Dal Pitha

 Well...it happened again...I was watching some "shorts" on Youtube and I spent a whole 1-2 minutes watching someone cook something and boom...I keep getting more and more of those. Well...one of those videos was for a recipe from Jharkhand...a state in India and it looked interesting. I didn't even know what it was called.

I made it...relatively not too difficult to make and it was pretty delicious. So here is the recipe and also before I write it...I needed to know what it is called and it is called

Dal Pitha (Wheat dumplings stuffed with Bengal gram)

Dal Pitha

Dal pitha with Mint chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup yellow chana dal (bengal gram) soaked over night or atleast 4 hrs
2. 1 inch ginger, 1-2 green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1 cup wheat floor
4. 1 tablespoon oil + 2 teaspoons oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, sesame seeds
7. 8-10 curry leaves
8. 2 dried chiilies (use these if you do not want to use green chillies in the dal...if you eat less spice)

Grind the soaked chana dal along with Ginger, green chillies if using...use no more than 1 tablespoon water. Add salt and mix well and set aside.

Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons oil in the wheat floor and mix well. Add water little by little and mix a dough and knead for a minute. Set aside for 10 minutes. Dive the dough into 4 parts and divide the dal mixture also into 4 parts.

Make a disk of about 5-6 inches diameter with the 1/4 part of dough . Spread 1/4 dal mixture on half of the "disk and flip the other half and press with fingers to close the dumpling.Repeat to make 4 of these dumplings.

Heat 2 inches water in a wide pan until it starts to boil. Add the stuffed dumplings and boil for 7-9 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Cur each into 5-6 pieces.

In a pan heat 1 tablespoon oil and add the mustard seeds and cover and fry until they start poppoing. Add therest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Add the dumpling pieces and fry for 3-5 minutes on medium high flame until they crisp up. Enjoy with ketchup or mint chutney

Steamed Sooji breakfast

 I have made and tried all of the below types of idliClassic Plain Idli

Carrot Idli

Ravva Idli

Mint Idli

Corn Meal Idli

Ravva Idli #2

Instant Idli
Masala Oats Ravva Idli
Raagi Idli

But its time to try something else. After all Variety is what keeps life interesting. So I made this recipe I found and it turned out pretty good. I used a round cake pan to steam it in a wide pan (helpful when you do not have the special idli steamer) . Next time I will just use the idli pan.

Sooji Idli (Steamed Semolina breakfast)

Sooji idli dokhla with coco-nut chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup roasted semolina (Sooji)
2. 1/2 cup yogurt
3. 1 teaspoon lemon juice
4. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
5. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6. 1/4 cup each of finely chopped onions, capsicum , coriander leaves, carrots
7. 1-2 green chillies finely chopped if desired
8. oil for oiling the dish
9. 1/2 teaspoon chat masala to sprinkle on top (optional)
10. bigger pan for steaming

Add some water to a pan and start heating it. Oil a cake pan which will fit in the pan being used for steaming.

Mix the sooji and yogurt well along with a 1 cup of water and salt. Add the vegetables and mix well. Set it aside  for 10 minutes. If the batter looks too thick add about 1/2 more cup water and mix well. Add the lemon juice and baking soda and stir to combine.

Add this batter to the oiled cake pan. Sprinkle with chat masala if using . Put it in the bigger pan for steaming, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Steam for 16-18 minutes. Cut the heat and let it sit there for 5 minutes.Take it out and flip the "cake" onto a plate. Let it cool for 5 minutes and cut into desired shapes and enjoy with your favorite chutney or as is

Ravva Uttapam

This is one of the speedy lunch/dinner ideas ever. And it is super delicious. I made it a little more healthy by adding vegetables in the batter itself

Ravva Uttapam(Indian Pancakes with Semolina)

Ravva Uttapam

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup sooji (coarse, semolina)
2. 1/2 cup yogurt 
3. 1/2 cup each of cabbage finely grated, finely grated carrots, bell pepper chopped fine,  tomatoes chopped fine
4. 1 Tbsp each of cilantro ,green chili, ginger 
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
7. oil for frying

Mix sooji, salt, green chili, ginger, cabbage, carrot and yogurt, and add water as needed batter should be little thicker than dosa batter. Set it aside for 20 minutes
Add more water if needed and add the baking soda and mix well. 
Heat the skillet over medium heat and lightly grease the skillet. Pour about 2 large spoons of batter and spread consistency should be of thick then dosa. Sprinkle with some chopped oni ons, bell pepper ,tomatoes and cilantro and press it lightly into the batter.
Pour about 1 teaspoon of oil around uttapam and cover it and let it cook for about 2 minutes and turn them over, uttapam should be golden brown from bottom making crisper, and top should be cooked well but not brown. Uttapam should be cooked over low medium heat.
Uttapam is ready to serve. 

Enjoy with Peanut chutney

Aloo Besan squares

Besan is Chick Peas flour. It is super delicious if you know how to cook with it and make sure it is cooked through.  This is similar to Aloo Bonda  but instead of  deep frying these I made the batter like a crepe and add the potato curry to it and toasted it again. Yum yum.
And I serve this deliciousness with beet root chutney

Aloo Besan Squares (Potato curry wrapped into a chick peas flour and toasted again with mustard seeds)

Potato curry for the stuffing

Potato stuffed chickpeas squares

Ingredients

1. 3 cups chick peas flour or besan
2. 1 cup plain yogurt
3. 3/4 teaspoon each of salt, baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon ajwain (optional)
5. oil for frying
6. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Beat the yogurt along with 1/2 cup water and salt. Add the besan to it and the ajwain if using and stir to combine and make the batter a little thinner than pancake batter. Set aside.

Heat a griddle.

Take a ladle of batter and drop it into the center. With light pressure and outward motion spread the batter into a circle 6 inches wide. Drizzle some oil on the perimeter. Cook in medium flame for a min till the edges start to rise. Flip the "dosa" and fry for a inute. Flip again. Add 2 tablespoons of cooked potato curry into the center and close it into a square. Set aside and continue with making the others.

Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to a pan and add the mustard seeds to it and cover on a medium flame. Let all the mustard seeds splutter. Add the besan squares seam side down and fry for a minute. Enjoy with Beet root chutney

Beetroot Chutney (Beet root dip for Dosa and idly)

Beet root chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 can beetroots drained
2. 1/2 tablespoon urad dal
3. 1 tablespoon chana dal
4. 2 red chillies
5. 1 inch ginger
6. 2 garlic
7. 1 small piece of tamarind soaked in 1/4 cup water
8. 1/4 cup dried coconut flakes
9. 1 teaspoon salt
10. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pan heat the oil and fry the urad dal and chana dal and the red chillies for a couple of minutes. Add ginger and garlic and coconut and fry for a minute. Add the drained beetroot and cook for 5 minutes. Cut the heat and let it cool.

Grind all the ingredients along with the tamarind + water and salt to a smooth paste. Serve as is or temper it with 1 teaspoon oil + cumin + urad dal+ red chillies+ curry leaves and enjoy

Mysoor Bajji

When I was little there used to be a vendor who used to make these little fried flour balls and served them curry leaf powder and I loved them. It costed us 5 cents in those days in India. Mmmm nostalgia.

Anyway, here is the recipe for those yummy fried flour balls. But the difference here is, I have this dish 

This dish helps me make these yummy balls shallow fried, instead of deep frying them.

Mysoor Bajji (Savory deep fried fermented flour balls)

Mysoor Bajji

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup all-purpose flour 
2. 1/4 cup rice flour
3. 1/2  teaspoon each of salt, baking soda, cumin 
4. 1/2 cup plain yogurt 
5. 3/4 cups of water
6. 1 teaspoon each of  finely chopped ginger, fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice, finely chopped green chilis, dessicated coconut
7. 1 tablespoons  finely chopped cilantro
8. Oil for either deep frying or to apply to the above pan (if you have it)

Mix  together, all-purpose flour, rice flour, salt, baking soda,  cumin and coconut. Add yogurt and mix it well add the water to make thick batter. Add remaining ingredients and set aside for about 15-20 minutes. 
Heat the oil in a pan,  Add 1 tablespoon of batter into the oil. Fry the bajjis until golden-brown all around. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
Mysore bonda should be crispy from outside and should be soft inside.
Serve them with coconut Chutney. or with Curry leaf powder

Instant Idli

Idli used to be my favorite breakfast and my mom used to make it but she was never happy when I would ask her to make it. Now...after becoming a mom myself I am also not very crazy when the request for idli comes around once in a a while, without  my prior planning.

I know there are lots of recipes for instant idlis and this time around I had to make some instant idlis...well instant is not the correct word cause idlis do take some time to get made. Anyway...

Here is the recipe I made my "instant" idlis with. No Eno salt. But with baking soda and baking powder.

Instant Idli (Steamed rice buns wiwhout 2 days of preparation)

Instant Idli

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup poha (flatenned rice)
2. 2 cups rice flour
3. 1 cup urad dal flour
4. 1 teaspoon fenugreek powder 
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
7. 1 teaspoon baking soda
8. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
9. 1 tablespoon plain yogurt (optional)
10. 3-4 cups of water

Mix all the ingredients together and set it aside for 10 minutes.

Apply oil to the idli molds, add batter to them and steam them for 18-20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes and serve with your favorite chutney. Here are some suggestions :)

Coconut chutney

Tomato Chutney

Ridge gourd Peel chutney

Eggplant chutney

Peanut chutney

Carrot Chutney 

Dal Wada

Today I made Dal Wada for which the inspiration was my sis-in-law. A long long time ago, I tried making it but it was a BIG disaster. The one thing I didn't realise was we would have to shallow fry these wadai or else they will fall apart.
                 The other day when we were at my brother's place, my bhabi made wada with moong dal and that was a new item for me. My mom used to make them in a totally different way. Anyway the last time I ate wada was made the mother-in-law of my very good friends'. This is an Indian version of Falafel
                 The moong dal wada recipe will come along some other day but today is the recipe for the dal wada, a great dish for sunday breakfast or a tea time snack.

Dal Wada (Shallow fried lentil fritters)

Dal Wada being Shallow fried

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups Chana Dal (Dried split black Chickpeas) (soaked in water for an hour)
2. 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
3. 1 green chilly finely chopped
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, Ajwain, finely chopped ginger, salt
5. 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
6. Oil for shallow frying

Grind the chana dal into a coarse paste with water (as little as possible)
Mix all the other ingredients and make it into 3 inch patties 1/2 inch thick. Heat about 1/4 inch high oil in a pan and fry the wada till they start getting brown. Drain and serve with ketchup

Tomato chutney for Paneer Dosa and Cheese Dosa

Its been a long time that I made dosa and today I am all set to make it. Whenever I make Plain Dosa I always make my favourite Potato Curry to go with it and if I have patience I make some chutney also. Today its the Tomato Chutney's turn.

                     And today I am making Paneer dosa and cheese dosa for the kids

Paneer Dosa (Lentil crepe sprinkled with cottage cheese)

Paneer Dosa

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup peeled black gram (Urad Dal)
2. 2 cups rice
3. 3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 2-3 cups water
5. oil for frying
6. 2 tablespoons grated paneer per each dosa

Here is How to make Fresh Paneer
Soak the black grams and rice separately in 3 cups of water over night or for atleast 5 hours. Grind them to a smooth paste and mix with salt and water to get a thin pancake batter consistency. Heat a griddle and add a laddle of batter in the center and spread the with the back of the laddle with a light hand. Add a teaspoon of oil around the edge of the dosa. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the edges turn golden. Turn it and fry for 1 more minute. Sprinkle with the grated paneer mixed with a pinch of red chilly powder for spicyness. Serve as is or with chutneys and curries

Tomato Chutney (Tangy tomato dip)

Tomato chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium small onion chopped
2. 2 large or 3 medium tomatos chopped
3. 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
4. 1/4 cup thick tamarind juice
5. 3/4 teaspoons salt
6. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
7. 1 serrano chilly chopped
8. 2 tablespoons oil divided
9. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, urad dal, mustard seeds,
10. few curry leaves
11. 2-3 dried red chillies broken

In a pan heat about 11/2 tablespoon oil and fry the onions till tender. add green chillies and fry for a minute. Add tomatoes and cook covered till tender. Add tomato tamarind juice and salt and turmeric and stir to combine. Let it cool. Grind to a coarse paste.

In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the cumin, urad dal and mustard seeds for a couple of minutes. Add curry leaves and dried red chillies and fry till they start to splutter. Add this to the tomato paste. Serve with idli, dosa or even steamed rice and ghee

            

Cheese Dosa (Lentil crepe sprinkled with Cheddar cheese)



Cheese Dosa



Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of grated cheddar cheese per dosa

Once the dosa gets cooked on both side, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and leave it on the griddle for about 30 minutes or until cheese melts. Let cool a bit before serving. Enjoy

Kaaju Upma

This being one of the most simple breakfasts' made in the Southern India, I thought I already uploaded the recipe. Like many other dishes, this Upma has a million versions to it and they all taste different but equally tasty. The upma recipe I am giving here is my house version. So enjoy!

Kaaju Upma (Wheat grits with Cashew)
Ingredients:

1. 2 cups upma ravva
2. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, finely chopped ginger
4. 1 teaspoon chana dal soaked in water for 5 minutes
5. 1-2 tablespoons cashew pieces, chopped coriander
6. 1 green chilly chopped
7. 2 red chillies broken
8. few curry leaves



Kaju Upma

9. 1 teaspoon each of oil, clarified butter

Toast the upma ravva to a golden brown color. Take care not to burn it

In a pan heat the oil and butter and fry the cashew for a couple of minutes. Add all the other ingredients which need frying. Add 3 cups of water and salt and let it come to a boil./ Reduce the heat and add the toasted ravva and cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and cook further covered for 5 more minutes. Serve hot with Indian Pickles

Puffed rice upma

Puffered rice as you all know is murmure or Murmuralu or the things that make up rice krispies cereal but ofcourse that rice krispies are loaded with corn syrup and sugar
             This upma I made with the puffered rice brings back so many memories of me playing during those hot summer afernoons during the summer holidays. We would put some puffered rice in water and hear them crackle and imagine as if we were cooking rice and thats the sound of rice getting cooked
             This is a nice variation to you regualar upma. And it tastes great too

Murmure wala Upma (Puffed rice stir fried)

Murmurala upma

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups puffed rice
2. 3 cups water
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, cumin, mustard seeds, finely chopped ginger
4. 1 tablespoon peanuts/ ground nuts, finely sliced onions
5. 1 green chilly chopped
6. 1 tablespoon oil
7. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, urad dal

Soak the puffed rice in water for 5 minutes. meanwhile heat the oil in a pan and fry the peanuts for a couple of minutes. Add cumin, mustard seeds and urad dals for 3 minutes. Add onions and ginger and green chillies and fry for a couple of minutes. Add salt and turmeric and stir well. Drain the puffed rice and add it to the pan and stir to combine. Cover and simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve

Poori with Aalu palak paneer

Its been ages that I made poori or Puri-the deep fried bread from India. Whenever I made poori before I always made it with Aalu Chooley (Potatoes with Chick Peas) but today I am in no mood for chickpeas. And I have Paneer at hand.
                   So...I started my search for Paneer recipes and I found the same old, same old recipes ever where aka palak paneer, mutter paneer, butter paneer and all. I am soooooooo bored with these recipes. So I kind of combined two recipes and came up with my own paneer recipe and let me tell you, it was finger licking good. Even my 10 month old little guy liked it.

Poori (Deep fried Indian wheat bread)

Puri

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups wheat flower
2. 3/4-1 teaspoon salt
3. water for making dough
4. Oil for deep frying

Sift the flour with salt and mix it into dough with water a little at a time. Add a tablespoon of oil to it, mix well and set aside for 30 minutes. Divide the dough into about 12 equal parts. If you have poori maker or a tortilla maker make pooris in them or roll it the old fashoned way into puris the size of your palm, roughly 6-7 inches in diameter.
                 Heat the oil in a pan and deep fry the pooris one at a time till golden brown. Serve immediately with your favourite potato curry or the Aalu Palak Paneer

Aalu Palak Paneer (Potatos and Cottage Cheese in a Spinach gravy)

Aalu palak paneer

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups 1 cm cubes of paneer
2. 1 medium large potato cubed to the same size as paneer
3. 1/2 cup frozen spinach thawed
4. 1 medium tomato chopped
5. 1 green chilly
6. 1 medium onion chopped
7. 1/4 cup milk
8. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon each of salt, chilly powder, turmeric
9. 1 inch ginger peeled
10. 3 tablespoons oil divided

Here is how to make Fresh Paneer
Microwave on high the potatos, covered for 3 minutes and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons oil and fry the paneer pieces till they start changing color. Drain and set aside. Add the potato pieces to the pan and fry till they get a nice golden crust, drain and set aside. Grind the onion along with ginger and green chilly. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the onion paste till it starts to become brown. In the mean while grind the spinach, tomato to paste and set aside. When the onion paste become brown add the spinach paste and stir to combine and fry for 5-7 minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients, add 1/2 cup of water, stir to combine and simmer on a low flame for 10 minutes. Stir ocassionally. Serve hot or at room temparature with Poori or Roti or rice

Amazing Uttapam

Today, being Saturday we have time to eat a good Indian breakfast. I asked hubby dear last night what he wanted to eat for breakfast and he said "anything". So I said "if that is what you want, you can make it for yourself"
                Anyway, I never made Uttapam before and I wanted to try to make it for a long time but since it was weekend, I was out of many of the ingredients. So I woke up and went shopping even before anyone else was awake and got all the ingredients. And believe me it came out yummy

Onion Uttapam ( Sour Indian Pancakes with onions)

Uttapam

Ingredients for Uttapam batter:

1. 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2. 1 cup plain sour yogurt
3. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 1/2-1 cup water
5. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda(optional)

Ingredients for mixing in Uttapam

1. 1 medium onion finely chopped
2. 2-3 green chillies finely chopped
3. 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
4. 2 teaspoons cumin
5. oil for frying
6. 1 big tomato finely chopped
7. 1/4 cup green onions finely chopped (optional)
8. 1 inch fresh ginger very finely chopped (don't mince it)
9. 2 tablespoons chopped cashew

Mix all the ingredients for Uttapam batter the night before you intend to eat them. If you feel the yogurt you are using is not sour, using baking soda. Mix well and leave it on the counter to ferment overnight or inside you oven with the light on, if the night is cold.

In the morning get all the ingredients to mix in the uttapam ready. In a pan heat a little bit of oil and fry cumin for couple of minutes. Add cashew and fry for a minute. Add ginger and onionsand green chillies and fry for few minutes. Add tomato and fry for a couple of minutes. Add cilantro and stir well. Add about 1/2 cup of batter over all these fried items, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Flip the Uttapam carefully, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Uncover and keep cooking for a couple of more minutes. Serve hot as is or any of the Chutneys . I will add some new chutney recipe soon.

Plain Poha

Poha or Chudwa or as it is called in Urdu is Flattened rice. There are quite a number of dishes you can make with these flattened rice. This "Flattened rice" are literall what it is. Rice which is flattened. When I was a little girl, myself and my neighbor girls would play kitchen with either this poha or "murmure", this is puffed rice. We would mix these in water and then mix some sugar in it and make balls out of it and eat it as if it were cooked rice. Those were good 'ol summer time afternoon games without waking up the slumbering adults.
          This weekend I went to one of my cousin's house and she made this breakfast recipe with Poha. I have eaten poha at a couple of more friends' places but none was as tasty as this one. It was yummy. Anyway, here is the recipe, the way my cousin made it

Plain Poha (Breakfast with flattened rice)

Plain Poha

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups poha washed under running water and set aside in a sieve to drain
2. 2 tablespoons each of oil, fresh sqeezed lemon juice
3. 1 tablespoon peanuts (with skin is also fine)
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, turmeric, salt
5. 1/4 cup sliced red onions
6. 2 green chillies split
7. 2-3 dried red chillies broken
8. Few curry leaves
9. Coriander for garnishing

In a pan heat the oil and fry the peanuts for a couple of minutes. Now fry cumin, mustard seeds and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Add red chillies and green chillies and curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes more. Add turmeric and fry for a minute. Add onions and fry till the raw smell goes away. Add poha and salt and stir well to combine, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and coriander stir to combine and serve hot

Pesarattu Upma Punukulu

This whole dinner items for today have to be planned a day ahead. On Sunday my cousin and his family were coming for brunch. So I made some very Andhra Special breakfast for them...Upma Pesarattu. I have the recipe for it here but I forgot to take a picture of the same. So no pic :(.
              With some of the leftover batter (made for pesarattu) I made punukulu and made them into Pulusu and I made Arvi Magazdaar.

Pesarattu (Indian crepes made with batter of split green grams)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups split green gram soaked over night
2. 1/2 cup onions finely chopped
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. finely chopped green chillies, cumin, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped cilantro, red chilly powder for garnish
5. oil for frying

Soak the green grams over night and by morning they would have dowbled in volume. Lightly crush them between your hands and the skin will come off. Move the vessel round and round and the skins will float. Remove the skins of the dal and grind it to a smooth paste with a little water. Add salt. Set up all the items for garnish. Heat a griddle. Take a laddle full of batter and spread it on the hot griddle like a crepe. Garnish with onions, chilli pieces, cumin, ginger pieces, red chilly powder. Add oil on the edges of the pesarattu and fry till the edges tun brown. Add some oil on top of the 'attu' and turn it. Fry it for 2-3 minutes. Remove from griddle and serve hot with Upma

Upma

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups upma ravva (sooji)
2. 2 tablepsoons oil
3. 1 teaspoon cashew pieces and peanuts each
4. 1/4 teaspoon cumin, mustard seeds, and chana dal (soaked in 1/4 cup water), toor dal each
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 2 red chillies and few curry leaves and fresh coriander for garnishing

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the peanuts for a couple of minutes. Now add the cumin, mustard seeds, toor dal and chana dal and for a couple of minutes more. Now add chopped red chillies and curry leaves and fry till the seeds stard to splutter. Now add 3 cups of water and the salt and let it come to a boil. Add the sooji and cover and simmer till all the water escapes. Garnish with Cilantro and serve with Pesarattu or as is.

You might also want to try a variation of Upma the Kaaju Upma

Punukulu (Split green gram fritters)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup pesarattu batter (a little thicker than used for pesarattu)
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt,
3. 1 finely chopped green chilli
4. 1/4 teaspoon cumin, baking soda each
5. oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients together except oil and set aside for a 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and drop batter with a teaspoon. Fry till golden brown and serve with Chutney

Punukula Pulusu (Punukulu in cooked tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 12-15 cooked punukulu
2. 1 cup chopped onions
3. small lemon sized tamarind (juiced using 2 cups warm water)
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, red chilly powder
5. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pressure cooker heat the oil and fry the onions till they become tender. Now add all the ingredients except the punukulu, close the cooker and cook for 2 whistles. Let all the steam escape, open the cooker, add the punukulu and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and serve with white rice

Dosa, Potato curry and Ridge gourd Peel chutney

In India many indian do not eat rice on Saturday nights. They only eat very light on Saturday...especially the Vegetarians. Breakfast items are supposed to be light (not really!!!) so DOSA is a favoured Saturday night dinner item. Here are the recipes for Dosa and its accompainments (1) Potato curry (2) Beerakaaya chutney

Dosa (Crepe made with peeled black gram and rice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup peeled black gram (Urad Dal)
2. 2 cups rice
3. 3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 2-3 cups water
5. oil for frying

Soak the black grams and rice separately in 3 cups of water over night. Grind them to a smooth paste and mix with salt and water to get a thin pancake batter consistency. Heat a griddle and add a laddle of batter in the center and spread the with the back of the laddle with a light hand. Add a teaspoon of oil around the edge of the dosa. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the edges turn golden. Turn it and fry for 1 more minute. Serve immediately with Potato Curry

Potato Curry (Simplest and delicious potato curry )

Aalo curry

Ingredients:

1. 2 large potatos peeled and sliced into quarters 1/8 inch thick
2. 1 medium onion sliced
3. 2 tablespoons oil divided
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric
5. 2dried  red chillies
6. Few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the onions they they become tender. Add the potatoes, salt and turmeric and cover and cook for 2 whistle with a cup of water. Once the steam escapes open the cooker. In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leaves till they begin to splatter. Add the boiled potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and serve with Dosa

_______________________________________________________________________________


Beera kaaya is also known as chinese okra or ridge gourd and cooks very quickly and has lots of water content.  There are lots of dishes in India which are made using it. I will be posting some of them here
________________________________________________________________________________

Beerakaaya Tokku Chutney (Turai/Ridge gourd cooked and ground)

Ridge Gourd Peel

Ingredients:

1. 1 large ridge gourd
2. lime sized tamarind** soaked in1/3 cup of warm water
3. 1/2 each of  teaspoon salt, turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds
4. 2 dried red chillies
5. few curry leaves
6. 1 big green chilly
7. 2 tablespoons oil divided

Peel only the ridges of the ridge gourd and wash it. Cut it into chunks and fry it in a tablespoon of oil. Cover and cook for 15 minutes along with salt, turmeric and the soaked tamarind (Water and all). Let it cool and grind to a paste. In a pan heat the remaining oil and  fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leavesand chopped greeen chilly till they begin to splatter. Add the ground paste and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve

_______________________________________________________________________________
**If you don't have tamarind or don't know tamarind you can use either citric acid or lemon juice to give a little bit of sourness to the chutney