Box o' Spices

Podalangai poriyal

2008-08-06T00:04:00.007-04:00

It's been a while. I know. How's everybody doing?
I have a long list of blog reading that I need to catch up on. :)

Podalangai (Snake Gourd) poriyal

This is one of the simplest and tastiest vegetables to cook. It's really easy to cut too.

Ingredients:

1 long snake gourd (ours was about a meter long)

Sambar powder, salt, black pepper powder - to taste

Tempering: Mustard, urad dal, jeera, curry leaves

Slit the snake gours into half lengthwise and slice very thin. If necessary slit into quarters and then slice.

Heat some oil and add the tempering ingredients. Once they splutter add the snake gourd, sambar powder and salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Then add some pepper powder. Cover and cook until tender. Then cook uncovered for a couple of minutes to slightly brown the vegetable.

Tastes yummy as a side with rice and also with roti. Try it.

Hotel Chicken Kurma

2007-12-13T00:37:00.000-05:00

Some days you suddenly remember a dish you ate somewhere and know you cant get it where you live. I live in Hyderabad and have always felt the lack of a good south indian non veg restaurant. I grew up in POndicherry and there was a restaurant (or should i say "hotel") called "Salem biryani hotel". It was one of those places where you cant really have a cosy meal but the food is to die for. They made the best biryani and fish fry. In later years I got exposed to the chettinad and military style restaurants in Chennai. Particularly Ponnuswamy. They served a watery chicken kurma. It was unlimited and they just had pots of it and walked around serving it. You could order idly or idiappam (Rs.4 per piece during my college days) and have a yummy meal in under 20 Rs thanks to the chicken kurma. This was not a rich gravy or one with lots of chicken. It was a yellow, thin gravy.

So anyway, a decade later, here I am in Hyderabad suddenly wanting that chicken gravy. I try to remember what it was like. I know it was yellow. and the chicken was very soft. almost falling off the bone. It was mostly bones i think... they probably made it with bones leftover from all the other chicken dishes. It was not very spicy. After browsing around for similar looking dishes, here's my attempt at recreating it, and I must admit, it was pretty close.

Ingredients:
Set 1:
Jeera -1 tsp
Saunf - 1 tsp
Khus khus - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cashews - 8-10

Set 2:
Green chilies - 5
Grated coconut - 0.5 cup
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Shallots (small onions) - a handful (about 50 grams). peeled and sliced
mint leaves - about 15
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Dalia / pottu kadalai - 1 tbsp

Set 3:
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp or to taste (I added kashmirilal mirchi, so it came out a bit red)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Dry roast ingredients in set 1. Fry set 2 in a tsp of oil. Grind together the 3 sets into a smooth paste adding water as needed.

Onions - 4 medium (200 grams) - chopped fine
Tomato - 2 - chopped fine
Jeera - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Chicken - 1 kg. cut into small pieces

Heat some oil, add jeera. Then add onions and fry till soft. Add the tomatoes and fry till soft. Add the masasla paste and salt and cook for 2 min. Then add the chicken, lemon juice and cook for another 2 minutes mixing well. Add water and pressure cook for 3 whistles. You have to pressure cook a bit more than usual, so that the chicken gets very soft. Open the pressure cooker and check the chicken. Boil with lid open for a while if necessary. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. This goes well with plain white rice, biryani or a plain ghee rice. We had it with paati's Thengai sadam.

Vatha Kozhambu

2007-12-10T01:31:00.001-05:00

Sra's event Grindless gravies got me thinking so much this week that I decided I had to send an entry being the biggest fan of no fuss meals and all. I realised that I use the "mixie" more than I thought I did. All curries that went with chapati - kurmas, makhnis (I guess you could make one with tomato puree and onions chopped very fine), and even chole these days involved some level of grinding. I think having the blender on the countertop (as opposed to in a cabinet having to get it out everytime I needed it) has increased the amount of grinding I do. I guess that proves that the more accessible any gadget is the more dependent on it we get. Then I thought I found my grindless dish. Sambar. I almost started typing and then i see... no lentils. hmm.. now sambar isnt really a dal, but it probably still wont qualify. I then gave up.

Today was one of those days when the fridge is full yet there is nothing to cook. No eggs, no vegetables. Went down to the kirana store down the street and all they had was dondakaya (kovakkai). Got those for a poriyal. I finally decided on making vatha kozhambu. Halfway into cooking I realised what a perfect grindless gravy it was.

Here's a simple vatha kozhambu:

You'll need:
Onions: 2 chopped
Shallots: a handful chopped (optional, but it gives a nice flavour. you could replace the regular onions with more shallots if you want too.)
Garlic: 1 (yes we use a lot of garlic, you could cut down if you want. the garlic soaks up and gets tangy... its not all that garlicky after that) or about 10-15 cloves
Seasoning: mustard, urad dal, some toor dal, manathakkali vathal, curry leaves
Vatha kozhambu podi - 3 tsp (can replace with combination of sambar powder and red chili powder)
Tamarind paste (I used paste this time because it was supposed to be an 'easy' version, but there was no compromise on the taste): 1 spoon
Jaggery: 1-2 spoons
Sesame oil: 1-2 tsp (optional)

Heat some oil, add the seasoning, and then add the shallots, garlic and onions and fry well. Then add vatha kozhambu podi and salt. Fry for a few seconds an then add about 2 cups of water. Bring it to a good boil and then add the tamarind paste. Now let this boil for about 15 min to thicken. (If you are in a hurry, add a spoon of rice powder to thicken but if you have the time do let it boil on a low flame for some time. It really helps) The kozhambu should get to a maple syrup consistency. Now add some powdered jaggery and mix. The jaggery should be just enough to make it tangy but not sweet. Add the sesame oil, mix and you're done.Serve with white rice. I especially like this with fried vathal (vadams).

Cooking from the blogs... Date cake

2007-12-06T01:03:00.000-05:00

Although I have not posted anything, I have been checking all the wonderful blogs regularly. And with so many new blogs now its just amazing how many of us share this common interest. I am so impressed with some of you who post so regularly. I find some reason or other. The picture didnt turn out ok, or I have already blogged about the dish I cooked, or we ate it before I could take the picture, and so on. I have also been drooling over all the wonderful food pictures out there. I'm sure a lot of effort goes into planning the shot and maybe even working on the picture after the shot has been taken.

There is one recipe that I go back to and judging by the number of comments on the post its obvious that everyone else loves it too. It's Shilpa's Date cake. Its was so yummy that my daughter who generally rejects anything sweet ate a slice and even asked for more. I had set the timer on the microwave and the power went off somewhere midway, and so I have no idea how long I baked it. I think it must have been a bit longer than needed, because the middle of the cake sunk a little. But it was still as delicious as it can be. I am going to bake it again this week.

Mushroom and Peas pulao

2007-07-23T03:04:00.000-04:00

I haven't been blogging much. We just bought a new house. and have been really busy running around first to get through the formalities of buying a house. And then now we are running around to get the house done so we can move in by the next month. It's been crazy and like all crazy times food has taken a back seat. Been eating out a lot, hardly time to cook. All I cook is little things for my infant daughter. The surprising (fortunate) thing is even with all the unhealthy eating out, I havent gained any weight. In fact I have lost some. Hooray!!! guess with all the tension and trying to do million things at the same time. It's all good :)

I wanted something quick and easy to make. With no grinding, no soaking and not much chopping. I had a pack of mushrooms and chanced upon this recipe from coolpepper. The photo looked too good. So I decided to make this pulao for lunch. Of course I had to spice it up a little, and this is my version. It turned out delicious.

Ingredients:
Mushrooms. sliced: 1.5 cups
Peas: 1 cup
Basmati: 1.5 cups
Onions:1-2 sliced thin
Mint: few leaves
Coriander leaves
Turmeric, garam masala, coriander powders. to taste
Green chilies: 5 or to taste
Dry masalas: cloves, cinnamon, jeera, shahi jeera, cardomom - to taste
ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp

Soak basmati rice in lukewarm water for a few minutes and drain.
Heat some ghee, add the dry masalas. Once you get the smell, add the rice. Fry for a minute and set aside in pressure cooker.
Heat some oil, add onions. Fry a bit and then add chilies, mint, ginger garlic paste, powders and salt. Fry till onions are slightly browned. Then add the mushrooms and peas. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Then add this to the rice along with 3 cups of water. Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Turn off the stove and let the cooker cool on its own. Meanwhile fry some cashernuts in ghee. Add this and some chopped coriander leaves and mix gently. Serve hot with raita of choice.

Easy Potato Poriyal

2007-06-03T00:09:00.000-04:00

I think I have been posting more and more poriyals lately. We try to consciously eat more vegetables, and its not that hard when fortunately we like vegetables. I dont know if potato would necessarily count in the 5-a-day, but it still is quite dellicious and can be cooked with minimal oil unlike what many people I know think. I have eaten potato at homes of some people and it would be dripping oil. Same goes to non-veg food, and I try to tell people that chicken already has fat in it, you dont need to pour a bottle of oil when cooking it. And almost always I hear.. we dont cook chicken everyday, so its ok. Same with pooris... you dont cook them everyday and so it's ok. Same with potatoes, murukkus, gulab jamuns, deep fried chicken, deep fried fish,... the list is endless. Now even if you cook these dishes twice a week.. that's almost like having one everyday. There is no concept of eating healthy... when I tell someone to reduce salt or sugar they would immediately say "I dont have BP" or "I dont have sugar". Forget the grammar... but do you really have to wait till you car breaks down to do the oil change? When I returned to India some of these people told me "Now you look good, earlier you were too thin". I had had a baby recently and was back to my pre-preg weight, but to still hear this (disguised) compliment made me feel like I was 200 lbs. Guess that was the biggest factor in taking fitness and consequently eating habits more seriously. We make sure there is a good quantity of at least one healthy vegetable everyday. We try to have protein rich foods at least twice a week. I also take flax seeds... the health benefits are far too many to mention in this post. If anyone else has made any lifestyle changes recently please comment and share.

No-oil-dripping Potato Poriyal
Ingredients
Potatoes: 4 medium (chopped into 1 cm cubes or slightly smaller)
Onions: 2 medium. chopped fine
Sambar pwd: 2 tsp or according to spice level
Seasoning: mustard, broked urad dal, jeera, hing, curry leaves
Kasuri methi: 2 tsp (optional)

Heat some oil, add the tadka ingredients. Then add the onions and fry well.
Add sambar powder, salt and mix. Now add the potatoes and mix well. Cook covered on high heat. Every two minutes, stir and sprinkle some water. Fry for about 10 minutes until potato becomes soft and slightly browned. Towards the end crush the kasuri methi in you palms and add. Cook for another 2 minutes and remove from fire.

Serve as a side with rice and samar/rasam.

Coconut-mint rice

2007-05-30T06:06:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of any flavored/spiced rice made with basmati. Biryani,Vegetable rice, tomato rice, ghee rice you name it. If you serve me ten dishes and biryani was one of them, then biryani is all I would be eating. I was looking for a simple and easy rice that would go well with chicken curry. I found this coconut rice on En Veetu Samayal that was just perfect. It was so quick and easy.. no grinding, not much chopping... but turned out so flavorful. The only changes I made were I added some curry leaves. and fried some cashewnuts in ghee and added at the end. And yea... we had a power cut and so I made it in the pressure cooker. And I forgot to add turmeric pwd..hence the difference in color.

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice: 1 large cup (240 ml)
Water: 2 cups (480 ml)
Onion: 1 large. sliced thin
mint leaves: about 10 chopped
Curry leaves: 6-8 chopped
Coriander leaves: few chopped
coconut powder: 2 tsp
ginger-garlic paste: 1 tsp
green chili: 1-2 chopped fine
cashewnuts: a few
Spices:
jeera: 1/2 tsp, cinnamon: 1 inch, Cloves:3-4, Cardamon:2

Heat some oil, add the spices. Then add the onion and saute till tender. Add ginger garlic, chilies, and the 3 herbs. After a minute add the rice and mix well. Dissolve the coconut powder in the water and add. Add salt to taste, mix well and pressure cook for two whistles and allow the pressure to subside naturally. Meanwhile heat some ghee and fry broken cashewnuts. Add the cashewnuts to the rice, mix gently and serve. This goes well with spicy chicken curry or kurma.

Cauliflower poriyal

2007-05-29T05:20:00.000-04:00

One of those quickie side dishes where the main vegetable is allowed to highlight the taste of the dish.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower. chopped into 1cm pieces: 1 cup

Onions. chopped fine: 1 cup

powders - coriander, jeera, garam masala, red chili : to taste (i use like 1/4 tsp of each and about 1/2 tsp of chili powder)

jeera: 1/2 tsp

salt, curry leaves and coriander leaves

Heat some oil, add the jeera, onions and fry well.

Add the powders and salt. After a couple of minutes add the gobi. Mix well.

On high heat, add about 1/2 cup of water. Cook for a few minutes until water has evaporated and the cauliflower is soft. Add the chopped curry and coriander leaves and cook for a few more minutes until some of the gobi has browned.

Serve as a side with rice. Also makes a tasty sandwich filling.

Hyderabadi Mirchi Ka Salan

2007-05-14T09:53:00.000-04:00

It has been over 2 months since I blogged. I dont know, I think I just got involved in so many other things and have been taking it easy in the kitchen. My husband and I joined a nice gym here and have been working out. Once you get into a routine it sort of becomes an obsession. And I think food (read eating, craving, cooking and constantly thinking about) has taken a back seat. Eating out, which was one of the things we lived for, suddenly didnt seem like such a big deal. Counting calories and trying to eat healthy, working out just changes the entire lifestyle. You know what it takes to see 200 calories burnt on the treadmill. And when you know one cookie can erase that in a matter of seconds... a cookie is not just a cookie anymore. All this combined with other time consuming things like a full time job for instance. And not to mention house hunting. Hmmm.. house hunting in India... now that's a whole another blog entry worth topic. I will save it for another time.

Now being in Hyderabad I have been eating a lot of Hyderabadi biryani. And with biryani they always serve Mirchi Ka Salan. At first I didnt like the taste of it. It has a slightly burnt, and a somewhat strong flavor to it. But I guess it is an acquired taste, and now biryani sort of seems incomplete without it. My husband also likes it with plain rice. We just got some of the long green chilies and I looked up some recipes online. Almost everyone seems to have blogged it. I picked this recipe from En Ulagam just judging by the color and texture of the dish in the picture. I made some modifications though. I didnt have a major ingredient - sesame seeds. I replaced it with cashewnuts. I also added about a tbsp of grated coconut and few shallots which were not part of the recipe.

Ingredients:
Long green chilies 15-20
Onion: 1 medium. chopped
Curry and coriander leaves
Tamarind paste: 1 tsp

For the masala paste
Sesame seeds: 1/4 cup (I used 1/4 cup cashewnuts instead.. and it tasted great)
Grated coconut: 1 tbsp
Jeera: 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Red chilies: 4
Shallots: 4-5
Ginger: 1/2 inch
8 cloves garlic (small)
Roasted peanuts: 1/2 cup

Roast the top 4 ingredients and grind to paste along with the rest of the ingredients.

Slit the chilies on one side and remove seeds. (If you are adventurous, you could use the whole chili as is with the stem on.) Heat some oil and fry the chilies. Keep aside.

Heat some oil and add mustard, jeera, curry leaves. Fry the chopped onions till brown. Add the masala paste, some turmeric powder and water. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1 tsp tamarind paste and the fried chilies. Cook on medium heat for about 10 min. Add chopped coriander leaves.

We had it for dinner with steamed white rice. But it also tastes great with rotis or biryani.

Aloo Kathi Roll

2007-02-28T06:56:00.000-05:00

There are times when you want to open the fridge and whip out a decent meal in a minute. Until recently I would always have a stock of frozen dishes either store bought or home made, veggie burgers, an array of sauces and dressings, cheese slices, chicken sausages, etc. And we would come up with different sandwiches, rolls, paninis in ever possible combination. Whenever we had a lot of people staying over, I would make this aloo stuffing in advance. We would make sanwiches in the sandwich maker with buttered bread or bread and a slice of cheese and the aloo stuffing. This also tastes good as a kathi roll or frankie stuffing. You can also make it a bit watery and serve as a side with pooris. Or even in a dosa and you have your favorite (special) masala dosa.

Ingredients:
Large potatoes: 2
Cauliflower, chopped to 1/2 inch pieces: 2 cups
Peas: 1/2 cup
Onions: 2 large
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp
Garam masala: 1/4 tsp
Sambar powder: 1 tsp
Red chili powder: 1 tsp
Curry and coriander leaves. chopped.
Some cloves and cinnamon
Jeera: 1 tsp

Boil the aloo and mash roughly.
Sprinkle some water on the cauliflower and peas and microwave for about 5 minutes or until cooked.
Heat some oil and add the jeera. Then add the cloves and cinnamon. If you dont like chewing on the spices by accident, skip this and increase the garam masala to 1/2 tsp. Then add the ginger garlic paste, curry leaves and chopped onions and fry well till brown. Now add the vegetables, salt, sambar powder, red chili powder, garam masala 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves.

To assemble the kathi rolls:
Take a roti or chapati, spread some spicy sauce, add some chopped onions and spread the potato masala in a line down the middle. Roll and serve with more sauce of your choice.

This is my entry to Vaishali's JFI - Potato

Vazhakai Poriyal

2007-02-27T00:58:00.000-05:00

Vazhakai is raw plantain or banana. A poriyal (dry curry) or Podimas (dry curry made with mashed plantain) made from this is one of the staples at any wedding lunch. It is a very simple dishto make but somehow I have never made it. This was my first attempt and a made up recipe remembering the taste from years ago.

Raw banana: 2

Mustard seeds, urad dal, jeera: 1/2 tsp each (i add more urad dal for extra crunch)

Curry leaves

Sambar powder: 1 tsp or according to spice level

Peel and slit the banana lebgthwise into two. Then slice into 1/2 cm thich slices.

Boil in salted water until soft or pressure cook. I add some turmeric powder in the water too, but this is optional. (I think pressure cooking for 1-2 whistles should be suffecient, I did for 3 whistles, and it became a but mushy. would have been perfect for podimas. But i liked the end result a lot)

Heat some oil and add the rest of the ingredients. When they splutter, add the dry banana and sambar powder. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occationally and gently. Serve as a side with rice and sambar.

Our new find

2007-02-26T00:42:00.000-05:00

I know this is diverting from the theme of the blog, but I had to share it with you guys. We went to a furniture exhibition on Sunday just to take a look. We ended up buying this beautiful coffee table. It's an antique and over 100 years old. The guy who sold it to us could not give us too much information about it, except that it was a side door in a palace. He said it was from the Kapurthala. It was converted into a coffee table and just needed a glass top over it. Some of the details were a bit blue, and I'm not an expert at this, but I think it is because those parts were copper and got oxidized. Anyway we are so excited. I have added some pitures, but I dont think they do justice.

I have to figure out what to do with our current coffee table. Hmmm....

Basic chocolate cake

2007-02-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

I have always been very interested in baking but never took the effort to experiment. I would always use the cake mixes and brownie mixes. After seeing Sudha's chocolate cake I've been wanting to bake a chocolate cake from scratch. I even went and bought all the ingredients. I wish I had a big oven like the ones we had in the US. I just have a toaster oven here, and was a bit doubtful about whether it would work the same. There are some people in my family who don't eat egg and so I searched for an eggless cake recipe. Judging from the pictures I settled for one from Chowtimes. The recipe uses a 9x13 pan, but my toaster oven would only fit a smaller one. So I made half the qty in a 8 inch square pan. And shortened the baking time to 30 minutes. The result was awesome. It felt a but crusty on top, but within an hour or two turned very soft and moist. And everyone was happy.

Ingredients

Set 1:

Flour: 1.5 cups

Baking soda: 1 tsp

Salt: 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder: 3 tbsp

Set 2:

Water: 1 cup

Sugar: 1 cup

Vanilla extract: 1/2 tbsp

Lemon juice: 1 tbsp

Oil: 1/4 cup

Some mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift the ingredients in Set 1.

Mix the ingredients in set 2 until sugar has dissolved.

Mix together both sets.

Pour into a greased and floured pan (about 8-9 inch pan) and sprinkle some chocolate chips on top.

Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool and cut into squares.

Mor Kozhambu and Keerai Masiyal

2007-02-20T02:43:00.000-05:00

I make fresh yogurt now unlike the jars of yogurt that we buy in the US. They sell yogurt here too and is quite tasty, but milk gets delivered to the door. We hardly drink any milk even in our coffee but have to have milk so that other people can drink chai/coffee.... I would have never understood this when in the US, but am sure those living in India would relate to it. Anyway, excess milk leads to excess yogurt. That's taken care of thanks to the 'finish-off' dishes as I call them. Mor kozhambu or Majjige Pulusu to finish off curd/yogurt like fruit custard to finish off fruits. and uttapam to finish of dosa batter. and others like bread upma, idli upma, lemon rice... wow and who said Indians dont recycle.

Mor Kozhambu:

Dudhi: 1 medium sized (or any "water" vegetable like pumkin, chayote)
Onions: 1 large. sliced thin
Tomato: 1 medium
Curd: 1 cup. beaten
Curry and coriander leaves
For the masala:
Green chilies: 4
Ginger: 1 inch
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Jeera: 1 tsp
Roasted chana dal (dalia): 1 tbsp
Grated coconut: 1 tbsp

Fry chilies, ginger, coriander seeds in a little oil and grind with the rest of the masala ingredients.
Peel the dudhi and discard the seeds. Cut it into 1 inch squares and boil in salted water until tender. (Do not overcook as it will turn mushy). Drain and reserve the water for the curry.
Heat some oil, season with mustard and curry leaves and then fry the onions and then add the tomatoes. When soft, add the masala paste and some water and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the dudhi and the curd. Boil for about 5 more minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves and serve with hot steamed rice.

One of the wholesome dishes that I remember my mom making often is Keerai Masiyal, although then we just called it Mulai keerai as my mom made Mulai keerai only that way. Now in Hyderabad I dont know if Mulai keerai is available. They have Thota Koora and am not sure what the Tamil equivalent is. We wanted to try some greens other than spinach so I got a lot (Rs.4) of Thota Koora. My mom uses only the leaves for this dish and the stems are chopped up and made into a Poriyal which has a very distinctive and delicious taste and was very special because there was always very little of it. I will post a picture of the stems dish (Keerai thandu as we call it).

Keerai Masiyal:

Thota koora: 4 bunches. leaves removed. save the stems

Garlic: 3-4 pods

Green chilies: to taste

small bit of tamarind or tamarind paste

Boil the leaves along with garlic and green chilies in very little water in a covered vessel until leaves are cooked. It actually gets steamed rather than boiled, so you need not add a whole lot of water. Grind this to a paste with tamarind. Make a tadka with mustard, urad dal and broken dried chilies and add to the keerai.

Mushroom and Peas Kurma

2007-02-15T01:42:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's day!! It was amazing to see the elaborate menu most of you had for V day. We just went out for a nice dinner. I like going out on special occasions. I try to research and find a good place that we have never been to. I know all the gourmet chefs out there must be thinking "How can you not cook the special meal". I get too tensed and worked up if I want to make something special and I feel you enjoy the meal better if someone else cooks it for you. So I save my experiments and adventures for regular days. Maybe next Birthday I will make a special meal and brag... sorry blog about it.

We were passing by the local farmers market and decided to get some fresh produce. Now they definitely have the best vegetables and some at unreasonably low (or so it seemed to me) prices. For example I got 1/4 kg of tiny baby potatoes for 1 rupee (If anyone has a good Dum aloo recipe please send me the link). And just the other day we were thinking we cannot get anything for one rupee these days. And right away we were proven wrong. I couldnt buy too many vegetables even though they were so good and cheap because we had to buy in large quatities. And also because I'm so used to picking the quantity I want at supermarkets that I was taking forever to decide what I wanted and how much. Guess I had become too urbanised in this aspect. They also had fresh button mushrooms (prepackaged and easy on my brain) so I picked a packet of those. They ended up being some of the tastiest mushrooms that I have ever eaten. Fresh wins over processed anytime. I guess I will have to make another trip to the Rythu bazaar, this time better prepared.

Mushroom and peas kurma

Ingredients

Button mushrooms: 200 grams - sliced to small pieces.

Peas: a handful

Onions: 2 medium. chopped fine

Tomato: 1 small

Garlic: 2-3 cloves

Cloves, Cinnamon, Jeera

Curry and coriander leaves

For masala paste:

Grated coconut: 2 tbsp

Ginger: 1/2 inch piece

Tomato: 1 small chopped

Onion: 1 small chopped

Khus Khus and saunf: 1/2 tsp each

Green chilies: 2-3

Roasted chana dal (dalia) (optional.. for thickening): 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder: a pinch

Make a paste of the above

Heat some oil and add the jeera, cloves and cinnamon. The add the chopped garlic and curry leaves. After they splutter add the onions and fry till brown. The add the chopped tomatoes. In a minute add the masala paste and salt and cook for about 5 minutes till the raw smell of onions and tomatoes subsides. Then add the mushrooms and peas and some water. Cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add coriander leaves and serve with chapati or parathas.

Fruit Custard

2007-01-31T01:00:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to eat healthy and feed our little daughter healthy food we ended up with a fridge full of fruits. Now you have to be really focussed on healthy eating to follow through or all you will have is a fridge full of healthy food and a stomach full of not-so-healthy food. So I decided that noone can say no to sugar coated (once) healthy foods... so I chopped up some of the fruits we had (apple, banana, black grapes). I like the grapes cut in two. Made some custard using the Brown and Polsen Vanilla Custard powder, poured the custard from the stove over the fruits. Let it cool and refrigerated it. Now who can say no to a bowl of fruit custard. I think I will have to make it again so I can clear up the fridge. I will try making it with splenda next time and let you know how it turns out.

Lemon Idiappam

2007-01-29T00:18:00.000-05:00

Idiappam is a south indian dish traditionally made with rice flour mixed with boiling water and pressed through tiny holes to give very thin noodles which are steamed. Then the noodles are used to make either a sweet dish with coconut or a spicy one with lemon or tomatoes. Some people alsos eat idiappam with kurma or even chicken curry.
Idiappam used to be a "special" breakfast at home growing up. When we had guests over for breakfast my mom would be in the kitchen for 3 hours making idiappam. We would have 3 kinds of idiappam sweet, lemon and tomato. Even though I loved idiappam I always thought that it was not worth the time and effort it took to make. Now we get such good "instant rice sevai" which tasted almost the same as the real 3-hour one that it doesnt makes sense to me not to use it.
Tomato idiappam used to be my most favorite and is the spiciest one of the three. I will post the recipe for that another day. Last night I wanted to make something very quick and light for dinner. I had bought a small packet of rice sevai (Concord brand) to try out. It was actually very good. In the US I have used rice noodles from Chinese stores to get similar results. But if rice sevai is available it is definitely better.

Instant Rice sevai: 1 small packet (100 grams)
Juice of 1 lemon
ginger: 1 small piece. grated
Cashewnuts. Broken. 1 tbsp. (optional)
Green chilies: 1 or according to taste
turmeric powder
Jeera, mustard, broken urad dal: 1/4 tsp each
Curry and coriander leaves

Boil some water and add the rice sevai to it. Turn the stove off after a minute. Leave for another 2-3 minutes until cooked and drain. You can run some cold water over it to make it non-sticky. (The brand of sevai didnt seem to need it).
Heat some oil, add seasoning, cashewnute, curry leaves and ginger and green chilies. Mix the lemon juice in equal amount of water, a pich of turmeric powder and salt to taste. Add to the pan, reduce heat and after a minute add the sevai. Mix well, allow to cook for a couple of minutes and add choppedd coriander leaves.

P.S. Do not cook the lemon jiuce for a long time. It may turn bitter. Just a few seconds may be enough before you add the sevai.

Technorati tags: Lemon Idiappam, Lemon Sevai

Onion-tomato chutney

2007-01-26T01:19:00.000-05:00

Dosa - chutney is the ultimate South Indian breakfast. Actually idli and chutney used to be the standard breakfast every week day during my childhood. When you have the batter made it's one less meal to plan. This is my favorite chutney and I make it quite often. DH loves his peanut chutney... no surprise for an Andhra guy I guess. But onion-tomato chutney is slowly becoming one of his favorites too.

Onions: 2 medium. coarsely chopped
Tomato: 1. coarsely chopped
Red chilies: 3-4 (or according to taste)
pinch of tamarind
Mustard, split urad dal, curry leaves for seasoning

Heat some oil and add the onions and chilies. Fry for a couple of minutes and add the tomatoes. Fry until soft. Remove from heat. You can wait for it to cool a bit before grinding. Add salt, tamarind and grind until smooth. Do not add any water. Heat some oil and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves and add to chutney. Serve with hot idlis or dosa.

Technorati tags: Onion Chutney, Tomato Chutney, Onion Tomato Chutney, Chutney

Peerkangai Curry

2007-01-25T04:18:00.000-05:00

Peerkangai (Tamil), Beerakai (Telugu), Heerekai (Kannada), Turia (Hindi), Ridge Gourd (English) One of the tastiest vegetables in my opinion. No matter how much you try to overpower the dish with spices this vegetable still retains its taste. It's one with a tough exterior but once peeled you find hidden such a delicate, tender, tasty vegetable. The sooner you cook ridge gourd the better. Invariably I tend to keep it for over a week and find that it becomes a bit mature and seedy (if that's a word).

Ridge Gourd: 3 small ones or about 1/2 kg. peeled and chopped into 1 cm squares
Onions: 2 medium. chopped fine
Tomatoes: 1. chopped fine
Garlic: 2-3 pods
Sambar powder: 1 tsp
Black pepper pwd: 1/4 tsp
Idli podi (optional): 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: a pinch

Heat some oil and add jeera, curry leaves, green chili, garlic.
Then add onions and fry till brown. Add the tomato and cook for few minutes.
Add the sambar, turmeric and pepper powders and salt. Then add the ridge gourd. Add 1 cup of water and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the idli podi (I just added this to thicken the dish once and really liked the taste). Add chopped coriander leaves. Serve with hot white rice.

Chilli Paneer

2007-01-22T02:55:00.000-05:00

This is our favorite Indian-Chinese appetizer. After seeing the Chilli Paneer from Meenakshi of Hooked on Heat I was tempted to try the dish. A slightly different dry version... It turned out good except that the paneer was a bit hard. Guess I had fried it for too long. If anyone has any suggestions pls feel free.

Paneer: 200 grams cut into thin 1 inch squares
Corn flour: 1 tbsp
Paprika: 1/4 tsp
Onion:1 large
Green pepper: 1
Fresh copped ginger and garlic. 1 tsp each
Green chilies: 3 slices thin.
Spring onions. chopped. 1 cup
Soy sauce (I use lilte soy sauce)

Make a paste of corn flour, paprika, salt and water. Coat the paneer with this and marinate for 10 min. Meanwhile heat some oil and add the ginger, garlic, green choilies, onions and peppers. Fry till onion turns brown and capsicum is cooked. Add some salt and soy sauce. Sprinkle some corn flour if you want the dish to be very dry. While the onions are cooking, fry the paneer on a tawa for about 2 minutes on each side. Add the fried paneer and mix. Remove from heat after a couple of minutes.

Spinach Poriyal

2007-01-18T02:53:00.000-05:00

Every morning I wake up to the sound of a man yelling "Aaku kooreeey" which means Leafy greens in Telugu. He comes on a bicycle carrying some 10 big bags each filled with the freshest greens like spinach, coriander, curry leaves, mint, methi and some others which i don't recognize. The first time I took my wallet and went down to buy some spinach and mint. After paying 2$ a bunch in the US I just was taken aback when he said it was Rs.2 for 4 bunches. They were smaller bunches, but still... 2 rupees. and its almost door delivered. everyday. Now I don't think we can come up with any excuse not to eat them regularly. This is one dish I started making and seems to be quite popular around here.

Spinach: 4 small bunches - bottom half of stem removed and rest chopped fine. (you could also use frozen chopped spinach)
Onion: 1 medium sliced thin
Garlic: few cloves sliced thin
Green chilies: according to taste. chopped fine
Jeera, curry leaves
lemon juice: few drops

Wash the spinach well, and chop.
Heat some oil, add jeera, curry leaves, garlic and green chilies and fry for a minute.
Add the onions and fry until brown.
Add the spinach and salt and cook until soft. Add very little water if necessary.
Finally add some lemon juice and revove from the stove.
Serve as side dish with rice and dal/sambar.

India and Shrimp masala

2006-12-27T03:04:00.000-05:00

Our move happened. Our stuff arrived. We are finally in our home in Hyderabad and have fallen into some sort of a routine. The initial excitement of eating out, eating out and more eating out has subsided. I am still working full time and was told by everybody that I will have no time and will HAVE TO to hire a cook. And so I did.Oh what luxury you may think. But nah. It turned out that I was in the kitchen from 7 am - 9 am and again from 7 pm to 8:30 pm training her. I have never felt as frustrated as I did that week. And for the first time in my life I had to fire someone.

Well, after many other trials and errors, I got into a balance with our maid. She cuts/preps the veggies and cleans up after the cooking is done. Now that's luxury to anyone who loves to cook. I'm happy and my family is happpy (although they still think I'm killing myself).

Reliance Fresh is the place I shop these days. I will post a picture sometime if they let me take one. It's a 2300 sft store which stocks some of the freshest vegetables and fruits that I have seen in a long time and some staples like rice and dal.

Here's the recipe for a quick shrimp masala that I made, quick thanks to frozen shrimp.

Shrimp peeled and cleaned - 250g
Onions - 3 medium (can use 2 cups of chopped shallots if available) chopped fine
tomato - 1 chopped fine
ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
red chili powder - to taste
jeera pwd, coriander pwd - 1/3 tsp each
cloves, cinnamon, jeera - for seasoning
curry and coriander leaves

Clean the shrimp and add turmeric pwd and salt and set aside. Heat some oil and add the seasoning and curry leaves and then the onions. Fry well. Then add ginger garlic paste and the tomato. After a few minues add the powders and fry for a couple of minutes. Wash the shrimp and squeeze out the water. Add to the pan and cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked to desired texture. Garnish with chopped coriander. Serve with hot rice or roti.

Spinach dal

2006-10-06T13:56:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we crave Chinese food, sometimes we crave chicken, and sometimes Mexican. And then there are times when you crave simpler things like dal and rice. It’s not really a craving but a feeling. It’s like you are content with life, don’t want anything fancy. Just simple dal and rice and maybe some pickle. Dal and spinach dal take the exact same effort thanks to frozen spinach, so I made spinach dal using super quick recipe.

Moong dal - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 packet (10 oz or about 300 grams)
Onions - 2 medium
Tomato - 1 large
Jeera – ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Sambar powder – 2 tsp
Tamarind paste – ¼ tsp or juice of tamarind – 1 tbsp
Chopped ginger and garlie - as per taste

Pressure cook moong dal along with the frozen spinach (as is) and 3 cups of water and some salt for 2 whistles.
Meanwhile heat some oil and add jeera, ginger, garlic. Add the onions and fry till brown. Add the tomato, turmeric powder, sambar powder and cook for 5 minutes.
Add this to the pressure cooked dal. Add tamarind juice/paste and some more water to get a batter like consistency.
Cook for a few more minutes.
Serve with hot white rice and pickle. Maybe some potato chips too.

My lunch yesterday

2006-10-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

Shrimp and Linguini in a lemon garlic sauce with Broccoli and red peppers. Yummy!!!!
Don't ask me how I made it though!!!!

Hotel Kurma

2006-10-02T16:28:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I blogged. Actually its been a while since I cooked much. But I’ve been blog hopping and telling myself ohhh this looks soo good. Or ooo I should definitely try this. And I must say I am amazed at the quality of the photos in many blogs. It makes me feel so amateurish to post the pictures I take. But hey, it’s a learning experience.

I used to live in Chennai and like many others often went to Saravana Bhavan. It’s the place to go when you want a quick, no-nonsense meal. And now every time I visit, I try to make one trip there just to have my favorite “Parotta-kurma”. I make kurma my mom’s way (I will post that recipe some other time), but always wanted to re-create the one they served at SB. This is the closest I could get. Hence the name “Hotel Kurma”

But there is one ingredient that I add just because my husband and I loooove it. And that’s Soya chunks, or mealmaker as we call it. You either love it or hate it, so pls feel free to omit it.

Grind the following to a fine paste:

Grated coconut 1/3 cup
Khus khus 1 tsp
Saunf 1 tsp
Onions 1 chopped coarsely
Diced tomatoes 1 cup
Green chilies 4 (or more)
Cashews 1 tbsp
Ginger 1/2 inch

Other ingredients:

Mixed vegetables - 3 cups (carrots, peas, beans, potato, cauliflower) – boiled or microwaved till half cooked
Mealmaker – handful.
Onion – 1 large - chopped fine
Tomato – 1 - chopped fine
Garlic – 3 cloves – chopped
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Bay leaves, Jeera, cinnamon, cloves, elaichi
Coriander leaves, curry leaves

Fry onions, garlic, bay leaves, jeera, cinnamon, cloves, elaichi and curry leaves.
Add tomato, turmeric pwd and cook for a while.
Add ground paste, salt and garam masala. Cook for about 15 min or till smell of onion goes.Add vegetables, simmer for 5 min.
(Meanwhile boil some water with salt. Add the soya chunks, cook for 3-4 min. Drain and squeeze out the water. Add to kurma.)
Add chopped coriander leaves. Serve with rice or roti.