Mixed vegetable stew

This is a very tasty dish which would be best when paired with aappam or idiyappam. I think this dish is of kerala origin, but not sure though. This would give a twist to the traditional aapam-coconut milk combination. Easy to prepare (except for the trouble of cutting all the vegetables!!) and simply delicious.

Things you'll need:

Mixed vegetables (carrot, beans, cauliflower and potato) - 2 cups
Whole garam masala (cinnamon, cloves and cardamom) - as required
Green chillies - 3
Curry leaves - a handful
Coriander leaves - 2 sprigs
Thick coconut milk - 1 cup
Thin coconut milk - 1 1/2 cup
salt - as required

 Serves 2-3 persons


Method:

Step 1:
Pressure cook the vegetables with very little water and salt.

Step 2:
Pour a little oil (preferably coconut oil) in a pan, add the whole garam masala and when they start to crackle, add the green chillies and curry leaves. Then add the thin coconut milk and let it boil.

Step 3:
Add the vegetables and adjust the salt, and add the thick coconut milk and cook for a couple of minutes. Switch off the stove and garnish the stew with coriander leaves.

Serve with steaming aapams or idiyappams.

Andhra style chilli chicken

This is a very popular dish in Andhra. My husband had it in an andhra speciality restaurant while he was in Bangalore. When we hear chilli chicken most of us picture the Chinese version of chilli chicken, so did I when my husband told about this dish. But this is supposed to be a very spicy dish with the flavors of lots of green chillies. I usually have the feeling of sweating at the back of my head when I eat spicy food, but I had that feeling when I opened the lid after cooking the dish, Its that spicy!!!
So If you want to give a kick start to your sore taste buds with some spice here you go...

Things you'll need:
Chicken - 1lb
Onion - 11/2 chopped
Green chillies - 7 or 8
curry leaves - handful
ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
lemon juice - from half lemon
ginger - 1 inch piece minced
pepper powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1tsp
salt - as required

To grind:
cinnamon stick - 1 inch piece
cloves - 1tsp
cumin seeds - 1tsp
fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
fennel seeds - 1 tsp
cardamom - 1
kasoori methi - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Serves 2-3 persons

Method:

Step 1:
Clean and cut the chicken. Pressure cook with a little water, turmeric powder, pepper powder, salt, ginger pieces and a 1/2 onion (chopped).

Step 2:
In a pan pour some oil and splutter some cumin seeds, fry the onions, green chillies and curry leaves. When the onions turn translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell leaves. Then add the ground masala and salt (balancing the salt added to chicken). Add the broth from the cooked chicken and cook the mixture to a thick gravy.

Step 3:
Add the chicken, cover and cook the gravy for a couple of minutes. It should not take more time since the chicken is already cooked. Switch of the stove once the gravy is slightly dry. Squeeze the lemon juice on the gravy and mix well.

Now your spicy Andhra style chilli chicken is ready to be served with plain rice or roti.

Note: Lemon juice is optional, just to reduce the heat of the chillies.

Chilli kothu parotta

I could only hear the sound of 'dosa karandi' (steel dosa spatula) dashing on the dosa tava when i think of kothu parotta. It sounds like a sweet music when you really have a craving for the dish. I have heard about it but never have tasted this dish until I finished college. My sister only introduced me to this yummy dish (she goes to restaurants with her friends sometimes unlike me who only knows the path from home to college and vice versa..its ok if you don't believe this...).
I have added egg in this dish which makes it extra rich. But you can avoid adding egg and just make it as a eggless spicy kothu parotta.
Considering one of my friend's idea I have uploaded pictures of the cooking steps also. But I am not sure I can do this for all the recipes. I'll try to post pics of all the steps for most of them.

Things you'll need:
Frozen parottas - 6
Onion - 1 minced
Tomato - minced
green chillies - 3 minced
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
chilli powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - a pinch
Eggs - 2 (I used egg whites. can use 1/2 or 3/4 cup of it)
salt - according to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp
curry leaves - 5 or 6 chopped
coriander leaves - to garnish

Serves 2-3 persons

  

 

Method:

Step 1:
Thaw the parottas to room temperature before starting the cooking process.

Step2:
Pour oil in a pan, temper a tsp of cumin seeds, and saute the onions along with green chillies and curry leaves until the onions turn translucent. Saute the ginger garlic paste until the raw smell is gone, and add the tomatoes.

Step3:
Once the tomatoes turn soft, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and cook them in slow flame with lid closed, until the masala is cooked well. Meanwhile shred the parottas in a mixer grinder or food processor. The parottas should be shredded enough with three or four pulse operations.

Step4:
Add the eggs or egg whites to the masala and stir continuously scrambling the egg while stirring. when the eggs are almost dried, add the parottas and stir until the parottas are coated with the masala and eggs. Switch off the stove and garnish with the coriander leaves.

Soya burger

After discovering and succeeding with the soya kheema gravy, I cant think about different recipes using the soya chunks (I can't do just the kheema gravy with a whole pack of soya!!)..soya kurma, soya manchurian,soya nuggets..but these all sounded very common. why not burger?? I cudnt wait to try it once the idea stepped into my mind. But I doubted whether my husband would like the idea, because he is not a very huge fan of soya chunks. So when my husband went out of station, I couldn't wait to try it out. There were actually a couple of recipes for soya burger, so I am not the first one to try..but this one's my own version of the burger

Things you'll need:
soya chunks - 10-12
onion- 1 (medium size)
chilli powder - 1 tsp
green chillies - 2 no. or according to taste
garam masala - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste
coriander leaves - 5 or 6 stalks finely chopped
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1 pinch
bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
Hamburger buns - 2

Yield - 2 burgers

Method:
Step1:
Boil 4 cups of water, add the soya chunks and leave them in the boiling water for few minutes. Drain the chunks and rinse them several times squeezing the water each time, until the raw smell form the chunks are gone.

Step2:
Coarsely grind the chunks with the chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, salt and black pepper powder. Mix the onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and bread crumbs with the ground mixture.

Step3:
Divide the mixture into two parts and shape each part  into a burger. Drizzle little oil in a pan and shallow fry the burgers until they are evenly browned on both sides.

Step4:
Place them between the burger buns, spread some mayonnaise or your favorite sauce, top it with some tomatio slices and lettuce. Take a bite!!

Note: The bread crumbs can be added or reduced according to the texture of the burgers. It should not be too dry or too sticky.

Soya kheema gravy

Soya is a protein-rich food which is also a good source of fiber and vitamins. Studies have found that consuming soya actually reduces the chances of coronary heart disease and chronic diseases. And other than food products soya is also used in producing candle wax..interesting isn't it? Even after having all these health benefits soya chunks has been an unwanted guest for my husband. He really hates the soya chunks added in the vegetable biriyani. But I love them since it gives a feeling of having a non-veg biriyani.. :)
I know I would get a 'please no' for an answer if I ask my husband to buy soya chunks. So one day when I got a chance to go alone into the Indian grocery store, I sneaked in some soya chunks. The next day I searched for some recipes with soya chunks, and I saw an interesting one in spiceindiaonline.com for soya kheema kurma. It was so impressive that i decided to try it right away. But instead of kurma i did a dry gravy version. I served it as a surprise side with dosa for dinner that night. My husband could not get what the ingredient was, and was taken aback when I revealed that it was his arch enemy 'the soya chunk'. It became one of his favorite recipes since then.

Things you'll need:
Soya chunks - 10-12
Onion - 1
Tomato -1 or Tomato puree - 1 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Whole spices (cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves) - according to preference
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:
Step 1:
Bring 4 cups of water to boil and add the soya chunks to boiling water. Leave them for couple of minutes without reducing heat. When the soya hunks have doubled in size, switch off the stove and leave the chunks in water for another couple of minutes. Drain the water and rinse the chunks in cold water 5 to 6 times, squeezing water from the chunks after each rinse, until the raw smell of the chunks is gone. (If the raw smell stays on the soya would smell like mud which would ruin the flavor of the dish)

Step 2:
Pulse the chunks in a food processor of mixer grinder 3 to 4 times until the chunks are coarsely ground. The chunks have to look like ground meat (sorry vegans, you have to use your imagination here!!!)

Step3:
Heat up the oil in a pan, splutter the whole spices, saute the onion, ginger garlic paste and tomato/tomato puree. Add the soya chunks, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt. Cook until the masalas are cooked and a dry gravy is formed. You can add a little garam masala (optional) for garnishing couple of minutes before switching off the stove.

Even non-vegetarians can try this for a change since t is a protein-rich, low-fat  and nutritious alternative for meat kheema. This can be served as a side for rice, roti or even dosa. This can also be stuffed inside dosa to make kheema dosa

spinach cheese swirls my style!

I found this recipe at the back of the puff pastry wrapper. The look of this snack was so appealing. So I went on checking the ingredients. Here's the list of the ingredients:

1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup shredded Muenster cheese OR Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 green onion, chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 package (about 10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

Now I wanted to make some changes in the recipe..why? to become innovative? to create my own recipe and send it to food network? no...simple..I didn't have all of those listed ingredients lol..

I interchanged the following ingredients with things I found in my pantry:
Grated parmesan cheese --> Shredded mozzarella cheese
Chopped green onions --> chopped green onions and red onions
Garlic powder --> Minced garlic
Frozen spinach --> Bunch of fresh spinach leaves, chopped

The original recipe does not need any cooking prior to baking, but since I was using some fresh ingredients I had to do light the stove for few minutes.

Serves 4-5 people (yields approx. 20 wheels)

Method:
Step1:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and saute the onions, garlic and the spinach. Saute until the spinach is relieved of all its moisture. Allow it to cool.

Step2:
Unfold the pastry sheet in lightly floured surface (try unfolding the sheet while its half thawed, since the sheet becomes more sticky and difficult to unfold when fully thawed). Slightly roll the sheet to make it even. Spread the spinach mixture, and sprinkle the cheeses.

Step3:

Carefully roll the pastry sheet like a mat from the longer side of the sheet. Brush the edge of the pastry sheet with egg wash (prepared by mixing the egg and water) to firmly seal the sheet. Now cut the roll into 1/2 inch slices. There will be approx. 20 pieces.

(The spinach cheese swirls are kind of messed up bcoz the pastry sheet thawed completely and became sticky..so cutting the sheet was a challenge. Spreading the spinach mixture and cutting the sheet, before its completely thawed would help in cutting them in perfect shape.)

Step4:

Place the swirls in a baking sheet, brush them with the remaining egg wash,  and bake them in the oven for 15-20 mins.

Serve them hot plainly or with ketchup.

Note: Egg wash is optional. It makes the crust more brown and crunchier. Alternately to seal the edges of the pastry sheet paste of flour and water can be used.

Orange pudding

Orange pudding?? interesting isn't it? its my husband's idea. My husband had bought some apples and oranges when our daughter was sick and was not eating well. Her pediatrician had recommended giving her applesauce..OK apples are done, but what am I going to do with the oranges? My daughter does not like fruits or fruit juice..I know if I give her orange juice it will come straight out of her mouth the next second. So my next target was my husband...I can't eat all the oranges alone..So to escape my constant nagging he came up with this idea of using orange juice in kesari or pudding...'whatever, I'll be happy if the oranges don't get wasted'. So I started hunting for recipes..I found couple of recipes with orange juice added, and eventually I came up with a recipe which was a mixture of those. I couldn't remember the URLs of the recipes so I wouldn't be able to give you any references..sorry. Over to the recipe..

Things you need:
Sooji (rava) - 1 cup
orange juice 1 cup
milk - 1/2 cup
water - 1 cup
dried mango slices - 3-4
cashews and raisins - for garnishing
cardamom - 1 crushed
sugar - 3/4 cup
ghee - 2 tbsp

Serves 3-4 people

Method:
Step1:
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and roast the rava until it releases nice aroma. Heat remaining ghee in a pan and saute the cashews, raisins and dried mango slices until the raisins puff up.

Step2:
Add the orange juice, water, milk and sugar to the nuts and fruits and stir continuously to avoid curdling of milk. Bring it to a boil. Add the crushed cardamom.

Step3:
Now reduce heat and add the rava slowly by mixing simultaneously, to avoid lump formation. It'll take a couple of minutes for the rava to absorb the liquid and to thicken. Once all the liquid is absorbed switch off the stove and transfer the contents into a serving or storage container.

Serve warm.
Suggestions:
Instead of dried mango slices, fresh mango slices, fresh pineapple or dried apricots can be used. In case of using fresh fruit pieces, they should be added just before adding the rava.