Kathirikai mochai curry recipe | Brinjal recipes

I have tried this combo only once in some restaurant by chance, it wasn’t that good, but I thought I should make at home, it would be tasting great. But never had a chance to buy mochai in little India as I go only to Mustafa and come back. Luckily murugan traders opposite to mustafa these days sells all the things I miss and mochai is one of those. I got last week and tried this curry. I think this is end of mochai season, so the mochai are tiny.
Since I have not tried this before, I checked with my friend Sasi for the recipe, she immediately shared (thank you Sasi)and I immediately tried too. I had this for today’s lunch.

Kathiriakai mochai curry recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch side
Prep Time:15 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins     |  serves: 4

Ingredients

Brinjal – 8

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Mochai – 3/4 cup

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Onion – 1

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Tomato – 2

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Garlic – 6 flakes

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Tamarind – 1 tsp tightly packed

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Sambar powder – 2 tsp

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Turmeric – 1/4 tsp

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Salt – As needed

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Oil – 2 tblsp

To grind

Grated coconut – 3 tblsp

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Fennel seeds – 1/2 tsp

To temper

Oil – 2 tsp

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Mustard – 3/4 tsp

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Jeera/ cumin seeds – 1 tsp

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Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method

1. Finely chop onion, tomato, slice garlic into thin circles and cur brinjal to 4-6 pieces, keep it immersed in water until use.
2. Pressure cook mochai with little salt and turmeric for 2 whistles. I used fresh ones, if dry beans, then soak over night and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. Heat a kadai with oil, temper with mustard, jeera, curry leaves, followed by garlic.

3. Give it a fry and add onion. Fry till transparent, add tomatoes, little salt and fry till mushy.

4. Meanwhile grind coconut and fennel with little water.

5. Add 1/2 cup water, brinjal, sambar powder, turmeric, required salt and tamarind extract to the kadai. Mix and boil for a minute. Add the ground paste, mix well.

6. Boil until water evaporates. Put flame to medium and cook until the curry becomes almost dry. Add oil to avoid sticking to the pan. Keep stirring now and then to prevent sticking.

Notes

• After you add the ground coconut paste, it tends to stick so turn once in a while. but as it gets cooked, it will not stick, so add oil and cook.
• Do not add more water, it will make brinjal mushy.

Serve with any kuzhambu or you can also mix with rice as I do with sesame oil.

Technorati Tags: brinjal mochai curry recipe,kathirikai mochai curry,brinjal recipe,south indian brinjal recipe

Methi Pakoda recipe | Methi pakora

I bought a bunch of fresh methi leaves in little India last week. I wanted to try a new dish that my friend sent me. Before that, I wanted to try methi pakoras for long time. I had a dry methi snack once in Sri Krishna sweets. Though I did not like when I tasted, it was very flavourful and later I craved for that snack. This is like almost more than 5-6 years before but still I wanted to try that snack. I thought I will first try this methi pakoras and later find that recipe and make it. Methi pakoras were really tasty, flavourful and I totally loved it as a tea time snack. Its very easy to make it too when your methi leaves are ready. Even Vj had it without any complains. My mom makes this same except methi leaves and we call it bonda. I followed the same and added methi leaves in addition to it.

Methi Pakoda

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time:15 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins     |  serves: 3

Ingredients

Methi leaves – 1/2 cup tightly packed

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Besan/ Gram flour – 3/4 cup

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Rice flour – 3 tblsp

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Ginger, finely chopped – 1 tblsp

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Green chilli – 2

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Onion – 1/2, finely chopped (Optional)

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Sour curd – 1 tblsp

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Cooking soda – 1 generous pinch

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Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp

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Ajwain – 1 tsp

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Salt – As needed

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Oil – To deep fry

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients except oil. Add water gradually and make a thick batter out of it.

2. Heat oil in a kadai enough to deep fry and when it is hot, with a small spoon or using hands, drop a tablespoon amount of batter to oil. Depending on the amount of oil in kadai you can fill it with few pakoras at a time.

3. Cook in medium flame on both sides until golden in colour. Drain in paper towel.

Notes

• Adding curd gives a golden coloured pakora as well as it is required for nullifying the bitterness of methi leaves. If your curd is not sour, you can use upto 2 tblsp and reduce water amount accordingly.
  
• Dont prepare the batter too thick, it will make the pakoras dry.
  
• You can add a tblsp of hot oil in the batter. This will give more crispy pakoras.
  
• Adding cooking soda is very important, otherwise it will not be cooked inside.

Enjoy hot pakoras with tea, it will be tasting great as such or you can have it with green chutney.

Technorati Tags: methi pakora recipe,methi pakoda recipe,methi pakora,pakoda,easy methi recipe,methi leaves bonda,easy tea time snacks,indian snacks recipe

Thai green mango salad recipe (Vegetarian)

I have tasted this Thai green mango salad in restaurants few times. The best thing I love about the salad is its spicy and I love the peanuts in the salad. Yeah I know, I am not a big fan of mangoes, so I like it after these two. Last week we went to Mayura for lunch and I had this salad, it was very spicy, sweet and crunchy with the fresh shredded mangoes that are not sour and the peanuts. I immediately wrote down the ingredients I could guess and decided to try soon. I stay far away from salad usually but not this one, I love it! Mainly coz its spicy… Vj told they may use the almost ripe mangoes that’s why the sweetness is there. But I knew it was from firm mangoes and some sweet syrup is there. I googled and referred this recipe but I adapted to suit my taste as well as what I had in the restaurant, with the noted down ingredients of course. Check out my Thai green curry recipe too.

Thai green mango salad recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Thai  |  Recipe Category: Salad

Prep Time:20 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins     |  Makes: 20 - 25

Ingredients

Green unripe mango – 1, medium sized

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Shallots/ small onion – 4

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Crushed peanuts – 3 tblsp

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Red ripe chilli (Birds eye chilli) – 2

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Ginger – 1/2 inch piece

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Honey – 1 tblsp

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Soya sauce – 1 tsp

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Coriander leaves – 2 tblsp

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Or fresh basil leaves/ Kaffir lime leaf - 1/2 tsp  finely chopped

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Salt – As needed

Method

1. Wash and peel off the green skin of the mango. Using a zigzag peeler shred the mangoe into strips. I don’t have one, so I sliced the mango thinly and julienne cut the mango into thin strips. Do not grate it in a grater as it will make the mango soft, it wont be crunchy in the salad. Peel and chop onion.

2. Grind red chilli, ginger, honey, soya sauce, coriander leaves. Add little water if needed. If you want it less spicy, slit and remove the seeds of the chilli before grinding. Anyways still it will be spicy, but less spicy.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix all these ingredients gently and serve.

Notes

• Always shred the mangoes just before making the salad.
• Instead of honey, raw sugar can be made as syrup and used.
• Peanuts should be crushed with a mortar pestle to ensure its not powdered. if you use mixer, then you can sieve to eliminate the fine powder and add the coarse peanuts alone.
• Thai mango works best otherwise choose a not so sour mango for best results.
• You can also garnish with few carrot julienne and chopped spring onion as they served in the restaurant.

Serve this spicy salad as starter. Serve along with fresh cut carrots or cucumber to bite on in between to nullify the spiciness!

Technorati Tags: Thai green mango salad recipe,Green mango salad,thai recipes,vegetarian thai recipes,vegetarian thai green mango salad,thai green mango salad vegetarian.

Sweet potato gulab jamun recipe | sweet potato jamun recipe

My mom always used to say my grandma makes jamoon with potato. My mom says she makes it with ease. But sadly neither my mom nor my maamis knew the recipe. I felt so bad that we couldnt get the recipe from her. One day a reader sent me a picture of gulab jamun. She told its made out of sweet potato. I asked her how she made and she sent detailed recipe within minutes. So sweet of you Latha Kishore. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe with me. I have a sweet potato recipe in one of my cook books I have, but its measurements are so confusing. But what she shared with me is a perfect recipe. I am going to try the same with potato as well and post soon. Its really an easy recipe with simple ingredients available. Tastes also yummy! Vj loved it when he tasted and gave double thumbs up. 

Sweet potato gulab jamun recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time:20 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins     |  Makes: 20 - 25

Ingredients

Sweet potato – 2

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Maida/ All purpose flour – 1 tblsp

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Cooking soda (sodium bi carb) – A pinch

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Cream/ milk  - 1 tsp

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Salt – 1 pinch

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Sugar – 3/4 cup

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Water – 3/4 cup

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Cardamom  - 1

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Saffron – Few strands (optional)

Method

1. Pressure cook / steam the sweet potato without adding water to the sweet potato (only add water in the cooker and keep the washed, cut sweet potato in a vessel without water inside the cooker). After 3 whistles, Keep aside for 20 mins for cooling down and becoming dry.

2. Peel off the skin, mash and knead with cream/ milk, maida, salt and sodium bi crab. It should be smooth dough.

3. Make sugar syrup by boiling sugar with water for 5 – 8 minutes. Add saffron and elachi and mix well.

4. Mean while roll small equal sized balls out of the dough we prepared. Grease your hands with ghee every time you shape the balls.Heat oil in a kadai, when it is hot, put the flame to low and drop the jamoons into it. You can fry few at a time, depending upon the oil you take. Put the flame to medium and keep turning every now and then to ensure even cooking.

5. Once deep golden in colour, drain in paper towel, repeat to finish all the jamuns. Give 2 minutes standing time and then add it to the sugar syrup. See notes for some important things to remember.

Notes

• Give at least 3-4 hours standing time before eating the sweet for best results.
• Do not add hot jamuns in hot syrup. It will end up in shrunken jamuns. Also more liquid content in the dough will give unshaped jamuns.
• Adding more cooking soda will make jamun dis-integrate in oil while frying.
• If you feel the dough is very sticky at any point in case the cream or milk is added more, dont panic, just add more maida.
• Adding salt is optional, but without salt it will be too sweet. Dont add more than a small pinch.
• Make sure the sugar syrup is not watery. You can add a drop of rose essence if you like that flavour.
• If you need cream, then collect little from when you boil milk.

Serve cold or at room temperature. It tastes like honey, just melt in your mouth!

Technorati Tags: Sweet potato jamun recipe,sweet potato jamoon recipe,sweet potato jamoon,how to make sweet potato jamun,easy diwali sweets

Thandai recipe - Holi recipes

I am not that familiar with Thandai, seeing only for past 2 years in blog world, otherwise, no idea or haven’t tasted or even heard about it. Whenever any festival like this come, Sangeeta keeps encouraging me to post something special and this is her childhood favorite which her aunt makes and she was kind enough to call and check with her aunt and passed me the recipe. Thanks to both of them, now I tasted thandai . She told though there are many recipes in the internet, her aunt makes with simple ingredients and the way she used to like the same. It is whiter in colour than yellowish. In North India, they sell with bangh too which will make you sleepy (or may bye high).  I kept it simple as she told and it was really yummy. Only thing I missed was Khus khus (Kasa kasaa in Tamil), as it is banned here in Singapore. So I will sure try that in India with it. Here in Singapore, Holi is one well known festival as they celebrate in the neighbourhoods. I have seen other friends sharing the celebrations posting in Facebook, never participated personally in one. So heres the simple and easy thandai recipe for the festival of colours – Holi!

Thandai recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Drink
Prep Time:2 Hr soaking time    |  Cook time: 10 mins     |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Khus khus (Kasakasaa)  - 2 tsp

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Almonds (Badam) – 15
Black Pepper – 12

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Jeera (Cumin seeds) – 1/2 tsp

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Elachi (cardamom) - 5

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Milk – 2 & 1/2 cups

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Sugar – 3 tblsp

Method

1. Soak all the ingredients except milk and sugar together in water for 2 hours. Boil milk with sugar, cool down and keep refrigerated.

2. After 2 hours, peel the almond skin and grind everything together with water.

3. Squeeze it through a strainer. Repeat one or two times with little more water to extract all the juice from it.

4. Add this extracted to cold milk and mix well. Refrigerate and consume within 2 hours.

Notes

• Since I have skipped khus khus, I added 5 cashews for richness. My friend though suggested melon seeds.
• Other ingredient that can be added in this is 1/2 tsp fennel (Saunf/ Soambu).
• After mixing with milk you should consume within 2 hrs.

Serve chilled with rose petals as garnish (Since I had no stock, I just garnished with some nuts and saffron just for photography sake) Happy Holi!!

Technorati Tags: Thandai recipe,thandai,easy thandai,holi recipes,holi festival recipes,Indian holi festival recipes,traditional

Easy sweet samosa recipe Holi Recipes

This recipe has been in my to do list for more than 2 years now. Two years back for Holi, Sangeeta asked me to post this. She suggested to fill a milk based sweet, preferably palkova in the spring roll sheets, deep fry it and dip it in sugar syrup. By hearing the process itself I felt like I ate so much calories. So kept postponing. She kept reminding me and I thought I should post it this time sure and made it. It was ofcourse yummy. You can try this for Holi festival, easy yet rich sweet.

Sweet samosa recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time:20 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins     |  Makes: 16

Ingredients

Spring roll pastry sheets – 3

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Khoya – 1/2 cup

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Pista – 8

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Cashew nuts – 4

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Almonds – 4

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Raisins - 8

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Sugar – 1/2 cup

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Saffron – Few strands

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Maida – 1 tblsp

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Oil – for deep frying

Method

1. Keep out the spring roll sheets and frozen khoya for 30 mins to thaw. See notes if you don’t have spring roll sheets.Chop nuts and mix it to the khoya and this will be our stuffing.

2. Cut the sheet into strips. Keep a tsp of prepared khoya mixture. Fold tightly to pack the khoya. Make a paste out of maida and water for sealing.

3. After the first fold of triangle, you can smear the maida paste through out the pastry strip, to ensure well bind samosas. Refer this Video for folding samosas.Repeat to finish all the stuffing. Keep the spring roll pastry sheet and prepared samosa covered in a damp cloth to avoid drying.

4. Heat oil and fry few samosas at a time in medium flame. Oil should be just right hot, otherwise the khoya filling may ooze out. Just cook in moderate heat until slightly golden.  Drain in paper towel.

5. Prepare sugar syrup by boiling it with 1/2 cup water and saffron. It should be one string consistency. Dip the samosas and arrange in a plate for drying up.

Notes

• I added sugar powdered in the stuffing but felt too sweet. So Did not mention it in ingredients.
• Cook the samosas in low heat otherwise the stuffing may melt and come out.
• Do not over fry, just when it is lightly golden, its enough.
• Make sure the samosas are sealed properly. Mainly pinch the corners well to seal it.
• If you do not have spring roll pastry sheets, you can do the same with maida. Make a stiff sough with 1 cup maida, a tblps of oil, pinch of salt and water. Keep aside for 15 mins, knead and make equal sized balls. Roll as thin as possible and cut into square. Use oil half way while rolling in one side to make rolling easy without getting shrunken.Do not make this long (large) as if you fold lot, it wont get cooked inside and will become chewy. Follow the same procedure as above and fold to triangles.

Can be an easy fix for this Holi celebration! Keeps good for 3 days in fridge.

Technorati Tags: Sweet samosa recipe,sweet samosa with khoya,sweet samosa with nuts,easy sweet samosa,holi recipe,holi festival