My Recipe Congeries

Idli Podi

2012-07-12T03:57:00.000-04:00

Every South Indian family will have their own version of making Idli Podi. Some add just dhals, some add nuts to it, some add garlic, and some call it ellu podi by adding lot of sesame seeds. Some call it idli gun powder and I am not sure about the origin of this name.

Mom's version is with garlic and I usually make it that way. This time I tried without garlic . I also added sesame seeds and channa dhal. It came out pretty good.

Ingredients:

Dried Red Chillies -2cups
Urad Dhal - 1/ cup
Bengal Gram/ Channa dhal - 1/2 cup
Sesame seeds - one fistful
Salt - as needed
Asafoetida - 1/ 2 teaspoon
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Method

Heat a heavy bottomed tava, add oil.
Add all the ingredients except salt and asafoetida.
Roast until you get a nice aroma and the lentils should be golden brown in color .
Let it cool down . Grind it along with salt and asafoetida. Some like it coarse and some like it fine.
I made it coarse this time.
Store it in an air tight container

Mix it along with ghee or sesame oil. Makes a great combination for idlis and dosas.

Quinoa & Red Lentil Soup

2012-06-19T05:33:00.000-04:00

Today's recipe is about the little seed that I talked about in my last post. I was so obsessed with this tiny grain until I finished the pack. There are too many recipes for quinoa to try yet. Quinoa has a nutty flavor when cooked ad that makes it suitable for any kind of recipe you want to try.

This soup tastes more like a kichadi to me than a soup. Initially, the idea was to make a soup. But when I saw lentils in the ingredients, I thought, why not make a kichadi out of it. That way my little boy can also have it. When he had a bowl of this before his school, I was satisfied that he got a good amount of protein for the day.

Ingredients:

1. Quinoa - 1/2 cup
2. Red Lentils - 3/4 cup
3. Water - 5 -6 cups
4. Ghee - 1 tablespoon (Optional)
5. Oil - 1 tablespoon
6. Mustard - 1 teaspoon
7. Saunf - 1 teaspoon
8. Onions - 1 chopped finely
9. Ginger - 1 inch grated
10. Tomato - 1/2 chopped finely
11. Curry leaves - few
12. Cilantro - few
13. Carrot - 1 chopped
14. Peas - 1/2 cup
15. Salt - per taste
16. Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
17. chilli powder - 1 teaspoon / per taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and once it is hot, add mustard, saunf and curry leaves.
2. After it splutters, add onion and ginger, saute it for a minute and add tomatoes.
3. Let the tomatoes cook for sometime. Add salt, turmeric and chilli powder.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and pressure cook it till 1 whistle.
5. Open the pressure cooker after all the pressure releases and check for the consistency. I preferred a little thick like kichadi. If you feel it is too thick you can add hot water and make it a little thinner.

Citric Quinoa Salad

2012-06-02T15:11:00.000-04:00

Quinoa has a light, fluffy texture when cooked, and its mild, slightly nutty flavor makes it an alternative to white rice or couscous.
According to the American Merriam-Webster dictionary, the primary pronunciation is disyllabic with the accent on the first syllable (ˈkiːnwɑː/ KEEN-wah)
Most boxed/pre-packaged quinoa has already been pre-rinsed for convenience, and cooking instructions therefore suggest only a brief rinse before cooking, if at all. If quinoa has not been pre-rinsed, the first step is to remove the saponins, a process that requires either soaking the grain in water for a few hours, then changing the water and resoaking, or rinsing the quinoa in ample running water for several minutes in either a fine strainer or a cheesecloth. Removal of the saponin helps with digestion; the soapy nature of the compound makes it act as a laxative.One cooking method is to treat quinoa much like rice, bringing two cups (or less) of water to a boil with one cup of grain, covering at a low simmer and cooking for 10–15 minutes or until the germ separates from the seed. The cooked germ looks like a tiny curl and should have a slight bite to it (like al dente pasta). As an alternative, one can use a rice cooker to prepare quinoa, treating it just like white rice (for both cooking cycle and water amounts).Vegetables and seasonings can also be added to make a wide range of dishes. Chicken or vegetable stock can be substituted for water during cooking, adding flavor. It is also suited to vegetable pilafs, complementing bitter greens like kale.Quinoa can serve as a high-protein breakfast food mixed with honey, almonds, or berries; it is also sold as a dry product, much like corn flakes. Quinoa flour can be used in wheat-free and gluten-free baking.Quinoa may be germinated in its raw form to boost its nutritional value. Germination activates its natural enzymes and multiplies its vitamin content.In fact, quinoa has a notably short germination period: Only 2–4 hours resting in a glass of clean water is enough to make it sprout and release gases, as opposed to, e.g., 12 hours with wheat.This process, besides its nutritional enhancements, softens the grains, making them suitable to be added to salads and other cold foods.

Source: Wikipedia

Lately I have been seeing a lot of food bloggers posting about Quinoa recipes. Out of curiosity, I tried couple of recipes and they were really good. It might be a very good option for vegetarians since, they claim this is the only vegetarian food which has complete protein, meaning, it has all 9 amino acids. Moreover, it is gluten free and can be digested easily.

Today's recipe is a cold citric salad and you can be as creative as you want with the ingredients. I have tried this salad in Whole Foods. So just by taste, I decided the ingredients and it came out pretty good. You can adjust the flavors according to your taste buds. So today I am not going to be very specific about the measurements. Just taste and adjust as you go.

Ingredients:

1. Quinoa - 1 cup
2. Water - 2 to 3 cups
3.Turmeric - a pinch
4. Chopped celery
5. Roasted cashew
6. Raisins
5.Juice of 1/2 a lemon
6. Salt and pepper to taste
7. Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
8. Parsley

Method:

1. Boil 2 to 3 cups of water. Add turmeric and quinoa and let quioa cook until all the water evaporates.
2. Fluff it up with a fork and keep it aside until it is not too hot.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the cooked quinoa.

I am delighted to post this recipe to the Serve it Raw event hosted by Krithi and Denny.

Thaengai Paal Saadham / Coconut Milk Rice

2012-05-03T10:25:00.000-04:00

Rice cooked in coconut milk is truly heavenly and will not disappoint your taste buds in any way. Just spice it up with very few ingredients with a dollop of ghee and for sure, you will end up with a full filling meal. It does not take much time to prepare this rice.

I also added few carrots and peas along with the rice. You can be as creative as you want with this rice. Sometimes I add mint paste and call it mint pulav. You can make it plain without vegetables and call it ghee rice. But the base taste is going to remain the same. I usually add 1 tablespoon of ghee and one tablespoon of oil. You can substitute oil with ghee. But I feel, it might be a little heavy on your tummy.

Ingredients:

1. Basmathi rice - 2 cups
2. Thick Coconut Milk - 1 cup
3. Water - 3 cups
4. Ghee - 1 tablespoon
5. Oil - 1 tablespoon
6. Green cardamom-2, cloves-2, star anise-1, cinnamon - a small piece, Brinji leaves - 2
7. Carrots and peas - 3/4 cup
8. Onion - 1 thinly sliced
9. Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon.
8. Green chilli - 3 (or per taste)
9. Salt - as needed.

Method

1. Soak the rice in water for at least 1/2 an hour. This will make the rice nice and fluffy.
2. Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker. Add all the whole spices.
Saute for a minute till the aroma comes out.
3. Add thinly sliced onions, green chillies sliced and ginger garlic paste. Cook until the onions become tender.
4. If you plan to add vegetables, this is the time to add them. Give it a quick stir and add the soaked rice along with 1 cup of coconut milk and 3 cups of water. Add salt and pressure cook it for 1 whistle.I usually use the rice cooker for this preparation and this proportion works just right.
It is as simple as that. Serve it along with your favorite spicy curry or just a simple raitha would do too.

Shrimp Fry

2012-04-21T07:21:00.000-04:00

I am back after a long break to blogging. For some strange reason, I did not feel like writing and taking photographs of the food I cook. But not anymore . Is this a Gemini-an trait of getting bored of doing the same stuff over and over again, or is it just me? Last time when this happened to me is when I decided to change the look and feel of my blog. But this time I decided to take a nice long break. Sometimes, it just makes me feel good to break the routine. Thanks to all my friends and family who showed their concern to find out what is going on with me and why no posts from me. My mom stands on top of all asking me every day why I have not posted anything.

Today’s recipe is something I have started making very often lately. I got this recipe from a very good friend of ours. Shrimp always took the form of thokku in my kitchen until I saw my friend make this when we went to her place. It looks really appetizing. I have even had some of my vegetarian friends staring at it and giving me a look saying “Don’t tell me that it is non-vegetarian”.

Ingredients:

Shrimp – 20 t0 25 (I used the jumbo version. But the petite ones taste better)
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tablespoon
Salt – to taste
Red Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon (or to taste)
Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
Lemon Juice – 1 teaspoon
Besan / Chick pea flour – 1 tablespoon
Oil – 2 tablespoons
Onion – 1 thinly sliced

Method

Clean, peel and devein shrimp. Pat it dry with a kitchen towel
In a wide bowl, add shrimp, ginger garlic paste, salt, chilli powder, garam masala and lemon
juice.
Let it marinade for atleast 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator.
Just before you are ready to serve, mix a tablespoon of besan flour to the shrimp so that it coats
all the pieces. If the marinated shrimp is too watery you can add more chick pea flour.
Heat a wide pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil. Shallow fry the marinated shrimp. Let it cook on medium
high for 2 minutes or until it turns nice and crispy. Turn over the shrimps and cook until you see
nice golden crispy layer. (Do not cook the shrimp too long. It will turn rubbery)
Transfer them to a paper towel.
In the same pan fry the sliced onions until they get a little
caramelized.
Transfer these caramelized onions to a serving dish. Arrange the fried shrimp on it and sprinkle
chopped cilantro.

Blueberry Muffin with Streusel Topping

2012-03-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

Baking is something where you cannot eyeball and measure things. Ingredients need to be perfectly measured to get a good outcome. This is one of the reasons why I do not bake. I just eyeball things while cooking. But there are few recipes which I regularly use for baking and todays recipe is one of those.

For some reason, whenever organic blueberries comes to hubby's attention in any grocery store, it ends up in our refrigerator. But all three of us are not big fans of this fruit. So I turn them into super moist blueberry muffins with streusel topping. You can also make it without the topping which is more healthier. You can refer the original recipe from here.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour -1 1/2 cups

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Salt -1/2 teaspoon

Baking Powder - 2 teaspoons

Vegetable Oil - 1/3 cup

Egg - 1

Milk - 1/3 cup

Fresh Blueberries - 1 cup

For the topping

Sugar - 1/2 cup

All Purpose Flour -1/3 cup

Butter -1/4 cup cubed

Ground Cinnanmon- 1 1/2 teaspoons

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F Line the muffin pan with liners

Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup. Add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries.(Mix it very gently, otherwise you will end up getting blue / purple coloured muffins) Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Beetroot Halwa

2012-02-13T18:41:00.000-05:00

Wish you and your loved ones A Very happy Valentine's Day!

I have prepared this Indian delicacy couple of times for pot luck here for people who are new to Indian food and they definitely were shocked to see beetroot in a dessert. But they really enjoyed it to the core. They had a scoop of warm beetroot halwa along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I should say it is a divine combination.

This recipe is a no brainer. You cannot go wrong with the preparation. The more ingredients like condensed milk or kova you add , the more delicious it gets. But, even with just milk, you end up with a very delicious indian dessert. You can use the same preparation with carrots too.

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 4 cups Grated
Milk - 2 and 1/2 cups
Sugar - 1 and 1/4 cups or depending on how sweet the beetroots are
Cardamom powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee - 1 tablespoon / More if you wish

Method

Grate the beetroots using a food chopper or grater.
In a wide non-stick pan, add the grated beetroots and milk.
Let it cook until the beetroots becomes tender and soft. Scrape the sides of the pan regularly to mix in all the goodness of the reduced milk. Add more milk if needed. Before adding sugar, the mix should not be very loose. It should be in the consistency of kova.
Now add sugar and ghee and mix it well . Adding sugar will loosen the consistency.Simmer it.I usually leave it until it reaches the kova consistency again. Just the perfect consistency for any halwa.
Finally mix in freshly ground cardamom powder and remove from heat.

Serve it warm with powdered nuts.

Mutta Paniyaram / Egg Paniyaram

2012-02-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

I have to camouflage eggs in my little one's food. He wouldn't eat egg otherwise. While I was telling my MIL about this, she asked me to add beaten eggs to the dosa batter and make dosas out of it. I tried that and it worked. But then, I also wanted to make these little paniyarams out of it with more seasoning and flavour. Nowadays, this happens to be the easiest dinner idea whenever I am running out of vegetables in the refrigerator.

You can add equal number of eggs to the batter. But that didn't seem like a good option in my case since my little one has pretty good sense of smell and taste :-). So he finds out that I have added eggs to the paniyarams.Otherwise you can add 1 egg to 1 cup of batter and make these delicious and easy paniyarams.

Ingredients:

Idli/Dosa batter -2cups
Egg - 1
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2 teaspoons + for making paniyarams
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Green Chilli - 1 finely chopped
Cilantro - 1 fistful, finely

Method

Mix beaten egg with the batter with required amount of salt.
In a pan, add oil and when it gets hot add mustard seeds.
Now add onion, green chillies and saute till the onions becomes translucent.
Remove from heat and add chopped cilantro leaves to it.
Let it cool down a bit. Add the onions to the egg and batter mixture.
Make paniyarams out of it and enjoy with your favorite side dish.

Idli Podi Upma

2012-01-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

What better way to use leftover idlis than making a classic, simple yet delicious upma with it. Almost everyone from Tamil Nadu would have tasted this upma atleast once. This used to be our evening snack during school days. The boring, white round idlis can take this magical transformation with a little seasoning.

I almost forgot the exixtence of such a simple dish until I saw this in the menu of an Indian Restaurant here. It said Madurai Special Idli Podi Upma and I ordered it thinking it is going to be something different than the regular idli upma. But it was just our same old idli upma with a hint of idli podi and a nice aroma of ghee. So I recreated it at home, and for sure it tasted better than the restaurant version.

Ingredients:

Idli -6 to 8
Oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few
Cilantro - 2 tablespoons (chopped finely)
Onion - 1 sliced thin
Idli Podi - 3 tablespoons(my idli podi is mild, so adjust the quantity accordingly)
Ghee - 2 teaspoons.

Method

Crumble the idlis with clean hands and keep it aside.
In a wide pan, add oil and when it gets hot add mustard seeds. After it splutters, add urad dhal and curry leaves.
Saute till the urad dhal get a golden brown color.
Now add onion and saute till it becomes translucent.
Add the crumbled idlis along with idli podi.
Give it a good stir so that the podi can combine with the crumbled idlis.
Add chopped cilantro and ghee.

Serve it hot with your favourite side dish.

Chakkarai Pongal/ Sweet Pongal

2012-01-15T16:09:00.000-05:00

Wish you all a very happy Pongal!

Hope you all had a wonderful Pongal. As a girl from a very small town, and my dad being an agriculturalist, I should have known better about this harvest festival. But unfortunately, I did not get to celebrate pongal the traditional way before marriage. Mom always, cooked pongal in a pressure cooker. Pongal was just like any other day with an exception of having sweet pongal along with breakfast. But never the less, mom's pongal was out of the world. She makes it with milk and a lot of ghee.

Pongal is celebrated more traditionally in my in-laws place and I really like the whole arrangement. My Mother-in-law makes pongal in a traditional way, outside the house using a brick stove. So, after marriage, I started celebrating pongal more traditionally. Though I do not get to use a brick stove to make pongal, I do not use pressure cooker to make pongal.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice- 2 cups
Moon Dhal - 3/4 th cup
Water - 7 cups + more if needed
Powdered Cradamom - 1 teaspoon
Jaggery - 2 cups packed
Ghee - 3 tablespoons
Edible Camphor - a pinch
Cashew + Dried Grapes - 1 tablespoon

Method

Wash the rice and moong dhal once and drain the water. Wash it again with 7 cups and save the water.
Heat the saved water in a cooking pot. You will start seeing a frothy portion in the top. Wait till it starts coming out of the pot. (This is when we say Pongalo pongal)
Now, add the rice and moong dhal. and let it cook till they cook well.
Meanwhile have additional hot water ready and add it to the rice and dhal mixture as and when needed to cook it well and mushy.
Once it becomes mushy add Jaggery.
Mix well, add cardamon, edible camphor and give it a good mix.
Pongal, at this point will look a little watery. But will thicken up once cooled down.
Garnish with ghee roasted cashews and raisins.

Carrot Ginger Juice

2012-01-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

I am sorry, I am a little too late. But wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year. Things have been rather hectic here. I have been missing in this space for a couple of weeks now. I might have many reasons for not posting any recipe. But the underlying reason is pretty simple. I just wanted a break from my routine. No fancy cooking in the kitchen. Took things easy and spent a good chunk of time with family during the holiday season. So today's recipe is a very simple fresh juice to start your day.

Bright carrots, juicy lemon and fresh ginger. Does it get any better than that. There is no better way to kick start your day than having a fresh vegetable juice with a touch of fruit and a tinge of ginger spice. This juice is an excellent source of Vitamin A and Beta Carotene. Ginger in the juice helps in digestion and lemon acts as a blood purifier. You can also add an apple while juicing and you get a boost of Vitamin A when you do so.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 3 medium sized
Lemon - 1/2
Ginger - 1 inch
Honey - as needed

Method

Wash and cube the carrots. If you are not using organic carrots, scrap the skin of the carrots and cut it into cubes.
Clean the ginger and pass the carrots and ginger through juicer. If you do not have a juicer, grind it using a mixie/ blender and sieve it.
To the juice, add juice of half a lemon and desired amount of honey.

Serve immediately with crushed ice on top.

Shortbread Cookies

2011-12-24T21:06:00.001-05:00

Wish You All A Very Happy Christmas!

Christmas brings back some nice memories for me. I have a very close childhood friend who celebrates Christmas. During my school days, I used to spend every Christmas in her house. After her early morning mass, she comes home to pick me up and then we take off to her house for the whole day. I spend the whole day with her family. All that came to an end after I joined my high school. We both went to different schools and then took different directions. But, I am very happy that we are still best buddies.

Today's recipe is about short bread cookies with an Indian twist. I made this yesterday to give it to my son's teacher and they tasted really good. They were melt in your mouth kind of cookies. Drizzle these cookies with dark chocolate and I am sure, they will be a big hit in any party. Since I did not have time, I skipped this step. But if you have time in your hand, definitely give it a try.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Butter - 1 cup (2 sticks)
Freshly ground cardamom powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Pure Vanilla Extract - 1/2 teaspoon
Coarsely ground cashews - 1/2 cup
Coarsely ground almonds - 1/2 cup

Method

Cream butter and sugar.
Mix in vanilla extract and cardamom powder.
Slowly mix in the flour and coarsely ground nuts and make a soft dough.
Heat the oven to 300F.
Make 30 golf ball sized balls and place them in an ungreased baking sheet .
Make sure the cookie balls are placed one inch apart from each other.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until you start seeing golden brown surface in the bottom of the cookies.
Cool the cookies in a cooling rack before you store them.

Popcorn Chicken

2011-12-23T04:01:00.000-05:00

Santa came a little early this year.
When I started blogging, my husband asked me if I wanted him to get me a real nice fancy camera. I was not so very impressed with that idea. But he was very interested in buying me one and so last week,I got my Canon EOS Rebel T3 as a Christmas gift from my husband. I am snapping photos of everything in the house. There is a lot to learn to use my new camera. But for now, I am just experimenting. I did not realize what I was missing, until I saw these pictures.I know I am just a beginner with food photography and this camera, but I am very happy with this gift from him.

Coming to the recipe, it is along the same lines as my last post. Popcorn chicken is a popular product with kids and I am not a big fan of the frozen ones. My son had the frozen version of this at one of our friends place and he loved it. I knew, I am going to make a homemade version of that for sure and here goes the recipe. It is very easy to make and the result is awesome.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast - 2 medium sized pieces
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Garlic Powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Cajun seasoning - 1 teaspoon (optional)
Egg - 1
Panko Breadcrumbs - 1 cup

Method

Clean and cut the chicken into 1/2 inch pieces.
Take 3 separate bowls. In the first bowl mix flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cajun seasoning (if using). Keep it aside.
In the second bowl, beat the egg with a splash of water and keep it aside.
To the third bowl, add panko breadcrumbs.
Heat oil on a medium heat in a skillet.
Dip the chicken pieces one at a time in the flour mixture and then into the egg mixture and coat it with the breadcrumbs. Again dip the piece into the egg mixture and finally with the breadcrumbs. This process of dipping it twice in egg and breadcrumbs makes it more crunchy.
Repeat the process with rest of the chicken pieces.
Drop the chicken pieces one by one into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides.
Drain as much oil and place them in a paper towel.

Serve it with ketchup or your favorite sauce.

Mac n Cheese My Way

2011-12-14T19:41:00.000-05:00

Loads of sodium and artificial coloring agents did not look like a good option for me to feed my kid. It was my husband who was very particular about not feeding my son packaged/processed/frozen foods. Initially I felt almost unrealistic to shield our son from processed foods. But now, I am very happy we took that path. I am not saying we never fed our kid any store bought food (He has had the store bought boxed mac n cheese once so far). But I try my best to make homemade versions of the store bought boxed foods.

Store bought mac n cheese would be a really big time saver, but homemade version is easy to make and it always good to know what goes into the food that you feed your kid. It might not look anywhere near the store bought version, but I promise homemade version tastes so much better. I have used cream cheese here in this recipe. But Vermont white cheddar works well too. Sometimes I also, add veggies like broccoli or carrots or green beans to it.

Ingredients:

Macaroni- 1/4 cup
Butter - 1 tablespoon
Garlic - 1 clove grated (optional)
Cream Cheese - 1 1/2 tablespoons
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Whole Milk - 1/2 cup

Method

Boil water in a pot and cook macaroni until it becomes soft. Drain the water and keep the macaroni aside.
In another pan, heat butter and add grated garlic and saute until fragrant.
Add milk and bring it to a boil.
Add the cooked macaroni along with cheese, salt and pepper.
Let it cook until the sauce thickens. I remove it from heat just before it thickens because the sauce tends to get very thick once cooled down.

Serve it with a side of steamed vegetables.

Sweet Potato Paratha

2011-12-06T04:08:00.000-05:00

I love shopping at stores and roaming malls. Usually, towards the end of Black Friday, our house will be filled with shopping bags. But this year, it was very unusual to see just two bags with just two cooking pans as a result of my Black Friday shopping. I was wondering if my shopping interest was slowly dying without my knowledge until I started getting emails from retailers with a subject line “Your shipment confirmation” or “Your order is ready to be shipped”. I have become more of an online shopper over the past couple of years. The ease of shopping from home, the ability to compare prices before I buy a product, read others reviews about a product and top of all free shipping makes online shopping more fun and more preferable way to shop these days. But I still love visiting stores and roaming malls.

Apart from shopping, thanksgiving is all about getting together with friends and family and having a grand thanksgiving dinner. Turkey being the main dish of a Thanksgiving dinner, there are many other foods alongside the main dish. One of the side dishes that everyone prefers for a thanksgiving dinner is sweet potato casserole and I wanted to make it for a get together with our friends. I have to blame the online shopper in me for not letting me bake any new stuff. I was busy looking for deals and completely forgot about this casserole and ended up making an easy appetizer for the party. So what did I do with the sweet potatoes? I used one of the sweet potatoes to make parathas and I should admit, it was unbelievably soft and delicious. Sweet Potatoes gave a very nice and rich color to the parathas.

Ingredients:

1. Sweet potato – 1 large

2. Whole wheat atta – 2 cups

3. Salt – as needed

4. Ghee – 1 teaspoon

5. Chilli Powder – 1 teaspoon / per taste

6. Asafoetida – a generous pinch

Method:

1. Cook the sweet potatoes in boiling water until they become soft. Drain and mash them into a smooth puree.

2. Mix all the ingredients until you get soft dough. Water can be added if needed. I just added a few drops of water to make the dough. The moisture from the potato will itself let you make very soft dough.

3. Divide the dough into 8 to 10 equal portions.

4. Roll out each portion into parathas and place it in a hot tawa.

5. Cook until you see light brown spots on both sides. Oil/ghee can be used while cooking these parathas.

Serve it with raitha and pickle or any side dish of your choice.

Mutton Chukka

2011-11-29T05:36:00.001-05:00

First meal after the wedding in a bride’s house has lot of significance and importance. It is all about impressing the new member of the family with lots and lots of food. Being a great cook, my mom was not an exception. She brought out the best from her kitchen for this first meal and mutton chukka stole the show. My mom has made mutton chukka for him several times after that and he says, the mutton chukka he had during the first meal in my place is the best.

During my parents visit here, many of our friends have tried my mom’s mutton chukka and demanded the recipe for that. So, as promised, here comes the recipe for Madurai special mutton chukka. The recipe below is using premade powders. It tastes even better if you can dry roast the spices and grind it fresh.

Ingredients:

Boneless Mutton - 1 lb
Sesame Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves – 1 fist full
Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon
Black Pepper Powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin Powder - 1 tablespoon
Salt - as needed

Method

Clean and cut the mutton pieces into small bite sized ones
In a pressure cooker, heat sesame oil. Once it is hot enough, add mustard seeds.
Add curry leaves once the mustard seeds splutter ,add the meat.
Give it a quick stir and add all the dry masala ingredients along with salt. Mix it well with the mutton.
Sprinkle little water and pressure cook it for a couple of whistles.
After the pressure is released, cook the masala, until it becomes dry and all the oil oozes out.

Serve it as a side dish for white rice or briyani.

PB&J Stuffed French Toast

2011-11-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

I guess some of you must have noticed the change in the template of my blog. I have started playing around with the design of my post with background colors. I somehow felt, the orange background didn't go very well with other colors. So I am keeping it simple with a light background. I am still getting used to this template. Being so used to the orange background of My Recipe Congeries, few times, I kept looking at the pages, just to see if this is really my bog. Hope you all like it. I welcome any suggestions or comments on the new design.

Now to today's recipe...

How about a delicious hot breakfast, which actually tastes like dessert, but still being good for you? Yeah, it is french toast stuffed with all the goodness of peanut butter and jelly. The name might be a little long, but I promise, you can put this together in less than 15 minutes.

What could be better than a stuffed French toast for a breakfast lover? And if it is stuffed with peanut butter and jelly, it is a double bonanza. It makes a very good lunch box item for kids. You can go as creative as you want with French toast. You can stuff it with literally anything you eat. My next project with French toast would be chocolate stuffed version. I am sure my two chocolate monsters would love it.

Ingredients:

Egg - 1 whisked with a splash of milk
Sugar – 2 teaspoons
Cinnamon – a pinch
Peanut Butter – 1 heaped tablespoon
Jelly - 1 tablespoon
Butter – 1 tablespoon

Method

Whisk together egg, milk, sugar and cinnamon and keep it aside in a flat bowl.
Take a tablespoon of peanut butter and spread it in one slice of bread.
Spread any fruit jelly of your choice in another slice of bread.
Make a sandwich out of these two bread slices.
You can either dip the whole sandwich in the egg mixture or make strips as I did for the little hands. If you decide to go with the second option, make 1 to ½ inch thick strips of the sandwich.
Melt butter in a non stick pan over medium high, dip either the whole sandwich or the strips in the egg mixture to coat the slices and place in the pan.
Turn the piece/ pieces in about 3 to 4 minutes or until it turns golden brown and cook the other side until it turns golden brown.

Serve it with maple syrup.

More Kuzhambu with Cucumber

2011-11-14T10:07:00.002-05:00

I wonder how our taste buds change as we get older. I still remember, my mom literally running behind me with a bowl of vegetables. Since, dad was a picky eater, mom would cook something every day that dad liked and that is how I survived. Being dad's little princess, I loved whatever he liked. Vegetables other than beans, potato and cauliflower were seen as inedible vegetables by dad and me. But slowly, I have learned to enjoy foods that I never liked before. And surprisingly, when dad was here, he ate everything whatever I cooked, even the vegetables that he never used to like before. I called home a couple of days back and mom said she is making cabbage paratha looking at the recipe I had posted. And today I found out that dad loved it and he asked mom to make it again for breakfast today J

Growing up, I hated the taste of More Kuzhambu. But now, it tastes like heaven. We both loved the taste. I did not have any white pumpkins at home. So I added cucumber to the curry and it turned out great.

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 2 cups (Peeled and cubed)
Curd - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 1 to 1 1/2 cups
Salt - to taste
Asafotida/Hing - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander seeds - 1 1 /2 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1 1 /2 teaspoon
Red Chillies - 3
Coconut - 1 tablespoon
Fenugreek - 1/2 teaspoon
Thoor Dhal - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few

Method:

Soak toor dhal in water at least for an hour.
To the boiling water, add peeled and cubed cucumber along with little salt and turmeric. Let it cook until the cucumbers turn a little soft. It should still be firm enough and not mushy.
Dry roast channa dhal, coriander seeds, red chillies, coconut, fenugreek until nice aroma comes out. Make sure you do not burn any of the ingredients.
Transfer the above content along with the soaked thoor dhal into a mixie/blender and make it into a fine paste. Keep it aside.
Churn the curd with required amount of milk and dilute it. Add turmeric,salt and the grounded paste to it.
Pour the mixture into a kadai and let it boil until the raw smell goes away. Add more water if the curry gets thicker during boiling. I let the curry boil for at least 20 minutes in low medium flame until the raw smell of the ingredients went off.
In another pan, add oil and when it is hot, add mustard and curry leaves. Add the tempering to the curry.

Serve it over piping hot white rice along with any crispy fries.

Mutton Kola Urundai / Mutton Kofta

2011-11-07T15:38:00.002-05:00

For people who live in this part of the world, did you enjoy an extra hour of sleep yesterday? I got up at 6 o clock and few minutes later, I looked at my mobile where it said 5:05 AM. I was so happy, that I got this extra hour all to myself. Being a mom of a 3 year old, this additional hour all to myself means a lot. I bet many moms would agree with me on this.

Today’s recipe is Mutton Kola Urundai/ Mutton Kofta. This is my mom’s specialty. For some reason, I don’t have this recipe written in my recipe book and every time I want to make this Kola Urundai, I would give her a call and she will be more than happy to tell the recipe to me. I like to hear it from her rather than looking at the recipe book. Another such recipe which I like to hear from mom is Mutton Chukka. I will post that recipe soon.

Ingredients:

1. Mutton Keema / Minced mutton – 2 cups
2. Grated Coconut – ½ cup
3. Roasted gram / pottukadalai – ½ cup (grounded)
4. Green Chilli – 4 -5
5. Saunf / Soambu – 1 tablespoon
6. Garam Masala – 1 teaspoon
7. Salt – as needed
8. Onions – 1 finely chopped
9. Cilantro – 1/4th cup finely chopped

Method:

1. Grind the grated coconut, green chilli, saunf ,garam masala and salt to a fine paste with very little water using a mixer/ blender.
2. Add the ground meat to the blender/ mixer and grind it until all the ground masala mixes well with the meat.
3. Also add the finely chopped onions and pulse it a couple of times. This step is really optional. You can add the chopped onions to the ground meat in the next step if you do not want to pulse the onions.
4. Transfer the meat to a bowl. Add the roasted gram powder little by little. Do not add too much as it will make the koftas very dry. The meat mixture should still be a little moist.
5. Now add the chopped cilantro and mix it well.
6. Make kofta balls out of it. Rubbing little oil in your palms will definitely help this process. This measurement will give you approximately 25 koftas.
7. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry till golden brown.

Serve it as an appetizer.

Cabbage Paratha

2011-11-02T06:21:00.001-04:00

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a fun filled Halloween. We had “White Halloween” this year with snow :-) .

Couple of weeks back, a very good friend of mine had given a mini food chopper and told me that it is very good for chopping cabbage for cabbage paratha. And she is right, the chopper is brilliant and the cabbage came out perfect for making parathas. Thank you dearie girl for the food chopper. I will be using it very often.

Sharmi’s website had square shaped cabbage parathas and I wanted to make mine in square shapes too. It looked lovely and tasted excellent. This recipe is definitely a keeper. A very good way to sneak in the vegetables. I modified her recipe a little bit and here goes my recipe for cabbage paratha.

Ingredients:

Cabbage- ¾ th cup

Atta/chappathi flour – 1 cup

Salt – as needed

Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala – ½ teaspoon

Turmeric – a pinch

Ginger Garlic Paste – ½ teaspoon

Chopped cilantro leaves – few

Water – required to make the dough

Oil – as required

Method:

Take a bowl add finely chopped cabbage, atta, salt, chilli powder, garam masala powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste, cilantro, make a soft dough by adding water little by little.

Since cabbage leaves out water, be very cautious in adding water. Let the dough rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal portions and make parathas out of the dough. Pictorial illustrations for making square shaped parathas can be found at Sharmi’s blog .

Place the rolled out parathas in a heated tawa. Cook on both sides until you see golden spots.

Serve with Raitha and Pickle.

Kaara Boondhi | Diwali Special

2011-10-25T04:48:00.002-04:00

I had tried making Kaara Boondhi few years back and it came out very greasy. I guess it is because, my batter was too watery. This time, I mixed the batter to the right consistency and fried it till golden brown and it came out great. We are enjoying this nice spicy Boondhis with Ladoos for this Diwali.

Refer to my Boondhi Ladoo Recipe for pictorial illustrations on the batter consistency and boondhi preparation.

Ingredients:

Besan Flour- 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - as needed
Rice Flour - 2 tablespoons
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
Chilli Powder - 1/2 teaspoon or more
Asafotida - a generous pinch
Oil - to deep fry

Cashew Nuts, peanuts - 1/4 th cup
Curry leaves - few

Method:

Prepare the batter for the boondhi with the ingredients mentioned. Add little water at a time. My besan flour required approximately 1 cup of water. It really depends on the texture of the besan floor you use. So add water till you get a thick dosa batter consistency. (Refer to the batter consistency picture in my boondhi laddo recipe)
Heat oil in a wide frying pan. Pour a spoon full(I used a kuli karandi) of batter in a perforated laddle and let the batter pass through the perforations by moving the spoon in a circular motion. Fry till golden brown.
Repeat the same with the rest of the batter. You should wipe the perforated spoon clean before starting each batch of frying. Otherwise the perforations will be covered with batter from the previous batch and you will not get good shaped boondhis.
In the same oil fry cashews, peanuts and curry leaves seperately and mix it with the boondhi.
Store them in air tight containers after they cool down.

I am sending this entry to the following events

Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories event by Radhika
Serve It - Festival Potluck event by Denny & Krithi
My Diwali My way event by Khushi
Diwali - Festival of Lights event by Anu

Boondhi Ladoo | Diwali Special

2011-10-25T04:34:00.003-04:00

Mom would say:"Ammu... Get up... Its 4 AM and all your friends woke up already for firecrackers..." This is how my Diwali starts usually during my school days. We(Me and my brother) would have asked mom to wake us up very early so that we can join other kids in the street for firecrackers. So she would wake up earlier than us, takes a shower and then wakes us up at around 4 AM in the morning when most of the kids in our street wake up on the day of diwali. I would just jump out of the bed, quickly rush to the shower. I would have to literally roll my brother out of the bed to wake him up. Unlike me, he is a good sleeper. By the time, we come out of shower, mom would have the pooja room set up with all the decorations, new clothes, sweets and snacks. At that point, all my concentration would be on when I would get to wear my new dress and show it off to others. As soon as mom finishes pooja, we would go wear our new dresses and go out to enjoy the fireworks. Since dad doesn't show much interest in fireworks, he would still be sleeping happily, till his usual 5:00 clock alarm. We will finish most of our fireworks in the morning and save the rest for the day.

By then mom would come out and ask me to help her with rangoli. Previous night , me and mom sit together to come up with a special rangoli for diwali. So that design goes on the floor with beautiful colors. I will be very eager to see my opposite house aunty's rangoli design, as she does a very good job making designs. Then I would go for a stroll around the street to see all the rangoli designs that others have made and help them out with designs if they need. It would be 7:00 AM by now and mummy goes off to the kitchen, to start her special cooking for the day.

Dad would also be ready by then with his new white kadhar shirt and dhothi. I love seeing him with his white kadhar shirt and dhothi. His inspection work in the kitchen would start. He would make sure that the mutton pieces are small enough and it is well cooked. Mom would give him a piece to taste. 99 out of 100 times , his answer would be to cook the mutton for one more whistle. Very lovingly, he would bring the plate to the living room where me and my brother would be watching diwali programs, to ask us our opinion on the mutton :-). The day goes on like this with more tasting of mummy's cooking. She would proudly present her idli, poori, mutton curry and Gulab Jamun for breakfast. Diwali lunch was always very special. It used to be very elaborate, with a lot of moms exotic dishes. After the heavy lunch, goddess sleep would doze us off. Again in the evening, rangoli session would start in all the houses. More fireworks, more food, more chatting, lighting diyas and the day would end with a simple comforting meal. Such were the golden days, when we used to look forward for this "Festival of Lights".

All these evergreen memories make me miss home during this time of the year. The least we could do from here is to do a quick pooja in the morning before going to work and light some diyas in the evening. And is there a celebration without sweets and snacks?

This is the first time I tried to make Boondhi Ladoo and I should say, it was not as tough as I thought. It came out perfect and it tasted delicious. Far better than store bought ones. Once you get the consistency of the syrup right, you will get perfect ladoos.

This recipe yields about 20 ladoos.

Ingredients:

Besan Floor- 2 cups
Yellow food color - a pinch
Water - 2 cups approximately
Oil - to deep fry

For the Syrup:

Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 1 1/2 cups
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Saffron - few strands
Yellow Food Color - a pinch

Cashew nuts- few roasted in ghee

Method:

First start preparing the sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water. Also add saffron and yellow food color. Let it boil and reach the single string consistency. Best way to check this- take a bowl of water and drop a little sugar syrup in it, the syrup should not dissolve and you should be able to form a soft ball out of the syrup with your hand. Remove the syrup from heat as soon as it reaches the single string consistency.
In the meantime, prepare the batter for the boondhi with the ingredients mentioned. Add little water at a time. My besan flour required approximately 2 cups of water. It really depends on the texture of the besan floor you use. So add water till you get a thick dosa batter consistency.
Heat oil in a wide frying pan. Pour a spoon full(I used a kuli karandi) of batter in a perforated laddle and let the batter pass through the perforations by moving the spoon in a circular motion. Take the boondhis out before they turn very crispy. You should not fry it till golden brown.
Remove the fried boondhis and drop it in the warm sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should still be warm.
Repeat the same with the rest of the batter. You should wipe the perforated spoon clean before starting each batch of frying. Otherwise the perforations will be covered with batter from the previous batch and you will not get good shaped boondhis. I used the boondhis from the last batch to make a coarse powder before I dropped it in the syrup.
Let the boondhis stay in the syrup for about 15 to 20 minutes. The sugar syrup should be in a temperature for you to handle with your hands. Add cardamom powder and fried cashew nuts.
Start making ladoos out of the boondhi and syrup mixture. The ladoos will still be a little loose. It will take about an hour to firm up.

If handled properly the ladoos will stay for up to 4 days in air tight containers. You can also refrigerate it up to a week. But ladoos taste good at room temperature. So, if you keep them in the refrigerator, allow it to come to room temperature before you serve.

I wish all my readers a Very Happy and a Safe Diwali.

I am sending this entry to the following events

Diwali Special - Sweets & Savories event by Radhika
Serve It - Festival Potluck event by Denny & Krithi
My Diwali My way event by Khushi
Diwali - Festival of Lights event by Anu

Beetroot Curry

2011-10-19T03:51:00.001-04:00

When I saw my dad eat this beetroot curry with rotis, I was shocked. He is a very picky eater when it comes to vegetables and I have never seen him eating beetroots till then. My mother-in-law made this curry and so I thought, my dad ate this without having any other option. After he got up from the lunch table, I went to him quickly and asked how he ate the beetroot curry. He replied with a smile in his face “It was really good”. I grew up seeing him and he was my role model even for my eating habits. So I wanted to try it out for myself and I loved the taste. From then on, this beetroot curry visits our kitchen every once in a while.

Ingredients:

Beetroot-1 large, peeled and chopped finely
Oil- 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Tomato- 1 chopped finely
Moong dhal- 1 fistful
Salt - to taste

To grind:

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 3

Fennel seeds/Saunf -2 teaspoons

Green chilli- 3

Method:

Make a fine paste of the ingredients under the To grind section and keep it aside.
In a pressure cooker, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
After it splutters add the finely chopped onions and let it saute till it becomes soft.
Now add the tomatoes and saute for a minute.
Add the washed moong dhal and give it a quick stir.
Add the chopped beetroot along with the ground mixture. Add salt and water if needed. The consistency should not be too watery nor too thick.
Pressure cook till one whistle and switch off the heat. Check for consistency after the pressure is released and serve with rotis.

Vegetable Cutlet

2011-10-05T10:14:00.001-04:00

Last night I set the alarm in my cell phone and went to sleep. For some reason, my phone decided to switch off on its own. Today morning, I jumped out of bed, panicked to see the clock read 6:45 AM. But luckily, today is Pizza day at school and I managed to pack lunch for me and my husband with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. This story has nothing to do with this post, just another reason for me to use the drafts which is my blog saver :-) .

Ingredients:

Carrots, beans, cauliflower – 2 cups chopped
Peas – ½ cup
Potatoes – 2 large
Onion – 1 large finely chopped
Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tablespoon
Green Chillies – 3 finely chopped
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – to taste
Egg – 1 optional
Breadcrumbs – 2 cups (for the coating)
Oil – To fry
Cilantro leaves – ¼ cup chopped finely

Method:

Cook the potatoes in a pressure cooker and mash it with a fork and leave it aside.
In a pan, add the chopped vegetable, just enough water to soak the vegetable, salt, turmeric, 1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and cook it till all the water is evaporated. Keep it aside.
In a heavy bottomed pan, add a tablespoon of oil. Once it becomes hot, add the chopped onions, remaining ginger garlic paste, salt and green chilies. Sauté till the raw smell goes away.
Now add the cooked vegetable and the mashed potato. Combine well. Add peas and let it cook for a minute or so. Remove from heat. Let it cool down a little bit, so that you can make cutlets out of this mixture. Check for salt and spices and adjust if needed.
Once the mixture cools down a little bit, add chopped cilantro leaves. The mixture should be firm enough to make cutlets. If the mixture is too loose, add more potatoes or I use a little bit of breadcrumbs.
In a bowl, beat an egg and leave it aside. If you do not want to use egg, mix maida with water to make dosa batter like consistency and leave it aside.
Have the breadcrumbs in a plate or bowl to coat the breadcrumbs
Take a handful of the vegetable mixture and make shapes of your choice. Dip it in the egg bowl or the maida liquid. Then, place the cutlet in the breadcrumbs and coat it completely.
Repeat it for the rest of the vegetable mixture and deep fry it till golden brown.

Serve it with Ketchup.

Back to Life Back to Reality and a Recipe

2011-09-29T04:13:00.044-04:00

Back from a wonderful trip to India a week ago. We are still settling in. We managed to have as much fun we could have in the three weeks time. This trip was all about my little one spending time with the family. He sure was pampered to the core by grandparents from both sides of the family and I am glad he experienced it.

I was not in a mood to cook anything fancy last week. This is when drafts come in handy and I am using one of my recipes from draft.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 lb
Onion - 1 big chopped finely
Tomato - 1 small chopped finely
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry Leaves - few
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Green Chillies - 3 or 4 slitted
Fresh ground pepper - 1 tablespoon
Salt - as needed

Method:

In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves once the oil gets hot.
Add Onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste and saute till all the raw smell goes away.
Add tomatoes and wait till it gets mushy and soft.
Now add the chicken pieces and give it a quick stir.
Add a little water, cover the pan and cook the chicken until it is just about done.
Once the chicken is cooked, wait till most of the water is absorbed.
Add freshly ground black pepper and mix it well. Wait till oil separates from the chicken.

Serve it with fresh rotis or over rice.