ರಾಗಿ ಮಣ್ಣಿ/Finger Millet Halwa

Ragi/Millet is most well known for its rich calcium content than any other cereals. In South India it is the most common food fed for growing children. This is even given as one of first cereals to babies for its rich nutrition filled with calcium and iron and protein content. Moreover it is easily digestible from young age to old age even suitable for diabetic patients due to its low sugar content. It is also considered as a poor man’s food too due to its low price compared with other grains available.

Though the nutritious content many of them do not love this as one of the common daily food due to the bland taste or due to not knowing how to make use of them in the right way. I have tried several ways to make use of this grains in our daily food but somehow it has still been a rarely used grain. Making kids love the food has taken the top priority and though there are several ways of cooking Ragi like Ragi Malt, Ragi Roti, Dose, Ragi Mudde, Ragi Kai Unde… Ragi Manni is one of the best ways that my kids love which forms a semi solid state and feel of taste is similar to jelly.

All you need

Ragi - 2 cups

Jaggery - 4 cups

coconut grated - 1 cup

cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

salt if required

Method

• Soak Ragi for 3-4 hrs after washing cleanly
• Grind Ragi with adequate quantity of water
• Strain the liquid and grind the pulp again with 1 cup water
• Strain the liquid again, straining the milk from Ragi must be done 2-3 times until the milk goes very light. Discard the millet pulp
• Heat Jaggery with half cup water until dissolved and strain to remove any dirt
• Add the Jaggery solution to the milk extract from ground millet
• grind grated coconut to extract the milk about half cup
• Add the coconut milk to the Jaggery+ Ragi milk and keep on medium flame stirring now and then
• The Ragi will start to form slight lumps as you keep stirring the whole liquid will form as a smooth lumpy halwa consistency.
• Now add a tbsp of ghee and cardamom powder stir well
• Remove from fire and spread on a plate greased with ghee
• Let it cool or alternately you can refrigerate for half an hour
• Now the halwa would have set and ready to cut and serve.

note: This can also be made from Whole Wheat/ Raw Rice

Methi-Paneer Rice and FAHC

Left over rice who doesn’t have ?  Last week we had been busy with events at office and cultural events over the weekend from our sangha in Singapore. Admidst of our kids final exams for non-tamil- speaking kids (hindi/gujrathi….). Generally getting home late not eating enough or eating most junk ended up lot of food were leftovers. leftover rice with sambhar or rasam is not the one likeable if the quantity of rice is a large bowl, even wasting a morsel of rice could which could have helped a little child to fulfill his hunger many of them who just have one meal a day.  Its tough to make understand  these values to our kids not to waste food.

Coming back to food making a family happy with the food at the same time satisfaction of not wasting food at my home is only attained by using left over rice for fried rice, chitraanna, masalebhath….

Last week I happen to get fresh methi, palak and gogura leaves which were irresistable same time i get all the fresh ones and its makes really hard for me to decide which one to cook. So my family is been having continuous green dishes with palak panneer, Gongura pachadi, Moolangi palya and now its methi rice. All are our favorites now I need to be lucky to get so fresh too esp the methi leaves. 

All you need
Cooked rice - 2 cups
methi leaves - 1 bunch
paneer cubes - 1 cup
Black Chick peas/ Kala chana boiled - 1 cup
Capsicum cut lengthwise - 1
potatoes cubed and boiled - 1 cup
onions cut lengthwise - 1 big
Vangibhath powder - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
cloves - 4-5
green chillies(optional)
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
channa dhall - 1tsp
urad dhall - 1 tsp
ground nuts - 10-15
Asafoteida/hing - 1/8 tsp
Amchur/Dry mango powder - 1 tsp
salt and sugar to taste

Method

•  Sprig out the leaves from the stems of Methi/fenugreek

• Wash in salt water and let the water strain out

• Heat oil in Kadai, add groundnuts, channa dhall, cinnamon stick, cloves wait for a while until they change color

• Add the remaining unrad dhall, mustard, hing. Fry oinions and chillies once the mustard splutter

• Add the methi leaves and fry until they are cooked once the leaves wilt there will a lot of  water just continue frying on medium to high flame

• Add caspsicum, boiled potatoes, paneer cubes, kala chana salt, vangibhath powder and amchur powder and fry until all are blended well

• Continue frying on high flame until the masala flavours into the dish

• Mix the left over rice, stir well and serve hot with raita of your choice.

 

Heres moolangi palya, vegetable fry with radish and radish greens garnished with grated coconut.

Before I take leave few words on FAHC as i was writing this post i recieved an email from Indira of FAHC funding take a look

feedahungrychild.org is a not-for-profit charitable organization formed in a collaborative effort of the like-minded people from all around the world.  It aims to replace the empty plates of the underprivileged children and replace them with ones of food.  While FAHC addresses the holistic needs of each children it supports, it believes illiteracy, malnutrition, and other concerns can only be addressed when hunger is appeased.

Immediate Mission:

• Join the fight against global poverty.
• Help feed hungry children one by one.

Larger Vision: feeahungrychild.org aims to improve the lives of a good many underprivileged children in their efforts to support themselves, their families, and their communities by giving them the chance for better food, better education, better healthcare, and other welfare.

To contribute by donating smilies/chipin please visit FeedaHungryChild also visit Indira’s Mahanandi for details of how this event works.

Thank You

ಬಾಳೆಹಣ್ಣು ದೊಡ್ಡನ/Banana Dosa(Pancake)

This is one of the dosas made at my home. This dosa/pancake has a very soft and spongy texture. One of my favorite dosa with a dollop of ghee tastes delicious. I have used the dark brown liquid jaggery from my native prepared freshly from cane sugar just after Makara Sankranti/Pongal. My Mother in law makes sure to place order just before sankranti. When its fresh it tastes so good like honey. My MIL place even iddilis, dosas, chapaties are had with jaggery and ghee,though we avoid using ghee. Every year I carry back atleast 5 kilos of jaggery from home. This does not contain sodium carbonate which is added in the process to solidify the jaggery. Look at the preparation of jaggery here.

 This goes to my contribution to JFI-Banana hosted by Mandira from Ahaar which is initiated by Indira of Mahanandi and also for RCI hosted by Asha from Foodieshope initiated by Laskshmi from Veggiecuisine.

All you need
parboiled rice/iddli rice - 1 (1 cup - 150ml) cups
raw rice - 1 cup
Ripe bananas - 2
methi seeds - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup(according to taste)
salt as required

Method:

• Soak rice  with methi seeds for 2-3 hrs in water along with methi seeds
• Drain water and grind to a slightly coarse batter like we make for dosas. Batter should feel like very fine rava in it not ground like a paste
• Make a fine paste of bananas
• Mix the banana paste to the ground rice. let it ferment overnight in a warm place
• Next morning add jaggery and salt mix well.
• Make sure the batter is of pouring consistency like pancake/dosa batter.
• Heat a dosa/pancake pan, smear some oil/ghee
• When the pan is hot, spread the pancake in circular direction cook on low flame covered with a enclosed plate so that it covers the dosa and has place for steam to develop.
• Wait for few a minute check whether the dosa has steamed, flip the dosa and slighlty roast the other side
• Serve with a dollop of ghee.

Note: Take care while over turning it will be slightly sticky. Add correct amount of jaggery adding too much will be difficult to lift the dosa. Subsitute jackfruit for bananas to make variation.Add 1/2 cup of Poha while grinding to make crisper dosas suggested by Sia and Sushma. Make dosas on a non stick pan to avoid sticking suggested by Asha

RCI_Karnataka with ತೆಳೆವು/Neer dose, ಮನೊಹರ/manohara and maddur vade

My origin is from north kanara or uttara kannada with RCI for karnataka thought of sharing some glimpses of this part of karnataka.  Though I spent most of my childhood and education near Bangalore my moms native sagar(my moms place), sirsi where my Doddamma, my In-laws stay and mathikoppa near Ekkeri, vardahalli where my another aunt stays are very close to my heart and would love to visit during our summer vacation. The main cultivation wise near my native they grow paddy, betelnut, coconut, cashew nut. I think not many have tasted the fruit of cashew. So every year my aunts family who have their own plantation are busy in the process of picking betelnuts drying them and selling them eventually during the season. I am not much aware of the technics but me my sis and cousins would stroll round the village to have fun plucking the fresh fruits, veges and of course used to drink lots of tender coconut water. Only wish I had the pictures so that I could post them along. If we happen to peek in their lifestyle is so different and really very amazing though they have to go along quite a tough path. They all are so healthy even at this age cross my fingers but the fact is the nature and type of living makes a lot of difference.

The chief language of the district is Kannada, with minorities of Konkani, Marathi, and Tulu speakers. The population is predominantly Hindu, comprising of many communities like Havyaka, Nadavas, Gowda Saraswat brahmins, Vokkaligas, Sherugars, Namdharis and Vanis.

The Havyakas are united by their unique language. They speak a dialect of Kannada known as Havyaka Kannada. It is similar to mainstream Kannada but draws more words from ancient Kannada. However, most mainstream Kannada speakers find it difficult to understand Havyaka Kannada. The Havyaka dialect is supposed to be quite old. Its origins, like many other things in India, are shrouded in mystery. Notably certain Havigannada(Havyaka Kannada) speakers , more so in Uttara kannada, use neutral gender in place of feminine gender while addressing females. But Havyaks in certain part of Karnataka, like Kundapur, Thirthahalli, Kodagu do not speak Havigannada.

One of the most ancient Madukeshwara temple in Banavasi. If any friends/guests would visit the first one which my Dodappa would ask lets take them to Banavasi.The annual December cultural festival, Kadambothsav, is a huge gathering, organized by the state government, and featuring folk dancers, drama troupes, classical musicians, art exhibitions, while drawing together performers, artists, and writers from all of south IndiaBanavasi has long been a cultural centre, especially the Yakshagana art form. Today local artisans craft and sell the classical folk art Yakshagana masks here. Read more about Banavasi here

source:Wikipedia

JOG Falls

If you happen to go karanataka don’t miss the jog falls which is located near Sagar in Shimoga dist. This year the falls were breathtaking. These are  some of the photos sent by my friend. The best time would be in mansoon to visit these falls.River Sharavati falls  from the height of around 253 mts  and splits itself into four major falls called as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. Whenever i visited it would be dry never had been able to visit at the right time. Trekking up and down is really fun i made it only once during summer.

 

Coming to the dishes

Morning breakfast normally we are lovers of dosa, like uddina dose(urad dhall dosa thick ones), Bele dose(thin dhall dosa), Banana dosa(balehannu doddana), halasina hannu(jackfruit) dose, mogekai dose(cucumber dosa even made sweet and plain), Neer dosa(tellevu), uppitu/upuma, avallaki/poha various kinds. Plain iddilis are quite rare. We have sweet kadabu, chappe(plain) kadabu different kinds of steamed dumplings, rotis(phulkas)of wheat, jowar and rice, chapatis and thalipeetu of jowar, rice, wheat, ragi or mixed too.

Neer dose/Thellevu

All you need

par boiled  Rice - 1 cup
raw rice - 1 cup
fresh grated coconut - 1 cup

Method:

• Soak rice the previous night in water

• Next morning grind the rice and coconut to a fine paste

• The mixture should be thin like butter milk like we do for rava dose

• Heat the tava wait until it is hot

• Pour the batter like for rava dosa, the batter will spread itself and make sure to pour other sides just like rava dosa

• Once it has cooked just remove and serve immediately. Do not over turn the dosa

• The texture will be thin and spongy. Serve hot along with spicy chutney

Beluli chutney

All you need: 2 pods of garlic, 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp urad dhall, 2 -dry chillies, 1/2 cup grated coconut, tamarind and salt as per taste.

Method: fry garlic, jeera, urad dhall chillies in 1 tsp of oil. Grind with all the other ingrediants. No tadka is required.

Avallaki Manohara

This sweet is normally made with fried boondi too. I just loved this sweet very first time i had at my mothe in laws place and was totally flat at it. But as i queried my mother in law she told we could as well make with poha. So this was a great way for me to skip the making of boondis.So here i go

 

All you need
Thick poha - 1 cup
jaggery - 1 cup
grated coconut - 1/4 cup
seseme seeds - 1 big tbsp

Method:

• Deep fry Avallaki(poha) in oil keep aside

• Dry roast seseme seeds until fragrant

• In a saucepan take jaggery add 2-3 tbsp water, grated coconut and let it boil until 2 thread consistency

• now turn off fire, add fried poha mix well add the seseme seeds and give a nice stir taking care not to break the poha

• Wait for 15 minute to cool it will seperate out like sweet boondis but a little crispy. This can be stored for a week.

• At my native they prepare with the natural jaggery ( neer bella/joni bella) color will be dark brown will write about this in my next post

Maddur vade

This has been blogged at various bloggers but I could not resist so I had make some maduravada vade maddur vade

All you need
Maida - 1/4 cup
Chiroti Rava/ fine semolina - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
curry leaves - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 5-6
onions - 2 big
salt to taste

Method:

• cut chillies, onions. coriander leaves, curry leaves finely

• Mix all the three flours well with salt

• heat 1 tbsp of oil and add to the flour

• Add the chillies, onions, coriander leaves and curry leaves to the flour

• Add water and mix until to get a dough of consistency for vadas

• Pat on your palm or a plastic/waxed paper to a round circle and deep fry vadas in oil serve hot.

note: This is dough can be made a little stiff like for puris. Roll them to small puris, deep fry and can be stored like crunchy snack. Goes very well along with hot tea/coffee.

This goes for RCI Karnataka hosted by our dear blogger Asha from Foodieshope which is orginated from Lakshmi of VeggeCuisine

Thanks Sandeepa, Bharathi  and Tee for the inspiring awards.

RCI Oriya Cuisine

This cuisine is very new to me and I loved to explore the tastes of their food. I realised the food variety ranges from use of dhall  to vegetables with a very unique combination of spices which enhances the flavours of food. The sweet is mostly made of cheese or milk based which varies from kalakhand to rosgullas..More about oriya cuisine at Wikipedia

I have tried all the recipes from 123Orissa.com with some changes for our taste. This is my contribution to Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI, this month we are celebrating Oriya cuisine hosted by Swapna from Swad of India

Vegetable Biryani/Khichadi

• All you need
  1.5 cup Rice
  3/4 cup Lentils/masoor dhall
  2 Potatoes cubed
  1 cup carrots/beans/peas
  1 cup Peanuts
  1 Tomatoes
  10 Cashewnuts
  1 cup grated coconut
  1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
  4 Red Chillies
  1 cup Onions sliced
  4 pieces of Cinnamon
  4 Cardamoms
  1/2 cup Curd( i skipped)
  Salt & Turmeric Powder

Method:

• Soak Rice for half an hour 
• Grind the grated Coconut with Cumin seeds and chillies.
• The recipe used the extract of the ground paste but i preferred to use the grounded paste as it is
•  Take oil in a kadai  add cinnamon, cardamom fry until fragrant
• Add rice, lentils, peanuts, cashew fry for sometime until all look slightly coated with oil
• Add water along with the ground paste, salt and tomatoes.Let it boil now add the vegetables
• Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Serve hot.

This turned out delicious khichadi and tasted close to our Bisibhelebhath.

Phul Gobi Do Piaji

All you need
1 Cauliflower
cumin powder - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 cube
 Vinegar
 garam masala - 1 tsp
Tomato - 1
Red chilli powder/green chilli paste - 2 tsp
 Onion - 1
panch phoran - 1 tsp
Salt

Method

• Cut the cauliflower into medium size pieces. marinate with ginger paste, cumin powder and chilli powder/green chilli paste and vinegar for an hour

•  Heat oil in a kadai and the panch puran spices and fry onion .

• Add  the cauliflowers into the pan and cover it with tomato pieces. Add the garam masala and salt for taste

• Cover the lid and lower the flame until cauliflower is cooked fully.

Bhanda kobi Khofta Curry

All you need
Cabbage - 1 cup shreded
onion - 1 sliced
gram flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 2 tsp
corn flour - 2 tsp
baking powder - 1 tsp

gravy
onion - 1 big
tomatoes - 1
ginger paste - 1cube
chilli powder - as per taste
coriander leaves for garnish
garam masala - 1 tsp

Method

• Mix cabbage, onions, salt and chilli powder and coriander leaves. let it stand for 5 mins

• The cabbage mixture will is slightly wet now, add gram flour and corn flour along with baking powder mix it well

• Deep fry the cabbage pakodas in oil and keep aside

• Make a gravy by grinding the half onions, tomatoes and ginger

• Take a kadai with oil fry remaining onions tomatoes along with the ground paste, and chilli powder and salt.

• Add 1 cups of water and let it boil, the tiness of gravy depends on liking once it reaches a gravy consistency do a taste check 

• Add the pakodas and serve hot with rotis/rice

I extremely enjoyed exploring Oriya Cuisine and my family were pleased with the outcome of every dish, Please visit Swapna’s blog for the roundup of the event.

ಶೆಂಗಾ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಪುಡಿ/Peanut Chutney powder and Me Me

My blogger buddy Archana tagged me for this Me Me  about 7 random facts. 

1. I am crazy about collecting mysore silk saris basically light weight silk saris ha ha even though i rarely touch drape it around once a year or two i do keep buying them and i can never resist the different shades of colors. Last year I stopped myself  from visiting the shops at little India, then seeing a crowd range at Haniffa i couldn’t stop myself and again ended by buying 2 saris one is yet waiting to be adored.
2. I am crazy of bags I buy and change bags every 4 to 6 months. Whenever there are stalls put up near by our neighbourhood we call it passar mallam here unlike the melas/jattare in India. We get to eat (not really for me) and buy all the nice nice stuff from clothes to kids toys to kicthen usage which i love to gaze at. Apart from the eating stuff, only wished there were some chat stalls too. Even though i hardly buy any stuff i would love to stroll around the stalls.
3. I love to gaze at the plant store/ horti garden  store and buy atleast 4 every time i visit and half of them do not survive the weather here. yet do not stop buying them making my hubby really check his pocket now and then. looks like the green thumb is not taking my side yet. Travelling up and down to office i keep looking out at the private houses where they would have grown beautifull plants and trees which I love to own one day when I return  to India :).
4. Hazy reactions. I really do not know at times how to react to people I give very blank face, while the other person is expecting a rection from me gets an unexpected gesture, I really hate myself during such stupid reactions. I should call it a dumbo which I repent later but what is the point? I still can’t figure out why I behave hazely at some situations.
5. My first mysterious sambhar was a hilarious experience. I hardly know the name of any of the spices I stayed away from the kitchen most of the time. The first time my hubby asked me to prepare sambhar from scratch how is that was a big question mark.  he: i am gonna invite our cousin too, prepare our style of sambhar rather than using the sambhar powder
   me: hege?? how do i
   he: add some urad dhall, some coriander, little chilli, hing, a bit of jeera fry and grind with coconut thats itand prepare  as usual
   me: oh got it i added how much urad you guess– i think a small 1/2 of a cup ha ha
   he : are you done
   me: yes voagarne hakthini. i just need to to tadka
   me & he: at Lunch oh sambhar does taste good, finish
   me: its me who prepared
   Evening at living room watching tv all of a sudden hubby heard something bubbling sound what is it check the kitchen oh the sambhar has started fermentation ha ha ha rolling laughter after how much of urad dhall did you add? oh well i just added half a cup thats it………………. we laughed and laughed then that was the first time, even today this is one of the exp my hubby loves to tell others my first exp of sambhar.But I can’t figure out how it started fermentaion? The wild yeast should have died during the grinding and heating process right. Anyways it left me a very hilarious experience.
6. I hate clearing bills and filling them at the right place. Lucky my better half clears it and gives only the most important ones which i still have to file. But what i do? I keep it in a most open treasure my h calls it as the open secret draw where i keep dumping until almost to the brim. oh the day come for me to file them, i spread them all over my room and start filling. this is real crazy isn’t it? why is it i am like that i am damn lazy for filling one document to search for the right file and file it at the  right moment that is when he hands over me the docs i am either frying up some culnary in the kitchen or trying to color my hair or simply because i am lazy so what am i supposed to do take the docs neatly pull open the draw align it and continue……….
7. I do not love or fancy pets but i can admire them from far, I am damn worried half the time whats going to happen to my kids even when they touch or play with any of them leave alone bringing any home even though my daughter loves it. 2 years ago my h’s friend bought a hamester on the pretext of my daughters pleasure,  yeek i just hated the look of it finally was very happy leave it out as could not handle it. Now we just say your brother is too young no pets until he grows up and you can handle pets.

Thats about Me and only Me. I tag  coffee, Sunita,  Suma,  Ramya, Bharathi, lakshmi and heres a spicy chutney powder with iddilis and dosas. Continue the Me me whoever want to join in. I am certain many of them already have been tagged.

All you need
1. peanuts roasted and skin removed - 2 cups
2. seseme seeds - 1/2 cup
3. garlic cloves - 4-5
4. dry chillies - 3/4 cup ( according to taste)
5. curry leaves - 1/4 cup
6. asafoteida - 1/8 tsp
7. desicated coconut - 1/2 cup
8. sugar, salt and tamarind paste to taste

Method:

• Dry roast all ingrediants seperately from 2 to 5
• Powder peanut to a coarse powder keep aside
• Powder all fried ingredients with salt, jaggery and tamarind to a fine powder
• mix asofoteida , desicatted coconut. Store in airtight containers.

RCI for Punjabi Cuisine

Punjabi cuisine is the most well known cuisine not only in India but around the world too. Punjabi food who doesn’t love them? Well I have never been to punjab but the i love the parathas curries and flavoured rice. Punjabis are great lovers of wheat, they hardly cook plain rice for regular meals. Their  rice is flavored with cumin/or a varied number of spices. To have a quick tour of the cuisine of Punjab visit Richa’s As Dear as Salt who is hosting Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI  for Punjabi Cuisine.

Handi Vegetable Biryani

All you need:
for the paste:
quartered - onions 1
ginger - 2 inch
garlic pods - 5

To make Rice:
Basmati Rice - 1.5 cups
whole garam masala
bay leaves - 2
cinamon - 1 large cut into medium pieces
black pepper - 1 tsp
cloves - 6-8

others:
chilli powder - 3 tsp
tumeric powder -1 tsp
garam masala powder- 2 tsp(punjabi everest)
yogurt/2 tbsp
tomatoes - 1
mixed vegetables(carrot/beans/cauliflower/peas)

to fry
cashews - 8
onions sliced thinely - 1
capsicum sliced - 1

Method:

• Make a paste of onion, ginger and garlic.
• Soak rice for half an hour. Cook rice in salted water and whole garam masala until grainy. keep aside let it cool.
• Take oil in a kadai, fry cashews to gloden brown drain keep aside.
• Fry onions until crisp drain and keep aside. Fry capsicums until soft.
• Half boil vege like beans/carrot/potato in  microwave for 2 mins, preserve the stock for gravy.
• Take a wok to make the curry, heat 2 tbsp ghee/oil
• Fry the paste until raw smell dissappears, add the masala powders and tomatoes cook until tomatoes are done
• Add mixed veges, salt Bring to boil add curds. stir well until oil seperates out.
• Take a oven proof casserole grease oil or butter
• Add the cooked1/4 of the cooked rice. Spread half of the curry. Add again 1/4 of rice spread the half of onions, cashews capsicums, coriander leaves. Again repeat with rest of the rice
• Seal the caserole and bake it for 15 mins at 230 c.
• Serve hot rice with any accompanied raita.

Recipe source: Bawarchi.com

Mushroom Mattar Makani (source: Tarla Dalal cook book)

All you need
Mushrooms - 2 cups(i used button mushrooms)
Boiled peas - 1/2 cup

For paste
onions - 1 sliced
tomatoes - 1 cut into chunks
garlic pods - 4
ginger - 2 tsp
cashews - 4 cut into pieces
Boil all the above and grind into paste

Others
jeera/cumin seeds - 1 tsp
kasuri methi - 2 tsp
garam masala - 1 tsp (punjabi Everest)
chilli powder - 2 tsp
Cream - 1 tbsp
coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

• Take oil/ghee in a kadai add cumin seeds when hot.
• Add the masala paste once the cumin seeds are light brown color
• Simmer for few minutes until oil seperates
• Add all the masala powders, salt and cream
• Add mushrooms and peas and bring to boil. Garnish with coriander leaves
• Serve hot with parathas.

Masale Bhaat and bhopli mirchi chi peeth perun bhaaji/Capsicum with cabbage and shallot fry

 RCI Maharastra, food of maharastra has bought back childhood memories though we spent hardly 2 years of our stay in Pune. I loved the climate the place for its simplicity and homely neighbours. The food loved for hot sabudana vadas, chats bhel puri, various kinds of wadis, polis . I can still remember the unique taste of bhel puri was hot and spicy but the flavors were excellent. The ganesh Utsav is a big bang for the 10 days rejoicing playing music and dance with the local community gathering was loads of fun from installing the madal to decorating, distributing sweets to the last day immersing the Ganesh idol in the near by river .  

Here I tried two simple dishes which were unique in taste. I loved the taste of both the dishes. My pressure pan never gave good result as my baingan were mushy. When I make vangi bhath with Baingan i usally cook rice seperately. Next time i will opt for cooking seperately with my old way . The brinjals i used were thai brinjals which take longer time to cook than the purple ones.

                                                     Masale Bhaat                                                        

All you need:
gherkins - 1 cup
peas - 1 cup
Brinjals - 1 cup
goda masala - 2 tsp ( thanks Tee)

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
rice - 1.5 cups sokaed for half an hour
curry leaves - 1 sprig
whole garam masala
cinamon sticks - 2
cardamom - 2
cloves - 4
bay leaves - 2

Dry roast
1/2 cup coconut,
dry chillies - 4-5

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai/pressure pan add whole garam masala fry until masala are plump add curry leaves
• Fry gherkins for a few minutes add peas and brinjals fry for a few minutes
• Add rice and fry for another 2 minutes. Add boiled water 1.5 times rice. Let it boil add the goda masala and roasted masala
• Add sugar and salt simmer until rice is cooked.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and fried cashews

Capsicum Cabbage with shallot fry

 

All you need
1 cup capsicums
1 cup cabbage
1 cup Shallots
1cup chick pea flour / gram flour (besan)
1 tbsp peanuts powdered coarsely
4 tsp chilli powder,
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt,
sugar (optional) to taste
cilantro/coriander leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp oil

Method:

• Wash the peppers,cabagge, shallots. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
• Chop peppers and cabbage 1/2 inch square pieces.
• Dry roast gram flour until aromatic 
• In a bowl, combine gram flour, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric, salt and sugar. Do not add water.
• Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida and the remaining turmeric powder.
• Add peppers, capsicums, shallots and fry till they are half tender.
• Add gram flour and mix well until all the pieces are well coated with the flour. Fry for sometime over medium heat.
•  Keep tossing the bhaaji until crisp and golden. Toss in peanut powder and fry for a minute.

Garnish with cilantro/coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati.

The bhajji was delicious, the flavour of gram flour was not strong but was crisp and nice combo to the bhajji.

Recipesource: mumbai-masala.com

These are my contribution for Nupur from OnehotStoves RCI for maharastra  and Sangeeta from Ghar ka khana’s  JFI Brinjal

ಚೌ ಚೌ ಭಾತ್/Chow Chow Bhath

Sorry for a my disappearance for a while i am back, thanks a lot for checking on me . Well what is the name of this dish Chow chow bhath? Are you all wondering what is this or did I make a mistake typing it no no its right here let me come to the recipe later….Now I just want to close my eyes  and remember those wonderfull memories morning call with the melodious Suprabhata and bells ringing from the distant temple at the same time Darshinis in bangalore wake up ah the dangling of the steel plates and cups the aroma of hot coffee, the flavours overflowing from the outlets mainly hot iddlis vada sambhar, the different variety of dosas, chowchow bhath/kara bhath.  ondu coffee haku illi ondu masale illi, iddli vada sambhar I am being nostalgic as writing this with wonderfull snapshots revolving around me.  Coming  to the recipe i just love be it iddili vada or chow chow bhath or masala dosa, only the name sounds very different. This is the plate chow chow bhath served in most of the Bangalore Darshinis with one cup of uppuma/uppittu and another cup of rava kesari bhath. Isn’t it a simple dish with a lovely name……..This is my entry for Nandita from Saffron Trail’s Breakfast series Spice it up WBB#12 hosted by Trupti from The Spice Who Loved Me

Kara bhath/Uppittu(the yellow cup)

Rava/semolina - 1 cup

onions - sliced thinly

tomato - 1

green chillies - 2 slit

ginger - slit thinly 1tsp

curry leaves - 1 sprig

salt and sugar to taste

mustard seeds - 1 tsp

channa dhal/urad dhall - 1tsp

asafoteida - 1/8 tsp

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

chilli powder (optional)

mixed vegetables cut into small chunks (optional)

Method:

• Dry roast Rava in 1 tsp oil/ghee until light golden color and keep aside.

• In a kadai prepare tempering with channa dhall , mustard, hing , curry leaves.

• Fry chillies, ginger and onions until onions are translucent. fry veges for 2 minutes(optional).

• Add tomatoes and turmeric powder fry until tomato is half cooked.

• Add 1.5 to 2 times water allow it to boil. Add salt and sugar(optional) .

•  Sim the fire now add the fried rava and stir well. Mix and steam until rava gets cooked.

•  Garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves. 

Rava kesari bhath(the orange cup)

Rava/semolina - 1 cup

ghee - 4 tbsp

sugar - 1 cup ( or less for low sugar)

salt - 1/8 tsp

saffron strands - 10

orange color (optional)

cashews and raisins - 10 fried in ghee

cardamom powder - 1 tsp

water and milk half and half (1.5cups)

Method:

• Fry cashews and rasins and keep aside.

• Take ghee in a pan and roast rava with saffron strands until a nice aroma spreads.

• Add water +milk and salt to cook the rava well. Now Check the rava, it should be cooked very well.

• Once the water is absorbed add sugar and let it boil  until ghee floats on top. If very less ghee is used you cannot see the ghee float.

• mix in cardamom powder and let it cool. Garnish with fried cashews and raisins.

Notes: Add 1 tsp of ghee to flavour the uppuma just before serving. soak channa dhall for 10 mins before using for tempering to get soft dhalls. Add tsp of chilli powder/ pulav masala/Vangi bhath masala for flavoured uppuma. Water measurement varies for different Rava. Normally medium sized semolina takes around 1.5 times water if granules are bigger it takes around 2 times of rava.

Oatmeal Nankatai/Cookies

 Oatmeal has made its way to most of our kitchens with the different health benefits it provides. Though I have been buying oats for long time still I could not possibly make it a very likable to my kids. One way I discovered from Nandita’s post to cook oats the Indian way which worked well and liking possibility changed from 15% to 75% … so this was a good sign. Getting a liking to eat oats is not quite