Cheesy_Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes all of us put this in the category of vegetables when we cook, a fruit when we have it as salad with other fruits. Is it really a vege or a fruit?? read about it here well am not sure of yet . Looking at the colour of it my son at first he would always point it as an apple. To know about heath values of tomato read here. To me cooking without tomatoes i cannot think of. I was out of ideas for coming up with a recipe for the JFI. This time i wanted to try out stuffed tomatoes if not for the event i would have never tried stuffing tomatoes.So this was the time to try. Oh but what to stuff with which my kids will love too.  After a quick survey in my fridge i decided to try bake it with paneer and spinach first lets see the result. I was not sure at that time whether to serve as a snack or  to make a gravy for it and serve with Rotis. After the baking process my daughter could not resist the paneer stuffing with the juicy tomatoes, so i just served as a evening snack. This is my entry for JFI hosted by RP from My Workshop

All you need 

Firm tomatoes – 5

paneer /cottage cheese – 250 gms

green chillies – 1-2

spinach (basalle) – 6-7 medium leaves

onion – 1

spring onion  – 1 bunch

mushrooms – 2-3 (optional)

garam masala – 1/4 tsp

chilli powder – 1 tsp (optional)

turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

italian herbs – for seasoning

mozarella cheese – 1 tbsp

cumin seeds – 1tsp

ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp each

salt and pepper to taste

salted butter  to brush the tomatoes

• Cut the top of tomatoes scoop out the pulp and turn upside down to drain the juice

• Cut all the vegetables finely

• Heat oil and fry jeera,until slightly brown, add chillies and onions fry until onions are translucent

• Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, salt and fry until the raw smell converts into a nice aroma

• Add spinach fry until it looses its color 1-2minutes, now add the mashed paneer

• add spring onions, garam masala, chilli powder and fry in high flame until the paneer is dry

• brush the inside of the tomatoes with salt and pepper add the stuffing of paneer

• Top the tomatoes with mozarella cheese and italian herbs.

• Brush the tomatoes from outside with salted butter

• Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 8- 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.

note:Mine took 8 mins to bake, remove immediately from oven else the heat will make all the juices from tomatoes to ooze out.

ಕಾಯಿ ಮುದ್ದೆ/Coconut Iddli

This is one of breakfast series prepared in our hometown which has very nice coconut flavour. The ingrediants used are simple but the flavour of coconut with the rice makes it a very tasty cake. My 2 yr old just loves it calls it undde(laddu). Kids can just pop it up without any curry.

 All you need

paraboiled Rice – 2 cups

water – 31/4 cups

fresh white grated coconut – 3/4 cup

salt to taste

• Wash rice and dry rice on a clean cloth

• Make rava out of rice using a blender

• Boil water with salt

• When water start to boil add the rice rava to it string continuously

• Remove from fire once the rice has reached a consistency when you can form into balls

• Add grated coconut and to it and mix well

• Make rice balls using your hands, use water to wet your hand to withstand the heat

• Steam in iddli cooker for 10-15 mins

• This can be served with spicy spinach curry/onion chutney.

• We like it with onion chutney.

 

ಈರುಳ್ಳಿ ಗೊಜ್ಜು/Onion Chutney

Another one delicious gojju with onion. This goes very well with plain iddlis/rava iddlis/rava dosas /sweet iddlis and even rice.

All you need

onion cut into chunks – 1 big

Grated coconut – 1/2 cup

Dry chillies – 5-6

coriander seeds – 1/2 tsp

hing – a pinch

salt and tamarind paste to taste

urad dhall – 1 tsp

mustard seeds – 1 tsp

curry leaves – 5 -6

oil for takda

• fry chillies, half of urad dhall  for a minute in a little oil

• Grind all the remaining ingrediants with little water

• Prepare takda with mustard,urad dhall and hing

Thai PineApple FriedRice

At last i am here with my AFAM for pineapple. I ever thought i could make it this time. This is my very first entry for the AFAM. Juicy pineapples who doesn’t love them. This yellow tropical fuit some say it signifies new begining, a great source of vitamn C. This is one fruit i love , like anything from this gojju, raita and now this is also on the list pineapple fried rice.

Everytime i went out to eat with my colleagues being a vegetarian i was always left with little choice. Once during our regular seminars we had to lunch in a Thai restuarant, hmm looking at the menu i scrolled a few pages then i was only left with the dessert which very inviting. My colleagues suggested collegues and helped me to instruct the waiter to prepare vegetarian pineapple fried rice which was had a very nice aroma with the fried onions, from that day onwards i just loved this fried rice. Maheswari from Beyond the Usual is hosting this event.

 All you need

1 pineapple

Rice – 1 cup (used basmati)

Ghee/oil – 1 tbsp

spring onions – 3 stems

garlic pods – 4

green chillies – 2

cashews – 20-25

raisins – 2 tbsp

peas – 1 cup

soy sauce – 1 tbsp

carrot grated – 1 cup

sambhar powder – 2tsp

fresh coriander

salt and sugar to taste

Lets start

• soak rice for half an hour and pressure cook.

• remove pulp from half of the pineapple and reserve the pulp for rice

• cut pineapple to small chunks to one cup

• Fry garlic, chillies and onions until translucent

• Add cashews, carrot, peas , sambhar powder and soy sauce fry for a minute

• Add rice, pineapple, raisins and fry on high flame, at this time add some yellow color sugar and salt if required

• Garnish with coriander and spring onions

Recipesource: Thaifood.About.com

Yugadi Wishes

Wish you all a very happy and Prosperous Ugadi! 

 ಯುಗ ಯುಗಾದಿ ಕಳೆದರೂ ಯುಗಾದಿ ಮರಳಿ ಬರುತಿದೆ

ಹೊಸ ವರುಶಕೆ ಹೊಸ ಹರುಶವ ಹೊಸತು ಹೊಸತು ತರುತಿದೆ

ಕಡಲೆ ಬೇಳೆ ಹೋಳಿಗೆ/Puran Poli

Holige is commonly prepared during ugadi/Deepavali. The afternoon before the festive is day the women folks would be very busy preparing this delicious holige. Now we can even get in bakeries but the texture is thin and fine.

I remember when i was a child along with my sister would sit along with my mum and her loving sisters, who would chit chat with a lot of fun wow those were the days we all miss. one would make the kanaka with the hoorna, one would roll it and the other would bake it. As it falls to paper spread to cool it would just vanish guess who .

At the end we would always ask my mom can i bake one please…. and once they let us bake small small rotis with the remaining kanaka and we would take them and run to play with our kitchen set.

It has nearly been 2 years since i prepared holige, at first i thought hope it does not end up a failure.  well i would advise not to skip the step of grinding the dhalls as dhall looks cooked well but at times if have not mashed well you would end up getting holes in the holige .

Samagri

Hoorna

channa dhall – 2.5 cups

toor dhall – 1/2 cup

grated coconut – 1/2 cup(optional)

poppy seeds – 1 tbsp

cardamom powder – 1 tsp

nutmeg powder – 1/2 tsp

jaggery – 3 cups

For covering/kanaka

plain flour – 2 cups

wheat flour – 1/2 cup

turmeric powder – 1 tsp

salt and water

oil – 1 -2 tbsp

Hoorna preparation

• Wash both the dhalls and pressure cook for 6 whistles

• Strain the water from the cooked dhalls used for preparation of holige saaru

• Check the dhalls mash well until mushy to make it easy i grind it with jaggery

• After mashing add powdered jaggery if not added.

• If the hoorna is wet keep the mixture on fire on medium heat until the consistensy of the hoorna is reached

• The hoorna should be semi dry when formed a ball it should retain the shape like for  aloo parathas.

• Add nutmeg,elachi powder, poppy seeds, grated coconut and mix well

• Once cooled make into lemon sized balls

Kanaka preparation

• Mix maida and wheat flour with salt, turmeric powder and water

• knead the dough well the dough should be soft and sticky

• add oil to the dough and cover with a wet cloth let it rest for 2 hours.

Preparation of holige

• Take a plastic paper/banana leaf /even paper is fine

• applying some oil to your hands take some kanaka make it flat like we make for parathas

• take a lemon sizes hoorna cover it all sides uniformly

• Roll the holige applying some maida flour to roll

• heat a non stick girdle bake the holige until golden brown on both sides.

• serve with ghee/milk/sugar syrup as your taste

ಜೋಳದ ಚಕ್ಕುಲಿ/Jowar Murukku

Murukku who does not like those crunchy melting murukku, these are one of the Indian savouries which should say is quite famous around the world. This time i try to use jowar flour to make these murukku. They were very crispy and melting as found in those bakeries. But I guess I could have reduced the dalda as it was very flimsy to  shift from plate to kadai.

 

 

All you need

jowar flour – 3 cups

maida – 1 cup

chilli powder – 2 to 3 tsp

salt and hing to taste

sesame seeds – 1 tbsp

jeera – 1 tbsp

1/4 cup dalda/ghee/butter

• Sieve the flours together, mix in chilli powder, jeera, seseme, hing  and salt

• heat dalda and add to the flours

• Add little by little water knead in the doung until a firm dough is formed.

• Heat oil in a kadai, drizzle oil in the murukku mould to make easier to work while pressing

• Take a small portion of the dough insert into the mould and press on a plate to make cylindrical circles

• deep fry the cylindrical circles slowly in medium flame until golden brown.

 

ಕುಚ್ಚಕಿ ಅಕ್ಕಿ ಬಿಸಿಬೇಳೆ ಬಾತ್/Rosematta Rice Bisibhelle Bhath

Rosematta rice is cooked in a traditional mud pot in north canara.  If you happen to go to Dharmastalla and look for breakfast in the morning you can see in most of the hotels selling Rosematta rice Porridge. Wow i just loved the kongi there they serve with onion and coconut soaked in red masala but was semi dry i can’t remember but was very tasty. We used to  prepare this rice as normal rice and serve with spinach sambhar which is also a good combination and with curds it is just heavenly.

To know more about Rosematta Rice, Visit Indira’s Mahanandi who has given a wonderfull picture of how to cook and ways to eat this rice. Seeing the beautifull picture of pongal, i thought why not i cook bisibhelle bhath with this as my daughter just hates this rice but loves besibhellebhath . The idea just clicked right to make her eat. She just loved it, and asked to add it to our weekly dinner menu.

All you need

Rosematta Rice – 1 .5 cups

moong/thoor dhall split -1 cup

tomatoes – 1 big

tamarind paste – 1 tsp (optional)

onions – 1 big

Vegetables (carrot/beans/cabbage/peas/chowchow)

jaggery  and salt to taste

cashews – 10

curry leaves – 1 sprig

mustard – 1tsp

hing – 1/4 tsp

 

masala powder

channa dhall – 1 tbsp

urad dhall – 1 tbsp

dry chillies – 5-6

cinnamon – 1 inch

cloves – 6

cardamom – 1(with skin)

Jajikayi /nutmeg – 2 flakes

pepper corns – 1 tsp

poppy seeds – 1 tsp

coriander seeds - 4 tsp

jeera seeds – 1 tsp

menthi seeds – 1 tsp

turmeric – 1/4 tsp

coconut – 2 tbsp

Fry all the above for masala on low flame with oil until nice aroma or slightly reddish ting and dry grind them

You can add or minus quantity some of the contents as all depends on the taste each one prefers.

Sometimes due to utter laziness i just use ever ready MTR vangibhath with Inyengar bisibhella bhath powder

 

Method:

•  Cook Rice with water until soft i used 4.5:1 Water:Rice measurements. (rice cooker /on low flame)

• Cook moong dhall with turmeric and tomatoes in cooker until soft and mushy like for dhall

• Steam vegetables until half done

• Take a kadai and fry onions in oil until light brown, (if not prefer frying you can ommit this)

• now mix the required masala with the dhall well

• Add the cooked rice, tamarind paste/juice, steamed vege, dhall with the masala, salt, 2 cup of water mix well and allow to cook for about 5 – 10 mins until the vege is soft and a thin layer of dhall on top. Cooking this way makes masala to be soaked in rice and vege. Turn off fire.

• Do occassionally stir while cooking as the dhall will tend to thicken fast and stick to the bottom of the kadai

• Finnally prepare the takda(vogarne) heat oil fry chashews add it to the bhath, in same oil/seperate heat mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves and add to bhath once done and close the rice with a cover so it retains the flavour.

• Drizzle some ghee on top and serve hot with raita/kara(spicy) bhoondi.

• Yesterday we had this with microwaved jeera papad.

 

ಆಲುಗೆಡ್ಡೆ ಕೆರವಡಿ ಸಂಬಾರ/Masaledhar Potato Curry

JFI for Potato, a great theme thanks Vaishali. All know whether baked/fried, hot/sweet, chips/paratha all of us love potato no matter how much calories it adds on to our diet. There are variety of potatoes available around the world, to know more about it read here. Coming back to the recipe, this recipe is from my Father in law who is a great cook, loves anything masaledhar items. This time i never did think i could make it for JFI, with all the rush with my daughter’s exams so hubby dear helped yesterday to make her get prepared while i had time to prepare their favorite curry for dinner

This is entry for JFI Potato hosted by Vaishali from Happyburp

All that goes are here

for the paste

grated coconut – 2 tbsp

peppercorns – 1 tsp

onion sliced – 1

Dry chillies- 3-4

fennel seeds – 1tsp

coriander seeds – 1 tsp

cinnamon – 1 inch

cardomom – 1

cloves – 4

poppy seeds – 1 tsp

tumeric – 1/2 tsp

Tamarind paste – 1 tsp

cashew nuts – 2

other ingrediants

baby potaoes – 10

onion – 1 big

oil to fry onions

whole garam masala

• To make paste, take little oil and fry ingredients 1-11 until a nice aroma spreads leaving cashew and tamarind. Make a wet paste in a mixer grinder

• Steam/boil /Deep fry baby potatoes, i usually steam it in microwave for 10 minutes

• Take oil in a kadai, add the whole garam masala like cloves, cinnamon, star anise fry for few secs

• Add onions fry until light brown color, now add the wet paste with 1 cup water and salt

• Let the masala boil for few minutes, now add the boiled potataoes, check for salt

• At this point you can add some jaggery if you like, i do add because we like a pinch of it

• Keep in low flame until the gravy thickens. Garnish with coriander leaves

This can be served with phulkas/pooris. This is a all time hit recipe.