Sweet Pongal

Dussehra is represented as festival of Shakti. It's just not becoz she destroyed mahishasura, but it's also celebrated for our well being, good health & prosperity.

It's believed that sharad rutu cools down the earth and as it gets colder, different viral diseases could spread around & trouble people. So for a protection from all those bad forces we celebrate navratri for 9 days. Every Day Amman will go on a procession or uregimpu on streets of the city ensuring people that she is there to protect us. 

In my house for navratri we recite "Lalitha sahasranamam" for all 9 days and will offer prasad to Amman. According to Lalitha sahasranamam it's said that we should offer "Rice cooked with Jaggery "or " Gudanna " to Amman. 

We even offer different prasads like vada pappu, Pulagam, Boorelu, Pulihora or some sweets which consist of moong dal, besan & jaggery.

Ingredients
1 Cup Rice
1/2 Cup channa dal or senga pappu 
1&1/2 Cup jaggery
4 Tbs water
1 Tsp cardamon powder
2 Tbs ghee
1 Tbs cashew
21/2 Cups of milk

Pressure cook rice and channa dal with milk for 2 whistles. Switch of heat and allow the cooker to cool down. 
Heat a wide bottom pan add jaggery & water to it.Allow jaggery to melt in water and switch of heat. 
Now add the cooked rice & dal to jaggery and switch on heat. Keep stirring them so that they don't stick to the bottom. Once they all mix together well add cardamon powder & switch of heat. 
Heat a small pan with ghee & once it melts add cashew and fry them till they turn light brown. 
Add cashew to pan and the sweet pongal is ready.

Note:
1. You can replace jaggery with sugar.
2. Add more milk for a smooth pongal.

Aviyal/Avial

At last my roaming marathon is over and now I will sit back and relax for next 1 month at least. My cousin visited us from India and we were very busy covering all the places near us.It's fun to roam around but kind of stressful too. 

So coming to my post this is my first post for "Blog Hop Wednesday ". I was paired with Kaveri of Palakkad Chamayal. As I opened the blog I saw " Aviyal " recipe which is a long due. Check out the original post from here.

Ingredients

1 cup Yogurt

1/2 cup grated carrot 

1 Drumstick cut in equal size

4 Bhindi's cut in equal size

6 Beans cut in equal size

1/2 Cup Pumpkin Pieces

Grind

1 cup grated coconut

11/2 Tbs Jeera

3 Green chilli's

Salt

Seasoning

1 Tbs coconut oil / butter

1/2 Tsp mustard 

1/2 Tsp Urad dal

1/2 Tsp Channa dal

1 Red Chilli

Curry leaves 

Hing 

Boil all veggies with little salt. Just take care that they don't be sticky.Allow them to cool for some time. Meanwhile grind coconut, Jeera & chilli's to smooth paste. 

Mix veggies with yogurt & coconut mixture. Add salt. (Please check as we added a little to the boiled veggies)

In a pan heat oil/butter then add the dals once they are done or turned light brown. Then add mustard & Red chilli's to oil . Once mustard starts jumping add curry leaves & hing.Switch off heat and add season to aviyal.

Serve with rice, roti & poori too.

 

Note : 

1. You can ignore jeera while grinding. (My MIL adds jeera & I like the taste)

2. Add as many veggies you want. I added what ever is available in my fridge.

Outcome

There are no comments for aviyal it's always a star. We love it :)

Yogurt Strawberry Parfait

A simple dish goes well for a time pass snack , dessert or as dinner for some one like me :) This tastes so good that you will keep digging it non-stop & guess what it's all fat free & less in calories.There is no need of cooking all you have to do is lay all ingredients one after other as you like.  

Ingredients

1 Cup chopped Strawberries 

2 Vanilla flavored Activia Yogut ( Fat free)

1 Tbs chopped almonds

4 Tbs honey rolled granola

Take a glass or a cup. First add little strawberries to it.Then layer them up with little yogurt.On that add a layer of granola & almonds.

Now repeat all the above steps till glass is full. Add few fruit pieces on top of granola & the parfait is ready.

Serve it chill.

Note

1. Replace strawberries with your favorite fruit. 

2. You can use any yogurt based on your taste.

3. If you like chocolate add some on top & it tastes awsome.

4. Arrange the parfait as you like.

Dal

- Nimmakaya Pesara Pappu | Tangy Lemon Dal

- Keerai Kootu

- Dalma {Orissa Dish}

- Katte Masoor Dal

- Palakura Pesara Pappu | Spinach Moong Dal Fry

- Parippu Curry | Moong Dal Curry

- Gongura Pappu / Pulichakeerai Dal

- Pindi Miriyam with Potato | Bangaladumpa Pindi Miriyam

Ragi Rava Ladoo

Ragi or Finger millet grains are known for their nutritional benefits like good dietary fiber, cooling agent for your body, reduces cholesterol levels & many more.

Even with all those health benefits I never liked them becoz they never tasted good Or say no taste at all.I still remember my mom  running behind me to finish the one big glass of ragi malt mixed with yogurt.

Anyways now I want to experiment new ways of cooking these healthy grains & that's how the ladoo was made. 

 

Ingredients

1/2 Cup ragi 

1/4 Cup coconut pieces

3/4 Cup grated jaggery 

1/2 cup sliced almonds & raisins 

1 Tbs elachi powder 

1 Tsp butter

*** Ragi grains are hard to grind as they are. So you need to sun dry them or just dry fry for few seconds in a hot pan and grind them.

Heat a pan and add ragi grains to it. Dry fry them for few secs. Coarse grind Ragi grains to get a rava texture. Now heat a pan with 1 tsp of butter. and fry ragi rava for 5mins or till the nice aroma comes out of it. Switch off pan and allow it to cool. 

*** I used fresh coconut as it has the wetly texture which blends all the ingredients together. 

Grind coconut and keep aside.

Now mix all the ingredients in a  bowl together. ( No need to add milk or butter to make balls)

As the coconut is fresh you will be able to roll nice ladoos as shown. 

Out Come: They are very tasty with all those almonds, raisins, elachi & jaggery. I love to call it a healthy bite.

Mexican Tomato Rice

Mexican tomato rice is a little different version of Indian Tomato rice.This tangy rice is a yummy dish which can be prepared with less effort & spices.

I did some changes to the recipe which can be good to Indian taste buds & served it with peanut chutney & curd :)

Ingredients

2 Cups of rice

1 Cup onions chopped

4 Garlic cloves finely chopped 

2 Red chillis sliced

2 Cups of tomatoes diced 

2 Tsp cumincoriander powder

1 Tsp garlic chilli powder

Cilantro for garnish 

1 Tsp olive oil

1 Tsp jeera

Salt 

Seasoning

2 Tsp Olive oil

1 Tsp Mustard 

Heat a pan with oil add jeera to it. Fry till they start jumping & add rice to pan. Do a lite fry of rice. Cook rice with 4 cups of water ( Varies with rice) & once it is done cool it.

Now heat a pan with oil add garlic and chillis. Fry them till garlic is done or turns brown.Then mix onion to pan and fry it till they turned transparent.Add tomatoes to pan along with salt and allow them to cook with a closed lid. 

Once tomatoes are done add cumincoriander , chilli powder to pan. Cook them for 10mins & switch of heat.
Mix tomato mixture carefully to rice without breaking it & garnish with cilantro. 

Serve with Tortilla chips or Indian chutney  or with curd.

 

Note:

1. I used sona masuri rice.You can replace it with basmati rice if you want. 

2. Replace green chillis with jalapenos for more spiciness. 

Spicy Corn Cakes

I'm not kind of a snacky person but my hubby he loves to have some when he is back home in the eve.I generally look out a quick ones so that I won't end up at the stove whole eve.

Coming to this cakes they are crispy from out side and soft from inside.

This recipe includes egg but I replaced it with yogurt for my convenience. 

The vinegar dip was too good. I tried ketchup, chili Sauce and etc... But this dip was ultimate.It goes with any kind of snack.  

** This recipes makes 12 corn cakes **

Ingredients

1 cup fresh corn kernels

1 medium onion finely chopped 

1/2 cup mint chopped finely 

1 Garlic clove minced

1/2 tsp cumin coriander powder

1/2 tsp red pepper

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup maida

1/2 cup corn flour 

1/ cup yogurt

1/2 tsp salt (varies acc. to taste)

1/4 cup oil  

*1/2 cup flour for rolling corn balls

In a bowl add all the ingredients one by one leaving yogurt to the last (I used yogurt to mix ingredients).Mix them well.

Take a litlle mixture and roll out a ball with it. Dip the ball in corn flour and make a flat cake like shown in the above image.

 Repeat the same with the remaining mixture. 

Heat a pan with 1tbs oil & place the cakes in a pan. Just add little by little oil as needed to the cakes and fry them both the sides.

*** You can even deep fry them if wanted. I opted to pan fry them so it's up to you :)

For vinegar dip

1/2 cup white wine vinegar 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

11/2 tsp red chili's

11/2 tsp salt

Heat a pan with all the above ingredients. Bring them to boil & allow them to cook for 10 to 15 mins. Then remove the syrup form heat & allow it to cool. Garnish with coriander & it's ready to serve.

Out Come I never expected the combo to be that good. I just couldn't resist licking my finger. 

Vanilla cupcakes with Strawberry frosting

September is a special month for me.. My hubby's birthday is coming & I want to bake a perfect cake for him.Last year I baked a eggless cake and that came out well. Thank god.

I have tried many eggless cakes but most of them are just flops.I was looking for fool proof recipe & came along this with help of my cousin. The recipe was posted in food network & I followed all the steps as mentioned in it.

This is a simple vanilla cupcake recipe yields about 10 cupcakes. The recipe didn't ask for baking soda but I just couldn't hold with out adding as they say old habits won't go so easily :)

I'm not a fan of frosting still tried this strawberry frosting recipe from food network.I'm kind of worried about all the calories in them :)

Go thru my recipe and have a virtual treat of them.

Ingredients

For Cake

11/2 cups of all purpose flour

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt 

2/3 cup sugar 

2 Large eggs @ room temperature 

3/4 cup unsalted butter melted

1/2 cup milk ( Used 2% fat milk)

2 tsp vanilla extract

For Frosting 

1/2 cup butter @ room temp  

4 cups Icing sugar

1/4 cup milk ( Used 2% fat milk)

2 tbs strawberries jam

 

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees F.

Dry Ingredients

Sift all purpose flour & mix baking powder,baking soda,all purpose flour & salt together in a bowl. 

Wet Ingredients

In another bowl beat eggs & sugar together till the sugar has dissolved.Then add melted butter & Vanilla one after another to the same bowl & keep mixing it with a hand mixer.

Mix the dry & wet ingredients along with milk.Once the batter is ready set the muffin tin with cupcake sheets and divide the batter equally in them.

Place cakes in oven and bake them @ 350 degrees F for 20mins or till the stick comes out clean. ( I used a tooth pik)

Once they are done cool them on a rack.  

Frosting

In a bowl take butter & mix it smooth. Then add sugar to the bowl along with milk and strawberry jam.

Mix it till it comes out smooth & creamy.

 

*** I used hand mixer so it wasn't so perfect. Use a electric mixer for better results. 

Frost once the cakes cool down. They are soft & puffy.

Note: 

1. The sugar in the cake was just enough sweet. So if you love sweet you can the sugar in cake. 

2. Replace butter with olive oil Or use half butter & half olive oil. 

Parippu Curry | Moong Dal Curry

Happy Onam to all my friends.

I'm celebrating my 100th post with Onam special dish Parippu Curry.I got the recipe from Hari Chandana's blog "Indian Cuisine".I made few changes to the dish according to my taste. The dish was delicious.

Ingredients 

1 cup moong dal

1 cup finely chopped onion

Pinch of turmeric 

For Grinding

1/2 cup coconut pieces 

1 tbs cumin

4 green chilli's 

Salt 

 

Seasoning

1 tsp mustard 

2 red chilli's

1 crushed garlic pod 

1 Tbs ghee

Curry leaves 

Dry Roast moong dal till it turns light brown.Pressure cook it along with onions& turmeric for 2 whistles.

Mean while grind coconut, cumin, green chilli's & salt to a smooth paste. 

Now mash the dash and mix it with the coconut paste and cook it for 10 mins.

Heat a pan with ghee add mustard once they start jumping add garlic & red chilli's. At last add curry leaves and switch of heat. 

Mix dal with seasoning & it's read to serve. 

Note: 

1.Use coconut oil instead of ghee for a traditional curry.

2. Use less water to grind the coconut. 

Out Come: I was worried about my hubby's reaction as he is hesitant to try new dishes but he surprised me saying it was too good...hmmm then I'm all happy :)

Iron chef America

Sending to Susan's Black and White Wednesdays!