Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pepper Bell Pepper Omlette






I tried making the omlette in a different style and the outcome was pretty good. This is similar to the usual style of making an omlette except for some new ingredients.Lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs (both yellow and white)
1/2 finely chopped onion
1-2 tsp besan
2 tsp milk
1/2 finely chopped bell pepper
pepper
salt
turmeric powder
chilly powder
1/2 tsp coriander (dhaniya) powder
cilantro (optional)
1 green chilly (optional)

Method:

1.Beat the eggs into a cup and add the salt, chilly powder, turmeric powder, pepper and dhaniya powder and mix it well.

2. Next, add the finely chopped onions and bell peppers to the mixture. They should be finely well chopped as they will not get cooked for a long time, so small pieces would be easy for it to get cooked quickly.

3.Now, add the besan and milk and mix everything together.

4. Heat oil in a pan and after it is well heated, spread the mixture onto the pan and toss it over once it is done. It is the usual procedure but as mentioned before, just a few ingredients are changed.

Cilantro and green chilly is optional. Not many prefer green chilly in omlettes as they dont get mixed well, so mostly chilly powder is preferred to green chillies. Enjoy your omlette with bread etc.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Aratikaya Vepudu (Raw Banana Fry)




Arati Kaya fry takes minimal efforts to do but lot of time. This curry is eaten as a side for sambhar rice or curd rice, I personally do not eat this with rice but just eat it like chips. While peeling the skin off form the raw banana, your hand goes black, in order to avoid this, spread some oil while scraping the skin off. Also, cut this into small and regular prices meaning all of them are of the same size which means it takes the same heat for each piece to get cooked.Like, I said its very easy and doesn't include many ingredients, all that matters is you have to keep stirring so that every piece gets cooked evenly.There is another way of cooking this, which is by boiling this first and frying it, I find this way must tastier than the former.

Ingredients:

2 Raw Banana (Arati kaya)
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp urad dal
salt
chilly (mirchi) powder
oil


Method:

1. Firstly, scrap the raw banana, peel of the skin and cut them into small regular pieces.

2. Heat a pan, add about 3-4 tsp of oil, this is required as you have 2 raw banana's and it would take some extra amount of oil for it to get cooked.

3. After the oil is heated, add the mustard seeds and urad dal. Let the mustard seeds splutter and the urad dal change its color. The real taste comes when the urad dal is fried for sometime. This combination of urad dal and raw banana is yum.


4. Now, add the chopped raw banana to this and add the salt accordingly. Do not add the chilly powder now, add this 5 minutes before removing from the heat.

5. Stir fry the raw banana on medium flame probably for about 25 minutes or till done. Keep checking the cooking levels in between.

6. Lastly, add the chilly powder and mix it well and remove it from flame.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Bendakaya Pappulusu



Bendakaya(okra) pappulusu is my mother's recipe. I just love the way she makes this. I tried a couple of times and only after which I was successful to get the exact same taste of how she used to make it. I just made it last night for our dinner and enjoyed it with rice and papad. Lets see how to make this

Ingredients:

1/4 kg Okra (Bendakaya)
1 onion
11/2 tomato
tamarind paste
2-3 green chilly
3/4 cup toor dal
1 tsp coriander powder
salt
2-3 tbsp oil
1 tsp chilly powder (optional)

Seasoning:

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp urad dal
pinch of asafoetida
2 red chilly
curry leaves

Method:

1.Firstly, pressure cook the toor dal with 2 cups of water for 2-3 whistles and keep this aside.

2. When using tamarind paste, soak tamarind in water at least 3-4 hrs before cooking, so that you get the tangy taste. You could even microwave it for a minute before using the pulp in the curry.

3. Now, take a pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil, let it heat for a minute and then add all the seasoning ingredients one by one. Let the mustard splutter otherwise it would taste sour.

4. Now add the chopped onions,2 green chilly and fry it till the onions turn brown. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry it for about 2-3 minutes.

5. Next, add the tamarind pulp to this. Meanwhile, cut the okra lengthwise than into cubes.This way of cutting the okra induces a different taste to the pulusu.

5. Add the okra to the boiling mixture and let it boil for atleast 15 minutes. Now add the salt, 1 tsp coriander powder and chilly powder. Check for the salt levels and spice levels and adjust here accordingly. Remember you still have the dal to add, when you add the dal, the levels might change again.

6. Lastly, add the mashed dal to this and cook it alltogether for 5 minutes till it comes to a boil and nicely done. You could adjust the salt and spice levels after the dal is added.

Enjoy this with rice and papad !

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sweet Pongal




There are many ways to do sweet pongal and different consistencies yield different results. I tried this sweet pongal in the easiest and fastest way. Usually, you cook the rice and moong dal in the milk, which would take about 45 minutes or so for it to get cooked, but I cooked these two separately in pressure cooker till nicely done. Lets see how to make this and what we need to make this.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup rice
1/2 cup moong dal (pesarpappu)
31/2 cups water
2-3 cups milk
jaggery
almonds (sliced)
cashews
raisins
1/2 cup ghee
2-3 cardamom seeds

Method:

1. Pressure cook 3/4 cup pf rice, 1/2 cup of moong dal and 31/2 cups of water till 2-3 whistles, till its nicely done.

2. Now, heat ghee in a pan and fry the cashews,raisins and almonds and keep this aside.

3. Heat 2-3 cups of milk, now the amount of milk used is again according to your consistency, I usually prefer the pongal to be in the semi-liquid form a little higher on the liquid form, so I used about 31/2 cups of milk, just in case you like it to be solid, then you can reduce the quantity of milk.

4. Break the cardamom seeds and add this to the milk, mix the cooked rice-moong dal and stir it. Add the jaggery to this and stir it for 15 minutes. After adding jaggery this becomes more diluted, so make sure your pongal consistency doesnt get too watery.

5. After it is done, top it with the fried dry fruits and ghee!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Pan Cake Dosa




One of our cousin did this while we went 2 California and I really liked it. It is similar to dosa, yet had a different taste. When mixed with vegetables, this is much yummier, you could try egg in this as well but I tried only with the vegetables. Lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

Pan Cake Mix (Krusteaz Light&Fluffy, Wheat&Honey Pan-cake mix)
water
Onion
Bell Pepper
Carrot
Ginger-garlic paste
Green chilly
Pepper powder
chilly powder
salt
coriander leaves
oil
tomato (optional)

Method:

1.Mix the pancake mix mentioned above with water and add salt, pepper and chilly powder accordingly.

2. There are 2 ways to add the chopped vegetables, either in the pan cake mix or when the pan cake is spread on the pan.

3. I used the second method as shown in the picture above. This was yum with tomato ketchup! You could even relish it with coconut chutney etc.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Onion-Aloo pakoda



The best thing to have on a rainy friday evening is chai and pakoda, Yes that is exactly what I prepared in the evening today! My mom usually prepares onion, palak and corn pakoda and I tried to use some potato as I had too many of them ! lets see the recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan/Chenaga pindi
1/2 Corn flour
1 Onion
1 potato
2 green chilly
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
salt
oil
water

Method:

1.Mix 1 cup besan, 1/2 cup corn flour, salt, chopped onions, chopped green chilly and ginger garlic paste and water
Note: you could use chilly powder instead of the green chillies.

2. Finely chop the potato into thin and small pieces for it to get cooked while frying. Add these to the paste and leave it for 10-15 minutes before frying.

3. Heat oil in a pan and fry them. I tried to use minimal amount of oil and fried them individually 2 or 3 at a time, though a little time taking but this is a healthy way to avoid the oil.That's why you can see them flat as shown in the picture above.

Cabbage Pesarpappu(Moong dal)



All that matters for this curry to come out well is the consistency. The amount of dal to cabbage should be right and there you get the right taste. I had lot of trouble figuring out the ratio between the two and finally succeeded. For 1 cup of moon dal that you take, approximately use about 4-5 cups of shredded cabbage. Lets see how to make this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal
4-5 cups shredded cabbage
1 onion
2 green chilly
2 red chilly
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
curry leaves
cilantro
2 garlic cloves/ 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
oil
salt

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pressure cooker and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and fry it for a minute.

2.Add the finely chopped onions, green chilly and ginger garlic paste. This is as similar as cooking any regular curry.

3. Now, was the shredded cabbage and drain the water and add this cabbage to the cooker and fry it for about 2-3 minutes and add salt accordingly.

4. Now, add the moong dal and mix everything together.

5. The most important step is the amount of water. this should not be too less for the dal to be under-cooked or too much for this to turn watery but should be right enough as shown in the picture above. So, for about 1 cup of moon dal and 4-5 cups of cabbage, all you would need is only 11/2 cup of water. There is already enough water that cabbage has absorbed, so you don't need to add any extra and all you need is for the dal to cook exactly. Cook it on high flame and after about 1 whistle, reduce it to medium flame and let it cook for 2 more whistles or according to your cooker capacity.

Enjoy this with hot rice and papad!

Raagi-Beetroot Dosa




I tried to experiment a little with the raagi powder that I had in large amounts. I got a lot of this powder from India and wanted to use it for making Ambali and Raagi Sangati. I learnt these two from my mother in law and would post them soon as summer is approaching! I was wondering what else could you do with raagi powder and when I hit this question on the search engine, I got lot of options. I picked the idea of trying dosa and then thought why not change the color by adding beetroot. This is very simple and yummy. I prepared Palak paneer the same day, so we enjoyed the dosa with palak paneer for the dinner!

Ingredients:

2 cups Raagi powder
salt
oil
green chilly
1 beet root
1 onion
1 carrot
cilantro
water

Note: It is not mandatory to use all the vegetables mentioned, if you don't add green chilly, you could add the chilly powder instead.

Method:

1. Mix the ragi powder and water accordingly in a container and add required amount of salt to it.

2.Next, add the chopped onion, green chilly and cilantro.

3. Now, add the grated beetroot and carrot. This gets dominated with reddish color if you add more amount of beets. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

4. Heat a pan, add some oil and spread this mix onto the pan.

+1(IDEA)
You could add bell peppers or cabbage or any other vegetable of your choice.

Slideshow

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Dondakaya(Tindoora) Fry



Dondakaya(Tindoora) fry is one of the easiest recipe, though time taking.If you get the frozen tindoora then the work is minimal, but if you get the fresh ones, then it takes time to finely chop them. I personally like to cut them vertically than the rounds.This requires very few ingredients and very simple to make, yet this yields a unique taste.

Ingredients:
Dondakaya (Tindoora)
salt (accordingly)
oil
Chilly powder
mustard seeds
urad dal
cumin seeds
cilantro
Method:

1.After finely chopping the tindoora, if fresh, wash them. In a pan add about 3-4 tbsp of oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and urad dal.

2. After 2 minutes, add the tindoora and salt. Fry this for about 20-25 minutes or till you feel they are all fried completely.

3. 5 minutes before removing from the heat, add the chilly powder and garnish this with cilantro and enjoy with hot rice.

Chamagadda (Taro Root) Pulusu




Chamagadda (Colacasia/Taro root) and kandagadda (yam) are two of my sister's favorite vegetables. These two are made either in the form of a fry/pulusu. I remember Kandagadda wada, when eaten with sambhar-rice combo is super yummy. This chamagadda pulusu is similar to the egg pulusu/fish pulusu, lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:
Chamagadda (Colacasia/taro root)
1 Big Onion
2 big tomatoes
3 green chilly
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp dhaniya(coriander) powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp chilly powder
1/2 cup tamarind paste
2 tbsp oil
salt (accordingly)
cilantro

Seasoning:
1 tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp Mustard seeds
2 red chilly
few mentil seeds
curry leaves


Method:

1.Cut the taro roots into small pieces and pressure cook it for about 2-3 whistles, cutting will help them cook fastly as well as in removing the skin.

2. Heat a pan, add 2 tbsp of oil and after it is heated add the seasoning ingredients one by one. Then add the chopped onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste.

3. After the onions are fried and the ginger garlic paste is cooked, add the chopped tomato and fry it for about 8-10 mins. Then add the tamarind paste and required amount of water.

4. Put it on medium flame and let it boil. While boiling, add the dhaniya powder, cumin powder, salt and chilly powder.

5.Let the whole content boil and come close together, at this step you could check for the salt and chilly levels and change accordingly. Then add the taro roots to this mixture and let it boil for about 5 minutes, before you remove from the heat.

6. garnish it with cilantro and enjoy the pulusu with rice.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Gongura Pappu




The hot favorite of Andhra "Gongura", trust me the Gongura pachadi when eaten with hot rice and ghee is just an amazing experience, I remember when we went to Vijayawada, the hotel would have all the pachadi's seperately and we just forget about rasam/sambhar or any curry and just eat only the pickles. I must mention Kandi Podi and Palli Podi, I just cant stop eating if I have palli podi/gongura pachadi. Moreover Gongura contains high amount of iron and vitamins. There are different combinations with Gongura besides gongura pachadi, Gongura mutton is quite popular in Andhra. I will shortly post the Gongura pachadi but now lets see how to make this Gongura pappu.

Ingredients:

Bunch of Gongura leaves (sorrel greens) in accordance to 1 cup of toor dal
1 cup Toor dal
1 onion
2 green chilly
1 garlic clove
tamarind paste(optional)
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt
3 tbsp oil

Seasoning:
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Urad dal
Red chilly
Curry leaves

Method:

There are different methods to prepare a dal, I find the below method easy and quick, so I adopt this method for most of my dals, unless for some specific ones.

1.Firstly, pluck the gongura leaves and clean them. In a pressure cooker, add 1 cup of toor dal and according to it, add the gongura leaves. For this, add about 2-21/2 cups of water. To this, add chopped onion, chopped green chilly, turmeric powder and few drops of oil, so that it doesnt stick to the cooker.

2.Pressure cook it till 3-4 whistles or according to your cooker. Carefully, remove the lid and use a Pappu Gutthi(masher) to mash the entire paste.
NOTE: People avoid adding the gongura to the cooker and prefer it to be cooked on low flame, you could do this, but this takes some time, and definitely the taste is much better, but I use the cooker to avoid time delays!

3.Now, take a tadka pan, add oil and all the other seasoning ingredients one by one and salt and now mix the dal to this.
NOTE: I don't add tamarind paste tot his since its already sour but if you really like to have a tangy taste then you could add some tamarind paste into the cooker before pressure cooking it.

This is a very simple recipe, but gongura and toor dal combination gives an awesome taste, eat this with hot rice and a little ghee great for a perfect Lunch!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Aloo-Methi Tomato Curry





Aloo is one vegetable which can be made with a variety of combinations.This recipe has a combination of methi leaves, tomato and potato.this is very simple and straight, yet gives a good taste.

Ingredients:

4 Potato's
1/2 bunch of methi leaves
1 tomato
1 onion
2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp coriander powder
salt
mirchi powder
oil
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Red chilly
Asafoetida
Urad dal



Method:

1.Firstly, add oil to a pan, let it heat for a while. After it is heated, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, red chilly, urad dal and asafoetida.

2.After a while, add the chopped onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste.

3.Let it fry for a while and then add the tomatoes to this. Sprinkle some water on this and let it boil. Meanwhile, Clean the methi leaves by soaking it in warm water and salt. This contains sand, so it is necessary to wash it multiple times.

4.Now, after the tomato is semiboiled, add the methi leaves and chopped potatoes. It is necessary for us to cut the potato into small pieces for it to get cooked fastly. If you cut them big, then the time it takes for the methi, tomato and potato may not be the same. So for all the three to cook at the same time, we have to make the potato into small pieces.

5.lastly, add the salt, mirchi powder and coriander powder, mix everything together and enjoy it with chapathi or rice.

+1 (IDEA)
If you want the potato pieces big, then cut them and microwave it for 10 minutes before adding them to the curry.

Vegetable & Chicken Pasta





Vegetable and chicken pasta makes me hungry now. I usually cook vegetable pasta and one fine day, I had some left over chicken pieces and I thought let me try mixing them as well. This turned out to be very yummy as well as filling. This recipe is healthy as well as heavy even if you have just one serving.

Ingredients:

Vegetables of your choice, below are the ones, I use
Corn
Peas
beans
Cabbage
Carrot
Bell pepper
Mushrooms
Chicken (cut into small pieces)
1 onion
1 tomato
2 garlic cloves
2 green chilly
sliced almond pieces
2-3 tbsp oil
butter
salt (accordingly)
pepper powder
mirchi powder (accordingly)
lime

Method:

1.Firstly, get the pasta done! The crucial step to have your pasta dish ready is when you have the pasta cooked in the right levels. For this, take a shallow vessel, add water, should be a lot and boil it for 10 minutes. After which, add the pasta and keep stirring so that it doesn't stick. After 15 minutes, pick one of the pasta and check if its cooked, check this from time to time and after you think its completely cooked, filter it from water and keep it aside.

2. Now, take a large pan, add 2-3 tbsp of oil and after it is heated add the finely chopped garlic and sliced almonds. This gives an awesome aroma. Add the green chilly and chopped onion.

3.After the onion is fried, add the chopped tomato, you could even add the garlic-tomato pasta sauce instead of all this. Now, add finely chopped cabbage, carrot and all other vegetables of your choice.

4.After all the vegetables are fried, add the chicken to this. Add the butter now and fry everything for about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and mirchi powder accordingly.

5.Finally, after the vegetables and chicken is done, add the pasta and mix everything together. You can include cheese or any other sauce of your choice and add some lime juice and enjoy this yummy dish.

Chikudukaya Tomato Curry





Chikudukaya is made in different ways, one such way which has a tomato combination is a very common method of cooking chikudukaya curry. lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

Chikudukaya
1 large tomato
1 large onion
2 green chillies
salt (accordingly)
mirchi powder (accordingly)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp oil

Seasoning:

Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Red chilly
Asafoetida
curry leaves


Method:

1.Firstly, soak the chikudukaya in warm water and salt. We need to remove all the sand and dirt from this vegetable for which we can soak it in salt water for half an hour and then wash it vigorously till all the sand/dirt is removed.

2.Next, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and add all the seasoning ingredients one by one. Fry Onions, green chilly and ginger garlic paste till the onions turn brown.

3. Now after the content in the pan is fried, add the chopped tomatoes and add about half a cup of water. Cover it with a lid and let it cook for a minute and then add the chikudukaya.

4.It takes about 20-25 minutes for the vegetable to get cooked on a medium flame. Meanwhile, add the salt and mirchi powder accordingly.Granish it with cilantro.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Almond-Methi Curry





I learnt this recipe from my sis-in-law, while we visited them in chicago, she made this awesome yummy curry and I had an immediate attention to put in my list of things-to-learn. She looked online for the recipe and changed it a little bit by replacing the cashews with almonds. Trust me, I personally liked the methi-badam(almond) combination. This is a very simple recipe with minimal amount of work, everything depends on the blended stuff and finally mix it up and cook it altogether principle. Lets look into the recipe......


Ingredients:

Bunch of Methi leaves
1/2 cup of whole almonds(badam)
2 cardamom seeds (elaichi)
2 cloves (lavang)
2 cinnamon sticks (dalchina chekka)
1 onion
2-3 green chillies
2 chopped garlic
1 cup yogurt (curd)
1/4 cup milk
salt (accordingly)
2 tbsp oil

Method:

1.Firstly, clean the methi leaves thoroughly, these normally consist of lot of soil, the preferrable method is to soak them in warm water and add some salt to it, remove it after 15 mins and wash them twice or thrice till you get a feeling that the soil is removed.

2.Now, Finely chop the onions,green chilly, next grind the following( 3/4 of the chopped onions, green chilly, yogurt, almonds, cardamom seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks). This gives a nice and rich consistency.

3.Heat a pan, add oil and now add the chopped garlic and remaining 1/4 onions, if you enjoy the smell of cardamom seeds, you could add one more, I usually add one more to the oil. Fry them for a while and now add about 1/4 cup of milk.

4. Now add the cleaned Methi leaves and the blended paste, add salt and let it boil till all the methi leaves are cooked and till you get the right consistency of the gravy in accordance to the methi leaves. If you like it spicy, you could add some Mirchi powder to this.

This goes well with chapathi and also rice. Its one of the easy to do recipe which is very rich and I personally like the color of this dish.