Mixed Vegetable Quinoa Pasta

Well, what can I say about this dish! Like mama, like baby...Yeah, my daughter likes to experiment different food and as I introduced sphagetti and pasta she makes my life easy! Atleast shes saving me few minutes.So, since this is more on the toddler side food, I made sure not to add lot of artificial sauces and made it as natural as I can and at the end, she did pick up that pasta and ate it with a smile on her face

Ingredients:

Quinoa Pasta (I bought this from sprouts,organic)
Veggies of your choice, the ones I used
Carrots
All colour bell peppers
Spring onions
Cauliflower
Brocoli
Beans
Garlic
Pasta Sauce
Oil
Pepper
Jeera (cumin) powder


Method:

1. In a pan add about 5 cups of water for 2.5 cups of pasta, we usually dont measure but I am giving an approximation.
2. Let the water boil and then add your pasta and cook it till all done! really well done, keeping a toddler in mind
3. Now, in another wide pan, heat some oil and then fry the chopped spring onion.
4. Saute the Spring onion, garlic and add bell peppers and other vegetables one by one.
5. Give all the veggies a real well stirring and add some jeera powder.
6. If your pasta is well done in the meantime, separate it from the remaining water and let it cool.
7. Once all your veggies are fried, add the paste sauce and keep stirring.
8. Lastly, add the pasta to this veggie mix and serve hot.

Many must be wondering, there are no sauces or any flavouring, well as I mentioned before since this is in reference to a toddler, I kept it mild and they love the natural tastes (atleast mine did). She picked a few veggies and enjoying red bell pepper the most!

Thai Red Curry

OMG, what a start with my special favorite! Yes, it is Thai curry and yes its after a while that I am posting a recipe. Blame this on my 16th month old brat who doesnt even let me login to my account. Well, complaints aside, I prepared a special dinner for my husband a couple of days ago and thought of sharing it.

Ingredients:

Red curry paste (I used store bought from Trader Joes)
Vegetables of your choice, I used the following
Red bell pepper
Yellow bell pepper
Green bell pepper
Carrots
Zuchini
Sweet corn
Tofu
Coconut Milk
Oil
Salt

Method:

1. In a large pan, after heating it initially, add 2 tsp oil and then saute all your veggies.
2. In another pan, add the red thai curry paste and let it cook.
3. After the thai paste gets heated, add the coconut milk and git it a stir.
4. When the veggies are done, combine the veggies and the other paste.
5. Let the whole mixture boil till the veggies are well cooked and the house is filled with a nice aroma.

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.

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.

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 !

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!

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

Palak paneer

Yum! Palak Paneer is one of the most common recipe that people order in any restaurant, specially in India. If you have Naan in your list then Palak Paneer would be its preferable partner. I had craving for this dish from the very beginning and this prompted me to learn it. Now, lets look at my style of preparing Palak Paneer!

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes
1 or 1/2 bunch Spinach (Palak)
1 Onion (big)
2-3 Green Chillies
1 Tomato (big)
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1-2 pieces Cinnamon sticks
1-2 cloves
1 tbsp coriander(dhania)
Salt (accordingly)
few chopped garlic
Chilly (Mirchi) Powder (accordingly)
few Cashews
few cilantro leaves
1 lime
2 tbsp oil

Method:

1. Firstly, cut the paneer into small cubes, if this frozen keep it outside for an hour or so to make the cutting easier and deep fry it. I don't prefer deep frying unless I have guests coming in, I prefer cooking spray and just fry it on both the sides till it changes the color.

2.Keep the fried paneer aside and now clean the spinach(palak) and boil it for about 5 mins. Similarly, cut half of the tomato into pieces and fry them in oil. Let them both cool down and later grind these two together and keep it aside for future use.

3. Now, Take a pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil, add cumin seeds, clove,cinnamon sticks, chopped garlic and green chillies.

4.After this step you tend to get an awesome aroma, I just love garlic frying along with the green chillies. Add very finely chopped onions to this and the ginger garlic paste. After frying for a while, add the remaining half of the chopped tomato and fry it.

5. Now, add salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and coriander powder and fry it for a while.

6. Next, add the spinach-tomato paste and let it boil. here you could check for salt and chilly, and adjust accordingly.

7. Lastly, add the fried paneer, mixx everything well. Garnish it will cilantro leaves and squeeze a lime to get a little sour taste. I love lime personally and usually use it at the end of most of my dishes. You could add some raw onions on top as well.

So, here is Palak Paneer ready for paneer lovers as well as palak lovers. I hope you enjoy this with rice/naan. Its both healthy and fatty, but paneer is protein rich so have it in the right amount!

Paneer Fry

This dish is an appetizer. I have been thinking of learning most of the appetizers and only now, I found some time to experiment more on these. I borrowed the recipe from my cousin and added my ideas in between. I tried this on my husband's birthday party and it turned out pretty well. Lets see how to make it.

Ingredients:

Paneer cubes
1 cup Corn flour
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
11/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 egg (optional)
1 onion
2 green chilly
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp butter
1 tsp oil
salt (accordingly)
1 tsp pepper
mirchi powder (accordingly)

Method:

1.Firstly, marinate the paneer cubes with ginger-garlic paste,salt, mirchi powder, corn flour and a egg. Egg is not mandatory, you could use water instead.

2.Keep them aside for a while, and in the meantime, you could prepare the gravy. In a pan, add 1-11/2 tsp oil. Add the cumin seeds & finely chopped garlic.

3.For this recipe, you need to cut the onions and bell peppers into big and long pieces.

4. Now, add the chopped onions, green chilly and ginger-garlic paste. Fry them till the raw smell of ginger-garlic paste disappears.

5.You could now, fry the marinated paneer cubes. If you want to avoid the deep fry, you could use a oil spray and fry them instead, I tried it and it tasted pretty good, I don't really encourage deep fries.

6.Now, after the onions are fried, add the chopped bell peppers, add the soy sauce and butter.

7.Fry everything till the peppers get 75% cooked. Now, add the pepper, coriander powder,salt and mirchi powder accordingly and add the fried panner. Remember the paneer already has salt and mirchi, so it doesn't need anything again.

8.Lastly,after it gets cooked, add some lime juice and enjoy your appetizer!

Pongal

The pongal I am going to display is not the traditional one, this is not made as soft as it is made during the festivals, I normally make it for my husband who is a big pongal fan and not until 3 times I made it, only then I learnt it the perfect right way to do. So, this is basically very simple and easy and if you prefer it to be soft, you could increase the amount of water as well as the time it gets cooked in the pressure cooker.

Ingredients

1 cup rice
1/2 cup mung dal
2 green chilly
1 clove (lavang)
2 tbsp cashews
2 tbsp pepper (Miryalu)
pinch of asafoetida (Hing)
salt (accordingly)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp chopped ginger
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp ghee

Method:

1.Firstly, Soak 1 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of mung dal together for about half an hour. This is not mandatory, you could directly use them for cooking if you don't have time.

2.In a pressure cooker, Add 1/2 tsp oil and 1 tsp ghee and add the mustard seeds, cashews, hing pepper, ginger and green chillies.

3.Let them fry, Some people prefer adding onions and ginger-garlic, I use it when I have just some coconut chutney or curd rice as a side dish and don't have any other curry. well, this is optional, its upto you if you want to add, you could!

4.Now, after they are fried for a while, add the mixture of rice and mung dal and about 3-31/2 cups of water, add salt accordingly and pressure cook it for more than 3 whistles.
Note: If you like it real soft, you can increase the water as well as the number of whistles.

This is great when eaten with coconut chutney and I like it with curds as well.

Cabbage-Carrot Curry

So, this is another side dish to rice. I love this combination as both cabbage and carrot are considered to be healthy. From what I read, cabbage consists of multiple vitamins and helps in weight reduction. And similarly, carrots are a great source of fiber and provide antiseptic properties. This is not a Dietitian's blog so I do not wish to write volumes about the nutritional benefits, but would provide you with the basic information. Sometimes, its boring to eat cabbage alone, so you have multiple combination like Chana-Cabbage,Mung dal-Cabbage,Choley-Cabbage, Cabbage-carrot dal etc are few of the examples, I have tried and will publish soon.Now, lets see how to make this combination Cabbage-Carrot Curry.

Ingredients:

3-4 carrots (large)
2 bowls of chopped cabbage
1 onion
2 green chilly
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp oil
few cinnamon sticks
1 tsp coriander powder salt (accordingly)
pinch of turmeric powder
chilly powder (accordingly)

Method:

1.Firstly, wash cabbage and cut it into fine pieces. The trick here is how you cut the carrots, since we do not use the pressure cook and cabbage easily gets cooked, we need to cut the carrots into very thin pieces so that the cooking time for both the vegetables match, if otherwise, you would end up having half cooked carrots!

2. I normally cut the carrots into long and thin pieces like the ones shown in the picture, this will cook together with the cabbage nicely.

3.In a pan, add oil, cinnamon sticks,mustard seeds let them crackle and add the chopped onions,green chilly and a tsp of ginger-garlic paste. Few people don't prefer using ginger-garlic with cabbage, this is not mandatory, you could avoid ginger-garlic if you wish to.

4. After the onions turn into golden brown, add the washed cabbage and carrots into the pan and mix everything together.

5.You don't need any extra water, since the cabbage absorbs the water and releases it while cooking. Place a lid on the pan and let it cook for about 7-8 mins on a medium flame.

6.Now add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilly powder and salt according to the taste and mix everything.

7. If needed let it cook for about 3-4 mins, but if its already cooked, you could remove it from the flame.

+1 (IDEA)
I sometimes, add some sour cream to it. You could garnish it with cilantro in the end

Vegetable Fried Rice (style: 1)

style 1 refers to bachelor or students type. This is quick n easy and doesn't need lot of energy, when you have somebody unexpected at home or if you are tired, you could pick this recipe.

Ingredients:

Vegetables of your choice, the ones I usually use are:
2 carrots
1/2 beet root
11/2 cup cabbage
1/2 cup beans
1 cup bell pepper
1 big potato
1 cup soy beans or meal maker
To make things easy, you could also use a frozen mixed vegetable, I don't prefer unless extremely out of resources,time & energy
Bread crumbs (optional)
1 onion
1 tomato (optional)
11/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 chopped green chilly
11/2 tsp oil
few cinnamon (dalchina chekka)
2 cloves (lavangam)
1/2 cup curd
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
11/2 cups rice (basmati preferrably)
3 cups water
1 tsp ghee (optional)
Chilly powder (accordingly)
Salt (accordingly)

Method:

1. Wash and cut all the vegetables and keep them aside, in a pan, add the oil, add the garam masala(cinnamon sticks,cloves) add the chopped onions, green chilly and ginger garlic paste.

2. Fry the above till the raw smell of ginger garlic paste disappears and add the chopped tomato. Adding tomato is optional. Now add the coriander powder,cumin powder and 1/2 cup curd and mix it well.

3. Now add all the chopped veggies and bread crumbs and fry it for some time. If you want to add ghee, now you could add ghee as well.

4.I normally fry the rice for a while, before boiling which gives a great taste, so in another pan, I take some ghee and fry the rice for sometime, if you dont have time, you can skip this step and add the rice to the same pan in which the vegetables are there.

5. After the rice is fried for sometime add the chilly powder and salt, put everything in a rice cooker and add about 3 cups of water, for 11/2 cups rice. The trick here is you don't have to add any extra amount of water for the vegetables, they get cooked along with the rice. You could also use a pressure cook, if there is no rice cooker, but I normally prefer rice cooker as it is easy and drains any extra water if any!

The measurements of the vegetables I mentioned above are for about 11/2 cups of rice. For soya beans or meal maker, make sure you wash them and soak them for about 3 mins before adding to the pan.

+1 (IDEA)
You could also add cashews in the beginning while frying to make it more yummy. You could also include your favorite veggies like broccoli, red peppers, squash etc

Capsicum-Tomato pachadi

I used the green bell peppers we get here in the US and roma tomatoes to make this pachadi. This is very similar to the doskaya pachadi that I published before. This combination is tasty and even with just the tomatoes and no bell peppers would yield a wonderful tomato pachadi. I use the same style for making the pachadi's, and yet never get bored of them. I guess, I should explore more on "Niluva pachadi" and try more in different styles. For now, lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

1 big green bell pepper (Capsicum)
1 large tomato
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 green chillies
1 dried red chilly
11/2 tsp oil
pinch of asafoetida
salt (accordingly)

Method:

1.First, wash the bell pepper and tomato and finely chop them into pieces.

2.In a pan, heat about 11/2 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds. Wait till they crack and add the finely chopped garlic,green chilly and red chilly and pinch of asafoetida.

3.Then add the chopped bell pepper and tomato pieces and fry them on medium heat for about 5 mins.

4.Now remove them from flame, and let it cool for a while and add salt according to the taste and grind it into a fine paste.Add water if you want it to be a little watery.

I have posted a picture before grinding it into a paste. I normally would want to eat something spicy (which is greater than my normal spice levels) atleast twice a week, so I end up making different pachadi's and enjoy them with curd rice.

Dosakaya pachadi

I have already mentioned my inclination towards Dosakaya in the recipe dosakaya pappu, I made dosakaya pachadi last weekend. I like the consistency to be a little watery, but you could change it with the amount of water you add while grinding. This is great with idli's/dosa's or upma or Fried rice. Yes, I love it with fried rice. Last saturday,we came home pretty late and were very hungry & tired and yet wanted to eat tasty food, so all I could think of was Fried Rice and yummy dosakaya pachadi. This is quick, easy and a tasty combo. I will display the fried rice recipe as well in my next post, but lets quickly see how to make this yummy spicy dosakaya pachadi. Why I say spicy is because, the fried rice is normally mild in spice levels, so I make the dosakaya pachadi more spicy to have a good combination.
There are multiple different methods to make this pachadi, but I follow a pretty simple one, which is less time & energy consuming. The credit for this recipe goes to my Pedatha, who taught me how to make tomato pachadi and I used the same procedure to make dosakaya pachadi.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized Dosakaya
1-2 green chillies
1 red chilly
1 tsp mustard seeds
11/2 tsp oil
2 garlic cloves
pinch of asafoetida
salt (accordingly)

Method:

1.First, peel of the outer skin of dosakaya, and finely chop it into pieces. Remove the inner seeds. TIP: I remember my mom saying, these seeds were good if applied on the face, its like a natural face mask, I never tried it, but will try it and then update the results here...

2.Now, in a pan, heat about 11/2 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds. Wait till they crack and add the finely chopped garlic,green chilly and red chilly and pinch of asafoetida.

3.Then add the chopped dosakaya pieces and fry them on medium heat for about 5 mins.

4.Now remove them from flame, and let it cool for a while and add salt according to the taste and grind it into a fine paste.Add water if you want it to be a little watery.

This is one way which is easy and quick when running short of time! We had a ball last saturday with Fried rice, dosakaya pachadi and dadojanam. This was more than enough to enjoy a wonderful dinner.
+1 (IDEA)
If you don't want it to be spicy, just add only the red chilly and don't include the green chillies. The garlic gives the taste for this recipe, so make sure you add them good in accordance to the quantity of dosakaya pieces.

Palli pachadi (Peanut Chutney)

This is the simplest and easiest chutney, yet serves the purpose when eating a dosa or upma or even pongal and running out of any alternative side dish. Those who don't prefer/like peanuts can add some onions to change the taste. I never liked peanuts alone, so I found a way to add alternatives so that the peanuts taste wouldn't dominate. Lets see the ingredients and method to make this
Ingredients:
Few peanuts
1 small chopped onion
2 green chillies
1 garlic clove
Tamarind paste
Salt (accordingly)
11/2 tsp oil

Seasoning:

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

Method:

1.First dry roast the peanuts in a pan without any oil and remove the skin. Remove the peanuts and keep them aside, in the same pan, add 1 tsp oil and add the chopped onions,green chillies,garlic clove, tamarind and the peanuts. Fry then for a while.

2. Because we fry the tamarind, we can keep this chutney a little longer than a day.

3.After frying, let it cool and grind it into a fine paste by adding some water and salt according to the taste.

4.Now, add the remaining oil to the pan and add all the seasoning ingredients, fry till the mustard seeds crackle and add this to the paste.
Now, the yummy palli pachadi (peanut chutney) is ready! This is great with idly/dosa or upma and stays longer than a day when refrigerated.

Aloo kurma

This is another dish I learnt form my pedattha while I was a student in the US.During those days, making fried rice/vegetable biryani and a aloo kurma was like a treat specially during the weekends. We used to take turns to cook daily and typically, I cooked aloo kurma's during the weekends and I guess my roomates pretty much liked it. This goes well with vegetable fried rice and poori. You could do it just with Aloo alone or if you have the other vegetables, you could also add them to make it more nutritious. I normally add potatoes,beets,carrots,beans,soya chunks and peas. Lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes
1 beet root
2 carrots
1 cup beans
1 cup soy chunks
1/2 cup peas
1 large onion
2 green chillies
1 large tomato
bunch of Mint leaves (pudina)
bunch of cilantro
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup curd
1 tsp mustard seeds
11/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp cashews (Khaju)
1/2 tsp khus khus
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cloves
1 tsp sajeera

You could do the kurma with just the potatoes, all the other vegetables are optional

Method:

1.Firstly, lets make the Garam masala paste. For this lets take the following into a blender. 1/4 chopped onions,1/2 chopped tomato,1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, 2 chopped green chillies, 2 tbsp cashews, few cilantro leaves, 1 clove,1/2 tsp cinnamon,1/2 tsp khus khus,1 tsp sajeera and 1/4 cup curds. Add very little water and blend it into a thick paste.
Note: No need to add much water, as both tomatoes and curds have water in them, so be careful while adding water.

2.After making the garam masala, peel all the necessary vegetables, chop them and keep them aside.

3.Now, in a pressure cooker, add about 2 tbsp oil, mustard seeds and let then crack. Now add the remaining chopped onions and Mint leaves (Pudina). At this point, you sense an amazing smell, the combination of pudina and onions is the heart of the kurma. The more pudina you add, it tastes much better. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste and fry it for a while.

4. Now, add all the vegetables and fry them for some time. To this, add the remaining curd and the garam masala. Add a little water if needed and salt and mirchi powder accordingly and cook it for about 1-2 whistles.

5.Caution-Don't pressure cook it for long as all the vegetables would turn into a paste.

6.Lastly, here you could check the salt and mirchi powder and add if needed.

+ 1(IDEA)
You could substitute the curd with sour cream, this also brings a good flavor to the kurma.

Dosakaya Pappu

Dosakaya is one of my favorite vegetable, let it be dosakaya pappu or dosakaya pachadi, I just have a great inclination towards this. Dosakaya pappu alone when eaten with hot rice and a little ghee is sufficient enough for a meal and doesn't require any other side dishes. As a child, I always start my lunch or dinner with curd rice and mix the curry or dals along with it. Only until recently I realized that its a wrong way of eating and making it a point to have curd rice in the end. Ok, I have borrowed this recipe from my mom, and simply go crazy when thinking of dosakaya pappu! lets see how to make it.....

Ingredients:

1 medium sized Dosakaya
1 cup Toor dal (kandi pappu)
1 large onion
1 large tomato
3-4 green chillies (2-3, if long)
Tamarind paste (optional)
1 garlic clove
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
11/2 tsp oil
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt (accordingly)

Seasoning:

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp channa dal
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
curry leaves

Method:

1. In a pressure cooker, add about 1 cup toor dal, 2-21/2 cups of water, long cut pieces of Dosakaya, 1/4 finely chopped onions, 1 large finely chopped tomato, 2-3 chopped green chillies, 1 chopped garlic clove, turmeric powder and a drop of oil and pressure cook it till 2-3 whistles.

2.Meanwhile, take a pan, add about 11/2 tsp oil, and add all the seasoning ingredients. Add the remaining finely chopped onions, green chillies, ginger garlic paste. Fry it well till the raw smell of the ginger garlic paste disappears.

3.If you want to add the tamarind paste, you could add it now. For extracting the tamarind juice, in a microwave safe bowl, take some tamarind and add water to it and microwave it for about 45sec -1 min. Remove it and squeeze to get the juice from it. This is optional, you could avoid this step if you don't want to add tamarind.

4.Now, add the dal to the Pan and mix everything and add salt according to the taste. Lastly, add about a tsp of ghee to make it yummy and enjoy it with hot rice, trust me, its really awesome!

Make sure the dosakaya piece are long, because when cooked in a pressure cooker for about 2-3 whistles there are chances that the dosakaya pieces get mashed and become a paste, so cut them thick and long.

Vegetable Manchurian

Vegetable manchurian brings water in everybody's mouth! This is great when eaten with noodles or fried rice. I never thought I would make such a tough recipe, but after asking a few friends of mine and visiting few online cooking videos, I finally could make one on my own and thought I should publish it here. Lets see what we would need to make this...When it comes to vegetables, its more of your choice, I used the following: cabbage,cauliflower,carrot,beans,potatoes, beetroot.

Ingredients:

Vegetables of your choice
1 cup cooked rice
soy sauce
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped ginger
Corn flour
1 tsp tomato sauce
pepper
Salt
oil (accordingly)

Method:

1.Firstly, chop all the vegetables finely or grate them if you can and cook them in a pan with its lid closed or you could even pressure cook it for about 2 whistles, all the vegetables should be a little more than half boiled and not over cooked and soft.

2.Let this cool and drain the water from the veggies, make sure all the water is gone and add some cooked rice to the vegetables which would help in binding them all together while making the balls. The drained water is very rich with nutrients, so do not throw this, use this to make a gravy for the manchurian or drink it like a soup with some salt and pepper.

3.Add the chopped green chillies, garlic, soy sauce,tomato sauce,pepper powder, salt and mix it well.

4.Now add the corn flour to make a good consistency and start making the balls. If you are unable to make it, add some boiled rice so that everything can be binded together.

5.Deep fry these balls in oil and enjoy the dry manchurian.

Wet curry:To make the wet curry, use the drained veggy soup from the cooked vegetables.

Method:

1.In a pan, add oil, add cumin seeds, chopped onions,chopped green chilly,chopped ginger and garlic.Note: make sure all of them are very finely chopped, the taste matters with the way you chop the above. The thinner they are, the better it would taste. And, the garlic is the heart of the gravy, so make sure you have good amount of chopped garlic.

2.Add soy sauce and chopped spring onions and fry it.

3.Now, add the corn flour mixed with water into this and add the vegetable soup to the above and salt mix it well.

4.Lastly, add any of the sauces you have at home, let it be tomato or honey mustard or sweet onion, just to add to the flavor

Now, add the dry manchurian balls to the gravy and there you go, Wet Manchurian, great with noodles or fried rice!

Potato Curry (Aalugadda Puttu)

Potato curry is prepared in many different versions. This is one such recipe which can be eaten with poori, chapathi & even rice. This is prepared in a solid form by my mom and we used to eat it with dosa or poori but I learnt to make it semi-liquid for my husband who doesn't prefer any dry recipe.

Ingredients:

3-4 Potatoes
1 large onion
2-3 green chillies
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 cup Peas (Optional)
1 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
Salt (accordingly)
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1-11/2 tbsp oil

Seasoning:
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
Few Curry leaves

Method:

1.Boil the potatoes & peas(optional) in a pressure cooker for about 2-3 whistles. After they are boiled, peel the outer skin and mash it into a paste.

2.In a pan, heat the oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves, add the finely chopped onions. We need to chop the onions into real fine pieces, since we make this curry in a semi liquid form, we don't really want the onions come in your way while eating.

3. Add the chopped green chillies and fry till they turn into golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell of the paste disappears. Then add the coriander powder and turmeric powder.

4.Now add the potato paste and add a little water and boil it.

5.Add salt and mix it well. Remove from flame when the curry turns to a semi-liquid form.

As mentioned before, this is good when eaten either with dosa or poori. There are a number of dishes in combination with potato, but this one is the typical "Aalugadda Puttu"!

Semiya payasam

The universal sweet/dessert made by most of our Mom's during our bday's or festivals. At one point of time, I got so bored of this dish until I was in India but after coming to US, I just love this. I remember the first time, I made it for my roomate's (Jyothsna) birthday, I prepared it with rice. But here I would show it with bambino vermicelli.

Ingredients:

2 cups bambino
1/2-1 cup ghee
3 cups milk
11/2 cup sugar (accordingly)
2 tbsp cashew nuts
2 tbsp sliced almonds
2 tbsp raisins
2 cardamom (elaichi)

Method:

1.Boil milk and add sugar after it is boiled. You could check the sugar level by tasting it now and add more if needed. I normally make it a little less than medium level of sweetness. because of this, we can eat more and I usually don't like any extra sweetness!

2.In a pan, heat 1/2 cup ghee, roast all the nuts and add the 2 cups of bambino. Fry it till the bambino turn to golden brown. Don't let the dry fruits burn, if needed remove them and keep it aside, specially the raisins, I have already mentioned this in my previous recipe's that when the raisins are heated beyond a certain level, they taste bitter.

3. Add the cardamom to the milk and now add the fried bambino to the milk and boil it till the bambino is cooked.

4. Now, hot Semiya Payasam is ready! You could eat it just like that or sometimes can be eaten with Poori !

Curd Rice (Dadojanam)

Wow, this reminds me of those old days way back in late 90's when our whole family used to go for picnic's to a zoo or temple or any outing. My grandma would prepare dishes in the night, the day before and we would hit the roads by 5 early next day in the morning. So, this dish reminds me of all the lovely cherishing moments with my family & cousins.Though I have included some of my own ideas to prepare this dish, I have originally copied this from my family. Lets see how to make this.

Ingredients:

2 cups boiled rice
11/2 cup curd
1 finely chopped onion
2-3 chopped green chillies
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2 grated carrots 1 grated cucumber
1/2 grated beetroot (optional)
pomegranate seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp oil Salt to taste
Cilantro (Kothmeer)

Seasoning:

11/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Chana dal
1-2 Red chillies
Pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)
Few curry leaves

Method:

1. Boil rice either in a pressure cooker or rice cooker and let it cool for a while.

2.Meanwhile in a pan, heat about 2 tsp oil. Add all the seasoning ingredients one by one after the oil is heated. Add the chopped onions, green chillies and ginger and fry everything.

3.Once the cooked rice is cooled, take a fork and mix it well. We use fork and not a spoon because, the spoon might make a paste out of the rice and we don't want a paste.

4. Add the grated carrots & cucumber. we can even add the grated beetroot, but this turns the color to red, which many people don't prefer. I personally add a very small quantity which gives a light reddish color.

5.Adding pomegranate is just an option here.After the onions are fried, add salt according to the taste and turmeric powder, mix it well and remove it from flame.

6. Now, mix the rice and curds, if needed add some water and mix it well with the seasoning.

7.Lastly add the cilantro and enjoy this yummy curd rice.

Poha (Atukula) Upma

Atukula Upma is one of the quick and easy breakfast/brunch/evening snack when running short of time and energy. I remember making it often while pursuing my master's after a hectic schedule at school. This is great when eaten hot and I enjoy it with curds. Few of them prefer tomato sauce. This is a dry item, so sometimes is preferred to be eaten with buttermilk.

Ingredients:

2 cups Poha (thick Atukulu)
1 small onion
2 tbsp peanuts
2 tbsp cashews
1 green chilly
1 lime
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp oil
Salt

Seasoning:

1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Channa dal
1 tsp Urad dal
1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
1 red chilly
Curry leaves

Method:

1. Add oil to a pan, and add all the seasoning ingredients.

2. Add peanuts and cashews and fry it for some time.

3.In a bowl of water, soak the poha for about a minute and drain the water. meanwhile, fry the chopped onions and green chilly.

4. I don't prefer the poha to absorb much water, so I quickly drain the water, it depends on how you want the poha, if you want it to be soggy/soft you can soak them in water for more time. After the onions are fried, add the drained poha.

5.We don't use the chilly powder here and instead get the hot taste from the red and green chilles. The chilly powder doesn't get dissolved as there is no water. Add the turmeric, this gives a nice color to the poha.

6.Add some salt and saute everything and remove it from the flame.

7. Squeeze a lime at the end before serving.

+1 (IDEA)

Can grate carrots/beets in the end. I enjoy the raw vegetables, so this makes the poha nutritious. I also like it with yogurt/buttermilk since its a dry dish.

Beerakaya(Ridge Gourd) Egg Curry

Lets see how to make this curry combination. Egg is added to this recipe as sometimes, the ridge guard is too sweet and most people don't prefer the sweet taste.Egg adds a different flavor to the curry

Ingredients:

2-3 long Ridge Guards
1 onion
2 long green chillies
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp milk
2 tbsp olive oil (any oil of your choice)
Few chopped cilantro
Salt
Chilly powder

Seasoning:

Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Urad dal
Channa dal
Curry leaves

Method:

1. Firstly, remove the outer layer of the ridge guard and finely chop it into pieces. This outer layer of the ridge guard is used to make a chutney/pickle. I would add that recipe shortly, this was called "Beerakaya Pottu Pachadi" by my granny and I just love it, in combination to the curd rice.

2. Add oil to a pan, after heating for a while, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds,urad dal, channa dal, curry leaves, chopped green chillies and onions.

3. Finely chop the green chillies into thin pieces, this adds to the taste and also if eaten doesnt burn. Fry it till the onion turn golden brown.

4.Now add the ginger garlic paste and fry it till the raw smell disappears.

5.Now add the choppped and washed ridge guard pieces. The water used for washing is sufficient enough for it to boil and no need to add any extra water. Close it with a lid for about 8-10 mins and let it boil on medium flame.

6. Next, add the milk and saute it. Add the salt and chilly powder accordingly. Since we added green chillies, we may add some less chilly powder. Add the coriander powder and mix everything together.

7.Lastly, Break an egg into this curry and mix everything till it gets dry. Egg brings a different flavor to the curry. Style it with chopped cilantro.

This is great to be eaten with chapathi's and rice.Some people don't really like ridge guard and find it boring, so hopefully this combination might catch their attention!

Custard (Fruit salad)

Fruit Salad is one of the simple recipe's one would learn.This is mostly served in parties and weddings or lunches and get- together functions.This is one of the earliest recipe I learnt, could be in my 8th grade if I am right.We used to make it in the night and prefer eating the next day after lunch, specially during the Indian summers, this would be a treat! I would love to add mangoes, as it is my fav fruit and so for most of them.

Ingredients:

3-4 cups of Milk
2 cups of water
2-21/2 cups sugar
Custard Powder
Few Tutty Fruity
Any choice of your fruits

Method:

1.Boil Milk and water on a medium flame. Add the sugar and stir well. Here you could check the sugar levels and add according to your levels.

2. Now take the custard powder into a bowl and add some water, mix it thoroughly and then add this into the milk. We do this because if the custard powder is added directly to the boiling milk, this causes some small clusters. So, we need to first dissolve it in water and then add it to the hot milk.

3. Stir well for some time to observe a thick cream forming. At this point, remove it from flame and place under a fan or near a cool place and let it cool.

4.After it is completely cooled, add the tutty fruity and all the fruits of your choice. My choice would be peeled and finely chopped apples, bananas,strawberries,oranges,cantaloupes and pomegranates.

+1 Idea

Can style it with nuts like cashews or raisins and add some thick cream to make it more rich. Can add a variety of fruits such as Honey dew melon, kiwi or blue berries etc.

Double Ka Meetha

Double ka Meetha or the bread sweet, however it is called, it is one of the hot favorites of Hyderabadi dessert! It is usually served in functions and parties. I learnt this dish from one of our cook's. She taught me how to do this easily and deliciously! So, lets see how to make this dessert.


Ingredients:

White Bread
1 cup sugar (accordingly)
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp whole cashews
2 tbsp sliced almonds
1 cup water
2 cups Ghee (accordingly)

Method:

1.Firstly Boil about 2-21/2 cups of milk, according to the number of slices of bread, it is just an approximation. Add one cup of water and sugar and stir well till the sugar dissolves well. Check the sugar levels here and add if needed.

2. Now, in a frying pan, add about 1/2 cup ghee and fry all the nuts till the raisins bulge neatly. Don't over burn them as the raisins taste bitter if heated extra.Remove from the pan.

3.In the same pan, add the remaining ghee and deep fry the white bread slices. People prefer to do one by one, but this consumes a lot of ghee, so I prefer making the bread slices into 2 or 3 pieces and fry all of them at once so that every bread piece is fried in the ghee.

4.Now, add the milk into the bread, most of it is absorbed by the bread, style it with all the fried nuts.

+1 Idea

You could add some pecans or any of your fav nuts and heavy cream or sugar syrup to make it more rich.

Sunni/Minappa Laddu

Sunni/Minapa laddu's are considered to be very healthy, specially for kids. Since it consists of Urad dal/Minapappuwhich is fiber rich and also ghee. When made with jaggery it is very nutritious as you avoid the sugars but due to the bad quality of jaggery here in the USA, it gets difficult to make a fine powder out of it. This is recipe is made for about 6-7 laddu's, also it depends on what size you make the balls.

Ingredients:

3 cups Urad dal
1-3/4 cup sugar
Cashew nuts
Raisins
Cardamom seeds
1 cup ghee

Method:

1.Finely Dry Roast the Urad dal till you observe an amazing aroma. Don't burn it, but just dry roast till they change their color. Keep it aside and let it cool.

2. Add the ghee to a pan and fry the cashews and raisins. The raisins would bloat up and fry till the cashews are light brown, don't burn them, this might give a sour taste to the raisins. Add the cardamom seeds. This ignites a great smell and flavor to the laddu's.

3. After the Roasted urad dal is cooled, grind them into a fine powder. Sometimes, when you grind while the content is hot, it degrades the grinder/mixi performance, sorry for using the IT jargon, I will try to minimize that and include more of the cooking dialect.

4.Add the powdered sugar and grind the content together.

5 Now, add the mixture to the ghee and make round balls with your palms.

Quinoa Mixed Vegetable Upma

Quinoa is a south american grown grain-like crop. The reason for picking this recipe is due to its enormous nutritional values. It is compared to oats and unlike rice or wheat, contains a complete set of balanced essential amino acids for humans. It is gluten free and considered to digest very easily.This is one of the healthy breakfast which includes all the vegetables and nuts.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
1 whole onion
1 green chilly
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 cup Mint leaves (Pudina)
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 cup finely chopped cabbage
1 cup grated carrot (Optional)
1/2 cup grated beetroot (Optional)
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cut lemon
Mirchi powder (accordingly)
Salt (accordingly)

Method:

This is very similar to vegetable upma prepared by south Indian families using Bombay rava/Vermicelli.

1.Boil Quinoa:
For 1 cup of Quinoa, use 2 cups of water and boil it for about 15-20 minutes on medium flame. You can see the quinoa opening up with a white stalk coming out. Once all the water is evaporated and the quinoa is well cooked, remove from flame and keep it aside.

2.Take a pan, add about 1-1/2 tsp of olive oil.(Can use any oil, olive oil is preferred for its taste)

3.Add the finely chopped onions, chopped green chillies and fry till they turn golden brown.Add the mint (pudina) leaves and now you can smell an amazing flavor. The combination of onions, mint and oil creates an awesome mouth watering smell.

4.Add the Ginger Garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes.

5.Now add the chopped cabbage,peas and corn. Let it cook for sometime. No need to add water, as the cabbage is already washed and it retains water in it.

6. Add the well cooked quinoa that you kept aside and mix all the content together on a low flame.

7.Add the mirchi powder and salt according to the taste levels.Mix well and remove from the flame.

8.Finally, dress it up with the grated carrot, beetroot and cilantro.

9.Squeeze the Lime just before you eat for a refreshing yummy taste.

So, there goes the Quiona Mixed Vegetable Upma!

+1 (IDEA)
Can add boiled broccoli or chopped lettuce or meal maker to make it more nutritious and delicious! Style it with sliced almonds, cashews or walnuts.