Oats Idli

           Very healthy recipe; Lessens the spike of insulin level when consumed. Hope you will enjoy.
Ingredients
Steel Cut Oats (or Irish Oats)    1  cup
Semolina            1 cup
Baking Powder   1 and half tsp
Yogurt              as required
Salt        to taste



Prepare Oats
Blend the oats into coarse powder and use 1 cup for idli preparation. remaining you can store it in a box and use them for other recipes.

Preparation
Take few tsps of oil in a pan and put Basic popu.
Now add semolina and roast it till golden brown. Add Oats powder to the semolina mixture and let it heat up.
Let the entire mixture cool down and add Yogurt/Buttermilk until the consistency to make as idli. Add baking powder, salt to the mixture. The batter looks almost exactly like the batter for Vermicelli Idli.
Now, place the batter in the idli plates and cook them on steam for just 12 mins.
Take out idlis from plates, and serve them hot with  peanut chutney  or any other chutney of your choice.

Healthy Spread

Instead of the regular jams and the peanut butter on the bread everyday, you can try this; Taste bhi, health bhi :). Even good for kids.
Ingredients :

Walnuts              1/2 cup
Pecans               1/2 cup
Almonds            1/4 cup
Peanuts              1/2 cup
Macademias       1/4 cup
Milk                   1/2 cup
Honey                1/4 cup
Unsalted Butter  couple of tsps

Procedure :

--> Clean all the above nuts gently.
--> Let them dry on a paper towel for a while.
--> Take a saute pan, pour small amount of oil just to saute nuts.
--> Saute nuts taking one variety at a time. Pecans are gentle, donot let them burn.
--> Once done with saute, let them cool for some time.
--> Now, blend all the roasted nuts,milk,and honey in a regular blender.
--> Blend until it is finely done.
--> Store it in a tight container and keep refrigerated.
--> Ready to use it on your regular bread.

I like flower arrangements a lot.. I believe flowers brings happiness and pleasantness. these are couple of the arrangements i made...

Kreativ Blogger Award

Kreativ blogger Award

Thanks a lot Bhagi for sharing the award .

So here is how it works.
Rules for accepting this award:

1) Thank the person giving the award
2) Copy the award to your blog
3) Place a link to their blog
4) Name 7 things people don't know about you
5) Nominate 7 bloggers
6) Place a link to those bloggers
7) Leave a comment letting those bloggers know about the award


7 things people don't know about me
.
1. I like cooking/helping/being ambitious. 

2. Baby pink is my most favourite color.
3. I still love to watch cartoons.
4. Love eating plain rice with yellow dal, aavakai and a dollop of ghee.Yum!
5. Joyous; gets extremely nervous yet productive with even short span of time.
6. I am a music lover. melodious music.
7. Love all chocolates/cakes/sweets... yum yummy. 

I am passing out the award to all the bloggers i like.

Vegetable Pulav - Kurma

Pulav Ingredients and Method :
        2 cups Basmati Rice; 2 Cinnamon sticks; 2 Marati Mogga (dried capers); 1 medium onion, bay leaves; few cloves and cardomom; 2 potatoes - sliced; 1/2 cup shredded carrot; 1/2 cup frozen peas; 3 thai chillies; salt to taste; 1/4 cup milk; few cashews.

--> Cook rice; (add pinch of salt and few drops of oil for fluffy rice).
--> In the meanwhile, saute all the above ingredients except cashews and milk;
--> Add the sauteed ingredients to the rice that is being cooked; mix it; now, wash frozen peas and keep aside.
--> when the rice is almost about to done, add roasted cashews, peas, milk, stir rice altogether once and unplug the cooker, once it is done;


Kurma Ingredients and Method :
    1 cauliflower; 2 star anise; 2 cinnamon sticks; 2 black cardomom; 4 cardomom; few cloves; 1/2 cup poppy seeds; 1/2 cup shredded coconut; cilantro; 2 thai chillis; 1 tsp red chilli powder; few black pepper; 2 big onions; 2 tomatoes; 1 tsp garam masala; few kasoori methi; 1/2 cup yogurt;

--> Boil cauliflower florets in water, with a bit of salt and keep the boiled florets aside;
--> Saute all the ingredients leaving green chillies, poppy seeds, coconut, yogurt; u can take away the big spices like star anise, cinnamon sticks, black cardomom after sauted them;
--> Dry roast poppy seeds, green chillies; let them cool down a bit and grind them with coconut until fine paste.
--> Add the paste to the sauteed mixture, add yogurt, add the boiled cauliflower florets, salt, mix altogether, close lid and let it all cook on slow flame;
--> finally add cilantro and serve it hot;

Chekkalu

Hii All, again after a very long time, i came up with delicious crunchy snack recipe to share with you all.
Ingredients:
Rice Flour 2 cups;  Green chillies  2 thai; small piece of Ginger;  few Curry leaves; few cilantro;  1 tsp cumin powder;  Chana dal 3 tbsp; Oil  to deep fry; salt to taste.

Method:
--> Soak chana dal for atleast 1 hr;
--> Make paste with rest of the ingredients with small stone grinder/mixer.
--> Take rice flour in a bowl, mix the above prepared chillie paste, and soaked chana dal, salt
--> Add 2 tbsp of warm oil. sprinkle little by little water and mix the dough altogether. don't add excess water. the finished dough should be like this :

--> Heat up oil in a pan sufficient to deep fry;
Note : Knead the dough well; or else, chekkalu may break up when u put them in oil;
--> make small dumplings, put each dumpling on ziploc, and press it thinly. instead of pressing with hand, i use
(small easy trick : i put the dumplings between 2 ziplocs and press each one with ding chick[small stone grinder] until it become thinner.)
--> Place each of the chekkalu into the heated oil and fry them on med-hi flame slowly; let them cool down; store and enjoy the taste upto 2 weeks (or even more if they still survive :) );

Cake with Roses

i've practiced icing cake with roses :)

Birthday Cakes

Hii Friends, for first time, i have made birthday cakes. here are the pics for the same;

My First Icing Cake

Dear Friends,  its been very long time, that i come up with new recipes on my blog; so, just for a change, Today, i am posting my first icing cake; will be coming up soon with much more fun with cakes...



this one is just an experiment; i'l be posting some of my cake recipes soon..
so, stay tuned to enjoy more fun with cakes...;

Cake Mix Cookies

Yes, its right, cake mix cookies. Very easy to prepare and yummy to taste. You can add even different kinds of nuts and make it even delicious.

Preparation:

• Take 18 oz Pillsbury Rainbow Chip mix into a bowl.
• Pour ½ cup of melted butter, one egg into above mixture and mix it well.
• Take a flat bakeware and apply some melted butter to the plate.
• Now,  apply some oil to your palm and make small dumplings out of mixture. Press each dumpling as a pattie and put those patties on plate with 2 inches gap between each pattie.
• Cook in oven under 350 degrees for atleast 15-20 mins.
• Once the underneath part of cookies starts turning dark brown, take off the plate from oven and let them cool down for 5 mins. (do not forget to turn off the oven J )

Enjoy...

Egg Biryani

Ingredients

Basmati Rice 2 cups

Eggs         8

Green Chillis   8 thai

Onions    1 big

Oil   for sauté

Yogurt   ½  cup

Corriander Powder  1 tbsp

Biryani Mix  2 Oz  (I use Shan Bombay Biryani Mix)

Whole Spices:

Cinnamon Sticks  2

Star Anise  2

Cloves   5

Bay Leaves  4

Kasoori Methi   1 tbsp

Egg Coating :

Gram flour    2 tbsp

Egg   1

Corriander Powder  1 tsp

Melted Butter   5 tbsp

Cumin Powder   1 tsp

Red Chilli Powder  ½  tsp

Salt    ¼ tsp

Method

• è First Wash rice and soak them for 30 mins. Pour water just until the rice gets dipped. Don’t put excess water.  Boil 8 eggs, take off the shells; poke each egg slightly with fork (it makes eggs absorb the flavours and tastes good instead of bland taste) and keep them aside.
• è Take Oil required for Saute in a pan; let it heat up and add all the Whole Spices specified in ingredients.
• è Now add chopped Green Chillies, Chopped onions and sauté them until onions become tender.
• è Add Biryani Mix, Corriander powder to sautéed onions. Add Yogurt, stir together.
• è Now add 3 cups of water.  NOTE : Measure the rice and water with same size cup.
• è Add required salt, close lid and bring water to boil. Now add soaked rice to boiled water and close the lid; Put medium flame.
• è Let it cook until u see some bubbles/gaps between rice; it is the measure when the rice has been cooked more than half.
• è Now,  open the lid, stir altogether once; reduce the flame to as low as possible; close lid and let the rice get cooked completely. If you feel it becoming mushy, just open the lid and let it cooked openly.

Egg Coating Preparation :

1. 1.       Take all the Egg coating ingredients (except butter) and whisk it thoroughly.
2. 2.      Take a pan with butter and heat up; Now Dip each Boiled egg into step 1 mixture and put it in the pan. Proceed the same with all the remaining boiled eggs.
3. 3.      Let all the eggs gets sautéed. Coating should become golden brown.
4. Now add these sautéed coated eggs to the above cooked rice. Stir it altogether, sprinkle some chopped coriander, switch off the flame and serve it hot…

Yummy and Spicy Egg Biryani ready J

Bread Burji

Hmm, today I came up with very simple recipe, which could be even easy for bachelors to prepare as weekend breakfasts. Do no worry about big list of ingredients, as all of them are easy to process :)

Ingredients

6 Bread Slices (I prefer wheat bread with no grains)

2 potatoes

5 Thai Green Chillies

1 big Onion

3 Egg whites (reduces cholesterol. U can add yolks if u like)

Oil for saute

Cilantro few leaves

½  tbsp  Kasoori Methi

Salt to taste.

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 tsp Corriander Powder

Tempering Ingredients (urad dal, cumins, mustard seeds)

Mint few leaves

Method:

• Cut the bread slices into small pieces and toast them with little amount of oil. Let them turn golden brown.
• Extract egg whites, add entire required salt, whisk it thoroughly and keep it aside. (PS: remember do not add any more salt to the recipe)
• Take oil in a pan and put tempering. Add green chillies, Kasoori Methi, Mint leaves, black pepper.
• Add chopped potatoes; Let them half done, then add chopped onions. Let the onions become tender.Add corriander powder.
• Now add egg whites, stir it until it becomes scrambled egg.
• Now add toasted bread slices to the above scramble and let it cook for 5 mins or till the bread slices absorb the flavor.
• Finally add cilantro and serve it hot with Hot n Sweet Sauce.

Aloo and Besan Stuffed Karela

Method 1:

Aloo Stuffing :

We need 4 medium potatoes; 1 medium onion; salt to taste; 1/4 tsp red chilli powder; masala powders of your taste [i used corriander powder and homemade peanut powder]

Potato stuffed Bitter guard

Procedure :

Boil  washed/peeled potatoes in a pot for 12 to 15 mins.

Drain away all the water and let the potatoes cool down completely and set them aside; chop onion set it aside.

Meanwhile, wash bitter guard, peel off its ridges if you don't like them.

Make slits for each bitter guard and set them aside.

In a pan, take oil enough for saute, let it heat up for just couple of mins, not too much as you will close the lid and cook.

Add the slitted bitter guards to the oil, add some salt, close the lid and let all the bitter guard cook for 10 mins.

Open the lid, flip over all the bitter guard to the other side as well, close the lid and cook again for another 10 mins.

Now, when they are ready [should look almost black as shown in the picture], take out all the bitter guard from oil, set them aside.

Now, in a bowl, take boiled potatoes, mash them to paste [u can just smash with hand], add salt, red chilli powder, masalas of your taste [corriander powder and homemade peanut powder in my recipe].

Mix all the ingredients together 

Now, in the same pan as u sauteed bitter guard, saute chopped onions as well and add the potato paste to sauteed onions.

Take it out of oil, let it cool down a bit, and stuff the mixture in all the bitter guards.

You can sprinkle some cilantro if you like.

Other way of doing this is :  stuff mashed potato masala mixture in raw bitter guards and saute them altogether along with the bitter guards. i don't prefer this one since, the mixture comes out for me when i flip over each bitter guard and my entire pan and oil becomes too messy. If this works out for you, you can go ahead and proceed. In fact, this one is very easy.

Method 2 :

Besan Stuffing :

Ingredients

Bitter guard                              7

Besan Flour(Gram Flour)          1 cup

Salt                                          as required

Red Chilli Powder                     2 tbsp

Garlic                                       3 cloves

Corriander Powder                    1 tbsp

Oil                                           4 tbsp (for stuffing) 1 oz for saute

Besan Stuffed Bitter guard

Procedure:

First peel off the garlic cloves and crush them finely.

Take all the ingredients (except bitter guard), crushed garlic and mix them altogether. This is your besan mixture.

Now, take off the heads/tails of bitter guard and peel off their ridges with peeler (reduces the bitterness) and wash them off.

Cut the bitter guards vertically and provide some slots. Be careful, do not cut them into halves. Just make some gap to put stuffing.

Now, pop in the above besan mixture into each of the bitter guard slots.

Take 1 oz of oil into a pan and let it heat up. Place all the stuffed bitter guards in the oil, sprinkle little bit of salt on top of all the karelas, put the stove on medium flame, and let them cook for atleast 15-20 mins.

Flip over the karelas occasionally so that, they all will be fried evenly.

That’s it, ur stuffed karela is ready.

Hope you will enjoy both of my stuffings.
Happy Stuffing :)

                                                                                                                        

Masala Vada

Ingredients
Chana Dal      2 cups
Green Chillies  5 thai
Onion             1 medium
Ginger        small piece
Min leaves     few
Corriander powder 1 tbsp
Salt        to taste
Cilantro
Oil         to deep fry

Method:

• Soak Chana dal for atleast 3 hrs; drain away excess water; keep 1/2 cup soaked chana in a separate bowl.
• Blend the remaining chana as coarse powder.
• Now, add the 1/2 cup chana kept aside to this coarse powder.
• Add green chillies, finely chopped onions, corriander powder, Cilantro, finely chopped ginger, chopped mint leaves, Salt and mix altogether.
• Take oil in a deep frying pan and let it heat up.
• Now, take a bowl with some water and a ziploc to make vadas.
• Make ur palm little bit wet and rub the ziploc with ur wet hand.
• Now take the chana mixture and make it as dumplings and press them on the ziploc as patties. You can even make pattis on ur palm itself.
• Drop these pattis in the heated oil one by one and let them turn golden brown.
• thats it, delicious masala vada is ready.

Corn Flour Halwa

It’s  very easy and tasty. Corn Flour Halwa also has been one of the favourite dish of my husband and my family members.

Ingredients:
1 cup of Corn flour

1½ cup of Sugar or (according to your taste)

½ litre of Full Cream Milk (whole milk)

½ cup of grated Carrot (optional)

6 Sweet Cherries for garnishing (cut 1 cherry into two pieces)

4 tablespoons of Ghee

Method:
Heat Stove in a low flame and Pour Milk in a bowl and boil it.

After milk is boiled add Sugar and stir it well till the sugar dissolves.

If you are using Carrot then add it now and stir.

Take Corn flour in a separate bowl, pour some water and mix it well.

(it should look like Corn flour water)

Now Pour Corn flour water in the above milk bowl.

And also add 3 spoons of Ghee and stir constantly.

Stir it well till it becomes thick.

Now apply 1 spoon of ghee to a Plate.

Pour this mix in that Plate spreading evenly all over the plate and leave it for 10 mins Now, cut it into diamond shape pieces.

Now garnish the Halwa pieces with sliced Sweet Cherries.

(you can also use Cashews/Almonds and Raisins).

---- by Suneetha

Bread Manchuria

It’s a dam easy and a delicious dish to make while friends or guests are at ur door-step. We can also eat Bread Manchuria as a snack or with rotis.

Ingredients:
8 Bread Slices

4 Green Chillies

1 Big Onion

2 Garlic Cloves

½ Bunch of Fresh Cilantro

2 tbsps of Soy Sauce

1 tsp of Ajinomoto

1 tsp of Vinegar (optional)

4 tsps of Green Chilli Sauce

1 tbsp of Tomato Sauce (optional)

Salt as per taste

Oil for deep fry

  

Method:
Cut bread slices into small pieces.

Sprinkle little-bit water and salt on it, add 2 green chillies and mix it well.

Make small balls of the above mix and deep fry it till the balls turn golden brown.

Now finely chop onion, 2 green chillies, coriander leaves and garlic (grated).

Take 2 tbsps of Oil in a pan, fry grated garlic, chillies and onions finely.

Then add Soy sauce, Chilli sauce, Tomato sauce, Vinegar and stir it.

Now add ¼ cup of water and add Ajinomoto to it and bring to boil.

Now add the above fried bread balls, coriander leaves and stir slowly till it looks dry.

Serve it hot as a Snack.

Wet Manchuria :

If you like to eat Manchuria with Rotis then take 1 cup of water and add 2 tbsps of Corn Flour, mix it well and pour this water in the above pan and stir it well and take it from stove and serve it hot with Rotis or Pulkas.

-----By Suneetha.

Meeta Moong Rolls

Hi friends, today, my sweet sister suneetha contributed this sweet recipe. Please enjoy
Ingredients:
½ Cup of Moong Dal (Soak in water over night)
1 Cup of Sugar
1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
1 Cup of  Rice flour
Oil for deep fry

Method:
Blend the soaked Moong Dal in a Mixer.
Pour this batter into 2 Idli Plates and Steam it for 20 min.
Take 1 cup of sugar in a bowl, pour some water, cardamom powder and keep it on
stove till the sugar dissolves.
Now again Blend the above Moong Dal Idlies and sugar syrup.

(note : if the mix looks soft instead of hard, then put the mix in stove for 10min. and

let it become hard.)

Now make batter of  Rice flour :  add water to the rice flour and make it consistent like the dosa batter.

Heat oil in a frying pan/vessel.

Take above Moong Dal mix and make it small dumplings; dip the dumplings in batter and fry

them in Oil.

Enjoy the new taste of laddos :)

Oatmeal Dosa - Broccoli Curry

I have tried this oatmeal dosa, it tastes good, and healthy too.
Required Ingredients are:
Oats (old fashioned quaker oats)    -  1 cup
Semolina                                     1/2 cup
Rice flour                                     1/2 cup
Wheat flour                                 1/2 cup
Ginger          small piece
Cilantro        few leaves
Green chillies                    4 thai
Jeera (cumins)                  2 tbsp
Yogurt                             3/4 cup
Salt             to taste
Oil              required for pouring dosa.

Method:
Put all the above ingredients one-by-one into a bowl.
Pour 4 cups of water into the bowl and mix the batter well without any lumps.
Soak the batter for atleast 30 mins.
Now pour the batter on the pan as big crepes/dosas.
Let the dosa turn golden brown, flip over and let it roast on the other side too.
You can enjoy the dosas with chutneys or with curries. I enjoyed it with tomato dal :-)

Broccoli curry
Ingredients :
Broccoli    -  2 florets
Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt    as required
Oil    4 tbsp
Corriander powder -  1 tsp
Cilantro     few leaves
Tempering ingredients : urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds, red chillies - 2 cnt

Method :
Wash the florets and cut off the stems retaining the florets (u can preserve stems and use them in sambar.)
Now make the florets as tiny florets by plucking them off into smaller ones.
take a pan and let the oil heat up. Now add the tempering ingredients, let them turn golden brown and then add the florets.
Add salt, close lid and let it saute for 15 mins or until the florets become tender under medium flame.
Add red chilli powder, corriander powder, cilantro, mix it altogether, switch off the flame and serve it hot.

Pineapple Delight

Ingredients
2 -  20 oz Crushed Pineapple cans  
1 - 14 oz Condensed milk
1 - 4 oz  Sour cream
1 - 12 oz Cool whip

Mix last three ingredients and whisk the mixture thoroughly until it starts bubbling.
Now, drain away excess water from crushed pineapple cans and add it to whipping cream mixture.
Keep it refrigerated atleast 3 hrs before eating.
that's it, serve it cool.

Tofu Fried Rice

Hmm, At last i made something delicious with tofu :) here, i would like to share my yummy recipe. Can be prepared as weekend specials or even on friday nights :)
Tofu 1 Extra Firm
Rice 2 cups
Onions 1 medium
Potatoes 2 cnt
Spinach 1/4 bunch
Red Bell pepper 1
Mixed Vegetables 3/4th cup (frozen)
Green Chillies 10 thai
Eggs 5
Kasuri Methi 2 tbsp
Oil for saute in a wide pan and for deepfry in deepfry pan
Cashews few
Mustard seeds 2 tbsp
Black Pepper 1/4 tsp
Corriander powder 2 tsp
Cilantro few
Salt as required
Red Chillies 3 cnt
Turmeric 1 tbsp
Soy sauce 2 tbsp
(looks like long list? don't worry easy to prepare & worth it; atleast better than eating outside ;) )

Draining and Frying Tofu :

• Drain out the excess water from tofu.
• Place tofu on a wide pan or plate, place couple of paper napkins on top of tofu.
• Put some weight(to remove all the water from tofu) on top of the napkins. Stack of vessels would work. keep this weight for atleast 30 mins.
• Chop the drained tofu into small cubes and deep fry them and keep them aside.

Method

1. Thaw frozen vegetables for atleast 20 mins.
2. Cook rice and keep it aside.
3. Take 5 egg whites and 1 egg with yolk, whisk it thoroughly and keep it aside.
4. In the meanwhile, chop onions, potatoes, spinach, green chillies, bell pepper, cilantro and keep it aside.
5. Take oil in a wide pan for saute.
6. Add all the ingredients(except soy sauce)one by one, close the lid and let them saute for atleast 15-20 mins on medium-high flame.Add whisked egg whites too. Do not let the ingredients burn down.
7. Now, add the fried tofu to the sauteed vegetables, close the lid again and let it cook for another 5 mins (tofu will absorb all the flavours and tastes good).
8. Add cooked rice to the sauted mixture and stir it altogether and let it cook for 5-10 mins on med-low flame. Switch off the flame and add soy sauce and mix it well.

Last but not least, add some chopped cilantro and serve it hot with lemons or even it tastes good with 'Hot n sweet' sauce.

Singua Curry

Basic singua curry recipe; easy to make. here are the required ingredients.
Singua            4 cnt
Onion            1 big
Tomato          1 small
Green chillies  5 thai
Red chillies     2 cnt
Moong dal      2 tsp
corriander powder  1/2 tsp
Turmeric       1/4 tsp
Sugar             1 tsp
Salt             as required
Cilantro       to flavor
Oil         to saute (could be 1/4 cup or less)

Method:
Soak the moon dal in water and set aside.
Wash and peel off the singua; Chop into small pieces.
Chop green chillies, onions, tomato, cilantro and keep it aside.
Take a pan with oil and let it heat up. Add the tempering ingredients :  urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds, red chillies.
Add chopped onions, let them turn transparent/tender. Then add chopped singua pieces, soaked moong dal and let them cook.
Add chopped tomato, corriander powder, sugar, salt, stir altogether and cook for atleast 5-7 mins with closed lid on medium flame.
Now, open the pan and let the excess water get evoporated. Add cilantro and serve the curry hot with rice or roti..

Mint (Pudina) Rice

Hi all, after a small gap, i'm back again. today, i would like to share pudina rice recipe;
Ingredients
Pudina(Mint)              3 bunches
Rice                           1 and 1/2 cup
Green Chillies             10 thai chillies
Oil                              required for saute
Cilantro                      1/2 bunch
Turmeric                    1/2 tsp
Salt                            as required
Red Chillies                3 cnt

Cashews                    1 tbsp
Optional :
Shredded coconut(frozen is fine)      3 tbsp
Corriander powder    1 tsp

Tempering Ingredients:
Urad dal : 2 tbsp; chana dal : 1 tbsp; Jeera : 1 tbsp; Mustard seeds : 1 tbsp

Procedure:
Method 1:
Cook the rice and keep it aside.
Thaw the frozen shredded coconut in room temperature for atleast 15 mins.
Take off the mint leaves from the stems and wash the leaves.
Chop the green chillies, cilantro;
Put the green chillies, thawed coconut, cilantro, mint leaves into the blender. Add salt and blend altogether into coarse paste and keep it aside.
Tempering:
Heat the required oil in a wide open pan.
Add Cashews, let them half roasted, Now add all the tempering ingredients and turmeric, At last add the Red Chillies.
Once the tempering is done, add the coarse mint paste (that is blended in the blender)
Let the paste saute for 5 mins along with the tempering ingredients.
Now add 1 tsp of corriander powder and stir altogether.
Add the cooked rice to the above mixture and stir well with spatula until the paste mixes well with cooked rice.

Method 2:
Do the tempering procedure and add the entire mixture to raw rice and cook it along with the rice.
(this taste will be a little bit different than Method1)

That's it, yummy pudina rice is ready to eat. You can add little drops of lemon juice before eating;

My first mehendi and nail paint; I tried the paint on my nails with wet nail polish. It would be even more colorful if you use 3 different colors. I have just used 1 color.

Vermicelli Utappam

       Sounds Interesting? I'l tell u the secret :  just add Rice flour for your leftover vermicelli Idli batter, add green chillies, ginger, corriander, 1/4 tsp of baking powder, salt;

Mix the above specified ingredients altogether and spread on the non-stick pan as thick dosa/crepe.

Let it cook on medium flame for atleast 10 mins, until the utappam is golden brown in color; flip to other side and let it toast on other side too;

Now, switch off the flame once it is done on both side, and cut it into small slices as pizza slices;

Thats it, ready to eat it hot with chutney of your kind; I like to eat it during snack time or just for munching :-)

Garelu

Raw Material
Urad Dal(whole)              2 cups
Oil                                  required for deep frying
Salt                                 as required

Preparation:
--> Wash urad dal and soak them for atleast 5 hours.
--> Grind them with very little amount of water. Be careful batter should be very thick; shouldn't be loose at all. Add salt during blending itself.
--> Pour oil (sufficient for deep frying) into a pan and let it heat up.
--> Now take a ziploc and rub it with water.
--> Take a small dumpling of the above prepared batter and press it on ziploc make it like patti.
--> Take out each patti carefully and put it in heated oil. Let them fry until golden brown, take out of oil and serve them hot with ginger chutney.

Methi Rice

Ingredients:
1 Big bunch of Methi leaves/fenugreek leaves (Clean and separate the leaves)
(you can also use kasuri methi instead of fresh methi)
1 Small cup of fresh green peas
2 Cups of Basmati rice (soak for 30min)
1 Big onion (thinly sliced)
4 Green chillis (thinly sliced)
1 tbsp of garlic-ginger paste (optional)
2 cloves
2 cinnamon pieces
1tspn Corriander Powder
2tbspn Oil
1tspn Tampering seeds
Salt as per taste

Methi Rice with Raitha

Method:
In a pan, heat oil on medium flame add Tempering ingredients(urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds, curry leaves).
Add sliced green chillies, onions and saute them till onions become translucent.
Add green peas and fry for 2 minutes.
Add fresh methi or kasuri methi and sauté for a minute.
Add rice, water and salt to the above mixture and Pressure Cook it for 3 whistles.
Serve hot with raitha and kurma.

Bobbatlu

This is my one of the most favourite sweets. Very Yummy and mouth watering during preparation itself. Enjoy the process and its deliciousness. Here are the sweet ingredients :
Chana Dal           1 cup
Jaggery               1 cup
Maida                 3/4 cup
Oil                      1/4 cup
Cardomom powder   1/2 tsp
Sooji                  1/2 tsp
Rice flour            1/2 tsp

Yummy Procedure :
1. Outer Layer Preparation :
--> First mix Maida, Sooji, Rice flour with small amount of water and make it as hard dough.
--> Now, add Oil to that dough and kneed it well. Let the dough retain for atleast 30 mins or more.
--> This will be your Maida dough.

2. Inner Layer Preparation:
--> Chop the jaggery as thinner slices and set it aside.
--> Take chana dal into a vessel; Pour 1 cup water and let chana dal cook until it gets mashed easily.
--> Drain away all the excess water and let it cool down.
--> Blend chana dal in regular mixer and make it into fine powder.
--> Take a pan and put chopped jaggery and switch on the stove with low flame.
--> Now pour the grinded powder into the pan and sprinkle little amount of water to make the powder little bit wet.
--> Stir in the powdered chana and jaggery until the jaggery gets dissolved and mix well with the powder.
--> Add the cardomom powder and let the mixture cool down completely.
--> Now, make the mixture into lime-size dumplings and set them aside.
--> These will be your chana dumplings.

Boiled and Drained Chana dal : Ready to grind

3. Making Bobbatlu:
--> Now take a big ziploc or a polythene cover and rub it with oil. (just to make sure, the bobbattu doesn't stick to the cover/ziploc).
(a) Take a small dumpling(should be half the size of chana dumpling) from the maida dough and spread it with fingers until it becomes like our palm size.
(b) Now, place a chana dumpling (from step 2) on the middle of spreaded maida dough.
(c) Stretch maida dough a little bit and simultaneously Wrap the chana dumpling with maida dough
(d) Press the wrapped dumpling and make it like thin patti.
(e) Slowly take out the patti and put it on regular tava and toast it both sides as you do with regular rotis/chapathis. You can add oil/ghee/butter while flipping over the bobbattu on tava.

Repeat steps (a) to (e) until all your dough and dumplings are finished. Thats it yummy yummy bobbatlu are ready to eat. (You can add ghee before eating. it is fat by itself; so i don't prefer this last step :-) )

Vermicelli Idli

Ingredients
Vermicelli         1/2 cup
Sooji                1/2 cup
Cashews           few
Baking powder  1 tsp
Yogurt/Buttermilk    atleast half carton
Salt                   as required

Procedure:
--> Roast Sooji in a dry pan with med-hi flame. Let it become half roast and then add vermicelli.
--> Let the vermicelli get roasted;
--> Once vermicelli is half done, add cashews and let them roast altogether until golden brown.

--> Remember to stir on continuously, otherwise, sooji and vermicelli gets burnt soon.
--> Once the entire mixture is roast and ready, let it cool down completely. (i usually do this roasting part the night before making idli)
--> Now add baking powder and yogurt/buttermilk until the consitency of the batter is good to pour as idli.

Batter for Vermicelli Idli

--> Pour the batter into idli plates and steam idli in pressure cooker for 10 minutes and switch off the flame;
--> Open the lid after 15 minutes and serve it hot with split dalia chutney and ginger-tamarind chutney.
Here is the link for  Chutneys
Enjoy different chutneys acc., to ur taste.

Festival Mood

Today is Vinayaka Chathurthi; this time i kept pallavelli; usually i keep umbrella. this time, i was able to finish pooja with less effort as my husband helped me a lot; he made the arrangements necessary for palavelli.

Sabudana Kichidi

Ingredients

Sabudana           1 cup (8 oz)

Potatoes             2 small

Onions               1 medium

Green Chillies     5 thai or acc to your spice

Tempering Ingredients  Urad dal, jeera(cumin seeds), mustard seeds, curry leaves

Oil                     5 tbsp

Cashews            few

Salt                    to taste

Kasoor Methi(optional)    few

Turmeric       pinch

Cilantro      

Procedure
1) Wash sabudana and Soak it overnight.
Soaking instructions :
--> Pour sabudana into a bowl and pour water "just until the sabudana gets dipped".  Do not add too much water as it becomes soggy.
--> Let them soak it for atleast 3 hours. Usually i keep it overnight so that next morning i can make it as breakfast.
--> Once they get soaked, they should be like dry, not sticking to each other; Separate lumps with hands if any.

Soaked sabudana should look like this individual balls. shouldn't stick together

2) Chop the green chillies, Onions, Potatoes and keep them aside.
3) Now, take oil into a pan (wide opened pan is preferable, as it makes cooking sabudana easy to stir more space to move around.) and let it heat up.
4) Add Cashews let them half roast then add tempering ingredients and green chillies. Add few leaves of Kasoor Methi.
5) Now, add potatoes, salt, stir altogether; close the lid and let it cook on Medium flame for 5-7 mins or until the potato pieces becomes tender.
6) Now add chopped onion pieces close the lid again and let it cook until the onions become tender/transparent. You can add corriander powder/peanut powder for taste.
7) Open the lid, add soaked sabudana, stir altogether once; This time do not close the lid. Let the sabudana cook with open pan.
8) Let sabudana cook for 7-10 mins on medium high flame and open pan. Stir occassionally or else, sabudana gets sticked to the pan.
9) Cooked sabudana becomes tender and transparent(while raw sabudana looks pure white in color). that is the right time to switch off the flame.
(If you are not sure about right consistency of cooking, you can taste a little bit, it should be like little bit gummy instead of startchy.)
10) Now, your sabudana kichidi is ready; Switch off the flame and add chopped cilantro;

serve it hot with Tamarind-Ginger chutney for elders;
serve it warm for kids. Kids will like it as the texture would be little bit gummy. (may be they will be in the illusion that they are eating spicy yummy special gummy bears :-) )