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