cauliflower florets and baby corn till they are golden brown.

Take another kadai, add 3 tbspn of the fried oil. Add the remaining ginger-garlic paste, chopped 2 different types of onions and capsicum, 1/4 tspn salt, 3 tbspn tomato sauce, 1 tbspn chilly sauce & 1 tbspn soya sauce. Saute them completely. Now add the fried gobi and the baby corn together or can prepare them seperately, following the above steps for gobi and baby corn.

Garnish with chopped coriander and enjoy eating.

Bhel Puri...

Bhel Puri..

Puri used for preparing bhel..
1 tspn olive oil or any other oil
1 md onion chopped
2 md sized carrot grated
4-5 strands coriander chopped
1/2 tspn sweet chutney
1 tspn spicy chutney
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn chilly pwdr
1/2 tspn lemon juice
2 tbspn masala groundnut mixture

Mix all the above ingredients and sprinkle sev for garnish.

Baby Corn chat..

No matter what ever season we are into... evening snacks can never be missed in our house. Frying bajji, bonda or pakoda is not a good idea at all and it's ruled out for the next few months, because of the extensive heat.

That's when I decided that I have to prepare something different, which is not heavy, but healthy and does not make me spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Baby corn chat is what I prepared one evening and this is how I prepared it:

5 md sized fresh and tender babycorn cut in pieces.
1 tspn olive oil or any other oil
1 md onion chopped
2 md sized carrot grated
4-5 strands coriander chopped
1/2 tspn sweet chutney
1 tspn spicy chutney
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn chilly pwdr
1/2 tspn lemon juice
2 tbspn masala groundnut mixture


Mix all the above ingredients and sprinkle sev for garnish.

Onion Pakoda...

Bangalore city changes it climate very often. And on one such days, it was cloudy since morning and it rained heavily late evening. That's when we feel like eating something hot and spicy.

My hubby in a very low tone, requests me to prepare onion pakoda or any bajji or bonda.

I was in no mood to eat, as I just wanted to enjoy the weather throughly. So, I just took 10mins to prepare it and it was eaten much faster than that...

Take a kadai and pour oil for frying. While the oil becomes hot for frying..get the pakoda mixture ready.

1 md onion chopped
3 tbpsn kadale hittu (besan flour)
1 tspn chilly pwdr
1 tspn salt
1/2 tspn jeera
2-3 strands coriander chopped
few curry leaves chopped
1 small chilly chopped

Mix the above ingredients with water and fry them in oil.

Enjoy eating with tomato sauce and hot tea or coffee.

Peas Pulov and Aloo Gobi..

Sundays' is an interesting day for me and my hubby. For him, it's more of watching 2-3 movies and also enjoy eating my experimental dishes, and for me to try out something different.

On one such day..I lovingly asked my hubby, what do you feel like eating....He was quite for an hour and I thought he has forgotten about it. I was equally breaking my head..what can I cook for lunch..which continues till dinner. I probed him once again.....what do you want me to cook? Thats when he threw a question on me... and it was "Do you know to make peas pulov and aloo gobi?" I was confused..puzzled and excited. I said you'll have it in an hour's time and I got busy preparing it.

Peav Pulov with Alooo gobi sound weird, but make a good combi for eating.

Peas pulov is mildly spiced while aloo gobi to be moderately spiced.


2 md cups of fresh or frozen peas.
2 tspn white pepper
1 tspn ginger garlic paste
4-5 strands of chopped coriander
4-5 mint leaves
salt to taste
2 tbspn oil

Spices:
1 lavang
1 md cinnamon stick
1 small black cardamom
1marath moggu
1/2 jakayi piece
1/2 japatre piece

Grind all the above spices to a fine powder.

Cook rice and spread it across in a wide bowl, so that they dont stick to each other. Add 2 tbspn oil, chopped coriander before mixing the peas masala.

Take a kadai. Add oil, once it's hot, add peas, ginger-garlic paste, salt and the powdered spices. Mix them thoroughly. Turn of the heat and add the mint leaves and saute it. Mix it with the rice completely. Peas pulov is ready.

Aloo Gobi:

4 md sized potatoes: moderately pressure cooked, peeled and cut into cubes.
10-15 cauliflower florets: half cooked

1 tspn garam masala pwdr
1 tspn amchur pwdr
1 tspn salt
4-5 strands chopped coriander
4-5 mint leaves
1 tbspn tomato sauce
1 tbspn oil
1 tspn om
1 tspn ginger-garlic paste

Take a kadai and add oil. Once it's hot, add om, tomato sauce, garam masala, amchur pwdr, salt and ginger garlic paste. Saute them completely. Add potato cubes and cook for 5mins. Followed by florets getting cooked for another 5 mins. Garnish with coriander and mint leaves.

Enjoy eating with jot Peas pulov.

Masala Puri....

My hubby has to eat something in the evening as snack and it has to be quite filling. I was tried of frying bajjies, bondas and pakodas. So there came another request... can you make masala puri at home? I can't say no.. so ended up preparing it for an evening snack...

I browsed couple of cooking sites, but I found them not that interesting for me to try it. On the pertext of preparing it well, I decided to eat masala puri outside and at the same time ask the chat guy how they make it so well. The chat guy shared the recipe and I ended up preparing it at home.

Let me be honest here. No matter how much ever we try to make the best, it does not match the taste that we eat outside.

So for all the Masala Puri lovers like me... go ahead and try this. Also the remaining masala can be deep freezed for not more than 20 to 25days

Ingredients were:

Pressure cook the below items seperately.

1 md cup toor dal, pressure cooked (we can omit this, but has to increase coconut 2 times)
1/4 kg white peas soaked overnight and pressure cooked

Fry the below items with little oil and grind them to a find paste, along with toor dal.

1 md cup grated coconut (3 cups if we are not adding toor dal)
4 tspn coriander seeds
3 jeera
2 tspn pepper
3 lavang
2 cinnamon sticks
2 marath moggu
1/2 jakayi 
1/2 japatre
2 tspn red chilli pwdr
1 tbspn sugar
salt to taste

Take a kadai. Put the masala paste and saute it. Add water to loosen the paste. Pour the cooked peas, sugar and salt and bring it to boil in low flame.

I think from here, we know to smash the puries and add the necessary vegetables to it and enjoy eating. 

I used the below veggies....

Chopped onions, tomatoes and coriander
Grated carrot
Sev mixture
Salt to sprinkle
Chat masala

We managed to eat, masala puri, sukka puri and dahi puri. 

Vada Pav...

Vada Pav....

After enjoying pav bhajji and if there are some extra pav is remaining, what else will strike our mind. It's vada pav... isn't it. 

This is one of the simplest snack that one can make.

Slice pav horizontally into two, smear butter as generously we want to. Toast the pav lightly by pressing two or three times or till pav is crisp and light brown. 

Now for the vada:

Wash 3md sized aloos first and pressure cook then with little salt, turmeric and oil. Once it's cooked, remove the skin and smash the potatoes. For the smashed aloos, add and mix the below ingredients thoroughly:

1/2 tspn salt, 1 tspn ajwain
1 tspn red chilli pwdr
1 tspn coriander pwdr
1 tspn pepper pwdr
1 tbspn lemon juice
1 big chilli chopped
4-5 strands coriander leaves chopped
7-8 chopped pudina leaves







Take 2 tbspn of chirotti rava and 2 tbspn of maida and mix them completely. Make small portions of the aloo mix. Roll it on maida and chirotti rava mix and shallow fry it, until golden brown.

Place vada in the pav and enjoy eating it along with masala chai.....

Rajma Chawal ....

There are days where I just go blank. Don't know what to cook, only bcoz I don't want to repeatedly  eat what I have cooked already.

Our traditional recipes are just various kinds of rasam, sambhar, kuutoo, towe, gojjus and many more were already prepared.

As I was excited to try out something different and was checking in the kitchen what is it that I can have my hands on.. I spotted plenty of rajma. That's when it striked that I can make rajma for lunch the next day. I checked with my hubby, if he is ok in eating rajma chawal for lunch and the answer was a big YES. 

This is how I prepared it:

Soak rajma overnight and pressure cook it with 2 whistles, with little salt, turmuric and oil.

1 md onion,chopped
2 big tomatoes,chopped
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander pwdr
1 tsp jeera pwdr
1 tsp red chilli pwdr
1/2 tsp amchur pwdr
5-6 strands of chopped coriander
3 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
1 small cinnamon stick
1 small cardamom
1 small bay leaf
2 green chillies

Grind cinnamon, cardamon, bayleaf , onions, tomatoes and chillies to a fine paste.

Now take a kadai and add oil, add the above grinded mixture, salt and ginger paste and fry until the raw smell disappears. It's now time to add the red chilly pwdr, coriander pwdr, cumin pwdr, amchur pwdr and garam masala pwdr and saute it. Add cooked rajma now and ensure that it gets completely cooked with the masalas and the gravy. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve it with hot rice.

Peas Curry !!!

I'm always excited to experiment and try something new. I knew what I'll be adding and at the correct quantity. But the result always comes out well. God's grace isin't it.

1 small cinnamon stick
2 cloves
2 md green chillies
1 tspn of khus khus
2-3 pepper

Grind the above mixture.

3md ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 md chopped onion

Take a kadai, add 2 tbspn of oil. 1 tspn of jeera and once it crackles, add onions and saute it. Once it turns golden brown, add the tomatoes and the grinded mixture and 1 tspn ginger garlic paste and mix well, also add green peas. 1 tspn of coriander pwdr, 1 tspn red chilly pwdr, 1 tspn salt, pinch of turmeric, mix well. Bring the mixture to boil in low flame. Garnish with coriander leaves. This can be enjoyed eating with chapatis or poori.

Pav Bhaji !!!!!

My hubby relishes what ever I cook. But, at times he comes up with requests, where I take some time to digest and make up my mind to prepare it. One such request was to prepare Pav Bhaji, either for breakfast or for an evening snack.

I kept thinking, a Pav Bhaji for breakfast....Each time, I was preparing myself to make it, I used to find the necessary vegetables or the masala over at home.

There arrived one Sunday morning where I was ready to cook it and this is how I prepared it:

3 md potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed.
5 md tomatoes chopped
2 md onion chopped
2 md carrot boiled and mashed
1 md cup fresh peas, coarsely grinded.
1 tbspn ginger and garlic paste
3 tbspn oil
6 tspn butter
salt to taste
2 lemon slices
8 pav 
coriander chopped for garnishing

In the kadai, add 2 tbspn butter and 3 tbspn oil. Once the oil is hot and the butter is melted, add onion and saute it. Once it brown add ginger garlic paste, tomatoes, peas, carrot and mashed potatoes and mix them throughly. Add salt and the pav bhaji masala. Keep adding water in small quantities so that the vegetables gets blended in themselves throughly. Also, keep smashing the vegetables in it. Everything should be mixed throughly with the water we have added.

I have heard the best chefs on TV say, that we should be tasting the dish to know if they taste right. So keep tasting it. At times I feel, my tummy full, just by tasting it.

Slice pav horizontally into two, smear butter as generously we want to. Toast the pav lightly by pressing two or three times or till pav is crisp and light brown. Garnish the bhaji with chopped coriander leaves, remaining butter and serve hot with pav accompanied with remaining chopped onion and lemon wedges.