Puliyodharai Rice

Before moving to Bangalore ‘South Indian’ food for us was the once a week dosa / idli at Sagar Ratna restaurant . Ofcourse we had our occasional order of curd rice or south indian thali but most of it was eating outside. Beside idli sambhar  we hardly attempted cooking this cuisine at home. Once we moved to Bangalore and also because of this blog which has motivated me to try out new things , I am beginning to experiment with the food from the four wonderful south of india.

I have already shared Kaikari Ishtew on this blog, which now is a family favourite and make it atleast once in a week.  Today I am sharing Tamrind rice recipe , a popular tamil dish, i specially love it for its tangy flavors.  There are few variation of this recipe, i followed one from the famous blog Sailu's Kitchen . My family is not very fond of Gingelly oil so i replaced it with sunflower oil and removed peanuts, since i am allergic to the same.

Additionally i also made large batch of Puliyogare Powder Mix (also available in store , but taste infinitely better if you make  at home) and have now stored in a air tight container, it makes the whole process a lot simpler  & faster for next time around.

Ingredients 

For Puliyogare Powder Mix (good for 6-8 portions)

Coriander seeds - 3 tablespoons
Fenugreek seeds - 1 table spoon 
Cumin seeds - 1 table spoon 
Sesame seeds (white) - 2 tablespoon 
Curry leaves - about 20 (better if slightly dried)
Black pepper - 1 tablespoon 
Red chili - 3/4 (more if you prefer spicier)
Split Bengal Gram /Chana Dal - 1 1/2 table spoon 
Split Black Gram (husked) / Urad Dal - 1 table spoon 

Roast all ingredients on medium flame (preferably cast iron skillet) or any heavy bottom pan for 8-10 minutes. Keep checking the temperature to ensure non of these burn.

Transfer it in a blender and once cool enough , blend into fine powder.

You would need about a tablespoon of this powder for 2 people portion, store the rest in airtight container in a cool dry place.



Ingredients for Rice

White rice (cook till almost done)
Tamarind  paste - 1 large teaspoon, I used  Dabur homemade tamarind paste, else you can soak tamarind in warm water for half an hour and extract pulp.
Jaggery / Gur - 1/2 teaspoon (1 small coin shape)
Mustard seeds -1/3 teaspoon
Split Bengal Gram /Chana Dal - 1  tea spoon 
Split Black Gram (husked) / Urad Dal - 1 tea spoon 
Deseeded Red chilli - 1 
Turmeric powder - 1/3 teaspoon
Salt to taste 
roasted groundnuts - 1 tablespoon 
cooking oil - 1 large tablespoon.
Curry leaves - 5-6 leaves 

Method 

Cook rice in plain water till almost done (90-95%), spread rice on a cool surface and mix salt and little bit oil.

Heat cooking oil in the pan,  trun heat to medium , add mustard seeds and curry leaves, let it splutter for 10 seconds

Add chana dal & Urad dal, let it fry for a minute or so till it becomes deep golden.

Add red chillies, tamarind paste, jaggery, turmeric powder and turn heat to low, cook this mix on low heat for about 8 - 10 minutes, add water if the mixture thickens.

Add salt to the mix, at this stage it should be a medium paste like consistency.

Turn off the heat now.

Add 1 table spoon of Puliyogare Powder Mix.  Mix well. 

Now add rice to this mixture, mix well (fold it instead of mixing vigorously so rice doesn't break)

Add roasted peanuts on top.

You can serve it immediately or leave it for half an hour or so for the flavor to develop further.

P.S. Keep tasting on each stage to adjust the 'spiciness' per your preference.

Kaikari Ishtew

After a rather heavy lunch yesterday, mom and me wanted to make something simple and flavorful for dinner so we finally zeroed on lemon rice and Kaikari Ishtew .

Kaikari ishtew is a coconut based dish usually had with appam. We tried it with rice and turned out equally good. I followed Sanjeev Kapoor recipe from Matering the art of Indian cooking  with slight tweaks (reduced the chilli & replaced coconut oil with sunflower oil)
You need :

Carrot - 1 medium cubed
Potato - 1 medium cubed
Cauliflower - 1 small cut in florets
Onion - 2 small chopped finely
Ginger, Garlic paste - 1.5 teaspoon
Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Bay leaves - 2
Cinnamon sticks - 2,  1" sticks
Cloves - 4
Star anise - 2
Curry leaves - 10/12 leaves
Green chillies - 2 whole (recipe called for 4 chillies stemmed and slit)
Coconut milk - 1 full cup
Salt to taste
Garam masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon




To prepare the Stew

In a wok add a glass of water and bring to boil.

When water comes to boil, add vegetables and let it cook for 2-3 minutes

Drain hot water and toss vegetables in cold water so it stops cooking.

In the wok add oil, once hot add bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, chillies, curry leaves  and chopped onions.

Saute for a minute

add ginger garlic paste and stir , let the whole mix cook for couple of minutes on low heat

Drain water from vegetables and add it to the wok, add salt and coconut milk

Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes

Once vegetables cooks (make sure it doesn't overcook and becomes mushy)

Add garam masala powder , mix well. Turn off from heat, serve hot !

Moong Dal Tadka Soup

Dal (Lentil) is a staple of Indian cooking, whether its roti dal, chawal dal or sambhar chawal, it's the most common dish across the nation.


I had this version of moong dal tadka on a  cold winter evening at a Delhi wedding and ever since i have been making it quiet often. Like all other lentil, moong dal is very high on protein  and dietary fiber, however unlike others moong dal is very light to stomach and easy digest  hence is perfect side dish or soup.


You need :

Split yellow moong dal beans (dry) - 1/2 cup
Ghee (Clarified butter) - 1 generous teaspoon
Onion - medium chopped roughly
Tomato - medium chopped roughly
Ginger - 1/2'' inch, chopped roughly
Green chilli - 1 slit length wise
Tumeric - 1/3 teaspoon
Salt  to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Pressure cook moong dal with water, turmeric and salt on medium to low heat for 6-7 whistles . You can also cook the same using slow cooker for 4-5 hours with sufficient water.


Once cooked remove from heat, if you want to serve this as a soup use a hand blender to mix and get soup like consistency.

Heat a wok on medium heat, add ghee , add ginger, green chilli, onion and saute for 30 seconds .

Add chopped tomatoes and saute for another minute, keep the heat medium to low all the time.

Tip over the moong daal soup carefully (watch out for splutter)

Let it cook for a minute , turn off the heat , garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot !

Baigan Bharta (spicy egg plant mashed)

Winter is just around the corner, though not in Bangalore - its just been raining incessantly :( , still the good part about winter is the abundance of fresh vegetables and i especially love the peas , the sweet and soft variety which i end up eating raw while trying to shell for vegetables :)

One of the winter staple for me is baigan ka bharta (mashed eggplant) again a simple dish and quick to make.

You need

Eggplant (Baigan) - 1 large
Green Peas -  1/2 cup (fresh or frozen)
Onion - 1 large chopped finely
Tomato - 1 large chopped finely
Ginger - 1' finely chopped
Green chillies - 1 finely chopped
Cumin seeds - 1/2  tea spoon
Cumin powder - 1/2 tea spoon
Turmeric - 1/3 tea spoon
Salt - to taste
Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Coriander leaves to garnish


To cook.

Clean eggplant throughly and slit eggplant length, ensuring the base remain intact.

Roast it on open flame on stove or in the oven till its cooked thoroughly (put a skewer, there should not be any resistance)

Once roasted and slightly cooled, peel the cover and mash.

Now in a hot wok (on medium flame on a stove) add oil, add cumin till it splutters.

Add ginger, green chillies, saute for half a minute

Add  onion and fry for couple of minutes , till it turns little golden

Now add remaining tomatoes , saute for a minute

turn heat to low, add cumin powder, turmeric , salt and cook for 4-5 minutes

Now add peas , mashed egg plant

Again on low heat cook for 5-6 mins, remove from heat.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot

Lal Saag & Chana

So my mum was in Singapore in last four months with my sister, along with all the festivities she was also missing the season of all the different variety of 'Saag' available  in abundance in during this time in India especially in Bihar.While the most common variety of Saag - Spinach is available every where in the world. But varieties  like Laal Saag (Red amaranth) , Bathua etc are kind of limited to northern india.

 Now that she is back in India one of the first dish to cook was 'Lal Saag with kaala chana' 

You need 

A bunch of Lal Sag

Kaala chana (black gram) a handful -  soaked overnight 

Red chilli - 1 or 2 whole 

Ginger (1/2') - chopped finely 

Onion - 1 medium , finely chopped

Turmeric -1/3 teaspoon

Salt - to taste.

Cooking oil - 1 tea spoon 

To prepare.

Clean out the leaves (remove the hard stalks) and chop roughly.

Heat oil in pan, add red chilli ginger, onion. Saute on medium heat for couple of minutes.

Add chopped lal saag leaves and saute further for couple of minutes.

Turn heat to low, add turmeric , mix well , cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Keep checking the mixture in between, if it turns dry and start sticking add a little water.

Now add salt and soaked Kala chana, again saute for couple of minutes.

Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with hot roti / parathas.

From Mum's kitchen - Homestyle Chicken curry

Simple homestyle chicken curry, perfect for weekdays when want you want a recipe high on flavor and low on effort .

You need

Serves 2 

Chicken - 500 gm - medium size
Onion - 4 medium- sliced thinly
Whole Red chilli 2-3 (adjust for taste)
Whole Cumin - 1 teaspoon
Whole coriander - 1 teaspoon
Peppercorns  10-12
ginger - crushed or chopped -1 full teaspoon
garlic - crushed or chopped - 1 full teaspoon
Garam masla - 1/4 teaspoon
mustard oil - 2 table spoon (can substitute for any cooking oil you prefer)
salt - to taste
turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

Heat  kadhai (wok) and add cumin, coriander, peppercorn, red chillies and saute for 2 mins. Remove from the kadhai and grind this in a pestle roughly

In a pressure cooker add chicken, half of sliced onions, half tea spoon garlic, half teaspoon ginger and half of the roasted ground masala. Cover and cook for 1 whistle. Turn off the heat and remove from stove.

At the same time in the kadhai, heat oil, add onion fry for 3-4 minutes, add remaining ginger, garlic, ground masala, turmeric ands saute for 4-5 mins.

Turn the flame to lowest and cover and cook till the time your chicken is cooked in pressure cooker, keep checking the masala mixture in case its sticking to  wok adjust water .

Once the steam releases from the cooker , add the mix to kadhai, add salt, mix well turn the heat to medium and cook for 5 mins, adjust for water as required.

Chicken should be almost done (90-95%) by now.

Add garam masla, mix well  and cover and cook on low flame till done (another 5 mins)

That's it home style chicken curry ready to eat .

Best served with hot rotis

Healthy breakfast today - oat besan chila

Made oat besan chila today for breakfast. Here is the recipe :

Oat - 2/3 cup

Besan -1/3 cup

Curd - 2 table spoon

Medium onion - chopped finely

Aijwan - 1/2 teaspoon 

kalunji (onion seed) - 1/4 teaspoon

methi leaves (totally optional, i had in my herb pot so i added), you can use chopped up spinach, coriander any green really.

salt & turmeric 

• Mix all the ingredients , except onion & methi leaves, and add water as required to make it a thin paste consistency. 

• Set aside for 15 -20 mins so oat soaks up water curd and becomes nice and fluffy.

• On a non stick tawa spread the mix (should be slightly thick dosa consistency) , sprinkle chopped onion, methi leaves on top. spread 1/2 teaspoon oil on the edge, flip over, cook well on both sides.
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• Serve hot with any chutney / sauce, i served with amla coriander chutney

adraki gobhi

I was in rush to finish off lunch yesterday to attend the HP indiblogger meet , so  was looking for a easy and quick to make recipe for cauliflower.

As always saneev kapoor to rescue. It's deceptively simple (so simple that you might be tempted to tweak / add ingredients... please don't , it taste great as it is !)

Here is what you need.

Cauliflower - cut into medium size florets
Cumin - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric - powder / paste - turmeric is in season these days , got some from my local super market, now i am using the paste, somehow feels better :)
Red chilli powder / paste
Ginger - paste and few thin slices cut
Tomato - one medium size, chopped roughly
Vinegar - 1 teaspoon  - soak some thinly sliced ginger in it.
Lemon - half
Salt


Now the process

soak the cauliflower in water , add a little salt and turmeric powder / paste

Heat oil in non stick shallow pan (i used normal kadhai  but the masala tends to stick since there is no water, so better to use non stick pan)

add cumin to splutter

add ginger, red chilli paste

saute for couple of  minutes

drain cauliflower , add this to the pan

add salt &  half of vinegar soaked ginger

mix well,

cover and cook on low heat till cauliflower is half done

add roughly chopped tomatoes,

cover and cook till done

add remaining vinegar soaked ginger and juice of half lemon just before removing from fire

serve hot.

I served with matar jeera rice pulao and tadka chana dal,Sure it will taste great with roti / paratha

Total time taken : 20 minutes  and tastes amazing!!

P.S. Finally didnt attend the meet :( blame it on sheer laziness & crying my eyes out while watching Stepmom for the nth time