Stir Fried Summer Vegetables

The weather has been great lately and the super market is filled with all the colors of summer vegetables and fruits. I think every body should enjoy all the flavors and colors of summers...Bounty of nature

Today I made a simple stir fry with the colorful vegetables of summer and a very simple sauce to simmer them in. It was great. I served with shallow fried Salmon patty from Costco.

Stir Fried Summer Vegetables

Stir Fried Summer vegetables

Ingredients:

1. 1 zucchini cubed
2. 1 yellow squash cubed
3. 1/2 red bell pepper sliced
4. 1 Japanese eggplant cubed
5. Handful of green beans ends trimmed and halved
6. 1 large carrot cubed
7. 1 cup cherry tomatoes
8. 3 shallots sliced thin
9. 1/2 red onion sliced into half circles
10. 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
11. 1/2 teaspoon butter
12. 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
13. Salt as needed

For Sauce:

1. 1/2 chicken bouillon melted in 1/2 cup water
2. 1 teaspoon each of  soy sauce, white vinegar, Chinese Chile paste 
3. 2 teaspoons zesty Ceaser salad dressing

In a pan heat the oil and fry the shallots till tender. Add butter and onions and garlic and fry for a minute. Add all the vegetables except tomatoes and fry on high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to fry for 5 more minutes. Mean while mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl. Add tomatoes. Add this to the vegetables, reduce heat and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes . Check for salt . Cut the heat stir again and set aside for 5 minutes. Serve with your favorite main course. Enjoy

Risotto with ground meat

I one time I made risotto in a cooking class in Hollywood, I loved it. But super time intensive dish and you have to spend most of the time watching the dish otherwise it won't taste as good. But you know, once you put so much love and effort into making something it is bound to taste good.

Yet again there are more good things about risotto. Its a one pot dish, highly satisfying and super creamy heart warming :)

Risotto with ground Chicken

Risotto with ground chicken

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup arborio rice
2. 4 cups hot chicken chicken stock
3. 1 cup chopped tomatoes
4. 1/2-3/4 cup peas (optional)
5. 1/2 lb ground ground chicken or lamb
6. 1 tablespoon olive oil
7. 1 teaspoon butter
8. 1 medium onion chopped fine
9. 1 heaped teaspoon finely chopped ginger
10. 1/2 cup milk
11. 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
12. 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
13. Fresh ground black pepper

In a pan heat the oil and butter and fry the onions on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic and fry for a minute. Add the chicken and stir to combine and fry for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and stir to combine. Add worcestershire sauce and add the rice and stir well. Add a lardle of chicken stock and stir well. Do this for every 2-3 minutes for the next 15 minutes. Add milk and peas if using and continue to add the stock and stir well every 2-3 minutes still for 10 more minutes. The final consistency should be creamy, if it is thick add some more stock or water and stir to combine and serve sprinkled with fresh ground black pepper

Onion Chutney for Dosa

In some parts of Southern India people do not eat rice on saturday evenings. They only eat breakfast items which are considered to be light dinner. So they eat either the idlis or Dosas and such. Today is one of those days in my house and I am making Dosas for dinner.

I am serving those Dosas with Onion Chutney and Coconut Chutney.

Onions Chutney (Spicy Side Condiment with Onions)

Ingredients:

1. 1-11/2 cup pearl onions or shallots pealed
2. 1/2-3/4 cup juice of tamarind
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. 2 dried red chillies
5. 1 teaspoon cumin divided
6. 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds 
7. 1/2 teaspoon urad dal
8. 1 teaspoon chana dal soaked in water
9. 1/2 tablespoon oil divided
10. Few curry leaves

In a pan heat 2-3 teaspoons of oil fry half of cumin chana dal and red chillies till they splutter. Add the onions and fry till they become translucent. Let them cool and grind into a smooth paste with the tamarind juice and salt.

Add 1 teaspoon oil and fry the remaining cumin seeds, urad dal and mustard seeds along with curry leaves. (Add 1 or 2 broken red chillies if you like. My chutney was already spicy for me so I skipped them).

Fry them till they become dark. Add this to the chutney and serve with any of the following yummy Dosas

Ravva Dosa

Plain Dosa

Dosa with Brown Rice

Green beans with Hot Dog

I used to make this dish often a long time ago and it just slipped into oblivion. And finally the other day I had green beans and hot dogs  and I remembered this. This is so easy and super fast to make and yummy and may I say healthy (WINK!)

I used to make it with chicken corn dogs with honey batter on them. That batter rings were delicious. But today I had plain chicken hot dogs and I made it with them. I think its a good way of serving green beans

Green beans with Chicken Franks (Stir fried green beans and Chicken Franks)

Stir fried Green Beans with Chicken Franks

Ingredients:

1. 2 chicken franks cut into half and then quartered
2. 3/4-1 lb green beans trimmed and cut into halves
3. 1 medium green or white onions sliced
4. 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
5. 1 large or two medium garlic pods grated
6. 1/2 teaspoon lemon salt or regular salt and black pepper to taste
7. pinch red pepper flakes if desired

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add garlic and red chilli flakes if using and fry for 30 seconds. Add the green beans and salt and and cover and cook for 10 minutes or desired crunchiness is reached. Add chicken franks and fry for 2 more minutes. garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Potato in yogurt gravy

Today was one of those super hot spring days... It was 95 degrees. On top of it I was pretty much up and about the whole day. And when I came back home in the evening I didn't want to spend loads of time in front of the hot stove. So I made a refreshing yogurt based gravy for potato and I served it with plain basmati rice. Yum yum super hit dinner ready

Potato curry in yogurt gravy

Ingredients

1.  2 medium potatoes boiled , peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
2.  1 cup plain yogurt beaten
3. 1 tablespoon besan ( chick pea flour)
4. 1 table spoon oil
5. 1/2 tea spoon each of cumin, grated ginger, asafetida, turmeric, chopped green chillies
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. Few curry leaves and 2 red chillies broken

In a heavy bottomed pan heat the oil ands fry the cumin till they start to splutter. Add curry leaves, red and green chillies and for 30 secs. Add ginger and fry half more minute. Add asafetida and fry for 30 seconds. Add besan and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the Ingredients along with 3 cups water, stir well to combine and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, garnish with cilantro and enjoy with plain rice

Mixed veg curry for poori

After along time I made poori but this time I made it using the pillsbury mixed grain wheat flour. And frankly I expected them to come out hard and not so good. But they turned out nice and all airy

I made a mixed vegetable curry to go with it instead of the regular aloo Chana , all yummy and nutritious

Mixed vegetable curry

Mixed Veg curry for Poori

Ingredients
1. 1 large potato cut into 1 inch cubes
2. 1 large carrot cut into cubes
3. Half bunch or about 2 cups packed fresh spinach
4. 1/2 cup peas
5. 1/2 cup chopped onions
6.1 tablespoon oil
7.1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, chilly powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste
8. 3/4 teaspoon salt

In a pan heat the oil and add cumin and fry till they start spluttering. Add onions and fry till they start turning brown. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add the rest of the ingredients stir to combine cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and simmer for 5 more minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with roti or poori

Mint Idli

Mint Idli (Mint flavored steamed Lentil Dumplings)

Mint Idli

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup urad dal (peeled black gram)
2. 2 cups rice (If possible do not use Basmati)
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 2 cup mint leaves
5. 1/2 teaspoon oil, cumin
6. 1 green chilly
7. 1 inch ginger (optional)

Soak the Urad dal and rice in separate containers for atleast 6 hours (The morning before your intended day of eating Idlis works best). In the evening grind the rice and dal (separately....else the rice won't get ground) into a smooth and thick paste with as little water as possible. Add salt and mix the batter well and set on the counter overnight
Mom's tip: Add 1/4 cup of cooked rice while grinding. This enhances the fermentation process and Idlis turn out fluffier

In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin till they splutter. Add the green chilly and ginger and the mint leaves and fry covered  for 5-7 minutes. Let it cool and grind it to a smooth paste. Add it to the batter


In the morning of your special idli day, take the idli patra (this is a special dish to make idlis) if you don't have it, get some banana leaves add some batter to it and close them and steam them. I am assuming you have an idli patra. Greece the individual idli things and drop some batter in it and steam cook idlis for 20 minutes. After the steam escapes from the cooker. Open and let the patras cool a bit. With a big spoon scoop up the idlis and serve warm with ghee on top, and chutneys or plain if you are serving them to kids.