Bombai chutney

 Bombai chutney

This is a famous recipe prepared in combination with Poori or Masala Dosa.

Ingredients:
Onion – 1 (Cut into small pieces)
Tomato – 1
Chick pea flour (Basin / Senagapindi) – ½ cup
Water – 3 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 (Twist and tear them into 2 pieces and the aroma doubles)
Oil – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 ½ tsp

Method:

Mix basin + salt with water and stir well to avoid any lumps and keep it aside.

Heat a tawa with oil and when the oil is warm enough, add green chillies, onion, mustard, cumin, curry leaves and fry for 2 min. Now add chopped tomatoes and stir again and cover it with lid for 2 minutes. Stir again and when the tomato becomes mushy add the basin mixture and stir continuously by reducing the flame. Until the raw smell goes stir occasionally. Slowly the content gets thick and leaves a nice aroma. Remove from the heat. Though it looks bit watery when it is just done, it will become thick once it became cool.

Will be a nice combination for Poori or Dosa

Note - You can also add 1 or 2  boiled and mashed potatoes at the end.

Beetroot fry with fresh coconut

This recipe looks so elegant on the table with beautiful colour. A simple recipe with minimal ingredients.

Ingredients:

Beetroot Medium size – 4
Onion Medium size - 1
Fresh Coconut Grated – ¼ cup
Salt
Cumin Powder – ½ tsp
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Fresh Coriander, chopped – 2 tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and peel the skin for beetroots and chop them into small pieces about 1cm cubes.
2. Chop onions same size as beetroots.
3. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry onion for 2 minutes and add beetroot pieces along with salt.
4. Fry for a minute and add 4-5 tbsp of water and cover the lid until they are nearly done. Stirr in between.
5. Remove the lid and add the Cumin, coriander and chilli powder and fry for 3-4 minutes without covering the lid.
6. Make sure the curry should become dry now. Sprinkle the chopped coriander and fresh coconut and turn off the heat.

 Beetroot curry with Chapathi

Roasted Vermicelli Payasam

Vermicelli Payasam

I have chosen the fine roasted variety of vermicelli. This is an easy method with less ghee.

Ingredients:
Roasted Vermicelli broken into small pieces – 1 cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Evaporated milk – ½ cup
Whole milk – 2 cups
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Almonds – 5
Pistachio – 10
Saffron – 1 pinch

Almonds and Pistachio in Vermicelli's nest

Method:

Wash and soak almonds and pistachios in warm water for 30 minutes and grind them coarsely along with saffron.
Roast the vermicelli in ghee for a minute
Boil the milk along with almonds paste. When the milk reaches the boiling point add roasted vermicelli and stir momentarily. When the vermicelli becomes tender, then add sugar and stir for a while. Add the evaporated milk at the end and turn of the heat.

Chickpea curry

 Chickpea curry

Ingredients:

Set 1

Boiled chickpea – 1 tin / cup
Onion – 1 chopped into small pieces
Tomato – 1 chopped into small pieces
Chopped Coriander – 2 tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp

Set 2

Garlic cloves – 3Black Cumin – 1 tsp
Cloves – 2
Cinnamon – ½ inch
Dry coconut scraped – 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Roast Cumin, cloves and cinnamon slightly until they leaves some nice aroma. Allow it to cool and grind along with the other ingredients mentioned under Set 2 using little water and keep it aside.

2. Heat a deep pan and add 2 tbsp of oil. When it is hot add chopped onions and fry until they turn transparent. Add tomatoes and fry until they are mushy. Now add the masala paste and fry for 2 minutes or until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.

3. In the mean time drain the boiled chickpea wash them thoroughly. Mash half of the chickpea coarsely and add all the chickpeas to the pan.

4. Add some water about 50 ml, stir and cover with lid. Allow the chickpeas to boil further for about 5 – 10 min and get mixed with the masala well. Stir in between.

5. Add chopped coriander, lemon juice, stir gently and remove from the fire.

You can have this curry either with rice or roti.

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.

Chickpea Salad with seasoning

This is a famous recipe and prepared in almost each and every temple.

Ingredients:
Boiled Chickpea – 1 cup
Fresh coconut cut into small pieces or grated– 2 tbsp
Oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard + Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Green chilli – 2 chopped finely.
Turmeric – 1 pinch
Salt
Chopped coriander – 1 tsp

Method:

Take a pan and add oil. When the oil is hot add Mustard + Cumin, green chilli and sauté for few seconds. Add turmeric, salt and stir momentarily. Now finally add boiled chickpea and toss until every thing gets mixed. Remove from fire and serve it warm by sprinkling chopped coriander and coconut.

Uthappam / pancake in Sandwich maker

This is one of the interesting recipe to make kids happy. To make this either you can use Dosa batter or fresh batter prepared using rice and urad daal flours. This is also for the people who don’t have Indian tawa / Pan.

Ingredients:

Dosa batter – 4 cups
Onion – chopped ½ cup
Green chilli – chopped 1 tsp
Grated carrot – 2 tbsp
Chopped coriander – 1 tbsp
Salt

If you don't have dosa batter, then you can prepare this instantly with out grinding by following the below steps.

Urad daal powder – 1 cup
Rice flour – 3 cups
Water - to make the batter, yogurt like or Pan cake batter consistency.


Mix every thing and leave for 6-8 hours (Overnight) to get fermented. To the fermented dosa batter add chopped onion, green chilli, coriander, grated carrot along with some salt.

Pre-heat the sandwich maker by applying some oil on the plates. When it is hot enough pour the batter into the pits and close the lid.

Allow it to get cooked for about 3-5 minutes. Turn them on to the other side and cook until it is done.

Once done, slowly lift them and serve them with chutney or ketchup.

 Uthappam made in sandwich maker

Gatti Pakoda / Crispy Fritters

The name itself explains that the fritters are fully crispy. Simple trick is we just need to add Basin/ Gram flour and Rice flour in 1:1 ratio, bit of warm oil and very little water to get the fritters crispier.

 Gatti pakoda / Onion fritters

Ingredients:

Onion – 2 large
Curry leaves – Hand full
Basin / Gram flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Rice Flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Salt
Green chili – 2 slit them and chop
Oil to deep fry
Water – 3 – 4 tbsp

Method:

To deep fry the pakodas, heat a pan with oil on medium heat.

Whilst the oil is heating, chop Onion into thin strips. (Time Management). Mix the chopped onion with salt, green chili, Curry leaves, gram flour and rice flours thoroughly.

Now add about 3-4 tbsp of warm oil into the onion mixture.

Mix the ingredients well, so that they resemble crumbs.

Now sprinkle 3 – 4 tbsp of water and mix every thing thoroughly. (If necessary add bit more but do not make the batter loose).

Ready to fry

Increase the flame and when the oil is hot enough, take hand full of onion mixture and drop them into oil slowly by breaking the batter into small bite size pieces. This is the quick way. If you can’t do it quick enough then just pick small amounts of batter and drop into the oil slowly.

Occasionally turn the pakodas, so that they get cooked equally on all the sides.

Drain them on to a paper towel and serve them warm with Coffee or Tea. It is a great feeling, eating spicy pakodas and sipping the hot beverage.

Note: I have mentioned the measurements for about 2 - 3 servings. You can increase the quantities in the same ratio to make more.

Spinach Raita with Sweet corn

I choose this recipe when I do not have much time to prepare curries, as this is a quickie one.

Spinach Raita

Ingredients:

Spinach – 1 bunch
Sweet corn – 1/3rd cup
Cumin Powder – ½ tsp
Salt
Yogurt – 1 cup

Method:

1. Wash and chop spinach finely.
2. Steam cook spinach and sweet corn separately and allow them to cool.
3. Whisk yogurt by adding salt and cumin powder. Finally fold the spinach and sweet corn into it. Serve it with roti.

Note: If it is frozen sweet corn, you can just thaw them and add directly to raita. No need to cook.

 Roti with Spinach Raita

Mushrooms with Soya chunks

 Mushroom Soya Curry

Mushrooms contain about 80 to 90 percent water, and are very low in calories (only 100 cal/oz). They have very little sodium and fat, and 8 to 10 percent of the dry weight is fiber. Hence, they are an ideal food for persons following a weight management program or a diet for hypertensives. Mushrooms are an excellent source of potassium, a mineral that helps lower elevated blood pressure and reduces the risk of stroke. One medium portabella mushroom has even more potassium than a banana or a glass of orange juice. One serving of mushrooms also provides about 20 to 40 percent of the daily value of copper, a mineral that has cardioprotective properties. 

Soya bean helps in weight loss, is a source of energy, improves heart health. Research studies have shown that soy protein has the beneficial effect of lowering LDL (Low Density Lipoproteins) or “bad cholesterol”. Hence the FDA has approved the cholesterol lowering claim of soy protein.

You can also find more details about soya here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean

 I have mixed the benefits of both and prepared the recipe with mild flavours.

Ingredients:

Soya chunks – ½ cup
Mushrooms – 1 cup, chopped into 2 pieces
Tomato – 2, Chopped
Onion – 1, Chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Chilli Powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp

Soya chunks, Mushroom and Onion

Method:

Boil 2-3 cups of water and add soya chunks to it and leave it for 30 minutes. Drain them and squeeze all the water from them. Cut each chunk into two halves and keep them aside. Heat a pan with one tsp of oil and fry the onion until they change their colour. Keep them aside. In the same pan add another tsp of oil and when it is hot enough add tomatoes and fry until they become mushy.

Grind onion and tomato into smooth paste.

Heat another pan with 2 tbsp of oil and add ginger garlic paste. Fry for a minute. Now add chopped mushroom and soya chunks and fry for 2 minutes. Add onion and tomato paste, chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Fry every thing for another 2 minutes and cover the lid until it is done. No need to add any water as mushroom automatically oozes water out whilst cooking.

Two ways to check the doneness is, mushrooms should reduce their size and oil should get separated from the curry.