Simple Soya Wonder

A very very simple dish that I thought of cooking since morning. There is nothing in the refrigerator except for tomatoes and little cilantro. No curry leaves, no green chillies, didn't know what to cook and no ginger garlic paste that I cherish the most. Then I remembered my mom's curry that she fixes in 10 min when she has to cook in a hurry without any vegetables, Onion and Tomato curry and I just added soya chunks to it. I have to go to Indian store tonight as they bring fresh ones today to stock up my fridge.

Cooking time is less than 10 mins and that makes it a wonder!

You'll need....

1 medium onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
10-15 soya chunks (wash them in water and cook in microwave for a minute)
1/4 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1/4 tbsp garam masala
salt to taste
1 cup water
cilantro for garnishing

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onions. Just fry them lightly, very light brown.
2. Add tomato and cook for 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Add boiled soya chunks, turmeric, chilly powder, salt and mix.
4. Add water and simmer for 5 mins.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot with hot rice.

Bagara Annam

The name itself says that this dish is from Hyderabad. You see I call myself a typical Hyderabadi because I still carry that typical language where we speak 3 different languages in one sentence etc...my friends in engineering used to just laugh at some of my words. Mostly Telugu and Urdu are mixed and formed into sentences. This one is called Bagara Annam, where Bagara as you know is seasoning in Urdu and then Annam is cooked rice in Telugu.

This is a common dish in Hyderabad for most festivals and get-togethers and even weddings. I guess this comes from Nizam zamana. You know they ruled Hyderabad for very long period and that's how those Biryanis, Mirchi Ka Salan form Hyderabad specialities.

To make this you'll need...

1 cup rice (basmati/sona masoori)
2 cups water1 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp freshly made ginger-garlic paste
4 tbsp ghee or more
2 tbsp shah jeera (small jeera compared to cumin)
3 green chillies, optional
few dry fruits kaju, almonds, optional
1 or 2 dry bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
salt to taste

1. Wash rice and keep it aside.
2. Heat the cooking pan and add ghee.
3. Add onions, shah jeera and cook until onions turn brown. You can add green chillies at this stage and keep mixing the whole thing for a minute.
4. Add freshly made ginger garlic paste and keep mixing for half minute. Don't let that
   stick to the pan.
5. Add mint and dry fruits and keep mixing for a minute. (Now you'll smell beautiful aroma in your whole kitchen). Add bay leaves and mix for just half a minute.
6. Add washed rice and mix the whole thing again (lot of mixing you see) and cook for a minute or so.
7. Add water and salt to the dish and cover it until cooked. You can even cook in a rice cooker, put the whole bagara in the rice cooker and add water and cook until done.

Things that make difference to this rice are fresh ginger garlic paste and fresh mint and ghee. At home when my mom cooks this, the aroma goes almost upto 2 or 3 houses in the neighborhood and my cousin's daughter comes running to see what's cooking in the kitchen. Goes well with the Capsicum Masala I posted below.

Try it out and see the difference.

Capsicum Masala Curry

Just the way we make Stuffed Brinjal, we make this in the same style except we add yogurt to this dish...This goes very well with Bagara Rice or any Pulao or Vegetable Biryani. But, I always liked this with those small capsicums found in India because they are so thin and have fresh taste in them. I don't like the ones found here, but something is better than nothing.

My friend Nandy came back from India and we asked him to come over for dinner. He said he wanted to come by 6.30 pm and I had just 45 mins to make these two dishes. so I quickly made these two dishes for our dinner. My friend like Capsicum Masala very much and kept on praising.

You'll need...

3 capsicums/shimla mirch/green bell peppers, chop each one vertically into 4 or 5 pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
4 tbsp oil or more
1/2 cup each mint and coriander, chopped
1 cup yogurt, beaten
salt to taste
1/4 tbsp turmeric
water

For Masala:
1/2 cup coconut
1/4 cup each of Sesame Seeds, poppy seeds, coriander seeds
1 tbsp jeera

1. Heat oil and fry peppers until light brown. Remove and keep them aside.
2. Fry onions until brown in the same oil and add tomatoes and fry them for 2 mins. Next add green chillies, turmeric and mix.
3. Roast the masala items and blend them with salt and water. Add the masala paste to the above onion mixture and add desired amount of water to get the consistency you want. (Remember if gets thick after cooling down). Keep mixing as it tends to stick to the bottom.
4. Add mint, coriander, yogurt (beat well with little water) and add to the curry and cook for about 10 mins.
5. Add capcisums and salt and cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove and serve hot.

It tastes better the next day, so if you are expecting guests next day, you can make it one day before and store in the refrigerator and reheat it just before serving.

Gujarathi Style Baked Cabbage

After Baking

I was searching for some recipes to make with Cabbage on the net and I found this recipe. I am really not a cabbage lover and in fact I have never eaten cabbage my first 20 years in India. After coming to US, I and my close friend Divya tried fried cabbage curry and we didn’t eat but served to others. Everybody praised on how good the curry was. This made us try that and we took very little in the plate along with others. We liked it instantly and we also cooked at our respective places in India during our X-mas vacation. Our family members were really surprised. And lot of such veggies that I never tried before in India made me try in the US. And I still hate Radish; I just can’t get myself to eat that.

I got this recipe from International Vegetarian Union. I am really surprised to find that this was started in 1908 and India is also in the list. Read more on the site for more info…

You can view the recipe here, I didn’t make any changes to it and the dish tasted almost like Pakoda. I took some for my colleagues and they liked it too. I took some Hot and Sweet Maggi Sauce on the side and we liked it both ways.

Before Baking

Birayaka Menthem (Turai and Methi)

This is one of my favorite all time comfort foods. I love to eat this anytime of the day and on any day. I used to ask my mom to make this when I got sick in my childhood. I felt that eating this would make me energetic again. Somehow, I like all the curries made with Birakaya. I don’t know if this curry is an Andhra recipe but it is Hyderabadi for sure.

This tastes delicious when cooked with fresh ridge gourd. And it goes very well with both chapathis and rice. I ate this two times in a day already. For breakfast I ate with chapathi and for lunch with rice. You see how much I love this, but I regret that it was not made by my Mom, and that would have been much tastier. I grow Methi at home 2 or 3 days before I plan to cook this curry. Fresh methi makes a huge difference (we cook with small methi and not the big one-I never tried with the big one).

To make this you’ll need…

1 medium birakaya/ turai/ ridge gourd, skin removed and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 cup water
½ cup methi
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
¼ tbsp turmeric
¼ tbsp garam masala
3 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a cooking pan and add onions and cook until they turn brown.
2. Add birakaya and cook for 2 mins.
3. Add tomato and methi, mix everything and cover the dish.
4. Cook until the birakaya is cooked well. Keep mixing in between.
5. Add turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and cook for a minute.
6. Add water and cover it. Simmer it for 5 mins.
7. Add salt at the end and remove.
   

Serve hot either with chapatis or hot rice.

Mudda Pappu

I guess I don't need to give any introduction to this dish since it is so common in all Andhra households. It has a special place in everyday meals. I guess this is the only dish you will not be bored of eating everyday with every meal.

Eating this with ghee and accompanied by pickle (esp Avakaya! (Thanks my friends, for letting me know. God! how did I forget to write this) makes it a heavenly food on earth. And this is the first food toddlers are made to eat until they can take the spicy taste. Of course, pickle is not given to them. It tastes excellent with Rasam too.

Sending this over to Latha at Masala Magic for RCI even-Andhra Cuisine.

-Andhra Cuisine

You'll need...

1 cup Toor Dal
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
1tbsp oil

1. Wash dal and add turmeric, salt and oil.
2. Pressure cook upto 4 whistles.

Remove, add ghee to hot rice or dal and serve Mudda Pappu with Pickle

Squash Raita

This is my friend Sunitha's favorite recipe. Don't know where she is now (feel so sad, we are out of touch even in this email and internet world) , was my punjabi neighbor while I was doing my MS and she taught me many punjabi dishes. She was working in our school at that time and used to call us whenever she made any special dishes. I hope we find each other through blogs. Anyways, this is very very easy to make and less time consuming and thanks to my hubby for chopping Squash for me with the mandoline.


You'll need...

2 cups yogurt
1 squash, chopped
coriander, chopped
1 green chilly, chopped (optional)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp jeera powder
salt to taste

1. Beat yogurt well and add salt.
2. Add squash, coriander, chilly, sugar and jeera powder.

Serve with any Pulao or just with anything.

Dahiwale Noodles

I laughed when my brother said “White Noodles” as soon as he saw this dish. Few years back when I was in Engineering College, my friends came over to my place and my mom was out. So I had to make something for them, and I made fried Noodles but the dish was so salty that I didn’t want to throw it and waste so much, instead I added Perugu Pachadi that was in the refrigerator and that fixed our problem. Since then, we like this very much and make it often.

Noodle lovers , I guess you should try this.

You’ll need…

½ packet Haka Noodles, boiled
1 cup yogurt
1 cucumber, chopped into fine pieces
2 green chillies
cilantro for garnishing, chopped
½ inch ginger, chopped to very fine pieces
Salt to taste
2tbsp oil

for seasoning:
½ spoon each of jeera, rai, urad and chana dal
5 or 6 black pepper corns
Few cashew nuts

1. Beat yogurt well and make it to a semi-solid consistency.
2. Add salt, chopped cucumber, cilantro, green chilly, ginger and keep aside for 5 mins. You can even fry ginger and chilly along with the seasoning for extra flavor, but I like to keep it natural.
3. Add oil to the pan and fry the seasoning items for a minute, add noodles to it and fry for a minute(optional) or you can directly add noodles and the seasoning directly to yogurt.

This is too simple and too easy to make. It is just like Yogurt rice, instead of rice, we add noodles. It is very good for the summer.

Corn and Paneer Curry

While driving back home, I thought I will make Corn and Shimla Mirch curry. And I started the process by blending onion, green chillies etc and when the time came to cut veggies, I saw that I ran out of Shimla Mirch, the other day I made Shimla Mirch for the RCI event (recipe is coming soon), so I had to use Paneer. And the cooking time was reduced too as we don’t have cook Paneer for long. This curry was tasty with both chapathis and rice. We finished all at one go.

You’ll need…

1 cup paneer
1 cup corn
1 medium sized onion, chopped
½ cup yogurt
2 big green chillies
½ inch ginger
2 garlic pods
2 tbsp oil
a pinch of turmeric,
salt to taste
few coriander leaves
1 tbsp coriander powder
½ tbsp each of cumin and garam masala powder

1. Blend onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic (you can use ginger garlic paste too).
2. Heat oil in a pan and add corn and fry for 2 mins.
3. Add the blended mixture and cook until the curry leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Add turmeric, coriander powder, jeera powder, garam masala and mix.
5. Reduce the flame, add yogurt and cook for 5 mins.
6. Add paneer and coriander and cook for another 2 mins.

Serve hot. Instead of yogurt, if you add cream, it would be rich. Just for health reasons, I avoided it.

Wheat Dosa

I didn't feel like cooking anything today but wanted to eat something homemade instead of taking out food from outside. So, I made this simple Wheat Dosa and ate it with Sambhar and Garlic Chutney. Usually Ravi eats very less amount of food but today he wanted more and more. This turned out quite good and the dal combination was even better.

You need...

1.5 cups wheat flour,
1 medium onion, chopped into very small pieces
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 green chillies
a pinch of turmeric
1/2 tbsp oil for the dough, and some oil for frying
few curry leaves, coriander leaves, chopped
salt to taste

1. Add water to the flour and make it into a semi-solid consistency, just like the dosa batter.
2. Add rest of the ingredients and 1/2 tbsp oil and keep aside for 5-10 mins.
3. Heat the dosa pan, rub little oil and put a laddle of wheat dough and spread it just like dosa/pancake. Put oil on the sides if it is sticking to the pan. Cook on both sides until light brown.

Remove and serve hot with either chutney, sambhar or maggi sauce or eat as it is.

You can make them either thick or thin. I tried both ways and thin ones were yummy. You can make them either soft or crispier and crisp ones were good. To make crisp ones, leave them on the pan for some more time.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Sapota/Chikoo Milkshake

I always loved this fruit in my school days. Vendors used to sell these in the colony and my mom used to buy these for us. She used to buy the ripe ones thinking that they would be sweet. But, I have eaten only small sized ones in Hyderabad and now I see large ones in the US and I heard that these are mostly imported from Mexico.

I made this drink with frozen Sapotas, bought from the Indian store last week.

It was very heavy on the stomach even though I made the drink with fat free milk, we even thought of skipping our dinner. I guess this is best served for the brunches on a busy day.

You need…

2 cups frozen Chikoo
2 cups fat free milk
1 tbsp dry fruit masala
2 tbsp cream (optional)
2 tbsp ricotta cheese (optional)
4 tbsp sugar (add more if you like)

1. Put them all in a blender, blend and serve cold.

If you are not conscious of fatty stuff, then serve it with whipped cream.

Facts about Sapota/Chikoo

A rich source of digestible sugar, the chikoo is rich in protein, fibre and minerals like phosphorus, calcium and iron. Some like this fruit as it is fleshy while others savour it for its sweetness. The chikoo tree begins bearing fruit within three years of planting. One of the main reasons for its popularity with the gardeners is that there is no danger of pilferage of the fruit as it is ripened in the basket and not on the tree, where it remains hard, astringent and rich in latex (the milk that oozes out when it is scratched).

Not many people know that the latex extracted from the chikoo stem forms the base material for the chewing gum.

A boy selling Sapotas in India.

Picture source: Wikipedia

Content source: TribuneIndia

Celebrating You MOM!

For all that you are....
For all that you mean....
For all that you have done....
to bless and inspire the lives of others,

You are wished a day filled with all the good things!

Happy Mother's Day!

Source: Hallmark

Chilled Cantaloupe Soup

I was so doubtful about this recipe when I started preparing it. It was in my to-do list from long and I picked it up thinking how would this taste? Soup with a fruit?

But, the result was literally great. I couldn't imagine before as to why the mint is listed in this recipe but that made the overall difference to me. This was so so refreshing that I would want to go back to this on every hot weather day.

Friends, I promise I would make this for our upcoming camping trip. I know you would relish this too.

You need...

1 cantaloupe

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

2 tbsp lime juice

2 cups orange juice

few fresh mint sprigs

1. Deseed the cantaloupe, cut into pieces and put it in a blender.
2. Add cinnamon, lime juice and orange juice and blend all together.
3. Chill it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Serve with mint sprigs.

You can crush ming sprigs just before eating, as that is the one that gives a refreshing feeling. I had kept cantaloupe in the refrigerator after buying, so I didn't have to chill it for long. I kept the soup in the freezer for 10 mins and then ate it. This is a must try for summer.

Poha and Maggi

I basically wanted to try Trupti’s Corn Poha, I added Corn to the Poha but followed my own recipe after that. The sweet corn and potato combination was delicious and different. I got an idea to make Chudwa with corn in a similar way. Will try and post the recipe soon.

I knew my brother wouldn’t like to eat Poha, so I made Maggi for him in the same way as Poha but atleast he tasted Poha and appreciated it.

You need…

2 cups of Poha
1 onion, chopped
1 potato, boiled and chopped
1 cup corn
2 or 3 green chillies, chopped
few curry leaves
coriander for garnishing
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
lemon juice
sugar, optional

For seasoning:

2 tbsp oil
½ tbsp each of Jeera, Rai, Urad and Chana dal,

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add the seasoning items and fry them until brown.
2. Add onions, green chillies, curry leaves and cook until onions turn light brown.
3. Add corn, potato, ginger garlic paste, salt and cook for 4 minutes.
4. Put poha in colander and wash under running water. Keep aside for a minute and then add it to the dish. Mix it well.
5. Add sugar if you like, I skipped this part.

Add lemon juice and garnish with coriander and serve hot.

For Maggi:

Take some cooked mixture from Step 4 add it to the boiled Maggi Noodles along with the Maggi masala.. Garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Palak Soup

I never made Palak Soup before and many of my friends suggested that I make one and enjoy the taste of it. I searched for a while on the net and since there were too many recipes, I had hard time picking up the best one that suited to my taste buds. I got this one from Bawarchi and we felt as if we were eating curry in the beginning, it tasted very close to Palak Paneer and there was some left for the next day. And just like any other soup, this was good the second day. I modified the recipe a bit according to my taste. I guess the best part of this soup was adding corn. As the palak tastes bland, corn gave us that extra spicy taste since I roasted it in ginger garlic paste; this made a huge difference to the entire dish.

You need…

2 cups of palak
1 onion, medium, chopped into 4 big pieces
2 tomatoes
1 cup sweet corn, I used Frozen
2 or 3 green chillies
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic pod
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

1. Boil chopped green chillies, onions and whole tomatoes until tender. Remove the skin of the tomatoes.
2. On the side, boil palak until tender.
3. Heat oil in a pan; add crushed garlic (I think you guys know the aroma that comes with the combination of EVOO and Garlic).
4. Add corn and cook for 3 minutes. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Blend palak, green chillies, onions, tomatoes and pour in the corn mixture.
6. Add red chilli powder and salt and bring to a boil.
7. Add milk at the end and cook for 5 mins.

Serve hot with any kind of bread. We had it with freshly made garlic bread.

Kala Chana Sprouts Fry

Sorry to all my readers for posting this recipe so late after posting the picture.

This is a simple and a healthy dish for a breakfast or for an evening snack. I make sure that we eat sprouts atleast two times in a week, we alternate between moong and chana sprouts and make it in a different style each time so that we don't get bored eating the same thing again and again.


You need...

2 cups of kala chana sprouts
1/2 tbsp each of jeera, rai, urad dal and chana dal
2 or 3 dried chillies, cut into pieces
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
a pinch of turmeric
a pinch of red chilli powder
few curry leaves, cut into small pieces
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil and add the seasoning items jeera, rai, urad and chana dal and fry until brown.
2. Add dried red chillies and fry for half a minute.
3. Add sprouts and cook them for 5 minutes (keep mixing in between)
4. Add salt, chilli powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves and mix them all together.
5. Cook for another 5 minutes or until the sprouts are cooked well.

Serve hot as it is or with onions.

Ragi Pudding

I make this quite often now, atleast twice a week. We are incorporating Ragi into our daily food schedule. We are either eating Ragi Dosa or Ragi Pudding daily for dinner after reading a lot of good stuff about Ragi. I even asked Mom to make this for Dad sometimes. My mom talked about Ragi Ambali (that I never heard before), she also gave me the recipe and I will try that soon.

I made this in Microwave though Microwave is not recommended for cooking because of the loss of nutrients due to the radiation.

You need...

3 cups Milk
1 cup Ragi
3 spoons of Jaggery
1/2 spoon dry fruit masala

1. Heat milk in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes.
2. Mix Ragi with little milk to form a paste.
3. Add that paste to the milk and cook in microwave in 30 sec increments. Remove after 30 sec and mix. Ragi tends to become hard but mix that well and cook again. Cook until the kind of thickness you want. I get my kind of thickness (like pudding) in just 2 or 3 increments. Add dry fruit masala and serve hot.

It is healthy and tasty too. It tastes something like Bambino sweet.

To make Dry Fruit Masala you need..
one tablespoon each of cashews, almonds, pista and one or two cardammoms (Ravi doesn't like the taste of cardammom, he says it dominates, so I put little) and blend all together. Keep the masala for future use. I put this masala in all the desserts.

Coriander Rice

I ran out of tomatoes and I thought of making some recipe that can go without tomatoes. I though about Coriander Rice immediately and since I bought fresh coriander leaves from the store just y’day, I thought coriander would give out a nice flavor to the rice.

You need…

1 bunch of coriander
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green chillies or according to your spice levels
½ tbsp dry mint powder or few fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
lemon optional
1 cup cooked rice (with salt)

For seasoning:

1 tbsp jeera
¼ tbsp each of rai/mustard, chana dal, urad dal
2 or 3 red chillies
a pinch of hing

1. Heat oil in a pan, add seasoning stuff and sauté it for a minute on a low heat.
2. Add onions and fry them till they turn brown.
3. Make a paste of coriander and green chillies with little salt and add it to the above mixture.
4. Also add mint, ginger garlic paste to the above mixture and cook till the raw smells goes. (You can add only ginger if you don’t like garlic).
5. Add some roasted cashew nuts at the end.
6. Mix with cooked rice and add little lemon if you like.
   
   Serve it as it is or with yogurt.

Achari Aloo Methi

This is for my entry to Jhiva-Greens. I congratulate Indira of Mahanandi for one year anniversary of Jhiva. Though I could not participate in all the last year’s events, I am still happy for making it here.

I am submitting Achari Aloo Methi for this entry as I found fresh Methi at the Indian store; I guess the good thing about spring is that we get to eat fresh veggies and fruits and also the farmer’s markets glow with the newly born veggies/fruits. The prices are also reduced so much that you want to buy them all.

You know that you are cooking Methi with the aroma it spreads out in the whole house and I had to switch on the kitchen fan at the highest level. It smelled so awesome that I was ready to go for the second round of dinner. I then posted the picture online and writing the recipe now. My brother Naveen asked me if it can stay until Friday as he usually visits me on weekends, it seems like he likes aloo methi. I told him that I would make a fresh curry again on the weekend.

It is a simple curry; I just followed the Achari Noodles recipe. I had some baby potatoes left from the Dum Aloo curry I made recently, and I used them all for this curry.

You need…

Fresh Methi/Fenugreek leaves (about a cup)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 potato, cut and boiled
1 cup yogurt
½ tbsp amchur powder
1 tbsp jeera
¼ tbsp rai, fenugreek seeds
1 green chilly
1 tbsp red chilly powder
A pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry jeera, rai, fenugreek seeds until they splutter.
2. Add onions and green chilly and stir fry until brown.
3. Add boiled potatoes and fry them for a minute.
4. Add Methi fry until the raw taste is gone and the nice aroma of methi leaves come.
5. Add chilly powder, turmeric, amchur powder and fry them for a minute.
6. Reduce flame and let the curry cool down a bit and finally add yogurt and mix for a minute. Add salt at the end and remove.
   
   Serve hot with Rice.