Bise-bela-bath

I call this as one pot meal. A classic Karnataka rice dish. A wholesome nutritious meal with carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins.

Ingredients:

Toor Daal – ½ cup
Rice – 1 cup
Besi bela bath Powder – 3 tbsp
Finely chopped vegetables of your choice – 1 cup
Onion – 1 thinly sliced
Tomato – 1 thinly sliced
Pulp taken from ½ a lemon size tamarind

For Besi bela bath powder:

Coconut grated / sliced – 1 tbsp
Urad daal – 1 tbsp
Chana daal – 1 tbsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Cloves – 4
Cumin – 1 tsp
Red Chilli – 7 to 8
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp
Mustard – ¼ tsp
Coriander Seeds – 1 tbsp
Roast them all on medium flame, let it cool and grind it into powder.

Note: You can do the same in large quantities and preserve the powder for up to 1 month.

Method:
Wash and Soak rice and daal separately.
Pressure cook the daal and keep it aside.
In the meantime heat oil in a broad pan
Add mustard, jeera, dry chilli and curry leaves.
Once they splutter, add green chilli and onion. Sauté for a moment
Add chopped tomato and then Vegetables. Stir everything slowly and cover it with lid to get steam cooked for about 5 minutes.

Now add turmeric , hing and the soaked rice and the boiled daal to the vegetables. 

Add 3 cups of water, mix everything and cover the pan.
Once the rice is ¾th cooked then, add the besi bela bath powder and tamarind pulp.
Once again stir everything, reduce the flame to medium low and cook the rice till soft.

Note: You can cook daal along with the rice.

Serve with kaara boondhi...

Panjabi kichidi

Kichidi - I call this as comfort food. Comfort to eat as it melts in our mouth and comfort to cook as you don't need to cook any other side dishes for this. Pack of proteins.

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup
Moong daal/ Split green gram skinned - 1/2 cup
Toor daal / Kandi pappu – ½ cup
Onion – 1 small cut into small pieces
Potato – 1 medium cut into cubes
Peanuts – 2 tbsp
Green chilli – 2-3 slit them
Red chilli – 2
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Garam masala – ¼ tsp
Salt
Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash and soak the rice and daals
Heat a pressure pan with oil
Add Onion, green chilli, red chilli and fry for a minute.
Add peanuts and potato and fry for 2 more minutes.
Add the soaked rice and daals

Add salt, turmeric, cumin powder and garam masala.
Momentarily stir everything and add 4 cups of water and pressure cook till 1 whistle.

Note: If you do not have pressure cooker, use any normal pan and cook the ingredients until soft..

Tomato Rice

Tomato rice is a very delicious and is immensely simple, takes a jiffy to cook with common ingredients. Also an excellent item for lunch boxes. 

Tomato Rice

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups

Tomato – 4 large Chopped into small pieces

Onion – 1 large Chopped into small pieces

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Garam Masala – ½ tsp

Hing / Asafoetida – ¼ tsp

Garlic cloves – 3-4 small cloves grated finely

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Chana daal – 1 tsp

Urad daal – 1 tsp

Cashew nuts – 10 – 15

Green chilli – 2-3 chopped

Curry leaves – 2 strings

Chopped coriander – 2 tbsp

Salt

Oil – 4 tbsp

Method:

Wash and soak rice by adding 3 cups of water for 30 minutes.

Boil the rice by adding ½ tsp of salt and 1 tsp of ghee.

Simultaneously, heat a broad pan with 3 tbsp of oil. Add cumin seeds, chana daal, urad daal and cashew nuts one after the other and fry for a minute or until they changed to golden brown.

Add curry leaves, chopped green chilli, hing and grated garlic and fry for a minute.

Now add chopped onion and fry just until they get transparent.

Add chopped tomato and fry for a moment. Add some salt, chilli powder and garam masala and toss everything. Now cover the pan and cook until the tomatoes get mushy.

When the tomatoes are well cooked, then add the boiled rice and mix everything very gently.

Finish the rice with the touch of coriander.

You can eat is as it is or with raita.

Broccoli rice

Broccoli is considered as one of the most nutritive and delicious vegetables. It is highly recommended for vitamin C, and it is also believed that broccoli helps in preventing cancer. Why not we add this in kids diet. I have added this vegetable to the rice along with moong daal, which forms a healthy meal to the growing children. Serves 1 toddler Ingredients: Broccoli - 2 small florets Skinned moong daal - 1 tbsp Rice - 1 tbsp Broccoli, skinned moong daal and rice You can increase the proportions as per your child's capacity Method: Wash and roughly chop the broccoli into big chunks Mix and wash the rice and moong daal. Add 1/2 cup to 3/4th cup of water and cook till they are soft. Remove from the fire, add pinch of salt and mash the mixture. You can also add little bit of ghee to this. Feed the baby when it is still luke warm. ఎవరికోచ్.... ఈ ... గోరు...ముద్దా...

Pongal with left over rice

This is another recipe with left over rice. When my family members get bored with lemon rice with left over rice, the next best option for me is to make pongal. Trust me. No one will recognise that this is made with left over rice.

Pongal with left over rice

Ingredients:
Cooked rice – 2 cups
Moong daal (skin less) / Pesara pappu – 1 cup
Green chilli – 2
Grated ginger – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sring
Pepper corns – 1 tsp
Cashew nuts – 8-10
Cumin – 1 tsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Salt

Method:
Wash and soak the moong daal in 3 cups of water for about 1 hour.
Now mix the moong daal along with cooked rice and salt. You can either cook this in a pressure cooker or even in normal deep pan. Once it is done, keep it aside.
Melt the ghee in a small sauce pan. Add the cashews, grated ginger, green chili, cumin, pepper corns and curry leaves, one after the other. Saute for a while until cashews turn light golden colour.
Remove from the fire and add this seasoning to the pongal. Stir every thing and serve it hot..

Pongal Vada with Sambar and Coconut chutney

Raagi Sangati / Millet Rice

Sangati with Bullet chilli curry

This is the recipe prepared at almost all house holds in Rayalaseema especially in the villages. This sangati is rich in Iron and easy to digest, as we use Raagi / millet flour in it. This is also the poor man’s most common recipe as it requires less quantity of rice that too of broken variety. There are two reasons for using the broken rice. One, broken rice are cheaper than the whole rice and second, gets cooked quickly than the whole rice. Hence I have also used the broken variety. Another interesting thing is, making the rice balls / Sangati mudha which is an art. In villages they use trimmed coconut branches which resembles the wooden spatulas. These sticks are very strong and they are bit longer than the usual wooden spatulas.

Here are the benefits of Ragi;

- Ragi meal is an Ideal food for diabetes and obese because its digestion is slow and glucose is released from the intestines very slowly into the blood.

- By eating ragi preparations the constant desire to eat will become less and supplies less calories for obese people.

- Due to its rich cellulose it is excellent laxative for constipation.

- Malt is a good food for children and supplies calcium in good proportions for bone growth and body development.

- Its regular use protects from malnutrition, degenerative diseases, premature old age and increases longevity.

Ingredients:

Broken Rice – 1 cup

Raagi Flour – ¼ cup

Salt – ½ tsp

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in 3 cups of water for at least 30 minutes and cook the rice along with salt until it becomes very smooth. Now reduce the flame and add the raagi flour and cover it with cooked rice and close the lid for about 5 minutes.

Raagi flour added to the cooked rice

Now remove the lid and stir the sangati with wooden spatula or a wooden rolling pin and make it smooth without any lumps. Take a portion of sangati into a plate, dip your hand in cold water and  roll the sangati in the form of ball.

I prepare this recipe at least twice a week for my kids as this is very healthy and easily digestible. This can be eaten by 6 months baby to 60 years old person. We normally add a dollop of ghee to this raagi sangati and feed the babies. Adults or grown up children will eat with any gravies made up of vegetables or meat.

You know what, I love to eat with yogurt as well. Yummy..yummy

Sangati mudha with bullet chili gravy

 

Coconut Rice

This recipe is prepared at home usually the day after the festival as we break the coconut on the festival day which is handy for the following day. I follow the quick tip to extract the coconut from the shell.  keep the coconut in the freezer for at least 8 to 10 hours or until you use it. I know, many times I have noticed the fungus developing inside the kernel even if we keep it in fridge or sun dry them. I feel this is the best practice to store the coconut and keep it fresh. To use it, remove from the freezer an hour before and place it in  the water. Remove the shell and chop the coconut into thin slices and slightly pulse them in mixer or food processor with out adding any water. Make sure it should resemble the grated coconut rather than paste.

Coconut rice with brinjal curry / Guthi vankaya koora

Ingredients:
Rice – 2 cups
Fresh coconut grated – 1 cup
Green chilli – 4 - 5
Onion – 1 chopped into thin slices
Curry leaves
Coriander
Mustard + Cumin – 1 tsp
Chana daal – 1 tsp
Urad daal – 1 tsp
Cashews - 10
Dry chilli - 2
Oil – 4 tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

Method:

Wash and soak rice in 3 ½ cups of water for 30 minutes. Cook the rice and spread in a wide plate.
Heat a pan with oil. Add the seasoning ingredients like Urad daal, Chana daal, Dry chilli, Mustard, cumin cashews and curry leaves. Add chopped onion and chilli and fry them until they become transparent. Add coconut along with salt and fry for few minutes (about 5-6) until the moisture evaporates from coconut. Finally sprinkle some chopped coriander and lemon juice. Stir once, cover the lid and turn off the heat. Add this mixture to the rice and mix every thing gently.

Chintapandu Pulihora / Tamarind Rice

This is one of the must have recipes at any South Indian family. During festive season, most of the people prepare this rice and offer it to God. We can prepare the seasoning in lumpsome amounts and preserve it in the fridge upto 3-4 weeks.

Pulihora with Pappula podi / Spicy powder

Ingredients:

2 cups - Rice

2 tbsp - Oil

1/2 tsp - Mustard

1/2 tsp - Cumin / Jeera

2 tbsp - Peanuts

1 tsp - Chana daal

1 tsp - Urad daal

5-7 - Bullet chillies (Make scars with knife)

2-3 - Dry chillies

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Tamarind - 2 lemon sizes soaked in warm water

Curry leaves

Corriander  Hand full

Salt

Jaggery - 1/2 tsp (Optional)

For spicy powder (Optional)

Garlic clove - 1

Roasted chick pea - 3 tbsp

Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Grind all the ingredients into powder.

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in 1 and 3/4th cup of water for 30 minutes. Cook the rice and spread it on a  wide plate and keep it aside.

Heat kadai with 3 tbsp of oil. When it is hot add the peanuts, chana daal, urad daal, dry chilli, curry leaves one after the other. When they started changing colour, add bullet chilli and turmeric and fry for a minute or two until the chilli becomes tender.

 

Squeeze the tamarind pulp and add to the above mixture along with jaggery.

Cook for few minutes until the mixture becomes thick and oil gets separated as shown below

Finally sprinkle some coriander and then add the rice and mix every thing along with 1 tbsp of the spicy powder prepared as mentioned above.

Spinach Rice

Spinach rice

Ingredients:
Spinach – 1 big bunch
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Green chilli - 5 -6 ground coarsely
Onion – 1 Medium size
Cashew nuts – Hand full
Rice – 2 cups

Boil rice and keep aside by separating the grains

Wash and chop spinach and steam it. How I do is, cook the spinach in a pan by sprinkling about 30 ml of water, cover the pan with lid and cook for just 4 – 5 minutes or until the volume just reduces.Allow it to cool and pulse it for few seconds. Do not make into smooth paste.In the meantime, chop the onion into thin strips.

Heat a deep pan with 2 tbsp of oil. When it is hot, add cashews and then onion. Fry until the onion becomes transparent.

Add ginger garlic paste, Green chilli paste and fry until the raw smell goes.Add salt, garam masala and the spinach paste and stir for another minute.

Now add the boiled rice and gently mix every thing.

Serve warm with raita.

Mango Rice

This is one of the famous rice varieties we prepare during summer / festival season, as this is the right time for the lovely mangos. The rice will taste delicious with mixture of sweet and sour flavours.

Mango rice with rice cracker

Ingredients:

1 Cup Rice
1 3/4th water (This may vary depending on the type of rice. If the rice is newly harvested then you need to add bit less water and if the rice is old enough then you need to add bit more water)
Grated raw mango – 1/2 cup
Grated ginger - 1 tblsp
Green chilli – 6 - Grind into paste
Salt – 1 tsp (Adjust as per your taste)


For tempering:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Ground nuts / Pea nuts - 2 tsp
Channa dal (Bengal gram / Senagapappu) - 1 tsp
Urad dal (Black gram / Minapappu) - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - Hand full
Red chilli - 3 – 4
Turmeric - ½ tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

Boil the rice and spread the grains into a wide plate without any lumps and allow it to cool.

Grated Mango, Green Chilli paste, Grated Ginger

Heat a deep pan with oil. When the oil is hot enough add Red chilli & ground nuts together. Just before the ground nuts started changing the colour, add chana daal, and then urad daal, mustard seeds, turmeric, salt,  ginger paste and curry leaves. Fry all the above for about 2 minutes or until they get roasted well. Finally add the grated mango and fry for 2 minutes and remove from the stove.

Add the tempering to the rice and mix together.

Rice ready to mix with sweet and sour flavours

Mix rice very gently with the mango tempering using a broad spoon preferable slotted one. I was told my a food expert that, if we mix it with hands, the life span of the food will be low and gets spoiled quickly. So, friends lets follow the experts tip.

Enjoy......

Egg fried Rice

This rice variety is so simple to prepare though the list of ingredients is big. You can prepare this either with left over rice or freshly cooked.

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 &1/2 cup
Eggs – 3
Carrot – 1 chopped like match sticks
Shredded Cabbage – 1 cup
Onion - 1 large sliced
Capsicum - 1 medium sliced into thin strips
Ajinomoto – ½ tsp
Soya sauce – 2 tbsp
Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp

Chop the carrot as shown above

Cabbage, Carrot, Capsicum, Onion

Method:

Firstly wash and soak rice with 2 &1/2 cups water for 30 minutes. Cook the rice with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of oil and separate the grains without any lumps and keep it ready.

Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil. Break the eggs into the hot oil and stir every now and then until the eggs get half- cooked.

Scrambled eggs

Now add the carrot and cabbage along with salt and ajinomoto.

Fry them for a minute or two until just done. Make sure the veggies should retain their crunchiness. Now add the cooked rice and sprinkle soya sauce and vinegar and stir every thing.

Serve hot with any sauce.

Egg fried rice

Masala Pulagam / Moong daal rice

My mother-in-law prepares this recipe every Monday, My husband is not a great fan of this recipe. So I thought of drawing his attention towards this recipe by trying this with some spices which enhances the taste.

Masala Pulagam with Peanut chutney

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice

1 cup Split Green gram / Moong daal with skin

Water – 4 cups
Cumin seeds / Jeera – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 inch
Cloves – 4
Cinnamon – ½ inch
Garlic – 3 – 4 cloves
Curry leaves - Hand full
Salt - 1 tsp or as per your taste
Ghee – 1 tblsp

Method: 
Wash and Soak rice and moong daal in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes.

Soaked Rice and Moong daal (green gram)

Grind garlic, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Take a small deep pan and heat it with 1 tblsp ghee. When it is hot enough add curry leaves, cumin seeds and the ground paste and fry for 1 -2 minutes.

Frying the spicy mixture in ghee (Clarified butter)

Add this mixture to the rice and add about 1 tsp of salt or as per your taste. Stir once and cook the rice until done.

Rice & Moong daal with spicy mixture

Masala Pulagam with peanut chutney

Note: I cook this recipe in rice cooker and use 1:2 ratios of rice/daal and water. But if you use different methods like on stove top or pressure cooker, then the ratios might vary. You can also replace ghee with any vegetable oil.