Kakoda Jhinga

,We came back from Albuquerque after the 4 day vacation and my fridge and pantry are almost empty and I don't feel like going grocery shopping today as its been pretty cold here. And my little boy is still adjusting to the 1 hour change in time. So I had to make dinner with whatever is left in the fridge. Hence the menu for today is Aakakara kaaya royyalu and Sorakaya pulusu

Aakakara kaaya Royyalu (Teasel Gourd with shrimp)

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb Kakoda (aakakarakaaya , teasel gourd)
2. 1/2-3/4 lb shrimp peeled and deveined
3. 1 medium small onion sliced
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder,
5. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
6. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
7. 2 tablespoons oil divided
8. cilantro for garnishing

Wash the shrimp and put some salt over and set them aside for 15 minutes. Mean while heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pressure cooker and fry the onions till they start to change color. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for few more minutes. Add the peeled and sliced Kakoda and all the other ingredients except shrimp and remaining oil, close the cooker and cook for 2 whistles. In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the shrimp till they start changing color. Once all the steam escapes from the cooker, open it and add the curry to the shrimp and simmer till the gravy becomes a bit thick. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot rice

Sorakaya Pulusu (Bottle gourd cooked in tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium small bottle gourd peeled and seeded and cut into small cubes
2. 1 tablespoon besan (chana ka aata)
3. 1 tablespoon oil
4. 1/4 cup sliced red onions
5. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, cumin, urad dal
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder
7. 2 cups juice from 1 medium lemon sized tamarind
8. 2 red chillies and few curry leaves (optional)

In a heavy bottomed pan heat the oil and fry the cumin, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves if using. After a couple of minutes add onions and fry for a few minutes. Now add the bottle gourd pieces and fry for 5-7 minutes. Add the besan and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Check the taste and if it is too tart add 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy

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

Stovetop Egg White Frittata

Yesterday I made pudding I posted earlier and I was left with the egg whites. So I made this Frittata on the stovetop using the egg whites. Pretty healthy and fast

Stove Top Egg White Frittata (Frittata cooked over stovetop)

Ingredients:

1. 6 eggwhites
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1/4 teaspoon pepper
4. 2 tablespoons oil, milk each
5. 1/2 cup finely chopped onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and frozen spinach thawed each
6. Cilantro for garnishing

Beat the millk with salt and pepper and add egg whites, beat and set aside. In a non-stick pan saute the onions till tender add mushrooms and saute for a few more minutes. Add tomatoes and spinach and saute for a couple of more minutes. Reduce the heat to low add the egg whites and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Scrape the sides of the fritata with a butter knife and lossen the edges. Put on a oven mitten take a plate on hand and turn the pan over the plate. Slide the frittata back into the pan and cook for 4-5 more minutes. Garnish with cilantro and cheese if desired. Serve

Ginger garlic paste

Most or almost everyone of the Indians who cook are familiar with this ginger-garlic paste. Or atleast they know where to find and buy it. All the Indian stores ave them. But if you don't know where to find it or wondering what ginger-garlic paste is or want to make it fresh at home here is the recipe

Ginger-Garlic Paste

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups peeled and roughly chopped ginger
2. 1 cup peeled garlic pods
3. 1 tablepsoon oil

Grind all the ingredients to a smooth paste and store in the refridgerator

Chicken drumsticks curry

These days every time you open a web page like yahoo.com you will find something or the other news item to save money and be frugal. Sometimes those are good advice but sometimes its just plain silly way to stop spending too much and sometimes its being a cheapster. In India if someone was excessively stingy we used to call them "Macchi chooz". To tell you the meaning I would have to tell you a little story.
            This particular person used to be so miser that one day a bee fell in his tea. Because he doesn't like wasting anything he takes the bee off and sqeezes the tea soaked by that bee. Hence "the one who sqeezes the bee" I feel some of the articles are especially for the people like this

            Anyway, one such articles was about getting protein in your diet by spending little or saving more. It was about buying chicken drumsticks instead of the boneless chicken breast as they are more expensive. None-the-less I got them but my main reason being, my 3 yr old has learned how to eat the chicken drumsticks recently and she likes holding and eating them. So I made this curry. Its my own recipe.

Chicken drumsticks with Aubergine (Chicken drumsticks cooked with eggplant in Indian spices)

Ingredients:

1. 6 chicken drumsticks
2. 1 medium aubergine sliced into 1/8 inch quarters
3. 1 large onion slicked into quarters
4. 2 tablespoons oil
5. 1 teapsoon ginger-garlic paste
6. 1 teaspoon each of salt, chilly powder, coriander powder divided
7. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and cumin powder
8. 1 tablepsoon plain yougurt
9. 1 cup low sodium chicken broth

Make a few slits on the drumsticks and marinate it with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and chilly powder for atleast 2 hrs. Heat a non stick pan and dry roast the onions till they start to turn brown. Add eggplant and roast for 3-4 minutes. Add oil and ginger-garlic paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add marinated drum sticks and the rest of the ingredients and cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Until the chicken is tender. Sprinkle generously with cilantro and serve with basmati rice

Rose Raspberry pudding French style

This is from the chef Giada De Laurette from the food network. I love watching her programme as her cooks things that are so delicate and healthy. But this rose pudding is really yummy though quite heavy in calorie count I am sure.
               The Gul-Khand I am using here as an optional ingredient is an Indian speciality. Its made with sugar and rose petals. Sugar syrup is made until it becomes sticky and then rose petals are cooked in it. It can be used as jam over bread. Its just delicious
                               

Rose Raspberry pudding (Easy pudding topped with fresh raspberry)

Ingredients:

1. 4 eggs yolks at room temperature*
2. 1/2 cup low fat milk
3. 3/4 cup cream
4. 1/4-1/3 cup sugar
5. 1 teaspoon rose essence
6. 1/2 cup fresh raspberry crushed
7. 1 teaspoon Gul-Khand (Optional)

Heat the milk and cream with rose essence. In a bowl whisk the egg yolks with sugar and beat in milk mixture and whick to combine. Add Raspberry and Gil-Khand if using and mix well. Pour into 4 ramekins. Bake in a water bath for 30 minutes at 350 degrees., chill for 1 hr and serve

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

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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
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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

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**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

Cilantro spread for bread

So...I have finally jumped into blogging. Iwrote my recipes at a million website and none of them seem to be coming up when I search...I know...I know its hard. But anyway I am doing it.

Last night I decided to make Shrimp something and found the shrimp my hubby dear got. They were nice big shrimp. So I decided to make shrimp cocktail for my shrimp crazy hubby and my li'l girl. Hmm...what should be the main course along with shrimp cocktail. After searching the web I decided on a chunky salad and toasted bread

Another question again. What should be the spread for the bread? Previously I made lemon-garlic butter for the bread and it was awesome. But yesterday was super hot here and I didn't want to eat more garlic and make my life a scorching hell (YES...Mr.Garlic makes me crzy hot and thirsty) . So I searched with no good result for the 'spread for the bread'. So I made my own. Here's the recipe

Cilantro Spread

Ingredients:

1. 1 big bunch cilantro trimmed and cleaned
2. 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
3. 1 big garlic pod chopped rough
4. 1/4 cup cream cheese or mayo
5. 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6. 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
7. salt to taste

Method:

      Blend all the ingredients into a smooth paste in a food processor. Spread on toasted french bread and enjoy with a salad