Bendakaya Pulusu | Okra Pulusu

Ingredients

Okra - 6
Onion - 1 Cup
Tomato - 2
1/2 cup Tamarind pulp
1 Tbs Ginger Garlic paste
Red chilli powder
Sugar
Salt

Seasoning 

 
1 Tbs - Mustard
1 Tbs - Jeera
2 Red chilli's
2 Tbs oil


1. Heat a pan with oil and add Jeera, Mustard and red chilli's to it. Once they started jumping around now add onions and fry them a bit.
2. Add Ginger Garlic paste to onions and allow them to fry till the onions have turned transparent. Now add chopped tomato and Sliced okra to them and close it with a lid.
3. Once okra is cooked add Red chilli powder salt and tamarind pulp.
4. Add a cup of water to make it a nice thick liquid and added a spoon of Sugar to balance the taste.
5. Allow it to boil for 10 mins and the Pulusu is ready.

* Serve with Rice.

Soya Chunks Curry | Meal Maker Curry

After a long break I am once again back with a bang ( Hope so !).. All these days I have missed my blogging a lot but I compensated that with my vacation in India which was more tempting to me.So here comes my new recipe.. Hope you all will njoy it :)



Ingredients
Meal Maker - 1 Cup
Medium Size Onion - 1
Tomatoes - 2
Masala:
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 Tbs
Peanuts - 3 Tbs
Elachi - 2
Cloves -2
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Dhaniya - 1 Tbs
Oil - 2 Tbs
Red chili powder ( Adjust acc.) 
Salt for Taste

How to make ????
1. Boil some water and add Meal Maker to it. Leave it for 15 mins. Once the meal maker is soft squeeze all the water and cut them into small pieces.
2. Dry roast Peanut, Elachi , Cloves, Cinnamon, and Dhaniya. Grind them using little water so that it comes out as a smooth paste.
3. Now grind tomatoes and keep the liquid aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan then add Ginger Garlic & Onions to it. Fry them well. Add tomato paste and Meal Maker to the pan and cook them for 2 mins.
5. Now add the Masala paste, Red chilli powder & Salt to it. Cook them for 15 mins and the curry is ready to serve.

* This one goes well with Chapati, Puri and Rice too. Garnish it with cilantro if you like.

Ariselu/Arisa | Adhirasam | Kajaya

Ariselu!!! My immediate feeling would be oh that is one hectic job. But they came out so yummy all my pain has vanished once I tasted them.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 1 glass (standard measurement)

Jaggary - 1/2 glass
Coconut grated - 2 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2 glass
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Oil for deep frying.

Method to prepare:
I had big pieces of jaggary, so grated and added water just enough to cover them. Cooked on high and remove the scum. Then added the cardamom powder. Once it starts boiling, add the grated coconut. You will see lot of bubbles coming out.

At this stage, add the Rice flour slowly and stir it together well. You will know when the consistency is correct, so till then you got to keep adding the flour, but I used up the entire glass of flour.

The beauty of this dough is, you can store and use whenever you want. If it becomes too hard, just add about 2 tsp of water along with 2 tsp of sugar. Get it to boil, while you keep stirring it. The mix should become soft again. When you handle it, it should come together as a soft dough. Divide it to equal balls.

Heat a kadai with oil to deep fry these. In a greased plastic sheet, pat them down to equal sized discs. Press down the sesame seeds over the top. Once the oil is hot, gently drop these into them. Fry on both sides. Since the sesame seeds are just pressed over the top, they will get into the oil. If you want to avoid this, try adding to the dough.

Once they are golden brown, remove and drain them on a kitchen towel.They will be soft when you remove them, will become crunchy once they are cooled.

The regular ones are normally soft and oily, but these were crunchy and no oil at all!

Note: 
1.Store them in a air tight container & can store them for more them one week.
2.You can replace jaggary with sugar, but jaggary will always taste the better.

Khasta Kachori / Moong Dal Kachori

ICC Challenge ~ January

Ingredients

For the Dough

All purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup

Oil/ Ghee - 1/4 cup ,
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Water for kneading

Method

Mix the flour and salt, Add the oil/ghee and mix till you get a bread crumbs texture.Slowly add water and make a soft dough. Knead well for about 8 minutes.Cover and keep aside to rest for atleast half hour.

Filling of Khasta Kachori - Moong Dal Kachori

Split Moong Dal (yellow) - 1/2 cup

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida - a pinch
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 a bunch
Green Chilli - 1 tsp
Sauf / Fennel seeds powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method
 
1. Wask and Soak dal in water for atleast 1 hour. You can go upto 4 hours not more.
2. Drain the water well.
3. Grind the dal to a coarsely. (Will resemble Idli Rawa)
4. Heat oil in a pan.
5. Add the hing and cumin seeds.
6. Once the seeds splutter add the coriander leaves.
7. Add the dal.
8. Lower the heat and keep stirring for 5 minutes till the dal stops sticking to the pan.
9. Cook for another 10 minutes on low till the dal turns slightly brown.
10. Add all the masalas.
11. Cook for few minutes till the aroma of the spices hit you.
12. Add Salt.
13. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

Pesarapappu Halwa | Moong Dal Halwa

Ingredients:

Split (Yellow) Moong dhal - 1 cup

Ghee - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs 
Milk - 1/2 cup (Instead of water for the sugar, this gives the khoya added taste)
Few cashews/ raisins roasted in ghee for garnish.

Method to Prepare:
1. Soak 1 cup moong dal overnight. Next morning, grind to a paste.
2. Heat a heavy Kadai, take initially only 1/2 of the ghee and heat it.
3. Add the dhal and stir continuously, not allowing lumps to form. This part is very tricky as the dhal cooks really fast, irrespective of the ghee.
4. Keep the heat at the lowest and keep stirring even after the dhal becomes thick.
5. Add the rest of the ghee intermittently and cook the dhal until aromatic and the ghee starts oozing out.
6. Meanwhile mix the sugar with water/ milk in a pan and bring to a boil. Add this slowly to the cooking dhal.
7. Keep the fir low at all times and break lumps if formed while adding the sugar and water/ milk mix.
8. Cook until the ghee surfaces.
9. Ganish with cashews and raisins

Rice Dishes & Sides

Rice Dishes

• Tomato Rice
• Vegetable Pulao
• Bulgar Pilaf
• Arroz Con Verduras
• Pulagam
• Gopalkala
• Jadoh {Khasi Pulao}
• Pulihora | Puliyodhara | Chitranna | Tamarind Rice
• Nimmakaya Pulihora | Lemon Rice
• Bisi Bele Bath
• Mexican Tomato Rice
• Tomato Drumstick Rice
• Vangi Bath | Brinjal Rice

With Quinoa

• Fried Pineapple Quinoa
• Kattu Pongal with Quinoa | Khara Pongal with Keenwah | Quinoa Ven Pongal
• Kashmiri Pulao

Rice Sides

• Mooli Raita
• Tomato Onion Raita
• Biryani Chammanthi | Green Coconut Chutney