Carrot Chutney

Carrots are rich source of Vitamin A, it has got slight sweet taste which attracts people of all ages. We can bet not even a single person can hate carrot. It tastes great in raw form or in poriyal,sambhar ,as a sweet or even cake.

My mom used to prepare carrot poriyal for my lunch. Its easy to prepare during the morning rush hours. Here in US, I could find carrots in all colors white, purple or yellow. Though the other color ones are not as sweet as the regular orange ones, I like the orange ones. After marriage, I came to know about carrot sambhar or rice. My hubby loves both. I have carrot cake in my to-do list, which I have to definitely give a try once

Carrot chutney is a unique recipe, the sweetness gets masked by the addition of garlic and onions.It tastes great with idly or any kind of dosas.

Carrot Chutney

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 30 minutes

Ingredients :

Small onions - 5 or Medium onion - 1
Carrots 2
Red chili - 1
Garlic - 1 big clove
Salt - as per taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Method:

Carrot Chutney

Chop onions roughly and carrots into big squares. Cut garlic into big pieces. Tear the red chili into half.

In a pan heat a table spoon of oil , add garlic then red chili once it turns big, include onions fry for a minute. 

Then add carrots and keep frying. Close cook for 5 minutes. It will get cooked. 

Allow it to cool, then grind it with salt. 

In a pan, heat a table spoon of oil. Add mustard seeds, once it splutters, then urad dal. 

Urad dal turns slightly brown then add curry leaves and mix it with chutney. 

Enjoy with idly or dosa.

Thanks for reading 

VP

Vegetable stew

I get lazy somedays to cook, those times I become really picky and select easy things to cook. I prepare this stew during those time. Its healthy and very simple to cook. Both of us ( me and my hubby) love chappathi. Most of the days in a week I prepare chappathi for dinner. This stew tastes great for chappathi. You can have with plain rice or simple pulav like peas pulav or paneer pulav or even dosas.

You can pressure cook or cook in a sauce pan. I usually decide by looking the vegetables. If they are fresh, It does not require any pressure cook. 

Mixed vegetable stew

Serves - 4

Preparation time - 40 mins 

Ingredients :

Carrot - 1 big

Green beans - 7

Baby corn - 10

Pumpkin - quarter

Green Peas - a handful (frozen)

Tomato - 1.5 (big and juicy)

Ginger - 1 inch 

Sambhar powder- 1tbsp

Almond powder - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp 

Oil - 1tbsp

Salt- adjust to taste 

Curry leaves - few 

Method:

Vegetable stew

Chop the carrots, beans, baby corn into julian cut. Wash the green peas, I used the frozen one. Chop the tomatoes finely and pumpkin into squares. Grate the ginger and keep aside.

In a sauce pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. After it splutters, add the urad dal and curry leaves ( if u want, I didn't add curry leaves). Urad dal turns slightly brown add ginger. Fry ginger for a minute, then add tomatoes. Once it turns soft, add sambhar powder and fry for 2 minutes. 

Now add the chopped vegetables (carrot + beans + pumpkin + peas + baby corn) and salt. Now close the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Keep stirring in between.

Finally add the chopped coriander for garnishing. I did not add that. You can add the vegetables of your choice, it can be either cabbage, chayote, cauliflower or egg plant. 

I like this crunchy, you can mash it finally using a potato masher. 

Enjoy !!

Thanks for reading 

VP

Avocado chapathi

Avocado tastes great while having it in any dish, it could either as guacamole, or plainly on salads. 
Mixing avocado with chappathi flour tastes really awesome, it gives a wonderful aroma while cooking. It has numerous health benefits. I guess this is another fruit claimed to be a vegetable due to the addition in salads, tastes in all forms in cooked or in raw forms. 

The vegetable stew provides a wonderful accompaniment for the chappathi. It tastes heaven, the method for preparing stew is very simple. I really get lazy some days to cook, in that time I prepare this stew. You can cook this in pressure cooker or in the sauce pan. It mainly depends on the status of the vegetable. If its a fresh one, it can be cooked in the sauce pan.

Avocado roti Vegetable stew

Avocado Roti

Serves - 4

Preparation time - 10 + 1 hour (dough should sit for soft rotis)

Count - 13 rotis 

Ingredients :

Chappathi flour - 3 cups 

Water -  2 cups 

Avocado - 1 ripe 

All purpose flour(maida)- little

Salt - as per taste 

Oil - 1 tbsp

Method: 

Avocado Roti

In a bowl add the flour, avocado peeled (peeling method), salt and oil. Mix the flour with avocado. Try squeezing the avocado and thoroughly mix with flour. Now add water and kneed the dough, bring it to the consistency of chappathi dough. Cover it with paper or foil and let it sit for 1 hour. 

Make the dough into  cylindrical shape and cut into 13 equal parts. Roll that into ball. Dust it with all purpose flour and roll it into shape of a tortilla. 

Heat the tawa or skillet and place the rolled chappathi dough. Once it starts to bubble flip it and apply oil on the corners. Cook until it turns golden brown on both the sides. 

Chappathi is ready to serve. 

Enjoy with vegetable stew or any other curry of your choice. 

Thanks for reading 

VP

 

Morkali / Rice cake

Morkali  is a rice cake one of the main ingredients in the More (butter milk). In traditional south India, this is prepared using sour butter milk, the butter milk will be kept unused for 2 days and the sourness makes this recipe to even taste better.
Due to the hot tropical climate, it gets soured quickly. I prepared it with fresh butter milk as in US, getting the butter milk to sour is quite impossible at this place.

We generally make plain morkali, with simple seasoning. I tired this healthy version by adding grated carrot and fenugreek leaves, it turned out well.

Rice Cake

Serves - 2

Preparation time - 60 minutes 

Ingredients : 

Idly rice - 2 cups 
Butter milk - 1 cup 
Oil - 5 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch 
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Red chilies - 2 
Turmeric - a pinch 
Carrot - 1 grated
Fenugreek leaves - 1 cup
Curry leaves - few
Salt - as required


Method: 

Rice Cake

Soak idly rice for 4 hours. Grind the rice with salt. The batter can be watery. Pour the batter into a bowl and mix it with butter milk. 
In a pan, preferably non-stick heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add urad dal and channa dal. After it turns slightly brown, add hing, red chilies,carrot and fenugreek leaves. Stir it and allow the it to get cooked. It should be crisp or mushy. 
Now add the batter and keep stirring. Keep the stove on medium low and keep stirring. The batter will turn thick. Add the remaining oil and keep stirring. Press the batter with a finger, if it does not stick then its cooked.

Take a plate and apply oil, add the cooked cake and press it evenly. Allow it to cool, once its done cut it using knife.

Note: Apply oil on knife, it cuts finely only after it cools completely.

Enjoy plainly or with any pickle. 

Thanks for reading :)
VP

Semolina / Rava (Cream of Rice) idly

Rava or Semolina is the broken rice, it is used for making idly , dosa or even made as cake. I love the rava kesari which my mom makes, it is one of the common sweet made in south india. Rava upma is a widely known breakfast. But this is a different style of preparing idly with rava. This is done by soaking rava in yoghurt. 
It tastes fantastic, I am a huge fan of yoghurt in all forms. During my college days, my friends used to make pranks on me for bringing yoghurt rice for lunch everyday :)

Rava Idly

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 60 minutes

Ingredients: 

Idly rava - 2 cups 
Yoghurt - 1 cup 
Water - 1 cup 
Salt - as required 
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Turmeric - 1 tsp 
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp 
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp 
Cashew nuts - few
Black pepper corns - 5
Oil - 5 tbsp 
Carrot - 1 
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

Rava Idly

In a pan add rava and 3 tbsp of oil and roast it for 5 minutes. Allow it to cool . Mix it with curd. Now add water and salt stir it nicely. Allow it to get soft for 1 hour. You can even add yoghurt if its sour for better taste. Chop the ginger finely. 
Note: If you're adding buttermilk keep stirring while you add to avoid the formation of lumps. 
In the pan heat oil, add mustard seeds once it splutters. Add urad dal + channa dal + black pepper corns then add ginger. 
After 1 min add cashew and curry leaves. When cashew turns golden brown switch off the flame. 
Mix it with the rava+yoghurt mixture. Add coriander leaves and grated carrot. 

In idly pot, boil water and pour this in the idly mould. Stir before you pour on every idly mould in the pan. After you see the steam coming out of the pan, open the lid and prick it using fork. If the fork comes out clean, the idly is ready to serve.
Note: while checking the idly, keep the stove on low flame to avoid the steam flashing on you.

Allow it to cool, then remove the idly from mould. Or else, it can break.

Enjoy with coconut chutney or tomato-thokku.

Thanks for reading :)

VP

Elephant Yam - Peas curry

I found elephant yam in the grocery store, immediately bought one :). Its one of my favorite vegetable. I still remember the days having yummy yam fry, one of my mom's exclusive preparation. But my family is not very fond of having fry.So,I thought of trying this unique combination for chappathi. It turned out really well and tastes really good with chappathi. Yam generally have wonderful taste when cooked. 

Yam Peas Curry

Serves- 4

Preparation time - 30 minutes 

Ingredients: 

Elephant Yam - 1 small 

Peas - 1/3 cup (frozen)

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Garlic - 2 cloves

Onion - 1 medium 

Tomato- 11/2 medium 

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp

Red Chili powder- 1/2 tbsp

Coriander powder - 2 tbsp 

Turmeric - 1 tsp 

Paprika - 1 tsp 

PavBhaji/Garam/Kitchen king masala - 1/2 tbsp 

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt - as per taste 

Coriander leaves - little (chopped finely)

Method :

Yam Peas curry

 Chop the onions, tomatoes finely and yam into squares. Grate the ginger + garlic finely. 

In a pan heat oil and add one cumin seed. When it starts spluttering, then add the remaining. Fry the ginger + garlic for 1 minute and add the onion. Add little salt so that onion doesn't get soggy.

Add the tomatoes, fry till it get soft. Now add the turmeric+ paprika+red chili + coriander powder and fry till the oil separates on medium low. Mix the yam + peas + salt + masala and 2 cups of water cover it with lid.

It will get cooked in 10 minutes, but keep stirring in-between. After that open cook the pan until the water evaporates.

Switch off the stove and mash this little using potato masher. Finally add coriander leaves. Serve with roti or rice. 

Thanks for reading :)

VP

Pumpkin - Whole masoor dal Curry

I have had pumpkin as sambhar or as dry curry. I like the slight sweetness of the pumpkin and its attractive color. Whole masoor dal has wonderful nutty taste, unlike the regular dal which gets mushy when cooked for more time. This is kind of a different try. 

Pumpkin masoor curry

Serves : 4
Preparation time : 30 minutes 

Ingredients :

Pumpkin - 2 cups 
Whole massor dal - 1/4 cup 
Onion - 1 (medium)
Tomato - 1.5
Ginger - 1.5 inch
Garlic- 2 pods 
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chili powder - 0.5 tbsp
Coriander powder- 1.5 tbsp
Amchur powder- 1 tsp
Pavbhaji masala/Garam masala/kitchen king masala- 0.5 tbsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp 
Salt - as required 

Seasoning :

Coriander leaves - little chopped 

Method:

Pumpkin masoor curry

Chop the onions,tomatoes finely. Grate the ginger and garlic (both can be mixed)

Cut the pumpkin into cubes. Wash the masoor matki(whole masoor dal) thoroughly with water.

Heat the pan and pour oil. Put one cumin seed when it splutters, the oil is ready. 

Put the remaining cumin seeds wait till the splutter sound vanishes. (btw maintain the stove on medium low). Now add the grated ginger + garlic fry it for a minute. Add onion and add little salt (to prevent the onion turning mushy), saute it until it turns golden brown. 

Add the tomatoes keep stirring until it gets soft. Then add red chili + coriander powder + masala powder+ milk, stir it and keep in low flame. Oil will appear as floating on the surface. 

Now add the pumpkin + masoor dal and add 2 cups of water + salt. keep the pan closed with lid and it will get cooked in 10-15 mins. Remember to stir in between. After pumpkin gets cooked, keep the pan open for the water to evaporate until you get the consistency of your choice. I kept it for 5 minutes on medium-high flame.

Enjoy with roti, plain rice or any vegetable pulav. 

Thanks for reading :)

Mixed vegetable Poopudi

Poopudi is an authentic dish usually prepared using rice and dal. Its steamed with onion and it tastes really good. My mom often used to make it in our home, as this is my grand mom's favorite.

People used to eat it in different forms. In my mom's place we used to have it with sugar and milk. You have it plainly with any sambhar. I tried with this new version and it turned out well.

Poopudi

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 1 hour + 2 hours (for soaking)

Ingredients:

Idly rice - 11/2 cup
Toor dal - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp
Red chillies - 2
Whole black pepper-6
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Onion- 1
Garlic - 6 pods 
Carrot - 1 
Beans - 1/3 cup
Green Peas - 1/2 cup (I used frozen)
Potato-1
Green chillies- 1 big
Oil - 2 tsp 
Salt - as per taste 

Seasoning:

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry Leaves- few 
Coriander - a little 

Method:

Soak the rice and Toor dal together for 2 hours.

Add the mixture to a blender with red chillies, whole black pepper,cumin seeds and turmeric with salt. Just pulse the blender and grind it coarsely with less water. 

Chop  the onion very finely and mix it with the grounded mixture. Make small round balls and place it on a idly pan. Steam it in the same process as you prepare idly. Steaming takes 10 minutes. 

Chop the vegetables- beans, green chillies and garlic finely and carrot lengthwise. Roughly chop the potato. In a pan add 2 tsp of oil and wait for sometime. 

Now add mustard seeds once it splutters, add urad dal. When the dal turns slightly brown add hing,green chillies  and curry leaves followed by garlic. 

Add all the vegetables ( carrot+beans+green peas+potato) and close the pan for it to cook. Keep frying in between and make sure it leaves the excess water. 

Meantime, collect the steamed idlies (grounded mixture) in a bowl and crumble it into very small pieces. Mix the crumbled mixture to the vegetables and heat it for 5 minutes. Adjust salt to taste and mix it with coriander.

Note-
Make sure to keep the stove in medium low to prevent burning of mustard seeds. 
Adjust the quantity of red chillies,green chillies  and whole black pepper as per taste.

Enjoy it plainly or with coconut chutney !!!!

Thanks for reading :)