Quick Carrot Rice

Somedays you don't feel like cooking anything but you have people around and have no other choice, this rice comes handy. I learned this recipe from one of my friend's mom. Frankly speaking, it is easy to make and luckily my girls really liked that rice. I usually make carrot rice in this way. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients:-

1. Carrot - 1 (shredded)
2. Onion - 1 finely chopped
3. Tomato - 1 finely chopped
4. Garlic - 1 clove
5. Ginger - a small piece (chop it)
   
6. Green chillies - 1 (acc to taste)
7. oil - 2 tsp
8. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
   
10. Rice - 1 cup ( I used sonamasoori rice)
    
11. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
12. Salt to taste
13. Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Preheat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds and cumin seeds and fry green chillies to golden brown. Add chopped onion, ginger & garlic and saute' for a minute. Now add the chopped tomato and shredded carrots to it. Add turmeric powder and let it cook for couple of minutes. In the mean time, wash the rice, drain it and keep it aside. When the veggies are half cooked, transfer it to the pressure cooker, add the drained rice, add required amount of water ( I usually add 3 cups of water for 1 cup of rice, but this time, I just used 1 1/2 cups of water along with half cooked vegetables and rice). Pressure cook it upto 2 whistles. Open the cooker when the pressure is released and garnish it with coriander leaves.

Deepavali Goodies....

HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO ALL MY FRIENDS HERE...

Diwali is one of our favorite festival we celebrate everyyear. I bet you guys must have celebrated it in a grand manner this year too. WE went to a potluck party this year and had fun there. I was planning to make lots of goodies this year, but ended up making only two because of some unavoidable reasons and the news from India that my patti (who is my first inspiration in cooking)is sick and she is in the hospital. I just made Atta laddoo and omapodi this year for diwali. Thanks to Rashmi who shared this recipe with me. Here is the recipe for Atta laddoo. This recipe is similar to rava laddoo we make. Instead of rava, I used wheat flour.

Ingredients:

1. Atta/wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
   
2. Sugar - 2 cups
   
3. Ghee - 1/4 cup (I used little less than that)
   
4. Warm Milk - if necessary (to make balls)
   
5. Cashew & Raisins - a tbsp each

Take a thick bottomed pan, pre heat couple of teaspoons of ghee and fry the cashew and raisins to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, fry the atta till a nice aroma comes from it. Keep the stove in a low flame while frying atta. In the mean time, also melt the ghee in a separate pan and keep it aside. When the atta is done frying, transfer it to another vessel, add the fried nuts and raisins and pour the warm melted ghee slowly and make small balls. If you feel the mixture is too dry, then warm 1/4 cup of milk and keep it aside. Sprinkle little by little and then start making laddoos.

I followed my patti's recipe for making oma podi too..

Ingredients:-

1. Omam/ajwain - 1 tsp
   
2. Rice flour - 2 cup
   
3. Besan flour - 1 cup ( Most people use this more than rice flour)
   
4. Salt to taste
   
5. Unsalted butter - 2 tsp
   
6. Hing/asafoetida -a pinch
   
7. Oil-to deep fry.
   

Soak omam previous night in water. When you are ready to make this, filter omam and just take the water(my MIL used to grind this and then filter the omam, but patti just use the water). I personally felt my MIl's method is better than this one. Add all the dry ingredients, add butter and start kneading the dough adding omam water. Add water if necessary. Pre heat oil in a pan, Take required amount of dough and put it in the Omapodi press and press it in the hot oil(careful while doing this). Fry it till it becomes golden brown...

Dhaniya Podi (coriander seeds Podi)

I am reposting this Corianderseeds Podi (Dhaniya podi) for Priya's Think Spice-Think Coriander Event. This is my husband's favorite. Ingredients for making this podi are as follows:

Ingredients:-

1. Channa dhall - 1 Cup
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
   
3. Urad dhall - 2 tsp
4. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
5. Coriander seeds - 3 cups
6. Red chillies - 4 (acc to taste)
7. Black pepper - 1 tsp
   
8. Salt to taste
9. Asafoetida powder.

Fry all the ingredients one by one to golden brown (including salt). Let it cool and grind it into a fine powder. This goes well with white rice and a teaspoon of sesame oil. This podi recipe goes to Priya's Event

I am linking this coriander logo to Sunita's blog.

Oats chapathi & Mint chapathi

I have never tried roti/chapathi with oats. One of my friend from the kids' school told me about this oats chapathi and I wanted to try this today. She wanted me to try this adding more oats than wheat. Since I wasn't sure whether it will wor, i just tried with more wheat and a part of oats....Here is the recipe I followed..

Ingredients:-

1. Wheat flour - 1 cup
2. oats powder - 4 tbsp (grind quaker oats into a fine powder)
3. salt to taste
4. Water to knead
5. Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Mix wheat and oats flour, add salt and knead the flour into a nice dough. Spread the sesame oil and leave the dough for atleast half an hour. When you are ready to make roti, take required amount of dough to make one roti and spread it into a circle shaped roti of 7" diameter. Cook it on both sides and enjoy. Surprisingly, it was really good. This is the first time, I am trying roti with oats. Since my husband stopped eating oats, I have a whole bunch of oats in my pantry, and now I can use them for making rotis...

I also made one more flavor roti. I first made two small rotis for my girls using the dough and I used some leftover Mint thogayal to the remaining dough. I used two teaspoons of thogayal with the remaining dough and made chapathis with that. It tastes new to me cos this is the first time I am trying chapathi with mint leaves.