I have never tried anything with green moong dal before. I had to buy this dhall cos my kids had some activity in their art class with those. Since I had more than half a packet, I thought of trying something with green moong dhall. Itried this rice with it and it came out pretty good.
Ingredients:-
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Green Moong dhall - 3/4 cup
Tomato - 2
Onion - 1 big
Garlic - 3 pods
Ginger - a small piece
Green chillies -5 (acc to taste)
Carrot,peas,potato,Green Bell Pepper - 1 cup (thinly sliced)
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 1
cashews - few for garnishing
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Oil - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Ajwain seeds - a pinch
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Soak Green Moong Dhal** for 3 to 5 hours. Wash and soak basmati rice for 10 minutes. In the mean time, boil tomato and peel off the skin and grind it into a fine paste. keep it aside. Also grind onion, garlic, green chillies and ginger into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Now pre heat oil & ghee in a pan, splutter cumin & ajwain seeds, cashew cinnamon & clove, saute onion paste to golden brown. Add the thinly chopped vegetables now and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the tomato paste, turmeric powder, soaked moong dhall and required amount of salt. Let everything mix well. It will be in semi solid consistency. Now add the basmati rice, required amount of water *** and cook it till its done. Garnish it with coriander leaves. Enjoy with some raita.
** - I soaked green moong dhall for 1 1/2 hours which was not enough. So microwaved it for 3 minutes before adding it to the masala mix.
*** - My tomato-onion masala mix was little bit watery. So I just added 3/4 cup of water along with rice and masala mix for cooking.
When we were staying in hotel for a month, we used to eat this dahi wali bindi very often. Some how I couldn't get that taste anywhere after that. Thought of trying it by myself. I got the recipe for Dahi Wali Bindi from Pari's Blog. Wanted to give it a try. I almost followed the same except I added tomato and onion before cooking Okra. Here is my Dahi Wali Bindi Picture.
After moving back from US, I didn't do any baking. We bought a convention oven here but I am kinda scared to try baking in convention oven. But then kids started asking me for cookies. We were buying cookies from shops. They started getting their stomach flu very often. We were not sure whether its because of cookies. Not to blame anybody, instead of buying those biscuits and cookies, I thought of start baking them again. This muffins I baked today and it came out pretty good.
Ingredients:-
Wheat Flour - 1 cup (I used Pillsbury multi-grain atta)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Egg - 1
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Walnut - 1 tbsp (chopped)
Mix the dry ingredients well. Incorporate the wet ingredients (Milk, egg, Melted buter) one by one and mix everything well. Add raisins & walnuts to it. Mix it well. In the mean time, pre heat ovento 220 degrees.. Now pour the batter in muffin cups and bake it upto 25 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. I baked it for 24 minutes. I got 8 muffins from the above said quantity.
Adai Kozhakattai is a famous evening tiffin in Kerala Iyer families. And as always my patti used to make yummy kozhakattais. Day before yesterday, I made these adai kozhakattais for our dinner. While making it, I was literally thinking about my patti because, she used to grind the batter in the old fashioned stone grinder (Kall ural) and steam a whole lot of kozhakattais for 12 of us. I wanted to eat this kozhakattai's during my masakkai time(6 years back), called my patti and asked for recipe. She gave the recipe and asked me not to strain myself because, we have to do lot of stirring (She had no idea about microwave and all). I soaked the ingredients and started grinding it. But that time, smell of the urad dhall made me throw up so badly and gave up the idea of making this kozhakattais and never had it after that. So wanted to give it a try this time. Since my patti is no more (and I already forgot the recipe), I called my chitti for the recipe and got it from her.
Ingredients:-
Boiled rice - 1 cup
Black Urad dhall - 1 cup
Channa dhall - 2 tsp
Red & Green chillies - 5 or 6 (acc to taste)
Salt to taste
Curry leaves - few
Oil - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dhall - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 1
Asafoetida powder - a pinch
coconut oil - 1 tsp
Soak boiled rice, urad dhall, channa dhall and chillies for 4 to 5 hours. Grind it nicely adding curryleaves and required amount of salt. The batter should be like dosa batter. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chillies and asafoetida powder and pour the adai batter in it. Stir it continuously till it becomes like a dough. I microwaved the batter for 10 minutes, stirring in between to get that consistency. If you touch the dough, it should not stick. Now make balls according to your wish and steam cook it for 10 to 12 minutes or till it becomes shiny, in idly moulds. Now adai kozhakattai is ready to eat. Coconut chutney goes well with it. When you are ready to eat, Just take couple of kozhakattais, scramble it, sprinkle a teaspoon of coconut oil and enjoy with chutney.
I made this curry last week. It was so boring to make the regular okra curry every time. So thought of giving it some change and tried this dry curry using some masala ingredients.
Ingredients:-
Okra - 2 cups (chopped in an inch size)
Onion - medium sized 2
Tomato - Medium sized 2
salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 to 4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds -1/2 tsp
To Roast & Grind:-
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Channa dhall - 2 tsp
Urad dhall - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 3 nos (acc to taste)
Coconut - 1 tsp
White Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
Ajwain seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds = 1/2 tsp
Peanuts - 2tbsp
Pre heat a pan with a teaspoon of oil, splutter mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fry onion till it becomes transparent. Add chopped tomato and saute for few minutes. Now add the chopped okra to it, sprinkle required amount of water, add turmeric powder, mix well and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. In the mean time, take a pan, pre heat a drop of oil, fry the given ingredients in "To Roast & Grind" and grind it into a fine powder. Keep it aside. When the vegetables are nicely cooked, add the required amount of masala powder and required amount of salt. Mix it well and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining oil in between. It tastes really good with rice and I am sure it will taste good with rotis too.
I wanted to try this dates balls after seeing Priya's Dates Peda. I wanted to try this sometime this week. Yesterday my kids wanted to eat laddoo all of a sudden. I am not good in making laddoo so I tried convincing them that I will make something else. So started making this peda and instead of making it as peda I just rolled it and made it laddoo. They were not happy to see brown color laddoo (thats what they said), but they liked the taste. I added couple of more ingredients to her recipe and made it choco balls.
Ingredients:-
2 tbsp Crumbled Paneer.
1/4 cup dates (which came around 7 seedless dates)
Milk - little more than 1/4 cup ( I used the regular milk)
Cinnamon - a pinch
Ghee - 2 tsp
choco syrup - 1 tsp
Almonds & Walnuts (mixed) - 1 tbsp
Soak dates in milk for an hour. Then grind the milk-dates mix along with paneer and make it a paste. I also followed Priya's method. Just microwaved it for 6 mts. Stir it in between. Add cinnamon and chocolate syrup in between while stirring. When the paste comes like a ball, add melted ghee and make it small balls. In the mean time, grind the nuts into fine powder and roll the choco balls in it and serve it hot. It tastes really good. I just made 6 balls cos I was not sure whether my girls will like it or not. After finishing them, they quietly told me that it tasted like dates and not like chocolate balls :). I am sending this to Srivalli's kid's delight - Finger Food. Also this goes to Nivedita's MEC- Fruits event, started by Srivalli.
I am not a very big fan of any paruppu payasam. But my mom used to make paruppu payasam very often and she used to tell that jaggery is good for health than sugar. I made this payasam last month for my FIL's ceremony and it came out pretty good and the surprisingly kids really liked it.
Ingredients:-
Channa dhall/Kadalaparuppu - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup (can be increased acc to taste
Cardamom - 1
Edible Camphor - a pinch
Ghee - 1 tsp
Cashew - 1 tsp (chopped)
Coconut - 1 tsp (chop it into small cubes)
First pressure cook channa dhall upto 3/4th done. In the mean time, dissolve jaggery with required amount of water and removed sand from it, if any. Again in the same pan, boil the jaggery water adding cardamom and edible camphor. When it starts to boil, add the 3/4th cooked dhall to it and let it boil for5 to 7 mts or till the dhall is fully cooked. Mash the dhall if you wish to. Fry cashew and coconut in ghee, to golden brown and pour it top of payasam. This is how my mom used to make this payasam. My MIL used to follow another method to make this. Will post that recipe soon..
My girls like to eat chapathis for dinner.This aloo paneer sabji I made last week along with chapathis. It took just 15 mts to finish this and my girls loved it cos i always use less amount of chillies. I just made this for me and the girls cos my husband was out of town that day. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:-
Potato - 2 Medium sized (chopped into cubes)
Paneer - 1/4 cup (cubed)
Tomato - 1 medium sized
Onion - 1 medium sized
garlic - 1 pod
cashew - 4
poppy seeds - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies - 1 (acc to taste)
red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
Ghee - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Ajwain - 1/4 tsp
Microwave cubed potato in microwave using a microwave safe bowl for 4 to 6 mts or until its 3/4th done. In the mean time, fry paneer pieces adding a drop of oil to golden brown and keep it aside. Also grind onion, tomato, garlic, cashew, poppy seeds, green chillies, coriander seeds and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds to a fine paste. Now take a pan, pre heat ghee, splutter 1/4 tsp cumin and ajwain to golden brown. Add the grounded onion tomato paste, turmeric powder, red chillies powder, salt and required amount of water. Let it boil for 3 minutes. Now add the cooked potato and fried paneer pieces to the mixture and let everything cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust water according to the required consistency. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it hot.
Even though we have some disadvantages from our relocation, there are few notable advantages I can see in my girls. First thing is they have started saying Prayer every day which they never used to do when we were in US. Another one is eating vegetables. Since we live in Delhi right now, kids here bring some dry vegetable curry as side dish I believe (I am assuming they eat it also).So one fine day, my girls asked me to make side dish for their Chapathi which they used to take for lunch. Before I used to make Vegetable chapathis for lunch. But now a days I have started preparing side dishes instead of veggie chapathis. This is one kind of dry curry I made day before yesterday for their lunch.
Ingredients:-
potato - 1 meduim sized (choped it finely)
carrot - 1 medium sized (chopped)
Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped
Peas - 1/4 cup ( I used fresh peas)
Paneer - 1/4 cup (finely chopped)
ghee - 1 tsp
Ajwain - a pinch
salt to taste
Green chillies - 1
Turmeric powder - a pinch
coriander leaves - for garnishing
Microwave chopped potato, carrot and peas in a safe bowl for 6 mts or till its done. In a pan, pre heat a drop ofghee, and fry the paneer pieces to golden brown. Keep it aside. Now add the remaining ghee, splutter ajwain and fry green chillies (I removed the green chillies after the curry is done cooking). Fry the chopped onion till it becomes transparent. Now add the cooked vegetables along with required amount of water. Add turmeric powder and salt and let it cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Add the fried paneer pieces when the water is almost dry and mix it along with other vegetables. Garnish it with coriander leaves.
