Gongura / Sorrel chutney with peanuts

There are lots of chutney in Indian cuisine, few are served with tiffins like idly, dosa, upma and few are best served with rice. One among them is this sorrel chutney with a hint of tamarind, red chili and peanuts.

Gongura comes in two varieties, green stemmed leaf and red stemmed. The red stemmed variety is more sour than the green stemmed variety. Gongura is popular in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a summer crop and the hotter the place, the more sour the leaf gets. Andhra Pradesh produces the best quality.

Fresh green stemmed sorrel leaves

Ingredients:

Gongura / Sorrel leaves– 3 cups

Tamarind - 1/4 of lemon size

Roasted peanuts – ¼ cup

Dry red chilies – 6-8

Onion - chopped into big chunks

Salt

Heat a kadai with one tbsp oil. Roast the red chili and onion for a minute or so. Remove from the pan and keep them aside.

To the same pan, add washed sorrel leaves and tamarind, Stir and close the lid. Stir occasionally and cook until it is soft. If required sprinkle little water. Allow it to cool.

Grind the roasted Red chilies and peanuts along with salt coarsely in a blender. Now add the boiled gongura / sorrel and tamarind mixture and the onions and pulse it again. If required add little bit water. Please note that this chutney should not be watery.

Gongura chutney with peanuts

A nice companion for hot rice with a dallop of ghee.

 

Allam chakkilalu / Ginger swirls

Few experts, they do make this with hands with out using any mould. As I am a beginer, I have used the regular muruku mould to prepare these ginger swirls. The fried ginger flavour is irresistable.

Ingredients:

Rice flour  - 2 cups

Roasted Urad flour - 1/2 cup

sesame seeds - roasted - 2 tbsp

Grated ginger - 2 tbsp

Salt – As per taste

Chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Method:

Heat a kadai/ deep pan with oil to deep fry.

Whilst oil is getting hot, sieve the flours along with salt and chilli. Mix every thing with hand and add sesame seeds and grated ginger.

Mix every thing well and add about 2 ladles full of hot oil (roughly about 1/4 cup). Do not put your hands straight into the hot oil, instead, cover the hot oil with the flour and slowly try to mix every thing to form crumbs. Slowly add water little by little until you get the smooth dough consistency.

Take the muruku mould and fill it with the dough and apply pressure to squeeze the dough. Experts, they squeeze the dough directly into the oil, where as the beginners like me will squeeze the muruku on a butter or plastic paper and then lift it into hand one at a time and slowly slip them into the oil.

Fry them under medium heat till golden colour.

Time to grab one....

Note: If you feel, the dough is bit dry or hard, take part of the dough, sprinkle some water and then knead it again. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.

Dilpasand

When I was a child I was fond of this sweet. It is really a big treat for us, especially for my sister. We used to buy this from Bangalore bakery. The display itself tempts every one. Those days we are not much aware of the baked recipes except cake, so this is the only place for us to enjoy the baked varieties like Veg puff, egg puff, cookies. Dilpasand is the famous recipe prepared at Bangalore bakery. Here I am using puff pastry instead of preparing the dough right from the scratch.

Dilpasand

Ingredients:

1 Sheet of puff pastry thawed

½ cup of scraped dry coconut.

¼  cup of sugar

½ cup of tutti fruity

½ tsp green cardamom powder
¼ cup of water

Sugar, grated dry coconut, tutti fruty, puff pastry

Method:

1. For the stuffing, add sugar and cardamom powder to water and bring it to boil by stirring occasionally.

2. Add coconut and bring to a boil and then fry till the sugar gets blended well with the coconut and then add colourful tutti fruity,  mix well and remove from heat.

3. Now divide the puff pastry into 2 and roll each into medium thick round sheets by using dry flour. It will be easy to seal, if you roll one sheet into slightly bigger than the other. Now take the bigger sheet and spread the tutti fruity mixture evenly over it.

4. Cover it with another sheet. Stick the edges properly with out any splits and leaks.

5. Bake it in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes or until done.

6. Cut them into pieces.

Flaky outside and chewy inside - Me ra dil ka pasand...

Note: Try to avoid substituting the dry coconut with desiccated coconut as there won’t be enough moisture and doesn’t taste the same.

Vankaya bhajji / Roasted Egg plant curry

The eggplants are traditionally roasted them on hot coal. Alternatively we can also roast them on a direct flame. This recipe has a characteristic smoky flavor from roasting the eggplants until they blacken, mashed and combined with spicy coconut powder.

Serves for 2 persons

Ingredients:

3 eggplants

Oil – 1 tsp

Kobbari podi (Spicy Coconut Powder)

Poke the eggplants with a fork or sharp knife to allow the steam to escape while roasting them on the fire.

Lightly oil eggplants, then place them on the fire directly.

Roast them until the outsides are charred and crisp. Approx 20 – 30 min. Easy way to hold them is,  skew them to the skewer and place them on the fire.

Remove the eggplants from fire, remove the skin when they are still hot. Skin will get tightened when cold.

Remove the stalks and take the pulp into a bowl and mash thoroughly. Mix the Spicy coconut powder with the mashed eggplant.

Can be served with hot rice or even used as a spread on toast.

Flower Arrangement

The pictures are taken in two opposite angles under the same settings. But, a huge difference.


I have taken the below picture opposite the light....

Taken the same again in a different angle....

Pebbles

I have collected some pebbles from Brighton beach last summer. I have placed few of them in our garden and left the rest. Today, decided to clean the garden to get ready for the summer. In the process of doing this, I saw them urging me to take them home. Thought to do some thing.

The result is.......

Decided to paint the old traditional kolam on them. My mom is a great artist. She got a very free hand and ease to twist the lines into wonderful forms. I have followed the same... It took less than 10 minutes to change their look.

Didn't stop with that.....

This gives the additional warm and elegant look

  

Cereal bar

During the half term break, my son was curious to help me in cooking. In fact, he wants to try his own version which he learnt at school as part of his cooking lessons. So, we both decided to do this no-bake, no hassle cereal bar.

Ingredients:
Chocolate bar - 100gms
Rice puffs - 2 cups
Almond flakes - 2 tbsp



Method:
Break the chocolate bar into small pieces and place them in a microwave safe bowl.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes by stirring in between. Do not over cook.

Quickly add the rice puffs to the melted chocolate

Mould it into desired shapes.

Or simply make them into bars like this and then shower them with almond flakes or any nuts and seeds of your choice.

Cereal bar with almond flakes

Raagi idly

A healthy recipe both for kids and older people.  It's in fact the staple diet in many villages across South India. Ragi also known as finger millet, is rich in calcium and Iron. Can be consumed as a porridge with Milk or butter milk.

To make idly, instead of having just rice and urad daal, I have added Ragi flour also. 

 

Ingredients:

Whole Ragi Flour- 1 cup
Idli rava -  1 cup

Urad daal / Black gram - 1 cup

Methi seeds -1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Baking Soda - 1 pinch

Method:

Soak the urad daal and methi seeds for about 6 hours.

Using a blender or wet grinder, grind the urad daal into smooth paste.

To this add idly rava and ragi flour. Add water if necessary. The consistency should be the same as any other idly batter.

Ferment the mixture for about 8 hours in a warm place.

When it is fully fermented, add salt and baking soda, mix thoroughly and scoop the batter into idlymoulds and steam for 15 – 20 minutes.

Serve them warm with your favourite chutney, sambar or even spicy powders with a dallop of ghee.

 Ragi Idly

Note:

Instead of using the idly rava, you can use normal rice and soak it seperately and grind it coarsely and mix it with the urad daal paste. If you are using rice, then use only 3/4 th cup.

 

A Snow Day in Feb..

The European capital hit by snow ........ in February. 


London has woken up to a blanket of snow after the big freeze

On Saturday night, standing at my window, I did not at once recognise what that white stuff was gathering all over the trees and houses...

That’s what snow looks like.

It looks like the world’s being frosted.

A white House in UK

Below is a colour photo in black & white

All the roads, kerbs and cars are covered with the white stuff

The only thing which we can make use of this white stuff is .......

Making a snowman......

Potato curry for poori

This curry is prepared by cooking the potato and green pea in gram flour sauce. This can be served with either poori, chapathi or even dosa.

Ingredients:

Onion – 1 (Cut length wise)
Tomato – 1

Potato – 2 medium, boiled and mashed

Fresh or frozen Green pea – boiled 1 cup
Gram flour (Basin / Senagapindi) – ¼  cup
Water – 2 cups
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Green chili – 2 chopped into small pieces (You can also use Chili paste)
Curry leaves

Oil – 3 tbsps
Salt

Method:

Mix basin + salt with water and whisk it well with out any lumps and keep it aside.

Heat a tawa with oil and when the oil is warm enough, add mustard, cumin, curry leaves one after the other and when they start splattering, add green chilli, onion, tomato and fry for 2 min or until the onion becomes transparent.

Now add chopped tomatoes and stir again and cover it with lid for 2 minutes. Stir again and mash the tomatoes.

Now add the basin mixture and stir continuously by reducing the flame.

Slowly the content becomes thick and leaves a nice aroma. Now add the mashed potato and green pea.

Reduce the flame and allow the vegetables to absorb the flavours, for about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Though it looks bit watery when it is just done, it will become thick once it is cool.

Poori with potato curry

Note: Do not cover the pan with lid whilst cooking any basin recipes as the basin will get split and gets separated from water. This will make the curry watery

Beet leaves curry

A healthy side dish packed with healthy nutrients. Very few people consider eating  the green leafy tops of beet. Beet leaves have been found to contain large amounts of vitamin K, that aids in blood clotting. It also boosts immune system against infections and cancer. When the beet leaves are cooked, they will ooze the pink beet colour. Other than this, they tastes more or less like spinach. 

Ingredients:

Washed & Chopped beet leaves – 1 large bunches
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Onion – 1 chopped into small pieces
Green chilli paste – 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard + cumin - 1 tsp

Fresh Beet leaves along with Beet roots

Method:

Heat a deep pan with 1 tbsp of oil. When it is hot enough, add cumin + mustard seeds.

When they start splattering, add ginger garlic paste and green chilli paste, sauté for a while and then add chopped onion.

Fry the onions until they become transparent.

Add the beet leaves and stir for a minute, sprinkle some salt and cover the lid. Cook the leaves until soft and not over cooked.

Beet leaves served with rice