Mini Dosa

OK.. Dosa batter is waiting for me to put Dosas on the blog. Most of the Indians know how to prepare Dosa... but I'm adding the instructions to make the blog post complete for others:

• I use multipurpose Dosa batter for preparing Dosa, Uttappam, Idli, Masala Dosa and Ponganaalu.
• As the consistency of the batter is bit think, take the batter in a bowl, add little bit water and mix it well.
• Heat non-stick tawa and pour half a ladle of batter in the center and then spread it with the back of the ladle. Spread it from inside to the outside. 

• To make Dosa interesting for kids, make it small. Kids love mini Dosas over regular Dosas. This is a small trick to attract kid's attention.
• I don't like giving crispy Dosas to kids as they hardly fill their tummy. So make it bit thicker than regular Dosa. Instead of using too much oil, cover the Dosa for one minute. 
• Uncover Dosa and then add little bit oil or Ghee.

• When the dosa is red, turn the dosa and cook on the other side. 

 

• Dosa is ready!!

My kids love Dosa with Pappula podi (baked chana daal powder). It hardly takes any time to prepare and it's my favorite too. I use ghee for kids and Olive oil for big kids.

 

If there is chutney, spread the chutney over dosa. This makes it less messy for kids and keeps the plate clean for us to wash ;-).

Pachi pulusu

On Bhogi festival, the kid within me was craving to eat typical Andhra menu. When I was a kid, my mom used to prepare Pulagam, Pachi pulusu(raw rasam), mixed vegetable curry, sajja rotte(bajre ki roti) and peanut chutney on Bhogi day. The magic of that taste inspired me to prepare the same menu last week.

One thing I always forget is Pacchi pulusu preparation. As usual, called my mom and asked the recipe and now I'm blogging it.... with the hope to not bug her next time ;-). Anyways, here are the tools and techniques to prepare Pachi pulusu.

Ingredients:   

• 2 big lemon sized Tamarind
• 1 Onion small
• 2 dry red chillies
• 2 green chillies
• 10 Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves 
• 1 tbs sesame seeds
• 3 tbs baked chana daal (pappulu/putnaalu/buna chana daal)
• 1 tbp jaggery (add as per your taste)
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• Little bit red chilli powder
• Jeera and mustard seeds for seasoning
• 1 tbs oil

Preparation:   

• Soak Tamarind in water and prepare 4 cups of soup.
• Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and jaggery powder. Mix well.
• In Mixie, make sesame powder and then add baked chana daal  to make it into fine powder.
• Add the above powder to Tamarind juice and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil and add jeera & mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves and dry red chillies. Add this seasoning to Tamarind soup. 
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Pachi pulusu is ready. Enjoy it with Pulagam (rice cooked with moong daal) and ghee.

And this was our Bhogi meals. Enjoyed drinking Pachi pulusu ..mmmmmmm...yummy. Kids wanted more...but we ran out of soup in no time :-)

Kamaranga pickle

If you never heard of the name Kamaranga...don't worry...this is a fruit. Even I never heard or saw this fruit until yesterday. We were on our way back from Chilukuru Balaji temple near Hyderabad. We stopped at a farm house to enjoy our lunch under the shade of fruit trees. We picked up one tree that had enough shade to cover all of us. Here is a snap of the tree and that's my husband taking nap after lunch :-).

While having lunch, we realised that the tree is filled with lots of fruits...which were hard to spot as they blended well with the green leaves..but in digital pictures they are standing out... they know how to pose for the camera :-). With great amusement, myself and my sister-in-law were talking about the unknown fruit in the farm. My husband looked with great surprise at both of us and told that it is Kamaranga fruit and its pickle tastes good. Initially we thought he was joking. But on the way we saw people selling those fruits...and trust me, they are very expensive. When we asked the lady selling the fruits, she told that it is called Pulla Beerakaya in Telugu.

Little research on the internet revealed its name as Star Fruit /Carambola. If you want to know more facts about this fruit, read http://www.answers.com/topic/carambola-1.

As per my husband's recommendation, we got these fruits. Thought we'll eat them raw...but the tart taste didn't allow us to take more than two bites. Thanks to my husband who volunteered to prepare Kamaranga pickle. But the moment he told pickle, I was bit skeptical as it reminded me of sweet tomateo pickle in West bengal...which never makes my plate. So I didn't pay much attention as I was sure he'll add sugar to the pickle. After 15 minutes he was done with the preparation and we all sat for lunch. The dish looked like curry rather than pickle...but to keep up my husband's spirit, I'll call it pickle.

Trust me, this is the last item I served as I thought it'll be sweeter. But the moment everyone tasted it, all the other items went to bay. No words to express...the taste is awesome and it made its way to this blog as kids truly enjoyed licking it. In no time, we ran out of the pickle. And to my surprise, my brother was asking my sister-in-law to learn the preparation.

My husband's answer "It is simple to prepare and only a two step process. First step, add oil in pan and put whatever masalas you find in the kitchen. Second step, add the cut fruits and water and boil it. DONE" :-). Hehe....and my brother's response "Jo bhi mila vo daal diya...aur voh instant hit ban gaya..." and he asked why he couldn't find coffee and tea powder in the kitchen. So my husband's disclaimer "No coffee powder and tea powder" :-).

ok..here is the preparation after carefully observing the masalas near the stove and digging my husband's memory:
- Heat oil in a Kadai/pan and then add jeera, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- Add cut onions, tomatoes, green chillies and stir well.
- Now add all the powders (turmeric, salt, Dhaniya and little bit sugar) and stir well.
- Add sliced Kamarangas <sounds odd ;-)>, water and cook well.
- At the end, garnish with Coriander leaves.

That's it, the pickle or curry is ready...NEW dish for NEW YEAR...what a good start.

Vegetable Pasta

This is one of my kids' favorite dish and very simple to prepare. Whenever there is a party at school, my kids vote for this dish. No wonder if I'll be named as Pasta mom :-). Here is the preparation with pictures of the ingredients and preparation.

As the name says, you need Pasta. I go for colored Pasta when I run out of vegetables or in a hurry. But most of the time, I use the plain pasta with lots of vegetables.

Here is the plate of colored vegetables that'll be added at different points of the preparation. You can add olives, beans and any other vegetables you like.

Add Pasta, carrots and salt to boiling water.

 

Check if Pasta is almost cooked. Add Capsicum and baby corn before 2 minutes of taking it off from the stove. This preserves the color and crispiness of the capsicum and baby corn.

Add mushroom at the end and let it stay for 1 minute in the boiling water. Don't boil it too much.

Drain the water.

In a bowl, add Olive oil and Pasta sauce.

Now add Pasta and mix well. That ends the process. Isn't that simple?

Other alternative is to use Salad dressing and Olive oil.

If you want, you can season it with Oregano. I save the Oregano seasoning that comes with Domino's Pizza for the same purpose.

Not just my kids, even my mom (who prefers only South Indian food) likes it too. Hope your kids like it too. Enjoy the Pasta...astalavista!!

Multipurpose Dosa batter

I call it multi-purpose batter as the same can be used to prepare many other items. I'll append the list as I post them on my blog.

Ingredients   

• 3 cups rice (I usually use either Sona Masoori or Kolam, but you can use parboiled rice)
• 1 cup skinless split urad daal (black gram)
• 1/3 cup cooked rice
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds(methi seeds)
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp Baking soda  

Directions   

• Wash rice, urad daal and fenugreek seeds and fill the bowl with enough water. Soak it overnight. 

• Add cooked rice and grind to a slightly grainy paste. Don't add too much water as this batter can be used for Idli and other items.

• Cover the batter and keep it in a warm place for 6-8 hours. After fermentation, add salt and baking soda and stir the batter well. It is now ready to make Dosas and many more.

 

Boiled corn

This is a simple snack and most of the kids love it. All you need is fresh Corn cobs, water and salt. Take corn on the cob and shuck it.

Take out the silk with hand and then clean it under running tap water. Cut corn cobs into desired pieces and boil them in pressure cooker with water and salt.

Boiled corn is ready :-).

 

If you want, you can dress it up with pepper and butter.

Soya Pulao

It's been two weeks since I touched this blog. Feels like 24 hours are not sufficient. Anyways, this weekend we had lots of fun as our big brother (my super senior in Masters) visited us from Hyderabad. Kids kept him busy all the time...poor Dada...he has lots of patience in entertaining kids and I got some extra time to blog :-).

Today our lunch menu was Soya Pulao, Aloo mutter curry, Rotis, Salad and curd. As the title says, this blog post is for Soya Pulao and here you go....

Ingredients:   

• 1/2 Cup Soya chunks
• 2 Cups kolam/sona masoori/basmati rice
• 1 Onion
• 2 Green chillies
• 10 Garlic cloves
• One inch ginger
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• 2 tsp Biryai/Pulao masala
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cardamoms
• 10 cloves
• Cilantro(Dhaniya leaves)/Mint leaves

Preparation:   

Wash and soak Soya chunks and rice in water for 10 minutes. I usually get small size Soya chunks for Pulao and bigger size for Soya curry. Drain Soya chunks and rice.

 
Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic, cilantro leaves, bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves and saute till onions are soft. <I ran out of Black pepper seeds. If you want, you can add those too.>

 

Now, add garam masala and Biryani/Pulao masala powders.

Stir well till the masala is well sauteed (4-5 minutes). Add 4 cups of water and salt. Stir well and cover the pressure cooker and cook till done. Soya Pulao is ready :-)

Soya chunks are good alternative for non-veg and it tastes great and healthy too. Read more at: http://www.funalso.com/Health-Beauty/soy-protein/402
    
Here are the other items in our lunch menu:

Aloo Mutter Cauliflower curry

 

Colorful Salad

Garam garam Rotis (my cook was patient enough while I was disturbing her with pictures)

Curd/Yogurt

And here is the fun part.... eating with our big brother Rajesh Da. But Dada missed one thing... tummy hugs with my husband ;-).