Mint/Pudina Pulao

Dear Foodies,

Pudina is one of the those herbs that I think take time to get to the favorites list. As a kid I was definitely not a fan. My mother would make a fabulous chutney with it or add it to rasam but I just could not get myself to appreciate its strong flavor. I think the only way to get some of the pudina into me was in my dad's sandwich, which is still the best sandwich ever. But over the last few years I've gradually been adding it to recipes, initially just a few leaves sneaked in which did not really exert their presence. But later my love for chaat forced to make large batches of pudina chutney to use in bhel puri & sandwiches. I have even driven 40 mins to the Indian store to stock up on pudina, the measly sprigs sold at the regular stores just don't cut it for me.

Indo-Chinese Fried Rice

Dear foodies,

One of top things in my 'to eat' list during my trip to India was veg manchurian :) There is something soo addictive about Indo-Chinese cuisine and I can never have enough of it. Sweet corn soup, hot n sour soup, gobi/veg manchuria, fried rice, noodles, all of them are super delicious. And when I have left over rice, fried rice is the first thing that comes to my mind. The addition of tofu just makes it perfect, paneer does not make a good substitute here.

Indo-Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups - Rice, cooked and cooled (any short grain rice) [brown rice would be a nice substitute]
  
• 3/4 cup - Vegetables - Carrots, French style green beans, capsicum (red, green, yellow) cut into thick matchsticks. Other choices are mushrooms, water chestnuts, baby corn, broccoli florets, bean sprouts
  
• 1/2 cup - Onions, cubed
• 10-12 nos - super firm Tofu, cubed (I used Sproutofu)
  
• 2 nos - Indian green chillies/ thai bird chillies, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp - Garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp - Ginger, minced
• 1/4 tsp - Red pepper flakes (optional)
  
• 2 Tbsp - Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp - Vinegar
  
• 3/4 Tsp - Black pepper, freshly ground
• 1.5 Tbsp - Oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Drain the tofu, pat it dry and cut it into cubes. Drizzle some soy sauce over them and let it sit for 10-15mins. With the oven set to broil, spritz it with some oil and line the tofu cubes on a sheet pan and broil for 5-6 mins, flip them and broil for 5 more mins. Do keep an eye on them though, since oven temperatures vary.
2. Heat oil in a wide pan/wok. When hot, add the finely chopped green chillies, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Give it 5 secs and add the cubed onions. Saute until they turn translucent.
   
3. On medium high heat, add the vegetables and stir fry for 2-3 mins. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, and freshly ground black pepper next. Saute until the vegetables are slightly tender but still retain crunch.
4. Add the tofu cubes along with the rice and very carefully stir to combine with the vegetables. Taste to see if it needs more salt/pepper and season accordingly. Toss lightly without breaking the rice grains.

Left over rice gets a brilliant make over with this dish. Its so flavorful and crunchy from the vegetables, and I love the heat from the black pepper. To me that defines the dish. I also add sprouts to it when I have them on hand. Tofu adds bulk to the dish, making it extremely filling. I've also grown to favor the brown rice version of the same dish, the nuttiness of the rice goes really well with the soy sauce.

Lentil makeover

Dear Foodies,


I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend, I sure enjoyed mine. The weather was perfect all through with bright, sunny blue skies and the colors of the fall finally taking over, and friends to complete the picture. If only this weather stays on forever :) Today's recipe came from a disaster recovery effort, it was an ingredient that went completely wrong but then turned out to be perfect for another recipe. Has that happened to you ? Usually when I am cooking with an ingredient for the first time or making a dish I've never had before, I don't know what to expect. How long does it need to cook ? Is the texture right, does it look/taste like its supposed too ? What order do I cook things in ? There are just way too many questions, and its only after a couple of trial n error chances and some guesswork I arrive at something I like.

A few weeks back, I brought home a fresh tomato salsa and a lentil salad from the deli section of my local organic store here. I liked both of them and I read through the ingredients list for the lentil salad. Most were simple everyday ingredients. I've never cooked with yellow/green lentils before and so bought a pack to experiment with the salad recipe. I did not check to see if there were any cooking instructions on the package before emptying the lentils into a jar and tossing it out. I read a few recipes online and stove top or pressure cooking were used. I was too lazy to go the stove top way, waiting by the counter for 20-30 mins and so decided to pressure cook them. Two whistles from the cooker later I was left with a mush of lentils unsuitable for any kind of salad!! I was totally disappointed and chucked the idea of a salad and made do with a sandwich that night. But, .....but, the smell of lentil mush reminded me of another dish, dal makhni ...,

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups - Brown lentils, accidentally cooked to a near mush, yes a few still had some life in them.
  
• 1/2 cup - thinly sliced Onions
• 2 nos - medium Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp - chopped, Ginger
• Whole spices: 1" stick of cinnamon, 1 -badi elaichi/cardamom, 1 tsp - Shahi jeera/cumin, 2 - laung/cloves
• 1 tsp- Chili powder (adjusted to taste)
• 1 Tbsp - Oil/butter
• 3.5 + 0.5 cups - Water
  
• Salt to taste
• Cilantro and lemon wedges for garnish

Method:

1. Sift through the lentils to remove any stones and wash them thoroughly. Add 4 cups of water, salt it and cook in a pressure cooker for 1 whistle, or cook them over the stove top until they are completely tender but retain a little of their shape. (for salads, they need to have some bite left)
2. In a pan, heat the oil (or use butter), add the whole spices and let them sizzle for a while, next add the onions, ginger and saute until the onions turn translucent and slightly brown.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for 6-8 mins until they loose shape and the oil slightly starts to separate around the edges. Add chili powder (and garam masala, optional), cook for a minute and add the lentils with 1/2 cup of water.
4. Since salt was added to the lentils, taste to check for more salt. Cover and cook for an additional 6-8mins on low heat. Garnish with coriander leaves/cilantro, a slice of butter and serve with rice (jeera rice/pulao) or roti along with a wedge of lemon on the side.

I forgot about the salt in the lentils since I was using them after a few days in the fridge and oversalted the dish a little :( I cubed a small potatoe and tossed it in with some water to absorb the salt :D The curry tasted good despite all the mess up's during the cooking, I actually liked the potatoes in them too. The lentils have a very earthy taste and combined with the whole spices, the dish was rich in flavor. The reason I never tried the original dal makhani because I never buy the whole urad (black lentils) and don't know other recipes using it. The brown lentils seemed to be a more flexible and convenient choice for me, and there are more recipes coming up.

I had it with jeera rice, a pretty simple recipe that I fmake often. Heat some oil, toss in loads of jeera/shah jeera, a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves, some sliced garlic. Once they sizzle, add some finely sliced onions if you aren't too lazy. Then add the washed rice, saute till it its coated with the oil and spices (1-2mins), transfer to a rice cooker with salt n water and its done :)

I was lucky in averting this disaster, how do you deal with yours, any good ones ?

Undrallu/Steamed Rice cakes

Dear foodies,

This year on Vinakaya chavithi all of you got together and schemed against me by talking about the festivites and your delicious offerings to the elephant Lord. I had not planned on making anything special, a quick sugar candy/dry fruits neivedyam in the morning and I was out of the house. I changed my status message on the messenger, wished everyone I could find online, put a nice blog post wishing all of you, and then started going around ...that was the mistake. Each one of you had a solid plan chalked out on how you were making the day special, hmph! 

And all the foodie photos got me hungry for some authentic festive food too :( I am not a sweet lover, I think I've mentioned that enough in this space, no mood for frying things up either. As I was composing that post I tried looking for a post of undrallu on my blog, I had made them the last two years for Ganesh chathurthi and was so sure I had blogged about them, atleast I thought so. Not finding the post though confirmed by dinner plans :) Undrallu it was, with the condiment made specially for it, a yet another awesome traditional combo, puli-inji/allam-chinthapandu pachadi. Here's my version...

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup - Rice
  
 * Use 1 1/2 cup idli rava if you want to save time

• 1/4 cup - Moong/chana/toor dal 
  
 * I used a combo of the later two, while the first is the traditional choice

• 3/4 tsp - whole Peppercorns  
  
• 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
  
• 1/2 Tbsp - Ghee/oil
  
• 5-6 - Curry leaves
  
• 1 - dried Red chilli
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 1 Tbsp - grated/bite sized coconut for added flavor (thanks anon!)

Method:

The upma stage
1. Soak the rice in water for about 30-40 mins. Drain and spread them on kitchen towels to dry. Once most of the moisture is lost, blend them to a coarse powder along with the dal,  pepper and 1/2 tsp jeera. I got approximately 2 cups of the coarse powder/rava from this.
   
2. Microwave 1 1/2 cups of water. Heat ghee in a sauce pan, add the 1/4tsp of the jeera, next add the curry leaves and broken red chilli. Once they splutter, carefully add all the water to the pan with salt. 
   
3. Stirring continuously, add the rice-dal rava (and coconut) , try to avoid any lumps. Cover and place on medium-low heat for a 5-8mins. Since the rice was soaked and then ground, it does not take long to cook. Turn off heat when done, but keep covered for a few more minutes. Drizzle a little more ghee if you want now.
   
The idli stage
4. In the meantime, place a pressure cooker with a few inches of water to heat. lightly grease a pan that fits inside the cooker. When the rice-dal upma is cool enough to handle, form into into oval shape balls, moisten your hands if needed, so the mixture does not stick to them. Arrange them on the greased pan, close with the lid and steam them for 8-10mins, or until you get a steady stream of steam coming out of the cooker for about 5 mins. Serve hot with some puli-inji or kara podi/idli podi or sambar
   

I got about 8 of these, I steamed 4 in the cooker and 4 in the microwave. The batch in the microwave was slightly yellowish and not steamed through as well as the cooker batch. But I am sure you can use the microwave in a pinch. 

I'll add the recipe to the puli-inji and karapodi in the next few posts :) Until then, if you are looking to add sweet potatoes to your meal but are bored of the baked potato like I am, but still want to enjoy them,  try these two wonderful recipes: Baked fries and Thai stew.

Risotto...finally!

Dear Foodies,

Having seen many many recipes for risotto on blogs and the high praise that is showered on this dish, I just had to try it out. So off I went to the store one fine day and picked up some Arborio rice...and so the story ended! Yes, that box of rice was sitting on my pantry shelf for more than 2 months without complaints!! Last week I finally decided it was time to bring it out, I was out of fresh vegetables and the Risi e Bisi photo flashed past my mind.

So I checked their recipe, realized I had just about everything needed and set out making the risotto before the moment passed! I used frozen peas and arborio rice .... and sprinkled some (gulp) chole masala (!!) .....I also skipped the cheese & the parsley, apart from that ;) the recipe is intact and so check the recipe here. I am not a huge fan of mint but I absolutely loved its flavor in this recipe, it was wonderful. Thank you Bee & Jai!

Now, you cannot possibly take a photo without garnishing the dish first, right? So I brought out some baby carrots, chopped them up into little flower-like shapes, decorated the risotto with it and took the pictures. Later when I took a bite of the risotto with the carrots, I loved the crunch...so... I hurriedly diced up some more carrots and added it to the risotto. I had it with some yogurt for dinner, Absolutely lovely! Now that the box has been opened, I am surely going to try out other flavors soon.

Since this is my first time ever making or eating risotto, I am not sure if the consistency was perfect. The rice grains were a little sticky but also had a slight bite to them. I hope that is how its supposed to be, cos I liked it that way :D It was wonderful hot off the stove, but the next day since I had refrigerated it by then, I had trouble liking the consistency, because re-heating it in the microwave made it dry and yet sticky....it probably needs a little stock when re-heated. Any suggestions ?

Happy Monday!

Comforting Kichadi

Dear Foodies,


I am back again, and this time I am armed with a brand new camera. Yayyy ! I am still learning and trying to find my way through the innumerable settings and buttons on the camera, so pardon the photography that I am going to force upon you guys for the next few weeks. Any tips and comments on composition, lighting, angles and everything else are more than welcome, infact I might make that compulsory ;)

The mention of the red chilli pickle in my previous post reminded me of kichadi and instantly I started craving for some warm kichadi. It was also going to be the best companion for kadhi which has sprung up on quite a few blogs this past two weeks. This time I made my usual kichadi without dressing it up like last time.


Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup - Rice, I used Basmati
• 3/4 cup - dal, I used 1/4th toor and 1/2 moong dal
• 1 tsp - Shah jeera or Jeera/Cumin seeds
• 2 nos - Garlic cloves, sliced or smashed
• 1/2 cup - Onion, sliced lengthwise
• 1/2" round of ginger
• 4 nos - Laung/Clove
• 1 nos - Bay leaf
  
• 1 nos - Badi elaichi (or normal elaichi/cardamom)
  
• 1" - Cinnamon stick
• 2 nos - Green chillies, split thru the center
  
• 1 tsp - turmeric
• 2 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste
• 2 1/2 cups - Water
  

Method:

1. Soak the rice in water for about 20 mins. Heat oil in a pan (or pressure cooker) and add the jeera. Next add all the whole spices and heat them through for about a minute.
2. The garlic and ginger go in next, after the garlic cooks a little (~1/2 -1 min) toss in the onions, green chillies and turmeric . I add a little salt to the onions so they release their moisture and soften faster.
3. After the onions are cooked and turn translucent add the moong dal and saute for 2 mins on medium heat until they start turning a little golden and then add the rest of the dal and rice. You could also skip the 2 step process and add all the rice and dal together.
4. Saute the mixture for 2mins until the moisture evaporates and the rice gets nicely coated with the oil. Transfer it to a rice cooker or microwave safe bowl and cook according to your tried and tested rice:water ratio and salt. I cooked it in the microwave for 14 mins, stirred it once and cooked for another 2 mins.

There seems to be nothing elaborate or rich about this dish but it sure is on the top of my 'comforting recipes' list. Its also because of the memories I've attached to Kichadi. My brother and I would play 'tent' in our home once in a while. We would pull together shelves and some how manage to drape bedsheets over them to form a tent right inside the house :D And then we had this nifty little torch light that had a fan on on side and the light on the opposite. We would fix that to the center of the tent and 'camp out' in our tent. We would also pile up pillows and bedding, books etc and make it a cozy corner. My mom would acknowledge this with kichadi and bring it to our tents :)) It sounds so funny and silly but those were golden days :)

For the Kadhi I followed Manisha's recipe but skipped the cloves in it. Thank you Manisha :)

Have a great weekend!

A Kichidi Makeover

Dear Foodies,

I am sure all of you dread the word 'move' when it comes anywhere close to apartments/homes ! I do too but unfortunately for me I have done it 5 times in the last 3 years with another one looming over the near future :(( The last time and even now I am trying to live as much out of the suitcase as possible. But no matter what you do a move is just as painful as ever. The cleaning, sifting the 'need it' from the 'throw it', packing... and just when you think its over, the next cycle begins: Move, unpack, shop and set up home all over again, buying all the stuff that you trashed just a few hours back !!

But the worst thing is when you realize you have packed your kitchen and you are in the middle of this mess that used to be home and covered under piles of dust. And then the hunger pangs kick in ! Its tough to move, but tougher when you are hungry. We learnt our lesson the first two times and from then on, one of us always makes a pot of kichidi to hold us through a day or two. This time too I made some kichadi the day before we were moving and it was also the best way to clean up the odd leftovers in the pantry. I also had some lima beans & cashews that gave the subtle kichidi and huge 'wow' feel. I had just 4 chillies and decided to crush them to get the most flavor out of them.
Ingredients:

• 4 cups - Rice
• 1 1/2 cups - Moong dal
• 1 1/2 cups - Lima beans, frozen
  
• 1/2 cups - broken Cashews
• 3 tsp - Jeera/Cumin (I used a mix of jeera n kala jeera)
• 4 nos - whole Cloves
• 4 nos - Green chillies & 2 nos - big Garlic cloves -> Crushed together in a pestle & mortar
  
• 1 nos - big Onion, sliced ( I din't have any)
• Salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp - Oil
  

Method:

1. In a saucepan/pressure pan dry roast the moong dal till it starts to turn a slight pink color and it leaves a nice aroma. Add it to the raw rice, wash and soak till the rest of the ingredients are ready.
2. In the same pan heat 1tsp of oil and roast the cashews until golden brown. Remove and reserve it for the end.
3. Now heat the rest of the oil in the pan and toss in the jeera when hot. Add the cloves and after a few seconds until the aroma rises add the crushed chillies and garlic paste.
   
4. After a few seconds the onions that I dint have go in. Saute them till translucent and them add the lima beans and cook for a few minutes to thaw it.
5. Now add the drained rice and dal. Saute till the oil coats all the grains and you see them glisten in the pan.
6. If using a pressure pan add the required amount of water (accounting for the lima beans), salt and the reserved cashews and cook. Otherwise move all the contents to an electric cooker and cook till done.
7. Once done fluff up the rice and serve with pickles/raita or just as is :)

This kichadi was one of the best impromptu recipes I have made. I used the lima beans only cos I had half a packet lying around that I did not want to throw. But I might shop for them next time I make kichadi. Lima beans take a little long to cook and presure cooking them with the rice got the perfect texture out of them. The cashews made the mundane sounding kichadi something special to have, and more so when the rest of the apartment was in a mess it made the meal feel rich :) I also liked the crushed up chilli-garlic flavor as it gelled well into the rice and was not something to pick out of the plate. All in all it dint just serve its purpose as a stock of food but was something really enjoyable to have. I am sure to make it again, hopefully not for a move though :P

Have fun !

Coconut rice with a twist ...

Dear Foodies,

This was a dish that fell into place as I was going on. I had no idea what I was making until it was done and sitting on my plate. I started out with the intention of making a curry with Soy granules. It was a long time since I had eaten it and I suddenly had the cravings for them. I checked my kitchen closet, and dug out near 3/4th pack of it. Happy, I was :), So I went about getting the veggies ready. I diced some fresh carrots, capsicum, onions, all to match the size of the soy granules, and that meant tiny cubes(Why! Oh why !! It took me such a looooong time.) Once that was ready, I thought I was all set to get the curry started. I opened the pack of soy granules so I could soak them in water as the veggies got cooked. Surprise !! It had those teeny tiny insects in it .....eeks...it was way past its shelf life ! I threw out the whole pack and then cleaned the rest of the shelf. But after all that I was still hungry and had neatly diced, cute veggies with me. I had to come up with something using all of them and decided to make it into a curry that I could add rice to,hence making it complete meal on its own. The result of that experiment was this extremely delicious rice dish. It was so wonderful that I fell in love with it right from the first spoonful. This is a must try guys.

I had only recently discovered that coconut and garlic can be paired together and the act did not have to be termed blasphemous. We are brahmins and in our house...coconut was ranked high up ( atleast I felt so) and garlic was nearly an untouchable...and that is how my taste buds have been programmed. We use garlic and onions and garam masala very rarely. But after coming here for my Masters, that has changed. Most of my roomies and friends are used to having the first two of the three as the initial step of any dish. You first heat up some oil, saute some onions and garlic, and then look arnd for veggies to put into it !! hehe. I have kinda gotten used to it now, but comfort food is still something without any of those. I proudly proclaim that my mom would dish out a three course meal every single day for the whole of the 8-day Dasara celebration without using onions/garlic/masalas even once :) I need to get all those recipes from her now. But before that I need to reacord this recipe for future,

Ingredients:
For 3 cups of cooked rice(cooled a little) you will need:

• 1/2 cup - Carrots, finely diced
• 1/2 cup - Capsicum, finely diced
• 1/2 cup - Onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup - Tomatoes, finely diced (use fresh ones only or skip this)
• 3 nos - Green chillies, finely chopped ~1 Tbsp
  
• 2 nos - big Garlic cloves, finely chopped --finely diced, that is the theme today!
• 1/2 cup - Peas or Garbanzo beans or Lima beans (optional)
• 1/4 cup - French cut beans (optional)
• 1/2 cup - dessicated Coconut
• 1 cup - Coconut milk, I used the canned one

• 2 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 2 tsp - Garam masala
• 3-4 Tbsp - Oil, to saute the veggies

Spices:

• 2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2 tsp - Cumin seeds/Jeera
• 1 tsp - Shah Jeera (optional)
  
• 2 tsp - Fennel seeds/ Saunf - I loved the layer of flavor they added (too much food tv ??)
  
• 4 nos - Cloves
• 2 nos - Cinnamon sticks, 1 inch pieces
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnish (optional)
  

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a wide pan. Once the oil is ready add the spices in the order mentioned.
2. As they start giving out a nice aroma, add the garlic and chillies, 30 secs later the onions and turmeric go in. Saute them till translucent.
   
3. Add the capsicum and the peas next. Once they get a crinkled exterior skin, add the carrots and after a minute add the tomatoes & garam masala and cook till the tomatoes get mushy and the oil starts to separate from the curry.
4. Now add the dry coconut and lower the heat a little before you add the coconut milk (to avoid splitting). Add a little water too if needed.
5. Add salt and let the curry cook for a few minutes until all the veggies come together.
6. Add cooked rice and mix well without breaking too many rice grains. Garnish the coriander leaves and enjoy this fabulous dish with some plain old yogurt !
   

The photos definitely don't do justice to this dish. I had made it for dinner and there was no sunlight, just the boring yellow light from the bulbs, I tried my best though ! I simply loved this rice dish. More so since I had no clue how it would all taste together. But I am really happy that I dint have soy granules, cos I would have missed out on this one. I would surely recommend it to all of you. Its a dish to wipe out all the odd leftover veggies in your fridge and though the list of ingredients seems long, its just throwing together stuff. So try it out and let me know how you liked it :)

Chinese Fried Rice !

Dear Foodies,

Like a lot of Indians, even I discovered that Chinese cuisine found in India is essentially something a very innovative and adventurous chef in India came up with and has nothing to do with authentic Chinese cuisine. No matter what the origin, I just love it.

The basic rule of all these dishes is the same. 'Oodles of garlic, green chillies, pepper, cubed onions and soy sauce' - with this list of ingredients you can whip-up some lip-smacking dishes by tossing in pre-cooked rice/noodles for a main course or some stir-fired veggies, soup or make the sauce for a starter like Manchurian.

This Chinese Fried Rice is one of my favorite ways to use up leftover rice. I tasted tofu only after I came to the US and just love it. I like the firm/extra firm kind and just hate the slimy ones found in a few soups ! The firm one has a very nice texture and goes very well with the soy sauce and garlic in Chinese/Thai dishes.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups: Mixed vegetables, like carrots, beans, cabbage - julienned
You can also add broccoli florets, baby corn, bean sprouts, water chestnuts

• 1 nos: Onion, cubed
• 10-15 nos: Extra firm Tofu, cubed
• 1-2 nos : Green chillies, finely chopped
• 4 nos : Garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp : Ginger, finely chopped
  
• 3-4 Tbsp : Soy sauce
• 1-2 tsp : MSG/Ajinomoto
• 3-4 Tbsp: Oil (I used Olive oil)
  
• Salt and Pepper(freshly ground) for seasoning

Procedure:

1. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a wide bottomed pan, add the tofu pieces and let them brown a little on all sides. Any amount of oil that you add, will get soaked up by the tofu as they have a spongy texture, so be careful while adding oil.
   
2. Once the tofu browns, I drizzle a few drops of soy sauce on them, so that they have similar flavors when mixed with the rice.
3. Reserve the tofu and add the rest of the oil to the pan. Add the ginger, garlic and green chillies. Give them about 30 seconds before you add the onions and cook till translucent. Adding the ginger-garlic-chillies first, infuses their flavors into the oil and gives the dish a uniform flavor when mixed.
   
4. Microwave the veggies for a few minutes and then add them to the onions.
5. Saute till the vegetables are done but let them retain their crunch. Take care to not overcook them.
6. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and stir well. Also add a little soy sauce so as to coat all the veggies well.
7. The rice should be pre-cooked and cooled and should have separate grains or the final dish will get all mushy !
8. Add the rice, soy sauce and ajinomoto. Taste for salt and pepper, add as required and stir well. Soy sauce contains salt, so keep that in mind while adding salt. Pepper is one of the main flavors in this dish and freshly ground pepper is the best.
   
9. Add the reserved tofu and keep covered for a couple of minutes before turning off the heat.
10. Garnish with spring onions and serve.

You can pair it with some wet Manchurian or just as it is. I don't think I have to explain to you how delicious this dish is. This fried rice beautifully highlights the flavor of the vegetables like carrots and beans. These two I think are a 'must have' when making this dish and you will fall in love with the combo. Another important flavor is the use of Pepper as the main source of heat. It is subtle in its action and does not overpower the vegetables. The green chillies can be skipped completely too, but when making for more than one cup of rice I prefer adding a little of it to support the pepper. Read about MSG here. Recent studies have shown that its not good for health and has been banned in most dishes.

Do try it out and let me know how you like it. I will also be glad if you share with me your variations to this dish.

Chinese Fried Rice - Indian istyle ;-)

Dear Foodies,


Had to rush to get the JFI-Potato post up on time, will post the recipe for this in a couple of days :-)

*Updated* - Here's the recipe!

One Pot Meals - Capsicum Rice

Dear Foodies,

I saw a whole lot of recipes for Capsicum rice in Indian food blogs but never attempted making it myself, as I am a little moody when it comes to eating them. They do'nt spontaneously get into my 'most-liked' veggies. I pick and choose what dishes I can eat them in. My roommate makes a wonderful dish with capsicums cooked in a peanut based gravy, I like it a lot, but then I will only eat the gravy and not the peppers !! And sometimes I cut and chop them myself and use them in sambar as I like the flavor they add to it !! :-D

So, on one such 'I-like-capsicums' day I started out making a pulao using capsicums. I used a my own simple style and set out chopping the capsicum, and then I heard my roomie asking me to add potatoes, so I washed a few potatoes too. When I opened the refrigerator to get some coriander leaves I saw a can of chickpeas staring at me and the next moment I was washing a bowl of them. To accompany then I added some roasted peanuts too :-) And slowly my capsicum rice transformed into something totally different but still pleasing to the taste buds.

Ingredients:

• 2 nos - Green Capsicum/bell pepper, cubed

• 1 nos - a big Potato, cubed

• 1 nos - Onion, cubed

• 1 cup - Chickpeas

• 1/2 cup - Peanuts

• 2 nos - Green Chillies

• 1 inch piece of ginger, julienned

• 2 nos - Garlic cloves, julienned
  

• few sprigs of Coriander leaves

Spices:

• 1 tsp - Shahjeera
• 3 nos - Green Cardamom/Elaichi
• 5-6 nos - Cloves/Laung
• 2 nos - Cinnamon, 1 inch sticks
• 1 tsp - Mint leaves, dried ( optional)

• 1 tsp - Coriander/Dhania powder (optional)
  

• 1-2 Tbsp - Oil / ghee

• 3 cups - Rice, I use Sona Masoori
  

Procedure:

1. Wash and soak the rice till the veggies get done.
2. Heat oil in a wide pan, once hot add the shahjeera, you can also use normal Cumin seeds/jeera. As they start to brown, add the rest of the ingredients in the spice list through to the mint leaves and toast them for a few seconds.
   
3. Next add the peanuts and roast them well.
   
4. Now add the ginger and garlic and saute for a minute before you add the onions. After the onions turn translucent add the capsicum. I don't like to cook them until tender at this stage and allow them to retain some crunch. Next add the chickpeas and saute till they start getting a crisp at the outer skin.
   
5. Toss in the cubed potatoes now, peeling them is left to your choice. Also add some salt sufficient for the veggies and some dhania powder. Cover and cook for a few minutes till the potatoes get a little tender. Add half the coriander leaves too.
6. Now drain and add the rice and mix well. I saute it till the little water left in the drained rice evaporates and the grains get coated with the oil and look glossy, this will take just 2-3 minutes if the rice is drained well.
7. Transfer it all to the electric cooker, add the required amount of water and salt and cook to perfection !!
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with raita or any gravy of your choice. Will post my recipe for 'bagara baingan with a twist' in my next post which goes perfectly with this dish :-)

Notes:

• You can choose your own mix of vegetables for this dish.
  
• A ground paste of mint, coriander leaves and green chillies could be added for a variation.
• Instead of using all water for cooking the rice, you can add a cup of coconut milk and reduce the amount of water accordingly.

Bisi Bele Huli Anna

Bisi Bele Huli Anna - Rice and Lentils cooked with veggies

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Foodies,



A couple of months back there was a sudden surge of Bisi bele baath recipes in the Indian blogs. Thats when I decided to make it too. It is a one pot meal, not as simple as kichdi or tomato baath, but definitely very very yummy and comforting. I made a cooker full of it on a saturday and it was all over by the evening with me needing to scrape a little from the bottom of the vessel for dinner :-)

Bisi Bele Huli Anna, is a Karnataka speciality. Bisi - hot; Bele -dal; Huli - tamarind; Anna - rice. Its similar to sambar rice, the rice here is cooked along with the sambar made from freshly ground spices.

Here goes the recipe for this splendid medley of rice and dal. The recipe list is long but all you have to do is roast all of them in a skillet and grind. So don't shun this wonderful dish looking at the long list of ingredients. This is a perfect one-pot meal for a cold, rainy weekend lunch.

Ingredients:

Vegetables:

• 1 nos - Potatoes, cubed
• 1 nos - Carrot, cubed
• 1 nos - Onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
  
• 1/2 cup - Green peas
• 1/2 cup - Lima beans
• Coriander leaves for garnish
• (You could choose any combination of veggies)

To pre-cook:

• 2 1/2 cups - Rice, I used sona masoori
• 1 cup - Toor dal
• 1 key lime sized ball of tamarind soaked for 10-15 mins in warm water.

To grind:

• 2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
• 1 tsp - Fennel seeds/saunf
• 2 tsp - Coriander seeds/dhania
• 1 tsp - Fenugreek seeds/Menthulu
• 4-5 nos - Cloves/lavang
• 5-6 nos - Whole pepper
• 1 no - Cinnamon stick, 1 inch long
• 2 nos - Cardamom/elaichi
• 1 nos - Star anise
  
• 1 Tbsp - Urad dal
• 1 Tbsp - Channa dal
• 2 Tbsp - raw rice
• 1 sprig - Curry leaves
• 2 nos - Red chillies, dried
• Oil for sauteing the above, roughly 2 Tbsp.

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook the dal and rice separately. You can toss in the vegetables that take time to cook along with the dal. Soak the tamarind in some warm water.
   
2. Heat some oil in a skillet and slightly toast the ingredients under the 'to grind' list. Take care to avoid burning any of them. I roasted the ingredients in 3 steps, first those from mustard seeds to cardamom in one go(add the fenugreek seeds last, they burn really fastttt), reserved them, then roasted the dals and rice and finally the curry leaves and red chilies. Allow all of them to cool.
3. Transfer all these to the grinder and blend to get the spice powder. This masala does not have to be extra fine.
4. Extract the pulp from the tamarind and bring the water to a boil. Also add the vegetables not cooked with the dal. Once they get cooked, add the spice mix and boil for a few minutes.
5. Next add the cooked dal and fold in the rice taking care not to mash the vegetables. Add salt to taste and more water if required to get a slightly watery dish.
6. Pressure cook for 1-2 whistles or leave covered on the stove top stirring occasionally till the masala blends with the rice and comes together as complete dish.
7. Mix in some fresh coriander leaves and let the rice stay covered for a few more minutes
   
8. Serve hot with a small dollop of home made ghee, some more coriander leaves and some vadiyum/papad. Now sink into the couch with your plate & your favorite movie playing on TV :-) You can also serve it with some tomato-onion raita too.

My notes:

• You can use veggies of your choice. Beans, zucchini, chole etc. I personally don't like adding cauliflower to sambar dishes as they become mushy.
• I prefer my bisi bele baath a little liquidy with the rice grains soft, unlike the separated rice grains for pulao dishes.
• You can adjust the amount of red chillies and cloves according to your taste. I added a teaspoon of mom's sambar powder too apart from the spice mix.

There are loads of recipes for this from other bloggers:

• Sangeetha's recipe
• Sailaja's recipe
• Sudha's recipe
• Lavanya's recipe
• Shilpa's recipe with a twist

Well I am going to stop here...looks like nearly every Indian blogger has written about it !!!

Pongal - Sweetened Rice and Lentils

Dear Foodies,

Here is the first recipe among the goodies I made for Dasara.

My entry to Luv2Cook's JFI-Ghee event

Pongal, is a rice and dal mix that is cooked in jaggery and made rich with generous amounts of ghee and dry fruits, raisins and cashews roasted in ghee in particular. Coming to think of it, the word dry fruit in most South Indian sweets, more often than not implies, raisins and cashews. Very rarely have I seen other nuts used. And interestingly, though there are soo many festivals celebrated in India each one of them has a particular 'traditional festival-menu' attached to it. This was probably deviced to treasure the hundreds of recipes that our forefathers came up with. In our house its not just the sweets and savories but the daily lunch/dinner menu is also a custom-made one for that particular festival !!

Well back to Pongal, I think its one of the easiest sweets you can dish out, and it is relatively lesser time-consuming and does not call for much of your attention either. Leave the dal and rice to cook and take care of the other things in kitchen till then. Get back to it after sometime, add some jaggery-dissolved water, forget about it yet again and let it simmer, finally add a few dollops of ghee and dry fruits. And Voila,Its done !! You have a comforting and rich dish ready to serve.

Home-made ghee would be the best for this recipe or for any Indian sweet, for that matter, the better the quality of the ghee the more mellowed the flavor and the aroma is just enticing. This month's Jihva event hosted by Luv2Cook is all set to showcase the pivotal role that ghee plays in our cuisine.

This time I made a few variations to my usual recipe. I cooked the rice and dal in half milk - half water mix instead of just water. And I also forgot the amount of dal to add and went ahead and tossed in dal equal to nearly half the amount of rice. And when the final taste was different from what I had planned for, I called Customer Support, my Mom :-) She pointed out to me that we have to use very little dal. She said, the reason a little dal is added to the rice is, plain rice is never offered to the Gods, so we add a lil moong dal and/or channa dal to it. Now you ask might want to ask why not just plain rice...?? According to tradition, plain rice is offered to God only when mourning a death in the family, and so for every other occasion a little dal, even if it is just a few grains, is added to the rice while cooking it and offered as naivedyam. Even for everyday naivedyam, my mother adds a few grains of toor dal to the rice.


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup - Rice

• 1/4 cup or lesser - Moong dal

• 1/4 cup or lesser - Channa dal

• 4 cups - water (or your usual ratio for 2 cups rice )
  OR
  2 1/2 cups - water & 2 cups - whole milk

• 3 cups - Jaggery (or equivalent amount of sugar)

• 3-4 Tbsp - Ghee

• A handful of raisins and cashews/almonds

• 3-4 nos - Cardamom pods/Elaichi, powdered (optional)

for garnishing:

• chopped fresh coconut pieces
• ghee
• honey
  

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook the dal and rice with the water or a water+ milk mix.
2. In a separate pan toss in the jaggery with a cup of water and allow it to melt. It does not have to get a syrupy consistency, we only want the jaggery to dissolve in the water. This might take just 5-6 mins and so you can do this after you have switched off the rice cooker and are waiting the steam-pressure to ease.
   
3. Add the jaggery water and powdered cardamoms to the cooked rice-dal mixture, stir well and simmer for 8-10mins. Check ferequently to avoid the bottom layers from burning. If using sugar you dont have to make a syrup, you can directly add the sugar with some water to the rice-dal mixture while its hot and stir on low heat.
4. Roast the dry fruits in 1 Tbsp of ghee and add it to the rice along with the rest of the ghee. Mix well, add a little more water if required. Keep in mind that the pongal thickens when it cools, so turn off when it is still holding some water.
   
5. Serve hot or cold. While serving you can garnish it with chopped pieces of fresh coconut and/or a drop of ghee. My father likes to drizzle a spoon of honey on his !! YUMMM :-)
   

Notes:

• I did not have fresh coconut, so I roasted some dessicated coconut flakes in warm ghee and added it to the pongal.
• If you use just water to make the pongal, the final dish will have a deep yellowish brown color from the jaggery. Since I added milk, the color has lighened.

This bowl of Pongal is now off to Luv2Cook's medley of JFI -Ghee dishes :-)

Happy Dasara

Dear Foodies,

~~ A VERY HAPPY DASARA TO ALL OF YOU !! ~~

I made Pongal and Sundal as naivedyam on Friday and here are the pictures. I will be posting the recipes a little later as I plan to make more goodies for Vijayadasami too. :-)

Dasara in our house is a big event. We have the custom of keeping 'kolu/golu', which is an exhibit of dolls(made of clay or wood), majorly consisting of Gods. We usually have a 5 or7 step arrangement. A few dolls that we have in our collection in India are:a Ashtalakshmi set, Dasavataram, a doll set depicting a market place, a collection of animals which we arrange in some wet soil to depict a zoo, a temple with a band of muscians. The most reacent major entrant is a cricket set which is soo much fun to set-up :-). I miss being at home for this festival. It was always soo interesting to help my mom arrange the dolls.

I was of the opinion that Dasara and Dussera were just two different ways of spelling the festival name in English, but wikipedia says otherwise....read about the interesting twist:
Dasara and Dussera

I made some Rava Kesari and Bajji(potato fritters) on Sunday for the Saraswati puja naivedyam. A little about the puja from wiki

The goddess Saraswati is worshipped during Navaratri. In South India, Saraswati Puja is a very important festival. The last three days of Navarathri starting from Mahalaya Amavasya (the New Moon day) are dedicated to the goddess. On the ninth day of Navaratri (Mahanavami), books and all musical instruments are ceremoniously kept near the gods early at dawn and worshipped with special prayers. No studies or any performance of arts is carried out, as it is considered that the Goddess herself is blessing the books and the instruments.

I had some batter left even after I used up all the sliced potatoes. It was then in a sudden flash that I realised my mother uses a slotted spoon to make boondi and I was using one such spoon to drain the oil from the fritters. And soo... I happyily made use of the extra batter in making boondi's instead of peeling another potato for the fritters :-) They were nice n crisp and it was wonderful eating them after a looong time :-) I think I am going to make boondi's more often as they are soo simple to make and yet soo tasty.