Poha with sev, Batata vada, tea

When I posted kanda batata poha, I got few comments they eat it with sev topped over it. So wanted to try that way for a long time. I always wondered what combo I can post for a north Indian breakfast and  parathas came to my mind, but I wanted to post something with Poha. We make south indian version of poha like lemon poha, tamarind poha, poha upma etc. But when I went to Pune and  had kanda poha, I loved the variation. The poha I make is is too soft in texture, but the one I tasted in pune was not too soft, it had some texture which I liked. Then only I tried after coming here and posted my Kanda batata poha. When I was thinking what to post along with poha, my friend Sangeeta suggested for batata vada her mom makes. Though she asked me to post this as snack idea, I am posting as a breakfast idea. This batata vada I made for this combo is similar to my Aloo bonda recipe. Only that I shaped it as patties. Sangeeta told her mom first fries the vada, takes it out, press between kitchen towels gently and again fries it to give it a crispy texture.
Check out the recipes

1. Kanda batata poha recipe
2. Batata vada (aloo bonda recipe)
3. Ginger cardamom tea recipe

I made the poha with only onions as I made batata vada. I first prepared the aloo stuffing, batter for that ready. Put the potato for cooking in pressure cooked, chopped onion for the vada and poha. Kept all the other ingredients like chilli, coriander leaves,  ginger (for tea) etc.; ready. Later prepared the poha. Lastly you can prepare vada and tea, to serve hot.



Have a nice weekend !

Millet curd rice | Bagala bath recipe | Millet recipes

One simple dish but many names. Curd rice, Bagalabath, thayir sadam what ever we name it. Its just delicious and almost life to many. Vj can’t even imagine any lunch without curd rice. I am sure its same for many out there. I wanted to finish up the  millets fast that I got from Bhairavi naturals. So I made this long time back, but kept postponing as its too simple to share. But someday I have to post right? I have already posted Thayir sadam/ curd rice before. This one is also similar but with millets. Whenever I see my MIL packing curd rice for my FIL, she tempers with cashew nuts. I have not tried this before. In my recent trip once I had that curd rice and it was really good. I also once had curd rice in a restaurant on the way to our temple trip. It was really a life saver for me with all those travels to keep my tummy safe. It was not sour thankfully and it was cream with the same ingredients as I have used here. Forgot the restaurant name sorry.

Millet curd rice recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time:10 mins     |  Cook time: 20 mins     |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Millets (I used little millet/ samai) – 1/2 cup

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Curd – 1/2 cup

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Milk – 1 cup

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Carrot, finely chopped – 1 tblsp

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Ginger finely grated – 1 tsp

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Green chilli, finely chopped – 1

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Coriander leaves, finely chopped – 1 tblsp

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Curry leaves – 3

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Asafoetida – A small pinch

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Grapes – 10

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Pomegranate – 3 tblsp

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Salt – As needed

To temper

Oil – 1 tsp

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Mustard – 1 tsp

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Curry leaves – 4

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Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Method

1. Was the millet and pressure cook for 4 whistles with 1 & 1/2 cups of water.

2. Let it cool down. Add milk to it and mash well without any lumps. Add salt and curd and again mix well.

3. In a small pan, roast broken cashew nuts until golden and keep aside. Temper with the items given under ‘to temper table’. You can finish tempering and add cashews to the same and do it together too. Add to the rice.

4. Add carrot, ginger, green chilli, torn curry leaves, coriander leaves and asafoetida. Mix gently. Lastly garnish with the fruits and serve.

Notes

• You can add raisins in place of fresh grapes, in that case, fry that separately in oil and add.
• Ginger and green chilli can be added to the tempering items, but I love the fresh flavor of both.

I love my curd rice with various side dishes. Mor milagai, sudakkai vathal, pickle, cut mangoes, vathal kuzhambu and carrot curry is what you see.

Climate is really hot and these days I don’t feel like eating rice for lunch. That too a big no to the regular cooking- sambar, rice etc. Always feel like drinking something chilled. Coming to today's post, I usually eat pomegranate as such. Sometimes add chaat masala and have it. This time when I got pomegranate, after making pomegranate juice for VJ, I wanted to try this pomegranate raita. I just made it simple but the taste was really good. I am not sure for which main dish this will go well, but I had as such and it was delicious!

Pomegranate raita recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch - Sides
Prep Time:10 mins     |  Cook time: 0 mins     |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Curd / Plain yogurt – 1/2 cup

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Pomegranate – 1/4 cup heaped

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Milk – 1/4 cup

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Roasted jeera powder  - 1/4 tsp

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Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp OR

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Green chilli – 1

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Salt – As needed

Method

1. This is the way I cut the pomegranate. Slice the head  and bottom of the fruit as shown with a small knife (paring knife), cut the skin alone carefully, by running the knife, over the fruit. Do not do it deep. Now you can open and break the fruit into four. Carefully collect the fruit with out the white parts/skin .

2. Beat the curd smoothly with milk, in a mixing  bowl, add the other ingredients and mix gently.
   
   

Serve chilled, its so good to eat as such!

Technorati Tags: pomegranate raita recipe,pomegranate raita,easy raita recipes,raita with pomegranate

Palak baby corn recipe | Baby corn palak gravy

When ever I see the Mast kalandar platter with corn palak I get way too tempted to try. Corn capsicum being a hit, I thought corn palak also will be delicious. I told Aj I am going to make this and opened the fridge to find I ran out of sweet corn stock. If I say Aj I cant make it, he would start cribbing, I was thinking what to do, suddenly found baby corn  that I got, so changed the plan with baby corn and Aj too was ok with it.  This recipe can easily be adapted with sweet corn too, goes well with simple pulao and rotis. I tried with both peas pulao and roti. Roti is my choice and pulao is Aj’s.

Palak baby corn recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch/ Dinner - sides
Prep Time:20 mins     |  Cook time: 25 mins     |  Serves: 4

Ingredients

Palak (Indian spinach) – 2 cups, chopped

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Baby corn – 12

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Onion - 1

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Green chilli – 4

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Ginger garlic paste – 1tsp

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Amchoor powder – 3/4 tsp

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Cream – 1/4 cup (or) Milk – 1/2 cup

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Garam masala – 3/4 tsp

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Sugar – 1 tsp

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Salt – As needed

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Oil – 1 tsp

To temper

Oil – 1 tblsp

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Jeera / Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Method

1. Wash and chop palak roughly. Heat a kadai with oil, add the chopped palak along with chilli. As we have washed the palak, there will be little water retained in the leaves, it will help in cooking. Just fry for 1 or two minutes until the volume reduces.

2. Cool down and grind it to puree. Meanwhile you can pressure cook baby corn. Cut into your desired shape, I chose diagonal cut. I cut each baby corn into 4-5 diagonal pieces. You can also cut into tiny cylinders. Pressure cook for 3 whistles with little water, salt and 1/2 tsp sugar.

3. Heat kadai with oil and temper with jeera. Add finely chopped onion and fry till transparent.

4. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute in medium flame. Add pureed palak, sugar.

5. Cook for 2 minutes, without losing the colour much. Add cooked baby corn.

6. Mix well, add required salt, cream. Flame should be in low. Adjust water or milk to get desired consistency.

7. Add garam masala and mix well. Let it heat up for a minute in low flame, never let it boil in high flame, to avoid curdling.

Notes

• If you don’t have amchoor powder, fry 2 finely chopped tomatoes after onion to proceed with the recipe.
• Something tangy should be added to balance the gravy.
• Make sure to cook palak properly, otherwise, will end up in bitter gravy.
• I realised I added less milk/ water, so mine looks thick, add accordingly.
• You can top with butter or ghee while serving to enhance the taste.
• You can replace the baby corn with a cup of cooked sweet corn too.

Serve with pulao or roti, we had with peas pulao for lunch and with roti for dinner. Both were good.

Technorati Tags: baby corn palak recipe,baby corn palak,palak baby corn recipe,corn palak recipe,palak recipe without tomato,palak recipes,indian palak recipes

It’s mango season now! If you are following me in Instagram/ Facebook/ Twitter, you might have known I have already made my batch of maavadu pickle. Now I was waiting to make mango rice. I love mixed rice varieties, especially the tangy ones like lemon rice, tamarind rice and this mango rice. Got 3 raw mangoes in little India last week, made mango sweet pachadi with one and saved two for rice. It was medium sized mangoes, thought I would need 2, but used up only 1 & 1/2. I also bought vazhaithandu (banana stem) so wanted to make it when Vj at home. Last week I made banana stem poriyal, This time wanted to make something else, so made this kootu. I love this kootu, we can have it as such. It was nice to have with mango rice. I soaked 1/2 cup channa dal too for masala vadais to go with this too. Really enjoyed this simple menu today. We had plain rice and butter milk too to complete the meal.

Check out the recipes:

1. Mango rice recipe
2. Banana stem mor kootu recipe
3. Masala vadai recipe

Here’s how I prepared this menu.

Easy South Indian lunch menu (55)

Recipe Cuisine: Indian   |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 30 mins     |  Cook time: 45 Min     |  Serves: 3

1. I soaked for masala vada 3 hours prior cooking. First pressure cooked rice (1 cup for mango rice, 1/2 cup to use as plain rice).
2. Mean while, chopped banana stem, cooked it. Grated mangoes and kept all the other ingredients like curry leaves, chilli, curd ready.
3. Had grated coconut ready, so ground for kootu and finished kootu first.
4. Tempered for kootu, then prepared for mango rice. Once rice was done, kept it for cooling down.
5. Ground for masala vada and chopped onion and other required items, mixed and kept ready for making vada.
6. Mixed the rice, kept aside and prepared masala vada lastly hot. Same oil, I fried some colourful star fryums.

I made dal and baby corn bajji for Aj who wont touch all the above items. But it was simple and easy to make.
Have a great weekend!

Paneer Quesadilla in griller

More than posting a paneer quesadilla recipe, here I am excited to post this idea of using the griller plate of the sandwich maker for making this quesadilla. I have posted chocolated sandwich using this griller plate before, after that, I tried making hara bhara kabab in this, but the heat was not just enough for kababs. After that, this is one successful use of the griller plate in the sandwich maker. This idea is again from my friend Sangeeta, she have asked me to try this as she makes this very often. This is just an idea, so use your imagination for making any quesadilla with leftover dry sabji, leftover chapati with some grated mozarella cheese. So great way to use up the leftover rotis. If you have leftover roti, make some stuffing and do this, if you have some sabji make roti and use it up in this as a snack for your hungry family who comes hungry to home. You can also use store bought wheat tortillas to make it easy. You can also make Kathi roll, the same way. Just roll your favorite and grill in between the plates. Genius right? Thanks to Sangeetha. You can make the same in waffle maker plates too.

Paneer quesadilla recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time:10 mins     |  Cook time: 15 mins     |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Tortillas / chapati -  6

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Paneer cubes – 1 & 1/2 cup

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Onion – 1

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Capsicum – 1

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Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

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Chaat masala – 1 tsp

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Lettuce (Optional) – few

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Tomato sauce – As needed

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Mozarella cheese, grated – 1/2 cup

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Salt - as needed

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Oil – 2 tsp

Method

1. Thaw paneer, soak in hot water and drain, crumble it roughly. Heat kadai with oil and fry onion and capsicum for a minute. Add crumbled paneer, red chilli powder, chaat masala and salt (Chaat masala has salt so add less).
2. Mix in medium flame. Keep a side. Heat the sandwich maker with griller plate. In a chapati place a leaf of lettuce, spread a tblsp of sauce.
3. Spread the paneer filling, 2 tblsp of  mozarella cheese and cover up with another chapati. If your chapati is big, you can just use one and fold it into half. 
4. Place it in the hot grill and close. Grill for 4 mins or until golden lines appear. Slightly rotate the quesadilla and grill again for 2 mins.
5. Cut into quarters to serve.

Notes

• Make sure the chapati is thick enough.
• Lettuce is optional. And you can use any tomato based sauce to suit your taste.
• Use only cheese like mozzarella which doesn't melt and flow much. Also never use too much cheese as it will ooze out.

Serve hot with any cheesy dip or tomato sauce. Check out my rajma quesadilla too.

Technorati Tags: paneer quesadilla,quesadilla in griller,easy snack ideas,how to use griller plate in sandwich maker

Carrot kosambari recipe | Ram navami recipes

Rama navami 2015 this year is on 28th March (Saturday). We usually make only Panakam and payasam. Neer mor or Kosambari also is offered to Lord Rama. My favorite is Panagam. Mom makes it everytime it tastes divinely. Its perfect drink for summer too. Even if you don’t have the formality of this function, do make Panakam and neer mor, to keep yourself cool.
When I went to Chennai in Jan, my MIL made this, but sans paasi paruppu. My co-sis is a great fan of this. My mom makes carrot thayir pachadi. But this way I had for the first time and liked it too. Carrot is least favourite for me, mom and dad used to grate carrot, mix with sugar and ask us to eat and I used to cry while eating that. But when I made this salad today, I liked it, I ate the whole thing I made while I was cooking.

Carrot kosambari recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Salad
Prep Time:10 mins     |  Cook time: 2 mins     |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Grated carrot – 1 cup

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Moong dal/ Paasi paruppu – 3 tblsp

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Lemon – 1

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Salt – 2 generous pinches

To temper

Oil – 1 tsp

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Mustard – 3/4 tsp

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Green chilli – 1, chopped

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Asafoetida – A pinch

Method

1. Soak moong dal for an hour. Drain water completely.

2. In a mixing bow, place grated carrot, drained moong dal. Squeeze the lemon in it.

3. Temper with the items under ‘To temper’ table. Add it to the salad, add salt and mix with a fork/ spoon.

Notes

• You can increase or decrease the moong dal in it.
• Same way, you can use finely chopped cucumber in place of grated carrot.
• Lemon and salt can be adjusted as per your taste preference.

This can be kept in the full meals as a salad. Also this is offered as prasadam for Rama Navami.

Technorati Tags: carrot kosambari recipe,kosambari recipes,kosambari rama navami,rama navami recipe,rama navami recipes,rama navami 2015