Chilli Flakes

How to do chillie flakes @ Home?

1.Take the Required quantity of red chillies in a mixie jar

2.Whip for 30 to 40 seconds, Home made Red chillie flakes is ready, use it on pizza topping, parathas etc

Fried Gram Chutney Powder

This chutney powder is one of the versatile powder one can prepare and store it at home. If you are in hurry this chutney powder comes to your rescue. You Just have to mix this with water and serve with idli/dosa/chapathi/upma.

Ingredients
Grind in to a coarse powder
Fried Gram 1 Cup
Dry coconut/Copra(grated or finely choped) 1/2 cup
Tamarind 1 small marble sized
Garlic clove 4-6 no
Salt as Required
Red chillies 10-15

To Temper
Oil 1 Tbsp
Mustard 1 Tsp
Black gram 2 Tsp
Jeera 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves few

Method
1.Grind all the ingredients in to grind in a mixie and Transfer it to a serving bowl
2.Heat oil add mustard, black gram once it becomes golden brown turn off the flame.
3.Add jeera and curry leaves, pour the oil mixture over the powder and mix nicely.
4.Transfer it to a air tight container and store it in fridge.
5.Whenever chutney is needed take required quantity of powder and Mix with water to a chutney
and serve.

Note
*This has a shelf life of 10-15 days.

Ragi Dosa

Ragi is also commonly known as finger millet has a very high nutritional value, its called "kezhvaragu" in Tamil. My mom used to prepare Ragi mudde and rotti, i remember during my initial days of marriage I tried to make ragi dosa and it was a utter flop then I never dared to try again. Until recently I found the proper recipe in a cook book. I followed the exact measurements and procedure and hurray I ended making thin, crispy and excellent dosa (and not to forget healthy too). I did this 2-3 times and not even once there was leftover  batter isn't it great. Here is the recipe


Ingredients
Ragi flour 2cup
Urad dhall/Black gram 1/2 cup(soaked for 1 hour)
Salt as required
cooking soda 1Tsp
Oil 2 Tsp for each dosa

Method
1.Grind soaked urad dhall in to a fine paste using mixer or grinder and keep aside.
2.Mix Ragi flour, water and salt to a dosa batter consistency(make sure there are no lumps).
3.Now add the black gram batter and mix nicely(use hand or whisk)
4.Pour water if necessary and adjust the consistency.
5.Add cooking soda and mix nicely
6.Heat a tava(I used Iron skillet) and pour dosa in a ladle as you do for regular dosa and spread
as thinly as possible.Put oil, flip and cook then on both sides.
7.Serve hot with coriander or tomato chutney.

Notes
*Add water little by little you might make the batter very runny and watery.
*Instead of oil you can use ghee or butter also.

Sending this to "come-join-us-for-breakfast"

Venn Pongal

Pongal is one of the dish which i don't make frequently at home nor eat it outside, but recently I had Pongal @A2B(Adayar Ananda Bhavan) and the Pongal was so yummmmmy......But I am not sure whether I will order it again or not since it had Lott's of fat (not sure it was ghee or vanaspathi). So I tried to make same kind of pongal at home and the best part is my DD also enjoyed having it.

It tastes best only when it is piping hot once it gets cold it wont taste that good. Cooking pongal to perfection is an art itself you add less water and you will get a pongal like pulao pour more water and you will get a pongal like porridge. 
But its not a complicated dish if you follow the quantity of water and rice+lentil ratio and also its not a great food for lunch box.

Ingredients

Rice 1 cup(Soak for 20-30 min)
Yellow Moong Dhall 1/4 cup
Water 4-5 CUP
Ginger Chopped/Grated/paste 1 Tbsp
Oil 1Tsp
Salt as Required

To temper
Ghee/Clarified Butter 3-5 Tbsp
Pepper 10-15 no
Cashews Few
Asafoetida 2tsp
Curry leaves few
Jeera 1Tbsp

Method
1.Dry Roast yellow moong dhall until a nice aroma fills your kitchen.
2.Now In a Pressure cooker add rice, lentil, water, salt, ginger and 1 Tsp of oil.
3.Let the rice mixture boil until you can see white froth.
4.Now put the lid and pressure cook in medium flame for 3-4 whistle, turn off the flame 
and let the pressure releases completely.
5.Meanwhile Take a small kadai, add Ghee and once it gets heated add peppercorns, cashew(wait
for cashews to get golden brown)
6.Turn off the flame and add curry leaves, Asafoetida and jeera.
7.Pour this tempering over pongal and mix nicely.
8.Transfer it to a serving bowl or directly to your plate. Have it with ho sambar/chutney or just as is it.


Notes
*You can use broken rice(noi) instead of whole rice.
*Roast the lentil on a low flame or else you will end up in a brown or black lentils within 
few seconds of roasting.
*if you don't have much time you can do it at one go.Just Temper, add water, salt, rice dhall and cook, 
but colour will slightly vary and also you will get soft cashews instead of crunchy ones(any ways It will taste great)
*Hot pongal with dollops of ghee and sambar is such a filling dish sometimes it will make you sleepy 
in that case a strong hot tea or coffee is a great solution.
Or if you don't have anything to do just dose off

See you in my next post

Sending this to "come-join-us-for-breakfast"

Onion Chutney

This chutney is one of the chutneys I make when there are no more veggies left out for me to make any curry or sambar.                 The ingredients required are very less in number and commonly available in our kitchen counters and the best part is you can have this with dosa, idli, chapati or even Toasted bread. Onion chutney is my DH's all time favourite and mine too.

All you need is

Ingredients

Onion 2 (medium) cubed

Red chillies 3-4 broken

Salt as required

Tamarind 1 small marble sized

Turmeric 1 Tsp

Oil 2 Tbsp

To Temper

Oil 1 Tsp

mustard 1/2 Tsp 

Black Gram Dhall/urad dhall 1 Tsp

Curry leaves few

Method

Heat 2 Tbsp oil add Red chillies and saute for 30 sec on a medium flame

Add Onions, salt, tamarind and saute till onions change colour to pink

Add turmeric and turn off the flame

Once it comes to room temperature grind it in a mixie and Transfer it to serving bowl.

Heat oil and add all to temper items one by one.

Note

You can use ghee also for tempering.

2 cloves of garlic can also be added.

CARROT JUICE

Ingredients

Carrot 2(small) chopped

Water  as required

Ginger 1/2"

Honey 2 Tbsp

Black Salt a Pinch

Lemon 1 Tbsp

Recipe Source: Carrot Juice from RaksKitchen

Method

In a Juicer jar add carrot pieces, ginger and water.

Grind until there are no big chunks of carrot to be found.

Strain and add rest of the ingredients. Stir once and serve.

Note: 

Ginger and honey quantity can be varied

I added Black salt but the original recipe has salt. You can use either one.

Easy Channa Masala

Come new year every one has a set of new year resolution..Yes I too have few things planned One among the resolution is to plan my food menu for whole week. I had planned for chapati and Channa masala for today's dinner. 

So I was searching for a Channa masala recipe and to my surprise I bumped into a very easy recipe in Indusladies website today(here is the original link "easy Channa masala")

I made slight variations to suit my taste buds but came out very well.

Every one should try this.

Easy Channa masala recipe

Ingredients

White Channa (Chick Peas) - 1 cup

Fresh coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

Oil plus Ghee - 2 tbsp.

Fresh cream

Thinly sliced onions 1/2 cup

To Grind

Big Onion - 2 (cubed)

Tomatoes - 2 (cubed)

Garlic - 10 cloves

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Garam masala powder- 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Sugar - a pinch

Cardamom - one

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

PREPARATION 

Soak the chick peas for 5-7 hours

Wash the chick peas and pressure cook till it becomes soft.

In a mixer jar grind all the ingredients mentioned in "to Grind" and keep it aside.

TO PROCEED

Heat oil plus ghee in a pan, put the thinly sliced onion and saute for 3-5 Min's

Now pour the ground mixture and saute well.

Add the boiled chick pea along with the water in which it was cooked and saute for a few minutes.

Boil for 10 to 12 Min's or till the gravy thickens.

Turn off the flame and add some fresh cream(2-3 Tbsp)

Transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and fresh cream.

Can be served with any Indian bread/poori

Sweet Corn Kurma

Sweet Corn Kurma

Sweet corn being one of my favourite, I have tried  n number of recipes using sweet corn ....like sweet corn salad, soup, paratha, upma pulao and the list goes on. Thanks to the super markets and sometimes road side vendors who sell the whole corn cob for just rupees 12-15. So lets make a spicy kurma with a sweet ingredient.

Serves: 8-12 chapati/Poori

Ingredient

Boiled Sweet corn kernels 1 Cup

Finely chopped Onion 1 cup

Finely chopped Capsicum 1/2 Cup

Ginger Garlic Paste 1 Tbsp

Oil 2 Tbsp

Salt as per taste

Water as required

Coriander leaves(for Garnishing)

Spice powders

Red chilli powder 1Tsp

Turmeric powder 1/2 Tsp

Garam masala Powder 1 Tsp

To Grind

Fennel seed 1/2 Tsp

Cinnamon 1 small stick

cloves 2-3 

Tomato cubes 1 cup

Green chillies 2

Poppy seed(Soaked in water for 30 Min's)

Dry roasted grated coconut 1/2 cup

For Tempering

Cumin seeds 1 Tsp

Method 

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a pan and add all ingredients in To grind(Till dry roasted coconut) one by one in the order mentioned.

Turn off the flame and add Dry roasted coconut, Once it becomes cool, grind it in to  fine paste and keep aside.

Take another pan Add the remaining oil, once it becomes hot add cumin seeds, Onion, capsicum, ginger garlic paste and sweet corn kernels. saute for 3-5 min's(don't over cook capsicum). 

Now add the ground paste along with some water and spice powders.

Add salt and let the gravy boil for 2-3 Min's so that all the raw smell of spice powder goes off completely.

Remove from flame ,Transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with any Indian Bread/poori of your choice.

Note

Sweet corn kernels can be either precooked in cooker or can be added after onions since it does not take much time to cook.

Spiciness of the whole gravy should be taken care of since we are adding green chilli, red chilli powder and also ginger.(Adjust as per your taste)

If you want a thick or dry gravy just sprinkle some water.

Corn Flour Halwa

I know I know its been since ages i updated my blog regularly(almost a year) :(
So with the start of new year planning to update my food blog regularly without fail... have set a target So i will work towards that
Please wish me luck with that.

Coming to the post lets start with a sweet dish
The recipe for corn flour halwa it is also known as Karachi halwa or Bombay halwa.
The WWW is flooded with recipes of this particular sweet however all are same with the ingredients and the measurement.
Don't do any mistakes in measuring the ingredients and I am sure you will get a delicious halwa in 20 Min's flat.

Makes 15-20 pieces of 1-2" cubes

Ingredients

Corn flour 1/2 Cup  
Sugar 1 1/2 cup
Water 1 cup(for sugar syrup)
Water 1 1/2 cups(to be mixed with corn flour)
Ghee 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts 1/4 cups, chopped finely
food colour of your choice(I used turmeric powder) 1/2 tsp

Method

Mix cornflour along with 1 and 1/2 cups of water in a mixing bowl(add the water slowly at regular intervals to avoid lumps).Then add food colour and mix well.Keep aside.

             

                                   

Fry the cashew nuts until golden brown and keep aside.

                                    

In a pan take sugar and add 1 cup of water. Let the sugar dissolve completely and become slightly thick.

When the syrup starts boiling vigorously,  pour the corn flour liquid(keep stirring on a low flame)

Keep on stirring the liquid at the beginning you will notice small lumps here and there but within a few minute(2-3 min) the whole liquid becomes gooey and glossy in no tome.

               

At this stage you can add ghee and fried cashew nuts.

Keep stirring for 10 Min's or until it becomes a whole mass and starts leaving the sides of pan.

Turn off the heat and transfer it to a greased plate

Let it rest for 1 hour

cut in to desired shape and serve

Note:

DON'T alter the quantity of ingredients as it may result unexpected results

I used turmeric powder since i dint have any food colour you can use any food colour available(using turmeric powder does not result in any variation in taste)
The shelf life 2-3 days under refrigeration

At Last HAPPY NEW YEAR :D Have a great 2015