Simple Okra / Bindi fry

This is a very simple stir fry with minimal ingredients and less effort.

Bindi fry

Ingredients:

Okra – about 150 – 200 gms
Onion 1 – Finely chopped
Grated coconut (Fresh or dry) – 2 tbsp
Salt
Corriander powder – 3/4th tsp
Chilli powder – ½ tsp

For tempering –
Red chilli – 2
Curry leaves
Mustard
Cumin seeds
channa daal
Peanuts

Wash the Bindi / Okra drain them thoroughly and pat them with kitchen towel or alternatively, wipe them using a damp cloth or kitchen towel and at the end make sure that they are absolutely moisture free.

Cut the bindi equally into small pieces.
Chop the onion into small pieces.

Heat a deep pan and add 2 tblsp of oil.

When the oil is hot enough, then add red chilli, Peanuts, channa daal, mustard, cumin, curry leaves one after the other and fry until the peanuts change their colour.

Add chopped onion and fry for a minute and add chopped okra. No need to fry onion separately until transparent as it gets fried further along with okra.

Fry them for two minutes by stirring in between.

The okra starts getting sticky. Don’t worry. Just add small piece of tamarind. If you don’t like tamarind, just add 1 tsp of yogurt or even the whey will do.

Stir again, reduce the flame to medium and close the lid.

When the okra is half cooked, remove the lid sprinkle some salt, Coriander powder, chilli powder and stir very gently as okra tend to become mushy.

Do not cover the lid once you add salt and coriander + Chilli powder.

Stir occasionally until the okra becomes dry and bit crispy at the corners.

Sprinkle some grated coconut and remove from the fire.

Goes well with rice or roti.

Note: you can also grind the dry coconut, coriander powder and chilli powder coarsely and store in a bottle and can use it when ever you prepare any stir fries.

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......

Potato Stuffed chilli bhaji

There is some left over potato masala from the morning breakfast Masala Dosa. I got some banana pepper sitting in the fridge doing nothing. I thought to prepare stuffed mirchi bhaji with this masala aalo. See Chilli bhaji for the whole procedure.

Potato Masala and the banana peppers

Split the chilli and remove the seeds and blanch. Stuff each chilli with the potato masala and keep them ready.

Prepare the basin batter by adding salt,soda and water. Dip each chilli in the basin batter and deep fry.

Serve them hot.

Stuffed Chilli bhajis with Potato masala.

Chilli bhaji with potato masala

Kova Jamoon

Kova Jamoon

Ingredients:

For Jamoon

Ready made Jamoon mix – 1 cup
Water – ¼ cup

For Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Cardamom powder – 1 pinch (Optional)

For filling:
Palkova / Mava - 1/4 cup

Method:

Always prepare the syrup first or prepare both jamoon and syrup simultaneously. On one stove top prepare the sugar syrup. Whilst it is boiling, prepare the jamoon dough and keep it aside. On the second stove top heat the ghee in low flame. Whilst the ghee is getting hot prepare the jamoon balls. You should be quick enough to do all these things simultaneously. This is the time to prove our multi tasking talents.

For sugar syrup

Add 1 cup of sugar along with 1 cup of water and bring it to boil until it forms syrup like consistency. Add Cardamom powder (if using) at the end.

To prepare Jamoon dough

Add ¼ cup of water to 1 cup of ready made jamoon mix and make firm dough. Leave the dough for 5 to 10 minutes by covering. Divide the dough into small portions.

Dividing the dough into equal portions

Paala Kova

Roll each portion and make a pit in the middle and fill it with kova (Doodh peda) and cover it from all sides and roll into a perfect round using both palms and make sure no cracks are there which leads to leak the kova / Mava.

Jamoon dough with Kova filling

Jamoon filled with Kova

Fry the jamoon in ghee. I always prefer to fry the jamoon in ghee rather than any normal oil as we will miss the classic taste if we fry it in oil.

Fry the jamoon in medium to low heat so that they get cooked well without any lumps in the middle.

Jamoon at various stages

Jamoon with kova in the middle

Tip to get softer jamoons:

Roll the jamoon dough balls by gently pressing in between the palms with no cracks.

Always keep the sugar syrup lukewarm (Not too hot) through out the preparation. Remove the jamoon from ghee and drop them immediately into the warm syrup and give a shake in between, so that the balls will absorb the liquid from all sides.

Oats upma

Rolled oats, prepared by par boiling the oats and rolled them flat. So we don’t need to cook thoroughly like semolina or rice. Oat contains rich soluble fibre and is digested slowly and releases slowly the glucose in the intestines for absorption. So it is prescribed in diabetic diets to prevent and control diabetes.

Not only that,inclusion of oats in diet which contain high fine fibre assists in weight loss and control. Oats needs to chew properly and also brings about a feeling of fullness of stomach and also slows emptying of stomach contents.

Ingredients:

Rolled oats – 1 cup
Green chilli – 6-8
Onion Medium sized – 1
Potato medium cut into ½ inch cubes– 1
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Oil – 2 tbsp
Salt
Turmeric – 2 pinches
Lemon juice – 1 tsp (Optional)
Chopped coriander – 1 tbsp
Peanuts – 2 tbsp

Method:

Pour the rolled oats into a colander. Dissolve 1 tsp of salt into 2 cups of water and slowly pour over the oats and make sure that all the oats gets wet and keep it aside. As the oats tend to absorb more water and if they become more dry then sprinkle bit more water. By nature the oats are taste less. Doing this the oats will absorb the salt water and tastes better.

In the mean time chop the required veggies.
Cut the green chilli and onion length wise and potatoes into cubes.

Rolled oats, chopped onion, chilli and potato cubes

Heat a pan with oil. Once the oil is hot, add peanuts and roast until light brown. Add green chillies, onion, potato, mustard, salt and curry leaves one after the other and fry until the onions and potatoes are done. And turmeric and fry for a minute and finally add the oats. Stir for a minute and finally sprinkle the lemon juice and chopped coriander and serve immediately. It tastes good when it is warm.

Oats Upma

Mysore paak

 Mysore paak

I don’t know where from this name has come, but this is one of the mouth melting Indian sweet.

My mom is an expert in preparing this sweet. Though I didn’t conquer the art of making mysore paak, I managed to prepare it with good results in my first attempt itself. Mind you there is no compromise in adding ghee to this recipe.


Ingredients;

Fresh Gram Flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 ½ cup (You can increase it up to 2 cups as per your taste)
Ghee / Neyyi – 2 cups
Water – 1 cup

Basin / Gram flour, Sugar, Ghee

Method:

Sieve the gram flour to avoid any lumps
Keep a plate ready by applying ghee

Heat a non stick pan or any sturdy pan, add sugar and water and allow melting by stirring continuously.

 Sugar soaked in water

Bring the sugar mixture to boil until one string consistency.

Sugar at 1 string stage

When it is still boiling add the gram flour bit by bit until all the flour is finished and stir the sugar mixture continuously to avoid lumps and to allow the flour to get mixed well with sugar syrup

Basin flour added to the sugar syrup

When it is half done add 1 cup ghee by stirring continuously. Allow to cook the mixture for 1 or 2 minutes or until the ghee gets absorbed.

 Reduce the flame and add another cup of ghee and stir continuously (A good exercise for our arms) until the raw basin flour smell goes and nice aroma starts coming and the colour changes to nice golden yellow.

The end stage of mysore paak

Though the end bit looks like thick batter, pour the Mysore paak mixture into a buttered plate and allow it to cool.

Mysore paak mixture poured into the plate

When it is just luke warm, cut the mysoor paak into desired shapes. Allow it to cool completely before you store them in an air tight container.

Mysore paak, ready to melt in your mouth........

Plum Pickle

When I went to a farm, accidentally I found few raw Czar plums. Just by looking at the texture itself, I have decided to prepare plum pickle. But, just to double check, I gave a small piece of raw plum to my husband and asked him to taste it and tell me whether it is sour or not. The answer is YES.

As this is my experiment, I have decided to make small quantity. The plums are of 1 ½ inch size, more or less gooseberry size. I chose 10 plums. After removing the seed and cutting them into small pieces, the quantity came about 1 cup.

Note: It is always good to prepare the pickle powders at home. As it is difficult to prepare the small amounts, best thing is prepare them in medium or large amounts depending on the usage. Allow them to cool completely and preserve them in air tight bottles and store in refrigerator. This way we can save lot of time and effort and we can use them as and when required.

If you want to use raw powders always dry the ingredients thoroughly under hot sun or if you don't have sun pre heat oven,turn off and place the ingredients in the hot oven for few minutes. You don't need to fry the chilli. Just make sure the chillies or dry and grind them to fine powder or can use ready made pickle chilli powder.
Alternatively roast mustard / Fenugreek seeds seperately under low flame by constantly stirring until they change the colour and leaves nice aroma.

Ingredients:

Raw plums – 10

Mustard powder – 1 tsp

Salt – 1 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli Powder (Pickle chilli powder) – 1 tsp

Fenugreek powder – 1/2 tsp

Sesame oil – 3 tbsp

First prepare the pickle mixture first and then cut the plums.

Mix salt, chilli powder, fenugreek powder and mustard powder and keep it aside.

Raw Plums

De-seed the plums and chop them into small pieces. I cut each plum into 6 pieces.

Add the pickle mixture to plum pieces along with sesame oil.

Mix every thing gently and store it in a dry container.

You can use it from second day itself.