Carrot Poriyal and Aam dal

I try to make a total vegetarian meal atleast 2 times a week. So today was one of those days and the menu for today is Carrot Poriyal or Gajar bagar and Aam dal

Carrot Poriyal (Stir fry carrot with an Indian touch)

Ingredients:

1. 4 small or 3 large carrots cut into shoe strings
2. 1 cup finely sliced cabbage (optional)
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, turmeric, salt
4. 2 dreid red chillies, few curry leaves
5. 2 tablespoons oil
6. 1 tablespoons dried shredded coconut (optional)

In a microwave safe bowl add a tablespoon water and carrot pieces and microwave covered for 2 minutes (This is just ot fasten the cooking time)

In a pan heat the oil and add cumin, mustard seeds, urada dal and fry for a couple of minutes. Now add chilly pieces and curry leaves and fry for a couple of more minutes. Add cabbage (if using else skip to next sentence) and fry for 3-4 minutes. Drain the carrots and add it to the pan and add salt ans turmeric and fry on medium high for 6-7 minutes. Add coconut if using and stir to combine and cut the heat. Stir once more, garnish with cilantro and serve with hot rice and Mango dal

Aam dal(Lentils cooked with sour mango)

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium fresh mango peeled and chopped into pieces
2. 1 cup slighly roasted toor dal
3. 3 cups water
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder
5. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
6. For tempering: 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, 2 dried red chillies, few curry leaves

In the pressure cooker, cook together the toor dal and mango pieces for 4 whistles with a cup of water. After the steam escapes open it and mash the dal. Add the remaining water and bring to a boil. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds, then the red chillies and the curry leaves. Add the dal to it and bring it to a boil with rest of the ingredients. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with hot rice

Pulihora and Egg Scramble

Today is one of those days when I am missing home. I don't want to eat anything I am cooking. Missing mom's cooking. But what can you do when you mom is not with you...you still have to eat!!! So I am making Pulihora or Puligora or Pullaharam. Well...this means nothing but "Sour food" or "Sour Rice".
                     This is basically Indian style fried rice with tamarind juice (the sour part). I made scrambled eggs along with it. You can just eat it by itself but I just made it anyway Indian style Scrambled Egg . This recipe is already on my blog. Click here to get there.

Pulihora (Cooked rice mixed with tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups rice cooked
2. 3 tablespoons oil
3. 2 handfulls of cashew pieces
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, asafoetida, salt, turmeric, finely chopped ginger
5. 1 teaspoon each of urad dal, chana dal (soaked for 10 minutes), sesame seeds, sugar
6. 1 big or 2 green chillies chopped, few curry leaves, 2 dried red chillies
7. Cilantro for garnish
8. 1/2 cup of thick juice from 1 lemon sized tamarind

*Soak the tamarind in warm water and get the juice

In a pan heat the oil and add cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, cashew pieces and let them splutter. Add the rest of the ingredients except tamarind juice and rice. Let them all get fried. Add the juice and simmer till the oil separates. Now add rice and mix well. Garnish with cilantro and let it cool a bit. Serve as is or with Scrambled Egg

Idli with peanut chutney and carrot chutney

Its weekend again and time to cook some good Indian breakfast for the family. When I was in India and mom used to cook for me, my favourite breakfast was Idli. But my mom didn't like making idlis very often because it takes forever for them to get cooked. All you need to cook idlis is PATIENCE and loads of it. First of all you need to plan atleast a couple of days ahead to make it. Then make the batter and wait for it to get fermented. Then again put the idlis in the cooker and WAIT for them to cook. Then cut the heat again WAIT for them to cool down a bit. THEN finally after a million times of waiting you get to eat them.
                But then when I started cooking for myself I didn't like making idlis. Because I just didn't plan ahead always the idlis would turn out hard. BECAUSE I forgot to ferment the batter. Anyway so I planned ahead, remembered ahead of time to soak the dal, and all and finally made them. This time they turned out delicious and fluffy too. So here's how to make the idlis and the chutneys (accompanements) for them or with dosa or Garelu or plain rice or anything you care to serve them with

Idli (Steam cooked cakes made of rice and peeled black gram)



Fluffy Idli



Ingredients:

1. 1 cup urad dal (peeled black gram)
2. 2 cups rice (If possible do not use Basmati)
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt

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 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. Even my 6 month old eats these.

Peanut Chutney (Roasted peanuts ground with tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup plain peanuts skinned and dry roasted
2. 1/2 cup juice from tamarind the size of small lime
3. 1/2 in ginger roasted
4. 2 red chillies and 1/2 teaspoon cumin roasted
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. Optional Tempering: 1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, mustard seeds, 2 red chillies, few curry leaves

Gring the peanuts first into a coarse powder. Now add the rest of the ingredients and grind to a fine paste. Serve as is or heat the oil for tempering. Add mustad and cumin seeds and let the splutter. Now add chilly pieces and curry leaves and add the hot oil on top of the chutney and serve.

Carrot Chutney (Steamed carrot paste with indian spices)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of roughly chopped carrots
2. 1/2 cup chopped onions
3. 1 tablespoon oil
4. 2-3 tablespoons of tamarind juice
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 1 green chilly or 2 dried red chillies
7. 1/2 inch ginger
8. For tempering: 1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, few curry leaves and 2 dried red chillies

Microwave the carrots covered with the tamarind juice for 3 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till translucent. add the ginger pieces along with chilly pieces  and fry for a couple of more minutes. Let them cool and grind them along with the rest of the ingredients and carrots into a smooth paste. Add the oil in a pan and add cumin, mustard seeds and urad dal. When they start spluttering add the chilly pieces and curry leaves. For for a couple of more minutes and add the on top of the chutney. Serve with your delicious idlis.

Sambar (Lentils cooked in tamarind juice along with spices)

When I got married my mom gave me this amazing recipe book of vegetarian recipes. In those days I preferred vegetarian to any kind of meat so she presented me with this book. In this book there are about 7 different types of sambar powder recipes. The following is my variation of one of the recipes. I made one of them and let me tell you non of the store bought sambar powders comes close to the taste of my home made sambar powder

Sambar Powder( Indian spice mix)

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup each of chana dal, urad dal, toor dal, coriander seeds
2. 6 dried red chillies (Add more if you want a spicier mix)

Dry roast each ingredient separately and let them cool. Grind them too a fine paste and store in an air tight container

Ingredients for sambar:

1. 1 tablespoons above made smabar powder or any store bought
2. 1 cup toor dal soaked in 2 cups of water
3. 2 cups juice from tamarind the size of a medium lemon
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder, turmeric
5. 1 green chilly chopped
6. Vegetable mix ( 1/4 cup each of roughly chopped onions, carrots, okra, 1 indian brinjal, 1 drumstick cut into pieces)
7. For tempering:  1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, mustard seeds, Hing/ asafoetida 2 red chillies, few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker add the dal and the water they were soaking in and cook for 4 whistles. Let the steam escape, open the cooker and mash them. Add the tamarind juice and all the other ingredients and bring it to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Add the tempering i.e heat the oil fry the cumin, hing and mustard seeds. Add red chillies and curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add it to sambar, bring it to boiling again. Boil for 5 more minutes. Serve with you idlis.

Yummy breakfast!!!

Cabbage with black-eyed peas

am running low on supplies i.e vegetables and the items in my pantry. And since its almost (2 more days )weekend I am just procastinating my shopping trip. So I am just trying to make something out of whatever I am left with. case in point I have cabbage in the fridge and black eyed peas and a whole lot of cans of tomato paste in my pantry. SO I decided to make them. And the accompainment is Pyaz ka khatta i.e is onions cooked in tamarind juice. And I am cooking rice today but I bet this cabbage-black eyed peas combo aka curry would go well with plain roti. So here comes

cabbage with black-eyed peas (The items cooked in indian spices)

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
2. 1 can black eyed peas drained
3. 1/2 cup chopped onions
4. 1 green chilly chopped
5. 2 tablepoons oil
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder, grated ginger
7. 1 teaspoon mild Madras curry powder (otherwise use 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin powder, coriander powder)
8. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
9. coriander for garnishing

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add chilly pieces and ginger and fry for a couple of minutes. Add cabbage, a little water and cover and cook till they become tender (I cooked both cabbage and BEPs (  :D Black Eyed Peas) in peassure cooker with1/4 cup water for one whistle to speed up the process)
           Add BEPs and all the other ingredients stir to combine, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasinally. garnish with cilantro and serve with roti or rice

Pyaz ka khatta (Onions cooked in Tamarind juice)

Pyaz ka khatta

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium onion chopped
2. 3 cups of juice/ pulp from 1 small lemon sized tamarind
3. 1 green chilly chopped
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilly powder, turmeric
5. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pressure cooker heat the oil and fry the onions till they start changing color. Add chilly pieces and fry for a couple of more minutes. Add all the other ingredients, close the cooker and cook for 3 whistles. Let the steam escape and open the cooker and simmer till oil float on top. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Sweet bread

This recipe is from one of my cousin sister-in-laws. Hmm...what is cousin sis-in-law. Well...she is the wife of my cousin :D . This was her mom's recipe. She used to make it when she was craving something sweet.

So...this sweet bread is roti actually but sweet

Misti Roti (Indian bread stuffed with Sugar)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of wheat flour
2. water to make dough
3. 4 teaspoons sugar divided
4. Ghee or clarified butter to fry the roti
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon oil

Mix the salt in the wheat flour and add a little water at a time and make it into a dough. Rub it around with the oil and set it aside covered for 20-30 minutes. Divide it into 4 parts. Take one part and roolit into a small circle. Add one teaspoon sugar and make it into a dumpling. Add some flour to the surface and roll it again into a roti. Heat the griddle and fry the roti until golden brown on both side. Add ghee to both side and serve hot. It is YUMMY!!!