Red Chilies

Medu Vada

2008-04-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 cups Urid dal/ skinless Black lentils, 1 tbl spn finely chopped green chilies, 1 tbl spn finely diced ginger root, 1 tbl finely diced coconut pieces, 1 tbl spn coriander leaves, 1 few curry leaves, Salt as per taste

Method:

Soak the lentils in water. They have to be soaked for about 5 hours. Grind these without water or with 1 tsp of water. The batter should be thick, very thick. If its watery then you wont be able to make the vadas. Add the remaining ingredients except oil. Mix well.

Heat oil in a kadai. When the oil is hot, shape the vadas as doghnuts and put them in hot oil. Fry till are golden brown on the outside. Serve hot with coconut chutney and Sambhar.

Akki Rotti

2008-04-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
Rice Flour- 2 cups, Water- 1 cup, Salt

Method:
In a bowl, mix rice flour and salt. Boil the water and pour it on to the flour mix. Let set for couple of minutes or until the water gets warm enough to knead the dough.

Make dough just fine enough to be able to spread. Make small size balls of it. Wet a cloth and spread the small ball on the cloth with your fingers until u get a round flat Rotti.

Heat the tava. Put the Rotti from the cloth onto the tava. Wait for a minute. Turn it over. Allow it to cook for another minute. Turn it over again. Rotti is ready. Eat it hot with any curry.

Sigdi Taalu or Sigdi Sukka (Dry prawn curry)

2008-04-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

A simple fare. Prawns in very simple coconut gravy. Very popular in Mangalore and Konkan areas. My mom makes it very tasty by adding a potato. But why potato? Well years ago it was joint families. And imagine how many prawns you would need to feed a family of fifteen. And prawns were (are) expensive. So in order to feed the big family, and to save on monies, the mighty potatoes were added. This of course was a welcome addition as the end result was fantastic! This dry prep goes well will rice and daal. Well i made it a lille on the gravy side. That's because i love eating this directly with rice...

Ingredients:

Prawns - 1Lb, Coconut scraping- 1.5 cup, Chilies - 8, Coriander seeds- 2 tbsp, Jeera- 1 tbsp, Garlic flakes - 2, Turmeric powder - A pinch, Ginger- 1 inch, Tomatoes - 2, Onion - 1 (Big), Oil - 1tbsp, Cilantro Leaves for garnish

Method:

Grind chilies, coriander seeds, Jeera, Garlic flakes to a fine paste. Add the coconut scrapings and run the mixer for 1 round. We just want the coconut to mix with the fine paste. It shud not be ground into a fine paste. The mixture is to be thick and not watery.

Now take a Kadai. Heat the oil in it. Chop the onion and add it to the oil. When it turns brown add the ground paste. Saute it. Now add cubed potatoes, chopped ginger and the tomatoes. Add a lille water so that the gravy doesnt stick to the pan. Now add the prawns and cook them till its done. Garnish this with cilantro leaves (optional).

Ghee Rice

2008-04-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
Basmati rice - 2 cups, Ghee - 1/2 cup, Cloves- 3-4, cardomom - 3-4, Cashewnuts- 25gms, Raisins- 25 gms, Cinamon - 1 stick, bay leaf- 2, onion - 1 thinly sliced, Salt to taste

Method:
Heat ghee in a pressure cooker. Add cloves, Cardomom, bay leaf, cinamon stick, cashwewnuts and rasisins. When the cahew turns slightly brown add the sliced onions. when the onions are slightly brown, add the rice (should be soaked in water for 30 minutes). Now for 2 cups of rice add 3 cups of water. Add salt to the water. Pressure cook for 1 whistle. Let it cool. Ghee rice is ready.

Boondi Raita

2008-04-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

3/4 cup salted Boondi, 1 cup Yoghurt, 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder, ½ tsp Cumin Powder, Corriander for garnishing

Method:

Soak boondi in water for 5 mins. Drain water from boondi and add boondi to yoghurt. Add chilli powder, cumin powder and salt to yoghurt and mix well. Garnish with corriander and refrigerate for some time

Raw Jackfruit Curry

2008-01-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

Ingredient:

One can of raw jackfruit, cut into bite sized pieces1/2 cup of soak and pressure cooked Kabul Channa3/4 Shredded coconut3-4 Red chillies, roasted in 1/2 tsp oil1/2 tsp tamarind paste1 tsp coriander seed roasted in little oil1/2 tsp mustard seedssome curry leaves1 flake of garlic1/2 tsp urad dalSalt to taste

Method:

Grind coconut, red chillies, tamarind, and coriander seeds to a coarse paste. Cook the Jackfruit in a cup of water, covered, till cooked through. Add the pressure cooked Kabul channa. Add the ground paste, salt to the cooked Jackfruit. Mix and cook till any liquid present is boiled away. In a seasoning pan, heat the oil, add mustard seeds. When they get crackling, add urad dal , garlic and the curry leaves.Add this to the curry and immediately cover it. Mix the seasoning well and
served with rice and dal.

Chettinad Chicken Curry

2007-06-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while that i posted recipes. Reason for not posting was pure laziness :) Lots of my frends have been complaining that i post only pictures and not the recipes. So here comes Chettinad Chicken Curry (recipe and pic). Quite an easy fare, reminded me of our ooru koli curry.

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces, 1 cup chopped tomatoes, 1 cup onions, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 10-12 curry leaves, 1 cup coconut milk (extract from 1/2 coconut), fresh coriander leaves for garnish, salt to taste, 1 tbsp oil

Make a paste:
4 green chilies, 10 garlic flakes, 1″ ginger

Roast and make a powder: (A)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 2 tbsps coriander seeds, 9-10 dry red chillies, 2 cardamoms, 1″ cinnamon, 6-7 curry leaves, 1/2 tsp oil

Method of preparation:
First make a paste of ginger, garlic and green chilies. Keep aside
Take a tawa, put a few drops of oil, and roast all the ingredients in A and powder it.
Take a vessel, heat some oil in it. Add the sliced onions and sauté till it become translucent. Add the curry leaves. Now add the Chilli-ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for a min and then add the chicken pieces.
Add salt, turmeric powder and tomatoes. Stir well and let it cook for a while.
Let the chicken cook well. Add the ground masala. Mix well and let it cook for another 10 mins (till the chciken is done). Now add the coconut milk and let it cook for another 2-3 mins.The curry is done. Turn of the heat, and garnish the curry with coriander leaves.

Chicken Biryani

2007-03-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Poached Egg Curry

2007-03-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

“Sunday ho ya Monday roz kavo ande”. My mom very aptly followed this ad line. She wanted me and my brother to eat an egg daily. Hard boiled egg, omelets, scrambled egg, egg fritters…she tried her best to make us eat egg in different forms. But the one that I really loved was her poached egg curry. The funda here is that the egg is cooked in the gravy.

The curry has a different taste. When I prepared this curry for the first time, I did not get the poached egg at all. The minute I broke the egg into the curry it got shredded completely. Mom’s solution for this was, turn the gas flame to sim and carefully break the egg into the gravy. Do not increase the gas flame. The egg should be cooked in sim. It takes some time, but the end result is yummylicious… Here’s how I made the poached egg curry.

Ingredients: 1 medium size onion, chopped, 1 medium size tomato, chopped, 1/2 to 1 tsp red chilli powder, 2-3 eggs salt, oil
For the Gravy:1/2 onion, sliced, half cup grated coconut, 1 tsp garam masala, 6-8 stalks of fresh coriander leaves, 1 inch ginger, 2-3 garlic

Lets prepare the gravy first. For this heat oil in a pan and saute the sliced onions. When they turn brown add the grated coconut. When coconut turns brown add the coriander leaves. Grind all these along with ginger and garlic to a fine paste.

Take a kadai, put some oil. Now add the chopped onion and saute till it turns golden brown. Add tomato, chilli powder, salt, and saute. Add the coconut masala. Reduce the flame to low and break the eggs into the curry. Let the egg cook on low flame. Check if the eggs are cooked well. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice.

Vegtable Sambhar

2007-02-21T04:31:00.000-08:00

After long i am opening my blog, on my husband's request. And he wants me to post his fav Sakti masala sambhar. For you hubby dear...here comes your fav sambhar...

Ingredients: Tuvar dal - 1cup, vegtables cubed (drumsticks, potato, brinjal, carrot, beans) - 1.5 cup, Tomato - 1 cubed, few sprigs of curry leaves, chopped Dhaniya patta (kothabari leaves), salt, oil - 3 tsp, mustard seeds - 1tsp, sambhar powder - 2 spoons.

Take one cup dal, wash it and put it in a vessel.
Now add water enough to cover the dal. Put a pich of salt and pressure cook it. Let the cooker whistle 5 times. When the cooker cools, remove the dal, from the cooker. This is how the dal will look.

In another vessel pour some water and add all the cubed vegtables. Cook the vegtables till they are three-fourth cooked. Now add the cooked dal to the vegtables.

Add sambhar powder and salt to taste. Let the sambhar boil. Also add the cubed tomato. Boil for another five minutes. Now the sambhar is ready for a tadka.

Take a small pan. Add some oil (say 3-4 tsp), when the oil is slightly hot, add a spoon of mustard seeds. When they spluter, add curry leaves. Add this to the sambhar. Garnish the sambhar with chopped coriander leaves. Tastes good with hot rice.

Radish Sambhar

2006-11-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

It’s been sometime that I added a new post on my blog. Not that I lost interest, just that work was hectic and I had no time at my disposal. Last night I prepared Radish Sambhar…Here’s how I prepared it...

Ingredients…
1 cup toordal, pinch of turmeric, One onion chopped, 2 ripe tomatoes finely chopped, white radish – cut into medium peices, 3 tsp of tamarind pulp1tsp of red chilli powder,
2tsp of salt, 3 tsp of sambhar powder
Oil, mustard, jeera, curry leaves for tadka

Method…
Pressure-cook toor dal thoroughly until it falls apart, with turmeric in two cups of water. Mash and make a paste. While the toor dal is pressure-cooked, heat 1 tsp of oil in a big saucepan, crackle some mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves. Add onions, tomatoes, white radish, sauté them for few minutes.Stir in the tamarind juice, salt, red chilli powder, sambhar powder and 1 glass water. Mix it well, cover with a lid. Bring the water to boil, then add mashed toor dal. Let it simmer for fifteen minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till the good aroma emanates. Serve hot with rice.

Goli Baje

2006-11-21T01:14:00.000-08:00

Everytime we visit Mangalore, we don’t miss visiting Hotel Taj Mahal and Ideal Ice Cream Parlour. My husband loves the Goli Baje’s served in Hotel Taj Mahal and the Ice creams (Gud Bud, Parfait, Dilkush, Banana Split, Chocolate dad…) from Ideal.

Goli Baje’s are very easy to make. This is my third attempt. I remember the first time i made it, the snack had become so hard. But the second and the third time, it came out well. Here's how I did it…

Ingredients...
1 and 1/2 cups maida(all purpose flour), 2 tsp gram flour (besan), 3/4 cup curd or yogurt or buttermilk, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp finely chopped green chilies, 3-4 leaves curry leaves, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp sugar, Salt, Oil for deep frying

Method...
Sieve Maida and Besan into a bowl. Now add yogurt or buttermilk to make a dough which is not too thick nor thin. Add all the ingredients (except oil) into the dough. Leave the dough for around two hours.
Use a spoon to drop the dough into hot oil. Deep fry. Serve with coconut chutney.

Kozhi Varuthathu

2006-11-20T05:31:00.000-08:00

Another dish I prepared this weekend was Kozhi Varuthathu-A very hot chicken!
from Shynee’s isouthpotpourri. This is the second time I am preparing it and my guests gave thumbs up for this one. One of them even suggested that next time when all our relatives in Pune get together, I should prepare this one. I will…

You can get the original recipe and the picture at http://isouthpotpourri.blogspot.com/
This is my version. The recipe is as follows…

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts-250g (chopped into small bits), Onion-1 large-chopped fine, Tomato-1-cut into small pieces, Copra-1 half-cut into small pieces , Ginger-25g, Garlic-25g, Green chillies-5, Red chilli powder-1 tsp, Pepper powder-1 tsp, Coriander powder-1 tsp,Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp, Cinnamon powder-1/4 tsp, Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp, Cloves powder-1/4 tsp, Fennel seed powder-1/2 tsp, Nutmeg powder-1/4 tsp, Curry leaves-2 sprigs, Salt-as required, Oil-as required

Method:

Marinate chicken pieces with a little turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile whisk ginger, garlic, green chilli in a mincer.(Should not be ground to a paste).Heat oil in a wok. Add curry leaves. Once it has spluttered add onion. Saute it to a brown tinge. Add tomato, ginger-garlic-green chilli mix, saute everything together till you get a nice aroma. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the vessel. Now add the copra pieces. Now add chicken pieces, all the spice powders and salt as rqd. Mix everything well. Keep stirring the whole mix until the chicken is properly browned and cooked.(In case the chicken that u use requires more time to cook, it is ideal to cook it separate and add to the spice mixture.) Serve it hot with chappathi, paratha or with rice.

Kane (Lady fish) Rawa fry

2006-11-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

Weekend was pretty eventful for me. With guests at home, I had my hands full. There was Lady Fish fry on the menu. Of all the fishes I find it very difficult to clean this fish. It has so many slippery scales on it. Nevertheless I put in my best effort and here’s what I did…

Ingredients...

Kaane fish (Lady fish) – 4-5 (big ones)
Chilli Powder – 2 spoons
Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
Tamarind (soaked in ½ cup of water)
Salt as per taste
Oil to fry

Method….

Clean the fish. And put cut marks on it. Mix chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and soaked Tamarind’s water. Mix well and apply this on the cleaned fish. Marinate it for an hour. Now heat a pan. Pour some oil… take the marinated fish. Roll it on rawa and fry it on both sides. My aunt deep-fries the fish. Though I like them pan fried.

Dosa-Chutney

2006-11-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

I’ve always felt that South Indian breakfasts are heavy. In Pune, people have simple breakfasts like Kanda Pohe, Sabudana kichidi, Upma, Baakri. This morning I prepared dosa. It never has been my favs, but BKV likes them. He wants them just like the way we get in hotels, thin and crispy. I try my best, but so far I have failed royally in all my endeavors. This morning too I tried, but was unable to get that crispness. I’ve never like thin and crisp dosa’s. So here are some not so very thin dosa’s…

Ingredients…
2 Cups Raw rice, 1 cup Urid Dal, some seeds of methi, 1 cup cooked raw rice, salt to taste

Method of preparation…
Soak raw rice, urid dal and methi seeds. After 3-4 hours grind this soaked mixture with 1 cup cooked raw rice into a fine paste. Leave this mixture for about 8 hours to ferment. Ad salt and mix this batter.

Scoop some of this fermented batter and pour it on a hot dosa tawa. Quickly spread it around in circular motion till you get a thin large dosa. ( I always fail while doing this).

The heat should be regulated so it does not burn. Apply a dab of oil or butter on top. With a flat spatula, try to up root the dosa. Turn it over and cook the other side for a minute. Wipe the skillet with a tissue before starting another dosa.

Chutney…
½ cup Coconut scrapings, 3tsp Roasted Chana Da (Phutane) 3-4 green chillies, ½ inch ginger, a small ball of tamarind and salt. Take them all in a blender, add little water and grind to smooth paste.

Butayi Puli-Munchi (Hot-Tangy Sardine)

2006-11-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

Winter is setting in Pune. As the cold winds blew my taste bud yearned for some thing hot and tangy. Usually when I crave for something hot and tangy, BKV and I go to Kalyan Bhel Near Law College Road Pune and feast on chats. But today I thought I would cook my all time favorite Butayi (Sardine) Puli-Munchi (Tamrind-hot red Chillies). Here's how I prepared it…

The ingredients…

10-12 Sardines. Generally for this curry whole sardines of small size are used. The ones I got were really big, so I cut them into two.
A: 10-12 Red Chilies (preferably Bydagi chillies), 1.5tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp Jeera, ¼ tsp methi seeds, 1tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds (a must), a pinch of turmeric.
B: One big onion sliced, 4-5 flakes of garlic, 1.5 inch of ginger
C: Lemon sized tamarind soaked in water
D: 2 tsp oil, Curry Leaves, Salt to taste

Method of Preparation…

Dry roast all ingredients in A. Roast the ingredients in B with a little oil. Now grind A, B and C to a fine paste. Let the paste be thick and not too watery. Take a vessel, I usually use earthen pot to make this curry. It gives it a distinct flavour. Put two spoons of oil. When the oil heats, put few sprigs of curry leaves. Then add the ground masala and bring it to boil. Now add salt. Now add the fish to this boiling masala. Cook for 10 mins. Tastes superb with hot rice.