Sharmis Passions

Easy Chana Masala - Chole Masala Recipe (without coconut)

2013-05-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Chana Masala is one dish I can never get bored of . I loved this easy method of pressure cooking everything together which I learnt from my aunt recently. I have already posted chana masala with coconut a while back and this is another version without coconut....Now you have your choice of choosing between the two :) This goes well poori , rotis or even any mild pulaos.

Chana Masala Recipe - Ingredients

Cooking Time: 30 mins Serves: 2 to 3

Chana - 3/4 cup
Big Onion - 1 small sized chopped finely
Red Chilli Powder - 1.5 tsp
Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
Garam masala (or) Chana Masala powder - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - just to garnish
Lemon juice - from half a lemon
Water - 2.5 cups in total
Salt - to taste

To saute and grind:
Oil - 2 tsp
Tomatoes - 3 medium sized chopped roughly
Big Onion - 1 medium sized chopped roughly
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 6 cloves

To temper:
Oil - 1.5 tbsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Bayleaf - 1/2
Garlic - 6 cloves
Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1.Soak chana overnight or atleast for 8 hours.Pressure cook chana with enough water(say 1.5 cups) for 5 whistles or until soft,Set aside.In a pan heat oil - add onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and saute till mushy and raw smell of tomatoes leaves. Allow it to cool, then add fennel seeds and pepper corns along with this in a mixer.

2.Grind it to a fine paste.Set aside. In a pressure cooker heat oil - add the items under 'to temper' then add onions and fry till golden brown.Then add the tomato onion paste.

3.Add the spice powders, mix well.Once the raw smell of masalas leave add chana along with the cooked water to this mixture and pressure cook for 1 whistle in medium flame

4.Once done, open and add more water if the gravy is too thick - I added remaining 1 cup water and allowed it to boil in sim for 5mins.Once oil seperates and desired consistency is reached, Garnish with coriander leaves,lemon juice and switch off.

Serve hot with bhatura / rotis!

My Notes:

Adjust water according to the consistency you want the gravy to be.
Pressure cook chana until soft as in the last stage we are going to cook for just 1 whistle. This way I find the masalas blend very well with chana.
I dont usually add chana maslaa powder, always use homemade garam masala powder instead.
Adding pepper is purely optional, if you dont like the flavour then just skip it.

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Garlic Rasam - Poondu Rasam | Easy Rasam Recipes

2013-05-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

Garlic Rasam is one of the very common rasam recipes(with no rasam powder) we often make especially for for those cold rainy days pairing it with rice, rasam, paruppu thogayal and apalam which makes the best comforting lunch combo! One of the very few recipes I learnt while I started cooking was rasam but still it took almost a year to confidently post it here as I wanted to perfect myself first before I share it to you :) I have already posted paruppu rasam recipe long back, but promise to post more rasam recipes often.

Garlic Rasam Recipe - Ingredients
Cooking Time: 30 mins Serves: 2

Tamarind - 1 small gooseberry size
Coriander leaves - a handful
Salt - to taste

To grind coarsely:
Garlic pearls - 5 small
Green Chillies - 1
Pepper Corns - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp

To temper:
Oil / Ghee - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Red Chillies - 2
Garlic pearls - 4 whole with skin
Tomato - 1 small chopped roughly

Method:
1.Grind the ingredients listed under 'to grind coarsely' to a coarse mixture.Set aside. Cursh the whole garlic with skin just roughly.

2.Soak tamarind in 1 .5cups of water and extract pulp.Add the coarsely ground mixture to this and mix well.Set aside.

3.In a pan - heat oil add the ingredient listed under 'to temper' saute for few mins till raw smell of tomato leaves.Add the tempered items to the tamarind mixture and heat it up.

4.Add required salt and let it simmer.When the rasam is frothy and about to boil, garnish with corainder leaves and switch off the flame immediately.

Serve hot with rice and any curry of your choice!

My Notes:

Just leave for a single rolling boil , dont let the rasam boil for more thats the main key to make a good rasam.

Dont make rasam in iron vessels, it will make the rasam taste change and sometimes bitter too

I love eating whole garlic so always add few while tempering.

You can even add 2-3 tbsp of cooked and mashed toor dal for extra flavour and thickness

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Bread Recipes | 15 Easy Bread Recipes For Kids

2013-05-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a collection of bread recipes:

Shahi TukdaEggless Savoury French ToastPaneer Bread Balls

Eggless Caramel PuddingEggless Sweet French ToastCheesy Corn Capsicum Sandwich

Chilli Cheese ToastMasala Bread UpmaBaked Bread Rolls
Bread PizzaBread Masala SandwichHomemade BreadCrumbs
Bread CupsOnion Mint SandwichBread Dahi Chaat

Sabudana Khichdi | Sago Recipes

2013-05-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

Sabudana khichdi is a popular vrat recipe with no onion and garlic.It is so filling for breakfast or even as a snack. I saw this recipe in a cookbook when I was having a pack of sago in hand so instantly tried it,. The crunch in the peanuts is the highlight of the recipe, do try this for yourself or for your kids.

Sabudana Khichdi Recipe - Ingredients
Cooking Time:30 mins Serves:2

Sago - 1 cup
Potato - 1 big sized
Peanuts (whole de-skinned) - 1/8 cup
Lemon juice - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander leaves - 1/2 tbsp chopped finely
Sugar - a small pinch (optional)
Salt - to taste

To temper:
Oil / Ghee - 1.5 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green Chillies - 1 chopped finely

Method:

1.Rinse sago well with water and soak sago overnight with enough water just to immerse it well...Dont add more else it will become mushy.After the mentioned time if you see the sago must have absorbed the water well and ig you press it with your fingers it will be soft, Set aside. Dry roast peanuts till golden brown then grind it coarsely.

2.Pressure cook potatoes until soft for 4-5 whistles, cube them and make it ready. In a pan - heat oil and add the items under 'to temper' let it splutter.Then add potatoes along with little salt, give a quick stir.Then add the sago pearls.

3.Keep cooking stirring it until the sago starts turning transparent.Take care not to mush it up and also make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom.Even if it starts sticking, just keep fluffing it up.Add crushed peanuts at this stage, give quick mix and switch off. Add lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot either as a teatime snack or for breakfast!

My Notes:

Take care while adding water to soak sago...this is a very important step....if you add more water then it will become mushy.If you are soaking in the mrg then you can check it now and then, fluff it up inbetween this gives nonsticky sago.

Make sure you switch off and leave 5mins before lemon juice is added else there are chances for the upma to turn bitter.

Toss the sago well to avoid sticking to the bottom.

Dont choose the nylon variety sago....the other bigger variety suits well for this upma.

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Sakkarai Pongal Recipe (Sweet Pongal Recipe) - Traditional Method

2013-05-15T04:39:00.001-07:00

Sakkarai Pongal (Chakkarai Pongal) is my fav...anything sweet I just cant resist. I have already posted a sweet pongal recipe with milk but saw this traditional temple style recipe with only jaggery from a chettinad book my athai gave me. Having tried this recipe many times now thought to share the recipe here. I made only a small quantity so made it in pressure cooker but will surely update this post with steps of the traditional pot method later.

Sweet Pongal Recipe - Ingredients
Cooking & Prep Time:45 mins Serves:2

Raw Rice - 1/2 cup heaped
Moong Dal(Pasi Paruppu) - 1/8 cup +1 tbsp
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Water - 3 cups(for cooking rice) + 1 and 1/4 cup(for jaggery syrup)
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cashews - 8 broken
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Edible camphor - a very tiny pinch (optional)
Cardamom powder - a pinch

>We use this vengala paanai(brass pot seen below) to make pongal on the festival day. Though in our native we used to make it in veragu aduppu(firewood oven)......through the days we have changed to gas stove but use the traditional pot to make the pongal. Now I have to keep up my promise to update the stepwise pics for the traditional pot method....hopefully by next pongal :) Now on to the recipe....

Method:

1.Dissolve jaggery in water, use hot water to dissolve easily. Then heat it up until for the remaining lumps to get dissolved, let it come to a rolling boil.

2.Switch off and strain to remove impurities.Then add edible camphor(a very tiny pinch not more than that), cardamom, set aside.

3.In a pressure cooker dry roast moong dal till golden brown.Then add rice and give a quick stir.

4.Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook for3-4 whistles until mushy.Mash it well.Then add jaggery syrup.

5.Add the jaggery syrup and cook well in medium flame for 5mins.If it starts getting dry add ghee and keep mixing till you get the pongal consistency.Finally add the ghee fried cashews,raisins and switch off.

Serve hot with ghee drizzled.
And this adds on to my fav clicks list :)

My Notes:

I used paagu velam to get the dark brown color. You can use normal jaggery too.

Pressure cooking time of rice depends on the variety of rice so adjust accordingly.New rice needs little lesser water whereas old rice requires more.

Pongal gets thicker in consistency after cooling down so switch off accordingly. If it get dry, while serving add little ghee and milk.

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