Pepper-Jeera Rice/Milagu-Jeeraga Saadam

This is one of my favorite variety rice.  During this winter season, kids get sick very often and I made this rice yesterday for my girls.  They have seasonal cold/sore throat.  Luckily they liked it.  It takes just few minutes to make this rice, if you have cooked white rice.  Here goes the recipe.

Nel Pori Urundai

Pori Urundai is one of my favorite evening snack.  This is my first attempt in trying this pori urundai.  Last year my MIL was here with us and she made pori urundai for karthigai deepam.  This year I had no other choice other than trying this on my own.

Paruppu pradhaman

Paruppu Pradhaman is one of Kerala Iyer's Famous Payasam.  My patti is an expert in making this payasam.  I used to wonder in those days without so much facilities like Mixer Grinder, Pressure cooker etc., how people make so many yummy dishes.

Deepavali Sweets

Thought of sharing some of the sweets which I tried for Diwali over the past few years.

http://www.iyercooks.com/2011/09/coconut-burfithenga-burfi.html

Mysore Pak

This is one of my favorite sweet. My grandma and also my mother-in-law, they both are experts in making this sweet.  I learned this recipe from my MIL when she was here during last winter. 

Black Gram Dhall Pulav / Karuppu ulundhu Pulav

I made this pulav long back and this post has been lying in the draft for a very long time.  I was not very sure about the outcome of this pulav first. But to my surprise, my kiddos really liked this one. I didn't make it too spicy. That could be another reason why liked it better. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:

1. Black Gram dhall/ Karuppu Ulundhu - 1/4 cup
2. Basmati rice - 1 cup (soak it in water for 10 minutes before you begin the process)
3. Onion - 1 (medium sized)
4. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil - 2 tbsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Red chillies - 2 
9. Hing -  a pinch

Soak the dhall overnight. Next morning grind it coarsely along with required amount of salt (only for dhall) and green chillies. Steam cook (or Microwave cook it for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring in between) and scramble it. Keep it aside. Now take a pan, preheat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry red chillies and hing for couple of minutes. Now add the chopped onion and salt (for onion only) fry it till it becomes transparent. Now add the cooked/scrambled dhall to it and mix everything well.  Sprinkle hand full of water and cover it with a lid. Let it cook in the low flame. In the mean time, wash and keep the basmati rice ready. When the oil spreads out from dhall/onion  mix, now transfer it to the rice cooker along with the washed basmati rice and salt (ONLY FOR RICE).  Add 1 1/4 cup of water and mix everything well and cook it in the rice cooker.  Serve it hot with raita & chips.


We can always increase the quantity of chillies if we want it more spicy.

Black Gram Kachori / Karuppu Ulundhu Kachori

Again this is another recipe I borrowed from Priya's space. I always use this black gram while making Adai & Adai Kozhakattai. But this is absolutely new to me and it tasted very good. I am sending this post to Cooking with Seeds - Black Gram hosted by Shri of Tiffin Carrier Antic/que's, an event by Priya.

Nutella coffee Mug Cake - Microwave Version

I wanted to make this easy coffee mug cake a long time ago.  Recently Priya has posted the recipe for this cake. I just followed the same recipe and made this cake yesterday for my girls. The quantity she has mentioned was enough for both my little ones. I made it in two little mugs and they finished it pretty fast along with a dallop of ice cream on top it.

 

Here is the recipe:

1. All Purpose Flour - 4 tbsp
2. Oil -  3tbsp
3. Egg - 1
4. Nutella Hazelnut spread - 2 tbsp
5. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Sugar - 2 tbsp ( 4 tbsp in original recipe)
7. Milk - 4 tbsp

 Mix everything in a bowl, without any lumps. Fill Half of the coffee mug with the batter and Microwave it for 1 or 1 1/2 minutes  in high temperature.

 

I am sending this Nutella coffee mug cake for this month's Microwave cooking event, hosted by Priya, an event by Srivalli.

Sweet Corn Vada

I made this vada last week for evening snack. It came out pretty good and the girls liked it. It a perfect evening snack for kids and rich in protein. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:-

1. Frozen sweet Corn - 1 1/2 cups
2. Channa Dhall / Kadala paruppu - 1 1/2 cups
3. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
4. Green chillies - 1 (acc to taste)
5. Fennel seeds -  1/4 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Curry leaves - a hand full
8. Oil - to deep fry
9. Hing -  a pinch

Soak channa dhall for couple of hours along with the chillies. When you are ready to grind, thaw the frozen corn and microwave it for 3 minutes. Let it cool. Now take the soaked channa dhall, MW corn leaving couple of teaspoons for later, chillies & hing and grind it coarsely without adding water.  Take it in a bowl, add the remaining corn, curry leaves, salt, fennel seeds and mix everything well. Take a wide bottomed pan, heat oil. Make small patties of the grounded batter and deep fry it till it becomes golden brown. Serve it hot with a chutney or ketchup.

Pineapple Fried Rice

I made this rice today. I had few small cubes of pineapple pieces which nobody wan to eat. I am not a big fan of pineapple either. I eat it sometimes with bread as pineapple sandwich. Today i was not in a mood for sandwich. Didn't want to throw the fresh looking pineapple in trash.  I was planning to make variety rice today.  Idea of making this pineapple rice came in the middle of cooking.  Surprisingly, it tastes really good. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Basmati Rice - 1 cup
2. Pineapple Juice - 1 cup
3. Salt to taste
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Onion - 1 medium sized (thinly sliced)
6. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
7. Oil/butter  - 2 tbsp
8. Cumin or ajwain- 1/4 tsp
9. Cashew - 2 tsp (optional)

For Grinding:-

1.  coriander seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
2. Channa dhall (optional)- 1/2 tsp
3. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
4. Cardamom - 2
5. cloves - 2
6. Cinnamon stick - 1 tiny piece
7. White Sesame seeds - 1/4 tsp
8. Shredded coconut - 1/2 tsp

Wash basmati rice and soak it for 10 minutes.  In the mean time, roast the ingredients given for grinding, to golden brown. Let it cool and grind it as a powder.  Take a pan, preheat oil/butter, fry cumin seeds, add green chillies and fry it for a second. Now add the thinly shredded onion & turmeric powder. Saute for few minutes. Drain the basmati rice, add it to the frying ingredients and saute for few seconds. Add everything in a vessel. Pour 1 cup of pinepple juice and 1/2 cup water. Add required amount of salt. Also add 1 or 2 tsp (acc to taste) grounded masala powder. Mix it well. Cook it in a rice cooker till it is fully cooked or a pressure cooker upto one whistle. Serve it hot with raita & chips or with potato curry & chips. You will never get the sweetness of pineapple because of the masala powder.

P.S. - It was little spicy with the amount of chillies used. We can always reduce the quantity of chillies.

Bottlegourd Curry

When it comes to weird combinations of side  dishes, no body can beat our very own Hotel Saravana Bhavan.  We attended a baby shower function last month and the host  ordered food from HSB. This was the side dish in the menu. First I thought this was snake gourd curry but then one of our friend's mom said its bottle gourd. In our family, people never use this bottle gourd for cooking.  I came to know about the goodness of this vegetable when we were in Delhi for one year. I started using this bottle gourd in my cooking atleast couple of times a month. This time, after seeing this very new side dish, immediately I wanted to try this at home. Here goes the recipe.


Ingredients:-

1. Bottle gourd - 2 cups (chopped)
2. Onion - 1 chopped
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Oil - 2 tsp
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Urad dhall - 1 tsp
7. Red chillies - 1
8. Hing -  a pinch
9. Salt to taste
10. Coconut - 1 1/2 tbsp
11. Green chillies - 2 (medium sized- acc to taste)
12. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Chop bottle gourd into a bite sized pieces. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chilly & hing. Now saute' chopped onion to golden brown. Add the chopped bottle gourd to it, add turmeric powder, required amount of salt and sprinkle hand full of water to it and cover it with a lid for  5 minutes. Now grind coconut, green chillies & cumin seeds together without adding water. Keep it aside. Check the bottle gourd  in between because it takes very less time to cook. When its 3/4th done, now add the grounded coconut mix. Mix evenly and let it cook for another 3 minutes in low flame. When the raw smell of green chilly goes away, turn off the stove. Garnish it with curry leaves. Serve it hot.

Honey Bunches of Oats Muffin

I got the recipe from a book called 1001 Cupcakes, cookies & Other Tempting Treats.  I got the book from Barnes & Noble couple of months back and finally started trying few goodies from it. The original recipe is made with Museli. I replaced Honey Bunches of oats for Museli. It came super good and I added few chocolate chips in each muffin. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
2. Baking powder -  1 tbsp
3. Honey bunches of Oats Cereal - heaping 1 1/4 cups
4. Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup (I used regular white sugar)
5. Eggs - 2 ( I used 1/3 cup of egg whites)
6. Buttermilk - 1 cup 
7. sunflower oil - 6 tbsp ( I used canola Oil)
8. chocolate chips - 1/4 cup

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper lines or spray it and keep it ready. Sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir the cereal and sugar.  Place the eggs in a large pitcher and beat lightly. Then  beat in the buttermilk and oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid.  Stir gently until just combined.  Spoon the batter into paper liners. Sprinkle chocolate chips. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until well risen, golden brown. Let it cool for 5 minutes and serve warm. 

I am sending this post to Cooking with Love -  Granddad Event, hosted by Shama.

Potato Curry

This is a baked version of potato curry. I was going through my cousin's blog En Vittu Virundhu, I came across this baked potato curry with garlic. But I skipped the garlic. Her version was fully baked and mine is half baked & half stove top cooked. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients :-

1. Potato - 4 (big)
2. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
3. red chillies powder - 3/4 tsp (acc to taste)
4. salt to taste
5. Oil -  1 tsp
6. Pam spray -  couple of sprays

Take a microwave safe bowl. Put small holes in potato with a fork. Add required amount of water to cover the potato and microwave it for 5 to 7 minutes or till it is half cooked.  Let it cool. Peel it and cut it into small cubes. Now put the potato pieces in a ziploc cover adding required amount of salt, turmeric powder & red chillies powder and shake it nicely so that the dry ingredients get coated in the potato pieces. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Now take a cookie sheet. Spray the oil nicely and spread the potato pieces.  Cook it for 5 minutes in the 350 pre heated oven. Stir it in between. Take out the curry when you get the expected crispy structure.

Reposting for Berries - Strawberry Event

I am reposting these two blog post for Vardhini 's Berries - Strawberry Event, an event by Anu.

Strawberry Muffin :-

 

StrawBerry Sandwich :-

Beetroot Rice

This post has been lying in the draft for a very long time.  Thought of finishing it today. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Basmati Rice - 1 1/2 cups
2. Beetroot - 1 cup (shredded)
3. Onion - 1 medium sized
4. Garlic - 1 (chopped)
5. Green Chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
6. ginger - a small piece (finely chopped)
7. Red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
8. Salt to taste
9. Turmeric powder v- 1/2 tsp (optional)
10. Oil/butter - 1 1/2 tbsp
11. cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp

Wash & soak basmati rice in water for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes drain it fully and pressure cook it. ( I added 1:1 1/4 cup water to cook.) In the mean time, heat the oil/butter in a pan, splutter cumin seeds. Add green chillies, ginger, garlic & saute for few minutes. Now add the chopped onion to it and saute for another 3 minutes or till it becomes transparent.  Now add the shredded beetroot to it, add turmeric powder, red chillies powder & salt (for both rice & vegetable) and let cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle water accordingly. Since the beetroot is shredded, it will take less time to cook.  When the rice is cooked, spread it in a big plate and let it cool.  When the beetroot mix is ready, mix it with the rice nicely. Do not break the rice grains while mixing.  Enjoy it hot with onion/cucumber raita and chips.  This rice is very easy to make with less spices and I am sure kids will definitely love it.  My girls really liked the color of the rice cos it turned kinda pink when I mixed the beetroot masala with rice.

Vella Payaru / Payaru Sweet Sundal

This post has been lying in the draft for more than two months.  I made this sundal for navarathri. I followed my patti's traditional way of doing this sundal. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:-

1. Red Karamani -  1 cup (soak it overnight)
2. Jaggery - 1 cup (plus or minus acc to taste)
3. cardamom - 3 (powder it)
4. Ghee - 2 tsp

Pressure cook Karamani till its done (it took 5 whistles for me). In the mean time, take a heavy bottomed pan add the jaggery with required amount of water (little less than1 cup preferably) and let it melt. Remove impurities from it by filtering it in a thin cloth. Again pour the jaggery water in the same pan and let it boil. When it starts boiling really well, add the cooked karamani, powdered cardamom to it and let everything mix and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. When karamani mixes really well, turn off the stove and the add the ghee now and mix everything well.  This can be eaten as evening snack too.