Welcome to "nanna jagatthu"

Goli baje

2020-06-20T22:56:00.000+05:30

Goli baje is one of the famous snack items of DK district of Karnataka. Easy to prepare and instant too.

Ingredients

Maida/All purpose flour - 3 cups
Curd - 2 cups (curd with light sour taste gives the great taste to Goli baje)
Water - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2 small spoons
Baking soda - 1/2 spoon
Green chilly - 2 no.s(Used very hot chilly, so used just two.)
Cumin seeds - 1 small spoon
Salt as per taste

Oil to deep fry

Method

1. Mix Maida, Salt, Suagr, Cumin seeds, finely chopped green chillies, baking Soda well.

2. Add curd and water to the above mixture and blend it so as to prepare a thick batter. The consistency of batter should be thicker than Idli batter or can say it should be like cake batter.
(If batter is too thick, Golibaje becomes little hard and if the batter is too thin, its difficult to put into oil and it absorbs more oil.)

3. Now time to deep fry them. Heat the oil. Using your hands take a small portion of batter, use your thumb to push the batter to the hot oil. Keep flipping them often so that it cooks uniformly. Fry it until turns to light brown and take them off (Keep the flame in medium once you push the batter to the oil.)

Serve hot Goli baje with Coconut chutney.

Mangalore buns

2020-06-07T10:41:00.002+05:30

This dish is icon of Mangalore can say. Though it looks big you just can't stop at one. Some people do prepare it with wheat flour nowadays being health conscious; but traditionally it is prepared with Maida.
Chutney/Sambar can be used as a dip for this.

Ingredients

Maida - 4 cup
Sugar - 1.5 cup (or can take 1 or 1.25 cup if you don't want it to be sweet.)
Ripened large Cavendish Bananas - 4
Baking soda - 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Salt for taste
Oil for deep frying

Method

1. Peel off the bananas and mash it.

2. Add cumin seeds and Sugar, mix it well.

3. Add 2 cups of Maida and soda; knead it well. It will be very sticky, don't worry. (Do not use any water while kneading.)

4. Keep it aside for minimum 5 hours

5. After 5 hours, dough will be semi liquid. Again add two cups of Maida and mix it. Do not knead it using more pressure. If done so, bananas ooze out more liquid and you may require more maida than mentioned. Keep aside for 5 minutes. (At this stage also, dough will be sticky; don't worry)

6. Grease your palms with oil, take a big lemon sized dough; roll it to flat shape of palm size using maida for dusting. If you feel difficulty to roll it, can use your hands to make it flat also. Thickness must be around 0.25 cm. Thickness can be less than this but not more than 0.25 cms.

7. Deep fry in oil in high flame flipping both sides. It cooks soon just like pooris.

Have it with chutney/sambar.

Majjige huli/ Melaara (type 2)

2020-06-07T10:32:00.001+05:30

Hi all.....
Already I have posted a type of majjigehuli (Mangalorian style) and you can see it here. This is another version or type of Mangalorian style majjigehuli. Though this version taste the best with Suvarna Gedde (Elephant foot yam), you can use any vegetable of your choice.

(Tip: If you use Elephant foot yam for any recipe, do not add Tamarind while cooking since it hinders the yam to cook properly. )

Ingredients

Chopped Suvarna Gedde - 1/2 kg
Sour butter milk - 1 cup ((If you don't have butter milk, beat the curd and add little water to get butter milk consistency and then use. Always Majjigehuli tastes the best with sour curd/butter milk. If curd or butter milk is not sour enough, add a piece of tamarind to the coconut while grinding)
Grated coconut - 2 cup
Red chillies - 4 to 5 (I used Byadagi red chilly which is rich in colour but not too hot. Please use the red chillies as per your taste)
Raw rice - 1 spoon
Salt for taste
Oil - 3 spoons
Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Fenugreek seeds - 1 spoon
Curry leaves - around 10 leaves

Method

1. Cook chopped yam with little water and salt. Add sour butter milk to it and keep aside as shown in picture.

2. Slightly fry two red chillies in a spoon of oil, add it to grated Coconut (Add a small pice of Tamarind if butter milk/curd is not sour.) and grind it to a very fine paste.

3. Add the ground paste to the cooked yam; mix well; add salt if required; bring it to boil and turn off the stove (Do not boil too much, once bubbles are seen at the edges, turn off the stove.)

4. Now time to season it. Take a seasoning pan/laddle, add 2 spoons of oil. heat and add mustard. Once mustard starts spluttering add fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and broken red chillies.

Yummy yam Melaara is ready to be served with rice.

Mangalore style Gasi

2020-05-24T08:21:00.000+05:30

Gasi is nothing but the Mangalorean spicy curry used as a side dish along with Poori, Roti, Chapathi etc. The speciality is that we don't use any strong flavoured spices like Clove, Cinnamon etc. Instead we use the same spices what we use for Sambar with couple of other ingredients which makes it special. Any combination of vegetable which you like is fine for this. Though it is norm to prepare it using soaked Green Peas and Potato combo, I have used bunch of vegetables.

Ingredients

To prepare masala paste
Coconut oil - 4 spoons (You can use any oil of your choice.)
Red chillies - 3 to 4 (Vary it according to your taste)
Coriander seeds - 1 spoon
Jira - 1/4 spoon
Methi / Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 spoon
Garlic - 8 to 10 cloves
Onion - 1 medium size
Coconut grated - 1/2 part of a small coconut
Curry leaves - 5 to 6
Garam masala - 1 small spoon (Optional, just for flavour)
Peppercorn - 4 to 5
Mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon

For Gasi
Chopped vegetables - Almost 1 kg (Vegetables I used are finely chopped Beans, Carrot, Cabbage and Potato)
Onion - 1 medium sized
Tomato - 2 medium sized
Curry leaves - 5 to 6
Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Coconut oil - 4 spoons (Use oil of your choice)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon
Salt for taste

Method

Cook all the chopped vegetables with little salt and keep aside
Take a pan, add 4 spoons of oil and heat it. Add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add red chillies and chopped onion. Fry until the onion changes its color.
Then add Coriander seeds, Jira and Methi, fry for few seconds
Add curry leaves, garlic cloves, pepper corn and fry for few seconds.
Now add grated coconut and fry until the color of coconut changes slightly.
Finally add a spoon of garam masala and tranfer everything to a mixer jar and allow it to cool
Once cooled, grind it to a fine paste.
Now in a pan, add 4 spoons of oil, heat and splutter the mustard seeds.
Add chopped onion and curry leaves, fry until it changes the color
Add chopped tomatoes and fry until it is cooked properly
Add turmeric powder and salt for taste.
To this fried mixture, add the masala paste prepared at step 7 and little water and bring it to boil
Finally add the cooked vegetables to this boiling mixture, mix it well and continue to boil for 5 minutes.

After five minutes, switch off the flame, allow it to settle for few minutes and then savour with Chapathi/Poori/Dosa anything of your choice.

Kodubale

2020-05-24T08:05:00.001+05:30

Kodubale is one of Karnataka's most famous crisps. Usually it is prepared in festivals along with Chakli/Chakkuli. It is my favourite too.
Once prepared can be stored minimum 10 days without any changes in it. Long storage would be difficult as we use coconut in it.

Ingredients
Rice flour - 3 cups
Maida - 1 cup
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Red Chillies - 3 to 4 (Vary according to your taste. In our house, we like it to be medium savory. Please vary the numbers of Chillies according to your taste.)
Asafoetida/Hing/Ingu - 1/2 spoon
Oil - 1/2 cup

Oil in a Kadai - to deep fry

Method

Dry roast Red Chillies along with Mustard. Put it in a mixer jar and allow it to cool
To the same jar, add Coconut and Asafoetida. Using little water grind it to fine paste.
Put this paste into a large bowl/vessel, add Maida and Rice flour.
Before mixing, heat 1/2 cup of oil and put on top of the flour in the bowl.
Add salt according to taste and mix everything and knead it to form a dough. Add little water to prepare dough if required. The consistency of the dough should be such that when you make a small stick shape out of it; it shouldn't break. So minimum 10 minutes of kneading is must.
Now close the bowl and allow the dough to settle down for 10 minutes.
Take a big plate, keep it upside down.
Take a very small portion of dough, roll it to form a long shape first on the back of plate as shown in picture and then join the edges to get a circle shape. (You can take Nellikayi/Indian Gooseberry sized portion. Make sure to prepare thin rings out of dough otherwise it takes much time to cook inside or sometimes it doesn't cook well from inside.)
Deep fry in oil with continuous stirring in medium flame until you get dark brown color. Then transfer it to a bowl with tissue paper/News paper. Allow it to cool.
Once cooled, store it in airtight container.

Crispy Kodabales are ready to be savored. !!

Karjikaayi / Karigadubu

2020-05-06T18:59:00.000+05:30

Karjikaayi / Karigadubu

This is very famous sweet dish of Karnataka. It is mostly prepared during Ganesha festival as it is believed that lord Ganesha likes it :-)
In olden days, it was prepared without using any moulds. Later, plastic moulds arrived in market and now a days everybody use the same. Even if you don't have a one, don't worry; I have shown preparing a karjikayi using mould and without using mould. So here we go !!

Ingredients

For dough
Maida - 2 cups
Chiroti Rava - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Salt for taste

For filling
Desiccated coconut - 1
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
White sesame seeds - 1/4 cup

Oil to deep fry

Method

1. Mix Maida, Chiroti Rava and salt.

2. Heat 1/2 cup of oil and pour it on mixed flours. Mix it well.

3. Add water little by little, knead it well. Prepare a dough of consistency like the one we prepare for Pooris.

4. Keep the dough aside for 10 minutes by covering it with a lid.

5. Grate the desiccated coconut. Mix it with Sesame seeds and sugar powder.

6. Now make small lemon sized balls and roll it to a small disc of your palm size.

7. Fill the rolled disc with a spoon of filling prepared as explained in step 5.

8. Moist the edges of the disc with water as shown in pictures so that we can seal the edges properly. If the edges are not sealed properly, then when you deep fry it, all the fillings will be lost in oil.
So be careful.

9. Deep fry the sealed Karjikaayi in mid flame so that you get nice brown colour on both the sides.

Karjikaayi is ready to be served.

Nippattu

2020-05-06T18:30:00.003+05:30

Nippattu is a Karnataka special. Can be eaten as snacks with tea/Coffee also with meals as Papad. It is very yummy as well as rich in protein. It doesn't take much time to prepare.

Ingredients
Maida/All purpose flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Ground nuts - 1/4 cup
Puffed grams - 1/4 cup
Sesame - 1/4 cup
Curry leaves - 2 strands full
Hot oil - 1/2 cup
Salt for taste
Oil - For deep frying

Method

1. Wash and chop the curry leaves

2. Dry roast Ground nuts until its skin gets black patches here and there. Then allow it to cool.

3. Dry roast sesame until it splutters and allow it to cool

4. Grind Ground nuts, sesame and puffed gram to a coarse powder. (Dont make it too fine powder.)

5. Mix Maida, Rice flour, curry leaves, Salt and coarsely ground powder.

6. Pour 1/4 cup of hot oil and mix well.

7. Add water little by little and prepare a dough by kneading. The dough's consistency must be such that you should be able to prepare a ball out of it and when you flatten it, it should not break.

8. Once dough is ready, prepare Lemon sized balls out of the dough, press it at the centre and get a flat shape.

9. Deep fry in oil flipping it now and then until you get nice brown colour on both the sides.

Nippattu is ready to be served !!

Coloured Cucumber stir fry (Banna Southe palya)

2015-08-11T17:56:00.001+05:30

This stir fry is usually prepared in Mangalore region of karnataka. Colored cucumber is also known as Mangalooru Southe kaayi in Karnataka. Since this type of Cucumber is bit tangy in taste, we add bit of jaggery. So it turns out a tangy sweety and hot stir fry.

Ingredients

Half part of coloured Cucumber
Grated Coconut - 2 to 3 spoons
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt
Red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - 4 t o5
Split black gram dal / Urad dal - 1 spoon
Jaggery - size of an almond

Method

1. Wash and chop the Cucumber as shown in picture 1.

2. In a vessel, put chopped Cucumber, cover the lid and allow it to cook in small flame. (Water is not required as Cucumber itself has water content in it.)

3. When half cooked, add turmeric, jaggery, grated Coconut and Salt. Mix well and cover the lid again. If water content is completely dried out, you can add 3 to 4 table spoons of water.

4. Once it is cooked, season it. For seasoning, heat 2 tea spoons of oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add urad dal. When urad dal is about to change the colour, add red chilly pieces and curry leaves. Finally put it over cooked Cucumber.

5. Mix well and cover the lid for half a second and switch off the flame.

Southe palya is ready, You can savour it with hot rice.

Thilisaaru /Rasam powder

2015-07-30T19:53:00.001+05:30

I am here after a very long time. :-)
Have come with the recipe of Thilisaaru/Rasam powder in Mangalorian style.
In karnataka, hot thilisaaru is the famous main course along with hot rice and a spoon of ghee on top of it. It is known as Rasam in Tamilnadu, chaaru in Andhra.
With the same powder we can prepare saaru nearly 5 to 6 types and I am going to share all those recipes with you all one by one.

Ingredients
Dry red chillies - 1/4 Kg ( I prefer to use Badagi chilly which is medium hot but gives rich red color. If you want rasam to be more hot can use Guntoor chilly. Guntoor chilly does not give rich red color but is very hot in taste.)
Corainder seeds - 1/4 Kg
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 100 g
Fenugreek seeds - 25g
Asafoetida/Hing - 1 big spoon
Currly leaves - 1 to 11/2 fist
Oil - 1 to 2 spoons

Method

1. In a kadai, heat oil and roast red chillies. It is done when chillies increase in size, change thier color lightly and you can feel its aroma.

2. Dry roast curry leaves until leaves become crisp.

3. Dry roast Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Fenugreek seeds separately until they change in color lightly.

4. Add all the roasted items along with Hing and grind to fine powder.

Yes!! Rasam powder is ready to use. You can store this powders in an air tight container for many months.
The above said ingredients will give you a powder which is sufficient for around 6 months (of course it depends on the usage of it :-) ).

Badampuri

2014-03-09T17:39:00.000+05:30

I like this triangular shaped sweet very much. The sweetness can be brought either by dipping the triangles in Sugar syrup or sprinkling the Sugar powder. I like the latter one.

Ingredients
Maida / All purpose flour - 2 cups.
Salt - a pinch
Hot Ghee - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil for deep frying.

To prepare Sugar syrup
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

OR

To prepare Sugar powder
Sugar - 1 cup

Method

1. Mix hot Ghee, Salt and Maida as shown in 1st picture. Then add water little by little and prepare the dough as shown in 2nd picture. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

2. Mean while, mix Sugar and water in separate vessel and heat it until you get single thread consistency. OR powder the Sugar and keep aside.
(To check single thread consistency, take a drop of boiling Sugar syrup, touch it carefully with your index finger, press it with your thumb and release. If you can see a thread between your fingers, it is ready.)

3. Now, make small lemon sized balls of the prepared dough. Roll them into circle shape first. Grease oil on it and fold. Again grease with oil and fold. Yes, now you got triangle, right?
Now gently press it, to make it little bigger triangles.

4. Deep fry the triangles in oil, put hot triangles in Sugar syrup and immediately take it out. OR just roll them in Sugar powder and take it out. (Both sides should get Sugarcoated.)

Badampuri is ready !.

Jeera and Pepper Rasam/Saaru

2014-01-30T12:44:00.001+05:30

This is one of my favorite recipes. It goes well with hot rice. You can consume this as soup also. When you have common cold and do not feel like eating anything, try this Rasam with hot rice. You will love it. :-)

Ingredients
Pepper powder - 1/2 spoon Or Pepper seeds - 8 to 10 (You can increase the quantity if you want Rasam to be more hot)
Cumin powder - 1/2 spoon Or Whole Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Tamarind - 1/4 inch
Jaggery - 1/4 inch (Optional)
Water - 2 cups medium sized
Salt
Garlic cloves - 8 to 10
Currly leaves - 5 to 6
Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Oil - 1 spoon (Coconut oil preferred)

Method

1. Put Pepper powder, Jeera/Cumin powder, Turmeric powder, Tamarind and Jaggery in a vessel and add water. Boil the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes.
If you are using whole Pepper and Cumin, then crush them before and then mix with other ingredients.

2. When it reaches the boiling point, add Salt according to taste and boil for 2 minutes. Switch off the flame.

3. In a pan, heat oil and add Garlic cloves. Fry them until they change color slightly. Then add Curry leaves and Mustard seeds. When Mustard splutters, add it to the boiled liquid.
Hot Pepper and Jeera Rasam is ready.

Garlic and Peanuts chutney powder

2014-01-26T23:12:00.003+05:30

Ingredients
Peanuts/Ground nuts (Shenga) - 1/2 cup
Grated desiccated Coconut (Copra) - 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 6 to 7 (vary asper taste)
Garlic - 15 to 20 cloves
Salt

Method
Note: All the items should be roasted separately and only till it changes the original color.

1. Dry roast Peanuts and when it is warm enough, rub it and remove the outer skin. Keep aside.

2. Dry roast desiccated Coconut and allow it to cool.

3. Chop Garlic and dry roast and allow it to cool.

4. Dry roast red chilly and keep aside for cooling.

5. Once all the items are cooled, mix together adding enough Salt and make it to a fine powder.

Chutney powder ready :-)
Serve with hot rice and ghee/Coconut oil.

Tips: Some people like if Peanuts are coarsely powdered. If you don't want it to be a fine powder, then first grind Red chilly and Garlic together to a fine powder. Then add desiccated Coconut and Peanuts. Again make it a coarse powder.

Veg Pulao using homemade masala paste

2014-01-26T13:53:00.000+05:30

Ingredients
Spices required to prepare masala paste
Grated Coconut - 3 spoons
Cilantro (Also known as Coriander leaves) - around 10 strands
Mint leaves (Pudina) - around 10 leaves
Ginger - almost 1 inch
Garlic - around 4 to 5
Cinnamon piece - 2 inches
Clove - 4 to 5
Black pepper - 4 to 5
Green chilly - 2 (vary according to taste)
Turmeric powder - a pinch

Rice - 1 medium cup
Oil - 5 to 6 spoons
Cinnamon leaf (Tej patta) - 1 to 2
Beans - around 10
Carrot - 1 medium sized
Green peas - 1/2 fist
Potato - 1 medium sized
Salt

Note: I have used less oil so that Pulao is little dry. If you want can increase the oil quantity according to your taste.

Method
1. Grind all the spices mentioned under 'Ingredients' section to a fine paste by adding little water.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add Cinnamon leaf and ground paste. Saute it until all the water content is dried up and oil leaves out of paste. It looks like the one shown in picture 1.

3. Now mix masala paste, chopped vegetables (Carrot, Potato, Beans and Green Peas), rice, Salt and water enough to cook them all in a cooker as shown in picture 2.

4. Once it is cooked, Veg Pulao is ready to serve :-)

Serve Veg Pulao with Tomato and Onion Raita

Rave/Rava Rotti

2014-01-25T11:17:00.004+05:30

This dish is called as "Sajjige Rotti" in Mangalore region of Karnataka where "Sajjige" means "Rava" in Mangalore side.

Ingredients

Onion - 1 small sized

Curry leaves - 10 to 15

Semolina / Rava - 1 big cup

Water - 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup

Salt

Method

1. Chop Onion and Curry leaves.

2. Mix chopped Onion, Curry leaves, Salt, Rava and water in a vessel as shown in picture 1.

3. Grease a spoon of oil on pan and heat it.

3. Take a scoop of prepared batter and spread it over the greased pan as shown in picture 2.

4. Put little oil on top of spread batter. Do not cover the pan. Cook both the sides.

Serve Rava Rotti with Coconut chutney.

Tips to be followed:

1. Cook Rotti on medium flame. Otherwise it may get burnt.

2. If you want Rotti to be soft, after mixing the ingredients in vessel keep it aside for 2 to 3 minutes. Also cover Rotti with lid while cooking.

Musk Melon/Karabooja juice

2013-04-11T21:56:00.000+05:30

What a color !!!

Ingredients
Musk Melon - 1
Sugar - 2 spoons (Optional)
Water - 3 to 4 medium sized glasses

Method
1. Peel off the outer skin and cut the fruit into small pieces.
2. Blend the fruit pieces with water and sugar for a minute.
3. After blending, filter out the juice.

Gorikaayi/Choulikaayi/Cluster Beans dry curry

2013-04-11T21:50:00.002+05:30

Ready to be served.

Ingredients
Gorikaayi / Cluster Beans - 1/4 Kg
Tomato - 2 medium sized
Red chilly powder - 1/2 spoon (vary as per taste)
Salt
Oil - 1 spoon
Mustard - 1 small spoon

Method
1. Chop Gorikaayi into small pieces, cook and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard.
3. When mustard splutters, add chopped tomatoes. salt. and chilly powder.
4. Fry until Tomato pieces are cooked.
5. Add kept aside cooked Gorikaayi to the pan which contains cooked Tomatoes.
6. Mix well and keep it on medium flame for a minute. Now it is ready.

Palya/Dry curry is ready. Hmmm..easy one..what do you say?

Watermelon juice

2013-03-24T14:27:00.000+05:30

Yes of course everybody would have eaten Watermelon as a fruit, but have you ever tried to prepare yummy juice and have it?

If not, try this recipe today itself. :-)

Ingredients (To prepare 1 glass of juice)

Watermelon 1 inch long pieces - 10 to 15

Pepper powder - 1/4 spoon

Sugar - 1/2 spoon (Optional)

Salt - a pinch

Method

1. Put Watermelon pieces into a grinding jar and grind it.

2. Put Pepper powder, Sugar (Optional) and Salt into a vessel and add ground Watermelon.

3. Stir it and filter it out to a glass and refrigerate for few minutes.

Have it chilled. Yes it rocks :-)

Nimbu/Lemon juice

2013-03-24T14:19:00.001+05:30

Hmmm...How is the summer in your place? It is very sunny over here. Can not go out in noon time. I feel like keep on drinking something or the other in this really hot weather.
It is damn boring to drink water all the time whenever feel dry, so have tried out various types of juices. And will be giving the recipes here one by one. Try it, cool your body and mind.

Nimbu juice

Ingredients (For 1 glass of Lemon juice)
1/2 part of medium sized Lemon
1 to 2 spoons of sugar
A pinch of salt
Water in a medium sized glass
Elaichi/Cardamom - 1

Method

1. Squeeze juice of the 1/2 part of Lemon into a vessel.

2. Put Sugar and Salt into the same vessel.

3. Crush the cardamom and add to the vessel.

4. Add water and stir continuously until sugar gets dissolved.

5. Filter the stirred content to a glass and refrigerate for few minutes.

It feels like heaven to have chilled juice. :-)

Veg Pulao using masala powder

2013-02-28T21:59:00.000+05:30

I have tasted pulao so many times in different places. But I did not have Pulao of same taste anywhere.
Here I am going to give the recipes of Pulao variaties whichever I know and will be posting whichever I learn. :-)
Do try each of them and enjoy :-)

Today for breakfast I prepared Veg Pulao using ready made masala powders. It turned really delicious. So first in the list, I am writing that recipe itself.

Pic1. Masala paste

Pic2. Cut vegetables

Pic3. Vegetables added with Masala paste

Pic4. Pulao ready

Ingredients
Note: Whatever powders listed below, the quantity can be varied according to your taste.

Spice powders
Garam masala - 1/2 spoon
Coriander powder - 1/4 spoon
Jeera / Cumin powder - 1/4 spoon
Red chilly powder - 1/4 spoon
Turmeric powder - less than 1/4 spoon
Vegetables required
Can use any vegetables, but Pulao tastes delicious only if following vegetables are present in it. :-)
French beans - 5 to 6
Potato - 1 small
Carrot - 1 small
Green peace - 1 fist
Cauliflower (Optional) - 3 to 4 strands

Ginger-Garlic paste - 1/4 spoon
White Rice - 1 to 1 1/2 medium sized cup.
Curd - 3 to 4 spoons

Oil - 5 to 6 spoons
Salt

Method

1. Mix all the spice powders with curd to a paste as shown in picture 1 and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a cooker and add Ginger-Garlic paste. Fry until raw smell is gone.
3. Add the masala paste prepared and fry until the color changes to dark brown lightly.
4. Add all the chopped vegetables and mix it with fried paste and fry for few seconds as shown in picture 3.
5. Add washed white rice, water and salt. Cook everything together.
(Note: Add little more water than usual since we have added vegetables along with the rice.)

Once cooked, Vegetable Pulao is ready. Serve it with Raitha.

Veg raitha

2013-02-28T21:37:00.000+05:30

Raitha can used as a side with almost all the rice items. I prepared this when I prepared Pulao in the morning for breakfast.

Ingredients
Tomato - 1 small
Onion - 1 small
Cucumber - 1/2
Fresh curd - 2 medium sized cups
Salt

Method
1. Finely Chop all the vegetables and keep it in a vessel.
2. Add fresh curd and Salt. If curd is too thick, add little water and mix well.

Raitha ready.

Rasayana

2013-02-23T15:41:00.000+05:30

Rasayana is a sweet dish, can be used as a side to dosa/roti/chapati etc. Generally this is prepared using either of Banana, Apple or Mango. Yes of course, you can prepare Rasayana of mixed fruits as well.

I prepared Banana Rasayana and used as a side with dosa.
You can keep it in refrigerator for some time and can have as dessert too. Choice is yours :-)

You can prepare this within minutes if coconut milk is readily available. I have used ready made coconut milk. If you want to make it yourself or if you don't get coconut milk in shops, then follow the below procedure to prepare coconut milk:

Take one full coconut, grate it and grind it with little water.
Pour it on a clean cotton cloth.
Put small amount of water and squeeze untill all the water content is drained out of coconut.

Coconut milk is ready !!
you can repeat step 3, as long as you can get milk by squeezing it. But remember, the first time squeezed out milk will be thick and thickness reduces as you repeat the step 3.

Ok, now lets see how to prepare mouth watering Rasayna.

Banana Rasayana

Ingredients
Chopped Banana - 2 to 3 cups (I used 3 medium sized cavendish Banana.)
Grated Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Coconut milk of medium thickness - 2 cups
Salt - small pinch
Til / Sesame seeds - 1 spoon
Ghee - 1 spoon

Method
1. Put chopped Banana, grated Jaggery, salt and Coconut milk in a vessel.

2. Heat Ghee in a small pan and put Sesame seeds in it. Once it splutters lightly and turns to golden brown, take it off the flame.

3. Put the fried Sesame seeds into the vessel which contains mixture of Banana, Jaggery and Coconut milk. Mix well.

This is it..easy right ?? Then what are you waiting for ..? do try this on your free time. :-)

Bhindi tawa curry

2013-02-10T18:22:00.004+05:30

I was buying Okra/Bhindi very occasionally as it needs more oil to get cooked. Today I found a simple way to cook it using very very little oil and that too within few minutes. Since this experiment of mine is successful, I have decided to buy Okra (Lady's finger) very often now :-) .

Are you thinking what is the special way of cooking Okra? Ok, let me tell you, it is nothing but cooking Okra on tawa. Surprised ?? hmm..but it works :-) .

1. Bhindi on heated tawa

2. Cooked Bhindi

Bhindi tawa Curry

Mouth watering Curry ready !!

Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Okra/Bhindi - 1/4 Kg
Tomato - 1 big sized
Red chilly powder - 1/4 spoon (vary as per taste)
Salt
Coriander powder - 1/2 spoon
Jeera / Cumin powder - 1/2 spoon
Mustard - 1 spoon
Oil - 2 to 3 spoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon

Method

1. Wash Bhindi, wipe all water content using a clean cloth. Cut all Bhindi into 1 inch pieces and make a slit in each piece.

2. Grease a tawa with 1 to 2 spoon of oil and heat it. Place all the slit Bhindi pieces on it as shown in pic 1 and close it with a lid.

Open the lid for every few seconds and flip over the pieces. The Okra is cooked when it's sides turn bit black with small bubbles on them as shown in pic 2.

3. Take a kadai, put 1 spoon of oil, add mustard. When it splutters, add chopped Tomato pieces and fry it.

When Tomato pieces are half cooked, add salt, Turmeric powder, red chilly powder, Jeera powder and coriander powder. On top of it add Bhindi pieces and mix well.

4. Keep it on the flame for few seconds and then take it off the flame.

Now the Bhindi tawa curry (as shown in pic 3) is ready to eat. Serve hot with Chapati/Roti/rice.

Capsicum rice

2013-02-10T14:14:00.003+05:30

When I get Capsicums from market, usually I prepare curry/sambar/Bajji. But this time I thought of preparing rice item using Capsicum. My friend's mother use to prepare Capsicum rice always. Believe me it is really delicious :-)
Do try this when you get Capsicum next time.

Yummy Capsicum rice

Ingredients
Raw white rice - 1 medium size cup (After cooking, rice should be suffice for 2 persons)
Capsicum - 1 medium size
Onion - 1 medium size
Tomato - 1 medium size
Oil - 3 to 4 spoons
Mustard - 1 spoon
Red chilly powder - 1/2 spoon (Vary according to taste)
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon

Method
1. Cook the rice and keep aside.

2. In a kadai, put mustard into heated oil. When it splutters, add chopped onion and capsicum. Fry until it is cooked.

3. Now add chopped tomato, little salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and fry until tomato is mashed.

4. Add cooked rice to this, add salt if required and mix it well.

Capsicum rice is ready to serve !!.

When you are bored of doing same old rice items, try this new one for a change :-)

Onion/Eerulli pakoda

2012-11-24T21:19:00.004+05:30

Pic1. Onion in Besan dough

Pic2. Pakoda ready !!

Ingredients
Besan/Kadale hittu/Gram flour - 2 cups (medium size cup)
Onion - 2 (Big size)
Hing/Asafoetida - 1/2 spoon
Red chilly powder - 1/2 spoon (vary as per taste)
Salt - as per taste
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil - to fry

Method

1. Cut onions into long thin slices and keep aside.

2. Now mix cut onions with everything listed above and make a dough as shown in the pic 1.

3. Then take a big spoonful of dough each time and deep fry in hot oil in medium flame.

4. When it turns golden brown, take out.

It is ready to serve :-)

Heere Kai / Ridge Gourd Hulisoppu

2012-09-16T20:03:00.001+05:30

Hiii...after a long time I am here :-)
I saw a recipe given by Lakshmi Subrahmanya in Tharanga magazine. I tried it and it turned out delicious...Thanks Lakshmi madam :-)

I am presenting that recipe for you here.

Ingredients
Ridge gourd - 1/2
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
White Sesame seeds - 1 spoon
Jeera / Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Methid /Fenugreek seeds - 10 to 15
Red chilly - 3
Oil - 1 spoon
Mustard seeds - 1 small spoon
Salt - as per taste

Method
1. Cut the ridge gourd into pieces, cook it and let it cool.

2. Dry roast sesame, red chilly, Jeera and Methi seeds separately and allow it to cool.

3. Mix everything described in above 2 steps with grated coconut, Salt and grind it to fine paste.

4. Heat oil and put mustard seeds. Once Mustard splutters put this over the ground paste.

Holisoppu is ready !!! ..It really goes well with plain rice and chapathi.