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.