Miriyala charu (Pepper rasam)

This is one of the light dishes which you can relish most ideally with rice... a traditional Andhra recipe. You can drink it like soup.... on a rainy day... or serve it hot for easing a runny nose. I got the recipe from my sister-in-law and I'm blogging it now.

And here is the source of curry leaves from my garden...

Ingredients:  

  For Charu/Soup:

• Tamarind - lemon size
• 2 Tomatoes
• 10 Garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/2 tbsp Jaggery powder (brown sugar)
• Salt
• Curry leaves
• 4 to 6 cups water

 

For Charu Powder:

• 2 tbsp Toor daal
• 1 tbsp Pepper corn
• 1/2 tbsp Cumin/Jeera
• 1/2 tsp Methi/Fenugreek seeds
• 1 tbsp Coriander seeds (optional, not in picture)
• 2 dry red Chillies (optional, if you want more spicy rasam)

  
For Tadka/Tempering:

• 1/3 tsp Asafoetida
• 1 tsp Jeera
• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 2 dry Red chillies
• 1 tbsp Oil
•  Coriander leaves

Preparation:   

Soak tamarind in a bowl for 10 to 15 minutes.

Heat pan/kadai and add tool daal, pepper, jeera, methi seeds and coriander seeds (red chillies if required). Stir the ingredients on low heat until toor daal turns golden brown.

 Make a powder of the above ingredients and keep it aside.

 

Extract tamarind pulp by adding more water. Cut tomatoes and crush the garlic. 

 

Add cut tomateos and mash them with hands (riped tomatoes are better). Now add crushed garlic, turmeric powder, salt, jaggery powder, curry leaves and charu powder to the taramind water and mix well.

  

Let it boil for 10 minutes and add chopped coriander leaves at the end to preserve the aroma.

Now heat oil in a tadka pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add jeera, red chillies, more curry leaves and stir for few seconds. Add asafeotida and turn off heat.

Add this to charu and mix well. Serve it hot with rice and appadam/papad.

Methi Paratha

Today I harvested Methi and Coriander leaves from my garden. What a joy to harvest coriander leaves... the fresh aroma combined with the serene morning breeze forced me to take long deep breaths. And being a Saturday morning, no worries to prepare food in a hurry... and I get more time to take snaps... while enjoying my early morning cooking to the tunes of FM.

Few snaps of today's harvest before jumping into the preparation of Methi Parathas...

Ingredients:  

• 4 cups whole Wheat flour/atta
• 2 cups Methi/Fenugreek leaves
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 or 2 Green chillies, finely chopped
• 1 inch Ginger
• 1 tsp Red Chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 2 tbsp Sesame seeds
• 1 tsp Jeera
• 1/4 tsp Ajwain/carom seeds
• Salt
• Few strands of Coriander leaves
• Ghee

Preparation:   

Rinse the methi leaves, drain them, chop finely and keep aside. 

In a mixing bowl, add wheat flour, all the powders, jeera, ajwain, chopped chillies and grated ginger. 

Add the chopped methi leaves, sesame seeds and chopped coriander leaves.

Mix everything with required amount of water and 1 tbsp oil to knead into a dough.

Make medium sized balls from the dough and roll into parathas.

On a hot tava or pan, place the paratha and flip when one side is partly cooked.

Spread Ghee on this side and flip again to apply ghee on the other side.

 Cook the paratha until you see brown spots.

Serve it hot with Peanut chutney. But kids have to wait until the parathas cool down a bit...

My kids were over excited and showered me with their kisses. Methi parathas made my day :-)

Radish with roasted chana daal

Even though Radish has so many health benefits, its pungent smell keeps it away from kid's plate. But this simple recipe taught by my father makes it easy to convince kids to eat Radish. Feels good when my kids eat it like a snack. Hope your kids like it too...

Ingredients:  

• Small size Radish - 4
• One medium size onion
• 5/6 Garlic cloves
• 2 Green chillies
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves
• Asafoetida
• Salt
• Oil - 2tbsp
• Roaste Chana daal (pappulu/bhuna chana daal) 

Preparation:   

Wash, peel and grate radish and keep it aside.

In a Kadai/pan, heat oil, add asefotadia, cumin seeds, musturd seeds and urad daal. Add curry leaves and one green chilli(sliced).

Once the onions turn golden brown, add the grated radish, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well, close the lid and cook on medium flame until radish is cooked.

Grind roasted chana daal, garlic and one green chillie. Add this powder to kadai and stir fry for 5 to 10 minutes on low flame. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve it with hot rice and ghee.

Bombay Chutney with Broccoli & Mushroom

Bombay Chutney - one of the default recipe when I don't have time or shortage of vegetables at home. With an effort to make healthy and quick breakfast for kids, I started adding Broccoli and Mushroom. And now, Bombay chutney without broccoli/mushroom tastes boring :-). Here is the simple recipe that goes well with Poori, Dosa or idli...

Ingredients:  

•     Gram Flour or Besan – 4 tbsp
•     One medium size onion
•     2 Green chillies
•     2 or 3 dry chillies (optional)
•     Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
•     Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
•     Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
•     Curry leaves
•     Coriander leaves
•     Asafoetida
•     Salt
•     Oil - 1tbsp
•     Mushroom
•     Broccoli

Preparation:   

Cut Broccoli and Mushroom into smaller pieces and keep them aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add pinch of  asafoetida, mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to splutter, add curry leaves, chopped onions, chopped green chillies, dry chillies and fry for few seconds.

In a separate bowl, add gram flour, turmeric powder and salt.  Add two cups of water and mix well with hand to avoid lumps. Pour this liquid into pan and mix well. Add more water if needed.

Cook on medium flame for few minutes, stir constantly till Gram flour is cooked well.

 
Turn off the stove and add Broccoli, coriander leaves and mushroom.

Serve it hot with hot hot poories...

Diamond snacks

It's been three months since my last post.... been busy with our Bangalore move. Also my father's demise left us with a feeling of immeasurable emptiness. We not only lost a great father, but also a great cook.

My kids call my father "Diamond tAta(grandfather)". When my kids return from school, the diamond snacks he used to make earned him this name. Now I'm happy to see my father's smile on my kids' faces. LOVE YOU APPA!!

Here is the recipe for this simple and crunchy snack:

Ingredients:   

• Whole wheat or Multigrain flour
• Oil for deep frying
• Salt
• Chilli powder

Preparation:    

Mix flour, salt and little bit water. Prepare the dough just like roti dough and make rotis.
Tip: You can use the leftover roti dough.

Take a sharp knife and cut the roti into horizontal and vertical lines to get diamond shapes.

Separate the shapes into a plate. Take your kids help if needed...they love this activity :-)

Take oil in a deep frying pan and deep fry the shapes until golden brown in color.

Take out the shapes into a plate, sprinkle chilli powder and salt when they are still warm. That's it...in just few minutes, crunchy snacks are ready to eat....

Nippattu/Ellada

Ellada...a spicy snack that makes my wish-list whenever I visit my parents. I always had the pleasure of eating nippattu ...but never made it myself...as it needs lots of patience and time. Now being a full-time mom, wanted to stack up the snack boxes for my kids. All I was targeting was the taste...and happy to get it in my first trial...but crispness needs bit more improvement.....better luck next time :-).

Ingredients:   

• 1 cup parboiled rice
• 2 tbsp parboiled rice (for powder)
• 2 tbsp urad daal 
• 2 tbsp chana daal 
• 2 or 3 red chillies
• 1 tbsp whole dhaniya seeds
• 2 tbsp peanuts
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• Hing (asafoetida)
• Salt
• Oil

Preparation:    

Soak parboiled rice for 4 to 5 hours and prepare batter.

Roast urad daal, 2 tbsp parboiled rice and dry chillies in a kadai and make powder.

Soak chana daal for 15 minutes and drain the water. Crush dhaniya seeds and peanuts into half (or whatever shape you can)....but don't crush them too much.
Tip: If you want to remove peanut skin: roast them slightly, remove skin with hand and then crush them.

To the parboiled rice batter, add <urad daal, dry chillies, parboiled rice> powder, sesame seeds, chana daal, crushed dhaniya seeds, crushed peanuts, salt, hing and 2 tbsp oil.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Take lemon sized dough and make nippattu shapes. I made the shapes on a piece of cloth by pressing the dough with wet hand. To get crisp nippattu, you can add more oil to the dough and press them using rolling pan on an aluminium sheet.

Heat oil in a Kadai and deep fry the nippattu until golden brown.

While I was busy with rest of the preparation, three nippattus silently made their way into my tummy. Combined taste of crunchy peanuts, chanal daal, sesame seeds and dhaniya seeds is hard to resist :-).

Kandagadda fry

Kandagadda (Elephant Yam or Suran) fry is easy to make and a great after-school snack for kids. For souls surrounded by summer heat, this vegetable seems to be a great tool to cool down the hypertension. Didn't know its health benefits until I started writing this blog ;-). Click on the following link to see more health benefits: Elephant Yam - health benefits.

You'll find this vegetable in any Indian store...usually in refrigeration section.....

Ingredients:   

• Kandagadda 
• Salt
• Chilli powder
• Turmeric powder
• Dhaniya powder
• Oil

Preparation:    

Peel the outer layer with a sharp knife and cut it into thick slices.

Tip: If you are too lazy, wash it thoroughly, cut it into big pieces, boil them and then peel the skin and cut into slices.

Boil the slices until cooked.

Drain the water and take the boiled pieces into a plate/bowl.

Color the pieces with red chilli powder, turmeric powder, dhaniya powder and salt.

Heat a flat pan and spread oil. Shallow fry the pieces (in medium heat) until they turn golden brown.

Yummy Yam slices are ready to eat.... and it doesn't take much time to empty the plate...healthy and tasty....

Tip: If the slices are overcooked, mash them into paste, add powders and shallow fry them like cutlets :-)