Red Capsicum Chutney

Abhi is very fond of pachadis. Hence I will be posting all sorts of chutneys that we can make with various veggies that are available. This chutney is best when served with Dosa's. When you make masala dosa you can brush the dosa with this chutney before you stuff it with aloo curry.

**Generally we donot add paprika to chutneys but I do add a pinch to this paticular chutney as it turns out to be sweeter than what you expect a chutney to be**

Ingredients:

Red capsicum - 3

Garlic- 4 cloves

Oil - 3 tbsp

Ghee 1 tea spoon

Mustard Seeds - 1 tbsp spoon

Ural dal - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - 5

Channadal - 1tbsp

Red mirchi - 5

Green mirchi - 5 small

Cashew nuts Powder- 1 tbsp

Paprika -*Optional*

Procedure:

-Add oil to a skillet and add in a part (1/2) of the thadka ingredients along with powdered cashew garlic and green / red mirchis.

-Add cut capsicum and saute until its cooked and starts sweating.

-Blend this cooked capsicum into a fine paste.

-You add the rest of the thadka on top of the chutney and by using ghee for this will make the capsicum pachadi very tasty.

Mango Mousse

This is a dish which kids would love to have. My neighbour has two lovely kids and I made this for them and since then she loves to come to our house. You can try this in diffrent shapes. I used heart shape.

Ingredients :

-Fresh mango Juice / Mango Pulp -1 tin
-Freshly whipped cream - 1/2 cup
-Strawberries - A few
-Grapes - A few
-Kewi - A few
-Pectin - 2 packets

Procedure:

-Pour the mango pulp into a pan and bring it to a boiling temperature.
-Add pectin to the pulp and stir well.

-Add freshly whipped cream to the mixture and eyeball.
-Slice all the fruits and add them to a container in which you would like to set your Mango Mousse.

-Pour the mixture into your fruit bowl and freeze it for a couple of hours for it to set well.

Tomato Pappu

Back in my Masters and even while I was working in VA I used to add Dal, tomatoes, mirchi, turmeric and pressure cook it and then add the thadka to it. But trust me cooking the Dal and tomatoes separately will definitely give the dal a very special taste, which is worth the effort. If you feel who on earth will have so much time? Try doing this -freeze the pressure cooked dal and when ever you wanna make dal remove a portion of it you can add it to spinach, squash, sambar.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 5 +* roma

Toor dal- 1/2 Cup

Water- 1 Cup

Salt

Paprika - 1/2 tbsp **Not many ppl prefer this but I just love the color that it adds to the dal**

Green Chilli - 2 small

Turmeric- 1 tea spoon

Garlic- 3 whole cloves

Tamarind paste- 1/2 tea spoon ** Optional**

Curry Leaves - 5

Jeera- A few

Urad Dal - A few

Mustard Seeds- A few

Red Chill - 2

Hinge- A pinch

Procedure:

-Pressure cook the dal, until you hear a minimum of 3 whistles

-Meanwhile add some oil for the thadka after the oil is hot add chopped garlic cloves, mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal, green mirchi, red mirchi, curry leaves and once you here the chit pat sound then add hinge.

-In the same pan add tomato's, salt and tamarind paste and close the lid and allow them to cook.

-Mash the dal that it pressure cooked, Abhi prefers it when the dal is silky smooth so I prefer grinding the dal for a couple of minutes before I add the tomatoes in it.

-Add paprika and let it cook for some time and garnish it with cilantro.

P.S: My mom always used to say add more tomato's less dal, eat more curry less rice. Its always better to have more veggies and less carbs, just a thought I would like to share.

Bread Pakoda

My mom used to make different kinds of pakodas with the same batter like pakoda, aratikaya bajji, aloo bajji, tomato bajji, and my fav was always bread bajji.

It was raining in Chandler the other day, yeah you heard me right in Arizona. Abhi said he would like to have some pakodas in the rain. I was very skeptical if I will be done with cooking before it stops raining but to my utter surprise pakodas hardly take any time. I made some pakodas and along with some Masala tea we went to the balcony and spent the whole of evening out there watching it rain. Bread bajjis are one of those snacks that hardly take any preparation time - Try it out! Are you wondering how many calories it has in it?? Dont worry as I am sure its better than large beer battered french fries / onion rings often fried in Corn-oil and dipped in ranch ;).

Ingredients:

Besan - 1 cup

Water

Bread - 2 slices

Cilantro - 1/2 bunch

Mirchi - 4

Paprika - 1 tbsp

Chat Masala - 1 tea spoon

Baadshah Kitchen King Masala - 1 tea spoon

Dhanya jeera - 1 tea spoon

Salt - As per taste

Procedure:

- Cut the bread into desired size, preferably the smaller the better as we generally tend to count the number of pakodas we had and stop eating, therefore I prefer cutting the bread into 4 slices.

-Add besan, paparika, chopped mirchi, dhanya jeera powder, Chaat masala, Baadshah kitchen King masala, paparika, salt to a bowl and eyeball it perfectly.

-Add water to the above flour in such a way that its not too soggy.

-Heat the oil and make sure the oil is hot enough, you don't want the oil to be too hot as it will burn the bread fast and it will not cook to the desired amount.

-Once the oil is heated dip the bread in the batter and immediately add it in oil to fry them, place the fried bread pakoda / bread bajji onto a fresh tissue paper so that it will absorb excess oil on the surface.

Majjiga Pulusu

There are many dishes which have a combination like ullipaya pulusu and kandi pachadi they go together, similarly this is best when served with mudda papu / utti pappu / plain Dal. You can add drum sticks to this but here we get frozen ones which are often not as tasty as the fresh ones. North Indians have different names for the same dish some call it avial and when we add pakodi to the exact same recipe it is called Kadi/ Punjabi Kadi. Will post those recipes soon.

This recipe is dedicated to 'Harinakka'

Ingredients:

Yogurt / Butter Milk - 4 cups
Water - 1/4 cup [If you use butter milk avoid adding water]
Turmeric- Pinch
Salt- 1 tea spoons
Green Mirchi -5 small
Cilantro - 1/2 bunch
Ginger - 1 tbsp (minced)
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Besan - 1 tbsp
Onions - 1 medium
Tomatoes- 2 medium
Sorakaya /lauki/bottle guard - 1/4


Procedure:

-Churn yogurt for a few minutes, add little water and turmeric to it.

-Add jeera, green mirchi, minced ginger, cilantro and blend, add little yogurt if need be.

-Add soaked chana dal to the blender and blend it well.

-Microwave cut onions, tomato's, bottle guard (sprinkle some water so that we don't burn the veggies, as such they have some water in them so just sprinkle water).

-Pour the churned yogurt into a pot, add the microwaved veggies along with some salt, after some a few minutes add the paste to the mixture and allow it to cook on a low flame.

-Add little besan to cold water and eyeball it until it dissolves well and making sure there are no lumps left over, add this mixture to the pot and allowing the soup to thicken.

-Garnish it with cilantro when done for nice fragrance.

Egg Curry

Protien is a very important part of our diet, if you closely look at the picture you will not find any egg yellows as I used only the whites to make the curry more healthy :)

Ingredients:

-Eggs - 3
-Onions -1 large
-Tomatoes - 3 roma
-Cilantro - 1/4 bunch
-Red Chilli - 3
-Evaporated Milk- 1/2 cup [for everyday cooking I use 2% Milk]
-Whipped cream-1 tbsp **Optional**
-Garlic - 4 cloves minced
-Ginger - 1 tea spoon minced
-Garam Masala-1 tea spoon
-Dhanya-Jeera powder- 1 tea spoon
-Cinnamon stick -1/2
-Bay leaves- 3
-Elachi Powder
-Salt
-Paprika


Procedure:

- Add oil and after heating it add Bay leaves Cinnamon and red chilli after you smell the fragrance add finely chopped onions to it along with a pinch of salt for the onions to sweat.

-Cover it with a lid and allow them to cook until they are slightly golden brown in color, add ginger garlic paste and saute it, add tomatoes and cook them until all the water evaporates and oil oozes out. Add garam masala, Badshah Kitchen king Masala, dhanya-jeera powder, paprika and salt if required.

-Add evaporated milk and whipped cream and let them cook until the evaporated milk reduces to half the amount that was poured initially.

-Meanwhile boil the eggs in a separate bowl, when done peel the egg shells off cut them into half.

- **Optional** You can add 2 tea spoons of oil, add the eggs and sprinkle a tea spoon of paprika and pepper powder. // Or directly add the pealed boiled eggs to the gravy.

-After the gravy is cooked completely, add the eggs to it. Once you add eggs you need to carefully saute them so that the egg yellow and white are not separated.

-Finally garnish the curry with cilantro.

P.S: Do not focus on the container in which the curry is :P , Look at the curry for color and texture idea :)

Semiya Payasam

I remember Abhi mention to me that he is not too much into desserts. I was utterly disappointed by his statement back when we were still seeing each other. I am born with a sweet tooth, whenever we go to a buffet I have dessert first and then the main course. I was planing to prepare payasam as we were setting up our pooja mandiram for the very first time, he said 'Just make a tea spoon full for me'. I was like ok ... I guess this is an advantage as I get to eat the rest. That evening after he is back from the office he asks me ... 'Snigdha, do you think I can have a cup of payasam, as I am already done with my tea spoon' ... Trust me although someone doesn't like sweets they will love it with this recipe.

Ingredients:

Vitamin D Milk - 4 cups

Evaporated Milk - 1 cup

Condensed Milk - 1 cup

Sanna Semiya (Thin Semiya..Preferably Shaan from Indian Store) - 1/2 Packet

Sliced Badams Soaked in Milk over night-Hand full

Elachi Powder - 7 cloves

Khumkhum puvvu /Safforn - A pinch

Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup

Sliced Cashew Nuts-Hand full

Sliced Pistachios-Hand full

Raisins-Hand full

Procedure:

-Add Ghee to a pan (Select a pan which is broad enough with good depth to it), add half of the dry fruits mentioned above and fry them.

-Roast the Semiya in the same pan, if you are using Shaan/Ahmed brand Semiya they are already roasted , so just saute them in ghee for a couple of minutes.

-Microwave the 'milk + evaporated milk' for 25 minutes and then add this to the pan with semiya.

-Allow it to cook for some time (until the semiya is soft), and add condensed milk.

-Take the rest of the dry fruits and elachi, blend them, add this paste to the semiya **If you do not have soaked badams handy, just add MTR Badam feast 'secret ingredient'**

-Add brown sugar , this will be the last but not the least item to be added to the dish, allow the it to cook for some time.

Masala Chai

Ingredients:

Milk - 1/2 Cup

Water - 1/4 Cup

Cinamon Powder - A pinch

Elachi Powder - A pinch

Sliced Ginger -Optional

Tea Powder - 1 Spoon

Honey - 1 tbsp **Secret ingredient** I always prefer adding honey any day when compared to sugar as its more healthier and tastier.

Procedure:

-Heat a hard anaodized-pot with water add a tea powder, a pinch of cinamon powder, elachi powder, sliced ginger, Boil it for some time.

- Add milk and allow it to boil, just before its ready to serve add honey.

Bread Upma

How did it all start: Abhi had an exam and was preparing for it, he was up early in the morning. I got up along with him to carry on with our house hold chores. Wanted to make some quick and light 'desi' breakfast, as I already served him his fav Cinnamon - Chai. Then I recollected that my mom mentioned to me that Bread Upma was one of the fastest tiffins she ever made, I gave her a call and asked her the recipe; she gives me her own version and I decide to modify it a bit and started making this 'Yummy Bread Upma'.


Ingredients:

Bread - 4 slices
Onion - 1 medium size
Tomatos - 3 small size (Roma)
Mustard Seeds - A few
Urad Dal - A few
Channa Dal - A few
Cashew Nuts- A few + more ;)
Curry leaves - A few
Green chillies - 4 small
Turmeric - A pinch
Paprika - A pinch / optional ( We general do not use red chilli powder for Upmas but I love the color that it adds to the dish, hence I add a very small pinch) **My secret ingredient**
Ginger - 1/2 tbsp minced
Ghee - a few spoons full


Procedure:
-Sprinkle some water on the crumbled bread (do not soak the bread in water just sprinkle ample water)
-Add ghee in a medium hot pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, green chillis, curry leaves, after they are done and you hear the chit pat sound , add minced ginger, fried cashew nuts.
-Add finely chopped onions add a pinch of salt for the onions to sweat out and a pinch of turmeric, Close the lid and let the onions cook until they are transparent in color [we are not waiting until the onions get a golden brown color].
-Once the onions are done add the finely chopped tomatoes and let them cook.
-Add the bread to the pan and leave it on simmer for half a minute with a close lid and half a minute open, allowing the water to evaporate.

Tips:

Best when served with Palli Pachadi alias Peanut Chutney. Can also be served with tomato ketchup.

Beerakaya koora

Ingredients:

Curry:

Ridge gaurd/ Beerakaya - 2

Condensed / Evaporated/ Vitamin D/ 2% Milk - 1/4 cup

Curry Powder - 2 tbsp

Minced garlic - 4 cloves

Paprika - 1 tbsp

Turmeric - A pinch

Thadka/ Popu/Thalimpu:

Mustard Seeds - A few

Jeera - A few

Urad Dal - A few

Channa Dal - A few

Curry leaves - A few

Red Chilli / Endu mirapakaya - 2 big

Green chillies - 2 small

Oil - a few spoons full

Hinge - A pinch

Procedure:

- Take a pan add oil and put in all the ingredients mentioned above for the thalimpu allow it to get a nice color (yellowish brown to golden brown) as well as smell (wait for the chit pat sound)

-Add minced garlic and tumeric.

-Cut the beerakaya into considerably small size ( the smaller the size the faster it cooks), add salt to it as it will sweat and helps the curry to cook in its own water.

-Add paprika and tumeric before you add in milk which will help the curry to retain the reddish yellow color.

-Once its half cooked, add milk to it.

-Close the lid and allow it to cook for some time until its tender and almost done.

-Add curry powder [See my curry powder recipe for that / if that's not ready add Badshah Kitchen King Masala ]

- This is best when served with white rice /brown rice.