Coconut-Coriander Chutney

Today being sunday I made Idlies, and to go with it coocnut-coriander chutney. Here is my recipe for simple and classic chutney that goes good with almost any dish.

• Coconut - 2 tbsp grated
• Coriander/cliantro leaves - one handful chopped
• Green chillies - 1-2
• Red onion and garlic - few peices
• Roasted gram dal (hurigadale)- 2 tbsp
• Tamarind water/paste- 1tsp
• Salt to taste.

1. Wash and clean cilantro leaves, chop onion, chillies.
2. In blender/mixie grind all the ingredints adding little water to make to smooth paste.
3. One done , transfer to a bowl and temper with oil, mustard seeds and urad dal.

Enjoy !

Chickpeas Masala / Channa Masala

I make this dish with chickpea (channa, kabul kadalai) at least once a week. Here is my recipe of makng this curry.


Ingredients

• Chickpeas - 1 cup ( soaked overnight and cooked till just soft, can use canned chickpeas instead)
• Onion - 1 meduim
• Tomato - 1
• Capsicum/bellpepper- 1 small
• Ginger and garlic- 2 pieces
• Tomato paste - 1tbsp (gives rich colour to the curry)
• Jaggery or Brown sugar - 1tsb (to balance the taste)

Spices

• Redchilli powder and Garam masala - 1tsp each (use channa masala powder instead).

Garnish : Corriender/cilantro leaves and thin slices of red onions.

1. Chop onion, tomato and capsicum to big chunks. Along with ginger and garlic grind them to paste using enough water.
2. Heat oil, when hot add cumin seeds, add in ground paste and cook till raw smell of veggies are gone, the mixture becomes thick and changes to dark colour.
3. Now add spices and jaggery mix well, add cooked or canned chickpeas.Add enough water and cook on medium heat for 10 mins or so untill all the flavours combines well.
4. Garnish with few cilantro leaves and red onions. Tastes great with puri and rotis.

Enjoy !

Roasted Pepper Raitha

Raitha or pachaddi is a yogurt(curds) based dish, I usually make it when I prepare one pot rice dishes. Raithas are usually prepared by adding raw onion,tomato or cucumber. For a change and something different from regular ones, I tried making using roasted Bananna pepper, and the taste was divine. I'll making this raitha more often now.


Ingredients

• Home made yougurt/curds - 1 cup
• Bananna Peppers - 1big (Red bellpeppers and pablano peppers will be good too)
• Red onion- 1 small
• Red chilli powder and Amchur powder - 1 tsp each
• For tempering : Oil, mustard seeds and cumin seeds - 1tsp each

1. On a grill or directly on flame roast peppers untill all sides are blacken. Cover for 5 minutes, the skin comes of easily(discard the skin and seeds). Chop the peppers and keep aside.
2. Chop onions mix with peppers to this add salt, chilli powder and amchur powder (this is optional, I add to give raitha little tangyness). Mix everting with yogurt.
3. Do the tempering by heating oil, and add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Once they start to pop add this to pepper-onion mixture, mix well.

We had this with corriender-mint pulav. Enjoy !

Pear Crumble

After posting many curries or side dishes, I am posting something sweet. No special occasion, last night for dinner we had left overs from afternoon, so I made something simple and warm dessert using the pear I had. I made pear crumble using basic recipe, along with it I also added some raisins and almonds. Crunchy and tasty.



Ingredients for filling

• Pear - 1 choped
• Raisains - 2tbsp (any dry fruit works best)
• Almonds - 2tbsb chopped

For topping

• Brown sugar- 1tbsp
• Oats - 1/2 cup
• Cinnamon sugar- 1tsp
• Nutmeg- 1/4 tsp grated
• Butter- 1tsp crumble

1. Pre heat the oven 350 degrees. Chop all the ingredients mix together.


2. Combine all the ingredints for topping.


3. Lightly oil the baking dish add chopped pear mixture. Top with oats mixture, Crumble in butter(use more butter for more cripsiness).


4. Bake for about 25-30 mins untill the top is golden brown and bubbly.


5. Let it cool for about 10 mins before serving. Serve warm.

Enjoy !

Pumpkin Sagu

This is my MIL's recipe, she makes this sagu whenever she makes Dosas. I too made dosa today for our lunch and would like to share her Recipe.



Ingredients

• Pumpkin - 3cups chopped
• Onion - 1 meduim chopped

Tempering

• Oil, Mustard seeds and Channadal - 1tsp

For Grinding (no need to roast)

• Coconut grated - 2tbsp
• Poppy seeds, Dalia dal (roasted gram dal, hurigadale) - 1 tsbp
• Corriender leaves- one handfull
• Green chillies- 1-2
• Cinnamon, cloves - 2 each
• Black pepper - 1/2 tsb

1.Cut/ chop pumpkin and onions.
2. Heat oil, when hot add mustard seed and channadal. Once dal starts to change colour add veggie mix well. Cover and cook till pumpkin is bit soft takes about 10 mins.
3.Meanwhile put all the ingredients in a mixer for grinding and add enough water and grind to smooth paste.
4.Once pumpkin is soft add ground paste, salt to taste add more water for desired consistancy.
5.Cover and cook for another 5-7 mins untill veggies absorb ground mixture. Once done switch off and serve.

We enjoyed with Dosa.

Aloo-Methi with simple seasoning

This is my favorite dish to do with red potatoes and methi leaves. Very easy recipe and goes well with rotis,chapathis and dosas. Leftovers can be used to make sandwiches or bondas.


Ingredients

• 
  
  Red Potatoes - 3 meduim size
• 
  
  Onion - 1 medium
• 
  
  Methi leaves - 2 tbsp dried (fresh leaves can be used too)

Tempering

• 
  
  Oil - 1tsp
• 
  
  Cumin/jeera seeds - 1tsp
• 
  
  Red chilli powder- 1tsp
• 
  
  Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Garnish :Cilantro leaves and fresh juice of lime juice about a tea spoon.
1. 
   
   Wash potatoes and cook till soft not mushy. Keep aside. Chop onion( if using fresh methi leaves wash and chop).
2. Heat oil when hot, add cumin seeds, turmeric and red chilli powder. Then add in onion and methi leaves mix well. Let onion cook till soft.
3. Crumble cooled potatoes( I left the skin on) and mix with onion mixture, make sure not to mash it too much. Adjust salt to taste.
4. Finally garnish with cilantro leaves and squeese fresh lime juice. We had our with chapathis.

Simple yet satisfying meal. Enjoy !

Purple Cabbage Stir-Fry

This is a simple south Indian stir-fry(palya), I made for our lunch today. I do this kind of stir-frys with brussel sprouts and green cabbage, this time I used purple or red cabbage. Simple yet delicious side dish to go with rice or rotis. One can use this for sandwichs or as topping on pizza with some cheese.




Ingredients

• Purple/Red cabbage - 1 meduim, thinly sliced.

Tempering

• Oil - 1tsp
• Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Channa dal - 1 tsp
• Red chillis - 2 broken or crushed

Granish : Cilantro/corriender leaves, coconut grated and fresh lime juice - 1 tsp each

1. Slice or chop cabbage and wash with cold water, drain the water.
2. Heat oil, once hot add mustard and channdal. When dal changes colour add red chillies and add chopped cabbage.
3. Cover with a lid and cook on meduim heat for about 5-10 mins. Make sure not to over cook the cabbage, it should still give some crunch. Adjust salt to taste.
4. Once cabbage is done switch off heat. Squeese fresh lime juice, garnish with grated coconut and cilantro leaves.

Enjoy !

I'll be sending this to Sunshinemoms Blog for FIC-November.

Capsicum Curry

Combination of onion, tomato and capsicum(bell peppers) sure to make a tasty and colorful addition to any dish. Along with that I added peanuts, sesame seeds and poppy seeds to make the curry well balanced and nutritious.


Ingredients

• Green Bell pepper - 2 medium cut into big chunks
• Red onion - 1 medium
• Tomato- 1 medium
• Tomato paste- 1 tsp to give some tangyness to dish.
• Brown sugar or jaggery - about 1tsp to balance the spice and tangyness.
• Red chili powder- 1tsp

Tempering

• Oil and cumin/jeera seeds - 1tsp each

Roast and grind

• Peanuts,sesame seeds (ellu), poppy seeds (gasgase) - 1tbsp each
• Cinnamon and cloves - 2 each

Garnish

• Coriander/cilantro leaves one handful chopped.

1. Wash and chop veggies to big chunks, meanwhile roast listed ingredients(roast & grind) one by one. Once they have cooled enough, grind them to fine powder (I use coffee grinder to dry grind them. If using wet grinder use little water or tomato paste and grind them to fine paste).
2. Heat oil in pan , when hot add cumin seeds. When seeds starts to pop add veggies mix well, cover and cook for about 5 mins. Then add roasted and ground powder or paste. Add tomato paste, brown sugar and chili powder. Add enough water and salt to taste. Let it cook for 10 or more mins until the veggies and peanut mixture combines well. Adjust salt as per taste.
3. Switch off heat, and garnish with cilantro leaves.
4. Serve warm and Enjoy !



We had ours with whole wheat chapathis and some curds.

Moongdal-Rice

Since rice being staple at my home I have made moongdal-rice (a.k.a rice(akki) usli in kannada) for our lunch today. This is a one pot rice dish, which is tasty and wholesome. Has protein from moongdal, carbs from rice, Vitamins from veggies like carrots and peas and I have also used some Almonds for crunch and extra protein.



Here is the recipe for it.

• Rice- 1 cup
• Moongdal - 1/2 cup

Vegetables

• Onion - 1 medium thinly sliced
• Carrot - 1 thinly diced
• Peas- 1/4 cup I used frozen

Spices

• Red chilli powder and garam masala - tsp each ( instead of this green chillies can also be used)

Tempering

• Oil - 1tsp
• Mustrad seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Channa dal- 1 tsp
• Turmeric-1/4 tsp

Garnish

• Coconut grated, corriender leaves and fresh lime juice - about 1 tbsp each.
• Almonds- 1 tsp lightly toasted.

1. First roast moongdal and rice together with or without oil on meduim heat untill golden in colour. keep aside.
2. Heat one tsp of oil, when hot add mustard seeds and channa dal, once dal starts to change colour add all the veggies, cook for few minute(If using green chillies add along the veggies).
3. Then add spices, and 3 cups of water( add 1:2 rice mixture to water), adjust salt to taste. Now add rice-moondal roasted early to water, mix well. Close lid and on meduim heat cook up to 3 whistels ( I directly make this in a pressure cooker so I do this way).
4. Switch off cooker after 3 whistels and let it cool. Now garnish with corriender leaves, coconut and squeeze fresh lime. Mix well finally add roasted cashews.

* If not using cooker for making this dish, and using regular pan follow the same procedure untill 3, before adding rice mixture, let the water comes to boil and then add it. cook on med-low heat for 10- 15 mins and switch off and garnish.

Serve warm. Enjoy !

I'll be sending this to Srivalli's Rice Mela.

Recipe Marathon # 2

Dhivya of DK's culinary bazaar has come up with an event for cooking and posting recipes non-stop for 30 days starting tomorrow Nov 1 and ends Nov 30th. I decided to challange myself to join the craziness of cooking, clicking and posting recipes each day for next 30 days. I don't have any theme, i'll be posting the recipes that I cook on that day or one I have cooked the previous night.

Also joining me are 23 other blog friends, by the end of this month, we all will have cooked up more than 500 recipes. So Ladies, I wish you all the best.

Here are the names of Fellow bloggers who are also running Recipe Marathon with me.

Checkout the recipes of other Marathoners.

1. DK 2. Siri 3. Srivalli 4. Ranji 5. PJ 6. Curry Leaf 7. Medha 8. Priya 9. Bhawna 10. Raaji 11. Anu 12. Kamala 13. Roopa 14. Divya Kudua 15.Rekha 16.Divya M 17.Lakshmi 18.Raaga 19.Lakshmi Venkatesh 20.Sripriya 21.Viji 22.Kamalika 23.Pavani

Let have fun cooking !