Rava Idli

While those white idlis are a common sight and need ahead of preparation time for soaking and fermenting, rava idli is a quick fix in comparison. With the addition of veggies like peas, tomato, it's nutritious as well as filling.

Ingredients

1 cup - Sooji rawa

2 cups - Curds / yogurt

1/4 cup - Green peas (optional )

1/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut

1 to 2 - Green chili, finely chopped

1 small piece - Ginger, finely chopped

1 small - Tomato, chopped (optional )

1/4 cup - Coriander leaves, finely chopped

4 to 5 - Cashew, spilt into half's

1/8 tsp - Hing powder

1/4 tsp - Baking soda / cooking soda
1/4 tsp - Eno fruit salt

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1 tsp - Urad dal

3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

3 tbsp - Ghee

Method

1 ) Heat ghee in a kadai / wok, add mustard, urad dal and fry till mustard has spluttered and dal has lightly browned. Then add green chili, ginger and fry for few seconds. Then add curry leave, coriander leaves and fry a second . Now add rawa, cashew nut and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on low heat till rawa becomes crisp or roasted lightly.

2 ) Now transfer to a plate and cool. Once rawa has cooled down,then do the next step. In a mixing bowl add curds and beat well.Then add green peas, tomato, coconut and salt to taste. Dissolve hing powder in little water and add to the batter. Then add cooking soda and eno to the batter and stir in well. Then add roasted rawa and mix well. The batter consistency should be like the idli batter ( add little water if the batter is too thick). Immediately go ahead and make the idli's.

3 ) Now steam idli's in an idli cooker, pouring the mixture into well greased idli moulds. Steam cook for 10 minutes. Once idli is cooked, remove from cooker and cool for 5 minutes then remove from the mould and serve.

Serve with chutney. Makes a good breakfast dish or a good evening snack. This batter yields about 10 to 12 idli's.

Note - If the curds/ yogurt is sour then don't add tomato. End result could be too sour idli. Use yogurt that is not sour for this recipe.

Mushroom Theeyal

Theeyal prepared with different types of veggies and even non-veg like prawns theeyal is a typical kerala dish, were coconut and spices are roasted to a brown color and cooked along with tamarind juice. I guess i didn't roast the coconut enough to attain that typical theeyal deep brown color. None the less, theeyal was tasty when cooked with mushrooms and went so well with rice. Adding a teaspoon of cornflour in water, makes cleaning mushrooms easy. The dirty surfaces to the top quickly.

Ingredients

200 to 250 grams - Button mushrooms
10 big - Shallots, chopped
2 - Green chili, slit in center
2 to 4 big flakes - Garlic, chopped
A marble size - Tamarind

To roast & grind

1 cup - Freshly grated coconut
4 to 6 - Dry red chili
1 tbsp - Coriander seeds
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
6 - Black pepper corns
A pinch - Fenugreek seeds

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Cut cleaned mushrooms in halves. Add 1/2 cup water to tamarind and extract juice. Heat a pan, add little coconut oil, then add coconut, fenugreek seeds, red chili, coriander seeds, peppercorns stir and roast on low heat till it becomes golden brown in color. Then add turmeric powder and further brown the coconut to a deep brown color without burning it. Take off stove and cool. Transfer to a blender/ grinder and grind to a smooth paste adding very little water.

2 ) Heat little coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds,let it pop then add curry leaves ( you can do the seasoning in the last if you like and skip doing it in this step ) Then add green chili, shallots and garlic and fry for a minute. Then add mushroom and saute for a minute or two. Now add salt to taste, one cup of water and cook till the mushroom is well cooked.

3 ) Now add the ground coconut paste, wash the blender well with little water and add to the pan. Close with a lid and cook. Then add tamarind juice and bring to a boil. Adjust salt to taste. Now if you skipped seasoning, in step 2, you can finally season with mustard and curry leaves in the end.

Serve with rice and you may not need any non-veg curry for this meal.

Mixed Vegetable Korma

A flavorful korma with a mixed vegetables like mushroom, peas, potato and carrot which is cooked with aromatic spices, will make a good side dish to go with appam, steamed basmati rice or roti.

Ingredients

2 cups - Button Mushroom, chopped
1 big - Potato, quartered

1 cup - Green Peas

1 medium size - Carrot, chopped

1 big - Tomato, quartered

3 medium - Onion, diced

1 - Bay leaf

1 small piece - Cinnamon stick

2 - cloves

1 to 1.5 cup - Freshly made thick coconut milk

Grind to a paste

3 tbsp - Poppy seeds / Khus khus

6 to 8 - Green chili

6 flakes - Garlic

Garnishing

1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) In a pan boil with enough water, peas, potato, carrot and tomato till half cooked along with bay leaf, cinnamon and cloves. Then add mushroom and cook till all the veggies are fully cooked with salt to taste.

2 ) Soak poppy seeds in warm water for 10 minutes. Then grind to a smooth paste along with green chili and garlic.

3 ) In another pan heat some oil, add onion and fry till light brown in color. Now add the ground poppy + chili + garlic paste and fry in oil for 5 minutes till the raw smell goes. Now add boiled veggies with stock, mix well and bring to a boil. (If there is no enough stock along with boiled veggies then add little water and bring to a boil). Adjust salt to taste. Now simmer and add coconut milk, bring to a boil. Garnish with coriander leaves and take off the stove.

Serve hot with appam, rice or chapathi.

Kakka Irachi Molagu Chaar - Spicy Clams Red Curry

A simple curry that doesn't need much of ingredients is this clam curry, that mom used to make for lunch. It used to be so yum that i didn't need any other curry to have with rice as a kid. Now when i got some fresh clams, i got back those memories and made the same clam curry, just as mom made it. The gravy is very thin and spicy with red chilly powder giving the curry a red spicy look.

Clams have to be cleaned well before cooking. Have a look here to learn how to choose good clams and clean them.

Ingredients

1 to 1.5 cup - Cleaned & shelled Clams

2 to 3 tsp - Kashmiri chili powder

1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard Seeds

1/2 cup - Shallots / small onion, chopped

Coconut oil

Method

1 ) First to clean the freshly brought clams in the shell. Wash the shells very well, many a times. Then place the shells in a pot with enough water to cover the shells well. The stock obtained from this, is used to make gravy. So add enough water. Now bring to a boil, remove any scum that surfaces on top. Once the clams have opened the shell, stopped boiling and take off the stove and cool. Discard all those shells that have not opened.

2 ) Take the meat out of the shell and discard most of the shell, saving some to cook with the gravy. This will give more flavor. Now you can clean the clam meat in water to further clear out any dirt. Strain out clear stock obtained from boiling the clams in shell.

3 ) Pour the clear stock into a chatty, pot or a pan, add chilli powder, turmeric powder, some cleaned clam shells, salt to taste and bring to a boil. Add the clam meat and curry leaves. Simmer and cook till for 5 minutes. Pour little coconut oil on top and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes more. Now turn off the stove.

4 ) Season with mustard and shallots. Heat coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it, then add shallots and fry till lightly browned. Pour this seasoning on top on the curry and cover the curry pan immediately to hold the aroma of the seasoning in the curry. Open after 5 minutes to serve hot with rice.

Serve hot with rice.

Paneer Bhurji

I hope every one had a good start of the year and are sticking to the new year resolutions :) Now to kick start the year 2010 blogging, let me present you with this Paneer dish. It's called paneer bhurji, which means scrambled paneer. Along with green peas and freshly made paneer, this makes a lip smacking side dish to have with roti.

Ingredients

2 cups - Freshly made crumbled Paneer
1 cup - Green peas, boiled
1 cup - Spring onion Or 1 big - Red onion, finely chopped
1'' piece - Ginger, finely chopped
2 - Green chili, finely chopped
1 big - Tomato, chopped
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1/4 tsp - R ed chili powder
Salt to taste

Garnishing

1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, add green chili, ginger and fry for a second then add spring onion or onion and fry the onion, till lightly browned. Then add the powders - turmeric, coriander, red chili and garam masala powder. Fry for a second in oil, then add tomato, green peas and salt to taste. Close with a lid and cook on low heat till tomato is fully cooked.

2 ) Now add paneer and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Close with a lid and cook for few minutes. Open and garnish with coriander leaves. Stir and fry till you get dry bhurji.

Serve hot with roti.

Note - Instead of green peas you can use bell pepper. To make it colorful you could use, red, green and yellow bell pepper. If the paneer turns out too dry then add one spoon of whipping cream.

Sabudana Vada

Wrapping up the year 2009 blogging with this vada made with sabudana and potato, which is a popular Marathi fasting snack. During fasting there are certain restrictions followed in the food preparations. Like for this vada, addition of onion and coriander leaves will add good flavor and taste. But during fasting these are avoided. Do add onion and coriander leaves to suit your taste. Even without them this vada tastes good.
There was a lot of changes in my life during 2009 and it reflected on my blogging slowing down [ If any one noticed :) ] a bit. Hoping the brand new year 2010 brings in new opportunities , positivity and prosperity. Here i wish all my readers a happy new year in advance. Hope you guys and gals have a good year ahead.

Ingredients

1.5 cup - Sabudana/ sago
3 to 4 medium size - Potato, boiled & chopped to small bits
1/2 cup - Roasted & ground peanut powder
5 to 6 - Green chili, finely chopped
1 tsp - Jeera seeds
1 to 2 sprigs - Curry leaves, chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method

1 ) Soak sago overnight in water and drain into a colander in the morning. Keep aside to drain for an hour or 2 . Drain off all the water very well. Soaking time can be for 3 to 4 hours.

2 ) Into a mixing bowl add, sago, potato, jeera, chili, peanut powder, curry leaves and salt to taste. Combine all the ingredients and make small equal size balls. Take one ball at a time, place it in the center of one palm and flattened with the other palm.

3 ) Heat enough oil to deep fry on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, fry the vada till both sides turn golden brown. Drain off the oil and transfer to a plate.

Serve with tea and if needed with your choice of chutney.

Mushroom Soup

Happy holidays, everyone ! With the cold weather outside, you can warm up with a cuppa soup, cozying up in a couch. Or you can serve this soup along with your Christmas feast. Mushroom soup was one soup i loved as a kid and still a favourite. Try this homemade mushroom soup and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

1 +1 cups - Chopped Button Mushrooms

1/2 cup - Shallots, chopped

6 flakes - Garlic, crushed

2 tbsp - Maida / All purpose flour

1 cup - Milk

1 - Bay leaf

3 cups - Chicken stock Or water

1 to 1.5 tsp - Lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 to 2 tbsp - Cream / half and half

Garnishing

5 - Shallots, diced

1 tbsp - Chopped Parsley

Method

1 ) Heat 2 tbsp to 3 tbsp butter in a big pan. Fry the shallots for garnishing to a brown and crisp on medium heat. Drain off the butter and set aside. Now add 1/2 cup chopped shallots and garlic and fry till they soften. Now add 1 cup of chopped mushroom to the pan and fry till they soften and starts to fry a bit. Now stir in 2 tbsp of flour, mix well and cook for 3 minutes.

2 ) Remove pan from fire and gradually add the 3 cups chicken stock or water, bay leaf, salt and pepper powder to taste and bring to a boil. Now simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Turn the stove off and cool a bit.

3 ) Sieve or liquidize and strain the soup.If you are liquidizing the soup, add the contents to a blender to liquidise only after the soup has cool down a bit. Otherwise there is all possibility of the hot contents splashing out of the blender. It happened to me and i learnt my lesson, so just a word of caution here.

4 ) Pour the strained soup back into the pan and keep it back on fire. Now add 1 cup milk, 1 to 1.5 cup water and 1 cup chopped mushrooms. Bring to a boil and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Simmer and cook covered for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove. Now add lemon juice, stir in and then cream.

5 ) Garnish with fried shallots and parsley.

Serve hot and enjoy. You can reheat the soup, but do not bring it to a boil.

To clean Mushroom : Mix a spoonful of cornflour in water and wash mushroom with this. This will remove all the surface mud.

Chakka / Jackfruit Avial

Getting to see young unripe jack fruits in the market now. The young small ones will be good to make, thoran, avial, idichakka and like dishes. Jack fruits are found in abundance in kerala, during the season. Ripe and unripe fruit is used to make different dishes. Buy a small unripe jack fruit to make jack fruit avial.

Ingredients

4 cups - Unripe jack fruit, chopped to small pieces
1/2 to 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
4 to5 tsp - Curds
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
2 tbsp - Coconut oil
Salt to taste

Grind to a coarse paste

1 cup - Freshly grated coconut
1/4 tsp - Jeera
4 - Green chili
5 - Shallots/ small onion
2 flakes - Garlic
1 sprig - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Cook jack fruit with turmeric powder and salt till soft. You can pressure cook in cooker for one whistle or simmer and cook in a pan with enough water. Add a little coconut oil when the water boils.

2 ) Just coarsely grind ingredients listed to be ground. Add this mixture to the cooked jack fruit. Add salt to taste and bring to a boil. Then simmer, add curds and stir in.

3 ) Crush some curry leaves and add to the pan then pour coconut oil on top, stir and close with a lid. Take off stove and serve.

Serve as a side dish with rice.

Kanda Poha

Delicious, healthy and filling breakfast to start the day with. A maharastrian breakfast dish, where kanda means onion in marathi.

Ingredients

2 to 3 cups - Thick Poha / Beaten rice

1 medium - Potato, cut to small bits

1 big - Onion, chopped

1 to 2 - Green chili, chopped

1/2 of a - Lemon

2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard Seeds

1 tsp - Urad dal

1 tsp - Channa dal

1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

Garnishing

1/4 cup - Coriander leaves

1/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut

Method

1 ) Wash poha in water and drain in a colander. Set aside to drain off the water.

2 ) Heat oil in a kadai / wok, add mustard, urad dal, channa dal and let the mustard pop and the dals brown a bit. When done, add onion, turmeric powder, curry leaves, green chili and fry for a minute or two on medium heat. Now add potato and salt to taste to the pan. Stir and fry well. Close with a lid and cook on low heat. Occassionally stir in between. Cook till potato has cooked and browned a bit.

3 ) Now add the drained poha and mix in well with the ingredients in the kadai. Garnish with coriander leaves, coconut, adjust salt to taste and stir well. Close with a lid and swtich off the gas. After 5 minutes open and sprinkle lemon juice. Stir in well.

Serve for breakfast.

Note - You can add boiled green peas while adding potato. Tomato can be used instead of lemon juice. If you like peanuts, add peanuts along with urad dal and chana dal and fry it.

Njandu / Crab Coconut Masala

How about a nice crab coconut masala to go with rice ? Now in this recipe the coconut is not dry roasted before grinding. Crab is coated with the coconut masala when you bite into it. This is more of a dry preparation with little gravy, that coats the crab.

Ingredients

10 - Big Crab, wash & cleaned
1/2 cup - Shallots, chopped
2 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center
5 flakes - Garlic, make a paste
1'' piece - Ginger, make a paste
3 pieces - Kudampuli, Wash & clean
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
3 sprigs - Curry leaves
1 tsp - Mustard seeds
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

2 flakes - Garlic
5 - Shallots /Small onion
5 - Dry red chili
1/2 tsp - Fennel seed
4 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut

Method

1 ) Heat coconut oil in a manchatty / earthen pot, add mustard seed and let it pop. Then add shallot, green chili, curry leaves, fry for a minute. Then add ginger and garlic paste and fry till it browns lightly.

2 ) Now add turmeric powder, kudampuli and the ground coconut masala paste, fry for a minute. Then add little water for gravy, salt to taste and the cleaned crab pieces. Bring to a boil, simmer and cook till crab is cooked. Finally add some curry leaves and coconut oil on top. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve hot with rice.

Masoor - Ma - Gosh

A parsi delicacy, that is cooked with masoor dal and mutton. The combination brings out a delightful taste, with the help of the spices cooked along with it. Makes the dish more healthy with the use of whole masoor dal. A dish that you can enjoy, served hot with roti.

Ingredients

3/4 cup - Whole masoor dal
1/2 kilo - Mutton, Use leg or shoulder cut pieces
2 - Onions, chopped
1 big - Tomato, chopped
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Jeera
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Grind to a paste with vinegar

6 - Red chilies
4 medium - Green chilies
1 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1 big flake - Garlic
1'' piece - Ginger
1 to 1.5 tbsp - Vinegar

Method

1 ) Wash and soak masoor dal in water for an hour. Put into a pressure cooker along with mutton pieces, salt, turmeric powder, jeera and salt to taste. Add 2 to 3 cups of water and pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles.

2 ) Heat oil in a pan, add onion, curry leaves and fry the onion till it turns golden brown in color. Now add the ground masala and fry till the oil separates. Add tomato, fry and cook till it is soft on low heat.

3 ) Once tomato is done, add cooked masoor and mutton mixture to the pan, simmer and cook till the flavors blend in.

Serve hot with chapathi /roti.

Stuffed Bread Pakoda

There are varieties of pakoda's made with different vegetables and even with chicken and fish. This bread pakoda is stuffed with mashed potato, then dipped in besan batter and fried. Stuffing make this pakoda, interesting. But then you can even make a plain bread pakoda, just by dipping in the besan batter without the stuffing too. So you can go either ways. When you feel lazy to make the stuffing, just go plain.

Ingredients

10 to 12 - Bread slices

For stuffing

3 medium size - Potato, boiled
1 to 2 - Green chili, finely chopped
A small piece - Ginger, finely grated
2 to 3 tbsp - Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/8 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Besan Batter

1 cup - Besan / gram flour, shifted
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Coriander powder
1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
1/4 tsp - Ajwain
1/4 tsp - Amchoor powder / dry mango powder
1/8 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Trim the edges of the bread ( if you prefer it ) Cut it into a triangle and again cut that triangle to a smaller triangle and set aside. You can cut the bread into a round or small square pieces, whatever shape and size you prefer.

2 ) Mash the boiled potato very well, with no lumps. Then add turmeric powder, green chili, ginger, coriander leaves, salt to taste and mix ingredients well. If you prefer you can lightly fry the chili, ginger in oil, then add turmeric powder, coriander leaves, stir and take off stove, then add to the potato and mix to make the stuffing.

3 ) Make the besan batter, by adding all the powders listed with besan and add a cup of water to make a loose batter. Add salt to taste.

4 ) Keep a plate with little water to dip the bread pieces. Now take one bread triangle piece at a time, dip in water on both side quickly and then press with both your palms to squeeze off excess water out. Now spread a little potato stuffing on the bread slice, then dip another triangle piece in water and squeeze off excess water and then place on the stuffed piece. Press and seal the sides lightly. Make use of all the triangle pieces to make similar stuffed bread pieces and keep ready to dip in batter and fry.

5 ) Heat enough oil in a kadai / wok. When the oil is hot enough, reduce heat to medium, then dip one stuffed bread piece at a time in the besan batter and then slide into the hot oil. Fry on both sides to golden brown color. Drain off the oil and transfer to a paper towel.

6 ) To make plain bread pakoda - cut the bread slices to desired shape and size and then dip in the above given besan batter and fry in oil.

Serve with tomato ketchup and have along with tea.

Paneer Paratha

I boiled 2 litres of milk and i hear some strange sound coming from the milk pot. Having a look i see the milk has curdled ! OMG ! now what do i do ? I phoned my friends around and asked what to do with spoiled milk. Just throw it out said one friend and some had no clue if i could make something out of the spoiled milk. Then i asked my maid, if i can salvage this and make anything out of it. She told me, anyways you curdle milk to make paneer and from the 2 litres i had good amount of paneer formed. So go ahead and make some paneer dish out of it. So i drained out all the whey and collected the paneer into a muslin cloth and hung it to drain out all the water. It took a while and i got all the whey out of the paneer. And then i thought of making paneer paratha out of it. Paratha's turned out well. It tasted like i had stuffed scrambled eggs inside the paratha. Anyways, any of you trying out this recipe can make paneer from fresh milk and curdle it with vinegar or lemon juice to make fresh paneer.

Ingredients

3 cups - Wheat flour
1 tbsp - Ghee / Oil
Water to knead the dough
Salt to taste

Instead of ghee or oil, i used 1/4 cup - crumbled paneer, freshly made. ( This helps in making paratha soft)

For Stuffing

1.5 cup - Fresh crumbled paneer
1 medium - Onion, very finely chopped
2 to 3 - Green chili, very finely chopped
1 small piece - Ginger, grated ( optional )
1/2 cup - Coriander leaves, very finely chopped
1/2 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Amchoor powder /dry mango powder
1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder
1/2 tsp - Roasted jeera powder / Roasted cumin powder
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) To make stuffing - Its important that all the water is drained out of the paneer. Coriander leaves has to be washed, cleaned, dried and chopped. There should not be any water in the stuffing. Now mix all the ingredients listed for stuffing together and keep aside.

2 ) To make the dough - Mix wheat flour, oil and salt. Mix and rub the flour to get oil and salt well mixed. Then add water little by little, knead and make a stiff dough. Rest the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. Cover with wet towel, so that dough doesn't dry out. Then again knead the dough to get a soft workable dough.

3 ) Make small key lime size balls of the dough. To make one paratha, roll out 2 dough balls. In one rolled out dough, spread the filling. Place the other rolled out dough on top of the filled dough. Press the edges to seal in. Dust with flour and roll out the paratha.

4 ) Heat a tawa or a nonstick pan, on medium heat and place the paratha in it. Smear some ghee / oil on top and around the paratha. Flip and cook evenly on both sides, till it's golden brown in colour on both sides.

Serve hot with raita and pickle.

Check out other Parantha's with detailed pictures -

Aloo Paratha
Green Peas Paratha
Chana Dal Paratha

Mooli Paratha

Parsely Paratha