Eggplant Pizza

I had made pizza over the weekend using eggplant/brinjal as a topping. This pizza is a recreation of the eggplant pizza I have tasted in one of the restaurants couple years back.

Making Pizza dough

• Wheat flour- 1 cup
• All purpose flour- 1cup
• Yeast- 1tbsp (disslove in warm water)
• Salt and sugar to taste.

Vegetables and spices

• Red onion, tomatos - 1 small.
• Eggplant/brinjal- I used about half of the big eggplant sliced into bit size peices.
• Salt,Pepper, redchilli,powder and olive oil

Method

1. Combine the flours and add yeast dissloved in warm water to the flour, add sugar and salt.
2. Mix well using anough water to form stiff dough. Cover and keep it for 1 hour or untill it doubles it size.
3. Pre heat the oven 400 F, when dough is ready hand press it to form like circle shape, bake it for 10 mins.
4. Now add tomato paste or tomato sauce spread it around and add onion, tomato and eggplant(mixed with salt,pepper,olive oil and red chilli powder).
5. Continue to bake for another 10 min or less untill the veggies are cooked, I added shredded cheese last minute and left it for 1 min.
6. Eggplant pizza is ready. Enjoy.

* I baked just the pizza dough as such before adding toppings, to make the crust crispier.

Masoor Dal with Goda Masala

I have been cooking with Masoor dal for last 2-3 years now, I was first introduced to it by one of our Maharastrian friend. She made Masoordal amti for the dinner and we loved it, and later I got the recipe and the borrowed some 'goad masala', which is a very essential spice mix for masoor dal or any type of dal, and started using that.

But once the goda masala was over, I looked for the recipe, and found Tee's goda masala recipe. So from there on I make them myself and use them when ever I make curries with lentils or beans.

For this months RCI - Maharashtrian Cuisine hosted by Nupur of 'One hot Stove' I decided to make Goda masala which is very authentic Maharastrian spice mix used in most of the dal preparations. So followed 'Tee of Bhaatkuli's' recipe and prepared fresh Goad masala. For my first try it turned out good. Thanks Tee for the recipe.

Recipe for Goda Masala from, Tee of Bhaatkuli.

Dhane (Coriander seeds) 1 cup.

Jeere (Cumin seeds) 1/4 cup.

Teel (White Sesame seeds) 1/3 cup

Lavang (Cloves) 2 tbspBadi Elaichi (Big Cardamom) 2 tbsp

Dalchini (Cinnamon sticks) 2 tbsp

Kaale Mire (Black peppercorns)2 tbsp

Dagadphool (Lichen) 2 tbsp (skip it, if unavailable)

Tamalpatra (Bay leaf) 1/2 cupOil to roast the spices about 1-2 tsp

Roast all the ingredients untill its dark brown in colour. Once cool enough, grind them to course powder. Use as required .

Ingredients

• Masoor Dal - 1 cup
• Vegetables- Onion 1, Tomato 1, Garlic 2 pods and Tomato paste 2 tbsp.
• Spices- Goda masala, red chilli powder 1-2 tbsp
• Oil 2 tbsp and Salt to taste.

Method.

1. Add 2 cups of water to Masoor Dal and pressure cook for 15 mins. (No need to soak ahead).
2. Chop garlic , onion and tomato. Heat oil in pan and add veggie saute till soft and then add goad masala, red chilli powder and salt, adjust to taste.
3. Then add cooked masoor dal add required amout of water and cook for 10 mins. Add salt adjust taste, once masala is well combined with the dal. Switch off.
4. Serve with Chapathis, with some slices of onions and limes.

Tasty and healthy meal enjoy!

Orange Peel Gojju

As many of us know Orange peels(Kittale hannu-Orange sippe-peel in kannada) in India are sun-dried and powdered and stored. Used as a face scrub or mixed with oil and applied for hair. Besides these uses there is one more use to orange peels, making gojju with it. This time when I visited Mysore(India), in one of the TV shows they showed the recipe. One of my Aunt tried this one and it was delicious.

So last week I had found some nice skin oranges brought home and made some gojju using the peels.Gojju is a kannada name for its tangy,sweet and spicy curry. It tastes good with dosa, chapathi and rotti.

For some of you wondering how would it taste, it like bittergourd gojju but not bitter. Try it friends and let me know.

Peels can be stored in ziplock bags in refrigarator for months.

Here is the Ingredients and recipe.

• Orange peel - Of 1 orange



• Red onion- One small

For tempering:

• Oil - 1tbsp



• Mustard Seeds- 1tsb

Spices

• Tamarind paste - 1tsp



• Red chilli pwd - 1-2 tbs (I used Sambar powder along with chilli powder. Can add or leave sambar pwd)



• Jaggery - 3 tbsp



• Salt to taste.

1. First peel the orange and chop very finely, remove the white part as much as possible.



2. Put the chopped peels in a hot water for about 10 mins.(Take water in a pot bring it boil and swith off add chopped orange peel leave it for 10 mins).Orange peels become soft after this.



3. Do the tempering in another vessel, heat oil add mustard add soaked orange peels and fry for 5 mins till its soft, add onions and fry for few more mins until its tranlucent.



4. Then add tamarind water, spices , jaggery and salt, adjust to taste. Add enough water bring it to boil. Simmer down and let it cook and peels will soak up all the spices . After 10-15 mins swith off and let it rest for 5 more mins.



5. *Can add roast dalia dal powdered to this gojju, at the very end and mix it for better consisitancy.

Variation :After soaking the peels in hot water, Can used for making sweet jams.

Its ready......Enjoy !

Cracked Wheat Pudding / Godhi Paayasa

Godhi is wheat in Kannada. This sweet is made of cracked wheat/broken wheat and makes up for a very healthy dessert.

Ingredients :

• Cracked/broken wheat - 1/2 cup(serves 2)
• Jaggery - 1/4 cup (powdered)
• Almond and cashew - 1/4 cup powdered
• Cardamom/Elichi- 2 pods crushed
• Ghee- 1 tsp (for roasting of cashews and raisins)
• Milk- 2 tbsp Optional (for my kid I add milk)

Method :

1. Pressure cook broken wheat with enough water up to 2 whistel or 10 mins. Let it cool.
2. Take a heavy bottom pan add 3 cups water or milk (or half milk and water). To that add powdered jaggery,almond-cashew, cardamom(Adjust sweet as per your taste). Let it boil and then add cooked wheat. Leave it for 10 mins or so stirring inbetween, add more milk or water to desired consistancy.
3. Lastly add ghee roasted cashews and raisins.

*Note: Once it cools it becomes bit thick in consistancy, so while making it make it bit thin, using water or milk.

Enjoy it when its warm.

Tomato Pulav

At my kitchen for our lunch its mostly rice, sambar and one dry curry with vegetables. Some days when I am not in a mood to make sambar its one pot meal. So today being one of those days, for our mid-day lunch I had made a very simple tomato rice.

I usualy make tomato rice by adding chopped tomatos and onion with some spices. Today for the first time I tried making tomato pulav by pureering/juicing tomatoes and added fennel seeds while tempering. It was delicious with mild tomato taste with sweet smell of fennel.

Ingredients:

• Tomato - 1 big Puree it using blender
• Onion - 1 medium( thinly chopped)
• Green chillies - 1 to 2

For tempering :

• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1tsp
• Cloves and cinammon - 2 each

For Garnishing:

• 1 tsp - ghee
• 2 tbsp- cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp - corriender leaves chopped.

Method :

• Wash and soak rice (Basmati rice) for about 10 mins . This will allow rice to cook fastly when making on stove top. If using pressure cooker skip this step.
• Heat oil in a thick bottemed pan. When its hot add mustard and fennel seeds, cinammon - cloves. Then add chopped green chilles and onion, fry for few mins.
• Then add purrred tomotoes and add salt. Bring it to a boil then add enough water required for rice to cook ( I used 1 cup rice so added 2 cups of water + 1/2 cup of tomato puree) .
• When it starts to boil add rice, mix well adjust salt and spice ( want more spice add red chilli powder) and cover and simmer and cook for 10 - 12 mins.
• Now do the garnishing, add chopped corriender leaves and cashew nuts, roasted in ghee. Let the rice cool for 5 mins or so the add the roasted nuts and mix well

To go with it I made onion, cucumber, carrot pachadi/raitha. To make the taste bit different I added a pinch or Black salt (which is slightly tangy and salty in taste). Mixed along with salt and pepper. Simple and yet delicious lunch.

Enjoy!

Spiced up Cantalope Juice.

Eversince I saw Trupthi's post on WBB-Spice it up event I can't stop m self. I am trying to spice up the dishes or drinks which I never made before. Experiments are going on in my kitchen and this one really turned out well for me.

Whenever I get Cantalope from store, if its sweet and juicy we will eat half of the fruit as such or eat it with little salt and pepper. With the ther half I make juice or shake(using sugar and milk) . This is the first time I tried making cantolpe juice with black pepper and ginger. Tasted very well with spicy from black pepper and sweetness from honey and fruit.

Here is how I made it .

• Cantalope(peeled and cubed) - about 2 cups (for 2 glasses)
• Ginger - 1" peice
• Black peppercorns - about 10
• Lime or Lemon juice-1 tbsp
• Honey- 2 tbsp or more.
• Salt - 2 pinch (it enhances the taste).

1. Take the above ingredients in a blender and blend it to smooth consistency (no water required).
2. After blending I strained (using medium holed strainer), to remove if there are any big lumps.
3. Adjust the taste at this point and one can add water to desired consitancy.
4. Tastes good room temperature or chilled. We had this with simple bread toast .

Enjoy !

Cheerio-Chaat

For our evening snack yesterday I had made a quick, tasty and healthy chaat with some leftover spourted moong dal and cheerio.

Sprouting : Soak Moong dal or any dal for 6-8 hrs then drain water and keep in close container for 3-4 hrs.

I wanted to spice up the moong dal so here is what I added to it.

• About 2 tbsp each Chopped red onion, tomatoes, corriander leaves.
• Grated carrot, ginger, green chillies(1).
• Juice of half a lime.

Now mix everthing together and add salt and red chilli powder adjust the taste.

Lastly add cheerios and roasted nuts. Mix well and eat. Enjoy !

*No oil required.