Anju's Kitchen

Sweet Appams - Festival special

2009-10-13T14:00:00.000+05:30

The sweet appams are prepared for many festivals in India. It is made during Ganesh Chaturthi, Krishna Janmashtami to name a few. You can prepare this on any day if you just feel like having something sweet and tasty. This is one of my all time favourites and I just find it very difficult to have a control on the count of appams I eat!!! Normally, when we plan for any deep fry dish at home, I kind of control the quantity made so that the cholestrol levels don't shoot up further. But, when we plan for appams, I am usually quite liberal and prefer to forget about the cholestrol levels....

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 2 cups

Rice flour - 2 tbspns

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cups powdered

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Cashew nuts - a few

coconut grated - 2 tbspns

Ripe banana - 1 big

Oil for deep frying

Procedure

1. Mix the jaggery in 2 cups of water and keep it in the microwave for 5 mins.

2. Mix it well and ensure that there are no lumps. You could strain the liquid if required.

3. Allow it to cool and mix it with all the other ingredients. The consistency of the batter should be like the Idli batter.

4. Set it aside for around 2 -3 hours.

5. In a kadai, add the oil and once it is hot, simmer it and pour the batter using a small ladle. Once it starts floating, add the next one. Depending on the size of the kadai and the amount of oil, you may add 5 to 6 appams in one batch. Turn it and remove it once it is golden brown on both sides. It takes a little patience to make appams as it takes a while to get done.

6. Enjoy the simple yet tasty sweet.

Paneer Shashlik

2009-10-12T13:15:00.007+05:30

The first time I ate Paneer Shashlik in a restaurant, I was really excited... Grilled, crispy Paneer along with other grilled veggies decorated on a bed of aromatic basmati rice and the bright red sweetish tangy sauce. The whole thing was served on a beautiful fresh cabbage leaf....what a great sizzler it was! I never thought that I would make such recipes at home. Last week, I tried my best to make a homemade version of it. It tasted good though the sizzling sound was missing...

Ingredients

Rice - 2 cups

Onion sliced - 1

Cloves - 3 to 4

Bay leaves - 2

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 3 tbspn

Dip for the grilled paneer

Curd - 1 cup

Garam Masala - 2 tbspn

Ginger and Green chillies paste

For the sauce

Onions - 3 -4

Garlic- 5 flakes

Ginger- 1 small piece

Tomatoes- 3-4

Soya Sauce - 2 tsp

Tomato sauce - 2 -3 tbspn

Chilli Sauce - 2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 5 tbspns

Paneer - 200 g cut into cubes

Capsicum - 1 cut into 8

Tomato- 1 cut into 8

Procedure

1. Soak the rice for 1/2 hour in cold water

2. Heat oil in a cooker and add onions, bay leaves and cloves and fry till golden brown.

3. Add salt, water and cook the rice till it is done.I add water in the proportion of 1: 1 for basmati rice and allow 2 whistles in the cooker.

4. Spread the cooked rice in a tray so that the rice is fluffed up and separated.

5. Grind onions, ginger and garlic to a paste.

6. Blend the tomatoes.

7. Heat oil in a kadai and add the onion paste and cook till golden brown.

8. Now add the tomato paste and fry till the oil separates.

9. Add some water to make the sauce into pouring consistency.

10. Add the readymade sauces and salt and mix well and cook for another 7 mins.

11. Mix all the ingredients for the dip and coat the paneer, capsicum and tomatoes with it and pierce it into the skewers and grill it in the oven for 10 mins.

12. To serve, spread the hot rice in a rice dish.

13. Decorate it with the sauce and the grilled paneer.

Enjoy the wonderful feast..!

Eggless chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

2009-07-20T12:56:00.000+05:30

Last month we celebrated Pranav's 7th Birthday. We had a kids party at home. Since I have been baking various cakes for the past 1 year, I thought it would be great to make the birthday cake at home. I shared this idea with Srikanth and also told him that I need to practice one cake with the frosting a few days before the party so that I could feel better. But, he was not for the idea of "dress rehersal" and told me that it can't go wrong....."don't bother with the process twice".

My sister, Sree had also come 2 days before the party. So, I felt more confident and I must share that my friends gave me the required moral support.

After all the effort, I felt that someone was wispering that " hardwork always pays". Yes, the frosting eggless chocolate cake was definitely a hit especially among the kids and I was so happy to see Pranav telling his friends again and again that the cake was homemade..!

Definitely worth a try...

Eggless chocolate cake

Ingredients

Maida 3 cups

Sugar 5-6 tablespoons

Butter 100g

Milkmaid 1 tin

Baking powder 2 tsp

Baking Soda 1 1/2 tsp

Water 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 1 1/2 tsp

Cocoa powder 3 tablespoons

Procedure

1. Mix milkmaid, sugar and butter in a mixie and keep aside.

2. Sieve all the dry ingredients 3 times so that they mix well.

3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the milkmaid mixture little by little and add water and vanilla essence.

4. Preheat the oven at 180 Degrees Farenheit.

5. Greese the baking tray and pour the cake mix and bake at 180 degrees Farenheit for 35 to 40 mins.

6. Switch off the oven and keep the cake in it for another 10 mins.

7. Remove the cake from the oven and allow the cake to cool completely.

8. Carefully remove the cake from the try.

For the Frosting

Ingredients

Butter 1/4 cup

Cocoa 1/2 - 1 cup

Milk 1/3 cup

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Icing sugar 3 cups

Chocolate chips / Gems for decorations

Procedure
1 Mix butter and cocoa into a smooth paste.

2 Add the milk and vanilla essence.

3 Finally add sugar and mix it into a creamy texture.

4 Arrange the cake on the tray and spread the frosting on all the sides of the cake.

5. Using a spatula, even out excess portions of the frosting.

6. Transfer the frosting to the piping bag and with your imagination, make the necessary borders and designs.

7. Try if the required shape in flowing in easily through the piping bag on a plate before doing it on the cake.

8 If the frosting for the border is too thick, add butter and if it is too thin add icing sugar.

9. I made a small frosting mixture without cocoa and added some contrast.

10 Decorate with chocolate chips and do the writing too in the contrast colour so that it is cleasrly visible.

11 Refrigerate it so that the frosting set propoerly. You could remove the cake from the fridge about 1 hour before serving so that it is perfect.

12 Enjoy your wonderful creation and don't forget to workout for the next one month!

Double Beans Pulao with Mirchi Ka Salan

2009-06-04T13:01:00.004+05:30

I Know that its been a long time and some people are very good at giving excuses!!!! I thought that I've got some good reasons to start off again after the summer vacation...Pranav's school has started which means more time for myself and one more good reason is that we've a new and better camera. I'm sure the clarity of pictures are going to be much better...with the Cannon Digital camera.

I made this Double Beans pulao and Mirchi ka Salan for lunch and I can assure you that its a good combination. Try it out and give me your comments.

Double Beans Pulao
Ingredients
Basmati Rice / Jeera Rice 1 ½ cups
Whole Spices( Bay leaves, green cardamom, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon)
Kasuri methi – 2 tablespoons
Fresh Double beans – 1 ½ cups
Onions – 2 sliced
Green chillies – 2 slit
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Beaten curd – ½ cup
Ghee /Oil – 3 tablespoons

Procedure
Wash and soak the rice for 20 mins.
In a cooker, add ghee and oil and add the whole spices, kasuri methi, turmeric powder and onions and saute’ for 5 mins till the onions are translucent.
Add the beaten curd and stir for a few more mins.
Mix in the double beans, rice and water. I added 1 ½ cups of water, i.e in the proportion of 1:1. No extra water is required as no vegetables are added.
Close the cooker and switch off after 2 whistles.
Open after 15 mins and an aromatic Double Beans Pulao is ready!

Note: If you do not have fresh double beans, please soak them overnight.

Mirchi Ka Salan
This is a nice side dish for Pulao or Biryani if you are tired of the raitas. The gravy is also quite different from the normal onion tomato based gravies. There’s nothing to panic seeing the name as it is non spicy. Try it to believe it!!

Ingredients
Green Chillies – 10 slit slightly and deseeded –this takes away the spice. We can use the normal green chillies or the big ones based on availability.
Tamarind paste – 2 cups from lemon sized tamarind

For the masala
Groundnuts – one handful
White Til seeds – one handful
Corriander seeds – 1 ½ tablespoon
Jeera – ½ tsp
Coconut -1 handful
Onions – 2

Procedure
Dry roast all the ingredients individually except onions, coconut and jeera.
Fry the onions in a little oil till light brown and grind all the masala ingredients into a smooth paste. There is no need to roast jeera and coconut.
Heat oil in a kadai and add the green chillies and fry for a while till they change colour.
Add the tamarind paste and allow it to boil for 5 mins.
Add the ground masala and stir continuously for another 3-5 mins.
The Mirchi ka Salan is ready to be served. You can garnish it with coriander leaves if you wish..

Enjoy this wonderful combination…!

Simple and Tasty Peas Pulao - Kids Special

2008-11-26T08:36:00.007+05:30

Cooking for kids(My son Pranav is 6 years old) cannot be treated as a minor task. It should be tasty, less spicy and attractive according to them. If you ask the moms, they would say that it should be healthy and easy to cook!

Though we may not be able to satify all these criteria on a daily basis, we try to balance it as much as possible. Yesterday, I made this simple Peas pulao and I think it satisfied all the criteria!!!

But even after all this, the neighbour's simple food may be tastier for them!!! Can't blame the kids, we ourselves sometimes behave like that!

Ingredients

Basmati Rice – 1 ½ cups
Fresh / Frozen Peas – 1 ½ cups
Black Cardamom -1
Green Cardamom – 4
Cloves – 4-5
Cinnamon – 1 small piece
Green Chillies – 2
Garlic – 4 cloves
Onions – 2 chopped
Bay leaves – 2
Garam Masala powder – 1 tsp (optional)
Ghee – 2 tablespoons

Procedure

1. Clean and then soak Basmati rice in water for 20 minutes.
2. Heat ½ spoon ghee in a cooker (I use Hawkins Handi cooker) and add bay leaf, black cardamom, rice and water and pressure cook the rice. I used 2 cups of water for the 1 ½ cups of rice and kept it for 2 whistles.
3. While the rice is cooking, cook the peas in microwave for 3 mins.
4. Add the remaining ghee in a big kadai and add all the spices, onions and fry well.
5. Add the peas and cooked rice, salt and garam masala powder.
6. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and fried cashew nuts.

Variation
You could grind the spices along with garlic, green chillies and coriander leaves for more spice instead of adding them as it is.

Raw Tomato dry Subji / Thakali Kai podi karameedu

2008-11-24T10:02:00.003+05:30

I love raw tomatoes a lot and try out various dishes or curries with it. You will have to patiently pick out raw tomatoes from the load of tomatoes as it may not be sold as a vegetable in itself. I'm lucky because my father-in-law does the vegetable shopping at home!!!
This tangy and spicy dish is great with plain rice or curd rice. You can try this same procedure with brinjal, ladies finger and capsicum too.

Ingredients
Raw tomatoes - 1/2 kg
Oil - 2 tablespoons
Homemade Curry Powder - 4-5 tablespoons
Coconut - 4-5 tablespoons
Salt- to taste
Curry leaves- a few
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hing - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
For Curry powder
Channa Dhal - 1/2 cup
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup
Corriander seeds - 1 cup
Red chillies - 10
Dry roast all the ingredients and grind it into a coarse powder. It stays fresh for nearly 3 months if stored in an air tight container.

Procedure
1. Cut the raw tomatoes into quarters and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds, hing, turmeric and curry leaves.
3.Add the raw tomatoes and salt and saute' for a few mins till the tomatoes become soft. Please ensure that the tomotoes don't get mashed.
4. Add the homemade curry powder lavishly along with grated coconut and remove from the stove.
5. Serve hot with plain rice or curd rice.

Kadai Dhokla

2008-11-20T13:18:00.005+05:30

I saw this recipe in one of the TV programs and tried it out. All of us liked it a lot. In this kadai dhokla, the inside part is soft and the crust is crunchy. This crunchy and soft combination was a really different experience....

Ingredients

Rava - 1 1/2 cups

Carrot and capsicum chopped finely - 3 tablespoons

Ginger paste - 1 tsp

Gn. chillies paste - 1 tsp

Curd - 1/2 cup

Eno fruit salt - 1 tablespoon

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Water - 1 cup

Oil - 3 spoons

Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil, mustard and curry leaves and keep it aside.

2. Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves.

3. Then add the prepared mixture and spread it evenly on the kadai and close it for 10 minutes.

4. Remove the lid and check if its cooked (you may use a fork or a knife and prick it. If it comes out smoothly, then the dhokla is done. )

5. Remove from the stove and allow it to cool. Use a laddle to slowly invert the dhokla on a tray.

6. You'll see the crunchy part of the dhokla on top now.

7. Serve the kadai dhokla with tomato sauce or corriander chutney.

Vegetable Pulao

2008-11-13T12:47:00.004+05:30

Vegetable pulao is such a common rice variety in almost every home, both in North India and south India. Each one makes it in a different way. I too have tried different versions and finally I've settled down with this version.

Last Friday was my firend Vidya's birthday and we had a potluck party for the ladies and kids..I had made this vegetable pulao and it was equally liked by the kids and the moms. This pulao is not too spicy.

Ingredients

Carrot, Beans, Cauliflower, Potatoes - 1 1/2 cups cut length wise

Capsicum - 1

Onions - 2 medium sized

Ginger -1 inch piece

Garlic a few cloves

Cardamom - 3

Black cardamom - 1

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon - 1 small piece

Green chillies - 2

Bay leaves - 2

Ghee - 3 tablespoons

Kismis / dry grapes - handful

Cashew nuts - a few

Coconut Milk - 1 cup

Curd - 1/2 cup

Basmati Rice - 1 1/2 cups

Salt - to taste

Corriander leaves - for garnish

Procedure

I use Hawkins Handi cooker so that I can directly cook the pulao in the cooker.

1. Heat ghee in the cooker and add the bay leaf and onions and saute till the onions turn light brown.

2. Wash basmati rice in water and drain the waterand keep it aside .

3.Dry roast cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, kismis and allow it to cool.

4. Dry roast the garlic a little bit and allow it to cool.

5. Grind ginger, garlic,green chillies and the roasted masala items.

6. Add the ground masala and curd to the cooker and fry well for 10 mins.

7. Add the vegetables and coconut milk and mix well till the whole mixture is thick(it should not be watery at this stage).

8. Slowly add the rice, water and salt and close the cooker. For 1 1/2 cups of rice and the vegetables, I add 1 3/4 to 2 cups of water. I keep the cooker for 2 whistles and then turn it off.

9. Fry the cashew nuts in ghee and mix it to the pulao.

10. Serve this vegetable pulao with any raita, papad or pickle.

Diwali Special - Chocolate Burfi

2008-10-28T11:23:00.007+05:30

The spirit of Diwali has been bright and colourful in our apartment. For the past two days we have been busy making sweets, eating sweets, making savouries and eating them....Ok, I should add sharing them too with friends!!!

Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali.

I would like to share one of my favourite sweets - Chocolate burfi. After we have made this my son Pranav's visit to the kitchen has increased! Everytime he goes in, he picks one burfi. I must tell you its really irresistable....Try this and you'll know.

Ingredients

Maida 1 1/2 big cups

Sugar 3 big cups

Cocoa powder - 4 tablespoons

Ghee - 4 tablespoons

Chopped Almonds - a few(Optional)

Procedure

1. Sieve Maida and keep it aside.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a non stick kadai and add the maida and roast it till the raw flavour goes and transfer it to a plate and allow it to cool.

3. Add the sugar in the kadai and water to immerse the sugar and bring it to boil. Keep stirring till the sugar syrup is thick and falls firmly like a stick. Remove from the stove.

4. Mix cocoa with a little milk to form a creamy liquid.

5. Keep the kadai on the kitchen counter(not on the stove) and add the cocoa liquid and mix well.

6. Slowly add maida little by little and and mix well so that there are no lumps. Keep mixing till there is heat in the kadai. At this stage it will become like the chapathi dough.

7. Add the remaining ghee and cut almonds and keep it in the stove for just 2 mins so that we give it a final mix. All the ingredients will be well blended at this stage.

8. Greese a steel tray with a little ghee and transfer the above mixture into the tray. Spead it well and press it with a small plate so the the top portion is flat and uniform. You may add so more chopped almonds at this stage.

9. Allow it to cool in room temperature and use a knife to cut it into squares or diamonds and leave it like that. Do not wait for it to cool completely to cut it as it will be difficult if you wait till that stage.

10. Once it is completely cooled, use the knife to pull out the burfis.

11. Enjoy the yummy Chocolate Burfis.

Raw Banana Curry / Vazhakai Curry

2008-09-22T13:16:00.003+05:30

One day, I thought of doing something different with raw banana and came up with this recipe. Every one at home loves this recipe and we make this quite frequently. We eat this mainly with rice. It also tastes good with chapatis.

Ingredients
Raw Banana - 2
Green Chillies - slit - 3
Grated Coconut - 3 tablespoons
Onions - 2 medium sized
Tomatoes - 3 medium sized
Ginger - one small piece
Coconut oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Hing /Asafoetida
Turmeric powder
Salt

Procedure
1. Grind coconut with a little water and keep it aside.
2. Cut the raw banana into cubes and cook them in the microwave for about 5 mins.
3. Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard seeds, hing, green chillies, ginger, turmeric powder and curry leaves.
4. Add the onions and fry well and then mix in the tomatoes and fry till they are tender.
5. Add the cooked raw banana along with half cup of water so that all the ingredients mix well.
6. Now add the ground paste and add 1 more spoon of coconut oil for extra flavour.
7. Mix well and once it boils, remove from the stove and serve hot with rice.

Mini Meals

2008-08-19T12:27:00.008+05:30

Its been more than 2 weeks that I've worked on my blog. We had a grand celebration in our apartment for Independence day and I was busy with its preparation for the last 2 weeks.
I thought that I should compensate for this silence and came up with the idea of Mini meals. Most of the South Indian restaurants offer 2 types of meals - Mini meals and normal South Indian meals. The normal meals is quite elaborate and requires you to have enough time to eat!!
For the rest, who don't have enough time and still don't want to settle with a sandwich, Mini meals is a good option. I thought of doing something like that for lunch today.

Mini Meals Menu
Chapathi
Channa Masala
Tomato Rice
Beetroot rasam
Kovakkai /Tindoora Fry
I'm not sharing the recipe of chapathi because its so simple and known to all. I shall probably add it another day. Moving on to the rest of the list...

Channa Masala
Ingredients
White Channa - 1 cup
Tomatoes - 4
Onions - 3
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
Channa Masala - 1 tablespoon
Green Chillies - 2
Corriander leaves - a small bunch
Tea powder - 1 tsp
Bay leaves - 2
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Lime Juice - 1 tsp
Dry mango powder/amchur- a pinch(optional)
Salt - to taste
Procedure
1. Boil 1 cup of water and add the tea powder and filter the black tea.
2. Pressure Cook the channa with water, 2 bay leaves, 2 cloves and the black tea. This gives a dark tint for the curry along with good aroma.
3. Heat ghee and oil in a kadai and add Jeera, ginger garlic paste and onions and fry for 5-6 mins till it turns brown.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes thick.
5. Mash a few pieces of cooked channa and add it to the kadai. Mix in the channa masala, amchur and the remaining channa.
6. Add 1 cup of water, salt and close it for 5 mins.
7. Once all the ingredients are mixed well, remove from the stove and add lime juice.
8. Garnish with corriander leaves.
9. Serve hot with Rotis /chapathis.

Tomato Rice
Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Tomatoes - 6
Onions - 3
Oil - 3 -4 tablespoon
Jeera - 1tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
Garam Masala - 1 tablespoon
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Corriander leaves - a few
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1tsp

Procedure
1. Cook the rice separately with a few bay leaves and cloves and transfer into a plate and allow it to cool.
2. In a kadai, heat oil and add the cardamom powder, jeera, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves and onions. Fry till golden brown.
2. Add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes thick.
3. Mix in turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt and make it into a thick paste.
4.Add the corriander leaves and remove from heat.
5. Slowly add a few spoons of the paste to the cooled rice until the entire paste is mixed with the rice.
6. Heat this in the microwave before serving.

Kovakkai Fry /Tindoora Masala
Ingredients
Kovakkai /Tindoora - 1/2 kg cut into thin long pieces
Onions - 2 cut into thin long slices
Sambar powder - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Oil - 3-4 tablespoons
While cooking some vegetables we may have to reduce our health consciousness as these vegetables require a little bit more oil than others. Kovakkai is one such vegetable!! So, be a little lavish if you really want kovakkai fry...

Procedure
1. Heat oil in a kadai and add jeera, curry leaves and the onions and fry till golden brown.
2. Cook the kokkai with very little water in a microwave for 5-7 mins and drain the water. (You may use this water for the rasam instead of throwing it.)
3. Add the cooked kovakkai and add turmeric powder and salt and saute for 5-6 mins.
4. Now mix in the sambar powder and fry for 5 more mins in sim so that it turns light brown colour.
5. Tasty kovakkai fry is ready.

Beetroot rasam
I had earlier promised to share other tasty beetroot recipes like beetroot rasam....here it goes..
Ingredients
Beetroot -1
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Tamarind - 1 lime size(Squeeze the juice)
Rasam powder -2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Pepper powder -1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hing - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Corriander leaves- a few chopped
Jeera - 1tsp
Green chillies - 2
Ghee - 1 tsp
Procedure
1. Cut the beetroot into big pieces and cook it in the microwave for 5 mins.
2. Allow it to cool and grind it into a smooth paste.
3. In a thick bottom vessel, boil the tamarind pulp(approx. in 2 cups of water).
4. Add the beetroot paste, turmeric powder, hing, salt and allow it to boil for 3-4 mins.
5. Add 1 cup of water and simmer for 2 mins till a frothy layer is formed on top. Remove from the stove.

6. Heat the ghee and add Jeera, ginger paste, curry leaves and green chillies. Pour this to the tasty and health rasam.
7. Garnish with corriander leaves and have it as a soup or with white rice. Either ways, its too good.

Spicy Tomato Rasam snd Cucumber Kootu/Curry

2008-08-02T09:20:00.002+05:30

Its been raining continuously in Bangalore and during these rainy days, I just love to have spicy rasam and a kootu with hot pipping rice....You can even have this rasam as a soup.

Spicy Tomato Rasam

Tomatoes - 3-4 cut into quarters
Tamarind- size of a small lemon
Rasam Powder - 3 spoons
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Jeera Powder - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped - 1 tsp
Green Chillies - 2
Coconut grated - 1 tablespoon (optional)
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Asafoetida / Hing - 1 tsp
Water - 3 cups
Cooked Toor Dhal - 2 tablespoon (Optional)
For seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Procedure

1. Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of water and take the extract. I normally put it in the microwave for 30 secs and its much easier to squeeze the juice.
2. Heat the tamarind water in a thick bottom vessel and add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, green chillies, ginger and hing.
3. Once it boils for 5 -7 mins and the tomatoes become tender, add the rasam powder and stir well so that there are no lumps.
4. Add the cooked toor dhal with 1 cup of water and simmer it for 3 mins till a frothy layer forms on the top.
5. Add the jeera powder, pepper powder and coconut and take it off the stove.
6. Heat the ghee in a kadai and allow the mustard seeds to splutter. Then add the curry leaves and mix this with the rasam.
7. The spicy rasam is ready..

Don't start off your lunch straight away....check out this Cucumber Kootu / Curry...Its a great combination.

Cucumber Kootu / Curry
Cucumber (cut into cubes) - 1 1/2 cups
Cooked Toor dhal - 1 cup
Grated Coconut - 4 tablespoons
Jeera / cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Green Chillies - 1
Pepper - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
For Seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Procedure
1. Cook the cucumber with very little water in the microwave till it becomes soft.
2. Grind coconut, cumin seeds, green chillies and pepper to a smooth paste.
3. Heat oil in a kadai and allow the mustard seeds to splutter. Then add the curry leaves.
4. Mix the ground paste and add a little water and fry it for 2 mins.
5. Stir in the cooked dhal and the cooked cucumber and mix well.
6. Add salt and turmeric powder and allow it to boil for 4 -5 mins.
7. The tasty curry is ready. You could use the same recipe for other vegetables like carrot and cabbage combination or using white pumpkin.

Enjoy this combination on a rainy day with hot rice and don't complain that you ate a little too much...!

Schezwan Vegetable Fried Rice

2008-07-28T09:09:00.008+05:30

Most of my rice varieties would relate to “There’s no shortcut for hard work”. But like there are always exceptions, this is one among the exceptions. I suppose this is the Indian version of Chinese food.
This would be very easy choice for packing quick, spicy and tasty lunch box.

Ingredients
Basmati Rice – 2 cups
Capsicum – 1 cut into thin long slices
Onion – 2 chopped
Carrot – 1 cut into thin long slices
Beans – ¼ cup cut into thin long slices

Cabbage - 1/4 cup shredded
Green Chillies – 3
Pepper powder – 1tsp
Ginger – 1 tablespoon
Garlic – 8-10 cloves
Soya Sauce- 1 tablespoon
Tomato Sauce /Ketchup – 3 tablespoon
Ghee – 2 tablespoon
Oil – 1 tablespoon
Salt – To taste

Red chilli flakes - for extra spice

Procedure
1. Soak the rice in water for 15 mins. Drain the water and keep aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon Ghee and fry the rice slightly.
3. Cook the rice till it becomes soft and fluffy. I have Hawkins Handi cooker and the rice cooks really well for Biryanis, fried rice etc. I add 2 ¼ cups of water for 2 cups of Basmati rice and keep it for 2 whistles.
4. Transfer the rice to a plate and allow it to cool.
5. Coarsely grind ginger garlic and green chillies.
6. Heat the remaining ghee and oil in a kadai and add the above paste. You may add the chillie flakes for extra spice.
7. After a few mins, add onions and when they turn brown, add pepper powder, capsicum, carrots, and beans and fry till it is cooked.
8. Mix Soya Sauce and Tomato sauce and add it to the vegetables.
9. Add salt and the cooked rice and mix well and remove from heat.
10. Serve hot with onion raita.

Eggless Banana Cake

2008-07-22T08:18:00.005+05:30

We’ve bought an oven - OTG recently and I’ve been experimenting on various kinds of bakes and grills – cakes, pasta etc.
On one hand, I’m taking all efforts to reduce my weight a little bit and on the other hand, I’ve been lavishly treating myself with all the baking experiments.
Yesterday I thought that I should try to make some healthy bakes so that it doesn’t make my effort to lose weight worthless.
We had some over ripe bananas at home and I thought I could make eggless banana cake instead of throwing the over ripe bananas.
I shared the cake with my close neighbours and they really appreciated it. They were really surprised that an eggless cake was so soft. In most of the eggless recipes, we add condensed milk to compensate the eggs. They were really wonderstruck when I told them that I did not add condensed milk/ even plain milk in this recipe…
I don’t have the count of pieces that I’ve had!!! So, please try this out and be ready for compliments!!

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed ripe banana

2 cups Maida / Plain flour

½ to ¾ cup sugar½ cup melted butter

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp Cardamom powder

1/2 tsp salt

Handful of raisins

½ cup shredded carrot (optional)

Procedure
1. Sieve Maida, baking powder and baking soda 2 times so that they get mixed well.
2. Add all the other ingredients other than butter and finally add the butter.
3. Mix it to a smooth paste. It wouldn’t be in flowing consistency.
4. Preheat the oven to 175 -180 degrees Celsius.
5. Grease the baking tray and dust a tsp of Maida and pour the batter.
6. Bake in the oven for 50 mins and then check if it has turned into dark brown colour. Keep it for 10 more mins for extra brown colour.
7. Enjoy the cardamom and banana combination with hot tea.

Karuveppilai Podi/ Spicy Curry Leaves Powder

2008-07-16T17:20:00.014+05:30

Curry leaves have a lot of medicinal properties. They help in easy digestion and regular intake also promotes hair growth.
In south India, we use a lot of curry leaves in our daily cooking. But, if you take a close look at all the plates after the meal, there will be at least 3-5 curry leaves in each plate, i.e. people waste the curry leaves.
Somehow I feel that Grandmothers always had an answer for these kinds of issues…and that’s why they used to make recipes like Karuveppilai podi/ Spicy Curry Leaves Powder so that everyone at home gets the benefit of curry leaves.
Ingredients

Curry Leaves - 3 large cups

Channa Dhal - 2 tablespoon

Urad Dhal - 3 tablespoon

Dhaniya / Corriander Seeds - 3 tablespoon

Red Chillies - 10

Pepper -1/4 tablespoon

Salt - to taste

Procedure

1. Dry roast curry leaves till they turn light brown.

2. Dry roast the other ingredients and grind this along with the curry leaves into a coarse powder.

3. Serve it with hot rice and ghee. You can also mix this Spicy Curry leaves powder with Til oil and serve it with Dosa or Idly.

Beetroot Chapathi / Roti

2008-07-16T14:04:00.007+05:30

If I were to equate vegetables to visitors in our house, Beetroot used to be a very rare visitor and also not a preferred one. I’m sure this is the case in most houses. I remember the innovative ideas (other than eating beetroot!!) that I used to come up with to finish off the beetroot soon. I used to mix it with Henna and apply it on my hair so that it would give a beautiful reddish tint.
Now I have figured out some creative recipes with Beetroot and this vegetable has become quite a frequent visitor in our house. One such interesting recipe is Beetroot Chapathi and I learnt this from my friend, Bindu. This has also become a big hit with my son, Pranav and the days I send Beetroot Chapathi in his lunch box, I could bet that the lunchbox would return empty…
Please try this out and I’m sure you would also buy Beetroot regularly…! Beetroot has very high iron content and is very helpful in increasing the haemoglobin levels in our body. It purifies the blood and has anti-carcinogenic properties.
Keep watching my blog for other tasty beetroot recipes like Beetroot Rasam, pachadi etc.

Ingredients
Beetroot – 2
Wheat Flour – 1 ½ to 2 cups
Sugar – 5 tablespoons
Salt – to taste

Procedure
1. Grate the beetroot and cook it in the microwave for 4 mins.
2. Allow it to cool and grind it into a smooth paste adding very little water and sugar.
3. Mix it with the flour and prepare the dough. Keep it aside for 10 mins.
4. Roll as chapathis and toast it on a tava with ghee.
5. Serve the colourful and tasty Beetroot chapathi with Coconut chutney.

Variation
If you do not want the Beetroot chapathis to be too sweet, you could grind green chillies along with the beetroot and avoid sugar.

Iyengar Puliyodarai/ Tamarind Rice

2008-07-14T10:15:00.005+05:30

Puliyodarai is a south Indian specialty. It is made in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The Karnataka style is called Pulliyogare and is slightly different in taste.
I have made the famous Iyengar style here (Tamil style). The sauce that is mixed with rice is called pulikachal. It’s usually made in large quantity and can be preserved upto 6 months. The sauce can also be used as a pickle with curd rice or as a chutney with Dosa / Idly.
Puliyodarai /Tamarind Rice is an easy choice for long distance travel as it does not get spoilt even after 2 - 3 days.
There is no doubt on its taste….Its liked by Lord Vishnu that it’s served as a prasadam in temples….!

Ingredients
Tamarind – size of 2 apples (squeeze the pulp)
Black Sesame seeds /Ellu – 1 cup
Coriander seeds / Dhaniya seeds – 1 cup
Channa Dhal – 1cup
Red Chillies – 35
Fenugreek / Methi seeds – ¼ cup
Salt – ¾ cup
Til Oil – 1 cup
Turmeric Powder – 2 tablespoons
For seasoning
Mustard – 3 tablespoon
Urad Dhal – 2 tablespoon
Red Chillies – 20
Asafoetida / Hing – 3 tablespoon
Curry Leaves – ½ cup
Ground nuts – 1 cup
Procedure for the sauce - pulikachal
1. Heat the kadai and add the Black Sesame seeds /Ellu and allow it to splutter. Keep it aside.
2. Add the Coriander seeds / Dhaniya seeds, Channa Dhal and Red Chillies (35 ) and roast till they become brown. Keep it aside.
3. Now add the Fenugreek / Methi seeds and fry till they become light brown.
4. All the above should be roasted without any oil. Grind them without water into a coarse powder. Keep it aside.
5. Heat oil in a kadai and add the red chillies (20) and once they turn dark brown, add the mustard, urad dhal, asafoetida. You may reduce the red chillies if you do not want it to be too spicy.
6. Add the thick tamarind pulp and allow it to boil for 15 mins till it becomes really thick.
7. At this stage, add salt, turmeric powder and the ground powder and stir well.
8. Fry ground nuts and curry leaves separately and add to the above mixture.
9. Allow the sauce to cool and store it in a clean, dry container.

Procedure for Puliyodarai
1. Cook 2 cups raw rice separately in a pressure cooker and transfer it to a tray/ large plate so that it is not sticky.
2. Mix around 4 tablespoons of pulikachal, 2 spoons of til oil, fried cashews.

3. Serve with papad and raita.

Paanagam - A Healthy drink

2008-07-10T16:45:00.000+05:30

Paanagam is a healthy drink which we can have during all seasons especially during summer.

Its one of the drinks that you can prepare with some basic ingredients at home and you don't even need a mixie/ blender. But, make sure that you prepare atleast 2-3 extra glasses as no one would stop with one glass!!

Ingredients:

Jaggery - 3 cups

Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Dry Ginger powder - 3 tsp

Honey - 1 tablespoon

Lime - 2 (squeeze the juice)

Water - 9 cups

Procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients other than honey and filter it.

2. Add honey and serve chilled.

Menthiya Moru Kuzhambu / Simple curd curry

2008-07-09T10:19:00.000+05:30

We have the habit of planning the menu for the next day in advance so that no time wasted during the busy morning hours!!! One day my mother- in- law suggested that we could make "MMK" for the next day and I was wondering what "MMK" was ..... I then learnt that it was Menthiya Moru Kuzhambu. Its a simple curd curry which does not involve any grinding of spices but tastes really good!

Ingredients:
Buttermilk – 3 cups
Tomatoes – 5 medium sized
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Urad Dhal – 1 tsp
Toor Dhal – 1 tsp
Channa Dhal – 1 tsp
Fenugreek/ Methi - 2 tsp
Green chillies – 3
Red chillies – 2
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
Asafoetida – 1 tsp
Sesame Oil – 2 tablespoon
Salt – to taste

Procedure
1. Heat oil in a kadai and add channa dhal, mustard seeds, urad dhal, toor dhal, methi seeds, curry leaves, chillies and Asafoetida.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they become tender.
3. Add turmeric, salt and buttermilk and simmer for 3- 5 mins and remove from the stove. Do not put on high flame after adding buttermilk as it will curdle.
4. Serve hot with rice, papad and some dry vegetable subji.

Chakkara Pongal

2008-07-09T09:54:00.000+05:30

I remember my childhood days when my mom used to give us Chakkara Pongal as prasadam after her Friday puja. We used to wait patiently for her to finish the puja so that we could taste the ghee flowing chakkara pongal...

My mother in law also makes it very well and she makes it as a dessert for large family gatherings.

Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup
Yellow Moong Dhal – ¼ cup
Jaggery – 2 ½ cups
Water – 3 ½ cups
Milk – 1 cup
Cashew nuts – a few
Raisins – a few

Ghee - 4 tablespoons
Saffron – a few strands (optional)

Procedure:
Mix the rice and the dhal and pressure cook them with the water and milk till the rice is really soft.
Fry the cashews in 1 teaspoon ghee and keep it aside.
Add the cooked rice and dhal to the kadai along with the powdered Jaggery. Keep stirring continuously.
Soak the saffron in 1 tablespoon of hot milk.
Add 3 - 4 tablespoons of ghee, fried cashews and saffron and mix well.
Remove from the kadai and serve hot.

2008-07-07T13:31:00.000+05:30

My kitchen is on the way