JEERA RICE with SOYA CHUNK CURRY

Ingredients:
2 Cups Basmati Rice
1 large Onion (thinly sliced)
1 large Potato (cut into small cubes)
4 Green Chillies (chopped)
3 tablespoons Jeera or Cumin seeds
3 tablespoons Jeera Powder (optional-I prefer it bcoz it gives extra-flavour to the rice)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 tablespoons of Oil or Ghee
salt as per taste

Method:

1. Take Basmati Rice(washed and drained) in a bowl.
2. Add 1sp of oil/ghee and 1sp of Jeera and add 4 cups of water to the drained rice.
3. Now keep the bowl in a Pressure Cooker and Bring to boil.
4. Heat oil/ghee on medium level in a large heavy-bottomed vessel for about 2 minutes.
5. Add mustard seeds and 2sp Jeera and fry for 2 minutes till the seeds splutter.
6. Add greenchillies, onion, potato and let it fry for 5 minutes.
7. Add Jeera powder, little bit of salt and mix it well and let it fry for another 2 minutes.
8. Now add boiled rice to the above mix and add salt as per your taste and mix the rice well and serve it hot with Soya Chunk Curry and Raitha.

SOYA CHUNK CURRY

Ingredients:
Soya chunks 2 cups
1 big Onion
2 Juicy Tomatoes
1 cup of boiled Mixed Vegetables (Carrot, Green Peas, Beans, Potato) – optional
3 Green Chillies (cut into small pieces)
½ teaspn of Ginger-garlic Paste
1 tea spn of Butter/Ghee/Oil
Turmeric a pinch
½ tea spn of Red Chilli Powder
½ tea spn of Garam Masala Powder
½ cup of Milk and 2 tea spn of Curd
Salt as per taste

 

Method:

1. Pressure cook the Soya chunks(with water).
2. Add cut Onion and Tomatoes in a separate bowl and bring it to boil with little salt.
3. Take out the soya chunks, leave it under cold water, squeeze the water out of them.
4. Take out the Onion and Tomatoes bowl, make a paste of onion.
5. Peel the tomatoes and make a paste. Heat butter/ghee/oil in a pan add green chillies, onion paste and fry till it turn golden brown.
6. Then add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute and add tomato paste, mix well and fry for 2 min.
7. Now add the masalas and fry till the oil leaves the sides.
8. Add the soya chunks (if you are using vegetables add them) to the gravy and add milk, curd and boiled it till the gravy became thick.
9. Tasty and Easy Soya Chunk Curry is waiting for you have it… you can also eat this curry with Rotis.

Cocoa Cakes

Hi friends, today i came up with a variety dessert which is most popular in Russia (i didn't went to russia :-) )
my russian friend gave me this recipe. I tried the same and it came out really good; I like the taste and enjoyed them a lot. Hope you would also enjoy; Good Luck, give it a try :-)

Ingredients
1/2 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3 table spoon of cocoa powder
1 stick of unsalted butter (115 gr)
5 table spoon of milk
1 lb of cookies or biscuits
1 cup of walnut pieces

Yummy cocoa cakes

Procedure :

Honey coated cookies or you can bring plain cookies

I use honey coated cookies just to lighten the cocoa taste. if you want strong cocoa taste, you could use plain cookies.
--> First grind these cookies with regular mixer until it becomes fine powder. (coarse can be fine; just make sure there are no big pieces.)
--> Chop the walnuts into small pieces. (I would use pulser/incher of the mixer to make the walnuts into small pieces. saving time ;-) )
 

Powdered cookies and chopped walnuts

Put eggs, sugar(i have used brown sugar as i do not want to lighten the color), and cocoa powder in non-stick pot. I prefer non-stick because it's easier to clean it after the dessert is ready, but you may use whatever you want. Just keep in mind that the pot will be heated up. Whisk all ingredients until the mixture is smooth. Then add milk and melted butter. Whisk again and place the pot on medium-high heat.
 
Stir it continuously, and bring it to the condition when it is just about to start bubbling. Immediately remove from heat. Don't let it bubbling! It should look like chocolate sauce.
 
 

 
 
Pour the mixture into the cookie powder; It looks like creamy chocolate sauce.
 

Mix altogether thoroughly like you prepare the dough for rotis. 
 

Put the dough on a sheet of aluminium foil and roll it as big log.
 

 
thats it, wrap the foil and keep refregerated for atleast 5 hours or until it becomes firm.

Once it becomes firm, open the foil and cut into small slices and store it in refrigerator;

Enjoy the cakes for as many days as you want. (i like these so would finish within 2-3 days :-) )

 
 

Spinach Pulusu

Ingredients
Spinach             :       1 bag
Onions              :       1 medium
Tomato             :       1 small
Tamarind          :        lemon size
Red Chillis        :        2
Red Chilli powder  : 1 and half tsp
Toor dal        :        2 tbsp
Salt                      : 1 1/4 tsp
Oil                      :   2 tbsp

Healthy and Yummy Spinach Pulusu

Procedure

--> Soak tamarind in small bowl with some water.
--> Wash spinach thoroughly, chop it and set aside. Chop onions and tomatoes and set aside.
--> Take a pan with specified amount of toor dal and pour 1/4 cup of water.
--> Switch on the flame and put it in medium heat. let the toor dal, cook to half done.
--> Meanwhile, squeeze the tamarind and retain the tamarind juice.
--> Once the toor dal is half done, add the chopped onions and let them cook until they become tender.
--> Now, add the chopped tomatoes and let them cook.
--> Add spinach to the mixture; add squeezed tamarind juice; add salt, stir all together once and close the lid and let it cook for 10-12 mins.
--> Open the lid, add red chilli powder, stir it and close the lid and cook for 5 more minutes.
--> Now open the lid, stir again and let it cook for 3 more mins or until all the water gets evoporated. (any leafy vegetable needs to be cooked thoroughly, thats when it tastes good and so i prefer to cook like that).
--> You can keep the water if you like it like pulusu or else let the water evoporate.
--> Switch off the flame once everything is done.

Tempering
--> now take a small pan for tempering : pour 2 tbsp of oil and let it heat up.
--> Add the tempering ingredients : urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves. let them sauteed and once they get golden brown, add the tempering to the above made pulusu.
--> thats it, healthy spinach pulusu is ready; you can serve it with roti or white rice; (even with Quinoa also, it tastes good.). I will add more healthy recipes soon.

Spider Mums' Cake

Today i came up with new yummy recipe;
Ingredients
Spider mums       :       3
Little Carnations  :       1 bunch
Green Ferns        :       1 bunch
Oasis                  :        1/2

Haa Haa   Sorry just for fun; I made a small flower arrangement, just wanted to share that on my blog;

Cracked wheat upma

Friends, today, i came up with a regualr breakfast variety  -     Upma. Are you bored of upma? just make it delicious with small changes.

Ingredients
Cracked wheat         :             1 cup
Onion                       :             Half medium onion
Green chillies            :             4 thai
Cashews                  :             few
Oil                           :             4 tbsp
Salt                         :              1 tsp
Water                     :              1 and half cup
Cilantro

Procedure

--> Take oil into a pan; let it heat up; Add the tempering ingredients (urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds,curry leaves)  and add cashews.
--> Add green chillies.
--> Add chopped onions to the tempering ingredients and cook for 5 mins on medium flame.
--> Let the onions become tender.
--> Add 1 and half cup of water and add 1 tsp of salt.
--> Close the lid of pan and put the flame in medium-hi.
--> let the water comes to bubbling.
--> Now, open the lid and reduce the flame to low. (because, now you need to add the cracked wheat flour)
--> Add the cracked wheat flour with left hand, while stirring it simulatenously with a spatula in right hand.
--> Make the flour mix properly without any lumps. If you got any lumps, try to smash it with spatula pressing towards the pan.
--> now, close the lid and let it cook for 3-5 mins in low flame.
--> Open the lid and stir once again, and take a pinch of upma with a spoon, let it cool down and taste it if it need to be cooked. if it needs, close the lid again and let it cook for couple of minutes.
--> Switch off the flame and sprinkle cilantro and stir it.
--> Serve it in a plate with few sliced lemons.
hope you will enjoy the taste :-)

Sweet Gavvalu - with Sugar syrup

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour (Maida)                2 cups
Sugar                                               1 and quarter cup
Special gizmo to make gavvalu
salt                                                   just a pinch (explode the flavour of sweet)
Oil                                                   2 tbsp for the flour and more oil sufficient for deep fry

Tool used to make gavvalu

Procedure

1. Take Maida into a big bowl.
2. Add pinch of salt to maida and mix the dry flour to make the salt mix well.
3. Take oil in a microwavable bowl and heat the oil for 30 seconds. (if the microwave has more power reduce the seconds). Please be careful while heating up the oil.
4. Pour the oil into the flour and wait for 3 mins to let it cool down.
5. Now, add water little by little and try to make the flour into hard dough (just the dough as we make for wheat flour rotis).
6. Kneed the dough thoroughly, there should not be any lumps inside the dough; It should be perfectly mixed well otherwise, it will break when you put in the oil.
7. Make very small balls from the dough and keep them aside. It takes some time making into small balls. with practice, you could make it fast.
8. Now take the special gizmo to make the balls as gavvalu. If you don't have that tool, you can use fork or new comb.
9. To make as gavvalu :
10.           Place the tool in a separate bowl and Hold the tool in slanty position.
11.           Place a maida ball at the joint of the tool (check the image to know the joint of the tool)
12.           Push the ball and roll it towards downside.
13.           Release the gavva (into the bowl)once you reach the end of the tool.
14. Repeat the process of making gavvalu with all the remaining balls. just 4 simple steps to make gavva : Place the ball on the tool, push it, roll it downwards, release.
15. First few would be tough, remaining you would feel easy to make. But it takes some time to make balls and gavvalu. You should have some patience for that :-).
16. So, once you are done with making gavvalu, just close the gavvalu bowl with a paper napkin just to avoid them from drying off. (do not close with air tight lid as they become watery and all your effort will be gone).
17. Now, take a clean frying pan and just wipe with dry paper napkin just to make sure there is not even a drop of water in the pan.
18. Now pour oil sufficient for frying gavvalu. depends on your convenience, if you take big pan, you might need more oil, if you take small frying pan, you will need small amount of oil but you have to fry for more turns.
19. I feel comfortable with using bigger frying pans, as it fries up quickly and takes less turns.
20. Switch on the flame and put it in high flame to make the oil heat up fast.
21. Drop a pinch of dough into the oil to check whether the oil is heat up or not. If the oil is heat up, then the small dough ball floats on the oil.
22. Now, your oil is ready to cook. Remember to reduce the flame to medium.
23. Now, slowly drop the gavvalu into the oil. Take a big spatula and stir occassionally.
24. Let the gavvalu cook for 7-10 mins; that is when the gavvalu gets cooked perfectly. If it takes less than that for you, then you need to reduce your flame even more and continue.
25. Place the fried gavvalu into a separate bowl. Place a paper napkin into a separate bowl and place your fried gavvalu into that bowl (paper napkin takes off excess oil).
26. Finish frying up the remaining gavvalu you made; and switch off the flame.
27. Once you are done with frying all the gavvalu, take off the paper napkin you placed in the bowl to absorb excess oil.

Immediately after the sugar syrup is poured and mixed well.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup

1. Take a separate pan and pour sugar into the pan.
2. Add little amount of water just until the sugar gets wet and switch on the flame on different burner and keep in medium high.
3. let the sugar gets dissolved and let it come to bubbling.
4. Now, check the syrup by placing a small drop of syrup into a small bowl and tilt the bowl; the syrup should take some time to move. that is the right consistency you need for the syrup.
5. Switch off the flame.
6. Now, this following procedure should be real quick as the sugar syrup crystalizes fast.
7. pour the syrup into the bowl containing fried gavvalu.
8. Stir all the gavvalu with the sugar syrup and try to make the syrup mix well with all the gavvalu. stir it fast and let the sugar syrup mix well with all the gavvalu.
9. Now place them in a big open vessel and let them dry for atleast 30 mins.
10. Once the sugar gets dry and crystalize, you are ready to place them in air tight containers and can enjoy the taste for atleast 20 days.

sugar got crystalized on gavvalu

Sounded like very big process? Do not worry, just give it a try; once you get used to it, there will not be any difficulty. (ofcourse, you will feel tired until you finish the entire process),but you will get good experience.
Please do post suggestions and comments.

Enjoy the delicious taste of gavvalu :-)

Bottleguard Curry

Ingredients

Bottle guard                                 1 medium

Onion                                          1 medium

Tomato                                        1 medium

Turmeric                                      pinch

Tempering Ingredients                  urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds, curry leaves

Oil                                               5 tbsp (or sufficient to saute onions)

Cilantro

Salt                                              1 tsp

Red chilli powder                         3/4 tsp

Procedure

1. Peel off bottle guard and chop into small pieces; Chop the onions and tomatoes and set them aside.
2. Take oil in a pan and let it heat up;
3. Add all the tempering ingredients and let them fry.
4. Add the chopped bottle guard pieces to the fried tempering ingredients.
5. Add salt and stir all the bottleguard pieces, put flame on medium-high, add very small amount of water, close the lid and let it cook for 7-10 mins.
6. If the water is too much, then open lid, let the water evoporate and then add onions.
7. Now, open the lid and stir once again; once the bottleguard pieces become tender(pinch a piece with spatula and it should be easy to break), add the chopped onions and close the lid to cook again for 5 mins;
8. Once the onions become tender(onions turns to transparent color once they are done), add the chopped tomatoes and close the lid.
9. After 5 mins, open the lid and stir altogether (by this time, all the pieces should be well done - even tomatoes).
10. Add Red Chillie powder, reduce flame to medium-low and let it cook for 3 mins just to avoid the raw taste of chillie powder. (you can add 4 green chillies for this curry, if you don't like red chillie powder)
11. Switch off the flame and add the chopped cilantro. that's it, delicious bottleguard curry is ready :-)

Beetroot curry

Ingredients :
Beetroots                   3 (big)
Green Chillies             5 thai
Onions                       1 small
Curry leaves               few
Cilantro                      garnish
Salt                            as required
Oil                             4 tsp

Tempering Ingredients : Chana dal, Urad dal, Cumin seeds(jeera), mustard seeds

Procedure:

Peel off beetroot and chop into small pieces.
Chop onion into small pieces and keep aside.
Take a pan with specified oil. Let the oil heat up and add the tempering ingredients, green chillies, curry leaves.
Add beetroot pieces; add salt and put the flame in medium and close the lid.
Let the beetroot cook for 5-10 mins.
Add the chopped onion pieces, reduce the flame and let the curry cook for 10 mins with open lid.
switch off the flame and garnish with cilantro.

Low fat Egg Burji

Ingredients:
Eggs                                8
Onions                            1 (small)
Potatoes                         1 (small)
Oil                                 2 tbsp
Green Chillies                 5 (thai chillies)
Red Chillies                    2
Curry leaves                   few
Corriander leaves           few
Kasoor methi                 pinch
Corriander powder        pinch

Procedure:

• Beat all the eggs and extract 7 whites and 1 egg with yolk in a bowl.
• Peel off the potato; Finely chop the green chillies, onion and potato.
• Take the specified oil into a pan and let it heat up. Meanwhile, rigourously whisk the eggs in the bowl with a hand whisk.
• Once the oil gets heat up, add the tempering ingredients(urad dal, chana dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds), green chillies, curry leaves and red chillies, kasoor methi.
• Add finely chopped potatoes and saute them until golden brown under medium flame. Add chopped onions and saute them until golden brown.
• Reduce the flame even low and add the whisked eggs into the pan.
• Stir the entire mixture and make it as egg scramble. let the scramble cook for 2 more mins under very sim flame. Add a pinch of corriander powder. and finally add corriander leaves and switch off the flame.

Prawn Pulusu

hi friends, today i came with my friend santhi's recipe of prawn pulusu. Below is the recipe for the same;

Ingredients:


shrimp                    - 25 pieces
onion                      - 1 medium size
green chillis             - 3
oil                          - 50 ml
tamarind pulp         - (soak tamarind in small amount of water, squeeze tamarind and make as thick paste)
ginger paste           - 1 tbs
cloves                    - 8
cinnamon sticks      - 3
cardomom               - 4
garlic                      - 4 cloves
cashews                  - 7
salt                         - as required
red chilli powder     - acc to spice level
yogurt                     - 4tbs
turmeric                  - pinch
poppy seeds           - 1 tsp
corionder leaves     - half bunch

Procedure :

• Clean the shrimp with hot water.
• Add little turmeric,salt and yogurt to cleaned shrimp and mix it. keep it aside for 3min and clean with cold water keep it a side. (shrimp smell will go off)
• Grind 4 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cardomom, garlic, cashews and poppy seeds until it becomes fine paste.make ginger paste separately.
• Finely chop the onion,chillis and corriander.
• Take a pan and heat the 50 ml oil add 3 cloves and 1 cardomom and 1 cinnamon let it fry and add chopped onions,chillies; fry for 2min,add shrimp to onions,add turmeric and salt and ginger paste and stir it altogether.
• Close the lid and let it cook for 5min till onions turn to golden brown color. add grinded paste and stir the entire mixture.
• Add red chilli powder and pour tamarind pulp and salt. add corriander leaves.
• Let it boil for 10 min in sim flame. boil till the gravy becomes thick and gives nice smell :D...

Gaajar Laddu

Preparation Time: 15mins

Cooking Time: 5mins
Standing Time: 5mins
Main Ingredient: Carrots

Ingredients
 
Almonds                1/4 cup
Carrots                  2 large
Cashews                1/4 cup
Roasted Split Dalia 1/4 cup
Sugar                      3/4 cup
Unsalted Butter       4 tbsp
 
 
Procedure
-->Clean, dry and grate the carrots. 
-->Cut almonds, cashews into very small pieces
-->Take a saute pan and add 2 tbsp of unsalted butter to the pan.
-->Slightly fry the almonds and cashews and set them aside.
-->Take 2 tbsp of butter in the same pan and add the grated carrorts to the pan.
-->Fry the grated carrots until you can hear the slight crisp sound.
-->Add sugar to carrots and let them fry until the sugar dissolves.
-->Now, finely grind the roasted split dalia.
-->Mix carrots,split dalia powder and the nuts altogether and make laddus out of that mixture.
-->Yummy yummy carrot laddus are ready to eat.