Friday, December 21, 2007

Egg Fried Rice

A quick and easy way to finsh the left-over rice. Hope you like it :)

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups Cooked rice
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 4 eggs
  • green chillies sliced
  • red chillies
  • Bay leaves, Cardamom, Cloves and Cinnamaon pods
  • Chilli powder, turmeric, salt, Chicken masala powder
  • Curry leaves
  • Coriander leaves
  • Oil


Directions:
1. Heat oil in a wide pan on medium flame. Add bay leaves, curry leaves, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon pods.
2. Break all the eggs into the plan and keep stirring and add some salt, chilli powder and turmeric until the egg fries and becomes into small fried egg pieces like in bhurji.
3. Now add the cooked rice and stir so that the egg pices coat the rice.
4. Add chicken masala powder to give flavour to our egg fried rice.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves.


coming up with pictures soon....

Salmon Fish Curry (Chepala Pulusu)

Salmon is one of the richest sources of Omega-3s. They help in the prevention of heart problems. Scientists say that salmon is the secret of eternal youth. If you want your skin to glow, eat it and you will never age. So you know why dermatologists recommend salmon. I give the credit of this recipe to my friend Shilpa. I learnt this recipe from her.

You can follow the same recipe for cat fish or any other fish.

Ingredients:
  • Salmon fillets washed
  • 1 big Onion chopped
  • 1 tomato chopped
  • 3 Green Chillies
  • Cardamom, Cloves and Cinnamon
  • Turmeric, Chilli powder, Salt
  • Masala powder
  • Oil
  • Coriander leaves and Spring Onions for garnish
  • Curry leaves

Directions:
1. Take a wide pan, add oil. Be liberal with oil. Heat oil and add cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.
2. Cook on low flame. Add curry leaves, onions and sliced green chillies. Add turmeric, ginger-garlic paste.
3. Meanwhile add water to tamarind and make tamarind juice. Fish curry has to be tangy. So add more tamarind.
4. When the onions are cooked add chopped tomato. Then add the tamarind juice with required water.
5. Later add chilli powder and salt. When the gravy is ready add the cut salmon fillets. Cover and cook on low flame. Please note that the salmon fillets have to be completely immersed in the tamarind sauce.
6. Do not stir. When the salmons are completely cooked add the garam masala powder. Garnish with coriander leaves and spring onions. Leave it for 5 minutes and then switch off the stove.


coming up with pictures soon...

Coconut Rice (Kobbari Annam)

Quick and easy, this coconut rice recipe comes in handy for those times when you want to make dinner extra special without putting a lot of effort. Coconut rice also makes a great dish to take to a potluck party. You can get coconut milk from any Indian or Asian grocery store. Chicken curry or any vegetable kurma goes with it well.

Ingredients:
  • 3 cups of basmati rice
  • 2/12 cups of coconut milk
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cups of water
  • Fresh Green Peas
  • Ghee
  • Bay leaves
  • Cardamaom, Cloves and Cinnamom pods
  • 2 Spoons of Garam Masala powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander leaves
  • 1/2 onion. Chop the onions and grind to a paste.
  • Ginger-Garlic paste
Directions:
1. Wash rice.
2. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker on low flame. Add bay leaves, 2-3 pods of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.
3. After some time add the ground onion paste, 2 spoons of ginger-garlic paste, garam masala powder. Fry in ghee till you get a nice aroma.
4. Add 3 cups of basmatic rice, 2 1/2 cups of coconut milk, 1 cup of milk, green peas and required salt into the cooker. Stir.
5. Cover and cook till 3 whistles.

Carrot Green Beans Fry

Carrots promote good vision and the richest source of Vitamin A. Carrots cooked with green beans and onion, along with seasonings tastes great. You can make this just with carrots.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup chopped Green Beans
  • 1 cup chopped Carrots
  • 1/4 cup Onions
  • Green Chillies
  • chilli powder
  • salt
For Seasoning:
  • Oil
  • Curry leaves
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp urud dal
  • 1 tsp chana dal
Directions:
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard. After it splutters add cumin, urud dal, chana dal and curry leaves.
2. Once the seasoning is ready, add chopped onions, green beans, and carrot. Mix them. Cook covered.
3. Toss them in intervals until cooked.
4. Now add 1 tsp of chilli powder and required salt.

Majjiga Pulusu (South Indian Kadi)

The south indian kadi(majjiga pulusu) is an all-time hit in my kitchen. If you use home-made yogurt, the taste would be much better. This goes with plain dal as a side dish.

Cook: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
  • Yogurt
  • salt to taste
  • Turmeric
For seasoning:
  • 1 tsp - mustard
  • 1 tsp - cumin
  • 2 tsp - oil
  • 1 tsp - urud dal
  • 1 tsp - chana dal
  • curry leaves
  • 1/4 onion - finely chopped
  • 5 green chillies - finely chopped
Directions:
1. Whisk yogurt into smooth consistency. Add 1/4 tsp of turmeric and required salt.
2. In a small pan heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, once they splutter add the cumin seeds, urud dal and chana dal.
3. Add the green chillies and curry leaves, once they are coated with oil add the chopped onions and saute till they turn transparent. Switch off the gas.
3. Add these to the whisked yogurt.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Vegetable Bath

Bath reminds us of Karnataka where they do all kinds of bath - tomato bath, bisi bele bath, vegetable bath etc., Most of the times I do this to finish the left-over veggies.

Ingredients:
1. Mixed Veggies -peas, cauli flower florets, beans, carrots, tomatoes, onions, green chillies
2. Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon spices
3. 1/4 cup coconut milk
4. Ginger-Garlic paste
5. Ghee

Directions:
1. Chop the veggies as shown below:














2.
Take a kadai and when on low flame add the spices - cloves - 2, cinnamon- 2, cardamom- 3pods.
After some time add 2 spoons of ginger-garlic paste, veggies and cook on low flame.















3. After the veggies are partially cooked, take rice, wash it and then add double quantity of water. If basmati rice, add 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. Add these veggies partially cooked from above, salt, coriander leaves, close the cooker and cook.















Boondi Raita

Though this is a north indian recipe it complements any bath or biriyani.
If you do not have boondi at home, the first step is to prepare the boondi.

Ingredients for Boondi:
1. Besan
2. Chilli powder
3. Salt
4. Baking powder
5. Oil

Directions:
1. Mix besan, required salt, chilli powder and add a pinch of baking powder and make the batter. 2. Take a kadai, pour oil and heat the kadai.
3. Pour the batter onto a boondi spoon (a large spoon with holes) into the hot oil. Hold the spoon 3-4 inches away from the oil.
4. Fry boondies on medium heat. They should be light golden colour when done. Remove and place on an absorbent paper. Let it cool.















The second step is to prepare the raita.

Ingredients:
1. Boondi
2. Yogurt
3. Water
4. Chilli powder
5. Salt
For popu/tadka:
1. Curry leaves
2. Mustard
3. Red Chillies
4. Jeera

Directions:
1. Beat the yogurt with salt, little chilli powder and water to thin it. It should be of custard consistency.
2. Add boondies.
3. Make seasoning and garnish the raita.

Dosa

Dosa is a South Indian breakfast recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup urud dal
3 cups rice
salt

Initial Preparation:
Wash the rice and dal. Soak these in water for 8 hours. Grind them adding salt. Keep aside in a warm and dark place for 8 hours so that it ferments.


Directions:

1. Add to the batter water if required and the consistency of the batter should be thick.
2. Heat the non-stick dosa pan well.
3. Pour one ladle full of batter over the pan. Spread the batter from the bottom of the ladle making circles. Sprinkle oil on the edges of the dosa.
4. Reverse the dosa on the pan when it turns light brown.
5. Remove with spatula when crisp.

Dried Fish with Brinjal Curry (Endu Chepalu Vankaya)

This is one of my favorite curry and every time it comes out well. Dried fish you can get from any Chinese market. I like fishy smell and secretly enjoy it. I got this recipe from my mom which is made in almost all fish lover's home during unseason when we do not get fresh fish in local markets. A must try recipe if you've never tasted this.



Cook: 30 minutes



Ingredients:
1. Small Dried Fish
2. Brinjal - 3
3. Onion sliced
4. Green Chillies - 3
5. Tomato - 1
6. Curry masala powder
7. Chilli powder
8. Turmeric powder
9. Salt
10. Tamarind

For seasoning:
1. urud dal
2. chana dal
3. mustard
4. curry leaves
5. oil

Directions:

1. Soak in water dried fish for 10 minutes and then clean it with turmeric.
2. In a pan, put tadka and then add silced onions, green chillies and the cut brinjal pieces. Add a little bit of tumeric and cover and simmer until tender.
3. Take another pan and fry the dried fish till they become tender.
4. Make tamarind juice.
5. Add tamarind juice, cut tomatoes, fried dried fish from the other pan, chilli powder, masala powder, and salt into the brinjal pan. Mix the contents, add some water if you want more gravy. Cover and cook till it is done.

Kalakand

Following our Indian custom when one moves into a new house - one heats a pan of milk and allows it to boil over, thus ensuring the house will always have abundance I would like to start over my new home with a milk recipe - Kalakand.


Cook: 45 mins

Ingredients:

1. 1 gallon Whole Milk
2. 1/4 cup Lemon juice
3. 2 to 2 1/2 cups sugar
4. nuts such as pista, almonds(optional)


Directions:

1. Boil 1/2 gallon milk.
2. Once the milk starts to boil, add lemon juice and stir. Within a couple of minutes, you can see that the milk breaks and separates into a solid mass called chenna and liquid.
3. Switch off the gas, allow it to cool, filter this and get the chenna. It would be similar to egg bhurji or paneer bhurji.
4. Boil the remaining 1/2 gallon milk in a pan and boil to half.
5. Add the chenna and boil till the mixture thickens. Stir continuously.
6. Add sugar and continue to cook, stirring all the while till it softly thickens into a lump
7. Pour this into a bowl and sprinkle nuts