Coconut Sevai

Sevai / rice noodles is a popular southern indian dish that is steamed cooked and then seasoned. Different varieties of sevai's are prepared. Like the plain sevai, tamarind sevai, lime sevai, the yummy tasting coconut sevai.To make rice sevai from scratch will be time consuming for a person like me. So i went in for the ready to cook rice sevai available in the market.

Ingredients

200gm / 2 cups - Rice sevai

1 cup - Freshly grated coconut

2 tbsp - White sesame seeds,roasted & powdered

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Urad dal

1 tsp - Channa dal

3 to 4 - Green chili, chopped

2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Coconut or sesame oil

Method

1 ) In plenty of water, cook ready to cook sevai. Add salt to taste and little oil to the water. Once cooked drain all the water and set aside

2 ) In a kadai, heat coconut or sesame oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, peanuts, and let the mustard pop and the dals gets fried to agolden color. Then add green chili,curry leaves, 2 tbsp grated coconut and fry till coconut turns lightly golden.

3 ) Add the cooked sevai to the kadai and stir in well with the ingredients. Sprinkle the roasted and powdered sesame powder, adjust salt to taste. Stir and mix well. Finally add the freshly grated coconut and mix in well. Take off the stove and serve in a serving dish.

Serve for breakfast or for evening snacks.

Spring Onion Dosa

A flavorful dosa with spring onions. Rice and different dals is the base of this dosa, with a ratio of 2 :1. Dals should measure all together to one cup, where you can increase any one dal proportion a little bit. More of Channa dal or toor dal will make the dosa crisp and also adds flavor. More of moong dal will make the dosa soft. So you can increase the measure of any of the dals as to what you desire the dosa to turn out to be like.

Ingredients

2 cup - Raw rice, washed well

1/4 cup - Moong dal

1/2 cup - Channa dal

1/4 cup - Toor dal

1'' piece - Ginger

4 to 6 - whole dry red chili or Green chili

1/4 tsp - Hing powder

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

1 bunch - Spring onion, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Wash and soak all the dals and rice in water over night. Then grind to a paste adding little water, dals, rice, ginger, and red chili. The batter should be dosa batter consistency.

2 ) Add hing, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Stir and blend in well. Then add the finely chopped spring onion to the batter and mix. Check and adjust salt to taste.

3 ) Heat a tawa and pour little of the batter on the tawa and spread batter in circular motion like for dosa and cook one side and then turn and cook on the other side. Drizzle some butter or sesame oil on the dosa when cooking on both sides. Take off the tawa and transfer to a serving plate. Serve hot with chutney or can be had without chutney too.

Serve hot with chutney.

Instead of spring onion, coriander leaves can be added to make dosa. Grinding few curry leaves along with batter will give good flavor.

Prawns In Hot Garlic Sauce

Going out to have Chinese is something we do often, unless it can be created at home. Fried prawns cooked in hot garlic sauce is delightful in taste and will make a great side dish with Chinese fried rice, noodles or just plain steamed jasmine rice.

Ingredients

45 to 50 counts - Medium size prawns

Marinate prawns with

1 tbsp - Cornflour

1 - Egg, beaten well

Salt to taste

For the Sauce

20 to 25 flakes - Garlic, finely chopped

2'' pieces - Ginger, finely chopped

4 to 5 stalks - Spring onion

6 tbsp - Tomato ketchup

4 tsp - White vinegar

4 to 5 tsp - Red chili paste

1 tbsp - Soya sauce

1 tsp - Sugar

2 tbsp - Cornflour ( dissolved in little water )

Salt to taste

sesame or groundnut out

Method

1 ) To marinate the prawns - Mix cornflour, egg, salt to taste and mix well with the prawns. Marinate for 15 minutes.

2 ) Cut the spring onion - Separate the onion and greens. Chop the greens separately for final garnishing. And the onions, chop them and keep ready for the sauce. In a bowl, mix tomato ketchup, vinegar, chili paste, soya sauce, sugar and keep mixed sauce ready.

3 ) Heat a kadai/ wok, pour some oil for deep frying the prawns. Add the marinated prawns into the hot oil and cook on both sides in medium heat till prawns turns white in color. Once the prawns is cooked transfer to a plate draped with paper napkin to drain off excess oil. Fry all the marinated prawns this way.

4 ) To the remaining oil( add more oil if needed) add ginger and garlic and sauté for 30 seconds, then add the onion and sauté till translucent. Then add the previously mixed sauces to the kadai and stir fry for a minute.

5 ) Now add the fried prawns and stir-fry for a minute. Then add salt to taste and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil and cook for few seconds. Then add the dissolved cornflour in water to the kadai and stir fry for 15 seconds. Turn off the stove, garnish with green onion and serve hot.

Serve hot with chinese fried rice, noodle or steamed rice.

To make red chili paste -

Soak 6 whole dry kashmiri chili in little water for 1/2 hour. Then grind to a paste with little water in which the chili was soaked in.

Cabbage Thoran ~ Stir Fried Cabbage

Cabbage stir fried with coconut, shallot, garlic, ginger and spices gives it a unique taste that is so good with cooked red rice.

Ingredients

3 cups - Cabbage, chopped

Coarsely grind

1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut

1/4 tsp - Jeera / Cumin

3 to 4 - Green chili

A very small piece - Ginger

2 flakes - Garlic

1 big - Shallot

1 sprig - Curry leaves

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds

5 to 6 big - Shallots, chopped

2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Mix shredded and chopped cabbage with the coarsely ground coconut mixture. With hand mix in very well. Sprinkle salt to taste and mix with hand well.

2 ) Heat a kadai /wok with coconut oil, add mustard and pop it. Then add shallots and curry leaves and fry lightly. Then add the cabbage mixture and stir in. Close with a lid and cook on low heat for 4 to 5 minutes. In between just give a quick stir. Let the cabbage cook in it's steam. Do not over cook the cabbage. Let it have a bit of crunchiness. Take off the heat and serve.

This is my usual side dish with some kerala fish curry and rice.