Tomato and Peanut Chutney

This chutney is again one of my invention.. My husband always talked about the tomato chutney which he had in Bangalore.. and used to ask me to make something like that ..and for me, I didnt know what all went into making that chutney except for tomato..So I tried different ingredietns like onion, garlic, cocounut, coriander leaves.. and though it was all tasty, I still wasnt satisfied and then.. I tried peanut and tomato combination.. and I loved it.. So here is the recipe..simple.. easy.. and delicious..

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes riped and juicy chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

pinch of hing

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp chilly powder

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

few curry leaves

2 tbsp roasted peanut powder

salt as per taste

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tsp oil

Method

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add chopped garlic and let it brown a little..then add all masala powder(hing, turmeric powder,and chilly powder) and fry for 2 seconds, add little water if required..then add chopped tomatoes and salt and sugar and cook till it becomes mushy. Now add the peanut powder and close the flame. Let it cool a bit and grind it in a mixer and remove it in a bowl.

Now heat one tsp oil in a small tadka pan and add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves and fry till crisp.. Pour this over the chutney and its ready to serve..

Cheers!!!

Moong Dal Dosa

Since we are Southindian, dosas are our favourites.. Well I like all kinda food, its my husband's favourite.. but when the demands are like instant ones.. you cant spend time on fermentation, etc... so I invented this recipe... just soak for 2 -3 hrs and grind it with little spices and enjoy... :)

This dosa can be made with all the split dals... and its an ideal breakfast dish as its rich in protien.. You can add your choice of spices or even herbs while grinding and can make it more nutritious...

Most of the time I even add some chopped vegetables and grated cheese on top and cook it on steam... and it becomes my Indian Pizza...or should i say Southindian Pizza....You can use your imagination and do wonders..

Well as far as this recipe goes its a simple one..

Indgredients:

1 cup moong dal (soaked for 2 - 3 hrs)

1 cup urad dal (soaked for 2 - 3 hrs)

1/2 inch peice of ginger chopped roughly

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 green chilly chopped roughly

salt as per taste

Method:

Wash the dals for 3 to 4 times and soak them together for 2 to 3 hours and drain it. Grind these dals finely in a mixer along with ginger, green chilly, cumin seeds and salt by adding the water in which the dals were soaked.. Remove the batter in a bowl and beat it with a spatula for few seconds.

Heat a tawa or a flat griddle and sprinkle little drops of oil and spread evenly. Then put 2 big spoonfuls of the batter and spread it in circular motion to make a thin dosa. Now cover the lid and cook it for few minutes on medium flame till the bottom gets light brown. Flip over the dosa and cook on other side without lid for 2 - 3 minutes. Serve it with any type of chutney of your choice. I served this with tomoato and peanut chutney which you can find in my next post...

Cheers!!!



Vermicelli Vegetable Upma

I am not sure what to call this dish, upma or stir fry... We usually have this for breakfast, so lets call it Upma.. This is my son favourite dish.. he calls it maggie.. :), and am happy as am giving him something healthy.. 

Here I have used Vermicelli made from Hard wheat Semolina. The more vegetables you put, the more tastier it becomes.. You can cut vegetables in thin length wise or small diced ones as i did..

Its important to dry roast the vermicelli till it becomes light brown(otherwise it becomes sticky after cooked).. Alternatively you can buy the roasted vermicelli packet from the super market, in that way you can skip the roasting part and directly boil them.. 

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat vermicelli

1 big onion sliced and cut in middle

1 carrot chopped

few french beans chopped

1/2 capsicum chopped

1 medium tomato chopped

few curry leaves

1 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of hing

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 green chillies sliced

1/2 inch ginger chopped finely

few strands of coriander leaves chopped

salt as per taste

Method:

Firstly roast vermicelli and then boil it in hot water with little salt and 1/2 tsp of oil for 3-4 minutes or till vermicelli can break when pressed between two fingers.. the key point is not to overcook the vermicelli. Drain in strainer and pour cold water on it to avoid overcooking as it continues cooking when its hot.

The second part is to make the vegetable mixture. Heat oil in the pan and add mustard seeds and let it splutter.. After that add ginger, green chillies and curry leaves and cook for few seconds. Now put hing and chopped onion and fry till onion turns light brown.. Then add chopped vegetables (carrot, french beans and capsicum) and fry for sometime till its half cooked. Now add tomato and salt and cook for few minutes with lid on.. till tomato becomes little mushy and all vegetables are cooked but still little crunchy. Now add turmeric powder and mix well. Add boiled and drained vermicelli and half of coriander leaves and mix well.. Cover the lid and cook on steam on slow flame for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir once again , and then add the remaining coriander leaves and close the flame. Serve hot.

Delicious and healthy..

Cauliflower Manchurian

There is nothing much to say about this dish... Cauliflower was lying in my fridge for almost 4 days and I was not sure what i wanted to do with it.. I wanted some change from our regular sabzi.. I had made fried rice in the afternoon and the leftover was quite enough for dinner as well.. So thought why not to pair that with Gobi Manchurian.. Thought we will have some gravy to go with the rice.. but by the time i served dinner, most of the gravies were soaked up by cauliflower.. Neways always learn from your mistake.. add cauliflower to the sauce just before serving ...

Ingredients

For the Cauliflower:

250 gms Cauliflower cut into small florets

3 tbsp Cornflour

1/2 cup Maida

4 to 5 tbsp water (just enough to make the batter thick.)

salt and pepper as per taste

pinch of soda

For Sauce

1 medium size Onion, chopped finely

2 garlic, 1 inch ginger, minced together

2 green chillies chopped finely

1 tbsp soya sauce

3 tbsp hot and sweet sauce( if you dont have hot and sweet sauce, just add 3 tbsp ketchup and 1 tsp chilly flakes)

1/2 tsp vinegar

2 tsp cornflour dissolved in little water

2 -3 green onions chopped finely

3 to 4 stalks of coriander leaves chopped finely

salt and pepper (or chilly flakes)

Method

In a bowl mix maida, cornflour, salt and pepper, soda and water to make thick batter. Now add the cauliflower and mix well. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the cauliflower in batches till brown (keep the flame on medium and make sure your oil is not smoking hot.. as the cauliflower's outer layer wud burn and the inside wud still remain raw.) Set aside.

For the sauce, heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and add chopped onion, white part of green onions, green chillies and minced ginger and garlic. Saute in high flame for few minutes till the onion starts to change colour. Put the flame on medium and add soyasauce, hot and sweet sauce and vinegar and saute for 1 minute. Now add salt and pepper or chilly flakes and 1/2 cup of water and cornflour mixture. Keep stirring till the sauce thicken. Add cauliflower and close the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and green part of green onion.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate and Vanilla Marbled Cake

These days I have been baking a lot.. well.. it all depends on my mood ofcourse.. I can feel lazy anytime.. I remember one day ,I had to go to a friend's place for dinner and I promised wud make a cake for dessert.. but somehow I couldnt make it.. I just.. didnt feel like it.. and had to take something else for dessert.. I dont know why but I have to be in a better state of mind to Bake anything... Now I got this cake idea all of a sudden... Out of nowhere I felt like making this cake...and here it is ... So.. thats my story.. I know its silly..but thats how I am..

Neways this cake is really easy peasy... It requires the basic ingredients and can be done really quick..

Ingredients

30 gm plain chocolate

1 1/2 tbsp milk

70 gm butter

80 gm caster sugar(you can use normal white sugar and grind it a bit, dont make too powdery)

1 egg beaten

3 tbsp thick curd

115 gm plain flour (Maida)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius. Grease a 450gm loaf tin and line the base with parchment paper.

Break the chocolate in pieces and place in a small heatproof bowl with the milk and set over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat gently until just melted. Remove from heat and mix well.

Mix maida, baking powder and baking soda and mix well with a fork. Seive the flour through a strainer and keep aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg in two batches and then add curd and beat again. Now add the maida mixture and fold in lightly and evenly using a metal spoon. Spoon half the mixture into a seperate bowl and stir in the chocolate mixture. Add the vanilla extract to the plain mixture.

Spoon the chocolate and vanilla mixture alternately in to the prepared tin, swirling lightly with a knife for a marbled effect. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack.

The cake just melts in the mouth.. Try it.. and let me know...

Sabudana Khichdi

This recipe is one of my favourite. I remember when i was a kid.. my mum used to make this during Sankashti (its a fast which comes once a month.. devoted to Lord Ganesha)... Well.. I dont fast.. Ever.. its just not my thing.. All the other members of my family used to fast except me.. I used to keep some space in my tummy just for this khichdi...

This recipe is actually made without garlic but as I love garlic.. i had to add it... and believe me it taste gooood... rest all ingredients are same..

This requires prior preperation.. especially like soaking Sabudana which is a bit tricky part but not very difficult.. Make sure you wash sabudana thrice atleast so that all that powdery thing is washed off... Then put the washed sabudana in a bowl and put very little water so that it just covers the sabudana. Too much water makes sabudana soggy.. Keep it soaked for 4 to 5 hours.

Ingredients

1 cup Sabudana washed and soaked

2 medium potatoes (boiled, peeled and cut in small cubes)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 green chilly, 1 garlic and 1/2 inch ginger(all crushed together)

1/2 cup peanuts (dry roasted , peeled and coarsely ground)

small bunch of coriander leaves ( washed and chopped)

salt as per taste

1/2 tsp sugar

1 to 2 tsp lemon juice

4 tsp Oil for cooking

Method

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add cumin seeds and let it splutter, then add potatoes and ginger, garlic and chilly paste and fry till potatoes gets little brown. Add salt and sugar and mix well. Add ground peanut powder to soaked Sabudana and add this mixture to Potato mixture and mix well. Close the lid and let it cook on slow flame for few minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves and let it cook in steam for few seconds. The sabudana should become transparent, if not then cook for some more time and close the flame. Add lemon juice before serving. Make sure you dont add lemon juice during cooking process as it can make sabudana soggy.

Enjoy this delicious Sabudana rich in protein.. Cheers!!!!



Corn and Broccoli Bake




 I know... its not the best picture, but it was late and had to serve dinner and didnt have much time to do photography... This continental recipe I made for the first time actually and it turned out so well that I thought of sharing with you guys..

When I left my job few years back, my friends gave me some 4 to 5 recipes books. I didnt know cooking back then and these books helped me a lot to learn different style of cooking.. Even now whenever I feel lost and dont know what to cook , I browse through these books and come up with something amazing... just like this one..

Ingredients

1 cup Sweet Corn
1 small bunch of Broccoli
1 small Onion chopped
2 Garlic crushed
1/2 tsp Red chilly flakes
2 1/2 cups Milk
2 tbsp Olive oil
2 1/2 tbsp Cornflour
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp Pepper powder
3 tbsp grated cheese(cheddar and mozzarella mix)
small bunch of coriander with stalks chopped

BASE LAYER :

4 slices of Bread (break the slices and grind in the mixer to get bread crumbs)
2 tbsp butter
salt
1/4 tsp chilly flakes
2-3 tbsp grated cheese (cheddar and mozzarella mix)

Methods
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celcius.

Clean and cut broccoli in thin florets and keep it in salty warm water for 10 minutes. Wash the florets and boil it with corn in 3 cups of water, pinch of turmeric and little salt for 5 minutes drain the water if any and keep it aside.

For the base layer, melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pan, add the fresh bread crumbs, salt and chilly flakes. Saute for 5 minutes or till bread turns crisp. Remove from fire.
Spread this mixture at the base of the greased oven proof dish. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top of it and keep it aside.

For the sauce, heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic and cook till onion turn golden brown. Add cornflour. Cook on low heat for 1 minute. Dont let it change colour.. Now add the milk slowly, stirring continuously. Add salt, pepper and chilly flakes and stir till it comes to a boil. When the sauce is thick, add grated cheese and mix well. Mix in corn and broccoli and chopped coriander. Remove from fire and pour this mixture over the breadcrumbs in the dish.

Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

(This recipe is taken from "Nita Mehta - Learn to cook" - the best book for any beginner).. Enjoy cooking!!!