Aswini's Happy Cooking

Quick Chicken Curry

2017-02-12T18:20:00.000+11:00

I am ready to post a recipe finally after 2 years. Specially this one that can be done in 15 mins and calls for only few ingredients. This is a savior when you don't want to spend so much time in the kitchen. I will go direct to the recipe now.

Ingredients:
Chicken - 500 gm
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Ginger garlic paste - 1tbsp
Green chillies - 2
Coriander powder - 2 tbsp(i have used roasted)
CHilli powder - 1 tbsp
Jeera powder/ whole jeera - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp
Curry leaves, coriander & mint leaves to garnish
whole spices like cardamom,cloves, bay leaf & cinnamon stick
Salt to taste
Water

Method:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker or a pan & add the whole spices once the oil is hot.

Chop the onion & tomato finely. once the oil is hot saute the onion till transparent.

add the green chillies & ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes away. Add the chopped tomatoes & the masala powders and mix it well.

Finally add the chicken,salt & curry leaves and give a good mix with the masala. Cover & cook chicken until done. I normally use my pressure cooker & cook with 1/2 cup water for 3 whistles.

Vegetable Cutlet

2014-10-23T21:11:00.001+11:00

Today's evening time snack was Vegetable Cutlet. I added just carrot, beans and potato. But you can put your creativity and add as much types of vegetables you want. Its crunchy and crispy out but soft and spicy inside.

Ingredients:
Carrot - 2 medium
Beans - 20
Potatoes - 3 medium sized
Onion - 1 chopped
Coriander leaves - a bunch chopped
Green chillies - 2 chopped
Ginger and garlic - chopped 1 tbsp each
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Saunf/Perunjeeragam - 1 tbsp
Garam masala powder - 3/4 tbsp
Salt to taste and oil to deep fry
Bread crumbs and maida as needed

Method:
Chop the vegetables, boil and mash the potatoes and set it aside

Heat some oil in a pan.

Add some saunf to the oil and let it get roasted a bit

Then add the chopped green chillies, ginger and garlic.

Add the chopped onions once the garlic and ginger gets cooked

Add all the other vegetables except potatoes

Add all the masala powders and salt and give a good mix

Finally add the mashed potatoes and give a good mix.

At the same time, mix some maida with water and make a smooth batter.

Get ready with bread crumbs as well.

Let the stuffing get cooled.

Make small balls out of the mixture and flatten it into shapes you want.

Dip it in the batter on both sides to form like a layer.

Then dust it with bread crumbs

Get ready with everything like this.

Deep fry in oil and drain excess oil on kitchen towel.

Yummy cutlet is ready. Serve with any sauce you like.

Maavu Ladoo with nuts

2014-10-19T21:42:00.001+11:00

This is a healthy snack recipe specially for kids as it is made from whole wheat flour and nuts along with ghee. This post is specially for my friend Shalini who asked for some snack recipe for her son.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1.5 cup (depends on how sweet you want)
Nuts - 1 cup (I used almonds and cashew)
Elaichi powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Ghee as needed

Method:
1. Dry roast wheat flour till you get a nice aroma.
2. Powder the sugar and keep it aside as well.
3. You can either roast the nuts in ghee before powdering or powder and then roast it. I used the second option.
4. In a mixing bowl, take the roasted wheat flour, Sugar, Elaichi powder and a pinch of salt and mix all these dry ingredients.
5. Heat ghee in a pan, add the powdered nuts and the mixture, give a quick stir.
6. Allow the mixture to warm a bit and then roll them into small balls. Yummy ladoo is ready

dry roast wheat flour

Powder Sugar

Heat Ghee

Add powdered nuts

Add melted ghee nut mixture to the wheat & sugar mixture and roll into small balls

Spaghetti with Vegetables

2014-09-02T22:32:00.001+10:00

This is my own version of making Spaghetti though my husband is not a big fan of it. I love to have it sometimes to have a break from the usual chapathi for dinner. You can add any vegetables you want to this. I have used the whole meal spaghetti here. You can replace it with any type.

Ingredients:
Spaghetti
Capsicum - 1/2 sliced
Onion - 1/2 sliced
Carrot - 1 shredded
Green peas - 1/2 cup ( i used frozen)
Garlic - 2 tbsp chopped
Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
Red chilli sauce - 1/2 tbsp
Soy sauce - 1/2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Bring water to rolling boil condition and cook the spaghetti for 7 mins. Drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan and saute the chopped onions. Then saute the sliced onion and capsicum for 2 mins.
Then add the shredded carrot and peas and saute for 2 more mins. Then add salt, pepper and all sauces and toss it on high flame.
Then add the cooked spaghetti and toss it such that it gets covered by the sauce.
Garnish with coriander leaver or spring onions :)

Cook the Spaghetti

Drain and set aside

Heat oil and saute garlic

toss capsicum and onion

add green peas and carrot

add salt and pepper

Add in the sauces

add cooked spaghetti and mix well

Spaghetti with Pork

2014-09-01T21:09:00.000+10:00

This is a guest post By my friend Nadia. In this recipe you can replace the ground pork with chicken mince or scrambled eggs or just go for the vegetarian version

Ingredients:

Spaghetti noodles (cook as per instruction in the packaging)

For spaghetti sauce

3 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

1 tomato

1/2 of green capsicum

1 carrot peeled and shredded

2 tablespoon of cooking oil

1 kg of ground pork

1 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

1 pack tomato or spaghetti sauce

Cooking instructions:

1. Put oil in heated pan

2. Saute garlic, onion, tomato and capsicum

3. After sauteing, remove from pan and put in the ground pork.

4. Cook the ground pork until it becomes brown in color and the water from the meat has evaporated

5. Put back the sauteed garlic, onion, tomato and capsicum into the pan with the ground pork

then add the carrots

6. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.

7. Add the tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce to the pan. Bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

8. Add the sauce to the cooked pasta and serve.

Capsicum Dal

2014-08-31T21:57:00.000+10:00

This is like normal dal but adding crunchy capsicum gives twist to the dal. When you are bored with your normal dal recipe, give this one a try. It goes very well with chapati or steamed rice or jeera pulao. The consistency is upto you but personally i like it a bit thick.

Ingredients:
Onion - 1 cubed
Green Capsicum - 1/2 cubed
Tomato - 1 small cubed
Moong dal - 1 cup
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - few
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Pressure cook the moong dal and mash it well.
Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds and Jeera. Add the chopped onion & Curry leaves and saute till it turns brown.
Then add chopped capsicum and saute for few mins. Then add the chopped tomatoes and cook until it turns mushy.
Then add turmeric powder and mashed moong dal and cook till it starts to bubble.
Serve with chapati or rice or any plain pulao.

Ulli/Vengaya Vadai/Onion Vadai

2014-08-31T19:10:00.002+10:00

When I think of this Ulli vada/Onion vada, I remember my childhood days when appa used to buy this for our evening snack, I love to eat this and have a hot sip of tea. This particular snack can be made in minutes unlike some snacks that need soaking grinding sort of pre preparations. Just chop the onions, add besan and chilli powder, make a batter, deep fry them. You get crispy Onion vadai :)

Ingredients:
makes - 15 medium sized vadais
Onion - 3 large sliced
Besan/Gram flour - 1 cup (approximately)
Chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Saunf/Perunjeeragam - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 10 chopped
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Method:

In a bowl, take the sliced onion, besan flour,hing, chilli powder, curry leaves, saunf and salt. By adding water little by little, make a mixture, make note not batter, just mixture as shown in the picture.
Be careful adding water, I just wetted and made the mixture as the onion itself gives out water.
Heat oil in a pan, take small pieces of this mixture and deep fry in oil. Crispy onion vadai is ready.

take sliced onion

add curry leaves and saunf

add besan, chilli powder, hing and salt

make into a mixture

take small part of mixture

drop in hot oil

once it turns golden brown, remove and drain on paper towel

Potato Roast with dry fenugreek leaves

2014-08-31T18:46:00.001+10:00

Fenugreek leaves are very good for health and as very flavorful ingredient. When you make this roasted potatoes, we can either use fresh leaves or the dried methi/fenugreek leaves.

Ingredients:
Potatoes - 3 (peel the skin and chop into cubes)
Fenugreek leaves - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Garam masala - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera and mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the potatoes and start frying in low flame.
After few mins, cover and cook the potatoes for 5 mins or until cooked.
Then add the masala powders, salt and fenugreek leaves and cook till the raw smell goes off. Yummy potato roast is ready.

Potato Carrot Stuffed Paratha

2014-08-28T21:55:00.003+10:00

Neither me or Mams are fans of stuffed parathas. But I always wanted to try Aloo Paratha. As usual I didnt feel like cooking anything special today. So I decided to make this stuffed parathas so that I dont have to make any special kuruma to have it. I just served with tomato chutney. I think it would taste great with even pickle.

Ingredients

For dough
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt as needed
Water - as needed

For Stuffing:
Potato - 2 small (boiled and mashed)
Carrot - 1 grated
Green chillies - 3 chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece grated
Salt - a pinch
Jeera powder - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1tbsp
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup

Method:

Make normal chapathi dough and set it aside.
In another bowl, take the mashed potatoes and grated carrot. I squeezed out the water from grated carrot as I didnt want the stuffing to become too watery.
Add jeera powder,green chillies,pepper powder, grated ginger and coriander leaves and mix well into a smooth dough.
Take a small ball of the dough and spread it into a small ball. Take a small ball of the stuffing and keep in the middle and get together all the ends as shown in the picture.
Then spread this stuffed paratha and by spreading little oil on fry pan cook the paratha till you can see brown spots on both sides.

Pazha Appam/Paniyaram

2014-08-28T21:27:00.000+10:00

This is another quick recipe and a solution to your evening snack cravings. This can be made in minutes with the ingredients at home. All you need is wheat flour, banana, sugar / jaggery. Make this Appam for this Vinayagar Chathurthi and get the blessings :)

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Banana - 1 big mashed
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tbsp
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Dissolve jaggery in water and make a syrup. Mash the bananas.
In a bowl, take wheat flour, rice flour, cardamom powder, mashed bananas and by adding the jaggery syrup, make a lumpfree batter.
Heat oil and pour a laddle of batter and deep fry the appams on medium flame. Yummy appam is ready:)

take wheat flour in a bowl

add rice flour

Add mashed banana, cardamom powder and by mixing the jaggery syrup make a lumpfree batter

Pour a laddle of batter in hot oil

deep fry in medium flame

Appam/Paniyaram is ready

Jangiri/Jhangri

2014-08-24T19:47:00.001+10:00

I never thought making Jangiri would be easy. We used to get Jalebi in Indian Shops but I was missing our own Jangiri with the amazing aroma of rose essence. So I decided to make my own one. So I watched a number of videos on YouTube to know how exactly it is done. To my wonder, it was just simple with few ingredients. You just need Urad dal and sugar syrup and some oil to deep fry them. Well I made it finally today. It didn't turn fluffy, may be because i ground the batter in Mixie. Preparing the batter in wet grinder allows more aeration to it and also makes it fluffy. I used normal cover to press them into the oil. It would also work with squeeze bottle/Piping bag used for icing.

Ingredients:
Urad dal - soak for min 2 hrs (best results when soaked overnight)
Food color - orange preferably

For sugar syrup:
Sugar - 2 cups
Water just enough to immerse the sugar
Cardamom powder - 1 tbsp
Rose essence - 2 drops (optional)

Method:
Grind urad dal without adding much water like we grind batter for vada. There should be no traces of dal.
Mix some food color with little water and mix with batter and set aside.
Next we have to prepare the sugar syrup. Boil sugar with little water till it reaches single thread consistency. Add cardamom powder and rose essence and turn off the flame.
Take the batter in a ziplock cover. Make a very small hole at the bottom. Heat oil in a flat fry pan like shown in the pictures. Just put an inch of oil.
Start making Jangri on oil. Keep the flame on low and cook till the Jangri becomes crispier. If you feel that the batter is watery add about a tbsp of rice flour.
Strain the cooked Jangri and dip it in sugar syrup at once. The sugar syrup should be warm. After a min, remove from sugar syrup and keep aside.
Repeat the same for rest of the batter. Yummy Jangris are ready :)
Sorry for poor pics, I will try to take better pics next time:)

Grind urad dal with less water

Keep the food color ready

Make Jangris on oil

Fry on low flame till crispy

soak in sugar syrup

Drain from sugar syrup

Wheat Dosa

2014-08-23T00:00:00.000+10:00

This is an instant dosa recipe. Its healthy because it is made of whole wheat flour. This can be made in minutes. We can add twist to it by adding chopped onions, green chilli and curry leaves. I like both plain and with chopped onions.

Ingredients:
makes 4 to 5
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Water to make smooth batter
Onion - 1/2 chopped finely
Green chillies - 2 chopped finely
Curry leaves - few chopped

Method:
Take the wheat flour in a bowl, add some salt and give a quick mix.
By adding water little by little, make a lumpfree batter.
Then add the chopped onions, green chillies and curry leaves and give a quick mix
Make dosas like with normal dosa batter. Serve with idli powder or any chutney of your choice

Lemon Rice

2014-08-22T20:21:00.006+10:00

I like variety rice very much. But my husband is not a big fan of it. As he has been eating it on a daily basis when he was a bachelor. But I used to make it still rarely. Lemon rice is my favorite. I like the smell of the tempering specially the curry leaves and the crunchy peanuts. It can be made with left over rice as well. But I prefer cooking it fresh. I like to have it with lemon pickle, yeah lemon rice with lemon pickle.. Yum.. Over to the recipe now :)

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup (cooked and cooled)
Lemon - 1 (depends on how tangy the juice is)
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 2 springs
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp or more(if you want more yellowish rice)
Channa Dal - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1 inch chopped
Dry Red Chillies - 2
Oil

Method:

Cook rice with salt and allow it to cool. Extract lemon juice and set it aside.
Heat oil in a pan, once it is hot add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Then add Jeera/Cumin seeds, Curry leaves, peanuts, channa dal, ginger and red chilli.
Then add turmeric powder and allow it to cook.
Finally add the lemon juice and turn off the flame. Dont let it boil as the juice will turn bitter.
Add this mixture to the cooked rice or other way around and mix well. Lemon rice is ready

Extract lemon Juice

Take all the tempering ingredients

Mixture is ready

Add cooked rice to the mixture and mix

Lemon rice is ready

Spinach and dal Curry

2014-08-22T19:31:00.001+10:00

This is one of the recipes that comes to play when I have no time or interest to make something new (basically laziness). I make it atleast once in a week. It is very healthy too as it has both dal and spinach.

Ingredients:
Onion - 1 large chopped
Tomato - 1 large chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Spinach - 1 cup
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Hing - 1/4 tbsp
Curry leaves - a spring

Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook all ingredients for 3 whistles.
Once the pressure is released, mash them all together. Adjust salt.
Serve with rice and papadam

take all ingredients in a pressure cooker

Add hing

once pressure is released, mash the ingredients, check salt.. Yummy dal is ready

Chilli Paneer

2014-08-22T09:27:00.001+10:00

Chilli Paneer is a indo chinese dish. The taste comes from the sauces we add. The procedure is very similar to gobi manchurian or chilli chicken except that we add fried paneer here. It can be had as a snack or as a side dish for fried rice.

Ingredients:
serves 2
Paneer - 250 gms cubed
Onion - 1/2 cubed
Capsisum - 1/2 cubed
Ginger - minced 1 tbsp
Garlic - minced 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Spring onions to garnish

For sauce
Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
Red chilli sauce - 1 tbsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Plum Sauce - 1 tbsp (optional)

For batter:
Maida - 2 tbsp
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Pepper - 1/2 tbsp or more

Method:
The list of ingredients may look complicated,but just follow these steps and can be made in mins as wonder snack.

First step is to cut the paneer into cubes. Then take all dry ingredients in a bowl along with little salt & garlic paste. By adding water little by little, make a lump free batter. Keep the paneer cubes immersed in this batter mixture and set aside for atleast 15 mins.
Next step is deep frying or shallow frying these paneer cubes. Heat oil and fry these batter covered paneer cubes and fry till it becomes golden brown, drain and set aside.
The following step is preparing the sauce mixture. You can either add all the sauces directly or take them in the bowl and mix well and keep it aside.
Finally preparing the chilli paneer. Take a pan, heat oil and saute garlic and ginger till a nice aroma comes. Then add onion and capsicum and saute for 5 mins. I like it a bit crunchy. After a few mins, add the sauce mixture and cook on high flame for 5 mins. add the fried paneer cubes and coat them with the sauce mixture. Add salt but be careful as the sauces may also have some salt.
Garnish with spring onions. If you want it as gravy, mix 1/2 tbsp of corn flour with water and add to this mixture. Yummy Chilli paneer is ready.

take the paneer cubes

take the dry ingredients

make a lump free batter

keep paneer cubes immersed in the batter

deep fry the paneer cubes

saute garlic, ginger, onion and capsicum

add the sauces mixture

Give a quick mix

add the fried paneer cubes

Garnish with spring onions

Appalam/Pappadam Poriyal

2014-08-21T20:58:00.004+10:00

I don't know if you have tasted this poriyal, but my amma used to make it often. I like to eat with plain rice and this poriyal alone. If you have some fried appalam left out, you can try this poriyal. It has its unique taste to go with dal or sambar or plain rice.

Ingredients:
Appalam - 6 to 8 fried
Onion - 1/2
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Oil
Salt to taste

To grind to a coarse mixture
Coconut - 1/4 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Red Chilli - 1
Shallots - 10

Method:

Break the appalam into small pieces
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Once the mustard seeds splutters, add the onion and saute till it turns golden brown.
Then add the appalam pieces and give a quick stir. Add turmeric powder and ground mixture and cook till raw smell is gone.
Add salt to taste. Add little salt as appalam might have some salt. Enjoy

take the ingredients to make a coarse paste

heat oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves

break the appalam into small pieces

add onion and saute it

add the broken appalam pieces

add the ground mixture

add a pinch of turmeric and cook till the raw smell goes away

Appalam poriyal is ready

Red Chutney with Cashewnuts

2014-08-21T09:22:00.000+10:00

I have already posted the white chutney with roasted gram dal here .. Now I am going to share the recipe of Red chutney with Vathal Milagai and Cashew nuts. I have added a bit of tamarind for tanginess. Its also a quick chutney recipe.

Ingredients:
serves 2
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Dry red chilli - 2
Garlic flakes - 3
Tamarind - small pinch
Cashew nuts - 10
Salt to taste

To temper:
Oil
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves and urad dal

Method:

Grind together red chillies, coconut, garlic, tamarind and cashew to a smooth paste in a blender/Mixie
Heat oil in a pan and add the items listed under to temper.
Add the tempering to the ground chutney, mix well and serve with dosai/idli/adai dosai.

Ulundhu Kanji/Porridge

2014-08-21T00:00:00.000+10:00

Being sick at home is no fun.. Yep a sick leave after a long time.. I got this viral fever and on bed for a long time now.. I was not willing to have the usual kanji, so i remembered this ulundhu kanji that amma used to make. I made it finally and had it. For a cold winter with fever, this kanji is quite a relief.So here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice - 1/2 cup
Ulundhu - 1/2 cup (i used the ones with skin)
Garlic - 2 flakes (optional)
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the rice and ulundhu for 15 mins.
Then pressure cook them along with garlic and salt with about 3 cups of water for 5 whistles.
Once the pressure is released, mash them. If you want more watery porridge add some more water and simmer till it comes to a boil.
Add salt to taste. Serve it hot with pickle or appalam. I had it plain :)

take rice and urad dal

wash and soak for 15 mins

drain water, add garlic flakes & 3 cups of water and pressure cook

mash it well

The kanji/porridge is ready :)

Oma Podi

2014-08-20T19:43:00.001+10:00

When I have Oma Podi, I can't stop munching them. I scanned through the Indian Shops for this one. I was not able to find the one we get in my native :(. So I decided to make my own one. Hurray it was a success. Just follow the quantities list, it will never go wrong.

Ingredients:
Besan Flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4cup
Omam - 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp
Ghee or Butter - 1 tbsp
Salt as needed
Oil for frying
Idiappam press

Method:

Dry roast omam/ajwain seeds and then soak it in about 1/4 cup water for atleast 15 mins
Take besan flour and rice flour in a bowl, add chilli powder,salt and butter and give a quick mix. It becomes like crumbly texture.
Either ground omam to a smooth paste or just strain and get water.
Add to the powder mixture little by little and make into idiappam dough like consistency.
Heat oil in a pan. It should be enough to immerse and cook the dough.
Take small balls in the idiappam maker and start pressing it. I used the idiappam mould. I like it to be thin.
Start pressing it over hot oil just 2 layers. Flip to other side and let it cook on both sides. Wait till the shhh sound stops, Remove from oil and drain excess oil. Break into small pieces later.
Make sure that the oil is in medium heat or the inner part wont get cooked. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.

dry roast omam/ajwain and soak in water

take all dry ingredients

sorry missed the step btw.. press using idiappam maker in hot oil. Flip other side and cook as well

Drain on paper towel

break and store in air tight container

Kadala/Chickpea Curry

2014-08-20T19:00:00.000+10:00

This is a easy chickpea/kadala curry which goes very well with rice/chapathi/aapam. It has very few ingredients and easy to make as well

Ingredients:
Chick peas - 1 cup soaked
Onion - 1 cubed
Tomato - 1 cubed
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 3/4 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - to garnish

To temper:
Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
Saunf - 1/4 tbsp
Bay leaf, cardamom and cinnamon stick

Method:

Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas with salt.
Grind together onion, tomatoes, ginger garlic paste to a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a pan and add all the items under temper, add the ground paste and cook for few mins till the raw smell goes away.
Add the masala powders and cook till the oil seperates.
Add the cooked chickpeas and enough water, add enough salt and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve with chapati/ aapam or rice.

take the ingredients to grind in a blender

Grind to a smooth paste

Heat oil in a pan and add the items under the list to temper

add the ground mixture and cook till the raw smell goes

add the masala powders

add the cooked chick peas

cook till oil seperates and garnish with coriander leaves

Goat Liver Varuval

2014-08-20T17:11:00.000+10:00

Goat liver.. A very good source of Iron.. I dont eat that often.. Its not my fav either. One day Mams asked me why I haven't cooked(actually experimented) it at all.. So I thought to give it a try. Its very simple with limited ingredients. But its tasty and very healthy too.

Ingredients:
Goat Liver - 1 kg
Shallots or small onion - 1 cup
Jeera powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger chopped - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
Mustard seed - 1 tbsp
Salt
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Oil as needed
Method:

Clean the liver well. I immersed it with turmeric powder water for around 5 mins. It turns yellowish, never mind. Rinse it well again and cube it into small pieces.
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add curry leaves and small onions and saute till the onions gets cooked.
Add the liver pieces and saute for a min, cover an cook for 2 mins. Then add the jeera powder and pepper powder and allow it cook on slow flame.
I am not sure of the cooking time, I just kept checking every 5 mins. I think it roughly took 25 mins. You dont have to add water, it gets cooked from the juices coming out from the liver pieces.
Add salt to taste. For extra spiciness add green chillies. Uncover and cook till all the water drains off. Serve with rasam or sambar rice :)

heat oil and mustard seeds

add the small onions and saute

add ginger garlic and curry leaves

add mutton liver pieces

add jeera and pepper powder and cook well

Mutton liver varuval is ready

Bread Pizza

2014-08-20T14:43:00.001+10:00

I crave for pizza sometimes. I was thinking if we can make pizza at home on stove top because our oven is not working :( . I had a packet of bread, cheese slices, capsicum and onion, so I thought why not try to make bread pizza.

Ingredients:
Bread Slices - 4 (i used whole meal)
Onion - 1 sliced
Capsicum - 1 sliced
Cheese slices or shredded cheese - I used 4 cheese slices
Tomato Ketchup - as needed
salt and powdered pepper for seasoning(optional)

Method:
Toast the bread slices slightly.
Then spread the ketchup on the bread, add the toppings on top, then put the cheese slice on top.
Keep it on tawa and cook it covered on low flame.
Wait till the cheese melts.Add salt and pepper for seasoning if you like. Yummy bread pizza is ready.

Tomato Chutney (without onion)

2014-08-18T22:15:00.000+10:00

I tried this recipe when Maams was on viratham for sabarimalai because we shouldn't add onion or garlic during that time. It goes well with dosa, idli, and even rice.

Ingredients:
Tomato - 3 cubed
Dry red chilli - 2 or more as you need.
Salt - as needed
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Curry leaves - few

To temper:
Oil
Mustard seeds and curry leaves

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and saute the tomato pieces.
Cover and cook for few minutes till the tomato turns mushy
Then add the red chilli, curry leaves, salt and turmeric powder and cook for another 2 mins
Grind once it cools down and add the tempering

Ven Pongal

2014-08-17T21:45:00.002+10:00

I am not a big fan of ven pongal, but after moving overseas and not able to get these south indian specials that often, I have started missing them. So I decided to make this ven pongal, vadai and sambar combo this weekend. I have already shared Medhu vadai recipe earlier, I am sharing the ven pongal recipe here.

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 3/4 cup
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Water - 3.5 to 4 cups

To temper:
Cashew nuts - 10
Curry leaves
Pepper corn - 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1 inch chopped finely
Green chilli - 3 sliced
Hing - 1/4 tpsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 4 to 6 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast moong dal and then pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Once the pressure gets released, mash the rice and dal together.
If you have excess water simmer till its gone.
Heat another pan, add ghee. Once it gets melted add all the items under temper one by one.
Add this mixture to the mashed mixture, serve with sambar or chutner or both.

dry roast moong dal

pressure cook rice and dal together

things to temper

mash the mixture

Prepare the tempering

add to the mixture

Rava Ladoo

2014-08-17T21:27:00.001+10:00

I made this rava ladoo for Gokulashtami today. Even if I have made it so many times before, I felt like it came out perfect this time.

Ingredients:
Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom - 3 or 4
Ghee as needed

Method:
Dry roast rava till it gets roasted. Powder rava once its cooled.
Powder the sugar along with cardamom.
Take all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Add ghee and make the powder into small balls. Enjoy :)

dry roast rava

powder rava and sugar

add ghee

make them into small balls

enjoy these rava ladoo.. :)