Beans Poriyal

Ingredients

Beans - 1 cup (chopped)
Coconut - 2tbsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Garlic - 1pod
Curry leaves - as needed
Red chillies - 2
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal -1/2 tsp

For grinding

Grind coconut,jeera,garlic and curry leaves into coarse paste.


Method

Cook Beans in microwave for about 5-8 mts(Do not over cook it,in alternate way you can cook it in the pan itself).In a pan, heat oil.Fry mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves.Add cooked beans and salt and saute well.Finally add the coconut paste and saute till raw smell is gone.Serve with rice.

Paneer chappathi

As most of you might know about Nidhi of Cooking made easy won the Emeril Scratch contest and made us all proud.Paneer was her winning recipe.So i decided to make this paneer chappathi as of way of congratulating her.Congrats Nidhi...


Paneer chappathi


Ingredients

Paneer - 1/4 lb (cut into small pieces)
Atta - 2 and 1/2 cups
Salt - as needed
Butter - 2tbsp (softned)
Jeera - 2tsp


Method

In a food processor, put atta,paneer,salt,jeera,butter and mix it into a soft dough using water.Be careful while adding water, not too much.If you don't have a food processor, shred paneer fine using a shredder and mix everything with hand as you do for chappathi dough.Thanks to Saffron of Saffron hut for this method of using food processor for mixing paneer well with the dough.This makes mixing very easy.Let the dough rest for 30-40 mts.Dough will be very soft because of paneer and butter.Make about 20 balls out of the dough and roll into chappathis.In a hot tawa, cook each chappathi till golden brown on both sides.There is no need to add any oil while cooking it.There you have it nice and soft paneer chappathis.I served it with Aloo sabji.

Kadai Prawn with potato

Today, the whole day i am trying post this recipe, but blogger wouldn't let me.And i couldn't visit any of other blogs or neither could i post comments.Did any of you go thru this?.Anyways finally at 10.30 pm , i could finally log into my account.So before blogger hangs up on me again let me go straight to the recipe....

My Cousin sis used rave about this dish alot.Whenever i talked about prawn, this is the only dish she kept on saying.So this sunday, i decided make this dish and called her for the recipe.Amazingly she was also making this one..:)..well i guess wise women think alike or may be we are just women thinking all the time about food n' food only..:))


Ingredients

Shrimp - 10-12 (i used cooked frozen ones)
Potato - 2 medium ones (cut into small cubes)
Onion - 1 (chopped fine)
Perunjeeragam/Fennel - 1 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 2tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Red chilli powder - 2tsp
Dania powder - 1tsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2tsp

Method

In a pan, heat oil and fry fennel and curry leaves.Fry onions till golden brown.Once onions are fried well add gg paste and fry.Add turmeric,chilli and dania powders.Fry well till raw smell goes.Add potato,salt and mix well. Cover and cook till potatoes are almost cooked.Now add shrimps and cook till almost all gravy is evaporated.(There won't be much of gravy since we didn't add any water).Since i used cooked shrimp, i added it alomost at the end.If you are using fresh shrimp,you might have to add it bit earlier.Serve hot with rice/roti.

Chakkakuru aviyal/Jackfruit seed aviyal

Jack fruit seeds, i just love them.My grandma used to give us this seeds boiled with salt.Just love them.Whenever she buys a jackfruit, she stores the seeds just for us.You can make this aviyal,even poriyal with this seeds.Check this another chakkakuru recipe from Annita of My Treasure My pleasure.

Ingredients

Jackfruit seeds - 1cup (sliced)
Coconut - 3tbsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Garlic - 1 pod
Small onion - 1
Green chillies - 4-5
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Oil - 2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal -1/2tsp
Curry leaves -as needed
Yogurt - 2tbsp
Salt - as needed


Method

Grind coconut,jeera,garlic,small onion,curry leaves,green chillies and turmeric powder into coarse paste.I used frozen jack fruit seeds, which came sliced.Thaw one cup of jackfruit seeds.In a pan, cook jackfruit seeds with salt and just enough water.Once seeds are half cooked add the coconut paste.Cook well till the raw smell goes.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.Pour thses into the seed mixture.Switch off the heat and now add yogurt and mix well.Serve with rice and sambhar.

Thanks

Hi all,I think i am getting a bit success on my last try on "Quit smoking".He had agreed to cut it down slowly and by the first week of february, he had promised to stop it for good.Though he had promised like this million times before, but this time he is been following the method i suggested.I had asked him to use the good old mint gums in between.Today morning i saw mint gum cover in the trash and i guess he already started taking the good road...anyways i would wait and confirm it.And then only i am planning to remove the caption.Thanks all for supporting me.

Ulli vada / Onion fritters

Ulli vada...hmmm..there is nothing more to say about it especially to those from kerala.Each and every tea shop will have these.I always wondered how ulli vada from those shops have exactly round shape.But i couldn't make round ones, i make more like flat ones.shall try and learn it on my next trip to india...

Ingredients

Onion - 1 (sliced thin)
Red chilli powder - 1tsp
Kadala maavu/Channa flour - 1 cup
Water - as needed
Salt - as needed
Oil - for frying


Method

Slice the onion very thin.I used slicer for this.Mix water,salt,red chilli and flour.Make it a little thinner batter than the normal bajji batter.This helps for crispy vadas.Heat oil in a pan on steady medium high flame.Dip onion slices into the batter and deep fry them till cooked and golden brown.Do not alter the heat, as too high heat can brown the outer and inside of vada won't be cooked enough.Place fried vadas into paper towel and drain excess oil.Serve these vadas with tomato sauce.

Rice flour dosa...

This is super simple breakfast item.Thnaks to my friend for sharing this recipe.

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 cup (fried)
Small onion - 5 (chopped)
Coconut - 1tbsp
Jeera - 1tsp
Egg - 1
Salt - as needed

Method

Add warm water and mix everything together into a thinner dosa batter.The battter should be very very watery. Make dosas in a hot tawa.Serve hot with channa masala/potato masala.Pretty much any side dish will go with this delicious dosa.

Egg Roast

This is kerala style egg roast by chef Mrs.K.M.Mathew.This recipe calls for Duck's eggs, as we don't eat it, i used our good old chicken eggs.

Ingredients

Egg- 3 (hard boiled,shelled and with one or two slashes on each)
Onion - 1 cup (sliced)
Vinegar - as needed
Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - as needed

Method

Fry onions in oil and lift it.Fry eggs in the same oil and lift them too.Remove the skillet from fire and add red chilli and pepper powders.Add a spoonfull of oil and return the skillet to the fire.Add salt,vinegar and eggs.Stir for a minute and cook till the gravy is thick.Lift the eggs.Put the fried onion in the skillet.Mix well and remove from fire.Arrange the fried onions around the eggs.

Mutton thoran

Ingredients

Mutton -1lb (boneless, cut into bite sized pieces)
Small onions - 1 cup (sliced)
Ginger garlic paste - 1tbsp
Chilli powder -2tsp
Dania powder - 1tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Oil - 2tbsp
salt- as needed

For grinding (into a coarse paste)

Coconut -1/4cup
Jeera - 1tsp
curry leaves - as needed

Method

Cut mutton into bite sized pieces and clean them.Mix mutton with all the powders,salt and gg paste.Pressure cook it with just enough water for abt 4 whistles.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds, curry leaves and sliced small onions.Fry well till they are golden brown.Now Pour the cooked mutton with the juice in to this pan and cook it till the juice is completely evaporated.finally add the coconut paste and cook it till the raw smell disappears and mutton is well cooked.Serve hot with rice.

P.S : As you can see my mutton thoran has little bit gravy, as we like it that way.In traditional mutton thoran,there won't be any gravy at all.
The more shallots/small onions used, the more tasty this dish is...








Just finished knitting this sofy blanky for my friend who is expecting her baby this month...

Moru kacchiayathu

Ingredients

Curd - 1 cup
Onion - 2tbsp (chopped)
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Jeera powder - 1/2tsp
Vendhayam/fenugreek - 1/4tsp(powdered)
Red chillies - 5-6
Dania powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Oil - 1tsp

Method

In a blender, beat curd along with curry leaves,turmeric powder,dania powder,jeera powder,fenugreek powder.Use water to thin down the curd while beating.In a pan heat
oil, fry mustard,curry leaves,red chillies, onion well.Now reduce the heat to low and pour the prepared curd onto the pan.Heat it on low and keep stirring it.Do not let it boil.Once the good aroma comes switch off the heat.Serve hot with rice.It's delicious to drink also...

Lemon sevai

Instant sevai,a must have in the pantry for quick and easy breakfast.Just you have to pour sevai into boiling water and cook for about 2 min.s.I brought this sevai from an indian store.You can serve this sevai with many types of flavours like lemon,coconut,curd etc.This time i cooked lemon sevai, here goes the recipe...


Ingredients

Instant sevai - 2 handful (i just eyeballed it, since you can measure it exactly)
Lemon juice - 1tsp
Red chillies - 4-5
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4tsp
Oil -2tsp
salt - as needed
Curry leaves - as needed


Method

Cook instant sevai as per package instructions.As i mentioned above, it takes only two min.s to cook.In pan, heat oil,fry mustard seeds,urad dal, red chillies, curry leaves and finally add turmeric powder and salt.Now add the drained sevai and lemon juice.Mix well and saute in medium heat for naother 2 min.s.

Rug using scrap yarns..

This is one of my latest crochetted product..a rug using scrap yarns...
Thanks to my friend who mentioned about this pattern and i got rid of a bag full of leftover yarns..:)

Letz start the year with a sweet touch..

This payasam is one of my H's favourite one which his mom makes all the time.So this is a "must have" in our home for all special occasions.So decided to make just this for starting a sweet, happy year ahead...

Kadalai Paruppu Payasam

Ingredients

Kadalai paruppu/Channa dal - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup (shredded)
Cardamom - 3
Cashew nut - 5
Sago - 2tbsp
Ghee - 1tbsp (for frying cashews)

Method

Pressure cook kadalai paruppu with just enough water for abt 4 whistles.Switch off the heat and let the pressure go.Now open the cooker and mush down the paruppu very well.Add jaggery,cardamom and milk to it.Let it boil for abt 5 min.s and then add sago to it.Boil very well till sago cooks very well.Fry cashews in ghee and pour that into the payasam.

P.S: i had added little more jaggery than the mentioned amount, 'coz H likes it sweet.The amount of milk vary depends on how thick/thin you want the payasam to be.

Aappam with Mutton Kuruma and Thengai pal

It's that time of the year, where the year comes to end with a glory.When you hit the road, you could see the decorative lights on the houses each competing with other.It's festive mood everywhere, the malls, the neighbours.So why not carry that into your own kitchen ..right?.so when Nandita from saffron trail announced theme for WBB#8 as Christmas Special and when Ashwini from Food for Thought announced theme for JIHVA as Coconut, what else do you want to put yourself in the festive mood.Coconut plays an important role in all our festive cooking, like in sweets, payasams, biryani, non- veg recipes etc..you could go on like that.Though we don't celebrate Christmas traditional way, we used to cook special items on just to get in the festive mood.Came to know through friends that Appam and mutton stew is the special Christmas breakfast in kerala.Well, Aappam happens to be our fav. breakfast item in the house.The only difference is that we don't make mutton stew, we make mutton kuruma and thengai pal to go with aappam.

Since we will be out of town for this christmas weekend, i made this dishes last sunday.This is my entry for JIHVA,WBB#8 and for VCC Q4 0 FAHC





For Aappam recipe check here


Mutton Kuruma

Ingredients

Mutton - 1 1/2lbs
Onion - 2 (chopped fine)
Ginger garlic paste - 1tbsp
Red chilli powder - 3tsp
Dania powder - 1 1/2tsp
Tumeric powder - 1/2tsp
Garam masala - 1tsp
Green chillies - 2 (slit)
Coconut - 3tbsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Oil -as needed

Method

Clean mutton three times well in the water and use little bit of turmeric powder while cleaning the third time.In a pressure cooker heat oil.Fry chopped onion, green chillies and curry leaves.Fry till onions are almost brown.Now add gg paste and fry till the raw smell goes.Now add chilli,dania,turmeric and garam masala powders.Fry and then add mutton pieces and salt to it.Fry for abt 2-3 min.s and add enough water just to cover the mutton pieces.Pressure cook these for 3 whistles.After that switch off the heat and let the pressure go away.In the mean time, grind coconut into a smooth paste.Switch on the heat to medium level and add the grounded coconut paste to mutton.Let boil nicely and switch it off.Serve hot with rice/roti/idly/aappam etc.










Thengai pal

Ingredients

Coconut milk - 1/4 can
Sugar - as needed
Cardamom - 2
Water - as needed

Method


Mix coconut milk,water,sugar and cardamoms well.(Add just enough water).Slightly warm it in low flame.Careful not to boil it, just warm it.serve it with Aappam.I used canned coconut milk.You can also extract coconut milk freshly.

Vellarikka Paruppu kootu with Beet+Carrot poriyal

Oh..it's been almost a week, myself and lil' one are down with worst viral fever second time in 3 weeks.Didn't have the least energy to get up and cook something.This is first time i had been down with something this bad and missed mom alot and her cooking.A hot glass of her pepper rasam will just cheer me up right out of the bed.This is the time i hate H's cooking the most..:).As being the only healthy person in the home now, he is the real VICTIM to our annoying tantrums..:))
This is my feel better food that i cooked right before getting sick..:))May be i knew i am gonna get sick and this will come in handy...well it did...Hope to get better soon and post my Christmas Special WBB entry soon...

Rice with rasam, Vellarikka Paruppu kootu and Beet+carrot poriyal.

Vellarikka Paruppu kootu is similar to this recipe , just i replaced beans with vellarikka/Cucumber.


Beet root and carrot poriyal


Ingredients

Beet root - 1/2 of a medium sized one (grated)
Carrot - 1 large (grated)
Curry leaves - as needed
Red chillies - 5
Oil - as needed
Mustard seeds- 1tsp
urad dal - 1/2tsp

Method

In a pan , heat oil and fry mustard,urad dal,red chillies,curryleaves.Finally add beet and carrot with salt.Saute till they are well cooked and raw smell is gone.Serve hot with rice.

Green chilli - Mutton fry

Simple but Delicious mutton recipe...

Ingredients

Mutton - 1/2 lbs ( boneless and cut into small bite size pieces)
Onion - 1/2 of big sized one (chopped fine)
Green chillies - 5 (chopped fine)
Jeera - 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Oil - as needed
coriander leaves - for garnishing

Method

Clean mutton three times well in the water and use little bit of turmeric powder while cleaning the third time.In a pressure cooker, heat oil and fry jeera, onion and green chillies.Now add mutton pieces, salt and turmeric powder.Mix well and add just enough water.Pressure cook this for 2 whistles.After the pressure goes down, open the cooker and cook till almost all the gravy is evaporated and mutton is almost dry.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.Serve hot with rice/roti.Believe me, with this much less ingredients, this dish tastes superb...

Pongal

I didn't post some of the dishes i made last week as was lilttle busy.This Pongal is one of them.This one of the special breakfast item of tamilnadu.

Ingredients

Moong dal -1/3 cup
Rice - 1 cup
Jeera - 2tsp
Green chillies - 3(slit)
Whole pepper - 2tsp
Ginger - 1/2tsp (grated or finely chopped)
Ghee - 2tsp
Cashews - 10
Curry leaves - as needed
Asafoetida - a pinch


Method

In a pressure cooker, dry roast rice and moong dal separately and then wash them using water.In the Pressure cooker now heat ghee and fry jeera,pepper,green chillies,ginger,curry leaves and finally cashews.Finally add rice and moong dal.Add salt and 5 cups of water and mix well.(Adding water depends upon your cooker also.Generaly for pongal, more water is addded.).Pressure cook for abt 4-5 whistle.
Serve hot with Chutney and sambhar.

P.S: In pongal sambhar, i usually don't add any veggies.Just onion and tomamtoes.

For sambhar recipe, check out here

For Chutney recipe , check out here

Instant Ras malai

Last time when i made Ras malai, Mandira from Ahaar had mentioned about using canned Rasgullas to make Rasmalai.So when i had friends over last weekend, i decided to go this easy way...came out reallly well.so here goes the recipe...

Ingredients

Rasagullas - 1 can
Sweetened condensed milk - 1/2 can
Whole milk - 1 1/2 cup
Pista - 10
Saffron - 6 strings

Method

Mix condensed milk and whole milk well and slightly heat it in microwave for abt 3-4 min.s.DO not let it boil.Now open the rasagulla can, and start squeezing out maximum sugar syrup from each rasgulla (careful not to break it).Place all the rasagullas into the milk mixture.Add Pista and Saffron into it and again slightly heat it for 2 min.s in microwave.Let it cool down a bit and keep it in the refrigerator until served.

Masala dosai

Masala dosai , yet another delicious dosai type filled with potato masala and coconut chutney.

Coconut chutney

Coconut - 1/2 cup (shredded)
Pottu kadalai/Dalia - 2tbsp
Garlic - 1 clove
Green chillies - 4
Tamarind - a small amla size
Curry leaves-as needed
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1/2tsp
Shallots - 2 *chopped)
Oil-as needed
Salt-as needed


Method

Grind coconut,pottu kadalai,garlic,tamarind,curry leaves,green chillies and salt together with little water into a smooth paste.Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds,urad dal,curry leaves and chopped shallots.Pour this tadka into the grounded coconut chutney.


Potato Masala


Ingredients

Potato - 3
Onion - 2 (small sized, sliced)
Green chillies - 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Ginger - 1/2tsp (grated)
Fennel/Perunjeragam - 1tsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1/2tsp
Oil - as needed
Salt - as needed



Method

Boil potatoes and peel and smash them with a fork.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds, urad dal,fennel seeds,curry leaves, green chillies,ginger and sliced onions.Fry well till the onions are golden brown.Now add the boiled potatoes and add turmeric powder and salt.Add water and mix well.Adding water is to make little gravy,so add only required amount.Let it boil for abt 2-3 min.s and switch off the heat.



Masala Dosai

Ingredients

Dosa batter - as needed
Coconut chutney - as needed
Potato masala - as needed
Oil - as needed


Method

In a hot tawa, make a thin dosa.Place dosai in a serving plate.Spread one half of the dosai with coconut chutney and the other half with potato masala.Fold the dosai in half and serve it hot with Coconut chutney and Sambhar.