.....ShreeZ

Open Sandwich with coriander spread

2012-01-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of open sandwich unless it is topped with oodles of cheese :) I recently had this sandwich at my collegue's house (prepared by his mom) and it was awesome.. So tried it today.

You need

Bread - 1 pound

Potato - 1 cup boiled and mashed

Onion - 0.5 cup thinly sliced

Capsicum - 0.5 cup finely chopped

Lemon Juice - 1 tsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Salt for taste

Oil

For the spread

Curds - 4 tbsp

Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped

Green chillis - 4

Tamarind - 1 marble size

Salt

Method
For the spread, grind everything other than the curd into a fine paste
Add in the curd, keep aside

Heat oil in a pan
Add Mustard and once it splutters add in the onion
Fry till it becomes pink
Add in the capsicum and fry till it becomes soft
Add in the mashed potato and Mix well
Add the salt and lemon and mix
Remove from flame

Take the bread and apply a thick coating of the spread
Put 2 tbsp of potato mixture and spread it evenly on the bread
Cut the bread diangonally
Heat a tawa and roast both sides on medium flame (using Ghee if required)
Serve with Tomato Sauce

Palak Gobhi (Spinach Cauliflower Curry)

2012-01-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

My family is not a very big fan of Palak Paneer, so every time when I get Palak and start asking what do you want to eat the answer usually is palak Gobhi

Here is what you need

Palak - 2 cups roughly chopped

Gobhi - 2 cup florets

Onion - 0.5 cup finely chopped

Tomato - 1 cup finely chopped

Green chillis - 6 (As required)

Red chillie powder - 1 tbsp

Garam Masala - 0.5 tbsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Curd - 1 tbsp

Salt

Method
Boil water in 2 vessels and in one blanch the palak
To the other add salt and dunk the gobhi and allow it to boil on high for 2 mins
Drain both
Rinse the Palak to stop further cooking
Grind the palak and green chillis and keep aside
In a pan heat oil, add chopped onion
Fry till pink, add tomatos and all the masalas
Fry for another 4 mins on med - high flame till oil starts coming out from the mixture
Add the gobhi and mix well
Add salt and add 0.5 cup water and cook covered for 5 mins on low-med flame
Add in the palak mixture and cook on low flame for another 2 mins
Serve garnished with curd with roti or rice

Malai Capsicum

2012-01-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is another quick recipe which goes down without any comment in my house.

You need

Capsicum - 1 cup thinly sliced

Onion - 1 cup finely chopped

Tomato - 1 cup finely chopped

Green Chillis - 5 slit into half

Red chilli powder - 2 tsp (as required)

Garam Masala - 2 tsp

Curd - 1 cup

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Bengal gram (Urad dal) - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves - 1 tsp chopped finely

Oil

Salt

Method:
Heat a pan
Add 1 tsp oil
Add the mustard seeds
When they start to splutter add the bengal grams
When the bengal gram starts changing colour add the green chillies and onion
Fry on high till onion starts turning pink
Add the capsicum and fry for another 3 mins till capsicum becomes soft
Add in the tomatos
Add another tsp of oil (drizzle into the pan from the sides)
Add in the red chilli powder and garam masala
Fry on high for 2 mins till tomatos become soft
Reduce flame and cook covered for another 5 mins
Add salt and remove from flame
Mix the curd and let it sit for 5 mins covered
Garnish with coriander and serve with roti

Rava Dosa

2012-01-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

Quick, easy and tasty dosa which you can make in a jiffy.

You need:

Rava (Chiroti) - 1 cup

Rice flour - 2 tbsp

All purpose flour (Maida) - 2 tbsp

Green chillies - 5 finely chopped

Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped

Jeera - 1 tbsp

Water ~ 3.5 cups

Salt

Oil/Ghee

Method:
Mix all the ingredients except oil
Let is sit for 30 mins
Before making the dosa check the consistency of the batter
If the batter is thick add a little water
Heat the tava on high
Pour a ladle of batter on the tawa from the outside to the inside
Ensure the batter is not getting poured in a lump
Keep the tawa on medium flame
Pout a tsp oil around teh edges of the dosa
Let it cook for 2 - 3 mins
Increase the heat to high and turn the dosa and cook for another 2 mins
Serve hot with chutney

Eggless Swiss Roll

2012-01-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

I have not been successful in getting A to eat any cake I make.. She like to clean off the spoons I use to mix the batter but will not touch any cake unless it has icing on it :) So today decided to try out swiss rolls with Jam..

You need

All purpose Flour - 1 cup

Castor Sugar - 3/4 cup

Milk - 1/3 cup

Curd - 1/2 cup

Baking powder - 2 tsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Jam as required

Method:
Grease a baking tray
Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Mix the Castor Sugar, Curd, Vanilla Essence and Milk
Add in the baking powder and baking soda
Let it sit for 5 mins and froth
Sift the flour and salt together
Add to the wet mixture and fold in slowly
Pour into the baking tray into a thin layer and bake for 25 - 30 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Cool it for 15 minutes and invert the tray on a flat surface to get the cake
Invert the cake slowly
Apply a coat of Jam (as think as you want)
Fold tightly from one end and let it sit for 10 mins
Cut into rounds and serve

Notes:
Thicker you put the Jam sweeter the roll would become.

Sweet and Sour Vegetable Dry

2012-01-17T06:37:00.000-08:00

The answer to the eternal question from A in the evenings is "What is there to eat? I think my stomach is a little hungry". I have found a quick and easy response for this.. storing the chocolate chip dough in the fridge. My MIL now has become as expert on taking small balls of the dough and dunking it on the tray and baking it.. Belive me it just takes 12 mins for the cookies to bake and the taste is Nirvana :)

So today it was followed by a request for something spicy. I needed something quick and suddenly I remembered the sweet and sour vegetable I had last week when we went out for dinner..

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

Here is what you need

For the Batter:
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Maida - 1 tbsp
Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
Besan / Chick Pea powder - 0.25 cup
Salt to taste
Red chilli Powder to taste
Water

chopped vegetables - 1 cup (I used ladies finger, beans, potato and green capsicum)
Onion - 1 thinly sliced
Oil for Frying

For the seasoning
Hot chilli sauce - 1 tbsp
Tomato Sauce - 1 tbsp
Soya Sauce - 0.5 tbsp
Water - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1 pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (optional)

Method
Mix all the seasoning ingredients together and let it sit
Heat oil
Mix all the batter ingredients to form a thick batter adding little water
Add in the vegetables and mix well
Slowly drop into the hot oil as individual bits and pieces
You need to ensure that each vegetable bit is coated with batter
Fry till done and drain on paper

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan
Drop the fried vegetables into the pan
Add in the seasoning mixture
Mix well
Remove from flame - Sweet and Sour vegetable is ready to serve :)

Pav Bhaji with Avare Kalu

2012-01-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Pav Bhaji in my house is one of the easiest way to clean up the vegetables in the refrigerator.

Today when I started to make the bhaji realised that I forgot to soak the peas in the afternoon. Then as this is avarekalu season thought will use avarekalu instead of peas. Avarekalu is very easy to cook as it takes just around 4 - 5 mins to cook..

You need
Potato - 1 cup boiled and mashed
Cauliflower - boiled florets 1 cup
Onion - 1 cup finely chopped
Carrots - 0.5 cup cubed and cooked
Capsicum - 0.5 cup finely chopped
Tomato - 1 cup puree
Avarekalu - 1 cup cooked (Boil in water with 2 pinch salt for 4 - 5 mins)
Green chillis - 5 finely chopped

Pav Bhaji Masala - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt
Oil

Pav - 15
Butter
Coriander - 2 tbsp finely chopped
Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Method:
Heat oil in pan
Mash the cooked carrot and cauliflower and keep aside
Add 0.5 cup onion and fry till pink
Add Capsicum and green chillis and fry for another 3 mins on high with constant frying
Add the tomato puree
Add the masala, chilli powder and salt
Fry till tomato starts leaving oil from the side
Add mashed potatos, mashed carrot and mashed cauliflower
Mix well
Add in the avarekalu
Add 1 cup water mix well and cover and cook for another 5 mins on medium flame

Before serving
Put a sliver of butter on top of the pav and heat it i microwave for 20 sec
Serve the PAv with a bowl of bhaji garnished with lemon juice and coriander leaves with a side of chopped onion

I am sending this to "Healing food - cauliflower" hosted by Vardhini (started by Siri)

Happy Sankranthi Everyone :) (Sugar Candy / Sakkare Achu)

2012-01-15T00:07:00.000-08:00

"Mathe Bandide Sanktanthi.. Ukki Hariyali nimma Manelyalli Sukha Shanti"

In my mom's house, we did not have he tradition of distributing Ellu and bella.. we just used to give it to girls who used to come to our house and I remember fighting with mom asking her why I can't go out and do it!!

After A was born my MIL was soo happy and enthusiastic about getting A all decked up and distributing Ellu & Bella... The preparations start 1 week in advance. A is very fascinated with everything I wear.. and now it is the patiala bottoms.. and every time we go out to shop for her, her request would be "patiala pant tagoloona" (Let us buy patiala pants). I think I would have searched almost every shop in commercials and Malleshwaram searching for a full patiala pant for her.. Then we decided to get on the net and get a pattern and stitch the pant oursleves..

Here is how it came :)

This time I made the sakkare achu getting inspired by my Aunt from whom I got this recipe

You need:
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 0.5 cup
Water - 0.5 cup
Lemon - 1 tsp
Food Color of your choice - I used blue as per A's demand
Moulds - I used chocolate moulds (wash it in water before using it)

Method:
Soak the sugar in water and allow it to rest for 15 mins
Dissolve all the sugar
Keep a white muslin cloth ready to strain the solution
Boil the sugar solution in a thick bottomed pan over low flame
When the solution starts boiling and frothing, remove it from flame and immediately strain using the muslin cloth
Clean the pan.
Add 0.25 cup milk to the solution
Repeat the boil, froth, strain, clean pan step
Clean the pan
Add the remaining milk to the solution
Repeat the boil, froth, strain, clean pan step
Add lemon juice, the milk will curdle
Repeat the boil, froth, strain, clean pan step
Add the food color
Boil the sugar solution on medium flame till it stats to thicken (Keep stirring)
Consistency check - Drop a small drop on a plate and you should be able to move it with a match stick without breaking the drop
Remove and pour it in the moulds
Allow it to cool for 15 - 20 mins
Tap on the back of the mould to get the sakkare achu

Pav Burger

2012-01-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

R: Lying in front of the TV - I am hungry. .Is there anything to eat?
A: Lying on top of R - Me to hungry Amma. .What is there to eat?
MIL: Yes, make something nice for one of the events (with a grin)
FIL: Yes yes, I have got pav in the morning... make pav bhaaji... I will put the vegetables for cooking

And I was all tired with the preparations of Sankranti did not have the energy to make pav bhaji.. and wanted to do something quick and easy.. So for the evening snack we ended up having Pav Burger.. The recipe looks long but if you have cooked potato on hand then this can be done within 30 mins.

You need

For the Patty:
Left Over Idli - 2 cup crumbled
Potato - 1 cup cooked and mashed
Onion- 1 cup finely chopped
Corn - 0.5 cup cooked
Green chilli - 1 tbsp finely chopped (as required)
Any hot sauce - 3 tbsp
Red chilli powder - as required
Salt
Oil

For the Pav burger
Pav - 12
Onion - 1 med thinly sliced
Tomato - 1 med thinly sliced
Green chutney - 2 tbsp
Jalapenos, pickled Gherkins - as required
Cheese slices - as required

Method:

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan
Add in the crumbled Idli
Fry for 2 -3 mins on med - high flame
Remove to a plate and keep aside
Heat 1 tbsp oil
Add in the onion
Fry till onion becomes pink
Add in the corn and green chillis
Fry till corn becomes tender (2 - 3 mins)
Add in the mashed potatos and crumbled, fried Idli
Add the sauce, salt and red chilli powder
Mix well and remove from flame
Allow it to cool

Take 2 pav and grind mixer to make crumbs
Shape the idli mixture into a patty
Roll on the bread crumbs so that the patty is finely coated with bread crumbs
Heat a tava
Add 1 tsp oil
Place the patty on the tava and cook on both sides on med - high flame till it is browned (you can cook multiple patty at the same time)
Remove and drain on a paper

To Make the Burger:
Cut 3/4 of the Pav and keep is on the tava with the inside cut surface lying on the tava
Remove from heat
Put some green chutney
Add the sliced onion and tomato
Place the patty
Add a little hot sauce
Add in the gherkins and jalapenos
Cover the pav with the other half
Press down a little
Serve with Sauce

I am sending this to "Lets cook with Leftovers" hosted at Simply.food and "Kitchen Chronicles - Cooking with Leftovers" hosted by Veena (Started by Kalyani of Sizzling Taste buds)

Avara Idli (Hyacinth beans Idli)

2012-01-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Yes it is the Avare Kaalu Season here in India and in all the vegetable shops and on the roads you will see people selling avare kaalu. My exposure to Avare kaalu increased only after I got married. During the season there will be some or the other Avare dish getting cooked atleast twice a week.. Out of all the dishes my MIL cooks of Avarekalu this is one of my favorites

You need:
Rice and urad dhal - 3:1 ratio
Avare kalu - 1 cup
Coconut - 2 tbsp Thinly sliced
Green chillis - 1 tbsp Finely chopped (As required)
Corainder Leaves - 1 tbsp Finely chopped
Salt

Method:
Soak the Rice and Urad Dhal separately for 4 - 5 hrs
Grind the urad dhal into a smooth paste with as little water as possible
Add in the rice and grind till it becomes a fine paste
Add in the salt
Keep the batter overnight to ferment

Next morning, check the batter to ensure it is fermented (The batter would have increased in size)
Heat water, add 1 tsp salt and dunk the beans (avare kalu) in it and boil for 2 - 3 mins till slightly soft

Grease the idle stand
Drop in a few avare kalu, coconut pieces, green chillis and coriander
Pour the idli batter on top of this
Steam the idli for 15 - 20 mins (If using cooker do not use the weight)
Open the cooker and let the idli sit out for 5 mins
Remove from the stand and serve hot with chutney

I am sending this to "Walk through Memory Lane 2012" event hosted by Gayathri of Cook spot

Rice Crepes (Baji Ari Dosa)

2012-01-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

Weekends at my house usually starts with "tindi eenu maadodu" (What to make for breakfast?) and it was already 8:30 in the morning and my MIL and myself were still thinking what to do.. So my FIL says do quick version of "Baji Ari Dosa" that his Sis used to do..

You need
Rice - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Coconut Grated - 0.5 cup

Method
Soak rice in boiling water for 20 - 30 mins
Drain the water
Grind in a mixie into a fine paste
Grind the coconut and mix to the rice batter
Add salt
Add water as required, to get a thin batter
Heat tawa, take a ladle full of batter and pour it on the tawa
You need to spray the batter on the tawa as you will not be able to drag it like a dosa
Cook on both sides like any other dosa
Serve hot

We had ours with Coriander chutney

This goes to "Let's Cook - Rice" event hosted by Radhika

Mushroom Balls

2012-01-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

I love mushrooms...and this is one of my favourite comfort foods. .The first time I tasted these was on my first trip to US. That was store brought and after coming back to India I searched in all major retail outlets for these.. no luck. Then browsed the net and finally after lots of trails and errors this is the nearest I could get to

You need

Button mushrooms - 15 cleaned
Cornflour - 4 tbsp
Onion - 1 medium sized cubed
Green chillis - 5 - 6 (as required)
Garlic pods - 5 -6
Bread - 3 (a day old bread is better)
Oil for deep frying
Salt

Method
Grind the onion, garlic and green chillis into a fine puree
Mix the Cornflour, the above puree and salt
Add water as required to make a thin batter
Put the Bread in the mixer to make fine crumbs
Dunk the mushrooms in the batter and let it rest for about 10 mins
Heat oil
Take a mushroom from the batter coat it with the bread crumbs and fry it in the oil on medium flame
Ensure the oil temperature is not very hot else the mushroom ball will become brown very quickly
If the oil is not hot enough the mushroom ball will drink oil and turn soggy!
Fry one ball after the other and drain the excess oil
Serve hot with Ketchup

Carrot Cream

2012-01-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

My lil princess was down with fever and with all other things happening around it completely slipped from my mind that today is Wednesday and I was supposed to post a recipe as part of BHW.

This month I am paired with Vidhya Jayadeep of Vidhyas good eats. She has a good collection of recipes and I started bookmarking them left - right centre. For the first event I wanted to try out the red pepper and tomato soup, but this simple and tasty recipe caught my eye :) I have made very minor modifications to the recipe..

For carrot cream you need

Ingredients:
Carrots - 2 cups diced
Milk - 3 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup or as required
Cardamom - 1 tsp
Cashew - 2 tbsp
Raisin - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Pressure cook the carrot in 2 cups of milk and sugar (4 whistles)
Once cool puree with remaining milk
Mix in the cardamom
Heat the ghee and roast the cashew and raisin
Add into the Carrot cream
I served it at the room temp.. It tasted very good :)

This is going to be a regular in my house from now on..

I am sending this to Blog Hop Wednesdays hosted by Radhika of Tickling palates and "ABC Series: DESSERTS" hosted by Ramya

Methi Paratha

2012-01-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

I am on a roll today :) I like the little bitter taste of methi leaves in paratha or roti.

You need

Wheat flour - 3 cups
Methi leaves - Chopped 3 cups
Onion - 1 medium chopped finely
Garam masala - 2 tsp
Red chilli flakes - 2 tbsp (according to taste)
Curds - 1/2 cup
Mustard - 2 tsp
Salt
Oil
Ghee

Method
Heat ghee in the pan
Add in Mustard
Once the mustard starts spluttering add in chopped onions
Fry for 1 min on medium flame then add in the chopped Methi leaves
Fry till methi leaves start cracking
Add the fried methi leaves onto the wheat flour
Add in the chilli flakes, garam masala, salt and curds and mix well
Add warm water and make a soft dough
Cover and let it rest for 30 mins

Take lemon sized dough and roll it out into a circle
Heat the tawa and fry the paratha on both sides using ghee / oil as required
Serve hot with Curds

Eggless Chocolate chip chookie

2012-01-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

A eats cakes only if she can see white or pink cream on it so whatever I have been baking all these days she keeps me company by licking the dough :)

This was my last try to entice her to taste my final product than just the dough.. and my darling daughter ate 2 and came back asking "amma can we make this again tomorrow" :)

This cookie is yumm and very easy to make

You need:

All purpose flour / Maida - 1.25 cups
Brown Sugar - 0.25 cup + 2 tbsp
Granulated Sugar -
0.25 cup + 2 tbsp
Baking soda - 0.25 tsp
Baking powder - 0.25 tsp
Salt - 1 pinch
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Dark chocolate chips - 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup (At room temperature)
Curd - 3 tbsp

Method:
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
Cream together the Butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract
Add in the curd and beat for another 1 min on low speed
Slowly mix in the flour mixture little by little on low speed till the mixture becomes a nice soft dough
Fold in the chocolate chips
Refrigerate the dough for an hour

Pre-heat the oven for 190C
Grease the cookie tray (if using non-stick no need to grease)
Scoop out small lemon sized balls of the refrigerated dough onto the tray
No need to flatten them as the cookie will become flat due to the heat
Maintain atleast 1.5 - 2" between each cookie
Bake the cookies for 12 - 13 mins or till the sides start turning golden brown
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 mins
Remove the tray and allow to cool on the wire rack

I am sending this to Cooking Concepts - Chocolate hosted by Srav and Chocolate - Mela hosted by Srivalli.

Hara Gobhi Pulav (Green Cauliflower Pulav)

2012-01-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Gobhi is one of my all time favourite vegetables. And pulav is one whole meal which can be prepared and served within 40 mins, if you have all the ingredients at hand. Here is how I prepare it

You Need:
Rice - 1 cup
Chopped Mixed vegetables - 1 cup ( I used beans, carrot and potato)
Onion - 1 medium sliced thinly
Gobhi - 1 cup florets
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Salt

To Grind into a fine paste
Coconut - 0.5 cup grated
Onion - 1 medium cubed
Garlic - 4 - 5 cloves
Green chillis - 5 - 6 (as per taste)
Pudina leaves - 6 - 8 leaves
Coriander - 1 tbsp chopped
Ginger - 1"
Cloves - 5
Cinnamon - 3"
Pepper corns - 6 - 8

Method:
Heat a pan
Add 1/2 tbsp of ghee
Reduce to med flame
Add in the pepper corns, cloves, Cinnamon and garlic
Fry for 1 min
Add in all the other ingredients required to prepare the paste
Fry for 2 - 3 mins
Take off the flame and allow it to cool
Grind into a fine paste with little water

Heat 1 tbsp ghee in the pan / pressure cooker
Add in the rice and fry on low flame for 2 - 3 mins
Add the chopped vegetables and fry for another 2 - 3 mins
Add 3/4 of the paste and stir for another min
Add 3 cups of water and salt
Mix in the Salt and cook for 3 whistles

In the mean time boil water, add 2 tsp salt.
Add in the gobhi florets
Allow it to boil for 3 mins
Drain and keep aside

In a pan heat the remaining Ghee
Add the sliced onions and fry till onion becomes translucent
Add the remaining paste and salt and fry till the raw smell goes off
Add the florets and cook on low flame covered for 5 mins
Once the gobhi is cooked remove from heat and mix nicely with the cooked pulav

Serve hot with Raita and papad :)

I am sending this to Let us cook ~ Rice Event by Radhika

Happy New Year :)

2012-01-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year (My work below :) )

Bye Bye 2011.. Welcome 2012 - Eggless Dates Cake

2011-12-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

What an year.. with so many highs and lows.. and even through I have not blogged as much as I wanted.. I am happy that I could make time to pursue this passion of mine. A big thanks to my family for being there and becoming guinea pigs for all my kitchen disasters. I love you all :)

Here I am back today with another Cake recipe. I told you baking is addictive :)

My brother had got a big box full of dates when he came from Dubai this time. 7 different varieties of dates in one box. I did not even know there were that many different varieties!!

Anyway I started surfing the net in search of a good Dates cake recipe. I was not sure on the proportion of sugar and dates so wanted something fool proof and eggless and landed here.

I made a few modifications to the recipe

You need:
Dates - 18 deseeded
Milk - 0.75 cup
Sugar - 0.5 cup + 2 tbsp
Allpurpose Flour - 1 cup
Curd - 0.25 cup
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Almonds - 1 tbsp sliced thin

Method:
Soak the dates in boiling milk til it becomes soft
Grind the dates + milk + sugar into fine paste
Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C
Grease the cake tin
Sift the flour and baking powder
Fold in the paste slowly
Fold in the chopped Almonds
Pour into the greased tin and bake for 30-35 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Cool it for 15 mins and then remove from the tin
Allow it to cool for another 30 mins

I sprinked powdered sugar on top :)

Here are couple of my favorite recipes that I did this year.

I am sending this to the Virtual Party 2012 hosted by Lora and Sanjeeta KK

Eggless Chocolate Banana Bread

2011-12-26T05:41:00.000-08:00

Baking is addicting :) Believe me it is a huge stress buster and when you have appreciative audience ready to finish off and praise what comes out of the oven...

I have fallen in love with the smell of banana bread. The bread came out well, moist in the centre. I did not had any nuts to add to the recipe, after tasting it felt nuts would have made it much better :)

You need:
Dry Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1.75 cups
Unsweetened Cocco powder - 0.25 cup (I used regular)
Sugar granulated - 0.75 cup
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Baking soda - 0.5 tsp
Salt - 0.25 tsp
Unsweetened chocolate chips - 0.25 cup

Wet Ingredients:
Curd - 0.25 cup
Butter unsalted - 0.5 cup (measured, melted and cooled)
Ripe Banana Mashed - 1.75 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F/180C
Grease a loaf pan
In a bowl mix in the dry indgredients
In another bowl mix the wet ingredients
Fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
Fold in the chocolate chips
The mixture would be very thick and just scrape this into the greased pan
Bake for 50 -55 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Take the pan out and let it cool on a wire rack for 15 mins

I am sending this to Bake fest 2 hosted by Sangee (initially started by Vardhini), to New Year New Dish hosted by Nupur and Serve - it series by Krithi (& Denny)

Eggless Apple Cake

2011-12-21T05:10:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try out the Banana muffins that we did in my baking class after seeing the post from Radhika, followed it and landed at Madhuram's eggless cooking site. Saw the Vegan Cocoa Apple Cake Recipe and A is going through the "I don't want Banana. .I want apple" line decided to make apple cake.

I did not want to use cocoa and have stuck with All Purpose flour so here is my version of it.

You Need:

All Purpose flour - 1.5 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 0.5 tsp
Powdered Sugar - 0.75 cup
Water - 1 cup
Apple Puree - 0.25 cup
Peeled, cored and diced apple - 0.75 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice Freshly squeezed - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp ( used refined cooking oil)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
Lightly grease and line the cake tin with parchment paper
Sift the flour, soda and salt
Mix in the powdered sugar ensuring there are no lumps
In another bowl, mix the apple puree, water, vanilla extract, lemon juice and oil
Pour this onto the dry ingredients
Mix gently
Fold in the diced apple
Pour into the greased tin
Bake for ~ 40 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean
Take the tin out of the oven and allow it to rest for about 20 mins
Remove the cake from the tin and allow it it rest on the wire rack for another 30 mins

We finished off half of the cake as soon as the waiting period was over. It was soft, moist in the centre and yummmmmm

The other half which we had in the evening tasted better. Lesson Learnt - This cake tastes better if you eat it 4 - 5 hrs after it has been made :)

I am sending this to Bake fest 2 hosted by Sangee (initially started by Vardhini), to New Year New Dish hosted by Nupur and Serve - it series by Krithi (& Denny)

Braided Aloo Bun

2011-12-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

Looks like the "Baking Bug" has bitten everyone :) I saw a vada pav post by Radhika earlier today.. and I am sailing on the same boat as her.. Yippeee I got it right this time :)

The bun turned out soft, masala was on the spot and all in all it got over :)

You Need:
All purpose flour - 3 cups

Vital wheat gluten - 2 tbsp
Dry Yeast - 2.5 tsp
Luke warm water - 1/2 cup
Luke warm Milk - 1/2 cup
Butter - 4 tbsp at room temperature
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Salt - 2 tsp

For the stuffing:
Potato - 2 medium boiled and mashed
Onion - 2 medium finely chopped
Green chillis - 2 (Optional)
Garam Masala Powder, Red chilli powder - 1 tsp each
Mustard for tadka - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp for Tadka
Lemon Juice - 1tsp , Chopped Coriander leaves - finely chopped 1 tbsp for Garnish
Salt for taste

Method:
Prepare the stuffing:
Heat oil in a pan
Add mustard, when it starts making sound add in the onion and chopped green chillis.
Fry till onion turn slightly pink.
Add in the dry masala and salt and fry for few seconds
Add 2 tbsp water and mix well
Add in mashed potato and mix well
Cook on low flame till water evaporates (2 - 3 mins)
Remove from flame add in lemon and chopped coriander leaves.
Once the mixture is cold make lemon sized balls and keep aside

Now for the Buns:
In a large bowl add in luke warm water, yeast, sugar and half of the salt
Allow it to froth for about 10 mins. If there is no froth then discard the mixture and start again
In the mean time mix the flour, salt and gluten on the kneading surface
Make a well and add in the yeast mixture, add in the melted butter and milk slowly to make a soft dough
Knead well for 10 - 15 mins (I used the stand mixer, dumped in the dough and ran for 7 mins)

Cover the dough and let it rest for 1 - 1.5 hrs. The dough needs to double in size
Take the Dough and beat it to remove the air
Make into 12 balls and let it sit covered for another 15 mins.
Roll out the dough into 6" diameter circle, place the potato mixture in the centre (on the diameter)
Make cuts on the circle as shown in the figure below

Place the flaps on the potato mixture as per the numbering shown
Once done, let the bun rest for 15 mins

Preheat the over to 180 deg C
Bake the buns for 25 - 30 mins
Keep an eye on the buns as the time would depend on the size of the buns and the oven you are using
When done, remove from the oven and let it cool on the wire rack for 15 - 20 mins

I also made a batch of simple Potato buns. I brushed the top of the buns with olive oil + milk mixture (equal proportions) before baking the bun in the oven. I got a better shade on this one :) A got her own Jam stuffed bun :)

This is off to Radhika's Baked Goodies, Kriti's Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting than tea & toast or coffee & cereal (Helen's Original Event) and to Srav’s Holiday Baking

Orange Cupcake with chocolate chips

2011-12-10T04:51:00.000-08:00

I attended this awesome Basic Baking Workshop last weekend. And what an eye opener it was :) Thanks a lot Madhuri for the tips and tricks and bags full of confidence..

I am in the process of trying out the recipes we did in the class. The tea cakes and the chocolate cake got over before I could get my camera out...hahaha

Today took the picture first before plating the cakes. The plate was empty in 5 mins and my MIL said.. "Hmmm innondu tinbahudithalva" :)))

Paneer Fried Rice

2011-12-10T04:28:00.000-08:00

Getting into the recipe without much ado today - here is a quick and easy recipe of Paneer Fried Rice (R's favourite Version)

You need:

Rice - 1 cup
Onion - 1 cup finely chopped
Paneer - cubed into 0.5" pieces
Red chilli flakes - 1 tbsp (I used the ones you get from Pizza Hut)
Chinese 5 spices powder - 1 tbsp
Pepper corns - 5
Cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 1" piece
Ghee / Oil - 1tbsp
Salt

Method:
Heat 1/2 tbsp Ghee/ oil in a pan
Add pepper corn, cardamom, cinnamon and onion and fry till onion turns pale pink
Add in the rice and fry for 2-3 mins on medium flame
Add in 2.5 - 3 cups of water and cook for 3 whistles
Once the rice is done and the pressure goes off, spread it out in a pan and leave it till it is completely cold

In a Wok, heat the remaining oil / ghee. Add in the cubes paneer and fry for a couple of mins till the paneer turns golden
Remove the paneer and add in the onions and fry till onions turns slightly brown.
Add in the chilli flakes, salt and chinese powder spices
Fry on medium flame for another min taking care not to burn the spices :)
Add in the paneer and Rice and mix well.
Cook covered on low flame for another 10 mins
Serve Hot

Sutta Badane Gojju (Roasted Brinjal Curry)

2011-11-12T02:49:00.000-08:00

In my house usually it is my FIL who does vegetable shopping. His mantra is "I will buy something when I go for walking".. but we at home guess that he feels if we go shopping then we will get something which he will not like!

Anyway A had "vegetables" in her syllabus this week and her "Mam" whose every order must be obeyed without failure ordered her to visit a vegetable store. So after I came from the office me and her highness A went to the nearby vegetable shop. I like visiting this shop as you get almost all the veggies here and they are fresh. So we went there.. did a round of identifying the vegetables and my eyes feel on this awesome purple brinjal and fresh mushrooms. I grabbed both and we started home..

I made mushroom manchoorian which got over before I got a click and for dinner I made "sutta badane gojju" Roasted brinjal curry with chapati.

You need

Brinjal - 1 big purple one

Onion - 1 medium sized chopped

Tomato - 2 big ones

Green chillies - 5 finely chopped

Ginger - 1" piece grated

red chili powder - 3 tsp (As per taste)

Salt

Oil

Method:

Skewer the brinjal, apply a light coating of oil and roast it on gas for 12 -15 mins.
My MIL is a bit skeptical about eating roasted brinjal so I cut the brinjal in half (by length) and poke some hole with a fork to see the brinjal is fine and has not gone bad. I then apply oil on the outside and roast it on the gas. As you have cut the brinjal in half you can do the roasting in 3 - 4 mins each half and you will not notice any difference in the taste.

After roasting both the half let it sit for 5 mins.

Skewer the tomatoes and roast it on flame till the skin starts peeling away (approx 3 mins each tomato). Peel the skin and chop the tomatoes and keep it ready.

In the mean time heat oil in a pan and add onion, ginger and green chillies. Fry till the onion becomes pink.

Add the chopped tomatoes, red chili powder and fry on low flame till the oil separates from the paste (approx 5 mins)

remove the skin from the roasted brinjal (you can just scrape it away) and mash it into a fine pulp.

Once the the paste in the pan is ready add in salt and mix well

Add the brinjal and 1/2 cup (Almost 150 ml) water.

Mix well and let is cook away on low flame for another 5 mins or till the water evaporates.

Serve with rice or chapathi.

Moolangi Chutney (Radish Chutney)

2011-11-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

In-laws out.. Get a call from MIL saying "madyanna kke eendaroo chennagiroodu maadi ide" opened the fridge and saw there was only moolangi.. I am not a big fan of moolangi sambar or moolangi palya.. So decided to try out the chutney..

Here is what you need:

Moolangi (Radish) - Grated 1 large cup

Onion - chopped 1/2 cup

Green chillis - 5 (reduce if you want less hot)

Tamaring - 1 small lemon sized

coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped

salt and oil

For Tadka - mustand, urad dal, oil and red chillis

Method:

Heat oil in a wok, add the grated radish and fry till the raw smell goes off. Remember to fry on med flame (for around 5 - 7 mins)
Remove from flame and keep aside
Heat oil and prepare the tempering
Add the chopped onion, green chillis and tamarind and fry till onion becomes pink
Remove from flame and mix with the radish
Allow to cool and grind into a fine paste
Goes well with rice and dosa

Gulla Palya (Brinjal Ennegayi)

2011-11-01T05:22:00.000-07:00

Badanekayi ennegayi.. just hearing that my mom is going to make it used to make my mouth water.. .This is my first attempt at making this palya from scratch on my own.. morning I called my mom and asked her to tell me the ingredients and the quantity..

Mom: oo adaa eenoo illa kane. .swalpa kottambari, ,swalpa jeerige. .kara estu beekoo astu noodkondu menasu..
Me: hang on mom... tell me how much coriander and jeera.. how many red chillis should I put in..
Mom: Haagella helakke aagalla kane.. ella kai alathe..

Think I started driving her up the wall (easy feat :) ) and then I got the quick and easy version of this recipe..

You need:

Brinjal - 10 small sized

Rasam powder - 2 tbsp (i used MTR rasam powder)

Coconut grated - 1 small cup

Tamarind - 1 lemon sized soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water for 30 mins

Red Chilli Powder - as per taste

Salt

Oil for frying

Method:
Wash brinjals, remove the caps.
Slit the brinjals lengthwise from the top till you reach 2 cm from the bottom.
Do not cut it into half. Cut once again into half so that you get 4 pieces attached at the bottom.
Dunk the Brinjals in the water to avoid oxidation and also helps in soaking the masala.(leave it for half an hour)
Grind the rasam powder, coconut, salt, red chilli powder, 1/2 of the soaked tamarind in a fine paste
Do not add any water
Stuff the brinjals with this masala.
Add 1/2 cup water to the left over masala and keep aside.
In a pan add 1 tbsp oil.. arrange the stuffed bringals..
Add in the masala water and cover and cook for 5 mins on low flame.
Now in a wok heat 1 tbsp oil and transfer the half cooked brinjals from the pan to the wok along with the residual masala
Ensure that the brinjals are kept errect.. cook on low flame for another 10 - 15 mins.. flipping the brinjals in between.
Serve with roti or rice.

Happy Navaraatri :)

2011-09-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, every time for navaratri I used to think "naanu doddavalaada mele manelli gombe kuristini" and then when I was old enough to do it never could find the time for all the preparations. Finally this year my MIL said "don;t just talk about it.... Lets do it".. So here is my first "gombe koorisiroodu"

Pongal (my MIL way)

2011-09-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

If you ask me what is that one breakfast that you just cannot eat. .the answer would be Pongal. But this is something with R just loves and so does everyone in my family.

So here is how it is done at our house - recipe perfected by my MIL over the years :)

You would need:

Rice - 1cup

Moong dal - 1 cup

Water - ~ 8 cups

Pepper corns - 10

Green chillis - 2 (As per taste)

Ghee - 3-4 tsp

Salt

For Garnish:
Coriander leaves chopped - 2 tbsp
Coconut Grated - 1/2 cup

For the Tadka
Ghess - 1tsp
Jeera, Mustard seeds, red Chillis
cashewnuts - 10 broken
Dry Grapes - 10

Salt

Method:
Heat 1tsp Ghee in pan, add pepper corns, cloves separately.
Crush the Pepper and keep it ready
In the pan free the rice for 1 min on medium flame, remove and keep aside
Fry the moong dhal for 1 min on medium flame
Add in the rice, crushed pepper, cloves and green chillis to this; add the water and cook in the pressure cooker (3 whistles)
Once it is cooked, prepare tadka with ghee adding jeera, mustard, red chillis, urad dal, khiskimsh and cashewnut (broken ).
Add this on to the Pongal.
Add salt and the grated coconut
Decorate with chopped coriander and serve Hot.

Palak Oats Dose

2011-05-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

My saga of making non-rice south indian dinner continues! Today for dinner it was Palak Oats Dose.

You would need:

Oats - 2 cups

Rava (Chiroti) - 1/2 cup

Palak - 1 cup chopped

Onion - 1 medium sized

Carrot - 1/2 cup cubed

Green Chillis - 4

Coconut scraped - 1/2 cup (optional)

Jeera - 2 tsp

Salt

Method:

Soak Oats and Rava in 3 cups of water for 30 mins

In the mixer grind into fine paste adding little water at a time.

Grind coconut, palak, carrots, onions and green chillis and mix it with the batter.

Consistency should be thin (like normal dosa batter)

Heat the tava and take the batter in a ladle and spread it as thin as you can make.
Cook covered on both sides. Serve hot with any chutney. Coconut chutney goes well with this :)

Lasooni Methi Dal

2011-05-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

Had some methi leaves in the fridge and T Aunty was going on saying "halagi biduthe kane. .menthe soppu eenaadroo maadu" and today in-laws are out so decided to make Lasooni Methi dal. One of R's all time favorites (in-laws do not like the smell of garlic!)

You would need:

Methi leaves - chopped 1 cup

Dal ( I used masoor) - 1 cup cooked

Onion - 1 medium thinly sliced

Garlic - 5

Green Chillis - 5 sliced

Kadi patta - 5

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Ghee - 2 tsp

Salt

Method:
Heat 1 tsp Ghee in the Pan.
Add Jeera when it sputters add green chillis, kadi patta and onion and fry till onion becomes translucent.
Add chopped methi leaves and fry for 4 more mins on medium flame
Add the cooked Dal, salt and Garam Masala.
Mix, if the dal looks thick add 1/2 cup of water.
Bring to a boil.
In the mean time, heat 1 tsp ghee in a small pan and fry the garlic,
When the garlic turn golden brown add this to the boiling Dal and remove from flame.

Serve Hot with Rice or Roti.

Boodu kumbala bondina tambli

2010-06-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

I know I know it is quite a mouthful if you do not understand Kannada / Tulu :) Let me try translating it
Boodu kumbala = Winter Melon / Ash Gourd
Bondu - Soft and mushy part at the centre of the melon where you have all the seeds

Ash gourd is known for its medicinal values and healing power. Being low in calories, it is ideal for diabetic patients, and those seeking weight-control (ME ME ME). My Granny used to say this is very good for excessive bleeding.

Any way this is one of the very few veggies that my 20 M old daughter will eat with out fuss. When the sambar is done at home you can hear her going "kadi haaku nanaige naanee tintini" (give me the vegetables, I will only eat)

For today I have the tambli which my Aunt makes from the bondu.

You need:

Ash gourd Bondu - 1 cup

Curds - 1 cup

Coconut - 2 tbsp scrapped

Green chillis - 2

mustard - 1 tsp

urad dal - 1 tsp

Red chillis - 2

Curry leaves - 4

Hing - 1 pinch

Oil - 2 tsp

Salt

Method:

Remove all the seeds from the bondu and clean it by running water on it.
This will remove the slimy coat from the bondu.
Steam it in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
In the Mixer grind cocount and green chillis.
Now add the bondu and salt, grind into a fine paste.
Mix in the curds.
Heat oil, add mustard once it splutters add urad dal, red chillis, curry leaves and hing.
Add this tadka to the Bondu curd mixture.
Tambli is ready.
Serve it with Rice.

This goes to Nitu's Best Out of Waste event.

Rave Rotti

2010-06-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is very simple and easy to make.

You need

Chiroti rava - 2 cups
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Green chillis - finely chopped 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves - finely chopped 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Sour Curds - 1 cup
Salt

Mix all the above mentioned ingredients in a pan.
Add a little water if required. Dough should not be as hard as chapati dough.
Heat the tava.
Take a big lemon sized ball and flatten it on a foil / banana leaf.
Flatten the dough into a thin rotti with your hands.
Put the rotti on the tava and cook on both sides.
Serve hot with chutney.

Capsicum Carrot Chutney

2010-06-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

My FIL asked at 7:30 "Can we have Rave Rotti for dinner today?" and I am like ok I think he got scared I will again do some experimentation and make him and my dear R the Guinea pigs :). I know R wants some sort of chutney with the Rotti there was no coconut in the house.. I had already prepared tomato chutney yesterday. So I logged on to the net and started searching the recipe for Capsicum chutney. Armed with the recipe of roasted bell pepper chutney from Meera, I asked Aunty to get the capsicum out of the fridge. When I opened the cover I saw 2 halves of leftover capsicums!! It was already 8:15 and here is what was cooked in my kitchen yesterday :)

You need:
Capsicum - cubed 1/2 cup
Carrot - grated 1/2 cup
Onion - Cubed 1 medium sided
Red chillis - 6
Urad dal - 2 tsp
mustard - 1 tsp
green chillis - 2 slit length wise
curry leaves - 4
tamarind - small ball with 2 cm diameter
oil - 1 tsp
slat

Heat oil in a pan.
Add mustard when it splutters add urad dal, red chillis, green chillis, curry leaves.
Fry till the urad dal turns light golden in color.
Now add cubed capsicum, carrot and onions.
Fry till onions becomes translucent and carrot looked cooked.
Remove the pan from the flame and allow the mixture to cool to room temp.
Grind with little water into a fine paste.
Serve with Rotti or dosa.

Expert comments from MIL:

Adding a little more Urad dal (fried) will give a nice aroma to the chutney.

Tastes great with Rice and little oil :)

This goes to Priya's "Healing Food - Onion", an event started by Siri.

Tomato Chutney

2010-06-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

Recently I found my old recipe book in which I used to note down the recipies that I liked, this was before I got my own notebook at home!! The collection has recipes from internet, from TV and what I have got from my family and friends. Today's tomato chutney is form there. Adding fried cococut adds a distinct flavor and aroma to the chutney.

You need:
Tomatos - 2 chopped
onion - 1 medium finely chopped
coconut - 1/2 cup shredded
green chillis - 4 slit length wise into 2
curry leaves - 5 - 6
red chillis - 1 broken into 1" pieces
mustard - 2 tsp
bengal gram - 1 tbsp
oil - 1 tsp
salt

Heat oil in a pan.
Add mustard and when it splutters add bengal gram, red chillis.
Fry till bengal gram starts turning the color
Add curry leaves, onion and green chillis.
Fry till onion becomes soft and translucent.
Add chopped tomatos and fry till tomatos become soft (4 - 5 mins)
Add coconut and fry for another min.
Remove from flame and allow to sit till it comes to room temp.

Grind into a nice paste will very little water.
Serve with rice, dosa or rotti.

Ragi Rotti

2010-06-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to think of non-rice variety food every morning and night for dinner.. Saw ragi rotti in one of the cookery shows on TV last week and below is my version of it :)

For Ragi Rotti:

Ragi flour - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 cup finely chopped
coconut - scrapped 1/2 cup
green chillis - 1 tbsp finely chopped
coriander - 1 tbsp finely chopped
Salt

Heat 4 cups of water in a heavy bottomed pan.
Add salt and ghee. Allow water to boil.
Remove the pan from flame add the ragi flour slowly ensuring no lumps are formed.
Keep the pan on the flame and stir continuously till the mixture thickens.
Once this thickens it will form a ball and will start leaving the sides of the pan.
Remove from flame and allow it to cool to room temp.
Mix in all the other ingredients and knead for 2 - 3 mins till you get a nice soft dough.

Heat the tava.
If you are not using non-stick apply a bit of oil to the tava ( I use a cut onion to smear the oil on the tava... this ensures that the rotti will not stick to the tava)
Take a big lemon sized portion of the dough and keep it on foil sheet ( I used a banana leaf)
Flatten it as thin as you can using hour hands (dip your hands in water and flatten the dough if you feel that the dough is sticking).
Take the foil / banana leaf and put the rotti on the hot tava.
Remove the foil / banana leaf.
Cook covered for 2- 3 mins on high flame.
Turn and cook on med - high flame for another 2 - 3 mins.
Serve Hot with any spicy chutney of your choice.

Menasina Bhajji - Jalepeno Bhajji

2010-06-07T07:36:00.001-07:00

R does not like bland stuff so you can guess his reaction when he saw my mushroom pete, but for me it was a case of My Stomach happy so I am happy :) so decided to make menasina bhajji for him and in-laws.

You need:

Menasina Kayi - 10
Gram flour - kadale hittu - 1 cup
rice flour - 1 tbsp
red chillis powder - as per taste
hing - 1 pinch
salt

Make a Slit in the menasina kayi so that you can remove the seeds. (Make a slit from the stalk till the end on one side, use a spoon to remove the seeds)
Make a batter with gram flour, rice flour, salt, red chilli powder and hing.
The batter should not be watery.
Heat oil in a pan.
When the oil is hot enough Dip the menasinakayi in the batter and deep fry till golden brown.
Drain and serve hot.

Creamy Mushroom Pete

2010-06-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Shops near our new house does not stock mushroom :( Saturday went to the new Supermarket which is about 2 KM from my house. Could not believe my luck when the shop keeper told me that he gets fresh button mushroom twice and week and he will give me a call when the next delivery comes :))))

So came home with 1 pack of mushroom and all the other ingredients I need to make PASTA.. after reaching home realised I forgot to get the main ingredient yes friends the pasta!!!!!

Then some innovative cooking from yours truly resulted in Creamy Mushroom Pete.

You need:

Button mushrooms - 10 - 12
cream - 1 tbsp
Milk - 2 cup
Garlic - 5 - 6 finely chopped
onion - 2 tbsp finely chopped
Burger Bun - 1
Grated cheese - 1 tbsp
Pepper - as per taste freshly ground
Butter - 1 tbsp
Corn flour / Maida - 0.5 tbsp
salt

Clean the mushroom by peeling off the outer covering.
Remove the stalk carefully make sure that the mushroom is not crushed.
chop the stalk and keep it aside.
Take the bun. Carve the bun so that you get a wide hole in the centre (bun looks like a empty cup).
Heat the pan and fry the extracted bun pieces till they become golden.
Heat butter in a pan.
Add the garlic fry for 3 mins till the raw smell goes off.
Add the onion fry for 2 mins.
Add the chopped mushroom stalk and the button mushroom and fry till the mushroom becomes soft and soggy.
Remove the pan from flame and then remove the button mushroom from the pan (with a spoon!!) and keep it aside.
Add the flour and fry for 1 min on med - high flame.
Now take the pan off the flame and add milk.
Keep the pan on the flame and cook on high for 1 min,
Add the cream and the ground pepper.
Mix well. Now add the bun pieces that you have cut from the bun (make bite size pieces).
Allow the sauce to thicken a bit.
Add salt mix well and remove from flame.

Keep the bun on a microwave safe plate
arrange the mushroom in the bun and around it.
Add the sauce and top it with cheese.
Add a bit of pepper and salt (optional)
Heat in the microwave on high for 1 min (till cheese melt).
Eat HOT...

Saagu for Poori

2010-06-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

This used to be the regular breakfast at my MIL's house on Sunday's when I came into this family after marriage. My MIL is not much into experimentation. So in these 10 yrs there has been no variation to this recipe :)

You need:

Boiled vegetables - 2 cups (carrots, beans, potatos, navilu koosu (kohlrabi) cut into 1 cm cubes)
Boiled peas - 1/2 cup
Lemon - 1 juice extracted
Salt
Oil.

To be ground into paste
Onion - 2 medium thinly sliced
Hurigadale (roasted channa dal) - 1 tbsp
Green chillis - 4
corainder - 1 tbsp
jeera - 2 tsp
Coconut scraped - 3/4 cup
coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped

Heat oil in a pan.
Fry Onion till it becomes translucent.
Let it cool for 2 mins and grind with all the other masala ingredients into a fine paste.

Take the vegetables in a pan.
Add the masala. Add 1.5 cups of water
Mix well.
Cook covered on medium flame for 5 mins.
Take the pan off the flame. Add lemon juice.
Mix well and serve hot.

Menthe godhi dose (Methi Wheat dosa) & Heerekayi chutney

2010-06-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

R doing almost night outs at office so not enough sleep :( Feeling very lethargic and no mood to make anything complicated. Had a bunch of methi leaves in the fridge, so here is easy and quick methi godhi dose along with heerekayi chutney.

for dose you need:

Wheat flour - godhi hittu - 2 cups
methi leaves - 1 cup finely chopped
corainder leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped
green chillis - 8 finely chopped
jeera - 1 tbsp
salt

Mix all with enough water to make the batter. (appro 3.5 - 4 cups water)
Consistency of the batter should be that of the rice dosa batter.
Heat the tava and take the batter in a laddle and spread it as think as you can make.
Cook coverd on both sides. Serve hot.
Applying butter on the dosa makes it taste yummmm.

For Heerekayi chutney you need:

Heerekayi - chopped 1 cup
coconut grated - 1/2 cup
tamarind - 1 small lemon sized
green chillis - 3
red chillis - 3
salt

For seasoning: mustard 1tsp, hing - little, bengal gram - 1tsp, red chilli - 1, oil

Grind all the ingredients.
Add tadka.
Serve with Roti, dosa or rice.

Masala Mango Dal

2010-06-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

Cooked this in record time today :) Had to go and pick up my darling daughter from school. Arms are hurting like hell after the rigorous workout given by my teacher yesterday!!!

Anyway here is the recipe:

You need:
Dal - 2 cups
Raw Mangoes - (Should be sour) chopped 2 tbsp
Salt

Seasoning:
Onion - 1 med finely chopped
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 10
Red chillis - 2
Green chillis - 5 (slit into 2)
Oil - 1 tsp

Pressure cook the Dal and Mangoes separately.
Drain the mangoes, Mash them and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan.
Add the mustard when it starts spluttering add all the other ingredients for seasoning.
Add onion in the end. Fry till onion becomes pink in color
Add the cooked dal and mashed mangoes. If the dal is too thick add a little water.
Add the red chilli powder and garam masala powder
Stir well
Add salt and cook for 10 mins on mid flame.
Serve hot with rice or roti.

Note: You can add garlic too in the seasoning. I have not added it here.

Baalekaayi koddelu (Raw Banana Sambar)

2010-06-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Again I have been soo irregular in publishing my posts :(
My promise to myself from today will publish at least once in every 2 days..

I love this fruit.. Think this is one of the most versatile vegetable / fruit available. In my home almost every part of this plant is used to make tasty dishes :) MIL is sleeping (courtesy of my daughter's restless night) so my turn in the kitchen. I took out the banana from the fridge thinking I will make banana fry. .ended up doing koddelu.

Here we go with the recipe:

Raw banana - 2 cubed
Tamarind - 1 small lemon size soaked in water
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Dal - cooked 2 tbsp
green chillis - 3 sliced (slit into 2)
coriander leaves for garnish
Salt

To grind (with little water)
Coconut scraped - 1/2 cup
Coriander - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 3 tsp
red chillis - 4
onion - chopped 2 tbsp

For oggarane (Seasoning)
mustard - 1/2 tsp
red chillis - few broken
curry leaves - 4 - 5
oil - 2 tsp

Pressure cook dal and banana seperately.
Heat 2 cup of water in the pan.
Once it starts to boil add the tamarind extract, jaggery and green chillis.
Add the dal and cooked banana. Cook for 6 mins.
After 1 min add the ground paste.
Mix well.
If the koddelu looks thick add a bit of water and allow it to cook for 4 - 5 mins.
Add salt mix well and cook for another 3 - 4 mins on low flame.
Switch off the stove
Garnish with Oggarane and chopped corinader. Serve hot.
Goes well with chapati and rice.

Note: I have reduced the quantity of water that I have added as I served this with chapati today.

Maddur Vada

2010-04-29T06:10:00.001-07:00

Todays evening snack - Inspired by "Bombat Bhojana" presented by Sihi kahi chandru. This is one cookery show which I really like to watch. The way SKC cooks and presents the items is very nice...

Anyway when we were watching this show in the afternoon the power went off (Bane of Bangalooreans now a days!) So I thought let me make maddur vada today evening. I am not such a huge fan of this snack but every one in my house are.. So here we go

You need:
Onion - 3 large chopped
Green chillis - 10 chopped
Chiroti Rawa - 1.5 cup
Rice flour - 0.5 cup
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste

Sprinkle the salt on chopped onion and green chillis and leave it for 15 mins (covered).
Add in the rava, rice flour and jeera to this.
Heat 2 tbsp oil till it is piping hot.
Pour it on the mixture. Mix it well with a spoon as the oil will be very hot.
After 2 mins knead the mixture to the consistency of chapati dough. Sprinkle water iff necessary.
Make lemon sized balls and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadai.
Take a lemon sized ball flatten it into a circular disc on you hand or on a plastic sheet.
Take the flattened vada and slide it carefully into the oil.
Fry on medium flame till the vada turns golden brown in color.
Serve Hot.

Tip: Goes very well with coconut chutney!

Papad Rolls

2010-04-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hello friends back with Papad rolls after a very loong break. Too many things have happened from the last time I posted till now.. Will spill the beans later :)

Now back to my papad rolls:

You Need:

Papad - big ones prefered.

Potatos - 2 big boiled and mashed
Peas - 1 small cup boiled and mashed
Carrots - 1 med sized grated
Capsicum - 1 med sized finely sliced
onion - 2 med sized finely chopped
green chillis as per taste
garam masala - 2 tsp
chat masala - 2 tsp
salt
oil for shallow frying

Besan - 1 tbsp
Water

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add the onion and green chillis
saute for 1 min
add carrots and capsicum
saute till the carrots look cooked and onion starts turning pink
Add mashed potatos and peas
saute till water if any evaporates
Add all the masalas and salt
Mix well
remove from heat and allow it to come to room temp.

Make a mixture of besan and 2 tbsp water and keep it aside.

Take the papad and put it on a flat surface. If the papad is too hard dip it for few secs in cold water.
Apply the besan misture to the edges.
Make hot dog like rolls from the above mixture.
Keep it in the papad and roll the papad slowly. Make sure that the papad does not break.
Press the edges together.
Shallow fry this in the oil. [Make sure oil is not too hot.]

Back to work

2009-04-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

After a very loong break I am back to work from Monday. So will see you guys around on Saturdays and sundays.. Till then have a great week :)

Mavinakayi Menthekayi - Mango pickle

2009-04-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

"Uppina kayi mavinakayeeee" shouts the gaadivala on the road, and immediately you will hear 54 - 5 shouts from the nearby house, "mavina kayi irappa". And you will see the ladies converging on the gadivala and start commenting and bargaining for the mavinakayi.. My MIL belives you get very good mangoes for making pickle in Bangalore. So almost every weekend, early morning my FIL and MIL make their weekly trip to market from our house, travelling almost 20 kms in search of those perfect mangoes out of which you will make "the perfect pickle". We brought some raw mangoes from the nearby hopcoms and I told my MIL
Shree: Amma, letz make some menthekayi I have got some mangoes
Mil : hmmmmmm (shaking her head) how can you make menthekayi with these, you need Omlet mavinakayi..
Shree: (Scratching head) Omlet, why and what is omlet?

and I got a crash course on what is omlet mavinakayi. These are big raw mangoes. They are almost the size of your hand and full and round in shape.

So last week they went in search of omlet, my MIL & FIL came back from the market with a big smile on their faces, they got the 2 things that they were searching for "omlet mavinakayi" and "a crawling baby doll" for the apple of our eyes :)

Here is how you make menthekayi:

Omlet mango - 1
red chilli - 1.5 cup
menthe / methi - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil - 3 tbsp

Cut the mangoes into 1" pieces
Dry roast the red chilies and methi. Grind to make fine powder.
Heat oil, deep fry the cut mangoes frying 10 pieces at a time.
In a deep bowl spread a layer of salt, on top of it spread a layer of ground powder and then put in the ten pieces of fried mangoes
Repeat the above step till all mangoes get over.
Pour the remaining oil on top.
Allow it to rest for 4 - 5 hours
Mix once and use.

Note: The salt and the powder should be in 1:1 proportion.

Ramnavami Spread

2009-04-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

The festival of Ram Navami is the celebration of birthday of the Hindu God, Shri Ram. Shri Ram was the seventh incarnation (Avatar) of Lord Vishnu and born in Ayodha, an ancient Indian city. Rama Navami is celebrated on the ninth day of Hindu month of Chaitra (April). Ram Navami marks the end of nine day long festival called Chaitra Navratri or Vasanta Navratri.

In my home beladahannina panaka, cucumber kosambri and neer majjige are prepared and offered to Rama. My granny used to say, this day officially represents the start of summer and as a cooler belada hannina panaka and neer majjige were made in gallons and given to every one.

As it was a holiday for my DH today my MIL said let us prepare a semi-fledged traditional meal today. And so here is our lunch

This is what a mini 4 course meal would contain -

Top row from the left - salt, pickle, carrot kosambri, cucumber kosambri, beans palya, biscuit. Next to the beans palya is mosaru bajji (raita)and below that is tovve (dal), mavina kayi chitranna (raw mango chitranna), rasam, bendekayi sambar (lady's finger sambar), mavina rasayana (Mango rasayana), belada panaka and neer majjige and sebina jilebi.

Pickle - Mavina Menthekayi The recipe is here

Carrot kosambri
- Soak about 1 tsp of green gram dal in water for 10 mins. In a bowl mix in 2 tbsp of grated carrot, 1 tbsp of grated raw mango, 1 tbsp scrapped coconut, 1 tsp thinly sliced green chillis, soaked dal, 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves and salt. Add the oggarane made of mustard, bengal gram, red chilli and curry leaves.
Mix well

cucumber kosambri

Soak about 1 tsp of bengal gram in water for 10 mins.
In a bowl mix in 2 tbsp of finely chopped cucumber, 1 tbsp of grated raw mango, 1 tbsp scrapped coconut, 1 tsp thinly sliced green chillis, soaked dal, 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves and salt.
Add the oggarane made of mustard, bengal gram, red chilli, hing and curry leaves.
Mix well

Beans palya
Cut the beans into 1/2 cm pieces and cook them in a cooker.
Prepare oggarane / tadka made of mustard, bengal gram, red chilli, hing and curry leaves.
Add the cooked beans, salt, 1 tsp jaggery, slit green chillis and fry for 5 mins on low flame.
add scrapped coconut and coriander leaves.

Uddina biscutu -
These are nothing but urad dal medu vadas.
Soak 1 cup of urad dal in water for 4 hrs. Grind into fine paste.
Add chopped green chillis, ginger and coriander leaves. Heat oil in a kadai.
Wet your hand in water and lift one small lemon sized batter in your hand and drop it into the oil.
Fry till properly cooked and color becomes golden brown.
Serve hot

Mosaru bajji - Raita - finely chop cucumber, tomatos, green chillis and coriander leaves. Just before serving add salt and a pinch of pepper. Mix with curds.

Tovve - dal - Cook the toor dal. Mash it with the help of a spatula. Add salt, chopped coriander, ginger and green chillis. Add a little water if required. Mix well.

Mavinakayi chitranna - Raw mango rice
You need
Cooked rice - 2 cups
Mango grated - 1 cup
coconut scraped - 1/4 cup
green chillis - 2
coriander leaves for garnish
Salt

Pepare oggarane made of mustard, bengal gram, red chilli, hing and curry leaves.
Add the grated raw mango, salt and green chilli.
Mix well.
Just before serving mix well with cooked rice.
Garnish with scraped coconut and coriander leaves.

Saaru - Rasam
Tomato - 2 med chopped
Toor dal - 1 tbsp cooked and mashed
Rasam powder - 1 tbsp
Green chillis - 3
Tamarind pulp - 1/2 tbsp
Jaggery - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander leaves
Salt
Oil

Heat about 2 cups of water in a vessel.
When it starts boiling add tamarind pulp, green chillis, salt and jaggery.
Add tomatos and let it boil for 1 min
Add the rasam powder and boil for 1 min
Add mashed dal and let it boil for 5 mins.
Reduce flame and allow it to cook for another 5 mins.
Just before serving, add hing oggarane and garnish with coriander leaves.

Bende Koddelu / Sambar
I have posted the brinjal sambar recipe here
Instead of brinjal we add bhindi. Cut bhindi into 1" pieces. Take 1 tsp oil in a kadai and fry the bhindi on medium flame for 4 - 5 mins. Use this instead of brinjal.

Mavina Rasayana -
Mix 2 cups of mango pulp with 1.4 cups of coconut milk.
Add 3/4 cup of jaggery.
Mix well.

Beelada panaka -

Take 3 cups of water, add 1 tbsp jaggery.
Dissolve the jaggery in the water.
Mix in teh pulp of 1 beelada hannu.
Squeeze in 1 lemon juice.
Add a bit of pepper and 1 tsp ginger juice.

Neer majjige -

Take 2 cups of buttermilk.
Add in 3 tsp chopped coriander leaves, 1/2" ginger, 1 pinch pepper powder, 1 green chilli, 1 pinch hing and salt.
Mix well in a blender.
Serve.

Sebina Jalebi -
This recipe is strongly inspired by Tarla Dalal's work.

Apple - 1 cored
Maida - 1.5 cups
Dry yeast - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch
Sugar
Salt
Oil

Dissolve the sugar in 1 cup of water and boil for 8 minutes. The syrup should be of 1 thread consistency. The sort that we prepare for Jamun
Add 1 pinch cardamom powder

Add the yeast and 2 pinches of sugar to ½ cup of lukewarm water. Mix well.
Sprinkle 2 pinches of flour on top. Cover and keep for 3 to 4 minutes. If the cup is full of froth, the yeast is ready to use.
Mix the flour, yeast liquid, sugar, melted ghee and some warm water and whisk until the mixture has the consistency of thick batter.
Cover and keep for 30 minutes. Mix well again.
Dip apple rings in this batter and deep-fry in oil on both sides until crisp. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.
Heat the syrup till warm, remove from the flame and drop apple rings into it.
Soak for about 5 mins and drain.
Serve hot.

And Here is the spread.

Pundi gatti

2009-04-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pundi Gatti, one of the quick and easy breakfast dishes cooked at my home. This with hot and spice kadale curry is an unbeatable combination..

For Pundi gatti you need:

Rice tari - 1 cup
Coconut scrapped - 1/2 cup
Bengal gram - 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves
Green chillis chopped
Ghee
Salt

Soak the Bengal gram in hot water for 15 mins.
Heat 2 cups of water in a kadai, add 1 tsp ghee and salt bring it to a boil.
Add the rice tari. Keep turning with the spatula till the water evaporates
Mix in all the other ingredients
Wet your hands with water and shape into oblong pieces.
Cook in steam for 20 mins.
Serve with sauce / chutney / kadala curry.

I am sending this to CFK: Rice hosted Trupti of Recipe centre for all and originated at Sharmi's Neivedyam.

BiBimBap and Oi Sobaki

2009-04-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

I was thinking what to do for the AWED - Korean event and while googling came across Bibimbap. I am very partial to the rice dishes cooked as part of Chinese and Thai cooking. There are a lot of Bibimbap recipes floating around on the net and after hrs of googling decided to make my own (actually a hotchpotch of the recipes that I saw :) )

Bibimbap is a popular Korean dish. The word literally means "mixed rice" or "mixed meal. "Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste).

So here we go...

Main Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Carrot Juliennes - 2 tbsp
Radish Julienne - 2 tbsp
Cucumber Julienne - 2 tbsp
Mushroom Julienne - 3 tbsp
Onion Julienne - 1 tbsp
Green Onion - 2 tbsp sliced
Potatoes Juliennes - 2 tbsp

Bibimbap Sauce Ingredients:
Red Pepper Paste - 3tbsp
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Sesame Seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
Minced Garlic - 1 tsp

Red Pepper Paste ingredients:
Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Rice Flour - 2 tsp
Salt

Prepare the Red pepper paste - Mix all the ingredients with a little water if necessary.

Prepare the Bibimbap sauce.

Now for the veggie toppings:
Mushrooms: Marinate the mushroom slices by combining 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp finely chopped green onions, 1 tsp minced garlic, 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp pan roasted sesame seeds, and some ground pepper to taste. Just before serving, fry very briefly in a wok.

Carrots: Soak the julienned strips in salt water for about 5 mins, drain and lightly squeeze out the excess liquid. Fry this in a wok with little salt and sesame oil.

Radish and Onion Greens: Soak the julienned strips of radish in salt water for about 5 mins drain and lightly squeeze out the excess liquid. Fry this in a wok along with the onion greens with little salt and sesame oil.

Potatoes: Soak the julienned strips in salt water for about 5 mins, drain and lightly squeeze out the excess liquid. Add 1 tsp of red pepper paste and sesame oil and fry in the wok.

Cucumbers: Soak the julienned strips in salt water for about 5 mins, drain and lightly squeeze out the excess liquid. Mix with a little salt and red pepper paste.

In a large bowl, place 1 cup of cooked rice, all of the vegetables and top with the Sauce.

Mix all of the ingredients and eat :)

Oi Sobaki - Cucumber Pickle

This recipe I got from one of the cookbooks I downloaded from esnips.

You need
Cucumber - 4
Hot pepper powder - 1/2 cup
Green onion - 1 stalk
Garlic - 4 cloves
Ginger - 1 piece
Salt

Wash the cucumbers scrubbing with salt. Cut them into 4 inches long. Make a crosswise cut about 3.5 inches deep in each piece.
Dissolve 4 tablespoonfuls of salt in 4 cups of water. Soak the cucumbers for about 30 minutes in the salted water. Squeeze them with gauze or paper towel to drain water thoroughly.
Crush garlic. Chop green onion and ginger
Put the hot pepper powder, green onion, garlic, ginger and salt in a large bowl. Mix them well
Stuff each cucumber piece with the mixture. Place them neatly in a jar. Put the remaining stuffing on them.
Keep in a cool place for one day, and then serve.

Verdict: I fell in love with Bibimbap :) Next time around need to reduce the garlic a bit thou but this is one recipe, which is going to be cooked in my kitchen atleast couple of times a month.

Oi Sobaki - I took it out after 1 day but I think I should have allowed it to stay for 1 more day. but was a good experiment!!!

This is my entry for the AWED - Korean hosted by PJ. The AWED is the brain child of DK.

Oi Sobaki is my entry for the AFAM - Cucumber event hosted by Neha . The AFAM event was started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual

Congress Kaldlekayi / Spicy Peanuts

2009-03-31T03:11:00.000-07:00

My family loves the "Raja Masala" which we make out of Congress kadalekayi. I usually buy "congress" from the shops. I came across this simple and cool recipe of Congress Kadalekayi in Lakshmi's TOM.

My modifications to the recipe:
Added cumin powder and chat masala to and removed rice flour from the spice mix.

The Congress got over before I could use it to make Raja Masala :)

This is my entry for MBP-March Snacks & Savouries hosted by Ashwini. MBP is is a Brain child of coffee of spice cafe

Chimichangas and Mango salsa

2009-03-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

Chimichanga is a fried burito which originated in Northern Mexico. Loaded with great fillings, cheese, and served with sour cream and salsa, it is usually served pan, or deep fried.

As I am sending this to the IAVW - Mexican event hosted by Vaishali I am not using cheese and sour cream.

You need,

flour tortilla - 2
Mexican rice - 1 cup
Corn - 1/2 cup
Capsicum - thinly sliced - 2 tbsp
Onion - thinly sliced - 2 tbsp
Mushroom - chopped - 2 tbsp
Oregano - 2 tsp
tabasco sause - 2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Jalapenos - 2 tbsp cut in roundels
Olives - sliced 2 tbsp
Salt
Oil

For the flour tortillas you need:

Maida - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp at room temp
baking powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Mix in the salt and oil in the flour.
Add the baking powder
Add little hot water and make a fine dough
Knead for 3 - 4 mins till you get a soft smooth ball of dough.
Keep covered for 30 mins.

Now take covered dough and make lemon sized balls.
Roll each ball of dough out, into a round shape, approx. 1/8 inch thick
heat the tava and cook on each side for about 1 min.
cook on both edges till it is properly cooked!
Remove from the tava and place them in a plate covered with a towel.
Close the edges of the towel over the tortillas to keep them warm.
Repeat the procedure for all balls.

For the mexican rice - I have already posted the recipe here.

Heat oil in the pan.
Add the onion, capsicum, mushroom and corn. Fry for 2 - 3 mins or till mushroom changes color.
Add the oregano, pepper, tabsco sause, jalepenos, salt and olives.
Add the rice and mix well.
Place a tortilla on the board and place this filling in the centre.

Fold as per the fig. i.e fold part 1 over the filling, then 2 over the filling, then 3. Ensure that the filling is not getting folded. Finally fold 4 over.
Heat 1 tea spoon oil on a tava
Keep the Chimichanga on it with the flap part touching the tava
cook for 2 mins
Flip and cook the other side.
Serve hot with salsa.

For the Mango Salsa, mix 2 tbsp onion finely chopped, 3 tbsp mango finely chopped, 1 tbsp cilantro finely chopped, salt and 1 tsp pepper finely chopped.

Mexican Rice

2009-03-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

Mexican rice is a traditional Mexican food dish that is very easy to prepare. This rice is mild and does not require too many spices.The reason is, Mexican rice when served as side dish should compliment the other food on the plate.. Every one has their own recipe of "the" Mexican rice and this is mine :) Try it out and let me know whether you like it.

You need:
Rice - 1 cup
Garlic - 5 cloves
Onion - chopped 1/2 cup
Capsicum - chopped 1/4 cup
Tomatos - 2 med
Oregano - 1 tsp
Parsley - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan
fry 1 garlic chopped and 1/4 cup onionand capsicum till onion becomes pink
remove to a plate
Puree the tomatos, salt, remaining onion and garlic and water.
Ensure you have 2 cups of tomato mixture in the blender.
Add 2 tsp oil and fry the rice till it beomes lightly brown,
Add the fried onion, capsicum and garlic
Add the pureed mixture
Bring it to boil.
Bring to a boil, cover, simmer over low heat for 20 minutes or till liquid is absorbed.
Let set for a few minutes before serving.

I am sending this to IAVW - Mexican event hosted by Vaishali .

Chocolate stuffed Rolls / Puris

2009-03-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

A little trivia:
Although you'd never know it from the taste, chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocolatl, meaning "bitter water." Montezuma, the king of the Aztecs, supposedly drank 50 golden goblets of it every day, as he believed it was an aphrodisiac. A tropical cocoa bean called Theobroma (meaning "food of the gods") cacao is the source of this delicious confection.

This is my entry to Poornima's FLOC event.

I was thinking what to do for this event and came across Sanjeev Kapoor's "CHOCOLATE SPRING ROLLS" recipe. Did some modifications to it and here are my Chocolate rolls.

You need:

Dark chocolate, grated 1 cup
Almonds 10-12 - lightly roasted and chopped
Cream - 1 tbsp
Vanilla ice cream 4 scoops

Maida - 1 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp at room temp
Cornflour 1 tbsp
Oil to deep fry
Salt

Take Maida in a bowl. Add salt and butter and sufficient chilled water and knead into a medium soft dough.
Divide into small balls.
Combine cornflour with two tablespoons of water to make a thick paste.
Mix the chopped almonds, grated chocolate and cream into a non-watery mixture.

To prepare the rolls, roll out the balls into a rectangle with rolling pins (or roll it into a cicle and cut the sides ti get a rectangle).
Place a spoonful of the chocolate mixture on one corner of the rectangle and roll it up to enclose the filling completely.
Seal the edges using cornflour paste.

To prepare the puris, roll out the ball into a circle
Spread the mixture evenly on the circle leaving an 1/2 inch border. Place another circle on top of this.
Seal the edges using cornflour paste.

Similarly prepare the remaining balls.
Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry the puris and rolls till golden brown and crisp.
Remove and drain onto an absorbent paper and keep aside.
Serve with vanilla icecream

Whole Wheat Naans and Matar Methi

2009-03-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

the first ever Naan I had was from "Udupi Garden" restaurant in BTM layout. In those days they had a different cook the Plain naan and Palak Paneer used to be heavenly.. We used to stay in BTM and used to visit the restaurant at least twice a week, and the waiter there used to include masala papad, 1 palin naan and palak paneer into our order by default...

I have always wanted to try out how to make Naan at home and never tried coz didn't want to spoil the image of perfect naan (or a very good cook in my HD's eyes :p)After going through DK's coriander naan recipe decided to give it a try. I wanted to try it out with whole wheat flour (if it did not come out.. thought I will give it some exotic name and pass it off as paratha) and here is what I did:

Whole wheat flour - 4 cups
Plain curds - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
dried yeast - 1 tsp
Chopped coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt

In a bowl mix yeast with warm water. Cover and allow it to stand for 15 mins
Add in the curds and 1 cup flour. Mix well.
Cover and allow this to stand for 20 mins.
Add the salt, oil and the remaining flour. Knead it well on a lightly floured surface until smooth and place it back in the bowl. Cover it and let it double - approx 1 hour.
Then punch it down, turn it down on a lightly floured surface and slowly add in the chopped cilantro into the dough.
Divide the dough into small balls and then using a rolling pin, roll it out into oblong shapes about 1/4 inch thick
On a skillet, place the naan, brush it with little oil
Once its done on one side, turn it the other side.
Serve it hot.

I served this with Methi Matar, the taste was not like the naan you get outside but it was fluffy and good. My in-laws who are not very partial to NI food, asked for second helpings :)

Wheat Naan with Matar Methi

Matar Methi

Fenugreek Leaves - 2 cups chopped
Green Peas - 3/4 cup, cooked
Onion - 1/2 cup chopped
Tomatos - 2
Milk - 1/2 cup
Jeera - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil

To be ground into a paste
Onion - 1 med
Green chilli - 4
Ginger - 1" piece
Cashew - 1 tbsp
Khus Khus - 3 tsp soaked in water for 30 mins

Wash methi leaves and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and leave aside for 10 - 15 minutes. Then, squeze out the water
Drop the tomatos into boiling water and allow to rest for 10 mins. Grind the tomatos into a fine puree
Add 1 tsp oil into the kadai and add jeera.
When the splutter add the methi leaves and fry on high for 2 - 3 mins
Remove and keep aside
Add 2 tsp oil to the kadai and fry the onions till they become pink
Add tomatos and fry for 1 min on med flame
Add the paste and fry for 8 - 10 mins or till oil comes out
Add Peas, methi leaves, milk and salt in this same order.
If required add 1/2 cup water.
Allow to cook on low flame for 5 more mins.
Remove from flame and serve hot

This is my entry for JFI-Wheat at Roma's. The JFI event is the brain child of Indira @ Mahanandi

Note: After kneading the flour I kept it on a hot water bowl so that the yeast will do its work properly.

Special Poha

2009-03-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

This special Poha / Avalakki is one of my all time favourite snacks. My brother's avalakki oggarane are the best in the world :) Regardless of how many times I have tried making the avalakki oggarane following the exact recipe that my bro follows, I have never been able to reproduce the taste. So I decided to make my own "recipe".. so after numerous tries this is "the recipe" for avalakki fry.

Ingredients:
Beaten rice - 1 cup (i have used the thicker / hard variety)
Groundnuts - 1 tbsps
Almonds - 1 tbsps
Cashews - 1 tbsps
Raisins - 1 tbsps
Pista - 1 tbsps
Garlic - 8 cloves
Butter - 1 tbsps
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Worcestershire sauce - 1 tbsp
Salt

Method:
Take the poha in a MW bowl and MW on high for 3 mins
remove it into a plate
Put the ground nuts in the MW bowl and MW on high for 4 mins
remove it into a plate
Put the almonds, cashew and pista in a chopper and give 3 short pulses.
Add the butter to the pan and melt it in MW.
Add the cumin seeds, salt and Worcester sauce to it.
Mix well.
Add the roasted poha, ground nuts, chopped nuts and raisins.
MW on high for about 4 mins. Turn once in 2 mins.
Store in air tight container at room temp.

Note: Do not get scared by looking at the color.. thatz just the sauce :)

This is my entry to Sunday Snacks - Grab and Go Event hosted by Pallavi and to MEC-Savoury snacks event hosted by Priya. The MEC event was forst started by Srivalli.

Yugaadi Habbada subhasayagalu

2009-03-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

Happy yugadi, beevu bella tindu hosa varshavannu swagatisoona

Tortilla Rolls with Salsa

2009-03-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Mexican food.. I love Italian food.. now I like Korean cooking too. In short I love food!!!! It is fun to do some fusion cooking in the kitchen. So here are my whole wheat tortilla rolls with italian / indian masala in the stuffing and my style salsa..

For the tortillas
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
butter - 1 tbsp at room temp
baking powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

For the filling
Mushroom - 1/2 cup sliced
baby corn - 4
corn - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 tbsp finely chopped
capsicum - 1/2 cup finely sliced
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 4 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Cheese - 1 slice
Mayonaise - 1 tbsp
Salt

Mix in the salt and butter in the flour.
Add the baking powder
Add little hot water and make a fine dough
Knead for 3 - 4 mins till you get a soft smooth ball of dough.
Keep covered for 30 mins.

Chop babycorn and corn in a chopper.
Heat 1 tsp oil. Add the onions and saute till onion becomes pink
Add the chopped babycorn and corn.
Saute for 2-3 mins on high flame.
Add garam masala, salt and red chili powder.
Saute some more on low flame - 2 more mins.
Remove from flame

Heat 1 tsp oil. Add the mushrooms. Saute till they soften.
Add salt and pepper powder
fry for 2 more mins on low flame
Remove from flame

Heat the pan, add capsicum. saute till then soften
Add salt and little pepper.
fry for 2 more mins on low flame
Remove from flame

Now take covered dough and make lemon sized balls.
Roll each ball of dough out, into a round shape, approx. 1/8 inch thick
heat the tava and cook on each side for about 1 min.
cook on both edges till it is properly cooked!
Remove from the tava and place them in a plate covered with a towel.
Close the edges of the towel over the tortillas to keep them warm.
Repeat the procedure for all balls.

Take a tortilla, spread little mayo on it.
Spread the corn and baby corn mixture lightly on the mayo
sprinkle fried capsicum and mushroom.
Add a think layer of home made salsa.
Roll tightly into a tube.
Keep this in the baking tray, so that the rolls lie on their open edges.
keep a slice of cheese on top of the roll.
Sprinkle some itatlian seasoning on top.
Grill for about 5 mins.
Take out from the oven and cut into 1 inch pieces and serve with the remaining salsa.

Home made Salsa - my style :)

You would need:
Onion - 1 medium cut into 4 pieces
tomato - 2 deseeded cut into 1 inch pieces
jalepenos - I used pickled ones - 10 slices
black olives - 5 sliced
coriander leaves - chopped 1 tbsp

Put all these in the chopper and chop.
Keep repeating the short pulses, till you get the salsa at your required consistency.

Leftover stuffing of the rolls is used to make sandwich :)

I am sending this over to JFI-Wheat at Roma's. The JFI event is the brain child of Indira @ Mahanandi

Patrode

2009-03-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

My MIL got some Kesu (colacasia or collard greens) from her sister's house the other day. Me and my FIL like patrode a lot and the moment I saw the kesu leaves I told my MIL letz make patrode.. usually kesu chutney is made in the house. There were only 4 leaves and we got only 1 nene but it was worth it. .Next step get some colacasia bulbs and plant them in our pots :)

Ingredients:
Colacasia / Collard Greens Leaves - 5
Rice - 2 cups
Fresh Coconut - 1 cup scraped
Coriander Seeds - 2 tbsp
Jeera / Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp
Tamarind - 1 lemon sized
Jaggery - 1.5 tbsp
Red Chillies - 15 - 20 (Adjust according to taste)
Salt to taste

Soak rice in water for atleast 3-4 hours.
Rinse and remove all the water.
Grind coconut, coriander seeds, jeera, jaggery, tamarind pulp, red chillies to smooth paste and keep aside.
Next grind rice with very little water to coarse paste. The consistency and texture of the batter should be as that of idli batter.
Mix in both the paste and keep it aside.

Next, wash the colacasia and pat them dry with kitchen towel.
Remove the thick veins of the green with small sharp knife or peeler.
Now pick the largest leaf and place it upside down, meaning the side where you have removed the veins is facing you. Apply a coat of ground masala all over the leaf. Make sure that the coating is neither too thick not too thin. Place another leaf on top of it. Repeat the same procedure by placing 7-8 layers of leaves.
First fold both the edges along the length and then start rolling, tucking the sides in between till you reach the end of leaf. When rolled, it will look like a big swiss-roll.
Place these rolls in a steamer and cook for 20-30 minutes on a medium flame. Once cooked, leave it in steamer for at least 15 minutes before serving them.

There are 3 ways of serving these,

1. Cut into 2 inch pieces and serve with a spoon ful of cocnut oil on top.

2. Cut the patrode into 1/2 inch slices. Heat tawa and spread a tbsp of oil on it. Place Patrode slices on tawa and fry till the sides turn crisp and golden brown. Pour 1 spoon cocnut oil on top and serve

3.Heat oil in a pan and add mustard. When it starts spluttering add urad dal, dry chillies, hing and curry leaves.
Add chopped Patrode pieces and Jaggary.
Keep mixing the mixture till the pieces are just heated.
Switch off the gas and mix in grated coconut and mix well and serve hot.

As I had only nene yesterday, I did not make the last (patrode oggarane)

Notes: Please ensure the veins on the leaves are removed properly and patrode is cooked thoroughly. Eating partially cooked patrode may cause itching in the throat which may last for a few hours. Its better to use coconut oil or ghee on the slices to avoid itching in the throat. An immediate remedy to the itching would be to drink sour buttermilk/curd immediately once the itching starts. Please please DO NOT drink water if the itching starts this will increase the itching.

Masala Toast

2009-03-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Nostalagia time - Flash back to 90's, It is nearing 5:30 in the evening of a monday and suddenly the quite street errupts with the shouts and clattering feet of people running. The gate of House No. 27 is kicked open and you hear the rush of 2 sets of feet moving towards the centre of the house. You hear one of the small people shouting "Amma hotte hasitha ide.. beega tinlikke kodu aata aadokke hoogbeeku...." (Amma, I am feeling hungry.. quickly give me something to eat.. I have to go and play) this first voice is endorsed by the second one busily changing out of school uniforms.

Mom: Irro, 15 mins eenaadru maadi kodthini.
1st voice: Amma time illa.. bakery inda eenaadro tandu bidla

Mom: mooru hottu horaginadde tinnokke aasee. iru 10 nimisha mandakki oggarane madtha iddini, tatte li haaki kodthini
2nd voice: Amma please please bakery inda tagondu barthivi.. puff ella beeda baree toast tartivi..pleeeease

Mom: Hmm Baree toast tarabeeku. And she used to give money for 3 toasts 1.5 for me and 1.5 for my brother. My mom agreeing to buy us toast from Dharwad bakery This used to be a rare scenario at my home.. but on those days when she used to agree me and my bro used to be on 7th heaven :)

I have tried and lot of recipes to prepare the masala toast that they used to sell in that bakery in those days, this is the nearest that I could get..

You need:

Brown bread - 4 slices
Onion - 1 med finely chopped
Tomato - 1 med finely chopped
Carrot - 1/2 cup grated
green chillies - 1 cut into thin slices
Lemon Juice - 1/2 lemon squeezed
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp
Rasam powder - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 4
Salt
Oil
coriander leaves for garnish

Heat oil in a pan
Add mustard seeds, when it starts spluttering add curry leaves and green chilli
Add onion and saute till onion till it becomes pink in color
Add tomato, red chilli powder and Rasam powder
Saute till tomatos are almost cooked.
Add the carrot, salt and 1/2 cup if water
Cook on med flame till carrots are almost cooked.
Cook on high flame till water is completely evaporated.
Remove from flame.

Now take the bread and lightly toast it on the tava.
Take a spoonful of the above mixture and spread it on the bread cut into half and place one half over the other.
Masala toast is ready to eat :)

This is my entry for Sangi's "FIL WITH FOOD - tomato" event.

Cream of Mushroom Pasta

2009-03-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

High calorie.. but my comfort food :)

Ingredients:

mushroom - sliced 2 cup
garlic - chopped 1 tbsp
milk - 3 cup
cream - 1 tbsp
maida - 1 tbsp
butter - 1/2 cup
pasta - 2 cups
olive oil - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1 tbsp Coarsley ground
Salt

Method:

1. Take about 10 cups of water in a vessel, pour olive oil and add a bit of salt to it.
2. Put the pasta in and let it cook for about 15 mins (do not cover the vessel).
3. Drain the excess water and immediately put the pasta in cold water and drain it again.
4. pour 1 tsp of oil on top and keep it aside
5. Put the butter in the frying pan.. add garlic, saute. Add musroom and saute (all on high flame)
6. When the mushrooms start turning golden in color, add the maida and fry for a min.
7. Now slowly add milk and keep stirring till the mixture thickens a little.
8. Add cream.. stir.. add salt and coarsley ground pepper.. and then the pasta... Cook for another 2 - 4 mins
9. Cream of mushroom pasta ready to eat :)

This is my entry for "Think Spice, Think Pepper" event hosted by Divya from DileSe.. The think spice event was conceptualized by Suntia.

Strawberry slush

2009-03-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

Don't you just love the color of ripe strawberry's :) Till now whenever I got fresh strawberry the only thing I used to make was strawberry MS. Unless it is served with Ice cream there aren't any takers for it at my place.. This inspiration for this 'recipe is a cranberry mocktail that I had at this particular restaurant..

Try this and let me know whether you liked it.

Strawberry - 4
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
Crushed Ice - 1/2 glass

Grind the sugar into fine powder
Add a little water, 1/2 tbsp and the strawberries and blend in a blender.
Add the Lemon Juice
Take the serving glass, fill it with crushed ice.
Add the strawberry puree, top with 1/2 tbsp sugar
Pour 1/2 glass water from the edges.
Serve.

This is my entry for "something Pink" by Priya theme originally conceptualized by Harini .

Pudi padudno Boolu Kadellu / Brinjal Sambar.

2009-03-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Pudi Padudno Boolu Kodeelu - This means samabar made with pudi - coconut is not added. Do not raise your brows :) we do prepare dishes without coconut in it!!! Today I made this with Brinjal. You can use any type / color of brinjal for this. Even thou Brinjal is extensively used in our house holds to prepare a variety of delicacies, it is not really used to make any dish in any of the functions or pooja. Bhendi / Ladies finger is used instead of brinjal.

For the masala:
Red chillis - 10
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Jeera / Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Methi - 1/4 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil - 2 tbsp

For the Sambar:
Toor dal - 1/2 cup cooked with little turmeric and hing
Brinjals - 1 cup cubed
Tamarind pulp - 4 tsp
Jaggery - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Green chillis - 3 split length wise
The above masala - 1.5 tbsp
Salt.

Method:
Heat oil.
Fry all the ingredients separately in the oil.
Grind into fine paste without adding any water.

Heat 1 cup water in a vessel.
Add tamarind, jaggery, green chillis and brinjal slices
When the brinjal is almost cooked add the masala
Add salt.
Allow it to boil for few mins. Remove from flame and allow the sambar to stand for atleast 1 hr before serving.
Serve with rice.

Note: Coconut oil gives a very distinctive aroma to this masala pudi.
You can even dry roast the masala :)
If you are using oil then the shelf life for this masala is 1 week. else it can be stored in an air tight jar for 15 - 20 days.

Coconut chutney

2009-03-19T18:52:00.001-07:00

Kaayi chutney, goes very well with masala rava rotti. This is one of the commonly prepared chutney's in my native and the most easy and simplest of all chutney's to make.

You would need:
Coconut scraped - 1 cup
Green chillis - 4
Salt

For Tadka / Oggarane
Mustard seed - 1 tsp
Red chillis - 1
Oil

Grind the Coconut and green chillis.
Add salt
Prepare oggarane / tadka. Pour it onto the chutney.
Chutney is ready...

Notes: I have added coriander leaves to mine in the pic.

Masala Rava Rotti

2009-03-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Sajjige rotti.. Amma tinnokke eenide? My mom would have been fed up with this question when we were growing up. Me and my bro both of us are very fussy eaters at the same time made very good guinea pigs :) To keep us appeased mom used to do a lot of experimentation in the kitchen.. Here is one such recipe

This is how my little bro likes it.. This one is for you vats :)

For Sajjige rotti:
Suji - 1 cup (small / fine rava)
Onion - 1 finely chopped
coriander leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped
green chillis - 2 finely chopped
coriander powder - 1 tsp
Rasam powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt
Oil / Ghee

Madia for rolling - 2 tbsp

Method:
Mix all the above ingredients expect oil
Knead with little water into a dough (like that of chapati)
Take a small ball and with roll it out with a rolling pin. Use maida floor is required.
Put this on the hot tava and cook on both sides.
Apply oil / ghee.
Serve it with chutney or any mild curry.

Note: Do not roll the dough very thin. .this will make the rotis hard.

Tondekayi Gojju (Tendli Curry)

2009-03-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tondekayi - one vegetable which I do not know how to cook.. every time I try cooking something with this.. the recipe goes for a toss!!! So this time I was determined to make something good..

I decided to make Tondekayo Gojju by Sushma . Copied the recipe, decided to follow it step by step, but alas my hate-hate relation with tondekai continued!!!! I forgot to soak the tamarind and it was already 6, so decided to use tamarind powder.. now this is the first time I am using tamarind powder went ahead and aaramse put 1/2 tbsp. .yeah you can guess what would have happened :( So did some quick "maduve" to the original recipe and my DH's comment was "hmmmm.... chennagide kane". Beautiful.... chapati + sabji ready in the carrier by 6:20..

Here is my recipe

tondekayi - 20 cut in fours.
coconut grated (fresh/frozen) - 1/4 cup
Green Chillis - 3
khus-khus/gasagase - 1 tsp soaked for 5 mins in hot water
tamarind powder - 1/2 tbsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cashew - 5 soaked in hot water for 5 mins
Onion - 1/2 chopped
salt according to taste

For tadka/oggarane/tempering
curry leaves - 4
red chillies - 2
saasive/mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Bengal gram - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1.5 tsp

Method:
Microwave the tondekayi on high in the MW for 5 - 7 mins.
Make a paste of coconut, tamarind powder, khus-khus, Green chillis.
Heat oil in a broad kadai.
Saute the onions till they become pink.
Make a paste of the onions and cashew.
Heat remaining oil in the kadai.
Add mustard seeds, when the splutter add bengal gram, curry leaves, red chillies
To this, add the coconut paste
Allow the mixture to boil. Add salt.
Put tondekayi to this boiling mixture and cook it for 2 more minutes
Add milk and onion cashew paste.
Cook on high flame for another 3 mins or till the gravy thickens.
The gojju is ready but serve it after 30-45 minutes so that the tondekayi absorbs the masala properly.

Pheeeeeeeewwwww!

Broken Wheat Upittu / Baath

2009-03-18T17:57:00.002-07:00

The other day my MIL made Bulgar bisi belebaath.. and it came out very well.. When I was telling my momn about this she told me Hey you can make upma, patrode, dosa a lot a stuff with Bulgar.. and as I had seen some nice recipes of B.Upma by my fellow bloggers I thought let me try making Bulgar upma for my DH's (Darling Husband's) breakfast dabba. Hmmm Upma for breakfast brings fond memories of my college canteens.. wednesdays we used to have class at 7 in the morning and a break at around 10. We used to go down to the canteen and Wednesday's special used to be Kharabath and kesari baath... The Khaara baath is nothing but vegetable upittu.. if you were lucky (or unlucky) you would see some vegetable pieces in it :) and lets me not scare you more by talking about kesari baath.. it would be khaara cement + sweet cement :)

Now coming back to my recipe of Bulgar Upittu, you need

Bulgar - pressure cooked for 3 whistles 1 cup
choppped vegetables - 1/2 cup (I used carrots, capsicum and beans). Cook in MW for 5 mins
Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Tomato - 1/4 cup finely chopped
Green chillis - 3 slit length wise
Curry leaves - 5
Mustard - 1tsp
Bengal gram - 1/2 tsp
Lemon - 1/2
Coriander leaves for garnish
Oil

Method:
Heat oil in pan
Add mustard, when splutters add bengal gram, green chillis and curry Leaves
Add onion and saute till them become pink
Add tomatos and pre-cooked veggies
Add 1 cup water, salt and bring to boil
Add Cooked bulgar bring to boil.
Cover and cook on med flame till water evaporates.
Garnish with Lemon and coriander.

Almond cashew pista slice...

2009-03-18T02:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make some sweet which does not use sugar.. I have used honey instead. My FIL had brought a big bottle of honey from his native. Home made.. bees harvested at his brother's house. Amazing for a city bread girl like me!!!!

This is the first time I am tasting home made honey.. The smell is heavenly :) Extracted a promise from my FIL that he will take me to see the bee harvesting next time we are in that area!!!!

Here is the recipe for Almond, cashew pista slice:

Ingredients :
For the Badam roll:
1/4 cup almonds blanched, peeled and powdered
2 tablespoons honey
¼ tsp elaichi powder

For the Cashew roll:
1/4 cup cashew
2 tablespoons honey
¼ tsp elaichi powder

For the Pista roll:
1/4 cup pistachios
2 tablespoons honey
¼ tsp elaichi powder

a few saffron strands
1 tbsp milk

Method :
For Badam roll:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and knead gently into a dough.

For the Cashew roll:
Soak the cashewnuts in warm water for 30 minutes.
Drain all the water out and blend the cashewnuts to a fine paste in a mixer. Keep aside.
Mix in the honey and cardamom.

For the Pista roll:
Soak the pistachios in warm water for 30 minutes.
Drain all the water, peel the pistachios and blend them to a fine paste in a mixer. Keep aside.
Mix in the honey and cardamom

Melt the saffron in the milk, add it to the cashew dough and stir well.
Roll out the almond dough in to a chapati
Roll out the cashew dough and put it on top of the rolled out almond.
Roll out the pista dough and place it on the above.
Drizzle a spoon of honey on top
Fold in half. freeze it for 1/2 an hour.
Cut into slices.

Try it out and let me know how you liked it :)

I am sending this to "Lets go nuts with Almonds" event hosted by JZ of tasty treats. This event was conceptualized by Aquadaze of Served with Love

Boldu uddinahittu (non fried version)

2009-03-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Boldu uddinahittu means white urad dal raita :) kya transalation!!! Insted of using raw urad dal you can also make this by using urad dal powder.

Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Curds - 1 cup
Green chillis - 3 chopped
ginger - 1" chopped
Hing - 1 pinch
Salt to taste

For tadka
Mustard - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 3
chillis - 1 small

Method:

Soak urad dal in water for 1 hr. (or in hot water for 20 mins))
Drain water and grind it into a fine paste.
Add the curds, green chillis, ginger, hing and salt.
Mix well.
Add the tadka.
Serve with hot rice along with menasinakai balaka.

Another one for Ashwini's "Lentils Mela".

Poritudno uddinahittu (fried uddinahittu)

2009-03-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Uddinahittu is a curd based delicacy quite common in shivalli households. In functions this is usually served before rasam and after the dal. There are many ways in which this is made.. I have given below two variations which are prepared often in my house.

Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Curds - 1 cup
Green chillis - 3 chopped
ginger - 1" chopped
Hing - 1 pinch
Salt to taste

For tadka
Mustard - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 3
chillis - 1 small

Method:

Dry roast the urad dal in a pan
grind it into a fine powder.
Add the curds, green chillis, ginger, hing and salt.
Mix well.
Add the tadka.
Serve with hot rice along with menasinakai balaka.

Notes:
The consistency should be that of dosa batter
Add more curds if required.

This is my entry to Ashwini's "Lentils Mela".

Karkumbda Koddelu - Ash Gourd Smabar

2009-03-16T00:44:00.001-07:00

In shivalli households almost all vegetables are used to prepare sambar. There are different masala's used to make sambar and usually each type of masala will go very well with a certain set of vegetables. You can say it is a many-to-many relationship between vegatables and sambar masala :)

I will soon post the sambar powder recipie used here. Karkumbda is also used in making majjige huli..

Karkumbda kumbala.. Another one of my Favourite vegetables. Actually it is a favourite with every one in the house. In my native, Ash Gourd is one of the vegetables where nothing is wasted. The peel of Ash Gourd is used to make chutney and the seeds are used to make tambli (raita). Health benefits of ash gourd can be found here

Now for the sambar:

Ash Gourd / boodu kumbalakaayi - 1/4 kg.
Toor dal - 4 tbsp
Coconut scrapped - 2 tbsp
Sambar powder - 3 - 4 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp
Jaggery - 1/2 tbsp
Salt as per taste

Method:
Peel the Ash Gourd and remove the seeded part
Cut into 1" pieces
Cook them in a pan / cooker.
Add a little turmeric and hing to the dal and cook the dal in the pan / cooker.
Make a fine paste of Sambar powder and cococnut.
In a vessel Heat 1/2 cup of water.
Add tamarind pulp, jaggery and salt.
Add the cooked Ash Gourd pieces to this.
Allow it to boil for 3 mins
Add the ground paste and dal and allow it to boil for 6-8 mins.
add a little water is needed.
Switch off the flame and cover the sambar and allow it to rest for 30 - 45 mins before serving.
Serve Hot with rice, idli or dosa

This is my entry to Ashwini's "Lentils Mela".

Paav Bhaji

2009-03-15T22:50:00.001-07:00

"Family that eats together, stays together"

Paav Bhaji is one of my family's favourite recipe. This will usually become a complete meal for us. I usually prepare this for Sunday Dinner as all of us can sit together and relish it in peace. Now a days sitting and eating together is not really possible as some one should be there to tackle my 7 month old as she crawls at unbelievable speed towards anyone who has a plate in their hand :)

Here is my recipe for Paav Bhaaji

For the bhaaji:
Cauliflower - 1 cup chopped
Peas - 1/2 cup
Capsicum - 1/2 capsicum thinly sliced
carrot - 1 med sized one
Potato - 2 med sized
Onion - 1 cup finely chopped
Tomato - 1 1/2 cup finely chopped
Pav bhaaji masala - 1 1/2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp (reduce if you do not like the bhaaji hot!)
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Oil
Salt

For the Pav:
Pav
Butter
Pav bhaji masala (optional)

For Garnish / Serving:
Coriander leaves chopped - 3 tbsp
lemon wedges
Onion rings

Method:
Cook / Steam cauliflower, capsicum, peas, carrot and potato.
Mash them using a potato masher and keep aside
Prepare the Ginger paste and keep aside
Heat oil in a pan, add onion and saute till the onion turns pink
Add ginger paste and saute for 2 - 3 mins
Add the tomato, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and paav bhaaji masala and saute till the masala starts leaving oil at the edge
Add 1 cup of water
Add the cooked and mashed veggies and mix well.
If you feel the bhaaji is too thick add a bit of water
Sim the flame and leave it for a few mins (10 mins should do)

This is how we had ours...

This is my entry for "Garnishing tips and techniques for Indian food" hosted by Food Fanatic. Till now I have not really spent much time thinking about garnishing. My MIL had some excellent ideas about how I should proceed :)
There is soo much material on this in google.. I was amazed.. it is quite an interesting topic :)
I also got this wonderful site which talks about simple easy garnish.

Hope I am not too late :)

Masala Akki rotti and banana seekarane

2009-03-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

Masala akki rotti.. I can still remember the first time I ate this. It was in my friend Rekha's house and fell in love with it. Her mom is an expert on rotti's and whenever she made akki rotti I used to there in their house for breakfast.. Even now whenever I meet her in mysore she says "manege baa naale tindige.. akki rotti madi kodthini" :)

I like akki rotti with banana seekarane and little pickle on the side.

For the Masala Akki rotti:

rice flour - 2 cups
onion finely chopped - 1 cup
Green chillis finely chopped - 5
coriander and curry leaves finely chopped - 4 tbsp
Coconut scraped - 1/2 cup
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Salt
Butter

Mix all ingredients except Butter.
Add little hot water and mix to the consistency of chapati dough
Wet a white kerchief, take one big lemon size dough and pat it on the kerchief to form a thin roti. (will upload pics of this soon)
Put this on the hot tava and remove the kerchief.
Cook on med - high flame covered for 2 - 3mins
Turn over and cook. Apply butter and turn again.
Remove from flame and serve hot.

You need for Banana seekarane
banana - 2 chopped
milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 4 tsp
cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Puree all the above ingredients.

Cauliflower channa curry (Hookoosu kadale palya )

2009-03-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

Cauliflower is one vegetable which I can eat in any format any taste. Did you know, Cauliflower was available almost exclusively in Italy until the 16th century when it was introduced to France and eventually to other areas of Europe. What ever it is I love all the dishes made by cauliflower and I am ever grateful for the person who created gobi manchurian :)

Now for this curry that I made today..

Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 1 cup cut into small florets and boiled in hot water (remember to add turmeric and salt to the water :) )
Kadala / Channa - 1/2 cup sprouted and boiled in hot water for 5 mins
Tomato - 1 large
Coconut scraped - 1 tbsp
Salt
Oil

To be ground into a fine paste:
Onion - 1 med
Garlic cloves - 3
Ginger - 1/2"
green chillis - 4
cloves - 5
cinamon - 1/2"
Pepper - 8 - 10

Heat oil in a pan, add the ground paste and fry till raw smell of onion goes off
Puree the tomato and Coconut and add to this.
Keep frying on med flame for 6 - 8 mins
Add cauliflower and channa..
Mix well. Add 1/2 cup water and salt
Cook on low flame for 5- 7 mins.
Serve with chapati.

This and chapati is my LBR for today

Dal Palak

2009-03-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Its cold outside.. The cold air blowing in through my kitchen window feels good after days of humid hot weather here in namma Bengalooru.. Hope it rains some... Today morning I heard the next door kid reading his lessons loudly and suddenly realised that his exams are going on. I started remembering the days when we used to do the same.. I am an early raiser and my brother will not get up till 8:30 in the morning. During exams, he used to sit and study till 12 or 1 in the night and I used to get up at 3:30 in the morning.. Both of us used to say that we can read better if we sit in the living room with TV on :) I can still remember my mom's mutterings.. she used to say that as our exams get near she hardly gets around 2 hrs sleep!!!! Woh bhi kya din the!!!!

Dal palak and Daliya rice is my LBR for today. Hubby darling likes dal a lot. I always wanted to try out Dal palak and here is how I did it..

Ingredients
Masoor dal - 1/4 cup cooked in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles
chopped palak leaves - 1/2 cup
Onion finely chopped - 1 med
Mustard - 1 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
Green chillis - 2
Turmeric - 1 pinch
curry leaves - 5 leaves
Coriander leaves - 1 sprig
Salt
Oil

Method:
Blanch the palak leaves in hot water.
Heat oil in a pan
Add mustard, when it splutters add jeera, hing, curry leaves and slit green chillis.
Add onion and saute till onion turns slightly pink in color
Add the cooked and mashed dal along with the water, bring to boil.
Add the palak leaves cook on high for 2 - 3 mins.
Remove from flame garnish with coriander leaves.
This along with Daliya is my LBR for today.

Dal palak daliya and Cauliflower channa curry

Methi palak Thepla and Sprouts veg kurma

2009-03-10T10:09:00.001-07:00

Last week I made theplas for the first time.. They are my FIL's favourites and he asked me to make them for dinner. I saw the recipe and was skeptical about how the taste would be. I was really surprised at the taste. Last time when I made it I followed the thepla recipe given in Tarla Dalal's website. This week grew a bit bolder and did some modifications to the recipie..

Thepla is an integral part of Gujarati Cusine. They are also called masala chapati. As the thepla itself contains spices I was wondering what curry to make along with it. Finally decided on Sprouts veg kurma my own creation :)

Last week we brought a new blender / chopper (murphy richards). I am very excited after seeing how the chopper works. So For the sprouts veg kurma.. in went all the veggies that I had in the fridge for chop chop in the chopper. Raghu was asking me do you really need to cut the veggies so fine or do you just like using the chopper :)

Hmmm.. so my little chopper is my new best friend. You will not belive how fine my greens get chopped in it.. Ok Ok. let me stop my chopper saga and get on with the recipe.

Methi palak Thepla

whole wheat flour - 3 cups
Curds - 1.5 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
chilli powder - 5 tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Methi - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Palak - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Potato - 1/2 cup finely chopped or shredded.
salt to taste

Cook the potatos in boiling water for 5 mins.. Drain water
Mix all the ingrdients and make a soft dough. Add water only if necessary.
Knead the dough till it is smooth. Divide into lemon sized balls.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the each portion into 125 mm. (5") diameter rounds.
Cook each round on both the sides on a tava, smearing a little ghee / oil on both sides until brown spots appear on the surface.
Serve hot.

Sprouts veg kurma

Moong sprouts - 1/2 cup
Corn - 1/4 cup
potato, carrot - finely chopped - 1/2 cup each
capsicum - finely chopped - 1/2 cup
oil - 3 tsp
salt
coriander leaves for garnish

To be ground into paste with no water:
onion - 1
tomato - 2
coconut scrapped - 2 tbsp
cinamon - 1' piece
cloves - 1
pepper - 8
green chillis - 3
ginger - 1" piece

Cook Moong sprouts in boiling water for about 5 - 6 mins. Drain water
Heat 1 tsp oil in pan, stir fry carrots, potatos and capsicum. Keep aside
Heat 2 tsp oil in pan and add the ground paste.
Fry till oil starts leaving edges.
Add salt and all the vegetables.
Mix well.
Add 1/2 cup water and cook on med flame covered for 5 mins.
Check the consistency. If OK garnish with coriander and serve with Thepla.

Butter cookies with ground almonds

2009-03-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from here . I did a bit of modifications to suit my taste.

Ingredients:
Maida - 1 cup
Almonds - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 2 pinch
Butter - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup

Preparation:
Stir together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar at medium speed of electric hand held mixer.
Stir flour and ground almond mixture into the creamed mixture. Cover with plastic wrap; chill for about 2 hours.
Shape dough into small balls, about 3/4-inch. Place balls 2 inches apart; flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass.
Pre heat oven for 210C. Bake at 250C for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until set but not browned.

Come and have some....

Hagalakaayi (Bitter Gourd) gojju

2009-03-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Kanchaal (in tulu) or Bitter gourd is one of the vegetables which is not brought at all in my in-laws house. As I learnt cooking only after I got married my exposure to this was at minimum.. As this is one vegetable which I have to include in my hubby's diet now - here is the recipe for plain kanchaal bajji got from mom....

Ingredients:

bitter gourd – 2 deseeded and chopped in ½” cubes
Tamarind pulp – 2 tbsp
Onions – 2 chopped
Green chillis - 2 sliced
Jaggery – 2 tsp
Oil – 1 tbsp

Dry roast and powdered:
coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Red chillis - 2
Methi – 1 tsp

Turmeric – 1 tsp
Salt

For Oggarane:
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Bengal gram – ½ tsp
Red chillis – 2
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Hing 1 pinch

Coat the cut bitter gourd in turmeric and salt. Leave for 15 mins.
Squeeze the bitter gourd and remove the water.
Heat oil and prepare oggarane / tadka.
Add green chillis and onions. fry till onion becomes pink.
Add tamarind pulp, jaggery, spices, salt and ½ cup water. Bring to boil
Reduce flame add bitter gourd allow it to cook till water evaporates. This may take about 15 mins.
Now keep stirring on med flame till bitter gourd is completely cooked.
Serve with chapatti or rice.

Oats Upma

2009-03-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

I do not like eating oats in their classic format.. This is my experiment towards preparing non-rice healthy recipes for breakfast.

Advantages of OatMeal as per Wiki:
Daily consumption of a bowl of oatmeal can lower blood cholesterol
food with a lot of oat bran or rolled oats can carry a label claiming it may reduce the risk of heart disease, when combined with a low-fat diet
Heps stabilizing glucose levels in blood

Ingredients:
Oats – 1 cup

Onion – 1 finely chopped
Green chillis – 3 – 5 slit
Ginger – ½” piece
Coriander leaves for garnish
Cashew roasted in ghee – 1 tbsp
Lemon juice – ½ lemon squeezed

Mustard seeds – 2 tsp
Bengal gram – 1 tsp
Hing – 1 pinch
Red chillis – 2
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
salt
Oil

Roast the oats in the pan for about 3 – 4 mins (till white color goes off).
Take it off the flame and keep it aside.
In the pan heat oil, add mustard seeds when the splutter add the Bengal grams, red chillis, curry leaves and hing.
Add the ginger and green chillis.
Fry for 1 min
Add the chopped onions and continue frying till onion becomes pink.
Add 1.5 cups of water to the pan and bring it to boil.
Add oats, reduce flame and cook covered till water is completely absorbed.
Add the cashew and mix well.
Sprinkle lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve with sauce or pickle.

P.S: I usually add chopped carrots and peas to the upma.

Dappa Menasina Menaskai with a twist (capsicum mensakai)

2009-03-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

My hubby darling likes home cooked food to what he gets in the office for lunch. What he takes for lunch depends on his mood and now a days it is pulka, subzi, salad and curd rice. The subzi has to be something gravy.. and all the subzi's that I frequently make at home have potatos in them. So I thought let me make subzis where potato are not the main ingredients.

Then I thought of Menaskai...

Menaskai is a sweet, tart and spicy side dish. It is an integral part of Udupi Cusine which adheres strictly to the vedic tradition of Indian vegetarian cuisine, using no onions or garlic. In my home for almost all pooja's and functions, Menaskai is a must. My brother prepares it with Pineapple and I just love it. In my mom's place is it usually made using mangos and bitter ground. In my in-law's house they have adapted this recipe to capsicum...

I like the extra something that peanuts give in maharastrian cusine. Added this as an extra twist to my mensakai.

So here we go

Capsicum - 1/2 cup cubed
Onions - 1/2 cup cubed

Black til - 1 tbsp dry roasted
peanuts - 1 tbsp dry roasted
tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp
green chillis - 4
rasam powder / sambar powder - 1 tbsp
coconut grated - 3 tbsp
Jaggery - 3 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
salt to taste

Curry leaves, mustard, black gram, red chillis and oil for tadka

Method:

Dry roast black til and peanuts.
Grind this with coconut grated, rasam powder into a fine paste
Heat oil in a pan
Add mustard. when it starts spluttering add black gram, curry leaves and red chillis.
Add onions and saute till onions turn slightly pink in color.
Add capsicum and saute for few more mins.
Now add 1/2 cup water, ground masala, jaggery and salt.
Cook on med flame covered for 5 - 7 mins or till gravy thickens.
Goes well with rice.

Dates biscuit

2009-03-09T00:44:00.000-07:00

Dates biscuit

I had a bog of lion dates lying in my shelf from a loong time. Didn't know what to do with it.. so was googling around for some recipies. I got this recipie from Divya's blog. My first attempt at making cookies :) The cookies came out well and my MIL said they are tasted better than GD biscuits.. Grt compliment indeed. Thanks for the wonderful recipie...

Maida - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1 pinch
Butter - 4 tablespoons. I took the butter and kept it in microwave for 1 min.
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Chopped dates - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Melted butter for glazing

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250C
Mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
Stir in the sugar.
The dates that I had were not the hard ones.. I could not mix them with the flour so I put the dates + Milk in the blender and ran the blender for 45 sec.
Add this to the flour mixture and mix well to form a dough. Do not knead to much..
On a lightly floured surface knead to form a dough.
With a rolling pin knead the dough to about 3/4 th inch thickness.
Cut into circles or to the required shape.Gather all the remaining dough.Roll out again and cut into circles/required shape.Do this with all the dough.
Transfer them to a baking sheet with about 1/2 inch gap between each..
Glaze with melted butter and bake for about 10 - 12 minutes until the biscuits have risen and turned golden brown.

Note: I rolled the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and made a few cookie with this. My family liked these better than the thicker ones. So make both and see which one you like.

Hotdog bread exotica

2009-03-05T00:46:00.001-08:00

Another one of my sandwiches.. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts.. I prefer eating sandwiches, pasta, noodles and stuff like this than the usual south indian fare which gets cooked in our house. I am the only person in my house who eats these things so I have a big leeway in making the sandwiches in whatever way I want :)

Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 10 - 15 florets cooked in salt water for 5 mins
Onion - 1 small chopped
gree chilli paste - 1/2 tbsp
garam masala - 3 tsp
palak puree - 3 tbsp (blanch the palak in salt water and puree it)
corn - 2 tbsp
paneer - 2 tbsp scrambled
black olives - 2 tbsp sliced
jalepenos - 3 tbsp slices
low fat cheese slices - 2
hot dog bread - 2
salt for taste
oil - 1 tsp

Method:
Heat oil in the pan
add onions, corn, gobi and palak puree and fry for 2 mins
add green chilli paste, garam masala and fry for 2 - 3 mins
add scrambles paneer and salt fry for 3 - 4 mins.
Take the pan off the flame
Mix in the olives and jalepenos.
Cut the hot dog bread in halves.
Put the mixture on the bread.
Cover it with cheese.
Bake in the oven at 250C for 8 - 10 mins.
Open sandwich is ready to eat.

Suz do pyaaza

2009-03-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

I am a great fan of Tarla Dalal's cooking. When I first starting cooking (after marriage of course :) )these were like bible for me.. One thing you can be sure about Tarlaji's recipes are if you follow the recipes till the last P.. you can never go wrong with the taste. My brother used to tease me saying "why don't you buy yourselves a kitchen scale, then you can measure everything properly!!". He is one who is open for a lot of experimenting in the kitchen.. Now as my confidence has grown in my own cooking, I also have started adding this and removing that from the given recipe to suit my palate.

Subz do pyaaza, as the name indicates you add onion twice in this recipe. Once as paste and once as a vegetable.

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetables - beans, carrot and potato cubed and boiled
onion cubed - 1/2 cup
tomato - 1 large pureed
garlic - 5 cloves
onion - 1 large chopped
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
jeera powder - 1 tsp
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
garam masala - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp
salt for taste

Method:

GRind the chopped onion and garlic into a fine paste
Heat 1 tsp oil. Add the cubed onions and saute till they change color. Remove them and keep aside.
Heat 1 tsp oil and fry the paste till the raw smell of onions and garlic goes off and the paste starts becoming light brown in color.
Add the tomato puree and fry for 1 min.
Now add all the dry masala and fry for 4 - 5 mins or till the mixture looks completely cooked
Now add the cubed and boiled vegetables and sauteed onions.
Add 1/2 cup of water bring to boil.
Cook on low flame for 4 - 5 mins.
Serve with roti or rice.

This is what I made for my hubby's lucnh box today:

Baked Gobi Manchurian

2009-03-04T02:45:00.000-08:00

Opposites Atract :) this is tailor made for me and my hubby darling. Esp. when it comes to food. Every time we decide to go out to eat, I will start with "lets go to some chinese restuarant" and my hubby's would be "lets checkout that south indian restuarant". spring rolls and gobi manchurian are my all time favourites. I used to make gobi at home atleast 3 - 4 times in a month. After eating used to feel too much guilty thinking about the calories... When I saw this recipie of baked gobi manchurian in Divya's site I thought this is my lucky day, went out brought the gobi and made gobi manchurian..

This is a clasic example of fast food made healthy :)

I did a bit of tweaking to Divya's recipie and here it is.. you can eat as much as you want and crave without thinking about calories :)

Ingredients
Cauliflower - 1 medium sized flower
Onion paste - 1 tbsp
garlic paste - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
MAida - 1/4 cup
Chilli powder - 5 tsp
Salt to taste
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Bell Pepper / capsicum - 1 finely sliced
Garlic - 5 - 6 cloves finely chopped
Ginger - 1" piece - finely chopped
Tomato sauce - 1/2 tablespoon
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 4 teaspoon
Oil - 2 teaspoons

Directions
Boil water in a vessel. Add little salt and turmeric powder to it.
Cut the cauliflower into small florets and put them in the boiling water. Cook for 3 - 4 mins.
Drain the water and pour cold water over the florets to prevent further cooking.

Make a thick batter with the maida, chilli powder, onion paste, garlic paste, coriander powder, salt and a little water. Coat the florets with the batter and transfer to a baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 250 C for about 20 - 25 minutes until it gets evenly browned. Toss the florets once in the middle while baking.

In a wok, heat the oil fry the garlic, ginger and capsicum.
Add the baked cauliflower.
Mix tomato sauce, salt, soy sauce and chilli powder in little water.
Add this to the wok. Mix well.
Serve hot.

Baby Girl..

2009-02-13T03:35:00.000-08:00

This was something that one of my friend's sent me when my baby girl was born..

Your little baby's here at last,
And your hearts all awhirl,
As you thank God above for sending
You a little girl.

She'll wrap you around her little finger,
With her innocent little eyes
And you'll want to give her
All that she desires.

And as you cradle her sweet head
And hold her in your arms,
You are holding a piece of Heaven,
Who will thrill you with her charms.

For little girls have a special way
Of looking up at you
And thanking you and loving you,
For all the things you do.

when I am reading it today.. I can't help but wonder how true....

Veg grilled Sandwich - inspired from cool zone

2009-02-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

There is a sandwich corner called "cool zone" near my house. I just love the egg sandwich and the burgers that they make there.. My hubby likes the veg grilled sandwich from there. So few days back I went to that shop asked the guy there how he prepares and got the recipe :). After some permutations and combinations here is the recipe for "the grilled sandwich"..

Things you need:
Bread - 4 slices
Tomato, Onion, cucumber, potato thinly sliced - around 6 - 7 slices each
black olives and jalapenos chopped - 1 tbsp (This is my addition)
cheese slices - 2 slices ( I use amul lite)
tomato sauce - 4 tbsp
salt and pepper for taste.

Method:
Lay 2 slices of bread on the baking tray
Smear Tomato sauce on the slices.
Arrange onion, tomato, cucumber and potato slices on this.
Sprinkle salt and pepper.
Place cheese on top.
decorate this with olives and jalapenos.

Cover with the other 2 slices.
Grill for 8 - 10 mins. (top slice becomes golden brown in color).
Grilled sandwich ready to eat.

This is my entry for “Just For You” hosted by Alka from Sindhi Rasoi..

Potato Peas Chaat

2009-02-12T02:23:00.000-08:00

When I am at home, I prefer eating snacks rather than eating a full fledged lunch.. Now as I have too much time on my hand!! I thought I will update my blog..

I made aloo mutter the other day and as always miscalculated the amount of peas I soaked and cooked for it.. this miscalculation of vegetables always happens with me.. I think this is the reason why I end up cooking a lot of fast foods..

So for the potato and peas masala

potato - 1 boiled and chopped.
peas - 1/2 cup cooked with a little salt
puffed rice - 1 cup
green chillis paste - 1 tbsp
pudina paste - 2 tsp
tamarind chutney - 1 tbsp
oil - 1 tsp
crushed potato chips - 2 tbsp
salt

Method:
Mix all the ingrediants and server immediately.

Note:
I usually get a big bunch of pudina leaves. grind then and store the paste in the fridge.
Tamarind chutney - If I am preparing it use Tarla Dalal's recipe else I use maggie bhelpuri chutney.

Sabakki Sendige (Sabudana Papad)

2009-02-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

Summer is arriving.. In my house my MIL and her sisters have started perparing pickles and papads :). I am enjoying this coz I am the official tater of stuff that they prepare..

Today we did sabakki sendige.

You need:
Sabakki - 1 litre
green chilli paste - 4 tbsp (as per taste)
Salt - as per taste
Hing - 1 tsp

Method:
Soak the Sabakki in water for 2 hrs
cook it in the cooker for 3 whistles. Remember to keep lots of water.
Add the green chilli paste, salt and hing.
Put in the plastic as shown below and keep it in sun for 2 - 3 days.

Veg Noodles

2009-02-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

Back to blogging after a very loong break.... Lots have things have happened in the last 1 year.. new member added to our little family. Yes we have been blessed with an angel :) After 6 months of strict dietary restrictions (both from my MIL and MOM) now back on eating spree... I do not have words to explain the reaction of my taste buds when they tasted pani puri after 8 loooong months. I think I have earned their eternal gratitude :)

Now back to my recipe, I love noodles any form.. soft, fried anything!! Now a days this is my way of ensuring I am eating all the required vegetables

Things you need:
Finely sliced vegetables: (appro 2 cups)
potato - 1
cabbage - 1/2 cup shredded
carrot - 1
capsicum - 1/2
cauliflower - 9 - 10 florets
beans - 10 - 12
onion - 1 medium sized
Noodled boiled - 2 cups
tomato sauce - I prefer using Maggie tomato chilli - 4 tbsp
soy sauce - 1 tbsp
pepper powder - 3 tsp
chilli flakes - 2 tsp
salt as per taste
oil - 2 tsp

Method:
Heat oil in a wok.

Add chilli flakes and onion. Saute onion on med flame for 3 - 4mins
Add all the sliced vegetables. Saute for 4 - 5 mins / or till 80% cooked on high flame.
Add the sauces, salt and pepper powder.
Stir and then add the cooked noodles.
Stir fry for a cpl of mins till the masala is mixed with the noodles. Serve Hot.

P.S: You can add oregano to enhance the taste.

Rice Kadubu

2007-08-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

Kadubu...

This is one of the all time favouties of my brother and myself.

In my athe's house in mangalore only the sweet variety is made and they use turmeric leaf instea of banana leaf.. we could never get adjusted to the smell of turmerich leaf thou...

This is my entry for Jhiva of Rice by Sharmi

Ingredients

Banana leaf - hold for a sec on open flame so that the texture of the leaf softens. This is required as the leaf shold not tear while folding.

For the covering:

Rice - 2 cups (soaked in water for 2 hrs)
scrapped coconut - 1.5 cups
salt

For the khara stuffing:

toor dal - 1 cup (soaked in water for 2 hrs)
urad dal - 1 cup (soaked in water for 2 hrs)
scrapped coconut - 1 cup
green chillis - finly chopped - 2 tbsp (add more if you like spicy)
coriander leaves - finely chopped - 3 tbsp
ginger - grated - 1"
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp - optional
hing - 1 pinch
mustad - 1tsp
urad dal - 1tsp
red chillis - 5
oil - 1 tbsp
curry leaves - 6 - 7
lemon juice - 3 tbsp
salt

For sweet stuffing

scrapped coconut - 1.5 cups
jaggery - gratted - 1 cup
cardomom - crushed - 2 tsp

Method:

Grind the rice and coconut and salt to a coarse thick mixture adding only little amount of batter.
Keep it aside.

For the khara kadubu:
Grind the toor dal and urad dal into a coarse mixture ( again with no or minimal water)
Grind half of cocunut, half of green chillis, half of corinader, ginger and hing into a fine paste.
Add this to the toor dal + urad dal mixture.
mix in the remaining scrapped coconut, coriander leaves, green chillis and salt.
Put the tadka of mustard, urad dal, red chillis, curry leaves in the oil and pour it on the above
Mix in the lemon juice.
I like it more spice so have added a bit of red chilli powder.

For the sweet kadubu:
Mix all the ingrdients together.

Now take leaf. And put 2 tbsp of rice flour batter on it.

Flatten the batter with your hand on the leaf.

Take 1 tbsp of khara / sweet (sihi) mixture and put it on one side of the batter as shown

Close the leaf.

Once you have 10 - 12 kadubu ready you can keep it for steaming. Cook these kadubu like how you cook the idlis.

(you need to cook for 20 - 30 mins)

Take the kadubu off the flame.

Remove from the banana leaf covering.

Serve hot

One spoon of coconut oil on the khaara kadubu tastes yummmmmmmm.

Try it out and let me know how it tasted :)

Kempu Chutney

2007-07-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

Kempu chutney (basically means red chutney)

My mom makes a lot of of variety of chutneys and this one has been my personal favorite. goes well with rice idlis.

Ingredients
Toor dal (togari bele) - 1/2 cup
Channa dal (kadale bele) - 1/2 cup
Red chillis - 15 - 20
Coconut - scraped 1 cup
tamarind juice - 3 tbsp [1 soak 1 lemeon sized tamaring ball in 1/2 cup cold water for 15 mins and use the entire content]
Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Salt

Method:
Heat a pan.
Fry the dal (without oil) till the dal starts turning golden in color [ you get the nice smell of dal roasting]
remove it from flame
Add the oil to the same pan and fry the red chillis.
when they start changing color remove from flame
Now grind the fried dal and red chillis along with all the ingredients.

If required give a tadka of mustad and chilli.

Nipittu Masala

2007-07-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Nipittu Masala

I saw the "churmuri gaadi" guy prepare this once in Mysore... Those guys really get wonderful ideas for preparing snacks :) Recently I saw one gaadiwala prepare sev puri (which tasted entirely differnt from the one you get from the paani puri vendor) need to ask him for the recipie if I see him ever again!! I was telling one of my collegues about these fast and easy snacks so this one is for you srijith will upload "raja masala" soon :)

For those who do not know nipittu.. This is how it looks.. You can buy this in any "hot chips" shop. Or there is a very good recipie for making nipittu at home by ruchi

Ingredients:
Nipittu - 10 - 15 (you can get these in any hot chips shop)
Onion - 1 finely chopped
carrots - 1 grated
cucumber - 1 small finely chopped
lemon - 1
coriander - finely chopped 1tbsp
red chilli powder - 1 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
salt

Method:
mash the nipittu into pieces (broken into medium sized pieces)
mix all the other stuff in a vessel.
Add the mashed nipittu
serve :)

Tomato chutney

2007-07-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is how my darling bro makes tomato chutney!!! Frankly by seeing the way he was preparing it in my kitchen I did not think it would taste soo goodd :)

Tomatos - 2 cubed
onion - 1 sliced
red chilli powder - 2 tsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
salt
oil
mustard - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
red chili - 2

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Fry tomatos till they become light pinkish..
Add the tomatos and fry for 2 mins on med flame
Add the turmeric, salt and red chilli powder and fry till the tomato is completely cooked
Remove from flame and allow it to cool
Grind it into fine puree

Heat 1 tsp oil. Add mustard
When it splutters add the red chillis and curry leaves
now put the chutney into it and cook on low flame for 1 min

Serve with Dosa :)

Paneer Corn Subzi

2007-07-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Paneer Corn Subzi

Not able to upload any photos :(

Ingredients:

paneer - 1 1/2 cup cut into 1/2" cubes
corn -1 cup
capsicum - sliced 2
jeera - 1 tsp
green chillis - chopped finely - 1 1/2 tsp
hing - 1 pinch
ginger - grated - 1tsp
sugar - 1 pinch
coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped
oil
salt

Method:

Puree the corn in 1/2 cup of water into fine paste and keep aside (If frozen thaw the corn first you can aslo put the corn in boiling water and boil for 2 mins on high before making puree)

Heat 2tbsp oil and fry the paneer and capsicum till paneer becomes lightly brown. remove from flame and keep aside

Heat 1 tbsp oil in the same pan and add jeera and hing

When the jeera starts to splutter add green chillis and ginger.. saute for few seconds and add pureed corn

Add 1 1/2 cup water, sugar and salt boil (if you like more spice then add 1 tsp red chilli powder now)

Add the sauted capsicum and paneer and keep on low flame for about 1 min

Garnish with coriander

Veg Subzi

2007-06-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning breakfast - Veg subzi and Puri. (Now making gobi pakoda.. will post the recipie some other time :) )

Ingredients:

Boiled vegetables (peas, potatos, beans, carrot) - 2 cups
milk - 1/4 cup
jeera - 1tsp
oil - 2 tbsp
hing - 1/4 tsp
salt for taste

For gravy:
Onion sliced - 1 cup
tomato chopped - 1 cup
garlic chopped - 5
ginger chopped 1"
curry leaves - 10
desicated coconut - 1/2 cup
red chilli powder - 3 tsp
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
oil - 2 tsp
salt

Method:

Heat oil in the pan.
add onions, garlic, ginger, curry leaves.
Fry till onions become pink in color
Add coconut and fry till coconut becomes brown
Now add tomatos, chilli powder, turmeric and salt
Fry till oil seperates and tomotos are cooked.
Cool the mixture and grind it into fine paste.

In the pan heat the oil and add jeera and hing.
When it splutters, add the paste and keep stirring for 3 mins on low flame
Add the milk and salt
Add 1 cup of water and the boiled vegetables.
Cook till the gravy thickens on low flame.
Serve it hot.

Akki Rotti and eerulli gojju

2007-04-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

May 1st.. holiday but i am working :( (from home actually.. some consolation there!!)..

This is what I made for breakfast today:

Akki Rotti (rotis made of rice flour)

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups
finely chopped onions - 3/4 cup
corainder leaves - 1/4 cup finely chopped
curry leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped
coconut grated - 1/2 cup
jeera - 2 tbsp
green chilis - finely chopped 2 tbsp
salt to taste
water
oil

Method:

Mix all the igredients and make a dough (like how me make for chapatis) by adding required amount of water.

wipe the tava with a little bit of oil. Take a small orange sized portion of the dough and put it on the tava and pat into a thin roti on the tava.

cook well on both sides till golden brown.

Errulli gojju (onion gojju)

Ingredients:

onion chopped - 1 cup
tomato chopped - 1 cup
potatos finely chopped - 1 cup
garam masala - 1 tbsp
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
rasam powder - 1 tbsp (optional)
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
chopped coriander for garnish
red chillis, mustard, hing and curry leaves for tadka
salt
oil

Method:
Take a little oil in the pan and fry the potatos till golden brown and take the potatos off the flame
to the oil add the mustard seeds.. when the splutter add the red chillis and curry leaves and hing.
add the chopped onions and saute till onions become pink in color.
add the tomatos and all the powders, salt and fry till the tomatos are cooked
mix in the potatos and leave on the low flame covered for 3 mins
add 1 cup of water mix well and allow to cook further on low flame for abt 5 mins.
take off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves.

Dahi vadas

2007-03-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

This is how I made dahi vadas..

For the vadas:

Urad dal - 1 cup soaked for 3 hrs (if you add hot water then for 1 hr)
green chillis - 1 tbsp - chopped
coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
ginger - 1 tdp finely chopped
Hing - 1 pinch (optional)
salt to taste
Oil for frying vadas

For garnish:
chilli powder
chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

For serving:
4 cups beaten curds
Salt to taste
kaju imli ki chutney

Method:

Wash and drain Urad dal.
Grind the urad dal into a coarse to fine paste
Add green chillis, coriander leaves, hing, salt and ginger.
Mix well till the batter becomes nice and fluffy

Heat the oil in a kadai
Wipe your palms with water and take a little batter into your palm, poke a hole in the centre. Drop this in the oil and deep fry till they are golden brown in color on a medium flame.

Drain the vadas.

After this soak the fried vadas in water for about 35 - 40 mins.

Just before serving, squeeze the excess water from the vadas.
Arrange the vadas in a serving dish. Top it with the beaten curd (remember to add salt to the curds :) )..
Garnish it with chilli powder and chopped coriander leaves
Add kaju imli chutney on top

Your dahi vadas are ready.
P.S: Yesterday I was feeling very hungry so did not have the mood to prepare the khajur imli ka chutney, so added the bhelpuri chutney from kissan (after diluting it )

Pani Puri

2007-03-18T23:28:00.002-07:00

Life is becoming very very stressful and monotnous... up in the morning.. going to the office.. catching the shuttle back.. travelling on hosur road for hrs together.. Sometimes you feel like running away to some place.. but where to run is also a big question. hmm..

As soon as I reach home the first thing that comes to my mind now a days is I want to eat something hot and spicy.. (the second thought of course is I will eat and then dig up my aerobic CD :) )

Yesterday I reached home early (it was 6:25 hurray!!!! :) ) and my aunt started telling me about the monkey which came yesterday and broke a branch in my tomato plant (dart those monkeys!!! the moment a tomato starts ripening.. they pluck the tomatoes and throw them on the ground.. my hubby says they are helping me in picking the tomatos Grrrrrr... ) Now I have a small basket full of green tomatoes.. do not know what to do with them.. hmmmm...

Any way I had recently planted the mint leaves... Look at how they have come up :)

Saw them and started thinking about pani puri... So decided to make it (ok ok my aunt who stays with us made the puri and I made the rest! )

For the Pani
(Loosely based on Tarla Dalals pani puri recipie)

Mint leaves - 1 1/2 cups chopped
Coriander - 3/4 - 1 cup chopped
Tamarind - 1/3 cup
Ginger - 1" piece
Green chillis - 4 - 5
jeera powder - 1tsp (roasted dry will taste good)
Black salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tsp (optional)
salt to taste

For Kajur Imli Ki chutney:
Dates - 2 cups deseeded
Tamarind - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup grated
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
salt to taste

For the puris

Fine rava - 1 cup
Maida ( Plain flour) - 2 tbsp
Water
Salt
Oil for frying

For the stuffing: (Bangalore gaadi style)
Potatos - 1 cup boiled and mashed
Peas - 1 cup boiled
Onion - finely chopped

Method:

For Kaju Imli Ki chutney:

1. Wash the dates and tamarind and place them in a saucepan.
2. Add the jaggery, chilli powder, asafoetida, salt and 4 cups of water
3. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Cool and strain the mixture through a sieve.
4. Store in an air tight container in the fridge

For the pani:

1. Soak the tamarind in ½ cup of water for approximately 1 hour. Strain out all the pulp through a sieve (But when in hurry you can even soak the tamarind in boiling water for 15 mins) and keep aside
2. Grind the remaining ingredients along with the pulp except the black salt and salt in the blender into fine paste.
3. Transfer the paste into a large bowl and combine with 1 litre of water (preferably from the fridge), the black salt and salt. Mix well.
4. Chill for some time after making so that all the flavours have blended properly.

For the puris

1. Mix the rava, maida, water and salt to make a semi-stiff dough and knead well. Keep aside, covered with a wet muslin cloth for 10 - 15 mins
2. Roll out a big chapati and cut out small circles with a cutter ( I usually use the lid of a small dabba)
3. Place these circles under a damp cloth till ready to fry (not more than 5 mins)
4. Deep fry in a kadhai in hot oil on a medium flame till they puff up and are golden brown (Press each puri using a slotted spoon till they puff up in the oil).
5. Remove, drain on absorbent paper (Can also be stored in an air-tight container).

Now for the best part (How to eat :)) )

1. Poke the puri and make a hole.
2. Fill it with the stuffing, add a little kajur imli ki chutney.. dip it in chillied pani and eat immediately...

Yummmmm..

Variations:
For stuffing you can also use mixed sprouts or soaked bhoondi

Quick Aloo mutter curry

2007-03-18T23:28:00.001-07:00

Yawwwn.. Monday morning blues... hmmm. Sometimes I wonder why do we have monday mornings. Why can't we just start the week with Monday afternoons..

Now a days its getting colder in Bangalore and getting up from the warm bed on monday mornings is becoming more and more difficult.. I am still in Zzzzzzzzz state...

Today I was really running late.. so thought will make this quick version of aloo mutter.

You need:

Aloo - 1 up chopped and cooked
Mutter - 1/2 cup boiled
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp
Onions - 1 med sized finely chopped
Tomato - 1 large finely chopped
Jeera - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Coriander chopped for Garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in the pan. Add the jeera when it splutters add the onion and fry till onion becomes pink
Add the ginger and garlic paste and fry for 1 more min
Add the tomato, turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, salt and continue frying till the oil starts leaving from the edges
Add the boiled potatos and mutter and 1/2 cup water
simmer for 5 mins
Turn off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander

Beetroot Halwa

2007-03-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Read somewhere you can also prepare Beetroot halwa so did a bit of experimentation.

Replaced carrot with beetroot in my Gajar ka Halwa recipe :)
Never thought it will taste this yum..

Baingan Ka Bartha

2007-03-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Baingan Ka Bartha
(Inspired by Tarla Dalal's Punjabi cook book)

I just love the beautiful purple color of the Baingan. One of my favourite veggies. Baingan is called "Gulla" in Tulu. In my home town we get a variety of green round brinjals.. locals call it "mattu do gulla". My mom makes "edi gulla aagothno" (similar to stuffed baingan).. yummmmm

Anyway this is my version of Baingan ka Bartha:

Ingredients:
1 Big Purple Brinjal
Onions chopped - 1 cup
Tomato chopped - 1 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp (reduce the quantity if you do not prefer the curry to be hot)
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped - 1/2 inch piece

For the paste:
Garlic - 3
small sized Onion - 1/2 chopped
Ginger - 1/2 inch

Method:

Apply a thin oil coating on the baingan cook in the microwave for 10 - 12 mins till it is 80% cooked (you can also roast it over the flame)

Slit the Baingan and stuff the paste inside and micro wave it till it is cooked ( another 4 - 5 mins)Let the baingan cool and remove the skin and mash it In a pan heat the oil, sauté the onions and ginger till onions become pink in color.

Add the tomatos, chilli powder, garam masala, salt and baingan and sauté till the oil starts separating from the mixture.Add a little bit of water if you want the curry to be gravy.

Turn off the flame and garnish with Coriander.

Serves 2 people
Preparation time = 15 mins
Cooking time = 10 - 15 mins

This is how mine turned out

Gajar Ka Halwa

2007-03-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

Will start my postings with one of my hubby's favorite sweet :)
Carrot Halwa

My MIL makes great gajar ka halwa. As it is one of my hubby's favorite dish I thought I will also try my hand at it. This is the first sweet I tried making at home

Here is how I do it:

Ingredients:
Carrots grated - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Milk - 4 cups
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Cashews and raisins for garnish

Method:

Cook the grated carrots and milk in a thick bottomed vessel on a low flame stirring occasionally till the milk evaporates. This process anyway takes some time (30 - 40 mins)

Add the 2.5 tbsp ghee to the cooked carrots and Stir.

Now add the sugar and keep stirring occasionally till the halwa solidifies.

Take the vessel off the flame.Heat the remaining ghee and fry the cashews and raisins. Add this to the halwa.

Serve hot or cold :)

P.S: Yesterday my halwa disappeared before I could take a good photo. Will post one as soon as I make it again..